#lots of call backs here AND Nurse Eri!

[phantoms-lair]

Recovery Girl better sleep with one eye open

Continues from here

It took him a bit longer than he wanted to get back to the kids, but he didn't think it would help their peace of mind for him to show back up covered in blood. But he had made absolutely sure Overhaul was not getting up again. The remains were being brought to a crematorium he'd bribed for disposal purposes. Not even enough left for a Pit to revive. He was glad to see several of his men still there, on the outside and more in the interior.

They were guarding the kids. Good.

Eri had fresh bandages, and they were placed locally, rather that covering half her arms and legs. it seemed her injuries were more on her wrists and elbows. Her legs were bare, showing old scarring and not fresh wounds. Maybe an incentive not to run? Hood regretted not killing Overhaul more slowly.

The boy had his gloves off and his hands were mangled. "Did Overhaul do that to you?" Hood growled.

Deku shook his head. "No sir." he answered in English. Jason mentally kicked himself for forgetting to talk to the kid in his own language. "My quirk used to break me. It still does if I push it too far. Eri's power in the only reason I was able to use so much and not be injured." He smiled brightly at the small girl next to her."

"Your own power did that you?" Dr. Thompkins asked softly.

"Yeah," Deku ducked his head. "I'm sorry and I'll try to be a lot better about it. I have gotten better, it's just Overhaul was so overwhelming, if I didn't go all out I would have died and Eri would have died, and I'm not being reckless, really I promise I'm doing my best." Try as he did to hold them back, tears sprang unbidden from his eyes.

Eri reached over and hugged him, looking warily between Hood and Leslie. Right, she probably didn't speak English and had no clue what was happening.

"Hey, Kiddo, breathe." Hood used his gentlest victim voice. "You did good. You saved Eri. You were no more reckless than anyone else who puts on a costume, got it?"

"I'm sorry, I really am trying." He wrapped his arms around Eri, rubbing her back comfortingly.

"Who said you weren't trying." Hood said, keeping his tone light, but the moment the words left his mouth they suddenly felt heavier. Because that was it, wasn't it. Kid had had a major victory tonight, even if Hood had dealt the finishing blow, but rather than celebrate like the Titan would have his first instinct was to plead that he's done his best and was putting effort into what he was doing. Someone had told this kid he wasn't good enough. Frequently.

"Well it's true, isn't it? I need to be better. Aizawza-sensei said my not being able to control my quirk is an excuse and I need to be better. And Recovery Girl, our school nurse (she's got a quirk that can fast heal anyone's injuries just by kissing them, it's so cool), got so fed up with me she said she wouldn't heal me anymore if I hurt myself with my quirk."

"She said WHAT!"

Hood had thought he'd seen all the different flavors or tired, overly annoyed, and frustrated Dr. Thompkins had. He'd not seen this one before. He could see her pupils constrict, her breathing quicken, and suddenly wanted nothing more than to get out of her way.

"She said her healing me was enabling me in being reckless, so she wouldn't be a part of it anymore." Deku said softly, as if he was ashamed and not the so-called nurse.

"Did she offer you any resources to help you?" Leslie pressed.

"Resources?" Deku looked confused.

Leslie exhaled deeply. "Hood, Eri has been very sheltered and her immune system is not used to Gotham. I know you center around Crime Alley, but if you have any safe houses in upper middle class areas or better yet out of Gotham, that would be preferably till she recovers more fully." Leslie than switched to Spanish. "And when you find a way back to where ever they're from, let me know."

"What makes you think I'm letting either of them go back?" Hood responded in kind, once he confirmed Deku didn't seem to understand what she had said.

"They're not. I am." Dr. Thompkins was resolute. "I have a 'school nurse' I need to have some words with."

[haikyuuwaifu]

8

Breakeven: The Script

Masterlist

Warnings: Drama, Mild Angst, Mentions of Violence/Villain attack

They say bad things happen for a reason But no wise words gonna stop the bleeding 'Cause she's moved on while I'm still grieving And when a heart breaks no it don't break even, even, no

Y/n felt her body shaking, as she made her way toward the hospital. She had been in class, working on study guides with her students when Mic told her to turn on the news. What she wasn’t expecting to see, was her Katsuki in the fight for his life, against someone that was supposed to be considered his ally. 

Arriving at the hospital, Y/n stepped out of the car, noticing that all the commotion from the media outside had quieted. No one uttered a sound as she made her way toward the entrance. Before going inside, someone behind her cleared their throat. “We’re all rooting for him ma’am.” A man stated, raising the symbol Katsuki made whenever he was on television. It was something he would do to let her know he was okay. The reporters around him echoed their own supportive sentiments, chanting the hero’s name and holding up his sign. Y/n gave them a watery smile and a nod as she made her way inside. 

Inside the hospital, Y/n could see nothing but chaos as doctors and nurses were trying in vain to assist patients. “Y/n!” Shinsou called, pulling his friend into a hug. “They’ve got Katsuki on one of the upper floors, he’s in surgery right now.” The man whispered, as she gripped his hands tight. Making their way to the elevator, they stepped inside. A few minutes later, the doors opened, and Y/n was pulled into a hug, by one Mitsuki Bakugo. Mitsuki was the strongest person she knew, second to her Katsuki. As much as Y/n wanted to break down, she knew she needed to be strong. Holding the woman close, Y/n stroked her hair and whispered into her ear. Nothing but encouragement and confidence that Katsuki would make it through, as the woman sobbed.

Hours later, Y/n found herself sitting outside the room. Katsuki was out of surgery, but the doctor’s couldn’t say if he was going to survive the night. They had done all they could, and it was now all up to him. She’d felt better after screaming at Midoriya, but that didn’t mean anything if her Suki didn’t wake up to hear about it. Reaching for his hand, she gave it a squeeze as she stroked his cheek with her other one. “You have to make it.” She whispered, tracing the features of his face with her finger. “We have so many things to do Suki.” She mumbled. “We have to buy a house on the outskirts of the city. With lots of acreage so all our friends and family can build their additions. Even if you grumble about it, I know you’d secretly love having your mom so close.” “You need to give Kouta another shovel talk before he asks Eri to marry him someday.” She whimpered, burying her face into his side. “I want to start a family with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I can’t do that if you’re not here.” Y/n carried on, rambling about the dreams they’d shared, the plans they’d made, and hoping on everything, that he would wake.

In the early hours of the following morning, Y/n was awoken by a hand squeezing her own. Fluttering her eyes open, she was surprised to see Katsuki staring back at her, his gaze soft. “The last thing I remember thinking,” he whispered, stroking her hand with his thumb. “Was that, if I died...at least I died loving you.” He uttered, as tears threatened to spill down his cheeks. “It didn’t matter how terrified I was, it didn’t matter if you’d hated me for being so reckless” He sobbed, as Y/n pulled him close. “All that mattered, was that I got to love you, and I saved that kid from dying.” Y/n let out a watery laugh, holding him close, as he clutched on to her. “I am so fucking proud of you Suki.” She cried, kissing his lips softly. “You are so fucking amazing, and I can’t be more proud of what you did out there.” The blonde gave her a squeeze, leaning back just enough to look down at her. “Marry me. I don’t care if it’s soon, I don’t care what anyone thinks, I don’t care about the media or shitty fucking Deku.” He began, eyes full of determination. “I will not continue going on, without you being my wife.” “Katsuki! You damn brat!” His mom shouted, barreling into the room and pulling her son into a crushing hug. Masaru followed behind, a soft smile on his face. “Don’t you ever do that to me again you shit.” Mitsuki hissed, as she held her palm out. Masaru set the box in her hand, and clasped Bakugo and Y/n’s hands around it. “This is a family heirloom, it’s been passed down through my side, and I just knew the little shit was going to say something.” Mitsuku stated, cheeks wet, as she and her son quietly cried. “I could not be more proud to have you as a son Katsuki, and I could not be more proud of your choice in wife.” She stated, her smile wobbly. 

Katsuki gave his mother the same wobbly smile, squeezing her hand, and taking the box. Flipping it open, he smiled, looking back at Y/n. Y/n could only laugh, words unable to form in her shock and excitement. With a nod, she held her hand out, as Katsuki gingerly placed the ring on her finger. Cheers could be heard from the hallway as a snooping Touya shared the good news. Outside the hospital, reports and journalists were shouting, cheering for their hero, and congratulating him on his upcoming nuptials. 

Prev/Next

[practically-an-x-man]

1, 2, 7, 8, 25, 26 for Jasper, Quinn, and/or Eris please? :)

Thank you so much!! <3333

OC Questions

[1] What first impression do they typically make? Are they likeable from the get go, or take time to grow on people?

Jasper: They're really good with interacting with others, even difficult people - part of that's just that they're a friendly person, the rest is the bedside manner that they've been taught for nursing. Some people still do a bit of a double-take, since they're so alt, but once they get to talking it's clear that they're friendly and likeable.

Quinn: Extremely polarizing. Either people love her right away for her sharp wit and the way she speaks her mind, or she annoys the everloving shit out of them.

Eris: They're... intriguing at first impression, to say the least. Most people can't quite tell what to think of him - whether to be afraid of him, whether he's just joking, whether they can trust him or if he's going to stab them in the back, et cetera. Most people are a little wary and soften over time, Rick included.

[2] How does their social personality differ from how they act when they’re alone?

Jasper: They're a lot more tense around people, though it's not always visible. Not tense to mean anxious, necessarily, just... when they're around others, they have to navigate their empathic sense as well as all their own thoughts and feelings, and it's a lot to process all at once. When they're alone or amidst a small group of people they trust, they're a lot more relaxed and open.

Quinn: She's got a bit of a mask in place around others: confident and hypercompetent, almost daring people to think about her disabilities, feeling like she has to prove herself to everyone around her. Alone, she still holds onto that sharp wit, but she's also a lot more open about her vulnerabilities and pains - she's got to let those walls down at some point.

Eris: In a lot of ways, nothing changes. She's spent so long with that persona of the violence-obsessed god of conflict that she's not entirely sure it's just a persona anymore. He hardly acknowledges his emotions, particularly the deeper or more vulnerable ones, even when he's alone. They'll open up a bit more to Rick, and he's about the only one who can convince them to rest when they need it, but there are still a lot of things they keep hidden even from him- maybe even from themself.

[7] Are they a good liar, and what would they probably lie about?

Jasper: Actually... not as good as they'd like to think. They tend to get caught up in the emotions of whoever they're lying to, and eventually cracks under the pressure and fesses up.

Quinn: She is a very good liar. There's always that margin for human error, the details not lining up here and there, but for the most part they're excellent at weaving things together, coming up with details on the fly and then sticking to them, and holding to her guns when someone challenges her. She definitely lies about bigger things when she needs to, but is also the type to just subtly fuck with people whenever she feels like.

Eris: Seamless. Absolutely seamless. They've had centuries of practice, and they're dangerous enough that nobody would dare call them out on the lie even if they somehow noticed. He tends to keep the lying to a minimum in their everyday life, just so it keeps its potency, but will lie in a heartbeat when they need to.

[8] How open they are about their true feelings, both positive and negative?

Jasper: They used to have a lot of trouble just identifying their own emotions, especially when others' emotions can cause so much interference. Lately they've been trying to get better about it, especially thanks to Kyle's "system diagnostics" urging them to put their feelings into words

Quinn: Not open. I mean, sure, when she's angry people will know about it, but anything past surface-level emotions isn't happening. She'll open up to Billy a little more, and gradually others on the team too, but for the most part she's locked up pretty tight.

Eris: Very open about negative emotions, isn't afraid to show it (even when that becomes dangerous to others around them...) but rarely opens up about positive emotions. Admitting the way they care about something or someone is very hard for him, since he feels like it's a blow to his reputation as Wildly Competent War God to have something he genuinely cares about.

[25] Do they have fears and phobias, and if they do, do they usually keep it to themselves or talk about it openly?

Jasper: As a whole, they're very tense about the future. They don't really show it openly, even with people they trust - it just manifests as them getting incredibly driven and devoted towards their work or other things that could play into their future.

Quinn: There's a lot surrounding her disabilities that she's still not comfortable with, and that manifests as fear in a lot of ways. She's afraid she'll never get back to where she was - or, more accurately, she knows she won't ever get 100% back to that and is afraid she won't ever be happy with anything else - and she's afraid that people will pity her or see her as a burden for it. There's a lot she still needs to work through, especially now that she's got that support system and doesn't have to hold herself up alone anymore.

Eris: He is cripplingly afraid of death and isn't even aware of it. She knows she's afraid of losing Rick, just like she's lost all her past lovers over the years, but death as a whole is something that she's never been able to fully reconcile. They've rationalized it by turning into something almost plastic in their mind, seeing death as a vague concept but not something that really happens in a meaningful way (even on the battlefield, he sees it as an expression of his own skills rather than actually ending life on a meaningful level), but they can't shove it aside so easily when it comes to himself or one of the few people he genuinely cares about.

[26] Do they have any physical or mental illness, how do they handle it and how open they are about it?

Jasper: Their empathic sense manifests as a form of sensory issues at times, and they can sometimes get so overwhelmed or overloaded that they fall into a panic attack (or similar reaction). They are not very open about this, since they don't disclose their empathic sense openly, but much like the rest of their experiences surrounding their sense, they're slowly getting more comfortable and learning to process it in a more healthy way once they have Kyle and a few other friends to support them.

Quinn: It's pretty hard to miss, so there's a degree to which she has to be open about it, and they tend to act fairly careless about it as a coping mechanism - if she doesn't give a shit, why should anyone else? She doesn't talk much about the intricacies of her experiences, and still struggles with allowing herself to actually have weaknesses and be vulnerable sometimes, but she's perfectly blunt about the basic details.

Eris: They've got a lot of lingering pain - a thousand years of being broken and healing and being broken again is bound to lead to a bit of chronic pain - but much like any other vulnerability, refuses to acknowledge this. Like I said before, Rick is about the only one who can convince her to slow down and rest once in a while, but even that is a bit of a coin toss. I'm actually working on a pre-relationship fic with the two of them where Eris gets badly injured (read: loses both legs at the knee and has to wait for them to regenerate) and Rick tries to take care of him as he heals.

[letterboard-fantasy]

Essence Project ♡ DECORA AU // Collaboration

"A, B, C, D... I don't know my name! Tell me if I'm dead or if I'm just going insane!"

This is a collaboration essence featuring the following artists! //

@klai-16xoxo / @beth-bethar00 / @chokkito / @fffiii / @pastel-rights / @one0p1nk / @picnicbask3t / @paperbcy

♡ The Decorum Hospital // The Check-In Centre [ Joe and Clown's Section ]

The first area of the hospital, where every wandering soul first manifests into this plane. The ward is full of friendly faces, although the staff here may be... a little odd. Welcome to the Check-In Centre! Here, we screen all new and incoming patients to figure out what's wrong with you and where you need to go... so sit down and hang on tight!

♡ S-Tier Costume - The Department Director // Maako

"Hello dear. Welcome to the Decorum Hospital, I will be your host for today. Are you hurt anywhere, do you have any concerns you'd like to talk about?"

Clown ♡ A-Tier Costume - Check-In Centre Nurses // Sally [ Sally ]

"It's me, Sally~ Hii~ I'm the Strawberry Nurse, I love all things sweet and pink! Like strawberries and pink lollies!"

Joe ♡ A-Tier Costume - Check-In Centre Nurses // Rachie [ Rachie ]

"Hello, cuties! I'm the Bow Nurse. I just transferred here from another department, so... I hope I can do this place proper justice~!"

♡ A-Tier Costume - Check-In Centre Nurses // Halo [ Erie / @ask-the-chief-heads ]

"... Do you need assistance? I am the Blue Ivy... but you can call me Halo. It's nice to meet you."

♡ A-Tier Costume - Zone Monsters // "MADNESS" [ Eternity / secret blog /j ]

"MADNESS AND TORMENT AND AGONY. HELP ME. SAVE ME. CURE ME."

One of the several zone monsters, this one is located in the check-in centre. However, be careful. This monster is violent and dangerous.

♡ A-Tier Costume - Zone Monsters // "LONELINESS" [ Wayne / @manor-tea-time ]

"SOB... SOB... LONELY... SAD... ALONE... HELP ME... SO LONELY... SOB... SOB..."

One of the several zone monsters, this one is located in the check-in centre. However, while this monster isn't violent, it is still dangerous, inflicting feelings of sorrow and despair on anyone who gets too close.

♡ The Decorum Hospital // The Surgery Ward [ Klai and Fifi's Section ]

The second area of the hospital, where broken or injured souls are sent to be fixed up and cared for. This ward is very serious about what it does, and if you don't listen... you might not like where you'll end up. ... Do you have a boo-boo, ouchie or broken bone? Fear not, for our... surgery team is here to save the day! They'll break you down, and patch you right back up! You'll never see it coming.

Klai ♡ S-Tier Costume - The Department Director // Luka [ Kafka // @stellaron-girlies ]

"Hii~ And welcome to the surgery department~ Here, we'll be tending to any underlying issues our check-in squad was unable to attend to. Once we're done, you'll lie down and recover with the Children's department~ Let me introduce you to my team!"

Klai ♡ A-Tier Costume - Head Surgeon // Lace [ Flynn / @idv-ask-the-showman ]

"I'm Lace, the head surgeon, meaning I'll be seeing every one of you. There's a lot of people to see, so be concise and to the point."

Fifi ♡ A-Tier Costume - Surgery Ward Nurses // Manny [ Elaine / @idv-thespians ]

"... I'm Manny, but you can call me the Feather Nurse. Huh? Oh, my mother used to run this place... I think I'm a lot happier with her out of the way."

Fifi ♡ A-Tier Costume - Surgery Ward Nurses // Nebula [ Vanadis / @idv-fifis-toybox ]

"Can't talk, I'm at the final boss of this stage. Name's Nebula though. They call me Robo Nurse though."

Fifi and Klai ♡ A-Tier Costume - Zone Monsters // The Patchwork ( 2 slots ) [ Delilah / @manor-tea-time ] [ one more slot ]

"PATCHWORK... CUT IT UP AND SEW IT TOGETHER... PATCHWORK... I TAKE A PART OF ME AND A PART OF YOU... AND I PUT IT TOGETHER TO MAKE SOMETHING NEW!"

One of the several zone monsters, these two can be found wandering the surgery ward carrying giant scissors and needles. They seem to enjoy the idea of human patchwork.

♡ The Decorum Hospital // The Children's Ward [ Calamity and Pins' Section ]

The third area of the hospital, where childlike spirits are sent to reside. This place has everything a child could wish for, but sometimes... dreams can be deadly. I miss my mama and papa too! But, you have to understand, they left you in our hands, and we take care of our patients till the very end. I have some toys, some ropes, and some building blocks... would you like to play with me?

Cal and Pins ♡ S-Tier Costume - The Department Directors // Sunny and Summer [ Sunny (Pins) and Summer (Cal) ]

"Sunny! You must stand up straight when you greet the new friends! What if they falsely think you're unfriendly!?" "Can you quiet down a little, Summer? I think you're the one scaring them." "Oh- Wait, no I'm not! Sunny, you're telling... falsities!"

