#just the whole squad is here tbh

[classicsmosh]

TNTL #122

[hitomisuzuya]

scaramouche x fem!reader. no smut. arguments. fluff. angst. two arguments in which scaramouche realizes he is in love.

i have been kicking around this idea for awhile, i am just gonna let my fingers do the typing. i don't expect this to hit very well, tbh

scaramouche is notorious for his temper. he is an experience to deal with, and it is not easy for anyone. most especially you, his assistant and secretary. he didn't want one, but he was advised by pierro and the captain that women are very capable for that type of job. that it might be good for him.

so now he was saddled with you. you are small, shorter than he is which was what he first noticed. he supposed you are a hard worker, kind of overachieving to do your best and do everything to the letter. if you messed up, you were quick to cry, which scaramouche loved.

at first.

he is currently in a stand off with you in his office. he is shooting you a glare that would make anyone drop dead and back down. but not you. you are determined to stand your ground.

"i don't need coffee, woman. what i need is competency, and some peace and quiet. and another pen. yet here you are, running your mouth and displaying the incompetency that i loathe," scaramouche snapped, barely even looking at the coffee you set on his desk.

he was stunned to see that you remembered how he likes his coffee. black with no sugar or cream.

"sir, please. you've been working so hard all day without any rest. if you won't rest, at least drink some coffee," your fretting was pathetic to him. he didn't need these things to sustain himself. "and in the meantime, i can find you a pen that won't explode. you probably squeezed the pen too hard," your smile was soft and he hated it.

"shut up, woman. leave. can't you take a hint?" he snarled, figuring that would finally make you flinch and cave.

nope.

instead, you grit your teeth. "i don't shut up, sir. i grow up," tough words for someone who threw the reports he asked (commanded) you organize for him like a child. finally, you turned and left his office, slamming the door behind you.

he swore it rattled through the entire hall. scaramouche's mouth was agape. nobody has talked to him like that before. as infuriating as it was, he thought you were pretty brave for a lowly human. and why did you look so cute when you are angry?

in the wake of all that, you still showed respect for him by calling him sir.

he stopped snapping at you for offering him coffee he didn't ask for after that.

this argument was over a cat of all things.

it was bad enough that his squad seemed to listen to you more than him. you'd found an injured black cat while out on a scouting mission. one that he glared out his tent the whole time watching for you to come back. where were you? this was a simple mission. what was taking so long? he'd hardly seen you all day and it was pissing him off.

when he started getting pissed about it, he didn't know.

there you came, black cat wrapped in your jacket and cradled carefully in your arms. "what took you so long? you are supposed to be my assistant. that dignifies staying close to me," he demanded, striding out of his tent.

you blinked at him, remaining quiet for a moment. "but you sent me out on the mission," you stated the obvious.

"that's not the point. and," he hissed, glaring at the bundle in your arms. "what is that?"

"a cat. i found him injured and abandoned. it's going to snow tonight, i refused to leave him to die," you replied, petting the cat and cooing to the animal as it showed signs of distress sensing scaramouche's unpleasant temperament.

scaramouche knew exactly what you were going to ask the moment you looked at him and opened your mouth. "no," he deadpanned, "go put it back where you found it. now," he crossed his arms. he saw his other subordinates shoot you apologetic looks.

"but-"

he cut you off. "no means no. the cat will just get in the way," his breath hitched in his throat as tears welled in your eyes.

you were quiet for a moment, and he thought he finally won.

nope.

"no," his subordinates suddenly looked very scared.

"what did you just tell me, woman?" he hissed lowly. "repeat yourself, i dare you."

"no," you said more firmly. "i refuse to abandon him and let him freeze to death. how would you like it if someone abandoned you when you needed it the most? that would be so so terrible. i refuse to put this kitty through that any more than he already was."

with that you turned and walked away back to your tent, cat on your arms and striding with a purpose.

scaramouche was stunned. not only had you just so boldly stood up to him, you'd effectively bitch slapped him in the face with words. what you said jarred him right to his core. he stared at your retreating back until you disappeared inside your tent.

your parting words hit home more than he liked to admit. why did you have to be so fucking smart all the time?

he seethed in his tent for many hours. you usually came by and checked on him, asking if he needed anything even if you were angry at him. but he saw hide nor hair of you.

and he couldn't stand it.

"where is my secretary?" he snarled, striding out of his tent and rounding in on the first subordinate he saw. he pointed to your tent.

why did you have your own tent, anyways? you are his assistant, damn it. you should be by his side with him in his tent. "come sit with me for awhile. and bring that infernal beast, if you want."

you look at him like he had two head. "wh-what?" he sighed at your response, raising an eyebrow. you are confused. scaramouche has never asked you to come sit and keep him company before. your heart fluttered like it always did whenever you were in his presence, never the less, you got up and cat in arms followed him back to his tent.

there was a long, companionable silence between the two of you. he noticed you didn't feel the need to start a conversation just to occupy silence. he really values that. "what happened to it?" he finally asked.

he hated he felt jealous of the cat curled up asleep and purring in your lap. "he is a cat, not a thing, scara," your eyes widened realizing you hadn't addressed him with the respect you always did. "i..i'm sorry," you stammered an apology.

sighing, scaramouche shook his head. "stop it. you don't have to call me sir when we are alone, at least. scara is...fine," he observed your relieved smile, looking away shyly as a blush he wished wasn't there dusted his cheeks.

"oh! by the way," you exclaimed, smiling more like a cat who just put her paw in the cookie jar. you unwrapped something from the sleeping cats collar and handed it to him. "you were looking for this, right? you mentioned pierro was suspicious of unrest in a smaller fatui faction. here is the documented proof. it was tied to the cats collar," the way you looked at him now, hoping for some form of approval, he hated to admit how cute you look.

scaramouche looked down at the paper and then back at you. you actually listened to him when he gave mission briefings. you singlehandedly accomplished what the rest of his squad couldn't do the entire week.

he put his hand on your head, stroking it through your hair. "impressive. you can keep i-" he started to say it in reference to the cat, but stopped when you raised an angry eyebrow at him, "him. the cat i mean," it was worth it to see you smile.

you keeping him company turned into a regular occurrence. which then led to you sleeping in and staying in his tent. love wasn't easy for scaramouche, but this was perfect way for it start.

[britcision]

GANG I AM SURE IT IS OLD NEWS BUT I HAVE BEEN DOING MATH AND LEMME TELL YOU A FUCKING THING

EXHIBIT A: MITHRUN’S TIMELINE PER THE DUNGEON GUIDE

EXHIBIT B: KABRU’S TIMELINE PER THE DUNGEON GUIDE

EXHIBIT C: MILSIRIL’S COMIC PER THE DUNGEON GUIDE

HYPOTHESIS: Milsiril was bare minimum visiting, caring for, and feeding Mithrun at points in his timeline between year 480 (trying to recover) and 500 (appointed as a captain - this is also noted to have happened immediately when he was fit for work, since they were running out of people)

In the comic, Milsiril specifically references Utaya (year 499, from Kabru’s timeline - it’s the only demon incident in Utaya), as she uses the incident with the demon in Utaya to get Mithrun to eat and get his act together

Kabru lived with Milsiril in the elven capital from year 499 to 510

Milsiril specifically dislikes and avoids other elves… now with the apparent exception of Mithrun, who she thinks she might have quite liked pre-nuking

Milsiril would not want to go to Mithrun’s family estate and deal with his entire family every time to take care of him… and they may not have been keen on her dolls or cooking

The only thing we know about Mithrun and his family is that he hated his brother, and visits him every five years (brother has extended a permanent invitation for Mithrun to visit any time pretty sure Mithrun overestimates how much his brother cared/noticed he didn’t like him)

His parents deadass aren’t mentioned except to note that he’s the bastard child, and his parents ignored his older brother. There’s an implication here that they preferred Mithrun… until they sent him to a death squad

Milsiril has a repeatedly-mentioned tendency to take in strays, usually kids of short-lived peoples, and strong nurturing instincts that may/may not be pretty dehumanizing

CONCLUSION: there is a non-zero chance that Mithrun and Kabru LIVED TOGETHER FOR A FUCKING YEAR post Utaya at Milsiril’s house and just didn’t even fucking notice

I am losing my mind

This is incredible

Mithrun deadass coulda been The Crazy Uncle In The Attic for a full fucking year

He was busy going feral and blaming himself for Utaya cuz it “could have been different” if he’d been there and recovered for the same fucking year THE LAST SURVIVOR OF UTAYA was in the next room

What kind of unhinged interactions did they have

Kabru was fucking SEVEN the state of Mithrun in that comic woulda fucking RETRAUMATIZED HIM any mention of him being a dungeon lord???? NOPE

We know from the changeling incident that Mithrun barely considered Kabru a distinct person so 0% chance he would ever put it together but KABRU

Kabru is an observant little thot and his favourite thing is making assumptions from his observations

Just a MENTION of Milsiril and Kabru shoulda been all up on that

Mithrun FULLY DID mention her as Milsiril the Gloomy when exposing his backstory and Kabru just… tossed every single name in the garbage

(Which, fair. Elves live a long time, the odds of there being only one Milsiril are 0% and she wasn’t all that gloomy with Kabru, and, frankly, he had bigger concerns named Laios Touden)

Ugh too much too many bits Otta’s comic includes them actually talking about his adoptive mom but without names they were SO CLOSE I am going insane

Fanfiction

So much fanfiction

It MUST be post Kabru/Mithrun this ship is all angst and tbh the whole “desiring someone who can’t desire” is only gonna consternate Kabru for so long so once that is done I want a slice of “WAIT A FUCKING SECOND you’re the guy in the attic???????”

[gnomewithalaptop]

I'm still too distracted to write so here have a list of YJ-cast centric fics that make me froth at the mouth

Kon-centric recs:

I Want It That Way (1990s Tim/Kon) by WynterSky / @wynterstars -- A revamped, 90s-style Superboy origin story with added Lex Luthor AND a lil bit of 90s Robin for spice and flavor. Honestly, this whole series is so elite -- goes hard with the Superboy mythos + angst PLUS the third fic leans hard into the secret identity shenanigans in a way that'd make Miraculous Ladybug jealous. The first fic splits its attention between Tim and Kon, but the latter two are solidly Kon-centric

one plus one (easy math) by connerdrakewayne / @comphetkoncass -- Cassandra Cain and Kon go to a gala together. I'm always a sucker for a good Cass + Kon friendship. This one's very short and sweet, and it gets the job done -- 10/10 would read again

a timeline can be a haunted house by connerdrakewayne -- post-universal reset Kon angst + terrible coping mechanisms! This one goes so hard I read it three times. Tbh this author has an excellent handle on Kon as a character in general, so I honestly recommend just checking out their whole fic stash

Tim-centric recs:

Top 10 Secret Identity Fails by @havendance -- Tim's new English teacher is his on-again-off-again superhero teamup Helena Bertinelli (aka the Huntress). This one's just fun, okay -- the whole thing reads like it could be straight out of Tim's 1993 solo run, plus I love the dynamic between him and Helena. Overall just a very cool vibe

only the dead stay 17 forever by Sky_Dust (couldn't find their tumblr sorry) -- Listen, I've really been restraining myself here, because I realize my love for time-travel bullshit is not universal, but I genuinely couldn't not include this one. This bad boy is a Tim-centric time-loop featuring a seriously unhinged Tim -- definitely a darker tone, but I can't stop rereading it

Bart-centric recs:

reflections on respawning: a gamer's uncertainty by merils / @mamawasatesttube -- Bart has a hard conversation about his death and subsequent resurrection (feat. Kon) man, I just vibe with this one so hard. It's such a thoughtful take on Bart's more contemplative side, while still managing to keep his personality intact

the backlash to the backlash to the thing that's just begun by @kermit-coded -- trans/gnc impulse my beloved <3 also we get some funky Max & Bart bonding, made much rawer and more real by the fact that it's the 90s and nobody knows what they're doing. Again, feels like it's straight out of Bart's solo series

Cassie-centric recs:

you and I, we are more than just this armor by @suzukiblu -- KonCassie bonding + gender feels. They're both so trans in this, and the author does a great job of really digging deep into their complicated feelings (both about gender and about each other)

(also PLEASE somebody give me more Cassie-centric fic recs I'm literally begging you)

Team recs

I'm all yours but you're all mine by suzukiblu -- Poly Core 4 Soulmates AU! Essentially, everybody gets their 'soulmark'/soulmate-identifier (not really, but the best word) right when Kon wakes up in his pod, and because Superboy hasn't really made his big splash yet, they misidentify their soulmate as Superman; this is an issue mainly because 1) they're all 14-15 and Superman is roughly 30-ish, and 2) by the time this fic takes place, Superman is pretty verifiably dead. Currently in-progress, but this is such an interesting and fun take on the usual soulmates trope. I pinky promise you won't regret reading it

Love, Not Loved series by @popsunner -- hoooomygod this series makes me cry literally every time I read it, it's genuinely one of the most realistic representations of grief I've seen on AO3. Basically explores the general fucked-up-edness of pretty much the whole YJ Core 4 Squad dying one by one, with each fic focusing on a different funeral (complete with survivor's guilt, regular guilt, and just plain old complicated feelings). We get Cassie feels, we get Tim feels, we get Bart + Kon feels -- it's the whole shebang. Don't worry -- there's a happy ending eventually, but you def gotta work for it. This series beat me up and stole my lunch money and I'd happily do it all over again

Lost the Last Piece of Me by InsaneTrollLogic / @last01standing -- YJ Core 4 Animorphs AU! I'm sad to say I've never read the original Animorphs series, but every single Animorphs AU I've ever read has been such high quality. Unsurprisingly (I love this author, okay), this fic is no exception to that rule. Solid alien-invasion plot, character driven, and the world-building is explained well enough that even a newbie like me can understand (feat. some TimKon, but it's not the main focus)

Ikonoclast by anantipodean (couldn't find a tumblr) -- Tim and Kon get sent to an alternate reality that's almost (but not quite) like their own. This one's just fun for me -- I love the TimBart buildup and the worldbuilding on the other Earth is a funky time. Also, the other universe's Tim is goth and absolutely cannot stand mainstream-reality Tim, and I find that extremely funny for some reason

[ereawrites]

girl please you are my only source of Shisui content😭😭 really feeding us shisui simps🤝🏻 anyways, if you feel like it, can you please write about shisui and (if you want to) your fav characters “the moment they realized they fell in love with you”

