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greatwyrmgold · 2 years ago

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I've spent a few posts talking about things I like about Bleach. Now for me to talk about things I don't like.

The Soul Society arc.

Thank you, have a good day.

Okay, yes, I will explain myself. I recall that the Soul Society arc is one of the parts of Bleach that its fans generally like, and I...don't. There are several reasons for this.

Why I dislike the Soul Society Arc

Rukia

I've made a bit of a running gag about how Rukia is my favorite character, which I might actually try to explain at some point. She's determined, she's resourceful, she tries to do the right thing (even if it means breaking the law), she can switch from being the straight man/voice of reason to being the silly punchline guy without feeling like she's out of character. And while I wish she'd kept a meaningful fragment of her powers, having her fight a Hollow without them was pretty badass.

And she spends basically the entire Soul Society arc as a damsel in distress. She thinks that doing anything will make things worse for the people she cares about, which is a better reason than most damsels in distress have, but it still feels like an excuse to let the deuteragonist gather dust in the corner while the series focuses on a bunch of new soul reapers. Speaking of which:

I lost track of how many new characters were introduced

In principle, introducing dozens of Soul Reapers isn't automatically a bad thing. There are some bit-part Reapers who add a lot to the texture of the world without taking up too much narrative real estate. That one officer who hits on (what he thinks are) female Reapers in the middle of a crisis does a good job making the Reapers seem both varied and...banal, in a three-dimensional sort of way?

But then there are the dozens of Reapers (and non-Soul-Reaper souls) who are supposed to be main characters. There's the thirteen captains, and most of their assistant captains, and a bunch of others besides. And I like some of these!

Hanataro is a nice weakling, contrasting the overwhelmingly powerful and callous captains. He's just...a nice dude. And despite being weak, he's allowed to do stuff.

Renji, aside from being a vehicle to explain Rukia's backstory (yay, Rukia when she wasn't damseled!), is a

Kenpachi is just that shonen fight-loving dude, but...he's the most that dude I have ever seen. And despite that, he's absolutely shit at using his zanpakuto; he has to get by on raw brute force. He feels like a subtweet about all the worst anime heroes.

Yachiru is adorable and I love her dynamic with Kenpachi.

But there are also plenty of Reapers who I dislike, like Mayuri the generic mad scientist, Gin Ichimaru the obvious villain, or Rukia's brother Byakuya (who isn't as evil as Gin, but is also a less audacious and interesting flavor of evil). And worse, there are a bunch who I just don't care about, like...the guy with a fox head, or the old leader guy, or the glasses guy, or the other six captains, who the series tries to make into main characters.

It's too much to keep track of. And so is...

All the fight scenes

I get it, this is a shonen battle manga, shonens are gonna battle as the manga goes on. But do the battles need to seem so superfluous?

It could be worse. I've been reading Jump manga long enough to know that. Lots of Big Event arcs turn into chaotic melees, almost impossible to follow. Others throw fights back-to-back at you, with no room to breathe.

The Soul Society arc doesn't do either of those. The participants in each fight are well-defined, the fights separated from each other by several blocks at minimum. There's space in between them, time to reset the tension and explore some character stuff that comes up. But it still has a lot of superfluous-feeling fights.

(Aside: While splitting the party this way and giving everyone periodic downtime is good, it also makes the timeline feel less cohesive than it probably is. It sometimes feels like one group is resting up and having lengthy conversations in the middle of another group's action scene.)

For instance: We're supposed to be invested in a multi-chapter fight between the mentor character who barely existed before the Soul Society arc* and her ex-student who barely existed before this fight? Really? The student's backstory had to be explained midfight for it to have a semblance of emotional...anything.

I assumed that fight was just introducing the sleeve-destroying lightning technique, but the wiki says it's only used by those two and the mentor's sister. Which is a shame, because A. it means we don't get to see Ichigo in one of those goofy open-sided uniforms, Hawkeye Initiative style, and B. it means we really were supposed to care about the student who got mad her teacher left.

I realize I've harped on this one segment, but...well, it's mostly the recency effect, but also that segment knocked me out of my reading groove and made it hard to get back into it. No offense to either Yoruichi or...(checks notes) Sui-feng, but your backstory was introduced in the worst way, and there doesn't seem to be that much to it.

Anyways, that's just one fight out of dozens. Some of them advance the plot, or help the heroes understand/develop their powers. Some are just obstacles for the heroes to overcome. And some are just squabbles between Soul Reaper captains over everything from the dumb, violent version of Machiavellian scheming to "Why didn't you bring me with you when you left, sensei?!?"

Anyways. Circling through the technique introduced two pages before it was used to win a fight to the mid-fight-scene exposition, we come to another problem.

Maybe Bleach deserves its reputation?

Before reading Bleach or watching Geoff Thew's Bleach video, I had heard some stuff about the series. One of those things is that it had bad power creep, with new powers being introduced on a dime as the plot requires. For the whole pre-Soul-Society monster-of-the-week segment, this didn't come up.

Then we get to the Soul Society. The main characters are faced by overwhelmingly powerful Soul Reapers, with far greater spirit energy (power level) and a variety of special techniques and powers among them. Ichigo &co struggle against low-level Reaper officers, knowing they will have to fight captains who can mop the floor with those mooks. And then...they get stronger, and have about the same level of struggle against the strongest captains, and win.

The worst has to be Ichigo getting his bankai. For those who don't read Bleach: I hope this has made sense, and also bankai is kinda like a super-mode of the magic swords every Soul Reaper has, which can summon monsters or deadly flower petals or a bone snake whip thing. I don't really get it yet. Anyways, bankai is super rare; only a fraction of Soul Reapers ever get a bankai, and it takes a decade or more of training.

Of course, Ichigo takes a shortcut. It involves a quasi-symbolic fight against the incarnation of his magical sword; the goal is to find his real magic sword, which is stated to be the one piece of his spirit made for fighting. This has the potential to be an interesting training scene, forcing Ichigo to introspect and figure out why he fights, what he's fighting for.

...it happens offscreen. We cut away from Ichigo's training for a while, stuff happens, Rukia's about to be executed, Ichigo appears a day ahead of schedule, having figured his bankai thing out. There's no flashback, we don't get to see Ichigo figuring out why he fights or anything. He just comes back, and he's stronger now. And when that's not enough (because of his shonen BS), he gets a spooky Hollow mask.

But it's not just this kind of convenient power-up. There are also a lot of techniques that are explained in flashbacks right before (or after) they win a fight. Some of these make sense; Quincies can manipulate reiki in the world around them, the afterlife world is made out of reiki, it makes sense that Uryu would be able to draw power from nearby buildings and stuff. Others really don't; the thing Uryu pulled in the same fight which boosted his Quincy powers but then made him lose them at the end of the fight came out of nowhere.

There's a lot of backfill, a lot of mid-fight exposition, and yet a lot of stuff that isn't explained. Orihime and Chad getting powers still isn't explained beyond "Hanging out with Ichigo and Rukia awakened dormant magical powers," and it's weird that two of Ichigo's friends would have those. And while the way Orihime's powers work is explained decently, I still have no idea what Chad's armor arm does. Strong, tough, draining? Iunno.

But I guess it's not surprising that some stuff would fall by the wayside.

It's Too Much

This isn't so much a new point, as a new angle on the points I already made, synthesizing everything.

I liked the small-scale conflicts in Bleach's early monster-of-the-week arcs. One chapter, there's a cursed parakeet (there's a Hollow involved). A few chapters later, soul-Ichigo needs to chase down his body and the artificial autopilot soul that was supposed to be safeguarding it. Then he meets the Hollow that killed his mom, then a TV psychic who understands spirits just well enough to accidentally make everything worse, then a different kind of monster-hunter who thinks Soul Reapers need to back off and let humans handle their own world.

It's episodic, and that's not a bad thing! It gives us time to get acquainted with the world and how it works. And, of course, how Ichigo's Reaper magic and Uryu's Quincy powers work. Plus, it's just kinda fun? Every few chapters, you get a different flavor of urban fantasy nonsense, which all feels like it fits in the same world.

Then all of a sudden, Rukia abandons the Kurosaki household, and Ichigo sees her getting kidnapped by her brother, a high-ranking Soul Reaper, who is going to execute her. Ichigo and his friends (and Uryu) need to train fast so they can go to the Soul Society, where they're promptly smacked in the face with a whole mass of characters and powers and technobabble and politics, both class politics and powerful individuals maneuvering for more power.

And I like some of these elements. The divide between haves and have-nots in the afterlife is worth exploring, bankai seem neat (especially that one tidbit from when Ichigo was training, which never paid off and I'm still mad), plenty of the Soul Reapers are interesting and fun, some of the fight scenes are cool.

But I don't have the time to enjoy those elements. They're drowning in a sea of other things introduced at the same time, and a stream of new things being constantly introduced. New characters (and characters we technically already saw getting developed), more part of that big scheme coming to light, more technobabble, more powers, more training.

Bonus: Shonen BS

I couldn't fit this into the neat stream of segues, but there's a lot more shonen BS in this arc. You know, characters doing things that help set up fight scenes but don't make a lot of sense in-character.

Some shonen BS, I can accept. Kenpachi, for instance. Shonen BS is his whole character; he wears an eyepatch because binocular vision would make fights too easy. (Also, there's something in it that limits his spirit energy.) It makes sense that he'd go out of his way to let his opponent fight. And even characters who aren't pure, unadulterated shonen BS, sometimes shonen BS is in-character. That's fine.

But when Ichigo has his sword to the throat of Rukia's evil brother, who he considers irredeemably evil for callously trying to execute his sister (fair), and backs off for no apparent reason so they can fight for a couple more chapters...why? Why did he hold back his bankai until after Rukia's brother cut him up with his flower bankai? Why did he not kill him when he had such an easy chance? If you're gonna kill him, kill him!? You could have finished this with one fewer convenient power-up!

I don't have any big point here. Some shonen BS is expected in any battle manga, Bleach got a bunch more in the Soul Society arc, it's starting to get on my nerves.

What do I wish had happened?

I think the big problem is how suddenly Bleach goes from pre-Soul-Society MOTW stuff to a big, dense plotline in a whole new world. It's a sudden change of pace, a change in place, a whole herd of new characters, and a bunch of new powers and setting elements, introduced all at the same time.

So instead...don't do that.

Keep up the monster-of-the-week format, and introduce these things more gradually. Maybe Ichigo starts running into tougher Hollows after Uryu's stunt, so he needs to recruit Orihime, Chad, and Uryu to help him fight. Then they start training their supernatural abilities to stay on top of the problem.

Meanwhile, spirit world stuff starts getting introduced. Maybe Uruhara sends Ichigo and Rukia on an errand that takes them into the spirit world, or pursuing a Hollow takes them there, or Renji visits the mortal world to figure out why Rukia's been gone so long, or something.

Or if nothing else, have some Rukia flashback chapters. Those could introduce basics of how the Soul Society works, and since Rukia was adopted into one of the big spirit world families, she could plausibly have met most of the major characters in the Soul Society arc. Plus, more Rukia is rarely a mistake.

My biggest problems with the Soul Society arc come down to dumping so much information on the reader at once (too much to be contained in organic-feeling scenes) and how much of a disconnect between Soul Society and what came before. But that's an obvious problem, right? It makes me wonder why Tite Kubo wrote Bleach this way. But I don't know enough to meaningfully speculate, and I shouldn't baselessly speculate.

Anyways, beyond that...Rukia should actually do stuff. This would require a lot of rewriting about why she was imprisoned and how she felt about her execution, but it's not like you could adjust the pacing without changing all of that stuff. Also, I don't like it. "I'll let my brother kill me and hope that the other captains don't have any reason to go after Ichigo, who they hold partially responsible for the thing I'm being executed for" isn't the worst motivation a damsel can have for accepting her distress, but it's still not a great one.

Finally, cut down a bit. I can't get specific without toeing into the "fix-it fic" zone, but I feel like all thirteen Soul Reaper captains and most of their assistant captains and a bunch of their flunkies and several people living outside the spirit city is a few more principal characters than a single arc needs. Part of the problem is that the Rukia execution plotline has a lot of scenes setting up some kind of big conspiracy plotline that I haven't really gotten to.

I feel there should have been more space between them. That might be tricky; Rukia's execution was a step in the conspiracy's plan, and I'm not sure how close it is to the end or how easy it would be to restructure the conspiracy so that there was more of a gap. For all I know, something not yet revealed about the conspiracy will make it seem like as crucial a part of the Soul Society arc as Rukia's execution, and not just the next thing that happens. But at the moment, I feel like jamming them together weakened both.

Conclusion

The Soul Society arc is not bad; I just like it less than what came before. It feels like too many things are introduced too quickly, with loads of characters and powers and worldbuilding details being dumped in at once.

Those things are not bad, just crammed in too tightly for my taste. I could have found Sui-feng a compelling character, if her story wasn't crammed into the middle of a fight scene which feels like it has no purpose except introducing her and showing off her ex-master's powers. It could have been a side-story about a character dutifully following the path laid out for her by her ancestors and superiors, only for that path to stop making sense when her mentor bailed.

But instead, it's a backstory that was squished into a fight scene that felt like a big plot cul-de-sac. And that stinks.

(It also stinks that Rukia was just kinda tossed into the corner like a forgotten toy.)

#manga #bleach #soul society #pacing #meta

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mr-voorhees-husband · 2 years ago

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Hey; I know you don't got Mr.Freeze listed, but could you write a few tsundere interactions with em? Maybe even hand-holding? If not; please have Mr.Voorees stab me. ;w; plez.

