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bokutoslittlebird · 4 years

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Family Vacation

Bokuto x reader x Akaashi

Author’s Note : no incest, I promise ; the request included some slight BokuAka interaction, however I made it more than slightly ; the hot springs resort is loosely based on three different locations under the Kinosaki Onsen in northern Hyogo [Mikuniya Ryokan, Yutouya Ryokan, Nishimuraya Ryokan]. Each one offers different things, but they all have some common aspects that I liked: seafood served during winter months [November - March], traditional ryokan, and options for the hot springs [indoor, outdoor, and family] ; holy fuck is this wrong.. but holy hell is it erotic

Warnings: introduction of the Bokuto family, best friends to lovers au, playful teasing [about reader’s virginity], some mlm [Bokuto x Akaashi] interaction, fingering, face-sitting, handjob, blowjob, cum eating, spit exchanges and mentions, no penetrative sex, virgin!reader, virgin!Bokuto

“Oh, [Y/N]! I’m so glad you could make it!”

“Thank you for having me, Bokuto-san,”

“Oh, dear, call me Fuyumi! You’re practically family, anyways,” she smiles, eyes crinkling as she does. Her smile makes you smile, bowing in respect as if you haven’t known her for years.

The Bokuto family always spent their winter vacation before New Years at an Onsen in Hyogo. Yasurai-fukurou was well known for their hot springs throughout the year, but their meals included seafood in the winter. Kōtarō and Shinjiro both love seafood, especially crab, so it made sense the Bokuto family would come to this place specifically. Winter meant snow, and snow meant the garden view from the spring was gorgeous, having the silver lining the green foliage as the pebbles along the ground glistened with melted snow, cold and slippery. It was Kōtarō’s and Machiko’s favorite season, so it was an added bonus. The family had the money to spend, treating the members to a relaxing trip. Even Keiji, Kōtarō’s friend, joined them his first year at Fukurodani.

You didn’t usually attend, yet you always wanted to. Your family celebrated holidays differently, so you often found yourself swamped with family activities around December, only getting free to hang out by the time school started back up. Always wishing to go, you finally got your wish this year. With the stress from school this past semester, your family decided to let you choose what to do, so you declined spending the holidays with your family. Instead, you were free to spend that quality time with the Bokuto family. Fuyumi practically begged Kōtarō to invite you, knowing you’d be alone, so you didn’t have to worry about inviting yourself. There was one problem, however.

“[Y/N] should room with us!” Machiko points out. “She can’t board with boys!”

“What do you take us for? We’re her best friends,” Kōtarō waves off his sister. “I worry Amaya might try to wrestle her,”

“She could use the practice!” She pipes up, only to be shut back down. “I wouldn’t hurt her,”

“Why not let the girl choose herself? It is where she will stay, in the end,” Shinjiro said. Although he was right, you suddenly felt your heart tugging in two different directions. Machiko and Kōtarō gave you the puppy dog eyes, begging to choose them. A heavy sigh came from you as you weigh the options presented in front of you.

“I trust Keiji and Kōtarō, I’ll room with them,”

“No!” The two girls dramatically shout, falling to their knees. Fuyumi laughs, patting your back.

“Good choice, dear,” she compliments. You know why. Her daughters may be considered mature and adults, but they are both hectic and chaotic in their own way. At least with Kōtarō, he has Keiji with him. There’s no reason to mull over the decision, you know full well that Keiji and Kōtarō wouldn’t hurt you.

Once settled into each room, your bedding laid between the two of them, the trip to relax in the ryokan was in order. The two genders were separated, of course, so you sat in the spring with Machiko, Amaya, and Fuyumi. It wasn’t a bad thing, being with the three, but you knew Machiko and Amaya like to tease you.

“Gosh, [Y/N], you’re so innocent! You’ve never done anything?” Amaya’s face made it seem like she was much more malicious than on the surface. “Even I had a couple boyfriends that I had special adventures with before your age,”

“Excuse me? Amaya!” Fuyumi scolds her daughter. “You never told us this,”

“Why would I? You and dad never allowed me to have a boyfriend until I graduated. Kōtarō even had a girlfriend in his second year,” she pouts, puffy cheeks making her less malicious and much more adorable. Though unintentional, her words make your mood sour, Kōtarō’s slipping from her lips. Machiko notices this, however.

“Well, Kōtarō is a boy and I told your father to make sure he doesn’t do any of that dating stuff, but it seems like he did,”

“You know, I’m kind of tired. I’m really relaxed,” you mention, moving to exit the water. “I should lay down and take a nap,”

“Oh, are you sure? Dinner will be served soon,” Machiko holds out her hand, as if to stop you. You’re quick about getting out, rinsing yourself off before wrapping a robe around your naked body.

“I’m sure. Wake me when dinner’s ready,” you cheerfully smile, waving to them as you leave the setting. Your smile falls, an artificial thing as you continue to pad towards the room. Passing the window leading to the garden, you notice the cascading of the white snowflakes, shimmering in the light from the outdoor lamps. It’s peaceful, the way it floats down to the ground until it rapidly melts, joining the slush forming on the pathway. A sigh leaves you, heart aching from the words Amaya let spill.

It wasn’t her fault, you tell yourself that as you continue to the room. Amaya doesn’t know, but Machiko does. Machiko has always had the older sister intuition, knowing when her younger siblings had something to hide or something embarrassing. Whether it was from her years of travel around the world, or just a trait of hers, she could pinpoint things that made you want to crawl in a hole. What does Machiko know, exactly? Your big, fat crush on her little brother.

Kōtarō has been your crush as long as you’ve known him, aka since you guys were waddling around with chubby legs. Your family and his family live near each other, so it made sense for you two to play a lot as children. As the years passed, your admiration for him evolved into a crushing thing, yet your young mind wouldn’t allow such a horrid thing to be spoken. No, it festered until you broke down one day in high school and confessed to the dark of the night, the only witness of your confession was the moon. You confessed that you loved him, you were in love with him, nobody else could compare. It hurt even more now, knowing you were falling in love with him while he was loving someone else. Even Keiji probably loved Kōtarō, knowing how close they were. You wouldn’t put it past them to be in a relationship, either. Each thought accompanied a step you took, each one bringing tears to prickle your eyes as you finally shut the door to the room, and your problems.

With the dark encompassing the room, you found yourself easily situating yourself on the ground to cry, curling up in a ball as you did so. A pathetic scene, you knew it was, yet you couldn’t help yourself.

After you left the ryokan, Shinjiro happened to be talking to the boys in front of him, both of them flushed red from the warmth of the bath and the topic at hand.

“I knew something was off in the way your mother encouraged you to invite her! I never thought it’d be that, however,” his guffaw had Kōtarō sinking into the water, bubbles coming from his nose as he huffs. Keiji looks at him pitifully, but doesn’t do much of anything else.

“She doesn’t even like me like that. This trip was a mistake,” Kōtarō mumbles, his mouth going back under the water. Keiji sighs, looking into the water where his distorted hands lie. Before he can speak, Kōtarō beats him to it. “I have to go to the bathroom. I think I’ll leave early,”

“You sure it’s just that?” Shinjiro teases. “Or are you going to wait for your lovely friend?”

“Okay, maybe it’s a bit of both,” he huffs, cheeks puffed out. Keiji lets the words die on his tongue, letting Kōtarō leave the spring without any reason to look back.

Shinjiro sighs, rubbing the back of his neck as he looks into the water. “Maybe I went too far. I shouldn’t tease him about his crush, it seems like it’s important to him. I don’t think she sees him in that light, anyways,”

“She does, actually. I think she’s been in love with him for a while,” he confesses. Shinjiro’s eyebrows rise as the words sink in. However, he is quick to understand. No longer laughing and joking, his smile is more bitter and sad. A pity smile.

“And you’ve been in love with her, haven’t you?”

Keiji turns his head to the side, yet he nods. The red dusting his cheeks is no longer just the warmth of the water. Shinjiro moves closer to Keiji, putting his hand on the younger man’s back.

“Then tell her. You both need to confess, not let this fester and turn into something ugly. Don’t let this ruin your friendship with Kōtarō, either. It’s not worth it,”

“I know. I know, Bokuto-san,”

“When you gonna call me Shinjiro? Or even dad? You need to let loose, Keiji!” He laughs again, getting Keiji to crack a smile.

While Keiji ponders how he should go about this, Kōtarō trudges up to his room for the week, unaware you’ve also turned in early. His mood has taken a turn for the worse, hair deflating as he pouts. No matter what, he’s always found himself finding your validation to be the most important. Throughout the years, he’s reached out to both you and Keiji for validation, finding them both to be important to him. While he knows Keiji partially does it just to make him happy, which he is thankful for, he knows yours is genuine. Even when he forced himself to move on, knowing you didn’t see him in that light, he found it hard. You followed him into his dreams, gleeful chimes of your laughter as the future he aims for bloomed into an obtainable goal. Yet, he’d wake up to see the empty space beside him, a brutal reminder that his dreamt future would stay in his head, playing on loop until he could do something about it in the real world.

When his door comes into view, he sighs, relief flooding through him. As he gets closer, he hears a soft voice from inside. Leaning his ear against the shut door, he hears you — a squeak of his name, accompanying a soft mewl, most likely held back due to the thin walls. Even he understands what you’re doing, it’s not like he’s never thought of you that way, finding himself wishing you could relieve his stress in the best way possible. As to respect your privacy, and settle his nerves, he quietly creeps away, to his parent’s booked room. He decides to use the toilet in there, giving you a few moments to finish your own business.

Leaning against the door once more, he doesn’t hear your heavy breaths or your moans and mewls, so he slides open the door to see you under the covers, laptop shining in your face as a movie plays. “Hey, what’re you doing here?”

“Huh?” You jump, turning to see Kōtarō’s large frame at the entrance of the room. It’s scary, the way he seems to have popped up after you finished, or attempted, getting off on thinking of him. “Oh, Kō. It’s just you. No more hot springs for you?”

“Oh, no, I found it to be getting too hot,” he lies, rubbing his neck. The robe you’re wearing is the one you put on after exiting the spring, so his perverted little mind knows you’re completely naked underneath. Not only that, you’re probably nice and slick from thinking about him—

He stops himself, hearing your voice. “Did you hear me? I asked if you wanted to watch the movie with me,”

“Oh, sorry, off in my own world. Uh, sure, what is it?”

“Crown for Christmas. A sappy romance Christmas movie, from America. It’s very predictable, but it’s cute. My mom loves it, so I brought it to watch,”

“Oh, that’s interesting,” he hums, lying on his own bedding. He didn’t move closer to you, giving you some space, but he finds himself panicking when you move closer.

“Can’t see if you’re all the way over there, dummy,” you giggle, pressing play. He can’t find it in himself to focus, the movie being background noise to his thoughts. The hot springs help to add a special glow to your skin, making it seem smoother than before, and you smell so nice, not to mention he can feel his cock throbbing at your soft voice calling out his name. What would it be like if he used his own fingers, would you be able to hold back? Or would you come completely undone as you came on his fingers— even better, his cock? Just the thought has him groaning, head shoved into his pillow as you pause the movie, probably confused.

He looks up, seeing your dazed expression — yep, totally confused. He sighs and shrugs, apologizing. “Are you okay? You seem.. tense,”

“Tense?” That’s one way to describe it, he supposes. “I’m just.. dad was teasing me earlier. That’s why I left. I’m.. remembering what he said,”

“Oh, I get that. Amaya kept teasing me about girl stuff, so I left. Machiko tried to stop me, but I was already out of the water,” you admit. It’s not the full truth, but that’s okay.

“Girl stuff? Like what?” Kōtarō never shied from girly stuff, including the weird stuff that happened to girls like puberty and the menstrual cycle. You chalked it up to his older sisters being shameless, never making it seem gross. Even when you started your period in class, Kōtarō was there to help you, a knight in shining armor.

You wish they were less shameless.

“Oh, um, you know, the romantic stuff,”

“Like? Boyfriends?”

“Yeah, I’ve.. never had one. No experience on my end. Amaya was teasing me because she had a couple of boyfriends before my age, so it.. it didn’t hurt my feelings, but it made me feel some kind of way, you know?” Your attempted explanation was kind of butchered, trying to explain it without giving too much detail. Kōtarō wouldn’t judge you, of course not, it wasn’t something to judge you about.

He knows the feeling, being inexperienced.

“W-Well, if you want any experience before going into the dating scene, I could.. always help you,” he whispers. His words hang in the air, settling into both of your minds. He’s berating himself for using such a lame line to try and get in your pants, but you’re trying to find a way to say yes without seeming desperate. However, “I mean! I have experience, so I could help you! I’d say I’m pretty good at doing stuff. Oh! It could be like.. any advice or something.. hands on,” he whispers the last part again, his confidence melting like snow on a summer’s day when your face falls.

It isn’t you don’t want it, you just would prefer him to not word it like that. It reminds you of Amaya’s words and the pain in your chest, the churn in your stomach. “If you’re gonna be like that, maybe I should ask Keiji,” you huff, turning your body away from his. Focusing on forcing your stomach to stop twisting in knots, you don’t even notice when Kōtarō closes the laptop and presses himself against you. Well, not until you feel something pressing into your back. “Kō—”

“Don’t be like that. I’ve never actually gone all the way, I’ve been saving that for someone special. I can help, though, if you’d let me,” his breath fans over your ear, sending shivers down your spine. His arm snakes under you, pulling you into his stomach while he lays on his back.

“Kōtarō!”

“You’re stressed, gotta loosen up a bit. I’m helping,” he just says, making sure your legs are hooked over his. With the lack of clothing under the robe, your nether region is spread open towards the door, sending your adrenaline skyrocketing. Kōtarō is quick to ease that, his thick fingers spreading open your folds while his middle finger rubs against your sensitive clit. “You’re absolutely soaked, do I turn you on that much?” He’s grinning, you know he is. Gritting your teeth, you keep your mouth closed as you focus on the feeling of his fingers, now sliding up and down and collecting your slick.

Kōtarō doesn’t want to tease you for too long, slipping his middle finger into your cunt as you mewl, hand coming to cover your mouth. “What a reaction. I wonder..” he trails off, pulling his finger out, only to add in three fingers. You’re arching, legs tending against his as he fingers you, lips pressing themselves to your hair and ear. When his tongue flicks out against your ear, you squirm and he grunts, his left arm keeping you firm against him. “Sensitive, are you?”

He doesn’t get any vocal confirmation from you, but the way you’re clenching around his fingers tells him all he needs to know. He makes sure to keep his thumb bumping against your clit, adding pressure. You can feel the familiar feeling, the beginning of an orgasm as he pumps his fingers into you. With a squeal of his name, your nails dig into the meat of his arm, liquids spilling out of you and all over Kōtarō’s fingers. The squishing sound enters your ears, legs tensing as you mewl, his fingers rubbing themselves against you some more.

“You’re so wet.. I bet it’d be easy to slip my cock in there, wouldn’t it?” His voice is low, a rumble in his chest as your cunt clenches at the thought, your wildest fantasies so close to coming to fruition when someone clears their throat. You pop up, Kōtarō jolting and keeping you on his chest as he moves.

Keiji is looking at the both of you, a heavy blush adorning his cheeks. The room is dim, only the lights from outside the inn illuminating him. He’s right at the door, right in front of where Kōtarō was just fingering you. Kōtarō’s hand finally leaves from between your legs, glistening wetness shown in the lamplight. “If you want to give her experience, you need to go over everything involved in foreplay, Kōtarō. There’s more to prep,”

“M-More?” your voice is small, barely a whisper as you find more slick oozing from you, Keiji entering the room. He kneels down in front of you, still held against Kōtarō’s chest.

“Has he even kissed you, yet? Or did he go headfirst into fingering you?” When you shake your head, Kōtarō himself sucking in a breath, Keiji knows he was right. With the elegance he always exudes, Keiji tilts your chin up towards him. “Then, allow me,”

The kiss is gentle, yet not simple. His lips are firmly against yours, molding perfectly as he keeps your chin tilted. As he deepens the kiss, you find your hands grasping at his own robe, feeling yourself lighter than you were when you had entered the room. Keiji moves to pull away, a brisk kiss on your lips once more before swiping his tongue over your bottom lip, sending heat all over your body.

“Akaashi..” Kōtarō whines, his grip on you tightening. “This is supposed to be my time with her,”

“Well, you’re going too fast. Why not elongate the time spent together, hm?” His voice sends tingles down your spine, his hands removing you from Kōtarō’s grasp. “Lay back, Bokuto-san. You’ll get your turn,”

Your brain is going haywire as he speaks, undoing Kōtarō’s robe with unconscious grace. He’s not doing it on purpose, you know he isn’t, it’s just how he is. Once Kōtarō has been disrobed, you find more heat springing to your cheeks as his muscles ripple and flex. The lack of light prevents you from seeing everything, but you’ve always found yourself insatiable when thinking of his broad frame and what hides under his clothes.

“Give me your hand, [Y/N],” Keiji’s voice has you coming back down to earth, yet you find yourself once more shy with Kōtarō’s legs spread, his cock heavy and so large in Keiji’s hand. You comply, though, your much smaller hand joining Keiji’s around Kōtarō’s girth. It’s so much, the way it feels and the heat of the skin under your fingertips. A soft groan comes from Kōtarō as Keiji moves his hand, his other hand shuffling you between his legs.

“This is called a handjob, [Y/N],” Keiji says. You nod in understanding, realizing he’s teaching you. “Moving your hand up and down the shaft is the basic function of it, but you can also use your fingers to tease the slit, like so,” he demonstrates, swiping his thumb over the small slit, puffy and red where Kōtarō’s cum is dripping from. The simple act has Kōtarō throwing his head back, moaning as his hand covers his mouth. The walls are thin and if his family is back, they probably have a good idea of what’s going on.

“I see,” you hum, continuing to move your hand up and down the shaft. Keiji nods, seeing you’re understanding.

“Or tease his balls, like cupping them or massaging. Don’t squeeze them hard, though. It won’t feel very nice,” his hand moves to cup and tease Kōtarō’s balls, the man himself laying on his back as his face turns red, the ministrations getting to be too much. “There’s also a blowjob, but we can teach you that next time,”

“N-Next time??” You squeak, jumping a bit. Whether it was a one time thing or the beginning of a relationship didn’t cross your mind. His words, however, seem to please you more than imaginable.

“Of course, darling. We’re not done here, either. Why don’t you let Bokuto-san show you what other kinds of pleasure he can give you?” At Keiji’s words, Kōtarō pops up with a bright smile on his face.

“Sit on my face, baby,”

“Oh, woah, wow, uh..” you stop, unsure how to politely decline. His mouth and nose, down there? Not to mention your weight on his head? You were sure he’d regret his decision. “I don’t think”

“I’ll be fine. C’mon, I gotta show you what else my mouth can do besides dirty talk,” he winks, sending more heat to your cheeks, making you feel rather hot for a winter’s day, clad in only a robe. Keiji seems to read your mind, taking your robe from your shoulders, the belt falling undone easily from the previous activities. Once you’re down to your birthday suit, Keiji presses a kiss to your shoulder blade, a whisper to go that sends you crawling closer to Kōtarō’s face. He grins, eagerly taking your thigh and placing it on the other side, keeping your drenched cunt close to his face. He says something, but only a muffled noise comes out, his tongue swiping along your folds.

With your back to him, Keiji wishes he told you to face him and watch, yet he finds the scene of you erotic. He may have a bit more expertise than you and Kōtarō, it seems that’s all that’s needed. He smiles, gaze catching on the way Kōtarō’s fingers dig into the fat of your thigh, making indents. Completely forgotten, Keiji spits a glob onto Kōtarō’s cock, him jumping at the feeling. With a few more pumps of his hand, he flicks his tongue against the head.

Kōtarō’s moan has you mewling, the sound acting as a vibration as your fingers tug harshly on the silver and black strands. Though not as long as they were in high school, there’s enough to grasp and pull on. The wet sounds from behind you has your head turning, eyes falling on Keiji’s mouth wrapped around Kōtarō’s cock. It’s an erotic scene, his head moving up as more of the length is revealed, his blue eyes settling on your own as you feel a nip down below. So focused on Keiji, Kōtarō wants your attention all on him. Keiji chuckles, almost like a hum, that vibrates around the cock in his mouth that has Kōtarō moaning.

The tongue that flicks against your clit has you squirming, restrained mewls and moans leaving your lips as hands tug on his locks. Kōtarō licks and suckles on your clit occasionally, then moves down to prod and swipe over your entrance. The position makes it easy for him to breathe, but he moves down further. New position has you squealing, hands flying to your mouth as you squeeze your eyes shut to focus on the pleasure. Another moan from Kōtarō that sends shivers down your spine, heat to your core, accompanying the obscene noises of Keiji sucking Kōtarō off.

With Kōtarō’s nose bumping against your clit, his tongue’s only focus is on your pretty little cunt, sucking and swirling his tongue. The sensitivity from earlier makes quick work of you, hunching over as your thighs tighten around Kōtarō’s head, his strong hands keeping you from hurting him as you gush all over his face. A moan comes from him as he laps at your juices spilling over his face, his own orgasm coming as Keiji takes him down as far as he can. Globs of white cum spurt from the side of Keiji’s mouth, a gagging sound as he struggles to swallow it.

A hand on your shoulder has you leaning back, falling against Keiji’s chest with his cheeks puffy. Kōtarō manages to look up at the scene, gaze fuzzy as he watches Keiji kiss you once more, cum seeping from where his lips meet yours. When Keiji pulls away, his tongue is out, pushing the dripping cum into your mouth where the rest lies. It’s enough to have Kōtarō hard once more, a dark and heavy blush settling across his cheeks and nose.

The thick appendage pressing into your back once more has you gasping and jumping, some cum spilling out your mouth and down your chest. As it travels between the valley of your breasts and over the perk nipples, Keiji takes it upon himself to lap at the milky droplets. You gulp down the rest in your mouth, making a show of it by tilting your head up, throat contracting as you swallow it all. Kōtarō finds himself unable to look away from the scene.

“Ah, seems like someone’s still raring to go,” Keiji breaks the silence, eyes glancing back to look at Kōtarō’s cock, once more standing tall and proud. He then looks to you. “Shall I let you handle this one alone?”

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu smut #Mr. Kōtarō #Mr. Keiji #BB.Kinky #bokuto x reader #akaashi x reader #akaashi smut #bokuto smut #BokuAka #bokuaka x reader #cw.cum play #cw.semi public sex #tw.semi public sex #cw.spit

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twitchesandstitches · 3 years

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(Commission for @alt-hammer of a fantasy AU where Jade, a talented alchemist, has greated a boob expansion potion and refines it, gradually getting more enormously buxom as she and Dave get closer together.

This is set in, broadly, the same continuity as the godess terezi commission; some liberties were taken so, where there are differences, assume them to take place in their own micro continuities.)

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The town was an old one, near a vast forest that lay in the shadow of a temple consecrated to one of the old gods: the teal dragon goddess of mentality, rumored by some to be incarnate in the modern age. The era of magic and gods, though, was long behind them, and simply reverse engineering even a tiny shred of its power was a game-changer, especially for such a minor town.

Jade Harley, alchemist and adventurer, thought she had just about worked it out.

Okay, she thought, peering at a list of ingredients. Body expansion and modification. It used to be so much more common, in the old days. Did I figure it out?

I think I did.

She poured over the ingredient list, checking things off, and she was so busy in her work that she heard the bell over the door go ‘ding’.

“Yo-hoy, Jade?” Came the voice of Dave Strider, her best friend, with big quotation marks around the ‘friend’ bit. She smiled and stood up. Jade was a tall woman… a very tall woman, even bigger than some trolls, which was unusual for a human. She had a curvy frame, packed with power, and lately she had been thinking: not curvy enough.

And then, she’d heard stories about the old days. Ancients who had transformed their bodies in impossible ways, with nothing but their knowledge of magic. And she’d thought; if they did it, why not me?

Dave was waiting there. He was not a particularly tall man, or broad; he had the sort of wiry, vaguely feminine look that was quite popular these days, and paired well against Jade’s more voluptuous frame. She just looked big, especially next to him. Nevertheless, when he stood up, it was with a real sense of genuine strength and power that belied his seemingly frail look.

