#naming it dumbass au is kinda vague | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gamerwoo · 2 years

Text

[SKZ Imprinted] Jeongin: Youngblood

Anonymous asked: Hi rocket don't know if you've gotten any requests for jeongin's mate but I'm super curious about her. Can I perhaps request something with them? Maybe something leaning more on fluff since the other parts have been angst filled? If not, maybe full on angst is also the way to go!

Characters: Jeongin x female reader

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, college au, a little angsty but it’s mostly fluff, mentions of not eating and also depression

Word count: 6,915

Summary: Despite being the youngest of the pack, Jeongin has imprinted way before most -- if not, all -- of his brothers. Unlike his brothers, though, he never found the courage to tell you anything. But if what happened between Minho and his mate aren’t enough proof that Jeongin needs to figure out how to confess his biggest secret to you, he doesn’t know what is. So since he needs to figure things out fast, and his pack is zero help after everything that’s happened, Jeongin finds himself relying on someone he least expected just to make sure he doesn’t mess things up with you.

a/n: things in bold are in english. also might change the title of jeongin’s part because i can’t decide what i want it to be lmao

Previous | Next | Imprinted Masterlist

Shit had hit the fan, and the next few days were spent with everyone just trying to unpack everything and sort through their feelings -- namely Ryujin and Minho. However, the pack was also pretty upset with Minho’s mate -- and rightfully so since she almost got all of them killed -- and so they kept giving their two cents despite the fact that Minho had been essentially dead silent since coming back from the hunter HQ.

But this situation had also prompted Jeongin to start acting out again. The pup used to always run off on his own, but he’d gotten a little better at listening to his alpha and sticking around the area. But for the last few days, he was nowhere to be found. Chan searched everywhere and even called in for help looking for him, but Jeongin was completely MIA. His parents were naturally worried and were getting a little bit on Chan’s case about finding him, so he reluctantly had to call in someone else for help.

“You want me to find him?” Elsie scoffed when Seungmin had called her.

“If anyone could find a werewolf, it’s you and Ryu,” Seungmin sighed, “but...I doubt she’d wanna go. Look, we just need to make sure he’s safe. You don’t have to do it, but Chan’s willing to pay you if he has to.”

“How much?” she asked, eyeing her depressed sister from where she was standing in the kitchen. Ryujin hadn’t moved from the couch since coming home and she wasn’t eating much. Naturally, Elsie was worried, but she wasn’t quite sure what to do with her since she had similar issues to sort through herself. “My prices are kinda high.”

“He said he’ll borrow some through Changbin,” Seungmin replied, “though, he never really paid back what he owes, so... I guess I was hoping I could convince you to do it for free.”

The older girl scoffed, “And why would I do that?”

“Because deep down, you have feelings for me,” the smirk Seungmin wore could be heard in his tone.

Elsie frowned, “I’m charging even more now.”

“Okay, okay,” he sighed. “Because...I can talk to Minho for you and Ryu. He might rip my head off, but I figure this is a fair trade.”

“How’s that fair, dumbass? That pup can’t kill me.”

“You haven’t seen him when he’s like this.”

Tracking Jeongin down wasn’t necessarily the hardest thing to do, but it was a bit of a pain in the ass. Knowing his pack would not only personally go searching for him but also knowing they’d call in Seungcheol’s pack, Jeongin had to skip a few towns just to be alone.

Elsie just so happened to live a few towns away.

Jeongin sensed her before he saw her, the hair on the back of his neck instinctively standing on end as his eyes narrowed and he slowly lifted his head from where he sat on a park bench. But once he caught wind of the vaguely familiar scent of his brother’s mate, all he did was sigh.

“Fancy seeing you here, kid,” Elsie said as she strolled over, hands in her pockets. She stopped in front of Jeongin and looked down at him. “Finally fed up with your brothers? ‘Bout time someone around here got their head on straight. Poor Jinnie’s still whining over that one dickhead.”

Jeongin really couldn’t tell if Elsie was sent to find him by his brothers -- it was a long shot she’d agree but he figured she’d eventually cave if Seungmin bothered her enough, which Jeongin knew he’d absolutely do -- or if she just happened to run into him and was trying to figure out if there was a reason why he left the pack so she could find a weak spot. Elsie was still difficult for him to read...

“Shouldn’t you be with Ryujin?” Jeongin asked, deflecting the elder’s questions. He wouldn’t look back up at her, though. He just stared at her dirty boots as she kicked the grass lightly every now and then. “You went through all that trouble for her just to ditch her and come complain about her?”

Elsie raised her eyebrows, actually taken off-guard by Jeongin’s attitude, “Alright, snippy, relax. I was just trying to lighten the mood.”

“And why?” he asked, suddenly looking up at her with a clenched jaw. “My brothers sent you after me, right?”

She shrugged, “Yeah, but I only did it because Seungmin promised to talk to Minho for Ryu.”

“So what, do you have to snitch on me now? Capture me and keep me at your place until Chan comes to pick me up or something?”

“I mean...I guess, but you’re an adult, right?

Jeongin’s eyes narrowed and he studied Elsie for a moment. There weren’t any weapons or restraints on her that he could see. Actually, she was in some leggings, some old-looking t-shirt, and a jacket. She looked...somehow non-threatening.

“So...you’re not gonna tell anyone?” Jeongin quizzed slowly.

Again, she shrugged, “I don’t see a point. Besides, calling them over clearly won’t help whatever’s going on. Seems like it’d make it worse. So, I dunno, you can do whatever you feel you need to do.”

“...Why?”

“I dunno...I’ve been there, I guess.”

Jeongin made a face, “Are you relating to me?”

Elsie made the same face, “Fuck no. I’m just... Ugh! Look, kid, I’m trying to be nice! Ryujin likes you dogs so much, and I want her happy over everything else. If that means I have to keep you safe just to have Minho acknowledge my sister for five minutes, I’ll do it.”

“Well I’m not gonna go off and do anything reckless, so you can stop pretending to care,” he scoffed, standing up from the bench with his arms crossed. He wasn’t much taller than the older girl, but it still made him feel a little better that he had maybe an inch or so on her. “Tell Seungmin I’m fine and I’ll...go back eventually.”

Elsie sighed and dug around in her pocket. She pulled her phone out and handed it to Jeongin, “Here.”

Jeongin stared at the device in her hand in confusion, “...What?”

“Grab a coffee with me,” she offered, still offering him her phone. “I won’t call them unless you want me to.”

“Why...?”

She just shrugged, “Like I said: I’ve been there. Let’s talk for a bit, kid. Coffee’s on me.”

It was a little awkward at first as Jeongin sat across from the girl who’d been trained to kill him. She sipped her latte or whatever the hell she got, and just looked around the shop -- anywhere but at him. Jeongin leaned back in his chair, staring at his to-go cup and then letting his eyes flicker up to study Elsie again.

Elsie suddenly nodded her head toward someone, muttering, “That guy has like, four teeth.”

Jeongin’s eyebrows furrowed before he whipped his head around to see some messy-looking man who was chomping on a breakfast sandwich. He was chewing very obnoxiously with his mouth open. He turned back to face Elsie.

“Why’d you point that out?” he asked.

She shrugged, “Don’t know. Figured I should fill the silence. It’s kind of uncomfortable to be honest.”

“You can leave,” he pointed out with a little venom in his voice.

But Elsie didn’t seem angry that he was giving her attitude. She seemed almost...impressed. One corner of her mouth twitched up a little, “Yeah, I guess so. But you still have my phone, so maybe you wanna keep me here.”

Jeongin frowned back at her, “No. I just forgot I had it.”

“Hey, it’s totally fine, kid,” she chuckled, hands up slightly in surrender. “I’m not here to judge whatever you’re feeling. Hell, look at me and Jinnie.”

He stared at her for a little longer, taking in her words. Then he let out a sigh and cast his gaze downward, one hand coming up to cup his drink.

“Whatever you’re going through, you can talk about it,” she promised in a softer tone that didn’t even sound like Elsie.

“How do I know you’re not gonna tell Seungmin?” he asked, still looking at his cup.

She let out a laugh, “If I gave that much of a shit, don’t you think I’d have called them already?”

“Okay, fair. Then why do you care about helping me? You hate werewolves.”

Elsie shrugged, “Yeah. But I’m nosy and I wanna know what’s going on with the angsty teen.”

Jeongin looked at her again, staring daggers, “I’m literally an adult!”

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved his words away. “So what’s the deal with the pack? Why’re you so pissed off? I wanna talk shit.”

The pup studied her for a little longer. Honestly, what did he have to lose? Chances were low that Elsie would tell his pack since she really only cared about them for her sister’s sake, and he knew none of his brothers would listen to him since they were so wrapped up in the Minho/Ryu thing -- he’d tried but it went about as well as he expected. The only reason they were worried now was probably because his parents were bugging them.

He sighed, “There’s this girl...”

“You imprinted, right?” Elsie guessed.

He nodded, “Yeah. Her name’s _____. We went to high school together and we ended up going to the same college. We’ve always been sorta friends but not good enough friends to really hang out outside of class. She’s like, the super nice popular girl, y’know? And I’m the weirdo who ran away sophomore year. But like, even when I came back home after that, she ran up to me and smiled and said she was glad I was okay.”

“Sounds like a goody-two-shoes,” Elsie commented in a thoughtless mumble.

Jeongin growled lowly.

She chuckled, “Sorry, my bad. I didn’t mean it like a bad thing. Honestly, that’s probably better. But, I’m assuming you’re going to tell me you haven’t told her anything?”

He shook his head, “Not at all. And now after what happened with Minho and Ryujin... I’m kinda terrified.”

Jeongin let out a short, quiet, sad laugh. Elsie watched him as he continued to just sit there and hold his drink with one hand, eyes on the table.

“I mean...at least she’s probably not a werewolf hunter,” she offered.

“But who says I won’t scare the shit out of her?” he countered. “That’s a lot to put on a person. Like, admitting to being a werewolf is bad enough, but then I have to be like, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re actually my soulmate that I’m meant to be with for the rest of my life and if you leave me I will literally die. No pressure, though!’ If I were her, I’d file a restraining order.”

“Well yeah, if you say it like that,” Elsie laughed. “Dude, just like, become her friend and then come clean with the werewolf thing. And she feels a little of the pull too, so you can ask her on a date at some point and when you feel comfortable, you can explain everything. And if she ever asks questions, just be honest with her.”

“How do I get closer with her?” Jeongin whined. “I can hardly say two sentences to her.”

“Ask her to hang out or something, how should I know?”

“Oh, I forgot, you don’t have friends anymore.”

Elsie narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to make a witty comeback or to yell at him, but nothing came out. Jeongin even flinched a little, waiting for hell to rain down on him.

Instead, Elsie brought her cup to her lips and said, “Touché, kid. Touché.”

Jeongin let out a breath, looking back at his cup. He finally raised it to his lips and took a sip before setting it back down, still staring at the table.

“You’re not as evil as I thought you were,” he muttered.

She chuckled, “You’re saying that to a hunter who’s probably gonna be the reason your brother dies.”

His eyes flashed up to meet hers, “You haven’t technically denied him yet, have you?”

She let out a sigh, being the one to drop her gaze this time, “It’s...complicated. But we’re not talking about me, this is about you. Why don’t you wanna go back home?”

“They weren’t gonna listen to my problems and honestly, I’m really fucking stressed.”

“I get that. Sometimes you just need to be alone for a bit.”

“Speaking of alone, shouldn’t you be getting back to Ryujin?”

“Probably, yeah,” she breathed before standing up, taking her drink with her. “Wanna come? I can drive you home whenever you feel like going back.”

Jeongin looked up at her for a moment, weighing his options. But he finally stood and took his cup, “Yeah, I guess. She won’t be upset seeing me?”

“I think it’ll make her feel a little better that someone doesn’t completely hate her.”

“I mean...she almost got us killed.”

“Okay, well you can pretend like you don’t completely hate her, and then I won’t make you pay for gas on the way home,” Elsie smiled before leading the way out of the shop.

‘Just ask her to hang out. That’s all you have to do,’ Jeongin reminded himself as he walked onto campus alone, ‘Ask her to do something like go to the mall or grab lunch today. Something that can’t be skewed as a date. Something that won’t freak her out or come off too strong. Yeah, easy.’

Except it wasn’t easy because his heart was going a million miles a minute and his hands were shaking so badly that he had to hold onto the straps of his backpack that were resting on his shoulders.

Jeongin spotted you at the same time you saw him. Your eyes widened and you turned to run toward him, calling to your friends that you’d catch up with them later. Jeongin hadn’t been seen or heard from the last few days so you were excited to see him again.

Jeongin wasn’t necessarily someone you were super close with, but you always thought he was a sweet guy. Whenever you had to do projects in the class you had together, he was your first pick for your partner. He may have been a little troubled -- more so in high school when he ran away that one time -- but he was still nice. Maybe he was just misunderstood. Either way, you found yourself oddly having a soft spot for Jeongin.

“Jeongin!” you grinned when you got closer. You started to slow your run as you got closer, stopping in front of him and squinting against the sun to look at him. “Dude, where-- Oh damn, what happened to your cheek?”

He put a hand lightly where the bruise on his face was. He got it from the hunters and forgot in his nervous state that it was even there.

“Oh, uh, I walked into a wall,” he lied.

‘You sound like a fucking idiot,’ he told himself.

But, thankfully, you giggled, “I’ve been there. Where’ve you been the last few days? I asked your friends but they said they had no idea.”

His eyes widened slightly, “Y-you...asked about me?”

“Yeah, I was worried,” you shrugged. “I mean, I know you used to skip out on class a lot before but you had a pretty good streak going.”

The way you said it was like you were encouraging him; like you were telling him he was doing a good job. It made his heart flutter and his face warm.

“O-oh, yeah, u-um...” he stammered. “I went to visit a f-friend out of town for a few days...”

“I have all the notes and lessons if you want them,” you offered. Then you tried as confidently and as casually as possible to say, “Maybe we could go get dinner and I can help you?”

Jeongin’s eyes widened to the size of golf balls. He felt like his breath was caught in his throat.

You’d been looking for a reason to ask Jeongin to hang out after class, and this was perfect. Were you nervous? Yes. But you’d had a little crush on him for a while and why not try? Especially after you thought he was missing again. You had to take the chance.

‘Say something, you idiot!’ Jeongin reminded himself after just staring with his mouth hung open like a moron.

“U-u-uh, y-yeah!” he finally stuttered, face redder than a tomato. “Yeah, th-that would be c-cool.”

“Cool,” you grinned. “Is tomorrow night okay?”

“Y-yes!”

“Awesome. I’ll catch ya then,” you nodded before turning to go to class. “Bye, Jeonginnie!”

He watched you go, his face burning. He didn’t move or breath or even think for that matter. He’d basically short-circuited.

“Yo, Jeongin!”

The familiar voice of one of his brothers pulled him away from his internal meltdown. He turned to see Felix and Sam, holding hands as Felix walked her to class.

Seeing the bright red color of the youngest’s face, Felix cocked his head to the side, “You good?”

Numbly, Jeongin nodded, “Y-yeah.”

‘Now what?’ he asked himself.

Because it was then, watching his brother and his mate walk away while their hands swung between them, that he realized he had to actually, y’know, go on this date -- or whatever it was -- with you, and he wasn’t sure how to do that. Jeongin had never even hung out with a girl alone who wasn’t one of his pack sisters!

But he had seven brothers who clearly had experience. One of them should be able to help -- well, maybe not Minho right now...or Hyunjin... But maybe one of the mates could even tell him what to do, too.

For now, Jeongin had to get to class.

The first place he stopped was Felix and Seungmin’s apartment. Since they lived on campus, it was closer. He figured maybe at least Felix would have good advice considering him and Sam were doing pretty well. But when he knocked on the door, it was just Seungmin who was home.

“Felix is working,” Seungmin replied when Jeongin wondered where he was.

“Well...can I ask you for a favor?”

Seungmin sighed, “Not really. I’m kinda busy.”

“It’ll be really quick.”

“I have to go talk to Minho for Elsie, so I don’t really have time for this. Sorry, maybe ask like...Jisung or something.”

With that, Seungmin closed the door in Jeongin’s face. But the younger boy decided to take the advice, so he went to Jisung’s dorm across campus. Jisung’s roommate was some guy he was randomly assigned, so Jeongin wasn’t even really sure who it was who answered the door.

Jisung moved his roommate out of the way before saying quickly, “He’s cramming for his math test tomorrow. He doesn’t want any distractions.”

“Do you wanna go grab an early dinner or something, then?” he offered.

The older boy shook his head, “Can’t, I’m on tutoring duty before I have to--”

“Jisung!” his roommate barked.

“Sorry, Jeongin!” Jisung gave him an apologetic look before closing the door.

He tried going to Chan’s apartment next, even though he already knew what would happen. Him and Changbin all but ignored Jeongin’s existence because Minho was depressed and couldn’t decide what to do about Ryujin. He tried texting Hyunjin to see where he was staying, but he got no reply. He tried calling but it went to voicemail.

