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peachsukii · 1 year ago

Text

— Sticky Heat

summary: on a hot summer day, fem!reader is frustrated while studying for the written portion of finals during their senior year of UA High. bakugo has a simple solution to help her relax - just a quick trip to the vending machines outside for a "drink." tags & warnings: 18+ MDNI | CW; Smut - oral (give/receive), semi-voyeurism, dirty talk, cumplay (kind of), praise, minor dom/brat dynamic, lots of teasing | fluff, lovers (bf/gf), somewhat porn-with-plot, threat of getting caught, midoriya and todoroki are goofballs a/n: katsuki is the world’s biggest tease in my mind until you challenge him on it, then he melts over the competitiveness of who can unravel who first! ** this is also my first attempt at smut lmao so !! ꒰ Ao3 version | word count; 3,111 ꒱

“Goddammit!” you curse abruptly, startling Bakugo out of his study trance.

“Th’ fucks your issue?” he asks, irritated.

You huff, slamming the textbook in front of you shut. “I’m never gonna remember any of this shit. I can’t even get my flash cards right.”

He lets out an exasperated sigh, obviously annoyed that you’re being disruptive to his own study session. He couldn’t hold it against you, though, this shit was difficult to memorize.

He stands, the chair beneath him scraping against the floor.

“C’mon, break time.”

You look at him quizzically. “I’m not -“

“Don’t care. Get up.” He’s ordering you and no longer asking.

Fine.

Bakugo grabs your hand, tugging you out of the classroom and downstairs to the vending machine area - a small alcove under the stairs that sits just outside the first floor. He rounds back to the machines and stands there with you for a second. He seems to be…looking around?

“Kat, I’m said not thirst-“

He interrupts you with a devilish, toothy grin - pushing you through the narrow space between the vending machines, following close behind you. Both of you pop into the crawl space under the stairs. It’s large enough to allow you both to stand, but small enough that the machines block the view under the stairway.

With no hesitation, he’s boxing you into the concrete wall, slipping a knee in between your legs to keep them separated.

Oh. Oh. You understand now.

Bakugo’s closing the gap between the two of you, bending down to your ear as his hands greedily roam around atop your uniform. “Now, are you gonna be a good girl and shut the fuck up for 10 minutes, or do I have to shut you up?”

The moan that escapes you is visceral, starving for his touch just at the sound of his husky voice. Fuck, you curse internally - he had you melting in the palm of his hands and he hadn’t even touched you yet.

He dives into your neck, nipping playfully at your skin as his left hand trails up your bare thigh, playing with the hemline of your skirt. He licks a stripe from your collarbone back up to your earlobe, a chill - and heat - traveling through you concurrently. His breath his hot against your ear.

“Mmm, there she is.” He growls as his hand leaves your thigh and slips underneath your skirt, teasing your clothed clit. “My good girl.”

You swear you could unravel right then and there, no physical touch needed. Bakugo’s praise is addicting - a high you know you’ll never be able to chase anywhere else. You quiver beneath his touch, sucking the air through your teeth to subdue another moan.

”Hah, Kat…,” you whimper breathlessly, face reddening with embarrassment.

“Yes, baby?” He’s purrs, drinking up every sound spilling from your pretty lips. You can practically feel outline of the shit-eating sneer creeping over his lips as he traces your jawline with his tongue. Hastily, his fingers leave your panties as he’s kneeling down, kissing the plush of your thighs and settling on his knees.

“F-fuck,” you squeak, daring to glance down over your skirt. Bakugo locks his gaze with yours, half-lidded eyes full of hunger - starved, even. Biting your lip, you nod, and that’s all the permission he needs to proceed to devour you like a predator eating his prey.

Before you can even blink, his fingers are tugging your panties down your thighs, practically ripping them from your legs as you hurriedly step out of them. He chuckles to himself as he shoves them in to the pocket of his slacks.

”Maybe you'll get these back later,” he teases.

You make a mental note in your heat-riddled stupor to grab them from him afterward.

Bakugo forcefully lifts your leg over his shoulder to access your already glistening sex, halting for a second before his mouth becomes flush with your skin. The gasp that escapes you as he gives sensually teasing licks to your sticky center fuels his own feral desire, enraptured with how your body reacts to his touch. You’ve been together long enough to know each other’s bodies by heart, but he’ll never grew tired of hearing how easily undone you become when you’re turned on - especially just for him.

His tongue runs over your clit daintily, goading a sensual moan out of you. He continues with lazy strokes, lavishly enjoying all of your mewling and squirming. The thick air of the hot day only added to the pleasure, a glimmer of sweat on your exposed thighs.

God, she tastes fucking heavenly, he heatedly thinks to himself. If allowed, he’d eat you out every fucking day of the week. Who gives a shit about sparring matches when he could be making a mess of you instead?

Lost in the moment, you can't help but roll your hips against his mouth, desperate for him to pick up the pace as your hand tangles in his spiky blonde locks. He groans at your demand, the vibrations edging you closer to your white-hot release. God, you loved when he moaned. It was so fucking hot and sent you catapulting toward your own orgasm on the regular.

"Someone's impatient today," he growls before diving back in-between your thighs.

He slides a finger into your aching heat, curling it inside of you as he continues to suck and lap at your clit at a tantalizing pace. Just as you feel your release approaching, you hear footsteps nearby.

You freeze, your grip in Bakugo’s hair tightening, motioning him to stay completely still. He pauses, leaning back on his knees to look up at you, panting silently. A breath hitches in your throat as you see your juices dripping down his jaw. It catches you so off guard that you only a few seconds to slap your free hand over your mouth - quieting the whore-ish moan that threatens to escape your lips.

He licks his own lips with a satisfactory grin, knowing full well he’s got you right where he wants you.

”Todoroki, what do you want to drink?” you hear Midoriya call out, presumably skimming the drink options in the machine on the other side.

The realization dawns on you that one wrong move - one noise - could draw his attention and catch you in the act. All Midoriya would need to do is peak in-between the machines at the right angle to see your silhouettes.

The thought of getting caught with Bakugo's face covered in your spend is thrilling. You squeeze your eyes shut tightly at the thought, willing it away before your lust-fueled mind can convince you otherwise.

Bakugo sees your reaction, grimacing as he shoots you a salacious glare. It sends another rush of heat to your throbbing center as you pleadingly shake your head ‘no.'

Of course, he doesn’t listen.

Katsuki Bakugo is not patient and always finishes what he starts.

Don’t you fucking dare, Katsuki, I swear to g-

Your thought is cut short as he wiggles the lone finger inside of you, dipping it in and out of your folds. His movements are slow, inaudibly coaxing you along - daring you not to make a sound. You bite your hand, throwing your head back against the wall with a soft thump.

You hear a second set of footsteps, assuming it's Todoroki joining Midoriya to browse through the selection of drinks. How long does it take to pick a damn drink?!

"Green tea sounds nice," Todoroki says, depositing coins into the machine while Midoriya ponders between four options. You pray that he'll become less indecisive in the next few seconds before you unceremoniously crumble where you stand.

Fucking hell, Izuku, just pick something! you scream in your head, cursing his inability to make a simple choice. Granted, he has no idea you are desperately wiling him to leave so you can...finish.

"I'll go with milk tea, then!" Midoriya beams, the machine whirring as the drink is dispensed into the pick up slot.

Please, for fucks sake, leave!

You're too focused on listening to boys that you almost let a whimper slip out when Bakugo stuffs a second finger inside you, greedily recollecting your attention. His fingers curl at your g-spot, reigniting that searing pleasure from earlier within your abdomen.

This is torture.

"Alright, let's head back to the library. Uraraka and Yaoyorozu are waiting for us!"

Fucking finally!

You're almost in the clear, just a little longer...

He slips in a third goddamn finger, your chest heaving at the sudden intensity, eyes rolling in your head with silent ecstasy. You can feel the humidity radiating from his hands as he's knuckle deep, your trembling thighs threatening to give away at any moment. On instinct, you smack your free hand against the back of the vending machine to catch yourself from falling, a loud thud echoing around you two.

Your eyes shoot open in horror as you hear Midoriya from down the hall. “Hey, did you hear that?”

Bakugo ceases his movements, listening for any additional footsteps returning their way.

“It was probably from upstairs, Class B was moving desks around earlier.”

Holy shit - you could kiss Todoroki right now. You’ll have to thank the bastard later…without telling him about what you’re thankful for. They proceed down the hall until you think they’re no longer in earshot.

Not skipping a beat, Bakugo ferociously dives back into your mess of a cunt, removing his fingers with an audible squelch and tongue-fucking you with vigor. The stimulation draws you right back to your tipping point, just about to cross the threshold into orgasm as he bluntly withdraws his tongue. He rocks back on his knees again, shoving two digits back into your sweltering sex as he glares up at you.

“Go on baby - beg.” His words drip with carnality, a sinful gleam reflecting in his ruby irises as his fingers continue to slide in and out of you, your slick walls madly pulsing around them.

You have no will left in you to protest, not even playfully. You could faint with the way he’s staring at you, proudly displaying his achievement thus far all over his face.

”Oh my fuck-god dammit, Kat, please,” you plead, as hushed as possible. “I’m so fucking close.”

“Please what?” He leans forward, swiping a flick of his tongue across your clit.

God, you could punch him right now if you weren’t so fucking horny.

“Please make me come already, Katsuki - fuck!”

“Your wish is my command, princess.”

Bakugo replaces his fingers with his tongue for a final time, rotating from your clit to your entrance in fluid motions. His actions are getting sloppier as his own desire takes over, another moan pouring out of him as you clench your fingers in his hair. Your skin begins to prickle, a heat rash (in two senses) spreading flush all over your body. The noises spilling out of you are incoherent, no longer in control of your own volume. You smack a hand over your mouth a second time to muffle yourself when you feel Bakugo’s hand blindly smack at your arm.

“I wanna hear your pretty ass moans,” he demands as he bites at your thigh. “Don’t you fuckin’ dare shut up now.”

That’s more than enough to thrust you over the edge.

The thread tugging in your core snaps with one final roll of your hips against him, a wave of euphoria washing over you - leaving you feverish against the summer heat. He can feel your walls clench around his tongue as your body convulses. His fingers dig into your thighs, supporting your weight on his one shoulder as your body becomes boneless, legs shaking as he drinks in your arousal. You brace yourself against the wall with your free hand, the other still blissfully entwined in his hair.

The fireworks in your stomach begin to die down as your orgasm wains, trying to catch your breath as a bead of sweat runs from your forehead and over your temple. Bakugo laps at your slit unhurriedly before sitting back with your leg still whisked over his shoulder. He’s panting, and fuck, that will never not be hot, with a few drops of sweat emerging from his hairline and settling at his jaw.

You swing your leg off his shoulder with the shred of energy left in your body and stumble to a somewhat upright position.

“Christ, Kats-,” you begin to whisper as Bakugo stands to his feet, yanking you off the wall and flush against his own body. He cups your chin in his hands, forcing you to make eye contact with him.

"You're fucking gorgeous."

You don’t even have a moment to process his words as he’s aggressively colliding his lips with yours, hands knotted in your hair to pull you further into him.

The kiss is electrifying, dripping with desire as his tongue swipes against your bottom lip to persuade you to invite him in. The taste of your own release on his lips and tongue is intoxicating, the tangy and salty essence driving you to wildly moan into the kiss. He pulls on your hair a second time, drunk on the lustful emotions swirling between the two of you.

That’s when you decide to surprise him.

He’d never ask for anything in return when pleasuring you, adamant on the fact that it never needed to be reciprocated. So whenever you did, it fueled a fire that only you knew how to ignite in him.

You break the kiss fleetingly, taking the second to catch your breath as you spin Bakugo around to the wall, his back slamming up against it with a heavy thud.

Shit. You may or may not have just knocked the wind out of him and ruined the moment.

Or so you thought.

Much to your surprise, his chest is heaving, cheeks ruddy - crimson stare fixated on you, anxiously anticipating your next move. Having him at your mercy never ceases to leave you mesmerized. His hands are on the wall behind him, bracing himself as if he'll fall through it at any moment.

Bakugo's about to say something until you leisurely lick from the bottom of his chin up to his lips, lapping up the leftover dribbles of your own climax off his face, biting at his bottom lip before moving to his collarbone. Lucky for you, he always keeps the top buttons undone on his uniform in the summer, leaving his collar loose enough to pull aside. You sink your teeth into the crook of his neck, eliciting a deliciously sinful moan from him.

You can't help but wonder if anyone heard, considering his natural volume is 110%. But at this point? You don't fucking care.

"Mmm, seems like I'm not the only one with pretty moans."

A slur of colorful curses are leaving his swollen lips as you trail your hands over his chest, and when he feels your fingers delicately trace the outlines of his clothed nipples, he jolts. He'd never admit how fucking hard he gets when you play with them, the stimulation shooting directly into his groin.

Before Bakugo can vocalizes the pleasure, you capture his lips again, suppressing the loud groan erupting from his throat. When you part, all he can mutter are hot pants of your name and a few mumbled 'fuck's between baited breath.

"God, Katsuki, you're so fucking hot when you're coming undone," you hum, fumbling with the belt of his slacks. He's speechless, his hands furiously pawing at his belt as he slides his pants and boxers down in one fell swoop. When you wrap your hand around the base of his cock, his entire body jerks forward. Not even a second passes before he's jutting his hips against your palm, desperate for friction.

"Now look who's begging?" Your sultry words have him biting his lower lip, eyes screwed tight as his cheeks now glow scarlet.

"I-in...yo-ah...fu-fuckin' drea-ah-ms," Bakugo stutters, making an attempt to regain his composure. It swiftly disintegrates when he notices you taking a knee to the ground. His jaw is clenched as you press your tongue to the underside of his cock, hazily looking up at him before taking him into your mouth.

Oh god, oh my fuck-

Overstimulation overriding his senses, he begins to thrust into your mouth at a stuttering tempo, eagerly chasing his own release and unable to control himself. He's gasping, grunting, moaning above you, and it almost gets you off a second time from hearing his pleasure.

You put your hands to his hips, stilling him as you slowly edge his entire length into your mouth, tongue sliding lazily along the underside of his shaft. You'll never get over how hot and heavy he feels in your mouth, each time better than the last. You flutter your eyes upward as you hum softly, completely stuffed full of him.

God. Bakugo was seeing stars and he hadn't even released yet.

Hollowing your cheeks, you suck - hard - and move in a fluid motion, mouth flooding with saliva as you continue taking him as deep as you can manage. His thread was ready to snap.

"F-fuh-fuck!" he stutters harshly, shouting a little too loud - but honestly, from far away, someone could mistake it for him being his normally bombastic self.

Bakugo snatches a handful of your hair with a trembling hand, shoving himself all the way into your mouth, down to the base, as you feel his explosive release coat the back of your throat. He smacks his hand over his mouth as he shudders, his grunts muffled in his palm.

You release him, brushing off your knees as you're getting up from the concrete. It might be a little hard to hide how red they are under your short-ass uniform skirt, but who's looking at your knees anyways? You patiently wait for him to readjust into his slacks.

Somewhat mimicking his earlier actions, you place a hand delicately on his cheek, thumbing away a drop of sweat.

"I love you, Katsuki." The words fall from your puffy lips effortlessly, giving him a tender smile before placing a soft kiss on the opposite cheek.

"Love you too, Y/N." Bakugo snaps you into a hug, cradling his arms around you as he kisses your forehead. "My favorite girl."

You gleam, radiating from his flattery. Stretching back in his arms, you run your hand through his bangs, un-sticking them from the sweat on his forehead. He snickers as you ruffle the small hairs into the rest of his spiky hair.

"Guess it's back to studying," you whine sarcastically.

He laughs. "There's always more study breaks, too."

no, you didn't get your panties back. ;) hope you enjoyed!! <3

#bakugo x reader #bakugo katsuki #bakugou katsuki #bakugo smut #bakugo x you #bakugo x y/n #katsuki bakugou #bakugo fluff #bnha smut #mha smut #katsuki bakugo x reader #katsuki bakugo #☆.rei writes

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red40overdose · 3 months ago

Note

hey baaabe, can you maybe write tae or jimin falling for oc whos also an idol but they cant really show it to anyone? 🥹

A/N: I will write Tae with a proper secret relationship but for now I present to you……

IDYLLIC

IDOL!JIMIN X IDOL!GN!READER

Synopsis: Jimin has a rule. A code if you will. Under no circumstances will he ever date another idol. He's lived by it for many years. Not once has he ever been close to breaking it. Until he met you that is.

W/C: 2.2k

WARNING: Jimin struggling with his feelings slight angst

REQUESTS: OPEN

It wasn't ideal. In an industry like Jimins you don't have time for relationships. A lot of the time you don't even have the mental energy. There was too much to work around.

You don't want to date a fan. They already have a version of you built up in their head. One that would quickly prove itself untrue.

If you do manage to find someone who doesn't know who you are that too can become a disaster. Paparazzi lurk behind every corner. The whole relationship is forced into secrecy. It could ruin your career, it could ruin your partner's life. It isn't good for a relationship. Most people need more. They want to go out on dates. They want normalcy, not to be hidden deep in a closet like dirty laundry.

There were other idols… one look at an idol of the opposite sex and the media would be pumping out articles about a secret love affair. Every week someone would come up to Jimin asking about an idol he hadn't even spoken to.

That was only part of it. Companies would clash. Some companies would push a narrative to try and profit off it.

In the Idol industry, two idols dating was taboo. Some sort of curse that ran rampant through the industry. People would talk behind their backs. Send sympathetic looks to the poor souls that fell victim to it. It was hard as an idol not to fall for another. Idols ended up being around other idols quite a bit. People have needs and when you're surrounded by attractive people it's hard not to go seeking comfort.

Another idol would know what you're going through. They could understand things regular people never could.

But it always ended badly. The media loved it. It was a drama that kept people clicking. So the cameras kept flashing.

So Jimin did the sensible thing. He swore off dating. Of course, every now and then he would find himself in someone's bed. But it never was more than that.

He would risk his and his members career on a scandal. Jimin knew he wouldn't be able to balance a relationship and everything else like Namjoon does. He would slip up when he knew he would. It was easier to just not even try. It was better this way.

For a long time it worked. Jimin managed. He wasn't tempted. He was good.

Until you waltzed into his life. It was at a photoshoot. You were also set to get photographed by the same photographer.

Your shot was before his. As luck would have it, Jimin had arrived early and the staff invited him back.

He had seen you before. Your face was plastered over posters and billboards all across Seoul. None of it could compare to you in real life. None of them, not even the best photos that got the front page of magazines, came close to capturing all of you.

Jimin couldn't tear his eyes away from you as you posed. Your eyes strayed from the camera and settled on him for one brief flickering moment and that's all it took for Jimin to know he was a goner.

Then as if you hadn't even seen him at all your eyes settled back on the camera. Jimin hightailed it out of there and into the break room.

Water. He needed water. That's it, he was probably just dehydrated. Jin was always getting on his case about drinking more water. Something to drink and he would be just fine.

He had just cracked open the bottle and was about to take a sip when he heard you.

“Hey it's Jimin right?”

Slowly almost like a scene out of a movie Jimin turned. Only a few feet behind him there you were. Still in all the glam required for the photoshoot, obviously you had just finished. Jimin swallowed dryly, wishing he had drunk the water already. His tongue was sticking to the rook of his mouth. He managed one shaky nod.

“I'm Y/N.”

“I know.” Great, he had finally managed to say something and he sounded like an asshole.

You took it in stride, or maybe you just hadn't noticed

“Sorry for making you wait. Had some wardrobe issues so we went a little over time,” You said sheepishly.

Then as if it was the most natural thing in the world you reached around him and grabbed one of the water bottles on the counter.

Instantly your scent surrounded Jimin. His breath hitched before he settled on just holding his breath. This close he could see the rise and fall of your chest with each breath. He could see the smallest crease in your eye makeup, probably from laughing.

You leaned back like nothing had happened at all. Like you hadn't just thrown Jimin's code and way of life out the window. You hadn't noticed a thing at all.

Jimin's photo shoot didn't go as well as they usually did. His mind was elsewhere, his poses a little sloppy as he tried to listen to the staff. But everything just felt like static noise.

Ever since then you seemed to be everywhere. Or maybe Jimin was just now noticing your presence.

You were at every party. Every formal event. Always dressed exquisitely. Always looking perfect. Always distracting him.

The rest of his members took notice. They would cast each other looks every time Jimin's eyes strayed back to you.

Jimin tried his hardest not to think of you. To cast every thought of you from his mind. He would turn off the T.V if you came on screen. He would turn off his phone every time you were trending.

Yet everywhere he went. You were there. When he got seated next to you in a fashion stone all he could do was sit stone still. He listened to you gush about the pieces with your friend and it just made everything ten times worse.

Occasionally you would turn to Jimin and try to make small talk. Everytime you two were in the vicinity of him you tried to talk to him. Maybe you were just being polite but Jimin couldn't help but relish in it.

