#i do really wanna finish it though! and just watch all of dragon ball like i once wanted to | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

roxannarambles · 2 years

Text

Title: Picnic in Paradise

Ship: Nemona x Juliana

Tags: Pokemon battles, fluff, flirting, pre-romance, action/adventure, 2nd Person POV/Present Tense

Warning Tags: some cursing (english and spanish), blood/injury

Wordcount: 17k

Notes: Set during postgame/has major spoilers for the main story

You're busy making sandwiches and packing a picnic basket in your dorm. Nemona is sitting on your bed watching because the last time she tried to make something in the kitchen, she baked a cake with 2 cups of vanilla extract instead of 2 teaspoons, so she's a bit wary of cooking now.

It doesn't matter, of course; you're happy to pack a picnic. You've promised Nemona you're going to take her on a very special trip somewhere this afternoon to catch pokemon. She's very excited and can hardly sit still, asking you questions about where you're going, but you keep insisting it's a surprise. However, you can only repeat that it's a surprise for so long.

"Gimme a hint at least??"

"Hmmm . . . there are very, very strong pokemon there."

She swings her feet with glee and it's the cutest thing you've ever seen.

"Aw, right! Is it Colonnade Hollow? I hear there's a lot of dragons there."

"Nope."

"Hmm. . . Casseroya Lake?"

"Nope!"

"Huh. Well . . . I know there are some pretty tough water types if you swim far enough out to sea . . ."

You giggle and say she's never going to guess.

"Okay, give me another clue then!"

You think a moment, then say,

"It's absolutely gorgeous there."

She clasps her hands together.

"Oh, it's gotta be one of the Ten Sights of Paldea then! The Leaking Tower? No, Fury Falls!"

Grinning, you finish bagging up the fruit and tucking it into the basket.

"Nope! You should just give up and let it be a surprise, Nemona."

She balls her hands into fists and stamps the floor lightly,

"Arghhh! C'mon, you just wanna torture me! Pleeeease, Jules? What if I need to pack something special, you know, like a jacket or something? You gotta tell me where it is, it's just practical!"

You decide to put Nemona out of her misery, because it was clear she wasn't going to let up anytime soon.

"All right, all right. If I tell you, you gotta promise to stay cool, though, okay? This is our little secret."

She seems confused about what exactly you mean, but she quickly and loudly agrees,

"Our secret, yeah, of course!" You hold a finger to your mouth.

"Shhh!"

She nods and repeats quietly,

"Our secret."

You glance around a moment, as if expecting there to be someone else lurking in your dorm room-- though with Penny's penchant for spy equipment, it's not an entirely unfounded concern--then come closer to Nemona.

"Okay, so the place we're going to is . . ."

You hesitate, and she watches you with intense expectation. You lean in close to her, just for dramatic effect, and whisper,

"Area Zero."

Nemona gasps, her eyes gone wide. Quickly, she asks,

"R-really? Can we do that? Isn't it still off-limits to everyone unless you have official business there?"

"Well that's where the secret part comes in," you say, amused. Nemona grins, looking both thrilled and uncertain at once.

"Oh my gosh Juliana I had no idea you were such a rebel."

You giggle. The truth is you aren't, not normally, but you know exactly how badly Nemona wants to return to the place, as she talks about it pretty much all the time with such a wistful gleam in her eye. And you were willing to do just about anything to make it happen for her.

Even if it meant bending a few rules.

"Well, the whole place wouldn't even still be there if we hadn't gone down and stopped the Time Machine, right? The shields would have eventually failed and Paldea would have been completely overrun with a massive population of ancient pokemon. So, I mean, we kinda earned a little extra trip down there, don't you think?"

Nervously, she drums her fingers on her knees.

"I . . . guess so?"

You decide to stop pussyfooting around and just be blunt about it with her.

"Okay, look. The truth is I don't think they want us down there because we're students, so they're technically responsible for our safety, yadda yadda, but the place isn't exactly well-watched. Like, at all. Nobody's gonna see us if we sneak in for a few hours. And I get the sense that Clavell and everyone else wouldn't exactly be that ticked off even if they did somehow find out. We are two of the very select few of people in Paldea who are actually more than capable of handling ourselves down there."

You clearly were winning Nemona over, not that you'd expected it to be particularly difficult. She nods and says,

"Yeah, that's true." You go back to the kitchen to finish up packing the picnic basket. As you do, you add on,

"Anyhow, we'll have Koraidon with us and can always bail if we run into any problems. Though with the Time Machine shut down, I expect the population down there has stabilized, since no new pokes are being pulled in."

Honestly, you were almost as eager as Nemona was to see Area Zero again. The time you spent down there had been incredibly rushed and tinged with anxiety over what Arven was going through. But even then, the glimpses you had caught of that hidden garden paradise were spellbinding. You knew Penny had no desire to return, and Arven understandably didn't want to go anywhere near it again. But to you and Nemona, the thrill of adventure was such an alluring siren song.

When you glance up again, Nemona has that familiar gleam in her eye, and she looks as amped up as a Pawmot mid-battle. She doesn't have to say anything more-- you already know-- but she says it all the same.

"All right, I'm in. Let's do it!"

Once you finish carefully packing the picnic and your backpack for the trip, the two of you walk to the outskirts of Mesagoza. It's a beautiful spring day, sunny and warm, with just a few fluffy clouds in the sky and a slight breeze. It's going to be perfect, you realize. You give your Koraidon the picnic basket and he grabs it by the handle in his mouth, like the bestest boy he is, and then you both hop onboard, with you in front and Nemona tucked behind you. You encourage Koraidon to hit the throttle, and then you're off, galloping through Paldea like a couple of trainers on a mission. The thrill of dashing along at top speed on Koraidon honestly never gets old; you love the press of speed against your body, the blur of scenery flying by, the way Nemona cackles in glee and holds onto you so tightly.

When you take an unexpected turn and veer away from the main path, Nemona asks you about it, but you say that you know a shortcut. Koraidon crosses the river in one mighty bound, then goes straight for the curve of the mountainside. You grin, excited and nervous at once, hoping your shortcut would work out all right. Koraidon kind of had a heavier load than usual, but he was pretty good at adapting.

"Hold on tight!" you shout, before the pokemon leaps and digs his claws into the earth, clambering straight up the mountainside. Nemona yelps in surprise and clings tightly to you as you both go vertical, bouncing roughly back and forth as Koraidon bounds and climbs. It was honestly a pretty rough ride whenever you took a mountain like this, and that's why you normally didn't; but you were far too eager to spend a solid hour following the flat paths before reaching your destination. You had plans today, darn it.

Luckily, Koraidon is an absolute beast and he scales the mountain like it's almost nothing. He doesn't even drop your picnic basket. (You make a mental note to give him extra treats later on)

As you reach the summit, you don't even slow down, instead shouting to Koraidon,

"Let's fly, Scarlet! Yip yip!"

He leaps, straight into the vast, foggy void below, unfurling his mighty wings; and as you glide peacefully over the Great Crater of Paldea, Nemona laughs and squeezes you against her.

"The best shortcut ever! You're amazing, Jules."

Your heart skips at the praise; you always get such a fuzzy feeling and a stupid smile when she says nice things about you, but you try to ignore it so you can focus on not flying straight into a wall or anything. You carefully aim Koraidon, squinting at the land below, trying to recall the landing spot you'd used the last time. The strange fog that shrouded the crater is dense and impossible to see through at first, but as you descend, the world below snaps back into focus. You're able to recognize things before too long, and you guide Koraidon to a nice, wide stretch of land to touch down on.

And then you're here again. You dismount from Scarlet and Nemona scrambles down as well, positively beaming. The two of you just take it in for a moment.

There's such a strange feeling to this place. It isn't something you can easily put to words. It feels . . . eerie, almost; the air sort of has this heavy feeling to it. Maybe because it's more humid down here? No, that isn't it. Yes, it's definitely more humid down here, but that isn't the cause of the strange feeling. The whole place, it feels so . . . foreign. The way the sun shines down so brightly from the dense fog above you, perhaps. The way the air almost seems to shimmer with some sort of power. The feeling of . . . some kind of energy, buzzing, like it's at a frequency tickling just below your ability to hear.

Something like that. Maybe it has something to do with all the weird crystals down here. Or all the ancient pokemon, perhaps.

You realize Nemona had sprinted ahead of you and you rush to catch up to her, not wanting to lose sight of her. You find her at the edge of the cliff you landed on, pressed right up against the old, rusted chain link fence as she looked out at the magnificent vista below. You come up beside and join her.

"I can't believe we're back," she says, her voice low and hushed, as if speaking too loud would disturb the peace of this place. She turns and looks to you, and you feel your heart stutter in your chest; it must be something about the lighting here, the way the air sparkles or something, because you've never seen her eyes look so stunning before, like honeyed gold. She's smiling like you've given her the best gift in the universe by bringing her back here.

You cough, desperately trying to ignore your mushy internal thoughts.

"Y-yeah! I mean, that view, it's, it's crazy!"

You aren't wrong, of course. The place is gorgeous. The land here seems to curve and twist downwards into a huge spiral, perhaps due to how the meteor disturbed the earth long ago. It's incredibly lush and green, thick with meadows speckled in wildflowers and trees, and huge waterfalls dropping down into the earth like lacy, sparkling curtains of water and light.

Despite all that, your focus isn't really drawn to the amazing scenery, but rather, your best friend overflowing with excitement.

Nemona grabs your hand and exclaims,

"C'mon, I can't wait any longer! Let's go exploring."

You laugh as she pulls you along, and you head down the grassy path, deeper into Area Zero, with Scarlet following close behind you.

For a while, the three of you just enjoy some hiking through the verdant landscape. Unlike your previous trip here, you're free to take your time now, and you can investigate whatever tickles your fancy. You pass by herds of curious Girafirag and some Raichus, and then find a swarm of Venomoth and Frosmoth enjoying the wildflowers. Further into the field is a whole group of Jumpluff and some Floettes, drifting along on the warm spring breeze. The path curves downward and past a small waterfall, which Scarlet happily stomps through, and then just past that, you run into your first ancient pokemon of the day.

They are several of the strange-looking Jigglypuff. For the most part, they look like the blobby fairy you are already familiar with, but they have long, flowing manes of pink hair that look a lot like ponytails; they also have larger, wilder-looking eyes and little fangs. When they catch sight of you, they bristle and let loose some ear-piercing shrieks.

"Hello again!" Nemona calls, waving at them, as if their shrieks were just a friendly greeting. Outloud, she muses,

"Y'know, they kind of freaked me out the last time, but they don't seem so bad now. I think they actually might be way cuter than normal Jigglypuff!"

You laugh.

"You have interesting ideas on what's cute."

Nemona snorts and nudges you with her shoulder, teasing,

"Says the girl who gushes over every weird bug she finds."

"Bug types are adorable!" you protest, hurrying to keep pace with Nemona and out of the path of the angry fairies. Nemona grins back at you, saying,

"They are. And I love that you made me realize that, 'cause I didn't used to think so, but I do now. Oh! There's more of them. Wow, there's so many!"

You pass by more of the ancient Jigglypuff, which are gathered under some trees, their huge, yellow eyes glaring at you as you walk by. You try to remember what Arven had called them, before. He said he'd gotten the names out of his mom's old Scarlet book.

"Scream Tails, I think Arven called them? It's definitely descriptive, I guess."

"Yeah, it suits them. Oh, Jules, look!"

Just a little further up the path, Nemona spots one of the strange, enormous Volcaronas. You perk up in excitement.

"Ooh! Let's get a closer look!"

Of course, you don't need to tell Nemona twice. You both hurry ahead and draw closer to the huge insect, watching it crawl onto a rock.

It holds its pair of wings closed up tight, which seems so strange to you, compared to a normal Volcarona. You aren't sure if it can even fly with them, to be honest. It's possible the creature is too heavy to be supported by its wings; it certainly looks far bulkier than modern Volcarona.

Of course, even stranger than its wings is the fact that the bug has a spiky green tail and almost lizardlike feet. It goes against everything you know about bug types.

Nemona asks,

"What did Arven call these?"

You pause a moment to recall.

"Slither Wing, I think."

She nods.

"Right. I never had the chance to fight one the last time, but I remember you said the Sada AI had one? Was it strong?"

You think back to your battle that day and wince.

"Well, at the time, I thought it was a Bug/Fire type, so I sent my Klawf in, but it packed quite a punch with Low Sweep. And my Rock moves didn't seem to be doing supereffective damage, so I suspect it's a Fighting type, weirdly enough."

Nemona's eyes widen.

"Whoa. A Fighting/Bug? That's so cool!"

"Yeah, I know, it's really rare."

Nemona groans.

"Urggh! Coming here is so much fun but it also kind of sucks. I want to catch one so bad!"

You glance to her.

"So why don't we?"

She frowns.

"Because we'd get found out! I'm pretty sure people would notice if we started using super funky pokemon from the stone ages."

You cross your arms and give her a sneaky smile, saying,

"Yeah, but if we caught them and only used them to battle each other down here . . ."

Nemona thinks about this for a second. Then she grabs you by the shoulders, gushing,

"Oh my gosh you're a genius Jules! We can have our own private Paradox Tier down here!"

You laugh and tell her fondly,

"I wasn't gonna bring you here and not let you catch anything. I promised last time I'd help you improve your pokeball throws, right? I'm keeping that promise."

Delighted, she turns back to the Slither Wing.

"Perfect! I wanna start with this guy. I wanna see what he can do!"

You consider things a moment. "Hmm. Let's start with something a little easier, for practice. Then we'll work our way up to him."

She gives a self-conscious grin.

"Ah, yeah, you're probably right. Okay, lead the way, sensei!"

You both hike a bit further into Area Zero, locating a nice, wide open space with a herd of Girafirag. They seem like the best species to practice on down here; pokemon that are too small would be tricky to catch, and so would anything flying, but you also don't want a pokemon that is too dangerous or too skittish. Girafirag seem to fit the bill.

Next, you ask Nemona to throw a pokeball just to show you how she normally does it. After she demonstrates for you several times, you hum,

"Mmmhm. Okay, yeah. I can see the issue. Well, it looks like several things at once. Right, let's start with the basics, then."

"The basics?" she asks, a little bit of anxiety in her eyes. As confident as Nemona normally is, you know she tends to feel a little self-conscious about her throwing skills.

You nod.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll pick things up fast. A lot of people end up struggling a bit with throwing pokeballs. It's just because their throwing habits from when they were kids tend to stick with 'em, you know?"

She nods, looking a little more at ease with your reassurance.

"Yeah, that does sorta sound like me."

You come close to her and pull out a pokeball, getting into throwing position.

"Ok, so, start by standing like this. Your feet should be this far apart, the same width as your shoulders, see? And your hips and shoulders should be aligned."

Nemona studies you and then imitates your position.

"Ok, check!"

You tell her,

"Good. Stay relaxed, though, bend your knees a little. Yeah. Just a natural stance, good."

You hold your pokeball up and say,

"Next, let's make sure you're holding the ball correctly. You need to hold it with these three fingers."

Nemona laughs a little, asking,

"Wait, really? I can't just hold it like this?"

You check how she's holding her pokeball and shake your head.

"Nah, that's not as effective. I know it seems kinda weird and it might feel a bit funny at first, but this'll make it so much easier once you get used to it."

She gazes intently at your hand and tries to imitate your grip.

"Okay, like this?"

You turn your wrist and show her,

"These two curled behind. Middle finger here, index here. Hold it out here in your fingertips."

She frowns, shifting the ball in her hand.

"It doesn't feel very stable that way, though?"

You pocket your own pokeball and reach out, taking the ball from her.

"Sorry, it's kind of hard to explain verbally. Here."

You take her right hand in both your own hands; she's wearing the black and pink fingerless glove that she usually does, but from the way it feels, you can tell it shouldn't interfere with her throwing. You gingerly turn her hand palm-up and move her fingers into position.

"These two, they're going to stabilize the ball, that's what it rests against. And you want to hold it here, all along here. It's not in your palm at all."

Absent-mindedly, you let your thumb stroke along her long fingers, idly thinking how pretty her hands were. Trying to shake off the brief distraction, you tip your chin up a bit to look her in the eye and ask,

"Um, make sense?"

It's only then you realize just how close you're standing together, hardly a breath apart. Nemona looks at you, but her gaze, which is usually so perfectly steadfast, suddenly seems strangely hesitant. You can't help but notice that her cheeks seem a bit pinker than usual. After a pause, she answers,

"O-oh. Yeah. I, y-yeah, I get it now."

Still holding her hand, you realize you're feeling a tad warm, all of a sudden. You give a nervous laugh and fumble to grab the pokeball back from your pocket.

"R-right, so. Um. Here. Give it a try."

You shift a half-step back to put a bit more space between you two and watch as she slots the ball into position in her hand. She asks,

"Is that okay?"

She turns her wrist for you to inspect her grip, and you beam at her, saying,

"Yeah! That's perfect! Just like that, you got it."

She grins, buoyed by your enthusiasm.

"Great! Do I get to actually throw the darn thing now?"

You laugh.

"Yeah, I think you're ready. Okay, so here's how you throw."

You back off a few paces to make space and swing your arm in a neat arc, demonstrating a few times.

"Here's the wind up, and then, zoom!"

She imitates the motion, and you have her repeat it several more times.

"Good, but you don't want your arm to go too straight. Your elbow should bend a little."

She adapts quickly to your feedback and soon has the basic motion down. You next spend some time directing her on how to step forward during the throw and move her hips, then you work on improving her wrist motion. It takes a little while, since there's a lot of things to focus on simultaneously when they're all put together. But Nemona is attentive and patient, not to mention highly motivated.

After she's done enough practice and seems to have the motions mostly down, you say,

"Okay! I think we're ready to give it a try on some actual pokemon."

Nemona snatches up a pokeball and eagerly follows you back over to the herd of Girafirag. She looks so excited, almost like a kid who is about to catch her very first pokemon, and you find it terribly endearing.

"So we're not gonna try and weaken them, right? Since I'm just practicing my throws."

You nod.

"Yep. Just choose a target and give it a shot."

"Heheheh, okay. Let's see . . ."

You watch as she seems to pick out one of the stragglers in the herd, then cautiously approaches. The tail of the Girafirag perks up and gazes at her warily, before the Girafirag's main head turns to look at her too. Nemona settles into position and aims. Then, she winds up and takes a shot--

The ball sails cleanly through the air and bops the Girafirag on the forehead, pulling into the ball. Nemona immediately leaps into the air and cheers,

"YEAH!! Did you see, Jules? How was that? That looked so much better than my usual throws!"

You laugh as she bounds back to you and you tell her,

"That was fantastic! Great work, my dear student."

She giggles,

"Thanks!"

You hand her another pokeball.

"Here, let's keep going. We should practice until you get used to it."

She goes to throw another ball at the Girafirag while you study her form.

"Good, good. But remember to keep your wrist loose."

"Yeah, okay."

She throws another, this time the ball sailing way past her target. She mutters,

"Whoops, heh heh, kinda overshot there."

Even though it had missed her target, it had been an awfully impressive throw otherwise.

"Dang, Nemona! You've got a heck of an arm on you. You're definitely gonna be great at long-distance catches."

She glances back at you, looking quite pleased with the praise. She asks,

"You really think so?"

You nod,

"Yeah, here, back up a bit, let's see how far you can go."

You have her practice hitting the Girafirag from further and further away, and it doesn't take Nemona long to start hitting her targets consistently. Once she gets used to flicking her wrist at the apex of the throw, she's able to put even more power behind it. You're proud at how quickly she's picking it up, although you're not surprised. Once Nemona put her mind to something, she usually excelled at it.

It seems like she's really enjoying pushing the limits of how far she can throw and eventually asks you to join in, so you both start hucking balls at the Girafirag, turning it into a contest. Although you have more experience and your aim is sharper, she absolutely bests you on throwing distance when compared to your noodly arm.

You watch as she squints, going for another long throw, narrating it as she does so;

"Aaaand . . . there's the windup . . . and the pitch . . . BAM!"

The ball rockets through the air with almost frightening velocity, striking the ground and missing a fleeing Girafirag, but not by very much.

"Yeah! Okay, that missed, but came pretty darn close. This is so much more fun now that I know what I'm doing!"

You laugh, pleased to see her so happy and doing so well.

"You really are improving so fast. Once you're used to aiming you're gonna be a monster."

Nemona flashes you a grin, answering,

"Well, it helps that I have an amazing teacher."

She tosses another ball; you both should probably stop soon, since the herd of Girafirag are starting to grow rather annoyed with your practice session, but you suppose a few more minutes won't hurt.

"Your stance is getting a bit sloppy. Make sure to move with the throw."

"Yeah! Okay."

She tries again, but her motion is still a bit stiff. You come up behind her and tap her hips with your fingertips, saying,

"Here, move from here. We start like this and then swing with the throw, right?"

"O-oh. Haha. Right."

You settle your palms on her hips and gently coax her body with your hands, showing the motion,

"Here, like this, straight, and then swing! Twist the hips."

She giggles as you twist her hips, twisting your own body along with her; her ponytail flutters into your face and you think she smells slightly of vanilla.

"Okay," she says, her tone light and amused. You suddenly feel startled at your own boldness, like your brain has only just now kicked in-- oh god you needed to stop doingthings like this-- and you quickly pull your hands away from her.

"Uh, y-yeah. So. Yeah! Um. Try that out."

You back off to give her enough space. She pauses for a bit, positioning herself, and then steps into the throw very nicely, the pokeball gliding through the air and striking a dawdling Girafirag, before popping back open again to release the cranky creature. You praise,

"Yeah! Just like that, exactly!"

She turns to you with a pleased little smile.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it, sensei."

There's something so playful in her eyes. Ignoring the little flutter in your chest, you nod and say,

"I, ah, I agree! In fact, I think we can call this lesson complete. You've passed the exam with flying colors!"

She pumps a fist, looking as thrilled as if she'd passed an actual exam at school.

"Yeah! Thanks for all the help, Juliana. Seriously, this is gonna make things so much easier for me."

You smile at her fondly.

"Of course, Nemona. Anytime."

You hear irritated noises from the nearby Girafirag and your focus is reluctantly drawn away from Nemona.

"Ah. We . . . might wanna give these guys some space now. I think if we annoy them any longer they might try to trample us to death."

Nemona frowns, answering,

"Oh, right. Hm, I hope they're okay."

As you two leave the herd behind, you say,

"I'm sure they'll be okay now that they have a chance to rest from our onslaught."

She chuckles, saying,

"Yeah, it's the ancient pokemon that gotta worry about us now."

You notice she's rubbing her right wrist with one hand, an unconscious movement you've seen her do before a lot, so normally you'd think nothing of it; however, in the moment it brings a concern to mind. Reluctantly, you ask,

"Hey, um . . . Nemona? We didn't practice for too long, did we? I don't want you to get hurt or anything."

She looks confused for a moment and you gesture awkwardly to her gloved hand.

"Oh! That. No, I'm fine. Just a habit of mine to rub it like that, heh. I'm good, though, it's, it's usually only an issue when it's flaring up."

"Oh," you say, relieved to hear it. Honestly, you've been curious about it before, but it had always seemed sort of rude to pry. She doesn't seem too uncomfortable, though, and after a moment, she volunteers more information, probably sensing your curiosity.

"It's an autoimmune joint problem. Y'know, when your body gets confused and attacks itself? It makes me tired sometimes, too."

You think back to the times she spoke of Naranja Academy's stairs with such trepidation, and then to all those other little moments she needed to rest when you were out and about, and suddenly you feel a bit stupid.

"Oh. Man. I . . . dunno why I didn't realize that was a chronic issue. Jeez. I'm sorry."

She laughs and shrugs it off,

"Nah, don't worry about it. I don't ever talk about it, there's no reason you'd know."

You reply,

"Yeah, but still . . ."

You pause, both of you quiet a moment. You venture to ask,

"How bad does it get?"

She glances away. It seems like the topic is not her favorite to dwell on, but after a bit, she answers lightly with a shrug.

"It's a pretty mild case, compared to other people. I'm on medication that helps. Doesn't cure it or anything, but it helps control it."

"I see."

You think for a moment, digesting this new information. Quite frankly, you've always admired Nemona's raw enthusiasm and energy, and now knowing she maintained that while also having health issues just made you admire her even more. But you don't want to say it, because you're worried it might come off sounding condescending somehow.

Eventually, while the two of you hike along, you tell her,

"Well, if you're ever having a flare-up and need a break or anything, you can always tell me, ok? Your health's your own business of course, but. You don't have to push yourself for me, is what I mean. You never need to."

It's a bit awkward and hard to explain, but she seems to understand your intent just fine. Smiling gently, she says,

"Sure. Thanks, Jules."

You feel another spike of affection, honored that she's comfortable enough to share this kind of stuff with you. Then something gleams in Nemona's eye, and you glance ahead to see what she's spotted. It's a small group of Slither Wings, crawling among the wildflowers.

You grin, turning to ask,

"Ready to put our lesson to good use?"

She nods, as eager as ever.

Over the next hour, the two of you hunt down and capture ancient Pokemon for your collection. The Slither Wings and Scream Tails are abundant and are the easiest to find and subdue. You have to travel a bit more to find the ancient forms of Amoongus and Magneton, but it doesn't take too long. The last ones are the hardest, and you must venture all the way into the beginnings of the cave system before you can find Great Tusks and Flutter Manes, but once you do locate them, the feeling is quite victorious. The only ancient Pokemon you're aware of that you're missing is the terrifying version of Salamence that the Sada AI had referred to as "Roaring Moon." However, since you both have collected a team of six Paradox Pokemon, you decide to stop your catching session for now. You could spend some other day hunting down the illusive Dragon; for now, you both were eager to spend time with your new partners and see what they could do.

Despite the fact that the ancient pokemon are undeniably very aggressive and harder to tame when compared to a typical wild-caught pokemon, they warm up to you faster than you expect. It seems food is a common language that any pokemon understands, and after some treats and coaxing, you both are able to win over your new friends. For the most part. There are still some occasional hiccups, and you're bitten a few times by the Brute Bonnet (it seems meaner than the others), but for the most part they behave surprisingly well. Well enough for a practice battle, in fact.

Nemona is absolutely pumped for your first battle together with the ancient pokemon, and you both settle on some basic rules beforehand. First, no training past a level cap; you both should be on equal footing here. Second, no items during battle or held items. It would take too long to sort those out, everything would just be simpler and quicker without them for now.

Third, you agree to no move limits. Any TMs you happen to have on hand are fair game, if you manage to teach them in time. You both have thirty minutes to go off somewhere and prepare, and then you'll meet up for the fight.

Those thirty minutes are sheer chaos as you rush to consider the move sets of all your team members and your strategy. The thing about this fight is you know Nemona's exact team-makeup and all its weak points, but so does she. It's kind of weird trying to prepare for that, because in a way it's almost too much information. You scribble notes on a pad of paper (you always had it in your bag; Nemona teased you for being a "boomer" and not using a Notepad on your phone instead, but your typing was always kinda slow and pencils were just easier). Your notes are pretty messy but at least you have a rough outline on your strategies.

Then it's time to battle. Nemona wants the battle to take place somewhere cool, so you guys wander around for a bit before finding a truly aesthetic location: a shallow pool of water that eventually meets up with the cliff face, dropping into a magnificent waterfall that flows down into the deep pit of the cave system. It's gorgeous to look at, and surrounded by soft grasses and trees, Gogoats grazing placidly and Buizel frolicking in the water.

The water is so shallow and tranquil here that you can easily walk into it without even getting your shoes too wet, so you both walk out into the middle of the water pool to stage your fight. The Gogoats and other nearby Pokemon all seem to pause and watch in curiosity; it feels like there's an audience for this unique occasion in Pokemon battling history.

"All set?" Nemona asks, grinning at you from the other side of the water pool. Behind her, the water roars into a waterfall that dips into the shimmering void of the caverns.

You smile and nod.

She reaches down to her pockets to grab her first pokeball, and with a fling, sends out her lead. You do the same, and your pokemon drops to the ground with a small splash.

You've both sent out your Slither Wings, and laugh at the coincidence.