MMMMMMM this is cute asf! under the cut for length

shisui

he definitely already recognises he has Feelings with a capital F. he's a smart boy and unlike the other two he is pretty emotionally available. but he doesn't want to reveal his Feelings just yet because circumstances are tricky, and he doesn't want to go through all the emotions of a big confession just to not be able to pursue a relationship with you

side note this is ANBU shisui. so he's pretty busy and just casually risking his life on the regular. tbh you're also probably in ANBU and that's how you guys get to know each other so well

anyway he's been sitting on these Feelings for a while. and he knows you like him too. he knows. he indulges in some lowkey flirting from time to time, but he also tries to maintain some level of professional distance

and then you save his life and he's SCREWED

you're both assigned to the same mission and spend the entire time dancing around flirting/not flirting, trying to hide it from your teammates, just generally having to try really hard not to distract each other too much. then there's an ambush on your squad and shit gets kinda crazy

shisui probably exhausts himself a bit protecting the entire squad and manages to get himself knocked flat on his ass. there's an enemy stood over him and he's out of kunai and his chakra is depleted and he thinks well, that's that and then you're cutting down the enemy out of nowhere

he stares up at you like an idiot lol. you look like shit, you're covered in blood and your headband is lopsided. and he thinks you're the most beautiful thing he's ever seen

HE LIKES A WOMAN WHO COULD BEAT HIS ASS okay

in that moment he just realises how much he trusts you, and how well you guys work together. he can't stop thinking about it long after you guys get back to the village. he's literally dreaming about it. and after a few days he's like. this is love ig. wow.

shisui won't keep it from you for long. he thinks you deserve to know, even if it changes your dynamic as teammates. capital F Feelings are one thing but love is too important to hide. he might try to keep it professional (mutual pining?!?!??!), but I also see him going for a relationship here, even if you have to hide it from your superiors. and let's be real a secret relationship with shisui. it's hot

kakashi

see now kakashi. he knows he has feelings. but he won't admit it to himself. he says no thank you not today. he's so stupid lol he thinks if he ignores it then it'll go away

he can't really keep himself away from you though. he wants to distance himself and that's his first instinct, but he literally just can't do it. he keeps finding himself wandering into your path, or just happening to train at the same time as you, or listening more intently when a mutual friend mentions your name

and the whole damn time he's like ah yes this is normal friendship. you probably don't realise anything is going on with him though, because kakashi is just weird in general. he does all this strange shit and no one questions it. you encounter him in the makeup aisle of a store on the other side of town from where he lives, and he thinks the jig is up, but you literally just assume he's doing Kakashi Things. and he thinks he's so slick

when it does finally hit him though, it hits him HARD. I see him finally realising he's in love in a very random, domestic moment

okok I've got it. he's back from a pretty tiring mission and he just instantly wipes out in his apartment as usual, doesn't bother getting groceries or anything. he figures he can survive off the food pills in the cupboard for a few days until he has the energy to grocery shop

then you just.....show up at his apartment??? carrying grocery bags?? and start putting food in his fridge????

kakashi doesn't really know how to react to this, but he feels bad just standing there, so he kinda sheepishly shuffles over and starts helping you put the groceries away. and it's nice. this is when he realises

literally drops whatever he's holding. this is a big oh shit moment for him. he lowkey really panics, he has no idea what he's supposed to do with these feelings, it's the dreaded L Word and that's scary as hell. he goes super quiet and avoids eye contact bc he's convinced you're going to read his mind

and of course you think this is Kakashi Things yet again. he's just weird. even over the next few weeks when he starts acting REALLY strange - avoiding you like the plague one day, attached to your hip the next - you don't think much of it. and this makes it sooooo much worse for him lol. he's never going to confess on his own

it's honestly torture for him. he's losing sleep over this. kakashi hatake??? in.... LOVE???? impossible

please please please just let one of your mutual friends intervene. hopefully he (drunkenly) confesses to someone, and they're able to pull some strings to force you to talk to each other. he may literally pass out when he has to confess to you, but just roll with it

tobirama

oh god it's so cliche for tobirama but I have to do it. ENEMIES TO LOVERS

like look at him. he's so smug. he has a lot of pride, so he's pretty likely to end up having some kind of political/ideological rivalry with you. maybe you tend to very vocally disagree with his ideas for the village or strategies for missions. and it annoys him so much, especially because you're articulate and convincing with your points

so he's in this weird position where he has respect for you and your intelligence..... but you also infuriate him to no end. over time, he starts to dwell on your encounters more and more - he thinks about them even when he's training, or relaxing at home, or away on a mission. and this just pisses him off more bc he literally cannot get a moment's peace from you

hashirama notices this WELL before tobirama does. and it makes him all giddy and excited bc he knows what it means, but he doesn't want to ruin the surprise for tobirama lol

honestly it gets to the point where he will ignore everyone else in the room just to debate with you. it's at this point that he starts to realise he's got strong emotions towards you, but he kind of just brushes it off as a rivalry. he definitely doesn't even consider the possibility that they're romantic feelings

tbh. you're going to have to be the one to make the first move. unfortunately for you, tobirama is hot AND irritating, so he's going to get under your skin just as much as you get under his. it probably ends up with a pretty heated confrontation at some point

lets say you've had a pretty big disagreement at a meeting, and he ended up getting his way with the rest of the council. so you storm into his office later that day to chew him out. and tobirama is in one of his smug asshole moods bc he 'won', which means he's just smirking at you. and this is the moment ok just kiss him. wipe the smug look off his face

it takes him a few seconds to react, but he definitely pushes you off and orders you out of his office. at first he's absolutely furious, but then he realises a few days later that he can't stop thinking about the kiss, and not necessarily in a bad way. he finds himself wishing he'd kissed you back, even if just out of curiosity

BUT tobirama is stubborn so he won't admit that to you. he waits until he gets an opportunity to come argue with you, then seeks you out, and tries to goad you into kissing him again. hopefully he manages to piss you off enough to make you do it. because it's GOOD

he can't help but kiss you hard. probably pulls you into him by the jaw, wraps his other arm around your waist, won't let you go. don't wanna get too saucy here but I wouldn't be surprised if this gets a little steamy before he stops himself. he gets lost in the moment

then he pushes you off AGAIN lol it's so frustrating. this time it's bc he's like oh fuck. fuck. this is more than a rivalry

it's gonna end up a game of cat and mouse tbh. neither of you want to admit the depth of your feelings, but you also can't stay away from each other

[sematarygirls]

okay but sonny showing you off infront of the squad and making Amanda jelly because he’s sooooo in love with you

need tbh, omg 🤭

                   ౨ৎ

he would be so excited to introduce you to the squad. you two had only been dating for a couple of weeks, but he talked nonstop about you. they thought he rambled enough before he met you, but after? my god, they wanted to throttle him.

he'd want to do it in a casual setting when the whole team was relaxed and not worrying about cases, so when amanda proposed that they all go out for drinks, he saw the perfect opportunity.

he asked, of course, if he could invite you. he didn't want you to just show up and have it be awkward. they all agreed, though, of course. they wanted to see who had been able to make him so happy recently (also, they weren't even entirely sure that you weren't just a figment of his imagination).

amanda had been oddly quiet when he brought up inviting you, plastering a tight smile on her face and nodding.

"of course," she said, something unreadable in her tone.

normally, sonny would have immediately picked up on her shift in demeanor. he was her, self-proclaimed, best friend after all, but he was just so excited to finally introduce you to these people that he had grown to consider his second family.

he shot you a quick text, asking if you were available to meet them at the bar, and thankfully, you were. although you would probably drop anything you were doing if he asked you to anyway.

his fingers drummed on the bar impatiently as he waited for you. he kept glancing over at the door, willing you to walk through it.

"look at him; he's like a lovesick puppy," fin teased him, noticing that he was more interested in the front door than the conversation going on.

"leave the poor boy alone, fin," olivia scolded him playfully. sonny rolled his eyes at their teasing, not paying it any mind.

"oh, here she is," he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. he practically jumped out of his seat to greet you at the door.

"hey," you laughed, giving him a quick kiss on the lips as he appeared in front of you, seemingly out of nowhere.

"we're right over here," he said, a big, goofy grin on his face. he rested his hand on your lower back, leading you over to the squad. "everyone, this is my girlfriend," he introduced you.

you smiled, giving a little wave as you said hello and told them your name. "it's so nice to finally meet you all. sonny has told me all about you."

"he has, has he?" olivia grinned, raising an eyebrow. sonny smiled nervously, blushing as he rubbed the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't secured around your waist.

"likewise," fin nodded, giving you a warm smile. "i was beginning to think carisi here was making you up."

"nope, definitely real," you laughed nervously. everyone fell silent for a moment, an awkward tension settling. you tried not to take it too personally. you were a stranger, and they were like family. it was natural for there to be some awkwardness. sonny cleared his throat, deciding to break the awkward silence.

"here, take my seat," he insisted, ushering you to the barstool.

"thank you," you smiled brightly, your heart fluttering at your boyfriend's kindness. you didn't think there'd ever be a time when he didn't make your heart race.

"chivalry isn't dead after all," fin joked as you took a seat.

"yeah, yeah," sonny rolled his eyes, a smile playing on his lips. he was used to fin's little remarks by now. he stood behind you, one hand on your waist and the other holding his beer. he was so close that if you leaned back a little, you'd probably press against him. it made a blush rise to your cheeks.

"amanda, right?" you asked, turning your attention to the blonde sitting next to you. she'd been awfully quiet, eyeing you warily. you knew how close sonny was with her, so it was important to you that she liked you.

"yup, that's me," she says, her tone uninterested. she flashes a smile your way, one that doesn't quite meet her eyes.

your brows furrowed slightly. you got the impression that she didn't like you, and you couldn't possibly think of a reason why that may be. you'd only been here for five minutes tops. how had you already done something to put you out of her good graces?

you didn't have long to dwell on this fact, however, because fin's voice cut through your thoughts, making you turn to face him. he began telling some story about his ex-wife that had you smiling and laughing along with him.

fin was so enigmatic. it was almost impossible not to be sucked into whatever he was saying, just by the way that he was saying it.

the rest of the night was a blur of drinks and stories. in the couple hours you were with the squad, you'd learned all about their job and all the embarrassing things sonny had done at one point or another.

he kept on hand on or around you at all times, staying close. so close that you could almost feel the rumble of his laugh. he smiled and doted on you all night long, making you blush. he was so in love with you, and he didn't even try to hide it.

amanda stayed relatively quiet throughout the night, and you could practically feel her burning gaze as she stared at you. she didn't seem anything like what sonny had told you about her, but again, you tried not to take it personally. you were sure she was probably lovely once you got to know her.

really, though, amanda was jealous. she hated how nice you were because it made it hard to hate you (hard, not impossible). she tried to be cordial enough and not show her dislike for you, but to be honest, her poker face wasn't all that great.

she was happy at first when she'd heard him talking about you two, but seeing you two together stirred something inside her that she'd rather not admit.

[clownery-and-fuckery]

As promised, my commentary on Hunter.... to the people that like him, im sorry.

Spoiler warnings and the like, this is pretty negative aside from like maybe three sentences?? Feel free to leave you're own opinions on this too ofc !!! >:)

I dont like Hunter.

Actually, that's not entirely true, I liked him in TCW season 7, when he was that silly man who fucked droids around the place, took no shit, and loved his brothers. I like the Hunter who, not putting this nicely, had a personality.

This is not a dig on him as a character, it's a dig on how he was handled, writing wise

Listen, I totally get that the "rugged-man-adopts-a-star-child" trope is popular, and I do LOVE that trope, really I do- I just don't really think it was done that well here? It's bothered me since s1 of the Bad Batch, and I don't think it's going to get any better this season....

My only real problem with the writing inconsistency of Hunter being an older brother of three to "Omega this, Omega that" and while I agree childcare is SUPER difficult at the best of times, Hunter had four brothers who were equally capable of taking care of Omega, too. It just never sat right with me that taking care of her became his ENTIRE personality

Hes a soldier, who despite being completely out of his element, had a routine he strictly followed for the whole war. Yet he seemed to completely forget about that ?? Stressed or not stressed, that worn in routines and LIFELONG LESSONS should not have left his head as quickly as they seemed to.

The most obvious and frustrating example of the oversimplification of Hunter's character is with Crosshair. I cannot even BEGIN to describe my anger when it comes to Hunter and Crosshair. It mainly stems from the way he just FORGETS his brother is with the Empire. Conveniently never bringing it up unless someone else did it first.

As the oldest sibling and squad leader, I personally think Hunter should have been the one to bring him up. It should not have had to be specifically mentioned by another character for Hunter to discuss it. He loves his brothers, he loved Crosshair, broody or not, he should have brought it up AT LEAST once, imo.

We also see this complete disregard for Crosshair AGAIN in s3, now that we have seen Hunter looking for Omega and not ONCE mentioning Crosshair. Has he forgotten that they were originally going to find Crosshair??? That they never actually FOUND their brother ??????? Annoyed me so much, tbh.

What else annoyed me was the singular language he used during the whole episode. "She's part of our squad." "Hemlock took SOMEONE from us." He's completely and utterly disregarding the OTHER TWO SIBLINGS that the Empire took away from him !!!!! It genuinely frustrates me so much.

I know I'm DEFINITELY nit-picking here, but even when Hunter looked to Tech's goggles, it was in a "He should've been here to do this." Way, not a "He should be here." Way. That's his brother, who died looking for another that Hunter has forgotten.

Hunter's tunnel vision is probably one my least favourite things about the Bad Batch, if I dare even MENTION that- and I love this show. It means so much to me, but I just can't handle this particular part of it...

I have so SO much anger directed towards the treatment of Hunter by the writers. I want the Hunter who was devoted to his WHOLE family, who fought for ALL of them, who would have NEVER allowed Crosshair to leave in the first place. Give me that Hunter back.

(Saying this- I do not mind Hunter and Omega's father/daughter and brother/sister relationship !!! I do really enjoy it- in small amounts. The fact that Hunter became nearly an extention of Omega really just- threw me off his whole character, really)

I specifically pick to ignore this when I'm making anything. Hunter has been a sergeant of three idiots(named endearingly) for the entirety of the war. One child who wanders around should not have taken up 100% of Hunter's attention, ESPECIALLY when he was surrounded and supported. It just bothers me, idk

Anyway, thats my rant !!! Back to some positives soon, promise !! I just had to get this off my chest, it's been BOTHERING me.

[adobolover123]

bakusquad when they’re on instagram (headcannons!)

