#like he would deny wanting to; but he gets rather lonely that unconsciously he always wanders to u or to ramshackle dorm

[ryllen]

love is a compilation of coincidences

... and chances u create urself

[rocorambles]

What Is Love?

Pairing: Gojo x reader (Main), Nanami x reader (Side)

Genre/Warnings: Yandere, NSFW, Dub-Con/Non-Con, Rape, Sacrilegious, God Complex and Delusional Gojo, Somnophilia, Slapping, Choking, Humiliation, Coercion, Non-Con Infidelity

Summary: Gojo learns what love is and unfortunately, you're the object of his newfound affection.

A/N: Thank you as always for beta-ing @sawamooora and dedicating this to my dear @lets-go-datehoe. Thank you for sending this request, Yuli~

Love? Gojo Satoru doesn’t believe in love. Love is for hopeless, lonely souls. Love is for miserable pathetic wretches desperate to fill an emptiness in their hearts, in their lives.

When everyone in the world is already falling head over heels to serve him, to be with him, when he's given everything he's ever wanted and more on a silver platter, why would he need love?

Gojo Satoru is already at the top of the world, with or without love.

Now lust? Gojo understands lust.

Carnal pleasure is never unwelcomed and unlike his elders, his head isn’t shoved so far up his ass to deny that he adores the feeling of his cock inside a slobbering mouth, a sopping wet cunt, an exquisitely tight ass.

But more than that, his arrogance and ego thrives and swells as women throw themselves at him, the feeling of being desired only fueling the prideful monster inside of him, only fueling his borderline delusion.

Of course everyone wants him. He’s Gojo Satoru after all.

And so he lets himself be worshipped, lets woman after woman praise him, reveling in the way they chant his name like a prayer as he returns their devotion with thick sticky white blessings. He smirks at the way they kneel before him, staring up at him in reverence, their pretty mouths and throats stretched wide across his cock.

Gojo Satoru is a god, and gods do not chase after mere mortals. So when he meets and you barely give him the time of day other than a polite bow, he shrugs his shoulders.

You’re just another disbeliever. Another silly lamb he needs to convert. Nothing more. Nothing less. Definitely nothing to get worked up about.

It’s almost amusing how you’re playing hard to get, sinning by spitting such crude and crass remarks at a deity like him every time he tries to speak to you. And it’s almost infuriating how you turn your nose up at him, as if you’re qualified to have an opinion of him, let alone think of him as beneath you. But he hides the pleased smile on his face when he sees your gaze linger just a tad too long to be mere coincidence the first time he reveals his eyes to you, a look of awe slipping past your scowling countenance.

See? They all come around eventually.

And so he lays it on thicker, draping his tall figure over yours, letting his warm breath grace the back of your neck, murmuring coy words in your ear. His long fingers find themselves tangling in your hair, brushing against your hands, touching every part of you as much as he can get away with.

You’re so close. He can feel your walls slowly crumbling away, can see the unsureness in your eyes as you half heartedly nudge him away after unconsciously leaning into his touch. Just a little more…

Except something, or rather someone, stops him.

Gojo Satoru isn’t usually caught off guard, especially not by the likes of Nanami Kento. The ex-salary man is a good man, but just a man nonetheless, no matter how you dress it up. But Gojo grudgingly admits at least surprise, if not something more, when he hears you’re in Tokyo and decides to pay your apartment a visit, only to find the Grade 1 sorcerer’s tongue shoved down your throat, your naked bodies entangled in rumpled bed sheets.

He tells himself it’s just a one night stand...maybe a friends with benefits relationship at most when he happens to catch both of you holding hands in broad daylight, a carefree smile he’s never seen before stretched across Nanami’s face as he sits at a cafe table with you, watching you happily munch on some pastry his underclassman has purchased for you.

Nothing he can’t handle.

But if you were a bitch before, a snarling ferocious wildcat whenever Gojo was around, you’re even worse now. Your apathy, the nonchalance with which you politely smile and nod in acknowledgement at Gojo before promptly ignoring him for the suited man by your side, gets under his skin like nothing ever has before. For once, Gojo is at a loss.

Ahh, so this is what denial feels like. This is the rejection and emptiness that he’s seen drive others to madness. This is love.

Gojo Satoru experiences his first heartache, but he doesn’t break down into pitiful sobs, he doesn’t mope around in self-pity.

He laughs.

He’s lost the battle, but he hasn’t lost the war. And when others would have turned tail and fled, he stands his ground, icy blue eyes sparkling in glee at the prospect of a new challenge, the prospect of his sweetest victory yet.

Gojo Satoru is a dangerous man. You know that with all your heart and soul, so it only makes sense that your hackles raise anytime he’s in your proximity. Maybe you take it too far, disrespecting your senior to an extent that would bring shame to you if it were anyone other than the Special Grade sorcerer. But in hindsight you’ll wish you did more.

You’ll wish you hadn’t caught the attention of the world’s strongest sorcerer. You’ll wish you hadn’t found yourself mesmerized by his sheer power, by those damning, dazzling eyes. You’ll wish you hadn’t begun to be ensnared by his allure, a trap you’ve heard the consequences of far too often from your heartbroken and weeping fellow female sorcerers. Maybe you’ll even wish you had just let him have a taste of you, use you before tossing you out like trash, like every other woman who’s fallen in bed with him, instead of whetting his appetite only to deny him of his feast, only to have him fixate on you even more.

But like Gojo, you know love and lust are two different things. And when Nanami shows up in your life, like a knight in shining armor, you feel Gojo’s spell on you shatter, your heart fluttering and thawing the ice that had begun to creep up your body, trapping you in endless blue.

Love is blinding, and really, you should have known that normal boundaries don’t exist in Gojo’s world. But your adoration for your lover has you hesitantly, but politely, letting the cheerful sorcerer into your shared home with Nanami — even though your boyfriend is overseas for a mission, not due back for at least another week.

It would be a lie to say you’re completely relaxed and fine with the circumstance you’re in, alone with Gojo Satoru with no chance of anyone being able to help you if something were to happen. But for whatever reason, Nanami respects the man, even considers him a friend, and in turn you feel an obligation of sorts to at least be cordial. And besides, Gojo isn’t a good man, but he’s not a bad man…right?

You find it difficult to believe that Gojo didn’t know Nanami was out of town, that his pout is sincere when you tell him that Nanami won’t be back anytime soon. There are only so many Grade 1 sorcerers in Tokyo and even less that Gojo actively keeps in touch with. But what’s the alternative? Believe Gojo came to see you? Unlikely.

Gojo is a womanizer, a slut, whatever other word you want to use. But a homewrecker? Especially of a dear friend? Never. (Frankly, you think it would just be too much of a bother for the emotionally stunted man.)

And you’re glad to see that your theories are proving to be true as the night continues, wondering if maybe the white-haired man is just lonely.

He’s strangely pleasant as he keeps a respectable distance from you, no suggestive comments spewing from his mouth, even his obnoxious arrogance kept to a tolerable low. You feel your guard drop, your smiles feeling more natural, genuine laughs slipping past your lips as he tells you about his latest adventures and missions.

But as a yawn interrupts your conversation and you stare askance at how late it is before urging him home to get some rest, apologizing for keeping him so long, your heart drops as you feel an overwhelming presence caging you against your living room couch, long limbs on either side of your body.

“What do you see in Nanami that you don’t see in me?”

The question is so jarring you almost forget the panic rising in your chest, mouth moving soundlessly as you try to process the meaning of his words. But instead of an answer, all that bubbles out of you is a shaky plea for him to leave.

Gojo’s never been good at following orders or commands. Why would he be? Since when has a god ever needed to listen to mortals? And you’re no exception.

You whimper as you’re suddenly transported to the bedroom you share with Nanami, struggling to no avail as Gojo easily tears your clothing off, positioning you on all fours in front of the floor-length mirror that decorates the corner of the room. Bile rises in your throat as he takes his blindfold off, blue eyes seemingly piercing your soul even through just a reflection and you squeeze your eyes shut, trying to imagine you’re anywhere but here, with anyone other than him, trying to grasp at every fond memory you have of your blonde lover. But Gojo has a point to make and you gasp, eyes snapping wide open as a large hand wraps around your neck, choking you until you’re forced to stare at your joined bodies on the mirrored surface.

“Look at how perfect we are together. Look at how perfect you are underneath me. You chose that instead of this?”

You sob when he twists your head and forces you to look at a framed photograph on your vanity, a photo Nanami and you had taken together when he had brought you overseas with him for a mission.You regret not insisting that you go with him this time around, wishing more than anything else that you were wrapped in his strong arms.

There’s something irritating about your wailing and blubbering, your little hiccups and sniveling only fueling something dark and twisted inside of Gojo. Maybe it’s the way he knows that you’d never act like this if he was Nanami. Maybe it’s the way he knows you’re lust incarnate whenever Nanami has his hands or mouth on you. Maybe it’s the way he knows that you despise him and his touch so much, that you’d rather die than let him have you.

Ungrateful bitch.

Well if you’re going to cry, Gojo might as well give you something to cry about. A crazed grin slices his handsome face as your screams reach an all-time high, a frenzy, as he shoves his cock inside your unprepped hole, his shaft twitching in interest when you desperately wail his name over and over again as if that would do anything other than have him intensify his pace. But as pretty as his name sounds from your mouth, he tires of your useless pleas for him to stop. Gojo uses one hand to shove your face into the floor, your garbled cries muffled by the carpet as he chases his end, moaning at how perfect your tight, gummy walls feel around him. He’s dreamt of this for far too long and with a grunt, he cums inside of you, draping over your body and pressing his lips against the back of your neck, affectionately marking and tasting you as he empties his balls.

Through the pain and shame, relief floods through you, hope that this is finally all over, that he’ll leave you and your battered body alone. And you play dead, letting him do as he pleases, only occasionally wincing when he leaves a particularly intense mark on your skin, momentarily cringing when he pulls out, thick liquid trickling from your abused hole.

But you should have known better, should have known this was just the beginning.

You weakly paw at the strong arms easily cradling your exhausted figure, trying to wriggle as much as your aching body allows you to, sobbing into his shoulder when you see the direction you’re headed in. You wonder how it’s possible to feel even dirtier as calloused hands lather you with soapy suds, as Gojo takes his time scanning every inch of your body, intimately caressing and mapping every line and curve. And you plead for forgiveness from Nanami when slick begins to pool between your legs, as Gojo gently kneads and experiments with your breasts, rolling your nipples, long fingers expertly circling your clit and slipping inside of you.

Your orgasm shatters you and you stand there like a rag doll, body convulsing and eyes rolling back in your head as you drench Gojo’s digits with your arousal, the sticky strands of betrayal staining his hand as he brings it to your mouth. He gently peppers your neck and shoulder with encouraging kisses as you submissively suck him clean, tugging you along as he dries you off before tucking the both of you in bed, holding you in the mockery of a lover’s embrace. It doesn’t escape your notice that he’s chosen to sleep on Nanami’s side of the bed and shame has you curling into a fetal position, has you burying your face in the bedsheets, hoping for at least a whiff of Nanami’s familiar scent, a reminder of his presence.

It works, and you let yourself fall into a restless sleep, your lips twitching every so slightly upwards despite the tears still trapped in your lashes as you think of a tall blonde man, a yellow spotted tie wrapped around your hands as you teasingly pull a spectacled face in for a kiss. You writhe and twist in your sleep, heavily panting as you imagine Nanami’s hands roaming on your figure, his lips tenderly kissing a bold line down your neck and in between the valleys of your breasts. And as you imagine his fingers carefully rubbing your clit, you sigh his name, only to be abruptly woken as a lance of pain shreds through you.

Eyelids still heavy with sleep, body still groggy from being so suddenly roused, you can’t piece together what’s happening, one of your hands instinctively cupping your smarting cheek. But you frantically claw and bat in the dark, knowing exactly who’s on top of you despite the fact that your eyes haven’t fully adjusted to the blackness, the way your body is ripped apart once more, a telltale sign of whose cock is penetrating you.

“It’s very rude to say another man’s name when I’m the one making you feel so good. Let me teach you the only name you need to know."

There’s something horribly intimate about the position you two are in, the way he’s tainting the very sheets and mattress Nanami had made love to you on countless times. You wish you could force yourself back to sleep, could gouge out your eyes as you begin to make out the man pistoning in and out of you. But it’s no use and you know even sightless, those icy blue orbs are branded in your mind.

You vow to at least not give him the satisfaction of hearing his name from your mouth, pressing and biting your lips until a copper taste assaults your tastebuds. But Gojo has always been talented at everything he does, those gifted eyes seeing far more than they should. You shake your head side to side in denial as a knot quickly begins to form in your gut, body tensing as you feel another wave coming over you, only to let out a confused whimper when everything suddenly stops.

“You get to cum when you say my name and the magic word.”

The playful lilt and childish tone have you seeing red and you sneer in twisted pleasure when a gob of your spit hits him squarely in the face, a litany of curse words and insults spewing from deep inside of you, uncaring of how you’re more like a raving madwoman than a victim.

But you’re not the first brat Gojo’s had to tame, and he just smirks condescendingly down at you before playing you like an instrument, easily bringing you to that narrow brink where even a single breath of air, or a simple flick of a finger seems like it would have you toppling over the edge, only to relentlessly snatch you right back before you can fall.

You don’t know how long he goes on for, your shattered and denied mind barely cognizant of the beginnings of daylight creeping through the window. But as the rays of light make it to your bed, you break.

“Gojo-”

You howl when he pulls out, hips wantonly thrusting in the air for more friction as he crudely slaps his tip against your clit, a frown on his lips.

“That’s not the name I want to hear.”

You shouldn’t. You really shouldn’t. Where’s your fucking backbone? How could you even entertain the idea of screaming another man’s name in your lover’s bed?

But when he steps away, your eyes zero in on how his cock separates from the sopping wet mess between your thighs, an unbidding distressed whine clawing up your throat at the thought of being left high and dry, mind hazy with lust and arousal.

“Sa-Satoru…Satoru, please.”

There’s work to be done and he’s not entirely pleased by the note of hesitancy and reluctance he still hears despite the hours he’s taken out of his time to educate you. But a promise is a promise and fuck if he doesn’t love the way his given name sounds in your mouth. And with just a few more meticulously placed thrusts and practiced twists of his fingers, you come undone, your lewd sex-crazed appearance and dopey smile from finally getting your sweet release dragging him down with you.

But it doesn’t end there and Gojo makes good use of your empty house, of the week he has alone with you.

There���s not a single surface in your home, not a single hole on your body that isn’t used and marked thoroughly. And even he briefly wonders if he’s being too rough with you, a flicker of concern crossing his mind as he pouts at the idea of his new toy breaking so soon.

But you prove your resilience and a strange concoction of pride and irritation festers inside of him as you determinedly clamp your mouth shut, a spark of defiance lighting up those lust-clouded eyes whenever he urges you to say you love him back, despite the way you practically ride and hump his face as he kneels between your legs and eats you out in the kitchen, despite the way you slur and babble his name over and over again like it’s the only thing you know how to say.

You’re adorable and he wishes he had all the time in the world to break you fully without using his trump card, to see just how durable you really are. But time is ticking and Nanami is due back any day now.

“Say you love me.”

He coaxes you by gently holding you in his arms, peppering your face with butterfly kisses, endearingly observing the way you seek the little comfort you can get despite the fact that he’s the giver, so deprived of anything other than frenzied arousal. But steely resolve hardens your eyes and you turn your face away.

“I love Nanami.”

You brace yourself for a cock slamming inside of you, a hand wrapped around your throat, but you aren’t ready for the endless galaxy that suddenly surrounds you, and blood-curling fear washes over you.

Unlimited Void.

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know of it, and yet, seeing it in person, you can safely say the rumors and tales don’t do it justice. Gojo laughs at how you frantically cling onto him, your arms wrapping around him, your face burying itself into his chest, voice trembling as you beg him to release you, beg him to get rid of his domain expansion, beg him not to let you go. You’ve seen the aftermaths of his technique, seen curses and sorcerers much stronger than yourself reduced to brain-dead husks from mere seconds in his domain.

“Say you love me.”

The words are on the tip of your tongue, fear making you docile. But a flash of blonde, a glimpse of a tailored suit in your mind keeps your saving grace stuck in your throat. You tell yourself it’s okay, you don’t mean it, it’s just a means to save yourself, surely Nanami will understand. And you begin to open your mouth, only to break off in a scream as you’re roughly shoved away, your hesitation speaking volumes to the white-haired sorcerer who sighs in irritation.

Not that you really notice or maybe you notice too well. You aren’t sure. You are sure. You can feel your sanity rapidly slipping as everything and nothing slams into your senses at once.

“Satoru, I love you!!”

It’s barely comprehensible, a shrieked frantic wail muddied by anxiety. But it’s enough and you sob in relief when Gojo ruffles your hair like you’re a well-behaved pet, leaning into his touch and digging your nails into his wrist, keeping his contact on you still and steady, dry heaving as you come back to your senses.

You don’t even realize that the repeated mantra is still coming out of your own mouth as you fling yourself onto the sorcerer as his artificial universe fades away, curling up in his lap, heart pounding as you chant “I love you, I love you, I love you” over and over again like it’s your holy scripture.

Gojo is on cloud nine watching you finally come to faith, finally worship him and praise him. You were lost, and now you’re found. And he has no intentions of ever letting you stray again. It’s not like there’s anywhere else for you to go, anything else for you to do other than warm his cock anyway.

He crashes his lips against yours as he easily slips inside your well-used cunt, walls molded and shaped perfectly after countless rounds. It’s sinful how good you feel, how good you sound, and he can feel his balls tighten, his own end quickly approaching as you shatter to pieces over and over again around him, quivering walls milking him, clamping down on him as if you can’t bear the thought of being empty.

But there’s nothing to worry about. What god would leave his faithful disciple unrewarded? What declaration of faith comes without a baptism? And he cums inside of you, hot spurts filling you up, branding you, marking and claiming you as his, the sticky white trails leaking out of your stuffed cunt a public declaration of who you belong to.

There’s silence as he lets you collapse on top of him, grinning at how blissfully fucked out you look, cock already twitching in interest again as he spies the mess of tears and drool dripping down your chin. But there are matters of business to attend to first and he nudges you to look at him, cooing down at vacant eyes still hazy with pleasure.

“Nanami is returning tomorrow-”

Blinding pain shocks you as a large hand tangles with your roots, pulling your head back so far you think your neck might snap.

“What are you so happy about?”

There’s a lightness to his question, the silence before the storm, and you wipe the smile off your face, hissing as he tugs harder.

“I know you like me more, but I didn’t think you would be heartless enough to be so excited about breaking up with your boyfriend. Poor Nanami.”

Even through the pain, the unspoken weight of his words registers in your head and you snarl at him with a vengeance.

“I’m not breaking up with-”

Your throat goes dry as he relinquishes his hold on you, one hand raising to eye-level, pointer and middle fingers beginning to cross, and you go still, mouth snapping shut.

“Good girl. Now you’ve experienced Unlimited Void for yourself. What do you think would happen to Nanami if I left him in there for even a second? Do you think he’d ever be the same even if he were to somehow survive, even if he were to go through months of rehabilitation?”

The inquisitive tone makes it sound like just a bunch of theoretical questions, but you know better, know the ramble for the threat that it is.

Love is about sacrifice, and you’re willing to give it all up for the man whose contact Gojo is pulling up on your phone, whose number is being called. And as the ringtones finally stop and a familiar voice greets you over the speaker, you seal your fate.

[dreamii-yume]

Hiya~ Can I request a sinfic featuring yan!riddle where he uses an aphrodisiac on his fem!darling? ^v^ thanks in advance if you every try to write this!

Tried to implement some Mommy kink for our Baby Riddle but meh...Yume didn’t quite get there lol I’m sorry~ I’ll do your mommy kink justice someday, Riddle!  {{ (>_<) }}

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎︎

It's petty, it goes against the rules, against every moral lesson he was taught, and as the older one, Riddle knew how immature this was of him. But he just loves you so much that it's only fair for you to feel the same thing, right? It's a completely valid reason! 

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

Riddle was not one to show emotions to make himself feel and look vulnerable to others.

It doesn't matter if they're a close friend or anyone he's familiar with, he just thinks that it's unnecessary for him to do so. Especially after his overblotting incident, it's just his duty to do what's right and recognize his past mistakes. For the first time in so long, he was corrected, he was wrong in so many ways, and he whole-heartedly accepted that. It was a blessing that his own dorm ended up forgiving his tyranny, being able to celebrate another successful unbirthday party as if Riddle hadn't done anything wrong at all. He was lucky to have such understanding friends, but the fact that they forgave him this easily was the exact reason why he's so conflicted with such a massive amount of guilt.

They were so nice despite after everything, just too loyal and accepting that Riddle's heart aches just remembering that he once took advantage of that loyalty. The guilt still chains him up and it was suffocating, but he knew he must not show such emotions. It doesn't change the fact that he's the Dorm Leader, the current King of Heartslabyul, he shouldn't burden anyone with such trivial things such as guilt. They don't have to know, if this was the price for his past actions, then he shall suffer through it all alone. No one needed to get involved in his personal matters, not again.

"...Are you sad, Riddle-san?"

No one...but you, who personally knocked ever so gently against the walls he built around himself.

Riddle didn't know if you were aware of his dilemma or had just consulted him out of pure instinct but he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't caught off guard that one day. It was the end of another unbirthday party that you and Grimm were invited to. You had dared to place your hand on his head, stroking his hair once and even asked such an outrageous question. Suffice to say, he was surprised, it left his mouth open but words don’t seem to come out. It also occurred to him that you might've done that deed unconsciously as he could practically see the realization coming down upon you, retracting your hands from his head almost immediately.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry...! I touched you without thinking..." You had apologized, bowing repeatedly but eventually looked up with an embarrassed smile. You scratched the back of your head, a tiny blush decorating your cheeks, feeling silly. "...I guess I just felt something really odd about you today, Riddle-san. It's probably just my imagination but still..."

"...Please cheer up. I'm sure no one would want to see you sad." You said, giving him a close-eyed smile and an awkward ‘Cheer-Up’ pose. "If you have something on your mind, feel free to share them with any of us!"

With Grimm screaming for you from the distance, you gave him one last smile and bowed before turning to your monster friend. Riddle didn't even get to say anything as he stood there, watching your figure disappear in the distance. He found himself reaching for his own head, on the same exact spot that your hand was in and looked down. That was unexpected, he really should get his act together if someone like you was able to tell. It was a relief that you didn't pry too much, that would've been a problem.

...Though, Riddle couldn't deny that something in him felt a little giddy for someone to see through him without words. The way you placed your hand on his head, the way your eyes looked at him, even if it was all done unintentionally. It made his face heat up and his heart could only beat so fast.

They all felt so gentle and sincere. He liked it.

But even so, Riddle turned around, clearing his throat and shaking his head awake out of such a ridiculous daydream. What is he talking about? Patting his head is a major offense to him personally! It's gesture that makes him feel inferior and doing so will immediately prompt him to decapitate your head off.

However, Riddle narrowed his eyebrows together and pat his reddening cheeks twice, just to calm himself down. You did recognize your mistake and it wasn't intentional after all so...He'll let you off the hook. He might've just been surprised, that's all, there was no more reason to fret over your touch like this.

Riddle needs to get his everything together, he's your senior, for god's sake.

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

...Was what he told himself, correct? He thought he was done with this.

Someway, somehow, Riddle found himself inviting you for a private tea party with him one day. He doesn't like this, it feels like he's favoring you way too much, he doesn't even do this with Trey and the others. But one look at your troubled expression in the library that day was enough for him to come and talk to you. Seriously, had he really become this easy to catch these days? Anyways, your woes laid down on a subject that involves magic, it was probably why you look so troubled about it.

"You'll teach me? Really?"

That spark in your eyes was something Riddle had never seen before, it intrigued him for some reason. He originally thought that you were suspicious, suddenly appearing out of nowhere without a single ounce of magic. You ended up becoming a student, a half-student to precise, and not to mention a girl in a prestigious all-boys school that Night Raven. It already sounded problematic in papers and by ear, your whole existence in this school is a clear violation of rules! However, once he took a closer look at the bigger picture of your situation, only then did it occur to him how harmless you really are.

After all, you were just a normal girl who always seems to get involve in a situation you didn't ask for in the first place.

"I see...So, that's how it is." You said, humming. Even without magic to perform the activities written on the text book, you somehow understood the basic concept of the topic. As expected of Heartslabyul's Dorm Leader, his strict but careful manner of teaching was no joke.