"All right, battle of the bugs, let's go!" You point and shout your command to your new partner,

"Okay, Spike, Flare Blitz!"

Nemona's eyes widen and she issues a command to her own pokemon.

"Slither Wing, use--"

She doesn't get a chance to even finish, as your new pokemon is especially feisty. It cloaks itself in a shroud of flames and goes barreling after its opponent immediately, just breaking into a dead run and charging. Nemona yelps in surprise and her pokemon tries to dodge, but it hardly has the time to even blink before your pokemon crashes into it in a furious fireball. Not that bugs actually blinked.

Nemona crosses her arms, commenting mildly,

"Starting off strong, eh?"

You grin proudly. Her Slither Wing is a dazed mess on the watery ground, and you call for your pokemon to return to your side of the battlefield.

"Good job, Spike! Let's get ready for the next one."

However, you make a mistake. You shouldn't have been so confidant.

Because Nemona's pokemon, despite looking absolutely crushed, still hasn't fainted. You see it struggle on its fluffy little legs, and Nemona helps it back up to its feet. She pets its head, cooing to it,

"Good boy, there you go! Such a good boy. You took that like a champ."

"How . . . how is it still going?" you ask, in disbelief. You hit it with a Flare Blitz, for pete's sake.

Nemona points, ordering her pokemon.

"Slither Wing. Acrobatics!"

You watch as it twitches its tail and then charges, splashing through the water, running faster and faster, until it's only a blur.

"Oh--"

It strikes your pokemon like a bolt from the blue, crashing into it, then turning faster than the eye could detect and smacking into it, again and again. The attack is devastating. But of course, Slither Wing was four times weak to Flying. Not to mention the Flare Blitz recoil.

"Damn," you say as Spike faints and you return it to its ball.

"I wish I had an Acrobatics TM on hand."

You really thought the Flare Blitz would have been enough, but oh well.

"They definitely built these pokes to be tough," she says, as her Slither Wing waddles back over to her, looking quite exhausted. You consider your options a moment, then smile. Choosing a ball, you toss it.

"ChompyMcBiteyFace, go!"

Your Brute Bonnet materializes and Nemona chokes on a laugh.

"Jules, what kind of name is that?"

You stick a tongue out.

"Hey, at least I named mine!"

She huffed,

"I was busy thinking of strategy, not names!"

Well, that was a valid point, you supposed. You sigh, "All right, well. Whatever."

You lean down and whisper your command to the vicious-looking mushroom creature.

"Ok McBitey, Sucker Punch!"

The pokemon readies itself. You look to your opponent eagerly.

Nemona raises a brow, then holds up a pokeball.

"C'mon Slither Wing, that's enough."

You watch as her pokemon returns and say,

"Aaaw . . ."

"Jules, that Sucker Punch was totally obvious, it's not like Brute Bonnet is gonna outspeed."

You sigh,

"Okay, I guess that's true. Can't blame a girl for trying."

You watch as Nemona ponders for a moment, then selects another pokeball.

"Great Tusk, go!" The purple and pink elephant appears on the battlefield, and quickly turns to glare in the direction of your pokemon with its beady, yellow eyes. Nemona mutters an order to her pokemon, and then she gazes across the field at you, looking eager and expectant.

You consider what Nemona's likely next move is. Brute Bonnet has very decent defenses, so she'll have to hit it pretty hard. Of the available options to Great Tusk, it seems most likely it will use its supereffective STAB, so a fighting move. The best it has at this level naturally is Brick Break, but you're betting she taught it Close Combat.

You realize you have the opportunity for a great prediction. Grabbing the empty pokeball, you order your McBiteyFace to return. Then you toss another ball.

"Okay, Fluttershy!" The strange, ethereal ghost materializes, ready to face its opponent. You wait, hoping you've guessed right. From across the battlefield, Nemona nods, telling her pokemon,

"Go!"

The creature charges, crashing through the pool of water and swinging its tusks at your Flutter Mane violently, back and forth, again and again, whipping itself into a frenzy. But its efforts are entirely fruitless. The attacks simply phase straight through the ghost, harmlessly.

You're feeling pretty smug about your successful prediction as Great Tusk meekly returns to its master's side, looking very frustrated about its futile attacks. You call out lightly,

"Okay, so the Sucker Punch was obvious, but you didn't see that one coming, eh?"

She doesn't respond to your teasing the way you expect; oddly, she doesn't seem bothered in the least by it. In an even tone, she answers simply,

"Yeah, guess not!"

There's a funny feeling prickling at your neck. Nemona isn't smiling or anything; her expression is neutral, but you can sense something is off. She's holding something back, at least, that much is for sure.

Ugh, since when did Nemona start learning how to keep a poker face?

You turn to your Flutter Mane. Well, regardless, Nemona's next course of action is pretty clear. She'll have to switch out now; she knows Flutter Mane can outspeed and wipe out Great Tusk with a single Dazzling Gleam. But that's also what gives you the perfect opportunity, and a chance to possibly sweep the entire game.

You lean in and quietly murmur your command to the wispy purple ghost;

"Calm Mind."

Then you look to see what your opponent will do. You know even if Nemona does have Tusk stay in and attack for some weird reason, your Flutter Mane can survive one hit from most of the moves in its arsenal. Maybe not a steel move, but you're pretty sure Nemona doesn't have any Steel TMs in her bag. You're feeling pretty confidant.

But when you catch Nemona's gaze, your confidence quickly wavers. There's something gleaming in her eye, something terribly excited, and all her efforts to keep a straight face are quickly melting away as you watch.

Oh, no, what have you missed?

Nemona points and shouts her orders to her Great Tusk:

"Stomping Tantrum!"

Your Flutter Mane closes her eyes and begins to glow from the effects of Calm Mind, and you struggle to recall which move Stomping Tantrum is. It isn't as bad as Earthquake, but wasn't there something weird about it? Something to do with--

The enraged pokemon tears into your Flutter Mane, trumpeting and stamping so hard into the ground that chunks of earth go flying in its wake. The ghost crumples like a wet paper towel.

Ah. Right. The power of Stomping Tantrum doubles if the pokemon's previous move failed. You remember now.

You sigh, realizing your mistake. You should be annoyed, but Nemona is bouncing in glee and it's impossible to be annoyed with a sight like that.

"How'd you know I'd Calm Mind, though?" you call. You had to teach that move with a TM.

Nemona just crosses her arms, grinning, and says, "You always go for the setup, Jules."

You grumble at that. Guess you needed to switch things up a little.

Honestly, after losing such an important pokemon-- you consider Flutter Mane to be the crux of your team-- you don't feel like your chances are great, but you're still going to give it your best shot. You send out your Scream Tail next to try and handle the Great Tusk. Lucky for you, you get an attack drop with your first Play Rough. Scream Tail can tank the Earthquakes long enough to take the Great Tusk out, which is a good start.

However, your Scream Tail's weakened after all that, and Nemona switches her Flutter Mane in to easily finish it off. You decide to send out your Sandy Shocks next; you know its Heavy Slam can destroy Flutter Mane. Of course, Nemona knows as well, and she switches to her own Sandy Shocks. It's the second time you both have the same species facing off against each other, and once again, you get lucky and outspeed, destroying her Sandy Shocks with an Earth Power. Nemona demands to know why the heck your pokemon are always outspeeding hers, and you joke it's because she can only catch the slow pokemon.

"Oh, I'm getting youfor that," she threatens, grabbing up her next pokeball.

She sends out Brute Bonnet. You tease her she's gonna get you with literally the slowest Paradox Pokemon there is. As fun as it is to joke around, though, it's actually kind of an awkward pokemon for your team to take on. Your own Brute Bonnet doesn't have the coverage moves for it, and you don't fancy the thought of sending your Great Tusk out to take the incoming grass move. But if you leave Sandy Shocks in, it will be toast too. Not to mention Sandy Shocks doesn't have any decent moves for touching Brute. As many weaknesses as the Grass/Dark type has, Sandy Shocks has quite a shallow move pool for coverage and can't exploit those weaknesses.

You spend several minutes puzzling over it, until a possible solution finally occurs to you. You aren't sure if it will work, but maybe, just maybe . . .

Screw it, it's worth a try.

You reach into your bag, pulling out the charged Tera Orb. You and Nemona had already stepped away a bit further from the battle than usual, the moment you'd decided to send Sandy Shocks out, for safety reasons. It really wasn't a good plan to stand in a pool of water while electric pokemon were on the field, after all. However, after considering things, you call out to Nemona.

"Um, we might wanna step even further back. This might get a bit intense."

You both get a little more distance, and then, you fling your Tera Orb as hard as you can.

Watching the Terastilization process is always a treat, but down here in Area Zero, it seems even more dramatic than usual, the energy flowing not just from your Tera Orb but from the air all around you. Your Sandy Shocks crystallizes into an Electric Tera type, and its power seems to pulse from within, glittering and bright. The incoming Giga Drain does minimal damage, thanks to its now pure Electric typing. Of course, you still don't have any moves that are stellar against Brute Bonnet, but it no longer had any moves that were great against your poke, either. It was a war of attrition, now.

To give yourself the best chances, you start off with Electric Terrain. Nemona orders her Bonnet to Thrash, and you wince as the hit connects with your pokemon. You hope Sandy Shocks can last long enough. You issue your order-- Thunder. When the sparkly, Terastallize-powered bolt of lightning comes crashing down on the Bonnet, the resisted attack still doesn't seem to hit anywhere near hard as you'd like, despite all the buffs. This is gonna take a while.

However, lady luck is smiling upon you, it seems, because during the next turn, the Brute Bonnet lets out a shrill cry and struggles to move. It seems the Thunder has immediately struck it with paralysis. Yes!

And then you find even greater luck; when the Bonnet manages to move the next turn, it stumbles and falls, exhausted from the confusing effects of Thrash and the paralysis combined. You're able to clear it out with three Thunders. The method is a bit crude, but it gets the job done in the end.

And then, Nemonafinally makes a major mistake. She sends out her Flutter Mane. It's obvious she expects to clear out your injured Sandy Shocks with just one hit. And it very nearly does.

. . . but it doesn't quite. Your Sandy Shocks is able to hit her Flutter Mane with a Thunder before going down the next turn. It does a huge amount of damage. Suddenly, you're full of hope. You might actually be able to win this one. You send out your own Brute Bonnet.

Nemona switches to her Scream Tail, taking a hit from your Bonnet's Payback. The next turn, her Scream Tail uses Play Rough and Nemona gets a little of her own luck-- a critical hit. Well, at least the luck had evened out, you suppose. Your second Payback weakens the Scream Tail a fair bit, and at this point, both pokemon are looking pretty worn down.

You have to keep Bonnet alive. It's your win condition. It can finish off the rest of Nemona's team with its Sucker Punch. She of course knows that, though. And you only have four Sucker Punches left to use. She might try to stall you out.

You think for a bit, then decide to switch to Great Tusk. On the same turn, she switches to her Slither Wing. She goes for Acrobatics, but afterward, her Slither Wing falls to your Earthquake. She brings her Flutter Mane in next, and can easily finish off your Great Tusk.

You bring your final pokemon back in, your weakened Brute Bonnet. You have to Sucker Punch.

She swaps out to her Scream Tail, wasting one of your Sucker Punches. You're down to three. The next turn, she must try to attack, because your Bonnet finishes her Scream Tail off.

Two.

She lets her final pokemon back out onto the field. You think you have this in the bag. You tell your Bonnet to Sucker Punch again.

She reveals she has a setup move. She has her Flutter Mane use Calm Mind.

One.

The battle has ended up being ridiculously close. And now, you both are staring each other down fiercely, trying to read the others' mind. Now that electric pokemon moves are no longer a risk, you've both returned to standing in the shallow pool of water your pokemon were using as a battle arena; it made for a rather aesthetically-pleasing backdrop for such an intense moment.

You have two choices; Sucker Punch, or a non-priority attack. If she tries to Calm Mind again and stall out your Sucker Punch, you can use Payback and win. If she tries to attack you, you can use Sucker Punch and win.

It's an absurdly difficult mind game. You aren't exactly a huge fan of really deep mind games-- they feel like they twist your brain into knots-- but Nemona looks like she's having the time of her life. Her eyes are fiery and her grin looks practically giddy; she can't even hold still, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"What's it gonna be, Jules? Sucker or no Sucker?"

You groan. Maybe if you can get her to talk, it'll help.

"I dunno, mi tesoro. What move do you want me to do?"

She laughs. Outloud, she muses,

"Hmmm, you're probably thinking I'll switch it up and just attack this turn, so you'll Sucker Punch. But I've probably already decided that's what you'd wanna do. So maybe I'll Calm Mind again, and you should Payback. But then again, maybe I've predicted that you've predicted my prediction and--"

"NEMONA, STOP."

She giggles, and you decide to just pick something because it isn't worth this headache. You lean down to your Brute Bonnet, who is looking rather impatient with all this waiting. Quietly, you mutter to him,

"Okay, ChompyMcBiteyFace. It's all up to you now. I want you to use . . . Payback."

When you lean back up, Nemona asks,

"You ready?!"

You nod, trying to look confidant. It's important, because pokemon can pick up on a trainer's nervousness. You give McBitey a trusting smile.

Nemona gestures dramatically and shouts to her Flutter Mane,

"Okay Flutter Mane, GO!"

You shout for your Brute Bonnet to do the same. The little grass pokemon charges with a scream, splashing across the battlefield, leaping at the ghost with all its primal might. Your heart is in your throat as you watch, holding your breath.

There's a bright, almost blinding flash, as Flutter Mane uses its Dazzling Gleam, striking the Brute Bonnet down instantly. He collapses into the pool of water with a splash and a tiny groan. Your heart aches at the sight for a moment, disappointed at your loss and his.

But then, Nemona gives a delighted squeal of joy, and she jumps up and down, splashing in the water, shouting,

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah!!! Flutter Mane, great job! Oh my god Jules, my heart was racing so fast, I had no idea which move you were gonna use, I thought for sure I'd picked wrong!"

And you can't possibly remain feeling disappointed, because that fight was actually superfun and it came right down to the wire and also, good god, as much as you loved how excited Nemona got when she lost to you, when she won sometimes it felt even better. She rushes up to you and grabs you by the shoulders and you laugh; she's splashing water on you but you don't even care.

With her dorky big smile, she tells you,

"Good game, girl!"

You grin and tell her,

"Yeah, thought I had you for a second there, but you're getting better at that poker face. Or just confusing me too much to predict you."

She taps her head with a finger and intones,

"Never let 'em know your next move."

"Pshhh. Getting tips from Arven's playstyle."

Nemona guffaws.

"Aw, now c'mon, he's gotten a lot better lately, actually!"

"Yeah you're right, that was a low blow. Don't tell him I said it."

Nemona takes her pokeball and returns her Flutter Mane to its ball, and you do the same with your fainted Brute Bonnet. After you finish healing up your team, she eyes you excitedly and asks,

"So, ready for round two?"

You laugh. Of course that's the first thing she asks. You blurt out,

"Anyone ever tell you that you're like a Mudsdale?"

She tilts her head, smiling but confused.

"Uh?"

You point finger guns at her, saying,

"'Cos damn girl, you got stamina."

Before it even finishes leaving your mouth you already hate yourself, dear god, somebody shove you into a pokeball so you can hide. It doesn't matter, Nemona laughs at your stupid joke, she is such a merciful friend. You awkwardly add on,

". . . but seriously, I'm kinda starved, I think we should break for lunch."

You glance around to try and spot your giant lizard motorbike friend, which usually isn't too hard to do. He is pretty huge and bright red. You quickly see that he's snoozing under the shade of a nearby tree, having grown bored of watching the battle, it seemed.

Nemona nods, saying,

"Hm, yeah actually that's a good call. I didn't even notice how hungry I was."

Lucky for you two, you packed a very nice picnic lunch. You both retreat to the shade of the tree with Scarlet and settle down on the nice, soft grass. It's such a scenic location that it almost feels ridiculous, like out of a storybook. You can watch the huge waterfall flowing down into the inky blackness of the sparkling caves deep below, and the Gogoats are still grazing nearby in the fields. The trunk of the tree you're sitting under is encrusted in beautiful crystals, which have dozens of shiny faucets that sparkle a rainbow of colors. It's perfect.

You set out all your picnic goodies onto the grass, but Scarlet keeps shoving his face into everything, so you give him a few treats to snack on and then return him to his ball. Then you and Nemona enjoy the bocadillos you packed, soon ending up in conversation about various things; how classes are going, the hijinks that Team Star has been up to lately, the gym leader gossip you've heard about from your art professor, etc. Nemona tells you about these videos online she's been watching of the gym leader battles from Galar and gushes over how their battle format is truly the best one of all the regions, and then she speaks longingly of how she wants to visit there. You both spend some time scheming over when you might make a trip out there together. Then the conversation drifts to various other topics.

". . . okay, and get this. I ran into Professor Raifort in the library the other day, y'know, and she was telling me more about those stories of the Treasures of Ruin she was so obsessed with. And how these ancient treasures were cursed with the collective total of humanity's sins or whatever, and they became these terrifying pokemon that brought destruction and misery in their wake, wherever they roamed, right? She said they were sealed away in some shrines across Paldea with really powerful magic or something."

"Dang. Is it just a legend or . . .?"

You shrug.

"I dunno, you know how myths are, people make the wildest crap up but half the time they end up being right 'cos pokemon are just that weird."

"True."

"Anyway, after she told me all this, she was talking about how she found the supposed locations of these shrines, and these magical stake thingies that need to be located and pulled outta the ground, and then she just . . . flat out told me to go see if I could find them all and pull the stakes out and unleash these ancient, uber powerful cursed pokemon of evil on modern Paldea. Just for funsies and because she thought it'd be cool, and like, what do you even say to that? I mean, holy crap, dude. Talk about unhinged."

"Whoa."

"Yeah. I thought about maybe telling somebody? Like Director Clavell or something? I mean, encouraging students to unleash ancient evils is probably against some rule, right? But I wasn't sure if she was serious or not. It's always hard to tell with her."

"Yeah, that's . . . that's pretty crazy Jules. I knew she was pretty passionate about the history of the Paldean Empire, but that does seem to be taking things a bit far."

"Right?"

Nemona looks thoughtful for a moment, and then adds on quietly,

"Although . . ."

You raise a brow.

"Although what?"

A sneaky little smile overcomes her features, and she admits,

"I mean . . . it would be kiiiinda cool . . ."

"Oh my god Nemona."

"What? You can't deny it, you have to feel at least the tiniest bit curious, right?"

"Nemona, I'm not opening Pandora's Box and destroying modern civilization because seeing a super strong legendary pokemon would be cool!!"

She laughs, pointing out,

"You don't know it would destroy civilization though, you said yourself how much people make stuff up and exaggerate! They might just be really strong pokemon that are perfectly catchable!"

"Yeah, maybe! But also maybe they will kill all the crops, boil the seas, bring about the ten plagues, curse my family and my entire lineage for the next twenty generations or whatever."

Nemona sighs, looking much like a child being told they can't eat ice cream for dinner.

"Yeahhhh . . . I guess you're right."

You finish up your sandwich and grab a section of sliced orange from your bag while Nemona looks lost in thought, dreaming of terrifying legendary pokemon. After a pause, she says,

"Although you do still have that Master Ball Director Clavell gave you, right?"

You hesitate, thinking about the supremely expensive pokeball that was currently stashed in your dresser drawer back at your dorm. She kinda did have a point . . .

You quickly shake your head, sputtering,

"Gah! No! C'mon, Nemona, stop, we shouldn't tempt fate!"

Nemona laughs again.

"All right, all right."

Trying to change the subject, you carry on,

"Anyway, I've been talking too much. I don't think you've even told me yet how your classes are going right now."

You two share several classes but you know she has a few that are different from yours. She answers your question breezily.

"Oh, pffft, well there's not much to report there. Other than my French midterm, there's nothing I'm worried about. It's not like Mr. Jacq's paper has me worried, haha. It's the same exact material as last semester."

You frown, confused.

"Wait . . . you had his class last semester?"

Nemona looks briefly caught out, as if she let slip something she didn't mean to. Reluctantly she answers,

"Uh, heh, well, y-yeah."

Whoa. It's hard to imagine Nemona actually flunking a class, especially if it has anything to do with pokemon. She must have had a rough semester.

You tell her,

"Eh, I've had a class I had to repeat before, there's no need to feel bad or anything."

Nemona smiles sheepishly at you.

"Well, I uh, I didn't really . . . need to repeat it, I got top marks and everything, I just . . . wanted to?"

Your confusion only deepens.

"But if it's the same exact material, then . . . why?"

Her eyes shift away. She answers cryptically,

"Well, I needed to fill out my credits for this semester to remain a student full-time."

You're still not getting it. Maybe Naranja Academy had some weird rules? You came from Unova, so you weren't super familiar with Universities here.

"Okay, but shouldn't there be enough classes for that without you repeating any?"

Nemona fiddles with an orange skin from the slice she's already eaten. With a self-conscious smile, she admits quietly,

"There's not many classes left I haven't had at least once by now."

You stare at her. "Uh??"

She sighs, briefly burying her face in her hands, then looks back up at you.

"Okay, so. I only have like two core required classes left to graduate. I could finish up anytime I want, really. I've been intentionally taking things really slow, padding out my semesters with a bunch of electives and sometimes even repeating classes."

"Okay . . . but why?"

She leans back against the crystal-encrusted trunk of the tree you're sitting under. Heaving another sigh, she says,

"Mmm. I dunno. I guess mostly because . . . I had no idea what I wanted to actually do once I finished school, you know? When I became a Champion a few semesters back, things felt . . . kinda empty after that. My professors and La Primera, they all encouraged me to pursue a career as a Gym Leader or an Elite or whatever, of course. Sounds perfect, right? But I wasn't actually sure if I'd enjoy it. Gym Leaders have to deal with a ton of inexperienced trainers, you know? And while I do enjoy mentoring trainers, it's maybe not what I want to spend all my time doing?"

She pauses, before continuing,

"I really craved a challenge. Like, a really, truly good challenge. I wanted somebody who would push me to my absolute limits and make me strive to be even better. I knew there had to be someone or something out there who'd do that for me. Or at least . . . I hoped so? So. I . . . was kinda just spinning my wheels for a while at school, trying to find something that would satisfy that wish, I guess."

You ponder that. It's definitely something you can relate to. You also struggle with knowing exactly what you want to do with your life after you finish school. But it's honestly surprising to hear Nemona had felt the same. To you, it always seemed like she had everything figured out in her life.

Your friend nudges your shoulder and gives you a little smile.

"And after I met you, well. I finally got to fulfill that wish. I'd found my best friend and rival for life, someone who could meet me at exactly where I was and push me to be even greater. And I made other amazing friends this semester, too, and had so many incredible experiences. God, it makes me so glad I waited. It feels like the pieces are starting to come together, finally. I'm still not exactly sure yet what I wanna do in the future, but . . ."

She trails off. Glancing around at the idyllic scenery, she grins and jokes,

"Well in this exact moment, I kinda just wanna stay forever down here in super cool ancient pokemon paradise with you."

"Oh," you say, your face heating up. Returning to her train of thought, she concludes,

"But, yeah, I decided I'm going to pad out my remaining semesters long enough so I can graduate at the same time you do. And then we can finish together."

She says it so simply, like it's a logical, easy thing to do, but you're overwhelmed with emotion. She wants to wait for you. She's this incredibly talented trainer and person who could probably go anywhere and do anything in life, because she has the drive and the skill, but she doesn't want to do it unless you're there with her.

You emit a little squeaky noise, trying to push through the thoughts tangling up in your brain.

"N-nemona that's . . . I don't know what to say, that's . . . th-thank you? That's so incredibly sweet and. You don't have to do that--"

She takes your hand and gives it a squeeze, her smile dazzling as she tells you softly,

"Of course I don't have to. I want to."

You're certain that you're bright red by now, and you desperately try to get the language centers of your brain working again.

"I-I-I, uhh, I-- t-thank you, Nemona."

She giggles, clearly endeared by how flustered you are.

"No, thank you. Seriously. You've done so much for me. You've been such an incredible friend and rival. And you're always so sweet and so generous. Like, look at all this! You brought me out here and arranged all this, too. Taught me how to throw pokeballs, packed this amazing lunch-- I don't think I've mentioned yet, those bocadillos were phenomenal? You been taking lessons from Arven or something?"

You glance away, confessing,

"W-well, I, kinda asked him to let me borrow some Herba Mystica from him for today . . ."

Nemona gives a little gasp.

"Really? That explains it. But jeez, Jules, why'd you go through all that much trouble? I would have been fine with just some plain 'ol ham sandwiches or whatever!"

"I wanted today to be special," you say, firmly. She deserves something special. She deserves super amazing trips and all the fun stuff. That's why.

You . . . also possibly have a few ulterior motives tucked away in the back of your mind that have to do with making it feel sorta kinda possibly like a date, but you aren't gonna say that part outloud.

"Well, you definitely succeeded there," she say, and oh, the expression she has was going to melt your heart to goop, a blobby little happy puddle of Goomy. Your thoughts stop working for a bit, but you have a vague sense that you're forgetting something. Something . . . to do with today's plans?

"Dessert!" you suddenly blurt. At Nemona's startled expression, you add,

"Sorry, heh, I, I got something special from Cortondo's pastry shop!"

She looks immediately eager.

"Ooh, really?"

You dip into the picnic basket and pull out the paper-wrapped goodies that had been tucked in the far back.

"Bizcocho de Limón," you say, handing her one.

"Made with their special olive oil. I haven't tried it yet but Katy was going on and on about how much better the olive oil was when compared to using butter."

Nemona unwraps the paper, not wasting any time and biting into the soft lemon cake.

"Nmmmhhh," she groans, not leaving any ambiguity about whether it was a hit or not.

"I'm going to assume that means you like it," you chuckle. She swallows the bite and gives you a grin.

"This really is the perfect day."

Her nose is dusted with the powdered sugar from the cake and you can't keep a straight face, sniggering.

"What?"

"You got a 'lil somethin' . . ."

You reach out and gingerly try to brush the sugar off, but it's only smudging it around, and halfway through the act you end up getting lost in her eyes. All those sappy thoughts you'd been trying so hard to suppress are back, and your heart kicks up speed.

She's gazing at you, with the sweetest of smiles, and she's not looking away. You think perhaps you've stopped breathing. Almost imperceptibly, you start lean closer; or perhaps she leans closer to you? Time seems to slow down to a crawl.

There's a strange sort of growling noise from behind you. You notice it, but only vaguely, and in the moment you don't really stop to think about it.

The next moment, all is chaos.

Something enormous erupts, almost as if it was from the very ground you were sitting on, crashing between you and Nemona-- you hear a loud, splintering crunch that you only later realized was the sound of your picnic basket being crushed-- and your arm is caught up in the motion, a sharp, white-hot pain of your skin being torn. You barely have enough time to gasp for breath and try to process what was right beside you: the body of some kind of creature, bright green and purple, four limbs that are long and sinewy, and claws. Big, curved, purple claws.

At this point you have processed your most imperative task:

Run.

You struggle to clamber to your feet, Nemona doing the same, and start to run. A quick glance back and you see enough to realize the pokemon looks like some kind of giant cat, like a lion or something. It's briefly hampered, apparently struggling to shake the shredded remains of the picnic basket off its face--

Oh. Its teeth. Those massive, curved purple thorns on its face are teeth. Like some kind of saber tooth tiger.

You utter a curse and keep running. The pokemon spits out the last bits of picnic basket and starts to pursue you, quickly picking up a loping run. Its strides are long and you know it will catch up to you soon. You needed your pokemon.

You glance back again, trying to spot where your bag ended up in all the chaos. You can't see it anywhere, but you see Nemona's bag, sprawled open in the dirt near the tree you'd been under, its contents spilled all over. You couldn't get to it, the tiger was closing in on you.

You trip during your frantic search for your bag, tumbling painfully to the ground. Your heart drops to your stomach. You twist and try to get up, but it's too late. The pokemon is a mere few feet away now, snarling, approaching you in a stalk. Its eyes are hot pink, its pupils narrowed into slits; its ears are flattened and it's bearing wickedly-curved purple teeth.