——————————————————————

bakugo’s instagram:

-doesn’t post a lot on instagram, but when he does OHMYGODDDJ

-he would post mirror selfies of him flexing with songs attatched. (maybe it’s just the camera angle but his arms r HUGE ASFFF—)

-does he post bakusquad? tbh rarely. bc of his big ahh ego. but since he’s getting better and warming up to them he’ll repost his friend’s posts if he’s tagged in them (hangouts, workout posts)

-he only posts stories

-his username is probably something corny as hell, like: 

king.explosionmurder , kb_explosionmurder , imbetterthanyou, LMAOO

or something else like that 😭

-omg. and if ur lucky enough to get on his close friends story, (from time to time,) he’ll post himself lip syncing to audios. DONT EVEN GET ME STARYEDDD

-he knows he’s attractive. like literally post more please.

-only thing on his acc is one highlight of himself.

-his pfp? mirror selfie covering his face 🤷‍♀️

kirishima’s instagram:

-omg y’all this cutie and his instagram.

-most-if not ALL of his stories are selfies with his friends, and he most DEFINITELY has a weekly dump of them.

-his selfies with them r mostly him and his friends working out, but he’ll post even the little selfies like them at lunch. 

-he WILL go on a story spam when the baku squad hangs out. 

-he’ll post his workout progress on his story fs 

-let’s be real he’ll post those motivational quotes

-his username would be his hero name or his regular name with his bday numbers 🤷‍♀️ (redriot1016, e.kirishima1016, )

-his main posts are kinda a pattern; himself, then his friends, then himself again.

-when he posts on main posts of his friends he would attach funny ass videos of them, and dumb challenges the bakusquad would do with each other

-his two main highlights r himself and his friends ofc, but he would have a highlight for each hangout to make it extra special ☹️

kaminari’s instagram:

-out of the whole bakusquad, denki and mina are the most active.

-i think we all know how he would be like fr 

-he is definitely that person who reposts EVERYTHING HE SEES ON HIS FEED; REELS, POSTS, MEMES,

— he spams his stories ( he made a gc on insta with the rest of the squad that are MAINLY him spamming them with reels; bakugo kept leaving it but kaminari keeps inviting him back in)

-but waitwaitwait; be careful skipping through his stories bc he WILL post some FINE ass selfies of himself for the hoes

-he also won’t hesitate to post himself lip syncing to songs on his public story

-like kirishima, he posts his friends a lot!

-he’ll post on his story with those add-ons that have to do with friends and he’ll make a mini collage of his squad :)))

-his username?… it’s probably one of those “theyluv___” “theyfw___” type shi 😭

-kaminari. has. a. lot. of. main posts.

-but they come out hella good; he prolly searches up “instagram post ideas” on pinterest

-his pinned post was when he had a whole photoshoot in a parking lot garage which funny story:

(the bakusquad decided to hang out at the mall, and they arrived at the parking lot garage. mina brought up how it was a good place to take pictures here and denki RAN with that. next thing yk;

bakugo was pissed asf waiting for them sitting down on the ground,

jirou was being denki’s photo critic,

sero was helping kirishima get the angles right,

and mina was showing denki what poses he should do. they were there for an hour. )

-he complains how his acc isn’t getting seen but he forgot that he put his acc on private

ashido’s instagram:

-second most active on instagram

-SHE HAS THAT HOT GIRL ACC FR

-she posts a lot, but her three pinned posts are: selfies of herself, a photoshoot of herself, and one of those cool hot photoshoots with the squad

-her highlights are: “💋” (herself) , “🔛🔝” (bakusquad)”, “my loves” (class 1A girls)

-her username is probably “iheart___” or something simple like “minaa_a”

-she posts herself a lot on her story AND EATS IT UP EVERYTIMEEE

-and she posts her friends on her story as equally as she posts herself ♡

-she posts a LOT on her close friends, she posts memes but mainly funny videos and pictures of the squad. including funny gc screenshots

-when her friends post she’ll repost them like 3 times, and spam/hype them up in the comments 🤗

jirou’s instagram:

-this girl got the whole themed instagram acc quickly.

-she only uses instagram to be up to date with music artists so she doesn’t care abt posting

-her username would probably just be her name or something like: “j_kyoka”

-but she does have one main post, and it’s a guitar she got for her birthday 🤗

-she posts reels of her doing all sorts of song covers with different instruments LIKE AHHHH

-her covers get a lot of attention, denki asks her how he could get attention on his acc

-since her acc got a lot of public attention (she’s thinking abt making another one just for song covers) everyone in class 1A is on her close friends so she could post stuff she’d like to keep a little private; like her friends, hangouts

-on her public story she would repost concert tour dates, music artists posts, stuff like that.

-she would post screenshots of songs she’s listening to on her public story

-sadly she doesn’t post herself—unless it’s a selfie of her getting a new instrument or something lol

-there was this one time she posted a cute selfie of herself in her cfs on accident, and denki and mina hyped her up sm fr ☹️

mina:

“YESSS”

“POST MORE 🗣️🗣️”

denki:

“OHMYOGF”

“U POSTED”

“OKAY JIRO I SEE YOUU”

jirou:

“sthu”

-she has a public highlight for covers, and her cf highlights are her friends !

-she doesn’t ask to take that much pictures with them, she usually reposts her friends stories when she’s tagged in them

-but she loves recording denki being stupid lol, she also has a cf highlight of that

sero’s instagram:

-almost like a bakusquad fan acc

-he’s like in the middle of jirou and denki when it comes to posting on his story

-he’ll repost memes, but not as much

-he posts sky pictures just bc 🤗 he has a highlight for them

-he doesn’t post himself ☹️😒 unless it’s a selfie with the squad

-in fact, he has a lot of main posts of JUST him and the bakusquad; he’s also the cameraman

-but he mainly takes pictures and videos a lot with denki, their pictures are funny ASF

-instead of just one highlight of the whole squad, he has a silly highlight for each of them!!

-funny videos, funny pictures, funny screenshots of things they said, you name it

-he also has a highlight for tiktoks the squad do together it’s so funny and cute

-his feed is everywhere tbh; a mix of memes and the squad

-his username is probably a meme quote or something like “notserohanta” 💀

———————————————————————

notes: (i wrote this at like 12am srry if it’s sloppy) those are my head cannons! i rlly don’t know wht to write for a fic anymore lol. i hope you enjoyed though!!

have a good day loves ♡

[class1akids]

BNHA Chapter 425 - Thoughts

So I guess Hori did decide to just skip the end of the battle, my hospital academia and go straight to UA graduation?

It was teased back in Ch 360, so yeah it needed to happen and it seems like drawing Neijire is a special happy place for Hori (also the sketch he couldn't even wait until Sunday to drop, lol)

Mic DJ-ing right after ShiraGiri's death is sort of odd, but on top of the gags, there are some more serious moments.

What stood out to me was Mirio's comment about how the heroes' fight "is always for the sake of returning the negatives to zero on the whole." It reminded me of Ch 341 - The Story of how We All Became Heroes Minus ① which featured Touya, Toga, Spinner and of course Tomura suffering the transformation. So I can't help but feel it's related to the LoV's fate.

The class is together 😭 crying like a proud parent (whose tumblr handle just became obsolete).... and Aizawa is staying. Yay. After 400+ chapters they made it to second year!!!

Bakugou omg, out of the hospital in a tie which he somehow tied with one hand, being calm... (it's still odd to the others? - but I guess his apology happened like 3 weeks ago in-verse). It seems like he might end up with a scar, just like Izuku (and it's a bit like Kudou's, of course).

Aoyama leaving - I talked about this in one of the asks, but for me it's ok that it's his choice being respected and that the class clearly would be happy to have him stay. Though I wonder if his parents are just suddenly given amnesty for being "AFO's victims" and what that may mean for other villains.

Shinsou joins Class A long at last. Yay! Is he going to get Aoyama's room or join the 5th floor boys? I do wonder if the kids are still in the dorms even.

The Fuwa-stans are getting fed. But Class 2-A (can't get used to this...) will take a year long field trip around Japan. Reminds me of the 100 million tour newpaper sketches.

I liked Shoto mentioning AFO - how he was born in an era of turmoil (which I read as him saying that preventing the rise of such villains is now). It also seems to contradict what All Might said last chapter about Deku already being the greatest hero to everyone.

But also Shouto speaks. Normal speech bubbles. Has a normal voice! Yay! (still don't get it why he didn't speak in Ch 422 though)

Izuku looks troubled. Either because of what Shouto said or because of Fuwa senpai's comments about needing to experience a sudden death to understand why you'd want to be a hero. He certainly is not ready to run celebratory circles.

Watch them all walk together (TDBK covered by Iida's speech bubble, but I recognize them from Shouto's messenger bag and Katsuki's loose pants)

OMG, these guys are a total disaster. I don't know what Deku wanted to say, but Ochako obviously shut him down (and thought it was about her "let him rest" speech which apparently the class keeps teasing her for). Also Hori is using her to explain Deku's haircut.

And here, she looks weirdly happy compared to last time, but it could be just a front...

poor Deku though... he thinks she hates his haircut

No idea who the new guy is, but looks like someone escaped / let loose from a medical facility. Could be regenerated Tenko I guess or someone similar to him who can be saved by Deku this time. I prefer it to be the real Tenko because I want to see Tenko Rising. I think he looks too young to be Deku's dad tbh.

TDDK scene !!! Yay!!! (I wonder if Deku tries to talk both to Ochako and Shouto because of his feelings about Tenko... I really badly want a saviour squad scene)

Todoroki looks hopeful but not sure if it's genuine (it could be putting on a front to stop Izuku from worrying). But his foot is like when he went to see his mom the first time, so I tend to read that right now as a good sign.

"っし" (?????) - there is definitely a shift of emotion.

Endeavor is sitting in front of a giant tank / or secure room window. (?) (Probably the same window Shouto was looking in last chapter.

From the context and framing it's clear that it's Touya. For now alive. Endeavor is finally keeping his promise and is watching.

And the editorial blurb also suggests we may get Hellish Todoroki Family 3 after the two weeks break. I'm very worried, but also since we are strapping in for a longer epilogue it seems, I don't expect things to go smoothly for them just yet.

[rei-ismyname]

Magneto joins the Young Avengers part 2

After a while traipsing through Transia and picking up Pietro, the squad find Wanda. Except she's a Doombot. Seems like a pretty solid clue as to where she is.

Upon heading to Latveria, it comes to light that Wanda is living with DOOM and they're getting married tomorrow. She also has amnesia, so even if she were inclined to marry DOOM (she's not) she can't consent anyway. The plan is for Magneto to cause a ruckus and everyone else stealthily extract her.

Checking in with the Avengers, suddenly they're very interested in finding Wanda. Nobody gives a reason, except for Wolverine who wants to kill her and Billy, and Wonder Man who wants to prevent that. Logan engages in childish dickwaving.

'Guess I hit a nerve' says the man doing his best to antagonise everyone and murder women and children. He has no business accusing anyone of having inappropriate feelings for a teammate. Iron Man says something clever - 'we don't need Wolverine for this mission.' No, you don't. In fact none of you should be involved.

Anyway, they storm Latveria and then accuse everyone else of starting an international political crisis. I don't see anyone else acting with a mandate from the UN and US. Also, they did bring Wolverine. Surprisingly, he tries to kill Wanda.

You'd think Logan would be sympathetic to her situation, and think twice before demonising others for killing people. Nope.

The Avengers 'take command' of the situation and scold everyone for attracting Doombots. Nobody mentions that they didn't come out until the Avengers did. They take issue with Magneto fighting DOOM for some reason, as if one of the worst people around isn't taking advantage of his daughter's amnesia to marry her. I swear I'm not cherry picking here - The Avengers just escalated a situation that was in hand.

The Young Avengers, Wanda and Magneto leave them to it and look to reverse Wanda's M Day spell. Patriot ruins it, arguing that they should wait for the Avengers. Wanda gets her memory back and resurrects the Avengers she killed. Speed is disillusioned with this whole thing and Wanda is bombarded with so much aggression she decides to kill herself. Before she can, Beast asks her to try reversing the spell again and Magneto agrees. They need a volunteer though. Meanwhile, The Avengers are rushing to get to Wanda, because only they are allowed to fuck things up. They even bring Logan.

A volunteer is found, and Rictor's powers are restored! Good news, right? Well, the X-Men are still pretty mad about M-Day tbh. At least they have the excuse of massive trauma, but they're definitely being dicks. They manage to avoid the spell in favour of unspecified punitive punishment.

LOL. This, the Avengers object to, claiming they take care of their own. That's objectively false, but there's a hierarchy to the Marvel universe and The Avengers must always look better than the X-Men. Magneto is the most reasonable person here by far, and for some reason The Avengers shit on all their allies. Demonising Wanda until someone else starts doing it, ignoring that they have a legitimate grievance and that this problem is the Avengers' fault.

Next time, Hawkeye raping Wanda is played for humour, the superheroes fluff the situation, Wanda finally gets some agency, and this shitstorm concludes. Children get their souls crushed.

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Marcille Takes Charge!

You know what, this is actually a very fair answer to my earlier question of "why couldn't the ancients just kill the demon?" Points to you again, Ms. Kui.

Truly I can't wait to see, like, every single Mithrun fight scene in the anime. The whole First Floor Incident is presumably going to be Episode 1 of Season 2, and I'm sooo excited.

.

At first, I thought the Lion was being snarky here, but in retrospect, knowing its whole story and nature, I think it genuinely is just fond of all its former dungeon lords. What wonderful meals they gave it!

.

That said, the Lion DOES have enough personality to Judge Marcille for her aesthetic choices; and I think that's beautiful :) <3

.

MARCILLE, NO! You're showing how corrupted you've become/how you were never suited to this role in the first place by acting directly contrary to explicitly stated themes of the story!

There is, however, something very satisfyingly country-ruling foreshadowy about Laios (and Kabru!) looking down at all of this spread out, though.

.

It IS painful watching Kabru try desperately to play both sides, keeping Laios safe from the Canaries without letting him go side with Marcille. Bud, I'm sorry but you HAVE lost control of this situation. And Laios is smart enough to have put everything together about what happened while he was unconscious, even when you deliberately didn't tell him.

.

[whispering sternly to myself] It's not fealty. It's NOT fealty. It's the start of a beautiful best-friendship which just so happens to include 1 guy looking at another guy and deciding that yeah, he has good potential to fill the king-shaped hole that guy #1 has been searching to fill - but just, like, on principle; genuinely NOT for any personal emotional need. The best-friendship is a completely unrelated emotional need. The ONLY fealting in this story is, so far as I can tell, between Shuro and his ninja squad, because they're from a completely different culture and, tbh, genre of anime.