His brothers were no help, and according to all of them, their mates were busy, too. Jeongin had nobody to help him and he was supposed to be seeing you tomorrow night. What the hell was he supposed to do?

‘There is...one person...’ he reminded himself. But he quickly shook the thought away, ‘No, I can’t go to her. That’s stupid. She’ll think I wanna be friends or something. ...But desperate times...’

Jeongin sighed as he got off the steps that led to the apartment building he’d just left, walking to the nearest bus stop.

From _____: How does getting some ramen sound? I know a place not too far from campus :)

To _____: That sounds great! Did you want to meet there or meet on campus?

“Can you relax? Your hands are shaking so bad you can hardly type.”

Despite the spike in his heartrate when he read your text, Jeongin looked up from his phone to glare at Elsie.

Unfortunately, Elsie was his only hope for any sort of advice on what to do next. He was panicking and knew he would never survive this hangout without making an absolutely idiot of himself. But now he was starting to wonder if that would be worse than putting up with Elsie.

Elsie grinned as his glare, “You can’t get mad at me, I’m the only one who listens to you.”

“Yeah, for whatever reason...” Jeongin muttered. He dropped his guys and continued, “Th-thanks, by the way...”

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” she nodded, patting his shoulder. “Seriously, though. Don’t.”

From _____: We can meet up by our building! 6 sound good?

“I don’t even know what to do,” Jeongin stared at your text hopelessly. “What do I say to her? How do people keep conversations going without it getting awkward and boring?”

“Uh, I’ll let you know when I figure that out,” she snorted. “Hey, if you get into an awkward silence, you can always shift in the middle of the restaurant. That’ll really spice things up.”

Jeongin huffed, rolling his eyes, “Can you be serious, please?”

She shrugged, “I can only find it in me to help you so much.”

“Why are you helping me? You’re the only one who will even listen to me for two minutes.”

“Honestly, kid...it’s kinda sad. You’re like a desperate little lost puppy. Kinda tugs at my heart strings.”

“As if you wouldn’t kill me if your sister didn’t have the hots for my brother,” he scoffed.

Elsie laughed softly and nodded, “Yeah.”

“Nah,” a tired, quiet voice spoke up, entering the kitchen. Ryujin was wearing the exact same thing Jeongin had seen her in the day before -- the same thing she’d been wearing since Elsie brought her to her apartment. She walked by the pair to the cupboard to get a glass. “She’s getting a soft spot for you.”

Elsie looked enraged while Jeongin looked surprised.

“I am fucking not!” Elsie insisted as Jeongin asked, “Seriously?”

Ryujin turned to look at her sister, “It happens. You realize they’re not as bad as you were raised to believe. Doesn’t help that you’ve been looking after him for the last two days and letting him trauma dump on you.”

“Yes, I pity him,” the older girl clarified.

“Trust me, no you don’t,” Ryujin promised before turning back to the fridge. She opened it and grabbed the juice, pouring it into her glass.

“You can’t live off of juice forever,” Elsie mumbled, changing the subject.

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” the younger sister deadpanned.

“Only because I have to fight you to jam food down your gullet!”

It was actually sad for Jeongin to see Ryujin like this. Yes, he had every right to be upset with her and hold his and his pack’s almost-deaths against her, but she used to be so bubbly and warm. Now she never smiled, her eyes were dark and didn’t sparkle anymore, and her aura was so...dark. She was a completely different person than the girl him and the pack had become so fond of. He had started to see her like he saw the rest of the mates: like a sister. So the fact she was like this now still made part of his heart hurt.

After putting the juice back in the fridge, Ryujin turned to look at Jeongin, “You want advice for _____? Don’t lie to her. Come clean the first chance you get. Don’t ever pretend to be anything but who you are.”

Jeongin just stared back, a hint of sadness in his eyes as he saw hers fill with tears. After a beat of silence, she left the kitchen, sniffling.

Elsie and Jeongin just stared at whatever, not knowing what to say next. But finally, Jeongin broke the silence.

“Elsie?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you think will happen? Between her and Minho, I mean.”

She sighed, “That’s up to him at this point. Your guess is better than mine.”

“What do you hope happens?” he asked instead, turning his head to look at her.

Elsie paused, biting her lip and thinking it over before replying slowly, “Despite how I feel toward werewolves...for her sake...I hope he comes around. I’ll...deal with it, I guess.”

There was another beat of silence before Jeongin said again, “Elsie?”

“Yeah.”

“I think you’re pretty cool,” he admitted sheepishly, “and...I really appreciate that you listen to me. You don’t treat me like a child. Thank you.”

Elsie smirked to herself and nodded before lifting her head to meet Jeongin’s, “Yeah, whatever, kid. Just don’t go telling anyone that I ‘have a soft spot for you’ or you’ll wind up like Minhyuk.”

“Who’s Minhyuk?”

“Exactly.”

“Just be yourself, don’t overthink it, and if all else fails, crawl out the bathroom window,” Elsie told Jeongin as she drove him to campus where he’d be meeting up with you. “I’ll come pick you up.”

“That last one doesn’t make me feel any better,” Jeongin admitted, rubbing his sweaty palms on his jeans. “Actually, it makes me wanna throw up.”

“Relax, it’s a joke, kid,” she chuckled. “It’s not gonna go that badly. Worst case scenario, you make a bad joke that doesn’t land or there’s a few awkward silences here and there. But that girl of yours seems too nice to like, walk out on you or something.”

“Sh-she’s not...my girl,” he mumbled, his heart skipping a beat just at the thought of it.

“God, you’d really think you’re just some pup newly in love,” she scoffed. “I’ve never seen a werewolf this lovesick from the pull.”

“Shut up,” he grumbled, his cheeks already heating up.

Elsie dropped him off in the parking lot closest to the building he was meeting you at. As far as his pack was concerned, they didn’t even know this date was happening. The only person who knew was Elsie, who never even mentioned it to Seungmin like she promised. Was she actually getting soft for the pup? She would never say. But either way, Jeongin appreciated that she somehow became the only person he could rely on. She promised to pick him back up in the same spot at 9, or any other time he updated her with. If needed, she’d go to the restaurant to get him, too.

After wishing him luck, Jeongin walked toward the building to see you were already waiting there with your purse slung over your shoulder, and your notebook held to your chest. He kinda forgot you were supposed to be helping him with the work he missed the last few days...

“Hi!” you chirped when you saw him.

“You weren’t waiting long, were you?” he asked as you jogged over to greet him.

“Oh, no!” you quickly reassured him. “Only a few minutes. But there’s a bus in 15 minutes that goes to the ramen shop I was telling you about.”

“Yeah, let’s go. Do you want me to carry that?”

“That’s okay, it’s just a notebook. It’s not--”

Jeongin held a hand out for it anyway. You handed it to him, trying to act totally casual even though butterflies erupted in your stomach. Why was he so cute all the time?

“Let’s go,” he smiled softly, turning to lead the way.

You weren’t really sure what to say, so you rambled about everything he missed. Jeongin didn’t know what to say either, so he let you ramble. He liked hearing you talk, anyway. And you seemed so interested in what you were saying, so he found it endearing. Little did he know you were just as nervous as he was.

Except he could hear the rapid beating of your heart. He chalked it up to you just being nervous in general, but he couldn’t help but think, ‘what if?’.

On the bus, you asked him about his trip to see his friend. He told you a little bit about Elsie and how she had a “thing” with Seungmin, but they were really...rocky.

“Do they argue a lot?” you asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“Um...more like bickering,” he said. “She kinda acts like she hates him, and he pushes her buttons, but...you can tell they like each other. I don’t know, old people are weird.”

That made you laugh, and Jeongin found his cheeks heating up once again as he smiled to himself.

The two of you sat at a counter together once you got to the ramen shop. You ate and studied, you tutoring Jeongin on what he missed. You were leaned in toward each other, knees practically touching since you were turned toward each other on your stools. You were so close you could smell his cologne and it made it difficult to focus. Your palms were clammy and your face felt incredibly hot -- maybe you could blame that last one on your food.

Meanwhile, Jeongin was too caught up in his own nerves to notice the patterns of how your heart raced a little faster when he got closer or smiled at you. He didn’t catch things that would’ve been blatantly obvious to any other werewolf. But it was okay because things were still going better than he could’ve expected. There were a few awkward-ish moments, but they were easily laughed off and made to feel way less embarrassing than they felt at first.

Between studying, the two of you began to learn little things about each other. Sure, you knew each other enough because of class and being partners, but the two of you never knew little things, like favorite colors or most embarrassing moments. In class and during projects, the two of you mostly talked about surface-level things like how Jeongin’s cat was doing that you saw when you went to his house to work on a project, or talking crap about the kid that sat behind you guys who smelled like onions and cinnamon all the time. Something about you two hanging out this time felt...different. And while maybe you did want it to be a date, you never specified that. And what Jeongin wanted it to be one, you never said it was so he didn’t think it was.

But...it kinda felt like one.

“Okay, sorry, I was rambling again,” you laughed softly as you tried to get back on track from rambling about some family vacation you went on.

“No, no, don’t worry about it,” Jeongin chuckled. “I liked the story. Though, I’ll never look at you the same knowing a dolphin stole your swim bottoms.”

“Yeah, you better watch out,” you giggled, “he can get very jealous.”

“Why would he need to be jealous?” Jeongin smirked.

Your eyes widened, and your cheeks had never felt so warm all night.

“U-uh, I didn’t mean-- I j-just--”

But then Jeongin was worried he made you uncomfortable, so his eyes went wide and his face began turning red, “Oh, I-I was just joking! I w-wasn’t--”

“N-no, I didn’t think it was weird or anything! I j-just--”

“No, you don’t have to explain, I-I’m sor--”

“No! Jeongin, I--”

“I’m s--”

“Jeongin?”

The awkward stammering finally came to a stop. Jeongin just stared at you with doe-eyes, waiting for you to keep talking.

“Is this a date?” you blurted, wanting to just take a chance and be straightforward.

He looked taken off-guard and you considered trying to take the question back, but instead he said, “I-isnt that up to you? S-since you asked...m-me?”

“I guess...” you trailed off, unsure what to say next. Were you supposed to confess to him now? Tell him you wanted it to be a date? Or was that weird? Did he even like you back?

“I-I--” Jeongin began to speak up and you gave him your full attention, which made him pause for a moment and rethink speaking from his heart, but he took a deep breath and pushed himself to do it. “I wouldn’t...mind if it was a date.”

“W-wouldn’t mind?” you repeated.

His face flushed a deep red and he mumbled as he looked down at his hands on the counter, “I’d...r-really like if it was, actually...”

He heard the way your heart raced at his confession and it managed to put him a little more at ease.

“R-really?” you asked.

“Y-yeah.”

You nodded, trying -- but failing horribly -- to not grin ear-to ear. Jeongin looked up at you to see you trying so desperately to not smile like an idiot, and all it did was make him smile too.

“So it’s a date,” you giggled, trying to not squeal, either.

He nodded, “Y-yeah. A date.”

And while Jeongin was on cloud 9 with you for a moment, his heart suddenly fell into his butt.

Elsie made it seem like Jeongin had time to make better friends with you and then start to come clean, but now he had skipped several steps. So was he supposed to jump right in and tell you now? Or was he supposed to try to avoid the topic for a while as to not come off as a liar? But when he finally came clean down the road, how would he not come off as a liar? This was a big secret that you had to know. If he hid it from you, he was a liar nonetheless!

The thought weighed down on him as much as he didn’t want it to. He tried to carry on as normal, but you could tell something was off about him now. However, to avoid another awkward moment like the stuttering incident, you decided to wait until you were back on campus. You were nervous your excitement scared him.

The bus ride back wasn’t awkward, at least. It was quiet, but it was getting late and both of you were tired.

Once off the bus and you began walking back, you finally decided to ask what was going on.

“Are you okay, Jeongin?” you asked when it felt like he was about to say goodnight and leave.

He sighed and stared down at the grass, “Um...actually...._____, I...r-really like you.”

Your heart fluttered at the confession, “I-I like you too, Jeongin.”

“So...if I want to make this work, I need to be honest with you...” he lifted his head, and he looked scared. “I have to tell you something.”

Chan was frantic. How could Jeongin be gone again? He hadn’t seen or heard from him since the day before when he’d shown up at the apartment, but Jeongin didn’t say much before leaving. Him and the pack had been trying to get ahold of him but he wasn’t answering his phone, so they decided to go looking for him instead.

Chan drove with Hyunjin in the passenger seat, and Seungmin and Jisung in the back. They were trying to find any clue as to where he went, and his parents said they hadn’t seen him since he left for school. So they went to campus to try and follow his scent from there.

“Wait,” Seungmin suddenly spoke up as they drove to campus. Chan slammed on the breaks and him and Hyunjin turned around to face him. Seungmin’s eyebrows furrowed as he said, “Elsie’s nearby.”

“Elsie?” Hyunjin repeated. Then he scoffed and turned back around, sinking into his seat, “Does that mean traitor’s around, too?”

“That’s not the point,” Seungmin sighed. “I don’t know why Elsie would be around here.”

“Unless she has something to do with Jeongin,” Chan suggested.

“Maybe she’s kidnapping him!” Jisung gasped.

Seungmin rolled his eyes, “I doubt it.”

“Where is she?” Chan asked.

“Keep going toward the school,” he told him.

And sure enough, driving around campus and following Seungmin’s instincts led them to Elsie’s car parked in one of the empty lots. Elsie looked up when she saw the headlights, and groaned when she realized who it was.

Chan pulled up to her window, their cars facing opposite directions. He rolled his window down, so she reluctantly rolled hers down.

“Reason you’re hours away from home?” he wondered, his tone unreadable. She couldn’t tell if he was pissed or if he was trying to be nice.

“Um, I’m older than you and have a license and a car,” she grinned. “What’s it to ya?”

The back window rolled down, and Seungmin leaned over Jisung, “Do you know where Jeongin is?”

“Hm, shouldn’t his pack know where he is?” she asked sarcastically. “Or were you guys ignoring him again?”

“We don’t ignore him!” Hyunjin called.

“Yeah, that’s why you guys knew exactly where he was a few nights ago,” she nodded. “Oh wait, that was me. And it was me who made sure he was safe and brought him home. Maybe I should be getting a ‘thank you’ instead of the attitude.”

“Elsie, we’re serious,” Chan sighed.

“So am I,” she stated.

“If you don’t tell us where he is, I’ll get out of this car an--”

“Relax, dog,” she interrupted Hyunjin’s threat, nodding her head in the direction behind them. “He’s right there.”

The four turned their heads to see him walking with you.

“Were you waiting for him?” Jisung wondered.

“Is he with _____?” Chan asked.

You nodded and clicked your tongue, “Yeah, kid had a date tonight. You would’ve known that if you, y’know, talked to him. Instead I’m stuck playing pack mom because somebody’s unavailable.”

Chan just looked back at her and shot her a look before turning back to Jeongin.

They couldn’t quite hear what was being said, but they saw Jeongin backing up while you continued to stand there and stare at him.

“What’s he doing?” Hyunjin mumbled.

And then they saw him shift.

Jisung gasped, covering his mouth with his hands as he watched from the rear window. Chan was out of the car in seconds with Hyunjin, ready to run over there.

“Hold up!” Elsie got out of her car and went to stop them, grabbing Chan by the arm since he was closest.

Thankfully, Seungmin caught Hyunjin before he could even get a few yards away from the car.

“Let the kid do his thing,” she prompted.

“What?!” Hyunjin demanded.

“He knows what he’s doing,” she told him harshly. “Does it look like he’s going to hurt her?”

The boys looked back at the scene. You had stumbled backwards even farther with the initial shock, and you had continued to keep your distance. But as the pack watched, they saw you take a few hesitant steps forward. And then you closed the distance, standing right in front of Jeongin and reaching a hand out to his muzzle.

“See?” Elsie smirked.

Hyunjin scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Whatever, you were right. Big deal.”

Chan sighed, becoming visibly less anxious, “Alright, well...at least everyone’s okay.”

“And?” Elsie pressed.

Chan sighed again, but this one was more tired than relieved, as he turned to face the hunter, “Thank you, Elsie.”

She grinned smugly, “Yeah, you remember that I did this for you the next time you dogs wanna talk shit.”

“Your sister still almost got us killed,” Hyujin spat. “We’re not even.”

Their bickering was cut short by the werewolf trotting over to them. Jisung had gone into the trunk to get the spare clothes they kept back there, tossing a pair of sweatpants to Hyunjin while Jeongin shifted back. Then Hyunjin passed them to the youngest.

“So how’d it go?” Elsie asked.

Jeongin looked at her, then looked at his four brothers. He wasn’t sure what they were doing there, but his confusion was overtaken by the sheer joy and giddiness he felt, a bright smile taking over his face as he began to pull the sweats on.

“She said I’m cute,” he giggled.

“Did you tell her she’s the love of your life?” Hyunjin teased.

Jeongin looked at him, raising an eyebrow, “Did you?”

Elsie chuckled at the comeback -- along with the pack -- and Hyunjin turned to glare at her, “He’s been hanging out with you too much.”