Your pulse is pounding in your ears, and once again, time seems to slow to a crawl.

"¡Oye! Get away from her, you tonto del culo!"

You glance up. Nemona isn't far away, but it's clear she didn't have the time to recover her pokeballs and she looks terrified for you. You realize you're probably going to die. You try to think of something meaningful to say in the moment, but your mind is utterly blank.

Nemona reaches down and picks up a rock, before shouting again and chucking it with all her might at the creature. The rock beans the tiger right across the head, hard. It gives an outraged scream, quickly turning to face her.

"Yeah, that's right! Leave her alone, come get me, cabrón!"

You're horrified. You cry out,

"Nemona, it's going to kill you!"

She ignores you, still taunting the tiger and sidling slowly to the right, trying to lead it away. It's stalking up to her and you don't know what to do, all you know is you can't stand by and watch your best friend get disemboweled right before your eyes. You're about to charge forward, but in the split-second before you do, Nemona suddenly dives to the ground. You think it's just a last-ditch effort to evade the beast, but then you see her throw something she's recovered from the ground.

There's a familiar sound, and a pokeball bursts open. Her Great Tusk materializes.

You want to sob in relief. Nemona shouts,

"Tusk, Close Combat!"

The precious moments when the tiger is distracted with Great Tusk do not go to waste. Your friend immediately climbs to her feet and darts away, going through the mess of her bag to locate where her other pokeballs had rolled away to. You want to rush to help, but first you need to give the pokemon a wide berth to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

As you run, the Great Tusk charges into the saber tooth tiger with all its might, trying to tear into it with its tusks. The tiger is surprisingly resilient, though, and strangely doesn't seem to take much damage from such a powerful move. It retaliates, biting down on Great Tusk's soft underside, sinking its purple fangs deep. The elephant gives a pained shriek.

Fortunately, Nemona has recovered another pokeball, because Tusk faints almost immediately after that. She shouts, "Uh, go!" and flings it, obviously not sure which pokemon it is.

Her Scream Tail immerges, and you think to yourself that it's a stroke of luck. Scream Tail was pretty bulky, so it should last at least a little while. Nemona orders it to use Play Rough. By now, you've been able to move around the battling pokemon and reach Nemona. You want to hug her, but you know now was Not The Time, so you just call out tersely to her.

"Nemona."

She looks up, then rushes to you. She pushes a few pokeballs into your shaking hands.

"H-here. I'll look for the rest. I don't know where your bag went, I think it might have gone over the cliff, so hopefully my team'll be enough."

As she runs off your attention is drawn back to the battle; it seemed Scream Tail's Play Rough hardly did anything. The tiger swipes at the puffy pink fairy with its long claws, and Scream Tail seems to deflate like a balloon. You realize the clawmarks embedded deep into Scream Tail are oozing with a purple liquid. You mutter,

"Oh, shit, right. It's a poison type."

Grass/Poison, from the looks of it; its limbs, which had seemed so muscular and sinewy, seemed to in fact be made of entwined vines, and its fluffy fur is embedded with dark leaf patterns. Its ears are large and triangular and they extend down to its face almost like a mask, in a way that reminded you a little of Meowscarada.

In fact . . . as it narrowed its pink eyes and glared at you, you realized it looked a lot like Meowscarada. A really jacked, beastly, saber-tooth tiger version of one, at least.

Scream Tail's fainted form returned to its pokeball, and you threw another. Flutter Mane appeared, graceful and serene even during such a terrible situation. You tried to think of what moves it might have that would be useful. You weren't gonna mess around with any Calm Minds, you needed to get some damage off.

"Uh, Mystical Fire?" you try, and Nemona's Flutter Mane responds to the command. It turns and descends upon the tiger, creating a huge curtain of flames to crash down upon it. You watch in relief as the tiger flinches from the attack, the flames singing its leafy fur and limbs-- finally, some actual damage. You shout for Flutter Mane to use Mystical Fire again, but the tiger leaps into the air and slashes the ghost with its claws before it can react. There's a crisp, sharp noise, the familiar sound of a pokemon landing a critical hit, and Flutter Mane goes down.

Damn. This thing was tearing through Nemona's team like it was nothing. You throw your other pokeball, sending Brute Bonnet out to face its fearsome opponent. You're not sure of its full moveset, and you shout,

"Brute Bonnet, just hit it as hard as you can, give everything you've got!"

The feisty mushroom pokemon turns and rushes headlong into battle. As fast as it can, anyway. The top running speed on its little legs wasn't exactly the greatest. The tiger chomps down on Brute Bonnet before it can do anything, and you cringe in sympathy. Bonnet counterattacks as hard as it can, flailing back and forth as it uses Thrash. The tiger roars in anger and slashes at it, and then down it goes, as fast as all the others.

What level was this beast? You feel a cold sense of dread creep in, pondering that question. All you'd been able to do so far was buy a little time. You flinch in pain and rub your arm, feeling a sticky wetness, and glance down. Oh right, you'd been injured in the initial attack; your arm was still a bit torn up and bleeding, although at least the cuts didn't seem to be too deep.

You look back up when you hear the tiger growl, and, oh crap, you're out of pokemon to throw at it. That's not good.

Fortunately, Nemona returns once more to rescue you, right on time. It seems she had to wander all over to recover her supplies, because she's on the opposite side of the angry tiger as you are. She has her bag, though, and a pokeball in hand. Brightly, she calls,

"All right Sandy Shocks, let's go!"

The weird, primitive form of Magneton lands on the ground, its parts spinning and whirring. It's hard to believe your lives might depend on this goofy-looking pile of magnets. You call out to Nemona,

"I think it's Grass/Poison, it has some kind of biting move and a poison move-- Cross Poison? Poison Jab? Not sure, that's all I really know! It's KOing most things in just one hit!"

"All right," she calls back, not looking discouraged by this report. Pointing to her pokemon, she orders,

"Let's even things out a bit. Sandy Shocks, hit 'em with Thunder Wave!" The little collective of metallic creatures spin and point their magnets, building up energy, walking along the ground in a strange wiggly gait; then they fire a weak beam of electricity, zapping the growling tiger. You feel relieved that the beast finally has a status condition on it. Hopefully it would slow it down.

"Now, Earth Power!" Nemona commanded, as the tiger turned to face its new opponent. You could see Sandy Shocks building up energy for the special attack, the power building between its three heads; before it can get the attack off, though, the tiger lunges, and it bites down hard on the primary head. It certainly doesn't seem like biting is something that would work on a creature made of metal, but the metal of Sandy Shocks must be different, somehow-- it was a Ground type, after all, not Steel. There's a gross crunching sound and the three heads vibrate and shriek, their eyes rolling around wildly, and it seems to take massive damage. Your brain struggles to figure out why-- what move was it using? Ice Fang? Surely you'd see the ice, then?

Despite the damage, Sandy Shocks does not perish immediately, and it manages to finish powering up its move; the ground around it and the tiger distorts and shifts and shakes violently, before bursting open with the attack, lava boiling out. The tiger seems to take a really solid hit, but Sandy Shocks does faint from the aftermath.

Nervously, you call to Nemona,

"Uh, how many pokes do you have left?

Like you, she had brought some of her usual partners on this trip as well, not just her new Paradox team. You hoped she had managed to recover those too. Nemona pulled out a pokeball from her pocket and gave you a weak smile. She said,

"Um . . ."

You curse under your breath.

"Seriously?"

She shouts back, "I think some rolled off the cliff along with yours. Look, it's fine, we can make this work!"

You're not so sure about that, from the looks of things. But Nemona throws the ball, sending out her last pokemon-- Slither Wing. Sounding full of confidence, she commands,

"Okay, Slither Wing! If this is Grass/Poison, let's go for an Acrobatics!" The ancient bug pokemon flaps its wings and dashes towards the tiger, preparing to strike. Before it can hit, though, the tiger slashes at it viciously, ugly purple streaks of poison marring its fuzzy body. Fortunately, this doesn't bring the bug to a stop; Slither Wing counterattacks, slamming into the tiger again and again at intense speeds, ruthlessly. You watch with hope gleaming in your eyes.

When Slither Wing is finished with its assault, the tiger looks very bruised and worn down. Giving a strangled cry, it bites into Slither Wing's hide, trying to stop its attacker. Slither Wing flaps its wings furiously and struggles in the tiger's grip. It looks as though the bite isn't doing too much damage, but the poison is slowing Slither Wing down by now.

"I don't suppose you have any heals left?" you tensely call to your friend.

She shakes her head. Ah. That's . . . not the best. Nemona hasn't given up, though.

"Let's give him a taste of his own medicine, Slither Wing! Leech Life!"

You watch as Slither Wing battles to wriggle free from the tiger, stirred by Nemona's commands. It somehow manages to slip free from its jaws, then it turns and latches its buggy mandibles onto the tiger's neck. The tiger roars and jerks, but it seems paralysis is finally slowing the monster down. Slither Wing drains some of its lifeforce, feeding itself. It's obvious Nemona hopes to preserve the longevity of her last pokemon this way, in lieu of any potions.

"Good work, Slither Wing! Let's go for another Acrobatics now!"

The ancient moth releases its foe, looking a little rejuvenated, despite all the poisoned scratches on its body. You start to think Slither Wing may actually have a chance of winning this. It seemed it was a very stubborn bug.

The moth prepares its next attack, backing up a little so it can get a running start against its foe. Judging by how tired the tiger looks, you're guessing this could very well be the finishing blow of the match.

Slither Wing charges, emitting its strange, gurgling cry, wings flapping furiously. You can't look away, and hope this will finally be it . . .

. . . but it isn't. Despite the paralysis, the tiger is able to rouse itself once more. And before Slither Wing can strike, the tiger lashes out with an attack. But this time, it was a new attack. There's a dusty white cloud of smoke that's whipped up from the action, and the tiger leaps up and smacks Slither Wing around with its paws, over and over, without even using its claws in the process. The move looks very familiar.

Oh, no. Play Rough.

After the tiger is finished batting the moth around, it's clear the poor thing has fainted. The pokemon dissolves into energy, returning once more to Nemona's pokeball. You can't believe it.

"Son of a-- this thing is nigh invincible!" you shout, disgusted. Even after all that, it was still going!

The tiger's magenta eyes dart to you when you shout. The pupils narrow to slits and it growls.

"Oh, for fuck's sake--"

Battered, beaten, and paralyzed, the saber tooth tiger from hell is stalking towards you, still with pure malice and rage shining in its beady eyes.

Trying to keep your voice calm, you call out,

"Uhhhh, Nemona? You sure you don't have any pokemon left?"

You can see she's digging through her bag, but she looks frantic. You can hear her muttering,

"No, no, no, no!"

You start to back away, wondering if there's anything nearby you could run to. Some rocks, some trees. This thing could probably climb trees twice as fast as you. It was no use.

The tiger is bearing its purple fangs at you, and they're dripping in poison. You suppose they'll soon be clamping down on your neck.

You hear Nemona suddenly cry out.

"Wait! Wait, yes! Oh my god, Jules, hold on! I'll save you, I've been training for this moment!"

You're confused at first, because she pulls out a pokeball, and you thought she'd run out of pokemon. But then it hit you; she has an empty pokeball. Oh, of course. Why didn't you think of that sooner?

You watch as she carefully takes aim at the distracted tiger. She has a perfect back shot from her position. She takes a calming breath, then swings her arm, stepping smoothly into the throw, and sends the ball soaring. You watch the nice, clean arc of the ball sailing towards the tiger, flying, and then--

The ball thwacks a rock right behind the tiger with a loud crack, shooting off into a random direction. You hear your friend's high-pitched shout,

"Oh, jodete! Oh, shit!"

If the situation wasn't so dire, it would have been funny, honestly. But as it was, the tiger quickly turns around, angered at having things flung at it, apparently. It snarls and begins stalking towards Nemona instead.

"Nemona, look out!"

She was busy grabbing a second ball. To your horror, the tiger is stalking faster. Much faster.

"It's OK I got it, hold on--"

She's taking aim with the ball. The tiger crouches, performing a little butt wiggle that looked remarkably similar to when your Purrloin was about to pounce on its toy. Oh, oh no. No, no, no!

You break into a dead run towards them, not sure what to do, but you have to do something.

The tiger roars, leaping, paws outstretched, at the same time Nemona stumbles and falls backwards, flinging her pokeball, screaming,

"AAAAAAA!!" A bright flash of light and the tiger dissolves into a puddle of energy, which is sucked into the pokeball. The ball drops to the ground, its center button lit red.

You both stop perfectly still and stare, breathlessly, as the ball wiggles.

Once. Twice.

Thrice.

You wait. The seconds feel like ages.

And then, in the stillness of the air, there's a tiny but unmistakable 'click.'

For a short while, neither of you speak, and instead just stare dumbly at the pokeball on the ground. Nemona had landed on her butt on the ground, and so she sat there, eyes wide, catching her breath, staring. Eventually, her eyes lift up to yours.

You take a shuddering breath when she meets your eyes, suddenly overwhelmed, your throat tightening as you rasp out,

"Oh my god Nemona I was gonna be so mad if you got yourself killed for me."

You rush up to her, helping to pull her to her feet, and she's smiling and laughing, what was wrong with her, how could she be laughing? You pull her into a fierce hug, the unshed tears stinging your eyes. Nemona's voice is muffled against you as she says,

"I'm so sorry, I thought that was gonna be heroic as heck, with me swinging in to save you and I just end up being a total dweeb and missing!"

You quickly pull back so you can face her and demand,

"Why are you apologizing?! That was heroic, that was the most heroic crap I've ever seen! You ran up to a beast like that and threw a freaking rock at it like it was nothing! And then everything else? I didn't even think to try and catch it because my brain had blanked out so much! I would have been dead without you!" After your outburst, Nemona smiles a bit bashfully and answers,

"Heh, well I guess it wasn't bad. I'd do it again, y'know."

You stare at her. Your heart's still pounding from almost having a tiger maul you to death-- or almost mauling Nemona to death instead. You feel a little sick.

"This is all my fault," you realize aloud. Sounding concerned, Nemona asks,

"What do you mean?"

You look at her and say emphatically,

"All of this. Oh, god. I was such an idiot. I just wanted this to be a perfect day for us. Planned it all out so carefully. But I should have taken the risks more seriously. You could have died. I-I . . . I'm so sorry. N-nemona, I . . ."

The tears are running down your face as you speak, and she reaches for you, saying,

"Hey, hey, hold on now, Jules."

When she touches you, you give a tiny sob, and she pulls you into a hug.

"Shh-shh, hey . . . take it easy, okay?"

You break down, crying into her shoulder while she soothes you, soft words of comfort as she rubs little circles into your back. You always thought Nemona was like an electric-type, so bubbly and energetic; but now you think she must be made of pure steel, to walk away from all that still smiling.

Her voice is gentle as she tells you,

"We're okay, it all worked out. Don't be so hard on yourself, all right?"

You try and utter a protest, but it comes out all whimpered and nonsensical against her. She continues,

"Look, I can't say that was my favorite encounter with a pokemon just now, but I certainly don't blame you for it. Every trainer knows there are risks to going outside and seeking out pokemon. That's just part of the deal."

You suck in a breath and finally get out,

"Y-yeah but-- I-- I was the one who convinced you to come down here--"

She interrupts gently and says,

"I wanted to. I'm gonna be real honest with you, Juliana, if you hadn't invited me down here, I would have snuck in alone sooner or later. I had been planning to for a while now."

You choke a laugh and say,

"Nemona!"

"I know, I know. I don't always make the best decisions. But I'm telling the truth. It's actually pretty good that you came down here with me, because I probably would have ended up as cat food without your help. Okay, more like definitely. I wouldn't have nailed that second pokeball throw, at any rate."

You pull back from the hug and try to wipe your face on your sleeve without it getting too gross. You tell her,

"Please promise me you won't do that anymore, just go off on your own like that. I care about you too much. Tell someone, tell me at least."

At first it looks like she might object to your request, but then she seems to consider it more seriously. After a moment, she smiles softly, answering,

"Okay. Okay, I promise. If I get the itch to go do something stupid, we can do it together. Or reconsider the plan, if it's way too wild."

You hug her again, saying,

"Okay. Thank you. I promise I'll do the same. And we'll be a little more careful next time about trips to forbidden zones full of ancient unseen horrors."

Nemona laughs.

"Okay. Fair enough."

After a few moments, you add quietly,

"I'm still sorry our day got ruined like that, though."

She answers you breezily.

"Pffft! Are you kidding me? This was still the best day I've ever had."

You lean back a little from the hug, still holding onto her, and say in exasperation,

"Nemona--"

But when you see her eyes, you realize she isn't kidding. She isn't kidding in the slightest.

"What? Everything was amazing. The trip out here, the gorgeous views, the hiking, teaching me to catch like a pro, the battling? Just hanging out and talking? And that picnic, oh, man! It was perfect, Jules."

You laugh, completely at a loss for words, at first. Eventually, you shake your head, saying in a fond tone,

"You really are something else, Nemona."

She chuckles and answers confidently,

"As if you don't feel the same. I know you had just as much fun today."

You snort another laugh, but then pause to consider it. Now that the imminent danger is over with, and Nemona is safe and sound in your arms, well. The terrifying ordeal doesn't seem so bad, anymore. You think back over the entire course of your day with her.

Quietly, thoughtfully, you muse,

"Yeah. I guess you're right. It really was perfect."

Nemona grins, saying,

"Yeah! Exactly."

After a beat, her smile turns into something playful. You both have still been in a half-embrace, and she slides her hands down your arms a little more, tugging you just a bit closer to her.

"My only regret is that mean tiger didn't let us finish dessert."

You blink and it feels like your insides turn in a dizzy little flip-flop. After a nervous giggle, you manage to reply,

"Don't worry. I'll buy you more next time we're in Cortondo."

Looking very pleased, she says,

"I'm gonna hold you to that."

You nod,

"Please do."

There's a few moments of silence, and Nemona still has not let you go, and your thoughts are just buzzing happy static, and you begin to wonder if perhaps you should try to--

"Oh! Uh, gosh, let me get my first aid kit out for your arm. Jeez, I forgot about that," Nemona says, and you're so confused at first, until your lagging brain finally remembers that yes, your arm did kind of get a bit torn up and bloody. You feel briefly and irrationally angry about your stupid arm being distracting. Stupid tiger.

"Also I guess we'd better get to work finding the rest of our pokeballs," Nemona adds as she digs through her bag. You blink.

"Oh. Yeah. Ooof."

You're not looking forward to it. If your bag really did drop off the cliff, it could be . . . damn near anywhere down there in the massive cave system below you.

"Hey," Nemona says, pulling you from your thoughts. You look to her. Gently, she tells you,

"Don't worry. We'll find them. We've got the scariest tiger around to help us out, right?"

You chuckle weakly, then reach down to pick up the pokeball from the ground.

"Yeah, that's true."

Nemona helps you clean off the dried blood and disinfect your wounds and then dress them properly. Fortunately, it seems you just scraped your arm up on the ground in the madness, and the tiger hadn't actually gotten its claws into you. If it had, you'd probably be much worse off, considering how toxic that beast was. When you're finished, you two begin your search for your lost items. First, though, you hand Nemona the tiger's pokeball. When she gives you a curious look, you say,

"Well, you caught it, right? He's technically yours. Or she."

She laughs.

"I guess so! I'll have to think of a proper name."

"Hmm. Maybe something like 'Hellcat?'"

Nemona agrees the name sounds perfect.

After a quick confirmation that your supplies are nowhere nearby, you both begin your descent to the Area Zero caves. It's definitely unnerving to be traveling around without a proper pokemon team as backup, but Nemona did find a single revive buried in the recesses of her bag, and you spotted and gathered a good pile of berries along the way. So you weren't completely and totally helpless. Obviously, if your searches end up being fruitless, you'll need to hail a taxi (Nemona still had her cell phone) and get help. An unappealing scenario, since you're pretty sure Director Clavell was going to be pretty upset.

However, something amazing happens. Maybe it was to balance out all your foul luck with the tiger attack. You and Nemona have barely even entered the mouth of the cave when you hear a familiar draconic trill echoing through the space. Then Scarlet is bounding right up to you, your bag hanging from his mouth by the strap. You're stunned at first. Scarlet drops your bag in front of you and starts licking your face, looking extremely happy that he found you.

"Didn't you return him to his pokeball? I don't understand," Nemona says, petting the giant dragon. You pick up your bag. It looks a bit beat up, but otherwise is intact. You look through it, and find all of your pokeballs and stuff are in there.

"Well. He knows how to come out of his pokeball on his own," you think outloud.

"He does?"

"Yeah. He used to do it all the time when Arven made sandwiches. He must have sensed something was wrong, when my bag fell off the cliff."

"Wow. What a smart boy!" Nemona praised, rubbing under the dragon's chin as he cooed happily.

"When it fell, my stuff probably went all over, I had my bag zipped open. It looks like he went around and put all my stuff back into the bag," you say, noticing how some of the potion bottles looked as though they'd burst open and a few other things were roughed up. It must have taken him a while. Dang, Scarlet really was the bestest boy in the world.

"And I have no idea where the bag fell, but it could have been anywhere in these caves-- Scarlet probably had to wander for a while to find his way out! He probably remembered how to get around from before. Oh, man, Nemona, look!"

There were extra pokeballs in your bag. A quick check near the button showed that they had Nemona's engraving on them.

"He found your pokeballs too! Oh, my god, I was so worried, and he did everything for us."

You immediately hug the feathery dragon, giving him a kiss.

"You're a hero, Scarlet! Man, you are getting so many treats for this."

You and Nemona check all your pokeballs to confirm that everyone is accounted for and safe.

And then, it's surprisingly easy after that. You both decide it's probably enough adventure for one day, climb aboard your dragon, and stroll your way out of there without a care in the world.

By the time you've made it back to Mesagoza, the sun is setting on the horizon, and you're starting to feel a little worn down from the day's activities. You and Nemona decide to stop at a food vendor and grab some badly-needed dinner. You eat at a table in the main plaza (Scarlet with his own kebab as well), inhaling the food and talking about ancient pokemon, mostly just your wild speculations about the past and what the Professor Sada AI had found there. When you're finished, you two ride Scarlet up the rest of the stairs and then return to Naranja Academy.

It's really only when you start walking through the halls of the school that exhaustion truly starts to catch up to you, and when it hits you, it hits hard. You had run around a ridiculous amount today and had some pretty intense moments, so it only made sense, really. You can see Nemona's as tired as you are. No longer running on pure adrenaline and now after a heavy meal, it was a pleasant but full-bodied sort of exhaustion. You both chatter about silly subjects as you pass through the halls of the dorm building. Nemona tells you about last year when the school had Slowpoke Races, and from her dramatic re-enactments, it sounded like it had been an amazing thing to witness. Or Nemona was just really good at telling a story. You suspected the latter.

And before you know it, you've reached Nemona's dorm room. You have both already agreed it was time to just get some rest, but there still is a disappointed pang in your chest when realizing you now had to part. Nemona gets the key from her bag and then turns to you, hugging you and moaning dramatically,

"Juliaaaanaaa . . . I'll miss yoooou . . ."

You giggle and say,

"I'm going to see you again tomorrow."

Muffled against you, she says,

"Oh. Right. Well. Okay then."

You laugh again. She releases you and grins.

"Still. This . . . this was literally the best adventure I've ever had. So . . . thank you for inviting me."

"Of course," you say. She looks so happy, and your heart feels light as air.

"And I . . . hope we get to have another adventure like that really soon. Maybe minus the scary pokemon trying to eat us thing, but you know what I mean," she says. You nod your head.

"Absolutely."

Nemona continues to hang there, looking reluctant to actually enter her room. She's gazing at you in a way that makes your knees feel weak. Which is pretty much just always. For the thousandth time, you think about telling her, finally telling her about your massive crush on her. Just say it. Just ask her if . . .

"Well," she finally states, awkwardly,

"Um . . . goodnight!"

You feel like you've just missed your chance at something really important, and your heart lurches in your chest as she unlocks her door.

"W-wait, Nemona."

She turns.

"Hm?"

She looks at you, and your thoughts are screaming. Say it. Say it. Just say it.

"N-nevermind," you mumble, like the world's biggest coward.

She chuckles and squeezes your shoulder.

"Get some rest, Jules. We're both pretty out of it by now, I think."

You nod, rasping,

"Yeah."

When you get back to your dorm, you don't really feel like thinking anymore. You take a long shower and make some chamomile tea and climb into bed, to scroll mindlessly through social media for a while and give yourself a chance to wind down for the evening. It doesn't take long for the drowsiness to settle in, but you delay actually shutting your lights off. Despite all your efforts, your thoughts are still churning, keeping you awake. Time gets away from you. Eventually you realize it's getting really late, so you plug your phone in with a sigh and turn out your lights.

A few minutes later, your phone buzzes with a text. You check it.

It's from Nemona.

hey I've been thinking, I'd like to give you Hellcat

Your brow furrows and you gaze at the text for a second before typing out a reply.

Why?

You watch the little elipses flash as she composes her message.

well I never would have caught them without your help! it could be my thank-you gift :) for everything.

You sit there, thinking. Or trying to think, anyway. Exhaustion has started to erode your ability to do so. And you're still feeling pretty disappinted at yourself from chickening out earlier when talking to her.

Suddenly struck with inspiration, you type out,

how about we share them? we both worked together to catch them, so it makes sense.

After a brief pause she responds quickly.

omg jules

you're so smart. that's perfect.

we can raise them together <3 <3

well mayne not 'raise'

more like 'tame' haha but you know whati mean

it's probably a two-person job anyway tbh lol

Deciding you need to be a little more honest about your feelings, you respond to her,

yeah, exactly.

plus its a good excuse to spend more time w you

After a few beats, her message pops up.

haha what?? you dont need any excuses jules, you know you're always welcome at zona nemona

You type out your response quickly.

yeah. well. yeah thats true.

guess i still look for excuses

my mind's kinda been in the nemona zone 24/7 lately

ahaha

You stop and stare at what you just sent, and the regret is instantanoues. Not that honest, not that honest! Oh, god.Maybe she wouldn't notice?

Nemoma's reply is short:

24/7?

You want to scream. You try to compose a reply. How do you backpeddle on something like that? Maybe you should just come clean? No, this was a terrible way to do it. But, it's better then nothing. Still, maybe you should--

You're still trying to compose a reply when Nemona texts,

that's a lot!

Your fingers hover over the keyboard, your sentence only half-complete: I was just

Thirty seconds or so later, she texts,

i don't think even my mind is in the nemona zone 24/7 and im nemona, haha

You feel like it's getting harder to breathe.

jules

are you still there

Okay, for god's sake, just say something! Anything! You erase your old message and start again.

sorry

sorry I

I just mean I've been really enjoying spending time with you and I think about you a lot and. sorry if that came out sounding weird.

Ok, that salvaged it. Possibly. You hoped.

A minute later, your friend replies,

no, dont worry, it wasnt weird

I've been really enjoying our time together too

and

I think about you a lot too!

almost as much as pokemon battling, haha

Your heart skips at her final message. It was possible she was just joking around, but it didn't seem like it. It . . . really didn't seem like it.

You type out:

wow. that's like probably the biggest compliment I think you could give me

Nemona replies right away.

asfhgk

cmon jules

if that's what you think, well

be prepared, cos I'm gonna give even bigger ones in the future ;)

Okay, you weren't sure before, but now it seemed pretty clear, this was not a drill, Nemona was genuinely flirting with you. Right? Yes??

Your heart picking up speed, you tell yourself: okay, okay, don't mess this up. be cool. You carefully compose your next messages.

oh? I'll be sure to prepare myself

but I also gotta be sure to live up to the hype

I could start by taking you back to Cortondo for more Bizcocho de Limón

so there aren't any more rude interruptions

we could sit at the watchtower nearby

it's kinda crowded in town, but it's nice and peaceful at the tower

You sit and wait in tense anticipation.

sounds good to me

i look forward to it <3

..and I'm sure you'll live up to the hype :3c

You get a big stupid grin, feeling triumphant. She continues,

g'night for now, jules

see you tomorrow

Laying there in bed, with the glow of the phone lighting up your smile, you answer her.

gnight, mi tesoro

#pokemon #fanfic #nemona x juliana #juliana x nemona #julinemo #nemona #nemona pokemon #pokemon s/v #pokemon scar/vio #juliana #here we goooo #mystuff #julinemo fanfic #terajules

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cozymochi · 1 year

Note

🌻 >:)

IM FOUND ONE OF THESE MEMES IN MY DRAFts! Im gonna rank my experiences in the major fandoms i’ve engaged with.