.

But Laios, conversation is his means and mode! His sword and shield! If he can't talk it out, how is he possibly going to convince you to do anything, including save the world and be his friend?!

.

God I love this. It's this perfect combination of "You are my polar opposite; you love the thing (monsters) that I'm terrified of, and I want to know how so I can do that, too, because I'm so tired of terror" and "You love a thing (monsters), understanding it to the point of being very good at killing it, the same way I love a different thing (people); we are the same and I just want you to recognize that like I do so we can happily vibrate on the same frequency forever."

It's very tragic-funny that Kabru genuinely try to introduce himself to Laios in a normal way, before resorting to taking his entire party to stalk him to dangerous levels of the dungeon and eating monsters. It's not his fault that Laios is completely immune to small talk.

I DO think that every pair (or throuple, etc) of narrative foils in every piece of media ever should at least try making out. At a certain point of narrative foiling, you might as well, you know?

.

Note: Pattadol says she's "reporting" to Flamela, indicating that she's subordinate within the greater Canary structure even though she's 2nd in command of the most superior hunting party.

Also, it seems that the Canaries we know, the senior-most party, are genuinely the badassest of the badass and meant primarily for advanced dungeons including confronting dungeon lords and the demon directly. Tier-3 groups have less experienced guards, maybe criminals as well, and go on more scouting-type missions with no serious combat expected.

.

She's not wrong, she's just a jerk about it!

.

I get where the elves are coming from, I do. It's impossible to tell people people that there's a demon underground who'll grant their every wish while also communicating the dangers of this sufficiently that nobody goes searching for it. Even we the reader, don't entirely understand how bad it can get, how fast, until we watch Marcille do All Of That under the demon's active influence.

HOWEVER, it IS human nature to respond to this sort of thing with "well I/my friend won't go insane." There's gotta be a compromise wherein at SOME POINT far down the 'everything is going wrong in this dungeon' line, they just fucking tell people. They at least TRY. Otherwise they're just rolling their eyes at the short-lived races dangerous ignorance while actively refusing to reduce that ignorance.

.

Again: Shuro is living in a slightly different, much cooler genre of manga than the rest of us. Also:

TEAM TOUDEN LET'S GOOO!!

The best part of this is that earlier, when our heroes were trying to figure out who might help them eat Falin's dragon half, I was like, 'hmm...they liked you, sure, but eating dragons is pretty weird...'

But now we are outright ALLYING AGAINST THE ELVES!

.

Lmao. Classic adventuring party members, baffling NPCs as a team.

.

oh this is cruel. this isn't fair.

.

boys, focus.

.

the comedic timing...

.

lookit, that 30 seconds of desperate verbal flailing actually did help! Kinda!

.

yeah, I DO really like that everyone looks to Chilchuck for his opinion on Marcille's 'make everyone live to 10,000' plan, as the guy with the shortest present lifespan and also the most age-wise of all of them.

.

I Do Not Like This Visual. I Do Not Like the disproportionately large lion with human arms and hands shoving himself out of this book.

.

Not to be pedantic, but I think if you're trying to entice a team of people into doing your will by calling out each of their individual strengths, I think you shouldn't make 2 of them as repetitive as "curiosity" and "inquisitive mind." That's not really what Senshi is bringing to the table anyway - I'd say "care" or maybe "sense of balance." Also, sorry Izutsumi but how tf is her "wildness" contributing to this mission?

.

oh, Marcille, no...

[britcision]

New day new conspiracy to be unhinged about woooooo

SO.

This right here.

The moment where Kabru reveals he’s Milsiril’s baby boy (and more relevantly the last survivor of Utaya)

Kabru telling them that he actually wanted to enlist in the Canaries directly, but couldn’t because of the racial barrier. How true that is……. Well let’s say I’m sure he wanted to when he was little, buuuuut by the time he left it wasn’t that they wouldn’t let him

And tbh the reason why is very much the next panel:

The Canaries learn he’s Milsiril’s little boy and immediately fucking claim him as theirs, asking if he’s been eating well, if he wants cake, telling him to cheer up and smile sometimes

It is notably the convicts, especially Otta and Fleki although Cithis has been leading the conversation; Pattadol is not in frame and Mithrun ruins all their fun by staying on track

Kabru is not 30 seconds out of saying he was raised by their vice commander before he is being babied, and there’s a fun read of just “well this is our child now we must care for him for Milsiril hello new nephew”

But. Given what we later learn Milsiril’s care is actually like. The room where Kabru could eat all the cake that he wanted, that he never ever wanted to return to even when freezing and starving.

Where she gave him such arduous and extensive sword training he thought he would die, with the stated intent of showing him how bad it could be to make him give up and stay with her forever.

“Wanna eat some cake” is suddenly a much darker comment, and doesn’t have a directional bubble, so I’mma pin it on Cithis on general Sketchy Bitch vibes

Now, that only makes sense if these folks know Milsiril directly, or have some way to know what her home life is like for her adoptees

(Or Cithis can read minds which let’s be honest absolutely no one needs to be true but she deserves it)

But. So does that immediate tonal shift

“Oh, you’re Milsiril’s kid. Now we care about you beyond being an interruption.”

We know Pattadol is on her very first mission. We know Cithis has been responsible for Mithrun’s care for long enough while he’s back on active duty that she gets bored of her new doll.

(And that she only started respecting him after they acquired Pattadol, whiiiiich. He got back to active duty 14 years ago. None of the other Canaries got their own timeline, but he’s also had long enough to have an established track record of getting his warden partners killed

When Flamela assigns Cithis to his wellbeing, she pretty clearly knows the extent of his caretaking issues, and this whole section of the timeline is fuzzy, but it is specifically Pattadol who is the first to tempt Cithis into telling Mithrun to hurt her

And specifically not until after he refuses that she begins to respect him)

Milsiril has been retired for the same 14 year period, taking Kabru and for some reason one of her own Canary convicts home with her, but she served with Mithrun when he initially became a Dungeon Lord 40 years pre series… and most of that squad died in Mithrun’s dungeon

(Also his lover became a snake person at some point for some reason sooooo monsterfucker ahoy)

(We know that’s the lover from both Mithrun’s initial vision and his Adventurer’s Bible comic which identifies his brother as the one with the short hair. Presumably they were not always a snake?)

None of the names he gave Kabru in his backstory refer to any of his current party members

Otta and Fleki mention Milsiril in Otta’s comic when teasing Otta about being a pedophile because she only dates halffoot women and breaks up with them when they turn 30

(This being past middle age for halffoots, who become adults at 13 and live to around 50; Chilchuck is 29.

One might expect… say… visible signs of aging to show up around 30. Reminders of how little time they have left. Although, frankly, how much free time does Otta actually have to be dating outside of work???? They’re so shorthanded Mithrun made captain the minute he could serve after Utaya)

Ahem. We digress.

Otta’s reaction (directly saying Milsiril treats shorter lived people like pets while she loves them as individuals, which Kabru Does Not Deny) might be because she’s seen Milsiril’s behaviour directly, or just being sick of the comparison. Hard to say, but Milsiril already doesn’t like elves

No, the conspiracy theory today is that CITHIS in particular has worked with Milsiril between Mithrun being rescued and Utaya’s destruction, possibly with Fleki and Otta

They’re all close to Mithrun’s age so there’s a very real possibility they were serving when Utaya fell, and either were lucky enough not to get sent there (there are so many dungeons in the world) or unlucky enough not to retire in the aftermath

Dumping Mithrun with Milsiril’s survivors makes perfect sense - the two had served together as wardens and Milsiril Barest Possible Minimum took a personal interest in Mithrun returning to duty after Utaya

She’s the one getting him to take his first steps and tells him she’ll get him back in a dungeon

Milsiril, known hater of elves, left the Canaries on good enough terms with her convicts to take one with her (Helki, shown in Mithrun’s story and Kabru’s training flashbacks - the only other survivor we know of from Mithrun’s dungeon)

And these particular convicts immediately brighten up knowing that Kabru is one of Milsiril’s; he’s in a very different position from Mithrun, who basically has direct power over their lives and deaths, but if you have a potentially unstable new captain who’s gonna be extra dependent on his convicts coming in…

Well, it’d be nice if the convicts have a reason beyond “well if both of our wardens die we can’t use magic so we will too” to keep him alive and moving

Note: they did at some point hand him directly over to fucking Cithis, who has an established track record of wrapping her captains around her little finger and doing whatever the fuck she wants anyway

(To the point that she’s left and “rejoined” the Canaries multiple times, and her behaviour with Mithrun is considered her having calmed down… while actively trying to have him hurt his subordinate wardens and plotting to kill Pattadol)

So. Not. Y’know. Convinced that anyone necessarily was thinking that particular assignment through. Although you could argue that they were just heading off the inevitable and letting her know this one is high maintenance

ANYWAY.

Tl;dr: Mithrun’s a monsterfucker, this is established fact and not a conspiracy theory

Kabru’s been adopted by the Canaries the second they know who his mom is, which may explain why no one actually tries to stop him when he grabs Mithrun later despite him not having a weapon

(Fear of Milsiril finding out they’ve hurt her boy > rescuing Mithrun or later even stopping Kabru from helping Laios repeatedly)

And Cithis, Fleki, and possibly Otta worked directly with Milsiril at one point before Utaya, which is why Mithrun was given them specifically - he was one of Milsiril’s projects too, Milsiril’s personal involvement unclear

How much this has to do with Mithrun getting all his warden comrades killed but apparently not his convicts: unclear

(Still bet Cithis “helped” with the warden before Pattadol)

[pedriscroquettes]

𝐓𝐑𝐀 – FERMÍN LÓPEZ

summary. going clubbing doesn’t go as planned when your brother’s rival shows up to ruin the fun

warnings. fermín x paz!reader, f!oral, semi public s3x, fingering, & a cocky!fermín.

a/n. my brain worked overtime on this tbh. poor fran i completely slandered him in this. based off tra by bad gyal (catalan it girl)

the strobing lights were almost strong enough to blind you and half of the real madrid b squad. the dj seemed to be going through an existential crisis since he kept going back and forth between edm and reggaeton. you’re fortunate enough that he at least plays fiebre without remixing it or pausing it to try and drop a beat.

“joder.” your brother puffs clearly done with whoever he’s texting. (fuck.)

“is it the schedule?” you ask him wondering if this seasons schedule finally came out. it always got him worked up.

“no, this season seems like a good one. it’s just-” he sets his phone down before turning his head towards you.

“el boludo de agustin…” he takes a sip of his drink. he’s always been the most dramatic out of the two of you, clearly. (augustin’s dumbass.)

“nico, you already know that i’m not interested in him like that. he’s just my friend. ” you reassure him.

“no, i know and i don’t want to be an overbearing protective brother but mom would kill me if i let one of my teammates hurt you.” he sighs.

“nico i can take care of myself. don’t worry about me you’ve got a whole career ahead of you. focus on that instead.” you smile at him.

“i’m trying- joder” he scoffs again.

“now what?” you say concerned about the way his mood changed so quickly.

“look who just came in.” he nods towards the entrance.

you try to subtlety turn around but it’s almost impossible without doing a full 180 to see who your brother was talking about. your eyes immediately spot the three guys nico hated the most on the pitch. although out of all three of them only one stood out to you, fermín. you didn’t care for your brothers’ rivalries except for the one he had with the barcelona midfielder. not only did he bother nico but he bothered you as well. every time you were in barcelona he was always there with his annoying attitude.

“well, we are in their city.” you shrug trying to ignore their presence.

“there’s like a million other clubs here and out of all of them they arrive here it can’t be a coincidence.” he scoffs as if the three of the players had been following them.

“i’m not very fond of them either but you’re being ridiculous. we’re like ten minutes away from their training grounds i think it would be a coincidence that they’re here.” you explain logically.

“yeah what- you know what i’m just very stressed out about my whole nationality process right now. i’m gonna go get a drink. do you want anything?” he asks.

“no, it’s fine. just don’t indulge too much i do not want to take care of you again like in vigo.” you bring up the northern city into the conversation.

“you promised you wouldn’t bring that up again. that shit was so embarrassing.” he whines.

“i wasn’t the one who confessed their profound love for duki in his messages. i had to delete over ten voice notes of you singing, crying, and explaining why you’re better than emilia.” you burst out laughing.

“whatever, i’ll see you later.” he walked off.

you watched as your brother walked away either to find someone to flirt with or get another drink. he was the social sibling always outgoing and making friends as soon as he joined a new team. your house would always be full of people you hardly even knew. so you were surprised when his distaste for fermín began, your brother never held grudges. but then you met the devil himself and you realized why your brother disliked him.

he was arrogant, a total egomaniac, and an asshole. you remembered how nice he was to you when he first met you outside the stadium but as soon as he realized who’s sister you were he was always taunting you. you knew how serious rivalries were but you didn’t think it was that deep.

“hope your brother enjoyed my goal from the bench.” a voice interrupted your thoughts.

you look up to find him sitting in front of you replacing your brother. you’re studying his features when the chain around his neck distracts you. a cross. yet, he was somehow the worst person you knew. meanwhile, a smirk grows on his face as time passes and he realizes you’re not in a rush to get him to leave.

“milking a friendly today, are we?” you tease him.

“a friendly your brother spent at the bench the whole night.” he smirks.

“i’m starting to think you have a crush on my brother.” you laugh at him. “which probably explains why you always stalk my story every time we’re in town.”

“what are you talking about?” he scoffs at the accusation.

“felopez03? could you make it more obvious?” you manage to embarrass the barça player.

you had lied to your brother earlier. every time the two of you ran into fermín it was never a coincidence. you had debated on telling your brother about his secret admirer but quite frankly you loved the attention. you knew he always watched your stories when you were in town so you took advantage of that. posting pictures of yourself in short dresses, bikinis, and including some where the only thing covering your breasts were your hands. he always seemed to like those anyways.

“lópez is an extremely common last name.” he simply replies.

“good night fer.” you stood up and picked up your things.

“if you’re going to go like for your brother you won’t find him. saw him leave with a girl who looked very familiar. i think-” he paused debating on whether he should say what he was thinking. “i think i must’ve slept with her as well.”

you simply roll your eyes not wanting to be the victim of his ego. you check your phone and surely enough there’s a message from your brother. you can’t believe he’s left you alone with his teammates and the egomaniac to get laid.

nico 🐣: don’t wait up on me fran will take you home.

y/n: you left me alone to get laid? i hope she bites your dick off.

you shove your phone into your bag and begin looking around for fran. you spot the defender near the bar with a few of his teammates. you’ve avoided him for almost a month and the last thing you wanted tonight was to talk to him. the barça player seems to notice that too because as soon as you start walking towards fran he steps in front of you. you try to push him out of the way but he’s too strong.