OH MY GOD I DON'T HAVE HIM LISTED?? I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE /g

i love mr. Freeze so much, he's so <3

Also this is a bit separate from my usual writing because this will include slight Reader x Nora, because i can't just.. not let freeze have nora, that's just mean, it's also i lot more writing for such a simple ask so I apologize

This is technically my own version of freeze but it's roughly based on Arkham!Freeze

Warnings: tsundere freeze, supportive Nora, angst, hurt no comfort (until the end), poly relationship (implied), married couple x reader (implied), open ended, NO CHEATING >:[

Reader: gender neutral, implied scientist/some sort of cryo related job

How it starts/begins

I feel like you'd have to know them both before Nora got sick. You'd work in the same building as Victor, bring him coffee or tea, make sure he didn't overwork himself. You two were, close, even if Victor would constantly take your kidness for granted and shrug you off.

He only did it because he was scared about Nora thinking he was cheating. He doesn't really understand that poly relationships are a thing yet, so he never brings it up to her because, what should he say?

"My love, I have feelings for another, yet I still love you" Victor would rather die then ever make Nora question his love for her.

One day, Nora decides to stop by to see her husband, a small container of freshly baked lemon bars just for him. Coincidentally, you'd been in the lobby of the science facility, and offered to lead her to his (or both of yours) cryogentics lab.

You two talk while on the way there, and you tell her about how you get worried about Victor sometimes. How much he works and how little he eats. You mention bringing him food occasionally, and how he shrugs you off, but you never let it deter you because its the polite thing to you.

It doesn't take Nora long to realize how you feel about Victor, nor how he feels about you. After dropping her off in the lab, you excuse yourself for you lunch break and wander off, leaving the couple alone.

Nora is anything but subtle, she can keep a secret, sure, but she doesn't beat around the bush. Not even five minutes after you've left the room she's turning to Victor and asking "So how long have you had a crush on them?"

Victor jumps into apologies, saying how he didn't mean to, and how he still loves her. But Nora gives him a kiss, smiles and says "our bed could use another person, don't you think?"

That night, they talk extensivly about how it would go. It's Victor's idea to invite you on a date, make it seem like its dinner at first. It's Nora's idea for her to ask instead of Victor, so it doesn't confuse you too much.

Then, she gets sick. I feel as if it's a sudden acting illness, something that sudden became active after being dormat so many years. Victor doesn't come into work that day, or the day after. He's gone for a week, and you've reached point to where you want to steal his file and find his adress.

When he comes in though, two men rolling in a cyrogentic tube with his beautiful wife inside. It suddenly makes sense.

Before the cure

He throws himself into his work, you were concerned about him before, but now you're flat out panicked. At this point, you feel like you're taking care of him more than you're doing your own job

Whenever he goes home, he begs you to watch his wife while he's gone, and you (of course) agree. He goes home, showers, changes his clothes, and gets back within 1-2 hours. He sleeps in the lab, and you'd started taking double shifts to help him find a cure.

Then the accident happened. It was the one time you weren't in the lab with him. You'd been in the lab though, so when the explosion rattled the building, you dropped whatever you were doing and made a mad dash towards Victor.

When you got there, the door itself was frozen over, your boss, and two board members panickedly trying to call the police. It took the police too long to get there, though. When they found Victor's body, the determined he was dead on arrival, body frozen into a cyrogentic state, just like his wife.

He and his wife were taken into custody by the police, leaving you to continue his work alone. Even if you weren't qualified too, you were the only one willing to actually do it. Even despite that, though, you couldn't help but look more into her blood disease.

Maybe if they kept her frozen, you could at least bring her back, it's what Victor would have wanted for her, you knew that for a fact.

You were pulling an overnight shift when you met Mr. Freeze, and in all honesty, you didn't reconize him at first. The suit, the distorted voice. It was quite honestly scary at first. Yet he didn't treat you like the other scientists, not when he reached your lab at least. He seemed to soften, and in the kindest voice he could muster, requested access to your records.

You obliged, of course, and only after he logged into Victor's old computer did it click. Victor never died, not completely, his body was frozen, like they said, but not his mind. By all accounts he should've been dead, but something he'd done was keeping him from succumbing to hypothermia.

Before he left, you told him about the research you were doing. About how you were looking into Nora's condition and how you thought you could help, if he let you, that is.

Victor wouldn't lie to himself, he still had feelings for you, but without Nora back, he'd never act on them. So, as coldly(heh) as he could, he allowed you to return with you to his new lab.

It took weeks upon months, unsurprisingly, injecting poor souls with Nora's blood so they fell to the same illness. Using them as guinea pigs when simple blood drops stopped working. At first it scared you, of course it did. But night after night you did it because something about the two of them made your heart flutter.

Another experiment failed, leaving Victor to sulk off into the lab somewhere while his goons cleaned up the now dead body. Sighing to yourself, you weaved your way through the abandoned warehouse you and Mr. Freeze were currently using for all your experiments, using a key only you and Victor had to enter Nora's holding room. You'd yet to tell Victor about your visits with her, you didn't want to make him uncomfortable, yet you still felt drawn to her in a way.

"Hi, Nora." You stood infront of the cyrogentic chamber, staring up at the almost angelic way she looked. She always had been quite pretty, but when you'd first met her in person it was a humid day and no one really looked their best, even if you were fighting back a blush everytime she batted her eyelashes. "Victor and I held another experiment today, it... didn't go the best."

Sucking in a shaking breath, you continued. "We're close though, I can feel it." You reached up to rest your right hand on the cool glass, eyes softening. She looked so peaceful, unaware of just how close to death she was. "I'll get you out of here in time for your and Victor's anniversary, though, I swear."

"Thank you."

You almost screamed, jumping away from the cyrogenic chamber like it had suddenly turned boiling. Quick as a whip, you swerved to face Victor, who for once didn't have his helmet on. Your mouth went dry, scared. You didn't know how he'd react, I mean, you were just talking to his wife like she was yours.

"Victor- I'm sorry- I didn't-" your words cut off when Victor rested his hand on your shoulder, pressing the opposite one to the glass behind you.

"She liked you, a lot." He hummed, and you turned back to Nora. The idea of the woman just enjoying your presence sending your heart fluttering. Victor sighed to himself, hand leaving my shoulder to fall to his side. "Why do you do this? Why do you help?"

"I don't know." It was the truth, you had no reason to lie. "I just.. Nora seems like such a sweet, wonderful woman, and before she got sick you were one of the best scientists I've ever met." Subconsciously, you reached up to press the hand opposite to Victor against the glass. "I want to help her."

A gloved hand wrapped around your own, and for a moment all you could do was stare in amazement. Victor didn't turn to you, but he squeezed you hands when speaking his next words. "Thank you."

True to your words, you had found a cure in time for their anniversary.

#victor fries #mr. freeze #mr freeze #nora fries #mr freeze x reader #victor fries x reader #nora fries x reader

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bottombaron · 3 years ago

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spoilers for what if...?

some quick thoughts on the first Marvel What If...? episode that are almost all Bucky related big surprise:

i froth at the mouth at any small moment of pre-ws!Bucky like a stranded survivor of a shipwreck. yes pls all of it, i need more. my desire to know who traumatized characters were pre-trauma is like an un-quenchable thirst.

that being said, i'm loving the idea the Bucky was just...a big fucking himbo. a nerdy silly himbo. there's nothing more satisfying than a super pretty competent person wowing you with some big time dork energy.

his lines were so groan worthy which is why i loved them. looking back it's a pretty obvious choice to make Bucky Barnes pre-Winter Soldier just Bucky Barnes from the comic books. he tells bad jokes, he's a damsel in distress, he's there for a reaction shot or two, and best of all he's got the worst one-liners.

my kingdom for Bucky of today going back to his bad one liners, honestly i would pay marvel to have Bucky throw a knife in someone's face, blood is everywhere, and he just goes, "knife to meet you." (Sam is floored. he goes through the 5 stages of grief in ten seconds and ends up laughing so hard his lungs hurt. redwing has it recorded and sam revisits it when he needs to)

the part where Steve gets back into the Hydra Smasher and falls on his face is peak stevebucky tho. Bucky is unconcerned, makes light of it, and there's even some light teasing. i have to highlight this for the purpose of Bucky's characterization in fanfic in terms of how he treats Steve, especially pre-serum Steve: he doesn't baby him. he doesn't mother-hen or overprotect Steve. he knows Steve is tough, he's spent years picking him up off of alleyway pavements, he's not going to act like a helicopter mom.

which i really appreciate because i'm tired of the treatment of Bucky as not also being a reckless kid in this war. Steve and Bucky don't have the dynamic of the Reasonable Adult and their Troublesome Kid i've seen sometimes in fic. they're both hooligans. Bucky comes off as the more cautious one sure, but it's just slightly. and that very slight difference gets overblown sometimes which feels disingenuous to a character that's in his 20s (like do you know bros in their 20s,,,do you?? they're still trying to run up walls and do backflips. they still think they're invincible. 20 year old men are the stupidest people on the planet. and i can say that as a man almost 30) and, by all accounts, ran mayhem in Brooklyn right next to his best friend.

just. don't forget Bucky Barnes is a young stupid pretty himbo okay?

speaking of disingenuous characterizations: what was that hetero bullshit with Peggy being more distraught over Steve's 'death' than Bucky????

are.you.kidding.me.

i feel this righteous anger burning over this, which i'm sure will come to a bigger rant at some point but really? fucking really?

this is it. this is what straight people do. this is the straight agenda.

this isn't even just about Steve and Bucky they do this kind of bullshit all the time in media: character 1 has a long-lasting deep friendship with character 2. character 1 has a romantic subplot with character 3. character 1 and 3 barely know each other. character 1 dies and character 3 is somehow more distraught about this than character 2.

i fully expected Bucky to start trying to climb down the mountain to find Steve but nope!

he's just 'oh nooo~ he ded. whelp lets go hoes'

while the woman who knew Steve for maybe a few months is doing the Darth Vader 'noooo' moment

this does not make any character, story, or emotional logical sense. there's no fucking reason for this bullshit than blatant homophobia.

like fucking fine, lets not see Steve and Bucky interact in any way because I WONDER WHY

but even better

lets have Bucky not really emote over Steve's death, because a. that's gay, we don't want people to think we write gay characters (don't worry marvel we don't) so two men can't care or mourn for each other onscreen. and b. we've got our hetero romance to sell

Peggy Carter is a professional military woman. with experience.

Bucky Barnes is some kid from Brooklyn whose been fighting in a war he's been drafted in for maybe some handful of months.

but sure. yeah. his childhood best friend dying. he's the one whose going to have the professional cool head in this moment.

and it's the PROFESSIONAL MILITARY WOMAN whose going to forget her job and training and need to be pulled from grieving BY THE MAN WHO'S BEST FRIEND JUST 'DIED'

SURE JAN SURE

it's the homophobia that betrays the logic of the characters that really fucks me up y'know?

if you're betraying the honest emotional reactions of story and character because you're afraid of those things being perceived as gay: you're homophobic.

it's really that simple.

'i'm in. for Steve' lol. like god. i'm as tired as seb sounds i swear

and i know Sebastian '~the truth of the character~' Stan probably felt like his teeth were being pulled out with hot pliers reading these. how many times did the voice director have to say, 'ok. can we try it like you're not slowly decaying from the inside, hunny?'

barely any howling commandos and none of them had any lines other than Dum Dum. ok. yeah. ok.

so some high notes:

return of my favorite Stark: 1940's Howard!

i would die twenty times just to be able to see more of Dominic Cooper's Howard Stark. he's just the fucking best. earnest and cute and a bit of a mad scientist and i fucking adore him

i need the Howard Stark + Bucky Barnes sitcom now. pls and thank you.

i'll even take 5 minute vinaigrettes of the antics they'd be up to. two playboy nerds together is just a magical event, don't waste it! i can't believe i've been sleeping on this dynamic it's too good.

"BARNES STOLE A CAR"

i will be replaying this single moment for years. the serotonin it gives me.

stark is just. the most excited man ever to have seen someone hotwire a car??? how did this scene go i need to knoooooowwww

all frustrations aside, it was really cool to see Peggy Carter as Captain Britain. she's a great character and i love her so much. every moment she was legit thrashing n*zis with her big butch arms was thrilling and satisfying.

that truck shield flip is still doing things to me...

honestly upset that the sword Peggy was wielding wasn't a Zemo easter egg like i was hoping it was 😩

#marvel what if #what if...?#what if...? spoilers #stucky #mcu #bucky barnes #stevebucky

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blissfulalchemist · 3 years ago

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wait who is hayat? pls tell us everything about them 😍

NONNY!!! You-. You inquire about MY good son Hayat???? Well Hell yeah you can know as much as I feel I can write without getting into circles. Sorry this took a hot second to get together but I wanted to make sure I had something fairly comprehensive for you and others that are curious!

Also again Thank you Ash for making the banner that shows his precious face.

To start off, Hayat is my Wayhaven Chronicles Detective oc. TWC is an interactive fiction game that’s set in a world with supernatural creatures and elements including 4 vampire romance options (you can even opt out of romance if you so wish also). It’s by @seraphinitegames and you can check out more of it there!

Okay let’s get down to it!

His full name is Hayat Khademi but many will also call him Hiya as he both enjoys the pun and helps in pronouncing his full name. I personally love the meanings of his name very cool. Hayat means “Life” and Khademi means “He who serves and cares”, which really sums up his core self, like no matter what happens he will always be someone full of life and wanting to care and help people.

