#i told EVERYONE in the class except that kid. so eventually someone accidentally told him

[mars-ipan]

^ nervous but excited

[absolutepokemontrash]

MC is Half Demon and They’re- Oh Crap They’re Barbatos’ Kid!

This is the second part of that one request I answered for Dia and Barb’s possible kids. Sorry this took so long! Writer’s block, y’know? Anyhoo~ enjoy, everyone!

This story didn’t start on the first day of the exchange program, it started five days before in Barbatos’ room at three in the morning with the poor butler waking up in a cold sweat.

Oh dear, it appeared the exchange program would be up in a bit of a tizzy. He had… a child? Oh my… Barbatos hoped the young master wouldn’t be too miffed about the student not being a totally normal human.

On the day of the exchange program, Barbatos insisted he had to be present for the event, he carefully pushed a cushioned sofa in the drop zone before opening the portal. The child fell right out of the sky and landed perfectly on the couch, they were already wearing a helmet and looked quite shocked by the cushioned fall.

Well, it was a big shock to the assembled crowd, but the child gave everyone a lopsided smile and removed their helmet.

“So, I assume I’m here for the exchange program?”

Dadbatos

Well, this child was incredibly… what was the word the kids were using? chill? They were quite chill considering the situation, and was surprisingly prepared for the sudden drop into hell.

“Oh, I had a dream that this was going to happen, and I dream about the future n’stuff. I thought I’d come prepared.” “Ah, that’s very sensible.”

Diavolo recovered quickly from his shock and was positively delighted to meet this little munchkin. He insisted that they had to stay with their dad.

MC was polite, if not a bit overly calm about a lot of things. They didn’t run off to start trouble, and they didn’t seem very impressed by the Devildom itself. It was sort of like this child had a very low maximum level of excitement. Barbatos was glad his child wasn’t some little hellraiser.

He was never a child himself, so he’s a bit clueless about what children actually enjoy. Here child, have a… have an old torture weapon. Don’t use it on anyone who doesn’t deserve it :)

(I’m kidding, Barbatos is too responsible to give one of his instruments of torture to a child. That’s for when they’re older.)

“MC,” Barbatos knocked on his child’s door. “Have you done your homework?”

MC answered the door with a grin on their face. “Yep, done this week’s and next week’s. I’m getting a head start on the potions project due next week.”

Barbatos almost breathed a small sigh of relief. Thank the stars his child was responsible, it already took a big chunk of his energy to make sure Diavolo didn’t get distracted from his paperwork. Though, his stress levels did rise a tad when he got a glimpse at the mess in MC’s room.

“Are you going to clean that?”

“Nah,” MC shrugged. “It’s whatever. I know where everything is and nothing’s a fall risk. See you at dinner, father.”

And with that, MC shut the door. Well… no child was perfect.

As much as MC’s lack of cleanliness bothers Barbatos, he knows his kid isn’t being maliciously lazy, just for the love of the Demon King please stop leaving cups on the coffee tables without a coaster!

Oh yeah, Luke has a big sib. Sorry- little sib, because Luke isn’t some chihuahua child, he’s a totally mature grown-up Angel.

Barbatos is the type of father who will let his child go off and have whatever kind of fun they want as long as they don’t slack on their important duties.

Barbs also has a goddamn torture dungeon so we here at Stupid Headcanons inc. do NOT recommend trying to eat MC. Doing so may result in you wishing you were dead.

Don’t fuck with the butler.

Lucifer

…out of literally everyone in the room, the last person Lucifer expected to have a secret scandal baby… had a scandal baby. Damn.

At least the human wouldn’t have to live with him and his brothers. The last thing Lucifer wanted was for Barbatos to be even more aware of the chaos that went down in that house every single day.

MC and Lucifer have a healthy level of respect for one another, but Lucifer just can’t shake the feeling that this kid is messing with him somehow.

Just, little things… MC offering him fruit and loudly assuring him that it was just blackberries and nothing poisonous, asking if the RAD uniform suits his tastes, proclaiming that the dirt was high quality-

SOMEONE TOLD MC ABOUT LUCIFER’S FIRST VISIT TO THE DEVILDOM!

MC wasn’t exactly visibly goading him, they said everything with an innocent smile on their face.

When MC starts getting nosy with the attic, he’s not terribly sure how to deal with it. He was going up against a child that could at least partially tell the future. After the first time Lucifer told them to scram, they never went back to the steps… at least not when Lucifer was there to guard it…

After everything goes down, Lucifer is glad that MC wasn’t hurt or anything. He’d come to like the child and it’d be awful to lose the only person who could get his more hyperactive brothers to calm down.

Mammon

Mammon wasn’t present for the meeting, but when he was informed later, the news was met with an eloquent: “the fuck? Huh, wild.”

He isn’t too interested in MC at first. At least until the little runt saved him from getting busted for skipping class. Mammon was just eating his lunch in the courtyard when MC passed by and calmly told him that if he skipped class he should not hang out in the west staircase because Lucifer was going to walk down those steps during third period.

At first Mammon tried to brush off the warning, but ended up listening to the kid anyway, and what do ya know! He didn’t get caught by Lucifer!

That’s when it clicked that MC could see the future, right? Right?! Ya know what Mammon could use that for?! Right?!

Gambling! Scams! Schemes! General shennaniganery!

MC wasn’t terribly enthused about the entire situation, so they may have messed with Mammon a little. Just a bit.

It’s not like Mammon ever listened when MC told him to cut his losses and leave the casino anyway 🙄

Leviathan

First reaction? Thank the anime gods that there wouldn’t be another normie living in the house with him…

Reaction upon hearing that the MC was Barb’s kid? Really? Barbatos? Wow… well, to be fair Levi totally understood why someone would be attracted to Barbatos, I mean, Levi’s watched plenty of anime involving butlers, but Barbatos actually having a living breathing child? Damn.

But still, Levi wasn’t going to hang out with some normie brat. He had better and nerdier things to devote his time to.

Whenever MC visited, Levi was up in his room. But once MC decided to poke their head in the door while Levi was in the middle of gamer raging.

They calmly sat Levi down and explained to him that he could be upset about whatever happened in his game, but lashing out wasn’t going to fix anything or make him better at the actual game.

…damn it… they were right.

Slowly but surely Levi and MC built up a friendship, and the brothers rejoiced at the lack of rage related Lotan summons.

Satan

Out of everything Satan could have possibly expected from the second exchange student, this was not one of them.

Satan began to wonder exactly how MC’s powers worked, he didn’t exactly have any concrete data to compare them to because Barbatos was so mysterious

Hm, how very interesting. Satan decided that it was up to him to satiate his own curiosity and began to study MC. To be honest, MC wasn’t being terribly interesting.

They were a pretty normal kid all things considered. MC went to class, made friends, did their work, very very normal. Well, except for the fact that they seemed to dodge practically every unfortunate thing that could have happened to them.

They’d stop at the perfect time to avoid something accidentally being spilled on them, they always had pencils ready, and they always seemed to know exactly when a teacher was coming… mad sus.

Satan eventually confronted MC about this, and they just shrugged and explained that they tend to dream about what was most likely to happen the next day and would adjust their actions accordingly.

It may have been anticlimactic, but MC did inform Satan that there would be a cat in the courtyard in fifteen minutes.

HE NEEDED TO GO!

Asmodeus

Asmo had genuinely been looking forward to the new exchange program, he was excited to have a new face around the house to shake things up! He loves his dear brothers but spending thousands of years with them makes their shenanigans become a bit… well, a bit boring.

But my oh my, the new face was being obscured by that tacky bicycle helmet… the new face looked an awful lot like Barbatos…

Once Asmo registered what was going on, he was positively enchanted with the little half human. They were just so cute! They looked like a baby Barbatos with those adorably chubby cheeks!

Oh Barbatos~ he just had to let Asmo babysit!

When Asmo managed to sweep MC away for a fun day with shifty uncle Solomon, he was reminded of all the shenanigans that he, Barbatos, and Solomon used to get up to.

*sigh, Barbie was always so busy… no time for a fun night of torture, chaos, and revelry

Anyhoodles~ MC was always such a relaxed little thing. They let Asmo vent whenever any awful tragedies occur, like when Asmo finds a sweater that isn’t in his size… *sniffle*

Beelzebub

A child of Barbatos? The best cook in the three realms Barbatos?! …hey kid want to hang out with cool uncle Beel?

Beel tried everything in his power to get MC to make him food. I mean, the genetic disposition for making good food has to have been passed down from father to child!

When MC finally made Beel food, he was ecstatic!

…Until the food touched Beel’s tongue and he realized it wasn’t good, it was just… okay. Average. Passable.

Aw man… but the kid looked so excited to have made something for Beel…

Beel really hammed up his reaction to make MC feel better. Beel was like “Wow. So good. Amazing.” “Thanks Beel.”

Very sweet child, they don’t mind being used in place as a dumbell.

Belphegor

Damn, and here Belphie was, thinking Barbatos has standards. Apparently not!

When MC went and walked up the attic steps, Belphie was almost bouncing on his toes in anticipation. This human had been a pain in the rear to call up, so he was excited to finally get a good look at them. And lo and behold, a half demon child of Lord Diavolo’s butler.

MC grinned and greeted Belphie first, using his name and asking why the Avatar of Sloth was stuck up in the attic of his own home when he was supposed to be in the human world. Belphie was flabbergasted and didn’t exactly know how to respond.

He came up with a new plan quickly. Belphie didn’t exactly know how this kid’s powers worked, so he’d continue with trying to trick them into opening the attic door. Allowing Belphie to end their miserable little life and thus ruining the exchange program.

The child continued to visit Belphie up in the attic, relaying the events of what was going on, and Belphie continued to play the part of prisoner. Until one day in particular…

MC appeared in front of the door, looking a tad more unkempt than normal, they weren’t smiling their usual carefree smile either. Their eyes bore holes into Belphegor’s skull as they flared at him.

“How long have you been planning on killing me?”

MC had seen the future where they died at Belphie’s hand, and they sure as hell were not going to let him out of the attic after that. Though, they did tell Belphie about Lilith’s true fate before they left, and assured Belphie they had no reason to lie to him about something he wasn’t directly involved in.

So, Belphie did get let out of the attic eventually, and even though MC smiled and welcomed him back all the same, there would always a barrier between the two. Broken trust wasn’t easy to mend, after all.

[palettepainter]

How the teachers play favourites

We all know Aizawa and All Might have their favourite UA child, Shinsou and Midoryia. And yeah I know Bakugo and Todoroki are also their UA kids but shhh, Midoryia and Shinsou where the first UA kids they adopted. 

And you can’t tell me Aizawa and All Might play favourites with them, All makes Deku lunch like..hello?? Aizawa gave Shinsou his capture weapon, HELLO?? 

So here are some dumb headcannons for how the other teachers play favourites to their UA kids

Ectoplasm and his UA kid Jiro:

-When he gives back marked tests he’ll sometimes write small encouraging notes for his students to read, he does this to some students when he feels they need a pick up but he always leaves a positive one on Jiro’s 

-During lessons where students are allowed to study in the lesson Ectoplasm lets them listen to music on their phones, everyone thought he would say no so everyone - mostly Kaminari and Mineta - peer pressured Jiro to ask. To no ones shock except Jiro’s Ectoplasm replied with a calm “Sure, but only if you use your headphones”

-Jiro talks about new songs that have been released and Ectoplasm will listen to her geek out about music

-Sometimes Jiro will tell Ectoplasm what her and the rest of the band (herself, Kaminari, Momo, Tokoyami and Bakugo) have been doing and if they’re working on any new songs in-between their studies. Jiro jokes that Ectoplasm is their biggest fan but Ecto is genuinely supportive of their band and admires their creativity

-Jiro once entered maths class and said “Hey miter Ecto, what’s shakin’ bacon?” and while the whole class was stood there in silence thinking Ectoplasm wouldn’t reply he said “Not much double dutch” and then Jiro went to her desk as thought nothing out of the ordinary happened. Kaminari tried to do the same thing to him and Ectoplasm just went “Kaminari your shoe lace is undone-” Jiro was very amused

Powerloader and Hatsume:

-This one started out more like this - Powerloader: Who’s idiot kid is that?....*realises it’s Hatsume* Oh shit- THAT’S MY IDIOT KID-

-Hatsume showed up at the design studio and never left basically, so Powerloader got used to her. He knows Hatsume overworkers herself so he keeps spare energy bars, fruit and bags of crisps in the design studio. He brought a small microwave and kettle for the winter so Hatsume could make hot drinks and food since she insisted on finishing her��‘babies’

-Say’s he doesn’t worry but still insists she goes to recovery girl when she gets a scratch or blows up the studio, sometimes dragging her there himself, ranting all the way about how she’s an idiot. One day Hatsume ended up breaking her leg during a bad explosion and Powerloader very nearly had a heart attack-

He kept a close eye on her while she worked from a wheelchair at her desk

-Makes her wear a god forsaken jumper in the winter when the design studio is freezing, stupid dumb teenager you’ll catch your death of cold

Present Mic and Kaminari:

-This man is shameless with playing favourites

-He greets Kaminari with his signature finger guns and an enthusiastic “AAAYYYY KAMINARI!” Kaminari shoots finger guns back with an “Ayyyyy teach hozit hanging?!” Everyone in class knows Kaminari is a teachers pet despite how Kaminari insists he’s not

-Mic knows Kaminari has a crush on Jiro and Kaminari is an embaressed child who is like “omg msiter Mic STOP-” while Present Mic is coeing and being all like “Aw that’s adorable!”. He always puts Jiro and Kaminari together in group projects, Kaminari shoots him a flustered glare cuz Present Mic knows what he’s doing 

-Kaminari teaches him meme/slang language for laughs and everyone in class hates it, Kaminari finds it hilarious. Eventually Mic gets the hang of it but he sucked at using the language correctly at first 

-Calls him lil listener and Kaminari calls him loud mouth 

Midnight and Yaoyorozu

-Another teacher who is shameless with playing favourites

-Midnight being a teacher does have to enforce the dress code if she sees a student wearing their uniform incorrectly - loose tie, untucked shirt, odd brightly coloured socks, chockes, etc. Midnight really doesn’t care all that much if a student’s socks aren’t the sae colour as their shoes...buuut she’s a teacher so she has to enforce it. Except when it comes to Yaoyorozu. Yaoyorozu one day had to wear light blue socks into UA as her tights where damaged, and she was worried she’d be called out for not following the dress code. Midnight saw, and turned a blind eye. She was in the middle of telling someone off for not dressing correctly, saw Yaoyorozu with the odd coloured socks and went “-Oh hello Yaoyorozu you have a good day sweetheart! ^^”

-Always complients Yaoyorozu when she comes into class. Oooo did you try a new hair style? Honey it suits you! New note book, such cursive hand writting! Glad to see you got those new pair of shoes, trying a different shoe brand this time? Very stylish!

-Had been tempted to kick Mineta like a beech ball on more then one occasion when he wouldn’t back off from Yaoyorozu

-The kind of teacher to say “I taught her that~” when Yaoyorozu uses one of her combat techniques

-Girl gossip. She tries to guess who Yaoyorozu will get with, meanwhile Momo is just blushing and blabbering because that isn’t very appropriate for history work. Midnight bats a hand is like “Pft I’m the teacher I can gossip in my own lesson”. Puts her with Todoroki during group projects and she, like Mic, 100% knows what she’s doing

Hounddog and Shishida

-Hounddog: I am not soft....*holds up Shishida* EXCEPT FOR MY 1B CHILD WHO IS VERY STRONG AND HE’S GOING TO BE A HERO DON’T @ ME HE’S AMAZING-

-Encourages Shishida to let loose with his beast form, with his rish upbringing Shishida isn’t used to embracing his more wild and uncaring side, having been raised to always be propper and polite when not in combat. Hounddog geuenily puts in effort to be a little less grumbly around Shishida cuz he doesn’t wanna peer pressure him, he’s giving him time

-Keeps a spare cloth so Shishida can clean his glasses off when and if they get dirty from training

-I imagine Shishida having a quirk called beast and having a more posh upbringing prolly has a little bit of anxiety, having to always be polite and propper even with a quirk called Beast. Sometimes he vents to Hounddog about this and he listens, insisting that it’s better Shishida get it off his chest when he apologises for drowning on

-During training Hounddog basically throws him about like a beanie bag at first, Shishida was still a kid and Hounddog had years of experience. The day Shishida finally knocked him down with a hard punch to the side of Hounddog’s face he felt...bad. But Hounddog was beaming! Shishida may have cried a little bit

Snipe and Hagakure (picked hagakure inspired by a suggestion @snipe-enthusiast made a while ago)

- Protective af

-Hagakure screams the innocent dorky girl of 1A, and thought Snipe makes sure none of the girls deal with Mineta’s bull while he’s around he’s especially protective of Hagakure just cuz...well, have you seen the way she acts? She’s innocent, peppy, happy, cheerful, and Snipe does not want that tainted by Mineta’s preverted ways

-After the exam with Hagakure and Shoji Snipe apologized for what happened and so did Hagakure, admitting that she over-reacted. 

-Hagakure admits one day to Snipe that she’s worried she won’t make it as a hero cuz her quirk isn’t flashy like her classmates. Snipe reassures her by saying that no one thought he could be a hero when he was little (this headcannon was inspired by @frelmidja and a post this did with Snipe) - guns weren’t exactly considered heroic and he got teased in the beginning when his quirk first activated. He told Hagakure to keep working hard and that she had the potential and the drive to be a hero, Hagakure was very thankful for the reassurance

-Hagakure really wants to see what Snipe’s face is like and constantly asks him if he could take his mask off and show them, Snipe has yet to break and take off his mask but Hagakure is very persistant 

Cementoss and Bondo

-Chill babies, they sit and have tea together. 

-I imagine Bondo to be the kind of person to accidentally call Cementoss dad, it happened once during one on one training and he got so embarrassed. Cementoss kept telling him it was fine but Bondo left in a hurry after

-Bondo tried to make certian shapes out of his glue one time but ended up getting himself stuck, Cementoss helped him out and reassured a disheartened Bondo that everyone makes mistakes and that he was progressing well 

-Being one of the taller boys in 1B he often has to hold back Monoma from going over to 1A when Kendo isn’t around, often tries to diffuse conflict before it gets worse, Cementoss is very proud

-After one on one training the two go to the lunch hall to get a hot drink after cleaning themselves up, Bondo tries to bring a different type of tea sweet each time - something like biscuits or chocolate. Cementoss returns the favour by bringing Bondo manju to have after his training

Thirteen + Gunhead and Uraraka

-Proud mum and dad because I couldn’t decide between the two

-Uraraka researches into the affects of zero gravity and how to better use her power, due to this she’s become a bit of a space nut and enjoys thinks like star gazing. When she was a kid and saw Pro Hro Thirteen on the TV she was ecstatic! Her parents brought her a Pro Hero Thirteen plush on her seventh birthday, Uraraka still has that toy. One day the toy got misplaced in the students washing and got mixed up with the teachers, Thirteen was a bit confused why a plush of her - and a well loved one by how old it looked - ended up in the wash. Uraraka hurridly rushes over to explain when Thirteen comes into the students dorms asking if it belonged to anyone. When Uraraka explained she got it when she was younger cuz she’s a big fan of Thirteen...heart squeeze

-Asked Uraraka if she could teach her the gunhead martial arts move, Uraraka was so honored she got to teach one of her idols a combat move! Through the gunhead martial arts move Thirteen met Gunhead and the two become good friends

-One day when Gunhead is teaching Thirteen the martial arts move with Uraraka to help demonstrate Uraraka wanted to take a picture of them all together. Gunhead was too tall to fit into the picture so he kneeled down to be at the same height as Thirteen and Uraraka (he did bunny ears behind Thirteen’s head and Uraraka thought it was adorable)

-Gunhead pretty much puts two and two together with Uraraka having a crush on Midoryia, so one day when Thirteen mentions in passing conversation how giddy Uraraka gets when she’s around this one green haired kid Gunhead just chuckles behind his hand. Thirteen and Gunhead think it’s very sweet how Uraraka totally has a crush on him (unlike Mic and Midnight thoug they don’t force anything and let Uraraka figure things out on her own)

[dangan-writing]

I need a n g s t

Kokichi, Nagito and Shuichi with a s/o that’s really forgiving? You could make them end up in the hospital and they’d forgive you

So what if they accidentally kill them and their s/o still forgives them?

If you want, you can do a happy ending where they live! Your choice! :)

╔═══════════════════════════╗

*__ i pick different endings if that's okay Anon, And i picked it to be in the killing game, please tell me if you want it to be changed Anon.

*__ and i apologise if it seems rushed, it's hard to write for 3 character's. And also because you were probably waiting for so long. you can still request for me to remake it Anon, don't worry ^^

*___ Tw -> Ch/king, po/soning, Ka/de, caps, violence, curse words, f/re, injuries

*___Mod Miaya___*

»»———————————- ♡ ————————————««

*___Kokichi Oma___*

When somebody hurts you Kokichi will be fucking rude to them since they don't deserve respect since they hurted you

"Ah Kokichi! Calm down, it didn't hurt that much! I'm okay, see?" You try to move around, but gasping because of the pain "O-Oh.." "See! You got really hurt! That person is gonna get it!!" Kokichi wails "H-hey, i forgive them.. it's not like they murdered me or anything! I'm still here, with just some small injury!" You giggled "Are you that nice?" Kokichi mumbled, before getting up "Hey c'mon! Let's go to Keeboy and have fun with him!" Kokichi smiled mischievously, you laugh "let's go."

That was actually to distract you and go to the person who hurted you and prank the fuck out of the person-

He's concerned about you, i mean. A forgiving S/O? He'll be watching out the people who talks to you, he's a liar. He'll know if they're lying or not. It's impossible for them to hurt you since you have a liar by your side! Impossible he says as he didn't realize they lied in front of his face as you and the person walked away together

After a few minutes passed, he was concerned. Why were you two taking so long? You two must not have been- no, that can't be. Unless...

Shit.. he ran looking after you "S/O!!~ where are you?~ we better not play hide and seek! You'd know i win easily~" he tried to keep up his facade, not wanting to freak himself out... then he saw you tied up, with blood and bruises all over you, with you breathing heavily.

"S/O!" He ran towards you, not even noticing the trap beneath him. As he tried to remove the ropes around you, as he turned around, the door was closed and fire started appearing "Oh shit, t-there was a trap?" He was trying to remove the ropes but it was too tight "Aha.. Don't worry we'll get out of h-here S/O! And we'll get that bastard later for doing this to you dear!" He started to breathe heavily, some smoke blocking his vision. He started to grow weaker "H-ha.. S/O i'm t-truly sorry.." he passed out, luckily people started to bust the door open. The people.. Gonta, and Kaito. With Tenko and the other people "S/O, KOKICHI!" Gonta yelled "Is there any water to put the fire out?" Tenko asked, she doesn't even care if the males save them she just wants them to be saved "I have it here!" Kaito yelled holding some fire grenades with him, he passed the fire grenades to everyone and they started to throw it in the fire

After some minutes, the fire stopped. The others rushed in there finding you two, they picked you two up and put you two in the dorms, Kirumi offered to heal you two. 1st degree burns.. a lot of bruises and blood on you. It took you two two days to wake up.. Kokichi woke up first "nghn.. uh what happened?" Kokichi asked, confused before realizing "ah!- is S/O okay! They better be okay!" Kokichi pouted, looking at Kirumi "they're okay, they just needed more rest then they'll be fine, no need to wory Kokichi. I attended to their injuries quickly after everyone pulled you two out of the fire, they are right next to you Kokichi." Kokichi looked next to him to see you beside him resting peacefully "oh damn, nishishi~" Kokichi looked at Kirumi "Can you leave? I have something to do, like a leader would do!" Kokichi just want to cuddle you actually. Kirumi did as he said, but she knew that he wanted to cuddle you after seeing you there beside him, she smiled.

Cuddling..

After some cuddling you woke up aswell due to his constant moving

"Mmmm Koshi..?" You groaned, half asleep. You rubbed your eyes for a bit "Heeeeey your awake noow! You take too long to wake up!" Kokichi childishly pouted, it's too adorable to be guilty with it, you laugh "That's not going to work in me, that's too adorable y'know?" Kokichi tried his scary face, it's a little intimidating. But it's still cute "still cute-" "Man can't you be scared of me!?" Kokichi cried out! Shaking his arms like a child

After you two were okay now, everyone besides one was trying to find the person who almost killed the both of you

It took 1-2 hours to find the the person who did this

It.. was Angie?

"Uhm.. Why did you try to kill S/O and uh, Ouma-san?" Shuichi asked Angie, who was tied up in a chair "Ahhh~ S/O wanted to give their blood to Atua! That's what Atua told Angie!~" Angie was cheerful as always. Almost everyone didn't believe that "Hey you almost killed me and my dearest S/O!" Kokichi wailed trying to attack Angie, but Gonta was holding onto him as Shuichi said, Angie laughed "S/O offered me some of their-" Shuichi isn't having none of it "Listen.. uhm, you almost killed S/O and Kokichi, how is that uh- related to Atua? And you started a fire for hell's sake...!" Shuichi yelled at Angie, Angie didn't smile. It sended chills on all of their spines.. it wasn't normal for her to not smile, since she always smiles. Seems like she isn't gonna talk for the time "Guys, please don't worry, i forgive her." You jumped in "WHAT? She almost killed you y'know!?" Kaito yelled "Yeah! The idiots right! Angie killed you!" "She's not dead you fuckin' brat!" Miu yelled at Kokichi "h-huh? That w-was uncalled for!" Oh dear now she messed up "W-Wai-" "WWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" Kokichi wailed, annoying the others, especially Korekiyo, Kaito, and Maki. They left as soon Kokichi started to cry, except for Kaito-

"Like i said, i forgive her. I'm still alive anyways so that's good right?"

"You forgivable cutie.." Kokichi mumbles

»»———————————- ♡ ————————————««

*___Nagito Komaeda___*

He's a bit protective, you forgive people so easily. He doesn't mind if it's the hopeful people but, the despairful people?? Fuck no he won't let them go to you ever again, he has a quick eye. He'll catch them if they are looking at you

"S/O! Why do you forgive such despairing ugly humans, they hurted you!" Nagito spoke, angrily confused, you are filled with hope thats what he loves but you are a bit too considerate about *everyone's* feelings, even if it's a inanimate object you still refuse to break it.. you really are filled of hope.. too much hope "Huh? Why i forgive people all the time? Uhm... it's just my nature to forgive them, i am aware of how forgiveful i am. I forgive them, but that doesn't mean i like them, listen.. i forgive people but i stay away from them. I can understand when i forgive someone when they hurted me for so long, that's why you never see me with the people i know that hurted me Nagito." You try to give an explaination, of course. You know it isn't all but you decided to give an answer for him to know "S/O.. i.. i understand, how stupid am i to question such hope!" Nagito please calm down we care for you-

You saw him walking, bringing some stuff. Is.. is that poison? Spear, rope, speakers... what is he planning again? He walked inside the warehouse, you need to stop him from being reckless again. But you didn't move from your spot, you waited for a little while. Then you heard fireworks? Then.. running, everyone? They walked to the warehouse, Akane trying to bust the door open. You still stayed im your spot, trying to see if someone is doing stupid. Eventually Akane busted the door open, then you heard

Fire. What the hell? Wasn't Nagito in there? Shit.. You run in the warehouse

"NAGITO!!" you yelled, trying to get the fire canisters and threw them on the fire, it only made the fire more bigger? It's a fire canister.. isn't it suppose to put the fire out? Soon everyone moved and threw the individual fire canister's

Soon enough, the sprinklers put the fire out. You stood up "NAGITO ARE THERE!?" You tried to run in but Monokuma stopped you "Uh-Oh! Unfortuantely you can't be in here for now! Now get out so i can fix this damn warehouse!" You all got kicked out, after 6 minutes Monokuma appeared "Yahhoo, now it's finished now go in there you damn kids!" it's finally done.. honestly it felt like forever. But no time for that, you all ran in the warehouse "hmnn, i smell somethin'.." Akane's nose twitched like a beast when she said that "...That's probably because of the fire earlier.." Chiaki said, and Chiaki pointed out the there was space in the curtains from here, Hajime walked next to the curtain. You felt sick, it can't happen to him plea-

Ding dong bing bong! A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, a class trial will begin!

Screams, Kazuichi, Sonia.. and of course you.

You ran to his body begging that this isn't real "plEASE THIS ISN'T- ISN'T R-REAL" You sobbed, the others felt pity.. They tried to drag you away from his body, of course they did take you away from his body.

You eventually pass out from crying, too tired to investigate for the trial. They dragged you in the trial room, you wouldn't wake up so they had no choice but to drag you in the trial. Few minutes later you woke up

"N-Nagito.. set one of us as the killer..." what? Set one of us?

"Huh? What do you mean he set someone as the murderer..?" you asked in disbelief, Hajime explained what basically happened while you were asleep, you just stood there. You tried to focus, you threw a fire canister in the fire, but it only made the fire larger than before.

What...? This.. is unfair unfair- no.

»»———————————- ♡ ————————————««

"I know who did it." You spoke, interrupting their panicking which they snapped out of it when they looked at you "You only decide to talk now!?" Kazuichi yelled, obviously scared for his life "yeah" you nod "uhm.. may i ask who it is?" Sonia nervously asked, you sighed heavily "uh, it's me."

"W-what!? That can't be true! You saved me when i was starvin'!' Akane yelled out "Huuuuuhhh!? What the hell? S/O bought you some food?! That w-wasn't supposed to be allowed-" Monokuma looked dumbfounded until he was cut off "Who the hell cares!? They still saved me.." Akane looked down, it felt like Nekomaru's death all of a sudden..

Hajime and others felt like crying, you were like a leader trying to protect them even though you forgive people too easily "..." Chiaki didn't said anything, she just looked at you. You smiled at her "Do... do you forgive Komaeda-san for what happened S/O?" Chiaki asked "of course not! He set them up as the culprit you kno-" "Yes." You answered, ignoring Kazuichi's comment "hnm, you still forgive him? After he set you up S/O?" She tilt her head "yes, i know he must have a reason. He wouldn't kill someone for his own benifit, that's what i deduced, i believe he has a reason for this. He loves hope, he thinks me as his hope. He wouldn't just throw me away without an explanation, why would he call me a despairing person? I.. yes, i forgive him.." you lowered your head, you didn't understand any of this, why would he kill himself and you?

"Alrighty! Time to vote! Who would be chosen as the blackened?" Monokuma butted in the conversation "Goodbye everyone.. please remember me and everyone in this damned killing game." You smiled, looking at everyone. You are terrified of what kind of execution you have, but you tried to forget it.

This.. is goodbye for me.

S/O has been found guilty, time for the execution!

Right.. goodbye.

I forgive you all for..

*___Shuichi Saihara___*

The same with the two guys, he'll be pretty protective of you since you are so forgiving, there's a high chance you'll get killed because of your friendly nature and he doesn't want that to happen, not ever

"S-S/O, please try to be less considerate.. N-Not that you should be r-rude to anyone! I mean.. you s-shouldn't forgive p-people that easily, even if they are s-sorry. They hurted you uhm, S/O you don't have to feel o-obligated to forgive them." He hugged you, making you feel protected. You laughed

"Ahah, Shuichi. Thank you, i understand that i shouldn't forgive people that easily but, we really are just like that. No matter how many times they hurted us we forgive them. we people, are like that." You tighten the hug, smiling onto his chest

"S-S/O!" He screamed as he rushed towards you, you choking. He didn't realize he put in the poison instead the water.

"S/O DON'T DIE YET PLEASE" Shuichi was panicking, he is gonna murder his own S/O because he was losing sleep that he didn't realize that he put poison in your drink.

'Please pleaee please please please please please please please please please please please please pleaee please please please please please please please please'

..it....

..It was too late? He looked at your dead body.

"S-S/O.. I.. I'm so sorry... i'm such a failure.." he caressed your face. Sobbing, Before.

Ding dong bing bong! A body has been discovered, after a certain amount of time, a class trial will begin!

"WH-WHAT THE HELL!?" Miu screamed out, she rushed to hide in Kaito's back "EEEEEEIIIII, POOICHI IS THE MURDERER!" "What the hell Shuichi!" Kaito stumbled back a bit. Their screams of terror alerted the others, making Kaede, with Tsumugi and Rantaro on her trail.

"H-huh Shuichi!?" "Aaaauuuhh! The killing has started! It's much more different than Sakura's death on Danganronpa trigger happy hav-" "S-Shuichi.." Kaede, Tsumugi, and Rantaro reacted altogether, Rantaro ran towards Shuichi pushing him and trying to do something so he couldn't move "Anyone here have any rope? We need to tie him up first before questioning whats happened." Rantaro stated, looking up at the others "I-I'm sorry.." Rantaro looked down at Shuichi "you will have to explain yourself later, we don't know if you are the culprit, but be honest later on aight?" Shuichi didn't reply

Korekiyo walked in the scene, with a velvet colored rope in hand "i heard that you will be needing this, and so i give this rope to you Amami-san.." Korekiyo handed him the rope " Thanks Kiyo." Amami tied up Shuichi but didn't question on how Korekiyo found the rope but he isn't complaining "Kekehehe.. it is no problem Amami-san..." weirdo..

After they tied him up, they investigated the crime scene first before talking to him because that will waste their time, as they all went to the trial grounds, with Shuichi still tied up. Kaito guarding so he couldn't run away.

"So.. Shuichi, Why did you plan on killing your S/O. Your S/O." Rantaro said. Even if he is not your S/O he cared abiut you deeply, to just see your dead body fuels him with rage "Y-yeah.. Why Shuichi, you guys loved eachother so deeply, i don't understand why you k-killed them." Kaede tried not to sob, but horribly failed "I... i-i didn't mean to kill them, i was tired, stupid.. just vote me out already, i don't care if i die." .. Nobody tried to argue against him, he already admitted it, no point of arguing anyway

"Man you guys got it right! That was boring. an accidental death! Woohoo surely they wouldn't forgive him, he killed them. They wanted to live, yet. You.. killed... them! Puhuhuhu..lets get with on it, i have a special punishment for the ultimate detective, Shuichi Saihara!" Some of the people were clenching their fists, the ultimate detective.. was going to get executed "Let's give it everything we've got! It's... PUNISHMENT TIIIME!"

...

..

.

Huh? What..

What? Why is he, in a pod? He saw someone outside of the pod..is that? No way, S/O?

You opened the pod, smiling at him "well hello there Shuichi, it's so good to see you again." You held his hand, he looked dumbfounded, soon tears started to build up "S-S/O!" He hugged you tightly, not wanting to let go "I'm s-so sorry.. i didn't mean to kill you! I-i... you can hurt me, anything to make you satisfied with what happened.." Shuichi begged you to do it.. he's sobbing, he's so sorry "it's okay dear, i know you didn't mean it! I forgive you! I don't care how many times you hurt me, i'll always forgive you Shuhara. I love you too much for me to not forgive you, or anyone." You caressed his face, smiling softly at him.

"A-ah.." he looked down before smiling, you standed up and he followed what you did "Now, let's go and watch the others now Detective Shuhara."

"Of course."

╚═══════════════════════════╝

[kaashiboo]

ahah heeeey!!!!! can i request kenma, akaashi and sugawara as best friends with gender neutral reader?

thank you for your hard work i really enjoy reading your headcannons (灬º‿º灬)♡

haikyuu boys as your best friend

┇ kenma, akaashi, and suga

gn!reader

【warnings: none】

➢ general note: ohoho this is a very long one so buckle up!

✎ a/n: aaww this is request is cute! thank you for appreciating my work and i'm so glad you enjoy reading them! take care of yourself!<3

kenma

you've been friends with kenma and kuroo ever since you were a child but you're more close with kenma due to his chill personality.

but that doesn't mean that you're less chaotic

kenma honestly questions himself as to why he's best friends with you

but you're a bit more tolerable than kuroo he guesses.

"say, if i hypothetically and accidentally broke your swi— kenma, you're gonna kill me with your stare." you laugh nervously.

"give it to me." you removed your hand behind your back and gave him his switch with a pout.

"are you mad at me?" you asked, rubbing your nape. awkwardly.

kenma sighed loudly, "yeah."

"oh" your shoulders dropped.

"but it's fine since i already bought a new one. i'm mad because i was planning to give you this one but i guess we have to make someone check it out if it's still repairable." he replied and your eyes lit up in excitement.

"really?"

"yeah."

"but i don't have the money for it."

"we'll make kuroo pay." he shrugged and you tilted your head in confusion.

"eh? do you really think he would agree to that?"

"i don't know. maybe. just do all his work or compliment him everyday, that might work."

"are you two planning on how to murder me?" kuroo appears out of nowhere, ruffling kenma's and your hair.

"yes." the setter and you answered in unison.

people also wonder how you can keep up with kenma but you're honestly one of the people that can see through him and could tell whether something is bothering him.

and he never hesitated to show you what he really feels. if he's mad then you'd let him vent and let out all his frustrations.

and there were times as well where he just wanted to be away from anyone so you gave him space.

but because he finds you tolerable, he begged you to not distance yourself from him.

now, in terms of YOU being sad, we all know he's not the greatest when it comes to comforting people but he would always find a way to cheer you up like offering you to play games with him.

he would even let you do the interior design of his house in minecraft as long as he can see you're enjoying.

just like what others do, he would typically protect you from mobs while you pick up flowers.

but most of the time, you would have a competition on which person could kill as many mobs as they can.

you also would do stupid challenges that you see on youtube.

and late night walks with him are the best since you never had to worry about bothering him when he rarely sleeps early.

let me rephrase that real quick, it's mostly you walking around while kenma sits on a bench,,, still playing.

but he would occasionally look for you to make sure you weren't lost or kidnapped.

you would eventually get tired so you just... lay on the grass and roll around.

kenma puts down his switch, "what are you doing, y/n?"

"i'm bored. you're not even paying attention." you whispered the last part but he still caught it.

"alright, sorry. stand up now. let's go to the convenience store and crash at kuroo's house." he offered and you immediately agreed.

because the two of you never failed to be in the same class every year, your classmates would be confused since you two would verbally fight and give each other a silent treatment and then one second later, you would give him food and he tries to help you beat the level you're currently on with the game you're playing.

and in the timeskip, the three of you have stable jobs like, rich rich rich very rich.

"at this point, we can be your sugar daddies." kuroo jokes but you paid no attention to him as you were still busy processing with what kenma gave you as a present.

literally everything you need for streaming— heck, you're not even sure if you would use all of them.

but kenma still wanted to drag you along with him to do things that he loves

not that you'd complain about it anyway.

"you're helping me set everything up." you finally recovered from your state of shock and pulled kenma up from your couch.

akaashi

and the best 'best friend' award goes to akaashi keiji!

look, just because he's a laid-back person, doesn't mean he's unaware of how to push your buttons.

he would subtly annoy you. so subtle that not everyone could notice that you wanted to murder him on the spot.

"akaashi keiji, i will seriously ki—"

"it's settled then! y/n, please come to my office now." the teacher spoke, making you groan in frustration before standing up but you made sure to purposely step on his foot and he silently winced in pain.

the chat with the teacher didn't take long and when you exited the office, you saw your best friend standing outside, waiting for you with a barely noticeable smirk.

yeah, we might have to take back his award.

you rolled your eyes and walked past him but he grabbed your bag and pulled you back.

