#ignore her shes an idiot and an optimistic fool

[sixofclovers]

had this in my head

[noodyl-blasstal]

Pretty huge Doughnuts

The word count's droppin', but I'm not stoppin' - @taznovembercelebration day 15. Prompt "baby"

Read below or on Ao3. Missed yesterday's catch it here.

-

“You’re doing what now?”

“Planning Lup a baby shower.”

“Lup’s pregnant?” Barry’s voice is doing something high pitched and weird and Taako’s unsure exactly what the fuck is going on, but someone’s forgotten they have like 8 PhDs.

“Wanna think that through, Barold? Do you think that maybe she might have told you if she’d cracked that one.”

Barry looks less panicked. “Yeah… fair. Uh.”

“Anyway.” Taako ploughs on valiantly, he’ll pull this one out at a later date, once Barold thinks he’s forgotten. “I’m planning a baby shower for her.”

“If she’s not pregnant…” Barry starts.

“Which she isn’t.” Taako adds, helpfully.

“Yeah. Uh. Which she isn’t.” Barry looks pale still, poor, sweet idiot. “... then why are you throwing her a baby shower?”

“It took her more than nine months to birth the thesis” Taako says, he shrugs because it’s obvious, obviously. He doesn't know why literally no one so far has understood. They're definitely the problem.

Barry’s still scrunkling his face up like Taako's being irrational. The joke's on him because Taako's never irrational.

“She’s had a tonne of appointments.”

“Uh huh.”

"She brought new life into the world."

"The necromancy thing isn't part of the main thesis after, you know, the legal issues."

“I meant the concepts, not the zombie. Anyway the university are cowards for not embracing him." Before they get into the ethics of free education after reanimation Taako diverts Barry again. "She had to do that scan.”

“What scan? Wait, Taako, do you mean the MRIs she did for the data collection?”

“Now you get it.”

“I…”

“Cha’boy found this banner.” Taako unfurls it dramatically and holds it up, it’s gold and spangly and far too much, which is, of course, the perfect amount.

“Congratulations, it’s a…” Reads Barry.

“PhD!” Taako replies. “I’m gonna write it in and add flames. It’ll be great.”

“She’ll love the flames.” Says Barry, probably trying to tactfully dissuade Taako from the rest. Optimistic fool.

“I made a game for us where we have to guess the circumference of her thesis. There's prizes.”

“Is the thesis measurement bound or unbound?” Asks Barry far too fast. Oooooh, Taako has him on board now. Suddenly he loves BaPhD showers.

“No can do, Bluejeans, you wouldn’t want to cheat, would you? Wouldn’t want to ruin Lup’s special day by making it all about winning?”

“No.” Says Barry, unconvincingly.

“No cheating, Barold!”

Barry doesn’t say anything. Taako never should have taken Bluejeans under his wing, he’s created a monster.

“What’s a baby snack?”

"Mush?"

"No, like, for this."

“Are you asking what a baby thesis would eat?” Barry sounds more delighted by the concept than he should be.

“Baby researchers, I assume.” Chews them up, spits them out, not that Taako’s bitter. He’s fine. He can come back any time. Any time the police get round to officially clearing him. Not that it’s a problem, he’s not bothered about his degree anyway. He’s peachy. It’s not weird to see Lup get her doctorate before him when they were supposed to do it together.

Barry seems to realise he’s triggered some kind of horror even though Taako's definitely doing an incredibly normal face. He's going to try sand be nice about it.

“What are PhD snacks?” He asks before Barry can say anything kind.

“Pretty huge doughnuts.” Barry replies without hesitation. Taako knew there was a reason he kept him around.

Taako makes a note in his phone. Giant doughnuts mean giant frying, mean big oil, mean big pan.

“Why’re we making big doughnuts?” Kravitz asks, cracking the door to his room.

Of course it was food discussion that summoned him from his regimented work schedule (ignoring what he needed to do because he got distracted by other things and then panic typing up everything for his deadline.) It bodes well for Taako’s ongoing wooing, the stuff about hearts and stomachs was true probably, but Taako was also hoping to make his way to Kravitz’s di…

“Taako’s throwing Lup a surprise baby shower.” Barry cuts through Taako’s wandering thoughts. “We’re planning the menu.”

“Oh.” Says Kravitz. “For her PhD? Neat!”

-

Hey, hey, enjoyed that? Find the next prompt here!

[aryanightshade]

This Episode of Stranger Things is Called: Playdate

-

{two new messages}

“Hi, I’m calling for a… Eddie Manson? No, Munson. Sorry. Jerry writes like a chicken. Uh, my name is Alice, I work for the parks department. You called about the job posting we had up on the community board on Main Street, and I was wondering if you wanted to come in for an interview later today? We need someone in the position ASAP, so please give me a call back when you get the chance. Thanks!”

-

Eddie wakes up on the couch with the headache of someone mildly hungover. Which is irritating because he didn’t get drunk or high last night. Aside from almost burning down their apartment, he didn’t do anything fun at all, actually. His life has become spectacularly un-fun recently, what with—

Right. Embarrassing himself in front of their neighbor. The one who looks like a swimsuit model. 

Steve. 

Steve with the luscious flowing hair and pretty smile and tan skin that Eddie wants to lick all over. 

That Steve. The Steve who smiled at him and lit Eddie up from the inside like he swallowed a ball of sunlight. 

In the light of day, it’s actually worse than Eddie thought. He slipped while running down a flight of stairs and knocked over a trashcan like a total klutzy idiot. How can he show his face after making such a fool of himself? Steve is going to take one look at him standing on his porch doing his friendly Mr. Rogers thing in one of those tight, preppy polo shirts, and Eddie is going to combust into ashes on the spot, leaving his only child homeless and orphaned. 

The obvious solution here is to become a hermit. Eddie will simply never leave the safety of their house ever again, and therefore drastically decrease his chances of making a complete and utter buffoon out of himself in front of another man.  

Eddie presses a couch cushion over his face and groans. God, he’s pathetic. He sees an attractive man and immediately all his brain cells liquify and trickle out his ears. It’s probably for the best, anyway, him being so weird. Small town Indiana isn’t the best place to be picking up dudes. There’s no anonymity here, and besides, Hot Neighbor Steve has at least one child, which means he likes women enough to procreate with one. He probably wouldn’t respond well to Eddie salivating over him. He probably has a wife. Eddie hasn’t seen her yet, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t exist. She’s probably really pretty and knows how to make Hamburger Helper without burning down the neighborhood, too. 

Realistically, Steve will probably just ignore him. Eddie is self-aware enough to know that he’s off-putting to a lot of people, but a little part of him isn’t sure he wants to be ignored. He’s no stranger to chasing highs, and the one that filled him when those warm hazel eyes pinned him down like a butterfly in amber feels worth sucking into his lungs until he suffocates. Which is stupid. Eddie is gay, but he’s not a moron, and people like his neighbor don’t generally say yeswhen he offers to suck them off between some dumpsters behind a pizza restaurant. 

Not that he would. He would take Hot Neighbor Steve to dinner first. Because he’s a gentleman. But he won’t do that. If he sees Steve Harrington around, he won’t do anything at all, he decides. He’ll be real regular about it and hope Steve doesn’t remember Eddie tripping over his own feet like a moron. 

Eddie’s theatrically self-indulgent misery lasts another ten minutes or so before he screams quietly into the pillow and tosses it aside with a dramatic sigh. It’s fine. This will be fine. This is only temporary, after all. 

He’s trying to be optimistic, so of course, it’s inevitable, like heat death and rich people flouting traffic laws, that Eddie will run into Steve Harrington again. 

Read on Ao3

[tsukishumai]

pairing: eren jaeger x gn!reader

summary: “wait… don’t tell me you haven’t kissed anyone before?”

wc: 2.1k

warnings/tags: college au, childhood friends to lovers, alcohol consumption, some manipulation tactics, soft make out session

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

You briefly wondered to yourself just exactly how you got here.

Trapped in the dingy little coat closet of Connie and Jean’s brand new apartment, standing barely a foot away from one fidgeting Eren Jaeger, not-so-casually blowing the hair out of his face as he stared at you trying to stare at anything but him.

The closet was annoyingly empty, typical of the two boys to keep nothing but a single broom and dustpan tucked in the corner, nothing at all to absorb the sound waves emanating from the violent beating of your stupid heart. The lightbulb flickering pathetically overhead had somehow managed to make Eren look just a little bit more handsome, especially when it’s accompanied by the slight pout on his lips.

For the hundredth time, you wondered how you get here.

Except, you knew exactly how.

It probably wasn’t the best idea for you to admit to Sasha about the increasing difficulty in which it was taking you to meet Eren’s eye, or about how maybe you were starting to realize that you kind of sort of think he was maybe just a little bit… hot. It took you months to even admit it to yourself, even longer before you could even think to admit it to anybody else. But she had caught you red handed – down bad with the nail of your thumb caught between your teeth, watching the way Eren had been sipping on his beer, and there was no way you could deny it.

This was Eren, the kid who ignored you for days when you dropped a beetle down his shirt, cried to his mom whenever you’d play with Mikasa and not him, the goofy idiot that got into fights he could never win — he had always just been that Eren.

He was never meant to look so delicious in just a plain white shirt, and how the hell were you supposed to know he’d grow up with eyes that stared deep into your soul, and a jawline that could cut your heart in half?

If you knew that, you would have stayed far away.

When Sasha had to bring a hand to her mouth and stifle her laughter, you knew you were in trouble. She apologized and promised she wouldn’t tell any of the others, and like an optimistic fool, you believed her.

There was peace for a short, sweet period of time. Sasha would throw you sultry looks whenever Eren walked by, and may have blown some kisses at you behind his back once or twice, but it seemed she had kept her mouth shut. Neither Connie nor Jean ever joined in Sasha’s one-man teasing show, and if she had kept it secret from them, you figured you were as safe as you could be.

So of course, you didn’t think twice when Mikasa told you about Connie and Jean’s “housewarming” party – the two finally managed to save enough money to get out of the cramped studio apartment with a cricketing bunk bed, moving themselves into a more sensible two-bedroom. It was a big accomplishment, and only natural for you to want to celebrate with your friends, wasn’t it?

You should have realized something was amiss when you walked in the room, Armin whispering into Mikasa’s ear and Sasha had on a smile that made her look like a Cheshire cat, but you chose to push that to the back of your head.

When Connie had forced everyone to sit in a circle, your alarm bells really should have been going haywire, but the three shots you had just taken with Jean had lulled you into a false sense of security, trusting that your friends weren’t gonna fuck with you. But they always did love to prove you wrong, and before you could even protest, Armin — Armin, of all people — was placing an empty beer bottle in the middle.

And you always knew Mikasa was strong, but you had no idea just how strong until she was shoving your shoulder forward and ordering you to spin. It all felt so juvenile, so ridiculous, but you held your breath as the bottle spins and spins before slowing down to a stop.

They had to have done something to the bottle. Put a magnet on it, maybe even a curse — something, because you could do nothing but stare down at it wide-eyed as it pointed at Eren Jaeger.

No time was wasted, not even a second before Sasha hooked her arms beneath your armpits and hauled you up to your feet, her hands on your back harshly shoving you towards the closet. She ignored your complaints of stop, Sasha, wait — and, why do we need to go in the closet, that isn’t even the same game, until you found yourself in the predicament you were currently in.

Bastards. Every single one of them, bastards. Grimey little grins on their irritating little faces, chortling to themselves at your expense, you just couldn’t wait to get out of their so you could shove your foot knee deep in each off her assho—

“Are you done avoiding me?” Eren finally breaks the silence, sighing out in exasperation as he rubs the back of his neck

You stare at him mutely, your mouth gaping open like a fish out of water, each gulp of air doing nothing but choking your lungs.

“I— aha, I’m not avoiding you,” you laugh nervously, crossing your arms and tilting your head to the side.

“Yeah, you are,” He accuses, scoffing as he shakes his head, “You’re avoiding me right now.”

“Ugh, I’m not avoiding… you…”

There was a little bead of irritation rolling around in the back of your head, a shard of stubbornness you’d never been able to shed, and it’s what finally prompts you to turn to face Eren head on. But every intention you had of standing your ground and deny deny deny simply floats away, drowning in the sea of Eren’s intense focus on your face.

He holds your gaze like a vice, unable to look away no matter how much you want to, and he smirks.

“Finally,” he sighs, looking so satisfied as he crosses his arms across his chest, “You haven’t looked at me in weeks. It was really starting to piss me off.”

The heat rushes to your face faster than you can blink, and you let out a huff of air as he chuckles at you softly, placing his hands in his front pocket.

“Whatever,” you mumble, “Let’s just get this over with.”

Suddenly, Eren’s entire body goes rigid, and though the expression on his face remained as calm as ever, the clench of his jaw gave away his true feelings.

“What, you never kissed anyone before, or something?” You tease lightly, letting out a nervous laugh.

Eren scrunches his nose as it slowly turns pink, and he rolls his eyes half-heartedly as he shifts his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the next.

“W-we don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to,” Eren mutters out slowly, suddenly studying the dirty broom in the corner, “You don’t have to satisfy those idiots.”

You wanted to tell him that being stuck in here was meant to satisfy you more than anybody else in this apartment, and you harshly ignored the sting of hurt in your gut at the thought of Eren trying to gently ease his way out of the situation.

Because you were stuck on the light, rosy blush dusted across Eren’s cheeks, steam practically wafting out of both his ears.

“Wait… don’t tell me you’ve never actually kissed someone before?”

Eren scoffs are you incredulously, his entire face twisted in embarrassment as he runs an exasperated hand through his hair.

“O-of course I have!” He claimed, but the tips of his ears began to burn red, and you smirk to yourself as he fumbles over his own words.

“Your mommy doesn’t count, Jaeger,” you snicker into your hand.

And it’s only because you’ve known Eren for so long that it makes you laugh even harder when his pretty mouth twists into a snarl, and he reaches forward to ball his fists into the collar of your shirt.

Before you could even make sense of what was happening, you felt Eren tug you forward hard, and your laughter was abruptly cut off by the press of his lips against yours.

It was over in an instant, so fast you hardly had any time to process the sequence of events. Eren’s hand still gripped your shirt, and if it weren’t for the heat of his lips still lingering on yours, skin tingling as if begging for more, there would be no other evidence that Eren Jaeger just kissed you.

“Th-there,” he says uncertainly, finally loosening his hold and leaving behind nothing but wrinkled fabric. His hands drop back down to his sides, but he doesn’t step back, standing so close, his chest only millimeters away from yours.

You were speechless, resisting the urge to bring your fingers up to your lips, unable to do anything but nod.

“H-how was that?” Eren asks quietly, dipping his head to catch your eyes with his. You start to shrink down from beneath his gaze, peering down at you through half-lidded eyes hazy with something dark and hungry. There was something tumultuous behind the seemingly peaceful green, and you already felt like you were drowning.

“It was good,” you say slowly, and you swear you could feel each individual goosebump that raised across your skin. The stagnant air of the closet felt charged, even more so when Eren slowly hooks his fingers into your belt loops, “Do you.. want to try it again?”

Not another word is said before Eren crashes into you like a wave breaking into the shore — his lips melted into yours so naturally, heated and unyielding in the way he moved against you. It was clumsy at first, the soft clashing of teeth driven by something urgent as his hands traveled up along the side of your body.

You wrap your arms around his neck as he finally rests one hand against the back of your head, holding you steady and close, not a millimeter of space left between you. He wraps his other arm around your waist, and all at once, you feel heat spread throughout your body.

For a moment, you feel your brain short-circuit, leaving you suspended in time, only for the brush of Eren’s tongue along your bottom lip to drag you back into reality.

He sighs into your mouth as you grant him entrance, and suddenly, all your senses are filled with nothing but Eren. His cologne dancing into the air you breathed, the glide of his tongue so plush like velvet as he sucks on your tongue — it made your knees shake, and you’d be nothing but a heap on the ground if not for the way Eren held you against him.

Your fingers tangle themselves into his hair, and you could stop yourself from tugging on it lightly. The vibrations of the vulgar moan he’d let out tickled your lips, and you smiled before catching his bottom lip lightly between your teeth.

You could feel the rapid beat of his heart against your chest as he pulls you impossible closer to him, and the taste of beer still in his mouth had you feeling more drunk than anything you’ve drank that night. His tongue curls so deliciously against yours, so decadent and sinful, you were beginning to think Eren Jaeger was the devil himself.

All too soon, the kiss is broken, and Eren is the first to pull away, a lewd string of saliva still connecting your lips as you both gasp for air.

Your breathes mingle as you struggle to catch your breath, Eren still holding you tightly against him, neither of you making a single move to let go.

You hear Eren gulp.

“How about that?” He whispers much too shyly for someone that had kissed you the way he just did, “Was that good?”

“Yeah, Eren,” your mouth felt surprisingly dry, lips feeling red and swollen as you spoke, “I-I think that was good.”

“Well, maybe we should —“

“Alright! Times up, you — oh god!” Connie throws the door open, and the dimly lit closet was suddenly flooded with light, making you squint against the brightness before your eyes could adjust.

You quickly shove Eren as far away from you as possible, ignoring the fake pout on his face as you turn to face everyone.

“I— this isn’t what —“

“Fuck off, Connie,” Eren palms Connie’s face, shoving him hard away from the door before closing it shut behind him.

You stared at Eren incredulously as he smiled at you fiendishly, holding the closet door closed against the screaming and banging fists of your friends.

“Anyway… where were we?”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

rbs v appreciated <3

[anonymousewrites]

There's a Will; There's a Way (Book 1) Chapter One

Chapter One: Weretiger

        “Where is that bandage wasting idiot?!?!” cried Kunikida angrily.

        “Dazai’s just somewhere downriver. We’ll find him soon enough,” replied (Y/N). The three of them had been on a case involving a tiger terrorizing Yokohama. Unfortunately, Dazai had, as usual, seen an opportunity to kill himself and taken it. This time, it had been seeing he could drown in the river and consequently throwing himself in. Now his partners were stuck following the river downstream to find him.

        “Maybe he’ll actually succeed this time,” grumbled Kunikida sourly.

        “Knowing his bad luck, probably not,” said the young woman next to him. Although she spoke playfully, (Y/N) was worried and knew Kunikida probably was as well, even if he was annoyed. Both cared for Dazai, especially (Y/N). She didn’t know what she’d do if he died. It would break her. Luckily, he always had the bad fortune (in his mind at least) to have his attempts interrupted. Finally, they spied him across the river next to a young boy with white hair.

        “There you are, you troublesome blockhead!!!!!!” yelled the blonde man beside her towards the bandaged man.

        “Oh, hey! You found me!” Dazai waved at them. “Nice work Kunikida, (Y/N)!”

        “Foiled again, huh?” called (Y/N) teasingly. She acted amused, but she really wished Dazai didn’t feel like death was his only option. It would kill her to see him die, so she would always be on the lookout for him and made sure to check that, if he wandered off, he wasn’t going to die.

        “Unfortunately! There’s always next time though!” replied Dazai optimistically. Even from the other side of the river, (Y/N) could sense the confusion of the poor boy who evidently saved Dazai.

        “You suicidal maniac!” Kunikida yelled impatiently. “Do you know how much you disrupted my schedule?!” He was ignored. “Are you even listening to me?!!?”

        (Y/N) patted his back. “Don’t bother yourself. You know Dazai doesn’t listen to anyone.” She smiled and laughed.

        Although they couldn’t hear much from the other side, they heard Dazai mention having Kunikida treat the young boy who saved him to tea on rice.

        “Don’t get generous with my money, Dazai!” Kunikida demanded.

        (Y/N) chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll split the bill with you.” She turned and began walking to catch up with the brunette and white-haired boy on the other side of the river. “Let’s go before Dazai makes any more generous offers.”

l

        In a small shop, the three sat down to treat Atsushi, who had promptly introduced himself to Kunikida and (Y/N), to tea on rice. They introduced themselves as well. After learning he hadn’t eaten in a while, (Y/N) couldn’t blame him for gorging himself. Although, she thought, he might end up with a stomach ache from eating so much in one sitting. While Atsushi ate, Kunikida was, of course, still reprimanding Dazai.

        “You’re a fool, Dazai,” said Kunikida, “Who says ‘That’s a beautiful river’ and then jumps into it in the middle of a job!”

        (Y/N) giggled. “Evidently, Dazai does.”

        “You know me so well, (Y/N)!” Dazai said, smiling.

        “Now I have to revise our whole schedule!” Kunikida was furiously writing in his journal.

        “You’re so obsessed with your schedule, Kunikida!” said Dazai, unfazed by his blonde partner’s distress.

        “This isn’t just some day planner!” He slammed his hand down. “This is an ideal! This is my guide to life, and nowhere in it is there written that one of my coworkers should be a suicidal maniac!”

        “Life loves to throw wrenches in any plan, Kunikida. For you, that wrench is Dazai!” said (Y/N) cheerfully.

        “And nowhere is there written in my expenses that I’d be paying for a kid’s meal!” Kunikida sat down again angrily and glared at the boy who was stilling stuffing his face full of rice.

        The pair started talking even though Atsushi had food in his mouth. Dazai and (Y/N) glanced at each other from across the table.

        “How are you two communicating?” the pair asked simultaneously.

        They were ignored as Atsushi finally finished eating.

        “You doing okay now?” (Y/N) asked the young boy, “You were starving when we first met you.”

        “I’m doing great now, thanks,” he replied, “You guys are a real life-saver.” The three other adults looked at him questioningly so the boy continued. Atsushi explained his unfortunate circumstances of being thrown out of the orphanage he was in and basically wandering the Yokohama streets until today. (Y/N) felt sorry since somebody as kind and brave as Atsushi didn’t deserve to be punished by the world.

        Dazai expressed this sentiment. “What a philanthropic organization,” he said sarcastically.

        “What charitable people to run an orphanage,” (Y/N) added in the same tone.

        “We’re not a couple of do-gooders running around helping hard look cases,” reminded Kunikida. “We’ve got a job to do.”

        “That reminds me,” Atsushi said, “You said your job involves the military. What work do you do?”

        “We’re private investigators,” answered (Y/N), lacing her fingers together and leaning her head on them.

        “Investigators?” The white-haired boy blinked in surprise.

        Kunikida put his notebook down, which he had been reading again. “We handle more than just lost pets or cheating spouses. Our office has uniquely gifted investigators. We’re the Armed Detective Agency.”

        Atsushi reeled back in shock. Obviously, he’s heard of us, thought (Y/N). As Atsushi pondered whether he was with three people with supernatural powers, Dazai glanced up at a beam over his head. His eyes lit up.

        “Check out that support beam up there!” he said.

        Exasperated, Kunikida pushed up his glasses and sighed. “Don’t even think about trying to hang yourself in this tea house.”

        “I’m not,” protested Dazai.

        “You were,” said (Y/N).

        Dazai leaned back in his chair and threw an arm over his face dramatically. “How you wound me!” he cried. “You don’t trust me.”

        (Y/N) rolled her eyes but had an amused smile on her face. She found his antics entertaining. “What were you thinking of then?”

        “I was thinking of a health technique,” claimed the brunette, confidently.

        “What are you talking about?” Kunikida looked at him, completely buying it.

        Dazai gasped in mock shock. “What? You don’t know? It’s so good for releasing muscle tension and shoulder cramps”

        “Whoa,” the blonde man in glasses said, “That would be perfect for me.”

        “It would! You should write this down.” Dazai effortlessly deceived Kunikida. The duped man began writing in his notebook and muttering about the technique to himself. Until… “I’m messing with you.” Dazai was suppressing a satisfied smirk. Kunikida froze. (Y/N) sighed, knowing what was coming next. Kunikida leapt onto Dazai and began shaking him by the throat and yelling at him.

        “Um,” said Atsushi tentatively, “Shouldn’t you do something?”

        “I guess.” The white-haired boy deadpanned at her carefree tone. “Hey guys, come on. We’ve got a job to do.” Kunikida let Dazai go.

        “Why, (Y/N),” said Dazai, “You came to my rescue!” He reached across the table and grabbed her hands, acting as if she had saved his life.

        The young woman’s cheeks tinted pink. She laughed nervously before turning to Atsushi as he spoke up.

        “So, about that job you said you’re working on,” he said nervously. Seeing the attention suddenly turn to him with Kunikida’s face still angry, he jumped. “Sorry! Never mind, I should have guessed your jobs are classified! Please don’t hurt me!”

        “Relax, you’re okay.” (Y/N) attempted to calm the jittery boy.

        “Actually, now that you mentioned it,” said Kunikida in a much calmer tone, “Today’s job doesn’t require any secrecy. We’re looking for a certain tiger on behest of the military.”

        “A tiger?” Atsushi repeated.

        “A man-eater who’s recently appeared in these parts,” said Kunikida.

        (Y/N) added, “Well, not that we know for sure it’s devoured anyone.”

        “But it has ransacked warehouses and eaten farm produce and the like,” continued the ideological blonde.

        “It’s been spotted around here lately,” said Dazai. He was about to speak again when Atsushi reeled back and fell off his chair.

        “What’s wrong Atsushi?” asked (Y/N), concerned for the young boy’s sudden change in temper.

        “I…I’ll be leaving now…” stuttered Atsushi. “Goodbye.” He began to crawl away.

        Dazai and (Y/N) made eye contact. As if reading his mind and directives, (Y/N) simply nodded before grabbing Atsushi’s shirt and dragging him back.

        “You know something, don’t you?” said Kunikida sternly.

        A moment passed before Atsushi spoke softly, lamentingly. “You can’t.” In a more frantic, distressed tone, he cried, “No one can take it on!”

        Still holding him so he couldn’t escape, (Y/N) said, “You know the tiger?”

        “It’s after me,” the white-haired boy admitted, “It almost killed me! If it’s been seen around here, I have to run, now!”

        (Y/N) threw him to the floor before pinning him down properly. While seeming unnecessary, the young woman wanted to be certain Atsushi wouldn’t wiggle out of her grasp and escape before they got answers from him. It didn’t hurt that it was painful for him and would entice him to tell the truth.

        “Listen up, Atsushi,” Kunikida said sternly. He walked over and placed his foot on Atsushi’s arm. “You’ll either pay for the food with your arm,” he pressed the arm into an uncomfortable position, “Or by telling us everything.”

        “Now, now, Kunikida,” Dazai got up and strolled over to them, “Whenever you ask questions, it becomes an interrogation. The president’s been talking to you about this.” He turned his attention to (Y/N). He smiled and said, “You can let Atsushi up now, but thanks for keeping him from running.” In an amused tone, he said, “If he had gotten away, we would have had to chase him!” (Y/N) allowed Atsushi to stand. “Now,” the brunette continued, “Atsushi, what do you know about this tiger?”

        Atsushi stood and massaged his shoulder. “My orphanage was trashed by that tiger. It ravaged our fields, it ravaged our chicken coop, and even our warehouse. No one died, sure, but the orphanage was already on a shoestring budget. I got kicked out so that they had one less mouth to feed,” he explained.

        (Y/N) frowned slightly, thinking about his words. There were some parts that struck her as strange. First, Atsushi didn’t mention anyone else being thrown out. They would have evicted more kids if they wanted to have more money to spare. Second, the tiger had been at the orphanage and then come to Yokohama like him. He claimed it was hunting him but that didn’t feel right. Deciding to ask Dazai later what he thought since he also possessed an incredible intellect, (Y/N) listened to Atsushi’s story.

        “Well, that’s tragic,” said Dazai, ruining the somber air.

        Kunikida prompted Atsushi to continue. “So, boy, what’s this talk about the tiger almost killing you?”

        “The man eater always shows up wherever I go,” Atsushi said.

        (Y/N)’s mind started whirring again. The facts kept pointing towards there being a connection between Atsushi and the tiger.

        The boy continued, “Just a while ago, when I was walking around Tsurumi, it appeared behind me! Luckily, I saw it in a mirror before it could pounce… I’d seen it out of the corner of my eyes many times, starting two weeks before I was chased out of the orphanage. I’m sure it’s come all the way to the city in search of me.”

        The pieces were falling into place in (Y/N)’s mind. She glanced to Dazai to see if he was thinking as well. For once, he seemed serious and contemplative. The young woman could also see a hint of victory in his eyes. The same look he got whenever he was about to win a game of chess or unravel a criminal’s attempt to trick him. My favorite look on him, thought (Y/N) fondly, It’s when he looks most like himself.

        “When was the last time you saw the tiger?” said Dazai, looking intently at Atsushi.

        Atsushi answered, “I think I saw it around Tsurumi about four day ago.”

        Consulting his notes, Kunikida confirmed his words. “It’s true that its antics have been focused here for the past two weeks. In addition, it was sighted around Tsurumi four days ago.”

        “Atsushi, are you free?” asked Dazai.

        The almost unidentifiable glint of victory had grown slightly. His outward appearance did not change. To all the world, the brunette seemed to be carefree and childishly humorous. (Y/N) saw his true emotions. Neither (Y/N) nor Dazai had ever mentioned it, but both saw through each other like glass. Their coworkers saw hints of it but never understood it so did not mention it. Atsushi deadpanned, clearly unnerved by Dazai’s question. He could sense he was about to get roped into something.

        “You being the man-eater’s target presents an excellent opportunity,” explained Dazai while he wrote a brief note. “Please help us find the tiger.” While Atsushi protested, Dazai handed the note to Kunikida. “Kunikida, please go back to the Agency and give this to the president.”

        “Don’t tell me you plan to catch the tiger all alone with the two of you?” Kunikida asked, a slight concern in his voice for his partner. “We should first confirm whether his information is accurate.”

        “Sounds risky, but then again, you like risky,” commented (Y/N). She understood what he was up to so was going along with him.

