#it's important to get rest after kicking villainous butt

[bee-ships]

Safeshiptember day 3 - relaxing

Ok to rb !

[faterpresources]

Sᴘɪᴅᴇʀ-Mᴀɴ : Aᴄʀᴏss ᴛʜᴇ Sᴘɪᴅᴇʀ-Vᴇʀsᴇ (2023) - Pᴀʀᴛ 1

A collection of random lines compiled from the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) Feel free to change the pronouns in order to better suit the parts involved.

❝ Is the song over? ❞

❝ Will you adopt me? ❞

❝ I don't feel grown up. ❞

❝ God, I need a raise. ❞

❝ You hit me with a bagel! ❞

❝ I've hit a lot of different villains with a lot of different food! ❞

❝ Do you speak Italian? ❞

❝ I am basically an adult! ❞

❝ You don't even have a driver's license! ❞

❝ We saved the multiverse! ❞

❝ I'm telling ya, I can feel it. ❞

❝ Okay. Knock yourself out. ❞

❝ I'm going to rob your face! ❞

❝ Just breathe. We got you. ❞

❝ Great. Is this your goose? ❞

❝ I don't know how to fix this. ❞

❝ I'm from another dimension. ❞

❝ Everything's gonna be okay. ❞

❝ You leave... everybody leaves. ❞

❝ I've leveled up my whole thing! ❞

❝ I can hear you being quiet, ___. ❞

❝ Oh, wow. Is this curry powder? ❞

❝ This should be simple enough. ❞

❝ I just saved a bunch of people! ❞

❝ For you, it's just a Tuesday night. ❞

❝ I'm not your guy/girl in the chair. ❞

❝ I think they look great, I dunno. ❞

❝ Sir, please! Just let me rob you! ❞

❝ This job is so dumb sometimes! ❞

❝ Okay, let's do this one last time. ❞

❝ Is this... that... dangerous mask? ❞

❝ Did you order the cake for tonight? ❞

❝ We're talking about it, aren't we? ❞

❝ He/She's really corny. But so hot! ❞

❝ Having a story at all seems gross. ❞

❝ He/She... kicked his/her own butt. ❞

❝ How's the manhunt for me going? ❞

❝ You don't look like a good guy/girl! ❞

❝ Branding was never my strong suit.❞

❝ Let's do things differently this time. ❞

❝ Hey, where'd the goose come from? ❞

❝ Maybe he/she didn't have a choice. ❞

❝ We'll say I'm a scientist. I was. I am! ❞

❝ I'm going to put my head in that hole. ❞

❝ Can't have your cake and eat it, too. ❞

❝ Unless you bake two cakes! ❞

❝ Uh... I don't wanna argue about this. ❞

❝ Alright, no politics at the dinner table. ❞

❝ I didn't wanna hurt him/her. But I did. ❞

❝ Well... why are you saying it like that? ❞

❝ I thought I knew the rest, but...I didn't. ❞

❝ How long have you been lying to me? ❞

❝ I really would've come to see you sooner. ❞

❝ Who laughs in the middle of a fight? ❞

❝ You think you know the rest. You don't. ❞

❝ What? How many of these did you take? ❞

❝ Hey, don't try to wow me with big words. ❞

❝ We're gonna need all the help we can get. ❞

❝ I'm just trying to lighten the mood, y'know...? ❞

❝ So, you want me to handle this one, or...? ❞

❝ I don't think I want this costume anymore. ❞

❝ Yeah, I don't know what any of that means. ❞

❝ Well, screaming their name usually works. ❞

❝ You're just gonna have to shut up and trust- ❞

❝ That's your story! Now, just stick to the script. ❞

❝ Ohh, I'll take the mic. No more mics for you. ❞

❝ Yeah, I'm smiling like it's a joke, but it's true. ❞

❝ What cursed world have you brought me to? ❞

❝ I never really made another friend, after that. ❞

❝ Who are you running around with, anyway? ❞

❝ What'd you call me? You realize I'm right here. ❞

❝ Ohh, this here is why nobody likes us, man. ❞

❝ Why would anyone be scared to talk to me?! ❞

❝ Hey, it's New York. Everyone's got their thing. ❞

❝ Never did come up with a cool name for that... ❞

❝ I joined it so I could hit my feelings with sticks! ❞

❝ I'm just... a really emotionally intelligent guy/girl. ❞

❝ Why wear a mask if you've got nothing to hide? ❞

❝ Nothing is more important than management. ❞

❝ I'm sorry, who exactly are you supposed to be? ❞

❝ Your costume's too tight in the back, by the way! ❞

❝ Oh, yeah. That sounds like a really good fake job. ❞

❝ You're in this to help people, right? Right? So am I! ❞

❝ Bad guy/girl? He/She's barely a villain of the week! ❞

❝ Sounds like he maybe shouldn't practice medicine. ❞

❝ You know, it really is always so great to talk to you. ❞

❝ I didn't join a band so I could talk about my feelings! ❞

❝ What do you mean I don't know that? I do know that. ❞

❝ Take a good look at my great fire from my backpack! ❞

❝ The power of the multiverse in the palm of my hand. ❞

❝ How much longer can I keep lying about who really I am? ❞

❝ Which is it? Hands in the air, or get down on the ground? ❞

❝ Dude/girl, you don't hang out, and you don't wanna talk... ❞

❝ It's really fun cleaning up your shocking mess, by the way. ❞

❝ I mean... how many people can you talk to about this stuff? ❞

❝ I was actually considered handsome, by scientist standards. ❞

❝ It was inconsiderate and super rude! ...And a little cocky... oof! ❞

❝ I wouldn't play with fire, dude/girl, you're kind of made of paper! ❞

❝ Can't you just act like a regular super villain so I can catch you? ❞

❝ Yo, if you don't tell someone what's going on you're gonna snap.  ❞

❝ He/She hasn't always had it easy. And he/she's not the only one. ❞

❝ You're acting like weird stuff like this happens to you all the time. ❞

❝ I lead an elite strike force dedicated to the security of the multiverse. ❞

❝ I always wanted to be in a band. Guess I just never found the right one. ❞

❝ Can we focus on the big fire-breathing threat to time and space, please?! ❞

❝ I've never robbed anybody in my life, please don't make this a bad experience for me! ❞

❝ Can you stop talking about your holes? You're making everyone uncomfortable over here. ❞

❝ I mean, it's more of a meta-commentary on what we call art, but it's... it...it's also...art? ❞

❝ Look, there is a big flying turkey from the renaissance I have to bring to justice, so if you don't mind. ❞

❝ Now I'm stuck putting everybody back where they belong before all of time and space collapses! ❞

❝ You left a hole wide enough for guys/girls like him/her to randomly get shot into the wrong dimension! ❞

[coffeecatttt]

Resident Evil 5 hates women

Replayed Resident Evil 5 and decided to look up the discourse from the era. The blatant racist imagery is obvious, and frankly I don't think the games press was in a great spot to discuss it adequately on release. Frankly, as a white person I'm also not the most appropriate person to do so either, so I'm not going to get in into that.

But for all the racist shit in the game, I was not prepared for just how overt the sexism would be. Sure, it's from 2009, and things have changed a lot since then, but... yeah, there's a lot.

Character Designs

Obviously, the RE games are no strangers to giving their lady characters scantily clad outfits, and even sexualizes a character who is arguably a minor in RE4, but RE5 really takes it to an extreme.

Literally every female character in the game has some kind of skimpy skintight outfit or dress, solely to accentuate their bodies, regardless of any possible practicality for a combat situation.

This is contrast with the male characters. While they’re also basically models as far as their body shapes go, they at least get to have much more practical fatigues and body armour.

But there’s also aspects of sexism that are coded into the gameplay. For starters, Sheva is relegated to a “2nd player” role. You can’t even play as her by default if you’re not in co-op. Instead she’s an unlockable character.

Presumably, Capcom either thought nobody would want to play as a woman by default, or maybe worse, because they thought that they could dangle a woman as a reward for completing the game.

But that's not the only unlockable! There's also the costumes. Sheva’s standard one isn’t modest, but the costumes all find a way to put her into even more skimpy clothes, including shiny gold “club” attire, a business suit with a skirt so short it wouldn’t make sense outside of a porn scene, and the infamous “tribal bikini”.

All of these costumes are things you have to spend your points to unlock, so not only is your reward for finishing the game getting to play as a woman, but dressing her up in increasingly pervy ways. Hooray!

Narrative Stuff

But the character designs aren't enough. Capcom also felt it fitting to cement its misogyny in the narrative. Pretty much every significant action in the story is driven by a man.

Sheva, despite being one of the featured protagonists, is basically just along for the ride, despite being the “local guide” for the area who should know much more than Chris. Yet Sheva never uses her skills and knowledge to move things along. She’s just there to help Chris do co-op stuff, like getting vaulted up to higher areas by him because she weighs less. Girl power!

In fact, the tertiary character Josh, Sheva’s mentor, arguably helps more to move the plot along than Sheva does, since he helps drive the boat and tells them where to go on a couple of occasions. This would have been ideal for Sheva, but I guess the game couldn't let her do anything important.

Jill returns in this game, but spends most of the game mind-controlled by Wesker using some kind of magic device implanted in her chest, I guess because her cleavage is the one part of her latex catsuit that has exposed skin? The fight against her has Chris and Sheva trying to tear this off her chest in an *extremely* awkward QTE.

After getting her butt kicked, instead of zipping up her top or bandaging herself up, she just leaves it open, chest wounds oozing. For the rest of the game she basically has no role except to deliver some deus ex machina plot advice over the radio, even though it'd make a lot more sense for her to help out as an active participant.

Excella Gionne, meanwhile, is the female villain, whose two character traits are worn on her chest. She’s vain, manipulative, and ultimately expendable when Wesker turns her into a monster to attack the protagonists near the end of the game.

Throughout the story, she basically does nothing except to occasionally taunt the player and unintentionally provide info to help them. Despite being the head of Tricell, a biotech company, we never get to see her business or scientific abilities on display, just her lust for power and attempts to seduce Wesker. Her ultimate role is instead to be betrayed by Wesker, cementing him as the true baddie at the end.

Get That Dilc

And yeah, I’m going to the DLC as well. The first is pretty good and actually has Jill in a fairly equal role to Chris, with a significantly less sexualized outfit, so that's cool. I wish I could play as her by default, but hey, progress!

But the second DLC has you playing as Jill during the campaign, back in her catsuit, chest still seeping. The dialog in this is gross. both Josh and new character Doug spend almost all their lines hitting on her, and instead of telling them to fuck off, she inexplicably entertains their advances. It's ludicrously tone deaf.

This part feels extremely triggering for me, and I'm sure for others. The frequency at which women are forced to accept unwanted compliments from men, and show some sign of reciprocation for fear of retaliation, is a disappointing aspect of lived experience for many women. That someone at Capcom thought this was "charming" or appropriate for the situation shows just how incredibly, deeply backwards their views were at the time.

Anyway

When I went searching online for discussion about the constant casual sexism and misogyny in RE5, I came up pretty much empty handed, save for a bunch of gamers on reddit and GameFAQs saying how hot they think Sheva's costumes are. So I guess mission accomplished?

Not only was games journalism of the time the game released not in a place to adequately talk about the racism, the sexism was also apparently barely touched on. Was it just normal back then? Were we blind to it? I'm a different person today than I was then, so maybe.

So yeah, old lady screaming about a nearly 15 year old game, what gives? Well, in all honesty, I have to give Capcom credit for how much they improved. The turnaround in portrayals of women for the RE2 and RE3 remakes really is appreciated, and shows a genuine effort to present them as real characters.

I don't know if Capcom is going to remake RE5. I have a hard time envisioning how the devs could sidestep the fundamentally racist imagery baked into the premise, or handle it with the grace it deserves. But if it does come to pass, I'll be very curious to see how its portrayal of women changes. They deserve better.

[screamingatanemptyroom]

Please Fix the Story pt 23 - Sci Fi

Here is the next part! There is at least one more part in this world. Getting really close to the end!

Masterpost Linked Here

Enjoy!

_______________________

Life moved on, and despite the growing anxiety I had after my encounter with Chris, things moved smoothly. Chris had disappeared after that night, leaving his resignation from the academy laying on his desk. Liam was busy with wedding plans, occasionally checking in to make sure I was happy with his choices.

He was honestly much more thoughtful about it than I would have been, and I was happy to have his help. My father arranged his leave and was on his way. We also heard from Liam’s parents that they were going to arrive soon as well.

When Liam received the news, he became perfectly still for a few moments. I watched him, concerned at the obvious change.

“Liam, are you okay?”

“I – I don’t know.” His eyes were unfocused, as if staring off into space. “Why… are they coming?”

“Because they’re your parents? I doubt they would miss the wedding of a royal family member, no matter how bad your relationship is.”

“Parents… it’s… all wrong.” Liam seemed to be struggling against some invisible bind. His dark blue eyes flickered, and seemed to almost glow in the shadow of the resting area we sat it.

WARNING. World destabilization detected. Attempting forced conformity… Failure… host and partner soul strength too high.

Unable to see the bright blue words hanging in the air, Liam continued speaking.

“This… isn’t right. I don’t have family." His face was becoming more certain. “It’s not my fate. All I have is…” He glanced at me, his eyes filled with pain. “Bel..?”

WARNING! Stabilize world story immediately or face destruction and mission failure.

I reached out quickly, holding Liam’s hands in my own. “Liam, take a deep breath. Do you trust me?”

“Yes.” He answered without hesitation.

“I know it seems wrong, but for now I need you to go with the idea of having parents and family.”

“But…?”

“Trust me. “

“Okay.” He leaned back, sighing. The glowing dark blue of his eyes faded, and he closed them for a brief moment, before seemingly returning back to normal. “I trust you.”

We don’t belong here.

The uncertainty in this world grew each day. Liam, whoever Chris had become… me… we weren’t from this world. But if we deviated to much, the world could destabilize, and I could fail the mission.

I just needed to keep my head down, blend in and complete the mission.

Try not to rebel too much against the role I’d been given in this world, except the ending.

Simple, right?

_______________________

…

“We’ve talked the last few hours about our lists, now it’s your turn! What do you miss most about Chris, Alaira?”

Maybe world destabilization, mission failure and soul destruction aren’t that bad after all.

I stared at the group of young women in front me, wondering for the hundredth time in the past hour how I had been roped into this... harem support group?

Allie, Ilene and Wen stared back at me, waiting for me to answer.

“I… miss kicking his butt in mock Mech battles?” I winced as I spoke, realizing they would probably take offense at that, but to my surprise they all smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, you were a very important rival to Chris.” Ilene patted me on the back.

Allie spoke up, “He was always talking about how he wanted to beat you and have you accept him as a fellow Guardian. “

“Yeah… he… I…” Wen started to chime in, but then her face crumpled as she sobbed into her hands. “What are we supposed to do now that he’s gone?! What am I supposed to do without him?! What if he never comes back?!”

“I miss him!”

“Me too!”

Soon all three girls were crying, leaving me in uncomfortable silence in the corner.

Blend in, don’t make waves, don’t try to change things….

“I can’t live without him!” Ilene’s dramatic cry broke something within me.

SCREW THIS!

“OKAY GUYS, SHUT UP!” I stood up, placing my hands on my hips as I stared at them. “You are a group of highly intelligent, talented women in the most competitive military academy in the known universe! And you’re nothing without some guy?”

“He’s not just some….” Wen started to interrupt, but was shushed by me.

“No. No matter how much you care for him. He is a guy, and you are all your own person. You have talents, dreams and stories beyond his existence.” I turned to petite girl beside me first. “You! Wen, you’re one of the top engineering students in the program! With your skills, it would be a cinch to improve upon the current Mech design!” After all, she had ramped up Chris’s Mech in the story, surely she could do the same without him!

“And you!” I pointed at Allie. “You’re a Guardian! You're a level B one at that! That's an even higher level than Chris!”

“But I don’t have his drive…”

“You can have his drive! You can have more than his drive! He spent half his time complaining about how people didn’t take him seriously or how people were trying to force him to be a Connector. You can be TEN TIMES the Guardian Chris was!”

I ignored her startled sputterings and turned towards the dark haired girl on the other side. “And you… Ilene.”

She stared at me warily. “What about me?”

“You’re a freaking Princess! And a super talented Connector! How can that become nothing if Chris isn’t around?”

“…I thought you didn’t like me?”

“I don’t.” I answered bluntly. “You treat your brother like trash, and that’s enough for me to want to kick your teeth in.” I sighed, leaning back in my chair. “That being said, just because I hate you doesn’t mean I don’t respect you as a talented Connector. You just have a crappy personality.”

“Um… Thanks?”

“Don’t mention it.” I opened my arms. “You three have top-notch talent all gathered here in one room. What do you need Chris for?! You could be a force to be reckoned with!”

Wen jumped to her feet. “You’re right! I should design a Mech, one stronger than anyone’s ever seen.!”

“Yes!” I pumped a hand in the air.

“And I’ll fly it! I’ll terrorize the Hive until they go running back to their home planet!” Allie stood up as well.

“You’ve got it!”

Ilene joined in. “If I remember, Allie, you and I have a decent resonance match. How about we partner up?”

“Let’s do it!”

The girls high-fived each other while I watched approvingly.

“Let’s destroy the hIve!

“We’ll save humanity!”

‘...And then we’ll find Chris!”

I groaned.

They were so close… but I guess this is better than nothing.

The girls plotted the formation of a new team, surprisingly accepting the team name “Harem” (my suggestion). As they filed out, chattering excitedly, I prepared to escape this mentally exhausting group.

“Alaira, wait.” Princess Ilene stopped me before I could walk out the door.

“What is it?” I kept a neutral expression. I hadn’t been joking when I said I didn’t like her.

She hesitated. “Are you really marrying my brother?”

“Yes. Do you have a problem with that?”

“…No… it’s just…” She rubbed her face. “He’s… different. And I feel like you should know. “

Sitting back down, I crossed my legs and prepared to listen.

“Since he met you… William is a different person. He’s kinder… gentler… even goes by a different name. He’s never gone by Liam.”

That caught my attention “What was he like before?”

“Angry. Vicious. Hurt people just to watch them suffer.” Her face was blank, as if remembering things she didn’t want to. “He was so mad at the world for not allowing him to match, he spent all his time plotting to take down talented people who could.”

A villain. Was that who he was before Liam stepped in? Like how Alaira was before I took over? Or Chris before… whoever it was… took his body?

“I’m not pretending that I’m perfect, either. You’re right, I treated my brother like garbage, instead of trying to help him. I thought he was a monster. Honestly, I thought his hanging around you was some new scheme…. I was kind of hoping he would take you out so your couldn’t bother Chris…”

“So nice of you.” My tone was sarcastic

“At least I’m honest. Anyways, this doesn’t appear to be some trick… I think he’s changed… he actually seems to care about you. But I thought you should know who he was before he met you.”

“Thanks.” My tone was slightly better than before. “Don’t worry, I know exactly who I’m marrying.”

Liam. Not your villain brother.

“Good Luck.” Ilene seemed relieved, as if a burden was off of her shoulders with the confession, and hurried out.

I stood in the room alone silently for a few moments, processing.

There’s too many questions, and no answers in sight.

I left to find Liam. I missed him.

_______________________

I arrived just in time to see Liam and Alaira’s father facing off.

“She is my precious daughter.” The tall middle aged man with close cropped hair and a scowl made scarier by the scar running from his left eye to the corner of his mouth, towered over Liam. His disapproving air was evident.

“Yes.” Liam smiled and nodded, seemingly fearless.

“No man deserves to marry her.”

“Agreed.”

“So who do you think you are?” General Gladus poked Liam’s chest with a finger.

“The luckiest man alive to be able to stand in the same room as Alaira, much less stay by her side all my life.” He held out a plate in front of the angry man. “Cookies?”

“Well, you should know I don’t approve of this fast courtship…” He picked up one of the cookies and bit into it angrily. “You both are so young…” He took another bite. “And I don’t want you to hold her back…”

“I completely agree. I will do my best to support all her goals in life.” Liam handed the general another cookie as he finished the first.

“Good…” He chewed slower. “Is this chocolate? How did you get it so soft but chewy at the same time?”

“I developed the recipe. Would you like more?”

He picked up another one. “Just know this doesn’t mean I fully approve of you.”

“Of course not… Would you like some cake…”

“….”

“I also have homemade hot chocolate.”

“… As long as she likes you, I guess.” He finally muttered, his hands full of baked treats and dessert drinks.

Liam overwhelmed him with support spouse abilities. I laughed in the doorway, attracting the attention of both men.

“Anything for me?”

Liam nodded with a bright smile. “I saved you a plate.”

General Gladus cleared his throat as he saw the large platter filled with cookies.

“Don’t worry, Sir, I saved an extra plate for you.”

“… Don’t think you can bribe me.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So I can have your plate, then?”

“The hardened general clutched the plate of cookies to his chest. “Don’t you dare! The boy made them for me out of respect for his future father-in-law!”

“…” Liam and I smiled at each other.

“How is the front line… Dad?” The title felt a little rough as I spoke it. I was still acutely aware that he was Alaira’s father, not mine.

“Stable, for now.” He frowned. “Fortunately we have an elaborate defense system, to give plenty of warning. But they’ve been retreating more and more lately. The higher ups seem to think that they might be admitting defeat, but I just don’t think so. I think they’re preparing for something… big.”

He’s right.

I knew the ending of the original story. Around the time Alaira was supposed to graduate, they had attacked in the largest numbers ever seen, necessitating all senior students being recruited to help fight. Even Alaira, who was without a Connector and would have normally been left behind was brought in. They couldn’t afford to leave any powerful guardian out.

I still have a little more time, though. I can train with Liam, maybe get Wen to help upgrade our Mechs, train up some of the students… We can have a chance to really face off against the attack.

There’s still time…

“Don’t let down your guard. You’re the best general we’ve got.” I patted Alaira’s father on the shoulder.

He crushed me in a big hug. “Don’t worry, your dad will protect the galaxy! You just get married in peace.” He leaned in and whispered. “See if he can make a few more of those chocolate cookies, okay?”

“I will, Dad.” It came much more naturally this time.