Hayat was born February 29, 1988, yes on leap year so depending on his mood he will either tell you that he’s 7 or 30. His parents are Rokeddin and Tahmina (aka Rebecca in the books) Khademi. After his father’s death and his mom throwing herself into her work he was raised by his grandparents, with his grandmother Myza Khademi still alive. Hayat is also bisexual.

He had hopes of becoming an engineer so he could help the world with technology he created to solve problems people faced. He made it to college and it was 2.5 years in that he met Bobby Marks, a journaling major, and the two soon started to date. While dating Bobby would sometimes use Hayat’s assignments and pass them off as his own or even just expect him to write assignments for him. As Hiya continued on through school connections were made and he soon was being granted access to some of the assignment programs and where grades were entered, and sadly unbeknownst to him Bobby was using this to his advantage. When Hayat was halfway through his doctorate program Bobby got caught in altering grades and stealing assignments committing Academic Dishonesty. Since all of it had been traced back to Hayat’s accounts or his connections he was the one that suffered the consequences of Bobby’s actions.

Hayat lost everything he had worked for in an instant and had no other option than to move back home while he figured out just what to do with his life. Over the next 3 years he moved from odd job to odd job all the while shrinking his social circle to almost none and drifting from partner to partner. Hayat was working as a groundskeeper for his hometown when Tina bumped into him. While they didn’t interact too much growing up with her being 6 years younger than him, they still treated each other like friends and it was her that suggested Hayat join her in the police academy as there were some planned retirees in the Wayhaven PD. While not his life goal Hiya joined her as it at least was a position that allowed him to feel like he was helping people.

He remained a police officer for a year before the sudden retiring of the previous detective and Hayat being handed the job as he was seen as the most capable. It was the start of his new position that landed him in the path of Unit Bravo and his mother’s job. After his first case involved a mad scientist vampire Hiya was asked to join the Agency as Wayhaven’s Human Liason, like his father before him. Since accepting he can’t say that his life is monotonous or lacking thrills.

Hayat overall is a fun loving person that always has a smile, positive attitude, and pun to spare! He’s loyal to those he loves and finds himself brave despite not being the most capable. His strengths lie more in his ability to make connections with people due to his trust, openess, calm demeanor, honesty, and always trying to look for the best in people first. It’s his way of living and does connect to his Muslim faith, that does follow, and Persian culture, though he’d tell you that even if those weren’t factors he’d still live and act as he is.

To get to know him more I reccomend checking out his general tag here! Or even his character asks here! Or you can even check out a profile for him here!

If you would like to read him in action please visit his masterlist here! I apologize that I am missing a piece and at the writing of this plan on updating it soon.

To see his romance with Mason check out their ship tag here!

I am also open to any more asks if there’s something more specific you’d like to know! I’m also open to DMs!

Thank you so much for inquiring about my boy!

#hayat khademi oc #hayat chara ask #oc profile #I hope you get to see this nonny! its my own fear with anon is that you miss out what you ask!

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years ago

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PARTY FAVOURS I CHAPTER 11

CLICK HERE IF YOU ARE A FIRST TIME READER

TW for this chapter: more mild smut. more memes. more hijinks and shenanigans. coffee make the brain go skrrrt. bruce fluff & thor being a good bro™. some1 is catching ✨feelings✨. Previous chapters in the link above the cover pic.

Beta reader is @miscmarvelwritings so don't be shy, give her a read. She's the PB to my jelly.

"I don't know about you..." Taylor Swift softly sang from the speakers.

"Bitch, I hope the fuck you do!" I shouted, tumbling into the kitchen with the grace of a giraffe on acid. The smell of coffee and fresh omelettes was mouthwatering.

"You look… Good," Peter stared at me, his coffee mug frozen halfway to his mouth. The tone of his voice bore very little understanding of the situation he found himself in.

I didn't sleep that night, instead pursuing a scientific quest right after being finger-fucked by Tony Stark. I blame the suits - he had one partially disassembled not ten feet from the puddle my juices had made on the floor - and well, I never said I had a great attention span. One terrible, inappropriate joke had led us to smirking to each other from both sides of the suit as we brainstormed how to best modify it for impromptu bondage sessions. If Peter could have heard us go at it, he'd never set foot in Tony's lab ever again.

On my mighty quest to quench the thirst for knowledge, I completely neglected basic hygiene, so the me that rolled into the kitchen that morning still had yesterday's outfit consisting of fishnets and Tony's hoodie, possibly stained with cum and pussy juice. As a bonus feature, infamous raccoon eyes had made an appearance, courtesy of me rubbing my face multiple times throughout the night.

"I'm feeling my oats," I declared proudly, sitting down next to Peter, making grabby hands at the coffee machine.

"I'm tempted to ask..." Clint handed me the steaming hot dish full of holy bean juice. "But I think I'd rather not." Pointedly, he moved away from me, just enough to make it known he was wary.

"What just happened?" Stephen Strange blinked owlishly.

Boy was he a sight for sore eyes. The wizard wasn't Tony, of course, but his plain white tee left very little to imagination, pulled tight across his toned chest and lean arms. The grey sweats? Illegal. That's a bonk and a ticket to the horny jail for me.

"You didn't get to sleep? Again?" Peter asked, exasperated.

"Sleep who?" I chirped, feeling way too energetic for someone running on some illegal drugs and a single orgasm. It was easy to shrug off the concerned stares I kept getting from the adults and Pete since my already wacky attention span decided to quit it's job without notice.

"Guys, have you seen… oh, there she is!" Tony scrambled into the kitchen, holding his head. That manic look did nothing for his complexion, but then again, I'd take him even filthy and crippled. "Don't just disappear like that!" He snatched the half-empty coffee cup, downing it's remnants in one go and immediately going for a refill. "We didn't finish programming in the shibari function..." He mumbled, absentmindedly running a hand through his messy, greasy hair.

"I..." Peter was still frozen. "I'm not sure I, uh, follow."

"So, me and Tones had this absolutely BRILLIANT idea ..." I started, leaning back in my chair. "But the execution, as usual, needs more work."

"Yes, I can see you've been having ideas," Pete's sass was ignored by both me and Tony. The man was kind enough to clumsily plop a coffee cup in front of me as he was beelining for the fridge. "What are you trying to install? Shib-what?"

"You don't want to know, Pete, trust me," Clint made big eyes at me from across the room. "I'm scared of you," He added, pointing an accusative finger in my direction.

I gave him my best manic stare, probably overdid it by a wide margin. Barton shrunk back, slinking subtly behind Stephen who cleared his throat.

"So I've heard you had an incident yesterday," The doctor was looking at me with concern and pity. "Do you need to visit the medbay?"

About a dozen unsaid and very inappropriate responses later, I simply shook my head negative. My mouth was not to be trusted whilst I was so distracted. Plus, he was hot. I kind of tended to think with my vagina instead of my brain around hot people.

"Good morning," Wanda entered the room, stopping briefly at my side to give me a hug. "Ugh, finally," She muttered the words, looking first at me, then at Tony.

I raised my eyebrow in a silent question and she just smiled, reaching for her own coffee cup.

Tony mercilessly towed me back to his lab once I polished off two omelettes and another cup of coffee - what would've been my fourth was snatched out by an amused Stephen, all stern and firm and magical, meaning he simply whooshed it out of existence as I was raising it to my mouth. He didn't appreciate my choice of expletives, either, none too fondly rolling his eyes and beginning a lecture on heart attacks. Whatever, Tony was my knight in shining armour and we left the kitchen quietly plotting our mechanical plots right over the annoying doctor's mumbling.

There was quite a lot of delicate soldering involved in the gauntlets of the new suit. Having to construct and fix everything on the go proved to be harder than building a robot; even for Tony, the genius engineer himself. We had burned ourselves and nearly dislocated our wrists too many times to count. Thankfully Friday ran the calculations in the background, so we just did the manual labor part.

And coding. The pounding in my skull, the acid in my loins. My God, I hated coding during a hangover. Tony didn't fare any better and that was the best consolation, really. Despite the consumed caffeine, he passed out somewhere during the initial stage. I held out not much longer, barely catching myself as I was reclining against him on the very floor we were building on, scattered cups and tools and glowing holo-screens keeping us company.

My sleep was deep but not deep enough to miss a pair of deep male voices contemplating how to best move mine and Tony's sleeping bodies somewhere more comfortable. The engineer was a cuddler, it turns out, and refused to unwind himself from my prone body, going as far as to kick one of the men - I later learned it was Thor who got a swift punt in the shins from Tony when the Asgardian and Banner attempted to untangle our combined limbs. In the end, they settled awkwardly piling me on top of Tony and Thor single-handedly carried us all the way to Tony's penthouse, depositing us in the absolutely magnificent fluffy, enormous bed.

The bed? I wanted one as soon as I landed on it.

The fishnets? They were beginning to cut into the soft parts of my body, causing an uncomfortable stinging and itching sensation whenever I moved.

"Bwucie," I slurred with my eyes shut, feeling the man rustling around with a blanket, tucking us in. He was just the sweetest scientist.

"Sorry, we tried not to wake you up. Go back to sleep, Princess," He whispered, leaning closer to my face. His breath tickled my hair.

"M'kay, jus' wanna get these off," I weakly pulled at the offending piece of clothing.

The man chuckled. "That looks uncomfortable," Before softly sliding his hands up my legs, hooking his fingers under the stretchy waistband and pulling them down. His hands were hot and soft; my moan was softer but he heard it nonetheless, hand briefly stilling on my thigh.

I snuggled deeper into Tony, rolling onto my side and unashamedly throwing a leg over his hips, happy to find his jeans were off, too.

It appeared that Tony's teammates had already developed some sort of care protocol for their resident mad scientists. Bruce's and Thor's actions had been executed with a practiced care and gentleness. The warm fuzzy feeling in my chest blossomed fully as Bruce once more tucked the blanket around me, tenderly patting me on the back and Tony on the shoulder.

"You'nThor, y'the best," I managed to wiggle out the words out of my muddled, uncooperative brain before returning back to the dreamland.

It felt like another ten minute nap when I woke up again. The lights in the room were off, the NYC skyline providing the illumination instead. Tony was still in bed with me, his breathing even and the quiet hum of the arc reactor steady under my ear. It was the first time I'd been close enough to him to hear the sound of it.

Sleep slowly seeped out of my body, lead disappearing from my limbs. It seemed like I hadn't moved at all. Once my head cleared up, the confusion seeped in. I'd gone to second base with Tony and we did science and never spoke of it again. He didn't kiss me, didn't touch me more than usual - but didn't resist a good ole sleepy cuddle.

What now? I never thought I'd actually get this far. Some part of me - probably the same part that sent me on a romantic novel reading spree a couple of years ago - thought he'd wake up, confess his secret love and attraction for me and we'd seal it with a kiss. Yeah, no, that sounded disgustingly unrealistic even to my own ears. There was no way I would be kissing someone with this swamp I had going on in my mouth.

I wasn't actually that naïve. Why would a man like him pursue something serious with a girl like me? I was a child in his eyes. In fact, all of the Avengers minus Wanda and Bucky treated me like a child. I knew why and I still hated it. I've been taking care of myself in all the ways but financial for years, surely, they had to have noticed that. Teachers in school certainly did. Bruce did, to some extent, I had to admit begrudgingly. Even if his behaviour was really peculiar sometimes.

"Do I make a comfortable pillow, Princess?" A chuckle startled me out of my musings. Tony sounded relaxed and warm and cosy.

"Yeah," I answered honestly, tilting to see his face. He was giving me that lopsided smirk, the one he previously saved for science and Peter and Clint's baking ventures. Something within me stirred, painfully tightening my chest, and I fought against it to preserve this memory like this - happy, carefree.

His thumb found it's way around me, tracing the line of my jaw with surprising tenderness. He was looking at me like I was made of glass. Like I was the most beautiful sculpture he'd ever seen.

I scrunched my nose when his finger found my lips. "I need a shower and a toothbrush," I declared, not knowing what else to do. All of this - the atmosphere, the shared comfort, the looks - it felt too intimate somehow. Having to be on full display of his intelligent, deep brown eyes was terrifying: I felt like crying one moment and laughing the next.

"I was having a moment here," Tony snorted indignantly but relented nonetheless, slowly pushing himself up in a sitting position.

I admired his broad shoulders and the dips and valleys of his arms as he stretched; he caught me staring and winked, of course. I retaliated with skimming my fingertips under the hem of his tee, lightly scratching my nails over his defined abs, delighted with his shiver.

"Behave," He sternly mouthed, following with a smile.

"Never," I smiled back, slipping into banter with comfortable familiarity.

He then led me to the huge walk-in shower, unashamedly stripping off his shirt and socks on the way. Boxers were the last, flying somewhere over my head. My hormones were a raging inferno, or, at least that's what I would have said if someone asked me why the 'loading' icon was hanging over my head as I stared at Tony's round, firm ass. I had to touch it. I absolutely had to touch it, at least once in my life.

My dignity was saved by my own yawn. Tony's hands used the opportunity to slide his hoodie (RIP) over my head, exposing me to the cold air. I shivered in my lacy bra and panties until they were gone, too. My flaws stared back at me from the wall-length mirror and with the way Tony's hands gently settled over my stomach, another hand copping a feel of my breast, I couldn't bring myself to care.

"Beautiful, Princess," He simply said, having noticed the frown on my face.

"No, you," I automatically replied, smirking.

"Me? Nah," He shrugged nonchalantly, gesturing to his arc reactor. "Sexy, however... I'm definitely fucking hot," He leered, pressing his hips into mine with a knowing smirk.