Gracefully placing down his cup on a saucer, Riddle ran his finger smoothly on the huge block of text in the textbook. "You don't need magic to remember these formulas, correct? As long as you memorized all of them with accuracy, you'll have no problems in the upcoming tests." Riddle advised as you nodded, mentally taking notes of each and every one of his words. "Now, try to answer this next question with a different method. I'm sure you'll be able to figure out the trick soon enough."

True to what he said, you managed to answer all the questions in your homework and Riddle couldn't help but be amused with your reaction. You look so relieved that you were able to finish them in such a short period of time and with confidence too. This made him want to brag about how he could finish paper works at this amount in an even shorter time frame and with everything guaranteed to be correct just so he could see your amazed reaction. But he decided against it, thinking of how immature of a move it was.

"Riddle-san, you're really amazing...I could never do these things by myself." You whispered with a small laugh as you leaned down on the table, resting your head that had been starting to ache from all the memorization you've been doing. Riddle wanted to criticize your laid-back posture but, in the end, he kept it all on his own. Your exhaustion was to be expected after all, it’s understandable.

Riddle tilted his head to the side. "...Is that so? I do think this is normal for my age." He said, which merely made you laugh nervously and drop a sweat. What he said just proved how much of a genius this child is, having the personality of a workaholic. However, you noticed how he slouched down slightly, with something oddly lonely in his eyes. "...This is what I've been taught all my life after all. I have to be the best of the best."

Ah, of course, he's not a genius without a cost. That much is understandable at least. "That's not true." You said without thinking, making Riddle turn to look at you. Your eyes were closed as if you were in the verge of falling asleep but that dazed, gentle smile remains on your face, telling him that you're still wide awake. "No one can be the 'best' out of the best. A child shouldn't grow up to believe that they can."

"...But unfortunately so, Riddle-san did, didn't he?" You phrased the words like it was supposed to be a response to yourself rather than to him. You opened your eyes, sympathy overflowing from within them that it makes Riddle's heart ache. "I can't imagine how painfully lonely that must've been, enduring and following all those crazy rules."

"But you know? It doesn't have to be like that anymore, you have friends who'll listen and spend time with you now." You said. "You can eat all the tart you want and not have to worry about breaking any rules for even just a second. It doesn't hurt to have fun once in a while."

"That's why, Riddle-san doesn't need to be the best of the best. You don't even have to listen to your mother if you, yourself knew how unreasonable her words are. You are your own person, after all." Riddle looked up at you and you couldn't help but to think of him as a little puppy, learning how to do his first trick for the first time. However, you blinked and covered your mouth when you realized that you just said something extremely rude in regards to his mother. "A-Ah! T-That's not to bad-mouth your mother or anything! I'm sure she was trying in her own way...! I think…?"

A tinge of awkwardness decorated your features as you sat properly on your seat, scratching the back of your head. "...But the point is...I just don't see why Riddle-san needs to be the best at everything. You're already fine the way you are." You said, looking down as you begin to feel really embarrassed of what you're saying. "Honestly, if you were my son, I'd be the proudest mother in the whole world~! No doubt about it!"

Widening his eyes at what you said, Riddle couldn't help but look down as different kinds of emotions swirling inside of him. His mouth twitched but he didn’t know whether to smile or to frown, he's incredibly indecisive right now. But his eyes did soften though, your last words had echoed over and over again inside his head, blocking out every other words that came after. He felt all warmed up on the inside that he clutched his chest tight and didn't seem to hear you say "Just kidding~" in a playful manner. You'll be the proudest mother you said, an actual proud mother who can be proud of someone like him.

"...Honestly, it would've been nice if you were indeed my mother in the first place..." He whispered with a strained, quavering voice, his hand clenching harder on his chest. How laughable, he's older than you and yet, he could actually feel himself at ease, consulting you like this.

"Eh...? Eh!? Riddle-san!?" You were about question him, trying to process if what you heard was correct. However, you quickly shot up from surprise in your seat as you looked at the red-haired's expression, a few drops of glistening tears began to overflow from his eyes. "W-Why are you crying...!? Aah, I'm sorry, I-I was joking...! I'm not gonna do it again, okay-"

"Hey..." Before you could say any more, you flinched as Riddle grabbed your hand, shutting you up completely. You fell into silence as he slowly brought your hand up on top of his head, your heart beating in anticipation. "Could you do it again...? Please?"

You felt your face heating up, not knowing how to process this turn of events. It was supposed to be a joke, an example to strengthen a point that you were trying to make. Still, Riddle seemed to have taken it seriously and you couldn't help but to feel a little sympathetic. It just proves that this child had been hungry, yearning for some needed motherly affection that he never got as a child. So desperate in fact, that he's willing to believe that silly little statement of yours.

Your eyes softened as you went closer to him and began to stroke his hair as gently as you could. You watched him sniffle, his shoulders shaking slightly as he tries to keep his cries at a minimum. "...You're still in pain, aren't you? You poor thing..." You said with a smile, purposely making your voice as soft as possible to give him the sense of comfort. "There, there...It'll be alright. Everything's going to be alright."

With that, Riddle couldn't help himself anymore and wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you closer. Sitting on his little throne, he buried his face on your stomach, his tears staining your uniform but you didn't mind. All you could really do was to continue stroking his hair and welcomed his head in an embrace. "...Thank you for enduring everything all this time, you've been such a good boy." You comforted, closing your eyes and Riddle could just melt against you. "But we're here now, you don't have to worry anymore. From now on, you'll never feel lonely again."

"You've done an excellent job, Riddle. I'm so proud."

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

Continue the Spice~?

Yume had to force herself to buy a new laptop because she knew she wouldn’t be able to survive Online Class without one (c" ತ,_ತ) I’m quite a stranger to electronics really, but I’m learning as I go, but I still miss my old laptop aaaa- （；＿；）

BUT NEVERMIND THAT!

Yume had reach 500+ followers! That many Darlings!? Isn’t it crazy!? (´；Д；`) To think this blog could actually reach that much lol Yume just wanted to release some hornii \(//∇//)\ Thank you very much, Sweethearts~! My fellow Hornii people ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

...I’m excited for the next few Sinfics (΄◉◞౪◟◉｀)

[rqnvindr]

restless (1.5k followers special)

pairing: iwaizumi hajime x fem!reader

genre: fluff

word count: 1.4k

sypnosis: you don’t get sick that often. but when you do, your best friend, hajime has to put up with you acting like a baby. and being void of any inhibitions in your sleepy state leads to confessions of all sorts...

a/n: thank you guys so much for 1.5k! i originally planned to post this for my 1k followers special, but i sort of only gained inspiration to write it now, which all worked out because i hit another milestone ! thank you guys for all of the support and love, and for patiently waiting for this long overdue scenario ! 

--

“hajime~my soup is cold!” you screech, scrunching your nose as you drink the now stale liquid. iwaizumi face palms before reaching over to your tray to retrieve the bowl, rolling his eyes when you pout up at him as he fights the urge to give into you without any reprimanding. 

“if you had just drank it instead of complaining about how much you hated it you wouldn’t have this problem!” he scolds, clicking his tongue when you stick yours out at him. 

you throw the blankets over your head, burying yourself into your bedsheets as iwaizumi heads back to the kitchen to warm up your soup. he was your rock, but you seldom put him through this much. however, your sickness rewired your brain, making it harder for you to process the childishness of your demands and resort to mostly incomprehensible sighs and groans for communication. 

iwaizumi comes back with the now steaming bowl, stirring it gently to cool it down. 

“you have to drink it while it’s still hot.” you giggle, making him huff. “what’s so funny?”

“nothing, you just kind of sound like a mom.” iwaizumi raises an eyebrow at your endless giggles, wondering how you went from being whiny to a laughing mess from a simple statement that was meant to help you. 

“whatever, just drink up.” you tug at his sleeve before he could leave your side, pouting up at him. oh no not that face, he thinks to himself. 

“hajime, feed me.” you say in the most pleading voice that iwaizumi could not resist coming from you, as much as he hated to admit it. he sighs, pulling up your desk chair next to the bed. considering that this was the first time you’d been under the weather in a long while, it could potentially be more serious than it looks and he would hate to make you even more uncomfortable than you were already feeling. 

iwaizumi still has a little bit of trouble getting you to finish your soup even after complying to your command. he has to deal with you turning away from the spoon and doing more talking than eating. 

the hassle took a number on both of you, thought it seemed to have more of an effect on your already fatigued state, judging from the way you knocked out. iwaizumi stays in your room in case you woke up and needed anything else, keeping himself occupied with studying in the meantime. 

your soft breaths are rather soothing for him, relaxing him well enough to focus on his reading material. and when he turns around briefly to examine your sleeping face, his heart melts. you looked so peaceful it was hard to believe that you were quarreling with him earlier. iwaizumi chuckles as he plays back the moment in his head. as much as you annoyed him, he couldn’t have been happier to be the one to take care of you. 

in fact, iwaizumi often thought about what it would be like to be there for you, as more than a friend. when you called him this morning, voice hoarse and sniffling every five seconds, he thought about how you could’ve contacted anybody, oikawa, one of your girl friends, a whole list of people other than him. but like always, you came back to him. it was only natural that he’d wonder where these favors would take your guys’ relationship. 

iwaizumi is about to go get a glass of water until a soft murmur stops him.“i’d be so lonely without you...” your voice is so soft that he thinks his ears are failing him at first. 

“(y/n)?” iwaizumi calls for you, standing over your limp figure. 

“i know it must be hard to always deal with oikawa, and then there’s me.” you whisper. “i feel so bad, but you’re the most reliable friend i’ve ever had, and there’s no one who understands me like you do.” 

iwaizumi’s confused. were you talking in your sleep or giving a drowsy monologue, thinking that you were still dreaming as you talked to him?

he rubs the back of his neck, looking everywhere around the room but at you. “no, don’t feel bad, you know i’ll always be here for you, right?” ugh why is it so hard to reassure her about how much i care?

his test proves that you were awake when you giggle. “yeah. like how you always insist on walking me home even though i live close to campus. or how you saved me from almost dating someone who wasn’t good for me. you’re so protective~just like a knight in shining armor.” 

iwaizumi’s face burns up from the title. he didn’t want to force anything out of you, but his curiosity was starting to get the better of him. he also couldn’t deny how cute you looked hazily sputtering out your inner thoughts about him. maybe there was a chance that you felt the same way as he did...

he smiles, wiping the sweat that had formed on your forehead with a spare towel. “i’m glad you’re thankful for me. i’m just as thankful for you, but you really need to get some rest.”

iwaizumi starts walking away, but you grab his wrist. “no, please stay with me and hold my hand.” 

“i’m not leaving you, (y/n), i’m just going to the kitchen.” the warmth of your hand makes his palms sweat, both from your body heat and touch itself. 

“will you hold my hand when you get back?” you ask, making him sigh. 

“yes, i will. i’ll hold your hand for as long as you want, okay?” iwaizumi intended to say that more sarcastically, but he realized it came out differently when you squealed in response. 

--

your eyes slowly flutter open a couple hours later. you look down to see iwaizumi’s hand in yours, as he lies face down on the side of your bed. 

it takes a full minute to process that you’re actually holding hands with your best friend. you’d been dreaming about this for a while, but were wondering what led to this position. did you pass out and make him worry? did he just want to secretly show affection while you were unconscious? 

you feel relieved when he wakes up shortly after before your mind runs too wild. 

“hajime? what’s wrong? am i hurt?” you ask, slowly moving your hand away from his. iwaizumi’s glad that you don’t question the hand holding upfront, hoping to ease into that subject later.

“you were sick,” he replies with a yawn. “but you sound a lot better now, i think the nap helped.” 

you hum at his words. “i still have some body aches. but i am definitely feeling better.”

“that’s good.” iwaizumi clears his throat and awkward silence takes it’s place in the room. 

“but, why were we holding hands?” your cheeks warm up upon asking the inevitable question. 

iwaizumi sheepishly scratches his shoulder. “well, uh, you were a bit restless earlier and the only way for you to fall asleep was for me to hold your hand.” he says that fast, and you give him a questioning look. 

“what do you mean i was restless? just tell me the truth hajime, i won’t get mad.”

iwaizumi inhales deeply. “alright, you were a little bit drowsy and asked me to hold your hand when i tried to leave the room. you also said stuff about me being your ‘knight in shining armor’, and how no one else understands you like me and-”

“okay okay, stop i get it.” you raise your palm at him. 

“are you...embarrassed?” 

you lightly smack his arm. “of course i am! gah, and the fact that you heard everything just makes it even more, ugh!”

“i mean, if oikawa, mattsun or makki had heard you i’m sure they’d tell me anyway.” iwaizumi smirks, resulting in a glare from you. 

after a few seconds of trying to sting him with your stare, you break the silence. “you seem rather amused by my accidental confession, though.”

“not just amused. i’m happy.” iwaizumi holds out his hand for you to take, to which you accept, interlocking your fingers with his. 

you let out a chuckle. “well then, i’ll be sure to thank my sickness for giving me more courage than i would’ve ever had normally.” you get out of the covers and pull him in for a hug. he wraps his arms around you tightly, showing you that he’s never going to let you go. 

[kurt-nightcrawler]

destress

Scott Summers x Female Reader

request: OMG, I love your page so much. It’s so pretty and beyond beautifully thought out. 💕 i was wondering if I could please request a Scott Summers x reader. Something where she helps Scott adjust to everything when he first arrives and she’s always checking up on him to make sure it’s all good, they become quick best friends and on one of the nights where he’s most stressed, she takes him out to get his mind off of things. Thank you for your time and consideration! 🥰♥️

a/n: I am so sorry this request took so long! I am one of the slowest writers in history, I am so sorry! I hope you enjoy it

Word Count: 3.4k

 Being the new kid sucked, everyone knew this. Even if you ended up popular as the new kid it sucked.

It was even worse if you had laser eyes that could kill people, and you had to wear sunglasses all the time. 

That’s how it was for Scott Summers, younger brother of Alex Summers. Scott was a mess— he just moved from Ohio to Xavier’s in New York, and he barely knew anything about it! His brother didn’t say much to him about Xavier’s— hell he wasn’t even around much. When he was though, he tried to spend time with Scott and be a good big brother, make his parents proud and crap. 

So when Scott got a mutation and destroyed the boy’s bathroom at his school, Alex picked him up and took him to New York.

-

Scott’s first night was rather… odd. He couldn’t see, and he bumped into some weird chick who could read minds. Not to mention the building shook during the night. 

Scott didn’t have a roommate, so he had no one to ask questions. No one to help him around the building. No one to be his friend. 

Okay, he wasn’t that lonely. He didn’t need a roommate to make friends at school. He just needed to get out. Except he couldn’t see.

-

The next day he was taken outside by Dr. McCoy. 

“I made you some glasses… They should help you reflect the beam and trap them in the ruby quartz, so you can see.”

Scott didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he was desperate. To see again would be a goddamn miracle. 

He slipped them on and opened his eyes. He saw the sky… the clouds… the trees— it was breathtaking. How he took everything for granted! He was a fool.

“Thank you, Professor. Thank you!” Everything was red in some way, shape, or form, but he couldn’t care less about that. He could see and that was the most important thing.

“I’m not a professor…” Hank mumbled. “Yeah, no, of course. Of course. I’m glad they worked.” 

“Dr. McCoy! Alex said you needed me.” 

Scott looked at her. She had all normal features, so her mutation had to be something mental or along those lines. 

“Did he say what for?” 

She didn’t confirm or deny his question. “He said you’d be outside with Scott and I had to help him out since he was new and stuff.” 

Does she think I’m a charity project? Does Alex Think I’m that dependent? “You don’t have to do that.”

“Uh, I kinda do… It’s either me or Jubilee at the moment, and trust me, Jubilee is not the match for you. You pissed her best friend off so now she kinda hates you.” 

“I’m sorry?” What did he even do? Was Jubilee’s friend the girl Scott ran into yesterday? 

“Jean Grey, you bumped into her yesterday. She’s over there by the tree.” (Y/N) motioned to the tree. 

“Oh.” Scott felt sheepish. He didn’t mean to snap at her. He just wasn’t in the best of mindsets. Also, he really didn’t want any enemies at his new school.

“We can go talk to her if you want. I’m sure she won’t be mad, just tell her it was a misunderstanding.” 

“You sure?” 

“Yeah, come on,” (Y/N) made her way over to the tree and Scott followed.

“Hey, Jean.”

“Hey (Y/N).” She didn’t look up from her schoolwork. “Scott.”

“Hi. Hi, um… look I wanted to apologize—“

A group of smaller kids was standing a ways away from the tree, but near enough, so they could be heard. 

“Look, it’s her!” 

“Careful she might cause an earthquake!” 

“She’s dangerous.”

Scott saw the kids and thought they were afraid of him and his eyes, as he scared a couple of people yesterday. “Hey! It’s okay now. I got special glasses. I can see.” 

“It’s not you, they’re afraid of,” Jean stated. 

(Y/N) tried to hide her eye roll. “It’s not that bad. They’re little, they’re scared of everyone.” 

“What are you guys talking about?” Scott asked. “Wait… last night…”

Jean frowned, “Yep, that was me.”

“You made the building shake.” 

Jean nodded, “you’re not the biggest freak in school.” 

(Y/N) looked between the two. Did Jean have a crush on Scott already? He’d only been at Xavier’s for two days!

“Guess not… Um look, about yesterday—“

“It’s fine. I get it.” She waved him off.  “When your mutation first happens it’s a lot of stress and stuff.”

“Yeah but, I was a dick. I was wondering if we could start over?” 

Jean was taken back by Scott’s request. She never thought he’d apologize. 

“Oh, yeah. Of course, we can.” They shook hands and exchanged names. 

“And I’m (Y/N).”

“Um…” 

“(Y/N), we know that…” Jean stated. 

“Yeah, well I wanted to feel included.” 

“Okay.”

-

Scott, you had decided, was going to be so much fun. He knew his way around the mall and wasn’t half bad at Pac-Man. He liked Star Wars and cherry slushies, however, he could only see red due to his glasses, so you had to tell him which was cherry. 

Once you got back to the mansion… it was gone.

Everyone was standing out front, but as soon as you arrived it blew up and everyone was outside in the blink of an eye. 

Scott pulled over and jumped out of the car, running and screaming for his brother. 

“I got everyone.” A guy decked out in silver leather said. Scott glared at him. 

“Where’s my brother?” 

“I dunno man—“ 

“WHERE IS HE?” You had to hold Scott back from hurting the silver man. “No, no. No, no… No! NO!” 

Jean tried to soothe him with her telepathic abilities, but it didn’t do much, it just got him to shut up. You couldn’t even bask in the silence, as a military helicopter landed on the campus grounds. 

“Guys, hide!” Jubilee instructed. You all ran over and hid behind a hunk of stone wall. 

“Why are we—“

“Shh!” Jubilee put her hand over your mouth. The helicopter shot a sound wave of some sort, causing everyone closest to it to get knocked out. A man in military gear shouted at soldiers to collect certain people. He only wanted adults and you could only recognize one of them— Hank McCoy. 

-

Kurt got you all into the helicopter, but couldn’t get you out. You thought you were going to die, but that wasn’t the thing on everyone’s minds. 

Scott was grieving over his brother whom he presumed dead. He was crying silent tears. 

Comfort him. Jean urged you. You weren’t sure how, or if that’s what he needed, but you had no other options. 

You placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to show support and in return he hugged you tightly, still crying. You were slightly taken aback at first, but you returned the hug, rubbing his back to try and calm him. 

“He was supposed to do great things… Do something with his life. He shouldn’t have… He didn’t deserve to die!” 

“That’s not what he thought. He thought you were going to do great things, make something of yourself. Why do you think he brought you here?”

He wiped his nose with his sleeve, “How do you know that?” 

“Scott, he told me. He told Hank and Hank said I was the best kid to show you around, and then Alex went on and on about everything great about you and how smart and talented you were and how proud he was of you. He was so proud of you.” 

Scott wiped his tears away and nodded, trying to stop crying and pull himself together for whatever would happen next in the helicopter. 

-

Then Apocalypse happened. The fight with Apocalypse, where you were told to go batshit crazy with your mutations and fight. You felt alive, even with the weight of the world resting on you winning. 

There was so much happening, you couldn’t keep track of anyone but yourself. You had gotten hit badly a few times, but you had to trudge through. 

Jean and Xavier defeated Apocalypse with their powers— it was cool what Jean did. Scary, but cool. They both nearly passed out due to the strain it took on them. 

You ended up back at the pile of rock left of the mansion, most of the students in a state of panic, but all in awe when seeing everyone in the armor, mutations on full display. 

You didn’t want to get Scott’s hopes up, but you couldn’t find Alex, no matter what you did. He had to be dead, under the rock somewhere. 

You held his hand, giving it a caring squeeze. “I’m sorry.” 

“I’ll have to tell my parents once Jean and Magento finish rebuilding the mansion.” 

“Yeah…” 

-

The mansion was almost finished, and there was no sign of Alex. You and Scott had given up hope, but for some reason, Hank persisted. “He can’t… He can’t be dead! This wasn’t supposed to happen!” 

And then you realized Hank wasn’t completely crazy after all. 

A body was trapped under the basement when Jean and Erik were rebuilding. Everyone thought it was Alex. It was Alex, but you weren’t sure if he was alive. 

“He’s unconscious, but he’s alive.” 

Scott jumped up and hugged Hank, thanking him for everything and for finding Alex. 

“He means a lot to us both. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him.” 

Obviously, an unconscious mind takes time to wake up, and Scott wasn’t allowed to stay at Alex’s side all day. Charles made sure he knew that wasn’t allowed, and he used you to keep track and make sure he wasn’t sneaking down at odd hours of the night or skipping class to see him. 

You offered to help Scott set up his room, mostly because you didn’t care much about yours for the time being. 

“You have a lot of old rock albums.” You stated while placing them all on his bookshelf.

“Most of them were Alex’s.” 

“That’s cool. Did he give you all his old stuff?” 

“Uh, yeah. Most of it, anyway. I have some of his old clothes— leather jackets and stuff, mostly.” 

“Oh, that’s really cool. I guess you guys were close.” 

He nodded, “Yeah, close as we could get, anyway, with the large age gap and all. I really care about him.” 

Peter, Scott’s new roommate and the silver guy who saved everyone from the mansion explosion, came in with some of his own stuff. 

“Hey, guys.” 

“Hi, Pete.” You greeted back. 

“Look, Scott—“

“It’s okay. I know what you’re going to say.” 

“No,” Peter shook his head, “I feel awful about it. Forgetting your brother like that. I’m so sorry. If it were me and someone forgot my sisters in a situation like that, I’d get super angry.”

Scott shrugged, “It’s okay. You got everyone else though— and that’s a lot of people.” 

“Alright… Friends?” He held out his hand for Scott to shake. 

“Friends.” 

They shook on it, and you tried not to laugh at how cheesy the motion was, but you still let out a comment. 

“You’re roommates. You kinda have to be friends.” 

“Huh, I guess so,” Peter mused. 

-

Alex woke up almost two months after the Apocalypse battle. You and Scott were the first to run down and see him. He was in rough condition, but he was alive nonetheless.

“Hey, Scott.” Alex croaked out.

Scott hugged him tightly, “You’re so stupid! I was so worried! Hank was worried, we all freaked out— never do that again.” 

“You don’t have to worry about me. It’s supposed to be the other way around.”

“You almost died! Of course, I’m going to worry about you.”

Alex mumbled something back, but you didn’t hear it.

Hank was there too, contributing to the conversation until Xavier came down and told you all to leave Alex alone so he could rest. 

-

As time went on, you kept an eye on Scott. You were in the same friend group, so that was inevitable. 

You got extremely close— closer than almost anyone else in the group, minus Jubilee and Jean. You told each other about your worries, secrets, past troubles, and your crushes. Scott, despite his persona of a douchebag with sunglasses, or token white guy in an action film, was sweet and empathetic, and smart. He took two AP classes and spent more time training than anyone else. 

“I just want to get control of my mutation and throw better punches.”

“I know. Just don’t overwork yourself.” 

He always said, “Don’t worry about me. I won’t.” But you always worried. He was probably your best friend at the mansion, of course, you’d worry!

-

Winter break came closer and closer with every passing day, which meant midterms were right around the corner. 

Everyone was stressed— downing immortal amounts of caffeine, watching the sunrise and set every day, and rereading notes until their brains exploded. 

Scott was not excused from this, and the night before his first final he was up way past any reasonable hours, studying. 

There was a somewhat-quiet knock on the door, and Scott barely acknowledged it. 

“Hey, dork.”

“Can’t talk.”

You huffed, “You’re no fun.” 

“Sorry, but I really cannot fail any finals.” 

“Scotty, you’ve been studying every second for the past month… C’mon…” You whined.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. You grinned, knowing you’d won. 