“So does that mean we’ve got a second date?” Chan asked with a smile.

“She said she’d text me since the conversation was pretty one-sided,” Jeongin explained. “But it went well. She was kinda surprised, but then she got this big smile on her face and she said it was cool.”

“Well, at least you haven’t done the worst out of all of us,” Seungmin said, clapping his brother on the back. “Good job, Jeonginnie.”

Jeongin felt proud of himself for managing to not completely fuck things up, but his eyes flickered over to the werewolf hunter. He opened his mouth, but Elsie spoke up first.

“See ya ‘round, kid,” she smiled slightly with a nod of her head, getting back into her car and driving away.

251 notes · View notes

get-shiggy-with-it · 3 years

Text

Ch. 1

Shigaraki Birthday Week! MINORS DNI DO NOT PUT THIS ON TIKTOK

Pairing: Tomura Shigaraki x fem!reader

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: reader is marked fem cause Tomura is a little sexist and hates you cause you’re a woman, no pronouns, incel!shiggy, collage au/no quirks, tomura is an asshole, gratuitous swearing, like so much, shiggy has a dirty mouth, mentions of shigs being anxious, let me know if I’ve missed something

Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6

Summary: Tomura gets stuck taking an English class to graduate and is partnered with you, a bitchy try hard (his words not mine) for his final project. But over the course of the semester he finds that while he hates everyone, he might hate you just a little...less.

AO3 mirror

The door at the back of the room creaked open and jarred Tomura from his half-sleep state. He didn’t look at who’d bothered to slip into this fucking class late, and instead tried to let the prof’s inane droning on Timothy Whoever The Fuck’s 18th weirdo letter book lull him into day dreaming.

He only made it about a quarter of the way back into his boredom induced coma until he was dragged unwillingly into wakefulness once more.

“Sorry, could you plug this in for me?”

Tomura jumped again when you leaned over to whisper to him, computer charger in one hand, gesturing to the outlet on the wall by his head. You’d left the typical courtesy seat empty between the two of you and he stared blankly at the way you leaned your weight on the vacant chair.

He recognized you.

The classic, dumbass teacher's pet who was always front and center of the room, iced drink at the ready looking like you belonged on the set of some god awful college b movie.

Well, almost always. You certainly had that loud ass drink, but you’d tucked yourself at the end of his row towards the back of the room and was clearly a bit embarrassed for bursting in almost 15 minutes late.

Tomura swallowed hard as your shirt gaped in the front. It took an immense amount of control to not gaze outright into the swell of your chest.

“You good?” you asked softly, head cocked like you were straight out of a fucking manga panel—tits on display with that stupid innocent, puzzled expression.

“Uh yeah, sorry,” Tomura mumbled.

You offered him this gross, clearly fake smile—because why the hell would you be grinning like that if it wasn’t just because you wanted something from him—as he threaded the cord behind his chair and plugged it in.

“Thanks,” you replied and turned back towards the professor, typing away cause you actually take notes in this class.

Of fucking course you did.

Probably trying to impress everyone with how you typed practically every word the prof said. Tomura decidedly did not take notes, and didn’t really pay that much attention in general. Usually he just played some trashy phone game under the desk or dozed with his head against the cement wall.

It had gotten to that portion of the semester when it was warmer outside but the buildings still had the heat cranked all the way up, especially here in the basement where the classroom was. That environment along with his usual hoodie/joggers combo created grade A napping conditions that Tomura took full advantage of.

As a rule, he actually cared about school and he did relatively well. But this was just some dumbass liberal arts requirement course that had nothing to do with his actual major, so he was perfectly fine with coasting. Why his comp sci degree required him to take a fucking Restoration era English class, he had no clue. Apparently neither did his advisor other than that the ‘administration recommended it’ so their students would have a ‘well rounded learning experience.’

It was almost certainly just a cash grab to make him take more credits than was necessary to graduate, but whatever. He was here now. And so were you. Your presence was overwhelmingly clear, typing away and smelling like one of those insanely specific laundry detergent label scents—fucking rolling meadows and grandmother’s clean linen or something like that.

He’d never sat this close to you before, but that didn’t stop you from annoying the shit out of him for the previous whole half semester and going since it was just now passing midterms. Long enough for him to have pegged you as a textbook try-hard, pick-me bitch. You contributed to discussion at every opportunity, turned in shit early, and debated other classmates regularly enough to disrupt his in-course sleep schedule.

The way you dressed pissed him off too, with a particular style that was enough to stand out but not so over the top that it would cause disinterest from any potential mates.

And now you were filling his corner of the room with the overpowering smell of freshly washed hair and demanding he do things for you.

Fucking disgusting.

“Tomura Shigaraki.”

He jumped a third time, attention directed from his lap to the front of the room where the prof stood, listing out names from the board. He heard your name next followed by Kai Chisaki. The list was projected on the board as well, grouping everyone into twos or threes with “Final Project Partners” listed in bold Helvetica font at the top.

Only fucking English profs used Helvetica.

He vaguely remembered mentions of a final presentation—one of like three grades in this class cause the prof was almost certainly a sadist.

No, not almost—definitely. Otherwise he wouldn’t have stuck him with you and that weirdo Kai pre-med student who insisted on acting so elitist you’d think he already had his fucking M.D.

One time he asked Tomura to move seats at the start of the semester because he looked “dirty” and Kai liked to sit in the back—which, fair enough, it wasn’t like Tomura showered as frequently as he probably should but what the fuck??

With you rushing in late, chest out and panting every now and again from your apparent sprint across campus, Tomura was certain he’d be subjected to a whole 6 weeks of watching you try to mount that fucking Kai dude instead of actually working.

This was going to be a nightmare.

From the end of the table, he saw you shifting and turned to find that stupid fucking smile flashed his way once again.

If you had a tail, he’d bet it would be wagging.

“Hey, well that’s convenient,” you chuckled and plopped down directly next to him, sliding your noisy ass drink across the table with you and brushing against his thigh when you shifted your bag to the side.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

It most certainly was not.

But Tomura would never say that because—as his roommate put it so kindly—he was kinda a pussy.

People made him nervous, they always had. That’s why he liked computers so much. Code made sense, there were clear rules and when something didn’t work out, he could fix it eventually, but you couldn’t see people’s codes. You had to fucking guess at shit and it made his anxiety skyrocket which the sides of his neck and finger tips suffered for.

So he cowered like the fucking dog you probably thought he was instead and kept his eyes on the floor, letting you set up in silence.

“Who was our third?” you asked, glancing around the room. “Sorry, I was busy making a shared drive and I came in late so I missed that last bit.”

Why the hell did you feel the need to apologize all the goddamn time? Seriously, who would believe you were actually sorry for being irritating as hell.

And god if he thought you were irritating.

“Kai,” he grumbled simply as the man in question sauntered over to the table and fucking Clorox wiped down the seat before sitting.

Tomura watched your smile falter just a bit and grinned inwardly at the slip in your fake little persona. But you didn’t say anything more, just moved your chair back so the three of you were in a semi-circle and pulled up a few pdfs on your laptop.

“Cool, so I was looking over the directions on the syllabus last week and I set up a little work delegation thing so we can distribute everything pretty evenly,” you jumped right in, tone matter of fact in the down-to-business manner he was used to hearing from you during class discussions.

It was better than you so clearly forcing yourself to be overly polite, and he honestly couldn’t really care less if you wanted to take charge of this thing. You seemed kinda bossy, but he begrudgingly admitted that your suck up behavior did mean you sort of knew what you were talking about. He was just here to pass and you might actually make that a lot easier.

It was okay as long as he was taking advantage of you, he told himself. And you would be too stupid to notice, so he could play your game and play pretend nice all the way to an A.

That walking condescension on the other hand—

“I’m not doing that,” Kai huffed through his ever-present mask.

Tomura wasn’t actually sure he’d ever seen the bastards face without it.

“What?” you laughed awkwardly. “Yes you are, you don’t really have much of a choice.”

You stared at your classmate who simply stared right back with his own, equally confused expression.

“Why do you look so surprised?” you asked after a moment of silence.

You weren’t smiling anymore and your voice had dropped down about a fucking octave. At least you sounded more like a person and not some wannabe uwu gamer bitch.

“People don’t talk to me like that,” Kai looked at you down his nose, legs spread wide and elbow resting on his knees.

Tomura could feel the pretentiousness wafting from him in waves, and waited with bated breath for you to get kicked off your pedestal. Just a bit though, he did need you around to do most of his work for this thing.

But in a shocking turn of events, you just laughed dryly twice and turned back to your laptop screen, mumbling as you did.

“Really? Well they should.”

Tomura would have laughed too, but he didn’t feel like inflating your ego. Kai on the other hand looked a bit like you’d just spit on shoes and furrowed those stupid, plucked thin eyebrows at the back of your head.

“So Tomura, you code right?” you asked, turning away from Kai completely to address him. “I just remember you saying you were in comp sci when we did introductions.”

He was taken aback by the knowledge that he existed as a person in your head outside of this room for a moment and simply nodded—suddenly feeling far too hot in his black on black sweats and hoodie.

God just talking to you made his skin burn.

“Great, cause we’re allowed to chose the medium we present in and I was thinking of taking it in a more creative direction cause I’ve had this prof before and he eats that shit up,” you begin to ramble again, scrolling through a bulleted list, shifting the screen for him to see.

“Right,” he murmured, still surprised you’d thought this far and not...actively hating what you’d brainstormed.

Well, it was a bit juvenile and you clearly didn’t know what you were talking about but the concept wasn’t horrendous. He could work with that and it shouldn’t be too hard. It kinda seemed like you’d overestimated a bit with how challenging it would actually be and saddled yourself with most of the heavy lifting. That or you were just a control freak which was a little more believable.

He wished you would stop looking at him over the edge of the screen. He could feel himself starting to sweat. Rivulets falling down the nape of his neck and racing across his bare chest under the sweatshirt. Tomura sorta regretted not wearing a shirt underneath but he knew that he wouldn’t have taken off the insulating layer even if that had been an option.

It would just mean you had more drying, pale as fuck skin to look at and judge him for because he knew that’s what you were doing. Fucking vapid and shallow like everyone else.

“It’s really rough so far, but I have it the gist outlined,” you indicated to another tab and then turned back to Kai who had been sitting silently glaring daggers into your back. “So, Kai, since you’re in STEM I figured you’d be okay with doing more of the preliminary research—”

“I don’t think so,” Kai interrupted, shaking his head and pushing off his knees to lean back in the cheap, plastic seat. “Look, it’ll be easier for all of us if you two just make it look pretty and I can handle the oral presentation.”

You gaped and looked to Tomura with this pathetic fucking incredulous stare, like you thought he’d back you up.

Which actually, now that he thought about it was probably a good idea—he did need you to remain somewhat cordial with him—but he certainly didn’t care enough to defend you in any way. Kai was a dick, sure, but he wasn’t gonna let you rope him into being your white knight or whatever.

He settled for a similarly disgruntled downward twitch of his lips. The movement pulled at the cracking skin which stung as it tore open even more. Tomura felt the familiar crawling feeling on his neck and shifted in his seat to resist the urge to scratch.

He couldn’t pinpoint why exactly you staring at him was so uncomfortable. He didn’t like you, he didn’t care about you and by extension didn’t give two shits what you thought of him, but anything he might have said shriveled on his tongue when you spoke or looked in his eyes too long.

Tomura had never made a habit of talking to females and they certainly had never wanted anything to do with him either.

Maybe he was fucking allergic or something.

Whatever the case, you seemed to take his half frown as a sign of solidarity and leaned back in your own seat.

“Okay, look,” you retorted. “If you’re seriously not gonna at least try to cooperate, then there is actually an option to do the project by yourself and I suggest you take it.”

The look on your face was distinctly impolite. There was a sharpness to the set of your jaw that Tomura had never seen before, but it looked practiced enough that he could bet it was simply the snake that resided in every woman just waiting to come out.

“Look sweetheart—” that masked jerk began, also for some fucking reason looking to Tomura for support.

For someone who was very much used to blending into the background scenery, this was the most eye contact Tomura had ever made in a day.

Except on the rare occasions his roommate had friends over and he had to make the dreaded trek from his room to reach the fridge.

“Oh yeah I’m not doing that,” you closed your laptop sharply and rolled your eyes. “I get it, but I’m really just trying to graduate. I don’t think this is going to work out and you,” Tomura froze as you shifted your gaze to him once again, “seem okay, so Tomura and I can just work this out by ourselves and you can find a different group.”

Kai scoffed behind the black layer of fabric covering his mouth and slung his backpack over his shoulder. “Whatever.”

Tomura watched him saunter straight out the door as the room was filled with the shuffling of notebooks and zipping of backpacks.

“God,” you huffed and turned back to him.

His raw skin burned under the new wave of heat and accompanying moisture that slicked his skin when you scooted closer to him. That clean laundry and shampoo smell was suffocating from this proximity.

Did you fucking bathe in the stuff?

He was becoming increasingly aware of his less than pleasant aroma and the fact that you not scrunching your nose up in disgust just out of some stupid, ingrained need to appease him.

“Well, that was...weird,” you chuckled in a way that was probably meant to break the tension.

Unfortunately Tomura felt more like he was about to break out in hives if you came any closer so it really just ended up making the atmosphere ten times more awkward. At least for him. You, somehow, remained resolutely unaware.

“Mhm,” he hummed in response and picked silently at the skin of his fingers.

“Anyway, I have a meeting in a few but we can trade numbers and pick a time to meet up sometime tomorrow maybe?” you suggested, quickly saving the steadily degrading vibes of the conversation and pulled out your phone.

He really hated the full body pulsation that rushed through him at the thought of getting a girls number. It made him fucking sick at himself for falling into your stupid trap to get him interested. Was your plan to just use him to get a good grade or whatever and then block his texts?

It wasn’t like Tomura didn’t know about his status as the class ‘freak.’ That one guy everyone whispers about and makes sure not to sit next to. And he knows you know, so why the hell else would you act so nice?

He wanted to say something scathing in return. That he could do the whole thing by himself too—which he definitely couldn’t but that was irrelevant—and that he didn’t need you bossing him around either.

“Sure thing,” he said instead and took your offered phone all too eagerly, typing in his number and watching as you shot off a text back so he’d have yours.

His phone buzzed against his thigh and he jumped a fourth time, but you seemed not to notice as you packed your bag and grabbed your basic ass drink. The ice clattered against the tumbler, dropping cool condensation against the searing skin of his hand.

Tomura shivered as you waved over your shoulder and slipped out the door with another rush of students.

He sat silently in the empty room for a moment, trying to process the last hour. He pinched himself idly, wondering if it had all been just a weird dream, but the results were inconclusive. A minute or two passed before he pulled out his phone to scroll through the list of reddit and discord notifs to find your text.

Unknown Number:

— pEopLe DoN’t TaLK tO mE liKE ThAt

— not very plus ultra of him...smh

— anyway, library at 6 tomorrow ?

Tomura caved, digging his nails into the side of his neck and hissed at the pain, confirming the day's horrible reality.

#tomura shigaraki x reader #shigaraki tomura x reader #shigaraki x reader #tomura x reader #bnha fanfiction #tomura shigaraki imagines #fem!reader #incel!shigaraki #college au #bee.writes

716 notes · View notes

unionwitch · 3 years

Text

Okay guys, galaxy brain with me for a moment:

A FF XV au: where there are 3 Nox Fleuret siblings, Ravus, Luna AND Stella.