It was so unnatural for him. Jimin was used to making others flustered, not the other way around. He just had that effect, yet this time all of it was turned around on him.

All of it came to its peak on New Year's eve. Hoseok had insisted on throwing a party. Only certain people were invited. Mostly other Idols the group trusted and some personal friends.

You made an appearance. Something Jungkook who had made the guest list failed to mention.

You were beautifully done up and hanging off the arm of one of your friends. The two of you looked so comfortable together. You fit into that spot so perfectly Jimin started to wonder if the two of you were dating.

The thought made him so uncomfortable that he had to turn away. Jimin just missed the look Jungkook gave him.

Jimin poured himself a drink, the first one of the night.

“You alright man?” Jungkook asked.

“Yeah why?” Jimin took a sip and winced at the sharp taste of alcohol and way to sweet juice. Damn Taehyung and his strange drink concoctions.

“I dunno. Lately you've seemed…” Jungkook paused, not sure how to put it, “Strange. You know you can talk to me right? Any of us?”

He wanted to. So badly. He wanted to ramble endlessly about you. How you always managed to look so perfect. How you helped the staff that one time you spilt a drink. How you always kept a calm composure when something clearly ticked you off. How he thought about you every waking hour.

But he couldn't. They all knew about his code. How he felt about dating, especially dating another idol.

Jimin was afraid that he would agree. They would tell him it wasn't a good idea. Not worth the trouble. And then he wouldn't. Because he respected the options of his members, even if it killed him inside.

Yet he was also afraid they would tell him to stop being stupid. To go for it. That even if it ends horribly at least he had you. Even if it was for a little bit. If they held that opinion… Jimin didn't know what he would do.

So he settled on “I'm fine, just stressed about this next album.”

Jimin could tell Jungkook didn't buy it. Not even for a second. Not wanting to be questioned, Jimin slinked off to go find Jin and to avoid you.

He managed well. Jin was in the kitchen over seeing Taehyung's new drink ideas.

You were easy to avoid. Jimin could easily spot your form in the crowd. Pick out your laugh in the cacophony of voices.

Halfway through the party Namjoon came and found him, “Hey Min can you go grab the bottle of tequila I left out on the balcony? My hands are kind of full.”

Namjoon gestured with an arm full of coats. Jimin didn't even notice that most of the coats were the groups, which had already been started away in their respective closets.

“Oh so it's a tequila kind of party?” Jimin said with a smirk before he pushed himself away from the counter.

He worked his way through the crowd before he reached the glass doors leading out to the balcony. Jimin spotted the bottle, sitting on the patio table. He slipped out to quickly grab it.

But what he failed to notice was you, arms crossed and leaning over the balcony. Gazing up at the stars.

Jimin noticed you only a split second before you turned around.

“Oh hey Jimin,” you greeted. It was too late now for him to scamper back into the party.

“Hey. What are you doing out here?”

“Oh you know. Just needed a break from the party.”

Jimin hummed in acknowledgement.

“Care to join me?” You turned back around to look at the night sky once more.

“Well Namjoon asked me to-” Jimin looked over his shoulder back at the glass doors. What he saw cut his sentence short.

Yoongi was staring at him with a devious little smirk. When their eyes met Yoongi reached forward and turned the lock on the door.

God damn him. Jimin gestured widely at Yoongi, willing him to unlock the door. It's not like he could yell out and demand him to. Not with you standing there.

With a cheeky smile and wave Yoongi slinked off into the crowd. Leaving Jimin stranded on the patio with you.

“Do I bother you?” You asked.

Jimin swung back around so quickly he almost gave himself whiplash. You hadn't turned back around but there was a noticeable tension in your shoulders.

“What?” Jimin said bewildered, “No? What makes you say that?”

“It just seems like you've made it your life mission to avoid me.”

Jimin was starting to wish he had accepted the third drink Tae tried to shove into his hands. He could really use the extra liquid courage right now.

Damnit. Jimin thought to himself. Get it together. You're a grown man. Jimin Park.

Jimin breathed out a deep breath and came to rest against the railing with you. His eyes focused on the cityscape in front of you two. He couldn't trust himself to look directly at you. He might jump onto you and never let you go.

“I don't…. Dislike you.”

“Well it sure seems like you do.” You said quietly.

Jimins heart panged. This wasn't what he wanted.

“I'm sorry…”

“Listen. I know we don't know each other. And we don't have to. Let's just be civil? It's hard in this industry.”

No no no. This is NOT what he wanted. Not how he planned this to be. Jimin didn't want to be civil, he wanted to be yours.

“I want to… know you.”

“You don't have to spare my feelings Jimin.”

Jimins head whipped around. You still hadn't looked at him. Your jaw was clenched and your bottom lip was quivering as if you were about to cry.

“I'm not! I'm really not, Y/N I-” Jimin took a deep breathe “I like you. I really do.”

You were silent.

“I don't date…” Jimin said after a moment.

“Oh….Jimin…I really think I like you too… But I don't do hookups.” You said slowly.

“That's not what I meant… I mean usually I don't date. But I can't stop thinking about you. You make me want to throw that rule away and never look back.”

There were some cheers from the party. Then the countdown started.

You turned to face Jimin head on. Your eyes met his for the first time since he came out to the patio.

“Three!”

Jimin swallowed and his eyes flickered down to your lips.

“Two!”

“Jimin. Will you kiss me?”

“One!”

He pressed his lips to yours as cheers echoed out from the party.

#bts army #bts x reader #bts fanfic #bts x fem!reader #bts x male reader #bts headcanons #bts x you #jimin x reader #bts jimin #park jimin #jimin x you #jimin x y/n

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reidingandwriting · 6 months ago

Text

Lover (Steve Harrington’s Version)

Chapter One: It’s Nice to Have a Friend

“Something gave you the nerve to touch my hand”

Word Count: 1.8k

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Warnings: Fem!Reader, some cursing throughout, references to Steve and reader having not so great parents.

A/N: I have churned out this entire series within a week LOL. Shoutout Stranger Things brainrot for returning, I think I’ll be writing a lot more Steve centric fics.

Next chapter

You weaved your way through the crowds, the cool not-quite-spring air hitting you as you walked further from the school. You smiled as you heard your name called, and you immediately turned in his direction to wave. You walked a little faster, apologizing when you brushed someone a little roughly as you passed them, and you beamed up at Steve when you were close. Wordlessly, the two of you began to walk towards his car.

You lived on the same street as Steve Harrington, so naturally the two of you became close during your childhood. You were only a few months younger than Steve, but he had gravitated towards taking on a protective role towards you as you grew up. During middle school, he walked you home every day and now that you were in high school, he continued taking you home- just in a car this time.

“Are we going to mine or yours?” You asked as you tucked your hands deeper into your jacket pockets. You had overslept this morning and forgotten your gloves in your rush to get ready, and you were regretting it as the wind picked up.

“I was thinking yours? If that’s cool. My parents are supposed to be home tonight,” Steve said with a slight frown and you nodded. Steve glanced at you and dug into his pockets before he held his hand out. You eyed the bundle of brown fabric in his hands and you smiled graciously at him as you took the gloves.

“Thank you. And mine is perfect. My parents are on some trip so I’m alone for the rest of the week.” Steve frowned when he realized it was only Tuesday. He didn’t like the idea of you being alone that long, but his and your parents were similar in many ways- they were both fans of the absent parenting method. You and Steve were both happier with your parents gone, as fucked as it was. “Wanna stay over tonight?”

“I should go home,” Steve drawled as he opened your car door. You climbed into the seat and shut the door behind you as Steve went around to the driver’s side. “You sure you don’t mind?” You hummed your affirmation while Steve settled into his seat and you leaned forward to turn up the heat. You laughed as Steve swatted at your hand before you pouted.

“It’s freezing!”

“You’re so dramatic,” Steve said as he pulled out of the parking lot and began the drive home.

“Not all of us are human furnaces.” You huffed and Steve scoffed, turning up the radio and you grinned as you recognized the song. “Ooh, love. Ooh, lover boy. What to do tonight?” You sang along with the radio and missed how Steve rolled his eyes fondly, humming along with your singing. Later that night, you and Steve sat on the couch, pizza boxes discarded on the coffee table as a movie played on the television. You had a book in your hands, and you groaned as you closed it.

“Need a break?” Steve asked and you fell to the side, hitting Steve’s shoulder with an ‘oof’ and Steve shook his head. “You’ve been reading for a while, movie’s almost over.” You looked at the screen, watching for a moment until you recognized the scene. The Shining, one of your favorites. You didn’t answer and Steve poked your cheek. You turned your head, lazily pretending to bite at him and Steve felt some of his worry start to fade away. “You okay?”

“Stressed,” you said simply and Steve sighed as he leaned back against the couch.

“Yeah, me too.” Steve ran a hand through his hair and you watched, tempted to run your own hand through the luscious brown locks. A beat of silence passed until Steve spoke again. “Have you been sleeping okay? You look kinda tired.”

“Dick.” You scowled but your word had no heat to it. “Not really,” you admitted after a second. “My parents have been fighting more lately. College. Dad wants me to stay in Hawkins, but Mom wants me to go somewhere else. Somewhere… bigger.” Better had been the word she used, which had led to an argument where your dad accused you of thinking you’re better than Hawkins and the life he gave you wasn’t good enough, blah blah blah. You didn’t understand why you had been brought into it when you were literally sick in the bathroom, but whatever. Everything was always your fault when it came to your dad.

Steve worried about you. Your parents may have been more physically present than his, but they emotionally were just as absent. They only cared about you when it came to their reputation, and as long as you weren’t ruining the family name, you didn’t exist in their eyes. Your mom… she tried to be better, but with how your dad was, she chose to silently support you with money snuck to you when they’d be gone on long trips. Quietly slipping you information about colleges far from Hawkins, far from Steve. And you deserved better, you deserved to leave Hawkins and accomplish things no one in this small town could ever dream of achieving. But selfishly, Steve wanted you to stay. You were his best friend, he needed you home. When you were little, you had always joked about running away together. Now, he honestly considers it every day.

“Have you decided what you want to do? For college?” Steve asked and you blindly reached for his face, patting until you found his mouth and covered it while you loudly shushed him. “Mature.” Steve’s words were muffled by your hand and you squeezed his face before dropping your hand.

“Don’t wanna think about it. Don’t wanna think about anything,” you said. Steve leaned his head to the side, your hair brushing against his cheek. “How are the kids? We still taking them to the rink Saturday?” Steve welcomed the topic change and he hummed.

“If you still want to go, yeah. Dustin will probably be all pouty if you can’t make it, but he’ll deal.” Dustin had taken a strong liking towards Steve, so naturally he had grown closer to you as well. “Still can’t believe this is how I’m spending my Saturday.”

“You love them,” you said and Steve didn’t have time to defend himself before you yawned.

“Come on sleepyhead, you’re delirious now. Bedtime.” Steve carefully moved you off him and you fell back over with a whine. Steve said your name and you huffed before you sat up, groaning like the task was the hardest thing you had ever done. Together, the two of you took the pizza boxes to the trash and turned all the lights off. You double checked that your door was locked before you turned to Steve.

“Stay?” You asked as you and Steve walked towards your bedroom and Steve nodded. “Thank you. I don’t, I don’t really want to be alone right now.”

“No need to thank me.” The nickname that fell from his lips made your cheeks feel warm and you were grateful for the darkness to hide the smile on your face. You settled into your respective sides of your bed, the moonlight illuminating your features just enough for you and Steve to see each other. “Goodnight.” Steve whispered and you smiled as you closed your eyes.

“G’night, Stevie.” Steve watched you for a minute after you had drifted to sleep, the tension in your body finally melting away. Steve felt himself start to fall asleep and he slowly reached out, brushing his hand against your own as he slept. Neither of you had slept that well in ages.

“I need a break!” Steve called as he less than gracefully skated towards the exit of the rink and you passed him quickly, giving him a double thumbs up as you continued to skate. Steve was grateful when he sat down in the booth and Nancy looked over at him, amusement in her eyes. “What?”

“Nothing! Just enjoying seeing them happy.” You had all been through hell and back and it was moments like these that Steve remembered that Dustin and all his friends? They were just kids. Kids who had saved the town twice already, kids who had fought things Steve never would have imagined could be real. Watching the group of them skate, playing games in the arcade… he hoped they would have more moments like that. Steve busied himself with retying one of his skates as Nancy spoke again.

“You should tell her. Before graduation.”

“Not like it matters much,” Steve scoffed. “I didn’t exactly have colleges fighting to have me. I’ll be in Hawkins for god knows how long. But,” Steve trailed off as he watched you do some trick that had his heart leaping into his throat. You caught his gaze and you thrusted your fist into the air as you skated by, proud of yourself. “I can’t let my feelings change her decision.”

“Shouldn’t that be her decision?” Nancy asked, voice gentle, but things otherwise fell into a comfortable silence between the two of them. You came by a minute later and you took a seat beside Steve, grabbing your soda from the table and chugging it.

“Dude, slow down! You’re going to make yourself sick.” Steve scolded and you stuck your tongue out at him once you had set your drink down. “Cool trick out there.”

“Scared him to death.” Nancy added and Steve glared at her. Nancy shot Steve a smug look before he looked back at you.

“Dustin said I was bluffing about being able to do it, and I can’t lose a challenge to a child.” The three of you looked at the rink, seeing the kids all waving you over, and you turned to Steve. “Do you want to skate some more? Or is it break time?” You looked between Steve and Nancy.

“I’ll be back out in a minute,” Nancy said and Steve agreed. You started to stand back up and Steve grabbed your hand. You both froze and Steve swore the touch was electric, his hand tingling from the contact.

“Be careful, yeah? Between you and Max, I’m going gray.” You smiled and saluted.

“Scout’s honor.” And with that, you were off back towards the rink. While Nancy teased him about his ‘mother henning’, Steve missed out on the teasing you were getting from Max.

“Just friends, my ass.”

“Do you want to walk home, gremlin?”

#steve harrington #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #fem!reader

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wings-of-ink · 8 months ago

Note

Unto more wilder asks (not that kind 😩🙏🏻)

What if some kind of hocus pocus magic happens and the RO's see a glimpse into parallel universe and they see MC. They thought that MC would have a different fate but really, MC is still sick with some kind of incurable disease (Yeah! Too much fluff going on in the ask, I choose chaos and angst 😤)

Can I just say I love how you answer asks because you take time to craft this cute little scenarios for us to enjoy. It's like a reward for us readers 😌✨

Thank you so much for saying that. I'm glad you are liking the Asks. When I have the time, I really do like putting my mind in them as much as possible for each character. Downside is that it may take a bit of time if I have trouble. Some of them come to me easily and others I have to chew on for a while, but I truly do enjoy them - maybe too much at times!

Guess I'll have to take my fluffy mittens off for this one.

Oswin: This isn't fair. It's not fair that his MC had to suffer already, but is this really their lot in every life? He can't help but feel that pull between them even though this isn't his MC. It feels like them, like an extension of their soul. Tears gather in his eyes as a sob bubbles up from his throat.

Zahn: An uncharacteristic bitterness charges through them. As if MC's suffering wasn't enough already. Does that mean there is another Zahn out there too? Will they find each other? This blasted curse was the only reason they met. At least something beautiful came from it, but Zahn would change it all if it meant MC never suffered.

Duri: Figures. It's always the best people that get the shittiest hand. How many times have they watched that play out and how many times will they be subjected to it again? They can't keep watching this.

Rune: This isn't their MC…it isn't. They need to stop looking at this and ignore it. MC is fine, their MC is fine now. Stop looking. They bite their lip until they taste blood. Is all of creation really this cruel?

???: A familiar disgust settles on his heart as he watches. Is nowhere safe for them? Does this mean there is a version of himself in this world too? Are they just as pathetic? Will this version of himself at least help, or will they… He needs to see MC - now. He needs to be sure that they're okay.

Thank you for the ask! I hope these are sad enough to counteract your fluff allergy, lol. ^_^

Just a side note that part of these were written while listening to "What does the Fox Say," and I think I may need to talk about that in therapy to someone, lol.

#god cursed if #asks #twine if #if wip #twine wip #gc ro reactions #ouch my soul

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britcision · 1 year ago

Text

So I made it 4 years without being struck down by AO3 Author Curse! But here we are. I’ll spare y’all the details but let’s just say “fuck this year” and leave it there. We’ve had the requisite Third Bad Thing and I will burn the universe down if it goes for a fourth

What this means for y’all, of course, is that there’s been a long ass break between last chapter and this one! Aaaaand this one is being broken in half because it is Longer Than Tumblr Allows

(And they’ve lessened how many paragraph breaks you get cuz this one is only about 9.5k and it made me add it in thirds, woe is me)

So, as usual, links to the first chapter, last chapter, and the link to the AO3 version is I think in BOTH, so if you can’t find it from there I can’t help you 😁

First Chapter:

Last Chapter:

And just a little recap where last we left off:

Bruce has gone to the Watchtower to debrief the Justice League about Amity Park and the Anti Ecto Acts, and been told that Jason has left the land of the living! But like, on purpose

Jason and Danny have gone to visit Frostbite and learned that they are ghost-bonded, which you should take seriously like being ghost-married, and that Jason is gonna pop out Pitty in a couple more days/weeks and have to emotionally raise a ghost-baby

Tucker, Tim, and Conner are all playing video games and hiding out from the Amity Parker/Bat Chat for Tim and Tucker’s mutual stalking ways, which Sam blew wide open by sharing Timblr, as punishment for Tucker not telling her they were all alive

(Danny’s off the hook cuz Tucker was haunting his phone with soundtracks for half the day)

And Damian’s off being Sketchy And Mysterious

————————

Well You Did Get Down On One Knee (part 1)

The evening was beginning to draw in, the sun getting low over Gotham city. Between her patrol the night before, helping Signal out with a case, and then that brief group heart attack about Jason, it had already been a really long day.

Spoiler cracked her neck a couple times and sighed, then sunk into the shadow behind a gargoyle.

It was smaller than usual… and occupied. Robin glowered up at her, leaping up to sit on the gargoyle’s head instead. He looked for all the world like he wanted to hiss at her like a cranky cat, which diffused all of Spoiler’s tension (but would only make his worse if she mentioned it. Maybe tomorrow).

Sighing philosophically she settled back against the base of the gargoyle, tipping her head back to see him.

“Hey… what are you doing out so early? Usually you lot wait until sundown to swing from the shadows,” she pointed out (rather fairly, she thought). Totally ignoring that she was 1000% usually one of “you lot”.

Robin just scowled disdainfully down at her, then twisted his head away to glare at the city instead.

“As if I needed any more reason to be out than you do,” he sniffed archly.

Spoiler grinned, puffing herself up. She did have an answer for this one, and, being generous or not, winding Robin up was always a treat.

“Hey, I was actually requested today. Signal needed a second pair of eyes on the back door of a bust. Didn’t see you there,” she added innocently, a brow rising.

It was technically possible that Robin could have suited up and left the manor in between Bruce’s message and Tim’s response. Spoiler wouldn’t put money on it though.

He’d have had to be on his way down already, and while they could all change quickly, there were no rushed or sloppy patches to her experienced eye.

His hair was even neatly slicked back into the traditional Robin spikes, one every Robin but her and Duke had used during their time as the baby bird.

Nah, he’d not rushed out in a panic, even if he was still more tense than he should have been. Every line of the kid was tight with… Spoiler cocked her head thoughtfully.

Frustration?

Definitely not unusual, Damian didn’t have Dick’s temper but he’d spent pretty much all of his first few years in Gotham unbearably frustrated with them all. It had just been a while since she’d seen it so… visibly.

And for all Steph was a gleeful little shit and loved poking at trouble, she wasn’t cruel. There was no point in pushing Robin if he was already on edge.

So she shrugged nonchalantly and looked forward instead, reaching back over her head to pat him gently on the foot. He didn’t dodge, which only cemented her decision.

“‘Course, no rule against taking a daylight run if you’re in the mood. See anything interesting?” She asked innocently.

Kid wouldn’t admit it if he had been worrying.

Silence reigned for another long moment, and then Robin huffed and dropped down to the rooftop beside her, folding himself back into the sharper shadow the waning daylight provided.

“No.” Short and sweet, unlike the kid himself.

But he also hadn’t left, and Spoiler was gonna call that a win.

“Will you be out tonight too?” She asked instead of pushing, reminding herself yet again; he’d open up in his own time.

Hypothetically.

Robin made a soft, disgusted noise, glowering at the smog filled sky. Probably even in the right direction for the Watchtower.

“I intend to be. Someone must keep an eye on things,” he grumbled, and Spoiler made an effort not to take it personally.

B had been majorly distracted with all this Amity Park business, not even breathing down their necks about the usual nightly reports. The rogues hadn’t exactly noticed yet, but the goons had.

The big Bat himself not making an appearance for a couple of nights usually attracted some comment, and an up-til-now entirely Bat-free new year?