"sorry, do i know you?" you scoffed.

"look, i'm sorry. i already told you that you shouldn't sleep in class." he reminded, implying that him dragging you into doing something was a sort of consequence from sleeping in class.

"i know! but you decided to be annoying again and volunteered that i would help with some activity." you complained. he still hasn't let go of your bag but you continued walking which may or may not made it look like you were his pet.

akaashi knows you're not actually mad at him and so he didn't have to bother to apologize again.

"if it makes you feel better, i volunteered first before you. at least we're now both busy."

you didn't respond and continued walking, "where are you going?" he asks.

"home."

"no."

"no?"

"i have practice," he said.

"what does that have to do with me?!" you wailed.

"nothing." you facepalmed and let him pull you to the gym.

the first time you met was during middle school. you were crying because you lost a competition and unfortunately for you, akaashi was the one who won.

he tried comforting you but you pushed him away.

akaashi was persistent though. he didn't want you to stay mad at him and so he bothered you everyday until you finally started to warm up to him.

you sighed for the ninth time. deciding to make a paper plane and throw it to akaashi's way.

it fortunately hit his forehead and he 'tsk-ed' at your action but he continued reading the book anyway.

you reached for the plane, crumpling it until it's round.

"i thought you were gonna teach me?" you question and threw the paper at him, again but lucky for him, he caught it.

he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, "how am i supposed to teach you if you keep throwing things at me?"

you see, you're smart but there are certain subjects that you really hate and you coincidentally got sick during a discussion and now you and akaashi are currently studying in the library.

he knows he could have just lent you his notes and you can just take a photo of it but he wouldn't let you do that because his reasoning was, "you'll learn better if you write it down." you've complained to him about it many times and he'll eventually get tired and not give you anything so now you've learned your lesson,

don't annoy keiji.

but sometimes, he's kind enough to cover for you when you're asleep during class and would lie to the teachers by saying you're sick.

which rarely happens since he doesn't always tolerate you so being friends with him feels like having a parent watch you all the time.

"maybe if i befriended konoha then i'm already done with this." you huffed.

"he doesn't have the patience to deal with you, y/n." you let out an offended gasp before throwing your pencil case at him.

honestly speaking, the two of you get along really well. you're more talkative and he tends to listen to your rants a lot.

and of course, he would also share to you how his day went and how he found a new way to get bokuto out of his emo mode.

hanging out with him outside of school can be chaotic at times.

especially if you decide to go to the arcade because expect him to tease you a lot when you couldn't get the prize you wanted.

he would help you though:)

and since you two are a popular duo, you would often get a lot of confessions from boys and akaashi would ramble about how it's a waste of time and that you should focus on your studies.

but he would also reassure you that he'll support you no matter what decision you make.

in conclusion, he's a bit confusing and indecisive but he just wants the best for you but then he would also start thinking that he's being controlling of your own life.

akaashi also can't keep his cool sometimes,

"i can't believe they cheated on me." you hugged your legs closer to your chest as you sob.

his practice was already over but he insisted that the two of you stay at the gym so that you could talk to him about your problems.

"they’re an asshole, y/n." he replied.

usually, he would rub circles on your back when you're crying but this time, he stayed still on his seat so you glanced at him and frowned.

"you weren't even paying attention," you said.

"i was," he stopped typing on his phone to look at you.

"i was just searching up ways how to murder someone without getting caught." he joked and you chuckled.

"just kidding. i was ordering your favorite food. now stand up and wipe your tears. don't let that asshole see you vulnerable. show him that you don't even need him in the first place because you don't need anyone, 'kay?" he pulled you up and nodded at his advice.

"except for me, of course. how else would you be alive if it weren't for me?"

"i have my own parents." you rolled your eyes playfully.

"they don't love you— they prefer me." he teased once again. earning a punch from you.

suga

aDMIT IT, SUGA IS SO FUN TO BE WITH.

like sureeee he would help you most of the time

but he's also the same person that would get you in trouble.

"vice principal, i am so sorry! i didn't mean to knock off your wig! please don't suspend me—"

"it's fine, l/n. just go and don't tell anyone." the old man sighed.

you bowed and left, running to where suga was standing.

you saw your friend biting his lower lip to stifle a laugh.

you glared at him but you couldn't help but to cackle at what happened and now you two are being noisy in the hallway that made others look at you weirdly.

"i told you, he's bald!" he exclaimed and your laugh couldn't get any louder until you start coughing from the lack of oxygen.

"oH MY GOD— DON'T DIE ON ME Y/N," he said dramatically before offering you a bottle of water.

"you're so dramatic, please shut up." you rolled your eyes after drinking.

you and suga have been arguing for a week about how he witnessed himself how the vice principal's wig flew off and it was too good to be true so you didn't believe him.

not until your beloved best friend pushed you to the vp's direction accidentally.

you were taller than the old man so when you bumped into him, you wanted to grab onto something for support but instead, you knocked off his hairpiece.

and suga ran away instead of helping you.

we love a supportive friend.

"well at least he was kind enough to not give you a punishment." suga shrugged and you just nodded your head in agreement.

when you transferred to karasuno during second year, you luckily met suga when you asked for directions.

you two were in the same class so he accompanied you the whole day.

he was very talkative and you loved hearing him talk about volleyball.

at first, you admired him for how approachable and kind he is

but now you just want to kick him.

"i said he wasn't my crush!" you convinced him but suga ony hummed in response.

"but you were staring at him with heart eyes." he quirked a brow.

"i wasn't!"

"you were!"

"i wasn't!"

"you we—"

"suga and y/n, that's enough." daichi sighed. pushing the two of you apart from each other.

"daichi! your vice captain is being annoying again."

"daichi, did you know that y/n has a crush on y—" his words were cut off when you covered his mouth with your hand and he had no choice but to bite your palm and you backed away in disgust.

"i don't like you anymore." you huffed and he just ruffled your hair.

"ah really now?" he smiled but you knew that behind that smile was an evil intention.

"nevermind." you muttered. not trusting your own friend.

oh and your parents adore suga.

like, they know you have other friends as well but suga is the only person they trust to be with you all the time.

and honestly, you agree with them. no words or numbers could describe how much you trust the setter.

despite his naughty and chaotic attitude, he always takes care of you.

kind of like akaashi but he's a bit more loose.

he's very good at giving you advice.

he's also the type of friend that sulks when you miss a game.

like, he would literally ignore you.

and now you're struggling how to make him forgive you.

"kōshi, enough. you've been ignoring me for a week! it was just one game, come on." you persuaded, poking his side but he didn't budge and continued writing down notes.

"i'm sorry for missing your game. i swear, it was an accident! i would never miss your next match again!"

he shifted in his seat and your eyes were filled with hope.

he looks at you with a slight hint of disappointment, "even if i'm not a regular anymore?" the question caught you off guard.

"what do you mean?" he remained quiet and you took that as a sign that he didn't wanna talk and so you impatiently waited for classes to be over.

as soon as you were dismissed, you pulled him out of the classroom to take him to your favorite spot just near the gym.

"i don't like how you're doubting my ability to support you. it doesn't matter what you do— heck, you could even commit a crime and i might bail you out of jail." you uttered. finally breaking the silence that engulfed the two of you the past few minutes.

you struggle with expressing how you feel sometimes and being able to decipher your analogies is one of suga's skills.

"your comforting skill is top tier." he replied.

you know how he would playfully hit his teammates? he'd do the same to you but he would only give you head pats, not wanting to hurt you physically.

and you unexpectedly just learned how to love it.

it somehow inspires you to work harder since he only gives you head pats when you achieve something and it's his way of congratulating you!

he also likes to drag you along with him. he wants to watch a movie? he would buy an extra ticket just for you!

but sometimes, he would whine about being broke when he's with you🤡

would also be ready to make a presentation as to why you are his platonic soulmate.

please just agree with him so he won't be sad</3

last but not the least, gossiping.

literally, the two of you will not call it a day if you haven't talked about any issues at all.

so even if you were sleepy, he would call or text you in the middle of the night and be like, 'tea time?'

aaahh imagine how shock i was when i saw that this was about 2k words overall AHAHA. i know that akaashi's part seems a bit off but honestly i just imagine him being a bit mischevious and more open to people he's genuinely close with so yeah! i had so much fun writing but i feel bad becaue it was so long- anyway, thank you for reading!<3

[nagito-kissmaeda]

Yandere Komaeda Headcanons submitted by Chaos under the cut (y) Warnings: Slight nsfw, yandere behavior, stalking, mention of suicide, masturbation (not very explicit.)

Yandere Nagito probably wasn't very Yandere before you came along. The unlucky boy was probably still the funky little creep to his classmates as always but as soon as you step through the doorway of 77-B's classroom then he kind of just thought, "Oh, they're pretty." And continued with his day. He didn't think too much of you.

If you were an ultimate who walked into the classroom, he wouldn't have thought much of it besides the idea that "YoU wErE sPrEaDiNg HoPe 😩"

If you were a reserve course student, on the other hand, he would think he is slightly superior. So, if you talk to him he'll feel like he's better than you but won't say anything except under certain circumstances (ex: You ask him for his opinion of you, his opinion on reserve course, that kind of stuff. At least, he's honest :/) But keep in mind, he only really acts like this when you two first meet.

After getting to form a friendship with you (however that happened, I'll leave that up to you), his crush on you takes shape quickly.

He mostly just did small stuff that made it obvious that he liked you (whether he realized it or not.) If you weren't around he'd be asking everyone in sight if they knew where you were. He'd linger uncomfortably close to you whenever you two were together. The unlucky boy also tended to...✨follow✨ you.

Bestie, run while you still can 🏃‍♀️💨 because after he kidnaps you you're gonna be more like ♿

(I guess that's assuming you can run at all...sorry if I offended someone ._.)

When you two are hanging out, he eventually opens up to you about his illnesses and past. All of what he told you would probably be a lot to process so the only thing you can think of besides, "I'm so sorry that happened to you," is that you just hug him. Now he's shocked. You're both shocked. wOAH! Nagito doesn't move at all during the hug and probably forgot to breathe because c'mon...homie hasn't received any form of physical affection for God knows how long. He's drawing a total blank and the first words that spring to his mind are, "I'm going to marry them."

You cannot tell me this man doesn't want to get married one day. Yes, his luck sucks fat juicy butt but it's just something he craves and can be selfish about. Nagito's opinion on his want for having a spouse goes back and forth, like how the fitness gram pacer test works (I bet some of you don't even know that this is something outside of a meme lol.) He probably got this desire from seeing how bad his parents' relationship was.

Nerdy headcanon stuff you don't have to read: So, it isn't canon that his parents had a bad relationship but I imagine that they did because Nagito mentions that his mom had never complimented him and he gained a massive inheritance after his family's death. Let me explain my logic on those. Nagito's mom probably never complimented him because she didn't like or want him. I also headcanon that his parents were in an arranged marriage which is why they were so rich and why I think they had a bad relationship, because let's be honest, not all arranged couples are comfortable with one another. The arranged marriage also could've been the reason why his family was wealthy, it could have had to do with business and work. So to wrap it all up, Nagito's parents are rich because of an arranged marriage and they don't really like each other and they had a kid that neither of them wanted so now it's a broken family with a fucked up kid. I know that sounds like a stretch but that's why it's a headcanon and not actually canon lol.

After that one hug, that's when he truly sees you as some sort of ethereal Deity that he was sure he was going to wed in the future (Hell, he'd probably settle for right there, right now.) He no longer cared if you were an ultimate or not because now he saw you as something even greater. Of course, he still views himself as scum but even scum has desires that they are willing to do anything for.

After Nagito had come back to his dorm, the realization hit him that if he was going to marry you, he would have to be worthy of your hand in marriage. So, he prepares. By that I mean he starts stalking you a lot.

You two were already friends on social media so you probably didn’t dwell too much on it when you found him accidentally liking old posts. He’d go on your socials and scroll through it looking for every little bit of information he could find on you. Sometimes he'd strike gold and other times he'd dig up dirt. Nagito began talking to you a lot more so he could gain some information on your likes and dislikes. You only assumed that he was more comfortable with talking to you now because he confided his troubles in you but in reality he was planning your future life with him. Once in a while you'd invite to your dorm whether it was for hangouts, study sessions, or just sleepovers (he absolutely LOVED it when you brought those up.) The only opening he had to steal stuff is when you went to the bathroom and when that happened all he'd do every single time is go to the closet, grab another one of the pillow cases that the dorm provides, and switch them out with your current ones. When the pillowcase stops smelling like you then he just sticks it in the school's laundry basket where things like bed sheets, pillow cases, and blankets that belong to the school go.

After weeks after weeks of obtaining bits and pieces of information on you such as food you like and dislike, what your family is like (If you/your oc has one), your favorite movies, music genres, and clothing, etc., He eventually realized that he lacked three more things. Romance, experience, and…"performance."

The one thing he absolutely needed to learn first was "How to kiss." Even though no one sees his search history besides him, it was still very  embarrassing to put those words on his computer. He typed those three letters into the google machine and ta-da! A wikihow page and a YouTube video were apparently his best options. He opted for the latter and watched as a lady and her boyfriend demonstrated how to perform different types of kisses. Intimate and sexual. He feels awkward just watching this and he feels like he should practice but...on what? Luckily for him, there is a perfectly good pillow lying on his bed.

...This was definitely weird. His chapped lips were pressed against the plush pillow as he imagined he was french kissing you. This doesn't seem like the greatest method but Nagito doesn't seem to have any other choice.

The pillow in front of me was wrinkled and slightly wet from where I had last kissed it. It felt beyond awkward to kiss a pillow and imagine it was your future partner. I couldn't imagine them walking in on me as my face was buried in a pillow while moaning out muffled noises. It would be far too embarrassing but, I've faced worse. Practice should continue or else my mouth will never come as even a fraction of pleasure to my love. I approach the pillow and lay, stomach down, on my bed again. While this has been an awkward situation, my insides are starting to feel like they're on fire! It's probably just the thought of Y/N floating around in my brain. I take a deep breath before cupping my hands at the corners of the pillow and diving my mouth towards the pillow once more. I start off with a short kiss but continuously start moving my lips against, what I imagine to be, their lips. I move my bottom lip more often than my top. Imagining I'm trapping their lips against mine. Just the thought of trapping them makes me grind my hips against the mattress a little. Even though I'm soft I still let out a little whimper. Does Y/N even like it when their partner makes noise? I wasn't able to find any information on what she likes in bed so...with my luck, I'll just leave it to chance. My kisses get more sloppy and desperate. I begin swiping and swirling my tongue against the pillow thinking about just what it might feel like to make out with them. Their hot, wet mouth pressing up against mine while our tongues rub against one another in an attempt to touch each other. I moan seemingly too loud at that thought and start humping the bed. Everything feels so hot.

Maybe combining kissing practice and "performance" practice would be a good idea.

Once he starts performance practice, his browser is constantly on sex related websites. But more on the education side...he wants to know how to make you feel good and how to make himself last longer. Once in a while, he does go on the hub though so he can pretend it's you and him having sex on the screen. He tries his best to look for ones where it sounds like you or looks like you. He prefers the ones where it sounds like you so that way he could just close his eyes and imagine you and him are together. 

Just a random bonus I thought I'd add in: He got a boner during class once and sat there for like ten minutes just waiting for it to go away. So he just ended up palming himself through his pants and struggled to not make any noise. He liked to imagine you were under the desk pressing your face against his clothed crotch and just rubbing your face around that area. Luckily, he came without letting a single noise slip past his lips. Unluckily, Nagito cums a lot. So everyone could see the enormous wet spot on the crotch of his pants when class was dismissed.

He happens to have a weird habit of doing domestic and soft things with a hint of creepy. For example, one of his favorite things to do as of recently is print out a picture that has your face in it, tape it to his pillow, and fall asleep cuddling it. This sounds fine if you two were dating but… you aren't. He'll give it kisses, cuddle with it, fall asleep with it, and, of course, it's what he uses during his performance practice. He also enjoys eating meals with it and watching movies while cuddling it too. He perceives it all as practice for when you two are wed.

I'm going to assume you aren't an oblivious idiot and just say that you probably began to notice how weird he'd get around you. You tried distancing yourself a little bit but enough to still stay friends. He noticed the change in how often you'd hang out with him and his anxiety skyrocketed. Nagito would feel he had only a couple choices left. And that was to kidnap you, get rid of any obstacles that didn't allow him to spend every waking moment with you, or just flat out kill you so that way no one could have you. He already knew he wouldn't be able to even breathe without you so he'd likely kill himself as well in the process.

Author's Note: I'll probably be discontinuing that one Nagito x reader chapter 2 because I wasn't able to finish it before the school year started and I was just dissatisfied with the chapters BUT! I do have plenty of headcanons on yandere Komaeda! Message me if you want some far more nsfw headcanons because I have a lot for this guy.  I'm also very open to crackfic oneshots.

[harvestdew]

pls will u ever elaborate on kiki's backstory im dying to know what on earth is going on there

yeah i was like wow i’m gonna be so cool and mysterious and NOT tell anyone not even my friends what’s going on with kiki til i pump out my comics because i thought it’d be better that way? but school saps the energy from me so idk why i expected to get comics out in a timely manner when comics take a lot of time. i also feel bad because i’ve had multiple people go like “WHAT the fuck is going” so i’ll just tell you all as a little 500 followers treat so you guys don’t misunderstand and think she’s a murderer

also if you ever want to hear me talk about my oc’s more you can always come to my livestreams (i stream my stardew valley gameplay w/ friends or when i draw)!

disclaimer: this will be long. it’s complicated, if you’re more confused just send me another ask and i’ll elaborate, and i’ll split it into 3 sections! i’m so sorry

childhood - after kiki’s parents divorced, she chose to stay with her dad, her mom remarried to a rich CEO (more on this later), whatever. her dad dies in an accident, but instead of being passed over to her mom, kiki got sent to pelican town to live with her grandpa on her dad’s side when she was 13. i think at this time haley is too young for her to hang out with because i always thought she was younger than kiki BUT sebastian is her age and they’re actually put in the same class

kiki struggles with acclimating to pelican town because she’s a) grieving b) joining the class in the dead middle of the year so everyone thinks she’s a loser LOL. i guess sebastian felt really bad for her cuz he finds her crying outside once of class and gives her like his juice or something out of pity. they end up becoming friends though, and by extension, she becomes friends with sam and abigail. she hangs out with sebastian the most though, plus they’re kinda neighbors so robin was used to her stopping by constantly out of convenience

unfortunately kiki only spends 2 years in pelican town because her grandpa died, but before he does he gives her the envelope like in the intro of stardew valley and tells her not to open it. everything goes downhill for her at this point because it means she has to move back in with her mom. kiki knows that her mom has 0 attachment to stardew valley so the only way she thinks she can really keep in contact with everyone is writing them letters which sounds pretty infallible at first

anyway i may or may not have taken inspo from an e ve MV here because childhood friends parting makes me really sad

teenage years up to early 20s - around this time surprise her mom is (surprise) awful. by this i mean her mom literally married a chairman at joja corp., enrolled kiki in private school, and tried to siphon any connection she had to her dad, grandpa, and stardew valley by substituting it with her new life in zuzu city. not to mention kiki’s step-sister irene who i’m going to design lately hopefully (?) also loves making her miserable only because she hates kiki’s mom 

the only thing that makes city life bearable for her is frequent letters from her friends, most often (if it wasn’t obvious again) sebastian. daelin told me he probably sent her emo poetry and i think that’s literally SO funny but even then the letters don’t last that long because within a few months her mom decides the letters are getting in the way of her kid’s success and starts throwing them out before kiki gets them or sends her own. naturally she thinks sebastian just doesn’t give a fuck about her so she stops writing after a while. but then this makes HIM think she doesn’t give a fuck about him and he holds a grudge against her for it for years even though she has no idea

then kiki forgets about stardew valley since there seems to be nothing else tying her to it, goes to business school, and eventually gets as a job in PR at joja corp. if that’s not bad enough she gets engaged to a MAN she doesn’t even like. her fiance is someone who manipulated her into dating him which i’ll again elaborate on in a second, plus her mom is obsessed with him like ohhh big handsome man WHATEVER except he literally only wants to marry her because her step-dad is a chairman. but kiki’s absolute breaking point (which i’m still kinda hashing out and only have a vague idea of) is when she figures out her fiance orchestrated a PR disaster by logging into her computer and messing a bunch of stuff up (idk if i should do hacking or whatever) so she gets blamed, only to take blame/save the day for the thing he LITERALLY started so she could feel indebted to him enough to date him. at this point she feels so suffocated by her life in zuzu city that she contemplates running away, so while packing she finds grandpa’s letter and decides to run away to stardew valley

present - i know the missing person stuff didn’t make sense but i hope everything i explained kinda gives you more context? her mom put out a missing person notice and her peers/family from zuzu city are still looking for her. this is partly why she doesn’t have a phone when she moves in, she tries to pawn her engagement ring off to clint for extra gold, and refuses to have pictures of her taken by haley for the first few weeks of their friendship. ofc when kiki goes back, she is escorted by robin, talks to lewis, etc. whatever is in the official intro and it’s kinda standard but on her way to pierre’s for cleaning supplies she accidentally runs into sebastian and realizes he hates her guts and has no idea why because he literally won’t tell her. the idea of childhood friends to strangers is really fun to write imo and then the story persists from there! 

LASTLY - I’M SO SORRY for writing so much i just couldn’t condense it into less paragraphs if i wanted but i hope it was interesting!

[moonflower-31]

I Won't Forget You - Spencer Reid x Reader

(This is gonna be a series, so keep an eye out for this one if you like it.)

Summary: So imagine you're in the CM universe if you will. And you're just graduating from the academy. You're looking to join the BAU. You have hyperthymesia, the ability to never forget anything. Except for rare occasions. After the final exam, you run into one Dr. Spencer Reid. Eventually, you get accepted to shadow the BAU on a trial run as an agent. But you have a past that may endanger those you work with. Also, you love Spencer. Cause who doesn't?

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female Reader (this makes sense only for storyline, sorry 😞)