These two directors are twins, one of them is a shy boy and the other is an eccentric girl. Together, they lead the Children's Department.

Cal ♡ A-Tier Costume - Children's Dept. Nurses // Alice [ Hana / @gnostica-archives ]

"Oh, those two are quite the handful. Hello, new arrivals. My name is Alice, but you can call me the Dove Playmate. Here in the children's department, your recovery will be much more colorful."

Pins ♡ A-Tier Costume - Children's Dept. Nurses // Susie [ Aaron / @ask-the-chief-heads ]

"Oh? Uhm... hello new playmates! I'm Susie, but everyone calls me Mother Playmate. Did you need my help? Some food or anything to drink?"

Pins ♡ A-Tier Costume - Children's Dept. Nurses // Cat [ Kitty / @gnostica-archives ]

"My name is Cat! Huh? Whattt? I'm not literally a cat! Although... Mister Sour Candy keeps asking me to meow. What a weird guy. Oh, sorry! If you need me, you can ask for Scene Playmate, and I'll be right at your side!"

Pins ♡ A-Tier Costume - Children's Dept. Nurses // Kona [ Contract / @experimental-blueprints ]

"Hello... I-I'm Kona, but you can call me Riding Hood playmate. It's nice to meet you..!"

Cal ♡ A-Tier Costume - Zone Monsters // The Dollmaker [ Dollmaker ]

"Welcome to the family! Now listen very carefully... you are mine forever! No one can ever set you free."

One of the many zone creatures who lurk in the hospital. His domain is that of a dollhouse, located in the dreary abyss of the Children's Department. This man is the original anomaly found in the hospital and the first monster our heroes encounter.

Cal and Pins ♡ A-Tier Costume - Zone Monsters // The Dolls ( 2 slots ) [ Miss Manni / @manor-tea-time ] [ one more slot ]

"Do you want to play with my dollies? They're not good conversationalists, but they'll entertain you for all of eternity."

Two of the several zone monsters, these two are giant doll-like monsters created and controlled by the Dollmaker. They cannot talk, but are eternally loyal to their masters.

♡ The Decorum Hospital // The Morgue [ Beth's Section ]

The final area of the hospital. Sometimes, tragedy will strike within the walls of the hospital, and this is where our morticians come in. Unfortunately, if you're here, that means... you're already dead.

Beth ♡ S-Tier Costume - The Lead Mortician // Fog [ Wisteria / @gnostica-archives ]

"We don't have the time to babysit living corpses. Take care of yourself, lost soul."

Beth ♡ A-Tier Costume - The Assistant Mortician // Oliver [ Oliver ]

"... sorry, the lead mortician isn't very fond of the living. I'm the assistant mortician... and the only other person in this ward. It's dangerous to wander around here alone, so... keep your wits of you. Sorry I can't stay with you..."

Beth ♡ A-Tier Costume - Zone Monsters // "HIMSELF"/"HERSELF" [ Peppermint / no blog ]

"God it's so UNFAIR. God, I hope you suffer."

One of the several zone monsters, this type is found lurking inside empty morgue freezers, pretending to be dead in order to avoid the wrath of the Lead Mortician. While dangerous in its own right, it is weak and frail.

Beth ♡ A-Tier Costume - Zone Monsters // "YOURSELF" [ Aging / no blog ]

"From one faker to another."

One of the several zone monsters, YOURSELF is a tricky creature. It will imitate the faces and bodies of those who see it, and trick them into helping it under the guise of helping a "different you". However, due to the seal created by the assistant mortician, it is unable to leave the morgue.

♡ The Decorum Hospital // The Hospital's Leading Directors [ Calamity and Pins' Section ]

The leading director of the decorum hospital resides here. In the hospital's history, there have been two main leads, however... no one knows where they went to, or where they came from. Where are we walking together? I will take you to places you've never been and bring you back again.

Cal ♡ S-Tier Costume - The Leading Director 001 [ Number 001 ]

"Hello, doll! I am the lead director, I control everything that goes on in these hospital walls. Your safety is of the utmost importance to me, but your comfort is a priority of mine as well. Hmm? Pet my ears…? Well… I don't see why not..? This is a common question I get a lot, is there something desirable about them? I was created to be as appealing as possible, but... I'd like to understand still."

Pins ♡ S-Tier Costume - The Leading Director 672 [ Number 672 ]

"Hello, doll! I am the lead director, I control everything that goes on in these hospital walls. Your safety is of the utmost importance to me, but your comfort is a priority of mine as well. Oh? You've heard this spiel before? That's odd… have you hit your head, or encountered a time bubble? Ah, hold still, let me examine you myself."

♡ The Decorum Hospital // The Lost Souls

The lost souls who were unfortunate enough to stumble across this place with no discernible way out. Only living souls may exit this place, however... it seems these souls don't remember anything. Their names, their family... anything at all. I don't remember my name... I don't remember who I am... w-what's going on!

Klai ♡ A-Tier Costume - Bear // Partnered with Narcissus [ Bear ]

"Oh... oh no! Bear can't remember her name, or where Bear even is! But... Bear isn't scared! With Bear's new friend, Bear will find the way out!"

♡ A-Tier Costume - Narcissus // Partnered with Bear [ Stelle / @/stellaron-girlies ]

"... You're weird. But, you've got a certain spirit, I can't fault you for that... come bear, let's go."

♡ A-Tier Costume - Husk // Partnered with Koi Fish

"... Why is she here...? She's... supposed to be dead. Are you... even my sister? She's been dead for 3 goddamn years, don't fucking play with me!"

Cal ♡ A-Tier Costume - Koi Fish // Partnered with Husk [ Koi Fish ]

"... where am I..? Actually... who am I? I don't remember leaving my house... so... how?? Actually... you look kind of familiar, ginger."

♡ A-Tier Costume - Anzu // Partnered with Rain [ Zoe / @subject-xo4 ]

"Huwah??? Woah! This place is funky as hell! I dig the vibes... but uh... where IS this place?"

Beth ♡ A-Tier Costume - Rain // Partnered with Anzu [ Beth / @ask-idv-baker ]

"It was raining today. I love the rain, but for some reason, it's making me sad! Anzu, why do I feel like I've forgotten something important?"

♡ A-Tier Costume - Sour Candy // ???? [ Stranger / @blackspace-capra ]

"I've been here as long as I can remember, since that day I took matters into my own hands. I'm sorry Bear, I... I can't go with you. There's something wrong outside, something very wrong... I don't trust them, those Lead Directors."

A mysterious young man, who's been mentioned multiple times by the guardians, and can even be found inside the children's department in a small "safe" room. He remembers his true name, yet, still refuses to say what it is.

Essence Project ��� Rules and Additional Information

This essence will be a little different than my usual ones because... this time, I have multiple artists on this project instead of just myself! But, let me lay down the base rules first and foremost.

Hello everyone and welcome to my first collaboration essence! The theme of this essence is personal decora style! Depending which artist gets what role will depend on how that skin will turn out looking! For this essence, we have 8 total artists!

In order to reserve a spot for this essence, you simply need to pop into my inbox and ask for the respective role and oc or canon muse you'd like to use! However, make sure you read the roles correctly, for some characters will be staring as themselves, meaning their slots are pre-filled! If you see [ a name ] here, that's a pre-filled slot!

These characters are all from my original world, and are all tied into my DECORA AU! I tried to sort these groups as best I could!

As for our collaborators... hello! I've sorted everyone into their groups, which are placed next to the respective wards. Everyone is in groups of two aside from Beth, and it is up to you to decide what skins you will take and what skins your partner will be taking! Make sure to inform me who is taking which skins so I can write it down! As for the lost souls, it is first come first serve! If you want to take a certain soul, make sure to tell me so I can mark it down for you! Yuu is a floater don't worry about them <3

As for posting... you can either post them on your own accord (if you do this, I'd love to see it! Tag me >:3) or you can wait for your partner to be finished or you can even give them to me and I can post it here! (crediting you of course!) the choice is yours <3

And with this... happy designing my friends! If you have any questions about canon appearances/features, characters or anything else, you know where to contact me! Thanks for coming! Slots are open starting now!

[eri-mergo]

"Those are all good reasons to find non-combat work. I'm glad you found something closer to home." Eri said. He couldn't imagine the kind of strain living in combat situations for that long would take. And there was always a strain that came from healing people. Eri was not a nurse, nor had he ever been anything considered a healer. But he knew that helping people could get very draining very fast. "What do you do with your free time?"

"Me?" He asked, stalling slightly so he could think of a line that wouldn't get overly personal too fast. After all, he doubted Wren would find it comforting to know that he was effectively kicked out of home for a few centuries because of a mistake he'd made with demons. "I just thought it was time to try something new. I was... I suppose you could call it burnt out. My higher ups and I mutually decided I should come here for a long break, and I'm finding myself more reinvigorated now. I have no idea what's going to happen next, and that's incredible to me!"

He was still careful not to say anything too incriminating. He wasn't worried since the ambient noise in the cafe was fairly loud, but still, it was better to be cautious. "Of course I'm still trying to do good for people here. It's just... well, I don't need to worry about work for a good long while."

Eri perked up at the compliment to his tattoos, smiling more genuinely now. He could talk about those forever. "Thank you! Nobody back home seemed to like them much when I did them. It means a lot to me that you'd say that."

"I'm getting enough business, but I always wish I had more. Doing tattoos is one of my favorite things." He peered at Wren. "Are you considering now? Because I think you'd look great with one. I do them for cheap. I take cash or trades. And I use a special blessed ink to make sure you're protected from demons."

“It certainly was not without its challenges.” Wren agreed. Somehow though, he still missed it. He’d had some of the greatest and some of the worst moments of his life during those times. Perhaps it was when he had felt the most alive, aiding others, fighting in the midst of war, consumed by worry for a now long lost lover fighting in that war along side him. Wren averted his thoughts from that man now… “I guess I wanted a change, something more peaceful, and to feel closer to my home, I suppose.” He replied.

“What about you, what made you come to Vievecor City?” Wren asked, peering down at the designs on Eri’s arms. “They’re very beautiful. You’re clearly very talented.” The elf complimented, “Have you been getting steady business since your arrival? I confess I’ve never considered a tattoo in all my time.”

[bolbianddolanhouse]

BNHA self insert AU [Book 2]

Lost and confused on this here day? Start from the WAAAY beginning!

Chapter 1: It is Wednesday My Dudes.

Howdy! I guess I should introduce myself? Oof UMMMMMM, the names Lili Perla Iida! I’m 15 years old, about to turn 16, and I’m the oldest of 4 kids. Being big sis feels as natural as the wind in my hair as I pirouette. Speaking of dancing, it’s a Saturday morning, that means I have to get my ass in 5th gear for my private dance lessons. My favorite days are the ones where I get to dance and cause havoc with my siblings! I guess I should head downstairs for breakfast before that robo doggy yips at me for still being in my room.

“Buenos dias mija!” thats my mom, she’s the one bitch I respect the most.

“Good mornin” I greet everyone at the breakfast nook “what’s for breakfast?”

“Spam and eggs with toast” that’s my dad at the stove, I love him but he’s putting too much pressure on me to follow his footsteps. “Here’s your coffee.”

“Oh FUCK yea!” I holler as I jump into my spot at the nook. There’s nothing more I love than some egg and toast with my iced coffee.

“I’m hungies! Please just gimme one toast!” thats my younger brother Iwata, but I call him Iwee or Iwa, don’t tell the other two but he’s my favorite sibling. He’s the one that schemes and I say if that’s doable or not.

“DADDY! Tensei is teleporting my forkfuls into his mouth!”

“MOMMY! Hanaka set my toast on fire!” those two brats are my twin siblings, Hanaka and Tensei but I call them by their middle names, Rosa and Oro. Rosa is half-way decent to be around, so I share a room with her. Oro is a punk ass bitch in the making but I can’t hate him too much, he’s an intellectual.

“Can’t we go one breakfast without something catching on fire?” I rolled my eyes as I got served “thanks dad.”

“Nope, fuck you” Rosa stuck her tongue out “TENSEI STOP!”

“Hanaka! What did we say about tongues?” scolded dad “your family isn’t fire proof!” he turned to Oro “and what did we say about pestering your sister?”

“I shouldn’t play with fire unless I wish to get burned” the boy pouted and crossed his arms “but Iwa and I are hungies!”

“Here’s your plates” dad slid the food in front of the two boys “no more yelling or I’m taking away toast privileges!”

“NOOO THAT’S NOT FAIR!” we whined, you can take away our freedom but us Iida kids will be DAMNED if the sanctity of toast in the morning gets taken away.

“Oh shit, listen to your father” mom jeered as dad sat next to her “oh Lili, don’t forget about applications for entrance exams.”

“I still don’t know where to consider” I sigh as I butter my toast “like, I get that theres privates that have scouted me to go to their’s but I just wanna go to a dance school.”

“Sweet heart, you know we can’t just send you off overseas so young!” mom spoke with a hint of worry “besides, you still have private lessons at the institute until you turn 18! I won’t let you go off without the things you love to do.”

“You can always apply to UA” dad spoke up as he cut his spam “with the recommendations we can give, you don’t have to take the entrance exam.”

“Ugh, I can’t dance if I’m going to a hero school” I huffed “I don’t wanna go to your pompous alma mater dad. No offense mom.”

“None taken, not even I wanted to be there” mom responded so casually.

Dad gave her a side glance “May I remind you on who you met in said pompous school that helped build this family?”

“May I remind you on who was too much of a little bitch to tell me they liked me at said pompous school even though we saw each other basically everyday” she sipped her coffee loudly, marking her win.

“Oof I felt that roast in my DNA” Iwa hit the whoa “that shit hurted, F in the chat for Dad’s pride.

“F” chanted everyone but dad.

After breakfast, I grab my duffle bag and make my way to town.

“Good morning Lili!” thats my aunty Mimi, her and my mom are besties “say good morning Nikita.”

“Guden Morgen Lili!” that’s Nikita, Mimi’s daughter. She’s just a year younger than my twin siblings and today they have a little playdate as my mom and Mimi go to work.

“Mornin’! See y’all later!” I wave them off.

“Oh Lili! Good Morning!” that’s my uncle Jin, he lives next door to us and is besties with my mom and Mimi. For someone that doesn’t have kids, he sure does know how to care for them.

“Mornin’! Are you driving today?”

“Yep, can’t let the media know your mom’s car needs detailing!” he joked as he waved me off.

The dance institute I attend is in the same town we live in and just a 20 min walk from the gated community we live in. Well, 20 minutes for me because I walk kinda fast because of the engines on my feet. Dumb location for the quirk but it does help me when I dance.

“Ah Lili! There you are!” cried out my dance teacher as I walked in “can you lend me a hand in costuming? We need re-adjustments for a few costumes for the level 3s.”

“Of course I’ll help, be right there in a jiffy!” I rush into the costuming room, my second home at times! The lord has blessed me with a second quirk, Master Thread, and I like it more than my other one. It’s not dumb and super useful! I heard that there was once a pro-hero that had the same quirk and my parents knew him before his retirement. My mom says that she interned under his agency and he favored her for her Copy quirk. How cool is it that?! But hero stuff ain’t for me, I just wanna look pretty and dance for the masses. Maybe one day make elaborate ballet costumes, I already make my own at home to practice my quirk. How lucky am I to have such supportive parents?! After I finish the adjustments, I quickly put on my pointe shoes to do a practice run of our summer showcase. As much as I work well with the others in my class, I’m not friends with any of them and I don’t blame them. The instructors show me too much favoritism and even I’d hate me for hogging the attention.

“Lili! Marvelous work!” one of the instructors praised “how about we make you a solo act for this season finale?!”

“Me?! On such short notice?!”

“Yea! I thought I was going to do a solo act?!” huffed one of the girls on stage.

“Yes, you and Lili are going to be solos” they responded “we need to fill out time for our show and I know Lili can give quite a show.”

I looked around to my dance-mates and they all rolled their eyes “I mean, sure but I don’t know how good I can make a solo act in a month and a half!”

“Great!” they clapped “okay, from the top! We need to work on those jumps!”

As usual, nobody bids me good bye at the end of class. I’ve known most of them since I started there at age 5 and they don’t give me the decency to say hello or good bye! It sucks but I didn’t join to make friends. I walk through the streets to get to the fabric store I frequent, you’ll often catch me here after school or practice.

“Lili! Hey!” that’s Maru, he’s son of the number 1 hero, Deku. Our parents are friends and his dad owes his life to my mom because of her quick thinking that saved him back during the UA days. So I guess Maru is my friend?

“Oh sup Maru” I stopped walking as he ran toward me “what brings you around these here parts?”

“I was just looking at some of those shops” he points down the street “theres always cool stuff around here.”

“Yea there is, anyways, wanna join me?” I get giddy “I heading into the fabric store and I need some opinions.”

“I’m your guy!” he joins me as I fully geek out over the new satins.

“Okay so which one? The candy blue” I hover the bolt over my chest “the pearlescent one OR this blush pink?”

“I’m torn between the pearl and pink one” he mutters to himself “what are you trying to make?”

“Another costume, I got a solo act but I have yet to come up with something.”

“Oh that’s not fair! Isn’t the showcase in a few weeks?”

“THAT’S WHAT I SAID!” I groaned “I need so much help Maru! Plus I have to get started on applications and it’s all just a mess.”

“Well, if you ask me” he gets up and walks up to Lili “I think you should get both these satins and I know you’ll come up with something amazing! You’re really good at being graceful” he does a shakey spin “see? And why don’t you apply to UA? So that way we could go to school together!”

“Thank you for your kind words but I’m not going to hero school” I turned to put the blue satin back in the rack “I wanna wear pretty dresses and dance, not kick villain ass!”

“But think about it!” He picked up the two bolts of satin “how cool we’d be as a duo! I’d kick villain ass and you wrap them up to detain them!” he walked up to her “I’d be much braver with you by my side.”

“Be serious!” I laughed as I playfully pushed him “it’s not playtime, it’s hero work! Plus you gotta make your parents proud.”

“But I am serious” he retorted “I want to fight along side you, I want to do lots of things along side you. We’ve been friends since you were born!”

“And? That doesn’t mean you can’t live without me!” I look through the decals section “But you’re already doing great over there.”

I make my purchase and Maru walks me to the front gate before parting ways. What to do? The days just whoosh on by and I don’t have much to go off on. I submit applications to some private high schools that have dance programs but dad keeps insisting that I apply to UA. He had the audacity to give me a physical copy of the application! Apparently hero school apps are due much later than the other schools, for UA it’s October and it’s end of June right now. More time passes and I got a piece together for the showcase along with costume. At this point, I’m just counting the days until I get a response from those other schools I applied to.

-Night of the Summer Showcase-

What a night to be alive and pretty! My costume got the eyes of many that they didn’t notice my tiny fumbles. Another success in my books! My family came out to see me and so did Maru. After, I met up with my parents and Maru also came up to us.