“You sure you wanna do this whole… thing?”

Jade indicated her chest. It was pretty ample, and again, especially for a human. But Jade had thought about records from the old days, that described people changing themselves to be… bigger. More buxom. And she had thought; if they’d done it, why not her? What was the missing keys to that kind of power?

Besides thousands of years of magical knowledge and infrastructure, she admitted. But they’d been learning, and she thought she might have rediscovered the key.

Jade wanted bigger boobs. She wanted really big boobs. It was a pretty silly thing to want, she would be the first to admit, but when she thought of herself, of the shape that Jade Harley ought to have, it was with boobs so big that they’d have to reshape the doorways when she left the house; pathway-clearing plows of a bustline, big and bouncy boobs so massive you could sit on them.

Or even bigger than that!

The default assumption that most men would have, in helping such a task, would be ‘yes please!’. Dave was surprisingly ambivalent; she had no doubt he’d be pleased by the results, but the actual experimenting was going to be an issue.

He worried a lot. About her in particular.

“I'm sure!” Jade put her hands on her hips. “I just… oh, I’ve been spending years on this, and I’m so close! I can practically taste it!”

“Right, right, cool. Passion project, I get that.” Dave patted her on the shoulder, the gesture completely reflective. He probably didn’t realize how intimate it felt.

Probably? Jade pondered that, for a while.

“Well, I got a map.” Dave laid it on a table; now they were free to plan, since no one came in after these hours. On the map was a chart of the most magically potent parts of the forest outside the town, where the most magically powerful ingredients… and monsters… were likely to be found. “I think these are the places we should start looking.”

“Right!”

For hours, they planned it out. The kinds of things they would need to hunt up, of course. The gear they would need to harvest things effectively, and explore the forest.

And the monsters they were likely to face, the mindless beasts generated by raw magical energies and attacking anything they perceived as intruders. Dave faltered a bit at the thought; not in fear, but he was looking at Jade as if thinking too hard about her getting struck by some beast’s claws.

He swallowed. “You sure you wanna do this? For… to get bigger boobs?”

Jade grinned. When you put it like that, the whole thing sounded silly, and she really didn’t mind that at all.

“Absolutely!” She insisted.

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After that, Dave came in regularly, when he could.

At least once a week, in his official capacity as a courier. As much as possible when he was off work, or just playing schemes to pretend to be doing things on the clock, goofing off at her work place and racking up paid hours when deliveries slowed instead of doing paperwork. She was pretty sure that he definitely was not allowed to do that; his boss, Mister Slick, was a stickler for the letter of the rules for everyone if not himself, and he in turn answered to the chief courier, the Mendicant.

Jade had to consider that. She didn’t know the chief courier personally, but everyone knew of her; she was married to the mayor, who was something of a gremlin with a chip on his shoulder but a pretty relaxed attitude. The chief courier was a lot more strict, and probably wouldn’t approve of Dave doing that, so of course Jade kept the whole thing secret.

Dave had been scouting out the places they were going to hunt down; slaying a few monsters, scrounging up what he could for Jade to examine. It all worked out for her; monster flesh and bone, fungi and moss and roots all growing in places absolutely drenched in magic… it served her purposes perfectly.

She made her potions; not testing them on herself yet, though Jade tended towards the belief that a TRUE alchemist used themselves as a test subject before anyone else, but that was for a product proven to have the effect she wanted. Until then, she’d taken to quietly giving the uncertain batches to the cattle that grazed just outside her home, pouring it into their food when no one was looking. The cows, she was pleased to see, wound up moving unsteadily with obscenely massive udders so stuffed that they were propped up by them, and the consistency in it satisfied her.

Putting in magically charged milk, she determined, seemed to help. She imagined herself with such massive, swinging breasts and trilled with delight.

And they would need to go to magical places to find ingredients to make into potions; plants, fungi and the parts of monsters, all rich with magical energies. Alchemy was, as she explained it to Dave, the art of melting down magically potent substances and infusing them with arcane ‘aspects’ to effectively make liquid, drinkable spells. The trick was finding things powerful enough to infuse the solution, and for that…

Well, to the old forest, they’d both go.

-------

The days came and went. Experiments went by. Batches, failed and otherwise, were tested; the cows grew bigger and bigger, so much so that Zahhak dairy farming family found something of a glut of their product, and Jade jotted down their boasting or complaints under a list of things to bear in mind for the future batches.

Dave came and went. When he could reasonably swing it, playing off his ingredient hunts for Jade as part of his job; she paid him, at least, which generally satisfied Mister Slick, according to Dave. Jade did see the chief courier, glistening in the sun like a polished ivory statue, studying her shop as if looking for signs of slacking off, and she quietly told Dave the next time she saw him (complete with him bringing several baskets of mushrooms, roots and the occasional monster part) that they would have to probably save this for his free time.

So, in the end, they went together.

Deeper into the forest, where anyone had ever gone. Under the shadow of the ancient temple of the dragon goddess, where its primordial magic seeped into the trees, turning them and the crawling moss into living, teal crystals…

And where the monsters dwelled.

-------

And one day, they came back from there. Both of them bloodied, battered; panting with exhaustion and still trembling; with terror, at least for Jade, tinged with exhilaration. “That was amazing!” Jade said as they stumbled into her shop, her chest heaving and her travel robes hanging over her front like a mobile tent.

Dave put his sword down and flopped down onto a cot Jade kept around, in case he wanted to take a nap whenever he dropped by. “I warned ya, Jade. I warned you about the imps.”

Jade sat down on a chair, and it creaked under her considerable weight. She was simply too thick for most furniture; the legs were bending ominously, as she rocked back giggling to herself in a mix of post-adventure shock and genuine excitement. “The way they came out of nowhere! And the way you just cut them! Swoosh! Slash! That was so cool!”

��Am a little bit concerned with how easy you’re dealing with this.” Dave sat up. “You blasting them was pretty cool…”

Jade turned around. There was a lot of bouncing, possibly on purpose, and green spirals of magical energy swished around her. She’d cast so much magical energy that it was leaking out of, rising out with relatively small gestures, and it make her tingle all over; crackling like her blood was lightning and a sun beating in her chest-

She grabbed Dave and spun him right around, off his seat, and he squealed as she pulled him close to her in a tight not-quite-hug. She was too caught up in the exhilaration to realize it. “Let’s do that again!”

“Ye?” Dave said, lying on the floor now, red-faced and apparently losing the will to move on his own.

Jade was too full of vigor and excitement to stop now. She took one of the bundles of ingredients, plants and fungi and the harvested monster parts they’d been able to secure, and took them up to her work station.

Dave had time to recover, sitting up and recentering himself and not thinking constantly about the feeling of Jade’s body against his own (at least that’s what he would insist, later) as Jade took the things the ingredients they had found and prepared them for distilling. She chopped with knives, she crushed with a motorized pestle, and repeated this until she had a number of small chunks and fine dust. She placed that into a large flask she placed under a burner, but the flames she produced from it were a bright green.

It didn’t burn the chopped and crushed plants, meat and mushrooms. Instead it softened them, until they started dripping through a grate at the bottom of the flash. That became a fluid, propelled onwards through a series of tubes. There, other solutions and mystical fluids were dribbled into it; things to add in mystical formulas and spell-aspects, amplifying other aspects of the potion… negating the flavors and aspects of the substances they originally had been, purifying it into something completely divorced from its origins.

It eventually flowed, much thicker now, into a beaker. Jade poured a hint of something that looked a lot like milk, her magic flowing into it, supercharging it. A bit of milk to give it the right aspect for what she wanted. And a little bit of amplification, mixing with the raw power of the other ingredients...

And under the heat of the magical flame, which burned away solid matter and left behind only magical essence made fluid, Jade waited for it to finish.

She grew quiet, and intense. Dave, recovered by now, had long since learned to pick up on her moods and he knew she was getting very excited.

“I thought you didn’t use spells,” Dave said, to break the silence. “What was with all that… fwoosh?” He wiggled his hands, in the manner of the green fire he remembered Jade shooting all over the place.

“Fwoosh?” Jade said, absently.

“You were shooting attack spells and stuff.”

“Oh! I mean. I know how to do that kind of magic. Not so much in my job, but I know about the theory of magic in general. I couldn’t do alchemy right if I didn’t.”

“And the fire stuff?”

Jade giggled. “I always did wanna put that into practice!”

“Wait, you mean you’ve never fought until today?”

Jade, a woman who had turned a small part of the forest into a crater and probably infuriated the local spirits, looked bashful. “Did it show?!”

“...No. Not really.”

“Huh. Good to hear!” Jade suddenly shut off the flame, stirring it a few times; despite the constant heat, there was no sign that it was particularly hot. “This batch is done!”

Dave stood up. “You sure? I’d thought there’d be… more sparkles.”

“I might put something like that in a consumer batch; people expect sparkles, you know. But this is the testing phase!” Jade examined the potion, studying it. Her magical senses, and eye for detail, picked out things Dave couldn’t possibly have made out. Apparently satisfied, she put it up to her lips and started to tilt it up.

“Whoa!” Dave staggered forward, his stoic exterior cracking just this bit. “Is that safe?! Shouldn’t you test it on, i dunno, the cows?!” He gestured towards a herd visible right through the window, where the shop brushed up against a pasture (as the Zahhaks, as one of the older families, had the authority to simply build their homes into grassy places for the cattle to feed). A cow looked right through the window, hindquarters lifted right off the ground by an obscenely stuffed udder.

Jade lowered the flask, just for a moment. She briefly gave the cow a solemn look, her eyes wide and impatience seething from her; she looked at the cow with an expression all but screamed, to Dave: I want that.

She made a ‘tsk’ing noise, wiggling a finger scoldingly at Dave. “Oh, I’m sick of letting them have all the good stuff! I want that for me!” She grinned, wildly, and Dave knew that there was nothing he could do, short of slapping it out of her hand, to stop her, and he thought that it would be wrong to do that.

“If you’re sure…” Dave said, clearly dubious.

“I’ve never been MORE sure.”

And Jade tilted the potion up, and drained it in a single, powerful swig.

Dave winced, but didn’t argue.

She smiled, though, as her stomach briefly glowed green, the potion taking effect. “It’s nice that you worry, though.” She patted his hand, still upraised in protest, and impulsively, she kissed it.

His hand felt so warm against her lips; a heat flashed there, against her teeth and tongue, and down her neck. It lingered there in her chest, mixing with the magical energies and transformative vibes now swirling inside her. It felt so fine; a gentle euphoria rose inside her, and she couldn’t help but smile through an intense blush.

Green light swirled around her, and especially over her chest. On her breasts, swirling around them and outlining them, supercharging them with magical energies speaking of more and BIGGER, but brightest of all was her heart.

Dave felt the magic flowing from her, before any changes actually happened, and he took a step back; a little awed at what he felt flowing inside her, and maybe stunned by the kiss.

Later, he contemplated how and why he sensed anything. He wasn’t trained in magic; he knew the martial applications, the tricks to make yourself stronger and faster with the spiritual energy inside a person, or the energy around you, but he didn’t know how to use magic itself. Jade’s work was a mystery to him, and he was quietly impressed with people who did know how to bend magic more directly. The actual mechanics of how it was supposed to work was all a bit beyond him.

Nonetheless he felt it, right then. Right there.

Maybe, he theorized later, he’d learned to sense magical energy somewhere, in all the training to harness it. Flex a muscle hard enough, you learned to get a feel for when it was straining. A similar principle could apply, right?

In any case, he stumbled back, more and more, as Jade started to get bigger.

He was far from the only one to notice it, though; there were many people who’d worked out how to manipulate magic all over the town, or those who benefitted from thep precious and rare remaining bits of lore from older days. And some who were something else altogether.

Even people who didn’t live in town felt Jade growing: the professional spellcasters, the priestly high classes, and the hedge-mages learning it all on their own. Even those completely untutored, but sensitive to magic all the same, felt it. And those who knew their stuff felt it happen in intimate detail, like Miss Roxy Lalonde, probably the best student of magical theory in town, and she perked up at the sudden flare from Jade’s shop.

Karkat Vantas, living outside town in the old and long-abandoned manor, felt something even as he slept. His fiance, Terezi Pyrope, sat up and silently eased him back to sleep as she looked up. Her eyes were blind and felt very old, just like the ancient statues in the very temple Jade had walked in the shadows of. There were murals there… that looked just like Terezi Pyrope; as if those ancient sculptors had modeled them after her.

She tilted her head up, head craning and focusing right at the precise location of Jade.

She grinned. “Interesting~!” She said aloud, already making up her mind to pay Jade a visit as soon as she could.

People, intrigued or afraid or obnoxiously curious, gravitated towards Jade’s shop. The market outside her place broke up, the people in it drifting over to see what was going on. So, quite apart from Dave, Jade had an audience.

And in the shop itself, there was no blast of magic. No eye-searing pyrotechnics, as might be associated with a surge of magic so strong it made the cattle outside bounce and gush away in shock, or made Jade squeal with a mixed noise of joy and shock; she staggered back, as if her limbs suddenly were sapped of their strength, or something new flooding it and pushing out the old energy to make way for something fresh, strong and wild…

She gritted her teeth. They seemed longer, sharper; she took a step forward, and her legs kept shaking. No, wait. IT took a moment for Dave to realize, but they weren’t shaking.

They were getting wider.

Jade’s thighs slowly grew, leg muscles gradually bulking up and expanding outwards, a thick and appealing sheath of fat covering them. Not growing much past the knees, making them look surprisingly small past the thighs.

Her hips swayed and wiggled; first Jade just moved in an unconscious groove, and then it was a pattern of growth, and her hips expanded outwards in a smooth swell. Several inches added themselves on, and then about an extra foot of hip growth, to both sides. Jade stumbled as her thighs grew so big their sides were mashing together, and then made an embarrassed noise as her butt suddenly surged out, so bubbly and round that it was making the hem of her skirts rise up!

Her chest was still glowing, the focal point of all this. She dipped forward as they felt very heavy, her hands instinctively cupping her breasts. They wobbled at her touch, all on their own with indifference to gravity, and swelled. Jade made a squeaking noise of surprise, and then it melted into delight; waves of pleasure flooded into her from her chest. Oh! It had felt good, growing like this with her test batches, but nothing like this!

A cup size fluxed out, and then another, pushing at the fabric of her robes. Two more swelled out, pushing her palms down to support them, and they flowed out over her hands. They kept growing; bigger and bigger! The weight of them, rising with each sudden bouncy surge, was making Jade lean forwards, her breasts rising outwards. More than extra cup sizes, now, her breasts were almost doubled from what they’d been.

The magic surged and amplified her body, adding more mass, more flesh, more everything. Her breasts kept expanding, growing outwards, so heavy that she was bent nearly double, her robes straining out and pulling up from the weight. “Yyyeah!” Jade cheered, the delight coursing through her.

And the magic was slowly expended, totally absorbed and transmuted into more Jade. She breathed out as the growth slowed, a couple more inches adding on with each breath, and then it stopped altogether.

The sensation of power and pleasure alike faded from her. Dave gaped as she stood up to her full, imposing height; her breasts were huge, and Jade’s fingers gently traced their expansive outlines, the fabric stretched and almost translucent against her skin now.

Down, down her hands went, feeling her breasts. Much bigger than anticipated. She heard a distinctive sloshing noise, too, when she jiggled enough. Down, all the way past… goodness! Past her ribs, and then when she found the bottom of her breasts, they lay near her navel.

Almost two and a high feet high was each breast, she guessed. She shifted upright, and felt a very pleasurable bounce. Slung out by at least three feet, two, perhaps four!

She breathed in, hissing it out through a grin that was a little bit manic, and she said “Ohh, yes, this is definitely a success.” Now, she panted heavily. “Ooh…” She breathed in and out again, her newly expanded assets heaving with such weight she felt dragged forward. It felt like so much of her was in front of her now… it felt good. “That’s… that’s a fun sensation….”

Impulsively, Jade took Dave’s hand, her fingers squeezing gently around his palm. She smiled just a bit impishly, sharp teeth glinting behind her lips, and she felt Dave’s pulse quicken. His expression didn’t change, not one bit. Not a single muscle even twitched, and his expression was like stone. And Jade knew about stone, and a little bit about geology, and she knew enough that there was always a lot going on beneath mountains that looked all calm and steady, but on the inside?

They were exploding. And Dave could keep his face steady, but he couldn’t do much of anything about the hot blush coloring his cheeks.

Jade leaned in close and gave him a soft, brief kiss on the cheek.

Her breasts, so recently swelled by her potions, pressed against his chest. His body was thin but so firm, so strong; the ideal surface for her bustline to squsih against, and press out, the pulse of her heartbeat passing into his body. Against the plane of his chest, her own chest squashed deep, and she thought in a wild and romantic suddenness that it was like pressing her heart against his own.

She felt their breath twin, for a moment, and then his own stopped. She exhaled, gusting it against his chin, and she kissed him again in the cheek, in the same spot.

And finally Jade pulled away. Her breasts, bouncing freely in their sub-par restraint, wobbled heavily as she moved back, and it was completely on purpose.

Dave’s shades were slipping. The red glow beneath them was nearly visible. “Holy shit,” he said simply.

She realized he was staring, and she grinned, a little sheepishly and a little smugly. Pride welled up in her, at a job well done.

“Hey, I’m freaked out too, but watch the goddamn language,” a laconic voice said from the window.

Both Dave and Jade whirled around; towards the window.

Where what had to be at least a good third of the town was ogling her, and her new ‘features’.

The speaker was Dirk Strider; looking very much like a somewhat older version of Dave, a bit broader overall, his arms crossed over the window. Behind him was the Chief Courier, her porcelain-white shell glittering in the sunlight; she looked, as much as her face could be seen beneath the concealing uniforms she favored, a mix of amused and intrigued. Most people there seemed to have the same vibe.

Terezi was there too, looming over everyone else there, a big dragon-like troll with wings furled around her like a cape, and now she was grinning knowingly.

Jade instinctively covered herself, eyes wide, and she hurriedly thought: ‘What do I do!? What am I supposed to say?! Oh gosh they’re all looking at me!”

And then she thought: ‘Wait.

‘Isn’t this an opportunity?’

She stamped down the embarrassment and frustration at being watched, and declared, with a cheery tone, gesturing at herself, “So! Who might be interested in purchasing the next batch of my beauty elixirs, that’ll give you a body like this!?’

Her mortified feelings felt a bit dimmer at the glee of all the hands shooting straight up.

------

A couple weeks passed, after that.

There was a lot to do: adjust to her new body (oh, how doors were starting to be a problem! And clothes! She had to get them made special, or they’d pinch), going back with Dave to get the ingredients, preparing the next batches of potion for the rush of demand she was suddenly being met with…

Between the constant brewing, hunting down the ingredients from the most magically potent parts of the forests, needing to negotiate with the tailors, and all that, Jade had hardly any time with Dave.

That was a little sad, actually.

--------

But, as fortune would have it, he dropped in not long after that; he didn’t get to witness Jade testing more of her potions on herself, once she was satisfied with consistently bigger growth, and without Dave, she suspected her growth was being slowed. Warm feelings had something to do with it, she was sure.

“Dave!” Jade said, rushing over to him, nearly knocked over a couple people who were milling around her shop. Her breasts alone knocked a few people out of the way, and others quickly moved aside to get out of the way before they were bowled over.

Dave started to speak, but all the wind went right out of him as Jade lifted him clear off the ground, into a powerful and happy hug. “It’s been way too long!” Jade said happily, to some happy but muffled noises from Dave. He was pinned between her boobs, so it wasn’t surprising.

The other people in the shop awkwardly looked away, or giggled, or thought wistfully of envious thoughts for Dave’s position. Jane Crocker, a long-time friend of Jade’s, grinned at the pair, her own table slightly shifting weight from the pressure her potion-expanded breasts put on it; fully one side of it was covered by them, and she’d discreetly adjusted her coat to prevent any wardrobe malfunctions.

“Jade, help, need to breathe,” Dave managed to get out.

“Oops! Sorry!” Jade said. She dropped Dave, with a sheepish smile.

A voice cleared itself from behind her.

Jade turned around; the shop was fairly crowded now. But it had been, ever since she’d brought out her new line of potions. People had come to her all the time in any case; for potions of fertility or physical enhancement to strength and resistance, or giving big claws or aesthetic features like that; the occasional transformation for more height, or shrinking themselves a little bit. The healing potions had been quite popular, too. But her shop wasn’t built to have as many people as it did now waiting around, especially when after taking the potions they tended to hang around for a while, adjusting to their new bodies. Results still varied; some people got only a modest boost, while others grew as big as Jade had after months of careful experimenting and gradual growth (at least up to the first line of her bust enhancement potions, anyway). Jade remembered the kiss to Dave, and the warm feelings in her heart, and how much stronger the magic had felt then.

She was considering advertising them as best with mushy feelings.

The point was, Jade wasn’t very good at picking people out in the shop, since it wasn’t something she’d had to deal with until now. But now she realized that someone had come in with Jade.

Terezi Pyrope grinned; nearly twice as big as even Jade herself, looming over even the tallest people in town, she was a giantess among them, her body scaled in a way no troll normally was. A thick tail curled around her, and a great pair of wings flapped just enough to ensure that people steered clear of her. Jade found herself unconsciously ogling her; Terezi was big, enormously stacked on a scale equal to Jade herself, but somehow she felt… even bigger. The boobs were proportionately about the same as her own, but Terezi herself was so big that Jade could have used her breasts as exercise balls… or even cots!

Karkat was there, as he usually was; it was very rare to see one of them without the other. He hovered around her like an attendant, or a priest from old stories when the gods had walked the world, their clerics in tow. Jade had her own theories about that, given the sheer power radiating from Terezi…

But that was a thought for another time. Now she smiled. “You here on a professional level, or is this a friend visit?”

“A bit of both,” Terezi said. “You, uh, doing okay. You’ve been… going through some changes.”

Jade glanced down, and she felt aware of the eyes of others right on her expanded cleavage. She didn’t mind and laughed, privately cheering at all the attention on her hard work, with a great feeling of pride and confidence. “You could say that! But it was all on purpose so I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about, you know.”

Terezi chuckled. “Yeah, I figured. See? And Karkat was all worried about it!”

Karkat scoffed. “Someone had to. And Dave wanted someone to say something!”

“Dude, noooo….” DAve said meekly.

Jade turned towards him, head tilted. “Oh? Was someone concerned?” She grinned.

“...Maybe.”

“Oh, you should just hear what he says all the time,” Karkat said loftily, with the air of someone dropping a relationship rock right into a crowded social event. “It’s mortifying.”

Jade giggled. “Oh? I hope you’re saying nice things about me!”

Dave looked about ready to melt. “I dunno what they're talking about,” he said, trying to find refuge in denial.

“It’s so sappy,” Terezi said in a stage whisper.

“Aw!” Jade kissed Dave on the cheek, right in front of everyone. He made a precious ‘Hr-RK!’ noise that made her giggle again.

Terezi giggled as Dave awkwardly shuffled away, finding a desk and trying to recover his dignity. “But, seriously. I was wanting to buy a couple of these potions, maybe.”

That was a surprise to Jade; as the thrill of teasing Dave faded, she looked up and saw just more of Terezi’s massive, vision-filling bustline. They were so big already! As big as her own! “You don’t think you’ve got enough already…?” Jade asked, cautiously.

Terezi snorted. “You can always go bigger. And that’s kinda funny, coming from someone who’s still sampling her own goods.”

“Hmph. I don’t know what THAT means.” Jade tried to cross her arms over her chest but her breasts had gotten too big for her to do so easily. And true to Terezi’s words, they were in fact bigger than they had been during the initial growth, during the public event that had gotten all this attention. They were starting to tip closer to her waistline; it wasn’t too MUCH bigger, a product of Jade carefully watering down the samples as she kept experimenting on herself, and downplayed by her heavy work robes, but it was still a fair point. At least half a foot outwards, if not too much deeper.

“Well, I dunno. Let’s give you a baseline to outdo, hrm?” Terezi grinned. “Say, how much ARE these potions?”