Stella is the baby. She's one year younger than Lunafreya, so Luna is still THE Oracle

Since their dad is never mentioned, let's assume that he got in a fight with Sylva (R&L's mom) about the whole prophecy, so he tries to leaves sneakily without telling anyone but Sylva about it and take away his youngest daughter before Regis and Noct arrive to Tenebrae

Sylva kinda silently exiles their dad and is mad at him for standing against her and her duty (and essentially against Luna's future)

Being an Oracle is though shit and she's trying her best, but she cannot exactly stand against the Astrals even though she's devastated upon hearing about her daughter's destiny

The shit gets really messy during the fall of Tenebrae because at this point only few closest to the Oracle know about the tension between the family

During the attack Dad Fleuret sacrifices himself to focus soldiers' attention on himself while Stella manages to run away and get out of Tenebrae with other refugees (since she was already preparing to do that before Niflheim attacked)

After the fall, when they find Dad Fleuret's dead body and can't find Stella anywhere, they announce to the public that both Queen and King of Tenebrae is dead along with the youngest princess

That results in Lunafreya feeling even more compelled to her duty because she's the only Oracle left and her family is falling apart

Ravus has even more issues due to losing both of his parents and his sister

Stella tries to lay low and lets the Empire believe she's dead for at least a year before she tries to contact her siblings

Stella vaguely keeps in touch with Ravus and Luna with Pryna's help after Tenebrae falls

Since I imagine both Stella and Ravus are similar in character, she vows to avenge her parents and homeland so she learns how to fight (possibly joins either hunters or mercenaries)

Since we can't have nice things without a lil bit of 💫💫drama💫💫 - Ravus is very protective of Lunafreya, because he feels like he already failed one of his sisters

Luna is conflicted - on one hand she care about Stella, but on another she can't understand how could she just leave them, especially once she learns that the reason she got away in the first place is that she was already planning to run away with their dad

Stella is slightly freaked out by the prophecy and is also overprotective when it comes to Luna, but she can't do much SINCE the whole world thinks she's dead and Ravus is adamant about keeping it that way, because even if he feels betrayed, he still wants her to be free and hates himself since he can't really help with Luna's situation

Cue Ravus forming his dumbass plan to get a high rank in the Empire's army to at least somehow protect his family

Lunafreya is mad at her brother, because she's sick of everybody sacrificing themselves in order to protect her and reluctantly reaches out to Stella, so maybe she can convince him to not join

When Stella gets a wind of Ravus making a career at the army, she is pissed at him because he's siding with the enemy

Ravus dismisses both sisters and shuts himself off because he cannot let them get hurt by the Empire again and they simply don't understand that he doesn't have the same luxury of being too important to get rid of him as Lunafreya does (because the Emperor isn't stupid enough to publicly try anything against the Oracle) so he's also trying to make himself valuable so they can't use him as a bargaining chip against Lunafreya

Since, like I mentioned before, I see Ravus &Stella thinking in similar ways, Stella decides to join Aranea's team (since Aranea was hired by the Empire a few times already and there are rumours that they want her&her mercs as a part of the army) half out of pure spite and half because she's acquaintances with her due to work so she knows Aranea won't be loyal to the Empire even if she'll work for them

Naturally - Ravus is pissed

Lunafreya is hurt by her decision and cuts off contact with her

Later when Ravus is coincidentally assigned to a mission with Aranea, he quietly corners Stella and tries to make her leave and go back to hiding

Aranea walks on them 3 seconds away from throwing hands and decides that they are suspicious af and demands an explanation

A long passive aggressive conversation later - Aranea learns of Stella's true identity (she was using a fake name) and she's shook, but she agrees to keep it to herself and to pass on messages from Ravus to his sister without raising too many suspicions

I'll continue later because I'm close to sign limit ×-×

#ffxv #final fantasy xv #ravus nox fleuret #lunafreya nox fleuret #stella nox fleuret #aranea highwind #im big braining here guys #3 fleurets au

49 notes · View notes

kanohivolitakk · 3 years

Note

Have you done Krekka for the ask game? I know you're a huge Nidhiki fan, curious if you have any thoughts on his partner?

I haven't gotten Krekka yet actually. So far I only done Toa Ignika and Axonn for the Bionicle ask game (which Im still accepting). That being said great choice. Krekka isn't necessarily a big favorite of mine (partially because I'm not that fond of the "dumb brute" archetype barring a few exceptions), but I have to admit I do have a soft spot for the big guy. Krekka is a relatively simple character when it comes to characterization/backstory/role in the story (especially when compared to Nidhiki), but that doesn't mean I don't have any "deeper" thoughts regarding him or that there isnt stuff worth discussing.

Anyways some thoughts/headcanons/general musings:

This is a weird thing to start with but... Krekka is kinda adorable for me. I think its kinda this ...overgrown puppy (bulldog??) vibe due to his loyalty and dumbness. I admit BOADH is a big reason for me feeling this way since it gave him a few moments that made me go "AWWW he's so cute". Just..love his loyalty so much.

His undying loyalty makes him stand out for me across the other dark hunters. While many dark hunters we ha e are opportunistic and schemy, Krekka is just...very loyal. Maybe too much so. But I love that he is loyal. Feels refreshing tbh.

And now I cant help but feel that TSO is just "guys stupid but at least he wont double cross me and is easy to keep in check" when it comes to him.

Not to go woobifying villains but I genuinely dont think the guys that bad. Hes just really stupid, overly loyal and doing his job. Its kinda like w Lariska being a decent person despite being a knife happy murder girl although to a much lesser extent since guys a literalminded fool and also just smashy boy.

I do like his backstory of being a former guard who lost his job and started wreck havoc until one day a dark hunter found and hired him. It isnt anything too complex but it works well for his character and explains why he is so loyal to Dark Hunters. It also helps bringing a bit more light to his homeland and I love when we get more info of places through character backstories, makes the world feel more real that way.

Also can Gorast please stop hurting charaxters I like. This is the reason shes my least favorite character in the 2001-2008 storyline that isnt just a glorified extra or a plot device.

When it comes to Krekka, one scene I always think of when I think of him is in BOADH where he temporarily forgot to fly and Nidhiki was just "WAIT A MOMENT LARISKA TOLD ME YOU CAN FLY????" and Krekka just goes "whoops I forgot". That was adorable honestly. You dumb idiot, forgot you could fly.

Also, I know he's kinda "the idiot character", and while I am NOT saying he isn't, I do think its worth pointing out that he's basically literal minded. In BOADH (again) when Nidhiki tried to do that training scenario Krekka basically was like "wait I’m here, there’s nothing there why should I move there". This is

Another thing I really like about Krekka is that how, despite being an absolute idiot and tool, he still is willing to sometimes not take Nidhikis bullshit, see preventing him from getting the Zamor launchers (geez BOADH did a lot for this guys characterization lmao)

I sometimes call him truck boy because his name is one letter off my languages word for truck.

Also unless canon/word of Greg says otherwise I don't think every member of his species is as stupid as him. Like possibly on similar level but still.

It is made pretty clear that Nidhiki couldn't stand Krekka at all, but I do genuinely wonder how Krekka feels about Nidhiki. Based on the little we have I'd say he liked him to some extent or at the very least, didn't hate him to the same degree. I also have to wonder how aware he was about Nidhikis haterd towards him.

I also love the idea that when Nidhiki was mutated, Krekka just...wasnt afraid of him at slightest, no fear in this dumb boy. (I also like the idea he didnt recognize him at first and Nidhiki just, had to explain to his thick skull who he was. It took a while but eventually he got it.)

On a related note, I find it interesting how the LOMN website describes him working with Nidhiki because guy knows where to get the good jobs or something rather than being his goverment (read TSO) assigned partner The way the twos relationship were described makes it feel that by this point the staff hadnt figured out what they wanted to do with Dark Hunters , or if it even was an organization or just these two tools.

Its really interesting for me how Krekkas characterization not only varies between the books/comics (where hes more intimidating and him being a simpleton isnt as pronounced) and the movie (where hes more of a dumbass) but also how his characterization evolved. Like, his loyalty wasn't that pronounced trait but now I feel its just as important part of him as him being a dumbass (which is to say, very interesting)

I remember how the aftoermentoined Metru Nui movie website described that Krekka hated toa to the point wouldve hunted them for free if Nidhiki didnt make sure the two would get paid. I feel this is somewhat early installment weirdness as it isnt mentioned anywhere else but at the same time Krekka being willing to fight without payment sounds 1000% in character if you ask me

Something I have been confused over: when exactly was Krekka recruited to the dark hunters??? The timeline is very vague about this and I wish we knew.

It's been AGES since I watched my home countrys dub of LOMN but what I recall I really liked Krekka's voice in that dub. He sounded more badass and I loved it, the VA had a pretty unique sound. Sadly dont think there is any clips of the LOMN dub, which is a shame. UPDATE: I rewatched the dub and I love the voice itself but felt the voice direction made him sound kinda inconsistent

This is more a "Nidhiki and Krekka related thought" rather than just Krekka related but one thing I really like about Krekka and Nidhiki is that how they are like a more serious and competent take of "those two evil henchmen with contrasting personalities" trope. Often these types of villains are rather goofy, but these two could be rather dangerous as well and I really like that. I also like their dynamic of just doing Nidhiki being done with Krekkas bullshit. One of the main reasons I wish LOMN was a miniseries rather than a movie is because I really wanted more screentime with the two.

On a related note can I JUST SAY I LOVE the way the two compliment/pararell each other. From design (Krekka being bulky mostly blue colored, Nidhiki being slender and monstrous, mostly green colored) to personality (Krekka being foolish and simpleminded but loyal Nidhiki being cunning and ambitious but treacherous) to powersets (Krekka being strong physical attacker, Nidhiki being weaker(??) but faster and more special attacker).Heck, even their backstories have similarities as they both lost their orginal purpose in one way or another and didnt have anywhere to go but Dark Hunters (the main difference being that Nidhiki inflicted his fate upon himself by betraying the toa while Krekka didnt really do anything iirc)

Now for something crossovery, Krekkas and Nidhikis dynamic reminds me a lot of Kronk and Yzma from Emperors New Groove. Yes I have drawn a parody of the "pull the lever kronk" meme, yes I intend to make more screencap redraws. They also remind me a lot of Mummymon and Archenemon from Digimon 02, partially due to the dynamic (smug spider that tries to be cunning and intimidating but gets outclassed by most other villains in that + loyal blue dumb boy) partially due to their ultimate fate being rather similar.

I don't know how familiar you are with the franchise, but Krekka reminds me a fair bit of Gamel, one of the four villain generals in Kamen Rider OOOs, mainly because "the dumb brute major villain that's kinda cuteish and loyal a f while everyone else is an asshole".

I remember reading a p good oneshot fic that was just him accidentally killing a civilian when all he wanted was a hug and...honestly that is p much what I imagine him being like. Guy may be strong, reckless and a fool but like I said I dont think hes all that bad and just a puppy. An overgrown, moronic puppy but a puppy nontheless

For AUs, I remember I have thought once of "What if Krekka survived but Nidhiki died" and just ...guy wouldve been very lost and confused and unsure what to do tbh. He would most likely returned to Dark Hunters but Mata Nui knows how say TSO wouldve felt about that. Its not too complex au yet but I am thinking of developing it further one day.

Thank you for asking.

Sorry this took longer than expected. I had too many thoughts and half of them were deleted so. I hope its worth the wait tho. I do have a lot of Krekka thoughts and tbh wasnt sure if I was even able to get them all here.

(I am still doing the ask game so if anyone wants to send me a bonkle I will try to give thoughts, meta and headcanons on them)

#ask game #bionicle #Krekka

8 notes · View notes

leelysian · 4 years

Text

Changbin as your older brother AU 💖✨

genre: fluff, bullet point fic

word count: 2.3k

warnings: swearing

Disclaimer: I do not personally know Changbin. This work is purely fiction and my own idea. I took inspiration from his on screen persona. Please do not translate or re-upload my work.

A/N: hi :) Sorry if this is kinda bad. I’m running out of ideas for this series(?). It’s really hard to write these aus for the members when there’s limited knowledge about them and when you’re trying to make everything seem different without making it seem like they’re all one dimensional and cut from the same cloth. Thank you to everyone who has been reading these older brother aus and thank you for being patient. Please leave some feedback, it really keeps me going. ❤️

☆ Let’s start with you as babies.

☆ Changbin would for sure as kiddy questions like “How did the baby get inside mummy’s tummy?” “When will baby come out?” “How does baby poop?”

☆ Your parents either answered him vaguely or somehow dodged his questions.

☆ Would sleep in your parents bedroom close to your mum to protect her baby bump.

☆ Would be hella excited to feel you kick in your mum’s tummy.

☆ Would say cute things to the baby bump. “Come out quickly baby I can’t wait to play with you.” “We can play with *insert favourite toy* together.” “We’re going to have a lot of fun together.” I am close to tears

☆ Doesn’t care about the gender.

☆ When you were born, he was extremely excited to see you but little Binnie patiently waited till your parents had their moment first until they ushered him to the hospital bed.

☆ He was wide eyed as he held you as if scared to hurt you. He smiled when he stroked your cheek with a finger and smiled wider when you grabbed onto his finger.

☆ CUDDLES, CUDDLES AAAAAAAND MORE CUDDLES

☆ Tried to help your parents take care of you but most of the time failed.

☆ *tries to put pants on you* *gets kicked in the face instead*

☆ The only thing he could properly do was cuddle you as he fed you a bottle and somehow you ate properly if he was the one feeding you when you were being fussy.

☆ *you two fall asleep while he’s holding you*

☆ Adoring/curious stares.

☆ Fed you a bit of lemon for jokes when you were starting to grow teeth and had the time of his fricking life when he saw your reaction.

☆ I’m talking the kind of laughs he does with his whole body.

☆ Helped you learn how to walk patiently. Just laughed when you fell on your butt.

☆ Taught you how to high 5 at a very young age.

☆ You talked to him a lot. Not like he understood what you said because it was mostly babbling but it was fun for both of you.

☆ You broke a lot of his toys. He’d get upset until he got new ones.

☆ The one toy he never shared with you was Gyu, his plushie.

☆ Fast forward you’re older and know how to walk and talk coherently, Changbin is a kid.

☆ Changbin wants cookies but they’re on the top shelf and your mum purposefully put them there so neither of you could reach.

☆ “Changbin what are you doing?”

☆ Changbin: 👀

☆”I’m gonna tell mum~”

☆ “NO DON’T. If you help me, I’ll give you a cookie then you have to promise me you won’t tell mum.”

☆ Your smart ass contemplated for a few seconds before you agreed, “Ok what do we do?”

☆ “If I lift you up can you grab the jar? Don’t drop it.”

☆ “Yes.”

☆ Somehow both of you managed to retrieve the jar unscathed. Why none of you thought to grab a chair and do it, I don’t know.

☆ One cookie turned to two then three until the jar was half empty and your dad caught you.

☆ Everyone except you two with crumbs around your mouths in the room:️

👁️👄👁️

☆ Your dad walked in with brooding eyes. He grabbed a cookie and started eating quietly, “It’s a secret.”

☆ All three of you smiled happily and continued munching on the cookies.

☆ Until a while later your mum walked in and gasped, “YOU ATE ALL THE COOKIES?! *insert dad’s name* YOU WERE IN ON THIS TOO!”

☆ The three of you gulped nervously until you said, “No mum look! We saved a few for you!” The three of you smile innocently.

☆ Your mum sighed and smiled exasperatedly. “This is the last time.” A chorus of agreement sang throughout the room yet nobody meant a single word.

☆ Most of the time you two were hyperactive and played around so much you’d be knocked out cold by the time it was around 9 pm.

☆ Your parents had to lug you to your shared room.

☆ You two played tag a lot, he was really fast so you’d always get tagged very quickly.

☆ HIDE AND SEEK

☆ Running. So much running. You’re the hyper kids.

☆ Rock paper scissors. Winner flicks the loser’s forehead. Changbin always took the penalty but never really doled it out on you, if he did it wasn’t too hard.

☆ Races. “LAST ONE IS A ROTTEN EGG!”

☆ Changbin could easily win, but sometimes he slowed down purposefully to let you win for a change.

☆ Giggles. Giggles everywhere. Giggles all the time.

☆ Pillow forts in your room.

☆ Tickle fights.

☆ Cuddling together while watching cartoons.

☆ You thought he was cool.

☆ He liked you thinking so highly of him.

☆ Made him want to be even cooler for you.

☆ He’d ruffle your hair playfully.

☆ He’d pinch your nose. “AAAAHHH”

☆ He’d pull your hair.

☆ PIGGY BACK RIDES!!!!!!!!!

☆ Such a joker. It was harmless fun.

☆ Once you doodled on his school notes. He got mad and stopped talking to you.

☆ He rarely got angry at you, sure you two bickered sometimes and sometimes got whiny at each other.

☆ You apologised with a treat you got, instead of eating it by yourself, you gave it to him as a peace offering.

☆ He didn’t eat it himself, he shared. “It’s okay just don’t do it again. These are important. You’ll know when you get older.”

☆ “Ok. I’m sorry.”

☆ Things became alright again.

☆ Fast forward you’re tweens/teens/young adults.

☆ The dynamic is wild.

☆ You two would always goof around like idiots.

☆ Changbin annoyed you a lot.

☆ “Y/N look over there!” you’re stuck in visible confusion. *smacks your head and runs*

☆ “CHANGBIN!”

☆ You’re eating chips. “Y/n what’s that?” “What’s what?” *steals bag*

☆ “When are you gonna stop tricking me?”

☆ “When are you gonna stop falling for that?”

☆ You get pissed.

☆ Then it escalates into a wrestling match until ultimately you get hurt and start nearly crying in pain.

☆ “FUCK! SHIT SHIT SHIT I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY HERE YOU CAN HIT ME BACK. PLEASE DON’T TELL MUM! PLEASE STOP CRYING!”

☆ You’re watching tv peacefully. Changbin walks in with a nerf gun/water gun. “REACH FOR THE SKY!”

☆ The living room turns into a warzone or a set for mission impossible.

☆ You ‘borrow’ his clothes. “Y/N STOP STEALING MY SHIT!”

☆ He ‘borrows’ your charger. “GET YOUR OWN CHARGER CHANGBIN!”

☆ He casually strolls into the living room, sits next to you with feet propped up on the table, snatches the remote when you’re not looking and changes the channel.

☆ “HEY I WAS WATCHING THAT!”

☆ “Well too bad. I don’t wanna watch it.”

☆ “GIMME THE REMOTE!” “No :}”

☆ Another wrestling match for the remote.

☆ You hide his glasses. Basically keep them with you.

☆ “Hey y/n have you seen my glasses?” “Nope.”