“Amazing show Lili” he hands me a large bouquet of flowers “these are for you!”

“Oh you didn’t have to get me flowers” I was astounded by the mass of pink roses and lilies “but I’m glad you enjoyed the show!”

“I loved your floating spins and the thing at the end when you revealed the satin costume!” he imitated some of my moves “oh um, is it cool if we go for a little walk?”

“Oh sure let me just give these to my mom” I turn to my mom “I’m going for a walk, catch up with yall later.”

“Don’t wander too far! It’s dark out” dad chopped as I turned.

We walk to the garden area to the side of the performance hall “it’s a nice summer night.” commented Maru “the sky is clear too.”

“It is” I smile as I look up “I hardly get the time to look at the sky anymore, I loved star-gazing as a child.”

“Lets star-gaze over there!” Maru pointed to an open patch of grass. We lay on our backs and point at our made up constellations. “You know, I really enjoy your company Lili. You make things so much fun.”

“Thanks I guess?” I really didn’t know how to take that compliment.

“It’s a good thing” he laughed and turned his body on his side, toward me “I’ve been thinking about what you said about just wanting to look pretty and dance. Well, what if I figured out something?”

“What did you figure out?” I was genuinely confused because I don’t remember there being a problem with me wanting that.

“I figured out how you can dance and be pretty with always being by my side” he smiled “we just, get married.”

A record scratched in my head, did this foo just say get married? “Um, what?”

“I know that was a bold thing to say but I was giving it some thought” he explained himself “I like you a lot Lili, I want to be someone you can depend on and I can be someone that supports you in everything you want to do. I’ll be the breadwinner and you can do your thing and not have to work as hard.”

“But I don’t JUST want to be pretty and dance” I butted in “I want to work too! Professional Dancer is a legit career plus I want to go to college” I was starting to think I’m missing the point here “why are you suddenly talking about this?”

“I’m saying that I like you, more than a friend” he meekly spoke “and I want to be a man you can be proud of. You make me feel like I could do anything! Won’t you be my girlfriend?”

My mind was racing but going dumber, how do I tell him that he’s making a mistake without saying it word for word? “Maru, I didn’t know you felt that way!” I scrunched my face “I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s okay, take your time!” he leaned in closer to my face, softening his voice “maybe I should show you how serious I am.” This bitch fully kissed me on the lips, my first kiss and I didn’t feel the sparks or flutters in my tummy. I felt...nothing.

“Huh” I said after he broke the kiss “well uhhhhhh oof um” I stood up “I’ll be talking to ya later” I do finger guns and bolt to the parking lot.

“Wait Lili!” he tried to catch up to me.

“TEXT ME WHEN YOU GET HOME!” I yell before locating my parents “MOM! por favor start the car!” I get in and everyone picked up that I was not okay and something happened but needed some time to sort out my thoughts. Once we got home, I took a shower and slumped in my fuzzy chair in the dark.

There was a knock at my door “Hey, you wanna eat some hot chips with me?” it was Iwa.

“Sure” I open the door to let him in.

“What’s the deal with you? Everything was cool until you started running” he popped open a party size bag of hot cheetos con limon.

“Ugh it’s Maru” I grab a few cheetos “he out of nowhere just confessed and kissed me.”

“Oh shit!”

“Right?! And I feel a little fucked up” I crunched on a cheeto “because I feel like he could do better and when he kissed me, I felt nothing. And that was my first kiss, from my childhood friend!” I put my handful of cheetos in my mouth “I wanted to feel those good feelings but I didn’t. Does that make me a bad person?”

“Dang Lili, from how I see it” he licked the cheeto dust from his thumb “it’s a sign that he’s wrong and you aren’t the one for him” he gestured to the ceiling “the universe isn’t telling you to kiss every boy but just that it’s okay not to reciprocate feelings to somebody else. Your feelings are valid and you’re the baddest bitch here.”

I started to feel a lot better after talking to Iwa. I eventually told my mom and she said basically the same thing. I am confident to say that I am not in love with my friend and I don’t need their validation. Of course I didn’t get a chance to tell Maru since it’s summer and he’s busy with school. In some weird twist of fate, I got rejected by all these schools I applied to. I wasn’t upset, just questioning if this is the universe trying to tell me something.

“You okay sis?” carefully asked Rosa “you don’t look too hot.”

“I don’t know what to do” I spoke up from my desk “nothing but rejection letters and I’m not worried about school or where I go, but what’s wrong with having me as a student?”

“Hmmm, well I know daddy wants you to go to that school” she points at the blank UA application on my desk “and you want to go to a dance academy...por que no los dos? You can go to dance academy for college and go to hero school BUT only to spite dad.”

“Rosa, you’re a genius!” I praised her “who says you have bad ideas?!”

“I know I’m right” Rosa gives a power stance “I’m the powerhouse of the cell!”

And I did just that, I applied and got an invite almost immediately to take the entrance exam in early November. That gave me almost 2 months to train, plenty of time! I tried to hide this from my dad but the word slipped and he was too happy to take me to the exam and help me train. Don’t even get me started on that whole side of the family, uncle Tensei started crying, grandma and grandpa wouldn’t shut up on how the family is going to be full of heroes. All the while, I was trying to break the news that I wasn’t going to be returning for the advanced level courses of dance. All the instructors were sad to the point of begging, everyone else was happy that I was leaving. 

-Day of exam-

“You have everything you need?” Dad asked me for the 5th time since we got in the car “we still have time to-”

“YES DAD! FUCK!” he was stressing me out “I’m ready to take this test, stop worrying.”

He sighed “You remind me so much of your mother when we were at UA” he smiled at the thought “she’d snap at me too when I was being overbearing, but I did it because I loved her and wanted her to succeed.”

“Well, what’s one thing she couldn’t leave without?”

“She didn’t feel right unless she hugged me goodbye” he chuckled “even something so simple made my heart race.” He pulls up to the front of the massive front gate of UA “we’re here, do your best! I believe in you.”

“Thanks dad” I take a deep breath “I’ll call you later.”

I walk in the place and I don’t see anyone familiar, just a bunch of students from public schools and other privates. I took a written exam, then came the infamous physical portion. My dad and his hero friends were telling me that it’s one of the toughest entrance exams in the nation, but I wasn’t afraid, just oddly excited! I do my stretches, just minding my business, when I get some crude comments.

“Excuse me but the dance auditions are that way” said some boy condescendingly “why don’t you take your little pink shoes and get out of here before the big scary robots crush you?”

I squinted at them as the group of boys behind them laughed “Excuse me but aren’t the weak little bitches auditions that way?” I stood up to show that I tower him in height “I’m in the right place little man.”

“Lets get to the gates dude, she’s scary”

Everyone was summoned to the start gate and I had a feeling that somebody was watching me. Not like a camera watching me but like somebody near me was looking at me. I looked around but didn’t see anybody familiar or staring at me, it didn’t matter once the siren wailed to start the exam. I was kicking mecha ass with some fancy moves thrown in and when I thought I was going to end the exam on a good note, I hear somebody cry out for help. I rushed over and saw someone had their arm and leg trapped under a mecha, with the added panic of the 0 point big boy mecha dangerously close. I wasn’t going to leave them there, so I gave my all to lift the mecha off them. I couldn’t even lift the thing an inch off them! I had to get creative and used my 2nd quirk to lift the mecha off. I did it and pulled them out to make a run for the safety line.

“It’s no use, just leave me here” said the trapped person “I can’t walk.”

“I’m not giving up on you! I don’t care if I fail this exam” I unraveled my sports jacket, shirt and the ribbons in my hair to fasten them to me “hold on tight! We’re going airborne!”

“Wha-!”

I use the last of my energy to blast us into the air in a wide arch to barely avoid the mecha crushing us. Of course I didn’t have a back up plan and we crash landed in the safety zone, on top of other students.

“Owchies” I groaned “is everyone okay? Sorry about that! I didn’t have a landing plan.”

The nurse runs over “WAH! Miss Iida?! You caused this mess?!”

“Heh ummm yea” I shamefully admitted “sorry Miss Eri, I couldn’t let this student get crushed by the big boy mecha.”

“Lets get you two in the stretcher, come on” she sighed in disbelief “and I’ll be telling your parents young lady!”

“Aww wack!” I pouted as robot helpers put me in the stretcher. I looked over to see the other person in the stretcher next to me “are you alright?”

“I’ll be okay know” they smiled at me “thank you so much for not giving up on me.”

“No problem! I’m Lili by the way.”

Before they could tell me their name, they were hauled away for intensive care. It was fair, they did get injured far worse than me, I walked away with just some gnarly bruises and a scraped shoulder. I didn’t see them after and I really wanted to know their name because they looked oddly familiar. My parents were worried about my injuries as I tend to heal slower. It was winter vacation, usually I’d be excited to be in the holiday mood but I was just waiting in anxiety for my letter. Come the last day of December, I got my acceptance letter! The amount of relief I got from it all was amazing, according to the letter, I scored the most rescue points. Making me at the top of the scoreboard along with some others, so I’m in Hero class A, just like dad and mom. My dad fussed over me the most in the weeks leading to the first day of school.

-Morning of the first day-

“Wake up Wake up Wake up!” yipped the robo dog as they bust into my room “it’s the first day of classes Lili and Hanaka! Please get dressed and hurry down for breakfast.”

“Hnnn it’s 7 in the god foresaken morning!” I groaned as I rubbed my eyes “welp, come on Rosa or the boys are going to beat us to the sinks.”

“Hn! 5 more minutes” she tossed in her bed “Tensei is gonna teleport us to school, you have to ride with daddy.”

“Don’t remind me you brat!” I threw my pillow at her “whatever, just don’t melt the shampoo bottles.”

“Fuck you!”

I quickly take my shower and got dressed in my new uniform to greet my parents. They fawn over how much I look like them when they went to UA, mom told me the story of how she got confused for a boy on the 1st day because her ass was too big for the skirts that they had to be tailor made! I got a good laugh out of that and it made me feel better about starting my school day. I kiss them goodbye and got in the car with dad.

“Excited Lili?”

“Yea, I mostly want to see if that person I rescued made it in” I could hardly sit still in the passenger side “the rush I got from them thanking me had me feeling alive.”

“I hope they did! Sounds like you made a friend if they did.”

“I also wonder who’s the homeroom teacher!” I said as we slowed at the last stoplight before school “since it’s not Eraserhead anymore, I hope it’s one of your friends or some other notable alumni.”

“That’s a good question” Dad pondered “you have to let me and your mother know when you get home” he stops at the same place as last time “here’s your stop, have fun and make friends!”

“Okay dad” I took in a calming breath “I’ll see you later!”

To think my parents walked through the same doors, not knowing that they were going to end up like this? Now their daughter... I hope I’ll find my soulmate here too. I have a soft spot for the love my parents have for each other, you can just tell that they’ve been working on their love since before they actually started dating. I often catch them making out, give loving embraces after a hard day and care for each other in different ways. I want to be loved as hard as my dad loves my mom.

“Lili? Is that you?!” Maru’s voice broke my train of thought.

“Huh? Oh, Maru! Hi!”

“Hey! You made it in!” he gave me a tight hug and twirled “welcome to UA! If you want, I have time to walk you to class.”

“Oh sure” he puts me down “do you know where room 1-A is?”

“Sure do! It’s down over here” he leads me to the hero wing “wow A class huh? I thought the hero stuff wasn’t for you?”

“I thought so too” I shrugged “guess I just had to try and see for myself.”

“If you’re not busy at lunch, we can eat together too.”

“Don’t you have friends here Maru?” I snickered at him.

“You have to call me Midoriya-senpai around the others” he said trying to silence me “and I have to call you Iida-chan.”

“Eww fuck no” I gagged “sounds like you’re calling my dad chan! I’m going to call you Maru, and you have to call me Lili MAYBE Perla if I’m acting up.”

“Fine but I’m saying that I’m respected around here for being one the top students” he bragged as he put his hand on my head “and you’re just a little bitty baby still!”

“Ah! Get yo hand off my hair” I tickle his side to retract his hand “looks like this is my class, see ya later!”

“You don’t play fair Lili” he waved me off “have fun.”

 I walk in and see a few people already there, I looked around for my seat and mine is number 4. I set my bag down and get approached by someone.

“Um hi, you probably don’t recognize me but I’m the person you rescued at the exam” shakily spoke the person “I didn’t get a chance to say, but my name is Hoshi Togata.”

I looked at them and something was oddly familiar about them, like I knew them before the exam “Oh you made it in! I was worried if you placed and if you recovered well.”

“You were worried about me?” they blushed “well, I recovered just fine. My arm was broken but Nurse Eri healed me before I was supposed to go home.”

The bell rang and we all sat in our seats, Hoshi sat behind me.

“Good Morning class! And welcome to UA, my name is-”

“BAHAHA NO WAY!” I bursted into laughter “Yo we got Diaper Boy as homeroom teacher?!” 

“My name isn’t Diaper Boy!”

“Oh I’m sorry, Diaper Man!”

Our teacher rubbed his temples “Anyways, my name is Grape Juice but you can call me Mineta sensei.” He gave me a stern look “Miss Iida, I trust you’ll behave like your father.”

“Don’t compare me to that Turbo Rectangle!”

“It’s like listening to your mother in your father’s body” he muttered.

Once we went through a whole day of classes, Hoshi and I walk around.

“You know Togata, you look oddly familiar and it’s bothering me a bit.”

“How?” they sweat a bit “I’m just one of the boys!”

“Hmmm, I feel like we met before the exam” I rubbed my chin “but I can’t quite remember, we were probably children when it happened.”

“Well, actually” he put some thought into it “I was thinking the same thing sort of, would it help if I told you my dad is Lemillion?”

“Oh shit! It’s coming back to me!” I was wide eyed as we head to the parking lot “yea! They have 2 boys and a girl my age. OH THAT’S WHO! I was thinking about your sister, how is she by the way?”

“Oh ummm I don’t have a sister” the smile on his face disappeared as he said that.

“Huh? Maybe I was-” I hear a car honk, it was mom “oop, gotta go! See you tomorrow!”

I hop in the car and waved bye. I told my family of my school day and my mom couldn’t stop laughing at the fact that their school-mate Mineta was the homeroom teacher. But as I was getting ready for bed, one thing was bothering me... where did I see Hoshi before?

-Chapter 1, End-

Next>  

[thataintnolady]

Eris’s mouth fell open. “You live here?” He’d assumed it was some kind of office break room left empty on the weekend, not a home.

Azriel frowned. “I do. Is that so hard to believe?”

“I… suppose not?” Eris glanced around the bland, pristine room again. The surfaces were all bare. There wasn’t a framed photo or a knick-knack or so much as piece of generic artwork on the walls. “I mean, all these homely touches really make the space.”

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New Velaris, Old Vendettas

Chapter 12 | Protection

[3200 words]

<<previous chapter | masterlist

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His head hurt so much. No, it was his stomach, Christ. Actually, everything hurt.

He tried to get up, but everything hurt and everything was moving too much. Why was everything moving? He was in a car. He was in the back of a car.

“Don’t try to sit up,” a voice instructed him. “You’re covered in blood. If anyone sees you, they’ll probably call the cops and we’ll both be fucked.”

Why was he covered in blood? Whose car was he in?

The blackness returned.

The next time he awoke, he was no longer in a car. He was in a room – a reception area? No, no desk. It had a wooden floor with a grey rug, black leather armchairs. A coffee table in dark wood. He was lying on a couch, covered in a blanket. It was a tartan picnic rug. Its cheery color looked out of place in this monochromatic room. The whole thing looked like someone had typed ‘masculine office décor’ into a search engine and this was the first image result.

Eris lay there, trying to think through the pain and confusion clouding his mind. He couldn’t remember what had happened. How had he got here? A car, he’d been in a car. And before that… the meeting with Azriel. He’d never made it. Those men he’d thought were following him-

He sat up quickly. His head swam, his ribs screamed in pain and he nearly passed out again.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Careful, what the fuck are you trying to do?”

He was pushed back down onto his back, a pillow eased under his head. He looked up blearily. It was Azriel’s face that looked back at him.

“What happened?” Eris asked, his throat scratchy.

“You got the shit kicked out of you,” Azriel said. “Or you would have done, if I hadn’t been there.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I still did,” Eris said, wincing.

“Well yeah, but trust me, it would have been worse if I hadn’t got there when I did. A lot worse.” That didn’t bear thinking about. “Wait here a minute,” Azriel said, and disappeared. As though there was any chance of Eris going anywhere, when he couldn’t sit upright without keeling over.

When Eris saw Azriel’s face looming above him, he’d wondered if he was responsible for this. He knew Azriel didn’t trust him and didn’t think Rhys should be working with him and Lucien. Whether it was a personal thing – whatever history he had with Elain – or something more than that, Eris had no idea. But now, it looked like he owed Azriel for keeping him out of hospital.

Azriel returned, carrying a large red plastic box, a washcloth and a bowl of water. He sat on the edge of the coffee table in front of Eris.

“What’s that for?”

“This? It’s a first aid kit. You’ve never seen one?”

“We’re really going to sit here and play doctors and nurses?” Eris asked incredulously. This was not how he had pictured any part of his day going. What time was it? He hadn’t fed Orion before he left, the poor guy was probably starving.

“Unless you want to leave here with an oozing head wound, yeah, I was going to try and patch you up, you ungrateful shit. But sure, feel free to call a cab and see if they want to take you home. I hear they love people bleeding into their upholstery.”

That was possibly the most words Eris had ever heard Azriel put together in one go. “Okay, fine. Sorry. Thank you,” he added as an afterthought.

Azriel looked surprised but said nothing further. He dipped the washcloth into the water, wrung it out and gestured for Eris to sit up. Teeth clenched against the pain, Eris slowly struggled back into a sitting position. The pillow Azriel had placed under his head fell to the floor. Eris saw that the pillow’s cover was stained with blood and wondered for the first time exactly how badly he was injured. He leaned down to pick up the pillow, wincing.

“Leave it,” Azriel said. He began dabbing at the side of Eris’s head. It hurt like hell. The washcloth came away stained red, and Azriel dipped it back into the bowl of warm water to rinse it out before continuing. He did that a few more times before he seemed satisfied with the state of the wound. The tall, muscular enforcer was surprisingly delicate as he worked, trying not to hurt Eris more than necessary. He moved onto a cut on Eris’s cheekbone, his face so close as he inspected it that Eris glanced away.

“So what happened exactly?” Eris asked, clearing his throat. “Who were those guys?”

“I was hoping you’d be able to tell me,” Azriel said, frowning. “If somebody on your side is starting to put things together, this is not good.” He thought for a moment. “It doesn’t make sense that they’d just give you a beating, though.”

Eris shook his head. He was right, it didn’t. If Beron knew what he and Lucien had done, he wouldn’t be sending thugs after them. He’d be sending hitmen.

“Unless…” Eris said thoughtfully.

“Unless what?”

“Unless they weren’t there just as a warning, but to get proof.” Eris threw the blanket aside and dug through his pockets, nearly collapsing with relief when he found the flash drive still there. He tossed it onto the coffee table next to Azriel. Either that wasn’t what the men had been after, or Azriel had interrupted them before they could get it. If the former, he was more confused than ever. If the latter, he was still in deep shit.