I wiggled my butt, taking my time to turn around and face him. I saw right through the defenses he'd put up. The team didn't start calling me "girl version of Tony" without a reason - I knew we were quite similar in the less desirable character trait category. Impulsive, selfish. Defensive.

Angry red lines spanned across his chest, some faded, some raised. In the middle of it all, the arc reactor shone like a blue little sun in its metal framing. I traced around it, feeling the uneven skin, bumps and dips of it. "It keeps you alive. That's more than enough. For me," I placed a chaste kiss right in the middle of it.

I wished he didn't have to have the thing. I wished he'd never had to go through what he went though in Afghanistan - for me, the press release I'd read was enough to get a grasp on the fact he was tortured and hurt and fucked up in there.

Stepping into the shower, I retreated from him, retreated from my feelings getting in the way and ruining the fun. The least I wanted to do was humiliate myself by crying out of... Out of what, pity? Lovesickness?

"I'm starting to see why everybody else thinks we might be related," Tony's chuckle sounded tired and slightly forced.

"I hope not," A moment to figure out what knob to turn and hot water rained down my body. Almost instantly, the tension in me melted away. "I'm not really into incest and shit."

"Ew," He walked under the stream, sighing agreeably. "But you're into bondage, so you've got that going on for you."

"Yep. Bondage and hot old dudes," I shrugged, reaching for the shampoo.

"I definitely qualify for all three," Tony promptly snatched the bottle out of my hands, standing behind me to do the tedious task of washing me. I allowed, guiltlessly enjoying the treatment. His dexterous fingers massaged my scalp, caressed my body.

A moan slipped out of me at the glide of his hand across my nether regions.

"Tut-tut, Birdbrain is going to pitch a fit if we're late for dinner!"

"Fuck the Chicken," I announced petulantly, attempting to follow the motion of his hand with my hips. He held me firmly by my stomach, only succeeding in adding fuel to the fire within me. "Tony-y-y..."

"Nu-uh," He replied, but the smile hidden in my shoulder and the boner poking me in the hip gave him away.

"Sir?" I tried, getting a low groan in response. "Master? Owner? Daddy?"

His breath stuttered at the last syllable, teeth closing none-too-gently around a patch of my skin. I felt a bruise bloom under his mouth, the delicious pull of it making me realize I'd be marked by Tony for days. A full-body shudder erupted from me at the thought.

"You're trouble," He growled, grinding his own arousal into my ass. "Filthy, spoiled brat," Tony punctuated his words with another claiming bite on my shoulder blade.

"I'm your trouble now," I smirked, relishing in all the attention my body was getting. The fingers that granted me sweet ecstasy at night a fresh memory in my mind, I relented my own urgent need in favour of repaying the man of my dreams for his troubles.

One smirk and my knees rested comfortably on the strangely soft floor of the shower. I came face to face with Tony's hard cock. It stood proudly, the flushed tip of it dripping - with water or pre-come, I didn't know, but was eager to find out.

"Fuck," Tony gasped, gazing down at me in astonishment as I tongued the slit of his cockhead. "You dirty little thing," He seemed to gather his wits quickly enough, bracing himself against the wall with one hand.

He was just about to find out how dirty, I decided. There was something satisfying on a purely primal level, seeing a powerful man absolutely losing it with his dick in my mouth. Rapidly, I swallowed as much of him as I could. His girth throbbed.

"Ruin me?" I popped off, resting my cheek against the hardness of it, tugging on his free hand to place it in my hair. My own arousal flared in response to his bewildered hunger.

Tony wasted no time in fisting a hand in my hair, carefully but firmly putting my mouth onto his cock. Inch after inch disappeared within my mouth; I was breathing through my nose as he slowly began fucking my mouth.

"Fuck, Jesus Christ, Princess, fuck," The mantra fell from his lips, echoing in the large room, mixing in with the water still pouring onto our bodies from above. The heat of it had nothing on the smouldering fire in my belly where it coiled tight and low. Tony's musk on my tongue, the firm hold on my hair. He truly held me, in body and in mind. There was nowhere else I'd rather be than on my knees for him.

I moaned around him causing a stutter in the moderate tempo. Our eyes met: his, wide and gleaming captured my own and I couldn't look away. With a wanton moan, Tony increased the pace, it quickly became brutal and punishing. I held onto his thighs for dear life, wordlessly pleading him to use my mouth for his own pleasure.

And he took it, shamelessly, emptying himself into my mouth with a groan that nearly made me come untouched. It was beautiful and I swallowed every drop of him, refusing to let the evidence of his bliss go to waste.

"Fuck," His voice was ragged.

I rested my cheek against his thick thigh, catching my breath. "Good?" Just to quickly be pulled to my feet, trapped between his hot, wet body and the chilly tiles of the nearest wall. The shiver that ran through me was only partially caused by the sudden change in temperature.

"You did so good, you're my good girl," He mumbled against my lips, sliding his tongue into my mouth without any restraint. His other hand slid between my legs, immediately toying with my clit. That and the hastily spoken praise coupled with the feverish way he was licking himself out of my mouth sent me over the edge, until I was falling, stumbling head-first into an ecstatic abyss.

"Mmm... Tony," Dreamily, I savoured the moment.

"Oh, we're back to first name basis?" He snarked, finally turning off the water.

Pliant as ever, I followed him out of the shower and into his walk-in closet where he pointed at a row of t-shirts and hoodies. I grinned mischievously as I took my pick. "Daddy?"

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub @mostly-marvel-musings @vozit @littlegasps @pilloclock @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads @hermione-grangers-wife @individualistfem @softie-socks @sleep-i-ness @gigglyfox01 @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn

#tony stark x reader #bruce banner x reader #stephen strange x reader #tony stark smut #tony stark x y/n #tony stark x you #stephen strange x y/n #stephen strange x you #bruce banner x you #bruce banner x y/n #bun writes #party favours

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artemoonies · 4 years ago

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𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 - 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙡𝙚𝙚

𝓓𝓮𝓼𝓬𝓻𝓲𝓹𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷. You always love working with any kind of animal, until one day you and your friends have to deal with the biggest company in your district you’re lived in. And then you find him.

𝓟𝓪𝓲𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼. Lion Hybrid-Mark Lee x gender neutral reader (+Haechan & Jeno from NCT)

𝓖𝓮𝓷𝓻𝓮. Idk, fluff ig?

𝓦𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼. none.

𝓦𝓸𝓻𝓭 𝓒𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓽. 1,935 ; 𝓞𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓽

“𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞”

“𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞”

You went to the corner of the road where your little pet shop was, you and your friends own that little shop that you’ve worked so hard on since little. Saving money doing part-time jobs so you can build your own. You don’t remember your parents, you don’t even know if you really had one. You spent all of your life at the orphanage as long as you can remember, with all of the other 32 children and 5 caretakers. You always love animals, you don’t have one but the orphanage that you lived on had a few cats and dogs. Cause you cannot socialize much with every person in the orphanage, you spend your day by playing with a few dogs and cats.

Today, there’s no many customers coming to your store. You can’t blame them, some of the companies just release a pet-bot product, everything seems to be done by robots in this era.

“y/n you’re daydreaming again” your friend Haechan waves his hands in front of your face.

“ok, now have you checked on the order from our website?” you laugh and switch the position of haechan’s laptop to you, scrolling all of the name that you’ve already checked 3 times today with him.

“You know what, this thing kinda seems useless for me, the people who order from our website were like the same person who came to our shop but they were too lazy to get their asses up” Haechan laid his back on the counter, closing his eyes. a gesture of him that means he was tired. Haechan was your childhood friend, you guys know each other on the Orphanage with your other friend Jeno who seems like we're on the back of the shop checking out the animals we had. The three of you had agreed to build a pet shop together, you and haechan’s job was in front of the shop talking to the customer meanwhile jeno was the doctor, he took care of the practical thing.

five minutes later, jeno rushed up to the two of you with an angry look. He stops in front of you and slams the newspaper that he got this morning, making you and Haechan throw some weird looks and then peeking at the news that made Jeno so mad. The headline said “The scientist from LiU Corp released a statement: Every place that contains animals in confinement should register their name and address, we run out of space”. You look at Haechan who gives you a ‘i don't know’ look and then move to Jeno who is still looking furious with this news. You knew you guys needed to register your shop as well but you don’t think that was a big deal, you guys can take some of the animals that LiU Corp had, cause breeding animals in this era need a permission from the government so you guys don't really have that many animals in the shop.

Jeno looked at you two, expecting some reaction but all he got was a confused look from both of you. Jeno slid his hair back and exhaled hardly, like it was the bad bad news he had in every year he worked here. “You guys remember that they offered me a job 2 years ago?” “Yes, and you stupidly refuse to work at the biggest company in this district” Haechan sneer, he’s playing with his hand, doesn't really want to pay attention to anything his friend is about to say. “I didn't say the reason why I did that to you two cause I thought you guys don't have to know it” said jeno, he took a deep breath and said, “they were having an experiment, and they will use it to fight the 2nd district product on the market.” “What do you mean, why would the LiU want to compete with the 2nd district with a bunch of animals?” You keep reading the newspaper which doesn't include much information about things that jeno said to you. “They were making hybrids, inside that company..” jeno said in a low voice

A few days after that conversation, a bunch of boxes came to your shop. There’s no information about anything inside it and they really covered everything until it arrived. Haechan who noticed the box earlier today calls the rest of you, and then decides to close the shop for today. “I don’t know about this, I think we should turn it back to LiU Corp. I think they might be joking” Haechan observing the boxes up and down with an irritated face. “We should look at it first” Jeno moved forward and tried to open the box. It's actually not hard to open, cause after a few knocking the box opened itself and revealed a very terrified looking lion-hybrid.

You, Jeno, and Haechan share a look and then decide to introduce yourself to the male hybrid after a few nods. Jeno goes first, he gives the boy a little smile and then rushes to open the other box. Haechan was next he kneel in front of the cage and smile softly making you surprised by the sudden action, well you’ve seen the soft side of haechan but he rarely shows it to the others. Lastly it was you, you stepped forward, and then kneeling copying haechan’s moves who seemed to be taking a liking to the boy in front of you. “Hi, my name is y/n nice to meet you”

it’s been a week since the hybrid from LiU Corp came to your shop. You, Jeno and Haechan decide to build a few comfy rooms for the hybrid to spend their time in the shop, the three of you think it’s too cruel to just leave them in the cage for an animal. You opened the shop as usual, Haechan said he will come late for today and he said he still has more classes meanwhile Jeno will be here in 1 hour. So you decide that you’ll be doing some cleaning at the animal’s area, cause you didn’t really remember the last time you cleaned those areas. Jeno was in charge of the animal here, some of the animals here are still kinda aggressive so he doesn’t really like it if you and haechan are playing around near the cage. So you decide to just clean the hall, you don’t wanna get in trouble with Jeno who seems to be getting better from his anger toward LiU Corp.

You understand why Jeno is so mad towards them,

“I mean they still had our genes, like living in a cage? that’s bad..very bad”, you swept the floor while thinking to yourself, like how lucky you are even though you can’t even remember who your parents are. “I don’t know you like to talk to yourself like that” said someone’s in the back you turn around to find Jeno walking towards you with someone in his back, oh he was one of the hybrid’s they’ve got from LiU back then. “You know you should let me know you were here, instead of scaring me like that” you said rising you eyebrow “Actually, Mark saw you coming here by yourself and what did I say about coming here? rules are rules you know i made that so you won’t get hurt. You know every pet shop in this district doesn't only taking care of dogs and cats, what if you somehow running into a bear cage i don’t want you to be his meal” Jeno said with concern in his eyes “I'm just cleaning the hall Jeno, and please I can take care of myself” you said pointing the floor you just swept earlier. “And wait what his name is Mark?”

Jeno laughs at your question, he pushes the lion-hybrid boy to your direction, “of course, he needs some names, right? we can't call him without a name and since i gave him his name he would be Mark Lee”. The boy in front of you gives you a shy smile and then goes to jeno’s back, well he’s that type of shy guy you think. “Seriously? why would you come up with that” you laugh finding the Lee thing is funny. “Well, as long as Mark’s fine with that, and he said it’s ok” Jeno said with a proud smile.

“Now can you both get out of here, I need to work” Jeno said, pushing Mark to you once more gently and pointing the way out. You shrug and lead Mark to the exit door, he doesn’t say anything to you just following you from behind. “Hey Mark, i see you close to Jeno” you said teasingly, the boy blush and let out a little giggle while staring at the floor “Jeno is nice to us, he often checks on me and the others” he said with a low voice, it was actually the first time you actually talked to him, cause some of the hybrids usually stay in their room, or keep so much distance from you. You don’t mind that, they just got in here and you sometimes find yourself look scary when you’re stressed over work.

“Sorry, i should have checking on you guys too you know i’m actually jealous of Jeno, he got all of the action” you said exhale deeply, it was always been your dream to taking care of animals or someone who needed your help but different from Jeno who actually had a rich parent to help him with education and bills you have nothing but yourself to rely on. “You can come to our room if you want to,” Mark said with a hesitant tone, his eye still on the floor, you can tell he’s nervous by the different pitch of his voice. “Sure, but i’ll do it after i’ve done with my work” you said, “..if you ok with that, of course” you said, suddenly feeling the urge to copy the boy act amazed by the floor.

“Are you guys doing a staring contest on the floor?” Haechan said from the counter, he’s bag still hanging on his back means he just arrived. “NOO, bye Mark i’ll see you after work” you said walking towards Haechan without looking at him, ignoring the questioning look that Haechan gave to you.