☆ He looks EVERYWHERE.

☆ You keep them on top of the tv when he’s away. “Hey Changbin found it on the tv.”

☆ “That’s weird I don’t remember putting them there. The heck?”

☆ “Maybe you’re just losing your mind. Already becoming an oldie?”

☆ “I may be old but I can still kick your ass.”

☆ You’re the younger sibling that either grows up to the same height as him quicker or grows taller than him somehow.

☆ He hates it. You thrive on it. “Hehe shortie. Can you even reach?”

☆ So he started working out to tone up.

☆ You’re barely able to lift a heavy box. He picks it up with ease. “Do you even lift?”

☆ He’s washing the dishes. You leave your dish for him and sneak out. “Y/N! I SWEAR-”

☆ You have a lit music taste because of him.

☆ You’re sleeping, he’s up early. You need to go to school. Instead of waking you up like a normal person, he pulls the blankets completely off of you and tackles you. “Y/N WAKE UP!”

☆ “CHANGBIN YOU CRAZY BASTARD! DO YOU WANNA DIE?!”

☆ You two are eating. He’ll finish eating seemingly at the speed of light and stare at you eating. “I’m not sharing.”

☆ “I didn’t say anything.”

☆ awkward silence

☆ You pass your food to him. “You owe me, pabbit (pig + rabbit)”

☆ Both of you forget about it later on.

☆ He’s hella clumsy.

☆ He’d definitely break a glass or plate or vase.

☆ He’s the type to fix something just enough to make it seem not broken so the next person who uses it would think they broke it.

☆ Anything to not get his ass handed to him by mummy dearest.

☆ You do this thing to annoy him which is basically mock/copy him when he tells you something.

☆ “Hey you know-” “Hey you know-” “you know that-” “you know that-” this continues a few more times until he screams and tackles you.

☆ You did this thing where you literally jumped on his back when he was unaware and you'd stick to him. The scream was worth bursting your eardrums. Worked every time.

☆ He was built he could carry you.

☆ Another thing is copying his actions.

☆ He yawns, you yawn. He scratches his nose, you copy. He stretches, you stretch. He shifts, you copy.

☆ “STOP COPYING ME!” “Stop copying me” “I said STOP COPYING ME!” “I said stop copying me!”

☆ “I hate you.” “I love you too bro.”

☆ His friends like you and a lot of times you hang out with him and his friends.

☆ He wears the weirdest stuff just for shits and giggles.

☆ “Hey y/n.” “What?” you look at him and burst out laughing.

☆ Where he got a shark head mask, you had no idea. You had tears running down your face as he started to sing and sexy dance to baby shark.

☆ “STOP I’M GONNA PEE!”

☆ You two say the darndest things.

☆ “I just realised- if vampires can’t go out in the sunlight then wouldn’t the moonlight kill them too?

☆ “How?”

☆ “Moonlight is just the sunlight shining from behind the moon dumbass.”

☆ “Oh shit you’re right.”

☆ Another example of this would be:

☆ “The hospital is the only place you leave without entering.”

☆ Both of you: 👁️👄👁️

☆ You’re eating watermelon. You bite some of the white bit.

☆ “I just realised the worst part of the watermelon tastes like a cucumber.”

☆ awkward silence “wait you’re right.”

☆ “Anyways, here you can wash the plates.”

☆ “Y/N!”

☆ AEGYO FLUFFY GOODNESS

☆ Will use everything in his cuteness arsenal to get what he wants.

☆ You hate to admit it actually works sometimes.

☆ “Y/n~ pleeeaaaseee get me some cookies.”

☆ “No.”

☆ He keeps whining and rocking or shaking you. “PLEEEEAAAAAASEEE”

☆ “FINE!”

☆ Who’s really the older sibling and who’s really the younger sibling?

☆ “You know you could’ve just gotten them yourself with the time it took you to annoy me into getting them for you?”

☆ He just smiles toothily.

☆ “If you could choose between a giant me or 5 mini me’s which would you choose?”

☆ “Neither I’d rather die.”

☆ “Y/N! WHYYYYY” he whines and shakes you.

☆ He’s always there for you when you need him the most. He’ll always comfort you with tight hugs.

☆ He’s the type of person to make silly jokes and make you smile or laugh to make you feel better instead of sort of brooding with you.

☆ This is only acceptable with him, if anyone else tried to be goofy when you were upset it wouldn’t work.

☆ Because it’s Changbin’s thing. Only he has that power.

☆ You rarely see him upset. He’s always smiling, joking around and acting cute.

☆ One time, really late at night you saw him in the kitchen sitting with a glass of milk. He hadn’t noticed you.

☆ This was off putting because you rarely saw him this quiet. He’s always laughing and loud.

☆ He was staring off in the distance, the glass gathering condensation from being out of the fridge and into warm temperature.

☆ “Can’t sleep?” He was startled and shook his head no. “What’s on your mind?”

☆ “It’s nothing.” You sat with a glass of water. “You know you can tell me, right?”

☆ “I know I just don’t wanna bother you.” he said and this confused you. “Why would you be bothering me? That’s absurd.”

☆ He shrugged, “I dunno, seems like all I do is annoy people these days.”

☆ You pat his back. “Hey, that’s not true. Well it only applies to me because you’re my sibling. That’s a thing. Is there anything specific you’re talking about?”

☆ He stays quiet for what seems like the longest time until he unloads.

☆ You’re not good with words like he is. You try your best to listen and give sensible input.

☆ Changbin admired that about you. Despite being younger, you were sometimes mature and understanding. You were authentic, you never tried to be something you weren’t.

☆ Which is why he always valued your words.

☆ Afterwards if he had anything on his mind, sometimes he’d vent to you.

☆ You the ability to make his insecurities disappear simply because he feels stupid for the way he thinks when he talks to you.

☆ You make his problems miniscule, not in a belittling way but in a way that makes him realise how things could be different or done differently.

☆ Your sense of perception was something amazing.

☆ This is why Changbin believed you were the best sibling he could ask for.

☆ But little did he know, you wouldn’t be able to function properly if he wasn’t the goofy, silly, clumsy, idiotic Changbin who exists today.

☆ He’s just the right type of flavour you need in your bland life.

☆ don’t be shy put some more.

☆ He’s the right balance of a clown, a baby and a guardian angel.

☆ He’s extremely caring, loyal, kind hearted and annoying.

☆ You’d change absolutely nothing.

53 notes · View notes

recurring-polynya · 3 years

Note

hello ms. polynya! if you are still taking drabble requests and are in the mood for it, I would love to see more of the mall AU (yes, THAT mall AU lmao). bonus points for more omnidirectional horny teenage pining, because that first mall AU drabble nearly made me cry laughing and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. p.s. re: that fanfic author meme—my favorite story of yours is hold on, hold on! closely followed by call me back when the war is over :)

(cont’d)

mall au anon again, realizing I forgot to send like half of what I wanted to request because I got too excited (durr hurr): would love the ensemble cast/lieutenant goon squad because I really enjoy how you riff off of these characters, and/or renji and izuru being dumb friends and also wrangling their Big Crushes. no pressure to fill this though, thanks for being wonderful and generous 💖

I saved this one ‘til last so I would have something to look forward to. I love the Mall Goths AU, it is my greatest pleasure in life to write a bunch of undead shonen badasses as dorky teens trying to ask their crushes to prom.

Thank you to @alopexplasma, who came up with the name of Renji's car. I compulsively write Renji driving a Camaro in every AU I can conceivably shoehorn it into, and somehow, the incredibly obvious name never occurred to me. I am a moron.

Read on ao3 or ff.net

(if you haven’t read the original, read Ch 7 first, either site will do)

💘 💌 💘

Renji folded his hands on his knees and leaned forward, regarding Izuru very, very seriously. “Look, as you know, I don’t have any money, or... connections, or… well, anything, really, but you know that if you got cancer or were in a car wreck or something, any organs that I have two of, like kidneys or lungs? One of them would be yours, man. Bone marrow? I have so much bone marrow, and you can have as much of it as you want.”

“You know,” Momo pointed out, setting two paper cups down on the table, “if you marry Rukia someday, you will be absolutely rolling in it. I brought you coffee.”

“I assume she would want a pre-nup,” Renji replied very philosophically. “Which I respect.”

Izuru rolled his eyes and picked up his coffee. Just before taking a sip, he remembered. “Is this just the sludge that collects at the bottom of the airpot again?”

“Could be,” Momo tried to sound innocent.

“Oh, boy, my favorite!” Renji announced. “It’s so good, you just have to put, like, six creamers in. You want some creamers, Izuru?”

“I’ll pass,” Izuru said, pushing the coffee away. “Why can’t we do this in the game store, again?”

“Because Rukia hangs out at the game store!”

Instead, they were in the Barnes and Noble, where Momo worked in the cafe. Nothing personal to Momo, but Izuru hated the Barnes and Noble. It felt so bland and corporate, and smelled like new carpet, and he always felt like he should buy something if he was going to hang out there (not that he ever did). Besides, the couch was comfier at the game store.

“Just do this for him,” Momo implored, while Renji dug through the creamers, trying to find six that matched.

“It’s not that I don’t want to do it,” Izuru explained. “It’s that I think it’s a bad idea. You have been friends with Rukia since, what, fifth grade?”

“Third grade.”

“Third grade. Right. You sit next to her in class. You eat lunch with her. You talk to her all the time. Just say, ‘hey, Rukia, I really like you, will you go to prom with me?’ There’s no way she can look into your dumb puppy eyes and say no. Tell him, Momo.”

“Izuru’s certainly right about the puppy eyes.”

Renji sighed. “You don’t know Rukia like I do. Her family doesn’t do affection at all, and talking about feelings really scares her. If I ask her point blank like that, she’ll get defensive, and she won’t speak to me for a month, and she won’t go to prom at all, and then I’ll have to third-wheel Ikkaku and Yumichika.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Izuru pointed out. “You could…” he waved a hand vaguely. “You could take Momo.”

Momo shook her head. “Nanao and the Kotetsu sisters and I agreed to go together as gal pals,” she explained. “You could be a gal pal with us, I suppose, but only if you’re willing to coordinate outfits. You do look good in aqua.”

“Thanks,” Renji replied glumly. “Hey, I thought Rangiku was in your group, too?”

“Oh, she got a date.”

Izuru sniffed, pretending to be disinterested. If Shuuhei had finally gotten up the courage to ask Rangiku, then good for him.

“That upperclassman with the silver hair, Gin, asked her. He seems a little creepy to me, but she really likes him, and he’s friends with Aizen-sempai, so he must be a decent guy.”

Kira’s hands tightened on his knees. “She’s not going with Shuuhei?”

Renji gave him a look.

“Shuuhei says prom is lame and he’s not going,” Momo shrugged.

“I see,” Izuru frowned. “I mean, he’s not wrong.”

“He is wrong!” Renji protested. “Prom rocks. You wear fancy outfits and buy flowers for the person you like and there’s some insane theme, like Arabian Nights or Haunted Halloween Castle. You slow dance to ‘Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’ by Aerosmith, and when it’s over you go get pancakes. What part of that isn’t awesome?”

“This year’s theme is ‘Lifetimes Past,’” Momo dryly informed him.

“Exactly. In any case, I have dreamed of taking Rukia to prom for years, are you going to help me write her a love letter or not?”

Izuru groaned. “I don’t know why Rukia gets such crummy grades, because she’s actually very smart. She is definitely going to be able to tell that you didn’t write this.”

“I know that! You think I don’t know how smart she is? Look, I just want you to write it all nice in Kira-speak, and then I’ll translate it into dumbass. Just help me get my thoughts together. You know I don’t word good, but I really think that writing it out and giving her a chance to process it on her own is the best way to go about this.”

Momo turned sad eyes on Izuru, not that his resolve wasn’t already crumbling. Abarai was a goon and a bonehead, but his devotion to his long-time best friend was tooth-rottingly sweet. Izuru would feel like a villain in a Christmas special if he said no.

“Fine. Fine. But I want you to help me get the Festiva running again and I get to approve whatever it is you’re planning on wearing to prom. It better have sleeves, for one thing.”

“Deal!” Renji replied, his face splitting into a huge grin.

Izuru turned to a clean page in his writing notebook and licked the tip of his pen. “Dear Rukia,” he narrated.

“No! Don’t put her name!”

“Don’t put her name?”

“No names. I have seen a lot of teen movies, and notes like these always end up in the wrong hands. Rukia would die if something like that happened. Or if her brother found it, he would straight up murder me and then I wouldn’t get to go to prom.”

Izuru blinked at him. “Fine. No names.” He tapped his pen against the page. “ ‘We have been friends for a long time, and I feel that the time has come for me to make a clean breast of it. You are the most important person in my life. I am utterly besotten--”

“Er, hey, um, Izuru.” The tips of Renji’s ears were very pink. “Not to say that this isn’t, um, true, but I was thinking more along the lines of ‘Do you want to go to prom? JUST AS FRIENDS’ Maybe that part could be all in caps? or underlined? We could put in some little boxes that she could just check off ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and hand it back to me?”

Izuru raised one eyebrow. “But you don’t want to go ‘just as friends.’”

“Well, that’s true, yes, but this is Rukia we’re talking about, so you kinda have to ease her into things.”

Izuru regarded Renji with lidded eyes. “You can’t even ask her to prom as friends? You’re such a coward.”

“I’m not a coward,” Renji returned, but his voice was very small.

“You’re sixteen and I do not like to throw the word ‘love’ around, but it’s very obvious that you love Rukia, and I refuse to help you ask her to the prom as friends. You don’t have to admit everything, but you have to admit something. It’s go big or go home.”

“Okay,” Renji grumbled.

“I think he’s right,” Momo said, patting Renji’s hand. “She must wonder how you feel about her from time to time. If you insist on framing it ‘as friends’, she may actually view that as a rejection of the possibility of anything romantic ever happening between the two of you.”

Renji wrinkled his nose, but didn’t say anything.

“Ahem,” Izuru cleared his throat. “Let’s put in some compliments. What are some things you like about Rukia?”

“Things he liked about Rukia” was one of Renji’s very favorite subjects, and he perked up right away. “She’s cool,” he announced. “She’s cool as hell. Write that down.”

“I think you’re cool as hell,” Izuru wrote down reluctantly. This is not your love letter, he reminded himself. No one is even going to know you had anything to do with this.

“Your hair smells really good and you’re the most creative person I know,” Renji dictated. “You have incredibly sexy biceps.”

“Renji.”

“What? She does!”

“Fine, fine. That’s probably enough compliments, we need to keep this to one page. Um, what do you regard as your primary ‘ship symbolism?”

“My what now?”

“You know. When you think about Rukia and yourself, what metaphor springs to mind? Sun and moon? Sea and sky? King and lionheart?”

Renji looked utterly perplexed.

“Momo, help me out. How do you see you and Aizen-sempai?” “Doctor and Companion,” Momo answered immediately.

Izuru made a face. “Right.”

Renji’s face was screwed up in hard thought. Izuru could practically smell circuitry frying. “Rukia is like… a star?” he finally hazarded.

“A star is good!” Momo encouraged.

“And you are…?” Izuru prompted. “The moon? The sky? A different star?”

“A Camaro?” Renji guessed. “I’m loud and I have a powerful engine.”

“How are you even in AP Literature?” Izuru groaned.

“Well, what’s your dominant simile or whatever with Shuuhei?” Renji demanded.

“Poet and warrior,” Izuru snapped back testily.

“Which one of you is the warrior?” Momo asked, wrinkling her nose. “I mean, you both work on the school newspaper.”

“Shuuhei takes tae kwon do!” Izuru insisted.

“Well, why don’t you just write in whatever you’re gonna say for the poet-warrior thing, since you’ve obviously already put a lotta thought into it,” Renji suggested. “I’ll polish up my star/sportscar metaphor and drop it in when I copy it over.”

Izuru did not like leaving the keystone of a love confession in the hands of a man who thought manual transmissions were romantic, but he had to go on shift down at the food court in half an hour. He had to keep this moving. “Fine,” he bit off. “‘You are my muse. Your strength of body and spirit inspire poetry in me. My soul sings when I am with you. If only I had your bravery, this admission would be much easier. Instead, I am sending you this shy missive to ask, from the depths of my tender heart: Will you go to the prom with me?’ Done.”

“Oh, that was so romantic,” Momo sighed. “Izuru, you should write a romance novel.”

“Never,” Izuru replied.

Renji was making a Renji face.

“You hate it.”

“It was just… pretty flowery.”

“Rewrite it however you want. ‘My soul revs at 5000 rpm for you, right before I drop my rusty bumper in your brother’s driveway again.’”

“Don’t trash talk Zabimaro!”

“I would never trash talk Zabimaro, I was trash talking the metaphorical Camaro that is your love for Rukia.” Izuru ripped the page out of his notebook and handed it over. “Here you go. I gotta go to work. Beef n’ Cheddars don’t assemble themselves.”

Renji studied the page for a moment. “Thanks, Izuru. You won’t regret this.”

“I already regret it. Good luck. I still think you should just talk to her.”