        Dazai smiled. “It’s fine.”

        “I’m not doing this okay!” cried Atsushi, “This means you’re going to use me as bait, right? Who in their right mind would agree to that—”

        “There is a reward, right, Dazai?” said (Y/N) as if she was talking about the weather.

        Dazai saw what she was up to. “Yes, there is!”

        “What? Reward?” said Atsushi, suddenly interested, though still apprehensive. Trying to keep his pride, he said, “No way! You’re not going to tempt me with that.” A moment passed. “But just for reference…how much would that reward be…?”

        “About this much,” said Dazai nonchalantly, holding up his small notebook with a figure written. With that, Atsushi gave in and accepted.

        “Wonderful!” said (Y/N), “Kunikida and I will pay, then we’ll head out.”

        Once they had done so, they walked out. As Kunikida marched towards the Agency to give the note to the president, (Y/N) pulled Dazai aside for a moment. Atsushi was in the bathroom so would not overhear.

        “He’s not bait, is he?” she said.

        “Of course, he is!” said Dazai, being intentionally oblivious.

        (Y/N) sighed. “Don’t act ignorant. Atsushi isn’t bait since he’s the tiger. Am I right?”

        Dazai smirked. “So, you figured it out too. Good job.”

        “The evidence was there, so I formed a conclusion that made sense.” The young woman shrugged nonchalantly.

        Dazai sighed inwardly. He didn’t like how she always downplayed her achievements as if every common person could do what she did. Outwardly, though, he remained calm and unreadable.

        “Are you sure you can deal with him yourself? I can come just in case,” (Y/N) asked.

        The brunette smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry. Just act like Atsushi is bait with Kunikida and the others then come with them.” The confident, assured air he carried with was especially apparent in that moment. “I have everything under control.” He smiled at her reassuringly.

        Before (Y/N) could say anything, Atsushi came out of the tea shop.

        “Ah, come along, Atsushi! Time for you to earn your reward!” said Dazai. His playful side had returned.

        As a confident Dazai and nervous Atsushi began walking in one direction, (Y/N) followed in Kunikida’s direction to the Agency. She just had to pass time until it was time to meet up with Dazai again. As it turned out, not too much time would pass until she, Kunikida, and a few others would be called out to go down to the port.

l

        As they got out of their cars, Kunikida ran in. They were a bit late from the time Dazai had written on his note.

        “Hey, Dazai!” called Kunikida as he entered the warehouse. (Y/N) followed him more slowly. She could see Dazai standing unhurt while Atsushi lay unconscious on the floor.

        “Oh, you’re late, you two,” said Dazai, “I’ve captured the tiger.”

        “What, it’s the boy?” asked Kunikida.

        “He has the ability to transform into a tiger,” said (Y/N).

        “Jeez,” said Kunikida, slightly annoyed that (Y/N) hadn’t said anything earlier but unsurprised that she knew. He turned to Dazai, holding up the note he had been given. “What’s with this note?”

        Dazai read it aloud. “ ‘A tiger will appear in the warehouse in the fifteenth district. Secure the perimeter so that it can’t get away.’ It’s an excellent, concise note!”

        “You’ve left out the most important detail! Next time, explain in advance,” said Kunikida. “And (Y/N),” she looked at him, “if you know, tell me! I had to bring in guys who weren’t even on call!”

        The young woman shrugged and smiled. “I thought it was funny how official and strategic you were being.”

        “You and Dazai better take them out for drinks later to repay them,” grumbled Kunikida.

        (Y/N) sweat-dropped. Man, she thought, I keep having to pay for people… Three people walked in behind her.

        “What, no casualties?” said Yosano, disappointed, putting her hands on her hips, “How boring.”

        “You’ve come a long way, Dazai,” said Ranpo, “Though you still have a ways to go before you even come close to me.”

        Kenji knelt down next to Atsushi’s unconscious body. “But what are we going to do with him? He didn’t know he was doing it, right?”

        “Yeah, you’re right,” said (Y/N), “What do you think, Dazai?” All four detectives turned to the brunette.

         “The ward’s designated him as a major threat,” commented Kunikida.

        Dazai smirked. “I’ve already made a decision.” Peering down at the boy in question, his face got serious and contemplative for a moment.

        Hm, thought (Y/N), Atsushi must have said something that went to Dazai’s heart. He normally doesn’t act like this. She smiled to herself. If I’m not mistaken, he has the same look he had just before he offered me a job.

        Dazai smiled and simply stated, “We’ll make him one of us!”

        Kenji’s eyes lit up. “Nice!”

        “He certainly has the heroic attitude,” commented (Y/N), remembering how Atsushi saved Dazai. The others, however, remained unconvinced.

        “Are you serious?” asked Yosano.

        “Dazai,” said Ranpo, “You are an idiot.”

        Kunikida, of course, blew in Dazai’s face. “What gives you the right to decide that?”

        The brunette ignored him and chose to call to Atsushi’s unconscious form. “Wake up, boy!”

         Atsushi finally came to and opened his eyes, sitting up. “Huh…I…” He seemed confused.

         “Atsushi,” asked Dazai, “Do you remember nothing at all from when you were transformed?”

         “What are you talking about?” the boy asked, confusion growing.

         “Oh,” said (Y/N), noticing something, “Your right hand is still there.” She pointed at the hand, more like paw, that was still showing.

         Atsushi lifted up the paw and looked at it. He blinked. “What?!?!” he screamed in fear, “What the?! What’s this?! What the hell?!”

         “Atsushi Nakajima!” cried Dazai in a commanding tone. Atsushi froze. In a calmer tone, Dazai continued, “You’ll become one of us. From this day forth, you’ll be a member of the Armed Detective Agency.”

         “Welcome aboard,” said (Y/N), smiling at the white-haired boy.

         Atsushi deadpanned. “Huh?”

[featherymalignancy]

How About a Hug, Hm? REMIX

So a few days ago I got this ask about my Elriel one-shot “How About A Hug?” because I messed up the formatting and I you basically have to to read it as a reblog. I also was really unsatisfied with the end result.

So, I did the most Feathery™️ thing every and REWROTE THE WHOLE GODDAMN THING.

Please enjoy, and know that I will go back and tag people/clean up formatting tomorrow. Right now I just need to post and 😴

——————————————————

Elain Archeron was running late.

Granted, it was only by seven minutes, which—in many social circles—was still considered well within the accepted boundaries of punctuality.

The problem was that a) being late made Elain anxious, and b) there was absolutely nothing polite about Nesta Archeron when she was made to wait, even by her own kin.

Yet another reason it had been critical that Elain arrive on time: Nesta was already likely to be somewhat hacked off when she saw what Elain was wearing tonight, and Elain had hoped to avoid any further dramatics on her elder sister’s part.

She spent half the cab ride downtown trying to convince herself that it was fine that she’d borrowed something out of Nesta’s closet (even if it had been without permission) and that she hadn’t had a choice; she simply didn’t own anything appropriate for dinner at a four-star restaurant. However, by the time the cab slithered under Trump Tower’s unsavory shadow and into Hell’s Kitchen, she’d given up pretending.

The truth was she had half a dozen cocktail dresses that would have been perfectly suitable for dinner in the West Village, even if the place they were going was one of the nicest sushi restaurants in the city. No, Elain had raided Nesta’s closet for a far more embarrassing reason: she’d been in search of a dress she hoped might finally win her Azriel’s attention.

She wasn’t proud of the absurd crush she had on the guy, but it really couldn’t be helped. He was gorgeous, and smart, and darkly funny when he wanted to be, and she’d been secretly mooning over him since they’d met through Feyre’s fiancée three years ago. God, what she wouldn’t give to have him return even a fraction of her feelings.

Apparently not her dignity, Elain thought with a glance down at her neckline.

The worst part was that Azriel seemed oblivious to her interest in him. He was always polite to her, always made a point to talk to her when he caught her hiding out on the balcony during one of Feyre and Rhys’s crazy parties or sit next to her at their big family dinners, but he’d never once given her any indication that he was in any way that he reciprocated her feelings, which should have been reason enough for Elain to pack it in and stop harassing him.

And that was to say nothing of Mor.

Mor was the friend who’d first introduced Feyre and Rhys, and from what Elain could gather, she and Azriel had a long and complicated history. It didn’t seem to matter that Mor had been dating the same girl for over a year now. When she was in the room, Az’s eyes were always on her. Not that Elain blamed him—Mor was gorgeous in a way girls like her could only dream of being. Still, there was no denying the sting of watching the guy you were interested in pine over someone else.

Given all this, Elain wasn’t really sure why she’d gone to such lengths to dress up for this dinner. Mor would surely be there wearing something incredible and couture, thereby rendering everyone else invisible to Azriel. Still, Elain was a hopeless optimist, and she’d stubbornly sold herself on the idea that if she found the perfect dress, she could finally convince Azriel that she was a woman worthy of affection, rather than Nesta’s bookish, boring little sister.

She had to admit, there was nothing bookish about her tonight. The dress was tighter on her that it was her waifish sister, and dear god it deserved a Medal of Honor for the way it managed to keep her boobs looking so perky even without a bra. She didn’t suppose Nesta would be too happy about that bit, either, so she could only hope her sister was in a good mood by the time Elain arrived.

Just then Elain’s phone buzzed, and she looked down at it and groaned. It was from Nesta.

Where the 🤬 are you?

Running late, Elain quickly typed back. Is everyone waiting?

She watched the gray ellipsis pulse at Nesta responded.

Feyre and Rhys aren’t even fucking here yet. But hurry up, Cash is already driving me insane.

Elain rolled her eyes. She wasn’t sure who Nesta thought she was fooling when she and Elain shared a bedroom wall. Nesta and Cassian, Rhys’s other best friend, ended up banging almost every time they saw each other, which—since Rhys and Feyre had gotten engaged four months ago—was fairly frequently. In fact, Cash was at their apartment making Nesta scream so often that Elain had been forced to invest in earplugs and a sound machine. From Elain’s perspective, it seemed rather pointless of Nesta to pretend she wasn’t completely hot of a guy she called “Daddy” in bed.

Elain shuddered at the thought, hoping that Nesta would end up going to Cash and Az’s loft in Williamsburg tonight instead. Though, she realized glumly, they only ever seemed to go there when Azriel was out, and the only person who seemed able to keep Azriel out later than Cash was Mor. That meant Elain’s options were either to pop an Ambien and hope for the best, or stay out and watch Az make moon eyes at Mor all night. Neither one was particularly appearing.

Elain ignored Nesta’s text as the car pulled up outside the restaurant and she wiggled out, smoothing the back of her tight dress before giving her curls what she hoped was an artful tousle before slipping inside.

Elain’s heart felt into her stomach as she took in the elegant but understated interior of the famed Sushi Nakazawa. Given the prices, she’d assumed the place would be all black granite and swanky chandeliers—the kind of place cleavage like hers wouldn’t seem out of place. Instead the place was elegantly spare and distressingly well-lit. God, she was such a prize idiot.

Unfortunately, she was also out of time, because a quick survey of the interior found that her group was already gathered at the bar, Mor, Feyre, and Rhys having showed up in the interim between Nesta’s text and Elain’s arrival.

Elain’s eyes went to Mor first, who stunned in a cardinal red lace and net sheath. It clung to her frame like it had been made for her, and despite a latent jealous she couldn’t quite contain, she was relieved to find that she at least wouldn’t look overdressed.

Elain’s stomach only wended in a tighter knot when Mor’s eyes fell on her and lit up, a reminder that not only was Mor prettier, she was also an infinitely better person than Elain.

“There she is!” Mor beamed, coming forward and hugging Elain. “I love that dress, Ellie!”

Elain braced herself for Nesta’s inevitably remark, but it was actually Cash who reacted first.

He’d opened his mouth to comment seemingly before he’d actually looked at Elain, because the second he realized what exactly she was wearing, his eyes they snapped the ceiling, as if looking at her chest directly might turn him to stone.

“Whoa, El, all dressed up tonight!”

Nesta, wholly unmoved by his attempted chivalry, elbowed him in the ribs.

“Don’t be vulgar Cassian!” She snarled before narrowing her eyes. “And that’s mine!”

Cash smirked, seeming more at ease now that Nesta was his target.

“I knew I’d seen that bef—ow! Goddamnit woman, what was that for?”

He scowled down at the dangerous stiletto Nesta had just jammed into his toe box.

“Sorry,” she cast over her shoulder, not deigning to look at him. “Did I accidentally step on your foot?”

“I’m an adult,” Elain interjected, cheeks burning as she faced her sister down. “Stop acting like I’ve fourteen and stuffing my bra.”

“They’re just boobs, Nes,” Rhys added, arm slung over Feyre’s shoulder. “Relax.”

“Watch it,” Nesta warned him, but Feyre only laughed.

“I agree!” She said, turning to smile at Elain. “And I think they look amazing.”

“If I’d have known they were going to be such a topic of conversation,” Elain mumbled, grateful Azriel wasn’t here to witness this circus. “I would have worn something else.”

“No, I’m with Feyre,” Mor said, wicked grin forming. “Breasts that nice deserve to be shown off.”

Elain wasn’t so humble that she didn’t feel herself preening a bit at that comment, even if she was still flustered by the prolonged attention. Either way, she was grateful when Cash interrupted with a somewhat sheepish laugh.

“Teenage me would be furious if he heard me say this, but can we please stop talking about boobs?”

“Elain’s boobs or just any boobs?” Feyre said with a smirk.

However, before Elain could admonish her for it, Feyre was crushing her into a hug.

“Hey you,” she said, wrapping her arms and Elain’s neck and whispering in her ear, “let me and Rhys know if you wanna stay at our place tonight; Cash already grabbed Nesta’s ass twice when she thought we weren’t looking.”

Feyre indicated the mirror behind the bar with her eyes as they pulled away, and sure enough, Elain watched Cash’s hand as it drew lazy, dangerous circles just above the swell of Nesta’s well-formed behind.

Elain groaned, hugging Rhys now as well. God , her sister was such a hypocrite sometimes.

Ignoring a lingering twinge of annoyance, Elain forced herself to glance in false realization before casually asking, “So where’s the Birthday Boy?”

“He was on his phone out back,” Rhys said, before raising a hand in greeting to someone over Elain’s shoulder. “There he is.”

Elain tried not to look to eager as she turned and drank in all six feet four inches of perfection that was Azriel Macar. He was dressed all in black, from his prada boots to the soft, expensive t-shirt fitted enough to show off his toned physique. Elain honestly had to fight not to swoon as he ran an effortless hand through his glossy sable hair, the longer pomaded pieces on top stand up for a second before falling into an artful tousle.

“Hey Ellie,” he said, gaze on her and gone so quickly that he never even had time to notice her much-discussed cleavage. Instead, his eyes flicked to Mor and held for a long, meaningful beat before he turned back to Elain and added politely, “Thanks for coming.”

“Sure,” she chirped, trying to ignore the fact that he was coming closer, and that in another second she’d be able to smell that divine Givenchy cologne he always wore. “Of course!“

She bent her head, pretending to be fixing the clasp on her bracelet as his scent hit her and she had to bite back a groan. Sweet Jesus, he smelled good. When she looked up again, everyone else was shuffling to their table and Azriel was lingering, a soft smile threatening to the reveal the absolutely devastating dimples in both his cheeks.

“Do I get a hug?” He asked. “It is my birthday after all.”

He extended his arms, and she gave a nervous laugh, accepting the gesture by stringing her arms around his neck.

“Of course,” she repeated stupidly, trying to ignore the way the muscles in his arms flexed as he embraced her. “Happy Birthday.”

At this he squeezed her a little tighter and she fought off genuine giddiness.

It was a friendly gesture, she warned herself, and it ended the minute Mor called, “Az, come sit by me.”

Elain cleared her throat as he pulled away, turning to where Mor was still beckoning. However, before Elain could get too flustered, he turned back to her.

“Shall we?” he said, indicating Elain go ahead of him. To her delight, they reached the table to find that the only two seats left were next to each other. She tried not to give her eagerness too much leash as he pulled out her chair for her before sinking into the one between she and Mor. Mor leaned over to give him a soft peck on the cheek, and he flushed.

“Where’s Emmy tonight?” Feyre asked as Mor tried to wipe the lipstick from Az’s copper skin and he battered her away, like child trying to fend off an over-bearing mother.

“She’s sick, poor little thing,” Mor said, giving a tiny pout. “She hasn’t been able to get out of bed in days.”

Elain didn’t bother to her disappointment. Emerie had been one of Nesta’s best since they’d met in college almost ten years ago, and she not only was she like family to the Archerons, she also happened to be the only person in the group who knew about Elain’s crush. Elain had sworn her to secrecy at the time, and though it would have been reasonable to assume that once Emmy knew, Mor would know, Elain appreciated that she could trust Emerie to keep her secret.

Elain felt Emerie’s absence keenly and Nesta and Cash began bantering back and forth at lightning speed. Emerie was a master at slowing the tempo of Nesta’s quick wit, making it easier for Elain in particular to feel she could keep up.

More selfishly, Elain also missed Emerie’s ability to keep Mor distracted. When Emmy was around, she was all Mor could focus on. However, in her absence Mor’s attention had reverted almost completely to Az, a fact he didn’t seemed to mind a single bit, if his growing smiles were any indication.

Still, he seemed to be going out of his way to make sure Elain didn’t get lost in the chaos of conversation surging around them, even if he never looked at her for more than a moment or two before his eyes flicked back to Mor, studying her dark brown eyes and crimson lips.

After they placed their drink orders and the waiter came over to begin explaining the omakase menu, Elain wondered if she had time to dodge under the table to throw on some lipstick of her own. Assuring herself everyone was suitably distracted she bent down, hastily uncapping the tube before looking up just in time to see Nesta brush a very deliberate hand between Cassian’s splayed quads.

Elain jerked back, banging her head on the table.

“Fuck!” she swore quietly, straightening and rubbing her head.

Nesta shot her an alarmed look across the table and Elain flushed.

“All you alright?” Azriel asked, and she tried not to bleat in excited panic as his fingers brushed the back of her head. “What happened?”

“I—dropped something,” she fumbled, cursing her sister for being such a salacious wench.

Wasn’t it enough that she and Cash were already going to keep her up all night? Did she really have to make Elain look silly in front of Azriel, too?

“Does it hurt?” Azriel said, still studying her head before letting his eyes go to the server. “Do you need ice?”

“No, no,” Elain said hurriedly, trying to regain her composure. “I’m fine.”

“Did you at least find whatever you were looking for?” Mor asked, and Elain’s flush deepened.

“And then some,” she grumbled to herself, and Cassian gave a quiet but unmistakable laugh before letting out a surprised exhale. Elain had a fairly good idea what Nesta was squeezing to shut him up.

“Should we order, then?” Mor asked, hand falling onto Azriel’s arm. “Any particular requests, Birthday Boy?”

“He’s thirty now,” Rhys pointed out. “I think that makes him a Birthday Man .”

“Birthday Old Man,” Cassian amended. “Don’t worry champ, I’ve already put some viagra in your bathroom.”

“You’re not supposed to share your prescriptions, Cash,” Azriel said with mirth, eyes sparkling even as his face remained neutral. “And besides, I would feel dead back if you needed one tonight and couldn’t find them.”

“Checkmate,” Mor purred as Cash flipped her off.

Beside Azriel, Elain was fighting not to blush again. Cash’s comment, however sophomoric and lewd, had her imagining what Azriel was like in bed. She wondered for a moment if Mor knew before dismissing the thought and the twinge it induced.

“Let’s put this poor souls out of his misery and order,” Feyre said, smiling at the server where he still waited patiently. “Maybe if Cash’s mouth is full, he’ll stop talking.”

Cassian grinned, and, after placing their requests for the chef’s tasting menu, they all settled into an easy conversation. Cash and Rhys regaled them with stories of Azriel at various ages, from the gawky child he’d been when they’d first met him to the shy teenager who’d been terrified of girls.

“Let him be,” Mor said, touching her friend’s shoulder. “He was sweet in high school!”

Rhys laughed.

“It took him a year to pluck up the courage to say three words to you,” he pointed out.

“And they were ‘here’s a pen’ in response to you asking him the time. Nice work, Shakespeare,” Cash said, attempting to muss Azriel’s perfectly styled hair before being batted away.

“I can’t imagine Az ever being awkward,” Elain blurted. “I bet girls thought he was mysterious and cool.“

“See?” Azriel said, gesturing to Elain. “This is why I sat over here.”

“Oh please ,” Rhys said, bubbling his lips. “Ellie’s just being polite. If you two had known each other in high school, we all know how to would’ve gone: you’d have had an obscene crush on her and your dreams of true love would have been dashed after she politely signed your yearbook ‘have a good summer, Adrian’, leaving you heartbroken and alone.”

Azriel gave Elain a soft smile, and her heart burst open as thousands of butterflies flitted out of it.

“I hate to say it, but he’s probably right,” he told her. “I assume high school Elain was very popular.”

“She was,” Feyre said. “Eight different guys asked her to prom.”

“I’m not surprised,” Az said, and Elain made a great show out of drinking out of her masu to avoid having to answer.

She was relieved when the food began arriving to distract everyone, if only to save her the temptation of telling Azriel that there was no universe in which she wouldn’t have been into him, high schoolers or no.

Instead discussion turned to the Feyre and Rhys’s wedding as they ate, and as final plates were being cleared, Cash took the opportunity to once again mocked Azriel for the fact the latter had lost the rock-paper-scissors competition to be Rhys’s best man.

“I lost on purpose,” he told Elain quietly, taking a sip of the Yamasaki Single Malt he’d ordered after dinner.

“Why?” she laughed, following his gaze across the table to where Cash and Nesta were now bickering about whether Rhys’s stag night in Vegas would be better than Feyre’s hen do in Napa.

“Because Rhys told me that you’d convinced Feyre to pick Nesta as her maid of honor, and no offense, but your sister terrifies me. I’d much rather be with you.”

She laughed, biting her lip. It felt so terribly like they were flirting, but she couldn’t decide if it was her imagination or not.

“She terrifies everyone,” Elain said. “And I have a feeling this won’t our last trip down the aisle together.”

Azriel only quirked a bemused brow at this, which had Elain flushing scarlet.

“Not like that! She laughed, fumbling to pretend the idea of them being together was absurd rather than her heart’s desire. "I meant for Cash and Nesta’s wedding. Don’t tell me those two aren’t going to end up together.”

“We’ll have to work out a custody agreement when they finally get over themselves and start dating properly,” he agreed. “I’m spending a fortune on earplugs.”

She laughed, and he seemed warmed by the gesture, because he flashed a modest—albeit dimpled—smile being turning back to the larger conversation.

After dinner they’d gone a cocktail bar, then an Irish pub, and finally—much to Azriel’s chagrin—a karaoke bar. Rhys and Cash spend the majority of the evening trying to wrestle Azriel on stage while Mor and Feyre sang duets to Beyoncé and Spice Girls.

Elain was content enough to sit back and simply observe the scene as it unfolded around her. It was hard to contain her giddy, dreadful anticipation when Mor left around one to check on Emerie and Azriel—besides bidding her farewell with a soft kiss on the cheek—didn’t move a muscle.

Less than an hour later, Cash and Nesta both disappeared about an hour after without so much as a goodbye. Elain groaned, hoping they’d be asleep by the time she got home.

She’d have to rally if she wanted to manage it; they would be at it for hours yet.

By three the place was clearing out, and besides them, only a few tables of marathon drinkers and a girl on stage performing a beautiful rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” remained.

“We’re gonna go,” Rhys said, arm slung around a rather drunk, giggling Feyre. “Ellie, do you want to come with us?”

Elain glanced at Azriel, who’s glass still had two fingers of whiskey in it. If she wanted a chance to be alone with him, this was it.

“I think I’ve got one more in me,” she said, smiling.

“If you mean drink, I’m in,” Azriel said.

“Oh c’mon, brother,” Rhys goaded. “Just one song. I wouldn’t even film it….much.”

“Do Beyoncé!” Feyre chimed in, and Azriel shook his head.

“You know I’d play in traffic before I ever sang karaoke,” Azriel said mildly, making Feyre laugh. "Thanks for coming.”

He rose, embracing Rhys and pressing a kiss on Feyre’s head.

“C’mon, my little drunkard,” Rhys told her. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“Let’s have sex when we get home,” Feyre said, her attempted whisper fully audible. Rhys pretended smack his forehead with his palm and a mimed, “ Oh brother ”, to Azriel and Elain before coax a still-singing Feyre outside.

Azriel chuckled before draining the last of his drink and rising. Elain pretended not to notice the way his well-tailored jeans fit his lean legs and…other parts of his anatomy as he adjusted his belt buckle and glanced down at her.

“Bud Light?” he asked, and she nodded, bobbing to her feet as well.

If she wanted a way to get closer to him that was more elegant than her increasing urge to crawl across the table and into his lap, this was certainly it.

“I’ll come with you.”

He flashed her a modest smile before indicating she lead the way. He ordered and waved off Elain’s attempt to pay before leaning on the bar to avoid towering over her. The gesture brought them nearly eye-to-eye, and Elain had to actively fight not to let hers roll back in pleasure at the bergamot and amyris wood notes in his sinful cologne. Up close Elain could see how much green he had in his hazel irises, and she wanted to tip into them and swim until she drowned.

“Did you have fun?” she said, desperate to get the conversation flowing again, and he smiled, making her stomach flop.

“I did, yeah,” he said, glancing around the bar in bemusement, as if still wondering how he’d ended up there. “Thank you for coming.”

Elain shrugged, grinning.

“You say that like you didn’t think I’d show,” she said, resting a cheek in her hand. She knew by now her expression was not her less than a swoon, though she couldn’t bring herself to care.

Hadn’t been this been her plan all along? Finally get Az’s attention long enough to tell him how she felt? Now was the best chance she’d probably ever get.

“No, I figured would,” Az said, interrupting her reverie. “Or hoped you would, whatever.”

Was that—

Did that mean what she thought it did?

Normally she would have chalked it up to wishful thinking, but the way he rubbed the back of his neck, dimples appearing as he huffed what almost sound like a sheepish laugh, had hope igniting in her chest.

“What does that mean?” she pressed, forcing herself to meet his gaze.

For the first time all night, he didn’t look away. Instead, his eyes skated back and forth across her face, as if she were a riddle he only had seconds to memorize. She watched, transfixed, as he wet his plush lower lip with his tongue before biting it almost self-consciously.

“It means I’m glad you came,” he admitted. “And that you didn’t go home with your sister and Rhys.”

It wasn’t the confirmation she’d been hoping for, and the ambiguity of the statement had her conviction waning. That could just as easily have been mean platonically, and if she pushed him and ruined things between them by making it awkward—

“Of course I’d be here for your birthday,” she said, giving his shoulder a playful shove. “That’s what friends are for.”

She couldn’t help the way her voice got stuck on the word, not when her throat suddenly began to clog with tears.

She had to get out of here, right now. Before she started crying and made things worse. She made to retract her hand but Azriel grabbed it, grip gentle but intent.

“El, don’t go,” he said, and she was surprised at the frank discontent in his normally-impassive expression.

She waited for him to explain himself before instead he let out another strained laugh, grip on her wrist easing. However, he didn’t let go entirely, choosing to intertwine their fingers instead.

Holding hands.

She and Az were holding hands.

And he—

She glanced back up to find he was studying her again, his face a mixture of terror and delight. When she gave his hand a soft squeeze, he let out the breath he’d been holding.

“Jesus, I am bad at this,” he said, reaching up to tuck a curl behind her ear. She wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it, but she thought his gaze flicked down to her lips as he continued to study her with heavy-lidded eyes.

“Bad at what?” She asked, though she’d begun to suspect she knew exactly what, even if it seemed too good to be true.

“At least my timeline is improving,” he breathed instead. “And I haven’t offered you a pen you didn’t ask for yet.”

Hoping she wasn’t misreading the situation, she let her finger trail down to trace the circular buckle of his Gucci before glancing back up at him and purring, “Do you have a pen?”

He smirked before raising his right wrist and glancing at his watch face over her shoulder.

“It’s….3:17 am,” he said, smile spreading as she gave a low sound of approval and flicked her gaze to his lips.

“Smooth,” she said, and tried not to lose her mind as he let his raised hand fall to the back of her neck and bent to kiss her.

He had almost girlishly full lips, and they opened for her as they settled into the kiss. Immediately his hand tangled in her hair so he could alter her head position slightly and get a proper taste of her. She groaned into his mouth he pulled at her lower lip with his teeth. He tasted like oranges and the expensive Japanese whiskey he’d been drinking all night, and pleasure tightened in her low belly as his tongue brushed hers. Her brought his free hand up to cradle her face, and in response she pushed closer to run her hands underneath of his shirt and down the silken skin of his back.

“Fuck,” he breathed with a heated half-laugh, nose brushing her cheek as he bowed into her touch. “You’re killing me, woman.”

She only smirked, feeling more confident now that she had before. She could hardly believe this was happening, but she was too excited about it to fully care.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said, and he bit his lip, as if restraining himself from kissing her again.

“Like to another bar?” he asked, dazed as he continued to stare at her lips.

“Like to my bed,” she said boldly. “Or yours, depending on where Cassian and Nesta ended up.”

He didn’t speak immediately, just studied her, and she panicked.

“I mean, only if you—I’m sorry, should I not have—?“

He only kissed her again in response, more gently this time.

“Please stop apologizing,” he said, kissing her jaw now before seeming to realize something and pulling back, brows synced.

“I—Jesus, do you seriously not know?”

She felt a bit sheepish at his incredulous tone and fought not to stiffen.

“Know what?”

He laughed softly, though their was a edge of self-deprecation in it that kept the gesture from seeming conscending.

“I really am the worst at this.”

“At what?”

