#maybe he was made to beat up villains or somethin that were too strong for anyone already existant to defeat

[foxgonyoom]

Plot twist: MK wasn't made to be a weapon of mass destruction, he was made to be a distraction. All his dad collecting skills and natural lovability comes pre-installed for maximum distractibility, and his massive power is just to catch the attention of big important god bois.

[chaibewriting]

BEG FOR IT! ft. pro-hero! ken takagi (rock lock) x afab! fem! pro-hero! poc reader

-> NOTES: do be warned that i have no idea how to write for rock lock since there’s not much about his personality so bare with me on this, i hope you enjoy it anyways. this was requested an interesting lil’ human, i hope this is all that you imagined it to be.

-> WARNINGS: public nudity, public sex, chastity belt (m. wearing).

EVERYTHING was perfect. You’d made sure of it. You’d laid everything out on your shared bedroom and were just waiting for your husband’s arrival. To put it simply, this was your form of punishing him for having missed your wedding anniversary, however, he wasn’t aware that he was going to be punished yet. Just the thought of having things go your way made you all the more giddy, you were even more excited when you heard the front door knob jiggle and shake, indicating that the soon-to-be tortured man was finally home.

You sat pretty atop your bed, one leg crossed over the other, waiting for Ken to enter the bedroom, and when he did, he stood in the doorway, looking over you with a raised eyebrow. You were still wearing your hero costume, and as much as he loved seeing the way it fit on you, he was a little confused about why you hadn’t changed. His eyes then drifted towards the strange big black box that sat on the bed beside you. He was the type to jump to conclusions with how observant and quick he was but he had no idea what was going on inside of your head at the moment.

And so, you spoke first. “Welcome home, baby. How was your patrol?” You asked, though you could already tell that he was feeling a bit of the stress from work. “… It was alright. You gonna tell me what this is about, keychain?” He asked, the petname leaving his lips like the millions of other times he’s said it and it almost, yes, almost made you rethink your punishment for him. However, you still held strong, wanting to exact your own version of revenge on him, and you would get it no matter what.

“I know you don’t like to beat around the bush or sugarcoat things so—“ You grabbed the box beside you and dropped it on your lap, sliding the top off and tossing it behind you so that it landed on the bed with a light bounce. Inside of it, placed elegantly atop a white silk fabric, was a cock cage other known as a chastity belt, big enough to fit his well-endowed third leg. Afterwards, you began your brief explanation. “You missed our anniversary, my love, and that means— you’ve got to earn the right to release or stay locked for as long as I want. It’s a fitting punishment, don’t you think?”

And before you could get a verbal answer from him, you had already activated your quirk, zooming around him within the small confines of your room. In no time at all, you had stripped him completely and put the chastity belt on his soft cock in a matter of milliseconds, locking it in place. Oh the irony. You then sat back where you were, resuming the position you’d been in, this time with a key ring around your finger that had the key to the belt dangling from it.

Since your quirk allowed you to move at the speed of light so long as you were exposed to a source of light (even as small as a flame), he was unable to keep up with your movements (just like most villains and heroes), which, in turn, left him defenseless to your punishment for the time being. “Doll, is this really necessary you coulda just made me sleep on the couch or somethin’. This seems pretty damn excessive.” He complained, and he had every right to, especially with the way the cage was squeezing around him. The cold metal on his shaft was sending him into the tiniest bit of a frenzy, and it was a borderline death sentence if he managed to get hard while wearing this stupid ass contraction. He could stop things in place, hell, he could stop you from moving if he touched your clothes in the right places, but you were too fast for him to do such a thing, maybe if he caught you off-guard—

“Listen, I booked a hotel that’s within walking distance from here. Meet me on the roof of Koji Hotel, and if I see fit, I’ll let you out. But if you come on your way there, or if you get caught— which I know you won’t, you’ll have to stay locked in. And oh don’t even think of chickening out, I know you can’t ignore a challenge, and the idea excites you… Just look at your dick, I can see it twitch all the way from here. Ah, and one more thing— no clothes allowed, personally I’d say seeing you like this is quite a treat. Others should be able to experience what I’m experiencing too.~” You mused, your eyes glued on his gloriously caged, veiny cock that was just begging for attention. You licked your lips and then mentally slapped yourself. No! Not yet, Y/N! Calm the fuck down.

After your little speech, Ken looked over you, taking note of the way you were eyeing his nude body while licking your lips. Huh. You seemed even more excited about this then he (secretly) was. Though, of course, he had to at least act like the voice of reason, even in all his shame. “Seriously? I could get arrested for public indecency. Do you /want/ me to go to jail?” You smiled cheekily at him and then daringly shot forward, pecking him on the lips before moving back out of his reach again, this time going towards your bedroom window.

“Oh, my love, I already know you won’t get caught, you’re quite a resourceful man, that’s one of the things I love about you.~ You’ve got fifteen minutes to get to me.” You dangled the key for him to see and then slipped it onto one of the pockets on your hero costume. “Show me how well your hero training’s been working for you, this challenge should be a piece of cake for you, hm?~ I’ll make it all worth it if you do /exactly/ as I say… See ya!” You then opened the window and jumped out, using your quirk to speedily and easily run up walls and make your way to the hotel roof nearby.

The pro hero stood there, he was usually quite quick on his feet, but at the moment he was still stunned about what had just unfolded. You sneaky little— He couldn’t help but smirk. You really were something, weren’t you? Were you really expecting him to actually go through with this?

…

Why the fuck was he doing this? Why, god, why? Maybe some part of him buried deep, deep down within the pits of his soul was turned on by the sense of danger and the chance that he could be caught. Maybe he got off on he thought of someone besides you seeing him like this. His muscular torso, lightly littered in hair that matched the curl pattern on top of his head, along with an array of scars on his body, and his toned legs… not to mention his soft eight inch dick that seemed to swing with each step, the metal hitting against his leg which reminded him just how /caged/ in he truly was. He was currently ducked into an alley, hiding behind a dumpster. Fuck, was he INSANE?! He was starting to think he was.

Alright, he could do this. No clothes were allowed, but you didn’t mention anything else, maybe he could find something useful around here. And to his luck, his eyes landed on a pair of trash cans with metal tops, perfect for covering the front and the back. He had already gotten a little closer to the hotel, all he needed to do was sneak around a tad bit, use his quirk, and propel himself up onto the roof where you would no doubt be waiting for him—

“Hey mommy, what’s that guy doing behind the dumpster over there?” “Oh good lord— don’t look, Okuyasu! C’mon!”

Ah fuck. He needed to move, and move quick before he ended up getting caught up and he did not want to explain any of his freaky, personal shit to the media. With determination and a new spark of motivation, he hurried his way over to the trash cans, snatched the lids from their place, used them to cover his body. He then glanced around at his surroundings yet again, taking note that the street was a little less busy with civilians but nonetheless still had a good handful of people roaming around. And it was getting a tad bit on the darker side thanks to the sun being nearly set completely so he’d use this to his advantage, thank gods he still had his shoes on. He got into position and ran, if someone didn’t know any better, they would have thought he had some kind of speed enhancing quirk with how fast he ran, the sound of metal clacking around covering the sound of his heavy footsteps. He had to stop himself from audibly groaning with the way the cage was moving around on his cock, he’d already ended up semi-hard /somehow/, he’d be an idiot if he ended up with a hard-on while wearing this thing. He needed to get it off, and get off, you were in for a punishment of your own.

By the skin of his teeth, he’d just barely made it to the other alleyway across the street— which was exactly where he needed to be. He could only hope no one was watching him now as he used his quirk to start climbing upwards into the air with the use of the trash can lids, suspending and unfreezing the lids in the air in place as he traveled upwards until he could jump onto the roof. From there, he was able to properly roof dash, seeing where you were from a distance.

You watched him from where you stood, an eager grin on your face as you watched him carefully maneuver his way around until he landed on the roof top where you were. You’d made sure to get him some clothes before making your departure, figuring you’d be at least a little considerate of his circumstances.

As he approached you, he stood directly in front of you. He was glaring at you like he didn’t like the exhilarating rush of running around naked for anyone and everyone to see. “Ah, look at that, you made it.~ Did you cum without me?” You asked, watching as he tossed the trash lids aside, ignoring the crashing sound that came from them connecting with the concrete roof top. He completely ignored your question and spoke up. “You woulda liked that, wouldn’t ya have? Hurry up and unlock it. I’m startin’ to chafe.” You grinned at him, as devious as ever. “Beg for it.” You could have sworn you saw his eye twitch at that and you had to stop yourself from bursting into laughter.

While you were too busy trying to keep your sides from splitting, your oh-so-lovely husband snuck up on you and touched your leg, arm, and chest, effectively deadlocking the most mobile parts of your hero suit. In doing this, he effectively had you frozen in place, a smirk appearing on his face as he looked at your bewildered expression. Of course, you could have phased through your clothing with ease, but that would have left you naked as well… Wait— was that his plan???

“You sneaky man. Are you really that eager to cum? C’mon baby, all you had to do was ask me politely and I would have done it for you easily. I was even gonna suck your dick right here on the rooftop.” You pouted, watching as he began to pat you down, attempting to find where you had put the key to the chastity belt. You playfully moaned when he gave your thighs a few firm squeezes, huffing after hearing the soft jingle of metal. Ah, man, he found the key. As much as you wanted to unlock it for him, you were deadlocked in place so you really had no way out of this situation without falling for his trap or begging him to let you out. Oh how the turns table.

You soon heard the sound of metal hitting the ground beneath you, eyeing the man who stood in front of you now completely naked, aside from his shoes. At that point you thought it was time to say something, anything really. As you watched him take the bag from your hand, moving his hand around inside of it, a grin spread out across your face when he pulled out a cropped shirt and a single sock. Ken looked absolutely flabbergasted. You couldn’t contain the laughter that soon followed. God, you really were an evil thing.

“Oh. You think this is funny, huh?” He questioned, squinting at you and your predicament. It seemed like the two of you were now on equal playing field, but you couldn’t help but to continue grinning rather sinisterly. Your laughter continued for a few more seconds before you finally answered him. “Oh honey, you know me, I love playing games, and wasn’t this such a good de-stresser? I’m a genius, I know. Now… can you release my suit?” Ken stared at you intently for a moment, observing your expression before a grin of his own slowly broke across his face. “Beg for it.”

