#i am THOROUGHLY enjoying this game if you couldn’t tell

[dragonanon]

Villains Cursed Cafe is so fucking funny. Like, Cruella starts her own very successful luxury fashion brand to spite some lady that gave her a fruit basket, Captain Hook is a theatre kid who wants to make a musical about how unfairly he was treated by Peter Pan, the Evil Queen starts an MLM so she can siphon energy from people, Maleficent becomes a social media influencer so she can rule the world and has a selfie stick instead of her usual staff, Jafar learned what bitcoin is and makes his own cryptocurrency, Ursula goes on the music equivalent of America’s Got Talent so she can basically become the next Taylor Swift, and then Gaston is just…Gaston.

[yellowjestertfs]

Altered State: Part Three

Part One and Part Two are available here. Story will likely have three more similarly length parts after this one so be on the look out for Part four in the next few days. As always love getting feedback on this story if you are enjoying it!

The party went silent as all eyes turned to Edward, thanks to his new Social Gravity perk. His various bonuses and high charisma helped ensure that the stares he received were not outright hostile but even the power of those couldn’t negate the fact that Edward was 20 years younger than the other guests, carrying two large shopping bags, and very much uninvited to this functions. 

The old Edward might have been paralyzed with fear in this situation. He might have stammered off an apology and walked out the door. The new Edward wasn’t so easily dissuaded. “Bonjour friends,” he said in an overly flamboyant French accent “It is I, Henri Barbier, famed art critic and I have come to whatever American city this is to view this masterful work.” Edward gestured to the black and white paintings on the wall.

“I’m afraid I have never heard of you,” a white-haired woman with thin half moon glasses on the tip of her nose said stepping forward, a hint of scorn in her voice.

“Don’t be rude Scintillation, this is Henri Barbier. I think I saw a profile of him last week in the digest.” A slightly younger man said stepping forward to join her and placing his hand on Scintillation’s shoulder. Edward was almost positive there was no real art critic named Henri Barbier. He wondered then if his charisma was high enough to convince this man there was or if the guy was just a sycophant always wanting to appear in the know. Murmurs filled the room of other guests saying they knew of the critic. 

“I’m sorry how rude of me. It is a pleasure to welcome you to our gallery Mr. Barbier. My name is Scintillation, I am the curator of the gallery. This art you see here is done by my husband, River” She placed a hand tenderly on the back of the man from before and the two stared lovingly at each other, though Edward’s Sage perk hinted to him that the couple was not as happy as they appeared. He filed that information away for later. 

Scintillation led Edward around to the various art pieces, elucidating on each thoroughly. The other guests went back to their individual conversations though Edward could still feel their eyes still on him. The break gave Edward a chance to examine the new details of the quest. At first, the system had seemed complicated but actually wasn’t all that different from other quest systems he had played before in sandbox simulation games. Completing quests to “liven up” the party filled a central progress bar. There were three segments on the bar, each of which would grant him a reward if he reached it before time ran out. The first two just granted a level but the third gave a level and an exclusive technique. The quest ranged from simple tasks like taking a group photo or exchanging a secret with a fellow guest to the more complex and outlandish like doing a keg stand or playing strip poker. The more the task livened up the party the more progress it lent.

Edward wanted that bonus reward, though he had little idea how he was going to manage it. He could already tell this Scintillation woman was going to be a damper on any attempts to change the vibe. She seemed far too uptight and far too in control, plus Edward could tell she didn’t quite buy his overseas art critic act. 

“This work, I think I know what it is about.” Edward declared doing his best to maintain his foe French accent, which was actually quite easy with his high charisma and social sync perk. 

“Well actually River likes his pieces to fluctuate in their-“

“No,” Edward said cutting Scintillation off. “These are about sex. They are about a man who feels like his penis has been cut off. Like he is a eunuch or a little boy.”

Scintillation looked extremely scandalized by the comment. “Mr. Barbier, I don’t think that is appropriate, nor might I add is it true. River and I, well we” she stumbled over her words obviously uncomfortable with the subject “Well it doesn't matter, I think you are mistaken.”

Edward pretended to think for a moment, gazing up at the art, which to him did somewhat resemble a black and white penis or maybe more a tennis racket. “No, no I am quite sure. Look here at the brush stroke, see how it curves, see how it doubles back. I have seen it before, that is the work of a man who is, how do you say, not getting his dick wet. A man whose dick is dry as the desert sand.

Scintillation looked thoughtfully up at the vague area Edward had gestured to. Edward was amazed at how easy this was proving, with his charisma and looks people really would believe anything he said, plus Edward suspected he had inadvertently hit a vein of truth and decided to commit further. “Scintillation I know you Americans are like dead fish when it comes to the art of lovemaking but there is a simple solution.”

“There is?” Scintillation asked, still looking up at the work.

“There is. You must show that man that you love him. That you want to rip off his clothes and then his penis.”

“Well I suppose I could make more of an effort in the bedroom,” she said slowly. 

“The bedroom, no, no! That is so clinical, so predictable. Sex is about surprise, it is about risk. It is much like art in that way. It must be raw, and passionate. Take that man right here, right now.” Edward didn't know the first thing about love or sex but Scintillation seemed to buy that he did, hanging on his every word. Still she resisted his suggestion. 

“I can’t do that right now, I’m hosting an event! Plus that would be highly inappropriate” Scintillation said voice in a whisper, although she still stared up at River’s work before them. 

“The very fate of your marriage depends on this! Love calls for desperate measures.”

Scintillation took a deep breath. Instead of kicking Edward out of the party as he feared she marched over to River who was talking to a group of older women. She whispered something in his ear and started heading towards the bathroom. River’s eyes went wide and a sort of drunk expression came over his face as he followed his wife like an eager puppy. 

Two of the tasks, one “give relationship advice” and the other “convince two people to get nasty at the party” checked off the long quest list. The first didn’t give much progress but the second did, filling the bar just above one-third and greeting him with a now familiar welcome. “Ding”

“You have reached level eight. You receive attribute points based on your class: +3 Charisma, +1 Intelligence, +0.3 Strength.”

“You have gained a class perk.”

“Effortless Grace: your charisma is embodied. You now move with the undeniable swagger of your social competence.” 

Edward felt the now familiar signs of an increased charisma. His jaw grew sharper, his cute dimples became deeper, his skin gained an even more healthy glow and his hair grew another shade more golden and shiny. The bulge in his pants pushed out further as his penis grew longer and a bit wider. 

Edward’s 14 intelligence allowed him to piece together the somewhat cryptic description of his latest perk, and besides he could feel it. It was as if he had grown from a toddler to a man in seconds. His movements once clumsy and forced were now light and purposeful, befitting his ever-growing charisma. He felt like he could walk a tightrope or do the tango without any difficulties, and look sexy the whole time. 

With a new swagger, Edward flitted from group to group. He chatted with nearly everyone, instantly dominating whatever conversation he was in and trying his best to maintain his faux French accent. Edward did his best to liven up all the conversations he could. He got one group talking about their party days in college, another group to all do impressions of each other, and a third to tell each other secrets all of which were pretty mundane. 

As he watched the progress bar stubbornly refuse to move more than a few percent and the countdown clock tick down Edward realized this approach wasn’t working.  

Edward swaggered up to the musicians located towards the back of the gallery. Three board looking male musicians with a piano, simple drum set, and stand-up base played quiet background music in a loop. The people next to them swayed slightly though mostly ignored the musician's presence. 

“How about we mix this music up? Could you play something a little more up-tempo?” Edward asked the musicians. With Scintillation gone he felt much more confident in his ability to take over the party. Sure enough, the musicians quickly changed their tune, going into a jazzy number. 

Normally Edward was an abhorrent dancer but as he moved his hips and arms in beat with the song he was amazed by how easy and well-coordinated he now was. The odd 50 guests all diverted from their conversation by the change in music watched him in wrapped attention. A few of the guests started to join in and Edward watched his progress bar slowly increase.

Edward stopped a waiter carrying a tray of champagne flutes. “Got anything stronger” He asked. Five minutes later the waiter carried a tray of assorted shots instead. As the guests got drunker more of them ditched their conversations and joined in the impromptu dance circle. It was comical to watch the social elites of the city, many of them professors at Edward’s university,  dressed in their formal clothing, bust a move like drunk sorority girls at a frat party. Edward wondered how much of the change he could attribute to his charisma and how much was the alcohol. 

Both the drinking and the dancing increased the quest's progress quite a bit, though the party still needed a final push to reach the two-thirds mark and for him to level up again.

That final push came in the form of a conga line, led by an especially looking drunk guy with a tie tied around his forehead. Edward gladly joined in moving his legs and hips with a new effortless grace in perfect time with the music. He watched a woman behind him toss her hat into the air as he finally leveled up with another ding.

Edward disengaged himself from the dancing to read the new notifications.

“You have reached level nine. You receive attribute points based on your class: +3 Charisma, +1 Intelligence, +0.3 Strength.”

“You have gained a class perk.”

“Cupids’ Perfume: You now emit pheromones that cause others in your immediate vicinity who breathe in your scent to experience a temporary increase in horniness and also a decrease in their wisdom. Note: The potency of this effect scales with charisma. Note: This effect is less effective on those with high charisma. Note: This ability is considered an emotional manipulation effect and therefore can be resisted or negated by items, consumables, aura, technique, or abilities with the stability property. Note: You are immune to this effect. Note: This effect is 92.22% more effective on people with a penis.” 

A faint smell somehow both spicy and clean, like cinnamon and aftershave hit his nose. The smell was pleasant though Edward was quite trepidatious about the idea of becoming a walking aphrodisiac. He would have to do some testing to understand its strength and get some of those emotional stability items or consumables for the men in his life he didn't want to turn into hormonal monsters. 

A realization that had already been percolating now came fully into Edward’s mind. Back when he was ugly Edward had always assumed he would die a virgin. Then after the Golden Ratio perk earlier that day Edward had accepted he might eventually actually have sex. Now though with his latest perk Cupids Perfume perk, his “Gold Star Killer” perk along with his amazingly good looks, Edward realized he could have sex pretty much whenever and with whoever he wanted. His newly elongated dick started to engorge at the thought, though his options at this party were pretty limited when every man was his father's age or older. 

Edward looked down at his phone to see he had thousands of notifications from the social media video he had posted. He ignored those in favor of looking at a text from Leon. “Level 9 sucker. One more level till you got to kiss my ass.”

“As if. I’m 9 too. You're about to cream when you see me.” Edward texted back smiling knowing that with his new pheromones Leon really might cream when he saw him. Edward had no idea how Leon had been able to keep pace with his rapid leveling, but he would be damned if he was going to let his friend reach 10 first. That meant he needed to liven up this party further asap, not just because he wanted to beat Leon but also because there was only about an hour left on the quest timer. 

Edward supposed if the hanky-panky happening in the bathroom, and the fact that all the attendees were drunk and dancing only counted as 2/3 of a lit party then he needed to step up his game. He had just under an hour left to fix that. 

Edward supposed he could start with the last few guests who were resisting the new vibe of the party. The four men stood outside the crowd of dancing people talking to each other in hushed concerned voices. He had heard someone earlier in the night refer to them as a group of divorced bitter men, a label their attitude seemed to confirm. A plan formed in Edward’s mind to complete the quest and test out his new perk. Deftly with his new catlike grace Edward grabbed a full bottle of spirits from a passing waiter along with five shot glasses and made his way over to the party poopers. 

“Enjoying yourself,” he asked in his best impression of a drunk French accent, slurring his words slightly and leaning his elbows onto the small table the men were gathered around getting in close in hopes of spreading his pheromones to the men. Sure enough, as soon as the men took a breath of the sweet and spicy smell coming off him the effects of Edward’s new perk became evident. Three of the men began to shift uncomfortably expressions changing from disapproving to glassy-eyed-mouthed lust. Edward could feel their desire rolling off them like waves with his Sage perk. 

“Have you seen Scintillation?” the one man seemingly unaffected by his pheromones asked, knitting his bushy silver eyebrows together. “I think this party might have gotten out of hand.”

“Oh monami, that is nonsense, the part is just getting started,” Edward said licking his lips. The other men besides the man with the thick eyebrows leaned in hungrily. Edward had no idea why Eyebrows weren’t affected. He supposed that neither his Gold Star Killer perk nor his Cupids’ Perfume perk guaranteed all men would find him attractive, they simply removed the barrier of sexuality and added some hormones to the fire. Maybe Eyebrows just wasn’t into blonds or the French. Either way, Edwards had other methods of charm.

“How about we play a game,” he said, swiftly pouring liquor into the shot glasses with the effortless ease of a lifelong bartender. 

“Strip poker,” one of the guys asked him eagerly.

Edward chuckled and the sound was sexy even to his own ears. His charisma really was getting out of hand. “That's not quite what I had in mind. How about I guess what you want? If I’m wrong I have to drink, but if I’m right you drink.”

Eyebrows chuckled nervously, while the other men nodded vigorously, staring enraptured up at him. Edward leaned forward and like a cat rested his hand on one of the man’s forearms. His Sage perk activated and a sudden vision hit him. “You,” he said purring his words “want to suck my dick.” 

He moved on to the next man, cupping the man's chin in his hand. “You want to tie me up. You naughty, naughty boy.” He had all but dropped the French accent and his voice now came out smooth, seductive and low, sounding wholly recognizable to Edward’s ears. 

“And you,” he said, rubbing his foot against the man under the table. “You want to pound me till I see double.” Eyebrow’s expression went from troubled to horrified, while the other men looked like they might actually do the things Edward had just said. Edward hand’t actually mean to be so forward with these men but his pheromones made them like putty in his hands and the power was intoxicating. Plus all his transformations that day had made him unspeakably horny.

“I think I’m going to leave,” Eyebrows said getting up from the table. 

“Not so fast,” Edward said! “These horny boys still have to drink, and I never got the chance to guess what you want.” Edward walked around the table so that he was standing right next to Eyebrows. The man's nose twitched as he was fully bathed in Edwards Pheromones. He gripped the table as he fought a war against his own hormones. 

Edward leaned in until his lips were practically touching Eyebrows ear. “You want to let loose,” he said activating his silver tongue technique. Since the last time Edward had used the ability he had gained three more energy points and regenerated another six. Just enough for him to expend the ten energy points needed for his technique.

The effect of the ability was immediate and jarring. The man's knees buckled and his eyes went wide. Edward’s only warning was a sudden spike in desire from his Sage sense before Eyebrows smashed his lips into Edwards, making out with the snake charmer vigorously and with ample tongue. 

Edward had imagined a lot of first kiss scenarios, but never once had he pictured it being with a burly grumpy sixty-year-old man. Edward had intended the technique to make the guy live a little, maybe go and dance or take a few shots. He guessed that was what he got for being so vague with his words.

Edward wasn’t sure if the other men had also been effected by his Silver Tongue ability or if it was just that seeing their friend and the French art critic swap saliva broke their the last bit of resistance, but they too let their horny side free. Two of the men started to make out while the third unzipped his own pants and fished out his rock-hard dick. He began to jerk it off under the table. 

Some of the people on the dance floor saw the action happening and cheered and whistled. A few married couples began to make out and drunkenly grind up against each other.

Around Edward, the action only intensified as the men breathed in more and more of his pheromones. All three of the other men now had their dicks out and were in the process of jerking each other off. Eyebrows groped at Edward's crotch, and though he was tempted to let him fish his dick out the older man had already taken Edward’s first kiss which seemed like more than enough. Instead, Edward maneuvered him in front of one of his friend's dicks and soon he was sucking it happily. 

Edward stood back watching the orgy develop before him, trying to control his own hard-on. He was amazed by how easy that was. He had been under the assumption that his Gold Star Killer perk only applied to himself, but it seemed that once these previously straight men got over their barrier with one man they were much less resistant with others, especially when made so uncontrollably horny by his pheromones.  

The progress bar of the quest slowly crept upward, though remained frustratingly at 95%. Edward had no idea how other than lighting the gallery on fire he could possibly liven up this party more than an orgy of divorced old straight men. He got a notification on his phone, yet another thirst comment from a hopeful sugar daddy on his latest post. Seeing that he gave him an idea. 

Edward started to film a video. He panned over the live music, and dancing crowd, and showed a brief shot of the men making out from behind, then flipped the camera back to himself and pumped his fist like he was in a club. He quickly typed out a caption giving the address and promising anyone who came a good time. He clicked post. 

Edward had no idea if this would work. He surly wouldn’t go to a party he learned about from a random guy on social media, although if the guy looked like Edward did he might consider it. 

While Edward waited to see if anyone would come he walked around the party attempting various other things to liven up the function. He got up on stage and started singing with the musicians, amazed by how much the boosts to his charisma had improved his voice and musical ability. After a few minutes however, it became clear he wasn’t increasing the quest's progress and that his pheromones were messing up the musicians, as they spent more time looking at his ass than their instruments. 

Edward tried to liven up the dance circle floor. He got into the center, started thrusting his hips, and even took his shirt off to reveal a scrawny if perfectly proportioned, torso. This also didn't help the quest, though caused the watching orgy to all cum at once.

The countdown on the quest had only twenty minutes left. Edward was about to admit defeat and give up his dreams of earning the extra reward when the first of the new guests began to arrive. A group of sorority girls hesitantly entered the art gallery, sure they were at the wrong location. They saw the booze and dancing and joined in on the fun.

Edward chatted with them for a few minutes, grateful his pheromones didn't affect them nearly as much as the men. Edward was amazed at how easy it was to have conversations with strangers. His charisma and perks now made him an effortless chat. He was more witty, friendlier, a better listener, and a better flirt. He was able to effortlessly remember all their names and without anxiety command the conversation. 

He found out from one of the girls that Sigma Alpha, the top fraternity on campus, had just canceled their big party for tonight and that everyone who wasn’t going to the sewer rave had decided to come here instead.

Sure enough, the gallery was soon filled with drunk college students, mixing and mingling with their rich parents or professors, all drunk and dancing. The divorced men had migrated to a back room and Edward heard tell that other men had joined them.

Scintillation and River with messy hair came out of the bathroom to find the formal party had turned into a frat house replacement. Edward expected he would have to talk them down but they immediately joined in, swept up by the electric energy of the party. 

Edward got a text on his phone. He feared it would be Leon declaring he was level ten and had won but it was Trent telling him that he and Tag were going to go to that art gallery party that the model guy had posted about instead of the sewer rave. 

As more and more people arrived the quest slowly ticked up and up. Finally, with only a few minutes left on the timer Edward watched a group of guys bring a keg through the door and Scintillation did a rather impressive keg stand finally boosting the quest objective to liven up the party to 100%. Edward felt a wave of relief then a wave of something else. Edward finally reached level ten and received a ton of notifications including the usual stat points, a new perk, two new techniques, and a new quest he couldn’t quite believe. Edward left at a run, skinny legs and arms moving with effortless grace as he raced back to the house he shared with Leon, intensely eager to rub his victory in Leon’s face and show him the new quest he had been offered. There was no way Leon was going to believe this shit.

-

Leon's vision turned red as Hunter viciously squeezed his windpipe. Around him, the dagorhir players tried furiously to get the big man off of him but without success. In vain, Leon tried to activate his inner strength power, but it was still on cooldown and nothing happened. He tried again with the same lack of success. He felt himself starting to lose consciousness, to lose the ability to think. With a desperate stubborn animal need to live Leon tried one last time right as the ability ended its cooldown. Leon felt a colossal burst of strength rush into his body. 

His vision cleared, and his neck didn't feel in pain anymore. With an inhumanly swift motion, Leon broke Hunter's grip on his hands then freed his feet and lifted them up to his torso. The shield Ruth had thrown Leon was pinned in-between the two struggling muscular men. Leon kicked at it with an inner strength-enhanced blow. A loud boom like a clap of thunder sounded as Leon sent both the shield and Hunter flying into the air, the two landing some distance away in the grass with a crack that could have belonged to either Hunter or the wooden shield. 

All around him the Dagorhir players and the frat boys stopped their struggling with each other to look at him in slack-jawed amazement. Leon heard a ding as he leveled up. 

“You have reached level eight. You receive attribute points based on your class: +3 Strength, +1 Charisma, +0.3 Intelligence.”

“You have gained a class perk.”

“No Fear: As a Juggernaut, you charge head first into danger without fear. You are now stouthearted in front of all but the most forsaken of odds and all but reckless in the heat of battle. Note: The potency of this effect scales off of strength and intelligence. Note: You are immune to fear effects from all sources except those with a rank of legendary or celestial.”

Leon felt the normal changes that came with a boost to strength. His back straightened, his legs beefed up, and his hands and feet grew slightly in size. There was a mental change too that came with the new perk. Leon had had too much adrenalin in his system to fully process it but he had been scared, terrified even as Hunter had wrapped his big hands around his neck. He had thought he was going to die and the feeling almost paralyzed him into inaction. Now that feeling was gone. 

It wasn’t that Leon was some mindless brute. He wouldn’t go sticking his dick in a bee nest but that was no longer because he feared the pain and now a simply rational decision of minimizing injury. 

The frat bros who had been struggling with the Dagohir players picked up a number of the foam weapons from the ground and rushed to Hunter's side, forming a defensive wall around him. From the ground Hunter slowly sat up with a groan, painfully cradling the arm he had landed. “You're a fucking freak,” he said pointing at Leon. The Dagorhir players formed up around Leon in his own circle of protection. His burst of power from his inner strength ability had long faded and Leon now felt his own injuries quite acutely, his neck was tender and sore and he imagined he was going to have a nasty hand-shaped bruise there soon. What Leon didn't feel was fear. 

Ruth gripped her sword tightly in front of her threateningly as if it were anything more than foam. “Get back to your frat house before we call the police.”

Across the field, Hunter got fully to his feet, helped up by one of his friends who he ungratefully brushed off. He was handed a large sword by another of his frat bros. Hunter tightened his grip around the thing, and gave it a few experimental swings then flashed a smile with far too many teeth. “Your all fucking dead,” he said. 

In Leon's vision, a notification popped up. 

“Combat quest available”

“Objectives: Defeat Sigma Alpha members (0/5). Reward: XP” 

Leon smiled. He grabbed a sword and shield of his own from the ground and donned the helmet a tall girl behind him gave him. Then he assumed a battle stance. 

There were a few seconds of silence as both sides stared the other down. Then at the same time, both he and Hunter charged forward, their armies doing the same behind them. The world became a chaotic blur. Two friendly archers in the back fired foam-tipped arrows at the frat guy just behind Hunter. The projectiles couldn’t hurt the man but they packed enough of a punch to destabilize him, allowing two others who raced forward bring him down. A big Sigma Alpha guy Brough a short guy with glasses to Leon's left down in a football sack. To his right, Ruth blocked a punch with her shield then brought her foam sword down savagely onto the back of her opponent’s knee bringing him down. 

Leon had only one target in mind. He felt for the first time like a true juggernaut, pounding the ground heavily with his large strong bare feet as he rapidly charged at Hunter. From the grass, the downed frat guy tried to grab Leon’s leg but at that moment Leon was unstoppable. Hunter seemed just as eager for a fight. He charged forward with his sword in two hands dragging behind him. Though made of foam Hunter had ample enough power to do serious damage. Still, Leon didn’t feel the slightest thrill of fear. The latest level of strength had made him equal in height and musculature to his big opponent, meaning neither was likely to overpower the other. Instead, Leon knew he had to rely on other advantages, namely his shield, his “perfect form” perk, and his inner strength power, though the cooldown of that was less then halfway done. 

The first advantage came in handy right away, as Leon blocked Hunter’s powerful overhand swing with a precisely placed parry. Leon followed up with a couple of strikes at Hunter’s torso with quick accurate jabs while Hunter brought his unwieldy sword back into position to strike again. Leon’s strikes didn't seem to deter the raging bull as he swung again this time from the side. Leon chose to dodge the strike rather than block it. He was fast, he stepped back causing the swing to miss him completely, Hunter was fast as well, however. He turned the momentum of the missed swing into a shoulder check that hit Leon hard in his bare chest, knocking the wind out of him. 

Leon stumbled back and in the momentary pause was able to survey the battle going on behind him. The Dagorhir members had the advantage in numbers, experience and teamwork. Leon watched with the help of two short guys Ruth was able to fully bring down one of Hunter’s friends, a tall but slender handsome guy who raised his hands in surrender from the ground, raising the combat quest objective to 1/5.

The frat bros however had the advantage of size and brutality. A massive man even larger than Hunter or Leon threw two Dagorhir players savagely aside before charging at Ruth. Leon knew he needed to take care of Hunter fast so he could aid his allies. 

Leon and Hunter exchanged blows while he waited the agonizing minuet for his ability to come off cooldown. The last two times Leon had used it against Hunter directly. Throwing the big man around like a rag doll, which while fun, only seemed to enrage the frat president. Instead, Leon needed to find a way to use his ability to incapacitate him, preferably without doing serious physical harm. 

An idea came to him. He let Hunter stalk forward pretending to be winded. Hunter raised his sword to finish off Leon but he didn't have the chance. Leon again activated his Inner Strength ability. Instead of using the second of speed and power to hit Hunter, Leon grabbed him. He reached an arm around his back, and much to Hunter’s surprise, into his pants.

Hunter's eyes went wide as Leon grabbed a handful of the man's underwear and then lifted him into the air. Leon let out a very unmasculine yelp as he was subjected to the worst and most public wedgie of his life. Leon didn't stop there. He brought his knee up onto the suspended man’s crotch, eliciting an even higher pitch yelp before Leon dropped him to the ground where Hunter collapsed into a heap.

Humiliated and in pain, Hunter rolled around on the ground, out of the fight. The quest updated to 2/5. 

From there Leon and his allies were able to make quick work of the other three frat guys. The tally went to 3/5 as Leon knocked a bulky man off the Dagorhir player he had pinned. Then it went to 4/5 as Ruth bashed another in the face with her shield, breaking his nose and causing him to run away. The last, a tall crafty-looking guy raised his hands in surrender. Leon allowed him to collect his fallen friends and let them all go stumbling away calling out warnings after them about what would happen the next time they picked a fight. The quest was completed and Leon heard a familiar ding as he leveled up for the second time in only a few minutes.  

He felt himself grow even larger, going from big to large. He looked like a junior bodybuilder, tall and muscular. The short pudgy kid he had been at the start of the day was gone, and in his place was a towering hulking man of corded muscle and lean sharp lines. 

“You have reached level nine. You receive attribute points based on your class: +3 Strength, +1 Charisma, +0.3 Intelligence.”

“You have gained a class perk.”

“Armored Skin: The natural toughness of your skin can now resist all but significant instances of physical harm. Note: the potency of his effect is boosted by strength. Note: This protection is less effective against non-physical damage.”

Though his "Animal Endurance” perk was already healing his bruises rapidly, Leon was very grateful for this new perk that would make it more difficult for an asshole like Hunter to hurt him in the future. He felt his skin hardened as all the flaps from his weight loss not yet filled by muscle tightened protectively around his body. His light brown skin gained a slightly gray shine to it and a hard smooth texture. Leon knocked a fist experimentally against his bicep and heard a hollow metallic ringing as if his arm were a tin can. 

Ruth walked around the grass towards him and the two watched the frat bros retreat. “Holy shit” she said clearly winded but grinning. Around them, the others got to their feet. Besides, for a few scrapes and bruises, none of them were too badly hurt. “You got a lot more buff since the last time I saw you,” Ruth said as if noticing for the first time his bare muscular torso. “Also why were those guys trying to kill you?”

“It's a long story,” Leon said, not sure exactly how he would even start explaining the events of the day. “Thanks for your help though, that could have gotten rather nasty without you I think,” Leon said, noticing absently how his “No Fear” perk also applied in social settings making him less nervous and more honest. 

Ruth snorted a laugh. “Anytime Superman. How about you put your number into my phone, and let me know if those guys try to bother you again.” Leon agreed although, with his new armored skin perk and his 26 strength, he was more worried about Hunter retaliating against Ruth and the others.

“I left my stuff back in there,” Leon said gesturing to the fitness center and then his naked body.

Ruth’s body glanced across his bare torso and penis without much interest, neither surprised or lustful. Leon was getting the sense she wasn’t into guys. “Right well text me!” She called after him as he jogged away, dick and pecs juggling up and down with the movement. “And we meet every Tuesday and Thursday.”

“Save me a sword, I’ll be there” Leon called back and meant it. Besides dying that had been some of the most fun he had since he and Edward had stayed up all night to beat the new Dark Souls game. 

Edward rushed back inside the fitness center. He was reminded of the little fat kid who had been so nervous to walk in only half a day ago. Now despite being naked the tall hunk walked carefree into the building, feeling the familiar wave of confidence wash over him from his Gym Rat perk.

Before Leon grabbed his stuff from the locker room he decided to knock out one of the quests he had just been assigned, “Break a record at the gym”. Leon suspected there was some loophole in there where he could beat the record for most math done or some other workaround. The Juggernaut classes’ +0.3 to intelligence per level made it clear however that it wasn’t his job to be so clever. 

Instead, he walked up to the largest man he could see, an older guy just a touch larger than him doing bicep curls, and bluntly asked “What's the record for that thing?” motioning to the bench press. The man didn't seem to notice Leon’s nakedness, but he did take in his large muscles and gave him a nod of respect. 

“Big Jon does 465,” he said in a surprisingly higher-pitched voice. Leon thanked him and then started to load the press. He supposed lifting 466 would complete the quest but after the triumph of the fight, he was feeling cocky so he instead put five large heavy plates onto each side of the bar. The thing sagged with the weight and Leon briefly doubted himself. He remembered how difficult it had been to only lift a third of his body weight. Now he was lifting almost three times his weight. 

Leon took a deep breath and assumed the position. He felt a bit bad about putting his bare butt on the bench but no one seemed to mind. With great effort, he lifted the bar into the air and slowly brought it down so that the bar almost touched his downward-facing pointy nipples. Then he hefted the bar upwards. His arms shook and a vein emerged on his neck with the effort but Leon lifted the bar back up. The quest was completed. 

For fun, he activated his inner strength ability and did two more reps with ease. He felt the gains instantly added to his physique thanks, a small swelling of his chest and triceps, but intoxicating non the less. 

Leon wiped down his workout equipment, he was determined not to become an asshole just because he was big, and ventured back downstairs to the locker room from before. The place was trashed, lockers smashed from where he had thrown Hunter. On the ground, he found his discarded clothes. His Superman teeshirt, an XL from his heavier days, fit strangely on his body now. It was tight in the shoulders and chest, fit well on his muscular arms but sagged around his midsection. He decided to ditch it, though he did end up putting his underwear and shorts back on. As fun as it was to have his dick out and have no one care he worried it would be uncomfortable with the constant physical exertion he would had to do. He also put on his shoes and socks, though he suspected his new Armored Skin perk would allow him to run over uneven surfaces barefoot without feeling a thing. 

In his shorts pocket, he found his phone and his wallet, which Hunter and his friends luckily had left alone.

He typed out a quick text to Edward “Level 9 sucker. One more level till you got to kiss my ass.” He also added Ruth’s contact information to his phone and asked her to thank the Dagorhir club again for the assistance.

A few moments later Edward texted back. “As if. I’m 9 too. You're about to cream when you see me.” Leon scoffed at the idea of ugly Edward making anyone cream.

His next quest was simple but had the potential to be time-consuming, which could be a problem if he wanted to beat Edward to level ten. “Run a marathon” would have been Leon’s definition of hell before Altered State but now with his new physique and his Animal Endurance perk the prospect seemed almost fun. 

Slightly more clothed and with the motivation of being so close to ten Leon began to run. He didn't have a particular destination in mind. Instead, he just allowed his legs to carry him around campus, marveling at how fast and efficient his body moved. Despite his breakneck pace, Leon didn't feel even slightly tired.

He wasn’t sure if it was his speed or his muscular shirtless body but his passing garnered lots of attention from the students and faculty he passed on campus, on their way to a late dinner or an early pre-game. He got several cat calls from rowdy guys he passed and even had one girl whip out her phone to take a video of Leon’s running back. 

Leon circled around campus twice before he decided to take his run out into the city beyond. He passed restaurants and storefronts and even the mall that sold all the trendy clothes he and Edward wouldn’t be caught dead in. He turned into an unfamiliar part of town where the buildings were nicer and the apartments all had doormen who watched him run past disapprovingly. 

Leon slowed his pace as he ran past what looked like an art gallery, only it had loud music coming from inside and a stream of drunk college kids entering. Leon was very curious to know what could possibly be going on inside but decided against it in fear it would reset his marathon counter.

In all, it took Leon an hour and a half to run a full marathon. My the end even with all his perks and his strength Leon was winded and sweaty, but also immensely proud. He had just run the fastest marathon in human history, and Leon knew he would only get faster. 

He stopped to lean against the brick wall of a dorm to catch his breath as the quest marked itself as complete and Leon reached the much-anticipated level ten. The familiar surge of strength that came with each level up course through his body along with something else. Starting at his balls there was a cold feeling, like the spreading chill one got after drinking a cup of ice water on a warm day, seeped through him. He checked his notifications for an explanation. 

“You have reached level ten. You receive attribute points based on your class: +3 Strength, +1 Charisma, +0.3 Intelligence.”

“You have gained a class perk.”

“Tip Top Testosterone: Your body now produces an excess of testosterone without any of the negative side effects. Note: Testosterone production is further enhanced by additional levels.” 

“At level ten the Juggernaut class gets to pick from two class abilities. Note: the ability not picked may become available at levels 15, 20, 25, etc.”

“Choice one.”

“Size Up: Once per day you can grow in size by 58% for 58 seconds. While active your strength is doubled. Note: Both percentage size increases and duration are equal to double your strength score.”

“Choice two.”

“Unstoppable: Twice per day you can become unstoppable. This ability lasts for 10 seconds and during this time the Juggernaut cannot be slowed, stunned, immobilized, or prevented from moving in any way. Note: The duration of this effect is equal to the level. Note: You gain an additional use of this skill daily every ten levels.” 

The two abilities appeared next to each other in parallel gray boxes in his vision. Leon read each description several times. The Unstoppable ability could have saved his life in the fight with Hunter. Leon loved the idea of running through walls or breaking out of bindings like a true unstoppable Juggernaut.

The other ability, Size Up had its own more flashy appeal as well. Leon was already massive, more muscular then most men could ever dream of. He imagined himself growing 58% bigger, he would be a giant. At least eight feet tall and well over 300 pounds, and with double the strength. Leon imagined that would be enough to bend solid steel, or lift a car. Let Hunter try to choke him when he had all that. Leon knew it was only a once a day ability, that in the long run the unstoppable perk might actually be more useful, but Leon couldn’t pass up the flashier option, especially now that he had no fear keeping him cautious. He reasoned he could always pick that ability at level 15. Leon mentally selected the first ability and both options disappeared. A new icon appeared next to his Inner Strength cooldown showing him the number of ability uses he had left for the day, one. 

Temporary distraction from choosing a perk now over Leon returned his attention to the effects the latest perk was having. Leon felt his balls begin to expand painfully in his already too-small underwear. His skin started to prickle as hair grew up around his crotch then up his stomach giving him a happy trail. As the icy feeling spread around his body so did the growing hair. His chest itched as dark brown fur grew dense around his nipples and in-between his pecs stopping right before his collar bone giving him a pelt of chest hair though not one so thick as to obscure his musculature. The itching spread over his arms and legs and pits where the hair grew darker and thicker before reaching his face which grew a short stubble beard. 

The testosterone in his body continued the spread. Leon began to feel the hormone in his mind. He felt like he had the one time he and Edward shared a blunt they had stolen from Alvis only less giggly and much much more horny. The feeling of horniness only grew, not the jerk off before bed type of horny either, but the fuck anything that moves kind. Leon took a few calming breaths trying to ride through the storm of hormones flooding his body. 

He was half tempted to go back to that party he had seen and pick up a chick to get some of this electric pent up energy out. Leon thought it wouldn’t be too hard with his new smoking hot body. But he needed to get home and prove to Edward he had won the bet. Besides he and Edward had made a pact to loose their virginity together. Leon decided once he was done bragging about reaching level 10 first he could play wing man for Edward and find him some guy to suck off then go for a hot girl. 

Plus he needed Edward’s help understanding his next quest. “Partake in vigorous carnal cardio” was all it read. The only one of those words Leon knew was “cardio”, and also the word “in" he supposed. 

Leon checked Edward’s location on his phone, which the two had shared with each other freshman year, and cursed. Edwards dot was heading back towards their apartment from the direction of the city. If he was on his way home then that likely meant he was level ten as well. Leon needed to get home first for bragging rights of course. 

Leon began to run again, energized by the testosterone now flowing through his system like blood. The sun had set and he hoped it was dark enough for people not to notice the stiff bulge in his shorts, although they might not care thanks to his “Naked Confidence” perk. Leon really was going to need to fuck something soon, and fuck it hard.

[rangerbarbz]

Love is but a Walk in the Park

Disclaimer: This is the second part of a series I am starting about the reader dating Ford while they are in college. Once again, I really appreciate the support, and I hope everyone enjoys it!

Summary: Ford and the reader are going on their first date after the reader drunkenly confesses their feelings to him.

“So, are y’all boyfriend and girlfriend, or what?”

You made eye contact with your roommate in the mirror of your bathroom. You were finishing up applying mascara. “I mean…maybe? I think so. I don’t know,” you answered. You turned around to face her. “Okay. How do I look?” You did a little spin for her. You were wearing an orange halter top with matching flared pants. You ironed some flower patches onto your back pockets last night to spruce them up a bit, as well.

Your roommate nodded in approval with a grin on her face. “You look foxy!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “He’s going to drop dead when he sees you.” After she said that, there was a knock at the door. “Ooh! There’s your lover boy now!” She handed your purse to you. “Go get em’, girl.”

“Thank you so much. I’ll tell you about it when I get back,” you replied excitedly. You opened the door to see a very well-dressed Ford. He was wearing a yellow button-up tucked into nice blue jeans, and his sleeves were rolled up to reveal his muscular, slightly hairy forearms. He was holding a bouquet of purple lilacs that were wrapped in a white ribbon.