Masterlist

Please leave comments! I love reading them ❤ 💕

~~~~~~~~

Nervous. So dreadfully nervous you were and am. But here we are. No turning back now. 

"Hello, cadets. And welcome to your final exam for your graduation. We hope all of you do well. The FBI, as you know, has many branches. 56, to be exact. We hope that for those of you who pass, that you'll find your calling in one of our offices. For those of you who don't, don't fret. We always allow you to retake the last semester and the exams. The FBI is in desperate need of new agents." The speaker in front of me is seriously loud. Though you don't dare speak up about it. 

Associate Deputy Director Gail Franklin spoke with such elegance. She obviously has had practice, you think to yourself as you watch the grey-haired woman speak atop the raised portion of the testing room. You couldn't count how many people even if you tried. And you don't forget anything. 

"Psst!" 

You groan quietly and try to ignore your idiot but golden-hearted friend who couldn't sit still. 

"Psst! (Y/N)!"  

You ignore him again, focusing on Franklin's closing commentary.  

"I wish you all good luck. Please refrain from beginning your exam until all test-takers have received their tests. Thank you." She then proceeded to turn and begin her trek out of the room, the click of her heels being the only reminder she was even here. 

"Psst-! Come on, (Y/N/N)!" 

You sigh and pinch the bridge of your nose. Finally, you turn your head and give your dear friend a very annoyed look. "What is it, Gabe? Like seriously, you couldn't sit still through one teansy tiny lecture? From the ADD herself?" You tease, pulling out a #2 pencil from your bag. Sure, most everyone will be using pens, but you remembered that the test scanners prefered graphite.

Gabriel whined teasingly at your jap. "No fair, (Y/N/N)! I just wanted to talk to one of my best friends. That too much to ask?" He sassily remarks, flipping his floppy golden-brown hair. 

You rolled your eyes and couldn't help but feel a smile form on your face. You loved him like a brother. But that also meant he annoyed you like one too. 

"You couldn't have waited till she was done?" You couldn't help but question him further. It was one of his weaker points. Under pressure, he tended to get uncomfortable. 

"Nope." Popping the 'p' he blew a kiss at you. "Anyway, how prepared do you think you are for this test? I almost made it an all-nighter trying to cram everything in again. Fuck me and my terrible memory." You grinned and giggled under your hand. 

"Gabriel, I told you, if you ever needed help studying I would be there. You're gonna do fine." 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Easy for you to say. You didn't even have to study with that god-given gift of a memory you got." 

You bite the inside of your cheek, faking a slight chuckle. Everyone thought remembering everything was a superpower. Sure, if you call superpowered headaches and occasional dizzy spells a super-side-effect. 

So, yes, you had the 'gift' of having hyperthymesia. The disorder where you never forgot anything. Of course, there were a few rare occasions, like you could only remember a handful of memories from before you were four. But other than that, you had nothing from your earliest childhood. It made you feel semi-normal. 

"It isn't a gift, Gabe. It's only a gift in the academic field. And I'm lucky to have a 'genius' IQ." You huffed in response to Gabriel's little comment. 

"Yeah yeah, but you have a filing cabinet for a memory. So why study? You have it all up there." He asks, taking the test packet from the assistant that had finally made it to him. 

"Studying, as a science, is a great way to improve your memory, quicken your speed of processing data and important information, and you stretch your mind's capacity for learning. Also it helps me understand a topic better. Just like anyone else." 

You take the packet from the assistant and widen your eyes slightly at the size. It was massive. At least the size of your tiniest textbook. You could almost hear Gabriel whimper next to you as he saw how big the packet was. At least you all had three and a half hours. And it wasn't required to get through all of them. Just try to do your best on the written response ones.

You turn to Gabriel and hold out your fist. "Good luck." 

Gabriel sighed and gave you a smile before pumping his fist gently against yours. Soon after he made a dramatic explosion noise that only you could hear. You roll your eyes and shake your head again, turning your full attention finally to the large test in front of you. 

Here goes nothing, you tell yourself. 

○●♡●○  

Remarkably, you think you did okay. Of course, you finished the test in the first hour and a half, but who's counting? Certainly not you. 

You rub your aching wrists from so much essay work as you exit the testing room. Even with an unbeatable memory like yours, your hands were still human. So they hurt like a bitch. 

You sigh and take a quick seat on the bench outside the room, probably sticking out like a sore thumb in a crowd of other cadets who weren't in your graduating class. But you tried not to pay it any mind. You were used to being the 'odd man out'. 

You check your phone and smile down at the message your other friend, Iris, had sent you. She wasn't testing for the FBI like you and Gabe. No she was a barista with some mean skills at mixing new drinks. She wanted to open her own cafe and Gabriel and you wanted to support her. She'd been there for you every second of the last five years. You owed her at least a little thanks. 

When you look up, you couldn't help but notice a tall, lanky looking man with long, curly hair walking towards you as he looked for…something. You couldn't tell. Probably a map. He had a gun holstered on the side of his belt along with a blurry ID you couldn't read from so far away. But it looked like it said FBI. 

You stifled a soft snicker. This guy could say he was a teacher's assistant and if he didn't have the gun on him, you would've believed him. 

And that's when you caught his eye and instantly you recognized who this lost puppy was. More specifically, who he belonged to. 

"Hi, uh I'm Dr. Spe-" he began, looking a bit nervous as he began to introduce himself. 

"Dr. Spencer Reid. From the Behavioral Analysis Unit. I've heard of you." You accidentally interrupt. "Sorry. I don't forget names easily. I don't forget them ever, really." 

Nervously, you rub your hand on your neck, waiting for his response. And surprisingly, it wasn't one you expected. 

Spencer widened his eyes a bit in wonder that someone knew of him that he hadn't met before on a case. And she knew which branch he worked in. He blushed a bit, growing a tad tongue tied. 

"S-sorry, I'm Cadet (L/N)." 

Spencer raised an eyebrow. He wondered why you didn't give him your first name. But he didn't pry. It was your personal business. And besides, it wasn't like he needed to know your first name. 

"U-uh yeah, actually. I-I wanted to ask you if you knew where I could get a glimpse of a map. Just so I can find my way around. I'm here for a 'lecture' that I'm helping give the graduating class of FBI agents." He couldn't help but brag a tiny bit. "It doesn't start for another 3 hours, but I like to be prepared." 

You smiled up at this tall nerd. And an incredibly cute one at that. He was so out of place you sympathized with him. He was basically you. In like, every academic scene you've ever been in. 

"Understandable. I'll be seeing you there hopefully. I'm a part of that class." You grinned. "But yeah, here's the map," you say, pulling up a digital map on your phone. Spencer leaned over your shoulder and looked it over. You couldn't help but shiver slightly at the sound of his breathing so close to your ear. It felt eerily calming. 

"Really?" He asked after he pulled away from your shoulder. "T-thank you for the map, by the way." He adds last-minute. You giggle gently and nod. 

"Yep. The test only started an hour and about 45 minutes ago, so I gotta wait a little while." Groaning playfully you shrug at him, crossing your arms to get more comfortable. You wouldn't lie, he was seriously cute. Of course, you'd seen him before on your secret internet dives. But in-person was so much better than sitting behind a screen gawking over a photo. An ID photo no less. 

"You already finished?" 

There it was. The immediate doubt of your intelligence everyone had when you accidentally showed your smarts. You sighed. "Yeah. Kinda hard not to with an IQ of 167 and a memory that pretty much never fails." You shrugged nervously, looking away as you braced yourself for his incoming doubt. 

"Oh. Hyperthymesia, right?" He inquires. You blink a few times and look at him like he just said something so foreign you didn't know how to respond. 

"U-uh...y-yeah. It's rare, but I got it. How'd you know?" 

"It was more of an educated guess. See, you bite the inside of your cheek when you're nervous," he points out. You in fact, were biting your cheek as he spoke. "And you seem unintimidated by me despite knowing of my position. You only grew nervous when I mentioned anything academic. Which proves to me you're used to being the smartest kid in the room. And having to explain why every time." He finishes, leaving you a gigantic puddle of impressed and embarrassed that he had profiled all of that from only a few minutes from conversation. 

"Geez, didn't expect to get profiled today. You're really good at it, you know. Well, I mean you would be. 'Cause you w-work for the BAU." You begin to ramble, groaning internally for suddenly turning into an awkward blob in front of this professional. 

Spencer smiled a bit wider and let out a soft laugh. "So, y-you want to work for the BAU?" 

You look at him puzzled for a moment before you remember that he'd been profiling you for the past five or so minutes. "Right, profiler…" you mutter. "Y-yeah. It's kinda been a dream of mine for years. Police officer never really appealed to me. I wanted to get into the real deal. Catch the hard criminals. Give myself a challenge, you know?" You rattle off, realizing just how comfortable you'd grown to Spencer in the short conversation you've had. 

Spencer nodded. "It was always a dream of mine as well. I was kinda groomed for it." He admitted. "S-so… any jitters at all? Did you know that t-the common feeling of nervousness or 'butterflies' is actually caused by the reduced blood flow to the abdomen. Your stomach's sensory nerves sense the lack of oxygen and blood and it produces the fluttery feeling you get before a test or before a big performance." 

You smile brighter. "Really? I never thought of that. I always just thought it was a signal your brain sent or something. That's interesting. I'm kinda glad I won't forget that." 

Spencer felt his surprise increase again. You hadn't cut him off. There was no 'Sorry I asked' or awkward asking if he always did this. You actually listened. And you wanted to hear more! He didn't think he'd ever find someone willing to listen. 

"H-heh…" Spencer chuckled. "W-well did you know that most people will forget 50 percent of the information you've been taught in one hour will be forgotten? A-and in 24 hours more than 75% of the information is gone. That's why studying is so important. It helps retain that information so it doesn't 'slip' as easily." He begins to rattle off again, quite glad he found someone who actually wanted to hear his statistics. It was a good cover for his nervousness about talking to this incredibly gorgeous woman. 

You tilt your head in interest, laughing gently. "That's what I keep saying! Yet everyone always asks 'Why study if you remember everything?'" You exclaim, making a whiny voice expression for the impression of absolutely every bully you'd had ever. 

A darker skinned man, who was much more gifted physically walked over as you and Spencer continued your conversation. He wrapped an arm around Spencer teasingly and nodded to you. 

"Hope this pretty boy ain't bothering you baby girl." He greets. "He's great once you get to know him." 

Spencer just looks annoyed at this man's sudden presence. "Seriously, Morgan? We were actually having a conversation before you butted in." He grumbled annoyedly. Then you remember the face. This was SSA Derek Morgan. You'd seen him in some pictures with Spencer. He wasn't too bad looking. In fact, you knew Iris would climb him faster than a squirrel did a tree. But Spencer was a bit more your type. 

Morgan raised an eyebrow and smirked at you. "Oh really? So now pretty boy's talking to girls?" He teases, letting Spencer free from his suffocating hold. He then extends a hand out to me. "Derek-" he started. 

"Derek Morgan. SSA from the BAU. Yeah, I know about you." You grinned. He looked you up and down a bit in the same interest that Spencer had. That soon was replaced by a confident smile. 

"So you know of me." He said in a clearly flirtatious tone. "Don't tell me you've been searching up my pictures in your freetime, babygirl." He flirts. 

You roll your eyes and take his hand, shaking it firmly. "No, I haven't. Though I have heard of you from my classes. But if I'm honest?" You begin. "I'm really wishing I could forget that comment." You sassily respond. He laughed. 

"No one ever forgets, Babygirl." He grinned. 

Spencer sighed and turned to Morgan in annoyance. "Morgan." He deadpanned. You looked towards him and giggled a little. It was clear Spencer had wanted to talk to only you. Maybe it was something to do with the statistics. You had a feeling that he felt he was finally being listened to. 

"What? I'm just introducing myself to one of the new cadets." He insists, raising two hands up in defeat. 

"Did you just profile me without my permission?" You ask him with fake offense. He laughed. 

"Did I need to ask, sweetheart?" He asks. You chuckle. 

"Guess not." You shrug. 

"What's your name, beautiful? A pretty face has got to have a pretty name." He flirted. 

"I'm Cadet (L/N)."

Morgan raised an eyebrow, fully ready to ask why the hold-up on your first name when Spencer thankfully saved you an explanation. 

"She didn't share it with me either. Probably a mode of trust." He explains. Morgan shrugged. 

"I'll find out eventually. You'll give it away." He insists. 

"Uh huh, sure I will." You tease. 

"Reid, Morgan, we need to prepare." You hear a third voice call the two men away from you. You stand a bit on your tiptoes to get a good look at who it was that was speaking. 

Aaron Hotchner walked towards the three of you almost with a purpose. So much confidence in one man. 

"Who is this?" He asked. 

"I'm Cadet (L/N), Agent Hotchner. It's a pleasure to meet you." You greet, holding out a hand to him. Hotch raised an eyebrow at you in interest before shaking your hand in earnest. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well. I've heard of your excellent grades and work in your studies. I hope to see you among the enlistees requesting the BAU." He greets, letting his hand fall back to his side. 

"That's the plan, Agent Hotchner." You chip pleasantly. Morgan seems genuinely surprised.  

"Wait, you're interested in the BAU? Profile me." He insisted. You blush from the sudden spotlight. 

"W-what?" You ask. 

"Morgan, that's enough." Hotch warns. 

"Leave her alone, Morgan." Spencer expressed. 

"No, it's fine." You assure. "Well, from the looks of your attire compared to your colleagues, I'd say you hate wearing formal clothing. Prefer to be comfortable. Your consistent flirty personality is mostly a show, as you wouldn't really flirt with someone you just met the way you flirted with me. So you either have someone in mind, or have a partner at home. And besides that, the way you greeted Dr. Reid proves you think of him as a younger brother, and you treat him like the brother you never had." You finished, a pleading voice in the back of your head screaming at you in hopes that you hadn't gone too far. 

Instead of being offended, Morgan began to smile and grinned, clearly impressed. "She's actually pretty good." He comments to Hotch, glancing to Spencer and then back to you. "You'd make a good profiler." He compliments. You smile happily and full of relief at him. 

"I sure hope so. Anyway, you should probably get going to the auditorium. The mics are a pain to tune and figure out, so I'd get it done now." You giggle slightly. 

Spencer nodded and smiled at you. "T-thank you, again. Cadet (L/N)." 

You couldn't help but blush a tad as he said your title. "Of course, Dr. Reid. Anytime you need directions." You tease. 

Morgan raised an eyebrow. "What about me?" He teased back. You mock think about it for a moment before you reply. 

"Sorry, I think you can figure it out, pretty boy." You joke, winking at him. He smiled brightly at your sass, chuckling a bit. 

Hotch then got your attention very easily. "It was a pleasure to meet you again, (L/N)." 

"You too. Good luck on the lecture." You bid them all fair well and turn around to take your seat again. 

"Ooh, somebody's in looove~!" You hear Gabriel sing in a sing-song voice. You chuckle and shake your head. 

"I am not in love, Gabriel. You just started eying the pretty boy I was talking to. You know, handsome black guy?" You tease. 

"Hmm, yeah, probably. But seriously. I saw you looking at that other kid, the professor's-aide-looking guy, like he was a mountain of sugar. And I know sugar." He teased, sipping a coke he had obviously bought after the test. 

"Oh shut up. Have you heard from Iris yet?" You ask. 

"Nope. She's probably busy over at The Bean. We should go visit. Tell her about your rendezvous with Mr. Teacher's aid." Gabriel snickered. 

"No, we are not telling Iris anything. You know how she gets. She gets all protective, and then nobody wants to go out with me cause they're all scared of her." You groan, stealing his coke for a moment. 

Gabriel smirks at you. "So you admit that you like him?" He teases. You immediately realize your mistake and groan, covering your reddening face. 

Gabriel chuckled and wrapped an arm around your shoulder. "Come on, sugar-tits. Let's get out of here for a lil' bit. Come back for that 'lecture' in like an hour." He teased. You bring your hands away from your face and sigh. 

Did you really like him? Maybe. It was probably just an internet crush. Nothing more. It wasn't like it could get worse. 

[stark-tony]

tododeku fic recs

* = incomplete

meet you again someday (after we take the long way ’round) by theroyalsavage

summary: Midoriya Izuku's life is saved by a boy with the strongest Quirk he has ever seen. 

Eventually - inevitably - he falls in love.(An AU in which Todoroki never attends UA, they never clash at the sports festival, but they come together all the same.)

pairings: tododeku

tags: hurt/comfort

warnings: none

that is just the way by celestialfics

summary:  Shouto has his first sleepover.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff

warnings: none

what is right and what is easy by theroyalsavage

summary: Midoriya Izuku is not chosen to represent Hogwarts in the Triwizard Tournament. He does not slay a dragon, or rescue innocents, or brave a maze of dark magic. He does not win accolades, or fame, or glory.

Instead, Izuku meets the son of the greatest dark wizard of the age, a Durmstrang student with hair like a sunrise and eyes like a war. And maybe, he just might win something else.

pairings: tododeku, kiribaku, tsuchako

tags: fluff, angst

warnings: none

First Time For Everything by kazzarole

summary: Midoriya is the catalyst of many of the 'firsts' in Shouto's life--it just makes sense that Shouto should share his first kiss with him, too.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff

warnings: none

alone together by celestialfics

summary:  Five times when other Class 1-A kids notice Todoroki and Midoriya in their own world.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff

warnings: none

A Simple Warmth by patster223

summary: “I’m trying to make Todoroki a sweater for his birthday, but…” Izuku pokes at the tangle of yarn. “It’s more complicated than I thought it would be.”

In which Izuku sucks at knitting, his classmates are eager to help out, Todoroki finally gets to be cozy, and knitting is a vector for romance.

pairings: tododeku

tags: 

warnings: none

Conventional Taste by WowBoring

summary: He didn’t think it would matter if Midoriya were taking him to a sewer convention; it was probably still going to be the highlight of his Golden Week.

In order to avoid a visit from his unpleasant grandparents Todoroki attends a hero convention with Midoriya, and learns a few things along the way.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff

warnings: abuse

pls respond by Esselle

summary: 'Midoriya: UR SO CUTE

Shouto chokes on nothing. How is he supposed to respond to that? Is he supposed to respond at all?

Midoriya: Look at your big head aaaaaaaaaaaaah Midoriya: *Image Attached*

Oh, Shouto thinks. He was talking about Shouto's Nitotan, which is now smashed to one of Izuku's cheeks in the image Izuku just sent, as Izuku squeezes it joyfully. Even if Izuku wasn't talking to him directly, the butterflies in Shouto's stomach feel a bit joyful, too.

He types out: I wish I were that Nitotan right now. Then he snorts, and erases it.'

--

Izuku has a wide variety of special moves, but his Key Smash might be the most powerful of all.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, humor

warnings: none

i can keep a secret, could you? by handcrusher (ameliafromafairytale)

summary: The last thing Todoroki wants is for his father to figure out that 1) he's gay and 2) he's dating the boy he's supposed to overcome as a hero. So, he and Midoriya devise a plan.

Just how long can they keep it up?

pairings: tododeku, tsuchako, momojirou

tags: 

warnings: 

hold on tight by lunalou

summary: "What are you doing?" Shouto asks.

"Hugging you." Midoriya returns in a patient voice. His arms tighten around Shouto's waist and he presses his forehead more firmly against his back. "You know it's a hug, Shouto-kun. Don't play dumb."

or, five times somebody from 1-a hugs todoroki and the one time he hugs them first

pairings: tododeku

tags: 

warnings: 

If I'm Being Honest.... by I_dont_know_man

summary: Midoriya scrunched up his nose in confusion. “Uh, Shouto, why are you glaring at me like that?”

“I-” Todoroki began to lie, until nausea slammed him like a door to any room that Bakugou entered. “I--” Todoroki grit his teeth, and glared daggers into the wall behind Midoriya. Goodbye, friendship. It had been absolutely divine while it lasted. “Because you’re very attractive.”

They say honesty is the best policy, but it sure as hell had a knack for Todoroki making a complete and utter fool of himself. 

  In which Todoroki is placed under a mysterious truth-telling quirk and suffers, Uraraka laughs at him, Midoriya is confused but smitten nonetheless, and Twitter is the thirstiest site on the planet.

pairings: tododeku, kiribaku

tags: humor, fluff

warnings: 

Guiding Light by furihatachlookie

summary:  It was his mother's idea to enroll him at the local elementary school. His father believed a private tutor was better, but nobody can argue with a mother who's made up her mind, and a balanced exposure to kids his own age sways his father's judgement enough to agree and sign the papers.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, angst

warnings: 

Todoroki and Yaoyorozu's Elite Study Club by hanwritesstuff (hannahkannao)

summary: “Well, as I see it, we have two options.” Shouto holds up two fingers. “We can either ignore this and pretend it never happened or... not.” He doesn't know which one he wants. “What does not entail, exactly?” Yaoyorozu asks. “...I don't know.”

In which Todoroki accidentally learns something about Yaoyorozu, Yaoyorozu accidentally learns something about Todoroki, and they spend a considerable portion of their study sessions... not studying.s

pairings: tododeku, momojirou

tags: fluff, humor

warnings:

Do What You Will, If That's What You Want by stanzas

summary: “What do you mean you’re retiring?” Bakugou asks nicely, or at least as nicely as someone like Bakugou can ask. The question is phrased more like a demand.“

Call it a mid-life crisis,” Shouto answers, like Bakugou asked him what the weather would be tomorrow, and takes a deep sip from his coffee. “I’m thinking of changing careers.”

The world of heroes is quick to adapt to surprises, but Pro Hero Entropy’s (very premature) retirement announcement throws almost everyone for a pretty impressive loop.

pairings: tododeku

tags: hurt/comfort, angst, humor

warnings:

extra, extra! by rythyme (pugglemuggle)

summary: Shouto & Creati: ACTUALLY Dating?! by Hitachi Hitomi at September 18, 2047 3:42 pm."Ever since heartthrob 

Todoroki Shouto and the Everything Hero "Creati" made their official debuts, the two 22-year-old heroes have been nothing but professional towards each other. But was this all a sham to cover up the truth?" 

Or: The media thinks Shouto and Creati are dating. Hint: they aren't. A multimedia TodoDeku & MomoJirou fanfic told through news articles, gossip columns, twitter, tumblr, text messages, and more.

pairings: tododeku, momojirou

tags: fluff, humor

warnings:

you broke the dark and my whole earth shook by aloneintherain

summary:  Shouto had imagined himself as the country’s top hero for decades. Endeavour had put those images in his head when he was a child, and they had stayed there, growing like a fungus, until Shouto had reached adulthood. Even now, he was only just beginning to realise he didn’t have to live his life according to almost thirty-year-old decisions made by his abuser. He could do more. Be more. Outside of the hero community.

Izuku gets a job offer in America. Somehow, this brings Shouto and Izuku closer than ever before.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort

warnings:

count your blessings, not your flaws by PitViperOfDoom

summary:  Midoriya Izuku has never been asked out, confessed to, or flirted with, except as a joke.

pairings: tododeku

tags: angst, hurt/comfort

warnings: bullying

call the fire department (i'm burning up with love) by Edgedancer

summary:  An (abridged) list of things Todoroki Shouto did not have before U.A.: Loud neighbors. Fire alarms. Friends. Midoriya Izuku.

pairings: tododeku

tags:

warnings:

long nights and daydreams by dreamtowns

summary: According to the public, Pro Heroes Deku and Entropy are an amazing Hero Duo, best friends, and the most eligible bachelors in the world. According to their fans, they’re head over heels in love with one another yet oblivious to the others’ feelings. According to their friends and family, they’ve been in love with one another since high school, but, for reasons unknown to them, refuse to act upon said feelings.

According to said heroes, they have been (secretly) married for six years.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort

warnings: 

extra-salty/twitter-verse series by SportsAnimeRuinedMyLife (KnightOfRage)

summary:  In his third year at UA, Todoroki Shouto works in a burger place, catches on fire and falls in love. Only two of those things are on purpose.

Or...Todoroki Shouto's exciting adventures in customer service.

part one of the extra salty/twitter-verse

pairings: tododeku, kiribaku

tags: fluff, humor

warnings: none

More Than Skin-Deep by Emmeri

summary: It was a fact, really. That he was ugly. Having a scar which takes up half his face kind of does that, in Todoroki's eyes. So why does he overhear the girls call him the class pretty boy?

He'll just have to ask Midoriya about it; he has too little filter to tell anything but the truth.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, angst

warnings: 

Your Biggest Fan by Latios

summary: He opens the bag on the floor to see what could have been left in there-- and promptly freezes, staring at the contents inside.

“Midoriya.” He calls.

“Hm?”

“You bought our hero merch?”

~

Aka, Class 1-A starts to see themselves appear on merchandise in their local stores. Todoroki tries not to buy things, and fails.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, humor

warnings: 

Marry The Mole by Haurvatat

summary: “You're going to break up with him before he can propose.”

The hands went down and the steel wall of Midoriya's entire being went up. “...Excuse me?”

“And in return-” Enji gritted his teeth, “-I will deposit 20 million yen in your checking account.”

-

The gay drama fic based on a tumblr post absolutely zero people wanted to see but YOU'RE GETTING ANYWAY

pairings: tododeku

tags: humor

warnings: 

ascended fanboy by aloneintherain

summary: “I want to honour them,” Izuku said softly. “When I cosplay, I just want people to see how amazing these heroes are.”

Shouto brushed a thumb over his cheek, careful not to smudge his makeup. “They do. I promise.”

Or: Izuku and Shouto attend HeroCon, five years post-graduation.

pairings: tododeku

tags: 

warnings: 

[unmaskedagain]

Archenemies to Superfriends

Do you know how hard it is to make Lila likeable? Do you know the struggle I went through to write this fic? I know I said I wanted a challenge, something unique. BUT WHAT THE HELL! This took me longer than my last two fics combined. Class salt but make Lila the good guy? Like seriously, do you hate me? I hope the Anon requester likes this. 

"I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend." — Romulan Commander, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Balance of Terror"

It turned out there was a line Lila Rossi wouldn’t even cross. Sure, she wasn’t the nicest person in the world. Far from it. She was a liar, a thief, a cheater, a bully at times, a social climber.

But she wasn’t a monster.

           As she looked the sketchbook in Alya’s hand, and the vindictive look on her face; Lila realized what was about to take place would push her over the line into monster status.

           The school day had just ended. Most students had already left. Lila had been about to leave when Alya stopped her.

“How? How did you get it?” Lila asked. Surely Marinette wasn’t foolish enough to leave it around.

           It was Alix who preened, “I snuck it out of her bag.”

“She’s been so mean to you, girl,” Alya said. “Marinette needs to learn a lesson.”

           No, Marinette hadn’t been mean to her. Lila never even implied the bluenette had been mean to her. Lila spun her stories to the class, and whenever Marinette called her out for lying (which she was), the class would gang up on the Bluenette and accuse her of being jealous, of bullying poor Lila.

           It was actually rather startling how fast the so call best friends had turned on the girl. Lila didn’t even have to push or instigate it like she usually did. No, a few promises of meeting famous celebrities, and they all rushed to do it on their own.

           Rose’s sleepover. Rose didn’t invite Marinette at the other girls’ insistence so Lila wouldn’t feel unease.

           Nino’s party. No one mentioned it Marinette. She had been acting crazily lately.

           Trip to the movie. Marinette would just ruin it for everybody.

           And so on and so forth. Until the class was going out of their way to avoid the bluenette. Some even went as far as verbally bashing the other girl and ending their friendships. It got to the point where no one, not even Adrien, would speak to Marinette; and ostracized her to the back of the class. Only Chloe defended the girl and sought out her friendship. To which Alya snorted, “Of course. Bullies belong with bullies.”

           Now the class had moved on to destroying private property. Great.

           Lila sighed. How was she going to get herself out of this one?

Lila prided herself on still being able to look at herself in the mirror at the end of the day. Despite all she had done and would be willing to do; Lila was firm on what she wouldn’t do.

           Destroying someone’s life work; something they had spent months and months on, something that had nothing to do with Lila, was going too far.

           Lila needed to move quickly. She eyed the sketchbook. It was a standard black sketchbook, nothing special. She owned a similar one herself that she used for quick doodles and to write down ideas.

           That was when Lila got an idea. She quickly put her school books on the desk and beamed at her moronic classmates. Then all it took were quick sad eyes, and a can I hold it first, please. For Alya to hand it over. Then Lila accidentally spilled all off her books on the ground, and when everyone rushed to help her. Lila switched the two sketchbooks.

           Then it took her classmates, not friends (never friends); Alya, Max Alix, Kim, Nino, Mylene, Ivan, all of ten seconds to destroy the book into as little pieces as they could. Never even bothering to look to see if it was actually Marinette’s work.

           They left the pieces scattered on Marinette’s desk.

           Just as they finished said girl rushed back into class, a frantic searching look on her face. It took her five seconds to notice the torn sketchbook on her desk. Pure devastation overtook her face, tears filled her blue eyes.

           Alya snipped a mean retort about Karma and left the class with the other students following behind her. Not realizing Lila wasn’t among them. Not caring that she had just hurt the girl she had sworn was her bestie not too long ago.

           Marinette stared quietly at the mess, not letting the tears fall. “Why?” She whispered.

“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Lila told her. “You don’ have to believe me. But I swear I didn’t. This isn’t my m.o.”

           Marinette wanted to lash out at the other girl; scream about it being her fault, and her being a liar. But she couldn’t even find words to speak.

“Here,” Lila said as she handed over the sketchbook. “I switched it with mine before they could… you know.”

           Marinette blinked once, then twice, before she slowly reached for the book; hope filling her. And sure enough. Relief rushed through her. She thanked all the kwami. “Why?” She asked Lila. “You hate me.” That had been the basis for their relationship for months.

           Lila snorted, “I don’t hate you. I don’t hate anyone,” She shrugged. “Hate clouds judgment. You’re just my competition. No one likes their rival team.”

           Marinette stared at the Italian girl. Rival team? Competition? What? “We’re not even competing for anything! If it's about Adrien. He’s yours. I don’t want him.” It turned out, the blond was too cowardly for her taste. Not enough backbone.

“Of course we’re competing!” Lila snapped. “Since I got to this school.”

“Over what?”

           It was Lila’s turn to stare. Didn’t the other girl know? Hadn’t they been fighting for the top spot?

“Being the most popular girl in school.”

           Marinette just looked confused. “But I’m not popular. Especially not now.”

“Not popular?” Lila could’ve cursed. “Not popular! On my first day, I didn’t go more than a foot before someone mentioned the wonderful Marinette. She’s so smart. She’s so sweet. She’s so EVERYTHING. I knew from day one we were archenemies. You knew it too. Why else would you try to call me out so much!”

“…I just don’t like liars.”

           That time Lila did scream.

           Because it wasn’t possible. There was no way Marinette Dupain-Cheng hadn’t even realized they had been competing. This wasn’t just some delusional one-side battle on Lila’s side. No way.

“Why me?” Marinette asked, with a tilted head, reminded Lila of a puppy. “There are tons of more popular girls. Aurore; she’s the most beautiful girl in school. Ondine, she’s the best athlete. Ruby in drama was literally voted the most popular kid in school last year.”

“That’s different,” Lila waved it off. “Those girls are popular for one specific thing. Even Ruby was only voted because she throws the best parties. And even then, most only like them for that thing. Everyone likes you.” Or at least all but one class now.

           A class that had proven to be worthless. Lila was starting to realize that she had been playing against her most noteworthy opponent, who apparently never realized they were competing, in a less than worthwhile game to be the most popular girl in class to get the approval of the students. Students who, again, weren’t worth it.

“You’re the only one worth a damn in this school,” Lila admitted as she sat down at her desk. “That’s why you. You’re the best. I want to beat the best.”

She never attacked the weak. She attacked the strong. She went after the strongest of the strong. Lila thrived off competition. She just didn’t want to win. She wanted to be The Winner. Lila wanted the number one spot engraved with her name. To do that she had to beat the best.

Her motto: A hero is only as good as his villain. The reverse is also true.

Lila knew since was a little girl that she would never make it the big leagues if she only fought small fries. So in every school, in every class; Lila found what was most important to her fellow students and went after it. Some school was easy. A few classes valued music; Lila started a band, with her as the lead singer, and knocked out her competition. Sports freaks; Lila always had a knack for futbol. Everyone in class fought to have the best grades (It only happened once) but Lila said bring it on.

Even she had to cheat, sabotage, lie, or whatever else to get to the top she’d do it. And she did. And she was always won.

She was the most popular kid in school within the month. Always.

As for her competition. Some fell easily; too easily for her taste. Some took months to fall. One guy took an entire year. His name had been Felix, and he been Lila’s favorite nemesis. He had fought with everything he had; pushed Lila far beyond her limits and made her think outside the box every time they went head to head.

He had been the joker to her Batman. (Afterall, every villain is a hero in their own mind)

But eventually, even Felix fell.

It had been glorious. A high that Lila road all the way to her new school in France.

Looking back, Lila should’ve known better. She should’ve known that Felix had been preparing her for her greatest battle yet. The fight of her lifetime. Against the greatest opponent, she would ever know.

Marinette.

The Superman to her Batman. All good things good and pure Versus the big bad of the night.

           It had been a fight Lila had been waiting for her life. And yet it turned out, Marinette never even really noticed.

           And to think, Lila had thought she had been winning. The class turned again Marinette. Everyone loved Lila. Except none of it seemed to bother the other girl. In fact, she seemed to get stronger.

           For every friend Marinette lost, she found another; a better one. Aurore, Claude, Ondine, Marc, Luka, Bridgette; the list went on and on.

           Alya voted to have Marinette removed as class president. Marinette gets on the student council. The class loses its most organized student. Lila declines the role of feigning that she was too busy. To make it worse all the well-planned birthday parties, school trips, free costume designer, and the random sweet day where baked goods were brought to class on particularly stressful school days, (all of which Lila had enjoyed).

           Adrien no longer speaking to her. (Honestly, Lila never saw what anyone saw in the blond model besides the potential connection he offered. He was naive and a far too idealistic for her taste). Marinette gets twelve different boys, and three girls, asking her to the sweethearts dance.

           Without the class clinging to her and demanding her time, Marinette seemed to thrive. No longer stressed; rarely ever late. Lila, on the other hand, found her days busier and busier as her classmates tried to lean on her more.

           No matter the bad thing that happened, Marinette just stronger. And she never lost her positive attitude.

           Marinette shook her head. This one turning out to be one strange day. “If you want the class, you can them. They’re my friends anymore.” She glanced at the pieces of the sketchbook on her desk. “I don’t know who they are in anymore.”

“Fame seekers,” Lila answered. “More concerned with what someone can do for than actual friendships. You get used to them.” She paused. “I don’t want them either. They’re…”

“Taxing,” Marinette offered as she sat down next to Lila. “Emotionally draining. Opinionated. Users.”

“Bad friends.”

“That too.”

           It went quiet. Neither girl knowing what to say. Lila didn’t know what to do now that all competition was all but officially declared over. Marinette realized that her ex-friends' actions couldn’t be blamed on Lila. Everything they did was on their own. Forgiveness wasn’t going to happen. So what are they fighting for? What could they fight for?

“Truce?” Marinette offered. “I let the morons believe whatever you want. And you just leave me out of it.”

           Lila nodded, “You go your way. I go mine.”

           This was worse than Superman V Batman movie ending as far as Lila was concerned. At least no one died.

           That was it. They left school that day feeling a little shook. Each girl agreed to move on and avoid each other.

           Except that wasn’t what happened.

           Somehow, slowly, Lila and Marinette became friends.

           It started off small. Lila had needed a break from her groupies and hid in the art room. Marinette had been working in there.

“They too much again?” Marinette asked.

           Lila winced but nodded.

“I used to hide in the back of the library,” Marinette offered. “On the roof.  Any random classroom I could find. Sometimes, I even just left for my parents.”

“Seriously?” Lila asked. “They’ve always been like this.”

           Marinette snorted. “Worse. Wait until they start asking you for favors. Which will turn into demands.”

“…They are just the worst.”

    ��      Then both girls laughed.

           After that whenever Lila needed a break, she sought out the presence of the other girl. Sometimes they hung out in the library, on the roof, wherever. It was nice.

           It wasn’t until Lila showed up in Marinette’s room, bitching about her mom canceling their plans together again. Marinette just listens to Lila’s sorrows and offered ice cream. They spent the entire night just bitching and watching reruns of Doctor Who. (It turned out Lila was a bit of nerd.) Lila slept over and slept easily for the first time in months.

That was when the two realized they were friends.

Marinette, Lila’s once declared greatest enemy, became her first real friend.

After that everything just fell together. Lila started showing up at Marinette’s and more.

Eventually, Lila being invited to Marinette’s girls’ night and being introduced to a new friend to Chloe, Kagami, Aurore, and Ondine.

Upon seeing her, Chloe snorted, “She got you too, huh. It’s the eyes. Don’t look her in the eyes.”

“Yes,” Kagami agreed. “I, too, had declared Marinette my rival. Now I wear bunny pajamas and adorn avocado oatmeal face masks.”

Well shit, Lila thought as she eyed Marinette’s former rivals, did I ever stand a chance?

           The answer was no.

           But Lila didn’t mind.

           After that Chloe found herself having more actually friends than ever before. In Chloe, she found a second-best friend. Someone she could always bitch with, and not just to. The blond had the presence Lila had always strived for. Chloe stalked through the hall like a model on the runway. People jumped out of her way. She was a phenomenal force to be reckoned, likened to Wonder Woman.

           Marinette and Lila were two peas in a pod. They both strived to the best, thrived under pressure, and loved fashion. But while Lila wanted to model and be in front of the camera, Marinette wanted to design.

           Lila loved Marinette’s clothes and decided the girl need a bit of a push. So she reached out to Chloe, and together they teamed up to convince Marinette to start her own website. It took a bit of work but MDC designs were officially online. All designs, of course, were modeled by Lila, Chloe, and Marinette’s other girlfriends. Lila had never felt so glamorous. Marinette never looked so happy.

           Lila started being the one Marinette went to whenever she needed someone to cover for babysitting. Or had to have a random excuse as to why she wasn’t present. And Lila did both jobs remarkably well.

           Still, despite their friendship, Lila was a bit surprised to get Marinette’s birthday invitation. Marinette made her promise not to tell anyone. Even more so, when Marinette took her and Chloe, Kagami, Luka, Claude, Marc, Aurore, and Ondine to Clara Nightingale concert. They had backstage passed and Lila nearly died when Clara rushed over to hug Marinette after a song. Lila took a lot of pictures, even one of her and the superstar together, but didn’t post them.

           Which left Marinette happily surprised. Apart, though small, still expected Lila to boast in class about the additional celebrity she knew. But that never happened. Marinette felt relief and a bit guilty, she supposed some part of her was testing the other girl to see if she could trust her; and was happy to find out Lila had passed.

           Despite their Lila and Marinette’s friendship things at school didn’t change. The other students in class still froze Marinette out. Lila, though, did her best to keep them from doing anything mean to the bluenette. Though this only happened when the other students needed something Marinette used to do for them; like free babysitting, custom-designed dresses, stage design, and interview with Ladybug, it wasn’t going to happen. Or when the class trips were lackluster at best.

           Lila hadn’t realized just how much she and Marinette had grown to like and trust each other until Ladybug showed up in her room. She was prepared to send a barging remark to the hero who had nearly sabotaged her attempts to win over Adrien, thus the rest of the class, when Ladybug spoke.

“Marinette sent me,” The red hero said. “She said I could trust you; that you’d make a good hero.” And then Ladybug showed her the fox miraculous, a replica of the one Lila used to wear.

           Lila’s mouth dropped opened.

“As soon as the fight’s done, you’ll need to return it to me,” Ladybug stated firmly. “Do you understand.”

           And just like that Volpina was reborn. Her costume was darker than before, her tail a bit longer and curved. Her mask black.

           Ladybug and Volpina fought side by side against a Clown Akuma that turn people into balloon animals. During the fight, Volpina learned that Chat Noir had, once again, abandoned Ladybug after the hero turned down his affections. Lila never felt so much disgust. What kind of hero was that?

           After the fight, Volpina and Ladybug met back up in Lila’s room and Lila immediately handed over the miraculous.

“Thanks for the help,” Ladybug smiled as he pocked the necklace.

           Lila nodded, “Chat Noir was wrong. What he’s doing is sexual harassment. Like seriously, look it up. No means no. You shouldn’t have to take that.”

“He’s my partner.”

“He’s not acting like it.”

           The words seemed to affect Ladybug who visibly wilted.  She didn’t say another word as she left.

           However, not long after Lila found herself being called forth to fight as Volpina more and more. Chat Noir never showing up once.

           When both heroines were confronted by a furious Alya, live streaming, Lila learned something.

“What happened to Rena Rouge?” Alya demanded, hurt and anger in her eyes. “Why replace her with this faux-hero? And what about the rest of the new team Miraculous;  Viperion, BrightRoar, and Ryuko. What about the old team?”

           Faux-hero? Ladybug had to physically stop Volpina from ripping into the reporter.

“Rena Rouge has been retired,” Ladybug glared. “She proved herself to be untrustworthy. In fact, all former heroes such as Caraprace and Chat Noir have been retired. They have been replaced by permanent heroes like Volpina, here, Queen Bee, Viperion, BrightRoar, and Ryuko. They have proven themselves to loyal and capable heroes.”

           No one knew who was more stunned Lila or Alya. She was a permanent hero? Chat Noir had been replaced? What?

“What?” Alya asked. “Rena was amazing. A much better hero than some people,” She gave a dirty look to Volpina. “And You and Chat Noir belonged together. Everyone says so!”

“Rena was a good hero,” Ladybug said. “But outside the mask, she proved herself unworthy. As for me and Chat Noir. I’ve said countless times, I felt nothing but friendship for him. It was Chat Noir and tabloid sites like the Ladyblog that hyped up that nonsense.”

“Tabloid?” Alya shrieked.

“Yes, tabloid.” Ladybug hissed. “Why do think I stopped working with you?”

           In retrospect, Lila should’ve realized sooner the fallout that would happen not long after. Alya wasn’t the type of person to own up to her own mistakes. However, Lila had been so busy cheering at being a new permanent hero that she got a little distracted.

           After Ladybug called her out, Alya spent all every ounce energy to find out how she went from Ladybug’s goto to Ladybug’s no go. And then answer was in the comments to her videos of Lila. All calling out the Italian to be a liar.

           By Monday, everyone in the class knew. As soon as Lila walked into class, Alya tore into accused her of lying and ruining her blog.

           TO which Lila gave big crocodile tear-filled eyes, “I just wanted to make friends.” She tried to gain sympathy. It didn’t work.

           Soon all the class was screaming at her.

           It stopped when Bustier and Marinette walked into class.

           Bustier looked like a deer caught in the headlines, unsure of what to do.

           Marinette had looked directly at Lila, “You can sit in back with me and Chloe.”

“Girl’s, she a liar,” Alya hissed. “You were right.”