[t0wnspersonb]

Just Come Down (Shinsou Hitoshi x Reader)

Word Count: 2,438

Warnings: my shit writing, anxiety, hella fluff, Bakugou’s bad language

~~~~

unconsciousmayhem

said:

can i request somethin for Shinsou and/or Iida (my boys) with a s/o (gn or male preferably) who has a very powerful telekinesis quirk that is closely tied to their anxiety. during training or something, they have a panic attack and end up causing lots of chaos, the ground shaking and cracking and random objects (and people) begin floating and the boys have to talk them down to get to calm down? thank you so much sorry for all the words

~~~~

I had so much fun writing this! I hope I was able to capture Shinsou’s personality right😭😭 this is the first time I’ve ever written my reader insert as male and I hope I was able to do it right! @unconsciousmayhem​ thank you so much for the wonderful request and I apologize for only writing about Shinsou! I want to write more stuff for BNHA and that includes Iida also! I just figured I would focus more on Shinsou this time around. I hope it’s to your liking! As always feedback is welcomed! Please enjoy and I hope you guys are having a great week! 💕💕💕

~~~~

“You know you don’t have to be so nervous; everything will be fine. You’ve gotten better control over your power.” Shinsou murmured, eyes flickering over to your form as you guys walked towards the training grounds.

 You could feel your throat closing, a sudden dryness taking over your mouth, your eyes darting around you rapidly. You were trying to ground yourself to reality, trying not to go into that dark and deep space in your mind. If you did… cataclysm would erupt, the ground would break and shake just like your very core. Objects and people would be flung up to the heavens, even though you yourself were a devil for causing such destruction -

 “Hey.” indigo eyes were suddenly peering into yours; strong hands gripped your shoulders. 

 You blinked, a familiar heat creeping up the back of your neck. You cleared your throat, one of your hands coming up to the back of your head, ruffling the hair. “Sorry.”

 His eyes narrowed considerably before leaning closer into yours. 

 “H-Hey! W-What are you doing?” You asked frantically, pressing a hand against his chest, pushing him back. “We’re in public.”

 Shinsou rolled his eyes, but stepped back nonetheless. “Don’t be so cold, everyone knows we’re together.”

 Of course everyone knew, both of you were the biggest gossip piece at U.A. You were from the hero department dating someone that was in the general education department, for whatever reason, people found that entirely strange. Or maybe it was the fact that you both possessed strong quirks, quirks that had the potential to be used for evil.

 Which was why you guys had been in each other’s lives since you were little, you both gravitated towards each other, bullied together for having villainous quirks. 

 But the biggest reason why you guys were always being talked about was the fact that Shinsou had gotten into the same class as you, and he was excelling rapidly, surpassing you entirely.

 While you were incredibly happy that all of his hard work was finally paying off, and he was developing friendships outside of your relationship, you had the fear that Shinsou would find you entirely pathetic, leaving you further behind and abandoning you completely. 

 Your hand grabbed at the front of your P.E. uniform, clenching at the fabric that stretched across your chest, your heart aching at the mere thought of Shinsou no longer being part of your life.

 “Hey,” a warm rough hand rested on top of your head, ruffling the short hairs. “I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but you need to stop. I told you that everything is going to be fine, just listen to me for once, okay?”

 You knocked his hand off your head, not saying anything as you walked forward to the training ground, ignoring Shinsou’s raised eyebrows at your coldness.

 Usually you adored physical contact, initiating it, or asking for it. So the fact that you didn’t want his touch, well, something was definitely wrong.

 Shinsou mentally noted to keep an eye on you during training; he had hoped that for once Aizawa would pair you two together. 

 That was wishful thinking on his part. He knew why though, both of you did. You were too dependent on him, and in Aizawa’s eyes, that was a bad thing. 

 Pro heroes need to be able to work with a wide variety of other heroes, there would be a slim chance of both of you working at the same agency in the future. 

 It was purely for your own good. 

 But that didn’t mean that Shinsou would ever stop himself from looking out for you, that wasn’t something he was capable of doing.

 He was always looking out for you, ever since you were kids. He knew how much you’ve grown though, despite how you felt, or what you thought, he knew that you had improved over the years.

 Shinsou was proud of you; there was a pride that he held in his heart at having such a strong partner who was incredibly kind and gentle, despite how destructive your quirk was. 

 But he also knew how bad your anxiety was, how it triggered your quirk in the worst way. You were an entirely emotional person, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes… that’s what made your quirk incredibly dangerous. 

 “Y/n and Bakugou, I want you guys to pair up together for this training.” Aizawa said lazily, you were the last two people to get paired together.

 You glanced nervously at the fuming male standing near Kirishima; flinching hard when his angry red eyes landed on you.

 “I don’t want to be paired with that pretty boy.” Bakugou sneered loudly.

 “Is it because you’re afraid of developing feelings for him?” Shinsou called out, an eyebrow quirking up. 

 You ignored the soft snickers and giggles around you, eyes being cast down at the floor.

 “What the fuck did you just -” Bakugou’s face went blank, causing you sigh loudly as you looked over at Shinsou who was grinning widely.

 Everyone was howling in laughter now, causing Aizawa to huff in irritation. 

 “Toshi.” you mumbled softly, “Don’t make my life harder, release your quirk please. I don’t need Bakugou beating my ass even more now.” 

 He sighed, grin fading from his beautiful face, he always listened to you, even as children, so regardless of how he felt towards the rudeness of the loud blonde, he complied.

 “I don’t want your boyfriend you purple haired shit brain!” Bakugou began screaming, Kirishima holding him back.

 “Why’d you call him pretty then?” Shinsou asked, tone bored.

 “Because he is!” Bakugou screamed, explosions going off in his raised hands.

 It was dead silent in the training ground now. 

 You could feel a soft heat creeping into your cheeks, you considered opening up the ground before you and jumping into it.

 “So you do want Y/n?” Shinsou challenged, “I won’t let you have him.”

 Mina let out a low whistle next to you. “Wow Y/n. I wish I had two boys fighting over me.”

 You groaned loudly, crouching down with your head in your hands. This was too embarrassing.

 “Y/n-kun it’s okay.” Midoriya encouraged on the other side of you, squatting down to pat at your shoulder as chaos erupted around you.

 “Be quiet.” Aizawa snapped, his quirk activating. You stood up immediately, everyone else straightening up as silence engulfed your group.

 “Get in your pairs already and start training.” He grumbled. 

 As everyone started walking off to meet up with their partner, you felt a gentle thump on your back, you turned to see Shinsou offering you a small smirk before he walked off towards Kaminari who was waving him down excitedly.

 So that’s why he provoked Bakugou, to help ease your nerves, a soft smile twitched at your lips. He knew you too well.

 You felt calm for the most part now… except…. except… 

 Oh god. 

 Why was he looking at you like that? Bakugou was fuming, looking incredibly feral at the moment, and if it was any other time you might have thought that his face was the funniest thing you had ever seen. But today, and the fact that he was focused on you… well, you definitely wanted to run away.

 In truth you had never trained with Bakugou before, you admired his wit and strength, but he wasn’t someone that you were necessarily friends with.

 You were too quiet and meek to hang out with someone as angry and loud as him.

 “I’m going to ruin your face pretty boy.” He sneered and launched himself at you.

Your eyes widened in shock and immediately you activated your quirk, hurling large chunks of the ground at him.

 Your fight or flight senses were kicking in and your entire body urged you to run at this point. He was ferocious, quick and strong as he easily evaded your attacks.

 Bakugou easily overpowered you, which caused your nerves and anxiety to skyrocket.

 “Fucking fight me already you damn extra! You’re so weak compared to me.” he sneered, a wicked grin overcoming his features as he blasted another explosion at you.

 You barely had enough time to yank a rock in front of you, the debris flying everywhere, but better the rock than your actual face.

 You could feel the panic setting in now though, the quickness in your heart increasing rapidly, your hands sweating for another reason than the fact that you were trying to stay away from the blonde male. 

 He was right, you were an extra, you were weak, the fact that you couldn’t overpower Bakugou, the fact that this entire time you guys were sparring you were simply avoiding getting blasted by his quirk.

 You hadn’t actually launched an attack on him yet.

 What… what kind of hero were you? 

 At this right… at this right you weren’t going to become a hero. You were running away, what kind of hero runs away?

 All Might never ran away.

 Shinsou… Shinsou never ran away either, he stood and fought, and you… you were going to get left behind.

 Your breathing started to come out quick now. Your hands trembling as those voices of doubt began creeping into your mind, taking over your senses and then - 

 It felt like the world stopped as you began floating up. Your eyes glazed over as white began to seep into your irises, bleeding out of your pupils and covering them up completely.

 The sounds around you became muffled as your arms raised up, the debris and rocks around you beginning to rise. 

 “What the fuck?” Bakugou’s eyes went wide as he stared at you, the ground beginning to shake, but everyone knew it wasn’t an earthquake. When Bakugou began being lifted into the air himself he couldn’t help the loud screaming and cursing that flew from his mouth as he launched multiple attacks, although, none reached you as the rocks and debris swirled around your form in a protective ring.

 “Shit.” Shinsou muttered as everyone paused to look at the two of you, without even thinking about it he began sprinting over to you.

 “Sensei! Y/n needs you!” Iida called out, but then the ground began cracking, splitting everyone up as they tried to gain their footing.

 Aizawa struggled to make his way over to you, the quickest and easiest way to get you to calm down would be to just erase your quirk, but the shaking and the trembling of the ground, the rocks and debris flying up around everyone, he couldn’t gain his footing.