You gasped. “Ford, these are beautiful! You got these for me?”

He handed you the flowers. “Of course. Do you like them?” he asked shyly.

“Like them? I love them!” you gushed, throwing your arms around his neck. He chuckled and hugged you back as you breathed in his scent. He smelled like bourbon and trees. This must have been some new cologne because he had never smelled like this before. Did he wear this just for you?

“Let me put these in my room, and I’ll be right back out,” you said with a huge smile on your face. You opened the door to your roommate standing there with a vase already filled with water.

“I’ll take those,” she stated, grabbing the bouquet delicately and putting them in the vase. “I was eavesdropping on y’all, so I went ahead and got this ready for you,” she said with a wink.

You laughed. “Thanks! You’re the best!” you replied, waving at her, and walking back out to Ford. He had a slight blush on his face. “Where are you taking me, handsome?” you asked, hooking your arm around his. This caused his face to redden even more. You loved making him flustered.

“Well, uh, I was wanting to take a walk in the park with you…gorgeous.” Your heart fluttered in your chest at his pet name for you. This was going to be a good day.

                                                                                | At the Park |

It was a beautiful sunny day at the park y’all went to. There were flowers everywhere and some peculiar playground equipment that included a life-size chess game. It seemed as if maybe it was more for adults rather than children which interested you. Ford’s attention quickly went to the large Rook piece that was sat a couple of yards across from him. He looked at the piece and back at you. “Do you know how to play?” Ford asked giddily.

You smiled back at him. He was adorable when he got excited. “I actually don’t, but I would be happy to learn.” He beamed at you taking your hand in his and leading you towards the board game.

“What color would you like to be?”

“Hmm,” you wondered. “I’ll be white, if that’s okay with you.”

“That’s perfectly fine! I always choose black anyways.” He then began to explain to you the rules of the game thoroughly, but he might as well have been talking to a brick wall. You couldn’t focus on anything when the sunshine was hitting his whiskey eyes just right, and the wind was blowing his hair in a way that it made look bouncy. If this was the desert, then he was your pitcher of water.

“Does that make sense?” he interrupted your daydreaming.

You snapped back to reality. “Yes. Definitely.” It didn’t, and he had to help you a lot, but he didn’t mind. It was an excuse to come over and guide you. He admired your concentrated face and the way your nose scrunched when you were thinking hard. It was a sight he was taking a mental picture of.

As you were picking up and moving a piece across the board, Ford said, “I love the patches you put on.” You turned your head over your shoulder to look at him. You were going to mess with him.

“Ford Pines, were you looking at my butt?”

He began stuttering to explain himself. “No! I mean, yes, I was, but not in that way! Not to objectify you. Your butt looks nice. NO! The patches do, but not that your butt doesn’t-‘��� Ford stumbled over his words.

You burst into laughter. “I’m just joking with you, Ford. I put those patches on for that exact reason,” you purred, sending a wink his way.

“Oh. I see,” he chuckled. He would never want you to think that he only wanted you for your body. (However, he did want your body.) “I just didn’t want you to think I’m some kind of jerk,” he explained. You walked over to him and put your hands on his broad shoulders.

“Ford. You don’t have a jerky bone in your body. I have never once thought that about you,” you reassured him. You looked back at the chess game. “Since you’re about to win, would you like to go for a walk?” He smiled back at you.

“Yes. I would like that very much.” You took his hand into yours and started your walk in the park. You and Ford sniffed flowers, went down elaborately built slides, and climbed fake rock walls. There was so much to do at this park, and it truly was a fun time.

After doing some goofy poses with some statues, you both decided it was time to get something to eat. You continued your stroll together until you reached the end of the sidewalk. To your left was a little stand called “The Snack Shack” that smelled delicious. It had an ice cream cone and a hot dog painted on the side and was covered in red and white stripes.

“Ooh, this place looks good Ford! Do you want to eat here?” you asked, looking at him. He was already looking at you with a warm smile on his face. He darted his head to the building to make it look like he wasn’t already staring at you, even if it was obvious.

“Sure! My treat,” he answered, as y’all walked towards the check out. An older man in a Hawaiian shirt was standing behind the check-out. Next to the register lay a sleeping cat. It was a light orange, but the first thing you noticed was his paws.

You gasped. “Look Ford!” He was studying the menu above him, so you grabbed his arm to get his attention. “This cat is like you!” The cat woke up with a big yawn and stretched out. This cat has six toes on each foot.

Ford giggled. “How about that. It’s polydactyl. Extraordinary. What’s its name?” The cat rubbed its head against his hand and purred at the affection it was receiving. The man at the counter chuckled.

“Her name is Hex,” said the man fondly. “She’s my baby. Had her since the day she was born.” His gaze was drawn to Ford’s hand. His face began to look confused, and you were ready to sock this guy in the nose if he had anything smart to say. “How about that,” he laughed. “That’s something you don’t see every day. You got six digits, too! You know they say that’s supposed to be good luck, or something.”

Ford looked at you with a twinkle in his eye. “I would say so.”

                                                                                | At the Bench |

Ford and you sat on a bench finishing up the pretzels and soda he got you two. A mother duck and her babies swam around in the pond in front of you, diving for food. You were under the shade of two trees, and a few people jogged on the asphalt track around the pond. It was perfect.

You leaned your head on his shoulder and observed the scenery around you. “Ford, this has been such an amazing day,” you sighed dreamily. He put his arm around you and scooted you closer to him.

“I concur. I have truly enjoyed this day with you, Y/N,” he replied softly. You could fall asleep you were so relaxed, but you wanted to spend as much time as you could with him at this moment. You looked up at him; he was a vision. You decided to make a move.

You removed his arm from around you and sat on your knees to face him. His head had turned to look at you, as well. You held your hand against his stubbly cheek. He jumped a bit but quickly leaned into it. “Ford… Can I kiss you?” You were so nervous asking. You weren’t used to making the first move, but you guessed so wasn’t he.

His face went red. “Yes please.” He seemed eager. You grinned and began to inch your face towards his. “But wait.” You stopped. “This is my first kiss, so I apologize if it’s bad, “he apologized. You were now millimeters away from his lips. You ran your hands into the side of his hair.

“Let me be the judge of that.” You pressed your lips into his. Every nerve in your body lit up. He sighed contently when your lips touched his. It was heaven. He tasted like the Cola you were just drinking earlier, but you didn’t mind. His mouth was so soft. Ford’s hands had trouble figuring out where to be until you placed them on your waist. His strong hands moved down to your hips to squeeze them. You moaned which seemed to fire up Ford a bit. He separated from the kiss to plant his lips on the side of your jaw. He left a trail of kisses down your neck making you shiver.

You would have loved to keep going, but it seemed that Ford forgot y’all were in public. Those joggers from earlier were coming around the curve any second now. You held his face in your hands to make eye contact with him. “Easy there, tiger, we got an audience.” His face went red, and he awkwardly waved hello as two people in athletic wear speedwalked pass you two.

As soon as they were gone, he cupped your cheeks and kissed you passionately. His hands were exploring the exposed skin of your back. He unlocked your lips and looked into your eyes. You knew your face was flushed, and his pupils were insanely dilated. “I’m sorry, my dear. You are just so intoxicating,” he whispered. You could feel arousal building up inside you. You craved more of him.

“Should we take this somewhere more private?” you suggested.

                                                                                                | THE END |

Author’s Note: Third part: yay or nay?

[cassiefromhell]

Bats and Fire 04

"The Calendar Situation"

Last time on bats and fire... 01 02 03

a/n: it turns out that i have bad writing motivation and love bouncing between projects, lol (also you can blame late updates on my current bg3 phase and jjk hyperfixation). so expect BAF 1-2x monthly. once again, i am very open to suggestions/themes for future chapters/episodes, so leave them in comments or my inbox!! and my requests are always open <3 enjoy!

warnings: smut, mdni/18+. p in v, oral (f receiving) morning sex, character watches while y/n is eaten out, interruptions, slight overstimulation, etc...

wc: 3.4k

Things were thoroughly out of hand.

Your mates were incapable of not fighting over every single second of your free time. And that turned into tug of war games where you get the lovely privilege of being the rope, and you know what you also weren’t getting? 

Sex.

You had not had sex in two weeks.

But you have five mates? How’s that possible?

Because you are almost never left alone with any of them long enough to get someone’s shirt off, nevermind a hand in your pants.

And a girl will get fed up after a while.

But luckily, on your first expedition after your cycle ended, you found the perfect solution…

You stumble into the old shop, wiping your dirtied hands off on your pants. The scent of magic immediately hits your nose, and you bite your tongue to distract yourself from it.

“You look like you’ve been to hell and back,” the female behind the counter says, her sunken gray eyes tracing over your tattered clothing.

You clear your throat, approaching the counter. “Do you carry any blade polish, or leather cleaner?”

She pauses, then opens and closes her mouth. “Say… are you the hunter that our mayor is paying to clear our woods of those damned Puca?”

“How could you tell?”

“I had a feeling.”

The female hobbles her way around the counter, and leads you to the left. She opens a cabinet door, and pulls out two glass containers, one with a clear liquid and the other a slight brown. She hands them both to you. “Your polish and cleanser.”

“Thank you,” you say, turning to head back to the counter. But something shimmers in the corner of your eye, and you pause, turning to face it.

It’s a pile of calendars, the edges glimmering with the sparkle of spells. But who would need a magical calendar? 

“Eyeing the Mrythat Calendar?” the shopkeeper asks, coming up beside you. “No one ever buys ‘em.”

“What do they do?” you ask, reaching out to take one and examine it.

“You buy a few, sign ‘em with blood, and then they’re connected to you. Write something on one, it appears on all the others. Useless, if you ask me, but a merchant came through ��ere with an offer I couldn’t refuse,” she explains, then starts back towards the counter.

You take six of the magical calendars, tucking them under your arm.

“You’re sure ‘bout that, hon?” the female raises a brow at you. “Don’t know what you’d use ‘em for.”

“You don’t even know,” you grin, dropping the calendars on the counter. “You don’t even know.”

The next time you were at each of your mates’ residences, you spread the calendars. Of course, you happened to be with Azriel and Cassian in the House of Wind next, so you got to work...

The sound of the hammer nailing the calendar into the wall echoes down the hall. You step back, satisfied, admiring the shimmering calendar mounted over the soft blue paint.

Cassian rounds the corner, slacks hanging low on his waist, rubbing his eyes. “Love… what’cha doing at four a.m…?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” you beam up him, gesturing to the glorious calendar — the solution to all of your problems. “Too excited. Look at it!”

“That’s… that's nice, love,” Cassian mutters, walking up behind you and putting his hands on your waist. “But let’s go back to bed, hmm?”

“No, no,” you gesture to the calendar once more. “I’ve gotta explain to you both how this works— hey— Azriel! Azriel, are you up?”

In response, a shadow comes to your side, winding around your leg.

You frown. “Did your master send you?”

The shadow tightens its grip.

“Is he just avoiding getting up?”

Even tighter.

You huff, poking Cassian’s shoulder. “Go get Azzie. This is important. And now I know he’s awake.”

The Illyrian nods and trudges off, cursing under his breath and running a hand over his face.

You almost feel a little bad, but then you’re distracted by your calendar again.

You did research on how these work. They were invented specifically for managing one person’s schedule, like a boss giving them to his employees to find time for meetings with them. Whoever’s schedule was being managed, just had to mark the calendar with a bloody fingerprint, and then all the calendars they marked would sync up. 

You grin, sticking your thumb into your mouth and piercing the skin, then you press it to the back of one of the pages. Instantly, the calendar glows, and then stops, but when you flip it to the current month, you find that it’s been filled in with all of your missions and plans — the magic has even sorted out what days you’re in which court, with which mates.

You grin maniacally.

Shadows slide around the corner, and out come your two Illyrian mates, bleary-eyed and wings damn near dragging.

You grin and clap your hands, pointing at the calendar. “Lookit! Look at what I did!”

“What did you do?” Azriel asks, coming to stand at your side and placing a hand on your lower back. It’s obvious that he’s trying his hardest to sound interested.

“Cass, c’mere,” you grin, tugging him to your other side. “Okay, okay, so, how this works. I have six of these calendars. They’re all enchanted, and they’ll soon all be connected to me by blood. When someone marks one, the others get the same marking, and I simply have to think it in order to add something. Each of my mates will get one, and so my schedule can be fairly organized.”

Cassian nods slowly. “Okay… but I thought normal scheduling was working fine.”

You bark a laugh. “No, no, no. You all are rather fond of interrupting each other’s dates and alone time, claiming to have ‘forgotten’ that I was already scheduled. This fixes that.”

“I do not,” Azriel grumbles, wings twitching.

“Well, see, the main inspiration here was my sex life,” you explain, perfectly calm as both your mates’ eyebrows shoot up. “I haven’t had actual sex in a week and a half, did you both know that?”

Cassian narrows his eyes. “No, no— how is that possible?”

You point to last Friday on the calendar, when you were marked to be on a date with Rhys. “Look, here; at this time, I was on the riverbank of the Sidra, about to be fucked against a tree, until Cassian came in and stayed for the rest of the date— and was completely oblivious to the mood and the arousal drenching the air.” You point to two days ago, when you were supposed to be sleeping at Eris’s palace. “At eleven p.m. that night, I was fully prepared to be ravished and yet Lucien needed me for something. And that’s not an issue, right, because two is better than one! But no, Eris and Lucien refuse to be naked in the same room at the same time.”

“…I see why you want the calendar,” Azriel murmurs, walking away and coming back with a pen and approaching the calendar. 

“What are you doing?” Cassian asks, tilting his head to the side.

“We’re the first ones to have this, right?” Azriel looks at you, and you nod in confirmation. “We have all the empty slots. I’m filling them all in with me.”

Cassian blanches, and then steps forward, promptly shoving Azriel to the side and stealing the pen. “Give me that! You can’t take all the slots!”

“You were just too slow,” Azriel grumbles, gesturing to the calendar, which is now half-filled with dates… all with Azriel.

You snort, and then turn on your heel, heading back down the hall. “I’m going back to bed. Whose bed am I getting in?”

“Mine,” they both say at the same time, and you can feel the glare they give each other. 

You grin, and turn the corner, knowing one — or both — of them is bound to come running after you.

All goes well with your visit to Rhysand, and he was very happy with his new calendar. However, things get a little bumpy when you’re at the Autumn Court…

“Fuck—” you whimper, gripping Lucien’s hair as his tongue works at your clit, fingers pumping in and out of you steadily. You’ve already come twice, and he’s damn close to working you up to a third.

The bliss is nearly lighting you on fire, legs shaking as you finally approach that cliff again, climbing higher and higher and—

“Cum for me,” Lucien murmurs against your clit, the vibrations nearly tipping you over the edge. He looks up at you with those eyes from between your legs, and you whimper as you reach that—

A knock comes on the door.

Lucien pauses, and you whimper, desperately bucking your hips into his hand and lips.

“Shit, what time is it?” he asks, sitting up and looking at the clock, mouth glistening with your slick. 

“Lucien,” you grit out, “please.”

“Times up,” a familiar voice calls from behind the door. “Your slot is only from seven to eight, I have her for the full night from eight p.m. to sunrise.”

You hiss in frustration, gently tugging at Lucien’s hair. “Ignore him.”

Eris slips into the bond immediately. Ignore me?

Eris, give me five minutes. Please.

That’s not what the calendar says.

Does it sound like I give a shit about what the calendar says? You growl down the bond, frustration only building.

Lucien has obediently gone back to working your cunt, sliding two fingers back in. His mouth latches around your clit immediately, and the wondrous sensations start to build up again.

Two minutes later, Eris is speaking down the bond again.

I’d have already gotten you off by now.

Your only reply is an audible whine, surely loud enough for Eris to hear on the other side of the door.

And clearly he does hear it, because he’s winnowed to your side within seconds.

“Add a finger, it’ll make her come faster,” Eris idly comments, taking a seat next to you on the bed. “And harder. That’s important.”

You’re now completely naked and vulnerable in a room with two fully clothed males. Because apparently you’re the only one getting their clothes taken off today.

“What are you—”

“Shush,” Eris hushes you with a gentle kiss, stroking a hand down the center of your torso, rubbing circles on the sensitive skin of your belly. “Let us take care of you.”

Before you can reply, his head dips down to your left nipple, licking a circle around it. His thumb runs circles around your other breast, all while Lucien increases his pace.

With very little warning, your climax creeps up on you, pleasure suddenly spiking. You cry out, gripping Eris’s shoulder for support as you tip over the edge, stars and flames filling your vision as the waves of your orgasm crash over you again and again and again and—

“What does that make?” Eris asks, stroking your hair.

“Three,” replies Lucien, who is gently rubbing circles over your clit, coaxing you through the last waves of pleasure with gentle kisses along your thighs.

The High Lord clicks his tongue. “That won’t do. She needs at least five, else apparently she’ll get needy at an ungodly hour.”

You try to protest. “Will not—”

He stops you with a quirked brow. “Two weeks ago. You woke me up before sunrise by humping me. Like a puppy in heat.”

You open your mouth, and then close it. He’s right. You did do that. But he looked so damn sexy like that, features relaxed and mouth parted and—

Lucien licks a stripe up your folds, and all your thoughts screech to a halt.

“Love,” Rhysand whispers in your ear, pressing kisses over your cheek and hair. “Love, time to get up.”

You blink awake, squinting in the early morning light. “Mm... what time is it?”

“Seven,” he murmurs, slipping his hands up and under the shirt you’re wearing — his shirt — and rubbing your skin.

You groan. “Cass isn’t picking me up ‘till seven-thirty. Why’d you wake me?”

“Because I was thinking we could squeeze a little something in,” Rhys kisses your neck, pressing his hips to yours, letting you feel his bulge beneath his pants. “If you so please.”

Your heart skips a beat, and you bite your lip. You run your hand down his chest, finding his bulge and palming him through his pants. “Needy, are we?”

“Please,” he groans, rutting against your hand once, twice, then pressing more kisses across your collarbones.

You smirk and nod, spreading your legs for him. His reaction is instant, making quick work of your panties and discarding his pants. 

He presses a finger into your entrance slowly, hissing as it comes back soaked. “Fuck. So wet for me, love.”

You tilt your hips up for him, and he strokes himself twice, then slowly slides in, stretching you wide. You whimper, gripping his shoulders and chewing your lip to stay quiet. “Fuck…”

Rhys picks up a slow pace, gentle and loving as the kisses he’s pressing along your collar and neck. He rubs your hips in time with his thrusts, each time hitting just a little deeper, each push a little more pleasurable than the last.

“Please,” you moan, desperate for more, deeper, harder, faster… and he doesn’t give it to you.

He presses a chaste kiss to your lips, shaking his head. “Impatient little thing. It’s bright and early, and you want to have the shit fucked out of you?”

You nod, and he merely chuckles. The sound is low and deep and effectively makes you even wetter around him. 

He pulls out, and you open your mouth to whine, but he sweeps you up into his arms, picking you up out of the bed. Before you know it, your bare back is against a wall, and he’s entered you once more, this angle deeper than before.

He picks up a bruising pace immediately, and you moan, capturing his lips in yours to swallow both of your noises. You can’t help but tilt your hips with each thrust, desperately matching his pace as that coil in your abdomen begins to grow tauter.

“Fuck— fuckfuckfuckk—” you hiss against his mouth, clutching at his biceps, his neck, his shoulders — anything to ground you as you’re pulled higher and higher.

“I’ve got you, love,” he groans, slamming into you harder, brushing that spot so deep inside of you—

You come immediately, clenching around him and squeezing your eyes shut, moaning loudly as the pleasure drags you down, down, nearly into unconsciousness as your thighs cramp. Rhys has to hold you up to keep you from falling out of his arms, and he follows you with three sharp thrusts and a low growl, spilling into you.

He kisses you, gently, and you run your hands through his hair, rolling your hips against his once. 

“God, I love you,” you murmur, between gasps for air.

“I love you too, darling. I love waking up to you next to me,” he murmurs back, nosing your neck. “I love fucking you first thing in the morning.”

“Round two?” You run a hand down his abdomen, licking your lips. You can’t help it; you want to taste him.

He grins deviously, opening his mouth to reply — but then footsteps sound down the hall, accompanied with what is obviously Cassian whistling. He’s definitely giving you a warning that he’s coming — he could be quieter than that.

“Fuck,” you grumble. “Just a sec.”

Cassian, you speak down the bond. Not done here. Give me half an hour. 

What? No. He whines, but his footsteps halt. I’m scheduled to pick you up at seven thirty. It’s my time.

I’m aware. The schedule isn’t supposed to be exact. You guys seem to have an issue with that.

…Isn’t exact reserved time the point of the schedule?

You sigh, shaking your head. “Change of plans. I’m calling a mates’ meeting.”

Half an hour later, all of your mates are gathered at Rhys’s dining table, their calendars sitting in front of them. You sit at the head of the table, decidedly unhappy…

“Alright,” Azriel starts, leaning forward on his elbows. “I’ll break the ice. What’s got you upset, love?”

“What do you think has me upset?” you grit out, glaring over at him.

Azriel suppresses a flinch, leaning back in his seat.

“I’m assuming it has to do with the calendar?” Eris says, gesturing to the calendars in front of them all. 

“Uh huh. And why, exactly, did I enact the calendar rule?”

There’s a short pause, and then Lucien responds. “To organize your schedule?”

“Because you wanted more sex,” Cassian corrects him, rubbing his chin. Lucien, Eris, and Rhys whip their heads to look at him, having not been there for that conversation. “But hasn’t that succeeded?”

“More sex, yes. But short sex. Painfully short. You know why? Because I start having sex with one of you. We do the deed. I want more. You want more. Then what happens? Knock knock, someone else comes along and refuses to give up precious time from their slot.”

Cassian looks down and away, making a face. Eris doesn’t look pleased either.

“You guys,” you sigh. “The calendar is flexible. You can deal with having half an hour taken off of your slots. It’s supposed to be a guide, not a strict schedule.”

The males before you begrudgingly grumble in agreement, and you gesture to the calendars. 

“Okay, thank you. Now that that’s understood, it’s time to schedule next month’s times. Please open your calendars,” you instruct, opening your own. Everybody follows your lead, so you continue. “I’ve marked in all the slots available, and when I’ll be gone. I have two missions next month; a dragon study and a job for the Winter court clearing out a pair of Banshees. The dragon study I have to do alone, but one of you can tag along on the clearing.”

Azriel immediately reaches for a pen, but not before Eris has already winnowed one into his hand, already writing his name.

“Ah!” you hiss, grabbing Eris’s wrist. “We’re drawing sticks.” 

Eris snarls at you on pure instinct, then his face goes slack. “Sorry, sorry— I didn’t mean to—”

Immediately, your four other mates are up out of their seats, teeth bared and ready to attack Eris.

“Dear mother,” you groan. “It was instinct. Everybody down.”

Everyone sits. 

“That’s the other thing,” you sigh, waving your hand to winnow in a cup with five sticks in it, all marked with a name. “You all need to work on the hostility. I know it’s difficult. But mistakes will be made, fights will be had, and instinct is instinct.”

Lucien mumbles a ‘sorry’ to Eris, and the rest follow, some less apologetic than others.

You carry on with the meeting, and you draw sticks, deciding the order of who gets to pick first. Cassian, much to his joy, gets first, then Azriel, then Lucien, followed by Rhysand, and in dead last — which you’d bet money was influenced by someone’s magic — is a very salty Eris.

Nevertheless, the dates are set, and you dismiss everyone—

“Hold on,” Azriel cuts in, holding up a finger. “There was a prearranged date with Rhys on here. Why only him?”

“Because he’s set to meet my parents,” the words fly out of your mouth before you realize what you’re saying, and you immediately clamp your jaw shut.

Damn your mouth.

All five heads turn to look at you, shocked faces adorning all but one — Rhys, who knew about this and didn’t question it.

“Why only him?” Eris asks, raising a brow. 

“I want to meet your parents!” Cassian pouts, leaning forward against the table.

“I do as well,” Lucien adds, scratching the back of his neck.

“Agreed,” Azriel finishes. “I’m free that time. We could just all meet them at once.”

Agreement runs through the circle, leaving you opening and closing your mouth.

Because there’s one issue.

One little, tiny issue…

“Cauldron boil me,” Eris murmurs, slowly leaning back in his seat. “They don’t know you have more than one mate, do they?”

Ah, yes.

That.

To be continued…

tags: @awoa1 @llovelydove @bookishbroadwaybish @maddietheshoe @eerievixen @ghostofnightcrawlerpast @cleverzonkwombatsludge @hyemishii @caro-lightwood-blog @the-sweet-psycho @myheartfollower @bubybubsters @luvmoo @foreverrandomwritings @ummmmmchillanywaysso @spongehappy @fell-in-luvs

comment to be added to the tag list!

(not tagged? either tumblr was a jerk, you changed your username, or i missed your comment! go ahead and ask again, and I'll make sure you're on there.)

[indienby]

Fanwork: Beautiful

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 (Video Games)

Pairing: Astarion/Player Character

Summary: After the conversation with Astarion about his mirror it's time to take action.

That night, I lay awake on my bedroll for a long time, staring up at the unfamiliar stars overhead. I couldn’t get the conversation with Astarion out of my head. I’d never been vain like him, but even I wasn’t keen on the idea of being unable to see my own reflection. Rough and ready as I usually looked, it was reassuring to be able to look at my own face, whether I wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed a spot while cleaning or check if I’d gained a bruise.

I shifted, rolling onto my side and using the flickering light of the fire to find him with my eyes. He slept like the dead, stone still, the barest hint of movement in his chest rising and falling to show he wasn’t – or wasn’t totally. I didn’t know the specifics of being turned into a vampire spawn, and I was loathe to ask more – understandably, it seemed a bit of a touchy subject. I let my eyes wander from his chest up to his face, smoother in sleep even than when awake, and considered.

I’d called him beautiful when he’d asked me to but I could tell he hadn’t believed me. I hadn’t been lying though; from the tips of his pointed ears to the sharp cut of his cheekbones and the drip of his aristocratic drawl, everything about him was simply stunning. Just looking at him made my knees go weak, especially on the rare occasions he dropped his guard and let me in with the odd detail of his life or a confessed fear. I’d tried to ignore the feeling, to push it to the side as irrelevant in the face of everything else we had to contend with, but somehow it didn’t seem like such a waste of emotion anymore.

Moving as silently as possible amidst the highly trained and extremely edgy killers dotted about my camp, I pushed myself up and crept to the trunk where I’d stowed some of today’s loot. I hadn’t had an immediate use for the battered old journal I’d taken off an unfortunate gnome we’d found the bones of in our path earlier, but now I found I did. Astarion needed to know what he looked like - and I could show him.

I took up position as close as I dared, folding myself down cross-legged and praying my luck held out in allowing me to pass undetected. I waited a moment, searching for the telltale rise and fall to reassure me, then dipped my quill. Calm swept through me as I enjoyed the rare chance to observe without being observed in turn, every touch of pen to paper bringing my subject to life. Untrained as I am, by the time the first shadows of dawn started to streak the camp I had a recognisable portrait and was fairly happy with my efforts.

I stashed my equipment and snuck back to my bedroll, laying down and throwing an arm over my head in a futile attempt to catch a few moments of sleep before the sun rose fully. In no time at all, however, the unmistakable sounds of the rest of the camp stirring became too loud to ignore, and I gave up any attempt of snatching a quick forty winks. Resigned, I rolled over, groaning as I pushed myself up. To my surprise, I found Astarion watching me. His intense red gaze held mine for a few seconds before he looked away; I felt my cheeks heat and swiftly rose to ready myself for the day ahead.

A busy day of travel, fighting and yet more revelations – both good and bad – occupied my attention so thoroughly I didn’t get a chance to give the affair much thought until we made camp late that evening and I caught him looking at me again. Memories of the previous night rushed back and, after a moment’s hesitation, I took a deep breath and crossed the camp.

“Well hello, what can I do for you?”

His casual greeting almost, but not quite, covered his nerves and with a start I realised I could read him now – he was as flustered as I. I crossed my arms and tried to act casual.

“Well, I was wondering why you were watching me.”

He recoiled slightly at that, but then his eyes narrowed and he thrust his chin forward. “Oh really?” he sneered. “Because last night I could have sworn you were the one watching me.”

I froze, not sure what to say. I’d meant to share the picture with him, after all, but I’d never meant for him to know how I’d drawn it.

“Oh yes,” he continued, taking my silence as the confirmation it was. “I thought you meant to attack at first. I would have understood that – after all, who wants a vampire in their camp? It made sense for you to finally decide I was too much of a liability to keep around anymore.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he continued before I had a chance. “I waited for the blow to fall, wondering which method you’d choose and whether I’d have a chance to fight back. Wondering whether I even wanted to or if it would finally release me from my drudgery. But it never came.”

“I’m sorry,” I interjected, cold horror trickling down my spine. I’d never meant to scare him, let alone bring on thoughts as deep and dark as those. “I didn’t realise you were awake.”

He scoffed. “Clearly. But that still doesn’t explain what you were doing.”

After a brief pause, I dug in my pack for the journal, flipping it open to the page from last night and handing it to him. They say actions speak louder than words, and on this occasion I thought they might be right. He squinted at it for a moment, and for one horrible second I thought I might have to explain after all. Then his face changed; I could tell the exact point he realised it was a portrait of him, and I let out my breath in a huff of relief. The creases around his eyes smoothed out, his hungry gaze roaming the page for every last detail. A half smile quirked at the corner of my mouth as I watched him, lost in the image his own face. Suddenly his head jerked up, red eyes meeting mine. They were softer than I’d ever seen them, with what I suspected to be the first true smile he’d given in a while curving his lips. He seemed lost for words, and I shrugged, suddenly self-conscious again.

“Like I said. You’re beautiful.”

Notes: If you're into smut, I'll post the extremely NSFW sequel soon ;-)

You can also read this fic on AO3 here!

[nemirambles]

Sonic Frontiers - Maybe The Most Important Sonic Game Ever Made

INTRO:

It has been a little over a year since the release of Sonic Frontiers. I’ve likely dumped more time into this game than most Sonic games. I was extremely skeptical about the release of this game. It was rather difficult being a fan of Sonic at the time, it still is arguably, with every showing of the game it just led to more skepticism and dooming. I couldn’t tell if I should be excited or not as I did want this to be good but who’s to say with Sonic, y’know. Eventually the game did release and well, I will vividly remember my first experience with it. Watching the game finally unlock at like 11 AM and taking it all in was so great. Kronos was a great intro island and hearing Undefeatable was insane. I hadn’t felt this sort of hype and joy since I played Unleashed years ago. I no life’d the game and finished it in like 18 or so hours. I thoroughly enjoyed Frontiers start to finish although there were some hiccups here and there. But do I still feel the same about it now? Absolutely not.

Dirt tastes better when you’re hungry. If this interests you, keep reading as this will be a sort of in-depth-ish review of Sonic Frontiers. There’s a lot to cover and it might be a bit messy but I’ll try my best.

OPEN ZONE:

The Basics:

This is gonna be a bit of a difficult thing to talk about but I’m gonna try my best here. Sonic games famously have added gimmicks to their games to help pad out the run time. It’s no surprise to anyone that making giant maps to blast through is rather difficult. Even making multiple maps for characters who aren’t that fast is a lot of work. This is why Mario games will give you multiple objectives for singular maps in a lot of his 3D entries. So for Sonic Frontiers, the padding for this game is the open zone. I want to clarify that this is NOT open world. Open zone refers to having a large open play area but not exactly being an open world. It’s more akin to something like Super Mario Galaxy than it is something like Breath Of The Wild. You don’t have absolute freedom here, just some decently large maps with multiple objectives for thingamabobs you need to collect, like a collect-a-thon!

But how does it actually turn out? It’s… polarizing. Frontiers throws you into these giant playpens of rails, springs and enemies where you’re going from set piece to set piece as you collect these memory tokens. These memory tokens act as your way to progress through the game as you need to hit certain requirements in order to progress the story. These tokens are scattered about everywhere and despite that, they’re still a chore to collect. You’ll need about 150-ish tokens for each island which means you more or less need to go through 150 of these little set pieces or get a bundle of tokens randomly by cylooping. I think enemies can drop them too at times as well. The little segments you need to do are immensely boring. This game takes Sonic's automation issues and makes it worse.

You’re gonna be going through automatic set pieces over and over. Grind this rail and watch this little thing as you basically mindlessly hold down boost. There’s gonna be times where you have to sometimes press an extra button or two but these are really unengaging. Exploring the map in general isn’t all that fun really. Part of what makes Sonic fun is optimizing routes to get from point A to point B but there isn’t anything like that here. There’s not much to really optimize given the fact that these segments don’t take any time and don’t have much of any depth. The most you can do is find ways to try and skip these segments and once you have the tokens, you have them. The objective isn’t there anymore. Same thing for all the other things in the hub world. That kind of just leaves the open zone to be nothing but busy work padding to make sure you don’t just blitz the game.

It should also be noted that playing Frontiers without anything like the spindash or maintaining speed when jumping enabled makes traversal much less fun. However when you do have these tools, it’s a lot more manageable and enjoyable. The thing is that you won’t have spindash unless you unlock it when you have a new save. You either need to S rank a bunch of action chain challenges or you have to get it automatically from playing the Another Story campaign which is on the final island. This sucks for a plethora of reasons because this tool is maybe some of the most fun you’ll have in this game and it’ll just be inaccessible to a lot of players starting out.

Personally, if you're on PC and haven't played Frontiers before and you'd want to, I’d encourage using a cheat to unlock spindash from the start it if you’re going through the game for the first time. I'd also encourage making sure you tweak the settings to make momentum conservation stronger while also tweaking the "bounce height" option to change how far you can fling yourself with the "bump jump" ability.

The aforementioned "bump jump" ability. The localization refers to it as "bounce height" for some reason, not realizing that Sonic has a built in bounce via his stomp follow up.

The spindash and momentum being retained won’t make these memory token segments more fun per say but getting from objective to objective ends up being quite fun when you need to go across the map to meet up with Tails or something. I guess I should also mention that the spindash is less of a burst of speed like previous games and more like a sort of "moon jump" that's also tied to the boost gauge. When you use the spindash, you get a lot of speed but it dips momentarily meaning that it likely isn't designed to be a consistent source of speed like the boost. This thing is for flinging and flying and as such it's not really affected by gravity. There isn't any momentum really applied here, you just kinda go flying. Not saying that this is a bad thing but it is something to note.

But there’s also challenges to do in the open zone! You have things like action chains, koco challenges and these puzzles to unlock the map. The puzzles are just fine. None of them are that fun or difficult but I find the tetris and path puzzles enjoyable enough to where I don’t mind doing those. I actually enjoyed the action chains a lot because it gives you a goal to grind towards much like a traditional Sonic game. You don’t have an objective to work towards that’s just gone, just your own limit on self improvement and your skills. The koco challenges do fall into the camp of being things you do once and never again but I will say that doing them is quite fun and a welcome challenge compared to the piss easy game that Frontiers generally is.

Side Tangent; The M Word:

Sonic Frontiers is a game that lacks the traditional 2D Sonic momentum. You don't really gain speed going down hills or anything like that. While I do find it very weird that a open zone game like this was conceptualized without proper momentum or ball physics or insert buzzword here, I can't help but feel like complaining about it at this point is missing what the game is trying to do. Frontiers is leaning more to be a precision platformer it seems, being more of what the boost games wanted to be. Very fast with split second reaction checks. The spindash isn't like a normal spindash, it's more used for platforming and specifically launching yourself. It's a new function for the ability and they utilize it quite well in the context of this game. I think in general, Sonic Team has done very well with the platforming game design of Frontiers by the end of it.

If you add regular momentum to Frontiers, it gets quite boring to be frank. The game isn't made around it. But when you simply add an option that gives more freedom of movement while still keeping it controlled enough to fit in the game, it's pretty fun. I think this is one of those things where you just need to accept where Frontiers decides to deviate rather than knocking on it for not being more of what we haven't gotten in maybe 30 something years. Even Adventure 1 didn't have proper momentum physics. While momentum to Sonic, in my mind, is what jumping is to Mario… that hasn't been the series goal for quite some time now and maybe it's time to move on from that…? I dunno, maybe this is a really hot take but it's starting to be more of how I feel.

More Of The Same:

I was going to originally break down what each island was about but I honestly don’t see much of a point to. Whereas with something like Sonic Unleashed or Sonic 3, where each level has some different defining gimmick, these islands do not. They might as well be the same location with a new coat of paint on each. You traverse them the same way and progress the same way. The only thing that changes is that each location gets bigger and more annoying to navigate if you don’t have the spindash. This is ignoring Rhea which is basically just one giant set piece but you actually do something interesting and different here so I appreciate it for what it is while being a good moment in the story.

The guardians you fight on these islands don’t even feel particularly unique to them either. If you switch Asura and Strider, what really changes? They compliment the location just about as much as any other guardian. The only exception I can think of here is Shark who uniquely needs to be somewhere with sand so it can traverse through it. This is the only guardian in the game actually themed after the location. Any other one can fit pretty much anywhere else. I guess now is as good a time as any to also mention the new open world gameplay that comes with update 3.

It’s more of the same. The only real compliment I can give is that I actually find the new challenge towers very fun to climb. It’s a tense situation that honestly isn’t as challenging as most would lead you to believe. I heard some people say that update 2 was just this extremely difficult thing where you had to restart your save file if you failed and in the nicest way possible I just wanna say that if you believed this or felt like this was what you needed to do, you are very very bad at Sonic Frontiers. And that's okay! Just don't pretend it's a genuine design issue when in reality you just suck!

As for the new characters… they’re… definitely there! I don’t have much to say about them when it comes to platforming and traversal, they are fine. I'll speak on their combat later when I get to that segment of the blog, but as for the platforming that they go through, it looks like total shit.

