#like every other appearance he has dude faints

[raddestrose]

Whats that Su She and Huaisang doing here?

I know Su She got something to do with this, is it cause it’s got to do with Huaisang’s brother?

[fairyhaos]

how seventeen would act as a webtoon fantasy world prince

this was written with those virtual character dating simulation thingies in mind btw?? like. those unrealistic webtoon isekai-esque stuff. ive never played them before but this is based on my interpretation of them lmao

masterlist

seungcheol

either you fall in love with prince seungcheol at first sight or it's some charged enemies to lovers dynamic until someone finally realises they've fallen. he's just such a huge and great and formidable presence and he is just The Best protector. there's ofc gonna be some sort of altercation where you get hurt and you can bet that his eyes go stormy and he's asking "who did this to you" in a low voice, full of promise to murder anyone who hurt you. watches you with stars in his eyes when you descend the staircase in the beautiful outfit you're wearing as his partner to a royal ball, and that's how he knows that you're the one

jeonghan

prettier than you. every time he appears on screen there's a bunch of shiny sparkles and floating hearts and at least one of the other faceless side-princesses has to faint at his beauty in the background of the scene. he's charactertised by his soft eyes and the glinting teeth in his smile and the way he always has the most out-of-pocket sentences that leave his lips. he's really pretty and really smart but also???? unexpectedly does little things that show that he cares about you. prince jeonghan is written as the webtoon trope where he looks like a laid-back pretty boy but secretly loves you dearly and would defend you with his life

joshua

childhood friends who drifted away due to circumstances in their own kingdoms before finally reuniting at a ball and realising oh god... they both grew up to be so beautiful. there's some underlying, dramatic plot involving betrayal and corruption in the temple (dude it's always the temple) but your love for one another is always there, unspoken but ringing true constantly. does it kind of give you plot armour? yeah, bc the writer doesn't want anything to happen to joshua. (or you. but mostly joshua.) but there's also at least 6 shirtless prince joshua scenes bc the writer loves him so. take what you can get.

junhui

he's just Doing His Best okay. he's been married off to you, a royal from another kingdom, and he's kinda having a bad time bc the climate of your kingdoms are just so different but you're also kind of being all snappish with him like he chose to be married off to you?? but you're also really pretty and sometimes you're quite nice and it's obvious you're a good person from how you talk about your subjects and he knows that you don't like him but he thinks he might be falling in love with you, which is kind of confusing for everyone. comedy-fluff-misunderstandings webtoon style.

hoshi

playful younger prince. rebellious. you first meet him in some rundown, peasant area and you genuinely think he's just the illegitimate son of a noble rather than the prince himself bc he's just so friendly and blatantly disregarding all sorts of common court etiquette. as someone stifled by the rigid aristocratic structures, you find it refreshing, and talking to him is just so easy and you get to express yourself so well around him. before you know it, you're in love, and when you feel horribly betrayed at the reveal that he's the prince, well.... perhaps someone else out of the two of you managed to catch feelings too.

wonwoo

he's always so calm and composed and it makes you want to climb him like a tree and wring his shoulders to finally ruffle his leaves a little and find out what makes him tick. you want to be the one to crack the secret to prince jeon wonwoo, basically. will he let you? no. he hates you. at least, that's what you think, before something happens at a horse-riding tournament through the woods that you're participating in and your horse becomes out of control, and from then on, wonwoo never leaves your side. almost as if he was scared that he'd truly lose you, and he realises that he never wants that to happen, ever.

woozi

guys. guys prince jihoon is perfect for a prince x knight trope. prince jihoon who's head knight and always ends up sniping with you, the one knight in his charge that always snarks back. prince jihoon who spars with his knights often and always seems to be the closest in skill level with you. prince jihoon who mostly sees you in your armour so to see you dressed in finery at a ball makes him blink because you're actually rather beautiful. and you, who feel torn between your duty and the comfortable banter that you've developed with the crown prince that makes you crave more and more every time he turns to leave.

minghao

you rarely go out to balls but this time your family convinces you to come to the masquerade ball the royal family are holding for the crown prince. there, you meet a handsome masked man, who leads you through one of the fast dances and has you laughing into him before you share a fascinatingly intellectual conversation with him until the ball ends and from there, you're whisked away by your chatty (but well-meaning) family and you never see him again until a dramatic encounter at the market where you're about to get robbed but a familiar voice steps in. is it a cliche plot? yeah, but prince minghao is drawn to be utterly gorgeous so people will stay for the art

mingyu

is literally soooo drop-dead gorgeous that you promise yourself you're not gonna fall in love with him bc like???? he's the prince from a neighbouring kingdom that you're being forced to marry. this off-the-charts handsomeness is just a ploy to get you to act out a cliche of falling for him. but the more time you spend with him, the more you find that despite being (almost terrifyingly) handsome, he's also kind of... adorable? so... maybe you'll rethink your decision to not fall in love with him.... especially when he trips over his feet and accidentally blurts out how he's in love with you when on a walk in the palace gardens

dokyeom

ray-of-sunshine crown prince who is so annoyingly perfect that you feel kind of irritated. literally it's soooo obvious that the writer has a thing for puppy-coded sunshine bright boys bc it even makes the reader fall for him too. you have an (admittedly one-sided) rivalry with him, bc he's just so kind and loved by all and it fills you with hatred bc you've been nothing but despised and shunned your entire life. but then, some small, kind gesture that he does to you marks the beginning of change in your feelings, and it's as his eyes find yours during yet another ball that you realise... oh. perhaps you've fallen for him after all.

seungkwan

spoilt brat. but also your childhood best friend, so you've learnt to deal with his tendencies and know how to hold him back from kicking someone in the shins in a very un-royal way, and have even grown to love him. like a friend, ofc. however, the weird feeling in your stomach from seeing him having to entertain foreign royalty.... it's definitely not jealousy, right? definitely not. at least, you don't think it is, until seungkwan and you overhear his parents talking of an arranged marriage with another kingdom and you realise with startling clarity that you never want to lose seungkwan to someone else

vernon

honestly. vernon is probably the ordinary guy who was isekai-ed into a fantasy novel as the crown prince. but like, Why does he manage to do so well in his role???? he's panicking the entire time, but he's not necessarily doing badly, and he manages to make you fall for him even harder than you do in the original novel. the second male lead doesn't even have the chance to be an option bc vernon is literally the only person you see. he doesn't know how it happens, but he speed-runs the entire book in one month and then you're confessing your love for him and uh. he might actually be in love with you too.

chan

prince chan is the most gentle and most courteous prince of all time. bows all deeply and respectfully when you first meet him, and he's careful not to touch you without your permission. has such a captivating smile and such captivating words that you can't help but find your gaze gravitating to him at all times. stares at you all awed when you laugh at a particularly funny joke he made. he will 100% definitely treat you right forever. kisses you all soft when he leaves for a battle, your handkerchief tucked into his clothes as a reminder of what he can never leave behind

reactions tags: @weird-bookworm @minhui896 @bunnyiix @slytherinshua @haowrld @belladaises @newgirlygirl @moonlitskiiies @mirxzii @wonranghaeee @yonabutnotyuna @crackedpumpkin @wqnwoos @kthstrawberryshortcake-main @kawennote09 @a-wandering-stay @icyminghao @valenhui @sweet-like-caramel @evasaysstuff @odxrilove @kyeomyun @chansburgah @pepperonijem @jeonride @kellesvt @hanniehaee @astrozuya @eightlightstar @onlyyjeonghan @aaniag @amxlia-stars @all-american-fangirl @f1uffyjun @jeonghanfr

[yannights]

Hi, I love your Wriothesley work!I was wondering what would happen if reader tried to hurt Wriothesley during an outburst? Would he be mad or brush it of?

Thank you for the request!!! I love it so much that I think a serves as a great prequel for my "Depth " series, so I wrote a little story around it, and I hope it answers your question

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

Wriothesley is not a brute, he is not completely delusional either. He is fully aware of how his actions affect you and he knows that you hate him for it. So he allows you keep the dignity you desire, he lets you sleep on the floor, he leaves you to bath alone. However nothing stops him from loving you. Your presence is all he needs from you. He is what can be can considered as a 'chill dude' if you get mad at him, he will mostly like try to brush it off if notihing is at stake. For instance if you demand to go out, he will most likely refuse since he doesn't trust the other inmate's around to not pull a stunt with you.

The more time passes, the more he craves more from you. Your approval, your love. Everything he wants is within your grasp, so he will indulge it from time to time. He will demand hugs, or a kiss, and despite your rejection, he enjoys and cherishes these moments. So, as the days pass, the tantrums will start to get irritating, despite his composure, he will start to feel angry at you for not advancing your relationship as he pleases, and if things escalate to a braking point, he will take action.

------

As Wriothesley sat at his desk, the weight of his responsibilities pressed down upon him, each signature on the papers before him a reminder of the endless demands of his position as the duke. Despite the tranquility of the day, the constant stream of complaints and regulations left him feeling drained and weary.

You, on the other hand, sat on the couch nearby, a comforting presence amidst the chaos of his duties. With a cup of vanilla tea in hand, which Wriothesley had prepared it especially for you, a small gesture of 'kindness' amidst the hustle and bustle of the day. As you sipped the fragrant tea, its soothing warmth washed over you, providing a momentary respite from the stresses of your position. As you took another sip of the vanilla tea, a sudden vision flashed before your eyes. You found yourself sitting in a café, savoring the same tea as the sun set in the distance. The memory of that simpler time lingered, a bittersweet reminder of the life you once knew before returning to Wriothesley's office.

This reality boiled you with pure rage, you aggressively put the cup down onto the table. As Wriothesley observed your sudden outburst, a faint smirk played across his lips, though he made no overt comment. The silence only fueled the fire of your rage, simmering beneath the surface as you struggled to contain it. Wriothesley on the other hand wanted to see how far your limits would go, so he decided he would partake in a little game.

"Well, well," he began, his voice dripping with mock concern, "it seems our little tea break has taken a rather dramatic turn, hasn't it?" His taunting tone only served to stoke the flames of your anger, the heat of it pulsating through every fiber of your being.

Without a word, you snatched another cup from the tray and hurled it in his direction with all the force you could muster. But Wriothesley was quick to react, dodging the projectile by leaning to his left. A visible unpleased looked appeared on his face. Exhausted and annoyed by your actions, Wriothesley slowly stood up from his desk, and looked down at you with a stone cold expression, intensifying his icy gaze from his frozen coloured eyes. With furrowed eyebrows, Wriothesley could no longer hide the pain arising from your attitude, and had finally decided he would have proper discussion about your childish behaviour.

"My, my," he chuckled though the anger in his eyes unmistakable, "someone's feeling rather spirited today, aren't they? "

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Author:

So yeah, for me, he would probably try and talk to you first. Unlike a lot of fanfics, I don't think he resort to violence with darling, maybe intimidation. Like I said he's a chill guy, he would either brush it off or just results to a non-lethal way of showing that what you are doing isn't good. But everyone has a limit, right. So if you do manage to make him angry which is rare he would probably try and talk it out and then find another solution if it's not working.

Hope you enjoyed~~~~

[ragingbookdragon]

It doesn’t come as much a surprise to anyone when Alejandro and Rudy come out. Anyone who knew them could tell there was something more than trust between the leader and second in command. But to see it so openly between them, no longer hiding it, makes Soap a little jealous. Ghost has never explicitly said Soap couldn’t tell anyone they were together, but Soap knew that Ghost was a private person and having people in his romantic life was something he didn’t want. It did give Soap food for thought as he watched Alejandro and Rudy sway to some Latin song, stupid, love-struck simples on their faces as they laughed and kissed. It made Soap’s chest burn with the desire to have love like that—to have a partner that was okay with doing stupid cheesy shit like dancing drunk. He knew it wasn’t fair to compare his relationship with Ghost to Alejandro’s and Rudy’s. The two had been friends since they were kids. They grew up together, had each other’s backs through thick and thin.

Alejandro’s bright burning anger, a red sunrise and sunset, hell-bringing hurricanes, to Rudy’s calmness, a cool blue moonrise and sky full of stars, torrential downpour. The two matched souls like they were made for one another, a single soul divided into two persons, the love that the two had was palpable.

And it made Soap envious. Envious enough that Gaz elbowed him and muttered, “Dude, you keep glaring and someone’s going to think you’re a bigot.”

Soap let out a grunt and rose from the table. “I’m getting air.”

He passed Ghost on his way out, not bothering to look at him as he let the door shut behind him and disappeared into the alley between the bar and hotel beside it. Soap let his back hit the brick and he slid down, burying his face in his jeans. The liquor was getting to him and he took deep breaths trying to dispel the urge to vomit. Scuffing sounded beside him and he looked up, blinking at Ghost staring down at him, a hulking mass of black outlined by the faint yellowish street light.

“What?” Soap said.

“You’re upset.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re upset that they’re more open about being together than we are. “ Ghost read him like an open book so easily it scared him sometimes.

Soap felt ashamed; he looked away, unable to keep Ghost’s gaze. A hand appeared in his vision and Speedo looked at it. “Ghost, what—”

“Will you…” Ghost shuffled awkwardly on his feet. “Will you dance with me?”

“In this shite alley?”

“In this shite alley.”

Soap smiled and took Ghost’s hand, letting himself be pulled to his feet. It was hot, sweat already pooling at the base of Soap’s spine, but he didn’t mind as he and Ghost began to sway beneath the dingy lighting. Maybe the openness he desired was still far away, but he would take every inch Ghost would give him and make it a mile.

[klausinamarink]

Love Over Box Labels

rating: G | cw: none | tags: modern au, no Upside Down, the romanticism of workings at warehouses | wc: 987

written for @steddieholidaydrabbles | Dec 4: Meet Cute at Work

—

When his dad had threatened Steve into working at a warehouse instead of being the good CEO’s son, Steve had laughed at his face and said, “Go ahead! Maybe I’ll like it better than your stupid neopet position!”

It’s been two years since that conversation. And Steve’s still working at the warehouse. Though it’s not the same one his dad plunked him in. He’s since transferred to another place for a full time position. And Steve loves it.

Maybe ‘love’ is too strong a word to use. Steve definitely doesn’t love waking up at five-thirty in the morning every weekday, requiring espresso to prevent falling asleep on his feet within the first few hours, and the muscle strain from all the heavy lifting.

But warehouse work is surprisingly mundane and much better than Steve expects. He chats with his coworkers, the music choices aren’t bad, and the days can pass within a blink through the repetition of box folding and forklifting shipments.

There’s one guy that keeps catching Steve’s attention though.

As one of the new contract workers who came in last week, the new guy - Eddie, according to his ID badge - has long curly black hair tied up in a bun, black fitted clothes with different band tees, and a few tattoos on his bare arms. His brown eyes were dearly expressive, a bit helpful since he was also one of the few employees still wearing a mask. (an automatic sign of a decent person in Steve’s mental checklist)

As a team leader trains Eddie on the basic operations of their taping machines at the other line, Steve keeps sneaking glances at him as he steers a pump truck of packages into the shipping area. Eddie’s eyes are narrowed with concentration, nodding along at Deb’s words, probably unaware of his surroundings at the moment.

Steve gives out a quiet sigh. Then he mentally slaps himself. Jeez, this is a new low bar of pathetic-ness for him. Crushing on a new coworker who either doesn’t know he exists or has noticed Steve and thinks he’s a creep.

He should probably just be normal and try talking to Eddie during lunch. Problem is that Eddie is working on another line which has a different break time than Steve’s line. So unless the leaders rotate the employee’s positions to other lines next Monday, then Eddie’s going to be far from Steve’s reach.

Steve shakes his head, focusing back to his work. Whatever. It’s just a stupid crush. He’s gonna get over it because he and Eddie are never going to talk anyways.

—

“Steve, can you let Eddie help you with those labels?”

Steve blinks at Karen, caught off-guard by her sudden appearance with Eddie right next to her. He only manages to answer coherently, “Oh, sure!”

“That’s lovely!” Karen smiles at him, patting Eddie on the arm as she leaves. And then it’s the two of them at this table with stacks of boxes and rolls of labeled stickers.

“So…” Steve starts. “You're new here, right?” He kicks himself in the shin because what the hell, Steve?

Eddie just gives a jerky nod. “Yeah, first season.” He says, clipped. His eyes flick down to the labels questioningly. “How do I..?”

“Oh, this is like, super easy stuff, dude.” Steve says, hoping he doesn’t sound too eager on showing off the beauty of box labeling. “You just take this white label, place it here right above the numbers, take this..” He continues his demonstration to Eddie, who’s once again narrow-eyed with concentration. Steve nearly flutters when he notices how close enough he is that he can see the pinched furrow of Eddie’s eyebrows and a faint speckle of freckles below his eyes.

Be still, my bisexual heart. Steve demands as he looks away just before Eddie’s eyes - they’re so round, oh god - catches his. “You got it?”

Eddie nods, “Easy enough.”

“Cool.”

Unfortunately, that’s just all they say to each other as they work in tangent on the labels. Steve wants to talk to Eddie again. Bring something up like-

“Nice tattoos, by the way.”

Lord, please smite me from this earth and send me to Amazon.