Jade listed a number. It was a comfortable price that wasn’t too expensive, but didn’t diminish the effort it took to get the resources to make them; she viewed peddling them as a public service, in some ways. Terezi tossed some coins her way, and Jade handed her one of the bubbling flasks.

Terezi immediately popped the cork off. “Oooh,” Karkat said, eyes wide and amazed, realizing what she meant. Terezi lolled her massive tongue out and picked up the flask with her tongue, popping it into her mouth and draining the whole elixir down her throat in a single, heavy draught. Her thick tongue probed the flask, looking for every drop.

“You might wanna get closer to Terezi,” Jade quietly told Karkat. “It, uh, helps the change.”

Karkat hugged Terezi’s thigh, his arms squeezing deep into her ample flesh. “What do you mean-” He started to say.

“Eep!” Terezi exclaimed, magic radiating from her body, tinged with that special flavor of affection; her hand drifted right towards Karkat, and Jade knew that was just the right thing. “That’s the key!’ she thought. ‘That’s how to get big!’

And perhaps just to prove her point, Terezi grew. A little bit taller, but not much; a few inches, maybe. Just as well, given she was already a giant. Her hips swelled out, packing on a few extra inches; perhaps a finger span wider on both sides, and she was already so massively curvy that there might have not been that much to grow. Her clothes creaked heavily, especially as her big butt filled out even more, a few people behind her making awed noises at the wealth of butt they must have seen pushing up from the fabric enclosure. Her tail swelled, getting a little rounder, a little bit more like an eel’s tail…

Her breasts, though, erupted. In a single fluid motion, they swelled outwards, fluxing out like a cup being filled with water. They billowed, the teardrop shape growing more pronounced; from her gut, down to her waist. Her breasts expanded, and sideways too, swelling out so much that Terezi’s broad shoulders couldn’t even be seen. Most of her formidable body shape, in fact, was obscured; just her big hips, her huge thighs, the tail and wings, and those massive boobs.

Fabric tore. Her gut forced her boobs apart as it settled down, her stomach rising through the cleavage, and her shirt started to fray under the impact.

It was the quickest growth, and a particularly dramatic one; it was over almost immediately, and Jade gawked when she just had to acknowledge the reality of Terezi’s bustiness.

“Hah!” Terezi thrust her breasts out, openly delighted. “Beat that!”

Jade huffed. “Oh, I will!”

Karkat goggled. “Okay oh wow that is BIG.

From the side, Terezi’s breasts stuck out at least several additional feet; she probably couldn’t gather them up even if she stuck her arms out and pulled as much of her boobs in as possible. And given how big she was, they were big enough to use as exercise balls, or to sleep with. And from Karkat’s size… they must have looked so massive.

Terezi was probably thinking about that. Still smiling, she picked up Karkat, ignoring his usual token protests at being manhandled, and stuffed him right into her cleavage. His head popped out, expression suddenly completely calm, and then she pushed him down, completely contained.

Her face looked so peaceful. “Ooh yeah. That’s the stuff.” She grinned at Dave and Jade, gawking at her. “Hope this gives you ideas, Jade. Buh-bye!” With that, she walked off, Karkat encased in her cleavage.

Dave watched her go. Even her back was hypnotic, butt swelling up like a pair of wagons attached to her. “Sure did a number on her,” he said weekly. “What do you think she meant by that, anyway?”

“I dunno,” Jade lied. She thought about being so big she could do that to Dave.. stuffing him so close to her…

Her shirt felt tighter. Her breasts wobbled all on their own, and suddenly surged a few sizes bigger. Dave saw the growth. “Did-did you just grow? Without taking any potion?!”

“Ooh, that’s… new!” She wasn’t really thinking about it, though. She was still watching Terezi strut off, all sexy and big.

“You’re not worried? Huh. Neat, I guess.”

She wasn’t really listening, either. Privately, Jade felt a surge of… envy, she supposed. Not that wasn’t quite it. It wasn’t that she wanted what Terezi had now.

She wanted more than what Terezi had now; it was like a competition, in some way. Terezi had outdone her, for now. But… her eyes narrowed. She wouldn’t let herself stay outdone!

She glanced up at Terezi’s mammoth body, where Karkat peacefully resting between her breasts, and she thought that maybe she DID envy Terezi having a boyfriend she could fit into her boobs. She then looked at Dave with an appraising look that made him feel strangely snuggly.

------

It had been quite some time since Chahut and Konyyl had been in town. The pair of them spent a great deal of time traveling abroad, to the other scattered townships and city-states, trading where they could and gathering things to sell back home. To be honest, and they’d had to correct others on this point (Konyyl irritably, and Chahut with a gentleness belying the terrible violence she could perform), they didn’t do the actual trading. They were hired muscle, protecting the merchants from bandits, overly strict travel policies, and sometimes shaking down someone trying to weasel out of paying on a deal.

They enjoyed their work; the traveling, and the hitting things. Still, while they’d been very well paid for what they did, staying on constant work wasn’t as appealing as the thought of going home until the next trade season rolled around.

Chahut was a very tall woman, even among trolls, who were generally bigger than humans or carapacians. Konyyl was a big woman too, and the two of them had similar thick-set body types; Konyyl with more obvious musculature, but given that Chahut was nearly twice her size, she looked bigger in every way. The two of them normally had no trouble clearing the way, with size and dark charisma and sheer force of ‘don’t mess with me’.

‘Normally’ being the keyword.

“I don’t, uh, recall everyone being this big,” Konyyl said as they walked past a crowd. She stood head and shoulders over most others, her own head somewhere around Chahut’s elbow, but that wasn’t the kind of big she was concerned about. Two carapacians, a few trolls and a human tottering behind them all went past them, diverting around them like water around a stone, and each of them had breasts as big as prize-winning pumpkins; the smallest had breasts as big as their heads, and the largest… their torsos, and some of their stomachs, couldn’t even be seen behind a wall of cleavage.

In fact, just about everyone they saw was sporting a bustline that dwarfed the pair of them. Konyyl crossed her muscular arms over her chest self-consciously. It was making her feel… small.

“Me neither,” Chahut said eventually. She sounded diffident, calm. But then… was she? Her voice had a slight tone of uncertainty. She glanced down at herself. Chahut wasn’t exactly a proud beauty, and Konyyl supposed that Chahut had never regarded her amplitude as anything except a minor facet of her physical form, but still. This was concerning.

“Something must have happened while we were gone,” Konyyl said, looking very off-balanced. “Some kind of weird magical event… maybe a weather thing, loaded up with magic?”

“A boob-storm?” Chahut’s tone dripped with amusement. “Now there’s a weird image.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Like to see you explain what’s going on here!”

Chahut turned. Their latest employer was hurrying over to them, and she noticed something else that way. “A potion that makes boobs bigger got real popular, maybe?”

“Well, maybe.”

“Look, little beefy.” Chahut pointed, and Konyyl turned. Down that way, there was a small advert board; freshly painted, from the smell. It displayed a grinning Jade Harley (a familiar figure to the both of them, though they didn’t know her closely, but everyone bought from Jade; they’d spent a lot of time at her shop, taking deliveries for a trading run), her face squeezed into a corner. The rest of it was taken up by her breasts, flooding over the entire billboard; absurdly massive, they were, extending out by at least five feet! The style of the ad was fairly cutesy, as fit her tastes in artwork, but they looked big enough to dip to her thighs, so big she could sleep on them.

ON the ad, between the art-drawn Jade, there was a bottled potion. “Want a bustline like mine? Come down to Jade’s Alchemical Esoterica for all your bust expansion needs!” the ad’s text said, in a cheery green font.

“Konyyl! Chahut!” said their employer, a human, and pointed at the ad. “Did you see!?”

“Kind of hard not to,” Konyyl quipped. Chahut nodded gravely.

“Not that! I mean… whoa, that’s a hell of an eyecatcher… but no! I mean, Jade’s shop is that way! Have you seen her yet!?”

“No?” Konyyl tilted her head. “Why?”

“I just… look, I gotta get a group together. We’ll need to find a demonstrator, and a caravan equipped to transport potion goods… gods, we’ll make so much money! But, ah!” The human fretted, trying to balance too many things at once in the mind, and thrust two large pouches heavy with coinage at them. “Here! So I don’t forget! Your pay for this trip. I gotta go, just… you might wanna drop in at Jade’s?”

And then, the human ran off, so full of excitement that there was a little bit of hopping and dancing. The two troll women watched him go. “Well,” Konyyl said. “I don’t have anything else going on. Azdaja’s got a while before he meets up with me. What about you?”

“Eh, same here. Not the bit about Azdaja,” Chahut replied, with a wry tusk-filled grin. “Let’s check it out, eh?”

The two of them followed the path to Jade’s shop. As they went, they were struck that navigating the marketplace was a more tricky affair than they remembered it being; almost every woman there was obscenely buxom, occupying at least a couple of feet in front of them with enough boobage to produce scandals in some of the more prim places they’d been. Both trolls moved very carefully to avoid bumping into someone’s breasts, and considering how much of that there was, it was very hard going.

It seemed demand for whatever Jade was selling was dropping; there weren’t that many people there, though all of them tended towards the same buxom frame. The few exceptions were doing their best to fix that; as they entered, they heard Jade’s cheery voice: “And try to drain it down in a single gulp! It won’t do any good to save some for later, it’ll transform you just the same. Be sure to drink lots of water and have plenty of food, you’re gonna be hungry!”

There was Jade, standing in her shop, her back turned to the entrance. Konyyl and Chahut were momentarily stunned. Jade looked so… thick. Even more than she used to be, even more than Konyyl! (Though at least, Konyyl reflected, Jade didn’t quite have the muscle.) A fairly slim dress as vibrantly green as her namesake jewel, clinging tightly to a body that seemed to be a waterfall of slowly expanding curves; a broad and huggable torso, an expanding waistline straining the limits of a dress, with hips so broad that it must have been hard to get through a doorway. At least a couple feet across!

Her butt, plump and round enough that a very small caparacian could have sat on it with room to kick up their legs, waggled back and forth as she spoke. Quite a lot of her big, unbelievably wide thighs must have been taken up with that butt. Konyyl felt her mouth go a bit dry, just at the sight of it. Even Chahut seemed impressed.

Though she did seem to have other things on her mind. “What’s that she’s got in front of her?” She wondered, squinting.

“Not sure,” Konyyl said. Two objects spread out in front of Jade from their angle, taking up a lot of space directly in front of her. She shrugged. “Let’s go in and get some answers.” They both stepped in, the bell atop the door ringing. A few people saw them and greeted them; at the door, sitting on a chair and off-duty, was Dave, waving to the both of them.]

“Sup,” He said pleasantly. “Try not to let her mow ya down.”

He sounded like he was talking from experience. He grinned a little saying it, so it wasn't a bad experience, either. Konyyl didn’t get a chance to ask about it; Jade had started turning around when she heard the doorbell, and the prospective potion buyer had already left with their purchase, and both Konyyl and Chahut stopped cold, mouths open and thoughts empty, when they saw Jade from the front.

The advertisement had not exaggerated, in the slightest. Completely obscuring the front of Jade’s body was the biggest… widest… roundest…

Konyyl’s brain shut down, a little bit. Jade approached. The shutting down got worse. There was just so much… bouncing. And that dress! The cleavage deep enough for her to sink into! Over four feet deep! Cut down to the belly, rounder and firmer, and it was making her look so curvy, just like a fertility icon of the Dragon Goddess…

(Distantly, Terezi had a vague feeling that someone was referring to her, or at least her true nature. She shrugged and got on with what she was doing, which was beating Karkat in a game of strategy despite not even knowing the rules.)

It had been a while since Terezi’s big transformation. Jade had taken her challenge to heart; she’d been growing periodically on her own, but she’d boosted the effects with regular intakes of potion, and spending lots of time with Dave, whenever possible, and the effects were definitely knocking the two trolls about.

Even Chahut was completely lost for words. Well, most words. She managed to get out: “...Hi, Jade?”

“WHAT THE HECK,” Konyyl demanded. She flung her beefy arms out, gesturing at Jade. “We leave for like a few months and you’re all… all… everyone is all…” She inhaled. She let it out with a cry of “Big! WHY.”

Jade swept both trolls, taller than her, into a powerful hug. The both of them, by no means frail, made squeaking noises as Jade’s surprising strength shoved the remaining air right out, or perhaps that was the full weight of her monstrously huge boobs shoving into them. From throat to Jade’s legs they spanned her body, probably weighing more than she did. It had to be her own enormous strength that prevented them from being a physical hindrance, or some kind of wacky magic?

Jade parted from them, the pair still stunned. “So!” She said, a flirty tone in her words. Dave watched, grinning expectantly. “How do I look~?”

“You look… good,” Konyyl said weakly.

“Big,” Chahut agreed, and it was so very surreal to see her look so shaken.

Jade grinned. “You guys haven’t been in town a while. I bet everyone’s looking a little bigger than they used to, eh?”

Konyyl made the connection; the advertisement, Jade’s potions, Jade’s own size… “Was it… did you do a magic thing?”

Jade pulled out a basketful of potions that could have fit into her cleavage with ease. Given that she did a little twirl before bringing it out, it was entirely possible she’d been hiding it in her cleavage for such a dramatic moment. “I might have come up with a potion that does some boob embiggening, yeah!” She grinned wickedly, dangling one in front of them. Both women stared at it, sense of intrigue naked on their expressions. “What do you think? Might you be interested?”

“I might,” Chahut said.

Konyyl tugged out her coin purse. “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY, SEDUCTRESS!”

Jade giggled and passed their purchases as Chahut and Konyyl got a couple each. “Be sure to take them when you’re with someone that you’re close to, or at least makes you feel happy. Like a friend, or something romantic.” She looked at Dave for a moment, across the shop, and absently tapped a massive breast, as if to say ‘he is responsible for this’. “It, um. Seems to help make bigger growth.”

Chahut and Konyyl glanced at him, and then Jade. Chahut made a heart-shape with her fingers. Konyyl said, “You and him…? Is that a thing?”

Jade fluished. “Well, I dunno. Um.” Her confidence, so recently ironclad and as abundant as her bustline, faltered. “It might be?”

The two women chuckled at that, with the tone of someone who had suspected it was a thing for quite a while, and left. Well, Jade thought, People were going to assume it was a thing, the way they liked to talk!

She didn’t really mind the thought, though.

It felt… official.

-------

And then, a few weeks onward, and word spread: even faster and wider than Jade’s bustline, or the average growth rate in town. Word of Jade’s marvelous bust-enhancing potions, and the increases many people had reported in their physical strength.

Caravans had already left, loaded up with bust potion, to peddle them to distant lands. Already, people who’d heard of it from travelers bearing incredibly massive breasts had come there, and left with potions and mighty busts of their own. And they’d told people, who came and told others when they got back…

And word had spread, of this town with its genius alchemist who’d captured a little bit of the past and its faculty for body modification elixirs for fun and profit.

Now, people were coming to town every day, caravans of them, traders zeroing in on the town, and not just for the potion, but for the other goods the town offered.

So, feeling rather dazed, Jade found herself being handed a big trophy, and a hearty handshake from the mayor.

A small, impish figure (so similar to the imps that lurked outside town, in fact, that Jade felt bad when her excursions required fighting them), his black shell glistening in the light like a little playing piece in the kind of games Terezi liked to play. Jade felt enormously self conscious and smiled awkwardly as what must have been a good portion of the town sat expectedly in the auditorium, listening to his speech. Or what bits they could understand; the Mayor spoke exclusively in the private language of the carapacian people, and the Chief Courier translated hurriedly, as best she could. Judging from her winces and split-second word swaps, the Mayor’s actual words were probably fairly profane and coarse at best.

“...And so, for your breakthrough in aesthetic transfigurations bringing such trade to us, we have prospered as we never have before!” The chief courier said. “Food, valuable minerals, magical substances of every kind, and livestock are flooding in, and we are doing better than we ever had!’”

“I didn’t mean to start an economic revolution,” Jade said meekly. “I just thought people would find my invention cool…”

“Well, we’re getting filthy stinking rich,’” the courier said, her expression implying this was the nice translation. “‘So all’s good! In my book! Now, go on, take your… um… yeah, I can’t translate that.” The mayor scowled at her, and waved a hand at Jade.

Jade took the award, a heavy gold thing that would look very nice on a necklace, though it’d probably sink into her cleavage. “Oh, very well… thank you so much! I’m glad to be of service!”

She bowed to the enriched crowd as they applauded, but she tried not to bow too much. Her boobs had continued to grow and grow, and her experiments had finally died down a little in efficacy; regardless of what she put in them, she was only getting a little bit of growth, and she figured she had reached the peak of what her potion could reasonably do, for the present. Her breasts had reached the biggest size she could manage for now.

But what a size it was! Most of Jade’s body mass was now in her breasts, she wasn’t any skinnier or less thick (indeed, her hips had continued to grow, so much so that doorways were too skinny for her now; four feet across, and counting, with a butt sticking three feet out and just the right shape for Dave to sit on it), but if her weight was to be counted, so much of it was in her breasts that she thought of them as the core of herself now.

She wasn’t sure of the actual weight. The scales kept busting. But they were so large that their bottoms dipped down, down, all the way past her knees! Each breast was four feet height, and over eight feet across, obscuring almost her entire body when seen from a front, a size proportionately equaled by no one. The weight of them moving, when she did, was so divine; she felt such pleasure at every bounce and wiggle, a micro-burst of euphoria whenever it surged forward and dragged her along with it.

She glanced at the crowd; she saw Terezi, looming over it, grinning and wiggling her claws at her, and Karkat on her head like an excitable crown, mirroring her friendly gesture. Near them was Chahut and Konyyl, their own breasts as big as the most abundantly fertile gourds; at least down to the naval, and she felt proud in making such big and beautiful women even larger.

Again she thought: No one is as big as me! She felt proud, and more than the award she held, her own body felt like a testament to her willingness to experiment.

She glanced at Dave. He’d helped. Not just the stuff he’d gathered; just being there for her, and the feelings he brought out in her. That was part of it, she was sure. Every time she’d started to grow really big, he’d been there, making her feel big. A feeling in her heart, expanding out and her body growing to match…

It was wonderfully, obnoxiously sappy. She had to love it.

The Mayor followed her gaze, and misunderstanding her thoughts, spoke at length. “The mayor would like to thank Mister Dave Strider for his tireless efforts in helping Miss Harley… despite it being on work hours,” The chief courier added in a stern tone. The mayor nudged her as if to say ‘get on with it!’. “Oh, right. Anyway. Please step up to the podium?”

“What?” Dave stepped over, looking surprised. “What? Oh, come on. This is all Jade!”

“I couldn’t have done it without your help,” Jade said sincerely, gazing down at him, eyes half-lidded and warm.

He flustered in the light. “Don’t be sappy, come onnnn….”

“I mean it!” She thought of a way to convince him that, yes, she really was saying it to be honest, and a wild idea came in front of her. In front of all these people, though? Part of her qualed at the thought…

But another part of her, proud and reveling in having such a massive, buxom bustline, retorted: ‘If we’re gonna be shy now, what’s even the point of having such magnificent boobs!?”

Jade thus leaned forward, her breasts clearing the floor, and encircling Dave’s whole body; he was caught up in boob-age, enwrapped and captured, and he managed a squeak of alarm as Jade tilted her body up, bouncing him even deeper into her cleavage, his whole body imprisoned and his face closer to her own-

And she moved her face to his own, and kissed him firm, softly, right on the mouth.

Lip to lip, the kiss deepened, like a promise she hadn’t realized she’d made

Dave initially didn’t respond, in his shock. And then, to her delight, he deepened the kiss on his own, sincere and honest as she knew he really was afraid to be. She didn’t think about it being in front of so many people, but later she thought: this was the best way to do it. To prove she was serious, showing it on her big moment.

The mayor, blushing, said something like “oh my!” The chief courier goggled for a moment, and she glanced at the mayor, and considered buying a few potions from Jade later, on the quiet.

“What’s going on?!” Terezi asked impatiently, her senses not able to compensate for her blindness this once.

“Dave and Jade are hooking up, I think,” Karkat said laconically on her head. “She’s doing the kinda thing to him that you like to do to me.”

“Boob sandwich?!”

“Yep.”

“Hah! I knew she’d do that!”

Chahut whistled, very much impressed. Konyyl nudged Azdaja by boob-bumping him; as it was, he’d been sitting down in front of her, his horns and height just right for her to rest her new bustline on top of his head. “This give you any ideas, eh?” She asked, grinning wildly.

“Yeah but I think you beat me to them,” He replied calmly.

The kiss kept going on, as the audience took it in. Dave and Jade, together? The overall vibe was less surprise, or shock or scandal (the town being a fairly amiable place, after all), and more ‘oh so that finally happened’. Not surprising, given the general opinion of the pair.

“All right, all right!” The chief courier said, shushing the smooching pair. “That’s enough! On your own time, you two!”

Jade allowed her breasts to settle, and down Dave went. He gracefully slid through her cleavage and back onto the floor, and awkwardly stepped away. He remembered the heat of her body, blushing intensely. He rarely showed clear emotion, or expressed himself too openly…

But now, he was smiling.

Dirk and Hal, in the crowd, both cracked their own smiles at the sight. “There ya go, little bro,” Dirk said softly.

“You owe me money now,” Hal said gleefully. “And here you bet it’d be another half-year before they hooked up!”

Dirk rolled his eyes and passed the construct some coins. “It was a safe bet. Took them this long to hook up!”

The ceremony ended soon enough, after that. People filed out, one after another, some of them pausing to congratulate Jade again. Others went to congratulate Dave.

But soon enough, the two of them were alone. Dave had some trouble marshalling his thoughts, the feeling of Jade’s warmth everywhere around him so beguiling that it was easier to just lose himself in the memory, not in the now....

He did his best, though. “Hey, Jade?” Dave asked.

Jade, thinking about the lovely feeling of Dave’s whole body in her cleavage, pinned and safe there, his heart beating into her whole-breast pulse, made a soft murmuring sound. “Mm?”

“What do you think about, eh… going on a walk or something. When things quiet down, I mean.”

She smiled sweetly. “I’d like that.” She leaned to the side and kissed him again.

It was the kind of kiss a lover gives.

#commissions #twitchy!homestuck #twitchy!dave strider #twitchy!jade harley #my writing #fics #queued

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seyaryminamoto · 4 years

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Been thinking for a while that I’d like to do a light behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the themes in the newest Gladiator story arc. While it’s not the very core element of the arc, the source of Azula’s current struggle in the story came from... an unexpected place.

Unexpected as in, it came from LOK.

Okay, in all fairness, it’s not quiiiiiiiite something that came from LOK itself, but it’s a take on an idea I had while pondering the various reasons why Asami’s character wouldn’t really take off for me in the show. Well, beyond the obvious reasons why it wouldn’t *cough* Book 2 *cough*...

I’ve always said I’m more than a little confused by how a character like Asami, with just 20-something years of age at the time of LOK Book 4, has enough talent and know-how to not only be a top-of-the-line engineer (which, yes, is believable enough on its own), but to also be a CEO in her own company (I gueeeess since the company falls into her hands and she mismanages it plenty in Book 2, it’s not that impossible to feature this in conjunction with the first thing?), a clothing designer, an architect AND a urbanist, capable of driving every machine known to man, an outstanding hand-to-hand fighter...!

... If you really think about it in cold blood, it feels like a little too much.

BUT. Instead of boringly accusing Asami of being a Mary Sue (which I’m sure some people might) for having a thousand talents that we don’t really see her work for, that she just developed offscreen, I thought the show would have benefited greatly from actually focusing on how Asami is handling the constant, desperate need of so many authorities in Republic City to have HER resolving all their problems.

Therefore, instead of a Reunion episode with a conflict focused on rescuing a kidnapped Wu (whom I profoundly dislike as a character, not for his role, but his personality is simply barf-worthy for me and the amount of focus Book 4 gave him was, as a lot of things, detrimental to the show as a whole, in my opinion), I thought LOK’s Book 4 could have instead featured a Reunion episode focused on Asami... which, of course, would also be a nice way to fix some of the lackluster onscreen development of Korrasami. So... let’s go onwards with my episode pitch:

Picture that Korra is about to reunite with Mako and Asami for the first time in all those years, same as in canon. Asami arrives! Yay, Korra is happy, Asami compliments her hair, just like in canon... aaaand then Asami says she can’t really stay, she just dropped by quickly because this REALLY matters to her, but there’s this pressing issue going on at the company and she has to deal with it RIGHT NOW, because no one else can. So, woops.