🩵 YUGIOH! - Second longest running fascination. Upside!! Made life long friends. DOWNSIDE!! Was my first go at online engagement and in those 10 years so much happened that I still can’t help but feel a little sour. …Though ygo back in the day wasn’t good at tag comments, so I didn’t even know those were a thing for years until I branched out. 5/10. But grows to a 7/10 because i’ve settled into a niche area with so few people that it’s now a silly little club. 💕

🧡 Dragon Ball/Z - GENUINE CHAOS. Started off slow but intensified hard cuz get who got involved while Super was airing??? (I didn’t watch it lol), so the discourse and fighting was at an all time high. I have no idea how I even survived this in retrospect. My slight association with people netted me troll asks and my liking of Yamcha also set me up for those. …and frequent art reposting, and quite a few bizarre interactions. Pretty sure my art and edits have circulated more in latin america than I even know. This was also pre-tumblr purge so the amount of nsfw that got thrown my way is… something. That said!! Made also really good friends 💕 and DB/Z probably desensitized me to longer form discussions. 5/10 for insanity, but 8/10 for good reception and VERY PEAK and generous humans.

I think dbz hardened me.

💚 Invader Zim- started off fun (mostly irl with my friendo from days of YGO), but quickly devolved into territory that tested my patience. WHY ON EARTH THIS SERIES’ CONSUMERS had such a huge morality high ground base is beyond me. It’s this fandoms fault I learned about certain modern day online discourse terms and what instilled an irrational posting fear for a year lol. Fun at first and there’s super creative and receptive folk (then those people got kicked out) and left the most insufferable beings imaginable. There’s no in between. Shoutout to all 3 friends made who are still peak. 3/10, if I ever finish any remaining projects or decide to bite the bullet and show completed work, i’m not engaging again. The base just skews somewhere I can’t handle. Which is crazy given the ABOVE contenders have, on paper, done so much more.

dbz hardened me but iz weakened me. Which is probably why i need the formers bootcamp back. Don’t think I’m as fearful now, but i’ll still be salty.

💜 Twisted Wonderland - this is a work in progress experience. Will require further evaluation if all of the above experiences haven’t set my standards. Will stay in my corner. So far it’s 6/10 in vibes (they’re much calmer than the last one), tho I question how much of the interest is from what i do vs. what I did for others. Haven’t shared a ton of opinions yet and god knows lol we don’t want that /s. Still recovering from the former making me wanna just not do much. Baby steps I suppose.

💙 - Sonic The Hedgehog: This is a cheat, I have never interacted with the fandom directly (purely by happenstance, so thankfully no traces exist), but I have been into this since I was a child with no issues. So by default this is the best one. 10/10, didn’t engage, but I do lurk. Though all the stuff I see on tweeter isn’t exactly anything out of the norm for fandoms in general to do, so it weirds me out that people rag on this one for just kinda talking amongst themselves about innocuous things.

“omg this fandom is arguing over QUILL length ughhh can they never be pleased [30 yt videos about this drop]” ngl, this just feels like par for the course junk fandoms do. It really feels no different from DBZ where people go ham about the art style changes and which one is better. Or stupid shit in IZ where they fight about comics vs movie vs show. Like??? The only major difference here is that StH has more people in it (by the millions).

So literally nothing these folk do or say strikes me as anything more serious than what other fandoms already do??? Its just more outsiders see it then churn out content and perpetuate something worse from what’s honestly….pretty tame stuff. Maybe it’s just twitter’s setup given that’s all folk talk about.

#cozy texts #weirdly enough twst kinda involves things i always liked and went nuts for-#snuggles right in.#Side note: ever think about how the only visibility folk have is when u actively post #so when u dont people will just assume any other feelings dont exist?#no??? okay. but just keep that in mind lol #probably 70% of my experiences are behind closed doors

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shemarmooresfedora · 3 years

Text

Rebuilding Family

Summary: Y/N and Spencer were college sweethearts at Cal-Tech but once Spencer got accepted to the FBI Academy, he ended things deciding it was not fair to make Y/N wait for him. When they meet again years later, he discovers something unexpected.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem! Reader

Masterlist

Chapter 4

Spencer’s phone buzzed in his desk drawer much to his confusion. Pretty much everyone that would be calling him was here right now.

“Dr. Reid,” he answered.

“Hey Spencer, it’s me, Y/N,” you said.

“Oh! Y/N, hi!” he looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to him before slipping away to the empty break room.

“I’m really sorry to have to ask this but is there any way you could pick Jo up from school and watch her for a few hours. A student dropped a vile of dimethyl sulfoxide in the lab so I need to safely clean it up and then make sure the room gets properly ventilated. I had to cancel the rest of class so I have to clean everyone else’s lab station up too,” you explained.

“Of course, of course,” Spencer readily agreed, “I can watch her for as long as you need but I have to finish my files here so would it be okay if she came to the office just for a little so I can finish up and then I will bring her back to my apartment. I’ll text you the address.”

“Yes, that’s completely fine. Sorry for springing this on you but my babysitter is out of town and I called JJ but she is in New Orleans with Will and the kids,” Y/N apologized.

“It’s no problem. It’s actually the opposite, I am looking forward to it,” Spencer smiled as he hung up the phone.

Spencer knocked on Hotch’s door hesitantly.

“Reid, what can I do for you?” Hotch looked up from the mounds of files on his desk.

“So I kind of have a kid and her mom needs me to pick her up from school and watch her so could she come here until I finish my work?” Spencer quickly rambled.

“You kind of have a kid?” Hotch asked, slightly amused.

“Well, she’s mine but she doesn’t know that I am her father and I just found out about her a week ago,” Spencer explained.

“If I wasn’t a profiler, I would think you were pranking me but you seem to be telling the truth. Yes, your kid can hang out until you finish your work for the day. Normally, I would just let you go early but you know Strauss has been inspecting the BAU with a fine-tooth comb recently,” Hotch stated.

“Thanks, Hotch. I’ll be back in thirty minutes,” Spencer ran out the door.

As Spencer slid on his satchel and was walking towards the elevators, he turned around and sighed. He almost forgot to tell the team.

“Hey guys! Quick announcement! I have a kid and her mom needs me to watch her for a few hours so she’s coming here. However, she doesn’t know that I’m her father so please use your discretion,” Spencer finished and bolted for the stairs.

“Kid, what-” Morgan started to say but the glass doors were already closing behind him.

Spencer didn’t have the time nor desire to fill them in on all of the details. He didn’t want to keep his daughter waiting.

“SPENCER HAS A WHAT?” Garcia screamed as Morgan informed her of the breaking news when she returned from her lunch break.

“That’s all he said and apparently she doesn’t know Spencer is her father so you have to keep your mouth shut, baby girl,” Morgan scolded.

“I will, I will. Do we know how old this kid is? What’s her name? Oh my god, who is the mother?” Garcia asked, “I’ll be right back. I’m going to my tech cave to do something totally unrelated.”

As Garcia stood from leaning on Morgan’s desk, the BAU glass doors opened.

Spencer was hunched over, holding Jo’s hand. Jo was dressed in corduroy pants, a lavender cardigan, and her hair was tied up in two pigtails that were bouncing side to side. Her converse were matching with Spencer’s.

“Well I’ll be damned, Pretty Boy wasn’t lying,” Morgan whispered to Garcia and Prentiss who had now joined them.

“Guys, this is Josephine. Jo, this is Derek, Penelope, and Emily. Can you say hi?” Spencer asked.

“Hi,” Jo responded meekly, scooching closer to Spencer’s leg, the one familiar face for her in the crowd of strangers.

“Hi Josephine! You look adorable! I love your little pigtails,” Penelope knelt down to her height.

“Thank you. My Mommy did them for me,”

Jo replied.

“Okay Jo, let’s go to the round table room so we don’t have to stay out here in the crazy bullpen. Let me just grab my files,” Spencer led Jo to his desk and then up the small flight of stairs.

The rest of the team watched in amazement as Spencer lifted Jo into one of the seats at the table and spun her around in the chair a few times as she started to giggle.

“Who’s the kid?” Rossi asked as he exited his office, having missed the big announcement.

“Reid’s daughter apparently,” Prentiss shrugged with a small smile on her lips.

“Okay, Jo! I’ve finished all my work. Wanna go to my apartment and grab some dinner?” Spencer asked.

Jo was sitting next to him, doodling with pens on extra lined paper. Penelope had also brought in some of her trinkets from her desk for her to play with.

“I miss Mommy,” she sighed.

“I’m sorry but Mommy is going to pick you up from my apartment as soon as she can. Come on, I’ll let you get whatever you want for dinner,” Spencer tried to cheer her up.

“Ice cream?” Jo perked up.

Spencer laughed, “How about we have a real meal for dinner and then we can have some ice cream?”

Jo contemplated this.

“Okay but you have to carry me because my legs are tired,” Jo explained.

“Oh-uh okay, yes I can do that,” Spencer stuttered, suddenly getting nervous that his clumsiness would result in him tripping with Josephine in his arms.

Jo outreached her hands and made a grabby motion and Spencer picked her up and rested her on his left hip, his right hip occupied by his satchel.

“Bye Josephine!” Emily smiled at the little girl.

She gave an enthusiastic wave as Spencer carried her to the elevator.

“What do you want for dinner?” Spencer placed Jo into the child seat in the shopping cart.

“Chicken nuggets!” Jo exclaimed.

“Chicken nuggets, it is,” Spencer pushed the cart to the frozen aisle, grabbing a bag of the dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets.

“How about some smiley fries too?”

Jo nodded with a smile as Spencer opened another freezer door.

“And we should probably have a veggie. How about baby carrots? Do you like carrot sticks?” Spencer questioned.

“Yes, Mommy always makes me eat my veggies or no dessert,” Jo stated.

“So if you eat all your carrot sticks, then you can have ice cream. What flavor do you want?”

“Ummm strawberry please.”

“Good choice,” Spencer smiled.

“We need rainbow sprinkles too, Spencer!” she exclaimed.

“Of course! How could I have almost forgotten!” he chuckled.

Jo yawned after scooping the last spoonful of strawberry ice cream with extra sprinkles into her mouth.

You had texted Spencer you would be there in thirty minutes but he didn’t think Jo was going to last that long. She could barely keep her eyes open.

“Jo, do you want to go to bed?”

He soon realized his mistake as tears started to form in the child’s eyes.

“Where is Mommy? She always tucks me into bed and reads me a bedtime story,” she cried.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Spencer quickly stood from his seat and hugged Jo, “Mommy is on her way but I think she would want you to get some rest so I’ll read you a bedtime story, okay?”

Jo nodded and sniffled. Spencer wiped her tears away with his cardigan sleeve. He picked Jo up, getting used to the comforting feeling of her in his arms, and tucked her into his bed.

Spencer looked around at his bookshelves full of technical books and classic novels in other languages but devoid of any colorful picture books that would interest a kid.

“How about I make up a story?” Spencer whispered.

Jo nodded sleepily.

“Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess and a goofy knight in the kingdom of uh- Caltechia,” he spoke softly.

“The princess and the knight were madly in love despite how the knight was so clumsy and the princess was so elegant. However, the knight went away to slay the evil dragon and both the knight and the princess were so sad to be apart. When the knight finally returned, he realized the princess had become a queen and she had an equally beautiful daughter who was now the princess. The knight loved them both dearly.”

Spencer looked down to see that Jo was fast asleep. He brushed the stray hairs off of her face and leaned down to give her a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“I love you,” he whispered.

He figured there was no harm since Jo was fast asleep and he just wanted to say it to her at least once.

About ten minutes later, a knock sounded at the door as Spencer was washing dishes.

“Hey, I knew you wouldn’t accept money as a form of payment so I got you an extra large coffee, extra sugar,” you handed him the cup.

“Thank you but that really isn’t necessary. I was more than happy to do it. I really want to do it again,” Spencer adamantly said.

“Jo has a tee ball game on Sunday. You are welcome to come and then we could all grab dinner after,” you offered.

“I’ll be there,” Spencer smiled softly.

“Um, where is she?” you asked.

“Oh she’s sleeping in my bed. I’m not exactly sure of her normal bedtime but her eyes were drooping so I figured I should put her to bed. We had dino chicken nuggets, smiley fries, and baby carrots for dinner and then some ice cream. I hope that’s okay,” Spencer whispered as he led you to his room.

“More than okay. Thank you so much. I’m surprised you got her to go to bed. The nights she has stayed at my parent’s, she refused to go to sleep for hours,” you stated as you picked her up.

Jo nuzzled into your neck even though she was still asleep. Spencer watched as you slowly made your way out of the apartment with Jo as to not wake her up.

“See you Sunday,” you whispered, giving him a soft smile.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Spencer replied.

#spencer reid fluff #spencer reid x reader #criminal minds #cm fanfic #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid #spencer x reader #reid x reader

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ellitx · 3 years

Note

In honor of Father's Day, could we get some headcanons of the twins (separately) as parents?

Venti as a Father:

It would be really chaotic and a mess when it’s him watching over the kids

Just feeding them and bringing the spoon to their mouth like an airplane, and if one of his children happens to playfully throw the food to his face, it’ll be a food fight.

Of course, it didn’t last long when you entered the room and you see everything is so cluttered and dirty.

Venti can be strict with them if he has to but most of the time he’s carefree and lively with them. Often going outside to play, gliding, and maybe just a leisurely family time with you, him, and the children.

He’s not really restricting them but if they wanna play outside they have to ask his permission first so he’ll know where they are or so that he can watch over them

Venti likes it if his kids ask him to carry them! He’ll carry them on his shoulders so they can see the beautiful view of Mondstadt's scenery!

Or if he’s laying on your lap and they’re asking to be carried, he’ll lift them up and act like they’re flying in the sky. He’ll use his vision to make it really breezy so they can feel what it’s like to soar in the air.

When it’s time for dinner, he has to call for them. But the problem is they’re so mischievous that they even hide from him. It’s easy to find them but for the sake of entertaining them, he pretends he doesn’t have a single clue as to where they are.

“Now where’s my little sweetie hiding again? Looks like Detective Venti is starting another case of Disappearing Angel.” He takes his cape and flips them in the air for a dramatic effect and boy does he hear that stifled laugh behind the sofa.

He takes out his lyre and starts singing about the clues he had gathered and for suspense, he stopped strumming his instrument and stood still. Their kid covered their mouth to quiet themselves and it was unfortunate for them they didn’t notice their father was already behind them.

Venti’s hands slipped underneath them and hoisted them to his shoulder causing them to shriek and wiggle around while giggling.

“Papa, that’s unfair!!”

“Another point for Detective Venti~”

Aside from playing detectives, he’s pretty much dramatic around them if they’re playing house or prince and princess together.

“Oh, sweet child of mine, call the fairest maiden for I, Venti the Most Handsome, Charming, Powerful, and Talented Bard has fallen down because of the great dark dragon’s compelling attack.”

Your child first thought of you, immediately rushing to where you are and tugging at your sleeves.

“Mama! Mama! Help Papa come back alive! He said the only way to regain his powers is that you have to kiss him!”

You choked at your own spit, your face burning hot hearing another ridiculous idea venti started for you to kiss him. You didn’t want to disappoint them so you obliged and followed them to the living room.

There you saw venti laying down, his hands on his chest with his eyes closed, and sure you’d mistaken him as some kind of princess if not for your daughter asking you to help him.

Clearing your throat and readying yourself in acting mode, you kneeled down beside him and clasped his hands with yours.

“Oh, my darling Venti. All your power has been drained, the energy within you has been stolen by the greatest and fearful creature that has been ever lived. But fear not, for I have come to aid you by… by caressing you with a true love’s kiss.”

You slowly leaned forward and ran your finger on his face before closing your eyes until his lips brushed with yours. The tips of your ears were turning red when your child awed and watched closely, and for sure you felt your husband’s lips tugging upwards. His hand reached up behind you to hold you close to him and let the kiss last longer.

His eyelids flutter open, revealing the marvelous emerald orbs he has that were the same as your little angel, and he turned at you with clouded eyes, his cheeks beginning to tint with warm red.

“…more…”

Before he could latch his lips with yours once more, your child jumped at his back and cried,

“You’re alive! You’re finally alive! Quick, defeat the dark dragon before it destroys the castle!”

Venti almost forgot he was playing with them. All of a sudden, you felt your feet weren't on the ground anymore and in instinct, you held onto his shoulder and gaped at him. Venti's arm was underneath your bottom, carrying with such ease as if your weight was as light as a feather.

“Of course, my dear! Now that my power has been replenished thanks to this lovely maiden, I can finally stop the dragon’s outrage through the power of wind and freedom!”

His right hand glowed, unleashing a gentle yet powerful wind to knock down the mini dvalin stuffed toy that was standing in front of the blocks. The toy’s balance was gone, causing it to fall onto the ground as a sign the enemy’s disturbance was no longer present. Peace, harmony, and freedom were settled back to the small kingdom you, your child, and your husband had created.

Himmel as a father:

Himmel’s a househusband! Due to his frail body, he’s more inclined to work inside the house which he doesn’t mind. So all the cooking, cleaning, laundry is handled by him.

Househusband Himmel doesn’t really mind at all! In fact, he really enjoys it because he gets to watch over his kyut litol beybis playing around the house and spend time with them!

He knows you’re already home when he hears his babies screaming “MAMA!!”, it’s either a playful chase with his children on who gets to hug you first or he let them hug you first before he kisses you as a greeting of welcome home.

Whenever he goes to the grocery, he brings his children with him and they’re in the twin stroller. Everything is prepared; the pacifiers and two bottles of milk, and perhaps some extra diapers in case the line is too long and they need a bathroom break.

Himmel always takes a morning stroll and he also brings his babies with him so they can get that vitamin from the sunlight for them to be healthy. Don’t want them to risk being so unhealthy when they grow up now do we?

Maybe after the stroll, he stops in a nearby park to rest, maybe even allowing them to have some fun as long as they’re in his sight. Himmel will start planning on having a picnic time as family bonding on weekends so you can also take a break as well as you can get in touch with your own kids

While at home, carrying his two kids in his arms is no biggie for him. He can even multitask with it, though he prefers if they are in the crib just in case he doesn’t accidentally step on some toys and slip while carrying them.

He loves holding them and carrying them with him after he finishes the household chores! He’ll play with them, shower them with kisses, keep on telling them how much papa loves them and how he’s so happy they’re part of his life. When they run out of milk, he has to take the new supply you’ve readied in the refrigerator.

The babies will crawl up to him, stretching out their short arms towards their father because they wanted to be carried. Himmel chuckles then picks them up before making their drink. He hums a song while warming the milk and leaves small kisses on their head and nuzzles his nose against it as he waits

His little ball of sunshine is full of energy so he can be quick to get exhausted, but he’s trying his best to stay awake to make sure nothing dangerous happens to them. he lets them crawl up to him and play with his hair and when they also get sleepy and clings to him, it brings a smile to his face and holds them close to his chest protectively before laying them back down in the crib

Himmel may have taught them many things, from a simple reading, talking/cooing, walking, and maybe even singing. He has bought many things that can help them like rattles, squeeze toys, picture books, and also some stuffed toys they can play with.

Over the months, he’ll buy different toys for them so they can start the process of learning simple stuff like ABC blocks and even more plushies.

His kids love it when he sings or reads them a bedtime story. If you’re free, you and Himmel will reenact the story to maybe entertain them, and oh their cute little smiles and giggles tug their parents’ hearts.

Once they reach the age of three, Himmel is so excited for them that they can meet new friends. It’s the start of their preschool and he prepared everything. Now he’s the type of father who’ll take a picture of them every single year and some memorable moments to be added in the album

After school, he’s there to pick them up with you. All the mothers were gawking when he was standing near the door and looking for his cute babies. Perhaps he’s a brother to pick his siblings up?

Lol nope

Their jaws dropped when they heard a scream of papa from the running children. He opened his arms and caught them easily as they jumped at him for a hug. The mothers/guardians can’t believe Himmel's a father. Such a youthful face he has and having two children?!

He gives them a kiss on their forehead and asks how their day went. When he told them that mama was waiting outside, the twins immediately left their father’s side and ran out of the school to see you there smiling and waving.

“Mama!! Look, look, my teacher gave me a stamp that I did well!”

“I have five stars on my booklet!!”

Your eyes sparkled at their wonderful achievements and patted their head. Himmel stood next to you and smiled, admiring the wonderful warm feeling in his heart to see this growing family.

Kneeling before one of his kids, he whispered something next to them causing them to gasp out and looked at you with big curious eyes.

“I’m going to be a big sister/brother?!!”

You look at your husband with an astonished face and pout before playfully shoving his shoulder.

“That was supposed to be a surprise!” You whined. Himmel laughed and pecked your lips, whispering “I can’t help it,” before taking the hands of his child then yours. You take the other twin’s small hand and walked side-by-side with your husband and children back home

#anon ask #ellianswers #genshin impact x reader #venti x reader #himmel x reader #domestic genshin #elliwrites #genshin impact

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444tsumu · 3 years

Note

HAPPY 100 MARS!!!/&/&: AHHH! okay so i’d love a tier three if you didn’t mind! i wanted to know which 3 characters would smoke ouid and what you think smoking with them would be like? ily tysm!

▭ WHICH CHARACTERS SMOKE WEED?

includes matsukawa, hanamaki, suna

warnings drug use, explicit content, doing things under the influence, implied sexual content, slight nsfw.

authors note lol ik some people don’t like the whole “w*ed” and dr*g use hc but it’s all fiction and based on my own personal opinion (: i don’t mean to offend anyone lol i smoke too <3

This is a long one, beware <3 also it’s also my dream blunt rotation LMAO

𖥻 MATSUKAWA, ISSEI !

definitely the philosophical stoner

always has a question or an answer

depends on how much he’s smoked though

eyes get really red and he looks really hot

prefers backwoods over regular papers

always smoked regular papers though bc woods are bad for you (:

does that thing where they lick the paper and look at you at the same time

the hottest man smoking ever god please

always makes sure to have you sitting on his left so that he passes it to you first

loves smoking people out

doesn’t really care if you put in money or not

if issei is around, everyone is getting high

smokes makki’s unemployed ass out like everyday lmao

loves to hotbox

lights you up for the first time and tries to get you into another galaxy

“if you’re gonna get high, at least do it right”

definitely funny as fuck when he’s high

always definitely ready to fuck

very touchy when he’s high

will hold on to you for a long time and forget he’s doing it

but if you make him let go he genuinely feels the skin contact nearly rip off

calm down mattsun your possessiveness is showing

tries to explain all the different types to you but forgets mid sentence

literally cannot formulate a single structured thought

definitely leans in to make out with you more than once

loves shotgunning with you

already lazy but when he’s zooted he’s UNBEARABLE

he really does wanna fuck but ends up smoking too much with you because you played chicago and forgot

doesn’t really get hungry for food but munchies?

ate all of the snacks

has no remorse for his actions either

stares into the deep nothing for like 10 minutes

just to snap out of it and look around suspiciously

“do you guys hear that….?”

“…..no?”

“………..the paint is screaming at me?”

ok buddy don’t ruin this for everyone else

knows how to french & ghost inhale

has argued with makki many times over the earth being flat

doesn’t really think it’s flat

ends up believing it is after makki told him the world was actually dome shaped

has a grinder shaped like a dragon ball

not a peer pressuring kinda guy but thinks everyone should get high at least once

definitely gets iwa and oikawa to try

loves getting oikawa high cause he thinks the guy is fucking hilarious

laughs at everything

just a great guy, especially when he starts smoking

falls into a weed coma and doesn’t wake up for like 3 days though

treats it like it’s a regular hangover

definitely falls asleep with his entire body on top of you and no remorse for the weight

says “i’m fried” and isn’t embarrassed about it for whatever reason

he’s hot so no one judges him

𖥻 HANAMAKI, TAKAHIRO !

definitely a comedian when he’s high

always the funniest guy in the room

when him and mattsun are together though?

undefeated

him and issei both smoked for the first time together

after that though?

they became unstoppable

don’t get me started with after volleyball season ended

prefers bongs because he thinks he looks cooler lmao

everyone assumes makki is high but they don’t know he actually gets high

offers to smoke you out cause you’re hot lmao

makes fun of you when you cough

even though he still coughs

hates hotboxing because he can’t handle it

but refuses to pussy out so he’s always the first one to agree

in his own words

“my mother didn’t raise no bitch”

makki please

ideal smoking partner

is one of those people that fuck the passing rotation up because he refuses to pass it to anyone but you

secretly does it because he doesn’t want anyone else’s lips touching yours

prefers to smoke with just his close friends but doesn’t mind a session

doesn’t like shotgunning cause he starts thinking his breath smells bad

gives in anyways because he doesn’t want you doing it with anyone else

loves when you put your legs on him

the pressure gives him chills

makes jokes 24/7 because he likes hearing you laugh

can’t french inhale but mattsun taught him how to ghost inhale and he hasn’t stopped since

takes videos of himself cause he thinks he looks cool

realizes he looks like a fucking idiot but fuck it we ball

falls into a weed coma with his head on your lap and his phone unlocked and still on

does that thing where he lights it up with it in his mouth and looks really fucking hot while doing so

has a breaking bad rick & morty rolling tray and is really proud of it

gets really into music when he’s high

will sing along to all the songs while he’s packing the bong

as i repeat

looks hot while doing so

definitely a hungry high

orders food before you even get to ask

“makki, want some snacks?”

“oh nah it’s cool, i already ordered mcdonald’s”

“????? we just finished smoking????”

prefers smoking over drinking but will do both when he wants to go big or go home

eyes get really low

talks kinda slow but really deep and it’s fucking hot

laughs by throwing his head back and it’s really cute

gets cold when he’s high

it doesn’t matter the season

he gets fucking cold and it makes no sense

so he’ll need your body heat to warm himself up (;

𖥻 SUNA, RINTAROU !

a confused high

no doubt about it

this man never knows what the fuck is going on

ik everyone complains about the stoner!suna hc

but i think it’s fucking hot lmao

always has like 2 blunts rolled and on him at all times

is one of those people that will use any excuse to do it

“……(sighs) i’m gonna go take a smoke break.”

“suna we just got here??”

“exactly”

likes joints and edibles the best

not much of a hungry high or munchie high

but he hyperfixates on a certain food and will eat it until there is nothing left

ate an entire pack of gum in one sitting before

definitely watches cartoons the minute he starts to feel the buzz

rarely talks unless to pass it to you or make a single joke that has you about to pee yourself

he doesn’t say much but when he does?

the man leaves an impact

hates smoking with other people

doesn’t like when they fuck his blunt/joint up

hates smoking joints rolled by other people unless he watches them do it

always complains when you ask to smoke with him but secretly loves it

shotguns with you and acts like nothing just happened

hello sir how dare you make me fall inlove like that

forgets everything so don’t try to say anything important to him

zones out because he’s too busy imagining fucking

but then forgets about fucking and starts thinking about what’s on the tv

can’t hold a conversation but will go in-depth as to why spongebob squarepants was more than just a sponge

“no you need to listen to me, patrick star is much more than just his best friend—”

“….rin what the fuck are you talking about?”