“Thanks, man.” When Steve looks at him, Eddie’s eyes are crinkled up. “They’re super old, though. Got them when I was a rebellious junior student. Been thinking about getting new ones over it.”

“I mean, if you wanna change them or whatever, that’s totally up to you! Just saying that the bats look wicked.”

Eddie quirks an eyebrow. “You like the bats?”

“Yeah! They’re, uh, your favorite animals?”

“In a way.”

Pretty soon, they both fall into an easy conversation, discussing bits of their respective upbringings and what they’d done before coming here. They only pause to collect new boxes and bring the finished ones to the packers. When lunch break is called, Steve’s relieved that Eddie now has the same schedule, allowing them to talk more.

It creates a delightful feeling in Steve’s chest.

—

“I really learned a lot,” Eddie says as they walk out the building together at the end of the shift, “I don’t think I could survive today without you.”

“Really?”

Eddie takes off his mask. Steve’s heart flips sideways at the sight of the other man’s eye-crinkling smile. “Yeah. Now I know how to label boxes like my life depends on it.”

Steve bursts out a good-hearted laugh, “Well, if you want more advice, I can give you my number.”

Eddie stares at him for a beat before smiling wider, “I wouldn’t mind that.”

[fanficimagery]

Forging a New Path

When your best friend ignores you for his girlfriend of the month one too many times, you open yourself up to a new friendship that eventually evolves into something more.

Words: 8.2K Author's Note: Stranger Things AU - no Upside Down. Eddie will also be moving to Hawkins at the beginning of your and Robin's senior year.

High school wasn't as terrible as you had feared, but you are so ready for your senior year to be done and over with after only a week of it.

One would think that you were over your senior year because of the onslaught of work or because of bullies, but nope. You were over it because out of every possible scenario, it was your best friend who made you feel a bit awkward and ready to move on.

Sitting atop the table of a concrete bench just outside of the school, you're talking through your English assignment with Robin when someone knocks into your knees. Your smile falters as you look up and your best friend grins, turning so his back is towards you and wiggling between your knees to rest. Your jaw clenches as you lean back, refusing to wrap your arms around his shoulders like you would have had it been last year. Robin arches an eyebrow at you, but you chuckle softly and shake your head at her, so she knows to drop it.

As more and more of your friend group show up, Robin takes her leave to get ready for her first period band class and you find yourself leaning forward. Your left hand ends up on your best friend's shoulder, fingers tapping rhythmically against his neck.

With less than five minutes to the first bell, a dual-tone colored van screeches into the student parking lot. Everyone watches as the driver and passenger doors open, followed by the side door being slid open. Several familiar looking freshmen scramble out of the van, but it's the driver who draws your attention.

You can hear your friends wondering about the newcomer, but you're not adding much to the conversation other than a hum here and there. Instead, you're solely focused on the shaggy-haired individual who the freshmen are looking up at with adoration in their eyes. The denim vest and leather jacket combo pique your interest and your breath lightly hitches when brown doe eyes meet yours as they approach the entrance doors.

A smile blossoms across the newcomer's face which makes his eyes crinkle at the corners and dimples appear, and you mentally swoon. Oh no. He's cute!

Letting your lips twitch into a faint grin, you nod in greeting, but then pressure around your thigh draws your attention to your best friend who's staring up at you with an unimpressed expression. "Are you done eye-fucking the new dude?"

His tone makes your friends laugh and you grit your teeth, but you paste on a smile. "Nope. Still have all day." The bell finally rings, and you push at your friend until he gets up so you can walk off to your first class of the day.

You seriously couldn't wait for graduation.

. . . .

Lunchtime rolls around and Eddie Munson is surrounded by his people.

Well, mostly.

There's Jeff, Gareth, and Tommy- three juniors who happen to have the same taste in music and style as him, and then a handful of freshmen he'd picked up that morning when one of their bikes had a flat tire and he decided to be a good guy and drive them to school. The one thing they all had in common, however, was that they were all fans of Dungeons and Dragons, and he couldn't wait to start planning their first campaign since he clued them in to the fact that he was a fantastic dungeon master.

As he nibbles on the soggy fries the school has to offer, Eddie's gaze travels over the different cliques at Hawkins High. This school was nothing like the school he attended before where all cliques were set in stone. There were the usual jocks, the stoners, the band geeks, and the art nerds, but the thing that threw him for a loop was the fact that there were two different cliques of metalheads.

He was part of the metalheads that had a knack for playing a fantasy game whereas the other group of metalheads consisted of actual metalheads, a couple of jocks, and a few band geeks who all seemed to have music and style in common.

And then there was you- YN YLN, or so he's heard- a girl who flitted from clique to clique, garnering smiles and greetings instead of rude comments as he would have expected from the jocks. You were part of the second group of metalheads, even if it confused him a bit since you didn't seem like you would belong to that group.

As Eddie continues to watch you, his mood dips when he watches the same boy who'd been sitting between your knees that morning appear, making you scoot your chair back as he takes a seat on your knee even though there are two empty chairs on either side of you. You smile at the boy but slap his hand away and shove him off your knee when he starts picking food from your tray.

"What's up with those two?" He finally asks, determined to get to the bottom of whatever's going on between you and the boy.

Jeff, Gareth, and Will are the only boys seated on the one side of the table to where they don't have to turn to see where Eddie's staring. Will shrugs, not knowing who he's speaking about, but Jeff and Gareth chuckle.

"She caught your attention, didn't she?" Gareth muses.

Eddie pops another fry into his mouth, dragging his gaze away for a few seconds. "She doesn't really belong to one group."

Jeff shakes his head. "She's a chameleon, man. Her brother was a jock and made a name for himself. He graduated right before she made it to high school, but all the jocks that played on a team with her brother kind of looked out for her after. She's friends with a lot of people, but her main group is wherever that guy James is. Those two have been attached at the hip for years."

"Are you talking about YN YLN?" Dustin asks, smiling as he glances over his shoulder to spot the girl in question. "We've only started high school this year, but even we knew about YN down at the middle school."

"Really? Why?" Eddie asks.

"Her and her best friend are kind of infamous around here."

"Best friend?" Eddie's eyebrow arches, glancing back at you and your friends.

"Yep." Gareth takes a bite out of a chicken strip. "Her and James are close- touchier than normal friends. They've never dated, but with the way James is around her it'd make you think there were some feelings there."

"Everyone figured they'd finally date this year, but I don't know," Tommy singsongs. "I have the two of them in second period and something definitely happened over summer."

"Good or bad?" Gareth perks up at the potential new gossip.

"Definitely bad." Tommy eats some more of his food. "Things were awkward between the both of them at first, but James quickly went back to normal. YN, on the other hand, seems uncomfortable when James is nearby. I swear that I saw him attach himself to her side and tangle their fingers together, but YN let him go and made an excuse to quickly speak with the teacher so she could get out of her seat."

"Huh. Interesting..." Eddie drawls.

"Mhm. Yeah. Sure," Mike says. "Moving on now. When can we play D&D?"

Another couple of weeks pass you by and it's gotten easier, more interesting, and it's all thanks to the new guy Eddie Munson and the freshmen he's apparently taken under his wing. You've yet to talk to Eddie, only smiling at each other when passing each other by in the hallways, but you have two freshmen- Dustin and Mike- in your PE class where you got to speak to them here and there. They're such nerds, but they're also such a breath of fresh air.

And even though James had gotten clingier, you knew it was only a matter of time before he had himself a girlfriend and was ignoring you once more in order to assure the girlfriend that there was absolutely nothing between you and him. You're used to this behavior by now and while you should feel grateful that his attention is elsewhere, you also kind of hate it because James is your best friend.

You just really wish he had never made it all awkward right before the start of your senior year and could go back to the way things were.

. . . .

You're sitting outside for lunch this time, enjoying the crisp breeze while nibbling on a small bag of chips and sipping on a Coke. You're zoned out, not really paying attention to your surroundings, that when someone says something to you, you can't help the words that follow.

"Hey. YN, right?"

"I didn't do it on purpose!"

"..." Eddie Munson slowly grins at you, freezing from where he'd been about to take a seat across from you at the picnic table. "What?"

"What?" You blink at him. When your words register in your brain, you feel the tips of your ears burn in embarrassment.

He takes a seat, chuckling softly. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but now I'm curious. What didn't you do on purpose?"

You gape at him. "I-" His grin slowly widens and you deflate a little. "I thought Henderson and Wheeler snitched on me and you were here to defend their nerdy little honors."

Eddie laughs. "What happened?"

"We played dodgeball in PE yesterday." You shrug. "You would think that one would know how to dodge when a ball was heading their way."

"You beaned the poor freshmen?"

"They were supposed to dodge!" As Eddie chuckles, you pout at him. But the pout doesn't last long because a tray of chicken strips is suddenly set in front of you. You gasp and turn in your seat just in time to see another one of your good friends taking a seat next to you. "Robin! Are you trying to get me to fall in love with you? Because it's working," you tell her as you immediately dig in.

"You'd make a terrible life partner. We'd never work out," she muses. Her gaze then travels across the table, and she arches an eyebrow. "Munson? What brings you out here?"

Fortunately for Eddie, you're so distracted by the food in front of you that you don't see the faint blush heating his cheeks. "Came out for some air and saw YN sitting all alone. Thought she'd want a bit of company."

"Mhm." Robin hums, briefly narrowing her eyes at him. She's grinning a second later and Eddie is left reeling with how fast she perks up. "Speaking of, why are you outside all on your lonesome?"

With a mouthful of chicken and ketchup, you wrinkle your nose at her. She grins and patiently waits, and you take a sip of your drink. "I didn't feel like being sneered at by James' new girl and her friends. Plus, it's chilly out and you know how much I love this weather."

"Ugh. The new girlfriend is giving you trouble?"

You shrug. "I've been asked at least four times already if there is anything going on between James and I or if there was anything going on in the past."

"That sucks." Robin glances at your forgotten bag of chips and you grin while nudging the bag closer to her. As she takes a few of them, she says, "Well if you need a new table, you can always sit at the band table."

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"You can always sit with me and my friends," Eddie then says. When you glance at him, even he looks surprised by the words that just came out of his mouth. Slowly but surely, he grins. "You already know Wheeler and Henderson."

"Yeah? If I sit with you, do I get a matching shirt too?" You ask, gaze falling to the white tee emblazoned with a devil's head, dice, a flaming dagger, and a mace. You'd seen the Hellfire Club shirts for a couple of days now, the owners proudly wearing them altogether today.

Eddie perks up. "Do you play D&D?"

"Unfortunately, no." You frown. "I don't have the mind capacity to immerse myself into roleplaying."

"Or the math skills," Robin mumbles, but both you and Eddie hear her loud and clear.

"Bitch," you grumble.

Both Eddie and Robin chuckle, and you smile before finishing off the rest of your food.

Not knowing how to carry on the conversation, Eddie starts to stand while rapping his knuckles on the tabletop. "Well, ladies, nice chat." He then looks directly at you. "The invitation to sit with Hellfire during lunch still stands."

"Thanks."

"I'll see you around."

As Eddie takes his leave and disappears back into the cafeteria, Robin elbows you. "What was that all about?"

"No idea. He just sat down and started talking."

"Good. You need more friends. Friends who won't ditch you the second his new girlfriend gets insecure," she tells you, earning a soft chuckle from you.

"If you say so." As Robin picks through the chip bag once more, you grin. "So, is Harrington picking you up today? I need a ride. I'm officially walking to and from school for the foreseeable future."

"Yeah. I'll tell Steve to wait, just don't make us wait too long. We have a shift at Family Video."

"Got it. Don't hold you up. I'll be on time."

For a few days, you continue sitting outside during lunch. Robin joins you when she can, but other than her you sit alone uninterrupted.

But on day five, the air gets colder, and you're forced back inside.

James is still with his girlfriend, so your usual table is a no-go. Robin smiles as if inviting you over, but the band table is really jammed packed these days. The Hellfire table, however, has more than enough room. So, after grabbing a tray of food, you head toward the table where your fellow peers look up to Eddie Munson as if he were a god of some sort.

"Room for one more?" You ask, standing near Dustin Henderson towards the middle of the table. He looks up at you, beaming at your appearance which makes you grin down at him.

"Sweetheart," Eddie coos. "There's always room for you." He looks to his left where Tommy- a heavy set student in a leather jacket sits. "Scoot. You're in her seat."

Tommy grins as the entire side of his table shuffles down a seat and you playfully roll your eyes. "So, you're a sweet talker, huh? Keep it up and I just might share my food with you." Then looking at Tommy, you nudge his arm. "Thanks, Tom-Tom."

He chuckles. "You haven't called me that since middle-school."

Across from you, Jeff and Gareth chuckle and you're quick to greet them as well.

"Wait a sec." Eddie glances between all of you. "You know each other?"

"Haven't you learned by now, Eddie? I'm a social butterfly." You bat your eyelashes at him, leaning back in your chair and snuggling further into your hoodie. It really was cold today. "We all grew up with each other, we just kind of drifted in high school as most friends do."

"You drifted, you mean," Gareth says.

He doesn't say it to be mean, but his words still cause a little bit of hurt. Your expression softens. "Sorry about that. I got lost for a while there, huh?"

Gareth's eyes subtly widen as he sits a little straighter in his seat. "Y-Yeah, but I mean.. you're here now so that's all that matters."

You chuckle softly and then look further down the table. "Hey Henderson. Wheeler," you greet. You then nod at the other two freshmen you don't know. "Hi. I'm YN."

"Lucas."

"Will."

Leaning back into your seat once more, you pick up your legs onto the chair and hug your knees while laying your cheek atop of them.

"Uh, sweetheart, are you going to eat?" You hear Eddie ask.

"Nope. Have at it, Munson. Just don't drink my Coke."

"You okay?"

"Mhm." You sleepily mumble. "It's the cold. It makes me sleepy."

"That's right." Jeff laughs as if suddenly remembering something. "As soon as it gets really cold, you'll find her asleep anywhere she can get away with it."

"Oh, thank god," you hear Henderson say. "We're playing dodgeball again in PE and if YN is tired, she won't be so brutal."

"Dude!" You hear a slap and pick your head up to glance down the table. Wheeler is glaring at his friend. "Shut up."

"We're playing dodgeball?" You ask, smiling. Then glancing at the other boys, you ask them, "Whose had PE?" Will nervously raises his hand. "Is it mixed teams or girl versus boy?"

"Girl versus boy."

"Yes! You're going down, Henderson and Wheeler."

"Goddammit."

"I told you," Wheeler grumbles.

Eddie smiles as you tease the freshmen. "You're a menace."

"But a cute one, right?" You immediately retort. His smile widens and that's all the answer you need.

Eddie Munson was smitten and you? You were starting to realize how seriously cute this boy was as well.

You're not surprised when James is single again, demanding all your attention and practically gluing himself to your side in the following days. But you deal with it- smiling and partially happy to spend some time with your best friend again. Another part of you, however, is annoyed because now the only time you have to talk to Eddie is in between classes. And most of the time, James is there and trying to tug you along to your next class.

One day, the last bell of the day had rung, but you were still stuck inside the school building ten minutes after. You and Robin had been lucky enough to be dropped off in the mornings by Steve Harrington, but you'd been walking home after. Right now, however, there's a thunderstorm raging outside that even the school buses have yet to depart from the parking lot because of it.

"YN?" You startle at your name being called, turning to see Eddie walking up to you. "You okay?"

"Yeah." You smile tiredly at him and then gesture outside the doors. "Just waiting out the storm so I can walk home."

"If you need a ride, I can give you one."

"No, it's okay," you tell him. "I wouldn't want you driving more than what you have to in this weather."

"Come on." He smiles. "This is nothing." Just as the words leave his mouth, a loud rumble of thunder sounds off in the not so far off distance.

You smirk at him. "You were saying?"

"Yeah, yeah. But seriously, driving you is no problem. The sooner you get home, the sooner you can snuggle down and sleep."

Eddie remembering that little tidbit about you- about being sleepy when it's really cold out- makes you melt for some unknown reason. "Fine," you agree with a faint grin. "But if I slip and bust my ass in the parking lot, I'm slashing your tires when you least expect it."

He laughs. "Deal." Then offering you a hand, his eyes practically twinkle. "Now come on. Let's make a break for it."

You groan, smiling all the while, and take his hand. As soon as they're clasped, Eddie is pushing open the door and the two of you are racing towards his van. Running between cars and buses, you and Eddie laugh as the rainwater pelts you, uncaring for the many gazes on you- especially one gaze in particular that's not too happy with your new friendship.

You yelp as lightning strikes nearby, slipping in a puddle, but are lucky enough that Eddie quickly rights you.

You would've been fine, decently wet from the storm, but Eddie fumbles with his keys when he's trying to unlock his van. You scream at him, he laughs even more, and the two of you are soaked to the bone when you finally manage to make it inside his van. You're lucky you left your bag in your locker.

"I hate you."

"You look like an angry wet kitten." You reach across to punch his arm and he laughs when you land the hit. "Okay, okay." He turns his van on, wincing as music blares from his speakers, and then quickly cranks the heater. "Now give me the directions to your house. You need dry clothes asap."

As Eddie drives, you peel out of your hoodie and drop it at your feet. You scoot closer to the vents, letting the hot air dry you off.