           Marinette scoffed, “And yet she’s a better friend than you ever were.” She looked at Lila again, ignoring the protests from her classmates around her. “Come on.

           Lila smiled as the two girls made their way to the back of the classroom to join Chloe in the back.

           Lila, Marinette, and Chloe sent matching Ice Queen looks to the rest of the students in class; daring them to say something, to approach.

           And just like the heroes: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, Lila likened them to be; no one would even consider it.

           It wasn’t like anyone else in the class was worth a damn anyway.

[literallywhyistaken]

When Remus Lupin walked into his classroom, he immediately knew that they would not get that much work done today.

How?

Well first of the entire class had broken up into friendship groups and were all talking around a phone, and, Remus knew exactly why.

Dammit, Sirus.

He had specifically told him to wait until the year 10s hade done their exam. Though to be fair he had been waiting to release that video for a while now.

Given the fact that there was still 5 minutes until the start of class, Remus walked over to his desk and started to prepare his lesson for the day. He was just about done when his phone buzzed.

Pads💗💗💗 - heeey babe sorry about releasing the video early. I just felt like I couldn't wait any more u know?

- how are the students?

- are you mad?

- oh god you haven't replied you are so mad at me

- I'm sorryyyy

Remus silently chuckled at the sight of his clingy overthinking adorable boyfriend freaking out even though he sent all of those texts in a span of 10 seconds.

Sirius had released a video 5 hours earlier, titled coming out. In just 1 hour it had gotten over 5 thousand views. When Remus had woken up, (obviously since Padfoot was not next to him,) he had come out and seen him pacing around nervously in the lounge room. Sirius had been worried that everything was going to backfire, and as soon as he had seen Remus he immediately burst into a rather large and repetitive rant, that was only silenced when Remus had wrapped his arms around him.

After he had calmed down, Remus told him off for posting it earlier than they agreed, as multiple students in his history class he knew were definitely in love with his boyfriend. At times it was really disturbing, (like when Sirius posts a shirtless pic on Instagram, and they are usually taken by Remus.) but most of the girls, have learnt to keep it on the down-low. And he had not wanted Sirius to post before the test in one of his classes.

Remus took his phone in two hands and replied,

Moony💗🌑💗 - don't worry I'm not mad.

- maybe a little grumpy but not mad.

Pads💗💗💗 - got it I will have chocolate when you get home.

- how are the kids?

Moony💗🌑💗 - distracted. I think I'm going to have to postpone the test.

Just as Remus press send, a shrill bell ripped through the air, making everyone jump out of their skins. Whereas Remus just stayed still and texted goodbye to Sirius. After both going to school and teaching here, you get used to it.

"Ok class, I want phones away and everything off your desks except for a pen or pencil." Remus walked up and down the rows, handing out test sheets.

When he got to the back of the last row, he stood behind one specific student. Mindy Mor. She was currently giggling at her phone like a lovesick teenage girl. When Remus looked over her shoulder to see what she was looking at, he inwardly cringed. Mindy had screenshotted all of the shirtless pictures from Sirius Instagram and was currently zooming in on Remus's boyfriend's abs. Even though he would never admit it, he didn't blame her. He was very lucky.

"Phone Mindy," Remus demanded. He took her phone, and ignoring her grumbling, and placed a test in front of her.

"You can have this back at the end of the day."

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

For the rest of the week, Remus kept hearing ridiculous rumours about the one and only, Sirus Black.

The day of the test Remus had come home to a ridiculously happy Sirius, as the majority of his subscribers had accepted him and even asked if he was dating anyone. And of course, he slipped up and said that yes indeed he dating someone, but did not give way who.

Since then Remus has heard nothing but rumours about who he could be dating. Some of them were quite funny actually. Such as Sirus dating fellow marauder, James Potter. (Remus had almost snorted at that one.)

When he informed James and Sirius about it, it sparked a long debate between the two on whether James could indeed 'score' Sirius. (Remus had to eventually drag Sirius out so that Harry could be put to bed and everyone could have dinner.)

However, it did have some downsides. Somehow, someone had found out that Sirius used to go to this school and that one of the teachers, Minerva McGonagall had taught him. Then that leads to them finding out that James, Sirus, Remus and Peter had all been best friends when they were at school. However, Remus managed to dodge the questions, by insisting that they were no longer in contact.

("no Mindy I cannot give you Sirus Blacks number so you can confess your undying love. I said no Mindy.")

Then Sirus released a new video titled: MARAUDERS BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

In it, it just had Sirius, James, and Peter catching and pretending that they hadn't seen each other since high school.

"Hey Moony why arent you going to be in the video again?" James questioned as Sirius set up the camera. James and Peter had gotten here an hour early accidentally. Now while Sirius was setting up, they were all sitting in the lounge room and the kitchen talking. Remus was sitting on the counter facing James, who was on the floor playing with Harry and Peter who was curled up in an armchair.

"If I'm in the video then I will get pestered with questions from my students," Remus answered. "And like half of the girls in 3 of my classes are absolutely in love with my boyfriend!" he said gesturing to Sirius.

James smirked, as Sirius turned around and walked into the kitchen.

"You jealous Moony?" James teased, resulting in a very colourful hand gesture thrown his way.

"Aww don't worry Re. I'm not going anywhere." Sirius said from behind Remus, pecking him on his temple.

"Oh come on guys get a room. Harry's here for god's sake!"

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

The next day, Remus woke up with Sirius's arms wrapped around his waist. It appeared that they had both slept through the alarm due to them.........not getting much sleep.

In result to the extra sleep the couple had earned, Remus missed the first 5 minutes of his first lesson. And so he had to be dropped off, by Sirius.

Now it is a well-known fact that Sirius Black drives a Porsche 550 Spyder. Whatever that is. And of course all the students in the school new that Sirius rode that exact car, so that was a little bit of a problem when they rode up into the car park, and there were still kids in the playground.

Sirius, knowing his boyfriends need for privacy, was wearing a cap to cover his head.

However, being a Black comes with a flair for the dramatic. So before Remus had the chance to jump out of the car, Sirius grabbed his shoulder and pulled him in for a kiss. It was short but sweet.

When Sirius pulled away, he nodded towards the school building and said,

"You'd better get going. Love you!"

Remus smiled as he climbed out of the car.

"Love you too."

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

Remus thought everything was ok. He had listened to all the conversations shooting around his classroom before the first break, and there was nothing about him.

When he went to enter the teacher's lounge, he was suddenly stopped right outside the door by two girls from the school newspaper.

"Hello, ladies... can I help you with something?" Remus asked hesitantly.

"Sir, you were late for school, yes?" One of them asked, who Remus remembered as Evie.

"Only five minutes," Remus replied.

"And you were dropped off by your boyfriend, right?" Evie pressed

"May I ask where this is going?" Remus said tying to cover up the fact that his heart had started to beat faster and his palms had started to sweat.

"Well the car that you drove here in is a Porsche 550 Spyder, and it is a well-known fact that you both knew Sirius Black and that Sirius Black drives a Porsche 550 Spyder. So I just wanted to ask Mr Lupin, are you dating Sirius Black?"

Remus hesitated.

"No. And I would appreciate it if you didn't ask me again."

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

For the next two weeks, Remus kept getting asked question after question after question.

"Are you dating Sirius Black?"

"Do you still talk to Sirius Black?"

"Can you help me meet Sirius Black?"

And to make matters worse, one specifically creepy student had made an announcement at the start of one of his classes saying that even though their teacher had denied that he was dating Sirius, he had made a fanfiction about the two of them and posted it on Wattpad.

Remus had looked at it, and it already had 100K views.

Remus was tired. He was getting questioned every day at work, and all over social media. Everyone had noticed, and he knew that Sirius was worried, but he hadn't said anything yet.

It was Friday, two days before Sirus and Remus's 6th anniversary. Every year they do something big, whether it is with other people or together. Normally, Remus gets more excited as the day gets closer. However, now he was either stressing out about going back to school or staring into space. And Sirius was getting really worried.

Remus was sitting on the dining room table with both hands wrapped around a mug. Its winter at the moment so Remus has his usual. Earl Grey.

When Sirius gets home from James and Lily's house it Godric Hollow, he walks inside the apartment and sees him sitting there staring off into space. He immediately knows what he has to do. (Well not immediately, but if you ask he will just deny it.) Sirius dumps his bag on the kitchen counter and walks over and sits next to him.

"Re."

Remus's head shoots up and he blinks a couple of times like he's coming out of a daze.

"Hmmm"

"Ok, what's wrong. And don't say nothing, you know that I know when your lying.

Remus sighed and looked back down at the table.

"It's just that I'm getting constantly questioned at work, I mean even my colleagues, other teachers are asking me now!! Its just....a lot."

Sirius sighed. He hated seeing the love of his life so upset and being helpless.

He opened his mouth as so try and say something comforting when Remus blurted out,

"I want to tell people. And no not our friends, I am aware that they already know, I meant all your subscribes."

Sirius's mouth fell open. He had approached Remus on the topic of telling people multiple times both before and after he had come out to people on youtube. And every time Remus had turned him down.

A huge grin spread over Sirius's face and he slipped down on to the floor and crouched in front of Remus's chair.

"Really? You actually want your students to know? Are you sure?"

"I mean I think so. I don't think I could hold it any much longer anyway." Remus replied a sheepish grin growing on his face.

Sirius couldn't stop the smile growing bigger on his face matching Remus.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Then Sirius closed the gap between them and the world around them fell quiet.

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

Sirius placed the camera on the cupboard in front of their bed and turned the camera on. He then turned around and moved all the photos of him and Remus out of the way.

"Hey Siri, you want some coffee?" Remus yelled from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I'd love some thanks, babe!" Sirius replied.

Sirius finished setting up the room and then started to walk out into the lounge room. After Remus had agreed to tell Sirius's fans that they were dating, they had both stayed up half the night trying to plan the perfect revel video. And then when they were getting ready for bed, Sirius had thought of the perfect idea.

Sirius was going to do a live QandA session. Even though Remus was convinced, that someone would ask whether they were dating, Sirius had insisted on a backup plan. So if no one asked 2 minutes into the live, then James, who would also be there, ("Why would you want to be there James??" "Because of the drama Moony. Why else??") would create a fake fan account and ask the question.

Sirius had thought about doing it the day after their anniversary, (as he knows how much of a romantic his boyfriend is.) but Remus wanted to do it on their anniversary.

I mean what would be more romantic than confessing your love for each other in front of thousands of people? And while most likely being recorded?

Sirius walked into the kitchen just as Remus was putting their tea and coffee down on the bench.

Sirius smiled as Remus put both milk and sugar into his coffee, (because you cannot convince me that no matter how hard he tries to be a badass that he is really a softie) and slid the mug across the bench.

Remus then turned back around smirking at him, walking towards the fridge for the milk."What's the time? When do you have to start the live?" Remus asked innocently pouring milk into his mug.

"Ummm" Sirius replied quickly checking his watch for the time." it's 3:28. I need to start the live at 3:30 and I should be out here at least by 4:00." He said as he glanced up at his boyfriend raising his coffee to his mouth to take a sip.

Remus stared at him blankly while Sirius glanced around the room wondering why Remus was looking at him like that. (he usually looked at him another way)

"It's 3:30!!! Get in there!! I'll start cooking and, I promise to attempt to not burn the kitchen down. I remember what happened last time." He added as Sirius opened his mouth to interject.

Sirius closed his mouth and smiled, nodding and turning back around to run into the pair's bedroom.

"Hey! I think you forgot something!" Remus cried out as soon he had left the room.

At the sound of his voice, Sirius poked his head back into the doorway with a curious expression on his face.

Keeping that expression on his face, he crept forward towards a visibly confused Remus. Then, he crept up next to him and pecked a kiss on his temple. And then, promptly, ran away.

Remus stood frozen for about 2 seconds before yelling back,

"No! Your coffee!"

"Merlin. No respect." He muttered.

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

Sirius plunked himself down on the end of the couple's bed, leaning forward and switching the camera on.

He waited for a few seconds, letting people on first before saying,

"Hey, guys welcome to my live QandA and before anyone asks, no Prongs is not here today. He has decided to be a little shit and hang out with his kid. You guys remember Harry."

Sirius smiled at the thought of Harry, (and of course, insulting James.

He peered at the screen and smirked when he saw a comment from the man in question expressing his outrage for the name-calling.

Smiling he sat back again and spoke,

"Ok so I'm going to let you guys into the live one at a time to ask one question, (it's on Instagram) so start requesting!"

Sirius had had about 25 questions before he got to the one he was looking for. And he had been asked some odd questions to. One girl who came on the live was wearing such revelling clothes that she basically had a bikini on. And it gets worse.

Her question was whether or not he could take his shirt off. As soon as she had finished speaking, Padfoot heard a loud indignant and outraged cry coming from the kitchen. He turned his head towards the sound chuckling at Moonys antics.

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT MINDY! KICK HER OF THE DAMM LIVE SIRIUS!!"

He was still smiling as he turned back around, but it vanished as soon as he saw the screen again. Immediately, like a reflex, he leaned forward and kicked her off the live. He could sense Remus's sigh of relief.

He then proceeded to make a speech about not doing that. Around 10 minutes after that a girl with glasses and a notepad came on who Sirius vaguely recognised as Evie from Hogwarts.

"Hi there kiddo, what's your question," Sirius asked almost dreading what was coming up.

"Hi Mr Black I was just wondering-"

"Oh no. No Mr, please. Makes me feel old. Just call me Sirius." He insisted holding a hand up to the camera.

"Oh ok." She replied looking a little bit surprised.

"Well my name is Evie Johnson, and I go to Hogwarts Secondary School. I believe that you went there as well. Oh no that's not my question"

She added as Sirius opened his mouth.

"And when you were there, according to my research, your group of friends was James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin. Now as I'm sure you know Mr Lupin is a teacher at Hogwarts, a history teacher and rumours have been flowing around the school-"

"You want to know if Remus and I are dating," Sirius smirked.

"Well yes," Evie said looking a bit disgruntled at being interrupted. A giddy feeling erupted in Sirius's stomach as he answered,

"Well how about I show you. Then you can decide for yourself."

Sirius got up and walked out to the kitchen grabbing the camera as he went.

"Ok, Evie I'm going to disconnect you from the live that was a lovely question, I was honestly hoping for it. Ok! guys, my boyfriend is in the kitchen attempting to make dinner, ("last time he tried he almost burned down the kitchen and he definitely destroyed his eyebrows.") and I or we, I guess, are going to surprise him."

This next bit is from a viewers perspective.

Sirius placed the camera in front of the T.V and stuck his thumbs up at the camera before standing up and rubbing his hands together.

Behind him was the kitchen where a man in his early 30s was cooking with his back to the camera.

Oliver looked at the screen, and read the comments as Sirius prepared to walk over to the mystery man who was supposedly his idols boyfriend.

- oh my god i'm so jealous I wonder who it is

- I bet 50 pounds that its Mr Lupin

- OH MY GOD IM ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT JUST TELL US

Oliver of course had no idea who this Mr lupin was. He didn't go to Hogmarts Secondary School or whatever it was called. But he was still extremely curious to know.

The man turned around and walked to the front of the counter and turned to face the camera side-on, continuing to cook, seemingly not noticing Sirius and the camera.

As soon as the mystery man's face was revealed to the camera the live was flooded with comments such as:

- HOLY SHIT ITS MR LUPIN

- THAT'S MY HISTORY TEACHER IDIOTS

-OMG CALLED IT!

They were basically all along those lines. The man continued to cook, somehow oblivious to the chaotic live over here.

Sirius walked up behind the man and wrapped his arms around his waist. Immediately the man smiled and leaned back into Sirius.

Oliver had to admit they were quite cute.

Then Sirius leaned forward a little bit more and whispered something in his ear. The man, (supposedly Remus Lupin,) smiled and leaned into him more.

To Oliver, it looked like they were really in love, and if that really is Remus Lupin, then they would have been in love for a long time.

He glanced back down at the comments and saw that the theme of them hadn't changed. People were still expressing their shock.

Somehow.

When he looked back up at the couple he saw Sirius laughed at something that his boyfriend had said.

Remus then turned around and wrapped his arms around Sirius's neck, and Sirius wrapped his arms around his waist.

Sirius closed the distance between them and kissed him softly as Remus melted into the kiss. Remus arms tightened around Padfoots neck, and Sirius smiled into the kiss.

The theme of the comments had changed into both awwwww and ewwwww apparently some of Mr Lupins students don't really want to see him making out with his boyfriend.

Suddenly the screen went black and the live ended.

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

Remus went back to work the next day feeling both nervous and excited. Excited, because for the first time since Sirius started his YouTube channel, he didn't have to hide who he was dating. (I mean he didn't usually tell them, but we all know Remus. He doesn't like lying.)

And nervous because, well I think that's obvious. He had gotten several emails from his students in multiple classes, plus they had also posted something to Google Classroom.

Remus had made sure to get to the school early to avoid any unwanted attention from students in the schoolyard. He walked straight through the school, into the classroom, only pausing to wave or say hello to specific teachers.

When he reached his room, he finished setting up the lesson and was writing the date on the board when a student came into the classroom. He didn't see who it was, they disappeared out of his view before he had a chance to see their face. He finished writing the date up and turned around saying

"Hello, welcome back. If you just take a seat the bell will be going soon-"

In front of his desk stood a stony-faced Mindy, with her posse behind her.

"Can I help you with something Ms More?"

"Yes, I believe you can sir." She replied. "Why didn't you tell us that you are dating Sirius Black??" She demanded, leaning slightly towards him accusatorially.

Remus raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Well given the fact that is my personal business I really didn't see the need," Remus replied calmly as he sat down on his desk.

"But sir that's not fair. I mean we have a right to know and not find out on some live video-"

"And why is my life and who I'm dating any concern of yours?" Remus said fiercely, cutting her off and standing back up and placing his hands on the desk looking down at the teen.

Mindy immediately backed of a flash of regret shooting across her face.

"Oh no sir I didn't mean it like that-"

"Really Mindy. Then I wonder how you meant because I don't see how else that could be taken."

Before Mindy could open her mouth to defend her self, Remus snapped out:

"Enough. Thats detention. Go sit down."

When Mindy opened her mouth to complain, Remus held up his finger as if saying wait for it, then suddenly the ear-splitting bell reverberated through the walls and Mindy shut her mouth and sat down.

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

When he finally got his class to sit down and shut up, he started his lesson on the suffragette movement. (Because we all know that Remus is a massive feminist,) However halfway through, he noticed that the entire class was either talking or giggling at their computer screens. So, continuing to talk about the suffragettes, he walked up the side row, and stood behind one student who was staring at their laptop. Except they weren't staring at their laptop. they had their phone out, and were re-watching Sirius's live from Saturday.

Sighing, Remus leaned forward and snatched the phone out of the kids hands, saying on the way back to the front of the class,

"You can have this back later."

"Now," Remus announced as he leaned on the back of his desk facing the front of the class, "As it is very clear that none of you are focusing, you can all ask 15 questions."

No one moved, they just all stared at him blankly.

Remus sighed and then added, "personal questions allowed."

Exactly 15 hands shot up.

Surprised, Remus hesitated before choosing a girl in the second row named Jessie.

"Jessie." Remus said pointing at her to continue.

Putting her hand down she asked, "Sir, are you really dating Sirius Black?"

Remus breathed out a laugh, and replied with the words he never thought that he would say.

"Yes. I am."

[filterjeons]

he loves me not | jhs

“did you ever fall in love with me?”

✦ pairing: jung hoseok x reader

✦ summary: he was the man who caught your eye ever since he smacked your face with a soccer ball in elementary. you loved him for over a decade....but you can’t find yourself to confess.

✦ rating: M, not suitable for minors

✦ genre: smut, i’ll let you guys find out what the other genre is 😏

✦ word count: 4.9k

✦ warnings: college au, soft dom!hoseok, fingering, oral, dirty talk, multiple orgasms, get ready for an emotional ride <3

He loves me, he loves me not…

Those were the same words that you kept repeating for a few days now, a flower representing if the man you have a crush on likes you back. To any other person, it seems stupid that a flower will judge your love life but you heartily disagree. Flowers and love have always been associated with one another and from a viewpoint, it makes sense on why picking petals off of flowers can determine your fate with the person you love. 

Jung Hoseok. You two knew each other but at the same time you didn’t. The first time you two caught each other’s eyes was during elementary school. He was one of the popular kids: with his cheery smile, bubbly personality, and warm aura, nearly everyone became friends with him. You, on the other hand, were more of a wallflower. You only had a few close friends and you spent your time reading books instead of playing games. Some people call you boring but who cares about them. 

During recess in 1st grade, you decided to read in the middle of the field. It seemed ideal, the grass was green and the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. There wasn’t even a cloud in sight. All of a sudden, a soccer ball came speeding towards you and hit you straight-up in the head. You couldn’t remember what happened but when you opened your eyes, you saw a worried Hoseok hovering face-to-face on top of you in the nurse’s room.

“Y/N-ah! You’re okay! I’m so so sorry that I hurt you! I should’ve known you were there.” 

“It’s okay. Uh, my head kind of hurts…”

“I’ll go get some ice for you!” When he passed the “ice bag” (which was basically a frozen paper towel), you felt a peculiar feeling. You didn’t know why but there were sparks when you grabbed the ice bag from him. What was it? Eventually, he had to leave for his classroom but when you were free to leave the nurse’s room, he offered to walk you to class. By then, you figured out what that feeling was. And it became a 12-year crush on the boy who hit you with a soccer ball. 

Like some coincidence, both of you attended the same college together. You didn’t expect to see anyone from your school during your freshman orientation but when you saw the familiar sunshine smile, a wave of relief and fear washed over you.

Hoseok being the extrovert that he is made friends with nearly the whole campus, is in a sorority, and hosts the biggest parties the university has ever seen. You continued to be the loner that you were but luckily you found a close friend in Nayeon. 

As you and Nayeon were strolling across campus, you saw Hoseok and his girlfriend talking and chattering with Starbucks in their hands. You felt a pit of jealousy in your stomach, internally yelling at yourself for not having the guts to tell him how you truly feel. 

However, you expected him to go out with someone. He can’t stay single forever just for you because he barely knows you and your feelings. If he did, then you would move to another state out of embarrassment. 

“Y/N, stop looking otherwise he’s going to think that you’re creepy!” Nayeon giggled, pushing you away from the couple. “Why won’t you ever talk to him?” “I can’t. We didn’t really interact during high school.” “Look, college is about starting a new life. Come on, you’re 18 now! You’re an adult! Don’t let your fears get in the way of having fun!” “Besides, they’re dating!”

“So? You can be friends with him!”

“Not now, I have class. I’ll see you around!” You made way inside the building and into your sociology class, the professor setting up his computer for a lecture. You didn’t know a lot of people here and the person who sat next to you dropped out. 

All of a sudden, a guy with rainbow-styled clothes and a vibrant aura entered, giving a high-five to the professor and waving to your classmates. Your eyes widened, the man who has been invading your thoughts is actually in the same class with you. 

Hoseok scanned the room for a place to sit, his face brightening when he saw an empty seat next to you. Your heart started to race, he’s actually going to sit next to you! “Oh, Y/N! I didn’t know you were in this class! I just got moved here and I’m so glad I found someone I know!” 

“Yeah, uh, hi. I thought you were gonna sit with someone else.”

“Nah, actually I wanted to talk to you ever since orientation but I never saw you around. However, I saw you walking by and staring at me and Julia.” Oh, that’s his girlfriend’s name. Interesting. 

“Heh...no..you didn’t see anything!” “You’re cute. I hope we have more classes together!” After everyone has settled in their seats, the professor started going on about the lesson but you couldn’t care less about what he had to say. The way Hoseok was so invested in the powerpoint but occasionally stopped to play games was more intriguing than whatever was going on. No, he must think you’re crazy. You snapped out of it and attempted to focus on the screen. 

“From this week’s lesson, I am going to assign you all a project. Your will be grouped by pairs and they will be determined by the place you’re sitting in right now.” You internally counted down the pair of seats from the row you’re in and sure enough, you’re paired with Hoseok. He smiled at you, holding your hands excitedly. You obviously reciprocate the feeling but your head didn’t let you show it. 

“Yay! We’re going to be doing our project together! This is going to be so fun!” You smiled and nodded, trying to come up with things to say but your mind was blank.

“W-wait, would your girlfriend be okay?” Wow Y/N, that’s the first thing that you say? Way to get your man. 

“No, I think she’ll be chill. Besides, you’re like one of my childhood friends so it’s cool.” At least you’re a friend in his eyes. 

The session ended 15 minutes later and you couldn’t wait to get out. As you quickly stuffed your books and laptop in your bag, Hoseok tossed a little airplane at your head. 

“That’s my number if you want to talk about the project and...other stuff. If you’re free tomorrow, do you wanna get started? There’s a party I want to go to at the end of the week and I want to get this out of the way.” “Uh, sure. I’ll text you later,” you said shyly, zipping your bag up and exiting the room. You felt your body sweat and your heart pound rapidly. Your brain still can’t wrap around the fact that Hoseok sits next to you and you will be working on a project together.

“Hey, what’s up? You look like you just got out of a haunted house,” Nayeon said as you approached the familiar bench where the two of you always sat. 

“Hoseok just transferred to my class, he sits next to me, and we’re doing a project together!” “Ooh, go get your man!” 

“No no, this is bad! I always act so weird around him! Plus he wants us to work on it tomorrow! What should I do?” “First, relax. Take a deep breath,” Nayeon instructed, placing her hands on your shoulders as you slowed down your breathing. “Next, don’t worry about a thing. Try to push aside your feelings for him and talk to him as you would with another person.” “Only he’s my crush for about 12 years!” 

“So? I know it must be awkward due to your feelings for him but if you act awkward, then you wouldn’t be close to him. And you want that, do you?” “Yeah…” “You got this, don’t worry!” Nayeon’s words gave you some hope and encouragement, which made you feel better. She was right, you can’t keep acting this way for long. Even though he was dating someone else, at least you’ll have him close as a friend, right? 

You never told anybody this but you secretly kept a daisy and you picked off the petals every day. It was down to four petals and you decided to take two off.

He loves me, he loves me not. 

However you didn’t want it to end with a negative note so you picked one last petal off. 

He loves me.  

The next day came and you were sitting at a local cafe, waiting for Hoseok to arrive. Since you arrived a few minutes early, you had enough time to go over what you want to say and if you look good enough. 

Surprisingly, he came on time and even gave you a mini hug. You watched as he placed his bags on the ground and pulled out his laptop. 

“Hi Y/N! I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.” “N-no, not at all! You came on time actually!” “Good, well do you want to order anything at first?” “Sure, I really want coffee right now!” As you two waited in line, you shyly gazed over at Hoseok who shined brighter than any sun in the world. You accidentally brushed his hand with yours, causing him to laugh. 

“How come we didn’t talk much throughout high school? I can’t remember the last time I really talked to you except yesterday.” Hoseok asked, scanning the menu for a drink he’d like. “I don’t know, I guess we had different classes and you were more popular than me…” “But I would’ve been friends with you no matter what.” 

“Would you? I’m not exactly the most popular girl in school.” “Yeah. You seem chill and it���s nice having a reserved friend against all my loud and hyper ones. I hope you take it as a compliment.” “Uh, I do. What are you gonna get?” “I’ll have a vanilla latte. It’s a classic but it’s iconic at the same time.” “I’ll get what you’re getting.” You watched him order and talk casually to the cashier, a common thing you’re scared of doing. It must be nice dating him, he sounds like the guy who can be the life of the party but still has an eye for you. 

“Do you want me to pay for my-” “No, I shouldn’t have to make you pay. I mean they say the gentleman pays for the first study date,” he replied, swiping his credit card. Oh my god did he just say-

A few minutes later, the cashier gives you your drinks with your name scrabbled on the cupsleeve. You and Hoseok grabbed them at the same time, accidentally bumping together. You blushed at the proximity, jumping back with fear. Geez, why are you acting like this? You really are a fool. 

An hour later and both of you made decent progress on your projects. Hoseok decided to take a break and scroll through his Instagram while you worked on some slides. 

“Hey, Y/N, do I follow you on Insta?” “Uh, I’m not sure. I think so?” He checked his phone again, a frown on his normally joyful face. “No I don't. What’s your username?” “I’ll type it in for you.” 

He nodded and passed you his phone. You quickly typed your user, hit the follow button, and went back to his profile. He had a lot of followers due to his popularity and personality, which shocks you considering that you’ve never met someone with over 5,000 followers. 

“Y/N, ever since I saw you yesterday I wanted to get to know you. I feel bad that we barely interacted throughout high school and I want to make up for that. So just hit me with what you got.” He leaned forward, interested in hearing what you have to say. 

Your mind immediately stopped working as you quickly tried to come up with an interesting conversation. And the only event you could think of was the time where he hit you with a soccer ball in elementary school. 

“Actually Hoseok, we have known each other since we were 1st graders.”

“Really? Were you in my class back then? God, I can’t even remember what I had for lunch yesterday but you manage to remember that.” “Yeah, there was a time when I was reading out in the middle of the soccer field. I was the perfect target to be hit which is what you did. I don’t remember what happened after the ball smacked me in the face but when I woke up, I saw you waiting for me. You offered to give me ice and walk me back to class when my headache stopped. We barely saw each other after that but that was still one of the most significant moments in my life.” “Oh yeah, I still feel bad that I did that-” You took a deep breath, trying to work up the nerve to say what you’ve always wanted to say to him. It’s now or never, just do it! 

“Hoseok, ever since that day, I’ve loved you since.” Your words shocked him, his mouth dropping open and his eyes the size of saucers. He tried to comprehend what you said when all of a sudden, you burst into tears. 

You shouldn’t have said it, it was too soon. Your vision blurry of tears, you stuffed all your stuff in your bag and ran out of the cafe. 

“Wait, Y/N! Wait! Hold on, we need to talk about this!” “I’m sorry Hoseok, I shouldn’t have-” “No, this is important! Y/N, look at me!” He spun you around and forced you to look at his face. You tried to blink away your tears and he quickly flicked them away. 

“Y/N, are your feelings true? Did you love me for that long?” 

You nodded slowly, tears threatening to spill from your eyes again. It was so scary waiting for him to either reciprocate those feelings or walk away. 

All of a sudden, he gave you a kiss. And it wasn’t like any other peck, it was one full of want and passion. He quickly pulled away and gave you a tight hug. 

“Thank you for telling me how you feel. And I like you back.” 

He broke the hug and wrapped an arm around your shoulder as you two walked towards campus. You felt your heart slowly relax, he likes you as well! Maybe all that pining and worry was for nothing! “Y/N, it’s getting dark so do you want to stay at my dorm? I don’t have a roommate so it’s okay,” he said, heading the opposite direction from the path that leads to your dorms. 

“Sure thing. It’s okay as well.” You were totally freaking out inside, you’re going INSIDE his dorm. After a few minutes, he opened the door and you carefully walked in, your nose wrinkling a bit. Iwas messy due to the overflowing trash bags full of takeout and beer bottles but overall it wasn’t too bad. You hung your bag on a random coat stand full of jackets and baseball caps. There was a blanket and a pillow on his couch where you could possibly stay. 

“Sorry if it doesn’t look too appealing, I’m kind of lazy to clean my room,” he sighed, stuffing the full bags in a random corner. You shook your head, carefully sitting down on his couch. Hoseok sat down next to you, loosely laying his hand around your shoulders. 

“So, what do you want to do Y/N?” “I’m not sure. Is it bad that I want to stay like this?” “No, I do too.” He moved closer to you, your bodies touching and you felt heat rise up to your cheeks. You lied down on your back and you felt his presence above you as he slowly leaned closer to you. “Do you want to do this?” You couldn’t think of the right words to say, were you really about to do it with your crush? It’s now or never, Y/N. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. 

“It’s okay, I want to do it. But I’m not experienced in this type of stuff,” you confessed.

“Then I’ll teach you. I’ll go slow with you, I promise.” He kissed you again, the same feeling like the one outside. It was slow and romantic, just the way you imagined. He probed his tongue in front of your mouth, asking for entrance to which you let him in. Hoseok started to remove your T-shirt but stopped immediately to ask for your permission.

“Are you sure this is okay with you?” “Yes, I promise. I’ve always wanted this to be with you.” “Good. I’ll make you feel so good.” He pulled off the shirt and carefully took off your white bra, a mundane action that made you feel butterflies. After everything was taken off, you immediately covered your chest. You weren’t used to being exposed to someone like this, much less the guy you love. 

“Don’t worry baby, you look beautiful. I promise,” Hoseok assured, gently removing your arms. He latched his mouth on one of your nipples, sucking on them feverishly. You let out a loud moan before biting your lip to stifle them. What if someone was there? “Don’t hide those moans for me, baby girl. I want to hear them,” he murmured, his mouth still on your breast. After hearing his words, you started to let out a series of moans and whimpers. While his mouth was on one, he was using his fingers to play with your nipple and tug on it a bit, a loud whine escaping your mouth.

“Please…” “Aww, does it hurt, little girl?” You shook your head as he slowly made his way over to your jeans, cupping your covered heat. You could feel yourself become more wet since no one has ever been near that area before and you wanted him to touch you more. Hoseok hastily pulled off your jeans and underwear, throwing them off to the side. 

You felt embarrassed that you were completely bare in front of your crush and you wondered if it was too soon to back out of this. But what’s done is done and you’ve wanted him to see you like this for a long time so you decided to have some confidence. That’s what Nayeon told you, right?

“Did you ever have something in you?” 

“No, this is my first time ever doing this. I’m kind of worried.” “It’s okay, I’ll help you. Now, I’m going to do a bit of foreplay to get you ready for my dick. It’s basically like warm-ups before the actual thing. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt.” You felt his fingers linger near your entrance and you nodded at him to enter. He suddenly purged a slender finger inside you as you let out a moan, him slowly thrusting to make you comfortable. 

“You look so cute, taking my finger like it’s my cock. I don’t even know if you’re ready to even take it.” “I am! I’m ready! Please, keep moving!” You felt a wave of confidence overcome you, surprising yourself and Hoseok. He turned his shocked expression into a smirk, curling his finger and adding another one inside you. 

He was stretching your walls out well to later accommodate his dick, making scissoring motions inside and finding your g-spot. All of this pleasure was too much for you as you held onto Hoseok’s arms and fed his ego with mewls and whines. You couldn’t form a single word due to the pleasure he was giving you, even though it was only two fingers. 

“Ah, ah, Hoseok, I-” He suddenly adds a third finger and keeps thrusting quickly, his palm rubbing your clit. His palm was quickly replaced by his mouth as he sucked on it harshly. 

“You gonna be a good girl and cum for the first time? Are you close?” he teases. 

“Oh my god, oh, Hoseok…” You felt tiny beads of sweat drip down your forehead from the heat and pressure, your walls tightening around his long fingers. 

You felt a knot in your stomach which you assumed that your orgasm was coming soon. Hoseok could also tell and kept going faster, making fast come-here motions and playing around with your clit. 

“You’re close now, are you? Such a good girl as I stretch your tiny pussy out for my big dick. That’s right baby girl, cum for me now. Cum all over my fingers and face.” His words were your breaking point as you felt that knot snap, your orgasm arriving. You moan out Hoseok’s name as he stares at your cum flow out of your system. He sucked on his fingers before taking some of your juices and bringing it to your mouth. You suck on them wantonly, causing Hoseok’s dick to twitch. Maybe someday you can suck him off with your cute mouth.

“Good girl, you did so well baby,” he praises, making your stomach have butterflies from his words. You watch as he strips himself to his boxers, your eyes widening on what could be under them. He palms his cock for a bit, staring into your eyes seductively. 

“Are you ready for this?” You nodded rapidly, wanting to have his dick inside you. He slowly pulled down his boxers and his cock immediately sprang up, looking erect and large. You gulped at what’s going to enter you, Hoseok smirking at your reaction. 

“Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay. I’ll go slow at first, I promise,” he assured, the tip of his cock slightly brushing against your pussy. 

You braced yourself for him to enter you, whining as you clenched around his length. 

“Oh my fucking god, you’re so tight. You’re doing well baby,” he groaned, slowly pulling out and pushing in. You found yourself at a nice pace but after a while, you signalled him to go faster. This is really it, you’re going to be losing your virginity to him! He started to ram into you quickly, his dick filling you up and hitting many different nerves inside. You clawed on his back, trying to keep yourself steady from the insane pace he was going at. 

“Look at you trying to take my cock, such a cutie,” he coos, toying around with your breasts again. You let out a mewl at his words, lewd sounds filling the room. Your walls started to clench around him tightly causing Hoseok to let out low grunts and moans. 

The now familiar feeling of your orgasm started to make its way again, the knot returning as you approach it for the second time. Hoseok could tell that you were close as well with the way your cunt was tightening around his dick.

“You going to cum again, baby? That’s right, make a mess on my big dick,” he grunts, slowly reaching his own high as well. 

You let out a moan as your juices came pouring down again, your whole body shaking and your cunt sensitive from cumming twice. Little white stars started to appear in your vision from how much pleasure you had. Hoseok started to thrust faster and suddenly pulled out, stroking his length to release all of his seed onto your stomach. After it stopped spurting out, he took a minute to catch his breath and leaned down to kiss you on the lips. 

“How was it, sweetie? Was it okay?” he asked, caressing your cheek.

“I-it was great. Thank you so much, I didn’t expect it to be like this.” “I’m going to get a towel to clean you up and some clothes. I’ll be right back,” he smiled, leaving the living room for a bit. 

You stared at the ceiling, thinking about what you’ve done with him. Even though many people your age think of sex as just a way to get pleasure, it meant a lot to you because you were giving your body and trust to a person. Obviously, Hoseok was very special to you and you were grateful that it was him who took away your virginity. You loved him enough to let yourself be exposed to you and you knew that he must’ve had sex with other girls but did he feel something special with you? Was it only you who were feeling this way. 

Hoseok came back dressed in a T-shirt and shorts and in his hand was another T-shirt and a towel. He carefully wiped off the cum that landed onto your stomach and thighs, making you get goosebumps from the touch. You put on the T-shirt he gave you, the bottom of it reaching your thighs. 

“So am I going to stay here for the night?” “Of course! Why would I let you go back home at this hour?” “Uh, am I going to sleep on the couch?” “Hell no, it’s too stained for you to sleep there. You can sleep in my bedroom with me.” 

You felt your heart beat faster from the thought of sleeping next to him. He picked you up bridal style since you were too sore to walk and laid you down on his bed. Since it was late and there wasn’t anything you needed to do, you decided to get ready to go to bed. 

Hoseok watches you go to sleep and decides to join you. He stares at the ceiling, thinking about what he did with you. It was nice seeing his childhood friend again and he definitely enjoyed having sex with you but he felt different after. When you confessed your feelings for him at the cafe, his heart felt relieved for some reason. It was different than when his exes and current girlfriend confessed. 

Do I love Y/N? 

He leans over to you and lightly strokes your hair, finding you adorable. He wishes he found you sooner since that day in elementary school, he wishes he asked you out earlier. Maybe tomorrow he could ask you to be his girlfriend. But that would mean he’s cheating and he was never a big fan of breaking someone’s heart just to be with another person. It made him less of a person and all of a sudden, he felt guilty about what he did today.

You were such a sweet person and he didn’t want to harm you by rejecting your feelings...but he doesn’t want to break the trust of a person just because you were a childhood friend. 

Hoseok’s heart ached as he decided to let you go due to the guilt of cheating on his girlfriend, even though he would much rather have you here beside him. 

The next morning, you found yourself awake with Hoseok sitting next to you. You smiled as you remembered what happened yesterday, feeling better than ever. 

“Good morning, Hoseok!”

“Ah, good morning, Y/N!” “Do you want anything for breakfast?” “Listen Y/N, I need to talk to you about something. It’s important so please listen. Uh, yesterday shouldn’t have happened and I feel like you shouldn’t have slept with me.” 

“Wait, why?” “Do you remember that I have a girlfriend?” “Did you break up with her?” “No...so that means I cheated on her.” 

You felt your heart break as Hoseok avoided eye contact with you. Your first time was with someone who had a girlfriend and he cheated on her with you. 

“You’re right. This shouldn’t have happened. Why was I stupid enough to let you take my virginity?” “I’m so sorry, Y/N. I don’t think we can see each other anymore.” You felt hot tears drip down your cheeks, feeling embarrassed and foolish. The man you loved took your virginity but it meant nothing. It was just a one-night stand. 

“I’m going to go now, I don’t feel comfortable here. But I have a question, you know how much I loved you for over a decade. How much that night meant to me and how much you mean to me. Did you ever feel the same way? Did you ever feel something between us during that time?” 

You looked at Hoseok’s face, scanning to see if there’s any emotion. He looked into your eyes but he shook his head. Hoseok desperately wanted to say yes but he just couldn’t. He couldn’t hurt someone else for you.

“N-no, it meant nothing to me. I guess it was just a one-time thing. This shouldn’t have happened, I’m sorry that I never told you before.” 

You let out a sob as you made your way out of his bedroom, grabbing your bag and putting on your shoes so you can leave. You looked back to see if Hoseok followed you but he still remained in his room. With your heart torn into pieces, you trudged out of his dorm without a final goodbye from him. 

It’s been a few hours since you and Hoseok saw each other. Luckily, you didn’t have class together but you stared at him talking with his girlfriend like nothing never happened. He locked eyes with you and there was an intense connection for a moment but you broke it since that’ll never happen again. 