“you’re asking me like i know? pass the blunt.”

definitely got into smoking in high school but didn’t actually do it like that until college

lies on his drug tests lmao

smokes after every win as a celebration and smokes after ever loss as a reliever

lmao seek help sir

definitely tries to get you to take your shirt off when he’s in the moment

swears it’s because he’s doing you a favor but really just loves how you look in his clothes when he’s high

doesn’t really know when to stop because he’s never greened out before

all his supplies is a simple shade of black

he’s a simple man

can do all the smoke tricks

but won’t do it in front of anyone cause he hates when people point it out

likes hotboxing because it gets him higher faster

is actually friends with the guy he gets weed from lmao

his perfect date with you was that one time you guys stood home and did nothing but smoke and watch family guy

tears up every time he thinks about it

has a picture of himself with two blunts in his mouth and his eyes really red and it’s really fucking hot

giggles even though he tries not to

uses pens when he can’t physically have weed on him

doesn’t really like it because the pen high makes him knock out after a few pulls

once rin falls into a weed coma???

don’t even think about trying to contact him cause that man might as well be dead

doesn’t wake up to save his own damn life

you can smack him and the most he’d do is probably groan and turn his head lmao

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pokemonswshfics · 4 years

Text

hello friend! :D i had accidentally posted this draft of it before i was finished, that's why the message of the request is a screenshot, so sorry for the slight wait :"D have a good read! + (i didn't really know what speaking up meant , so it's slightly different for each in terms of "speaking up" hehe i hope you all enjoy 💛)

// because of how long this post might be, I'm gonna leave the read more button right here before all of them. they're sfw but I wouldn't wanna clog up anyone's tl :'D k byee ^-^

Raihan/Kabu/Piers × Shy Male! Reader (Sfw)

Raihan × Shy Male!Reader // S/O (Sfw { mild cursing })

You stood outside Hammerlocke stadium waiting for your boyfriend as he said to meet you there. You had on his jacket, with the hood up because of how many people were around. This didn't stop reporters and fangirls from coming up to you, all bombarding you with questions.

You simply pulled the hood down and shoved your hands into the pocket. It wasn't that you were trying to be rude, you just preferred the attention be on someone else. Literally anyone else.

"How does it feel to be Raihan's first public boyfriend?"

"Hey! Look up here for a quick photo, it wont hurtcha. You're already so cute from what we've seen!"

"Do you love him?"

"Are you gonna stay under there?"

If it was up to you, you would stay in your boyfriend's clothes forever. It was a perfect hiding spot.

"I-I would prefer..not to answer." You stuttered out quietly and stepped closer to the gym doors. The attention got overwhelming at times but you would do this forever if it meant being with Raihan. He was worth it.

"What's annoying about Raihan? Isn't it tiring, that he puts his whole life on the internet?"

You scowled a little and pulled your hood down farther. "I think it's cute." You said under your breath.

"Don't you wish he was champion instead? He always fails at beating Leon!"

"What?" You said softly and lifted your head up a little, but not enough to be seen. The people surrounding you only saw this as invitation to ask more.

"Isn't he a little full of himself when it comes to battles? You can answer us!" Someone said excitedly and shoved a microphone towards you.

"Fine, take this for an answer." You almost snatched the microphone from their hand and frowned at them. "No, I do not find Raihan annoying. I'm very proud of him for even having a gym in the first place. He doesn't need to be Champion to be accomplished! Who the hell are you guys to even be asking stuff so rude? Are YOU Champion?"

Your hood fell back to your shoulders by the time you were done talking. Instantly, camera flashes hit your eyes and you tried to cover your face with your sleeves. You were still beyond angry, and it only increased as you heard the people begin talking again.

"Aw, so cute!"

"Are you really dating Raihan?"

"Raihan got lucky!"

You clenched your fists and dropped the mic you had snatched to your feet.

Then you lunged at a reporter.

Two women screamed, one yelped because of the sudden action and right before you actually touched the man you were going to attack..

"Hey." You felt a pair of strong arms pick you up and throw you over their shoulder. You were met with a back side that had a dark navy shirt on, and navy gym shorts. The Dragon Type uniform.

"Calm down, Tyrogue headass.." Raihan chuckled and you blushed at the familiar teasing. You could hear squeals from the crowd, the same one you would have attacked with your bare hands had it not been for Raihan coming at the last second.

"Put me down! Put me down! Put me down!" You said quickly and began waving your fists in protest. "They weren't being nice about you!"

"Not worth your time, babe. Thanks for keeping him occupied." You could practically hear the grin in Raihan's voice as he began to turn back to the doors of his gym to carry you in. You faced the reporters again and now looked up at them with a scowl. Their faces were all in awe at Raihan carrying you. Some continued taking pictures.

"Oouu let him put me down and I'll- do not very nice things!" You growled quietly and shook one of your fists at them.

"Baby, calm down." Raihan giggled from above you as he even paused for photos a few times just to frustrate you playfully. You pulled the hood further down your head, still cursing reporters as your boyfriend carried you past them.

***

Kabu × Shy Male! Reader (Sfw)

At almost all times you were sitting or standing next to Kabu. It wasn't that you didn't like the rest of the gym leaders, it was just something you did for comfort.

You were in a meeting with the rest of the Gym leaders, sometimes you tagged along with Kabu when invited. The other gym leaders didn't mind, they were the ones inviting you sometimes.

Right now they were discussing new ways to (as Raihan said it) "spice up" their gym missions. Kabu wasn't on board and it showed.

"Come on, you guys think challengers might not get bored of the same thing every year?" Raihan sighed and sat back in his chair. "Same old thing, I'd be bored out of my mind."

"Good thing you aren't a challenger then." Kabu replied, crossing his arms. His irritation showed to you and you nudged his knee with your own under the table lightly. "Our gyms will be led how we would like, and I like mine. I'm keeping it the way it is."

"Come on, no need to get mad." Raihan chimed back and half smiled. "Either all of us or none."

"I'm keeping mine how it is, I've done too much for it since Opal gave me the gym." Bede remarked.

"Come on, Bede..you're the newest of us, take some advice! Change it up a little." Nessa said and sat up.

"I'll k-keep..mine." Allister stammered out and looked down to the table.

"I'd like to change mine." His older sister, Bea smiled widely and pumped one of her fists up. Raihan high fived her, attempting to now convince Milo and Melony to change theirs.

Kabu's eyes furrowed then he looked towards you, smiling with tired eyes. He playfully rolled his eyes while nodding to the other gym leaders. You giggled quietly in answer.

"Come on Kabu, lighten up. Keep up with the times!" Gordie practically whined out. Kabu tensed up once again, and you could feel his anger rising once more.

"Don't tell me what to do. My gym, my rules." Kabu stood and looked around now with a frown. If provoked, his temper could easily appear. You looked to the other gym leaders, Allister (even with a mask, you could tell) was nervous because of how Kabu could get.

"Ugh. They're just ideas-" Bede groaned sassily.

"They're stupid ones!" Kabu slammed one of his now balled up fists onto the table you all sat at. The gym leaders were used to his hot headed self, so it didn't bother them and they never planned on telling him anything like "calm down", or "be nice."

"Kabs." You stood up, still slightly avoiding eye contact with the rest of them and grabbed his elbow softly. "Calm down, they were just trying to give some advice." The other gym leaders now all looked at you, some with slightly widened eyes.

Kabu’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink, you could feel the tension in his body go away as you began to rub his arm. He turned toward you and the anger in his eyes was gone, now replaced by warmth when you looked into them. Raihan smirked from the other side of the table.

Kabu grumbled something then sat down, his face burning up. “I-Yeah. He’s right. I suppose I should calm down, you all are just trying to help me. I apologize for calling your ideas stupid.” He crossed his arms and avoided eye contact. You followed and sat back down with him, then looked up and realized all the gym leaders were now staring at you, either with shocked faces or grins.

“I’m so sorry if I interrupted your meeting- I just wanted Kabs to calm down and-” You could now feel your cheeks begin to darken with embarrassment and you hid your face in your hands, not even wanting to finish your own sentence.

“Why are you apologizing? You got Kabsy here to calm down, something none of us could do. And you did it without thinking he might take out a Pokemon and burn you alive or something.” Raihan chuckled and turned to Kabu, with his chin being held up by his palms. “You got a soft spot?”

Your boyfriend scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Let’s just get on with the meeting, I don’t have time to-”

“For me he does.” You teased softly and took one of Kabu’s hands in your own. This only caused the red in his cheeks to return and for him to hide his face in one hand, groaning.

“You should come to meetings more often, dear!” Melony practically squealed out, Nessa nodding in agreement.

Raihan laughed loudly then looked towards you. “No, seriously. Calm your man down sometimes.” He grinned.

“Let’s get on with it!” Kabu said loudly and waved his free hand in the air but was still looking away from everyone to avoid his blush being visible. He didn’t take his hand from you though, now he intertwined your fingers. You smiled a little more at the action and squeezed his hand in return.

“Alright, Alright...” Raihan bit his lip and reached down under the table only to pull out a folder with a playful squeal.

“Let’s change our uniforms!!” There were chuckles throughout the table of people, and you began to feel more comfortable with all of them, simply by holding Kabu’s hand. He turned his head toward you and smiled a little, as to not make it obvious to the rest of them.

You giggled again and prepared to listen to Raihan’s bright idea of changing the uniforms with Kabu already groaning when he realized what the younger gym leader had said.

***

Piers × Shy Male! Reader (Sfw {mild cursing})

You sat on a wooden crate besides Marnie, your boyfriend's little sister. You two were listening to him sing to a crowd of Team Yell members and other people from different towns.

The silence with Marnie was usual and comfortable.

"Look at my bro go. Always had it in him, singing." She said quietly and leaned slightly towards you so you would hear over the music.

You nodded and smiled a little. Your eyes couldn't come off Piers, you loved watching him sing. You put your knees up to your chin, and rested your arms crossed on them so they would hide your grin and pink cheeks.

"Still not much of a talker?"

"Oh! Uh, yeah- I like talking." You practically whispered. "Sorry, not really-"

"Hey. It's fine. Piers already told me you aren't that out there. I don't mind some silence." Marnie replied with a nicer tone now, since she meant it.

"Thanks." You quietly replied and looked back to the stage before you heard her speak again.

"What do you see in Piers? You can tell me, I'm not the judging type."

"What do I..see in him?"

"Mhm."

You looked to the stage again and watched Piers interact with the crowd. Your grin widened, you almost never see him smile as much as he did on stage unless he was alone with you.

"I see..a sweet guy. He looks all mean and hard but he's really the most gentle guy I know. He has this smile that drives me wild and.." You took your arms away from your face to talk more clear.

"And? Come on, don't be shy." Marnie encouraged and nudged you with her elbow.

"He's real funny. Piers makes me happy when I'm having a really bad day, he's got this thing to him that I can't stop wanting." You could feel your cheeks turning a light shade of red, and you cursed how easy it was for you to blush.

Piers looked towards you and Marnie and winked at you. Some people in the crowd cheered at the action, a few swooned excitedly. You buried your face in your hands and could hear Marnie laugh a little.

"A-Anyways..he doesn't let anything in his past or present get to him. His music..his music! It's so impressive. He's a singing gym leader. The way he manages both..I just-!" You dropped your knees from your face and squealed. "It's Piers!"

Marnie laughed a little at your excitement. "Anything else?"

"He's..SO cute. Gosh, I can't get over it. We've been together for a while and he still makes me all giddy and warm inside when he smiles or- does shit like that!" You spoke about his playful wink, and you stood up on the crate, not even caring about your fear of crowds anymore. "And I love it!"

The crowd was still practically screaming as the song ended. You cupped one of your hands around your mouth, waving the other at Piers frantically.

"Come on Piers! Give us MORE!!" You shouted out while grinning and quickly caught his and some fans' attention. You locked eyes with him, and made a motion to usher him for another song.

He raised his hand to the crowd to quiet them down then spoke. "Alright, hey. Glad you guys are enjoying the show. It was supposed to stop now but, how am I gonna end this when I got my sweetheart over there asking for more?" Piers nodded to you, causing multiple Team Yell members to turn your way, smiling.

You immediately sat back down on the crate next to Marnie and hid your face. "No.." You protested quietly against his teasing. He knew you never liked the acknowledgement, he just liked making you blush.

"So, Team Yell. I want you to be as loud as you can, this next one is for my cutie. Love ya." Piers adjusted the mic as Team Yell began what they did best again: cheering. They turned quickly back to the stage and you peeked up at Piers.

Your eyes' focus never left him, and you listened intently to his voice. A relaxed sigh left you as you felt yourself being caught up in the music. You and Piers continued to make eye contact throughout the rest of the show, as if no one else was there. The moment was like a trance and neither of you were really looking to get out of it.

***

thank you for reading ! requests always open! just might be a slight wait 💕 - 🥝

#pokemon #pokemon shield #gym leaders #pokemon gym leader #pokemon swsh #pokemon kabu #raihan pokemon #piers pokemon #raihan x reader #piers x reader #kabu x reader #reader inserts #oneshot #pokemon fanfiction

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doubleddenden · 2 years

Text

i have watched so many movies lately that i cannot really hope to begin a full review for them for the two people that bother reading them

so instead here's a bunch of short ones. Personal opinions, don't @ me. this is not meant to be taken too seriously. i just like to record my thoughts for later viewing down the road and maybe give a little nudge for friends to watch something i'm watching.

Belle (anime movie):

Beautiful in concept, a little shaky in execution, the ending felt a little too open, but it does give a decent amount of food for thought towards the perception of others, ourselves, internet culture, and society at large. This is also sort of the third in the unofficial trilogy of Mamoru Hasoda reinventing the internet, with the first two being the Digimon Movie (specifically Our War Game) and Summer Wars. 10/10 singing though and 10/10 art direction, 7/10 plot though. Verdict: Watch it, but don't expect to be completely satisfied, and try not to fall too deep into tropes. Do be careful with it as it does have somewhat triggering bits for certain people.

Lupin III the First the Movie:

I was afraid the 3d would ruin it, but it's actually very fun, super stylistic, and I think a fun homage to both Lupin III and Indiana Jones movies and the like. The hyper realistic backgrounds and semi hyper realistic but still cartoonish characters actually work really well, and the action- dare I say- is actually better than the anime. Its not entirely perfect, but its fun enough. I think the only thing it suffers from is that plot sort of happens in convenience to the characters- typical Lupin style though. Still fun, and I actually think it's better than a lot of the Lupin content I've seen in a long wile. 8/10, Jigen is hot in this one wtf

Dragon Ball Super Super Hero:

The movie itself is kinda eh and the 3d looks like a cheaper ArcSys cutscene, but there is heart and fun moments in the movie. Just don't go in expecting 10/10 story telling because the plot is an easy 6. The fights are pretty neat though, the new stuff is cool, and timeline placement is unique for the series. Anything more would spoil things, but its actually pretty funny in unexpected ways. 7/10 Piccolo is the best Uncle Dadpa

One Piece Film Z:

Really fun, and the writing and character design is very consistent with the series as I've been watching so far (i'm keeping up with the Toonami broadcast). Fight scenes are great, art is great, and the rest is about what you expect from One Piece- the added benefit is that the arc is condensed into a movie and doesn't take 5 years to finish. 8/10, Robin rocks hot pants.

One Piece Strong World:

Somehow this movie has even BETTER art direction and world building than Z, and the fight scenes are gorgeous. The plot is kinda eh but I was too distracted by cool monsters and explosions. It's got the art direction of an actual One Piece arc characterwise but the plot of a decent filler arc in a generic anime. I think it might have been better as a game tbh. 8/10 Nami rocks the booty shorts

Blue Exorcist The Movie:

I never really got far in the anime because I couldn't really stand the glasses brother and his buzz kill kind of holier than thou personality, but the world design is still fucking gorgeous, and the movie character Usamaro is adorable. It lacks traditional shounen fight scenes for the most part but makes up for it with chaotic fights against gigantic demons and some pleasant fun bonding time with a little demon boy. What I hate is that the higher ups frame all the good that's done as bad because it inconveniences them in the slightest despite the people Ren and his friend with thick thighs help by just doing the right thing. But the city looks cozy, the food delicious, and the friends kinda wholesome. 7/10, not bad, kinda wanna watch the anime, I just want Usamaro to be happy

I do recommend each of these just for fun. Obviously I'm missing context for some of the anime movies but I'm just here to be entertained, not think too hard

if you have movies you think i'd like, gimme suggestions. I'd prefer something anime based and I'm not really looking for anything too gorey, scary, or the like. I like comedies, shounen type stuff, action, adventure, that kind of stuff.

and again, this is just for fun

#den reviews stuff #one piece #one piece film z #one piece strong world #blue exorcist #blue exorcist the movie #belle #belle movie #dragon ball super #dragon ball super super hero #lupin the third the first #lupin iii the first #lupin iii

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soyeahitsmiddleearth · 5 years

Text

One Weary Human

The Company x Reader

All of the company is drunk. The twist? None of them act the way you’d expect, like at all. Shy Bilbo is all flirty, chill Bofur keeps wanting to start bar fights, Kili/Fili try to be philosophical, Dwalin is the “You’re my best friend. I just love you so much, man,” type of guy, and Thorin is actually FUN and FUNNY. The reader is just sitting there feeling like she’s legitimately in the fucking Twilight Zone ---middleearth2asgard

---

You knew you should've stopped them from drinking all that ale.

Over and over again you thought to yourself that this night won't end well if you don't put a cap on their drinking, but each time you came close to interfering you kinda just decided that letting them have fun is better.

I mean, they've earned it so why not let them enjoy their first night out of danger after all those awful things that happened? Dragons, trolls, orcs, near-death experiences, a war, thousands of horrible things and one night to unwind and be happy. You can't very well take that away from them.

But you really should've.

By the time they polished off the first half of the barrel of ale they are completely wasted, and it's hard to keep track of them amidst the sea of men, other dwarves, and elves who survived the battle.

Well, maybe not wasted since they can still talk and walk around sort of well, but they're definitely inebriated.

You had maybe a quarter mug of drink before you realized they'll need someone to watch over them, so after that you gave up and decided to make sure none of them do anything stupid (also, ale tastes horrible so you don't wanna finish it).

Which, to some extent, they do.

Act stupid, I mean.

It's just the complete opposite of who you thought it would be.

You honestly thought that your biggest issue would be Fili and Kili, and probably Dwalin, but as it turns out they aren't even close to being a problem.

As it turns out, your biggest issue at the moment happens to be Bofur, Bilbo, and Ori.

Bofur is, quite literally, trying to start a fight with everybody. Bilbo won't leave you alone, and flirting with you so shamelessly. And Ori... won't stop crying no matter what you do.

For the life of you, you don't know what to do.

Every time you tell Bofur to calm down he tells you to square up (more or less), when you try to console Ori he cries even harder, and Bilbo... he has pickup lines for days.

"Bofur! For the last time, sit down and stop glaring at everyone!" You snap, grabbing the back of his shirt when he starts yelling at someone for 'looking at him funny' while also patting the back of Ori's head comfortingly.

"E-Everyone is so mean to me..." Ori sniffles and sobs, reaching up to grab onto your hand, using it to wipe his tears away like a tissue.

You cringe but let the young dwarf do it since he's sobbing so much, and when he releases you, you turn to Bofur.

"Stop tellin' me what to do!" He shoots back angrily, though he doesn't fight you when you force him to take a seat. "Damn woman..."

"Bilbo, please keep an eye on these two while I find everyone else." You tell the small hobbit making heart eyes at you.

"Surely, my dear, you would much rather stay with me?"

You kinda just stare at him for a moment before slowly saying, "Do as I say."

He doesn't reply to that and takes a seat, listening to you surprisingly enough.

Once that's done you slide off your chair and try to find everyone else, noticing Thorin right away since he's... doing stand up comedy?

He's standing on a table and the group that's gathered around him is laughing their asses off, telling him to give them more jokes which shocks you to your very core. This mans is the complete opposite of funny and chill.

"And then I told him that no pretty pixie of an elf will talk to me like that!"

The crowd around him roars with laughter and applause, and while you didn't hear the first part of his 'joke' it still doesn't humor you.

You fight your way through the countless bodies and finally get to the table, cupping your hands over your mouth so he can hear you when you yell, "Thorin! It's time to go!"

"Y/N! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Thorin calls happily, successfully putting the attention onto you. "I've lost my nephews! Have you seen them by any chance?"

Why is he asking you???

You shake your head slowly and reply, "No, why would I know where they are?"

"Well, you certainly seem to know the whereabouts of their tongues quite well!" He calls with loud boisterous laughter while everyone around proceeds to find it funny too.

You kinda just stand there for a moment, looking up at him blankly before your face begins to grow hot.

Okay, you know what? No, you're not dealing with this right now.

Very slowly you begin to back away, trying to both avoid eye contact with everyone and also trying to keep yourself from blowing up on the new king.

Where did he get such an idea from anyway? Freaking dummy.

"There she goes, off to another royal snogging!"

More laughter, but you're disappeared and gone before anyone can poke anymore fun at you for something that most certainly did not happen.

The next person you find, coincidentally, is the princes, and you're pleased to see them sitting mellowly at a table and having a conversation.

"There you boys are! Thank god you're not drunk, if you could please help me to gather-" and then you hear their conversation and horribly slurred speech.

"No, I'm tellin' ya, Fee, there's no way lovin' is easier than being loved. It jus' doesn' make sense." Kili tells his brother while shaking his head.

"Of course it does! When ya love then ya don' have t' worry about your own feelin' anymore, 'cause then you already know."

Are these two really discussing the complexity of loving versus being loved?

"An' how would you know that?" Kili asks, shaking his head back in fourth a bit too much to show his disagreement.

"Tha's none of your busn'ess." He slurs back, pointing a finger at him accusingly.

"How can we even be sure that it's real in tha first place?"

"Are you sayin' you don't love me?" Fili challenges.

Kili freaks out and shakes his head, "N-No no! Of course I do!"

"You better, 'm your brother." Fili grumbles, turning his head until he notices you, "Oh! Y/N!"

You're quiet for a moment, kinda just looking at them oddly since their conversation both makes no sense, but also makes all the sense.

They take your silence as a go ahead to continue their 'discussion' and Fili then brings up, "Well wha' about Y/N?"

"What about her?" Kili asks back, laying his head down on the table after a moment.

"Nnoo, 'm askin' her."

"You didn't ask me anything." You chime in, reaching over to take their mugs from them. "You two are making no sense."

"Wellll, I think she would rather be loved since it doesn' make sense tha' loving is easier." Kili grumbles, trying to reinforce his point through you.

"I don't think it really matters at the moment, boys. Why don't you both come with me and we can all take a nap and sleep off our drunkenness..."

"No! It does matter!" They both yell at the same time, successfully earning a sigh from you.

"But-"

"Y/N!" Someone calls excitedly suddenly.

You turn your head slowly, but before you can put a face to the voice, someone it crushing you in a big hug.

"Have I told you that you're an excellent woman?" The person crushing the life out of you asks, and it's at that moment that you realize it's... Dwalin.

"U-Uh, no, not really-"

"Well, that's a shame! You're wonderful." He confirms with a quiet hiccup, holding you slightly tighter when you start to squirm.

"Alright, thank you Dwalin but if you could please-"

"See! My point is proven." Fili slurs triumphantly, pointing at you and Dwalin. "He's havin' a ball, nd' she's freakin' out!"

"That h-haaas nothing to do with love, Fee!" Kili grumps back, smacking Fili on the shoulder harshly.

"Hey! Who do you think yer lookin' at!?" An all to familiar, standoffish voice bellows to your left.

You turn your head and see Bofur trying to get some huge dude to throw some punches, and then you hear more jokes from Thorin across the room, Ori's wails, and Bilbo flirting with some other person.

Mahal save your soul.

"You three." You call suddenly, gaining the attention of Dwalin, Fili, and Kili (the three you thought you would be having the most problems with). "Whoever gathers the most of our friends outside gets a big prize."

Kili gasps and asks, "A big prize?"

"The biggest prize." You confirm, feeling relieved when Dwalin lets you go.

"What is the prize?" Dwalin asks, looking at you with a very uncharacteristic grin on his face.

"I can't tell you, it's a secret until one of you wins."

"Oh, I'm gonna get more than you two!" Fili calls, struggling to get up from his seat before Kili, the two pushing and shoving each other while they fight to stand.

"No fighting or you are disqualified." You warn, wagging a finger at them.

Thank god they listen.

---

You manage to gather the original three (Ori, Bilbo, and Bofur) and Nori, and get them outside of the party hall, trying your best to calm Bofur and Ori while Bilbo keeps on calling you beautiful and complimenting you.

Eventually, Dwalin walks out with two dwarves. Balin (who is sober, thank god) and Dori.

The next person to show up is Kili, and he has Bombur and Gloin.

Finally, Fili emerges from the hall and managed to swipe Oin and Bifir.

You smile at them brightly before you realize you're one short, "Where's Thorin?"

Fili sighs and answers, "I tried ta get 'im but he made fun of me until I left."

That sounds about right.

"I tried, too! But he kep' callin' me names." Dwalin grumbles while Kili nods.

"Yea-h, he kep' pokin' fun at my beard." Kili agrees, looking at the two he gathered, "Who won?"

"None of you, it's a tie." You reply, shaking your head.

A part of you is glad, actually that they all have the same amount, because you have no idea what the supposed 'big prize' is supposed to be. "I'll have to find a way to get Thorin, I guess..." You state wearily, already growing tired of their shenanigans.

" 'm sorry." The three you assigned to help you say sadly, looking at you with big upset eyes.

"N-No, it's fine! Just, keep everyone out here, okay? I'll be right back."

---

Suffice to say you were not 'right back' at all.

The moment you walked back up to Thorin he started making more jokes about you 'being with' different people in the original company, and very quickly does your patience wear thin.

At some point you just lose it and end up grabbing his ear and dragging him out of the party hall while people boo at you for being a fun killer.

Once you've successfully made him leave, you push him out the doors and do a quick headcount to make sure everyone is still there.

You take them all to a private wing where they all have their rooms in as well as a private kitchen Bombur introduced you to.

"Okay, good. Now that we're all gathered up in one place... Come with me to the kitchen. Lets eat a bit and have some water, okay?"

"Is there more ale?" Dwalin asks with the same smile.

"No!" You snap a bit angrier than you mean to, "No more alcohol for any of you."

That successfully shuts them up.

Once everyone is seated at the table in the newly stocked kitchen, you go through the cupboards and collect some berries and bread, bringing them over to the table so they can get something in their stomachs to absorb all that alcohol.

You give them all some chunks of bread and leave a handful or two for everyone (more for the bigger of them), then you walk off to get some water. Balin helps you out with it all (being as he's barely even tipsy), and eventually everyone has water and some food.

It doesn't take long for everything to disappear into their stomachs, and once they've done as you instructed you start to help some of them to their individual rooms.

Nori and Dori drag Ori to the room they share, Balin takes care of Dwalin, Bombur excuses himself and thanks you heartily, but you have to take care of everyone else unfortunately.

First, you deal with Bifir, Oin, and Gloin, which isn't too hard luckily.

Bifir says something you can't understand and gives you a hug before going off to bed, and Oin thanks you tiredly before closing his door. Gloin smiles at you, being less drunk then those left behind, and thanks you as well before heading off to sleep.

Now you're left with Bilbo, Thorin, Fili and Kili, and, finally, Bofur.

When you reenter the kitchen, Thorin is laughing about something he said no doubt, and Bofur is glaring at him so angrily you're afraid he might actually hit him.

"B-Bofur!" You call, running over to stand between them before wrapping your arm around his waist when he starts to wobble and walk towards Thorin.

Right away he stops and leans into you, still glaring at Thorin while he wraps an arm around you in return, "Wha' is it?"

"Come along, I'm going to take you to your room for bed. You too, Bilbo, come here."

Bilbo has no problem walking over to you (though he does sway a bit) and stands next to you while you begin to take Bofur out of the room. "That's a good boy, come on." You usher them both out and, eventually, manage to get Bofur to his room so he can sleep it off.

You shuffle him to his bed, and once he's seated you tell him to take off his shoes. While he does that, you swipe his hat and lay it on the bedside table, pulling his blanket back so he can lay down.

Once he climbs in, you pull the covers up over him and pat his head, "There you are. Go ahead and sleep for me, dear, cause you're going to feel dreadful in the morning."

He closes his eyes while grumbling something about being told what to do, of course he listens nonetheless and doesn't move or say anything else.

You lean down and kiss his forehead lightly, then turn and leave the room.

The door thumps softly when you shut it, and then you grab Bilbo's arm and walk with him to his room.

"You're simply stunning in this light, Y/N." Bilbo tells you, wrapping an arm around you despite being able to walk fine. "Completely breathtaking."