It's mildly fun but a visual eyesore. Update 3 in general completely shat the bed in terms of immersive visuals because what the hell man.

Island Art Direction and Storytelling

I suppose now is also a good time to talk about the actual aesthetic of the islands and to be honest, I like Frontiers’ art direction. I generally think a lot of the things here look really cool. My main huge complaint though is a noticeable lack of it. Frontiers is not that good with its environmental storytelling and we really have no idea what’s going on with these ancients. We were given reasons as to why it’s so weird and barren yes but those are reasons crafted from the game being empty. You see things like houses but never anything like transpiration, cities, important social structures or anything like that.

Photo mode is genuinely a blast!

While this might feel like a lame nitpick I feel like it’s important for Sonic games to really immerse you in the world and its inhabitants. Unleashed felt immersive. The Adventure games also felt immersive. The Classic games felt immersive too. Sonic 2 and 3 have so many structures and locations that probe at the mind and make you wonder how it got there. It makes you curious about the inhabitants and the world they lived in.

Frontiers just doesn’t do this. There’s weird unexplainable structures and such sure but unlike a game like Sonic 3 or Unleashed, these never really contribute much to the gameplay or how you get around. You don’t have crumbling statues that block off your path really. You don’t have any temples you go inside of to explore. You don’t have any sort of amusement parks to blaze through. What would an alien festival look like? How would Sonic interact with it? How would he interact with their transportation? Are there any buildings built to utilize the chaos emeralds in day to day life? You never even use the chaos emeralds for any sort of utility in Frontiers to power a building or whatever, it’s purely for combat.

When you make a world more alive with more content and more proof of existence, this will inherently give Sonic more to do as well. But that’s the issue, this world isn’t lived in and doesn’t invoke any sort of imagination and as a result we don’t get any fun Island exclusive gameplay that plays off these concepts since they simply don’t exist. It’s a really huge missed opportunity that I wish Sonic Team focused more on. I would’ve taken smaller, more content dense islands with real history over giant plains with nothing to do and nothing to see.

Because Ice Cap is the only snowy area, it is the only place where a set piece like this can work. They used the location to it's advantage to create a unique scenario that no other stage could do!

It’s also a given but I really hate these floating platforms littered around. They don’t blend with the scenery very well and since none of them are themed around the islands it gets very tiring to look at them very quickly. Sonic Team has been doing this drag and drop block placement shit for years now and it’s both disappointing and embarrassing to see them keep up this tradition with Frontiers, especially seeing mods that at the very least theme the platforms.

The "Reimagined Platforms" mod created by Davihhh seeks to solve this issue.

I know that it’s usually bad faith to say “oh but look at these mods!” when discussing game quality as modders often get as much time as they want and foresight to see the issues with a game, but these platforms are just glaringly bad even as a first draft.

COMBAT:

A Sonic Boom with no charge motion? Impossible.

For some reason or another, Sonic Team decided that the new Sonic game ought to be a character action game which is honestly something I’m all for. I’m not an extreme action game fan, I’ve pretty much only played the Kingdom Hearts series, Metal Gear Rising and some DMC. BUT I have played a lot of fighting games and love that genre which I feel is a pretty close relative to the action game genre. I’m also 19, creeping up on 20 at the time of writing which means that I grew up in the Flash era of the internet so a lot of my tastes for what Sonic should be came from a lot of DBZ inspired Sonic content. When I saw Sonic shooting ki blasts and battling giant monsters in the trailer, I was extremely excited for what this would bring. So how did Frontiers do in this department? 

Combat Variety:

Poorly. If it wasn’t for DMC 2 and Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, I’d be able to easily put Sonic Frontiers down as the worst action game combat I’ve ever experienced. This isn’t due to it not being as deep as something like DMC though. I have no issue with simple gameplay, I’d expect it from Sonic, the issue comes from a lack of experience and direction. Frontiers suffers from a lot of core issues. First let's talk about its offensive options. Frontiers has a basic combo system where you mash out a button and you get a finisher. You can select what the specific finisher is by holding a direction on your control stick. As you go through the game, you unlock abilities on a skill tree using skill points that you get from killing enemies or randomly getting it when you cyloop.

You can also cancel some of these attacks by inputting a defensive action like parry or dodging. With this combined it’ll allow you to extend combos for longer than usual since you’re constantly going into specials that restart your position in a combo. This is actually really cool as it allows for the player to get a lot of freedom in how they choose to beat up the enemy. But there’s just one small issue. None of these attacks provide any real utility for maybe 95% of the game.

Fancy combo right? I think so at least. But I didn't really make a lot of, if any, meaningful decisions here. I was more or less just choosing what flashy cinematics to do. I could've done hurricane kick into cross slash over and over again to infinitely juggle them and melt their HP and it would've had the same result pretty much. It's a combat system that basically relies on how cool you personally want to feel as a player which is fine and all but being cool is made cooler when you have restrictions and things to keep in mind.

Using something like KH2 for example, when I do combos in KH2, I’m doing combos that are specific to the context and situation that I’m currently in. Not every boss falls for the same strategy. Now this is different from there being optimal combos. Even KH2 has strategies that stay dominant, but it’s not about avoiding a dominant strategy, it’s about making the player make meaningful decisions that will influence what tools they decide to use on enemies. One thing that heavily influences gameplay is how many enemies you have to fight.

Action games often give you a crowd of baddies to defeat and you'll need to pick them off or weave between them in order to avoid being harmed. Frontiers has none of that. You're always fighting enemies one on one unless it's something specific like the foot ninja enemies you can find in the overworld. These enemies DO make you switch up your strategy through needing to cyloop them to break their defense but once you knock them into the air it's business as usual.

I will say though that utilizing the cyloop in combat versus a crowd is rather cumbersome due to the fact that you want to stay mobile in combat and you’ll need to circle around enemies who are also mobile while hoping the terrain is flat enough as to not break your trail. You also go quite slow if you aren’t boosting while cylooping and honestly good luck trying to keep a tight cyloop circle when you’re going at 90 miles per hour. But outside of that, that’s really it for ways to deal with crowds. There is a combo ender that knocks enemies up however.

This is should be a good tool to have because these jobber enemies can’t follow you into the air, however you don’t actually have a convenient way to follow up once you’ve popped enemies up there due to the immense amount of hitstop you suffer when attacking enemies and combo finishers have even more hitstop and slow down which means even though they’re defensive cancelable, it’s not that quick. Your best bet honestly is just using the spin kick on a guy to knock him in the air and then do a parry cancel so you can juggle him. That way the other enemies can’t bother you and they can’t decide to defend themselves. Also note that for some strange reason parry is laggier if you don’t hold a direction when releasing it.

Defensive Options:

On the note of defensive options, they’re bad. I wanna take a moment to say that I think the infinite parry isn’t a bad idea on paper. I think where it messes up is that it has no risk/reward. Parry is a zero risk/extreme reward option no matter how long you hold it. Personally I think if the slowdown you gain from a parry was relative to how long you held it, i.e. you do a perfect parry and you get max slowdown and when you do a 5 second long parry you get no slowdown. This way you encourage people to learn to parry more precisely if they want more slowdown. It’s a kids game, I think the mechanics being easy to understand and utilize is fine so long as they beg for exploration and help children problem solve. 

Speaking of slowdown, that mechanic is also not particularly great in my opinion. Whenever you parry a physical attack, the game does this cinematic to emphasize the parry while slowing down time to allow Sonic to attack. This is a neat little idea and feature but when you do it repeatedly it can become quite repetitive and causes some interactions to be really awkward, especially when attack hitboxes don’t actually disable despite being parried.

You also have a dodge maneuver. It has minor invincibility frames and can only be done either left or right and attacking at what seems to be any point during the animation will cause the zigzag attack. There isn’t much to say about it outside of the fact that it’s not really useful at all outside of canceling attacks considering Sonic has such incredible speed that simply boosting in any direction works better.

Minor Things:

There’s some other minor things too like how you can’t really naturally change targets due to there not being a normal targeting system. You have to hit something and then press a bumper to target the next thing that corresponds with the direction your bumper is. The combat is also very… sticky. This is due in part to the excessive hitstop on everything but also due to how they handle inputs. I don’t really know how the game deals with inputs exactly but the buffer here seems to be something where the game stores an input no matter how much time passes. A good example can be found with Amy. Her homing attack has a slight delay for whatever reason but if you double tap the button to try and force it out, she’ll attack after she homing attacks which is nearly a full second later. Another example is with Sonic where if you hold down R2 and just happen to press X when near an enemy that will also lock you into an attack. This nasty sticky control issue permeates throughout the entire game and makes the combat feel way way worse.

But now that this is the groundwork the team is going with, how do they actually design around it?

Enemy Design:

Enemies in Frontiers range from brain numbing to irritating with only a few ever really being fun to fight. Unlike a game like KH2 where Sora has multiple ways to deal with enemies and for enemies to force specific interactions, Sonic has a much more restricted tool set that requires more outside the box solutions to. You don’t have magic or anything like that. This isn’t exactly a bad thing though as Sonic is still a platformer at heart so making him do platforming adjacent challenges while battling an enemy is welcome. The issue for me is that a lot of these aren’t fun. I wanna talk about the fun ones first though, Sumo, the Ninja series, Asura and Ghost.

Ghost just literally sort of appears at the last island and it starts draining rings from you and you need to complete a platforming segment in order to get it to stop. It’s stressful, random and actually amazing. Sure it’s guaranteed damage but it’s guaranteed damage in a game where you can avoid taking damage and farm health as much as you want so I mean hey, it is what it is.

Sumo is another fun enemy that makes you bounce off these walls in order to gain up lots of speed to slam yourself into them so they’ll go flying into electric walls. It’s not a deep fight at all but it does make you try to position yourself properly and it feels extremely satisfying to pull off a good slam.

Asura slams down one of it’s arms and you’ll need to run up them, hit the little weak points at the top, be knocked down to the bottom and then rinse repeat as it gets a bit harder with each arm. Except you actually don’t need to get knocked down. If you hold parry while the explosion cinematic plays, you’ll stay in the air where you can then maneuver your way over to the other weak points, skipping the first part of the phase entirely.

Last but not least is Ninja and its clones which are what I believe the only guardians you can juggle like a regular enemy, opening them up for a lot of combo potential. They aren’t particularly difficult but it is very fun to just see how you can beat the shit out of them.

Contrast these with something like Fortress. When fighting Fortress, you ride some grind rails and then you start hitting it. That’s kinda like Squid, where you run along a path and start to hit it. What happens if you don’t kill it in time? Well you just have to chase it down again. Is it particularly difficult or engaging? No. There’s also bosses like Spider.

For Spider, you need to cyloop its legs in order to make its main body vulnerable. Afterwards, you have to play a skydiving segment where you need to go through these rings in order to make it vulnerable, again, and then you’re allowed to beat up on the Spider. You are forced to do this every single time. The issue with these 3 is that the time it takes to make them fully vulnerable is independent of player skill. There is no way to become better at chasing down Fortress or Squid unless you literally just do a drive by which I doubt was the intended design. These are spectacle fights that lose their luster shortly after doing them the first few times and it becomes boring.

With the positive examples I listed, the amount of time it takes to do them is up to the player and there’s clear places to make optimizations. It never feels like there’s just dead time where you’re just waiting for things to get interesting whereas in a lot of Frontiers’ mini bosses, that’s what they feel like. Wasting time. And if they aren’t wasting time it’s usually because you’re tearing right through them. I’m also gonna take a moment to mention Wolf and Shark. I didn’t use those two as specific examples because it’s honestly just too easy of an out and everyone knows they’re terrible. After a while I almost just wanted to avoid enemy encounters all together because it would generally be more of the same old same old.

But I think it’s also meaningful to analyze why enemies are like this. While in a game like KH2, you have limited movement with set options that developers either know you have or expect you to have. Arenas are small, closed in spaces where you can’t really just run away without going into a new room entirely if you even can. Contrast this to Frontiers where like I mentioned before, Sonic has much higher movement along with this being a giant open area where he can come and go as he pleases. There’s also the fact that you need to factor in the variable speeds that players will have due to speed being tied to a level system along with all the customizable stats there are for Sonic. There’s just quite a lot of factors that you have to keep in mind when designing challenges for Sonic so it makes sense as to why it’s like this. It needs to be broad and unspecific in what it wants from the player because the range of variables at play are also generally broad and unspecific. This is why Cyberspace has its own Sonic preset, designing around them all would be nearly impossible. But before getting into ways I think this could be handled going forward, we need to address the giant titan sized elephant in the room.

Titan Design:

One of the absolute highlights of this game when it launched. When you saw people talk about how Sonic was back, these titan fights were at the forefront. Sonic leans fully into more shonen inspirations as the heavy metal and rock music in the back pumps you up. These fights were and still are great spectacle battles that I still find cool after the fact. The issue unfortunately being just how easy they are. “Punch punch stomp” is the name of the game here and works as pretty much THE dominant strategy. There is never a reason to do anything else. Even on the hardest section of the game, Master King’s trial, it is still extremely easy. But maybe easy isn’t the right word, poorly designed might be more like it.

Giganto:

Giganto’s hitboxes do not align up with his animations very well at all. This spinning attack isn’t meant to be parried as he does it but a bit after, towards the end of the animation. When you knock him down with a cinematic, he’ll often get up with an attack that you can parry, leading for an easy loop until his second phase if you know the pattern that he swings in which is the same every single time. These swings do not have hitboxes that line up with where he swings and sometimes where it feels like something should connect, it doesn’t quite do it. Once you get into this second phase, it becomes a bit harder because now he has these lasers on his back that will hurt you when he turns for a spin. Don’t worry though since you can avoid this by standing perfectly still. He also has a laser beam attack he can do which forces you to lose some rings as it happens, meaning you don’t want to let him do this often.

But of course, you can simply get in, cyloop him and then start punching and stomping. He’ll try to retaliate after you cyloop him with this weird janky animation but you can simply parry it and be fine. 

Wyvern:

The Wyvern is a fight that has cool spectacle. You kind of just parry the missile, parry its attacks and then whale on it. It’s an extremely flat and braindead fight that only really has its spectacle to carry it. There really isn’t anything much else to say here except it’s extremely hard to tell when exactly you need to parry its attacks when you’re timing them because the hitboxes both don’t align very well and don’t even really make sense depending on the animation. Good luck trying to parry the missiles with perfect parry in the second phase when you have all this screen pollution going on by the way. This fight blows.

Knight:

Knight is my favorite titan fight in the game and it’s probably the one with the most mechanical depth. You start out the fight by just beating on it. I think what you’re supposed to do is try and cut Knight off as he spins around the arena but I’m not too sure. This is just what works for me. After beating up on him he’ll try to counter attack but much like Giganto you can simply parry this and get back to gaping him. The camera does not function well in this fight and sometimes his counterattacks are really janky and ambiguous or they simply don’t work properly.

Sometimes he’ll put up his shield to defend himself and if you beat on it enough, it’ll initiate a sequence where you ride their shield, avoid missiles and have to hit them in the face with the shield. This is actually a really cool segment but this isn’t exactly how you’re supposed to do the fight. In reality, you need to hit the shield, press R1 to change your lock on to the Knight and then start hitting him again. This is honestly really weird game design to see so late into the game. Rather than the game punishing you and trying to make you test your options if just pressing the button isn’t working, it rewards you with a spectacle segment that you can’t see otherwise which then gives you an opening on the boss.

In the second phase, you’ll need to parry the shield that is flying around the arena and send it towards the Knight. I find this to be a very cute way to make the second phase more interesting and I wish the other titan fights had gimmicks like this as well.

Supreme/The End:

Supreme is a fight that exists. Both versions of Supreme are pushovers that have little to no challenge. I beat the new Supreme on my second try and the original Supreme on my first without even knowing how it works and I’d honestly say my only one loss to the new Supreme was that I didn’t think my rings would just not replenish after the first phase of the fight. Since they made it clear that this wasn’t gonna be leisurely I decided to play the game the way that it had asked me to when doing Master King’s challenge and then this happened.

Absolutely pathetic. It would be really easy for you to see this and say "well you can just choose NOT to do this" but this arguement is anti-game design as hell and super ignorant. If something is this easy to discover and use, it is a flaw on the game design and deserves to be critiqued. Yes, it is true that you can simply not do it, but why does the game allow you to in the first place? If the next Sonic game had a "instantly win the game and unlock everything button" would it be perfectly fine because you can choose to not do it? No, it's insulting to the developers and it's insulting to people who put in the work to actually experience what you've ignored. Games are well crafted experiences where developers vaguely guide you down it without holding your hand too much. Having ways to effectively skip these experiences in extremely easy ways isn't a good thing.

Why did I decide to do this? Well the "punch punch stomp" strategy was literally the only way I was getting through those titan trials. I felt like that was the way that most people were getting through them, so I just assumed Sonic Team knew this and designed around that. That and I had a small pool of rings so I wasn't going to really take my time. So I ended up getting what you saw above. I already knew that cylooping would boost the damage you did but I had absolutely zero idea that it stacked and I have no idea why it would even stack in the first place. I don't really have too much else to say, both fights are easy.

The End, the original from the base game is maybe my favorite part of the game. I don't have a deep explanation on why or anything like that, I just found it really fun and I'm sad that they basically made it the non-canon final boss/ending with this new DLC.

Wrap Up:

There honestly isn’t much else to say about these fights. They’re fairly braindead spectacle driven fights that don’t last long and can be brute forced through with ease. Personally I feel as though the spectacle of a fight should come from not only what the boss can do but what the player is made to do in response to the boss’ actions. But I understand WHY they’re so simple. These are meant to be cathartic moments for the player to have them really feel the power of Super Sonic. I’m perfectly fine with this. The issue is that it’s just not that fun when you have it all figured out. I think part of what makes boss fights great for me personally is the feeling you get when you finally overcome these impossible odds. When the cool cinematic you see works as a reward for your hard work. There’s no hard work here. Just flashing lights and one time thrills. I hope going forward we can get fights that strike a balance of cool but still interactive to where they feel rewarding to beat.

Suggestions To Improve Combat:

So I wanna say this first before I offer up any suggestions or things to think about. I am not a professional game designer and I do not think I know any better than the people in charge. I simply have opinions on what I think could make a more fun gameplay experience. Any design ideas I offer up here have many many ripples on the overall game that I simply just can’t go over every nook and cranny of because when you pop one pimple in the game design hill, many more arise in response. This is just speculative and spitballing.

That out of the way, I think Frontiers needs a more heavy handed “combat mode” for Frontiers. Through being near an enemy and pressing both the bumper buttons, Sonic will enter a locked on state. Pressing the right stick will cause the lock-on to move to whichever direction you inputted the stick in. Pressing the bumpers again will make Sonic exit this lock-on state and resume back to normal gameplay.

In lock-on mode, his movement is restricted to be slower as the camera locks onto whoever he’s locked onto. Pressing R1 makes him put up his guard where he’ll take slight chip damage whenever he blocks an attack. Inputting a direction while having your guard up will cause Sonic to roll in the direction you input. Pressing R1 while moving will automatically initiate a roll with invincibility frames. Pressing one of the face buttons will cause Sonic to do specific parries depending on the button. Speed parry, power parry and replenish parry. These parries have a window of just 5 frames so you’ll generally need to know what you’re doing for max reward with these..

Speed functions like the parry we currently have in the game, allowing Sonic to slow down time in order to beat up on opponents. Power parry will cause an instant kill to an enemy who’s under 20% health through a QTE segment similar to Sonic Unleashed, bosses not included of course. Replenish parry utilizes a new mechanic called the “phantom meter”. There’s a sort of meter system in the game with phantom rush and quick cyloop but I don’t think these add much. Under this new mechanic, Sonic has a secondary meter that he spends in order to use his special attacks. Each attack has a cost that’s relative to its damage. This means now you cannot just mash cross slash because you’ll run out of the resource it needs. You can refill this meter either slowly through attacking the enemy or by using the new replenish parry. By putting your nuts on the line, you’ll gain a significant amount of phantom meter back.

Under this new system, you might’ve realized that defensive cancels are gone. Nonsense! There’s just a new mechanic to sort of emulate what that used to be, Phantom Cancels. For just 10% of your phantom meter, you can cancel any attack instantly so long as it hits an enemy. Into what? Whatever you want. You’re put into a completely actionable state after this. Think of Guilty Gear’s roman cancel system. This now simply prevents enemies from being comboed forever as you will eventually need to end the combo and now you must consider how much meter you burn on cancels.

Is this system perfect? Probably not, there could be a plethora of issues with it but I can’t test these ideas so I won’t know myself. But it should address concerns with combat feeling a bit too braindead. This doesn’t address enemy design since I don’t really want to get into how I’d redesign every enemy to fit under these systems but with a more limited control scheme and more precise control over the character that ignores level stats and customized settings should make a Sonic that’s easier to design around for enemy encounters.

Combat Concerns:

I had a concern when I asked for input on this idea and got told that there shouldn’t be a sort of “combat mode” for the game but I regret to inform them and anyone else worried that the game already does have a combat mode. It’s just automatic. Sonic already gets into a new state where quick steps become dodges and his idle changes so the game already has something like this. I think making a separate mode also helps with navigation since at times when you’re trying to do something in the open zone near an enemy who’s a part of a set piece, you will be forced to attack them. Making a manual mode for attacking and such fixes this issue as well.

Going Forward With Combat:

I don’t really know if I trust Sonic Team with combat going forward. Based on how they addressed difficulty concerns in the final DLC. It seems that their idea for a challenge is just “more harder = more strict, more faster, more stronger” which can contribute to difficulty but when that’s all your challenge really has to offer it shows me that you aren’t really sure how to design a good action challenge. I hope that in the next game, if they return to this combat formula, they can find developers who are a bit more experienced with how action games are supposed to be.

CYBERSPACE:

Oh look, my favorite parts of the game. Kind of. Cyberspace brings a more traditional experience to Sonic Frontiers where you go through stages that are pretty much stages you’ve played before but worse. To keep it brief since I’ve already said so much and there are things I rather talk about that I ought to get to, Cyberspace is rather boring for a majority of the game. For some reason, Sonic’s physics feel awful in both 2D and 3D with him feeling extremely slow in both. I’ve been told that Sonic’s speed in Cyberspace 3D is actually higher and that it’s an FOV difference that’s making it seem slower. I would like to direct you to this comparison.

It was brought to my attention that the Unleashed clip skips the QTE trigger which means Sonic's speed isn't capped but considering that Frontiers has no QTE trigger at all, the comparison still works in my opinion.

Anyways the 2D sections are pretty bad too. They feel abysmally slow and none of the layouts are particularly fun. Making a 2D Sonic game that’s less fun to play than Sonic Rush is an achievement that Sonic Team should probably not be praised for but lowering the bar from the floor to hell is quite impressive in my book. The spindash once again does make some of these issues better but again this isn’t something every player will have or had at the time of playing. The main Cyberspace levels I really do enjoy are the ones that actually take from the Adventure series. I think that Frontiers Sonic controls rather comfortably in Sonic Adventure level layouts and I wished there were more in the game because I had a lot of genuine fun with them. The new levels brought in for the DLC were also ones that I found extremely fun. The DLC just straight up gives you the spindash so you have it for these levels as they’re designed around it.

There’s a lot of ramps to launch yourself from with a plethora of alternate routes to take along with many objectives to do. The only issue is that these stages can feel rather cluttered and like they rely too heavily on the player just flinging themselves around. One level in particular has moon gravity for some reason and while it was cool to fly off for a while, trying to do what the level wanted got kind of slow and boring since it took so long to land. Other levels can just be a pain to navigate because it just becomes hard to know exactly where to go. Other than this though, I found these levels to be quite fun.

WRITING:

For Sonic Frontiers, Ian Flynn was brought on to write the story. You may know Ian from his work on Archie and IDW Sonic comics. He’s sort of held as this golden standard for Sonic writing and while I think that’s absolutely insanely incorrect for the comics, he wrote Frontiers’ character dialogue pretty decently for the most part. I don’t think there are really any large stand out lines to me that come off lazy or bad. At worst it’s just kind of boring. The plot for Frontiers goes as follows. Eggman fucks around some ancient ruins at some unknown island and is trapped in CyberSpace. For plot reasons, the Chaos Emeralds are suddenly at these islands. Sonic and friends follow the signal but are then shot down where they’re all trapped in CyberSpace. Sonic promptly escapes because plot and is deemed “The Key” by a mysterious totally not evil sky voice. He then has to travel through CyberSpace in order to collect keys to unlock Chaos Emerald vaults.

But as it turns out, everytime he goes into CyberSpace, he gets slightly more corrupted.

Why? Because the plot demands drama.

So after Sonic gets all the emeralds, he has to fight a Titan and go off to the next island where he rinses and repeats for a while. Around the latter half, he ends up pretty much dying after the corruption becomes too much to bear and he’s trapped in CyberSpace. His friends then huddle and make a friendship circle to bring him back to life so he can… continue to corrupt himself through interacting with CyberSpace. And then he fights the last Titan and then The End which is an allegory for death. Was the concept of death weaved throughout the narrative in order to make this sort of thing make sense? No. By the way the moon isn’t really a moon. The characters see it as something different. Ignore the fact that this fact is literally never brought up once until the DLC technically and serves no real value.

This plot sure is awesome! The dark era is back!

Character Writing:

For the most part. Sonic feels fine here. He’s not overly wordy or preachy like he is in the comics. His responses are snappy and he has a nice sarcasm to him that I think Roger brings out really well with his new voice performance. Two lines in particular I like are his goal ring joke and his initial response when Tails asks if he’s a burden.

The goal ring one is actually a nice bit of humor that this game really severely lacks where the Tails conversation is just really real. That might be a weird compliment to give a Sonic game because this is a series about brightly colored furries but it just felt like that genuine response you’d get from any real life person who really cares for you. I’ve had these same sorts of interactions with people and Sonic’s response really hits the mark here. But let’s get onto more specifics.

Amy:

Amy is unfortunately probably at her most boring here. She’s my favorite character in the series so it does hurt a bit to say that I didn’t enjoy her here not that much. The reason why I love Amy so much is that she’s not a character with a sort of larger than life character. She’s not some mystical force that goes with the wind or a child super genius or the last of her tribe or a tube baby. She’s just a girl who gets by using her compassion and ability to bring the heart out of characters. She’s compassionate and more down to earth than other characters with a determination and will that pushes her well into the tier with her peers, even being able to keep up with Sonic.

This doesn’t really get to shine here. A lot of her tomboy-ish spunk is gone and she doesn’t really have anyone to bounce off of but Sonic so she’s not really bringing the heart out of anyone really. Her romantic interest in Sonic also seems to not even be mentioned here weirdly enough. She gets set up but she doesn’t get any actual time in the game to really shine. I feel like maybe she should’ve been reserved more towards the end of the game so she could bond with Sage and help her understand love. Part of Amy’s character here is that she wants to share her love with the world and it feels weird that the character who needed that the most, Sage, wasn’t given any from her. This could’ve been a great moment to help humanize her as she began to warm up to others and realize her emotions. Alas, we don’t get that so fuck it I guess.

Knuckles:

I really enjoy Knuckles’ character in this. His story is about him feeling alone knowing that he’s the last of his kind and he’s doomed to just guard the master emerald. While I did say I enjoy Knuckles in this game, it’s not because of his story. A complaint that I have with this game’s writing is that they’ll sort of create issues that just aren’t there. Knuckles is the guardian of the master emerald, yes, but it’s not like he was missing out on game appearances because he had to be there so this arc feels kinda out of nowhere.

Knuckles has basically not missed a single adventure since his introduction in the series apart from Unleashed and I think Colors? It feels weird to make an arc around this when it wasn’t an issue before so why would it be an issue now? He made time for a hoverboard competition and sees Rouge often enough to get her flowers but he’s really alone, right? There’s also some parts where he feels sentimental about the island due to it being linked to him and his people, which is an alright idea in concept but it’s hard to care with how much we already don’t care about the ancients.

 Knuckles has fun dialogue with Sonic and their friendship feels genuine, but outside of that I can’t help but feel like this just wasn’t that great of a direction for him. 

Tails:

Tails is another example of this story kinda presenting solutions to issues that aren’t there. In Frontiers, his character arc is that he feels as though he’s a burden to Sonic. While I think the actual dialogue in this is well written, I can’t get behind why this happened. A few things in this story really seem to bend to the will of the fanbase for better or for worse which I’ll go over later but as it pertains to Tails, it’s for the worse. Tails says that “Whenever there's a crisis I'm either running away or standing on the sidelines! You're always rescuing me when all I do is follow you around!” which is just… does this count as character assassination? Tails saved Sonic’s life, he saved Station Square, he fought Chaos, he helped take down Metal Overlord, he built the Extreme Gear that his team uses in Riders, he was a key player in 06 when Sonic died, he was helping Sonic get around the globe in Unleashed, he was the one who built the god damn translator for the wisps.

Tails is REALLY important and he KNOWS he’s important. He had this same exact arc back in Adventure 1. He even got a bit of a complex in Colors and Lost World about just how smart he is and honestly he’s not even wrong for that. But because he had this one weird slip up in Forces that people would not shut up about I guess Ian felt it was necessary to give a little “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again”. It blows. I can’t really say much outside of that since that more or less just is Tails in this game unfortunately.

Sage:

Sage man. Sage is a character archetype that I enjoy very much, which are characters who learn to be human, so it disappoints me a lot that Sage’s first appearance did her pretty badly. Sage not telling Sonic what’s going on honestly felt kind of contrived. She constantly states that Sonic is the enemy and that she’s not supposed to help him while also going out of her way to protect his friends and even him by just telling him to get lost. She trapped them in Cyber Space so whenever The End got out, they would be safe. It can be assumed she tried to do the same for Sonic also but he broke out because plot.

So for the rest of the game Sage is more or less just probing Sonic for no real reason while trying to make him leave the island. The reason this bothers me is because I can’t quite grasp why she would want this. Just like hear me out. Sage notices that there’s something wrong with the island. She then traps Eggman in CyberSpace to protect him from it. But later in the game she notes that there’s something that’s trying to get out of CyberSpace. So why would she lock him in there? She’s also given the task to get Eggman out of CyberSpace but barely makes mention of the fact that she locked him in there to protect him.

But she’s also trying to prevent Sonic from letting his friends out which would in turn let Eggman out which would... accomplish what she’s trying to do. What is her goal? Also just a side thing but it’s weird because Knuckles, Amy and Tails are somehow trapped between CyberSpace and reality but Eggman seems to be fully there. Sonic was told that his memories form Cyber Space and the reason he could get out was due to just sort of “following his memories”, but if that’s the case why couldn’t Eggman do the same and why do they literally share a memory of a place neither of them have been to?

Anyways, back to Sage. Sage’s motivation sucks, her plan makes no sense and she doesn’t really add anything to the story. The worst cutscene in the game also belongs to her. I can’t believe they really gave Sage and Eggman ZERO scenes to truly show their bond and then gave her a flashback scene of her reflecting on their time together. It’s just fucking scenes of him yapping off to her about getting him out of CyberSpace as they just stand around statically as if the game had zero animation budget.

Overall Writing:

Man the writing here just… isn’t great. It’s super contrived, character arcs either feel like they’re pandering, are misplaced or just unfulfilled. The concept of death is barely present in the story. Sure, the ancients died but like… it isn’t really used in an interesting way. The End is kind of like “oh I killed the ancients and now I’m gonna kill YOU” but for what purpose? The End is so sudden and out of nowhere that characters don’t even have time to process that it’s coming. You could say that the fact it just appears adds to how much like death in life, it happens randomly and unpredictably. But all sorts of deities just sort of randomly appear in Sonic so I don’t really know. The End ends up being as much of a symbol for death as something like Biolizard, i.e not at all. The connection wouldn’t really even be there if not for there being a statement in a stream saying so.

Supposed translation of this livestream.

Ironically, another game starring a moon uses the concept of death to much greater effect, that game being Majora’s Mask. Majora has imminent death linger over you for the entire game. You see how it affects people and even affects you as you play through it. Even Sonic Unleashed, a game that isn’t really even about death, has moments where you see people try to triumph over their despair of everything going to shit with a sort of unbreakable optimism. Sonic’s main highlight in that game being his unbreakable will and inability to give up.

This isn’t to say that Frontiers doesn’t have good points or that that unbreakable will isn’t there of course. One of the best scenes in the game is from Sonic being on his deathbed and feeling the full force of the cyber corruption. He limps onward, barely able to walk. Sage appears to ask him why he persists despite every sign saying not to, to which he gives a deep breath, smirks and continues pushing on. That is a great scene. He doesn’t give some wordy response, he doesn’t beat her over the head with his morals, he just remembers his friends and that’s enough to push him through.

I also feel like Sonic’s final line before battling The End was also good… even if it doesn’t make sense in context.

“He took your home world... He took your lives... Are you going to let him do it all over again?! I need your help. We can end this! Please!!”

Who’s he saying this to? Absolutely nobody. But it’s still a nice line. The DLC does revamp the ending but it feels more like something someone would write to try and fix the story more than anything else. It’s crammed with all sorts of things that don’t really add anything to the story and feels more like they tried to band-aid fix what people saw wrong with the original ending. A complaint people had with the game was that Sonic didn’t actually get a new cyber form akin to how he used to get exclusive forms for the storybook games. So they decided to give him a new form through learning to control his cyber corruption by proving himself through trials given to him by the ancients.

That’s cool and all but… how? I’m not trying to be nitpicky or whatever but surely I’m not the only one curious as to how a corruption that is given to you through interacting with CyberSpace can somehow be harnessed into a power and even a new form. But whatever, at least we get a cool new form– …and it’s just Super Sonic with blue eyes while the more unique design is used only for a cutscene. Godspeed, Sonic Team.

Another complaint was that the other characters weren’t involved as much so they got hammered in. I guess I should talk about the pilots of the titans but there isn’t really anything to say. They existed and they got washed by The End. None of them really have any character depth. They don’t really add much but they sure are there.

Overall, the narrative of Frontiers feels like a mess that tries too hard to address issues that fans had without realizing that fans honestly don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about sometimes. Ironically I feel like listening to them and jumbo-stuffing the ending didn’t really help it out much. I heavily prefer the original ending, Sage’s sacrifice was a great way to conclude her arc even if her character was poorly done. It felt more emotional and a bit less like bullshit plot armor or convenience coming through to give fan service. The shmup was also great. It’s a good ending.

If the writing section of this feels messy, that’s because I had a lot of thoughts about Frontiers’ writing but I quite struggled with putting them down. There’s so much to talk about with so many threads you can go on to really question the choices made but I just can’t do it all. From how weirdly unexplained CyberSpace is, to why the Ancients look the way they do, to why the emeralds just magically appeared at the islands… There’s just a lot to cover. Hopefully this wasn’t too incomprehensible. If it was, sorry.

QUICK POINT RAPID FIRE:

There’s some stuff I wanna mention here but they’re kinda like loose leaf notes so here’s just a quick rapid fire of some takes I wanna throw out.

It Sounds Nice:

The music in Frontiers ranges from fine to fantastic. While the start of Kronos and pacing of the music was phenomenal, I cannot remember a grand majority of the open zone tracks outside of their final more triumphant versions. While I appreciate the ambition to create like 7 different orchestral tracks for each phase of the island, I can't help but feel like it wasn’t fully worth it considering many of them are just alright. The CyberSpace tracks are also alright mostly. A large amount of them aren’t too amazing and they feel rather detached to the stages they’re applied to. They became much much better in the DLC.No opinion on the new character themes in the DLC. It is okay. The Titan music is fantastic, zero complaints. 

Pretty Lights:

The lighting in this game is marvelous. I genuinely love how the CyberSpace stages look and Frontiers has some genuinely beautiful landscapes. The VFX work here is also amazing. They didn’t skip out on making sure these effects looked as good as possible. The cutscene animation is more static but the camera angles are a lot more dynamic than usual which helps with keeping the scenes looking interesting even if movement is minimal. The dynamic camera angles in combat are also quite nice but I can’t help but feel like Sonic Team didn’t utilize foreshortening and forced perspective quite as much as they could’ve. The Titan fight cinematics in general could’ve been improved had they been more dynamic and striking.

Is That Fur Genuine?:

Sonic and his stupid friends look good. Well, their textures look good. The model quality still isn’t very great but I’m at least glad the fur is back to the same quality as SA1. It’s nice. Heres to hoping they give us an actual good model in the next game because Sonic Team can clearly fucking do it.

Shinji Frontiers:

The voice direction here is nice. I think everyone did a very good job. I’m happy to see Roger finally start to get his roses because he does great with his Sonic voice.

Creaky:

The bed creak sample is used in the alternative Tower theme. I just find this kinda funny.

WRAP UP:

So that’s Sonic Frontiers. A very confused and messy collect-a-thon that doesn’t really succeed at much of anything. Its open zones feel half baked and like a game that’s far too late to the collect-a-thon party, the combat feels like a first draft, the writing is a mess and only makes itself messier with time and its more Sonic elements suck at being that. So what is good here? Uhhh– A lot of small stuff. Notably the movement. Probably some of the best movement that Sonic has ever had in a 3D space. This isn’t to say everything else sucks, this isn’t a broken unplayable game, but it’s a very polarizing one, at least to me.

My title for this review was calling it the "most important Sonic game ever made" and that's not really just clickbait. Frontiers is the most experimental game this series has ever seen I think. There's just so much added to it and so much being tried that there's legit so many possible directions to take after this and I think it will end up being the most influential game in the series. This is a turning point for better or worse. Whether Sonic Team gets their act together and does something great with it or we're sentenced to more mediocrity is up in the air.

Personally, I'm on the side of cautious optimism, but I do hope the best for the blue bastard going forward.

[pronouncingitwang]

[ID: 8 screenshots of text with some highlighted sentences.