I’ll protect you too. I added silently.

_______________________

As the wedding drew closer, we were notified that the king and queen were on their way. Liam ignored the news, continuing to work on seating charts and music for the ceremony.

“We have to welcome them when they arrive. They are due any minute.” I finally spoke up, slightly exasperated with his head-in-the-sand act.

“…If we have to.” His voice was cold, his dark blue eyes flickering between fear and annoyance.

I held his hand. “Don’t worry. No matter who they think you are, or what they say about you, just know that you’re my future husband. Don’t worry about anything else.”

He reached out, pulling me tightly against him. “ Thank you.”

“Just play along with them. I held his face between my hands. “You’re Liam. Not Prince William. Not their son. Not Ilene’s brother. Liam.”

WARNING. DIRECTLY CONTRADICTING STORYLINES IS FORBIDDEN.

Liam tilted his head and studied me with a worried expression. “… Are you okay?”

“Just follow my lead. Please.” I looked away from the bright blue words in annoyance and moved.

We went to meet the Royal Family, each of us nervous for different reasons.

The King and Queen looked slightly like Liam and Ilene. The king had curly dark hair, severe features, made worse by the frown as he studied Liam. The Queen had the dark blue eyes that both siblings had, and a beautiful, delicate face… but the overall sense was ruined by the terrified light in her eyes as she almost hid behind her husband.

“So this is the girl you tricked into marrying you?” The king looked at me with morbid curiosity.

Liam took a deep breath. “This is Alaira, Grade S Guardian, my resonance partner and my future wife…”

“What game are you playing, William?” His father snapped, interrupting him. “If this is some ploy to ruin General Gladus, you should stop now.”

“This isn’t…”

“You should stop this now.” The Queen squeaked out nervously at me from behind the King. “He might be my son, but you can’t trust him…”

“…”

“This wedding is a farce.” The king snapped finally. “He’s a monster.”

_______________________

“Why did you follow me?” the mournful voice called out as I entered the dark room.

“Do you want me to leave?” I looked up at the large dark blue eyes curiously, barely able to make out the large form in the darkness.

“I didn’t want you to see… didn’t want you to know…”

“Know what?”

“That I’m a monster.” The whisper was filled with so much pain it made me cry.

_______________________

BAM!

Before I fully came out of the memory, I had punched the King.

“…”

There was a moment of stunned silence from everyone present.

“You dare…!” The King finally spoke up, rubbing his red cheek with a furious expression. “I can have you executed!”

“Just try, Barry.” General Gladus walked in, his hand holding a drawn weapon. “I’ll shoot you in your precious Royal Ass, and then what are you going to lounge on while I fight your wars for you?”

"..."

"..."

"..."

The room processed his words in silence for a moment, before the king burst out angrily.

“Gladus, are you threatening me?!!”

“Oh shut up Barry. " He waved dismissively with his gun. "It wouldn’t even be the first time I’ve shot you. Probably won't be the last." You won’t arrest me, you need me to protect your country.”

“You are willing to let your precious daughter marry this… this… “ The king trailed off, glaring at Liam, who stared calmly back.

“Yes.” General Gladus shrugged “I heard the rumors. Even with the 100% match I wasn’t about to let him hurt my daughter.”

“Then why…?”

“I’ve sat down with your son, Barry. I shook his hand, looked him in the eye. I asked him the hard questions. I’ve observed him around Alaira.” The General stepped forward, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder. “I know a good man when I see one. And I see one. One who loves my daughter. Maybe you should try looking closer.”

“But he…”

“Plus he makes delicious cookies.” He muttered.

“…He what?”

I stepped forward, blocking Liam behind me. “He’s not a monster. He’s my future husband. I honestly do not care about your opinion. But if you want to try to hurt him, just know… you won’t have to wait for my father to shoot you. I’ll do it first.”

“… Control your child, Gladus.”

“She even threatens you just like me!” He reached out and placed an arm around my shoulders. “So proud.”

“…Fine. “ The King frowned “I won’t try to save you from yourself. Marry him, if you want.”

“I plan to.”

“Whatever you’re plotting, William, you better stop now.” He glared. “You might have fooled them, but you won’t fool me.”

“I don’t have to fool you.” Liam’s eyes were dark. “You mean nothing to me.”

“I’m your father.”

“I have no family. I… I can never have family.” Liam turned away.

“William…” The Queen called out softly.

“I AM NOT William.”

WARNING. World Destabilization detected!

“Come on, Liam. Let’s go.” I grabbed his hand and walked away, calling over my shoulder as we left. “You’re free to attend the wedding, but stay away from us otherwise.”

“You’ll regret this!”

I laughed at his bitter words. “Enjoy the disappointment.”

Liam and I left.

_______________________

We sat in my room, and as soon as my hand left his, he curled up, holding his arms over his head.

“I don’t feel right.”

“Liam.” I reached out and touched his back, feeling him trembling beneath me.

“Who am I? I don’t think I’m William. The things they said… the things William has done… He’s not me.”

Warning!

"He's not me... he can't be... He's not..."

WARNING! World destabilization... Bright blue words and a mechanical voice appeared again.

“SHUT UP!” I yelled, drowning out the voice. I pulled his arms down, looking straight into his dark blue eyes. “You are Liam. And you’re my partner. And tomorrow you’ll be my husband. Nothing else matters..”

“But…”

“I can’t explain things right now. I don’t even know everything right now. But I know there’s a reason we’re here together. I’ve found you, and I won’t leave you.”

He held me close, both of us kneeling on the floor. He was clutching me as if I was the only thing anchoring him. I felt lost myself. I was frustrated at my lack of answers, angry at the pain Liam was experiencing, afraid for the future ahead of us.

“Alaira… no… Bel?” He whispered. “... I love you.”

I smiled at the unfamiliar but familiar name, pressing my face against his shoulder. “I love you too, Liam.”

“Marry me tomorrow.”

“Definitely.”

“Don’t leave me behind… please.”

“I won't... No matter what.”

A long silence fell between us. Finally Liam sat back, his face slightly red. “I wish we were getting married tonight. I can’t help but feel something terrible is going to happen to prevent our wedding.”

Foreshadowing.

Ignoring the ominous word that appeared in my subconscious, I smiled reassuringly. “Nothing is going to happen…”

“ALERT! CODE LEVEL RED. PLEASE REPORT TO EMERGENCY STATIONS. ALERT!”

I sighed. “I take that back.”

We headed to the Command Level in the main Academy.

_______________________

“Dad, what’s going on?” I called out as we passed the main doors.

“Alaira…” General Gladus’ face was uncharacteristically serious. “It’s not good.”

I stood beside him, looking up at the large holographic display at the center of the command room, feeling the blood drain from my face. “The Hive.”

“They’re past our defense systems.” He slammed his fist against the table. “This doesn’t make any sense! How did an army this huge get past us without starting any alarms!”

I stared at the countless red dots on the screen, feeling lost.

This isn’t right. In the story I should have had YEARS before the Hive attacked in such large numbers. Even then they were caught immediately in the defense systems and gave the military time to prepare. How could they get past us… unless…

“Chris.”

He said he was going to end everything. Is this what he meant?

Alaira’s father was confused. “That male student who disappeared? How would he have access to defense system information?”

Chris wouldn’t… but whoever was controlling Chris might have more information.

I let it go for now. “What do we do?”

“There’s too many… and they’re headed for a defenseless planet in this system.” He hung his head. “I don’t have the manpower to defend it.”

I stepped forward, giving him a grim smile. “You’re not alone, Dad. I’ll help.”

“We! We’ll help.” Liam stood beside me. “We’re a powerful combo. You can’t afford to turn us down.”

General Gladus sighed. “Even if I recruit top senior students from the academy… the numbers we have… it’s a suicide mission.”

Warning! Mission Failure Imminent!

Your mission: Prevent destruction of the human race by the alien monster race known as The Hive.

The Hive are now attacking in large numbers. Your estimated chance of success against them in battle is 0%.

“If you’re not gonna say anything helpful, then shut up.” I growled quietly.

Liam turned towards me. “Are you okay?”

If you fail your mission, you will face soul destruction.

“It’s not like I’m swimming in options.”

You have one option.

“Who are you talking to?”

“What is it?” I whispered, holding Liam’s hand and squeezing it. I have to save him.

...

ACCEPT YOUR FATE.

...

I stared at the blue words silently for a few minutes. “Liam, what if I said we have an 100% chance of dying if we went on this mission…”

“You don’t know that…”

“...and I had a fool proof way to protect you… But we would be separated forever?”

I didn’t know what my fate was. But I did know in the deepest part of my soul one thing:

Liam was not my fate.

“I don’t plan to survive this, Liam… but if I could save you…”

“I would rather die by your side.” He didn’t hesitate.

“But…”

He grabbed my other hand, holding them both tightly. “We’ll face this together.”

_______________________

“It’s hopeless.” I whispered, holding him tightly. “What if fate is stronger than us?”

“I don’t need hope, Bel.” He leaned closer, his breath warm against my neck. “If fate is going to separate us, then we’ll destroy it.”

“Together.”

“Always.”

_______________________

I looked at the hologram, at the countless numbers of enemies that awaited us, and leaned against him with a sigh.

“Together.”

He smiled in return.

“Always.”

[oshbluepacific]

Love Me for Granted pt. II

Type: Angst

Character: Park Chanyeol x Reader (College Au!)

Words Counted: 5k1+

questions and request are available / masterlist

It has been a month since the last time you saw Chanyeol. And the last time you saw him was before he bolted out from your house with his car, with tears in his eyes. Every step you go, you couldn’t help but to hear Chanyeol’s name getting mentioned. Whether he’s already found another girl or he’s in bad condition. None, you can believe, you don’t know if any of it is true or not, so it was slowly killing your inside. You don’t really see him in campus ground as well, so you don’t know how he is on his end, you can only hear his condition from mouth to mouth.

“Did you hear? Chanyeol has finally broken up with (Y/N).”

“She never treats him right! She was so… quiet, and Chanyeol was the life of the party.”

“Chanyeol’s grades have drop, that’s, unusual.”

“I heard that he’s going out with Yuna now.”

“I mean seriously, what did Chanyeol see in her?”

It was a torture or you. To walk in campus ground and people are seeing you as the villain. You didn’t bother to correct any of them because you felt like you are the villainand that you’ve hurt Chanyeol’s feelings. You never really care or even bothered by people thoughts’s and what they have to say about you, but this time it does. You started to avoid the crowds more and you’d leave campus ground the second you’ve finished all your classes and volleyball practice. Most of your teammates asked about you and Chanyeol, but you brushed it off, and they seemed pretty annoyed how you respond to it. But you didn’t know what to do. It feels like, ever since you’ve lost Chanyeol, you’ve lost your own common sense in an ordinary conversation with people around you.

           You haven’t been eating well, and certainly not enough sleep because you’re overthinking about everything every single night. You decided you’ll be absent from class today, and also volleyball practice, to get yourself some rest. You’ve spent the day reading the novels you haven’t been touching in a short while. You didn’t have the energy to cook, so you just ordered some food in. During the afternoon, as you were enjoying your fried noodles on the couch, all snuggle comfortable between the pillows and under the blanket, as you were watching a movie, you felt your phone vibrated just under your butt. You pulled it out to read the text, and you felt your social anxiety kicked in.

Nayeon

Hey, are you okay? you weren’t in class.

Are you able to make it to practice?

Hey, can you get down here? coach wants us all here, he has an important announcement.

Be quick!

You texted her back, what is it about, but she didn’t reply, thinking that Nayeon went back on with practice. You let out a heavy, and annoying groan as you got off the couch and turned the TV off. Not even bothered to get changed, you were wearing your shorts and hoodie and to complete the look, you put the hood on over your head, before tightening it around yoru face. You slipped in a pair of slippers before you grabbed your car keys and walked out the house to drive to campus.

           The place you planned to avoid for the day.

You reached campus just before dark out and right on time after practice finished. As you were walking yourself towards the gym, many eyes were darted on you by the students but it didn’t bother you as much.

           “Ah, (Y/N)! I’m glad you can make it! I’m sorry I had to make you drove all the way here while you’re feeling unwell.” Your coach told you, causing eyes to turn to you. You just gave him a small smile before you walked closer to your team.

           “So, I wanted to gather all of you here because I have an important announcement.” He said, putting his board that’s filled with lines and circles aside.

           “(Y/N), I want you to get better as fast as possible, because we’re going to have a tournament starting next week!” He announced excitedly, as your teammates cheered happily getting excited as well while you were just stood there with your hands in your hoodie pocket and your eyes widen. “So, I want you guys to keep your condition healthy, and practice would be twice a week.” He added. Your coach went on and on about practice, and who’s joining the tournament. It was almost like a little briefing before the tournament starts, and you listened to everything he was saying carefully.

           “Alright!” He clapped his hands together as his bright smile appeared on his lips. “I think that’s all I need to tell you guys, get home safely, next practice will on next Tuesday, and I won’t be going easy on any of you guys!” He joked and the girls laughed.

           All of you went into a huddle and did a cheer together before the crown breaks. As you were about to leave the gym, Yuna caught up with you.

           “Hey, have you been feeling okay?” She asked you, and you turned your heels to face her as you nodded your head.

           “Yeah, feeling okay… just needed that time to rest up I think.” You told her, “Is everything okay?”

           “Yeah… everything is okay!” She smiled, but you noticed there was something she was hiding. “Actually, I know you’ve heard about me and Chanyeol right?” She asked you, and you felt your heart sank.

           “Yeah…” You answered.

           “I just want to tell you that… there’s nothing going on with us, we’re just friends and he actually told me a lot and he told me that he didn’t want to be in a relationship at all for the moment, that’s all.” She explained.

           “Why do I need to know this?” You asked, but it came to Yuna as if you’ve snapped.

           “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you… I just thought that maybe you should know…” She said, feeling guilty all of the sudden. You felt guilty yourself because you didn’t mean to snap at her.

           “Yuna—”

           “Oh, shoot, I should go pack! My boyfriend’s going to be mad if I’m not ready! We’ll talk later okay?” She smiled brightly before she lets go of your hand, taking steps back before turning around to get her bag. You turned your heels to walk out of the gym, feeling guilty of how the way you talked to Yuna.

           You walked towards your car, and you noticed the car that was parked right next to yours.

Chanyeol’s.

The last time you saw his car was a month ago. Bolting out from your drive way real fast, screeching the corner. You looked around and you saw there was nobody. You unlocked your car and as you opened the door, about to go in, you heard a familiar voice.

           “(Y/N)?”

           You looked up to see Chanyeol with books in his hands. He was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans with his reading glasses on. He pushed his hair back, showing the muscles in his arm.

           “I heard you didn’t come in to class today, were you okay?” He asked.

           You felt your heart flutters, but yet breaks at the same time. Knowing that you’re not together but he still cares about you.

           “Yeah, I just need a time off from things… I want to rest.” You told him, as he walked closer to you.

           “Well, what’s wrong with Saturday and Sunday? Don’t you rest on those days?” He asked picking a joke, and you chuckled.

           “Well, two days isn’t enough for me, so I had to take the extra day.” You said, giving him a small smile.

           There was a bit of a silence between you two and you didn’t know what else to say.

           “So, what are you doing here?” Cahnyeol asked.

           “Sorry?” You apologized, for not hearing him.

           “What were you doing here?” He repeated.

           “Oh, coach wanted me to come… he just announced that, we’re going to have a tournament in a week.”

           “Oh, that’s fun, be sure you’re healthy for the tournament!” He smiled, before there was another moment of silent.

           “Will you be there to watch?” You asked him, feeling your cheeks flushed in embarrassment as you asked.

           “Of course… I’ll be there.” He smiled.

           You smiled back at him before you noticed there were troubledness in his face.

            “You should get going, Sehun is probably waiting for you.” You told him.

           “Yeah, right… Oh, and uh, (Y/N)?” He stopped on his tracks as you stopped yourself from getting into the car.

           “Can we… I don’t know, talk sometimes?” He asked.

           You felt your heart flutters, and your eyes welling up. But, managed to hold back your tears and gave him a small smile.

           “I would love to chat.” You told him. You saw his troubledness fade and he smiled.

           “Great! I’ll see you around.” He then walked towards his car as you got into yours and turning the engine on.

           You pulled your car out from the parking lot, as Chanyeol gave you a wave of a hand before you waved back at him and drove away from campus ground.

-

Between classes, volleyball practice and your own mental thoughts, it was hard to keep up. You would come home completely exhausted from everything. People were still talking about you, even though the break-up was already old news. They would still get those judging looks, from top to bottom and then you’d still hear those whispers—even when you’re at home you could still hear those words ghosting around your house. You never stayed in campus, even though your teammates wanted you to join a meal together after practice. You turned it down because you told them you were too tired to even do anything else, when your real reason was you didn’t want to be in that social group. You’ve crossed path with Chanyeol a few times, and he’s starting to talk to you more each day.

Today, practice was done before the sun could go down, due tomorrow is rest day and the tournament starts the next day. There was a long briefing after practice before your coach could break the circle so that everyone could go home. You packed your stuffs before you walked out of the gym as you were pulling your hairband. You didn’t bring your car today because you didn’t feel like driving. You just want to sit back and rest.

           As you were turning the corner, you bumped into someone and fell back onto the ground.

           “Oh shit, (Y/N), I’m so sorry!” You heard Chanyeol’s voice.

           You looked up and he was already extending his hand to you. You took his hand before he helped you to get back on your feet. You bend down to grab your bag and patted your butt and the back part of your thigh.

           “You okay?” He asked concern in his voice. You quickly nodded your head, giving him a weak, small smile before pushing your hair back.

           “Yeah, I’m fine… just tired.” You told him, as you felt your legs jiggle from jumping half a day. You noticed the crowd far behind Chanyeol started to whisper to each other as you tighten your grip onto your gym bag strap.

           “Well, I guess I’ll be heading off then.” You said nervo usly, walking past Chanyeol and past the crowd.

           Chanyeol’s eyes followed you, and he overheard what the crowds were saying.

           “I bet she’s finally getting that medicine on treating Chanyeol like a crap!” One girl giggled before the others followed.

           And you stopped on you tracks.

           “She’s such a weirdo! Why did she even agree on going out with Chanyeol in the first place anyway? Clearly she doesn’t love him.”

           “What does Chanyeol even see in her? I don’t—"

           You continued to walk, but this time faster. Chanyeol turned his heels and jogged himself to catch you. As you were walking, with your eyes well up with tears, you legs suddenly felt numb and you stumbled forward.

           “(Y/N)!” Chanyeol rushed to you and you were surprise when you turned around he was already close to you before he kneeled down beside you.

           “Are you okay?” He asked.

           You shook your head, forcing a smile. “Yeah, my legs suddenly just felt numb.” You told him, but he knew that you were in pain.

           “Come here.” He then moved himself in front of you. you were confused at first but you raised your eyebrow.

           “Just get on my back (Y/N), please.” Chanyeol said. You couldn’t see his espression, but his tone was stern. It came out more like a command than asking.

           You slowly got on his back, wrapping your arms around his neck, as he placed his hands around your thigh. He counted, one, two, three to himself before he could get up from the ground. He jumped once as you helped him to shift your position, before he could start walking towards, go knows where.

           “Did you bring your car?” Chanyeol asked, and you shook you head.

           “No, I took the bus today.” You told him in a small voice.

           “Well you’re lucky that I’m still here, I’ll take you home.” He said, and you made a face.

           “No, it’s fine, just drop me of by the gates!”

           “(Y/N), I’m not going to let you get home by yourself, standing in the bus with you jelly legs.” He pointed out, and you stayed silent.

           Chanyeol walked towards the parking lot and you saw his car parked nicely. But somehow, Chanyeol walked past his car.

           “Um… where are we going?” You asked him.

           “I need to pick up a few stuff from the library.” He answered you.

           “But, do you really need to carry me everywhere you go? You could’ve just drop me in your car while I wait for you.” You told him

           He stopped on his tracks and turned around. “Oh yeah, you’re right.” He walked towards his car, before he could gently place your feet back onto the ground. He still had his hand placed around your waist, and you still holding yourself to him. He fished his car keys from his pocket before you quickly struggle to walk towards the passenger front seat.

           “Promise me you won’t take off?” Chanyeol asked, opening the door to the driver’s seat.

           “Yes… I promise.” You told him, and a small smile appeared on his face before she could turn his car engine on. He placed his sling bag and also your gym bag in the back of the car.

           “Stay here, I won’t be long.” He said, shutting the door before rushing away towards the library.

           You were now alone in Chanyeol’s car, with only the sound of the air conditioner and distant voices from out of the car. You turned on the radio so that you don’t feel like you’re going crazy. As you were scrolling through your phone, you heard a knock on the car window and you jumped before you see one of your classmate looking through. You pushed the button, rolling the window down and she was in shock.          

           “It really is you! what are you doing here?” She asked.

           “Um… Chanyeol wanted to take me home, but he needed to pick up a few stuff from the library.” you explained.

           “Really? Right after everything you’ve put him through?” She asked and your heart sank.

“After you made him feel like shit? After you’re not appreciating him? After having himself getting hurt because of you? he’s is still putting up with you?” She asked again but you stayed silent.

           “Wow, he really does have a heart of gold…” She commented making a face.

           “And you’re saying yes because… what? You regret it? You’re going to beg to him to take you back?” She asked, scoffing hard.

           “I’m not, I-I-I’m just—”

           “Be smart (Y/N)… you’re just not worth his time! You’re just going to waste him and dump him again like you did! Youj just don’t appreciate him—”

           “Knock it off Ye-Eun.” You heard Chanyeol suddenly. You turned your head to see only part of Chanyeol’s torso from the diver side window. Before you quickly look back down.

           “Chanyeol, you’re seriously not putting up with her again, are you?” She asked, pulling her head up, guessing that she’s looking towards Chanyeol.

           “Just leave her alone, Ye-Eun… You don’t know her.”

           You heard her scoff again, followed by a mocking laugh. “Come on! The whole campus knows what she put you through! You skipped classes, you’re failing your grades, you were caught drinking, and ALMOST—mind my language—you almost got into a car accident because you were drunk driving!” As you heard it, your eyes widen, eyes started to sting as your eyes welled up with tears.