“Well, I think you should ask Shuuhei!” Renji barked out suddenly. “I know you want to! You can go to Denny’s with us afterward!”

Izuru flashed him a pitying look. “Thank you for your concern, but I happen to share the opinion that prom is lame and I have no plans to attend.”

💘 💌 💘

When Izuru walked into the gaming store the next day, Ikkaku and Iba were sitting at the front table, assembling decks of Magic cards.

“The girls took over the back,” Ikkaku grumbled bitterly as he contemplated a Thicket Basilisk.

“Is Renji here?” Izuru asked. “He said he was coming today.”

“Haven’t seen him,” Iba grunted. “Your friend Hinamori is, though.”

Izuru had been trying to maintain his usual heavy veneer of Not Caring About Abarai’s Wretched Love Life, but secretly, he was dying to know how the note had gone over. Renji had said he was going to give it to Rukia after school, and then ghost off to soccer practice so she had time to think it over. Izuru thought this was the dumbest idea he had ever heard, apart from every other plan Renji had ever had.

There certainly was a lot of giggling coming from the back of the store. Rangiku was holding court on the couch, Momo and Rukia on either side of her. On the coffee table, half a dozen magazines featuring girls in sparkly dresses were scattered among the usual copies of Dragon and Wizard.

“I can’t decide if I want to go for a one-shoulder gown, or something completely strapless,” Rangiku was sighing. “Rukia, you have good shoulders, what are you thinking?”

Rukia mumbled something about lacking the necessary structural support for a sleeveless gown.

“You’d be surprised! It just needs to fit tightly enough!”

“You should come shopping with us on Saturday, Rukia!” Momo offered brightly. “You really don’t know what’s going to look good until you try it on.”

“Oh…” Rukia stammered. “My brother said he would buy me a dress. He said it’s important that I reflect well on the family.”

“Fortunately, your brother has killer taste,” Rangiku shrugged. “I would let him buy me all the dresses he wanted to.” She smiled her bright, friendly smile. “You could still come shopping, though, get some ideas of what you like! We could take some pictures to show him. I’m sure he takes input.”

Izuru had met Rukia’s brother. The man most certainly did not take input.

“Plus, it’ll just be fun to have you along!” Momo encouraged. “You have a great sense of style, I’d love to have your opinions!”

The portents looked auspicious, but Izuru needed positive confirmation. “Are you planning to go to the prom, Rukia?” he asked, flinging himself down in the ancient, creaky recliner. “I would have thought you were too cool for that.”

Two pink spots appeared on Rukia’s cheeks. “Yeah, I’m going, I guess.”

“You are not going to believe this, Izuru!” Rangiku gasped breathlessly. “But our Renji asked her to go with him!”

“Surely not!” Izuru scoffed, a pleasant feeling of satisfaction filling his chest.

“It’s just as friends!” Rukia protested. “And of course I don’t care about prom, but it means a lot to him, so…” she made a frustrated shrug.

Just.

As.

Friends.

Izuru shot a glare of horrified disbelief at Momo, who shrugged helplessly.

As if on cue, Renji’s mop of bright red hair poked around the edge of the Warhammer display. The couch backed to the front of the store, so Izuru could see him, but the girls couldn’t. Renji pointed emphatically at Rukia, and then stuck out his tongue victoriously, making a “hang loose” sign with his hand.

“I need to talk to you!” Izuru announced loudly, jumping up, grabbing Renji by front of his shirt, and hauling him into the aisle with all the ceramic dragon figurines. “You moron!” he hissed.

“I just did what you said!” Renji defended, holding up his hands.

“No, you didn’t! Did you even give her the note?”

“I did not. I thought about it, and I decided you were right. I talked to her with my actual voice. I told her I really wanted to go to prom with her, and she made a real cute face and then she said yes. Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without your help.”

Izuru squeezed his eyes shut. “But you’re going as friends.”

“Yeah, well, we are friends, and I’m okay with that. You know, it was the right move, anyway. The reason I was late is because her brother cornered me after work and lectured me for half an hour.”

“Byakuya went into the Foot Locker?” Izuru frowned, trying to picture it.

“Of course not. He would never go into a Foot Locker. He waited outside.”

Izuru admittedly hadn’t taken Rukia’s intense, overprotective brother into account, back when they were writing the note, even though he remembered Renji bringing it up. “Well, I’m glad you’re still alive.”

“Yeah, me too. I offered to wax his car, just immediately. That knocked him off his game a little.” Renji made a thoughtful face. “He, uh… was appreciative, actually. I guess Rukia’s been wanting to go to prom and pretending she doesn’t, and he thought I picked up on it and asked her because I’m a good friend.”

Izuru stared at Renji blankly. “What?”

Renji shook his head. “I can’t explain it. Kuchiki brains are weird. Anyway, he said I don’t have to wax his car, but he wants me to come over to dinner so he can pre-screen my table manners and I have to meet their scary grandfather.” Renji scratched his head. “I wonder if the old man has a car I could wax.”

Izuru let out a big sigh. “Well, I’m glad it worked out. Sort of. Even if you wasted a very good love letter that I worked very hard on.”

“You spent ten minutes on it, tops, and it did not go to waste.”

Izuru frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t you feel like… like it helps to talk that stuff out? To put your feelings into words and write them down and look at them? I mean, I know it helped me, I was just thinking that maybe…”

“Give it up, Abarai,” Izuru mumbled. Whenever anything remotely good happened to Renji, he got really optimistic that all his friends could repeat his successes. When Izuru was in the right mood, it struck him as sort of sweet, but right now, it was just irritating.

Renji stuffed his hands in his pockets and huffed. “Look. Talking to Rukia was… it was easier than I thought. T’be honest, I pretty much expected her to turn me down cold.” He gave a wistful little smile. “We’ll just see how it goes, y’know? Might even be able to work up the nerve to ask her for a slow dance.”

Izuru shook his head. “You’re hopeless, Abarai.”

“Yeah, well, takes one to know one.”

“We are not the same,” Izuru informed him pointedly. “I am a dreamer who pines for that which is out of his reach. You’re just a dumbass who can’t grab at the thing an inch in front of him.”

Renji gave one of his big, open shrugs. “Say what you want about me, but I have grabbed. It’s hard to judge distance when you’re too close to it. I’m just saying that I don’t think your dreamy moon poet is as far off as you think.”

“Why do you always listen to me exactly enough to misunderstand everything I say?” Izuru griped.

“I am a dumbass, you had me there.” He stood up straighter. “But Rukia is not a dumbass and I would like to go say hello to her before she thinks we’re making out back here in the sparkly dragon grotto like Ikkaku and Yumichika.”

“I heard that!” Ikkaku’s voice echoed through the store.

“Matsumoto is trying to convince her to get a strapless dress,” Izuru explained.

“Really? I’m in favor of that,” Renji grinned, his eyebrows raising. “She’s got the shoulders for it.”

“Go,” Izuru sighed, slapping his friend on the back.

As Izuru turned to follow Renji to the back sitting area, he saw Shuuhei hovering in the store’s main aisle. He was wearing a Tool t-shirt over a ratty grey henley with the elbows blown out. His hair looked like he put a bunch of gel in it and then immediately gone to a gymnastics class. There was a ‘69’ sharpied on his cheek. As usually, Izuru couldn’t believe how cool the guy was.

“Uh, hey, Izuru,” Shuuhei said, his voice uncharacteristically soft.

“Hey,” Izuru replied, trying to sound nonchalant. “Wondered if you were in today.”

Usually, Shuuhei would reply with some joke about his loud co-worker, Mashiro, but instead, his fingers curled and uncurled around a piece of paper he was holding.

Hmm, Izuru thought absently. Shuuhei must use the same kind of notebook that I do.

Shuuhei’s eyes darted to the side, and then back to Izuru. “Hey, um, someone slipped a note in my locker today, but they didn’t sign it. I don’t, uh, want to be forward or anything, but I think… this might be your handwriting?”

The floor dropped away from Izuru’s feet. He was had been transported to the Elemental Plane of Mortification. His corporeal body had ceased to exist.

Suddenly, behind Shuuhei’s back, Renji and Momo appeared in the doorway to the back room, flashing huge grins and four enthusiastic thumbs up.

Izuru was going to kill them.

#wacky au requests #my writing #i loved this one??#a 90's high school au is a thing that can be so personal #i never went to prom and it has ruined my brain by making me obsessed with prom stories #mr p never went to prom either and he has not spent a single second thinking about it since #i said this was the last one but there might be one more

7 notes · View notes

bitterlikesweets · 3 years

Text

Love Bites Special Ch

This is a special chapter of a modern/vampire AU ereri fanfic. It's a bit of an extra, in the form of Levi recapping the entire story so far. You can also read it on Ao3. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Special

~1~

Levi would rather die than admit this to anyone, but the first thing that went through his mind when he met Eren was, Shit, this guy is my type.

No, really. Isabel was collapsed on the floor at Levi's feet, Mikasa was practically frothing at the mouth, and Levi was thinking, Shit, this guy is my type.

Then he saw the vague outline of fangs through Eren's lips, and thoughts about the random guy's attractiveness were no longer on Levi's radar.

He was a new vampire; that much was clear. For his fangs to be so visible, he probably hadn't had blood in a long time. Only new fools were that stubborn.

New vampires were Levi's least favorite kind. Immature. Irresponsible. Always a pain to deal with. And Isabel had already angered Eren and his friend, leaving Levi in charge of damage control. Seriously, would it have been that hard for her to write out the three extra letters that made "no gar" into "no garlic?"

This certainly wasn't how he expected a vampire to taste his blood for the first time, but Levi knew that there were worse ways. Still, that didn't make him particularly pleased about having to use a kitchen knife to poke a hole in his damn wrist. While sullenly bringing the liquid to the vampire in a wine glass—he wasn't sure if the vampire's friends knew, and he preferred to be careful—Levi thought that the shitty vampire better not waste a single drop.

By the end of the night, Levi's last impression of Eren was this:

What kind of dumbass vampire turns down free blood?

~2~

Levi thought Eren running out of Kuchel's Kitchen like his life depended on it would be the last Levi ever saw of him. He seemed less than pleased about Levi giving him a glass of blood, though Levi wasn't sure if that was the shock of being found out or Levi's blood tasting like a pile of dog shit. If it did, that'd answer the questions Levi had about the origins of the rumor of poisonous Ackerman blood. If he had a drink of something that tasted like dog shit, he'd think it was poison too.

So, Isabel walking into their breakroom with Eren in tow was certainly a surprise. But what was most surprising to Levi was when he told Eren to just go and drink some blood like a normal vampire and the response was—

“No! I… Anything but that. Please.”

How long had it been since Levi had met a vampire who didn’t want to drink blood? Someone who didn’t seem like they wanted to be a vampire? Hanji was thrilled about their undead status, and Erwin had lived a long enough life as one to learn to accept it. And these days, only those who wanted a taste of immortality, a taste of that sort of power, got turned. Drinking a bit of blood was part of the deal they agreed to sign up for. Something wasn’t right with this kid. Levi just wasn’t sure what it was.

“If I knew who they were, they’d be fucking dead.”

The dark expression. The anger. Levi had seen that look on only two people’s faces before. One of them was himself. He knew immediately that it was likely a feral attack. But that didn’t make sense either because all ferals were under the King. Their victims either didn’t make it or were recruited for that sick fuck’s cause, and yet somehow Eren was right here…

When Eren started his story by talking about his mom, Levi’s stomach dropped. Eren’s voice was shaking, his body was trembling, and it felt like Levi was staring at himself from all those years ago, except at least Levi was given the mercy of not becoming the creature that took his mother away—

Levi reached out to touch Eren without even thinking. When Eren blinked up at him with those big green eyes, brimming with tears… Fuck, Levi had no idea what had gotten into him. His chest was squeezing like someone’s fist was in his ribcage, trying to choke out his heart. It was unfamiliar, it was strange. He just got this overwhelming urge to do something, to help. It was the feeling he got when he found Furlan left for dead in a basement, when he saw Isabel curled up in the corner of a vampire hideout. He wanted to save, to protect, but this was different because it’s not like the brat was in danger, so Levi had no idea why the urge was so damn strong.

“What are you doing?” Eren asked. He still had tear tracks on his cheeks.

I don’t know, Levi thought.

“Someone has to teach you how to be a vampire,” was what Levi said out loud. “This is step one.”

Eren looked miserable, even as he grabbed hold of Levi’s wrist. There was a piercing ache in Levi’s arm, but it faded at the same moment that Eren’s expression finally relaxed a bit, and Levi let out a quiet sigh of relief. Though whether the relief came from the pain going away or from knowing he had helped Eren, even a little, Levi wasn’t sure.

~3~

Every time Levi touched Eren, he felt like he needed to justify it for himself. He curled his fingers into Eren’s hair because it was a simple way to let him know it was time to stop drinking. That was the only reason.

He tried not to think about how his words also would have done the job just fine.

Levi distracted himself with the littlest things. He watched the little bite marks in his wrist become scars, busying his mind with what would be a miracle for most people. He knew what vampire saliva could do, but he’d never seen it used on himself.

“Alright, kid—”

“Eren.”

“...What?”

“Eren. My name.”

Eren bounced back fast. He fell abruptly in that hole of misery until he was in tears, and he’d already climbed far enough out of it to be a bit snappy with Levi. Levi felt like he should be annoyed, but the only emotion brewing within him was a bit of amusement, so he let it slide.

Eren’s look of panic when Levi tossed a wooden stake at him was pretty amusing too.

They argued for a bit—if it could even be called an argument—over Levi’s status as a vampire hunter and his various weapons concealed around the room. It was almost amazing how different Eren looked with a bit of blood in him. He was no longer that skinny, stressed, starving vampire Levi met a week ago. Without thinking, Levi reached out and tugged on Eren’s cheek, trying to see if he could still see the outline of Eren’s fangs. Even with the skin pulled taut, there wasn’t even a bump. His fangs were back to regular size. Good.

Things were good like that. He could’ve left it that way. But Levi’s curiosity got the better of him, and he asked something he shouldn’t have—insinuated something he shouldn’t have.

“Are you trying to say I killed my mom?”

That wasn't what he meant at all, though he could see how Eren's mind went there.

Perhaps Levi was calmer than he should have been about a vampire tossing a table across the room. But Eren clearly just didn’t know what he was doing or what he was capable of. The urges came back again—help, protect, do something.

And by the time Eren left, the vampire was okay again. Levi didn’t know if he actually helped or if Eren had some magic ability to bounce back from pure panic within minutes. Either way, he was glad it worked out. It was far easier to jokingly threaten the brat with a stake than it was to try and comfort him. Levi wasn’t great at the pep talks and the hugging and all the shit Hanji usually nagged him about for not being able to do.

Though it did seem a bit easier to do for Eren. For some reason.

Well, Eren managed a smile on the way out. That’s what mattered. Flashed his shitty sharp fangs at Levi in the process too. Goofy brat.

~4~

“So, you’re kinda sweet on that Eren guy, aren’t you?”

Levi paused with his soapy hands deep in the sink, aiming a glare at Furlan from across the kitchen. Furlan was putting on his apron as Petra stripped off her kitchen attire, preparing for their change in shifts. Petra’s eyes immediately lit up at the sound of Levi being “sweet on” Eren. Which he wasn’t. What does that really mean anyway?

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Levi asked.

“You know,” Furlan said, “offering to teach him about vampires and stuff.”

Levi rolled his eyes and brought his focus back to the dirty dishes.

“Would you prefer that I let him go feral?”

“Who’s Eren?” Petra asked, sliding over to Levi, who kept his gaze locked on the sink.

“Nobody,” Levi replied.

“A vampire that Levi’s taking in,” Furlan said. “Seems like Levi’s type. You know. Tall, bright eyes…”

Petra’s eyes brightened and she leaned even closer, drumming her fingers on the kitchen counter. Levi just sighed and tried to ignore her.

“It’s rare for you to take in a vampire,” Petra said. “What do you two usually get up to? Is he going to start working here? What’s he like? Oh, are you two going to—”

“Petra.”

“...Yes?”

“I’ve known Eren for two weeks. There’s nothing happening. I’m not ‘sweet’ on anybody or whatever shit Furlan said. Stop asking.”

Petra deflated in disappointment and Levi sighed, scrubbing more furiously at the dirty dishes. Furlan let his hands rest on his hips, still grinning.

“But he is your type, isn’t he?”

"Furlan—"

“What’s this about Levi’s type?” Isabel piped up, only her head poking through the door. She must have just arrived for work. “Are we trying to get him laid? ‘Cause Levi’s special brand of ‘I-don’t-care-about-you-but-we-can-bang’ is usually only endearing when he’s drunk—”

A plate snapped in half beneath Levi's soap-covered hands.

“Get to work before I fire every single one of you.”

As the three employees went running, Levi questioned why he surrounded himself with these fucking idiots.

~5~

Eren was blood drunk. At first, it was kind of amusing, and for a moment the word 'cute' may have crossed Levi's mind. Eren was asking him why Levi was the one that looked more like a vampire out of the two of them, which of course Levi didn't have the answer to. It was funny, endearing, and it helped clear Levi's mind of the somber reasons why he let Eren bite him. He loved and missed his mother, but sometimes thinking of her was… too much. Even now. Even after all this time.