When I was in junior high, a new girl came to our school. I had never seen anyone as smart, beautiful or amazing. We awkwardly “went steady,” but it didn’t last. At our 30th high school reunion, I asked her how she remembered our connection. She answered with the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me: “I have a 13-year-old daughter, and someday she is going to ask me what it means to be in love with a boy. I am going to begin by telling her about you.” – Geoff Badenoch, 71, Missoula, Mont.

On the Second Avenue bus in 1981, during my last year of law school, I made eye contact with a handsome man about my age. We spent the rest of the long ride taking not-so-discreet glances at one another. When I got off at my stop at 34th Street, he waved goodbye sadly. The next week, there was a personal notice on the last page of The Village Voice that read, “Second Avenue bus, 34th Street, you got off, I waved. Call me.” I never did, and I regret it. – Marybeth Kass, 69, Holyoke, Mass.

I was a shy late bloomer, and my high school boyfriend helped me open up. I was hellbent on leaving our small southern Indiana town, and he had to stay for family reasons. While I was attending college in Chicago and dating someone new, I wished my ex a happy birthday. He asked to connect and catch up, but I didn’t reply. Two days later, he died in a car wreck. I’d give anything to reconnect and play the “what if” game with him. Instead I play it with his ghost. – Mary Jeanette Ennis, 28, New York City

He was my roommate in the Navy. We did everything together and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company. I knew he was gay, but didn’t really know I was for another 10 years. I still think of him often. I tried once to find him, but his name is too common. I think we would have had a wonderful life together. – Ronald Babb, 72, Tacoma, Wash.

She was the first woman I was head over heels in love with — but she was straight, so we became best friends instead of lovers. It was only after I married my partner years later that she told me she’d harbored a crush the whole time. – Quinn Blais, 26, Baltimore

My first month studying abroad in England, I met a handsome guy from Devon who was studying to be an architect. It was love at first sight. On the last night we spent together, before I was to return to the United States, he said he thought he was falling in love with me. During the flight home, I couldn’t stop crying. We never saw each other again. To this day, I think of him as the love of my life. I wish I had followed my heart and never gotten on that plane. – Jeanne Hartig, 74, Pittsburgh, Pa.

I was working at a library during university and felt an unexpected spark with a French exchange student. After my shift, I offered him a ride home. I studied French, so we had a dynamic conversation. We spent the night together before he left for France. We tried emailing, but as the months rolled on, I began to date someone else. Around three years ago — 24 years after our first meeting — I saw his name pop up on LinkedIn. I was traveling to Paris, and we made a plan to meet up. We had changed so much, but I never forgot his eyes. The night flew by. We joked that we’ll have to meet again when we’re in our 70s. – Lisa, 48, Toronto

We met while studying abroad in Australia, living together for two months in a big house with other wildlife researchers. Lying in the tall grass, we exchanged stories about our lives until it felt like we’d always known each other. Once the semester was over, I visited him in New York, but neither of us wanted a long-distance relationship. A few years later, I invited him to join me on a road trip. When we finally arrived in San Francisco, his parents invited us for dinner. I felt immediately at home but wondered if I would ever see them again. He came into my life once more in 2022. He was driving across the country and asked if he could sleep on my couch for a few days. This time I didn’t let him go. We’re getting married in July. – Tess Kendrick, 27, Denver

/end ID]

New York Times, The One Who Got Away

[yourlittlegoblin]

{Experiment Gone Awry} Dottore x Reader

Hello hoes today I have decided to feet your sad asses <3

You had made up your mind. Today, you would be a nuisance. And who better to bother than Dottore?

A smirk played at your lips as you approached his lab, the metallic scent of chemicals and sterilization thick in the air. The rhythmic clinking of glassware and the low hum of machinery filled the dimly lit room, an atmosphere of carefully controlled chaos. Dottore stood at the center of it, his back to you, engrossed in some experiment. The soft glow of a bubbling vial illuminated his sharp features, casting long shadows across the walls.

He didn’t look up when you entered, but you knew he was aware of your presence. He always was.

"Dottore," you began, stepping closer. "Teach me how to conduct an experiment."

A sharp chuckle escaped him, a sound that sent a strange thrill down your spine. "Oh? Since when did you develop an interest in my work?" He turned slightly, his mask obscuring part of his face, but his red eyes gleamed with amusement. "Or is this just another one of your little games?"

"Maybe," you admitted with a shrug. "Or maybe I’m just curious."

He tilted his head, considering you. You could tell he was torn between irritation and intrigue. After all, someone as delicate as you had no place in his laboratory. And yet—

"Fine," he said at last, setting down the vial with a decisive clink. "But don’t expect me to simplify things for you. If you want to learn, you’ll learn properly."

Excitement bubbled in your chest, but you masked it with a nonchalant smile. "Of course."

He led you to one of the lab stations, gesturing for you to stand beside him. His gloved hands moved with practiced precision as he began setting up the materials. "We’ll start with something simple," he mused. "A reaction between two compounds to observe an exothermic reaction. If done incorrectly, it could result in… unfortunate consequences."

You swallowed, watching as he carefully measured out a clear liquid into a glass container. "Unfortunate how?"

His smirk widened. "Let’s just say the last assistant who got it wrong had to be scraped off the walls."

You shot him a glare, but he merely chuckled, thoroughly enjoying your unease. "Relax," he drawled, placing a hand on your wrist, guiding your fingers to hold the dropper correctly. "I won’t let you blow yourself up."

Despite yourself, you found your breath hitching slightly at his proximity. His presence was intense, suffocating in the best way. You forced yourself to focus, carefully adding the second reagent to the mixture. Immediately, the liquid began to shift colors, a deep crimson swirling into the glass like tendrils of smoke trapped beneath the surface. Heat radiated from the reaction, though it remained contained.

"Well done," Dottore murmured, a note of genuine approval in his voice. "You followed instructions. That’s more than I can say for most."

You turned to look at him, meeting his gaze through the mask. "You sound surprised."

"I am." His fingers brushed against yours as he adjusted the position of the beaker. "Perhaps there’s more potential in you than I initially thought."

Your heart pounded for reasons entirely unrelated to science. But before you could respond, he leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a near whisper. "Careful, though. The more you involve yourself in my work… the harder it will be to pull away."

A shiver ran down your spine, but whether it was from fear or anticipation, you weren’t entirely sure.

Still, as you stared into the depths of the crimson liquid, you couldn’t help but think that perhaps… you didn’t want to pull away at all.

Still, as you stared into the depths of the crimson liquid, you couldn’t help but think that perhaps… you didn’t want to pull away at all.

So, with barely a second thought, you reached for the next ingredient, tipping it into the beaker.

The reaction was instant.

A violent hiss erupted from the glass, followed by a deafening boom.

The explosion wasn’t catastrophic—at least, not in the sense that it burned the entire lab down. But it was loud. And messy.

A thick, neon-green smoke billowed from the beaker, curling into the air like eerie ghostly tendrils before dissipating. The impact had knocked over several vials, sending glass skittering across the table, and the sticky, iridescent liquid now dripped from the ceiling like some otherworldly sludge.

You coughed, waving a hand in front of your face, your goggles slightly askew. “Okay,” you croaked, glancing at the disaster zone before turning to him, “so, maybe that wasn’t exactly the right ingredient.”

His expression was unreadable behind the tinted goggles, but the way his jaw tensed, the slight twitch of his gloved fingers on your waist, told you he was not amused. A thick glob of glowing green goop dripped onto his shoulder, sliding down the sleeve of his pristine coat. He exhaled sharply through his nose.

“Not exactly?” His voice was flat, but there was an edge of exasperation lurking beneath it.

You grinned sheepishly, peeling off your goggles and inspecting the damage. The table was a mess. Your notes were soaked. The beaker was ruined. But, on the bright side—“Hey, at least we didn’t die?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose beneath the goggles. “That’s the bare minimum of a successful experiment.”

“Exactly! And we met it.” You patted his shoulder reassuringly, but it only left a sticky green handprint on his coat.

His head turned slowly to stare at the stain, and you swore you could feel the judgment radiating off him.

“…Get off.”

You blinked. “Excuse me?”

He huffed, his gloved hands suddenly gripping your waist—firm, impatient, irritated—and before you could protest, he lifted you off his lap and plopped you unceremoniously onto the table, right in the middle of the mess.

You gasped, feeling the cold sludge seep into your sleeves. “Hey!”

“That’s what you get,” he said dryly, finally peeling off his own goggles and fixing you with a pointed look. His sharp eyes gleamed, the faintest hint of amusement lurking beneath the irritation.

You huffed, crossing your arms despite the mess. “So dramatic.”

“Says the one who nearly blew us up.”

“Nearly is the key word here.”

He sighed, shaking his head as he peeled off his gloves. “You’re impossible.”

“And yet, you still let me help you.” You smirked, tilting your head. “What does that say about you?”

He stilled, lips pressing into a thin line. Then, without a word, he reached over and flicked a glob of green sludge onto your nose.

Your mouth fell open in outrage. “Oh, you’re dead—”

And just like that, the lab turned into a full-blown war zone of playful retaliation, smears of failed-experiment goop flying as both of you abandoned all pretense of professionalism.

Science could wait. Right now, you had a score to settle.

And then—chaos.

A sharp pain pricked your skin as tiny shards of glass embedded themselves in your arms. The force of the blast sent you stumbling back, knocking over a tray of instruments in the process. Smoke coiled through the air, thick and acrid, burning your throat as you coughed.

Somewhere through the haze, you heard him curse. Strong hands grasped your shoulders, steadying you. “Are you hurt?” His voice was sharper than usual, edged with something close to panic.

You blinked up at him, dazed. “I think I—”

His gaze dropped to your arm, where thin streaks of red had begun to bloom against your skin. His jaw tightened. Without another word, he grabbed your wrist and pulled you toward the nearest counter.

You sat there, legs swinging slightly, watching as he worked with meticulous precision—his brows furrowed, lips pressed into a firm line as he plucked out each tiny shard of glass with tweezers.

“You are absolutely reckless,” he muttered, pausing only to dip a cloth into antiseptic. “Who just throws ingredients into an experiment without double-checking?”

You winced slightly as the cold disinfectant met your skin. “I didn’t throw it—”

He shot you a glare, unimpressed. “You may as well have.”

You bit your lip, knowing better than to argue when he got like this. Instead, you watched him work, the warmth of his hands oddly soothing despite his sharp words. He wrapped a bandage around your wrist, tying it off with a practiced ease before leaning down and pressing a soft kiss over it.

Your breath hitched slightly, but he didn’t acknowledge it—just moved to your next wound, dabbing at a scrape on your elbow.

“I swear, you act like you’re invincible sometimes,” he continued, voice quieter now, more controlled. He placed another bandage over the scrape, smoothing it down with his fingers before pressing another kiss there, just as gentle.

You swallowed, eyes flickering to his. “It’s not like I meant to get hurt.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “That’s not the point.” His hands found your knee next, where a small gash had formed just beneath the fabric of your torn clothing. He was softer with this one, almost hesitant, before bandaging it up with the same care. Another kiss followed, his lips lingering just a little longer this time.

A warmth spread through your chest, something dangerously close to fondness curling around your ribs. “You know,” you murmured, tilting your head, “for someone who scolds me so much, you sure are awfully gentle.”

He paused, hands still resting against your knee. His gaze flickered up to meet yours, unreadable for a moment, before he exhaled softly.

“You drive me insane,” he admitted, pressing one final kiss to your forehead. “But I’d rather patch you up a thousand times over than not have you here at all.”

Your heart stumbled over itself, and for once, you found yourself at a loss for words.

But that was fine.

Because, for now, the silence between you felt enough.

[frogtanii]

“hi everyone,” you gave your webcam a half hearted wave, noting the flood of inquisitive comments at your demeanor.

ynismymommy: omg queen r u ok??????

emilia.95: Have you been sleeping?

atsumus-leftballsack: bestie imma need you to invest in some concealer

a giggle pried it’s way up your throat, despite your attempts to stop it as you read the comments. yes, you were fully aware that you looked like shit however, you just weren’t expecting the viewers of your stream to be so... observant.

“holy shit guys, i’m okay,” you attempted to placate your vicious audience by giving them a (forced) smile and a small chuckle. “let’s just play, okay?”

you loaded up your game of choice (call of duty — you had a lot of aggression to work off) while making idle chatter with your fanbase. they seemed to have dropped conversation about your heavy eye bags and low enthusiasm in favor of more lighthearted topics.

just as you were starting to get into it, a knock sounded at your door. at first, you were tempted to ignore it but after a few moments of silence, the knocking started up again, more incessantly. your comments started to go wild, wondering who exactly was banging on your door at like 11p.

bokutos.bahamamommamilkers: tell whoever is @ the door to fuck off

shartyba3_420: damn slam me yn like [redacted] is slamming on that door

Greg_72: Hey, you can go answer that! We’ll wait <3

you apologize quickly before removing your headphones and scurrying over to the door. swinging it wide open, you’re met with bokuto.

and what a sight he is.

once bright, golden eyes were now dull and void, accompanied by dark circles that rivaled your own while his usually sunny visage was dampened by this metaphorical dark cloud that was hanging above him.

in other words, he looked like shit.

the both of you must look like quite a pair — you in your ratty, oversized hoodie and red sweats and him in his white t shirt and flannel pajama pants. after giving him another glance over, you repressed the urge to pull him into your room and into a hug, instead choosing to wrap your arms around yourself tightly.

“um, hey bo,” you started, unable to keep your eyes on his face. “i’m really sorry but i’m streaming right now. maybe we can hang out later?”

bokuto shook his head no, and your heart began to sink. you were just so tired and you didn’t have the energy to entertain or comfort the man at the moment without letting another piece of yourself crumble but you knew you didn’t have the heart to turn him away.

resigning yourself to your fate, you stepped to the side to let him into your room, making a mental note to shield him from your webcam while you brought him to lie on your bed.

to your complete and utter surprise, bokuto did not move, shaking his head no again before moving to grab something just out of your sight behind your doorway.

you were now thoroughly intrigued, shuffling closer to peek into the hallway, only to be stopped by a box being thrusted into your hands. you looked over the colorfully painted cardboard but it gave you no indication as to what was on the inside and glancing at kotarou gave you no help whatsoever.

“what’s this?” you voiced your confusion while weighing the box in your hands, the confusion only amplifying when you discover the box is suspiciously light. you’re shaken from your investigation when bokuto throws another object in your hands, this one significantly heavier.

looking up at him, you’re taken aback by the emotion swirling in his irises, his mouth finally parting to speak. “i’m so sorry,” kotarou’s voice, while gravelly from disuse, was sincere, a slight quiver being found underlying his words. “i- i know i never said it but i just want you to know that i-i care about you and that i am so sorry for ever hurting you and making you feel like you were less than. y-you’ve helped me become myself again a-and i can never thank you enough.”

a shuddering breath left his chest as he trained his eyes on the ceiling before looking back at you with watery eyes. “you don’t have to forgive me. i-i’d understand.” you opened your mouth to respond, to rebut, but you were cut off by his strong arms, wrapping you up in a tight hug.

you couldn’t keep yourself from melting into his hold, a small ounce of stress leaving your body at his words but the bulk of it remaining. he’s just apologizing because you’re the only girl who’s shown him an ounce of kindness, the voice in the back of your head whispered.

as bokuto pulled you in tighter, you stiffened, the voice getting louder and more constant. the man holding you didn’t miss the way you tensed and hesitantly removed himself from you, his hurt written plain all over his face.

kotarou gave you a weak smile and another gentle apology before turning and leaving for his room. you already felt guilt creeping up your spine for not holding him the way you thought you should but you quickly pushed the feeling down, knowing that you wouldn’t have gotten the rest you deserved if you’d done so.

letting out a deep sigh, you shut your door and moved back to continue your stream, not before gently setting down the 2 colorfully decorated boxes on the bed, a small smile creeping across your face at the sight of the gifts.

your stream ended pretty shortly after, your mind unable to focus on the game — it was getting borderline embarrassing how often you were dying to the point you were worried your sponsors would pull out of supporting you.

with a soft smile and goodbye, you collapsed on your bed, mindful not to crush the boxes. while you were extremely exhausted, you knew you wouldn’t be able to go to sleep without examining your gifts’ contents.

you decided to open the heavier box first which yielded bag after bag of your favorite chips, candies, and drinks. you knew your mouth was gaping unattractively but you couldn’t help it. this was... way too much.

at the bottom of the box was a small note, written in bokuto’s somehow endearing chicken scratch. it read, “hi yn!!!! this is for when you get hungry :) i know i didn’t let you eat any of my snacks for a long time so i thought it would be nice if i bought some for you!!!!! i hope i got these all right :( i asked atsumu for help!!!”

a choked chuckle escaped your lips and it only amplified as you continued to the end of the note. “p.s. don’t worry about not finishing it all!!! i can always help you ;) p.p.s. also you’re so pretty!!!! don’t not eat it because you don’t think so too <3”

wiping your eyes that had become suspiciously misty, you set down the slip of paper and reached for the second box.

you couldn’t keep the gasp from coming from you as the cardboard overflowed with tiny slips of paper. with shaky hands, you unfolded the first paper, the tears overflowing over your lashline before you could stop them.

you are loved :) - akaashi

“fuck,” you whispered, swiping at your face before clumsily reaching for another, and then another, each note making you cry harder than the last.

you are beautiful!!!!! never change!! - bokuto!!!

you’re really cool - kenma

you are so kind and i owe you the world - sugawara :)

you’re sympathetic, observant, and intelligent. - sakusa.

you are patient (even when we don’t deserve it) - kuroo

yer my angel <3 - tsum tsum

there were a ton more but you promised yourself you’d read them all later, your emotions getting the better of you. you’d rather not wake up with puffy, swollen eyes and a headache so you decided it would be best to close the box and finish it all later.

laying back on your bed, you expelled a deep breath of air, not realizing just how tense you were. you’d been living on edge with the guys for at least a month now and it was really starting to wear on you.

without being able to fully trust them, you knew it wouldn’t be long until you crumbled under the pressure.

you glanced at your phone before sighing again (it really was that kind of day, wasn’t it). maybe it was about time to give dr yamada a long awaited call.

℗ poker face

you are loved :)

series masterlist

(●’◡’●)ﾉ

an - ooweee first single apology down, 4 more to go!!! also the box of papers came from everyone (obv) but they still gotta give their individual apologies hehe which shall come in the future <33 sorry this took so long KSJD i hope u enjoy!!! don’t forget to feed me <333

taglist - if your name is in bold, i cannot tag you

@boosyboo9206 • @geektastic84 • @elianetsantana • @trashy-simp • @infinitebells • @6mattsun9 • @suhkusa • @sazunari • @kotarosbabygirl • @fucktheworlddude • @insomniacwreck • @calumsfringe • @saltylettuce • @chai-blu • @al3x1ss • @hawksyoongi • @syndellwins • @jooleuuh • @amberalisa • @kissungjae • @liberhoe • @tetsurocore • @animeoverdosee • @duhsies • @saikishairclip • @afire24 • @premiyagi • @kit-kat428 • @doctorspencereid • @daphnxy • @kyomihann • @maer-333 • @sinoflust19 • @peteunderoos • @peachiikichu • @iidanotlida • @yongboxerrr • @kac-chowsballs • @tanakaslastbraincell • @memorableminds • @risjime • @starry-magicshop • @sugavwara • @smuttyanimeslut • @kiwibirbs-library • @haijkk • @airybnb • @crybabygumi • @iwaisa • @decaffinatedtealover • @notameera • @kawaii-angelanne • @rintarovibes • @urlocalsimp

the rest of the tags will be in the replies!!

[burnedbyshoto]

the bodyguard

— Kirishima gets assigned to be the bodyguard to one of the worlds greatest idols: you. —

⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆

pairing: bodyguard!kirishima eijirou x idol!reader

warnings: nsfw, 18+, brat taming, authority kink, spanking, blowjob, slapping, choking, brat taming, brat!reader, modern!au, no quirks, bodyguard!kirishima, idol!reader, PTSD portrayal, anxiety, war flashbacks, implied minor character death, drugging, alcohol consumption, size difference: kirishima is 2 feet taller than you, regardless of the reader’s original height. If you’re 6 ft congrats he’s 8 ft.

word count: 20,500

a/n: this is for the bnharem collab.... im so sorry, it’s 4:30 am and I have a plane to catch in 2 hours to get back to school. thank you jo for proofreading this for me because lol I am a mess. if the paragraph spacing did not work as I wish it does, please let me know so I can go in and edit in visible paragraph spacers!

⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆

“I’ll be okay.”

The smell of dirt, sweat, and blood clung to the air.

The sun was setting, its blood-red shine illuminating against the destroyed earth, making the already bloodied soil even bloodier. 

There was no telling if the land was quiet, if the reason why the world's silence was because the world just for this moment had gone silent, or if the earlier explosions were still ringing in his ears.

Kirishima sat wounded, his back pressed to the wall, his eyes wide, breathing erratic. He can’t move, can’t bother picking up the gun that lays abandoned by his knee as warm, sticky liquid spills onto his clothed knees and continues to soak the fabric of his jeans.

What had he done?

What in the fucking world had he done?!

BOOM!

Kirishima stills, his eyes stilling on the floor and looking at the clear moisture. He doesn’t need to touch his face to know it’s a combination of both sweat and tears. 

His ears sing with white noise, the erratic beat of his heart, and his pained breathing.

“I’ll be okay,” the ghost taunts his mind.

But I’m not okay, Kirishima tries to speak, but knows with how his tongue is sitting like a thick dried sponge in his mouth, he won’t be able to speak. Pushing off the cold floor, flops onto his back, his arm flinging over his closed, shaken eyes until the ringing in his ear disappears into his alarm clock. 

05:30.

Kirishima lays there for a bit more, his chest still heaving heavily with the weight of lead.

Inhale.

Hold.

Exhale.

Better?

No, not yet.

Kirishima runs through breathing exercises, his chest never stopping in it’s hiccuped, broken pants as his memories continue to haunt his mind. If only he was smarter, more observant, better.

“Time to get up, time to get up, time to get up,” his phone screams with his second alarm set at 06:45. The sound does what it’s intended, jolting Kirishima out of his own head. His labored breathing shallowing just enough for his lungs to finally grasp ahold of its required function.

Today was an important day for him; he needed to be on his tiptop game, according to what Toshinori said yesterday.

I’m okay, he convinced himself as he does every morning after having this dream. Kirishima flings his arm off his eyes, the morning purple sun shining softly through his blinds. I’m okay.

Date: 4/2 Time: 08:00 Location: UA Services

“And in other news, music industries princess Y/n has been attacked by yet another round of masked perpetrators. Fortunately for the music idol, she was left unhurt but was clearly rattled. This is but the fourth attack on Y/n since three weeks ago. It’s leaving many of us fans, spectators, and civilians wondering just what is being done to ensure her safety? Y/n is reported to not have a single bodyguard to her name, wanting to quote-on-quote ‘experience her fans to the fullest’, but with these recent attacks, we can’t help but hope something is done. At least until something is done about these attackers—”

Kirishima’s eyes tore away from the screen, his lips pressed into a deep frown as he took in the story. There was deep worry about it, not only because he hated the idea of people getting hurt, but because he was a big fan of yours.

Your debut album had come out during his training camp for the military. Not only was it an instant billboard smasher breaking every standing record, but his commanding officers were obsessed with the album and played it continuously until they graduated. Most of Kirishima’s comrades came to dislike your music solely because they remember throwing up, bleeding, and suffering while you sang about love and whatnot, but Kirishima? Kirishima fell in love.

It was a bright spot in his life, and he was grateful for your music, even if it has been ten years and six albums since the training camp.

“Yo, Kiri!” a voice cheered out happily as a hand clasped onto his shoulder from behind. Kirishima held the flinch that threatened to rip through his bones. Kirishima turned to find Kaminari grinning up at him, a cup of steaming tea in one hand as he grinned brightly at his coworker. “I heard you’re finally getting a good case today!”

Kirishima found himself relaxing at the sight of his rather spontaneous friend, a warm smile easing onto his face as he raised his fist for a greeting fist bump.

“We’ll see, I know Toshi’ said it was going to be important, but he also said escorting the paranoid old lady was important,” Kirishima sighed, his smile softening a bit.

Kaminari laughed, his arm slinging around Kirishima’s shoulders as he remembered that.

The little old lady was sure that the government was out to kill her and wanted protection until her son returned from his vacation. Needless to say, Kirishima had thoroughly enjoyed his time with her, even if she was a bit scary. It was a low-risk job, and he only was paranoid by her cane, which she used to thwack his back many times as she talked about how plums extended your life.

“God, I remember subbing in for you for one hour because of your family emergency, and she was so scary! She still haunts my nightmares!” Kaminari shudders, placing the cup of his tea to his lip and taking a long, slow drink. His eyes shift over to the TV, which is still broadcasting the story of your attack. “What a bunch of bastards,” he growls, eyebrows scrunching as the news reporter ends the segment. “Thinking they can go after such a beautiful and talented idol… I’ll kill them.”

Kirishima was more than well aware of Kaminari’s plentiful budding romances. The blond man fell in love with just about any smiling woman who happened to waltz in front of him. Still, unlike most times, he found himself agreeing with him.

“It sounds really serious. I hope that she really considers some type of security team,” Kirishima inputs too, taking the teacup in his fingers with a nod of thanks. “There’re too many weirdos in Japan and in the world, I wouldn’t want to hear the news the day something bad happens.”

Kaminari hums, his face nearing Kirishima’s as he takes a small sip of the apparently black tea. His eyes scrunch, and Kirishima smiles awkwardly as the blond studies him intently.

“W-Wha—”

“You like Y/n!” Kaminari exclaims (accuses, maybe?), his arm leaving Kirishima’s shoulders as he points a finger accusingly at him. “I thought I was the only one in this department who did!”

“Don’t be an idiot, Denki,” the familiar voice of Sero responds for Kirishima. “Everyone in the world is in love with Y/n; she was voted the favorite artist of the year in our company. Everyone but Bakugou voted for her if I remember correctly.”

Kirishima looks over at his black-haired friend who is rummaging through his locker, his mouth curved into an easy, teasing smile as he looks between the bashful Kaminari and sneering Bakugou, who also seemed to just walk in.

“Her shit is basic and overrated,” Bakugou defended himself. “Nothing special and bad for your brain and ears.”

“Your go-to music playlist is fifty percent death metal and alt. rock. I don’t think you have ground to say that it’s bad for your brain and ears,” Midoriya’s snicker sounded from behind Kirishima, and he looked around to see the freckled man grinning at the snarling ash blond.

“And how does your stalker ass know that, shitnerd?!”

“‘Cause I’m a stalker, duh.”

“Oh, Bakugou-kun, Midoriya-kun! You’re both here! Todoroki-kun is looking for you!”

“I’m just saying that Y/n’s dates to all the award shows and premieres have been blond. She’s into blonds, so she would totally be into me!”

“Deku, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to kill you myself.”

“You wouldn’t even be able to protect Y/n, bro. The only thing you performed well on in the application process was the tasing part. You can’t even tase people repetitively! She’d be dead in a second.”

“Can you believe my client dropped me because I couldn’t cook a five-star meal correctly? Hello, I can make 7-11 into a five-star course; it’s not my fault they’re not refined.”

“Kirishima-kun, are you okay?”

“I deadass got into a dance competition on the way to work. That’s why I’m late, why would I lie? Of course, I had to compete; my reputation was on the line!”

“Kirishima-kun?”

“Yo, he’s not looking too hot?”

“Kirishima?!”

“Can you hear us?!”

Silence.

Kirishima found himself opening his eyes — when had he closed them? For a moment, the air turned coppery, his body feeling weak, and he thought he felt something heavy on his lap. But that wasn’t right; he was standing up, he wasn’t sitting down. Most importantly, he was in Tokyo, Japan. He was alright. He was safe.

The sweat that clung to the back of his neck was cold, clammy, and intrusive. His chest felt tight again, his hands shaking so harshly the tea's warm, dark liquid was sloshing onto the floor.

There were seven pairs of eyes on him, each a different color, each swimming with concern and other emotions. Kirishima knew his ears weren’t working right now, his face unable to meet his brain's screaming demands to smile, and he watched as their mouths moved as they questioned his sanity.

He was okay.

He was okay.

He was okay.

“Kirishima?”

Kirishima looked up, his neck craning to the side to see a tall, skinny man standing at the doorway. 

Toshinori Yagi was an esteemed bodyguard, one of the best in the industry, which was saying something considering that most bodyguards went unknown and unnamed. According to Google, Toshinori gained the nickname All Might after saving multiple political and celebrity lives when the government could not. It was long after his prime, and the man had retired but has since filled as the company’s head — thus why this job was near impossible to get.

Kirishima heaved a breath, realizing that he hadn’t taken a single breath when Toshinori’s bruised eyes narrowed in his concern.

“C-Coming,” Kirishima smiled, the blood rushing to his ears mostly ignorable now, but the scorching concerned gazes of his friends feel like cinders on his shoulder.

He straightens his tie, fingers curling when he feels the cold sweat penetrating through his clothes, but Kirishima doesn’t let it show. Smiling like he does, Kirishima pushed through his friends and followed Toshinori out the door.

They walked down towards the conference rooms, rooms that held their contractors, in complete silence.

“This is an important case,” Toshinori began, his voice gentle and poorly hiding his concern. “I chose you because you are a great asset to have, Kirishima. You are strong and smart, and most importantly, are personable.”

Kirishima looked at the man, his face contorting with his anxiety. He didn’t want to be treated like glass.

“Honestly, you being so personable is why I chose you for this assignment. Todoroki-shounen was a contender at first, but he’s not much of a talker; the same goes for Bakugou-shounen. Midoriya-shounen was probably the best choice, but there’s a new assignment that asked for three, so I gave up those three,” Toshinori explained the current assignments. It both delighted Kirishima to hear that he could keep up with arguably the three most qualified workers here as it did, at times, make him feel lesser. 

“Oh.”

But he was obviously not the first choice still.

“The only reason why you weren’t the first choice is because of what I walked into just now,” Toshinori interrupts Kirishima’s thoughts and words. Kirishima finds his eyes tearing away from the smooth, polished wood floor to see Toshinori stopping in front of Conference Room A, his gaze intense on him. “To be frank, I wasn’t too sure if we should have hired you all that time ago. You are excellent on the field, your skills are phenomenal. Something to be proud of, truly, but you are clearly not completely healed from your time on the force.”

“Toshinori—”

“Kirishima-shonen, I’m not saying that there’s shame in your current struggles,” Toshinori once again interrupts, his hand a soothing warmth on Kirishima’s shoulder. “I’m still not healed from my past injuries, and as many people have undoubtedly told you, it’s okay to not be okay. But you barely passed the psych evaluation and only passed your field training because you scored so phenomenally on the other things your lack of a shooting score passed you.”

Kirishima felt unable to look away from the piercing blue eyes, and the lump in his throat never tasted as bitter, as sad.

He had barely passed the admittance test.

“I just need to know, are you ready to take on this assignment?” Toshinori asks in complete seriousness. “It’s a high stake, big-name client. We do not expect anything untoward to happen, but we never know in these cases. I think highly of you, Kirishima-shonen, and if you are ready to take this on, I’ll believe you, but likewise, if you’re not, I will gladly give this to someone else.”

Kirishima swallowed, his dry tongue passing through his equally dry lips.

Without question, he was not okay, not when he nearly broke down twice in a matter of hours, but it was just a bad day. He wasn’t as shaken as he was two months ago; he was going to his mandated therapy, talking to people who could assist him. Kirishima just didn’t want to be treated like glass anymore; he wasn’t glass; he was an unbreakable force.

Steeling over his nerves and ignoring how his stomach twisted and turned, Kirishima raised his gaze to Toshinori.

“I can do it.”

A smile.

“Good.”

If Kirishima was sweating because he was on a mental slip earlier, he was now sweating because he was beyond petrified and embarrassed. His hands raised up to brush against his red spikey hair, praying to God that it didn’t look dumb. His legs bounced at a speed that was bordering insanity, but he could only hear the sound of his racing heart as he stared at your frowning form from across the table.

It was you — the Y/n, the world's biggest music idol, an absolute legend in the making.

“This is our very own Kirishima Eijirou, age twenty-eight. He has been with U.A.Services for approximately six months now and is without a doubt one of our most capable and well-serviced men,” Toshinori began the introduction to the three people on the other side of the table. Kirishima could feel a blush rising up his neck and settling into his cheeks as what he presumed to be you, your manager, and your lawyer shuffling through paperwork that was very thorough on his background. “He was enlisted in the military before joining our ranks and was honorably discharged at the age of twenty-six as First Sergeant Kirishima Eijirou due to extreme injury. He excels in negotiating, scouting, and is, as you know, a skilled close combatant and was skilled in handguns—”

“I don’t think he’ll need firearms,” you interrupt, a frown on your face in contrast to the bright smile Kirishima was so used to seeing on your face. He tensed in worry.

“Y/l/n!” your manager, Sato Kimiko, scolded.

“What? It’s true! We’ll be around my fans for the majority, if not all the time! How is that right? For him to have a firearm around defenseless, and may I add, harmless individuals?!” you argued, your eyebrows scrunching in your fury.

Kirishima felt frozen in his chair, his eyes seeking Toshinori for guidance, but found himself unable to look away from you. He knew nearly everything about you, he could admit with a proud grin that he was a super mega fan of you, and he might have, at one point, looked your height up to imagine how you would appear beside him. Kirishima had known this entire time that you were two feet shorter than him, but it hadn’t hit what that meant until he was shaking your hand when he first entered.

You were tiny.

His dick and mind really liked that, and seeing your own passion spilling out for your fans was making him fall deeper into this hole he had for you.

“You don’t have a say anymore? Do you understand? You were nearly assaulted yesterday, and we are all done waiting around for something serious to happen!” Kimiko yelled, her face contorted into a look of both frustration and fear. “Either you take this, or we all leave you. I won’t have you murdered in front of me! You’re twenty-six now, stop acting like a damn brat and grow the hell up!”

The words scorched the table, blistering heat filling the conference room as you met Kimiko’s glare.

Kirishima watched with a dropped jaw as your nostrils flared, your lips pursing, and your eyebrows furrowing with unspoken distaste and anger.

“Six months tops.”

“Uh, yes,” Toshinori interjected. “Our contracts only last up to six months for new clients, but if you find yourself wanting to extend your contract after those six months, we are very much open to negotiations.”

You nodded your head, your eyes falling back onto the booklet in your hands that exposed all the information available on Kirishima. From his likes, dislikes, to his allergies and the reason why he was discharged. Each in disturbingly deep detail to make sure all things were up on the table.

“So, you can’t shoot your gun, Kirishima-san?” you speak, your voice tight, a pleased, almost taunting tone.

Kirishima stills, embarrassment bubbling in his chest as you drop the booklet onto the table, exposing his military history to him and you. 

“...no,” Kirishima answers truthfully.

The lawyer shifts from the other side of you, his eyebrows scrunching as he too comes across that piece of information. 

“He won’t use firearms?” the lawyer scoffs, his semi-permanent frown deepening. “How will we know that he will keep Y/n completely safe from any sort of danger that may come her way? We’ll be paying six months for a glorified security guard? We want a bodyguard.”

“And we clearly have one,” you snap back, your eyes narrowing. “If my bodyguard isn’t Kirishima-san, I’m not getting one. I mean, isn’t that what you said earlier?”

“When we were assuming that the person Toshinori was assigning to your case was a well-rounded bodyguard. Not one that was still clearly haunted by his past.”

Fuck, that one hurt.

You scowled, your head tilting as you bared your teeth slightly, “And what? He managed to get into the best agency in all of Japan in spite of that. Sounds like he’s competent. I already told you I won’t take on a team, just one individual. I trust in Toshinori-san’s guidance and his choice in picking Kirishima-san. If you disagree, that’s too bad for you.”

“Y/n! Please stop this! You’re being ridiculous!” Kimiko huffed, slamming her own booklet down, her eyes drowning with her exhaustion. “I’m so sorry, Toshinori-san, Kirishima-san.”

“H-Hey, it’s okay!” Kirishima immediately imputed, his hands raising in a sign of retreat. “I know that Y/n has always enjoyed her independence as a solo star, and how me being involved now is imposing, especially after multiple attacks.”

Kirishima felt that his smile was a bit strained, a bit too forced, especially as your eyes hawked onto him. He felt like you were examining him, like a lab rat going through its initial trial and not knowing just what was to be expected.

“Six months?” you spoke, your gaze not leaving Kirishima’s own.

“Six months,” Kirishima agreed.

You hum, your head nodding. “Fine, six months tops unless the Lieutenant Colonel can apprehend these assholes faster.”

It had been ages since Kirishima had been called by his title, and for some reason, he found himself blushing. His mouth, for the first time this entire meeting, curled into a wolfish grin.

“You got it.”

The lawyer groaned, entirely aggravated and insulted. He stood up, “You’re asking to be murdered, Y/n. Don’t come haunting me when you end up dead and mutilated. You deserve all the shit you’re getting.”

Kirishima watched with his lips parted in a bewildered expression as the lawyer walked out of the room with a loud slam of the door.

You were unfazed, and Kimiko groaned, exhausted and embarrassed as she mumbled a weak, sullen, “I am so, so sorry, Toshinori-kun.”

“Ah, Kimiko-chan, it’s okay!” Toshinori shook his head and smiled knowingly. It wasn’t as if the long time famous bodyguard hadn’t seen his fair share of childish fights between clients. “Thank you for coming as always, and we’ll do our best to make sure that Y/n is in the best of hands.”

“Thank you… and so, the rest of the contract?”

“Ah, yes, let’s continue.”

So, the contract was discussed to full detail.

For six months, Kirishima would be attached to your side. He must always remain at most three meters away from you when there is no one around, and during fan interactions no more than one meter. He had a full say about your safety. If things got rough, you were to follow his every command. Your agency would pay for his room and lodging. He was to wear black pants and a black long-sleeved cotton tee. He would be working with every venue, every hotel, every conventions security team. He would lead them and never leave your side. He was to be awake an hour before you, rest when you were asleep so long as it was safe to do so. He was your guardian angel of sorts, and you would do nothing but adhere to him. 