           “We’re leaving, if you’re going to stay and still say crap about things, be my guest, but we’re leaving.” Chanyeol said, as you herd the driver seat door being open and Chanyeol’s presence were by your side.

           Chanyeol pressed a button that rolled your window up before he could pull his car out from the parking lot and sped away from campus grounds.

The drive was quiet, either you nor Chanyeol said a word. When Chanyeol got into a red light, he came into a stop and the suspense between you two were starting to murder your insides.

           “Is it okay if stop and get something to eat first?” Chanyeol asked finally breaking the ice, turning his attention to you.

           You turn to him and he could clearly see your bloodshot eyes, your eyebags started to get puffy. You pressed your lips together into a line before turning your attention back to the road and you shrugged.

           “Okay.” You answered him in a small voice.

           “If you don’t want to it’s fine I could just—”

           GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE. You felt you face burned turning red, letting your face drop as Chanyeol chuckled.

           “I think a meal sound great now.” You recovered, with a small smile before you both ended up chuckling.

Chanyeol ended up taking you to this small sushi place, and as an addition, it was the first time you’re back here since your first date with Chanyeol.

           “Wow… not much has change in this place.” You said, looking around the place as you both seated onto the booth.

           “Yeah, I haven’t been here since the last time we were both here.” Chanyeol told you, and you just smiled, knowing that it’s his first time back here since your first date with him.

           The waitress took your order and Chanyeol’s before she could take your drinks out beforehand.

           You enjoyed your unsweetened tea while you’re on your phone as Chanyeol watched you.

           He knew how private you are, he knew that you’re not the type of person that can talk easily about your personal feelings. Even when he was still in a relationship with you, some people would talk crap about and you know it. It bothers you, but you never told him. You would always keep those feelings to yourself because you never want to make ‘a big deal’ out of it.  He knew that yourself and Chanyeol are the big talk in campus right now. It’s clear that you’ve heard all it, and he knows so well that it’s hurting you and yet here you are, sitting in front of him, bottling everything up to yourself.

           “(Y/N)?” Chanyeol finally broke the ice between you two. You looked up from your, with the straw between your lips.

           “Are you okay?” He asked you.

           “Are you asking about my legs or…” You trailed of and Chanyeol chuckled.

           “Both.” He answered between chuckle, before his expression turned serious.

           You placed your phone aside, pulling your drink closer to you.

           “Legs are still feeling like jelly… I’ll just run a warm bath at home, it’ll get better after.” You explained to him, and he smiled.

           “And how are you feeling?” He asked, and you stayed quiet for a brief moment.

           Your lips parted with the plastic straw before you could lean your back against your seat.

           “Doing fine.” You forced a smile and Chanyeol sighed, leaning his arms against the table as he pushed himself forward.

           “(Y/N), I know you… you don’t have to lie about your feelings. Everything you’re feeling is valid, so don’t try to hide it.” Chanyeol said, only to make you feel like an invincible hand had slapped your face.

           You looked Down, playing with your thumbs before you look back up.

           “I don’t know what to feel Yeol…”

           “Talk to me then.” Chanyeol started, reaching his hand out to you, “It seems like you always forgot that you have me to lean on. You have me as someone who listens and understands you.” He said, and you could feel your heart racing, ready to cry again.

           You slowly shook your head, “I’m not good with telling my feelings.” You told him, with a smile and he sighed.

           “I know, but you have to know that I was—and until this day, will always be there for you, to listen to you. Through good and bad.” He pointed out and you nod your head.

           Chanyeol let out a heavy sigh before he could pull himself back, leaning against his seat.

           “I heard what people are saying about us—about you.” Chanyeol pressed and you pressed you lips tight together.

           “Aren’t you… hurt by that?” He asked again.

           “I am.”

           “Then say something.” Chanyeol quickly said, moving forward. “I’m worried about you, you know.” He added, but you just stayed quiet.

           Chanyeol shook his head as he leaned back against his seat. He knew that he was only getting frustrated with himself. Pushing you further won’t even get him anywhere near you to talk.

           Throughout the meal, Chanyel didn’t say anything else. He actually talked about classes and other things that doesn’t involved any campus gossips or social events. Chanyeol paid for the meal, even though you wanted to pay yours, he didn’t let you. And the drive back to your place, Chanyeol didn’t start any conversation, because he didn’t know what else to talk about.

           “Here we are.” He said, as he pulled into a stop in front of yoru house.

           “Thanks for taking me home.” You thanked him, and Chanyeol gave you his signature warm smile.

           “It’s not a problem at all.” He said before you could smile back at him. He grabbed your bag from the backseat before passing it to you and you took it.

           “Well, I’ll see you at the game?” You asked before chanyeol nodded his head.

           “You bet you will!” He said.

           You got out from the car, waved him a goodbye before you could walk straight into your house, without looking over your shoulder.

-

You stripped yourself from your clothes before you could dip yourself into the tub, filled with warm water and bath salt. After a long week (what feels like eternity) you decided that you deserve a nice, relaxing warm bath. With a can of soda on the stool and a speaker playing your favorite song. You leaned your back against the tub as you took a deep breath. With your eyes closed, you could feel those muscles relaxed before you heard your phone vibrated against the stool. You looked over to your phone before you could dry your hand with a towel and picked it up.

           “Hello?” You answered.

           “Hey, mind if I come over later?” You heard Chanyeol’s voice. You could hear the thumping music in the background as well, you’re guessing that he’s at a party.

           “Umm… yeah, what time will you be here?” You asked him.

           “Umm… around 20 minutes?”

           “Can you make it 30?” You asked him and you could feel the confusion in the silence between you and Chanyeol.

           “Umm… Okay, sure, I’ll be there in 30 minutes.” He said, before you hund up the phone.

           You placed your phone back onto the stool, leaning back before exhaling a heavy breath. You closed your eyes, trying to calm yourself down before sinking yourself into the warm water.

You put on a pair of shorts and an oversized grey t-shirt before you could dry your hair with a towel. You walked down the stairs to pour yourself a glass of orange juice before you heard Chanyeol’s roaring engine outside. You looked out through your window to see Chanyeol, coming out from his car before walking up to your door. You opened the door for Chanyeol and you were caught off guard as his arms were suddenly wrapped around you. Your hands were up in the air for a few seconds before you could place your palms on his back.

           “Yeol, what happened?” You asked him, getting worried. You tried to pull yourself away, but he just hugged you tighter, only to hide his face from you.

           “Yeol…” You whimpered, and you felt him shaking his head.

           “Yeol, at least let’s get inside first.” You told him, before he finally pulled himself away from you.

           “Okay.” You saw his red puffy eyes hiding behind his falling hair. He stepped inside before you could close the door behind you. You watched him as he kicked his shoes off and sat himself on the steps of the stairs, burying his face on his hands. You walked closer to him, kneeling yourself in front of him before you could slowly hold his hands.

           “Yeol, did something happen?” You asked him.

           “They keep talking crap.” He sniffed, but you didn’t seem to get where and what he was talking about. So you stayed quiet, to let him talk.

           “I was at Jongdae’s party, and people were just talking shit about us…” He started, as he looked up to you, and you quickly knew that it was mostly about you they were talking about. “I mean, most of them know you… they know you’re a closed book kind of person, but they still agree on what the other girls are saying.” He added. “The more I stayed, the more I want to punch someone in the face and just tell them that they don’t know anything—they don’t know you like I do!” He stated, only to tear up a bit more.

           You frowned as you watched him cry some more. You felt your eyes burning, you never thought that it bothers him that much. He’s the most precious person you’ve ever met in your life. You knew he would do anything to keep you away from getting hurt, from making you cry—he just wants you to be okay. But you didn’t realize it until now that he’s hurting. And you’re hurting him. You couldn’t contain your own tears from falling before you wrapped your around his neck. You buried your face on his shoulder before he could wrapped his arms around yours tightly. He shifted your weight so that you were sitting on his lap as you cried your heart out.

           “(Y/N)—”

           “Chanyeol I’m sorry…” You managed to say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that I’m being selfish—I thought that… Maybe you would be happier with someone else, and what people saying are true... you deserve someone better than me!” You finally burst. “I know I should’ve been more open with you—I know I should have tell you everything, but I just didn’t want to burden you. I want you to enjoy your time with your friends, get into that study group, laugh and hang out with your friends all you want, I just didn’t want to disturb all of those moments with my problems.” You explained. “It’s not that I don’t care about you—I do care.I care about you—I love you, so much, but It seems like it came across to everybody like… like I don’t, but I actually do, but I just can’t really express those feelings for you… I’m sorry…” You cried as Chanyeol pulled you closer against his body as he hushed.

           “No, no, you don’t have to apologize…” Chanyeol whispered, as you felt his lips pressed against your temple. “I feel like I have to…” You whimpered, pulling you face away from his shoulder before you wipe the tears away with the palms of your hand. Chanyeol gently removed your hands from your face before he could wipe away your tears with his thumb.

           “I’m sorry some of the times I can’t express my feelings to you… I just didn’t want you to feel burden.” You told him, and Chanyeol shook his head.

           “It’s okay… I too, have to apologize, because I was being a bit clingy, and when I asked for the relationship to be over, I didn’t know what I was thinking—”

           “I should’ve stopped you.” You argued.

           “Did you want me to stay?” He asked.

           “I never wanted you to leave in the first place.” You confessed as a small smile appeared on his face. He planted a kiss on your forehead before he could embrace you in his arms and you let out a sigh.

           “I love you…” You whispered and you felt him nodding his head.

           “I know you do… I love you.” He said in a low voice, but clear enough to loosen your body, leaning into his arms even more.

           As you both were all cuddled in each other’s arms, you heard Chanyeol’s phone ringing before he groaned and pulled away from you to fish his phone from his pocket.

           “Yeah… No, no I’m back at my place… No, I don’t think I’ll be coming back there…” Then he chuckled, shaking his head, “Well, have fun without me, I’m staying in for the night… yeah, keep talking crap about her and I’m not coming back to that party forever!” Cahnyeol joked, and you knew that he was talking about you. “Alright… bye, see you tomorrow.” Chanyeol then hung up his phone. You looked at him as if asking who it was and what was he talking about.

           “It was Jongdae, he asked if I’m coming back to his place and that most of the people are taking part in truth or dare… and apparently some of the girls were looking for me as well.” He explained. When he didn’t saw your expression changed, he placed his hands on your face with a smile. “I told him I’m not coming back… I was hoping I could stay in with you tonight, you know, maybe just talk?”

           You nodded your head, leaning yoru head back against his shoulder.

           “Yes, you can stay here.” You told him as he hugged you tight.

           “Alright…” He kissed the top of your head as he slipped his arms under you before he could lift your whole weight. You yelped out an excitement as you wrapped your arms around his neck.

           “Let’s move to the couch, where we can cuddle comfortably.” He smiled.

-

the demands for this man is crazy high lmao, park chanyeol just being... park chanyeol i guess :) i’m sorry this came out super late, due to me being back with work and also classes. i work as a barista, so i don’t really bring my laptop to work every single day, so it’s kind of hard to find time to get back on writing and posting, so i’m so sorryy!! but i’m still writing, i just don’t know when the next update will be up, so stay tuned!! love you guys

[hot-wiings]

The One Where Denki And Mina Think Katsuki Needs To Be A Softer, Nicer Boyfriend, And An Insecure Katsuki Agrees, But [Y/N] [L/N] Doesn't Want A Nicer Boyfriend, She Wants Him.

Requested By: @spicyhokage

Edited: 1-6-2021

It was late when Katsuki came in through class 2-A's dormitory doors. Being his second year at UA the school was allowing students to go back into student internships. With Best Jeanist still off the streets, Katsuki wound up interning with Fatgum, using the link between Eijirou and him to get in. Katsuki hadn't expected to be out for so long, there had been a bad villain that showed up at a different agency and it was a perfect match for both his and Fatgum's abilities. Fatgum had allowed Katsuki to work on it with him, nevermind the fact that Katsuki had already planned a study date for your upcoming test Monday, he jumped at the chance to work with the heroes.

Katsuki knew, or at least he hoped, that you wouldn't be that mad or upset at him for ditching you at the very last minute. It was a leg up in the hero industry, it was a helping hand, he could make more connections and improve his skills. As a student hero, you should know how important this is. He'd want you to make the same choice if it was reversed.

Despite abandoning your date, Katsuki wasn't heartless. He bought a bouquet of hydrangeas as an apology. Apologies weren't something he was good at, but he hoped you would accept it. Katsuki was hoping you would be up waiting for him in the dormitory lounge when he came back, but he knew that one was a longshot. He'd rather have you in bed resting, or making up for the studying he promised to help with but hadn't. Katsuki was hoping he'd find you in the dormitory lounge waiting for him, but instead, he found two of his peers.

"You were out awfully late, weren't you?"

"Shut it, pink face. I need to go see [Y/N] and then head to bed, like a smart student. You and dunce face do realize that we have a big test Monday, don't you?"

Katsuki marched right past Mina and Denki, who were sitting on the couch, towards the elevator to get up to your dorm. If he was right, Mr. Aizawa would be asleep by this hour, and getting into your dorm would be no issue. Katsuki stopped walking towards the elevator when he hears Minas' voice speak out again.

"Did you really get hydrangeas for her? You ditched her for your internship and you got hydrangeas? Girls like roses Katsuki. If a guy ever brought me hydrangeas, I'd kick his butt to the door. Queens deserve better."

"What the fuck are you implying raccoon eyes?"

Katsuki turned back around to yell at Mina for implying that he wasn't good enough for you. He nearly crumpled the flowers by clenching his hand. Mina didn't know what she was talking about. He had brought you hydrangeas several times before, you never complained about it. Denki spoke up to try and intervene Katsuki from blowing up on Mina.

"I think what Mina meant to say is that we're just worried for you. You really like [Y/N], right? Take it from a guy who gets dumped by girls a lot. Pretty girls like [Y/N] don't need to sit around waiting for guys like us. While you're trying to further your career you're ditching her, not to mention, when is the last time you showed her affection?"

"For starters, dunce face, don't call my girlfriend pretty. Secondly, there are no guys like us and girls like [Y/N], there's me, her, and all of you fucking extras that need to get out of my relationship."

"Fine, don't take our advice. Just so you know, [Y/N] isn't in her dorm, she's in the kitchen."

Mina practically sings her words out, and Katsuki changes his course of route from the elevator to the kitchen. He had a scowl on his face the entire time, courtesy of Mina and Denki. He had to restrain himself from beating them with the bouquet. Katsuki reached the kitchen door and he took a minute to recompose himself from his previous anger to a calmer version of himself. He pushed the door open with a calmer smile on his face but stops after opening it halfway.

"What's the answer to number two?"

"Uhm... 6?"

"That's right! Here's your reward."

Katsuki clenched his fist, practically ruining the flowers. He ditched you and your study date, he shouldn't be getting so mad at seeing you and Deku study together. You can have friends other than him. You can be around members of the male gender other than him. Even if it is shitty Deku. You're allowed to have a life outside of Katsuki, but as Deku broke apart a cookie and threw it right into your mouth, a sweet reward for getting the question right, he was ready to toss hands with the boy.

"We're gonna ace this test Monday. Thanks for studying with me Deku. I hate studying alone and you're great at math. Usually, Katsuki helps me, but he got busy."

"It's no problem, [Y/N]. Seriously, I'm always here if you need me."

Katsuki quietly pulled the door shut instead of going in and interrupting you and dumb Deku. Maybe Mina was right. Katsuki thought about it more as he walked back to Mina and Denki. He didn't really show you affection that much, and he did spend a lot of time in the gym or at his internship. His idea of a date was training together or studying. You probably hated the flowers but chose not to speak on it. If he didn't change, change now and fast he was going to lose you to that shit-munch. He needed to show you he was the better more deserving man. As Katsuki stared at Mina and Denki he uttered the words he never wanted to say to them.

"I want your fuckin' help."

"Bring [Y/N] roses. Girls love roses. Not a daffodil, not baby's breath, not a tulip. Roses."

Roses were Mina's first piece of advice to Katsuki. According to her, girls only cared about getting roses, and every other flower was inferior. She also said apology flowers must be paired with chocolates. Katsuki personally thought that was bullshit. He had been bringing you different breeds of flowers throughout your entire relationship and never once had you vocalized disdain for it. But Mina is a girl unlike him, so she must have had some kind of special insight. You must have just not wanted to make him feel bad for messing up. Katsuki knew he was inexperienced in the dating area, but he hadn't realized he was screwing up so badly.

Katsuki did exactly what Mina said. Saturday afternoon, Katsuki showed up at your dorm with a bouquet of yellow roses and a box of chocolates, the milk chocolate kind. According to Mina, milk chocolate was better than dark chocolate. He knocked on the door after checking his phone for the time. He knew you didn't like getting up early on the weekend, and you had been up late studying the night before. Twelve-thirty seemed like a reasonable time to stop by.

You opened the door, slippers on your feet, eyes barely opened, and a crinkled forehead as you tried to slightly open them to see who you were staring at. You had a pair of shorts on and one of Katsuki's sweatshirts. One you promised you hadn't seen and swore he must've lost in the dorms laundry facility. Katsuki smiled down at your sleepy form, you were adorable. Once you registered who it was you yawned and crossed your arms as you lazily leaned against the door frame and let a small smile cross your face.

"What're you doing here? You were out so late last night, you must be exhausted."

"I could say the same about you, you look like the epitome of tired. How late were you up?"

"No later than two. When did you get in?"

Katsuki didn't want to tell you he came in at midnight. You would've asked him why he didn't come to see you, and he didn't want to say that he saw you and Deku studying together. He didn't want to admit that he felt pained at seeing you together so close. Pained at you needing and using Deku as you would him. Katsuki held up the roses and chocolates and thrust them into your arms.

"I didn't even check the time. I brought you apology flowers and chocolate for ditching you. They're roses!"

"O-Oh, they're yellow."

You took the items he thrust into your arms and moved further into your dorm so he could come in. You set the chocolate down on the bed but kept observing the flowers. Katsuki was quite proud of the flowers he picked out. They were pretty and blooming, and he thought you'd like them. Yellow roses would look good in your dorm room. You, on the other hand, were not ecstatic with the flowers. You bit your lip and tried to make your smile bigger. Did he know what yellow roses symbolized? He had to of known, even Denki would know something this simple. Maybe you were reading into it too much, they're just flowers. It was a gift, not a death sentence to your relationship.

"I'll have to go to the kitchen and see if there's anything I can put them in."

Katsuki could sense you being standoffish. He assumed you were upset at him for ditching you the previous night. He did the flowers right, he would just have to go the extra mile to make you happy with him by serving your needs.

"I can go to the kitchen and find a vase! You just shower or get dressed, or whatever, and I'll even bring you up some lunch."

"You don't have to do that. I can get dressed and do it myself."

"I don't have to do it, I want to do it."

Katsuki cupped your cheeks and pressed a quick kiss against your lips. They were soft and sweet. Katsuki could taste the residue sugar from the cookies you had been eating the night before and he pulled back with a frown, making you frown just as much. He wasn't mad that you didn't brush your teeth, although you should have. He was upset at the reminder that Deku was with you when you were supposed to be having a study date. He was upset that Deku was the one who stayed up with you until two in the morning. He was upset that Deku was acting like a better boyfriend when he was just your friend and nothing more. Katsuki should've been doing more, he should've been doing a better job.

"I really am sorry for ditching you yesterday. If you want, we can redo the date today."

"I really missed you yesterday. I did some cramming with Deku, but I don't think he's as good of a teacher as you are."

"Of course dumb Deku isn't as good as me. I'll grab my books before I come back, we'll have a nice do-over date."

Hearing you say that Izuku wasn't as good as him made him feel good. It was slightly reassuring to Katsuki, yet he couldn't stop this budding feeling every time he thought about you and Izuku studying last night.  

"Buy her something nice. Something nice like jewelry. I always see you buying her practical stuff, that's boring. Girls like pretty shiny gifts from their boyfriends."

Mina's second piece of advice had been to buy you some jewelry. According to Mina jewelry was an acceptable gift for a boyfriend to buy his girlfriend. Katsuki had been buying you practical and weird gifts throughout your relationship. He thought they were good, he thought they were sweet and enjoyable. He supposed he was wrong. With every piece of advice from Mina, Katsuki was getting punched in the gut. He thought he was treating you right, he thought he was doing this whole relationship thing right, but he wasn't. If he didn't fix things fast then dumb Deku would steal you away from him.  

Katsuki felt inside of his pocket for the necklace he bought you. He had Mina help him pick it out that morning. It had been sitting there in a pretty little black box with a red bow waiting to be opened. He wanted to give it to you when he gave you the flowers, but he didn't want you to view it as an apology gift, he wanted it to be viewed as a sweet, 'I was thinking of you', gift.

By the time Katsuki had gotten back to your dorm room, you were all showered and dressed in fresh clothes. You were wearing comfortable clothes, and Katsuki had to smile again. You looked simply perfect. With your hair pushed back by a headband, sweatpants, and another one of his sweaters which you practically swam in, you looked angelic to him. Katsuki put a bag containing your lunch on the small table you had in your room, he placed the vase containing your new flowers there too before pulling out your lunch. You grabbed his book bag from him with a smile and began to pull his books out and place them alongside yours in a neatly organized fashion to create a nice study space.

"What'd you find for lunch?"

"There wasn't much in the fridge to quickly grab, so I made some curry."

"I love it when you cook. It always tastes good."

You smiled at Katsuki and placed a quick peck against his cheek before taking a seat next to him. His chest swelled with pride as he watched you freely dig into the container of food. You liked his cooking, and as he watched you feast in it he knew you weren't lying. At least he did one thing right on his own. One more wrong thing and he was sure he was going to blow a casket.

"Aren't you gonna eat?"

You stared at him with half-lidded eyes and spoke with your mouth half full, barely pronouncing your words but Katsuki still knew what you were saying. He stopped staring at you and began working on his own dish. Every once and a while Katsuki noticed your eyes go from your food to his face and then to the flowers before diving back to the food. He supposed you really liked them. It felt good knowing he was doing it right. It felt good knowing you were happy and content with him for the moment.