Korra is completely disappointed (and probably doesn’t even understand WHY she’s so disappointed, hinting at deeper feelings for Asami that Korra hasn’t even stopped to reason with yet), but she sees Asami off while pretending this doesn’t bug her (for Asami’s benefit), and ends up spending the evening with Mako but clearly she’s not enjoying it as much as she hoped to. Which could result in Mako being pretty surprised by whatever closeness and bond those two seem to have now, noticing that he seems to have fallen to second place in Korra’s eyes somehow.

So! Skipping ahead, perhaps to the next day, Korra tries to check on Asami again! :D Oh, but she’s got to work on the airbenders’ outfits, some have been having trouble with the aerodynamics of it, and it’s just not working as Asami intended, so more calculations are needed! She takes to studying on the subject frantically, has to figure out what formula she’s missing or messing up, and while Korra offers to help, she knows there’s not really anything she can do to give Asami a hand since this stuff is well out of Korra’s area of expertise.

Then, when Asami is finally finished, OH NO! An emergency in the train she inaugurated at the start of the season! Asami has to go deal with that too! And of course, Korra goes too, while wondering how TF does this damn city even run without Asami...

... And then realizing it actually doesn’t. There’s a president who basically dumps all the difficult issues on Asami because she has the know-how and the resources to deal with all the city’s problems, there’s an airbending master who requested for that same girl to help with the designs of his people’s combat outfits instead of dealing with it himself or finding someone else to help, there’s an entire vehicle company (ranging from cars to AIRPLANES) that depends on HER. And it’s just SO. MUCH. SHIT. For a girl who’s like... 20? 21? How old is Asami at this point? xD I don’t even remember. But the point I’m trying to get to...

Is that Asami should be overwhelmed. She hasn’t had anyone helping her, she deals with everything alone, and it doesn’t matter how hard she tries to work through this, there’s always one more problem, one more obstacle, one more bothersome thing she has to tackle, and nobody seems to stop and think that maybe she could use a break. That maybe she needs a nap because she hasn’t had one in 20 months. That maybe things in this damn city would be in a better place if people didn’t rely on her, and her alone, to resolve the bulk of their problems.

Korra, though, with her latest character growth (... that I’m not really fond of anyhow, but still...), has become a lot better at understanding people’s emotions. And her job as an Avatar is, amongst many things, to help people: someone she cares about deeply, her best friend future girlfriend, is currently going through so much crap and the truth is, Asami needs help. Whether Asami realizes it or not, she needs it. And so, whether it’s Korra’s job or not to help her, that’s all Korra wants to do right now.

So Korra enlists Mako and then all three deal with whatever that train emergency might be! Asami probably rejects their help at first, out of force of habit of doing everything alone lately, until Korra tells her she doesn’t have to do that anymore. And then Asami’s mind is blown because yeah, maybe there’s a bunch of older people in charge who are happy to dump all responsibilities on her! But that doesn’t mean she has to accept it meekly and save all their asses time after time... and it also doesn’t mean she has to deal with everything alone.

After the train problem is resolved, Korra and Asami (maybe Mako too? But for Korrasami’s purposes, it can just be those two) get to have a small chat about what life has been like for Asami since Korra vanished. The conversation doesn’t merely focus on Hiroshi, which... *cringes* let’s not get into that. It focuses on Asami and the hardships she’s dealing with, seeing as the city is basically using her as a non-bender Avatar, in the sense of leaving all the problem-solving to Asami alone. Korra probably apologizes, Asami probably tells her not to feel guilty, because she has had it rough, and Asami understands that better than anyone, especially after what she’s been through lately.

It’s a cute, heartfelt moment, not necessarily romantic yet, but featuring a strong, meaningful bonding scene between these two! Asami wants to go back to work on some pending stuff, and Korra respects that, though she warns Asami not to overdo it. Asami promises she won’t... and the next time Korra checks on her, Asami is asleep on her desk or something like that. Korra smiles and puts a blanket on her shoulders, and when someone else arrives to say something REALLY BAD is going on, Korra shushes them and decides to deal with it herself (as long as she can), and, if she can’t, she’ll find someone else to do it in Asami’s stead so the girl can sleep safe and sound for the first time in ages.

Episode pitch over! :’D

*siiiiiiiiiigh* alright, so yeah, this was something I originally thought of as a replacement episode, to further explore and establish a bond between Korra and Asami that wouldn’t really resolve all of the rushed-Korrasami problems... but it would make it so much clearer that those two share a different bond, and a very special understanding of each other, that the other two Krew members simply don’t have with either of them. It’d deepen their relationship, but the most important element about this for me was that it’d be an Asami-focused episode and plotline. However brief it would have been, my idea was to feature Asami facing her own problems, not problems based on her relationship with other people (be it family or romance). It was also a way to show that she’s not indestructible or just the go-to problem solver with neverending resources and talents that the plot can exploit at leisure whenever it feels like it. And, most importantly, that Asami can’t and SHOULDN’T be the answer to every problem in Republic City, especially when she’s only delivering those answers off-screen, offering the viewers next to no chance to see her in action, kicking ass at all the things she apparently has insane expertise on.

As far as I know, the two LOK comic trilogies haven’t really done much for Asami either. I haven’t read them so I could be wrong, but from what I can gather from comments of people who have read them and the books’ summaries, she’s still Korra’s girlfriend first and foremost, gets kidnapped so she can be used as a hostage to manipulate Korra, and then gets brainwashed into fighting against Korra...? If this is truly how it is, again, Asami just gets reduced to a satellite character, in the sense that she just revolves around other people as though that’s all there is to her character, canon-wise. Which... makes me sad. She had potential, plenty of potential worth exploring, if only the show’s writing had been more paused and allowed their characters to breathe and grow organically, as a consequence of their own actions and decisions rather than by being forced into hellish situations persistently until they broke out of desperation.

So... LOK really had the chance to explore a much more human side of Asami that they’ve neglected to acknowledge so far (from what I know), a chance to deepen her character by displaying that no one of such young age should have so many difficult responsibilities dumped on her shoulders... which, again, could be expanded into a metaphor for the Avatar’s role, showing both Korra and Asami as two highly capable women who could achieve great things... but who need a chance to be normal too, once in a while. From the looks of it, neither of them have had that chance in canon (yes, Korra was stuck in a compound all her life but Asami must have been stuck in constant lessons at every discipline she has mastered? If she can deal with all those jobs of hers as flawlessly as she has, I don’t think she had much of a life before LOK started), and it would have been really nice of the deeper, darker show LOK wanted to be to acknowledge that a bunch of grown-ups, who had relatively smooth lives in their youth, dumping so much heavy work on a pair of girls who are just becoming young adults and barely had childhoods of their own, is just damn nasty :’D just as it was nasty in a show featuring a much younger cast... *innocent whistling*

Alas, this was just one idea that won’t ever go anywhere in canon, as is obvious. I’m sure I mentioned it at least once before, not as thoroughly as I did just now, but this is more or less what I had in mind. If you dump a thousand things on a character, it would only be fair to let them suffer for it, to a fault. Maybe don’t feature them whining because they have soooo much work to do... but turn them into workaholics! Show that they’re struggling to make everything pay off, that this kind of burden isn’t child’s play because in real life, it simply wouldn’t be.

But, as there’s next to no chance Asami will ever get this sort of development, I merely stashed this idea on my back burner, in case it might come in handy in the future...

... And then I returned to it once Gladiator’s Enforcers became a solid reality. Azula has been dealing with challenges that are rather different from those Asami dealt with... but ultimately, the responsibilities both girls have taken up, Asami in canon and Azula in my story, were just insanely big. Azula, in Gladiator, has had very little time to spare for “secondary” pursuits since the previous arc, and in the current one that has become a problem because she simply CAN’T stop working. She goes home and instead of going to bed, keeps on working. She’s constantly on edge, assuming that any time not spent working is wasted time, time she should take advantage of to further improve her projects and endeavors... to the point where people are starting to notice she’s slightly overwhelmed, extremely stressed out, and needs to calm down :’D

I really had wanted to explore these themes in overachieving characters, who take up far too many responsibilities, more than are reasonable. While I’ll always consider it a really big waste of potential that LOK never gave Asami this particular dimension, despite her character 100% warranted it, at least I had the chance to explore this with Azula instead, and I’m honestly really pleased with the result, because it suits her really well too. The outcome won’t be at all like what I just outlined for the LOK episode that never was, and the current story arc will take a vastly different direction... which is why I thought it would be fun to explain where this particular, new dimension of Azula’s character had come from.

Aaaanyways... the bottomline is, Return to Shu Jing is here. And I reeeeeally love this arc. I hope that those of you reading and staying up to date with the story will love it too!

#gladiator #me talking about LOK?#who'd have thought (?)#but it's something I've had running circles in my brain for ages so #it feels good to release it into the wild at last (?)#I really think this is the only genuine link between Gladiator and LOK #... and it's not even 100% a link #but the idea is one I thought of for LOK #and that I now repurposed altogether for my big bulky story #so... indirect link I guess #but boy I really wish they'd done this in canon #would've been wonderful for Asami's character... *sigh*

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theuncommittedwriter · 4 years

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From now on, alone

From: My hero academia

Pairing: Shouto Todoroki x reader

Genre: angst

A/N: Oh wow, first thing and is angst, such a surprise! Lmao I love angst. I hope you'll like it :) please take in consideration that English is not my first language. Be free to do as much corrections as you need! Please enjoy! :)

Summary: Shouto and his s/o met at UA quite years ago, but now, due to a disease, he has to see her losing her life in front of his eyes

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He wondered if he would ever be able to forget the beauty that your sleeping face gathered. No, it was more than beauty. There was something of the peace of your breathing, the length of your eyelashes, the redness of your lips, the little distortion on the form of your face caused by having the cheek pressed on the mattress. You looked angelical on rather common terms. But he was not a believer of God; more likely, he had stopped believing in him after hearing some news from your mouth. Those words together were like hearing the trumpets announcing the day of the final trial to him.

Shouto Todoroki couldn't recall when was the last time he had slept, or at least, the last time he had had an eight hour time of recharging sleep. His mind wouldn't stop screaming and racing all over the place. It seemed like no matter in which direction he looked, there was a little memory with you. Be it the darkest corner of the bedroom, in which you once tried to scare him after watching a thriller movie in a particular rainy night; or the center of the large room, where he had invited you to dance in a playful tone more than every day. In other circumstances, he would affirm with total security that it was a bless to have such large mountain of memories with his beloved one. But at the moment, it felt like it was the plage coming after him.

The man wanted nothing more than to get on his feet and take a large run across the city. And if even after that he couldn't calm his mind, he would take the first train he could catch. It didn't have to matter the destination. He wanted nothing more than to escape, to be a coward and run away from his fears, from the fatality future that he couldn't control nor predict. He had never considered himself someone who wanted to be in charge of everything, but after that night, he felt like if he didn't take control of things, he would go insane. Unfortunately, his racing heart wouldn't allow himself to run. Not now. Not when the light of his nightmares was dying in front of him. He would never forgive himself if he ran.

Lately, his mind has being taking him back to the days he met you, as if it was some sort of punishment. He felt like the worst sinner when he thought that he wouldn't have to go through this if it wasn't because he had fallen so mad in love; with you, and with the idea of life. To him, you were like some kind of deity. Someone destined to suffer at the cost of saving others. Like that, with that cheesy line, was how he would describe your whole existence.

You two met at your first year of UA. However, as long as he was one at the top of the class, you were at the bottom. Not because you were weak, it was because you just put one foot at the UA for the first time at the second half of the second year. Not even one of your classmates knew about your existence until one day Aizawa mentioned you. That same day, a group of kids appeared in your hospital room with friendly smiles. They apologized for not visiting you until the second half of their first year at school.

Your quirk was one life-saver for a lot of people. Being called "cells of divinity", your genetic was holy for everyone but you. One day you may not be able to move your arm at all, two weeks later you may regain your arm, but lost the ability to talk, and so on. Your immune system was a mess, always going against yourself. Doctors had to keep you under intense care for 15 long years, which you all spent hospitalized. At some point around your 7th birthday, your parents stopped coming. Then you started to hear some rumours that they weren't paying for the hospital bed, and then they went missing. Before your 9th birthday, the responsibility for your safety and well being was in charge of the government.

At the cost of all the pills you had had to take, all the therapy you had gone through, there has been at least a million lifes saved. Your blood hated you, but it was made to be used by scientist to create medicines. That's why you'd spend so much time on hospitals, you had been created to be part of so many experiments.

When Todoroki heard for the first time this history, he had mixed feelings. He thought that you were nothing less than a hero, and that's why they admitted you on UA even though you couldn't fight. But at the same time, he thought that it was a really cruel destiny. He put himself on the position of being cursed by blood, something he had experienced in his own shoes, and felt like it was a big injustice to you. One night that his group of friend reunited in your hospital room, he confessed his thoughts about your life. After that, you two growth closer.

His stomach can't do anything else than to twitch in sorrow just from remembering all the nights you two had cried together, how many times he had had to hand-feed you because your arms wouldn't move on inch, how many times he had carry you on a wheelchair, just because your genetic decided that they wouldn't active your legs' nerves. How happy you looked the first time in years you had gone out of the hospital, even if it only longed three days. How happy you seemed to be the first time you took an actual exam with everyone in that UA classroom. Todoroki was completely and absolutely love-struck with the idea of you being happy and smiling, you being able to liberate yourself from the chains of your own genetic at going out of hospitals. He was utterly lost on all the comforts words you had given him throughout the years. He still couldn't say when was the exact time he had fallen so madly in love, but he was sure he couldn't stan a world without you.

Life only seemed to take him as a joke, because there you two were. He had let you sleep for more tha usual, even thought it was late on the afternoon. You were supposed to take a brief nap after being awake with him the whole night, crying and professing love words to each other. It has been like that for the past two weeks, since the day you gave him the fatal news. He almost lost conscious the moment he heard you saying that you were dying and there was no cure. He was mad at the time, mad because your quirk was supposed to save lives but it couldn't save yours. Right now, he couldn't feel anything but fear. Today was your last day. The day you told him, you had been really sick, he thought you would only dedrage from there, almost unable to talk on the last day. That way, it would have been less painful. But no, the destiny decided to give you vitality on your last times. The last week you had been more active than ever, even if you didn't go out, he had skipped work just to watch you wander around the shared apartment, singing, dancing, telling jokes, almost unaware of the fact that you were about to die. He tried his best to atone with you, but as stated previously, he can't remember the last time he had slept well.

Shouto was lost on thoughts, and it felt like an ice bucket being thrown on his face when he heard you giggling. There you were, his little angel, watching him from some centimeters apart. At the sight of your puffy eyes observing him, his heart pondered hard on his chest. He then held your hand. In your eyes, he was clearly dying of fear.

He intertwined your fingers, and his mind got him to thinking into your fragile form. How years and years of drugs on your body have made it be so tiny in comparison to his, how insecure you've felt the first time you two have had intimacy. Along with the years, Shouto stopped thinking that your quirk was one of a hero, and thought of it as a curse. You had nothing you could do to change your fate, and that was driving him crazy.

—Shouto —you called softly. In that instant, Shouto interpreted that as the worst case scenario, but then seeing you wear a smile made him let his breath out, which he doesn't know when he started containing—, you're spacing out.

—Sorry... —he mumbled, even softer than you. He then reached for your body with both hands, embracing you in a much needed hug, trying not to think about it as the last one. You answered nothing. Instead, tried to calm him down by tracing his column with your finger tips and massaging his hair softly. When you felt he had relaxed a bit, you tried to make a bit of space between both of you, you wanted to see his face. He didn't let you do so, he was too focused on carving your scent in his soul.

You sighed internally. You knew this was hard, and it probably was harder for him; but you had some things you wanted to prepare before reaching the final end. Some things for him.

It wasn't like you weren't afraid of dying. You had been, but not anymore. You had seen so many people dying, you had met so many people that has died, and you yourself knowing the nature of your quirk. At some point of your adolescence, you got to understand that death was something you should walk side by side, till the day she decided it was time to go.

What you didn't expect, was to fall in love. It wasn't in your plan to fall in love with a guy disposed to hold your hand even when you couldn't feel it. You didn't plan to be mad in love with someone who would not even change his expression one bit if you told him you couldn't move one inch and you had probably shit yourself, and instead tell you that it was nothing to be shy about and call a nurse. You didn't plan to fall in love with someone who had a radically different life from yours, but still shared the tears of your demons. It was out of the clue, but there you were, preparing your last note to your beloved one.

—Honey... —you tried calling again, in a low voice. You didn't intend to be cruel with him, but you didn't know how much time you had left. Even so, you were afraid of the numbness on your feet and the new cool feeling on your back.

Shouto tried to collect himself, as he had been trying for the past weeks, for you. He moved a bit back and looked his eyes on yours. He was at loss of words, his mind couldn't stop tormenting him with memories, instead of trying to appreciate those last times with you: —Sorry... —he then whispered.

—It's ok —you smiled, but weakly— there are still some things I want to prepare. Would you mind? —You knew you were probably being the worst girlfriend of the world, but you didn't dispose of its time to waste.

He minded. He seriously did, but he couldn't keep himself together to protest. He let you go, watching attentively how you vividly put your slippers on and walked to the loving room. After some seconds, he followed after you. Something at the back of his mind was yelling at him that he was being a bit over dramatic, but he couldn't help his heavy heart.

The living room of the apartment was linked to the kitchen, and there you were, preparing your favourite beverage; something to stimulate your mind to finish up al the letters you were writing to your friends, you would say to Shouto. In fact, you were writing just one final letter, one you planned to read to Shouto at the last moment. You were almost finished, the only thing that was missing was the confession of love, the most important part, you used to think.

Shouto sited uncomfortably on the couch, right next to one reclined chair you bought once to read books in "a perfect position" you said. He didn't even try to hide the fact that he was watching you. He didn't try to hide his distress, either. He was waiting for the worst to happen in any moment, not like he was prepared, but he didn't want to get catched by surprise.

As if his own negative feeling were calls for angels to come and take you, you sighed, exhausted. All the energy you gained on the last days was facked. You tried to make cheerful memories with Shouto, even if they would hurt him at the beginning, you confided that later he would feel nostalgic coming back to them. Your hands shacked as you stirred the liquid on the cup, your vision was getting blurry, it became difficult to breathe. All of the sudden, as if death entered crashing the window to the large apartment. Your legs felt like giving up, until they finally did. You kneeled on the floor while a rough rampage of cough invaded your throat. As if you'd even doubt it, Shouto was by your side in an instant. He carried you out of pure instincts. He had seen you before being weak on the knees, but he knew this would be the last. He laid you on the reclined chair, lowering his face near yours, taking one of your hand in his. He certainly was panicking, and for the first time, the little smile that you tried to emulate on your beauty lips didn't give him any comfort. Instead, he felt like tearing up seeing the tints of blood coming out your mouth. The disease that was killing you was one that disintegrated organs from inside, it was something new that your immune system developed specially for you.

You kept coughing, each time worst. Blood came out of your mouth, but you still tried to smile on the sake of Todoroki Shouto —It's pretty bad —you could mutter between interruptions.

—I love you —was the only thing that Shouto could process at the moment. He could feel his blood running inside him.

You finally stopped coughing, but it didn't do any better, it made you realise how fast you had loosen faculties on your body. You couldn't feel your legs anymore, and your head was spinning, unable to form any thought. You fixed your eyes on Shouto. You didn't hear what he said, not anymore between coughs. You could see the shock on his eyes, those pretty eyes. The memory of you once thinking that he may had some kind of royalty-like blood on him came to you: —I really like your eyes... —you muttered. You weren't sure what you were supposed to do anymore, nor that you could think about it in that state— But you probably don't want to hear about that right now.

Shouto let a sob out. Tears accumulated on his eyes, and he did nothing to stop them from falling: —I want to hear it. I want to hear everything about you —he protested—. Please, please, tell me, tell me your thoughts, your feels... please —he begged. The hold if his hand on yours tightened, while yours felt weaker and weaker.

You cupped his face with your free hand, tracing delicately the shape of his scar: —I really like your eyes... —you took a pause to breathe from your mouth— And your scar, you don't like it but I do —Shouto did nothing more than to put his hand above yours, crying at its coldness—. I feel cold... Ah, there was something I wanted to tell you, but I can't remember what... —you scrunched your eyebrows, trying to remember the important thing you wanted to tell him— I see you blurry, I'm sorry...

Shouto heard you, he heard every word, but he wasn't able to come up with an answer. He contained his breath when he saw strings of blood coming out your nose: —Don't be sorry, please... I love you, I always will. —he helplessly chocked out the words.

—Kiss me... —you commanded breathly. He did nothing more than to obey. He kissed you delicately and briefly, suffering at the absence of warm in almost every part of you: —Oh, I remembered... —you coughed once again, some sprinkles of blood reaching to shower Shouto's face— I love you, that was it... I'm really sorry.

Shouto cried inconsolably, the love of his life was parting apart in front of him; even if he knew that would happen, he was not prepared. He rushed to speak when the hand that was cupping his face fell unmoving: —I love you, I love you much more! —at this point, he was shouting.

Shouto let out a desperate sound when he saw your eyes slowly closing. You didn't try to fight against it, you couldn't. The fogg on your mind had disappeared, it was replaced with nothing. Your eyes fell shut, your hands didn't charge with more strength. Just like that, your lifeless body laid on that reclinable chair.

Shouto didn't try to contain his emotions. He was a mess, a complete mess. The sigh of him crying and shouting to your cadaver to come back, begging and pleading to all gods to give him you back. He let our your hand, and embraced your cold body. He kept shouting till his throat went raw, and even then he didn't stop calling for your name.

Who know how much passed, but Shoto kept crying for you. He kept himself there, holding your lifeless hand. He then started to think of the time no one talks about, the time that you have already cried your eyes out, but they're not coming back. The time that you're still sitting there right next to a body without an owner to respond. He wondered what he was supposed to do now. What would happen to him after you had been taken away physically. Who would hear him crying? Who would accompany him on the bed? Who would complain to him to eat less soba a week? Who could possibly fill the emptynes that your soul left behind?

#shouto todoroki #Todoroki #todoroki shouto #todoroki x reader #mha x reader #bnha x reader #shouto todoroki x reader #todoroki shouto x reader #shouto #mha #bnha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #my hero academia todoroki #my hero academia x reader #boku no hero academia x reader #my hero academia fanfiction #todoroki imagines #todoroki imagine

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peraltasames · 6 years

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mountains and valleys (and all that will come in between) - chapter one

Jake, Amy, and four distinct yet painfully similar times the universe pulled them apart and pushed them back together.

read on ao3

part one: undercover

When Jake leaves Amy standing outside the precinct, her mouth slightly agape and the air sucked out of her lungs, she doesn’t know when she’s going to see him again.

In a much darker realm of possibility that she doesn’t dare to explore for too long, she doesn’t know if she’s going to see him again.

She recalls in vivid horror the time that her old precinct, back when she was a beat cop, received word that one of their detectives was tortured and killed on an undercover operation scarily similar to the one Jake is embarking on. She hopes and prays that the detective the NYPD lost that day five years ago didn’t leave some unlucky man or woman with a confession of love and longing that they would never get the chance to act on.

She stands in place, her feet incapable of movement, for an indefinite amount of time. She isn’t sure if it’s five minutes or an hour that pass by - or, if she’s lucky, the entirety of the three to five months that the FBI estimates Jake’s mission to take - but eventually the wind picks up and a shiver runs up her spine. She feels her phone buzz in her pocket and wonders how long it’s been doing that, how long she’s been completely unaware her surroundings.

Teddy Wells

Hi, Amy. Are you still coming over? It’s unlike you to be late.