"Thank you, Bilbo. Though, you're going to be mortified tomorrow. I can imagine you'll be begging for forgiveness within an hour of waking up." You comment, opening up his door so you can take him to his bed.

"W-"

"Not a word." You cut him off quickly, knowing that he's going to say something very not appropriate, for both your sake and his.

He climbs into bed without further coaxing, though you do have to take off his coat for him and fluff up his pillow a bit, but once he's nestled under the covers, he doesn't go to sleep.

Instead he stares at you with baggy eyes, and smiles lightly, "You look radiant."

"As you've said a few times, Bilbo. You spoil me." You lean down and press a light kiss to his forehead next, and when you stand up straight again he reaches up and taps your nose.

You giggle softly and grab his hand, placing it back at his side before walking over to the door.

"Goodnight, Bilbo."

"G'night, Y/N."

When you arrive back at the kitchen, Thorin is gone and only Fili and Kili remain, talking about another odd topic once more.

"Where did Thorin go?" You ask, looking around then back down the hall.

"His head hurt, and he went to bed." Kili replies chipperly, smiling brightly.

Well, that does make your job a fair bit easier.

"Alright. Well, boys it's time for bed so come along." You tell them in a gentle voice, gesturing for them to come to you with a wave of your hand.

Somehow they manage to get to their feet, but after they take a few steps it becomes painfully obvious that there's no way they'll be able to make it, like Bofur.

Right away you go over to Kili and have him wrap an arm around your waist, and, somehow, you manage to shuffle forward with him to his brother who is looking very unstable at the moment.

You get Fili to wrap an arm around you as well, and once you've got them both you proceed to, very slowly, shuffle your way to their room.

At some point Kili started to press his face into your neck and Fili began to lean into you more heavily. If it weren't for the fact that you had one of them on either side of you, you probably would've toppled over.

Eventually, you do manage to get them to their room, and once you do you bring them to their beds (there are two).

You have them both sit down and go to light a candle, and once that's done you turn back to see if their laid down yet. Only, their both looking down at their feet as if they expect their shoes to taken themselves off.

With a heavy sigh, you walk over to Fili and crouch down, taking off his shoes with little difficulty. "There you go, now take off your jacket and lay down."

Fili nods his head and begins to shrug off his coat, so you turn and go to Kili, pulling off his shoes next.

Once he's barefoot, you stand and smooth his hair back lightly, "You take off your coat too, okay?"

"A'right." He mumbles, doing just as you said.

You step away and take a few steps; and, once their both laying down, you go to Fili and pull his covers up to his chin.

"Do you sleep with your braids in?" You ask quietly once he's tucked in.

"N't my mustache ones..." He replies with his eyes closed.

You nod, though he can't see it, and reach down and pull the clips off, placing them on the beside table so he can grab them tomorrow morning.

Once he's settled, you lean down and press a kiss to his head, then turn and go to Kili. You're basically on a seesaw with these two, tending to one for a moment before going to the other.

Kili is sitting up with his legs under the blanket, but when you walk over he lays down completely and waits for you to give him the same treatment as his brother.

You grab the top of his comforter and pull it up until it covers most of his chest, and once that's done you reach behind his head and pull the clip from the back of his head, off. "Is there anything else?" You ask softly while placing his beaded clip down as well.

"No..."

You nod, then lean down and kiss his forehead like you've done to literally everyone else.

"Alright. Goodnight then, boys."

#the hobbit #the company of thorin oakenshield #thorin oakenshield #reader insert #reader #fili x reader #kili x reader #thorins company #bilbo #the hobbit bilbo #bilbo x reader #fili #kili #bofur x reader #bofur #dwalin #dwalin x reader #ori #originally posted on ao3

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moxfirefly · 4 years

Note

So I’m a newbie when it’s come to the anime fandom and one I though of, how would some headcanons be for the turtles being anime fans. Like what their favorite anime, do they read manga, do they have a anime crush, and bonus how would they react if their s/o is a anime fan too.

Lord I’m so hideously picky with anime like I’ve watched maybe a total of 5 lol. I know about a bunch but I don’t watch them. So with what I can work with I think I can decipher or at least attempt to explain what each lad might enjoy. (Ps: Hellsing is my all time favorite)

So let’s give this a try

I mean it feels right to make Leo the ultimate weeb lol but I just think he enjoys Japanese culture a heck ton so yeah he’s indulged in anime

I wanna say maybe he’s a fan of the classics (oldies?) like Fist of the North Star? Anything fight wise but with good fighting choreography.

Dragon Ball Z might be another he enjoys. Anything with fight tournaments in general. He’s into that shizz my dude and he probably is the type to be like “there’s no way to make that kick with breaking every bone in your leg”

Would he have an anime crush? Yeah why not but he likes it to be a lady that can hold her own. If she can fight he’s def gonna make heart eyes.

His and Raph taste are similar so I can see them bonding over a show amd watching it together. Probably always rooting for the opposites cause they gotta argue at some point who’s cooler or who’s more badass etc.

Our big boy does enjoy fighting centered anime’s but I can see him being into drama ones you know? Like a heavy drama plot based animes.

So he enjoys Death Note. Fascinated with the whole writing a name in a notebook and Bam! Dudes croaked. He wants to beat the shit out of Light Yagami (I mean who doesn’t)

Jokes that Donnie is their very own personal L.

He really gets into each cliffhanger, def yells at the tv and calls everyone a fucking moron.

I can see him also being into Cashern (I’ve seen the movie and it’s *chef kiss* but I know there’s an anime of it) that plot and futuristic setting is hella cool, he probably watches that one with Don

He so has an anime crush and it’s probably one of the Sailor Scouts from Sailor Moon (coughitsMarscough)

Evangelion and I’m dying on that hill

Yes Mech centered anime’s cause that’s his bread and butter

Gundam and Mazinger like he so would want to build one and he’s dabbled in the possibility when he’s bored, has a little blue print even if he knows it’s not doable

I can also see him being into messed up animes like the good scary ones.

Anything Junji Ito or similar that actually leaves him like “damn...” and he’s gotta watch cat videos for a few minutes to palette cleanse

More Sci-Fi based ones as well cause he loves that shit bro

Adventure based ones, and I don’t wanna say One Piece but I think he would just cause he wants to see if he can actually finish the damn thing before he’s 60 (one piece is so fucking long I can’t)

Yes Sailor Moon because pretty girls in pretty costumes kicking ass

He loves Lupin The Third, Cowboy Bepop

I can see him trying out any genre at least once . Like he’s more open about watching as many as he can if they catch his attention long enough.

I know there’s something ala Power Rangers and I don’t know what it’s called but that yeah

Pokémon probably cause he plays the damn game

Sexy animes because let’s be real this is Mikey

The man has too many anime crushes and we’ll be here all night.

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waveypedia · 4 years

Text

We Are the Lovesick Girls

Webby breathes in and out. Inhale, exhale. She closes her eyes as she reels all the air in, and opens them as she puffs it out, giggling as she watches her breath turn to fog in the cold December air.

“Look, Lena,” she says, her words peppered with stray giggles. “I’m a dragon!”

Lena sits with her feet propped up on the McDuck Manor porch, her gloved hands cradled around a cup of steaming hot chocolate. “And a very fearsome dragon you are, Pink.” Her words are dry and deadpan, but Webby’s antics make her feel as warm inside as the hot chocolate in her hands. Her smile gives her away.

Webby beams. “I’m going to ravage the town and steal you and all your gold for my hoard!”

Lena pumps a quiet fist. “I’ll be there.”

Webby laughs again. The sound is like a beautiful bell, tinkling and ringing throughout the cold winter air, and Lena doesn’t think she’s heard anything quite so pretty. Then again, she doesn’t think she’s seen anything quite as pretty as Webby.

Blushing, Lena’s attention snaps down to her cup of hot chocolate. She doesn’t dare look back up, until something cold smacks into her shoulder. “Huh? Wha?”

Webby stands in front of her, giggling, tossing a freshly-packed snowball from one hand to the other.

Lena’s surprise quickly gives way to a devious smirk. She sets down her hot chocolate carefully, but as soon as it’s out of her hands she’s up in a flash, scooping up snow and tossing it at Webby. “Oh, it’s on.”

Webby only laughs harder, her laughter infectious, and before you could say “Pink” both girls are flinging snow back and forth at each other. They sprint across the lawn, leaving footprints in the snow. Their laughter floats up through the open windows of the mansion and into the cold December air. Their cheeks are flushed pink, and if you asked, they’d say it’s from the exertion.

Lena slows to a stop ten minutes in, breathing hard, with soft, stray giggles coming between each breath. She puts her hands on her knees, her eyes on the ground, and Webby takes the moment to tuck a stray strand of hair in her hat and blush.

“Getting tired already?” Webby taunts good-naturedly, grinning.

Lena’s head snaps back up. “You wish!”

Lena’s hands light up with a hard blue glow, reflected by Webby’s friendship bracelet. (Inside the house, Violet’s bracelet lights up as well. She blinks at it for a minute before shaking her head, chuckling, and returns to her game of checkers with Huey.) The snow rises behind Lena like the tide, towering over both girls.

Webby stares back at the sheer wall of snow, undaunted. “Hey, maybe now the odds are finally fair.”

Lena chuckles. “Nah, they’re in my favor.” She makes the first move, with balls of snow flying out of the wall. Quick as a flash, Webby dodges and retaliates, and the race is back on. So is the laughter.

After a while, when both girls are thoroughly tired out and covered with snow, they finally slow down. Webby rubs her gloved hands together and tucks her hat tighter over her head. She shivers.

Lena glances down at her hands, her face resting in a thoughtful frown. “Wanna go inside, Pink?”

“Your hot chocolate must be cold by now,” Webby replies, nodding. “And I want some!”

“Ah-ah, you have to have actual hot chocolate this time. Your cup was entirely filled with whipped cream and sprinkles,” Lena snarks, rolling her eyes. “The point of it is hot chocolate, not pure sugar.”

Webby’s eyes light up. “Sugar…”

Lena snorts. “C’mon, let’s get you some sugar and not tell your granny. Or at least don’t tell her I’m the one who authorized this.”

“Pinky promise,” Webby replies, holding out her pinky. Lena obliges, taking far more enjoyment than she should have in that little touch.

It’s not like she never gets to touch Webby, Lena muses as they make their way inside. (Her cup of hot chocolate is in fact cold, and she only mourns this fact a little in favor of entwining her hand with Webby’s.) In fact, Webby is probably the most touchy-feely person Lena has ever met. Both of her families are very physically affectionate, except for maybe Beakley and Scrooge (and Duckworth), so that’s saying something. Webby’s abundance of physical touch in every situation shocked Lena at first, but as a touch-starved teenager with no real family before Webby, she quickly latched onto every touch she could get.

At first, Lena thought it was just because she didn’t have any other options. But as she grew closer with the McDuck clan, and then the Sabrewings, both of whom provide her with more touch than she could ever dream of (as long as she’s comfortable with it - and there are times when she isn’t), she found Webby’s touch was special. It gave her something no one else’s touch ever could.

Lena squeezes Webby’s hand without thinking. Heat floods into her cheeks when she processes the action, but before she can do anything else, Webby squeezes back.

Lena glances down at Webby, who’s smiling back at her. Lena grins.

They reach the kitchen, where Donald and Della are bustling around, fighting over the best way to make chocolate chip cookies. Webby chirps at them, successfully catching both of their attention and making them smile, while Lena slips past them with two mugs. Donald ruffles her hair while she passes, and Della gives her a fist bump.

“You kids have fun, all right?” Donald says when Lena returns with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. Della and Webby both have their mouths full of cookie dough, making Donald give his sister a half-hearted glare, but Webby nods empathetically.

Lena rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. She passes Webby a mug and Della slips her a spoon full of cookie dough, making Donald squawk in annoyance. She and Webby slip out of the kitchen almost unnoticed.

As they leave, Webby’s hand finds itself in Lena’s again.

They end up in the den. They have no real destination in mind, just somewhere cozy and warm, and the den perfectly fits that bill.

“I thought Louie was in here today,” Webby comments.

Lena barges through the door and flops ungracefully on the couch, almost spilling her hot chocolate. “His loss.”

(In reality, Louie was called upstairs by Dewey and Boyd, so he could judge a gummy bear eating contest before Mrs. Beakley shuts them down. He’s being paid, so he doesn’t mind leaving his Ottoman Empire marathon. Much.)

Webby hesitates in the doorway for a moment, before shrugging and joining Lena on the couch. Louie left a blanket big enough for two on the other side, and she wraps it around the two of them.

Lena scoots to be closer to Webby, tugging the blanket over her shoulders. “Let’s watch something.”

Webby picks up the remote and flicks through Newtflix. “We finished She-Ra, didn’t we?” she asks, stifling a yawn. The sugar hasn’t worked its way through her system yet, and the warmth of Lena’s presence is like a blanket of its own.

Lena smiles down at her fondly. “We did… But I don’t mind watching it again.” She knows She-Ra is one of Webby’s all-time favorite shows.

Sure enough, Webby’s grin is big enough to split her face. “You know I’ll never say no to She-Ra,” she says, turning the show on.

Lena wraps her free arm around Webby’s shoulders under the blanket. “And I’ll never say no to you,” she murmurs, low and soft, almost to herself. Webby catches it, though, and her cheeks turn bright red. Lena laughs softly, turning away to hide her own blush.

Webby snuggles up against Lena’s side. “Me neither,” she declares, taking a sip of her hot chocolate and directing her attention to the TV.

Lena sighs contentedly and lets the afternoon wash away in the form of sweets, bright colors, and Webby’s embrace.

I participated in a secret santa for the duckfalls server, and this is my gift! I haven’t written for ducktales in a couple months, so this was a really nice change of pace. title is from lovesick girls by blackpink! the song itself doesn’t fit weblena as well as this specific line does, and i’ve been holding onto it for a weblena fic ever since i heard the song.

happy holidays!

#ducktales #ducktales 2017 #dt17 #webby vanderquack #lena sabrewing #weblena #ducktales fanfiction #wavey writes

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slater-later · 3 years

Text

I Want to Watch You Grow

Brian Kelly x Trans Masc Reader

Read it here on AO3 if you would like!

- This is a Brian Kelly x Trans Man reader fan fic. This conronicles your long term relationship with Brian and your development with yourself. Your body, and transition as a transman.

- I hope everyone enjoys this. Finds space within themselves and their relationship with the world. It’s okay to be trans, being trans is beautiful. it’s a difficult, glorious journey that is far more of a beginning then an end. Living happy life, being proud of yourself and your body.

- The fic is long, about 12 pages. So please, soak it in, and I wish you the happiest day!

The two of you had been dating for some time. You had met at a small high school party. A good group of friends coming together around a Summer bonfire, slipping your feet out from the well worn sandals and wiggling them infront of a fire. The soles of your feet toasted, turning them around to be goldened on both sides. You held a long metal skewer with two plump marshmallows on the end, rotating it around as you warmed it to a golden ball of glory.

It was sweet, being able to spend time with old friends and make some new. Your friend Ronnie had invited the skater kids from school to join you. He had bonded with them over their mutual love for rock and rap music. It made sense, they both loved Public Enemy. Blasting ‘We Got the Power’ out of their car radios whenever they had a chance.

You enjoyed it, they threw out some good rhymes and it was a battle cry for your youth. You generation. You couldn’t help but bob your head to the music and belt along.

It was towards the end of the night when you two met. Brian had showed up late, hair slicked with a heavy line of sweat. A shirt quickly shoved into his pants, trying to clean up for his group of friends after a long day of skating.

He had skipped out of work that day- well, really, the restaurant was slow so there wasn’t much need for two busboys. He had spent the rest of his afternoon and late into the stary night, skating at the skatepark. The street lights clicked on and it had made it hard for him to see the clear edges of the ramps. It was time to turn in and get a bite to eat. Putting aside the new trick he caught from someone else. Trying to nail it.

If he knew it could be done, then he could. He just needed enough time and perseverance to figure it out.

With skating, the possibilities were endless. It was his place to let go of life’s worries and focus on something where had complete control. The complete right to be, what and who he is, with no to tell him otherwise. Skating was like a lifeblood for him, his way of life.

His boundless universe.

He came jogging in, skateboard in hand as he approached the group huddled around the warm fire.

The trees swayed, creaking under the age and weight of their own majesty with a long gust of wind. It was dark, the hum of Summer turning to a deep pitch of haze. Black rolling in, only to be illuminated by the glaze of starfull and a half crescent moon. The forest was thick, lulled by the hum of heated crickets and hushed by the cool breeze of night. Smoke pooling from the warm fire, whisping and licking up the sky with powerful might. Your toes curled, seeking a gentle relief from its delightful burning flame.

They were roasted and baked. You tucked them into the ground, shifting your heals to push back the brush and find a damp, cool, interior.

Brian waved, throwing an arm up to welcome everyone. A boy buzzed in the background, rolling a hit out of a cheaply made bong. Coughing as he blew out his lungs. Stoned till’ the cows come home.

“Hey guys! Sorry I’m late, it uh, took me a while to find you guys,” He smiled, strolling on into the circle and making his way over to Yabbo. Giving him a high five and saying hello to Buddy.

You popped your marshmallow onto a graham cracker and some chocolate. You munched on your treat, washing it down with a sip of beer.

You watched Brian that night, catching his eyes as he chatted with Buddy over some trick he had been captivated by. Transfixed on trying to nail, to, gleam the cube.

He noticed, his shit stain smirk would appear even in mid sentence. Hands flailing out, gesturing and expressing his exasperation on some wild tangent he was on about skating. About life. About love. It was amusing to watch him, loud and audacious as he was. He could even make Buddy loud, who was normally a quiet and reserved guy. Get him chuckling about some silly joke he made, and pairing it with an audacious face. Hands whipped out, a cross between a dragon and a gorilla.

You had finished off your second beer, musing with a friend about the stars as you gazed. Heads turned up, pondering the wide expanse of space. Its’ glorious bounds, its beauty, its’ wonder.

It put things in perspective for you. Not in a scary way, but in a comforting one. That sometimes, our emotions can feel massive. And they can be! But they also fall away, soothe and ease, as we realize, this shall pass. As all things. Even life. And so, what we must work towards is enjoying it. Like moments like these- feet kicked up on a stump, back eased into a lawn chair with a good beer in hand, spending time with friends. The summer breeze cooling your warm skin, still tanned and glowing from a long day spent outside. Walking, running, and spending time with those that mattered to you. You can’t steal back time, but instead, enjoy it.

Brian tapped Buddy’s shoulder, gesturing for him to shift over as he stood up. Slicking to the outside of the circle, making his way over.

He stopped at the bag of mellows, nabbing two and popping one in his mouth. Munching on its sugary goodness as he finished the trip. Sliding down and popping on the ground, criss-cross-apple-sauce style.

You picked your chin up from the stars, turning your head towards him, “Hey.”

“Hey,” He smiled tiredly, softly. It had grown late and the group had died down, calming and chatting amongst themselves. “So, I uh, don’t think I caught your name,” He mused, chuckling with an anxious delight. He had caught your fancy and talking to attractive people always made his insides flutter.

“It’s Y/N, what’s yours?” You smiled, letting out a tiny yawn, hand hovering over your mouth.

And on command, it was his turn. “Briannn.” He said, pushing through his wide open mouth, eyes turning to closed slits. Watering.

“Jesus, I’m beat,” He muttered, whipping his eyes.

“You too?” You couldn’t stop, the two of you speaking through widely stretched mouths, yawning and releasing the tired souls of your body out into the air. Like ghosts being exercised.

“Yeah!” He squeaked, putting his hand over his mouth. This time his mouth reaching out farther. As if a shark could unhinge its massive jaw.

Slowly, both of yours bodies cooled down. Chatted about the quiet, peaceful sounds of the forest. How the night made your feel alive, at ease within your own body. It was easy talking with such a nice man, cracking soft jokes and poking fun at the world. The politicians, the fat cats, and parents. Some stupid shit a drunk girl did at school, how the one guy on the football team fucked the head swimmer and stirred drama in the theatre group. He had been dating Jared, but it all fell for shit when he saw Sam in those swim trunks.

You both agreed, he looked mighty fine in the spandex speedo. And Tom did too, especially when he found out how kind he was.

“So who do you think is the biggest class clown? Don or Vinny?” You mused, shifting your weight in your seat. Turning towards him.

“Ahhh, I’m not so sure. Vinny is my man, but I really like Tabitha-”

“That bitch?” You shot, clicking your tongue. “She fucking stole $20 out of my backpack, fuck her!”

His eyebrows knitted, looking disappointed. “Yeahhh, she ain’t very nice. I disagree with you there,” He looked at the blaze, shaking his head. “But it’s not a ‘frienship’ competition. I give her props pouring that bottle of stinky slick on that jerk in Ceramics. That one that makes all those gross racist comments in school.” Fuck him for his piece of shit mind. There was no reason to be like that.

“-Ugh!” Your eyes rolled, shaking your head, “I know, I fucking hate him. He’s a piece of shit,” Internally you groaned, thinking of his disgusting face.

“For that, I respect her. The fool won’t change his mind and he needs to learn that he can’t do shit like that. It’s not like he’ll listen, I’ve tried,” He popped a mellow into his mouth, chewing. “She got 3 days of suspension for that. It was pretty ballsy,” Shitting on racist was both funny and satisfying.

“What-? Why did she get that-?”

He shrugged, looking amazed, “I don’t know. It’s fucked up, that’s school for ya. It’s not right.”

You shook your head disgusted. If only they would understand, listen. “Ok, so, who has your favorite comedy?

“-Sam,” He smiled, poking a branch into the fire.

You watched him stir up the flame, picking at a log and turning it over.

“Same, he’s really nice. He’s quiet but he has a smart tongue on him,” Slowly the fire grew. Emboldened by the new life, “Tom’s really lucky.”

Brian shot you a look, teeth flashing in a grin, “Cuz Jared’s so hot?”

You shot up in your seat, pushing yourself closer to him- “Okay though, right?!” Brian burst out laughing, head thrown back as he boomed.

You waved your hands up into the air, desperately. “He has those pecs! Those thick arms! I just wanna be hugged by him!” He was a big tall teddy bear! A muscular one too! Who doesn’t love a big teddy bear?!

“I know, I know!” He slapped his knee, face red and warm, and it wasn’t from the booze. “He’s cute! He’s really cute!” He laughed, smiling through his big open mouth.

The two of you talked for the rest of the night, making another round of smores and sipping on the last of your cold beer. It was easy, talking to him. You found a kind of warm comfort and acceptance by such a free soul. By someone who really just wanted to be seen and heard, and loved for who he was.

*****

That night would bloom into many others. A few months you spent together, as friends, and the others, as lovers. You slowly got to know each other over time progressed. Eventually, love bloomed. Infatuation took to desire, day dreaming about the next time you’d see him. Hand propping your chin, staring off into a whiteboard filled with math equations as the teacher droned on. The last week of school was a buzzkill, bittersweet, and painfully long.

You wanted it to end. For it to be Summer, to be scott-free and without responsibilities. But that also brought changes and your second stage of life was on the horizon.

****

The time came and both of you decided to take a year off from college. Work and save up some money. Spend time together as much you can.

You planned on going away to school a few hours away. Brian hadn’t quite decided, but it looked to be the same.

Both of you would attend the same school and it would work out well. Eventually, you both got through the next four years with your brains intact for the better. He majored in music production with a minor in entrepreneurship. He wanted to do something in music, start his own band and maybe build his own label. You majored in _____ and loved it. And your relationship had lasted, strengthened. Finding a quiet peace and home in one another. A thing you quietly wished for in your heart and didn’t know you needed until you found it.

The freedom to be yourself with another. One who would love and accept you, regardless of the circumstances and the changes.

But it didn’t always make it easy. You had been having feelings about your body. Ones that you didn’t quite like and found increasingly frustrating to have. To not have the words, the names, to understand and express how you felt.

You already knew you weren’t straight. That had long been established to yourself and to Brian’s knowledge. He didn’t care- well, that wasn’t quite the right way to put it. He was supportive of your queerness and actually encouraged it. You both were fluid as a snake- bodies and gender thrown right out of the door. What mattered was the person, the attraction, and the two of you- had a lot of that for one another.

He also wasn’t one to put up many questions about the way you dressed. Switching out fem for? Masculine? He was game. He liked your style, even sowed on some patches on your jacket when he asked. Though as time wore on, catching the way you shield away from your chest… Your feelings about your body… He noticed.

“Hey babe?” He slid into the frame of the doorway, hand grasping the side of the wood as he leaned in. Watching you do your hair, clothed, and fixing your hair.

“Yeah? What’s up?” You looked at him through the mirror, running a comb through your head. “Is my coffee ready?”

“Yeah, it’s on the kitchen table. With your toast,” He walked in, looking quiet. Tentative. “Can I talk to you about something?”

You turned, “Yeahhhh…” Your voice fluttered, knowing that face he makes. It made you uneasy. “What do you wanna talk about?”

“Are you… alright? You’ve been distant lately, like somethings on your mind,” He paused, looking down. Guilty, “Did I do something wrong? Are we alright?” He leaned his back against the wall, thumbs hooked into his jean pockets. Glancing up at you.

You set down the brush, turning, “Yeah,” You coed softly. Tenderly to the sweet man, “We’re okay, I’m just going through some stuff,” It was easier to put that into words. You needed time to figure things out, to share how you felt. You didn’t even have them for yourself, at least not clearly.

You hoped time would reveal itself, help your understand and work through what you were feeling.

And you didn’t know how it would change you. Or, for the matter, Brian. Your relationship with him.

He gestured to you, beat, “Do you.. Wanna talk about it?”

It fell on silence, unsure.

“Yes… but not now. I need some time,” You stepped, drawing his eyes.

“Like… how long?” It was bugging him, an itch he can’t scratch. A problem he saw, a frustration he can’t touch.

It was yours, and one that effected him. He wanted you happy and content.

To ease your pain.

“I’m not sure,” You slipped a hand into his and locked fingers together. Drawing his hand up and lined your hips with his. Brian’s other slip around your waist, pulling you close. “You’re going to have to wait, to trust me until I’m ready to talk about it. But I do love you- and it’s not because of you,” You pressed your lips to his, slowly lifting them away. “Or something you’ve done. We’re okay.”

“Alright, I just-” He looked into your eyes, vulnerable. “I want you to be happy, no matter what. Whatever it is.”

“And I thank you for that, I really do. I appreciate it,” Another press, lips locked, tongues twisting for a moment.

“Oh? Is someone?”

You laughed, caught red-handed, “Yeah, a bit.” You mused.

****

And for a while, it was left like that. You ordered yourself a proper binder and he was properly happy for you, seeing you excited to go and slip it on as soon as it came in the mail. You checked yourself out in the mirror, beaming as you found a sense of newfound confidence and comfort in your appearance. Your body.

He liked the way you smelled after you changed deodorants. You smelled rich and musky, one that you both adored. For him, it was intoxicating. Even picked up your armpit in bed as you yelped, his head buried in your pit to get a good whiff of your scent. Both of you sent laughing and shouting and you play fought in bed, beating back the monster you so endearingly loved.

“Fucking hell Brian!! Give me my arm back!”

“No! Never!” He bellowed, hand tightening around your wrist, pinning it against the wall as your feet kicked against him. He loved it, making you mad and crazy at the same time.

Tickling was your enemy! One that he used and abused, to get you laughing and squirming as he tied his body around yes. Pressing kisses to your cheek like a woodpecker.

****

Eventually, you found answers. The internet helped and a good stack of books about gender. It worked to ease your feelings about your body and the amount of envy you had for the masculine. It was difficult at first, being able to sort through attraction and gender envy at the same time. Slowly, you found answers. A confirmation of your feelings and way of life. The amount of euphoria you received when the simple stranger called you ‘man’ or ‘sir’ felt glorious. Elating and at home with yourself in a way that felt right. A homecoming.

You started to approach the subject with Brian. The two of you were friends with trans people, but it still felt fresh. Weird, and confusing to go through yourself. Being trans still didn’t give you cut and dry answers, it was a journey. A grey area because, even through they had gone through that journey, it was still personal. You had to find answers for yourself and the world is a weird, wild place.