The guys she’d helped Signal grab today had been muttering about it right until they ran into her arms. Fists.

They’d mentioned not seeing Stabby Robin either though.

Which she might as well also mention.

“Weren’t you out last night too? I saw your gear missing when I dropped by at the end of the night,” she added when he tensed again, hands wedged in her utility belt. “Didn’t hear you on comms though.”

And that was more than just rude; it was bad protocol, and Robin, for all his other faults, respected the strictness of protocol. Not being chatty was one thing, but if you were out on the town you had to call in.

He stayed silent, not looking at her. Spoiler decided he could use just a little nudge. Totally not because she was getting impatient. And nosy.

“Y’know unless you went out tech free I can just ask Oracle,” she pointed out gently, giving his shoulder a gentle bump.

It got him to glower up at her anyway.

“I was not on patrol,” he grumbled, whites of his mask narrowed before returning his glare to the city at large, “like I am not today.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Spoiler flipped a mental coin. Figured why not; they were already doing well.

Kid must be on the verge of having to, dread the thought, ask for help.

“And what would you be doing out and about if not patrolling…” she began, then stopped when a piece clicked suddenly into place.

Robin, Damian, was about as social as a feral cat. And about as friendly with anyone who got close to those he considered his.

Right now, Danny Fenton and his friends had more than half the family utterly wound up. All except Bruce in a good way, Spoiler was the first to admit, but Robin wouldn’t see it like that.

The only trick was, how to word the question.

Spoiler liked blunt. It made her stand out from the bats, who all played way too much mental and emotional chicken to be healthy. She’d always been more of a bird that way.

“Wouldn’t have anything to do with Hood’s little disappearance today, would it?” She asked instead, grinning broadly when Robin twitched.

Hit the nail on the head.

From the scowl he shot her he knew it too, and looked away quickly enough that he knew there was no taking it back. He folded his arms across his chest and sulked and fuck he was just adorable.

She’d bet anything Dick used to pout exactly like that.

Still, she tempered the grin down to a slight smile. Dropped a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently and letting go when he pulled away.

“Worried me too. Were you close enough to see anything?” Because yeah, if Robin was already at least on his way into uniform before the message arrived?

Spoiler would put easy, easy money on him having been already tailing Jason and Danny around. Last night too, probably. She and Cass had left early to take the night shift, leaving Tim and Damian with the Amity Parkers.

Damian had one hell of a dose of his father’s paranoia, and Steph considered it a solemn duty to teach him about personal boundaries to keep him from turning out just like the old bat.

Just a little friendly stalking from the rooftops didn’t really count though. Not between family.

Robin had tensed right up again too, but when she didn’t push the contact or needle at him he slowly relaxed back down. Scowled at her feet instead of his own.

“No,” he admitted bitterly, both at definitely having been busted and probably at having nothing to report, “Todd… Hood spoke to the magician. They argued, he went back inside Freeze’s place and did not reappear when his tracker went through the roof and into the sky.”

Spoiler blinked, mildly surprised.

“Hood was wearing a tracker? Didn’t think he was in the mood.”

“He wasn’t,” Robin corrected with a derisive sniff.

And… yeah, they were gonna have to do a little more work on that whole “boundaries” thing. Although the odds of Hood not noticing that he’d been tagged were lower than Robin probably thought. Keeping a tag on him that he didn’t want there?

Nah. She may not exactly trust Jason, but that was how she knew how good he was at finding and disabling rogue trackers. And sure, Damian was better than her at some things, but if Cass couldn’t sneak a tracker onto Red Hood no one could.

Kinda cute that Jason let the little guy think he’d successfully bugged him.

At least the constant mild stalking was just standard for the family.

Shaking her head, she gave him a gentle nudge with her elbow.

“That’s rough. Flying’s cheating,” she commiserated with a sly look to the sky.

She’d heard a super cross Oracle’s radar. Conner, almost certainly if Robin was still out alone.

Too bad he’d not thought to call his own Superboy, though taking flight himself wouldn’t have helped if dimensional travel followed.

Robin made another disgusted little tut, then pushed off the gargoyle and stormed away. Spoiler watched him go for a moment, then shrugged.

“Hey, go get some sleep if you’re coming back out tonight,” she called after him. Grinned when he flipped her off without turning.

If he’d been off stalking Jason and Danny two days in a row, he’d need some rest.

“And don’t forget your report,” she teased and actually laughed when he raised his other hand to flip her off with both before leaping off the edge of the roof, swinging back towards the bat cave.

Stephanie Brown had never been prouder in her life than the first day Damian had said “fuck” in front of his dad. Far be it from her to demand anyone transform into a social butterfly, but she personally was pretty damn sure that nothing was gonna help Damian out of his “raised by assassins” shell than learning some good old fashioned swearwords.

And a little teenaged rebellion. The proudest day was totally gonna be when he finally told his grandfather to fuck off (or any suitable equivalent; Steph wasn’t choosy).

Leaning back into the gargoyle’s shadow, Spoiler surveyed the city below. Technically, she’d been out as long as Damian had; if she wanted to be out tonight she’d need a quick nap too.

Or, more fun, she could nip back to the manor, kidnap Cass, and they could find and bully Tim and Tucker in person. Yeah, that was gonna be it.

Jason was feeling good, really. Actually a little surprised at how good, considering.

That crunchy little ecto-ice chip had been better than a gallon of coffee, filling him with energy like he’d actually gotten a full night’s sleep. (Not that he knew much about how that actually felt, at least not when not recovering from serious injury.)

He hadn’t actually felt this good since the night Danny slept over, which had been the night before last. Didn’t sound all that impressive, except that it had been the best he’d felt in half a decade.

Maybe the full decade. For all Robin made him magic, skipping sleep to fight crime had done a number on him in his teens. If he’d been as willing as Dickie and Tim to slack on his schoolwork, maybe…

Yeah, no, Tim was the poster child for Do Not Emulate This Sleep Schedule.

What mattered was that even after running the docks down with Black Bat for more than half the night and then getting up to get Danny, Jason felt fucking great.

Even after three separate courses of Bruce’s bullshit, both directly and through the medium of John fucking Constantine. Not so long ago, Bruce would never even dare call him, much less try and set up a bat cave ambush. That… was probably technically a good sign?

Didn’t feel like one at the moment, but Jason actually felt almost good enough to be charitable with the old bat. A little emotionally wrung out, sure, but he felt lighter for… having whatever that had been. Like the stress that had been compacting his chest had finally eased.

Jason was self aware enough to admit he’d probably had more than one breakdown owed to him. Maybe not a “take to the bed”, “trip to the sea” full Victorian lady meltdown, but he’d had a whole baby dropped on him. Except somehow worse.

He damn well deserved that freak out, and now that it was over and he’d been given what kinda felt like the ghost equivalent of speed… He felt like his brain was finally working again.

Which… meant he was fully processing that his fucking soul was vibrating in time with Danny’s. And every other ghost could just. Tell.

That was gonna make fight club… actually, Jason had no idea what the fuck it was gonna make fight club. By all accounts Danny being the Ghost King hadn’t made any of them less likely to throw down with him.

If anything, Danny had warned Jason that him being a “young” ghost would make the others more eager to fight. It was a kind of play, bonding and teaching the new baby their powers.

Sounded fucking terrifying by all accounts and Jason was just glad he had Danny to explain it to him, since apparently full ghosts just… knew it wasn’t serious. Even baby ghosts came into existence recognising the game.

Halfas didn’t.

Whiiiich meant that all the “playful” threats of dismemberment had sounded pretty fucking real to Danny, back when he’d been a baby ghost and had half the Zone flocking to “play” with him.

Pitty let out a rumbly little growl, like a sulking dog and Jason hid a snicker. Yeah, he’d also be kicking their asses that little bit harder for that given half a chance.

Actually, if they kept holding fight club, Pitty could take a chunk out of them itself.

That thought got him a contented little purr, which was weird enough that Jason was going to focus back in on Frostbite’s broader explanation. Which… he should have been doing anyway. At least this part wasn’t solely for his benefit though.

“In the sense that you have tied yourselves together, it may be somewhat like a marriage… however, it is a very different relationship. In a true love-union, your signatures would beat in time,” the yeti explained, gesturing once more to the screen.

Jason’s blob continued to pulse and blur a fraction of a beat behind Danny’s. Definitely not quite in time.

This was a relief. Yup. And Jason’s cheeks definitely weren’t any warmer than they’d been a minute ago, before he knew that, again, his fucking soul was echoing Danny’s.

Frostbite gave his tablet a couple more taps, and a pulsing blue line linked the images on the screen.

“In your case, young knight, your allegiance is marked in both your resonance and in your aura, which now carries a link to your King. In this way, even if the Great One is not beside you, all ghosts will know that you are the chosen protector of their King. His status is what defines your role as a knight, instead of a more casual bond.”

“No one’s king yet,” Danny protested, folding his arms and leaning into Jason’s side. Letting a little more of his weight rest on him.

Jason leaned in too, frowning from the screen to Frostbite.

“And all the other ghosts can just… see this?” He asked, not really sure what he was hoping to be told.

Frostbite switched from giving Danny a fond smile back to Jason, nodding brightly.

“Oh yes. Ectoplasm is very easily influenced by emotion, and bonds can form quite quickly. I presume you took an oath?” He asked, eyes sparkling in a way that made Jason pretty damn sure he’d met Clockwork.

Which, now that he thought about it…

Jason huffed out another deep breath, running a hand through his hair. As much as John Fucking Constantine specifically could ride a cactus straight to Hell… the guy mighta had the faintest inkling of a point about one thing.

“Yeah… about that.” He pulled a face, gaze tracking away from the others and down to the floor.

Would they think he was a dumbass too? Danny had been there when Clockwork made the offer and he’d been pretty against it, but Jason had thought he understood why.

It hadn’t sounded anything like Constantine’s claims of what he’d signed up for.

In the end, it was easier to address the question to Frostbite’s large hairy toes.

“I, uh… I made an oath to Clockwork, but do I have… a contract or something? The asshole magician I mentioned earlier was going on and on about eternal fucking servitude bullshit but it’d be nice to have something to shove in his face,” he added quickly, arm slipping back and almost around Danny (but with his hand still firmly on the table).

He didn’t need to wait to feel the guilt in Danny’s aura to head it off.

Jason wasn’t having second thoughts. He wasn’t sorry for what he’d signed up for, and when it came right down to it…

He didn’t think people could lie through their auras. Even when he was trying to project something like “I’m fine” and he wasn’t, he was pretty sure Danny could tell.

He could sure as hell tell when Danny was bluffing through his, which had happened maybe once total.

He trusted Danny. He trusted Frostbite. He even mostly trusted Clockwork, because for all the guy had been a little sketchy, Jason had felt his sincerity. How deeply he cared for Danny.

Keeping Danny safe forever didn’t sound like eternal servitude. Eternal babysitting, maybe, if Danny was being a pain in the ass, but he’d never top Damian at his most bratty.

Jason woulda been trying to protect Danny anyway. As far as he knew, knighthood just made that easier.

Which was another reason he’d like a look at his contract. You didn’t make it onto the streets as Robin without learning to read for loopholes, hidden clauses, and fine print. He may have already signed on the dotted line, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find some wiggle room.

Danny, about to say something either apologetic or self deprecating, huffed out a breath as Jason’s arm slipped around him. Winded up giving him a half smile instead.

“Yeah… that’s a good point. I still need to find out if I can fire your ass.”

“Still didn’t hire me,” Jason pointed out archly, bumping his arm to knock Danny forwards a little.

The other halfa huffed a laugh this time and bumped him back.

“Yeah, and I gotta work out how to hire you so I can then immediately fire you,” he shot back.

Frostbite cut them both off with a raised hand, though he still looked fondly amused. Like they were cute little kids or something stupid.

“You will have to discuss this with Clockwork directly, young knight, but I do not believe a knighthood typically comes with a contract. It is a duty one is granted, and one that may be rescinded if you fail, but it is not a deal,” he explained patiently.

Jason’s brows furrowed a little, but at least he could feel Danny’s confusion-puzzled-not sure beside him too. He wasn’t the only one who wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

Maybe he shoulda looked a little more into magic shit while he was with the League of Assassins. That would have been the time, especially if the Lazarus Pits were the just grunged ectoplasm.

“It kinda sounded like a deal when he offered it,” he said almost as a question, glancing back at Danny for confirmation.

Danny nodded. So it wasn’t just Jason.

“He gave me a cool magic gun in exchange for keeping Danny hale and hearty. Protecting him in the living and Infinite realms,” Jason added in case the wording counted, more sure as he remembered some of the reasons.

Fuck, had that only been a week ago? It felt like it’d been a whole year.

Frostbite gave them a neutral shrug, inclining his head.

“As I said, you will need to ask Clockwork directly. All I can tell you is that it is not innate to the position; a knighthood is not usually something bought and sold,” he explained patiently.

Danny hummed an agreement, cheek resting on Jason’s shoulder again.

“It’s normally all ghost-to-ghost too, so is there a way we can check if the halfa thing has changed it?” He asked Frostbite, leaning against the table too and totally not actually putting his arm around Jason back.

Jason felt a little more tension leech back out of him. Which raised another good point, actually.

“And not related or anything, but if you gave me a buncha those ice crystals could I just chew them to get the ecto for…” he hesitated, waving his free hand at his general chest area again.

Honestly, given half a chance he’d love to get a bowl full and try and pop the pit out in one go… it’d probably be easier to train from outside his body where it wouldn’t immediately know he was so full of shit… his own aura notwithstanding.

Yeah, he was still a little worried about being anyone’s emotional guide, but if he could just get the damn thing out in the world… maybe it could have other guides too.

“To answer the simpler question first, young knight, unfortunately the energized ectoplasm is only a short term boost and will not affect either of your cores. I will provide you with a small supply to assist your emotional control whilst you stabilize, if you wish?” Frostbite offered gently, a slight smile on his face.

Jason hesitated, considering things for a moment, then nodded. Sure, it wasn’t a solid “yes here is the answer to all your problems Jason just smack it in”, but it was a concrete solution to what had actually been worrying him.

Having another one of those weird “episodes”. He’d still be waiting to get Pitty all the way out, but at least he had a backup plan until then. He could pop an ecto-crystal each morning, get some energy, and worry less about night patrols.

Shit, he’d have more energy than he’d had since he died. The others were gonna be jealous as hell, but it wasn’t like they could steal and take his ghost meds. Probably.

Jason… wasn’t quite ready to think about the panic attack itself. He felt fine now, way better, and it wasn’t like it was the first he’d had.

Just…

Just the first that he remembered. That his heart started racing, his head rushing, ears filled with rushing static and the world hadn’t just melted into a green haze of blood and violence.

His early training with the League of Assassins had involved a lot of losing himself to the Pit. He’d wake up days later, body aching with exertions he couldn’t remember, and be told how many he’d killed.

Good news: no fear of that either, apparently. Pitty wasn’t pulling for control anymore, so the green haze was all Jason’s own.

Joy.

He had a nasty feeling that Danny would notice him spiralling from anywhere in Gotham. And probably ditch class to come check on him.

Like Hell. Jason’d fucking call Harley first, put himself through some breathing exercises or whatever, he did not need an emotional support Ghost King.

He gave Frostbite a quick nod, a small smile forming almost without thinking about it. The yeti was just… so caring and helpful. Not exactly something Jason had a wealth of experience with. He’d probably be a great example for Pitty.

Frostbite returned the smile, making a quick note on his tablet.

“And of course, your ghostly parent or a mentor should also be able to assist you. Spending time with those who are important to you, especially a comforting figure will help both your control and your core formation,” the yeti added in a slightly pointed way, like he’d read Jason’s mind, and Jason had to stifle a laugh.

Frostbite might be an eight foot tall hairy yeti, but he’d get along with Alfred like a house on fire… he was even as stubborn about not using their names as Alfred was about nicknames.

And when Jason thought about someone comforting, the beacon of emotional maturity and constraint… it could only be Alfred. He was more grandparent than parent, but certainly the only mentor Jason still looked up to. And a paragon of control besides.

Alfred could help him with Pitty. Model a little actual emotional restraint and control for the both of them. The only question was if Jason could just be up front and ask him, possibly revealing the secret early, or if he’d have to come up with an excuse for them to hang out.

Stupid thought. Jason knew damn well he could just walk into the kitchen and Alfred would be more than happy to spend time together. He wouldn’t need a ruse; he wouldn’t even need an excuse.

The knowledge settled warm and soft and happy inside him, until his brain caught up with his ears and stopped him short.

Wait.

“Ghost parent?” He asked cautiously, looking from Frostbite to Danny again. Danny pulled a face but Frostbite beat him to the punch.

“Ah, yes. We did not discuss that last time either. Your ghost parent, young knight, is the second strongest bond a young ghost can have. They are the ghost who welcomes you into the Infinite Realms, who will guide your steps and protect you until your own haunt has formed.”

Brows furrowing, Jason twisted to frown more directly at Danny, not quite sure if he was looking for confirmation or asking a question of his own.

Cuz, y’know, other than the whole “protecting until his haunt formed” (and Jason certainly didn’t need protecting), that sounded a lot like what Danny had been doing. Which would totally make it weird if Jason was a knight to his own ghost-dad.

Clearly following the same lines, Danny raised both hands and shook his head, almost but not quite stepping out of reach.

“Oh no, it’s not me. You’ve had a ghost parent long before I came along,” he said emphatically, the sudden panic on his face making Jason feel better about his own response to surprise parenthood.

He magnanimously decided not to tease Danny about it, turning instead to give Frostbite a questioning look.

“Should I know who my ghost parent is? Who gets to decide?” He asked cautiously. He’d never met another ghost before Danny, but he had this awful sinking feeling that Ra’s al Ghul might have more to do with the realms than just the pits, and he was the closest proxy. Even Tallia would be better. Maybe even Bruce.

Reading his tension, Frostbite clapped a massive furry hand on Jason’s shoulder, smile and aura both full of comfort-reassurance-calm.

“Normally yes young knight, though yours is a special case. Usually when a young ghost first finds its way to the realms, one of the first ghosts they encounter will take them under their wing. It is an honour to care for a young ghost, and a halfa even more so,” he explained gently.

Beside Jason, Danny snorted loudly.

“Oh, yeah, they totally come running to play happy families. Super wholesome,” he grumbled, arms folded as he leaned back into Jason’s weight.

Honestly, Jason could kinda spot common threads between what Frostbite just said and what Danny had told him about Fight Club; the play fighting was supposed to be about sharing powers, right? Just, y’know, between people with shit verbal communication to actually check in that everyone was on the same page.

The yeti sighed fondly, his hand moving from Jason’s shoulder to rest proudly on Danny’s. Given the width of Danny’s shoulders respective to the hand, the last two fingers were back on Jason’s other shoulder.

“Again, Great One, your circumstances were also exceptional. You did not explore the Ghost Zone until after you had established yourself to many as a competent fighter and protector of your haunt, which along with certain… adventures led most to believe you were far older than you are,” Frostbite explained patiently, with just the faintest hint that they’d been through this before.

Danny rolled his eyes and shot Jason double finger guns.

“Yyyyup, which is why I don’t have to deal with any of this “ghost parent” business,” he agreed brightly, tipping Jason a smirk, “get good.”

Jason flipped him off, but there was something… not in his aura, Frostbite’s was still very carefully toned back all calm medical professional, but in the creasing of the yeti’s eyes. Now, ghost yetis were definitely a new species and Batman drilled them all on the dangers of extrapolating body language on new species, but Jason had done his time on alien planets.

Something in the change, something in the shift, a little quirk of the brow Jason had noted when the yeti was amused. There was something funny here, and it wasn’t Danny’s quip.

Putting his suspicions aside for now, Jason settled on the more pressing matter.

“So who is my ghost parent? When do I get to meet them?” He asked cautiously, still not entirely convinced he hadn’t accidentally imprinted on Ra’s or Tallia. Cuz he hadn’t been in the Zone before Danny either.

Danny himself, much less concerned, waved a hand vaguely.

“Oh, we’ll deal with that on the way home. Go do a proper meet and greet, that sort of thing,” he said nonchalantly, and Jason’s shoulders settled a little.

“They’re in the Zone then?” He prodded a little further, not fully willing to let the matter just drop. If he had to ghost-emancipate himself, he’d rather be ready sooner than later.

Danny grinned toothily at him.

“Usually. We’ll see if she’s around, but it might have to be another day. Gotta deal with our other list first, like if our whole halfa deal is gonna do anything to the knight thing, or your core coming in,” he added, looking expectantly at Frostbite.

Jason almost missed what he said next as his heart skipped a beat, a possibility he’d never even considered slamming home.

She.

Someone dead, if they were in the Ghost Zone.

Someone who’d claimed him as her son long ago, guided him as best she could. Someone he’d never expected to see again, not even having died and returned to life himself.