Teddy Wells

(2) Missed Calls

There are a million things she wants to do right now: run after Jake (though he’s long gone), scream, throw something breakable, drink an entire bottle of vodka, flee the country. Spending time with Teddy is low on the list. She isn’t obligated to - they haven’t been dating for that long and it’s perfectly okay for her to choose a night in without giving him a full explanation - but blowing off her boyfriend would mean that something has changed.

She can’t admit that she feels as though her entire world has been shifted on its axis. Not to herself. Definitely not to the man she is dating. And not to Jake, either, because he never gave her the damn chance to.

He disappeared like a wildfire that was suddenly extinguished, and she’s left to deal with the rubble.

According to the alarm clock next to her bed, which she must arch her body over Teddy’s sleeping form to read properly, it’s nearly three in the morning.

Precisely five hours after the time that Teddy insists they go to bed following their evening crossword, and she’s gotten - in total - about one hour of sleep.

It’s not Amy’s fault. She knows she has to be up in three hours for work and it’s going to be a busy day working as a secondary on Rosa’s homicide case. She knows she’s barely slept all week and her body is hating her for it.

She blames a part of her brain that she knows from AP bio but is too damn tired to recall for the images that appear every time she closes her eyes.

Jake, laughing in the passenger seat of her squad car about the imaginary backstory he’s invented for one of his undercover personas.

Jake, biting his lip and absentmindedly running his hand through messy hair as he stares pensively at a case file, the gears in his mind turning wildly.

Jake, standing in front of her eight days ago and saying “I kinda wish something could happen between us...romantic-stylez”.

The ethical complications of thinking such thoughts about another man while in bed next to her sleeping boyfriend clog her mind, making it even harder to rest.

She trudges to the kitchen, surrendering to her losing battle with sleep. Her socked feet tip-toe on the hardwood floor to avoid any creaking sounds that may wake Teddy.

It isn’t until she raises a glass of water to her lips that she notices her hands are shaking. Her entire body is shaking, actually, which is one of the first indicators of an oncoming panic attack. She tries to breathe slowly, close her eyes and count to ten, like she’s been instructed to. It works some of the time.

“C’mon, Amy,” she mumbles to herself, shutting her eyes even tighter as she feels tears threaten to escape. “Get it together.”

I know you’re with Teddy, and I know it’s going really well.

She shakes her head, slamming her glass down on the counter a bit too loudly. “Stop thinking about it,” she says aloud, willing Jake’s voice in her head to just disappear.

I don't know what's gonna happen on this assignment, and if something bad goes down, I think I'd be pissed at myself if I didn't say this.

Her fingernails dig into her palms as she tries to ground herself to reality. She’s worried that these thoughts and emotions are going to eat her alive.

“Fuck,” she blurts out, her hand coming to cover her mouth the moment she blurts out the word. The Santiagos conditioned their children not to curse at a young age through loss of before-bed reading time, and it’s stuck with her through to adulthood. She rarely swears, and only does so in situations that demand such a word to be spoken. But, damn, if this doesn’t fit the bill, what does?

I kinda wish something could happen, between us, romantic styles.

In the darkness of her kitchen, with not a soul there to hear her, she whispers:

“So do I.”

It takes another five days for Amy to confide in someone. She’s not thinking about Jake - one of the rare moments of the past two weeks that her thoughts manage to travel elsewhere - as she sits on Teddy’s living room sofa, reading one of her favourite crime novels while he flips through the channels.

“Do you want to watch this one?”

She’s too engrossed in her novel, which is steadily climbing towards the big climax she’s read a dozen times but never tires of, to look up from its pages.

“Whatever you want, I’m not really watching,” she mumbles, hastily turning the page.

Teddy murmurs words of agreement and selects whatever title he was pondering, and it takes about twenty seconds for Amy to recognize the dialogue.

“You throw quite a party. I didn’t realize they celebrated Christmas in Japan.”

Before she looks up at the screen, she’s briefly transported to several distinct memories of the past few years: Jake’s couch four months ago, a half-eaten pizza and two cans of orange soda in front of them, watching this very movie; a year before that, viewing it (along with the sequel) at Charles’ place during Jake’s surprise birthday party; her first year at the Nine-Nine, sitting in the break room with a shitty laptop on the table playing the film while Captain McGintley took his afternoon nap, despite Amy’s better judgement.

“Everything okay?”

Amy glances down at the book, which she unknowingly dropped in her lap as her eyes fixed on Bruce Willis shooting a gun on Teddy’s television. She realizes with a sharp pain in her chest that this is the first time in years that she’s watched this movie without Jake present.

“Do you not like Die Hard? We can watch something else-“

“No,” she interrupts, shaking her head. “I mean, no, I don’t like Die Hard, but...that’s not what’s bothering me.”

Teddy furrows his eyebrows and turns off the television, twisting his body to face her and, perhaps, to figure out what she’s thinking.

“There’s a reason I’ve been kind of weird the past couple of weeks.”

He prompts her to continue with a slow nod. It certainly has not gone unnoticed the way she’s flinched away from so many of his touches, declined his advances in the bedroom every evening, stared into space for most of their dinners together.

“You know how Peralta got fired?”

Teddy nods again, somewhat more apprehensively. Jake’s been a source of tension for them before, from their first date after Tactical Village Day when Teddy questioned if they had some sort of romantic history and Amy rambled incessantly about how he’s her coworker and she would never date him rather than giving a simple and far less suspicious “no.”

“You can’t tell anyone this, but he had to get fired so he could go on an undercover mission with the FBI. And before he left, he, um...” She swallows the lump in her throat, which now feels incredibly dry. “He told me he had feelings for me.”

Teddy’s eyes widen, and he discards the blanket previously draped over his lap.

“Well, you told him it’s never gonna happen, right?” he asks quickly, anger building in his voice.

“I didn’t really get the chance, he kinda just dropped the bomb and walked away and we can’t have any contact-“

“Do you have feelings for him?”

The right answer to that question isn’t immediately evident to Amy - a “no” would be a blatant lie, but “yes” would immediately terminate a relationship that she isn’t sure she’s ready to see the end of. Teddy is the perfect man on paper, the kind of man that her father would probably approve of upon their first introduction. He’s a good cop, just like Jake, but his approach to detective work is methodical and precise and completely unlike the frantic (brilliant) energy of Jake solving a case nobody else, even Amy herself, could solve. She feels comfortable with him, she feels safe, but she’s wondered from time to time if it’s a little too safe. It’s only logical - there’s no way he can break her heart if he never really has it in the first place.

Regardless of her intentions, she gathers from Teddy’s disappointed glare that the right answer is probably not complete silence.

“I think I-I’m confused.”

Teddy pauses, his ears reddening like he’s gearing up for an argument, but instead lets out a heavy sigh and nods his head. “Okay. I guess you should probably-“

“Go home and take some time to think,” Amy finishes.

“I was going to say we should talk about this, but…if that’s what you need.”

Amy looks at him apologetically and presses a quick peck to his cheek before standing to gather her things.

“I’ll call you on the weekend,” she calls out to him before shutting his front door behind her, scurrying downstairs and to the nearest bodega to buy a pack of cigarettes.

The next three months bring longer days and warmer weather to New York. Summer means the precinct is at a more acceptable temperature for Amy’s eternally-cold skin, it means the majority of her colleagues are cashing in their time off and she has more casework to keep herself busy, and this year it means long nights hiding at work to avoid her boyfriend who is still, somehow, her boyfriend despite her weeks of confusion and claiming she felt they were “out of sync.”

Really, the confusion is far from resolved. It definitely won’t be until Jake is back and she can at least speak to him about everything, but it’s become increasingly unclear when that will be as the three-month park passes and they still have little to no information on the status of his case.

It’s a particularly hot June afternoon, shortly before the end of her shift and the beginning of the weekend. She’s heading to New Jersey tomorrow morning (it’s no coincidence that she’s visiting her parents so much more frequently these past few months - Jersey is a Teddy-free zone, and therefore a hard-to-answer-question-free zone) and wrapping up the last of a string of open-and-shut B&Es.

Her head jolts up from her desk when she hears the sound of the captain exiting his office, the familiar clacking of his shoes on the tile floor a sound that she’s taught herself to respond to with alertness.

“Jeffords, Santiago, Boyle and Diaz, can I see you all for a moment?”

She’s up at her feet in an instant, the first to enter the captain’s office as the others follow behind her. Rosa’s the last to walk in, and Holt closes the door immediately behind her.

“What’s going on, sir?” Terry asks, crossing his arms.

“A friend of mine at the FBI has given me some insight into Peralta’s case that I felt I should share with all of you,” Holt explains, moving to stand behind his desk.

She can’t gage from his expression whether the news is that he’s coming home or that he’s dead or something else entirely, but her knees go weak nonetheless and she grabs onto the back of a chair as subtilely as possible.

“What is it?” Charles asks quickly with wide eyes. “Is Jake okay?”

“He’s alive,” Holt says quickly, and Amy’s world stops spinning long enough that she’s able to nod in understanding and stand a little straighter. “The case is going well, and there is a chance that they’re getting close to being able to set up a sting. Unfortunately, the closer that Peralta gets to the Ianucci family, the more their enemies become his. He hasn’t sustained any major injuries, but the danger of the case has grown exponentially…”

Amy watches Holt’s lips move for another minute or two, but the rest of the words fade out into a dull humming sound in her ears. She wants to collapse to the floor or run to the bathroom and throw up, but her feet are glued to the floor.

“Santiago, are you alright?”

It’s not the first time the voice of her commanding officer is the only thing to snap her out of a heavy trance. She looks up at Holt and realizes that he’s done his spiel and his eyes, along with everyone else in the room’s, are fixed on her.

“I’m fine, sir,” she says, supporting her statement with a contender for the most obviously fake smile in history. “I’m sorry, will you excuse me? I think I’m getting a-a call-“

With a small nod of approval from Captain Holt, she’s pushing past Rosa towards the exit and running to the roof. She needs air. She needs nicotine. She needs, and this one is by far the most pressing, to see Jake Peralta healthy and alive.

A dark corner at Shaw’s and several bottles of beer, Amy quickly realizes, is the best and only available antidote for the day she’s had. No Teddy, no smalltalk with coworkers, nothing but the numbing effect of the alcohol on her tired brain.

She hasn’t spent much time here over the past few months. It turns out there are a lot of places that feel just a little bit wrong without Jake around. Some are unavoidable - work, for instance, and the little deli across the street that they both love. Others, she avoids at all cost - the bar, his neighbourhood, that one apartment building on Barton Street where they conducted a stakeout many months ago on the worst (yet somehow, best) date of her life.

“What’s up with you?”

She looks up from anxiously picking at the wrapper of her bottle at her fellow detective and - sometimes, Amy thinks - friend.

“Oh, hey Rosa,” Amy says quickly, already raising her guard. “Um, nothing’s up with me. What’s up with you?”

She sighs as Rosa gives her the look that she knows by now to mean that she is not having any of her bullshit and subsequently slides into the seat across from her.

“Fine,” Amy mumbles after a few moments of Rosa’s hard stare. She’s a little drunk and feeling a lot of emotions, so she settles on the one that’s the easiest to express right now - anger. “I’m mad at him.”

Rosa narrows her eyes. “Teddy?”

Amy shakes her head incredulously. She supposes it’s the natural assumption, him being her boyfriend and all, but she’s never mad at Teddy. He doesn’t do anything wrong. Even if he did, she doubts he could ever make her feel as mad as she does right now.

“Peralta,” Amy clarifies, not helping the look of confusion on Rosa’s face. “He’s…the worst. I’m pissed at him.”

“For what? He’s been gone for months.”

Amy laughs, taking a long swig of her beer until its contents are completely drained. She imagines she looks like a crazy person as she slams the bottle on the table and continues laughing.

“That’s the problem, Diaz. He left for months, right after he-” She hiccups from the recent chugging of her beverage. “He told me he likes me. Like, likes me likes me. For realz, romantic-stylez, likes me. Jake Peralta.”

Rosa eyebrows raise a little bit, but there is no gasp of shock that follows Amy’s confession. After a moment, she simply nods.

“Hold up,” Amy mumbles, her hands gripping the table as she begins to feel slightly dizzy. “Did you know? Did he tell you?”

“No, Jake and I don’t talk about that crap,” Rosa asserts quickly. “But…I suspected it for a while. I think everyone kinda did.”

Amy lets out a sigh of exasperation, suddenly feeling like the worst detective on Earth. Has he really liked her for a while? Potentially before she embarked on her current relationship, satisfactory yet completely dull in comparison to the excitement of bickering with Jake while on a case?

“He just left and now he could get hurt or-or die and he didn’t even give me the chance to respond,” she whines, burying her face in her hands as her hair falls like a curtain around her head. “What a complete ass.”

“So you like him back, huh?”

Amy hurriedly brushes the hair out of her face to look the other woman in the eye.

“I never said that,” she snaps, once again reverting to the defensive. “I-he’s Jake, I wouldn’t-I mean, maybe, but I’m still with Teddy and I’m just confused, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I just don’t want him to die. That doesn’t mean I like him.”

“Okay.”

“It would be nice to get the chance to figure it out, though. With him here.”

“I know.”

“And…I don’t want to lose him.”

Rosa’s eyes soften a little this time, though her tone remains steady: “You won’t.”

Amy holds her coworker’s - no, they’re definitely friends - gaze, nodding slowly. Rosa’s right about pretty much everything. She hopes this is no exception.

“I need another drink.”

“I don’t think so, Santiago,” Rosa stands and blocks her path back to the bar. “C’mon, I’ll take you home. I haven’t had anything to drink yet.”

A few minutes later, in the passenger seat of Rosa’s car, Amy opens her eyes for the first time since they left the Shaw’s parking lot and turns her head to face Rosa as she focuses on driving.

“Do you think me and Jake - uh, romantic-stylez - would be bad idea?”

Rosa pauses and glances over briefly. “I don’t think you’re gonna remember this tomorrow.”

Amy just curls in on herself and gives into her drunken desire to zone out and stare out the window at the passing city lights.

“But no,” Rosa mutters faintly just before Amy passes out. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea.”

Amy doesn’t get much warning that he’s coming back. There’s been whispers among their detective squad, but no real confirmation that this would be unlike the many other times they were close to a sting but couldn’t quite pull it off.

She has the weekend off, and Sunday evening she gets a text from Rosa:

Jake’s back. They got most of the Ianuccis yesterday - busted at a family wedding. He’ll be at work tomorrow.

She’s beyond grateful for the heads up, because she has at least twelve hours to compose herself before she’s face-to-face with him for the first time in six months..

On one hand, she’s entirely unprepared to see him. On the other, she’s tempted to drive to his apartment right now and kiss him harder than she’s ever kissed anyone.

The more rational part of Amy, the part that is still in a relationship with a reasonable man for a woman approaching her thirties to be dating, wins this one.

She barely sleeps the night before he returns, her mind drafting a dozen options for what she may say to him when they reunite. Some are more dramatic or cliche than others, many would morally require her to break up with Teddy first. All of them end with some acknowledgement of her feelings, but none end up leaving her mouth when the time comes.

They’re in the evidence lockup, alone in a room together for the first time in so long - it felt like an eternity for her, at least - and she just can’t say it. Not like this, not now, not yet.

“I’m still with Teddy. Romantic-stylez.”

The hurt, slightly surprised look on Jake’s face - which she has been subconsciously re-memorizing since the moment he stepped off the elevator - makes her regret the choice instantly, but the real sweeping blow to her heart comes when he takes back his confession a moment later.

Later that day - somewhere between the clinking of glasses, Jake respectfully informing her that he does indeed still have feelings for her but understands that she’s still with Teddy, and a quiet walk alone to the subway after she decides she needs some air - Amy back to square one in terms of the confusion as to where her heart lies.

She arrives at Teddy’s at their agreed upon time and lets herself in, taking her boots off and placing them in the orderly line of his shoes on the rack by the door.

“In the kitchen, Amy!”

The sight before her in his large, well-lit kitchen with marble countertops is nothing new. She can estimate immediately that he’s about halfway through his Pilsner-brewing process, which he’s recently become quite obsessed with. Simply through frequent observation, she’s pretty sure she could make Pilsners in her sleep at this point.

“How was work today?” Teddy asks without looking up from the stove. “I heard Peralta’s back from his big, fancy FBI operation.”

The ignores the condescending tone and obvious jealousy, taking a seat at one of the stools and dropping her purse.

“It was fine.”

“Did you finally tell him nothing’s gonna happen between you two?”

Amy nods slowly, staring at her hands in her lap, and then realizes he still isn’t facing her. “Yeah. I told him.”

Teddy adjusts the burner on the stove and turns to her with a wide smile that fades the moment they make eye contact.

“What’s wrong?” he demands, brows furrowed. “Did he give you a hard time? If he’s being a jerk-“

“No.” God, she wishes he was a jerk. It would be so, so much easier if he was an entitled asshole. “No, he was perfectly respectful. I’m not upset, just-”

“Confused?”

Teddy repeats her choice of words from months ago - a word that is still haunting her - and she wants so badly to lie and shake her head and pretend that everything is fine and there’s nothing to be worried about. She can’t do that in good conscience, but she figures she can keep dating Teddy and see where that relationship takes her as long as she’s at least relatively honest with him.

“Yeah,” she confirms. “So, what flavour is this batch?”

She can see it in his eyes that Teddy isn’t happy with her answer, but at least she knows that she told him (part of) the truth as she sits back and listens to him talk about yeast and fermentation for the next forty minutes.

What she doesn’t admit to him, nor to herself quite yet, is that their relationship has been a ticking time bomb from the moment Jake flagged her down outside the precinct six months ago. Whether she likes it or not, it’s only a matter of time before it explodes and destroys everything in its reach.

Destruction isn’t always the worst thing, though. Not when it’s making room for something new and, if she’s lucky, something beautiful.

#otp: you're not allowed to fall in love with me #b99 fic #peraltiago #let me know what y'all think!!#part 2 should be up pretty soon #and will contain much more actual jake/amy and not just amy thinking about him bc they'll be dating lmao #title from another greatest showman song bc of course it is!#myfics

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ko-fanatic · 6 years

Text

Colours: Purple

Rating: Teen and up

Fandom: Ouran High School Host Club

Relationships: Tamaki & Kyoya, Kaoru & Kyoya, Tachibana & Kyoya

Trigger Warnings: Depression, suicidal thoughts, panic attack

Summary: He stared at Kaoru's purple waistcoat, trying to dissociate himself from these feelings. It didn't work. Purple was a colour, and it all seemed to have bled out over the past God-knows-how-long.

Other fanfics in this series: Grey / Blue / Yellow / Green

Things were never perfect for him, of course, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that he crashed the next day; spirit in a bloodied, crumpled mess that was starting to rot. That basically summed up how he felt in that moment. He was less dizzy, managing to eat more of his dinner than he had in weeks, but he just felt nauseous and slow. Just… tired.

Those thoughts were pesky also, refusing to leave him alone. They were violent, intrusive, and left him shaky and… scared. What if he actually did something? He had painkillers and sleeping pills in his ensuite, there was strong rope in the garden shed, he had a million and one leather belts. Even Hotta shaved with a fucking straight razor, which would be more than easy to take to his arms or throat.

This was messed up. He was messed up, and he didn’t understand because he shouldn’t want to die. It didn’t make sense. He wasn’t happy, but life was good.

He was failing his classes, becoming a smear of dirt on the Ootori name.

But it was fine! He’d get better, he’d drag his grades out of the gutter, and he’d ask if he could redo any work that did go towards his final grade; it was still fixable. Besides, it wasn’t like a couple of bad grades were enough to commit suicide over. You get one life, and then it’s whatever lies after – if anything does.

Briefly, he remembers when he was a child and he put on his choir uniform every Sunday, believed in God and heaven and ran fast enough so the devil couldn’t catch him. It’s not like his father was religious, more that it was something that his British grandmother did. It was simply a tradition, and grandmother was the nice one, not like his grandfather; his father always looked so… scared around the man. Well, as scared as he ever looked, he supposed. But he digressed, this wasn’t a discussion on parental failings, it was deciding whether suicide was even worth it.

He was a burden. That was a good reason.

Japan’s attitude towards suicide had a certain duality; it was taboo, and frowned upon, unless the person recognised they were a burden. Then, it was seen as the right thing to do. Granted, it was an extremely old attitude to have, times changed, but… He was a burden. He was nothing but a child his mother and father had conceived by accident, and someone without a place. You could argue he had one in the host club, but… Not anymore. He didn’t do anything. He… He was nothing but a burden, with this thing in his head.

Maybe before that, too. Maybe he always was one. In that case… Maybe…

He wandered through the school day in silence, pondering his usefulness and, essentially… Whether he deserved to live. It wasn’t like he was truly living, anyway; he felt pretty dead inside. Nothing but a hollow shell with a quiet voice and a forced, absent smile. It’d be like… deleting an unwanted file on his laptop; no one mourned it, after all.

Maybe he was oversimplifying this. After all, it’s not as if he should commit suicide, because he shouldn’t take it so lightly. If he made it that impersonal, then he was actually going to do it. He was going to kill himself. That’s it, game over. It wasn’t like he believed in the bible anymore, but it certainly wouldn’t be heaven waiting on the other side.

“Hey,” A heavy hand came down on his shoulder and he practically jumped out of his skin, the room swaying for a second before the three Tamaki’s in front of him merged into one once more. Some minor dehydration, malnutrition, that was all, “You look tired, and I can tell you haven’t been focussing today… Go take a nap in the back.”

And thus, he was sent away. A childish thought to have, but it just kept jabbing at him. After all, he thought that he, Kuze and Kanan got along like a house on fire until they both up and left him; their parting gift the realisation that he had no real friends, and that he was swimming with leeches. In a cruel twist of irony, now he was the leech among the swimmers.

It’s depressingly hilarious how life turns out sometimes.

He stood, feet unsteady for half a second until he digs his heels in, forcing himself to move towards the back room and the plush couch within.

“Oh, and Kyoya,” Tamaki calls at his back, and he turns around like the obedient little love-struck puppy he used to be – and, sometimes, still is, “You know… You can tell me if anything’s wrong. You’re just… You’re so pale, and thin… Well, even more so than you usually are. You’d tell me if… If…”

If you were dying.

The words hang in the air, almost physically tangible, and Kyoya has to consider his answer. Is he dying? The answer Tamaki wants to hear is no… Or is it? No, Tamaki wants him alive. Tamaki loves him, even if it’s not like that. Tamaki would never want him dead. However… The answer is looking more and more like a yes as the hours tick passed, and he doesn’t want to lie. He’s sick of lying.

“Come on, spit it out,” He says instead, and Tamaki looks like a fish with the way his mouth is opening and closing, until Kyoya gets his desired outcome for the first time in what feels like forever.

“Nothing… Nevermind,” Tamaki waved away, visibly deflated. Despite the nagging guilt Kyoya felt… relieved. You could say that he dodged the proverbial bullet, but it feels more apt to say he side-stepped straight into its path.

He just went to the back room, painfully obedient, and dropped down onto the spare sofa that resided there. It was still good, but there was a small tear in the seam that needed to be stitched up; the slightest flaw relegating it to be hidden away. Wasn’t that a cheery observation to overthink completely?

He more fell to the side than anything else, eyes closing and still despite the sloppy sprawl he was currently laying in. He didn’t even move to loosen his tie. He just wanted to sleep, really. If he was asleep, then he wasn’t overthinking every little thing…

He didn’t know how long it’d been when he heard the door creak open, groggily blinking his eyes open once more to be faced with Kaoru, a look of worry etched on the redhead’s features. There was a pause when their eyes met, something tangible but indistinguishable in the air. Really, he just wanted to go back to sleep, but there was something in the way Kaoru shifted his weight from foot to foot; something awkward, which meant this was probably important. Besides, he liked Kaoru’s company; it just so happened that there wasn’t much to be had recently.

Breaking the near-trance, Kaoru walked over and perched on the edge of the sofa, right next to Kyoya. He bit his lip, and Kyoya was nothing but patient in waiting for the opening statement – both out of politeness and procrastination. He didn’t really want to talk about anything heavy, not now, but he would. Kyoya Ootori, despite what seemed to be popular opinion, was not selfish.