“El, I’ll crazy about you. I have been crazy about you since we met.”

“You have?” she blurted, horror fading into genuine—if elated—confusion.

He laughed.

“Did you think it was coincidence that you and I are always sitting next to each other at dinner? That I always find you at Rhys’s dumb parties?”

“I—“ she began, still trying to decide if this was a dream or not. “What about Mor, though?”

“Mor?” he repeated, confused now, too. “What about her?”

“I thought you and she—“

He leaned in to brush his nose against hers, and she blushed at the innocent affection in the gesture.

“Not at all,” he assured her. “I did have a thing for her in high school, but I got over it after she and Cash slept together at prom. We’re just friends, I swear.”

“But she’s always touching you, and every time I see you together you can’t stop looking at her.”

At this he laughed, his smile so genuine and open she almost didn’t recognize him.

“She’s always been touchy-feely,” he said. “She grew up in Madrid, and people are just more affectionate there, I guess. And I only watch her when you’re around because she called me out for having an absurd crush on you, and I was afraid she was going to get drunk and blow my cover by telling you.”

Elain shook her head, still not quite believing what she was hearing. Reading her expression, he bent to kiss her softly.

“What guy wouldn’t be crazy about you?” he breathed. “You’re incredible.”

This seemed to break the spell, and she twined her fingers in his hair and pulled him down for another steamy kiss.

“Text Cash,” she said a little breathlessly when they broke away. “I don’t want an audience.”

She couldn’t felt but feeling smug when he almost dropped his phone at those words. It felt good to know that she wasn’t the only one affected by all this.

“Cash and Nesta are at the lof—“ Az began after a minute, but Elain cut him off with a kiss.

H rose, pulling her against him as his tongue brushed the roof of her mouth.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he said as she kissed his neck and tugged on his earlobe with her teeth, earning a low groan. “You’ve been drinking.”

She grabbed his chin so he would look at her.

“Not that much,” she said, and it was true. “And besides, I wanted this way before tonight.“

“Good,” he breathed, pressing a hand to her low back to bring her close to him. “Because so have I.”

Though they spent the majority of the ride up town and the elevator up to her apartment making out, something seemed to shift as Elain’s door clicked shut behind him, as if the gravity of what they were about to do had finally caught up to them.

Reluctantly Az peeled his lips from where they’d been glued to her neck as he took a small step back, as if to give her space.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, feeling embarrassed for how much she still wanted him even now that he seemed to have come to his senses.

“Maybe we should—” he broke off, looking somewhat guilty. “Hold off.”

She nodded, trying to keep the tears at bay again.

“Are you worried this could mess things up in the group? Because I understand—“

“No,” he said hurriedly, coming forward again, as if he could no longer stand to be away. “Not at all. I just—you’re special, El. You deserve to be taken out and spoiled.”

“Az, you just took us to a $1,800 dinner! Or did you think I didn’t see you pulling our server aside?”

Azriel opened his mouth, and she covered it with a finger.

“You don’t need to earn my affection. It’s yours already, free of charge.”

“I’ve just been—I waited so long to make my move and I’m terrified of fucking it up,” he said with a soft laugh.

“Why, are you bad at sex?”

Azriel laughed, seemed to relax at her teasing.

“I’ve never had any complaints,” he breathed again her lips, kissing her deeply again.

She gently bit his lower lip in response.

“Then I’d say you’ve gotten nothing to worry about,” she said, kissing him a third time.

She moaned softly when drove his fingers into her hair, hips canting towards her as he pressed her more fully into the door.

She could feel his body’s reaction to her pressing between her thighs, and she moaned again.

“Fuck,” he breathed onto her skin. “You are so gorgeous.”

“So are you,” she said, running her hands up the back of his t-shirt and feeling the mosaic of muscles flexing underneath. “Take this off.”

He laughed and pulled the offending garment over his head, making her groan in delight.

“God, this body ,” she breathed, running a hand down his chest and enjoying his shiver at her delicate touch.

He responded by spinning her away from him and gently dragging down the zipper of her dress until he could slip a hand inside of it.

“I knew you couldn’t have a bra on underneath this thing,” he said, voice a touch smug as he cupped both bare breasts and her breath caught in her throat..

“I’m surprised you even noticed,” she said, voice somewhat. “I wore this dress for you, and you didn’t even look at it once the entire evening.”

She laughed, the sound into a soft moan as he twisted one nipple in experimentation. When she sighed and let her head fall back onto his shoulder.

“Of course I noticed the dress,” he corrected. “You have the most perfect tits I’ve ever seen. I just knew that if I let myself look, I might not be able to stop looking.”

“You shouldn’t say that until you’ve seen them without the sorcery of underwire,” she said.

With that he spun her to face him, catching her gaze to ensure he had her permission before tugging down the top of the dress so her breasts fell free.

“Gorgeous,” he said, easing to his knees so he could replace his fingers with his mouth. “Absolutely gorgeous.”

“If I known this was going to be your reaction, I would have worn a bodycon dress in front of you ages ago,” she said, threading her hands through his hair as he dragged his teeth and tongue along her nipple.

“You don’t need some tight dress to be sexy,” he said, resting his chin her her sternum so he could gaze up at her. “I’d take you in your overalls and pigtail braids any day.”

“Is this some Pippy Longstocking fetish we should all know about?”

He grinned, rising to his feet and giving one of her curls a playful tug.

“Because as devastating as you are playing dress up in your sister’s clothes, I prefer you as you.”

“You can’t say that when I’m naked,” she said with a smile, touching his cheek.

“Why not?”

“Because I may start crying and ruin the mood.”

He cocked his head to the side, tracing her lips with a finger.

“I wouldn’t mind a few tears from you in bed. But only if it’s from you sobbing in pleasure.”

His words sent blood pooling south, the intensity cause a dull throbbing.

“Why do I feel like you could do it, too?” She asked, reaching down to free his belt as he heeled out of his boots.

“Don’t tempt me,” he said, taking her hand and guiding it between his legs. “Forget this,” he said, squeezing gently so she could feel how hard he was. “I could go down on your all night and be the happiest guy on Earth.”

Emerie had said as much once, at a drunken girls’ night.

Azriel strikes me as the type of guy who loves eating girls out. It’s why gay women find him so easy to befriend; we recognize kindred spirit.

Elain vowed to never tell the others she’d been right.

“Will you let me?” He asked, gently nudging her dressing off her hips until it came free and pooled at her feet.

“Is this a trick question?” She said, voice going hoarse as he slipping a hand into her underwear.

“Some people don’t like it.”

“I’m not one of them,” she said, he smiled, coaxing her legs around his waist so he could carry her.

“Thank God,” he replayed. “That would break my heart. Which way?”

She pointed him in the right direction before giving into temptation and kissing him again, looking to way she could feel like body reacting to hers as he held her close. Only when they reached her room—which was decidedly messier than she’d have liked considering Azriel Macar was now in it—did he set her down.

He wasted no time into coaxing her onto the bed, taking only a moment to admire the silky black thong she wore before dragging into down her thighs and discarding it.

“Spread your legs for me, El,” he said, brushing kisses to her knee as she slowly did as he commanded.

The light from the nearby street lamp made the room a lot less dark than Elain was used to during sex, and for a moment she though to be embarrassed or postpone. Then she glanced down to admire the contrast of Azriel’s inky black hair framed against the pale skin of her thighs, and she forgot what it even meant to be self-conscious as he finally put him mouth on her.

She swore at the first brush of his tongue, which was both deliberate and extremely delicate. She threaded a hand through his hair at his second stroke, the touch more intentional this time.

“Azriel,” she breathed.

She watched the muscles in his beautiful back shift at this, as if hearing her moan his name had untethered something in him. When he put his mouth back on her, it was clear he was no longer attempted to tease her. Instead he felt right to where she needed him most, refusing to relent until she tipped over the edge.

Even then he didn’t seem satisfied, it and it was only after he made her come a second time did he pull back, licking his lips before bending to kiss her.

“Take your pants off,” she demanded. "Right now.”

She felt him grinning against her neck as he peeled off of her, slowly working the buttons of his pants before sliding them down his trim hips. He wore black boxer briefs underneath, and he honestly looked like an Armani model. She bit her lip, eying the sizable swell of him through the cotton.

“Those too,” she breathed, greedily drinking in his well-defined adonis belt and the bare trace of hair above the band.

He did as she commanded, and she nearly melted. Naked he was a God, all rippling muscles and smooth unblemished skin, save for the chest piece tattoo that extended onto his shoulders and halfway down his arms. She let her eyes sink lower. Even half-hard he was big, and her belly clenched.

Wasting no time, she urged him to take her place on the bed before kneeling at his feet and putting her mouth on it.

“Shit,” he hissed, driving a hand into his hand then down his face. “Ellie, you’re kiling me.”

She looked up at him through her lashes, and he growled in approval, seeming to decide something before breaking her grip on him and hauling her to her feet. He kissed her again, and she could feel his cock as it practically pulsed between them.

She still wasn’t sure she could believe it was for her, that somehow he wanted her as much as she did him, and had for almost as long.

“Condoms,” he breathed against her mouth. “I need to be inside of you.”

She froze.

“I don’t have any,” she said, dismayed.

How could she be so stupid? Why didn’t they stop on the way home? The closest bodega was six blocks, and she knew everyone who worked there. The last thing she needed was all of them knowing—

Azriel pressed a swift kiss to her lips before tangling from her.

“Where are you going?”

“To grab a condom.”

“Naked?

He flashed her a slight grimace, “Let’s agree you won’t ask where I get it from.”

“Oh Moses,” Elain said, face flushing scarlet as she listened to Nesta’s door creaking open.

Azriel was back in less than a minute, tossing an entire box onto the nightstand as he pulled open one of the foils with his teeth, using his free hand to push his damp hair, long enough to brush his cheekbones now that it wasn’t styled, out of his eyes.

“You found those distressingly fast,” Elain said, unsure if she was amused or mortified at the situation.

“Cash is predictable with his hiding spots,” Az said, eyes hooded as he stroked himself several times before rolling the condom onto his length.

“And why did you take the whole box?”

Azriel laughed softly.

“Because I have a feeling we’re going to need them.”

Without another word Az sank to his knees again, one hand lazily stroking himself to maintain his erection as he went down on her again.

This time it only last three seconds or so before he pulled back, resting one knee beside her hip to steady himself before pulling her onto his shaft in a single wet stroke. Using her left bent leg as leverage, he adjusted his angle, smirking at her low, guttural moan of pleasure.

“Good to know your g-spot is as sensitive as the rest of you,” he breathed, and she laughed and tugged him into an ambitious rhythm.

Soon the only sound was their shared breathing, and the sliding on their bodies against one another. She came first, and he followed even before the dizzying waves of pleasure ceased. He pumped lazily in and out of her for another half dozen stroke before gently extracting from her and peeling off the condom.

She curled against him, cheek pressed to chest as her hands continued to explore. Her fingers caressed his swelling pectorals and each of his abdominal muscles before lazily venturing back between his legs. He gave a hiss of pleasure as she began to work his silken shaft in earnest, and in minutes he was fully ready again.

He groaned when she snatched one of the condoms and rolled it onto him before swinging a leg over and sinking astride him.

Her third orgasm hit her only a short time later, and she sighed when he bucked up into her before going languid under her ministrations.

She leaned down to kiss him as he ran a soothing hand down her back.

“Jesus,” he breathed, pressing his forehead to hers and swirling his hips, still inside her despite his orgasm. “That was incredible.”

She purred her contentment, feeling something even more alluring than desire swell in her chest as he discarded the second condom and tugged her into his arms, tangling their legs. He still smelled like cologne, but it had mixed with her perfume, and sweat, and the scent was intoxicating. She wanted to bath in it—in him—until she died from bliss. She listened to his breathing even out, and as she was drifting off to bed, he felt his breath ruffle her hair.

“Do you like pancakes?” he murmured. “I want to make you breakfast in the morning.”

“Really?” she said, looking at him over a shoulder and melting at the warmth in his smile, less guarded now than it had been even hours before.

“I want to make breakfast for you every morning,” he breathed. “I have since I met you.”

She smiled, nestling closer to him.

“I’d love that, but I should probably be the one making you breakfast. It is your birthday, after all. You have to let me give you something other than a bj and a few orgasms for your birthday, even if it is your dirty 30.”

Az choked on a laugh.

“Say you‘ll dinner with me, then. No family or nosy friends around, just us.”

“I think the word you’re looking for it ‘date’,” she said, laughing as his cheeks flushed before realizing something. “Or is the idea just too formal for the situation? I know we did things a bit backwards...”

“We did,” he agreed, stroking her cheek. “But that doesn’t mean I want to spoil you any less. So yes a date, if you’ll still have me.”

“I will,” she said, meeting his hazel eyes before gently kissing him. “With pleasure.”

He smiled against her mouth.

“Then that’s the only birthday gift I want or need from you.”

She smiled, feeling happy to the point of bursting when he kissed her ear and closed his eyes again.

"Happy Birthday, Az.”

His hum of contentment vibrated through her back.

“The happiest,” he breathed.

[thebadchoicemachine]

SBI HadesTown AU That Lives In My head Rent Free

(in fact I probably pay it to live there)

Links at the end under the cut.

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Starring:

• Dream, George, and Sapnap as The Fates  • Philza as Hermes • Wilbur as Persephone  • Technoblade as Hades • Tommy as Eurydice

and

• Tubbo as Orpheus

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Changes to the story - 

Instead of spouses, Wilbur and Techno are estranged brothers.

Instead of lovers, Tommy and Tubbo are best friends.

The focus is still on restoring balance to the world but through familiar and platonic love instead of romantic. Also, the reason the world is so bad is a more social crisis (some people work too much while others can’t work at all) instead of a natural one (the seasons being wack.) 

It takes place during a seething summer drought rather than a frozen cropless winter but its still the same tune of spring/fall disappearing because the the world being out of tune. 

Character Changes -

+ Philza is an old god. He’s not weaker nor stronger than Wilbur/Techno, just fills up a very different role. He’s god of history, of legends, of simple stories and narration. He’s very human compared to most gods, some theorize perhaps he straight up IS human in some way shape or form. He lives a human life to meet people and collect their lives and stories and appreciate them. He can’t really interfere as more than a mortal man but still just tries to give as many happy endings as he can.

+ Tommy’s a scrappy lost child. His problem is similar to Eurydice but a little inverted. Rather than learning to trust people he needs to learn to value them. He’s no issue with interacting with people and enjoying their help/company but he’s a tendency to use them. He doesn’t believe they’ll stick around so he doesn’t bother caring about them.

+ Tubbo is also an abandoned child. Unlike Tommy he grew up in one spot, although still homeless. Philza found him camping in a crate box behind his station and gave him a job and a bed. He’s pretty much exactly like Orpheus, optimistic, sees the world for what it could be instead of what it is, but maybe spends a little too much time looking forward and not around.

+ Technoblade is basically the god of work and motivation. His problem is generally the same as Hades’ in that he misses his family and is too busy working and building security for what he wants to get what he wants. He misses his brother so much he’s hardend himself to the reasons they’re apart so much in the first place.

+ Wilbur is basically the god of play and rest. In this AU, instead of Hades, Persephone’s role is the biggest reason the world is out of wack. His problem is that he doesn’t face his problems. As the god of such frivolous things as music, games, rest, etc. he is (feels) weak and useless. He’s jealous of Techno and how needed he is so Wilbur retreats away to somewhere he feels needed and wanted, entertaining miserable people. He’s stayed away for longer and longer amounts of time, not realizing his distracting them from their troubles (inadvertently preventing them from fixing them) is a reason they’re so miserable in the first place. All he can do is have a good time so he’s begun forcing it every second of every day and ignoring his brother in the meantime. He needs to learn that he CAN do good, people NEED breaks and fun, but recklessly enforcing it only enforces what he fears, that he’s a liability. 

So, the main problem is a cycle the brothers have spiraled into:

Techno does obviously important things (stirring progress and improvement) and Wilbur feels bad, unimportant, and like a burden.

Wilbur leaves Techno to go distract himself/play with the humans.

Wilbur becomes useless and detrimental without Technoblade there to balance him out.

Techno works even harder, becoming empty and cold without Wilbur there to balance him out, trying to get enough work done so Wilbur won’t have to worry and will come back.

Wilbur sees Techno working so hard and shies away even more so as not to disturb his brother’s important work.

Technoblade has to basically force Wilbur to stay with him now, making it more work.

Wilbur sees Technoblade as both too important for him and now generally unappealing as unnecessary effort. Besides, he’d probably just get in the way.

Technoblade now sees Wilbur as just another part of his endless job. Keep people working, keep things improving, keep the numbers going up, try to keep Wilbur here. Its become work for the sake of work instead of work to the sake of rest.

So even when they’re together neither is relaxed enough to balance the other, both are distant.

Wilbur’s become too carefree, he ignores Technoblade and drops anything that seems challenging, including reconciliation and self-examination. He’s still just playing, even when with Technoblade.

Technoblade’s become too obsessed, focusing more on how to get and keep his brother with him than on being with his brother. The work has become meaningless without the end goal that Wilbur provides. A self sustaining cycle of labor for more labor’s sake.

Now the humans are suffering because they find themselves trapped in an unbalanced cycle of being either incapable of work or incapable of play.

Thematic notes:

- The dancers in the station during the first half are Skeppy, Antfrost, Bad, Eret, and Puffy. 

- The workers (the dancers in the second half) consist of Niki, Fundy, Quackity, Ranboo, and Awsam.

- Tommy is implied to vaguely know/be brotherly to Techno and Wilbur, this is partially how Techno convinces him to leave and go work for him. 

- Likewise, Philza has a few lines about feeling sorry about how Techno and WIlbur have ended up (implying he took some part in raising them) and already knows Tommy when he enters (implying he’s been a dad to helped Tommy out before.

- Technoblade is less malicious than Hades, more just cold and apathetic. In a way, he thinks he’s helping by pulling Tommy away from Tubbo. He, like Wilbur, believes that work is good so more work must be better, even if you’ve nothing to really work towards. At the end he listens to the fates because needs to figure out how to let Tommy go without undoing either all of Wilbur’s power or all of his. 

- Tubbo’s song has a bigger impact on fauna than floral, specifically insects. His first song brings out bees, butterflies, and moths that Tommy goes all star eyed for because pretty bugs but more importantly, living things that don’t want to hurt him!

- Instead of a flower Tommy gets a big beautiful orange moth (named Clementine) that hides in the back of his coat neck whenever Technoblade is near. He remembers in ‘Flowers’ when he goes to wipe some sweat from his neck but its Clementine and she flies around him while he sings. (I thought that’d be much prettier than him just holding her like Eurydice holds the flower.) 

- During ‘Living it Up On Top’ Wilbur dances specifically with Philza (who greets him very much like a father might greet a son who’s been away for a long time) and Tommy (who he teases and ruffles his hair a lot).

- Wilbur does drugs instead of alcohol. He... he makes a lot of drugs so I thought this would be an appropriate swap. Also it’s really funny to me that he sings Our Lady Of The Underground (or, Brother To The Underground) just completely stoned; handing out weed and shit to the workers.

- Instead of a mine Hadestown (Technotown? Technoville?) is a farm in a giant glass case built way up high. Instead of going through the dark that challenge is Tubbo has to climb up its side to avoid the train. Its an unnatural and unwelcoming greenhouse. Everything grows in lines but they’re mismatched and overrun with thorny weeds. Everything is grey and tough and flavorless. There’s so much dust and dirt being kicked up it’s hard to breathe and see. The workers are using various gardening tools during the beats instead of swinging a pickaxe. Half will sharpen while the other half swings (tilling the ground/cutting weeds), it makes a real nice schwing/thunk mix sound. 

- During ‘Word To The Wise’ George sings (“if you tell them no you’re a heartless man”) Sapnap sings (“if you let ‘em go you’re a spineless king”) and Dream sings (”here’s a little tip”) and (“men are fools, men are frail”)

- Tubbo still looks back during ‘Doubt Comes In’ because he's scared of Techno and feels bad about himself (“Who am I? Who am I to think that he would follow me into the blazing heat again”). Techno, Wilbur, and Philza try their best to take care of them but it’s still a tragic ending. 

- Tommy and Tubbo may or may not become (very sad and minor) gods. Unofficially and not in the story, but still... maybe. If they WERE, hypothetically,  they’d be a very tragic pair. Tubbo would help mend relationships and guid people towards good advice while Tommy would help catch/ignore/cut out bad ones. Always working together, never together. 

Lyrical Changes 

> Pronouns are changed, obviously.

> Techno and Wilbur sing “brother” instead of “lover.”

> During ‘The Wedding Song’ (The Friendship Song, I do not care if it’s childish, Wedding is replaced with Friendship) They sing each other’s names instead of “lover.” (Tubbo, tell me if you can...////Tommy, when I sing my song...)

> Anytime they’re complaining about the cold winter replace it with a hot summer

> Tommy’s lines are much sharper. He never loses his edge with Tubbo. Instead of him remembering him and going “my best friend, Tubbo” he remembers and says something more along the lines of “that fucking idiot, Tubbo” but he’s say it with a quivering smile and bittersweet tears in his eyes. Harsh in words not in tone. 

> Wilbur still pours a glass for a toast during ‘Living It Up On Top’ but the rest of the time he’s smoking something instead of drinking. (Who gives breaks when the work is hard?//That's right, Wilbur Soot!//Who makes the music? Who’s your bard?//(Wilbur Soot!)//Thank you//Who makes a rough life fun again, in spite of a pig//(You do!)//Who’s the most awaited gig? Eh? Wilbur Soot, that’s who!)

> When Wilbur shows up during ‘Chant’ he complains about how cold and dark it is. (Colder than a tundra) Techno explains it away as having set up shades/coolers to counter the glare from the sun through greenhouse glass and how he did it to protect/comfort Wilbur. (Brother when you feel that chill, it’s my protection from the kill, its my protection that i’ve built for you.)

> In the Chant Reprise the workers are singing about why they’re working if they can never enjoy the security and safety they keep making. Technoblade, instead of telling him to buy Tommy’s love, tells him to make himself needed. He, instead of warning Tubbo about Tommy leaving, scolds Tubbo for being too light and fluffy and spinelessly letting Tommy go. He scolds him for trying to take Tommy away, back into uselessness and empty fluff, when he’s found a good purpose because clearly Tubbo wasn’t point enough. 

> Philza’s still the narrator, but diegetically his lyrics show more clearly that he knows everyone in the story already. I really like the idea of him giving Tubbo advice on making friends that gets shown in ‘Come Home With Me’

> When Tubbo sings about Techno, instead of singing about minework, he’ll sing things like ((from the second stanza of Epic II) “Technoblade, king//of power and pain//of a hard days work//that never ends//and for half of the year when Wilbur’s away//the strain and the stress just won’t give way//he thinks of his brother, light and carefree//and is taken in a rage of obligation and need//to ensure wants are met and safe//so there will be time for play//so his bother//his brother comes home) 

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This post all started because I was thinking of Tubbo singing the “La lala laaa” that was originally Wilbur’s song. 

Also, I realize this entire AU is just one big punch in the gut to Philza, like, “HEY, ALL YOUR SONS ARE SCREWED UP, NOW SING ABOUT IT.”

[oureuphoria]

Liars, Humans and Werewolves, Oh My.

Synopsis: Your father (a werewolf) and your mother (a werewolf) were concerned about your friend-making skills so they made deal with Jungkook to befriend you (a human). He knew he shouldn’t have agreed, he knew from the moment he spoke with you that it would blow up in his face but he genuinely believed what you didn’t know couldn’t hurt you. It was a friendship founded on lies but to Jungkook it was the realest thing he knew.  or “I don’t study fictional characters for fake friends, Y/N.”

Genre: fluff, angst, crack

Pairing: werewolf!jungkook X  human!reader

Word count: 7.9K

Warnings: I don’t think there is any but lemme know if I’m wrong.

Note: Hiiiii!! Okay, so this oneshot was long overdue I am so sorry but I hope you enjoy. I’m not American and I’m not a werewolf so if any information is inaccurate I sincerely apologise. I proofread but there's a chance there might be some mistakes because I am a fool. 

 You approached your father as he was loading the car. “Why do we have to go?” You whined while also sluggishly lugging extremely large bags into the car to help him. “It’s a learning experience Y/N. Stop whining.” Your face fell at your his stern exclamation but the second he turned around you stuck your tongue out at him. “I just don’t understand the fundamentals of going to New York for 2-weeks just for a stupid party where you, mom and Miri have loads of fun while Henry and I suffer.” He ignored you as he closed the trunk and told you to get in. You were not making the car ride easy and your dad had to threaten to leave you on the side of the road to get you to stop complaining.  

You were fully aware that werewolves were often stigmatised and misunderstood but you couldn’t help but panic a little when you were stuck in a room full of them. Sure, your fear was foolish since both humans and werewolves had been at peace for centuries but for some unrecognisable reason, all knowledge of the peaceful history left your mind the moment you entered the huge hall. Your dad was a human but turned before your mom gave birth to your eldest sister, Miri. She came out a werewolf, you and your younger brother Henry, however, didn’t. Although your sister was considered a full-blooded werewolf (and thanks to your mother an extremely prestigious werewolf at that), you and Henry were outcasts. It was uncommon for human-turned-werewolves to reproduce humans ‘lacking the wolf gene’ and being dragged to this party with your family just reminded you of the fact that you were in retrospect, a failure. At least you had your 14-year-old failure of a brother by your side. 

While everyone coexisted in tranquillity, it was unorthodox for a human to know about werewolves unless they were a werewolf’s mate or in your rare case, a failed human child of two werewolves. You were sure you could never be any werewolf’s soulmate or anyone's soulmate for that matter, your heart was sworn to Netflix and 50 cats. The unorthodoxy of your situation meant that there was always an impenetrable tension between you and werewolves, one that made you extremely uncomfortable. 

Despite all the weird stares and snarls that were hurled your way, your dad was optimistic. He always thought that being a human was great and that these parties were just simply learning curves that you needed to get past. “Henry, if you eat one more cupcake you’ll turn into one. Slow down!” He mocked you before shoving the other half of the cupcake in his mouth. You rolled your eyes and walked away to find him a napkin before you were kidnapped by your father. “Dad, what-“ “Y/N, say hi to the Jeons.” You didn’t really remember the Jeon family that much. All you knew was that your father and Jeon Songwook used to be super close. You also knew that when Songwook later married his beautiful wife, he had 2 children. Junghyun and Jungkook. Junghyun was the eldest and graduated with your sister, he was standing there clad in an expensive suit next to his girlfriend who’d you’d met at the last extravagant party. Jungkook was standing there also clad in an expensive suit with his eyes trained on your sister. You mustered the best smile you could though you were sick and tired of being the family’s pity show and tell story. 

“Y/N, I’ve heard a lot about you, you’re the same age as Jungkook right?” You nodded subtly, unsure where this conversation was going. “I heard you got a perfect score on your SAT.” You saw Jungkook’s face morph into one of anger in the corner of your eye. “Dad-“ Before Jungkook could finish his father put his hand on your shoulder. “Walk with me, Y/N?” You looked at your father for help but he just shrugged. Your mother mouthing ‘don’t fuck this up’ at you as you walked past her. “Jungkook, he’s very athletically talented but he’s not the most academically inclined. He got into Princeton but purely on sports and I’m concerned that if he doesn’t get his grades up, he won’t have a back-up plan.” You nodded understandingly, he seemed like a genuinely nice man from what you could tell so you listened to him. 

“What are you asking me to do, sir?” He chuckled at your worried eyes. “Just call me, Songwook, Songy if you want, that’s what your dad calls me.” You let out a small laugh, fighting back the urge to yawn. “I know that you’re going to Princeton too and I also know you’re taking a class in photography. Your dad showed me a couple of your photos, they really are beautiful.” Before you could even begin to thank him he continued. “My son is majoring in corporate law, like you, and I just thought it might be easier for him to start off if he had the support of someone as intelligent as you.” “Sir, I’m really not that smart-” He cut you off with a wave of his hand. “Nonsense, every parent in this room wishes they had a child as smart as you.” You laughed a little harder than last time. You wished that was true but you knew it was quite the opposite. Everyone here was just glad they weren’t raising two humans. 

“So, do you want me to tutor him?” He nodded with a smile and you smiled back half-heartedly. You were already on bad terms with the werewolf society and now you were about to get on the bad side of the human one. Jungkook went to your high school but it was big and you never really talked to him. He was popular, naturally, and the attention that he generated was mostly from girls, also naturally. He was seen as untouchable though, he was nice, polite and a true charmer but he never stayed with a girl long enough to call her his. It felt weird to call him a fuck boy because he didn’t fit the image. He wasn’t reckless or cruel and he wasn’t a complete boneheaded idiot with a lack of morals. He was admirable, truly and from what you had known there was not a single person who hated him. You had a theory that he was emotionally unavailable because he was waiting for his mate but you never spent too long on it, you never really cared enough to.

Songwook walked you back to the cluster that was your merged families and once your family was alone you were bombarded with questions from your parents. “What did he say to you?” You gave them a pointed look to which they gave you a playful slap on the arm. “Hurry!” You took a deep breath creating suspense before ruining all their hopes in one sentence. “He just wanted me to tutor his son.” Your dad elbowed you slightly before letting out a long sigh. “We were worried he was going to ask you to marry Jungkook or something.” You started laughing uncontrollably before stopping abruptly. “What’s Miri doing with him, she knows he’s just into one night stands.” Your father shrugged before your mother interfered. “We warned her but your sister is old enough to make her own decisions.” You scoffed before turning to face them with crossed arms. “So, she can have sex with a guy that you know is going to leave after but I can’t buy a Nintendo Switch? She’s only 2 years and 7 months older than me!” Your parents just blinked at your outburst before they floated away to go impress another family.  