No chance, he told himself quickly, hurriedly refocusing on the conversation at hand. About his bond with Danny, about their shared fucked biology, about his whole undead future.

There was no point dredging up the past until he actually knew.

Frostbite was back in his familiar role of teacher, that same proud/warm/fond smile crinkling the corners of his eyes as he looked at Danny.

“For your bond, Great One, I am not sure what I would even test for. The young knight presently has no ghost form, yet the bond is present exactly as if he had. I am afraid we have no records of former halfas, so any problems which occurred before are long lost.”

The yeti gave the tablet another few careful claw strokes, pulling up lines and lines of scrolling numbers and data beside each of their silhouettes on the wall screen. Forcing himself to the present, Jason scanned them quickly.

Unsurprisingly, he couldn’t actually make heads or tails of it; ghost vitals couldn’t really include things like heartbeat, blood oxygenation, or anything they’d test for in the med bay.

Not until Bruce found out about all this crap anyway - Jason wouldn’t put it past him to try and buy out everything the Far Frozen had in his latest snit of paranoia. The second he got over his “oh no Jason is going somewhere I can’t supervise him”, obviously.

Frostbite clearly knew what it all meant though, highlighting a couple of different areas where Danny’s numbers were very different from Jason’s and giving him that reassuring smile.

“After your first transformation I would expect some of these to change, and it is likely that any differences in your particular bond would show then as well. Your ghost form will of course be entirely ectoplasmic, so the bond will be more present than it is even now.”

That snapped Jason from his internal flailing, and he grimaced at the reminder.

Because… yeah. They’d talked a lot about his first transformation, he and Danny. But the only thing Danny hadn’t really known was when to expect it.

“Yeah… about that. I know the basics, inversion of my moment of death crap, I’ll be able to change it eventually, yadda yadda,” and that was its own sword of Damacles hanging with the mistletoe, “but… when will it happen? Like, will it just… happen? Or will I… yeah.”

Even wording the question made him feel like the whole thing was just too complicated. He wasn’t even sure what he wanted to ask; what to look for? Would there be symptoms? Would he just un-die again in the street?

Luckily Frostbite seemed much more comfortable, hitting a few buttons on his tablet. Jason’s scan took over the full screen once more, zoomed in on the two orbs in his chest.

They were pulsing too, growing brighter and dimmer along with the more defined throb of the ectoplasm. Which was actually when he noticed that both cores were throbbing, so… was Pitty also a knight?

That was going on the list of questions for Clockwork like, yesterday. If he could get it its own little fear gun…

“As you can see, your core is still fuzzy around the edges and incompletely formed; once these edges have smoothed out, you will hypothetically be able to transform at any time,” Frostbite explained, blissfully aware of Jason’s new train of thought.

Probably for the best. Jason reluctantly refocused on the screen, tabling the idea of Sir Pitty for now. Nice to have something actually positive to look forward to.

He didn’t really remember seeing much of the screen during his last appointment, but he had seen the perfect sphere of Danny’s core, and his looked… well, like Frostbite said, smaller and kinda fuzzy. Like a ball of dough after it started sticking to your hands and losing its shape.

He frowned and nodded, looking back to Frostbite and then glancing around at Danny.

“So not until the next appointment, probably? Will it just… happen out of nowhere? Or will I need to trigger it?” It kinda helped, narrowing the scope. Dealing with it one step at a time.

Danny gave a helpless shrug.

“My powers started activating randomly, but I didn’t actually transform until I was in danger. Not like, life threatening danger,” he added with a roll of his eyes, like he’d heard Pitty’s growl… or maybe Jason had echoed it. “It was just Lunch Lady, she was never gonna really hurt us. She just made a mess and tried to feed everyone meat.”

Jason privately added Lunch Lady to his “asses to kick” list. On principle.

Frostbite gave a thoughtful nod, a large hand clapping down on Jason’s shoulder a lot harder than he’d probably intended. He didn’t flinch, but before his pit-growth-spurt it might have knocked him over.

“We can experiment more once your core is complete here in the Zone, and I would recommend waiting until Pitty has been expelled, if possible. Of course, any other changes in your knighthood bond will likely make themselves known with your first change as well,” the yeti mused, quite pleased with the idea.

Jason hesitated before agreeing, worry twisting through him again before he tamped it back down.

He wasn’t that scared little boy anymore; not inside. Besides, the bond was already firmly in place.

His soul was resonating a pace behind Danny’s.

It wasn’t like that little trip back to the moment of his death was gonna make Danny suddenly reject him.

The poor guy was probably stuck with Jason for life anyway at this point, which for a pair of halfas meant pretty much forever.

There was not a single thing on Earth or the Watchtower that he wanted less than to stop and talk to John Fucking Constantine and Diana after the meeting.

To be completely fair, Constantine clearly didn’t want to have that conversation any more either; Bruce had not been wrong about how well the magician would take the news that the United States had declared war on an entire dimension.

He was visibly green, had actually ground an unlit cigarette into a grainy mess against the table in lieu of lighting up, and looked about ready to lick up the tobacco.

Diana did not look happy either, but she never had. Her face was as stony and grave as Bruce had ever seen it, concern writ large even as she caught his eye.

The sure knowledge that her lasso would follow if he tried to leave was the only thing that kept him from ignoring her.

But since the only thing he wanted in the world at this moment was to have his son in his arms, and there was no chance of that happening until they were in the same dimension once more…

Bruce shot a quick, questioning look at Clark as the traitor made his way to the exit along with the rest of the Justice League. The Kryptonian at least had the grace to look a little guilty as he shook his head, stepping quickly out the door.

Wonder Woman hadn’t specifically told everyone else to get the fuck out. She had simply molded herself into an immovable force, concluded the meeting, and instructed Bruce alone to remain and discuss these… complications.

Bruce considered making an argument for Superman’s inclusion. They were the original three, and they’d probably need at least his and Aquaman’s help to handle the diplomatic situation.

Possibly the Oa, and Bruce was quite sure Green Lantern wasn’t looking forward to that possibility any more than he was. Hal Jordan talked a good game, always far too flippant, but he’d been pale enough by the end of the lecture that his suit made him look frankly unwell.

Unpleasant times would be in all of their futures it seemed. It was no real comfort as he slipped into a seat across from Wonder Woman and the slumped form of John Constantine.

The magician didn’t even look up, but clearly noticed.

“Didn’t fuckin’ think anyone’d fuck this up worse’n you, Bats,” he groaned, face still pressed into the table.

Bruce grunted, uninterested in his judgement.

“There are new complications we should focus on.” A vain hope, and one Diana instantly crushed.

“One that makes the contents of our discussion all the more vital,” she corrected sharply, piercing blue eyes narrowed as she watched his face. “It seems we have already caused unintentional offence.”

Which was an extremely light way to phrase the declared genocide, but Bruce didn’t bother arguing that position. Not when Constantine would do it for him.

But the mage just let out a long, hearty groan.

“Offence. Yeah. Maybe if we saw off the United States and toss it through a portal the rest of us will be fine,” he snarked, raising his head just enough to bang it off the table. Repeatedly.

By the third bang Diana gripped the back of his head, holding him in place against the table.

“Whatever the situation,” she growled, her tone daring either of them to comment, “we must deal with it as it is. You believe we would have noticed any countermeasures from the former Ghost King?”

She released her grip a moment later, and Constantine rolled his head just enough to glare at her through one eye.

“Pariah Dark? Sister, it wouldn’ta been a single town bein’ pulled off the map. We’d have lost the continent, and probably the world. You wouldn’t miss it,” he added with a bitter laugh, clearly considering banging his head off the table again.

Diana placed a hand on the table. Constantine set his head back down gently.

“And the new king?” She prodded, all icy control.

Bruce had to admit, even he felt calmer watching her.

He knew all the follies and foibles of gods, had no delusions about the limits of her power. He also knew her strengths. Her wisdom. Her ability to cut through complex issues with sword or words.

Whatever he missed, she was removed enough from this mess to catch.

Constantine shrugged, still not rising.

“No fuckin’ clue. All I know is they’re better’n Pariah, which is the lowest damn bar I ever saw. They call them Balance, and we’re not gonna fuckin’ like when the scales come due.”

Bruce’s brows furrowed. What could be a sufficient counterweight for demanding a whole people be hunted and experimented on until extinction?

The dead always vastly outnumbered the living.

Diana cut across his thoughts, her tone as sharp as her blade.

“So you believe we’d notice.”

Constantine sighed heavily and flopped back in his seat hard enough that he nearly toppled over. Diana steadied the chair with one hand, eyebrow rising archly.

Constantine stopped flailing, went to fold his arms, and instead stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Probably’d be pretty hard to miss too,” he agreed gruffly. Diana nodded, having received the answer she wanted, and interlaced her fingers.

“Then we have time to rectify matters before word reaches his ears.” She paused, brow furrowing as she recounted John’s words. “Do we not know if the King is a man?”

Constantine shrugged again, pulling something unidentifiable from his pocket before hastily shoving it back in, coming out again with a lighter. He spun it between his fingers, eyes fixed on the metal lid.

“Nah. “King” is just a loose translation to living tongues, for what yer used to. Easier to say than “Supreme High Ruler, Core of the Realms”. Not even likely that they were ever human; not even the Ancients could take Pariah solo to take the crown, so a human ghost wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Huffing out a mighty breath, Constantine looked from the lighter to Bruce, his gaze somehow immeasurably more tired. Bruce had imagined that talking about Amity Park made the man look ancient.

He looked haggard enough to be an ancient ghost himself now.

Raising his other hand, he began counting off points on his fingers.

“We know they’re young. Everything agrees on that. Could be any time in the past few centuries, but it’s still a timeline. We know they’re tougher’n Hell and all its demons put together, cuz they put Pariah down single handed. Had to to get the throne. Might not have Ended him, the Casket of Eternal Slumber’s not turned up looking for a new occupant.”

The magician stared at his two fingers for a moment, then sighed and raised a third.

“And we know ghosts like them. They’re less scared, though most of ‘em never knew shit about Pariah. Didn’t even react to him waking, which had to happen for the change in power. That or it all went down too fast for the shockwaves to reach us here; not bloody likely. Wouldn’t take more than a day, and ghosts fight for decades on a whim.”

He hesitated for a moment, considering that last finger. Finally he sighed and shook his head.

“Can’t rule it out though. Pariah waking up’d be as much an emergency for them as it’d be for us, putting his ass back down is an all hands on deck situation on either side of the veil. If this new king is Balance, Pariah’d be their opposite,” he finished gruffly, glaring at all three digits before stuffing both hands into his pockets.

Bruce nodded, drawing a deep, calming breath in through his nose and then out through his mouth. Even this much discussion had something itching in the back of his mind, a building tension that he had to Get Away.

He was in control of it though. Could tell the difference between his own unease and the burning ember of the oath.

Turn and run right away his ass. Magic could never hold out against cool, calm logic.

“And this new king, Balance, has stamped a damn mark on Jason.”

And his breath hitched.

Sharp, white hot panic flared behind his eyes, every muscle clenching with the effort of not leaping straight from the table. The only reason he didn’t was because he had no idea where to go.

What would he even do? Run to Jason’s side? The boy was in another dimension, far beyond Bruce’s reach.

Again.

He was losing Jason again. Losing him to this Ghost King, this Balance, this-

Diana’s hand clamped firmly over his, the amazon’s grip immovable steel. Bruce felt his bones grinding together before he even noticed he’d stopped breathing, before he managed to look up enough to meet her eyes.

Stern, determined, brilliant blue locked with his. Her grip tightened a little further, the ribbing on his gloves creaking with the pressure.

She wouldn’t break them… probably. They were designed to hold up against any of the supers the League dealt with. Prolonged contact was another thing entirely though.

His attention now locked on her face, Bruce managed a deep breath in along with her. Held it when she did. Let it out.

She didn’t release him for another few repetitions, until he was breathing mostly on his own again. Then she returned her attention to Constantine.

“What.” It wasn’t aggressive. Just a completely flat, completely toneless statement.

Constantine gave her an entirely hopeless smile, pulling his hands from his pockets to give her jazz hands.

“And that’s what he’s not ready to hear yet. Your boy, Jason, Red Hood, has gotten himself personally warded by the Ghost King. He’s the next thing to invulnerable right now,” he added bitterly, as if that made any of it better.

An icy hand clenched in Bruce’s chest again, but he forced himself to still. To breathe through it. To not turn and run, run until he found his child and tore him away from whatever influence had him.

The Ghost King had a hold of Jason. Jason who’d all but ordered Bruce to let him go.

“And Jason must have been in direct contact with the King to receive these wards?” Diana asked sharply, and Bruce’s head snapped back to her.

It was a good question. Important, obvious, there was a connection there that he should be making, but he couldn’t think. His head was spinning, heart pounding, and every shadow seemed black as pitch.

Constantine grunted an agreement, shooting Bruce an almost sympathetic look.

Could. Could this be the oath? Not his own instinctive, natural panic?

Bruce couldn’t tell, he’d been so afraid for so long, ever since he held Jason’s broken body in his arms. Ever since he buried his son.

It felt the same. But he had mastered that fear long ago, so this would not control him now. He had to be better.

Frowning at Diana, he leaned forward.

“Explain.” She’d probably assumed that he’d made the same connection. He probably should have.

There was just a brief flash of surprise on her face before her expression softened, her hand gentling over his.

“Jason was the one who told you of these Anti Ecto Acts, was he not?” She asked pointedly, a dark brow arching delicately.

Bruce about managed a grunt of agreement, his jaw clenched too tightly to speak. She waited a moment longer, watching his face, and then sighed.

“Then is it not likely that either he has told Balance of these Acts, or that Balance was the one that told him?”

Constantine jerked and got halfway through a bellowed curse before she cut him off with a glare. Her tone brooked no argument as she continued with a firm, frosted patience.

“Jason is a principled young man, even if not of the exact principles you prefer. Either he has warned you because he believes we have time to fix this, or because the King would prefer we handle it,” she said bluntly.

It sounded so simple, put like that. Far too simple. Bruce shook his head, leaning in.

“We can’t know for sure-”

“Batman.” There was nothing harsh in her tone. Nothing so overtly aggressive as the glare she kept giving Constantine. Just a calm, cool statement that sucked the air from his lungs.

The weight of her own mantle, the Amazon princess who would one day be Queen. Not his friend Diana; Wonder Woman.

Once she was sure he wouldn’t continue, she fixed him with a sapphire stare.

“Do you believe Jason Todd would condone the end of the world?” She asked simply, and that at least was that plain.

“No.” It didn’t even require thought; whatever he feared ever since his son took his first life, Bruce knew that.

Jason was fundamentally a good boy. So kind, so giving, ironically he had been the most well adjusted boy Bruce had ever given the mantle to.

Which was what made what he’d become so painful. It was everything he never should have been.

Wonder Woman nodded as if that solved all the rest.

“And yet you called the meeting, not him. He has known for several days already and did nothing to alert any of us. Therefore, he does not believe this is an urgent threat.”

It sounded good, and Bruce almost believed it before Constantine snorted.

“Yeah, great, except the kid has no fuckin’ clue what he’s dealing with. Didn’t even know he’d been fuckin’ marked or that sellin’ his fuckin’ service was the dumbest fuckin’ thing he coulda done,” he grumbled and Bruce’s heart fell.

Wonder Woman was not so easily swayed. She raised an eyebrow slowly at the magician.

“And could those protective marks have been placed on Jason against his will?” She asked pointedly, like she knew the first thing about magic.

Constantine hesitated. Frowned a little, thinking hard. Finally he threw both hands in the air and leaned back in his chair, scrubbing them down his face.

“Technically, yes, alright? But I can’t think of a damn reason why they’d bother. Like I told the old Bat, it’s technically a good thing; I couldn’t even get a basic diagnostic spell off, he’s completely fuckin’ magic proof an’ anythin’ that can read that ward will run like fuck.”

Something in Bruce’s chest flickered hopefully. Wonder Woman nodded firmly, then redirected her stare to him.

“Then until we have reason not to, we assume that Jason Todd has control of this situation. He has assigned us to deal with these Acts, either before his king discovers them or on their behalf. You, Batman, will defer to his experience along with that of our experts,” she declared with all the ringing command she was capable of.

It chafed. And yet… he could hear the echo of Harley’s words in her voice.

What if Jason was wrong? It was the kind of thing he always thought about, the kind of thing he couldn’t stop thinking about. The kind of thing that had the Batman able to stand and go toe to toe with gods.

But what if Jason was right? What if Harley, Diana, Constantine were right, and his usual measures would spell disaster?

He had a dozen contingency plans that any member of the League could use to take him down. He was painfully aware that the first one, the one he’d already shown to Superman and Wonder Woman, only had two words in it.

Diana’s Judgement.

She hadn’t technically invoked it yet. Had never bothered asking exactly what he meant by it; she wasn’t one to back down from hard subjects, which meant she’d also never bothered hiding how little she thought of his contingency plans.

His League-specific ones, anyway. She liked the ones he had for the rogues and various end of the world crises.

It meant moments like this, where she would give him her honest, simple judgement and reign him in.

(Technically it also meant that he trusted her to decide when she needed to snap his neck, but Martian Manhunter always looked at him with disappointment when he thought about that side too much.)

Looking back to her face, he managed to meet her eyes and nod once. It went against every instinct he had, every year of experience and loss, but…

If he couldn’t do things he didn’t like, he’d never have become Batman.

Head spinning with a plethora of new information, bag of ecto candies in hand, Jason deliberately slowed down to let Danny precede him out of Frostbite’s office.

That little suspicion had been growing, kindling the more they discussed halfa anatomy and bonds, and honestly? Yes, he had been using it as an excuse to think about something other than his own problems.

Danny seemed not to notice, disappearing past the doorway as Jason looked up at Frostbite. Figured fuck it; he didn’t know how much time he had. Best be blunt.

“You’re Danny’s ghost parent, aren’t you?” He asked, knowing from the yeti’s face as he did that he was right.

The way it froze for just a moment, eyes flicking to the door Danny had just left through. Then the smile that spread, knowing and secretive as he bent down for the first time to put his face on Jason’s level.

“He takes such pleasure in believing he does not have one; the Great One values his independence highly, and his history with parental figures is… complex. It can be our secret, yes?” The yeti winked.

Jason hesitated for a moment, thinking back to all he knew about Danny’s home life. It wasn’t actually all that much; Danny probably actually knew more about Jason’s, after the last week.

That wasn’t just a rarity, it was practically unheard of for any of the former Robins, and Jason knew exactly how Dick and Harley would react to that information.

They’d accuse him of growth. Gross. They couldn’t be told.

And yeah, maybe Jason had a bit of a personal understanding of why Danny wouldn’t want an overabundance of parental figures around. Their situations weren’t exactly the same, not really, but Jason knew enough verses of the song.

All teen heroes tended to have certain things in common, the biggest of which was whatever parental figure they had failing to protect them. Failing to keep them from the darkness, forcing a kid to take on a mantle and burdens that they never should have.

He’d wanted to pound Bruce’s bones to pulp for putting another kid in his cape. Wound up nearly pounding Tim’s instead, however the pit and Tallia had twisted things to make that seem like the same thing.

And Danny hadn’t just picked up the mantle of Teen Hero. He’d picked up a crown, a whole realm of responsibilities and rulership over the dead.

Personally, Jason thought Danny was missing out on an easy dodge of king duties by not finding his ghost parent; Clockwork was his regent but still apparently bothered him for work.

A parent ruling until the child was of age was behind most of the most brutal regicides in any monarchic system; the dead had to know about it.

But that’d mean Clockwork bothering Frostbite at all hours, possibly. Or Clockwork finding new excuses to keep checking on a crown prince Jason had already seen was a handful.

Yeah, he could see why no one really challenged Danny’s assertion that he didn’t have a ghost parent.

Jason spared a moment wondering about his own again.

He knew better than to hope, he really did. Catherine Todd deserved much better than an afterlife of watching over his many mistakes. If there was any justice to death, she’d moved straight past the realms and into the most perfect of paradises.

He liked to think she’d be proud of him. Of the work he’d done, the good he’d spread through the Alley even if it was on the end of a gun.

So long as it wasn’t any form of al Ghul whatsoever, Jason was pretty sure he could handle any other ghost parent the multiverse could throw at him.

Danny’s head poked back around the corner, grinning in a very worried way between the two of them.

“Everything okay back here?” He asked with some of the worst overhyped cheer Jason had ever heard.

Alright, maybe Danny would actually also have been a problem for ghost parent. Because Jason thought he was hot. Because he was an awful mother hen even as a friend.

Jason raised his bag of ecto candies.

“Just checking how many of these I can safely have in a day,” he said innocently, and kinda hoped Danny didn’t actually feel the wash of Frostbite’s approval as the yeti straightened.

That would give the game away.

“They are not a substitute for sleep or nutrition for your human form,” Frostbite told him, as if that was what they’d been talking about.

Jason sighed heavily, doing his best impression of Tim being handed decaf.