You wiped your face off and just as you were about to clean up your lunch mess Katsuki jumped up and took care of it. He grabbed your lunch containers and closed them before tossing them back into the bag he brought them in. He took a wet wipe and wiped up your table and then proceeded to toss the dirty wipe in the trash bin.

"Ready to study?"

"Yup! You're a really good teacher, I really look forward to our study dates."

You walked over to your bed and took a seat on the ground whereas Katsuki laid across your bed in a position where he could have a book out and also easily look over the edge to see what you were doing. This was how you always did your study dates. Katsuki would work and watch to see if you were slacking off, then you would switch books and quiz each other. Slowly the clock clicked away, each passing second made Katsuki grow antsy. He wanted to give you the stupid neckless he had inside his pocket. Katsuki huffed as he slammed his book shut and pushed it off of the bed. You craned your neck back to see what Kastuki was doing before narrowing your eyes, no way did he think he could stop studying while he made you work.

"What are you doing? Are you studying up there?"

"No, c'mere."

You huffed as you pulled yourself up off of the floor and crawled onto the bed next to Katsuki. A mixture of blankets and skin touched you as he wrapped his arms around your body and pulled you so your back was flush against his chest. He let his head rest inside your neck, and you struggled to pull out of his grip.

"What are you doing? We're supposed to be studying."

"I don't wanna study right now. The test is Monday, we can still study tomorrow."

You bit your lip as you contemplated his offer. He had a point. The test was Monday morning, and it was only Saturday, not to mention that you had studied with Deku yesterday. The offer was just so out of character for Katsuki, part of you wondered if it was a trick and thought he was going to pull out a piece of rolled-up newspaper to hit you with like he did for Eijirou. You let yourself sink into his arms, you had been up to this for a while, you deserved a break.

"Okay, but only a small break. got it?"

"Mm. I got you something."

Katsuki pulled away from your body to dig in his pocket and pull out the small black box. You rolled over so you could face him and your gift with a growing smile on your face. You loved Katsuki's gifts. Whether it was intentional or not, he always got you something you needed. Whether it was you complaining about cold hands or your lack of working pens, the next day you would find gloves and a pack of pens with a note from him saying something stupid, like 'You better use these to take your shitty notes' and 'If you get arthritis in your hands you can't become a hero'. It was always a surprise and a delight. Katsuki handed over the box and you tore the bow off before opening it.

"It's a necklace!"

"Oh, it's very cute."

You tried not to frown as you looked over the necklace. You tried you're best to put a beaming smile on your face. It was still a gift and you needed to show your gratitude. It wasn't as conventional as your other gifts, but it was still pretty. Maybe it had a special meaning? Maybe he saw it and thought of you? It was just so unusual. He never bought you jewelry and the style was obviously not his.

"Did you pick it out yourself?"

You tried not to make it sound like you were fishing for an explanation as you smiled and clasped it around your neck to show how much you 'loved' it. Katsuki contemplated telling you he picked it out himself but seeing as you were friends with Mina he wasn't sure what she'd say and he didn't want to look bad.

"Well, I got a little help. Figured a female's perspective wouldn't hurt."

Suddenly you felt sick to your stomach. Not only had he given you a necklace, an unconventional and unusual gift compared to the ones he usually gave, but he let a girl pick it out. There was no special meaning, it was just pretty. Your mind went back to the flowers. The yellow roses. He bought you yellow roses. Your whole relationship he brought different breeds and types, never roses. Especially not yellow, the color that represented friendship.

"Thank you, I love it!"

You wrapped your arms around Katsuki, bringing him into a big, tight hug. Although you were with him physically, mentally you were in other places. That dark place in the back of your head was telling you why he gave you these offhanded weird gifts. The dark place in the back of your head was filling you with untrue silly thoughts, yet you couldn't help but let your head entertain them and wonder. The more you wondered, the more you wanted to rip your neckless off.

mina

Pop music could be heard blaring loudly from a BlueTooth speaker connected to Mina's phone as you walked into her dorm room. Without knocking you barged right in, Mina supposed there really was a reason you and Katsuki were together. You were both bluntly rude and sometimes you didn't even realize it. You flopped down at the foot of her bed and looked up at her before greeting your pink friend.

"Hey."

"Hi."

Mina didn't look up from what she was doing, she continued flicking through the pages of some fashion-forward girly magazine as she replied to you. You ran your fingers through her soft duvet as you looked around her dorm room. It looked like Claires threw up on the walls and it gave you a major headache. You and Mina had two different style sets, two sets of style very far apart.

"Did you study for the test tomorrow?"

Unlike her room, that was a subject that would give Mina a headache. Mina roughly flipped another page of the magazine she was holding as she let out an exhausted breath.

"No, and before you scold me neither did Denki. I swear Katsuki is rubbing off on you."

At the sound of his name, your hand went up and touched the necklace he got for you. You only wore it in case you saw Katsuki today, you planned to wear it for the next two weeks, then you'd pretend you lost it. You weren't a necklace kind of person, and it wasn't even sentimental. Mina tossed her magazine down on the bed and a smile played on her face as she saw the necklace between your fingers.

"That's a cute necklace? Did Katsuki get it for you?"

"Yeah, he did."

You answer Mina's questions and inquiries as you let the gem on the necklace slip out of your fingers. You couldn't help but let your face slip into a frown. You couldn't help it, the more you thought about the necklace, the further you fell into dark thoughts. It wasn't even the fact that it wasn't sentimental like all of the other gifts he gave you, it was the fact he let some girl pick it out. You weren't a controlling person, not remotely. If Katsuki wanted female friends he could have them, he did have them. While he wouldn't call Mina a friend, she was. Mina was a girl you felt comfortable with, however, you had already had a girl in mind of who you thought helped him, a girl who wasn't Mina. A girl you didn't feel comfortable with, a girl you knew you shouldn't feel comfortable with.

"Well, it's very pretty, if I had a boyfriend who brought me gifts like that I'd be over the moon. So I take it things between you and Katsuki are good then?"

"I guess, um, I just... I think Katsuki is cheating on me."

You started off in a stutter before you bluntly spoke out your words. The moment your voice hits your ears you cringe at yourself and cross your arms. It was such a ridiculous thought. A horrendous and dark thought that, lately, kept crossing your mind more often than it should be crossing and occurring.

"What? Why?!"

"He's just acting so strange and weird."

You pulled yourself up into a cross-legged sitting position on Mina's bed to talk to her. Mina moved and adjusted her own body, completely immersed in what you were saying. You played with your hand as your next words came out.

"Whenever he's out late he always, and I mean always comes to my dorm before going to bed. He didn't come to my dorm last Friday, instead, he shows up at my dorm Saturday afternoon with flowers."

"Flowers are sweet and romantic though. The fact that he bought them for you means he cares."

"Katsuki always brings me a wide variety of flowers. Hydrangeas, snapdragons, hyacinth. It's out of the ordinary and romantic, but this time he bought roses. Not just any roses, yellow roses. What kind of statement is he trying to make with that one?! Everyone knows yellow roses mean friendship and red means romance. Even Denki knows that."

Mina scratched the back of her head nervously. She supposed she should have explained to Katsuki to get red roses. Katsuki was unaware of things in the romance department. Mina needed to try and dial things back before Katsuki found out what you're thinking.

"Katsuki isn't very romantically smart, you're his first serious romantic relationship."

"Yeah, but we've been dating for nearly a year, and that's not even it. We were studying yesterday, and you know how strict Katsuki is when he's studying, you've seen him with Eijirou. Katsuki was not strict at all, he made me stop studying to cuddle. To cuddle! Can you believe that?"

"Well... Maybe he's trying to be sweeter to you, I mean look at the necklace he got you, it's so romantic."

"Don't even get me started on the necklace! Katsuki always brings me sentimental and meaningful gifts. He buys me pencil led when I'm low, and notebooks when he sees my paper is getting down to the end, he buys me gloves when he notices mine are lost or have holes. They're stupid and meaningful and I love it."

You ran your fingers through your hair distressed and upset. Yanking your hands through a few new forming snarls from laying on the bed, practically pulling some hair strands out.

"The necklace isn't meaningful, it doesn't have sentiment, and he didn't even pick it out himself! Some girl picked it out for him."

"Why, didn't he say who? It doesn't mean anything. The girl is probably a friend."

"I think I already know who the girl is. It's some stupid brunette from Shiketsu High. They met during his supplementary lessons, they met again after their internship heroes started working together regularly. She saw him when we were walking to get coffee and she just had to stop and talk to him, she was obviously flirting with him."

You had never felt more awkward at that moment. She was blatantly flirting with him, whether she knew that you were together or not, you didn't know. You didn't expect Katsuki to talk about his relationship during his internship, he was supposed to be working, but you didn't trust her. You knew from that moment the brunette was going to be trouble. She was interested in your boyfriend and that spelled out trouble to you.

"'had a little help' he says, staking her claim on what's mine I say."

"[Y/N], I don't think katsuki would cheat on you. He wouldn't do that."

Mina felt completely nervous. She hadn't realized you and she had such different opinions on romance and what was wooing and not. Katsuki was romantic, he was doing nothing wrong, she just didn't see it from your point of view. Mina had worried Katsuki for nothing and gave bad romance advice which resulted in you worrying. Katsuki was going to kill her, she needed to fix this.

"[Y/N], Katsuki loves you a lot, don't worry, okay?"

"Okay, you're probably right, I'm thinking too much. I'm going back to my dorm, try to get some studying in before the test tomorrow."

Despite the pink girl's words you still didn't feel good. As you stood up and walked to her door, you still felt a rush of negative thoughts and emotions. You still felt winded and emotional. You still felt hurt and fearful of your relationship. You felt the same as you did when you walked into her dorm.  

You nervously tapped your leg up and down on the ground repeatedly as Mr. Ectoplasm and his copies passed out the scored math tests to the class. You supposed a quirk like that must be very useful as a teacher. You kept making little glances over at where Katsuki was sat and your heart clenched. You felt so ridiculous for suspecting he was cheating. You felt completely horrible. Mina was right, Katsuki loved you. Katsuki loved you and he would never cheat. The simple thought that he would was wrong, yet, this lingering feeling told you he was. 

Maybe you should talk to him about it. Maybe you should tell him and express your fears and worries. It was better to talk about things like this, it was better to express yourself rather than locking it up and away, where it could fester and damage your relationship. You looked back over at Katsuki, who caught your glace this time and smiled at you. The smile made you feel sick and guilty for feeling this way. You would tell him how you were feeling after class. The sooner it was out in the open the better. 

You turned back to your test sheet and frowned at the result. You got a forty. Forty. After all that studying you had received a forty. You wanted to be mad at Katsuki for not making you study harder, but you had studied with Izuku first hand. Maybe Ectoplasm would let you take a retest. Ectoplasm dismissed you all and you quickly folded up your test paper in half so no one could see your result as you exited. After you packed up your school bag you stood out in the hall and waited for Katsuki. 

The nerves in your stomach churned. You didn't want to tell Katsuki the negative thoughts that were running through you, you didn't want to tell him how you had dark thoughts and worries about him cheating, but you had to tell him. You had to put your thoughts and theories to rest. Katsuki came out in the hall with his own test papers in hand and you both began to walk to your next class. 

"What'd you score?"

"Got a ninety-two. You?"

"A forty."

You sighed as you clenched the paper in your hand. That was a D. Katsuki was on the fritz. He was trying to take Mina's advice. He wanted to be nice and softer to you like Mina told him he had to be, but he couldn't. You should've studied harder, he should've made you study harder. Katsuki gritted his teeth and took a deep breath to calm himself down before responding. 

"You'll do better next time!" 

"What is wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?"

You looked at Katsuki like he grew two heads. This wasn't your boyfriend, and you slightly wondered if Toga had infiltrated UA. He was never kind like this, he wasn't a positive person. He was supposed to yell at you. Tell you to study better. Tell you you needed to get good scores if you were going to become a hero with him. 

"It's just a bad test score, not every score can be a baller."

"I failed my test, you're supposed to yell at me. Tell me I'm stupid, tell me to study more. Tell me anything but that fake positivity shit! You are not acting like yourself, are you cheating on me? Is this guilt? Are you guilty?"

"No! Fuck, no!"

Katsuki dropped his bag and wrapped his arms around you. That wasn't how you meant to tell him about the thoughts you were having. You wanted to tell him calmly and respectfully, you hadn't meant to flat out accuse him, your thoughts just need up tumbling out that way. Katsuki's own reassuring words came stumbling out in your ear as he tightly gripped you against him.  

"You are perfect and beautiful, and so important to me. I would never cheat on you, I would never fuck up what I have with you. Why would you think that? I don't wanna make you feel that fuckin' way."   

"I know that. I know you wouldn't, but you have been acting so weird and different." 

"I need to be nice or else I'm going to lose you. I got insecure, but shit, I should be. You are so perfect, and you deserve roses and jewelry and the world. You deserve someone who cuddles you instead of studying and who doesn't make you feel like they're cheating and fuck-" 

You pull out of Katsuki's tight grip and cup his cheeks. Your fingers skimmed over his skin tenderly as you stared up at his red eyes and noticed how watery they were. Your heart broke, you thought he was unfaithful but he was really just scared of losing you.

"I don't want you to be soft and nice. You already give me the world Katsuki. You make me study because you care about me. I don't want you to get me roses and Jewelry, I hate it, and I love the stupid little gifts you get me. You don't give me affection and cuddles, but you do other things, like waiting to walk me to class and making me food." 

"You don't want me to be nicer?"

"No! Everything you do is already perfect. Everything you do shows me you care about me in your own way. I love the way you are, I don't want you to change."

Katsuki pulled you back into his arms and pressed a rough kiss against your forehead. He was doing everything right. He was better than dumb Deku, and your test score was proof of that. He wasn't going to lose you, Denki and Mina were wrong. 

"Come to my dorm tonight, you need to study better dumbass."

It didn't matter that the whole class watched the exchange between you both. It didn't matter that Mina had screwed with your relationship and felt very relieved to have gotten off scot-free, for now at least. It didn't matter because all Katsuki cared about was the fact that he was a great boyfriend, the best. He didn't have to be softer, nicer. He didn't have to change, you liked it. You loved him, the way he was. That was all that mattered.

[curlsofsagesmoke]

TMNT (2012) DID DONNIE DIRTY WITH THE HALF-ASSED LEADERSHIP PLOTLINE AND HERE’S WHY

not to turn into a tmnt blog or anything but I've been watching the 2012 version and I have some Thoughts about the weird leadership conflict subplot between Leo and donnie that the writers started going for and then abandoned. admittedly I've only seen up until a few episodes of season 3 so I don’t know if they ever do go back to this, but from what I've seen this plot had amazing potential but it was handled in a truly awful way!

keep in mind also that I really love this show. I watched it as a kid, I think it holds up pretty well even now. it does have its flaws (many, many flaws) and the worst flaw is the writing imo, which can be lazy, ignorant, or just straight up bad at times. 

with that out of the way, buckle up and hold on to your butts cuz here the heck we go!

you cannot talk about leadership in tmnt without starting with the leader, Leo. the writers gave him a really interesting arc at the beginning of season one where he was really eager to become leader (splinter gave him the job because he asked for it, after all) but then he started to realize the burden that came with the title and started to crack a bit under the pressure. the most well-known character conflict in the entire tmnt multiverse is the tension between Raph and Leo, and this iteration of the show is no different. Raph is very obviously upset about Leo becoming leader and he (and donnie, but we’ll get to him in a bit) tries to argue that he should be leader instead. ultimately he fails and this does create tension throughout the rest of seasons one and two.

this tension comes to a head during an episode where Leo, tired of Raph always questioning his decisions and needling him, decides to fuck off for a little bit, leaving Raph in charge (”New Girl In Town”). from a writing standpoint, this episode is important for many reasons, but in terms of this subplot it is a moment of crisis for Leo which he inevitably overcomes by accepting the burden and responsibility of leadership; and for Raph it is a moment of realization where he finally accepts that he wouldn’t be a very good leader and he doesn’t want the burden that Leo carries all the time. after this episode, Raph and Leo do have their arguments, but overall Raph is much more accepting of Leo’s position as leader and only calls him out when Leo starts to go on little power trips.

which brings us to donnie. donnie also argued that he should be leader in the first episode, but it wasn’t treated as seriously as Raph’s argument, and after that there wasn’t much conflict between Leo and donnie (except for the technology vs. tradition thing surrounding metalhead, but I’ll get to that later). donnie and Mikey are presented as generally pretty laid back. when Raph becomes leader in “New Girl In Town”, they exchange a lot of “yikes” looks in the background but are willing to follow his lead and give him the opportunity to actually be leader. of course, this comes to a head when they confront the villain of the episode, snakeweed, in the sewers. they’re getting their asses kicked, Mikey is knocked out, Raph is having a panic attack, and donnie is left to fend for himself against snakeweed.

instead of having that little “I must meet this challenge and overcome it” moment that you’d expect, Raph gives in to the panic and it’s donnie who not only incapacitates snakeweed to give them time to escape, but also snaps Raph out of his panic attack and tells him what to do (namely, get Mikey out of there and retreat to safety). it’s not given any more attention after this so it’s kind of blink-and-you-miss-it, but this is the first instance we see donnie reveal a bit of his potential as leader.

this is in direct contrast to “Mousers Attack!” which came a few episodes before New Girl In Town. that was the episode that introduced the a-team/b-team dynamic, and in that episode we saw that donnie, while attempting to lead him and Mikey, was able to come up with a bunch of plans to infiltrate dogpound’s operations but wasn’t decisive enough to actually commit to anything. thus in New Girl In Town, we’ve already seen very obvious growth in donnie and the way he approaches leadership, but it’s very much pushed to the background, and for good reason. this is simply laying the foundation for the big showdown between Leo and donnie.

the next significant moment of leadership potential we see from donnie comes in the episode the Pulverizer. donnie gets stuck with Timothy in the lair but soon  becomes willing and even eager to teach him the basics of self defense, because, as he tells splinter, he knows Timothy is going to keep putting himself in dangerous situations and he’d rather Timothy be able to protect himself. splinter tells him that anything that happens to Timothy will be donnie’s responsibility, and donnie accepts this and begins training him. at the end of the episode they all make it out okay, Timothy goes on his way, and donnie seems to have become just a bit fond of him.

significantly, this is the first time donnie is given full responsibility over the fate of another person, and we see that even though he doesn’t really like Timothy, he takes this responsibility seriously. here he shows great leadership potential, as well, though again, it’s not really commented on narratively.

the next significant moment is, as you might’ve guessed, The Pulverizer Returns. in this episode we find out Timothy has joined the foot and is willing to pass information on to the turtles. Leo and Raph jump at the opportunity, Mikey is ambivalent as usual, and donnie is the only one who shows any concern. this is most likely because the last time he saw Timothy, splinter told him Timothy was his responsibility completely, and he obviously takes that seriously still. the entire episode, he tries to get Timothy to leave the foot and his brothers to take this seriously, but his worries are brushed off until they find out the shredder is about to mutate Timothy as an experiment.

so they race off to save him, and donnie ends up in a warehouse without his brothers to help, weaponless (because of some bullshit lesson splinter is trying to teach them, and as a side note, this was the first episode where I started to seriously dislike splinter as a character, because the way he was written here is just awful). the villains of this episode are dogpound and fishface. if you’ll remember, these are two serious villains, and up until this point they’d only ever been subdued, never defeated, and even then the turtles had to double team them in order to win. so it was of course surprising and incredible to see that donnie, armed with literally just a broom, was able to hold off a squad of foot ninjas, dogpound, AND fishface by himself for a good while, all while keeping Timothy away from the mutagen.

then Timothy IS mutated and a bomb is activated, and in just two minutes donnie comes up with a plan and executes it, getting them all out safely. when he starts barking orders at his brothers, they don’t even stop to question him. they listen immediately and that’s part of the reason why the plan succeeds. so what does this tell us? it tells us that donnie has a very strong sense of responsibility, protectiveness, and determination; that he is extremely capable when he’s focused and is good at thinking under pressure; and that his brothers trust him enough to follow his orders when he does give them. these are all incredible qualities for a leader to have!

notably the episode after this is Operation Break Out, where donnie goes off on his own to rescue April’s dad from The Kraang and they only make it out because his brothers followed him and intervened. clearly, then, donnie’s not really ready to be a leader and still lets his emotions cloud his judgement, which is a narratively sound writing decision. the big donnie-as-leader showdown doesn’t come until the end of season two, anyway.

and then season two. the tensions between Leo and donnie aren’t as obvious as the tensions between Leo and Raph, but they’re there, even if no one explicitly challenges Leo’s position as leader any more. here’s a quick rundown of the two significant episodes:

“Follow the Leader”--> Leo wants to stick to the old, traditional ways, but his brothers insist on unorthodox methods of fighting. Leo eventually comes to accept this to a certain degree when he admits it’s a good strategy to use against the footbots.