“Come on, 7/11 is open late. You can get some food and water. Relax from all this stress… Please?” 

Scott closed his book and got up out of his chair. “Fine.”

“Yes!” You cheered. 

“Let me grab my jacket.” 

You were thrilled you got Scott away from his books for a little bit. You needed a break and it felt like you hadn’t seen him as much as usual. 

-

You talked the whole walk down to the garage. Scott just listened. He liked listening to you speak— about your day, petty drama with your friends, plus anything and everything in between— Scott likes the sound of your voice, and even if you didn’t know what you were saying, it sounded right. Or it did to him, anyway. 

And that was a part of having a best friend, right? 

Scott couldn’t tell, but he thought so. He’d never been this close with a friend before, and he had also never had a real crush on anyone before. 

Crush? I don’t have a crush on, (Y/N). We’re just close. She’s my best friend…

But how many times had that cliche been fulfilled? 

“Scotty?” No response. (Y/N), also couldn’t read his face due to the sunglasses, so she really didn’t know what he was thinking. 

“Scott?” 

“What?”

You chuckled a little, “You zoned out there, buddy.” 

“Oh…” His cheeks were tinted red. 

“You, okay?”

He nodded, picking out keys to one of the cars.

“It’s my turn to drive!” You told him. 

“Yeah, but it’s my turn to pick out the car,” He retorted. 

You rolled your eyes as he tossed you the keys and you unlocked the car. 

Scott climbed into the passenger seat and immediately turned on the radio. “So where are we going?”

“7/11. I want a slushie. Plus—“ You glanced at the clock for a moment. “—It’s the only place open.” 

Scott hummed in agreement. 

You drove in silence for a little bit until you caught Scott staring at you.

 He quickly looked away.  

“Is there something on my face?” 

“No.” He was curt with his answer.

“Why were you looking at me then?” 

“I’ve missed you…” 

You smiled. “I’ve missed you too, Sike.”

 You pulled up to the gas station. It was well lit, considering the late hour it was. There were only two or three cars in total parked there. 

“I’m gonna get some gas first,” You told Scott as you turned off the car. 

He stood there and waited for you. 

“What’s Mystique said about our next mission?” 

Scott sighed a little, “A lot… there’s a chance we’re going to Germany to bust up the mutant fighting ring, but nothing’s for certain.” 

You put the gas pump back in it’s holding spot. “Really? That’s pretty big…” 

“Yeah, but, we fought Apocalypse, so—“ 

“Not everything has to compare. Sure, we don’t have to go local, but we’re allowed to not stop every big bad. It’s just not physically possible.” You held the door open for him. 

“Thanks— It’s our responsibility. If we don’t do it, who will?”

You browsed the snack isles, not giving him an answer. Scott stood there, waiting for one, but knowing you probably couldn’t give it. 

“Oh! Um, look— you’re one person, Scotty, and we’re a team of like, 12 people. What we accomplish is huge! But we won’t win every battle. Losing sucks, I know, but you can’t stress yourself out over it…”

“I just don’t want to regret anything.” He finally picked out a bag of chips. They were plain as could be. 

“I get that, but you can’t spend your whole life doting on ‘what if’s’.” 

You put your items on the counter to be rung up. You pulled your card out of your pocket, but Scott stopped you.

“Here, I got it.” 

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it’s only a couple of dollars.” He handed his card to the cashier. 

“Do you guys need a bag?”

“No, we’re good. Thank you though.” You grabbed your drink and snacks and bid the cashier goodnight. Scott did the same.

“So, now what?” Scott asked once he got in the car.

“Let’s just eat in the car. It’s a change of scenery from the mansion.”

“(Y/N), this isn’t a change of scenery, this is a murder scene!” 

You laughed, “It’s not dark enough for that!” 

Scott huffed.

“Look, if you really wanna die, I can drive us to the park, or Target parking lot.” 

“No, no,” Scott said in between sips of his slushie. “This is fine— perfect actually.” 

You were smug. 

You ate your food in silence for a little bit, exchanging weird glances with Scott. 

“What?” You asked, laughing out of confusion. 

“You’re really pretty,” Scott admitted.

“Pfft…” You scoffed.

“I mean it… You’re a great friend too…” 

“Glad to know we’re best friends cause you think I’m hot,” You joked.

Scott rolled his eyes, knowing you’d never accept the compliment and it was stupid of him to say.

“You know who else is good looking?” You asked. 

“Who?” “Rob Lowe.” 

“From The Outsiders?” Scott asked in disbelief. 

“Mhmm.” You nodded. Scott chuckled. 

“Hey! You had a crush on Sara Anne from third hour for the longest time. You have no room to judge.”

“Yeah, and then we went on a date and I got over it… I also had a crush on Jean—” 

You nodded, and Scott swiped his drink back. “Yeah, but she’s dating Ororo…”

“Speaking of boys…” You laughed at Scott’s poor attempt to change the subject. “You went out with Warren for two months.”

“What’s wrong with Warren?” You asked defensively.

“Nothing! It was just weird, only two months.” 

“I told you.” Scott shook his head. “No? I thought I did. Well, anyway— He was like actually kind of into Jean, and like subconsciously in love with his childhood best friend… Her name was Candy South, I think?”

“Candy Southern?” Scott asked, leaning his chip bag over to you. You took a handful and set it on the center console.

“Yeah! That’s her name.”

“They’re dating right now, she’s nice.”

“Good for him.” 

-

You drove back to the mansion around midnight. You went up to your rooms quietly, trying not to wake anyone up and get caught sneaking in. 

“I’m sorry for being so busy lately.” 

You offered a sad smile, “Not your fault, Scotty.”

“We could hang out this weekend? See what’s at the movie theatre?”

“It’s a date!”

Scott’s mouth gaped open. Your eyes widened in shock. Why did I say that? 

“Uh… It’s not like a date date, but like we’re two people, going to the movies alone—”

“It can be a date if you want.” 

Your mind went blank. Surely you misheard him. 

“Uh, what?”

“I just meant, um, we could— never mind—”

“Do you want it to be a date?” You tried sounding confident in your words, but you were nervous.

“I don’t wanna ruin our friendship…” Scott looked down, avoiding your gaze. 

“Scotty, it’s okay.” 

He nodded, a little unsure.

“It’s a date.” 

“Yeah,” He decided.  “It’s a date.” 

Your face moved forward, lips slightly puckered. You placed a kiss on his cheek. Scott’s face turned red like a tomato. 

“See ya later, Scotty.”

[huihuiheart]

Goretober D17: Trapped - Yandere! Jimin

Pairing: Yandere! Jimin x Gender Neutral Reader - You’re engaged

Warnings: Yandere themes, blood, degradation, injury, aggression, mildly suggestive themes, violence, passing out.

Word Count: 1,674 

You should have known he’d be too good to be true. Your fiancé had been perfect up to this point, so perfect that it almost came off that he was hiding something about himself. You’d had no proof though, besides the nagging feeling in your gut and the bit of jealousy that would flare up on Jimin’s end whenever you two went out someplace where other’s eyes would devour your form. You didn’t think too much of that though considering you sometimes found Jimin doubting his appearance and needing reassurance. Simply assuming his jealous moments had to do with that rearing it’s ugly head again. At least you dismissed it as such until any more evidence of his dark side would appear. 

The time for that came when Jimin had planned a get away for the two of you to celebrate your recent engagement. It didn’t take much for him to convince you, or rather, guilt trip you into agreeing. Complaining over the fact that you were always at work and never with him anymore. That some time alone in a cozy cabin in the woods would be a perfect thing for you two, spending time together away from all the distractions. Spending cold nights cuddled up together by the fire, some nights entirely innocent, others leading to less innocent means of warmth. You admitted the fact that it was very appealing and easily agreed, even giving in to Jimin’s pleas to pack for you, so you could relax more leading up to the trip. 

The first red flag showing up when you arrived and a lot of your photos from home were already hung up decorating the walls, under the pretense of what Jimin called making the place homey. The next warning sign was the way he’d packed for you, all the items that made you feel most comfortable staying in and then all his favorites on you, which was never anything that showed too much off. The largest red flag you noticed that day though, was the security. Jimin said it was because of the bears. Of course that would explain why the windows were barred and security cameras watching every entrance way from the inside as well as outside. Yet still you gave Jimin the benefit of the doubt, after all he simply booked the place, right? Little did you know he’d had it built, planning up to this very moment. Special for you and him, so he’d never have to worry about anyone stealing you away.

“Angel I have an idea.” Jimin called from the kitchen on what was went to be the last day the first week of your get away, things going smoothly so far and easing a lot of you initial concerns about the situation. 

“Yeah? And what’s that? An activity for us to do?” You question looking up from your book as he walking in again, a bright smile filling his face.

“Of sorts yeah. “ Jimin nods and you raise a brow waiting for him to continue, “We should elope here! I can literally call some to do it and we can take the pictures out back, it’d be beautiful don’t you think?”

“Min love, as amazing as that would be. We have outfits back home and everyone is waiting for a big event and so on.” You sigh softly putting your book down as he pouts at you, even as he crawls into your opened arms.

“I know angel, but it’s still a year away. I don’t want to wait that long. I want you to be mine already.” Jimin’s cheeks puff as he gives a little agitated huff.

“I am yours love, even if we aren’t married yet.” You assure him as he lays against your chest, fingers running through his hair. Jimin practically purring in contentment, pleased with what you said and the affections you’re giving him.

Perhaps it was moments like those that kept you from seeing the dark side of him, the side hidden even still when he “convinced” you to extend the two week get away a third week. The side you refused to believe when he handed you a note from your boss saying you were suddenly fired without explanation and that you should just live in this lone little cabin in the woods. The one that seemed more like a cozy prison than a little wooded sanctuary that one would retreat to. For three months you just ignored the lingering dark side Jimin had, until he returned home from work one day as a family member drove up. From inside you could hear and see the screams until Jimin snapped and punched them, sending the terrified person rushing home. Even when you asked about it he only brushed you off saying you were delusional and nothing was wrong, he’d never hurt anyone. Lying straight to your face as his knuckles bruised up from the punch he threw. Over the next month things started disappearing, any means of communication. Your cabin didn’t even have a mailbox for you to send or receive letters from. Jimin denying any knowledge about any of your devices or access to the outside going missing. Yet, he still brought you new books, art supplies, gardening stuff, anything to keep you occupied while he was off working. Things were alright like that too. For another month anyways, until you lost your mind alone in the silence all day just for Jimin to come home and act like this was how normal life was supposed to be like. Acting like he was completely justified in shutting you off from your old home, life, and anyone other than him. 

Eventually you couldn’t take it any longer and decided that you had to get out, even if just to get to the city for a day. Though you knew it was more than likely you’d go to the home of some friend or family member and stay with them until you decided what you wanted to do. So an hour after Jimin left for work, just to be safe in case he ended up coming back you decided to slip out the back door. The one he left unlocked in case you wanted to go into the fenced yard he had for you and garden or sniff the flowers or anything. You knew the fence was electric, but had seen Jimin work on it before, going to the box, you switched it off, pulling some wire just to be safe. Before climbing over the fence, if Jimin looked over the tapes of your escape and managed to find you, you knew for a certainty you’d be more than screwed. So far things were going smoothly though, now you just had to climb the fence and find a way to the city, which you had a feeling would be a rather long walk. Your walk didn’t last long though as a sudden sharp pain clamped down on your leg only 20 minutes into your journey, wet smearing and dripping along where the pain sprouted from a shrill scream leaving your lips to echo through the forest. Looking down through glassy eyes you notice a bear trap, latched around your lower leg, it having been hidden among the leaves. You lean back against a nearby tree slowly working you way to sit and trying to will away tears despite the pain, so you could read the directions engraved on the trap about opening it. It’s no use though as blood quickly stains your jeans and tears stream down your face, the loss of blood making you light headed until you fall to the side unconscious. When you regain consciousness it’s to the dim light remaining from the sunset. Jimin sitting across from you leaning against another tree, looking like he’s barely giving you any mind. Only looking up at you when he hears a pained groan.

“Well....welcome back angel. You manage to learn anything besides how to disappoint me?” Jimin’s question is sharp, in hopes of stinging at your emotions. You can’t seem to care about that with the throbbing in your leg though, the blood having dried by this point and making it even more difficult to move. Fresh tears stream down your face as you look at Jimin.

“P-Please Minnie. I-I didn’t mean it. I-I just missed seeing the city is all. I-I was going to come back I swear.”  You try to convince him and Jimin only shushes you softly, moving to stroke over your hair and gently wipe away tears.

“I told you the world was a dangerous place angel. Especially far too dangerous for you.” Jimin’s voice has softened, but something about it still puts you on edge.

“I-I’m sorry Minnie, love. I-I didn’t realize how dangerous. I-I didn’t know there were traps out here.” You tense up when Jimin gives a dark chuckle at your words. Him sitting you against the tree again instead of comforting you any longer.

“Oh angel....the traps aren’t the danger. It’s what the traps are out here for.” Jimin tsks softly in disappointment, before examining your leg in the trap, “ After all...who do you think set them?”

You heart stops for a moment at his words, it made perfect logical sense. There was no one else out here and these weren’t old traps, it could only have been Jimin who had set them up. You’re jarred back to reality though as Jimin yanks open the trap and frees your leg.

“Here’s the deal though angel. It seems you’ve misbehaved and still not entirely learned.” Jimin runs a hand through his hair sighing softly, before standing and offering you no assistance. 

“So the only way you’ll be sleeping in a warm home tonight is if you can get yourself there on your own. I’ll be waiting for you if you make it. Otherwise...you better be prepared to rough it out here tonight with what those traps were really intended for and I’ll come get you in the morning.”

[watchathon]

Stitch Day Special: Lilo & Stitch

In case you’re finding this post just by browsing the tags I’ve used for this post, this is the Watch-a-Thon, a blog where I’m hoping to watch an episode of a show every one-to-two days, with a short blog post where I give my thoughts on what I’ve just seen. Each new point starts with a hyphen and a bolded first word.

- Like so. 

But today? Well, today I’ve got an extra-special post in the wings about a movie, one of my favorite Disney movies, starring my absolute favorite Disney character: Lilo & Stitch!

- I like the variation on the Disney logo. That is the kind of stuff that they just couldn’t do with their new big fancy CGI logo. 

- No clue why Jumba tried to deny that he created an experiment. I don’t much mind since it led to a funny joke, but c’mon, evil genius, you should be smart enough to plead guilty.

- “I would never, ever... make more than one.” *glances meaningfully in the direction of the series*

- “What is that monstrosity...?” He’s a cute widdle fluffball, that’s what he is!

- “Meega nala kweesta!” Canonically, this translates to “I want to destroy”, but that seems a little lukewarm for the reaction he got. Maybe a looser translation is in order...

There could be an entire aristocrats joke in those three words. The whole script to Batman v Superman. The opening notes to “Never Gonna Give You Up”...

Or maybe just “bitch”.

- Blood work is a lot different in space...

- Weird to imagine given the rest of the franchise, but Gantu was once a respected captain of the galactic federation.

- It’s easy to perceive Stitch as a dumb brute, but he’s pretty smart. He connected the dots all on his own, within minutes of his imprisonment, that if the guns are locked onto his DNA, he can use his saliva to trick them. Jumba wasn’t kidding when he boasted of his experiment’s intelligence.

- And not only was Gantu a captain, Pleakley was an expert on the planet Earth. Weird, innit...?

- “Are [humans] intelligent?” “No.” An exchange that only hurts more with every year.

- Love the implication that Pleakley was just suggesting several different relatives to assist with the capture of Stitch from when they were on the deck up until they got to the prison where Jumba was held.

- Now this is what we (or rather TVTropes) call an establishing character moment. A fish floats by holding a sandwich in its mouth, implying (soon confirming) that Lilo was the one to give it the sandwich, before rushing to the hula practice that she was late for, stopping to take a picture of a tourist along the way.

- And then after she arrives at hula practice, she explains that she had to give Pudge the fish a peanut butter sandwich because he controls the weather.

- No clue why the other girls are disgusted by Scrump. I always wanted a Scrump when I was a little lass.

- “Did you ever kill anyone?” Lilo asks the right questions.

- Nani, y’could’ve avoided this if you’d given a thumbs up instead...

- I don’t get the glare Cobra gives Nani after Lilo says that her friends need to be punished. Voodoo isn’t a failure of parenting. In many cases, at least...

- Licking Nani, growling after her capture, Lilo already has a lot in common with Stitch.

- Lucky that Lilo is such a quirky kid. The scene (semi-)explaining why she takes pictures of tourists was deleted, but it doesn’t feel like anything is missing because she already has a few habits that just plain inexplicable, like feeding Pudge, practicing voodoo with a pickle jar...

- Lilo wishing for an angel because of how lonely she is, that’s a sad moment. But also kinda funny in hindsight after she sarcastically names Stitch’s love interest Angel in the series.

- Lord give me the undisturbed...ness, of that frog who watched Stitch get run over by several trucks and only tilted its head.

- If they thought Stitch was dead, why did they keep it in the shelter? I mean, Lilo would probably adopt a dead dog, but she’s the outlier.

- I like how Jumba programmed, as part of Stitch’s destructive tendencies, an urge to steal everybody’s left shoe.

- You can just about pinpoint the moment where Stitch’s heart drops at learning that he’s on an island with no major cities.

- Just occurred to me that the badness level is red, and Stitch’s evil counterparts in the series (627 and Leroy) are both red.

- Ah, David. One of the best Disney love interests, mostly because he isn’t entirely a love interest. There is a mutual attraction, but Nani just isn’t ready for that with everything going on in her life, and David respects that and is happy to be a friend.

- I like how everyone except Lilo heavily suspects that Stitch isn’t a dog. 

- Ohhh, the thought of Stitch having drank coffee. I mean, I’d love to see it, but it’d be Hell for Nani.

- Stitch looks just plain adorable with a lei.

- Well, Lilo, you did tell Stitch he should create something. And he did, he just destroyed his creation afterward.

- Pleakley is a gender-nonconforming icon.

- The first time we see Stitch doing something without even the intention of destroying anything is when he finds the book about the Ugly Duckling. It’s clear that he’s fascinated just by looking at it. And when Lilo explains the story? It resonates with him. Or, well, perhaps he wants it to resonate with him.

- I wish I had an evil koala dog that played records.

- Are we sure that “Meega nala kweesta” means “I want to destroy”? Maybe it means “I was born to dance”, ‘cause Stitch learns about dancing and in less than a minute he’s already an expert.

- I imagine this montage, or slightly earlier, would be when that deleted scene of Lilo trolling the obnoxious racist tourists originally came into play. And I like this scene, but, I do wish that scene hadn’t gotten cut. And I wish that they fully animated it and inserted it into the movie like Warner Bros did with The Iron Giant.

- Nothing cheers me up more than this scene of Stitch and his newfound family going surfing. And especially since Stitch is aquaphobic. He’s very much aware that he cannot swim, and likely wouldn’t survive if he fell off the board into the ocean. But even he eventually gets into the spirit of it, asks Lilo himself to go surfing, and enjoys a nice bonding moment with his family. And David.

- Of course Jumba and Pleakley had to ruin a perfectly sweet moment.

- And so we transition from a heartwarming wholesome moment, to a heartbreaking tearful moment. You can just see Nani holding back tears as she says that she needs to take Lilo home. 

As for Stitch, David probably didn’t even realize that Stitch could understand him when he said that Lilo and Nani had a chance until Stitch came along. But Stitch did understand, and he’s visibly hurt by the idea. He always wanted to destroy, but in this moment, he’s ashamed of how he might have destroyed Lilo’s family.

- And the Ugly Ducking metaphor comes back, when in this moment, as Stitch is coming back to a family that he fears he may have ruined, he sees a lone duck... before that duck is followed by a big family of ducklings.

- Lilo says that Stitch cries at night. So, it would seem that even before he completely learned how to be nice, Stitch wasn’t entirely emotionless.

- This whole act of the film is heart-wrenching. First Nani gets confirmation that she and Lilo will be separated, then Stitch starts to fear that he may have caused it. Then because of that? Stitch leaves, taking only the Ugly Duckling book with him. And he can only see in himself the page of the Duckling, lost and crying.

- Then Jumba tells Stitch, who’s already in a bad place emotionally, that he was made to destroy, has no family, and could never have one.

- I don’t want to think about what happened to that chainsaw.

- There’s a certain feeling that comes up in the middle of this fight scene, where you realize that a house is being destroyed, a house belonging to a family that was very much at risk of separation. And you realize that this will only hurt their case beyond any repair.

- If the past day hadn’t been bad enough, Stitch is told by his best friend Lilo that he ruined everything, and to get away.

- And so Nani really does have her sister taken away. Now, taken away by aliens is a lot different than taken away by social services. It’s worse. This way Nani knows that Lilo definitely won’t get a loving family, and Nani will definitely never see her again.

- The confusion is visible on Jumba and Pleakley when Stitch goes and comforts Nani with a quote about family. All they know about Stitch is that he was made to destroy. And then, once he’s captured, he does just about the opposite.

- “Ih.” To this day I sometimes say Ih on reflex when asked a yes-or-no question. Guess I watched this movie way too many times as a kid, huh? ...I regret nothing.

- Originally, the big red plane-looking thing was supposed to just be a plane, and it would’ve flown through a city. And it was changed because it was too soon after 9/11. But me personally, I think the big red thing is real cool, and I like it flying through the valleys.

- “Stitch is unconscious.” I like that Jumba calls Stitch by his name here. In the series, he always calls Stitch “626″ but his name is Stitch. And I like the rare occasion when that’s respected by the mad genius who created him.

- I want to believe that Stitch dodged that laser for the sake of the frog he was holding more than for his own sake. Stitch is strong enough that a few moments later, he survives an explosion of a whole truck that he’s lying on top of.

- Stitch proudly calling himself “cute and fluffy” is another thing I just love. Might be reading too much into it, but I like that he can call himself by those descriptors and still have total confidence in his ability to kick Gantu’s patookie.

- My favorite scene in the movie, and the scene I took the picture from.

Stitch corrects the Grand Councilwoman about his name. And when he’s told that he needs to go in the ship (the implication being that he’ll be punished like he was meant to be at the beginning), he doesn’t rebel or try to escape. He only politely asks that he be allowed to say goodbye.

He explains that his family is “little and broken, but still good”, both explaining it to the councilwoman and reassuring Lilo and Nani.

This is the ultimate display of how Stitch has grown. And he grew because, despite what Jumba said, Stitch could find, and did find, the one true place he belonged: With a good, loving family.

- The Grand Councilwoman is clearly remorseful that they’ll have to separate Stitch from his family, but she can’t bend the law for this one case. And she doesn’t, but it just so happens that, legally speaking, Lilo owns Stitch. And, well, what self-respecting Grand Councilwoman would steal a child’s property?

- A lot of people (including middle-school me) say that the stuff with Stitch and the aliens get in the way of the story of Lilo and Nani. I disagree. These two stories are intertwined, both about people wanting to stay with the family where they know they belong. I just couldn’t, at all, imagine one without the other.

- Now this is the kind of ending I love. It’s become common for animated movies, sequels in particular, to end on the two main characters getting separated. But here? Stitch is now a definitive part of the family, and won’t be separated from them anytime soon. Anime? What anime?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I guess I’ll be doing this on the rare occasion I cover movies...?

Anyway, this is a great movie. A modern classic. And one of very few things that doesn’t just hold up from when I was a kid, it gets better. When I was a tiny kid, I was only interested in the space aliens. When I was in my early teens, I thought the aliens were kiddy stuff. 

But nowadays, I can truly appreciate it. I can appreciate how both aspects are vital to the movie. Lilo and Stitch are both equally important. You can’t have one without the other.

And most of all, I can appreciate the story of Stitch (as well as Jumba and Pleakley) finding a family, and Lilo (as well as Nani) saving theirs from being torn apart.

Lilo & Stitch brings me to tears of both joy and sadness every time I watch it. And I guarantee I’ll be watching it many more times in the future.

...Does it still count as a Stitch Day special if I’m posting after midnight? No, probably not. I thought I’d only take two hours, then I took four and a half. Guess that means I had more thoughts than I thought I did!

[theamazingsakuma-chan]

Chapter 1: The Boy Who Dances with Ghosts And the Girl Who Believed

Prologue

This is the story of Higurashi Kagome.

Kagome was an ordinary girl, or so she claimed.

She was as normal as a girl born into a long lineage of priests could be, at least.

People had always told her that she would be someone great, someone special, and someone extraordinary...

But she decided that was something—a life, that she did not want for herself.

No. She never wanted that.

She never wanted to hear that.