Most importantly, according to Kimiko, there was one thing they were hoping for: Kirishima's help and discretion. For the next six months, they would be relying on Kirishima’s support to figure out who the group behind the assault was and who the mastermind was behind it all is.

Or so the contract said.

“Y/n!” Kirishima called when the papers were signed, and the day he was set to start was printed. He will begin tomorrow. “Wait!”

You stopped at the door, Kimiko and Toshinori chatting merrily between them as they exited the conference room, Toshinori’s booming voice asking if it was true that Kimiko was attending to a near forty clients to which she bashfully admitted to. You were dressed in a creme knit long-sleeved shirt, faded ripped jeans, and a pair of nude heels. The heels were big, undoubtedly giving you inches, but you still barely got to his shoulder.

“I-I’m looking forward to looking — I mean working with you!”

You looked at him closely, your eyes dragging to the top of his toes to the tallest spike in his hair before your lips pulled into a contemplative pout. You looked back to his eyes, and you steeled over, your head tilting to the side.

“I mean no offense, Sergeant, I thank you for doing your job, but I have no intention of looking forward to working with you. I don’t want you here, so do your best to ignore the contract and realize that I am the most important person, so you will follow my demands.”

Kirishima can do nothing but stare as you turn on your heel and leave.

Well, so much for a good case.

Date: 5/2 Time: 14:00 Location: Tokyo Music Stadium

If you would have told Kirishima Eijirou that he had been working for the grand, the perfect, the fantastic music idol Y/n for a month now, two months ago, he would have laughed so hard he’d cry. Not only would he have not believed it, but he would only think of a million and two scenarios where he would go the entire day flirting.

Now a month into knowing you, of being your bodyguard on a contract for six months, Kirishima could say that of that entire thought, the only thing he had been right about was that he was, in fact, crying. Not only has he never managed to speak an entire conversation with you despite being attached to your hip seven days a week, but despite your much shorter stature, you had managed to get away from him.

You always managed to sneak away from him.

Kirishima could admit that the no more than five meters rule had been wholly and utterly demolished.

And now, Kirishima was crying, not out of joy, but of pure manly fear as he raced through the backstages of the stadium, desperate to find your short-ass anywhere.

“Go, Kirishima!” someone yelled as Kirishima whizzed past him, “Find Y/n!”

“T-Thank you!” Kirishima screamed as he continued onward, the yellow-lit concrete hallway seemingly haunting the further he went into it. The earpiece in his left ear shrilled, the telling sign he was getting a call. Putting a finger to the circle in his ear, he answered the car. “Hello?!”

“Ah, Kirishima-san!” Kimiko’s voice chirped on the other side of the line. “Wonderful to hear your voice again! I’m calling to let you know that the tour bus is parked outside of the venue now. The concert was a smashing success, and she’s come out unharmed for the past month! To make matters even better, since your arrival, there have been no more assault attempts! Oh, um, sorry, where are you guys?”

“We’re just, um!” Kirishima tried not to pant into the microphone; he was still racing ahead, his head peeking into every door and room he passed. “Y/n needed to use the restroom?!”

“Oh, wonderful. Okay! Let me know when you two are on your way over!”

“Ya, okay, bye!”

“By—”

Kirishima hung up as he crashed through the doors at the end of the hallway.

It was night out right now, the full moon reflecting down on the dirty concrete with the same intensity as the streetlamps overhead. And in the middle of a crowd of around twenty people was the person Kirishima was trying to find: you.

You were still dressed in the final costume change of your concert. Even from a distance, Kirishima could see the glitter and highlight on the tip of your nose and the curve of your cheekbones. The crowd around you was clearly not hostile. Each face was bright with broad smiles and sparkling with fresh tears, each voice high and pitchy as if they were talking with some goddess and not you. 

There was a slight longing in Kirishima’s chest at the sight of you interacting with your fans, your smile was so beautiful, and he wished just for a moment that he was the one that it was directed towards. If he had met you as a fan, and only a fan, he wonders if you would look at him as you did the others. Would he see the pure joy in the depths in your eyes, the love, wonder, and pride as they asked you questions and answered your own?

He wanted to be just a fan.

“Y/n, the tour bus is here,” Kirishima finally found his voice, the tenor of his voice spreading through the narrow alleyway. “Say your goodbyes.”

He had to ignore the way you stiffened immediately, the unsolicited joy in your face breaking and becoming bleak as you met his gaze. Kirishima absolutely did not feel pressure behind his eyes when you rolled your eyes and began to say your goodbyes; he did not!

The group of fans waved goodbye as you walked backward toward Kirishima; you didn’t stop waving and continuing your parting conversations with the group until the metal doors of the stadium doors closed behind the two of you. Kirishima let out a sigh, his eyes closing for a brief moment before looking down at you. You were expressionless, eyes cold as you looked dead ahead.

“You’re not supposed to run away like that.”

“I thought we agreed you wouldn’t tell me what to do, Sergeant.”

“You know I can’t do that it’s not—”

“Part of your contract. Yeah, I know, but that’s your contract, not mine.”

“Oh, okay. Um, Kimiko? ...yeah, we’re heading out now. Five minutes, till.”

And then there’s only silence.

Neither Kirishima nor you bother talking the entire walk towards the tour bus, and you ignore Kimiko’s call that your lawyer would be meeting briefly before tomorrow's fan signing event. You walk into the bus and go directly to the beds, throwing yourself into the terribly padded bunk and passing out without so much as a sound.

Kirishima sinks into his own bed, it’s too small for him, but there’s nothing he can do about it. Sleep overcomes him easily these days; he’s always way too exhausted in chasing you down like some spoiled toddler you’re behaving like to dream. But that’s okay, he thinks as the comfort of sleep begins to dig its skeleton fingers into his side, at least the exhaustion stops the night terrors.

Date: 5/3 Time: 10:00 Location: Tokyo Music Tower

Now, Kirishima knew that it was a common belief and a nearly proven theory that when you met your idols, you should never ever have your expectations high on who they are as a person. Celebrities were out of touch, cruel, rude, nearly jaded. They weren’t exactly the common folk. With people willing to forget things like them being human beings themselves or the common thread of celebrities being too rich to care, any type of famous person was cold, rude, and ruthless.

He knew that.

He also knew that you weren’t like the nearly proven theory.

You were kind, sweet, a practical angel to anyone who dared to approach you. You were the exception to the rule, an outlier to them all. You spoke politely to all your fans, domestic and foreign, and you treated each fan like the most special person in the world.

You were a good person.

But Kirishima knew, just as you reacted to any cruel person you encountered, you had an edge. Your words were as vicious as your name was known. He genuinely enjoyed watching you put assholes into place, but he sulked, knowing he was always at the receiving end of the sharp, bitter tongue of yours.

For a month and a day now, he had been the number target of your bitter words and scorching hate, but he admitted that he enjoyed it when it wasn’t directed at him, if but a little bit.

“I’m not renegotiating my contract!” you groan, your palms slamming into the depths of your eyes. “I already told you that I don’t need all that money!”

“And I’m telling you that you need to increase the wages that you pay the rest of your team instead of all those charities or else people will begin dropping you!” the lawyer countered with similar fire, his scowl angry enough that Kirishima felt like he had to tear his gaze away from this horrible battle. “You won’t be the best of the best forever, y/n, get over your stupid savior act and look over the changes!”

Kirishima looked over at you, his eyebrows pinching as he watched you fold your arms, your cheeks pushed out to a puff as you looked at the stack of papers with the title page fully covered with the word Contract of Y/n and Co. on it. Well, it seemed that the rumor of you spending your paycheck on things that weren’t you was right, how entirely manly.

“Oh fuck off,” you growl, pushing out of the chair and storming away.

Kirishima glanced over at Kimiko, who was looking pale and exhausted, undoubtedly exhausted from the past thirty-minute battle between the lawyer and the idol that neither made a single step forward nor a step back. How you had the energy to fight so passionately was beyond him. Kimiko nodded minimally, her lips parting in a sigh as Kirishima stood up and followed after her.

“The only way that brat is going to listen is by force,” the lawyer sneered, his voice fading into the room that Kirishima exited. “If that’s how she wants to play, so be it.”

Fortunately for Kirishima, he catches up to you. There are tears of fury dripping down your cheeks, and he feels unable to speak as he discovers a new layer to you.

...how interesting.

“It’s my money,” you speak, but Kirishima is unsure if those words are meant for him or for the void, the earth that you would much rather converse with than him. “I already pay them all a much greater paycheck than they should be getting considering their client pool. Why do I have to bend to their stupid will when I’m the one making the money.”

Kirishima blinks, wondering just what people might want to raise with their contracts. But, he knew you were right. By her account, Kimiko had a client list of many successful individuals, and he may not know anything about the lawyer, but if he worked with Y/n, his name must be good. Guess they weren’t like you.

“People are selfish assholes,” was the only thing that Kirishima could think of, and was something he spoke before he could stop himself.

But you stop in your storm, the anger that clouded you somewhat dissipating, clearing just enough for you to turn to him, your sharp, beautiful eyes for the first time filled with rage that was not pointed at him, and an emotion that made him think of… amusement?

“Yeah,” you agree, a half-smile cracking onto your face, and Kirishima feels his soul begin leaving his very body. “People are selfish assholes, huh?”

“Very much.”

There’s a calm, a snorted chuckle, and Kirishima finds himself stumbling further into the abyss of his feelings for you.

The next ten hours seem to pass in a blur, Kirishima feeling like he was on Cloud Nine as he stood behind you, three meters as he watched fan after fan approach you. Signatures were made, pictures were taken, and Kirishima found that he never once had to approach.

Maybe, he thinks, just perhaps, the two of you can overcome this.

Ten minutes after the official signing is done, Kirishima can’t find you, and he curses loudly into the echoing floor.

So much for change.

Date: 5/17 Time: 23:00 Location: The Parking Lot - Mt. Lady Studios

Kirishima was, for the lack of better words, completely fucking done with you.

Don’t get it wrong, he still was a complete and massive fan of yours. He would never once betray his loyalty to you and your musical career, but he was slowly starting to realize just why the lawyer was set to dying of a heart attack any time soon. Despite your early entrance to stardom and the stuff of legends, you had kept your fiery, stubborn individualism.

Kirishima thought it was absolutely hot and sexy at times, especially the times where you strut around in revealing clothes because ‘this is your body,’ or the lingerie campaign you completed two days ago as part of some fundraising event. There were significant perks to your strong handle and claim to keeping your indestructible personality, but it came back to rub them all back in the worst of ways when once again, you escaped from Kirishima’s side.

To be fair, most of the time, Kirishima was a very level headed individual; he was near impossible to rile up despite popular initial belief. I mean, he was good friends with Bakugou Katsuki, who riled up just about anyone he talked to! He needed to have steel calm emotions, or at the very least portray that he does. But even the unbreakable after tireless attempts can, at times, be broken.

It had been a hard morning.

Kirishima had woken up in a panic, the sweat of his night terror soaking through the sheets of his bed, and his head felt like lead. They had been in the tour bus for the entire day because you were going from the tip of Japan to the bottom of it, thus meaning that you couldn’t run away from him, concluding that when he went to bed that night, he was merely tired, not exhausted.

“K...Kiri...shima?” the voice whispered in his ears when he bolted from his bed and tumbled to the ground, his chest heaving in his panic as he cried.

He only slept for four hours that night, the ghost of his comrade haunting him too much for him to ever drift back to sleep. The only thing he was grateful for when he stumbled down to the hotel lobby for breakfast was that he had an attack while in his own room and not in a tour bus with ten others.

But the lack of sleep and the twisting of his guts from his still unburied memories meant that his exhaustion was dialed up larger than he thought was capable. Today was an interview day plus a miniconcert at said interview.

That meant that for an hour before your interview and two hours afterward, Kirishima lost you and had to hunt you down. You weren’t making it easy on him and had started moving with the crowd you gathered to evade him.

But today, Kirishima was exhausted.

Today, Kirishima wanted to sleep.

Today… Kirishima broke.

“Let’s go,” Kirishima spoke in a low, commanding voice. His eyes were hooded as he looked down at you, the crowd of fans parting like the red sea as he stands behind you, larger than life, imposing.

You ignore him.

“We’re leaving, now.”

“Aw, did you make that just for me?! This beading is gorgeous!”

To be fair, Kirishima isn’t really sure if he’s crying right now or if steam is protruding from his ears like some stupid cartoon. The only thing he knows is that it's been a bit longer than a month, and his client is the most perfect person in the world except to him and some lawyer. All he knows is that he has been continuously mocked, shamed, and disrespected by his client, and at this moment, with his mind and body aching with the memories of the morning, he can no longer stop the tsunami of emotions and thoughts that shove out of him.

He grabs your wrist and begins pulling you away.

“We’re leaving now, sorry to disrupt your time. Come see Y/n another day.”

Kirishima isn’t even aware of your screams, the banging of your small fist against his back as his hand encompasses your bicep easily. He walks and walks and walks until he stops, his mind slightly put back into place.

“—FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM?! LET GO OF ME, SERGEANT!”

Oh, right.

He lets go of you immediately and nearly snorts at how you stumble into his back. So small, so delicate, and so completely weak.

“You want to know my problem, y/l/n?” he asks, voice eerily calm, much calmer than he actually is. “My fucking problem is that I signed onto this case with a single rule: keep you in sight and protect you. It’s simple, almost too easy, isn’t it? But easy and simple is everything that this assignment is!”

Your face contorted into a flash of anger and embarrassment, your nose scrunching as you found your footing, “And I told you that I don’t give a crap about that contract! I didn’t want it in the first place, but no one listens to me!”

Kirishima snorts, his body shifting so that he can look at you properly; your face is seething, your teeth bared and eyes wild, but Kirishima has faced worse.

“It’s not in my contract to listen to you, unfortunately,” Kirishima points out, his eyes narrowing. “I would have a better time listening to you, trying to find an agreement that worked if you used that brain of yours and figured out a way to compromise with me.”

“Compromises aren’t—”

“You think I wouldn’t?” Kirishima almost whines, his voice tight with emotions, fingers fisting in his hair, “You really fucking think that after a month and how many days of me spending stupid hours trying to find your ass, most of the time never knowing if you’re dead or not, I wouldn’t want a better solution?!”

“Like hell they’ll kill me! And if they do, I don’t fucking care!” you stubbornly insist, finger buried against the swell of your chest.

“Oh my god,” Kirishima can’t stop the bitter laugh from escaping, “you’re ridiculous.”

“I’m ridiculous?! I’m not the ridiculous one here!” you cry, your eyes bursting with unshed, bitter tears. “So what that I run away from you? Can you imagine living the past ten years of your life trying to be something that the media wants you to be? No! You can’t, Sergeant! Those times where I’m running away isn’t to be some dick, but to give me time to be me!”

“You’re a goddamn idiot!” Kirishima barks, his anger curdling in his chest like a raging fire. “If you had looked at my damn file correctly, instead of focusing on the stupid shit like me not being able to fire my gun correctly, you would be more than aware of the fact that you are one of my favorite artists!”

“Wh-”

“I am one of the best in my company! I am easy to get along with, personal, manageable, flexible even, but from the very first moment you laid eyes on me, you’ve hated me! You talk down on me, you shit on me, my job, the reason I’m here! Listen, I would fucking love to be anywhere but here right now. I have literally never hated my job before, but you just made that a reality. But the worst part of this all is the fact that you seem to think I would have kept you away, prohibited you from doing things that I already know you love! You stand there and tell me that I would try to force you to do shit you don’t want when I have merely been asking for you to take me there with you! I don’t care if I have to stand away and watch, but I want to be there! I’m supposed to be protecting you, but you’re being nothing more than a stubborn brat who refuses to see the efforts I’m trying to make, and frankly, I’m done.”

Kirishima’s chest is burning with the lack of oxygen, his eyes narrowed and filled with raging fire as he stares down at you, his neck craned so that he could be closer, more daunting, intimidating.

“Fuck o-off,” you snap suddenly, a lone tear, your voice tight and shoulders tense as you storm off.

“So predictable,” Kirishima calls after you, but it’s not filled with the previous anger he had but the sinking misery and regret.

And for a moment, it’s quiet.

Until a single name is screamed.

“SERGEANT!”

And then the all too familiar sound of a fist colliding with skin.

The anger in Kirishima’s blood evaporates immediately, and horror sinks in as he turns towards where you had stormed off. Oh no, oh no, oh no.

The parking lot is filled with an ugly yellow light that seems to set the stage for what was to come down. His footsteps crashing down against the black pavement were mute in his ears, and his eyes were focused on your limp body slung over somebody's shoulder. There was one person behind him, the other one already hopping into a van; Kirishima was the devil on their heels.

“Come on! Let’s go!” the one in the van screamed, his voice full of gruff apprehension and fear.

The van turns on.

Kirishima grunts, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he sidesteps the man who was lingering behind the one carrying you and quickly slams his shoulder into the man's sternum, knocking him out the moment he collapses onto the ground. 

He lets out a roar of such, his eyes glowing with anger and a single mind track to take down the person who held you, ready to throw your unconscious body into the back of the van.

Kirishima doesn’t even know when he manages to get to the man's side, one hand on his shoulder, the other on you, and with the strength and anger of a million fighting warriors, he ripped you from his hold and sent him stumbling into the trunk. Your shallow breathing brushes against his neck, and Kirishima is hyper-aware of the cursing men who chose to abandon their unconscious comrade on the floor. 

With his arms filled by your unconscious body, Kirishima can only watch the van scurry out of the lot, the license plate immediately burning into his mind.

T082-23

When the man on the floor finally wakes up, he’s in police custody, and you’re just waking up. There's a bruise on your cheek, and you begin crying immediately.

Kirishima watches from the distance, his heart aching and guilt climbing up his throat as he watches Kimiko hold you close, her arms warm and tight.

Well, shit.

So much for the month of no attacks.

Kirishima sits in a waiting room, his head relaxed against the wall as he waits for your discharge from the hospital. They suspect a concussion, and they’re running some tests right now. The police are there too, trying to get information from you on the failed kidnapping attempt as well as beginning the initial trials of interrogation of the abandoned kidnapper with a broken sternum, ruptured spleen, and three cracked ribs.

He was not surprised when the police officers came to talk to him, and he gave them the license plate.

But they also gave him an essential piece of information.

(“Well, when we asked for a motive, it seemed that it wasn’t his idea,” the detective admitted, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. “His boss said that, and I quote, Y/n will end up dead and mutilated as is deserved. She deserves all the shit she has coming her way, end quote. Any ideas of who it could be”

Kirishima rubbed a hand across his face, the words striking a bit too familiarly to him, but from where. He shook his head, his eyes focusing on his bouncing knee.

“Thank you,” Kirishima said, his tone pointed in a clear indicator that this conversation was now over. The detective nodded, his frown slight as he left. The moment he was gone, Kirishima pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “Kimiko? Yeah, I think we might have our first suspect.”)

For now, he was waiting for you.

An hour passed before you shuffled into the waiting room. There was a bandage on your swollen cheek, but besides the obvious attack, your eyes looked strong, and it seemed like there was no concussion.

“I should be fine,” you speak first, your jaw tensing as if it physically pained you to speak (whether it was because you hated talking to him or because of the injury, Kirishima had no idea). “I will be fine; I just need some sleep.”

Kirishima nodded, his body completely exhausted, and his mind filled with nothing but regrets on how he handled his anger earlier. He needed to apologize. He wasn’t entirely wrong, but he had definitely crossed a few too many lines.

“Should we go?”

You chewed on your lip, your eyes looking down at the white tiled floors of the hospital — so bleak, so anxiety driving.

“I actually wanted to talk before we left.”

Oh?

“Of what, if I may ask?”

Your eyes raise back up before looking away again, “the contract.”

Kirishima finds himself nodding, his hand gesturing towards the empty seat in front of him.

“Sure.”

And with a heaving sigh that sounds like you were on the verge of tears, you sit before him.

The contract was then discussed.

It was decided that you could continue to interact with fans as you wish, so long as you took Kirishima with you. He didn’t care about the long hours, the manic fans, or the impending doom of a group of people who meant business. He needed to be there.

Everything else stayed the same, but Kirishima looked at you one last time that night in the hospital, his body leaning towards you as he did his best to keep his face void of emotion and any lingering teasing.

“I’ll only accept this new negotiation on one term.”

“W-What?!” you pause, thinking. “Fine, say it.”

“From here on out, I think we should be friends, yeah? I’m on your side, after all, it’s a bit weird if we stay just acquaintances.”

The tension and horror leave your body, and Kirishima, for the first time ever, bears witness to the most relaxed, meaningful smile he has ever seen you give. It had been one hell of a shitty night, but at that very moment when the seventh turned into the eighth, Kirishima felt a new warmth flood through his chest, his heart racing at the sight of your glorious smile.

“Of course, Kirishima.”

“Oh, and y/n?” 

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry about all that I said. It was unmanly of me and out of line.”

“It’s okay. To be fair, I was a bit of a self-absorbed brat, too.”

The next day, a picture of Kirishima holding you bridal style is trending.

Date: 6/12 Time: 19:00 Location: Hime Onsen

An Interview with Y/n | Vogue Japan 4.5 million views • Premiered 2 hours ago 874k [liked this] 12.3k [disliked this] Timestamp: 05:32 / 10:33

[Interviewer]: Now, Y/n, we must congratulate you on your latest achievement! Your latest self-titled album, ‘Y/N,’ has been nominated for a record high of twelve awards for the upcoming Japan Record Awards, which will be coming up in about a month! Tell us how you feel about this?

[You]: It was quite a surprise actually! I didn’t realize that it would have done so well in the critic's eyes to get this type of award. I am proud of myself and am excited to see all the other amazing artists and musicians who were nominated as well.

[Interviewer]: Now, your album is all about staying true to yourself, whether that be in love or war. It depicts your own highs and lows while also highlighting beautifully universal things many of us face. Without question, you have always been adamant on staying connected with your fans and keeping a simple rule: no bodyguards.

[Y/n]: Oh, (laughs) yes! That is definitely a new thing, huh?

[Interviewer]: A new thing and a beautiful thing at that, too! Look here!

[captioner notes: interviewer displays many photos of Y/n’s bodyguard, including the most famous one where he’s holding y/n after the failed kidnapped attempt]

[Interviewer]: This is a beautiful — don’t giggle! — a beautiful man, Y/n! What do you have to say for yourself?! Did you finally succumb to keeping untrue to yourself for this beautiful man?! If so, it is perfectly acceptable. By chance, is your contract with him done? I would personally love to have this man on my team.

[Y/n]: (laughing) By all means, take him! (Y/n looks behind her, her bodyguard is there) I’m kidding, I’m kidding! (pauses) No, actually, sorry. Kirishima is an outstanding bodyguard, and I have no intentions of leaving him so soon. Uh, while I did say I had no wish or intentions to have a bodyguard, obviously that was not the best solution, so I hired Kirishima. He is a wonderful addition to my team and still allows me to be authentically me, so it’s still all good.

[Interviewer]: Ah, okay, well, Kirishima-kun, if you ever need a new client, call me. But moving on, yes! Would you like to discuss the series of increasingly concerning attacks?

Kirishima stood in the softly lit hallways of a sauna.

Today was one of the last remaining days you had off, and in celebration of your upcoming award season, you had decided that it was mandatory to visit the hot springs. Everyone on your team — the backup dancers, band, and hair and makeup — were ecstatic to learn that they were being involved with it too.

This high-end resort had accommodated your entire team to receive their own private spring with an all-inclusive menu too. 

It was thanks from the owner for the free PR and, of course, because they were some of your biggest fans. So, in thanks, everyone got to enjoy the springs.

Well, everyone but Kirishima, that was.

As of the past month, things between Kirishima and you had improved a lot.

With Kirishima no longer needing to run a marathon daily to find where you were, he would find himself walking at your side. He no longer felt like you hated him. There was respect and actual friendship between the two of you. You joked with him, showed him memes and TikTok, sent him snapchat streaks, and invited him to watch weird shows with you. You even complained to him about the things that annoyed you, namely Kimiko’s attention being stolen by other clients and the rude conversations you would have with the lawyer.

It made Kirishima’s chest warm up knowing that you were friends now.

A stressful month had passed into a friendlier one.

But there were some things that Kirishima would not have expected to… arise.

Namely you growing to be comfortable enough to walk around with nothing but a thin pair of panties and a large shirt. You curling into his side whenever you watched a show together in the bus, the way your lips brushed against his neck when he leaned down to hug you, or the very so not obvious teasing you would do when you changed in front of him. It was as if you were watching his every reaction, enjoying the way that his eyes horribly tore away, or the silent hitch in his throat whenever you speed his heart up.

The biggest surprise arose the night after the failed kidnapping attempt:

You had come to his room, hours after you were supposed to have fallen asleep.

Your eyes were sunken, still a bit tired, and the bruise on your cheek was looking bad. In your arms was a white binder undoubtedly filled with the introductory packet you had received at your initial meeting. Kirishima had opened the door in his sleepy state in nothing but gym shorts. He had barely started dozing off, his mind wouldn’t stop thinking of what could have happened if you hadn’t managed to scream, and so he kept tossing and turning.

Seeing you outside of his room, his head dropped down to look at you properly, and his fist rubbing at his eye fell, “Y/n?”

“Did I wake you?” you asked, your face filled with a shocked, near uncomfortable, and embarrassed expression he doesn’t recall ever seeing on you. “I’m so sorry! I’ll wait until—”

“No,” Kirishima grunts while he shakes his head, his voice raspy and dry from his lack of use. “I’ve been tossing and turning, um, what is it? Do you want to come in?”

“I-If that’s okay?”

Kirishima breathes out a bit, his shoulders relaxing as he smiles softly, “Come on, let’s talk about what’s on your mind.”

The door clicked behind your tentative steps with an echo, and Kirishima watched as you walked into the hotel room with wariness and caution.

“Would you like some tea?” Kirishima offered, picking up a shirt from his dresser and pulling it over his body. The fabric was tight against his chest and shoulders, but felt more appropriate to wear around you.

“No, I’m okay,” you politely decline.

You stood in the center of the room, unsure of where to sit, stand, or lay.

“Go ahead and make the bed,” Kirishima offered, taking the chair by the desk. “I promise it’s still clean.”

You laugh slightly, smile strained but grateful as you sit at the edge of the bed, binder resting on your lap.

“Thanks, I wouldn’t want to sit on a dirty bed,” you joke, but it sounds weak to Kirishima’s ears.

“So, what questions do you have?”

“Hm?”

“You have my portfolio,” he shrugs, leaning forward so that his forearms rest on his knees. “I have a feeling you have some questions.”

“Oh, right,” you whisper, your eyebrows scrunching as you open the binder to the first page, but your eyes are focused on the desk. “What’s the medication for?”

Kirishima turns his head to follow your gaze and comes across the yellow tinted medicine containers.

“My PTSD,” Kirishima answers honestly, his voice soft with emotion, but there was no shame in it. “My service had a difficult end.”

“That’s actually… that’s what I came to talk about,” you rush, your hands slamming the binder closed. “If you don’t want to talk about it, obviously I won’t push it! God, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have—”

“No, it’s okay,” Kirishima interrupted, his smile sad, but he stood up, his body a tower in front of yours as he urged you to sit back down. “It’s okay; I don’t mind talking about it.”

“B-But what if I say something that makes it all worse?”

A pause.

“Then I’ll tell you that it’s too much.”

A nod.

“Are you… are you still experiencing a lot of symptoms?” you ask, your fingers tightening and untightening around the binder.

“Some days are worse than others,” Kirishima admits, his shoulders shrugging. “I don’t experience much anxiety while in crowds anymore; I don’t have many flashbacks to those days anymore, not since February at least. I do still get… I still get night terrors and dream of that day. It’s nowhere near as bad as the first few months after the accident, but it’s still here.”

“What happened?” you asked after a bit, morbidly curious.

The file had all the details that proved Kirishima to be a master of firearms during his entire time on the force. He was a powerful combatist, and his ranking was a clear indicator of the respect and skills he had. Still, it was the quick honorable discharge, the near year-long hospitalization, and the current inability to use a firearm that concerned you.

What had happened?

“I was involved in a grenade explosion on my last day on tour. I was the only one who managed to survive the blast,” Kirishima easily stated, his voice quiet.

“Oh my god, I… holy shit, I’m so sorry.”

“Nah, it’s all good. There were only two others around, and one of them was already dead.”

“Was that um, Major—”

“We called him Crimson Riot, actually,” Kirishima smiled, a chuckle light on his tongue as he leaned back onto the chair, nodding. “Yeah, that was him.”

“Crimson Riot,” you repeat, nodding. “Did you watch him… watch him die?”

Kirishima presses his lips tightly together, and for a moment, you’re unsure if he’s going to cry, answer you, or tell you to leave. There’s a whirlwind of emotions on your optimistic and typically jubilant bodyguard despite your asshole tendencies that make your stomach twist.

“Yes,” Kirishima finally answers, and you nod.

It’s hours into the morning before you finally depart back to your room, the horrors of Kirishima’s past still pounding into your ears. Kirishima wouldn’t notice, and neither would you, but on his shirt and yours, there’s a few drops of tears the both of you shed when you said goodnight.

Sergeant Kirishima Eijirou, while on an active warzone, had accidentally struck and killed his superior officer, his friend, his role model Crimson Riot, thinking that he was nothing more than an enemy target as he sat wounded behind a wall. He died on his lap, and as someone came to help, a grenade landed two meters away before detonating.

“K...Kiri...shima?” Crimson Riot had whispered as he fell to his knees, blood gushing and seeping through his clothes, spilling onto Kirishima’s lap. “I’ll be okay.”

For whatever reason, since that night, Kirishima felt something in him shift. He still took his medication, still had his virtual therapy sessions when he could fit them in, and even had painful night terrors of that moment, but it was becoming less frequent.

He wasn’t made of glass.

There had been more instances after the kidnapping attempt, but unlike the last times, Kirishima was prepared. He had stopped each one, keeping you safe and sound. As of one week ago, he had officially been given a firearm to keep strapped to his thigh at all times now.

It was an unfamiliar weight, one that still twisted his stomach and made him nervous, but he knew the reason why it was needed. Since the gun had been added to his gear, the attacks stopped. He was definitely not ready to be firing it anytime soon, but it had deterred the attackers for the time being.

Kirishima paused when he heard his earpiece ring, and he dropped his phone where he had been watching your interview despite being there himself.

“Talk to me,” Kirishima answered, his finger pressing the accept button.

“Kirishima!” came the distressed voice of Kimiko, “We just got a tip!”

Kirishima stilled, his eyes scanning the empty hallways that stretched throughout the private hot springs.

“I don’t know, but a person with connections with this mastermind said something about how there were two more events he was staging. Today is one of them!”

Kirishima’s eyes widened, his lips parting to answer Kimiko when instead there was a large, loud crash in the water from inside your room. He assumed the worst.

“Y/n!” Kirishima shouted, hands throwing open the sliding door and racing through the storage room, the shower, and exited out into the hot spring.

Steam curled through the wind, the white wisps of steam feeling warm and light against Kirishima’s skin, and Kirishima panicked when he couldn’t see your shadow or figure in the hot springs.

“Where is she?! Is she alright?!” Kimiko panicked, her voice panicking already. “I’ll call the—”

Kirishima turned on his heel, ready to complete a full sweep of the outdoor hot spring when he crashed into something smaller than he was… smaller, softer, and definitely the shape of a woman. Kirishima felt his entire body stiffen when his rough palms felt the undeniable feeling of wet, warm skin.

“Oh my god,” he heard you shriek. “KIRISHIMA!”

“She’s all good, Kimiko,” Kirishima stifled out, his voice tight, his head slamming backward so that his eyes were concentrated on the starry night sky.

“...sorry… uh aha! Another client of mine is calling, goodbye!” Kimiko’s apology was meek and small before she hung up.

Kirishima’s mind was racing a mile a minute, but his body was frozen, unmoving like a rock when he realized that pressing to his stomach was, without a doubt, your breasts.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“What are you doing in here, pervert?!” you splutter, your hands pressing to his stomach as you step away. “Are you a pervert or something?!”

“I, no! No! Of course not! Fuck, shit, I’m so sorry! I’ll go! There was a tip that something was going to happen right now, and there was a crash and—”

“What are you looking at?” you exclaim, squeaky frustration heavy on your tongue. “There’s nothing wrong with the sky! Look me in the eyes? Have you never been to a co-ed hot spring before?!”

“Y-Yes, sorry!” Kirishima apologized, bowing slightly in apology before he peered down. Still, his face bursted in a flame as he watched the way your jaw dropped in disbelief, the dewy wetness of the hot spring clinging to your body. You were, obviously, soaked, and Kirishima bit his tongue as hard as he could to keep the whimper from expelling past his lips when he saw the light gleaming off your breasts. But he watched your face shift between a million emotions, each one appearing too fast for him to read, too fast to register, but he saw the way a single-arm wrap around your breast and the other shoving into his stomach.

“PERVERT!”

“What?!”

“That was a test! This is my private room! I have the right to not be willing to be looked at right now!” you shrieked as Kirishima spun around, allowing you the complete privacy of his gaze.

“You told me to look at you!” he squawked. “Y-You told me, and I listened because of our contract!”

Kirishima could feel his body trembling, his mind reeling in disbelief that he definitely saw you in your entire nakedness, and if the swirling heat in his stomach had anything to say about it, he liked it. Fuck.

There was a soft laugh and the sound of sloshing water as you probably (he wouldn’t know because he wasn’t looking) reentered the spring.

“I know, I was teasing,” you sing, and he can tell the water is gliding around your body. “Turn around, Kiri, let’s talk.”

“Haha, um, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea,” Kirishima admits, although sitting in this steam-filled space with just you sounds so very nice. 

“Why not?” you asked, voice sounding a bit upset.

“I’m supposed to be outside, doing my job?”

“Augh, but these private springs are so boring alone,” your voice whines; the water sloshes, and Kirishima winces at the slight throb on his tongue as he continues to look at not your direction. “Turn around, Kiri.”

Not too long ago, you had taken to calling him Kiri, a subtle change, a not unusual nickname people gave him. But just because it was you, his stomach flipped and twisted, and now with the image of your tits in mind, his dick throbbed. 

Gulping, Kirishima turned, his gaze bashfully looking down at you before glancing away. You were chest-deep in the hot springs, tendrils of your wet hair sticking to your neck. Was he dead? Maybe dreaming?

No, his dreams were never like this.

“Do you want to come in?” you continued to ask, your body moving towards him in the water until you reached the edge of the pool, arms testing into the black rocks. “You’re the only one not in one, and since I hate being in these alone, I figured you’d like to join.”

Kirishima wanted to join. More than anything, he wanted to take his clothes off and jump into the springs with you, for you, but that would be unprofessional. Entirely and utterly unprofessional.

“Please?” you ask softly, pleadingly, and Kirishima makes the mistake of locking his gaze with yours. 

“...fine, but I’ll be on the other side of the spring,” he concedes, his steps near clumsy and oafish as he stumbles backward to the shower and closet.

“Such a gentleman pervert,” you tease, fingers curling as you wave at him until Kirishima finally closes the door behind him.

The empty room is nearly deafening in its silence and the future as Kirishima slumps against the sliding door, excited apprehension rippling through every cell of his skin as a smile spreads across his face. He walks to the storage room, and despite it being a private room, there were two closets. The closet not already occupying your clothes had the things needed for him, and thankfully, it fit. 

He undressed slowly, folding his clothes and placing them into the cubbies. Fully naked, he approached the showers, and under the lukewarm showerhead, he cleaned his body of any grime, dirt, and sweat. 

Feeling refreshed and clean, Kirishima began his descent to the hot spring, his heart hammering when his fingers grabbed the handle of the door.

“I’m coming in,” he announced, a healthy amount of fear, excitement, and heat drumming through him.

“I’ll keep my virgin eyes away from your body, don’t worry,” came your slow tease, and Kirishima snorted softly.

Kirishima stepped back out to the hot spring.

Just like the first time, the entrance to the spring was warm, the steam seeming thicker than last time, clouding the outdoor room and his sight. You were at the furthest out part of the pool, your back towards them as you worked your fingers through your scalp.

Discarding his slippers at the edge, Kirishima climbed into the pool.

The pool only went as far as his thigh, and he sank into the warm water. It felt wonderful on his body, relaxing his muscles just enough for him to wonder when was the last time he had managed to visit a hot spring.

“I’m in,” Kirishima said, his arms rising up out of the water, resting onto the black stone. “You can turn around now.”

“God, took you long enough,” you tease, your body twisting so that you were facing him again.

To Kirishima’s complete and utter surprise, you stilled, eyes dragging up and down his exposed chest, eyes locked on the series of tattoos all over his right pectoral, and trailed down his right arm. His lips felt dry as your eyes shifted back to his face, to his arm, and back to him. The smile on your face felt weak, but it sent a spiral of dizzying heat through Kirishima when he noticed the hushed lust.

For a while, the two of you remained at opposite ends of the hot spring. Eyes closed, hummed melodies passing through the song. You asked Kirishima about how he felt, if his medication was due for refills, if therapy was okay (he was doing better, a refill was due in two weeks, and therapy was going the same). He asked you about your relationship with Kimiko, with the lawyer, and if you had any real friends within the music industry (Kimiko was like an older cousin to you, the lawyer was a pain to deal with at times, and surprisingly, you did meet some genuine friends). You questioned how his friends were doing, if he had any contact with them despite their busy schedules. 

So Kirishima found himself retelling stories of his coworkers turned close friends. Each story he told left both of you with sore stomachs from laughter, and tears at the corner of your eyes from laughing too hard. 

“Was the tip story true?” you asked once the quiet overcame and grew old. You shift through the water, getting a bit closer to Kirishima.

Kirishima coughed, suddenly feeling a tad bit shy about his posture, but decided to keep from moving.