You went to find Henry but he was nowhere to be seen and you literally searched everywhere. He was probably hiding in the men’s room on his phone watching Netflix but you couldn’t just go in there. You saw Jungkook leaning against a wall on his phone so you approached him without really thinking about what you were going to say. “Jungkook!” He looked up from his phone and gave you a tired smile. “This might be a little weird but do you think you can go into the men’s bathroom to see if my brother is in there?” He looked at you with widened eyes, he nodded slowly before making his way to the bathroom, you trailing behind him, he turned around and scratched his neck sheepishly. “Uh…what’s his name again? Sorry, I forgot.” You let out a laugh that you were trying to suppress before letting him know that his name was Henry. 

Once Jungkook made it out, your brother next to him, you gave him a huge beaming smile. “Thank you!” He just nodded in return before making his way off to the bar. “Oh shit, you have a crush on Jungkook!” You turned around to look at your brother with a face of confusion. “What?” You gave him a good slap on the back of the head but he was undeterred. “You totally find him cute.” You rolled your eyes before putting your arm around his shoulder. “Everyone finds him cute. Now, I think I found a way to convince mom and dad to let us buy a Nintendo Switch.” 

You had spent hours with Henry, even though he was 14, you were closer to him then you’d ever be to Miri. That wasn’t her fault though, it just turned out that way. “So, are you going to buy the new Resident Evil game?” You already knew where this was going. “Yeah, so that you can play the entire game before me.” He groaned at your stubbornness, refusing to let that one incident go. “How many times must I say I am sorry?” He was swinging your arm back and forth while exclaiming dramatically. Eventually, though, your parents came back and let you know it was time to go back to the hotel. 

You were moving to New Jersey in 3 days and Henry did not like that. “Take me with you, I can fit inside your luggage if you make a little room.” Henry had been attached to your hip ever since this week had started. “I told you, I’ll kidnap you after I leave so it doesn’t seem suspicious.” He laughed, flopping down on the couch next to you. “I’m going to miss you. I don’t know how I’m supposed to survive as the only person of culture in this household” You furrowed your eyebrows at him. “Dad’s okay sometimes.” He gave you an all-knowing look and you sighed. “Okay so you’ll have to be the only person of culture for a bit but I’ll be back before you know it.”  

Jungkook had avoided you the first week there. Whenever you tried to approach him he’d pretend he was busy or blatantly ignore you. You called your dad for help and he just said he’d talk to Songwook about it but it had been 2 days and he still made you feel like a plague-infested rat. You were in the library, reading over your schedule and trying to make sense of it. You were horribly bored but there was nothing better to do so you sat there and played games on your phone.

“You’re a snitch.” The voice scared you so much you threw your phone and lost at the game. “And you made me lose a chance at beating my high score!” You picked up your phone and looked up to be met with an angry Jungkook. “Yikes, who hurt you?” You went back to your phone but he snatched it out of your hand. “I don’t need your help.” You put your arms up to ‘surrender’ though you had no idea why he was so angry. “I didn’t know, your dad-” “My dad doesn’t care about my grades, just my reputation. You’d know all about damaging your parent's reputation though so no wonder he asked you.” You gulped, that was unexpected. “Gee, thanks.” You packed up whatever you had out on the table as quickly as you could and left. “Fuck…Y/N wait I didn’t mean that!” You heard him yell after you but you didn’t care, this was the one place where you thought you could escape it but your image followed you everywhere as long as a werewolf was there. 

You rented an apartment alone, not wanting to deal with the havoc of dormitories or live with your sister and her chaos. You had saved up enough to maintain yourself for a while, doing small jobs at your dad's law firm sure helped but now you needed a real job. You weren’t too stressed about finding a job yet because you had some time and you were a master procrastinator. What really stressed you out was college. If anyone found out about your ‘background’ everyone would think that you bought your way in and that was the last thing you needed, all you had to do was avoid anyone you knew and remain unnoticed. Which would be hard considering your sister and Jungkook were around.

Thinking about Jungkook was starting to make you mad again so you got up and stretched, ready to unpack the few boxes that now contained your entire life. The apartment came furnished and you had already been up there to get the bulkier stuff settled with your family’s help so now you just had to sort through smaller things which you did with a frown. Once you were done, you expected to feel a sense of completion, excitement even, but you felt nothing. If anything you felt scared. 

It was a Wednesday in your second week of college. You desperately hoped it would go better than your first week though you can’t think of a way for it to go any worse. But of course, the world is full of surprises. “Y/N!” You turned the other way when you saw Jungkook jogging towards you. You tried to walk with as much speed as you could muster but he was an athlete, you should’ve known better. “Y/N, I’m sorry, what I said was horrible.” He stopped in front of you while you looked at your feet. “It’s okay, I won’t snitch. I already forgot about it.” You tried to reason but he clearly didn’t believe you. “Why’d you turn around the other way then?” You stayed silent because you had no good excuse. “Let’s meet for lunch, my treat, I owe you.” You shook your head quickly. “I already ate lunch.” He looked at you weirdly before laughing. “Y/N it’s 8:30, I believe we call that breakfast.” Your face morphed into an embarrassed smile as you wished desperately for the ground to swallow you whole.

“So, you’re an alpha?!” Jungkook gestured for you to quieten down as while he looked around cautiously to see if anyone overheard. “No way, you totally don’t seem like an alpha.” He looked at you with an offended face which you just shook off. “Come on, alphas don’t run after people just to apologise, Jungkook.” 

 “Well, they can.” He retorted with just as much spite as you. “Evidently.” You looked him up and down while you said it and he flicked your forehead in response. You tried to take a bite of your burger but parts of it started slipping out. “I don’t know why they say Miri is the better sister, you clearly have so much class.” He said this while you were trying to eat your now deformed burger but you were not enjoying the scrutiny. “You’re so funny.” You replied mockingly which just made him laugh in return. “So, why the sudden change of heart? You used to look at me like I ran over your dog.” He winced at the memory before putting his fork down. “It was embarrassing, I never asked for help before and it was weird for me. Besides, I didn’t actually need help my dad was just paranoid.” You nodded understandingly because you sure did understand, you hated asking for help just as much as the next guy but you weren’t as well-rounded as Jungkook was, you definitely needed help in some areas. 

“If I was a werewolf, I’d be an alpha, right?” Jungkook gave you one look before laughing obnoxiously, you put a hand on your heard feigning offence. “You’d be a beta.” You were now genuinely offended but pushed that back for the moment to provide room for your curiosity. “Why?” When he looked at you with a playful gaze you were prepared for a snarky comment. “Because people who want to be alphas are automatically betas. You don’t choose your role, your role chooses you.” You gave him a playful nudge into the wall as he was walking you home. “Okay Gandalf, when did you get so wise?” He laughed harder than he should’ve and you gave him a questioning look. “Who even is that?” Your eyes widened in shock. “Gandalf, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit?” When he still looked at you with the same blank stare you shook your head disappointingly. “Only a nerd like you would reference something from Lord of the Rings.” You nudged him a little harder this time but he was more prepared. “Y/N, I really am sorry about what I said.” You waved him off.  “Admit I’d make the best alpha and I’ll forgive you.” His eyes met yours in an annoyed glare but they still seemed so beautiful to you. You had to tell yourself to stop staring before it got awkward. Maybe Henry was right, maybe you did have a tiny crush on Jungkook, but in reality, who didn’t?

“You’re late.” You quickly sat down in front of him, 15 minutes after you’re appointed time. “I know, I’m sorry. The lecture ran over schedule.” He shook his head in fake disappointment and you sighed before playing along. “A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.” Jungkook looked at you blankly, blinking far too much in an attempt to make you realise how random your references were. “Gandalf, again.” He muttered ‘nerd’ under his breath and went back to his papers. You hit him with your pen. Despite his father’s word, Jungkook was doing well but you had to admit that he was trying a lot harder than he did in high school.

“Thanks for joining me, I didn’t want to study alone.” You peered over your shoulder to look at the group of girls that were staring at him and giggling. “Could’ve asked someone from your fan club.” When he looked up at you in confusion, you cocked your head to the side that they were on and he sighed heavily. “They do that to every guy, trust me.” You nodded your head with a teasing look which he didn’t find amusing but he didn’t say anything after and you grew worried. “Hey, do you mind covering for me for tomorrow’s 2pm class? I have a wolf thing I have to deal with, just tell the professor that I had a meeting with my coach.” You nodded hesitantly, concerned about what had been stressing him out so much but you didn’t press. It had been 2 weeks since your lunch with him and since then you’d found out a handful of things about Jungkook. He was a competitive swimmer, he had a fear of microwaves, he did not hook-up with your sister and he didn’t like sharing information about himself. 

When Jungkook showed up the day after the 2pm class he had to miss, he looked horrible. He had a cut on his lip that was healing and scattered bruises on his face. With how fast werewolves healed, you assumed this was far better than what it had been last night. “You look like roadkill.” You wanted to ask what had happened and if he was okay, but you knew where that would have gone so you skipped the small talk. “Shit, really?” He seemed panicked about what you said which made you even more concerned, it was obvious you were kidding. “No, you look fine just a little beaten. Are you okay?” He didn’t face you so you grabbed his shoulder to make him though when you did you felt a bandage through his shirt. He winced at the contact and you pulled your hand off like it was a hot stove. “Sorry. Jungkook, what happened?” He turned to you and smiled, pulling you by the forearm to your morning class. “There was already a pack here and you can’t have two alphas so I had to fight him. But I won and I’m fine. Trust me, he looks even worse.” You laughed but it seemed half-hearted, you were glad he shared this much though, it was more than you hoped for. 

“So, recap on the class. Professor lost his shit at Daniel because he kept swinging on the chair and fell. We discussed conflict of interest in workplaces so shit got gory and someone walked in drunk. Welcome to Ivy League, huh?” He chuckled but it seemed fake and you wondered if he was even listening. You didn’t press further, you thought he had done enough sharing for that day. “Anyways, I have my photography class now so I’m going to go.” He nodded absentmindedly and you walked away with a clouded mind and a heavy heart. You worry made you realise that you definitely liked Jungkook in a completely non-platonic way. You were royally screwed. 

You had made a friend in your photography class, his name was Berlin and he approached you for help at first which you didn’t really mind, you needed friends anyway. He asked if you wanted to join him after class to take some pictures around the college to help him with his new DSLR. You agreed with a little hesitation, unsure of how he got into the class with that little knowledge about cameras but you didn’t think much of it, his parents were probably rich. He had a black eye too but he told you it was from his martial arts classes and you believed him because it seemed like a genuine excuse. You had explored almost every surface of the giant campus and surprisingly had a lot of fun, it was refreshing to find someone with the same hobby as you. You called it a day at around 6pm, your class having finished at 4pm. You said goodbye and went home, determined to eat the cereal you had been craving. After saying goodbye, you went home to your eerily quiet apartment, you missed Henry. 

“So, how’s college going?” You were eating with your sister who had finally found time for you in her extremely busy schedule. “It’s fine, I hate Professor Golden though.” She laughed, almost choking on her food so you passed her the cup of water. “Thanks. I totally remember hating Professor Golden too, we all made jokes about his last name.” You laughed a little before returning to your food. A thick tension grew in the air, your talks with her were always silent and awkward. You had very little in common. 

“I can’t believe my baby sister is already a college freshman.” She cooed at you and you couldn’t help but laugh. She was almost 3 years older but sometimes she made it feel like 13. “Any college guys you find cute?” Your brain stopped working for a moment and you were unsure if you should tell her. “Come on, you can tell me.” She tried to pry it out of you while you just nervously smiled, trying to avoid her questions. Eventually, you gave up because it wasn’t like her to give up on gossip. “I think I like Jungkook.” Her face dropped dramatically and it made you panic a little. “Miri, what’s wrong?” She held your hand and looked at you sympathetically. “Y/N, he’s a werewolf.” She said something that wasn’t new to you. You’d repeated this to yourself far too many times to count. “I know. I’m not expecting anything to happen, I didn’t even expect this to happen it just did. Besides, I’m not in love with him, I’ll get over it.” You felt judged under her stare but you knew she meant well, no matter how harshly she came off sometimes. “Well, he rejected my advances so I really don’t think he’d be interested in you. I’m sorry, Y/N.” 

Miri said stupid things often. She lacked the emotional filter behind her words and offended people a lot. You grew thick skin thanks to her but this was where you drew the line. Your entire life you felt lesser than her and she promised you that she’d never do anything to make you feel that way and yet here she was, making you feel like you’ll never amount to her prestige. “Sorry, I need to get back I forgot I had a paper due by 5.” You left a $50 bill on the table and left before she could say anything else to potentially worsen the low blow she just gave you. You felt bad for walking away so abruptly, but you were not in the mood to argue with her, not again.

Unfortunately, your plans of moping on the couch all day were ruined when Jungkook had come over after hearing about the failure of a lunch with your sister, however, you spared him the details. “I bought a bag of junk food, McDonald’s and a whole pack of banana milk.” You smiled at him thankfully from your sad position on the couch which you were sure you were chemically bonded with now. “Did you get popcorn?” He was sorting through the bags before turning to you. “And risk dying via microwave? No thanks.” You laughed before getting up to join him. “Wait till I tell your pack that their alpha is scared of microwaves.” He gasped before clasping his heart dramatically. “You wouldn’t dare.” He started chuckling straight after, an adorable smile on his face.

You watched like 3 movies already and Jungkook was yet to feel sleepy, you, however, were seconds away from passing out. You were both on the couch, legs intermingled under the blanket, your head on his shoulder. It was your first time being this intimate with him and you hated how good it felt. “Jungkook, I’m sleepy.” You looked up at him and he smiled sweetly, forcing you to immediately look away. So, much for ‘getting over it’. “I’ll get going then.” He stood up to stretch, you following him. He grabbed his things off of your coffee table and walked to the door. 

“Jungkook, wait!” He turned around as he watched you come towards the door with the pack of banana milk. He fought back a smile as you dropped it into his arms. “Take it, you like them more than I do now.” He chuckled as he watched your eyes intently. “Thank you.” You smiled back at him before realising he was staring at you. Your smile fell as you stared back. “What? Is there something on my face?” You moved your hand to go over your face and he shook his head through hushed laughter. “Goodnight, Y/N.” He had just opened the door when you called out his name and once he turned, you kissed him. He didn’t pull away, just stood there in shock, you first to pull away actually and a flood of regret came crashing into your head immediately after. “Jungkook, I’m so sorry-” Before you could finish he was out the door and you cursed yourself for your spontaneous impulses. 

Jungkook had ignored what had happened miraculously, even during your apology he seemed unbothered. He probably felt bad for you but you were just glad he wasn’t mad or upset, besides, now you could truly focus on trying to get over him. You spent most of the day working on your study notes, trying to memorise stuff as best you could. By the time you stopped, it was already 8pm and you had skipped both lunch and dinner. You scavenged your fridge to look for something edible and settled on a pudding cup. College Y/N was doing great.

At around 9, you got a knock on your door which you cautiously went to answer, after seeing that it was Jungkook through the eyehole you opened the door to let him in, strangely, he was really angry. “What the fuck is this, Y/N?” He held out his phone of you to show a picture of you smiling, the sender being Berlin. “It’s a picture of me, how do you know Berlin? Are you friends?” Your lighthearted tone made Jungkook realise it wasn’t your fault that Berlin decided to get to you and that there was no way you could have known. “Y/N, Berlin is the alpha of the pack I took over, he’s messing with you to get to me.” You were mostly shocked but you also felt a little upset. You genuinely thought he was your friend. “I don’t want you anywhere near him, he’s dangerous.” You shook your head a little. “Sure he may be a little mad at you but we’re friends, I-” “I mean it, nowhere near him.” You held your hand out for him to pass his phone over so you could double-check that it was Berlin. You compared the number to the one on your phone to realise that it was indeed him. “You have his number already, fuck Y/N.” Your face hardened before you turned to him. “Sorry, I don’t have a ‘wolf’s intuition.’” You added air quotes for effect which he didn’t quite appreciate. 

You noticed his wet hair and his gym bag. “Did you just finish training? Jungkook it’s nearly 10pm.” He shrugged, grabbing his phone back from you and crash landing onto your couch. You couldn’t help but wonder how he could look so beautiful all the time. Sure, you always knew that he was good-looking but it felt like you were looking at a completely different man than high-school-Jungkook. He had endearing eyes, they could look so wide at moments and so closeted in others. His lips were soft, perfectly contrasting his sharp jaw, complementing each other beautifully. He was incredibly alluring in so many ways and it was impossible to escape it, no matter how hard you tried.

Jungkook held onto his shoulder, seeming like he was trying to soothe it from pain. You got up from your seat across from him and moved to stand behind him, taking over his hands and rubbing his shoulder for him. “Fuck, you’re good at this.” You hummed in agreement before laughing jokingly. “I am, right? They should call me Dr Bones.” He leaned his head forward to give you more access, ignoring your joke. You could physically feel how tense his muscles were and it made you worry a lot. Jungkook was the type who could work himself to death, stare at his dead body and still claim that he didn’t work hard enough. “Stop, or I’ll fall asleep. Thank you though.” He got up and grabbed his bag from the floor and made his way to the door. He turned around right before he left. “Y/N. I mean it, stay away from Berlin.” You nodded but you weren’t sure how you were supposed to just start avoiding him without seeming suspicious, besides, he was your only photography friend. 

“Hey, Y/N!” Berlin took the seat next to yours like he had been this past week, you didn’t say anything about it because you thought it would be fine but you did begin to regret it when he started whispering to you. “Why so quiet?” You gulped while playing with your camera bag. “I just didn’t get much sleep.” He nodded though you were sure he didn’t believe you. “Meet me behind this building after class. It’s important.” You probably shouldn’t have agreed and you probably shouldn’t have followed through with it but you did because you were an idiot. “You’ve been quiet. Jungkook told you, didn’t he?” You were playing with the sleeves of your jumper when you nodded, he sighed in return. “He took away my pack, my position, it seemed only right that I take something of his.” You gave him a pointed glare, staring at him without a wave of newfound anger. 

“I’m a person if you haven’t realised. Not a pawn in your stupid scheme for vengeance. Whatever you have with Jungkook is between you and him, don’t drag me into this.” You were about to walk back but he stopped you, blocking your way with his arm. “Y/N, don’t make me hurt you. All I want is for you to tell Jungkook to back down from my pack.” You smiled with feigned innocence. “Why don’t you tell him? I thought alphas were supposed to be brave…or did Jungkook take your balls too?” Berlin pinned you against the wall, his hands around the collar of your jumper. “You don’t wanna fight me, Y/N.” You pushed his arms off of you, straightening out your clothes. “You’re right, I don’t but since you so gracefully shared with me your perspective, I feel like I have to.” He laughed mockingly before leaning down to stare directly at your face. “And how do you plan on beating a werewolf?” You smiled again, so sweetly it made Berlin sick. In all honesty, you were terrified. If he called on your bluff this would turn into a complete shit-show, you had no fighting experience, you were all bark and absolutely no bite. 

“I’m going to fucking kill you.” Before you could decipher where the voice came from Berlin was leaning against the wall against you in pain after the fresh punch to his face from Jungkook. When Jungkook’s eyes locked with yours, he cocked his head to the side. “Go.” You would have protested but his face kind of scared you. You walked away, looking over your shoulder every few steps to make sure no one was dead. 

“What the fuck were you thinking? Y/N has nothing to do with this.”  “But she does, doesn’t she…?” Berlin started and Jungkook eyes narrowed. “She’s going to find out eventually and then she’ll hate you for not telling her.” Jungkook grabbed him by the collar while he was still against the wall. “If she finds out, it won’t be from you.” He let Berlin go roughly and glared at him before walking away. “She’s going to hate you, you know!” Berlin screamed but Jungkook continued walking away, unsure of how Berlin even found out about Jungkook’s secret.

“Stripes or no stripes?” Jungkook was making you choose between his endless collection of ties and you were so bored you started counting the dots on a polka-dotted one. “Y/N!” You snapped back into reality and faced him with a sheepish smile. “Sorry…no stripes, makes you look more mysterious.” He nodded before putting his stripped ties to the side. “Why are you so stressed about this dinner, anyway? It’s just my family and your family in some fancy restaurant talking about the same boring things over and over.” Jungkook desperately wanted to tell you what had changed but he couldn’t, not yet. “No reason, I just want to impress your parents.” You gave him a scrutinising look and he just avoided it. “Since when do you care about impressing anyone?” He sighed before snatching his polka-dot tie out of your hands. “Go get ready, we’re going to be late.” 

“Take the next left…and the destination should be on your right.” You spoke while mocking the navigator which just made Jungkook stare at you weirdly. “I’m bad with directions, I live off of this thing.” You held up your phone to gesture to the navigation app before getting out of his car. “Do I look okay?” He asked nervously and you looked at him, he looked much better than okay. He was clad in slacks and a dress shirt, no tie to your distaste. You remembered arguing with him after he had chosen to not wear a tie after all your efforts. His hair was getting longer but you loved it, especially the way he had styled it that night, not to mention the fact that he had his sleeves rolled up and his top few buttons open. You stopped yourself from staring too long by nodding. “Do I look okay?” Your eyes morphed into offended ones when he winced. You scoffed out loud but he just laughed at your reaction. “I’m kidding, you look great nerd, now move it, we’re already 15 minutes late.” You rolled your eyes, mumbling as you walked in. “Maybe if you didn’t make me spend 40 minutes helping you choose a tie…” He elbowed you slightly, reaching the reception desk and asking about your reservation, once you had taken a seat everyone, including Henry, had their eyes on the two of you. 

“Sorry, we’re late,” Jungkook commented, shaking your parent's hands as he sat down. “Wardrobe malfunction.” You joked as you secretly pointed at him. Everyone laughed a little and you were glad you had relieved some of the tension. You saw your brother the day before and boy did he have a lot to tell you, he seemed so excited about this dinner and you were still yet to know why. Now that you were here it seemed like everyone knew something you didn’t. 

“How’s college going, made any friends?” Jungkook’s mother asked, directing it at you. You choked because of the sudden question and scoffed down half the glass of water. “College is fine, I haven’t really been focused on making friends.” She nodded, Songwook laughing before joining in. “I wish Jungkook was the same. He befriended half the entire campus on the first day!” Everyone laughed while Jungkook shook his head jokingly, your mom suddenly called your name. “Y/N, could you grab me another napkin dear, I already spilled wine on mine. Clumsy me!” She giggled but it seemed fake, you wondered why she didn’t just ask a waiter to do it. You stood up to grab one from the desk nonetheless. 

The moment you left your mother leaned in. “Tell us, Jungkook, does she know?” He shook his head, his father joining in. “I’m glad you suggested we make Jungkook befriend her, otherwise we would have never found out.” “Found out what?” Your mom gasped when you were behind her, napkin in hand. The entire table was silent. “Wait...you forced Jungkook to befriend me? Do you think I’m that intolerable?” Jungkook rubbed his palms over his face, the inevitable was coming. “Y/N, we just know how you struggle with making friends and we thought it would be better to start you off with one,” Miri spoke this time with a tantalising tone. 

“So the whole tutor thing, that was a part of this as well? That’s why you were so mad at me about telling my dad that you were ignoring me? Because you didn’t want to fake being my friend?” You directed the question at Jungkook that time and he tried to apologise but you stopped him. “This isn’t about my social skills, is it? You still pity me for being a human so you gave me a werewolf to make me feel better!” You were speaking in a hushed tone so you wouldn’t warrant any unwanted attention but internally all you wanted to do was scream. “Henry, did you know about this too?” When he didn’t reply you scoffed, throwing your hands up in defeat. “Y/N, darling, we-” Songwook had spoken this time but you were quick to cut him off. “Forget it. I’m leaving.” And with that, you grabbed your bag and left. “Y/N come back, I’m your ride.” Jungkook tried reasoning but you were still walking away, your pride clearly getting in the way of your rationality because walking 30 minutes in heels was not rational. 

You stared at your sore feet in your Iron Man pyjamas as you cried to Spongebob, this wasn’t your proudest moment but you liked to think there were worse ways you could’ve handled the situation. Your family (Henry and your dad) kept blowing up your phone so you turned it off and sat not-so-peacefully on your weirdly comfortable couch. You heard a knock on the door and you didn’t open it, already knowing who was behind it. “Y/N, let me in please, I have your food.” The idea of opening the door to Jungkook seemed painful but you were also painfully hungry so you opened it anyway, snatching your food out of his hand. You tried to close the door but his foot jammed it and he pried it open with ease despite you using all your effort to keep it shut. You needed to start bulking. 

After he got in, you gave up and went back to your couch where you wrapped the blanket back around you and continued watching TV, now with food in your hand. “Y/N, I’m sorry but you have to believe me, I genuinely wanted to be your friend ever since we had that first lunch together, I promise.” You didn’t reply, in fact, your reaction (more so the lack thereof) had him thinking he didn’t even say anything at all. He grabbed the remote from your table and turned off the TV. You gave him a fleeting glare but didn’t say anything else. “Y/N.” You didn’t react once again, eating your pasta with aggression. “Y/N, look at me.” He grabbed both of your shoulders so he could turn you to face him. “I mean it, I’m sorry about how it started but I promise I wanted to be your friend.” You put your foot down, your sadness overpowering your hunger. “Wanted is past tense, should I be worried?” You joked but the tear that slid down your face taunted you straight after. You wiped it quickly but before you knew it more were springing down. He moved his hand to softly wipe your tears away and let out a breath of relief when you didn’t flinch away. 

“I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil. But these are so stop crying, nerd.” You darted your eyes up so quickly the blood rushed to your head. “Gandalf!” He smiled at how excited you were. “I don’t study fictional characters for fake friends, Y/N.” Your excitement fled a little but you smiled at him slightly. “There was a reason we had that dinner tonight.” Your smile fell and your face looked puzzled. “Why?” Jungkook took a deep breath before continuing. “If I tell you, you can’t get mad at me. I kept it from you because we all wanted to tell you tonight.” You nodded a little hesitantly, scared about what he was going to tell you. 

“Y/N, remember that night you kissed me and I walked out?” You nodded, wincing at the memory. “That night, I found out you were my mate.” You inhaled so quickly you started choking. Jungkook pat your back though it seemed useless. Once your cough calmed down, you punched Jungkook on his arm harshly. “You asshole! I spent that entire night sulking because of you.” He laughed but your glare made him stop abruptly. He took both of your hands in his. “I panicked, I wasn’t expecting it to be you.” You thought he was disappointed so your smile turned into an apprehensive one. “Oh…” He grabbed your face by the chin and made you face him. “I wasn’t expecting it but I was so fucking glad it was.” You started feeling bashful under his gaze so you tried to avoid his eyes. “Is that why Berlin was so adamant on dragging me into your issue, did he know too? I let that bitch use my good camera!” Jungkook sighed at the memory of him but he nodded nonetheless. You jumped up from the couch quickly. “Wait, that means I can turn and then people can stop looking at me like I’m an alien!” Jungkook nodded, laughing at your random outburst. “Only if you want to though, you don’t have to decide that yet, we have time.” 

He pulled you back to the couch, this time you landed on his lap. He wrapped his arm around your waist and you leaned your head on his chest. “You’re an ugly crier.” You sat up to frown at him but he just pulled you back to his chest. “I lied, it’s just because I never want to see you cry again.” You pinched his arm and he exclaimed loudly. “What was that for?” You laughed before cuddling into him again. “Insulting me for your selfish desires…wait I have pasta!” You sprung out of his lap to go back to eating your food, turning on the TV in the process and Jungkook wondered how he managed to get paired with someone quite as unique as you. 

“I think you’re half-fish.” You said once you saw Jungkook after the swim meet. “If I was would you still love me?” You stopped walking to ponder before shaking your head. He cocked his eyebrow at you before you nodded in agreement with yourself. “I hate fish so, no. Unless you were like a merman, that would be hot. Wait but what if you turn into an actual fish then how-” He pulled you by the arm to continue walking to his car. “I was kidding, Y/N.” You were still stuck in thought. “Yes, but the premise is interesting.” He pinched your cheek in a surprise attack. “Remind me why I’m dating a nerd?” You shrugged before interlocking your hand with his. “Remind me why I’m dating a fish?” He gave you an unamused look which you instantly matched before laughing at him. 

“Can I drive?” You asked, mustering the most convincing face you can create, already in the passenger seat. “No,” Jungkook replied sternly, hoping you’d let it go because his resolve was quick to disappear with you. “Please, I need to practice.” He frowned before whining childishly.  “Y/N, this is a Mercedes Benz can’t you practice on a Toyota or something?” You rolled your eyes at his dramatic rejection but you came up with a better plan. “I don’t know anyone who drives a- wait, do you think your friend Hoseok would teach me? He drives a Toyota.” Jungkook gave you an annoyed look before begrudgingly exiting the car. You got out excitedly as you rushed to the driver's seat. “You’re evil, you know that?” He asked angrily and you nodded, giving him a kiss on the cheek which forced a smile out of him. 

The second you started the engine he began tutting in disappointment. “What?” You turned to him annoyed but he just moved over you to grab the seatbelt, clasping it in place and giving you a kiss which you had to pull away from before it escalated. “I did that on purpose because I knew you would do it for me.” Jungkook just hummed in fake agreement but you paid it no mind. You always felt obnoxiously happy each time he kissed you and you were almost sure you’d never stop. “Jungkook?” He turned to expectantly before you gave him a beaming smile. “I love you, fish or human.” He turned away from you, annoyed at your random confession. “Just focus on the road, okay?” You nodded dutifully and about 5 minutes into your drive home, he randomly called your name. “What, did I turn 0.3 seconds too late?” You joked but he just stared at you. 