Ever since she was small, she hated when people told her how special and different she was—how unlike the other children she was.

Perhaps it was because she did not want to believe that she was different.

Perhaps it was because she did not want to be looked at so strangely by the people around her.

Kagome did not believe in the supernatural, demons, spirits, or even the gods who she was supposed to serve.

She liked cute things. She loved shopping. She enjoyed giggling and gossiping with her friends.

And she dreamed of a beautiful marriage to a handsome prince...

At least—that's the person who the girl wants to be, and that's what she wants to believe...

There had always been a small inkling that she felt. There were times that her six sensed picked up on things that others could not perceive.

As she grew older, the inkling became strong vibes that called out to her.

Her friends, her classmates...they thought of her as an oddity.

On her thirteenth birthday, she abandoned her family shrine and fled all of the shadows looming over her shoulder.

From a shrine on the outskirts of Tokyo to a small house in a quiet neighborhood in the inner-city, Kagome moved. Although she was only thirteen years old, she was now living alone. Tomorrow would be a fresh start—the beginning of her new life.

The lone girl focused a stare down at her shopping list. Her blue eyes read over the contents before a small smile graced her lips. She nodded to herself before tucking the paper into her pocket.

She would change her life, starting with her first day at Shinra Private Academy.

As her mother had suggested, the girl spent a week exploring the area and acclimating to her new life alone.

Despite the week that she used to get to know the neighborhood, Tokyo was still a big place for a small person.

So oftentimes when she went out for errands or out of boredom, the girl ended up getting lost for hours on end.

It was today, Sunday, that Kagome decided to do something a bit more exciting—something that her family would not approve of. She was going to go out and do her shopping late in the day. So by the time that she finished, it would be well after dark. As a young teen, being out alone at night was one of the most exciting things to do after all!

The shopping went without a hitch.

But it was navigating the foreign territory under the curtain of nightfall that proved to be a challenge.

Blue eyes blinked as she spotted a tall hill in the distance.

'Maybe I can spot my house from there...' that thought alone urged Kagome forward and into the cemetery.

Unbeknownst to the girl, she would soon be living the life that she tried to escape...

 Chapter 1:

The Boy Who Dances with Ghosts

And the Girl Who Believed

The traditional chime of the dismissal school bell was like music to the student body's ears. They were finally relieved of their scholarly studies and free to go home, fool around, and other typical teenage endeavors. Once the tune quieted down, a teacher closed her special teacher's edition textbook and announced to the young faces before her, "That will be all for today, class." The sight of her smile and the sound of her reminder to study hard and get home safely went on blind eyes and deaf ears.

Some students eagerly gathered their belongings and began stuffing them into backpacks that were already bursting at the seams. Others momentarily stopped to stretch their aching limbs before scurrying out of class into the busy hallways. As with most cram schools, night had already fallen after classes had ended. As friends and acquaintances went their separate ways, shouts of "Take care!" and "See you tomorrow!" filled the air.

This particular evening a rather small boy, thirteen years of age, hurried across the street on his way home. It was still difficult to carry a bag that was almost as big as his body but Manta still managed to make it to and from school and tutoring every day. Stopping in front of the entrance to an old cemetery, Manta paused as he glanced up at luminous orb in the sky.

The moon—it seemed so close and within reach.

It was as if he could run up that nearby hill and be close enough to lay his hand on the moon and caress its rocky surface…

He shook those absurd thoughts out of his head.

Something like that was not possible.

He had to focus on reality—. Looking down at his wristwatch, Manta shrieked in panic, "It's this late already?!" Anxiety washed over him when he realized that there was no way that he would be able to make the last train home! He scowled as he looked at the black iron gate of the cemetery next to him.

He had no choice. This was the only shortcut that he could take to make it in time.

Manta entered the quiet land through the gates that eerily creaked open with a reluctant push from his shaky hands. The cemetery was as grassy as any other one. Tombstones of all shapes and sizes protruded from the green-covered earth and gray cement stairs led upward to grassy hills where thousands were buried. There was also a small shrine for any mourners to pray for their dearly departed.

Being the meek and studious type, Manta was not one to normally in a place like this one...or think such nonsensical thoughts.

'When I realized I was just standing there…

Somehow I felt…

That there was someone calling me'

Was he creating make-believe thoughts about some supernatural influence on his detour home? He could not help but laugh at himself as he hurried up the hill. Manta's jog and self-brought laughter were soon interrupted by a content sigh followed by an unfamiliar voice, "The stars are so pretty…" it stated in a tone so calm and content. It was as if the speaker's life had already been fulfilled although the voice sounded young.

"Stars…?" Manta questioned, blinking as he slowly turned his gaze to the dark blue heavens. His brown eyes lit up in wonder. It was if God poured a handful of glitter on the midnight blue sky. The sparkles and twinkles of the stellar lights were breath-taking. This was the moment that the boy had truly noticed the celestial glory for the first time. Never before had Manta appreciated the stars until that moment. "You are SO right!" he agreed absentmindedly before a thought clicked in his head...

...who on Earth was he talking to anyway?

A chill ran up his spine. "Who are you anyway?" The small boy asked as he literally shook in his shoes. He looked across the way and saw the source of the stranger's voice. Someone was sprawled out on the grass beneath a lone tree atop of the hill.

"Did you come to watch the stars too?" A brown-haired boy asked as he slowly stood up. "Come on over," he continued, walking in Manta's direction. Although he appeared friendly enough, anyone who sat alone in a creepy place like this could not be normal, or at least sane for that matter. "We can watch them with everyone." The stranger lifted his head, allowing the light of the moon to illuminate his tanned, smiling face.

"N-Nah…" Manta declined nervously, inching away slowly. "It's getting pretty late." He certainly did not want to offend the stranger, and it was a legitimate excuse. He then scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepily while pointing out, "Besides, you can't say everyone since it's only the two of us here."

"Oh no. I can say everyone." the brown-haired boy insisted, unintentionally sounding eerie.

"Huh?" Was the only word that could escape Manta's mouth. He looked left and right. There was no one else in sight.

"The spirits—" the smiling boy began while aiming a thumb over his shoulder, "—are here too~." On cue, the boy's incorporeal companions made their presences known to Manta. Their wide, friendly grins not only disturbed Manta but also a certain, lost girl who happened to wander onto the scene. Both stood there for a moment, frozen, their feet took root into the ground.

"Eh—," the girl’s voice hitched. 'This boy must be a—.'

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Manta added as he high-tailed it away from the scene. He sped past the shocked girl along the way.

The boy who mingled with the spirits then turned his welcoming grin towards the girl, blinking when she stiffened and ducked behind a tree.

She crawled away on her hands and knees, leaving the other teen scowling at her reaction.

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

That night was filled with restless sleep for Kagome.

The shock of earlier followed her into her dreams.

["The spirits...are here too."]

Images of the scene played in her mind as she tossed and turned in her bed.

Kagome panted and gasped for air, clutching at her chest.

'No way... Not now... Not ever... I don't believe...'

The weight of her haunting reality had followed her to Tokyo and into unconsciousness.

The girl shook her head and bit down on her lower lip.

["The spirits...are here too."]

Kagome stopped running and fell to her knees. She squeezed her eyes shut as she slapped her hands over her ears.

It did not matter how fast or how far she ran. She could not escape that voice.

["The spirits... are here too."]

All she could do was deny what had happened, again.

If she did not acknowledge it, it did not exist to her, right?

'I didn't see them. I never have and never will.'

["The spirits... are here too."]

'I didn't feel them. I don't feel anything... I never did.'

Kagome would not believe it.

She refused to...

She was a normal girl...Higurashi Kagome.

Higurashi Kagome was a normal girl...

Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

"GHOSTS?!" came the collective cry of Manta's middle schoolmates.

"Yeah! I saw them on my way home from cram school!" Manta confirmed. "There was this weird boy at Crow Cemetery. Then suddenly, all these ghosts appeared! The place was loaded with them!" He explained before shivering as his mind replaying the scene," It was so scary…"

"Manta… I think you're going a little dead in the head," one student told him nonchalantly.

"What?!" Manta shouted defensively, "You think I'm crazy?! I saw the ghosts with my very own eyes!"

"Oh, come on, Manta," another classmate cut in with an exasperated sigh. "Stop making up stories."

Manta faltered, hurt that they did not believe him. "I-I'm not making it up!" He insisted with a deep scowl.

"You're seriously not trying to scare us?" A boy asked with raising a suspicious eyebrow.

A bubbly girl who had eavesdropped on the conversation speculated, "Maybe he's been reading too many horror stories." She then giggled him and smiled down at him, "But do continue Manta, I like scary stories!"

"I'm not lying!" Manta shouted with all of his might, finally fed up with them not believing him.

The group of classmates stared at the usually reserved boy with surprised expressions. It was unlike him to have outbursts like this one. After a moment of silence, they all exchanged looks with each other.

"Yup, he's gone nuts," the girl stated nonchalantly.

An angry vein ticked on Manta's forehead as he shouted again, "I'M NOT CRAZY OR LYING! THERE WERE REALLY GHOSTS!"

"You're probably just studying too hard. You need some rest."

"Or maybe…" A playful boy whispered eerily. "He's being haunted," he added with a grin. Manta's other classmates shared a laugh with the jokester.

The boy tightened his tiny hands into balls. His fists began to shake in silent anger. Not only was he angry, but Manta also felt frustrated and humiliated. He was not the type to play pranks. So why did no one believe him?! "But it's the truth!" He insisted once again.

"I want to believe you, Manta," the girl explained. "But there's just no proof that your story is true at all."

"…Proof…?" Manta asked in a low tone as he bowed his head. The word flashed him back to that night… Up to the moment when the ghosts appeared. There had been a girl there too… "That's right!" he exclaimed, remembering the girl who had screamed her head.

"Eh? What is it?"

"I have a witness! Other than the weird kid, there was a girl too!" Manta told them excitedly. His almost defeated spirit had been renewed at the thought.

"A girl, really? What did she do? Did she see the ghosts too?"

"Yeah, she did! I can tell because she screamed and ran away too!" The blond teen explained.

"But still… We don't know this girl… So for all we know, you could be making that part up too."

"None of my story is made up!"

Finally, their teacher entered the room and glared at his students that were behaving so casually in school. "Everyone, get in your seats. Homeroom is starting." Manta cursed silently, feeling agitated that his classmates did not believe him. Still, he was a model student so he resigned himself to his seat...

Manta's eye twitched when he saw the boy from the previous night casually saunter into the room behind the teacher. The shocked boy could not help his reaction. He screamed while jumping out of his seat and pointing an accusing finger at the other boy. Manta's sudden outburst startled the students sitting around him, but did not seem to faze the source of his shock and ire.

The instructor quirked an eyebrow while questioning, "Do you two know each other?"

"Uh…" Manta replied lamely as his cheeks lit up. He did not know the boy's name or anything about him. There was no way to answer the question without embarrassing himself. "Um, no…" Manta stated in a lower voice. His head lowered in shame as a few classmates chuckled at his expense. His entire face was feeling unusually hot. At this point, he could not tell if he was blushing from embarrassment or flushing from anger...

"Then hurry up and sit down."

"Okay…" Manta whispered obediently before complying with the command.

The teacher slowly introduced the new student as Asakura Yoh. Yoh stared almost blankly at the class as the teacher explained a few things about him. All the while, Manta glared at Yoh and thought about everything that had happened. From their encounter last night, to how his classmates did not believe him, a lot of things were on his mind. But on the bright side, now he had proof! Suddenly in the middle of the short introduction, the door slid open and in stepped a girl...

"And it's you TOO!" Manta yelled, jumping up in his seat once again.

The girl blinked before sending him a puzzled expression. It was if she did not recognize him at all.

"Another interruption, Oyamada?" the teacher asked in an annoyed tone.

"Eh?! Err—!" He paused as he was snapped back to his normal self "...I'm very sorry, Sensei," Manta mumbled before sinking into his head.

The girl then bowed deeply before straightening up. "Please pardon me, Sensei, " she stated in a polite tone. "I got lost on my way to school..." She then smiled sheepishly while scratching a slightly pink cheek, " Then I got lost again on my way to class."

The teacher uncharacteristically smiled at the girl, instantly taken in by her charming demeanor. He waved his hand dismissively before announcing to the class, "This young lady is also a new student here. She recently moved from the suburbs. Please welcome: Higurashi Kagome."

Kagome smiled brightly at her new classmates and waved. "Let's get along, okay?" she asked of the class. She looked at her cohorts a smile, which was a stark contrast to Yoh's stoic and apathetic expression.

One transfer student was an amicable girl who seemed ready and willing to make new friends.

While the other was a standoffish boy who did not bother to greet the class at all.

Manta could not believe his luck—or was this some sort of crazy coincidence?

Did situations like this one really happen in real life?

"T-That's the girl too…" He whispered shakily to a classmate sitting directly to his right.

"Is she really? She doesn't seem afraid of the boy like you were," was the response that he received.

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

It was their lunch period. Manta had waited for this moment for hours. He could finally have the boy tell the others that he was not crazy, sleep-deprived, or a liar. The ghosts were real! And he could have the girl tell them too! The others would have no choice but to believe him with the two new students corroborating his story!

Manta glanced at Kagome, who was napping at the back of the classroom with her head resting on her folded arms. "I better not bother her," he stated to himself. He would just have to settle on Yoh for now.

With a newfound determination and anticipation, he walked across the classroom to the second row to the front so that he stood on the right side of Yoh's desk. The brunette wore a small, content smile as he listened to the music blasting from his orange headphones. With his closed eyes and peaceful smile, the boy appeared to be in his own world.

"Hey," Manta greeted.

Yoh did not respond. He was too preoccupied with his music.

"Hey!" The blond raised his voice a bit.

But it was for naught. It had been a long, frustrating day so he could not help the growl that rumbled in his throat.

"HEY!" Manta's voice finally reached past the headphones and Yoh opened his eyes.

"Huh?" Yoh blinked and looked down at Manta curiously. On cue, Manta's associates surrounded the two of them. They wanted to find out the truth for themselves so they could just drop the topic.

"We met each other last night at the cemetery, didn't we?" Manta asked of him.

Yoh only stared quietly...

"You were hanging out with those ghosts, weren't you?" The agitated boy pressed on. He knew the truth, but he needed answers to clear his name!

Yoh stared at Manta silently for a few moments before asking, " …who are you…?"

"W-WHAT THE—?!" Manta sputtered in shock and outrage. How could this person do this to him?!

"I knew you were sleep-deprived, Manta," the normally giggly girl stated in a deadpanned tone.

"So that's why you're haunted," another friend teased again.

Cue more laughter and teasing at Manta's expense...

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

'I'll prove that my story is true, for sure,' Manta thought spiritedly while side glaring at Yoh who was staring off into space. 'Even if I have to—Ah…?' His train of thought was cut off when a small folded slip of paper was discreetly passed onto his desk. Manta looked around the room and saw no one staring at him or looking his way to signify that they wrote the note. He unfolded it until it was completely open. It read:

"I believe your story about the ghosts and Asakura from last night

"Meet me after school and we can talk about it (if you want)

See ya later,

-Higurashi”

Manta was tempted to show the note to the classmates that did not believe him. But he refrained from acting impulsively this time. Nothing good would come of it. Higurashi Kagome would most likely hate him for it, and they would both end up embarrassed. He would meet her after school... And maybe they would both expose Asakura! 'Yes...!' Manta grinned at the thought. Things were finally looking up for him!

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

"I see," Kagome stated, tapping her chin with the tip of her finger. "So no one believed you?" Manta nodded in response. "But I guess that is kind of normal. Most people don't believe in ghosts, you know." She could not blame them either. She accidentally slept in because of the haunting dream that she had last night...

Manta nodded again and replied as his hands began tight fists, " I know! So that's why we have to work together to prove my story is true!" In his excitement, he did notice how Kagome looked genuinely surprised at his conviction. "So, you're going to help me out, aren't you?" He looked up at his new classmate with hopeful and determined eyes.

'He...wants to pursue a matter like this...?'

The girl looked at her new classmate's face. His eyes were burning with passion.

This was something that he truly cared about...

Kagome then nodded and smiled sweetly," Sure!"

Moments later, her smile transformed into an unsure frown that was almost a pout.

"What's wrong?" asked the short boy.

"Nothing, but…" Kagome slowly peered around a telephone pole and peeked at Yoh, who was standing at bridge watching the serenity of the river. "Don't you think this is a little extreme?" She asked.

Manta peeked around the pole to glance at Yoh too.

Kagome sweatdropped as she looked down at Manta. This was getting weird...but she would settle for weird as long as she made new friends.

"Why are we spying on Asakura anyway?" She questioned in a tone that was half curious, half incredulous.

"Because we want proof!"

"I understand that part, but isn't this considered… Stalking?" Kagome asked skeptically.

"…Eh heh," Manta sweatdropped as well while letting out an embarrassed chuckle. He did not expect to be called out so bluntly. "Let's just call it a private investigation," He proposed.

"If you say so…" Kagome sighed softly as the duo continued to watch Yoh watch the river...

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

Three hours later, Yoh was still minding his own business, watching the river with not a care in the world. The brunette seemed lost in thought as he leaned against the guard rail with his propped up elbow supporting his cheek.

From his hiding place behind the telephone pole, Manta gritted his teeth together in frustration. "How long does he plan to just stand there like that?!" He was red-faced and seething.

Kagome sighed for the umpteenth time that day. After the first uneventful half hour, she had already given up on watching Yoh and decided to leave that part to Manta. The girl settled for sitting on the pavement next to him, not caring about dirtying her green, pleated skirt. "I don't know but I'm getting bored with this…" She admitted, almost huffing with her confession. "Maybe he—."

"Ah?" both witnesses blinked as Yoh suddenly stretched and yawned aloud.

"Is he finally doing something?" they asked in unison, both now standing and watching the strange boy.

The brunette sighed in contentment as he offered the river a satisfied smile, "Ahhhh~! It's good to be so in touch with nature!"

Manta angrily jumped out from his hiding place and pointed a shaky finger at Yoh. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Huh?" Yoh turned around, only to see nothing.

Kagome had pulled her comrade back into hiding at the very last second. She held the small boy between her legs as she waited for Yoh to look away again.

The calmer then Manta pulled Kagome's hand from over his mouth and sighed in relief that Kagome bailed him out. He then got up and looked back at Yoh to find that—. "He's gone! We lost him!" The blond cried out.

"Really?" Kagome inquired as she moved from the hiding space and looked around. There truly was no trace of the boy anywhere. "How did Asakura just disappear like that…?" She wondered aloud.

This situation was becoming more and more strange.

"What the hell?!" Manta screamed while tugging at his hair. He was at his wit's end! How could this happen?!

Kagome's eyes suddenly hardened in determination as she balled up her hands. "Oyamada-kun! We can't give up just yet! We can do it if we put to our minds to it, right?" she asked, offering Manta an encouraging smile. The small boy stared up at the girl's face for a moment before nodding in agreement and making a fist of his own.

"Yeah!" Was his simple but energetic response. She was right. They just had to be more diligent!

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

Manta smirked as he held a flashlight below his face and turned it on with a click. Kagome laughed and joked, "Your face is scary like that!" The duo shared a short, light-hearted laugh before putting on their serious faces.

"We'll stick around here for a while until we meet up with him," Manta stated. The young sleuths were hiding behind the miniature shrine in the Crow Cemetery. He pulled out a camera and explained his plan to Kagome, "and with this instant camera, I can snap a picture of him when he's with the ghosts!"

'I wonder…' Kagome silently thought as Manta chuckled at his master plan. 'Will a ghost even show up on camera? And more importantly, this little guy is stranger than I thought.' She sweatdropped when her partner began rubbing his hands together like a criminal mastermind.

Suddenly their chatter and chuckles were interrupted by a group of voices approaching them.

"What did you say?" a deep, masculine voice hissed out. The owner of the voice did not sound too happy about some news.

Manta and Kagome stiffened as they peered around the shrine and spotted a tall, older teen with a distantly long pompadour and a white suit. 'Uh, people really still wear pompadours?’ Kagome thought while sweatdropping at the prospect that another weirdo entered the scene.

The young man was surrounded by a crowd of lackeys and was angrily discussing rumors of a boy who hung around in "their territory".

"Crap," Manta whispered. He looked up at Kagome with fearful eyes and informed her," That's Ryu of the Wooden Sword. He and his gang are notorious for beating up anyone who comes onto anything that they consider their territory."

"And it sounds like they're talking about Asakura," Kagome added with a concerned. She knew nothing about the guy, but no one deserved to be hurt over something so petty and trivial. She looked down at Manta but he was too scared and engrossed in the conversation to care.

Ryu huffed and kicked over a tombstone to show his dismay and display his strength. He looked annoyed when gang members did not admire his power, but gasped in fear, staring at the damages with wide eyes and dropped jaws. "T-That was the tombstone of Amidamaru, t-t-t-the demon samurai from six-hundred years ago!" Despite the warnings from his comrades, Ryu was not bothered in the slightest. He was too busy caught up in his machismo. With a single downward swing on his wooden sword, Ryu sliced through the stone and left it in pieces.

Both spies watched and listened to Ryu and his gang's conversation about the curse of Amidamaru. Kagome frowned when Ryu broke the tombstone in half with his wooden sword. "If he can do that to stone with only a wooden sword, think of what he can do to us if we get caught," Kagome said in a grave tone.

Manta shivered and looked at Kagome. "L-let's just go home for tonight." He slowly backed away and froze when his foot knocked over a tin can. The sound of it falling and rolling to the ground seemed as loud as the school bell. It was as if the can wanted them to get caught spying on Ryu and his gang.

"Eh?" Ryu asked as he circled around the mini shrine and spotted the younger teens, "Who the hell are you two?"

Manta smiled nervously and innocently, "We're nobody. We were just passing through." He raised up his hands to show he was unarmed and harmless.

Kagome nodded as she followed Manta's example and put her hands up, "Yeah! We're just innocent passersby!"

"Um, uh… Honestly!" Manta added with a nervous smile.

"Little man, you're the kid, aren't you?!" Ryu asked while looking at Manta, "The kid that trespasses in this area?"

"Of course not! What are you talking about?" asked Manta, still frozen. His legs glued to the ground.

Ryu and his gang shared deviously grins with each other before taking deliberately slow steps forward.

"Leave him alone, you creeps!" Kagome then stepped between the gang and her new classmate. She knew where this was going and she would not tolerate it! The girl glared them down while spreading her arms out wide protectively. "If you want to hurt my friend, then you'll have to get through me!" Manta's eyes widened at her choice of words.

"And what's this?" Ryu squinted, "A girl?"

A cloud that covered the moon drifted away in that instant, allowing the light to shine down on the scene. Ryu felt his heart his accelerate when he finally could make out the girl's features: a sweet with big blue eyes, long dark hair, and a rather generous body for someone her age! "Eh—" Kagome's eye twitched. "What's with this guy?" She deadpanned while looking to the rest of his gang for questions as their leader's eyes began pulsing, pink eyes.

They merely looked shocked or embarrassed as Ryu dropped his sword and dashed over to Kagome. He collected the girl's hands into his own while staring down at her, completely lovestruck, "Miss, you're absolutely gorgeous! You should run away with me, and together, we can find our best place!"

Kagome sweatdropped and forced a twitching smile at the proposal, "I have no clue what you're talking about." She then looked over her shoulder at Manta and tried to communicate a message of 'Run away while he's distracted!' with her eyes. The blond blinked but quickly caught on. He nodded and began inching away slowly and quietly...

Only for one of Ryu's gang to point out, "The little man, he's trying to escape!"

Ryu snapped back into reality and narrowed his eyes, "I see... So you used your feminine wiles in order for your friend to escape."

Kagome then yanked her hands away from the older teen and shouted back indignantly, "I did nothing like that!" A moment later, she found herself restrained by two of the gang members as Ryu and the others crowded around Manta. "Oh crap..."

Later that night, the boy who Kagome and Manta had been searching for arrived at the cemetery. He looked down at the crumbled pieces of Amidamaru's tombstone and scowled deeply. Only someone distasteful was capable of desecrating someone's eternal resting place. Something had to be done...

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

The following day, collective gasps filled the classroom as Manta and Kagome entered together. Manta had a black eye, a cast on his left arm, and his head had been bandaged up. And Kagome entered the room with an ordinary bandaid on her cheek. "What happened to you?" someone asked surprised.

"I got beaten up by Ryu of the Wooden Sword," Manta replied glumly, with his head lowered in shame and defeat.

"Ryu of the Wooden Sword?!" Came another student's shocked reaction. "How did you end up fighting with gangsters?"

"Higurashi and I were trying to snap pictures of the ghosts," he admitted honestly but pitifully.