“So…” Kaoru began, voice soft and tentative, “I just wanted to apologise. I guess I’ve kinda been avoiding you lately? Not on purpose, but yeah… I shouldn’t have done that. You’re sick, and I was just being selfish; it’s disturbing and upsetting to see you like this.”

Kyoya just blinked up at him, groggy mind fumbling as he tried to process the feelings of hurt, rejection, and general confusion at the fact he hadn’t even realised. Still, there was gratefulness. Gratefulness that, if Kaoru was apologising, then they could spend more time together. Tamaki might’ve been his best friend, but there was just something about Kaoru that made him feel… warm. Like he was laying somewhere quiet, intimate, the sun shining on his face and lush grass against his skin.

“Can you… say something?” Kaoru prompted, laughing nervously, “You’re a good friend, Kyoya; I don’t want to lose you because I did something stupid.”

“It’s fine,” He answered, too faint but immediate, “I… I have been sick, for a while now. I don’t know if I’ll be well again. It feels like I’ll never get better. It feels like it’s been years, but they passed by in a few hours. I’m a mess right now.”

That was another thing, telling the truth. More than that, spilling his guts. His tongue was looser, his mask thinner, and he felt afraid but not at the same time. It wasn’t the full truth, not the admission of what said sickness was; no mention of depression. It was three words; Kaoru, I’m depressed. But he couldn’t say it. He couldn’t be a useless Menhera, like her. He was too much like his mother to begin with, he didn’t need to hear that as well. He just stared at the waistcoat Kaoru was wearing, a lovely, rich purple, and tried to dissociate from those feelings.

“Then I’ll be here for you… We all are, y’know,” Kaoru breathed, hand raking through Kyoya’s hair, “Jeez… When was the last time you took a shower? Your hair’s greasy, but it’s like you just dumped a load of dry shampoo in it…”

“I’ve been too tired,” He sighed, cheeks burning as he screwed his eyes shut, “I can barely brush my teeth sometimes… My homework’s incomplete, late, and just plain awful. I don’t know how to get the motivation for anything I used to do… It’s pathetic.”

“No… You’re sick, I… I was rude,” Kaoru sighed, hand still stroking through his disgusting hair, “It’s not healthy, you should at least try and take care of yourself, but I get it. You’re always falling asleep, so I guess it makes sense.”

Yuuichi worked himself to the point of fainting, Akito had a temper, Fuyumi was a doormat, his father was too stern and too close to giving up, and his mother was sick. What was going to be his fate? Was he going to be miserable when he grew up?

He was. He had no right to be, but he’d fallen, and that diamond mask turned out to be nothing but glass, shattering and cutting him to ribbons in the process. No one ever saw the scars, both metaphorical and real, because he didn’t let them. Kyoya Ootori was strong. He wasn’t little Kyo-chan anymore, who cried because he didn’t have any real friends.

He was Ootori-san. He overworked himself until dizzy, got angry over stupid – reasonable – things, was wrapped around Tamaki’s little finger, too stern and commanding of his friends…

And he was going to kill himself.

The realisation made it hard to breathe, but he didn’t let on. He pulled together what shreds of his mask remained and acted the part of himself once more. It wasn’t completely convincing, not by his own standards, but it was passible, and he found that he didn’t care so much about perfection anymore.

“Maybe you should get back to the club, the girls will surely miss you,” He suggested, closing his eyes once more and placing his head back on the under-stuffed cushion. He focussed on his breathing, feeling as if he was submerged underwater as he tried to keep it slow. As Akito said, all those years ago, they had to be normal to counterbalance it all. Besides… He didn’t want Kaoru to see him like that. To see the blood pouring from him along with the colour.

“Right…” Kaoru breathes out, unsure but with a taint of relief, and the hand leaves his hair. The pressure at his side elevates, he has more room to not breathe, and he hears footsteps, “See you, Senpai; I’m here if you need me.”

With that, the door closes, and he can’t remember when it was ever truly open to him. He just lets himself breakdown, breaths too fast and too shallow, the oxygen refusing to enter his lungs. He’s choking on air, like he did as a child, feeling like the walls of the small room are closing in and crushing him. Really, it’s realisation. The realisation that he has power over his own life; successes and failures, but also its span.

He could die right now, if he wanted to. Some part of him does.

Tears that are clear – still not blue – and salty ran down from his eyes, and he bit on his hand to try and muffle his hyperventilated sobbing. It was alright, he was safe, he was fine; but he wasn’t. He did this to himself, and that was a crushing thought. He had the power to die just as he had the power to live, but he couldn’t do that to his friends; he couldn’t leave them alone.

Because isn’t that how this started, being left alone?

Of course, he had to go home eventually. All he could really do was try to hide his face as he bolted from the room, down to the car and all but fell into the back seat. It was completely without grace, but who really cared? The act was unusual, would be questioned tomorrow, but he didn’t want them to see that he’d been crying. Irrational, but it felt like he had to. Like if he ran, he’d be safe, when in reality it was different; all it did was make his head spin.

“Master Kyoya?” Tachibana questioned, peering at him through the rear-view mirror. He didn’t raise his head, keeping his gaze aimed at the floor, silent as to not let his voice give it all away. True to form, after a few moments of silence, he heard the rustle of Tachibana’s usual newspaper as he folded it and placed it on the front seat. The car started, and that was that, no instruction needed.

After all, why would Tachibana need instruction? The man was more of a father to him than his own was, after all; nuances were all he needed. He was a good man, and one of the things that kept Kyoya rooted to this life like an anchor; something he was both grateful and frustrated with him for. If he could leave, waltz out the door into… anything else, he would. However, there was Tachibana, Hotta and Aijima there at the door, stopping him without even realising it.

“Kyoya?”

That second inquiry, barely able to be heard over the rumble of the engine, was enough to get him to at least look up a little. Any other time, he’d tell Tachibana to keep his eyes on the road, but right now… He could barely form the words.

“Are you alright? You’re shaking…” Tachibana observed, their eyes meeting in the reflection. There was concern, and a little fear, and a small half-sob managed to escape him, “You’ve been crying…”

“I’m sorry,” He murmured, so small and scared, “I… I’m not alright. I don’t think I’ll ever b-be alright. I… I’m breaking, I… Bana…”

He was so close to breaking down, so close to sobbing his heart out once more, despite the pounding in his head. Crying hurt, talking hurt, living hurt. It was all pain after pain, and he had to question what it was all for. He had no will and no motivation, he was nothing but an empty shadow drifting through his life, and it was all so distant to him. Why try? Why should he keep floundering when all he wanted to do was let himself drown, too tired of fighting the current pulling him down?

“Hang on,” Tachibana intoned so gently, pulling the car over to the side of the road and parking up. The door opened, pushed closed without much force, as if the noise would just shatter him more than he already was. Tachibana could see the blood, could see the wounds, and it was all laid painfully bare.

His own door opened, and a strong hand rested on his bony shoulder, concern coming off his dear bodyguard in waves. “Please, Kyoya… Tell me what’s wrong. Why are you crying?” He murmured, and Kyoya just gave an awfully wet, ugly sniffle in response. It was just them, gentle circles rubbed along his shoulder in an effort to soothe him, and the truth just… spilled.

“I want to die,” He stated, thick and frenzied and so horribly truthful, “I want to die, I’ve had enough, I want to just stop breathing… I-I can’t handle it, Bana. I can’t do it anymore. I want to die… I… Help me… Help…”

Tachibana’s strong arms wrapped around him, pulling him into a desperation-tainted hug, and it was like he was a little boy again. Back when he sobbed because he fell off the swings and scrapped up his hands, not because he wanted to commit suicide. Back before he knew a person could want to die, before his mother got really bad.

“You’re alright… You’re here… Breathe, Kyo, breathe…” The older man repeated, over and over, like he was reciting a mantra. He swore he could hear the other man crying, and that guilt lodged itself in his chest again, and he thought he’d die right then and there.

Because he wasn’t alright. Kyoya Ootori had never been alright.

#ouran high school host club #ohshc #kyoya ootori #tamaki suoh #kaoru hitachiin #my fanfiction #original #colours series #technicolour mental state series

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jess-the-vampire · 7 years

Text

Bedtime Stories

Tom snuggled in his covers, tossing and turning inside his dark bedroom. The child held his stuffed rabbit close to his chest and rolled around some more, which proved to be a mistake at the tiny horns poking out hurt a little and forced him back onto his back and to stare at the ceiling. Tom begged his parents to give him his own bedroom, his own bed. he could handle it, he told them, but here he was a few days in and he couldn't sleep. He already missed his crib and sleeping next to his parents, the last few nights he had nightmares. Imagine, a demon, having nightmares! The Lava fountain served as a nice nightlight, but it wasn't enough to make him feel better. He shouldn't be scared, he was the boogeyman, everything was supposed to be scared of him, not vice versa. But tales of Evil Stumps, and monsters that came in the night to eat little demon children always made him nervous, and so did all the people out there that his father told him were bad and wanted to hurt him. Tom was sure his father had something in the room to make sure nothing could attack Tom, but that didn't seem to make Tom feel safe regardless. His father said it was ok if he wasn't ready for his own room yet, but Tom insisted. He wanted his own place to keep his toys, he wanted a place for himself, he wanted a soft bed like his parents had, he wanted a place so he didn't feel like a baby anymore.

He pulled the covers over him mouth and winced, was it took late to back out? He hadn't slept well the last few nights and he took naps in the daytime as a result, could he just live the rest of his life surviving on naps? Tom held his bunny tighter and decided he had to make a choice. Either hold tight and make it through the night, or chicken out. Tom chickened out. Using his fire to leap himself off the bed so nothing under it could grab him, he practically darted up the steps and out of his room to enter his parent's nearby. They were both fast asleep as the tiny boy opened the large door and closed it behind him. Tom felt tears coming on and his ears sagged, but he still quietly used his fire powers to lift himself weakly onto the top of the bed and crawled over to his father. "Dad..Dad?",Tom shook his sleeping father until the man grumpily woke up and yawned, "What...Tom? Why are you still up? You're supposed to be in bed.". Tom cuddled his stuffed animal, he almost looked as if he were about to cry , "I can't sleep in there, It scares me...can I stay with you and Mommy?". Dave sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Ok, just for tonight Thomas.....". He opened his arms and let Tom crawl inside them and cling to him before lying himself back down, "We'll talk more about this tomorrow, ok?". Tom nodded, smiling, and snuggled himself to sleep. - It was only supposed to be for one night, but it became a routine, Tom always wandering into his parent's room to sleep next to them. Tom stopped even waking his father up since he already knew his father would be fine with it and he was expecting to see Tom next to him in the mornings anyway. It had been lasting for almost a month, Tom's new room, untouched. Dave didn't mind, Tom would grow into his room when he was ready, but part of him felt like he should help Tom feel safe sleeping in his own room. As much as he, and even Wrathmelior, liked having Tom next to them, they needed to help fix the problem instead of continuing to let it happen. Tom had his tantrums, and his powers could destroy anything in their wake if Tom got out of control, the boy was enough of a handle for his parents. Tom's been dreaming of his own room for ages and now he was too scared to even enter anymore, they couldn't just ignore that. Dave bit his lip, watching his son eat his food at the dinner table, it was almost bittersweet to him. He loved holding his son in his arms, it made him feel safe and reassured his own anxieties about Tom being out of his sight, but Tom couldn't be his little boy forever....he needed to grow without them sometime. "Tom? Is it ok if we ask you why your room is scaring you?", he said quickly, making the small boy look up from his creamed corn with a surprised expression. His ears dropped and he grumbled to himself, "It's just...dark, and creepy...and I have nightmares...". "But Tom, you live in the underworld, dark and creepy stuff never used to freak you out before. Are you worried something is going to hurt you?", Tom didn't say much, playing with his fingers, "Thomas, we promise we won't ever let anyone hurt you as long as we live...". "But what if a monster pops in?!", Tom argued, "What if they pop in a-and you can't hear them and stuff!". Even the queen looked worried as Dave tried to reassure Tom, "Tom, it's ok to be scared, this is a whole new experience for you. You can sleep next to us as long as you need, but you can't stay there forever and if there's anything we can do to make sleeping in your own room easier....". Tom shrugged, "I don't want to go back in there...I-I can't sleep, I have nightmares......nightmares where you guys get hurt and I get hurt..a-an....". Dave reached over the table and held Tom's shoulder, "How long have you been having them?". The small boy shrugged, "I haven't slept good once since I got a room....". His parents exchanged looks and Dave thought for a moment, "Tom do you really want to have your own room?". Tom seemed to ponder over his question for a while, "I dunno.....", Dave got out of his chair to get down to Tom's height right next to him, "What If me and your mom could make your room less scary and help you stop having nightmares? Would you like that?". Tom didn't say anything for a little while before nodding and his father smiled, "We love having you sleep next us Tom, but we're concerned at seeing you be so scared of being hurt in your new bedroom, especially when it's something we know you really wanted. You should be able to have your own room and feel safe...". Tom mumbled, "But you always tell me how people and monsters are dangerous, that people will hurt me, what about the Stump?" Dave ruffled the boy's hair, "Ok, tonight we'll figure out a way to help you sleep, and then we'll find out something that will keep the bad people out. Is that ok?". Tom played with his fingers and nodded, Dave kissed his son's forehead, "We want to help Tom, you should be allowed to feel safe at your home and in your own room." Tom mumbled, "If you can't....can I still stay with you?". Dave though for a moment, and stood up, "Yeah, of course you can Tom.....We're gonna do anything we can, but if all fails you are perfectly allowed to stay with us until you're ready..". Tom smiled, "Ok....". - I took alot to convince Tom to at least sit on his bed again, but Dave managed, letting Tom hold his hand tightly so he felt more comfortable. Wrathmelior had just barely managed to squeeze herself in after she teleported and she was sure the likelihood of coming back in was reduced. Dave and her weren't exactly the best parents, so where to start was still across their mind. Wrathmelior never had been afraid of her room as a kid but Dave could faintly remember times he'd feared monster attacks in the past, although granted his parents didn't do much to help the paranoia. Tom seemed to feel a little more eased with their presence, the king himself scanned around to see if there was anything that might be making Tom nervous. The open closet or under the bed felt like solid options, "Tom, where are you worried the monsters will come from?". "Everywhere..", Tom replied, clinging onto the man for dear life. The older man bit his lip, he needed to figure this out, he could easily put a locked door on the closet yes, but that would only reduce one place Tom was nervous about. Under the bed would be trickier, but then again, the existence of scissors wasn't something he could prevent unless he enchanted the room to be inaccessible by magical objects. Man, this was going to take awhile. Dave helped pick up his small son, "C'mon, i'll tuck you in, and we'll keep guard for any monsters....ok?". He was intending to wait till Tom went to sleep under their watch, then head to bed himself, it was probably a lame plan but it was the only one he had in order to at least get Tom to spend one night here. He tucked Tom in, and Tom pulled the blankets up to his chin, "I don't know If i can sleep daddy....". "We won't make you sleep Thomas, but first and foremost we want you to feel comfortable enough to sleep, so for now just relax ok?", Mel attempted to reach out to her son herself, patting his head with a finger. Tom laid there for a few minutes, then spoke up, "Can you read me a story?". Dave looked up, "a story?", Tom nodded from his spot and snuggled further into the covers. "Some kids sleep better when their parents tell them stories...maybe....that might help?", Dave yawned and smiled, "Ok, we'll tell you a story....what kinda story do you want to hear?". "Well....not a scary story...", The boy said, "Just....something nice....?". The king twiddled his thumbs for a bit to think of what to say, "How about a story about Mommy and Daddy? Is that ok?". Tom nodded, "Ok, just don't make it weird..". Wrathmelior snorted, and Dave snickered, "Ok, how about the story where we first met?". Tom's eyes glistened and his head popped a little more out of the covers, it seemed to have sparked his interest. His parents both yawned again. at this rate they'd pass out before Tom did. "Well, When i was about 17, I was kinda forced to attend one of the Balls the Butterfly Kingdom was hosting. I wasn't too about parties, but my mother insisted I go since It would give me an opportunity to meet new people....", Then he rolled his eyes, "Or what she actually meant, which was getting a date....". Tom giggled, "Well you DID get a date, right?". Dave bit hard on his teeth, "Well, I really didn't want to do so. The thing is.....the party was Queen Moon's official coronation, and considering what happened to Queen Comet....I didn't find it customary to go around flirting with people since it was still fresh in everyone's mind.....". Mel huffed and growled, "Yeah yeah, I know it was a few weeks after but it was still uncomfortable. Anyways, so the other royals families attended, and personally I really wasn't having much fun so I kinda wandered off and went outside to get some air, only to find your mom out there as well, in the gardens..". "What happened?", Tom asked in his small voice, Dave lifted his legs up onto the bed and got into a more comfortable position before continuing. "Well, I was kind've startled at first, but after calming I realized she was the Lucitor Princess and she looked kinda down so...I sorta asked her if something was wrong...". Then he sheepishy rubbed the back of his head, "Unfortunately, I didn't know demonspeak at the time, So when she saw me and growled at me.....I wasn't sure whether she was answering my question or warning me that she'd eat my flesh. I backed off and.....I bumped into Princes- er....Queen Moon, who was still rather distraught but she kept her posture and I asked about Mel being in the gardens....Apparently Mel wasn't much of a people person and just wanted to enjoy being outside and get a good view of the stars...". He blushed heavily, "I-I uh....well since I wasn't enjoying the party much myself, I went out to watch the stars myself. Your mom spotted me and growled to me, and although I couldn't tell what she was saying, she knew what I was saying. Told her I didn't understand, but that didn't matter, We uh....well I started talking and she was interested in what I had to say...which wasn't something I was used to back home. I guess....I guess I just kinda liked that....The party ended, I told her that maybe sometime we could meet up again? She nodded and we met again the next night somewhere I picked out...". He smiled at the large demoness in the room who was feeling a little less annoyed being trapped in an enclosed space. "Yeah, and uh....I brought a demonspeak translator book that time, and started teaching myself....which took forever, but It was worth it!", Tom smiled wide, " That's so coooll! I hope I get to meet my future queen at a ball like that!!. Dave snicked and petted his hair, "That's adorable Thomas, but we'll see, you never know what the future holds in store. ". "Well, I wanna be a cool king! I don't wanna be scared of anything, and i'll fight off all the bad guys.", Dave brushed hair out of his son's third eye, "Aww, but Thomas, first we need to rid you of your fear of this room before you can ever not be sacred on anything!". Tom yawned, "Well, i'm less scared with you and mommy here, you guys are funny, and I liked your story daddy...". Dave smiled sweetly, "Thanks tom, so are you saying Daddy and Mommy's stories make you less scared?". Tom nodded silently. "Can I hear another story?", Tom asked, snuggling up into his covers, "PleASE!!!??". The Queen yawned, but Dave continued, "Alright, But just one more ok?". Tom laid back and giggled, Dave finished one story, only to end up telling another, and then another, and Dave kept telling him story after story until Tom's eyes drifted closed and his breathing slowed. It was almost midnight by the time Tom fell asleep, smile upon his face and pillow protecting him from sleeping on his small horns. Dave carefully woke his wife who feel asleep during Dave's stories, and they both made sure to give their prince kisses before exciting his room to their own. The queen growled, and then plopped in the bed, finally happy to be out of that tight room and into her large bed. Dave yawned, "Yeah, I know, But it worked! We actually got Tom to fall asleep without feeling scared of his room. I guess hearing pleasant stories before bedtime really do help." Dave made his way on the top and plopped onto the bed, closing his eyes for some shut eye himself. Finally, after weeks of worrying about tom and his fears, they could sleep in peace, he made himself comfortable and tried to rest up. Only to find himself tossing and turning throughout the night, he tried different positions, removing the blankets, putting back on the blankets, but no matter what he did he couldn't seem to make himself feel comfortable or feel sleepy. That was weird, he had no problems sleeping before now, what was different? Then he looked between his arms to see the absence of his little boy between them. Tom's been sleeping in his arms for a whole month, snuggling close to his father for safety, and now he was back in his room, sleeping without it. He sighed, Now he was the one having trouble sleeping. He thought for a moment and stood up, making his way off the bed, out of the room, and over to his son's room nearby. Tom was still fast asleep, still having pleasant dreams. Tomorrow Dave was sure he'd be making some changes for the room to make Tom feel safe, perhaps implant a goat skull messenger to scare off intruders? But for now this was a good start to helping Tom through his anxieties. The king smiled and once again sat on the bed, admiring his son before yawning. They spent the whole night helping Tom with his fears, only to feed a little more into Dave's. His biggest fear was losing his son after all, he wasn't too fond of Tom being out of his sight in fear of him being hurt. Maybe he could stay here, just for tonight, just to keep an eye on him....to make sure nothing happened to him. He grabbed a chair and sat it next to Tom's bed before taking a seat in it and closing his eyes. Tom was continuing to grow up but- He'd always still be his little boy.

#star vs the forces of evil #svstfoe #svtfoe #tom the demon #tom lucitor #queen lucitor #King Lucitor #Dave Lucitor #Wrathmelior Lucitor #moon butterfly #fanfiction #fanfic #my art

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scarecrowsbasementceiling · 7 years

Text

Hunt Me Down And See What Happens: Prologue

A Marvel/Beauty and the Beast crossover

(Y/N) Quill, Peter’s sister on their father’s side is sent by Fury to another world to retrieve a magical item. Thing is, it’s in a different dimension all together.

No pairings yet.

Words: 3,053

Characters: You, Nick Fury, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff, Peter Parker.

Mentioned: Belle, Gaston

The sunlight shines through my curtains, successfully blinding me into wakefulness. I let out a light groan as I slowly sit up and stretch my upper torso, sighing at the cracking sound it makes. Jumping out of bed, I stretch each leg out.

My clock reads: 8:30am

Holy shit! Did I seriously oversleep again?!? How can one human oversleep as much as I do? Oh wait, I’m not human. Oops, guess that slipped my mind.

I grab a grey tank top, along with a black sports bra and some black spandex shorts then head to my bathroom for a shower. If I’m late I might as well take my time. Besides it ain’t like I’m missing anything special today, as far I can remember I don’t have any meetings and I know Tony won’t say anything to me about not being there.

The hot water hits my back and I feel my muscles relax almost instantly. Damn hot showers feel good, but I can’t spend too much time in here, I’ve got some training to do. Well not training, just working out, but I consider it training.

I lather my head with shampoo, running it through my hair and roots. The soap swirls down the drain as the water washes it out of my hair and scalp. I begin to rub my entire body with Winter Candy Apple body wash from Bath and Body Works, it might not be winter but it still smells good.

Turning off the water and wrapping a towel around my body, I got to the mirror and begin to dry my hair. Thanks to being part god I don’t need a hair dryer. Take that girls! As soon as my hair is fully dry, I run a comb through it to get all the tangles and stuff out of it before going to brush my teeth. I normally brush them before and after I eat, I can’t stand how my mouth feels when I first wake up in the morning, it’s honestly disgusting.

A noise rings from my room, it’s my cell phone. It was probably Natasha wondering where I am, she knows I’m at home so I don’t worry too much about it. I usually zone out her lectures sometimes, if they aren’t important of course. Oh well I’ll call her later.

Quickly getting dressed and heading out to my room, I pick up my phone and head to the training room, time to get some action, wow that sounded wrong.

As soon as I enter the training room, I begin my warmups:

Squats

Climbers

Jumping Jacks

Push Ups

More boring stuff.

Panting and slightly out of breath, I call out to FRIDAY,

“Alright sweetie, time to start the real stuff. Begin simulation number 4 please.”

“As you wish (Y/N)”

Suddenly the scene changes. The training room is no longer visible, instead it’s a deserted street in Florence, Italy. I smirk at the scene change, straight out of Assassin's Creed. I snap my fingers and music fills the room in an instant. (Fox On The Run by Sweet)

Guards come out of the alleyways and from the roofs of multiple buildings, quickly surrounding me. I grin and click the button, allowing my mask to cover my face as I take out my sword. This is only the first part of the simulation, but my adrenaline is already sky high.

They run at me, shouting in Italian. This one never fails to trick me into believing it’s real. Tony’s technology is almost as good as my illusions, they fool me sometimes.