 “Y/n!” Shinsou was near you now, gazing up at you with concern. You didn’t spare a glance at him, but he could clearly see the tears streaming down your face.

 He knew the mental struggle that you were dealing with internally. You were struggling to bite down the emotions that were taking hold of your quirk.

 “You need to stop this. I know you can do it!” He continued calling out.

 “I can’t do this.” You screamed. “I’m not strong enough. I can’t… I can’t be a hero with a quirk like this!”

 You were drowning in your emotions, the anxiety swallowing you whole and numbing you.

 “You are strong! You’re the strongest person I know. You’re going to be a great hero, stop saying that you’re weak! Stop letting your emotions take over like this, fight it.” Shinsou yelled back, his eyes never leaving your form.

 You shook your head. “I don’t… I don’t know how-”

 “What kind of hero do you want to be Y/n?” he asked, his urgent tone dying down to something softer.

 “I want -” you could feel your mind going blank, the raging storm within your very core diminishing dramatically. You could feel the soft touches of his quirk, gently soothing your mind, creeping into your being tenderly. 

 The coldness that crept into your body began seeping away, replaced with the familiar warmth of Shinsou. You vaguely felt your body beginning to drift down, the rumbling sound of the earth coming back together, and the loud crashes of the debris falling down echoed around you.

 You registered the loud cursing of Bakugou as he fell ungracefully back to the ground, and the urgent chatter of your classmates.

 But your soul felt at ease now, you felt warm, safe, loved, and you knew exactly why. Shinsou’s arms wrapped tightly around you, pulling your upper body into his lap. 

 His strong fingers brushed at the tears that lingered on your cheeks before carefully pushing the hair away from your forehead.

 You were passed out now. Your quirk leaving your body entirely exhausted and spent. But he was relieved, you were safe now, and you hadn’t injured anyone from the looks of it. 

 “Is Y/n okay!?” the class surrounded the two of you, peering down at you in concern. 

 “You just had to take things too far didn’t you Bakugou?” Kaminari scolded, followed by many other voices.

 “He’s fine. When his quirk gets like this it exhausts him completely. He just needs to sleep for the rest of the day.” Shinsou said quietly, everyone completely ignoring the loud complaints from Bakugou.

 “Sensei, can I take him to the infirmary?” Shinsou asked, glancing up at Aizawa.

 “We’ll end class early today.” Aizawa nodded.

 Wordlessly Shinsou easily shifted you onto his back, silently walking off towards the infirmary.

 “Hitoshi.” you mumbled sleepily, pressing your further into his neck. “Thank you. You’ll always be my hero.”

 A soft smile tugged at his lips, the grip he had on your thighs tightening. “Go to sleep.” 

 Shinsou ended taking you back to the dorms, his dorm. He sighed softly to himself as he once again brushed the hair off your forehead.

 “Idiot. As if I would ever leave you behind.” He muttered quietly, pressing his forehead against yours gently.

 He knew that was one of your fears, on top of not being a good hero. But he wouldn’t let any of that happen, he wouldn’t leave you, and he definitely wouldn’t let you become some mediocre hero either.

 Exhaustion suddenly crashed down on Shinsou; his lips found the top of your head, pressing tenderly against it before he situated himself next to you on the bed, his arm slinging around your torso and tugging you closer to him.

 He definitely could never leave you behind, the love of his life. Despite what you and everyone else may think, you were everything to him.

 If he had to be there every time that your quirk went out of control then so be it, he’d bring you back down every single time.

[thelastspeecher]

Best Revenge AU - Junior

I’m still working on the ficlet in this AU that is Angie-centric and has stuff showing her relationship with Max, her divorce, and when she starts dating Stan.  But ever since I decided to create a new kid for this AU, I’ve been unable to stop thinking about said kid.  So here, have some origin story for Stanley Junior.

——————————————————————————————

              The front door slammed open.  Angie stormed into the living room, where Lute and Stan were waiting for her to come back.  After finding out Max had cheated on her, she had immediately gone over to trash his place.

              “Feelin’ better?” Lute asked gently.  Angie looked at him for a moment, then burst into tears. “Angie?”  She ran off.

              “What just happened?” Stan asked.

              “I don’t rightly know,” Lute said.  He chewed on his lip.  “Maybe it would be fer the best if you went to talk to her. She might not want to talk to her brother.”

              “I’m on it.”  Stan got up and went down the hall, coming to a stop in front of Angie’s bedroom.  He cautiously opened the door.  Angie sat on her bed, her head in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.  Stan took a seat next to her.

              “You all right?” he asked.

              “N-no.”

              “What’s wrong?  I woulda thought you’d be happy after trashing your ex’s house.”

              “I prob’ly would be,” Angie said, wiping her tears away, “if I wasn’t…”  She took a shuddering breath.  “If I wasn’t pregnant.”

              “You’re- but we haven’t knocked boots!”  It was something Stan was a bit disappointed by, but he was fine with waiting until Angie felt comfortable being intimate.  “How could you-”

              “It’s Max’s,” Angie whispered.  Stan stared at her in horror.  “Seems- seems like he got what he wanted.  I was ‘bout a week or two along when I left.”

              “I thought you were on birth control.” Stan’s eyes widened.  “Unless he fucked with your pills.”

              “He didn’t know about the pills.”

              “Then how-”

              “Birth control can fail.”

              “Are you- are you gonna keep it?” Stan asked quietly.  Angie closed her eyes.

              “Nothin’ against folks who decide to- to terminate a pregnancy.  It ain’t my business what they do.  But I- I can’t do that.”

              “You’re keeping it.”

              “Yes.”  Angie put her head in her hands, sobbing again.  “I’m- I’m sorry!”

              “Why?”

              “‘Cause I love ya so- so much, and ya won’t stay with me.”

              “Hold on.”  Stan held up a hand.  “When did I say that?”

              “You-”  Angie stared at him, her bright blue eyes filled with tears.  “Yer not goin’ to leave me?”

              “Nope.”

              “But I’m pregnant with another man’s baby.”

              “So?” Stan said with a shrug.  “Angie, this is the best relationship I’ve ever been in. I’m not gonna throw that away.  You mean everything to me.”  He reached for Angie’s hand and squeezed.  “I don’t want you to go through this alone.”

              “But-”

              “And…”  Stan looked down at the ground.  “Honestly? I’ve wanted to be a dad since I was a kid.  This just means I’ll be a dad sooner than I thought.”

              “You won’t regret it?” Angie asked.

              “I’d regret it if I left.”  Stan kissed the top of her head.  “I’m not going anywhere, Ang.”  Angie pulled Stan’s face closer to hers and kissed him sweetly.

              “I love you,” she whispered.

              “Love you, too.”

-----

              Stan landed in the backyard of Angie and Lute’s house.

              “Mind the flowerbed!” Angie called from inside. Stan quickly shut off his flames. “Thank you!”  Stan walked in through the back door.  “In the kitchen!”  He headed for the kitchen.  Angie was nervously stirring a pot of something on the stove.  Stan walked over to her and kissed the top of her head.  “Are ya excited?”

              “To meet your parents or to finally get all the baby stuff outta my apartment?” Stan asked.  Angie swatted him playfully.  The day after Angie told Stan she was pregnant and keeping it, Stan had gone on a bit of a spree, stealing things from numerous baby supply stores. Angie didn’t mind it, but insisted Stan not steal from small mom and pop stores.  However, because she had wanted to wait to tell her family about the pregnancy, the baby supplies were stacked up in Stan’s apartment.

              “Thank you fer bein’ so flexible on me not tellin’ my folks ‘til now,” she said softly.  Stan shrugged.

              “You’re the one who’s pregnant.  I’m just following your lead.”

              “Well, I’m officially in my second trimester, so now’s the time to tell.”

              “Are you showing yet?”

              “I literally showed ya yesterday.  Do ya really think I’d have started showin’ overnight?”

              “Well, you gotta get the bump at some point,” Stan said.  Angie chuckled.  She lifted her shirt to reveal her stomach.  It was a bit bigger than before, but didn’t look evidently pregnant. “Nope.  Not yet.”

              “I ain’t that surprised,” Angie said, lowering her shirt.  “I ‘member my Pa sayin’ that my Ma didn’t look pregnant until her third trimester fer all the kids.  Well, all of ‘em ‘cept me ‘n Lute, since we were twins.”

              “Yeah, you’re pretty small.”

              “Doc says that the lil bean ‘ll prob’ly be small, too.”  The doorbell rang.

              “I got it!” Lute’s voice shouted from somewhere.

              “Still can’t believe you managed to keep it secret from him,” Stan whispered to Angie.  “Not only is he your twin, you literally live together.”

              “Lute’s been walkin’ on eggshells ever since I left Max,” Angie said.  She turned off the stove.  “He’s very careful to not pry into my personal business, since Max was so controllin’.”  Footsteps sounded.  The front door opened.

              “Ma, Pa!” Lute said happily.  “Angie’s in the kitchen.  I ain’t sure if Stan’s got here yet or not.”  Lute entered the kitchen, a man and woman close behind him.  The man looked like a carbon copy of Lute, while the woman looked exactly like Angie, with one major exception.

              Angie clearly got her dad’s nose.  Wonder if the kid’ll get it, too.

              “Angie!”  Angie’s parents promptly pulled her away from the stove and into a hug.  “Oh, it’s so good to see ya,” her father cooed.  Her mother looked Angie up and down.

              “I see ya fin’ly put some meat on yer bones,” her mom said.  Angie turned red.

              “Ma!”

              “No, it’s good,” her dad said firmly.  “You needed it.”  He smiled at her.  “You’ve always been so tiny.”

              “Maybe it’s ‘cause she ain’t stressed from livin’ with that turd what pretended to be a husband,” Lute groused, leaning against the counter.  Angie kneaded her forehead.

              “Lute…”

              “I’m allowed to call him that.”  A sudden melancholy fell over Lute.  “He was my best friend long ‘fore he was yer boyfriend.”

              “I know.”

              “So, are ya goin’ to introduce us to yer new beau?” Mrs. McGucket cooed.  Angie grabbed Stan’s hand.  He gave her a reassuring squeeze.

              “Ma, Pa, this is my boyfriend, Stanley Pines. He works with Lute, but has a day job sellin’ used cars.  Stan, these ‘re my parents, Sally ‘n Mearl McGucket.”