Your house isn't too far, but by the time Eddie is parking in front of your house, the rain is really coming down. It's coming down so hard that even the windshield wipers aren't doing anything to help either you or Eddie peer out the window.

"Well shit," he sighs.

"Shit," you agree. Then grinning softly, you glance over to him. "Do you want to hang out here until the storm passes? I don't feel comfortable letting you drive off when you can't even see."

Leaning over his steering wheel, Eddie squints to try and see through the rain with no such luck. "It won't be a problem?"

"Nah. It's just me. My parents are gone for the weekend."

He turns towards you, eyebrows arches. "And what about your brother I've heard about?"

"Lives in the next town over," you say. Lightning strikes too close for comfort and the thunder is so loud that it shakes the van. Eddie's eyes widen and you flinch. "You'd, uh, you'd also be doing me a favor because I'm kind of scared of storms."

"Well why didn't you just say so in the first place."

"Stop smiling at me." You pout at him.

"You're adorable."

"I change my mind. Have fun driving in this shitty weather."

Eddie laughs and promptly kills the engine to his van. You smile, grateful, and then the two of you are waiting for the perfect moment to make yet another break for it- this time aiming for the porch of your house.

"Screw it." Eddie throws open his door and you yelp at his sudden movement, quickly doing the same for yours. After the doors are slammed shut, you chase after him until you're under the safety of the porch. Soaked yet again, Eddie beams. "Please tell me you have your house key."

"Duh." Teeth chattering, you reach into the pocket of your jeans and struggle to get the key out. You're both shivering by the time you make it inside, both heaving a sigh of relief at the warmth that greets you. "Shoes by the door, leather jacket on the rack," you tell him.

"We're gonna get water everywhere," Eddie muses as he glances around the place.

"That's fine. It'll dry." After kicking off your shoes, you gesture for him to follow. You lead him to your room, still shivering and letting him look around. "I, uh, I think my brother left some clothes behind. We can both take hot showers and then I'll toss our stuff into wash."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Cool."

Stumbling into your brother's old room, you go through the chest of drawers to find some clothes for Eddie. Pulling out a pair of boxers, gray sweatpants and a black long sleeve thermal, you head back to your room and hand them over. "There are some towels in the closet in the bathroom. You can take mine while I go shower in my parents' bathroom."

"Thanks, sweetheart."

You grin at him before grabbing a change of clothes for yourself and then show him to the bathroom before hurrying to your parents' bathroom. You let the water run lukewarm after stripping, letting your body slowly adjust to the warmth before letting the water run really hot. You stand under the spray, your trembling limbs eventually stilling, though you still jerk every now and then with the storm raging outside. Then after washing your hair and body, you get out and dress in pajamas and towel dry your hair as best as you can.

By the time you make it back to your room, you find Eddie studying your wall of polaroids. The sweatpants fit him surprisingly well and even though the long sleeve thermal is a little loose on him, he still looks really good in it. You can tell he attempted to dry his own hair, but his hair and bangs are still very damp.

"You got quite the collection of pictures here," he quietly muses.

"Only the best make it to the wall." Seeing as he's still distracted, you grab your polaroid camera from your vanity and get as close as you can to him without startling him just yet. Then holding your camera up to check his image in the viewfinder, you grin, "Come on, Munson. Give me your best smile."

He turns at your words, smile instantly blossoming when he sees the camera. The devil horns he gives himself and tongue out makes you laugh as you press the button to capture the moment. "That's a keeper," he says. "And it better make the wall."

"It definitely will." Taking the picture out, you set it aside so it can develop on its own.

"Good. Now hand the camera over. If you have a picture of me, it's only fair I get one of you."

Your nose wrinkles as you hand him the camera. "Fair, but we're taking it together. I hate taking solo pics. Sit on the edge of the bed."

Eddie happily does as he's told and you crawl onto the bed behind him. Laughing, you wrap your arms around his neck from behind, positioning them lower so his face is still visible. Your head ends up pressed next to his and the two of you flash the biggest smiles ever as he holds the camera out in front of you to snap the pic.

You blink against the flash, still smiling. "Take another. I need one too."

"As you wish, sweetheart."

Eddie quickly snaps another picture and while those two develop on your vanity, you tape up the picture of Eddie by himself onto your wall. His arm slides across the back of your shoulders, pulling you closer to him and admiring his place on the wall when the outside world comes rushing back in. The power flickers and your eyes widen as you whip around to see the wind picking up right outside your window.

"If the power goes out, I'm going to cry."

"Don't worry. I'll protect you from the big bad storm."

You elbow him, huffing at his light teasing. "Shut up and gather your clothes. We need to throw them into the dryer."

You grab your clothes from the bathroom while Eddie grabs his, the two of you then wringing them out as best as you can before leading the way towards the washroom. Your clothes get tossed in and then you hurry towards the living room, grabbing up a blanket from a small hamper of lap blankets your mother kept on the side of the sofa for times you just wanted to snuggle down on the sofa.

"Help yourself to anything," you tell Eddie. "The kitchen should be stocked and the remote is there on the coffee table if you want to watch anything."

He takes your words to heart, raiding the kitchen for snacks and a drink before joining you. You're already curled up in the corner of the sofa, legs curled so Eddie can take a seat on the opposite end. You watch as he makes himself comfortable, reaching for the remote to find something to have as background noise beside the storm still raging outside.

"So why storms?" He eventually asks.

"Hmm?"

"Out of every phobia out there, why thunderstorms?"

You twist your upper body a little so you can face Eddie without uncurling your body. "I used to love them when I was little," you tell him. "But then as I got older, I realized how destructive they could be." Yawning a bit, you pause in your answer. "We had a really bad storm pass through one day and a tornado spun up not far from here. It didn't cause any damage here, but it was close enough to hear as it passed by. Then later that night, we saw how it destroyed the next town over. Been scared of 'em ever since."

Eddie takes a moment to think about it. "Okay, that's fair. The destruction of a tornado does seem terrifying."

Grinning, you reach out with one leg and tap his thigh with your foot. "I didn't say it earlier, but thanks. For staying with me," you then clarify.

"You're welcome." He finishes off the last of his drink, setting the empty can and empty snack bag on the coffee table in front of him. "But if I'm being completely honest here, I also stayed because I live in a trailer and I didn't like the idea of riding this storm out there."

You chuckle. "Oh, I see how it is. You totally stayed for yourself and not because you were being a good friend. Some hero you are, Munson."

Eddie laughs with you, but then a too loud rumble of thunder makes you flinch and curl tighter in on yourself. He places a hand on your foot, rubbing his thumb over your ankle. "So, what's the deal with you and James?"

You tense, his question catching you off guard. "W-What?"

"You and James, sweetheart. I noticed that there's an awful lot of pictures of him on your wall. I was just wondering what the deal was there."

You slowly grin, noticing that Eddie's refusing to make eye contact with you. His gaze is set on your ankle and focused on the rhythm he's tapping against your skin. "He's my friend. And only my friend."

"Are you sure about that?" This time you do turn so you're lying on your back, legs hesitantly stretching out and settling in Eddie's lap. "Because when I first got here, he was all over you and then like a week later he was ignoring you. When I asked about you, I was basically told you were off limits because you and the best friend were something of an unspoken item."

Unable to help it, you bark out a laugh. "First of all, James and I are only friends and will only ever be friends."

"Really? I hear best friends make the best couples." His hands settle on your shin.

Your nose wrinkles. "Eds, I'm going to tell you something that only me, James, and one other friend know about. Okay?"

"Uh, okay."

Taking a breath, you tell Eddie about one of the most embarrassing nights in your life. At least to you it was. "When we first started high school, I had a bit of a crush on James. I thought I kept it under wraps, but apparently another mutual friend of ours found out. So, when we planned a sleepover at my house, she tried to get any information out of James about how he felt about me. He figured the sleepover was a setup and kindly let me down by stating that I wasn't his type."

"Shit."

"Yeah. I liked the kid, but I didn't want to date him," you admit. "Him finding out, however, and letting me down was a bit embarrassing and I had to clear the air that I hadn't planned for him to find out or anything. I think that's what made us close because we both got upset with that friend of ours afterwards."

"So, how'd you go from friends to whatever you guys have going on now?"

"I honestly have no idea. I dated, he dated, and slowly but surely, he started to get all touchy-feely with me. And if I'm being honest, part of me liked the attention."

"As you should. You're a very pretty girl, YN. You should have all the attention on you."

"Shut up." You lightly kick out at him, and he chuckles, grabbing you by the ankle to keep you from kicking him anymore. "Anyway, any feelings I had for him became strictly platonic. And then before we came back to school this year, James had the bright idea to kiss me. When I pushed him away, he then had the bright idea to tell me he was in love with me."

"Fuck," Eddie mumbles.

"Yep. Now it was my turn to politely let him down. Our friendship is a bit strained now, especially since he's trying to pretend like summer didn't happen and continue to try and press his luck with me during the times he's single."

"So, is that why he's been giving me the evil eye?"

"What?" You huff a laugh. When Eddie grins but doesn't refute his question, your smile slowly falls. "I am so sorry."

"It's fine. As long as I'm not stepping on any toes, I'll gladly ignore every jealous glare. I like.. your company," he says, slowly dragging it out as if afraid to admit it.

"Aww." You coo and smirk when Eddie starts to blush, hiding behind his mane of hair. "I like your company as well, Munson."

"Yeah?"

"Yep." When he finally meets your gaze, your heart beats faster as his boyish smile. The moment is ruined, however, when thunder booms and the power flickers, causing you to yelp. He laughs. "But, uh, I'll like it even more if you cuddle me and keep me safe."

"Alright, alright." He pushes your feet off his lap, leaning over and scooting up so that when he lays between your legs and the back of the sofa, his head rests against your abdomen while his arm hugs your legs. "This good?"

"Mhm. Perfect." One hand falls to the back of Eddie's head, fingers delving into his hair and scratching at his scalp. His quiet moan makes you smirk. "Don't fall asleep though. I'm ordering in pizza when this stupid storm passes."

"Sounds good, sweetheart."

Over the weekend, you and Eddie continue to hang out. He had stayed until after midnight Friday night and then called your house phone just after one in the afternoon on Saturday to see what your plans for the day were.

Saturday consisted of hanging out in your room, talking about likes and dislikes. While your taste in music was only somewhat similar, your taste in movies was the same. You ate lunch at your house, but then Eddie decided that the two of you should go out for an adventure (the adventure was surviving his terrible driving) before buying dinner for the both of you and then watching yet another movie at your house.

Sunday found the two of you at Eddie's so he could introduce you to some of his other favorite bands. You had taken your polaroid with you, snapping pictures whenever the mood struck. You got to meet his uncle Wayne when the man was getting up for work, and then you and Eddie pulled some cash together for dinner yet again.

Eddie had a lot more energy than you were used to, but the weekend consisted of laughing and smiles that rarely faded.

All in all, it was a very good weekend that led you and Eddie to realize the mounting tension between the two of you was of the good variety.

Then Monday morning, you're riding in the middle of the backseat of Steve's car as he drives you and Robin to school. Robin's trying to apply some eyeliner in the visor mirror and you're grinning at Steve ranting about his lack of a love life.

"Mhm. Okay. Bummer," Robin drawls which causes Steve to huff. She then turns in her seat, staring at you. "But what I'm more interested in is where you were all weekend?"

"What?"

"You heard me. I called Saturday and Sunday to see if you wanted to hang out, but you never answered."

"Yeah. She even got me to drive her over and you weren't home," Steve says. "So where were you? You weren't with me and you weren't with Robin."

"And we all know you don't hang out with anyone else outside of school, so spill."

"Oh, um.." You trail off, cheeks heating up.

"Are you- are you blushing?" Steve asks incredulously.

"No!"

"You are!" Robin laughs. "Spill it right now, LN! Where were you and who were you with?"

"God you two are so nosy." You huff a short laugh, lightly groaning when Robin continues to stare and Steve keeps stealing glances at you in the rearview mirror. "Fine. I was with Eddie."

Steve frowns, unfamiliar with the name, but Robin's eyes widen. "Munson? You were with Eddie Munson?!"

"Yeah." Your cheeks burn brighter, but you're smiling nonetheless. "He, uh, he drove me home Friday after school and then stayed with me to ride out the storm. Then we just hung out Saturday and Sunday as well."

"Oh my god, you like him!"

"Maybe?" You sink in your seat, hands covering the bottom half of your face as you smile. "He's fun and we have a bit in common."

"Wait a second." Steve quickly glances at you through the mirror again. "I thought you were with James? Aren't you guys like high school sweethearts or something?"

"What?" You scoff. "No."

"Yeah, dingus, get with the program," Robin says while flicking Steve's shoulder. "Something happened and those two are awkward as shit now. No offense," she then tells you with a quick glance.

You laugh. "None taken. It is awkward."

"What happened?" Steve frowns. "You two seemed good together."

"We were good together," you tell him, "but then he had to go and ruin it by kissing me."

Robin whips around in her seat, eyes wide. "He didn't?!"

"He did. And then proceeded to tell me he was in love with me." You chuckle softly.

"And you didn't want that?" Steve asks.

You shrug. "Had this happened two years ago, I'd have been ecstatic," you admit. "But feelings change when his girlfriends get a little too comfortable with the best friend and talk about just how good he is with his tongue."

"Ew." Robin grimaces.

"Yep. And it's also not a good look when his girlfriend is telling you all about his oral skills and then he shows up to school with a cold sore on his lip two days later." Steve laughs as Robin continues to exclaim her disgust and you chuckle in the backseat. "I haven't liked him for a while, but he continues to do shit in hopes of changing my mind or something."

"And now Eddie is in the picture," Robin says.

"He is."

Glancing down at the binder in your lap, you smile at the pictures there behind the plastic cover. You had made a mini collage of your favorite pics of all your friends, but the one dead center is one of you sitting behind Eddie in his bed as he holds his guitar in hand. The both of you are cheesing hard.

You reach forward, holding the binder out so Robin sees. She does and she coos at the picture before zeroing in on the one you had wanted her to see. "Aw. Cute," she says. She shows Steve and you can't help but relax when you see your older friend smile.

You get to school in no time, assuring Steve that you don't need a ride after school since Eddie had already agreed to drive you when he was able to. Your two friends tease you, but then you're sliding out of the backseat and leaving your friends to laugh at their own antics.

And almost as soon as you step through the front doors, James is on you and tucking you under an arm to keep you close. You force a smile, hugging your binder and keeping your hands to yourself as he goes on and on about something he and another mutual friend of yours was talking about before you had showed up. You add input here and there, slowly feeling at unease the more James touches you.

But when you catch Eddie's gaze in the hall and he winks at you, your shoulders slump just a little and you take a deep breath.

You can't wait until the lunch hour rolls around and you can just sit there without being so guarded.

. . . .

With your lunch tray in hand, your gaze darts between two tables- the table you've sat at for years with your usual group of friends and the newly dubbed Hellfire Club table. You know that none of your friends would make a big deal about you sitting elsewhere, with the exception of one person, and before you can make your decision that same person is tugging you by the arm towards your usual table.

"Come on," James says. "What are you waiting for?"

Once upon a time, James was all you could think about- the dark clothing, hair shorn close to his head and lip piercings that made you yearn. But now- now Eddie Munson has taken root in your mind and you're more than a little let down when your feet carry you alongside James without a complaint.

You pick at your food, mind going numb the second James starts going on and on about something while completely ignoring you. Lately this has been pretty typical of him- dragging you away from someone so your attention was solely on him, but then ignoring you in favor of other people so long as he knew you were by his side. But the moment you hear Eddie's name being tossed around, you perk right back up.

"I don't know what you're talking about, man," someone says. "He seems pretty decent. Even has nearly the same interests as us." You smile, grateful that someone else doesn't deem him a freak.

"He doesn't even look like he bathes. Or fuckin' combs his hair," James grumbles.

"Are you serious right now?" You frown, turning to stare at your best friend. "What the hell did Eddie do to you to garner this dick-ish attitude?"

"Oh it's Eddie, is it?" His eyes roll and you tense up at his tone, the rest of the table's occupants falling silent. "What? Is he your new best friend now? He gives you one ride and you're ready to fall to your knees?"

A beat passes and then.. "Fuck. You." The words are spoken quietly, but the table hears you loud and clear. James startles and looks at you with slightly widened eyes. He opens his mouth to retort, but you shake your head and push back quickly from the table. Your chair screeches and the people around you glance up to see what the disruption is all about. "You know I am allowed to have more friends, right? You're not my fucking keeper."

"I didn't-"

"You did," you say, cutting him off. You've dealt with his possessive behavior long enough and you're done. You're so done. "All these years, my attention has been solely focused on you because you are my best friend, but you're only my best friend," you remind him. "So whatever this is," you gesture wildly between the two of you, "stops now. You do not get to dictate who I spend my time with and you sure as hell don't get to speak down on Eddie because you saw him give me a ride home."

James' jaw clenches and his gaze suddenly hardens. "But it's more than that, isn't it? Don't think I didn't hear about you and your new friend being out and about all around town this weekend."

"So what!" You practically shout. "If Eddie was even remotely attracted to me and wanted to date me, he's allowed to! And I'm allowed to say yes or no to him because you are only a friend. I do not have to cater to your feelings."