 “I love you too, nerd.”

[lalainajanes]

Surprise + 1. “OH you’re jealous!” + KC

Called Out

Caroline’s got her back pressed to a brick wall, barely aware of the people passing in front of her. It’s not like her – she’d touched down in New York City three days ago and has been hungrily absorbing every new sight and sound. At the moment, she’s having a pretty intense personal crisis.

She and Klaus have been chasing down separate leads for the last few hours. When she’d walked into the restaurant they’d planned to meet in, found him leaning against the bar, in full flirt mode, the punch of jealousy she’d felt had her flight instincts kicking into high gear.

Practicality had kept her from going too far. Klaus is doing her a favor; she needs to know what he’s found out today. She just needs a minute (or twelve) to collect herself. A drink might help, but that would mean going back inside.

When someone pauses in front of her, Caroline keeps her head tipped up. She’s hoping they’ll move along (she can’t be polite to a good samaritan right now, will totally eat a creep). A vaguely familiar voice exclaims, “Hey, I know you. Long way from Mystic Falls, aren’t you, darling?”

She jerks in surprise when she spots Kol Mikaelson in front of her. Without thinking, Caroline reaches out and pokes his chest. He’s warm and solid under what’s probably an exorbitantly expensive t-shirt. She knows ghosts are a thing; she hadn’t known Kol wasn’t one of them.

Kol traps her hand, keeps it pressed to his chest with a smirk, “Why Miss Forbes, that’s awfully forward of you. Nik’ll fly into quite a tantrum if we steal away. Sounds fun.”

“How are you not dead?” Caroline asks, ignoring the rest of Kol’s speech. Klaus has told her a few stories over the years in which Kol appears. Caroline’s gotten the impression that Kol enjoys the sound of his own voice a little too much.

He releases her, rocks back on his heels. “Did my brother fail to mention that little feat? It happened ages ago, not long after he left your sad little town.”

Caroline’s mouth falls open, and a quick flash of anger pushes the jealousy aside. She’d thought she and Klaus had become friends in the years since she’d first made a trip to New Orleans. That time she’d needed his help, but she’d gone back (and had met up with Klaus in other locations) dozens of times since. Maybe she’d misconstrued things if he hadn’t bothered to mention something as significant as the resurrection of a member of his family.

“He’s given me free rein since. I’ve been traveling, and unbothered save for the odd check-in and reminder not to make myself conspicuous. It’s been bliss.”

“Huh,” Caroline says. Not exactly eloquent, but she’s processing.

“I only had to agree not to remove Elena Gilbert’s pretty head from her shoulders. Nik thought it would upset you.”

Kol’s casual revelations are so not helping Caroline’s emotional turmoil. “Um, obviously.”

He makes a noise of disgust. “She’s the worst doppelganger.”

“Katherine smothered me with a pillow so. Hard disagree.”

Kol opens his mouth – probably to argue – and Caroline has no desire to get sucked into an argument that’s sure to be ridiculous. “What are you doing here?”

He sighs, long and exaggerated, “Nik commanded my presence. Coaxing witches into helping with impossible situations is a bit of a specialty of mine.”

It’s impossible to miss the lewd undertone. Caroline wrinkles her nose. “Ew.”

“Don’t knock it till you try it.” Kol’s eyes sharpen, his head tipping to the side as he glances from her to the door. “Why are you skulking out here? Nik’s inside, according to his last message. Feigning off the advances of a witch we can’t currently piss off.”

“Ha, didn’t look like feigning to me,” Caroline mutters. Wishes she hadn’t immediately after because her bitterness had been palpable. Kol’s impressively self-absorbed, but he’s not an idiot.

“Ohhh,” he drawls, the syllable drawn out and dripping with glee. “You’re jealous.”

Caroline bites back a denial – she’s sure it will only encourage Kol.

“Nik will be tickled when I tell him. It’s a bit pathetic how he’s jumped to help you with your problems over the years. But it’s paid off and far sooner than he’d anticipated.”

Caroline doesn’t have the will power to swallow her offense. “Excuse me, I’ve asked Klaus for exactly three favors. In fourteen years.”

And yeah, maybe they’d been kind of big. But the problems hadn’t really even been hers. Klaus had helped her and Bonnie break the spell Kai had placed on Elena. He’d called off the calls for the doppelganger to be brought to him, allowing Elena and Damon to have a sickeningly perfect white picket fence life.

And now he’s helping her find a way for Bonnie to be immortal and keep her magic.

“That’s approximately three more favors than he’s granted anyone else. He’s only ever helpful when he’s got something to gain.”

“Maybe he’s growing as a person.”

Kol laughs at that. Loudly. Several people on the street look over in interest. He shakes his head, “You’re adorably optimistic.”

“Two of my best qualities.”

She’s also not a coward.

Caroline pushes off from the wall, smooths her hands over her dress. She’d bought it today, and it’s freaking fantastic – blue and clingy, tiny straps and a low back. She’d privately wondered about Klaus’ reaction to the dress in the fitting room, might have drifted off into an idle fantasy about how easily it could be torn away.

Kol’s watching her, amused. “Do you not want him to know about the jealousy then?”

She’s fairly certain Klaus will be able to tell – he’s always been annoyingly good at reading her, even when he’d barely known her, and she’d done her damndest to hide from him.

Caroline practices a smile. She hopes it’ll at least fool whatever contacts they’re trying to cajole tonight. “I’m sure we’ll discuss it later.”

“I’m glad I’m staying at a different hotel. Something tells me you’ll get loud.”

Caroline ignores the innuendo. “Let’s go in.”

“Ladies first.”

Caroline glares though she’s not actually annoyed, “So you can stare at my ass?”

“Isn’t that why you picked the dress?”

He may have a point. It’s petty - one of her worst qualities, Caroline’s made her peace with it – but maybe she can distract Klaus with a little jealousy of his own.

The crowd inside the bar is thicker than it had been earlier, and Kol sticks close behind her as they weave towards where Klaus now is. He’s commandeered the best booth in the place. Kol’s hand lands on her back, in a respectful place, surprisingly. “I’m going to go get a drink. Try not to be in a compromising position when I return, hmm?”

Klaus is alone, now. Caroline’s relieved, doesn’t bother to try to deny it, even internally.

Progress.

Klaus slips out when Caroline approaches, rests a hand on her hip while he brushes his mouth across her cheek. “Did you have a productive day, love?”

She loops her arms over his shoulder, keeps him close. Klaus goes rigid for a scant moment – she’s never hugged him before. “I did,” she murmurs. “I’ll tell you all about it. But first, I ran into your brother outside. Is there a reason you never mentioned you’d brought Kol back?”

Caroline pulls away so she can see his face, and Klaus is genuinely confused. “Did I not?”

“I would have remembered that.”

He lifts a shoulder, “I can’t imagine why it’s never come up. I should have thought it would be obvious – I wasn’t about to leave him dead when I had the means to bring him back.”

It’s such an arrogant statement, and so Klaus. She can’t even be annoyed. Of course he’d casually break the laws of life and death and not think it worth mentioning. He’s Klaus Mikaelson – most powerful being in the world.

A laugh bubbles out of her and she can’t resist hugging him again. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a little ridiculous?”

“No one who lived,” Klaus says mildly.

“I guess I’m lucky you like me.” His eyes darken, and his mouth opens. Caroline brushes past him before he can respond.

They have business first. Caroline can see how the next few minutes will play out if Klaus were to refute that his regard for her is as simple as like. He’s got a gift for perfect tempting words. She’s always had trouble resisting the way he looks at her – like their alone even when there are a hundred other people nearby. Caroline’s about ninety-five percent of the way to admitting that her feelings are more significant too. She knows she’s got decisions to make. She remembers how freaking good Klaus can make her feel, even if the one time they’d indulged they’d been crunched for time and in a less than ideal location.

Without a quick subject change, they’ll end up providing Kol with blackmail fodder.

She snags his hand, keeps it even when they’ve slid into the booth. Klaus seems fine with how much she’s touching him, has taken it upon himself to return the favor. He brushes her hair back, his fingers lingering on the strap of her dress.

Caroline’s sure it’ll end up snapped by the end of the night, and she’s not mad about it.

[blog-of-a-multitude-of-fandoms]

Laboratory- Susan Storm

Pairing: Sue Storm x Reader

Characters: Sue Storm

Warnings: N/A

Request: Anon- I just realized you write for fantastic 4. Could you do "I can't stop thinking about you." With Susan storm please? 

Word Count: 432

Author: Charlotte

Since you had been working by Susan’s side, you had struggled to keep your mind straight. Normally you rarely got to see her, but she had noticed your work in the laboratories and wanted to work closely with you on a project she had planned to start. Of course, you agreed but now you were pretty sure that she regretted her decision as you weren’t able to prove how good you were at your job. Normally you were very organised and strongly focused on your job however it wasn’t seeming that way currently.

You had always had an eye for Susan, but you didn’t realise how much of a blithering idiot you became around people you liked. Every time she came close to you, you would lose your ability to speak or function at all. Over the last couple of days that you had been working together on your experiment, you had dropped multiple things and broken them along with also just speaking like a mad woman. If you had been optimistic of the fact that she hadn’t paid attention, it all had disappeared by now as you were certain she couldn’t have ignored the several smashed beakers and the freshly burnt hole in the table.

Susan had accidentally brushed your arm and it led to another glass reciprocal falling to the floor and shattering. Both of you jumped at the shattering before you let out a sigh of annoyance. You went to bend down to clean up your mess, but Susan grabbed your arm and stopped you.

“What’s going on with you?” She asked. “You are one of the best at this job but since you came onto this project, you’ve managed to break nearly every item in my lab.”

You tried to brush it off, but it wasn’t going to go away that easily.

“Please just tell me what is going on?” Susan questioned.

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” you said quietly, hoping that she wouldn’t hear you but the change in her expression proved you wrong. “I like you a lot and I feel like a fool for it.”

She smiled pleasantly at you, rubbing her hand comfortingly on your arm.

“You shouldn’t feel like a fool,” she smiled reassuringly. “Because I quite like you a lot too.”

“Really?”

Susan nodded her head. “I don’t want that to get in the way of this project. So, if you’re able to keep your head straight in the lab, we could maybe go for a drink after work and talk about it a bit more?”

“I’d like that a lot.”

[itsanerdlife]

Bad For You 7/28

Pairing: Howie Stark x Reader

Warning: Fuckboy manners. Violence. Reader gets cheated on. Language. Lies. Flirting. Cattiness. Arguing. A few slaps. Sassiness. Slutty boys. Frat Boy bullshit.

A/N: College AU. For my sister, cause I finally gave in. Haha.

Posting: Tuesday. Thursday. Saturday.

“You don’t know me like that.” “Mmm bet I do, baby girl. You want a bad boy who will be good for only you. I’m that guy. Like I want a good girl who’s bad for only me. That’s you, baby girl.”

Howie Stark made one hell of an impression. It started off with mistaken identity. A hand on your ass, your hand across his cheek. What should have pissed him off, set him off differently. Howie Stark is enticed by you and you are so fucked. Bad boy, never afraid of a fight, such a smooth talker, womanizer, and always on your mind. It just wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right, you have a boyfriend. Howie’s making everything’s a little blurry. You’re a little cynical and bad boys just aren’t your type. Or could that change with a flash of Howie’s crooked grin?

Tag List Is Open!!

That Weekend

“You see who is sitting in the kitchen?” Sam chuckles, leaning against the opening to the living room. Where the rest of them are kicked back, the party going on around them. Howie sets down the empty bottle on the table, looking at Sam.

“Who?” He smirks.

“Your girl.” Sam grins.

“My girl?” Howie looks around confused.

“Dude you’re so stupid.” Buck scraps a hand down his face.

“How many have you had?” Steve grins, but his attention is taken when a blonde walks by slow, giving him the eye.

“I take it back, you and Steve are so stupid.” Buck laughs.

“You know Harry is here.” Peter points out.

“Seen him and his moron Frat boys.” Howie nods.

“But guess who came on her own, with her little friends?” Sam grins.

“She came on her own?” Howie lifts a brow, a smile creeps across his lips.

“Damn stupid, Y/N. She’s in the kitchen, with those two red heads.” Buck sighs.

“Bonus, she and Harry haven’t said a word to each other.” Peter grins.

“He hasn’t said a word to her?” Howie’s brow pulls down. “I’m not the stupid one then.” He shakes his head.

“Stir the pot little brother.” Peter pats him on the shoulder, grinning.

“Excuse me, boys.” Howie stands, slipping between Sam and Buck.

He moves down the hallway, nodding a greeting at a few of the girls that smile or wave. He gets to the opening of the kitchen, stopping, watching. They stand together, the three of them, leaning against the counter out of the way. None of them are dressed for attention, more like for the cold ass weather.

She’s got on one of those short hoodies, it stops just above her jeans. So when she moves her arms it gives little flashes of skin. Her jeans look made for her, little tears and rips down her thighs. How the fuck someone like Harry had someone like her and could spend a party ignoring her was beyond him.

“Let’s wander.” Nat puts her hand out. She’s in one of his classes as well.

“I’m in.” He was pretty sure her name was Wanda. Drops her hand into Nat’s.

“I’m good.” Y/N smirks at them.

“We’ll be back.” The call.

“Whistle!” Y/N calls after them with a smile.

She sighs looking down at the colored, plastic cup in her hands. She shifts her side against the counter, watching through the open slider. Harry is outside with many others, playing beer pong on set up tables. Her nose crinkles, and her eyes roll.

He moves into the kitchen, he takes the beer Clint hands him. Cracking the top on it as he comes to stop right behind her. He watches over her shoulder for a moment, nodding. 

“He’s an idiot.” He spoke soft enough just for her. People mingling around them. Her head turns to look at him.

“What?” Her brow pinches, her body shifts. Leaning back against the count to watch him. He watches as Harry helps the woman he partnered up with adjust her wrist to shoot. Blatantly flirting with her as he goes.

“How he can give anything else, anyone else his attention when you’re in the room, dumbfounds me.” Howie cuts his eyes over to her. He takes a drink, watching this play on her face. “You deserve to be priority. Shown off. Not disrespected and made a fool of.” He nods slowly. 

Together they watch as the girl makes a shot. Excitement plays on her face instantly. She all but jumps on Harry, throwing her arms around his neck. Harry pulls her up, pressed up against each other. Howie scoffs.

“Christ.” She rolls her eyes.

“Come find me if you want to have fun.” He smirks at her. She’s chewing her bottom lip when he walks out of the kitchen. 

------------------ 

You were getting tired of watching Harry be a slut. Howie’s words ringing in your ears as you maul over what to do. You could make a scene, tear down Harry in front of his boys. But he would just call you crazy or something stupid. You’re lost in your thoughts when someone joins you.

“You and him.” Peter shakes his head when you look over. “It’s like oil and water. Don’t belong together.” He takes a drink from the bottle in his hand.

“Maybe it’s me.” You shrug, glancing over to where Harry is.

“Nah.” Peter chuckles.

“What makes you say that?” Your brow lifts watching him.

“Because I’ve never known a female to ever catch my brothers attention in the way you have.” He grins, nodding.

Holy fuck did they look too much alike. If you didn’t know better you would assume they were twins. But up close you could see the small differences they had.

“He just wants to screw me.” You laugh, shaking your head. Peter doesn’t reply right away. He just watches you for a moment.

“If you think that little of yourself. Harry Osborn is failing as a man.” Peter shakes his head.

“I don’t love him.” You admit softly. Peter’s head turns slowly.

“Harry?” He asks.

“I barely like him most days, if I’m being honest.” You sigh.

“What’s your favorite part about being with him?” He watches you with such intense brown eyes, you swallow hard.

“It used to be this giddy feeling. But now it’s just,” you shrug “it doesn’t feel like we know each other. Like in the last year an a half we’ve grown apart.” You run a hand through your hair.

“What is it? I can tell you got something on the tip of your tongue.” He smirks.

“He stopped doing the thing he did to get me, he doesn’t even try to keep me. I don’t know if that says worse things about me or him. That he thinks I’ll just be here waiting, when he’s done running around and embarrassing me.” You chew your bottom lip.

“It says worse things about him.” Peter nods, taking a drink. You down what little is left in your cup. “I’m going to warn you, Y/N.” Peter looks over at you, a smirk on his mouth.

“Okay?” You laugh softly.

“My brother gets his hands on you and he’s not going to let you go. He’s selfish, but in a whole different ballpark than Harry Osborn.” Peter chuckles. “And he will take Harry out, step over his body, to get to you if he has too.” You chew your bottom lip.

A loud whistle, makes your head snap up. Panic floods your body instantly. Another loud whistle, your cup hits the ground, running out of the kitchen.

“Y/N?!” Peter yells after you.

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

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[ofstormsandwolves]

Hot for Teacher

Teen

Zoey x Joan

Follow-up to I’ll Stand By You (first installment of ‘what the heart wants (or, Zoey’s Extraordinary Gaylist)’)

Covers scenes from Glitch through to Mother.

Synopsis: After inadvertently singing to Joan following the Chirp presentation, Zoey finds herself trying to figure out her feelings for her boss, as well as for Max and Simon...

Read on AO3

Zoey had thought her day was going badly when she’d gone with her parents to the doctor that morning.

Then she thought her day was going badly when she’d sung Crazy all through the lobby.

Then she’d sung to Danny Michael Davis during the Chirp meeting. And Max, afterwards. And then, Simon in the meditation room. And now Joan wanted to see her urgently.

“Don’t sing, don’t sing, don’t sing...” Zoey muttered to herself as she walked towards Joan’s office.

It was bad enough that she’d sung I’m Yours to Max. It was even worse when she’d sung I Want You to Want Me to Simon and Max had walked in. But singing to Joan? The last thing Zoey wanted was her boss thinking she was having some sort of breakdown.

Besides, things were complicated enough without her having to evaluate her feelings for Joan on top of evaluating her feelings for Max and Simon. Ever since Simon and Jessica’s engagement party, and Joan getting her to the hospital and helping with Mitch, and Joan singing I’ll Stand By You... Well, Zoey hadn’t been able to shake the nagging feeling she felt something more than friendship for her boss. And given the way her powers were playing up...

“Zoey!”

She blinked, and saw Joan staring at her with a concerned look. Lost in her own thoughts, Zoey had wandered straight into the older woman’s office without even noticing.

“Uh...”

Frowning, Joan surveyed the redhead, clearly mulling over what to say. “Are you alright?” she asked eventually. “Is it your dad?”

“What?” Zoey blinked. “Uh, no. No, my dad’s fine.”

Joan nodded slowly. “Ok. Then care to explain what happened with Danny Michael Davis?”

Shifting uncomfortably, Zoey shrugged and avoided the other woman’s eyes. “Did... Did he not like it?”

“He did like it, but that’s not the point. I mean, he did say he thinks you’re strange. Which is saying something, coming from Danny Michael Davis... But he’s also giving us the funding.”

Zoey tried the optimistic approach then. “So everything’s good?”

“Zoey, you can’t do things like that.” Joan sighed. “I mean, that was a big swing, and I don’t mind a big swing, but I have to know about it! I don’t like not knowing things like that-”

Leif appeared in the doorway then, arms folded across his chest as he surveyed Zoey. Joan frowned at him.

“Um, Leif, can I help you?”

The young man blinked, and looked to the other woman with a smug smile. “No. Just wanted to be here. I mean, Zoey jeopardising our project like that-”

Joan held her hand up, cutting him off. “Ok, Leif, stop right there. I understand that the Chirp was your idea, and I understand your concern, but I’m dealing with it. And I do not appreciate people gloating when their co-workers make a mistake.”

The smug smile had slid from Leif’s face, and he mumbled out an apology before slinking away. Zoey saw him go over to Tobin and mutter something before both men looked in her direction.

“Ignore them,” Joan said, drawing the attention back to them. “Zoey, I’m worried about you. Your behaviour today was... Well, it wasn’t like you. You’re out of sorts, you disappear off into Zoey land and nobody can bring you back, you sang a song and danced on a table during a meeting.”

Zoey looked away for a moment, trying to come up with a plausible excuse. But her mind was blank. Letting out a defeated sigh, she sank into a chair, her head in her hands.

“I don’t know what to say,” she mumbled. “There’s nothing to say. You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

Zoey’s head whipped up at the words, not just because of what Joan had said but also because her voice was suddenly much closer. She’d stood up and moved round her desk without Zoey hearing or noticing, and she quickly moved to kneel in front of the younger woman’s chair.

“I’ve told you before and I’m telling you again, Zoey; let me help.”

Joan’s bright blue eyes were brimming over with concern, and Zoey felt a tug at her heart. She’d ruined almost everything she’d touched that day, from her relationships with Max and Simon, to the meeting with Danny Michael Davis, and she felt like a complete disaster. But Joan was looking at her, with this gentle, concerned expression that made Zoey want to cry, or hug her, or...

Or kiss her.

She wanted to kiss Joan.

Ok, that wasn’t exactly a revelation; she’d been acutely aware of her shifting feelings for the other woman since Simon’s failed engagement party, but she’d managed to mostly avoid Joan since then. Now, with that expression on Joan’s face and her being so close... It wouldn’t take much for Zoey to simply lean in and kiss her.

And as music started up in her head, she suddenly realised that was the last thing she needed to be thinking about today.

 If Joan had had any inkling that Zoey was about to burst into song again, she’d hidden it well. But the moment the singing started, the brunette went pale. Zoey couldn’t blame her.

“Oh yeah, teacher stop that screamin’,

Teacher don’t you see? Don’t wanna be no uptown fool.”

Zoey clapped a hand over her mouth then, wide-eyed as Joan blinked at her with an expression that suddenly looked less concerned and more scared.

“Z-Zoey?” Joan prompted.

Even with her hands over her mouth, the lyrics were still tumbling out, even if they were muffled.

“Maybe I should go to hell but I am doing well

Teacher needs to see me after school...”

Unable to take it, Zoey threw herself from the chair and set off at a run for the women’s toilets. She’d barely skidded inside before she was singing again.

“I think of all the education that I’ve missed,

But then my homework was never quite like this...”

The door burst open and Joan hurried in, still pale and anxious, and fixing Zoey with an extremely disturbed look.

“Are you alright? Is this... Is this some sort of, I don’t know, breakdown?”

But Zoey couldn’t answer as the singing continued. Instead, she sagged against a sink.

“Ow!”

She pushed away, then, her body knowing dance steps instinctively, all while Joan stared at her with folded arms and a nauseous expression.

“Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad,

I’m hot for teacher.

I’ve got it bad, so bad!

I’m hot for teacher!”

“Oh, god,” Joan said, hands going to her hair as she processed what was happening. “Uh, ok, Zoey, I think we need to talk-”

“I heard about your lessons but lessons are so cold,

I didn’t know about this school.

Little girl from Cherry Lawn, how can you be so bold?

How did you know that golden rule?

I think of all the education that I’ve missed,

But then my homework was never quite like this...

Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad,

I’m hot for teacher.

I’ve got it bad, so bad!

I’m hot for teacher!”

As Zoey finally finished singing, have skidded towards Joan on her knees, she found herself staring up at her pale-faced and wide-eyed boss. Joan blinked, and then took a step back.

“I-” Joan managed, before going quiet.

Scrambling quickly to her feet, Zoey desperately tried to come up with an explanation for what had just happened. “Joan! Joan I’m sorry! I can explain-”

But Joan was backing towards the door, staring at Zoey like she was a stranger. “I... I can’t do this right now.”

And then Joan was gone, leaving Zoey standing alone in the middle of the bathroom.

 As much as Zoey didn’t want to go to her parents’ that night, she knew she had to. Of course, a conversation with Max helped her see reason, but that didn’t stop the nerves from building up as she headed over. Her head was a mess. Not only was she walking into a horrific conversation about what will happen when her dad inevitably dies, but she was also still trying to process having sung three separate heart songs to three separate people.

By the time she got to her parents’, Zoey found that a part of her was sort of looking forward to seeing her dad, if only to try and talk the situation out with him.

That was when it really hit her.

How much longer would she be able to go to her dad to talk these things out? How much longer would she have a loving parent who knew about her powers? Sure, there was Mo, and Max, but there was something reassuring about her dad knowing. He knew her best, after all, and Zoey also knew that he would always love her unconditionally.

In hindsight, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to Zoey that she ended up singing to her dad. Given the day she’d had, and the people she’d sung to throughout work, she possibly should have seen it coming. Still, there was something cathartic to this song, a feeling that she hadn’t felt when singing to anyone else. When the song was over, Zoey let out a sigh and looked to her dad.

“So, as you’ve probably figured out, I haven’t exactly had the best day.”

Mitch gave a small laugh at that, trying to shift to look at her.

“I mean, first your news this morning, and then the CEO showed up at work unexpectedly and wanted us to pitch our latest project. I sang all through the lobby and made myself look like a complete idiot. Then, I sang to our CEO and Max had to bail me out. I sang to both Max and the guy I have a crush on, and now Max is angry at me, and...” Zoey trailed off, taking a breath and looking to her dad. “I sang to my boss.”

Mitch’s head tilted ever so slightly to the side, and he gave the taboo buzzer a quick, short buzz to demonstrate his confusion.

“The thing is, I sang a song to Max that seems to suggest I have feelings for him. Then I went and sang a song to the man I have a crush on, and basically admitted I was attracted to him. Max walked in during the song and now he’s mad at me. But after that, my boss- uh, Joan, you met her the night you had the fall- wanted to talk to me about what happened during the presentation.”

Mitch made a small noise to show he understood then, glancing to Zoey with a slightly furrowed brow.

“The song I sang, it... I think I have a crush on Joan.” Bright red, Zoey ploughed on before her dad could react. “And that’s... That’s insane! I mean, not that I have a crush on Joan, but I already have a crush on Simon, and it seems like I have feelings for Max, and I don’t know what to do! I never even really considered dating a woman before, but with Joan? I just... This whole thing just seems too much right now, Dad.”

Sighing, Zoey moved to rest her head on her dad’s shoulder.

“I know you’ve got a lot going on right now, Dad, and I know this is the last thing you need. I just... Needed to vent, I guess.”

Maggie appeared in the doorway then, surveying her husband and daughter with a sad smile. “Everything alright?”

Zoey shifted slightly to look to her dad, before glancing back to her mom. “Yeah. Me and Dad have been having a chat, talking some things out.”

“I see,” Maggie said with a small frown. “And have you finished talking it out, or would you like another ear?”

Zoey thought about it for a moment. Her mom wouldn’t understand the singing stuff, but she could perhaps at least empathise with Zoey’s confused feelings for more than one person. Although, she’d had a tough day and really, Zoey’s problems could always wait for a while...

With a tight smile, Zoey shook her head. “I’m good.”

 With Joan off at a conference, Zoey found she had a few days of breathing space. While she filled her time with work and helping Howie reconnect with his daughter, Zoey couldn’t quite escape the embarrassing memories of her powers glitching. There was more than one awkward conversation, with both Simon and Max, and it only served to remind her that once Joan was back she had to come up with some way to explain what had happened.

“What if I tell her the truth?” Zoey suggested one evening while she was at Mo’s.

Mo fixed her with a look at that. “You want to tell your boss about your powers? Child, you told me she thought you were having a breakdown. Do you really think she’ll believe you?”

Zoey frowned at the question. “Yes? Maybe?” She deflated. “No?”

Mo sighed. “Look, I suppose I can understand where you’re coming from. No fake explanation will ever be good enough to explain to Joan why you sang Hot for Teacher to her.” Then, he tilted his head to one side. “Although maybe we’re looking at this all wrong. Joan is a determined woman who, if what you told me about her ex-husband is true, is good at ignoring her problems. Maybe you don’t need to say anything.”

“What, you think she’ll just pretend it never happened?” Zoey asked.

Mo shrugged. “Maybe.”

At that, Zoey’s stomach sank. The idea of Joan simply ignoring what had happened didn’t sit right with her. She’d seen the way the other woman had looked at her, had sensed that Joan was feeling the same tugging sensation she was feeling. For Joan to look the other way and hope that it all just went away?

“Child, are you alright?”

Mo’s voice interrupted Zoey’s thoughts and caused her to jump.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah.”

Mo gave her a knowing look, before sitting on the sofa beside Zoey. “Now, I like to think myself kind of an expert when it comes to setting people up, and you have to admit that I am good at helping you. So why don’t we talk this through? I mean, that’s your thing, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so,” Zoey admitted weakly.

“So. Let’s start with Simon.”

Zoey shrugged weakly at that, mulling over everything as she tried to put her feelings into words. “I’m... Attracted to him. I like him. He’s friendly, he makes me laugh, he gets what I’m going through with my dad...”

“But?” Mo prompted.

“But I’m not sure it goes any deeper,” Zoey realised slowly. “I mean, he kissed me and it was amazing, and he’s definitely single now he and Jessica have called off the engagement... Except, when Max walked in on us, I was more worried about checking Max was alright. I just sort of... Left Simon alone.”

“You talked to him, though,” Mo pointed out. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have kissed. And you spoke to him about the kiss afterwards.”

“Yeah, but... Max is my best friend. He’s been my best friend for years, Mo, and the thought of him hating me or not talking to me hurts.”

Mo had a knowing smile on his face. “So would you say that you’d choose Max’s friendship over Simon’s love?”

“I don’t know,” Zoey admitted then, burying her face in her hands. “Maybe?”

“So let’s move onto Maxwell then. Are you still not sure what your feelings are for him?”

Zoey said nothing, but shook her head dismally.

“Hmm, well that’s a tricky one. What do you like about him?”

“He’s loyal,” Zoey answered immediately. “We share interests even if we don’t agree on everything. He’s... He’s practically part of the family. He’s been to so many barbeques and holidays and dinners... He fits in, it’s like he belongs.”