“ARE YOU HAVING A DATE WITH MARK?, YO I’VE NEVER SEEN YOU SO SHY IN FRONT OF A GUY BEFORE!!” Haechan said suddenly after Mark disappear from your sight “Are you crazy?” you said with a flat expression, “i’m just hanging out with him, cause Jeno is getting all of the action. I want to get to know them too, and I think you should too” you said, raising an eyebrow at Haechan who nodded at your answer. “Right, i’ll tell Jeno that I want to have some day off so i can having a DATE with one of them” Haechan said smirking, waiting for your reaction You raise your brow, “what are you? 5? hurry up we need to finish this document or you’ll get an angry Jeno”, You ignore the defeated Haechan next to you and keep tidying your customers profile.

‘Actually he’s kinda cute’ you said to yourself

...

this was my first story that I published

I'm sorry for any kind of mistake

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hitoshisbabygirl · 4 years ago

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Cemented love // E. Kirishima

Authors Notes ♡: Omg have I been through the ring (no pun intended) with this collab! I loved this idea and even with my own personal love life crumbling over while I wrote this, I hope it can give someone some warm feelings when you read it! I’m so glad to be a part of this lovely collab and hopefully you guys will see me in many more! Kirishima is one of my babies and I hope this gives him justice for how sweet he is ! I hope you enjoy reading this and much as I did writing it ~ bunny ❥

Warnings : none! I don’t think (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀) we love making Kiri a big softly Bakubabe being Bakubabe so a few cuss words

Word count : about 2k give or take!

Paring(s) :Eijiro Kirishima x F! Reader

Plus some of our Class 1-A are dating in this world too ♡

———————————————————————

Kirishima was the light of her world, he made everyone and everything ten times happier and brighter than it was. But to Kirishima, () was his brightest star in the sky. He loved her so much for everything she’s done. She inspired Kirishima to keep going, to press on and be a pro hero even more than he believed in himself. Since middle school she was the driving force behind him, keeping the sometimes sad and less cheerful Kirishima happier and joyful in his life. He loved her for the light she brought to him , and he wanted to return that light to her in the most loving way he could ; marriage. It all started years ago, starting from the last year of middle school to now in his life as pro hero Red Riot

Kirishima knew in their second year at UA that he was in love with one of his best friends. After sparring with her he realized how strong () was and how he wanted her to be his girlfriend. But being distracted he realized he was on the floor, blocking . “Haha! Gotcha” She yelled victoriously , pinning Kirishima under her hands , smiling down at him, heaving out of breath as she yelled victoriously. But all Kirishima could think of is how beautiful she looked when she was happy, a smile of his own spreading across his face that didn’t get unnoticed by a certain pink friend of theirs.

Afterwards that night at the dorms, Mina ran up to Kirishima, stopping the group of him , Sero and Denki heading to the kitchen, their hot headed friend Bakugou already sleep in his room, claiming that he didn’t have time for the “extras and their boring ass games” and grumpily shut his dorm door , the rest of his friends heading back to hangout with their other friends and classmates. “Hey Kiri! I have a question for you” Mina sung, grabbing Kirishima by the arm and pulling him away from the two confused friends he was walking with. “Yeah? What’s up Mina?” Kirishima said , blinking at the excited pink girl, her eyes lighting up and a wide smile on her face. “You like () don’t you? I saw the way you looked at her during practice! You’re practically smitten for her aren’t you!?” She said , causing the red head to sputter and try to argue his defense as she covered his mouth. “Now don’t worry! She likes you too, you should go y'know , ask her for a date” Mina finished, elbowing Kirishima in the side as their friend in question shouted loudly, winning a round of Mario Cart she happily laughed, getting the last slice of pizza from a disappointed Denki . As Minas' smile grew , Kirishimas’ face darkened in embarrassment as he watched his happy friend celebrate. They moment was soon snapped out of his thoughts as he was pushed forward to the common room by the pink counterpart beside him, mouthing a ‘go talk to her’ before she ran off to slide beside () and Tsyu , jumping on one of the couches with the other girls. With a sigh Kirishima sat beside Midorya and Sero, both guys looking at the red head as he longingly looked across to the happy girl eating her prized pizza. () soon looked over and blinked, giving him a small wave and a smile to which the red head turned dark and waved back with his own smile , the two of them in their own world together as their friends watched internally screaming at them to make it official. Once a movie started to play , () and kirishima were given the job to go get and make more snacks. Cookies were in the oven , chip bowls and candy mixes were brought in and out from their kitchen. As () was placing more cookies in the oven , Kirishima came over to her with a small smile.

“Need any help with those?” He asked as () smiled back, sliding out a tray and replacing it with another one, “No , but if you want we can start on the punch and all of that” she said after closing the oven and removing her oven gloves. Heading to the refrigerator she pulled out the jugs of juice, starting to mix them as they started to laugh, acting as mad scientist while everything was beginning to become finished, the two sharing quiet laughters and jokes to eachother. As they waited for the second batch of cookies to finish while stealing glances at the movie as they walked back and forth , the pair sat up on the countertops, talking to eachother.

As () kept talking , Kirishima stared at her, eyes adoring as he listened to her talk, happily explaining how much she loved her work study and the mission she had a few days ago. As she turned to ask him a question about his own work studies she noticed how he was staring, causing her own words to fall off, making Kirishima snap from his thoughts soon turning red as they stared at eachother. “S-sorry I promise I was listening!” Kirishima blurted out , holding his hands over his face in defense and embarrassment as () smiled at him, taking the rambling boy's hand as her own face darkened. “Kiri…” she started and gave him a soft smile, making the red head stop and look at her , his eyes soft as she looked away before continuing. “Kiri..do you like me?” She said only above a whisper, the question almost being drowned out by the screaming and gasps in the living room except he was hanging on to every word she said. He let out a small sigh and held her hand back, shaking his head in agreement to her statement, scared for his voice to fail him. She turned darker and let his hand go, hoping down to check the cookies. With her own sigh she opened the oven, checking the still raw cookie dough.

As she flipped the pan he stared longingly at her, still in disbelief of what she asked but even more shocked once she started talking again. “I’ve..always appreciated our friendship..but I had deeper feelings for you Kiri..and I’m glad..you feel the same way..” () finished as she turned from the oven only to turn into Kirishimas’ chest. With a bit of hesitation she looked up to him looking down at her with a dark color of embarrassment evident on his face as he took one of her hands, giving it a small kiss. “W-well if you want we can become..a thing? No..I mean I want you as my girlfriend...i-if you’ll let me?” He said as his voice got lower and lower, a wave of nerves came over him as he tried to find the right way to ask () out. With a laugh she reached up and kissed his cheek, her own face having the same heat flushing through her own cheeks “Yes Kiri I would..now can we move the oven is getting a bit too hot to lean against” She said giggling as Kiri babbled our apologizes, moving them from the oven door. As the movies played on, the hushed whispers and small giggles flowed from the newly made couple filled the kitchen with newfound love.

Graduation came and went with everyone headed towards hero work. Kirishima was now a certified sidekick for Fatgum and his agency with () working in the office giving them updates and missions to work on. Fatgum loved his sidekicks, they were like his children and he treated them as such, he loved helping them along to become heroes and have their own name in the scene of things. He always saw the potential in the apprentices he chose and that was no different with the ones he had now. As everyone went up in the ranks in the few years that passed Kirishima included, he got his own agency with the help of Fatgum to help stop crime alongside the bigger named hero. Beside him was () , his secretary, sidekick , and long-standing lover and some of UAs newer names in the four years he’s been out of the top hero school. The lover duo of Kirishima and () had made the hero world gain a buzz no one really saw coming, setting a spark in how hero work was seen as people watched them. The two of them had one of the strongest bonds and skill work the world had seen and everyone loved the sensational duo with their bright and lovable personalities shining through as they helped Japan stay safe. With all the media surrounding the pair and with pro hero work it was rare they got time alone but with a large raid being finished this week they finally had time for themselves and that time was something that Kirishima was gonna steal for him and his master plan he’s been brewing up.

It started with dinner, simple enough and enjoyable for the two of them. As () came home from finishing up her last bit of paperwork she was astonished to walk into a low lit home with her towering pro hero boyfriend shyly pushing from one foot to the other , hands hidden behind his back. “Well hello there” She said with a giggle as she placed her keys down on their counter , heading to the hulking man. “H-hey babe! These are for you!” Kirishima blurted out , handing over a giant bouquet of flowers to (),her eyes widening as she let her small smile grow wider , taking the bouquet, inhaling its pleasant and lovely aroma. “Thank you Kiri! I absolutely love them! What’s with all of this? Did I miss something important?” She said as she looked around and found a spare vase, placing the flowers inside as she turned to her red haired lover, him wrapping his arms around her waist as he giggled. “Nah, just want to spoil you” He said softly, kissing her cheek as he took her hand and dragged her to the dinner table, food arrayed and laid out on the table in front of them. “Yknow this is nice, we rarely get a whole lot of time together Kiri” () said, laughing as she took in the meal in front in her, happily making a plate as she looked at her awe stricken boyfriend. “What..?” She laughed, wiping crumbs off her face as Kirishima smiled back, eating from his own made plate. “Nothing..you’re beautiful” he said softly, causing them both to stop and look at eachother as () fondly smiled back at him “And you’re handsome” she finished off , taking his rather large hand in his as he kissed the top of hers , the two finishing their dinner date with talks about work, their well needed break, what to watch on TV and how they’d spend their time off together.

The next day Kirishima told () that they had reservation to a mystery place she couldn’t know where they were going. Only leaving a note saying ;

Hi my love ♡ I hope you slept well

I have a surprise for you later today! Dress up in your favorite dress or whatever you wanna wear, I love you in anything you put on. Once you do just step outside around 6 when you’re done

I love you ♡

Kirishima ~

With a scoff () shook her head , trying to think of what her boyfriend could be planning as she cleaned the house , fixing plants and pictures placed all over there house. With a smile she remembered each and every picture, from when they graduated, their first mission together, when they went out to eat to celebrate with Fatgum and Tamaki , and other significant events in their life together. Setting everything up and neatly () looked at the time, seeing as it was just after four she decided to take a quick nap and once she got up, get dressed and find out what her lovely boyfriend was hiding. Meanwhile, Kirishima set up the penthouse suite , pacing around as Fatgum watched his intern more nervous than he'd ever been before anything, even stressful missions. “Hey dont sweat it Kirishima! Im positive that she’ll say yes!” Fatgum reassures the redhead, his crimson eyes wavering as he looked at the small black velvet box in his hands “You dont think...this is too early or maybe she doesn’t feel the same..?” Kirishima asked, rolling the tiny box as Fatgum gave him a pat on the back “I could bet my whole missions lunch on her saying yes!” He said excitedly as he let out a laugh, a toothy grin coming over Kirishima as they prepared for a mission bigger than he’d done before.

Walking down the stairs of their home and into the night , () looked around as she saw a hot pink car, evident that it was her hyper pink friend. “Mina??” She questioned as the pink girl rolled her widows down , a huge smile on her face. “ () babyyyyy hiiiiii!!!” She happily yelled as () ran up to her window. “So you’re my ride huh? What’s Kiri planning?” She asks as she hears giggles from the back, seeing Jiro and Momo in the back, holding hands as they waved to their other best friend. “Hey ()!” “How are you doing dear?” Momo and Jiro both started to talk and asked her how she was as () got in the car , the group heading to the meet up spot as they talked. “I’m good you two! I’m so happy you guys are here, how’s hero work treating my favorite pair of wives?” She said laughing as the duo smiled at her. “We’re all good here, the boys are already there , Tsuyu, Hagakure and Uraraka are on their way too!” Momo said as they drove off, singing different songs as () looked out the window thinking of what she’d be met with at this mystery spot.

Once the group arrived they were bombarded with the beautiful scenery , their other friends and significant others. “()!!!” Uraraka yelled, rubbing to hug her as the two laughed , () holding her hands as she took in her dress “Look at you, I love this dress! Where’s Deku? How are you guys and the baby?” () said as Uraraka smiled , rubbing her small bulge. “We’re all good! Dekus helping the others in the back!” Uraraka said as they headed around the penthouse, swimming pools , a garden , different spaces and a beautiful sky line. “Wow Kiri has to pay a shit ton for this!” Denki said as he hugged and kissed Mina on the forehead, () smiling at him. “Hey Denki!” She said as the electric blonde ran and hugged her “Hey ()! There’s my favorite person! Are you ready to see what Kiri has panned for you?” He said as he threw her a wink , () frowning as everyone settled in. “How does everyone know but me” she grumbled , going to a large chair in the glass room of the penthouse, watching as her best friends got ready. “Hey babe” Kirishima said, kissing her cheek as she jumped from her thoughts, giving him a grin as he said in his own chair beside her. “Hi love! So why is some of our closest friends here, we’re in a large penthouse, and no one is telling me what’s going on” () said as she pouted and Kirishima laughed, kissing her forehead and then her lips with a satisfied and wide smile “You'll see!”