All he wanted to do was validate his claims and earn back everyone's trust and respect...

"You're still talking about that ghost thing?!"

"And why are you getting Higurashi mixed up in all of this? Why she is not… banged up like you?"

"Last night they beat up Oyamada-kun. Then at the end, Ryu gave me a warning by scratching my cheek…" Kagome stood beside Manta as she explained. She looked down at Manta's broken expression and felt guilt. All of the passion and excitement that he showed her yesterday had been beaten out of him. The poor guy did not deserve any of this... "And besides..." As much as she wanted to start her life anew as a normal girl, there was no way that she could turn her back on this person. He looked so deflated and he was being humiliated. "I was there when Asakura-kun was with the ghosts that night..." She confessed. Yes. Here she was, admitting something like that. "I saw them too."

The other classmates looked at each other before one of them asked, " Higurashi-chan, how much did Manta pay you…?"

Kagome blinked, " …pay me…?"

"Yeah, to lie about being the so-called girl from the ghost night. Is he blackmailing you?"

"WHAT?" Manta bellowed while glaring at his classmates. Hearing those accusations rekindled the anger that he felt since yesterday. "Why would I do something so horrible to Higurashi?!"

"It's nothing like that!" Kagome shot back at them. "Oyamada-kun and I aren't lying, seriously! We both saw them! There's no reason to lie about that!"

"Then what were YOU doing at Crow Cemetery that night…?"

Kagome stiffened.

"Aha! I knew you were lying!"

"That's not it…" Kagome muttered. "We're not lying… It's just that…" she bowed her head in shame. "I got lost on my way home from the grocery store! I had been wandering around town for hours!"

"I see… That is pretty embarrassing."

"Oh, whatever! It's because you're so determined to be weird that you got beat up by Ryu of the Wooden Sword!"

Kagome looked down at Manta with nothing but sympathy. No one believed him, even when she vouched for his claims. What else could she do...?

"NOTHING WE SAID WERE LIES!" The bruised and battered boy bellowed.

The class froze and stared at their classmate who had a surprising amount of wind in him. Then came the fateful statement from Asakura Yoh himself, "yeah, it's not a lie." The brunette said it so straightforwardly and casually.

Tears flew from Manta's eyes as he looked up at Yoh, who had just entered the classroom. The blond's eyes were full of anger, relief, and surprise.

Yoh looked back down at Manta then at Kagome and smiled. "There are spirits," he confirmed.

The classroom filled with silence...

And no one spoke to Manta, Yoh, or Kagome for the rest of the day...

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

The three middle school students, who were now permanently labeled weirdoes were now taking off their school shoes at their lockers and putting on their regular shoes. Kagome watched as Manta silently slipped on his walking shoes. "I heard about what happened from my friends at the cemetery," Yoh told them solemnly.

"What are you talking about?" Manta snipped in response. "I'm a person busy with studies. I can't waste my time the way you do." He could not help but feel spiteful and stung about the entire ordeal. He had gone out of his way to prove that he was not a liar. He ended up getting beat up. And now that Yoh told everyone the truth, both he and Kagome were labeled as weird and ignored. He ended dragging a girl who probably would have been popular down with him...

"Oyamada-kun…" Kagome whispered, her eyes softening. She wanted to comfort him. He was the closest thing that she had to a friend after all of this time... But what could she say? She failed him, and herself. She tried being a good person by helping Manta out, but she ended up being an outcast again. And it was all because she not as normal as everyone else...

Not as normal as she wanted—No, pretended to be.

"You're Oyamada Manta…" Yoh asked curiously. Then he turned to Kagome and asked, "And Higurashi Kagome, right?" Kagome blinked and watched silently as Yoh grabbed Manta's wrist and began leading him away, out the front doors. "Well, come on. Let's go."

"Wai—Wait a second," Manta yelled. "Where are we going?!" He questioned as this stranger dragged him away from school.

"We're going to see Ryu."

"Ehhhh?!" Manta's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

Yoh looked down at Manta as he continued to dragging the shorter teen, "My grandfather once said evil cannot see spirits. So you must be a good person. I can't stand by and let a good person like you get bullied like that."

Without uttering a word, Kagome looked to the ground. Suddenly she felt forgotten.

She was alone already... And this was only her second day of school, and the beginning of her second week in Tokyo.

The girl silently watched them walk away.

She was uninvited.

She was unwanted.

Unneeded.

Unwelcome.

Again.

"What are you saying?" Manta asked, yanking his arm away. "Ryu is a total bad guy with many scary goons and you're just a scrawny kid! What can someone like you do?!" He protested.

Yoh agreed with a mutter of, "No doubt, I am pretty weak."

"Then why are you—?!"

Yoh grinned over his shoulder, "it's alright. I'm sure things will work out somehow…" Yoh grabbed Manta's wrist again and stated. "So let's go." Before proceeding on his trek to see Ryu, Yoh looked back at Kagome who stood idly watching the entire scene as if she was not even there. That was odd. Her eyes seemed duller, emptier as she stared at them with a hollow expression.

That look on her face... He recognized that look.

Suddenly, Kagome's eyes widened when she realized that his eyes were on her.

Finally, their eyes met. Yoh's warm chocolate pools found the depths of her blue oceans.

"Are you coming, Higurashi?" Yoh inquired curiously. His question was accompanied by a friendly smile.

That acknowledgment...

Kagome was surprised to find that the heavy grip on her heart had been released.

She could breathe.

She didn't even realize that she had been holding her breath.

The girl returned Yoh's smile with a watery one before she nodded enthusiastically.

She did not ponder about how her sorrow suddenly disappeared when she saw Yoh's smile and the warmth in it. There was no time for that. She just had to enjoy this brief happiness while it lasted. "You bet!" she chirped.

"Good, now we'll go see Ryu together," Yoh replied as he allowed Kagome to catch up with them. Kagome smiled fondly at Yoh and Manta as Yoh apologized to Manta about pretending to not know him.

It was truly a heart-warming moment.

Despite walking behind the two boys, Kagome could sense that Manta was finally smiling too...

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

The night seemed peaceful enough. The moon was almost staring Manta in the face as he and his new classmates waited for Ryu and his gang to arrive. The tiny schoolboy stared at Kagome and Yoh's backs. The black-haired girl was nearly cuddling with Yoh in order to hear the music from his headphones. "Um…" Manta began nervously. Yoh did not seem to hear him and Manta guessed Kagome was too sleepy to care at the moment.

"Hell-o!" Manta called over to them.

Yoh looked at Manta from over his shoulder, bumping the back of his head against the side of Kagome's face. "Watch it!" she exclaimed, pouting slightly.

The brunette lifted one side of his headphones and asked curiously, "Did you say something?"

"Well…" Manta began with a twitching smile. "Why am I the only one tied to a tree?"

"If I untie you, you'll run away," Yoh replied.

Manta looked at Kagome and asked, "And what about her, huh?"

Kagome answered the question this time, "Well, I came here willingly so there would be no need to tie me to a tree, Oyamada-kun."

Manta sobbed, "But why do I have to be here? Isn't Higurashi being here good enough?"

Yoh laughed then promised, "When all of this is over, I'll untie you. But for now, I just want you to watch."

"Watch what, Asakura-kun?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Watch you get beaten to a pulp by Ryu of the Wooden Sword?" Manta asked with doubtful, teary eyes.

Yoh smiled again, just a bit awkwardly this time. His desire—He did not know how to explain it that well. "That is, I mean…" He scratched his cheek as he tried to find the words," I want you to watch…me."

Just then a familiar deep voice hit Kagome and Manta's ears.

"It's…" Kagome stated as they all looked up.

"Ryu." Manta's courage and calmness level plummeted from 10 all the way down to -100 as they watched Ryu and his gang approach.

"Huh?" Ryu asked as he looked up at the three younger teenagers. "Who goes there…?"

Kagome watched as Yoh slowly stood up and brushing imaginary dirt off his pants. 'I hope you know what you're doing Asakura-kun…' she nervously thought.

Yoh grinned as he introduced the three of them to Ryu. "Yo. My name is Asakura Yoh," he pointed at Manta then at Kagome, "and these two are my friends, Oyamada Manta and Higurashi Kagome." Kagome sweatdropped at Yoh's casual politeness in this situation.

"H-How do you do…?" Manta asked half-heartedly. He was more scared than anything.

Kagome only waved a little and added, "Yeeeeeah...hi."

One of Ryu's minions whispered something to Ryu and he replied something in a low tone.

"It seems to me that my friends paid you some debt, now I'm here to return the favor," Yoh announced confidently.

"Favor?" Ryu inquired before chuckling and placing a hand on his hip. "Are you saying you are going to avenge them? You've got a lot of guts. You must want to see the other world so soon."

"Even the people of the other world say that you're a nuisance," Yoh replied with an agitation that seemed unbecoming of him.

Kagome stood up then took a place beside Yoh and asked softly, " What are you planning to do?"

"Apologize! Kneel down and just apologize!" Manta pleaded from his place on the tree.

"Ryu-san! We'll take care of them!" One of his minions said. Another cracked his knuckles and added,

"There is no need for Ryu-san to get his hands dirty playing around with kids like these."

Ryu nodded and instructed, "As you wish. But leave my angel out of it." He then shot her a dreamy look, "So your name is Kagome-chan, is it?"

Kagome's jaw dropped at his inquiry, "How dare you address me so casually!?" She pointed at him and glared, "Don't treat me differently just because I'm a girl!"

"But I'm treating you differently because you're cute, not because you are a girl," Ryu admitted with a shameless shrug and easygoing smile.

Yoh gently used one arm and push Kagome back behind him. "I would appreciate it if you left Higurashi alone," Yoh told Ryu. "She's not interested in whatever you're thinking."

"A-Asakura-kun…?" Kagome whispered, blushing a bit. Sure, she was brave enough in her own right. But there was something about someone else wanting to protect you...

Ryu's growled at Yoh's fearlessness and interference, "I'll do whatever I want, you little—!"

"It's fine, Ryu-san, like we said." a minion stated. "We'll take care of them, of course, we won't harm the girl."

"See?!" Manta asked looking at Yoh while kicking his legs. "Now they're interested in Higurashi and want to kill us!"

"I already told you, it'll be alright," said Yoh reassuringly. Kagome placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded.

Manta's jaw dropped, he could not believe that Kagome had so much faith in Yoh already. This was their first time meeting, right? The blond boy tried to snap some sense into the girl, "He can't do anything on his own!"

"I am not alone!" Yoh yelled.

Kagome gasped and took a step back when a large spirit appeared behind Yoh and beside her.

"I shall grant thee an opportunity to redeem your mistakes, so you should be thankful!"

This spirit was unlike the carefree ones from the night of their encounter. This one was a silver-haired man dressed like a samurai.

There was no doubt about it...

'Mistakes…?' Kagome thought.

Manta was thinking the same thing, 'Could… Could it be…?'

"Kick his ass!" Ryu commanded his sidekicks.

"Manta…" Yoh whispered solemnly. "Watch me closely."

Kagome gasped when she realized what was going on.

"Shall we do it then? All right! …Amidamaru!" Yoh called, raising his arm. Kagome and Manta watched awestruck as Amidamaru went into Ghost-ball mode. But the minions who charged at them did not seem to notice the spirit.

"I am a shaman," Yoh stated calmly. "The one who links this world and the next…"

'Asakura-kun is a…'

"Sha… Shaman?!" Manta asked stunned.

"Let's go!" Yoh called out before pushing the Ghost-ball into his chest. "Over-Soul Merge!"

"The spirit went into his body?!" Manta's eyes were bulging from what he was seeing. Seeing ghosts was one thing, but watching a human put one inside of himself was another!

Meanwhile, The edge of Kagome's mouth slowly began to twitch then curve upward.

The two men, who did not notice Amidamaru merge into Yoh, foolishly charged at him. Manta gasped when Yoh drew his wooden sword and easily defeated the two with a single swing.

"T-That was awesome, Asakura-kun!" Kagome cheered from behind Yoh. A big smile was plastered on her face as she watched Yoh and Amidamaru with excitement. Adrenaline rush through her veins as the shaman made quick work of more goons.

"What the hell just happened?!" asked one of the shocked gangsters.

"It was too fast to see anything!" one of his comrades replied.

Yoh pointed the wooden sword at Ryu and told him, "You're next."

Kagome gasped, though the smile did not disappear. She could see him. She could see Amidamaru's spirit inside of Yoh…

"Are you prepared for it?" Amidamaru asked from within his host.

'Who is this bastard…? He's completely different from a moment ago,' Ryu thought as he began sweating nervously. 'What the hell just happened?'

Kagome balled up her fists and yelled passionately, "Waste that gangster Asakura-kun!" 'And you too… Amidamaru-sama…!' she added mentally.

"What's wrong?" asked the smirking brown-haired boy. "Are you afraid to fight me… Rookie?" He taunted.

Manta could tell that hit one of Ryu's nerves, but for once he was not screaming for Yoh to apologize. He was amazed and awestruck… All of this was too cool to be real. But it was real.

"This kid…" Ryu stated as he gripped his sword and charged full speed at Yoh, "Is a real bastard! Don't underestimate me!"

Kagome gasped and moved from behind Yoh to a safer place beside the tree with Manta attached to its trunk.

Just as Ryu was about to strike, Yoh grinned and seemingly disappeared. He reappeared behind Ryu, ready to strike with his wooden sword in his hands.

"Ryu-san! Watch out!"

Everything happened in slow motion…

Yoh and Amidamaru swung.

"Hmph, I won't kill you. I don't want someone like you to become one of us," Yoh mumbled, though Kagome and Manta knew it was really Amidamaru speaking through Yoh's body.

"Way to go!" Kagome cheered when she saw Ryu fall flat on his back. A second later, half of his pompadour fell flat on the ground.

"Ahhhhh! Ryu-san has been defeated! Run!" Came the scream of one of Ryu's lackeys. The remaining members scooped up Ryu and their other fallen comrades before making a hasty retreat.

Manta quietly replayed what happened in his head. 'Shaman… To unite with a spirit… the spirit's movement, skills, everything… Reappears using his body…'

A single bead of sweat ran down Yoh's face.

"Amazing!" Manta finally cheered. He would have pumped his fist if he were not still restrained.

'I guess… It's over now…' thought Kagome as she breathed a sigh of relief. The adrenaline was finally leaving her body as her shoulders slumped a bit. This was a lot more excitement than she had expected.

S.H.A.M.A.N.K.I.N.G.

Yoh stuck Amidamaru's wooden sword into the soil. He and Kagome closed their eyes and recited a small prayer.

"Alright! It's perfect!" Yoh announced while admiring his handiwork with a satisfied grin.

"What do you mean?" asked Manta as he looked at the tombstone that had been glued back together. "It has cracks all over the place."

"Well, don't mind such petty things," the brown-haired boy said with an easy-going smile.

"That's right," Kagome stated after finishing her prayer. She ran her hand over the stone and smiled, before winking at Manta. "Besides, the cracks give it character."

"That's the ticket!" Yoh chimed in as he placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned even wider.

All three laughed at what seemed to be nothing at all.

"You two don't seem afraid," Yoh suddenly pointed out. His face calmer and warmer than what it was in the classroom.

Kagome blinked, "Afraid? Of what Asakura-kun?"

"Well, you saw me unite with the ghost," Yoh stated simply, unwilling to expand on what he was thinking...not yet.

"Well, the first time we saw you was with the spirits after all," Manta explained.

"Hm, oh yeah?" Yoh smiled.

"Yeah!" nodded Manta.

Kagome smiled and suddenly slapped Yoh on the back, laughing merrily, "You did a good job with Amidamaru-sama, Asakura-kun!" She blinked when Yoh's shoulders trembled. "Eh—What's the matter?"

Yoh grinned at her over his shoulder and said, "That kinda hurt."

"Oh, you…"

Yoh sat down on the hill. Manta and Kagome exchanged looks before following his lead. The shaman looked up at the night sky and marveled in its beauty, "Ah! Today's stars are really pretty too!"

"You're right again," Manta agreed, looking up too.

Kagome smiled softly and admitted, closing her eyes, "I'm happy."

Manta and Yoh blinked.

That statement seemed out of the blue. "Because Yoh-kun beat Ryu of the Wooden Sword?" Manta asked curiously.

The girl shook her head while laughing lightly, "I moved here from the outskirts of Tokyo, you know. When I first arrived, I have to admit, I was pretty lonely... But I had to go on because I made the decision to come here in the first place."

Kagome did not know why she was telling this to these two boys—these two people who she had just met yesterday. All that she knew was that it felt good to talk about it, and talking about it came easy with them.

"I came here to start a new life, and I thought you two screwed it up already," Kagome looked down from the sky and smiled at Manta and Yoh. "But now, I'm glad I met you."

Yoh placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and grinned, "Then you're real lucky, Kagome-chan."

"Ka…gome-chan…?" Kagome asked slowly. "What happened to just Higurashi?"

Manta told her smiling "Well, we're friends now, so you can call me Manta-kun."

"Same with me. You can call me by my first name too," Yoh added.

Kagome nodded and smiled happily. "I'll do that!" she told them.

From that moment on, the three classmates watched the stars contently with Amidamaru quietly leaning against a tree behind them.

It truly was the beginning of a new life, together...

[tardytothepardy]

Fruits Basket - Vol 21

"What do you have there?"

"A knife!"

"NO-"

That's probably all I can say about this one lmao

Kyo's still thinking back to when he met Kyoko, and how he felt about her as a kid. It was strange to him, in a way, but very welcoming, because unlike the majority of people around him, she treated him like a spunky kiddo(that's what she called him because he never told her his name) who seemed to have a hard life, but still seemed nice. In other words, Kyoko treated him kindly, something that Kyo had only experienced with Kazuma, which is extremely heartbreaking, oh my god.

But that only made what happened later hurt that much more, when she died. He heard her say that she won't forgive him, and those words have stuck with him to this day. After Kyoko's death, Kazuma took Kyo to the mountains, "to train". There wasn't much training, honestly, because Kyo was thrown into the depths of just,, self-hatred, mourning, regret, all of it. The only way he could get out of it was to place blame elsewhere, and that elsewhere was Yuki. It was easy, to be expected, almost encouraged in a way. It's not even that Yuki did anything in particular (I doubt they were even around each other enough for Yuki to actually do anything to Kyo), it's just that it was easier. And that helped Kyo enough that Kazuma let him return back home, which is around the time that Tohru showed up at Shigure's house, and the start of the series. When Kyo first saw Tohru, he couldn't believe it. He just wasn't allowed to forget what had happened, was he? It was interesting, in a way, to finally meet the girl that Kyoko was always talking about, to finally hear her voice rather than a picture, anecdotes, and a lonesome dinner. But it also hurt. In the end, he says he won't forgive himself, and he doesn't expect Tohru to forgive him either, for holding all of this back.

Tohru doesn't like that though, only having those two options: to forgive or not. It's really not that simple. She doubts that her mom meant that, "I won't forgive you", because she wasn't that kind of person, and even if she did mean it, Tohru's going against it, because her love for Kyo overpowers her love for her mom. She screams at him that she loves him, regardless of all of that. It doesn't matter dude! He can't believe it though, and he runs off, with Yuki, who overheard a portion of all of this, chasing after Kyo, with the spirit of "jfc you fucking moron get back here".

Oh remember Akito? And how she was thinking about Tohru? And how she has a knife? Well, she just entered the chat. 🔪🔪

She enters the chat by vaguely saying that the curse is breaking, to Tohru, who at the moment is partially occupied with thinking how fucking miserable Kyo looked before he ran off, but now Akito's here. (That sounds bad, like a "now Tohru has to deal with Akito 🙄" thing, that's not really what I mean. Tohru's just going through a few things at the moment) She asks Tohru if she's happy now, now that Akito has became the outsider, the loner, the bad guy, after waltzing into her life (and the lives of the Sohmas) and completely disrupting it, without a speck of dirt on her hands. Tohru's putting two and two together and steps toward Akito, asking if she was there the whole time (at this point Tohru did not know Akito had a knife), and oh jeez Akito just slashed at Tohru. Despite Akito yelling at Tohru to stay back, Tohru starts thinking of things through Akito's lens, how this whole time, Akito must have been so lonely. She was marveled for being God, but because of that (and her lashing out but hush), no one ever wanted to be around her. She was told that she was above everyone else, and she treated them as such, and they did the same back to her.

Tohru mentioned how Akito always spoke of permanence, because it was the only thing that Akito ever had to hold onto. Akito lashes out at that (i don't think she cut Tohru, but Tohru does end up having two cuts, so i think this was the second, both times they were just on her arms), saying that Tohru doesn't know what she's talking about, she won't fall for Tohru's crap! She can't be won over by nice little words like everyone else (are you sure about that dude). Tohru doesn't really deny it, she agrees that she is dirty, and bad. She wished for her own permanence, to forever be with her mom, but that didn't and couldn't happen. She says that realizing this is very lonely, realizing that you can't make anything stay, you can't grab onto it with all your might and beg for it to stay, it will move on in its own time. This ends up further upsetting Akito, thinking back to Akira and what he said to her as a child. She screams that she doesn't want to be left behind, alone in this huge world of strangers who don't know or care about about, or need her. She's terrified, and she says there's no saying that someone could ever love her, she'll be all alone when the curse breaks. Tohru then offers to be her friend. (Honestly this scene is kinda heartbreaking for me, seeing Tohru all scuffed up with tears in her eyes, offering to be Akito's friend. This girl does so fucking much all the time, regardless of the fact that she just heard that the boy she loves was involved in some way to her mother's death, her personal crisis of Kyo becoming more important to her than Kyoko, and now she's cut up and bloody, probably soaked through by the rain, trying to console a thoroughly upset Akito, like,, jfc Tohru)

Akito smacks Tohru's outstretched hand, saying she's mocking her, that when Akito starts to get upset, she'll get irritated, when Akito complains, she'll get mad, she'll hate Akito, she'll abandon her, but Tohru just puts out a hand, offering to be Akito's friend regardless. And once Akito realizes that Tohru would totally be there for her if she needed Tohru, Tohru literally falls off a cliff. Kinda. Do you remember back in the beginning of the series when Shigure mentioned that the ground is kinda unstable, and that's why there was a landslide? This is the same kind of thing, the ground crumbled underneath Tohru, and she fell. The first time I read that scene, I wasn't entirely sure if it was a metaphorical thing or not. It was not.

After Tohru fell, Akito just started screaming (fair enough, honestly), screaming for someone to come help, anyone! Shigure and Yuki come (and off in the undisclosed distance, Kyo also hears the cries), and Shigure actually asks Akito if she pushed Tohru off. Akito manages to explain what happens, and Yuki calls an ambulance. Shigure takes Akito back to the house, and a little bit later Kyo comes back to the house, and overhears Shigure explaining things to Hatori over the phone, and fuckin bolts over to where Tohru is. She's unconscious, scuffed, with cuts and blood on her, and holy shit, remember that one dream Kyo had a while back? Yeah, well, this looks wayyy too close for comfort to that dream, and Kyo's pretty freaked out. Distantly, Tohru can hear him crying, and she's just like, "Don't cry, it'll be okay, there's no reason to cry." She thought about how she worried that her love for Kyo ended up hurting him, and she was sorry for that, but she couldn't help it. It's revealed that Tohru fell in love with Kyo around the time of the Dark Form/True Form thing was going down, I think when Kazuma first showed up. She wishes for Kyo to be able to live a full life, even if it's hard, even if they aren't together. (Very emotional stuff, really.)

The next day, Yuki sees Tohru's grandfather at the hospital (who is visiting Tohru as well), and he asks about "that orange-headed boy", and Yuki says he was just an idiot that has bad timing, and he made Tohru cry. He can make her happy better than anyone, and he did that. He stopped himself short, but Tohru's grandfather was like, "About that," and presumably told Yuki to fucking brawl with Kyo, because that's exactly what he did after hearing from Haru that Kyo didn't try to see to Tohru. Before the fists went flying, Yuki asked Kyo about it, and Kyo said it was for the better, that all he'd do was hurt Tohru further. He couldn't protect Tohru when she needed it, he didn't want to do further harm.

Now the scene has shifted to the hospital, with two people being stuck in bed: Tohru and Kureno. Kyo tries to see Tohru, to apologize, to talk, something, but Hanajima and Uotani are not having it. Hanajima points out that apologizing wouldn't even mean anything, because Tohru doesn't blame Kyo for anything that happened. Hanajima says that there's other things that Kyo needs to do before he can see Tohru. Certain Things, and honestly I'm not sure if she was just bullshitting and using her ominousness to her advantage or if she actually knew something, but Kyo agreed (internally, anyway): there was something he had to do before seeing Tohru again.