"Hey, freaks, keep it down! Some of us are trying to eat in peace," you hear someone shout.

Glancing around and still very much heated, your gaze lands on Jason Carver who's laughing and high fiving his basketball friends. "Oh shut up, bible humper!"

One of your friends snorts. "It's bible thumper."

"Oh I said exactly what I meant," you say. Then smirking cruelly, you glance back at a slowly reddening Jason. "Cum on any more bibles lately, Carver?"

As the lunch room explodes with laughter and shocked gasps, hands grab onto your shoulders. "And that's enough for today." You're amped up to tell whoever it is to fuck off, but Robin's amused expression instantly makes you calm. She marches you out of the cafeteria and into the student parking lot before releasing you. When you turn around, she finally explodes with laughter of her own. "What the hell was that back there?"

"I don't know." You groan, finally letting yourself relax some. "James was talking shit about Eddie and I just lost it. He's jealous and I'm just- I'm over it. He needs to be too."

Robin continues to giggle and eventually you join her. Then as the giggles taper off, she asks, "So what was that about Jason you said back there?"

Immediately, you snort. "Uh, I might have busted him jerking off in the confessional." Her nose scrunches in disgust. "He had a bible in hand and well.. he came. All over the good Lord's sermon."

"Oh my god. I didn't- I shouldn't have asked!"

"Asked what?" The question makes you jerk in surprise and you turn around to see a sheepish Eddie walking up. "Hey, sweetheart, you good?"

"Perfect." You lazily smile at him.

"And that's my cue to go," Robin says. As she passes you by, she squeezes your arm while winking at you.

Sighing, you wait until she's out of earshot to say, "That girl does not have a subtle bone in her body."

"She really doesn't," Eddie muses. The two of you share a laugh and then he's slowly opening his arms as an invite when he sees just how done you are with the day. You sigh and readily step closer, wrapping your arms around his waist and hiding your face against his chest. His arms wrap around your shoulders, cocooning you in his embrace. "Now answer me honestly. Are you really good?"

"Now I am," you mumble. "I don't think I can go back inside after that."

"Of course you can. Hardly anyone was talking about you and James. Everyone was still laughing about the bible humper comment on my way out."

"Ugh." You groan, laughing. "That was bitchy of me to say in front of everyone. And to rip into James like that."

"Hey. Nope. None of that," Eddie says. He pulls back, hands cupping either side of your neck as his thumbs rub against your jawline. "You stood up for yourself. Never apologize for that."

"Yeah, but-"

"Nope. I don't wanna hear it." Your lips twitch at his adamancy and he slowly grins. "But what we can talk about is the fact that you don't think I'm even remotely attracted to you. FYI, sweetheart, I am. And you should know that after we spent the entire weekend together."

Cheeks blushing, you shrug. "I didn't want to assume and embarrass myself further."

"Assume away." Eddie's smirk makes you giggle and then your heart pound when his gaze drops to your lips. His grip on you slightly tightens as he lowers his face towards you, but he stops mere inches from your lips. "Can I kiss you?"

Your cheeks burn hotter and you groan, eyes falling shut. "No."

"I- what?"

"It's just-" Your eyes open and you laugh at his confusion, grabbing his wrists to make sure he doesn't go far. "I'm stoked that you paused to ask for consent, but also very annoyed."

"Why?"

"Because if I know the kiss is coming, I get awkward and shy," you whine. Eddie blinks and then starts to laugh, letting his forehead rest against yours. "So just let it be known that from here on out you can kiss me whenever you want. Just not right now because I know it's coming and I just- it's weird."

"You're weird," Eddie reiterates. And then before you can say anything, he closes what little distance there is between your lips for a quick peck. "But that's what I like about you. We can be weirdos together." As he puts a little distance between you, he smirks and holds a hand out to you. "Now come on. I think after the spectacle you made in the cafeteria, we deserve the rest of the day off. We'll pick up a pizza and crash in your room."

"Food and snuggles," you muse while slipping your hand into his. "You really know how to turn a girl on."

Eddie trips over his own foot on the way towards his van and you cackle at him. "Jesus Christ woman. You can't say stuff like that to me."

You grin at him. "Get used to it, babe. You haven't heard anything yet."

[sunny6677]

Spookytale: The Rewrite.

Summary:

After hearing the call of a strange, hypnotizing flute—Skid awakes to find himself laying on a bed of golden flowers—with several others surrounding him, and a strange bright light he hadn't seen before beaming it's rays down.

Meanwhile, John—who has no idea how any of them ended up in this strange place, attempts to guide the group to a way out. But he finds himself going on a journey he never thought he'd ever find himself on.

CHAPTER 2: The Goat.

( @mayisgoingnuts @facelessthefreak @dexter-apologist-5000 @crossover-enthusiast )

————

It was about a few minutes into the silence—that the group huddled beneath the glow of light still heard nothing in the stiff atmosphere. Some chattered amongst theirselves, while some only sat with panicked faces.

..but, still.. as odd as this whole situation was, Skid felt that everything about it was pretty spooky. Something about it though still felt like a rush of a memory in his brain. As if he could swear that he had either been in this situation before, or at least heard about a situation like this.

Skid lifted his head slightly toward his mom, who still held him firmly in her arms as she spoke with Ms. Jaune—who had scooted up to them to talk about what could possibly be going on.

"..wh—what do we do, Jaune?" His mother uttered anxiously, her purple bangs slightly covering her wide eyes. "First, I end up having to deal with a doll, and then.."

"Hey—" Ms. Jaune tried to smile. "It'll be okay! We don't know if there's not a way out yet. Just chill. If we find a way out of here, then—"

Jaune trailed off. "..then.."

..slowly, the balding elderly man in the corner began to slightly move.

...

The damp atmosphere that enveloped the area caused some to slightly sweat. And in the corner of the room with a faint odor of stone hanging in the air, Radford sat with his head leaned up against the wall, with Robert who sat beside him.

Radfords friends were nearby—Kevin and Rick, who were both sitting in a corner and speaking to eachother about their situation. Though, Kevin, with his eyes wide and beads of sweat trickling down his face—appeared to be the only one really panicking out of either of them.

As much as Radford did want to talk to him, his little brother was here. And he knew how afraid or worried kids could sometimes get. So as of now, he was sitting near him—attempting to smile and keep him distracted with conversation occasionally.

But—Robert had a frown curled on his wide lips, a strange softness within them that was usually rarely there. The cap he usually always wore sat in his lap, held slightly by his hands.

Radford sat with his head tilted up slightly, letting his gaze shift to his brother.

Robert sat for a few more moments in silence, slightly swallowing as he did so. "..do you think we're gonna get out of here?"

"What?" Radford blinked for a moment, gently looking down at the small teenage boy sat near him. He shook his head, a grin twitching onto his lips. "Of course we are, man! Why wouldn't we?"

"I—I don't really know. It just.. feels kind of weird. Does anybody even know we're down here?"

"Well.. yeah. Sure they do. If a bunch of people in a town went missing, wouldn't they go looking for them?"

"..."

At a swift pace, Radford let his hand slowly reach downward. And setting his palm on Robert's shoulder, he gave him a grin.

"Hey.. don't worry. I'm sure we'll get out of here. It's not like every horror movie out there ends with the characters not being able to escape. Hahah.."

Robert blinked, looking down at his legs. And then finally, a smile started to form on his lips.

"..thanks, dude. I just—"

Robert flinched—a tingling flush slowly washing over him as a muffled, sharp noise cried out. From beside him, Radford's body flinched back against the wall, and his grasp on Robert's shoulder tightened.

At the same time, the chattering from everyone else either appeared to cease, or some let out a slight yelp. And silence quickly fell over the area once more.

"Wh—what was that..?!" Kevin muttered in a wavering voice from where he sat, now practically leaning against Rick.

Robert felt a lump form in his throat. The noise was so sharp and loud, it.. sounded like a pistol. No. It was a pistol.

There was the noise of a low, masculine voice shouting something he couldn't exactly decipher.

Several ideas began to form in Robert's head. And he felt a shaky exhale begin to force itself out of his mouth.

He felt Radfords grasp on his shoulder tighten. Turning his head, he let his eyes meet Radfords face. Behind the lenses of Radfords glasses, his small eyes were so.. wide. His mouth was now slightly parted as shuddering breaths began to escape his lips.

"..du—dude..?" Robert tried to say.

He saw Radfords gaze momentarily shift over to him, and then back toward the corridor. At an alarming rate just then, Radford shot up to his feet, his shoes practically slamming against the stone ground.

Robert didn't have a chance to say anything, as his blonde-headed older brother suddenly cried out with a sharp rise in volume—"Uncle!"

Radfords legs began to move at a rapid pace they hadn't before, sweat practically coating his slim face as he scurried into the dark. He heard Kevin call out his name. He.. heard his brother call out his name as he ran around two ladies in the center of the room—sat on the golden rows of flowers. He heard an oddly deep voice he didn't recognize call for him to stop.

Petals flew into the air as he dashed toward the long narrow hallway. He didn't know why. He wasn't sure why. He didn't even know why he was running. It could have been anything. It could have just been his uncle trying to see if his gun worked.

So.. why was his heart racing like this? Why were his thoughts swirling? It wasn't gonna be like that again. He wouldn't lose him. He wasn't going to lose him. His uncle said to not go after him. So why the hell was he running like this?

As the darkness became the only thing he could see behind the red and blue lenses of his glasses, he just ran. He ran. And ran. And ran.

And.. when he finally reached the end of the hall toward a looming, ominous entrance—without thinking of the light that was visible inside or why he was even going in there, he practically leapt inside.

His hands clenched around the gray doorframe, and he yelled out again.

"Wh—What's—"

He stopped.

"..going.."

His eyes trailed over what appeared to be a dark room, a faint crack of light glowing down on a patch of grass in the center. In the faint shadow, he saw two figures. Two tall men in fact, who's faces now appeared to be staring at him. As he processed one with a cigarette in his mouth, and one with black hair, it already became clear to him that it was his uncle and his uncles work partner.

An almost instant sigh of relief seemed to nearly escape his sigh once he processed the sight of his uncle, just standing there with a pistol held in his hand.

Relieving as that sight was for Radford, there was.. something else that caught his eye. Two, bright yellow beams of light were the first thing his eyes began to trail over. And the more he stared, the more it became apparent that they were formed in the shape of.. hearts. The very sight of them made Radford stare with slight shock.

From behind these odd beams of light though, there was something else. A figure. A tall figure that looked somewhat humanoid.

The crack of light that formed on the patch of grass made the figures features more.. apparent though. And as it stood beneath the light, he processed a dark purple dress it appeared to be wearing—long white sleeves worn over its hands. No. It's—white paws.

A strange, white symbol that resembled a tiny bead with wings was printed on the chest-part of its dress—with white lines streaming from above the symbol and onto the lower parts of its dress. The dress was so large it practically seemed like a cloak of some sort.

And.. the things head—stretched from the part of its neck that was covered by the collar of its dress. The things head didn't appear to be shaped like a humans at all. With a muzzle, a beady long lashed pair of red eyes, horns that sprouted up from the top of its head, and long dog-like ears.

It was not the head of a human. But the head of a goat.

"..wh—wha.."

Radford found himself beginning to take a step back, his hands slightly rising, and trembling at such a strange, unreal sight. A part of him wondered if he was hallucinating—or if it was some kind of statue.

And then—a voice began to come from it's muzzle.

"Er.. hello. Do not be afraid. I am—"

A loud, unbelievable scream escaped Radfords mouth for a moment as he stared at this thing in front of him—this thing that was apparently capable of speech. It looked like something out of one of those—those horror movies he saw!

He hadn't noticed, as he screamed, that a green beam of light had now appeared right next to the others—also in the shape of a heart. And as his screaming ceased, he let his eyes trail over it. Over its humanoid form, and its.. head that shouldn't have even been moving it's mouth. That shouldn't have even been producing a voice.

Just then, he began to feel a slightly dizzy sensation enter his head.

"Oh—oh my.. human—are you alright?" He heard it say, though now it's voice seemed slightly.. muffled.

He could barely speak, the room flashing into darkness, and then into light. Over. And over. And over.

"Wh—wha.. wh.."

..everything around him faded into nothingness, and just as that faded, his vision became nothing but darkness.

...

As Radford, his nephew the age of twenty-five shot to the ground, and fell onto the stone—John flinched. "Sh—Shit—kid!" He grunted, turning around as fast as he could despite the aching pain he felt in his chest. He tried to move a little more.

But—the phantom wound that he felt caused his legs to tremble, and be unable to move entirely.

"Urgh—ugh.."

Jack attempted to move as well—clenching a hand over his chest as he turned around. "John—"

"Oh—oh my.. are you hurt?" The things feminine voice asked.

"Ugh—this.. look, this doesn't involve you. You—agh.."

John coughed again. He didn't know how that flower had even hurt him. It hadn't even touched him with its pellets. It just touched the heart, and then—

John tried to move his legs again, shaking off the thoughts. But no amtetr how much he tried, he just..

"Here—let me see."

The things soft, feminine voice breathed out from where it stood. From behind him, he began to hear rough footsteps that moved at a quick pace. A quick pace that caused him to be sent into an alarm. It was walking toward him. He defintely knew that. And at the thought of that, he felt a tinge of slight anxiety overwhelm him.

"N—No. I don't—"

He tried to limp foward. The pain in his chest increased.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The things footsteps grew closer.

"No.."

Thud. Thud.

"..here.. stay still."

Something clenched over his shoulder, and his whole body became stiff. But he couldn't move. The pain was so severe. He didn't know what it was about to do. All rational reactions or reasons escaped his mind in the moment. And—

..something washed over him just then the moment it's.. paw presumably crept over his sturdy shoulder. The moment he felt it, he stopped moving altogether. His body stopped trying to move all together, and.. just stood.

The wave he felt was.. soft. Calming. Gentle.

And in an instant as he turned his head toward Jack, who observed with wide eyes, who held a hand over his chest still—the pain was now gone.

[prismaticpichu]