As the night drew on and everyone was hanging out in the pools , eating , playing board and video games and much more, Kirishima was ready. Grabbing a mic he tapped and said “Uhm everyone can you guys come here? I think it’s time” as everyone giggled and sat around the display , () took Fatgums hand as he helped her up to Kirishima, the redhead taking his lovers hand as he gave her a nervous smile “So..I’ve been talking this over with everyone important to me and I’m glad all of them are here now!” He started as class 1-A yelled happily back, as he continued “Well...now that we’re here..() I’ve been in love with you since we started highschool..I’m so glad that I’m with you and that you’ve been with me thick and thin..so without a doubt I know that this decision of mines is one I’ve always wanted to do..and I’m positive that it’s one I’d never back up from..” With a deep breath he pulled out a velvet black box and as everyone awed and started to clap () eyes widened, seeing as her tall boyfriend was now in one knee, showing her one of the biggest diamond rings she’s ever seen. With a shaky hand she held it out to him as he asked the four little but heaviest words “Will you marry me?” He said with big crimson eyes, a flash of nervousness in them. Without a word she shook her head yes as he slid the ring on her finger as everyone clapped and cheered. Kirishima stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes, giving her a soft kiss as the sounds of their friends drowned out by the beating of their hearts.

——————————————————

Bonus!! ♡

Kirishima nervously fixed his vest and tie for the hundredth time as his best man Bakugou finally let out a sigh causing the red head to freeze. “Listen Shitty Hair she already said yes and now you guys are finally tying the not. Don’t let your damn nerves get to you now” he said with a growl as the redhead laughed “You’re helpful as usual Bakubro! I’m fine! Just excited to finally see her..” He said with a small smile as Bakugou huffed again , heading out the door as he said “You��re the manliest man I know, you’ll be fine. If you mess this up I’ll be your ass myself” and with that the door shut as people took their places. The music started to play as the same penthouse that she was engaged in became the stage for her wedding. As all of their friends and family members who weren’t at the engagement party and the ones who were settled in , they waited to see the beautiful bride stroll down the eisle. As everyone turned around they saw () with her veil and bouquet coming down the eisle, being helped by all might as her father figure. Kirishima felt his breath leave his body as he thought to himself

“This is it...time to cement this love in stone!”

#bnha #my hero academia #BNHA POCuties collab #BNHA POCuties #kirishima x reader #wedding #f!reader #boku no hero academia #my hero imagines #bnha imagines #bnha writer #bnha x reader

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codevassie · 4 years ago

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Superpower TS Fic Recs

[***Let me know if I’ve missed anything on the Content Warnings!]

[**Do Not Ask Authors for Updates!]

[*Leave these authors Comments, please and thank you!]

What You Can Stand by manyfandomsonelog

Status: Incomplete, Work In Progress

Summary: Virgil tried so, so hard to avoid becoming a supervillain. He really did. But when your superpower is literally manifesting a person's worst fears, it's a hard thing to avoid. Still, he really, really tried. Even when his own parents feared him. Even when the whole school feared him. Even when he hated himself and his Propensity so much that he wanted to give in. He might've succeeded, if he hadn't met him- Roman Reyes, AKA Roman Spectacular, AKA The Prince, AKA the worst thing that has ever happened to him (which is saying something).

Relationships: Prinxiety, Logicality

CW: Psychological stuff, nightmares, bullying, physical harm, spiders, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, brief discussion of racism, self-hatred, bomb, explosion, blood, injury, bad/abusive parenting, imprisonment, fire, homophobia, pedophilia mention, discussion of child abuse, evidence of physical abuse, sexual innuendo, anxious thoughts, death, funeral, flashback, reference to sex, fairly aggressive arguing and yelling, public speaking, secondhand embarrassment

My thoughts: My quarantine savior!!! I started the fic like a week into quarantine, so I really mean that literally. The characterization is absolutely fantastic--I love seeing all of them interact. It’s so natural and fun and interesting. The plot is also just wonderful--one thing keeps happening after another and these guys just cannot seem to get a break. The pacing is awesome, and whether it’s a character or plot chapter, you just can’t look away. Log is such a fantastic writer and a wonderful person, so if you like awesome prinxiety, superpowers and secret identities, trust and betrayal, humor and angst, you really need to read this one!

Rewind by ravenclawicecream

Status: Incomplete, Work In Progress

Summary: When a group of superheroes show up to kill him, it's just another Wednesday for Virgil Messana. After five years of being on the run, he's used to the idea people want him dead. That fact is just an unfortunate side effect of having the power to destroy everything you touch. What does surprise him, however, is when he finds himself agreeing to join those superheros and become part of the team. It's not long until Virgil learns that all the heroes have chapters of their lives they'd rather keep unpublished, along with events they'd rather not relive. And, as he spends more time with the team, he realizes that he may know certain members much better than he'd originally thought. Virgil longs for a moment to figure everything out but by then it's too late. He's already caught up in a bigger scheme; one where they no longer have the power to control their own destinies. With every movement monitored and every action proven to be calculated, the lines between allies and enemies blur, leaving Virgil caught in between. When the stakes are inevitably raised, the remaining heroes must do all they can to change the future of the world. But time has always been a cruel master, and sometimes the only answer is to rewind.

Relationships: Loceit, Logicality, Prinxiety, Remile

CW: Major Character Death, Murder

My thoughts: Gosh, I wish this one got more love. It’s probably the MCD tag, so understandable, but also take into consideration the time travel tag and perhaps give it a chance? I feel like this fic is setting up for so much, and I cannot wait to see how it all goes down. I have so many questions for this fic which is always a good sign (so many that I may have freaked the author out with my WALL of questions on chapter three don’t worry about it /j). Please. Read. This.

Powerless by patentpending

Status: Complete

Summary: “People like us,” Logan had once remarked to Virgil. “Are statistical anomalies.”(Almost) Everyone in the world has powers. As for those who don’t, well, they’re such a small part of the population - only 0.04% - why would anyone care about them?Ever since he realized what people mean when they call him Powerless, Virgil Sanders has tried to fight back against the system that oppresses people like him, Patton, and Logan. When Patton’s bakery is targeted in a hate crime, he finally snaps. With the help of a mysterious sponsor, Virgil becomes a villain, ready to remake a broken society. The only thing standing in his way is the world’s most Powerful (and infuriatingly charming) superhero: The Prince, who is hiding the fact that his gilded life isn’t as perfect as it may seem.

Relationships: Prinxiety, Logicality, Roman/Female Fanon Character

CW: Classism, Unreliable Narrator, Thinly Veiled Criticism of Society, emetophobia, violence, gun mention, implied suicide attempt, dub-con, mentions of blood, graphic depictions of a riot, non-graphic description of a wound, possessive and abusive behavior, kid being kicked out of the house by parent, kidnapping, kinda torture (?), body horror, gore, graphic descriptions of injuries, emotional abuse, police brutality, pain and injury, burning building, swearing, vomiting, murder, panic attack, dysphoria, misgendering, minor character death, major character death, self deprecating talk, mentions of suicide

My thoughts: Well, doing a TS superhero rec without Powerless is just treason. I don’t know--I’m trying to figure out a way to describe it and instead launching up to pace around the room with an instant replay of different scenes in my head. I mean, the grocery store chapter?!?! This stuff lives in my head rent free. The characterization, the banter, the tension, the motives--I can’t describe it y’all. Just, if you love yourselves (love yourselves, please <3) then just go read it. Or reread it. Do that for yourselves.

Waterspout by Greenninjagal

Status: Complete

Summary: "Hail!” The boy says all smug smiles that Virgil immediately hates. “You’re Recluse aren’t you?”As if there was some other spider themed weirdo who clung to buildings in their free time.“No,” Virgil says, because he can. *** Virgil finds himself stuck on the side of a building in a rainstorm and is helped by an annoying-admittedly attractive-guy.

Relationships: Prinxiety

CW: Mild cursing, storms

My thoughts: This one is very cute. Virgil is a spiderman-like hero who went up a waterspout, and down comes some rain trying to wash him out. Roman comes to help, they banter a bit, and, maybe, there’s a little surprise at the end. I would not mind more of this AU. In fact, I would love it. But that should not discount how wonderfully made a oneshot it is either. The author wrote it perfectly for the length it is, presenting the charm of the characters, great plot and symbolism, and left me wanting more at the same time. Definitely go check this one out.

Technically. It’s A Secret by supervillain

Status: Incomplete, Work In Progress

Summary: Virgil Storm, the adopted son of a reality TV star with telekinesis was born without a power. That's been a problem for him all his life. His only friend is Patton Vega, his only chance at romance the irritating Cros Corson--until he gets a job at a top-secret facility, playing babysitter to a bunch of kids with dangerous powers and even more dangerous minds. Kids who happen to be exactly his age.Yeah, this is going to be a piece of cake, especially when the enigmatic villain Believe (aka Roman Torres) takes a liking to Virgil. And even worse, when Virgil starts to more than like him back. Pull in some evil mad scientists, a plague created to decimate the world, a murderous villain, an obnoxious stalker, and the greatest Kinetic the world has ever known, and you're in for a hell of a ride.

Relationships: Prinxiety, Logicality

CW: Anxiety attacks, arson, murder, minor character death, blood, spiders, being eaten alive, falling, death, sleeping, fighting, cop mention

My thoughts: I’m behind on this one, and I wanted to catch up on it before I posted this rec list. Today is the last Friday of the year though, so I decided to just go ahead and do it. I love this fic a ton so far, and I can’t wait to read more. I can tell the author put a lot of thought into writing the world and characters, and that the plot is interesting and deliberate. There’s mysteries unfolding which intrigues me So Bad. It’s a super interesting one, so I’d say go read it!

#fic recs #sanders sides #ts #friday fic recs #prinxiety #NOTE: the two that have a wall of CWs are mostly just warnings from the beginnings of chapters #which means they can be skipped over fairly easily #so today is the last friday of the year (holy snit) so i wanted to get this out #i've been trying to make this list since like may but i don't read a whole lot of superpower aus #hope everyone is having a great one!

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tundrainafrica · 4 years ago

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Title: A Rough Day

Summary: It should have been apparent to Hange by the weight gain and the sudden lack of red days. Somehow, Levi noticed it first.

Link to cross-postings: AO3

Notes: Thought about this idea because of the headcanon from @faerielleart‘s blog and had to get it written out. Just some fluff and domestication for our favorite pairing.

It felt like the war against Marley happened centuries ago.

Levi was sure though that it had only been two years since they had signed the peace treaty with Marley ending the war and the reign of the titans. He was present in the signing of the treaty after all.

With the fall of the titans, the survey corps was declared redundant. The military shifted to defence against possible invasions by humans. There was no need for Paradis to rely on the soldier dubbed humanity’s strongest. Having seen enough war, bloodshed and loss to last a lifetime, Levi eventually decided to shift his focus towards more mundane things like entrepreneurship, marriage and maybe a family.

The only person he could have ever wanted to spend his whole life with had other dreams. The end of the war had opened up a new age for technological advancement and trade and the person heading it all was the former survey commander, Hange Zoe. The mad scientist could finally channel her genius and enthusiasm towards a new type of research to improve the lives of the people in Paradis.

Somehow, they managed to make it work.

There was no wedding, flowers, invitation or cake. There was just an unspoken agreement between them. They had originally lived in the same barracks and with the dissolution of the survey corps, it felt almost natural to move to a small flat near the center of Paradis, of what used to be Wall Sina. Their daily life together began soon after they settled in. Hange was gone by 5am and back in their flat by 9pm all week. Levi found happiness in keeping the house clean, cooking and catching up on all the sleep he had lost the past forty years of his life. When he ran out of tasks to do in the house, he found himself doing research on different types of tea as knew shipments came in from different parts of the world and experimenting on different mixes in the kitchen.

The two were following their own dreams and had pursued different things and this left little to no time for Levi and Hange to process the relationship between them. They were both the only survivors of more than a decade of fighting what seemed like a hopeless war. That history was enough to forge an unbreakable bond between the two. When they were together, they made the most of it. Nights together were intimate. Weekends together were comfortable. It was as if Levi and Hange were making up for all the comfort and happiness that they were deprived of the past decade.

The domestic lifestyle they have built together had also made Levi more familiar with the workings of a woman’s body. Levi grew up with his mother and was aware that women bled once a month. It was not something he occupied himself with in the barracks since it was the responsibility of the women to keep themselves clean. With Hange gone for 12 to 16 hours a day, it suddenly became Levi’s responsibility to clean blood off sheets and clothes on top of cleaning the house. The blood took hours to scrub off, even with the new chemicals and products coming into Paradis, it became the bane of Levi’s clean freak existence. That was until it stopped. Levi didn’t think too much of it at first. It meant one less job for him and Hange probably had a good explanation for it right?

A few months passed and Levi started to notice that Hange was getting chubbier. She was notably eating more, waking up later than she used to and coming home earlier. Levi didn’t complain. They were all welcome developments. It meant more time for the two of them and less blood to clean up.

“Sometimes, I just feel sick. Maybe I’m just working too hard.” Hange replied groggily when Levi prodded on these recent changes in their everyday schedule.

Levi raised one eyebrow. “Okay. Just don’t overwork yourself.” Like all days, Hange left for work while Levi went about his own chores for the day.

Those days, Levi found himself more invested as usual in his tea mixings. The diplomatic agreements gave rise to more and more new types of tea leaves and Levi was starting to get more creative and ambitious. He started to boil this new import called coffee beans with different types of tea leaves. The flowery aroma of some teas definitely did not mix with the bitterness of the coffee and as soon as Levi tasted them, he ended up setting them aside in the rejection pile.

The price of the tea leaves and coffee beans though and the trauma of having to deal with the scarcity of this commodity years ago forever stuck to Levi though and the latter ended up lining them up on the kitchen table trying to find a way to consume while at the same time enjoy his failed concoctions.

Levi only had a few seconds to ponder the fate of the failed concoctions before Hange came in.

Maybe we could just eat out. Levi remembered that he hadn’t prepared anything for dinner.