“Metalhead Rewired”--> donnie upgrades metalhead’s AI and Leo is suspicious of it. on the trail of The Kraang, Leo blames donnie for a few of metalhead’s mishaps, but apologizes when they realize that metalhead was leading them to a Kraang mutant prison. metalhead sacrifices itself to save them. Leo is sympathetic here because donnie is really upset, but it’s clear that these two are still fighting over the tech vs. tradition thing

and then we get to The Invasion, the season two finale. the synopsis makes it clear that this is where all of these moments that I've been discussing come to a head: “Leo and Donnie disagree about their plan to stop The Kraang invasion. When Leo makes a critical mistake, he is separated from the team and Donnie must step up as leader.” So we’re off to a good start as far as concluding this character arc goes. I was excited to finally see donnie live up to his leadership potential (and I thought this could be a good way to give Leo some closure regarding his issues with holding the world on his shoulders/blaming himself for every mistake/basing his self worth on his position as leader).

but I was sorely disappointed! in the episodes, donnie’s and Leo’s tech vs. tradition conflict comes to a head when Leo wants to flee the city (this seems very out of character for him) but donnie wants to stay and fight in his new combat robot, the turtle mech. this disagreement lasts until they are attacked in the tunnels and donnie is injured; Leo draws the Kraang robots away (I assumed this was his critical mistake: separating himself) to give the others time to escape. they go to April’s apartment to hide and regroup while Leo is hunted down and almost killed by the shredder. Raph and Casey rejoin the others, then shredder throws Leo through the window of the apartment, and they escape but barely. donnie then makes the decision to fight Kraang prime in the turtle mech (which is, I assume, his big leader moment, though of course it doesn’t even happen on screen). they fight Kraang prime and almost die, but Casey arrives in the van, saves them, and drives them out of the city. donnie apologizes to Leo’s unconscious body and says that Leo was right, and then the episode ends.

so. let me first say that this was quite possibly the worst way to end this really interesting and nuanced character arc that the writers had set donnie and Leo on. first of all, we barely got to see donnie act in any kind of leadership role. in Leo’s absence, they made most of their decisions as a team, where I had expected at least some sort of “I need to overcome my fears and anxieties and lead my family to safety” moment from donnie. secondly, Leo wasn’t entirely correct. yes, they ended up evacuating the city anyway like Leo wanted, but he was wrong about the turtle mech; it ended up destroying Kraang prime’s robot body thing. and donnie wasn’t entirely correct, either: the turtle mech was a great weapon that did some significant damage, but it wasn’t enough to stop the invasion. so we have these two characters who were both wrong in their own ways, both face the consequences, but no one ever discusses it.

so not only did we not see any significant character development from Leo; and not only did donnie not really get to act in any significant leadership role; but also worst of all, these two characters never got any closure! I'm a good handful of episodes into season three, and not one single character has even mentioned the tension between Leo and donnie during the invasion. everyone acts as if it never happened, so now as a viewer I'm stuck here waiting for the other shoe to drop or for one of these characters to finally snap, but I don’t think it’s going to happen, which sucks. in other iterations of tmnt (like the 2007 movie or the show from 2003) we get to see Donatello act almost like Leo’s second in command. I think that’s a really, really interesting direction the writers of the 2012 show could’ve gone in and I think it’s a waste of this subplot’s potential to just abandon it the way they did. I'm not sure what’s going to happen in season three, but I think a good conclusion of this arc would’ve been donnie and Leo confronting the argument they had, doing a little more maturing, and eventually donnie becomes Leo’s second in command. instead I'm really worried about how the writing of this show is going to devolve as I get further into the later seasons.

(as a side note: I'm currently working on a series of tmnt fics that addresses this issue, as well as the sometimes shitty ways the brothers treat each other and the stupid-as-fuck donnie/april/casey love triangle. so if that floats your boat, keep an eye out! I'll be reposting this with the link attached once I upload the first fic, so give my blog a follow or keep an eye on my ao3 account, heyassbuttimbatman)

[wing-ed-thing]

Click (Part VI: Kiba)

Synopsis: You invited everyone out to dinner. You also audibly clicked. People had opinions about this.

Word Count: 1,555

Warnings: Language, Fem!Reader

Part I: Shikamaru, Part II: Shino, Part III: Neji, Part IV: Rock Lee , Part V: Naruto, Part VI: Kiba, FINALE, The Message in Click

Notes: Next part is the Finale. Excited?

You wouldn’t want him doing what he was about to do, but Naruto, quite frankly, didn't care. He thought long and hard about what you said to him the previous night and wondered if he was about to betray your trust. After long deliberation, he decided that the answer would be a dubious ‘no’. Kiba had been easy to find. He stood out in the open near an open ally with the rest of Team Eight. Hinata barely had time to get out a skittish greeting before Naruto violently shoved Kiba up against the nearest wall by his collar. Akamaru barked, but as Naruto scowled, the ninja hound quickly backed off.

“Nart, what the hell?” Kiba cursed, grabbing onto Naruto’s unyielding grip.

“Why would you do such a thing to one of our comrades?” Naruto demanded through gritted teeth and Kiba let out a resigned sigh.

“Look, I didn’t know it was her birthday, okay?”

“So you know what you did wrong!” Naruto shoved him harder into the wall behind him causing Hinata to cry out. She moved forward to rush to her teammate’s defense, but Shino’s arm jutted out in front of her. Hinata looked up at the Aburame, but didn’t spare her a glance. “What kind of scumbag ruins someone’s birthday dinner?”

“I didn’t know, okay? I didn’t, I swear.” Kiba held his hands up at the sides of his head, but Naruto wasn’t convinced.

“So you’re telling me that you weren’t going around the village convincing people to come to Yakiniku instead of Shushu-ya? Quit the bull—”

“Okay, enough,” Kiba shoved Naruto away. The jinchūriki stumbled back, nose scrunched in anger. “She happened to invite people to Yakiniku and I happened to invite people to Shushu-ya on the same day. Sure. But when did I convince anyone to ditch her? Please, take a second to think about it. Ask anyone you want because I never even once said that.”

And Naruto did take a moment to think. Kiba was right. Kiba didn’t talk to Shikamaru about dinner at all. Shino missed where to meet you and followed Kiba. Even then, he left partway through. Neji and Hinata chose to come to Yakiniku. Naruto and Sakura forgot you even asked them. He might have talked excitedly about dinner, but never did he mention you. Kiba only gave a second option and Naruto could at least see that much sincerity in his eyes.

“So you didn’t even stop to think why everyone was confused about which restaurant to go to?”

“Well, of course I did!” Kiba exclaimed, throwing his head back in frustration. “But you’re talking like I forced people to come with me. I didn’t. People could’ve chosen to not come and some of them didn’t.” He gestured to Shino, who stood silently and onlooking. His attention turned to Hinata, who flushed and turned her attention away. “And some people decided to come to Shushu-ya.” Kiba turned to face Naruto fully again. “If memory serves me right, Naruto, you were one of the ones who chose to come.”

“I was in the wrong.” Naruto huffed, his hands clenching at his sides. “You made no effort to correct people.”

“It wasn’t my problem to do that. Maybe I was the pushier one. Sue me, I wanted people to go to dinner with me! I don’t see how that’s my problem.”

“You don’t see how it’s your problem that you played a part in ruining someone’s birthday.” Naruto crossed his arms, standing firm in his confrontation. Hinata kept her gaze towards the ground, wondering whether or not she should excuse herself.

“You know what?” Kiba growled, “Maybe I played a part in all of this, but don’t come at me talking like I’m the bad guy ‘cause I sure as hell wasn’t alone in whatever this shit turned into. Sure, I don’t like her, but don’t act like you have all the information because you don’t.”

Kiba turned on his heel. Hinata and Shino parted, stepping to the side as their teammate stormed away. Akamaru followed his trainer.

***

For the second day in a row, a loud pounding came at your door. You answered it with a certain amount of perplexity, not used to having so many visitors. As soon as the door opened, Kiba let himself in. He huffed, marching into your studio apartment as you quickly dodged out the way of his determined path. Akamaru followed with his head low, sparing you a glance as apologetic as a dog could muster. You blinked and scrunched your brow.

“They let you take him up here—?”

“I’m not out to get you!” Kiba plopped down at your little table in the same spot that Naruto had sat the night before. You sighed and closed the door. Akamaru curled up around Kiba’s ankles. “I swear people think I’m wringing my hands in the dark thinking about the best way I can be an asshole.”

“I don’t think I know what you’re talking about.”

“Well what have you been telling people?” Kiba snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. Your lips formed a thin line. You silently asked yourself when it became your job to play therapist for confused shinobi to air out their grievances to, but you couldn’t help but feel a tug at your compassionate side. You could kick him out any time he started to get ornery.

“Kiba, I’m open to having a conversation with you, but you’re the one who let yourself into my home. You can either talk to me with respect or you can leave.” You stood, feeling more comfortable standing a few feet away in the kitchenette. He sat silently at your table, looking downward and radiating an air of irritation. His hand came to his temple as he let out another huff.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He yielded and his forearm fell lightly down to the hand surface under his elbow. Kiba threw his head back and you finally came to sit across from him. The atmosphere felt familiar to you. Silence. He wanted to talk, so you waited for him to speak. Kiba opened his mouth before closing it. He looked to the side, letting his tongue dart out over the edge of his lip. “I didn’t know it was your birthday, okay?” He dragged a thumb over his chin.

“I didn’t know it was yours either.” Kiba’s eyes shot up to meet yours.

“So we can agree that we felt somewhat the same.” You let out a slight chuckle, sitting back in your seat.

“That depends.”

“‘Cause I thought that you were just inviting people out like usual. I didn’t think twice ‘cause,” Kiba fiddled with the edge of his shirt. “I just wanted people to spend time with me. And now I have people coming at me—”

“I didn’t even know that you were inviting people until later. And even then, I wouldn’t let Shikamaru or Shino tell me any details. I didn’t want to know, so no kinda confession needed here.” You narrowed your eyes slightly. “You got that sorted out? I’d hate for Team Eight to be fighting. I didn’t want to butt in.”

“Yeah, it’s as sorted as I could make it,” Kiba nodded, “It was a misunderstanding but I don’t think that Shino really believes me.” He glared at you from the corner of his eye. “Why do you care?”

“You’re my comrade and so is Shino.”

Kiba leaned, both elbows folded on the table. He stared you sternly in the eye, teeth slightly clenched.

“You know that this doesn’t make us friends, right?” He questioned, gesturing to the space between you. You sat still, hands folded in your lap.

“I assumed. You’ve made your opinion of me very clear,” You admitted with a shrug. “It would be nice if we could get along but let’s be real, you’re not obligated to like me.”

“Or you me.”

“That’s true,” You nodded your head a few times, “I never said that I didn’t and I likely never would even if I did feel that way.” More silence. Kiba made no effort to rise from his seat. He stayed, pouting. Akamaru shifted underneath the table, his tail swishing across the floor. If you had had more important things to do, you wouldn’t have remained as patient as you did.

“I’m sorry if I, uh, if you were upset,” Kiba finally opted. “Uh, I guess I took advantage of the confusion. And I’m sorry if you heard about some of the things I said.” You could poke holes in that apology all day, but you knew that this would be the best you would hear. You stood.

“I accept your apology,” You said, making your way to the door. Kiba scrunched his forehead. You chose those words very carefully, but he still didn’t know they actually meant. You opened the door, turning to face him. “Are we done here?”

“So you believe me, that it was all a misunderstanding.” Kiba rose from his chair, palms on the table. You looked to the side with a sigh.

“I’d like to, and we’ll get there. I accepted your apology,” You hesitated. “I like to believe that people have good intentions. You always have a teammate here.” You opened the door a bit wider and Kiba saw himself out.

Notes: It would’ve been too easy to make Kiba a villain. Let’s be honest, seldom do people who hurt us go out of their way to target us. Sometimes anger comes out of misunderstanding. Sometimes people who are on our side make things worse. No one’s wringing their hands in the dark and acknowledging that maybe their actions may create a bigger issue. Be aware of others. Be honest with yourself.

Thank you to everyone who liked, reblogged, and followed. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.

[rocksandrobots]

Phantoms of the Past: Ch. 5 - Best friends, Boyfriends, and Barons Part 1

"Hey Miss Itamae! Ready for a whole new school year? Hee...hee...eeeh.... yeah, fine." Hiro gave up trying to make small talk with the lunch lady as she unceremoniously slopped meatloaf onto his plate.

Today was the first day of the fall semester and the start of Hiro's second year at SFIT.  It felt odd to him, to look back and realize just how much time had passed; how much things had changed during the previous year.

A year ago, today, he had been attending Tadashi's funeral and now he was going about his life as if everything was normal. Well, almost normal. He was also moonlighting as a superhero, adopting an out of time teenager as his new big brother, and befriending deadly robots.

Life was weird.

Of course it wasn't as if he could ignore his loss completely. He had noticed the flowers and cards placed at the foot of Tadashi's memorial over by the exhibition hall. People still remembered that his brother had died a hero. Folks that he didn't even know had left their condolences today, though most of the gifts were from Tadashi's teachers and friends.

Hiro had particularly noticed a painting Honey Lemon had left, of her, Tadashi, and the rest of their friends. He also spotted Gogo sitting out there early that morning, lighting a candle in his brother's memory. He had given her her space, choosing not to interrupt. Gogo and Tadashi had been especially close.

Hiro remembered how excited his brother had been when Gogo finally agreed to go out with him. Tadashi had hurried about their bedroom, a couple of days before the fire, fretting over where to take her on their first date. A date that they had never gotten to go on. At the time Hiro had teased him relentlessly, never passing up the chance to deflate his brother's ego. Now it was just another bittersweet memory to look back on.

Fred abruptly snapped him out of his mournful reflection. "Steve." was all he said as he grabbed Hiro by the shoulders.

"Steve? Uh, my name is Hiro, remember Fred?"

"No, no, no, Steve was the name of the ninja robot that Trina found. She said he was held in a warehouse downtown, along with all the other ninjas. Don't you see, that's our big break! We find this warehouse and then we can track down the mysterious bosu!"

Hiro wearily placed his tray down on the table and took a seat next to Wasabi.

"Fred, it's the first day of school. Can't this wait for later?"

"But-"

"Hiro's right Fred," Wasabi interrupted, "Just because you have all the time in the world to play superhero doesn't mean that we do. We still got our own lives to take care of."

Fred looked hurt at that. "I'm not playing! This is important work. We have a city to protect and this crime boss is just going to keep coming after us if we don't figure out how to stop them."  

Wasabi rolled his eyes. "Then you just go on and do that. In the meantime the rest of us have class to attend. I'm heading early to set up for my first lab."

"But labs won't open for like another hour." Hiro pointed out, confused. "They're still cleaning up from the robot attacks last week."

"Ah, he just wants to get there early so that he can see his boyfriend again." Fred complained.

"Sam's not my boyfriend. He's just a colleague, and at least I'm doing something other than obsess over superheroing." And with that Wasabi stormed off, while Fred slouched into the cafeteria chair with a huff.

"Listen, Fred, why don't you go on patrol with Minimax for a while. I'll help you track down this warehouse after school is over with." Hiro said.

"Okay," Fred reluctantly agreed, "but I'm not 'obsessing'."

"I know Fred, but the rest of us also have school to worry about. We just don't have the same amount of free time as you do."

"I know." Fred sighed before walking off.

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

"Sorry Hiro, but we're kind of busy right now." Honey Lemon regretfully informed her friends.

Fred and Hiro had met up after school as promised. Wasabi had declined to join them on their quest and so they had decided to recruit the girls instead. Though this also seemed to be a fruitless endeavor.

"Yeah, we're kind of in the middle of something." Gogo finished as she leaned back in a reclining chair and placed two cucumber slices over her eyes.

They had found the girls at a spa. Honey Lemon sat next to Gogo with curlers in her hair, and they apparently weren't the only ones out having a beauty day.

"Can't you see we're having some girl time?" Karmi asked, annoyed, as she examined her nails.

"Yeah, Hiro, go take your weird superhero hobby elsewhere?" Megan added.

"It's not weird!" Fred insisted.

"If this is supposed to be a girls only event, then why is he here?" Hiro said, pointing to Varian, who sat next to Megan.

"Uh, getting a manicure obviously." Varian rolled his eyes and then leaned over to show Carol, who was beside him, two bottles of nail polish. "Do you think I should go with the midnight blue or just stick with black?"

"Hmmm... I think either would be nice," she replied.

"Ooooh, have you tried the seaweed wrap they have here? It's great." Fred chimed in.

Hiro rolled his eyes, "Okay, so what are you two doing after this? Could you take up patrol tonight?"

"Nope." Gogo said.

"I promised my brother Carlos that I would help him move into his new dorm room. He starts at UCLA this week and Gogo's offered to drive me there. We won't be back till tomorrow morning." Honey Lemon explained.

"Okay, well, we'll just-"

"Alright, I'm ready." A voice called out, interrupting him.

Trina walked out from behind a door at the back of the spa. Her bulky gigantic metal body was gone and in its place was the frame of a young woman, dressed in a t-shirt, pants, and a cropped jacket. She looked very much the same as the day Hiro had first met her, at the bot fights. Only this time her hair had been cut and styled into a short mohawk and dyed a light purple.

"What do you guys think?" She asked as she twirled around.

Everyone shouted encouragements to her, and Varian cheekily whistled.

"You look nice, Trina." Hiro complimented.

Trina snorted and rolled her eyes. "In your dreams, Hiro." She said, leaving the teenage genius confused by what he had said wrong.

Ignoring him, Trina walked over to the rest of the girls, "Thanks for the clothes... and for everything else." She sheepishly added.

"Hey, no problem." Megan replied. "They look good on you."

"Yeah, and if you need anything else just ask." Karmi added.

"Not to mention it's always fun to have a spa day," Carol piped in. "This was a good idea Varian, thanks for inviting me along."

"Sure thing. When Trina said she wanted help with finding a new wardrobe, I figured all of you would like to go shopping too.... and also y'all know more about clothes than I do."

"Hey, Trina," Fred interjected, "that warehouse where you foun- I mean, met 'Steve', do you happen to remember where it was located?"

Trina gave Fred a frown.

"Oooh, who's Steve?" Karmi asked, happy to gossip, "Is that your boyfriend Trina?"

"No." She said, "The place you're looking for is over in Good Luck Alley, next to Louie's."

"It must've been a bad breakup." Karmi whispered into Honey Lemon's ear, she wasn't very good at keeping her voice down.

"Yeah… he kind of... broke alright." Honey Lemon nervously added, unsure what to say.

"Uh, yeah, well thanks for the tip Trina. We'll be going now, bye." Hiro said as he hurried Fred out the door. He had had enough of awkward conversations and makeovers.

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

"Fred, wouldn't it be better if we brought our robots along at least?" Hiro whispered.

"You want to sneak around an abandoned warehouse with those two?" Fred whispered back, "I love him, but Minimax doesn't know how to be quiet, like at all."

Hiro sighed, Fred had a point. Baymax also wasn't the best at stealth missions. Hiro slid into the alleyway and peered through a dirty window. He couldn't shake the sense of deja vu as he remembered how he and the robotic nurse had tracked down his missing microbots a year ago at a similar warehouse. They had both been nearly killed by Callaghan when the villain had caught them snooping around. He would prefer to avoid such a scenario again.

"It doesn't look like anyone is here." He said.

"See any ninja robots?" Fred asked as he also pushed by to get a look, pressing his nose against the glass.

"No… Fred, this may be a dead end. Trina already raided the place and no doubt this Bosu would have abandoned the hideout if it was compromised."

Fred pouted, "Maybe… Buuuut, we could always man a stake-out and find out for sure!"

"Fred, I have homework to do. Maybe some oth-"

"Oh please! Just for an hour, or two? Please, please, please? Pretty please? I'll do your homework for you."

"I don't want you doing my homework."

"Okay, chores then; I'll wash Varian's dirty socks and underwear for a… a week… no, a month! Come on, I know how much you hate doing laundry."

Hiro sighed and watched his friend crawl on his knees and beg. "Does it really mean that much to you?"

"Yeeeesss."

"Okay, and no, you don't have to do the laundry either."

Hiro turned to walk out of the alley and Fred got up and followed him.

"That's good, cause I don't actually know how to wash clothes. Usually, Heathcliff does all the laundry. Last time I tried to, I just flooded the washroom."

"Do you have any survival skills? Like at all?"

"Nope. Unless it's kicking bad guys' butts! Ooh, hey, we can host the stake-out at Louie's across the street. I'm starved."

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

Hiro and Fred took up a window booth inside the restaurant. The establishment had recovered from the police raid from a few months back and was now serving food as usual; though Hiro had already spotted the advertisement for the next upcoming 'bot fight.

A couple of hours past and they had both eaten their meals, plus dessert, along with Fred going back for seconds. Now they were both nursing a couple of cups of coffee, though Hiro's was going cold; it wasn't great coffee.

"Fred…"

"Yeah."

"It's been three hours now."

"I know."

"No one's showed up."

"Not yet."

"Look it's been… 'fun', but I'm going home now."

Hiro got up to leave but Fred grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Oh but… uhh… we haven't even tried the uh… hot dog sushi special. I hear it's really good."

Hiro leaned his head back slowly and closed his eyes in frustration. He didn't want to snap at Fred, really he didn't, but he was quickly losing his patience.

"Fred… no one is coming. Let's just call it a night and try again some other time. Okay." And with that he yanked his hand away and began to walk off.

Fred didn't follow. Instead he sat in the booth, his eyes downcast, staring blankly at nothing. It wasn't his usual pout either. It was something else. Some deeper sadness that few saw from the usually optimistic teen.

Hiro began to worry. He walked back, and stood there waiting for Fred to jump back up all excited again for his return, only he didn't.

"Fred, what's wrong?"

Fred sighed but couldn't bring himself to answer.

"Look, I know that this superhero business is important to you, so much so that you'll probably wind up making a career out of it, which is great, but the rest of us are not going to be doing this for the rest of our lives. We also have to keep up with our studies, chores, our jobs, and what little shred of a social life we have."

"That's not it… I mean yeah, it's a part of it, but that's not why I asked you to come along."

Fred finally looked Hiro in the eye and tears threatened to spill.

"I just miss my best friend, okay."

Hiro looked at him confused.

"I didn't want to say anything, cause… cause he's your brother and I didn't think you'd want to be reminded about him being gone any more than you already have… but today has just been really hard… remembering what happened… I just thought getting out and doing something fun, getting both our minds off everything, might be better than just… just being alone. You know? Especially today."

Fred didn't even have to say Tadashi's name for Hiro to know who he was talking about.

Hiro sighed and slumped back down into the booth.

"I'm sorry…. I… I guess I just… I don't know. I didn't think...."

"No… no, don't. Of course you didn't think. I mean who wants to be reminded of that. The whole idea was to not think about it. And I just ruined it all by bringing it up. Gah…. I'm so sorry."

Fred put his arms over his head and brought his knees up to his chest as if trying to make himself as physically small as he felt. Hiro just had to laugh at the sight in spite of himself.

"It's okay Fred. You're not going to upset me just by talking about Tadashi."

Fred peaked his head out from between his arms. "I'm not?"

"No. I mean he was your friend too."