Mo gave Zoey a pointed look. “But does he belong in the way a friend belongs, or the way a lover belongs?”

The redhead gave him a helpless look at that, and Mo took pity on her.

“I’m guessing we’re moving on to Joan?” he asked.

“I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing,” Zoey mumbled, pouting. “I think I need alcohol for this.”

 Two glasses of wine later, Zoey was finally ready to begin discussing her crush on her boss.

“Well, Team Joan is a whole new team for me to get behind,” Mo shrugged, swirling wine around in his glass. “So pitch it to me.”

Zoey blinked for a moment, trying to piece together her thoughts. “Uh, she’s strong, she’s determined; she doesn’t take crap from anybody. Well, her ex, but I think that’s in the past now... When we went drinking the night of Jessica and Simon’s engagement party, she was actually really fun.” A small smile bloomed on Zoey’s face as she spoke. “I mean, she’s really funny! And she, well, she looks out for me at work. Did I tell you about the anonymous peer reviews? Well, it was a terrible idea in hindsight, we broke Leif... But Joan tried to protect me from the peer reviews because of the fact I’m the only female on the team besides her. She claimed all the comments were misogynistic and the only thing that mattered was that she thought I was doing a good job. I’m not entirely sure it was ethical to share everyone else’s results and not mine, but... It was nice that she looked out for me you know?”

Mo nodded at that, urging Zoey to continue.

“I know some of the guys at work resented me for getting the promotion over them, thought Joan was giving me preferential treatment. You know, ‘all girls together’ type thing... And when my dad had the fall, and Joan was with me, she made sure I got to the hospital. She held my hand even when I didn’t ask her to, and kept hold of it until we were in Dad’s room. She left to get coffee to sober me up, and then she split a cab back to my parents’ place and helped me get my old bed downstairs for Dad. I kept telling her she could leave, but she stayed.”

Zoey took a breath at that.

“And... She understands, Mo. Her mom died when she was around my age, she kind of gets what I’m going through with Dad. It’s why she keeps offering to help, even if I just want someone to rant to. God, you should have seen her the day my powers were freaking out. If I hadn’t sung, if I hadn’t ruined the moment... She said she was concerned about me, about the whole ‘singing to Danny Michael Davis’ thing. And she looked so concerned, so worried, more worried than if I were just an employee having a tough day. And she came and knelt down by my seat, and all I could think was ‘I could kiss you right now’...”

“Have you ever had that moment with Max or Simon?” Mo asked quietly. “That desire to just lean in and steal a kiss?”

Zoey frowned. “N-No,” she admitted softly after a long while.

“Then child, I think we may be making a breakthrough.”

Taking a moment to process that, Zoey let out a breath. “Mo, what if Joan wants to just ignore the whole singing thing happened? What if she doesn’t want anything to happen between us?”

“I don’t know,” Mo answered quietly. He thought for a moment. “Say you were to date Joan. How serious about that are you?”

At that, Zoey’s eyes went wide and she spluttered. “D-Date Joan? But I don’t date girls!”

Mo arched an eyebrow. “Girl, you just sat here going on and on about how amazing your boss is, and I could tell by the tone of your voice that there is something there. You like her. You have feelings for her. You’re worrying about her rejecting you. Maybe it’s too early to call it love, but you can’t deny that what is between you isn’t platonic.”

He paused then, giving the redhead a chance to digest what he’d just said.

“Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that you are bisexual, or pansexual, or anything else. You don’t have to name it if you don’t want to, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. But Zoey, are you really hung up on the idea of dating women?”

Zoey flushed and gave an uncomfortable shrug. “I don’t know. I... I never really thought about it. It’s always been in my head that I’m a woman, so I date men.” She frowned to herself. “I’m not sure why that is, though.”

“The media, poor education, homophobia, peer pressure, biphobia... I could go on,” Mo answered sarcastically.

“What I mean is, my parents never forced that idea on me, at least not that I remember. All they ever wanted was for me and David to be happy. They probably wouldn’t have even cared if I’d dated a girl. And... and there were a few girls. Girls I thought were cute, or pretty. I could never really put my finger on what I was feeling, though, so I brushed it off. And now with Joan, well...” She trailed off and shook her head.

“You know,” Mo said, “it sounds like you really, really like Joan. And that’s ok, Zoey. There’s nothing wrong with it, no matter what people say.”

“But what if Joan doesn’t like me back? What if Joan only likes men?” Zoey knew she sounded anxious, but she couldn’t help it.

It was Mo’s turn to shrug then. “All you can do is ask. You have to take that leap, Zoey. But let me just say this...” He set his wine glass down and turned to face Zoey more fully. “We have spent more time discussing Joan and your feelings for her than we have spent on both Max and Simon combined. I think you have to take a chance and go for Joan. Which brings me back to my earlier question: how serious are you about dating her?”

“If she says yes?” Zoey asked. “Very serious. Like, seriously serious.”

“Ok,” Mo said, “then we need to figure out just how to explain your powers to your lovely lady friend. Because this relationship is not going to work if you keep it a secret.”

Zoey deflated. “Or Joan will think I’m mad and have me carted off to a hospital for loads of tests.”

“Zoey, can you really be in a relationship with someone and keep such a massive secret? And what if Joan were to find out? Do you remember how Max took it? He felt betrayed, because you were privy to a part of his life without his consent or knowledge, and he felt like he was at odds with you. How did you fix it?”

“I promised to be more open with him,” Zoey recalled, eyes going wide as she pieced everything together.

“Exactly. And don’t you think Joan deserves the same? She needs to understand what a relationship with you means. Your powers may be fascinating, but they can also be alienating, and if Joan found out you were keeping something like this from her, how do you think she’d feel?”

Zoey sighed. “So now I have to explain to her how I meddled in her marriage? And why I zone out at random times, and why I danced on a table in front of our CEO?”

“Honey, if you want this relationship to have any chance of working, you and I had better come up with a plan.” Mo picked up his wine glass and downed the rest of its contents. “Now, let’s get to work!”

 Talking to Joan seemed like a simple idea. A simple idea that had very rapidly been sidetracked. Her parents’ anniversary looked like it would be a disaster. Zoey had yelled at Howie and made a maître d’ cry. Almost every single one of her relationships was falling apart at the seams. Max had taken a job with Ava Price on the sixth floor, after Zoey failed to give him the ‘correct’ answer to his question. She still didn’t know what the correct answer was, if it wasn’t that she didn’t want to stand in the way of his career. Was she supposed to kick and scream? To deny him an amazing opportunity leading a team just so he’d stay at the desk opposite hers? She knew he was still clinging to the song she’d sung him, still clinging to the chance they could be together. But if her talk with Joan went smoothly... Well, Max was going to be disappointed.

The ‘Max-retrieval mission’, as Tobin had dubbed it, had ended badly. Joan was in a worse mood than ever and now they were stuck in a bake-off with the traitor and the sixth floor. And things got even worse when Zoey entered Joan’s office to find Leif seemingly begging Joan about something.

“I said no, Leif. Now get back to work.”

“It’s just one drink,” Leif said with a frown, trying to sound sincere. “I thought we could go over some things for the Chirp-”

“That’s what Zoey’s for,” Joan interrupted firmly, nodding to Zoey in the doorway. “Now please leave, and I don’t want you asking me out for drinks again. It’s inappropriate.”

Leif glanced at Zoey with a frown before looking back to Joan. “You went drinking with Zoey the night of Simon’s party,” he reminded her. “The pair of you showed up drunk. You left together, too.”

Joan arched an eyebrow at him. “Zoey and I are friends, Leif. We were off the clock. You are in my office trying to coerce me into going to a bar with you to discuss a project we could discuss here during work hours.”

Deflating, Leif let out a breath. “Fine. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”

The two women watched him leave.

“Wow,” Zoey said, moving further into the office. “What was that about?”

Joan looked a little uncomfortable. “I think I gave him the wrong idea at Simon’s engagement party,” she admitted, glancing over to Leif’s workstation as she spoke. “I was drunk, he was tipsy, he pitched the Chirp to me and we batted around a few ideas, and now he thinks it’s our thing. Like we’re going to keep having secret Chirp meetings while sipping cocktails at a bar.” She shook her head. “I feel kind of bad. I’m pretty certain he has a crush on me.”

A wave of jealousy swept through Zoey then, and she tamped it down.

Joan frowned, looked to Zoey. “I wasn’t too hard on him, was I? I don’t want to be, but it’s best to nip these things in the bud. Dating a subordinate? So not a good idea...”

“Because of the bake-off, right?” Zoey clarified slowly. “I mean, we don’t want to give Ava any more ammunition...”

“Sure, I suppose so. But these things are never a good idea, even without a bake-off going on,” Joan said. But her voice was a little off, a little distracted, and Zoey realised with a lurch that Joan was staring at her lips.

“Never a good idea,” Zoey echoed, now staring at Joan’s lips in response. “Human resources, and all that. Inappropriate workplace romances, bosses playing favourites... All very bad.”

“Very bad,” Joan affirmed.

Neither of them could take their eyes off the other’s lips. Then, Joan seemed to shake herself.

“So, uh, Zoey... Was there anything you wanted?”

Zoey had really intended to just give Joan an update on the Chirp, now uncertain about having ‘the talk’ with her boss after what they’d just discussed. But it seemed like her brain had disengaged from her mouth.

“I’m fighting with basically everyone in my life, I hate Max for moving to the sixth floor, I yelled at my dad’s caregiver, and I made a maître d’ cry. It’s been a really crappy few days, and all I want right now is to kiss you.”

Joan blinked. “Zoey...” she began hesitantly.

“And I know, this is wildly inappropriate, and also Leif’s still watching us from his desk, but I can’t help it. I feel like there’s something between us, something I can’t ignore...” Zoey took a breath. “If you don’t feel it, then I’ll leave you alone. But I have to know how you feel.”

The other woman swallowed, and was silent for several long moments. “I shouldn’t be doing this,” she said after a long while. “I’m your boss.” She stood.

“You are,” Zoey agreed.

Joan rounded the desk, never taking her eyes off the redhead. “Like I said, it’s always best to nip these things in the bud.”

Zoey nodded seriously. “Right.”

Joan came to a stop in front of Zoey then, staring down at the younger woman. “But...”

“But?”

A cautious smile was on Joan’s lips, and the vulnerability in her eyes made Zoey’s heart stop.

“But I don’t want to.”

A smile blossomed across Zoey’s face then, before she realised the conversation they had to have. “In that case, there’s something I need to tell you...”

 They took shelter in the ladies’ toilets. With Tobin and Leif watching them suspiciously, it seemed like the best place. Besides, that way nobody was likely to walk in in the middle of the conversation.

“This seems a bit ominous,” Joan said as she looked around the bathroom. “Secret meetings don’t tend to mean good things, you know.”

“I know,” Zoey acknowledged with a wince. “But I didn’t want us to be interrupted.”

Nodding her understanding, Joan folded her arms across her chest. She looked anxious, and Zoey couldn’t blame her.

“So, uh, we need to talk about... Well, about me,” Zoey began cautiously. “About why I get so distracted at times, or, or sing to Danny Michael Davis.” At Joan’s confused look, she took a breath and ploughed on. “A few months ago, I kept getting these headaches, and I was worried I had what my dad has. So I went and had an MRI done, and while I was having an MRI, an earthquake hit, and when I came out I could hear people singing. Like, singing what they were thinking.”

There was a lengthy pause then, as she looked to the brunette to gage her reaction. For Joan’s part, her expression was only that of mild surprise.

“You... Have superpowers? Is that what you’re telling me?” Joan asked sceptically.

“I can’t explain it, but both Mo and Max know about it. And my dad, but I’d recommend speaking to Mo or Max if you speak to anyone.” Zoey shifted uncomfortably under Joan’s gaze. “I’m telling you this because if we’re doing... This,” she gestured between them, “then you have to know about it.”

Joan stared at the floor for a moment, collecting her thoughts, before looking up again. Her expression was now one of concern and perhaps a hint of fear. “Zoey, I know you’ve been under a lot of stress recently, and maybe it would be a good idea for you to take some time off?”

“No! No, I don’t need time off! Joan, I’m telling the truth!”

The brunette let out a small, uncertain laugh at that. “Zoey, honey, you’re telling me you can read people’s minds!”

“I can’t,” Zoey protested. “I can only hear them sing, and it’s not all the time. I only hear the songs when I’m meant to help. Uh, I heard Simon sing Mad World when he first started working here, and that’s why I spoke to him. I could tell something was wrong. I heard Max singing love songs to me! When Danny Michael Davis was here, I sang Pressure because my powers were trying to tell me I had to help myself! I’d just found out Dad was dying sooner rather than later, and then Danny Michael Davis showed up unexpectedly and it was all too much!”

Joan’s cheeks flushed then, and she looked away. “You... You sang to me that day, too.”

“And Simon and Max,” Zoey added forlornly.

She hadn’t realised what she’d said until Joan’s head whipped round to her.

“What did you sing to Max and Simon, then?”

Wide-eyed, Zoey scrambled to cover. “Uh, nothing important. All very embarrassing though; I’d rather not relive it.”

Joan pursed her lips, clearly not exactly pleased with Zoey’s answer, but letting it go.

“Have... Have you ever heard me sing?”

At the older woman’s question, Zoey shrugged uncomfortably. “A few times,” she admitted slowly. “Uh, that’s how I found out you and Charlie were having problems.”

“So you helped me because you had to? Because of this mystical power you supposedly have?” Joan wouldn’t meet Zoey’s eyes as she spoke.

It broke the younger woman’s heart, and she took a moment to compose herself before answering. “At first, yes. When I first asked you about your relationship with Charlie, it was because I had tried ignoring it and I ended up being followed by the song you’d sung. But then we started talking, and then I actually met Charlie and I could see just how awful he was to you. You deserve so much better than him, Joan, and I wanted you to see that. And the more time we spent together, the more I came to realise what sort of person you are. You’re fun, you’re funny, you’re smart, you’re beautiful, you understand me...”

“As flattering as that is, Zoey, I think you can understand why I’m suddenly rethinking everything.” Joan’s voice was tight, a tinge of hurt bleeding through.

“This is why I wanted to tell you about my powers, though,” Zoey told her quietly. “I... I knew I was taking a risk telling you this, but I had a chat with my friend Mo, and we both agreed it would be wrong of me not to tell you. I... Max and I came up with a deal once I told him about my powers. Because I can hear him sing and it gives me more knowledge about him than he has about me, I promised to always be completely honest with him. An open book. It doesn’t level the playing field completely, but it’s the best we could do. If... If you still wanted to give us a chance, Joan, I promise you that I will always be an open book to you too.”

The silence then was deafening, Zoey watching the other woman carefully as Joan considered everything.

“I... I have a question,” Joan said eventually. “You said you only helped at first because your powers made it clear you had to help me. How long was it before you changed your mind?”

“I changed my mind when I saw how Charlie treated you,” Zoey answered quickly. “He was so... Rude, and, and inconsiderate, and he didn’t give a crap about your work. You work so hard here, Joan, and Charlie could barely look up from his phone for ten seconds to look at you!”

There was a small, hesitant smile on Joan’s face then, and she flushed lightly. “So how long after hearing me sing was that?”

“A day and a half, roughly,” Zoey shrugged. “And I was hesitant before because it didn’t feel right to interfere in my boss’s marriage. It’s one thing to talk to Simon about him losing his dad, it’s a whole other thing to try to discuss your boss’s sex life.”

That earned a quiet chuckle from Joan, and Zoey felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

“Is... Is it alright if I take some time to think about all this?” Joan asked quietly. “I just... This is a lot to take in. I mean, it’s like some sort of science fiction plot, not real life, and...”

“It’s fine,” the younger woman interrupted gently. “I get it. I’ve had a few months to get used to it now, but... Yeah. It’s a lot to get your head around.”

Joan nodded, and moved towards the door. Just as she was about to leave, she paused, and looked back to Zoey. “I’ll call you later?”

“Sounds good.” Zoey smiled softly and watched Joan walk away.

 The next few days were a flurry of activity, with Leif abandoning the fourth floor to take a job with Max up on sixth. Zoey privately wondered if it had anything to do with Joan turning him down for a drink, but the buzz around her team was that he’d been lured away with the promise of a promotion in the near-future.

While she and Joan had attempted to discuss their relationship on neutral ground, the nearest bar to SPRQ Point had quickly been invaded by both Max and Leif, causing the women to abandon the conversation for another time. On the plus side, as Max had sung Bye, Bye, Bye to her, it had at least proven to Joan that she wasn’t lying about her powers.

At work, Zoey had thought it was odd that Tobin had seemed mostly unaffected by Leif’s absence, but had been too preoccupied by the bake-off to really process it. That was, of course, until Joan took Max’s desk to help with coding and the two women discovered that Leif had been funnelling code to his fellow brogrammer.

“Ugh, I’m going to kill the pair of them,” Joan muttered as she stomped into her office, after having had a secret meeting with Leif on the fifth floor. “Idiots!”

“You got them to stop though, right? I mean, Leif could get himself fired.” Zoey frowned.

Joan let out a sigh then as she sat down at her desk, and she fixed the redhead with a shy look. “We need to talk about that.”

“What? Firing Leif?” Zoey wrinkled her nose at the thought.

“No,” Joan shook her head. “We need to talk about us. I spoke to Leif, and he said he’d been funnelling code down so that we could beat Ava in the bake-off. I was right about him having a crush on me, and he seemed to think that corporate espionage was the way to win me over.” She rolled her eyes. “But that got me thinking; if anyone finds out that Leif did this for me, this could blow up into a huge HR situation. And that’s also true for me and you.”

Zoey didn’t like the sound of where the conversation was going. “Joan? What are you saying?”

The brunette stood with a sigh, and moved round to sit on the edge of her desk. “I’m saying that, if we’re going to do this, we need to keep it quiet. We can’t let it affect our work like, at all.”

The younger woman blinked as she processed what she was being told. A small smile spread across her face. “But you want to give us a chance?”

“I don’t think I have any other choice,” Joan admitted quietly. “I haven’t been able to think about anything but you since we had our talk.”

“What do we do about work, though? How long can we keep this a secret?” Zoey’s brow furrowed at the thought.

Joan shrugged. “We’ll work it out. Right now, I’m more concerned about calling off this bake-off. Leif poisoned it. There’s no way we can continue now.” She stood, gave Zoey a small smile. “But before I deal with Ava, I want to ask something. What are you doing tonight?”

Zoey blinked at the question. “Uh... Nothing?”

Joan grinned. “I’m taking you out for dinner. Shall we say eight?”

Zoey smiled back. “Can’t wait.”

[erintoknow]

Crow for Worldbuilding 💗

Crooooooooow!!

B A S I C S

full name: Badb “Crow” Catha

gender: oh no

sexuality: oh god

pronouns: why (He/Him + She/Her)

O T H E R S

family: Whaddya, a cop, hey???

birthplace: It’s a different celestial body every time they’re asked.

job: Just... incredibly busy, you haveno idea, yeah? Sorry Ortega, gotta go to this incredibly real meeting, just the realist, can’t stay, ta-ta.

phobias: Small spaces, restraints, being ignored

guilty pleasures: Jewelry, cosmetics, smoking, sewing

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: Will help you move apartments without asking for anything in return; two weeks later you realize half your silverware is missing and your socks have been darned.

sins- lust/greed/gluttony/sloth/pride/envy/wrath

virtues- chastity/charity/diligence/humility/kindness/patience/justice

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: Extrovert

organized/disorganized: Organization is for squares

close minded/open-minded: You’re open minded and goddamnit you’ll punch the first person that says otherwise

calm/anxious: Extremely calm, no one has ever been more calm than you are. Just. The calmest. 

disagreeable/agreeable: Look, they’re wrong and you’re right and they just need to accept it.

cautious/reckless: Hey Argent, check out out these sweet flips!!

patient/impatient: No, no, no, it’s fine hey? You can wait. You can totally wait. Okay, hold on, you’re just stepping out for a quick smoke, that’s all.

outspoken/reserved: “GET OUT OF MY LIFE ORTEGA” you scream in the middle of the park.

leader/follower: Those biographies you read were just due diligence, you’ve got your own perfectly legitimate ideas that you came up with all on your own.

empathetic/unemphatic: Anyone that actually likes you is a stupid idiot fool and you’ll make sure they know it. Anyway, Argent seems to like that shark plush, so you need to stop by the craft store to see if they’ve got more cotton so you can make a second one.

optimistic/pessimistic: Everything’s coming up Catha baby!

traditional/modern: Uh, waiter? Check please! You need to go right now.

hard-working/lazy: “Oh, I’m incredibly lazy,” you say as you meticulously polish a suit of plate armor, stepping around a scattering of hardware tools left on the floor.

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: Lady Argent has some real starshine to her. But then also: the good doctor treats Morrígan so well... 

ot3: If Lady Argent and Dr. Mortum get along, it would sure save you some headaches down the road.

brotp: RIP Themmy :c

notp: Ortega is a LIAR and NOT TO BE TRUSTED

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 0.2

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time, as we began this commentary, Team Danganronpa had a terrible way of bringing in their successful auditionees, all of the pregame characters were horrendously slow on the uptake, then they stopped existing, letting me stop complaining about the flimsy portrayal of the outside world until chapter 6 and meet this story’s actual characters that I actually like (and a few that I don’t). We met Kaede and Shuichi, and now they’re about to head out of the classroom and meet everyone else.

So, most of this post will be the character introductions. Even if I don’t have anything specific to comment on about someone’s introduction, I’ll still give a brief summary of how I feel about them and how often I’m likely to mention them throughout this. If it wasn’t clear already from my comments about Kaede and Shuichi last time, I love them both and think they’re both great, interesting protagonists and will have a lot to say about them.

Kaede:  (Even though it’s a hallway, there sure are a lot of plants growing around here…)

This is presumably meant as part of the “story” that they’re secretly on a spaceship, and the plants are there to generate oxygen for them. Which… soooort of explains why there’s fewer plants later on when more people are dead? But of course they’re not really on a spaceship and don’t actually need the plants at all.

Shuichi’s Monopad is in his pocket and Kaede’s is in her backpack, but this begs the question of where the hell the other girls who don’t have backpacks are keeping theirs.

Interesting how the first non-Shuichi person you’re properly introduced to is the mastermind. Given that she’s a terrible person (and that even before the reveal she was not especially interesting), I don’t like Tsumugi that much as a character, but I can appreciate her role as the mastermind and that no-one but the Ultimate Cosplayer would have worked as well in that role. I’ll be pointing out a lot of hints to her true nature and things that she’s probably thinking about given she knows everything as we go along. I won’t be commenting on any of her myriad apparent references to other works of fiction, because like 99% of them are lost on me.

Tsumugi’s thing of ignoring them when they try and talk to her is a character trait they just kind of drop after this scene. I wonder if it’s because she’s still deciding what kind of “character” she wants to play. But also, you’d expect her to be stoked to meet all these other characters that she made, not ignoring them.

Tsumugi:  “My favorite Doraemon episode is #53.”

Number 53. Interesting choice of number, that.

You can investigate the girls’ bathroom, but…

Kaede:  “I doubt there’d be an exit, but just in case…”

…even though this is Kaede’s mindset when she goes in, she doesn’t notice the hidden passageway. You can look around, but it’s not there to find. She is not a detective.

Meanwhile, Shuichi can check the boys’ bathroom, but although he probably checks it way more thoroughly, there’s nothing in there for him to find, of course. Alas. If only Shuichi were less of a gentleman, maybe he’d have discovered the hidden passageway sooner and this all could have ended without anyone dying. (After all, Kyoko never gave a fuck about checking the boys’ bathrooms for hidden rooms.)

Rantaro is a pretty interesting character, but almost all of the stuff that’s interesting about his character is barely relevant in the canon storyline and he’s mostly there to provide interesting plot. Which is to say, I’ll still be talking about him quite a bit for the short time that he’s around.

Here, he’s finally had his memories wiped about everything from the previous killing game… and also his original talent. It’s a little odd that they’d do that – yes, he is the Ultimate Survivor now and the gamemakers don’t want him to be aware of exactly what that entails, but he also still has his original talent (apparently Ultimate Big Brother if we’re to believe Shuichi’s deductions when they hang out in the bonus mode?) and they could have kept his memory of that. Perhaps they erased that memory specifically to make him seem more suspicious, as a kind of handicap. It’s also convenient for the gamemakers that he has a talent which he couldn’t figure out for himself simply by knowing that he must have one, otherwise he could have just told everyone that his best guess was in fact his true talent to avoid coming off as suspicious.

Rantaro:  “We aren’t going anywhere for a while.”

Kaede:  “Stop that. We’ll escape soon.”

Rantaro:  “…You really think it’s gonna be that easy?”

Shuichi:  “Huh? What do you mean…?”

Rantaro:  “Nothin’. Just a feeling.”

Despite having had his memories erased, he seems subconsciously aware of how this is going to play out. It seems that when you only erase memories, they still linger and can subconsciously affect how someone feels, whereas when you overwrite memories with new ones, they’re totally gone.

…As soon as I typed that, I then attempted to enter the locked gym, and:

Shuichi:  “Ah, it’s nothing. I just… feel strange…”

Kaede:  “Strange? How so?”

Shuichi:  “Like… deja vu? I feel like I’ve been here before.”

Shush, okay, most of Shuichi’s pregame memories were completely overwritten. He never gets the slightest hint of déjà vu about having been that creepy fanboy.

Kaede:  “But we’ll probably be fine.”

Shuichi:  “…What makes you say that?”

Kaede:  “Because we have sixteen Ultimate students on our side! As long as we work together as friends, I just know nothing bad will happen!”

Aww, Kaede is being so adorably optimistic when she hasn’t even met most of the others yet.

Oh, hey, here’s Miu, otherwise known as The Worst Character. Almost everything about her is such a disgustingly gratuitous vehicle for fanservice and I hate it. I will be ignoring most everything she ever says, because nearly every time she speaks I just wish she would shut up and stop existing. Beneath the fanserviceyness she does have some vague potential for being an interesting character, though, so I will occasionally be mentioning that when the writing actually makes use of that potential to help drive the story.

(It’s a shame, because she really could have been a decent character – still not likeable at all, but interesting – but they only utilise that potential a very small amount of the time because clearly it’s far more important to the story to use her as an object of fanservice, right???)

Shuichi:  “Stop it… Leave me alone! I can wear a hat if I want to!!!”

This is the one good thing about Miu’s character introduction and it’s not even anything to do with Miu herself. This is far more forceful than Shuichi’s ever been since we met him, so it serves as a neat little hint towards his issues regarding his hat and why he wears it. While it’s obviously not for the perverted reasons Miu is accusing him of, he does wear it to hide his eyes from people (or rather, to hide people’s eyes from him) and he’s not proud of that fact.

Meanwhile, Tenko also has an annoying character “quirk”, but at least the rest of her is a good and likeable person. Other than her degenerate males thing, she’s pretty great, but it’s just hard to unreservedly like her when so much of the time she’s being so unreasonably prejudiced towards half the cast. It’s to such an extreme that it makes it difficult for her to feel like a real person – which is maybe the point, since everyone here is “fictional” and was written from the ground up by being given fake memories, but even so it still just makes me unable to like Tenko as much as I wish I could.

I grew fond of Himiko by the end of the game, especially after her character development, but other than during that arc of hers, she’s not the most interesting or relevant character. I probably won’t be mentioning her especially often aside from then.

Oh, boy, here’s Kokichi. I’m going to come out and say right now that Kokichi is not one of my favourites and I personally feel he’s very overrated by the fandom. But, he’s also not one of my least favourites, since he is interesting. Because of this, I’m probably going to be mentioning him a lot, mostly to make a case for my interpretation of what is actually going on with his character.

The not-so-short version of my interpretation is this: Kokichi is pathologically convinced (for reasons that are never made clear) that humans are creatures who will always betray and backstab each other no matter how much they talk about friendship and trust on the surface. As such, he hates being part of a killing game where backstabbing is the goal and believes that not co-operating with others in a situation like this is the only remotely sensible course of action and anyone who thinks otherwise is a naïve idiot. The majority of his meaningful actions in the early game (that aren’t just him jerking people around and messing with them because that’s literally his talent) are him trying to prove to everyone else, often in a very underhanded and manipulative way, that this philosophy of his is right. In the later parts of the game, his plan to fool Monokuma and win the killing game is entirely him spitefully trying to get back at Monokuma and the mastermind for putting him in this situation that he hated in the first place and is not done with the primary goal of saving everyone else. He is not remotely selfless. He does care more than he lets on about the tragic things that happen, because he’s still fundamentally as horrified by killing as a normal human should be, but he constantly lies to himself about that, dealing with this awful situation in the most cowardly way possible and refusing to change.

And like. That’s interesting! I appreciate that. But the end result is that on the surface he acts like an annoying dick most of the time, and having a better understanding of why he does that once you’ve finished the game doesn’t make him any less of an annoying dick.

Meanwhile, there’s Keebo, who I was honestly expecting to like more than I did when I first experienced the game. He’s fine and likeable enough, but I usually really dig characters who are AIs that really want to be human, and Keebo didn’t quite do it for me. I feel like he could have done if the writers had focused on that part more, but he just spends most of his screentime being on the butt end of the most annoying characters’ annoyingness. Like here with Kokichi. This part of Kokichi’s actions – the part where he constantly bullies Keebo and treats him as less than a person – isn’t him being remotely interesting; he’s just being a dick.

Kokichi:  “…Oh. I’m just the supreme leader of an evil secret organization, that’s all.”

Kaede:  “What?”

Kokichi:  “I gotta say, it’s pretty impressive. My organization has over 10,000 members!”