You pulled out the flower which only had a petal remaining. Even though flowers don’t accurately predict your love life, this one knows what will happen between you and Hoseok. You thought he loved you back but it turned out to be nothing. A tear fell out of your eye as you pulled out the last petal, the answer evident from the now-lifeless stem. 

He loves me not. 

a/n: hope you guys don’t hate me too much over the ending! love y’all <3

[writingsfromhome]

Plus a Little Extra I

Part 2 / Part 3/ Part 4

A/N: The YA reader in me can’t stop writing YA Harry so here’s another high school fic, Harry’s your bffl but just as he gets into a relationship you realise there’s some more-than-friends feelings between you two. But it might be too late. Part 1 of 3 maybe?

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

I was in love with my best friend and there was nothing I could do about it.

I know, it sounded like a lame cliche. But this cliche was painful and I had to live it everyday, watch him walk up to his girlfriend and kiss her for everyone in the hallways to see. And then third-wheel them all the way to homeroom.

It was another Monday, painful and boring as usual, and I wait in the parking lot for Harry to finish parking his car before he hops out, nearly forgetting his backpack.

“It surprises me that thing still runs,” I look at his car in pity. “You really should just let it go already.”

“For your information,” Harry pushes me. “My car is a she and I will love her for as long as she keeps giving.”

“That’s what he said,” I roll my eyes as we walk into the double doors of high school. “Men.”

“I meant about my car,” Harry tries to clarify but I keep teasing.

“Uh-huh, hey look there’s May, should I tell her what you just told me about how you treat your women.”

“That big mouth is going to get you in trouble one day,” Harry wags his finger at me. My heart drops as his girlfriend May approaches and kisses his cheek. He immediately responds to her, pulling her in for a kiss.

I drag my eyes away, “See you kids later.”

As cool as I tried to make myself appear, I felt like dying inside. Seeing Harry with someone else suckerpunched me every time.

And it really isn’t what you think, it’s not like I’d harbored a secret crush and didn’t have the balls to ask him out. I’d only realised I had a crush on Harry near the end of the summer and by September he’d already started dating her.

Harry and I were best friends since we were seven, and even though we ran in different circles in high school, we managed to remain just as tight. I always thought he would be my best friend forever. Nothing else. But everything had changed one warm evening last August...

Two Months Ago

“Who do you have homeroom with?” Harry asks. I just got off my shift at a music store I worked at part time. Harry sometimes walked me home and waited for me to change so we could hang out in the evening. Usually we stayed in and watched The Office or Friends, sometimes we went to parties.

“Mr. Lee,” I groan. Schedules had just been released that morning.

“Really?” Harry jumps in front of me and walks backwards. “I’ve got him too!”

We do a mini-celebration dance on the sidewalk as we realise we had two other classes with each other. Maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad if Harry was by my side. Partners in crime.

“Partners in crime again,” Harry reads my mind. “It’ll be like middle school all over again.”

“Except there’s no way you’re copying any of my homework!”

“I can be persuasive when the time comes. I’m not worrying.”

“And I can be stubborn when the time comes!” I stick my tongue out at him as we reach my house.

“I know that all too well.”

I give Harry the finger and he makes himself comfortable in my room while I freshen up.

***

“How do you know her again?” I ask Harry as we make our way to the bus to take us to a house party he’d been invited too.

“She was in my biology class,” Harry shrugs. “She sent a dm on Instagram and said I should come with friends.”

“You know she meant um, male friends?”

“Yeah...?” Harry looks over with a confused face and I push him away from me. He laughs, “You’re close enough.”

“So not what a girl wants to hear.”

We end up talking about the upcoming school year all the way to the party. It was in a nice part of town; a pool party because whoever had invited Harry had money for a built-in pool to fit however many people were here. With the cars parked around the block...a lot. As soon as we walk in, people assault Harry and I wander away to find people I knew. This was a common occurence-we would find each other eventually.

I spot a few of my friends and we get to talking.

“It’s May’s place,” one of my friends says. “Like May Lemont?”

“The one that says every french word with that fake accent?” My other friend scrunchles her nose.

“Yeah like we get it, your dad’s French.”

“She’s never even lived in France.”

I’d only shared a couple classes with May, didn’t know her enough to share in the gossip so I excuse myself to get a drink.

“Drinking alone?” A voice asks. My heart skips a beat, I’d know that voice anywhere. James, my childhood crush, stood on the other side of the island.

“I’m going back to my friends.” Stupid thing to say-that’s not how you flirt!

“Can I suggest a counter offer?” I raise my eyebrow at James’ question and he walks closer to me. “We take our drinks into the pool and get to know each other.”

This is...kinda random, I think. No, I accidentally say out loud. Shit!

But James just laughs. “A little birdy told me you were looking for me?”

I stay silent, who would have told him that? Harry? They were on the same football team but he swore he wouldn’t say anything to James about my crush. I was going to kill him!

“Right...well why not!” I rush out back and holy cow, dozens of my classmates crowd the wide space. May’s parents must be really well off.

I spot Harry talking to a group of his people, May lingering nearby. I consider going up to her but James calls me over and I stand by the pool.

“Are you not coming in?” He asks.

I feel self conscious as I take my denim shorts off and reveal the bottom half of my one piece. This was James. Here. Watching me-quite intensely. Inviting me to be in the pool with him! Miracles did come true!

We float around with our drinks, splash each other and he lays it on heavy with the flirting. We eventually find a float that I sit on but he just leans on it.

“Kind of like Jack and Rose isn’t it?” James smiles, his dimples are deep enough to hold the pool we’re in.

“There’s plenty of room on this door,” I gesture to the empty space beside me.

“I’ll take the hero’s end,” James grins. “It’s more sexy isn’t it?”

“Sexy is staying alive-“

“Incoming!” Someone shouts from the other side and suddenly water shoots up around me. I blink and the float is nowhere around me as I sink into the pool.

I push my way up and spit out the water in my mouth, trying to catch my breath. I move the hair from my eyes to see who just disrupted my peace, deep down knowing who it was.

“Round two!”

My head is once again underwater but I’m slightly more prepared. I hold my breath and open my eyes to Harry’s sea green eyes mocking me as he kicks up but I grab his leg and pull him down before kicking away and up myself.

“Y/N you alright?” James asks when I surface. “Harry what’s the matter with you?”

“It’s okay,” I laugh. Harry could never go into a pool without pranking me somehow. “I’m alright. It’s just Harry being Harry.”

“Harry,” James says as Harry finally stops rubbing his eyes. “You’re wild.”

“James,” Harry goes in, slapping hands and slick chests. “You should join, dunk Y/N like-“

I push away, knowing what Harry was going to do. James locks eyes with me and we both have the same though, advancing on him and dunking him in ourselves. I laugh, my heart soaring as James looks at me as if really seeing me, finally. But then he goes under.

I splash Harry as he surfaces and accidentally splash the people behind him who in turn splash us and before we know it we’ve created a pool fight around us. More people jump into the pool to join in.

I can barely see and try to make it to safety but Harry makes it to me first and takes me down with him. When we surface, he’s mere inches away, his chest pumping as hard as mine.

His hand is around my back as we cling to the only safety in pool fights—the pool wall.

“Look what you’ve done,” Harry nods to the fight around us but he doesn’t take his eyes off of me. Not to look around at “what I’ve done” or see if we were in danger.

We’d been in this position before, Harry’s hands on some part of me and eyes locked. When we were trying to sneak out, arm wrestling to settle who was stronger, dancing at parties. But it never felt like this. Like his hand was spreading fire everywhere it touched and our eyes were decoding a language created right there between us.

“I should say you started it,” I lay my hand on his chest. I had no control over what I was doing. It’s just Harry, my head is shouting. My body pulses otherwise and I just wanted to get closer to Harry. I felt myself being pulled to him. I felt out of control.

“You’ve always been a troublemaker,” Harry mutters. And there, right there, his gaze falls to my lips and my heart is out of my chest and flopping like a fish in the water around us. I’d never thought of Harry like this, him and I. He was handsome-I wasn’t stupid. But he was my best friend. And this wasn’t supposed to happen...

My leg is yanked, hard, and I slip out of Harry’s arms. I manage a small breath before I’m underwater again, now staring at Harry’s knees. Someone pulls my arm away and I see it was James who had pulled me down. He winks at me and I probably looked dazed. I had no idea what was happening. Below or above water.

But James must have interpreted the dreamy look in my eye for him because he locks me into him and slowly presses his lips to mine. James. Kissing me. Underwater.

14 year old Y/N would be faint with pure excitement right now. And I can’t deny the attraction so I close my eyes and kiss him back. It was what I always wanted. And it was romantic and so perfect. Except for the part where I turn away to go up for air and catch Harry swimming back to the surface. He’d seen us.

What had I gotten myself into now.

I call Harry’s name when I surface but it was like he’d sprinted away because he’s too far away to hear.

“Y/N?” James surfaces beside me. “Are you okay? You’re shivering.”

“I-“ I realise I was. The adrenaline was too much, and now I was crashing with the realisation that something between Harry and I had just been changed. Maybe forever. “I just need to get out of the water, I’ll meet you back here.”

I pull myself out and walk into the house clutching my shorts, no longer conscious of my one-piece. I needed to find Harry, ask if we were on the same page because it felt like we’d suddenly split off into two separate series that didn’t feature one another. And I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why.

He’s nowhere to be found though, so I find an empty washroom and lock myself in it. I sit at the edge of the bathtub and fish my phone out to see if Harry messaged but 0 notifications.

I face myself in the mirror. My usual criticism of my body doesn’t come, I can’t stop staring at my face-I’d kissed James today. My face splits into a grin. At least there was that.

***

“There you are,” James must have searched for me. I stayed locked in the tiny room for at least a half hour just sorting the evening in my head. I bump into him in the den and he immediately places his hands on my hips. I swallow the insecurity I felt and smile at him, wrapping my arms around him too.

“Here I am, kind of had an emergency sorry.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, it was more like a personal crisis. “Have you seen Harry?”

“Why?” James asks. I tilt my head, he almost sounded offended. And when I don’t answer he tell me, “I saw him outside.”

“Let’s go hang outside,” I slip my hand into his and flash a pretty smile. He relaxes and pulls me into a kiss, a gentle nudge, before leading me outside.

A group of people sit around an outdoor firepit. I spot Harry’s grin as he laughs at something one of his footbal friends say. He’s shirtless-something I’d seen countless of times, but the flicker of the fire reflected off the water droplets on his chest makes him look like the hot stud in a cheesy teen movie. I clear my head.

“James!” One of his friends calls out and he lets go of my hand to chest bump him. Or whatever.

Harry’s eyes follow the commotion and he sees me. I raise my eyebrows and he smiles, like nothing was wrong. Like I imagined the whole thing. But when his eyes flicker to James hand as it drapes over my shoulder again, his face falls ever so slightly. And I know I wasn’t crazy. Something did happen.

Someone else calls out to James and he leaves my side again. I decide to walk over to Harry but before I could take a step, May settles beside him and says something that makes him laugh. A small voice inside urges me to break it up but I ignore it. May invited Harry, they obviously knew each other. I was getting ahead of myself. It wasn’t like they were going to get together.

***

“What you thinking about?” James asks later that night. It was way past midnight, most of the party had gone home and the remaining stragglers surround the firepit that was burning just as bright as before. It was a lot of the football team, their girlfriends, and a group of seniors that usually stuck together.

“Nothing,” I lie. I was thinking about Harry’s arm around May’s shoulders and the blanket around both of them that she brought out a little while ago. It makes my chest feel like it was being squeezed in a vice. It was a confusing way to feel about my best friend in the whole world. Maybe I was being possessive but maybe...my mind shifts to the pool. James hand on my thigh brings me back to the present.

“You’re so quiet,” he says. I look at his hand and thread my fingers through his.

“I like watching the fire,” I say honestly. “It’s kind of mesmerizing.”

“Like you,” James turns in place so his knees bump into mine. I look up and he looks at me with open adoration. “I really like you Y/N.”

“I...really like you too James,” I say. “For a while actually.”

“I know. Me too,” James’ response surprises me. He laughs at my surprise. “I’ve seen you in school, you keep to your people but I always thought you were funny. When you put down Ricky in English class...”

“Oh right,” my cheeks burn when I remember. I’d been appalled when the teacher allowed Ricky to give his disgusting interpretation of the book we were reading. Everyone listened with eyes bulging and I’d called him a pig...and a few other things. I forgot James had been in that class.

“It’s cool! We all gave him shit at practice that day,” he nudges me. “You’re hard to miss.”

“So why did you just approach me today?”

“Well...like I said someone told me you-“

“Who?”

“Eh,” James looks around uncomfortably. “Okay, May told me you were crushing on me. I could never read you so I didn’t know-“

“Wait, like May who threw the party?” I ask. James nods and I glance over to her leaning her head on Harry’s shoulder. That bitch! Wait, I realise the only way she would’ve know was Harry. My rage at May quickly flips to hurt at Harry’s betrayal.

“Y/N?” James calls my name. “Is something wrong?”

“I just...don’t know how May knew that. I don’t talk to her.”

“Oh, probably Harry,” James says as if it were just as obvious to him. My hurt doubles. “May’s crazy about him, always shows up to our practices and games and I think she thought you and Harry were a couple or something. Since you guys spend so much time together. She only told me cuz I thought the same thing, I didn’t believe her when she said you had a cr-“

“You thought Harry and I were together?” I ask.

“Or into each other or something, you two are always sneaking off places.”

I try to wrap my head around it all. Is that how people saw us? Did Harry know?

“So anyway I was wondering if you’re free tomorrow?” James asks. “A few of us are going to the beach at six.”

“Oh, my shift ends at 6:30.” I glance at Harry again and back to James.

“We can catch up to them, I’ll pick you up. Just text me where you work. Here, I’ll put my number in.”

I get his number and try to act casual, trying to convince him and myself I was unfazed by all the new info but my mind races and my hurt twists its way around my body. Mostly, the lump in my throat makes a home there and doesn’t let me forget.

I couldn’t act normal for much longer so I tell James I was going to head home. He offers to walk me to the bus stop but I refuse. I needed to be alone. But as soon as I turn the corner of the street someone calls my name. Harry comes running down, out of breath.

“You didn’t even tell me you were leaving, I thought we were going home together?” Harry says when he catches up.

“You looked cozy with May,” I say casually. “I didn’t want to break it up.”

“James didn’t even offer to walk you home? It’s not safe this late. Let me grab my shirt just stay here.”

“He did but like I told him, I’m-“ Harry’s sprinting back before I can finish. My stomach turns, I didn’t want to ride back with him with all the unspoken words between us. But he was right, it was unsafe. So I wait.

“So. James?” Harry starts off as we wait for the bus. “Did you finally tell him you like him like I keep telling you to?”

“No.” I answer curtly. I didn’t want to get into it but he keeps pushing.

“But I saw he finally kissed you,” Harry nudges me. “You spent all night with him. You didn’t say anything?”

“I didn’t need to. Apparently he heard from someone I was crushing on him.” I don’t even look at Harry and he picks up on the accusation right away.

“Wait you don’t think I told him?” Harry asks. “I swore on my signed poster of Friends, don’t think I’m giving that up so easily.”

I roll my eyes so I wouldn’t crack a smile. But I remember how easily he gave up my trust, and with that the cursed tear falls onto my cheek. I wipe it away quickly but not before he sees.

“What is it? What aren’t you saying, Y/N? Did James do something to you?”

“No!” I shout. “He’s great, James is lovely. A gentleman. He told me May told him. And the only person who could have told May is...”

“Me,” Harry faces me, his eyes apologetic. “I swear Y/N I didn’t think she was actually going to tell him. She was convinced I was-we were a couple. When she didn’t believe me I told her how you’d been in love with James since-“

“But why would she tell James?” I demand. “That wasn’t her secret to tell! It wasn’t yours either!”

“I don’t know!” Harry shouts, the guilt stressing him out. “Maybe she thought she was being helpful? Maybe she was just being nice!”

“God Harry are you that bloody naive?” I finally stare at him. “You totally broke my trust! Told some girl I don’t even know and she told James! What if he didn’t like me back? That would’ve been...oh my god that would’ve been so embarassing! She just wanted to have you for herself so she blabbed her mouth and you told her.” I jab his chest, tears pouring out of me like a broken faucet. “I trusted you and you told someone just because you thought she was...hot!”

I can’t stand his face. I step out of the bus stop and start walking; I would just walk home even if it took me an hour. We’d gotten into plenty of fights over the years but never like this, on a level this deep. And I didn’t want to be around him. It hurt too much. So I keep walking.

“I didn’t mean to betray your trust! Y/N! I didn’t even think she cared enough to tell James!” Harry’s voice gets closer as he catches up to me. He stops in front of me, holding my shoulders. “Why are you crying? I’m really sorry Y/N I’ll make it up to you I promise. I wasn’t thinking when I told her-it just came out when I was talking. I would never try to hurt you purposely.”

“I know!” I try to shake him off. “That’s not the point!”

“Then what is?” Harry shakes my shoulders and I look up at him. He scans my face in confusion. As the anger leaves my body, the hurt remains. Not only about Harry telling May my secret, but that it was May. It felt like he was leaving me behind and even though it made no sense I couldn’t shake the feeling. It felt like he was leaving me for May.

Harry wipes the tears from my cheek and pulls me into his chest. I bury my face there, he was my best friend and I was starting to realise I felt for him more than a best friend. And I was screwed. And it was all his fault.

“I’m sorry,” Harry repeats as he holds me to him.

Just one evening had rocked the foundation of our friendship, leaving fractures along the whole thing. This was a turning point, I realise as Harry holds me, and I think I was just mourning that.

[makeste]

I really want to know your opinion on this : do you think OFA's secret should be shared with more than just Bakugou? And if so, who? I really love your weekly reactions (you're hilarious) and your metas (you're so articulate!!!!) (´｡• ω •｡`)

first of all, thank you so much! ( ॢ•͈ᴗ•͈ॢ)

as for your question, it’s a bit complicated. my answer is both yes and no. I’ll start with the “no” part, I guess.

so here’s the thing: I absolutely, 100% fully support All Might’s decision to keep OFA secret. I really can’t stress this enough -- this is not something they were keeping hidden for funsies. “the Power Of All Might is something that can be shared and passed on from person to person, and he gave it to a fifteen-year-old boy” is not just something to be spread around lightly; if it got out to the wrong person, it could literally destroy Izuku’s life.

to the villains, he becomes a target, as we’ve already seen. we’re talking about the power of All Might for fuck’s sake. of course he’s a target. it’s the one power that can stand up to even All for One himself. villains would be coming after him pretty much every day of the week. if they don’t know about the “OFA can only be given up willingly” part, they simply try to take the quirk by force. but if they do know about it, that makes it even worse, because that’s when they start getting into methods of coercing him. hostages; torture; you name it. give us OFA or we’ll kill these innocent people. give us OFA or we’ll hurt your family and friends. his mom would have to go into hiding. he would never be safe again.

to the general public, and to agencies like the HPSC, Izuku becomes the subject of heated political controversy, and a potential government pawn. how could All Might do something so irresponsible as entrusting the greatest power in the world into the hands of a quirkless fifteen-year-old?? now the world is left without its Symbol of Peace, and with no one who’s ready to step in and fill those shoes. why didn’t he give OFA to someone with more power, more experience? this is unacceptable. Izuku should give it up to someone else. Hawks, or Best Jeanist, or Endeavor. people are very easily whipped into a frenzy; all it would take is a few viral opinion pieces, and the nation would probably be demanding the government to step in and force Izuku to relinquish it. some citizens might even take it upon themselves to try and capture him if they got desperate enough. even the other pros would probably be pressuring him. as for the HPSC, I wouldn’t put it past them to try and take control/custody of Izuku themselves and claim that it’s a matter of national security or whatnot. they’d have the best of intentions of course. just trying to keep the world safe. but they’re trending much more Hydra than S.H.I.E.L.D. these days, so who knows how badly that could end.

to Izuku’s schoolmates and friends, he becomes one of two things; either the object of mistrust or envy, or else someone to be protected at all costs. for most of them it would be the latter, since they really are good kids. but there’d be some people -- not in his class perhaps, but it’s a big school -- who’d no doubt be echoing the same thoughts as the public at large. he doesn’t deserve it, he’s not strong enough, etc., you get the idea. and if and when the villain attacks and threats -- “give us OFA or else” -- inevitably began to crop up as mentioned, all of the blame would fall down on him. “just give it to someone else who can handle it. why are you so selfish. this isn’t just about you; you’re putting everyone else in danger.”

and for the ones who don’t turn on him, who stay by his side and defend him, there’s still the fact that doing so puts them in danger as well. these kids are heroes. and if you entrust a hero with something that must be protected at all costs, they will protect it. at all costs. which is yet another burden to add to Izuku’s shoulders as now it’s not only his own safety he has to fear for, but that of his friends and loved ones. and if anything happened to them because of him, that’s not something he would ever get over.

so yeah. it’s insanely dangerous. and none of the above is even taking into account that there is a traitor at U.A., and they still don’t know who it is. so given all of that, it’s no wonder All Might insisted that Deku keep it a secret. and then of course Deku went and told Kacchan anyway, which even Kacchan was mad about once he realized the gravity of what he’d been told. but at least Kacchan is someone Deku’s known literally as long as he can remember, and there’s virtually no chance of him being a secret traitor. the same cannot be said for almost anyone else. we all know that they can be trusted, yes. but All Might doesn’t know that. even Aizawa, who is the one other person I’d argue should still have been told, was still a prime suspect in the traitor investigation due to him being one of the few people who could have communicated the information about the class schedule and the training camp’s whereabouts. we know he is not the traitor. we know he would literally die for any one of these kids. but the other characters do not know that for sure, and even Aizawa himself would probably agree that the rational thing under those circumstances would be to trust absolutely no one, with no exceptions. it’s the safest thing to do for Izuku’s sake in a situation where there is relatively little to be gained from telling other people, and potentially everything to lose by doing so. again, we already know there is at least one person in or linked to class 1-A who is not what they seem, who has managed to earn the trust of everyone, and who is connected to the League. that is just not a situation you can afford to fuck around with. “well we really like all these kids a lot and we’ve gotten to know them and we’re pretty sure they’re all on the up and up” is just not good enough when we are literally talking about a matter of life and death for a sixteen-year-old child.

so that’s the “no” part of my answer. I don’t think the secret should be shared. or at least, that would have been my answer before Shigaraki Tomura woke up from his three-month nap and was all “GOD I REALLY WANT ONE FOR ALL”, and Endeavor was all “ONE FOR ALL WHAT IS THAT”, and Izuku was all “HEY MISTER ENDEAVOR SIR, JUST SO YOU KNOW, SHIGARAKI IS AFTER ME”, and Aizawa was all “I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, but I too heard ‘One for All’ on the comm, and have also deduced that for some reason Shigaraki Tomura is targeting my student, because most of the time I’m the one who’s actually holding on to the two brain cells that all of the pro heroes collectively share.”

so now that all of that has gone down, I think the situation has changed enough where, moving forward, at the very least Endeavor and Aizawa will have to be let in on the secret. because if not, they’re probably going to start doing their own investigations into it and could wind up accidentally spilling the beans to EVERYONE. so at the very least they will (and should) know. and this also applies to anyone else who stumbles across this battle before it wraps up, and thus also starts putting the pieces together. I think this will be Shouto and Ochako and Iida, potentially, which I’ll be glad to see happen if that is the case. because even though I firmly believe not telling them earlier was the right call, that doesn’t mean I don’t want them to know about it. they’re his friends, and they’ve earned his trust and care about his wellbeing. I think and hope that they’ll understand why they weren’t told earlier, and I hope they don’t blame Izuku for it at all, because it absolutely is not his fault. he made a promise to All Might, and All Might, as I’ve stated, had very good reasons for keeping this on the DL.

and by the way, it also would not surprise me at all if in spite of all the precautions they’ve taken, the secret actually DOES get revealed to the world at large eventually. at which point I’m almost positive every single thing I mentioned above will come to pass, and Izuku will be in for one hell of a rough ride. the upside though is that at least he’ll have a bigger support network to help him get through it. and also he is a much stronger, smarter, and more capable person than he was even just a year ago, and he’s better equipped to handle it now than he might have been before. it’s much harder to argue “this child should not have been given OFA” when said child is now capable of using 45% power instead of just 5% and/or 100%-but-his-entire-body-gets-destroyed-in-the-process. also harder to argue when said child has since UNLOCKED THE POWER OF SIXQUIRKS which not even All Might managed to do, so suck on that!! of course, that in turn opens the door to suspicion about him being connected to AFO, which is a whole new set of problems. OFA really is just a humongous pain in the ass in a lot of ways lmao.

anyway, so I hope that answers your question! no I don’t think they should have told anyone earlier, but I do think they should come clean to a few people now, since they’ve basically been all but found out anyway. and I will be happy to have those people included in the OFA Scooby Squad moving forward. they’re going to have to get a bigger clubhouse though I guess.

[ibijau]

How about one where Huaisang accidentally ascended (as in HOB) and Nmj and Lxc have no idea that their Sang-di's a baby god? He can't interfere with anything in the mortal realm, which is why he's always running from martial practice and saying 'i dont know' instead of giving straight answers. He's much more commonly known among the common people than cultivators (god of something simple but sweet?), and Meng Yao is the first to suspect (Can be extended to eventual XiSang where LXC...worships).

Well it only took me like four months to fill this prompt, and then when I finally did I basically ditched everything your suggested except for the “nhs accidentally ascended” part but... hey, if you’re still around after this much time, enjoy??

When Nie Mingjue is twenty and finally given full reign of his sect, there's a huge storm that nearly blows off all the roofs of the Unclean Realm. It is everything he doesn't need, but honestly everything these last three years has been everything he didn't need, starting with his father's death. In the morning, when the storm calms down, he assesses the damage, organises for those wounded by debris to be taken care of, sends disciples in Qinghe and the closest villages to see if they need help.

It isn't a surprise when he learns that the storm only struck the Unclean Realm. There was a taste in the air that did not feel natural.

Hearing this only worsens Nie Mingjue's other concerns. Namely, the disappearance of his prodigy of a little brother. Nobody has seen Nie Huaisang since the storm. His room appears to have been devastated by the winds, everything thrown upside down. His wing of the main residence is the one that has suffered the most damages, the roof apparently blown open.

Initially, Nie Mingjue did not particularly worry. Since the storm was unnatural, it wouldn't be strange for Nie Huaisang to have noticed it and gone after the source of it. It's reckless, and he'll get scolded for it, but it can't be helped. Nie Huaisang cannot see a wrong without wanting to right it. Yet as the hours pass, and then the days, Nie Mingjue gets more and more anxious. Just like the storm that hit them so hard, nobody around has Nie Huaisang. He has simply vanished. Search parties are sent everywhere, inquiries are made to allied clans.

Nothing.

Not a trace.

After a month, Nie Mingjue is starting to consider checking with Qishan Wen when one afternoon, Nie Huaisang simply passes the gate of the Unclean Realm.

Nie Mingjue hugs him and scolds him and demands an explanation, but none comes.

“I got lost,” Nie Huaisang laughs. “I didn't realise so much time had passed. It felt shorter, or I'd have come home sooner, I swear!”

“But where were you?”

“Somewhere I shouldn't have been,” Nie Huaisang evasively replies. “I'm home now. That's what matters.”

It's all Nie Mingjue can get from him. Considering his brother's taste for secrets, he should have expected it.

“Don't do that again,” he orders, before letting the matter drop.

-

Nie Huaisang doesn't train anymore after the storm. At first, he says his long wandering exhausted him. Then he pretends he wants to focus on his calligraphy, on painting, on just anything but martial arts.

Nie Mingjue lets it slide at first. He's long given up on making sense of his brother, and Nie Huaisang has always been a little too wise for his age. Whatever he does, he does for a reason. But as weeks pass and his brother doesn't return to the training grounds, Nie Mingjue has no choice but to corner him about it.

“I don't like it anymore,” Nie Huaisang says. “It's boring.”

“I'm told you also don't meditate. Is that boring as well?”

Nie Huaisang nods firmly.

“What's the point? I now we do this to reach immortality, and maybe even to ascend but... I've given it a lot of thought lately. I don't think it'd be much fun, being a god.”

“What are you even talking about? You... Huaisang, you're good but you're fourteen, it's not like there's any risk of you ascending!”

Nie Huaisang laughs and laughs and laughs.

“Right? I am just fourteen, it'd be so stupid! Still, better not take the risk.”

“Huaisang! Enough now!”

Nie Huaisang pouts, and whines, and gets dragged to the training grounds anyway, where he performs with a mediocrity that he's never shown before. He can't even hold his damn sabre properly, drops it several time. Nie Mingjue is too stunned to even think of punishing him.

Stunned and worried.

This simply isn't like his brother.

-

With help from the elders and some healers, a number of tests are conducted on Nie Huaisang. He is not possessed. He mind is not altered. He hasn't been cursed. His cultivation hasn't been damaged. If anything, it might have risen higher than last time they checked for it.

“Then what's wrong with him?” Nie Mingjue asks.

The elders look at one another, unsure what to say.

“Teenage rebellion?” one of them suggests.

“Gods. That'd be worse than a curse,” Nie Mingjue sighs. “How do we fix that?”

-

Every few weeks, Nie Mingjue gets letters from the Cloud Recesses. Lan Qiren is at his wit's end with Nie Huaisang, because there's no way a boy this clever can fail so consistently. He thinks it's done on purpose. Nie Mingjue, after being shown some of his brother's tests, can only agree.

This, too, makes no sense. Nie Huaisang is competitive to a fault and cannot stand it if anyone is better than him at something. In the company of people as famously brilliant as Lan Wangji, Jiang Wanyin, Jin Zixuan, and Wei Wuxian, Nie Huaisang should be thriving and fighting for top position.

Instead, he has taken to drinking and looking at porn.

He still passes his exams, with the best grade of his class.

When asked about it, he just says he didn't feel like going back because the food is really too awful and he missed home.

-

After that year in Gusu, Nie Mingjue gives up on getting his brother back to normal. This is just who Nie Huaisang is now apparently. Gone is the martial prodigy, all Nie Mingjue has now is a bumbling fool who cares for nothing but fans and birds.

Especially birds.

Frequently, Nie Huaisang disappears for days on hand to go birdwatching. That alone is frustrating, since he rarely bothers to say where he's going or for how long. But then, he also systematically leaves his sabre behind, and refuses to take an escort with him, arguing everyone is too loud and will scare away his feathery targets.

Nie Mingjue gives orders that his brother isn't to be allowed outside of the Unclean Realm on his own. Nie Huaisang still manages to get out whenever he damn pleases and laughs it off when his brother gets concerned that there are secret passages in the Unclean Realm.

“An enemy could use that to get inside and slaughter us without warning!” Nie Mingjue points out.

“No, that's not going to happen,” Nie Huaisang replies with a knowing smile. “Nobody can get in. The Unclean Realm will never fall.”

“You don't know that!”

Nie Huaisang laughs.

Nie Mingjue never gets him to reveal how he leaves the Unclean Realm.

-

When the Wens come to the Unclean Realm and demand that Nie Mingjue put his little brother in their hands, he refuses. If they want a war, he's ready to give it to them, even if the rest of the cultivation world would rather grovel at their feet than stand for themselves.

His brother has other ideas. Nie Mingjue finds a note announcing that Nie Huaisang has decided to offer himself as hostage, because he fears they are not ready yet for a war.

Nie Mingjue could kill him for that betrayal.

He knows the Wen might beat him to it.

-

As soon as Nie Huaisang makes it home with a bunch of desperate but unharmed kids from a number of other sects, Nie Mingjue announces that he's sending him to Gusu.

“No, my place is in the Unclean Realm!” Nie Huaisang protests. “I belong here. I know it now, I know this for sure, I have to be here.”

“Are you going to fight at my side then?” Nie Mingjue counters. “Are you going to pick up your sabre at last and help me?”

“I can help without a sabre. Mingjue, don't send me away. I want to be here. This is my home, I need to be here.”

“It's the sabre or Gusu.”

Nie Huaisang whines and pouts and begs and complains and even threatens, to no avail. Nie Mingjue will not bulge from the choice he's giving him.

Without surprise, Nie Huaisang chooses Gusu.

Nie Mingjue wishes it didn't disappoint him.

-

The war is bloody and harsh and it should be hopeless, but it is not.

Several times, they snatch a victory at the last moment through sheer luck. Hope, that most precious of commodities at such a time, never leaves them. Rumours start to circulate among the disciples of those sect who chose to stand against Qishan Wen, although it is many weeks before they reach Nie Mingjue, who never paid much attention to gossip.

In the end, it is Lan Xichen who tells him about it, seemingly rather amused by the stories about...

“A young man wearing a mask who sometimes appears when the situation is desperate,” he explains. “He carries no weapon, but he has a magical fan that he uses when fighting. He is rarely seen in battle, but several people who had been taken prisoner claim that he came down from the heavens to free them before they could be tortured or killed.”

“A rogue cultivator?”

Lan Xichen smiles, but shakes his head.

“A god, apparently.”

Nie Mingjue snorts. Gods don't mess with the affairs of mortals.

“Don't dismiss it so easily,” Lan Xichen scolds him. “I can name more than one sect that decided to join us after hearing about the Faceless God on our side.”

“They even gave him a title?”

“They had to, he never gave his name.”

It's a ridiculous rumour, and it can't be anything more. On a rare letter sent to his brother in Gusu, Nie Mingjue mentions it, guessing that this is the sort of things that might amuse him. He used to like stories of gods and immortals, before he became someone Nie Mingjue doesn't know anymore.

-

It's just a rumour, but even within his own ranks, Nie Mingjue catches a few people praying to the Faceless God on the eve of battle.

He doesn't dissuade them. With the war dragging on and the Wens still so strong in number, people need something to hold on.

Nie Mingjue puts all his faith in his own strength and that of the people he trusts, but he understands that not everybody can be satisfied with this.

-

And then he meets the Faceless God.

-

A young man wearing a mask, Lan Xichen had described him, but all Nie Mingjue sees is a boy in disguise, trying to appear taller and larger than he is.

He carries no weapon, and Nie Mingjue understands why when he sees the fan in the Faceless God's hand. It is one he has seen too many times in the last few years. He wonders if the boy who holds it assumed nobody would recognise it as easily as they might know his sabre.

He rarely joins in battle, but he comes for those who have been captured, like Nie Mingjue dragged before Wen Ruohan, humiliated by Meng Yao who he once trusted above all others.

Both Meng Yao and the Faceless God strike Wen Ruohan at the same time.

Both Meng Yao and the Faceless God cower in fear before Nie Mingjue when he rises to his feet.

Meng Yao kneels before him and swears he was always on their side.

The Faceless God runs away.

It doesn't matter.

Nie Mingjue knows where to find him.

-

It is a while before Nie Mingjue recuperates enough from his injuries to return home. When he finally does, Nie Huaisang is waiting at the gate for him, an uncertain smile on his face and a fan in his hand. Nie Mingjue hugs him and asks for news of the reconstruction in Gusu, unsurprised when the answers remain evasive.

He waits until they are alone in his room to ask the question that really matters.

“It was that storm, wasn't it?”

Nie Huaisang freezes in the act of pouring tea, looking like a rabbit who spotted a hawk. Slowly, hesitantly, he nods.

“If you ascended, why are you here?”

“This is home,” Nie Huaisang simply says. Then, when his brother frowns, he adds: “I never expected to ascend, and when it happened, I realised I didn't want to. They gave me all those rules to follow, they told me I couldn't see you again, couldn't go home again and that was... I belong here. I belong in the Unclean Realm. Maybe when you're gone I'll feel differently, but for now this is home and I'm not going anywhere. The Heavenly Emperor himself could order me to leave and I wouldn't. Which is exactly what I told him before I came back here.”

“You rebelled against the Heavenly Emperor.”

Nie Huaisang nods.

“You're an idiot.”

“I was fourteen!” Nie Huaisang protests. “I should never have ascended! I wasn't prepared for it! I'm still not prepared for it. I don't care about their rules, I don't care about emperors and gods and anything else. But I care about my home, and I care about my people, and I care about what's right.”

Nie Mingjue sighs. This is so wrong, on so many levels. There are reasons why gods don't meddle with mortal affairs, why they stay in their own domain most of the time. This is wrong and it'll bring trouble down the line, he's sure of it, but... but suddenly, so much makes sense, and he's proud of Nie Huaisang.

“I'm not calling you 'Highness',” he warns.

“I sure hope not. I'm still your didi, now and always.”

Nie Mingjue smiles, and pulls his heavenly brother into a tight hug. Everything else is going to be different, but this bond between us will never change, he's certain of that.

[sassy-starker]

Jupiter

Word Count: 28,576

TW: Serious physical bullying (to the point where some might consider it unrealistic, but you wouldn’t believe the shit I’ve seen in public schools)

“Well, tell me how am I supposed to see the magic? ‘Cause I don’t believe in it no more”

-EDEN, XO

Soulmates were a strange thing, connecting two people together for eternity, yet not being able to tell if a person’s soulmate would die before they had the chance to meet or giving someone no soulmate at all.  There were theories about how it worked, from quantum entanglement to straight-up magic, but nobody was really sure in the end.  Most didn’t care about the science anyway. 

They cared about falling in love. 

Anthony Edward Stark had been born without words on his wrist and those words had not appeared in the years after he was born, leaving him destined to never find true love.  Destined to be isolated from the rest of the world.  It was partly why his father hated him, but his mother didn’t mind all that much. 

(Of course, she didn’t.  His mother had always cared about him.) 

No matter where he went, Tony wore bracelets over his wrist.  When people asked, he claimed that he wanted his words to be private so nobody could see them and pretend to be his soulmate.  He never let it slip that he didn’t have a soulmate, making sure that the only people who knew were his parents and Jarvis. 

Not having a soulmate, along with his abusive asshole of a father, was a factor in how he acted once he had grown up.  He drowned himself in alcohol until he was sure it would fill up his lungs and had sex with as many people as possible, hoping to fill the loneliness inside of him. 

It didn’t work. 

Luckily, Pepper and Rhodey were there to remind him that not having a soulmate didn’t make him any less deserving of familial and platonic love.

Pepper had already found her soulmate, a woman named Natasha Romanov.  She had been searching for a long time, but eventually found Natasha when the woman came in for an interview for a job in PR.  Pepper had the words, ‘I did not expect you to be this pretty’ on her wrist while Natasha had the words, ‘And I didn’t expect to find my soulmate in a job interview’ on hers.

Rhodey had found his soulmate when he was grabbing takeout for him and Tony.  He accidentally bumped into his soulmate, Sam Wilson, in a Chinese restaurant.  Rhodey had the words ‘Fuck, I am so sorry,’ while Sam had the words ‘Don’t be’ on his wrist.

Both Pepper and Rhodey were there when he got a soul sentence.

It was a rainy afternoon in August, droplets of water falling down gently like shimmering diamonds outside the windows of the penthouse kitchen.  Tony hummed a tune as he grabbed a granola bar from the pantry, coffee brewing behind him.  As he turned back toward the coffee maker to grab his mug, he felt a strange sensation across his left wrist.  It was somehow comforting and stinging at the same time.  It burned and yet it was cooling and soft.  It was like no sensation he had felt before.  He dropped the granola bar, pulled down the sleeve of his shirt, and there it was, the words that would haunt him for years to come.

What’s your favorite planet?

Tony Stark screamed.

Pepper and Rhodey came rushing in to see what was wrong, only to find Tony staring at his wrist and a granola bar on the ground.

“Tony, what’s wrong?!” Pepper exclaimed, her face portraying her confusion.  In response, the man just turned his wrist around, showing off the words that had chosen to place themselves on his skin.

“Tones, this is amazing,” Rhodey told him. “Why aren’t you excited?”

“I am thirty-one years old,” Tony replied, pulling his wrist away and staring down at the words as if they had hurt him. “By the time my soulmate is eighteen, I’ll be forty-nine. Whoever they are, they don’t deserve that.”

“Tony-” Pepper started but was cut off.

“And I’m a superhero that could get killed at any time. It just wouldn’t work.”

“Tony, you have to-” Rhodey began but Tony interrupted again.

“No! I’m not going to look for my soulmate, I’m not going to meet my soulmate, and I’m sure as hell not going to fall in love with my soulmate! We’re not even going to talk about them, okay!?” Tony was shouting at the end of his little speech, tears glimmering in his eyes like the rain outside.  He stomped off, leaving his coffee and his granola bar behind him.

+++

“I just needed company now. Yeah, I just needed someone around.”

-Conan Gray, Comfort Crowd

When Peter Benjamin Parker was born, it was a rainy day in August, rain dripping down the window panes in the hospital.  He was born with a single word on his wrist.

Jupiter.

His parents loved his soul sentence.

When he was young, he heard stories of soulmates meeting and staying in love through their entire lives, never giving up on the other.  He completely believed in soulmates and true love, never having doubts about it.

Peter’s parents died when he was four years old.

The idea of soulmates lessened in his brain, falling into the back of his mind to deal with at a later time.  As he began to open up to the idea of soulmates once more, tragedy struck.

He lost his uncle.

Grief overtook him and he didn’t have the room to worry about soulmates, instead filing them as fantasies and pretended they never existed in the first place, despite the happy couples around him and the words on his wrist.

Peter spent his years wearing a bracelet and never looking at the single word that had planted itself on his left wrist.  He gave up on romantic love, instead choosing to find a couple of friends who wouldn’t mind his inherent lack of interest in soulmates. 

Luckily, he met Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones in middle school.

Ned was a hopeless romantic, constantly looking for his soulmate everywhere he went.  He was determined to find them and never lose them.  It hurt Peter’s heart a bit to know that his friend still believed in love but didn’t let that get in the way of helping the boy find the one the universe chose to be his.

MJ was a different story.

The girl acted as if she had no interest in love or even friends, but Peter was good at acting like he was dumb.  He didn’t let it on, but he knew that she was looking for her soulmate.  He saw the subtle glances to her words when she thought nobody was looking and the ways she strained to observe every last person she saw.

Peter loved being with his friends, but it changed when both of them found their soulmates in the same week of junior year.

In the middle of October, a new kid arrived at Midtown and everybody was eager to talk to him, wanting to know if he was their soulmate. Due to that, their little trio didn’t get to meet him until the beginning of November.