“You honestly think I would have barged into here just because I wanted to see you?”

Truthfully, had Kirishima been a man without morals, chivalry, or disrespect for you, he would have. Definitely would have.

“Let a girl dream,” you smile, like a luring siren as you wander closer by just a step. “It would go against everything I know about you, but it’s fun to tease.”

“You’re a bigger brat than I thought you would be,” Kirishima smiles back, trying his best to not show the way goosebumps were bursting against his skin, his eyes locked on yours, trying to not get distracted by the way your wet skin made his mind spin.

“I don’t think I’m a brat,” you counter, getting close enough that he could feel the currents of the water with your movement. But you were far enough that Kirishima felt like pointing out the fact you disregarded his keep apart rule would be a mistake. “How am I a brat?”

The sound of the water rippling through the springs along with the growing noises of the bugs began a melody around the two of you, and all Kirishima could do was stare at the way you blinked your eyes slowly — like a feline stalking a prey.

“A lot of ways, really,” Kirishima breathes, his heart rising up to his throat as he felt your hands gingerly place themselves on his knees.

“Yeah?” you ask, parting through his naked legs, and Kirishima felt his breathing stop when your exposed chest pressed against his. Your lips were ghosting so far from his but tantalizingly close enough that he felt drunk off your sweet breath. “And what are you going to do about it?”

Kirishima sucked in air, his arms resisting movement, and his eyes glanced down at the way your mouth was millimeters from his. His dick was very much interested in what he could do about it, and when your hands grazed up his thigh and onto his chest, Kirishima could feel something rumble in his chest.

He moved to eliminate the space, but there was a crash in the following spring, pushing you away from him long before he could claim your mouth.

“FUCK!” the person in the opposite spring screamed, and Kirishima’s eyes closed in his muted annoyance as you sighed.

His eyes dropped to the water, giving you the privacy to rise out of the water and make your way over to the wall.

“Jenny, are you okay?” you called.

“Give me a warning the next time you try fucking your hot bodyguard in the middle of a private onsen!”

“We weren’t fucking you prude!”

And with that, Kirishima took this as his embarrassed cue to leave.

He stood at the entrance of your private spring for about twenty minutes, entirely uncomfortable with the still hard dick in his pants, rubbing and chaffing against his jeans as he stood there. Eventually, you exited the hot spring, face glowing from the steam and eyes avoiding his gaze as you walked back to your room. Your robe was tight on your body, the hair on the nape of your neck pressed to your skin.

Kirishima sighed as he watched you enter your room, your smile short as you nodded a simple goodnight before letting the door slam shut behind you.

Rubbing his face, Kirishima listened to the voices in his intercom talk about how nothing had happened tonight. An attempted unwelcome visitor tried to get into your room, but they had stopped him. They didn’t fight, but they had run away the moment they caught on to the fact that they weren’t exactly authentic.

Kirishima sighed as he slumped into his room, collapsing on the too small bed as he found himself looking at the ceiling in deep concentration.

What was he going to do now?

That was undeniably sexual, his still semi-hard dick damning evidence to the known fact that he wanted you. By god did he want you. Wanted you beneath him, over him, splitting yourself down onto his cock while you gripped your arms and legs around him, fucking down onto his driving cock. 

Kirishima groaned low in his chest, guilt blooming in the back of his throat as his palm rubbed his pulsing cock.

Bad, Kirishima, bad.

“Kirishima-san?” a voice broke through his earpiece, and Kirishima nearly jumped out of his skin. “Are you there?”

“Hi Kimiko,” Kirishima sighed, his dick deflating instantly. “Everything all right?”

“Ah, yes! Sorry about earlier, the false tip and the sudden abandonment!” Kimiko embarrassingly apologized. “My client was ringing for the fourth time, and while I care deeply for y/n, I had to take it!”

“Mm, no worries, Kimiko,” Kirishima smiled politely despite the lack of visual contact. “How can I help you?”

“Ah, yes,” Kimiko asserted, her tone changing from apology to one of formality. “So, about the visitor incident I’m sure you were brought attention to, it seems that the vehicle they came in was with the driver's plate: T082-23. Does that sound familiar?”

“Not currently,” Kirishima sighed, his body stretching into a sitting up position. “Does it to you?”

“No…” Kimiko admitted, and Kirishima could feel the worried frown on her face. “Well, I just wanted to call and give you that information. It was passed along to me, and they mentioned they hadn’t told you. And since I was going to give you the schedule for the upcoming JRA’s award day, I figured I’d let you know!”

“No problem! Let’s go over the schedule now?”

“Yes! I have a client meeting in America right after this! Can you believe it? An American celebrity wants my help?!”

“That sounds amazing, Kimiko!”

“Okay, so this is how the day’s going to go!”

Date: 7/10 Time: 18:00 Location: Tokyo Hotel Room 101

Kirishima watched as an entire team was getting you dressed up.

Two people were doing your hair, three people doing your nails, one person doing your makeup, and five getting one of your three outfits for the night ready.

According to you, as you had strutted around in these outfits nearly two weeks ago were your red carpet and beginning of the award show outfit, your performance outfit, and of course, the after-party outfit. Each one was different, yet when adorned on your body was a perfect replica of who you were.

Most importantly, the two of you had decided to ignore every single instance of tremendous sexual energy and desire that basically leaked from both of your pores. It was for the best to ignore it. There was no point in pursuing it, especially when there was a known hunt for you, and Kirishima was the last line of defense between you and whoever it was.

Whoever it was, pfft.

Kirishima was willing to bet on who it was already.

Since the night of the initial kidnapping that finally closed the gap between you and Kirishima, there was something that the caught criminal said that stuck with him.

Everything you had coming your way, you deserved, he had said in bitter spite.

The interesting thing was that it was the lawyer who had said that, multiple times at that. The lawyer seemed to have everything to fuel him to rage against you. Everything you said or tried, the lawyer was on your heel, barking at you that it was wrong. Kirishima had also seen the contracts between you and the lawyer, and the amount that he was paid to be your attorney was not large at all.

The mass majority of the funds you earned were always funneled towards charities and organizations you trusted to help people in need — in fact, it was almost 80% of your total earnings. A meek, barely larger than 20% was split between you, your lawyer, Kimiko, your music crew, and any other unforeseen expenses. The lawyer was also in a situation where he was not in demand with clients, and if you weren’t heeding his expensive tag, he needed a new contract with you.

A contract he was always demanding to discuss with you that you denied to change.

Attacks tended to happen days after you and the lawyer tumbled, not enough to rouse suspicion if you weren’t looking, but Kirishima was. He just needed damning evidence now.

Something.

Anything.

And for some reason, his gut was screaming at him that something big was going to happen tonight, that tonight was going to be the last attack—the one to end everything.

So he had told everyone about it. Kimiko, the security at the JRA’s, even you. It made him nervous.

It made his hand sweat, the gun strapped to his thigh feeling like hot iron as he stood about as you laughed with your makeup crew.

Kirishima swore, promised, and vowed he would protect you.

He was going to.

And when the gold dress was tied to your body, fitting you beautifully, Kirishima found himself unable to look away like strands of your hair framed your temples.

“What do you think, Kiri? Will I be on the Best Dressed List?” you asked, tearing Kirishima’s attention away from the bodice and skirt of the dress. Your eyes were bright, hopeful, yearning for a positive reaction from him.

“How could you not be?” Kirishima admitted, his grin toothy, and he shifted against the wall.

“You’ll make me blush,” you grin back, eyes batting just a bit as you clasp your hands together. It takes everything in Kirishima to keep from striding across the space between the two of you and kissing you silly. “Are we ready to go?”

Kirishima wet his lips, unwillingly tearing his gaze from you, and whispers into the intercom.

“Ready to move out?”

“We’re all clear.”

Straightening back up, Kirishima smiled at you, his head motioning towards the door.

“Alright, y/n, let’s see you make some history?”

“Damn right I will.”

Kirishima smiled as he exited first, carving the path for you. 

Paparazzi were on you immediately, the lights flashing and terribly bright as he helped you through the throngs of them. His hand pressed to your back as they screamed demands, most of which you complied with until Kirishima stated that you would be late. You, unfortunately, couldn’t be late to the awards show.

Ushering you into the limousine, Kirishima follows in shortly after you, scrunching up in his seat as he sits opposite of you. However, your typical light and bright demeanor are gone; instead, you seem almost anxious as you open your handbag.

“You okay there?” Kirishima asks as he realizes you pulled out a distinctly obvious metal flask.

“Awards make me nervous,” you painfully admit; you're weakly smiling as you knock back a shot of the drink. “I hate winning and losing; the alcohol makes me less… of a wreck. Do you want some? I think it’s apple soju, I don’t know, a good luck gift from Kimiko.”

Kirishima grins, his eyes rolling as he decides to decline the drink. “Sorry, love, I think that I need to be completely sober for today.”

You scrunch your nose, obviously displeased, “Lame, who shows up to these awards sober?”

“Me,” Kirishima laughed, his head tilting back and scraping against the ceiling of the limousine. 

“Such a prude, sober, pervert,” you sigh, taking yet another swig before putting the flask back into your bag. 

“Such a brat.”

Just like every previous instance, your eyes seem to glow in glee at that name, your lips curling into a pleased smirk as you shrug. It's a sight that makes Kirishima’s mouth dry and heart racing. Fuck, he should not be thinking about fucking you in the limousine right now.

But before the heat in the limousine could simmer to one of undeniable boiling, you had arrived.

Kirishima cleared his throat, sending a quick wink your way as he exited the car first. The first stop was for him to join the lineup to guide you through all the different photo and interview sessions. No one wanted pictures of him emerging from the limo after all. 

There's a moment where after Kirishima closes the door, your eyes filled with worry and excitement as he winked goodbye, that things changed. He stood up, his eyes already scanning the area for anything suspicious, when he saw the all too familiar van.

T082-23.

His eyes widened, his head looking around for anyone else, but there was no one to help. No one could do anything as the car continued to drive away, disappearing from Kirishima’s line of sight. His heart hammered in his chest, and his hands instinctively went to his thigh. He had his firearm… he had it.

With nothing but a quick report to the head of security via his com, Kirishima pushed on ahead, waiting for your descent down the red carpet.

When you eventually emerged from the limousine, Kirishima found that at this moment, the entire world faded away as a gloved hand assisted you out of the vehicle. You were elegant, stunning, a realistic vibrant portrait within his world of greys. As you took photos for the cameras, he was by your side a few strides away as you talked to reporters.

You really came to life right now.

You were beautiful.

“For all the pain in the world that she is, she’s quite charming from a distance, huh?” a voice spoke to his side, and Kirishima froze. His eyes widened completely when he noticed that standing beside him was none other than the lawyer.

The lawyer was dressed in a nice suit, glasses perched on his nose, and for the first time Kirishima had seen, the scowl was not quite so hard.

He was here.

Every warning bell sounded in Kirishima’s head.

This was the man he was so sure was the reason behind your every attack. A man fueled by insufficient funding, a need for a new contract that would never be approved without your signature.

“What are you doing here?” Kirishima asked, subtlety never being something he was ever good with. “I’ve never seen you anywhere except to argue with Y/n about contracts. This doesn’t seem like the appropriate time to be discussing it.”

“Kimiko wanted me to give her a new contract proposal to give to y/n. However, to be fair, it’s quite easy for anything to come down to an argument with y/n,” he shrugs, and Kirishima watches a cloud of emotions pass between the man’s eyes. “At least between her and me, we’ve never gotten along, but I suppose that’s how it is for any type of family who works together.”

Wait.

“What?! Family member?!”

“Yes, I know it’s strange to believe. I am quite ugly, and she is not, but we’re family.”

Kirishima’s mind was racing now. It didn’t make sense. If he was family, why would he be in such pursuit of potentially murdering you? If you were family, he was sure that you would help out? If he needed a raise like he thought, wouldn’t you have helped?

There was no way you wouldn’t.

Was he wrong?

Who was it?

“Kiri!” your voice broke into his mind and tore him back to reality. You waved at him, then passed a stuck-out tongue to the lawyer in a teasing fashion. “Let’s go in?”

Kirishima looked over at the lawyer who greeted a woman, who was also walking down the red carpet, a celebrity he could name no less, with a warm kiss. 

Oh fuck.

He needed to call Kimiko; he was so very wrong.

You had won two awards so far, and at this very moment, Kirishima was being ushered back to his seat in the audience as you were being escorted to the main stage to perform your latest song. You had removed your gold dress for a black, sleek gown. Your lipstick changed to a dark red, and your hands trembled in the white lace gloves you wore.

“Oh, Kiri,” you wheezed almost, your hands shaking as the announcers on stage were announcing the last awards before your performance. “I’m getting nervous. What if I mess up or sing off-key? I’d be the laughing stock!”

Kirishima laughed gently, his hands easily encompassing your waist as he stilled your frantic moves. “Y/l/n y/n, if there is anything I know for sure about you is that you are one hell of a singer and a performer. The awards you’re nominated for tonight speak for themselves! You never fail at your performances, and even if you somehow manage to sing off-key, I’m sure that no one would notice! Your biggest fan in the world won’t notice, at least.”

Not more than seven days ago, when you had cried about the impending nerves of being an artist, Kirishima had come to claim the title of being your biggest fan in the world. It had made you chuckle through your tears before coming near a hysterical laugh as the two of you held each other close.

“You’re a nut, Kirishima Eijirou,” you laugh, hands resting on his lower ribs, but your smile was bright, warm. You paused a bit, fingers pulling at the fabric of his shirt. “I’ll sing just for you then, but I think I should take another swig of that soju.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?���

“Could you tell that Takeyama is completely drunk off her ass?”

“...she’s drunk?!”

“Exactly, I’ll be fine,” you breathe, taking a new smaller flask from the purse Kirishima was holding for you and taking the final swig. Your face contorts at the bitter liquid. “Ew, Kimiko really fucked me over with this one. Why is it blue?! Have you ever seen blue apple soju?!”

“No?” Kirishima startled, his eyes looking at the indeed splash of blue liquid tainting a small part of your gloves. “Who gave you that one? What happened with the other flask of yours?”

“Oh, Kimiko sent it along after I lost my other one; it’s her own flask,” you said before the backstage crew whisked you away to begin your set, and without you, Kirishima was sent to the audience.

Kirishima felt trapped as he was ushered into his seat, his eyes scanning the entire audience for something suspicious, a familiar face perhaps. His broad shoulders continued to bump into his neighbors, their disgruntled noises doing nothing to stop his worry.

“And now, Y/n,” came the strong voice of the male announcer, and the light dimmed.

Kirishima watched as the spotlight came down upon you, a golden halo of colors against your darkened gown as the instrumentals began to play in the background. And he saw you take a step forward, the building motifs suddenly silencing when you finally sang the first note.

Despite the panic arising in Kirishima, the unknown of who was behind it all, what was going to happen, he stilled at the unmatched strength and ambiance of your voice.

You sang as you did at every stage, to every audience.

There was a reason why you were considered a legend.

And then, with one last sound, one last melody, and your hand holding your microphone dropped. Your chest heaving, tears falling down your face, and the roar of the audience was silent. You looked through the audience, unable to see, but for some reason, you just knew where Kirishima was.

You smile.

But as the looming sounds begin to fill your ear again, you find that the world is hazy.

You swallow, eyes unfocused as you bowed, hurrying to leave the stage.

Kirishima watched as you took a final stumbling step off the stage, something he felt was going to be written off as you stepped on your dress. But his mind whirled.

The lawyer felt like a setup; the contracts made no sense, the blue soju.

How were they related?

What connected them?

“Oh, fuck,” Kirishima whispered, horrified, and immediately his finger pressed to his earpiece. “Find Y/n! Now!”

Kirishima was racing through the back of the venue, the announcers' voices still ringing through the dirty, bleak hallways. You had just won but was written off as being somewhere backstage; after all, the show must go on.

Voices screamed in his earpiece, each declining to have found you. No one had seen you after you stepped off the stage. No one knew who had taken you.

Kirishima noticed the doors closing at the end of the hallway, and with a dreading sense of doom, Kirishima removed the gun from his harness. And with the devil on his heels, he ran.

Kirishima panted as he looked before him.

You were passed out, draped limp, confused, and woozy against Kimiko’s body, and two men knocked unconscious beside them. To anyone else, it looked as if Kimiko had saved you, some guardian angel within this world, but if Kirishima’s gut meant anything, he knew better.

“Kirishima-san!’ Kimiko squeaked as Kirishima raised his gun, his body tense, unwilling to take a chance on her. “I don’t know what those two were doing! I was saving her, I swear!”

“Don’t do this, Kimiko,” Kirishima whispered, his head shaking. “I figured it out.”

There was a shift in Kimiko’s face at that; the scared unknowing hero melted into one of anger, resentment, one of someone who knew they had been outed.

“So, you figured it out,” she bitterly spoke, her arms that were supporting you from behind revealing to be a firearm of your own. “I didn’t expect you to.”

“I can’t say I figured out your reasoning; honestly, it doesn’t make sense to me, but I felt like it was you,” Kirishima carefully states, his heart roaring at the implied danger of the firearm against your chin. “Don’t do anything stupid, Kimiko.”

Kimiko stares, her lips forming a small o before changing into one of a large, near unattached grin.

“Anything stupid? If anyone is doing anything stupid, it's this selfish prick!” Kimiko spits, her arms tightening around you, making you whimper ever so gently in pain. “She thinks she’s so great, so rich, so smart! Just because she wastes most of her money on stupid shit like charity! Everyone thinks working for her is a dream, but they’re all blind idiots!”

Kirishima’s eyes widen as he notices the glazed, unfocused of your eyes as you shift your attention over to him. Were you listening?

“What’s wrong with the contract?” he asks, a small attempt to diffuse the situation.

“The fact she pays me next to nothing, and yet she works me half to death!”

“You have multiple clients, don’t you?” Kirishima splutters, unsure as to what was wrong. “Why is this one contract so important you wanted to frame her lawyer?!”

Kimiko laughs; it’s pitchy, almost hysterical as she bends over, your body slumping further onto the floor. “That was a lie! All a fucking lie! Do you know that I knew no one when I first started? Y/n is a name everyone wants. I don’t need to do anything to get her things! The world wants her! But the other clients? None of them stayed, none of them wanted me past a month! The salary was okay when she was a snot-nosed brat, but ten years later?! NO! She won’t fucking listen. She never fucking listens to anything but herself! So she has the option to give me the eighty percent, or fucking die here!”

Suddenly the gun in Kirishima’s hand feels like a ton, the skin on the back of his neck crawling and slicking with sweat.

“You know how much those charities mean to her,” Kirishima whispers. “She won’t do it.”

Kimiko trembles for a second, her arm holding the firearm lowering as she looks at the wall, shaking.

“Oh my god… you’re right,” Kimiko realizes, horror and uncertainty flashing across her face. “I guess… she has to die, oh my god, she has to die.”

At that moment, the world slowed down, and Kirishima swore he could see the atoms, the electricity flowing through the space between them. Kimiko’s arm holding the gun raising back up to your temple, her smile detached, horrific yet gleeful.

His body trembled as he doubted himself, his mind unsure if the finger on the trigger was going to be strong enough to fire away. Could he do it?

Was he ready?

Actually ready?

Save her, his past whispered.

Save her, his nightmares screamed.

Save her, his heart yelled.

Kirishima raised his arm, his focus blaring, his past just for a moment, forgotten.

BANG!

“The effects of the rohypnol have already worn out. Thankfully she wasn’t given a whole pill. If she experiences any nausea or throws up, please bring her back, should anything else happen, she’ll be okay.”

The words of the doctor rang in Kirishima’s ears. For tonight, they were going to be discharging you to him. Thankfully, it was all happening in Tokyo, so Kirishima’s apartment was near, and if Bakugou was true to his word, it was clean.

With the help of hospital security, he had managed to get your tuxedo concealed body into a car, and the two of you rode off to his apartment. You’ve been silent the entire time, eyes downcasted as you sit pressed to his side, feeling like a small child compared to him. You knew that he was much larger than you, a near two feet taller, but this felt unmatched. 

Kirishima’s jacket was warm around you, it’s sheer largeness another dress on your body, and despite the horrific turn of events, you were feeling warm. You couldn’t remember much of what transpired after stumbling off stage, but you did remember Kirishima bursting through the doors, a look of anger and fear blistering off his person in such a way that made you whimper when you remembered.

You remembered the onsen basically every night, cursing your stupid makeup team for interrupting a night that definitely would have ended with you fucking Kirishima. You cursed yourself for being a coward and not just saying fuck it and fucking him afterward despite the brief awkwardness.

He wanted you, it was clear as day, and you wanted him as well.

Tonight.

“Sorry about how small my apartment is, or if it’s messy, I don’t actually know if my friends have been keeping up with it,” Kirishima apologized, guiding you into the apartment by the small of your back. “You’ll be safe here tonight, and I promise we can get back to your own place tomorrow!”

“Oh, don’t apologize, it’s okay,” you smile, feeling flushed as you cross the entryway to the apartment. His apartment, despite not being home in so long, is clean. The halls aren’t messy, and a hint of lavender is saturated to the air. The dim hallway lights were barely bright enough to cause you to squint as it was dark out. “Thank you for having me tonight, especially after everything.”

At the hospital, you had been given a pair of sweats and a cotton t-shirt. The change in outfit from your event dress was definitely needed, and even though you were sure your makeup was streaked down your face, you felt good hidden in the depths of Kirishima’s jacket.

“Are you hungry?” Kirishima asked, handing over his guest slippers, which you gratefully accepted. “I might have some microwaveable food leftover.”

“Ramen doesn’t sound too bad,” you admit as Kirishima unbuttons the first few buttons on his white dress shirt. You were instantly captivated by the movement, your eyes shifting back to his face when he began to walk off towards the kitchen.

Kirishima talked warmly, keeping the conversation going merrily and bright throughout the entire time in the kitchen. He undoubtedly knew you weren’t entirely okay, and at moments like this, you were entirely grateful for his sweet personality. 

To be fair, you knew that you had been quite unfair to Kirishima in the beginning. Looking back at the first entire month of knowing him, you were horrified and impressed that Kirishima didn’t demand to be dropped. You had been selfish, stubborn, a bottom line brat, and he took it day after day. It wasn’t that you disliked him back then; hell, you had been in a near state of delirium when he entered the door during your first meeting because you had no idea such huge men existed to the caliber of his hotness.

But you resisted and might have been harsher than needed.

It was okay now; after all, if he was genuinely bitter about that entire month still, the onsen said otherwise.

It didn’t take long for your stomach to be filled with warm broth, soft boiled eggs, and ramen noodles. Kirishima did, in fact, have ramen, fresh eggs, and some vegetables. In a grand act of preparing you the most sufficient dinner he could, Kirishima presented this under budget ramen and laughed when you said it was terrific.

But it was growing late.

The two of you still sat at his table that was full of a card game, your empty ramen bowls, and cups of water. The clock on the oven read 23:38, and the city lights were slowly dying.

“Are you ready for bed?” Kirishima eventually asked you. 

You looked up from your joined hands; your fingers had been playing with his thick and long fingers for some time now. The apartment grew steadily quieter as you studied and attempted to memorize each callous and scar on his hands. They were definitely marked and nicked, the sign of the warrior he once was.

“Depends on the bed,” you tease, lips rising into a small smile as you compare your much tinier hands than his. Your fingertips barely passed the edge of his palm. “What does a big guy like you sleep in? A twin? Tatami mat?”

Kirishima laughed, his hands twisting in yours, wrapping it around so that he raised your hands up to press a kiss to the center of your palms. 

“A futon, brat,” Kirishima explained, his smile small but sharp with his humor. “Let’s get you to bed?”

You frown. 

“Where will you be sleeping then?”

“My couch is just fine.”

“I’m sure your stuffing in a trash bag had holes in it.”

“That’s okay,” Kirishima laughed, standing up and quickly taking you to your feet as well. “It’s just for a night, I’ll live.”

Your face warmed immediately as he guided you down the hallway of his apartment before finally coming into what was definitely his room.

Kirishima’s scent was faint in this room, cinnamon, wood, and warm spices. It made your eyes flutter as you observed his room from the entryway as he began to set up the room. 

His eye for interior decoration was quite… different. You smiled brightly as you glanced around; the diverse and rather boyish decorations around the room warmed your heart. It seemed exactly like what you would think of for Kirishima. 

“Well, that’s all!” Kirishima exclaimed, his hands landing on his hips in triumph as he looked around. “The bathroom is the next door over, and I’ll leave a toothbrush out for you. I also left out a new t-shirt of mine if you want to change!”

You nod some more, watching as Kirishima seems unsure of what to do next. He looks around, coughs a bit before nodding.

“Okay, I’ll be leaving—”

“Um, can we talk?” you interrupt, arms wrapping around your body. “I have some things I want to say.”

“Oh, sure!”

“You can sit,” you say, motioning toward the bed. “I have a few things to get off my chest.”

Kirishima pauses for a bit, his eyes looking you over before he eventually nods, and he sits down. The bed slightly creaks under his weight, and you feel your body warm-up at the sound. You want to hear the bed creak more, to rock under the weight of you and him pressed against the sheets as you cried his name.

“What is it?” he asks gently, observing you.

“I just…” you huff, words failing you, your tongue feeling heavy. “I wanted to say thank you for saving me.”

“It was my job to do that,” Kirishima smiled warmly, his arms crossing again.

He was relaxed.

“I mean, I can’t even begin to believe that it was Kimiko who was behind all that, even though we know it was… I know it was,” you trail off, shivering slightly as you remember your ex-managers demented laugh in your ear. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

“Nothing would’ve happened to you,” Kirishima spoke with finality. “I promised to myself at the first meeting I was going to protect you, hell the entire world would. You’re not going to be taken down by pathetic people like that, not you.”

“Really?”

“One hundred percent.”

“I feel like I should repay you in some way, though,” you rub the back of your neck, eyes fluttering just the slightest bit flirtatious. Kirishima looked at you with full mooned eyes, his arms unfolding and his palms resting onto the bedspread.

“You repay me plenty already,” came his whispered answer, so quiet, so pure you almost smiled. “You don’t have to do anything.”

Your tongue pushes past your lip, wetting the drying skin as you take a step toward him. The shoulders of the jacket slowly fall from your own shoulders, pooling just above your elbows as you stop before him, hands resting daintily on his broad shoulders.

“And what if I want something?” you ask, finding yourself stemming with energy as his legs part, allowing you closer access to him. 

You step in closer and closer until your outer thighs are ghosting against the inner part of his.

“I think it’s in our contract for me to do everything that you request if I remember correctly,” Kirishima whispers, his bright clear red eyes turning a burnt shade: dark and ever consuming. 

“And if I want you to finish what you started over at the onsen?” you press, fingers curling against the muscles of his shoulders before locking behind his neck.

His nose was brushing against yours, cold yet burning against your own skin.

“I’ll gladly show you what I wanted to do that night,” he grunts, eyes deadly, and for the first time, his hands held your waist.

You took a second to recover, your skin sparking with the electricity of his touch, and you suppressed a shiver as you opened your eyes.

“Do it,” you cement your fates, “coward.”

And just like that, in a movement so euphoric, Kirishima’s mouth crashed against yours.

His mouth was hot, dangerous against yours -- a live wire sparking with uncontrollable energy and heat as your mouths danced. Hot puffs of air were passed between your mouths, your fingers shaking with an undeniable release of tension and want. 

The kiss was sloppy, desperate, so needy with unspoken frantic determination to fuck each other until the other could no longer move. 

Kirishima’s hand removed the jacket from your arms, letting the expensive material fall onto the floor with a heavy thud. Despite the lack of warmth the clothing provided, the feeling of Kirishima’s hands rubbing against your bare arms sent your mind spiraling.

“Get on the bed,” Kirishima commands against your mouth. “Let me fuck you.”

The words were nearly embarrassingly desperate, but the tone of his voice spoke of the absolute domination he wished to assert on you. He wanted you in one exact way, and you had a feeling you knew what it was. But if he had been paying attention, Kirishima should already know that getting you to listen was not easy.

“No,” you grin against his mouth.

Kirishima pulls away instantly, his lips red and swollen as he replays your word in his head. He looks frazzled, absolutely delirious already at the simple, passion-filled makeout. As soon as his eyes clear away the fog, your grin drops, and instead, you look at him with fierce determination and defiance. 

“No?” he repeats.

“No,” you confirm.

Your chest feels light, your head spinning as the hands on your waist tighten, and his eyes flash dangerously. The tip of his tongue pushes past his lips before quickly disappearing again. 

“Of course, you’re a brat in bed too, such a fucking princess,” Kirishima shakes his head, but his mouth curving into a shark-like grin. 

Menacing, promising, sending chilling shivers down your spine.

The world spins faster than you can keep up, your mouth opening to shriek as Kirishima easily lifts you up, and has you lying against his lap. 

“I’m going to let you in on a little secret, princess,” Kirishima begins, his large fingers hooking into the waistband of the sweats you have on and the panties you’re wearing. “My princess gets rewards for being good. If she can behave properly, she gets to be fucked with dick, her pussy gets to be fucked just the way she pleases.”

You can’t help but stifle a moan that threatens to spill out with his words and the way his hands move down the curve of your ass, exposing the naked skin to him. The waistband of both your panties and sweats stay high up your thighs, and it’s almost embarrassing to know you’re still so clothed despite what’s to come.

“And just what does the Sergeant do to bad girls?” you ask, unable to keep your tongue down, your hips rolling against his lap in undeserved friction.

Unexpectedly, abruptly, a hand comes down harshly onto your bare ass.

The contact is rough, stinging against your ass as you cry out in slight pain.

The hand not currently rubbing a warning circle into your ass twists the hair at the top of your head, lifting your head up so that your ear could near his mouth.

“Bad girls get punishments. They get what I want to give them. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Holy shit,” you whimper, heat flaring between your thighs at the thought of Kirishima doing anything to you regardless of if you were good or bad. You rut your ass back against his hand, longing for a heavier touch, a plea for something more.

“What does the princess want?”

“Nothing,” you bite, and the crashing smack of another spank has you moaning loudly at the stinging pleasure-filled pain. 

“You moaning like a whore at a simple spank says otherwise,” Kirishima chuckles darkly, his fingers pinching your stinging ass as your body bucks against him. He spanks you again, again, and again. Each slap is intentful, powerful, wanting to get you to admit what you want, and you cry against your hands each time, your eyes fluttering as the pain feels good. 

“Of course, a slut like you would be getting off on this,” Kirishima seems amused, his thick finger pressing to the slit of your cunt, spreading your dripping essence against your cunt. He presses against your entrance with just the tip of his finger, and you shriek in a sound for more, your hips jerking backward to get his finger into you, to fuck you with those thick fingers to do something about the growing desperate heat. 

“Kirishima!” you scream, your body sweating and twisting on his lap, desperate to find some way to get him to finger fuck you. 

“Ah, there we go,” he sighs in delight as his fingers swirl at your entrance, increasing the teasing and making your mind spin. “Tell me what you want, brat.”

“You!” you wail, two of his fingers carting between your wet, sloppy heated lips. They graze your clit, stimulating you further as you can do nothing but instinctively jerk against his hold, trying to get him to give you the needed pleasure to build up to an orgasm. “I want you to fuck me so good! Please, Sergeant, please, I want you to fuck me until I can’t remember anything but your name.”

“But you haven’t proven to be a good princess,” Kirishima tuts, his hands disappearing from your pussy despite your crying pleas. His hand grabs your ass, though, massaging the abused skin, grasping it tightly.

You moan, embarrassed at the sensation of his massive hand easily cupping your ass cheek, your fingers fisting into the fabric of his pants as you shake your head.

“Are you going to prove that you’re good?” he asks you, his tone like that of a parent chastising a child. “Gonna prove to me that you can be good?”

You shake pathetically against his legs, but you can’t keep yourself from shaking your head. You can’t prove to him that you would be.

“I can’t!” you whimper loudly, your body twisting on his lap to look up at him, your eyes filled with tears and pleading need. Kirishima looked down at you with lust filled eyes and an undeniable need to be followed.

“You can’t?” he repeats, his head tilting, eyes narrowing, and his fingers dug into your ass. “Or you won’t?”

You tremble on top of him, unable to answer because you weren’t ready to hand over the reins just yet. You didn’t want to submit so fast, you wanted to make his own head dizzy with need but the stubbornness to continue punishing you the way he was promising.

“I won’t,” you gasp, eyes fluttering at the way he finally drops your head.

You gasp loudly as you find him shoving you off his lap, and with your panties and sweats sitting so awkwardly high on your legs, you find yourself tumbling off his lap and onto the floor.

“Guess if you don’t want to behave, I’ll treat you like some fucking pussy pocket and dispose of you once I’m done,” Kirishima easily breathes, and you look up at the now standing man as he tears his shirt off.

Your mouth waters, your cunt throbbing at the sight of the rippling muscles and dark lines of his tattoos on his upper body. You watch fascinated, like one does to a masterpiece, as he undresses until he’s in nothing but his socks. And at the sight of his dick, you can feel at once all the blood in your flushed face drop directly into your throbbing cunt.

He was fucking enormous, his girth barely fitting into his hand, and the angry red head spilled its precum against his abs. A black happy trail connecting Kirishima’s abs to his vein throbbing cock.

Holy fuck, he could quickly kill you with that.

Kirishima doesn’t ask any questions as he watches your awkwardly dressed state of a body on the floor. His head is tilted upwards, a small pleased smile on his face as he looks down on you, his hand slowly, leisurely fisting his cock as you can do nothing but stare.

You make some insane noise at the back of your throat at this sight, your thighs trembling with need, and you're pushing off your side, your ass burning, and your balance off as you open your mouth, offering all you could to him.

And thankfully, Kirishima allows it.

He’s much too tall for you to suck him off on your knees, so he sits back down onto the bed, letting you scamper between his legs, mouth open wide like some needy pet.

“Such a good little slut,” Kirishima sighs, sinking his cock into your wet, hot mouth. “Such a fucking cockwhore, all it took was a single glance for you to lose your will.”

You whine against his dick, your jaw tight with the stretch, your tongue lapping so desperately around the cock that was no more than halfway in yet couldn’t go in any further.

“Suck me right, and I’ll reward you by fucking that pretty little pussy of yours,” Kirishima grunts, his fingers pressing into the side of your neck as he ruts his hips up into your mouth, shoving his cock even further into your mouth. “And don’t you dare look away from me while you suck me off.”

It feels like fire.

His cock driving down your throat hurts, the taste of his salty pre-cum slathering all over your tongue and dripping out of your mouth with the saliva you can’t control. His cock hits the back of your throat, and you continue to bob your head, continue to fuck him with your throat as animalistic, praiseworthy noises begin spilling from Kirishima’s mouth.

You whimper at the sight of his head dipping back, and you nearly whine when he shoves the fingers he had gathered your juices on into his mouth. He moans at the contact and with his pleasure with your actions so obvious as you choke against his girth. That was hot, holy fuck, you wanted him to fuck you, please fuck you. 

Your eyes close as he begins to fuck faster into your mouth, his delight in hearing you choke around him his driving force. Tears start pouring from your eyes despite your best efforts, your throat and inner thighs burning with lust and need as Kirishima groans, his cock twitching deep in your throat.

Slap!

“Hey!”

Slap!

You gag harshly as your cheeks sting with his heavy slap, your teeth grazing underneath his cock, right against a thick, twisting vein.

“Did I tell you to close your eyes?” Kirishima practically growls, his hands grasping the back of your neck, the other one slapping you across the face yet again. “No. I said… fuck… I said, keep your eyes on me!”

Tears weep down your face, your eyes struggling to keep focus on him as he continued to fuck deep and intensely into your mouth, shoving himself further into you until you could feel his thighs grazing your chin. Oxygen wasn’t flowing anymore; your gags and chokes the only time the burning element could manage to flow through you, but Kirishima doesn’t seem to care. He seems to delight in the way you are, despite it all, are moaning and looking at him in a pleading way for more.

More, you plead.

And he delivers. 

Kirishima pulls his still hard, not yet cummed, dick out of your mouth and stands. 

You splutter with the sudden intake of oxygen to your lungs, burning you from the inside out as you splutter on the ground.

“W-What’s going on?” you hoarsely stammer, your jaw and throat aching from its prolonged abuse. “E-Ei?”

However, Kirishima seems dead set on getting you naked, and you squeal in flustered excitement as he rips the shirt off of you and his mouth pressing against yours again. His mouth crashes against yours, and you moan into his mouth immediately.

His tongue curls into your mouth and your tongues press and rub against each other. Each passing second growing more desperate, needier, more intense as your clothes are ripped one by one off your body.

“Holy fuck, I’ve wanted you for so long,” Kirishima nearly whines, his mouth trailing down your neck, biting and sucking against every centimeter of skin he passed. “Wanted to fuck you against the wall, in my bed, and now I get to do that.”

“Please, please, fuck me, please,” you beg, your voice bordering a wail as your arms wrap around his neck, letting him lift you up off the floor. Despite you being so much smaller than him that when he held you to him, your cunt wasn’t pressed to his angry leaking cock, you continued to desperately roll your hips against his abs, the friction welcomed and easing the building pressure. It was an action conveying just what you wanted. “I need you in me, Sergeant!”

“Just cuz… holy fuck,” Kirishima breathes ragged, his body twisting around, and you cried when the cold sheets pressed into your back. “Imma fuck you, Imma… god, just fucking watch.”

Your head thrashed back onto the pillow as Kirishima’s teeth sunk into your collarbone, then captured your sensitive nipples, his fingers dancing against your clit and teasing your center. 

“Now!” you cry, fingers digging into his shoulder. “Put it in!”

This time, Kirishima didn’t need to be told twice.

His larger body was suddenly pressed entirely against yours, dwarfing you immediately as your arms wrapped around his back as his cock slammed into you. You screamed at the sudden intrusion, your pussy stretched beyond its typical limits by his girth, his size, his power.