“Listen, a guy can hope?”

“Oh you’re not gonna win that one,” Danny snickered, brightening with the distraction and all but skipping in to take Jason’s arm, “let’s scram before he gets the powerpoints.”

Frostbite gave them a cheerful wave on the way out the door, and Jason managed a mostly sincere smile as Danny began regaling him on some of his teenaged attempts to persuade Frostbite to let him give up sleep for finals week.

Yeah, he might add the Fenton parents to the butt-kicking list. Below the ghosts, obviously, for whom butt-kicking was a social courtesy.

But, y’know. If he ever got the chance to have a quiet word about taking care of your damn kids.

———————

And here we have Part 1! Imma just yeet it up so you can all get started while I edit Part 2, because again, this is a Girthy One without an easier breakpoint 👀

I’ll still try and get Part 2 done tonight, but I’ve kept y’all waiting long enough

Tag List: @welcometosasakiworld @kyrianclawraith @someonebored0100 @stealingyourbones @starkcravingmad @frostedthroughghost @akikkobara @rainbowbunny0159 @littlefeather345 @violet-catsarelife @serasvictoria02 @wolfjackle @blacksea21090 @secretdestinywerewolf @anime-hipster-the-amazing @undead-essence @skitscratched @blackroserelina @snoodly-boop @mayoota-blog @xysidhe @little-apricot-the-writer @chaoticmistake @the-legal-shipper @bun-fish @aroranorth-west @demon-cat-goes-woof f @perfectwastelandcreation @onyxlightdragon @larks-and-katydids @peachesandcreamfemboy @jesus-camp-the-sequel @may-rbi @mothman-the-mothman87 @viyatrix @stargirl1331 @idfk-man10 @thedepressedrobin @skulld3mort-1fan @rootsmudge @ravenshadow17 @cankoking @phantom-dc @mentalcarebear @magic-pincushion @redamancyardor @lyra689 @itsparadoxlacuna @alcorbearson @asphyxia778 8 @why-must-i-be-like-this @tkiesai i @greenpyrowolf @frivolous-pastel @honeysuckletook @adorkable1291

Part Two:

#dp x dc #dpxdc #dc x dp #dcxdp #danny fenton dead and loving it #chapter 17 i bet #well you did get down on one knee #dead on main ship #danny x jason #slowest burn we burn so slow it looks like rust

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cre8inghavoc · 8 months ago

Text

Can't help it...

PART 3

inumaki x f!reader

pairing: inumaki x f!reader

summary: Transferring to a new school is tough, but having your three best friends there makes it easier. Things get even more interesting when you start falling for the mysterious boy who rides his motorcycle to school every day. What will happen next?

wc:

genre/warnings: [18+] Characters are aged up. Story contains cursing, new friends, alcohol, college!au, no curse!au, dark humour, SMAU and written parts, fluff, smut.

SMAU 1/2

WRITTEN PORTION 1/2

As lunchtime arrived, you walked your friends Nobara, Megumi, and Itadori to the front doors before you headed to the back door. You found a quiet spot near the doors and scrolled through your phone.

Lost in your own world, you barely noticed someone approaching until their presence drew closer.

You looked up from your phone to see someone wearing a biker helmet, another in hand, and heard a voice. "Ready?" he asked. At first, you were confused about who it might be until he flicked the face shield up, revealing his eyes.

Your eyes widened in shock. "Inumaki?!" you exclaimed, utterly surprised by the unexpected sight.

He smiled, his eyes squinting with warmth as he passed you the extra helmet. Without a word, you took it, feeling a rush of excitement and anticipation. Inumaki grabbed your wrist gently but firmly, leading you towards the school doors and out into the parking lot.

"Come on," he urged, his voice filled with a hint of adventure.

"Wait… that's your bike?!" you exclaimed, your shock deepening.

"Yup, the Yamaha R3—the one you've been sketching, of course," he teased, a playful twinkle in his eyes.

As you nudged him playfully, he chuckled in response.

"Safety first, you know," he added before taking the helmet from your hand. Before you knew it, he was placing it over your head, buckling the strap under your chin. The sudden gesture caught you off guard, and your breath quickened as you found yourself staring into his eyes.

Once he finished tightening the strap, he looked at you, you both maintained eye contact for what felt like an eternity. Time seemed to stand still as the intensity of the moment hung between you, unspoken words lingering in the air.

He cleared his throat, breaking the moment, and quickly turned his head towards his bike. "So, uh…" he began, trying to ease the tension.

You snapped out of the trance you were in, realizing the situation. "Oh, right! Yeah!" you replied hastily, scrambling onto the back seat of the bike. You struggled a bit at first, but with Inumaki's help, you managed to get settled.

But soon, you noticed the attention you were receiving from others, whispers and stares following in your wake. Some girls even shot you dirty looks as they passed by the two of you.

"Uh… are people looking at us, or am I just overthinking?" you whispered to him, feeling a bit self-conscious.

He reassured you with a nonchalant shrug. "Oh, just ignore them. They probably aren't used to seeing anyone else getting on my bike."

Your confusion deepened as you asked, "Wait, you've never taken anyone on your bike? Is it new?"

"I've had this bike for years, I mean, besides getting the newer version every year," he explained casually.

There was a silent pause for a moment.

Never having ridden on a bike before, you were incredibly nervous. Inumaki could sense your tension and wanted to ensure your comfort before setting off.

"You okay, Y/n? If you don't feel safe, we could just walk," he offered, concern evident in his voice.

You managed a smile through the helmet, though your nerves were palpable. "I'm okay! Just never ridden on a bike before…" you admitted, your voice tinged with nervousness.

"Good, because I didn't wanna walk anyway," he teased, his voice muffled slightly by the helmet.

You couldn't help but roll your eyes in a teasing manner, despite the nerves still fluttering in your stomach.

He turned slightly and gently took one of your hands, placing it around his waist. "Keep your hands here, and lean onto me. I got you, okay?" he reassured you.

You nodded, grateful for his guidance, as he started the engine, the vibrations humming beneath you.

"Hold on tight for me, yeah?" Inumaki requested, his voice carrying over the rumble of the engine.

You obliged without hesitation, leaning your body forward and wrapping your arms securely around his waist, almost as if you were hugging him from behind. In a way, you were.

Inumaki kicked up the brakes, and with a gentle acceleration, the bike began to move, gliding smoothly along the pavement.

Before you two rode away from the school, you couldn't help but notice the stares and whispers from other students around you. Some of them even took their phones out, taking pictures and probably gossip about it later with their friends.

Once out of the school zone, Inumaki picked up his speed, causing you to instinctively tighten your grip around him. Sensing your fear, he placed one of his hands over yours, giving it a gentle squeeze. Surprisingly, it worked, calming your nerves enough for you to loosen your grip and lean back slightly, your body no longer pressing tightly against his. The wind whipped through the strands of hair that escaped the helmet. Despite the initial fear, a smile crept onto your face, growing wider with each passing moment as you both continued the exhilarating ride together.

SMAU 2/2

WRITTEN PORTION 2/2

As you both arrived at a breakfast place, Inumaki parked his bike and shifted his body slightly, extending his hand to help you get off. You accepted his gesture gratefully. Once you were off the bike, he followed suit, removing his helmet first.

He noticed your slight struggle with trying to remove your own, so he gently loosened the strap and unclipped it for you, his movements careful and deliberate. He slowly lifted the helmet from your head, revealing your flushed cheeks underneath.

"You know, I never expected to be going out for breakfast with the guy who never talked to me even though we sat next to each other for over a week now…" you joked.

Inumaki playfully rolled his eyes. "You never talked to me first," he retorted.

"Was I supposed to?"

"Was I?"

"Fair," you responded with a laugh.

"Not that I didn't want to, you just seemed intimidating, to be honest."

Inumaki chuckled, the sound muffled by his mask. "You thought I was intimidating?" he teased, his eyes gleaming with amusement.

"Don't worry, you're not so scary now," you teased, nudging him playfully.

Inumaki chuckled at your description, shaking his head in amusement. "How was I even intimidating? I didn't even do anything," he remarked.

You raised an eyebrow, meeting his gaze. "What? I mean, you're like such a quiet kid who just sits all the way at the back of the room, wearing all black with a mask and hoodie over your head… which isn't even allowed in school, so I don't know how the hell they don't say anything about you doing it… For all I know, you could be a serial killer or something," you joked, though there was a hint of genuine curiosity in your voice.

Inumaki burst out laughing at your response, clearly amused by your remark.

"You definitely watch too many movies, because what the fuck did I just hear?"

"I'm serious! Like why do you cover your face all the time?"

"Well… if I told you I was a murderer and I brought you here to kill you, would you be mad?" he replied, his tone serious.

You froze, taken aback by his unexpected response. "Obviously, I would be mad! What type of question is that?!" you exclaimed, a mixture of shock and indignation coloring your voice.

Inumaki's serious expression softened into a playful smirk. "Well, good thing I'm not a murderer and I'm not going to kill you," he teased, his tone lightening the tension and eliciting a nervous laugh from you.

"But why do you wear that mask all the time?"

"It's... a personal choice, I guess, I don't really want to get too deep into it."

You nodded and smiled softly, respecting his decision.

"Come on, let's get something to eat, I'm so hungryyy," he exclaimed, his enthusiasm contagious.

this is actually like silly nd cute?! im literally kicking my feet rn.

I ACTUALLY should be writing my Megumi series... actually no- I should be studying but HERE I AM ONCE AGAIN writing this new series bc i just thought about it a few days ago and didnt wanna forget...

i keep getting distracted... like im writing this and reading jjk manga when i should be studying. i NEED caffeine that's the only way i can do this. (i’ve already consumed over 400mg today)

should i lowkey go on a walk?

SORRY FOR THE RANDOM AS A/N this is so weird bye

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presidentbungus · 4 months ago

Text

Um, It's Kind of a Lot

demo/scout, demo&eyelander - 30k words

Read on Ao3

Lonely men find each other in a place that collects failures like baseball cards. Things don't take long to get complicated. The 600-year-old haunted sword is NOT happy about it Written with care for the 2024 TF2 Big Bang, with illustrations from toasty and George Henry

in other words: demoscoutheads come get yah mutual pining juice!! ignore the ancient cursed sword she is nice and will cause no problems or angst or anything of the sort

Excerpt under the readmore :)

Boy, Jeremy shoulda picked the pool table. About half the party's grouped around it, shooting shots, yukking it up, and he's over at the side of the room, standing alone with an empty cup in one hand and a bunch of darts in the other, like a dipshit. Staring at a bunch of old guys with huge axe-murderer scars wiggle their asses and speak in faintly European-sounding tongues. Like a dipshit. He’s not even good at darts.

This whole settling-in thing’s been kind of a wet fart, actually. He was hoping this job’d be something better than sitting in a jail cell and looking at contraband porno mags but then he got on the bus over, and the cabin was full of about two toddlers worth of scar tissue and more stupid accents than he’s ever heard come out of an improv class, and the only reason he survived the trip was at least now he knows he’s getting paid something. Every time he’d try and speak up he’d get eight chilling glares and then everybody would get back to beating on each other, and the time he really tried he ended up sprawled across the floor, with the dried blood and the gum wrappers, and with a shiner the size of fucking Alaska.

It’d hurt worse if he hadn’t had at least a dozen on this eye before. Maybe it’s a good thing no one’s come over here to talk to him yet, because he probably looks like a fucking dipshit just standing here, sweating through his pants, black eye, empty cup, darts, no friends, no money, no future.

Feels just like home. God dammit.

Eventually somebody finally taps him on the shoulder, and he spins around and two darts fall out of his hand and he does a slightly embarrassing please-don’t-stab-through-my-big-toe shuffle, and it’s Heav… De… the eyepatch guy. With two cups of shitty beer from the keg on the other side of the room, one in each hand. And he’s smiling, and his teeth are disgusting, and while Jeremy’s staring all wide-eyed (like a dipshit) it takes him a very long time to realize that the eyepatch guy is trying to hand him one of the full cups, and he mostly notices because he eventually gives up and just slots it into his empty one.

Then he cracks another, slightly different smile. “I cannae be that ugly, can I?”

Jesus christ, he sounds like a goddamn leprechaun. Jeremy chokes out a laugh into his newly-refilled beer cup, and unceremoniously dumps the darts onto a weird side table that’s just kind of sitting there in the middle of the room, like most of the furniture in here is kind of doing. “No, I just—sorry, pal. This place is throwing me all off.”

“Mm, sure it is,” with a glint in his eye that seems to instantly settle into the back of his skull. There’s just the faintest trace of a slur in his voice—it would definitely track if he’s already kind of drunk.

Honestly, Jeremy’s not flying the straightest right now either, and he wonders if that’s why eyepatch guy’s staring at his cup of beer—just watching, waving his own around like he’s not gonna drink from it until—oh wait.

“And thanks for the refill, pal.”

“Ah, love to hear it.” He pulls out a third version of the same smirk and Jeremy wonders what his face looks like right now, and decides it’s probably something really stupid. “You looked like a kicked bloody puppy all alone over here. Thought it was the least I could do.”

Jeremy laughs at this. It’s not funny. He figures maybe he should shake a hand or something, whatever people do at this kind of thing, but his palms feel really sweaty and he feels like he’s done enough to ruin this first impression anyway. “I’m, uh. I’m Jeremy.” Wait. “Wait. I don’t think we’re supposed to say our names. Wait, pretend I didn’t say that.”

And he just watches. Beer to his lips. Smirk number four. Jesus christ, just bring out some popcorn at this point.

“Um, I’m Scout, is what I meant to say. And I’m… gonna do that, I guess. Scout, I mean.”

“Name’s Tavish,” he says, and he sure lets that one sit for a while. “But I’m the Demolitions Man. Demoman for short, and some of the lads over there already started callin’ me Demo.”

“So… like, bombs ‘n shit?”

“Aye. Pretty much.”

“Cool.” And then what the fuck else is there to say? “So… what’s up?”

Good one, Jer, top-notch. Hall of fame performance. Jesus christ.

Smirk number five, and it finally tapers out as Demo thinks for a second, and eventually comes up with: “Darts?”

God, he was hoping he wouldn’t ask that. “Hell yeah, brother.”

… Demoman stares at him. He places three darts in his hand… then awkwardly lowers himself to the ground, picks up another couple, and adds those to the stack.

Smooth. Suave. Good thing he doesn’t look like a fucking idiot or anything, because that would be really embarrassing.

They awkwardly stare at each other for a couple more seconds before Demoman says, slowly: “You start?” in a way that definitely says ‘I have no fucking idea how to play darts’, and that’s okay, because this game sucks anyway. Scout nods and mumbles something stupid, and he goes and leans against the back of the couch and squinches one eye shut even though he know that probably makes his aim a lot worse—and he fires three stinkers, right in a row, two of which land in the wall above and below the board, and one perfectly strikes just the rim.

At least Demo follows his lead, and he sucks too. That makes him feel a little better.

On his way back the second time, Scout takes a little longer to pick up his darts and says: “Why’d you come over here?”

“What?”

“Well, you guys seemed like you were having a great time in that little jerkoff circle around the pool table.”

“Someone’s jealous.” Demo waits for a response, and Jeremy doesn’t give him one, because he doesn’t want to. “I like to mingle. Get around, get to know.” He throws a 4 and a 3, and the third dart misses the board and embeds itself in the wall underneath—he’s real bad. “And ye looked so sad moping over here with your empty cup and your… you know.”

He brushes the black eye and instantly regrets it, and Tav… Demoman nods. “I bruise easy,” he mumbles.

No response. What’s this guy’s goddamn deal?

God, Jeremy fucking hates that sense of… what’s the word? Guilt? Feeling bad-ness? Radiating off him. “If you’d given me a couple more minutes, I woulda gotten this party goin’.” God. Dipshit. He misses the bullseye three times, one after the other, gets like a 9 or something, he doesn’t really give a shit. “Brother, I swear to god, I’m all off my game tonight.”

Game as in game, but maybe it’s less embarrassing if he’s talking about darts.

“I believe ye.”

“I dunno. Somethin’ about this place, man. It’s killin’ me.” Pauses to see if he’s gonna get interrupted, and gets nothing, so he goes on. “Like, I kept tryin’ to say hi to some of the loonies during the meet-‘n-greet earlier—couldn’t get out ten words to most of ‘em before they started turning around, like, I’m-gonna-crush-your-face-with-my-bare-hands fuckin’ death stare, like brother, what do you want from me?” Demo’s squinting, his tongue barely poking out over his bottom lip, and Jeremy watches three darts in a row sail directly into the wall. “You suck at this, man.”

“I have one eye,” he says, without missing a beat, and oh yeah, that’s kind of awkward.

“Oh, yeah… your death perception, or somethin’?”

“Close enough.”

“Anyway.” Just go ahead and skate past that one. “So we kinda moved things in here—miserable excuse for a rec room by the way, the one I had when I went to juvie had more to do—and I kind of assumed, like, there’d be some people around the pool table, a couple guys throwin’ darts, and—you know, whatever else… people do.” He dries up the last few drops in his cup and grimaces. “But I forgot,” he says, “that old guys just frickin’—just love pool. And the old guys that don’t, love leaving fun places and going to do something boring in their rooms instead.”

“Why didn’t you just go over?” he interrupts, and frankly Jeremy is shocked he’s still listening at this point, and he can almost feel his voice rattling around in his head, and gee maybe it’s best he doesn’t get another refill.

Pity. That’s the word. It’s pity.

“‘Cause—‘cause I’d already staked my territory, y’know? And I didn’t wanna be this little pussy showin’ up after everybody’s already settled in, just… crawling back.”

“So your solution was to stand sadly in the corner and look—“

“Like a dipshit.” He crosses his arms and leans against the wall, since it looks like they’re not really playing darts anymore. “I know.”

Out comes the ugliest snort Jeremy’s ever heard in his entire life. “Well, I would’ve been nicer, but sure.” Then a few shaky steps forward, then a really, really warm-and-sweaty palm lands on Jeremy’s shoulder, and their fingers brush on the way down. “At least ye got me now.”

He starts to wonder if Demoman’s really doing him that big of a favor, and realizes yes, yes he is. “… Yeah.” Then weakly raising his stack of empty cups: “Cheers, man. To the worst job ever.”

“I dunno if I’d say that.” He pinches his lips together. “To a pretty bad job.”

And they knock their cups together, and Demoman drinks on it. Jeremy pretends to. It sucks.

READ THE REST ON AO3!!!

#ignore the fact this is like weeks late i uhhhh. i forgor #tf2bigbang2024 #tf2 demoman #tf2 scout #demoscout #hopscotch #tf2 #bungus fics

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txtmetonight · 2 years ago

Text

"Why would I cheat on you if we aren't even dating...yet"

call summary ⋆ ★ when one fateful night, their nightly dreams have turned into horrifying nightmares. how dare you cheat on them in their dreams....especially since you guys aren't even dating yet.

pairings *. * · ot5 x fem! reader (headcanons + little stories)

genre ⋆ ★ pure insane crack, maybe fluff idk

warnings *. * · cursing, the boys being immensely stupid and the reader being really really confused. mentions of cheating (duh), this is supposed to be a lighthearted, long asf with a lot of nonsense, bad grammar lol (unedited), cannibalism in taehyun's (as a joke 🤣) really bad jokes, cursing

call duration ⋆ ★ 6.7k (Each member is like 1.5k or more)

a/n*. * You would think that I was drunk or on drugs while writing this...I'm not even legal enough 😭 also sorry for how short Soobin's was, I didn't realize until I finished everyone's also this sucks ass but whateva 😜. Also for Hyuka I swear I don't act like this, everything is a joke, I swear please don't come for me, I'm normal and sane.

Soobin ˚ · • . ° .

✭ I think that he would have this dream after spending a whole day with you alone, and his own feelings are starting to get to him 💀

✭ Like he's had a humongous crush on you for over 5 years but he'd rather die than tell you so his own feelings were done with him and your oblivious ass

✭ So what do they do? They take it into their own hands by sending him a dream of you cheating on him with Yeonjun 😈

He was in a grocery store, filled with...groceries. Soobin was confused, didn't he just go to bed? Looking around him he notices that it was daytime, but no one was in the shop so he just decides to leave, wanting to go back home. And for some reason right when he goes outside there's a huge billboard of you, standing out the entrance almost like it was waiting for him. Looking around, he finds a bunch of butterflies flying around, but why do the butterflies look like you? Observing closer, he finds that the trees look like you, and so do the plants, the sun, the houses, the grass, the sky, the pavement, literally everything looks like you. Taking another look at the billboard-you, he finds out that you were asking him to follow you, which he obviously does. Your huge billboard-self takes him into your own house which was upside-down for some reason but Soobin doesn't care, he was just excited to see you...the real you, not the billboard-version that practically show-cased all of your pores from how much the board enlarged your face.