“fer-” you sigh exhausted at his antics.

it all happens in a quick blur one minute you’re trying to shove fermin out of the way and the next you’re completely drenched in vodka. you’re not even sure how it happens but the girl in front of you is currently rambling about how sorry she was. you were a bit annoyed that the top you had just bought was now ruined but you could always borrow your brother’s card again.

“it’s okay. it’s fine don’t worry.” you try to calm her down because somehow she’s more upset about the situation than you are.

as soon as she leaves you head towards the bathroom hoping to dry off your shirt. you don’t realize that fermín has followed you into the bathroom until he shuts the door.

“what are you doing here?” you scoff.

“she spilled half of her drink on me too. must’ve tripped or something.” he murmured.

“and you came to dry your shirt in the women’s restroom?” you ask dumbfounded.

“well i can’t exact leave you alone in a bar full of strangers.” he shrugs.

“i know more than half of the people here.” you complain.

“yeah and they’re not exactly looking out for you. nico asked fran to take care of you and as far as i know he hasn’t come looking for you yet.” he bites back.

you murmur a quick ‘whatever’ before focusing on your top again. it’s completely wet from top to bottom so you have no other option but to take it off. you completely forget about fermín’s presence when you start walking around the restroom with your black lace bra and mini skirt. fermín tries his best to look away, to be respectful for once but you leave him in a trance. the view you give him is all too much and he decides to do something about it.

“here. it’s almost dry anyways.” he takes his shirt off and offers it to you.

your eyes linger on his toned body for too long you practically have to force yourself to look away. the dirty blonde finds himself smirking at your reaction. he walks closer to you hoping you’ll accept his peace offering. it begins to drive him mad how beautiful you look you in your current state. if he hadn’t been such a prick to you for the last couple of years maybe it’d be him taking you home and not fran. besides fran wouldn’t know what to do with all that.

you look at him again and throw your inhibitions out the window. your brother is the one who hates him on and off the pitch but not you. maybe just on the pitch but right now you were in a club bathroom without tops on. if your brother could have fun why couldn’t you?

“fer?” you turn around to look at him directly.

“hmm?” he puts his arm down realizing you won’t take his shirt.

“do you think i’m pretty?” you bat your eyelashes innocently.

he pauses not knowing how to respond. of course you looked pretty but he couldn’t exactly say that out loud. not if he wanted to keep up with the banter the two of you had. it would ruin the dynamic.

“it’s fine you don’t have to answer i’ll just go and ask fran.” you fake being upset and head for the door before fermín steps in front of you again.

“you can’t go out like that.” he panics.

“why? don’t you like my bra?” you tease him.

“joder tía pero tú estás loca.” he sighs frustrated. (fuck, you’re crazy.)

“i mean you’re the one who’s been liking all my stories. especially the ones where i leave little to the imagination.” you reach behind your back and unclasp your bra letting it hit the floor. you’re too far gone now. “you seem to really likes the ones where my breasts are showing though.”

he bites his lips trying to avoid his eyes from wondering. he can practically feel his pants getting tighter the closer you got to him. it was as if the room got smaller and ten times hotter. he’d always been so cocky with his hookups but you somehow made him lose his confidence. but then you said someone else’s name and he suddenly gained his ego back.

“do you think if i asked fran to fuck me he’d say yes?” was the question that threw him off.

his demeanor changed in an instant and suddenly he needed you right there in that bathroom. he knew you were probably just teasing him but he wasn’t going to lose you, not to fran at least.

“he’d probably finish in his pant just by seeing your tits and you’d go home upset.” you didn’t realize how much little space was left between the two of you until you saw both his arms on the sink. you were stuck between the sink and his shirtless body. “he’ll never satisfy you.”

“and you would?” you test his patience.

his hand finds its way onto your thigh and you realize you’ve finally gotten what you wanted. as your breath hitches his hand trails up and the look on his face proved he wanted this as much as you did. he pauses once he gets to your clothed core and looks up at you. you realize he’s asking for permission. you trail your hand down your body to where his hand is and carefully move your panties to the side.

“joder.” he groans at the sight. this is definitely not how he expected his night to go.

“fer.” you whine wanting him to touch you already.

his hands creeps up your throat you can feel his fingers getting closer to your lips. you know what he wants you to do so you open your mouth taking in two of his fingers. he watches intently as you suck on them making them wet enough to enter you. he takes a mental screenshot of you not wanting to forget about this moment. when you finally stop he places his fingers on your thigh again, teasing you. he’s gotten his ego back.

“fuck, you’re so wet.” he can feel the blood rushing to his dick as you you spread your legs for him.

you want to tell him to shut up and hurry up due to how needy you are but he finally drags his fingers over your core. a wave of pleasure rings through your body as he finally touches you. he circles your clit before dragging his fingers down to where you needed him the most. he enters you with one finger first thrusting it slowly letting you adjust. the room is filled with your incoherent moans and your acrylics dig into his free hand.

“oh, fuck.” is all you can say as he enters his second finger.

his thrusts begin to gain momentum as he sees how much you’re enjoying it. the feeling of having your walls squeeze his fingers is so surreal and he can’t resist the urge of reaching up to kiss you. the first kiss is long and sweet but as soon as you start kissing him back it gets heated. soon the kisses become short and needy and you can barely breathe between them. he grabs you by the hair pulling it to get better access to your neck and the pain turns into pleasure as he curls his fingers inside of you.

fermín expects you to tell him to not leave marks but you can’t help but want him to bite down on your neck. he leaves short peppered kisses on your neck before sucking and biting making sure that tomorrow you’ll have to hide your neck from your brother. he hears you panting and knows you’re getting close to coming undone. your hands run through his hair tugging on the strands as you get closer to your high.

and then suddenly you feel empty. his fingers are no longer thrusting inside of you and he pulls away from your lips. you’re about to yell at him when he kneels down in front of you and your eyes go wide. he spreads your legs further apart placing one on each shoulder. you can feel his breathe on your core and you’re not exactly sure you’re ready for what’s to happen. one lick is enough to make your head go back and your legs tremble.

his hold on your thighs get stronger and he dived in deeper. you pull on his hair harder each time he gets closer to your hole, clearly teasing you. he sucks on your clit and that’s enough to have you screaming out of pleasure. your moans are enough to raise his confidence and he brings his fingers back and enters you once again. his tongue and fingers are too much, he’s overstimulating you. you can feel your high approaching once again. this time he doesn’t stop he keeps going. he wants to see you reach your high.

“gonna cum all over my fingers?” he teases.

“fuck, yes.” you gasp barely having the strength to speak properly.

he somehow manages to go faster and you know you’re only a couple of thrusts away from cumming. then he adds in another finger and you’re a moaning mess. your juices squirt all over his fingers and pulls them out of you. he drags your fingers back towards your lips and you grant him access again. you lick them tasting yourself before he kisses you again. it’s a slow sensual kiss and then it happens you spot something moving in the background from the corner of your eye.

“fran.” you gasp at the sight of your brother teammates standing in the back shocked at the scene he walked into.

“what?” fermín pulls away confused at the sudden burst of fran’s name. that’s when he spots fran in the mirror and instead of being ashamed he can’t help but smirk.

that is until you push him off of you and fix yourself. you grab fermín’s shirt without a second thought and fix your skirt embarrassed about being caught and by fran of all people. fran’s disappointment is visible but you really don’t care about his feelings at the moment but rather about whether or not he’ll tell your brother.

“my shirt!” fermín yells.

“you’re a man you can walk around without a shirt.” you say as you get your purse from the sink.

fran walks out not wanting to witness more of what he’s already seen. you have no choice but to follow him since he was your designated driver for the night. but once again fermín steps in front of you and stops you from leaving. he leans down and kisses you and you can’t help but kiss him back.

“next time leave the bodyguard at home.” is all he tells you before stepping aside letting you leave.

that night you fell asleep in his shirt. you’re definitely looking forward to the next game your brother has in barcelona.

[cutely-inserts-my-opinion]

SO when i was watching the recent tsams ep where nexus talked w earth. honestly ngl although i get that he mightve been manipulative like. he wasnt Wrong??

specifically im thinkin abt what he said abt Earth not being a therapist bc like. yeah! true! and Earth responding by saying that she never claimed to be one was .... hrm. she... literally has a job as a therapist? even if shes not directly claiming to be one, shes still working as one and isnt correcting other people (and her patients) when they think/say she is one.

not to mention idk if its just me having this opinion within the fandom but i just Cannot get behind a therapist providing therapy to family members ;v; its just not a good thing to do bc of the power imbalances and bias inherent to forming close personal relationships with someone who you are medically treating,, which tbh is like. my primary gripe with Earth and why i just dont rlly like her (on a personal level. like, i like her as a character, but if i met her irl i wouldnt get along w her At All type beat)

honestly i rlly didnt like nexus's villain arc in the beginning but im warming up to it i think! also im on the nexus defense squad now actually. i dont condone him torturing my other fav characters but also. *insert handshake emoji here* tfw mentally ill....

(-points- anon you are my hero thank you for the confesssion <3)

Anyway, I'm so glad someone else agrees about the whole Earth not treating her family members. Especially in such a formal setting. It's not like she's just psycholayzing them or giving them advice like on of my friends does for me. She has them come into a literal office a lot of the time?? Literally how is she not claiming to be a therapist- she is acting exactly like one

[clowningaroundmars]

Hobie1610 pt. 2

after god knows how long (months tho tbh), i am happy to present: hobie1610 part dos! In this installment, we see how Miles eventually rounds right back to Hobie Jones to apologize after pt. 1's gigantic blunder

hope y'all enjoy! :)

>pt. 1 here<

>pt. 3 here<

It was several weeks into the first semester-- with winter just right around the corner-- before Miles finally got around to confronting the little Hobie Problem that he had.

Being laden with pounds upon pounds of assignments to get done before the holidays and then trying to keep up with Spiderman duties on top of it all, managing his parents’ overwhelming expectations once again, and trying to survive as a teenager in general forced his first day blunder onto the back burner for much longer than Miles would have liked.

Sure, his anxiety is a bitch sometimes, and it holds him back from directly addressing a lot of issues in his life, but Rio didn’t raise any neanderthal. Miles knew that when he messed up, he messed up.

Problem is, every time he’s tempted to just reach a hand out to his dimension’s Hobie Br-- Jones, pat his shoulder lightly, pull him into a corner somewhere during lunch maybe, and finally man up and apologize… that’s when some crook starts some problems downtown, or some mad scientist finally snaps somewhere and starts to wreak havoc with crazy gadgets a bit too unnervingly close to his neighborhood.

Or Miles gets back to his dorm room and sees that he has an assignment due the very next day that he hasn’t even had the chance to hop on yet, because of aforementioned crooks and mad scientists.

It was all driving him crazy.

And so now here he was, up on a rooftop in the middle of a chilly fall day, hanging out with his inter-dimensional besties (who he lightheartedly calls the Spider Squad but he hasn’t quite brought that up to them yet).

They were on a lunch break after pummeling and restraining some prisoners-- who somehow got out of the Raft-- that tried to make their way across the Brooklyn Bridge. Miles sure appreciated the help, which was one of the many positives of letting Hobie Brown make dimension watches for everyone, mostly so they could all help another Spider shoulder the burdens that usually befell them.

But the teens-- being teens, of course-- also used their watches to just pop into an open portal and hang out with each other as often as they could. Who could blame them? Being a superhero and a kid was overwhelming most of the time. Sometimes they needed a listening ear or a supportive shoulder to cry on every now and then, and getting the opportunity to chill and explore a whole new world for them was always a thrill.

(Miles himself could never deny the excitement of getting to go to Mumbattan for shopping trips every so often, either.)

So with all of that in mind it was tempting to, after seeing the long and lanky punk Spiderman climb through his own multi-colored portal, ask Hobie if he could go back to New London with him. He needed to get something off of his chest.

Hobie, languidly as ever, hikes a skinny shoulder up in a nonchalant shrug and goes “ye’ sure, mate. Somethin’ up, or?”

Pavitr leans forward from his conversation with Gwen-- the little snoop, goddamnit-- and swallows a particularly big bite of his sandwich. “Oooooh, Miles and Hobie? Alone, in New London? Wow!” He elbows Gwen, who shakes her head and snorts into her bottled juice.

Miles puffs up. “Hey, it’s not like that! We just need to talk. In private. Nothing’s wrong, I uh… I just need some advice. That’s all!”

Hobie’s grin is full of teeth. “Waidaminnit. Miles Morales... Thee Great Miles Morales, needin’ my advice? Interesting!” His freeform locs bob and wiggle teasingly with every movement of his head.

Feeling put on the spot, Miles pouts as he picks at some lint on his spider suit and finishes off his soda as quickly as he can manage.

Gwen, bless her heart, notices his discomfort and scooches closer to him on the rooftop ledge. “… Is everything alright, by the way? It isn’t anything bad, is it?”

Miles glances at her before returning his gaze to the concrete several stories below. “Uhm, nah. Nah, it’s… y’know, it’s just more inter-dimensional weirdness. But I’m sure I can fix it. I think,”

He then shoots her a grateful smile for her considerate check-in, and pulls his mask back down over the lower half of his face. Gwen understands this as his “I’ll be back for another check-in later,” behavior and simply nods back. She knows not to push him.

“Well,” Hobie unfolds himself from his position on some scaffolding on the side of building, straightening himself up to his full height and stretching, “I’m all finished, then. Prob'ly not a good idea to go swingin’ on full stomachs, though. Let’s take a quick walk before headin’ home, yeah?”

Miles grabs Hobie’s hand and helps him hoist himself up over the ledge, and the teens all gather their trash into one plastic bag together. They chatter and slip their masks on as they casually walk down the side of the half-constructed building, finally touching down onto the concrete alleyways and relishing the quiet of an empty block before heading to the congested streets of downtown Brooklyn.

They all eventually bid each other their farewells after a few quick photo ops from excited New Yorkers, but of course not before Pavitr leans into Miles’ ear conspiratorially and whispers: “Let me know how it goes, bro! Good luck!”

Pav punches Miles on the shoulder lightly and winks at him, then he does a backflip into his golden-bright portal and blinks out of existence.