So, Levi was grateful for the little distraction that was blood drunk Eren.

…At least until Eren puked blood into Levi's potted plant.

Everything that happened after that was… blurry. He remembers rushing over to Eren, cradling his unconscious body with one arm as he called Erwin and Hanji with his free hand. This had never happened before. Levi didn't know what to do. Levi really, really disliked not knowing what to do, especially when he had a blacked-out vampire with a bump the size of an apple on his head.

Levi knew so much about vampires. Their habits, their needs, their rules, their history—

And yet now, when he truly needed to know something, some obscure fact about their strange bodies, Levi was at a loss. He didn't know. He didn't know what to do. He didn't have the answers. He felt fucking useless. After his mother died, he wanted to learn everything, to replace every lie with truth. He never wanted to be caught off guard by a vampire again because look what not knowing the truth about their strange aversion to Ackerman blood had led to—

It was blurry. What Levi did while waiting. According to Hanji and Erwin, he'd been "petting Eren like a dog" the whole time. And Eren was lying on the table by the time those two got there, so Levi must have moved him too.

Levi really doesn't remember much. He remembers thinking about his mom, about how he'd failed to protect her. In hindsight, he knows he shouldn't have been so worried about Eren, that it wasn't to that scale. Levi wasn't sure then what made him panic so much. He's still not all that sure now. It was instinct and old memories that pushed him forward. That's all he knows for sure.

Levi was just so, so glad when Eren opened his eyes again.

If those two nosy fucking geezers hadn't been in the room, he might have even let it show on his face.

~6~

Eren's whole face turned red and Levi wasn't sure why. They were just talking about what to do in response to Eren's health issues. Eren said that they needed to meet every day, and Levi tried to make plans according to that. Then suddenly Eren was talking about how he didn't want to be a bother or for Levi to go out of his way for nothing—which was stupid because it was not for nothing. There was a clear reason. He was doing this for Eren.

When Levi told him as much, Eren's whole face turned red. Levi had no idea what it was about his words that caused such a reaction.

And Hanji interrupted before he was able to find out why. Then the conversation strayed to the hunters of old, from Erwin's time, but hunting of that scale was the last thing Levi wanted to think about while surrounded by friendly vampires. That was his family legacy: murder of innocent creatures whose crime was being born—well, turned is the proper word.

It was a good thing he ended it when he did. But then that got Levi thinking about how things ended—

Erwin probably sensed it. He may be as much of a nosy little shit as Hanji, but at least he knows when to leave.

When it was just Eren and Levi again, Levi thought of his mother, of Ackerman blood. He broached the idea to Eren—the idea that this might be his fault. Maybe Ackerman blood wasn't deadly, but that doesn't mean that it was good or safe. It could still be dangerous, harmful.

“...Are we still going to try?”

Ackerman blood could be just like Levi.

“I just told you that my blood might be making you sick.”

But Eren just… didn't seem to care.

“But it’s not like you’re sure. And what’s the worst that can happen? You said I won’t die, so if I end up throwing up again, we’ll figure out something then.”

So worried about bothering Levi, so nonchalant about Levi being a possible bother to him.

“You’re the one who told me you’re not going to back out of our deal. I already gave you an out, and you decided not to take it.”

Eren's grin was so bright. Nearly blinding.

Levi's mouth said annoying, idiot, shitty brat, because that's what he was used to. That's what he knew. But inside his chest, something… different was swirling. It was warm and hazy and made him feel… calm and stressed at the same time. What the fuck was that? Was he getting sick?

Levi just decided to push it to the back of his mind. He didn't like unknowns, but this… for some reason, he felt like for now, he might just be better off not knowing.

He'd be seeing Eren every day soon anyway. He'd have more time to think over this weird sickness then.

~7~

Levi just kept touching Eren without thinking. He didn't know how to stop himself, how to get back to the normal distance he kept with everyone else. His hands in Eren's hair were quickly becoming a habit, and he didn't know what to do about it.

Somehow there were always new things he didn't know with Eren.

“Why don’t you just stay my partner?”

Why?

Levi didn't know.

Why? Because Levi didn't know how long this tenuous friendship would last. Because they had started this with the intention of passing that duty onto Eren's two friends. Because… Because…

Because Levi had never thought about that. Being somebody's partner. Being Eren's partner. Because he felt like the idea of being a permanent blood bag should bother him but somehow it didn't sound so bad. Because he was getting that hazy sickness in his chest again and he didn't know why, and why the fuck would Eren want a vampire hunter to be his partner anyway?

“I doubt you really want that."

That was the best answer Levi could come up with and it wasn't an answer, really. It was a dodge, a way out of his own head.

He needed ways out because, unlike Eren, once Levi fell into that hole, he was very, very bad at bouncing back out.

As evidenced by Levi still being a stiff mess the next day too.

Luckily, the day after that, things were better.

“Have you ever thought about getting turned?”

The answer was no, although when he was a kid he may have considered it because of the strength and the power. But that was before his mother and he hadn't thought about it since. Even if he did, it wasn't like anyone would agree to help him turn.

"It's in everyone's best interest that I die someday."

Levi said it without thinking, really. It was a fact of life, one he'd known for a long time. The hunter line would end with him, and vampires would be much better off for it.

As long as he gets his final job done before he dies.

But Eren just looked so upset by Levi's words. He was staring, forlorn, at the table, brown hair spilling over his shoulders and obscuring some of his face. Green eyes narrowed, brows furrowed, and a barely held back frown—fuck, Eren looked so miserable.

Levi tried to lighten the mood with a little joke. Asked if the brat was going to miss him, just to tease, to get those green eyes to shine again.

“Yeah, maybe I fucking will!"

The hazy sickness came back fast and strong except there was less of the stress and more amusement, more warmth. And Levi's heart throbbed in his chest, violent enough for him to feel it and recognize it. He was getting sicker, getting worse.

...Though, as far as illnesses go, this one didn't feel too bad.

What did feel bad was talking about his mother the next day.

“Is Kuchel your mom’s name?”

It should have been such an innocent question. It should have been something easy for Levi to answer, but instead, he tensed, his mind going dark. It was the anger, the frustration, that flared out first, and he practically shoved the vampire’s head onto his wrist to get Eren to shut up.

But then reason hit, and Levi loosened his grip on Eren’s hair. It wasn’t Eren’s fault. How many years had it been already? Fifteen, sixteen years since that day? He should be able to hear her name—his fucking restaurant is named after her for fuck’s sake. He should—no, he needed to be able to talk about it.

And what better time than now, with this vampire that inexplicably seemed to set him at ease?

But it was hard. It’s still hard. He distracted himself by focusing on Eren’s movements, Eren’s hands still wrapped around his forearm. Eren’s lips on his wrist, even after Levi signaled that he had enough blood for the day. Eren’s soft hair beneath his fingertips.

When it got harder, when Levi felt himself falling into that hole, when he struggled to breathe, Eren caught him—or his hand at least, as it fell away from Eren’s head.

When was the last time he talked about it—about her, about that day? When was the last time he thought about the details, when he mentioned how he felt at that time?

Why was he talking about it now, with Eren?

Levi looked up and met Eren’s eyes, seeing pain and shadows flickering through green eyes. Maybe he just hoped that Eren understood. Maybe, because his experience was so similar, Levi thought Eren could understand.

As it turns out, Eren understood better than Levi ever could have hoped he would.

“Tell me the best way to kill a vampire.”

~8~

Levi took Eren to his house. He learned how to fight in his uncle’s living room. Now he would teach Eren how to fight in his own living room.

It almost made Levi want to laugh, the ways he still followed in that man’s footsteps, despite everything that happened. He supposed he just didn’t know any other way of doing things. And well, and it wasn’t like the old guy was wrong about everything.

It was too bad he happened to be wrong about the important things.

When Levi threw Eren the knife, something clicked. Holding the knife in his own hand too. Something about it was… good. He was alert, his mind clear. It was like he was on a mountaintop, getting his first breath of clean air.

Except he was in a house in the suburbs, sparring with a vampire wielding a wooden knife.

“Try to kill me.”

“...What?”

Levi almost wanted to smile.

“Ten.”

“Levi—”

“Nine.”

Eren was holding his blade like that shitty-ass knife doll from a horror movie Isabel was into. Eren gripped the handle so tightly that his knuckles were white, the blade raised above his head and the would-be sharp end of the wooden knife facing himself.

Stiff. Impulsive. Easy to dodge. Not to mention his clumsy run—so much wasted movement.

Levi probably enjoyed taking Eren down a bit too much. But adrenaline—no, excitement, surged through his veins for even this poor excuse for a fight. He hadn’t had to hunt a single creature in over a year, and he had missed this, missed the movement, the—literal and figurative—stakes, the chance to use his strength.

“Again.”

Eren complained the whole time, but he refused to stop. Levi doubted that they were feeling equal amounts of enjoyment, but he assumed that Eren didn’t hate the whole ordeal, or it would have taken the brat much less than an hour to give up.

Though, it wasn’t as though Eren actually gave up.

The vampire was a blur of brown for a moment. Levi’s body registered what was happening before his mind did, his hands coming up to block as Eren raced towards him, fangs first—

And then Eren stopped, just inches from Levi. Eren covered his mouth with his hands, apologizing behind them and stepping away from Levi when the man tried to meet Eren’s gaze. And Levi didn’t understand why Eren looked so upset. That was a good reminder; Eren wasn’t a human. He had advantages that Levi didn’t, advantages that Eren could use to get the revenge he desired. Levi tried to tell Eren as much, tried to tell him that this was good, that this was how they should practice from now on.

“No.”

“No?”

“I don’t—I don’t want to practice like that.”

It happened so fast. Eren was standing, looking shaken but otherwise alright. Then green eyes squeezed shut, and he trembled, dropping into a low crouch on the floor. Levi followed him down, trying to gauge what was wrong, what was happening.

“Eren?”

A muffled whimper slipped from behind Eren’s hands. His eyes squeezed shut tighter, hunching over, curling in on himself. Levi didn’t understand, but concern flooded every ounce of him, and he quickly moved closer, hands held helplessly out in front of himself, at a loss of what to do. He wasn’t—this wasn’t what Levi was meant for. A pat on the head or on the arm was one thing, but it didn’t seem like that would suffice for this, and oh shit there were little drops spilling from Eren’s closed eyes—

“Eren!”

Eren’s eyes opened, glossy, downcast. His hands slowly fell to his sides.

“I don’t—I don’t want to fight like that. Like them.”

“Okay,” Levi said, and his voice came out quiet, gentle, more so than he’d ever heard it. It startled him.

Eren mumbled more worried words. His eyes were looking at Levi, but they were clouded, like he wasn’t truly seeing the man in front of him, and fuck, Levi needed to do something—

And all of a sudden Levi’s arms were around Eren’s back, tugging him closer, pulling him to rest against Levi. Levi felt hands at his waist, fists grabbing at the fabric of his shirt. Levi just held him tighter, pulled him closer, as close as he could.

“Am I a monster?”

Eren—lively, energetic, idiotic Eren—his voice was so quiet.

No, of course not. Fuck no, a million times no.

What Levi managed to actually say out loud was only marginally calmer than that.

Eren sagged against him, and Levi could feel a face nuzzling into his shoulder, the hands at his waist pulling even more of Levi’s shirt into those fists.

“Don’t wanna be like them,” Eren mumbled.

“You won’t be. You won’t be.”

Levi swore to himself right there that he would make sure of it. Whatever that took.

~9~

When Eren pulled away from him, Levi didn’t really want to let him go. He let Eren move back—of course, he did, he had to—but it took all he had not to hang onto Eren’s shoulders and keep him there.

This was… not good.

This… whatever the fuck it was, it was… It was a lot. It was overwhelming. Levi nearly felt like he didn’t have any control over himself, and he didn’t know what was fucking causing it. He had never felt anything like it before.

Levi clenched his hands into fists. Whatever it was, he had to put it away. He needed control, he needed stability, at least for right now. Whatever this fucking feeling was—currently manifesting itself as a wave of relief due to Eren’s now dry eyes—was something Levi would have to worry about later. He had bigger things to worry about than the mess going on in his chest.

Like whether or not Eren still wanted to do this whole revenge thing.

And Eren said that he did still want to. With no vampire abilities. No powers. No advantages. Like a fucking idiot.

Levi didn’t know how they were going to manage this, but he’d just have to make it work.

And then, for some reason, Eren was thanking him.

“You really… I mean… I don’t know how to explain it except to say that you’re basically spoiling me. I haven’t done anything in return. If there’s anything I can do—”

“No,” Levi said immediately. The word came out without his own permission. Levi looked away, trying to get a grip on his own fucking head again.

“No?”

“You don’t need to—” Fuck, what was he even trying to say right now? “I’m not doing this just for you to pay me back later.”

“Then why are you doing it?”

Good fucking question. Levi didn’t really know why he was doing anything these days. All he knew was that he just kept doing things for Eren, thinking about Eren, trying to help Eren without any fucking reason why. And it felt so different from when he was with other people. Levi just didn’t get it. If Levi were anyone else, doing the things he was fucking doing, he’d think the person was nothing better than another lovestruck idiot—

Shit.

Wait.

No.

That wasn’t—

If it was anyone else but Levi. Levi wasn’t—Levi never—Levi didn’t do love. It was not on his radar. Love was the bullshit that had Furlan pulling into his driveway at midnight to complain about some terrible date. It was the stuff that made Petra lean over his shoulder in the kitchen to whisper gossip about her co-workers’ romantic relationships. It was irrational nothingness that Levi never wanted any part of. It was something so lacking in his life that Isabel started slipping articles—which she looked up and printed out, the little shit—about being aromantic into his mailbox. (She pretended it wasn’t her, but Levi’s not an idiot, and the only other extreme meddler in his life—Hanji—would just have told him about the concept face to face).

Love—romantic love—was not something Levi felt. Ever. End of discussion. Levi just related to Eren, saw himself in Eren. Levi wanted to help him the same way he wanted to help everyone who currently worked at Kuchel’s Kitchen. That was it.

When Levi began to explain that, Eren had already switched topics. Typical brat.

“I just remembered that we were doing this once a day thing to make sure I don’t get sick again.”

“And?”

“And,” Eren said, grinning as brightly as always, “I haven’t been sick once this week.”

For a moment, Levi didn’t get it. Then a swell of relief and warmth and that weird hazy feeling in his chest filled him, and he couldn’t even hold back the small smile coming to his lips if he wanted to.

“Well... I guess I’m not bad for you after all.”

Eren’s face was red again. Levi did his best not to read into it.

Before long, their conversation shifted again.

“...You’re sure you don’t mind?”

It felt silly to Levi that Eren was asking Levi if he was alright with Eren's murder plans after Levi spent an entire hour sparring with him in preparation for that exact event. Eren tried to explain how Eren's murder for revenge could possibly be less noble—or whatever the hell it was that Eren was trying to prove—than Levi's murder for pay. Levi was eager to let the subject drop. There was no point in asking if Levi was okay with it. Killing was his life for as long as he could remember.

And remembering only made him bitter. He didn't want to be bitter with Eren.

Well, that thought backfired on him anyway. Minutes later Eren called Levi out on his gossiping habits—it wasn't like he wanted to, those idiots gossiped around him and Levi has fucking ears—and Levi remembered talk about Eren being his type and Furlan's thoughts of Levi being sweet on Eren and—

Levi lost it. Full-on lost it. And when Levi loses it, he gets worse than bitter. He gets mean.

And the fact that he could hear Eren laughing his ass off outside the door didn't make things any better.

~10~

Levi was not Eren. He didn't bounce back from things, not easily. So when Eren arrived at the restaurant, grinning at Levi like a smug little shit and asking if the vampire hunter was still embarrassed, it took all of Levi's self-control not to snap at Eren all over again.

Though telling Eren that Levi would let him starve if he didn't drop it is probably considered snapping at him.

Well, Eren's consistent grin made Levi cool off pretty quickly anyway.

They talked about revenge again, for a bit. To make sure that it was something Eren still wanted to do with his own hands. Levi could do it for him. That had been Levi's original plan anyway. He couldn't just let a couple of ferals get away.

It was cute for a second, the fact that Eren was still worried about Levi's possible distaste for murder—Levi, the person who's been training to kill vampires since before his age had double digits. But only for a second.

“I was seriously worried about that shit! Made me feel more like a monster than I already am.”

Monster. There was that word again. Did Eren really see himself that way? What, because he was considering committing a crime—a crime against two real monsters that not only killed his mother but condemned him to a life of blood-sucking?

Eren was not the monster in the room.

“Being a vampire does not make you a monster.”

Levi didn’t know how to make it any clearer to Eren.

“Yes, it does! I’ve been taking your blood every day for a week straight—”

Taking. Is that how Eren saw it? Like he was taking, stealing, depriving Levi of something. Levi thought of Eren’s words from the day before. Eren was so focused on reasoning. It wasn’t about the number of kills to Eren, it was the motivation—as if killing to protect was more justified than killing for revenge. For Levi, motivation was irrelevant. It was how many, how often, and occasionally who. ‘Why' didn’t matter to Levi. A life is a life. A death is a death.