Going inside your house, he finds a bakery in the kitchen but he pays no mind to it, instead going into your bedroom. And right when opens the room, guess what he finds? You kissing a very ugly picture of Yeonjun. That's right you weren't even smooching Yeonjun, you were kissing a picture of him. Totally this one. Closing the door, he runs out the house, only to see what he saw in that room, plastered everywhere like a nightmare. Sobbing out loud he tries to run away but then that picture of Yeonjun chases him down, getting bigger and bigger every meter that it slides across the floor. Soobin thought he saw the worst of it until he accidentally stepped on something that shoots him into the sky like a rocket, a seat belt already making sure that he doesn't jump off. Flying all the way to space, Soobin soon finds out the grim reality of why he was sent all the way up there. It was so he could see the whole world mold into that horrible scene he saw in your house. And then....

✭ He wakes up, covered in sweat, with tears streaking down his cheeks which he wipes away quickly, the dream slowly settling in him

✭ Also I did put a link above of the picture you were smooching, just in case if you glossed over it

✭ He just scoffs, side-eyeing the picture of him and Yeonjun that was taped on the wall, and he's just muttering curses at the poor man while lying in bed

✭ How the hell is Yeonjun better than him? Especially that photo? literally thinking about it sends shivers down his spine

✭ But now at this point he starts to get insecure. Do you actually like Yeonjun?

✭ Yet he doesn't know that you actually like him instead but shhh he'll find that out later

✭ So the next day, he finds out that you've invited him out again and he's feeling mixed emotions. Should he be happy or not?

✭ But he still goes ofc, and for the whole day he's really pouty. Yk how his mouth just naturally goes in that pout? Yeah, but imagine that 10x more pouty.

✭ You obviously notice but you don't say anything, just quietly observing him, eyebrows and question marks rising when he (not) subtly hints about you having a crush on Yeonjun.

✭ "Sooo how well does Yeonjun treat you huh?"

✭ "Soobin what???"

✭ And finally the day ends with a movie night/sleepover at your place, and by then he's forgotten the dream and he's enjoying his day out with you. Giggling at all your words and being a huge gentleman and all.

✭ But then you guys arrive at your apartment and his mood goes sour all over again.

✭ He's even half expecting the same scenario to replay again and that damn (cute) pout is back again

✭ You set up the room and all, getting popcorn and snacks so you could settle next to Soobin, who just snuggles into your blanket...awww :(

✭ Noticing the pout on his face, you take the chance to ask him about it.

"Are you okay Soobin?" He just narrows his eyes at you, pulling the blanket up to his face, and hiding it away from your curious look. "DoyoulikeYeonjunorsomething?" "Uh, what, you said that to fas-" "Do you like Yeonjun?" He says it so sternly that you're back is suddenly straightened, nervously chuckling at him. "Er no, why?" He starts to get more irritated, not at you, but at something...he doesn't know who either. But that anger makes him spit out something that you would never expect from him in a million years. "Then why did you cheat on me with Yeonjun, and in my dreams too, what did I ever do to you?" You're left frozen, shocked at his exclamation as you watch him seriously look away. "C-cheat? in your dreams? Binnie, we're not even together yet" You scratch your cheek, blushing and laughing at his bewildered face. Oh god how could he forget, you guys weren't even together. "Oh n-no I'm so sorry I–wait–yet?" You just smile at him, taking his hands into yours, "Unless you don't want to"

✭ 'Till this day he doesn't know if what he said was the best thing he's said in his life or not

✭ You still bring it up of course, even after you're together with him, I mean it's a great story to tell your kids

Yeonjun ˚ · • . ° .

✭ Oh this cocky, dramatic mf

✭ There were probably no reasons for this nightmare, it just happened, maybe because it's been days since he's seen you?

"Yeonjun hahaha" He groggily wipes his eyes, turning around in his...bed? Wait, that didn't feel like his bed. He tries to open his lids but it's in vain, so he just lays there, breathing heavily. "Junnie wakeee up, lookie here" the voice he hears is so near but far and it instills a feeling of comfort as he smiles, giggling along with the voice "I can't (Y/n)ieeee, i can't open my eyes'' He starts to sob once he realizes who he was responding to. He was talking to his love of his life, he can't be seen like this. Trying to physically open his eyes with his hands, he tugs and pinches yet it doesn't happen. "Open your eyes' ' he cries, and ta-da it opens. "Oh." Looking around he notices that he was actually sleeping on a huge bowl of cotton candy and that he was a roll away from falling to his death. Scurrying away, he calls for your name.

"(Y/n)! Where are you?" He soon finds out that he's able to stand and not fall down. Toeing slowly around, he finds a ladder that leads up. Grabbing the second step so he could pull himself up, he suddenly finds himself at the top, where a huge mist covered the path in front of him. Hearing familiar sniggers, he calls for your name happily. "Hey (Y/n), I'm right here, gosh this stupid mist" Flapping the strange fog away, he notices a figure in the distance. "Hi! Do you know where my beautiful (Y/n)-oh hi (Y/n) I've been looking for you, where were you at?" He smiles at you. "Oh me? I was with this handsome boy" Pulling a boy from thin air, Yeonjun squints his eyes at the intruder, feeling envy flow through his veins, before gasping. "You've been with Beomgyu!?" Without even answering his question you tug 'Beomgyu', planting a kiss on his lips. Yeonjun, who feels like he's going through a heart attack, stumbles backward not realizing that he was at the edge. But apparently Beomgyu does. "Goodbye Yeonjun, your girlfriend is mine muahahah" extending his arms, he lets out a small squirrel (that looks coincidentally looks like Taehyun) to push him off.

✭ And then he wakes up screaming

✭ "What the-" he gags once realizing what his dream was about and immediately pulls off the covers, getting up, and trying not to be blinded by the sunlight peeking through his curtains

✭ His whole body is like disgusted and revolted yet he feels his ego decrease a lot

✭ How the hell is Beomgyu your lover...and you allow it too??? What is wrong with you

✭ Grabbing his phone, he finds out that you've made plans with all of his friends (which were all of urs too) and you were asking him to come too.

✭' If you've invited all of his friends, which means you've asked for B-B-Beomgyu *gags* 🤢 to come along too' he thinks

✭ After that, of course he was going to come, I mean how would he let his girlfriend hang out with someone that broke the bro-code

✭ He obviously has to save you from his wrath 🙄

✭ We all know that Yeonjun loves to dress up to the nines, which he does but it also looks like he's the groom of a wedding

✭ "Yeonjun-hyung, why are you dressed like that?" Beomgyu snickers as you all go to pick him up

✭ "Shut up B-B-Beomgyu *gags*...oh hey! (Y/n) do you like my fit?" He's like a little puppy when he sees you, pure eyes lighting up, and everyone literally groans. They all know, except for you.

✭ The whole time his eyes are on Beomgyu, afraid that he was going to land his nasty hands on you and whenever he was going to, Yeonjun is always there to push him out the way, sweet-talking you away from that menace

✭ At first Beomgyu thought it was funny and all that, like how Yeonjun was getting so worked up over him placing a hand on you, like hahaha but now it's really annoying

✭ And Beomgyu being Beomgyu he blurts it out

"Yeonjun-hyung what is your problem, why do you keep pushing me...is it because of (Y/n)?" Even if Beomgyu was on the edge of a cliff, hanging on for dear life, he would never-I mean never- miss a chance to push Yeonjun's buttons. "Oh shut up, you don't understand, you never will!" Beomgyu just raises his eyebrows, whistling while you and others were quite shocked from his outburst. "Yeonjun calm down, we're in the middle of a restaurant" you pat his arm, trying to calm him down which somewhat works and he's just left in a glaring mess. Yet Beomgyu wasn't satisfied with his daily enjoyment of annoying Yeonjun. "What do you mean that I won't understand, does it have to do with her?" He cocks his head towards you, and you quickly start to panic, Yeonjun starts to tremble with anger under your arms. "Yeonjun no-"

"Your fucking ass stole my girl...you made (Y/n) cheat on me with you out of all people!" The whole restaurant goes quiet at his loud loud yell and people who were passing the place also stop. You couldn't even let yourself be flustered under all the audience, mouth hanging open at Yeonjun who glances at you sadly. "Wait hold up, Yeonjun you're dating (Y/n), why hasn't no one told me?" Hyuka is the first one to break the silence, gripping Taehyun's arm from all the drama. "N-no I haven't been dating Yeonjun, I don't think I've been with Beomgyu...like that either" Looking back at Yeonjun, you notice that he's gone frigid, pupils large and distant. Seems so he just realized what he's let out. "I-huh?" He splutters like a car engine and you awkwardly rub his back, smiling endearingly. "Where did you hear that Junnie?" You softly ask him, shooting daggers at Beomgyu who looked like he was going to laugh, slouching down promptly from your look, instead opting to shoo away the weird glances of the other customers. "Don't make fun of me" The others intently listen, watching you nod at him. "It was in my dreams" "Oh."

✭ I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened after that

✭ Beomgyu starts laughing at him which you chuckle too cause you can't help it blah blah blah

✭ But then you also reveal that you like him back too, which he's soooo happy for

✭ Beomgyu's never gonna live this down omg

Beomgyu ˚ · • . ° .

✭ He's probably gonna get extremely (10x) sad and annoyed even though you two aren't dating

✭ You guys prolly already act like a couple, yk lovey-dovey, and you guys have def kissed once in the past...anyways

✭ Sidenote he fell asleep when watching megamind when this dream happened, all while he was thinking about you, idk he just always has you in his mind

Eyes opening immediately he finds himself in the middle of the air...just floating. "What the hell? ''Moving his arms around, he swishes around like a gasping fish straight out from the water. He was starting to not like the dream. "Oh my god it's Bear-man, look look" Shooting his head down, he gasps cause he sees little bitty kids staring at him with their fingers pointed at him. And of course Beomgyu gets offended by this, so he points back at them, ready to unleash the motor that was stored in the back of his mouth. "Oi did your parents ever tell you that it was rude to point, shoo shoo stupid kids' '. Once they leave he moves his arms and feet like he was doing breaststroke, slowly but surely moving in the air. Something in his guts was directing him towards the city park, which he strangely knew about and it didn't take him long to reach the place, yet he was huffing and puffing in exhaustion. Looking around, he sees a tall building that was reflecting a man in a bear suit just floating around. Wait a second, that was him!

Swimming closer to the building to take a closer look at himself, a sudden flash of blue spins him around and faces him towards the tallest structure there...which was a building of Kai in that weird airplane uniform. "Hey who was that, I'll fight you!" He starts to swing and punch in every direction, even ducking invisible hits. "Ahhhh Gyu help me, help me!" Freezing up like a thick block of ice momentarily because of the sweet voice, Beomgyu snaps out of his daze "(Y/n), what happened are you ok!?" Taking his right hand up to his forehead, he tries to look around for you. "(Y/n) I'll save you, just tell me where you are!?" "I'm on top of Huening Kai's eye, Beomgyu!" "Oh ok!" Not letting a moment go to waste, he starts to freestyle all the way up to his friend's face and as closer as he got he was able to see your tied up figure. Stopping only a few meters away from you, he quickly finds out that there's a force field of some-sorts, stopping him from entering. "Oh no!" he howls, pounding on the invisible barrier. "It's alright Bear-man, we all know how weak you are, I'll save you (Y/n)" A familiar voice from behind him calls out, and he sees the same flash of blue again before the 'wall' in front him breaks and the mysterious man, fast as light zooms in towards you side. "Who are you? and why are you blue...wait hold up, Taehyun?!" Yes indeed the blue man was Taehyun who also had a very large forehead, but that didn't matter to Beomgyu the moment that Taehyun released you from the ropes and gasped you in his chest. "Get your filthy hands off of my girlfriend, Taehyun!" Beomgyu growls, lifting up his fists. "Lol no" and then he pulls you in for a kiss.

✭ Beomgyu wakes up, like literally jolts up from his bed

✭ He has no words at all, he's just in his bed contemplating if he either should just kill himself, kill Taehyun or do both

✭ He cannot believe that Taehyun would betray him like that

✭ I fully believe that out the five boys, he would be the most delusional with this dream, like he would fully fully believe that the dream was a sign

✭ And since the dream version of him said that you were his girlfriend, you were also his gee f here too

✭ The first thing he would do is that he would go to your apartment complex or house idk whatever you live in

✭ He's not gonna even brush his teeth or take a shower...he just gets out of bed puts his shirt back on and just walks to your house, which was the next house over

✭ He just wanted to be reassured that's all (and also to make sure that the dream wasn't real and that Taehyun wasn't at your house)

✭ You've prolly have known 💣🧪 (bombgoo) for like your whole life so you're not even surprised when he shows up at your door and ofc you let him in

✭ The first thing he does is look around your house for any remnants of that bastard and you just let him–mind you it's like 7 am so your tired and you just flop onto the couch so you continue your slumber

✭ And when he doesn't find anything he goes back into the living room to see you sleeping and since he's also tired he just lays on top of you to go to sleep, curling his arms around you which you also reciprocate making him smile against your cheek.

✭ But right when he's about drift away to la la land the doorbell rings, waking him up

✭ He almost leaves the person outside but he decides not to so he gets up again and goes to open the door

✭ and guess who he sees when he opens the door

✭ It's Taehyun who looks at him with surprise (and with a knowing look) holding your jacket in between his hands

✭ "Can you give this to (Y/n), she left this at my house"

✭ The only thing Beomgyu sees is red, but he takes a deep breath and takes the jacket from Taehyun's hands and then slams the door in his face

"Gyu who was that?" you mumble from your position on the couch, barely lifting your head to see a scowling Beomgyu. "Taehyun'' he grumbles, "He came to give you back the jacket that you left at his house, say why were you at his house?" "I had a project with him to finish, I'll text him thanks later...come back to the couch, I miss your warmth, it's really cold". As much as he tries he could never stay mad at you, so he cracks a tiny smile, fulfilling your requests, and pulling you into his arms once again. The comfortable silence ensues before Beomgyu, who is reduced to his own annoyance towards the other man, speaks up. "So you just went to Taehyun's place because you had a project right?" You nod into his chest, eyes fluttering open at his odd question.

"Why what’s wrong?". He just shrugs, "Are you sure it wasn't for anything else?". "Uh no, what else would I be doing?" you nervously chuckle at him, staring at him as he looks around your house, avoiding your eyes. "I dunno, maybe cheat on me" he quietly whispers and you would've almost missed his words if you weren't so enamored with the boy that looked like he was going to dissolve into your couch. "Cheat?...Gyu, I would never cheat on you, I love you too much to do that, you're the only boy in my eyes." You were a tad bit confused but you played along, taking the boy's face in your hands. "Really?" Laughing at his lightened eyes, you mumble a yes, placing a chaste kiss on his cheek. "But...y'know we aren't dating yet right?"

✭ He almost fell off from the couch in surprise...wdym you guys weren't datin-oh

✭ Anyways whatever, he just shrugs it off with a huge grin on his face before explaining why he thought what he did

✭ And yes you found it endearing and you wanted to tease him but you couldn't so you just resort to placing tiny kisses all over his face

✭ He doesn't even question what you said above, yk about loving him and all

✭ You guys live happily ever after 🙃

Taehyun ˚ · • . ° .

✭ I'm thinking that he'll be the second most chill out of the five in this situation like he's still sad and irritated and all that but he knows what's real and what's not (somewhat)

✭ But that still doesn't mean that this his love for you doesn't make him forget and fall into the deep pool of delusions 🤷‍♀️

✭ Like oh em gee, I don't think you understand how powerful you are...you made the Taehyun delulu

✭ Also he's prolly gonna be the most embarrassed too, the others have little to no shame

✭ And ofc he has the most normal dream...I think

The loud sound of screeching wakes Taehyun up from his beauty sleep, who just grumbles at the sound, rolling around to turn off the alarm. Except when he flails his hands around in a sleep-induced phase, he finds nothing on his bedside table, forcing him to lift an eye up. "Where is my-what the fuck" Lifting his lower body up with concern, he spots a chicken that was drinking a bottle of sprite while screaming its head off. Getting tired of the noise quickly, Taehyun gets out of bed to pick up the animal so he could put it outside. Yet before his hands even touch the thing, you come bursting out the closet a bunch of other chickens following right behind you, letting out a sound of astonishment once you meet Taehyun's flabbergasted but infatuated eyes. "Tae what are you doing in my room?" "Your room?" He parrots, a small nip on his arm reminding him that he is holding a chicken, which he doesn't remember picking up? "Yeah my room" Suddenly you look past him and he follows your sight, and oh my you are right, he is in your room...but how? He swears that he was just in his place? Looking around skittishly, he catches your curious eyes, making him cough at how adorable you looked even though you were in your pajamas. "Um sorry about that, I don't even know why I am in your room?" You pat his cheek and he blushes under your touch. "You're fine, let's go to school, I think we're getting late!" "To school? I'm not even my uniform yet" He panics sending you into puzzlement once more. "What do you mean, you're already dressed up?" Looking down he notices that indeed he was already wearing his school uniform! "How?" Purely dumbfounded he just nods, wiping away the sweat that was starting to pour down his face. "Why are you acting so weird today?" You snicker, but mumble sorry's at your tease.

Grasping the door-handle to your closet, you open the door and slowly walk back into the darkness. "See you late Tae! and go straight to the cafe to look for the huge poster" Shooting finger guns at Taehyun, you close the door on his face, leaving behind. "Wait (Y/n)" Trying to grasp the same handle, he finds it gone without a trace. Glancing around, his eyes go to target the second door in the room; the actual entrance. Clutching the metal handle, he swings open the door, which for some reason leads into the chemistry lab. Closing the door behind him politely, he runs out of the lab, remembering your words about finding the cafeteria. And who was Taehyun if he ever forgot your words. Taking corners left and right, he doesn't recollect the hallways being this long or the cafe being this far but it doesn't matter and he soon reaches his destination. Stretching his neck, he looks around for the said poster but he doesn't even find it and after surveying the lunchroom over ten times, he lets it go, opting to sit down. But he doesn't even have a chance, cause the moment he sat his butt down, you called out his name with great joy. "Taehyun lookie here, this is the poster I was talking about!" Turning around swiftly, he watches as a huge roll of paper unravels itself over the staircase, revealing the hidden image that it was hiding. "Look, it's me and Kai, aren't we so cute!" you squeal while Taehyun stares at the picture in fear and envy. You two were cuddling on what seemed like his bed, while you gave a huge kiss to the boy's lips. "Oh no! I didn't secure the poster right!" He hears Huening Kai say somewhere in the distance, before looking forward again...only to be met with the giant paper breaking free from its clips and falling right towards Taehyun.

✭ Taehyun didn't stay asleep long enough to see what happened next

✭ He wasn't really sure how he was feeling, he didn't know if he was supposed to feel betrayed or not over a 'stupid' dream like this (btw he did feel stabbed in the back fkjhfuaisjfn)

✭ He knew that the dream he had was just a figment of his imagination but he couldn't help look around for a random rooster or chicken in his room before getting ready for school

✭ yadda yadda he's already at school and going to his classes when he spots you and Kai by the lockers chatting and giggling with each other

✭ And just couldn't help feel slightly jealous ughhh

✭ But him being Taehyun he ignores it, anyways he's the one that has first period with you, not Huening Kamal Kai

✭ Sitting at your desk, you feel a wave of butterflies as Taehyun smiles at you when he sits next to you, so you obviously smile back which also leads to Taehyun's guts being blended up inside him

✭ Gosh your so cute that he wants to pocket you and grill you alive

✭ I'm guessing that if you guys weren't that close he wouldn't even dare say what he was thinking right now

✭ But luckily you are sheeeshshhdihfs

"(Y/n)?" He stares at you snap back into reality while you were just staring into blank space, humming questioningly at your name. "Do you like Kai, you can tell me, I won't judge" He shakes his hands at you and you scrunch your nose at him, chuckling at his antics. "Not at all, I honestly see him as a brother, why? what's with the sudden question, did someone start spreading rumors again?" "Er no, I was just curious" He slowly nods at you, flashing his usual grin for comfort. "Ok...I um actually like someone else" Straightening his back faster than you can say love, he looks at you with a glint that you've never seen before. "Really? who?" You smirk, "You'll find out soon". He raises eyebrows and rolls his eyes, muttering alright before looking towards the side, humming a soft tune. When he first met you, he quickly found out that you liked leaving him in suspense, whether it was intentionally or not. His mind wanders back to the dream.

Should he tell you? Would you find him weird and if you did were you going to start avoiding him? What if-"A penny for your thoughts?" You sigh, staring at him through the corner of your eyes, amusedly watching his startled face. Gulping timidly, he decides to tell you, he just couldn't hold it in anymore! "So theoretically what if someone you knew had a dream about you cheating on them with another close friend, asking for a friend? '' He tugs at the collar of his shirt, anxiously watching your face go through a variant of emotions. You weren't dumb, nope not stupid at all, so you definitely knew that ‘his friend' was actually him and god were you freaking out inside. But it wouldn't hurt to tease. "So the friend saw me cheating on them with another friend, I didn't know I had a secret admirer" you poke Taehyun who scrambles so he could defend what he meant. "No what I meant is-you know what never mind, you already know what I mean" he grumbles, ducking his head back into his arm, trying to cover up the slight blush. "No need to be shy, I like you too" you lean down to whisper into his ear, and he accidentally lets out a squeak. And you push your body even closer, "And I promise not to cheat on our 'actual' relationship".