"My best friend! Man, Tadashi and I, we got up to all sorts of trouble. He was always down for anything. I mean, did he tell you about the time we crashed my cousin's bar mitzvah? As in, we literally crashed. He drove the sport's car into the buffet table by mistake… We couldn't find the parking and then there was this wet patch in the parking lot and we skidded… Oh and then there was the time Mole dared us to a drag race using scooters and Tadshi had the idea to attach rockets to mine and I went flying.. I tell ya, man, Mole wouldn't live it down for a whole week after. He kept demanding a rematch, but I mean it was fair. He was using his butler to ride for him in his place."

Hiro could barely contain his laughter, "Wait… wait… you and Tadashi did all this?"

"Yeah."

"Why have I never heard of any of this before?"

"I don't know, but he's the whole reason why I got the mascot job in the first place. I knew I could never get into the school myself, but I thought we could hang out together more if I went. He's also the one that introduced me to everybody else."

"Then how did you two meet?"

"Oh at the grocery store."

Fred said this as if it was the most obvious of explanations but Hiro looked as confused as ever. So Fred continued on.

"He was there getting chewing gum and I was buying a shopping cart. Like an actual shopping cart."

"Why?"

"Yeah that's what he asked too. So I told him, 'I'm going to ride down Dead Man's Hill in one.' And he said, 'Dude, that's so rad. You're totally going to die.' And I said, 'Yeah, I know. You wanna join?' And he did. We rode all the way down from the top of Lumbar Street to the docks… and landed right in the bay. It was awesome! We screamed our heads off the whole time. It was so awesome, in fact, that we walked back to the store and bought another cart just to do it again. That was back when we were both still in high school, and we've been best buds ever since. You know… until…"

Hiro looked at Fred sadly. There so much about his brother that hadn't known about, hadn't even thought to ask. What else had Tadashi not shared with him? Probably a lot, I mean why tell your kid brother about your social life? And there's no way that he'd have brought those crazy stunts up around Aunt Cass.

"I never knew any of that… Those are some really cool stories. Thanks for sharing them."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and you know, you don't have to drag me on some superheroing mission just to hang out and talk."

Fred looked guilty at that.

"I… I know… but it's like what you and Wasabi have been saying. Everyone else has something… something to motivate them, and y'all all do all these really cool things and I'm… I'm just me. I don't really have anything but superheroing. Unless you just need someone to make a mess."

"That's not true. Fred, you're great at a lot of things. You could go to school or get a job, if you wanted to. I just thought superheroing was all you wanted."

"Hiro, I can't even do laundry without messing up. I mean all you do is throw the clothes into a machine and push a button, and yet somehow I managed to screw even that up. All I know is comic books, and superheroing, and I'm not even the best at that! What would I even go to college for? I can't… I'm not a genius. I'm not a businessman. I'm not an accountant, or an artist, or an athlete. I'm not anything. I've no talent. I'm not even good at being rich. I've never fit in with the socialite crowd."

"Fred."

"Yeah?"

"You're good at being a friend, and if I have to sit here list off everything else you're good at then we'd be here for another three hours or more. So how about we head home and tomorrow I'll show you how to work a washing machine, and you can teach me how a stake-out is supposed to really go cause we're not getting anywhere here."

"Or are we?"

"What do you mean?"

Fred was no longer looking at Hiro but past him. He pointed to the window behind Hiro, and Hiro turned around to see for himself.

An elderly gentleman, dressed in an old fashioned military outfit, complete with a monocle, was entering the warehouse. He had a giant mechanical arm and a steam boiler strapped to his back.

"Baron Von Steamer."

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

Fred and Hiro found themselves standing in the alley peering through the warehouse's dirty windows for a second time that day. They saw Baron Von Steamer stomping around inside. He seemed irritated as he grumbled to himself and knocked boxes out of the way, as if searching for something.

"What's he doing?" Fred loudly whispered.

Just then Steamer found what he was looking for, a tea cup. He poured himself a cup out of a teapot he had placed on an old fashioned stove that was hidden towards the back and then sat down on top of a crate to sip his drink.

"It must be 'tea time' for him." Hiro said dryly.

Fred narrowed his eyes, "I bet he's just hatching his next nefarious scheme. Planning on how to take us and the city down. What do you think he wants with portals?"  

Just then Steamer stood up and ruefully kicked away a busted up robot that had fallen out of a storage crate in his previous hunt for the tea cup.

"I don't think Steamer is our guy." Hiro said, "He hates modern technology, so why would he build ninja robots? Also, like you said, what would he want with portals? All he's after is your dad, and so far the Bosu hasn't gone after Boss Awesome yet."

"But they might. Remember what Roddy said? That Kensei guy used to be active during Dad's heyday but never got caught. What if, it's because Steamer had two villain identities!"

"That seems like a stretch."

"Okay, well, what if Steamer works for this Bosu? Like Sue and Sparkles?"

"That's more plausible, I guess."

Hiro turned to peer through the window again, but Streamer was gone.

'Wait, where did he go?'

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A pair of interlopers." A curt British voice  came from behind them.

Steamer must have noticed them and snuck around the back, cutting them off.

Hiro grabbed his phone in order to call his super suit, but Von Steamer nabbed his hand and yanked him off the ground, causing him to lose hold of his phone.

Fred was just as unfortunate, as Steamer held him in a choke hold in his metal arm.

"Waaaait," Steamer said as he eyed them both up closely, peering at them through his oversized monocle, "I know you two. You're friends of Boss Awesome's baby child!"

"I am Boss Awesome's baby child!" Fred protested before Von Steamer gave him a hard squeeze with his cyborg arm. Fred wheezed in pain.

Hiro reacted quickly and kicked the steampunk baron in the shins.

Von Steamer howled in pain and dropped Hiro in surprise, though he managed to keep his grip on Fred. He also had stepped on Hiro's phone while nursing his injured leg.

Hiro ducked and ran as Steamer regained his senses and pulled out a brass gun that was connected to the boiler on his back with a hose. He pulled the trigger and scalding steam shot out. Hiro ducked again to avoid it.

As he ran out of the alley way he heard Steamer shouting after him, "Yes, run back to Boss Awesome little one. Tell his baby child I have their friend, and either he, or they, must show up to face me or else!"

Hiro spared a glace backwards and saw Baron Von Steamer dragging Fred back into the warehouse.

"Fred!"

"Hiro!" Fred called out to him before being pulled into the darkness.

Hiro panicked. What could he do? Finally, he decided that getting help was the best option. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him, fighting back his worry.

[shorkbrian]

Prelude - Idek man I’m a sucker for a lil bondage. Reminder!!! Coercive sex, or any sex where there isn’t any consent, is no-no!!!!! that is rape you guys! this type of behavior where a respected authority figure takes is absolutely not cool under any circumstances. I can’t believe that this is something that I have to make clear, but I don’t condone any of these actions, nor do I support this behavior, or any behavior that’s similar.

Pairing - Aizawa X Reader

Warnings - NSFW (no penetration), noncon, dub con, fingering, abuse of power, 

Music - https://open.spotify.com/track/4TQcARE7Fd58akNhr3N7AE?si=ffl2jJviRAyVzK3QtU85Jg

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You’re a hero he’s being forced to work with, even though technically he isn’t supposed to have an agency, and technically, he’s supposed to work alone.

Apparently your superiors decided to ignore those two facts, practically dumping you on top of him the second school lets out.

You’re adorable, all fresh faced and young, full of hope and energy and everything that he’s not. Aizawa tries to get out of it, arguing with your superiors while you just stand there watching, but ultimately, he leaves with you trailing behind him.

Tonight, it would seem he’d be working with you.

The whole way downtown you talk his ear off, chattering just like Hizashi does when he’s extra nervous - except, you don’t seem to be nervous.

No, you’re excited, bragging about your accomplishments, your skills. How many villains you’ve turned in, how many civilians you’ve saved. Aizawa quickly gets irritated by your incessant yapping, how you sit there and boast about how good of a hero you are.

From what he can tell, you haven’t been a hero long.

There aren’t any noticeable scars on your form, and if there were, your flashy, skin-tight outfit would’ve exposed them, just like it’s exposing you. It’s impractical, illogical, leaving your skin open to cuts and burns and any other sort of attack.

Plus, it’s distracting. He figures it’s designed to get better ratings from male viewers, to get the videos of you rescuing civilians or taking down low-ranking villains more views. 

You don’t watch your surroundings as intently as Aizawa does - a woman sniffles in an alleyway as the two of you pass by, and Aizawa’s immediately on high alert at the sound, looking for potential traps or incoming enemies. You didn’t even register the sound. 

Thankfully, you’re not as loud as Hizashi, and when Aizawa holds his hand up to signal you to shut up, you do, immediately clamping you mouth shut with an audible click. At least you can follow orders.

You have no idea of stealth, footsteps falling heavy as you walk, swinging your arms jauntily and seemingly uncaring of who sees you. It makes Aizawa’s blood boil. You sit there, patting yourself on the back about what a good hero you are, yet you’re barely better than a bad sidekick. A sidekick Aizawa wouldn’t-doesn’t  want tagging along.

After the third time of you bumping into him after he’s stopped to listen to the sounds of the city, high on the rooftops, Aizawa wants to give you a pinch, scold you for not being ready for hero work, tell you the truth about your “skills” and how good of a hero you really are.

But he’s a patient man, and he knows how to calm his irritation by taking deep breaths. Lord knows his students test his resolve to resort to corporal punishment, so he should reign himself in from considering using it with you. Still, you’re an annoying, young little thing - excited and prideful, trying to show off to the older hero.

Aizawa can deal with it though, as long as he ignores your blunders.

The way you talk too much, how you don’t pay attention, the way you constantly bump into him because you haven’t realized he’s stopped in his tracks. You’re foolish.

It’s not until you almost push him off the edge of a building with your mindless blundering does Aizawa lose his patience.

The man rounds on you, blood pumping quick and fast in his heart from the adrenaline of teetering over the edge, feeling himself about to fall. He probably could’ve caught himself with his capture weapon, but what if he hadn’t? Your stupid mistake could’ve cost him his life, his career.

It takes him less than a second to have your wrists tangled up in his capture weapon, dragging you towards him so he can tower over you, fisting a hand in your hair.

“You’re a shitty hero.” Is all he says, pushing you to the side. Aizawa knows that will sting more than anything else he could say - it’s obvious that you look up to the older man. He wouldn’t put it past you to be the one who begged your agency to dump you on him for the night, so you could talk to him, learn some trade secrets, gush to your little hero friends how you were “trained” by Eraserhead himself.

He’s expecting you to be indignant, to try and argue your case. What he’s not expecting, is for you to attack him as soon as he retracts his capture weapon back onto his neck.

It’s almost laughable, how bad you are at fighting. He can hear you run at him, anticipates the first swing you take at his back, easily tucks forward and out of your reach. When he turns, you're standing there, chest heaving (Your suit really doesn’t leave anything to the imagination, does it? He wonders if it’s something your agency chose, or if it’s a personal preference) as you stare at him with a fire in your eyes.

“You have no right to say that to me.” You grind out, before running at him again.

Now that Aizawa can see you, it’s even easier to dodge your attack, ducking and blocking each punch or kick with ease. “I wouldn’t even want you for a sidekick. You’re sloppy-”

He jabs his fist into your side, and you let out a pained gasp.

“Poorly trained-”

A quick backhand across your face sends you reeling, and Aizawa sighs. He didn’t even put that much force behind it.

“Dangerously prideful-”

His capture weapon whips around your legs, tangling them and pulling them right out from under you. Aizawa moves to yours side, crouching by your head so he can see your eyes.

“And unfit to be a hero.”

You’re winded, but despite that, you thrash, infuriated by the words. You try to strike out at Aizawa, but you find yourself quickly wrapped up in his capture weapon, immobilized. 

“Instead of doing important work, trying to keep this city safe, I have to deal with an arrogant brat.”

Aizawa stands up, using his capture weapon to drag you to your feet as well. He takes less than a moment to stride to the edge of the building, pulling you along with him, making you stumble.

With a flick of his wrist, you’re leaning out over the edge, the only thing stopping you from falling being Aizawa’s capture weapon wrapped around your wrists, lacing over your chest, holding you back.

He hears you squeak in fear, watches you go completely still as he holds you there, lets you feel the fear of being dangled above the edge, flirting with the height.

“You saw how easy it was for me to subdue you, how easily you yielded. How do you even beat villains?” Aizawa clicked his tongue. “I’m worried about the future of this city if you’re what we have to offer in terms of a hero.”

You tensed up, obviously hurt by the words. Aizawa felt no remorse - he truly was disquieted when faced with the knowledge that people like you were the next generation of peace-keepers.

With a jerk jerk, you were yanked away from the edge, landing on your butt, air whooshing out of your lungs in a gasp. Aizawa crouched down behind you, leaning close, letting you feel the heat of his body.

“Do you know what would happen if a villain had you tied up like this?”

You quickly shook your head, silent. Aizawa almost wanted to laugh, how were you this naive? 

He let his hands rest on your shoulders, let them slowly slide down to your exposed collarbones, further, down to the tops of your breasts.

“Stop... please...” You whispered, frozen.

Aizawa huffed. “A villain wouldn’t stop. You’d be powerless against one. I doubt the “villains” you’ve been taking down could even be classified as such.” 

He let his hands drop even further, until he could feel the weight of your breasts in his hands, thinly covered by your costume.

“Let me guess, they’ve all been petty criminals? Bicycle thieves... pickpockets... People who accidentally let the parking meter run out?” He chuckled.

Aizawa kneaded your tits, the warm flesh pliant, soft, delicious. Your nipples were hardening under his touch, pressing against your suit, peaking into solid shapes against your chest. He let his touch focus on them, rolling and pinching the little buds until you were whining beneath his hands, squirming in discomfort as he played with your tits.

“A real villain would have so much fun with you. You’d be so easy, so effortless to hold down. They could do whatever they wanted to you.” He purred into your ear.

You relaxed when Aizawa pulled his hands away, stood up to circle around to your front. You thought he was done, thought he would let you free from his capture weapon. You thought wrong. 

The man sat down in front of you, leaning back easily onto his ankles. You were quickly pulled into his lap, crying out at the way he jerked you closer to him, until your fronts were pressed together, until he was pinching and massaging your plump rear.

“What a shame, loosing an untrained hero to a villain. If you’re really unlucky, they won’t kill you once they’re finished with your body.” Aizawa watched you shiver. “No, they’ll keep you alive, and in the clutches of evil men? that’s much, much worse than death.”

Your suit exposed your legs, had a short, flashy skirt that barely covered your ass. Underneath, a flimsy leotard protected your modesty, easily pulled to the side.

A panicked whine tore from your lungs as you felt Aizawa’s thick finger ghost along your folds, rubbing the delicate flesh, acquainting himself with the feel of a tender young body. 

The hand on your ass was still groping, squeezing and pulling you impossibly closer, until you have to turn your face to the side, chin hooking over the man’s shoulder. Aizawa nuzzled your neck, breathing in the subtle scent that covered your body, some type of perfume, a scent he couldn’t place, but pleasant nonetheless. 

When he felt wetness slowly beginning to seep from your cunt, Aizawa grinned, rolling his eyes. You would be eaten up by a villain, completely destroyed. 

He slipped his pointer finger inside, circling his thumb against your clit as he did so, shushing your frightened noises at the unexpected intrusion.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if a villain targeted you. With a costume like this? Your obvious inexperience? The way you boast and brag about what a big girl you are, how proficient you are at taking down big, bad criminals?”

Another finger slipped inside, stretching you wide. You were so warm, so soft, squeezing his fingers like you were trying to suck him in. It was almost like your pussy was desperate for more, aching for something bigger. 

But Aizawa had standards, morals. He just wanted to scare you a bit, not ruin you completely. 

With two fingers inside of you, he stroked along your velvety walls, searching for the special little spot he knew would make you squeal. You were trembling, draped against his body like a rag doll, hips twitching ever so slightly when he did something you liked.

He tapped your clit again with his thumb, and you stifled a moan. Aizawa resisted the urge to smile; you were so easy.

As his fingers explored your cunt, probing and stretching and scissoring you open, he let his lips attach onto your neck. He could let himself indulge a little - after all, your agency had insisted you come along, even after he told them no.

With a shrill cry, you bucked into his hand, trying to press your hips down further. Aizawa hooked his fingers again, pressing down on the spot he had just rubbed with his fingers, and you yelped again, rocking down, fucking yourself against his thick digits.

He found it.

Starting slowly, the man began fingerfucking you, making sure to hit the spongy, sensitive spot that had you moaning and crying, shaking in his arms.

He found himself quickly loosing patience, especially with the way you wiggled and fidgeted in his lap, trying to chase the sensation his fingers provided.

With no warning (not that he’d given you one once throughout this experience), Aizawa went from his slow, gentle pace, to one that made his forearm flex, one that made your back arch and your toes curl in those impractical, stupid high heels.

You were quickly reduced to mush, able to do nothing but let Aizawa fuck you to tears with his fingers, driving you closer and closer to the edge. He could feel it, how you were almost there. You clenched down on his fingers, sweat shined across your skin, you were absolutely gushing with your creamy wetness, the liquid sliding down his hand and soaking into his pants.

Messy.

Another few quick, hard flicks of his wrist, and suddenly you were squirting, forcing his fingers out of your pussy, writhing from the stimulation. A stream of wet was forced out of you, spraying all over his pants, his hand, the concrete of the rooftop. 

Your legs shook with the force of it, eyes rolling back in your head. Aizawa knew  you were lost in pleasure, so far gone you couldn’t do much but moan and gurgle brokenly as you slowly came down from your orgasm.

He let you lean against him for a few moments longer, let you pant into his ear, felt your sweaty skin stick to his own. 

But he was tired, and he wanted to finish patrolling, and you were barely more than a nuisance, and he needed to find somewhere to jerk off.

He wasn’t a rapist, after all.

So with gentle hands, Aizawa untied you from his capture weapon, slowly sliding you off his lap and onto the ground. He gave you a few moments to collect yourself, rising to his feet to turn and give you privacy as you righted your costume, smoothed down your frazzled appearance, caught your breath.

He was so hard.

When you finally joined his side, you were meek, quiet, subdued. Aizawa barely glanced at you (If he did, he might do something he’d regret, not that he already hasn’t) before striding forward, moving with purpose towards the next roof top.

Hopefully, you’d learned your lesson, and wouldn’t run your mouth so much.

Hopefully, you’d train harder, try to strengthen your fighting style.

Hopefully, Aizawa found somewhere he could jerk off, before his primal urges coerced him into doing something more befitting of a villain.

If that happened, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s not like you would tell anyone.

[unmaskedagain]

Remember You Young

I answered this ask because I thought it was adorable. I loved the show they wanted me to do, and I want to see who could guess it before it became obvious. Its a one-shot . 

She was being followed. At first it had been daunting when she realized it, and Marinette had done everything she could to shake them off her trail. Then she realized she was being stalked by kids. Literally kids. None older than ten or eleven at best.

           They had been terrible at hiding, rarely ever whispered, argued constantly, had the most outrageous costumes but somehow managed to keep up with Marinette’s every move... most of the time. They ran around with toy guns and pretend walky talkies.

           It either said the best thing about the kids’ skills, or the worst thing about Marinette’s.

           There was a husky boy who ran around in a blue shirt and goggles. He never took off the old pilot’s hat he wore. He was also… always eating cheese. Or candy. He liked puns that caused his friends to groan constantly.

           There was an Asian little girl who wore an adorable green sweater that was too big for her and the arms of the sweater went well past her hands. She was girly and seemed to be the sweetest of the bunch. Honestly, she was the happiest girl Marinette had ever seen in her entire life. The only time the kid had gotten upset was when she had cried when couldn’t find the stuffed animal she wanted in any of the stores. Marinette had been heartbroken for her. The bluenette didn’t know what a “Rainbow Monkey” was or why it had to be French but she was going to get it for the girl if it was the last thing she did it.

           A bald British boy seemed to be the leader as everyone took direction from him. Marinette had never seen his eyes due to the black glasses he wore. The kid seemed to believe himself to be some sort of superspy. He had a fierce take-charge attitude and barked orders like a pro and preferred to a treehouse their hung out at as headquarters. He didn’t smile often.

           A pretty black girl seemed to be the one with the most sense of the much, and the most style. She wore her hair in a long braid, a blue shirt-dress and an old red cap. The girl had a natural charisma and coolness to her that made Marinette feel awkward in comparison. She seemed to second-in-command .

           The smallest of the bunch was a blond boy with an unfortunate bowl cut and a bright orange hoody. He was loud, brash, and was the “tough guy” of the bunch. He picked a fight with nearly everyone. A fierce little guy that called Marinette a “Ruddy Teenager.”

           However all the kids seemed to dislike adults and teens to some degree. They cast suspicious glances at everyone thirteen and older no matter how nice they were. None of them ever called each other by their names, always opting to follow the rules of whatever game they were playing and called each other by numbers. And always mispronounced the word: number.

           Numbuh 1. Numbuh 2. Numbuh 3. Numbuh 4. Numbuh 5. Marinette hadn’t gotten close enough to figure out who was who but she did suspect the numbers were ranking order or anything. They were probably just random.

           After over two weeks of being stalked, Marinette still hadn’t been able to figure out what they wanted from her. Only that they didn’t know she was Ladybug. It was frustrating.

           She finally got answers one day while walking home from school when she got attacked by an evil cat lady who weaponized her pets, a deranged dentist who put braces on everyone, and a man dressed like toilet. They attempted to kidnap Marinette and raise all out heck on everyone around them. They weren’t Akumas. They were just crazy people.

           The kids fought them back. They saved the day. They saved Marinette. The villains ran with their tails between their legs.

           …Suddenly everything the kids had been doing didn’t seem like a game anymore.

           …Then the kids kidnapped Marinette. The kids jumped her, hogtied her, gagged her, and carried her back to their tree house… which Marinette now realized was way more advanced than any tree house should be. EVER.

           As soon as they got to there, and Marinette was uncharitably tossed on to the couch, the kids panicked.

“We shouldn’tve done this!” Goggles boy chimed. “We weren’t supposed to make contact. Moonbase will decommission us for sure.”