Yuki might as well have said that was complete and utter bullshit, who does Kyo fuckin think he is? A goddamn superhero, able to fly in the second Tohru's in trouble? Doesn't he see the way Tohru acts around him? The way she smiles whenever he's near? Kyo's shocked by that, but he doesn't like the way Yuki said it, so he asked why couldn't Yuki do it (this is actually out of order but shh), he's already so perfect and shit. Basically, he's finally saying that he has always envied Yuki, because it just seemed like he got everything that Kyo wanted, especially when they were kids. Through the flying kicks and punches, Yuki says the same thing, but in the end, he can only be himself, same thing for Kyo. Neither of them (or anyone else) can be anything other than themselves, and sometimes there are things that only one person can do. In this case, only Kyo can kinda,, make her happy, I guess. I think that was the implication, which is nice. Kyo then goes off to see Tohru at the hospital, but the visiting hours are over, but y'know it's the thought that counts, right?

(Meanwhile) (btw how many times do these kinda things wreck Shigure's house like can they not take these things outside or something)

On the part of Uotani and Hanajima (and really everyone else who is visiting Tohru at this time), there's another level to keeping Kyo out: it's that everyone kinda knows that Tohru might be a little messed up if she did see Kyo again so soon after that whole shpeal that happened before Akito showed up. Tohru had a bomb dropped on her, and then she helped Akito calm down, and then she fell off a cliff; she didn't have any time to process the things that Kyo told her, especially that last line of his, the whole, "I'm disillusioned" thing, which all the significance that I personally can find within it is that he said that he wouldn't be disillusioned when Tohru was telling him about her father, but there really seems to be a bigger thing here that I'm not getting, idk. Anyway, there's that whole mess as well. Besides from that, there also seems to be this idea, I guess, that once Tohru is around Kyo again, they won't really be apart, so this is kinda like the last few moments with just Tohru? Or something? Hanajima and Uotani were talking about how Kyo's gonna "steal Tohru away", and seeing as Tohru is their close friend, I suppose it makes sense, from a selfish perspective (but not in a bad way), that they would want to "have" Tohru as long as they could.

Meanwhile (y'know that 60s Batman scene transition thing? That's always what I imagine when I write that, with the music included. Imagine how annoying it'd be if I put in a gif of it every time), Akito is having a Struggle Moment. She's at the hospital, and holy fuck is she guilty about stabbing Kureno, which is nice she totally should be it'd be really concerning if she wasn't, and Momiji pops up and asks if Akito came to see Kureno or Tohru (oof that guilt it's now been doubled), and Akito bursts out with confusion: why doesn't Kureno blame her?! He could've (should've-- wait what) blamed her, gotten angry, something?? Momiji says that it's because Kureno and Tohru (because Akito also visits Tohru) are that kind of stupid: they just don't blame people for things, they're always allowing for forgiveness. So why question it, why not just accept that Kureno isn't angry at her, isn't blaming her, just accept the kindness.

Akito thinks back on when she visited Kureno, and he asked her if she was okay. She thinks that if she had said she wasn't, that Kureno would have gone back to her side, and stayed with her, despite what she had done to him. He would stay with her until she no longer needed him, because he just has that kind of unselfish kindness. This kindness, in retrospect, doesn't make Akito feel much better though, as she thinks (realizes?) that she's basically been killing him, this whole time (before the stabbing, of course). No apology could fix this, no matter what Kureno would say, Akito wouldn't ever stop feeling bad for what she had said and done, not to him but to the other Juunishi as well (I suppose the Sohma family as a whole, honestly). Momiji just says that Akito has to take care of Kureno from now on, and to make sure that she doesn't do something like this again. Then he tells Akito a story (i don't get to hear it and that makes me quite sad ngl) and later Akito visits Tohru. But that'll be talked about later. Now we're talking about

(60s Batman transition sound) Yuki! And the other people in the student council. Kakeru mentions how the school is abuzz with what happened to Tohru, and how rumor has it that Kyo's the one who got her in the hospital. (Yuki doesn't really deny that, btw) Unsurprisingly, it's not really something that he has talked about, seeing as it's not very casual conversation, and it is a bit of a downer, but he realizes that he's not too upset by it. (By that I mean the overall recent series of events, not solely Tohru's accident) I guess violence is the answer, sometimes.

Kimi then asks what Yuki's relationship with Tohru even is, and Kakeru, unfiltered as usual, just drops, "She's like his mom, in his mind" as if that wasn't something that Yuki was struggling with for a long time??? Whatever dude, but one day Yuki'll probably have his revenge. At any rate, there were a lot of shots to Machi doing her thing, so if it wasn't already clear from the story so far, Yuki likes Machi. If you hadn't picked that up, it's a whole thing.

Anyway, later on Yuki and Kakeru are looking for get-well gifts for Tohru, and Kakeru just straight up says, "If I don't know what to give to someone, I'll just choose something I like, so that if they don't like it, I can take it, and I'll like it," which, as it turns out, Machi does the same thing. (That comes later but it's the not most important thing so shh) After getting a gift, Kakeru says that he's going to visit Tohru, but he insists on doing it alone, and so Yuki wanders off, walking down the street (he's makin his way downtown, walkin fast, faces pass), and he thinks about how, when he was in big crowds, he used to wonder, if he disappeared, would anyone really notice? Now though, that's not really a worry. He knows that there is at least one person who would notice, who would be worried if he disappeared. And holy shmow, he just found the perfect gift for her! He calls up Machi, and they meet up at a train station, I think, I'm pretty sure it's a train station idk I've never been in one, and it turns out that she got a gift for him as well. (It's fertilizer, remember back to that scene, with the,, yeah. Ok.)

The gift is a big Mogeta doll (probably like a stuffed animal), like the one that Ayame had in his shop, except he had the gall to write on it? Machi said that it was a limited exclusive item, but Yuki managed to find it (for a fair price too, apparently), and she really likes it. She says she'd like to thank Tohru for what she's done to help Yuki become who he is presently, that she's really glad that she was able to meet Yuki, because without him, she definitely wouldn't be the person she is today. It was some super soft stuff, there were plenty of "aw"s when I read that whole interaction. They're so fucking cute, it's great.

Anyway, other than Kakeru asking Hatori what he ate to look that handsome (which is something I still can't get over), there wasn't much else to the book, so I'll finally end this (I took several days in between writing this it's inexcusable). Yay ✨✨

[astoldbycrimson]

Bring Me Back to Life

Summary: You and Din were always protecting each other. It’s never a conscious thought, just a natural instinct at this point.

Pairing: Mando/Din Djarin x f!Reader

Warnings: injuries, mentions of violence, angst, and sweet fluff

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 4.5 | Part 5

———————

The concept of love, for many, was a myth that traversed the galaxy. In a time when there was war and carnage, it was a tale long forgotten, written in a language that no one could understand. Death, chaos, and destruction were all some people knew. Din Djarin had been no different. 

He watched as the Empire destroyed his home and wept as he was hidden within a storage cellar. He was helpless as the droids brutally ripped his parents away from him. They nearly took his life too… While the Mandalorians had shown him mercy and raised him as one of their own, the stories of love had died with his family. All those feelings had been lost in the shadows of his mind, buried deep until he eventually forgot where he’d hidden them. 

But then you came along. First, you were just the kind waitress in a cantina on Dathomir. The one with the interesting eyes and pretty smile. And then, deep in the woods of your homeland, you saved his life for reasons he didn’t understand. Your powers were unlike anything he’d ever seen. Somehow you’d managed to talk your way onto the Razor Crest. And slowly, with minimal effort, you mapped out his mind and found each piece he’d buried so long ago. 

While your life hadn’t been without pain, you knew love from the moment you took your first breath. Your mother treasured you more than the heart in her chest. Your father had broken the old jedi way just to bring you into the world. Love was everywhere you looked. Sometimes so abundant that it suffocated you, like when your mother had passed and your village had wept with you. But you never forgot what love felt like. Not like Din did.

Boarding the Razor Crest had been a massive change for you. The air wasn’t filled with the love you had grown accustomed to. Instead it was filled with deafening silence. It smelled of blaster fire, sweat, and blood. And the taste it left on your tongue was incredibly bitter. Never before had anything left you feeling so cold and lonely. It took over a cycle for the stale air to clear. Then love surrounded you once more and that warmth had finally enveloped Din too.

You reminded him every day of just how real love really was. He felt it when you cooked him a hot meal. When you smiled at him so sweet with nothing but adoration in your eyes. Din felt your love when you’d remove his helmet with the utmost care, as if it were made of glass and one wrong move could destroy it forever. When you kissed with such fervor that you stole the air from his lungs. You sang the tales of love so beautifully. Everything was foreign, but with your help, he slowly came to understand.

Love did not come without a price, however. You became reckless as your feelings clouded your judgment. Din was your priority, so you repeatedly put yourself in harm’s way to ensure his safety. In your mind, it was your job to protect him, no matter the cost. Even if it meant you drew your last breath.

You weren’t alone in that feeling. Din, the normally calm and collected veteran hunter, was ready to throw himself between you and the first sign of danger. Even if he knew you could handle the situation, he was unable to stop himself from taking a hit or two. And it was for that very reason that Din was now in near critical condition.

Fortunately you had ended the fight rather abruptly upon seeing him wounded. You had used far too much force to ensure the ending was swift and absolute. Had he been conscious to see it, you’d likely get a scolding. Because you shouldn’t use your extra abilities unless the situation demanded it. He’d come to know what happened to most of the jedi. Din didn’t want that to happen to you.

The fight had left him unconscious and bleeding. He didn’t hear the curses you muttered in your native tongue, even though he’d come to recognize a few from your frequent use of them. Din didn’t hear you whisper that you loved him and to hold on. But you managed to get him back to the ship in record time. Now he was sprawled out your shared cot, seriously wounded but breathing. 

Given your massive overuse of your force abilities, you only had enough energy to make him stable. You’d have to stop the bleeding without using the cauterizer… you feared your shaking hand and his inability to guide you would’ve wounded him worse. So, unfortunately, you had to rely on the old fashioned medkit to treat his wounds until you fully recovered. 

You carefully stripped him of his armor, taking note of where the wounds were on his body. You applied bacta spray to the more pressing ones and bandaged them accordingly. Then you cleaned up the lesser scrapes and cuts, leaving them to air and heal on their own. 

Once every injury was addressed, you washed the blood and dirt off him. Then you dressed him in fresh clothes and set his helmet beside the cot. The wounds wouldn’t heal perfectly overnight, so you’d be required to keep him off his feet for at least a day. You pressed a kiss to his cheek, grabbed his hand, and waited by his side until he stirred.

You stayed there for hours, struggling to stave off your own exhaustion. When you’d start to nod off, you bit your cheek to jolt yourself awake. And you kept his hand in yours, not only to calm your nerves, but so you’d be alerted when he finally stirred. 

Unfortunately, you didn’t last more than 13 hours before your body slumped and you succumbed to your own exhaustion. So Din woke first, brown eyes fluttering open to find you asleep beside him. It would’ve been cute if you hadn’t looked as though you had just fought a war by yourself. There were bags under your eyes and bruises littered your exposed skin. You were still dressed in your dirty clothes, caked with grime and blood.

He immediately tried to sit up, worried about all the blood on you. But the groan that escaped his lips and the sudden jolt of your arm awoke you instantly. It took you a second to find your senses before you were standing and ushering him back onto his back.

“Shh, mulovda, you’re fine. I’m here. Just relax,” you whispered reassuringly. 

“(Y/N)… are you okay?” Of course the first words he uttered would be to ask about your well being. 

“Din, I’m fine. You’re the one who nearly died.” Honestly if you weren’t so worried, you’d be rolling your eyes at him. 

“You…” a groan as he adjusted his position on the cot, “…look terrible." 

A sigh left your cracked lips before you laughed softly. ”…Thanks, Din. You really know how to make a girl swoon.“ 

He chuckled, but it made him stiffen at the pain. "Kriff, (Y/N). Don’t make me laugh.”

“Sorry, used up all my pity when I played doctor last night. You brought that upon yourself for insulting me." 

”…I didn’t mean it like that, (Y/N/N).“

A smile tugged at the corners of your mouth. "I know. You just really set yourself up for that one… How are you feeling?” Your face turned serious as you raised a hand to rest on his cheek.

You noted how he instinctively leaned into your touch. “I’m alive. Been through this and much worse before. How long have I been out?" 

"I lost count after the first 10 hours… Maybe half a day?”

He hissed through his teeth as he tried to rise. Your gentle, but firm hand on his chest kept him down. 

“That’s way too long. Let me up, I need to get us off this planet." 

Your tone was sweet, but stern as you spoke, "Din, we’re safe. They are all dead. We can stay at least another day. Right now you need to rest." 

He was silent a moment. "They’re all… dead?”

“Yes, dead. We’re safe now.”

You sensed the tilt in his head before he opened his mouth. “…How’d you manage that, cyar'ika?” The way he said your little nickname was accusatory. Borderline patronizing. “I remember a very different situation before I blacked out.”

“Your memory is failing you, mulovda. We were doing fine before you tried to play hero. You must’ve hit your head pretty hard,” you laughed as you carded your fingers through his hair. 

“…You’re lying.”

You tilted your head to the side. “Am I? Last I checked you couldn’t read minds, Din.”

He could tell when you lied. Your face was convincing enough for most, but Din knew you better than that. He wasn’t the most social of creatures, but Maker was he observant. He was ready to fight you on it, but he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed the attention you were giving him. So, for now, he’d let it go. 

“Now that you’re awake, I’ll make us a hot meal.” You went to walk away, but a hand circled your wrist.

“The food can wait. I think you should take a minute to wash up, (Y/N).”

You sighed. “Do I really look that bad?”

“…You’re beautiful, cyar'ika. You just… take care of yourself for a minute, okay? I can wait a little longer.” It was obvious that he meant what he said, which had you flushing lightly. He was always so thoughtful when it came to you.

Denying his request would only cause trouble and a shower sounded wonderful after your day. “I’ll just be a minute… promise me you won’t leave this cot, Din.”

Of course he had planned on sneaking up to the cockpit while you were distracted. But you knew him… too well, at times. So he let out a typical Din sigh and nodded. “…I promise.”

You were true to your word and kept your bathing brief. Honestly, you were far too tired to even think of taking a long shower anyway. So you scrubbed off the dirt and grime before washing your hair. Then you were out and in a clean set of clothes, making a hot dinner for your Mandalorian.

It didn’t take long before he was shoveling his face full of your food. Before you, he never got to enjoy the taste. Eating was a necessity, not a luxury. And time was something he didn’t have a lot of. But with you preparing most of his meals, he tried to give himself a moment to really taste the unique blend of spices. To savor his meal for as long as his hunger would allow. 

You, however, were savoring the moment. While you couldn’t see the face he was making, you knew it was a pleasant one. He always seemed to enjoy the food you made. Always grateful for a meal made with love. But you were just grateful to have another moment with him. Thankful to still have someone to cook for. To kiss and hold and love…

Din had come into your life seemingly out of nowhere. Just a Mandalorian that had stumbled upon your father’s cantina. At first he was just a way off your planet. To hone your skills and maybe make a name for yourself. But he quickly became so much more. He made you feel things you’d long forgotten. Had you thinking that maybe fairy tales existed here amongst the stars, on a ship with a Mandalorian named Din Djarin.

And now… now he was practically your world. A beautiful untouched planet that you had been fated to collide with. He didn’t know it, but he saved you in so many unspoken ways. You’d survive if he hadn’t made it, but you know you’d never feel alive again…

“…Why aren’t you eating?” Din had stopped his consumption long enough to eye your untouched plate. 

“Hmm?” You were quickly brought back to reality. “I’m sorry, just a little dazed, I suppose. Please, don’t stop on my account. There’s plenty more after you’ve finished that." 

He set his plate on the table beside him and reached for your cheek. As if he had been reading your thoughts, he said, "I’m here, cyar'ika. You saved me… like you always do." 

"No, Din, it was you who saved me.”

———————

@spacegayofficial @killtherandomness @thatguythatsshy @emyyjemyy @gothtechie @pandaperson51 (thanks for your request!)

[avaria-revallier]

Chapter 2: Thirteen dwarves and a wizard

“Very helpful, master dwarf.” Gandalf leans forward and looks down on the unconscious hobbit lass. A bit uncomfortable the dwarves gather around Bella. Dwalin is the first one to take action. He picks her gently up and carries her into the living room. Nori places a cup of tee on the table next to her and quietly leaves to sit with the others.

Thorin looks up to Gandalf as they all gathered around the empty table.

“How could you tell her about us?” Thorin is angry, furious even. So why does he keep his voice down to not disturb their resting host. He had to agree with Bofur. The small lass, fierce as she reacted, was kinda cute. Not that he would ever admit such a thing.

“Well, I have to admit, she acted quite strange today.” The wizard brushes his beard with one hand. “But I didn’t tell Belladonna that you all would come, nor did I mention your names.” A ring of smoke floats through the room, turning into a butterfly before vanishing.

“How was the meeting in Erid Luin? Did they all come?” Balin shifts the attention from the unconscious lass in the living room to the main topic, the reason of their gathering.

“Aye. They all came. Envoys from all seven kingdoms.”

Whispered conversations fill the heavy silence.

“What did the dwarves from the iron hills say? Is Daín with us?” Dwalin asks in a low growl.

All dwarves watch Thorin, hopeful, curious and tense. Their leader looks up from his plate, which is filled with all kinds of food. Bella saved quite a lot for him. She knew how much a dwarf could eat, let alone thirteen. Thorin takes another swig of the beer.

“They will not come.” A disappointed murmur fitting their defeated looks goes through the company. “They say this quest is ours and ours alone.”

Thorin takes up is fork again and continues eating. He was grateful for the food and the roof over their heads. Even so his mind was set on not liking whatever fourteens member Gandalf had in mind for them. It must have been a poor joke of the wizard to even consider this gentle and kind type of creature. Actually he had a lot of time to make his mind up on the way to Bag End. He lost his way, twice. But still he had time to observe the folk living around here. Nobody carried swords or axes, the knives were only used to prepare food and the halfling themselves seemed not really like fighters nor like burglars. They are even smaller than dwarves, corpulent and always, always friendly and happy.

Well, most of them. The lass -their host- seems to be a bit fierce. She even remembered him of Dís while yelling at him. Until she fainted that is.

His thoughts were interrupted when Gandalf stood up.

“Far to the east, over ridges and rivers, beyond woodlands and. Lies a single solitary peak.” As he speaks he unfolds an old peace of parchment. A map.

Ori appears besides him, holding a candle for a little bit more light.

The map showed the lonely mountain, a red dragon above it. Dale and Escaroth as well as the Woodland realm.

“The front gate is sealed. There is no way in.” Balin says with a sight. “And even if it wasn’t sealed. We only number thirteen. Even with an army from the iron hills this journey would be hard.”

Gandalf reaches into one of the many pockets in his grey coat. A key shows up in his hand. Dwarven made.

He points towards a mark on the side of the mountain.

“These runes speak about a hidden passage to the lower halls. This map and key were handed to me by your father, Thrain. He wanted you to have them.” The wizard ended, handing the key to Thorin.

Hope sparked in Thorin and as he looked to his friends and family, he could see the same spark in their eyes.

“If there is a key, there must be a door!” Fíli shouts into their conversations.

“And we have a wizard in our company. Gandalf must have killed hundreds of dragons!” deep admiration in his voice Kíli looks to Gandalf as if he expects the smoking man to present a dead dragon to him.

A fairly loud discussion took place, wether Gandalf had taken down hundreds of dragons or not.

Thorin, now finished with his meal, and unusually annoyed by the noisy gathering, suddenly stood up.

“Shazara!” in Khuzdul he calls them to order.

A glance into the living room reassured him, that the hobbit was still fine. He stops in his very motion.

‘Why would I bother if that lass is comfortable or not? Thought, she is not that bad at all.’ Shaking his head he banishes the strange thoughts from his mind.

“Don’t you think others might have read the signs too? Rumours have begun to spread. Smaug hasn’t been seen for sixty years. Eyes look east towards the mountain. Calculating. Are we going to leave our home, our ancestors treasure, unprotected? No, we are going to take back what is rightfully ours. We are going to take back our home!”

Agreeing cheers hum through the air as they all begin to dream of a brighter future.

In the meantime, Bella has woken up. With both hands she clutches the mug of hot tea. It was no dream. This is real. There are indeed thirteen dwarves in her hallway. Happily chattering about a glorious future once they reclaimed their mountain. Anxiously she takes a sip of tea . Her hands are shaking. Just like that one time she had to fight for the first time in her life. Her first time holding her sword. She misses the trusted weight on her hips.

Quietly she wanders towards the happy cheers and loud laughters. Bella stops in the round opening which leads into the hallway where the dwarves placed the table to fit everyone in. None of them notices her. She also has no intention on announcing her presence. Simply standing here, counting ‘her’ dwarves and watching them, calms her down. Her hands stop shaking, allowing her to take another sip of tea.

The dwarves continue to make plans when Ori seems to realise something.

“So this is why we need a burglar!”

“Yes, you are right, Ori. A dragon guards his plunder til his death. To get the Arkenstone, and the help of all those who swore their loyalty upon it, we need an expert burglar. If the dragon is still alive he must steal the Arkenstone.” Balin nods.

Dwalin looks down on the table. He seems deep in thoughts. And he is not the only one. Bofur as well as Kíli and Fíli were observing the halfling for the whole evening. She did act strange. Not upset, angry, annoyed or surprised. Rather friendly and understanding. With thirteen dwarves -she shouldn’t know- inviting themselves inside and pillaging her pantry Belladonna Baggins was still friendly and understanding. She simply smiled at the harsh jokes and rough manners of them. Always refilling the plates and mugs of her guests.

Bofur is the one speaking out what they all seem to brood over.

“Does one of you know this hobbit, besides Gandalf?”

It is a rather simple question. Still, it irritates half of the dwarves while the other half gets what is going on.

Gandalf leans back. He looks amused to Bella and as their eyes meet, she could swear he winked.

“I don’t know her.” Gloin denies.

Oin had to be asked twice until he also denied, as well as the rest of them. Dwalin rises to speak.

“When I arrived, she jumped at me . I first thought I was attacked. She was sobbing and muttering something of being relieved that I was alive. Then suddenly pulling away. She knew the lads names before they arrived.” The tattooed warrior looks a bit lost, as if he still couldn’t quite understand if that was real.

Fíli and Kíli are strongly nodding.

“She hugged us, uncle. Tears in her eyes.” Fíli says. “She looked a bit like mother when she said farewell to us…” Kíli adds.

Suddenly they all had something to say. Except Bombur. He was still eating. Without a care in the world or for this conversation. Bellas lips curled up to a shy smile. He was still the same as always. In fact they all where.

‘If I go with them this time, maybe I can change their fate. Now I am more capable than ever. I could save them.’ Deep in thoughts Bella starts chewing on her lip, not realising she had bitten too hard. Blood was coming out.

“Has she gone mad?”

Bellas head shoots up. Her eyes locking onto Dori.

In this exact moment she had to make a decision. Tell them about her ‘situation’ or not to tell them at all. She would go with them, if they want her to or not. That was for sure. Even if she would tell them, would they believe her? She surely wouldn’t. Gandalf, he may be of some help, well, maybe.

Lord Elrond, or to be precise, Lady Galadriel might know how to handle this kind of situation.

Yes. Better not tell them. She would figure out how to help them. She would change their fate. She would save their lives. Nothing, not even a dragon would ever hinder her. She wouldn’t let them die a second time. Determined what she had to do she takes a step into the light.

“Well, master Dori. Who wouldn’t? With thirteen dwarves in my home, pillaging my pantry, trailing mud through the halls, throwing my mothers finest dishes from one to another and into my kitchen. With a wizard, who only speaks in riddles and a king who can’t even properly introduce himself!” The grip around her mug tightens as she takes another step into the room.

“I also have to apologise. I haven’t introduce myself yet. Belladonna Baggins, at your service. You are very welcome to stay the night. I have plenty of vacant rooms, also plenty pillows so you could sleep all together in my living room. It is a pleasure to meet you all.”

Once again silence fills the hobbit hole. Bofur stopped eating and Oin looked around with a curious look.

“Give her the contract.” Thorin grunts in Balins direction.

The dwarf stands up and rummages through his pockets. His white beard swinging from one side to the other.

“Just the usual. Summary of all the pocket expanses. Time required. Funeral arrangements, so forth.”

Bella had read that contract before. She takes it from Balin before Thorin could shove it onto her again like last time. Briefly reading through she looks up again. They all observed her. Again she chews on her lip till the taste of iron fills her mouth.