Turns out, his name was Jacob and he had the words ‘You’re the new kid, right?’ on his wrist while Ned had the words ‘Is three weeks too long to be considered new?’ on his.  They were soulmates.

Peter had tried to be happy for Ned, he really did, but it was hard when his friend practically abandoned him to start hanging out with his soulmate all the time.  He was down a friend and left with MJ.  He didn’t really mind, but it was difficult when he realized he had nobody to talk to.  May was always gone and MJ was always buried in a book or drawing people in crisis, leaving Peter to drown in loneliness.

Still, he was glad he had anybody at all.

That Friday, at Academic Decathlon practice, a new kid joined the team.  Her name was Sydney and she had the words ‘Welcome to Academic Decathlon practice, loser’ written on her wrist. MJ had the words ‘If I’m your soulmate, am I still a loser?’ on hers.

And then MJ abandoned him too.

Peter found himself alone at lunch and without somebody to talk to, without anybody to listen to his frustrations and his interests that he so badly wanted to talk about.  He began to keep to himself, never opening his mouth to say a word except when asked to speak in class, but even then he gave short, often one-word answers. He even quit Academic Decathlon. This, of course, led to him being the freak of the school.

Rumors constantly floated around about him and stares, whether curious or disgusted, followed him wherever he walked in the halls.  He kept his head down and tried his best to ignore everyone despite the verbal harassment and physical bullying.

Silence ruled his entire life as he moved from junior year to senior year, voice becoming hoarse from lack of speech.  His teachers rarely called on him, knowing he would only give short answers and that he already knew the material.  He was left alone in that sense, but the bullying only got worse. Teachers would turn their heads and pretend they saw nothing, never getting Flash and his posse in trouble because of how much money was between the group.

So Peter let it happen, let it become as normal to him as the seasons and days pass.  He was waiting for the last day of school so the torture would finally end.

As much as he wished to go to college, he couldn’t afford it.  He had gotten into MIT and hadn’t responded yet, but knew he would soon have to decline so he could take a gap year, or possibly two, to work and get enough money to go through at least two years of higher education.

The universe really had it out for him.

+++

“Called to the devil and the devil said quit. Can’t be bothered, better handle your shit.”

-Rainbow Kitten Surprise, It’s Called: Freefall

The universe really had it out for Tony Stark.  He was practically knee-deep in paperwork and had so much more work to do, meaning he couldn’t go back to the workshop.  He groaned as he flipped through another legal document, trying to figure out why he even owned the company at this point.  Still, he worked on.

Tony was almost grateful when he heard a knock at his office door, hoping it would be someone who could distract him from his work for a bit.  Unfortunately for him, the door opened to reveal Pepper, who was holding a small folder of documents in her hand.

“I’ve scheduled for you to go to Midtown School of Science and Technology next week to give a talk about aeronautics to the senior class,” she told him without a greeting, walking forward and setting a folder on his desk. “These papers contain all the things you need to talk about, what to remember about the school, and the top students just in case you run into them or have to talk to them in the lecture.”

“Are you seriously trusting me to talk to impressionable young minds about science?” Tony asked her, picking up the folder and beginning to flip through the files.

“It’s just a simple lecture,” the CEO reassured him. “You’ll be fine.”

With that, Pepper exited the room and left Tony to flip through everything.  He sighed and opened the folder completely, deciding to look at the top students first.  It was the ten best students, the first paper on the stack being the tenth best kid.

Tony flipped through the files without interest, half-heartedly glancing over the information about the students’ extracurricular activities and GPAs. He paused when he got to the last paper, though, as he saw a handsome young man who happened to be the brightest of everyone in the impressive school.

He was a senior named Peter Parker.  He had a perfect GPA, took seven AP classes, had near-perfect scores on the SAT and ACT, and had been accepted to several nice colleges.

Tony couldn’t stop staring at the paper, taking in all the boy’s accomplishments and his soft eyes and fluffy brown hair and bright appearance.  He suddenly wasn’t dreading the lecture as much.

+++

“Make my messes matter.  Make this chaos count.”

-Sleeping At Last, Jupiter

When it was announced that Tony Stark was going to be giving a lecture to the, frankly rather small, senior class, Peter couldn’t find it in himself to care.  There wasn’t any big excitement for him.  Yeah, sure, Tony Stark was a genius superhero with a shit ton of money, but Peter himself was a genius superhero with no money, so it didn’t really matter.

Peter was just glad the attention was focused on the lecture and not him. That meant he got through the next few days with minimal bruises and no bloody noses. It was the best week he’d had in a good while.

His luck ended on Thursday, the day before the lecture, when Flash decided that Peter had gotten through the week so far too easily.  So he beat up Peter a little worse than usual, leaving him more bruised than other weeks. The blunt force had also caused some bleeding, but it didn’t really matter to Peter. He would usually heal fast but he knew that May’s paycheck wasn’t the highest, so he skipped a lot of meals just to make sure he wasn’t taking more money away from his aunt than he needed to. It upset his advanced metabolism but didn’t hurt more than everything usually did.

When Peter patched himself up, he noticed the black eye he was donning. He didn’t really care about that either.  Apathy was a common thing for Peter and it didn’t matter to him just like everything else.  Knowing nobody would care, Peter came to school with the black eye.  The teachers wouldn’t do anything about it anyway.

It was only when Peter arrived at school that he remembered the lecture that was happening. The seniors were taken straight from homeroom to the cafetorium for the presentation and would be allowed to leave early afterward.  Chairs were set up in front of the small stage and the tables were pushed back.

Peter sat down in the back row, alone and away from the other students, who were trying to sit as close to the front as possible to be closer to Tony Stark.  Once everyone was seated, the genius came on stage and was met by cheers.

“Thank you,” Tony said in his press conference voice. “Thank you all so much. Big shout out to your school for having me. I’m excited to talk to you all about aeronautics.”

As he spoke, Tony searched the crowd for someone, and nobody noticed except Peter.  When the man caught Peter’s gaze, recognition flashed in his eyes and his smile turned genuine for a second before returning to his paparazzi smile.

Peter didn’t care.

Instead of paying attention, the boy pulled a sketchbook out of his backpack and flipped to an empty page, putting his pencil to the page and waiting for something to come to mind to draw.  Eventually, without thinking, he began to draw the solar system. He liked space after all.

“And since you’re such a small group, you each get to ask one question!” Peter heard Tony say once he had turned back to the lecture. The questions began as he continued to sketch.

When Peter’s mind came back into focus once more, he realized he had sketched Jupiter in the middle of the page.  With a glare at the sketchbook, he dropped his pencil and let it clatter to the ground. He gave a small growl and ripped the page out.

“How about the young man in the back?” Tony asked and everybody turned to Peter, who was holding the torn out paper, which he was getting ready to crumble up. He closed his fist around the paper and tried to ignore the stares.

“What’s your favorite planet?” Peter questioned with a shrug, looking halfheartedly at the famous man just a couple dozen feet in front of him.

Tony’s eyes widened and he gave a quick glance down to his left wrist before regaining his cool and answering, “Jupiter.”

Peter’s own eyes widened at that.  He pulled up his sleeve and looked at his bracelet-covered wrist, going to move the jewelry, before stopping himself and lowering his hand.  Tony had moved onto the next person, so the vigilante grabbed the discarded paper in his lap and finished crumbling it, letting it drop onto the floor without a second thought.

“Thank you so much for having me, Midtown!” Tony said with his press smile plastered on before giving a wink and walking off stage to the applause of the teenagers.  In the very back, he could see Peter packing up his sketchbook.

“Thank you so much for coming, Dr. Stark,” Principal Morita expressed with a grateful smile.

“It was no problem,” Tony chuckled before sobering up. “I’d love to talk to your top student though. Peter Parker, was it?”

The principal turned nervous. “Uh, may I ask why?”

Tony gave a suspicious look. “I’d like to talk to him about a job opportunity at Stark Industries.”

“I don’t think you want Mr. Parker for the job. Perhaps you might like Flash Thompson. He’s extremely smart,” Morita advertised with an anxious smile.

“I didn’t see Mr. Thompson on the top ten students list,” Tony commented with a dangerous edge to his voice. “I did see Mr. Parker though. I don’t get why you’re so against me meeting him.”

“Well,” Morita stuttered out, “it’s just that Mr. Parker is a bit . . . quiet and, uh, strange. He doesn’t quite fit in with the other students.”

“I don’t see why that matters. I’d like to see him.”

With a sputter and stammered, “Of course,” the principal rushed out, leaving Tony alone in the wings.

“Mr. Parker!” Principal Morita called to the person at the back of the exiting crowd. Peter whipped around and looked at him with no emotion. “Could you come over here?”

Everybody watched as Peter made his way over, not quite walking fast, but not quite trudging to the stage. Whispers broke out about it as the seniors exited, the doors closing behind the last of them.

“Dr. Stark wants to discuss job opportunities at Stark Industries with you,” Morita told him quietly once he reached the stage. “Please don’t mess this up for the school.”

Despite the hushed tone, Tony heard him, eyes widening at the very prospect of a staff member saying that to a student. He studied Peter for any sign of shock or fear, but all he saw was an emotionless face and a small nod in acceptance.

Principal Morita walked out and gave Peter one more warning look before exiting the cafetorium.

The boy turned around and looked over to Tony, who was frozen in shock in the wings.

“If you don’t want me as your soulmate and never want to see me again, just tell me,” Peter reassured him. “I wouldn’t hold it against you.”

Tony sputtered for a second before walking out of the wings and standing right in front of Peter, who seemed to shrink back a bit without even moving a step. “What in the world gave you that idea?”

“I don’t know . . .” Peter muttered, averting his gaze to the floor. “The way you seemed shocked to see me right now. The look you looked at me during the lecture. The way you moved on so quickly after my question. It just kinda gave me that impression.”

“I moved on because I didn’t want to announce you as my soulmate in front of your classmates in case you didn’t want to be my soulmate,” Tony answered, “and I was looking at you in shock because of what your principal said to you.”

Peter looked up to meet the man’s eyes before looking down at the floor again.  He gently pulled up his sleeve, took off his bracelet, and offered up his wrist, showing off the word ‘Jupiter,’ which stood out against the yellow and blue bruise.

“Peter . . .” the genius started quietly and trailed off. “Peter, are you being abused?”

The way Tony said his name felt so intimate, but the boy didn’t have time to dwell on it.

“What?!” Peter exclaimed, looking up at the man and startling him with the outburst. “No! My aunt wouldn’t do that!”

“Then what’s this bruise?” Tony questioned a bit louder now, but it was more around his normal volume.

“Just . . . bullies. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Tony sighed and looked down, putting his face in his hands for a moment before looking up again. He gently grabbed Peter’s hand and the boy began to pull away before stopping himself.  Tony added that to the list of things he needed to ask him about.

Tony tenderly led him to the edge of the stage before releasing his hand and sitting down with his legs hanging off.  Peter followed his lead but kept his legs up and crossed them, twiddling his thumbs in his lap.

“What's your favorite planet?” Tony asked him after a moment of silence.

“Pluto,” Peter answered after thinking about it for a second.

“You know that isn’t actually a planet, right?”

“Shhh, you’ll hurt Pluto’s feelings!” the boy quietly exclaimed with a grin. Tony could see a bit of the younger man’s true personality cracking through the mask, so he turned to him and returned the smile, giving a soft laugh.

A faint blush rose to Peter’s cheeks as he realized that he was the one who made the man of iron laugh.

“Seniors, you are now free to go. I repeat, seniors, you are now free to go,” a voice said over the intercom.

“Since you’re being released early, do you wanna come to the tower?” Tony offered, giving Peter a kind look.

“I’d love to.”

+++

“Milemarker twenty-seven says we’re on the way to heaven and I smile at the passenger seat.”

-Lincoln, Banks

The ride to the tower was mostly silent, interrupted every once in a while by Tony asking Peter a question about himself and then giving his own answer after the younger man.

When they arrived, Tony led Peter up to the penthouse and let him sit in the living room while he quickly went to the kitchen to make them coffee. When it was finished, he brought in milk and sugar and set them on the coffee table, sitting in the armchair next to the couch Peter was seated on.

“I really wanted to avoid this topic,” Tony hesitated, “but I have to ask about the black eye.”

Peter retreated into himself, the slight light in his eyes disappearing and the mask of apathy falling back on. “It’s really nothing,” he defended in a monotone voice.

“If it really is nothing, then why did you go back to pretending you don’t care?”

Silence fell over them as Tony continued to look at Peter with a sadness that made the younger feel a wave of guilt wash over him.

“It’s just bullies, so it’s really not a big deal.”

“Is this a regular thing? Do the teachers not care?”

Peter’s silence said more than anything he could’ve answered the question with.

“When did it start?”

That’s when Peter broke down. He began to quietly sob, trying to muffle it as tears rolled down his cheeks. He hadn’t cried since before he met Ned and MJ and it felt good to just let it happen.

It was the first time in about a year and a half that somebody had cared enough to ask if he was okay.

“Peter, love, you don’t have to try and stay quiet,” his soulmate assured him softly. “Just let it all out.”

Tony stood and moved to sit down next to Peter. He tenderly reached over to the younger man but hesitated when he flinched and went quiet for a moment. Then the sobs returned at full force, even harder and somehow conveying the younger man’s anger at himself. Tony felt his own tears well up in his eyes but didn’t let them out. Instead, he continued to move and gently coaxed Peter into his arms, letting the younger cry into his chest. He rested his chin on the curly mop of brown hair and finally let his own tears gently fall from his eyes.

Tony rubbed Peter’s back gently, nearly getting up to go find the bullies who hurt Peter every time he felt Peter flinch against his chest from his hand running over a bruise.

“Baby, I’m so sorry I didn’t find you earlier,” he apologized sincerely before wondering when the last time Peter heard an apology was.

“‘s not your fault,” the younger reminded him as he pulled away from his chest.

“Could you tell me the full story?” Tony inquired as he tenderly took Peter’s hands in his.

And so Peter did.  He told him about meeting Ned and MJ and then them both leaving him in junior year. He told him about not talking because he had nobody to talk to. He told him about the touch starvation he felt. He told him about being bullied because of not having friends. He told him about his teachers letting the bullies get away with it. He told him about covering up his emotions with complete apathy. He told him about being beaten up the day before. He told him about his doubts and fears about love. He told him everything.

“I just gave up on emotions. I just gave up on me,” Peter sobbed quietly, looking up at Tony with glistening eyes.

“Well, I’m not giving up on you,” Tony declared, making the younger give a small, wavering grin, but a grin nonetheless.

Peter leaned into Tony’s chest and listened to the man’s heartbeat. Both weary from the day, they fell asleep in each other’s arms on the couch, ninety-three stories up from all of their problems.

+++

“I’ve been naive and I’ve been feeling hazy maybe.”

-Bowling Shoes, Portland

Peter left early the next morning but not before Tony made breakfast for them. They had pancakes, which was the only food the genius knew how to make without completely ruining the kitchen.

Now, Tony was left sitting at the breakfast bar, drinking his coffee and looking down at the drawing Peter had torn out of his sketchbook for him.

It was a pencil sketch of an ocean under the starry sky and had Peter’s signature in the bottom right corner. He was contemplating where to hang it up in the tower when Pepper walked into the kitchen, moving to the coffee maker to grab a cup before the workday started.

“How are you, Tony?” she asked, not looking up from where she was choosing the cup size for her coffee.

“His name is Peter,” Tony told her, staring at the paper. Pepper looked over to him with confusion etched onto her face.

“I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?”

“My soulmate,” he elaborated. “His name is Peter. Peter Parker.”

“What?!” Pepper exclaimed and ran over to the breakfast bar, coffee long forgotten. “You met your soulmate?! Where? How? When?!”

Tony set down the paper and looked up at his long-time friend with a sad smile. “He goes to Midtown. He’s the top student and he’s a senior, so he was at the lecture.”

Pepper noticed his somber face and immediately sobered up. “Does he . . . does he not like you?”

“He does,” Tony sighed as tears slightly welled up, “but some things have happened to him recently and he’s scared of me leaving. Fri, could you bring up some pictures of Pete from yesterday?”

“Sure thing, boss.”

The hologram on Tony’s watch activated and showed a picture of Peter sitting in the back of the audience and not looking up. He swipes and there’s one of him looking up, but you can see the black eye. Pepper’s brow furrowed in concern. The next image was of Peter showing Tony his soul sentence, but there’s the hand print bruise.

There were more images of bruises of his arms and where his jeans rose a bit and showed off his ankles.

“Is he being . . . ?” Pepper started but trailed off.

“He’s being bullied because he’s quiet. He doesn’t have anyone to talk to since his friends left him and his aunt is always working,” Tony explained, eyes focused on the image of Peter crying into his chest. “The teachers don’t care in the slightest. Hell, when I asked to speak to Peter, giving the excuse that he was the top student, the principal tried to convince me to talk to a student who wasn’t even in the top ten. He’s hurting, Pep, and I don’t know how to help him”

Silence fell over them and the hologram shut off, leaving Tony’s deactivated watch behind.

“You just gotta be there for him, Tony,” Pepper encouraged. “I know you, and I can tell you care for him. If you show that to him, I have a feeling that you’ll be a lot closer to making everything work out.”

+++

“Could’ve been one lonely night just like the others, but you lit up my life. This is what it’s like to be lovers.”

-Ollie MN, Please Never Fall In Love Again

Tony had never had a proper first kiss. Hell, he’d never even had a proper relationship. His younger years had been filled with emotionless sex. There was no meaning in real romantic love for Tony, so he learned how to focus on family and friends in his thirties.

Well, that was all before Peter Parker.

Tony had always been one for looks, but that tended, of course, to be for sex. Men and women, anybody really, just had to be hot for Tony to have sex with them.  There was no appreciation for kind eyes or fluffy hair or soft skin.

That was all before Peter Parker.

Tony had thought he would never feel romantic love. He had heard stories of falling in love with your soulmate faster than one would think to be possible but was never too intrigued by the topic. After all, why should he care about how fast someone falls in love when he doesn’t even have a soulmate?

That was all before Peter Parker.

Tony wanted to kiss Peter and run his fingers through the boy’s hair and drag his calloused hands across his skin and look into his coffee-brown eyes all day and fall in love as fast as possible.

And, dear lord above, he had fallen in love.

The second time Peter came over to the tower was the following week.  The two sat on the couch, close together but still with a bit of room.  Tony didn’t push his soulmate to move any closer, completely content with going at the younger man’s pace.

That was new, too. Tony had always wanted to set his own pace, but, for once, he wanted someone else to decide how fast everything moves.

They sat and talked, blabbing away about science and basking in each other’s company as they sipped mugs of hot chocolate.  Tony’s chest felt lighter every time Peter inched even a little bit closer to him, wordlessly informing the genius that he was slowly growing more comfortable around him.

“So you made the webs yourself?” Tony asked Peter, astonishment laced into his tone.  Peter couldn’t stop the blush that spread across his cheeks.

“Yeah,” he replied sheepishly but with a small grin. “Used some scraps for the actual shooters and some chemicals from the school chemistry lab to make the web solution.”

“That’s amazing!” the genius exclaimed, knowing that he meant it. “Just imagine what you could do when I get you in a proper lab!”

“You’re . . . you’re gonna let me in your labs?” Peter questioned in amazement, yet somehow remaining slightly neutral.

“Of course! You’re a fucking genius!”

The praise made Peter turn a deeper shade of pink.  Tony couldn’t help but just stare at him in awe.  His soulmate was gorgeous in his opinion, especially when he allowed his emotions to peek through and paint across his face.  Without thinking, the man reached forward and began to run his fingers through Peter’s hair.

Peter froze for a moment, shock getting to him as he looked up at his soulmate. For a second, Tony thought he would flinch back, but Peter leaned into the touch. As Tony began to continue the movement, his soulmate’s eyes fluttered closed and his shoulders sagged as if the simple touch helped release everything he had been holding onto.  He let himself be pulled into Tony’s side as the soft feeling of his hair being played with calmed him.

When Peter leaned against him, Tony wanted to shout for joy.  He slowly shifted the younger man from where he was leaning on his shoulder to his chest and then to a lying position with his head in the genius’s lap, all while continuing to run his fingers through his hair.

Tony couldn’t help but notice how at peace Peter looked.

It was the most relaxed he had ever seen his soulmate.  

+++

“If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad?”

-Sheryl Crow, If It Makes You Happy

“Hey, FRIDAY said you had something to tell me,” Rhodey said as he entered the lab, finding Tony working on an Iron Man gauntlet. He looked up and motioned for the colonel to come and sit next to him. Albeit hesitantly, Rhodey walked over and sat down.

“I found my soulmate,” Tony blurted out, looking at his friend dead in the eyes.

“You what!?” Rhodey cried out.

“He’s a senior at Midtown and I met him in the presentation,” Tony told him. “His name is Peter Parker and I care about him so fucking much, Rhodey. I wish I would’ve listened to you and started searching sooner because he’s . . . because he’s really needed someone this past couple of years.”

“What . . . what are you on about, Tones?” Rhodey questioned him with a puzzled look.

“He hasn’t had anybody to talk to since junior year. No friends. His aunt was always gone. He was just . . . alone. And he’s been bullied really terribly and no one cared and I wished I found him sooner so I could’ve helped.”

“Tony, it’s not your-”

“Except it is my fault, Rhodey!” Tony shouted, pulling at his hair in frustration. “I completely ignored the fact I had a soulmate and, by the time I found him, he’d already put on a complete mask of apathy and hadn’t cried for a year and a half! He had bruises all over him and a black eye and just said it didn’t matter! He sat on my couch and sobbed and . . .  and flinched when I reached over to hug him and tried to muffle his sobs and I wish I had found him earlier.”

They both stayed quiet, letting the echoing effect of the words fill up the air.

“Tony,” Rhodey finally chimed in, “I’m gonna help in any way I can.”

+++

“Told you not to worry, but maybe that’s a lie.”

-Billie Eilish, ilomilo

When Peter came over a couple Saturdays later, for the fourth time since they met, his bruises were mostly healed and his black eye from the first time they met was gone, but there were new bruises and his cheeks were red, and it obviously wasn’t from the sun. The marks almost looked angry, but maybe that was just because of Tony’s rage toward whoever hurt him.

Tony didn’t let his anger show on his face, instead electing to delicately bring the younger man into his arms. When he felt Peter hug him back and bury his head in his shoulder, the billionaire could only smile.

“How are you doing?” Tony asked as they pulled away.

“A bit better than last week,” Peter told him with a soft smile that made the genius feel warm inside. Tony returned the smile in order to tell Peter that he was glad about that, and he thought he got the message through.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Tony announced and held out his hand for Peter to take.  The younger did so while giving him a skeptical look.

“Those words can never end well,” he replied.  Tony said nothing more, though, and led him to the elevator, asking FRIDAY to take them to the roof.  Peter kept glancing anxiously at the man, who just gave him comforting smiles in return.

Finally, the elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing the rooftop terrace, but it wasn’t the terrace that caught Peter’s attention.

In the middle of the roof, there was a table set up with a white tablecloth that had rose petals scattered on top of it, a candle in the middle, and two champagne flutes with a green bottle next to the candle.

“Tony,” Peter breathed out in amazement, “what is this?”

“Peter Parker, would you do me the honor of going on a proper date with me?” Tony asked him, offering his hand once more. The younger man looked up at him with a mix of surprise and love in his eyes, simply nodding and putting his hand in Tony’s.

The genius led Peter to the table and pulled out a chair for him, pushing it in once he was seated.  He moved around to the other side and sat down, smiling at his soulmate.

“You didn’t have to do all this for me,” Peter told him softly.

“I didn’t have to,” Tony admitted, “but I really, really wanted to.”

A bright blush rose to Peter’s cheeks, nearly hiding the angry red. Tony reached for the bottle and began to fill Peter’s glass.

“Tony, I’m not old enough to drink,” Peter reminded him.

“This makes it way less romantic,” Tony chuckled, “but it’s sparkling grape juice.”

Peter put his hand up to his mouth and laughed.

“You really didn’t have to do all this for me,” the younger told Tony, a small smile still gracing his face.

“I would do anything for my soulmate” Tony replied with a soft grin.  Peter’s smile, however, began to fade a bit, making the billionaire’s eyes turn concerned. “Is everything okay?”

Peter sighed. “It’s just that word.  Soulmate.  I just . . . it’s just strange to me.”  Before Tony could even open his mouth to reply, Peter added on, “Not in a bad way or anything!  I’m really excited to have a soulmate and you’re amazing. It’s just that having a soulmate or even just anyone to care for me is . . . weird, I guess.”

Tony wondered if Peter could hear his heart splintering and shattering in his chest.  His soulmate’s words echoed in his head, the broken tone they were uttered in going straight to his gut and making it churn uneasily.

“Pete . . .” Tony started but trailed off.

“I know, I know. I sound really dumb,” Peter noted, a sad smile on his face as he looked down at his hands folded in his lap.

“I don’t think it sounds dumb.”

The vigilante risked a glance up, only to find Tony looking at him with a loving yet melancholy expression.

“Nobody’s cared and you deserve so much more,” Tony told him. “I never looked for my soulmate.  I just . . . believed that whoever they were wouldn’t want me.  Then, Peter, I found you and I just wanted to get to know you and love you and be your soulmate.”

“Tony, I-” Peter started but was cut off.

“I saw you and I knew that I never wanted to let you go. I didn’t even know if you wanted me as your soulmate and I was taken aback that you actually did.  And then . . . then I talked to you for a few minutes and it broke my heart.” Tony let out a chuckle that sounded slightly like a sob. “You are one of the most amazing people I have ever met and you have gone through so much shit that you don’t deserve and you’re still so wonderful.  Under every mask of apathy, I found the real Peter Parker, the one who makes me laugh and is a genius and the one that I planned this date for and the one that I want to plan a million more dates for.”

Tony’s emotions were on full display, concern and sorrow and love painting his features.  Peter couldn’t stop the look of shock and love that his face morphed into, crystal clear tears pooling around his coffee brown eyes.  He wiped away his tears with the sleeves of his sweatshirt, Tony catching a glimpse of his soul sentence as he did so.

The two soulmates fell into easy conversation as a chef came by and put down plates of spaghetti with arancini on the side, the scent of the food wafting through the cold, early spring air on the roof.

“Traditional Italian food?” Peter asked and looked up at Tony as he picked up his fork.

“I’m Italian and I thought it would be fun for us to have some traditional food,” Tony responded with an easy smile that Peter returned.

“I didn’t know you were Italian.”

“I mean, we haven’t had that many chances to talk.”

“Besides the fact that we text all the time every day.”

The two laughed and returned to their food, letting a comfortable silence fill the air on the rooftop terrace. It was quiet and cozy without them having to try.  It was a feeling that Peter hadn’t felt in a long time.  He couldn’t help but relish in the feeling of content that was filling up his chest. It was like happiness was returning, the whole world turning back to being right once more. 

It couldn’t last though.

“I really hate to bring this up,” Tony quietly started, “but I have to ask about the red cheeks and new bruises. Same bullies?”

The content poured out from his chest, leaving the empty, hollow feeling that Peter almost always felt.

“Same bullies,” Peter muttered in confirmation before taking another bite of his pasta to avoid having to say anymore.  Tony sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, leaving the worry to fill Peter’s head.

“I, uh, I know. I’m just- they’re . . . it’s really okay.  It’s kinda stupid. I mean, I’m a superhero and I deal with worse. It’s not that bad.  It just kinda looks . . . bad?” Peter stuttered over his words as he choked them out, hoping Tony wasn’t exasperated with him.

“What? No, it’s not stupid!” the billionaire insisted. “You’re being hurt! That’s not dumb. You shouldn’t be getting hurt.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about it,” Peter told him quietly, barely meeting the man’s eyes.

“But I do,” he declared, his voice rising in volume. “You’re my soulmate, Pete, and I can’t stand you coming over here and always having to see you hurt!”

“I’m sorry,” Peter blurted out, guilt eating away at the inside of his stomach.

“Don’t apologize, love.” Peter blushed at the nickname. “I’m supposed to worry. That’s my job as your soulmate.”

“I’m just not used to having somebody who cares so much about this.”

“I’m going to change that.”

+++

“It cannot wait, I’m yours.”

-Jason Mraz, I’m Yours

After dinner, they slow danced to music played by a live pianist.  Towards the end of one of the songs, Tony leaned in and pressed a light kiss against Peter’s lips, and everything felt right.

+++

“Hold, hold on, hold on to me, ‘cause I’m a little unsteady, a little unsteady.”

-X Ambassadors, Unsteady

Later that night, Peter and Tony found themselves cuddled up in Tony’s bed as a movie played in the background.  The warmth between them began to fill Peter up with content again, the gentle feeling of skin against skin calming him down. It truly felt like he was ninety-three floors up from all of his problems.

Then his phone began to ring.

The sound startled the couple, disrupting the soft peace of the room. Peter pulled away from the embrace and grabbed his ringing phone off the bedside table while Tony paused the movie.  He wiped at his bleary and unfocused eyes until he could make out that the contact was Aunt May.

Shit.

Slightly panicked, Peter accepted the call and put the phone to his ear, shooting up from the bed and starting to pace the room.

“Peter Benjamin Parker, where are you?!” May shouted loud enough that Tony, who was worriedly watching Peter pace, could slightly make out what she had said.

“Uh, I’m, uh, at Ned’s,” Peter attempted to lie, but May knew better.

“I already called Ned and he said you weren’t even friends, so I have no clue who you think you’re fooling,” she replied sternly.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll be there soon and I’ll explain. I promise,” Peter swore and hung up the phone before his aunt could answer him.  He sighed and threw his phone on the bed before flopping down beside it.

“Fuck,” the younger muttered, bringing a hand up to cover his worried face.

“Was that your aunt?” Tony asked him, sitting down on the edge of the bed and intertwining their hands.

“Yeah,” Peter replied, sitting up and putting his head on his soulmate’s shoulder. “She wants me to go home, but I thought she was working the night shift.”

Peter began to stand up, pulling his hand away from Tony’s to grab his phone and shove it in his pocket before grabbing his sneakers off of the floor.  He sat down on the bed once more and laced his shoes up.

“I’m so fucked,” he groaned as he ran his hands over his face once more. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say to her! ‘Oh, hey, May! Where was I? Oh, yeah, just at Stark Tower because my soulmate is Tony Stark! Anyway, it’s nice to see you because we rarely see each other anymore. Goodnight!’  I can’t just say that!”

“Maybe . . . maybe you could,” Tony told him after a beat of silence. Instead of replying, Peter just gave him a look as if he was out of his mind. “Hear me out! I could come with you and we could explain everything! It’ll be fine!”

“I . . . you would come with me?” Peter questioned quietly and looked up at Tony.  The genius gave him a gentle smile.

“If you’re okay with it.”

“Then we should get going because she is going to kill me if I’m not there in the next twenty minutes.”

Tony stood up, grabbing Peter’s hand and dragging him up too. He grabbed a pair of sneakers and slipped them on before snatching a jacket up from where it was carelessly thrown on the back of a chair.

“I’ll drive,” Tony announced before intertwining their hands once more and pulling Peter with him.  They speed-walked through the halls of the penthouse and took the elevator down to the garage. Tony picked a car that wasn’t too flashy, though Peter would disagree on that, and got in the driver’s seat, leaving the younger to get in on the other side.

The ride over was filled with conversation and Tony assuring his young lover that he would be okay.  What Tony didn’t say was that Peter could stay over at the tower for however long he needs if his aunt needs time to process everything.  He internally made the promise though.

When they pulled up to the apartment complex and parked along the street, Peter had to take some deep breaths.  Tony turned the car off and reached over the console to take Peter’s hand in a gesture of comfort and reassurance.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Tony guaranteed. “We’re gonna be okay.”

Peter nodded and took one final breath before opening the car door, Tony doing the same on the other side.  Luckily, the street was practically empty and too dark to see much, so nobody saw as Tony Stark walked to the other side of a flashy car and took his soulmate’s hand.  The two quietly walked up to the building and Peter unlocked the door with one hand, having had many years of practice doing so.  They climbed the stairs, not even bothering to approach the elevator because they wanted to stall having to tell May.

Finally, they reached Peter’s floor and found themselves in front of the door.  They disconnected their hands and the younger fumbled around in the side pocket of his bag to get his key.  Once he got it, he took a breath and softly swung the door open, immediately seeing Aunt May glaring at him from the kitchen, her anger evident on her face.

“Peter Benjamin Parker, where were you?!” she shouted, making Peter flinch back a bit. “I got my shifts moved around and thought ‘won’t it be great if I come home early and get to spend some time with my nephew?’ But apparently not because you aren’t at home and you aren’t at your friend’s house and you won’t answer my texts and I was just stuck-”

May cut herself off, finally seeing Tony standing behind her nephew with a mix of worry and guilt painted on his face.  She couldn’t help but gawk at him for a minute in complete and utter confusion.

“Peter,” she whispered dangerously, “you have ten seconds to tell me why the fuck Tony Stark is in my doorway.”

“Well, that’s, uh, that’s a funny story,” Peter stuttered, scratching the back of his neck anxiously and not meeting his aunt’s eyes.  He took a step in as she glared at him and Tony followed, gently closing the door behind him.

“Peter,” she warned, “tell me what’s going on.”

“I found my soulmate!” he blurted, finally making eye contact with the woman.

“You . . . you what?”

“I found my soulmate,” Peter repeated quietly, shoulders sagging.  May gave him a bewildered look before sighing and walking over to the living room.  She sat herself down in an armchair and put her head in her hands as she rested her elbows on her knees.

Peter and Tony shared a distressed look before hesitantly following her. They sat on the couch, a little closer than an acquaintance or co-worker would, and May noticed this when she finally looked up.  Her eyes traveled down to where Peter’s soul sentence would be and realized that it was uncovered for the first time in years as if it had never been hidden away at all.

“Who?” May questioned quietly, meeting Peter’s gaze.  Her nephew fell quiet, unsure of what to say.

“Me,” Tony told her gently, making the woman’s eyes fall on him.  Her face morphed into confusion and then shock, brows furrowing.

“You?” she asked in bewilderment. “You, Tony Stark, are my nephew’s soulmate?”

Tony simply nodded, not knowing what else to tell her. He felt so uncertain, terrified of what could come out of his mouth if he opened it.

“I . . . I just can’t . . . I can’t even process this,” May stammered out, looking between the two men, completely and utterly astonished.

“I should probably go for now,” Tony murmured and the ‘for now’ wasn’t lost on her.  She could only wonder how long they had known they were soulmates.

“We still on for next Friday?” Peter asked him, tearing his gaze away from his startled aunt.

“Of course,” Tony replied with a tender smile.  He gave his soulmate a kiss on the forehead, not wanting to straight out kiss him goodbye in front of the rattled woman, and began to leave, but not before turning around and shooting one more concerned look at the woman.

Once the door had shut, Peter and May looked to each other again, the young adult nervously twiddling his thumbs.

“Peter-” May started but the teen interrupted her.

“Let’s just drop it, May,” he said decidedly and stood up, beginning to make his way to his bedroom.

“Why did Ned say you guys weren’t friends anymore?” she asked him and her nephew stopped dead in his tracks.  He slowly turned around but kept his gaze on the carpeted floor.

“Because we aren’t friends anymore.”

“Why? When did that happen? Why didn’t I know?”

“Because you never cared to ask!” Peter shouted, looking up at her.

May finally noticed the bruises, the purple and yellow around his arms and his ankles.  His cheeks were red as if he had been slapped.  The bags under his eyes gave away the little amounts of sleep he’d had.

“He stopped talking to me! Found his soulmate and left, okay?! It doesn’t matter!” Peter continued, venom laced into his tone. “Let’s just leave it!”

May Parker didn’t know what to say in the slightest.  She was baffled beyond belief.  Her nephew, the only living relative she had, and only through marriage, was standing before her, shouting and bruised and without a friend.  It opened up a pit in her stomach as wide as a canyon and she felt like she was falling into it.  She hadn’t been there.  She hadn’t been there for anything that had happened and it felt awful.  She felt awful.  What type of guardian was she?  She wanted to scream and cry and get mad but it was only at herself.

“When did you find out who your soulmate was?” May questioned quietly, not finding it in herself to even raise her voice a bit.

“A month ago,” Peter told her softly, his face showing off his defeat. “And it was the best day I’ve had in a year and a half, no thanks to anyone I knew before it.”

Peter turned around and left, slamming his bedroom door behind him and leaving May to go over everything she had done wrong.

+++

“Do we have to talk about it? You know how I make you feel, right?”

-gnash, feelings fade

Much to Peter’s surprise, the next week was not too terrible.  As it was nearing the end of the year, most of his grade was too worried about college acceptance letters and scholarships to notice him, so he spent most of the week slipping under the radar.  There were only a few shoves here and there, giving his previous bruises and cuts time to heal.

Peter was sitting in his last period of the day, eagerly awaiting the final bell.  His physics teacher had seen how antsy the students were, as it was their last period before the weekend, and gave them the last ten minutes of the period to do whatever they wanted.

As soon as the teacher had announced that they could do whatever they wanted until the bell rang, Peter pulled out his sketch book and a pencil.  Ignoring the world around him, the young man began to draw, letting the sound of his peers talking fade into the background.

Ned was sitting right next to Peter, as they had been given assigned seats at the beginning of the year.  He was looking at his phone, scrolling through Twitter, but couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to the friend he’d drifted apart from.  He watched as Peter sketched out a picture of space, with Jupiter in the middle of the page.  He followed the boy’s eyes as he looked down at his wrist with a small smile.

Ned nearly had a stroke as he realized that Peter’s soul sentence was uncovered.  He had never seen it before, as Peter had always been really secretive about it when they were still friends.  His gaze was focused on the word ‘Jupiter’ as Peter went back to his drawing.  In a rash decision, Ned decided to speak up.

“Did you find your soulmate?”

Peter startled a bit before looking at Ned.  He shyly pointed a finger towards himself, silently asking if the boy was talking to him.  He received a small nod in response.

“Uh, well, yeah,” Peter replied, looking down at his wrist before looking back up at Ned.  “It’s a really weird story.”

“Are they, uh, nice?” Ned asked, unsure of what else to say.

“Yeah . . . he’s great.  Sweet, supportive, kind, loving. He’s everything you could ever want in a soulmate.”  Peter looked a bit wistful, eyes soft as he traced a finger over the soul mark.

Ned opened his mouth to speak again, but the dismissal bell rang.  He watched as Peter quickly shoved his sketchbook into his bag before flinging it over his shoulder and racing out of the classroom.

All Ned could think was, ‘Who even is he anymore?’

+++

“Keep me in your glow, ‘cause I’m having such a good time with you.”

-Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour

“Thanks, Happy!” Peter exclaimed as he made his way out of the car.  He received a light grumble in response, but he knew that Happy still appreciated the thanks.

The young genius made his way to the private elevator, ignoring all the confused looks he usually gets from staff in the lobby.  As he stepped in, FRIDAY spoke up.

“Good afternoon, Peter!” she greeted kindly.  “Boss is in the penthouse kitchen.  Would you like me to take you there?”

“Yes.  Thank you, Fri!”

Peter checked his phone as the elevator ascended.  He scrolled through Twitter, just taking a look at what was going on and retweeting a few dumb posts that he found funny.  He slipped his phone back into his pocket as the doors opened.

The young man was met by the sight of his soulmate leaning against the counter with a mug of coffee in one hand and his phone in the other.  He looked up from where he was checking his email once Peter walked in.

“Pete!” He set down his coffee and phone on the counter.  The younger man dropped his bag by the elevator doors and ran over, the two embracing each other.  Peter buried his head into Tony’s shoulder and the man put his chin on the crown of his soulmate’s head.  The two fit together like two puzzle pieces that were always meant to go together.  They stayed that way for a few moments before pulling apart, though they continued to stand close to each other.

“How was your week?” Tony asked gently.

“It actually wasn’t too bad,” Peter admitted with a shy smile.  “Everybody’s really preoccupied with figuring out what college they want to go to and trying to get scholarships for it that I was able to just fly under the radar.”

“That’s really good,” Tony replied with a smile.  “I’ve never actually asked you what college you’re going to.  Have you already accepted an offer somewhere?”

Peter gave a small sigh at that, looking away from Tony and down at the floor. “I’ve been accepted to a few good schools and I was hoping to accept an offer from MIT, but my aunt and I just don’t have the money for me to pay tuition, even with what we’ve been saving for years, and I don’t qualify for enough financial aid scholarships to cover it.  So I’m probably gonna take a gap year or two to get a job and save up.”

Disappointment radiated off the younger man and it was obvious to Tony that his soulmate wished he could just go off to college right after senior year like pretty much everybody else.  An idea sparked in Tony’s mind.

“I can pay your tuition!” he exclaimed with a smile.  Peter quickly looked up from the floor to give Tony a bewildered gaze.

“I couldn’t ask you to-”

“But you aren’t asking me to!  I’m offering and, by ‘offering,’ I mean that I’m paying your tuition to whatever school you want to go to and I’m not taking no as an answer.”

“Tony, tuition is so expensive!” Peter argued.

“And I’m a billionaire!  It wouldn’t make a dent in my wallet!” Tony countered.

“But-”

“Peter, it’s okay!  I have the money and you deserve to go to college!  I’m not gonna let you give up the opportunity to go to a school you want to go to just because-”

“Tony, I’m not a charity case!” Peter shouted, cutting the man off.  The room fell into silence, Tony staring at him in shock.  Peter just averted his gaze, staring back at the floor.

“What?” Tony breathed out in confusion.

“I’m not a charity case,” Peter repeated in a quieter voice. “You don’t have to pay my tuition just because I’m some poor kid from Queens.”

“Peter . . . that’s not why I want to pay your tuition,” Tony told him gently, reaching forward to grab the younger man’s hands.  “I want to pay your tuition because you’re my soulmate, and I want everything for you.  You deserve the fucking world.”

Peter looked up from the ground, his hopeful eyes gazing into Tony’s. “You promise you’re not just doing this because you pity me?”

“I promise.”

Peter raised himself up a bit, balancing on the balls of his feet, and gave Tony a short peck on the lips before coming back down and leaning his head against the man’s chest.  Tony released his hands in order to wrap his arms around the boy, Peter mirroring the action and wrapping his arms around Tony’s waist.

“I’ll let you pay for my tuition under one condition,” Peter said quietly. “You can only pay for whatever my college savings doesn’t cover.”

“Deal,” Tony replied with a smile, glad he had convinced his soulmate . “And it’s not like you’ll have to pay for a dorm on campus.”