“And let the adults have her, Numbah 2,” The bald boy said. “I think not! We can never let the adults win. Its against everything the Kids Next Door stand for.”

The black girl nodded, “Numbah One’s right, we can’t let Father have what’s in her brain,” She said. “It could destroy the KND!”

“But that’s not possible, Numbah five, we all know that!” The girl in green said. “She got decommissioned. Her brain got all wishy-washy. Right, Numbah Four?”

           The blond boy huffed, “Yeah! Numbah Three’s got a point. And what’s so important about some ruddy teenager anyway? Tell you what! We should drop her artic ocean and never look back.”

           Numbah five groaned, “Are you stupid, boy? They sent Numbuh 274, I mean Chad, after her. And CREE! They wouldn’t have done that if she wasn’t important. The supreme leader wouldn’tve sent us to stop them from getting her! Ya moron.”

           Marinette frowned at that. Chad, the handsome foreign exchange student that came to Marinette’s class a few weeks ago. All the girls in school thought he was so dreamy. Even Marinette, even though she had been perplexed at the sad, almost wistful looks he would shoot her when he thought he wasn’t looking. And at the stories he told about his childhood, and woud look at Marinette like he was waiting for her to jump in and finish them. Almost like he knew her. Or expected her to suddenly remember him.

           The same with Cree, a foreign exchange student in a grade above Marinette’s, but to a lesser extent than Chad. The older girl liked to make sly remarks about what being a teen meant where she came from. She cracked what seemed to be inside jokes at Marinette and looked crestfallen when it was clear the bluenette didn’t understand what she meant. Then Cree would grumble about stupid kids ruining everything.

“But WHHHHYYY?” Numbah Four whined. “We got sent a like bajillion miles away to         a city where they force kids to eat bugs and smelly cheese all to protect a teenager. A TEENAGER! And they don’t even tell us why.”

           Numbah Two frowned, “It is kind of strange. I mean we hate teenagers! They’re the worse. Why save this one?” He looked at Marinette like she was specimen in a jar.

“Because team,” Numbah One announced loudly, pausing for, what Marinette knew was, dramatic effect.  “She is Numbah Seventy-Two.”

           Gasps rang through the room. The kids reared back as if struck. Their eyes went wide and they started at Marinette in awe.

“…Or at least she used to be,” Numbah One added.

“Woah,” Numbah Four said, looking at Marinette with newfound respect.

           Numbah Two sqeauled, “This is the best day ever. You have to sign my Yipper card.” He told Marinette. “It’s an ultra-rare collectable. Only three still exists. The rest were destroyed.”

“But, but, but how?” Numbah Five asked, removing her hat. “All records of Numbah Seventy-Two was struck from the history of the KND. Only the supreme leader and her team ever knew what happened to her.”

“They pinky-swore not to tell anyone what happened!” Numbah Three added. “No one would ever break a pinky promise.”

“That’s true,” Numbah five nodded. “No kid ever would. Expecially not her team. She saved us. She saved the KND. She saved the world and made it better for kids everywhere.”

           Numbah One nodded. “Exactly. No kid would ever break the solemn oath. But do you remember just who was one her team?”

           Looks of realization appeared on the kids’ faces, and then anger.

“Numbah Two Hundred and Seventy-Four,” Numbah Five said bitterly. “He was Number Seventy-Two’s second in command for years. And He betrayed her. Why am I not surprised?”

“But why?” Numbah Two asked. “I mean if she was still Numbah Seventy-Two I’d understand. She stopped Principle Boutface from ending summer vacation forever. She stopped Father from making Halloween adults only forever and ever. Name a bad guy, and I can guarantee she kicked their butts! And most importantly she even beat…” Numbah Two paused, clearly afraid. “well you know. She’s done loads of cool things. But She can’t remember anything. So why? Why come get her now?”

“She beat who?” Numbah Four asked. “I don’t know. Who’d she else did she beat? Why were they so important?”

           Numbah One and Five looked away. Both remembered but neither wanted to say anything.

“We were still just little babies when it happened,” Numbah Three answered seriously. “Still finishing training. We never really knew what was going on. Too little for anyone to tell us. We just knew it was bad. Kids were always scared, always hurting…”

“It was a dark time,” Numbah One agreed. “Before Father took over, there was another in charge of the evil adults in the world. But he worse than Father could’ve ever dreamed of being. Kids were scared to go to sleep. They were afraid of their closets and what was under their beds. OF every shadow. No kid would be caught out after dark. They were too scared. Nowhere was safe. No one was safe. Not from him. Not from…”

“The Boogieguy,” Numbah Five finished. “The most powerful leader the adults ever had. The strongest, most evil villain you can imagine. But Numbah Seventy-Two refused to back down. She was the only who could stand up to him. The only one to ever beat him.”

           Numbah Two nodded, “Legend says the Boogieguy had a nasty plan to open a portal to unleash meanest, nastiest monsters another world to get kids to behave better. But Numbah Seventy-Two heard and went to beat him once and for all. And she did too. She trapped him in his own trap. He’s been there ever since!”

Numbah Three added, “Numbah Seventy-Two finally defeated the Boogieguy, she locked him away in a place so scary, so terrifying not even the adults would be willing to go near it. Which it means it has to be really, really, REALLY, scary. Only she knew how to get him out. She used a super-secret password that only she knew. And then, and then she, she!” Numbah Three burst into tears.

Numbah One placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, “To stop the Boogieguy for good, and to make sure no kid ever had to suffer his wrath again, she decommissioned herself. She was only eleven.”

“It was a hard sacrifice, but one kids everywhere will never forget,” Numbah One vowed. “And the Global KND didn’t let it be in vain. We fought back harder than ever before. Her team-”

“But, but,” Numbah Four look around, “She wasn’t even a teenager, why’d she go and do a stupid thing like that for?”

“To save us,” Numbah Five answered, and put her hat back on. She looked at Marinette with hard eyes. “To save the KND, and protect kids everywhere. Because of her, the KND finally turned the tables on adults. We weren’t scared of the dark anymore.”

“Was never the same!” Numbah Five snapped at him. “None of them were ever the same after fighting Boogieguy, after what happened to Numbah Seventy-Two. They couldn’t handle being around each other anymore. They are transferred to different teams. Their entire sector was retired. Number Three Hundred and Sixty-Two. Numbuh Sixty. My sister- Cree! Numbah Two Hundred and Seventy-Four, UGH! Look what they became. Ya don’t need to be decommissioned to not recognize them anymore.”

           It went quiet. The kids not knowing what to say. Marinette had never been so confused in her life. Had she been some sort of Spy kid? Had her memories been erased? What was going on?

           And if everything, the kids were saying was real, and Marinette decided that it was, then she was a little peeved at Chad and Cree, her old teammates apparently, for going against everything this KND had accomplished… That Marinette had apparently sacrificed herself for. And what for? To side with some evil adults?

“…The KND have figured out a way to destroy Boogieguy forever,” Numbah one said. “Unfortunately the adults have also become aware of the Boogieguy’s location and want release him. In order for either side to succeed in their mission, we need Numbah Seventy-Two.”

           All eyes turned back to Marinette.

Numbah Five cast a sad look at Numbah Seventy-Two, Marinette, “Chad and Cree will come for her.” Of that Numbah five was certain. The lone picture of ABC that sat next to Cree’s bedside nightstand was proof enough of that. It was the only thing her big sister ever kept of her KND days, apart from her memories. The only “little kid” thing she didn’t scorn. “They won’t stop until they get her. I don’t think Cree or Chad ever forgave the KND agreeing that Numbah Seventy-Two should erase her memories.”

           They never forgave themselves for letting her, Abby didn’t add.

“She was decommissioned, hello!” Numbah Two reminded them. “She can’t remember anything.”

           Number One took off his glasses and looked at the teenager who, in another life, had been everything he ever dreamed of being in the KND. She was a legend. A hero. She had, once, been the best of them all. “She will.”

[youryanderedaddy]

Lady Luck (pt. 1)

I was so hyped to write this lol. Heavily inspired by Kaiji <3

Tw: mafia mention, unrealistic potrayal of mafia, mentions of threats, implied obssessive behavior (will get more hardcore in the second part tho), mentions of gambling, kidnapping /not reader/

 You knew that you were a scum, a lowlife, a miserable loser without much hope in life - that’s exactly why you had no problem joining the deadliest underground paradise and following under the steps of the Lucciano family. They controlled everything - the casinos, the drugs, the guns, the whores, you name it - they provided it. And you had nothing - neither a past, nor a future. But everything changed when the oldest son Thomas decided to help you get out of the mud and step onto your legs - he gave you a home, a friend to return to, a shoulder to cry on when reality felt too painful and harsh, just too much to bear on your own. “Why would you do that for a stranger?” You had asked him once while tipsy, sitting by the hearth, a slight blush adorning your soft cheeks. “That’s easy.” The man had responded right away without giving it much thought. “You remind me of myself.”

 You spent long nights thinking about his words but never came to a conclusion - he was born into a powerful, wealty family, so it made no sense for him to have experienced rock bottom the way you had. And his small black eyes displayed such a variety of terryfing emotions - bloodlust, greed, sin and so much sadness. Why would a monster ever feel scared, you wondered. 

 Working for the Luccianos wasn’t especially hard or even dangerous - you ran small errands for them, took care of the younger kids, helped with insignificant deals, acted as a croupier when their staff was sick or missing or had to be taken care of, but one thing you were thankful for was how they never tried to force you into doing something you would never be able to forgive yourself for. Thomas was kind to you -  always so considerate, willing to listen, to understand how you felt even when the worlds you two lived in differed so greatly. He was supposed to be villain of the story, big and scary, demanding, taking whatever he wants without asking and never feeling an ounce of regret about it. And for a while, you were suspicous of the man’s every move - you were desperately waiting for the mobster to fuck up and show his true colours so you could let yourself hate him, despise him. And yet the sweet, sweet moment of revelation never came. You knew, of course, of the many evil deeds the criminal bestowed upon thousands of innocent people each and every day, but you never witnessed it with your own eyes and when the man was treating you like a part of his family, holding you close and giving you chance after chance to prove yourself, it was slowly getting impossible to view him as the bad guy. Perhaps you should have waited just a little longer.

 It happened during a warm, spring day. You didn’t expect it, you couldn’t. You had just finished your shift at midnight in the small shop you worked in, which belonged to Thomas’ mother, and were heading to the Lucciano mansion. It had been a particularly long and exhausting day, so you wanted nothing more than to feel the soft, silky, white sheets down your half-naked body while the quiet classical music took you to dream land and back. But upon opening the heavy wooden door, you quickly noticed something was different - there was no music, the big black TV in the middle of the hall was set to camera mode instead of the normal one, and it was awfully quiet. “They must have had to leave the country for a while.” You rationalised. “It has happened before after all.” You kept reassuring yourself while taking a tiny step towards the centre of the room where light was the strongest - it could uncover every hidden little detail.

 And then the TV was turned on. You shifted your gaze up, paranoia eating at you from inside out. Soon there was clear image on the massive screen, but what you saw left you speechless. There were hours of footage from your personal life - working, hanging out with friends, eating, bathing. What made the shivers down your spine run cold was a scene where a guy, your boyfriend, was kissing you, touching you, undressing you with his praying eyes. It was nothing unusual for a young woman to have a love life, but this broke the only rule Thomas had told you upon entering the house - you were forbidden from having close relationships with men, especially dangerous ones, and for the longest time, you had no issue living by that as long as you came back to the luxury and warmth the mobster provided for you. Until you met him - a charming, clever member of a local gang. You knew it was wrong and could cost you more than you were willing to sacrifice and yet you still gave in. It was your first time experiencing the highs and lows of love, so who could blame you when it was such a magical feeling, a mixture of adrenaline and opium. Alex made you feel like a real human being instead of someone just existing, leeching off the stronger, wealthier species.

 There was a shadow moving out from the corner, playing into your delusions. But soon enough you realised it was all a reality as none other than Thomas walked slowly towards you, clapping his hands dramatically, a sly smirk on his beautiful, scarred face. Did he...

 "Congratulations." The man started off, dark eyes set on you, slowly coming closer and closer like a big black hole, ready to swallow you whole. "You went and got yourself a little boy - toy." The criminal chuckled viciously under his breath, making you cringe at the crude nickname he used. The situation felt surreal and yet the fear and panic were already suffocating you, making you dizzy wish regret. "I wish you would have told me though... I never thought someone I hold so important would lie to me." The mobster kept rambling, waving his arms in the air theatrically, while holding a lit cigarette, but never moving it to his lips - it was just a prop, a way to create a thick smoke mist in your eyes. It was finally the hour of judgement.

 "What do you want?" You asked, faking confidence, desperate to take control of what was happening. It was a bizarre thing to see your dearest friend act in such a eerie, frightening way, almost treating you like one of his victims - nothing more than an indebted bastard or an unfortunate bystander, unlucky enough to catch a deal unfolding right behind the scenes. It hurt but you had forced this upon yourself and you had to fix it.

 "Nothing much, really." Thomas replied, finally inhaling the deadly smoke into his open mouth. He played with his collar for a while, as if you weren't standing there, scared for your life. "I just want to teach you a lesson in obedience, doll." The mafioso continued, circling you slowly, his heavy gaze never leaving your body. You felt awfully exposed even when all your clothes were present, covering every inch of your skin. With a swift snap of his fingers, the man summoned most of the gorillas that worked under him. Two of them were dragging your kicking, screaming boyfriend towards the centre of the room, but a quick punch in the guts managed to quiet him down. He looked terrified, his face bloody and injured, covered in dust and misery. But he was still alive and only that mattered to you.

 "I wanted to make this entertaining for all of us." The oldest Lucciano spoke out, his husky voice echoing trough the golden ceiling. He moved over to your lover and harshly pressed the cigarette butt against the exposed skin of his unprotected arm. The man cried out in pain, silently pleading you to help with his big, terrified eyes. And here you were, as helpess as he was - if not even more. "So I decided to initiate a little gamble of sorts, ya know?" Thomas winked at you, smiling with malice. You couldn't help, but recall all the times you two had played poker together, betting less than pocket change. You never understood why the man always got so excited despite winning such small sums, especially when his casinos already did well. But now you could see it clearly - he got off crushing his opponent, taking the victory under their noses. Money meant nothing. As long as he was able to ruin your mood, your life, the man was pleased.

 Soft white light lit up the furthest corners of the hall and you saw dozen square boxes, arranged in a circle. It looked harmless enough on its own, still they were stamped with Thomas’ symbol - a dove. You used to wonder why someone in the most dangerous depts of mafia would choose such an innocent, sweet signature pf representation and now the answer was right in front of you - that way it was easier to trick the enemy into thinking they were safe. And how wrong were they. 

 “As you can see, there are nine wooden boxes in total. They look exactly the same and on top of each one there is a hole.” Thomas stopped to point at them, the raw anticipation flooding his otherwise dull pupils. “Six of the boxes are empty. In the other three though, there are placed some of the most poisonous snakes in the world. One bite and you are dead.” The madman gave a loud, breathy laugh while your boyfriend squirmed uncomfortably in place, restrained by the strong arms, holding him down. “Both of you will take four turns putting your hand in the boxes. After every round the box would be closed off and you would be able to choose only from the remaining ones. ” The mobster grinned widely, looking at your horrified expression. You couldn’t believe that the man was willing to put your lives on the line simply because you had neglected one of his orders. “Now you may be wondering where the suspence is - after all you would probaby manage to hear the hissing from afar and avoid the place it comes from. Rest assured, my foolish little friends. Right now the snakes are heavily intoxicated and absolutely silent - which doesn’t mean, of course, that they won’t attack any soft flesh they see. If you die, that’s on you, but if you survive, you will be rewarded.” Thomas clapped his hands together and his man let go of your lover, resulting in his falling to the ground with a heavy bang. Thomas pursed his lips together.

 “Shall we get started?”

[panharmonium]

behind this mask...is another mask!  

sometimes i think about how true this “joke” of a statement is, and how welcome a change it must be for kakashi to start spending all his time with three kids who are too young to realize it.

for all that kakashi is obviously a person who’s been trying to scrape together some degree of anonymity (in whatever way he can - the mask, the headband, anbu), he has long since been stripped of most of his privacy.  he can put on as many masks as he wants, but he’s living an incredibly overexposed life - all of his most traumatic experiences were high-profile, high-publicity events, and some of them made him famous enough that every antagonist he encounters in every country he visits already knows far more about him than he would EVER choose to disclose to someone he’d just met, or even to a friend - if he ever even had that choice, which he never does, because everybody he meets already knows all of the things he might be reticent to reveal.  

for someone who is so clearly trying (in vain) to put some distance between himself and the total strangers who know far too much about him, this is profoundly uncomfortable.  it’s like walking around naked all the time.  nothing is private for him, no matter how hard he tries to cover up.  he has a mask to hide his face, but everybody already knows who he looks like.  he has a headband to hide his eye, but everybody already knows what’s under there.  his teacher’s death is probably the most well-known and widely-discussed event in recent hidden leaf history, and his student’s departure (and subsequent infamy) is now an international issue.  every single intensely personal and painfully intimate tragedy in kakashi’s life is very much out there in the public eye for people to scrutinize, and i think this situation probably just gets more uncomfortable after the uchiha massacre, because now not only is kakashi the first (and only, as far as people know) non-uchiha to ever possess the sharingan, he’s also suddenly the LAST person to possess it, at least until sasuke’s potential abilities awaken.  

kakashi can cover his face all he wants, but it doesn’t matter.  he might as well be wearing a flashing neon sign on his headband, for all the privacy it grants him.  

but with the kids, though -

the kids are too young to know.  they weren’t alive for the third great ninja war or for the battle that finally brought it to a close.  they’re too young to remember the nine-tails attack.  they don’t know anything about what happened to kakashi’s father or how kakashi got his eye or how he’s connected to the leaf village’s most famous martyr or any of the other horrible things that have happened to him.  they do eventually start to realize that he’s famous, in a sort of vague, undefined way, but it doesn’t mean anything concrete to them.  to them, kakashi is just their sensei.  he can shoot lightning out of his hand.  he can kick zabuza’s butt, twice!  he can use four different chakra types.  he has a pack of talking dogs.  he weaves hand signs faster than the eye can follow.  he’s the coolest mofo on the planet, but he's also very stupid, because he’s obsessed with the dumbest books the kids have ever seen and he’s ALWAYS late for EVERYTHING.  

and i’ll tell you right now - kakashi loves being perceived like this.  with the kids, he gets to just be, and he loves every second of it.  he loves that they think he’s a chronic oversleeper with no sense of punctuality; he loves that it drives them bonkers - they don’t need to know that he’s always late for them because he visits his friends’ memorial stone first thing every morning and gets stuck there thinking about “what an idiot [he] used to be” - they have no reason to suspect something like that about him; they just yell at him for being lackadaisical and he's perfectly happy to let them do it; he’s perfectly happy to entertain them by coming up with more and more outlandish excuses that they can scold him about.  he loves when they make fun of his reading material and take advantage of his fannish devotion to it so they can best him in a fight.  he loves when they fall out of a tree on top of him because they’re mistakenly convinced that he’s dating somebody and they’re desperate to discover all the dirty details.  he loves when they obsess over what’s under his mask and start spying on him; he plays along with all their schemes and lets them stalk him and sets up decoys and eventually agrees to “reveal” what’s underneath as part of a bigger joke, which he knows will drive them crazy (but which he also knows will be the most entertaining outcome) - he couldn’t be happier to be playing along with these games!  he doesn’t mind their occasionally curious and clumsy attempts to stick their noses into his business; he knows it just means they’re interested in him, like all kids are interested in the Very Secret and Mysterious Lives of their teachers.  they’re having fun, and kakashi loves seeing kids get to be kids, so he chooses to have fun right along with them.  nothing about it bothers him - no matter how much they try to stalk him, kakashi still gets to decide how much of his personal life they’re privy to (and that’s a relief, because it’s not a luxury he has with anyone else).  

but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t ever share things with them.  it just means that when he does, it’s because he chooses to do so, which makes it a far more authentic connection than whatever he experiences with random strangers who already know all his personal business without ever having put in the time to earn that kind of intimacy.  kakashi tells the kids things about himself not because he’s forced to, but because he wants to, and the fact that he sometimes makes these kinds of choices even when his natural inclination is to preserve what little privacy he has left is exactly what makes him such a good teacher.  that scene he has up in the tree with sasuke is important precisely because kakashi doesn’t have to tell sasuke what he does (“everyone you’re talking about has already been killed”) - he could have just given sasuke a lecture and been satisfied with that; he could have demanded that sasuke listen to him solely because one of them is the authority figure and one of them is the student - but instead, he chooses to disclose his own history, his own feelings, his own struggle, because he knows that sasuke deserves more than platitudes from people who can’t possibly understand how he feels; he needs to hear from somebody who legitimately knows what he’s going through (see: it’s easy for you to talk; you have no idea!  maybe if i were to kill the most important people in your life - everyone who’s ever meant anything - maybe then i’d listen to you, because maybe then you’d have some idea how i feel!)  kakashi knows he won’t have any credibility with sasuke until he opens that connection, vulnerable as it makes him, and so he doesn’t hesitate.

nor does he mind.  he’s comfortable making that choice.  he’s perfectly willing to open himself to somebody else when he feels it’s appropriate, but the trouble is that the only time he ever has a choice to do so is with the kids.  everybody else in the Leaf and beyond already knows too much about him - he’s been mistaken for his father in multiple countries, at multiple ages, and every single villain he encounters has some kind of comment to make about his eye even before the headband comes off.  despite the barriers kakashi has tried to put up between himself and other people, everyone he meets is privy to details of his history that are WAY too personal and painful for total strangers to know, and it’s only with the kids that he manages to escape that constant overexposure.  his students are too young to know anything about him, and too unsuspecting to realize that asking around might net them any information.  they don’t know that kakashi’s father was more legendary than the sannin, or that he killed himself when kakashi was many years younger than they are now.  they don’t know that kakashi lost his own eye protecting a friend, or that he got his new eye when that same friend was crushed to death saving kakashi’s life.  they don’t know that the rest of kakashi’s history has just been one long parade of loss.  

to them, kakashi sprang into existence the day he became their teacher, and ever since then, he’s just been ‘Our Cool Sensei, Who’s Also Stupid.’  that is such a gentler, happier, more hopeful image of himself than the one everybody else sees when they look at him.  and when he’s with the kids, i think it’s all kakashi wants to be.