“I am sorry… I can’t sign this.” Bella muttered more to herself than to the company.

Immediately an uproar of complains, disbelief and angry ‘I told you’ screams, hindered her to make her request.

Dwalin, hammering with his fist on the poor table while loudly arguing with Gloin. Bifur barking in Khuzdul and making different gestures with his hands towards Oin, who looked even more confused. Fíli and Kíli throwing bits of food across the table and yelling about that they wouldn’t need a burglar, because the dragon would long be dead. Thorin is surprisingly quiet.

Bella politely signs Balin to follow her into the living room. He follows, as does Gandalf. Thorin as well followed them, out of curiosity only of course and not because he was concerned what the halfling had to say.

“I can’t sign this…” she tries to start again.

“When did doilies and your mothers dishes become so important to you? I remember a young hobbit who was running of in search of elves in the woods. Who would stay out late, coming home trailing twigs and mud and fireflies. A young hobbit who would like any better than finding out what is beyond the borders of the shire. The world isn’t in your books and maps. It is out there.” The Istari points towards the window.

A long deep sight escaped Bellas mouth. She feels the burning look of Thorin on her back. Looking at Balin she tries for a third time.

“Master Balin. I am terrible sorry, but I can’t sign the contract.”

A despising grunt from behind her makes her close her mouth once again. She could ignore the stubborn and prejudice dwarven king, but where would be the fun in that? So she turns around.

Thorin had known from the very beginning that something was terribly wrong with this hobbit. She was different. In her presence it was hard to keep a neutral expression. She reminds him even a bit of his sister. When she was near he started to question all sort of things, even himself. And the worst, there didn’t seem to be a reasonable explanation for all of this.

Before he could stop himself a displeased grunting sound vibrates in his throat. The hobbit stops talking and slowly turns around to look him in the eyes. He takes a moment to examine her. Long and curly brown hair framing her lovely face. Sharp shining green-blue eyes and a mouth that always seems to smile gently. Her ears slightly showing between the thick curls are a little bit pointy. Her green dress with the yellow waistcoat beautifully complementing her figure and eyes.

‘How nice would it be to braid those amazing curls’

“Can I help you with something, master Thorin?” she asks him gently, yet with a sharp subtext.

Thorin straightens himself to his full height, like a young dwarf caught red-handed.

“Right, you…” before Thorin could think of any kind of convenient answer his nephews storm into the living room.

“Mistress Boggins!” Kíli shouts, “I think I set your kitchen on fire.” And then disappearing again.

Fíli watches as Bella slowly stands up and makes her way towards him. As she passes Balin she smiles apologising. Fíli looks at his uncle. Thorins whole attention was focused on the lass. His eyes following her every motion. To most others it might have looked like the dwarf was angrily eyeing her, but Fíli could read his uncle way better than most. This expression he had never seen before. With a last concerned look towards his uncle he follows Bella into the kitchen.

Thick black smoke filled the room. The shadows of two people running up and down in front of a small flame makes Bella lift one eyebrow. Kíli was trying to suffocate the flame with one of her doilies. Which obviously wouldn’t work. While Ori could only jump from one foot onto the other, a frightened look in his eyes.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no… What should we do? What if she yells at us?” Bella heard Ori mutter in a panic.

Bella opens one of the windows and allows the smoke to leave her home. Rolling up her sleeves she grabs Kíli on one ear and Ori by the arm.

“What where you trying to do? I do like you both, but I don’t trust your cooking skills. Please leave my kitchen.” She escorts them into the hallway where she releases both.

Bella turns towards the older brother. Fíli had been watching her from the side this whole time. She returns his puzzled look. Defeated she closes her eyes for a moment.

'What a mess. Those are really my dwarves!’

“Fíli, would you be so kind and get Bombur and Bofur for me? And please don’t look at me like that. Next time please just ask if you are still hungry. Tell this your brother as well. I am not angry at either of you, so please calm Ori down. I am certain Kíli must have dragged him along, like always. And if you are still in the mood for a little snack, down the hallway to the left, on the board there should still be some cookies and other pastries. Well, if Dwalin hasn’t eaten all of them.”

“It appears we have lost our burglar. Probably for the best. What are we? Merchants, minors, tinkers, toymakers. Hardly the stuff of legends.” Balin sits down once again. Defeated he looks up to his friend.

“There are a few warriors amongst us.” The king answers, his arms crossed. His voice nothing more than a low rumble.

“Old warriors.” Balin corrects him. His eyes wander towards the rest of the company.

“I would take all of these dwarves over an army of the iron hills. For when I called upon them they answered. Loyalty. Honour. A willing heart. I can ask no more than that.” Thorin steps nearer to the fireplace. His mind was still set on the halfling. Somehow he couldn’t free himself from the urge to follow her, to watch her whenever she is in sight. Absent minded he starts to hum.

“We are with you laddie. We will see it done.” Balin whispers before he also joins the low hum.

One by one the whole company of Thorin Oakenshield finds their way into the living room. The fire is burning brightly, sending small sparks into the dark night sky. Those who are old enough remember the raging fires of the day when the dragon came.

Far over the misty mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away ere break of day

To find our long-forgotten gold

The pines were roaring on the height

The winds were moaning in the night

The fire was red, it flaming spread

The trees like torches blazed with light

Chapter 1

Masterpost

[writingfromkitchenator]

Eomer ~ Charity

1,000 Followers Challenge!

Requested by Anon

Words: 1,825

Warnings: Slight angst, injured character, homeless character, witch reader, threatened reader

Not going to lie, I struggled to write this one and I’m not overly happy with it.

You found Eomer wounded, alone and barely conscious.  It took some time to get him back to your home, barely being able to manage the dead weight of the man, but it was the only way to ensure he was safe from whatever managed to do this to him in the first place.

It was easy to tell he was a high ranked soldier, that he’d spent most of his life fighting, he was perhaps even royalty, something you learnt later to be true, and while unsure of who were bringing to your house, you had no doubt of his quality.

Normally, you were careful of such things, after all, most were untrustworthy of you, but you’d always had a generous nature and helped, even unseen, where you could.

Eomer’s wounds were many and you knew it would take some time for him to heal, with magic at your fingertips and many years of knowledge behind you, you were quick to mend the worst to minor and put any worry that creased his unconscious brow to rest.

It did not make him any less cautious when he woke.

“Who are you?”  His voice, cracked as it was, broke through the silence of your home as you sat reading over a book.

You cast him a warm smile.  “I am Y/N, and you my good, are lucky I found you otherwise I doubt you would be in this world any longer.”

Eomer’s nose screwed up as he focused a bleary-eyed gaze on you. “The witch?”

Sighing, you stand and hurry over to him as he tries to sit, quickly resting a gentle hand on his chest to keep him lying down.  “A white witch, if you must know, one that has tended to your wounds while you slept and certainly not dared on doing anything foul, even if I was capable of such things.”

He blinks at you, his mind still foggy and his body still in pain.  “Why?”

Smiling, you grab a mug of water and hold it out to him, allowing him to drink.  “Because I like to help, not hinder.”  He sinks into the bed, clearly exhausted.  “Would you care to do the same courtesy my lord and tell me your name?”

“Eomer.”  He said in a far away voice as he falls back into slumber.  “Eomer.”

He wasn’t just royalty; he was the king of Rohan.

This came as a little more troubling to you than it should have, knowing that soldiers would no doubt be out looking for their wounded king, and if they found him here, no matter what you said to those you met, superstition would always win out, the memories of the war still all too fresh.

But still, you cared for him, and slowly, his days of consciousness grew longer, as did your conversations, and he grew more comfortable in your presence, quickly realising what a fool he’d been and that he was sorry to have misjudged you.

You shrugged it off, used to it, but you couldn’t deny the small satisfaction and smile it gave you to have one of such standing say so.

Finally, Eomer asked for a way to send word to his people, to let them know that he was safe and where they could find him.

You agreed, but only he would not mention you and mention somewhere far from your home.  He did so without question.

It was strange being alone again after him being there for so long, and you found, for the first time in a very long time, that you were growing lonely, missing your conversations, missing the way he seemed to take in every word that you were saying, even though, in hindsight, you knew if couldn’t make sense to him.

You missed Eomer.  The revelation was startling to you and a second you doubted what you felt, having been alone for so long, but no, you did genuinely miss him.

One day you went to the closest village, having not been since rescuing him and wanting to try and put thoughts of him aside, and while it mostly worked, the curl of smoke you on the horizon as you returned home, made your stomach twist.

The soldiers had burnt everything.

There was nothing left your home but smouldering ruins by the time your reached it, tears stinging at your eyes as you stared at the black remains, the basket in your hands falling to the ground.  You were left with nothing besides the clothes on your back and the contents of the basket now being blown in the wind.

You had never felt so alone.

It seemed for days that you wondered, trying to get someone to allow you to stay, but no one would, it seemed too that the soldiers had pre warned all the closest villages and people and what you were, and the longer this went one, the more your stomach burned with something you never wanted.

Disdain.

Hatred.

Fear.

You could be all three to all those that encountered you if you so desired.

Finally, you found an inn willing to let you stay the night, only rumours having reached them, and your head had barely hit the pillow before you slept.

When you awoke, there were angry voices outside.  Still weary, you walked out, it taking much longer than it should have to recognise Eomer.

Fury curled in your stomach as he caught sight of you, quick to hurry after you as you turned on your heel back into your room.

“Y/N wait!”

“Why should I Eomer?”  You snarled coldly, taking him back.  “I owe you nothing.”

“For that I’m well aware,” He agreed quickly.  “It is I that owe you much, especially now, but I want you to know that this wasn’t my doing.”

“I’m sure.”

He grabs your arm and stops you as you try and bundle the small things you have together and glare at him, making him pause for a moment before he sighs and lets you go.

“I am sorry,” He said quietly, stepping back.  “When word reached of complaints against a witch in my hold, the soldiers had already acted without an order.  If I had known, if I had been there, then this would never have happened.  I am so sorry Y/N.  You deserve much more than this.”

You gather your things in your arms and go to move past him, to leave, not wanting to hear whatever else he had to say.

“Come back with me,” Eomer said as you walked past, making you freeze at the door.  “Come back with me Y/N, I can show my people what good you do.  Please.”

“What good I do?”  You asked bitterly.  “The good I do seems to only be turned back on my head.”

Eomer sighs sadly.  “I know, and I could never say sorry enough times for that, but please let me try, please let me take you somewhere safe.  I owe you that much.”

A moment passed, then two, as you thought heavily and what you wanted to do before you slowly came to realisation that you had no choice. “Are you sure?”

His gaze never left you.  “Absolutely.  You have a place in my home, as much space as you need, and my full support.”

Hesitation bubbled in your stomach but you turned to look at him, turned to see the earnestness in his gaze and nod.  “Very well Eomer.  Let’s see how it goes.”

There was a lot of buzz as you arrived and settled in, and while they trusted their kings word, they begin to wonder exactly what happened to him when he had gone missing.

It didn’t take long for rumours to circulate that you had him under a spell, after all, the villages discussed, had not Theoden fallen under the same thing?

You ignored what you could, but it wasn’t made easy when Eomer seemed to constantly be somewhere other than where you wanted him to be, your conversations few and far between, caught between meetings and trips and training with soldiers.  You weren’t sure why, but a part of you had been hoping that it would be somewhat like you’d had before.

But soon, the cold words and mistrustful gazes grew too much and you knew you had to move on.

Eomer stopped you.  “You cannot possibly be thinking of leaving?”

“Why should I not?”  You asked, sounding harsher than you intended.  “I am not wanted here, no matter who I helped, so therefore there is no reason I should stay.”

“Of course there is,” He said, reacting to the tone in your voice.  “You are here by my wishes, helping the people and answering questions when I need advice.  That should be enough for them.”

“Well, it’s not enough for me!”  You snap, rounding on him.  “I am no worse than a rat to them!  Something to glare at as if they’ve found me in the larder and I can’t take it anymore Eomer!  Your guards shadow me, rather poorly, in the halls and no one stops and thinks to even have a conversation with me.  Do you have any idea how lonely that gets?  Especially when you give nothing but your heart?”

“Then I will set them straight!”

“You haven’t been here!”

“Well, I’m here now and I’m staying.  I will get this sorted right now!”

“Do you think you could at least try to love me?”  You shouted angrily, blinking furiously away to stop any tears.  “Do you think that I could be shown even one shred of decency as another human being?”

Eomer stared at you, his eyes wide for a moment, but you were beyond caring at the careless words that tumbled from you, too tired and worn to be fighting back while still hiding the truth.

“That’s all I want Eomer,” You said, turning away from him. “I want someone to love me, just as I love everyone.  It is tiring only being one-sided.”

Neither of you were sure what possessed Eomer in that moment, but his feet carried him to you and without warning, his lips pressed to yours, startling you and finally making the reality of your words sink in.

He broke away, his hands cupping your cheeks as he holds your gaze, his eyes begging.  “Give me one more chance, I can make all this right, make it all go away and give you the life you deserve.  Just one more chance, then you can leave if it’s still not…not the way it should be. Please.  Please Y/N?”

Tentatively, you reach up and lightly brush your finger along his lips, a little in awe and definitely still in shock, your voice quiet. “One more chance Eomer, just one more.”

Eomer nods firmly before pulling you back into a kiss, holding you close, even as you wondered exactly how things could possibly change and be better than this.

[such-fun]

Fic: Closer to the Light    Part 4/? Kylo Ren x Reader

Closer to the Light

Pairing: Kylo Ren x Reader

Summary: You rejected the Force once, but it’s pull won’t be denied.

Spoilers: No TROS spoilers. Takes place just before The Force Awakens and continues from there. Rey will feature but not as heavily.

Tag list: @babsbixby​, @i-am-lokii-of-asgard​, @holacherrycola90​, @bookworm-nerd6, @fanofallthingsnstuff​, @bulba-bulbasaur​, @thomasscresswell​, @vampgguk​, @johnnysactualgf​, @siobhanlovesfilm​, @hockslutter​, @hopplessdreamer​, @prurose​, @hoki-lokison​, @flashcal​

Four:

Two weeks had passed, by your estimate, since you last saw Ben. Since you last saw anyone besides anonymous storm troopers who only came by your cell to drop off your meals. The food was rather meager but you had hardly expected a feast. At least it kept your stomach relatively full and your body in decent enough condition.

With little options left to you for entertainment, you spent most of your time meditating. 

It felt strange to return to your old habit. As a child, you spent hours a day meditating in between training. Master Luke said it would help strengthen your connection to the Force. The more you welcomed its presence, the easier you could call upon your power in times of need. It had been many years since you had actively reached out to the Force. When you were in hiding, you never tried to create a connection. You had wanted nothing to do with it.

When you meditated back then, it was simply in hopes of calming your mind. The hard work you forced upon yourself kept you distracted during the remaining time of your exile. As long as you kept busy, your mind didn’t wander and the temptation to return to Leia, to find your wayward Master, or to dwell on thoughts of Ben didn’t overwhelm you.

But there would be little benefit from denying your connection with the Force any longer. You didn’t know why the Supreme Leader wanted you here, or what Ben intended to do with you, but you would need your wits about you. 

Your powers were weak, had always been in comparison to Ben, but if you hoped to survive your imprisonment you would have to embrace them once more. You could no longer deny your Jedi training.

It might be the only thing that saved your life.

You closed your eyes, taking a deep breath through your nose and exhaling out your mouth. Your back rested flatly against the cold wall of your cell, legs crossed and hands in your lap. The background noise of the ship, the marching feet of storm troopers, the occasional announcement on the loudspeakers, faded as you allowed the Force to flow through you.

When your eyes opened you were no longer in your barren cell. 

Taken aback, you pushed yourself slowly to your feet. You studied the room you where you now stood, unsure. The gray walls resembled those on the ship and you imagined you were still within its confines. 

It had been so long since you had even attempted projecting your consciousness, that feeling had you floundering.

A lone pedestal caught your attention and you took hesitant steps toward it, regarding it curiously. 

Something warped and black sat atop what almost looked like sand. But the color was too dark, and it’s texture flaked instead of gritty. Your stomach dropped when the only logical answer came to you.

Ashes. But what, or who, had burned?

The prized piece at the center of the pedestal was mangled but anyone who had lived through the Empire’s reign, or its subsequent fall, could tell what it was. Its owner had been the stuff of nightmares. 

Darth Vader. His melted and disfigured mask was on display like a treasured possession.

It was then when you knew exactly where you were, whose rooms you were in.

“Kriffing hell,” you muttered in shock.

“How did you get out?” a sharp demand caused you to turn on your heel. You were confronted with an angry Ben glaring down at you.

His mask was off, but his expression only spoke to the fury that was running though him. His hand shot out, calling the power of the Force to him as he tried to pry your answer from you. “Tell me.”

You didn’t feel any compulsion to reply, which took you slightly by surprise. Instead, you cocked your head to the side curiously. 

There had been a time when you and Ben were so close, so entwined in friendship that it felt as if you shared thoughts. As if you could speak to each other with merely a look. But nothing like this had ever happened before. 

Kylo’s eyes narrowed, looking you up and down.

“You aren’t here,” he considered, taking a tentative step forward. You took an unconscious step back. “You aren’t strong enough to project,” he was mostly talking to himself. “It would kill you. No…this is something else…

“I can’t see where you are. Can you see where I am?”

“You have Vader’s mask,” your voice shook, appalled. “Like a trophy, an idol. Kriff, Ben!” 

You could never quite bring yourself to call him by his chosen name. You didn’t know Kylo Ren. You knew Ben Solo. And no matter what he had done, and planned to do, you wouldn’t delude yourself into acting as if he were a separate person. 

“No!” he shouted furiously. He pointed an accusing finger in your face, “Don’t call me that!” 

You shook your head in stubborn refusal. 

“He was a monster!” you exclaimed, disgusted by the sight. Your normal sense of caution around him vanished as you stumbled away from the cursed object. 

“He was a leader,” Kylo snapped. “He was powerful. He had a vision for the galaxy and I will see it through.”

“You’re delusional,” you murmured sadly, forcing yourself to stand your ground as he strode angrily toward you. He dwarfed you with his presence, made you feel paltry and fragile. 

“I am stronger than he ever was,” he spat, his body crowding you now as you turned in on yourself, making yourself smaller. “He allowed emotion to overcome him, to weaken him. I won’t make the same mistake.”

The sneer that crossed his face spoke volumes about how he felt about you. Whatever feelings he had for you in the past, platonic or other, they were gone. He had smothered all trace of affection and care until only a shell of his former self remained. 

It made you want to cry. To see what had become of him shattered a tiny part of your heart you didn’t even realize still belonged to him.

“Then why am I here?” you wondered, voice soft and confused. 

And you were utterly confused. If his new Master taught him to eschew all attachments, what was the benefit of keeping you around? You were nothing but a physical reminder of his past. A reminder of his parents, Master Luke, the Jedi, everything he had left behind that night in the temple.

You met his stare and you saw the first crack in his stone faced facade. You inhaled sharply at the uncertainty in his eyes.

Jaw clenched and mouth tense, he reluctantly admitted, “I don’t know.” 

You licked your lips nervously and allowed a sliver of hope to enter your heart at his hesitation.

All too quickly the steely determination returned to his gaze and he spoke softly, with a dark promise. 

“But I am going to find out.”

And in an instant you were back in your body, back in the cell that had become your home, and you felt fear like never before.

———————————-

The larger than life hologram of the Supreme Leader glitched before coming into focus. In the darkness Snoke appeared like a colossus, dwarfing his apprentice who greeted him on one knee and with bowed head. 

Kylo attempted to look pliant and submissive, but Snoke was hardly fooled. Ren’s temper was nearly a physical thing and even from a distance he could feel it ebbing and crashing as his pupil struggled to remain calm.

“Why have you called upon me?” he drawled, his scarred mouth pulling into a deep frown. 

In truth he knew what had brought Ren to his throne, it had only been a matter of time. Snoke had purposely left the boy to fret and seethe these past weeks. The dark side was fueled by passion and anger, after all. Kylo Ren, with all his resentment and indignation, was feeding it heartily even when he was merely thinking of the girl.

“Supreme Leader,” the vocoder on Kylo’s mask making his voice sound hollow, “I seek your wisdom.”

Snoke waved his hand lazily and Ren moved to stand, still showing deference to his Master.

“The girl…” he began again, unsure how to approach his temperamental lord. “She is no Jedi. She has no knowledge of the Resistance. She is of no consequence and yet she remains on the Finalizer—”

“And there she shall remain,” Snoke interrupted with a curl of his lip.

“She is a distraction!” Ren erupted, and Snoke didn’t bother covering his delighted grin.

 “Precisely,” he agreed, and Kylo fell silent. “She distracts you.”

Leaning forward in his throne, Snoke towered above Kylo. It made the Commander of the First Order feel like an errant child and he loathed it.

“You say she is of no consequence,” he continued drolly. “And yet you failed to kill her at the temple. You allowed her to escape. I have taught you to reject sentiment, and yet sentiment is what has kept her alive all these years. Even now, locked away and out of sight, she haunts you. Do you know why that is?” Snoke eyed his apprentice with vague amusement. 

“A bond, when forged through the Force, is not easily broken.” Kylo was thankful for the mask he donned, it kept Snoke from seeing his embarrassed rage. “Your grandfather, without benefit of such a bond, allowed jealousy and passion to consume him and caused him to lose sight of his plans. To waste his potential. But where Vader failed, you will flourish.”

“Supreme Leader—” Kylo tried to argue, but Snoke huffed scornfully. 

“The bond exists,” he jeered. “Do not deny it, boy. You may not have felt it as strongly until now, until the girl began to connect to the Force once more, but it has endured since your youth. 

“It has benefited your training until now to allow it to remain unacknowledged,” Snoke revealed, and Kylo’s body tensed. “You needed to separate yourself from the child you once were. Now that you have grown so powerful, it can be of use to us.”

“You taught me to renounce emotion,” Kylo tried to understand.

“Emotion is what fuels the dark side,” Snoke hissed. “I taught you to reject sentimentality. Love. Love is a weakness. It is what cost your grandfather everything. But passion is an emotion. Passion, and hate, and anger, all are food that nourish your strength and power. 

“If you are to grow to your true potential, you also need control. No one can rival your power, but you lack discipline. You are reckless. You are heedless and feckless and it will get you killed.”

Kylo’s teeth ground together at his Master’s reprimand.

“The girl is no match for your power over the Force,” Snoke admitted blithely. “But in regards to restraint, she is your superior.

“The bond you wish to deny can grant you the control you lack. But you must nurture it. The girl is but a pawn,” he said dismissively. “She is a conduit. Through your bond, you will only grow stronger.”

Head bowed in reluctant acceptance, Kylo entreated, “What would you have me do?”

“Keep her close,” Snoke command was low and coaxing. “Foster the bond you share. Learn from it. Master your emotion until you can wield it just as steadily as your lightsaber.”

“And then?” he wondered aloud. Snoke gave a sinister grin. It was a terrible thing to behold and a small part of Kylo worried at the sight of it.

“When you have succeeded,” the Supreme Leader declared, sitting back in this throne with an air of victory, “you will sever the bond and kill the girl.”

[winterromanov]

“If you can’t sleep…we could have sex?” with bucky? X

pairing - bucky x reader

You can feel the self-hatred bubbling up inside you before you even send the message.

It’s 1:25am. You really should be asleep, but instead you’re lying in bed watching your curtains flutter every time a car rushes by outside, listening to the muffled voices of party-goers staggering home. You should do anything, literally anything, than text Bucky. It’s not fair on either of you. You know this, even in your rambling insomnia-riddled of a head, that texting Bucky is an extremely bad idea.

And yet... It’s like you can picture him lying wide-eyed in his own bed just across the city, sleep alluding him as much as it’s alluding you. You know he’ll come over if you asked. Which is the worst part of the problem. If he was even the littlest bit resistant to your post midnight demands maybe you’d shove your phone in a drawer and try and forget about it. But he isn’t, so you don’t. You just stare and stare at the black screen on your nightstand and try and pull back your hand.

“Fuck,” you hiss, because mocking his lack of restraint is so freaking hypocritical when you’re just as bad. If not worse. The white light of your phone screen makes you grimace as you open up your text messages, hovering over Bucky’s name.

This is not fair. This is not fair. This is not fair.

Well, life’s not fair. You might as well get a fuck out of it.

Hey, you tap out, ignoring the loathing unfurling deep in your ribcage, You up?

Three little dots appear almost instantly, but you’d predicted that. Bucky skulks round the night like a metal-armed wraith; sometimes you think he avoids sleep on purpose, until it’s absolutely necessary, because the demons that race through his unconscious mind are just as bad as the ones that lurk in HYDRA hellholes. 