Miles rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “Does he want me and Hobie to be together, or me and you? I can never tell with that guy,” he groans at Gwen, whose shoulders are shaking with badly-concealed laughter.

“I think he just watches too many of those soap operas, honestly. Trashy daytime TV will do that to a guy sometimes.” She quips just as humorlessly.

Miles gives her a sidelong glance and a smirk. “Right. Rots your brain. Poor Pav!”

Gwen and Hobie laugh at that as Gwen pulls up her own portal.

“I’m thinkin’ we need t’ stage an intervention, really.” Hobie adds.

“Yes, and soon,” Miles points out.

“I’ll see what I can do to pull him away from those shows, but you know how his aunt is,” Gwen snorts. “Plus, I’m pretty sure Pav is just a huge romantic anyways, soaps or no soaps.”

“When I’ve got relationship issues, I guess I know the guy to go to, then,” Miles shrugs, then throws Gwen a casual salute goodbye.

She stands in front of white and multi-colored splotches of watercolor floating out from her dimensional portal as she salutes Miles back, giving Hobie a quick wave. “Let me know how your little inter-dimensional weirdness problem goes too, Miles! Talk to us in the groupchat every once in a while!”

And like that, she’s gone.

So now Hobie and Miles were left alone together.

Standing in the middle of a dirty alleyway on a cold autumn afternoon wasn’t Miles’ exact definition of a good time, though… why wasn’t Hobie opening his own portal right now? Miles turns his mask’s gigantic white eyes up to his dimensional variant (and boy was that a weird thing to think about when Hobie brought that up one day during a Spider Sleepover at Gwen’s) and gives him a pointed stare.

Hobie’s own painted eyes meet his.

“So…” Miles says.

“So…” Hobie says, his grin evident in his voice.

“Are we or are we not going back to yours?” Miles stuck his fists on his hips impatiently.

“First,” Hobie says as he holds up a long skinny finger, “I gotta know what this is about. ‘Cause we all know you, Miles. I don’t wanna enable any avoidant behaviors, mate. You know how it is.”

“What?!” Miles throws up his hands in the air. “Dude! SO not cool! You are not my dad.”

Hobie shakes his head. “You know I’m right, though. This ain’t about your parents, is it?”

Goddamn Hobie and his parental instincts. When is this guy ever going to get off of mom duty?

Miles huffs. “No, Hobie. It’s not. Look. I just, uh… if you don’t wanna go back to your dimension, then can we get away from like… this area in general, please?”

Hobie hummed in thought, then shrugged and shot a web up to a nearby street lamp. Together, the two Spidermen swung through the concrete jungle that was earth-1610’s New York City until they ended up somewhere near the Financial District in Manhattan, happening upon a sort of indoor rooftop terrace party that a bunch of corporate yuppie-looking people were enjoying behind giant glass windows. A few of those yuppies were out onto the actual rooftop smoking and talking amongst themselves in the cold while the party bumped along behind them.

The sun was setting quickly, and darkness descended upon both Spiderman as they scaled a nearby building and sat on a water tank to secretly watch the party from a little ways away. Miles took solace in the dark most times, and drank up the view of what few stars could be seen in the New York City skyline.

The clouds were scarce on this particular fall evening, so the red and yellow hues on the horizon were completely uninterrupted. Miles’ dimension took on an almost ethereal glow sometimes, and during this time of day, he was more than grateful for it.

Hobie was silent as he watched the sun set alongside Miles, until the entire city was enshrouded in darkness and the stars of the cosmos seemed to have fallen from the heavens and landed right onto the buildings and bridges laid out all before them. Lights from cars making their nightly rounds and tall buildings glittered all around them, and just beyond the skyscrapers, bits of the Upper Bay could be seen shimmering and reflecting the glittery light right back.

It was breathtaking. Beautiful.

But time was running out. They couldn’t sit here and watch the scenery and the people from several hundred feet away forever. Miles also knew Hobie had stuff to deal with in his own world, a million miles away from anything he could ever know. With a world-weary sigh, Miles finally takes his mask off fully and winds it up and around his hands, over and over.

“Your problem botherin’ you that much, Mi?” Hobie grins at his friend, taking his own mask off and running a hand through his locs.

“It’s just… I…” Miles chews on the inside of his cheek, wondering how to proceed.

It really was a weird problem to have, all things considered. There aren't many instances where someone pisses off a dimensional variant of their friend, and they have another version of that very same friend right by their side to ask how to even go about fixing the rift they caused in the first place.

“It’s just that I... like… I messed up pretty badly, right? And I know it’s totally my fault,” Miles is speaking quickly now, bottled up words now spilling forth like water, “but my anxiety started spiking up randomly out of nowhere and I just blew it, man. I wasn’t really thinking. Well, actually, I was. I was overthinking but I didn’t really mean to leave this guy hanging for so long afterwards and--”

Hobie throws a leg over his other one, propping himself onto an arm and leaning back to face Miles. “Okay. Okay, Miles, that’s cool. Thanks for the disclaimer, bruv, but we’re gonna have to start from the beginning.” He chuckles.

Miles laughs nervously. “Right, right. Yeah,” he takes a breath, licks his lips and tries again.

“So… on my first day of school I bumped into… you. I mean, not you, I mean like my dimension’s version of you.”

Hobie raised a pierced brow. “Wait, there’s another me here, too?”

“Yeah, yeah and I just almost crashed right into-- wait.” Miles’ brain took a second to buffer. “What do you mean too?”

“Ehhh, we found another me in some odd dimension or another. Y’know, like, one of those ones we don’t go to often. It was whatever,” Hobie shrugs casually.

Miles had a couple of questions about that but he decided to stick to the topic and not get distracted for now. “... Right, cool. So yeah, I almost crashed into you at Visions, except it wasn’t you.”

Hobie nodded. “You almost crashed into Not Me. Got it.”

“… Because I was late for class and not really, uh, thinking. Like at all. But it was you, you know what I mean? Not You is super bad at directions and navigating buildings, I guess, so I helped him out. Annddd I guess he wanted to be my friend afterwards, but.”

“Mhmm,” Hobie hums, in a tone that sounded a lot like him saying go on, then.

“Did you, uh… did you know your name is Jones sometimes?” Miles scratches at his ear awkwardly. “Hobie Jones, not Hobie Brown. It was weird when I found out, because another student said his full name and so that’s how I found out in the first place,”

Hobie inhales. “Hmm! Interesting. Dunno that I like the sound of that, if we’re gonna be honest here. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue the same, I think. But alright. Why’s that so important?”

“Uhhh,”

Hm. Shit. This was the part Miles dreaded getting to in the first place.

How was he going to put into words the weird dread that befell him upon learning that this Jones character might very well be this dimension’s version of his MJ? How could he possibly explain the thrilling electricity that races up and down his spine everytime he totally does not think about dating, kissing, possibly even having children with this other Hobie? How was he going to get that across to this super-cool, super-hot, super-put-together version of him?

Speaking those kinds of words out loud right to Hobie’s chiseled face made Miles slightly nauseous. He opted to circumnavigate that little problem altogether.

“Listen, don’t ask, okay? Seriously, man, I’m not playin’. Buuuut… if I pissed you off real bad, how would. Like, how could I make it up to you, theoretically speaking?”

Hobie exhaled a laugh. Miles could see his bright grin even in the low lighting of the night. “Huh? How’d you go from helpin’ Not Me out to pissin’ ‘im off all of the sudden? We’re missin' a step there, Milesie. C’mon now,”

Miles laughed too. “Ho-biieee, I already told you, man!” He hated how whiny he sounded, but this really wasn’t the time. “You cannot ask me about it!”

Hobie tossed his head like a horse. “Oh my god, mate. I can’t give ya solid advice when I don’t even know what the hell I’m givin’ advice for. I gotta know what happened, bruv, what’d ya do?”

“Just--! Ugh,” Miles deflated. “I maybe sorta... ditched him all of a sudden. Like, out of nowhere. When he, uh, when he needed me.”

Hobie’s glittering eyes bore holes into Miles’ hot face. “Mhmm? Why for?”

“Hobie, for the love of all that is good in the world, just--! Throw me a bone, here, man. I am dying of embarrassment right now!” He buried his face in his hands as Hobie rocked back with laughter.

“Why’d ya ditch ‘im?! That doesn’t sound like ya, Mi. Sounds like a real wick thing, but not a Morales thing to do. C’mon, what did Not Me say to you? You can pretend I’m him and I’ll apologize an’ everything.”

“No no no no, Hobie you don’t get it,” Miles sighed. “He didn’t do or say anything. That’s the thing. I just… I freaked out I guess, when I looked up his name and saw that he was a super accomplished model and everything. He’s got thousands of followers on Flickstagram, even. But I just…! I dunno what my brain was doing to me, once I saw that. I guess I just had a mini panic attack and just… bounced. Then, obviously I had tons of homework and Spiderman stuff to deal with, so ever since then, we’ve just been avoiding each other in the halls and I haven’t had any time to even tell him anything. I really messed up, man.”

Hobie was unnervingly silent as he thought for a good minute. The night had really fallen thick onto the city and the temperatures were dropping fast. Miles could barely see his own breath clouding in front of him or even Hobie’s face now that the darkness completely enshrouded them both, and it made him a little nervous.

“So…” Miles prodded carefully.

“Super accomplished model and everything, eh?” Hobie quietly asked after a little while. Miles couldn’t see Hobie’s expression, but he could hear the rhythmic rubbing of fabric against fabric as Hobie rubbed at his arm with a gloved hand.

“Uhhyup.” Miles confirmed.

“Hm. Utterly fascinated now, mate. Tell me more about this other me, then. He cool like me, or a total neurotic space cadet?”

Miles rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, I can’t tell you much. We haven’t gotten to talk much. I guess you can be the judge, here’s his social media here...”

He then pulls his phone out of a recently-added pocket he found the time to sew onto his suit, taking inspiration from his mother’s own yoga leggings that she got as a birthday gift a few months before. The fact that spandex was able to hold so much but still stay so snug against your body was nothing short of a modern miracle, in Miles’ opinion. He was grateful for it now as he unlocked his phone and tapped on Hobie M. Jones’ page right out of the search history on his phone’s Flickstagram app.

Once he hands his phone to his friend, he has to resist the urge to suck in a breath as he watches the bright light from his screen illuminate Hobie’s features in ways he’s never seen before.

Hobie takes a second to scroll for a bit and Miles watches as the light plays across his features with just a bit more rapt attention than he normally would. Must be getting late, and Miles’ brain has historically been known not to work very well when he was tired.

Then, Hobie handed the phone back to Miles and folded his arms across his knees.

“Interesting, interesting,” was all he muttered. Thankfully, he did not comment on the “M. Jones” part of the username.

Miles tried lightening the mood. “Let me guess. You hate him because he’s not a fascist-fighting punk like you, huh.”

“I can’t be th’ judge of that, Miles. You know social media ain’t real life, and all that just looked like his portfolio to me, if we’re gonna be honest.” He checked his spiked bracelet in the light of Miles’ lit up screen. “I think that this other me doesn’t really feel too comfortable openin’ up and lettin’ other people see who he really is, though. So if you do go off an’ apologize to ‘im, I don’t think it’ll be very easy to gain his trust back.”

“Hold on,” Miles shakes his head and tucks his phone away again. “You got all that from looking at his Flicksta for not even a minute? How do you even know all of that?”

“’Cause he’s me, bruv. I know that look on his face, on those candids. Even them professional shots look… like, well, I dunno how t’ explain it. I guess it’s just sort of like--”

“If you know, you know?” Miles puts in.

“Mm,” Hobie smiles and nods. “Yep. That. He’s… withdrawn. Held back. I ‘unno… doesn’t seem like he has many friends.”

Miles sits back to think about the distant and carefully-put together mask that Hobie Jones slipped onto his face back when an annoying student butted into their conversation just before 2nd period that fateful day. Not to mention how famous he seemed, that the whole school wanted to pull him into a million different directions just for some selfies and autographs in general…

“He’s famous. He has a billboard up near the school, even,” Miles says without thinking.

“That explains it, then.”

Miles thought aloud for a bit. “He told me that I was the only person in the world who didn’t look at him like he was made out of solid gold. Hmmm,”

“Right then. That’s a start, eh?”

Miles sighed. “I-if… if someone who you thought could be like, your only friend in the whole world. Your only real friend… if that person abandoned you out of nowhere, with no explanation… how would I go about making it up to you?”

Hobie doesn’t comment on the phrasing of that question, either. He lays a warm hand on Miles’ cold shoulder and squeezes.

“Listen, Mi. You’re real special, you already know that. If he liked ya enough to wanna be your friend the very same day you two met, then I bet you can come up with somethin’ that’ll stick eventually. That being said… a little food ain’t never hurt no one.”

They stare at each other in the dark for a second.

“Uh, what?” Miles asks.

“Y’know. Like a peace offering. Bring ‘im a peace offering, make your apology, and then leave the poor kid alone. Let ‘im sorta… well, let ‘im kinda just chase you a little bit, right?”

Miles’ brow was raised high now. “What, like. Just leave some food and a note for him at lunch or something? Dude, that is so lame!”

“It’s about the mystique, mate. Trust me. Gotta keep the intrigue up, don’t crowd him too much or else you’ll scare man away, right? I hate when people grovel at my feet if I’m gonna be dead honest with ya. Don’t make too much of a big deal of it, and he just might forgive ya. You two'll be holdin' hands in no time,”

“Is that it? Is it really that easy?” Miles was skeptical.

Hobie shrugs and removes his hand from Miles’ shoulder. “Hell if I know, but if he’s anything like me, it just might work. Just be prepared to take it on the chin if he doesn’t forgive you in the end, though. Gettin’ ditched like that with no warning’s a bit hard on someone who’s never had any friends to lean on in the first place.”

Made sense to Miles. He shrugged, nodded, and then had only one question left to ask.

“… Cool. Got it. So, uh. What kinda food do you like, anyways?”

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And that was how Miles ended up making a quick run (swing, really) over to his favorite Jamaican store for a dinner plate with some beef patties thrown in during the next day’s lunch period.

He couldn’t afford to be seen by security, so he suited up at his usual place on the rooftop of the school and sailed down to retrieve his peace offering as quickly as he could before lunch was over.

What luck, that he had the same lunch as Hobie Jones! Made this whole run a pretty easy thing to do at all, which was always a bonus.

Once he made his way back to the school, he hurriedly stuffed his mask back into his bag and practically jumped back into his uniform, not even taking the time to stop and check if his suit was properly hidden. No time for that, when the period was almost over and he hadn’t even gotten a bite to eat for himself.