Peter pulled back a bit, looking up at the man in confusion.

“I have a penthouse that’s basically right next to campus,” he elaborated, “so you can stay there and I can go visit all the time.”

“Don’t freshman usually have to live in the dorms?”

“I can pull a few strings.”  Tony shot him a wink.  When Peter opened his mouth to protest, Tony simply said, “Trust me, those dorms are disgusting.”

Just accepting it, Peter laid his head back on Tony’s chest.

+++

“I started working as a dime store clerk. I thought it would make me the kind to put you first.”

-Blind Pilot, Packed Powder

That evening, Tony and Peter sat on the couch together, Peter’s laptop open.  Peter found the email that announced that he had been accepted and went to the link that prompted him to accept or decline the college offer.  Taking a deep breath, the younger man moved his mouse and clicked to accept.  A screen popped up, congratulating him for being MIT-bound and giving him information about the next steps.

Peter just stared at the screen in shock while Tony jumped up from the couch and started clapping.  The younger man set his laptop to the side and his soulmate pulled him up from where he was sitting, giving him a quick hug.

“You’re going to MIT!” Tony exclaimed as he grabbed Peter’s hands.

“Holy shit, I’m going to college! I’m going to college! I can’t even believe it!” Peter exclaimed.

“MIT is pretty impressive,” a voice spoke from behind the couch.  The two soulmates whipped around only to be met with Pepper fucking Potts right outside the doors to the elevator.  Peter froze up while Tony gave the woman a huge smile.

“You must be Peter,” she says, walking forwards and offering a hand to him over the couch, which the young man tentatively shook.  “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Um, all good things I hope,” Peter replied sheepishly as he pulled his hand back.

“All great things,” Pepper assured him before taking on a teasing smile. “Ever since you two met, Tony has spent half his time talking about you.”

“Really?” Peter questioned while Tony looked a bit abashed.  Pepper gave him a nod along with a huge grin.

“Anyway, I just came up to hand some paperwork off to Tony,” she told them, motioning to the files she had placed on the counter, “but I’m really glad I finally got to meet you, Peter.”

“I- uh- um- it was really nice to meet you too,” the young man stammered out with a small smile.

And with that, Pepper went back to the elevator to return to whatever she had been working on before.

“Do you think she liked me?” Peter asked as he tore his gaze away from the elevator doors and looked at Tony.

“Oh please, she already loves you.”

+++

“One, two, three, and four. How long til I feel like myself again? And I’d walk out the door, but where would I go?”

-Tessa Violet, Honest

The next night found Peter eating an awkward dinner with May.  Tension continued to linger between them from the conversation the week before.  Neither could come up with a topic of conversation, so they just sat there in silence, focusing on their meals.  Finally, Peter spoke up.

“I committed to MIT.”

May looked up at him, eyes wide and mouth agape.

“Peter, what the fuck?!” she shouted, standing up from her place at the table. “You know we can’t afford tuition to MIT!  You and I decided you were going to take a gap year or two where you could work and save up money!  Why would you-”

May cut herself off as he finally took another look at her nephew, who was just looking up at her calmly.  Slowly, she lowered herself back into her chair, giving him a suspicious look all the while.

“Can I explain?” he asked, seemingly unflappable.

May, unsure of what else to do, simply gave him a nod.

“My soulmate𑁋” May was never going to get used to him saying those words. “𑁋asked me about college and I told him my plan to reject all the acceptances so I could save up money during a couple of gap years.  He simply interjected and said he would pay for my tuition, and I-”

May cut him off again. “What?! You’re just-”

Peter cut her off right back, being just a little bit louder than her. “I told him no.  He kept trying to convince me and I told him I wasn’t a charity case.  He was . . . shocked.  He didn’t realize I felt like he was only offering cause I’m some poor kid from Queens.”

May was quiet and the look on her face was indiscernible.

“He assured me it wasn't because of that, but that he wanted to because I’m his soulmate and he thought it was wrong that I had to turn down an offer from an amazing school just because I couldn’t afford it.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but Peter kept going.

“I made a deal with him.  He could pay my tuition, but only the part of my tuition that my college savings don’t cover.  He told me he had a penthouse near campus and that I could stay there so I wouldn’t have to pay extra for a dorm room.  So, I committed to MIT and, whether you like it or not, I’m going there in the fall.”

May stayed silent as her nephew stood up from the table and walked to his room without another word.  She couldn’t fall asleep all night and, when she heard Peter’s window open at one am as he came back from patrol, she left a plate of food outside of his door, knowing he would still be hungry after not finishing his dinner.

+++

“I won’t hate you, but oh it stings.  How does it feel to be adored by him?”

-dodie, Adored By Him

Only a little over a month ago, Peter would’ve jumped at the chance to be friends with Ned and MJ again, despite how quick they were to leave him behind as soon as they found their soulmates.  Once MJ had left him too, Peter began to feel as if he was only a stand-in until his (ex) friends’ soulmates came along, ready to replace him as if he’d never been there at all.  He remembers trying to convince himself that he was being irrational, that all of these thoughts were just him being over dramatic.  He tried to defend their actions, no matter how much they had hurt him.

Once Peter met Tony, that changed.  He’d told his soulmate how he felt, trying to downplay it and make it seem as if he was the one who had been acting like a shitty friend.  It took a lot of time and many conversations for Peter to begin to realize that he was allowed to feel upset that his friends had abandoned him.  It wasn’t his fault.

A little over a month ago, Peter would’ve jumped at the chance to be friends with Ned and MJ again.  Now, Peter had no interest in being friends with either of them.

It was midday on Tuesday and Peter was sitting at lunch, just texting his soulmate.

Soulmate<3: Do you have any plans for spring break?

Peter: nope lol

Soulmate<3: Have you ever been to Italy?

Peter: no???

Soulmate<3: We should go during your spring break!

Just as Peter went to respond, somebody sat down across from him.  He sighed and looked up, expecting one of his bullies, but, instead, he saw MJ, looking like she was trying to play it cool.  He saw right through her, though, as she was avoiding eye contact and had a slight flush on her face.

“What do you want, Michelle?” Peter asked coldly, setting his phone down on the table.  He watched her wince a bit as he called her by her real name instead of her nickname.  “You don’t sit over here anymore.”

“Sydney isn’t here and I wanted to sit with somebody I know,” MJ told him, crossing her arms.

“Why don’t you just sit with Ned?” he shot back at her with a raised eyebrow.

“His table is full.” She motioned and Peter followed her movements, looking at the table where Ned was sat with his soulmate, all the other seats being filled up with his new friends.

“Well, I’m sure you know plenty of other people, so why don’t you go sit with them and leave me the fuck alone.”

MJ was quiet for a few moments, just looking at Peter.  He glared right back, not breaking eye contact, as if he were daring her to say something else.

“Your soul sentence is uncovered,” she said quietly, focusing her gaze on his wrist.

“And?” he retorted, but didn’t bother hiding his wrist.

“And why is it uncovered? You’ve always kept it covered. You never even told Ned and I that it said𑁋” she stopped to look at it for a moment more. “𑁋Jupiter.”

“Well, it’s not like it even fucking matters, considering we’re not friends anymore.”

“But-” MJ started to counter, but Peter’s phone buzzed, interrupting her.  He went to reach for the phone, but she grabbed it first, looking at the notification.

Soulmate<3: Did I scare you off?

It buzzed again.

Soulmate<3: I know how you feel about me spending money on you, but I feel like you’d like Italy a lot!

And again.

Soulmate<3: Just give it some thought. It would be a really fun vacation! I promise Italy is really cool and I have some villas and such in a few cities, so we could travel around the country!

And once more.

Soulmate<3: Anyway I’ll see you this afternoon! I love you!

MJ slowly handed the phone back to Peter, who looked down at the notifications, quickly reading them, before looking up at the girl’s shocked face.  Peter, without a second thought, slung his bag over his shoulder, standing up and walking out of the cafeteria.  After a beat, he heard MJ running after him.  He made no attempt to speed up or hide, simply resigning to his fate of being bombarded by her questions.

“Peter!” MJ called, catching up to the boy.  She eventually did and started walking by his side, having to speed up as he began to power walk.  Eventually the two entered the library and MJ followed Peter all the way to the back, where he set his bag on a table and collapsed onto a chair next to it, glad to be hidden by the bookshelves.

MJ just slowly sat down in the other chair, turning to look at Peter.  He, decidedly, did not meet her eyes.

“So . . . you found your soulmate,” she said more than asked.

“Why does it matter to you?” he snapped, trying to keep his voice down. “Why do you give two shits who my soulmate is?”

“Because we used to be friends.”

“The key phrase there is ‘used to,’ as in, we aren’t friends anymore, so let it go.”

MJ fell silent, her gaze once again falling to Peter’s wrist.  Something felt familiar about it, as if she had some idea of who his soulmate is.

‘What’s your favorite planet?’

‘Jupiter’

MJ’s eyes widened in realization as she looked back up at Peter’s face.

“Holy. Shit,” she said, staring at him.  He turned to her with a suspicious look.

“What?”

“Holy shit!” She still tried to keep her voice down.

“What?!”

“It all makes sense! The lecture, Jupiter, your soul sentence suddenly being uncovered, your soulmate wanting to take you to Italy! Your soulmate is Tony-”

Peter slammed a hand over her mouth, effectively shutting her up.  His eyes were wide as he tried to figure out if anyone had heard her words.  Slowly, giving MJ a look of warning, he took his hand off of her mouth.

“Is he . . . no fucking way,” she said, voice quieter.

Peter’s shoulders sagged and he began to fiddle with his fingers, looking defeated. “Yeah, he’s my soulmate . . .”

MJ paused, just needing to let it sink in.

Peter fucking Parker was Tony fucking Stark’s soulmate.

And, even more than that, Tony fucking Stark was Peter fucking Parker’s soulmate.

“You can’t tell anybody,” Peter told her quietly, anxiety dripping into his voice. “It’ll get leaked to the press and . . . everything will suck for me and him.”

“I . . . I won’t tell anybody,” she promised, “but you’ve gotta answer my questions about it.”

Peter sighed, but nodded.

“Is he, like, actually interested in being in a romantic relationship with you?” MJ asked tentatively.

“I mean, he sets up romantic dinner dates and invites me over all the time and wants to take me to Italy, so you can probably fill in the blanks,” Peter answered, a bit of sarcasm laced into his voice.

“What’s he like?”

“Kind, sweet, supportive, caring.  He’s pretty much everything you could ask for in a soulmate.”

Despite having her own wonderful soulmate, MJ couldn’t help but be a bit jealous by the way Peter described his soulmate with a loving look in his eyes.  A sweet, caring soulmate who wants to whisk you away to Italy over your spring break and set up romantic dates for you all the time?  That’s basically everybody’s dream.  She couldn’t even begin to imagine being adored by a world famous billionaire superhero.  From the loving look in his eyes, MJ could practically see how in love the two were.  Tony Stark probably worshipped the ground Peter walked on and would give him the universe if he asked for it.

Everybody wanted that— MJ wanted that.

“Does he know about, ya know, your alter-ego?”

“He built me a new suit actually.”

“Have you two done it?”

Peter’s eyes went wide and he looked at her in shock. “Jesus Christ, absolutely not. He knows I’m not ready and he’s . . . actually really okay with that.”

The questioning went on and on until the bell rang.  The two stood up and prepared to go their separate ways, but before MJ could leave, Peter grabbed her wrist.  She looked back at him in confusion.

“I was serious when I said that you can’t tell anybody. If anything is leaked to the press, I’ll know exactly who did it and me and my soulmate won’t hesitiate to destroy your entire fucking life.” The girl had never seen Peter act so cold, so she nodded along, a bit scared, until Peter let go of her wrist and she could leave.

That afternoon, Peter could feel MJ’s eyes burning holes into his back as he got in Happy’s car.

+++

“Nothing’s gonna hurt you, baby.  As long as you’re with me, you’ll be just fine.”

-Cigarettes After Sex, Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby

When Peter reached the penthouse floor of Stark Tower and the elevator doors opened, the first thing Tony said to him was “Did I scare you away by asking if you wanted to go to Italy?”

The young man sighed, dropping his bag by the elevator before walking to the living room and collapsing onto the plush couch that probably cost more than his apartment’s rent.  Tony walked after him and lifted Peter’s head up a bit so he could sit down, placing his soulmate’s head down on his lap and beginning to run his fingers through his hair.

Peter hummed a bit at the comforting gesture. “I was going to respond to your text, but then MJ sat down at my lunch table.”

“What did she say?”

“She told me that her soulmate wasn’t there and she wanted to sit with somebody she knew.  Then she commented about how my soul sentence was uncovered.  As soon as I told her that it was none of her business, my phone buzzed.  She read the texts, I ran away to the library, she followed. Long story short, she put all the pieces together and found out that you’re my soulmate.”

Tony sucked in a breath, completely freezing up.

Sensing the man’s anxiety, Peter continued. “I threatened that if she told anybody, then we’d destroy her life. She seemed pretty scared, so I think we’ll be safe.”

The man let out a breath of relief, going back to back to running his fingers through his younger soulmate’s hair.  The two let the room be silent for a little bit, simply basking in each other’s presence.  Finally, Tony spoke up.

“So . . . about Italy.”

Peter sighed.

+++

“What would it feel like to put this baggage down? If I’m being honest, I’m not sure I’d know how.”

-Sleeping At Last, Six

Peter climbed through his window a little past midnight, having gone on patrol right after having dinner with Tony.  He took the suit off and changed into some more comfortable clothes before walking to the kitchen, hoping to grab a snack before he went to sleep.

When he got to the kitchen, Peter found May sitting at the table with a mug of tea.  She appeared to be deep in thought, but looked up when her nephew came in.

“Peter,” she murmured, stopping the boy in his tracks, “can we talk?”

It may have been a question, but Peter knew he couldn’t say no.  So, he padded forward gently and sat down on the chair across from the woman, not meeting her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, making him look up at her. “I haven’t been there for you. I haven’t been a good guardian. I have no excuse. Yes, I was working a lot to pay rent, but . . . I should’ve been checking up on you instead of just assuming that you were okay.”

“Aunt May-”

“No, Peter. I’m sorry. I barely talked to you. For fuck’s sake, I didn’t even know you’d met your soulmate! That’s inexcusable.”

May tore her gaze away from Peter’s eyes, looking down at the table as tears fell.  Guilt came off of her in waves.

“Aunt May, I’m not gonna act like it’s all okay, but I accept your apology. It’s obviously not all gonna go back to normal right now, but I’m willing to put in the effort if you are.”

“Of course I’m willing to put in the effort, Pete.” She met his eyes once more. “You’re my nephew, and I love you.”  She stood up and walked around the table, leaning down to give him a hug.

“I love you too, Aunt May.”

They stayed like that for a few moments before pulling away.  May sat back down, but now on the chair next to Peter.

“Now, tell me about this soulmate of yours.”

Peter laughed a little, giving her a smile as he began to tell her about Tony.  She nodded along and asked questions, chuckling at the stories he told about all the dumb things they’d done together.  Finally, the conversation was starting to wind down.

“He wants to take me to Italy for my spring break,” Peter admitted quietly, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“You should go,” May told him.  The young man looked up at her in shock so quickly that he might’ve given himself whiplash.  “I’m serious! It’d be fun for you and it’ll be nice for you to get away with your soulmate for a little bit.”

“You’re sure you’re okay with it?”

“Peter, I only want the best for you.”

+++

“I don’t care if you’re not sorry, I forgive you. And with or without your support I will continue.”

-The Front Bottoms, Cough It Out

Just like the day before, on Wednesday, Peter was sitting at lunch and texting Tony, who was figuring out all the details for their trip to Italy.  Then, because Peter couldn’t go a single day without something happening to him, two people sat down at his table.  He looked up and saw MJ, once again, but she was with her soulmate this time.

“What do you want?” Peter snapped as he turned off his phone.  He kept a hold on it though, not wanting to make the same mistake as last time.

“Um . . . I’m Sydney,” the girl introduced herself, extending a hand across the table.  Peter looked down at it and then back up at her, raising an eyebrow.

“I know. We met before I quit AcaDec,” Peter replied dryly, causing Sydney to retract her hand a bit.  “If you two don’t want anything, then could you very kindly fuck off?”

“I just wanted my soulmate to meet one of my friends,” MJ told him.

“We aren’t friends, Michelle.”

“Look, I’m extending an olive branch here. You obviously have no friends-”

Peter cut her off. “And whose fault is that?  Oh, right, you and Ned’s. Completely forgot that you two cut me off and avoided me for a year and a half!  Funny how stuff like that slips my mind!”

The two girls winced a little bit, not saying anything as Peter went back to looking at his phone and resolutely ignoring them.

“Are you texting your soulmate?” MJ asked him, leaning over the table to see his phone.  Peter quickly pulled it back, shutting it off once more.

“What’s it to you, Jones?” he replied in lieu of an answer.

“I was just curious if you’re going on that Italy trip.”

“Did you tell her?” Peter demanded, leaning into MJ’s space aggressively as his eyes flickered to Sydney for a second. “‘Cause if you did, you’re completely aware that your life would be ruined, right? You know that he would absolutely destroy you everything you’ve ever loved, and for all the shit you’ve put me through, I wouldn’t even try to stop him.”

“Is that a threat?” she challenged.

“It’s a promise.”

Sydney looked back and forth between the two as they stared each other down, her face giving away how confused she was.

“I didn’t,” MJ conceded, leaning away.  With one last glance to the girl’s soulmate, he leaned away too, but there was still that dangerous air to him.

“Smart choice.”

“I’m sorry, but what the fuck is going on?!” Sydney asked, looking absolutely bewildered at the interaction.

“It’s a long story,” MJ replied without tearing her gaze from the boy in front of her, “but that’s not the point. Like, I said, I came to extend an olive branch. You let us sit here at lunch, and we’ll ward off Flash and his clique from coming near you.”

Peter mulled it over in his head, eyeing her suspiciously.  After a few moments, he seemed to make up his mind.

“Fine, but you can’t force me to talk to you.”

“Deal,” MJ agreed, putting a hand forward. Peter shook it before going back to looking at his phone.  Sydney didn’t say anything, but continued to shoot the boy confused looks every once in a while.

“And, Michelle?” Peter piped up just before the bell rang.

“Yeah?”

“We’re still going on that Italy trip.”

The girl gave him a small smile, which he didn’t return, before getting up and leaving, Sydney by her side.

+++

“Aren’t you the guy who tried to hurt me with the word goodbye? Though it took some time to survive you, I’m better on the other side.”

-Dua Lipa, Don’t Start Now

The next week and a half passed in a blur of less bruises than usual, hanging out with Tony, trying to make things go back to normal with May, and sitting with MJ and Sydney during lunch.  Peter didn’t really talk to the two, leaving them to their own devices.  It took him a couple days to even greet them when they sat down, and a few more to make any conversation with them.  He decided that lunch definitely wasn’t his least favorite part of school.

Finally, finally, it was Peter’s last period of the day before he was released from school for his two weeks of spring break.  As soon as that bell rang, he was going to race out of there and go meet Happy, who would drive him to the airport, where he’d board Tony’s private jet and be whisked away to Italy for an incredible vacation with his soulmate.

Everybody was just sitting around and talking, eager for the bell to ring so classes would end and break would begin.  Peter was enthusiastically texting his soulmate, who, despite having traveled to Italy several times, seemed just as excited for the trip as Peter was.

Ned, much like two weeks before, couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to Peter, who was smiling down at his phone.  His eyes drifted to his soul sentence again, where the word “Jupiter” was still beautifully scrawled.  Peter, able to sense the gaze, turned to look at Ned.

“Who are you texting?” Ned asked, trying to play it off.

“It’s nobody,” Peter replied before going back to texting, assuming that the boy would be satisfied with that answer.

Ned, not wanting the conversation to die, continued. “I, uh, I noticed that you’ve been sitting with MJ and Sydney. That’s new, I guess.”

“Less like I’m sitting with them and more like they’re sitting with me.”

Ned, again, was not satisfied, so he tried once more. 

“Are you doing anything over spring break?”

“Some stuff, yeah,” Peter told him, not looking up from his phone. “Doing a bit of traveling.”

“Oh, you and May are going somewhere?”

“Nope.”

Ned sighed, but, for reasons unknown to him, he didn’t want to give up until he got a real answer.

“Are you-”

“Why do you even give a shit?” Peter interrogated, looking up from his phone to face Ned. “We haven’t talked in a year and a half, so I’ve got no fucking clue why you care now.”

“I’m just curious!” Ned defended.

“Why? Because I’ve got a soulmate now? Is that why you’re so fucking curious? Well, I don’t give a shit, Leeds. So why don’t you go run off to your perfect little life with your soulmate and your new friends and leave me the fuck alone.”

“What happened to you, Peter? Why are you like this?”

“Wouldn’t you be oh so eager to know?!”

The bell rang and everybody raced to get out of the classroom, excited for break.  Peter was happy to run out alongside those people, effectively ending the conversation.

Ned moved slower, watching the boy go.  As he slung his bag over his shoulder and followed the crowd, he could only think of what an enigma Peter Parker had become.

+++

“Baby, there’s no question, no competition. I love you more.”

-Son of Cloud, I Love You More

“First time out of country?” Tony asked as he watched Peter stare out the window of his private jet.  The younger man turned to him, looking sheepish.

“Second time out of state.”

“I guess I’ll have to force you to travel with me more.” Tony took Peter’s hand gently in his, rubbing circles into the back of it, and the younger man gently rested his head on his soulmate’s shoulder, feeling happier than he’d felt in a while.

“You already know what I’m going to say to that.”

“I do, but I’m still gonna try.”

Peter only snorted.

+++

“‘Cause I am captivated by you, and I am so in love with the things you do.”

-mxmtoon, late nights

“Holy. Shit.” Peter was standing outside Tony’s villa in Florence as the chauffeur who drove them there brought their bags inside.  The villa was large, with beautiful landscape in the front and an elegant porch that had large curtains drawn open.  Ivy was growing up the walls and there was a balcony on the second floor that spanned the entire length of the house.  It looked grand in the early afternoon light.  He stood, completely entranced, as his soulmate came up beside him and put an arm around his shoulders.

“What do you think?”

“What do I think?” Peter repeated incredulously. “What I think is that this place is absolutely insane!”

Tony only laughed and grabbed the younger man’s hand, pulling him inside the villa.  As expected, it was as luxurious inside as it was outside.  It wasn’t the type of luxurious that the tower was, though.  It was less high tech and more open air, with plush couches and potted plants and large windows and hardwood floors.  It could be described as looking like the embodiment of the typical luxurious Mediterranean house.

Peter looked around in awe as Tony led him up the stairs and through the second floor hallways to their room.  It had a gaudy california king canopy bed and french doors that led out to a balcony overlooking the pool that was in the backyard.  Through an open door, Peter could see a spacious bathroom.  He broke away from Tony’s hold to step forward and examine in, slowly spinning in a circle to take it all in.

“You like it?” Tony asked, bringing snapping Peter out of his trance of astonishment.

“Like? Tony, this place is unbelievable!” the younger man exclaimed as his soulmate walked over to him. “Like, this is practically the most beautiful home in the world.  I’ve never been somewhere that looks like this before!  It’s absolutely extraordinary and I-”

Tony grabbed Peter’s hands in his own, which made the younger man stop rambling and look up at him.

“I just want you to have the most incredible spring break in the world.”

Peter couldn’t help but smile at that.

The late afternoon found the two soulmates lounging in beach chairs by the pool, soaking up the golden rays of the afternoon sun and drinking local wine.

+++

“But it’s too late. You believe in fate.”

-dodie, Absolutely Smitten

“Why do you love me?” Peter asked Tony on their last night in Florence.  They were sitting on the balcony after having gone sight-seeing all day, overlooking the landscaping in front of the villa, with a delicately made cheese and meat platter on the small table between them.

“What?” Tony inquired, turning to look at the young man who was curled up in his chair and looking out over the gardens.

“Why do you love me?” Peter repeated before shifting his gaze to look at his soulmate. “Of all the people in the world?  I know we’re soulmates, but beyond that . . .”

He paused, looking away from Tony again.

“What did you even see in me that made you want to be my soulmate when you easily could’ve walked away and never seen me again?”

It was silent for a few moments, Peter simply staring out over the balcony railing and Tony studying him.

“I spent thirty-one years thinking I didn’t have a soulmate.”

Peter turned to look at him, but he had started staring out at the landscape.

“Honestly, when I got my soulmark, I felt so guilty. I couldn’t help but wonder what poor soul would be stuck with me as a soulmate. I intended on never going out looking for my soulmate.  I didn’t want to burden whoever it was in that way, they didn’t deserve that. I spent all this time trying to avoid my soulmate, and then I ran straight into you. Funny how fate works, right?”

Peter tore his gaze away from Tony and looked down at his lap, messing with the hem of his shirt.

“And then I met you, and I felt guilty all over again, but it wasn’t the same. I felt guilty because you were suffering, looking for anybody to hold onto, and I was out there, in the same exact city, doing everything I could to avoid you.”

Peter looked up at his soulmate, who was already looking at him, and their eyes met.

“I couldn’t𑁋 can’t let you go. You’re sweet and kind and compassionate and a genius. You were this ethereal being that crashed right into my life and, if you met me and still wanted to stay, then there was no way I could let you go.”

Peter closed his eyes, tears gently rolling down his cheeks.  Tony shifted forward and wiped them away with the pad of his thumb and the young man leaned into the touch.

“I love you,” Tony whispered.

Peter opened his eyes and looked up at him. “I love you too.”

+++

“Love has flooded my heart and there’s rain in Venice for the first time.”

-Steve Harley, Rain in Venice

Tony’s villa in Venice was along the canals.  It, of course, was smaller than the one in Florence, but it was just as elegant.  The moment they entered the city, Peter fell in love with the canals and the buildings lining the water.  Tony made a mental note to bring him to Amsterdam one day.

The days spent in Venice were much more laid back than those spent in Florence.  Tony took Peter to the Teatro La Fenice to see a ballet performance and they spent the days visiting old churches and being rowed through the canals.  Peter had insisted they visit the Ghetto Ebraico di Venezia, the small part of the island that the Jews in Venice had been forced to move to in 1516, as he had promised May he’d go to get a bit closer to his Sephardic roots.

Peter had seen movies that took place in Venice, rom-coms and such, but he took them all with a grain of salt.  Over the course of his stay in Venice, he began to wonder if perhaps those movies weren’t as fictional as he thought after all.

+++

“Hold my hand, darling. Pull me in your waters. When you call my name, I’ll be on my way.”

-Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Pacific Love

As Peter had predicted, Tony’s villa right outside of Rome was just as fanciful as the one in Florence, with a fountain out front, several balconies, an outdoor shower that overlooked vineyards, and an even more elegant pool in the back.  They had arrived there towards the evening, just as the sun was beginning to set, so they decided to eat dinner on the balcony connected to their bedroom, watching the sun go down as they talked about their plans for the next day.  There were so many museums to visit and sights to see𑁋 and there were a few places that couldn’t not go.

The Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Sistine Chapel, the Arch of Constantine, and the Vaticans were must-sees, of course, but more was added to the plans for the rest of the trip, such as going to a wine tasting and seeing Palatine Hill.

As Peter slipped his hand into Tony’s, he reminisced about how everything felt right.

+++

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are sitting on lounge chairs by the pool in the late afternoon with two half-full wine glasses sitting on the small table between them.  They are both in shorts and a t-shirt.  Both are smiling, laughing over something.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking along the Ponte Vecchio.  They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are in the Uffizi Palace and Gallery.  Stark is reading the plaque next to a statue while Parker looks up at said statue.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking through the Boboli Gardens, holding hands.]

[snapshot; Florence, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are eating dinner on the front balcony of Stark’s villa.  They appear to be laughing about something.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are being rowed along in a traghetti along the canals of the city.  Parker is looking at the buildings in awe while Stark is looking at him lovingly.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are eating dinner at a restaurant along the canal.  Parker is taking a sip from his wine glass while Stark appears to be telling him a dramatic story.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are sitting across from each other in a cafe.  Both have a cup of coffee in front of them.  Stark appears to be speaking while Parker is giving him a look of fond exasperation.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking into the Teatro La Fenice to see a ballet.  They are both dressed nicely.]

[snapshot; Venice, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of a synagogue at the Ghetto Ebraico di Venezia.  Parker looks extremely emotional and Stark has an arm around his shoulder.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in one of the rows of the Colosseum, overlooking it.  Parker looks amazed and Stark is looking at him with a smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of the Pantheon, looking up at it.  They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are at the Trevi fountain.  Parker has his back to the fountain and his eyes closed as he throws a coin over his shoulder into the water.  Stark watches him with a smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark are sitting on the ledge of the pool, both in swim trunks, with their feet dipping in.  Each has a glass of wine beside them.  Parker is leaning his head on Stark’s shoulder.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are standing in front of the Arch of Constantine.  They are holding hands.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are walking through a vineyard.  They appear to be going to a wine tasting.  They are holding hands and Parker appears to be talking.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker and Tony Stark, who is in a disguise, are sitting on a picnic blanket in a park with grapes, cheese, meat, and wine in front of them.  Parker has a homemade flower crown on his head that he appears to have made from the wild flowers around them. Parker is putting a homemade flower crown on Stark’s head and the latter is looking at him with a fond smile.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is leaning over the edge of the balcony connected to the villa’s master bedroom.  Parker is wearing only a too-big button down shirt and a pair of shorts.  He is holding a wine glass in his hand.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is leaning over the edge of the balcony connected to the villa’s master bedroom.  Parker is wearing only a too-big button down shirt and a pair of shorts.  He is holding a wine glass in his hand. Tony Stark is hugging him from behind.  Stark’s head is resting on Parker’s shoulder.  They are looking out over the vineyards.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is sitting in a chair by the pool with a journal and pen in hand.  Stark sits beside him, reading a book.]

[snapshot; Rome, Italy; Peter Parker is standing alone on the balcony in the front of the villa.  He has a slightly sad smile on his face and he leans over the railing.  He appears to be looking up at the stars.  His mouth is open, like he’s saying something.]

+++

“But I’m gonna have to learn that this love will never be convenient.”

-The Front Bottom, Tattooed Tears

On the day that the two soulmates were meant to fly back home, Peter woke up to his phone buzzing incessantly on the nightstand.  Sluggishly, he pulled himself up a bit and grabbed it, looking through the notifications.  His Instagram suddenly was getting a ton of new comments and followers and people were tweeting at him, asking about being with Tony.  Panicked, he opened up Safari and typed in his name.  It came up with pictures of him and Tony throughout their trip in Italy and news articles about who he was.

Peter turned his phone off and set it back down on the bedside table.  He pulled himself out of Tony’s arms and got out of the bed.  He stood up, but just froze, staring out the window.  He didn’t even notice when tears began dripping down his face.

“Peter?” Tony asked groggily, blinking against the light shining in through the window.  The younger man turned around and faced him.  Once Tony saw the tears, he shot up and scrambled out of bed.  He gently took Peter’s hands and led him to sit down on the edge of the bed.

“They found out,” Peter told him, voice choking up.

“Found out about what?” Tony rubbed circles on the back of his soulmate’s hand.  Peter grabbed his phone off the table and pulled up Safari again, showing Tony the search results from earlier.  The man only stared at the news articles and pictures of them, disbelief and a bit of fear shining in his eyes.

“Someone must’ve leaked something to a tabloid cause they’ve been following us and I . . . I don’t know what to do.” Tears came down faster as Peter rambled on.

Tony let go of the younger man’s hand and wrapped him in an embrace, pulling him close to his chest.  “I promise, we’ll figure this out.  We’ll put together a press conference and, afterwards, we’ll destroy the life of whoever leaked it.  Everything will be fine.  I’ll be right there beside you the entire time.”

As Peter’s sobbing slowed, the two pulled away.  Tony kept his hands on Peter’s shoulders though, whether to ground himself or his soulmate, he wasn’t sure.

“I’m gonna call Michelle,” Peter declared, determination seeping into his tone, “and I’m gonna figure out if she pulled this shit or knows who did.”

Tony only gave a nod as Peter pulled up the old contact from when the two teens were still friends, intertwining his hand with Peter’s free one.

The phone barely finished ringing once when the girl picked up, Peter putting her on speaker.

“Peter, I know it looks bad, but I wasn’t the one who pulled this shit,” MJ told him before he could even get a word out.

“Why should I trust you?” Peter bit back, but his voice wavered a bit.

“You know me. You know I wouldn’t have done this. We may not be friends, but I wouldn’t hurt you like this, I wouldn’t ruin things like this. You know that.”

Peter let out a shaky sigh. “You wouldn’t have. I know that, but did you tell anybody?”

“I only told Sydney because she was demanding answers out of me, but I already talked to her this morning and she was freaking out about the whole thing, genuinely worried about you. I told her before decathlon practice so nobody was there that could’ve heard-”

MJ paused, her end of the line going silent.

“Holy shit, I think I know who leaked it!”

“Who?! Please, MJ, you gotta tell me.”

“Flash must’ve gotten there early or something! We both know everybody on the team and none of them would do this except for him!”

Peter paused, the realization that Flash had fucked up his life more than he already had with his bullying sinking in.

“Peter, I’m so sorry . . .”

“I know you didn’t mean for him to overhear it, MJ.  I don’t blame you.”

“Hey, Peter?” she asked.

“Yeah?” he responded cautiously.

“Fuck up his entire life for me, would ya?”

“What else would I do? Let him get away with this shit? He’s gonna regret this shit for the rest of his life.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Peter hung up the phone and turned to Tony. His eyes shone with determination as he thought of how much he was going to fuck up Flash’s life. “I have a good feeling about this.”

“Really?” Tony laughed. “Because I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Then I’ll just have to prove you wrong.”

+++

“Does that seem right? Wade through pain to know the chosen life?”

-Jack Stauber, Pizza Boy

The moment Peter and Tony got off their eight and a half hour flight from Rome to New York, they were being whisked off to a press conference.  When they reached backstage, Pepper threw them each a pair of clothes and ordered that they go freshen up in the bathroom so they don’t look like absolute shit at the conference.

When they got back to her, she was pacing back and forth rambling off orders to an assistant, who looked freaked out.  She stopped when the two soulmates showed back up, now looking like they were actually ready to face the press.

“Pepper, I’m so-” 

“Peter, don’t say sorry. This wasn’t your fault,” the CEO told him before turning to both of the soulmates. “I may be stressed about this whole thing, but I’m not mad at either of you.”

Peter gave her a small, sad smile that she returned.

Footsteps were heard behind the two soulmates, so they whipped around, coming face-to-face with Rhodey.  The man quickly extended a hand towards Peter.  The young man took it, the two shaking before separating.

“I’m Rhodey, though I’m hoping Tony already told you about me,” he introduced with a humorous tone, but everybody could tell he was trying to hide his nervousness. Peter gave a smile a nod at that. “I’m glad to finally meet you, Peter, but I wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”

“I wish it wasn’t either, but I think it’s gonna be okay.”

As the clock hit three pm, Pepper walked out on stage and to the podium.  Reporters began yelling questions, but she held up a hand to silence them.

“As you are all aware, some photos came out recently after an unknown person leaked Dr. Stark’s new relationship to the press. Before anything else is said, I would like to let you all know that this was highly inappropriate, not only leaking this relationship, but also taking pictures of someone’s private life. The reporter who did this had absolutely no right to do so and there will be repercussions.”

The room stayed silent as she paused.

“Unfortunately, what has happened cannot be undone, and so we must have this press conference much earlier than we were hoping to. Now, Dr. Stark and Mr. Parker will come out to answer questions.”

Pepper stepped away from the podium as Peter and Tony walked onstage, one of Peter’s hands intertwined with Tony's.  The younger of the two winced a little bit as the cameras began flashing and questions were yelled at them.  As they stepped up to the podium, Tony raised a hand, signaling everybody to be silent.  Luckily, it worked; the man had always been the kind of person who could control the room.

“You all know me, but, due to unfortunate circumstances beyond our control, today, I am introducing you all to Peter Parker, my soulmate.”

The room went up in a frenzy as he said the word “soulmate,” reporters taking pictures and more questions being yelled.  Tony held up a hand once more before motioning to Peter to speak.

“Hi. My name is Peter Parker, and I apologize because I’m new to this whole ‘press conference’ thing, and by new, I mean this is the first time I’ve even stepped foot into one,” the young man introduced sheepishly.  The crowd gave light laughs at what he’d said.

“We will now be taking questions,” Tony announced.  Hands went up and questions were yelled. The man searched through the crowd, eventually picking someone. “Yes, the reporter from CNN.”

“Mr. Parker, according to what’s been revealed through the press leak, you are eighteen, correct?” When Peter gave a nod, the woman continued. “So when and how did you and Dr. Stark meet?”

“It’s kind of a funny story actually,” Peter replied a bit sheepishly. “About three months ago, Tony was actually giving a lecture at my school about aerodynamics and, since it was only the senior class, we were all allowed to ask one question, so that’s how we found out.”

“Um . . . the reporter from the Washington Post,” Peter called out before the room could get too crazy.

“What do your soul sentences say?” the reporter asked.

“Mine says, ‘What’s your favorite planet?’” Tony answered, holding up his wrist.

“And mine says, ‘Jupiter.’” Peter held up his wrist too.  Cameras flashed as the reporters rushed to take pictures of them showing off their soul sentences. The soulmates met eyes and gave each other a smile before looking back out at the sea of people.

“Reporter from the Wall Street Journal.”

“Dr. Stark and Mr. Parker, why did you two decide to keep your relationship hidden once you two met?”

“We kinda wanted to keep it on the down low until I graduated high school,” Peter admitted shyly.

“We knew it would affect both of our lives once the public knew,” Tony continued, “and we wanted to wait until we were ready. As you can see, though, the choice to wait was taken from us.”

“Uh . . . the reporter from the LA Times,” Peter called.

“Mr. Parker, seeing as you are being introduced into the limelight, would you be willing to tell us some more about you?”

“Uh, sure, I suppose,” the young man answered, a bit surprised by the question. He’d never really been asked about himself, as most people weren’t very interested in what he did. “I’m sure you all already know, but I’m a senior at Midtown School of Science and Technology, so you can assume I’m a bit of a nerd.”

“‘A bit’,” Tony said with a snort.

“You don’t get to talk. You’re practically the king of nerds!” Peter shot back, causing his soulmate to fondly roll his eyes.

“Besides that,” he continued, getting back to the question, “I like to read poetry and draw. Also, I believe one of the photos was Tony and I in the Jewish ghetto of Venice. We were walking through because I insisted, seeing as I’m Jewish. Side note, I can’t believe that with all the Jewish guilt I grew up with, my soulmate still ended up being a goy. My ancestors must be so disappointed that I didn’t score a nice Jewish boy.”

The crowd laughed at that and Tony gave him a playful shove that the young man returned.

“The reporter from the Huffington Post!”

“Mr. Parker, it’s going around that you are going to MIT in the fall, and that is Dr. Stark’s alma mater, correct? Could you tell us about that?”

“I am going to MIT in the fall, that is correct,” Peter replied before Tony cut in.

“And before anybody says anything, Peter got accepted to MIT before we even met each other, so I had nothing to do with it.”

Peter nodded along before calling on another reporter.

“Mr. Parker, obviously you are being thrust into the spotlight very quickly. Do you feel able to stand it and everything that comes with it?” asked the reporter from the New York Post.

“It’s definitely going to take some getting used to, and I wish I had been able to do it on my own terms, but I think I’ll be able to get through it. Plus, I have Pepper to make sure I don’t say anything too embarrassing.”  Peter smiled at Pepper offstage.

“Reporter from the Daily Bugle,” Tony called out and Peter felt a sense of dread.

“Now, seeing as you, Mr. Parker, are 18 and you, Dr. Stark, are 49, there is a 31 year age gap between the two of you. Is nobody else worried about this? Mr. Parker, do you parents feel okay about this? Are they worried that you’re being taken advantage of?” The reporter looked smug.

Tony opened his mouth to respond, but Peter cut in before he could.

“First of all, obviously soulmate relationships don’t always seem conventional, they go beyond traditional. It’s not like we can argue against fate. Second, nobody else is worried about this because I am an adult who can think for myself and recognize when relationships are toxic. Third of all, if you took five minutes to look up the information about me that people found once my identity was leaked, you would know that my parents are dead and I was raised by my aunt and, by the way, she’s just fine with me being in a happy relationship.”

The room went silent, everybody taking a moment to absorb the answer that the young man had just given.  Before long, the conference got going again.

“The reporter in the very back. I apologize cause I can’t see what company you’re with, the man in the blue shirt.”

“I’m with Breitbart News,” he told them. “I was wondering, despite being soulmates, is this a more traditional relationship or more of a monetary exchange?”

“Are . . . are you asking if I’m a sugar baby?” Peter questioned incredulously.

“I was trying to say it in more formal terms, but, yes, that is basically what I was saying.”

“No hate to people who make money that way, but I’m not a sugar baby. This is a genuine relationship.”

“You should see how much I try to get him to let me spend money on him,” Tony cut in with a smile. “When I suggested we go to Italy for his spring break, it took hours of arguing to finally get him to agree to go. Even then, I think it was just because I wore him out.”

Peter rolled his eyes but gave a smile.

“One last question. We’ll take it from the NPR reporter towards the back.”

“Mr. Parker, do you have any plans for working at Stark Industries?”

Peter lightly smiled at that. “I was already working with Tony in the lab and I’ll continue to do that, but I think Pepper wants me to look around a little bit in the business side of the company, so I’ll probably end up shadowing her for a bit.”

“Thank you all for coming,” Tony called out before he and Peter walked off stage, both waving as they did so.

When they got off, they were greeted by Pepper, who had a big grin on her face, along with May, who had finally gotten to the tower in the middle of the conference.  She came up and gave her nephew a big hug, making sure he was okay.  After several reassurances that he was fine, May pulled back, satisfied.

“Do you think it went well?” Peter asked Pepper anxiously.

“I think it went better than expected.”

+++

“He’s never gonna make it. All the poor people he’s forsaken. Karma is always gonna chase him for his lies.”

-Alec Benjamin, Outrunning Karma