              “Pleasure to meet ya, son,” Mr. McGucket said, holding out a hand.  Stan shook the offered hand, forcing a smile.  The two southerners seemed like a regular farmer and his wife, warm and gentle. But Stan knew that Mrs. McGucket was actually the infamous Sirocco, his own mother’s archnemesis, while Mr. McGucket had regularly interfered with local government as the villain Hemlock. “I got to say, I’m glad my lil girl fin’ly found herself a proper villain to date.”

              “Pa,” Angie whined.  Mr. McGucket chuckled.

              “I’m just teasin’, junebug.”

              “We’re so happy yer in a good relationship,” Mrs. McGucket gushed.  “Ya had a clean break with Max and can start over.”  Angie took a deep breath.

              “A-about that…” she started.  Stan looked at her, surprised.

              “You’re gonna tell them now?  I thought you were gonna wait until after dinner.”

              “No.”  Angie took another breath.  “I just- I just want to get it over with.”  She looked at her parents.  “Ma, Pa, I’m pregnant.”  Lute slipped from his casual lean, falling to the floor.  Mr. and Mrs. McGucket stared at Angie in shock.

              “O-oh,” Mrs. McGucket mumbled.  Mr. McGucket swallowed.

              “Angie, we try not to pass judgement on you ‘n yer siblin’s lives, but you’ve only been datin’ Stan fer a few months.  To become pregnant with his child-”

              “It’s not Stan’s,” Angie said quickly.  Mrs. McGucket covered her mouth, her eyes wide in horror. “It’s Max’s.  I didn’t know it, but I was a couple weeks along when I left.”

              “Shit,” Lute swore, getting to his feet.  His face contorted with rage.  “He- he just had to get the last word, didn’t he?”

              “Yer keepin’ it?” Mr. McGucket asked softly. Angie nodded.  “I see.”  He looked at his wife.  “Sally?”

              “Yes, dear.”  Mrs. McGucket took Angie’s hand.  “Come with me, sweetling.  I need to ask ya a few questions.”

              “Okay.”  Angie allowed Mrs. McGucket to lead her away.  Stan and Lute looked at Mr. McGucket, confused.

              “What’s that about?” Stan asked.  Mr. McGucket took off his glasses and polished them.

              “We were plannin’ on havin’ Sally ask Angie a few questions in private, due to the sensitive nature of her breakup with Max.”

              “You mean-” Stan started.  Mr. McGucket nodded and put his glasses back on.  Lute frowned.

              “What?”

              “Your mom is asking Angie if her ex-husband beat her,” Stan said flatly.  Lute’s jaw dropped.  “He didn’t, by the way.  Angie’s told me everything that her dick of an ex did to her.  Max treated her like she was made of glass and tried to control her near the end, but he didn’t lay a finger on her.”

              Except for when he tried to keep her from leaving and grabbed her hard enough to bruise.  But Angie had sworn Stan to secrecy in that regard.  She knew her family would go scorched earth if they found out, which she didn’t want.

              “Stanley, she might still be uncomfortable tellin’ ya somethin’ that she’d feel more comfortable tellin’ her mother,” Mr. McGucket said gently.  He glowered. “Especially…”

              “What?” Lute asked.

              “With this new information ‘bout Max gettin’ her pregnant, we have to consider the possibility that Angie didn’t…”  Mr. McGucket closed his eyes.  “We need to make sure Angie consented to the events what caused her to get pregnant and that Max didn’t, ah, counteract any attempts Angie made to prevent a pregnancy.”  Lute shook his head.

              “No, Pa.  Max, he- he turned out to be a real poor excuse of a person, but he wouldn’t have done anything like that to Angie.  And if he’d even tried, Angie wouldn’t have tolerated it.”

              “Hon, yer sister is very strong, but strong people can find themselves strugglin’ in a sit’ation like Angie was in,” Mr. McGucket said.  “I also don’t think that Max would have done that to Angie.  But we can’t ignore that possibility.”

              “It’s smart,” Stan said after a moment.  “Gotta cover all your bases.”

              “Yes.”  Mr. McGucket looked at Stan carefully.  “So, yer fine with raisin’ another man’s child?”

              “Yep.  Angie and I talked it out ages ago.”  Stan grinned, glad for the change in topic.  “I’ve already started stocking up on stuff for the kid.”

              “Yer the one what burgled all those baby stores?” Lute asked.  Stan nodded. “Where have ya been puttin’ the stuff?”

              “My apartment.  But now that you all know, I can finally start moving it here.  Thank god.  I can barely see my bed.”

              “Y’know, if yer goin’ to be with Angie fer the long haul and help her raise her child,” Mr. McGucket said idly, “maybe ya should just move in with her.”  Stan stared at him.

              “Pa, Angie’s the one who should offer that, not you,” Lute said, rolling his eyes.  Mr. McGucket chuckled.

              “Yer right, yer right.”  He clapped Stan on the shoulder.  “Are ya excited to be a dad?”  Stan’s grin broadened.

              “Yeah.  I am. I know it’s gonna be tough and stressful, but I’m looking forward to holding the kid for the first time.”  Mr. McGucket beamed.

              “That’s what I like to hear.”

              “What a coincidence,” Angie said.  Stan turned.  Angie and her mother had returned.  She smiled at Stan.  “That’s what I like to hear, too.”

-----

              “It’s a boy!” the doctor said.  Stan looked over.  The newborn in the doctor’s arms was tiny and covered in body fluids Stan didn’t want to think about.  The doctor handed the baby to a nearby nurse.

              “Hey, uh, where are you taking him?” Stan asked. Angie chuckled.

              “Stanley, relax.  They’re just cleanin’ him up,” she said wearily.

              “Oh.  Right.” Stan grinned at Angie.  “Got caught up in the moment.”  Angie laughed again.

              “What time is it?” she asked.

              “Uh…”  Stan checked his watch.  “Two in the morning.”

              “Geez.”  Angie yawned. “No wonder I’m so tired.  I was in labor fer ten hours.”  Angie had gone into labor yesterday afternoon, prompting Stan to call out of the bank job he was supposed to help with.  “Is yer hand all right?”

              “I’ve had worse,” Stan said.  He’d been by Angie’s side throughout the labor, providing his hand for her to squeeze when she had a particularly bad contraction.  “So, was this a good labor or-”

              “It went about as smoothly as it could,” said the nurse, who had come back with the baby.  “Honestly, I haven’t seen a labor and birth this free from complications in a while.”

              “Good,” Angie said sleepily.  “Is my boy ready?”

              “Yes, he is.  Here you go.  He’s perfectly healthy.”  The nurse carefully deposited the baby in Angie’s arms.  “I’ll give you three some time to get to know each other.”

              “Thank you,” Angie said.  The nurse left.  Angie carefully parted the folds of the blanket, revealing her son.  “He’s so beautiful,” she whispered.

              “He’s really tiny,” Stan said.  “Are babies always that tiny?”

              “Newborns are usually pretty small, but this lil feller is definitely smaller ‘n average,” Angie answered.  She stroked her son’s cheek.  The baby shifted slightly and opened his eyes.  Stan smiled.

              “He’s got your peepers.”

              “He might not.”

              “Uh, he’s got blue eyes.”

              “Sometimes, babies are born with blue eyes, only fer the eyes to turn brown later on.”  Angie smiled. “He’s got the fam’ly nose, though.”

              “And he’s bald.”

              “Mm-hmm.”  Angie’s eyes slowly closed.  “He’s perfect.”

              “What are you gonna name him?” Stan asked.

              “Shh, later,” Angie mumbled.  Stan carefully took the baby from her.  He kissed her forehead.  Angie smiled.

              “Get some sleep.  You’ve earned it.”

-----

              “Stanley?”  Stan opened his eyes.  He looked at the hospital bed.  Angie was awake.

              “Hey, babe.”  Stan stretched.  After Angie had fallen asleep, she’d been taken from the delivery room to her own private room.  Stan had set up camp in the chair by her bed and fallen asleep.  “How are you doing?”

              “Less tired.”  Angie looked around.  “Where’s the baby?”

              “I had him go to the nursery so we could both get some sleep.”

              “Ah.  Smart.”

              “They asked what his name was, but I didn’t know what you were planning on, so they just put him down as Baby McGucket.” Stan grinned.  “Which, honestly, isn’t half bad of a name.”  Angie laughed.

              “It wouldn’t be the weirdest name in my fam’ly. But it ain’t the name I’ve got in mind.”

              “What is?”

              “You’ll see,” Angie said with a grin.  Stan chuckled.

              “Making me wait.  I see how it is.”  He stood up. “Be right back, I’ve gotta go pee.”

-----

              When Stan got back to Angie’s hospital room, she was holding the baby.  Stan walked over to her bed.

              “Yer middle name is Stanford, right?” Angie asked him.

              “Uh, yeah.  Fuck Pops for doing that to me.”

              “Love, there ‘re young ears in hearin’ range,” Angie said gently.  “No swearin’ ‘round the baby.”

              “…Right.”  Stan rubbed the back of his neck.  “Why’d you need my middle name?  Oh, I was gonna sign the birth certificate.”

              “No need.  Birth certificate is all done,” Angie said.  Stan frowned.

              “But who’d you put down as the dad?”

              “I left it blank.”  Angie looked down at her son in her arms.  “I didn’t- I know that yer happy to be raisin’ this lil bean now, but I didn’t want to chain ya to a child what ain’t yours.  Just in case.”

              “Ang…”

              “I don’t want ya to feel trapped,” Angie said quietly.  Stan’s eyes widened.  He put his arm around her shoulders.  “I’ve felt that way.  I wouldn’t wish it on someone I love.”

              “You’re too good for me,” Stan said.  Angie managed a watery chuckle.  “If I’m not signing the birth certificate, why’d you need to know my middle name?”

              “Well…”  Angie smiled. “Hold out yer arms.”  Stan did as he was told.  Angie carefully handed the baby over.  “Meet Stanley Stanford McGucket.”

              “Wh-”  Stan stared at Angie.  “That’s- that’s my name.”  Angie nodded. Stan swallowed.  “It’s- it’s a good name,” he choked out.

              “You’ve been there fer me through all of this.  It’s the only name what feels right fer the lil bean.”

              “I…”  Stan stared down at the baby named after him.  “He really is a little bean.”  Angie laughed.

              “I was thinkin’ we could call him Junior. He ain’t Stan Pines Junior at the moment, but if we get married, he will be.  And since yer already named Stan…”

              “Yeah, I’d be pretty confused if I heard Lute say he changed Stan’s dirty diaper,” Stan said dryly.  Angie laughed again.  “You’re in a good mood.”

              “I’ve got my two boys with me.  How could I not be?” Angie asked.  Junior shifted in Stan’s arms.  Stan smiled down at him.