“Ahhh. Thank god you made some tea. Today was exhausting. I’ve been telling them to test that new contraption before...” Hange trailed off as she consumed the three cups of tea Levi had deemed failures in the leaf and bean mixing process. Her face quickly changed from pure exhaustion to excitement. “These are amazing Levi! Will you be selling these? Can you make more tomorrow?”

Levi stood frozen for a second, too surprised at how quickly Hange had consumed all three cups in front of them. “Sure.” He managed a nod as he gathered the three cups from the table and brought them to the sink. “About dinner…” Levi looked back only to find that Hange had retired to the bedroom. He at least had some time to wash the cups and cook dinner.

By the time he did cook dinner and call Hange from the room, the latter was dead asleep, sprawled all over the bed with no space for Levi to comfortably slip in. She was sleeping belly up and Levi only noticed that her belly was starting to form a small hill. She couldn’t be… Levi carefully placed his hand on her belly, only to be grabbed violently by the wrist.

“What the fuck Levi! I’m trying to sleep.” She pushed his wrist away and rolled to the side, her back facing him, falling asleep again almost instantly.

Levi held his aching wrist and walked back to the kitchen to clean out the rest of the tea cups he used in his mixing experiments, a little shaken by Hange’s reaction to his prodding. Maybe she just had a rough day.

Rough Day

Two months passed with no red days and a constantly drowsy and cranky Hange and Levi was sure that type of weight gain was not natural. All the weight had concentrated towards Hange’s belly and she was starting to have trouble walking.

“I really should watch what I’m eating. I’ve just been eating away my stress the past few weeks and people have been making fun of my weight gain, telling me to see a doctor. They’re even fucking asking me how many months in I am! I know I’ve been eating a lot but I’m really trying. Besides, I don’t even think we should be making jokes when we have to deal with the fact the port extension has to be opened next month to make way for new deliveries…”

Levi rested his chin on his hand and tuned out the fifth rant of Hange that week. He was 90% sure his theory was correct but Hange had not given him any opening to discuss it the past two months. How does he bring that up without pissing her off? More importantly, how the fuck does she not notice?

“Maybe you should take a break then?” Levi suggested half heartedly.

“What? Why? With so many things happening next month…. You can't expect me to…"

Levi once again tuned Hange out and focused instead on her belly. Hange was still trying to squeeze into her pants like she was fifteen pounds lighter and Levi was starting to worry about both of their bodies. "Maybe you should see a doctor?"

"Are you even listening to me? I was asking for your opinion on the new military gear!"

"So what I'm getting here is you don't have the time to see a doctor?"

Rough Day

Levi took matters into his own hands.

His first stop was the doctor's office. He knew he couldn't bring Hange in for a consult but all he wanted was to at least confirm his suspicions. The doctor only had to explain the lack of red days for Levi to be completely sure that the four he had gotten from the two on two he had put together was the correct answer. The crankiness, the fatigue and the morning sickness were only secondary evidence to the lack of red days and the apparent weight gain.

"So she shouldn't be working anymore should she."

"I would recommend she takes a leave for the next 6 months at least."

Levi thought for a second. "Why don't you get that in writing…"

The next few steps after that were easy. Hange may be in a high position in Paradise but Levi still had contact with one of the few people who could make sure Hange didn't show up for work. The child-loving, good-natured Queen Historia did not need any more convincing.

"Oh, I guess it looks like you're trapped at home then. Maybe you should spend the next six months resting." Levi said, feigning surprise at the letter from the queen he himself brought home.

"Indefinite leave for the next six months? What the fuck Levi you can't expect me to just sit around? Why the hell would you do this? And work today was so eventful… I was excited to test out the new cargo carrier…"

"Other people can take over the work."

"But can they really oversee everything. There's a lot going on and this is a really important time… I don't have the time to be sitting around."

"Maybe if you just---"

Hange grabs the envelope from Levi's hand and scans through it. " Wait Levi what the fuck. This wasn't sent here there's no return address. YOU filed for my leave?"

Levi shrugged. "What if they just gave it to me to give to you?"

"All official documents have to be coursed through me Levi. How the fuck could you do this. There's so much to be done. Just thinking about everything which is gonna be waiting for me after 6 months. What if the others don't handle the work right? What if they mishandle the new carrier and we lose thousands worth of products? Are you considering this?" Hange roughly grabbed the letter from Levi, almost tearing it in the process. "I'm appealing this."

"You must be shitting me Hange. You really don't get it do you?"

"The office should still be open." Hange said, not looking back.

It has been years since Levi's last military training but he was relieved to know he still had the agility to outrun an angry (but pregnant) Hange to the door. He locked the door behind him from the inside. "You're not getting out of here shitty glasses."

"You don't let me out and I swear I'm gonna break down the door while you're sleeping."

"Then I won't sleep."

"I'll break out through the windows then!"

Levi rushed to grab Hange from behind as soon as she turned her back. He was careful not to squeeze her swollen belly "If this were any other day, I probably would have let you get away with whatever bullshit you wanna do but I'm not letting you jeopardize what could be our future child shitty four eyes"

"You're not making any good arguments here!" Hange continued to struggle. "Stop holding me back!" In frustration, Hange shifted her weight towards her back, utilizing her size advantage to push the smaller man behind her.

Levi fell to the floor and let out a grunt of pain. "How dense can you fucking be? You're six months pregnant you dumb shit."

#levihan #levi x hange #levi x hanji #happy ending for levi #attack on titan fic #levi ackerman #hange zoe #fanfic

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bcbdrums · 4 years ago

Text

Purification

All right. @cocoa-at-night was mad at me, and I know others will be... So this is in fact a second sequel to "Torment.” I already had this idea in my head as a possible sequel so... Who says I can’t write two! Therefore, readers, you get two options now. Decide which way you prefer the story to end.

To be very clear, this is a different sequel than “Immolation” and follows a different path to a different ending. It begins the same however. Please enjoy “Purification.”

FFn AO3

---------

Purification

Shego ran the dampened washcloth over the smooth, polished surface of the bar and stared at the grains of wood beneath. She nearly had them memorized, for how many times she'd run the cloth over them to wipe away the condensation left by the rims of drinking glasses. She always tried to find vague shapes in their patterns; faces and objects and sometimes familiar ocean waves. She didn't have anything else to do with her days, after all.

The small wall-mounted television in the corner continued to play news from the local channel, and after three years she could finally understand the Spanish of the broadcast. She'd picked up the local slang faster by necessity, since she couldn't use her powers to protect herself from the type of crowd the bar attracted. It was ironic, for its nearness to the Caribbean, but the slums of El Salvador had been the perfect place to hide. She easily translated the broadcast into the more comfortable English:

"...And here is Dr. Drakken only days ago, unveiling his latest innovation at the world's largest scientific conference in Berlin..." the voice from the TV cut through the minimal noise at the late hour in the bar.

A soft smile came to Shego's face. And then suddenly her vision was filled with the large form of a dark-skinned man wearing a t-shirt that had seen too many years, and with a face that hadn't seen a razor in weeks.

"Venga, chica. Bailar conmigo."

Shego stepped back from the strong scent of alcohol and scowled at the man, a regular at the establishment, but one who never quite took the hint. Especially not when he had had too many.

"Raquel?" came the accented voice of Esteban, her boss and the owner of the place, from across the room where he was wiping down tables and stacking chairs for closing.

She leaned around the offensive man to merely smirk at her boss knowingly in return. He grimaced slightly, no doubt wondering how much of a mess there would be to clean after she was finished with the brute.

Truthfully, she didn't always reject the men who asked her to dance. Whenever she'd had a few shots it was easier to say yes, and she enjoyed closing her eyes and moving to the rhythm of the music, and imagining herself in a different place. But it would always end the moment any of them tried to lay a hand on her...

She couldn't cross that line. There was only one set of hands she ever wanted to touch her, and they never would. Allowing herself to indulge once and pretend with anyone else would open the gate to far worse sins than her most definitely out of control drinking, and she didn't want to deal with the ramifications of heading down that path.

She still wasn't sure when she'd fallen in love with Drakken. She'd certainly been in love with him before she left, but she'd only realized the fact while in her self-imposed exile, when all she could think about was him.

Numerous magazines and newspapers were delivered to the tiny room she rented above the bar, but not of the variety she'd used to get. Now it was all science periodicals, and world news... And her wall was adorned with newspaper cutouts with his familiar, confident grin. The only reason she watched the news at all was for word of him.

She was pathetic.

Her 'clean break' as she'd hoped to make it seemed to have worked for him. He was finding the success she knew he would as soon as she was out of the picture, no longer holding him back. She knew that would have been the result had she stayed, making him question his sudden yearning for 'good.' Less for good, she knew of course, and more for the recognition and honor his genius rightly deserved. She wouldn't have said that years ago, but with the new understanding she had of her feelings...

She couldn't have stayed. He would have denied himself for her. And she refused to let herself think it was because his feelings were deeper too. No, that wasn't possible. It had been made abundantly clear to her over their four years as partners in crime that he simply didn't think of her that way. She was little more than an asset and a comfort; a listening ear for his endless dronings and rantings, easily replaced.

So she had left a note on her pillow one day after painfully listening to him describe the amazing job offers he had received, and simply vanished. She knew he would come looking for her, as he always did because 'he needed her,' so she had made herself impossible to find. She'd not hardly used her powers in three years, and she'd managed to convinced the locals in the high-poverty, high-crime rate slums she'd hidden in that her skin color was due to something between genetics and illness.

'Shego' was gone.

Now she was Raquel, the barmaid who drank too much, wouldn't let anyone get close, and who had a strange obsession with science magazines. Esteban and others had tried to get her to talk about herself, or her apparent science interest for awhile, but they'd finally taken the hint that she was out there in the middle of nowhere, at one of the only respectable establishments in those slums, to make sure know one ever knew her story.

Shego waited until Esteban wasn't looking, and then she lifted her hand above the leering man's head as his greasy fingers reached across the bar for her, and she let him have just enough of a pressure blast from her glow to knock him out. When the man's large, dead-weight hit the floor, her boss turned with a start.

"Ai ai ai, Raquel! Someday I will see how you accomplish that."

Shego merely smirked as her eyes shifted back to the television. It was a simple, lonely life... One that she might leave someday to pursue other interests. 'Shego' as the world had known her could probably never return, after her world-saving ventures with Drakken. She wouldn't want to put his career at risk in any way. But living from day to day and drink to drink, with only her periodicals and the TV to briefly soothe the ache in her heart wasn't plausible. She needed to move on.

The reason she hadn't was for the lack of one thing in every photo, article, and broadcast about the blue former villain who had saved the world: he was always alone. Even the candids taken by paparazzi that she would find in the trash magazines she had specially delivered only ever showed him having breakfast alone at a sidewalk cafe, or seated alone in an audience as he waited to accept an award.

Why hadn't he met someone and settled down already?

That was the last piece... That was what was missing. When Drakken finally had a woman on his arm, and his happiness was complete...then she could risk moving out into the world and being seen again. If he had someone else, he most definitely wouldn't need her. And she wouldn't have to face up to the fact of possibly seeing him again, with the feelings she'd been harboring for too many years that simply refused to die.

"...It has been confirmed to have been a suicide attempt now, as a note was leaked to the press by a source who wishes to remain anonymous from within Japanese Intelligence..."

Shego's attention snapped to the television, where now a years-old photograph of Drakken at the UN, wearing his medal, was displayed in the corner of the screen as the Spanish news anchor continued to read the copy.

"The note was addressed to fellow-hero Kim Possible, and the text reads: 'I can't figure out what I did wrong. I can't live without her anymore. I'm sorry.' The note was not signed, but handwriting analysis easily showed it to be in the script of Dr. Drakken."

Shego felt the world spinning around her as her vision seemed to spin in the opposite direction. Her head swam and ached all at once, and she could see bright spots dancing in front of her eyes even as her view darkened. She stumbled forward to lean against the bar as she struggled to listen to the television.

"And the world remains in shock, one week from the date the acclaimed scientist attempted to take his life by jumping from the roof of the Osaka World Trade Center. We will keep you updated with more details as the story continues to unfold. This is Paola Ramos, reporting."

Suicide attempt? Drakken, of all people? It didn’t make sense... He had everything...everything he had ever dreamed of, and more. She had made sure of it by removing herself from his life so he would have nothing holding him back. How could he have attempted suicide?

"Raquel! ¿Qué pasa?"

She peered upward and let Esteban take her hand and help her straighten up from where she had all but slumped over the bar.

"Phone..." she managed to get out, her throat strangely tight. “I need...I need to know...”

“You need to make a phone call?” he asked.

Shego nodded. As Esteban fumbled in his pockets for his cell phone, Shego thought about what had been reported as the contents of the suicide note.

"I can't live without her anymore," it had read.

He couldn't... He didn't... He wouldn't...mean me?

Shego felt like she might throw up, and as Esteban offered her the phone, she moved past him and all but fell onto one of the bar stools, suddenly feeling like her feet would fail her. She began dialing a long-memorized number, then realized as the phone rang that she didn't know if the number would be the same after so long, but that thought was broken by Esteban stepping into her vision.

"Are you calling 911? What is wrong?" he asked, his dark eyes wide and worried as he studied her. But then, the phone connected.

"Hello?" the familiar voice said through the line.

Shego suddenly realized she had only ever called the girl 'Princess' or 'Pumpkin' or 'Kimmie,' and wasn't sure how to address the now young woman and for a brief time, ally.

"Kim..." she finally settled on, the name leaving her throat hoarsely.

"Yes? Who is...?" A familiar gasp sounded through the phone. "Shego?"