“There you go,” he said. “At least that will keep your brother happy.”

Azriel made an odd face at that but didn’t say anything. He took a little tube out of the first aid box and squeezed a little of the contents onto his fingertip, then applied it to the wounds on Eris’s face and the side of his head.

Unable to stop himself any longer, Eris asked, “Is it bad?” He gestured to his face.

Azriel smirked. “A couple of little cuts. Some bruising. Don’t worry, you’re still pretty. I dragged them off you before they could do too much damage. Take your shirt off though, I’ll take a look at your ribs.”

“It’s fine,” Eris said. Damned if he was taking his shirt off.

“Just let me look,” Azriel said impatiently. “If they’re cracked, they’ll need to be strapped.” He yanked at the hem of Eris’s bloodied T-shirt and pulled it up so that it bunched just below his armpits. He knelt and began poking at Eris’s ribs while he tried not to react. He was conscious of his lean physique in comparison to Azriel’s gym-honed bulk.

“What if they’re broken?” Eris asked curiously.

“If they were, you’d know,” Azriel replied. “You probably wouldn’t have been able to sit up without help. Even breathing would be agony.” Azriel sounded like he spoke from experience. Eris wondered what had happened to him to make him so knowledgeable on the subject. “I think they’re just bruised,” he concluded, pulling Eris’s shirt back down. “You’ll be good and sore for a few days, but you’ll live.”

“That’s comforting,” Eris murmured.

“This wound on the side of your head is probably the worst of it,” Azriel went on. “It’s not that bad, though,” he assured Eris when he saw his expression. “Head wounds tend to bleed a lot even if they’re not that deep.” He picked up the tube of ointment and handed it to Eris. “Keep putting this on it, it’ll keep it clean while it heals. But you should be on the lookout for symptoms of concussion as well, just in case. If you feel nauseated, get dizzy, have a bad headache or anything like that, go see a doctor.”

Eris nodded. “How did you know to come looking for me?” he said. It hadn’t occurred to him to ask until now.

“I was watching you approach,” Azriel said. “I’d spotted those guys tailing you, but where I was I couldn’t do much. I was actually quite impressed when you clocked them, but then instead of staying on the street where it was busy or trying to lose them, you walked into a literal blind alley,” Azriel said incredulously.

“I didn’t know if they were actually following me or I was being paranoid,” Eris said defensively. “I wanted to see if they’d come after me.”

“And did you think about what would happen if they did?” Azriel asked, his tone somewhere between frustration and amusement. “Trapped in an alley?”

Eris said nothing, scowling. It was all very well for Azriel, he usually was the scary guy in the alley.

“Anyway, I was watching it all unfold from the parking garage,” Azriel went on. “As soon as I saw they were going to go after you, I got in the car and got down there, but they’d already given you a decent working over.” He shook his head. “It’s lucky I changed the plates on the car before I left, because before I threw you in there a few people definitely got a good look. It’s not the kind of area where the CCTV is likely to be very good, fortunately.”

It suddenly occurred to Eris how much Azriel had risked on his behalf. “Sorry,” he said again. “Thank you for doing that.” He looked up, assessing Azriel for a moment. The fact he’d managed to overpower two men, both of them even bigger than him, was impressive. “Why did you?”

Azriel seemed thrown by the question for a moment. “You’re a valuable asset,” he said. “Much less valuable in a hospital bed. So you should be more careful in future.”

“I thought I was being careful,” Eris grumbled. Not careful enough, clearly. Not like Azriel, who put stolen plates on his car before coming to meet with him. And who insisted he come on foot – so it would be easier to spot a tail, Eris now realised. And who scanned from above, watching for any sign of trouble. He was a fucking amateur by comparison. It was embarrassing.

“Look, it’s not all your fault,” Azriel said, as though he could read his mind. “I’m going to tell Rhys he needs to back off you, at least until I can look into this and figure out what’s going on. He’s asked a lot of you too quickly. You’ve got no training, it’s not safe.”

Eris frowned. Why should Azriel care? His value as an asset, he supposed.

“If Rhys wants this relationship to be a long and fruitful one, he’ll just have to be more patient,” Azriel said, again reading his mind. “And you need to learn a few things so you can operate safely. Clear some space in your calendar next week.”

“What? I can’t! I have a proposal to get done. As you’re aware.”

“You’ve just taken a beating, Eris. Is that not enough to justify a few days off?” Azriel frowned.

“Not to my father. And I have to figure out how I’m going to explain the beating, assuming he wasn’t the one who ordered it.”

“I doubt it,” Azriel said, his brow creasing. “Those guys were dopey street brawlers. I’d be very surprised if Beron Vanserra employed anyone so unprofessional.” Azriel wrinkled his nose in distaste.

He had a point. Sending dumb thugs after his own son, in a crowded area, while it was still daylight, didn’t seem like Beron’s style. He was many things, but sloppy wasn’t one of them.

“But if not Beron, then whom?” he wondered.

“Have you pissed anyone else off lately?” Ariel asked, as though Eris made a habit of it.

“No one notable,” Eris said. “As far as I know.”

Azriel shrugged. “You don’t have to explain it to him at all,” he went on. “You got beaten up and you have no idea why, so tell him that. Or tell him it was a mugging, whatever. But the point is, you’re injured and you need to recover. If he doesn’t like it, he can fire you. But he won’t. Then he might have to do some work himself,” Azriel said astutely, surprising Eris once again.

“And if I do manage to get time off?”

“You and I will take a little trip out of the city. And I’ll teach you some things that will make you less easy to mess with in the future.” Given Azriel’s reputation, that sounded daunting.

“I can’t make any promises. I’ll let you know.”

“I’ll wait with bated breath,” Azriel said dryly. “Do you think you can walk now? If you can make it downstairs I’ll give you a ride home. I’d rather not carry you again if we can avoid it.”

“You carried me?” Eris exclaimed. Could this situation become any more humiliating?

“You were out cold Eris, how do you think you got here?”

“Where is ‘here’ anyway?” Somewhere in one of the Dombranos’ many properties, no doubt, but he had no idea which part of the city they were in.

“My apartment.”

Eris’s mouth fell open. “You live here?” He’d assumed it was some kind of office break room left empty on the weekend, not a home.

Azriel frowned. “I do. Is that so hard to believe?”

“I… suppose not?” Eris glanced around the bland, pristine room again. The surfaces were all bare. There wasn’t a framed photo or a knick-knack or so much as piece of generic artwork on the walls. “I mean, all these homely touches really make the space.”

“I’m not home much,” Azriel said, whether by way of explanation or defense Eris wasn’t sure. “Are we going, or not?”

“Give me a second.” Eris gingerly got to his feet. Most of the pain was still in his ribs and head, but his assailants must have got in a few good kicks to his legs and back, too. His left shin barely wanted to take his weight. He took a couple of deep breaths. “Okay. Lead the way.”

Azriel didn’t direct him towards the door at the end of the room, but to a sliding glass door that had been hidden behind a curtain. It lead out to a narrow balcony. It was full dark outside, and Eris again worried about Orion. Azriel locked the door behind them, walked to the end of the balcony and climbed onto the fire escape.

“Do you always leave your home like you’ve just carried out a bank heist?” Eris asked.

“Do you ever stop being a smartass?” Azriel countered, holding out a hand to help Eris bridge the short gap between the wall of the balcony and the fire escape. Eris grunted in pain as he swung his leg over the railing.

They were about three floors up. The fire escape dropped them down into a side alley, from which they walked half a block to where Azriel’s car was parked, at the back of a small nondescript lot. It was a large dark-colored SUV with no plates on it. Azriel opened the passenger side door for him, then reached into a compartment in the driver side door and extracted a set of plates. While Eris was carefully settling himself and trying to put on his seatbelt, Azriel squatted down in front of the car and quickly and expertly fitted one of the plates, then did the same at the back.

“Where are we?” Eris asked when he slid into the driver’s seat.

“Westside,” Azriel answered curtly.

“Okay. I live in The District, just near-”

“I know where you live.”

Eris supposed that made sense, but he still found it a little creepy. “Okay. What time is it?”

“Almost nine. You got somewhere to be?”

Eris ignored the question. Fuck, poor Orion. He should have been fed three hours ago.

Azriel drove in silence for the ten minutes or so it took to get to Eris’s neighborhood. The traffic was light for a Saturday night. He slid the car into the curb across the road from Eris’s building, scanning the street.

“Thanks for the ride, Azriel. I’ll be in touch about next week.”

Azriel gave him an odd look.

“What?” Eris asked.

“That’s the first time you’ve actually used my name,” Azriel pointed out. It was? Eris couldn’t think of an example to prove him wrong, so maybe he was right. “Call me Az, though. Everyone does.”

That seemed a little familiar, but whatever. “Fine, Az then. I’ll see you later.”

“Hold on a second. I’m coming in with you. Those two guys might not have been the only ones watching you.”

Well that was a cheery fucking thought. Eris was too tired and in too much pain to argue, and he certainly couldn’t handle being jumped twice in one night.

Az’s eyes flicked over the surrounding street, the roofline of the building, as they approached. He held up a hand as Eris went to turn down the side of the building, where the entrance to the second and third floor apartments was located. He peered around the corner. Evidently he saw nothing that concerned him, because he waved Eris forward a few moments later.

“I usually just go in through the lobby and then take the elevator,” Eris explained as they approached the main door. “You’re welcome to use a grappling hook or climb in through the air conditioning vents if you’d be more comfortable, though.”

“Yeah, hilarious,” Az groused. “So what if I don’t like people being aware of my comings and goings?” Eris smirked.

When he unlocked the door to the apartment, Orion nearly bowled Eris over. He sucked in a breath and rubbed at his ribs. “I know, I know. Sorry buddy. You must be starving.” While Az went over to stare out at the street again from behind the curtains, Eris went straight to the kitchen. He filled Orion’s bowl with his dry food, then pulled a plastic container out of the fridge and added a couple of raw chicken necks as a treat. He turned to look for Orion, surprised he wasn’t hovering at his side.

Orion was standing next to Azriel as he completed his reconnaissance, Az absently patting his neck as he peered into the darkness. When he turned away from the windows, Orion did too. He saw Eris holding his bowl and bounded forward eagerly.

“Cool dog,” Az said, while Orion gulped down his dinner.

“Yeah. Actually, do you think you could do me a favor?”

“Depends what it is.”

“Would you mind taking him for a quick walk around the block? He hasn’t been out for a few hours and I’m really sore.”

“Okay, sure. It’ll give me another chance to look around, anyway.”

“Thanks.” Eris took Orion’s leash out from the drawer and handed it to him, along with a roll of black plastic bags that Az stared at dubiously. “He usually needs to poop after he eats. Sorry.”

“You owe me, Vanserra.”

“Yeah. Get in line.”

[script-nef]

Mystery lady | Aizawa Shouta

Category: fluff, crack?

2.2k words; Eri has another caretaker?

“All right, we have a surprise visitor today.” Aizawa mumbled underneath his scarf, packing the rest of his paperwork into a pile. “Don’t be annoying and suffocate her.” Heads swivelled as the large door slowly creaked open to reveal the small and adorable guest.

“Eri-chan?” Midoriya shot up from his seat, eyes popping out of his head. Others followed suit, squealing at her cute attire. Aizawa lifted her up and placed her on his desk, patting her head.

“She’s available to stay with us for about an hour, or until her caretaker comes.” Everyone—well, nearly everyone—crowded over Eri, eager to talk to her. The last time they saw her was months ago, after all. Aizawa would only give small slivers of information like “she went to the hospital today” or “she’s fine, stop asking” after the students pestered him. It was only when Iida interrupted, concerned for her personal space, that they stepped back a bit.

“Ah, I have to get some forms from the staff room… Look after her for a moment. You are going to be heroes.” With that, the teacher slid out of the room with his yellow sleeping bag in tow. After he left, all attention was directed to Eri.

“It’s been ages since we last saw you! How are you, is everything okay?”

“How’s it like living with Aizawa-sensei? Is he kind? Is he taking good care of you?” They took turns asking, giving her some snacks. Watching her face light up melted their hearts.

“Yep! He asks me a lot if I’m okay and gives me sweets! He once gave me this really bitter one and laughed when I spat it out. It was a really weird but funny grin.” The class couldn’t really imagine their apathetic teacher giving anyone any other type of a smile. The same one which scared them down to their bones.

Others chimed in with their questions, ranging from “Have you gone to any other places?” to “Have you found any other foods you like?” or “Are you going to school now?” Eri answered all of them with a bright smile. 

It made Midoriya almost tear up, how her attitude and personality changed from the moment they saved her from Overhaul’s grasp. He knew his influence over her wasn’t completely gone, but it was steadily disappearing, and nothing brought him greater joy than that.

“Wait, but… where do you go when Aizawa-sensei teaches us? Surely he doesn’t just leave you alone in the faculty’s dorm?” Yaoyorozu spoke up, fingers sifting through Eri’s silver locks. When Eri looked back at her in puzzlement, she replied with “that’s a fancy word for teachers.”

“Oh, [Name] looks after me.” The class looked quizzically at her, heads tilted in curiosity. 

“Who?”

“[Name]! She lives with us, and she’s so kind and the best. She always wakes me up with fireflies and it’s so pretty!” Everyone stopped at that. 

“...And is she like, our age, or…?”

“No? She’s an adult.”

Sparks flew around in the students’ minds as they tried to connect the dots. 

Aizawa-sensei lives in the faculty dorms in the Heights Alliance. Eri-chan lives with him. This mystery person lives with Eri-chan. Therefore, she must be living with our teacher. Aizawa-sensei is living with another adult, a female, no less. What the hell?

They murmured amongst each other, trying to speculate how this was possible. Eri stared in confusion. “Why are you whispering?”

“Eri-chan, when you say ‘lives with us’, did you mean like she moved in when you moved in or she was living with Aizawa-sensei before you came?”

“She moved into the dorms after I came.” The students nodded, saying how it would be unusual for the antisocial teacher to voluntarily live with anyone. Or for anyone to agree to the arrangement. “But she told me she was living with him before he came into the dorms. She complained about it a lot, how she had to travel every day just to see him. She’s happier now!”

This made them stop again. But in an attempt to stop interrogating her about this mysterious lady and focus on Eri herself, Kirishima steered the conversation.

“Uh, so what do you do all day?”

“[Name] is an artist, but she said she was also a teacher. I’m being homeschooled by her, but it’s so fun! And she always makes cakes and candy apples as a well-done reward. Then we take naps, watch TV and then eat dinner when Aizawa-san comes back. We sometimes go to the park and have picnics. She drew me a rabbit to play with on the grass and it came to life. It was so cute!”

Eri’s bubbly and enthusiastic voice made everyone coo at her adorableness. After sitting in countless non-hero lessons, she was like a ray of sunshine which brightened up their day. They didn’t know who this lady was, but she was apparently taking incredibly good care of their “little sister”.

“You must really like her then! She sounds like a lovely person.” Uraraka wiped the smudge of chocolate off Eri’s cheek, pinching it lightly in the process.

“Yep! She’s really lovely and hugs me a lot. Sometimes she calls Aizawa-san over and we cuddle for hours while watching movies!” This was the sentence which absolutely broke everyone’s brain. They stared dumbfoundedly at her confused face until one of them regained their ability to speak. Now that she said that, there was no way they could skip past this person.

 “Can you… tell us more about [Name]? Especially about her and Aizawa-sensei?”

“Um, well…”

“Wow, I am lost. My lack of sense of direction never ceases to amaze me… that’s the third time I’ve walked past the Nurse’s Office. Hm, not worrying at all, I’m perfectly fine.” A breath of fatigue and annoyance slipped out as you made a right, even though that’s what you did last time. “Ah yes, all around me are familiar signs, but no faces. If only the song could come true.”

The empty corridors were being filled with your muttering until you stopped in your tracks. “Wait a second, she’s in 1-A. Which means it would be on the second floor since the first would be the teacher’s lounges and whatnot. I need to go upstairs. Ugh, why didn’t I think this 10 minutes ago?” A pause. “It’s because I don’t use my two withering brain cells.”

Even on the second floor, you found yourself lost. Another 10 minutes would have been wasted trying to gauge your location if it weren’t for the loud squeals and shouts exploding out of a room. That fits the description Shouta gave. Energetic and no regards for the eardrums of anyone nearby, especially ones trying to sleep.

As you came closer, individual voices could be heard.

“Aizawa-sensei did that? I can’t believe it!”

“He doesn’t seem like a romantic type at all. I should believe the sky is collapsing before this.”

“He does it all the time, every single day. Ah, that’s her! [Name]!” Slipping into the classroom and nodding to the students, you carefully embraced the small child and held her up in your arms. The weight of her body on your arms and her arms around your neck immediately calmed your heart rate down. 

“Oh thank goodness I found you, I had no idea where I was! I swear I’m worse than Zoro when it comes to finding my way around.”

“Who’s Zoro?”

“Uhm, a fictional character you don’t need to worry about. You’re too young for One Piece.” Eri nodded with a smile and pulled at your sleeve. “Yes, dear?”

“[Name], they’re all Aizawa-san’s students! They’re so nice!”

“Yes, Grumpy told us about them, right? The band of misfits who he loves very much even though he never said it out loud or sometimes says the complete opposite. Remember how he said ‘I would rather drink an entire bottle of balsamic vinegar than go to another class’ yesterday but still woke up at 6? He’s such a tsundere.”

“He doesn’t like it when you call him that.” 

“What, Grumpy? No, he loves it, I can tell. I’m psychic.”

“Psychic?”

“I can read what other people think. It’s my Quirk.”

“Isn’t your Quirk Piggy?”

“...I have two quirks? No, that doesn’t make sense. Alright, you got me, I’m lying. And it’s Pygmalion, remember? Piggy is cute but very misleading.”

The students watched the light banter between you and Eri, eyes shifting to whoever was speaking. A lightbulb went off in Sero’s head which stopped the conversation. 

“Wait, I’ve seen you around before! You’re in the cafeteria every night!” Your attention changed to the boy, and the gaggle of wide-eyed children, at that. 

“Oh, I thought I was sneaky enough. Guess not. Okay, hello everyone! I’m [Surname] [Name], and I’m taking care of Eri along with that grouch you call a teacher in the faculty’s dorms. I’m not a suspicious person, I have all of my credentials and papers. And this little lady has a maths test to start!” Eri squealed and attempted to wriggle out of your arms at that, determined to escape. She slipped off and hid behind Midoriya, sticking her tongue out at you.

“I want to stay here!” You crouched down to her eye level, trying to reason with her. It was hard to say no since she barely asks for anything, and you never wanted to stop her from experiencing the outside world.

“Sweetie, these students must have their classwork to do and we might be disturbing them. And we don’t want to do that, ri—”

“Actually!” Kaminari cut in. “Sorry for interrupting, but we have absolutely no work right now!” Iida attempted to say “Yes we do.” but was smothered into silence by Ashido. “We have all the time in the world to talk to Eri-chan!” Her head spun to yours at that, large puppy-dog eyes fluttering with clasped hands. This was a move you tried to ban in the house because it instantly made you weak. 