              “Hey, bud,” he whispered.  Junior watched him curiously.  “I’m not the one who got your mama pregnant.  But I’m the one who’s gonna take care of you.  Got it?”  Junior giggled.  “Good. Glad we’re on the same page.” Stan sat down in the chair he’d slept in, still staring at Junior.  “Sweet Moses. I’m- I’m a dad.”

              “Only if ya want to be,” Angie said.  Stan looked at her.

              “I just told Junior that I’m gonna be his dad.  He understood.  You didn’t?”

              “All right, all right,” Angie said, holding her hands up in surrender.  “All right. Yer a dad.  Yer Junior’s dad.

              “Damn straight.”

              “Language.”

              “Right.”  Stan settled back in his chair.  “These isn’t the Halloween I had in mind, but-”

              “Pardon?”

              “Ang, you went into labor yesterday, on October 30th,” Stan said.  “Today’s Halloween.”  Angie burst into laughter.  “What?”

              “It’s just- I was born on April Fool’s Day.  It feels appropriate fer my son to be born on Halloween.”  Stan held up a finger.

              “Nuh-uh.  Our son was born on Halloween.”  He grinned. “I’m gonna throw Junior the best birthday parties.”  A comfortable silence fell.  “I kinda like how quiet it is right now.”

              “Don’t get too used to it,” Angie warned.  “My entire fam’ly is headin’ over.  It’ll get loud real fast.”  The door slammed open.

              “Where’s my new nephew?” Lute crowed.  Angie looked at Stan.

              “See?”

[therainroguefanfiction]

🔥 ℝise Ⱥbove I̾t ◈ Chapter 031 [Finals Begin!]

📑 Table of Contents | ◂Backward

Word Count: 2,786

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

〈“Some legends are told, some turn to dust or to gold. But you will remember me, remember me for centuries. And just one mistake is all it will take, we’ll go down in history.” Fall Out Boy, “Centuries”��

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

“Do you see him, kid?” I asked, holding his ankles in my hands.

Riku was sitting on my shoulders so he could look over the crowd. He crossed his arms, resting them on the top of my head. “Nope. There’s Mt. Lady, but my brother isn’t anywhere around. Where is that idiot?”

I hummed, approaching the blonde-haired hero. “Let’s gather some clues.”

“Like Scooby-Doo!” I could hear the smile in his voice and chuckled.

She noticed us approaching and lifted her chin, hand on her hip. “Did you finally come to apologize?”

“Not even on your life,” I deadpanned. “Oi, Riku.”

“Right! Have you see a teenage boy that’s really desperate for your attention?”

If I wasn’t holding his ankles to keep him from falling, I would have facepalmed.

She sweatdropped. “There’s a lot of those, you’re gonna have to be more specific.”

“Umm, well, he’s eighteen-years-old, never had a girlfriend that isn’t an anime character, got rejected from two different colleges, he’s a huge pervert with a large stack of dirty magazines under his bed and his favorite color on a girl is pink! Does that help?”

My eye twitched. Really starting to remember why I don’t fuck with little kids… I cleared my throat. “Maybe start with his name…”

“Yuki Reigen.”

“Okay. Now, what does he look like?”

He hummed thoughtfully. “He’s kinda short for his age and he dyes his hair blonde, but he’s really bad at it so it’s super streaky. He wears blue contacts but his eyes are actually brown like mine! His skin is kinda oily, especially his nose, even though he uses this weird smelling cream. He thinks it works but it doesn’t at all!”

Mt. Lady tilted her head, her finger on her chin. Her face suddenly lit up with recognition. “Oh yeah! He was so desperate for my number, he said he’d do anything for it, it was honestly pathetic. I was just about to tell him he could have it after being my slave for two years, but then he suddenly panicked and ran off.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked.

“Yeah, you’re a creepy old hag!” Riku added. “My brother will never be a slave to someone as ugly as you!”

“What did you just call me, you brat?!”

“Mt. Lady!” Woodsman came speed-walking up, putting his wooden arm between us before she could advance. “You’re supposed to be patrolling!”

Riku started to shake, his fingers curling around my short hair as he sniffled. “S-She’s so s-scary! She threatened to h-hit me!” His crying alerted the other people around us, who stopped to see what was going on. Hearing his words made a few of them glare at her, clutching their children closer.

The color drained from her face and she hastily tried to explain the situation. “W-What? No, I -”

Woodsman put his hands on his hips, glaring at her. “You made this child cry, now say you’re sorry!”

“But I didn’t -”

Riku started to cry louder.

“O-Okay! I’m sorry, just stop crying!”

His cries died down to soft sniffles. I swear if he gets snot in my fucking hair I’mma rage.

Woodsman turned to us with a sigh. “I’m really sorry about her, she has no filter. You really should be getting back, the finals will be starting soon.”

“I can’t.” I motioned toward the kid shoving his face onto my head. “He can’t find his brother and I’m trying to help find him.”

“Oh, I see. Here, let me take over.” He held his hands out and I bent down so he could gently grab Riku under the arms, lifting him up and over my head before bringing him into his arms. “Don’t worry, I promise I’ll find his brother.”

I nodded, ruffling Riku’s hair. “Don’t leave that idiot brother of yours again, okay? And no more jumping from the stands.”

He nodded, wiping at his wet eyes with the back of his hand. “Thank you, big sis.”

Woodsman nodded his head at me before walking away, Riku leaning over his shoulder. His sad expression morphed to a smug grin, all traces of his tears gone.

I exchanged a look with Mt. Lady and I knew we were thinking the same thing – children are fucking demons.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

“Thank you, Cementoss! Hey, sports fans, are you ready?! After all the action you’ve already witnessed, it’s time for the real battle to begin! Can you feel the excitement?! Our competitors are on their own now! Sometimes heroes have only themselves to rely on! Heart, skill, strength, wisdom, courage – they’ll have to use all of these things to rise to the top!”

A bead of sweat rolled down my cheek as I took a deep breath. Why the fuck do I have to go first? Man, there’s gonna be so many fuckers watching me. Just the thought makes me want to die. Maybe I’ll just forfeit…

Strong hands landed on my shoulders. “You’re pretty tense, kid. Nervous?”

I turned around to face Snipe and Toshi. “I’m always tense, it’s a way of life.”

“Don’t worry, young Jen, you’ll do great.” Toshi gave me a thumbs up and a grin. “You fought against young Reggian a bit in the cavalry battle so you know a bit about his quirk already.”

“Somethin’ to do with air, I think?” I scratched my cheek.

“Just don’t kill ’em and you’ll be just fine,” Snipe put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into a half hug. “We’ll be rootin’ for ya, kid.”

“Thanks, guys.” I grinned.

“Well, well, audience, let’s cut to the good stuff and not delay these finals any longer! Welcome our first fighters – with a potty mouth and an attitude to match, it’s Jen Winchester from the hero course!”

I stepped through the doorway, hands shoved into my pockets. My eyes squinted as the sudden bright light invading my vision. The crowd was screaming, but I did my best not to pay them any mind as I approached the arena.

“Versus! His sanity is seriously up for debate, it’s Regina Reggian from general studies!”

“Hey, I’m lucid sometimes, twatwaffle!”

“What did he just call me?!”

“A twatwaffle.”

“Don’t ever say that again, Eraser…”

I rolled my eyes before glancing across to the other doorway where Regina was exiting from, looking smug. Man, this guy really has a face I just wanna punch. With a fucking metal chair.

“The rules are simple – immobilize your opponent or force them out of the ring! You can also win by getting the other person to cry uncle! Bring on the injuries because we’ve got our very own Recovery Girl waiting on standby! So put your morals aside and don’t be afraid to play dirty, but of course, no life-threatening crap, folks, it’s not allowed! Real heroes use their powers to throw villains in jail, not kill them!”

“I’ll stop anyone that tries to get too rough,” Cementoss said calmly. He was sitting beside the ring, directly centered with it in a chair he had made with his quirk.

I scratched my cheek. Call me old-fashioned but should they really be encouraging teenagers to beat the ever-living shit out of each other? Sounds fucking suspect.

Regina grinned at me. “I’m gonna force you to give up, nerd!”

“Not even in your dreams, kid.” I grinned back. “Be careful, you don’t wanna get burnt.”

“Ready?!”

“You’re a magician’s red burnin’ chicken looking ass.”

“What the fuck does that even mean? Your taste sound like ass. I’m gonna fucking annihilate you like Kunimitsu Tezuka did to the dinosaurs.”

“Nani the fuck?”

“BEGIN!”

We both took our stances. He held his hands out like he were gripping a sword and the air around him started to solidify, forcing the hilt of a sword. The blade started to form… is that a fucking cactus? “Hey! This is my cactus and his name is Pablo!”

I sweatdropped. What is with this guy? “Oi -” I suddenly gagged as something solidified in my mouth. It tasted like if you took Kirishima’s dirty gym socks, wiped your ass with it, and then pureed it with rotten onions. My stomach turned as I spit it out, coughing violently as I tried to ignore the taste on my tongue. Is that… a mother fucking sock?!

“Winchester just spit up a sock! What is this sorcery we’re seeing, folks?!”

“Take this!” Taking advantage of the distracted he had created, he moved in close, swinging the sword above his head. My hand shot up, connecting with the translucent spikes of the cactus. They broke the skin, small drops of blood flowing from the holes.

“Reggian has successfully launched the first attack! How will Winchester respond?!”

“Am I a fucking joke to you?”

“No, you’re a nerd.”

“Hmph, can’t argue with that one, but you’re gonna have to die now, thanks!” I squeezed my hand, increasing the temperature of my skin until the cactus exploded. My hand was throbbing.

“PABLO, NO!!!”

I punched him in the stomach, sending him stumbling backward, clutching his stomach and coughing.

“You’ll pay… for killing Pablo… you thot!” He held his hand up and the air started to solidify. “Improvised special move, Pablo Jr!!” He threw the small, potted cactus at me and I grunted, smacking it away. As soon as my hand touched it, it exploded.

“It’s hard to see but if you look closely you can see a bunch of translucent spikes now stuck in Winchester’s body from that last attack!”

“Son of a bitch,” I grunted. He lifted his hands again and I dashed forward. I won’t even give him the chance to – smack. I fell face-first on the ground, the cold cement seeping through my clothes.

Silence fell over the stadium before a roar of laughter erupted.

“Oh my god!”

“Did you see her face?!”

“I’m so glad I came, this is hilarious!”

“What a classic move!!”

“I’m wheezing, someone help!”

“Ahahahaha! Class 1-A isn’t looking so cool now, is it?!”

“Shut up, Monoma!”