I tap my foot to the beat while I dodge each sword strike, countering them with a slice from my own sword. It isn’t long before half of them are down. Child’s play, but it will get harder. More will come soon, I know it.

I feel a hand reach for me and I duck, grabbing ahold of the guard’s leg and throwing him at the guards in front of me, knocking them all down. I allow my energy to flow to my hand, creating electricity throughout my hand and down my arm.

The guards are quickly taken care of as I shoot the energy at the fallen pile of men. I whoop as I continue taking out guard after guard.

After that, guards come out, two with swords, and a few others with different weapons; along with new moves and faster reflexes. Now it becomes challenging.

I flip and take a guard between my legs and slam him onto the ground hard before stabbing him. Another one charges at me full speed, catching me off guard. He hits me, throwing me back into the wall of a building. Wow these dudes have gotten a lot stronger now. Time to step up my game.

“How about some target practice? I could use it,” I taunt them as I whip out my gun blasters. My mask and guns were identical to Peter’s, a gift from him once I helped him kill our father. What a bonding moment.

I begin to shoot each guard one by one, watching as they all fall down continuously. Oh yeah, I still got it. I fly up and look down at all of them as they scramble to reach me, guess flying hasn’t been added into this one. That’s a shame, oh well guess I should get this over with and go see what Nat wanted.

After all of them are taken out, the simulation ends and I’m back in the training room. I notice how hard I’m panting, wow I really wore myself out didn’t I?

My phone rings, knocking me out of my euphoria. I check the caller ID, looks like I don’t gotta call Nat after all. I take my mask off and put the phone up to my ear,

“Hello?” I answer with a sickly sweet tone.

“Did you just get out training (Y/N)?”

“You know me so well,” I giggle as she lets out a groan.

“Well you’d better be here soon, Fury has a mission for you.”

Natasha hangs up and I roll my eyes, a mission huh? Oh boy I wonder what it could be this time around. Probably taking out some HYDRA agents or tailing a lead on some magical object they need. Boring. Better head to the meeting anyway I guess.

As I stroll leisurely down the hallway, I pass by the youngest member of my little team, Spider Boy. His real name is Peter Parker but I call him Spider Boy most of the time. The kid hates it, always insists on me calling him Spider MAN, and I always tell him the same thing. Not with that voice you’re not.

“Hey (Y/N)! Where you headed?” He asks curiously, a little bit of drowsiness in his voice. He’s so cute. Always wondering what’s going on all the time, he just wants to be included in things, I have respect for him. He’s honestly just happy to be here and that’s okay.

“Just to a meeting, nothing special. Sorry kiddo, maybe we can do something cool another time, yeah?” I tell him. I gotta admit, he is fun to hang around with, even if there is a HUGE age gap.

“Oh ok! Have fun with that, you didn’t do anything bad this time around did you?” Peter asks me with concern. I laugh and shake my head.

“Not this time around Spider Boy.”

He pouts a little at the name, but nods his head and goes on his way. I watch his figure fade into the distance with a small smile on my face, I have a great team. Better than the other Quill’s for sure!

Speaking of him, I haven’t seen my half brother for awhile now. That’s odd, he usually visits me once a month. He’s probably busy collecting bounties on random criminals across space, flirting with Gamora the entire time.

Finally, I get to the meeting room in the tower and bust through the doors with a smile on my face. I make my way to my seat and put my feet on the table like I usually do, ignoring the scowl on Fury’s face.

“I see you’ve gotten comfy haven’t you agent?”

I smirk and nod my head, “super comfy sir! Thanks for asking.”

He rolls his eyes and begins relaying the mission to me. I perk up when he mentions an important object with magical properties. He wants me to retrieve it? Awesome!

“I’m in! Where is it though?”

“It’s not only a matter of where, it’s also a matter of when too,” Fury tells me. My brows knit in confusion, time travel? I can do it, but I’ve never had to before. This thing must be super important then.

“Alright. But first before you tell me when and where, what exactly is it again?”

“A mirror.”

“A… mirror?” I question him slowly, not knowing if this is a joke or not. Is it April the first yet? No no, it’s June.

I look into Fury’s eyes and see that he’s dead serious. What the hell does the thing even do? Well, judging from the fact that it’s a damn MIRROR, it probably has some sort of glamour effect perhaps?

“What does it do exactly? Change appearances?” I inquire quietly to myself, only to be heard by Fury. Damn, I gotta work on being a lot more quiet. But then again, it is a valid question. Ugh I’m tired I want to take a nap, but I can’t, this mission is important. At least I think it is.

“Close, it can show you where anything or anyone is at all times should you wish it. We believe it could come in handy for future use,” Fury answers me. I frown at his answer, disdain clear on my face.

“So you’re gonna use it to spy on people?”

“Yes, but only when needed. Don’t worry, we’re not going to do routine spy checks on any of you, agent.”

I lean back in my chair and ponder to myself, should I decline? Nah, this is too good to pass up! Well, it could be dangerous, I don’t even know where the thing is! I look up at Fury and nod for him to continue explaining.

“It’s in France. But not our France, a certain fairytale France,” Fury informs me. Fairytale? Like Disney and stuff like that? Wait a minute…..

“NO WAY I’M GONNA GET TO MEET BELLE?” I scream out in joy. Ever since I was little and I got away from the insane father, I’ve always loved the Disney princesses. Now, Belle was never my favorite, I was an Ariel fan myself, but I did admire and respect her. I will never admit it to anyone, but I’ve always had a little crush on Gaston.

Yeah he’s the villain and a seriously evil dude, but I couldn’t help myself! I’ve always attracted trouble so it was only natural to like the bad guys and girls. Now I can’t believe I’m gonna get to possible meet him, this is almost unreal. But then again since I’ve been working for the Avengers and knowing my lineage nothing really seems unreal that much anymore.

“Now you will be leaving here shortly since you don’t really need to pack anything. Plus it’s going to be just you, don’t let me down on this (Y/N)”

I shoot him a big grin and nod my head and stand up from my seat to face Fury. Oh this is going to be so much fun!

“Don’t you worry bout a thing boss, I’ve got it covered!” I wink at him and give a mock salute with two fingers, skipping out of the door and into the living area. I’m then interrupted by a growl coming from my stomach. Oh yeah that’s right, I haven’t eaten yet. Looks like I have one thing to do before I leave.

I bump into Tony as I enter the kitchen, I give him a wave as I move towards the fridge to get the milk for cereal.

“I heard you had a meeting with Fury, what was it about?” Tony asks me while peering over my shoulder.

“Oh nothing really serious, just a little mission.” I lie, but doesn’t last long as I let out a loud squeal and jump into the air, almost hitting my head on the ceiling.

“Doesn’t seem like it from that jump,” he jokes with a finger pointed at the ceiling. I snort and roll my eyes playfully before hitting him lightly on the shoulder while I pass him with my cereal.

“I’m gonna get to meet one of my favorite Disney princesses dude! Imma meet Belle yo! THE Belle! I can’t wait this is gonna be awesome,” I bubble with joy as I let him in on the news. He raises an eyebrow at this. Dude probably doesn’t believe me, which is kinda weird for him but it’s Tony so…

It isn’t long before more of the team shuffles into the kitchen while I sit at the island enjoying my cereal. I can hear Tony announcing my mission to the gang, which produces gasps from some of the team and silence from others. Clint bursts out of the kitchen and slides into the stool next to me.

“You’re gonna see a damn princess and you’re not taking me? I am OFFENDED!” Clint complains and I only point at him and snicker in victory. A hurt expression forms on his face before it’s quickly overtaken by laughter.

“I’m just kidding, not really but I know I can’t come with. Good luck and don’t give away too much information. Also get me an autograph from Gaston and Belle. Thanks, I gotta go now.” He waves at me before leaving. I shake my head and take my bowl and put it in the sink.

Once I finish cleaning my bowl and putting it away, Nat comes up behind me and grabs my shoulders, causing me to jump and scream.

“Damn it Nat, don’t do that! I could’ve shot you ya know,” I mutter while catching my breath.

She lets out a quiet laugh and lets go of my shoulders while taking a step back,

“No you wouldn’t. If you had though I could stop it with ease.”

“Yeah but can you stop my guns AND my foot?” I question her.

“We’ll see when you get back. If you get back that is,” she says, I detect a bit of worry in her voice.

“I will be back Nat, have no fear,” I assure her gently. She smiles and touches my hand gently before walking out of the kitchen to who knows where.

I’m left to my own thoughts before I feel another presence coming towards me.

I perk up as Wanda comes near me, I really like her, she has powers almost similar to mine so we could relate a lot easier than anyone else in the tower.

“Come with me (Y/N), I’ll be teaching you how to get to your destination for the mission,” she tells me. I give a small bow and motion for her to lead the way.

We walk along a hallway that leads to an enclosed space, with walls made of metal. There wasn’t anything in the room, minus us and a pad in the middle of the room. Jeez this place looks boring, it is in serious need of a makeover.

All of a sudden I feel really blue, I haven’t gotten a chance to see my brother before I leave. He’ll probably worry his ass off once he finds out what I’m doing. He knows I can handle myself, and I know he can handle himself, but we’re siblings it’s our job to worry about each other.

“Wanda, can you do something for me?” I ask her gently.

“What is it?”

“Can ya tell Quill where I’m going and that I’ll be back soon, I don’t want him to worry too much.” I say, “Just a little bit of worrying is good enough,” I add, trying to lighten the mood.

She squeezes my shoulder and gives me side hug, that meant yes in Wanda language I suppose.

“So what are we gonna be doing?” I probe, staring at her with a glimmer of adventure in my eyes, the sadness slowly disappearing.

“This is how you will be travelling to the world. I know you can do it on your own, but the thing is you haven’t done it at all, so you are out of practice. The pad will help you direct your energy to a spot so you can make a portal and get there, it’s simple. All you have to do is imagine creating a portal that will take you to the place you need to go and focus the energy on the pad.” Wanda explains, pointing at the pad and staring at me.

I swallow, slowly becoming nervous. Wanda was right, I had never done something like this before. Will it even be stable enough for me to go through? Your eyes widen as another thought crosses my mind, when will I be getting there?

What if the whole Belle and the Beast thing will have already happened when I get there? Will that make things easier or harder?

“Do not worry, you will be in control of that too,” Wanda assures me with a short smile.

I nod and give her a thumbs up, signalling that I’m ready to do this. She takes a step back and allows me to get in front of the pad. I close my eyes and begin to focus my energy on the pad.

I can feel the energy course through my veins as I direct it onto the pad, the place already burned into my mind. A whirring noise begins to appear, getting louder with each blast of energy I pump into the pad.

“Good, it’s ready. You can go through now (Y/N), good luck,” Wanda tells me. Once my eyes are open, they close instantly at the bright light now in front of us. I slowly walk towards it, and then take a big leap into the portal.

Let’s get this party started...

Next Chapter

Tags: @antlers-inallofmy-decorating

#beauty and the beast #beauty and the beast imagine #gaston #gaston imagine #marvel #marvel imagine #tony stark imagine #tony stark #clint barton #clint barton imagine #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff imagine #wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff imagine #peter quill #peter quill imagine #peter parker imagine #peter parker

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tarasstorybook · 7 years

Text

Forest Adventures

“Come on Crystal let’s go!” Felicia grabs a small bag, tying it around her waist as she all but takes off out the front door.

“Where are we going again?” Crystal stands up, stretching and yawning.

“The forest to gather herbs that I’ve run out of, again.”

“How long will it take?”

“It shouldn’t take long.”

“Alright, I’m coming.”

Felicia smiles at her familiar, walking out the door and heading for the forest. It was just recently that she noticed she was running out of certain herbs. Having venture to replenish them before she knew exactly where to go to find them.

Meanwhile, a young man laid comfortably on a large branch of a tree deep into the forest, napping happily.

“Felicia did you remember to pack food before you left?” Crystal asks after they had walked awhile.

“Uh sure.” Felicia says, not making eye contact with her familiar.

“You didn’t did you?”

“Yeah I kind of forgot. I know I’m not going to accidentally poison myself though. I know what’ll kill me and what won’t.” Felicia stops by the tree the young man was in, unaware that he was there at all.

Niki was far enough up that he could see her, but she couldn’t see him easily. But just in case he quietly hid himself, peering down curiously at the lovely girl below. “Are you sure?” Crystal asks. “Of course I’m sure.” Felicia says confidently. “Besides, this tree is an apple tree see?” She gestures to the fruit above her.

“I suppose.” Crystal muses. “Did you eat before we left?”

“Nope.”

“Good job kiddo.”

“It’s fine, I’ll just climb the tree watch me.”

“The branch is too high for you.” Crystal sits down and watches Felicia’s attempts to grab the branch above her.

“No it isn’t, ye of little faith.” Felicia tries and misses the branch the first time. “I got this.” She says before Crystal has a chance to say anything about the branch.

Niki chuckled quietly to himself, gracefully climbing down enough to reach the branch Felicia was also reaching for. He put just enough weight on it so it bent down right into the young woman’s grasp.

“See I told you.” Felicia smiles on her second try.

“If you insist.” Crystal stays in her place watching the young witch try to pull herself up.

“It just takes determination.” She says pulling herself up, sitting on the branch proud of herself.

“Uh-huh, I’m sure it does.”

“You want one?” She asks standing up, using the tree to help keep her balance.

“That’s okay. I’ll just watch you.”

“Whatever.” Felicia shrugs, climbing a little higher.

Niki was surprised when she started to pull herself up onto the branch instead of just grabbing an apple from the branch, and slowly moved backwards in order to avoid a collision with her as she climbed. However, she turned out to be less predictable than he’d supposed, and as she kept climbing as he tried to dodge her without falling out himself, his hand brushed against her arm as she moved.

“Ah!“

“What’s wrong?” Crystal stands up at her surprised yelp. “Something just touched me and I have no idea what it was.” “Perhaps another branch?” Crystal wonders. “Maybe.” Felicia stays on the branch she was on, not venturing further. “I don’t know, it’s possible.” She reaches for an apple twisting it then pulling it off its branch. “Coming down now.”

Niki backed up quickly when she moved yet again, not realizing his mistake before his foot slipped off the branch and he went tumbling backwards out of the tree with a yelp. He lost his concentration on disguising himself as soon as his foot slipped, causing him to become visible to all as he hit the ground with a thud. “What was that?” Felicia asks as she climbs down. “Somebody fell out of the tree you are in.” Crystal starts making her way to the other side of the tree. “Really?” Felicia jumps down. “Are they okay?” She joins Crystal.

Niki had landed flat on his back, having hit the ground hard he laid there for a bit to catch his breath and compose himself. “Hey are you okay?” Felicia walks around the other side of the tree, her apple in hand, to see if he was alright.

Niki peeked an eye open, his cheeks taking on a slight pink tinge when he realized what he’d just done and that she’d seen him do it. “…da.” He eventually answered as he slowly got up with a groan, his gold arm bands and earrings glinting in the sunlight. “That sounded like it hurt.”

“…da, it did. But more my pride than anything else.” He chuckled to himself. Felicia lets out a small laugh. “You bruise anything?”

“Probably but I will heal.” “That’s good. That you’ll heal that is.”

“Da.” He smiled, showing his small pointed canines as he did. “So, what’s a pretty young maiden like yourself doing wandering the forest by herself?” “I’m not alone, Crystal is with me.” She gestures to the black dog next to her. “And I’m restocking on herbs that I’ve run out of.”

“Ah, perhaps I could help you?” He offered, glancing suspiciously at the dog. “Um sure I suppose, I know where I’m going but the company would be nice.” Crystal catches his eye and lets out a huff. “What are you staring at?”

Niki did his best to curb his look of surprise, and instead growled quietly in annoyance. “Dog.” “Okay……” Felicia stands awkwardly. “Well I should get those things before the sun goes down. Come on Crystal.” She turns to leave, Crystal takes a moment but soon follows behind her.

Niki followed behind as well, pointing out all the places he frequently napped and amused himself, making Felicia laugh several times as he recounted his shenanigans as they walked. Crystal stays close to Felicia’s side, making a point to stay between them, she didn’t trust Niki at the moment. “Oh gods, you’re funny. I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m Felicia Chamberlain, what did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t say. And it’s Nikolai.” “Nikolai.” Felicia repeats to herself. “Pretty, nice to properly meet you.” She smiles at him.

“You too.” “So you spend most of your time in the forest?”

“…I suppose you could say that.” Felicia laughs at this. “Oh? What do you mean by that?”

“The forest isn’t where I live but it’s where I like to spend a lot of my time.” “Ah okay I see now.” “You smell like sulfur.” Crystal comments as they walk. “Crystal.” Felicia scolds. “What? He does.”

Niki turned a shade paler at Crystal’s comment, freezing where he stood. “And you smell like a dog.” He snapped. “I am a dog.” Crystal says, not bothered at his comeback. “Nikolai are you okay? You look like you don’t feel well. Crystal that wasn’t very nice.” Crystal doesn’t say anything, instead she sits down as she waits for the two to catch up.

“I’m alright, you merely have a rude dog.” “I’m a witch’s familiar.” Crystal corrects. “Maybe coming out here was a mistake.” Felicia begins to ponder out loud.

“I know what you are.” Nikolai replied. “And I know what you are.” Crystal says back. “Crystal maybe we should just go home. I can always find those things some other time.” “If that’s what you want.” Crystal rises to her feet.

“I know where a patch of yarrow is if that helps at all.” Niki offered. “So, do I.” Felicia murmurs under her breath. “Um, that-that’s okay.” Crystal shifts at Felicia’s sudden mood change. “Felicia are you alright?” “Can’t you go one day without being so critical about people?” Felicia snaps at her familiar. “This is why I don’t have friends, or at least the few friends I do have are the prince twins back at the castle.” Felicia walks away from both of them in frustration.

“I do not wish to harm you. No matter what your familiar may think of me.” Niki promised.

“Felicia.” Crystal goes after her. “I’m sorry.”

“Mm.” Comes her short reply.

“Any comment that comes to mind that is negative I will keep to myself.” Crystal tries.

Felicia stops to think it over. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Then say sorry to Nikolai for the things you’ve said to him. I gather now that he can understand you.”

Crystal sighs, the things she did to make Felicia feel better. “Very well.” She turns to Niki. “I’m…sorry.”

“Thank you. And like I said, I do not wish to harm her.” Nikolai repeated.

“So, the yarrow?” Felicia quickly changes the subject.

Niki points to their right into a thicket of trees. “That way, there’s a clearing a short ways in.”

“Nice.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Was yarrow the only thing you needed?” Crystal asks.

“I think? I can’t remember.”

“You’ll have to make a list for next time.”

“Yeah.” Felicia rubs the back of her head, blushing slightly.

“Hah, I’m sure you’ll remember soon.”

“Heh, yeah maybe.” Felicia blushes brighter.

“Hey, maybe I’ll see you again sometime later?” Niki asked, helping her pick the herbs.

“Um, yeah okay. I don’t always come here though. I live back that way in town.” Felicia gestures back the way they came, putting the herbs they collected into the pouch tied around her waist.

“That would please me very much to see you again Felicia.” He smiled charmingly, handing her the herbs he had picked.

“S-sure, okay.”

“You don’t sound so sure.” Niki looked concerned. “…did your familiar tell you what I am?”

“No I just, it’s just, uh.”

“She’s flustered.” Crystal puts plainly.

“…oh. I’m sorry if I’ve done something to make you uncomfortable.” Niki apologized.

“No you didn’t, it’s just that I can’t, I don’t. Ugh.”

“What she’s trying to say is that you haven’t done anything wrong or made her feel uncomfortable. This is her first outing with someone other than myself or her uncle.” Crystal explains.

“Oh, okay.”

“Yeah what she said.” Felicia blushes slightly.

“Perhaps I should let you go home now malyshka. The sun is starting to go down.” Niki nodded towards the setting sun. “May I walk you home?”

Felicia blushes at the name, she didn’t know what it meant but she had a feeling it was something endearing. “Uh sure, I hadn’t noticed that the sun was going down until you said something.”

He held a hand out to her. “Shall we?”

“Yeah okay.” She accepts his hand, closing her pouch as she stood up.

“You are quite lovely.” He grinned, placing a kiss on her hand as he helped her up.

“Thank you.” Felicia smiles, hiding her face as she blushes even more.

“Felicia if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re a little love struck.” Crystal comments, smirking as best as a dog could.

“No, maybe, so.” Felicia pulls her hand from Niki’s, avoiding Crystal’s gaze.

“Okay Felicia.” Crystal starts leading the way home.

Niki chuckled to himself, amused at Felicia’s shyness towards his advances. “So how long has your family been practicing magic? If it’s not too bold of me.”

“Not at all.” She waves off the concern. “Um, special gifts run in the family. My mother can see into one’s future, my uncle practices magic. It skipped my father and was passed down to me. We were all born with something.”

“Fascinating.”

“Yeah kinda, you get used to everyone in your family having some kind of gift.”

“What’s your gift malyshka?”

“I have white magic. How come I wasn’t able to see you earlier in the tree?”

Niki opened his mouth to respond, looking surprised. “I-um…” He looked unsure of what to say. “… I was hiding myself from you.”

“How do you do that? I’ve been trying to figure that out for years.”

“I- I’m not a magic user Felicia. It comes easily to me.” Niki stared at the ground as they walked.

“Not a magic user? So then how did you do that?”

Niki finally looked up to meet her gaze. “I’m not human Felicia, you really haven’t noticed? I’ve already healed from my fall.”

“No I haven’t noticed, I thought Crystal’s comment was just a mean comment.”

“No, she was telling the truth.” Niki sighed, stopping where he was and glancing around before revealing his true form. He looked mostly the same, albeit including two small horns that peeked out from his messy brown hair, and a forked tail that waved behind him. “I suppose now is as good as any to come clean with you.”

Felicia was at a loss for words, she wasn’t sure how to process this new information. “Ah, um well okay then.” “You okay Felicia?” Crystal’s tone was concerned, she couldn’t tell if her magic user was okay or not.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just new is all.”

Niki quickly re-hid his tail and horns, hoping that she wouldn’t run away screaming now. They usually had that effect on humans who weren’t under his charms. “Felicia?” He asked carefully.

“Yeah?”

“Are you alright? You look a little spooked love.”

“Deep breaths Felicia, remember how your mother taught you how to calm down. Just breathe.”

Felicia takes a deep breath, calming her beating heart. “Yeah I’m okay.” She says with a small smile.

“Oh good, you had me worried there for a second.” Niki smiled warmly. “So, you’re not frightened by me?” “It’s something new but nothing a little adjusting can’t fix.”

At this Niki laughed. “I’m sorry but this is amusing to me, I just revealed to you that you’ve been picking herbs with a demon of lust all day and you just seem to shrug it off like it’s no big deal.”

“It kind of is no big deal really.” Felicia shrugs and continues on her way back home. “I never felt like I was in danger.”

“And you never were.” Niki followed along, looking relieved.

“Exactly.” Felicia smiles at him.

“Might I still see you again soon?” Niki stopped at her doorstep.

“Of course.” Felicia nods, Crystal standing beside her.

Nikolai grinned. “Then I shall bid you goodnight my fair maiden, and shall we see each other again soon.”

“Goodnight Nikolai.”

“See you around maybe Nikolai.” Crystal says her goodbyes, nodding her head. “Come on Felicia, your uncle might be worried about you.“

"Oh, yeah, of course.” She didn’t want to go inside but Crystal was right. “I’m not doing anything tomorrow so, yeah.” Felicia finally opens her door and walks inside, closing the door behind her.

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captainsbabysitter-blog · 7 years

Text

Ill Fated Attempts

Or: 5 Times Jim Tried to Ask Bones for a Date +1 Time He Actually Did

Fandom: Star Trek: AOS

Pairing: Jim/Bones

Word Count: 5088

Warnings: None

Summary: Jim wants to date Bones. Life at the academy doesn’t exactly leave a lot of leisure time for two students on accelerated tracks, and Jim is cursed with terrible timing.

I wrote this as a birthday fic for @t-hy-lla, and I finished a quick run through edit this morning. Not really beta’d beyond him gleeing over our shared love of McKirk.

Jim had it bad. He watched Bones type up his notes during their few joint classes, wondering what his lips might taste like until the muted vibration of his PADD drew his attention.