Your cunt throbbed around him, your face buried within his pecs as you, despite the searing pain, shove your hips up towards him. Fucking into him, sucking him further into you.

“Holy shit,” Kirishima groans, “you’re amazing.”

“Talk less, fuck me more!” you screech, your body spasming, twitching so hard from the splitting pleasure and the lava pit in your stomach, and Kirishima does that exactly.

His hips begin to meet yours in equaled power, slamming into you so that the bed creaked beneath you. He fucked you until he had to hold a hand on your hip so you could stay there, and you kept a hand on the wall to continue to push yourself down onto his cock.

You screamed with pleasure, cried for more, Kirishima’s shark-like smirk getting bolder, darker, hotter with every slam of his hips until his tattooed right arm shot down. His hand wrapped around your throat, choking you.

“You’re so loud, princess,” Kirishima moans, clearly liking your loud noises, “but you’re going to wake everyone in Tokyo.”

His hand around your throat is enough to have your legs trembling around his waist, your choked and muffled moans and splutters drowning out even more as he pressed a kiss onto you. He kissed you, licking your mouth, and devouring your every word and thought. Your core twisted, tightened, and burned. It throbbed and clenched with it’s impending orgasm, and your body began to tense to the heavens as his cock throbbed deep within you.

“Who saved you?”

“E-Ei did,” you garble.

“Who’s fucking you?”

“E-Ei is!”

“Who’s going to fucking cum when I tell her to?”

“Me! Fuck, me!”

Kirishima laughs, his arms wrapping around your waist, and in one final, fleeting burst of strength, fucks into you with his own power, needs, and desire, and you can only take it. “Cum, princess,” he whispered almost sweetly against the top of your head, and it was all over. Your teeth sink into his chest as you scream, a blinding white light erupting through your vision as you cum around his cock.

Kirishima whimpers, his cock still pushing deep into your cunt, until you can feel the warm spill of his seed in your womb.

He collapses to the side of you, taking you with him so that you were resting on his sweaty chest.

“Holy shit,” Kirishima whispered after a bit, your body already warm and too lethargic to notice the star-like tone to his voice. “That was fucking… holy shit.”

“Does this mean you like me?” you half tease, half wonder.

There’s a pause, a silence, and you wonder if maybe he had fallen asleep.

But he didn’t.

“I’ve been in love with you for some time now, I think,” he admits, his hand beginning to rub small circles into your back.

You find that despite the exhaustion, warmth floods your cheeks.

“Oh?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I guess we’re going to have to discuss a more… permanent and maybe different contract tomorrow morning, huh?”

Kirishima chuckles, and you find yourself smiling into his chest.

“I think we do.”

[hotwings0203]

I feel like Dabi would be the type of dude who would bully you incessantly at the LOV and for the life of you you can’t figure out why. He’s always around you and making snarky comments or pulling your hair, trying to catch you messing up on missions. You’re sure he hates you, and you do well to stay out of his way, or sometimes when you feel bold you’ll offer a quip of your own. The bullying increases whenever you talk to other guys at the bar, especially when you make Tomura crack a smile, Dabi’s breathing down your neck the second your leader leaves, calling you terrible names and pushing past your boundaries.

Cw: language, nsfw, noncon, manga spoilers, some angst?

In a perfect world, Touya would not have been abandoned and rejected by his family. In a perfect world, Dabi would not exist, and Touya would be eating dinner with his family right now as he shows his little brother how to properly wield fire to its fullest extent.

But there was no such thing as a perfect world, and therefore Dabi did exist. And Dabi doesn’t care for anyone, or anything.

Or so he tells himself.

“Slut”

“Nothing but eye candy, and shitty eye candy at that”

It’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but it doesn’t make it any easier to ignore him

“What was that all about, huh? The fuck are you and crusty snickering about?”

Fed up with his continuous antics, you decide to mouth off a little too.

“Oh nothing, just talking about how adorable you and Hawks would make as a couple. And wipe that sneer off your face, it looks like some of your staples fell out of your mouth.”

It’s nothing too snarky, but in a second he’s shoving you in some dark room, forearm pinned against your throat as his hand is lit up with blue flames merely inches away from you, snarling in your face.

“You wanna be funny, bitch? I got jokes of my own too, why dont I show you what happens to dumb little girls who don’t know their fucking place? I think that would be real funny.”

But his hand is stopped from drawing near your wide eyes when you both hear Twice and Toga calling everyone for their next meeting.

He pushes you away from him, giving you a murderous look over his shoulder as he leaves the room, not paying mind to the way you slide down the wall in the dark.

You take extra precaution to try avoiding him for the next few days, not even making eye contact with him when you two get teamed up for tasks. He never mentions the room incident, if anything he acts as if it never happens. It’s like whiplash for you, he tries to weirdly talk to you more but all you offer him is mumbles and hums of agreement.

The conversation is never long, but it starts to be less talk of degrading you and more of begrudging questioning of what you’ve been up to. You never engage, opting to pretend like you never heard him, and strangely enough he leaves it be.

You give him a side eye one day as he joins you at the bar (much to your discontent), downing your glass just to fill another.

He says nothing as he slides into the stool right next to you, and pours a glass of whiskey for himself as well.

It’s awkwardly silent, you’re not sure if you should leave or not, but you’d be damned if you try to initiate small talk with this psycho.

But then, he speaks.

“Is Shigaraki sending you on the mission to get that UA kid?”

His gravely voice rumbles and cracks from his usual lack of use, and he clears his throat after he talks.

“No.”

“Oh.”

This is excruciating, you think to yourself as he mulls over the drink in his hand for a silent minute or two.

Toga calls you over thankfully at the exact same moment, and you breathe out an inaudible sigh of relief as you slip off the stool to join her.

“Wait-“ Dabi grabs your arm and you flinch out of instinct, expecting a slap or a burn to come from him.

He sees your reaction and shakes his head dismissively, letting you go and muttering a “Nevermind”. You don’t ponder over it as you trip over your own feet to join the eccentric blond.

A week passes, and then two. With each day you maneuver your way around him, request to be partnered up with different people in private, and busy yourself in random tasks. Every time you pass him by the bar he lifts his head from whatever he’s doing and tries to maintain eye contact with you, even going so far as to open his mouth to say or ask god-knows-what.

You try to ignore the foreign hopeful glint in his glacial eyes as you walk right past him, ducking your head as you do so.

It drives Dabi crazy.

He can’t handle any more rejection, he thought his family would be the last straw for him to ever want recognition or love validation from again. He wants to talk to you, to hear your voice as it snaps back with witty comebacks of your own that he secretly enjoys so much, even if it means he has to force it out of you with hateful words. He wants to feel your hair underneath his scarred hands, even if he has to mask the soft wanting of you in forms of yanking the strands. He wants nothing more than to see your eyes fill up with no other sight than him and think only of him, even if it means he has to corner you and scare you into submission.

But your silence is something he’s not used to.

Well, to be fair, you weren’t silent completely, but the only sentences he was hearing from you nowadays was when you were speaking to Shigaraki or the other League members.

You were the only idiot who didn’t notice the smoke curling from his nostrils and ears comically when he’d finally see you stop your stoic act just to open up to other men apart from him. Spinner, Twice, and Compress backed off almost immediately from talking to you for too long when they’d see the look on his face as he watched you surrounded by them, but Tomura would merely smirk from behind your shoulders and keep a level gaze with his subordinate, knowing fully well why he was so pissed off.

You began to notice the weird energy at the base soon after the rest of the men would keep curt conversations with you in comparison to your long talks about video games, sex, and life after you would all win the war.

So you thought it would be best to ask the most semi-normal person there that wasn’t fueled with testosterone and aggression.

“I just don’t get it, why are they all being weird? I mean, we all used to talk so much and now they just...try avoiding me. Except for Tomura of course, he’s still normal I guess. But he always has this smirk on his face when I’m with him and I can’t figure out why.”

Toga stops cleaning her blood-laced needle to give you a sly look, all fangs and glinting white.

“And Dabi?”

“What about him?”

She sits back on her haunches and cocks her head at you. “You really don’t know what’s happening here, do ya?”

“No,” you roll your eyes in exasperation. “But I’ll gladly take any theories here, since apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t get it.”

“He likes you.”

You gape at her for a moment and then burst out laughing.

“What? That’s crazy, he doesn’t like me, he hates me!” He can barely stand being in a room with me, all he does is talk shit and harass me.”

The blond curiously licks at a bead of red from the top of the weapon and you cringe when her own tongue rips from the sharp point.

“You say he can’t stand being in a room with you, so then why is it that he’s always there? He might talk shit, but he talks to you out of everyone else right? Regardless of if it’s something mean.”

You’re thoroughly flabbergasted. She had a point, but it was too much to wrap your head around. She cheerfully hums and gets up to flounce around the room, cleaning her already-tidy room up to a T.

“And that little silent treatment act you’re giving him isn’t helping either. I swear, Jin told me Dabi almost burned his mouth off that one day you, him and Spinner were talking about GTA. He totally cornered the poor guy and threatened his life if he didn’t stop talking to you.”

“You’re joking.”

“Am not. He wanted to do the same to Tomura but I figure he wants to keep his job, so he won’t. Doesnt make it any better for him when you’re all chummy with the one person Dabi can’t stand the most, though.”

No wonder your leader was so smug whenever you two were in the same room, your attention solely focused on him.

You run your hands down your face, moaning about the whole situation being fucked. It’s just your luck that you couldn’t take a clue, but to be fair, how could you? Being called worthless and a waste of space wasn’t exactly what you had in mind for flirty banter.

“Soooo what’re you gonna do now? I heard he’s gonna try talking to you for realsies like, tomorrow or something.”

“Tomorrow?” You yelp, jumping up to your feet. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I can’t face him!”

“Oops,” she giggles, twirling with outstretched arms around her room and falling down onto her bed.

“Oh god, I can’t do this. I don’t even know if I like him! He’s such an ass, and even when he tries to come off as normal he’s just so..unsettling. I don’t think I’ve ever had a good conversation with him.”

Toga props her elbow up to rest her chin on her hand, frowning in thought.

��Why not just tell him how you feel?”

You snort and fold your arms. “Yeah, because the psycho arsonist is really gonna take the word no well.”

“Hmm.. I see what you mean. Oh well, whatever you choose, I’ll support you!”

And with that she skips out of the room sing songing for Twice to make a clone for her.

You were fucked.

And sure enough, the next day he approaches you, hands stuffed in his pockets and an almost bored look on his face.

“Yo newbie, I gotta talk to you for a second. Come with me”.

You look blearily up at him through eye bags and mussed hair, a direct telling of your sleepless night. Your stomach drops when you hear his words, but you nod your head and take a deep breath, mentally preparing yourself of the speech you practiced till the sun rose.

No one else is bothering you both today, Shigaraki having gone to visit All For One and the rest of the League left to their own devices. It was something you weren’t so comfortable with, but you doubted a hero would come to save you.

He leads you through the short winding hallways, each step of his growing louder and heavier as the space started growing smaller. Finally, he reaches a dimly lit room and stops outside the door, gesturing for you to go in with a casual wave of his patched wrist.

“After you.”

You raise an unsure eyebrow at his uncharacteristic show of consideration, and do as he says. You’re sweating bullets, fists balled so that your nails are digging into your palms, and vision going in and out of focus as your eyes begin to adjust to your surroundings.

A loud bang pulls you out of your stupor, and you whip around at the sound.

Dabi is already staring back at you with lidded eyes, leaning his weight against the door, his arms crossing over each other.

You shift on both feet, picking at your nails nervously.

“So, what did you wanna talk about?”

He says nothing, but just observes you, his head slightly tilted as if you were some abstract art piece.

“Dabi.”

“You got a lot of nerve, y’know that?”

He pushes himself off the wall and advances slowly towards you, hands stuffed in his trench coat pockets.

You immediately back up with raised palms, sputtering indignantly at his offensive movements coming closer and closer. However you thought his ‘confession’ would go, this was most definitely not starting out like how you planned

“Excuse me? What’re you talking about-“

“I know what you’re doing. You think whoring yourself out to ol’ crusty and the rest of the guys here is gonna make everyone forget just how useless you actually are. What the fuck do you even do here? You fuck up half the missions which I have to come bail your ass out of, you constantly put us in jeopardy by being all friendly with everyone, and you can’t even keep your mouth shut when I need to let off a little steam, as I rightfully should.”

In a perfect world, Dabi would be the light of your eyes, the hero of your world. In a perfect world, Dabi would be able to hold your hand in his smooth one and tell you that he wants you so much that it impairs his rational judgement and makes him say things he doesn’t mean. He’d tell you that your presence is like a weight lifted off his chest, your presence means he doesn’t have to think or worry about the outside world, he just wants you all to himself without anyone interfering.

But this is not a perfect world, and Dabi is not a hero, but rather one of the worst villains.

So he does exactly what one does as a villain.

Instead of a loving look that he knows he’s incapable of, Dabi looks down into your horrified gaze as he traps you against the wall between his scarred arms, spewing misplaced venom at you.

“I don’t know what your problem is, but you need to chill out. First you go ballistic on me ‘cause I talked to Tomura for no reason, then you act all weird and quiet as if you’re some decent person, and now you think you can just bring me in here and tell me how worthless I am? Go fuck yourself, seriously.”

You scoff and make your way to push him but stop when he does what he did a couple weeks ago. You hold bated breath as he casually brings an inflamed hand to scratch at his face as if he can’t feel the hellfire emitting from it, and let out a whine of distress as he lowers his head mere inches from yours, lips almost touching.

“Stop talking to the rest of the guys,” he breaths. “Stop smiling, laughing, or going near anyone who isn’t me.”

You wonder if he knows how insane he sounds. He does, but that’s nothing he doesn’t know already. If anything, it solidifies in his mind that if he is to be as bad as the world has made him out to be, then he is acting exactly fit for the role.

“Why?”

“I don’t need to give sluts like you a reason. It should come as easy, right? What’s putting out for one more person?”

Your eyes are brimming with tears now, your stoic facade showing cracks as you sniffle a little bit.

He eats it up and groans watching salty rivers cascade down your cheeks. Suddenly, he feels as though he can no longer hold back anymore, he feels as though if he thinks for one more second he’ll combust.

So, acting on instinct, he surges forward and presses his lips against yours, swallowing your cries of distress and holding your hands above your head in midst of them frantically beating on his chest.

Your lips are so, so soft compared to his and it’s making him sink deeper into this instinctual daze. He puffs against your writhing lips as he thrusts his hot tongue in your mouth.

You try to bite him but when his hands heat up against your skin you resign to your fate and wail, allowing him to pull his hips flush against yours and start humping your thighs.

He draws back and bites your lips, teeth clacking against yours as he does so. You open your terrified eyes and blanch when you see the look on his face.

Lust is clearly drawn everywhere, from his blown pupils to his heaving chest, all the way to his flushed face and wild eyes. He looks as though he’s about to eat you alive and it’s appropriate that you feel like a lamb about to be slaughtered.

“Dabi, wait, please stop-“

But he cuts your pants off again in favor of slamming his hips against yours again and grinding impossibly hard on your legs, the friction of his jeans catching on your clothed cunt and forcing a mewl out of you.

“I’m not gonna stop. I’ve had enough of you teasing. You’re mine now, and if it takes burning our dear leader alive and this whole place down for you to understand that then I’ll fucking do it.”

He thought that terrorizing you would ease the empty feeling in his heart, that continuously berating you would force him to see you as what he always said you were, just another empty headed cunt. He thought that distancing himself from you and focusing on other things would make him forget about the soft feelings he longed to share with you, feelings he thought perished in the fire he was in when he was a young boy .

Even now, there is an ache in his chest as he hears you beg for him to stop, to let you go, that you’re sorry for whatever you did.

But this is not a perfect world, and not everyone gets their way in life.

You should really learn that, because Dabi already has.

And so Dabi will act accordingly to what life has put out before him .

[thefanficmonster]

Graphic Novel

Corpse Husband x Physical Therapist!Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Mentions of Physical Therapy Methods, Swearing (Maybe)

Genre: Fluff, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: Corpse tells his friends about his decision to switch physical therapists while recounting all the times he’s had with the previous one who he was working with - Y/N L/N.

Requested by Anon. Hi darling! Thank you so much for your amazingly creative request, I’ve had a blast writing it! I’m really sorry it’s taken me so long to write and post it but here it finally is and I hope you come across it and enjoy the read! Love, Vy ❤

It hasn’t been easy getting back into that streaming chair after the major change in his life that has just occurred. It’s gonna take him a long time to get used to doing the thought of taking a different route to get to a different treatment center to meet up with a whole new physical therapist after a three year journey with a therapist he grew to like and whose company he thoroughly enjoyed during every session. They were close friends by the time he decided to switch to a new one, knowing that was the best course of action under these circumstances.

“That’s confusing...“ Rae is the first one to express her thoughts about the situation after Corpse has come forward and confessed what’s been going on and why he’s been absent. To be fair, she has every right to be puzzled by all this - everyone upon finding something or someone great would do the complete opposite of what Corpse has done, they’d hold on, especially if it’s their health in question. He himself just expressed his doubt that he’ll probably ever find someone quite as skilled, talented and professional as Therapist L/N which has confused the gang even more. “Why’d you leave them? They sound like a dope person. I don’t think there are many professionals in their field with that great of an attitude. It’s important to make a proper connection with the patients a doctor is treating to build trust and paint themselves as a reliable person.“

See, all these points Rae is making are more than valid. From her point of view, Corpse has zero reason to drop Y/N, it’s complete nonsense to her and to every other person listening in on the conversation. It’s a very personal topic which is thankfully not being recorded to avoid any rumors surfacing and people trying to dig into who may be the therapist in question - there are not many physical therapists with that last name in San Francisco after all. He just wants to part ways with them while maintaining both of theirs privacy.

“I don’t think it was going anywhere. Like, they helped me plenty physically, but it felt more like a psychiatric session every time cause they’d just let me vent and offer me solutions and advice for my problems and I really don’t want them wasting their time with me anymore. Their area of expertise doesn’t cover my psychological issues but they were somehow able to help me with those as well yet I eventually started feeling like a burden to them regardless of how many times they had told me they enjoyed my company.“ His voice turns sour and bitter at the mention of the amount of fun the two had in Y/N’s office. I’m talking board games, video games, pictionary, you name it. They are both so childish and formed such a strong connection between them, it was unbelievable and many would call it nonprofessional too. He couldn’t have them risking their job because of their friendship with them. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he knew he was the reason behind them hypothetically getting fired. Better safe than sorry, they say.

“So, have you met up with your new therapist since you signed them?“ Sykkuno asks as to fill the silence.

“Yeah, he’s nice. I mean, he’s no Y/N but I think we’re gonna get along nicely. He has no idea who I am, thankfully.“ Corpse replies, falling a bit in thought for a moment before chuckling, “Y/N didn’t know who I was either...“

“So you’re telling me you’re important or something?“ They ask, one eyebrow suspiciously raised at their patient as they massage and rotate his left arm.

“Mhmm,“ he hums, confirming, “I wouldn’t say important, bur I am kinda famous.“

Their eyebrows furrow together with displeasure, “Oh no, are you a back bench politician?”

He huffs out a laugh looking up to meet their confused and mildly anxious gaze, “No, not a politician. A YouTube streamer, gamer if you will.”

A smile stretches at the corners of their relief as obvious relief fills their eyes, “That’s a lot better than a politician. What ya known for, what game?”

“Well, I first started out as a horror story narrator and then climbed the ladder. I have one game in particular to my name, you might’ve heard of it - Among Us?“

“Oh yeahhh! I know it! However, I must admit I’m a real horror junkie and...“ they look over at the highly heated pads they’d have to put on Corpse’s arms to increase the blood flow, knowing it’ll burn like hell although it won’t cause any actual damage, “You know, that’s a perfect distraction!“

“From what???” He asks, a panicked look shot Y/N’s way as he realizes he’s about to be put under some pressure or pain unlike before. He’s not so much afraid of the experience itself as much as he’s really not looking forward to having to control his reaction in front of them.

They chuckle nervously but cover it up with ease, “Oh nothing, don’t worry about it! You just go on and tell me a scary story.”

He smiles warily, but still somewhat certainly, “Your wish is my command.”

“Aww, you two sound like you’d make the baddest duo! Something straight out of a graphic novel or something!“ Rae gushes, clearly upset said novel won’t have the ending she’s hoping for.

“Are you talking about a graphic novel where the doctor and patient fall for one another?“ Questions the ever so insightful Toast who almost never lets things slip him by. 

And that’s how he’s got the whole VC silent.

“Not really the one you’re thinking of...“ Corpse trails off, “There’s not much to risk when I’m no longer their patient, is there?“

“No, there’s not.“ Another voice on his end confirms his claim, supporting the aforementioned theory of the love affair.

“Ok, NOW it makes a ton more sense!“ Rae exclaims, seemingly relieved yet still shocked by the twist of events.

“How I wish I had you guys place bets, I would’ve been eighty dollars richer now!“ Toast laughs, pleased with himself, “And Corpse!“ He catches his friend’s attention with ease, “That’s one hell of a graphic novel, one I’d definitely read.“

Little does he know Corpse and Y/N still can barely wrap their heads around what has happened. The speed at which their lives have turned around and changed so drastically, all for them to be able to call each other theirs without the stakes having to be through to roof. Somewhere between the rounds of monopoly and pictionary, the two got caught up with themselves, eyes locked, proximity increased.

Lips suddenly connected.

There’s been many times they crossed the professional boundary with the nonprofessional kiss here and a touch of the hands there but it’s history now. Now they have no boundary, no tightrope to be walking on. Just flat ground, a clear sky above a calm sea ahead.

He keeps going to therapy, with Y/N’s help at home and they get to keep their job. And yet they both get their ‘happily ever after.’ Toast is right, this is one hell of a story and Corpse and Y/N are hella lucky to be living it.

@maat-the-prescriptive  @simonsbluee  @save-the-sky  @itsminniekat  @hacker-ghost  @bi-andready-tocry  @imtiredaffff  @jazzkaurtheglorious  @hereforbeebo  @fandomgirl17  @chrysanthykios  @maehemscorpyus  @loraleiix  @letsloveimagines  @annshit  @i-cant-choose-a-username-help  @enigmaticmaze  @divine-artemis  @waterlilypat  @idontknowwhatthisisfam  @evi-ka  @classyandfabulous00  @redperson58  @lilysdaydreams @solowheein  @mythicalamphitrite  @axen-gers  @luckygirl144  @nj01  @buddyemily   @the-albino-lioness  @stardream14  @gdhdkfnn  @nomadicgypsyy  @preciousskye  @fluffysuicideunicornsworld  @o-kaelin  @manacharlotte  @awkward-youtube-trash  @lolalee24  @bonky-beerns  @meme-lord-and-savior-sebastian  @strawbrinkofdeath  @teenloves  @tams0527  @browneyespinkhair  @starstruckllamapuppy  @daisychains012  @y0ulooked  @tinytacosuitcaseflap @supernatural-is-my-only-life  @jula-pauline  @melodykitty  @just-that-bi-girl  @crazybutconfidentaf  @lowellshade @alphakees  @bellero  @weallneednamjesus  @starryhanji  @boiled-onionrings  @husherstan  @fockingwhore  @melaningoddessthings  @prettypastelpetals  @haleypearce  @godwhyamiawkward  @y-napotat  @daisychainyoonmin  @little-miss-rebel3  @free-wheelin-bi-sexual  @redmoon261 @darkacademic2  @wiseflamingoqueen  @into-the-end  @namikhai-i  @nastiablr  @thelittleplantlover  @mirktuan  @dont-hyuck @jjk-bunny  @vintagegothlover  @easygoingtheatre  @itsrandombooklover  @miiaivi  @emmybaybee  @befourgolden  @jjk-is-my-shit  @eternalteaaars  @spacebadgerx  @princesslunalight  @acequinn14  @samm48  @misselsbells06 @simp-lykawa  @fo-love  @marishimomura-blog  @therealglenncoco  @cinnamonbun332  @killtherandomness  @sanshinexxxsan  @fee-btheweeb  @press-lay  @cathleenpotgieter16  @jazzydoesstuff  @moonlxghtbay  @forestrain2000  @hyunjinhugs  @blood-of-fandoms  @lovellylies  @ukiyolixx  @simpforhpcharacters  @chrisdylan17  @parkerjisung  @pedernille  @theodonyous  @wineandionysus  @malfoystilinskii05  @morbid-x  @coryisagee  @jessewa26  @scoobydooluver97 @mindintheskies365  @raeanneinwonderland  @indecisive-empanada  @gluttonypalace  @loriane2503  @btsiguess-kpop  @khaoticbunny  @lucidlycactus  @smiithys  @rottenroyalebooks  @kpopgirlbtssvt  @fangirl-tc27  @fr0z3n-1  @notmesimpingfortechno  @shotarosleftpinky  @kunoi-chan  @idk-whats-wrong-with-me  @yikeroonie  @goldenstarofthunderclan  @poetry-and-tea  @ama-do-writing-stuff  @wishbonewolf  @emeraldxhope  @t0xick1tty  @kusuinko  @speakyourselfloveyourself  @sophia902103  @lo-manburg  @classsykittykat  @dmgama  @depressedpuppythatneedscoffee  @btsiguess-kpop  @akaashi-baby  @gun-jong-simp  @geschichtenfee  @yerapotato-wp  @browneyedgirl365  @thysagclub  @sparklycloudnight  @helloatomicshadow  @queentorresstuff @vtte @val-gal  @lucy-bunny17  @aaliyahh0  @katluckybear  @boyleanti  @straybids  @franchesca-791  @cosmicstorm19  @averyisbackinthetrashcan  @aomi-nabi  @xlanawriter  @allensimpsforcorpse  @sunnyrae-cessh  @ladykxxx08  @meowiemari  @renupf  @booklover76  @sra-verissimo  @beatrhizn  @blueberrystigma  @beatrhizn  @chicken-taco-burrito  @scorpio-echo  @nyctophiliiiiaaa  @squirreljoe

[queenshelby]

Roommates – Part Seven

Pairing: Cillian Murphy x Reader

Words: 4,241

Warning: Smut

Note: This plays in 2020.

In the dark, you began to search for your phone to shine some light and, as you were reaching for the bedside table, your hands brushed Cillian a couple of time until you found it.

‘You were saying?’ you chuckled as you turned the little light on your phone on, flashing it towards Cillian.

‘It’s difficult Y/N’ Cillian then said, covering his eyes and you simply nodded.

‘That’s just life sometimes Cilly. I am sure you will find your way with whoever she is’ you then said, caressing his cheek gently before standing up.

‘Remember the last time we were in a blackout together?’ Cillian then asked, causing you to nod.

‘Oh my god yes. It was at your holiday house in Kerry and Danielle was freaking out, thinking that we will never get back to civilisation’ you laughed, remembering that night very well.

‘She was high so I can see how this happened’ Cillian laughed, before turning on the light on his phone as well.

‘Well, I don’t have any Weed but there is a whole bottle of red wine in the kitchen and a cabinet full of board games’ you suggested before gathering some candles while Cillian lid the fireplace in the living room for some extra light.

After you threw a few blankets and pillows down in front of the fireplace and Cillian eventually found his reading glasses, you started with some Scrabble but, usurpingly, after you finished half of the bottle of red wine, this soon became too difficult when you made one spelling mistake after another.

‘You are hopeless’ Cillian eventually observed as he won again, using the most absurd words he could think off after you only scored some points with words like ‘Soup’ and ‘Breasts’.

‘Well, how about a game that I am good at, huh?’ you laughed as you pulled out the Twister mat.

‘You don’t think that we are a little too tipsy for Twister?’ Cillian laughed, remembering that, the last time you played this game drunk, he ended up with four stitches.

‘Nope! I will catch you if you fall’ you chuckled as you started to warm up and opened up the ‘Twister-For-Two’ App on your iPhone which was giving you both directions with thirty second intervals.

‘Jesus, I am getting too fucking old for this’ Cillian said before getting into position, showing off his strong legs which immediately caused you to bite your lips. The fact that he wasn’t wearing anything but his black briefs and a grey t-shirt certainly was an incentive for you.

Left foot blue!

He was certainly getting an easy start, at least so he thought.

Right hand yellow!

But clearly, he was wrong when he watched you bend over right in front of him wearing your rather short Pyjamas featuring Bambi.

‘Interesting clothing choice’ Cillian chuckled as Bambi was staring right at him, covering your deliciously round ass.

‘Get your eyes off my ass Murphy’ you laughed but, deep down inside you didn’t mind him staring at you.

After just five minutes, both of your hands and feet were on the mat and so were Cillian’s.

By this point, Cillian and you had managed to thoroughly tangle yourselves together in a laughing mess and, at right foot yellow, Cillian accidentally bumped your breast. Slightly surprised, you took little notice.

Cillian on the other hand began to struggle as, once again, his manhood began to stir.

‘Seriously?’ he thought to himself as, just moments earlier, he couldn’t get himself into the mood with Lindsay and now that he wanted to prevent exactly this from happening, he couldn’t and was hard as a rock.  

At right hand green, things had become too much for him as you had to slide your right hand along Cillian’s inner thigh on your way to green. As you slowly moved into position, you got a glimpse of what was happening in between Cillian’s legs but yet, you pretended that you didn’t notice his erection.

‘Fuck, that’s it, you won. My back is sore’ Cillian suddenly huffed out, standing up abruptly before walking to the kitchen.

You couldn’t help but grin as Cillian shouted out to see whether you wanted another glass of wine.

‘Yes please’ you giggled rather pleased with yourself but still, you thought that it was simply the friction that aroused him.

‘Do you want another game?’ you asked when he returned with two full glasses and, unsurprisingly, Cillian shook his head which is when you began talking.

You talked about almost everything and anything for about thirty minutes while sitting on the blanket together in between the scented candles and the fireplace.

By this point Cillian’s erection had subsided and you were curious as to whether it was you who caused it in the first place or whether it was something else.

‘Despite the blackout and you breaking it off with Lindsay, I thought that tonight was really fun’ you eventually observed after you finished your glass of wine

‘Well, you are a lot of fun to be around which makes it pretty easy’ Cillian said, finishing off his wine as well.

He smirked and shrugged. His eyes dropped and he started to trace a design on the crumpled blanket with his finger as if he wanted to say something else.

‘Can you ask you a question?’ you then asked out of the blue after having built up some courage.

‘Of course’ Cillian responded as his eyes lifted to yours, and you almost lost your nerve.

‘You, uhm, seemed to have enjoyed the game of Twister a lot more than I had anticipated’ you said, biting your lip nervously while looking down at his crotch.

Cillian immediately blushed, the flush spreading down his neck and the top of his muscular chest. Mortified, he looked at you with wide eyes and his right hand rose to his forehead.

‘Oh, god, Y/N…I am so sorry, it’s just that…the wine…and….’ Cillian shuddered nervously, realising that you saw his arousal and, before he could finish his sentence, you quickly leaned forward and placed a hand on his chest, just above the collar of his t-shirt where some of his chest hair was sticking out. Your palm tingled against the soft spatter of hair there.

‘Cillian, don't! I didn't mean to embarrass you’ you suddenly blurted out as you felt bad that you had, but also stimulated at the thought that you might have aroused him and that, perhaps, it wasn’t just a coincidence.

You were suddenly very aware of the soft, warm skin beneath your hand, and the warm wetness in your panties.

‘I promise you'll never say anything about it again, I just...I have to know...was it friction from the game, or was it, you know...me?’ you then asked, retreating you hand momentarily from his chest and squinting your eyes nervously.

Cillian sighed heavily and grabbed your hand, placing it back against his chest after you leaned away a little. His heart was racing, and you thought yours might pound straight out of your ribcage.

‘It wasn't the friction Y/N’ he then admitted and your breath caught in your throat.

‘I don’t know what it was or what it is, but I know it’s you. I am attracted to you’ Cillian then explained, causing you to grin excitedly.

‘So, when you just got aroused, what did you think about’ you asked as you played with his chest hair.

‘Y/N, we’ve been friends for so many fucking years and I don’t want to ruin this’ Cillian said almost embarrassed and you cut him off again.

‘Yes, and friends tell each other the truth. So, tell me, what was on your mind just then on the Twister mat?’ you asked, causing Cillian to sigh heavily again.

‘I was wondering what you would taste like’ Cillian said almost heavy hearted, admitting his desire for you before apologising for it.

Your heart felt like it stopped. Your entire body tingled, and warmth spread through your belly, snaking straight between your legs. This could absolutely be a dream.

‘Why don't you kiss me and find out?’ you said with husky voice as you moved your face closer to his.

With no hesitation, Cillian’s free hand moved around the back of your neck as his full lips met yours.

Your eyes closed and you opened your mouth, allowing his soft tongue to explore. He pulled you in and kissed you harder while you wrapped your arms around him to run your hands along his back and shoulders.

This continued for quite some times with neither of you being able to let go of the other as you smiled, kissed and moaned into each other’s mouths. Eventually, Cillian wound his hand in your long hair and broke the kiss to move his mouth to your ear.

As it was, you moaned, you shivered, and you dug your nails into his back. Your enthusiastic response drove him to be even more aggressive. He pushed you onto your back and rolled on top of you, the growing bulge in his briefs pressing directly into the spreading wetness between your legs. You gasped at the gratifying sensation.

Cillian pushed himself onto his palms, concerned.

‘This will change everything between us. Do you want this?’ Cillian asked.

‘I wanted this for over a fucking month Cillian. If you don’t fuck me now, I will never forgive you’ you huffed out almost breathlessly and slightly tipsy, causing Cillian to chuckle.

Of course, he wanted it as badly and as much as you did, but he was still somewhat worried about your long-lasting friendship and thought that, ideally, you should both be talking about this first. You needed to clarify what this was and what you were going to become after you slept with each other.

But the wine and his raging erection eventually got the better of him and you immediately wrapped your arms around him to keep him on top of you.

You ground your hips into his and forced his lips to yours, bringing his full weight back to your waiting body. His hot mouth made it back to your neck and ears, and you moaned again, biting your lip in an attempt to stifle the noises he was eliciting from you. He propped himself up on one forearm and began to explore your eager body with his other hand.

He was teasing you, tauntingly caressing you through the thin pyjamas shirt you wore. You writhed beneath his palm, wanting more. His hair wasn't long, but long enough that you could wind your fingers into it and guide his ear into your mouth.

You toyed with it, tracing it with your tongue, sliding the lobe between your teeth, enjoying hearing his breath get heavier and feeling his cock getting harder as he kneaded your breast through the t-shirt. Then he stopped.

‘Y/N’ Cillian huffed out, causing you to enquire why he stopped.

‘I saw you, earlier in the bath when you were masturbating’ he admitted.

‘You looked away though didn’t you?’ you smirked, causing him to shake your head.

‘I am sorry’ he said and you immediately grinned.

‘Did you enjoy watching me?’ you then asked as you raised an eyebrow and panted, rubbing yourself against him.

‘What do you think?’ Cillian chuckled before asking you what you were listening to on your headphones.

‘An audio book you narrated’ you smirked and he looked dumbfounded, which in turn surprised you, considering what he'd said to start all of this.

‘What can I say Cillian, you’ve got a goodman sexy voice’ you admitted before you pushed him off of you and sat up on your knees, peeling off your shirt to reveal your pierced breasts.

He sat, slack jawed, legs outstretched before doing the same with his t-shirt.

‘So many freckles’ you observed before you went further and hooked your thumbs around the waistband of your Bambi panties.

‘Since you already watched me masturbate, there are no more secrets for me to reveal in so far as my body is concerned’ you smirked as you slowly inched them past your hips, leaving you completely naked.

Cillian’s jaw dropped nonetheless. His eyes were hungry and he reached for his own briefs and removed them as well.

‘Well, unfortunately for you, I had no secrets to start off with. You’ve seen it all already’ Cillian said as he gave you a familiar, lop-sided grin that exposed his teeth. So gorgeous.

‘And I love seeing it all again’ you huffed out as your mouth watered at the sight of his erection. But, instead of letting him climb back on top of you, you firmly pressed your naked body against his chest and then straddled his taut body and kissed him soundly.

His hands roamed your body freely, exploring your legs, your back, your breasts, your ass. He caressed and kneaded, he stroked and fondled, all the while kissing your mouth and neck and ears.

‘Oh god Cillian’ you moaned as you ground your clit into his erection, whimpering in pleasure and whispering his name over and over again, something which sounded rather familiar to him.

After placing soft kisses across your neck, he cupped your breasts and rubbed circles on your rigid pierced nipples with his large thumbs, making you tremble. With his gaze boring into yours, he lifted each breast to his lips and gently nuzzled your nipples before gently tugging on each of your piercings.

‘Don't stop...please don't stop’ you moaned as you rode him harder, begging breathlessly and he wasn’t event inside of your yet. The only friction you got was on your clit against his very hard cock.

Cillian complied with your request and fixed his soft lips around a pink areola, sucking hard as he manipulated the firm nub and your piercing with his tongue. It pushed you over the edge and you came with a low moan, your fingers digging roughly into his scalp.

Keeping one hand around his neck, you slumped back onto his muscular thighs and tried to catch your breath.

‘Did you just cum?’ he asked rather surprised and you nodded, unable to say more.

‘Fuck, that is incredibly hot’ he said as his mouth hung open while he looked at you expectantly, and you knew him well enough that he was wondering if your orgasm meant you were done playing.

‘The tension building up over the past month was just too much, but please don’t dare think that I am done with you yet’ you smirked and Cillian mirrored your wicked smile and kissed you deeply until you placed both hands on his chest and pushed him onto his back.

He resisted at first, eager to keep touching you. Finally he relented and propped himself up with one hand behind his head, watching you as you kissed and licked and sucked your way across his muscular chest and stomach again and again.

Any time you came to his nipples, his eyes pinched tight and his hips involuntarily jerked toward you. You pressed your slight body down onto his rigid cock, making him emit a deep, guttural moan. It was all you could do not to impale your wet pussy on the willing flesh, but you were enjoying the anticipation far too much.