“Alright then… If we’re not disrupting you guys, then I don’t see the harm. I’ll be sitting here, just to keep an eye out for our little miss. Don’t mind me.” Making yourself comfortable, you whipped out a novel from your bag and started reading. Although, the session lasted for only 2 minutes since the lack of rambunctious noise made you look up to 21 pairs of eyes staring back at you. “Can I… help you?”

“Miss, you live with Eri-chan, right?”

“Yes. Also, just call me [Name]. Yobisute is fine, don’t be so distant!”

“Ah, right. So you live with Aizawa-sensei.”

“Yup! You guys have it hard, having Grumpy for a teacher. Although I shouldn’t be the one saying that, seeing how I’ve been going out with him for the past… 3 years? Wow, time flies.” Screams of “What?” and “He’s dating someone?” filled the room. “Ah, so he didn’t mention me, huh? Typical Grumpy.”

“What do you see in him?” Todoroki’s voice cut through the chatter. Midoriya shrieked and explained to the bichrome boy how that has an offensive meaning. “Oh, I see. Sorry.” You laughed at the boy’s lack of social understanding.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I do want to get back at him, though. You guys want to hear about all the things he did with me over the years?” 21 heads nodded. “Well then, sit down and storytime will begin.”

Aizawa was looking at hell. Or at least a perfect replication of it in his homeroom class. You, standing in his spot and recounting everything he’s ever done with you, and his students, looking like they were practically engraving your words into their brains.

“What are you doing?” The children shrieked at his appearance. The fact that they didn’t realise he was there until he spoke up made Aizawa mentally note to increase their schoolwork in perception. It’s vital in Hero work, after all. You, on the other hand, aren’t even phased.

“What’s up, Mr Grinch? You somehow look more tired than this morning, what an accomplishment in uh… 8 hours.” He flicked your forehead for that, ignoring your yelp of pain. “This is a terrible way to treat your girlfriend!”

“And yet you haven’t broken up with me.” His students squealed and whistled at his comment. Acts which stopped as soon as he glared at them. “I’m back now, you said Eri needs to do her maths test.” He picked up the little girl from his desk and placed her on your folded arms, making sure she’s stable before letting go. 

“Alright, alright, we’re going. Did you guys have fun?” A chorus of “Yes!” nearly blasted yours and his eardrums off. Eri was saved thanks to Aizawa’s quick reflexes. He clasped his hands over her ears just in time. “Nice! Okay, we have to go now. Bye guys!” Another chorus of “Bye [Name]!” echoed. 

Your boyfriend followed you out of the classroom, patting Eri’s head while shooing you off. “I don’t have night patrol today.”

“That’s great! I bought some cake from that bakery around the corner. Brave through the day and come back to me in one piece, okay?” Your lips connected to his but he immediately pulled back at the screams from behind him. Nearly every single student had their face peeking out of the room, eyes glittering. “Oh oops.”

“Shit.”

[theamberwriter]

Part of the Family [ Shouta Aizawa||Fem!Reader]

Read the Series! [1] [2] [4]

Pairing: Shouta Aizawa x Fem!Reader

Warnings: None

A/N: So y’all remember THIS request where I said I’d post the headcanons separately? Well here they are, and they took me waaaayyyy too fucking long to write. Sorry they’re shit, lol

~*~

You knew Shouta was bringing Eri to live with you at the end of the week

You’d done all the appropriate paperwork, so she’d officially be yours. 

Everything really depended on Eri, however.

Kohaku would have a big sister if Eri liked it there

You hadn't met her yet, but Shouta assured you she was sweet

You two prepared the spare room for her to stay in

Neither of you knew what she liked

But you tried to make it as soft and warm as possible

You were more nervous than he was

You really wanted to give this little girl the life she deserved

He did warn you she was shy, you could understand why

You made sure everything was ready for when she got there

You spent the week cleaning and trying to make it as homey as possible.

You watched the clock, waiting anxiously for you husband to appear. He was bringing two students who made Eri comfortable with him.

Normally that was against his rules. But he wanted her to be as at ease as possible.

Kohaku was fussy, she didn't feel like waiting for her dad and the others before she ate dinner.

Eri clung to Midoriya's pants leg when Shouta brought her home. 

You'd been in the kitchen, feeding the baby.

Her large red eyes glancing around warily.

"No one here is going to hurt you," Shouta assured her. 

"Yeah," Mirio said with a grin. "You can have a real home now."

Is this what a home is supposed to look like? she wondered.

Your husband called to you, and then lead them into where you were.

Eri hid when you smiled at her.

Kohaku gurgled happily, reaching for her father. She wriggled impatiently in her high chair.

"Eri, Mirio, this is my wife, [Name], and our daughter, Kohaku."

"Your daughter is adorable!" Mirio cheered, and then grinned at you. "It's nice to meet you Mrs Aizawa."

"So you're the famous Mirio I've heard about, it's nice to finally meet you. And Midoriya, it's good to see you again. It's been a while since you've been in the nurse's office."

Midoriya blushed, muttering out a yeah.

You handed your daughter to Shouta giving him a peck on the cheek, then kneeled to Eri's level.

"It's nice to finally meet you too, Eri, I've heard a lot about you. Are you hungry? I just finished dinner."

She stared at you, looking for approval from your husband. He nodded. Then she did when she turned back to you.

"I wasn't sure what you liked. So I hope what I made is okay. - I made enough for everyone, of course." 

Shouta gestured to a seat. Slowly, Eri climbed into it. She was just barely big enough to see over the table.

"Do you want something to sit on?" your husband asked. Eri feverently shook her head. "It is okay to ask for things." Eri just shook her head again. He took a seat next to her after putting Kohaku back in her high chair.

Mirio and Midoriya took a seat too. 

Mirio couldn't resist playing with the baby. Kohaku gurgled and sputtered happily as he made faces at her. "She's adorable, you guys should make another one!" 

Shouta rolled his eyes, while your face felt like it was burning.

You carried over plates and pots and bowls, then dished everything out before taking your seat on the other side of the high chair.

"Enjoy everyone!"

Eri was hesitant in eating what you made, at first. But soon began to happily stuff her face.

Midoriya was kind enough to help with the dishes after.

"We have a room ready for you," Shouta said. "Do you want to go see it?"

Eri nodded, holding onto his pants leg. Mirio and Midoriya trailed after, Mirio cradling Kohaku in his arms.

"I hope you like it," you said, opening the door.

Everything was warm, plush, and soft. There was a rug on the floor in soft colors, and the furniture was white. 

Her room had a window, so light streamed in through gauzy white curtains. The bed had a cute comforter, cushy pillows, and a few stuffed animals. 

You didn't want it to feel like a prison.

"It's all yours." You gestured into the room. "Come see for yourself."

She would definitely not go inside without holding onto someone.

Shouta had to give her a little shove, but she walked in and looked around.

"Mine?" Eri asked and hesitated before picking a stuffed rabbit off the bed.

Shouta nodded. "You don't have to be in here all the time."

It didn't take long for Eri to climb on the bed and settle in to the warm. You could see some of her anxiety ease.

She fiddled with the stuffy animals and glanced around dreamily.

You and the guys were talking when you looked over to see Eri already comfortable and out like a light in the pile of pillows.

You ushered them to living room, so as not to wake her.

You were sure it would take some time before Eri was comfortable around you. But she was such a sweet girl and adored your husband. 

You were glad you were able to provide her some comfort.

You were sure she'd come to trust you, and see you all as her family in no time.

You were happy to patiently wait for that day.

[five-rivers]

Ok, on Pep Talks, does Ghost Oboro get to talk to everybody after the battle? Like how does that go.

Shouta had spent more time in the hospital this year than he had in the entire rest of his career combined.  Considering how dumb he’d been as a new graduate and how quickly he usually tried to leave the hospital (to the horror of Hizashi and his students), that painted a rather grim picture.  

He leaned back against the bed and let his eyes drift closed.  Visiting hours were over, now.  His students had all been sent back home or back to their rooms. 

Today, no, these last two days, the actual battle had been yesterday, had been... well.  At least no one had lost any limbs.  Not even Midoriya.  Although the coma was arguably worse.  

Fenton and Shirakumo had not stuck around.  Despite Fenton’s promises of an explanation, which, in retrospect, had probably been for Shirakumo, not Shouta.

It was frustrating, to say the least.  

Shouta wasn’t even sure what Fenton had done.  Clearly, he hadn’t rolled back Shirakumo’s time, like Eri might have.  Shirakumo had never had yellow eyes.  Those belonged to Kurogiri.  Except they didn’t, because Kurogiri didn’t have irises or sclera, and those had both been quite clear yesterday.  But Shouta didn’t know what else could break through a decade and a half of brainwashing and programming and who knew what else.

Shouta didn’t know if Shirakumo had traded one master for another.  

Perhaps he would have been more at ease if Shirakumo had spoken to him at all, but beyond the radio (which may very well have been another wonderful hallucination) he had been silent.  It was, to say the least, extremely uncharacteristic.  But considering what had been done to him-  Years of trauma would change a person.  Maybe it was characteristic.  

(Fenton’s words suggested that Shirakumo had been speaking to him, back on that awful day.  Somehow.  It didn’t make sense.)

The door opened, and Shouta tensed, reaching for the call button.  He had injuries he hadn’t learned how to compensate for, yet, and his weapons were stored elsewhere, but if any villain was breaking in, he’d be sure to give them-

Oh.  

“Hi,” said Fenton, walking in.  Shirakumo lingered in the doorway behind him, before offering up a hesitant grin and flashing a victory sign.  

In the heat of the battle, it had gone over his head, but both of them looked so young.  Almost the same age as his students.  He flashed his quirk at them, just for the split second he could.  No change.  At least they weren’t Toga.

“So,” said Shouta.  He hadn’t decided whether or not to push the button to call for help, yet.  Technically, Shirakumo was a villain.  One that had escaped from Tartarus, no less.  “Care to explain?”

Fenton had the gall to look sheepish.  “If I’m not whisked away before I get anywhere important, sure.”

Shouta gave the pair of them a glare he usually reserved for his students.  Shirakumo looked away, sticking his hands into the pockets of his vest, and Fenton hunched his shoulders and slid into a chair.  

“Where do you want to start?”

How was he supposed to even begin to prioritize?  His eyes fell on Shirakumo.  

“How are you...” he gestured, hopelessly.  Alive.  Here.  So young.  “How,” he settled, “are you?”

Shirakumo opened his mouth, closed it again, and held up a finger before starting to search his pockets.  

“Uh, yeah,” said Fenton.  “There are consequences to, well, everything.  Side effects.”  He waved a hand at Shirakumo.  “Especially when you’re cheating death.”

“That didn’t seem to be a problem before.”

Shirakumo let out a breathless hah! of triumph and held up a pocket radio.  “It wasn’t me before!” 

Shouta blinked slowly at the device and then at Shirakumo.  He was, Shouta noticed, wearing the fingerless gloves that had once been part of his hero costume.  They paired oddly with the formalwear.  “What?”

“Kurogiri wasn’t me!  Well, he was, but... not?  It’s hard to explain...  You were always better at this kind of thing.”  Shirakumo shrugged.  

“I...  The important thing is that you’re you,” he said.  

“Yeah!” agreed Shirakumo, pumping his fist.  

“We really needed to let your parents know-

“No,” said Shirakumo.  

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Fenton said.  “All things considered.”

“But everything you did, Shirakumo, it-”

“Actually, can you call me Cloud?  Names are... weird right now.”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m okay with my original name, but our circumstances are slightly different.”

Shouta held his breath for two long beats.  “Sure,” he said, “I can do that.  Fenton-san, are you saying that you were also a nomu?”  It would certainly explain his eclectic abilities and how he had brought back Shirakumo.

“No, gross.  And call me Danny, really.  I didn’t even know they were a thing, but I guess it explains what Clockwork meant by ‘start researching something dangerous fifty years too soon.’  Didn’t Midoriya-san and Toshinori-kun tell you about me?”

His student.  Yes.  They had.  Reluctantly, Shouta tabled his questions about Shira- about Cloud.  He looked... alright.  It was Midoriya who was in danger at the moment.  

“You know what’s going on with Midoriya’s quirk, don’t you?” he asked.  “You know what’s happening with One for All, and why he wont wake up.”

“Yes,” said Fenton, after a moment.  “So, they did tell you about it.”

“Well?” prompted Shouta, irritably.  

Fenton made a face.  “In simple terms?  He’s buffering.  It’s-  His quirk jumped forward a few places, yesterday.  You saw it, didn’t you?”

“The flying?  Yes.”

“It was more than that,” said Fenton.  “But... yeah.  It’s a combination of quirk exhaustion, his injuries, and, uhm, One for All trying to load him, basically.  He’ll be fine.”

“Why are you so fixated on him, anyway?  Midoriya showed me his notes.  It’s more than just him being the next One for All user.”

Fenton’s eyes flicked up and down Shouta’s length, assessing.  “Are you sure you want me to answer that?  You can’t unknow it.”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay, well.  Someday,” said Fenton, “Midoriya is going to be like me.  Like us, really,” he gestured at himself and Cloud, who waved.  “I always wanted someone to have been there for me, so...  And it’s my fault he’s even in this position to begin with.”

“And,” said Shouta, marveling at how quickly they had come back to the topic, “what are you two exactly?”

“We’re dead!” said Cloud, still speaking through the radio.  

“No, you’re not,” said Shouta.  

“I mean, it isn’t wrong, per se,” said Fenton, rubbing his face.  “It was his body, you saw back there.”

“Ehhhh, can we not talk about that?”

“Sorry,” said Fenton.  “The best way to put it....  Have you ever heard of quirk singularity?”

“Are you saying your quirks went through singularity?”  Because they had multiple quirks combined... although, nothing had ever indicated that Kurogiri had a quirk that allowed him to treat radios like that.  

“Kind of,” said Fenton.  “Better to say we are the quirks.  Sort of.  It’s complicated.”  He rocked a hand back and forth.  “They’re... quirks are connected to a person’s consciousness, right?  But, they’re also attached to the body.  When a person dies, their quirk still lingers for a while after.”

“That’s what happened to me!” said Cloud, raising his hand.  “When that rubble hit me, I was dead right away, but I had to do something!”

“Right, he woke up and reached out the only way he could.  Radio.”

“But,” said Shouta, “your quirk didn’t do anything like that.”

“Singularity,” said Fenton, shrugging.  “Quirks... are a lot more than you think they are.  It changed, because that’s what he had to do.”

“I can still make clouds, though, don’t worry!” said Cloud, spinning one off his finger.  

“You’re saying, Midoriya is going to die.”

“Eventually, yes.  Everyone dies.  Not everyone winds up like this.”

“All for One.  Will he...?”

Fenton grinned, showing fangs.  “If he does, you won’t have to worry about it.”  The grin faded.  “Unfortunately, I’m explicitly not allowed to do anything to him unless he does something to me, first, so...”  Fenton shrugged, as if he didn’t just brush off defeating the greatest villain of all time as if it were nothing.  

Fenton stood up and stretch.  “We’re almost out of time.  Cloud, are you sure you want to stay?”

“I’m sure,” said Cloud.  “I still have things to do here.”

“Well, you know how to get in touch.  Remember what I said.”  He turned back to Shouta, who had discretely started to thumb the nurse call button.  “Don’t feel bad about Midoriya-san.  He can still live out his life.  Just...  Help him, will you?  He needs the support.”

“If anyone can do it, you can, Shouta!” said Cloud, grinning like a loon.  

Fenton nodded and glanced at the clock on the wall before disappearing.  

“Right!” said Cloud.  “That’s my cue to go.”

“I thought you were staying,” protested Shouta, as Cloud left the radio on a nearby table and went to the window.  He started to get up.

“In this time.  The place...”  He grinned ruefully as he slid the window open and squeezed out.  “I think you understand.  Stay strong, Shouta!  I believe in you!”

“Shirakumo!  Don’t-!”  It was too late.  He was already surfing away on a cloud.  

The nurse arrived moments later.  

[ryujin-zanba]

i realise given the notes that some of y'all are actually interested in reading what the newspaper articles say in this post so here they all are under the cut (please keep in mind that a lot of them contain personal headcanons and some hints at certain pairings which i will tag. it's okay if you disagree with/dislike the thoughts i have ab some characters' futures but if you find that's the case just keep it to yourself and dni please) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔง

[Poster which says: Vote for Froppy 🐸]

(Not so subtle Napoleon Dynamite reference from me)

 Hero Red Riot Saves the Day an Hour Before His Wedding!    As expected of our favourite man in red, but what did the groom have to say about this? (The groom is Bakugou and he was proud of Kiri ❤)

 Pro Weekly Deku takes title of Japan’s number one hero third year running! Following in the shadow of the longest reigning number one hero, newcomer Deku has a lot to live up to, but he is already breaking records and impressing critics with his heroism, and fans just can’t get enough of him.  In only his third year as a licensed pro, Deku has managed some incredible feats and is shaping up to give the former number one quite a run for his legacy. The retired pro recently shared in an interview that he could not be more proud of his junior and that he is cheering for our new number one the whole way.

 A New Ingenium Takes the Mantle But what can we expect of our dashing (pun intended) new pro? The youngest son of the Iida family is following in his brother’s footsteps as he officially takes on the name and the legacy of beloved hero Ingenium.

 Lemillion Saves One Million Golden hero Lemillion reclaims his position among the top five pros in only his first week back. After participating in the saving of a suspected one million lives involved in an international hostage crisis, Lemillion saw a 100% popularity increase in the polls and has been recognised by several world leaders for his incredible display of heroism. Lemillion has recently returned to hero work after taking a year off for paternity leave last Summer. A brief interview with the pro revealed that husband and baby are both doing well and their little one is already starting to show signs of developing a strong quirk.

(Mirio’s husband is Tamaki ❤)

 Former U.A Students Pay Tribute to Late Mentor Yagi Toshinori How the world is mourning a great hero and the people closest to him are upholding his legacy.

[Accompanying image of Toshi in his pinstripe suit, tired but smiling]

 Not All Heroes Wear Capes U.A high graduate goes on to make major advances in the field of restorative medical science.  Eri, formerly of U.A high school, is currently completing her doctorate at Tokyo University and is expecting to graduate this year with her first PHD. Her influence in the field, however, has already sparked plans for the implementation of several quirk-specialised branches in every major hospital across the country, a system speculated to be fully functioning as soon as next Spring. Having already successfully treated several prominent heroes throughout her blossoming career, we can expect many great things from Eri in the future and wish her all the best with her final exams.