Totally, Kokichi. It is the supremest, evilest organisation and definitely not just ten overgrown children playing pranks on people. (I was convinced on my first time through that he was lying about his talent and was really the Ultimate Liar. I can’t have been the only one.)

Shuichi:  “There are books all over the place… It doesn’t seem very organized.”

Kaede:  “Oh, does that bother you? Are you a neat freak, Shuichi?”

Shuichi:  “No, it’s just… I was wondering if someone was using it before us.”

I wonder if this is Shuichi already noticing the lack of books on top of the library’s moving bookcase and making a note to check it out later.

Here’s Maki Roll! …Except she won’t be Maki Roll for quite some time. She is messed-up and sympathetic and I love her and will be talking about her a lot.

Kaede:  “Um… Are you an Ultimate student, too?”

Maki:  “Yeah, that’s right. …”

Kaede:  (Huh? Is that it?)

Maki was probably hoping she could just leave it at that and not tell them what her talent is, before Kaede and Shuichi introduce themselves with their talents and she finds herself having to come up with a fake one to not seem suspicious.

(Also Shuichi is still being so unconfident about his talent and Kaede is still trying to get him not to be.)

Maki claims she’s not good at taking care of kids, but, while there are no kids here per se, she is going to turn out to be really good at taking care of other people.

Kaede: “But they say kids are very intuitive. If they like you that much… then they can probably tell how loving you really are, Maki!”

Kaede can tell Maki’s a loving person deep down! Clearly, Kaede is also very intuitive. (As is Kaito, when we get to that point. Which seems appropriate here, since in some ways Kaito is still a big kid.)

Kaede:  “You’ve chosen a perfect career for yourself!”

Maki:  “…It wasn’t my choice to begin with.”

Kaede: “Huh? What do you mean by that?”

Maki:  “…Nothing.”

Maki’s definitely accidentally talking about her real talent here.

Maki:  “Seriously? You think we can escape? Abducting Ultimates from across the country would require massive resources and planning. What makes you think a group capable of that would let us just walk out of here?”

She would say this – she already knows a thing or two about being trapped by a powerful organisation with no hope of escape. Makiiiiii.

Maki:  “Work together? With strangers? You’re a naive fool if you think you can end this so easily.”

And she’s another example of a person who is currently convinced that trusting people and working together in this scenario is a foolish thing to do. But unlike a certain someone else who also believes this, Maki has very clearly-defined and understandable reasons for doing so, isn’t going to be so self-righteous as to try and force her views on others, and will eventually be encouraged to change and start to believe in people, which makes her a much more enjoyable example of a character with trust issues to me.

I also like how she’s the only character who leaves after introducing themselves. She really doesn’t want to engage with anyone, does she.

Along with Maki in the library, in the game room next door we have the other self-loathing murderer, Ryoma! I enjoy how they’re both down here in the basement like they’re hoping not to have to talk to anyone.

Despite being such a weirdly incongruent bunch of traits, from his design to his voice to his talent to his backstory, Ryoma still manages to be a really genuine, interesting person. If he’d been a bigger part of the story he might have ended up among my absolute favourites, but I still like him a lot.

Then there’s the non-self-loathing murderer, Kiyo. He’s a deluded creep and I don’t find him interesting or likeable and won’t be talking about him much except for maybe when the game hints at his true nature. He comes across as openly creepy enough that on my first time through I doubted whether they’d actually make him a murderer because that seems too obvious, but then, no, wow, he literally is just a straight-up serial killer, that sure is the laziest way to justify a character being driven to murder in a killing game.

The design of the wall is really weird. At first I thought it was the skyline of an actual city that they were in the middle of and there were just bars between them and the city.

Monosuke:  “It represents… the end of the world.”

This was another thing that made me consider the simulation angle, but I guess what it’s actually supposed to mean is the end of the fictional world that they’re a part of? Or perhaps the literal end of the world via meteorites that is supposedly past it.

The Monokubs claim it has no exits, but it must have one somewhere; they have to have got in somehow, and there had to have been a planned way out that didn’t involve Keebo blasting a hole in it.

Monokid:  “An Ultimate could probably climb it partway, but most of the time it’s impossible!”

There is somebody nearby who is definitely going to be getting reckless ideas into his head if he hears that. Don’t go encouraging him.

Kaede: “Shuichi… I’m not great at motivating others…”

YES YOU ARE THOUGH. Oh, Kaede.

And speaking of motivation, we’re about to meet…

Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! Who is my favourite character in all of Danganronpa and up there among my absolute favourite characters in fiction, and he’s a large majority of the reason I wanted to do this commentary. There is so much interesting and fun stuff going on with him all the time and I will be talking about him a lot. Like, a lot. If you’re not willing to hear me talk at length about practically everything Kaito ever says and does, this commentary is not for you.

Kaito:  “What, are you complaining?”

Shuichi:  “Huh?”

Kaito:  “Quit complaining and grumbling, or it’ll turn into a habit.”

Almost immediately, he’s telling Shuichi one of his strongly held convictions, which he has a lot of and all of them are really good and interesting. Kaito is always of the opinion that you shouldn’t wallow in your negative feelings and make yourself feel bad unnecessarily when you could instead be working to try and improve things for yourself, even if it’s just a little bit.

Kaito:  “Sometimes you gotta be a little reckless to make your dreams a reality!”

Yeah, cheating his way into astronaut training early and having it somehow work out for him is a pretty good template for the kind of recklessness we’re going to keep seeing from him.

Kaito:  “Yeah, everyone told me it was impossible, but I never gave up! Not for a moment! That’s because… limits don’t exist unless you set them yourself!”

Also a very Kaito thing for him to say! He didn’t quite say the impossible is possible, but this is absolutely the same kind of principle. He firmly believes that they shouldn’t ever give up on something just because it might seem impossible at first glance.

Kaito:  “There are no walls you can’t get over! The same goes for that one!”

Shuichi:  “So do you have any ideas?”

Kaito:  “… Th-That’s not the problem!”

Kaede:  (Um… no, that *is* the problem. Geez, this guy sure talks a big game.)

Kaito does talk a big game, but it’s not remotely in the sense that he’s just trying to make himself look good without ever planning on backing up his words. Him not actually having any ideas for how to get over that wall doesn’t change the fact that he is determined to do so. He may be kind of bad at knowing how to put his words into action, but the intent behind his words is always, always genuine.

Kaede:  “I don’t plan on staying here long enough to need a room.”

Now who’s making bold statements they have no obvious way of backing up, Kaede? She and Kaito are really very similar, and that’s another thing I’ll be talking about a lot.

Out of the five selfless murderers in this game (there are *five* selfless murderers in this game it is so good), Kirumi is the one I’m least attached to.

Kirumi:  “I hold no opinions or desires of which to speak.”

This might be why, because there’s never any indication that this isn’t a true statement. Unlike the other selfless murderers, there really isn’t anything to Kirumi except her selflessness. The others still have their own desires, things they want for themselves, so that when they push those things aside to become a murderer in an attempt to save everyone, it really feels like a sacrifice. Kirumi… not quite so much. But she still is a selfless murderer, so I do still appreciate her quite a bit. Not sure how much I’ll have to say about her except for when she’s killed someone, though.

Here’s Gonta, the most precious gentleman! He deserves all of the happiness and all of the bug friends and is also one of my favourites. That said, his nature is so straightforward that maybe I won’t have too much to point out about his character here and so I might not be talking about him to an extent that properly reflects how much I love him, but I’ll certainly try.

I know Gonta didn’t speak in “caveman speak” in the original Japanese, but honestly it’s really not a big deal that they changed it for the localisation, because it does make sense. He was literally raised by wolves (well, not actually wolves as you learn if you do his FTEs) for ten years! Between the ages of probably like five and fifteen or something. Of course his skills in his human language would have deteriorated after not using it for so long. It’d be difficult for him to relearn the grammar rules after rejoining human society because it’s much harder to pick up language stuff subconsciously when you’re older, and no-one’s going to be giving a teenager lessons in basic grammar.

Gonta:  “This place strange, huh? Lots of plants, but no bugs.”

You know, how did Team Danganronpa rid the entire dome of insects except for the ones in Gonta’s lab? Did they just, like, spray pesticide everywhere and then vacuum up all the dead ones?

(Don’t tell Gonta that might have happened. He’d throw a fit.)

It’s such a shame that both of our protagonists are squicked out by bugs and so we never get to see Gonta having a happy friendly conversation about his favourite thing with someone.

Angie is pretty blah to me. Her slight creepiness and tendency to run away from any responsibility or meaningful emotions whatsoever by hiding behind Atua makes her just… not very interesting, or even that likeable despite her generally cheerful personality, in my opinion.

Aaand that’s everyone. Time to head to the gym.

Kaito:  “Hmm, it’s pretty spectacular seeing all 16 of us Ultimates gathered together.”

Haha, look who else other than Kaede is excited to have a bunch of Ultimates in the same place.

Kaito:  “Don’t worry about it! Just leave it to me! If those teddy bears show themselves again, I’ll kick all their asses!”

Here’s Kaito doing something he’s going to be doing a lot of – declaring that he’ll do something about the situation they’re in. Which he’s usually pretty bad at actually following through with. But even so, the important point is that he’s trying to reassure and encourage everyone, and he truly wants to take action and solve things even if he’s hardly ever actually able to.

Note that when all the Exisals show up, Kaito is staring in shock at the red one specifically. Every time Kaito has some kind of interaction with an Exisal – which happens a few times – it is always that one. I like that detail. It’s going to become his Exisal, after all.

Gonta:  “Everyone, behind Gonta!”

Gonta is already trying to protect everyone! He’s such a good.

Maki:  “Hm, didn’t someone say they would ‘kick all their asses’?”

Kaito:  “Wh-What the hell? Nobody told me about these!”

I love that Maki is already making jabs at Kaito’s reckless idiocy, hee. And to be fair, if he’d known about the Exisals he probably wouldn’t have made such a bold statement.

Rantaro:  “Alright, chill out, no need to panic… We’re probably not in any danger. If they wanted to kill us, they’d have done it by now.”

(With that, Rantaro casually walked up to the Exisals.)

Rantaro:  “So… what do you want from us?”

More hints that Rantaro is subconsciously used to this kind of crazy stuff, with how calm he’s being compared to everyone else.

Monokuma:  “Even when the prologue is going way too long, I’ll allow it because you guys are cute. In fact, the very first prologue ever was only short cuz you cutie-patooties weren’t there.”

That sure is fourth-wall-breaking of him, except not actually.

Monokuma:  “Usually, ratings will plummet when mascots appear in sequels too much… But in this case, ratings are through the roof! All thanks to the cute Monokubs!”

Are you sure, though, Monokuma. I find that difficult to believe, but then again, the in-universe audience has some pretty weird opinions on a lot of things in this story apparently.

Keebo:  “It appears to be some sort of autonomous robot with a built in A.I., like me…”

This is a relevant point he brings up – Keebo’s existence proves that AI and robotics technology in this universe is advanced enough for a Monokuma to be completely autonomous. People should bring this up more than they do when discussing the possibility of a mastermind. Even if a mastermind might exist, there shouldn’t need to be one for the game to run. Monokuma is entirely capable of running the game himself. If the mastermind was murdered, the game wouldn’t necessarily have to end.

Ryoma:  “I want to ask something. How are we supposed to kill each other? Are you going to give us weapons?”

Kaito:  “What the hell, man!? What are you asking?”

Kaito would probably have reacted like that if anyone had asked that question, but I imagine it bothers him even more that it was Ryoma, hah. And I like that Ryoma’s being pragmatic enough to ask that, since he’s already more desensitised to the idea of killing than most people here.

Maki:  “Sophisticated experience?”

…Most people except Maki, who is trained in very sophisticated killing methods and yet is still disgusted by the idea of doing so as a game.

Monokuma’s long list of possible methods they could use to kill each other happens to include every single way in which someone is killed or almost killed in this game.

Kokichi:  “It doesn’t seem like it’ll be boring, though.”

Welp, Kokichi has already started lying to himself that he’s going to have fun with this. Didn’t take him long.

Kaede: (A lie… More like fiction… Like a story on TV… A scenario so removed from reality, we can hardly believe it’s happening.)

…Yeah.

Monokuma:  “Cuz the killing game is the only reason you’re here.”

It sure is. The only reason they exist, even.

Monokuma:  “It’s fun to watch the defiant ones eventually snap, and get their hands dirty…”

…he says, to Kaede. Oh.

Kaede:  (A sadistic story, no different from reality itself… And against my will, I was now a character in that story.)

Pretty much, Kaede, yeah.

The actual opening movie uses imagery of purple eyes on everyone’s shadow behind them, except for Rantaro, where the purple eyes are his own. Given that purple eyes apparently symbolise lying based on imagery in the trials, this is probably meant to symbolise the fact that everyone’s identities are “lies” – but Rantaro shouldn’t really be any different from the others, then, since he also has fake memories, just ones that were created for season 52. But obviously if they instead had Tsumugi be the odd one out in the opening, that’d be preeetttty suspicious.

---

[Next post]

[meitanteikazuha]

hello, hello, back with the next roleswap case! It’s the Tottori Spider Mansion case, always a favorite! As always, for more information about this roleswap, please visit the about!

Without further ado, let’s get to the fic!

"What's that ya got, Kazuha?"

"Wait, Heiji, don't just take things from me!" Though she just as quickly reached to take the letter that had been so rudely snatched out of her hands back, she found it move just out of her reach instead. "Hand it back already! It doesn't involve ya anyhow!"

"Not a chance~." Taking a step back from her, Heiji flashed her a broad grin, scanning over the letter, ignoring Kazuha's not-so-quiet mutterings about when the hell he'd even gotten here. "Uwah, sounds shady!"

"Right?" Kazuha agreed, finally taking the letter back from him. "An' on top of it, they didn't even give me a number ta contact them by, an' sent me a load of cash ta boot."

"Yer not seriously thinkin' of takin' the case, are ya?" Heiji asked, arching his brows. "Remember what happened the last time ya followed up on a shady letter."

"Yer not gonna let that go, are ya?" Kazuha asked, heaving a short sigh as her friend merely nodded his head in response. "It'll be fine, Heiji. It's not like I'll be on a boat this time. The address is in the mountains."

"So yer tradin' in bein' shoved off ships fer bein' shoved off a cliff?" Heiji asked. "Doesn't sound like much of an upgrade ta me."

"I'm not gonna be shoved off any cliffs!" Kazuha said shortly, plopping back down in her chair, setting the letter aside on the desk. "Besides, ya know I can't just take this money. At the very least, I have ta go an' give it back ta this damn Takeda fool."

"An' ya might as well solve the case while yer at it?" Heiji finished, folding his arms in front of his chest. She almost flinched under that gaze, one that told her he'd read her like a book. "Forget it. If yer that damn worried about the money, just donate it ta charity or somethin'."

"Ya know I can't do that." Kazuha told him, her brows knitting together. "Besides, when did ya become the boss of me anyways, Heiji? I'm free ta do what I want, ya know."

"I'm not-!" Heiji protested, before grumbling to himself, clearly realizing she had a point. Forced into a corner, he grumpily admitted what he was obviously trying to otherwise avoid saying. "Look, I'm just... I'm just worried, okay?"

Letting her shoulders slump, Kazuha gazed up at him. Even if he hadn't admitted it, it was written all over his face. She didn't need to be any kind of detective to tell that much- just his childhood friend, who could read him just as easily as he could read her. "I know ya are, Heiji. But I promise, I'll be careful. No more surprises." She told him. "Besides, if yer that worried, why don't ya just come with me yerself?"

"Oh?" Amused, Heiji took a step forward. "Is that an invitation, Kazuha?"

"What else would it be, idiot?" Kazuha replied. "It ain't a circus animal."

Letting out a snort, Heiji let his hands drop. "Fine, in that case, I'll take ya up on that offer, Kazuha. Be yer bodyguard, maybe."

"I don't need a bodyguard." Kazuha told him- though her amused smile told him that she'd caught his attempt at a joke. A joke that was likely trying to cover up how unusual it was for him to offer to come with her on a job request- unfortunately not well enough that she failed to notice it.

He really was worried about her, wasn't he?

"Besides, with yer luck, yer a lot more likely ta get into trouble than me." Kazuha finished.

"...I want ta deny that, but..." Trailing off a little, Heiji shrugged his shoulders, giving her something of a helpless look. She did have a fair point, loathe as he was to admit it. "Okay then. In that case, ya can act as my bodyguard, Kazuha."

"In that case, why don't ya just not come?" Kazuha shot back, quirking a brow.

"Ya make a fair argument, but I'm still comin'." Heiji told her, his tone firm. "So? When are we goin'?"

"This weekend." Kazuha told him. "I'm worried about the contents of the message, so I want ta get there as soon as I can. Hopefully it's just a bad prank."

"Whoever can throw away that much money on a prank doesn't deserve ta have it." Heiji couldn't help but note. "So? Ya know anythin' about this Takeda place?"

"No, not at all." Kazuha said, shaking her head. "I suppose we'll find out when we get there. If I show 'em the letter an' explain everythin', surely they'll talk."

"How optimistic." Heiji observed, before pausing, a slight frown on his face. "Yer mom... she’s not around, right?"

"No." Kazuha said, shaking her head. "Did ya need her fer somethin'? She's always at therapy around this time of day. Thought ya knew that, Heiji."

"Ah, right... yer right. Just forgot." Rubbing the back of his neck, Heiji's frown deepened, before he quickly tried to cover it back up. "An' don't worry, it's nothin'! Just my mom wanted ta pass on a message ta her since I was goin' over ta yer place, that's all."

Forgot, he said. She had reason to doubt that- and reason to doubt that his mother, of all people would forget her mother's schedule. If she didn't miss her guess, he was double checking to make sure that she wasn't around, so that he wouldn't run into her.

After all this time, he was really still avoiding her, wasn't he?

Well... at least he'd made it inside of the house this time, she thought to herself. That was progress in and of itself, since she could count on one hand the number of times he'd been over here since the incident happened. When her father had told her that he'd shown up at their doorstep early in the morning on the day that she had left for that ill fated cruise, she had been rather surprised- though not unpleasantly so.

It would seem that wasn't merely a fluke, and hopefully, a sign for more positive things to come. It was almost enough to make her want to push him some more, but...

Well, this was progress, and the last thing she wanted to get was pushback. More than herself, the person that Heiji needed to speak to the most was her mother- hence why he was working so hard on avoiding her.

"Then ya can just tell Auntie Shizuka ta call her later." Kazuha told him, getting to her feet. "Since yer here, ya wanna split the pudding I got the other day? It's from that new shop by the station."

"Oh, that trendy one?" Heiji asked. "Sure, sounds great!"

"Technically we only bought enough fer the three of us, but ya can have my father's share." Kazuha told him, grinning from ear to ear. "I'm sure he won't mind!"

(read the rest of the chapter on AO3!)

[forgetspecifics]

Such Sights are Bright - Chapter 2: I’m Barely Awake

Blake finds out that there really is more to Yang than meets the eye.

Other links: Ao3 FF.net

Notes:

Okay, first of all, sorry about the wait! It was hard to get all this the way I wanted. There's a good chunk of talking somewhere in here. Then, some things didn't go as I barely planned, I originally was gonna do a Halloween thing but that got cut in favour for something else. I think what I did served a better purpose in developing the friendship.

It's almost 5am and I wanted to get this out because I won't be with my work to post it for a few days, so, sorry but there's gonna be an extra two days wait on me starting the next chapter.

Hope you like it!

October (Fall)

/

“How’s your Yang-less life treatin’ ya? I’d say how’s it Yangin’ but…”

Her younger sister let out a small whine, sending a scowl even Yang could fear through the video call. “I don’t like it.”

Yang felt bad, she truly did. But Ruby had relied on her for so long, she had to get out into her own world, no matter how much she thought she didn’t like it. It’s not like Yang was the best role model these days.

“You just started your sophomore year! Aren’t you excited?” she asked, hoping to learn how her kid-sister had been coping without her.

“A new girl did transfer in from Germany. I bumped into her on the first day and she lost her mind!”

Yang tried to picture a foreign girl ranting and raving in a native language over something so minor. “Was it funny?”

“Not at the time. Turns out she was angry because she isn’t a senior, even if she’s your age. Because of the differences between here and her country, or something…” she trailed off, becoming distracted.

That sounded shit, if she was honest. But, Ruby was such a nice girl, she assumed that even an annoyed person would appreciate her kindness – if it was offered.

“And?”

Ruby chuckled like she always used to when she was caught stealing cookies. “She pretends to not like me, but I think we’re friends now.”

She was relieved to hear that the girl hadn’t been a bully to her baby sis. Otherwise she’d have to consider going back just to teach her a lesson. But Ruby could handle people better than she could, no matter how much people thought the opposite. Sure, she had a certain charm, but good looks only get you so far when you’re prone to punching people

“Way to go! See, you don’t even need me!” she encouraged. She was trying to hammer home the fact, because Ruby needed to hear it from her if she was going to even begin believe it.

“That’s not the point, Yang,” her sister deflected, still not happy. She had her famous pout going, arms crossed, just like Yang herself had done many times before. Little copycat.

The older girl did her best to resist that kind of manipulation. She’d raised Ruby for years and wasn’t about to forget it. “I know it’s not, but my point is you’re managing fine. And, it’s not that long ‘till you guys are comin’ to visit! I’ll make cookies!”

That seemed to cheer her sibling up. Ruby couldn’t resist an offer of cookies. Just like Summer used to bake.

“Fine, only if you make cookies,” the brunette pointed at the screen for added effect, changing the subject herself. “What about you? Made a million friends?”

Yang counted all the people she had met and befriended. There was Blake, Sun and Neptune – Ruby already knew of them. She described to Ruby the other people that she’d met – there was Nora, a hyperactive cheerleader that was a hoot to hang around. There was Ren, Nora’s not-boyfriend; Jaune, the football team’s waterboy; and Pyrrha, who was way too cool to hang out with Jaune but did anyway. She was suspicious that Pyrrha had a huge crush on him, but whatever. Those four had been friends for years. The best part was, they were all like Blake. Friendly and appreciative of the good people, and unappreciative of people like Cardin Winchester.

He was still ruining their hopes at winning matches, which reminded her that their game later was going to be another loss. Since her first match, she and Sun and Neptune hadn’t been able to make any great plays to make up for it.

A concerned voice broke her out of her thoughts. “Yang? What’s wrong?”

“Don’t worry, just football stuff. QB’s still not playing ball with Sun,” she frowned, “pun not intended.”

Optimistic as ever, Ruby suggested she try and be nice and convince him to do the right thing. The only thing she could do was try.

“I’ll let you know how I go. Maybe we won’t lose…I should go.”

She was given a thumbs up. “Good luck Yang! Love you,” Ruby said.

“Love you too, sis.”

The window on the screen went black as the video call was ended. Yang caught her face in the reflection of the screen. As much as she was enjoying herself, it hadn’t been all smooth-sailing. Blake had been wanting her to work on her part of the project, but, if football games weren’t getting in the way, she just wasn’t doing it. And Blake wasn’t pleased with her avoiding the subject, not one bit. Yang just wasn’t that good at concentrating on school stuff, and when she’d admitted that, her friend had offered to help her improve. She was coming over after the game that evening so they could work together – work better.

Or so Yang hoped.

By the time she and Qrow arrived at the field, the matter of the social studies assignment had been put on her mental backburner. As much as she had a commitment to that, she also had a commitment to the team – mostly Sun. He was her friend, and he was being treated unfairly, and she wouldn’t stand for that.

The coach had noticed their crappy performances, but not the cause. He was making their pre-game discussions and preparations more intense, demanding everybody show up earlier to make up for it. Either he was insanely stupid to miss what was happening, or insanely racist, just like Cardin.

Yang was beginning to think it was the latter.

By half time, Beacon was losing yet again. Cardin wasn’t changing, not even in the face of defeat. Yang’s anger decided that he would change, even if she had to bear a conversation with someone she loathed. Walking off the field, she looked up at the stands, a sea of disappointed supporters amidst elated faces of the cheering opposition crowd. Even the cheering squad; with powerhouse in pep Nora Valkyrie, couldn’t perk them up. The girls in skirts were trying to mask their pessimism, but they couldn’t fool somebody who was really looking. Removing her helmet, she gratefully took the proffered water from a concerned Jaune. “Thanks, Jaune. Pretty miserable out here tonight, ain’t it?”

The boy, with a mop of blonde hair that reminded her of her dad, nodded. He handed more water out to passing players. “I wish I could do something,” he muttered, not out of earshot.

“It’s not your responsibility.”

Maybe it wasn’t hers either. But she had to talk to Cardin right now. It had gone on long enough.

Up in the bleachers, Qrow was not unaware of his niece approaching the elitist Quarterback. Yang had informed him many times of the dumb-asshole-rich-kid that didn’t like Sun just because he had a tail. He had some idea of how this situation could end up, and if he was being honest, he wasn’t going to do anything to stop it happening. Kid deserved to be knocked down a peg, he bitterly thought.

“What’s she doing?” He heard Blake say. The girl beside him stood up, trying to get a better view.

In his head, Qrow was debating whether or not he could bet with himself as to how long it would take for the talking to turn into fighting. He’d sat through multiple disappointing football games, and convinced himself it was one hundred percent not his fault if the snobby prick got his ass handed to him.

Apparently, down on the grass, most of the people had noticed Yang stomp over to Cardin. The cheer squad was being as nonchalant as they could, watching the only female on the team confront the guy…that nobody truly liked.

Sun and Neptune observed hopefully.

Blake surveyed the scene.

Qrow silently wagered it’d be a minute before shit hit the proverbial fan.

“Cardin, I need to talk to you,” Yang attempted to hold the bite in her tone. Getting what she wanted peacefully wasn’t out of the question yet.

She was much smaller in stature compared to him, as he glanced down at her, a slimy smile on his ugly face. “Have you quit playing hard to get?”

Yang completely ignored his question, resisting the urge to shudder. “If you don’t start passing the damn ball to Sun, our team will be a laughing stock,” she reasoned, even though he was likely too egotistical to care about what cost his bigotry came at.

“Oh, you’re standing up for that animal, I see,” he sneered, “you’re only doing this because you like him.”

Growing exasperated as he dribbled on, she did a double take. “Excuse me?”

“Listen. You’re too perfect to be wasted on a dirty beast like that. Tell you what. Ditch him, we could be a great couple. If I’ve got you, I might contemplate passing to the monkey.”

Yang couldn’t believe he was trying to ask her out. If that even counted as asking somebody out. She didn’t even like Sun that way! This guy is seriously braindead, a voice in her head shouted. “Are you serious?”

Cardin laughed. It was a horrible sound – pompous and haughty. He entered her personal space, and she could feel his warm breath on her face. “You know you want me,” he said, as she felt a hand grope her butt. Behind her, she was sure she heard Nora make a gagging noise, and recognised a faint gasp that could only be Jaune.

As much as she wanted to deck her assaulter right then, she kept her calm and pushed his arm away. Turning to Nora and the squad, she pointed at them, “You guys saw that, right?” Receiving only nods, Yang couldn’t help but smirk. If she had witnesses, she’d be fine. Mostly.

Blake was in disbelief. Cardin had felt Yang up! Her stomach dropped as she wondered if her friend had let him, as a means of persuasion.

Qrow sighed as he stood to join her. “What an idiot.”

“What do you m-”

Yang had twisted back from the cheerleaders and slugged Cardin right in the face, the crowd’s gasps answering Blake’s unfinished question.

The boy stumbled backwards and tripped over a bench, crying out in pain. Not deterred by his fall, he recovered and pushed past the coach, who was attempting to calm his star player.

Yang, having her back to him, hadn’t seen him get up. She hadn’t expected him to, but partly was backing off to avoid making things any worse than they were.

“You bitch!”

Too late did her reaction come, because before she could defend herself, she was treated to a knuckle sandwich of her own. Catching a distinct crunch over the murmuring patrons, her head whipped to the side, and then came the sensation of blood starting to pour out her nose.

He had gotten her good, but it became clear that he wasn’t averse to hitting girls, especially those that had embarrassed him. As soon as she had gathered her bearings, he’d clocked her left eye not unlike she had done to him moments before. The coach and several players scrambled to pull Cardin back. Yang wiped her mouth with her forearm, smearing sticky, hot blood along it, as Sun and Neptune arrived to pull her back.

“I will RUIN you!” the QB roared from behind a wall of bodies, as Qrow arrived with Blake in tow. The older man cut through, grabbing a fistful of shirt as the beefy teenager tried to shove him.

Scarlet eyes narrowed. “You better pipe down you snot-nosed punk!”

“She hit me first!”

“No,” Qrow retorted lowly, “you lay your hand on her first, and I’m willing to bet there’s at least ten eyewitnesses that’ll say Yang was acting in self-defence.”

Cardin was not to be easily swayed. “Says who, you?”

“Yeah, me. I think an ex-cop would know, don’t you?”

His complexion fading only the slightest at the revelation, Cardin knew he was cornered. His only option was to give up, but he wanted the last word. “I’m not playing with that she-beast and her mangy boyfriend!” He yelled, and stalked away as soon as he was released.

Qrow shrugged at the coach that shot him a look that said this is your fault. “Get someone else to play. He was why your team sucks.”

Meanwhile, Yang’s friends had been fussing over her leaking face. Well, mostly Blake. Sun was saying how awesome the fight was, Neptune was trying not to faint because there was so much blood.

“Guys! Here,” Jaune once again produced water, Blake taking the bottle, only to have her hand halted by Yang’s scuffed knuckles.

She tried to voice her protests, but the hand held steady. “No point. Still bleeding,” she sputtered through the stream.