“No one can get past my second improvised special move – Banana Peel Field!!” Regina laughed loudly.

“I can’t believe it! In all my years, this is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone slip on a banana peel during the sports festival! This is great!!”

I slowly lifted my head, my teeth clenched in annoyance. I fucking slipped on a mother fucking banana peel made of goddamn air. This fucking brat is toying with me and it’s pissing me off. I pulled myself to my feet, my blood boiling as flames engulfed my hands. I thrust them out to the side and lines of fire shot out in all directions, swirling around the arena.

I clenched my fists, grinning when he took a step back. “I’m not gonna give you the chance to give up, but don’t worry bro, I will give you the chance to die!” I slammed both fists against the ground, the concrete splitting as fire snaked through it directly toward him.

“Ah, shit -”

The flames shot up from the ground, hitting him in the gut and lifting him off his feet. I teleported behind him, pulling my leg back before slamming my shin against his back and into the cement. He coughed, doing a somersault to avoid my boot. He breathed heavily, lifting his hands again, but I didn’t give him the chance, teleporting behind him again. Pain shot through my skull and I knew I needed to end it soon.

The flames raged on my arm as I cocked my arm, bringing my fist against his face. He flew backward and I stomped my foot, sending a wave of flame to propel him farther. It smacked into him like a spout of water, forcing his body out of bounds and pinning it against the wall. His eyes rolled back in his head as he lost consciousness, the flames dying out. The air spikes in my body disappeared.

“Reggian is out of bounds!” Midnight raised her hand, the metal cuff clanking from the movement. “Winchester advances to the next round!”

“Woah, that chick is kinda scary, don’t you think?”

“She told him to die!”

“That’s not a very heroic thing to say…”

“Reggian did really well!”

“He’s hilarious! Imagine having him as a sidekick.”

“Right? There’d never be a dull moment!”

“His power is pretty unique, too. If you think about it, the uses for his quirk are pretty limitless.”

“Right? Fire’s a pretty basic quirk, no creativity there.”

My eyes narrowed at my hand, watching the blood drip to the cement.

“Go see Recovery Girl.” Midnight ordered.

“Yeah, whateva.”

“And with that explosive display, we have the first victor of the finals! Class 1-A’s Jen Winchester! Ah yeah~ that was a pretty amusing first fight, kids! Both of you fought bravely, let’s show them some love!!”

I won the fucking match, but I feel like a fucking loser. I shoved my hands into my pockets as I approached the dark hallway. I wanna go home.

“Hey, big sis!”

I glanced up at Riku’s voice. He was leaning over the railing again, waving his hand like crazy. A taller boy stood behind him, gripping the back of his shirt to keep him in place. That must be his older brother. Good, I’m glad the Woodsman was able to find him.

“You were so cool out there! Your power is uber strong!” he grinned brightly, closing his eyes. “I wanna be just like you when I grow up!”

My heart skipped a beat as warmth flooded me, my lips twitching up as I released a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. Thanks, kid… I needed that.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

“Gimme some sugar~” Gran pressed her lips to my cheek and patted my bandaged hand. “There, all better, deary.”

“Thanks, Gran.”

“Why the glum face? You won, after all.”

I sighed, falling back onto the bed and staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t know. I mean, I know I won the fight, but he won over the crowd. They totally hated me.”

She hummed. “There will always be times when people prefer one quirk over another. Don’t let it get you down, deary. You’ll always be number one in my heart.”

I smiled, turning onto my side and propping my cheek up against my palm. “Can I ask you somethin’?”

“Of course you may.”

“What does it mean… to be a hero?”

She sent me a surprised look before humming, her hand on her chin. “Well, everyone views it quite differently. At its very core, a hero is someone that wants to help others, but everyone has their own reasons, their own desires, to become a hero.”

“But I don’t,” I frowned, picking at the white sheet beneath me. “I don’t have that drive. I’ve thought about it a bunch of times, but I can’t think of a reason to fight. Besides… if people find out who my mother is, won’t that make them hate me, anyway? Bakugo told me not to tell anyone. He was dead serious about it. She was an A-Class villain turned pro hero. No one trusted her…”

Gran set her small hand over mine, her voice warm. “That may be true, but you are not your mother, deary. You’re your own person and if they view you differently, well, that’s their loss. No matter what happens in the future, you will always have a place here at U.A.”

My fingers wrapped around her hand. “Do you think… I’ll find a reason to be a hero?”

“I do, but you must remember that you grew up in a world where heroes are nothing more than fiction. It makes sense that you have no desire to be a hero because you grew up believing that such a dream simply wasn’t possible. I believe that, with time, you’ll find your reason to keep fighting. You just have to have some patience. These things can’t be rushed.”

I chuckled. “Patience has never been my strong suit. When I was a kid, the loading screen for my new game was taking too long so I kicked the TV.”

She laughed, patting my hand. “Yes, well, you are still young, deary.”

I glanced at Regina, who was unconscious on the bed across the room. “He gonna be okay?”

“He’ll be just fine. I’ve healed his wounds, now he just needs to recover his stamina. No need to worry.”

“Che, as if I’d worry about that idiot.” I rolled over onto my back, folding my hands behind my head. “Can I rest here for a bit?”

“Of course, deary.”

“Thanks, Gran.”

She pressed a kiss to my cheek before returning to her work, leaving me to mull over her words.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

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[winterhawkkisses]

So I don't know what to prompt, but could you please write a ficlet for phaeshmae for Valentines day?

Happy Valentine’s, @phaeshmae!

Once upon a time there was a handsome prince. He was strong, and he was angry, and he tried real hard to be good, but it turned out he wasn’t quite good enough to be the hero of the tale, so he fell off a carriage and he died.

Ain’t much of a fairytale.

Bucky read a shirt, once. Waiting for the lights to change, so he had enough time to read the dense text, even with the unnecessary size changes that made it harder to follow.

Either you die a hero, it said, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Bucky blinked and thought - or both. Both, sometimes, and it caught in the back of his throat and made him laugh until he couldn’t breathe.

So try this again, maybe.

Once upon a time a handsome prince woke up from an enchanted sleep. And where he had once been good, and kind, and a little angry maybe but with a heart of gold - where he had been all those things he was now cold, and dark, and lost.

It ain’t the kinda thing that ought to happen to princes. That ain’t how you get to be a hero.

Maybe he’s telling it wrong.

Once upon a time there was a handsome prince. And he was brave, and mostly good, and definitely funny, but he still fell off a carriage and everyone in the kingdom thought he was dead. He got captured, though, by an evil witch in a forest, a witch who turned him into a tin soldier with a clockwork heart, and the witch made him -

made him -

Bucky kinda wants to know how he skips to the part where someone says ‘and they lived happily ever after, the end.’

*

Okay. So.

Once upon a time there were a couple of boys. They grew up together, and they were close as brothers, and one of them was blond and one of them dark, which was a good enough indication, in the tales they used to read, about which one of ‘em was gonna go bad.

And there was this - this mirror, say. Mirror-blue liquid that changed everything it touched, and magnified what it changed so good became great, and bad became worse. And someone tried to steal the mirror but instead they wound up breaking it, scattering it to the four winds, sending it into the mountains and the deserts and the deepest blue sea.

And shards of this mirror found their way into the dark-haired boy’s heart, and he became cold, and unfeeling, and only good for following orders, and uncaring when he did.

And yeah, there were some enchanted sleeps involved, and some fighting and some giants and some endings, happy or not; mostly, there was the power of human love melting the ice in his heart, and ain’t that just some Hans Christian Andersen shit?

*

It turned out to take a while, for the happily ever after.

Bucky moved into the little brownstone apartment that Steve insisted there was space in, and started collecting hoodies to hang in the closet, and battered sci-fi books to stow away on the shelves. He collected ways to deal with his nightmares, too, none of which ever did much good. He found that the days when he slept best were the days where he fought his hardest, where he wound up sprawled on his back, bruised and bleeding and tired right down to his bones, knowing - 'cos he was followin’ a little guy from Brooklyn - that he was going down the right paths.

He figured hangin’ around this many heroes had to rub off on him eventually, so he actually found himself being the one to encourage Stevie to get in on the post-mission diner-dinners, the team training, the movie nights. He taught himself how to be human again from watching them carefully and mimicking what they did, and the first time he grabbed Clint like Steve sometimes grabbed Sam, knuckling the top of his head and mussing up his hair, he thought he felt his clockwork heart maybe skip a beat.

He thought it was a sign he was becoming a real boy; turned out maybe it was a sign of somethin’ a little more than that.

See, Steve was a hero 'cos he wasn’t the strongest, when he started. He wasn’t the strongest, but he worked the hardest, and even when it was tough he was deep down good, all the way down to his heart. Stevie was a blond-haired-blue-eyed fairytale prince, and he never needed the magic mirror to make himself into a hero.

And the more time Bucky spent in the tower, the more he noticed that -

It was like the inverse of the mirror. It was like the opposite of what it’d done. Like it’d taken the perfection of Steve and reflected it, until it had the hero he used to be. Not the strongest, 'cos he ain’t got powers, but maybe working the hardest, spending night after night after sleepless night firing arrows in the range. Maybe the best, deepest down, 'cos he’d been twisted and used and he’d come back stronger and better and determined to make things right.

Clint made Bucky’s heart beat all uneven, made him feel small and breakable and human in a way he’d never quite got back.

Power of human love, right?