You slid your body down on his, his freckled skin a striking contrast against your much darker tan. While you made your decent, you briefly thought again about just climbing onto him and lowering your wet, ready pussy onto his very hard cock, but you decided that as late as it was, it was still early enough in the night to do everything you wanted. And you wanted to make him come in your mouth just as you had fantasised for weeks.

When you finally reached your destination, Cillian’s cock, was standing at attention in your hands. It was so long and thick that it made your small hands look positively tiny in comparison. You ran them up and down the length of his shaft, taking the time to trace every line and curve carefully.

‘Fuck, Y/N, this feels so fucking good’ Cillian groaned as he watched you with hooded eyes and you started stroking him more rhythmically. His head rolled back, his hips jutted forward, and you couldn't contain yourself any longer.

You inhaled all that you could at once, which admittedly wasn't much considering all that remained. You pulled your head back, sucking hard, and went down for another try, and another, and another, gorging on a little more of his shaft each time.

‘Jesus Christ’ Cillian groaned again loudly as you finally managed to take all of his length and he bottomed out against the back of your throat.

You grinned as you accomplished what you had hoped and began bobbing your head up and down his shaft.

Occasionally, you snuck glances at his face when you could; sometimes he was staring at you fixedly, his mouth pinched to a narrow line, other times his eyes were screwed tight.

‘Y/N, I am close, fuck, you need to stop’ you eventually heard him weakly say as you continued to pleasure him with your lips and tongue.

But, instead of stopping, you looked him straight in the eyes and took his cock deeper down your mouth.

‘Y/N, fuck’ he groaned, trying to delay his release until he realised that this was what you wanted as you continued to suck him eagerly.

Eventually, with another loud groan, his entire body tensed and you could feel his sweet cum spurt into the back of your throat. Rope after rope, you drank every drop and, when he finally came down from his high, you gently licked him clean and he sat up and pulled you into his lap, kissing you deeply.

‘You just kissed me after you came in my mouth’ you observed when your lips drifted apart which is something James, the only man you had ever been with before tonight, would never have done.

‘Does that bother you?’ Cillian asked concerned and you shook your head.

‘No, I think its fucking sexy’ you blurted out before kissing him again and, just as you did, you felt his erection reviving underneath your ass almost immediately.

While sucking on your tongue, his large hands grabbed around your waist and rolled you over on the blanket beside him.

He crawled over you and stuck his tongue in your ear, making you claw at his back until he whispered ‘When I said that I wanted to know what you taste like, I meant that I wanted to eat your pussy.’

This was probably the dirtiest thing you ever heard him say to you and you liked it a lot and wiggled out from underneath him just enough to spread your legs provocatively.

His breath on your legs, coupled with his revelation that he had been fantasising about licking you, made you quiver. He slowly kissed the inside of your thighs, occasionally brushing your soaking mound with his nose or his lips. You relished every second and it wasn’t long until he locked your gaze and pressed his tongue flat against your vulva.

‘Oh god yes, Cillian, fuck’ you moaned out as he was licking and sucking you.

He covered your labia and clitoris in wet kisses before sticking his tongue deep inside you, causing you to scream out louder than ever before.

As he continued to pleasure you, one of your hands was buried in his hair, tearing at it as he made your body go crazy whilst the other clenched against the blanket beneath you.

You remembered what Laura had said and there certainly was some truth to it. He was good, very good and it wasn't long before you'd built into another orgasm, but you didn't feel the need to warn him beforehand.

‘Oh, my fucking god’ you shouted out eventually as his wicked tongue sent you over the edge and your legs began to shake crazily while he pinned you down.

No man had ever made you cum with his tongue alone and the sensitivity on your clit following your orgasm was overwhelming and made you squirm.

Still, he continued to ply his tongue into your sensitive folds until you used both hands to pry his head back by his hair. He grinned from ear to ear, and you knew you were paying for teasing him earlier.

Languidly, he pulled his body over yours, pausing to kiss you here and there while you regained a little composure. His breath was heavy when he found himself at your ear again.

‘I want to be inside you’ he whispered and you nodded fervently.

He raised himself to his knees, his erection again at full mast. You felt a momentary twinge of nervousness. He was bigger than James and this worried you just a little.

‘Do you want me to go and get a condom?’ Cillian asked and you knew that he kept some upstairs in his bedside table which, ironically, Lindsay had bought for him.

‘No, I am on the pill. I want to feel you, all of you’ you said, biting your lips with anticipation.

This was all Cillian needed to hear and, within seconds, he lined himself up you’re your soaking wet entrance.

He knew that you had never been with another man other than James and was gentle and slow as he entered you, increasing the pace of his thrusts only after you'd had a chance to get used to his length and girth and began raising your hips up to meet his.

‘Oh god, you feel so fucking tight Y/N’ Cillian groaned as he thrusted in and out of you.

‘Cillian, fuck me harder, oh god’ you screamed out almost at the same time. He felt so amazing inside of you that you could barely breathe! You probably looked like the proverbial fish on dry land, gasping for air as you drown under wave after wave of orgasmic pleasure.

You were almost grateful when he folded over you and groaned into your neck, the sound of your name from his lips bringing you to one last climax as he enjoyed his.

‘Fuck yes Cillian’ you groaned as you could feel him pulsate inside of you, filling you with his seed as you climaxed in sync.

By this point you had lost count of how many orgasms he'd given you, but you were fairly sure that you could make him come every hour on the hour for the next three or four days and still be in his debt.

You never had sex that good and you struggled to contain yourself after you both were breathless. Cillian held his body close to his as his breath normalized, and you shuddered as he pulled his softening cock from inside you, lamenting its absence and causing some of his cum to leak onto the blanket beneath you.

‘What do you think? Should we get to bed?’ he eventually huffed out and you nodded, but weren’t so sure whether you would be sleeping in the same or separate bedroom.

‘I might need some help getting up’ you giggled, knowing that you wouldn’t be walking straight for days.

Cillian was quick to flash up his phone and scoop you up from the floor in response to your comment and carry you to your bed.

‘Uhm, do you want me to stay with you?’ Cillian asked somewhat nervously and you bit your lip and nodded at him.

Within seconds, he slid into bed with you, turned off the flashlight on his phone before pulling the top sheet over your nude forms before sliding an arm around you to curl you into his warm body.

‘This was incredible, even better than I had ever imagined’ he said and you nuzzled into the soft hair that sparsely covered his chest, still reeling that the most amazing wet dream you'd ever had had happened during your waking hours.

***

The following morning, you were woken by your phone which rang not once, not twice but three times in total until you finally answered it.

‘Hey, what’s up’ you huffed out with a dusty head while Cillian was stirring besides you.

‘I really need to talk Y/N, I am sorry. I know that Cillian is seeing someone by the name of Lindsay and I am really fucking upset about it’ Laura went on to say before telling you once again that she wasn’t over the break up and suspected that he was seeing her and Lindsay at the same time.

‘I can’t really talk about this right now’ you said, your head pounding as Cillian’s arm wrapped around you.

‘Can you call me back when you can please. I know you said that you wanted to stay out of this, but there is more to it’ Laura then said and you were immediately overwhelmed with guilt.

 Tag List:

@lilymurphy03 @deefigs @theflamecrystal @desperate-and-broken @weepingstudentfishhorse @livinginfantaxy @rosey1981 @atomicsoulcollecto @peakyboyslover @nerdy4itall@elenavampire21 @hanster1998@mariapaiva13 @fairypitou @harry-is-your-sunflower @zozeebo @lauren-raines-x @kasaikawa @littlewierdalien @sad-huffle-nerd @theflamecrystal @peakymalfoyscullymulder @themissthang@0ghostwriter0 @stylescanbeatmyback @1-800-peakyblinders @datewithgianni @momoneymolife @ntmynouis @lilymurphy03 @mcntsee@cloudofdisney@missymurphy1985 @peakymalfoyscullymulder @otterly-fey @janelongxox @uchihacumdump @basiclassy @being-worthy @chaotic-bean-of-smolness @margoo0 @chocolatehalo @vhscillian @ysmmsy @littlewierdalien @crazymar15  @stickyknightflowerbailiff @im-constantly-fangirling @goldensunflowe-r  @tellingyouastory  @captivatedbycillianmurphy​  @namelesslosers​  @littlewhiterose​  @ttzamara​  @ttzamara @cilleveryone  ​

@peaky-cillian​

@severewobblerlightdragon​  @ysmmsy​  

Cannot Tag (please check your settings):

@l0tsofpennies @trolleydolly @avonlady1985 @chrisevanshoeee @daydreamingnymph @fookingshelby  @thenattitude

[jadequeen88]

RED AND THE WOLF

I’m a little late to the game, BUT here is my contribution the the Citrus Dome’s BNHA Fairytale!AU collab! Check out the other works here.

A/N: this was completed and uploaded on mobile, so please let me know of any typos! It’s also not beta read and I’m a little self conscious of the ending. But regardless, I hope you guys enjoy!

Half Giant!Kirishima x Wolf!Bakugo x fem!reader

2.3k words

TW: threesome, kidnapping, tied up, size kink, a tad bit of breeding kink.

ALL FICS I WROTE ARE 18+. MINORS DNI

You scoffed at the warnings from the villagers and your family. You put as much stock in them as you did all the other old wives’ tales you’d been fed growing up (read, not fuckin much). You’d never seen any giants or knew anyone who did. Neither did you know anyone who could say they encountered a fierce man who shifts into the form of a golden wolf… So, you concluded, there was absolutely no reason to pay attention to the ramblings of the old assholes grumbling out tall tales into their fourth or fifth mug of ale…. or to the old washerwomen by the stream angrily beating their undergarments on the flat stones, yelling out as you entered the dark canopy of the forest.

********

“Ei!”

“Hmmmmgghhnn, what? Why do you wake me this early?” The massive man rolled to the other side of their shared bed, trying to ignore the loud, booming voice of his partner, and failing.

“I found one. It’s gotta be her…” he shivered, the long, golden tail he kept even in his human form bristled out, “Just wait until you smell her, Ei.”

The half-giant sprung up from the soft pillows and warm furs of the bed. He knew that not many things got his wolf this worked up so he had no choice but to believe him. Grabbing a small, leather band, he tied back his long, vibrant red mane of hair and threw on his tall, worn leather boots.

“Lead me to her, Katsuki.”

********

You didn’t even hear a rustle of leaves to warn you of the massive man approaching you from behind. Two arms the size of tree trunks latched around your waist and your back was pulled against a fleshy, warm wall of pure muscle. When a golden wolf that looked more like a lion jumped out into the path ahead of you, licking his muzzle with a long, red tongue, your brain refused to process exactly what was happening.

A scream was caught in your throat as a cloth was pressed to your mouth. The hand that held it could easily cover your entire face and you shuddered at the thought of who could possibly have hands that large.

“Shh, my sweet,” you could feel the deep rumble of his voice as his chest pressed even harder into your back, “Sleep now…”

********

The sounds of a crackling fire and the feeling of warm, sweet-smelling furs surrounding you lull you back into a peaceful sleep… until you try to turn over and realize a silk band has your wrists tied to one of the massive posts of the bed you’re sleeping on. Panic quickly takes over when you remember the events that lead up to you being here.

Before you can do more than thrash a bit and whimper, a large presence looms over you blocking out the glow of the fireplace. You think you must be dreaming because no man could ever actually be this large.

He had to be a full seven feet tall and four feet wide across his muscled shoulders. Long, crimson hair like a lion’s mane surrounded his chiseled jawline and fell down his back. You noticed the sweet, spicy smell that enveloped you when buried in the furs was coming from him…

You know you should be more frightened than you were, but you couldn’t help but notice how beautiful he was. His deep red eyes were kind and his pointed canines that peeked out from his plush lips as he smiled sent a thrill down your spine instead of scaring you (like they should have).

“O-oh… umm,” your gaze faltered under his intense scrutiny, “Where am I?” you hesitated a moment, “Sir?”

Kirishima wanted to pounce on you right then… so small and soft and pretty… You were going to look so good round with his child… but he knew to be careful with you for now. This would be so, so much sweeter if he didn’t have to force you.

“You’re home now, little one,” he said confidently as if you should have already known that.

“B-but, I was… I was supposed to be selling-”

You were cut off as Kirishima knelt beside you and bent forward to stroke your cheek with one of his massive hands, “My precious one,” he hummed and you couldn’t help but feel safe, “Your life has much more purpose now. You’re ours.”

Wait…

Before you could finish the question, another body lept onto the bed, causing the mattress to shift under you violently. A warm face was buried into your neck, then, and the scratchy stubble along with wild sniffing from the person’s nose sent full-body chills all over you.

“Kats!” the man in front of you barked out, “Down! Now!”

The person assaulting your neck (Kats?) huffed in annoyance and pulled away from you to sit back on folded legs, glaring into the other man’s eyes.

“I’ve been waiting all fuckin day, Shitty Hair!” you noticed his canines were even longer and sharper than the other man’s, “How long r’we just gonna watch her sleep? I can smell her! She’s fertile NOW!”

Now you were thoroughly confused and panic crossed your features.

Kirishima sighed and drug a hand down his face as he groaned in frustration. So much for easing you into things…

“Hey,” the familiar hand that was stroking your face brushed your hair back from your forehead, “Let’s start with names. I’m Eijiro, but you can call me Ei or Red.”

“Or Shitty Hair,” the blonde snickered, pleased with himself for getting a jab in on his companion.

“No,” Eijiro growled, momentarily meeting the other man’s gaze with clear irritation, “Don’t listen to the overgrown puppy.”

Said “puppy” stiffened beside you and was about to lunge over you to tackle Kirishima when you reached out and put a hand on his bare chest. He gave you a confused look and cocked his head to the side. You had no clue what compelled you to touch him, but you know that your hand moved before your brain could stop it.

“Please,” you whispered, “D-don’t fight…”

Both of them visibly relaxed. A light thump-thump-thump was heard on the bed and you noticed not only did he have a tail, but you caused it to wag happily. This caused you to giggle lightly and raise your hand to scratch his unruly, blonde spikes. A small voice in the back of your head was telling you that you should NOT be this relaxed and you should NOT be okay with what was happening, but the sighs and whimpers you were pulling from his gorgeous throat dulled any sense of fear you’d had.

Kirishima cleared his throat and you stopped your scratching to give him your attention (much to Katsuki’s annoyance). “This,” he said, pushing the blonde back from your body slightly and moving closer to your side, “is Katsuki. Or Kats.”

“But you can just call me Daddy if ya want,” he whispered in your ear and you felt a long (a slightly too long) tongue trail up from your collarbone to your ear. You couldn’t stop the little whimper that left your lips.

Eijiro outright growled at that and stood up, grabbing Katsuki by the hair and lifting him to eye level. Both of them were staring daggers at each other, so wound up and jealous they couldn’t see straight.

“No, please!” you thrashed against your restraints, not wanting to be underneath the two giants if they clashed, “I-I don’t want you to fight!” large tears reached the surface of your glassy eyes and both men instantly started fawning over you. Kirishima unfastened your wrists and pulled you into his large lap. He cradled you into his chest as Katsuki nuzzled his cheek into your plush thigh. It wasn’t until then that you realized that you were in your thin underclothes, the sheer material exposing your thighs and barely covering your pebbling nipples. Being so exposed pressed between the two men made your heart flutter and caused a heat to bloom in your stomach that spread all over your body.

You shifted slightly, feeling awkward and unsure of how to deal with the new sensations coursing through your body… and they seemed to pick up on it. Katsuki brushed his mouth along the skin of your thigh, not quite kissing and not quite licking, just gentle, feather-light drags of his lips. Eijiro’s large, calloused fingers traced circles into the skin of your stomach, slowly pulling your thin undergarment up, giving Katsuki more skin to indulge in.

Your head rolled back onto Ejiro’s chest and he looked at you adoringly. “Have you ever lain with a man before, sweet lamb?” his hand spanned your entire midsection as he slid the thin fabric up to sit below your breasts. Katsuki growled and nipped at the exposed skin of your tender belly, soothing it over quickly with his warm tongue. When his eager mouth trailed below your belly button, Eijiro’s other hand grabbed a fist full of blonde hair for the second time. Katsuki looked murderous but didn’t say a word. He knew if he didn’t play nice, he’d end up having to watch his mate fuck you into their mattress as he stroked his cock.

“No… no, sir. I haven’t…”

He seemed to hum in approval at your response and you noticed a very large, very HARD bulge forming underneath you. You stiffened and for a moment, wondered if it would even be possible for that THING to fit inside your virgin cunt. A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest.

“Don’t worry. We will prepare you so that it doesn’t hurt too badly.” as if on cue, Katsuki grabbed your thighs and slid you down the bed so his face was at your core. With very little warning, his tongue was eagerly lapping at your clothed slit. It felt nothing like the tentative swirls of your fingertips you’d indulge in occasionally in the dead of night tucked safely under your covers. This was foreign, electrifying, and slightly terrifying. Eijiro caressed your hardened nipples, circling your areolas gently, still not making direct contact with your skin. You were being shoved over the edge of an intense orgasm before you’d even been undressed. A tiny whimper was all the warning you gave before spilling over Katsuki’s tongue, the thin material of your panties doing nothing to hold back the copious amounts of come.

“Good, sweet girl,” Kirishima brushed the hair off your sweaty forehead. Katsuki whimpered into your throbbing core causing you to jerk involuntarily. He pulled your soaked underwear to the side, ripping it in the process. Your scolding was swallowed up by Kirishima’s hot tongue dancing against your parted lips.

“Don’t worry,” his gentle grip kept your chin turned toward his fiery gaze, “These won’t be needed for now.”

“Ei,” Katsuki whined and you could feel the thump thump thump of his tail thrashing against the bed, “C-can I please?” You noticed he had been dragging his leaking cock along the mattress and soaked through the linen trousers he wore.

“You’ve been greedy, hmm?” KIrishima wound his fingers into messy blonde tresses, “I haven’t even had a taste of our little plaything yet.”

Your stomach did flips as you watched Kirishima devour Katsuki’s lips. His tongue explored every inch of his lover’s mouth, savoring the taste of your release that coated the bottom half of Katsuki’s face.

Watching the two men get lost in each other’s touches reignited the fire in your core, your thighs clenching at the new feeling blossoming inside your body. They must have noticed your reaction, because with a side glance and a chuckle, Ejiro pulled you towards them without breaking the kiss he shared with Katsuki.

Without speaking, you seemed to know what was needed, your body moving on its own. You unfastened Eijiro’s trousers and gasped at just how massive he really was. You gulped before leaning down to gently kiss the angry, leaking head of his cock. You were rewarded with a sweet moan that Katsuki greedily swallowed up. You licked up and down, kissing every inch, getting drunk off the sweet sounds you pulled from the giant man.

Feeling left out, Katsuki quickly got your attention by grabbing your hand and stuffing it down his unfastened pants. You moaned around Eijiro’s member causing him to growl. His patience growing thin, he hauled you up to straddle his lap. His thick fingers dug into the meat of your ass and you felt a warm chest press against your back.

“Now,” the half-giant whispered into your ear, red locks falling around your neck, “Be our good pet and let us fill you up.” You whimpered, head rolling back onto Katsuki’s shoulder as a finger found your tender clit, pulling the hood back gently.

You were passed back and forth for what felt like hours. Katsuki mounting you from behind while you sucked Eijiro’s cock… Eijiro pressing you into the mattress, knees folded up by your ears… Katsuki between the two of you, Eijiro plowing into him and in turn making him fuck you twice as hard…

The three of you were utterly spent as you lay in the hot spring not far from your new home. You lay back on Kirishima’s large chest as Katsuki nuzzled into your soft cleavage. You took turns gently washing and praising each other. You’d never once felt this loved and cherished before.

As your hair was being braided by your crimson haired giant and your face peppered in kisses from your adoring lycanthrope lover… you thanked yourself for choosing to take the path less traveled.

[writtenmarauder]

Flowers (James Potter x Female!Gryffindor!Reader)

Summary: Valentine’s Day at Hogwarts and the marauders and a challenge.

Warnings: Drinking unknown potions. (honestly I was never good at this, just let me know, none pop out to me)

Masterlist: here

I was walking to the great hall for dinner. Sirius and Peter were laughing behind me. We just got out of detention, finally. I of course got caught because of the two idiots, but the marauders were growing on me, so I couldn't complain. I took a seat next to James.

"Hey! That's my spot!" "Sorry, Padfoot. The lady got here first." "Thanks," I smiled. "So, how was detention with those two idiots?" "Now you're just out to hurt me Prongs." "You stole my cloak Padfoot, now I have to get it back."

Remus and I were thoroughly enjoying this little quarrel between the inseparable duo.

"I'll help you get it back, James."

"Really? That'd be nice." "Us, Gryffindors got to stick together right? so why not?" "See Pads, this is real friendship." "Okay that's how you want to play it, Prongs? I've got a deal for you. Mooney and I vs you and Y/N." "Why am I getting roped into this?" "Shush Mooney, I'm telling them the best competition I ever came up with." "Guess you don't have a choice Remus," I smirked.

Sirius explained the game. The first one to get to the cloak wins. The winner gets to do with the cloak whatever he wants for 2 weeks before it was James' again. Condition: No use of the map. I didn't get that but oh well it'll be a lot of fun. Peter agreed to make sure no one cheated. I pointed to the fries while listening to Sirius gloating about how he was going to win. James passed them to me. Our hands slightly brushed against each other. I smiled and felt a slight blush creep onto my cheeks.

"When are we doing this? I would like to plan ahead. Scout out some things, If we're not allowed a map you need to give us time." "Y/n has a point."

Crisis averted.

"Alright. Same day next week." "Perfect." "James, meet me in the common room tonight." "Alright." "Mooney we are going to discuss this in our room." "Discuss what? Padfoot you don't plan until the day before." "Mooney just think what we could do with the cloak."

Lily gave me a look and I knew what she meant.

"I've got to vanish for a few. I'll see you guys around. See you tonight, James." "See you tonight."

Lily and I were helping Madam Sprout for extra credits. Lily and I introduced her to an idea of Valentine's day at Hogwarts, to spread love and positivity. A lot of flowers needed to be planted and taken care of. Lily and I used this time to talk about boys or girl things.

"So you and James." "No there is nothing between James and I," I smiled, "besides he's all over you. You're his Lily-Flower." "Alright, first of all, I'm not his." "you are in his wildest dreams."

We laughed.

"Second of all, you like him." "I do not." "Yeah right." "James Potter is nothing more than any other boy at Hogwarts. Dreamy and not for me." "So you do admit he's dreamy." "I mean obviously. Even you think James is smoking hot." "I think he has something yeah." "The guy is crazy for you, why turn him down like that?" "There is something not right like he does it to make someone else jealous, cause if he likes me why not kiss me when we were alone, the other night." "Maybe he didn't want to cross your boundary."

Lily sighed but agreed.

"Maybe I should ask him." I suggested. "No. Absolutely not." "Come on Lils, you trust me don't you?" "If James asks me out again I might say yes. I don't need help, because if he asks someone else. I'd be fine with that." "Lily, you're too nice do you know that?" "I'm kind of hoping James asks you. Instead of me."

I rolled my eyes and we finished watering.

"James doesn't like me like that." "I wouldn't be surprised if he did."

Lily and I walked to the common room  I smiled when I saw James there. He smiled. Lily waved goodbye and went to her room.

"Hey, James." "Hey." "Just hey? Are you okay?" "Yeah." "Come on, we're going to the library. I have a plan." "What?" "Come on Prongs. The library isn't that scary."

James smiled.

"You called me, Prongs." "I hope that was okay." "Yeah. Sorry I've been in my head." "You wanna talk about it."

James gave me a look.

"What? Guys can talk about their emotions." "How?" "By using words." "Okay, I'll try it. Lily and I nearly kissed when we were in the common room last week. I panicked and didn't. I adore her, shouldn't that make her be the one for me. Shouldn't she leaning in make me want to kiss her and never let go?" "Why did you panic?" "Cause there is this other girl that was on my mind." "Ooooh someone we know?"

James shook his head but I didn't believe him.

"What house?" "It doesn't matter, forget I said anything." "Sorry, Prongs." "Don't worry about it, let's worry about my cloak that Sirius lost."

I picked up two books and dragged James back to a hallway. I sat at the window and James accepted the book I gave him.

"So what is the plan?" "Find the invisibility potion." "Why couldn't we do this in the library? or our dorms?" "Because Filch starts his round in 30 minutes and I need to know his pathing." "How do you know that?" "You think this is was my first time?" "I kind of did." "I just never get caught because unlike Sirius, I scout his patterns. He changes it every 3 weeks." "Are you for real?"

I nodded and started reading to find the ingredients for the invisibility potion. James did the same. I looked up from my book and saw him gaze out the window. He looked handsome. He bit his thumb while lost in thought. I gazed at him until he looked my way. My heart fluttered when he looked my way and showed off his signature smirk. I looked back to my books and found the potion.

"Here it is." "Great! What do we need?" "I hate this already." "Cherries, chicken part and spiders?" "Yeah, but the rest of the paper is gone. I'm not sure that'll work." "I'm sure you'll figure it out." "Why?" "You're a brilliant witch," James complimented. "Yeah right."

James looked at me with his famous Potter smirk that made most girl swoon. I rolled my eyes.

"You are smart." "Fine! I'm only doing this because you complimented me." "Yes!"

I tried to figure out the potions it only needed to brew for 10 hours so I had a few attempts. Lily and I were watering the flowers again.

"James has his eye on another girl!?" "Shhh!" "Well he can be a really annoying guy, but at least he has a code of honour I suppose." "Yeah, he wanted to kiss you. He said he adores you but couldn't go through with it." "Do we know who the mystery girl is?" "No he didn't want to say and every time I tried to talk to him about it he shut down or left." "I hope it's you." "What is it with you and making him mine?" "Come on he's all heart eyes over you." "I don't know what you're talking about." "Sure you don't sweetheart. I didn't know either. I just waited too long." "Say hypothetically. It's true. What do I do?"

Lily looked at the roses. I sighed. James and I met up as much as possible to work on the potion and needless to say Sirius got annoyed. He felt like I was stealing his best friend.

"It's just a double chance to get the cloak back no need to be secretive about it." "Pads, relax. We're just preparing." "What about Evans? Did you forget about her?" "Enough Padfoot. You like Y/n too. What changed?" "You did," Sirius growled.

James walked away from the group. James found me testing the potion and sat with me.

"Hey! Guess what?" "Padfoot stopped being jealous?" "What?" "Nothing, what is it?" "I see you don't want to talk about it so I'll just say that attempt 6 looks promising." "So after turning it red, blowing up, singing, turning into a chicken and unknown effects. we might have a chance?" "Exactly. Also, I'm going to drink it." "What? No! What if it kills you?" "It's harmless."

I downed it and James looked at me. I coughed cause it tasted bad. I started slowly disappearing.

"You did it!" James smiled. "There is only one problem?" "What is it?" "I don't know how long this effect lasts." "That isn't ideal. I'll smuggle you food." "I need to do a presentation today in front of the whole school in the great hall." "Oh, that's bad." "Get the boys and Lily." "Alright, don't move."

James ran out and came back with the group.

"Prongs will you tell us what's wrong?" "Hey, Padfoot."

Sirius jumped in Remus' arms. Lily sighed and looked at the pot.

"You messed with potions!" Lily yelled. "I didn't think of the consequences. Okay?" "One good thing with half the recipe she did make it work." "I need to be visible!" "Alright calm down," James sighed.

Lily, the marauders and I tried to make me visible again. No luck so far.

"It's time." Lily sighed. "You start without me, I'll find a solution." "You better figure it out," Lily sighed.

Lily left. I sighed and flicked through more books.

"Invisibility potions?" "Look it was her plan I couldn't tell you could I?" "I'm your best friend." "Pads we were in a bet."

Remus found a spell to turn me visible again. I cheered and hugged James before we snuck into the great hall. I sat opposite of Lily and James sat between me and Sirius. We enjoyed our dinner and banter till Dumbledore shouted for everyone's attention.

"SILENCE!"

The great hall went quiet. It was impressive.

"Would Miss Y/L/N and Miss Evans step forward, please? Professor Sprout and these students have a surprise."

Lily and I walked forward. The boys looked at us.

"Good evening, students. These lovely ladies and a few members of Hufflepuff have been working on a surprise. Tomorrow it is Valentine's day, Lily why don't you say a few words?" "Thank you. Valentine's day is a day to celebrate love and friendship. It has been for decades." "We want everyone to feel loved this valentine. So everyone gets an enchanted rose. Which the wonderful Hufflepuffs are handing out right now," I smiled. "The rose can be given to someone and if it's true the rose will tell. Don't ever forget love doesn't have to mean sexual love. It can mean friendship too and the rose will turn different colours there is a chart in each common room." "We would like an applause for all who helped and we wish you a happy Valentine's Day."

The great Hall filled with cheers. I locked eyes with James and blushed. We returned to our seats both getting our flowers.

"Thanks." I smiled and sat next to James.

We all started messing around again till quite late. We were on our way to the common room. James stopped me for a bit. I looked into his eyes hopefully.

"Hey, meet me tomorrow after Charms in the astronomy tower," James whispered

I nodded and we followed the group. I was nervous. I pulled Lily to her room.

"Spill the tea." "James told me to meet him tomorrow after Charms." "Really?"

I paced back and forth. Lily took my hands in hers.

"Let's pick out a nice dress." "Lily, you are my lifesaver do you know that?" "Just a little."

I barely slept or paid attention to class. I knew James was waiting cause he skipped charms. I on the other hand loved to stay out of detention. Once was enough. Lily pulled me out of Charms faster than James flew on his broom. I changed and got my rose out. Lily finished with my hair and I went up to the tower. James stood there in his finest Sunday clothes. He was holding his rose too.

"You came." He smiled. "Of course." "Y/n, working on getting the cloak back with you has been a lot of fun and I was hoping that... Well, I wanted to ask if you uh." "Are you nervous?" "Believe it or not. Yes. You make me nervous." "In a good way?" "In the best way possible. You make me want to be a better person."

I blushed.

"So now that I've told you that. Would you Y/n, be my Valentine?" "On one condition James. Will you be mine?"

James smiled wider than he had ever smiled.

"Absolutely." "Then yes." I smiled

We exchanged roses and they turned from pink to a light red. James looked a little confused.

"Light red means love. Dark red means passion. It's a subtle difference but it means so much." "It does mean a lot."

James leaned in and kissed me. It started intense but then it was softer. His hands leaned on my hips.

"PRONGS!" "Sirius shut up they're having a moment."

Lily. Of course, she was listening in. I looked into James' eyes and he kissed my hand. James held my hand and guided me down the stairs. Our smiles had never been wider.

"Prongs!" Sirius looked at us, "wait... You and You." "Yeah I really like her Pads, I wanted to tell you but you kept moaning about me spending a lot of time with her and I thought why not face this failure alone. Only she likes me back." "For some reason."

I laughed and James hit Sirius softly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't the best friend. I got jealous." "It was quite cute not going to lie," I smiled "Hey Padfoot, I've got it."

Remus and Peter walked in. I looked at the marauders.

"Got what?" James asked. "The cloak, we win!" Padfoot said. "Not fair! We said tomorrow." I tried. "While you and Prongs here were getting all kissy-kissy, we took the liberty of getting the cloak back." "I call dibs cause this is foul play." "Foul play is still playing, Prongs."

I laughed. James wasn't amused, but I kissed his cheek.

"We both won here, I'm sure." I smiled. "Yeah, I certainly did." James smiled.

The group was back together. James and I were cuddling while Sirius was trying to figure out what to do with the cloak.

"By the time you decide the weeks will be over," James smirked.

[matsbarzal]

can I please request angst #14 with Petey??

angst #14. "are you going to talk to me or?"

pairing: elias pettersson x reader word count: 1.3k warnings: angst (happy ending)

Elias Pettersson knew he was good at lots of things. He knew he was a good person, a good friend, an even better hockey player. But the one thing he wasn’t good at? Understanding what he had done to upset you.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have a relatively good understanding of the stupid things he did, he knew he had made plenty of mistakes in your relationships, easily fixable ones, really. Except this time.

It had been almost four days of complete radio silence, no text, no call, no FaceTime’s, nothing. You had sent him a thumbs up the moment he landed and told you he had landed, and no response since. Elias could easily tell you had been on your phone, snapchat stories and twitter likes popping up on both his feeds every now and then, but he could not fathom why you hadn’t texted him in days.

You had fought hundreds of times before, little spats here and there, petty arguments that just turned into nothing when he brought home your favourite food, but never an argument to the extent that you wouldn’t even text him.

“You alright over there, Petey? Lookin’ a little queasy… oh shit that rhymed, look at me go,” trying to ignore Brock was even more difficult than trying to understand why you weren’t texting him, especially when said blonde was his best friend and could pick up on every social cue Elias was giving off.

“Fine, yeah.”

Shrugging his shoulders slightly, the Swede thumbed through his phone, bringing up your contact card and then exiting out every few seconds. “Y/N still not texting you? You sure you didn’t do anything before we left?”

Tossing the phone onto the table in front of him, Elias groaned as he tried to rack his head for what he could’ve done wrong before leaving Vancouver. There was a multitude of things it could be, there was a spat right before he left the apartment, an argument over moving the cars, which somehow turned into him suggesting that the two of you should get a dog.

The Swede couldn’t pinpoint an exact moment in your last two days with one another where he might have upset you to the point of not speaking.

Halfway across the country, your eyes had barely left the box you had found sitting in Elias’ top drawer since he left. It was all you could focus on, your eyes constantly moving to find the little black box that you had moved to the top of the dresser, its closed lid haunting you, taunting you the more and more your eyes peered to it.

Elias hadn’t made any indications that this was what he was pushing towards, you hadn’t even realized he was considering this. Two years into a relationship, you knew it was possible, but you just didn’t realize how possible.

You loved him, you’d be lying if you said you didn’t, but did you love him enough to get married? Maybe. But add in the constant bickering, the continuous fights, the never-ending spats that had no regular conclusion and usually just consisted of some form of idiotic makeup in the hopes the both of you would forget about what you were arguing for anyways.

The silent treatment may have been petty, all of Elias’ texts going unanswered, snapchats only being sent back every time the timer would appear next to your streak. You knew it was childish, and was probably terrifying your boyfriend, but your brain couldn’t fathom what to do, couldn’t fathom what you wanted.

The game against the Canadiens had been explosive, the Canucks losing horrifically, and Elias’ play just an even bigger catalyst to the team. It was the first game you had watched where he hadn’t played his best, the turnovers were consistent, his numbers were down, his penalty minutes were even higher than usually.

And you knew there was a large possibility you were the main cause for his deterioration of play.

Pulling up your phone from its spot stuffed under the covers, you scrolled until you reached his contact name, the little blue dot beside it just an indication of how many messages had gone unanswered in the last few days. Before you even had the chance to send a message through, his contact name appeared at the top of your list.

are you going to talk to me or am i going to come home to an empty apartment tn? not sure what i did wrong but this isn’t fair

You could feel the guilty instantly seep through your body at the text message, your eyes welling up with unshed tears at the message that came through. Elias was your best friend, the epitome of everything good in your life, and something about that just terrified you.

i’ll be here when u get home, ‘Lias. have a safe flight xo

A large sigh of relief left the Swede’s lips when the three bubbles popped up under your name, an even bigger sigh leaving his lips when you said you’d be home when he got there. He allowed his phone to drop in between his legs, his eyes focusing on the iPad in front of him, currently playing reruns of New Girl, your favourite show to watch together.

Almost six hours later, you heard the sound of the lock clicking, the door swinging open to reveal a dishevelled and thoroughly exhausted-looking Elias Pettersson.

“So, are we going to do this now? I told Brock to set up his guest bedroom, I’m not arguing all night so let’s just get this over with,” his keys were tossed onto the centre island, his eyes never leaving yours as you tried to rack your brain for what to say.

“I found the ring… in your top drawer.”

Your stomach turned as you watched the array of emotions fly across Elias’ face; confusion, frustration, anger, sadness, everything smoothing together before he placed a stoic look across his features.

“You freaked out and ignored me for almost five days, because you found a ring in my drawer?” The scoff fell from his lips almost beautifully, his features twisting into annoyance as he looked at you.

“I just… I didn’t know how to react. We argue about everything, ‘Lias. We literally fight about the colour of the sky, and you’ve already bought a ring?”

Moving so he was sitting on the couch opposite of you, the Swede turned so his entire body was facing you, the stoic look now turning into a look of concern.

“Y/N… we fight about everything because that’s just how we are. Our fights have never, ever turned into anything serious. We argue with each other because we both never want to be wrong, that shouldn’t be a reason for you to freak out and not want to marry me one day, my love. Just because I have the ring doesn’t mean I want to get married tomorrow. It’s my grandmother’s engagement ring, Emil let me have it for the day I eventually propose to you. I didn’t buy it, it’s been sitting in that drawer for ages.”

You could feel the embarrassment settling in your stomach at his words, your stomach turning as you tried to think of a response. The only thing you could muster up was an apology, your eyes never leaving your hands as they twisted amongst each other.

His body moved closer to yours, one arm wrapping around your back as he gently pulled you into his side.

“You don’t need to apologize, just maybe instead of going ghost, argue with me instead? Since when are you one to hide your feelings, especially something like that?”

Shrugging your shoulders at his words, you felt his lips press against the crown of your head gently, his hands squeezing your side as he did so.

“Pinky promise that you won’t do that again? Scared the shit out of me and Brock, and Brock never gets scared.”

Pushing your pinky finger towards him, he wrapped his own around yours with a smile small, his head pressed against yours as he squeezed your pinky with his own.

“And quit going through my drawers, nerd.”

“Don’t leave your clothes in the dryer then and I won’t have to put them away for you, Pettersson.”

note: thank you for requesting this!! i hope you enjoy, and it's everything you wanted. it's not too angsty, and it has a happy ending so hopefully that's perfect. <3