[bamfdaddio]

X-Men Abridged: 1975

The X-Men, those super dramatic mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 94 - 96) - by Chris Claremont, Len Wein and Dave Cockrum

You think I won’t automatically be able to include a powerful Storm-moment in every instalment? Watch me. Claremont is a much bigger Storm-fan than I am. (X-Men 96)

So, originally, the plan for the All-New X-Men would’ve been very different: the series would have remained Giant-Sized and it would’ve come out four times per year. This format would have allowed enough room to split focus between thirteen team-members. However, when the Krakoa-issue turned out to be crazily uncannily astonishingly popular, the series became a bi-monthly series. This necessitated some changes, especially in the roster.

Also, there’s this new writer? Chris Claremont? idk man, he seems a little dramatic

The first thing this new kid on the block does, is clean house: he jettisons almost all of the original X-Men, except for Cyclops. In a tear-filled goodbye, we finally get our first on-panel kiss between Jean and Scott. Fucking finally, only took you twelve years, but also: aw.

C’mon Scott, you can try long distance! Consider the benefits, like not having to look at your girlfriend dressing like a Hart-of-Dixie villain. (And don’t think you’re off the hook, Lorna. You look like a Christmas ornament) (X-Men 94)

Sunfire, surprising no-one, also leaves. (For real this time.) I’ve always wondered what the original plan for him would have been, but considering there are two other grumpy and angry rebels on the team (Thunderbird and Wolverine), I understand why Shiro would be a little redundant. It is a shame that it’s a POC that gets discarded, especially considering what happens later.

No time for absent souls, let’s get into the plot! Thunderbird desperately wants to prove himself, while Scott wants him to show some restraint. They butt heads and T-bird gets hurt during training. Despite his injury, he insisting he joins the team on their next mission! Because it’s the Avenging Ex-X-Man Beast who calls for aid.

I love that Beast brushes aside this almost entirely new team of X-Men just as easily as my aunt brushed aside the new boyfriend I brought home for Christmas. (X-Men 94)

As an aside, I’m assuming y’all know what happened to the Beast: in the Avengers, he experimented on himself and turned himself furry and blue. One of his most iconic moments! (And it didn’t even happen in an X-Men comic.)

Count Nefaria has once again allied himself with a team of silly super-villains and invaded the NORAD (North-American Air Command) in order to ransom the entire world with nuclear weapons. When the X-Men approach, Count Nefaria shoots them from the sky and we get one of the hallmarks of Claremont’s writing: the sometimes unnecessarily DRAMATIC CLIFFHANGER! Because the issue ends as the X-Men plummet to their FOR SURE INEVITABLE deaths…

Except, you know, Colossus doesn’t really do falling damage and Storm and Banshee can fly.

Look, realistically, all of them would’ve hit the ground somewhere around Kurt’s second sentence. (X-Men 95)

When everyone is safely down, Nightcrawler teleports inside the base and lets the rest of the X-Men in. Colossus gets to shine by protecting the rest of them from bullets, while Storm washes the hypnotized soldiers away with a quick flood. They fight the Ani-Men but the two X-Men who haven’t had the time to shine… are promptly knocked out.

“Gort wanted to take out that mutant, so Gort just threw the first thing Gort could find.”

“Which was?”

“Another mutant.” (X-Men 95)

Banshee and Thunderbird perform pretty poorly, while the other X-Men try and stop the Doomsday Clock that Nefaria started.

It’s a little confusing how the clock is stopped - somehow, all the fighting and ruckus in the base stopped the clock from going to zero, preventing the launching of the nukes? Seems like a design flaw, US government! Anyway, the Doomsday Clock is not the focus of this story, not really: this is a story about John Proudstar and his desperate need to prove himself. In order to stop Count Nefaria from escaping, the heretofore useless John jumps on his plane and begins tearing at it.

It’s a foolish plan. The plane ascends and begins to smoke while John keeps pulling off bits and pieces. Banshee gives chase, screaming at Thunderbird to get the fuck off that thing (laddie). But…

Just like John, Charles doesn’t recognize a hopeless situation when he’s right in the middle of it and is just as unwilling to let go. (X-Men 95)

Now, John Proudstar is not entirely unproblematic as a character. With Storm, they get things mostly right, especially considering what decade this was and how white Marvel was. Thunderbird, on the other hand, veers dangerously close to becoming a nasty indigenous stereotype, especially considering his outfit and attitude. Claremont will redeem himself in the future by writing much better characters that are Cheyenne and Apache - Forge, Mirage, Warpath - but as it stands now? John is barely a flat character and it’s a shame that, after writing out Sunfire, the first character to die is also a POC.

And yet, despite the fact that this storyline is Claremont’s first X-Men attempt, and despite the fact that it’s uneven, over-dramatic and has a silly villain, it still takes balls to kill a member of a barely established team. (Especially considering the time and age.) And, while the plotting is a bit thin, the moment where Xavier feels Thunderbird die is pretty effective.

The next story is a lot more typically Claremont, and a lot better. Back in Westchester, Emo!Scott, in all his failure-as-a-leader, someone-died-on-my-watch anguish, damages a cairn when he lets loose. Randomly, this is a capstone to some demonic dimension and Scotty accidentally unleashes a demon.

Can´t you imagine this scene being a lot funnier if the yellow panels are just Claremont shouting at Cyclops? Can’t you?! Can’t you?! (X-Men 96)

Meanwhile, Stephen Lang, an anti-mutant army-man, wants to kick off Project Armageddon, which builds on themes established by the Trasks. Michael Rossi, a colonel who gets imported from the Ms. Marvel-lines Claremont was working on before, wants to hear none of this, so Stephen has a little accident arranged.

Back in the mansion, a surprise new addition to the cast arrives!

Maybe housekeeper was one of the identities Moira X had tried out in a previous life, before quickly realizing that being a scientist would better suit her purposes. (X-Men 96)

Her welcome is rudely interrupted by the arrival of the demon!

More like Unholy Hannah, amirite? (X-Men 96)

Both Wolverine and Storm get their chance to shine, before Storm manages to restore the cairn and lock out the demon invasion. And this is where Claremont actually shines. He’s great at building concurrently running storylines, teasing future plots instead of making it a mishmash of X-Men being attacked by random villains. Furthermore, he actually uses action scenes to further the plot or give depth to his characters. Deftly, he introduces Wolverine’s berserker side and teases at Storm’s claustrophobia. Check it out:

Hey, James, I think your barbarian just unlocked the berserker rage feat. (X-Men 96)

Sure, Claremont sometimes makes the X-Men little more than a superhero soap opera, but he does it so well. We’re truly in a new era now. I can’t wait.

For Whom the Death Tolls: Thunderbird. One of the few X-Men for whom death is actually a sort of permanent state. Has he been spotted on Krakoa yet?

What could have been: Imagine X-Men if Sunfire or Thunderbird had taken the place of ‘angry loner’ on the team, instead of Wolverine. Also, I wonder why Claremont never bothered to connect the demons under the cairn to Limbo - the N’Garai are an entirely separate dimension. Maybe Westchester is just a hotbed of demonic activity.

What to read: None of it is truly pivotal, but X-Men 94 and 95 are hallmarks for the death of Thunderbird. X-Men 96 should be on your reading list if you’re a fan of Wolverine and Storm.

[accidental-spice]

Okay, let's make this Iron Fist re-read post NOW, so my next one can be full of unintelligible ranting about........ Y'know.

Spoilers below.

1. So, this book is when some of my favorite characters come in: Dia Passik(Twi'lek, former slave, little scary, really cool, hasn't seen Face's holo-shows, allegedly immune to his charms. So.), Shalla Nelprin (her older sister taught Kell how to kick butt, and she's even worse) and of course, Ga- *violent coughing* I mean Lara Notsil. Who is a truly FASCINATING character. Also, Castin Donn comes in, but he's not my favorite, TBH. He's got an ego on him. But I'll admit, he has a rather interesting character arc.

2. "Sounds like a mild concussion. See our doctor about it." "Oh, I'm too important a doctor to see anyone as lowly as myself." Why do you crack me up so much, Phanan. Why.

3. 'Wedge retrieved it and looked at the message. It read: *Lieutenant Kettch reporting for duty, sir. Yub, yub, Commander!* Wedge shook his head sorrowfully. "Sometimes I miss my sanity." He retrieved the toy and handed it to Face. "Deal with that." Face, who was working so hard to repress a laugh he couldn't speak, simply threw a salute and escaped with the Ewok pilot.' And thus, a legend was born....

4. Flip to the villain's POV, and they're complaining about a town's name. To be fair, it IS pretty unfortunate.

5. "Rogue Squadron doesn't run," said Corran Horn, dead-pan. "Unless we really, really have to." That got more laughter. "No," said Wedge, "this will be Wraith Squadron's mission. " We don't mind running," Face said. "Even *when* we don't have to." And if someone ever asks me the difference, I'll have my answer.

6. Wedge has officially owned this squadron so hard, everyone in it is his child. Therefore, he will be committing some mild treason if necessary.

7. 'But those pilots who'd just been sacrificed, who'd died to satisfy Zsinj's sense of efficiency. It was like Admiral Trigit. And it wasn't-- "Thirteen." --honorable. There was no honor in it.' Oh, I really like this scene. Lara comes to the realization that Zsinj, and her old boss, Trigit, are the same: honor-less, unclassy, ect. And I love the way it's put together, I love her realization, I love the part after that when she and the rest of the squad get back and she realizes that she's one of them now. They've adopted you, Lara. Too late, you can't retract it.

8. 'Wedge gaped. "You robbed a bank." "We did. It was fun, too." So, I really like Kell and Phanan's friendship. And despite the fact that Kell gets the girl, and Phanan doesn't, they do stay friends. Which I really like.

9. ' "You do remember that the Hawkbats are a front, a sham?" Kell and Phanan exchanged looks suggesting that this was news to them.'

10. Okay, I don't really know where to start with this part. It breaks my heart every time. Phanan just doesn't see anything in his future. At all. And Face and I are equally saddened by this. I just wish... I guess I wish things were different, as I often do with Star Wars. And real life. I wish that Phanan had hope. That's all.

11. Lara trusts Donos. Which is a first for her. Plus, like, romantic foreshadowing. Yay.

Well, there's chapters one-ten. Sooner or later, I'll get through the......... Halmad part. And then I'll make a really long, incomprehensible post about it all.

[uwu-shinsou]

Stakeout

Summary: After an unexpected breakup, pro hero Ground Zero is the last person you expect to be comforting you. And also conducting a stakeout in your living room.

Warning(s): Language, themes of breakups

Pairing: Pro Hero!Bakugo Katsuki x Reader

Genre: Hurt/comfort, I guess slight angst?, light fluff, Bakugo tries to be comforting

Word Count: 2.3K

A/N: Okay first off idk about the whole legality of a hero secretly having a stakeout in your home but let’s just IGNORE that pls and thnx LOL. I was scrolling through AUs and saw one that was like “im an assassin conducting a stakeout in your house and you weren’t supposed to be home until next week” and I said okay but what if it was pro hero Bakugo and BAM HERE WE ARE!! So pls enjoy my first baku fic, I tried to make him just as fiery but also slightly more mature since he be a PRO in this 😌

You gotta be honest, the last thing you were expecting to come home to was a famous pro hero conducting a stakeout in your living room.

You hadn’t even planned to be home at all this long weekend. You and your boyfriend had planned a weekend trip together, driven all the way to the hotel, only for him to promptly break up with you and confess that he’d been seeing another girl for almost the entirety of your relationship. You’d dumped him, kicked his butt out of the car, and promptly driven two hours back home, trying your best not to cry over it.

You’d lugged your suitcase up five flights of stairs to your door, fumbling with your house key before sliding it into the lock. You tiredly stepped into the dark apartment, closing your door behind you with a sense of finality.

While locking the door, you began to mumble out the stream of consciousness that had been running through your mind since the moment you left the hotel.“If I ever see his face again I’m seriously gonna break his nose. How dare he even-” 

You walked a few steps forward into the living room, only to freeze up and let out a screech as the dark outline of a person moved from your couch. Your hand shot out behind you, and the metal baseball bat that you kept near the door flew through the air and into your hand. You took a prepared stance, ready to bash the intruder’s head in with your weapon.

“You have three seconds to tell me who you are before I start swinging!” You hiss, readying the bat.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” The darkened figure said, taking a step towards.

“No! No, do not come any closer to me. I’ve had a very bad day and I will take my anger out on you!” You threaten, pointing that bat at the intruder to act as a barrier.

“Hey! Don’t do anything fucking rash! I’m just turning on the light, okay?” In a moment you were blinking into the soft light of the room, gaping at the man who you’d almost just clobbered with a bat.

Your arms slowly lowered, the tip of the bat resting on the floor as you blinked in disbelief. “...Ground Zero?” You asked dumbly.

“Yeah, that’s me,” He answered curtly. “Now what the hell are you doing here?”

You looked at light haired hero in disbelief before glancing around the room. “Uhhh, this is my apartment? We’re standing in my living room, and you were sitting on my couch. I think I’m the one who should be asking what you’re doing here.” You slung the bat over your shoulder and glared at him, trying to calm the butterflies in your stomach from the fact that one of Japan’s top pro heroes was standing in your living room. 

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” He grumbled, walking back to the couch and grabbing his phone. “WHAT THE HELL?” Ground Zero yelled as his phone flew out of his hand and into yours. His eyes closed and he huffed out an angry sigh. “Fucking telekisnesis. I forgot that was your quirk.”

Your mouth opened in surprise and you clutched his phone to your chest. “How do you know what my quirk is?”

Ground Zero opened his eyes and glared harshly at you. Questioning and antagonizing the most temperamental pro hero was probably not my smartest move you thought as he began stalking towards you.

“F/n L/n, early 20s, telekisnesis quirk, barista and occasional babysitter, lives alone, has been dating her boyfriend for five months, and, most importantly, isn’t supposed to be home for four days because she was on a trip with her shitty ass boyfriend!” He finished his statement with a growl, and his red eyes felt as if they were burning a hole in your face.

You averted your gaze, shuffling your feet as you mumbled, “Well you’re right that he is a shitty ass boyfriend.”

“Listen, I don’t have tme for your drama. According to our intel, you shouldn’t be here until Monday night,” He said accusingly.

“Well I didn’t want me to be back this early either!” You said, letting go of the bat and sending it back to it’s spot by the door. Your hands tightened into fists in frustration and you pushed past the intimidating hero, making your way into the kitchen.

“Hey- don’t you fucking walk away from me!” Ground Zero stomped behind you, staring in disbelief as you started rummaging through your pantry. “I asked you a question!”

You turned around to face him, holding a full package of cookies. “Guess what, Ground Zero? I don’t care!” You exclaimed, opening the package. “Honestly? I don’t even care why you’re in my apartment! Go ahead, make yourself at home! Sit on my couch, eat my food, watch my TV, it doesn’t even matter! The past five months of my life have been a fucking lie, so please just leave me alone to cry in my room and eat my feelings away.” You shoved a cookie into your mouth and tried to step past him. The hero side stepped into your path, and no matter which way you tried to go, he was in front of you. You were just about ready to take a swing at him when he started talking.

“Y/n,” He said. Hearing him use your name startled you enough to stop you in place. He huffed out a quick sigh before speaking. “We’ve been tracking down a rising villainous organization for half a year now. Eveytime that we get close to making the bust, they pick up and move operations. This time, we’re one step ahead of them.” He gently took your arm and guided you back into the living room and over to the window. “We have to take extra precautions when dealing with them, since any sign that the police are on to them causes them to run.” He points out the window to the building next door. It was a squat, rectangular warehouse of four stories. With you apartment being on the fifth floor, it had the perfect view in through a poorly covered sky light. 

The pro hero switched out the lights in the room, allowing you to see clearly out and into the other building. You crouched down to get an even better look, and Ground Zero lowered himself down next to you. He handed you a pair of binoculars and pointed to the left side of the skylight, where you could see a group of people working at a long table. Looking through the binoculars brought the figures into clearer view.

“Ground Zero, are they-”

“Bakugo,” He said, interrupting you. “Just- Bakugo is fine, okay?”

You glanced at him in surprise before looking back into the adjacent building. “Alright then, Bakugo. Are they making-” You squinted and focused harder on the objects lying on the table. “Support items?”

“Yeah that’s right,” He responded. “A black market organization for support items to supply to villains. We’ve been through hell trying to track the weapons back to them, but we had a breakthrough a few weeks ago.”

You hummed in thought, shoving a cookie in your mouth before offering one to the pro hero. Bakugo’s eyebrows raised in surprise, but he accepted it nonetheless.

“So you needed my apartment to finish getting your dirt on them, and then you planned on doing your big bust?”

“More or less, yeah. And being here,” He gestured vaguely to your apartment. “Was critical because that skylight was in the perfect place to capture incriminating photos of them doing deals earlier tonight. We’re fucking finally ready to finish this.”

“And how many heroes are on this job, exactly?”

Bakugo held up a hand, counting on his fingers as he thought through it. You hid a smile behind your hand at the gesture. “I guess a dozen or so, plus the local police force. There’s a good number of those shitty criminals in there, but we’ve faced a lot worse.”

You sighed, eating another cookie. “Well, sorry that my breakup got in the way of your important hero plans. I could leave I guess, maybe stay with a friend for the weekend-”

“Shut the hell up, I’m not gonna kick you out of your own damn apartment,” He said, rising from his spot on the floor beside you and going back to his supplies laid out on the couch. “I’m not exactly a very patient person so the bust is happening within an hour anyways. There are heroes and police stationed all around in the other buildings and streets, so I won’t be in your hair for that much longer.”

“Oh,” Was all you said, slowly putting a cookie in your mouth. 

The hero stopped fiddling with his supplies and plopped onto the couch, his furrowed eyes meeting your gaze. You raised an eyebrow in question, holding out the cookie package in a silent offering.

“No that’s not- did you say ‘breakup’?”

You huffed out a humorless laugh. “Uh huh. Bastard was cheating on me for basically our entire relationship. I guess I just wasn’t good enough or something.” You bit the inside of your lip and looked down at your lap, furiously trying not to cry. I’ve already embarrassed myself enough, I definitely do not need him to see me crying right now.

“But don’t worry about me, I should just leave you to get ready to, er- arrest some criminals and- do your hero stuff.” You quickly stood up, clutching the cookie package to your chest, and tried to make your way past him while hiding you face. “I’ll just- go sit in my room so I don’t bother you.”

You’d almost made it to the hallway when you suddenly bumped into something that was definitely not your furniture.

You let out an “oof” as you collided with Bakugo’s chest, his hands landing on your shoulders to steady you. You glanced up at him, and his face showed he was just as surprised as you were. He then realized he was still touching you, and took his hands off your shoulders like it had burned him.

“Listen- it’s shitty that he did that to you, and there’s no way you deserved it,” Bakugo said, and the absolute sincerity of it made you burst into tears.

Bakugo started to panic then. “Oh shit, what’s wrong? Did I say it wrong or-” He cut himself off as you vehemently started shaking your head, trying to rub the tears away.

“No no no no,” You said, assuring him. You sniffled, desperately trying to stop your crying. “I guess that I just-” A fresh wave of tears hit you and started rolling down your face, making Bakugo hover his hands in front of him, unsure of what to do. 

“I know that I’m not very good at this, but if you want I can go and beat the shit out of him or something,” He said, making you laugh as you wiped your face.

“I was trying to say that it just- meant a lot to me, that you said that,” you said as you started to calm down. “I didn’t really believe it before, that I didn’t deserve that to happen to me, but when your favorite pro hero says it to you…” You shrugged, giving him a wobbly smile. “Maybe it is true.”

He gave you an assuring smile that you could almost call a smirk. “Well you better believe it, honey, because it’s the truth.” He paused, smugly crossing his arms. “So, your favorite hero, huh?”

“Ahaha,” you felt your face go warm, and you gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorta kinda yeah.” The admission seemed to surprise him, like he didn’t know how to respond.

The beeping of Bakugo’s phone in the living room drew the two of you out of the moment. He bumped his shoulder playfully into yours as he passed. “Glad to hear that I’m your favorite.”

You scrambled to the kitchen to put away your cookies and splash a bit of water on your face as he answered the phone. You could just make out his conversation over the running water.

“What’s up, nerd?... Yeah, I know. I got all the pictures we needed... Good. Everything’s still quiet in there… Got it, I’ll see you in a few.” 

He hung up his phone just as you edged into the living room, watching him glance out the window into the criminal’s headquarters. He let out a huff of a sigh as he started packing up his things. 

You wandered in a little bit further. “So it’s time, then?” You asked. He looked up at you as he finished his packing.

“Yeah, time to beat some villain asses,” He said, shouldering his bag. “You gonna be alright?”

You gave him a soft smile. “I will be. I already feel a lot lighter, like the weight of a whole ass grown man has been released from my body.” Bakugo let out a snort of laughter before falling quiet. “Really, I will be.” You reassured him.

“Of course. But I was serious, if you ever need me to go and knock him around-”

You snickered at him. “Very hero-like.”

“Hell yeah it is,” He responded as you walked him towards the door, opening it for him. “Also maybe don’t go around telling people this happened, ‘cause I’ll probably get my ass kicked for sharing classified information.”

“My lips are sealed, pinky promise,” You said, holding your pinky out towards him. He scoffed but linked his pinky with yours nonetheless. “Good luck, Bakugo.” You started pulling your hand back before he grabbed it and pressed something into it.

“Thanks, sweetheart,” He said with a wink before making his way downstairs and out into the night. You slowly closed the door, leaning back against it and taking a deep breath before opening your hand.

Inside was a scrap of paper with a phone number scrawled across it, and the words “your fav hero” written below.

You may have looked out your window a little more than usual during the rest of the night.