The moment that Peter arrived at school, he already knew it was going to be a bad day.  As he stared through the windshield at all the paparazzi surrounding the school, he let out a tired sigh.  Tony had tried to convince Peter to let him drive him to Midtown, but he had refused, thinking he was prepared to face his newfound stardom on his own.  As he sat in the driver's seat, gazing out at the sea of reporters and students while anxiety bubbled in his gut, Peter began to regret not taking Tony up on his offer.

Deciding he couldn’t delay it any longer, Peter turned off the car, grabbed his backpack from the passenger's seat, and opened the door.  He stepped out of the car, swinging the bag over his shoulder as he closed the door and locked the car Tony had lended him.  The slam of the door alerted people to his presence, and he was quickly crowded with paparazzi.  Gritting his teeth, Peter attempted to move through the horde, slowly getting through.  By the time he made it through the entrance of Midtown, he felt like he’d spent hours just trying to push through the reporters.

To nobody’s surprise, all the students in the lobby stared at Peter as he came into the building.  He tried his best to ignore their gawking as he walked through the halls to his locker.  As he turned down the first hallway from the lobby, two people came up on either side of him.  He looked to them, feeling anxious, but realized that it was only MJ and Sydney, standing by him as if they were guards.

“Are you doing okay?” Sydney asked him, genuine worry laced into her voice.

“As okay as I can be at the moment,” Peter replied, but gave her a smile that she returned.

“So . . . not very okay?” MJ questioned with a hint of sarcasm.  Peter let out a small laugh.

“Yeah, not very okay, but at least I’ve got my two friends to help me.”

Both MJ and Sydney stopped in their tracks, Peter stopping only a foot ahead of them as he quickly realized they fell behind.  He turned around, giving the two a questioning look.  They slowly came back to his sides and began to walk with the young man, both looking a bit tentative.

“Are we . . .” Sydney started but trailed off.

“Are we friends?” MJ asked him quietly.

“Yeah . . .” Peter replied quietly, “I think we’re friends.”  He turned and smiled at them and they returned it as they got back to their normal pace. 

As the three rounded the final corner, they all stopped, finding Flash and his little posse of rich assholes all standing in front of Peter’s locker, the leader of the group leaning right back against it with a smug smile on his face.

“Well, if it isn’t the sugar baby slut himself, Peter Parker!” Flash announced to the hallway, causing Peter to roll his eyes. “Oh, are you getting an attitude now?”

“Can I just get to my locker, Flash?” the boy asked, him, MJ, and Sydney walking forward until they were right in front of the clique.

“Damn, you're moody today, Parker. Has being spoiled by your sugar daddy made you whiny when you don’t get what you want?”  Flash’s gang laughed while MJ and Sydney looked like they were getting ready for a fight.  The student lining the halls whispered to each other as they watched.

“Listen, I’ve dealt with enough bullshit these past few days already, so can you just lay off for the first time in seven years? Get your head out of your ass and take a moment to look past your own ego. Isn’t bad enough that my relationship and my identity got leaked for the entire world to see and now I’m gonna be followed by paparazzi until I die?!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Parker! That must be so hard! I wonder who in the world could’ve leaked your identity?” Flash’s fake sympathetic face turned into a smug grin once more as he reached the end of his sentence.

Flash was expecting Peter to cry or scream or punch him.  He was waiting for the boy to storm off or get into a full blown fight with him.  Internally, he was hoping he would be lucky enough to see him have a full breakdown in the middle of the hallway.

What Flash wasn’t expecting was for Peter to start laughing.  A huge grin spread across the brunet’s face and he looked away for a second, running his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip and turning back to Flash, all while chuckling like a mad man.

“You're an absolute idiot. You do realize that, right?” Peter asked once he stopped laughing.  The smile was still on his face.

“What?” Flash shot back, brow creasing.

“I said that you, Eugene Thompson, are an absolute idiot.”

“What are you on about, Parker?”  Flash took a threatening step towards the boy.  To his surprise, though, the brunet didn’t look scared in the slightest.

“No, wait, I think he’s onto something,” MJ cut in with a somewhat sadistic grin.

“Yeah, I can see where you’re going with this, Peter,” Sydney added, appearing to be in on whatever the boy was talking about.

“Spit it out, Parker,” Flash threatened, towering over the other boy.

“You do realize my soulmate is Tony Stark, right?”

“Obviously,” Flash retorted, rolling his eyes. “The entire world knows now because somebody was so cruel as to give away your identity to a reporter!” He looked proud of himself.

“A reporter who trespassed onto private properties owned by Tony several times in order to get those pictures.”

“So what?”

Peter snorted, looking up at the boy in disbelief. “I can’t believe you aren’t catching on to what I’m implying.”

Flash’s brow creased even more.  A feeling of dread built in his stomach as Peter looked at him, eyes filled with pure, unadulterated glee, as if everything he ever wanted was about to come true.

“Can you even begin to imagine how mad my soulmate is about me not being able to come forward about my relationship with him on my own terms?” Peter questioned, voice laced with slightly sadistic happiness. “And can your tiny brain even process how much power he holds in the world? And do you have any idea of how much my soulmate genuinely cares about me? Maybe, since you are on the decathlon team, you’ll find a way to connect the dots.”

Flash paled, him and all of his posse taking a step back from the boy.

“Now, how do you think Tony felt when, on the day he met me, his soulmate, I was covered in bruises and scrapes and had a black eye because of you? And then how do you think he felt when I told him about how you’d been bullying me for seven years? And how about when I kept flinching cause I was terrified I was gonna get hit like I did every day in these very hallways? How livid do you think my soulmate is right now? I can promise that he’s ten times more angry than that.”

Flash was trembling, staring at the boy who could ruin his life with a single word.

“Peter, do you remember what you told me when I first found out about who your soulmate was?” MJ asked the brunet with an evil grin directed at Flash.

“Of course!” Peter turned to look at MJ. “I believe I said, ‘If anything is leaked to the press, I’ll know exactly who did it and me and my soulmate won’t hesitiate to destroy your entire fucking life,’ and later I told you that it wasn’t a threat, but a promise.” He turned back to flash. “And, lemme tell you something, Flash, I never go back on promises.”

The bully was shrinking in on himself, gazing wide eyed at Peter.

“I’m not gonna encourage Tony to do anything,” Peter told him with a kinder smile, and the boy began to gain back his confidence. “But I’m not gonna stop him either. Now, can I get to my locker?”

Flash quickly scurried out of Peter’s way and his gaggle of rich kids dispersed immediately, leaving him standing there beside the locker.  As Peter grabbed his things, he made conversation with MJ and Sydney, the three swapping stories from spring break. Halfway through MJ’s story about how she and Sydney got gal-pal’d at a cafe where they were having a date, Peter closed his locker door to see Flash still next to his locker.

“Why are you still here?”

“Your soulmate . . . he isn’t actually gonna hurt me, right?” the bully asked, voice wavering like Peter had never seen before.

“He isn’t going to hurt you, Flash,” Peter replied with a smile. “He’s gonna hurt your future and I’m not gonna stop him.”

Without another word, the three teens left, heading to their first class, as Flash just watched them go, wondering what would happen to him.

+++

“And for a moment I thought you were there, but, then again, it wasn’t true.”

-AURORA, Runaway

The day passed in a blur of stares and teachers being unusually nice to Peter.  Despite how nice it was to not have to deal with bullies, Peter felt worn out by the time he collapsed into his seat in physics, his last class of the day.  About a minute after he sat down, other people started flooding in.  Ned sat down at the desk next to him but awkwardly kept his gaze towards the front of the room.  When the bell rang, Mr. Harrington stood up from his desk and closed the door before standing in front of the chalkboard.

“Today we’re going to continue the renewable energy unit that we started before spring break. Keeping true to our syllabus, we’ve covered hydroelectric, biomass burning, solar energy, wind power, and geothermal. As I told you at the beginning of the fall semester, in an attempt to keep up with modern science, they added on an extra energy source to look at.  After that, we’ll be finished with this unit.”

Most of the class let out a sigh of relief.  Physics units tended to drag on and everybody was glad to be moving onto something new.

“So for the next couple of days,” the man said, taking a glance down at the clipboard he was holding, “we’ll be talking about Stark Industries’ arc reactor technology as a renewable energy source.” He stopped and looked up at the class, and at one student in particular.

Peter was looking forwards at the board, decidedly ignoring all the eyes on him.  The room was silent for a few moments as everybody just stared at the boy sitting in the back corner of the room.

“If you wanna say something, then go ahead and say it,” Peter dared, finally looking away from the board.  The class looked slightly apprehensive and he figured that news about his little confrontation with Flash must’ve gotten around.

“Well . . .” Mr. Harrington started uneasily, “I suppose we just, uh, you know . . . had something to say about it since . . . since you’re . . .”

“Since I’m what?” the brunet replied with a challenging glint in his eye.

“Since you’re . . . well . . . uh . . . well, I don’t wanna make you uncom-”

“No, I wouldn’t be, so why don’t you go ahead and tell me what I am,” Peter tested with a dangerous smile, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

The tension in the classroom was thick enough to cut with a knife.

“I thought you'd like to say something about the arc reactor technology since you are, um, Tony Stark’s, you know, uh, soulmate and all,” Mr. Harrington quickly rambled, his voice lowered a bit as if hoping Peter wouldn’t hear it.

Everybody stayed quiet as Peter uncrossed his arms and leaned forward a bit, putting an elbow on his desk and resting his chin in his hand as if bored.  “Well, it’s a fusion reactor that can produce an electromagnetic field, provide renewable energy, the whole nine yards. It has a palladium core and a new element was synthesized to stop the reaction within Tony’s body due the palladium that was poisoning him, et cetera. Can we get back to normal class please?”

Slowly, everybody turned back to the front of the room, where Mr. Harrington was frozen.  Seeing the eyes on him, he jumped back to reality and started the lesson.

Towards the end of the class, Ned worked up the courage to rip a bit of paper off of the page he’d been writing in and pass a note to Peter.  He watched out of the corner of his eye as the boy opened it, looked at it with raised eyebrows for a moment, scribbled something down, and then carelessly threw it back to him.  Ned picked it up and saw what was inside.

Under his original note, which read ‘so what happened at the beginning of class was crazy, right?’ was Peter’s simple response of, ‘I guess.’

Ned just let out a sigh and crumbled up the note, shoving it into his backpack and giving up for the time being.

When the bell rang, Peter rushed out of class and Ned ran after him.  By the time he got outside of the classroom and caught sight of his old friend, though, the boy was walking with MJ and Sydney, the three of them laughing over something.

‘When did they become friends?’

+++

“As I watched you walk away, I felt something in me change.”

-Sorority Noise, Blonde Hair, Black Lungs

Ned spent the rest of the week trying to talk to Peter in physics, the only class he had with the boy, and watching him, MJ, and Sydney hanging out during lunch or in the halls together.  All of the students stayed out of the way of the three friends, more terrified of Peter than MJ, despite how much scarier her demeanor was.

Despite all of his friends and his soulmate, Ned was realizing that he missed Peter a lot.  He yearned for their days of going to the library during lunch to hide from Flash and having Star Wars marathons with the boy.  He couldn’t believe that he’d let go of his best friend so easily after their years together.

“No, no, really!” Peter’s voice cut through Ned’s thoughts. The table Peter sat at with MJ and Sydney was actually pretty close to his own and he couldn’t help but let his eyes drift over.

The two girls were laughing, but he was laughing with them.

“I swear!” the brunet got out through his laughs. “He walked in and went, ‘Do you know who Jimmy Fallon is?’ and I was so confused because who the fuck doesn’t know who Jimmy Fallon is?!”

Peter and Ned used to video call and watch Jimmy Fallon together on school nights, talking about how they hoped to get invited onto the show one day and why they would be invited.

“And then what did he say?” Sydney prompted.

“He just goes, ‘I was hoping you did because Pep scheduled you to go on his show on Friday’ and I just immediately walked out on him!”

Ned watched MJ open her mouth to say something, but a hand waved in front of his face, breaking him out of his trance.  He turned and saw Jacob, his soulmate, looking at him in concern.

“You okay?” he asked, brows furrowed.

“Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind.”

In the background, he heard MJ say, “That’s honestly insane! I would love to be on Jimmy Fallon!” and Peter responded, “Tony said I’m allowed to bring people backstage, so you two should come with me tonight!”

In the foreground, he heard his mind wishing it was him that Peter was inviting.

+++

“Shooting stars never fly for me. My heart’s on Mars, kinda hard to see.”

-Shakka, When Will I See You Again

That night found Ned on the couch with his mom, Emilia, The Tonight Show playing on the TV.  He had been home alone for a little over a week since his dad was (and still was at that moment) on a business trip and his mom was out volunteering with the Red Cross to bring water to a small village in Lebanon, meaning that she’d been completely disconnected from the news cycle.  Before long, the interview portion of the show came up, and Ned felt dread building up in his stomach.

“With us tonight, we’ve got a young man from Queens who was recently thrown into the spotlight, and I have the honor of being the first talk show host to interview him. You probably already figured it out, but Peter Parker is here with us tonight!”

“No fucking way,” Emilia breathed as she watched her son’s friend walk out on stage, shake hands with Jimmy Fallon, and sit down on the chair closest to the desk. She turned to her son with confusion written across her face. “Ned, why the fuck would Peter be on The Tonight Show?”

Ned opened his mouth to answer but Peter talking on screen stopped him. “Thank you so much for having me!”

“Of course!” Jimmy responded with a smile. “I’m glad I get to be the first person to interview you after the press conference! Speaking of which, you did great in that!”

Ned and his mom just watched the show, frozen.

“Thank you!” Peter replied with a laugh. “I was a bit worried that Pepper would be mad at me after I low key popped off at that Breitbart reporter . . . and when I just suddenly started talking about being Jewish and proceeded to call Tony a goy on stage.”

The audience laughed while Peter gave a sheepish smile.

“But, in terms of scoring a non-Jewish soulmate, Tony Stark is pretty high up there!”

“Holy fuck,” Emilia whispered, eyes glued to the screen.

“I guess, but have you seen Thor’s abs?” Peter joked. “I mean, I would gladly become a pagan if it ensured that he was my soulmate.”

The audience laughed once more, Jimmy joining in.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Tony and I love each other a lot.”

Awww’s sounded in the crowd while Peter gave a shy grin.

“Ned, what the actual fuck?” Emilia exclaimed, turning to her son, who gave a shrug before they both turned back to the TV, unable to stop watching.

“What’s it like being soulmates with Tony Stark? Is he as suave and smooth as people remember from his playboy years?” Jimmy questioned, leaning forward with his arms on his desk as if the young man was about to tell him some hot gossip.

“Absolutely not,” Peter replied plainly, making everybody chuckle. “He’s sweet, he’s supportive, he’s an absolutely incredible soulmate, but he’s also a huge dumbass.”

“Wait, you can’t just leave us hanging! You gotta tell us what he does!”

“Tony just forgets that he’s a human sometimes. Like, he somehow just doesn’t remember that he needs to eat and sleep. One of his little robots, Dum-E, likes to make him smoothies, but he puts motor oil in them, and usually Tony knows better than to drink them, but when he’s tired, he doesn’t even think twice.”

“Holy shit!” Jimmy choked out through his laughter. 

“Not to mention that he is nothing like the playboy persona he’s portrayed as. Affection and gift-giving are one-hundred percent his love languages. Everybody’s like ‘Tony Stark is a cool playboy who only cares about sex and being rich,’ but half the time we’re together is just us holding hands and hugging and cuddling.”

“This is absolutely incredible,” Jimmy says. “You got your identity leaked, got right off a flight from Italy, went to a press conference, told off a reporter, and then five days later literally destroyed the entire persona Tony Stark had built up. You’re amazing.”

“Somebody’s gotta tell the world that Tony loves setting up romantic dates and watching shitty rom-coms and if nobody else is going to, then it is my moral responsibility.”

“Absolutely incredible,” the host repeated, looking out at the audience and motioning to the young man before going back to his original position of looking at him. “So, what’s up for you next? What’re your plans?”

“Well, I’m graduating high school in a little less than a month and I’m going to MIT in the fall, which I’m super excited about! As for the summer, Tony is almost certainly gonna try and take me traveling, and as much as I tell him that it’s okay and he doesn’t need to do that for me, he won’t stop trying. He’s stubborn as all hell.”

“That's so nice though!”

“It’s really sweet, but it takes time to get used to having a soulmate who’s rich. Like, I live in a two-bedroom apartment in Queens with my aunt and now, suddenly, I have a soulmate who can just hang out in Paris for a weekend like it’s nothing. It’s like whiplash!”

“That’s absolutely insane.”

“I know, right? But it’s also really nice to have access to good scientific equipment so I can work on projects that I’m really hoping can help people!”

Jimmy nodded along, motioning for Peter to continue.

“Well, I’m working on making these bandages that are modeled after Spider-Man’s webs that would be biodegradable and also more effective than regular bandages because they could go on any size cut and wouldn’t fall off as easily. Plus they could be used in an emergency to stop someone from bleeding out from a stab or gunshot wound! Besides that, we're working with the Trevor Project to set up a shelter in Queens for homeless LGBTQ youth.”

“You seem really committed to these projects,” Jimmy told him sincerely, causing the young man to smile.

“I mean,” Peter replied quietly, “if you have the power to do something and you don’t, then how are you better than the bad guys? Now that I have the ability to help people across the world, I’m not going to stand on the sidelines and watch them suffer anyways. So I’m really glad that Tony and I are working on some great projects and that we’re going to help a lot of people.”

“Peter Parker, everybody!” Jimmy exclaimed, motioning to the young man, who blushed as the audience cheered for him.  Standing up and shaking the host’s hand once more, Peter waved as he walked back off stage, the applause following him as he went.

“Coming up, we have our guest performance from-”

Emilia turned off the TV and let the room fall into silence.  Ned looked over at her as she just stared at the black screen.  Slowly, she turned and met his eyes.

“So . . . Peter is Tony Stark’s soulmate?” Emilia asked her son distantly.

“Nobody knew until a bunch of photos of them on vacation in Italy were leaked,” Ned explained.

“He didn’t tell you? I thought you two told each other everything?!” Emilia’s tone echoed with confusion and concern.

“We haven’t really talked in a year in a half,” the boy admitted. “We kinda stopped being friends after I met Jacob, and then he didn’t really hang with anybody after MJ met Sydney.”

“You just left him all alone?”

Despite Ned knowing what he’d done in the back of his mind, the weight of it didn’t occur to him until that moment.  He was the reason Peter never had any protection from bullies. He was the reason Peter was always covered in bruises. He was the reason Peter stopped caring about everything and everyone around him.

If you have the power to do something and you don’t, then how are you better than the bad guys?

“Yeah . . . I guess I did.”

“You should talk to him,” Emilia told him quietly.  Then, she stood up and walked off to her bedroom without another word, leaving Ned in the dimly lit room with only his thoughts to keep him company.

+++

“But I’m a constant headache, a tooth out of line.”

-Joyce Manor, Constant Headache

Flash Thompson was flipping through channels as he sat on his family’s living room couch, trying to drown out the silence of the empty house.  Both of his parents were on business trips, so he was all alone.  With his homework done and him being unable to fall asleep, the boy found himself down stairs with a tub of ice cream he pulled out of the freezer.

Flash hit the button to switch channels again and found that he’d made it to HBO.  Seeing as it was a little past eleven thirty, Last Week Tonight was on the air and the host was finishing up his main story.  With nothing better to do, the high schooler put down the remote and watched.

“Now, I know we often finish with our main story, but we wanted to talk about an event we haven’t had a chance to cover yet, since we weren’t on the air last Sunday. I’m sure you’ve all heard about it, since you haven’t been living under rocks, but we wanted to talk about Peter Parker.” “You have to be fucking kidding me,” Flash groaned, rolling his eyes as a picture of his peer showed up next to the host.

“I know he’s been the talk of the week, but if you haven’t heard of Peter Parker, he is Tony Stark’s soulmate and the two of them were keeping their relationship private. However, somebody found out about their relationship and told a reporter about it. That reporter then followed them around their vacation in Italy, took pictures of them, and then posted them online, therefore leaking Peter’s identity and pushing him into the limelight.”

A couple of people in the audience booed.

“He’s actually handled it surprisingly well, though. He and Tony Stark did a press conference where they gave reporters a chance to ask questions and then, just on Friday, Peter went on The Tonight Show and talked about what his life is like and what he’s been up to.”

Flash looked at the TV deadpan as he remembered the interview.

“Very excitingly, I am being given the chance to talk to Peter Parker tonight, so everybody give him a warm welcome!”

The audience went crazy as John Oliver stood up and walked over to the area beside the space where his desk is.  There was a table with two chairs set up on opposite sides.  Peter Parker walked onstage and waved shyly as he made his way to his seat.  The two men shook hands before sitting down.  Flash booed at his TV from where he sat on his couch.

“Thank you so much for being on the show!”

“Thank you for having me!” Peter had a bright smile on his face. “I’ve been a fan of your show for a long time!”

“I’m glad to hear that, but that begs the question𑁋” John leaned in a bit, as if he were about to tell a secret. “𑁋has Tony Stark watched my show?”

The crowd laughed.

“He actually has! I made him watch it one night and he’s been watching it every week since!”

“Yes! We made it!” the host shouted, raising a fist up in victory as the crowd cheered and Peter laughed.

Flash rolled his eyes again and began to half tune-out the interview as he just stared blankly at the wall about his TV.  His mind was in a different place, thoughts running through his head at lightning speed.

‘Why does Parker get a rich and famous soulmate?’

‘He doesn’t deserve all of this!’

‘Why does everybody like him now?’

Flash tuned back into the interview at some point, catching the words that his classmate said.

“Yeah, I was bullied a lot, but it kinda stopped once I was outed as Tony’s soulmate. I think people are a little afraid of me now, but before that, it was really awful. It was extremely physical to the point where-”

Flash turned off the TV.

+++

“I wanna be someone to someone, someone to you.”

-BANNERS, Someone To You

Ned spent that school week attempting to build up the courage to talk to Peter.  He finally did that Friday, seeing Peter head to the library for lunch and promising to meet up with MJ and Sydney later.

“Hey, Jacob, I think I’m gonna go to the library for lunch,” Ned told his soulmate and bolted to after Peter, not giving the boy a chance to respond.

Ned slipped into the doors right after his ex-friend, watching as he disappeared behind some bookshelves and subtly following.  He kept a good distance as he pursued Peter and peeked through some books to make sure the boy was sitting down at the little study area in the back before making his way in.

The moment Ned stepped into the study area, Peter looked up at him, his face turning into a slight scowl.

“What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you,” Ned told him, practically begging.

“We’re talking right now,” Peter shot back sarcastically.

“Seriously.”

The brunet sighed and shut his laptop, which he had opened to work on his assignment.  Ned couldn’t help but to stop and notice that the laptop looked custom, looking nothing like the Stark Computers that were on the market.  It wasn’t lost on him that it was probably a piece of tech that Tony Stark had made for the boy.  He pushed away the thought that it was likely something the two soulmates had made together.

Ned took the sigh to mean that Peter was giving in and letting him talk, so he sat down in the chair across from him, twiddling his thumbs nervously in his lap.  It was silent for a few moments as they both waited for the other to say something.

“If you wanna say something, then go ahead and say it,” Peter told him, repeating what he’d said the week before in physics.

“I miss being friends with you,” Ned murmured, looking up and making shy eye contact with the boy, who did not seem fazed.  In fact, he only raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Are you fucking with me?” Peter asked him.  When Ned remained silent, Peter gave a small chuckle.  “You aren’t fucking with me. You really came to talk to me and say you miss being friends with me only after a year and a half and finding out who my soulmate is. You’re absolutely unbelievable.”

“Why can’t we be friends again? You’re friends with MJ!”

“Because MJ didn’t just try to be friends again. We slowly started hanging out and she didn’t give a shit who my soulmate was. She just hung around because she had nobody to sit with. We were like acquaintances who became friends.”

“I don’t care who your soulmate is! I just miss you!” Ned defended.

“Too little, too late.” Peter shoved his laptop into his bag, stood up, and left, not giving his ex-friend another chance to speak.

Ned just let him go.

+++

“I think my head is fit to burst. Which breakdown shall I deal with first?”

-dodie, I Won’t Be Done

Flash, much like Ned, had been watching Peter for the entire week, however, it was for a different reason.  That reason being that he was absolutely and utterly pissed at the boy.  Sure, he was already mad that Peter had leverage on him now, but having seen the boy on several talk shows and being happy with his friends throughout the week made him livid.  In the back of his mind, he knew that what he was about to do could cost him his future, but all he saw was red.

That’s why, on the way to last period, Flash and his little gang of rich kids cornered Peter.  The boy was walking to physics alone, as neither Sydney nor MJ were in the class with him, and they approached him from all sides, forming a semi-circle around him and forcing him back against the lockers.

“What the fuck do you guys want?” Peter spat, voice conveying his lack of patience.

“What we want is for you to tell your soulmate to back off and not ruin my future,” Flash told him with venom, the rest of his posse voicing their agreement.

“Why should I?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Peter crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.  The certainty that the group couldn’t do anything to him was written across his face.  Despite his better judgment and the threat of his life being ruined, Flash took a step forward, raised a fist, and punched the boy.

Hard.

Peter stumbled back and hit his head against the lockers, incapacitating him for a moment.  A couple of the bully’s “friends” took advantage of that and grabbed the boy’s arms, pinning him up against the cold metal.  Flash took a threatening step towards him and gave a smug grin, watching as Peter’s nose started bleeding.

“Not so confident now, huh, Parker?” Flash wound up his fist again and punched the pinned boy in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.  One of his goons took the chance to kick Peter in the leg, hard enough that there was sure to be a bruise by the end of the day.  A flurry of hits and kicks rained down upon the brunet, him wincing with every single one.  Peter was counting down the minutes until the tardy bell rang.

Mere seconds from the sound of the bell, a stern voice called out, “Thompson, Parker, principal’s office!  The rest of you, vice principal’s office!”

As the gang let go, Peter stumbled a bit, struggling to get back on his feet.  The pain throbbed across his body as the beaten up boy trailed behind the clique.  Someone came up beside him and he turned his gaze to them, only to see Ned staring straight ahead.

“Did you . . . Were you the one who alerted Mr. Warren?”

Ned moved his gaze to the boy slowly before giving a small nod.

“Thank you,” Peter told him softly, sincerity shining through his voice.

The group split up as they reached the faculty offices, Flash’s gang turning the corner to go sit in front of the vice principal’s office while Ned, Peter, and Flash sat in the chairs outside the principal’s office.  They all stayed silent, not daring to utter a word.  After a few minutes, Mr. Morita stepped out of his office and the three boys looked up at him.

“Mr. Parker and Mr. Thompson, I’ve alerted your emergency contacts.  Mr. Leeds, there was no need to contact anyone as you were not involved in the incident, but please stay here so I can hear your story of the incident.”  The man walked back into his office and the hallway went silent again.

After only a few more minutes, a man rushed into the faculty offices and immediately made a beeline to the three boys.  As he stopped in front of them, it dawned upon Peter and Ned that it was Flash’s father.

“What the hell happened?” the man said gruffly, looking over the teens.  When he caught sight of Peter, his eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure out where he knew the boy from.  Before anybody could answer his question, Morita walked out of his office again.

“Mr. Thompson, thank you for showing up on such short notice. We’ll get started in a few minutes once Mr. Parker’s emergency contact show-”

“Am I late?” a voice asked, cutting off the principal.

All of the people already there turned to look at the entrance of the faculty offices, coming face-to-face with Tony Stark.  The new arrival made his way over coolly while the five already there stayed quiet.  Peter stood up as his soulmate joined the group.  Tony gave the boy a once over and his relaxed smile turned into a frown.  He took his soulmate’s face in his hands and took in all the bruises and the dried blood from his nose before letting go and turning to the starstruck principal.

“After a fight, aren’t students supposed to be sent to the nurse first before the principal’s office or have things changed since I was in school?” Tony questioned impassively, but it was obvious that the question was rhetorical.

“Uh, right! I’ll, uh, grab some ice for Mr. Parker’s nose! I’ll be right back!” Morita rushed out of the faculty offices and towards the nurse’s office.

While Ned, Flash, and Mr. Thompson stayed frozen, staring at the billionaire, Tony and Peter turned to each other.

“I didn’t know you were listed as an emergency contact for me,” Peter told him with a raised eyebrow, a question hidden behind the statement.

“Soulmates are allowed to be listed as emergency contacts as long as they’re over eighteen,” Tony answered the unspoken question and slipped one of his hands into Peter’s.

“I didn’t really pay attention when I had that class on soulmates in sophomore year,” the younger man admitted.

“Neither did I.”

Peter gave a small laugh, a little bit of light flooding into his eyes.

“You’re . . . you’re Tony Stark,” Mr. Thompson uttered, eyes wide as he stared at the billionaire superhero.

The two soulmates turned to acknowledge the other people in the room.  Ned looked a bit starstruck, but seemed the least shocked of the three, Mr. Thompson appeared to be shaken up, and Flash was pale, with his eyes wide and features conveying his horror.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Tony said with a sickly sweet voice, putting his hand forward.

The man took it, his hand shaking. “I, uh, I don’t believe we have. I’m Eric Thompson.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Everybody could tell that Tony was, in fact, not pleased to meet the man.

“I’m a big fan of your work,” the nervous man told him as he drew his hand back.

Tony only gave a short nod of acknowledgement, not caring to make small talk with the bumbling fool.  Luckily, he was saved from the conversation by Morita reappearing, out of breath and clutching a bag of ice in one hand.  He walked over and handed it to Peter, who gently put it up against his injured nose.

“Let’s all go into my office,” the principal said, opening the door and holding it for all of them.  As soon as they all sat down in chairs in front of the desk, Morita went around to his side and practically collapsed into his chair.  Peter and Flash sat on opposite ends of the five seats set up, each having their respective contact sitting beside them.  Ned was stuck in between the two groups, feeling anxious despite having done nothing.  They all sat in silence for a few moments while the principal fumbled around for something to say.

“Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you in today.”

“I’m assuming it has something to do with Peter being covered in bruises,” the billionaire cut in.

“Tony,” Peter warned, looking to his soulmate.  The man put his hands up in defeat.

“There was a fight in the hallway and I wanted to head everybody’s side of the story,” Morita continued as if the interaction hadn’t happened.  “Ned, as you were the one who told a teacher, can I hear your side of the story first?”

Ned gave a nod before starting. “I was walking to physics and I was rushing because I was going to be late, but when I turned onto the 300 hallway, I saw Flash and some of his friends beating up Peter while a couple of them held his arms to pin him against the lockers. I turned into the first classroom, which was Mr. Warren’s, and I alerted him of what was happening.”

“Thank you, Ned. Mr. Thompson, may I hear your side of the story?”

Flash, unsurprisingly, jumped into a false narrative. “I was walking to pre-calculus with my friends when Peter came up and tried to punch me. I tried to get him off, but he just kept trying to attack me, so I had to hit him back to make him stumble away and then my friends helped restrain him!”

“Are you sure about your story? It does not align with Mr. Leeds’ report and what Mr. Warren told me when he emailed me about the incident only a few minutes ago.”

“Are you calling my son a liar?!” Eric Thompson butted in, not giving his son a chance to respond. “I’ll have you know Flash here is a good kid who wouldn’t do anything like this! I cannot believe that he is being accused like this!”

“Mr. Thompson!” Morita spoke over the man. “No accusations have been made yet! I am simply telling your son that his story does not line up with the other ones. I am not calling him a liar.”

That seemed to calm the father down because he stayed quiet after that.

“Mr. Parker, could you please tell your side of the story?” the principal asked.  Peter took a deep breath and Tony grabbed his hand, squeezing it encouragingly.

“Well . . . I was walking to physics when Flash and his friends cornered me against the lockers in the 300 hall. I asked them what they wanted and Flash said that he was mad over the face that Tony was angry at him because he’s been bullying me for seven years. When I told them that it wasn’t my problem, Flash punched me in the nose and I stumbled back, hitting my head against the lockers. Two of his friends pinned me against the lockers and I started getting beat up. That’s when Mr. Warren broke it up.”

“He’s lying!” Flash shouted as soon as Peter finished telling his side of the story.  Tony glared at the bully, but Peter squeezed his hand and gave him a warning look.

“Seeing that Mr. Parker’s testimony lines up with Mr. Leeds and Mr. Warren’s testimonies, along with the security footage that the counselor sent me, I believe that you are lying about what happened, Mr. Thompson.”

Flash went pale again, looking over at where Tony and Peter were sitting.  The former had a smug grin on his face while the latter had a neutral expression, but happiness shone in his eyes.

“Mr. Parker, Mr. Leeds, and Mr. Stark, you are all free to go.”

The three men stood up and exited the office.  As soon as they were out, Tony turned to Peter, questioning if he was okay.  Ned watched his old friend spout off reassurances that he was fine and that his soulmate didn’t need to be worried.  Eventually, the man seemed satisfied and turned away from Peter.

The two soulmates looked at Ned for a moment while he stared right back.

“Thank you, Ned,” Peter murmured kindly, “for telling Mr. Warren, I mean.” Tony nodded along to the sentiment.

The two walked out and Ned waited a few moments before heading out the same way, not wanting to seem like he was following them.  As he walked to physics to catch the last few minutes of class, he wondered if he had made progress with Peter.

+++

“And I’ve been in this place before. Fine as we are, but we want more.”

-Lauren Aquilina, Fools

It seemed that Ned had made progress with Peter, because, the next Monday, MJ invited him and Jacob to sit with her at lunch.

“You’re biting your lip,” Jacob informed Ned as they stood near the doors of the cafeteria together.

“Oh.” He forced himself to stop.

“It’ll be okay,” the short boy’s soulmate reassured him, taking his hand. “I’m sure of it.”

Ned gave a curt nod and the two approached the table, sitting down across from where Peter, MJ, and Sydney were sitting.  The latter two gave the boys a smile while the brunet gave them a two-fingered salute, his face remaining neutral.

“Nice to see you two losers,” MJ greeted in her usual fashion.

“We were just talking about our weekends,” Sydney chimed in, trying to include them in the conversation.

“Cool. What did you guys do?” Jacob replied, saving Ned from where he was floundering for words.

“I mostly worked on a painting,” MJ told him simply.

“I visited my grandparents.”

“Nice! Ned and I spent the weekend hanging out.”

“What about you, Peter?” Ned asked, finally speaking.

Peter looked up from where he was picking at his nails, taking a moment to realize that everybody at the table was looking at him, waiting for an answer.

“Oh, uh, I spent most of the weekend with my soulmate.”

The table fell back into easy conversation, everybody satisfied with Peter’s answer.  It took a little bit, but Peter joined in by the end of lunch.

As the bell rang and all the teens got up from their table and began to head back to classes, Peter shot Ned a small smile before exiting the cafeteria.

In some strange sort of way, things were heading back to normal.

+++

“It’s a simple suggestion of a moment worthy to keep.”

-Wilderado, Millie

The Friday afternoon the day before graduation found Peter leading his little friend group through the lobby of Stark Tower, weaving his way around the crowds.  Nobody gave them a second glance, everybody knowing exactly who Peter was.  He even shot the desk lady a quick hello as they passed.  When they finally made it into the private elevator, all of his friends looked a little shaken up from the business of the ground floor, but Peter was unbothered.

“That was insane,” Ned announced, leaning back against the side of the elevator.

“Is it always that busy?” Sydney asked, looking a little out of breath.

“Only on weekdays,” Peter answered nonchalantly. “Not too many people are here on weekends.”

Soon enough, the elevator doors opened to reveal the penthouse living room and kitchen, which were connected to each other.  Peter, of course, walked out and dropped his bag by the couch before making his way over to the kitchen.  His friends walked out more slowly, taking in their surroundings before putting their stuff next to Peter’s.  Even MJ, who rarely showed emotions, looked a bit in awe.

The place had a modern design, very Tony Stark chic, but, despite that, it looked lived in.  There was a fuzzy blanket draped over the couch and what the group recognized to be one of Peter’s sweatshirts was hung over the back of a kitchen chair.  There were framed pictures on the wall and a bit of clutter on the kitchen island.  In a way, it was cozy.

The two pairs of soulmates watched as Peter opened up the fridge and pulled out a can of root beer before turning to them.

“You guys want anything? You can take whatever you want.”

“Are . . . are we allowed to?” Ned questioned, looking a bit anxious.

“I mean, I just gave you permission.” Peter had already moved to the pantry and grabbed a party size bag of chips before getting a big bowl out of the cabinet and pouring them in.

Sydney watched him with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, but, like, this kitchen belongs to-”

“Me?” a voice cut in. The four teens in the living room whipped around and found Tony Stark standing at the entrance to one of the hallways that led off from the living room.  They stared in awe at him as he walked past them and into the kitchen.

“Hey, Tones,” Peter greeted as Tony approached him.  Once in range, the two shared a short kiss before separating.

“What are you all up to? You never mentioned you were bringing people over.”

Before Peter could even answer, Jacob cut in, worry laced into his voice. “You didn’t ask if we could come over?”

“Nope,” Peter responded plainly, popping the ‘p’ and laying his head on Tony’s shoulder as the man put an arm around his waist.  Jacob furrowed his eyebrows while the other three teens gave each other slightly bewildered looks.  However, they didn’t get any more answers.

“We’re decorating our graduation caps,” Peter told Tony, pulling away from his hold and grabbing his soda along with the bowl of chips.  The older man followed him as he walked back over to his friends and set the items down on the coffee table. “Also, don’t you have a meeting in, like, five minutes?”

“Shit,” Tony muttered, checking his watch. “I should probably get going, but we’re still on for getting takeout and watching movies tonight, right?”

“Of course!” The two soulmates shared another quick kiss before Tony made his way over to the elevator, the doors already opening for him.

“Say hi to Pepper for me!” Peter called.

“You got it!” Tony called back right before the doors closed.

Peter turned to his friends, who looked back at him in shock.

“Let’s start decorating!”

+++

“But God I want to feel again. Oh God I want to feel again.”

-Sleeping At Last, Touch

“Going through high school was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever faced. I felt alone for a lot of it. I faced a lot, from bullies to rumors to nearly failing classes. And, yet, here I am, standing in front of all of you today, giving this speech. Despite everything, all of us made it through. We made it to graduation and we’ll make it so much farther. And I am so glad to have made it here, to be graduating with the class of 20XX. We did it.” Peter finished his valedictorian speech with his voice strong, looking out over the crowd of teary eyed parents and proud relatives and caring friends from other high schools.  Everybody cheered, some seniors throwing their caps into the air.

He couldn’t believe that he had made it.

Peter made his way out into the lobby, weaving through the people, trying to find the people there for him.  Eventually, he spotted his aunt talking with Ned’s parents and made his way over.  Once he did, he also found MJ, Jacob, and Sydney’s parents, all talking with them.  His friends were standing beside them, all chatting excitedly.  Finally, there was Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and, of course, Tony.

He made it.  He actually made it.

+++

“I did it all. I owned every second that this world could give. I saw so many places. The things that I did. Yeah, with every broken bone, I swear I lived.”

-OneRepublic, I Lived

Five Months Later - November

Peter awoke to a banging on his door.  He groaned, burying his head into his pillow.

“Come on, Peter! We’ve got class in forty-five minutes!” Ned’s voice floated through the wood.

After a moment more, the brunet got out of his warm bed and stumbled to the door, opening it up and seeing his friend, who was already dressed.  Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the room across from his had its door open, which meant that MJ and Sydney were both already up.

“Go get dressed,” Ned ordered. “Jacob made breakfast.”

Peter gave a nod and closed the door, drawing himself out of his sluggish state to get dressed and ready to go for the day.  When he got out of his room a few minutes later and walked into the kitchen, he saw his friends all sitting down for breakfast.  He joined them at his seat, happy to eat the pancakes that his friend’s soulmate had made.  There was light conversation as they all discussed classes and their plans for the day.  Peter and Sydney were talking about their engineering class when MJ asked the group if anything was going on for the day besides classes.

“Tony’s coming in today,” Peter told them and everybody looked at him, the table going silent. “You guys are really never gonna get used to this, huh?”

“Bro, your soulmate is Tony fucking Stark. How could we get used to that?” Jacob questioned him.

“Maybe because you guys live in his penthouse with me?” Peter suggested with a raised eyebrow. “Anyways, if you guys are free tonight, we could all go out to dinner together!”

Everybody voiced their agreement.  After a few more minutes, Peter and Ned got up from the table to head out to their first class of the day, which was earlier than everybody else’s.  They threw on their winter coats and gave everybody a goodbye before leaving, talking the whole way to the classroom and ignoring the looks that Peter got everywhere he went.  He had gotten used to people recognizing him.

That afternoon, when Peter and MJ walked back to the penthouse, having their last class on Fridays together, they didn’t talk much.  They simply stayed side by side and took comfort in each other’s company.

When they got to their place on the top floor of the building, Tony was sitting at the kitchen table, doing some work on his StarkPad.

“Tones!” Peter exclaimed, a large smile on his face.  Tony got up from his seat and the two soulmates gave each other a warm embrace, sharing a kiss.

MJ gave a small grin at the loving looks on the two men’s faces before walking to her and Sydney’s shared room to put her stuff down.  When she got there, she found her soulmate sitting on the bed with Ned and Jacob sitting on the little couch in the corner, all three of them talking.  The four only hung out for a few minutes before Peter popped in to tell them that they should get ready because Tony made reservations for all of them at a nice restaurant.

That night, the three pairs of soulmates sat around a table at a nice restaurant, telling stories and laughing, as if they’d known each other for forever.

It was as Peter laid in bed, held by his soulmate and looking at his alarm clock, that he realized how much everything had changed.  He was happy, warm, content.  It was everything he had ever wanted, and it was right there.

Soulmates were a strange thing, connecting two people together for eternity, yet not being able to tell if a person’s soulmate would die before they had the chance to meet or giving someone no soulmate at all.  There were theories about how it worked, from quantum entanglement to straight-up magic, but nobody was really sure in the end.  Most didn’t care about the science anyway. 

They cared about falling in love.

And Peter Parker and Tony Stark had fallen in love.

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