It was a tentative feeling, a careful one that he was only just about learning how to live. He found himself smiling a little wider and living a little harder, finding ways to put his smile onto Clint’s face. He found himself wanting to touch, starting out tentative and small, and building into draping himself all over Clint on the couch, pressed into his side and feeling warm right down to his soul. And Clint seemed - disbelieving, at first, but then happy, and then happier, and then pressing their lips together wearing his happiest damn smile.

And Bucky was shooting for 'ever’, but he’d stopped wanting the end.

[fanfic-inator795]

Lego Batman Oneshot: Weapon of Choice

Plot: Honestly, it made sense. Dick already had his own costume and his own utility belt, so why not his own signature weapon? Unfortunately for the dynamic duo, finding the perfect Robin-suited weapon seemed like it would be easier said than done...

Despite being known for it’s dark clouds and gloomy atmosphere, Gotham had managed to receive a bit of good weather for once. Not too hot and humid, but still bright and sunny. Truly a perfect summer’s day!

...Not that Batman or Dick would know, or even notice since both of them were in the Batcave - where it always seemed like nighttime. 

But hey, who said nighttime was a bad thing? Nighttime was when Batman did his best work, after all! Beating up criminals, catching bad guys and putting his amazing detective brain to work - which is what he was currently doing as he tried to piece together how several barrels of radioactive waste from various facilities around Gotham had disappeared, as well as trying to figure out who could have taken them.

Unfortunately, thanks to a certain sidekick/son, he wasn’t getting much work done...

Sure, after living with the kid for several months, Batman had gotten used to how curious Dick could be when it came to both sides of his home. Just a couple weeks ago, Dick had tried mattress surfing down one of the bigger flights of stairs in Wayne Manor. That had actually been a fun distraction, especially once his bat-dad had joined in.

Today however, Dick’s curious nature was proving to be just a distraction - and a fairly frustrating and annoying one at that. It seemed like every five minutes, Batman had to leave ‘Puter to go and stop his son from breaking something or from touching one of the more dangerous weapons that he had in his arsenal. 

The breaking point (literally) had been when Dick accidentally cracked one of his Kryptonite spears. “Okay kid, enough!” Batman snapped as he snatched the spear back, “Seriously! Just stop touching everything!”

“...Right,” Dick nodded, looking down at his feet as his eyes started to water a bit, “Sorry, Batman...”

“...*siiiigh*” His face softening a bit, Batman put the spear back on the weapons rack that was labeled “Awesome weapons for BvS fight only”, and put his hand on his son’s shoulder. 

“...Sorry for yelling,” he mumbled, causing Dick to glance up at him again, “It’s just... Come on, even you’re not this touchy when it comes to my stuff-” And normally he was more interested in the Bat-vehicles and the hundreds of bat-costumes anyway, not the weapons. “So, what’s going on with you today?”

The boy shrugged sheepishly. “I guess I just thought that, while you were working, I would... test out some of the weapons you have?”

Batman raised an eyebrow. “Why would you want to do that?” He gestured to his arsenal. “Honestly as cool as they are, most of these things can only be used against certain villains or in certain situations.” Maybe a bit wasteful, but that didn’t matter. Batman always stuck by his methods. “Besides, you’ve already got your own Bat-a-rangs!” He also still had the Bat-Shark Repellent, though to be fair, that was nearly useless given how few sharks and shark villains there were in Gotham.

Dick nodded, smiling a bit. “Yeah, I know. And, don’t get me wrong, Padre, your Bat-a-rangs are really cool!” However, his smile faded a bit as he glanced away once more. “But, I mean... It’s just...” 

The Dark Knight blinked in surprise. Normally the kid absolutely loved having anything that was bat themed! Why the sudden change? Did he not think bats were cool or something? “What? What’s wrong with Bat-a-rangs?”

“Nothing! They’re really cool!” Dick repeated, “It’s just... Don’t you think that it makes more sense for just Batman to use Bat-a-rangs?”

“...So, what? Do you want yours to be called Robin-rangs or somethin’?”

“...Uh, y-yeah, maybe!” Dick answered, shrugging again, “Or, maybe...” He looked at his father with wide, hopeful eyes. “Maybe, I could have my own weapon?”

...Ohhh, so THAT was it! 

Batman smiled, looking both relieved and even a bit proud. His son was already growing up a bit... And honestly, it made sense. Dick already had his own costume and his own utility belt, so why not his own signature weapon? Every hero had one (or at least, the ones who didn’t just rely on super-strength and speed did), and he certainly wasn’t about to deny his son one!

So, with a grin, Batman answered, “Well of course you can! I mean, you are a hero, aren’t you?”

Dick grinned widely, giving a small hop in excitement. “Yes Sir!”

His father grinned back at him. “Good. ‘Puter!” 

There was a small beep from somewhere in the vast and deep Batcave. “Yes Sir?”

“Go ahead and bring out any and all weapons that could be used on a typical crime fighting night.” “Okay.” Suddenly, robotic arms came down and took away any weapons that were meant to only be used against super powerful opponents as well as weapons that were more offensive than defensive, such as swords and axes. Then again, those were usually too heavy for Dick to wield anyway, so he didn’t mind. 

However, even with those factors narrowing his choices down, Dick could still see plenty of weapons that were still there - as well as a few new ones that had been brought out. “Alright, kid,” he heard his bat dad tell him, “Go ahead and start trying them out.”

Letting out a small cheer, Dick ran forward and grabbed the first weapon he spotted: Nunchucks. “I didn’t know you had ninja weapons, Padre!”

“Yeah,” Batman nodded with a small smirk, “They may not be my style, but they are pretty handy - especially whenever the League of Shadows starts showing up. Go ahead and give them a swing!”

“Okay!” Sticking his tongue out a bit in concentration, Dick started to slowly swing the nunchucks. Then a little faster, then even faster. “Hey, I think I’m starting to get- AH!” He had wanted to try and do a move with the weapon, but even just moving his arm a bit had caused him to temporarily lose both control and concentration - which in-turn caused the blunt weapon to hit him right in the face. 

“Oh my gosh!” Batman gasped, running over to him, “You okay?!”

“Ugh, yeah...” Dick nodded as he rubbed his face, wincing a bit, “Um, let me try that aga-” But before he could even start swinging, the weapon was pulled out of his hand.

“Uhh, maybe we should come back to this one later,” his father suggested as he held the nunchucks up, allowing another robot arm to take them away, “Okay, buddy?” 

“Alright,” Dick agreed, feeling more disappointed in his fail than the actual loss of the weapon. Turning back to the various shelves of weapons, he hummed a bit as he thought about his next choice. 

He saw a shield, and while that was certainly handy, he could easily think of a couple other heroes who used shields. And they were fine, he had nothing against them! He just really wanted to have his own weapon, his own thing. Like having a costume or a theme song, you couldn’t just copy someone else!

Standing up on his toes a bit, Dick quickly spotted another weapon up on a higher shelf. Reaching up, he pulled down a- “Boomerang?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah, that old thing.” Batman gave a small, slightly nostalgic smile. “That was from waaaay back, back when I was still designing all my cool stuff and trying to figure out what weapons Batman would use.”

“Oh. Cool!” Dick examined the boomerang. Unlike its future counterparts, there were no special additions to make it explode or release smoke or signal a bunch of bats. But hey, it still looked like a decent boomerang. Pretty strong too. Deciding to give it a shot, the young sidekick brought his arm back, threw the boomerang deep into the Batcave, and waited for it to return.

...And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

“...I don’t think it’s coming back, Padre.” “Yeahhh, that’s why I upgraded to the Bat-a-rang.”

Thankfully, there were still plenty of other weapons to choose from. It didn’t take him too long to find a black bow and arrow set. DEFINITELY cool - and something he felt like he could actually use! ...Though, when he thought about it, Dick really did consider himself more of a ‘close-up’ kind of fighter. So, the bow and arrow was put back.

Another shelf held more ninja style weapons, such as shuriken and sai - but as cool as they were, they weren’t quite Dick’s style either. Other weapons though - like the tiny balls that could release giant nets when activated, or the flash grenades that could distract even the toughest opponents - definitely were. But, at the same time, those weren’t exactly ‘weapons’. More like useful tools to add to his utility belt. Of course that was still handy, but it was also just a bit disappointing...

After several minutes of searching, Dick sighed, stepping away from the arsenal. “On second thought, maybe I should just stick to using Bat-a-rangs...”

“Hey, come on, kid...” Not completely sure what else to do to help, Batman just patted Dick’s shoulder a couple times. “Look... if none of these weapons work for you, you could always build your own. That’s what I did, and I know you’ve got the talent to do it too! ...And, at the very least, I guess we could turn a few of the Bat-a-rangs into Birdy-rangs or something like that.”

“...” Despite still feeling down, Dick glanced over and gave his father a small smile for his efforts. “Alright... Thanks Da-”

Suddenly, a high-pitched mechanical sound came out of nowhere, making the Dynamic Duo flinch for just a moment before the realized what the sound was. “The Bat-Fax!” 

Sure, it wasn’t very high tech- ...In fact, it wasn’t high tech whatsoever. But hey, the Bat-Signal couldn’t work all the time (even if clear nights and villains attacking during the day was very rare in Gotham), and since Batman usually forgot to take his phone off vibrate, the Bat-Fax really was the best back-up option. “Come on!” Batman ordered as soon as the fax was done printing from his cowl, “Let’s go!”

“I’m right behind you, Padre!” Dick replied, determined as he ran after the hero. Maybe he didn’t have a weapon, but that wasn’t going to stop him from joining the fight! He was still his own hero along with being a sidekick! Besides, nothing wrong with using just good ol’ fists and some Gym-Kata, after all!

()()()()()()()()()()

The road was nearly completely covered in glowing green goo, cracking the pavement underneath and leaving a sort of burnt plastic smell in the air. As soon as it was close enough to them, the spreading goo then began climbing onto the buildings, swallowing brick after brick and even causing some of them to collapse. 