But, it didn’t mean you were something else. Or strange for that matter- you were you, and that’s what mattered. You were exploring.

You two had been laying in bed. A quiet Saturday day spent outside, running errands and going to the farmers market to buy fresh produce and bread. It was lovely and peaceful. You guys had turned into bed early, curled under a soft comforter as you sprawled out in bed. The sun had set.

“Hey,” You whispered, dusting a piece of long hair out of his face. He was turned towards you, a fit of blankets wrapped around him as his body cupped towards yours.

“Hey,” He yawned, eyes fluttering in sleepiness.

You dusted a finger along his jaw, his chest slowly rising and falling. A ham all baked like a warm potato. “Can we talk?”

He shifted his head closer to your touch, liking the way you slowly stroked his skin. “Yeah, what’s up?” He yawned.

“I’ve been thinking, for a while now. That I might be trans,” You paused, wanting to release the next few words from your brain. “I think I am.”

“Oh?” He shifted up, sitting up now and trying to wake up his brain. Serious conversation time. “Really?” His voice was kind, asking for confirmation.

You nodded, “Yes.”

“As in nonbinary or trans masc?” He ran a hand through his hair, swooping the fluff back. Pulling himself together.

You laughed, feeling the butterflies swarm in your stomach. “Trans masculine.”

“Okay,” he smiled, nodding. Taking it in. “So uh, what do you want to do? If anything at all?”

“Honey-” You pestered, giving him a look.

“I’m asking! That’s up to you!” He was ginger, trying not to pry but dying inside. The questions!

“Clothes, that’s for one thing.”

“You’re already wearing my boxers- we gotta get you more of those.”

You had been stealing them from him. They were comfy, among other things. You couldn’t help but crack a guilty smile. He had mentioned it before when he had ran out, pissed because he hated wearing dirty ones.

“And shirts, and some good cuffed jeans-” You added.

“Dickie’s has those, we can thrift you Carhart’s from Goodwill.”

You paused, holding your breath. Holding onto the next few words, as if they couldn’t be taken back. Releasing them into the world, “And transitioning. I think I want to do that too.”

He reached for your hand, his thumb stroking your palm as the two of you laid in bed. Him looking down at you as your sprawled out, your elbow propping yourself up. “Okay, if that’s what you want, I support you. I want that too,” He pulled up your hand and pressed his lips to them softly. Firmly intertwining his fingers with yours, squeezing them tightly. Securely.

“Do you want to go by different pronouns? A name?”

“Yes, I want to be named Y/N,” You smiled, feeling his hands pull you in. Draw around you in a deep hug as he slid down to your level, comforting and embracing you. “I want to go by he/him pronouns.” You chuckled against his skin, head buried into the crook of his neck.

“Well hello my Prince, I’m so glad to meet you Y/N,” He pressed a kiss to your cheek, smiling through it as your heart brust. Crying in relief, in tears of joy and relief.

“You’re not mad?” You squeaked, tears rolling down your cheek.

“Baby~” He purred, pulling back, to look into your eyes. “Of course not, I want you to be happy. You’re precious to me,” He said, soothing you. “Is this what’s been bothering you?”

You nodded.

“I’ve been… wondering about it,” He mused. “I kinda figured it out after you bought your binder and started shaving your face. You barely had peach fuz but you looked so happy… so, much more bright that day,” You had slowly been trying things out. Listening to your body and how you felt. Changing your style, presenting more masculine. You even bought clothes from the men’s section and started to let go using gender specific pronouns for yourself. To ease the pain of dysphoria while you figured out feelings. Your therapist helped.

“But I’ve been waiting until you tell me, that’s your stuff,” He wiped your chin, brushing off the stream of tears. “I know you’d tell me eventually, whatever your answer was- I want to support you. I chose that long ago, I stand by that.” He smiled, adding, “And if things change in the future, that’s okay too. Gender and bodies are a tricky thing.”

There was so many choices- my so options- in how trans people choose to express themselves. All of them are valid, it’s what makes you happy is the most important thing. What aligns with yourself.

“Thank you,” You sniffled, peaking out a smile. You were happy, and now tired, and just wanted to curl up in bed. The rush of emotions flooding your system, the bent of stress and relief washing over your system. Draining you.

You wanted to feel this moment in its security, its acceptance. “That means a lot to me Brian.”

“Of course- and for what it matters-” He leaned into your ear, whispering, “I think you make a handsome man. And will continue too.”

“It doesn’t change things- between us?”

He shrugged, unfazed, “I don’t think so. I’m attracted to you and I like men so-” Another quizzical look, “I don’t see how it would change things in that department. I think I need to know more but I don’t think so.”

You raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“I want to read more about it so I can help you. I know it can be hard for trans people to get the resources they need to transition. We’re going to both go through this and I want to help you. -If that’s what you want, of course.”

“Oh! Okay,” you nodded. You slid down together, laying in each others arms. Curled underneath the seats, your tears dried up. Heart shining. “I want that, your help. I fucking hate calling the doctors office.”

He laughed, “I know! I know!” You would get stressed, talking on the phone could be weird sometimes. It made you anxious.

You tucked your head into his chest, hearing it beat with the life you held so closely. His arms wrapped around your waist, holding you close. “Thank you Bri, for everything.”

“Of course Y/N,” He spoke softly, warm. “I love you, you’re my everything.”

The two of you drifted off to sleep in bed, listening to the sound of Summer rain come in through the window. Drops slapping against the hard concrete, easing you into a deep slumber.

****

The two of you got along better after that. You were able to save up enough money to see a gender therapist. A general practice doctor that specialized in transgender health, giving you access to the hormone treatments you so desperately needed.

The changes came slow at first, the T being newly added to your system. Eventually, the body hair came in. Sprouting up your legs and turning thicker, darker, up your knees. Your body weight shifted, redistributing around your body with a healthy addition of exercise. Your jaw widened, spotting itself with facial hair which you so proudly grew. Cleaned up and trimmed, sculpting it to your desire.

That was one of your favorite moments. When you asked Brian to show you how he shaved his face. He pulled out of his bag of clippers, helped you learn how to wash your face and spread shaving cream on your face. How to guide the razor against your skin, trimming the well grown facial hair.

“-Like this- you gotta go against the grain if you want it smooth,” You were both creamed up, with your hair clipped back. He had a headband pushing his strands back, keeping it from falling into his face.

“Okay,” You mumbled in front of the mirror, guiding the razor across your skin. Wincing when you nicked yourself and hoping you don’t do that again.

“It’ll get easier, trust me,” He assured, slicking the last bit of cream off of his clean face. He mostly kept himself clean shaven, though there was a time where he rocked a thin mustache. Even some musky stubble around his cheeks. Which you loved.

And so was your transition.

In time, you qrew to love and enjoy your body even more. Seeing the face you so expected- and wished for- being reflected in the mirror. Muscles come in, adjusting your body shape to one that you desired.

Brian was very supportive. Even helped you find a good doctor for your top surgery. He pitched in money for your procedure, taking some extra hours as the store manager at the record shop where he worked. He was planning on taking it over from the owner in a few years. He had helped them expand into a second storefront. He was proud of it.

He drove you to your surgery, making sure you had everything prepared. Extra magazines, music, books, even your sketch pad and journal if you so wished it. You would sleep after your surgery in the hospital bed, groggy and tired from the boat load of meds and painkillers lulling you to a peaceful state. He wanted to make sure you were content, that you healed well and passed the time while you recovered. The tiny hospital tv having few channels to capture your attention. He ready to help you pass the time.

After your surgery, you couldn’t move your arms very much. At least not above your head. It would pull at your incisions, the area bruised and draining of fluids. He would tend to you, changing your bandages and helping you get things from the kitchen cupboards. Asking you to relax and let him take over- when you insisted on cooking dinner. That you felt fine, that the pain wasn’t too bad. Even though your chest ached, he didn’t want you to push yourself.

It was okay to lean on someone else, to let them tend to you at times in need.

He adored you and embraced the new found man you had become. He liked hearing you softly talk into his ear, listening to how your voice had dropped. Had changed, deepened, and thickened. It was an adventure for the both of you, one that you happily embraced and found a new home. In you, yourself, and each other.

He was proud to call you his boyfriend, his favorite man on Earth.

#gleaming the cube #brian kelly #brian kelly x reader #brian kelly x trans masc reader #brian kelly x transman reader #brian kelly x transgender #trans #trans man #fan fic #tyler writes #queer fan fic #queer #i fucking loved writing this fic #gender euphoria #its okay to be trans #being trans is BEAUTIFUL!#happy and healthy relationships #based in love and support for one another #wholesome

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hidden-otaku-stuff · 4 years

Text

Universal (Hidden Corner series)

Hidden Corner: A series of fluffy, full-length one-shots detailing the lives of the employees who work at Hidden Corner featuring the various Haikyuu boys.

*Note: All one-shots take place in the same universe with the same characters.

Izanami is the Reader from Recommendations

Word count: 3.8k

Pairing: Time-skip!Osamu x female Baker!reader

Summary: One early morning on his way to work, Osamu walks past a café. The lights are on, and there’s no other sign of life anywhere else. Popping in, he discovers some of the best baked goods he’s ever tasted. But can you really fall in love with someone based on how their food tastes?

AN: Happy birthday Osamu! Yours was the second one-shot I finished of this series, but I held off to post this for your birthday 🥳

Masterlist | Menu

Universal

A wide yawn overtook Osamu as he made his way down the street. His hooded grey eyes scanned the horizon. Only a sliver of light had begun to cross the morning sky. He turned down the street, eyebrows furrowed at the sign of an open café. The warm golden light radiated warmth. Glancing at his watch, he nodded to himself. He had time. “Welcome to Hidden Corner!” A voice behind the counter chirped. “I’ll be with you shortly.” Osamu hummed, stepping further into the warmth. His eyes scanned the café. There weren't many people inside. In fact, there was only one other person. A male sat in the corner, his back to Osamu as he hunched over his laptop. “Hey, sorry to keep you waiting!” She entered, placing down a tray of baked goods before giving him a smile. “What can I get for you?”

Osamu sniffed the air, his eyes widening. “Whatever that is, I’d love one.”

She laughed, her eyes sparkling. “This? This is one of our specialty items, a German-influenced bee-sting cake. It goes great with a nice dark roast.”

Osamu nodded his head eagerly, mouth salivating. “That sounds amazing. I’d love it.”

“Will you be eating here or to-go?”

He glances at his watch again. “Here,” he decides. He didn’t need to be at the store for another twenty minutes. Osamu takes a seat at the bar, eagerly watching as she slices into the cake, the custard oozing out slightly as the barista lifts it onto a white plate. The barista places it in front of him beside a ceramic mug of dark coffee beside it.

“Enjoy!” She chirps, before she goes over to check on the other customer. She brings over a mug of coffee as well as an apple square, placing it onto the table and giving the male a forehead kiss before returning to the counter.

Osamu eyed the pastry from the cinnamon almond top to the yellow custard sandwiched between the tan sponge. Carefully slicing it through with a fork, he savours the mouthful. Silver orbs widened, sparkling like a full moon on a cloudless night. “Excuse me?” He looks up at the barista. “But this is amazing.”

The barista grins, wiping down the counter. “Thank you!”

“Did you make this?”

She shakes her head. “No, our baker actually just left for the day.”

He hums, taking a sip of the coffee. His eyes roam the glass in front of the bar where there are trays of pastries. “Can I get a box of whatever you recommend?”

The barista grins, “of course.” She turns her back to him, delicately filling the box. “There you go!” She passes the box over.

“What’s in here?” He pops open the box, eyeing the array of colourful pastries. The sugar-dusted, rose pastry caught his attention the most.

“In there you’ll have a few of our persimmon rose pastries, two guava pastelillos - or guava and cheese strudels, and miniature mango and dragon-fruit fruit tarts.”

Osamu licks his lips. “That sounds incredible.”

“Enjoy!”

****

“Back for more?” The barista teases, greeting Osamu as she wipes down the counter. He catches her name-tag this time. Izanami. Owner.

He nods, breathing in the comforting scent of coffee beans. “Those pastries were so good.” Osamu scans the glass offerings one more, his eyebrows raising at the sight of the various mason jars and shot-glasses. “What are those for?”

Izanami glances over. “Oh!” She grins. “We’ve been trying to become more environmentally-friendly, which is why we started offering discounts whenever someone brings in their own mugs and stuff. But (Name) had a brilliant idea of using mason jars and these cute engraved shot-glasses for our cakes and stuff.” Izanami holds an empty one up, handing it to Osamu to examine. “They’re oven-safe provided that there aren’t any sudden temperature changes, and if they use it in-store, we can take it to the back to wash and use for the next time. Or, if they take it home and bring it back, we can either give them a discount.” She hums, examining another mason jar. “Plus they’re cute advertisements if they keep it anyways.”

Osamu hums, “that’s a really good idea.” He shuffles his feet slightly, keeping his focus on the glass as pink dusts his cheek. “Is (Name) the baker?”

By Izanami’s light-hearted chuckle, he hadn’t been as sly as he’d hoped. “Yes, she is.”

Osamu clears his throat. “So! What options do you have for the shooters?”

The owner leans against the counter, looking down at them. “We have a taster pack where you can get one each for a total of six different ones or do a custom pack of six. Of course, you could buy them individually as well.” She smirks slightly. “If you bring back twelve glasses, then we’ll throw in a free cake and coffee the next time you come in.”

“Deal.” He grins. “I’ll take one of the taster packs for now.” He scans the drink menu. “And another dark roast, to-go please.”

“Make sure to bring your own thermos if you want a discount,” Izanami chuckles once more as she packages his treats. “Come again soon!” She sings, waving as he makes his way out the door.

*****

“Hey ‘Kaashi! Haven’t seen you in a minute,” Osamu greets from behind the counter, looking up as Akaashi enters Onigiri Miya.

“Hey Myaa-sam,” Akaashi grins. “I’ve been busy working and haven’t had a chance. Someone else usually comes to pick it up for me though.”

Osamu nods before turning back to his ingredients. “Your usual then?”

“Surprise me.”

Akaashi takes a seat at the bar, watching as Osamu moves around behind the glass. Gunmetal blue eyes sparkled mischievously. “That’s quite a few glasses you’ve collected.”

“Hmm?” Osamu glances at his friend, following his eyes to the assorted shot-glasses that sat next to the cash register. They were mostly hidden from customers except for where Akaashi was sitting. “Oh yeah. I really enjoy their pastries.”

Akaashi nods, leaning on his hand. “My girlfriend owns the cafe, I am there quite often.”

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.” Osamu carefully shapes the onigiri for Akaashi who hums in response. Izanami pops into Osamu’s mind. “I make it a habit to go there in the mornings before I open up shop. Can’t imagine going anywhere else for breakfast if I’m being honest.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah! Their pastries are always perfectly made and are pretty unique. Haven’t seen them in any other cafes. And I love how environmentally-friendly they are, ya know?” Osamu’s eyes sparkled as he thought about the small cafe.

Akaashi hides the small smirk behind his sleeve before clearing his throat. “You know they’re open 24 hours right?”

Osamu nods, wrapping the rice-ball. “Might stop by after I close up. I have to turn in the shot-glasses.”

“Right, for the free cake and coffee?” Akaashi’s eyes glinted as he took his food, paying Osamu. “I’m sure you’ll have a nice time later, Myaa-sam.”

“Thanks?”

“See you later, Myaa-sam!”

****

“So, which of the shooters did you like the best?” Izanami asks as Osamu enters the cafe later that evening. Instead of being behind the counter this time, she’s sitting at the bar, going over some paperwork.

“I think I’m a big fan of the raspberry chocolate one,” Osamu replied, mouth salivating as he reminisced. “The chocolate and raspberry was perfectly balanced and complemented each other.” He thought back to the other ones he tried. “Though the strawberry fool was really good too.” Osamu hummed, eyes shutting. “And the tiramisu,” he added. He tapped his chin for a second. “And the key lime.”

Izanami stifled a snort. “Hear that (Name)? He liked all of the shooters.”

Osamu’s head snapped up as you appeared from behind the counter, flour dusted on your cheek. “Well I’m glad to know that someone here appreciates my baking!”

“Hey, if I didn’t appreciate it, I wouldn’t let you have free-rein of the menu,” Izanami chided before looking back at Osamu. “This is (Name), our resident baker.”

You waved at him from behind the counter before your (e/c) eyes widened, pointing at him. “You own Onigiri Miya!”

Osamu’s ears turned pink, realising exactly who the baker was. He swallows thickly. “That’s right.”

Your eyes sparkle as you nod eagerly, facing your boss. “Iza! He owns the onigiri shop that ‘Kaashi and I go to!”

“Oh really? That’s really nice,” Izanami smiles. “Speaking of, Yuuji should already be clocked in. I’m going to go check on him. Man the front for me, won’t you?” Osamu didn’t miss the wink that Izanami sent to (Name). He could feel the heat that crept through him now.

“Whatever you need, boss-lady!” You chirped, waving Izanami off as she disappeared into the back. You turn back to Osamu, offering him a blinding smile. “What can I do for you, Miya-san?”

Osamu shook his head, a pink dust settling on his cheeks, “you can just call me Osamu if you’d like.”

If it was even possible, your smile got brighter. “Sure thing, Osamu! You can call me (Name).” You glance back down to the tray of pastries you had been spooning strawberry compote into. “Wanna taste-test something for me?”

Osamu’s eyes widened as he nodded fervently. “I’m always down to taste-test. What is it?”

You quickly pipe some yellow cream on top of the strawberry compote, sprinkled some demerara sugar on it and used a blowtorch to brulee the sugar. He watches with amazement at your fluid motions. Turning back to him, you place the completed pastry onto a clean white plate. “This is puits d’amour, or ‘wells of love’ in French. It’s mostly just strawberries, raspberries, and vanilla cream. Will you try it for me? I was thinking about adding it to the menu or maybe even just for a Valentine’s special.”

Osamu picks it up gingerly, taking in the sweet smell of the pastry. As he bites down, his eyes shut. “This is so good,” he mumbled as he crammed the last piece into his mouth. You stifle a giggle, taking a napkin out and handing it to him.

“You got a little something there,” you tap on your chin before pouring a dark roast for him.

He flushes brighter, taking the napkin and wiping away at the mess. He sips the dark roast, letting the dark flavor complement the abundance of sweet that bathed his tongue. “That was seriously good,” he grinned as he placed the empty cup down. “I would definitely buy that if it was offered on the menu.”

Your eyes lit up. “Really?!”

He nods eagerly. “Absolutely. Though that would definitely be cute for a special like Date Night or Valentine’s Day.”

You hum, tapping your chin as you gaze back at the tray. “Maybe I’ll debut it for a holiday, get the couples coming in. And depending on how well they sell, maybe offer it more regularly.” You move to prepare a few more, packaging it up and turning back to him. “Here.”

Osamu raised an eyebrow, looking between the box and you. “What’s this for?”

“You seemed to really enjoy it. Maybe you could bring it to some of your friends or something and let me know what they think? Or finish it all! Whatever works.” You smile sheepishly. “Anything for a return customer, like Iza would say.”

Osamu chuckles, raising the bag he had. “I was supposed to turn in these shot-glasses and redeem my free cake.”

You sit on the stool behind the counter, spinning slightly. “You can always redeem it now if you’d like. I can prepare a custom-order for whatever cake or pastries you’d like.”

He hums, glancing at the display. Most of the pastries had sold out by now. “Surprise me,” he replies finally. “Come by the shop sometime soon. I need another taste-tester if you’re down.”

Grinning, you nod eagerly. “Sounds like a great time.”

****

“Hello, Myaa-sam,” Akaashi greets as the door to Onigiri Miya swings open.

Osamu looks up, eyes narrowed as he jabs a finger at Akaashi, a grain of rice flying into the editor’s direction. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“Knew what?” Akaashi asks, blinking innocently at the restaurant owner. It would have worked if not for the small quirk of his lips.

Osamu rolled his eyes, turning back to his rice as his ears glowed red. “Is she the one who’s been pickin’ up your orders for ya?”

Akaashi hummed, slipping into his usual stool before sipping on his thermos. “Perhaps.”

Osamu scowled. “Are you tryin’ to set me up or somethin’?”

The other male only laughed. “Not at all.” Akaashi admits, his fingers twisting. “But (Name) is a sweet girl, isn’t she?”

“Did you know her when she came in that one time?”

“Um, excuse me?”

Osamu jumped, whirling around to face you as his head crashed into the counter - hissing in pain. He cleared his throat, cheeks reddening. “Yes, hey, how can I help you?”

You stifle a chuckle. “I heard that this place has some of the best onigiri around. Think I can get some?”

“Of course, what’ll you have?”

“Three of your best!” You hum, scanning the menu. “Though include an unagi one, please. With furikake seasoning on the outside.”

“Sounds good.” Osamu turned around, moving towards the counter only to trip over a bag of rice and stumble into the counter. His forehead smacked into the steel counter as his knees buckled. Osamu bit his lip to swallow back the groan, tears welling up in his eyes.

You snorted, biting your lip to hide your laughter. Unfortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful. “A-are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He grinned, turning so that his back was to you as he squeezed his eyes shut tightly and clenched his fists. Both his head and foot hurt. A lot. Osamu let out a sigh, moving to make the onigiri for you. “Here you go. Hope you enjoy it.”

“I’m sure I will. I’ll definitely be back for more,” you grin, taking the box. “Bye!” You wave as you walk out of the door. Osamu sighed, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his palm.

“That went well, Myaa-sam. Very coordinated.”

Osamu glared at the editor who was perched at the counter. “Shut up ‘Kaashi.”

“Not at all,” Akaashi replied. “That was actually her first day at the cafe. I met her there later when I picked up ‘Nami.”

Heat crept up Osamu’s neck. “Well thanks for the warning!”

“Did you have a nice time though?”

Osamu pouted, turning his back to Akaashi as he molded the onigiri. “..Yes.”

*****

“Iza says you come to the cafe every day?” Osamu jumps, looking up to find you perched at the counter in Akaashi’s usual seat. It had been a few days since you’d both officially met at the cafe. He flushes, before nodding. You beam up at him. “Great! What do you normally get and what have you liked the best so far?” In front of you was a journal, an abundance of sticky notes sticking out.

Osamu tries to focus on the fillings in front of him, fighting off the heat that crept up through him. He had invited you to stop by, after all. “I usually just get whatever she recommends to me,” he says finally.

You pout, pen tapping on the pages. “That’s not helpful!”

He chuckles, nodding. He hated when Atsumu and his other friends gave him empty compliments in terms of his cooking. “Let’s see...I’ve tried the chocolate dipped sesame cookie. That was definitely an interesting one. I liked how that paired with the dark roast.”

Humming, you jot that down. “Maybe we should do a pairing menu,” you muse to yourself. “Like how fancy restaurants do with their wines.”

“That’d be a good idea,” he comments, focusing on molding the onigiri. “I’m sure you get a lot of customers who don’t know what pairs well together in terms of coffee and cakes.”

Shrugging, you grin as you say, “Iza’s normally really good at convincing people to make the ‘correct’ choices.” You let out a soft giggle. Osamu nods, chuckling as he remembers the stories that Akaashi had told him about how he’d met his own girlfriend. You flit through your journal; Osamu can see photos of the pastries flashing by. “What else have you tried?”

He cleared his throat, thinking back. “I really enjoyed the beehive cake! That was the first thing I tried.” Osamu packages the onigiri he had been working on, calling the order number and handing it to his customer. “What type of onigiri do you want?”

You wave a hand, still looking at your book, “whatever you’ll have me try.”

He grins, “your wish is my command, princess.”

Your head snaps up, heat creeping through your body. Clearing your throat, you avert your eyes. “So, pastries?”

Osamu nods, turning away to subtly hide his own blush. “The beehive cake was really good. I enjoyed how the almond and cinnamon complemented the custard, and how the dark roast Izanami gave me tasted along with it.” Humming, you jot down more notes. “You don’t do a lot of Japanese pastries, do you?”

You shrug, chewing on your pen-cap. “It’s not that I don’t do Japanese pastries, I just feel like European pastries can be difficult to find and they’re all so interesting not to try and make it.” You light up, picking up a box. “Speaking of which, I brought you something.”

Osamu glances over, placing down onigiri he had just finished for you. “What is it?”

Opening up the box, you reveal powdered donuts. “These are beignets,” you explain. “You can eat these with fruit toppings,” you pulled out a mason jar of a raspberry-strawberry compote, “or chocolate. Or condensed milk. Or really any combination!” Two more mason jars were pulled out with the condensed milk and melted dark chocolate. He could still see the steam on the pastries.

“You sure know how to spoil a guy,” he teases, putting the plate of the onigiri in front of you so you could taste. He slips into the seat to the left of you, silver eyes scanning the offerings. “What coffee goes best with this?”

“Café au lait!” You perk up, pulling out a thermos. Osamu grabs two cups, letting you pour the coffee into the cups.

Osamu plucks one of the beignets up, eating it plain. “So what type of pastries are these?” He asks, his cheeks bulging. You giggle, offering him a napkin to brush off the excess powdered that clung to his cheeks.

“They’re French-influenced, but originate in New Orleans.”

“New Orleans?”

“It’s in the states.”

“Ah.” He finishes it, sipping the coffee. Osamu takes out some plates, letting you decorate the other beignets for him to try. He watches as you gently spoon the compote over a beignet, drizzling a bit of the chocolate on top. “What inspired you to make these?”

“Princess and the Frog.”

He glanced at you with an incredulous look on his face. “The Disney movie?”

You nod, glancing up at him before going back to your beignets. “I love Disney movies, and I really like her character arc in that one.” This time, you were drizzling the melted chocolate and condensed milk over another beignet. You push them towards him, grinning as you wait for him to try it.

Osamu pushes the onigiri towards you. You both simultaneously take a bite out of your respective foods. Your eyes widen as you look up at Osamu. His heart skipped a beat at your excited expression. “I really like this filling! What is it?”

“It’s a tsukudani filling. I simmered some pork and seaweed into a mixture of mirin and soy sauce to make it.”

Humming appreciatively, you quickly cram the rest of the onigiri into your mouth. “I definitely need to come here before each of my shifts,” you mumble. “This is so filling.”

Osamu finishes the fruity beignet, trying a bit of the chocolate one. “Of the ones with extras, I think I like the fruit one the best,” he comments, sipping the coffee. “But both are super good.”

“What makes it better?”

“I think it’s just the flavours. The dough is nice and fluffy, and takes the flavours well. The condensed milk is a little too sweet for me even with the dark chocolate, but the tartness of the raspberry balances out the sweetness of the strawberry and the coffee.” He smacks his lips thoughtfully. “Only change I could think of is maybe adding the dark chocolate so there’s a bit more of that bitterness to balance it out.”

“That makes sense,” you nod as you jot down his comments.

He turns towards you, leaning on his left hand. The plates of taste-testing were spread out in front of you, and the coffee cups sat in between both of you. His right hand rests on the table, drumming slightly. “What made you want to bake?”

“I just love sharing my food with people,” you admit softly. “I don’t really care to make sales. I just want to see people’s faces change when they try something I’ve created or change their moods, y’know?” You look at the box of beignets that you had brought over. “After all, food is a universal language.”

Osamu hummed, nodding. “I feel the same way.” He sips at the coffee you’d brought over. “I used to be a big volleyball guy. My twin is actually a pro right now.”

“Atsumu right?” You ask, eyes raising to meet silver.

Osamu nods, nose wrinkled slightly, “yeah him. He wanted us to take the volleyball world by storm. Volleyball was fun and all, but that wasn’t where my passion was. I would’ve been eaten alive if I even tried,” Osamu snorted. “But food, that’s where I knew I could thrive. I love seeing people come in and trying my food, how their faces light up at the first bite. That makes me so happy, y’know?”

“Believe me, I know.” Tentatively, your hand reaches out to grasp his wrist. He looked down between your hands, releasing the coffee cup to slot his fingers between yours.

You both sit in silence a moment longer, enjoying each other’s presence. Feeling less alone now that you’ve found someone that felt the same way you did. “I should go. My shift starts soon.” As you make a move to stand, Osamu squeezes your hand causing you to freeze in place.