25 for Seph and 6 for Zack <3

Heck yeah! You got it! ❤️ (I actually just answered #6 with Zack so i’ma skip that one if that’s all good! Though main takeaway is that I associate with his unwavering faith in others <3)

~~~

What was your first impression of this character? How about now? ~ ohhhhh YES YES YES i love this question xDD I always hoped for an opportunity to talk about my first discovery of Sephiroth shshdhhd. So! What was my first impression of Sephiroth..? Did I faint? Did I melt? Did I combust into flames at the sheer majesty?

Oh, no. My first impression of him was complete and utter HATRED…

….

For about 2 minutes.

Okie doke so this isn’t as much as a “first impression” as it is my emotions under the circumstance in which I was introduced to him, but I wanna tell the unasked for story anyway lol. So, basically, imagine this: it’s winter or 2020. Little Pichu is stuck inside alongside the rest of the world. There wasn’t much to do, not much to look forward to. But ofc, I always had video games to entertain me. Specifically, Smash Ultimate—a game I played obsessively during lockdown, day after day. Anywho, like I said, it’s winter of 2020. December. And what was coming up in just a few days…? The Game Awards.

Normally, I really wouldn’t care all too much. I never really gave a poo before lol. But this year??? This year, it was different. It was almost guaranteed that a new smash fighter was gonna revealed. And as someone who’s heart and soul was tethered to the game at the time, this was everything to me xD

So! There I am, sitting on the couch in front of the TV. It’s the 10th of December. The Game Awards would be on any moment. Already I’m sitting there and letting my brain trip over all the potential fighters that can be revealed. The anticipation is REAL, man. SO REAL.

The Game Awards start.

The first thing to appear on the screen is a Smash Bros trailer.

Little Pichu is PSYCHED. Heart tenses. Breath hitches. All the characters are there on the cliff. No indication as to who it can be. All options are valid. Every single hope has a chance. They’re about to fight Galeem. The thing prepares to unleash an attack. The music escalates and the god gets sliced in half and—

And…

Whomst.

The F*ck.

Is that.

So, yeah, um, I was very uncultured and had no idea who one of the most iconic villains to exist was x,D It’s actually REALLY embarrassing lol. Anyways, as Sephiroth descended from the sky and that random choir began chanting in the background, all I could feel was RAGE. I’m tell you. It was cold, bitter FURY. How could they add another swordfighter??? We have ENOUGH. Who is this woman??? What??? WHY??? WHY HER?????? WHY NOT SOMEONE I KNOW AND WANTED—!

You know how I said the anger lasted for 2 minutes.

It was prolly more like 55 seconds.

As almost as quickly as I wanted to chuck my remote at the screen, I had turned into, like, a mesmerized sheep. The trailer was (as my vocab would say at the time) freaking EPIC, man! The dude was UNSTOPPABLE. He plowed through anything and everything and holy SHIT DID HE JUST KILL MARIO?—

Yeaaaaah so that’s how it started tor me xD It wasn’t long until I was binge watching memes of Sephiroth’s entrance to smash, scarfing down comics of him and Pichu, and coming to the realization that I actually wanted to know a lot more about this character. I still remember the moment I opened up Google and typed in “Who is Sephiroth?” That’s how engraved this man is into my essence xD Pichu get help. I was brought to a wiki page, and there was literally no turning back lol. I learned that he used to be a hero—a good guy—which absolutely plunged me into wanting to hunt down the Nibelheim Incident and see his downfall. I became so invested in what I didn’t see from his good side that I hunted down an 8 hour playthrough of Crisis Core, as that’s what I discovered was the prequel to it all. Next came devouring fanfic and headcanoning- and, well, here we are today xDD Needless to say I love this stupid psycho to death, and i don’t think that’s changing anytime soon!

…..This has no right to be this long dhdhdhhd.

[moon-quq]

Dabi x Fem!Reader : P1

Depending on popularity of this one I'll post P2, like I did with my Loki fic, but for now here's for my Dabi sluts <3 Note: this doesn't follow actual mha works or timestamps, so don't get angy at me

Warnings : Slow burn, kinda sad ngl

" Touyaa!! Give it back- This is the second time you've taken it from me! " You screeched, stomping the ground while glaring up at Touya Todoroki, your best friend in the world. " Oh cmon! I know you can get it! " He snickered, placing his hand as high as he could while watching you jump to try and grab your toy. Eventually he caved and handed it back while grinning. " You're a meanie for that. " You huffed, holding the toy tightly too you while he ruffled your hair and replied. " But I'm your meanie pipsqueak. " This made you smile with utmost happiness.

TimeSkip : 18 Years Later ➜

Your alarm blared loudly off beside you but,, you didn't dare move, just layed face down in your pillow wishing the day would fuck off again but alas.. it did not so eventually you drug yourself out of bed and towards the bathroom to get ready for work. " Y/N you're late again. " Shit. You were late by 20 mins this time. " I'm sorry Enji.. I didn't hear my clock in time, this week has been pretty rough. " You muttered, grabbing your coffee while walking past the big burly dude. It had been years now since Touya disappeared and this week marks yet another off the calendar. Enji of course refuses to have any acknowledgment of it, maybe it's too painful for him.

There was another villain group sitting in the city today, leaving everyone on high alert that they may end up trying something, but of course everything stayed queit all day until evening where there was reports of blue flames appearing near the high school which caused every goody two shoes in radius to flock there as fast as possible. You were there first due to your quirk but looking back on it now, you wished you were last. The entire woods beside the school was on fire, burning in bright blue flames.. And right in the middle was some guy in a long coat with burn scars and black hair. " Hey! Stop right there! " You called loudly, looking around slightly to scope your surroundings before back at the male who now turned to face you giving you a look at his face and you thought you'd faint.. He looked like Touya, but also didn't.. His eyes were Touyas.. But his hair and skin looked nothing like the boy you once knew, no he was dead.

By the time you knew it, you did infact actually fucking faint,, now slowly waking up in a hospital wing you groaned from the pounding in your head.. the familiar old lady waddling in to smile up at you. " You havent been sleeping well have you dear? " She asked quietly, causing you to shake your head no and lay back down. " Too many nightmares again. " She only clicked her tongue and pulled your blanket over you while beginning to speak again. " Maybe getting some new friends would help you get over the feeling.. I see you every year during this time, and it's no wound I can heal. Only you can. " You knew she was right but you also were terrified if you let the memories of your Touya go,, he would be forgotten forever.

TimeSkip : A week later ➜

Ever since that day in the woods you'd been stuck thinking,, wondering if that was infact Touya.. and the longer you thought on it, the more invested you became until the point you caved and decided to go against your every promise and try and find the league thats plagued the city for months now.

First you began at the local corners where gangs hung out, making sure to pull your hood over your head enough to not be noticed but,, the blue flame boy was nowhere to be found, so you decided to check any other shady areas you could think of.. to yet again, no avail. And by the time you called quits it was already midnight.. But you felt the most defeated you'd ever been in a long, long time so of course your body made a b-line for a nearby bar that was mostly empty, now stepping inside to see a handful of people around the place. A shadow like man behind the bar greeted you in almost a confused way. " Hello Miss, what can I get for you tonight? " You noted that his voice was slightly anamatronic while speaking, maybe he was just nervous.. The other people around looked like normals, teens with no life or adults wanting to drink their life away. " Whatever is the strongest. " you replied while scooting into a stool at the bar to be comfy while you wait. " Is she that hero who fainted during the villain fight??? " You heard someone speaking behind you which caused your eye to twitch,, fucking paparazzi caught you fainting in the middle of the flames on camera.. and you were not exempt from Enji yelling at you and forcing you to be a desk worker instead of in the field. " She shouldn't be a hero if she's going to collapse in the middle of a fight, pathetic. " And that, one snide comment is what hit you over the edge, now shooting the shot you were given before turning around. " If you have shit to say you can say it to my face instead of gossiping about someone else's life you ungrateful fucking cunts. " You spat, glaring towards the back corner full of teen girls who stared at you in disbelief of what you had just said.

" What seems to be going on down here? " A low cold voice called while stepping down the stairs towards the back, the girls instantly fangirling while looking at whoever it was.. Except when he came into your view you froze, and so did he. " Get out, all of you. " He spat, glaring at the girls before back at you.. But like most girls they didn't listen the first time. " I won't tell you again, get out. " And with that final boom they finally stood up and left, along with everyone else who was a bystander. " Touya.. " You whispered, staring at him for a moment longer before darkness yet again covered your vision and you collapsed to the ground.

Sometime later,, you didn't know how long as your phone and watch were gone, as was your keys and whatever else you had on you. You were still in the bar, just looked like a more run down exact copy of the one you were just in. " Hello? " You called out, groaning at the pang in your head as you sat up fully. " You aren't supposed to be here Y/N. " Someone in the distance called while another giggled. " So this is that childhood chick you always talk about huh? " And then another more strained voice croaked. " She's a hero and knows him, she's bad news to even be here. We have to get rid of her. " And with that your fear piped up, now panicking while looking towards the voices which instantly made your blood run cold, you were infact infront of the entire league of villians. " No! You cannot kill her, I won't let you. " The one you believed was Touya now stepped infront of you, glaring at the other members who stared back. " You would keep our greatest risk alive.. all because of a childhood fling?! I think I'm starting to question your loyalty Dabi.. " The man who looked mostly dead seethed, but you were too focused on the name Dabi.. He was one of the main villains you were trying desperately to catch. And here he was, right infront of you.." I'll keep her. I'll train her not to say anything, I'll break her to be nothing but a loyal dog. " He spat back, this wasn't Touya.. this wasn't the boy you loved, this was some cold demon who just threatened to turn you into a slave.. However, the man who seemed to be the leader only hummed and nodded, looking away now whilst Touya turned to grab you by the shirt and pull you along towards the stairs. " Cmon doll, we got some fun to be had. "

[peaterookie]

Lupin III Chapter 1 Review

Omg!!! I'm finally gonna do it for real!!! It's been a while so sorry if I'm sorta rusty on this haha

The chapter doesn't reveal Lupin's identity until the end, but I'm gonna spoil it to you anyway.

He's the guy with the glasses! Next to him is detective Kogoro Akechi, whom Lupin is going to be narrating this chapter to. He says it's gonna have a good ending, so let's see if he's right.

It all starts in this awesome estate that belongs to a man called Dr. Ouki. His two daughters are hosting a party in his estate but all of sudden, it is interrupted by none other than Inspector Zenigata!

Nobody likes him and doesn't take him seriously at all, but finally, Dr. Ouki comes out hearing the commotion and Zenigata sorts out the situation to him.

Zenigata's been given a warrant to search his estate, because surprise surprise, Lupin is there..

Meanwhile, one of the guest of the party tries to seduce one of the daughters in a private room elsewhere, but his advances are cut short, and her older sister enters the room.

i have no fucking idea what she's doing to him on the right panel tbh

The older sister tells them to come downstair because something's happened, refering to Zenigata interrupting their party.

Lupin is here that is crazy

Dr. Ouki and his two daughters don't seem care that much, until Zenigata finds a tortured hanged corpse of Dr. Ouki's secretary. That's quite bad.

They assume that Lupin is behind all this, and Zeni tries to get Dr. Ouki to spit out the truth on something, or else more people will get hurt. And certainly, someone else is hurt!

The younger daughter, whom we learn that her name is Michi, comes out severely injured and faints on the ground.

I like how Lupin keeps appearing as a background character in almost every panel (clearly he's not doing any of this)

Zenigata checks her body, and tells them that she's luckily going to survive. Dr. Ouki gets extremely frustrated and yells at Zenigata at his incompetence, but this is technically his fault, as he hasn't told Zenigata of the complete truth that Lupin has sent a letter informing him of his heist.

The letter reads: "Dearest Ouki, kudos on the clever research, but your discovery has attracted the attention of an unsavory foreign element. I'm going to swing by tomorrow night and pick up a copy of the schematics, for safekeeping. Don't bother leaving a key, I'll let myself in."

Always, L

While this is being discovered, the guest that had tried to seduce Michi now has his eyes on the older sister dude i don't know about you but i think he might be the culprit it's a really crazy assumption i know

The older sister clearly isn't stupid to let the guy do whatever he wants to her, and has the man at gunpoint and tells him to surrender to the police.

Unfortunately, the man throws a knife towards her hands and disarms her, leaving him the opportunity to shred through her body, but for what?!

Dr. Ouki meanwhile explains that he had destroyed the original schematics that Lupin is seeking. He then made an almost perfect replica of it as a microfilm and hid it inside his eldest daughter, which the man finds OH NO

Luckily, as the man finds it, one of the guest steps in and murders the man and picks up the microfilm.

Dr. Ouki and the others run towards the room, and it is revealed that obviously, the man was the culprit for all that has happened in the party all along. Dr. Ouki tells the guest to give him back the microfilm, but he doesn't give it back.

Detective Akechi comes out of nowhere and explains that guest that saved the older daughter is none other than Lupin III!

As Lupin is about to leave, Zenigata tries to stop him, but Lupin throws the microfilm towards a pigeon and it carries it towards his hideout.

Certainly a happy ending for Lupin, but will he be able to escape imprisonment? That you'll have to find out next time.

The End.

[carterchxn]

dude trust me *lying, manipulating*

Task One.

Full Name: Carter Hàorán Chén

Age & Birthday: 35 years old, August 17th, 1988

Zodiac: Leo sun☀︎ Sagittarius moon ☾ Gemini Rising ➶

Occupation: Realtor/Property Developer.. (and secret owner of Starry Skies Drive In)

Preferred Pronouns & Gender: he/him, cis male

Sexuality: Bisexual

Hometown & length of time in Briar Ridge: New York City & has lived in Briar Ridge for a week

Neighborhood: Beach Front, in a penthouse apartment overlooking the water

Personality Traits: curious, charming, intimidating, playful, confident, determined, meticulous, risk-taker, adaptable, manipulative.

✍︎ Penned by: Tee

☆ dot point bio | connections / pinterest

New to Briar Ridge, Carter stands out with his opulent attire and designer jewellery, clearly distinguishing himself as a newcomer. However, beneath his polished exterior lies a man with dubious intentions and a hidden agenda. Born and bred in the Upper East Side to a tycoon father who owns one of the biggest rea estate agencies in New York, and a socialite mother more invested in appearances than her own children's happiness, it's no wonder Carter is in town with complete disregard for others' opinions and only self-serving motives. Known as a party boy in New York, he has spent the last few years trying to impress his father by building a name for himself in the real estate world, and his intentions in Briar Ridge are no different. Inheriting land from his late, estranged grandfather, which houses the town's beloved Starry Skies Drive In, Carter discreetly as possible moves to town almost undercover, knowing it's better to gain intel and information under the guise of a tourist as opposed to a real estate agent. He knows his intentions will likely upset locals, particularly in a tight-knit community such as this one, and he understands the need to gather information covertly before revealing his true agenda to tear down the drive in, and build property that will rake in multi millions. But, will the very faint memories of Briar Ridge from his early childhood visits ignite dormant sentimental feelings within him, potentially derailing his secret operation?!

headcanons

Does not leave the house without a hefty amount of cologne, and is always overdressed in every situation.

Has practised martial arts since he was young, and will often be seen running around Briar Ridge, too.

Owns more cashmere sweaters and suits than the entire town collectively.

Never wears shoes in his apartment, or other people's places, as he believes it brings bad luck into the home.

Fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Likes to cook.

Hates coffee. Hates the smell of coffee. Don't even mention the word. He's a tea man.

[thewolfisawake]

The Abyssborn Part 4: Traits

Physical - There is no one trait to tell that one is an Abyssborn. However, Abyssborn do tend to naturally stand out physically due to adapting to an 'uncommon' physical trait to that world. Harbingers tend to adapt the a trait from their non-Abyss or adopted species to appear 'striking' in some manner. They also tend to be wonky in terms of height. They have a listed height but it will not always appear as such since it usually changes with their headspace. So it can make one seem physically imposing despite being smaller or even if they are the tallest, they can seem no different than everyone else in the room if they shrink in on themselves.

It also doesn't necessarily have to be every one but it has been a trend that their eyes seem to shift with their emotions too and give the hint of something about them. For example, Tannim's eyes seem to be like flames barely contained when he is angry and they dim and almost revert to a green color (his human eye color) when he is sad. Balmoral's tend to show a vastness of the heavens and sparkle and shine under his enthusiasm but it also turns dark and sucks others in like a black hole when he is pissed.

Aura/'Scent' - A certain game gave the perfect name for the aura of natural born Abyssborn: existence outside the domain. They are not from 'here' or any other place. They do not belong to any world and will tend to feel 'foreign' to those that can sense that sort of thing. However they can disguise their 'scent' with varying degrees of success. The best at it are ancient Abyssborn, whom have been through countless worlds to understand how to construct an air that could fool even divinity and those intertwined with a realm. Harbingers will initially come off as solely their non-Abyss parent's race. However connecting to the adapted being's traits...it starts to drift to some combination of the non-Abyss race and the adapted being's. But there is a faint undercurrent of 'something else' that hints to their Abyssborn blood. Balmoral is something of an exception as he does seem to have fae and Abyssborn but not so much his adapted being.

Dimensional Interaction - Abyssborn can travel other dimensions/realms/whatever we're gonna call it. If it isn't their homeworld, then the world always has a chance of kicking them out at some point. Which for natural ones, this is every world. For Harbingers, it's their original world and the offshoots of that world. They do not experience weakness or sickness when they make these jumps however Harbingers can experience a bout of sickness from a major shift of the 'strongest being' within the world they live. Tannim is a kinda funny exception because his homeworld is one that had the strongest being shift so often, it doesn't bother him. Natural Abyssborn when they land gain knowledge about the world's 'rules' and how their logic works. So they basically have a grasp on what is or isn't possible, what the people are like and an idea of how to navigate. Harbingers don't. They have to learn about the world like any other fish out of water however they start off with much stronger ability than their parents.