Nora had hurried over and was bouncing around Sun, the two repeatedly exclaiming how hilarious it was that Cardin had hit the deck like a sack of bricks, and Yang had taken two hits and hadn’t even faltered.

The crowd had grown restless, calling for the game to continue. The fight was over, and now they needed entertainment once again. The whistle blew, the referee calling to their coach to play on or forfeit.

Having successfully removed Cardin, they had a shot. Yang couldn’t play right now, but the rest of them could. “Go! You don’t need me!”

The boys left her with a pat on the back and a fistbump, running out with their reserve Quarterback.

Her uncle stood watching silently, but Yang knew he wasn’t mad at her. He’d defended her, after all. Then there was Blake. She, however, was wearing a look that could only be described as calmly freaked out. Oxymoronic, yes, but Yang could tell just by the look in those amber eyes.

Yang tried to lift the tense mood that had blanketed them. “And that’s why Qrow calls me firecracker,” she joked. Blake did not find it funny.

“I can’t believe you. Getting assaulted and then cracking jokes.”

“Please, it’s nothing I can’t handle. I’ve had worse,” she said as slender fingers cupped her jaw. Inspecting Yang’s nose, Blake carefully tipped the water over it, the bleeding having ceased over the last minute.

“Your crooked nose says otherwise, firecracker.”

Lifting her jersey, she used the hem to wipe at her face, clearing the metallic taste off her lips and chin. Smiling to herself as Blake’s eyes focused on her uncovered stomach for a second before quickly looking away, she gave her a wink when her gaze was finally met. “It was crooked before. But you probably noticed that with how much you stare.”

With a huff, her friend crossed her arms defiantly, not engaging with the taunt. Which to Yang, meant she was the victor of their banter.

Resisting the chastising look she was getting, she played innocent. “I’m gonna get the medic to fix this,” Yang thumbed over her shoulder towards the direction of the guy that should have already attended to her, but had been busy coddling Cardin until he stormed off once again.

Blake tracked the retreating figure keenly, but couldn’t watch as the man set Yang’s nose back into place, a curse reaching her ears instead. Only now she noticed that there was quietly enraged adult bickering with Qrow – likely Cardin’s father. If what Yang’s uncle had said was true, everybody would just move on and sweep the short brawl under the rug. She wasn’t pleased that there was a boy that was essentially getting away with sexual assault, even if it was minor.

She also hadn’t noticed that the Bulldogs were scoring – now that there weren’t any racist interferences, until Yang returned looking sore but proud, telling her to look at how Sun was whooping and hugging Neptune. Which reminded Blake of something.

“Is what Cardin said true? You and Sun?”

Taking the small icepack – she must have gotten it from the medic – away from her eye, Yang didn’t falter in her response, as surprised as she was that Blake even had to ask. “Hell no. Apparently, you have to be fuc-”

Stopping mid-sentence, she made a noise of regret, deciding against her choice of words. “Like a guy to stand up for him. Or not want to go on a date with somebody.”

Blake contemplated. Yang hadn’t done it because she and Sun were dating, nor had she done it because she had a crush on him. Why had she let guard down, even though she was fully capable in self-defence? “Then why’d you do it? You got hurt, Yang.”

Beneath her shoulder pads, the girl heaved a sigh, eyes wistfully following her Faunus friends’ tail as he ran downfield. “Somebody had to. If Sun had brought it up, it wouldn’t have ended well, you and I both know that.”

There was regret in her tone. Sun’s bully would have only twisted the situation to place the blame on the person he despised.

“Neptune was going to, but I knew if anybody had a chance of persuading a jock only interested in his ego, it’d be the girl everybody notices for her physical appearance,” Yang said, clearly referring to herself, a sad smile gracing her beaten face. “But, mostly I did it because Sun deserves to be treated better than that. I’d gladly take a punch or two for him to escape prejudice.”

If there was a word to described how she was feeling, Blake didn’t have it in her vocabulary. That was one of the most honest, selfless and kind-hearted things she’d ever heard a human say about a Faunus. If Yang wasn’t covered in blood and sweat, she’d have hugged her. “Then you’re a good person,” was all she managed to get out, but she couldn’t help but feel that it didn’t quite cover what she thought.

“That depends on who you ask,” Yang replied cryptically. “Before you say I’m a good person, there’s probably some things you should know about me.”

The car ride back to Qrow’s house was quiet, save for the low static of evening radio that had been called upon to fill the silence. With their best efforts, the Bulldogs had not been able to secure a win, but, they had almost closed the gap in scores. For that, everyone was happy.

But, Blake honestly didn’t know how to take what Yang had said to her. It was the first time since the blonde walked in late and been assigned as her partner that she was doubtful. She didn’t know what to think. What kind of things should she know? What was she going to be told?

She tried to keep her imagination in check. Surely, it wasn’t going to be anything bad…the last thing she wanted was to have made friends with another person that broke her trust.

As the three of them followed Qrow into the house, the man headed straight for the kitchen. The clinking of a glass and the distinct sound of a lid being unscrewed was all that filled the silence that seemed to have trailed them from the car. Deciding that that was best left unmentioned for now, Yang tugged Blake upstairs and into her bedroom.

“Do you mind if I take a shower first?” Yang queried, finally seeing her appearance in a mirror. Taking in her bruised nose and eye, she moaned. Quite dramatically, if you asked Blake. “Shit, look at my face! Tell me I’m still beautiful!”

Not letting her doubts show, Blake begrudgingly reassured her complaining friend. “You’re the most beautiful.”

Tilting her head in review of the answer, Yang sighed. “You’re lying. But okay, fine. Make yourself at home,” she said as she removed the loose sweatshirt she’d put on after her removing the bloody uniform back at the field, taking effort to avoid her injuries. That girl had no shame.

Picking up a few things, Yang went to the bathroom, again scrutinizing her face. So maybe she had lied when she said she’d had worse. Cardin was a pretty huge dude, and it hadn’t helped that she’d been completely unprepared. Gingerly touching her nose, she knew it’d just cause more pain to try and clean her face without the utmost care. Ruby was the one that had always helped her out when it came to things she couldn’t mend herself…

A guilty face popped back into the room not a minute after Blake had been left alone. “Blake? I kinda need your help cleaning this blood off properly.”

Face unreadable, the girl spoke apprehensively, trying to find an excuse not to. “Can’t your uncle do it?”

“This requires…a delicate touch. He couldn’t manage it even if he wasn’t perpetually drunk.”

A dark eyebrow raised at her reasoning. “Are you saying he’s an alcoholic?”

“Eh, semantics. Please, though. I’ll do anything you want!” Yang offered, hoping she could at least bribe Blake to assist. Having not thought of the implications, she grew worried as Blake stood up and sashayed towards her, a predatory glint in appraising eyes.

“Anything?”

Yang was not sure what exactly had come over her, but she was thinking it was: one, probably not appropriate; two, very gay; and three, totally and completely inappropriate. And all because her friend, her best friend, had said a simple word.

And she could only respond with a simple word of her own. “Yes?” Though it wasn’t very convincing, coming out more as a question than an answer. This was fine. It was just a passing moment. She’d have to be blind to not think that Blake was very attractive – that didn’t mean she was attracted to her. There was a difference, people!

In a flash, Blake was back to…normal. “I want you to promise you’ll work diligently on our social studies assignment.”

Visibly relieved, Yang nodded instantly. “I promise!”

“That’s a much saner and not-gay request than I was thinking,” she mumbled to herself, when Blake had already gone into the bathroom. She had only promised to work on their project like she should have already been doing. She was lucky that Blake was willing to help her and not leave her to suffer the wrath of Ms. Peach – that lady did not like Yang.

Catching up to her now waiting helper, Yang prepared a warm and wet washcloth and handed it to Blake, who set to work. Leaning against the counter, she let her eyes close, finding it increasingly hard to look Blake in the face without feeling shame about what had come over her before. Especially when she was trapped between Blake and the sink, knowing that if this was a scene from a romance book or TV show, things wouldn’t be so platonic – because this was platonic, and nothing else.

Internally shaking all her current thoughts from her head, Yang took a deep breath and let her senses concentrate on the soft cloth being gently pressed against her face. Though the process wasn’t fast, it was done without any agitation, which she could be thankful for.

A voice cut through her peace, Blake being satisfied she’d done a good job. “There. All clean.”

“I didn’t feel a thing, you’re the best! Don’t tell Ruby I said that,” Yang said, taking back the grimy material from Blake’s outstretched hand. “I’ll wash the rest of me myself. Unless you wanna help with that too?”

Facepalming, Blake huffed. “For the love of...just hurry up, Yang.”

Shaking her head, Blake quickly slipped out the room.

“It was just a question!” A question she had just let slip out, the words forming before she’d had a chance to tell herself to stop hitting on Blake when she didn’t mean it.

After a thorough scolding from Blake when Yang had walked back into the room in just a towel, she finally re-entered after having opted to leave the room lest the towel miraculously fall away before Yang got dressed. The dark-haired girl’s nervousness returned with a vengeance when she joined Yang, settling down on the bed.

Still wary of what she might hear, she got the conversation started just so they could get it over with. “So, what things should I know about you?”

“First, I want you to know that I haven’t been in any fights as bad as tonight’s. I lied.” Clearly, Blake’s voice had lacked confidence, if Yang was already defending herself – albeit in a roundabout way.

“I never went into that conversation with the intention of using violence to get what I wanted, and I also never intended to use myself or my body as an incentive. It just so happened that Cardin provoked me to hit him by trying to get himself a date and a handful of ass.”

Blake had never seen her friend this serious. Granted, she’d only known her for just over a month, but still. She was also relieved that her earlier apprehension had been misplaced.

“But when you told me that I was good…I just can’t let you say that unless you know the real me, or at least who I’ve been. I left home because my life was a mess, and I hated the image I spent years creating. Thing about this place is, I’m looking for something. Well, someone.”

Seeing no major reaction from Blake, Yang continued. “You see, my mom vanished on the job when I was six. Her name was Summer Rose, and she and dad used to be cops. They never found out what happened to her. I don’t think Ruby even realised what was really going on, but dad, he was overwhelmed with grief. He shut down, leaving me with a four-year-old to care for,” this did garner a reaction in Blake, her mouth opening in slight shock. “I always resented the fact, until I learned why he couldn’t handle it.

“Everything started in Montreal. Dad and Summer did investigative type stuff, and took on a case there. They got teamed up with Qrow and his twin sister Raven, who lived there at the time. After it was all said and done, dad had fallen for my mother, not long after they had little baby me on the way. But it wasn’t Summer dad fell in love with, it was Raven. And she left us right after I was born.”

Yang sounded so bitter. She spat her birthmother’s name with venom, such disdain, that it didn’t even sound like the Yang Blake knew.

“Dad was devastated, and Qrow came back here after it all fell apart. Summer brought my father back home, which eventuated into our happy ever after when they rebuilt together and had Ruby two years after me,” the girl visibly slumped, sighing sadly. “But as you know, that happiness didn’t last.”

Trying to consolidate Yang’s story, Blake put together the pieces. “You came here to look for Raven.”

Yang nodded. “I wanted to get away. It seemed like the perfect place.”

So she wanted to leave, and had the perfect place to escape to, but also had an ulterior motive…

Blake could see how difficult Yang’s childhood would have been, but failed to see what exactly her story had to do with everything. Taking Yang’s hand in her own, she squeezed it supportively, trying to convey her sympathy. “Yang, I’m sorry that happened to you…but wanting to leave doesn’t make you a bad person.”

Yang squeezed back, but her hand retreated soon after. “I agree. But it’s everything else that I did that might, Blake.”

“I gave up my childhood to raise Ruby, because our dad couldn’t. Even though the people in our town tried to help, they couldn’t be Summer. I couldn’t either, but I sure as hell tried. While he was moping around and drinking until he couldn’t stand? I cooked and read Ruby bedtime stories. When I couldn’t rouse him from a hangover or stop him thinking about taking his own life? There was nobody caring for me. It took five years for dad to finally pick himself up, and I tried to make up for the time I’d lost.

“I am everything that I bet you thought I was the second I walked into your life. A party girl that only cared about being popular and looking good,” Blake winced, and Yang knew that she was right, that that’s what Blake had assumed she was. “And you had every right to think that! I hated the pity party everybody threw for our family every day of my life, so I became obnoxiously confident and disobedient to prove to them that I was better than the sad little girl they thought I was. I had every kid in town jealous of my cool rebellious personality,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“The last couple years all I did was drink and do things I regret with people I don’t like. In a way, I gave them my life, let them mould me.  That’s just another way of saying peer pressure gets to us all, though. What did it matter if we were all having fun, our hearts beating fast, and doing dumb shit once night fell? How many times I passed out on somebody else’s lawn and didn’t wake ‘till the sun came up, just trying to cover up how sad I really was,” Yang confessed, voice cracking and wavering.

Blake couldn’t imagine being their age, younger even, and partying until you were inhibited enough to just fall asleep outside. In that area; freezing cold in winter, it would have been dangerous, right? Not having any regard for her health or her safety, Yang slept like a homeless person when she had a bed that was a luxury homeless people could only dream of. It did seem like Yang knew she had made an error in acting like an ungrateful bum, though, otherwise she wouldn’t have been pouring her heart out like it was about to break from the guilt weighing it down. As much as Yang had embodied the type of person Blake loathed to be associated with, underneath it all was just as much of a girl that had a less than preferable upbringing. Only until too late had Yang realised that…and it was that similarity to herself that Blake found hardest to accept. She hadn’t lost two moms like Yang, but she knew that the way she grew up had ended up being bad for her future, and so she too had left it behind.

“But last year, I came to a crossroads,” Yang’s voice tore her away from her thoughts, not having finished her story. “I realised, fuck, I’m supposed to be graduating and I’ve only got passing grades and fake popularity to my name! I started to finally hear everything my friends had been saying behind my back, and for the first time in years I cried myself to sleep. And it’s pathetic, because I’m saying this like it’s a sob story that I didn’t write myself.”

“Yang, please,” she spoke, lilac eyes catching her own in a fixed gaze. “I understand, and I don’t blame you. Maybe you made some mistakes, maybe you didn’t do all the right things. But everyone makes mistakes. It’s what you do to try and fix them that matters to me, and you did a wonderful thing for Sun.” She knew Yang shouldn’t blame herself for the things she had done; her behaviour was warranted; she had hardly been raised to act any better. People with better childhoods had done worse.

Yang couldn’t stop the liberation she felt from revealing her feelings, nor the happiness from Blake’s kind words. But it still wasn’t enough to be convinced. “I feel like even though I’m tryin’ really hard, I still can’t do things right…maybe if I had spoken to Cardin differently, it wouldn’t have ended like it did.”

Society these days was always victim-blaming, and Blake couldn’t stand it. “It was Cardin who was doing the wrong thing. Don’t you dare feel guilty about him trying to take advantage of you, so help me, Yang,” she said hotly, her frustration beginning to show.

“Alright, alright,” Yang acquiesced at her insistence. “Sometimes I think you’re too nice to me. I haven’t known you for long, and I kinda barely know anything about you. Yet you’re still the best friend I’ve ever had.”

Blake could easily say the same about Yang – well, she knew a lot more about her now. The girl was barely the person she’d described herself to be anymore. She had a feeling that Yang was a good person all along, but hadn’t been able to see it after all her hardship. Blake just wasn’t ready, or prepared, to reveal her own issues to someone she’d known for such a short time.

“I don’t like to talk about my past, but there’s things I should tell you. Just…not yet.” Detecting it was a sensitive topic for her, Yang nodded easily. “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll listen.”

Blake felt lucky that Yang was patient enough; it didn’t seem fair that she’d gotten so much personal information for nothing in return. “You’re too nice too,” she said, shuffling over to Yang to embrace her. “I wanted to do this earlier, after you said you helped Sun because he deserved better. You just had too much blood on you.”

Returning the hug, Yang chuckled. “Fair enough.”

Pulling away, Blake kept her arms around Yang’s neck. “This one’s for everything else.”

As she was hugged again, this time, it felt more like a cozy, comforting, cuddle to Yang. She trusted Blake like she trusted her own sister, and it was almost like if she closed her eyes, she was back home.

“Aw, Blakey,” she uttered, instinctively going into bear-hug mode – the bear-hug Ruby always claimed was bad for her health with how much force was applied. A small squeak was her cue to let go.

Taking in a breath, Blake coughed from the sheer affection – whether it was the physical squeezing or the emotion, she wasn’t sure. But she was sure of something else. “I’m not accepting ‘Blakey’ as a nickname.”

“I’d like to see you stop me from using it,” Yang stuck her tongue out childishly.

Before she could even register the words coming out of her mouth, Blake retorted, “Put that tongue back in your mouth unless you plan on using it,” unable to stop herself from finishing her sentence, she blushed furiously. “Oh my God! I’ve spent too much time around you!” She pointed at Yang, who was barely containing herself in hilarity.

“I’m forgetting that ever happened! Let’s get to work on that assignment right now.”

Recovering from her giggles, Yang sheepishly looked away. “You mean start the assignment…”

“You haven’t even started?”

Blake sounded pissed off now. Yang knew that she had dropped the ball with this, but hadn’t been able to admit it to her yet, not when the girl hadn’t learned about her past. “This is what I was worried about! I haven’t tried with my schoolwork in years, and now, I’m letting you down! I always get so distracted with the football, and the fun things!”

Blake addressed her sternly, formulating an idea that could help whip her friend into academic ship-shape. All she had to do was get Yang to agree. “If we’re gonna get it done, you need to commit to it, Yang.”

“I can’t commit when I don’t know if I can,” she said, “that’s unfair to you.”

“Then I’ll help you break out of your bad habits. What you have to do is say a definitive goodbye to your old life.”

The blonde seemed unsure, a pensive expression on her features. “That sounds great, but how?”

Taking her own moment to ponder the how, Blake came out swinging with everything that she could think of, hoping Yang would take something and run with it. “Anything we can do for you to feel some sort of closure. One last time, you act like a rebel. We can take the bus, go anywhere in town, do something stupid. We could fall asleep on the ground with the sounds of nature, if you wanted,” she paused, as Yang began to slyly grin, a tiny spark in her eyes.

“I want it. I want all of that, and I wanna remember doing all that dumb shit with you. A moment good enough I could frame it. But I think it needs one final touch.” Blake gestured for her to go on, and Yang waggled her finger in denial. “Nuh uh, this one’s a surprise!”

“I’m starting to think you’re liking this a bit too much,” Blake replied sarcastically, giving Yang her moment. By the end of the month, she’d have a fully committed partner – it was a bonus that she could also help Yang start a new chapter.

Yang enthusiastically jumped up, the whole bed moving in her wake. “You have no idea!”

A week before Halloween, Yang was taking Blake somewhere in town. Though it had been her suggestion to go out and do something, Yang had taken the reins and told her she had the perfect place in mind, despite Blake’s assumption that the girl new to town wouldn’t have a clue about where to go. They had also taken the bus – at Blake’s insistence – as she knew Yang wasn’t allowed to take passengers on her motorbike. Not that Blake wanted to be on that beast of a machine anyway.

Blake felt out of place, sitting on public transport in a ‘hot’ outfit – that was at Yang’s insistence – in the evening. When she’d shown up on Qrow’s doorstep, the door had swung open to reveal Yang dressed as what only could be described as quite literally the definition of hot young woman. Blake almost envied the way Yang’s skin hugging black pants only served to emphasise her long and well-toned legs. Underneath a brown leather jacket that was stylishly asymmetrical looked to be something orange, and she had tall leather boots to match.

Blake always felt she looked plain, and Qrow had said she dressed in a lot of black…yet there Yang was, making the same kind of pants Blake wore look amazing. Though her own pants were a dark purple hue, they were also trendily tight, and her black boots were also tall, enough to bring her eye to eye with Yang. She decided that since it was still cold, she wouldn’t need to take off her white vinyl jacket that hid a cropped black top.  Blake had always wanted to wear this somewhat revealing item, but never had the guts to – either she was inspired by Yang, or knew that the possibility that it was going to be shown was small. Or both. It’s not that she didn’t own clothes that were complimentary to her body, it’s just that she preferred to not bring attention to it.

But it only served to boost her self-esteem when Yang had taken in her white, purple and black ensemble, finally telling her, damn, you’re drop dead gorgeous. And Blake believed her.

Beside her, the blonde was almost wiggling in her seat, all her energy directed into her knees that couldn’t stop bouncing. It was funny how a simple thing had made Yang this happy. All Blake had done was agree to do some ‘stupid’ things, that she’d probably never done before herself.

It’d be an experience to say the least.

She felt an elbow nudge into her arm repeatedly, Yang leaning over and speaking in an excited whisper, “Almost there Blakey!” To her dismay, the nickname had stuck. It was painfully obvious that she could indeed do nothing to stop Yang using it.

“Can you please refrain from calling me that in public?”

Grinning like a madwoman, Yang threw an arm around her shoulders. “Fine, fine. Tonight, you get to be grownup, hot yet mysterious, Blake Belladonna!”

That sounded awfully suggestive. “What do you mean by that?”

Springing up from the seats, Yang prepared to disembark as the bus came to a stop. “You’ll find out a minute!”

Joining Yang before she lost the very spirited girl, they stepped down to the sidewalk. Hauled across the pavement, Blake finally got what had made Yang so…crazy. Taking in the signage, in all its glory before them was Ozpin’s Bar.

“No. No way.”

“We’re doing something stupid Blake, gotta break a few rules,” Yang gleefully said.

As Yang continued to drag her, they passed the short waiting line of people, and Blake could only focus on not tripping over. “This isn’t breaking rules, this is breaking the law! We won’t get in there anyway.”

The doorman looked up from checking a patrons’ ID to the two underage girls, Blake instantly recognising his face. “Welcome to Ozpin’s, ladies. Don’t cause any trouble now, ya hear?” He greeted, ushering them both in the door without a fuss. As they walked further into the halls, the music grew louder. It wasn’t obnoxious, bass-heavy beats, but rather more tame and alternative.

Yang spoke in Blake’s ear to combat the ambiance. “Don’t worry, Qrow is good friends with the owner. He won’t get in trouble and neither will we!”

Yang’s uncle was an ex-cop and had no issue letting them in. But maybe letting her choose their activity hadn’t been the best idea.

Finding that Ozpin’s wasn’t a nightclub, Blake felt slightly less worried about enjoying herself here. Apart from the crippling anxiety from being a kid in a bar, of course. It had dim lighting, but it created a warm atmosphere, and wood mixed with steel gave the walls a modern look. There was a bar situated at the back, away from the floor where many people swayed to the music.

“This is so my scene! You gotta dance with me, Blake!”

Dance? No way. “You can drag me here but you cannot make me dance.”

Not able to get Blake to change her mind with a pout, Yang opted for a more…conventional method. “Let’s see what a few drinks can do to you then!”

“Only if you’re paying for them!” Blake shouted as they passed the dancefloor, willing to accept a free drink if that meant she could avoid busting a move with Yang, who probably had great dancing skills.

Laughing, Yang unzipped her jacket. Underneath, not unlike Blake’s own, was a tank top that showed off a reasonable amount of stomach. And cleavage. “Who said I’ll have to pay to get ‘em?”

Seeing where she was going with her display, Blake, feeling particularly daring, also unzipped her jacket. “We can double our efforts.” Her crop top was much more liberal in displaying all that she had to offer, only completely covering her breasts, leaving a lot more skin on show than Yang.

Although Yang had clearly distinct abdominal muscles and a larger bust size, Blake had stunned her. She hadn’t even imagined what Blake had been wearing, but now, again, she was convinced she might be just a little gay. Picking her jaw up off the floor, Yang tried not to stare. “Wow, um, wow,” she babbled, not coming up with anything remotely complimentary. “You…I think you tripled our efforts.”

Taking in flustered Yang, Blake started to understand why her friend enjoyed teasing so much. It was fun, and there was certain feeling of triumph. “Stare any more and I’m gonna have to start charging you.”

Yang however, took her words in stride, fist pumping. “Yes!” Pointing at Blake, she seemed rather approving of Blake’s attitude. “I love it when you’re feisty!”

Following Yang’s lead, they both sauntered over to the bar, hovering around, pretending to be contemplative for a few minutes. Apparently, fortune favoured the brave, because it wasn’t long before the bartender was waving them over, informing them that a multitude of people wanted to pay for whatever they wanted to drink.

Yang listed off a very fruity sounding cocktail and gave an order for Blake, starting her off with something she promised tasted better than it sounded. As she was handed hers, Blake wondered what exactly it was, but liked the way the orange and red liquid resembled a majestic sunset.

“One Sex on the Beach for you, one Strawberry Sunrise for me!”

Blake deadpanned. “Really?”

“Yeah, like I said, don’t knock it till ya try it!”

Taking a sip, she found that Yang was telling the truth. “Sex on the beach sounds good until you get sand in places it shouldn’t be. Good thing that has the nice taste without the sand,” Yang explained, having already downed her whole glass.

Agreeing with the statement, Blake scrunched her face up at the mere thought of sand down there. It sounded painful. “I hope you’re not talking from experience, Yang.”

“Thankfully I’m not,” Yang replied, turning back to get a refill. The glass came back with something new in it, Yang mentioning that her favourite sweet drink was barely alcoholic at all.

After a few generous customers at Ozpin’s had satisfied their thirst, they began to feel the buzz of the alcohol. Blake had said that was enough for them, and Yang was inclined to agree. She got a bit out of hand when she got drunk, and Qrow had only allowed them entry on the condition that they stay out of trouble. It just so happened that Blake’s first drinking experience hit her just a bit more than it did Yang after the last drink was gone, with the girl donning a drunk smile Yang knew she’d worn too many times herself.

Unperturbed in her state of mind, Blake had lost her usual reserved demeanour, her eyes wondering down Yang’s body several times. Shrugging coyly every time she was caught didn’t prevent her from doing it every few minutes, like she had amnesia, or maybe she just didn’t care. Yang snorted to herself as she did recall that when they met, Blake stared at her chest. Perhaps her friend did swing for the other team, or both – not that it mattered. She could respect that Blake wasn’t afraid to let her guard down, acting without subtlety. She figured that Blake probably just thought her abs looked good – because they did – and felt some friendly jealousy. Yang was in no way unhappy with herself, but she could admit Blake had an ass that she just couldn’t compare to.

Feeling that it would be beneficial and totally not selfish to see Blake flaunt her stuff, she guided her over to the dancefloor. As she made to weave through the people, Blake tugged, refusing to venture further. Her lips mouthed too loud, drunkenly missing her ears and gesturing way above her head.

Fine with staying on the edge of the fray, Yang took Blake’s hands and started to swing along to the beat of the music, to coax her into the rhythm. “Show me your moves, Blake!” She laughed.

As the bodies around them bumped into Blake, she clung to Yang’s open jacket, trying not to fall. She clearly had lost her footing as Yang was pulled down a bit, using her strength to bring Blake to her body and haul her to her feet. “I got you, don’t worry,” she steadied her friend as she regained her balance.

Eventually, Blake found a rhythm – it wasn’t the one of the music, but her own, and Yang went with that. Every time Blake’s eyes found hers, she made a stupid face, each time eliciting more and more snickers. It surprised her that nobody had approached them tonight, looking for something more than just a pretty face and body to give drinks to. In the end, it was probably better that way. It wasn’t her fault if the reason might have been that people assumed they were there together.

Yeah, it was better that way.

Finally, at midnight, Qrow’s shift ended and he found them still rocking along inside. Having sobered up slightly, the girls felt tiredness creep up on them and were happy to follow him as he finished up and they exited into the alley. The black-haired girl was nodding off in the backseat as soon as they got into the car, and Yang was unable to keep her happiness off her face.

“Looks like you had a good time then,” her uncle noted quietly, “I didn’t think you’d be able to get a girl like her to have fun your way.”

“I think she enjoyed letting loose for one night. She caught on quick too.”

He chuckled. “You’re welcome. But don’t ever tell anybody that I helped.”

“Don’t get all good cop, bad cop on me,” she joked, “but seriously, thanks. Again.”

As they rolled down the street, Yang saw the moon, big and bright. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. A perfect way to end the night, she thought.

Once they were home, a sleepy Blake leant on her as they walked through the house and out the back door. Her uncle gave her a few blankets bidding them goodnight and mumbling about how kids were weird as they walked out into the grass.

Laying a picnic blanket down, Yang then settled on it, and Blake processed what was happening. “We’re actually doing the ground thing?” She yawned, just accepting it for what it was and laying down too. There was a blanket and Yang was warm – it’d suffice. Yang tucked them under the fleece and tossed the edge over their heads as Blake cosied up to her, no doubt trying to steal her body heat. “Tonight was fun. I can see why you like to do that stuff, it’s kind of liberating.”

“Exactly. Feeling free is one of my vices. I’m glad you liked it too,” Yang said, sensing herself starting to drift off. An owl hooted nearby, and she felt Blake jolt, the reaction scaring her more than the owl had.

Blake pressed a bit closer. “If that bird tries to eat us it’s your fault. And if it gets too cold, you’re carrying me inside.”

Yang took that as a fair request, relaxing into the soft cushion that thick grass provided. “I’ll protect you from the scary bird, Blake. Goodnight.”

Blake’s soft reply came as she fell into her slumber. “G’night.”

Notes: 

Song: 'Bummin''

This song was hard to write a story to, especially when my original plan for the chapter was about 4 words long. Basically, it's just Yang deciding to change her ways.

I'd love for y'all to join me on here, I definitely will post how the latest chapter's going, I have an open ask box if you wanna use/abuse that, I would even give sneak peeks if that's what was requested. You can also find my main blog from my page, where I post a lot about the bees and make shitposts that are actually too real ¯\_(ツ)_/¯