Osamu glances up at you. “Come over to my place sometime.”

You turn, looking down at him with a bemused expression on your face. “Why’s that?”

“I’ll make you dinner,” he proposes, grinning.

You tap on your chin, contemplatively. “Only if you let me make dessert.”

“Deal.”

*****

AN: Happy birthday Osamu! idk why but I find it so much easier to write for Osamu than for Atsumu 🤷‍♀️ and yes, that was Akaashi in the beginning scene!

Izanami is the Reader from Recommendations

All one-shots in the Hidden Corner series exist in the same universe where characters may interact with the ‘Reader’ from the other one-shots. I will be giving each ‘Reader’ a place-holder name when they are referenced in the other one-shots to ease confusion!

This will be a side-project, so new updates will generally not be scheduled!

general taglist: @scrappydaisies @newfriendjen @kyomihann @cheerysparkle @seiijixcia @shoyomeow @atsunakaashi

Please contact me if you would like to be a part of my general taglist! 💞 Check out this link for information about my taglists.

#osamu miya x reader #osamu miya fluff #osamu x reader #haikyuu imagines #hq imagines #haikyuu #hq #haikyuu fanfiction #happy birthday osamu #happy birthday osamu miya #haikyuu AU #hq AU #haikyuu cafe AU #hq cafe AU #osamu miya #hidden-otaku-stuff #hidden corner series

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dragonrajafanfiction · 3 years

Text

Ghosts’ Journey (Part 2): The History of Chime Gen

Here it is... the whole thing. I wanted to cut it but there was no good place. I did my best with the translation. (FINGEL PLEASE SPEAK HUMAN) Because this is important information to the Chime/Ruri fandom the Content of his speech is nearly exactly as it is in the novel.

@rurifangirl By request

The plan was to wake up before him. You had learned from Z that Japanese men were conservative. You didn’t know each other. He was out of it. He might think you took advantage of him. That sort of thing happened in Black Swan.

But he was also human and humans needed touch. Z’s hug transformed you even more than Herzog’s laughter. You didn’t get any affectionate human touch as a child. You would give him that precious touch so his mind could heal. Or maybe you would give him that touch because you desperately needed it yourself. Maybe you gave it to Ruri because he could give it to you and not require anything in return as a doll-person.

These were the excuses you gave yourself until you fell asleep in his arms.

As soon as you opened your eyes and felt the sun coming through the small window, you realized that you failed your mission objective. Ruri was sitting up next to you while you lay on the pillow. He was looking out the window. His eyes were no longer empty, but they held no joy. They were still, without any spark.

Guilt makes you freeze momentarily. “If you wanna push me off the bed, you can.”

The words shocked him out of his reverie. He looked down at you with those dark eyes and you detected a strange hesitation. His eyes meet yours and shift away without any friction. “You can stay if you want,” he said in a soft melodic voice.

“Sorry. I meant to wake up before you. Are you… in any pain? Physically I mean. The rest is obvious.” You sit up and swing over the edge of the bed. Ugly black veins are pulsing up your feet. The dragon blood in your body was now showing up more permanently. You flexed your toes and tried to calm it.

“No.”

“Good.”

“I want to apologize to you. For making a promise I won’t be able to keep.” He said.

“And what promise was that?” In this light, Ruri Kazama was no star performer. He looked shockingly ordinary, able to blend in with the masses on the streets of Japan. You probably wouldn’t recognize him were it not for his long hair.

“All of them. It’s all a deception.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific.” You whisper, looking up at him seriously. On the one hand, it wouldn’t be the first time you were deceived by a man, but on the other hand, you personally understood the intense warping of the mind that came with being a child of Herzog.

“I made you believe that I was Ruri Kazama. That I had power and wealth. That I could lead the Devil Clan by defeating the King General.” He paused for a long time before whispering. “None of that was true.”

You shrug it off. “Okay. I’ll believe you. But you’ll have to understand that was not why I pursued you. And I’m sorry I gave you that impression. If anything, I have many more reasons to stick with you now.”

“The King General will kill you.” He said gravely.

“Not if Bondarev gets to me first.” You quip and smile but his sharp intense glare makes your smile falter a moment. You stare at each other unblinkingly for a moment. “Look. Don’t play this… ‘you need to stay away from me’ line.” You whisper, but your tone is kind. “I will be in danger no matter what. I should be dead by now. And every day I live is on borrowed time.”

You roll up your sleeves to show him the black veins beneath pale skin dotted with sparkling gold scales. “Can I at least have your company for the time I have left?”

Chime Gen gives a sad shake of his head. Maybe if he were in another state, he would have insisted and argued. But now he just gives up and hangs his head, his hair covering his face. When you reach out to brush it back, his hand catches yours and gently places it in your lap.

You bite the inside of your lip and fight your internal panic. He wasn’t feeling well. He had a humiliating and terrifying night. You’d seen him at his lowest. He was revealed to be nothing but a doll, a marionette whose strings had been cut. So of course your affection was painful.

“What do you want right now?” Your voice is flat and expressionless.

“Can you bring me that box?”

He points over to an ornate wooden box. It had a curved metal handle and a pot-like metal lid. It had a few small drawers and two hooks with which to carry a long narrow pipe. Ruri knew what to do when you brought it. He took the pipe from the box and then opened the drawer.

“Can you tell me about this?” You ask quietly.

“This is called a kiseru. It uses a special kind of tobacco. You won’t find it outside of Japan.” He pulls a wood box covered with hand written script on rice paper. The smell of the leaves reaches your nose. It was tobacco but it had a richer, almost meaty aroma.

“You just roll it in a ball between your fingers and put it into the pipe like this.” The pipe was narrow and very long but Chime was so practiced that he could roll the tobacco in one hand and hold the pipe in the other. He stuffed the pipe and you held out the open box of matches. He glances at you but you keep your face carefully neutral. He takes the box of matches from you and strikes one. He pauses for two seconds and lights the tobacco. There’s a small compartment in this box that he drops the spent match in.

You set the box at the end of the bed and then sit next to him. He inhales deep and breathes out a long smooth stream of white that swirls around his face like mist. It smelled different from Caesar’s cigars, not as sweet, but this was the smell on his clothing when you found Ruri Kazama in the rain, fleeing from the Hydra operatives.

“It… doesn’t bother you?”

You shake your head. “I like it.”

He hasn’t pushed you off the bed yet so you stay there and watch him smoke. His eyes and mind were far away, like he’d gone on a long journey. All you could do was wait for him to come back.

You weren’t at peace for long when you heard Caesar’s voice coming through the door. "Then, as the best journalist among us, this great task falls on your shoulders! Whether it's psyching him up or hanging him up and beating him, get the information about the King General out of his mouth." Caesar opened the door to your room and pushed Fingel inside, "We’ll go have breakfast first, and, hopefully, we'll hear good news from you when we return."

Apparently, all the boys were awake and in the hallway. Fingel stumbled in, locked eyes with you and then flailed. “Aaah! Sorry, I’m interrupting!”

“You’re not.” You say with a sly smile. “We just finished.”

Chime inhaled sharply and coughed.

You flinched. “Sorry. I… I say things like this. I’ll shut up now.” You turn back to Fingel and the others and beckon them in. Then you look around. “Sorry, there’s nowhere to sit!”

“I’ll get something, you sit right there.” Caesar’s eyes hold a sly little light.

Caesar returned with chairs and they all sat around the bed while Chime silently finished off his pipe. He looked incredibly peaceful and you calmed yourself inside that you’d done and said the right thing.

The silence lasted for nearly five minutes and you were impressed with the boys’ fortitude. True to character, Caesar broke first. He kicked Fingel and nodded sharply towards Ruri.

Fingel, looking a little nervous, cleared his throat, and prepared an opening statement: "You have the right to remain silent."

It took everything in you not to crack a smile, even though you were practiced. So you followed the joke up with a withering look of absolute disdain while you clenched your stomach and held your breath.

Chime gently exhaled a mouthful of smoke, and his face was submerged in it, shielding him like a veil: "I know what you want to ask, and I will tell you. But please don't rush to ask me. Let me take my time to figure it out, so that it will be more clear."

You swivel your head to look at him, immediately concerned. The simple humble request moved you more than any of Ruri Kazama’s quick-wittedness. His voice was speaking like a small tired soul out of a grave. His eyes were heavy with sadness.

"My current appearance surprises you guys, right? Actually, this is my actual appearance. Every time you see me, I have more or less put on makeup. Only some of the makeup is so good that you can't see it." Chime Gen thought for a long time before he spoke again, "I have the same face as my brother, but I am not as good-looking as my brother. It’s only after wearing makeup that I look like him.”

“When I was young, I always thought how nice it would be if I could be like my brother. He’s so perfect that people used to wonder how an insignificant person like me could be his brother. We both have been fatherless for as long as we can remember. No one can really prove that we are brothers. There were times when people said we didn't look alike, and I hid and cried. I was such a weak character as a child."

You squint, not understanding. How could Chime say Chisei was perfect if Chisei couldn’t see the truth if it was standing right in front of him? He still supported Tachibana after realizing that he was turning people into Deadpool and planning to awaken the Light king. You tried to help Chisei only because Chime asked you to. It was not Ruri Kazama who asked you to. It was Chime.

Chime turns to you, seeing the look in your eyes. “We both grew up in the mountains. There was only one middle school in that town and every girl in the school had a crush on my brother -- or, at least, that was what I always believed. He was the team leader in the kendo department and the team leader in the basketball club, and the girls loved to watch him sweat and practice his sword in the sunset. He was so focused, so intense, that even if there was a wall in front of him, he would break it down. So, even though he was so cold that he didn't even look at the girls, the girls kept sneaking glances at him, day after day after day. You may think that my bloodline is better than my brother's, so I'm stronger than him, but you're wrong. My brother's strength is not in bloodline, it's in his heart. He is the kind of man who will go forward once he has decided, and he will be able to achieve great things. For example, if he decides to be a friend of justice, he will be a friend of justice all his life.”

If it were anyone else saying those words, you would have a fiery response to that. His brutal murder of Chance was his decision and you couldn’t persuade him to stop. But who’s fault was that really? He only turned into that killer after Chance’s blood acted up. Before that, he was Chance’s protector. His Savior. He was going to let him go.

“I’m not going to ask you for your forgiveness.” Those words. Chisei had made his decision about Chance. But he was okay that you stayed upset with him about it. In your mind, you look at Chisei over the gap between you again and wonder if you should still hold out hope for him.

"My brother said he must work hard because we do not have parents. Only by hard work will we not be looked down upon.”

“He said he was going to take the entrance exam to Tokyo University and take me to Tokyo one day. I just hated that I was a useless brother, that I can't get into Tokyo University and that I can't help my brother. Everything my brother does is so that he and I can have dignity. I really wanted to be like my brother: a determined man, so that I could stand by his side and be considered his brother. But I was also a little jealous of my brother. Why is he the same as me, but he is so good and I am so weak, being called girly? But I never wanted to outshine my brother, I just wanted to be able to share a little bit of my brother's glory... just a little bit less than him.”

"Then Tachibana Masamune came to the mountain and he said that both my brother and I had excellent bloodlines, and he would take one of us to Tokyo to train, and the other would stay in the mountain. If the former was killed, the latter would be the replacement. He said we could never tell the outside world that there were two Gen Clan children, and that the Gen family did not need two heads. As a matter of course, my brother was taken away as the future head of the family and I was left behind. I was his shadow. I have been his faceless shadow all my life. So sometimes I hated him too.”

He glanced at you but you said nothing. Beneath his words, the viper Bondarev slid. You couldn’t know exactly where he was in this whole story. But he separated Chisei from Chime. Chisei said his brother was ‘probably dead’. Were those Tachibana’s words? So that Chisei wouldn’t visit him?

"It was then that I met the King General, and he appeared to me as a man wearing a Noh theater mask.”

“I grew up loving noh and kabuki and was curious about this man in a noh mask, but the King General didn't actually know how to perform noh, he just knew the human heart too well. He started by coaching my performance and got to know me gradually. He would always meet with me alone and asked me not to tell my brother or anyone else. I didn't tell my brother because everything in this world is my brother's. I wanted the King General to be my teacher alone, something truly mine. King would say he saw my potential. He said I am better than my brother.”

Your eyes slide to one side as you hear the song of the manipulation. With just Bondarev alone, you didn’t hear it though you suspected it. It wasn’t until you heard the play of both Bondarev and Herzog that the sound of it became clear that these boys were being double teamed. That said, you also realized that both of these boys were plagued with a strong sense of pride. While he readily admitted he didn’t want to outshine his brother, at the same time, Chime didn’t want to be too low. And when King General promised him greatness, he fell for it.

"It was like I was living in a fantasy during that time. Every night, King would wait for me in the mountains, and we would stroll along the mountain paths until the moon was in the middle of the sky. Under the stars, he explained to me the characters in the kabuki, and he gave me a strong drink which warmed my body. I was not tired even after walking with him all night in the mountains. Suddenly, one day I noticed a girl smiling at me shyly, with an expression I had never seen before. I was delighted at first, thinking I could learn that expression, but as I kept practicing that shy smile in the mirror, I realized why she was smiling at me like that; because I had become beautiful. My whole being looked like it was glowing.""

"That wine was mixed with evolutionary drugs?" Caesar asked.

“Yes, I am the only one in this world who swallowed that many evolutionary drugs without losing control of who I was. My own blood can restrain the evolutionary drugs' side-effects. My blood is more poisonous than evolutionary drugs." Chime said slyly.

"Sorry to interrupt you... Please continue." Caesar said.

Chime Gen nodded: "I can't remember the rest. Those memories are very vague, I only know that the Final Police Report said that the town's serial killings of female high school students were all caused by the same person. Because that person left, they closed the case."

"What does that mean?" Caesar did not understand.

"I killed a total of fourteen girls and turned their bodies into waxed human statues and placed them in the deepest basement of the school, where I sewed kabuki costumes for the dead and practiced imitating the women. This incident was considered by the Yakuza Hydra family to be a crime committed by a deadpool. So my brother was sent back to that town on a clean-up mission. That night I killed the fourteenth girl right before his eyes. He found me when I was in the basement preparing the corpse, dressed in women's clothing, singing."

Chime spoke softly, "I was stabbed through the heart by my brother. He threw my corpse into a deep well, locked the lid forever, and then buried the whole well. I think it was because I became the devil in his eyes and he was afraid that the devil might rise from the dead. Even if he had my body burned, he wouldn’t rest easy. He wanted to be able to see my bones, my body at the bottom.”

All of you shivered in unison, and the thing that was even more frightening than that atrocity was that Chime Gen talked about such bloody matters as if he were talking about another person, calm to the point of indifference.

"I know what you're thinking. You're wondering if I've gone crazy. Clearly, I killed so many people, but I talk about it as if those things have nothing to do with me. But I really don't think I killed those girls. During that time, I was having a nightmare, a nightmare in which I lived a happy life, in which my charm conquered every girl in the school. I finally wouldn't disgrace my brother. I asked them to go to the river to see the stars. They came shyly. I took their hands and they all accepted, and then I cut their throats with a knife. At their happiest moment. But their beautiful expressions weren’t preserved on their own. They were made into statues by me, so that I kept the most beautiful side of them. In the dream, I felt that there was nothing wrong with this. Until someone outside the dream was calling me, I suddenly realized that it was my brother who came back. My brother came home to see me. I suddenly turned around and came back to reality all of a sudden, but I didn't have time to hug my brother before I ran into his blade head-on.”

"When I woke up again, I was on a huge stage. There was a beam of light hitting me from above. I was wearing the clothes of The Great Maiden in the Clouds, with long hair and full makeup. I didn't have any wounds on my body, but the pain from being stabbed in the chest seemed to remain there. I was sitting on a gorgeous throne. And next to me stood various girls in Kabuki costumes, each one beautiful. It seemed like I had just taken a nap while my attendants waited for me to wake up. I suddenly couldn't tell reality from illusion. I felt like I was still in that basement full of corpses. I couldn't tell if the girls around me were living or dead. The girls and the members of the Devil Clan sitting on the stage applauded vigorously as if they had just watched a thrilling performance. The King announced to everyone that he had found the true successor to the Great Three Clans, and that was me, and that I would guide the Devil Clan into the future. Their faces ran with tears. I asked the King General what was real and what was not, and the King General simply said congratulations on the awakening of the Emperor."

"So you remember all these things, only you think some of them happened in a dream but some were reality?" Chu Zihang asked.

"Yes, the serial killing was like a dream to me. Everything in the dream was blurry. Only the faces of those girls and the moment I killed them were clear. In the dream, I seemed to become another person. Killing was not a terrible thing for me. It was a beauty. I would be ecstatic for the moment when the girl's dying smile had not completely faded, before despair and panic had appeared, and I would be excited to see the blood spilled." Chime Gen said, "But I look back on that state afterwards, especially when I think of all the dead bodies I had sung to in that damp basement, and I'm so scared and disgusted that I can't help vomiting every time."

"So you don't deny that you killed those girls?" Caesar said.

"I can't deny it, I remember every detail so clearly. If I didn't do it myself, who could have put those details into my head?" Chime Gen said, "It's as if there was an evil spirit hiding in my body. That evil spirit woke up and took control of me. The really gorgeous and charming part of me is that spirit. As for me, I'm just a mediocre person."

Lu Mingfei quietly shivered.

You sat still, not looking at anyone. Now your hair fell in front of you. Ruri was silent. You could see him watching you with a cold expression a moment before turning back to the window.

"Did he exchange anything with you?" Lu Mingfei asked cautiously, "I mean the evil spirit inside your body."

Chime Gen smiled indifferently, "I am not going to excuse myself. I am the evil spirit. The evil spirit is me. The evil spirit is another state of mine. It is one with me."

"That's why you hate King General so much, because it was the King General who drew out the evil spirit in your body. He went to the mountain to find you, in fact, to find the evil spirit in your body." Chu Zihang said.

"Yes, and I failed to resist his temptation. He was the one who created the unbreakable barrier between me and my brother, and, from that day on, my brother was no longer my brother, and the relationship between him and me was between a Devil Slayer and a Devil." Chime said, "The King General ruined my life and turned me into his 'Dragon King'. I wanted to get rid of his control, so I had to kill him. Otherwise, he could find me no matter where I fled. Even to the ends of the earth. Last night, I thought I had succeeded. I thought I had shaken him off. But I was wrong, he could not be shaken off, we two evil spirits were destined to go all the way."

You lift your head slightly. You said the same thing about Renata’s killer Bondarev. You understood this. It would all end in blood eventually. There was no other way.

"Do you believe that there are really evil spirits in this world that cannot be killed?" Caesar turned to Chu Zihang, "I mean King General."

"As I said before, although my reason tells me that there should be no such thing as ghosts in the world," Chu Zihang said slowly, "but what I have seen is beyond human understanding."

"He will come for me, and it is useless for me to hide anywhere. No one in this world can kill him, and neither can I." Chime said quietly, "He also took away the power he gave me."

"What does that mean?" Caesar asked.

"That banging sound. That's what he used to control me. He can use the sound of the clapper to put me into the state of the 'evil spirit'. In that state, I will have the power of the bloodline, my confidence and determination will skyrocket. Kazama Ruri is actually the name of that evil spirit. He can also use the sound of the clapper to make the evil spirit sleep, so that I can become a Chime Gen. With my current strength, I can't even hold the hilt of my sword. When he finds his way here, I have no choice but to sit and wait for death."

“Is this consistent with what you know?” Chu Zihang asked, addressing you.

“Yes. If I may… speak.” You look at Chime. “I know about the clapper sound. I was present with King General, when he was Dr. Herzog. I saw how he can turn access to dragon words on and off… although I was raised by him, I was not given the treatment that would put me under his control.”

“So you know?” Chime asked.

You nod slowly. “I know a lot.”

Chime turned his pipe upside down and tapped it into the ashtray.

"Lu Mingfei also reacted to that banging sound, but Lu Mingfei didn't seem to switch any state!" Caesar said.

You turn to Lu Mingfei in shock. “What?!”

“Given that lowlife face he’s putting right now, he’s definitely the real Lu Mingfei. Accept no substitutions.” Fingal nodded rapidly.

You continue to stare at Lu Mingfei for an uncomfortably long time until Mingfei just drives his eyes into the floor. Lu Mingfei is Z’s brother. Z was with you in Black Swan… then… that means...

Caesar pondered for a moment: "Initially, we thought that The White King was our enemy, but now it seems that the King will be no less terrifying than a Dragon God. This situation is tricky for both us and Hydra. It seems that we should join forces with your brother, and, as for the conflict between the Academy and Hydra, we can take our time to resolve it afterwards."

"You have to gain my brother's trust first. He doesn't trust you, much less me. Even if he has watched me attempt to assassinate the King General, he will have thought it was an internal fight in the Devil Clan. With the death of Tachibana Masamune, and with his position in mind, he is bound to make his own plans. Tachibana Masamune's plan was to destroy the White King and make the Hydra family independent again. To take control of the future of the Japan Branch. In this case, my brother will not cooperate with you." Chime Gen said, "He will find a way to kill the King General himself."

You’re silent through all of this talk. None of this is relevant to you after all. You’re still reeling from the revelation that Chime had killed women like you before under the influence of the King General. Although he might not even realize it was the clapper sound causing the killing sprees, he recognized the split personality state that sometimes people were put in when they heard the clapper. You recall the handsome and flirty Anton, who was changed to the Anton who was dead inside, what was changed to the Anton that was like a reptile.

The fact that Lu Mingfei was also susceptible to this sound shook you as well. Lu Mingfei’s sudden great headache on the roof during the Tokyo Tower mission: Was that also a result of the clapper? You didn’t hear any clapper that you could recall at that time. But still, while Lu Mingfei cringed and moaned in front of you, you tried to speak with him and your words were not reaching him. It was like he was turning into a doll, but didn’t go all the way.

"I'm not doubting your brother's fighting ability, but you’re clearly the smarter one. I don’t think that your brother is clever enough to face the King." Caesar said.

"Brother still holds the last card, he has Erii Uesugi in his hand."

"Erii is more powerful than you?" Lu Mingfei asked.

Chime Gen shook his head slowly: "I don't know what Erii Uesugi is, but I really don't have the certainty to say that Ruri Kazama can beat her. She seems to be extremely crippled in some ways, but her kind of catastrophic killing power is a power on the level of a Dragon King."

“Japan is really a place full of monsters." Caesar said with an exasperated sigh, "Get some rest, we still have to go to breakfast. Want us to bring you something?"

"After hearing all the things I've done, do you still see me as a friend?" Chime looked up and looked Caesar in the eyes.

"If you do another vicious act in front of me, I will stick my knife in your heart just like your brother; but until then, we should be considered allies, if not friends." Caesar walked out of the room without looking back and the others followed. "If the King will indeed find you here, we will keep you safe."

The door closed, and Chime was silent for a long, long time, sighing softly, "It would be foolish to make rash statements like who you will protect until you truly know the King's General but thank you." Chime looked at you. “What say you? MC?”

You stare after the closed door, eyes empty. “I understand what you mean now. When you said the King General will kill me, you meant to say, he will use you to do it. Right?” You look in his direction.

Chime Gen’s eyes were sad, so sad.

You close your eyes and nod in confirmation. “I understand.” You take a deep breath and turn to him, leaning in closer. “But I’m not giving up.” You whisper. “First, we have to survive. Then… after that, we can be together. But you promised me you would not give up your life. Keep that promise. Don’t seek death. Okay?”

You squeeze his hands tightly and he returns that squeeze with a firm grip of his own, a grip so tight it was painful. The pain in your hands distracted you from the pain in your heart. When your hands finally released, that throbbing ache in the bones of your hand was as good as a kiss.

You get up and walk quickly out of the room. Your things were no longer in the bath house so you had to head down the hall to the elevator. Much to your shock, Caesar was there waiting for you alone. You stop, hesitant. “Lose your appetite?”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. That must have been very hard for you to hear.” He stood, one hand in his pocket. He looked almost too innocent and you wonder if he was eavesdropping.

You shrug. “It is what it is. Until the King General dies… Now if you excuse me, I have to pack.”

You step around him and he catches your arm. “What do you mean pack?” His blue eyes snap at you.

You look up at him in confusion. “I’m leaving. I can’t stay here. The …” You stop talking and sigh, massaging your forehead. Do you really have to spell it out for him? “Okay. Listen. The King General wants me dead just as much as Bondarev. He must know I love Ruri Kazama by now and if he comes here, he will not kill me. He will use Chime to do it, just because he’s that much of an asshole! He’s the type of person who would punish Chime for rebelling like this. He’s used Chime as a murder weapon before, and he’ll do it again!”

“You can’t go out there. Chisei or Hydra or Bondarev, if he’s still alive as you think he is, are still around and hunting you. How are you going to defend yourself on your own?!”

Caesar didn’t let you go but you jerked out of his grip. “I’ll have to find a way! But I can’t stay here and be a sitting duck for Herzog. You heard what he said! Herzog will find him no matter where he runs. And he’s the type of person who would do this!”

“No,” Caesar’s eyes were firm. “That Gen brother needs you. He would never hurt you.”

You laugh but there’s no joy in it. Your frustration and anger is building in your eyes. “What part of mind control don’t you understand! Do you think he would ever hurt the 14 girls he already hurt? Why am I different?”

“Because you’re already in his heart! That’s why he’s sending you away to protect you right?” Caesar hissed.

You shake your head and raise your arms only to drop them in frustration. “Caesar. … I told him not to send me away. But after hearing what he said, … this is my decision.”

“No.” Caesar dug his heels in. You could see that firm immovable light in his eyes. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He stepped around you easily. It was confrontational, blocking you. He was serious. He was between you and the elevator and your back is against the wall.

You look at him in disbelief. “You’re just going to let me sleep in the same place as the murder weapon?”

“Hey!” He hissed. He bangs his fist against the wall next to your face and there’s a crack visible in the plaster. He points down the hall toward Kazama’s room. “He is not a murder weapon. That is the man you love. He needs you to believe in him!”

Your eyes have gone distant and dull. You couldn’t believe those words had come out of your mouth. After everything that had happened to you. How could you ever say something like that? You feel like your world is spinning. The logic of survival dictated that you leave him and stay away from him. So you continue to protest. “Caesar… Herzog is counting on me to stay close to Ruri. He’s betting on it. He’ll set the stage. He’ll make it beautiful and when it’s at its most beautiful and we’re so close… Ruri will...”

Caesar takes a deep breath and shakes out his hand. “So we’ll think of a plan B.”

“What plan B? None of us can beat Ruri Kazama if he loses his mind to the clapper.” You whisper hoarsely. “I don’t care as much about dying as much as I do about breaking his heart. If the King General makes him kill me.” You look into his eyes, begging him to understand. “Caesar… it will destroy him. I don’t want to give King General that satisfaction. That’s what I really care about.”

Then you see in Caesar's eyes a black boiling rage like a ferocious thundercloud! A killing aura! “I want to see this bastard try. I don’t believe in Ghosts or evil spirits or any of that fake ass shit.” Caesar spat. “You know better than anyone else here. King General is just a man. A man behind a curtain of tricks. You already saw through his trap today. If you run off, you’ll just run into his back-up trap. It’s better to deal with the devil you know, go about our business as usual and set up a trap of our own.”

You finally relent. “Fine. What do you have in mind?”

“I’ll think of something.” Caesar rubs the back of his head. He glares at you when you laugh. “In the meantime, stay put.”

“God… okay…” You cover your eyes with your hand.

“You just need to stay calm! He knows you’re smart but guys like him have low opinions of women. Once he sees you falling all over you’re favorite guy like you did last night, he’ll think you’re just like all the rest of the so called ‘weaker sex’” He puts this in air quotes. “He’ll let down his guard.”

“Yeah…” You’re still uneasy, but you’ve started to calm down, rubbing your arm and looking away.

“Trust me… Trust me!” He gives you a firm pat on the shoulder. “Good hustle, MC. Go upstairs and get dressed and meet us for breakfast. Then I’ll have you serve your man!”

#dragon raja #Chime Gen #Yuan Zhinu #Ruri Kazama

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