 [Crude cat drawing next to the text 1-A]

(Reference to Aizawa’s cat drawing that he put on a banner for his class during the sports festival in Smash, which he then hid from them)

 [Magazine cover of Yaoyorozu with the top text ‘Women in Business’ and the bottom text ‘Creati’]

 Shouto-Out Former pro hero Shouto retires at age twenty five in order to pursue a career in nursing. After the new data that came to light last month showed an incline in children born to forced quirk marriages, the ex-pro expressed his interest in becoming involved with caring for and counselling the startling number of those taken into care every year as a result. His partner had this to say, “Shouto has had a lot of difficulty finding a path in life that he believes he truly chose for himself, but I think this is his way of being the hero he wants to be and he has my full support.”

(If you guessed Midoriya as Todoroki’s partner being quoted in this, you guessed right!)

 Hero affectionately dubbed ‘Pikachu’ by residents of local children’s hospital

(Kaminari, of course ⚡)

 Present Jack Pro hero and musical talent Earphone Jack has officially joined the Put Your Hands Up Radio team. Rumours that she is set to succeed Japan’s favourite radio personality have already started circulating, but we’re pretty sure the nation’s sweetheart, Present Mic, has got many years yet before we’ll see him retire.

 [Magazine cover featuring Midoriya with the top text ‘Deku’]

 Uravity Saves US Space Shuttle First person in history to be awarded a knighthood by NASA and her achievements haven’t stopped there. The hero known as Uravity is a staunch advocate for the proposed universal income scheme and her support for the bill has garnered such enthusiasm from fans that it is likely to pass in court this February.

(In the image I accidentally called her Uraravity instead of Uravity, sorry girl!)

 He’s Still Got It! Present Mic wins lifetime achievement award for Put Your Hands Up Radio, the show he has been proudly presenting since his debut as a hero. Maintaining a huge following and unwavering popularity, his nighttime slot every Friday from 1am to 5am has also earned him a place in the hall of fame for highest number of consecutive awards in radio hosting history, congrats man!

(Mic might not be one of Aizawa’s students, but he is just as proud of his husband’s achievements ❤)

 Tsukuyomi Gets His Wings Tsukuyomi and his quirk, Dark Shadow, have officially taken over at Hawks’ agency after the young hero retired from the field to pour everything into his successor. As it stands, Hawks will continue on to support Tsukuyomi and we wish them both the best with any future plans from here on.

(Possible spoiler for latest manga chapters... but I think the bird man might be taking a leaf from All Might’s book and finding someone to carry on his legacy 😅)

 Kacchan’s Kitchen Newly opened in the most up and coming area of the city, the restaurant will join several others on the renewed marina-front, though its owner and head chef are what really set the place apart. Already it has received great reviews from critics. 

(Personal HC alert! Bakugou decides the hero life isn’t what he wants anymore and invests in his culinary skills instead, making Kiri a very well-fed man lol)

 Dance ‘Til You’re Pink! Pro hero Pinky opens a second dance studio that offers new prospects for passionate kids who are unable to attend paid classes. Children from low-income families are invited to choose from a variety of options when it comes to which discipline they wish to pursue and all equipment, performance outfits and other costs are covered by the studio.

 The Modern Batman Or should we say Catman? Illusive hero known only by his mind-control ability is spotted petting a local cat during his evening patrol.

[Accompanying image of Shinsou petting a black cat and looking almost identical to Aizawa in his attire]

[mrs-hatake]

900 followers prompt list!!

We just hit 900 followers on this blog and I’m honestly so speechless! Thank you everyone for loving and supporting this blog ❤️

In celebration, I decided to make a prompt list for all of you authors and inspiring authors to help you write wether you’re on a writer’s block or aren’t sure what to write exactly. I will track this via aizawakashi prompts.

So, without further ado, here’s the prompt list!

All fandom:

- You return home after a long day at work and your character interest showers you in kisses and pampers you the whole day with your favorite food and cuddles with you watching your favorite movie.

- Day at the beach! You and your character interest head to the beach for the weekend to relax and flee from the hectic city life. 

- 7 minutes in heaven!! Bored with nothing to do, you recommend playing 7 minutes in heaven with your (multi) character interest. 

- Surprising your husband at work by bringing them their lunch or desserts because you know they’ve been working very hard lately and you just want to cheer them up.

- Masquerade ball au! You are invited to a masquerade ball. Alone and nervous, a handsome and mysterious man offers to dance with you. You are charmed by him and slowly start to crush on him. You were to kiss but suddenly, the clock stuck midnight and he vanishes. Disappointed, you look for him everywhere for months. And when you find him, you discover that he was a [insert favorite mythical creature] and offers you to join him for all of eternity.

- Meeting your parents au! After being together for a long time, it was finally time to introduce your boyfriend to your family. You were anxious that they wouldn’t get along but were surprised when they did! Later that night, your mother pulls you to the side and said that she thinks he would be the perfect husband.

- Haunted house au! Queue the funny montage scenes. Lots of hand holding and hiding behind each other. 

Naruto:

- You challenge your crush Naruto to a ramen eating contest. Kiba and Shikamaru bet that Naruto would win while Sai, ino and Sakura bet their money on you. The winner is up to you. 

- Kakashi cries after spending an hour teaching his son new words. Worried, you rush to the room only to find your son giggling at his dad while Kakashi is in a state of crying and laughing. Concerned, you asked your husband if he was okay. He replied that his son just kept making mistakes and it was the cutest thing ever and Kakashi didn’t know how to deal with such cuteness.

- Wanting to help Neji with his rebellious phase, you give him an all goth/emo makeover. Piercings, tattoos, ripped jeans, the whole work. You teach him to have fun and let loose. Hiashi is angry, forbids him from seeing you but Neji stands up for himself, fights for you and for his freedom. Hiashi reconsiders.

- While on watch on a mission, Sai couldn’t sleep and was entranced by your beauty so he decided to do a quick sketch of you while you watched over your team as they slept, not knowing that Sai was awake. 

- Kakashi introduces you to his dogs and waits for their approval. You take this very seriously as you want to impress them because they were his family.

- Seducing Shikamaru while dancing at the club. You two have been flirting for a while, making empty promises of showing each other a good time. After a long mission where the sexual tension between you was high, you finally decided to do something about it. 

- Cooking date with Itachi! You help Itachi cook dinner with him and it’s so soft and very cute. You both have a great time and you become so emotional seeing how happy and relaxed Itachi was being. 

- Hidan is a guitarist from this new rock band, Akastuki. You have a huge crush on him and one day, you bump into him as he was running away from his rabid fans so you help him escape and hide into this small local cafe that barely had any customers. 

One Piece:

- Law was being grumpy because the straw hats decided to stop at a winter island. His and Luffy’s crew were all having fun building snowmen, igloos and making snow angels. You wanted him to join and have fun for once so you took a handful of snow and hit Law straight in the face. A snowball fight commences.  

- Zoro gets separated from the straw hats while at a tropical island and wanders off to a small village deep in the forest. He finds you, the village dancer, and is hypnotized by the sway of your body and the teasing gleam in your eyes. He was enjoying himself when, suddenly, criminals raided your village and as he came to your rescue, he was surprised to know that you were strong and were a skilled [insert weapon talent here] and was very impressed...and turned on.

- A beautiful girl joins the straw hats and, for once, Sanji wasn’t attracted. He doesn’t flirt with her, doesn’t call her any terms of endearments and won’t even glance her way. You two would constantly fight and argue and everyone has had enough of your shirt. The straw hats lock you up in a room until you work things out. You were surprised that Sanji treated you this way because he had never had a serious crush on someone and didn’t know how to process his emotions. 

- Ace meets Tama’s older sister while at Wano. He was drawn to your kindness and dedication to restore your village. A short romance affair  between you began, and he offered you to join Whitebeard but refused because you had to take care of your sister. You were devastated when Luffy told you what happened to Ace.

- Luffy falls in love with a female chef. He was so in love with your cooking that he said your food was better than Sanji. Queue a cooking battle between you and the blonde chef. Luffy was the judge and  you both worked very hard to impress the judge. Of course, Luffy being Luffy declares the both of you as winners. You and Sanji become best friends.

My Hero Academia:

- Aizawa runs into his college ex-girlfriend and was baffled to see her working with the League of Villains, and worse, is Dabi’s girlfriend. He blames himself and doesn’t know if he can fight you or not since he still had feelings for you. Their reason for their break up is up to you. 

- Dabi is infatuated with a fiery quirkless civilian who wouldn’t take anyone’s shit. She doesn’t really care about the whole hero vs villain thing and Dabi is just interested in her mindset and philosophy. The two work together and reader offers him a place to stay and heal his wounds after encountering heroes. 

- While working with LoV, Hawks is drawn to villain reader who has a quirk similar to poison ivy who is also working as a double spy against the superheroes. The two team up and they’re the strongest, most feared team anyone has ever encountered. 

- Reader is Overhaul’s childhood best friend and own personal nurse. She is just as ruthless and evil as Overhaul but something in Eri’s eyes and gentle aura softens her up. She struggles between helping Eri and being loyal to Overhaul.

- Aizawa’s mom has been nagging for him to get married for almost ten years now. she wasn’t getting any younger and wanted grandkids as soon as possible. Understanding his friend’s stress and frustration, Hizashi comes up with a plan of getting Aizawa into a fake relationship with reader who works as a support teacher. Queue awkward encounters, kissing in front of Aizawa’s mom and Aizawa retelling the story of how the two of you started dating. 

- Dabi wonders what’s it like to be a civilian and live a normal life. He hides his scars with make up and cleans up his looks to blend in with society and live a normal life. During his experiment, he meets reader with a low rank ice quirk who works at an ice cream parlor. No one knows of his double life and frankly, Dabi doesn’t know if he wants to return back to being a villain, especially when he started developing feelings for the reader.   

[ms-moonlight-inn]

First Line Meme

Got tagged by @energievie to do this. 💕 Thank you so thank you so much!

Rules: List the first lines of the last ten (10) stories you published. Look to see any patterns you notice yourself and see if anyone else notices any. Then tag some friends.

***

1. "The fluttery bastard had come to Mickey without an agenda." The Dead Butterfly

2. “'Is there a bathroom I can use?'” The Horrified Nurse

3. "At the first dancing snowflake, Ian held his breath." Princess Toadstool Gets A Night Tree

4. "It was all a blur." A Change of Plans At Tornillo-Guadalupe

5. "Have you ever heard about the Crepuscular ones?" Love Me At Half-Light

6. "The first time it happened, Mickey was deep in a dream, only startled out by the obnoxious ringtone Mandy had set on his phone." Late Night Calls

7. "It was a decent day for the end of September." Ginches Are My Love Language

8. “'Name the one alcoholic drink that made you throw up and say, ‘I never wanna drink again.’” We're Really Bad At This, But We Ain't No Quitters

9. "'Just so ya know, ya can call me a slut.'" The Great Untitled Rimming Story

10. "MR. MIKHAILO A. MILKOVICH & MR. IAN C. GALLAGHER are delighted to announce the formation of their family." Zero to Six

***

Conclusions: - Most of the time, I write quick, short intro sentences. Something that has a lot of monosyllabic words that just cut quickly to the chase and don't weigh the eye down too much.

- Just like @energievie said, I also like to create diversions. I don't usually get straight to the meat of the story right away. I like to lead the eye down the page naturally, without too much strain. There's a breadcrumb here. A clue dropped there. Nothing is ever truly a surprise with me 'cause I've usually led my readership in that direction with loads and loads of word-ery, but it still hits hard when I finally drop truths in the plainest speech possible.

-Sometimes, I'll start with dialogue. especially when I'm in the mood to do an in media res thing. Others, I set a scene. It really all depends what is best for the particular storyline.

***

Tagging EVERYONE. I was tagged on this a while back, so I've no clue who's done this one already. If you haven't come play! But, of course, I'mma tag my old standbys @stillbeatingheart & @notherenewjersey. I'm actually gonna tag @the-writers-bookshelf on this 'cause I think I'd be fun to see what you've got in your cupboard. 🙂

As always, no pressure to play. It's all in fun.

[petri808]

Bakudeku canon divergent, vampire quirk AU

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24

“How are you holding up son, are you eating enough food? You need to keep up your strength.” Mitsuki Bakugou questioned through the phone when her son called to give her an update.

“Yeah, yeah, of course I am! And, um, thanks for the money you put in my account,” Bakugou mumbled his appreciation.

“It’s from us, Inko, and All Might— actually he’s been putting up the bulk of it. We’re all hoping you find Izuku soon, but until then we’ll make sure you have what you need, just bring him home.”

“I’m working on it. Bastard’s not making it easy, but at least the damn authorities haven’t picked up on the trail yet.” It was a good thing, because Bakugou didn’t need them scaring Midoriya further away.

“You’re like a dog with a bone when you put your mind to something, so I know you’ll find a way.”

“I can’t believe you just equated me to a dog!”

“Oh, bite your tongue boy! It’s an expression!”

“Yeah, yeah. I better go, the train’s here.” He could see it pulling into Kawaji station.

“Are you still not gonna tell us where you are?”

“Nope. He moves around a lot anyways. Just know we haven’t left Honshu.”

“Alright. Good luck son. I’ll pass on your update to Inko and All Might.”

This game of hide and seek was physically wearing on Bakugou, but there was nothing short of a full incapacitation that would keep him from searching. After the Ena incident, Midoriya’s tactics had changed somewhat. The man moved more frequently and, in a zigzag, whereas in the past it had been heading in a straight line towards Shizuoka to the southwest. But there was one thing Midoriya couldn’t hide— victims. It didn’t take a genius to put the pieces together.

There were still times victims were drained, but not all of them. Bakugou surmised in order to not leave them fully incapacitated like before, his friend wasn’t always waiting until he was hungry, or he hadn’t learned to control it yet. He probably fed almost nightly, picking drunkards who wouldn’t remember what happened, and even less likely to report the incident. But less reports made it harder to track, and less blood also forced Midoriya to drink more often. Bakugou hoped that with shorter times between attacks, the man would get sloppy and make a mistake.

There were a lot of small towns all over, including abandoned structures from older times. Plenty of places to hide, not to mention dense forests and the mountainous terrain of central Japan that a person could disappear in. When tracking a lack of victim reports grew frustrating, Bakugou started looking for other clues, and in one town, a perceptive police officer commented about thefts he’d been hearing about from the surrounding areas. Random stores or restaurants, even some homes reporting the theft of food, sometimes clothing, basically survival type supplies but no valuables, which are not the norm of a burglary. It was brilliant.

Bakugou had thanked the officer for the information and immediately began inquiring in towns and watching newspapers where they were having both types of problems. It took almost a month, including a couple of near misses, until Bakugou knew he was closing in.

Local newspapers were reporting about unusual happenings in the smaller towns. In Ieyama city, high up in the mountains north of Shizuoka, Bakugou spoke with a police officer and confirmed a rash of strange incidents reported. Three burglaries of just food, one bath house broken into after closing, and a couple of reported attacks where the victims had marks on their necks. So far, Izuku’s new behaviors included sticking around the same area for about a week before moving on. With these latest cases only 3 days old in total, Bakugou knew they were a fresh lead.

“Yesterday, right?”

“Yes, the last burglary was in the afternoon while the homeowner was at work.” Using a paper map, the police officer showed Bakugou the location of the most recent burglary as well as two others over the last couple of days. It was very telling. The three places were centered around a 4-block radius. “If you are looking for hiding spots, there is an abandoned factory in that area. I’ll give you the address.”

“Thanks. I doubt they’d stay so close to the attack grounds, but I’ll check it out.” He didn’t want any of them following him.

It was still daylight, but Bakugou didn’t want to waste any time and risk his friend moving again after dark, heading straight for the dilapidated warehouse. The place looked like it had been emptied for a longtime. There was a rusted, chain link fence around the property, many broken windows, and weeds growing over the structure. Bakugou crept up to one of the windows, and heard nothing, so he moved slowly, quietly around the exterior paying close attention to any sounds or movements inside. But he heard nothing to indicate anything was there, not even an animal. Maybe it was another dead end, or maybe Midoriya was just sleeping. Un-phased, he moved inside the two-story building to make absolutely sure.

It took a while to search cautiously through the darkness, watching his step so not to step on anything or make a noise. The vastly open bottom floor was almost completely empty aside from a few left behind junk. So, Bakugou moved to the second floor where offices once were. Of all the areas, the top floor would provide the warmest cover, as well as quicker access to the roof. Like a trained tactical soldier, he cleared room after room, moving down the hallway that separated the individual offices, and one by one, eliminating them from the search. Finally, Bakugou reached the last one and heard the soft breathing of a sleeping person. Well, that meant two options, it’s just a homeless person or he’d finally caught his friend off guard.

Bakugou peered cautiously around the door frame. It was dark, but just enough light from a small window allowed his eyes to adjust quickly on a form lying down on the floor. Next to the person was a backpack, empty food containers strewn around, and possibly other items from the burglaries. There was also a make-shift hearth of broken bricks and a metal bowl with dark residue inside. He could even smell the light scent of soot mixed with burnt wood. ‘Gotcha!’ He smirked as he pocketed his flashlight and pulled out a special pair of handcuffs used to dampen quirks. It didn’t completely shut down a person’s quirk, but it kept them from using its full power. He was ready for Midoriya this time.

‘Almost there…’ he crept forward in a crouched manner ready to pounce like a predator stalking its prey in careful movements since he no longer had the flashlight out to see by. ‘Damn minefield,’ Bakugou grumbled as he navigated around the strewn mess of stuff the sleeping man had around him. ‘Almost there—'

*Crunch*

A piece of glass shattered below his boot, the sounds reverberating off the silent cement walls. “Shit!” Bakugou dove forward when Midoriya immediately popped up and tried to dash away. “Not this time nerd!”

“Waaahhhcchan!” Midoriya screamed as he was tackled to the floor. The two men fought, vying for footing, but the blonde kept them on the ground. Bakugou grabbed for and slapped one end of the handcuffs onto one of Midoriya’s wrists. “Nooo!” The man screamed.

“Not this time Deku! You ain’t getting away!”

Weakened by the cuff, Bakugou poured all his strength into jerking the disheveled man, flipping him onto his stomach, and tweaking his arm behind him into a wrist lock for leverage.

Midoriya screamed again from the pain, but nevertheless fought with all he had. Unfortunately, the cuffs were doing their job. “Please, Kacchan! Don’t do this!”

“Tough shit!” Bakugou snapped back and attached the other cuff to his own wrist. The effects would hamper them both, but “I dare you, nerd, you can’t beat me in a contemporary fight.” He was confident of such, having always been the physically stronger of the two regardless of quirk. “I’m taking you home!”

Midoriya wriggled, and tugged, but it was of no use. His friend had planted his feet, dropped his weight, and refused to budge. He didn’t want to risk exhausting himself and triggering a full-blown thirst like last time, so he stopped struggling.

After a few seconds, Bakugou got off the man and turned him over so he could sit up. Midoriya nursed his arm and rubbed at his wrist to soothe the pain. “Of course, I want to go home,” he sighed. “But it’s too dangerous Kacchan, why can’t you understand that?”

“Eri’s getting better every day, one day she’ll be able to control her quirk and fix you.”

“That’s not good enough. What are you gonna do, lock me up hoping she can fix me?! You saw what happened! Just like we eat food every day, I need blood, how are you gonna deal with that?!”