Miles also took the time to write up what he hoped was a sufficiently appropriate apology note the previous night after getting back to his dorm room at a late hour, and he tucked that into the crinkled paper bag as carefully as he could manage. A grease-stained apology note was definitely not a cool thing to receive, especially from someone who wronged you out of nowhere and wasn’t even man enough to say that apology to your face.

He arranged everything as best he could while flying down several flights of stairs down to the cafeteria.

Once Miles pushes past the double doors into the large cafeteria area, he feels the tightness in his chest and the heat radiating from his gut outwards intensify more as he gets closer to his target.

It takes a bit of wandering to finally spot Hobie, but then Miles sees him: sat at a table near the center of the room. He’s surrounded by a bunch of fake friends all talking loudly over one another and trading phones over their meals. Hobie Jones himself looks forlorn even when in the middle of a group, surrounded on all sides by bodies he doesn’t even look directly at, even when he turns his head slightly to speak to them.

Well, shit.

Miles was not expecting Hobie to have fallen into so large a group of friends so soon. He spotted the same girl who pulled him aside for a selfie that one time sat at the same table, and her and her little posse were just gossiping loudly about any and everyone.

Miles found his feet stuck to the floor upon finally laying eyes on the scene.

Ugh. God. A bunch of preps poking their noses into his and Hobie’s business while probably begging to read the very private note that Miles wrote for him was absolutely not anywhere in his list of things he’d like to experience today.

So Miles did a sudden about-face and walked away quickly, before he was even spotted.

Plan B was set in motion, then: give the bag over to Hobie before the next period.

Miles always dreaded the class he and Hobie shared right after lunch. The awkwardness subsided after a while, since it was kinda hard to feel so bad about The Incident when the entire class had to cram for quizzes and do research for essays, but the pit in Miles’ stomach as he purposefully averted his gaze away from that corner of the room was never easy to ignore.

But now, after weeks of gloom and doom, Miles found himself actually being excited for the bell to ring. He quietly made his way upstairs to the top level and slipped into the classroom as gracefully as he could manage.

Sure, he was nervous as hell about it all, at the end of the day. But he wanted this little problem that’s been put away for far too long to just… finally be done and over with. If for nothing else, he just wanted one less student at Visions hating his guts, really.

He placed the paper bag onto Hobie’s chair and scooted it underneath the desk to hide it from the rest of the classroom. The last thing he needed was some other nosy student swiping it up and rifling through the contents before Hobie could see it.

Miles ate part of his sandwich in the peace and quiet of the classroom, enjoying what precious little minutes he had until the bell rang and everyone-- including the teacher-- filed in to start the class’s lessons of the day.

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Miles’ simple plan was a success, just as his buddy Hobie Brown had predicted.

Hobie Jones had read the note quietly in his corner of the room and hastily shoved the dinner plate into his backpack soon after.

Miles didn’t know if that meant he was forgiven or not, but at least he took the (probably cold) food with him and read the note without tearing it up into a million pieces, so at least Miles had that going for him.

There was one last step to really clinch the victory, though; an invitation to meet up at the rooftop later that day, before the last bell finally rung and let all of the kids out of the school for the day. Miles still had a lot to get off his chest that he couldn’t quite lay down on paper, and he needed to properly apologize to Hobie’s face to finally put his conscience at ease.

Whether or not Hobie took the invitation was left up in the air, really.

Miles made sure to try and get a head start so he could make it up there before Hobie could, but he made sure to add “be up at the rooftop by 3:30pm if you’re coming or I’m bouncing” to the end of the note, because as much as he wanted to make amends with his dimension’s Hobie, he was not going to let petty school drama get in the way of Spiderman-ing.

Miles was a man of standards, and he held himself to some level of professionalism, thank you very much!

It was cold that day, very cold.

Miles was lowkey regretting his decision to meet outside now as he tucked his chin deeper into his big puffer jacket, warming his hands with his warm breath before shoving them into his pockets.

He hoped Hobie had gotten used to getting around the hallways a bit more now, and that he could find his way up to the roof level without becoming completely lost and just giving up entirely.

As the minutes crawled by, Miles found himself unlocking and locking his phone multiple times, checking the time, checking for any notifications to distract himself, and wondering just why he decided on the roof to meet instead of, say, his dorm room hallway or whatever.

Then, the roof access door slowly swung open, and there stood Hobie M. Jones in all his six-foot-something glory.

Miles sucked in his breath as Hobie’s big brown eyes scanned the roof and fell upon his face, and the both of them stood rooted to their spots for a split second like deer in headlights.

Then Hobie grunted, tugged at his ponytail to let it loose, and his long dreads fell all around his face in one graceful movement. Miles felt his mouth go dry.

Miles’ feet moved on their own. They met in the middle, and a strong wind rushed through to tousle Hobie’s impressive locs some more as they both stared each other down.

Miles finally opened his mouth to speak, feeling his voice catching in his throat for a split second, before being interrupted anyways.

“You don’t need to apologize,” Hobie says quickly, tucking his own chin into his expensive-looking jacket’s collar as well.

Miles’ brain bluescreened. “Wait, wha?”

Hobie huffed out a laugh, the vapors of his breath being carried away in the chilly wind like dandelion seeds. “I’m being serious, man. It’s… it’s cool, honestly. I get why you ditched me. It happens all the time,”

Miles’ heart sinks. “N-no, Hobie, look. I really messed up and I felt like I had to-- wait, what do you mean all the time?”

Miles had a sweeping feeling of déja vu overcome him then.

Hobie chuckled ruefully, shrugging as he shoves his hands deeper into his own pockets, mirroring Miles. “I mean, like… you think you’re the only one who ever ran for the hills after seeing how famous I was? It just happens. That’s my life, I guess.”

Miles’ lower lip stuck out a bit. “But that’s… dude. That is so depressing!”

Hobie shook his head, tossing a loc out of his face. “Sure, but it’s… it’s just my life. It’s just how things are when you’re a model around here.”

They looked sadly into each other’s eyes before Hobie averts his gaze to his shoes, scuffing the toe on the roof floor for a second before looking back up and continuing.

“… You, uhm. How’d you… how’d you know that I like Jamaican food, though? I’ve never told anyone about that before. Nobody but my family, anyways.”

“Uhh, lucky guess?” Miles offers him a lopsided grin.

Hobie smiles for real this time, the corners of his eyes crinkling just like his earth-138 counterpart. “You really are a weird guy, just like you said before. What else did you want to tell me, before we both gotta bounce?”

Miles gaped at him like a fish. “You… you have to let me apologize, though. Like actually. Before we both have to go.”

Hobie nodded. “Okay. I’m all ears,”

Miles took a deep breath. “I…!" His voice caught in his throat for a second. "Uh. Do you wanna maybe… hang out, like outside of school sometime? Maybe grab some more Jamaican food from my favorite place?”

Hobie looks at him with an unreadable expression on his face. “You… that’s your apology?”

Miles sighed. “I’m bad at conflict management, man. Just let me treat you to some more lunch and then… maybe we can just let this whole thing go, yeah? You won’t ever have to talk to me again after this, I promise!”

“You are seriously sending me mixed signals here,” Hobie says. But he doesn’t seem opposed to the idea.

“I know, I know! But please, just humor me, man. We can do it this weekend, even. I just… feel like a total dick after what I did and I wanna be able to actually make it up to you.”

Hobie directs his shy smile back down to the ground. “Jesus,” he mutters.

Miles holds his palms forward. “What? Is that a no?”

Hobie laughs, full and bright and it-- fuck-- it fills Miles with a dizzying thrill that makes him laugh, too!

“Fine… but if you ditch me again this time, you asshole--” Hobie grabs the front of Miles’ jacket and yanks it towards him, putting the both of them closer together and making a complete heatwave roll through Miles’ nerves, “I will-- uh,”

Miles doesn’t register why Hobie stops speaking all of a sudden until his eyes slowly follow down to what he’s looking at, and then both of their hearts stop at the same time.

In Miles’ earlier haste to jump into his clothing after his meal run, he forgot to button a few buttons on his shirt, which left his very visibly black and red suit out in the open with just one small yank of his coat’s zipper. The top of his red spider emblem shone bright against the dark spandex.

For a second, the world stopped. The wind stopped blowing, the cars down below stopped honking, Miles stopped breathing.

Then, he hastily took a step back and cleared his throat, hoping against hope that Hobie would not recognize the spider suit so easily.

“S-so, yeah? You’ll go? I, uh, promise I won’t stand you up if you do. We can, uhm. Exchange numbers if you want--” here, Miles starts fumbling around his pockets for his phone, a device that he clung onto like a lifeline moments ago now almost completely forgotten in the excitement of the situation.

Hobie swallows and takes a step back also. “Y-yeah… yeah, sure. Let’s uhm. Let’s link up later, then.”

Miles lets Hobie input his digits into his contact list, and then bids him farewell.

“I’ll text you later, okay? Gotta go now, bye!”

Miles almost wants to throw himself off the roof of the school just to land on the concrete sidewalks below with a splat. A flattened spider. It’s what he deserves, honestly.

But he swallows his embarrassment and rushes down the stairs towards his own dorm room, instead.

He seriously, seriously hopes Hobie didn't recognize his spider suit, goddamn!

Once Miles gets to his room, he sags against the door with a sigh and shrugs off his puffer jacket. Then, he fishes his phone out of the jacket’s pocket and flicks the screen on, which now has Hobie Jones’ digits input into it under the name of “MJ (from Visions)”.

Miles throws himself into his and Ganke’s shared computer chair and twirls over to the window.

It’s Miles. I am not ditching you this time, PROMISE, he sends over to the number.

A few minutes later, he gets a response and his stomach flutters with the chime.

You better not, Hobie playfully teases. I know where you sleep…

A few more knife emojis accompany the texts and Miles laughs out loud. Then he bites his lip.

Fuck… damn. This really is earth-1610’s version of MJ, huh. The name beamed straight into his eyeballs from where it sat right at the top of his messages and it continued to haunt him as he got his laptop out for the night to finally make some more leeway on his English essay.

Miles went to bed that night dreaming of him and a red-headed Hobie Jones holding Mayday.

[captn-trex]

technical devotion, part twenty-four: lucky

a/n: ITS OVER AAAAA (sorry this took so long) crazy that I've actually finished a project tbh?? I usually give up half way (perhaps I did based on the quality but you tell me lmao) this one's just basically echo and kan fluff!!! bc goddamn if they don't deserve it. also yeah I did change the banner/whole theme of the fic when I only had one chapter left. why? because I'm insane, that's why.

content warnings: smoking, little bit of angst about the future type vibe, minor minor panic around crowds

last chapter | masterlist | join the taglist

Kan sat at Echo's bedside, her hands engulfing one of his. It was really her bedside, but she was coming to understand that when it came to what was hers and what was his, the lines were blurring, and she couldn't be happier for it.

Echo had passed out on their journey back from the mission in which his cybernetics were preyed upon, and he was yet to wake up again. Kan had been monitoring his vitals on her datapad and he seemed to be fine, so she just hoped that he would be able to sleep off the effects of the Empire's exploits on his mind.

He looked especially peaceful, his features soft and unafflicted by his usual concentrated expression. Kan ran the back of her hand over his sharp cheekbone, the usual warmth of his skin quelling her worries about his condition.

Echo stirred, his hand tightening around Kan's as his eyebrows twitched, and his eyes fluttered open shortly thereafter. He had to narrow them as the light of the room pierced his irises, and Kan rested her palm against his cheek in a comforting manner, rubbing her thumb along his cheekbone. His eyes found hers after flicking about the room for a moment, and he gave her a tired smile.

“Hey” he spoke, his voice rough as sleep lingered in his throat.

“Hey” Kan smiled in return, “welcome back to the land of the living”

Echo barely had time to react before the door to Kan's office opened up and the small clone in the doorway bounded over to him.

“Echo! You're okay!” Omega exclaimed, her arms thrown around his neck.

“I'm okay” he chuckled, resting on his elbow so he could hook his other arm around the blonde clone, giving her a reassuring hug.

When she pulled back, he looked over to Kan, who had been joined by the other members of his squad. There was something about his gaze that felt particularly uneasy to Kan, and she tightened her grip on his hand.

“What—” he frowned, “what happened to me? I feel… fuzzy”

Kan let out a breath, “the substance had an effect on you like Spider suggested… so you won't be going into the field again for a while”

“Oh, right” Echo said in reply, running a hand over his head.

Omega giggled quietly, “you were saying some really funny stuff in your sleep”

Kan shook her head, rolling her eyes with an undeniable affection, and Echo noted the amused faces of his brothers with a worried look.

“Oh maker…” he spoke softly, and Kan couldn’t help but chuckle, “what did I say?”

“Nothing we didn't already know” Crosshair drawled, causing Wrecker to snicker.

Echo looked to Kan, and saw that her cheeks had darkened, her eyes avoiding his and everyone else's for that matter.

“Do I even want to know?”

“No, probably not” Kan said reluctantly.

Echo groaned in embarrassment and laid back with his hand covering his face as Omega laughed once more.

“What are you guys even still doing here?” he asked from behind his hands.

“Omega wouldn't let us leave until you woke up” Hunter piped up, an eyebrow raised at the young girl.

“Well…” Echo sat up again, “I'm awake now”

Omega gave him a disbelieving look, “but…you said you feel fuzzy”

Echo shook his head, “I'm fine, Omega”

“You don't know—”

“He's alright, I'm looking after him” Kan interrupted her with a gentle voice, offering a soft smile which eased the crease in her brow.

“I'm sure you are” Crosshair muttered under his breath, a smirk on his lips that was quickly wiped off by Hunter elbowing him. Omega was quick to move past it.

“Well… since you won't be in the field for a while you can come and visit us on Pabu! and you too Kan!” she said excitedly, and Kan gulped.

“Oh, I don't want to impose”

“You wouldn't, right Hunter?” the blonde clone turned to her brother.

“The kid's right” Hunter confirmed, “but don't feel pressured just because she's giving you those eyes”

Kan turned back to Omega and saw the pleading look in her eyes, the sparkle of put-on desperation that almost made Kan cave immediately. Instead, a chuckle passed her lips, and she looked to Echo, who in turn was looking at her with his own ardent expression.

In her peripheral, Kan saw Hunter pat his sister's shoulder, “Come on Omega, let's leave them to it”

Kan watched them file out of the room, an only looked back over to Echo when he pulled on her hand, scooting backwards on the bed to make space for her.