(You know he uses these instances to curb his imagination as much as you do with your own. It’s a mutual slaughter of internal ghosts--or at least putting them on stand-by, for a bit. It’s really not the healthiest of coping mechanisms.)

Of course. Can’t sleep.

There’s probably a few dozen exchanges in your message history between the two of you that start the exact same, and end the exact same. It would be a psychologist’s dream, analysing whatever the fuck this is, the cyclical nature of your interactions. Always acting like you don’t know what you want--at first--but clearly having the same end goal in mind.

Well

If you can’t sleep

We could have sex

(After the initial greeting, there’s no point in not cutting straight to the crux of the matter. You’ve got a routine. A routine you’ve tried to stop, but hey, you’ve never been very good at that.)

Bucky takes a moment to reply, which has your heartbeat thudding--it doesn’t usually take him this long. Maybe he’s realising this is awful, whatever the fuck you’re doing. For two extremely fucked-up people to continuously have sex and never talk about it outside the context of dark, heady apartments, to let it keep happening and happening like it’ll solve everything.

It strikes you. It strikes you that you could find some random stranger on Tinder every single night you feel lonely and drowning in trauma and just fuck them, no strings attached, no expectations. But instead you always always always go back to Bucky. Always. And he’s even more disastrous than you are.

This is more than just sex, isn’t it? 

I’ll be ten minutes, Bucky eventually replies. It’s the first time you wish he wouldn’t be.

-

He appears in your doorway with a hood pulled over his head and his hands in his pockets. Despite it being close to 2am, his eyes are sharp--his mouth set in a taught, thin line. Usually he wouldn’t need this long to cross the threshold and cover your mouth with his. Usually you would be pulling your shirt over your head by now.

“We need to talk,” his voice is low, gravelly, like molten rock. He pulls down his hood. His hair is long and messy and now, without the shadow, you can see the bags under his eyes.

You offer him a watery half-smile. “Yeah. We probably should.”

“There’s no should about it, (Y/N). We say should all the time. We say should every time we avoid doing the things we don’t want to do.”

“I’m sorry,” you say quietly, “I just--I just don’t know what to say. We took this too far, didn’t we? We should have just fucking stopped.”

When you say stop, his expression changes, transforming into that of panic. You have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. You know you should stop, before things get even more out of control, but it’s like...It’s like the thought visibly turns his stomach. Like it turns yours.

His hand reaches out, timidly at first, like he’s not sure if you’re going to reach back. Your fingers curl round his like a reflex. You’re not usually tender with each other, because tender would mean feelings, sensitivity. 

“We’re terrible influences on each other,” he says with a wry smile. You laugh a little, looking away. At the muddy sneakers on his feet. “My God, (Y/N), it would kill me if I stopped seeing you.”

“So what do you want to do?”

He pauses, biting his bottom lip in thought. “Hell if I know. I just want--this late night rendezvous, text and I’ll come running, is fucking toxic for both of us isn’t it? We can’t use each other like this anymore.”

You squeeze his fingers tighter. “Does that mean...you want something more serious? Flowers and movie dates and shit? Talking about our emotions in a measured, healthy way rather than just sleeping together?”

Bucky blinks. “Is that what you want?”

You step a little closer to him. Standing on your toes, you curl your hands round his neck, running through his hair. His hands find your waist. “We’re both fucked up. Like, I’ve never denied that. But if the last coupla’ months have taught me anything--it’s always you I come running to. I know we never talk, and we should, but I do want you, Bucky. I want every, fucked up bit of you. All the strings, all the shitty memories, all the phantoms... I will treasure every single thing you give me.”

His mouth opens as he finds the words to match yours, but instead he leans forwards, pressing a kiss on your forehead. 

“I am scared. All the time. I am scared of this city that looks nothing like how I remember it. I am scared of the winter soldier and the hold he still has over me. Hell, I’m even scared of Steve sometimes, because he still looks in my eyes and searches helplessly for a man who has been long since dead. But I’ve never been scared when I’m with you. That’s why I always come when you ask.” He looks you in the eyes, fervent and honest. “You have already given me way more than I deserve.”

“Bucky Barnes, you deserve way more than this cruel world has thrown at you. And me. You deserve more than booty calls and fucking against radiators.” You smile teasingly. “Although those things can be pretty great.”

“You’re not wrong.” His smile mirrors yours. “I don’t know how this will play out. But we can try, yeah? We can at least try to be functional.”

“Yeah. We can be functional and still fuck on my towel rack, right?”

Bucky shrugs. “I mean...we could always test the theory?”

You kiss him, long and slow and glorious, his mouth hot and his lips slightly dry. You grin as you tug on his neckline, pulling him from the hall and into your apartment. You kick the door closed with your bare foot. 

“You know,” he says as your pulling his sweater off, pressing frantic kisses along his neckline, “This feels so much better now I know you actually like me. And not just because I have an exceptionally large dick.”

Your laugh echoes around the room when you shove him against a wall. “You sweet, sensitive boy. And don’t flatter yourself. It is definitely only average.”

“Only average, huh? We’ll see about that.”

You kiss him on the tip of his nose. “We’ll see about that.”

send me a request

[jokertrap-ran]

(未定事件簿) 莫弈 [剧情: 第1章] [Tears of Themis] Mo Yi Private Story Translations (Chapter 1-5)

*Tears of Themis Masterlist / Mo Yi’s Masterlist is under construction. *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *In which, Ran attempts Chinese… *(y/n) is your name when in direct referral; otherwise referred to as MC.

Location: Mall

Mo Yi: (Y/n). You're here.

I had just walked into the entrance of the mall when I caught sight of Mo Yi, standing on the stairs.

The sunlight refracted strangely on his silvery hair and his golden eyes were full of happy mirth, as intoxicating as champagne itself.

MC: Sorry to keep you waiting, Doctor Mo.

I had actively pursued the term PUA yesterday but came up pretty short, with a bucket full of questions. I had originally planned to give him a call, in a bid to have him explain the foreign term to me. However, I didn't expect him to be one step ahead of me, calling first.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

MC: Doctor Mo? Did something happen for you to be calling me this early?

Mo Yi: I apologise for having disturbed you during your rest.

Mo Yi: I've subjected Lin Yunyun to Sand-play Therapy, proceeding your findings. There's been results.

Mo Yi: She has unconsciously selected a couple of tools which has a strong aggressive image whilst laying them out.

Mo Yi: However, her aggression is a form of self-protection. Her heart is one that's extremely fragile. Hence, she is doubting the value of her existence.

MC: ...She doubts her own existence? Is this why she turned to self-harming?

Mo Yi: That's right. Based on the results of this, we can say that Lin Yunyun has suffered mental abuse from that boyfriend of hers. And that she has lost the ability to save herself from her own person.

Mo Yi: She is like that of typical PUA victims. Most of their Sandboxes tend to turn out the same way.

MC: PUA stands for Pick-up Artists, right? I've researched about it, but I'm not entirely clear about what it entails...

Mo Yi: Some things are hard to explain in just a mere line or two. How about we meet up if you've got the time to spare?

MC: Sure. How does the mall sound? It's along the way for both of us.

Mo Yi: Alright. I'll get ready to leave immediately.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

I thought that I'd be the one to arrive first since I lived closer to the place, but Mo Yi was already there before me.

Mo Yi: I've only just reached as well. I apologize; I couldn't really explain everything to you over the phone call this morning.

Perhaps the topic he was about to approach next was a grave one, for the gentle expression on his face darkened.

Mo Yi: Lin Yunyun's boyfriend utilized the typical techniques of PUAs. I thought they had already broken off with each other.

MC: I looked it up yesterday, but isn't PUA just a way for introverted boys to improve their emotional intelligence?

Mo Yi: At first, yes. Back when it was first founded.

Mo Yi: However, PUA started diverging from its original intention along the way as it developed; from a method of actively changing oneself to a means of satisfying one's selfish desires.

Mo Yi: Men who find themselves unpopular in real life use PUA to create different personalities for themselves. Emperors, Prodigal Sons, Poets...

Mo Yi: Equipped with a complete set of varying personalities, it is easy for one to build up a facade in the virtual world.

MC: Prodigal Sons and Poets are easy enough to understand on their own, but what exactly is an Emperor?

Mo Yi and I were walking alongside each other and I could occasionally feel the eyes of the passerbys on us.

He only smiled at my question.

Mo Yi: The Emperor persona in the harmful version of PUA is something that's different from the well-known concept that the public attributes it to.

Mo Yi: They look as if they're doing well for themselves on the outside. But after successfully netting a girl, they'll reveal that they didn't come from a good family background, and that they've always been looked down by others.

Mo Yi: A hardworking, motivated man who has suffered but yet succeeded in life. This image is one that simple girls will fall for with no problem at all.

MC: But it's not like girls are stupid either. Why would they fall for something so obviously fishy and flimsy?

Mo Yi: This might come as something rather sudden, but I wish to hear your thoughts on me, (y/n).

MC: Huh? My thoughts...? Someone with a successful career...a very good and talented Psychiatrist? I don't think any ordinary person can live up to what you have.

Mo Yi: I see...so that's what you think of me.

A lonely look suddenly appeared on his face.

Mo Yi: I'm not as great as you think I am. I am but a stupid bird that had flown the nest too early.

Mo Yi: No one really appreciated me in the past, but their attitudes all changed once I worked hard and got some achievements under my name.

Mo Yi: The title of being a genius has never belonged to one like me. I can only hope that there'll be someone who doesn't care about titles by my side. Someone who appreciates me from the bottom of their heart, supports me and sees me for who I am.

MC: ...Doctor Mo...I...I didn't know that you came from such a situation.

I didn't know how to react to his unexpected revelation.

MC: I cannot become the person by your side...but you'll always have my support; so you're definitely not alone.

After hearing my answer, Mo Yi's saddened expression of loneliness faded and morphed into that of a quiet smile.

Mo Yi: And you've just fallen for the trap of immoral PUA schematics.

MC: Huh!? Wait, you...you were just acting???

Mo Yi: That's right. People tend to feel a kind of compassion, wanting to help those in a disadvantaged position. This is especially so when a mature person shows their fragility in front of them.

Mo Yi: This immoral version of PUA takes advantage of this kind of mentality, using it as a way to score.

MC: ...And here I thought I definitely wouldn't fall for something like that.

Mo Yi: Now, if I were to carry on with this method that the immoral PUAs use, I'll continuously try to demean your self-confidence. And eventually, deny you of your own value and self-worth.

Mo Yi: And when you feel worthless before me, working so very hard to gain recognition...

Mo Yi: You'll become a complete puppet in the palm of my hand.

MC: A puppet in the palm of your hand...You mean, Lin Yunyun also fell for something like that; that's why she's slowly edging towards suicide?

Mo Yi: Yes.

MC: ......

The "Person" will lose their sense of self and forgo their own opinions; entrusting themselves to a fake person and would choose to sacrifice themselves on a single command. This wasn't love; this was voluntarily lowering oneself to a slave towards the other party.

Mo Yi: This twisted form of PUA causes devastation. It turns a girl, brimming full of life, into that of a puppet, or even a pet. One that satisfies their own selfish desires.

Mo Yi: It leaves them begging the other party for mercy under the facade of this so-called love.

He suddenly lowered his voice and bent down slightly. The couple of silvery, moonlight-like strands fell out of place as he bent down. Seeing them dangling before my eyes made me tempted to reach out and grab onto those scattered strands of moonlight.

Mo Yi: True love will bring hope and light into a person's life. It'll turn them into a much, much better person than before.

The distance between us was so close that I could catch a whiff of the scent that lingered on his clothes without even trying.

Mo Yi: You might meet the one that'll turn you into a better person at any point in your life, but you might not realize it at the time.

Raising my head, I could clearly see the looks of warmth and gentleness that resided within his eyes. And reflected in those depths, was me.

MC: ......

I patted myself on the cheek, trying to snap my slightly confused brain that had found itself momentarily attracted to Mo Yi out of it.

MC: What if the girl manages to see the man's true colours? We might be able to put a stop to it before it goes too far.

MC: Is there a way to deal with men who are PUA? I want to help Lin Yunyun get rid of him.

Mo Yi: Men who utilize the methods of immoral PUA are normally not satisfied with having just fulfilled a single goal.

Mo Yi: They're well-versed in hunting for targets. Especially young girls who've never fallen in love or those who've been emotionally hurt before.

MC: That's to say that I can chat him up and pretend to be interested in him?

Mo Yi: I am still unable to ascertain just how far Lin Yunyun's boyfriend has taken the PUA methods to. Thus, it'll be dangerous if you choose to take action now.

I couldn't help but to feel a little embarrassed at my insistence of wanting to take the initiative when I had just fallen for Mo Yi's invitation of immoral PUA not too long ago.

MC: ......

Just as I was thinking how to approach this mysterious boyfriend of Lin Yunyun's, Mo Yi suddenly spoke up.

Mo Yi: How about we act as a couple, (y/n)? That way, it'll be easier to lead the snake out of the hole.

Mo Yi: And I'll have a reason to stay by your side and watch the other party's every move, effectively preventing you from facing any danger whatsoever.

MC: P-Pretending to be a fake couple!?

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Previous Part: (Chapter 1-3) | Next Part: (Chapter 1-6)

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[ERS] Tonight, Upon Love’s Stage - Comte & Leonardo

Route Preview:

Guided by his hand, the heroine of a tragedy finds true love… —

Shakespeare: The prince that the Little Mermaid falls in love with will be Leonardo, while the magician who confers upon her legs will be le Comte. And the Little Mermaid herself — MC, will be you.

In accordance with Shakespeare’s request, we play the roles of “The Little Mermaid”.

[This is an unofficial work based on fan-translation. Copyright belongs to Cybird.]

Warning: Spoilers Underneath.

Route Summary:

Common Route

One afternoon, Shakespeare requests MC to appear in one of his plays. She agrees, and when she visits Will to meet the rest of the cast, she’s surprised to find Leo and the Count being roped in as well. Count informs her that Shakespeare rarely asked anything from him, so he and Leo agreed to be part of the production. Will gets around announcing that they’ll be adapting ‘The Little Mermaid,’ and he reveals that Leo was to play the part of the Prince while Count was to play the part of the Witch. When he gets to MC, he tells her she was going to be the Little Mermaid.

MC is surprised and tries to talk her way out of it since she wasn’t confident in being able to play the lead role, but Shakespeare tells her that the actress that was supposed to play the part wouldn’t be able to make it and he really had no other choice. MC yields, and both the Count and Leo encourage her, saying she shouldn’t worry since they’re all amateurs. She feels a bit better knowing that, and Shakespeare’s pleased to see everyone on board, saying it would’ve been pointless if the lead wasn’t MC in the first place.

Shakespeare: The story of ‘The Little Mermaid’ that tells the tale of love between a mermaid and a human, don’t you think it’s similar to that of love between a vampire and a human?

Shakespeare: That is… This is a story depicting ‘unrequited love.’

Both the Count and Leo tense up, and Leo goes on to recount how, in the story, the Little Mermaid’ love wasn’t returned and she disappeared into bubbles, all the while fixing MC a meaningful look that made her heart skip a beat. The Count then cuts in, saying that if it were up to him, he wouldn’t let the Little Mermaid’ love go unrequited. MC notices the Count was looking at her like she was the only one in the world, and she gets embarrassed. Leo tells the Count he’s the Witch so he can’t do that, and the Count tells him he’ll just use magic to keep the Little Mermaid locked in his arms.

Shakespeare’s pleased that everything’s settled, but MC wonders if they’re really going to be okay.

The next day during rehearsals, Leo and Count are naturals at acting, even with making ad-libs, but MC’s struggling with her lines. MC gets frustrated, especially when her character was supposed to be able to express herself even without using words, but she picks herself back up and asks to start from the beginning of the scene. Shakespeare, Leo and the Count are supportive and agree to another run through.

On the day of the performance, MC swallows her nerves and performs as best as she could to make sure the show is a success. However, during the scene where the Little Mermaid was supposed to leave the unconscious Prince at the beach after saving him from the storm, Leo grabs her hand and asks for a kiss, making sure the audience doesn’t notice.

MC’s startled by the sudden ad-lib, but Leo goes back to acting unconscious, and she presses on with acting out the rest of the scene. She notices Shakespeare watching by the curtains, but since he didn’t do anything to intervene, she assumes he was fine with it. Back stage though, the Count sees the stunt Leo pulled, and realizes he and Leo were thinking the same thing.

The show goes on and MC’s relieved that aside from Leo going off-script, everything was going along smoothly. The next scene has her acting with the Count, where she’s supposed to lose her voice in exchange for human legs, but instead of just handing her the bottle, the Count hesitates and asks her is it’s really what she wants. MC confirms that it is, and the Count asks for her voice in exchange, tracing his finger down her throat. MC is surprised by the gesture, since it wasn’t what they practiced, but Count tells her he’s just joking and lets her have the bottle.

Once she’s off stage, MC mulls over the fact that Count and Leo have managed to ad-lib and she’s struggling to keep up with them. Shakespeare drops by, saying that everything is going well, and she takes the opportunity to ask if it would be alright to not do ad-libs like the other two. Shakespeare says she has to, otherwise it would be unfair to everyone else who had brought a part of themselves onto the stage. He then tells her that she doesn’t need to act perfectly for the play to be a success. MC thinks over what he says, but before she could come up with something, she’s needed back on stage again.

The next scene focuses on the Prince taking back the Little Mermaid to his castle after finding her unconscious on the beach. Leo lays her down on a bed, but when he doesn’t leave like he’s supposed to, MC opens her eyes to find his face close to hers. Leo starts going off-script, talking about how the Little Mermaid looked like she was lonely. MC is captivated by the kindness she sees in his eyes, and she strengthens her resolve and hopes to be able to reach out to the audience, much like how Leo and everyone else does.

The play continues, and the scene changes to when the Little Mermaid heartbroken over the Prince being engaged to the princess of a neighboring kingdom and the Witch offers her a way to go back to being a mermaid. The Count offers MC a dagger and tells her to stab the Prince in the heart, in order to return to being a mermaid. He then takes hold of MC’s hand and discreetly breaks character to assure her she’s doing fine. Count goes back into character and tells her that he’ll always be thinking about the Little Mermaid. MC isn’t sure if that was part of the script, but she can’t help but notice that his hand felt warmer than usual as the Count walks off stage.

At the climax of the play, the Little Mermaid decides not to kill the Prince and accepts her fate to turn into bubbles in the sea. As part of the script, MC goes up some stairs on stage, but when she reaches the top, the panels beneath her feet give way. She starts falling, but a hand grabs onto her and saves her from the drop.

—

Comte End:

The moment you touch hearts, a new love story begins... 

“...I’ve lost. Now that I have you in my arms, I don’t want to let go.”

—

The Comte reaches out and catches MC, preventing her from falling. He pulled her into his arms and MC almost speaks out of shock, but he shushes her, saying that the Little Mermaid has lost her voice and that they need to bring the play to its full completion. He takes a deep breath and speaks, calling the Little Mermaid a cruel princess in that she has stolen his heart. 

The lights shine only on the two of them as his voice echoes through the theatre, and MC feels like his golden eyes are piercing right through her as he says this. 

Comte: … I have always been by your side and kept you in my heart. When you said that you desired to go to where the Prince was, I wanted to stop you, from the bottom of my heart. 

Comte: However, if I value your happiness, then there was nothing I could do but to let you go. 

MC wonders why her heart tightens so, even when the Little Mermaid must reject the Witch’s love for the scene to continue. She thinks that these are no longer the feelings of “the Little Mermaid”, but rather her own. As the Comte continues, MC thinks that suddenly, there is a mysterious pain that appears in his eyes. 

Comte: … However, if there comes a day where you return to my side — a day where I am able to hold you in my arms comes…. 

The Comte hugs the MC again and MC thinks that she’s forgotten how to breathe from his proximity. He concludes the line with saying that he has lost and no longer wants to let her go. Even though they are like their scripts, these words themselves do not seem to be fake at all, and MC feels like she can no longer move from the Comte’s warm embrace. 

He whispers to the MC again, this time urging her to bring the play to a climax. Pulling away, the Comte continues his lines, saying that there is something he needs to apologize to the MC for. This time, he speaks with a different voice, eyes gently narrowing into the familiar look that he wears everyday. MC thinks to herself that he now looks exactly like how he normally is. 

There is another way for the Little Mermaid to reclaim her voice, and the Comte mentions that it’s not particularly common, so he did not believe it to work. The entire time, starting from when he had rescued MC from her fall till now, has been ad-lidding, and MC has no idea what the Comte is planning. 

Comte: And furthermore, I had thought it was a magic forever unreachable for me. However, I will stop running away. 

The way he speaks is like weaving a tale, and MC feels like even one second stretches into a brief eternity — as if the Comte is saying that he does not want this moment to end. 

Comte: This magic, Little Mermaid, is true love’s kiss. 

MC is shocked and the Comte comes closer, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. The warmth of the kiss lingers on her cheek and unconsciously, the MC parts her lips. However, the Comte merely presses his pointer finger against them as if to shush her once again. As the curtain goes down, the Comte gazes at the “Little Mermaid” with a horribly gentle expression. 

Backstage, the Comte and MC head over to where Shakespeare and Leonardo stand waiting, and Shakespeare teases the MC, asking her if true love’s kiss really did restore her voice, to which a flustered MC quickly denies. 

Shakespeare continues to laugh for a few moments, and then abruptly stops. Instead, he bows his head deeply to the MC, apologizing for putting her in danger with the collapsing stage and thanking both MC and the Comte for continuing forward with the play until the end. MC is touched, and thinks again that Shakespeare is truly devoted to his work. 

MC thanks Shakespeare as well for letting her have the chance to act on stage, and the Comte also gives his thanks. Leonardo teases the Comte, saying that he ended things on quite the dramatic note. The Comte deflects, saying that he had intended on ending things in a way that was easy to understand, since the theme of the play was “star-crossed love” in the first place, anyways. The Comte looks over to MC when he says this, though MC does not understand why he does so.

Comte: … If I could, it would’ve been nice to cast an eternally unbreakable spell on MC, though. 

Though it seemed like a joke, MC felt like she could hear a note of truth in his voice when he said this. They gaze at each other for a moment before the Comte smiles again, beckoning the MC upon the stage once again for the curtain call. 

As MC looks up to the shining stage where light overflows, somehow, she felt like her heart was beating faster than usual. 

—

Leonardo End:

Something outside the norm  — his new expression sends your heart into disarray... 

“Do you understand? I’m not letting you run off anywhere.” 

—

As MC starts falling, someone grabs her hand and pulls her close into an embrace, and she looks up to find it’s Leo who saved her. After making sure she’s alright, Leo points out Shakespeare didn’t have any plans on stopping the play over a little accident and even encouraged them to improvise. Leo starts ad-libbing, saying that the news about the Prince getting engaged were only rumors and that he was in love with someone else. He then turns to MC and tells her that he recalls someone saving him from the storm that day, but it was only until he saw her on the beach again that he remembered everything from that day.

Leonardo: I have always been looking for you...

MC wants to respond, but since she’s supposed to stay in character, she can’t speak. Leo realizes her dilemma and points out that she’s gotten involved with a troublesome man. The Count then shows up, to MC’s surprise, and he and Leo talk about how the Little Mermaid could regain her voice. Count tells him that all he needs to do is to prove that he truly loves the Little Mermaid, and Leo kisses MC without hesitation.

Leo deepens the kiss, and MC can vaguely hear the Count laugh as he walks off stage. By the time Leo pulls away, MC’s already hot and bothered and calls out to him. He tells her she has a cute voice, and that he wants it all to himself. He then picks her up and exits the stage with her. MC can see the curtains close after them and she wonders if it was really alright to leave like that, but Leo frankly just doesn’t care anymore.

The two head back to the mansion, and after Shakespeare and his crew dropped by to apologize for the accident, MC and Leo head to his room. MC’s still a bit concerned over abruptly leaving, but Leo insists that they put it behind them since it all worked out in the end. He then pushes her onto the bed and starts kissing her and undoing the buttons on her blouse. MC gets riled up, but notices it’s almost as if he’s in a hurry, and she points it out to Leo. 

Leo stops and looks away, and MC could see a blush creeping up his face. After a bit of prodding, Leo admits that he didn’t like seeing another man touch her, even if it was just acting, and MC recalls how the Count had touched her neck. MC is surprised, but starts laughing, saying that it’s nice to know that Leo would feel like that over her. Leo tells her it was only natural for him to feel that way, before kissing her again and pinning her wrists to the bed, and the two share a night of intimacy together.

Note: This is where the paid Epilogue starts.

—

Event Info Post | Shakespeare & Vincent Route | Dazai & Arthur Route