Time Interaction - Abyssborn are time sensitive. This means that they tend to notice the shifts in a given timeline. So if there is someone else messing with the time line, they may notice what that person is up to but they never have an obligation to stop it. Abyssborn are not affected by time shifts but Harbingers are but can start to unravel the 'truth' of that given timeline. So say that someone went back and prevented a very evil dude from dying and the world sucks. The Harbinger that is living in that timeline with have their lives altered by this change but they have visions and flare ups to show them what was supposed to be. What they do with that knowledge is on them.

Interactions with other versions of themselves in different worlds and times gets pretty funky for Harbingers (and it's pretty much only Harbingers since the Abyssborn does not have establishment in timelines, they are only 'tethered' by their Harbinger child. So whatever is their background in relation to their child is what is 'true'). For most dimensional changes, they simply both exist and do not tend to meet. The 'visiting' version of the Harbinger does gain the memories and knowledge of the version that already exists so they do have working knowledge when they are there. This also works with 'visiting' dimensional anomalies. So someone like Noita's daughter, Lucille, who is from a dimension hopping family interacting with Tannim will trigger those memories from that time as well. So when she comes up to him, he is aware of who she is and why she knows him.

For most timeline changes, they take over the them of that time if it exists. They can and have been able to manifest their 'current' selves but it is pretty exhausting to do because...well, they're messing with the world order and they are away from their technical 'true' place. If it is a completely different version of themselves (someone that isn't in this time line at all) then they will not always have awareness of who they are although there are snatches of this. This is actually what Tannim experiences, he has lived this timeline's life with only some remembrances of his 'actual' life. It is unknown when he came into awareness but by current time of this blog, he is aware of who he originally is.

[xionghyouka]

Impressions on 代號鳶 so far (with spoilers)

Or, Ashes of the Kingdom as some may know it. Spoilers ahead up to chapter 8, turn back if you haven't gone so far.

As far as the bachelors and playable characters go, I like them, but the devs seriously needs to do something about their game balance because every boss battle past chapter 6 is a major cockblock that a goldfish like me has to invest a few weeks of trying to raise who I THINK is the right character to overcome the boss. (Based on my estimations, I think even dolphins would have a hard time because resources are so scarce and capped even when the player spends money to get more. LMAO)

That being said, I do like the game so far. The bachelors, well, everyone started out quite equal for me, but post chapter 6, everyone's been assigned a clear ranking.

Liu Bian

Bottom of the ranking, despite being the first to appear. His looks were quite nice (we don't get wavy-haired dudes everyday, yanno?), though I'm not into the whole childhood friends thing. After the shock of his 'death', he reappeared in Ch 6......and did nothing but cause trouble, throw tantrums and gaslight the MC. You reappear as a CULT LEADER whose members have done nothing but cause trouble and harm the MC, and you have the balls to blame her for feeling suspicious about you?? "If it were me, I would embrace you and believe you even if the whole world is against you." But she is NOT you, she has the nation and common people in her eyes, and in the meanwhile, you've been lying and concealing matters.

Even if you both are childhood friends of many years, MC is not obliged to blindly trust you. You both are descendants of the imperial clan; it should be ingrained in your bones that you cannot easily trust anyone, and Liu Bian, you fucked up real good. While there may be some leeway in understanding his character because being raised by another cult leader in his youth has probably caused a LOT of TRAUMA, it does not excuse the gaslighting. Dude has attachment issues and needs therapy, not a girlfriend. I also ranked him lowest because he has the weakest link to the MC at this point, he has nothing going for him other than the fact that he's her childhood friend.

Fu Rong

Guy who appeared next, and ranked third for me, quite close to second. On looks alone, he ranks second, not to mention he has risked his life to protect MC time and again. He was dangerously close to first; what's not to like? Her right-hand man, handsome, skilled, can tame birds and dogs, maybe he's super poor and cheapskate but it's okay, she holds his purse strings (his salary). And then the in-game missions and rumours had to drop lore that pretty much 80% points out Fu Rong is very likely the young master of Li Ba Hua, a nemesis organisation, and that he infiltrated Xiuyilou. His real identity is possibly Sima Yi, which in the political scheme of things, is another can of worms.

This means Fu Rong cannot be 100% trusted, but flirting with this danger is an attractive idea. Not sure where the game intends to go with him, so he gets 3rd place for now. Looking forward to the day MC discovers his identity! Though in some missions of rumour investigation, it seems like she already has a faint suspicion of Fu Rong's true identity...?

Yuan Ji

Warring States history has taught us not to believe those surnamed Yuan Jokes aside, he REALLY cannot be trusted. Ranked 4th not because I dislike him, we just don't vibe. A gentleman's friendship is fine and all between a minister and a member of the imperial clan, but there is no lows Yuan Ji will not go to in his political or military schemes (The way he tried to act innocent in Ch 8 LMAO ALMOST had me convinced IF I DIDN'T HAVE XU YOU). There has been no direct indication that he is involved, if at all, in the power struggle. But the Yuans are big on nepotism (we saw how that turned out in history LMAO); with Yuan Ji being the eldest son, and hints from Yuan Shu's or Xu You's conversations, it is more than enough to deduce that he contributes the most brains to the clan. But who doesn't like a schemer? I do, it's just unfortunate that he acts like such a green tea (he's been rumoured in-game to LITERALLY bath in tea for the nice scent, my god), I can't take him seriously 😂 I'm reminded of those scheming 2nd female leads you see in manhuas/manhwas whenever I see him, I just can't stop laughing.

I can't feel any romantic vibes hence his 4th place, but I did feel a masochistic vibe coming from him in Ch 8 ASDFGHJKL (gouging his eyeballs out? Ooh MC, I really like the sound of that 😈). Being offered the position of his wife so that MC can step aside as an obstacle and enjoy unrivalled glory as the future mistress of the Yuan Clan however? (Although this is just very likely Yuan Ji testing MC's resolve and trying to sound her out to see if she's someone he can scheme with) 🙄 Please, my gurl has GOALS and she doesn't need to marry to achieve them.

Zuo Ci

2nd place, believe in shifu and you shall be saved. I have surprisingly nothing much to comment on MC's shifu, other than the fact that I am weak for white-haired beauties and shifu's always got MC's back, and would never betray her, although he is also a hermit, so he would never get involved in the affairs of the mundane world, unless it involves their nemesis organisation Li Ba Hua. But shifu also dotes on MC and assists Xiuyilou as Xiuyilou has the same roots with Yinyuan Pavilion, the sect that Zuo Ci leads, so he considers it a branch of Yinyuan Pavilion and would pay attention to it.

Sun Ce

The immovable number 1 despite appearing last in the main story. I'm typically not into short-haired guys in ancient China settings (one of the reasons I like this era is because almost every guy out there has long hair, okay? XD), but somehow, he wriggled into my heart. His first appearance is super cute, dumbstruck in love at first sight, who could resist such cuteness after he looked so fierce? XD He's known as the 'Little Tyrant' but when he's faced with the MC (initially in disguise as Da Qiao), he turns all soft and silly. A guy so lovestruck and not afraid of showing it? He's a keeper. Earlier in the game, fans were guarded against him despite his frank personality because jealous little brother (jealous of who, I shall not comment😌) mentioned in his character story that Sun Ce can step over MC's dead body if she gets in his way no matter how much he likes her. In Ch 8 however, Sun Quan is forced to wear his 🤡 wig because after Sun Ce discovered that MC was actually Da Qiao, despite the fact that MC did deceive him (since she went undercover around his residence as Da Qiao), Sun Ce does not question her intentions, instead instantly deciding to side with her instead.

Some may think he's brainless or a fool in love for deciding without consulting his strategists, but let's not forget Sun Ce is known as the Little Tyrant. If he can choose to leave his liege behind and ally with MC instead, that means he has confidence in his ability to tide over the impending difficulties entailing his decision (not to mention it is canon that Sun Ce eventually leaves his lord, though not for the reasons he does in this game XD). In a world where friends today become tomorrow's enemies, Sun Ce's blinding sincerity is a rare gem to see. Personally, I also like how amongst the 5 men, Sun Ce's gallery is the only one we see with group chibis of his friends, subordinates and family as well (Though this is because every other guy is literally without family except Yuan Ji but we don't talk about going into a nest of snakes ASDFGHJKL), which makes me, as a player, feel like Sun Ce lets MC into his world unabashedly. In other characters' stories, you can also see how MC and Sun Ce complements each other's wits and cruelty, being good allies as they scheme together, and it's great to see Sun Ce helping take command of MC's army in one of his mini-events. Now this is a guy I can see MC standing shoulder-to-shoulder with, fighting together to stabilise the nation! (And, if I have Zhou Yu's character story accurately interpreted, this should be the canonical ingame history)

TLDR World hard and cold, Sun Ce's bazookas soft and warm

[bigskydreaming]

Okay, so you know “Justice League meets Batman’s kids, who they’d previously been unaware existed” AUs?

So picture that.....but this time, instead of them just having no knowledge of any of these other Gotham vigilantes at all....the Batkids all migrate to various cities as they get older and become known as their protectors - Dick in Bludhaven, Tim in San Francisco, Cass in Hong Kong, etc....

Meaning they’re all established figures, the Justice League are aware of them as solo local heroes who stick to their cities and so they just don’t interact with them much if at all, or else some are members of team lineups but are particularly vague about their histories or life outside of the team’s adventures....

So the big reveal isn’t that they become aware of all these other Gotham vigilantes all at once....its that some big conflict or whatever requires a huge team up of all available heroes, and in the aftermath, they figure out that like.....despite being known as solo heroes who work alone or loners outside of their team settings, 80% of these heroes all not only seem to already know each other, they seem to be related.

And so naturally they all turn to Batman, who has profiles on every known hero and they thus figure had researched these individuals too and just never mentioned this little detail, and they’re like, “Did you know about this?”

And then Nightwing turns to him too, arms crossed and is like, “Yeah Dad, did you know about this?”

And the infamous Red Hood is all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have never met any of these people before in my life. Lives? Whatever.”

And then Red Robin moodily grates out “I have no siblings.” Since he’s nursing a grudge since Dick and Jason broke into his apartment the night before and replaced all his custom Red Robin gear with Darkwing Duck merchandise and his vengeance will be swift and also totally disproportionate because things escalate quickly in this family, that’s true in every universe.

Cass meanwhile has deftly skewered Jason’s lie by walking over to him and brazenly patting down the man with many many guns with no fear whatsoever. He squawks and futilely attempts to bat her hands away as she riffles through his many pockets, but he doesn’t seem shocked, just annoyed. Eventually, she pulls away and triumphantly reveals a box of Hello Kitty themed band-aids.

“So these are yours then? Just for you?” Black Bat asks smugly. Red Hood squints at the box.

“What the fuck? How long have those been in my jacket? Why are those in my jacket? Did you freaking plant them in my jacket just on the offchance you could at some point in the distant future use them at my expense?”

Black Bat frowns, puzzled. “Yes?”

“Oh come on, Dead Hood,” Spoiler says with an exaggerated toss of her head meant to convey she’s rolling her eyes beneath her own mask. She skips her way across the room to Black Bat and then drapes herself languidly all over the smaller woman. Who in turn doesn’t so much as twitch beneath the sudden added mass as Spoiler holds out her hand towards the box of band-aids. 

“One please. I have a boo-boo,” she says with easy familiarity straight into the intimidating cowl of Black Bat. Only then does she deign to finish her train of thought with Red Hood.

“I mean seriously, are you saying you don’t have potential blackmail set-ups, pre-rigged releases of incriminating material, and a random assortment of traps, pratfalls and mortifying scenarios in place for the express purpose of being able to humiliate any and all of your siblings at any given moment, without any need for additional prep time?”

“Is this true, Little Wing?” Nightwing whirls on the larger Red Hood with a faux-scandalized gasp. The founder and leader of the Titans, formerly the Teen Titans, renowned for his stratagems and calm competence when directing squads of supers in the heat of battle while he keeps pace with nothing more than naturally acquired acrobatics and a utility belt that apparently uses the same technology as Wonder Woman’s invisible jet....now appears to be....staggering with the back of his hand pressed to his forehead, moaning about how he felt....faint? 

What is happening right now, several dozen superheroes want to know. Is this a drill? Are they supposed to be checking for signs of a mental ambush from undetected psychic saboteurs? Did they all hit their heads at the exact same time and are now experiencing some kind of shared mass concussion?

Look, that wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to ever happen on the Watchtower. 

“Have I failed you so utterly?” The veteran child hero bemoans with a dramatic twirl - that when contrasted with his stern demeanor of a mere ten minutes ago - makes the fears of telepathic infiltration seem less paranoia and more....concerningly probable. “Did you learn nothing from me? Did you learn nothing from B?”

He stops and jabs a finger up at the sky. “Quick, everyone! What is the very first rule of Living While Batty?”

As if by rote, over a half a dozen voices chime in from all over the room, causing various heroes to jump. Spooked by yet more and more vigilantes joining in some kind of mass recitation like they and they alone have some kind of clue what the hell is going on and everyone else just hadn’t been invited to the party. Which is just rude, honestly. Nobody likes feeling like they weren’t invited to the party. Not even superheroes. 

“If you’re not going to bother preparing for every possible contingency and at least six impossible ones, you might as well just stay in bed.”

Even the Red Hood joins in the Illuminati chant or Cub Scout pledge or demonic ritual or whatever the fuck that just was, though his slumped and exasperated posture gives away every hint of sulkiness his headgear otherwise would have kept safely hidden. He’s surprisingly more...expressive, than most who’d only known of him by reputation had expected him to be. The day continues to yield surprises.

“Of fucking course I do,” he growls out, snatching the box from Black Bat. She doesn’t even fight to hold onto it, just lets it go with a knowing smirk. “I wasn’t surprised by the idea of it, I was just surprised she bothered with such a weak effort. Like yeah whatever, actually those could be mine. I use those all the time at home. So what?”

He aggressively yanks one of the band-aids out of the box, fumbles with the peel-off strips with one hand and he roughly rolls up the sleeve of his jacket with the other. Then just slaps it on his forearm and raises said appendage high, showing it off this way and that. “See?”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Signal drawls from the other side of the room, nodding his head approvingly. “Totally convincing. Nice job walking that one back, you really showed them.”

Red Hood’s head snaps in his direction with ominous intent. “Watch it, Day-Glo.”

Signal just snorts.

“Yeah, like I’m gonna take constructive criticism on my name and costume from a dude who’s spent the last several years calling himself Red HOOD while running around in a freaking HELMET.”

“Its not meant to be literal, you fucking pedant.”

“So wait, its not literally a helmet? Huh, does it at least protect your head literally, or just like...symbolically? Like if Bane were to clock you across the head, would your concussion just be a metaphor? What’s the treatment protocol for a metaphorical concussion? Fluids, bedrest and a philosophical prescription of two chapters of Chicken Soup for the Soul as needed?”

“Laugh it up, KC and the Sunshine Band,” Red Hood bats back. “You just got yourself disinvited from Thursday night’s poker game.”

Signal just grins and folds his arms over his chest cockily. “Please. You’ve been looking for an excuse to ban me for weeks, cuz you know until you can prove I’m using my ghost vision to cheat, you can’t actually bring suit against me for it in Family Court.”

“That, and also Family Court isn’t a real thing, you toddler. Stop validating Wing-a-ding-ding’s obsession with Shitty TV Nostalgia and just call it that thing where Oracle traps us all in a room until we settle our latest fight without anyone getting stabbed.”

“Yeah, but like, say that five times fast,” Spoiler pipes up. “Its just not practical. Family Court’s way easier.”

“Says the one who’s not even in our fucking family.”

“And yet I grace you all with my sublime presence anyway,” she blows a kiss at him, beatifically unbothered. “You’re welcome.”

The Red Hood scoffs and rounds on his heel, zeroing in on Batwoman in the far corner.

“Hey Auntie B, my siblings are all dead to me and I just helped stop an alien invasion so I deserve nice things like a fun Saturday night. Can you get me into Dad’s fundraiser so I can crash it? He won’t put me back on the list until I promise not to bring any C-4 with me and I won’t promise not to bring any C-4 because he should just trust me that I won’t when I say I’m not gonna and he won’t trust me that I won’t until I admit I shouldn’t have brought any to that sting last month where three tiny little yachts blew up through barely any fault of my own, and I’m just not gonna do that ever because I have convictions and I feel I shouldn’t have to be punished for that. Y’know?”

Batwoman blinks at him. “Kid, I’m not gonna lie to you. You’re my nephew and I love you, but I stopped listening three seconds into all that.”

“Ugh, fine. Can you help me crash Dad’s event tonight so I can teach him a lesson about why he should just trust me not to make a scene so I don’t have to always make a scene to make a point.”

“Tempting as you make that sound,” she says wryly, “I have a strict policy for dealing with you lot and your......everything. I only worry about tolerating one of you at a time, and there’s seven of you, and seven days in the week. You each get your own. You know perfectly well its Robin’s day today. You get me on Tuesday, just like always.”

“Auntie B, we’re not like other families, are we?” Red Robin’s delivery is sarcastically childish and his question clearly rhetorical. Most of his attention is fixated on whatever it is he’s doing with his wrist-mounted computer. 

“No sweetie, we’re all severely fucked in the head and a little bit too comfortable with that.”

“Just checking. Oh hey, Hood, I just emailed you a patch for the hole in your firewall I exploited when replacing all my shit using your accounts just now.”

“You did what?”