If you’re going to keep staring off into space, at least stare somewhere else. It’s weird.

He grinned a bit at the screen and tapped out a quick response. Why would I stare anywhere else, Bones? Best view was right there.

Grow up.

My room after class to study?

Bones chewed his lip in thought; a habit Jim found all too distracting. He knew Bones was running through the mental schedule he somehow kept straight before the answer came. I got clinicals. Unless you don’t mind me showing up sometime around midnight?

Sure. Greg’s been at his girlfriend’s the last couple weeks so you can crash on his bed. You show up, I’ll be the handsome one holding the coffee.

Be still, my beating heart.

Sounds like a medical issue, doc. You should get that checked out.

He didn’t need to see the eyeroll to know it happened.

~*~*~*~

It was almost 2am when Bones finally punched in the access code to Jim’s room. He stumbled in half awake and flopped onto Jim’s bed, sending several PADDs flying. Jim huffed out a little laugh before handing over a pair of pajama bottoms.

“That kinda night, huh?”

“Would’ve messaged you, but we were swamped. Some kind of overnight drill went sideways and sent half the engineering students to the ER.” The mattress muffled his voice, but couldn’t hide the agitated tone. “Why couldn’t they do daytime experiments like normal people.”

“Because engineers aren’t normal people, Bones,” Jim murmured, running his fingers through Leonard’s hair absently as he went back to studying his notes. “You gonna change, or just lay there?”

Bones grumbled, but managed to work up the energy to get back up. He rummaged through Jim’s closet until he found a sweatshirt to steal before settling back on the bed and pulling out his own PADD. Jim glanced at him with a frown. He knew Bones would stay up all night if he let him, but handed over the thermos of coffee he made earlier anyway. The look of relieved appreciation Bones gave him sent bubbles of warmth through Jim’s chest.

“Thanks, Jim.”

“No problem.” He tangled his legs up with Leonard’s and once again got lost in studying. Well, he looked like he was wrapped up in studying. His mind kept wandering back to what would happen if he just told Bones how he felt. They spent most nights exactly like this; draped over each other either reading silently or quizzing each other for their classes. If he said something and Bones didn’t feel the same, it could mean this whole thing would end. Jim didn’t want it to end. On the other hand, if he said something, maybe they’d give it a shot.

After maybe half an hour of silently debating with himself, Jim kept his eyes trained on his PADD and spoke up again, “Hey Bones? What would you say if I said I wanted to date you?”

The ensuing silence set his teeth on edge. Jim waited a minute before chancing a look toward the other end of the bed to find Bones slumped against the wall, PADD resting on the bed beside him while he slept soundly. He tried to feel annoyed by the thwarted attempt, but couldn’t muster it. Instead, he carefully detangled their legs and got Bones tucked in. Jim pressed a gentle kiss against his forehead before he settled into his roommate’s bed.

Jim woke up to his alarm blaring and a note from Bones left on his PADD thanking him for making sure he didn’t sleep sitting up.

II.

Hey kid, meet me at the gym?

Sure thing, Bones.

The entire next week was spent trying to build the courage up again, and he finally found it during one of their workouts. Jim watched Bones work through his weight training, eyes drawn instantly to the strain in his arms and legs as he lifted and pressed on the machines. The flex of his muscles was hypnotizing. After looking around, Jim cursed his luck to find the entire gym too packed to say anything.

Bones appeared to be completely oblivious. He glanced Jim’s way when he was stretching afterward and raised an eyebrow. “You okay, kid? You look redder than usual.”

“Oh, uh… Yeah. Fine. Just warm, I guess.”

“Ready to hit the showers?”

He prayed Bones didn’t notice the gulp that sounded deafening to his own ears. Flashes of Bones naked in the showers assaulted his vivid imagination. “Uh… Yeah. Showers. Right.”

Jim had to remind himself not to stare as Bones’ ass as he trailed along behind his friend.

The locker room was silent; a stark contrast to the clanking and panting on the other side of the walls. No one was showering or changing, and Jim scolded himself for being tempted to watch.

“Hey Bones?”

Bones glanced over his shoulder as he stripped down, the muscles in his shoulders rippling under skin shining with sweat as he tugged his shirt up over his head. “Yeah, Jim?”

Shit. How was that fair? He stared in silence for just a few moments too long before realizing Bones had turned to watch him with a raised brow. Focus, Jim.

“Um… So I wanted to ask you…”

The door opened then. Jim sighed and waved Bones off toward the showers with a mumbled ‘later’ and got ready for his own. There was a second where it looked like Bones was going to press the issue, but Jim knew the stickiness of drying sweat was probably starting to make his skin crawl.

He caught Jim by the arm on their way out of the building. “So what’d you wanna ask me?”

“Nothing important, I guess. I already forgot.” Jim let an easy shrug roll off his shoulders while internally cursing anyone and everyone that had just interrupted his moment. “If it comes back to me, I’ll let you know.”

III.

As far as Jim was concerned, midterms were a blight upon his plans. Any spare moment he might have had with Bones was immediately eaten up by study groups or writing papers. The doctor hadn’t spent more than a few minutes alone in his presence for the better part of the last week. Jim wasn’t sure whether to be thankful that he was too busy to ponder the failures in his personal life or irritated that he hadn’t had the opportunity to try again. He chose to go with irritated and ended up snapping at nearly everyone he came in contact with.

He almost ignored the pinging alert that sang out from his PADD in favor of catching a quick nap between study sessions, but it was followed by several rapid-fire alerts that could only mean one thing. After reaching across the bed and grabbing it, Jim read through the messages.

Jim I need you in the library.

Now. This guy isn’t getting the hint and won’t let me study in peace.

I fucking mean it, kid.

My usual charm is just encouraging him.

Come pretend to be my boyfriend or something.

Seriously, don’t tell me you’re asleep right now.

Jim?

C’mon please?

Jim couldn’t help but laugh. He tapped out a quick answer as he pulled his cadet jacket back on. I’ll be there in a second, sweetheart ❤

Don’t fucking play with me just get here.

Honestly, he had to give this guy some credit. With all the rumors Jim knew were floating around about Bones and him (with just a little help from himself, of course), he was surprised there was anyone with enough spine to hit on either of them anymore. Yet here this guy was. He was practically draped over the back of Bones’ chair, offering charming smiles in the face of Len’s scowling.

“You know, we should get outta here. Maybe go grab a drink?”

“There you are, Bones!” Jim bounced over and nudged his way between Leonard and his unwanted suitor. He decided to take advantage of the moment and pressed a kiss into Bones’ forehead. The flush that sprang to the Georgian’s cheeks was worth missing out on his nap. “You about ready to go, babe? We had plans for dinner.”

Bones graced him with one of his rare smiles, definitely more in relief than anything else. He stood up to kiss Jim’s cheek. “Sure thing, darlin’. Just lemme pack up.”

Jim took a moment to glance at the guy still standing there. “Something I can help you with?”

“Oh, uh… No. Sorry. I was, uh… Sorry.”

He found a wicked sense of glee in watching the guy turn tail and nearly run. Once he was out of sight, Jim let out a huffed laugh. He turned his gaze back to Bones, a little smirk tugging at his lips.

“You feel safe now that I’ve defended your honor, oh damsel in distress?”

“Just shut it, Jim,” Bones grumbled as he shoved his PADD into his bag. “So you really wanna grab dinner? My treat. We should probably take a break before we explode anyway.”

“Yeah sure. Sounds good to me,” Jim agreed. He ran his eyes over Bones’ form, and frowned when he noticed how much weight the doctor appeared to have lost in the last few weeks of studying. “When was the last time you ate something other than coffee, Bones?”

“I eat just fine, thank you.”

Ah, the standard defensive response when he knew Jim was right. He snagged Len’s hand and took off toward their favorite dive. The more calories he could pump into the man, the better.

The good mood that came with spending some non-study time with Bones crashed almost as quickly as it had inflated. Any time he opened his mouth to try and bring up his feelings, something would happen. Their waiter would pop by to ask about drink refills. Or take their order. Or some drunken jackass would bump into their table. Jim’s grimace rivaled Len’s at that last one.

By the time Jim had wolfed down his own burger and he had managed to shovel a chicken sandwich and a plate of fries into Bones, he had given up. Maybe getting to pretend to be his boyfriend earlier was as far as his luck was willing to go that day. He paid the tab and headed out, fingers laced behind his head as he looked out at stars.

“You gonna go out there with me when we leave here, Bones?”

A derisive snort came before the response, “I’d rather take a long fall on a short rope, but I bet you’ll find a way to wheedle me onto one of those tin cans. So it would be stupid of me to say no.”

“So you’ll come with me anyway?”

“Sure, Jim.”

Jim figured that would probably be good enough.

IV.

That sentiment didn’t last long. The second he knew Len’s last midterm was over, Jim found himself sprinting through the halls toward Bones’ room. He was determined to drag the grumpy doctor out for drink where Jim could hopefully find his courage at the bottom of a whiskey glass. A few quick taps on the keypad outside preceded the door sliding open and allowing him in.

“Hey Bones! Get dressed in something sexy! We’re going to the bar!”

Len glanced up from the holochat he was in the middle of and raised an eyebrow. Jim immediately snapped his mouth shut, but the voice of a child piped up to fill the awkward silence.

“Who’s that, daddy?”

“That’s Jim, baby peach. I told you about him, right?” the smile he gave the screen could have melted the ice on Pluto. Jim watched him interact with his daughter from the doorway, not really sure if he should leave or not until Bones motioned him over.

The mop of brown curls and a nearly perfect match for Bones’ eyes was almost exactly how he imagined Joanna would look. She gave him a bright smile and a wave when he came into view and he waved back just as enthusiastically. He figured she must be around six now, but he was always awful at guessing ages.

“Hey there, munchkin! Your dad here’s told me a lot about you.” Jim leaned in like it was sharing a secret, voice dropping into a mock whisper, “You know… He probably loves you more than anyone or anything in the whole universe.”

She giggled and whispered back to him, “I think daddy likes you a lot cuz he talks about you, too!”

“Hey now, no secrets!” Bones piped in with another easy smile. “So how’s first grade, baby? You like your teacher?”

“Uh-huh! Miss Zhang’s my teacher and Rosie’s in my class this year. And Darnel and Rochelle! They’re twins, but they don’t look alike.”

The rest of her rambling became background noise to Jim as he watched how Bones stared at the screen with open adoration. It was a good look on him. Maybe it was Jim’s imagination, but he thought Bones might be leaning into him just a bit as he spoke. Jim traced every inch of Len’s face with his eyes. It was the raising of an eyebrow brought Jim back into the conversation.

“Is that so? Well what’s his name?”

“Uh… Eric I think? I haven’t met him yet, but mama seems to like him.”

“Well if your mama likes him, then you need to be nice. I don’t wanna hear about you pulling that monkey business with his shoes, ya hear?”

“Well if he doesn’t want his shavin’ cream in his shoes, he shouldn’t yell at mama.”

There was the slightest twitch at the corner of Bones’ mouth that said he was trying his best to maintain the stern demeaner, but failing horribly. Joanna must have noticed because she attempted to mimic the look and ended up breaking into another fit of giggles. Even Bones cracked a laugh. Joanna turned from the screen for a minute.

“But mama!” There was a muffled response before Joanna turned back to the PADD. “Mama says it’s time for bed, but can you read me a bedtime story?”

“Of course, baby. What one do you wanna hear?”

“Baby Peach and Papa Peach!”

“Alright, darlin’. Go brush your teeth and get ready for bed. Lemme talk to your mama for a bit and then I’ll tell you a story.” He turned to Jim. “I’ll meet you at our usual spot, alright? This shouldn’t take long, so just order me a bourbon.”

“Sure thing, Bones.”

Jim settled into their usual spot at the bar and ordered their drinks while he waited. He made some small talk with the bartender, a lovely young Orion woman who under normal circumstances Jim would have went for, until Bones walked in. She gave him a knowing smile when he turned attention to the doctor. The warm smiles and eyes full of adoration and devotion had been replaced by a look of defeat. He snagged the glass of bourbon without a word and downed it with a slight grimace before motioning for another.

“That bad?”

“I was hopin’ to bring her up here for a bit during our little vacation comin’ up, but Joss told me about some birthday slumber party for one’ve Jo’s friends.” The second drink was nursed a little more than the first, but before Jim had even ordered his own second, he was calling for a third. “Should’ve planned it sooner, but I only just got to go-ahead from the higher ups.”

“I’m sorry, Bones… I know you miss her.”

“Yeah…”

They drank in silence, Jim once again agitated about the circumstances preventing him from opening his mouth. He watched as Bones worked his way through sobriety and almost skipped over tipsy on his race to drunken stupor. When Len’s drink count nearly tripled Jim’s, Jim waved a hand at the bartender.

“Hey Saiph! No more for this guy I gotta get him back home.”

She gave a quick nod and cleared out the glasses while Jim paid the tab using Bones’ chip (it was his turn to pay after all) and carefully led Bones back to his room. The man mumbled nonsense gripes the whole way back.

They had barely made it back inside before Bones rushed to the bathroom, half the bourbon he had consumed coming back up in a rush. Jim sighed and followed him in so he could rub at Len’s back and make sure he didn’t pass out in the toilet. Between the waves of nausea overtaking his friend, Jim managed to work Bones out of his cadet jacket and pants so he wouldn’t ruin them.

Once it seemed like the vomiting was done, Jim hoisted Bones up and got him to rinse out his mouth and let Jim wipe down his face with a cloth. He got a bit of water into him and made sure to grab the aspirin bottle before he helped Bones back toward his bed.

“C’mon, Bones… Time to get you to bed.”

“Bed sounds good. You gonna be there, too kid?” The slurred words shouldn’t be having the effect on him that they were. “You should be there.”

“Dammit, Bones don’t offer me that cuz you know I’ll do it.”

“Betchu won’t.”

“Yeah, sure. Seriously, I know your legs can still work when you’re drunk so help me out here. Walk toward the bed.”

He ended up having to half-drag Bones to bed. When they got there, Bones flopped down and wrapped his arms around Jim’s waist and pulled him down with him. Jim groaned as he found Bones quickly tangling their limbs together.

“Shit… Fine, I guess I’m staying here.” He nuzzled into Len’s hair. “Night, Bones…”

Morning came with Jim waking long before Bones did. He couldn’t move without attempting to detangle Bones’ legs from his, so he resigned himself to the fate of waiting for the doctor to come to on his own. No classes meant no alarm, and as far as Jim knew Bones didn’t have to be at the hospital that day so he was stuck.

It wasn’t until mid-morning, coming up on noon that Bones finally started moving. He cracked his eyes open with a groan, a hand flying right to his head as the hangover hit him. Jim grabbed the water glass he had left on the bedside table the night before and wiggled it by Len’s face.

“I would’ve made coffee, but you kinda turned into an octopus when I put you to bed.”

Another grumble before Bones grabbed for the glass. He carefully sat upright, going slow to avoid potential dizziness and nausea, and took a few small sips. Jim helped him stay up while he drank.

“Dammit… My head is killing me. Thanks for getting me back last night.”

“No problem, Bones. You wanna let me up? I’ll make us some breakfast and get you some coffee.”

Coffee was the magic word. Jim found himself freed and made his way into the kitchenette. When poking around the fridge only yielded the coffee creamer Bones kept on hand for Jim and a six pack of the beer Jim liked, he sighed and turned to the replicator. Knowing Bones, he probably only had baking sheets if he had anything for cooking at all. He’d have to see about making Bones eat something real and not replicated before they were both launched into space.

“Bacon and eggs sound good?” He called toward the other room and smile at the almost whine. “C’mon, Bones. You need something greasy once in a while and a hangover is the perfect occasion. I’ll even bring you some wheat bread how about that?”

“Ugh fine.” Jim could hardly hear the mumbled voice through the doorway. He smiled as he punched in the codes for the food and wandered back in with a couple plates.

“Up and at ‘em, sunshine!” The glare he got from under a pillow was worth it. “Seriously, sit back up grumpy turtle. Outta your shell.”

With only a little more prodding, Bones finally propped himself up against the wall and reached for the plate. After giving it several dubious looks, he took a couple bites. As the food settled in his stomach, he began to look a bit better and eventually relaxed a bit. He nudged at Jim’s leg with his foot with a smile. “Thanks, Jim.”

“You’ve hauled my drunk ass back home plenty of times, Bones. You doing okay now?”

Bones swallowed a swig of coffee before he responded, “Yeah. Just got a little overstressed, I guess.”

“Sorry you won’t be able to see Jo.”

“Yeah.”

The two sat in comfortable silence while they finished up their breakfast. At some point, Bones got up to get more coffee and to toss the plates in the recycler while Jim geared himself up for a new approach. They were alone. They didn’t have classes, neither of them had to be anywhere specific that day, they weren’t about to fall asleep after a long day, and Bones was getting to his second cup of coffee which meant he’d be more human than tired cave troll. The only thing that could make now the best time would be if the rest of Bones’ hangover were to magically disappear.

That wish was granted when Bones came back holding an empty hypospray and looking relieved. He dropped it into the medical waste bin by the bed and flopped back down. “That’s much better. Remind me of today if I ever try to withhold a hangover cure from you ever again.”

A slow smirk crept to his lips. “Oh you can bet I will, Bones. So, um… I had a question for you.” He took the raised eyebrow he got in response as a prompt to continue, “Well I wanted to see if you’d be up to dinner with me later. Say tomorrow night? To celebrate being done with midterms without any of the barfights, y’know?”

He hoped he wasn’t fidgeting as much as he thought he was while he waited for an answer. “Well where were you thinking about taking me, kid? I didn’t realize you went anywhere that didn’t sell cheese fries.”

“I dunno. I was planning to find someplace if you said yes.”

“Well start looking for a place then.”

“So… Yes?”

“Why do you sound so surprised? It’s dinner. We’ve had dinner together before.”

Jim tried to scramble for a reason, “We’ve, uh… We’ve just been too busy to hang out much the last couple weeks, so I just got used to you saying you couldn’t make it.”

“True enough. Alright, I need to get up and moving around now. Want to hit the gym or did you have plans to get into a bar fight tonight to make up for tomorrow?”

“Gym sounds good. I’ll go change and meet you there?”

Bones was already searching for his own clothes and waved him off. “Sure, kid. Catch you in 10.”

As he left, Jim tried not to do a victory dance. Victory would only come if dinner was a success.

The next night came too quickly for Jim. Sure, he found the right restaurant (a place a lot nicer than their usual pub, but not nice enough to require dress uniforms), and he had spent the last half hour getting ready, but he was nearly vibrating with anxiety over the upcoming meal. He hoped to ask Bones about dating while they were eating. Actually, he hoped he could get the cantankerous man out to dance before Jim asked him, but he’d take what he could get.

He bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited at the door of Len’s room. For probably the hundredth time, he straightened the collar on his cadet reds and smoothed out the front. It was almost impossible to resist just barging in and Jim had to remind himself that it wouldn’t be appropriate date behavior. And c’mon… He knew how to date.

When the door finally opened, it revealed a freshly shaven Bones. Jim missed the scruff that came with two weeks of not having time to keep up with it, but the clean face looked good. He offered Bones a bright smile and his arm.

“Shall we go?”

“Oh how chivalrous of you.” The sarcasm dripped from his voice. Bones stuffed his hands in his pockets instead of taking the arm. “So where are we going that requires we wear our reds?”

“You’ll see just c’mon.”

Jim brought him to a place just outside the edge of barracks. The lights were soft, and there was music playing from some unseen source. A lot fancier than Jim intended, but not a black-tie affair; there were other cadets there on dates in their reds. He glanced to his side and found Bones with a thoroughly confused look.

“Seems a bit lavish for you, doesn’t it?”

“It’s a bit more than I thought it’d be, but I like it.” He offered the hostess a winning smile. “Hey there. Table for Kirk.”

“Of course, right this way sirs.” She turned on her heel, menus in hand, and led them toward the back of the restaurant. Their table was just off the dance floor.

“Your server this evening will be Nime. She should be with you shortly.”

“Thank you,” Jim and Bones responded in unison before turning to the menus.

“I bet they have the good bourbon,” Jim added. “Geez, I don’t even know what some of this is.”

“Most of it looks familiar to me, so just ask if you’re curious.”

Nime appeared at their table with a 100-watt smile. “Hello! I’m Nime and I’ll be your server this evening. Shall we start with your drink orders?”

“Bourbon neat, thanks.”

“Whiskey on the rocks for me.”

“Excellent. I’ll be right back with those.”

Bones leveled Jim with a look across the table that he couldn’t identify. There were a few moments of awkward silence before Len finally broke it, “So what the hell is up with all this Jim? You’ve never wanted to go anywhere nicer than the bar even after finals.”

“I just… Wanted to do something nice.”

“Bullshit. Spill it, Kirk.”

Dammit. He should’ve known Bones would notice something was off. Hands down the worst part about wanting to date your best friend. Jim rubbed at his face a bit before giving in.

“I think we should date.”

The strangled sound that came from the doctor across the table made the inevitable rejection almost worth it. Jim covered a small smile with his hand and waited for Bones to recover and respond.

“What?”

“I think we should date. You know, like hold hands, kiss, go on dates like this one. Date.”

“Since when do you date? Or see someone more than once for that matter?” He seemed to immediately backtrack in his head when Jim frowned. “I just mean that… That isn’t usually your thing. It’s nothing against you and how you do things, but I can’t do the hookup thing, Jim.”

“I’m not talking anything casual, Bones. I’ve never really wanted to do anything serious before, but with you I just… Do. So… Let’s eat and have a good time and you think it over, alr-“

“Yes.”

It was Jim’s turn to sputter. “What?”

“I said yes.” Bones accepted his drink with a grateful nod toward Nime. He took a sip and watched Jim over the rim of his glass.

“Did you need more time to order, or are you ready now?”

“I think he needs a bit more time,” Bones chuckled. “Should only take another couple minutes.” When she left, he tapped at the menu. “You should actually look at that before she comes back. We can talk more when she won’t be popping in every few minutes.”

Instead of answering, Jim buried himself in the menu and read through the options. It was hard now that he could only think about Bones agreeing to date him. When he finally picked, he uncovered his face to find Bones watching him with an appealing sparkle in his eyes. He made a couple false starts before Jim finally managed to start talking again.

“So you said yes.”

“Pretty sure I did, yeah.”

“To dating me.”

“Yes, Jim. I said yes to dating you.”

“Oh.”

“Isn’t that what you wanted to happen?”

“I mean… Yeah.”

Nime came back, ordering PADD in hand. “Are we ready to order now?”

“Yeah, I’ll have the filet mignon with the balsamic glaze.” Jim kept his finger on the dish so he wouldn’t lose it on the page. Bones apparently found this amusing.

When Nime turned to Len, he glanced back at the menu before adding, “And I’ll have the mushroom risotto and another bourbon, please.”

“I’ll put these orders in and be back with your drink, sir.”

Once she was gone, Jim stood and offered a hand out to Bones. When he receives a confused look, he gestures out to the dance floor. “Dance with me while we wait for dinner?”

“Aw hell, you know I haven’t danced in years…”

“Yeah, but I’d like to. I bet you’ll do great.”

Bones finally took his hand and allowed himself to be led out onto the floor. A look of pure surprise sprang to his face when Jim took the lead. Jim took one of his hands and placed the other on Bones’ waist and pressed in close. He was close enough to see a flush creeping to the doctor’s cheeks as Jim started leading him through a waltz.

“When did you learn to dance?”

“My last midterm was a few days ago, you were studying for some medical exam, so I had a lot of free time.”

“Jesus, kid… Remind me never to leave you bored.”

“You’ll just have to keep a close eye on me, huh?”

“Guess I will.”

Jim decided to test his luck and before they finally returned to their seats for dinner, he pulled Bones in for a short, chaste kiss that was returned eagerly. He almost wished they hadn’t bothered with dinner, but he could live with the warm looks Bone sent his way as they chatted through eating.

It wasn’t until Bones tugged him into his dorm afterward that he truly considered the night a success.

#mckirk #bones #leonard mccoy #jim kirk #james t. kirk #star trek: aos

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