“Fine,” Bakugou shrugged, “we’ll hook you up to an IV and feed you blood when you need it.”

“No,” Midoriya started tugging again as tears flowed down his cheeks. “Please,” he begged, “this is too embarrassing, don’t you understand! I’ll never be able to be a hero again, my reputation will be ruined once everyone finds out! Hero society will look bad! It’s better I stay away!”

Frustrated with having his wrist yanked, Bakugou whipped his friend around and put him in a carotid choke hold. “Well, I’m not fucking leaving,” he spat, “so, we need to come up with a solution. Now stop fucking fighting me and get it through your head, the reality is I’m not going anywhere.”

Midoriya clawed at Bakugou’s arm trying to pull it away from his neck, but the man had it cinched in tight. If he kept struggling, he was bound to pass out. Exhausted, he finally relented and turned into a dead weight, sobbing quietly. “Why are you doing this, Kacchan… why?”

“Because a friend once told me I need to save to win, and right now you need to be saved for me to win.”

“Right? Win, I get it,” Midoriya narrowed his eyes along with tone. “This is an ego thing? You’ll take me back to show how you’re still better than me?” His heart didn’t believe those words, but as a coping mechanism, it did.

Bakugou let go of the man and shoved him so hard Midoriya face planted on the floor, stretching the handcuff chain to its limit. “I ought’a punch your lights out for saying that! I’m trying to win my friend back you asshole! You think I’d spend all this time chasing you if I didn’t care?!”

“Kacchan…” The man sighed and slowly propped himself back up. “There’s nowhere safe for me to go.”

Bakugou ignored the man and looked at his watch, noting the sun would have fully set by now. It might best to stay another night while he came up with a plan. “Tch, I’ll figure something out. In the meantime, behave or I will just knock you unconscious.”

“Fine, I won’t fight. But I do need to feed tonight.” Midoriya lifted his arm to flash the cuff. “Guess you’ll have to help me.”

“Why? You feeling the urge?” Midoriya nodded yes. “How can you tell?”

Midoriya thought about the answer for a minute before responding. “It’s like feeling dehydrated, maybe, at least in the beginning, but then it starts to get painful if I don’t feed it. I guess think of it like if you don’t eat for so long your stomach hurts— that’s what it’s like.”

“Sounds like it sucks.”

Midoriya snorted. “Understatement. It takes control of my mind by that point, almost as if it’s a survival instinct to protect itself.”

“Well, mister know it all. You ever heard of this kind of quirk before?”

“No,” Midoriya shook his head.

“Do the vestiges have anything to say about all this?”

Again, Midoriya shook his head.

Bakugou groaned and ran a hand down his face. “Whatever. Doesn’t matter for the current situation.” He looked up again fixing a stare at his friend. “So, what do you do to get the blood?”

[malikmata]

Notes from a Brown Boy - Kansas Diaries

*Author’s Note: Some people’s names have been changed to protect their identities

The rain was the first thing to greet me when I landed in Wichita. Overhead the gray clouds loomed, shadowing the farmland that yawned in the distance. Distance. At first glance, the city seemed like one long stretch of prairies and cracked parking lots, occasionally punctuated by billboards of grinning injury lawyers and lit up restaurant road signs.

If you spend enough time here amid the crumbling old buildings, watching the weeds sway in the vacant lots, you’ll feel the slow, inevitable creep of dread or something like it.

It’s easy to feel lonely here.

But, if you’re receptive enough, you’ll run into many friendly folks. Sometimes too friendly.

For example: During my first week, I went to Freddy’s, a local fast food chain, and ordered a crispy chicken sandwich with fries. The cashier, a young woman with glasses and short blonde hair, suddenly started confessing her fear that her 8-year old chihuahua wouldn’t live a long life.

“I still think of him as a teenager,” she said.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “He’s a chihuahua. They live long lives.”

Out here, in the most middle-of-the-road cities, you sometimes get a chance to show an act of passing kindness. While waiting in line at one of the hip, new cafes downtown, a place called Milkfloat, a tall elderly gentleman recommended which coffee and pastry to get.

“My wife says this place has the best cold brew in town.” Afterwards, grabbing his pastry and coffee, he wished me a good day. Most folks here always do and you better hope it comes true. Because here, like elsewhere, a day is filled with ordinary heartbreaks.

I will simply call her “Tita.” She works as a tailor at a department store, the only tailor working there, hemming and tapering racks full of suit pants under fluorescent lights. The nature of the job requires exact measurements and a keen eye for detail. She works hard, often skips lunch, and comes home dead tired. Her husband is recovering from 4 broken ribs after a car repair job went awry. Nothing can be done but wait until he gets better.

They live in a languid suburb on Wichita’s east side, a street with few sidewalks but plenty of lawn.

And noise. Plenty of noise. The neighborhood sits next to a car dealership. The skies overhead rumble continuously with airplanes and thunderstorms. Dogs bark at anyone who gets too close. A pickup truck blasts a corny country song as the cicadas and frogs belt out their lonely mating calls. Occasionally, a child’s laughter rises above it all.

Gossip is one of the great pastimes in towns like these. Even if you shut yourself up in your home, stories trickle in.

The neighbor across the street shot himself in the head.

The elderly couple that used to live next door got committed to a nursing home.

A fellow around the corner is on his third attempt to grow weed.

A college student starves himself morning to night so that he can save money for college.

Down the street, a kid lifts weights and punches the heavy bag hanging on his front porch.

Here, dumb luck seems, more so than in the big cities, the providence of God.

A man told me he got a job installing new carpets at a friend’s house. He was in desperate need of money, having sent most of it to his mother back home, who proceeded to gamble it away. When he ripped out the old carpet, he found a bundle of $10,000 dollars just lying there. His co-worker said, “We should split it.”

“No, no, we can’t take it.” the man said. He gave the money to his friend.

Sometime later, he went to the casino and couldn’t stop winning jackpot after jackpot. He brought home close to $16,000 in one night.

“So, if you do something good,” he told me, “God will remember that.”

Many people have come to live and die here, all of them wrapped up in the melancholic churning of faded ambitions and familial obligations.

Some people here have found something that returns them to the placidity they once felt in their youth. Sometimes that’s enough to keep them going.

For example:

I met Phil Uhlik, the namesake of the music store on E Douglas. He heard me playing an old Martin acoustic in one of the rooms. He shuffled in slightly hunched over, wearing a blue paisley shirt and brown shorts. He looked at the sunburst guitar in my hands and said, “It’s got a little beauty mark there.” He pointed to a small nick just above the sound hole. “All girls have beauty marks.” He pointed to his cheeks and smiled.

Uhlik started this music store 51 years ago and enjoys every moment of it.

“When you go to work for Boeing, that’s work,” he said. “But this, it doesn’t feel like work.” He motioned to the instruments all around him.

“How’d you get started?” I asked.

“I started off playing one of these,” he said, taking one of the accordions off a nearby shelf. As he strapped it on, all the years seemed to disappear. With a big crooked-teeth grin, he breathed life into the old accordion, his hands dancing up and down the keys. The smile never left his face as we bid farewell to each other.

I wish everyone in this world were as lucky as Phil.

I’m always seeking indie bookstores when I travel. Eighth Day Books provides much needed shelter from the summer heat. The shop was built 33 years ago and used to be located about half a mile east, in Clifton Square Village. About 17 years ago they moved to their current location, a 1920 Dutch-style colonial house on the corner of E Douglas and N Erie. Its blue trimmed windows peek through the foliage of neighboring trees.

When you walk in, you’ll see shelves of books on Christianity and Theological studies, most notably in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. I’ve never seen a bookshop with a section dedicated to Iconography.

Wichita, despite its size, feels like a small place. And with that cramped spaciousness, you’re likely to run into someone you may remember or who may remember you. Here I ran into my girlfriend’s 8th grade English teacher. A bald, bespectacled man with a gentle demeanor. After a bit of catching up, he said to us with a smile, “I hope all your dreams come true.”

The short story writer, Raymond Carver, once wrote: “Dreams… are what you wake up from.”

Wichita is a land that hypnotizes you; it makes you dream, dream of something beyond the miles of strip malls and airplane factories, beyond the shocks of wheat and windswept plains, beyond the doldrums and ennui. But it also shakes you awake, reminds you that you’re in it, that you better stop dreaming.

I’m not the religious sort anymore, having survived the regime laid down by my Catholic parents. But there is something enthralling, maybe even inspirational, when I look at the rows of beautifully painted portraits of saints and martyrs. Such solemn faces surrounded by golden halos. According to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, such paintings transcend art; they’re supposed to be windows through which you can glimpse the divine. They remind me of my grandparents with their judging eyes and moral seriousness.

My book haul for the day:

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

The Diary of Anne Frank

Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries by Marina Tsvetaeva

Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector

In that last book, I found this lovely little passage:

…”in the Revolution, as always, the weight of everyday life falls on women: previously--in sheaves, now in sacks. Everyday life is a sack with holes. And you carry it anyway.”

From Earthly Signs, P. 40

According to the 2019 United States census bureau, 15.9% of Wichita's population lives below the poverty line. That’s higher than the state average, which hovers around 11.4%. That’s not the lowest nor is it the highest in the country. As befitting its location, Kansas is right in the middle.

The minimum wage in Kansas is still $7.25 despite efforts to increase it to $15. When Covid-19 hit, city and service workers bore the brunt of the impact. You can keep all your empty slogans like  “We Love Our Frontline Workers.” Congratulate me all you want for my hard work but where’s my pay?

When you see that business here has returned to normal--people freely walking around without masks, no longer socially distancing--it still feels all too strange; we spent an entire year under lockdown. There’s still a pandemic by the way.

Loved ones fell ill, died alone, hooked up to ventilators in closed off hospital rooms. I believe every interaction now carries the weight of all those deaths. My family, like so many others, didn’t escape unscathed from the pandemic. My grandpa, Amang, caught Covid. Since he was an elderly citizen (and suffering from emphysema to boot), he was among those considered most at risk. We all feared the worst. Somehow he survived. The doctors called him a “trailblazer.”

Now, with businesses back to 100% capacity, I’m afraid that, just like the 1918 Flu epidemic, the past will fade like a nightmare upon waking. But it was so much more than that; it was an avoidable tragedy.

If you want to know what this pandemic has done to people and their livelihoods, is still doing to them, take a ride through downtown.

Things were already going bad before Covid hit. Back in 2004, the writer Thomas Frank wrote,

“There were so many closed shops in Wichita… that you could drive for blocks without ever leaving their empty parking lots, running parallel to the city streets past the shut-down sporting goods stores and toy stores and farm implement stores.”

What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, P. 75

What led to all this blight? Frank attributes the decline to:

“the conservatives’ beloved free market capitalism, a system that, at its most unrestrained, has little use for smalltown merchants or the agricultural system that supported the small towns in the first place.”

-P. 79

The same story happens in a lot of places. A megacorporation keeps eating everything around it and leaves nothing else at the table.

The people are left hurting, a pit in their stomachs, and some asshole somewhere profits off of it.

While at the DMV, I overheard this:

“You have a good day now,” the security guard said.

“I’ll try my best,” a woman said.

My girlfriend heard them too and laughed.

“You really do have to try your best in order to have a good day here.”

At some point, we hit the town with a couple friends: Monica, and her boyfriend Will. Both are musicians trying to carve out their niche in a place that, on the surface, seems apathetic to creative pursuits.

It’s impossible to not be captured by their energy. As soon as we walk into their house, Monica, with her dark blonde hair draped over her shoulders, reached in for a hug. Will, a tall and bearded fellow with a bear-like presence, also went in for the hug.

“Ready to experience some Wichita nightlife?” Monica asked.

What is the nightlife here like? A group of high school punks wanted to fight us over a couple movie theater seats. Bored kids play rounds of “Chinese Fire Drill” at stop lights. I heard a nazi biker gang rolled into town at some point during my stay. Regular things like that.

At a low-key bar downtown called Luckys, I met a guy named Cory. He told me how he met a 15 year old kid loitering here, looking lost and forlorn.

“I don’t know what kind of advice I can give you but I’ll do the best I can,” Cory said.

This is the spirit I’ve often come across during my stay: A sort of slightly intrusive compassion. For a cynical Californian like me, the behavior seems a little strange, maybe even a little annoying. But I’ve come to appreciate the candor of it.

“Guaranteed we’ll know half the people here,” Will said.

Right away, he shook hands with the bartender—a high school friend of his—and asked him how his band was doing. Afterwards, we sat down and talked. Talking, after a year of pandemic lockdown, has become a lost art to me. But a little alcohol loosened the lips and suddenly I talked as though I’d known these people my whole life.

Will sipped his whisky on the rocks and told me:

“If everything in this world is meant to break down eventually, then any act of creation becomes an act of defiance.”

It may sound naive but to me, it’s true. I think about the words of the writer, John Berger:

Compassion defies the laws of necessity. To forget yourself and identify with a stranger has a power that defies the supposed natural order of things.

--The Shape of a Pocket, P. 179

Making art has to be, in some way, a compassion act, because it involves letting the environment and the people you meet speak for themselves, allowing a collaboration.

“When a painting is lifeless it is the result of the painter not having the nerve to get close enough for a collaboration to start… Every authentic painting demonstrates a collaboration.”

--The Shape of a Pocket, P. 16

You need to open yourself up, feel what someone is saying behind their words, and hopefully, feel what they feel.

Art, like Compassion, is defiant.

Among the 4 or so Asian markets here, you can find all the ingredients you need to cook up something good. During my first week, I stopped at a place called Grace Market. Like a lot of small Asian markets, it’s family run. A father from Taiwan. A mother from Korea. The son usually helps out when he can. Today (June 23), On this warm Wednesday morning, the son is manning the cash register.

“You’re from California? I’m from there too,” he said.

“Where at?” I asked.

“Sacramento. How about you? So Cal?”

“Nah, Bay Area.”

“Funny. That’s where my parents met.”

“Small world.”

On a different day, we met the father, a jovial man who never fails to say hi when you walk in. He came here over a couple decades ago from California, doing work for the US Army in Garden City. Once his service was over, he decided to stay in Kansas.

“I think you know why,” he said.

More and more young folks these days are leaving California. The high cost of living is presumably what’s driving this exodus. I told him I was also thinking of leaving the Golden State, as much as I love the place.

“Well, a town like this has a lot of potential if you want to save money,” he said. “If I tried to start this business in California, I don’t think I could’ve done it.”

The summer heat can, with the suddenness of a lightning flash, give way to thunderous storms. Speaking as someone from California, whose home has gone through excruciating periods of drought and wildfire, these nightly downpours are a startling yet relaxing sight.

The distant boom of thunder in the distance reminds you of how much of our lives depend on the weather, how small we are in comparison, how we are never separate from the goings-on of nature. The rain doesn’t come down lightly here. At night, it smacks and drums against the window pane with all the force of an animal trying to get inside.

But I don’t find myself frightened by it so much as awed by the combined power of wind and rain colliding against our rickety old house.

Kansas lies in the Great Plains, where layers of cool and warm air often combine into a low-level jet stream. Unimpeded by any natural obstacles on the wide flat plains, the wind roars across the expanse. Thunder growls over the prairie. And lightning flashes on the horizon in a fearsome red tinge.

The storm rages throughout the night, the only source of light in an ocean-sized plain.

“In general, the gods of the Wichita are spoken of as "dreams," and they are divided into four groups: Dreams-that-are-Above (Itskasanakatadiwaha), or, as the Skidi would say, the heavenly gods; and (2) Dreams-down-Here (Howwitsnetskasade), which, according to the Skidi terminology, are the earthly gods. The latter "dreams" in turn are divided into two groups: Dreams-living-in-Water (Itska-sanidwaha), and the Dreams-closest-to-Man (Tedetskasade)”

From The Mythology of the Wichita, P. 33

If you go downtown, you’ll see a sculpture called “The Keeper of the Plains.”

It’s almost 9 o’ clock when I get there, so large crowds have gathered to watch the ring of fire lit around its perimeter.

The statue was designed by indigenous artist and craftsman, Blackbear Bosin. Born in Cyril, Oklahoma, but living much of his adult life in Wichita, Kansas, Bosin was of Comanche and Kiowa descent and almost entirely self-taught as an artist.

When you come upon the Keeper of the Plains, standing tall on the fork of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers, you can’t help but feel a mix of admiration and sadness. It’s a striking statue, especially when set against the beautiful orange and lavender hues of the setting sun. But monuments like these end up reminding you of the Wichita peoples who were killed, displaced, driven from their land, and left to die in reservations, forgotten. The tribes that once lived here along the southern plains still show traces of their culture but now, you’ll see it mostly as a memory in a museum or as art hanging on the walls of a library.

I learned from a video by the Wichita Eagle that the last speaker of the Wichita language, Doris Jean Lamar, died back in 2016. It must be indescribably lonely to be the last speaker of a language. There is no one to have a conversation with, no one to whom you can confess your hopes or your regrets. But in the video, Lamar, even knowing that she is the last speaker, expresses hope that future generations will know what the language sounded like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ScPkN_xGRI

Is forgiveness even possible when injustices are still committed today against native peoples everywhere?

Not enough can be said about the skies here, which seem at times so brilliantly marbled with peach and lavender colors that you begin to walk with your head perpetually craned upwards.

It’s this aspect, the overwhelming sense of the sublime, that will probably stay with me long after I’ve left Kansas.

I think again about the nature of dreams. It isn’t such a sin to dream about things, about things that haven’t happened yet, and about things that have happened. To quit dreaming seems too cynical, like admitting from the outset that everything is screwed, that you should stop trying.

During my stay here, I’ve met many people who aren’t so irony poisoned yet, people who are achingly sincere and kind. They haven’t stopped trying. There isn’t much room for cynicism here. I appreciate that a lot.

Farewell to you, Kansas, you and your clumps of cumulus and vast fields of cows and grass. I’ll see you again.

Check out Will’s music! It’s gloomy, melancholy, and LOUD!: https://teamtremolo.bandcamp.com/album/intruder

[shelling4869ford]

Patchwork

Hello my dear @deducingcircumference  I was your @dcmksecretsanta​ this year! I decided to go for your idea about the Mori family, I really hope you’ll like it! I had fun writing it, even though it was a lot harder than I thought. I’m sorry that I wasn´t able give it to my beta before, I’ll repost it once it’s corrected. Still, I hope you’ll like it! Have am merry, healthy and nice Christmas and a happy new year!

~ Shelling

Patchwork

 He should have known better.

These past day’s the doorbell had only caused him trouble and pain.

Why had he even believed that it would be different this time?

Megure however, couldn’t care less for Kogoro’s grumpy face.  

“His parents are still dealing with the FBI and the Professor has his own little problem right now. He can´t stay in the police department any longer, it would only raise further suspicions.” Megure swallowed, that was something he really didn´t want to deal with, on top of everything right now. However, he wasn´t sure if this really had been the best idea.

His former college looked at him like he’d gone crazy.