"Drakken..." was her one-word answer as suddenly tears began filling her eyes. "Drakken's note."

"Where have you been!? Where are you? We looked for you for over a year!"

"Did that note... Was it real? What I saw on TV, did he really...try to kill himself?” she asked, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand before digging her fingers tightly into her side as her hands started to shake. When had she started crying?

“Yes... He did.”

Shego’s throat tightened. “Have you...seen him, or talked to him?”

“Yeah, right after it happened, but...he doesn’t want to see anyone. He’s angry and embarrassed that it didn’t work. Shego—”

“Did he, I mean...how is he? Is he okay? How did he survive?”

“His vines. Their own sense of self-preservation must have kicked in, and they grabbed onto the building partway down. He’s in the hospital.”

Shego realized tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her hands were shaking so much it was hard to hold the phone. She closed it hard as she let her hands fall to the bar, and then she leaned forward again.

“Raquel! Mi lucecita, what is wrong?”

Shego took a breath and gathered her strength to push away, even as her vision swam. She left the phone on the bar, knowing exactly what would happen, and then reached across the smooth wooden surface for a bottle of tequila. She ignored Esteban's words as she numbly made her way to her room, climbing the stairs and pushing through the door to stumble against the bed, the bottle of alcohol falling from her grasp. She spun around, and after shoving the door closed she fell back to sit on her narrow, uncomfortable mattress as she fumbled with the lid of the tequila bottle.

She looked around at her walls, with their newspaper clippings and magazine cutouts of photos and articles about Drakken's successes. Tears fell from her eyes anew as she brought the bottle to her lips and soon felt her throat burn nearly as badly as her eyes. And the words of Drakken's note played through her mind repeatedly, her every thought and excuse for the past three years dissolving into torment.

-------------------------

The next morning a pulsing, booming sound caused her to wake, and as she sat up hurriedly with hands alight, the vision of red, purple, yellow, and black that swam before her eyes brought back to mind what she had drunk the bottle of tequila to forget. She let her glow die as she fell back on the bed and hid her face from the light with a pillow.

“Shego!” the astonished voice of Kim Possible resonated against her skull. She regretted the hangover, but she couldn’t have handled her thoughts the night before. Tequila had been the only choice.

“Are you all right? You don’t look so good,” the side-kick’s voice followed just as loud with concern.

“You’ve lost so much weight!” Kim continued.

“Yeah, what about it?” Shego said into the pillow, even her own voice painful to her ears.

“Is this where you’ve been all these years?”

“What have you been doing?”

Shego grit her teeth and ignored the questions of her former enemies-turned-allies after Drakken saved the world, finally moving the pillow to narrow her eyes at them.

“Will you take me to see Drakken, or not?” she asked bluntly.

The brows of both young adults rose, and they looked at each other.

“That’s the only reason I let you find me. Cell phone trace, right?” Shego said, grimacing against the throbbing in her head as she rolled over and got her feet on the floor.

“Yeah... It only took Wade—”

“Will you take me to see Drakken?”

“Yeah... I guess, sure. We can do that.”

“Good. Wait downstairs, I need to shower,” she said.

The two young heroes didn’t move, and Shego realized they were studying her walls with the photos and newspaper clippings of Drakken. But she was under too much stress already to worry about what two college kids thought of her. As she painfully stood, her eyes lighted upon a figure hovering in the doorway. Esteban was hanging back in the shadows, watching the interplay nervously.

Kim and Ron were still staring at the walls, and Shego first beckoned her employer into the room before frowning and sighing dramatically at the other two. They both looked at her.

“Haven’t you already read a lot of this stuff? Hurry up, I want to get to Japan before tomorrow.”

The pair gave her another once-over before glancing at each other and finally slipping through the door, giving an even more confused look at the curly-haired Latino who had been welcomed in. They closed the door behind the darker-skinned man as he looked curiously at the adorned walls which Shego had called home for three years. Finally, he sighed.

“You are going to him, then? This man, from the news report.”

Shego nodded, grateful for her boss’s softer tone.

“Yes,” she said.

“He is the reason you came here?”

She nodded again, sitting on the bed as her head pounded.

“...Why did you run from him?”

Shego’s brows knit together, but after all that Esteban had done for her over the years, she supposed it wouldn’t matter to give away a little more. Especially since she would never be seeing him again.

“I thought I was doing what was best for him,” she said with a shrug.

“But surely, if you were in love...? Was there some problem?”

Shego looked up, her brow twisting further in confusion.

“What... You think...he was in love with me too?” Her head was reeling again. That couldn’t have been what his note was about...could it? He had never showed any sign of having those types of feelings for her...

‘You never showed any of your feelings to him.’

She grimaced at that thought. And she wondered with a sickening feeling...had it really been necessary? All she’d done for three years was wallow in her own misery and loneliness and think of nothing but him. What if she had just...taken the risk?

“If the note on the news was real, then it would seem so,” Esteban had replied as she’d been thinking. She looked up again.

“Then I... I... I have to go.”

She stood again to get some fresh clothes and then paused, looking back at the suddenly long face of her boss.

“I hope you can find him. He will recover under your smile.”

Impulsively, Shego closed the distance between them and threw her arms around her boss’s neck. She felt his large palms hesitantly rest on her back.

“Thank you, Esteban...”

“Goodbye, Raquel.”

---------------------------

Shego raked her fingers through the ends of her hair for what must have been the tenth time just walking down the hall. As she found the correct door number she pushed her hair back over her shoulder, and then tugged down the simple green blouse and black jacket she wore. Possible had been right before... The garments weren’t fitting her as they should, but that was a concern for another day. She took a shallow breath and with a trembling hand, pushed the door inward.

The hospital room was dim and silent but for the beeping of monitors. On the bed, a familiar blue face lay atop a pillow, bandaged, like much of the rest of his body that could be seen. One forearm and foot were in casts, and his other arm was bandaged with the slightest of bloodstains showing through, like the one on the side of his face. She held her breath as she stepped in silently, as if walking into a dream. But he heard her.

The corners of his lips turned down before his eyes opened to slits, but then widened slightly upon seeing her. She hesitated only a moment before continuing her slow approach. She could see now the one side of his face was swollen, and his lower lip was split and bruised. She tried not to picture him falling from the top of a skyscraper, smashing against its sides on the way down only to be inexplicably rescued by his own mutation. Instead she fixated on his eyes that were bleary, shocked, and disbelieving.

“Shego?” he croaked out.

She fought the tears that tried to come to her eyes. “Yes. I... I’m here,” she managed, her throat tight.

He seemed to be studying her as she sat down on the edge of his bed, afraid her legs wouldn’t hold her and also needing to be nearer. The thought that he could have...that he very nearly died, and she didn’t even know...

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Her lips parted as she stared at his expression that was quickly becoming anxious, despite the haze in his eyes she was sure was in part due to the heavy painkillers that were doubtless coming through his IV line.

“What...?” she breathed.

“Whatever...I did...to make you leave...” Drakken said quietly, each word coming out labored through his dry throat. “I’m sorry. Please...forgive me.”

Shego didn’t bother trying to stop her tears anymore. She took a slow breath to try to calm the ache in her chest as she tore her eyes from his, instead looking at his hand lying on the bed, his knuckles bruised and scraped. She hesitated, but then gently held his hand in both of hers. His skin was clammy and cold, and she noted for the first time the too-slow beeping of the heart monitor.

“You...you didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, looking back at him. His confused and now fearful expression was a blur through her tears. “I did.”

“...What?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” she repeated with more strength, recalling the words of his note. “I did. It was just me. I...I’m so sorry, Dr. D.”

Her voice rose on the last as her throat tightened, and she closed her eyes tightly as hot tears slid down her cheeks. She tried to keep her cries quiet, and some time later her attention was drawn back by his hand shifting in hers. She looked up at him, her eyes pleading. He looked a bit more focused, and a familiar, analytical expression had joined the caution and confusion on his face.

“I don’t understand,” he finally said. His fingers curled around hers and held on firmly.

Her heart thudded against her ribs, and she let her gaze fall to her lap. She had already broken her promise to herself, to never see him again... But clearly, that had been a mistake from the beginning. If she was honest...then at least she would know, there was nothing else she could have done. And yet, the most important words she could say to him still died on her lips.

“I didn’t want to hold you back,” she said, staring down at their joined hands. She was careful not to hold too tight for his bruised knuckles. A long moment of silence passed before he spoke again.

“What...? But... Shego...”

“I didn’t want to be part of...this world,” she said, lifting one hand briefly to gesture weakly at the opulence of the hospital room. Not exactly what she meant, but she hoped the point would get across. “But I know you, Dr. D.... You...you wouldn’t have taken any of the jobs, without me. I just...wanted you to be happy. And I didn’t want any of this...”

There was another silence, broken only by her sniffling as she gradually brought her tears under control. She heard Drakken take a long breath in through his nose and then release it just as slowly.

“Thank you for visiting me...”

Shego turned abruptly, her tears stilling with a silent gasp. Drakken’s eyes were on their joined hands, and he looked sad.

“You look...” he began, glancing up at her briefly before his gaze fell again. “Hm. Where will— That is...”

He trailed off, glancing away toward the curtained window in the room with a slight grimace. Shego tried to follow his train of thought.

“I don’t...have to leave right away,” she ventured carefully. He looked back at her, his expression guarded. “We could...catch up for a while? If...if you...”

She broke off as tears threatened her eyes anew. Who was she kidding? His note had been clear...

‘I can’t live without her anymore.’

“If you...don’t mind having me around, I could stay...longer.” She set her hand back atop his, minding the scrapes on his knuckles. The pressure of his fingers against her palm hadn’t diminished.

Drakken’s swollen lips parted, his dark eyes seeming to glitter even brighter for the mottled bruising on his face. And then, a shadow came over his features.

“No, that’s...that’s all right. You can go back to...your life.”

Shego held her breath. She thought about telling him she knew about the note, but...what if that only made things worse? Then he would be embarrassed, and he had already...apparently given up on living. What would that new revelation do to him?

His words were also unknowingly meaningless, she realized, as because for the past three years she...had had no life. Only worrying and pining over him, waiting for the day he married so she would know he didn’t need her anymore, and then and only then could she come out of hiding. But she had left El Salvador behind fully when she had come to Japan. The bar was already out of her mind. All she wanted, and what she really needed, was...

She took a breath. “Drakken...”

When she met his eyes they were sad. She looked down again.

“I...I also left because...because I’m in love with you. But I knew...you didn’t feel the same. I knew you could find someone to replace me and...really fulfill you, and it seemed like...the best way I could give you everything you wanted...was to be out of the picture.”

She sniffled, bringing one hand up to wipe her eyes and nose before straightening up from the tense hunch she’d found herself in and then leaning back on her hand, the other still firmly gripping his. She didn’t want to hear his confirmation, but she needed to. Knowing that her feelings weren’t reciprocated would mean it was all worth it. Even though it didn’t explain his years of solitude...or the note. She didn’t want it to be about her. She couldn’t be the reason that he’d nearly—

“Everything I wanted? Shego...”

She cast a cautious eye on him, and he looked a mixture of confused, hurt, but somehow resolved. His hand suddenly left hers, and her throat constricted with the sudden loss. And then she was gasping in worry as Drakken started trying to push himself up.

“All I’ve ever wanted—” He stopped short with a hiss of pain, shaking as he paused halfway up.

“Dr. D....”

“...Is you.”

Her breath caught, and they stared at each other eye to eye. Drakken’s expression was steady but fearful, and her own she knew reflected utter shock. She was so startled she hadn’t even realized she’d spoken a response until he answered her.

“The note was about me...”

Drakken let out a soft, almost exasperated puff of air and lightly shook his head.

“What did I do to...make you think I didn’t love you?”

Shego blinked rapidly as tears filled her eyes.

“Oh, Dr. D.!”

Her arms were flung around him as her lips gently pressed against his, minding the cut and swelling. His least injured arm raised to wrap around her, but without the support his frame shook and he began to fall. Shego guided him down, never breaking the intimate contact. Her tears fell on his face as she cried through the kiss, but his hand pressing into her back strengthened her. She let her fingers move through his hair, ever so softly touching the swollen parts of his scalp as their lips barely moved. She was careful to keep her full weight off of him, but the warmth of their chests together was like a salve, beginning to mend the wounds in her heart.

When they finally parted and she opened her eyes, she found his just as wet.

“Shego...” he whispered hoarsely, and she heard a catch in his throat. “Don’t leave me.”

She held him tighter. “Don’t let me go.”

--------------------------

One month later, Shego was grinning happily as she pressed her face further into Drakken’s neck where they sat together on the sofa in his new apartment. She sighed contently as she snuggled closer into his left side, her arms around his neck and her legs folded and halfway over his lap.

“Shego...” Drakken whispered, “this isn’t exactly...it’s not...”

“Mmmh, let everyone see how much I love you...” she murmured, turning to face the camera placed in front of them, the magazine photographer looking at them quizzically as she offered something between a smile and smirk. The interviewer stood close by, equally ill at ease, but Shego didn’t care.

She positioned her hand on Drakken’s shoulder so the diamond of her engagement ring sparkled in the light. Her heart warmed when his healed left hand reached up to hold hers, and she laced the fingers of her right hand through his, setting her left on top again to show off the ring. She tilted her chin up toward him and was rewarded with his radiant smile.

“I love you...” she said softly, “and I want to spend the rest of my life telling you.”

“I love you, Shego,” he breathed.

Their lips met in a gentle, ardent kiss. Beyond them, after a long minute, the camera flashed.

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