“Mmm, yes,” Bane grinned under his mask as he watched the destruction, “Gotham will become nothing but a big green puddle when I’m through!” Of course, the few remaining Gotham citizens weren’t exactly listening to him, since they were too busy running for their lives, but Bane didn’t mind. He just wanted to keep gloating. “I know I may have said this before, but it still rings true: I will be your reckoning, Gotham!”

“...Ummm, don’t you mean WE’LL be your reckoning?” a gruff yet slightly feminine voice asked as a bit of the goo rose up, giving Bane a look. 

But the man just rolled his eyes. “Yes yes, fine. We’ll be Gotham’s reckoning. There, happy?”

Clayface huffed. “I knew I should have teamed up with Penguin instead...” she mumbled.

Just then- *screeeeeech!* The two villains turned and saw the Batmobile park right behind them, just narrowly avoiding the puddles of radioactive clay. Without any hesitation, Batman and Robin then leapt out of the car, a stern and determined glare on their faces.

“Ah, the Batman! I was wondering when you would show up...” Bane told him, not sounding too concerned whatsoever. 

“Call it being fashionably late,” Batman retorted, narrowing his eyes, “So, never thought I’d see you two working together-”

“Yeah, there’s a reason,” Clayface dryly commented, though it was ignored by both the heroes and her temporary partner-in-crime.

“-But I see you’ve managed to put all of that stolen radioactive waste into a quote-unquote advantage for the two of you!” Batman then added with a mumble, “Which, no offense Robin but I probably would have figured that out sooner if you hadn’t kept interrupting me. Just saying. ANYWAY-” He took out one of his special Bat-a-rangs, one equipped with liquid nitrogen, and got ready. “I’d say your fun is about over, and it’s time to clean up!”

“Mm, you can fight if you want, Batman,” Bane told him while Clayface began to smirk, “Just don’t blame us if you start to feel overwhelmed, or outnumbered!” With that, the glowing clay-goo began to bubble and grow, causing the Dynamic Duo to take a couple steps back. After a couple seconds, more Clayfaces began to form out of the goo, all of them chuckling as they quickly surrounded the heroes.

But this didn’t deter them too much. “We may get outnumbered...” Batman started to say as he began putting on his electrified metal-knuckles.

“But we’re not outmatched!” Robin finished for him, his fists already at the ready. And with that, the fight was on!

*POW!* *BLAM!* *SMACK!* *SPLAT!*

As powerful and huge as Clayface could be, she still wasn’t much of a fighter. Plenty of good defense, but very slow. Nearly every attack the heroes threw landed, and while the damage from them would vary, most of them still did something!

Electrified punches, strong kicks, in-sync fighting, and (of course) a few icy Bat-a-rangs brought her glowing army to just three or four of herself left! It also didn’t help that whenever she did try to go on the offense, Robin would always have his bat-dad’s back, and vice versa! Clayface growled in frustration. She had to do something! 

Deciding that she’d had just enough teamwork for today, she allowed part of herself to flow over and grab onto Robin’s foot while he was distracted by the fight. “Huh? Hey- EEP!” Even if he noticed it right away, Robin still couldn’t get himself free in time, and gave a yelp as he was lifted up.

“What’s the matter? Afraid of flying solo?” Clayface taunted before easily tossing him several feet aside, through a streetlamp (causing it to break apart) and onto the hard sidewalk. 

Batman gasped slightly. “Robin!” He tried to get over to his sidekick, but was easily blocked by Clayface’s reforming army. She shoved him to the ground, and the numerous Clayfaces started to laugh as they surrounded him. 

But of course, it took a lot more than radioactive clay to make Batman give up. “’Puter!” he shouted, “Firefighter mode! Now!”

“Okay. Activating fire extinguisher.” The hood of the Batmobile transformed into what looked like a sort of cannon. 

“Huh?” Before Clayface could even ask what the annoying bat-pest was up to, she was blasted with several gallons of cold, thick foam - foam that could fight against both fires AND chemicals! And as the Clayfaces began to screech, Batman got back on his feet and continued the fight. 

“...Ughhh.” Sitting up slightly, Robin groaned. “Don’t, don’t worry, Padre! Ugh, I-I’m on-”

There was a loud thud as something big and very heavy landed in front of him. Slowly, Robin looked up, and found himself staring into the glowing, green eyes of Bane. The Boy Wonder gulped.

“What do we have here, hmm?” Bane said as he continued to loom over him, “The radioactive waste may not be able to slow your father down, but perhaps I still have one advantage left...”

Robin scooted back a bit, trying to hide his fear the best he could. After several weeks of crime fighting, he had certainly gotten used to going up against intimidating villains. But even so, he hadn’t had too much experience with Bane, plus the guy was just pretty intimidating in general! 

“So what do you say, Bird Boy?” the terrorist asked, “Are you going to come quietly? Or am I going to have to make you be quiet?” 

“I-I-” Moving back a bit more, Robin flinched slightly as he felt his hand brush up against something metal. His eyes widened a bit. The streetlamp! Of course! “...Sorry Bane, but-” He grabbed the long piece of slightly broken metal and brought it forward, smacking Bane right in the face with it while knocking him down. “-I don’t feel like getting kidnapped today!”

“OW! Why you-!” Picking himself off the ground, the masked villain then rushed forward towards the boy. Luckily, his metal weapon wasn’t just strong, but it was light too, which allowed Robin to jump and flip over Bane with ease. At the same time, he used each moment of momentum and added height to land more attacks. *WHAM!* *SMACK!*

Bane growled. “Enough! You will be defeated!” Raising a buff arm, Bane then slammed his fists down, nearly hitting his tiny opponent. But rather than be intimidated, Robin just gave another glare and decided that it was about time for this fight to end.

Using the metal pipe as a pole, Robin launched himself upwards, somersaulted downwards, extended his leg, and kicked his would-be kidnapper as hard as he could in the face - which finally knocked him down for good! Not quite unconscious yet, but still hurt enough to know that he had lost. 

With that, Robin sighed, still gripping the metal pipe tightly. ...After a moment though, he noticed just how quiet it had gotten. Oh no, did he miss something? Had something happened to his dad?! 

Quickly, he turned around - and saw both a single, nearly-defeated Clayface and Batman (who was mid-punch) staring at him in awe. “...Whoa,” was all either of them could seem to say. As for Robin, he just gave them a sheepish smile in return. 

With the two villains defeated and the goo now mostly harmless, it didn’t take long for the Gotham City police along with several clean-up crews to come onto the scene. Their own job now done, the Dynamic Duo stepped aside, sparing a few waves and “You’re welcome”s to the various grateful citizens before heading to the Batmobile.

“That was some pretty great fighting out there, kid,” Batman told him as soon as they had a moment alone, a proud smile on his face, “I couldn’t have kicked Bane’s butt better myself.”

Robin grinned, his eyes widening. “Really?!” 

“Yep. ...And hey, looks like you finally found yourself a weapon,” his father pointed out, “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

“Heh, yeah!” Robin nodded, twirling it around a bit, “Who would’ve thought a metal stick could be so handy?” He then frowned. “But wait, shouldn’t I leave this here, so they can rebuild the streetlight.”

“...Oh, right. Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Batman nodded. However, after a moment of thought, he gave the boy a small smile. “Although, I do have another idea...”

()()()()()()()()()()

“Come on, Grandpa! Bat-dad says it’s almost ready and I want you to see it!” 

“I know, Master Dick, I’m coming,” Alfred replied, holding back an amused chuckle as the boy dragged him along. 

In retrospect, it wasn’t that big of a deal. He was pretty much just receiving a present, and not even a surprise present at that. But even so, just the thought of having it was enough to make Dick excited. 

In no time at all, the two of them made it to the armory - and just in time. “Just finished putting the finishing touches on it,” Batman announced as he turned to face them, making sure to keep his son’s present behind his back. 

Dick’s smile grew as he rushed forward. “So it’s ready then? Can I have it now, Padre? Please?”

“Wait for it...” Batman told him, forcing him to wait just one second longer before he revealed his new weapon: a shiny, metal bo staff. “Tada!” 

Gasping a bit, Dick took the staff from his father and looked at it. “Whoaaa!” It was so shiny! The metal had also been painted a dark red with a couple gold highlights - which just made it even more special in Dick’s opinion, considering that his father usually only built stuff that was either black or very, very dark grey. 

In this form, it was only about the length of his arm, but with a flick of his wrist, the staff extended. Grinning, Dick did a couple test swings at the air, along with a couple flips using it. He’d still have to practice with the staff a bit of course, though he had a feeling that this practice wouldn’t be too hard at all. Just like with his suit, having the staff just felt completely natural - completely right. This was definitely his weapon. 

“So, pretty cool huh?” Batman asked once Dick had finished testing it out. 

Dick didn’t even hesitate with his reply. “It’s perfect!” he shouted, making both Batman and Alfred chuckle a bit, “Thanks, Padre!”

“No problem, kid. ...Though, in my opinion, it’s not totally perfect. I mean, we could always make it even cooler later. Like, maybe make the ends of it electrical or something.”

Alfred frowned a bit at that. “Erm, yes but, perhaps those adjustments could wait until he’s a bit older?” He suggested, looking a bit concerned.

Batman rolled his eyes slightly. “Fine, we’ll save it for your birthday, or maybe your adopted-versary.” 

“Heh, yeah,” Dick nodded, still admiring his new weapon, “...Though, I don’t mind if I have to wait a bit longer, really.” He smiled at his father. “It’s like I said. To me, it’s already perf-” Catching something out of the corner of his eye, Dick jumped up slightly as he threw his staff down, hitting the boomerang dead center and causing it to fall to the floor before it even had the chance to hit them. 

“Oh my... Very good reflexes,” Alfred commented, clearly impressed.

As for Batman, he just smiled slightly as he picked the old boomerang up. “Oh hey, I was wondering where this thing went.”

“Huh, I guess it really is like they always say,” Dick shrugged, “Boomerangs always come back. ...Eventually.”

“Yeah. ...But Bat-a-rangs are still way better.” “Oh definitely.” “Certainly no doubt about that.” 

THE END

((Lol, hope you guys enjoyed this! Also, to anyone confused as to why I made Clayface a girl in this: the character is voice by Kate Micucci in the movie, so I assume they’re female. But this isn’t confirmed in the movie so maybe Clayface is still a boy in the Lego!Verse? Idk, I’m just speculating. But yeah, anyway, thanks for reading! ^v^))