“So, you dump him here of all places?” Mori growled, didn´t care about his tone, while he spoke with his former boss. Megure sighed, looking behind his shoulder where the “boy” had only filched beneath Kogoro’s  voice. The officer rolled his eyes, he’d been through this question before, even though it had been the asked in a much higher voice.

The officer took a deep breath and shook his head.

“He’s in no condition to help right now, and neither are you.”

“I have to go back to the hospital! I need to-“  

“You have to wait until visiting hours tomorrow.” Megure interrupted Kogoro’s argument.

He sighed, placing a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“I know you’re worried Mori-kun, but there’s nothing you can do for her right now, but you can take care of one another.” Megure swallowed, finally taking a step aside to reveal the grad schooler who’d been hiding behind his legs.

Kogoro took a sharp breath and despite his anger he could feel something inside him stirring at the sight of the “boy”.  However, the detective desperately tried to ignore it, it couldn´t be more than the rising bile in his throat, looking at the lying freeloader.

Conan- or rather Shinichi Kudo didn´t dare to look up. At least the kid seemed to have a little bit of a conscience left. Kogoro knew what happed and why, after his kids – kid- his lovely Ran had gone missing, the truth had slowly come to light. And now Co- Kudo was standing here, asking him to take him in for the night, while his little baby girl was still in the hospital. Alright, she wasn´t frighting for her life- at least not when he believed in the doctor’s words, but she still wasn´t waking up, since a heavy blow to the head, while  tried to help…him. 

The one who had lied to them for over a year, who used them and ignored her tears, being here and safe and fine, while she was still in medical care.

Well fine might have been a little exaggerate.

Actually, he looked more like death warmed over, after he destroyed a whole criminal organization. Even through the brat didn´t dare to look him in the eyes he could see that they where bloodshot, with dark circles beneath them, seeming even deeper due his pale complexion. His hand’s where bandaged, his glasses where broken and a little voice inside Kogoro wondered why no one had told him to put them down. Damn! Couldn´t they see that it was dangerous, the boy could easily lose an eye when the glass- ah but why should he care, he didn´t that’s for sure.

Mori bit his lips and shook his head while his gaze traveled down the boy’s legs, one being places in a walking cast to stabilize it, but even if he tried to hide it, Kogoro could still see that the kid was in pain, clearly favoring his left leg.

“Alright…” Megure’s tone ripped him from his analysis.

“I’ll leave the two of you alone now…” The officer tired to catch the boy’s eyes, but the shrunken detective who’d surprised them all didn´t dare to rise his galnce. So Megure briefly placed a hand on the kid’s shoulder. He was about to leave when he stopped close enough to Kogoro, to make one last request in a low voice.

“… and Mori-kun,… he’s already broken, so please try not to hurt him further.” Kogoro took a sharp breath, ready to protest when his eyes shifted back to the silent child in front of him.

‘Damn right he is.’ A voice inside him seemed to scream, while he watched Megure disappear at the end of the stairs. He couldn´t believe what the man was asking of him, after everything. He grumbled, but when his eyes reached the bruised body of the kid again, he couldn´t help but frown at the slight tremble in the little clenched fists.

Kogoro could feel the emotions inside him shift, putting pressure on his chest. He desperately wanted to believe that it was just anger he felt, but he knew that there was something else hiding in it’s mist. It couldn’t be guilt or worry- even through the boy had lived with them for so long, it wasn´t his job to protect him, he wasn´t his father aft all.

But yet-

“I’m sorry..” the soft voice froze him on the spot, but it where his next word’s or rather the name the boy used that finally brought him back to reality.

“I’m truly sorry Mori-san.”

Right.

Conan = Kudo

Not foster son, but little lying bastard.

He had to remember that.

The boy swallowed, finally finding the courage to look up, but Kogoro had already turned his back to him, climbing the stairs. Shinichi bit his lips, trying again, but Mori stopped him before he could finish his sentence.

“I-“

“Don´t, I don´t want to hear it.”

Mori hissed, taking the last steps to their- to his home and closed the door behind him.

XXX

The beer tasted foul.

It was his first that day- alright his third, but the first one since Megure had dumped the little freeloader at his doorstep. Being kicked out from the hospital, had left him with the urge to drink, to fill his mind with cotton so that the reality would drift far away. But he denied himself to be numbed by alcohol, he had to remain sharp if the hospital called, so he instead called his wife to update her. However, it seemed Eri had already known and of course this woman believed in the nurse words, that she would be alright, that there was no actual damage to her brain and that she simply was exhausted. Exhausted, his Ran, strong and brave, exhausted to the bone. He couldn't believe it, he wished he could, but the fear of losing her filled his mind with cruel pictures.

And it was all his fault.

"Damn brat..." he growled, taking another sip from his stale beer. Days ago he'd been worried when the boy had suddenly disappeared, he couldn't deny it... Since the not-child had been living with them for little over a year now. Of course, he wasn't found of him, he didn't care... why would he? Conan wasn't his son, nope, no way he dared to think of him as his own flesh and blood.

But he couldn´t help to admit that he’d been worried about the boy, before the constructure of lies slowly crumbled around him, he’d struggled to believe it in the beginning, the brat being that high school detective, hiding under their roof all those times.

“And I didn´t even notice, the great detective Mori… pff…”

Kogoro sighed, his eyes wandered from his beer to the clock, before they moved to the front door, which he might have left slightly ajar, by pure accident of course. It nearly been three hours since Megure had dropped Kudo here and he couldn´t help but wonder what the boy might be up to.  But why should he care anyway? It’s not like the great “Shinichi Kudo” wasn’t able to take care of himself, he could be lucky that he hadn´t thrown him out. However….

The sleeping detective chewed on his mustache, they way the kid had looked it would only be responsible to make sure he’s fine, besides so he could make sure that the boy wasn´t messing with his case files- Yes! That was it! He had to make sure that everything was still in place and the kid wasn´t messing up his work.  With that thought Kogoro nodded to himself, rising from his seat before he headed for the stairs.  

The office was dark, but the door was closed now and he was sure he left it open when he’d turned his back to Kudo. Could it be- that he’d left?

With a frown on his face the detective stepped into his agency, still no sigh of live, or of the boy, everything seemed to be like he left it. Kogoro was on his way to his desk, when he finally spotted the little boy on one of the two sofa’s he normally used to talk to his clients.

Conan – no Kudo was asleep, but it didn´t seemed to be a peaceful rest. Mori swallowed, he knew that sigh, the kid was having a nightmare. Not the first he was about to whiteness, but now that he knew that he wasn´t a mere child, shouting his, or most of the time Ran’s name at night he couldn´t help but wonder.

Kogoro barely knew Shinichi, especially since his separation with Eri they hadn´t met the Kudo’s quite so often, before they left Japan. What he knew was, that the boy had a bad influence on his daughter, not to mention that he’d hurt her, disappearing just like that, leaving her in the dark, lying to her while he was right beside her all this time. So maybe it was the kid’s own conscience hunting him at night. But the way the boy tossed and turned in his sleep told him that there was more to it.

The detective made a face when the child suddenly yelped in his sleep, twisting his bruised body around without much care. Kudo was facing him now, even though he was still asleep. Kogoro’s hand twitched, in the attempt to rip the broken glasses from his face, before it could hurt him any further.

With a sigh he took a step towards the boy, slowly shaking his shoulder, even if his voice wasn´t as soft as it normally was, when he tried to wake the brat from one of his nightmares.

“Oi! Co- Kudo-kun! Wake up!” But like so many times before the touch on his shoulder only seemed to stress the little one even more. Conan twisted and turned in his sleep, not caring for his obvious bruised body. Kogoro’s throat grew tight, it was hard not to pick the child up to carry him into his bed, while muttering some calming thoughts into his ears.

“It’s just a dream.” He told him instead, trying to reach for the boy again, but when Kogoro’s fingers touched him, the boy flinched away from his touch, jerking backwards so that his already bruised shoulder hit the back of the couch.  Mori gasped when new blood seemed to break through the bandages and his shirt, all caution forgotten he bent down to the kid, cradling his upper body in his arms, while Conan still struggled in his touch.

“Hey don´t, you’ll just hurt yourself further!” The detective hissed, before he pulled the boy closer to himself, brushing some grime from his forehead.

“It’s alright… easy, Conan-kun.” His voice was gentle now and finally his breath grew even and he stopped to struggled in his arms.

“Come on now, wake up, everything’s alright.”  Kogoro assured the child, who finally stirred one hand searching for the man’s sleeves. He blinked with eyes still heavy from sleep and the nightmare, before he murmured something that made Mori’s chest grew warm and tight at the same time. “O-Othosan…”

Kogoro took a sharp breath, it wasn´t the first time the brat called him that by accident, but while he usually tried to ignore his fluttering heart as well as the words, when he put the kid back to sleep he couldn´t help but feel like he’d been frozen to the spot, unsure what to do. The boy suddenly looked not only broken but also even more tiny and vulnerable in his hands. Luckily the shrunken detective came to his senses before Kogoro had to decide what to do.

Conan blinked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, but hissed when he moved his shoulder. Kogroro could actually see how he finally caught up with the situation, struggling out of his arms, with the hint of a red on his cheeks.

“Ojisan… huh- ah um Mori-kun.”

There back to normal.

Kogoro took a breath in relive, before he eyed the boy, who still looked up at him. The detective rose and eyebrow, taking a step away from the child both of them ignoring what just happed. He cleared his throat, looking down at the brat.

“What do you think you’re doing here?”  He grumbled, but the boy blushed again, blinking in surprise before he seemed to search the answer on the floor.

“Uh- sleeping?” Mori raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Well boya, but not in my office.” Conan flinched, but Kogoro already took a step towards the door.

“Come on, get up.” The grad schooler obeyed, but Shinichi wasn´t sure if he was supposed to leave or just supposed to follow. But his doubt should soon be answered by Kogoro’s annoyed voice.

“What you’re waiting for?” The older detective asked, opening the door before he nodded upstairs.

“I-uhm, I’m coming.” 

Conan hurried up the stairs as best as he could and he could sense that it took Mori some strength not to hurry or maybe even carry him. But when he finally entered the place he’d called home for so long he took a deep breath, only now getting aware that he’d in fact missed it. But Kogoro cleared his throat pointing to their small dining table.

“Here sit down, I’ll see If I can prepare you something to eat.”  

“But you don`t have to!” Shinichi assured, while Mori just rolled his eyes, disappearing in the kitchen, almost shouting from the other room to answer the ridiculous request of the boy.

“Apparently I do since your folks still dealing with this secret organization and Megure decided to dump you here.” The grad schooler winced but the detective was too busy in the kitchen to notice.

“Besides, when was the last time you’ve eaten something?” Kogoro questioned, when he entered the living room again. He looked at the bruised boy, who looked more dead than alive on his feet.  

“I- uh-“ But the growl of his stomach answered for him.

Conan – Shinichi – the brat, jeez he still had trouble with that, just blushed when his stomach growled in protest of the lie that he was about to tell him.

“I see.”

Conan finally sat down at the table, staring holes into it, it just didn´t feel right, Mori should be fuming in anger at him, not trying to take care of him. However, the boy didn´t notice that Kogoro had moved behind him, before he took the broken glasses form his face. Honestly if he had to see the shade of glass nearly piercing the boy’s eyes any longer he would go crazy.  

“I’ll take these for a while- since you apparently don´t need them.” Mori told him, but when he finally looked down at the kid without the simplest of all disguises, he couldn´t help but wonder what a fool he’d been. How could he not have notice how much the brat looked like the annoying high school detective.

Kudo seemed to notice the eyes on the sleeping detective on his skin and took a shivering breath.  

“Oji- I mean Mori-kun, I’m-“ But Kogoro cut in between his sentence with a sigh and the shake of his head, before he could continue.

“I know… that’s not what you planned to happen.” The detective muttered, while he moved into the kitchen where a very familiar chirm told him, that the brat’s food was ready. He returned with the food and put it on the table with a little bit more force than necessary.  

“Yet I can´t believe that you thought that Ran, that we would be safe with you living under our very roof.” He growled, while Shinichi just seemed to be sinking deeper into his seat.

“Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing kid, I know why you did it and…” He remembered the nightmare, as well as the others before, Conan seemed to read his thoughts since he moved his gaze away from him.

“I know it might have not been easy at times, but I’m still angry at you, and my poor Ran-“

The name alone however, was enough to move Conan’s eyes back to the older detective.

“Any news? About Ran I mean.” The detective swallowed at the despair in the kid’s voice.

“She’ll been fine, she’s just exhausted and needs some rest.”

“What? R-Really?” Conan’s voice was high pitched, he looked at the detective in disbelieve.  Kogoro suppressed a chuckle, and the urge to ruffle the kid’s hair who suddenly looked like the child he was supposed to be, with big shining eyes.

“ Yeah and now don´t worry and eat.”

Conan took a breath in relive before he turned his attention to the “meal” Kogoro had prepared for him- or rather microwaved. A cup of ramen, something he hoped to be rice and he wasn´t sure if the last of the three dishes was a hot chocolate or some kind of sauce.

Apparently Kogoro noticed the kid’s stare, raising an eyebrow at the obvious hesitation.

“What?” Conan flinched, but after a short hesitation Shinichi decided to answer.

“Ah- nothing, nothing… I just- sometimes wonder how you and Kisaki-san survived before Ran took up to cooking.” Shinichi teases with the hint of a smirk on his face.

“Wh- you ungrateful little brat!” Kogoro grumbled.

“Besides, you can be thankful that it was me who put in the Microwave instead of Eri.” The detective added in a lecturing tone.  

“True, otherwise you’d serve me coal.” The older detective smirked, before he remembered that he was supposed to be angry with the brat, so he turned the kid’s head back to the food.

“Pff… now eat- we’re going to the hospital early tomorrow and I need to check that shoulder of yours.”

“It’s fine.” Conan muttered between a spoon full of ramen, but Mori just snorted.

“After everything that happened to you, I Wonder If you even understand the meaning of this word.”

“Oi!” But after a brief glare Shinichi did like he was told, while Kogoro searched his medical cabinet for some new bandages and pain medicine for the size of the boy.

 XXX

 Kogoro took a long shaky breath, he leaned against the cold metal back of the elevator, as he watched how the floor numbers slowly counted higher.  He’d already called early this morning, nothing new, Ran was still sleeping but they expected her to wake any moment now… was that what he was supposed to hear for the rest of his life? Mori felt panic rising in his throat, sure the Doctors told him that she would be find, but he couldn´t help but worry.

The detective bit his lips, his fingers were itching for a cigarette and one glance at the little boy (who still looked kind of creepy without the familiar glasses) told him that Co- Kudo was nervous as well. Even through, he tried to hide it, Kogoro could tell from the tension in his body and his stern gaze to the floor that the kid was freaking out inside. To be honest, even without the bangs beneath his eyes the boy looked pale since they arrived her, with his bandaged hands and the cast he looked more like he should have his own bed in this establishment. After he changed the bandages on his shoulder yesterday, Kogoro had felt sick to the bone when he saw how many scratches and bruises littered the child’s tiny frame.  

 The elevator chirmed suddenly, ripping Mori from his thoughts, when they finally reached the right floor. However, when the door finally opened the detective was met by a familiar face.

“Mori-kun!” A young nurse offered him a welcoming smile.

“Miruna-san, good morning.” Kogoro tried for a smile as well, even though it was a little embarrassed, after his behavior yesterday. But she seemed to ignore the fact that he’d cried, shouted and wept some more in her presence, while she’d reassured him over and over that his daughter was going to be fine. Instead, she focused her attention on the little boy beside him.

“Nice to meet you again! And this must be your son you’d been so worried about yesterday?” She leaned down to the child, offering her hand and a charming smile.

“You must be Conan-kun, right? You shoudln´t disappear like that, your dad was rather worried about you.”

“Uh- he was?”  He looked up to the old man, who deliberately turned his attention away from him, but the redness on his cheeks revealed her words to be true. Shinichi blinked in surprise, still staring up at Kogoro, who cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Well- we should go now.”

“Oh sure, sure! You must be worried about your Neechan, right?” She ruffled his hair and Mori could see how the boy fell back to his old act, smiling brightly at her while Kogoro wondered how the arrogant brat he’d known, had learned to endure such a treatment. But the young nurse didn´t notice the frown on the detective’s face, when she turned back to him.

“She should wake every minute now, her heartrate is higher now, maybe you’ll be able to wake her.” Kogoro nodded.

“Thank you.” She smiled and took their place in the elevator.

“yYu’ll see everything will be alright!”

Mori took a deep breath moving forward to find Ran’s room before Conan’s voice stopped his movements.

“So, you’ve been searching for me?” The boy’s face showed a grin, but his eyes revealed his doubt.

“Don´t get the wrong idea, brat.” Kogoro huffed, rolling his eyes before moving forward.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Shinichi followed Kogoro through the hospital hallways, struggling to keeping up with him, with his short legs and the damn cast.

When Kogoro finally entered his girl’s room he took a relieved breath to see that Ran was indeed fine, even though still asleep. He moved to stand beside her, taking her hand in his own feeling her warm skin beneath his. It took him a few minutes to notice that the boy seemed to be frozen in the doorway, staring at Ran’s sleeping face and the beeping heart monitor beside her.

The detective swallowed, horror was written in the boy’s face and he remembered his first visit to the hospital after he’d shot Eri. He took a deep breath, moving over to the boy, who only noticed him, when he put a hand on the slim shoulder.

“Oi, what’s wrong.”

“I- I-“ The boy stuttered, his body tense beneath his grip.

“Come…” Kogoro assured him, pushing him slowly into the room.

“It’s going to be fine.”

Conan followed him beside the bad, but still keeping his distance, while the worried father slowly brushed a strand of hair from her forehead.

“Ran…”

Both of their hearts skipped when they saw how Ran twitched beneath Kogoro’s fingers, before her eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Oh- Othosan?” Her voice was weak, as she slowly tried to push herself a little more upright in the bad.

“Ran! You’re awake!” Kogoro exclaimed, almost shouting, before he put his arms around his daughter, holding her close before he moved away from her again, to take a closer look at the high schooler.

“How do you feel? Is everything alright? Should I get you a glass of water- or a doctor or-“ Ran chuckled. “I’m fine Othosan!” But her gaze moved from her father to the little boy beside the bad, who didn´t dare to look up at her.

“Shinichi… Conan-kun.” A sad smile moved to her lips, while the boy’s voice was barely more than a whisper, when he finally found the courage to look up.

“Ran… I-“

But Kogoro was not having any of that right now.

“Oh enough of that!” He cut through the suddenly awkward tension.

“You two can talk later and if you want to rip his head of Ran, I’d advise you do it later, since it wouldn’t make much of a difference right now.” He’d advice, earning protest form the boy beside him. “Oi!”

But Kogoro simply ignored him, grabbing the kid from the floor to pull both of his children in a thigh hug. “For now I’m glad the two of you are alright!”

“Othosan!”

“Ojisan!”

But Mori just grinned and the two started to laugh as well, as broken as they all might be, patched up and together, they made a strange but good family.