“Used your accounts to pay to replace all my stuff that you fucked with last night?” Red Robin says slowly. “Did you not realize that I’ve been sticking within ten feet of you for the past five minutes just so I could clone your devices and do all that while BB and Spoiler kept you distracted? I gotta say, bro, I feel like that’s on you then.”

Red Hood swivels his helmeted head in the direction of the aforementioned two. Black Bat waves. Spoiler shoots him an utterly unrepentant thumbs up.

“You’d side with your ex over me? That’s what its come to?”

“My only allegiance is to chaos,” Spoiler says brightly. Black Bat shrugs.

“Plus he bribes better.”

“Hateful,” Red Hood points at Black Bat, moving on to level the same finger at Spoiler, who curtsies in acknowledgment: “Hateful-er.”

Then the finger rounds the bases to aim judgmentally at Red Robin. “Hateful-est. And that was all Nightwing’s idea anyway, not mine.”

“Oh, I assumed as much,” he says casually. “Your idea of a prank tends to have more of a Carrie vibe. Or be a literal literary reenactment.”

“Its called an homage, 4chan.”

“Whatever, plagiarist. And anyway, I couldn’t go after ‘Wing for payback on this one. He used an Immunity card. If you didn’t want me getting back at you, you should have used one too."

Red Hood looms aggressively. Red Robin ignores willfully. Round and round they go. Superheroes who can survive excessive G-Forces are getting dizzy just watching them have a largely motionless stand-off. That shouldn’t be how that works, but whatever. All the most infamously reclusive and isolated heroes in all hero-dom are apparently part of the same one big reclusive and isolated family of fucked up weirdos and they’re all officially bonkers. Nothing makes sense anymore. Reality broke. Try another stall.

“Okay, but see, in order to have an Immunity card, I would have to participate in one of you losers’ stupid Immunity challenges,” the Red Hood drags out with exaggerated patience. “And I’m just not going to do that, on account of those all being fucking stupid. You see the problem there?”

Red Robin just shrugs. “I don’t know what to tell you, bro. You can have principles or you can have an Immunity card. You can’t have both.”

Meanwhile, on another side of....the same room.....look, its like, an octagonal room, probably. It has a lot of sides. Robin fends off questions from an aggrieved looking Superboy.

“You never told me you had a bajillion brothers and sisters!”

“Yes but I never said I didn’t either.”

Superboy rolls his eyes. “Oh yeah, so I should just assume everyone I meet has a bajillion secret brothers and sisters?”

“Well clearly it would have worked out in your favor in this instance if you had, now wouldn’t it?”

“Assuming of course that you can trust what has been said or implied here today and I am actually related to any of those numbskulls. Which I am not actually admitting to,” Robin tacks on hastily.

Superboy eyes him dubiously. “You joined in the same creepy chant all the others did and then got super self-conscious and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Which uh. I did.”

“First off, your interpretation of body language is abyssmal. I do not get self-conscious,” Robin says with a delivery that probably could have benefited from being a little less self-conscious. “And second....that proves nothing. I guessed what they were going to say.”

“Word for word,” Superboy says super-skeptically.

“I’m very good at guessing things. You know this.”

“Okay. Guess how much I believe you right now then.”

Robin glares and folds his arms grumpily across his chest. 

“And what was that anyway? Was that like....you guys’ family motto or something like that?”

“Oh no,” Spoiler pipes up. “That’s much shorter.”

Superboy balks at that. “Wait, you guys actually have one of those for real?”

“Yup,” Steph says, counting out the words with her fingers. “He who laughs last....probably works for the Joker. So tranq him just to be safe. See? Only sixteen words. The first rule of Living While Batty is way longer, and what we said was just the abridged version. You should hear the original, before Black Bat put her foot down and refused to memorize it unless sizable edits were made.”

Superboy hovers between her and Robin now, both in mid-air and on the verge of taking Spoiler’s words as an invitation to hear just that. A low growl arises from Robin’s direction.

“Must you?” He asks the older vigilante, with a most put upon expression.

She looks at him pityingly. “Do you actually need me to answer that? Like, we’ve met, right? Hi, I’m Spoiler.”

“Wait, so Robin said that I just never specifically asked him if he had a bajillion brothers and sisters, and that’s why he didn’t tell me, so that means he wouldn’t have just lied and there’s not some code of secrecy that flat out forbids telling other people stuff, right?” Superboy realizes excitedly.

“Yes, excellent direction. Go on,” Spoiler says, steepling her fingers. Robin buries his face in the palm of one hand.

“Soooo, what other stuff could you tell me about Robin’s super top secret family that I wouldn’t think to ask about but that he would tell me about if I knew what questions to ask?”

She claps once, lightly but with emphasis. “Well done. You’ve passed the first barrier. Untold secrets await you behind just a few more.”

“I’ll get you for this,” Robin vows calmly. She waves a hand at him.

“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure you do it before January 1st, remember? You’ve promised retribution like ten times already this year and those don’t roll over, y’know. Rules are rules.”

“Enough!” Thunders a voice then, from the front of the room. Well one of the fronts anyway. Like sides, it has a lot of them, but this is the one where Batman’s standing. All eyes snap to him. Which is kinda just what eyes do when Batman says stuff like that. Its like his superpower, except he doesn’t actually have superpowers, which is what makes it scary. But where the snapping of the eyes (directional) is usually followed by Batman saying something else besides just “hey look at me,” here he pauses in the wake of his own call to attention’s waning reverberations. Uncharacteristically silent.

Not that, y’know, he’s normally Mr. Talkity Talk, but usually his silences feel like he has the words to fill them, he’s just withholding them. This though, this feels more like he doesn’t have any words at all. And he’s as confused by it as any of them, and most everyone else is confused by Batman being confused, and its this whole trickle down economy of confusion and its wrecking havoc on the value of the golden silence standard.

Of course, not everyone present is rendered spellbound with confusion.

“C’mon B,” Nightwing cajoles, leaning forward and practically radiating delight. “I think you know what you have to do now. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Its not likely to come around again.”

Red Hood snickers beneath his helmet and chimes in. “Yeah Pops, go ahead. You do this and you’ll actually have my respect for a whole twenty four hours. No, wait. Sixteen. No! Eight. Yeah, eight. Still a good deal.”

“Carpe diem, B,” Red Robin grins, leaning back as if to enjoy the show.

“Hey! Infringe on my trademark one more time, dude,” Signal throws a faux-glare at the former. Red Robin just quirks an eyebrow.

“And what, you’ll start saying Yum every time you eat a burger? Oh no. I’m hoist by my own petard.”

Signal flips him off with a grin and then redirects his attention back to Batman. “Yeah seriously though B, you kinda gotta do it now. Because if you don’t do it, then you’ll forever be the guy who didn’t do it, and you don’t want to be that guy, do you?”

“Yeah you really don’t want to be that guy,” Spoiler shouts out. “Nobody likes that guy. He’s the worst.”

“Do it, do it,” Black Bat starts chanting beside her, steadily picking up speed and volume. Several others start joining in. Even Robin appears to be slightly anticipatory, albeit trying very hard to hide it.

Batman sighs, and somehow everyone manages to hear it. Stills. Waits for....something? Nobody but them seems to have any clue what, but the air is thick and heavy with portentiousness. Something is about to happen, and all most of the heroes present could say for sure is it was something they never would have in a million years seen coming.

Finally, Batman straightens with the resigned air of a man about to have oh so many regrets. He crosses his arms, shakes his head, and in an absolute deadpan monotone, says:

“You are awful children. You know you’re killing me. You’re killing your father.”

[bougiebutchbitch]

Have you ever written anything for MerMay?? 🥺 Because I would fucking OBLITERATE PLANETS to read how you'd describe a human and a mermaid falling for each other orcoughcoughorfuckingeachother, like a mermaid AU (or merformers AU in a transformers case) for any fandom? Even if you only wrote, like, one paragraph, literally anything, I'd eat it up!! I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing and if you ever do some type of writing commissions I'd throw so much money at you dude.

BROOOOO THIS GOT AWAY FROM ME KDFLGHKLJDFHLGKDFHGKJDFG

Thanks for the prompt!

A note: I can't promise to fill every prompt, but this one caught my fancy!

T-rated, 4180 words of merman!Obito/Kakashi. I have no self control. Help.

#

Kakashi loves the sea.

To listen to it: the hush of foam over shingle and sand, the curl and slap of waves, the cries of the gulls and the bellow of the wind.

To smell it: the brine and saltspray, the faint mineral odour of wave-tumbled pebbles, the sulfur of rotting weed.

To touch it: paddling in cool pools piled high with colourful stones, watching tiny shrimp dance around his toes. Feeling salt prickle in the grooves on his palms and on his fingertips.

He loves the sea until he doesn't. Until it steals from him.

#

"Take my eye," says the boy, smiling as he dies. The broken mast lies on the deck, crushing half his body, squeezing out his blood. "Then I can see the world with you. It's a gift."

The sea folds over his mangled corpse, once they've pried it free. As the waves gulp him down, Kakashi vows he's done with loving the water forever.

And yet, it seems the water is not done with him.

#

The dreams start in flashes.

Crushing blackness. Eternal dark. Shadows so deep and vast they have weight.

Kakashi wakes floundering, strangled by his sheets, unable to scream and unable to breathe, soaked with sweat and convinced he has the entire ocean pressing down on his chest.

He tastes salt. But it's only tears, leaking from his red left eye.

Kakashi screws his knuckles into his scarred lashline, hunched in his bed. The weight eases slowly. It's no relief. His body feels far too light now, like gravity has given up on him. The walls of his father's big lonely house are so very far away.

He doesn't try to go back to sleep. He gets up instead, wrapping his blanket around him. He pads out of his house and along the shore.

Daylight tames the sea, makes it appear domesticated. Night holds no such illusions. Pebbles growl as they're sucked back in the riptide, the rumbles of a hungering stomach large enough to eat the island Kakashi calls home.

He still sails out on the boats every morning. Of course he does - he has to. Konoha is a bright and beautiful village, built into the chalky cliffs, surrounded by green-blue sprigs of sea-poppy and petrel nests full of tiny white eggs. But Konoha’s prosperity is born of the ocean, and as such, none of its children may live a life without salt in their lungs.

The sea gives, Minato would tell him, as he and Kakashi steered their wasen for the teeming waters around the reef, where the catch was fat and plentiful. And the sea takes, too.

Kakashi understands this. But that doesn't mean he has to like it.

He crouches on a slick grey rock at the edge of the water, bare toes digging into algae. "You take too much," he tells the creeping tideline, as it rises up and up and up the stone. “And you don’t give it back.”

The water swallows his accusation, like it swallows everything, and grants him no reply.

#

Kakashi loses Rin to the water too, loses Minato and Asuma and a hundred more. He dismemebers Minato's wasen, lining up the boards, methodical and neat, rebuilding it into a larger ship of his own. He hires three local children to help him haul in the urchin-pots and the ground-trawling nets - and, when he finds out that two of these children have no families of their own, his father's house becomes a little less empty. As, perhaps, does he.

Anyway - Kakashi grows, and the dreams grow with him. Stretching like the scar through his left eye from where a storm snapped Minato’s mainmast, so long ago, and a splinter tore him open, forehead to chin.

He lost an eye that day. Gained another, yes - but lost so much else, besides.

When he sleeps, those brief flashes of the underwater world combine. Now he sees long stretches of summer-blue shallows, bubbling with coral and miniature fish. The glimmer of the sunset from below, like oil has been poured over the waves and set alight. He doesn't love the sea anymore, but something in him must do, because there's a joy he can't quite quantify in those dreams. More than once, he's caught himself falling asleep with a smile on his face, wondering what he will see.

A shame that smile never lasts to morning.

His mind dives deeper, darker. A white ghost drifts through the black. Kakashi can just make out the tattered frill of a flipper, a tail: the hollowed corpse of a whale, half-eaten by scavengers, sinking slow through the depths.

Hunger twists in his guts. He unhinges his jaw, lunges forwards -

And jerks awake, sprawled over his sheets. Panting. Clutching his chest, lungs burning like he just tried to breathe underwater.

He squeezes his eyes shut. Focuses himself, grounds himself, like he does before he has to sail through a storm. Can't hear the sea. Just the faint snores of Naruto and Sasuke in the room next door.

Salt water dribbles from his red left eye. Kakashi has to touch his teeth to make sure they're blunt and human.

#

Some days, he toys with the idea of desertion. He could walk away from his village. He could march inland with an oar over his shoulder until a farmer mistook it for a shovel, and then he would know it was safe to settle down.

He could take his boys with him, before the sea steals them, too.

Yet those thoughts never manifest in action. Naruto and Sasuke - Sakura too - they all adore life on the water. Kakashi would be depriving them of that, if he bundled them up in the night and fled for the distant hills.

He'd be depriving himself of something too. Of what, he's unsure - until one bright summer day when they take the boat out past the reef.

#

He has sailed far from shore many times before, with or without his kids aboard. Nothing about the day sparks danger. No piling cumuli, no warning hint of ozone on the air. Only endless blue anticyclone skies, a few clouds scudding along the horizon line. Flat seas and gentle breezes. The wind is barely enough to belly their sail as they pass over the drop-off, where shallow blue water turns to bottomless black, like they're sailing into the sky at night.

It's the perfect day. Until it isn't.

Naruto and Sasuke lounge on the deck, arguing about who can swim under the boat fastest, aft to stern. Sakura alternates between taking her turn at the rudder and scolding them. As the competition is hypothetical, and no one seems inclined to hurl anyone else over the side, Kakashi pays the children little mind.

Even if they did jump in, they wouldn't be in much danger. They're all strong swimmers. If anything, Kakashi is weakest of them, as nowadays he only goes in the water in times of necessity. But still, his children know that they're only to go overboard after securing his permission. He's seen too many go down and not come up, and he wants to watch them every moment they’re immersed, wooden life ring to hand.

That life ring won't save them today.

When the wind changes, he smells it before he feels it. It no longer blows seawards, drawing up the rich aroma of the village: roasted tuna, steamed rice, woodsmoke and clay tiles baked by the sun. When Kakashi sniffs the air, he smells only sea.

His shoulders stiffen. Behind his patch, his red eye, which does nothing but hallucinate and cry, sets up its usual pre-storm ache. Bad weather rising.

There's no sign of it. The whole world is flush with summer. It could be his imagination. It could be superstition. It could be any number of things...

"Captain," whispers Sakura. Always the most perceptive of his crew. "What is it?"

Kakashi glances at the other boats. The bay bustles with bright rectangular sails, bobbing about without a care in the world. They dip in and out of view behind the reef, as the waves lift Kakashi's little boat and drop it, and lift it and drop it again.

Bigger waves than just a moment ago. Bigger again, now.

Kakashi's ship is furthest out. No others are close enough to offer aid. Konoha has rules about this, anyway - getting the catch to shore is your first priority, and you never risk certain death by going back to save your fellow sailors.No heroes among seamen.

The wind picks up, spinning them widdershins as the waves slap at the reef again and again. Kakashi's fists clench.

"Make for shore," he says.

The tone of his voice catches Naruto and Saske's attention. They scramble upright, shoving each other as they take their places at the sail.

Naruto asks - "Captain? What's going on?"

The summer warmth on Kakashi’s back fades. Behind him, on the horizon, the clouds tower into black anvils, growing like an oncoming tsunami wave. Eclipsing the sun.

"Go," is all he says. The children blanch. They’re quick to obey, skipping their ship over the water like a flat stone.

#

They're almost back in the shallows when the squall reaches them. When the large wave slams their vessel violently to the side. When Sasuke's grip jars from the rope, and he tumbles down the steep incline of the deck, towards the gnashing, frothing waves.

Almost.

The sea beneath them is still black as a tarpit, and just as capable of sucking them down. Kakashi doesn't hesitate. He barks an order to Sakura and Naruto - "Hold tight!"

They might or might not hear, over the screeching wind. Doesn’t matter. No time to be sure.

He dives.

The water parts around him like it's welcoming him in. A cold shock, like lightning running him through.

Kakashi is prepared for it. Overcomes it. Hones his focus, carding the water, kicking down deep. Following the trail of bubbles. Reaching for the grasping white hand...

He catches it. Hauls Sasuke up, into his arms.

Not losing this one. Not this time.

Never again.

They break the surface with a mutual gasp, right next to the ship. A wave swings it towards them. Kakashi shoves Sasuke up so he can grab on, heaving him halfway out the water on god-knows-what strength. Sasuke coughs and splutters, so far from the cool little boy who refuses to call Kakashi captain. He latches onto the rail so tight his hands must cramp.

The sea smashes and screams. Up the boat rocks, hauling Sasuke away from Kakashi, out of his arms.

He has to let go.

He can't drag him down.

The next wave crashes over his head, sucking him under. Smashing him into the keel.

His eyepatch is gone - dragged off at some point during his initial dive. Kakashi didn't notice when he lost it. The saltwater stings his grey eye, not his red one - Kakashi sees all too clearly through that.

And what he sees is death.

The bottom of his boat high above him. The churning tumult at the water's surface. The chaos, the lashing wrath of the storm.

So wild, so angry. Not like down here.

Here, everything is peaceful. Smooth. The world is tinted a pale, delicate blue, as if it is overlaid by a thin-cut sheet of sapphire. So beautiful, this underwater paradise. A mad part of Kakashi - that little boy who loved the sea - wants to gasp out in joy, breathe it in.

But he can't - he can't, he can't. He's lost too many this way. He can't let Naruto and Sakura and Sasuke lose him, too. Can't let them lose their love for the sea, as he lost his...

Bubbles stream from his lips. Pluming up away from him, towards the surface. Kakashi kicks against the current, swimming after them. He scrabbles at them with his fingers, as if they might form a ladder that he can pull himself up to safety.

Impossible. He's too late. Too deep. The wave ploughed him far below the surface, smacked the oxygen from his lungs. He hit the keel hard - blood laces the water around him, leaking from his temple, his ear. It's over. The dizzy swirl in his vision is just the start of the end.

Kakashi pulls at the water, but it's so much stronger than he is. He fights and he fights, but he cannot win.

He should be terrified. Drowning is one of the worst ways to go.

At the very least, Obito was spared such suffering. He was already dead when he hit the water.

Yet as black occludes his vision, Kakashi realises he too might die with a smile on his face. He wants to get back to his kids. But other than that, he has no real regrets. No real purpose. A part of him always knew it would end this way. He's been waiting for this moment his entire life. Waiting for the sea to claim him, too.