✭ He's the color of a flamingo now

✭ It's official to say that Taehyun is currently the luckiest and happiest man in the world

✭ But he's still really embarrassed, like he couldn't even look you in the eye after that for a couple of days

✭ And it still haunts him in his nightmares

Huening Kai ˚ · • . ° .

✭ He's prolly the calmest in this situation

✭ He got this nightmare when he spotted you and Soobin talking about anime without him 💔 ��💔

✭ He also probably fell asleep next to you and Soobin while everyone was watching a movie at his house...also it's safe to say that you're really really comfy like his plushies

Huening Kamal Kai felt like he was in heaven. Surrounding him were millions and billions of plushies of many kinds, especially the Sanrio ones. Funny story: he actually never liked Sanrio until he met you, his cute obsession after you won him a dozen of hello kitty and My Melody plushies at an arcade. Easily the best night ever. Rolling around in happiness, he stops along an oddball of a plushie, furrowing his eyebrow and trying to figure out what it was before a lightbulb clicked in his head. It was you in a plushie form! "Awww how cute!" Holding the little plushie up, he brings it up to his chest, snuggling it into the crook of his neck. Flapping right back down, he fights the urge to scream and squeal and he almost wishes that he would never leave, but then how would he see the real you? Sighing with content he suddenly starts to hear strange music echoing, and it seems that it's coming from the far side of the plushies. Picking himself up, he drags the stuffed version of you, ready to explore with great interest. "Who's there?" he tries, but it's to no avail, it's just the music that responds back but this time it has a familiar tune. "Hey, I know that song!" Looking down at the stuffy in his hand he continues on, "It's from (Y/n)'s favorite anime, wait maybe she's with the music !" Struggling to pick up the pace and exclaim his sorry to the many faces of stuffed animals he was stepping on, but there was no time to waste. "(Y/n)ieeee are you there?"

Receiving no response doesn't make him lose hope instead it just fuels his drive to find you more. Feeling like he was running for hours, he finally spots a tiny radio amidst all the fluff making him stop. The source of the music was found but (Y/n) was nowhere to be seen. Bending down to take a closer look at the machine, he decides to turn it off, it was starting to get annoying. But right when he does that, a door emerges from the plushies, a pink and white door, right next to Hyuka's feet. "Huh?" He leans down once more to tug on the knob which magically turns into a rainbow, yet it doesn't let him enter or even open the door. Puzzled, he knocks on the door, but it still doesn't open, instead choosing to send out a small hole that was similar to the (Y/n) in his hand. 'Oh should I put her in here?' Thinking, he chooses to push you into the hole and then only does the door open for him, letting a gust of wind swish his blonde hair. A strong magnetic force swiftly pulls him inside and shuts the door behind him, leaving him in a total dark room, contrasting the place he was just in. "Hello? is anyone-oh!" A sudden flash of bright light booms in front of him before a whole explosion pushes him onto his feet. Shocked, he stays on the ground, silently staring at the multitude of ignitions of color when something from the corner of his eye, makes him jump in surprise. "Is that Soobin as Gojo?!" He screams, rubbing his eyes to make sure what he saw was 'real'. "Oh my god is that Jogo, are they fighting?!" squawking like a hawk, he ogles with big doe eyes, literally rewatching the same intense fight that he saw in the anime. Except this time, when Soobin as Gojo won, out came you in what seemed like a hashira uniform. "(Y/n) why are you wearing a hashira uniform, are you really a hashira?" He excitedly waves towards you but frowns when you ignore him, looking right at Soobin with a dorky smile. "Hi my pookieicious, anime weeb, baka lalala, sugamama, deadchi, haikyuu, iwa-chan boy, I'm so happy you beat that Haisha (Loser).

Clenching your fists, you bring them to yourselves only to tug on Soobin's sleeve so you could place a chaste kiss on his lips. And all Huening Kai could do is just watch in complete horror, he wasn't even focused on the part where you called Soobin weird ass names, he had eyes on the part where you kissed him! "Of course my baby grill!" Soobin laughs like an old man and this is where Kai has enough, coughing loud enough to catch yours and Soobin's attention. "(Y/n) what are you doing hanging out with Soobin?! Are you cheating on me?! Why? He doesn't even like Megumi! What person doesn't like Megumi?!" Sending a flurry of words, Kai stands in the dark, ready to burst into tears. "I don't like Megumi either" You bounce your shoulders, and look right at Soobin again. "Ew who are you and what did you do to my (Y/n)?! Didn't you claim that Megumi was your husband the other day? I was actually going to change my hair so it would look like his, please I love you (Y/n)!" Consumed by terror, Huening Kai doesn't notice Soobin's hands producing some weird energy, and when he does it was too late to run away from. "Nooooo!" Kai screams once hit, flying through the air. "Nooo-"

✭ "Kai wake up!"

✭ "Noooo-huh?", oh shit am I in heaven?" Dw he's not, he just saw your face and thought you were an angel oops

✭ "Nope, you were just having a nightmare" he doesn't notice but you're trying really really hard to not let a single giggle slip from your mouth

✭ "Oh." Looking around he finds the rest of the boys sleeping in like weird positions but he doesn't even question it but for some reason one of them (Beomgyu) lets out a snore that sounded like it was a mixture between a screaming cat and a choking rat...I wonder why huh

✭ I fully support the idea that Kai doesn't tell you about the nightmare but yk he's still feeling jealousy especially at Soobin's head on your shoulder, and he was smiling too, that fucking toe-sucker

✭ "Are you ok?" you asks, ruffling his head and he just nervously lets out a small gasp, wondering how your the most prettiest woman he's ever laid his eyes on

✭ "Yeah I'm fine, I just need some water" "Ok let's gaur"

✭ He's confused about why you're coming with him but whatever, and being the gentleman he is, he helps you get out from the tangled mess of blankets, and he's holding your hand too jdshflueghhfuweh :(

Walking to the kitchen with hands interlocked with Kai was something you would've never expected but it was least to say that it was enjoyable. With his little skips and his hands swinging yours, it sent your love sensor into a frenzy and your heart feeling like you were racing in a marathon. Though Kai on the other hand, tried hard to not faint in your arms. God you looked so adorable with your nonsensical giggles at his stupid jokes and your pure smiles that you flashed in his way. The kitchen was obviously not far, so when you arrive, you guys make a straight bee-line to the fridge, grabbing your respective glasses. "So Kai, what was your nightmare about?" You breathe, intently watching him go pink in the face. Biting his tongue so he doesn't let out a shameful smile, he replies back with a lie. "I dunno, I forgot to be honest". He didn't like lying to you but he had no other choice...if you ever found out, he'd like to be run over by car so he would never have to face you again.

"Let's stay in the kitchen for a while, I don't want to go back to those idiots" Kai grins at your words, and was going to say a bright "ok" at your suggestion before he was rudely interrupted by one of the boys by their groan? Their snoring? Their mutter? The air fell into a comfortable silence yet Huening Kai was going through an internal turmoil. 'Why would you cheat on him?' Looking back at a sleeping Soobin he receives another question. "Do you still like Megumi?" You let out a confused hum. "Do you still like Megumi... 'cause I know that you were rambling about him being your husband or whatever?" he rumbles. "Yeah I do but I think his hair is mid, not the best hairstyle I've ever seen, I like blonde hair better" "Oh ok" his cheeks were starting to hurt from how hard he had to stop himself from smiling. Guess who had blonde hair, him! 'Wait Soobin also has blonde hair...' and his mood goes downhill again. "Um also I don't like Soobin, nor would I ever cheat on you" He almost has the audacity to just agree with you, and he almost does until your words mock him again in his mind. "Wait what-I" He stutters, taken aback by your choice of words. "I didn't know you sleep-talked Hyuka" You sigh, walking closer to him while he just remains frozen in shock. "You heard everything?" He weakly mutters, laughing to himself slowly, mentally preparing for himself to get rejected. "You know I can't cheat on you if we aren't dating, but...we can change that if you want" Practically cornering him against the wall, gleefully observing him changing colors like a chameleon. "Seriously?" "I've liked you since fifth grade, of course," Taking his dizzy smile as an invitation, you capture his lips into a kiss.

✭ You wanna guess why there were flashes of light in your guy's direction

✭ "Gosh Hyuka that was like the lamest confession I've ever seen" Yeonjun laughs

✭ "Wait, they were awake the whole time?" Yea lol

✭ "Kai I would never like (Y/n) like that, the fact that she likes Megumi is a straight up red flag for me"

✭ "Oh shut it Soobin...I'm still better than Megumi right (Y/n)?"

✭ "of courseee"

✭ Kai is so awww ugugujdfkj

✭ Also, my bias for him may or may not have shown sorryyyy

lol please reblog and likee

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moltensmusings · 8 months ago

Note

how did zeref create the dragon slayers?? and are natsu and zeref still brothers

As I answer this I want to note: a lot of these ideas are from 2022 and not as fresh in my head, and rewriting the lore of fairy tail has taken a backset to my own personal story so things can get muddy and may change.

First zeref has a parent/child dynamic with the dragon slayers. None of them really know him but he is their creator and has a certain level of fondness for all of them. Natsu he's actually disappointed in. I'll explain in a moment.

Zeref is cursed due to hubris and how he dug into every type of magic no matter how taboo just to learn and gain power in this au. He had a love of learning and a zest for life that ultimately leads to him corrupting the very core of magic causing death and desolation around him.

He's only able to be killed by people blessed by divinity, however out of pettiness as gods can often be, no truly blessed mages have been found since Zeref was cursed.

And by divinely blessed I don't mean magic based in divinity. I mean a child the gods claim as their own. Someone made holy without training for it.

He takes matters into his own hands and crafts children to act as sponges for dragon magic since in this version dragons are children of God's who have taught humans before. Zeref's idea is that maybe this could work in killing him.

Irene would have known him from this point and she's the reason the dragons take in the children at all. But when it comes to Zeref, anyone who assists him is worthy of sharing in his punishment and she's given a similarly horrible one to endure for it.

The thing is he knows for someone to kill him of their own free will he'd need to be hated. He'd need people who are angry and volatile. And natsu being the fire dragon slayer really should've been perfect for that but the dude is just too friendly and happy. Causing zeref to think him the biggest mistake of all.

Again: I really would need to sit down and spend a few hours/days figuring it out and most likely rewatching fairy tail to refamiliarize myself with the finer details but this is the gist. A lot of Zeref meddling in humanity is for the sake of finding his own oblivion. He's in a way killed what magic once was and can't find peace in the world because he corrupts everything. He absorbs things around him to keep himself alive unwillingly. If he doesn't absorb life he starves but exists until something appears that he can take from.

I hope this is good enough for now! Sorry if it's a garbage answer, I'm aware I need to revise and focus on it. Unfortunately my mind goes where it wants and it hasn't settled into lore building in a while.

Thank you for the question!

#fairy tail #molten rambles #zeref dragneel #i have an idea for him capturing lucy and planning to kill her to enrage the dragon slayers that like her #and wendy suckerpunching him when shes the first to arrive because of her magic #hes tragic but also incredibly cruel and self serving #anon #ask #this is also why zeref manipulates mavis #hes hoping he can trick the gods into making her divine

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caramelmachatwo · 5 months ago

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"Just a little too soon."

ooooo another buzz album analysis, blue moon this time

Niki revealed that this was an anthem for "right person, wrong time", though the lyrics make a lot of sense and point towards that direction— there's more to it, there always is.

I know nothing about retrogrades or moon cycles, so I had to search things up before writing this, please spare my soul and this butchered attempt in connecting the dots. Don't take my assumptions as facts please, I don't want to be cursed.

People keep saying it's about losing someone that is rare, like a blue moon, I don't think 2-3 years is that long, completely disagreeing to what NASA says. But, when I think of it high school is also that long and a lot can happen during it. Saying this as a senior in high school, time completely flies.

I think it's a song about falling out of love from frequent quarrels, this "perfect" person that we ought to adore because you don't meet people like them often in our lives, thus we tend to cherish them more than others. Leading to tendencies that we create excuses for them to stay special even if they grow out of it, "I've never been worried 'bout my hands getting dirty, but you wash yours of any ownership." They're basically admitting that they are ashamed to be with you, no, appalled with the thought they could be yours. You don't say that to someone you love.

Of course, I had to look into the star signs: Niki is an Aquarius while the other is a Cancer (I did extensive research on this and their compatibility, they are NOT compatible). Niki said that this song is a sister song to "Pandemonium" which means chaos, a wild uproar. "Dying in the dark, it's written in the stars" as the bridge sings, looking up again in the sky and searching for clues that there was an end before it even started, "Was it written in the stars that we'd meet a little too soon?" blue-moon goes. In every person that we meet and end up loving, we hope to be there for their present and future. We hope for them to tell us more about their past, hearing stories that show what kind of person they were, reliving all the versions of they were before you met them, and no one says it, but we all pray that we meet the people we love in their best state. Not for our own convenience but we want them to be the happiest when we enter their lives, and it doesn't have to be all what you imagine "best" would be. It could simply just be being ready, ready to lose, ready to receive. The happiest is when they are able to let you be part of it, letting themselves be vulnerable in front of you, let themselves be who they are; may it be a part of themselves from the past or seeking out who they want to be in a few years. Best is already you, with or without fear, just willing to take the fall or finish with some bruises. Clearly, this person in the song wasn't in their best, not yet. And the song expresses colossal loss, wondering how would things turn out if they met on a different moon, another version of themselves. A version that they were both ready.

Too bad it was a little too soon :)

ps. Personally, I think there's no best version of yourself, you can't say it until you're settling down and dying, there are only ups and downs. You are not you're best only when you're happy, you can be in your best and still crumble into bad habits. Be depressed yet still thrive, there's no limit into saying what is or what isn't, and I guess that's one thing to keep living for as time goes. So, don't rely on chances, people, or astrology to determine how outcomes will be, let yourself be free from practicality, it could be once or an ungodly times where you have renounced yourself but that's what we are. And you choose whether to stand up, die in it, or my recommended option would be to start again. Let it be that.

#noob #wow #like wow #cute #super cute #writing #niki zefanya #blue moon #stream buzz album

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oliversrarebooks · 7 months ago

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How about directors commentary on the Maestro’s introduction!! :3

The third of the Big Plot Shakeups! As soon as I realized I wanted to continue the story past Alexander taking Oliver home, I decided I probably needed a conflict for this part of the story. Oliver was too entranced and Alexander too powerful to center the story around Oliver's attempts to escape, so I wanted to create some kind of external threat.

The first version was called the Toymaker. He made people into lifesize dolls that he could control, as well as making eerie clockwork puppets. He wasn't related to Alexander in any way, just a powerful vampire in the city who decided he wanted Oliver for his own.

This posed the obvious question: if the Toymaker is so powerful and trying to take Oliver, why doesn't Alexander just flee with Oliver? I came up with convoluted reasons why this wouldn't work, such as Oliver being cursed to always return to the Toymaker's manor every winter, before I came up with the (hopefully) more elegant solution that the character was Alexander's sire. That neatly explained why he might have power over Alexander.

By this time he had gone through a couple of names that didn't stick at all, because the Toymaker didn't really fit what the character became. I despaired of finding any suitable name until I decided to just figure out a different title for him to have. I think I finally settled on the Maestro right before the first time I had to mention him in the narrative...

Once I decided that he was Alexander (and then Lily's) sire, the narrative changed dramatically. I now had a good reason why Lex and Fitz are starcrossed. Jameson dropped out as primary antagonist. There was a weird side plot about using Alexander's blood to make a permanent mind erasing drug that didn't last in my outlines very long.

To make him more menacing, the human dolls concept turned into body control / puppeteering.

Then I just had to figure out how the fuck he was going to die in the end.

Okay, I guess none of this was actually commentary on his entrance, though. This was one of the pieces I was more nervous about because I'd dropped some asks and hints about him, and because I was thirty-nine parts into this thing when I finally introduced the primary antagonist. I needed the entrance to make impact, so I did a lot of revising and editing to make it work. I also don't have a lot of faith in my ability to write villains. But judging from the amount of asks and comments I get on the guy, it seems that his introduction was generally successful! So far, so good...

#ask #maestro

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m0nost4tic · 1 year ago

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someone's gotta hear me out here;

octopath traveler ii apocalyptic au.

it has SO MUCH raw potential, no matter which route you want to take for it.

soooo.... prepare yourself for a ramble on potential ideas. do keep in mind i divided it up by sections only after writing most of it though 💔

-- general concept //

i've mentioned the idea to a handful of friends, and most of them assume i mean an apocalyptic au placed in a more modern setting. that in itself is interesting and a whole other concept to explore, but what i've *really* been thinking of is one set in solistia.

at first, i wanted to use the stereotypical zombie virus. but when i further thought on it, that wouldn't really make sense in ot2's context. i mean, yeah, it could be a situation like castti's - but how would a mutated virus tie back to an overlooming shadow the same way trousseau's poison does?

there were a billion different ways to create or sever that tie. the virus' mutation could have been caused by the darkness, or the virus itself originating from a creature of it, or something else among the lines of that. i couldn't really settle on just one solid idea - until i remembered osvald's final chapter.

osvald's final chapter features people who are "possessed" by this shadow magic. they are unable to speak and appear violent to *some* extent. plus, after you're able to free them from this trance, they seem to be unaware of what had only just taken place.

in addition to this, while playing the game, you have a set chance of encountering a monster who looks *just* like one of the others, save for its darker palette and shadow-themed battle scenery. this also appears in ochette's final. and temenos' final, when that magic mutates kaldena into some sort of monster? AND the darkblood blade causing a similar instance with mugen?? ANDDD the dark akala/mahina for ochette's final???? and not to mention trousseau using "poisonous shadow energy" to cause fatal illness. the perfect set-up for a zombielike concept is literally all RIGHT there

-- hikari //

HOWEVER. using the shadow as a direct cause of it brings up a few questions that need solving. if we go with a "the last of us" sort of concept, where the people who are infected are *alive* but serve as "hosts," then what would that mean for hikari??? there's a bunch of different ways to explore that. would he technically be born infected and, therefore, have partial immunity?? if so, how would his infected state affect not only him but the other travelers as well??? i imagine it functions pretty similarly to the original curse, maybe with a few sickly symptoms?

i think one of the key differences with hikari and other forms of the shadow is sentience. with the people from osvald's ch. 5, they're reduced to just making animalistic sounds in place of speaking. in hikari and temenos' finals, both mutated versions of bosses have a VERY limited speech pattern and seem to entirely lose themself. in ochette's story, it afflicted animals. on the flip side, when it comes to hikari's curse, we have this shadow within that can speak and think for itself. while it is a possibility this sentience is limited because most (if not all) of what it thinks about is violence, it's perfectly capable of interacting with people (...if it ever wanted to without hurting them)

so...maybe it wouldn't act like the other infected whenever hikari loses control of it? but it probably still has a strong lust for blood. PLUS, being that this is set in an apocalyptic setting, being around violence is going to be an incredibly common occurrence. hikari'll have to be dealing with it. a LOT. i feel like at some point the other travelers start to notice that something's up, depending on which representation of the curse you wanna go for. like, if it's just partial infection immunity, hikari could be bitten at some point, start feeling a faint bit sickly, and everyone's grieving and preparing for his loss, and then...it just. doesn't happen. or, if you wanna go for something like the shadow being recognized as something similar to the infected, there could be an instance where hikari is struggling against it, and the infected they were in the middle of fighting charge toward him, set to attack, and— then they just walk around him, as if he didn't exist at all. this would probably act similar to the whole smell disguise thing in the walking dead or like the zombies ignoring the ill in world war z

-- throné //

the shadow's relation to the apocalypse would also raise a few questions for throné. for instance, if this widespread infection is marking the beginning of vide's return and the end of time, what would this mean about throné being a 'vessel?' what about her own blood ties to d'arqest (and the ones she shares with hikari)?

since throné doesn't have 1-to-1 interactions with her dark ancestry (the shadow), i wouldn't go quite as far as hikari's concepts. like, i don't think she'd be immune to them. buuuuut, as she was born as a potential candidate as vide's vessel, i can see her being better at handling the infected. maybe it'd be something like a heightened sense or intuition of their actions. there could be more of an understanding that's beyond just empathy of the tragedy. after all, these things are technically vide's creation, and she's not so far off from being considered one too. i wouldn't go off into fantasy land and say she can talk to them or something, but i can see her predicting some of their behaviors. if they ever try to sneak up on the cast, both because of her assassin/thief history and this trait, she'd be the first to notice them and spring into action-- even before they're actually near the group. it's like a feeling of paranoia except, most of the time, it's true

ochette could perhaps possess a similar ability (though not quite the same) due to the orign of the beastlings, and because of her being basically pure light LMAO. even vide couldn't find a way to corrupt her

another note- i feel like traveler stories relating to vide would be much more rooted in cultism than they were originally. you've probably seen films or shows of post-apocalyptic scenarios. cults spresd FAST. and, speaking of which...