“Come here” he said softly, reaching for her with his other hand, and Kan obliged, sliding in next to him.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly, taking in her scent and letting a contented hum reverberate through him. They were silent for a moment, letting the other's presence wash over them and enjoying the moment of stillness, of peace.

“You scared me pretty good there” Kan mumbled into his chest, almost a whisper.

“I'm sorry” Echo sighed, “I didn't mean—”

“I know you didn't” she cut him off, “I just had to say it”

Kan sighed deeply, burying her face into Echo’s chest for a moment more.

“I need to go and—”

“No” Echo tightened his arms around her, drawing an amused chuckle from her lips.

Kan pulled back a little to look up at him, “I didn't even say—”

Echo hummed to interrupt her, shaking his head disapprovingly while fighting a smile, his eyes still closed.

“I don't care” he pulled her flush against him once more, “you're staying here”

“Echo—”

“Shhh”

Kan giggled against him, “Echo”

Echo huffed with mock indignance, “what?”

“I love you, but you need to let me go now”

He cracked open an eye, a wide smile growing across his face as he threaded his cybernetic hand through her hair, “I love you too cyar'ika, but you're not going anywhere”

Kan sighed as he held her closer, “damn I really thought that would work”

“Almost” Echo chuckled as he placed a kiss to her hairline, and she relaxed into his hold, “will you come to Pabu with me?”

She sighed softly, not replying immediately, and he pulled back to look down at her.

“What is it?”

“I don't know” she paused, her lips twisting, “I really don't want to step on any toes”

Echo's frown softened, “cyar'ika… it's only my brothers”

“Exactly, that's your family, Echo” she argued.

Echo gave her a funny look, a teasing smile pulling at his lips, “you're… nervous?”

Kan buried her face in his chest, embarrassment burning at her cheeks, “forget it”

“It's fine” Echo chuckled, “they all like you, and I know Omega would love it if you came”

Kan just hummed in reply, not giving away much of what she was thinking.

“At least think about it”

“Alright, I will” she muttered, tightening her arms around him.

It had been a few days since Echo had awoken, and he was feeling much better, though some of the fuzziness still lingered within him, making him feel a little feint every now and then. He had noticed Kan leave the mess hall after dinner with Howzer, Oscar and Teddy, and was now on the look out for them. He had some idea where they might be, given that they often sat outside of an evening, but tonight it was raining. He took a path towards the spot nonetheless, and was rewarded all the same.

Kan's laughter rang out in the hangar as Echo opened the door, the joyous sound bringing a wide smile to his face. She looked carefree and simply happy as she took a drag from the cigarra and passed it to Teddy on her left. The door to the hangar was open, the light drizzle outside a pleasant backdrop to the scene.

Echo stood and watched for a moment, the subtle fog of his cybernetic interference induced state making the scene before him even more heart warming. In the haze it was almost unfathomable that Kan was his, especially watching her now, her smile wide and clutching her stomach as she was doubled over with laughter. He felt his heart swell in his chest, his expression matching hers as he found his feet carrying him over.

“Look who it is” Howzer called out as he saw him approaching, and Kan looked over and smiled when Echo caught her eye, “come to join the celebration?”

“What are we celebrating?” Echo asked, taking his place next to Kan.

“K healed Oscar's wound” Teddy nodded his head over to his brother.

“Yep” Oscar grinned, “what would I do without you mesh'l—? I mean…”

He trailed off, his eyes flicking over to Echo and widening. Echo couldn't help but be amused as his cheeks darkened, his expression a little worried.

“You better watch it Oscar” Howzer nudged him, “K's got a man now, can't be saying that”

“It's fine” Echo chuckled, “don't stop on my account”

Kan huffed, muttering under her breath, “I wish you hadn't said that”

Teddy chuckled, knocking his foot against his brother’s, “come on you two, why don’t we leave the lovebirds to it”

Kan had no objections, watching as the three of them stood, Oscar and Teddy knocking into each other as they left and Howzer shaking his head after them. Kan chuckled a little, about to turn her head over to Echo before she was hastily pulled into his lap. A small squeak left her lips at the swiftness of the action, but it was quickly silenced as he pulled her into a deep kiss.

Pulling back after a few moments, Kan was grinning from ear to ear, “what was that for?”

“Just because I can” Echo spoke with a coy expression.

Kan laughed delightedly and pounced on his lips again, knocking him backwards a little so he had to catch himself with his hand. Echo smiled into the kiss, and a laughed bubbled up from his chest as she pulled away again.

“What was that for?” he repeated he question back to her with a wide smile.

Kan shrugged quickly, “just because I can”

Echo shook his head with a chuckle, nuzzling his face into her neck and holding her body tightly to his. Kan did the same, wrapping herself around him.

“I'll come to Pabu” she whispered, almost as if she didn’t want him to hear.

Echo pulled back and took her face in his hand, searching her eyes to make sure she really wanted to. He only saw the usual life and joy that she possessed so naturally staring back at him.

“I think you'll like it there”

Kan's lips quirked up slightly, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, “why's that?”

Echo shrugged, “I think it'll… suit you”

Echo had barely stepped off of his ship before he was almost tackled to the ground by his sister, her bubbly laughter bringing a smile to his face immediately. He had let her take his hand, and then Kan's, and she had dragged the both of them towards her home, where the rest of the bad batch were awaiting their arrival. The people in the streets had watched them with expressions that betrayed their amusement, no doubt knowing the nature of the young blonde clone.

As they reached their destination, Wrecker had taken Kan in a crushing hug, one that had her beaming up at him when he let her breath find it's way back to her body. Hunter had given her a smile and a friendly pat on the shoulder, and the most she got from crosshair was the promise of a smile at later date written into his expression, and a nod of his head.

Omega had tugged Kan away from her brothers and towards her bedroom, showing her the latest project she was undertaking. Echo had trailed after them, watching from the doorway with a fondness as he took in the scene of his sister and the woman he loved sat on the floor, fingers and eyes scouring the half-finished project.

As the planet had begun winding down for sleep, conversation had taken a turn towards dinner, and now, Kan was cooking. Hunter was at her side, taking her lead and filling in steps of the process as she shared a family recipe with him. She had brought it up in passing, but when realising that they had the ingredients for it, she had insisted that she make it for everyone, to thank them for their hospitality.

Watching Kan instruct and guide Hunter, chat with his sister as she perched on a stool watching her adoringly, joke with Wrecker and share a sarcastic comment with Crosshair, Echo couldn't help but notice how she was positively glowing. This familiarity, this domesticity, it suited her in a way that left a hole through the middle of his chest. She looked so happy, completely in her element, and a small, insecure voice in the back of Echo's head told him that this wasn't something he could offer her.

He do anything for her, anything he could to make her happy, but he couldn't change his fundamental belief that the work they were doing with the clone underground was not only essential, but something that he personally had to do. Echo knew that if she asked him, he'd stay there on Pabu with her in a heartbeat, but he also knew she'd never ask that of him.

He couldn't help but think that maybe that meant he would be denying her happiness.

As Kan turned to look over to him, he tried to hide the emotions that were so plain on his face, but she could see right through it. When they sat down to eat, she placed a hand over his, drawing his attention, and quietly asked what was wrong. He brushed it off, and gave her a reassuring smile, one that didn't fully reach his honey eyes and set an uneasy feeling in the pit of Kan's stomach.

Then later, as Echo walked in on Kan getting ready to go to a small festival in the town square, the thoughts that plagued him were laid to rest for a moment. She was wearing a red dress, the one with the lacey white tie that she had bought during their mission together, and he couldn't keep his hands off of her even if he wanted to.

He walked up behind her as she applied a dark powder to the corner of her eye, and hugged her waist tightly, burying his face in her neck and kissing her neck.

“You're so beautiful” he murmured against her skin, finding her eyes in the mirror she stood in front of.

Kan huffed, “you're lucky I had the foresight to take my brush away from my eye before you did that, or you wouldn't think that anymore”

Echo chuckled, running his hands along her sides as he admired her reflection, his eyes raking along her body.

“How did I get so lucky?” he spoke reverently, almost a whisper, and Kan smiled and leant back into him.

“I could ask the same thing” she replied, her palm finding his cheek as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

Echo held her tighter, watching with interest as she finished getting ready. She picked up her gold necklace, and went to clasp it behind her neck before he placed his hands on hers.

“Let me” he muttered, taking either side of the chain while Kan lifted her hair out of the way, sweeping it over her shoulder.

Echo fastened the clasp, stroking his hands across her shoulders and down her arms afterwards, pressing a light kiss to her shoulder blade. Kan spun around in his grasp, looking up at him with a wide smile, one that lit up her eyes, the golden flecks glittering in the low light.

Echo shook his head, a soft disbelieving chuckle escaping him as he drew closer, “so beautiful”

He brushed his lips against hers, though they were too warm and inviting not to indulge in more almost immediately. He tangled his lips with hers, tipping her head up with his hands on her jaw, and Kan melted into the kiss. Echo felt his mind drifting elsewhere, nowhere in particular. It was as if it had detached from his body at the pure bliss of the moment.

When he pulled away, he bumped his forehead with hers, tracing his thumb across her diamond tattoos.

“Come on” Kan gestured her eyes to the door of their room as she took his hands in hers, “we better go”

Watching Kan's face light up as they got further and further towards the town square made Echo's chest constrict, partly in admiration but that nagging guilty feeling was beginning to make a reappearance.

Echo sometimes found himself to be a worrier by nature, but this nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach was far more unpleasant and stinging than anything else. He kept it to himself, just trying to admire the sights ahead of him, the square decorated with lights and lined by a variety of stalls, a band playing towards the centre, people dancing to their music. It was such a joyous scene, and that was what hurt.

Omega was dead set on showing Kan to one specific food stall, one that was ran by the parents of a friend of hers. Echo watched her drag Kan away, who looked back at him with a giddy smile that at any other moment would have filled his chest with warmth.

Crosshair nudged Echo's elbow with his, "what’s eating you?”

Echo turned to his brother, then noticing that the others had gone in a different direction, and shook his head slightly, “it's nothing”

Crosshair rolled his eyes, “come on, out with it”

Echo sighed, turning his gaze back to Kan, watching her movements for a moment. She ruffled Omega's hair, who in turn gave her an unimpressed expression, but Kan just chuckled, her mouth curled into a full grin.

“Don't you think she seems… happy here?”

“Meaning…?” Crosshair prompted.

“Happier,” Echo clarified, “more at ease than she is at the base”

“Well she is on vacation” he took the toothpick from between his teeth and pointed it to Echo to emphasise his point.

Echo huffed, “I guess”

“What are you getting at?” He asked, and Echo's lips twisted as he tried to find the right words.

“I don’t know, really” he sighed, “I can't help but think that… being with the underground, being with me, it's taking her life away from her”

Crosshair rolled his eyes at his brother's theatrics, “look, I don't know her very well, but what I do know is that she's going to do what she wants”

“That's the problem” Echo frowned, turning his attention back to the person in question, who was beginning to make her way back towards them, “she'll do what she wants, at the expense of herself”

Crosshair hummed thoughtfully, then laid a hand on Echo’s shoulder, “I think you should talk to her about this”

Echo turned to him, seeing his earnest expression and gave him a half-smile, “you're right, thanks Cross”

“Don't mention it” he retorted as he took his hand away and placed his toothpick back between his teeth, “and I mean that”

Echo chuckled, “my lips are sealed”

“Where did the others go?” Omega asked as they stepped up to the two clones.

“Not sure” Echo replied, looking around the various characters that surrounded them, realising the crowd was thicker now.

“Come on kid, why don't we go look for them” Crosshair prompted, his hand on her back to lead her away, nodding to Echo as they parted.

Echo turned back to Kan, noting she had almost finished the food she had bought already, “still hungry?”

“No” Kan shrugged, “this is just really good”

Echo hummed amusedly, gently pulling her towards him as someone tried to pass by them. He saw the way Kan's features seemed to relax at his touch.

“Why don't we go somewhere a little less busy” he suggested.

Kan smiled gently, “yeah, sounds good”

Echo took her hand and guided her through the crowd, weaving between the people until they began to thin out, at the edge of the area where a number of them were dancing with loved ones, some couples, some parents with their children. He could see the way Kan was looking out at the dancers, her eyes following their movements intently, a certain longing in their depths that made his lips quirk up.

Kan took her final bite and Echo made his move, taking the wrapper from her and tossing it into the nearest bin, before he grabbed her hand, leaning her onto the dancefloor. She looked a little startled, but a blush quickly arose across her cheeks as he pulled her close, a shy grin pulling at her lips.

“It's so easy to make you blush” Echo teased, brushing his nose against hers as he took her in his arms, gently swaying to the slow tune.

“Only for you” Kan huffed, turning away a little as her cheeks burned hotter.

“I'm glad” Echo smiled, but it faltered a little as the topic of conversation he needed to broach stuck out in his mind.

“What is it?” Kan asked, a worried crease in her brow, “you've been off since dinner”

Echo sighed, trying to find the best way to bring it up.

“I just can't help but notice how… happy you seem here” he started, pausing to find a way to explain what he meant, “as if… maybe you'd be happier here”

Kan only frowned deeper, “I don't know what you mean”

“I suppose what I'm wondering is… would you prefer to stay here, rather than return to the base with me?”

Kan cocked her head to the side, a little taken aback, and then gripped him tighter, “no, I don't want that”

“You don't want to opportunity to settle down?”

“I didn't say that” Kan spoke carefully, “in an ideal galaxy, I would, but we don't live in that galaxy. I want to help the cause, I feel… passionate about fighting the Empire and saving your brothers, and if I get to do it by your side… well, that's just a bonus”

Echo's heart swelled with pride, and he realised that he wouldn't even be in this situation, with his arms wrapped around Kan, if she was any different. He had fallen for her because of her passion and her drive, not seeking the kind of things that he was worried about her wanting.

“I love you Kandam'aira” he whispered, his forehead against hers as he peered into her deep green eyes.

Kan smiled, pressing herself into him, “I love you too Echo”

extra a/n: thank you so much for reading this!!! if you made it this far I'm so thankful to you 🫶 this was the first ever longfic that I actually finished so even though I'm not entirely happy with the quality of some of it, I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing at the very least. that being said, I've got another longfic I'm working on, and I'm super excited about it, so stick around for that :) thank you again !!! <3

taglist: @darthnihila @cdblake1565 @bunny7567 @heidnspeak @falling-among-the-stars @clones-cyare