Which is why it's such a shock, when it doesn't.

Something wraps around him. A fishing net? Arms? The jaws of a scavenging shark?

What about that pressure against his spine - is it the bottom of the ocean? Or a sturdy chest, cradling him close?

He can't look, too weak to even turn his head. Whatever happens next, it doesn't matter. He stares up at that faraway surface, distant as a dream, and longs to see his children one more time. Equally, he longs to let go, to drift down to join the whale carcasses and feed the monsters that dwell in the deep.

"Don't you dare," says a voice. Low and melodic, reverberating through the water like whalesong. "Not yet, Bakashi. Not yet."

Kakashi's obviously dead if he's hearing him. No sense fighting it any longer. He lets his eyes, black and red alike, drift shut.

#

More dreams. Stranger, this time. He is himself, yet he's also looking down at himself, like he's undergoing an out-of-body experience. He looks too small, drifting underwater, white hair floating above him. Shrunken by the vast enormity of the oceans.

Kakashi wakes. Then immediately rolls onto his side, drags down his clinging, sodden mask, and vomits up half the ocean.

"Ugh," he groans.

He knows the coastline as well as he knows the constallations that saillors use to navigate. Still he's so disorientated that it takes several seconds for him to place where he is.

The reef is exposed at low tide. The ocean stretches out before him in one direction, storm-lashed in the distance yet eerily flat nearby, reflecting the sky like a plate of glass. Behind him lies the bay, the beach, the village.

No sign of the ship - Sasuke must've had to knock Naruto out to stop him diving in after Kakashi. At least, that's what Kakashi hopes happened. No other bodies washed up on the reef beside him. He can't think of his kids under the water, bleached and bloating, rotting slow.

The scratch of the coral against his hands grounds him, It's sore, like a thousand tiny razors are cutting his skin. The surface is almost as rough as the arm around his waist, which curls tighter as Kakashi finishes spitting out salt and acid and wipes his mouth on the back of his hand.

Wait.

The arm around his waist.

The giant, heavy arm. The white hand on his stomach, cold as a dead fish, webs between the fingers and the thumb...

Kakashi goes very, very still.

He's heard the stories. Of course he has. Strange things lurk in the cracks and crevices of the ocean floor. Sometimes they swim up to the surface. Sometimes they get curious.

Sometimes, they develop a taste for human flesh.

Kakashi swallows. His fish-gutting knife is still in his thigh holster. If he can reach it...

Another webbed hand seals around his wrist before he can free the blade.

"Hey now," grumbles the monster. "I just saved your life, Bakashi. Is that any way to treat an old friend?"

Its voice sounds like those pebbles at the beach, grinding together in the riptide. Deep and hungering. Breath breaks over his neck, stinking of rotting meat.

But Kakashi doesn't care. Because the monster called him Bakashi. And only one person ever did that.

Slowly, he twists in its arms, careful not to shred his soft, human flesh. And stares at the monster.

For that is what it is. A monster, undoubtedly so. A giant tail drapes off the edge of the reef, webbed with old scars. Gills ripple along its muscular sides, granting soft pink glimpses under its gunmetal-grey skin. And its teeth - god, its teeth.

But it is a monster with one red eye.

Kakashi reaches out without quite meaning to. He makes to cup its cheek, hesitating just before he makes contact. His fingers tremble - or perhaps that's an optical illusion, caused by the saltwater streaming non-stop from his left eye.

It can't be him. It's stupid to even consider the possibility. The sea gives and the sea takes, but the sea doesn't give back again. What is lost will never return.

But Kakashi has seen driftwood weathered and petrified into stone. Has seen fossils filled with opal, glittering from inside cracked pebbles. The sea takes, yes, but the sea also transforms. Maybe it's drowned delirium talking, but who is he to say that the water can't work the same magic on a dead boy? That it can't rebuild him, fill in his gaps, replace his broken parts?

The beast before him measures twice his size in every direction, boasting the easy streamlined strength of an undersea predator. Broad shoulders, thick trunk, powerful tail. On the longitudinal axis, half its body is white as dead fishbones. On the latitudinal...

Kakashi's gaze trails down to where the humanoid abdomen distorts into sharkskin.

"Oh," he says. Then: "Obito?"

Obito leans his cheek into Kakashi's hand. He sighs, low and rumbling. His lashless eyes quiver shut.

His face is so cold. All of him is - cold as the sea. How must Kakashi feel to him? A furnace? How long has it been, since Obito - if this truly is him - last felt human warmth? Human touch?

"Bakashi," he whispers. There's so much contained in that word. Too much.

Kakashi still doesn't know what to make of this - doesn't know if he's dead or dreaming, if he's in his own world or the next. But right now, soaked in seawater and shivering, sprawled on a reef in the arms of a gigantic sharkman who may or may not be his resurrected childhood crush, there's simply too much to question.

He opts to roll with this, rather than letting the how and the why drive him mad. If they're both alive, they can get to all of that later.

"Crew," he manages. His throat burns from hacking up all that seawater. His wet mask dangles around his throat. Usually he'd shy from the thought of anyone seeing his face, but since Obito has appeared before him in all his mutated, gill-chested glory, mouth bristling with multiple rows of serrated, triangular fangs, it feels rude to hide himself away. "My crew. Are they -"

"Safe. Back in the village." Obito pouts when Kakashi withdraws his hand from his face. What an odd expression. Boy and monster, overlaid. "I can't take you back to them. They're gonna have to come find you."

Kakashi frowns. Regardless of whether his old friend has returned from the dead, those are his kids, and he needs to see them with his own eyes before he’ll believe that they’re safe.

Obito holds up a finger, halting his protest. The webs are translucent grey with just a touch of turquoise, making them gleam like wet kombu under the sun.

"Think about it. If I showed up and plonked you unconscious on the beach, I'd be harpooned before I could speak a word in my defence, right?" He rubs the back of his head. What Kakashi thought was hair is actually a crown of sharp black spikes, like an uni shell. "Which - yeah, I get it. Of course they'll want to defend themselves, considering what's to come. And what I've done..." His voice trails off, his gaze drifting far away, like Kakashi's does sometimes, when he remembers rowing furiously out in his little dinghy to the wreck of Minato and Kushina's ship, too late, too late... "But - but it's all for the best! It will be, I mean. I promise. Everything that’s coming, it’s to help you, not hurt you. You have to trust me on that."

Kakashi’s head still hurts. Blood cakes one side of his face, turning itchy as it dries. Obito's words are all fuzzy, stitching themselves together in orders that don't make sense.

What's he saying? Wouldn't the village be glad to have one of their lost souls returned to them, no matter how changed?

Obito clacks his jaw shut. A blue shimmer darkens his cheeks, a blush in the wrong shade. "I - uh - I just - forget all of that! I wasn't supposed to come to your rescue, okay? But I did it anyway, so you'd better be grateful, Bakashi!"

Kakashi is still trying to make sense of Obito's previous speech. "I'm grateful," he murmurs. "Thank you."

The blue tint gets bluer. Bluer again, when Kakashi lets his head rest against Obito's scarred, strong chest. Thank you. Did he ever say that to Obito, when they were children?

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just focus on breathing. I'll stay with you until the ships start coming out again, just to make sure your pathetic little lungs are still functioning."

A smile twitches at the corner of Kakashi's mouth, like it always does when he feels himself drifting down into deepwater dreams. "Kind of you."

"It's not kindness. It's pity. You looked so fucking pathetic, flapping about, sinking like a bit of trash dropped overboard... Ugh. It was embarrassing."

The storm is over. Gulls emerge from their cliff roosts. They swirl up on thermals, squawking an accompaniment to the high jangle of tackle, just audible from the faraway harbour. Sun warms Kakashi's bare face. He snuggles back against Obito, watching the lazy flick of his tail in the water. Fighting this weird, childish urge to stroke it - he doesn't want to slough the skin off his palms.

He still has so many questions. If Obito's alive, why didn't he come back earlier? Even if he didn't want to return to the village, for whatever reason, why not swim up alongside Kakashi's boat? Why wait until now?

But almost-dying turns out to be a fairly exhausting procedure. All his body and mind want to do is rest.

"Must make a nice change," he says, lashes drifting shut. "Me being the embarrassing one."

Obito huffs and gives him a sulky squeeze. He could probably crush in his ribcage if he put his mind to it, with those arms. Weird thought. Kakashi doesn't know why he likes it.

"Shut up, Bakashi. Just rest."

Since he became captain of his own crew, Kakashi has grown used to giving orders, not following them. But hey. It's been a weird, upside-down sorta day. He lets himself limpen, breath crackling wetly in his chest, and waits for his usual visions of the open sea. He's not unsurprised when he dreams instead of laying down a little human, brushing webbed fingers over their scarred eyelid, then sliding back into the water, easy as a knife through the belly of a fish.

Kakashi shakes himself awake again. Just for a moment.

"Thank you," he whispers. This time, he's not talking to Obito.

He's not sure if he'll ever love the sea again. Not in the simple, unassuming way he did as a child. But love is as ever-changing as the ocean itself: different every day, unpredictable, dangerous, deadly.

The water doesn't love him. It doesn't love any of them. That is what makes it so horrifying, and so beautiful, too.

But perhaps, every now and then, the ocean decides it does love one of the many boys who are fed to it, from villages like Konoha all the way along the coast. And for that, Kakashi is more grateful than he can comprehend.

He glances over his shoulder, to where the tiny fishing boats are daring to venture out of the harbours. Then rolls painfully onto his side, coral scraping through his salt-crusted, sun-dried shirt, and watches the grey dorsal fin flit out between the waves, until it sinks beneath and disappears.

[lebenspurpur]

AN: Helloo, wrote this because I spent today suffering through my post-drunk-vandalism hangover. Guess it's deserved but still, it sucks. After eating chicken broth my dad made, unsalted if I may add, for an hour straight I am now ready to be creative. I really don't know what this is.

Have the link to my Larry playlist while we're at it:

Pairing: Larry Johnson x reader

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of alcohol

Wordcount: 1744 words

🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓

Larry looks really, really stupid right now. Stupid and sick.

His tall form slumped over in defeat, big blanket wrapped around him but not too tight, otherwise he'd feel too hot, too feverish, he still needs some air. There are tissues scattered across the couch as well. Fucking hell.

Usually, this would disgust you but it's Larry, you think you've seen worse.

Small sniffles come from where he's laying, whenever he clears his throat hoarse croaking leaves his mouth and he cringes every time he hears it. He can feel your judging gaze on his body, hear your arched eyebrow without even lifting his head.

His radio is blaring some kind of metal music, you don't recognize the band. Technically, the music is useless since the TV in front of Larry's bed is playing an old horror movie, bloody screams only adding to the grimy ambiance in the room.

"I-", you start but Larry lifts his hand before you can even consider continuing.

On any other occasion, you would've noticed the rings adorning his slender fingers, the metal accessories leaving a trail of dark smudge on his hands. Damn, did he have some nice hands.

Thankfully today wasn't a normal occasion. The metalhead in front of you had worse problems than you drooling over his fingers right now, one of them being the sickness he caught.

"Don't you dare say 'I told you so.'", he croaks out while he finally lifts his head, bloodshot eyes meeting yours. He looks immensely tired. You can sense his annoyance at this sickness, this hellish treatment he's in and can't seem to escape.

You take a deep breath in and drop your bag next to his opened front door.

"Alright. I won't."

You close the door quietly and deposit your jacket as well as boots next to it.

His mom always screams at Larry to finally get something for visitor's shoes and bags but he never does. Too busy, too lazy, he figures his visitors get it. Who even visits him, anyway?

The floor is, as usual, covered in stuff he hasn't cleaned yet. Unfinished drawings, sketchbooks, take-out cartons, empty booze bottles, you keep wondering how he manages to create that kind of mess in a timespan of not even two days.

You tiptoe over them, careful as to not to step into something. Earlier experiences have taught you to never mistake one of these seemingly empty cartons as really empty. Just last week you stepped into a fucking pizza the man in front of you didn't finish.

You sigh as you sit down next to him and Larry tiredly raises an eyebrow.

"Dude, I know you don't want to move but Jesus, we really need to get you to bed.", you then state, voice comforting yet firm. You use the moment to stare into his eyes, adore the brown, thick, deepness of them.

Larry groans loudly, voice breaking from how raw his throat is. His head falls back and he closes his eyes, a pained expression on his features.

"Don't wanna.", he grumbles quietly and you involuntarily crack a smile. Larry always managed to do that, even in the most unbelievable moments.

"I'll join you if you do."

One of his eyes slowly creaks open, observing your face to look for any kind of sarcasm or irony. As soon as he doesn't find any, the other eye opens as well and he leans forward again, blanket clutched tightly in his fists.

"Alright."

You grin at his quiet answer, hand reaching over to pull him with you. He obliges, warm, slightly clammy hand tightly grabbing yours. He follows you through the messy room, his blanket leaving a trail of destruction behind the two of you.

You kick open the door leading to his bedroom. Immediately, the familiar images of various album covers greet you. The air in his room is colder and less damp and you hear him take a deep breath.

Turning around, you mention for him to wait while you walk over, grabbing the blanket on his bed. You shake it a bit, readjust the sheets as well the pillow, all while Larry's eyes never leave your back.

"There you go, sweets.", you add as you finish, quickly turning around to see Larry standing the same way you've left him. Tired, slumped, and emotional. The need to hug him starts boiling inside of you but you try and hold yourself back. First, you have to make sure he gets into bed.

Larry slowly stumbles past you. During the last few baby steps, he drops the blanket around his shoulder, faceplanting right into the freshly made sheets. He's not even wearing a shirt and you huff at his stubbornness.

Larry's back looks strong like this, muscles contracting beneath his skin as he tries to get more comfortable. Your eyes glide over his spine, his wide shoulders, the small bumps where his ribs encase his organs. His olive skin is sweaty and long, brown hairs cling to it.

You cringe at that, knowing the feeling all too well.

Softly placing a hand on his back, you move closer, forehead scrunched together.

"Larry, darling."

He grunts into his pillow, a muffled questioning sound.

"I got a hair tie here. Mind lifting your head real quick?"

Larry obliges and lifts his head quickly, taking a deep breath while he does so.

Your fingers find his scalp and start collecting all the strands, securing them afterward with the tie around your wrist.

The man beneath you hums in appreciation as the cold air hits his neck, sweaty skin finally being able to breathe. You kiss the small space beneath his neck real quick, a short sign of comfort before you stand up again, hands leaving his skin.

Larry whines the second you do so, all while quickly turning around, sending you a pleading look.

"You said you'd stay.", the whiny tone only makes his voice sound more hoarse and you can't help the small grin from appearing on your features.

"In a second, sweetie. You need some water and medicine first, alright?"

He whines again but the thought of something fresh and cold going down his throat is enough to soften the pleading look in his eye. You blow him a kiss and then quickly walk into the kitchen, which is right across from the brunette's room.

It's surprisingly clean but what did you expect? Larry never uses his kitchen unless he has to. Which isn't all too often.

Grabbing a water bottle and placing it on the counter, you keep searching for the small broth packets you'd bought exactly for this kind of scenario. You find them in the fridge, the only thing in this room that Larry actually uses.

Chuckling you get some water cooking, all while pouring the powder into one of the giant cups Sal has gifted Larry a while ago. According to the masked man, everything tastes better if it's being eaten out of a cup and so, everyone has their own sets of cups, a premium gift from Sal Fisher.

Soon, everything's done and you maneuver your way back into Larry's room. Said man is awaiting you, eyes still opened as he watches you creep towards his bed, hands full with water, soup, and medicine.

First, you feed him the medicine. Normally he'd do this himself but you know that he'll just ignore the bitter juice unless you force it down his throat. Stubborn motherfucker.

Larry's sitting up now, back propped up against one of the many big pillows he has. You hand him the broth and he inhales it in less than two minutes, apparently, this is the first thing he's eaten today. Shaking your head at the thought, you tug a few strands of hair out of his face, smiling at your lover's appetite.

Finally, after gulping down half of the water bottle, the brunette leans back and smiles, for the first time this evening.

"Thank you.", he croaks out and you touch his arm as an appreciative gesture, "Does that mean you're allowed to join me now?"

You're about to nod as you notice the faint traces of eyeliner on his skin.

"Did you take off your makeup when you got home?", you ask, throwing a teasing smile his way.

Larry clears his throat, embarrassed that you caught him. A faint blush raises on his cheeks and you feel your heart swell at the sight.

"I might have forgotten about it.", he answers, gaze slowly meeting yours again, "But please, let's just do this later, dude. I am so fucking tired."

Huffing, you roll your eyes at his answer but you nod anyway. He'd be fine with the makeup for a few more hours. You just have to remember taking it off tomorrow.

"You're lucky I love you."

Larry grins at that, the usual wide, blinding grin, that makes your stomach tingle with fuzzy feelings inside of it. His fingers find your arm and he tenderly pulls you down to join him. Soon, your head is placed on his chest, and his arms cradle your shoulders, pulling you into his body.

You can hear his relaxed breathing as he finally settles down, nuzzling his face into your hair.

His skin is warm against your cheek and you smile into it. It doesn't matter how often you've done it, laying on his nude chest always makes you flustered.

Larry's fingers start to draw stuff on your back, the feeling more than a delight for you. Humming, you snuggle closer and the metalhead next to you smiles.

His eyes already start to close slowly, lack of sleep finally catching up to him. The quiet sound of the ongoing movie in his living room, as well as the metal music, make for a great background sound and you both listen intently.

You notice the way his heart beats, slow and steady, beneath the tanned skin. Unknowingly, you start to synchronize your breaths with his. In and out. In. And out.

Soon, your eyes close as well. Damn it, you don't want to fall asleep. Though, you suppose it doesn't matter as the man next to you pulls you closer, his breath warm against your ear. He wouldn't let you leave anyway.

The thought makes you feel giddy, excited, in love. Smiling widely, you try to press yourself closer into him, and soon, you too, fall asleep, enveloped by the arms of the boy you love most. Your favorite boy.