-- the moonshade order //

THESE GUYS. eugh i both love and hate them sm i'm gonna throw them

anyway. so, in this version of what i'm describing, the only main world change is the timeline order. long story short, these guys managed to pull a lot of the big bad strings way back, maybe even before some of the travelers were born (glances at agnea) but i haven't fully arranged it out yet

ALTHOUUUGH, as we know, there are circumstances that were only capable thanks TO the travelers. (ex. kazan using the ku civil war to retrieve the blade). i think this is EXACTLY why vide has yet to fully return. maybe they've managed to get 2 or 3 of the flames out (i'm not completely sure which ones are possible and which ones aren't. i'd have to look back at it later... it's currently 12 am at the time of me writing this, so there's zero way i'm checking atm </3). in this csse scenario, i see this like a weakening on the seal, and hence, allowing for the beginning of the end to start

otherrr than that, post-apocalyptic, i see them functioning as a cult. ..well, they technically already are, but a more influential one. like, let's take kazan, for example. he would definitely use the apocalypse as an opportunity to 'advise' the king and general mugen. ...iiiin other words, basically manipulating them.

!! subsection about ku because i rambled a bit //

since ku's so war-heavy, after the kingdom falls (and, geographically wise, they'd likely be one of the last standing), i envision them having a survivor group ran by the royal family. kazan would use the chaos and conflict to paint himself in to a higher, more influential role in this group. as hikari would be pretty young when the apocalypse began, i can picture kazan becoming his mentor in this au. he'd probably speak to hikari and other people of ku about vide and the end of the 'cruel and ugly world' and such, and, because most people are willing to listen to just about anything in this stats of emergency, they start believing in it, too. maybe not as deeply as kazan, but it might influence them in behaviors or habits, like serving to only worsen ku's war-thirsty nature or people of the group beginning to adapt a more "ah, well, it is what it is. this cruel and ugly world will end soon anyway" mindset

also, on kazan mentoring hikari, this would definitely be another manipulation tactic. enough people of ku know about the curse (and, in mugen's case, about hikari's mixed ancestral bloodline) for it to be expected that kazan is fully aware of it. i wouldn't even be surprised if part of the plan was to use hikari to, at last, fully free vide. orrr, maybe kazan treats hikari as if he's vide's intended vessel? either way, this would cause much deeper rooted psychological problems for hikari. like...ku's violence meter probably went WAAAY up due to the stress and panic of the apocalypse. and then you add in the blackouts associated with the shadow within that he's not fully aware of until adulthood. and also a lot of the similar event sequences to his original storyline.

i just really quickly fetched a few small hypothetical concepts i sent to a friend about post-apoc ku late october;

" hikari's upbringing would therefore likely have a lot more of kazan's involvement in it, as well as all those bad behaviors.

ofc, just like he strays from his family's history of violence in canon, hikari often strays away from the path kazan tries to set up for him. he disagrees with all the violence and a good amount of the questionable behaviors clan ku exhibits

in facctttt

one idea i had for this version of ku, was that they sometimes keep others hostage for bargaining, torturing for information, cult-like related reasons, etc. but this would be pretty rare because ku would fucking murder most of their hostages

there was one scene i imagined would perhaps make a tie between him and another character (most likely partitio due to ku and oresrush's proximities)

in this case, lets say there's been a group near their area that they've been struggling to "sniff out," and they finally happen to find one of the members of that group. if this was as a tie to partitio, then this would likely be one of his friends - nikki, joe, maybe even alrond, etc.

young hikari realizes he's roughly the same age as the hostage and, ofc, feels super fucking bad. and hence sneaks out at night to bandage the captive's wounds and maybe try to free him

during that whole interaction, i imagine him saying something along the lines of "it's okay," offering out his hand to show the bandages and his intent to help, "...i'm not like them."

if/when he frees this person, kazan would definitely have the suspicion it was hikari and eventually find the evidence it was (likely through manipulating hikari to spill), and young hikari would get *a ton* of shit for it

to mimic a lot of things that happens in hikari's story, another thing i did sort of want portrayed was his mother's death;

but i thought it more similarly to a twd character, where his father clings onto a zombified version of her (and this could serve as another reason for the occasional captive and excessive bouts of manslaughter)

until, one day, she's found fckin dead. wound indicates a sword to the head and all. hikari personally felt a sort of peace with the fact, because he saw it as her *finally* being allowed to rest properly. he knew and recognized that the walkers were anything but human, and while they once were, the person they were before was most definitely *gone*. (hence he'd be the type to go out of his way to put an end to walkers that're trapped or hung, because he wants those people to finally feel a sense of peace instead of being trapped in whatever sort of hell that was. if the shadow was to have a big hold on him, it would also contribute to this sympathy because he'd *know* some of the hell they'd gone through)

....however, the rest of clan ku would *not* see it that way and treat it as an assassination. and that's another pointer to hikari that things around him are kinda lowkey fucked up

....and because of the way he viewed it, and him being young and not yet really knowing that view was VERY frowned upon, a lot of the clan ends up thinking he was the one who carried it out. henceee more of the shit hikari receives. the shit w/ jin mei would also be connected 2 this "

!! back to moonshade //

mindt may cause something sort of like that among the church, or be able to spread the word of vide under the disguise OF the proper church of the sacred flame. people are 10x more likely to listen to official clerics instead of some rambling lunatic, right?

okay i'm getting too tired to keep writing tjis it just turned 1 in the morning and i didn' sleep yesterdah. 😭😭. i MIGHT come back and revisit this if anything else comes to mind!!!! most of my thoughts have pertained to hikari and thr ku kingdom, so if this post somehow manages to pique anyone's interest at all, i'm really open to hesring any ideas you might have for any of tje travelers or ot2 chatacters! orrr any input about things i've already thought up. i really wanna find some way to implement ships into this too but i haven't gotten to think on it much. i'm personally a sucker for partikari, castthroné, and knightlight/crimenos. but also just relationships in general, like the close-knit friendship between throné and temenos. .....this is making me realize how much more thinking and planning i have to do 😭

ps i'm newer to tumblr so i'm sorry if the formatting in this is god awful💔. i wanted somewhere to rant about my silly little slow work in progress apoc au in the middle of the might and thought you guys would be best suited lmfao

#octopath traveler 2 #i really just spent like 2 or 3 hours typing all of this on my phone instead of sleeping #god i'm so ill about ot2 actually #hikari ku #octopath #alternate universe #throné anguis #kind of. she's mentioned #octopath traveler ii #this is so hikari centric atm #my bad guys #its the illness getting to me again /j

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spartanguard · 2 years ago

Text

sons of love and death, 2/13 {CSSNS 23}

Summary: After the Final Battle, Killian Jones had finally settled into his happily ever after with his wife and family. Until a new foe arrived in Storybrooke: the infamous Dorian Gray, who looks rather familiar—one might say identical—to the pirate, and he’s on a mission: to claim the powers of the Dark One for himself. There’s only one problem: the Dark One no longer exists. What follows is a journey of vengeance, revelations, magic, and finally facing down the darkness within himself that Killian thought he’d finally put to rest. [roughly canon divergent from 5B, though set post-canon]

A/N: Time for the next chapter of this year’s @cssns story! (I plan to update every Wednesday :D ) Thank you for the warm reception to the first part; hope you enjoy this next one as well! Also: A shout-out to my writing crew on Discord; thank you for all your support as I've worked on this!!!! (And eternal thanks to the best beta, @optomisticgirl!)

rated M | 2.6k words | AO3 | 1

"That's not Killian."

"Are you sure?" David sounded skeptical of Emma’s statement, but she had no clue why.

"Of course I'm sure; he’s my freaking husband. That's not him," she insisted, pointing to the (admittedly handsome) stranger in the cell.

For starters, Emma had literally just left Killian at the library; there was no way he'd have had the time to start a fight with Leroy at Granny's AND get arrested in the span of 5 minutes. (At least, not anymore.)

Second, she would know him anywhere, any time, in any world. Even the haggard version of Killian she’d met in the Wish Realm was undeniably him.

So while this clearly hungover man looked and sounded like Killian, she knew it wasn't. There was nothing but anger deep in this man's eyes—a look Killian hadn't had in ages. She briefly entertained the possibility he was cursed, or that this was some kind of glamour spell or time travel, but then she took a closer look at his face: the scar was all wrong—it was deeper and cut a jagged line into his left cheek; Killian's was light and curved down the right side. And to top it all off, he had two hands.

But that only raised another question.

"Who are you?"

"Finally, one of you idiots doesn't pretend to know me." A chill went down her spine; it was Killian's voice, alright, but with more venom and spite than his ever had in the time she’d known him. And the accent was ever so slightly different—less of a lilt and more of an edge.

"I'll ask again: who are you?" She'd gotten pretty good at reading Killian, but it was proving near impossible with this guy (further proof that it was not her favorite pirate).

"How about you tell me who everyone thinks I am?" There was a challenge in his tone.

"Nope." No way was she letting him find out about Killian if he didn’t already know. "Why are you here, then?"

"That's my business." His face suddenly turned dark—well, darker—and she grew fearful. Because even though she knew he was a different person, he was starting to remind her an awful lot of the man she found hiding under some bodies in the Enchanted Forest, who was willing to burn heaven and hell to get his revenge.

"You made it our business when you came into this town," David supplied. "Either tell us why you're here, and maybe we can help you, or let us escort you out of town."

A sudden rage came over the man, and he jumped up and grabbed at the cell's bars. "I'm not leaving until I've taken what's mine!" A fire burned in his eyes as he shouted.

No, wait—that was actual fire. His hands began to glow a hot red-orange and she heard a distinct hissing sound. Two jaws dropped as the man melted the metal in his hands and then some, giving him an easy exit.

He angrily stepped through the hole he'd just made and began to stride out of the station. David attempted to grab him, but the man twisted away and turned to give them both a menacing look.

"Stay out of my way and leave the Dark One to me," he warned. A moment later, he appeared to be engulfed in flames, and the next, he was gone. Emma exchanged a look of shock with her father.

"Definitely not Hook."

“Duh,” she deadpanned. But she was stuck on something else. "The Dark One?"

"He must not know."

They didn't get a chance to process the encounter before the station phone was ringing. David answered it and hung up not a minute later, sighing.

"Speaking of."

"Gold?"

"Yeah. Turns out his shop got ransacked last night."

"Shit. And I bet we know who did it."

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・🗡・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

So he had a doppelganger in this town; that was why everyone seemed to know him. He had transported to a spot down the street from the pawn shop and was mulling over this new detail as he made his way there, lighting a fresh cigarette as he went. He relished the fact that he'd made some trouble for his lookalike. And maybe he could use that to his advantage here.

The door still hung ajar at the pawn shop when he arrived and he could hear someone shuffling around inside. He had to pause and take a moment to calm himself down—after centuries, he was finally only feet away from his quarry; he couldn't let his hot temper get in the way right now.

As quietly as he could, he stepped toward the entryway and looked in. A graying man was poking around and muttering, leaning on a cane and inspecting the damage. Why didn’t he just wave his hand and fix it all? Surely the Dark One would have no issue with magic as small as that.

A horrific thought entered his mind: what if the power of the Dark One was void in this realm? And that was why he had a hard time sensing it? He finally got a glimpse of the crippled man’s face: it was definitely Rumpelstiltskin. But he’d yet to pick up any full traces of that dark magic.

“I know you’re there, dearie,” a voice with a distinct brogue called out. Smirking, he stepped through the threshold.

He finally stood to face-to-face with his longtime prey. Rumpelstiltskin stared back; he looked nothing like how a Dark One should appear, though—he was utterly and completely normal.

“Captain, this is highly unusual.” In his reverie, he missed the look of recognition in the Dark One’s eyes.

Captain? Well that was a juicy little tidbit. Perhaps there’d be an adjoining vessel with which to hightail it out of here. “Just seeing how you liked my handiwork.”

Only a few feet of rubble-covered wood floor separated the two. “Are you here about your hand, or is there some other reason you’ve decided to break into and ransack my shop? I thought we were done, for good.”

Hand? He quickly thought back to the appendage in a jar and made sure both of his were out of sight as he meandered across the shop, pausing to lean against the counter. “I think there’s something else you can help me with, Dark One.”

“Really? Still using that title.” Rumpeltstiltskin gave a self-satisfied smirk that looked far too natural on his face.

Careful to use his right hand (the one in the jar was a left, he’d noticed), he took the dying cigarette from his teeth and put it out in the wood of the counter. Anger rose in his chest at his foe's cockiness and lack of fear—that wasn’t something he was used to. “Where is the dagger?” he asked, voice low.

“The dagger?” Rumpelstiltskin bore an incredulous expression, but the confusion only set off his own anger (so much for trying to collect himself). In a flash, he was at the other man’s throat, the beginnings of a ball of fire forming in his palm just inches from the Dark One’s face.

“Where is your dagger?” he growled again, emphasizing each word.

A stream of emotions flitted across the apparent Mr. Gold’s face: confusion, anger, fear, and finally realization.

“Who are you?” he sputtered out.

“The man who’s going to take your power.” His voice was barely more than a rasp at this point; he was too close to back down now.

To his utter shock, the Dark One laughed. It took him by surprise, and the fireball fizzled out before it had even finished forming.

But he regained composure. “You find your demise funny?”

“I know who you are; you've been dogging me for years. But you’re too late, by quite some time. There is no Dark One; not anymore.”

He pulled back, jaw slack. Out of all the scenarios he’d envisioned, he hadn’t even contemplated this. “Impossible.”

“I’ll let the sheriff explain.”

Seemingly on cue, Emma from the station barged through the open door, gun raised and leveled at his chest. As if that would do anything. He was about to knock back the weapon with a wave of his hand, but something in her steely gaze gave him pause.

She didn’t fuck around, he could tell. But he wasn’t about to let some small-town cop spoil his quest. He guessed she had been nothing more than a jailer back in the Enchanted Forest—he knew well enough how the curse worked. So she was certainly no match for him.

"Look, darling, like I said—this doesn’t involve you.” He walked toward her, adopting a softer tone, as if speaking to a pet. “Now, I’d hate to ruin that pretty face of yours. But if you won’t leave me be, sweetheart, then you leave me no choice."

Another fireball appeared in his hand and he shot it toward the sheriff. But she deflected it with a jerk of her arm and a pulse of white light. Of course the law enforcement had magic, he thought with a sigh. Just then, the male sheriff arrived; could he do the same?

"Who the hell are you?" she asked with a confident but stern voice.

"Well ain't that the question of the hour." She was staring daggers at him. "You can read my name when it’s engraved on the Dark One’s dagger," he threw back, gesturing at Rumpelstiltskin. "Run along now; this is between us." He waved her off.

She wasn’t fazed. Instead, she smirked, taking a thick black bracelet her partner offered. "You know what this does?"

"No clue." He didn't have time for games, but before he knew it, she'd slipped it onto his wrist.

He tried to conjure it off—burn through it, melt it, anything—but nothing happened; it was as if his magic was blocked. "What the fuck?" Tugging was no use, either. "What did you do?" he roared.

Smoothly, she cuffed him—with actual handcuffs this time. Before they left, she looked over at the former Dark One. “Is there any way to tell—”

“Yes, indeed.” A yank of his head and a prick of pain on his scalp told him that Rumpelstiltskin had taken some of his hair.

“What the hell do you need that for?” His query fell on deaf ears.

“I’ll require the Captain’s, too,” his foe told the sheriff, who nodded in assent.

He was unceremoniously shoved outside and into the back of the squad car. “Don’t you have to read me my rights in this country?” he protested.

“Yeah. You have the right to shut up.”

Surprising himself, he complied. The weight of what he’d been told moments earlier was just beginning to settle in: there was no more Dark One. As preposterous as it sounded, it made sense: there were no traces of the Darkness, or even magic, on Rumpelstiltskin, and nothing as dark as what he sought anywhere here. A sense of emptiness consumed him as he realized his life's purpose, his lone goal, simply ceased to exist.

What now?

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・🗡・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

The wail of the siren was a rude and somewhat jarring intrusion on the peace and quiet of the library. Killian nearly dropped the book he was reshelving—part of his new role as assistant librarian—and Belle was interrupted from her processing of returned items. Both watched the squad car speed by, then exchanged a concerned look.

"They...they were coming from the direction of the shop," Belle stated, shakily. After everything had been resolved with the Darkness and everyone returned to the land of the living, he and the former Dark One had come to an uneasy peace, mainly for the sake of Belle. She was his closest friend in town, outside of his in-laws, and they would always share a unique bond in their love affairs with the Dark One; hers was far longer than his, although his own dabble with the Darkness made his (and Emma’s) a bit more intense.

And in the varying events of their lives since—Gideon’s (traumatic) birth, his and Emma’s wedding, the fight against the Black Fairy, Henry’s departure, and everything else—they’d been by each other’s sides, even going so far as to work together at the library. (Emma had offered him a position at the station, but was more than understanding when Belle’s counteroffer won out, knowing how it would sate his constant craving for knowledge.) Belle was like the little sister he’d never had, and he felt protective over her.

So that was why, without hesitation, he set the books down and stepped toward the door. "Shall we?"

She quickly joined him and they raced outside and down the street to the shop. He wasn't surprised to see the door hanging open, but the lack of a doorknob altogether was surprising, as well as what looked like puddles of solid metal on the ground.

"Rumple! Are you alright?" Belle shouted as she ran into the arms of the man in question. Glass crunched underfoot and Killian had to admit, it was an impressive mess.

"Who came to exact their revenge this time?" he asked dryly. He never agreed to liking his former adversary—only the barest level of civility.

"Ahh, of course you'd know the signs of vengeance anywhere," Gold snarled back. In a few surprisingly short strides, the man was in front of Killian and reached up to yank a few hairs from his head.

"Rumple!" Belle admonished.

"What the hell was that for, mate? It wasn't me." Killian cursed Gold further internally while rubbing at the now-sore spot on his scalp.

"I know that. But there's something else we have to figure out." Rumpelstiltskin placed the hairs in a vial from his jacket, which had a few others in there already. "Belle, my darling, will you help me with something?"

"Of course," she immediately replied, but Killian could see confusion and a bit of worry on her face. Her husband may have lost his powers and was no longer under the influence of the darkness, but it had still shaped his personality over the centuries and no one but Belle knew if he had any true remaining malevolence.

"Now why don't you run along to the station, Captain. I think there's something there of interest to you." Killian didn't like the threatening tone that came his way, but he nodded his assent and bid Belle goodbye.

As he rushed across town, he felt uneasy about what was waiting at the station; regardless of what he'd been told, his concern was directed at Emma before himself. He couldn't bear the thought of some evil attaching itself to or going after her again, and it was nothing good that melted that doorknob and trashed the store.

By the time he was within a block of the station, he was sprinting, fear consuming him as his imagination ran faster than his feet. "Emma!" he shouted as he threw open the station door and ran in.

To his relief, she seemed untouched, and was deep in conversation with David and whoever was in one of the station's cells.

"Hey, is everything alright?" she asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

"If you're fine, then yes," he sighed into her hair. "Gold told me to come here; I was worried."

She pulled back to study his face, and he could see the trepidation on her face. "Swan, what is it?"

Before she could answer, a familiar voice called out from the cell—perhaps too familiar. "What the actual fuck?"

Killian looked at the prisoner and began to wonder if his eyesight was finally failing him or if there was some kind of magic afoot, because he may as well have been looking in a mirror at the form identical to his behind the bars.

"Bloody hell."

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・🗡・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

thanks for reading! (longer chapters to come!) tagging some peeps (let me know if you do/don’t want a tag!) @kat2609 @xpumpkindumplingx @shipsxahoy @mryddinwilt @cocohook38 @annytecture @shireness-says @ohmightydevviepuu @wistfulcynic @pirateherokillian @colinoeyebrows @wingedlioness @word-bug @thisonesatellite @wellhellotragic @welllpthisishappening @let-it-raines @killianmesmalls @thejollyroger-writer @ineffablecolors @ive-always-been-a-pirate @nfbagelperson @stubblesandwich @phiralovesloki @athenascarlet @kmomof4 @ilovemesomekillianjones @whimsicallyenchantedrose @snowbellewells @idristardis @scientificapricot @searchingwardrobes @donteattheappleshook @jrob64 @the-darkdragonfly @stahlop @klynn-stormz @resident-of-storybrooke

#cs ff #killian jones ff #cssns 2023 #captain swan supernatural summer #sons of love and death #my ff

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