But if what Eren cared about was intention—

“Taking? No, I give you my blood.”

That was fine. Because Eren had noble enough intentions and a current body count of zero. He was innocent, even according to both of their definitions.

“Then what does make a monster?”

Try being an Ackerman.

“The only people I consider monsters are the pigs who take innocent lives without remorse.”

A life is a life. A death is a death. But being completely innocent isn’t what makes a human a human. Humans are fucked up. They’re cruel. But they have limits.

Monsters don’t. That’s the difference.

When Levi’s words didn’t feel like they were getting through, he moved closer, layering his hands over Eren’s. Maybe he couldn’t convince Eren otherwise within one night. But that wasn’t what Levi was trying to achieve right now. He just wanted to ease Eren, at least for now. He wanted to help the king of bouncing back do what he did best.

“Look, maybe I can’t convince you to not see yourself as a monster. But know that I don’t see you as one, alright brat?”

Who was Levi even kidding at this point? Hazy sickness? Yeah, right. Levi had it fucking bad for Eren, and it was only getting worse every moment they spent together.

All he could do was hold Eren close and hope that this wouldn’t all blow up in his face.

“Why do you do it?” Eren asked. “If stuff like this isn’t what you do often?”

I wish I knew.

“Why do you think?” Levi asked.

Of course, Eren was even more clueless than Levi. But Levi was given hope. Brief, heart-wrenching hope, in the form of his blood tasting sweeter on Eren’s tongue.

All those stories his mom told him in an attempt to get him to see “the good side of vampires” better not have been lies.

~11~

The stories were lies.

Well, not lies exactly. But Levi now had every reason in the world to doubt their truth. He had called Erwin as soon as Eren left, unable to stop himself, and—

“Oh… My friend, I… Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but…”

Legends. Fucking fairytales. Soulmate-based fairy tales. Soulmates? That was beyond absurd. Soulmates, but the only way you can find them if one of you happens to become a vampire and then happens to ingest the right person’s blood and happens to notice a change in flavor. What, so only vampires could have soulmates, and the rest of humanity was just fucked? Absolute bullshit, that’s what the story was. Fuck.

When his mom told him that story, it was supposed to be a definite thing. Blood tasting sweet equals love. End of story. It wasn’t like he was mad at her for having the story wrong, but shit, it took a lot just for him to get his hopes up in general. For it to end like this—

Levi decided to block it out. He refused to think about it. If he thought about it, it would just fuck him up. He was not going to dig himself into that hole. He needed to take a page from Eren’s book and learn to not let everything bog him down—

“Must you keep him in the dark about even this?”

If Levi was sixteen again, he would have committed a murder right fucking there. But he was older now. He was capable of reigning himself in. If Levi could just change the subject, everything would be fine.

“Tell me what?”

He just needed to—

“I should think you have plenty of reasons to tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

If Levi could just—

“Vampires are myths too, Levi.”

—Change the fucking subject!

“What the fuck are you guys talking about?” Eren asked.

Levi was not Eren. He did not bounce back. He snapped. And he was getting dangerously close.

Erwin could sense it. He stopped pressing so intensely, and he found a way to make his exit. Levi thanked his lucky stars that he’d gone to Erwin for advice and not Hanji. He knew that Hanji had always wanted to know what it was like to see him lose his cool.

But then Eren was trying to follow Erwin out. Fuck, Eren was going to ask. Levi needed to stop him, to prevent him from going because Levi really couldn’t handle any more than this—

“What? Are you going to tell me what the hell all that was?”

“It doesn’t concern you.”

“Doesn’t concern me?”

Stop. Levi needed to stop this, stop his head, stop his blood from boiling. He didn’t want to snap at Eren. It wasn’t Eren’s fault. It would be stupid to snap at Eren when the whole reason Levi was upset was because of how much he cared—

“If it’s nothing, then tell me about it.”

“No.”

If he could just get Eren to drop it. He’d tell the brat anything, just not this. Anything but this. He needed Eren to drop it. If Eren could just drop it—if Levi could change subjects—if they could talk about something else, anything else—please, Eren, fuck just drop it—

“You’re just going to say no without telling me why?”

Because even feeling what he felt without telling anyone was a new level of vulnerability hell for Levi. He couldn’t let Eren know, he couldn’t—Eren would have so much power over him—in this fucked up state of mind he could be crushed with a single ‘no’ and Levi was not Eren, he could not bounce back—

“I don’t have to explain anything to you.”

“But why won’t you?”

“I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

Somehow Eren knew just what to say, where to touch, to make things hit the hardest for Levi. Usually, that was good. Usually, that was him doing something that made Levi feel for him, that made Levi smile.

“Did I do something wrong? Do you—” Eren’s voice breaks. “Don’t you trust me?”

Right now it just hurt. And it hurt worse because Levi knew he was being an irrational little shit, because he knew that he was hurting Eren too, and fuck, fuck, fuck—

...Eren apologized first. Levi didn’t want that. He hadn’t wanted them to argue at all. He cradled Eren’s hands in his, raising them to his chest.

“Look, I really didn’t—It’s been a long day. I took it out on you. I’m sorry.”

Levi doesn’t bounce back. He snaps.

“I just… I got upset when you didn’t tell me. It felt like…” Eren trailed off.

“Like I didn’t trust you?”

Levi snaps. But as years have gone by, he’s learned to fix what he breaks.

“Eren. I… I do. I trust you. I trust you more than—”

More than I should. More than I’m probably capable of expressing to you.

“But you’re going to have to wait for me to grow a pair before I can explain to you what Erwin and I talked about, alright?”

It would be far out of Levi's comfort zone, but… If it was for Eren, maybe he could. Just… not yet. Maybe not for a long time.

For now Levi could just try to enjoy the feeling. And there were plenty of things to enjoy, if he chose to focus on them. Eren’s embarrassment every time Levi caught him daydreaming while burying his face into Levi’s neck—which really didn’t bother him as much as it probably should have. Eren’s exaggerated reactions to all of Levi’s teasing. Eren’s blushing, Eren’s smile, Eren’s grouchy little pout.

Eren’s determined gaze when he set his mind towards something. Eren’s spirit. Eren’s strength.

Levi wanted it all, wanted to protect it, to preserve it. And for what they both wanted… Levi would have to risk things if he could even dare to hope to protect Eren. Levi… Levi needed to be able to replace what he was going to risk.

“I need to meet those friends of yours,” Levi said. “The ones you came with the night we met.”

Levi wanted Eren to keep smiling. And, if he planned things right, he could manage it. But… But then Levi wouldn’t…

No. He didn’t need to think about that right now. For now, he could just pretend they’d get through everything unscathed. He would enjoy right now so that he wouldn’t even think about regretting things later.

~12~

It was supposed to be a good day. An easy day. They were just going to spar. He was going to teach Eren how to actually hold his knife and their day would go on like usual.

But Eren recoiled from him. He launched himself away from Levi when the man was just trying to get close, and Levi didn’t know why. Was it his hunting closet? Did the garlic on his coats and cloaks rub off on him? Levi knew that he didn’t have vampire senses, but he thought that he would have noticed if the garlic scent clung to him like that… Still, there was no other immediate concern that came to mind, and Eren was being unusually tight-lipped about it all.

It was… strange. Eren, expressive as he was, was normally someone that Levi could pretty much read like an open book. When he was angry, sad, conflicted, joyful, it all showed on his face, and all Levi had to do was piece together the reasoning behind it. Granted, there were times when Levi didn’t know, but this was… This was extreme. Everything about Eren was just screaming distress, but this was the first time that Levi was at a complete blank as to what the origin was. He felt like when Eren was wearing his emotions this openly, he should be able to know.

But Levi didn’t. They had been talking as usual, teasing each other as usual. Things only changed when Levi got close. And the only thing different about Levi was (possibly) the lingering scent of garlic.

Maybe Eren just didn’t want to say anything about the scent—which was weird, Levi would have thought that Eren would tease him for smelling like shit—and if that was the case, Levi wasn’t going to force the words out of him.

So, Levi decided to just shower.

And then the shitty brat laughed at him. Laughed so hard that he would have fallen on the floor if Levi hadn’t caught him. And while that annoyed Levi, he would have let it slide if Eren hadn't said—

“Thank you for worrying about me, but—” Eren was still laughing, the little shit. “You must really like me, huh?”

You must really like me. The words rattled around in Levi's empty head until his entire body went rigid. How did Eren—Did somebody tell him—no, nobody could’ve, but then—how did he know?

It was worse that it was a joke too. This feeling that Levi had been grappling with for the past couple of weeks, feelings that he didn't know could exist within him, that he didn't want to believe in, and that he only recently learned to accept—all that just played for a fucking laugh?

Did Eren know? Did he think this was just another one of those things he could tease Levi about and everything would be fine?

"I, uh… I was joking."

Of course, he was.

"Oh. Good."

What else was Levi supposed to say?

But then he heard Eren's gasp. He looked at the vampire struggling to push himself off the floor, and he saw trembling, watery eyes, a bottom lip firmly trapped between Eren's teeth, and shit, it all just looked like heartbreak—

“No, fuck, wait—”

This, Levi could read. This, Levi could understand. Eren, the fucking idiot that he is, of course, he would use a joke of all things to try and gauge Levi's feelings. Of course, now he thought the opposite of what was true and fuck, how could Levi fix this—

“Eren.”

“Look, I know we were supposed to be practicing, but I really just want to go home right now.”

“Please, just let me explain—”

“I really need to go home.”

“Eren—”

He needed to figure something out, and he needed to do it now because Eren was leaving, and Levi didn't want him to leave. Not like this. Not without knowing the truth. This wasn't when Levi wanted to do this, but if it would fix things… if it would keep Eren here, for just a moment longer, just long enough for them to clear things up, then—

“Eren, I’m in love with you.”

But… Eren ran. He ran as if those words were the last straw.

Levi… Levi must have read things wrong again. Said the opposite of what Eren wanted to hear.

Got his hopes up again. For nothing.

At least now, he knew for certain. At least now, he…

Who was Levi fucking kidding? He couldn't pull a bright side out of this. He tried to let decisions go, tried not to regret things he couldn't change, but…

Levi couldn't help wishing he'd done something different this time. Just this one time.

~13~

"Levi… Are you okay?"

Levi didn't look up from the sink at the sound of Isabel's voice.

"What makes you ask?"

"Oh, you know… Just the pile of broken plates next to you."

Levi glanced over at what was supposed to be the clean dishes rack. He didn't remember breaking any dishes, but he also didn't remember driving to work or anything else that happened since Eren—

"I'm fine."

Levi slamming a glass so hard into the dish rack that it shattered probably wasn't the most convincing thing he could have done.

"Right…" Isabel said, inching closer to him and gently guiding him away from the sink. "Why don't you take a break for a second? Furlan and I can handle things until you're...calmer. Okay?"

"I told you I'm fine—"

"Levi," Isabel said firmly, "we still need to serve customers tonight. Which means we still need plates. Which means you need to take a break until you cool off. Okay?"

Levi wanted to argue, but he was already feeling exhausted again. He just wanted to be alone.

"...Okay."

Isabel frowned up at him and patted him on the arm once before slipping out of the kitchen and getting back to work.

Levi doesn't remember what he did until Furlan came to get him. He remembers standing over the stove when the kitchen door opened. He remembers his friend saying there was some kind of "incident" happening outside. So Levi walked out of the restaurant in a daze, expecting to break up a fight—

“And then Levi goes up to little Isabel and says…Fear not, small child, for I have arrived to save the day!"

"What kind of fucking nonsense are you spreading now?" Levi snapped.

And then he saw Eren.

He remembers talking with Isabel, shooing her back into the restaurant, but whatever he said came out purely on autopilot. His mind was on Eren, even as he fought with himself to keep his gaze away, to not be swayed, to not get his hopes up again—

“Uh, Levi?”

Levi didn’t want to get his hopes up again.

“Look, I, um… I really… I mean, I’m really, really sorry about… about yesterday.”

“...You’re sorry.”

So Levi thought about all the reasons Eren would be there on a day they had never planned on, just a few hours after Levi sent him messages detailing the ways they could avoid seeing each other as much as possible. What reasons would Eren have to come? What reason would Eren have to apologize after running away?

“Y-yeah. I—especially because I ran—no, um, especially because of how I feel. Because, uh, I—”

Why would he bother attempting to force out words that he clearly wasn’t comfortable saying yet? Why, just because Levi said them? Because he felt bad? Bullshit.

“Levi, the truth is—”

“Don’t say it just because I did. I don’t need that kind of pity.”

Levi didn’t want to hear it. He just wanted the conversation to be over with. He wanted to leave.

“The truth is that I don’t know if I love you!”

It was the most sincere Eren’s voice had sounded so far, so Levi stopped. He stopped and waited for Eren’s truth. Levi didn't really want to hear a rejection, but if it would give things a smoother ending between them then—

“The truth is that I don’t know what I feel about you. Because I feel a lot of things, all kinds of things, all at once.”

...Huh?

“The second we met, I felt something when I looked at you. And honestly, my dumb ass was pretty sure it was fear.”

Fear? Levi didn't even try to—never mind, not important. Eren felt something towards Levi from the moment they met? That was—no, Levi needed Eren to clarify that—

“And I don’t know when I stopped being nervous around you, but I do know that I look for you when I’m nervous now. I reach for you, I try to grab hold of you. I’m not scared anymore, Levi. Being near you gets rid of my fear. I mean, yeah, sometimes I get anxious, but it’s only because I’m so desperate to keep you with me. I don’t want to mess anything up—”

Levi's brain was overloading. All this romantic sappy shit that made Levi's heart squeeze like a water balloon beneath a metal clamp was too much. Levi didn't know how to—Levi had never—No one had ever said anything like this to Levi. No one but Eren. He needed Eren to slow down, for a second at least—

“And you—you’re just—you’re there for me, and you say all these things that drive me crazy, and it’s like I’m always, always thinking of you even when I shouldn’t be. I want to impress you, I want you to think of me just as much as I think of you, and fuck, I haven’t even talked about how hot you are yet.”

All of that—all of that shit—that passionate starry-eyed nonsense that had Eren looking at Levi like the little bitter man was the fucking sun—

How… How was it that they felt almost exactly the same?

“What I’m trying to say is that if all these things I’m feeling about you are love, then I love you, Levi.”

If they really did feel the same…

“Sorry,” Eren said, “you were going to say something?”

Then Levi wasn't going to let Eren run away again.

"You drive me fucking insane."

Insane in a good way. And in a bad way. Because fuck, if Levi was unsure if his feelings before, he was certain of them now. Certain of the way they drew new sides out of him, new feelings, new emotions. Certain of the way they drove him crazy with stupid worries, with regret, with concern. Certain of the way they put his heart through the fucking wringer.

And Levi was certain that he wouldn't give up these feelings for anything, despite all that.

You're stuck with me now, was the unspoken promise Levi sealed against Eren's lips.

~14~

Levi wasn't great at all this romance stuff. The confessions, the purposeful sweet talk. But kissing? Kissing was no longer uncharted waters.

...Well, that's what Levi thought at first anyway.

For Levi, kissing was a chore. A detour from the main event that he had to take almost every time due to his partners' preferences. He knew what to do, and he had gotten good at it, but it never really meant anything or made him feel differently.

And then he kissed Eren.

Levi refuses to say all that cheesy shit about sparks flying or whatever, but… It was different. It was definitely different.

He felt hot. Boiling heat inside his chest, searing through him from the inside out. It propelled every one of his movements, keeping his hand on Eren’s shirt so that the tall brat would stay low enough for their lips to meet. His free arm slipped around Eren's waist and everywhere Levi touched seemed to make Eren gasp and tremble, and fuck, this was playing with Levi’s patience.

Eren’s hands were on his waist, and he could feel the eager vampire pressing himself closer, parting his lips, and Levi certainly wasn’t going to stop him—

Levi briefly registered pain on his bottom lip, faint enough that Levi could honestly equate it to an itch, and then Eren was pulling away. Levi opened his eyes and was met with vivid green panic. Levi just huffed a little sigh as he moved to slide his fingers into Eren’s long hair. Eren’s hands at his waist retreated a little, not letting go, but no longer open palms against his sides.

Levi nearly wanted to laugh, but he could still have a bit more fun with this if he didn’t.

“Eren.”

Eren’s eyes widened again before he dropped his gaze, his entire upper half drooping. Levi could nearly imagine a pair of brown dog ears on Eren’s head, remorsefully pinned back.

...Maybe Erwin was onto something with that whole “puppy” thing.

“I know I told you to bite me if I didn’t want this…”

Levi tilted Eren’s chin up with his fingers before wiping a stray drop of blood from his lip. He hadn’t meant for the action to stir up anything, but they were close enough that he saw Eren’s pupils dilate, and Levi almost had to physically bite back a smile.

Well, well. He’d keep that in mind for later.

“...but something tells me you were just being an overeager little shit.”

Eren was still staring at the bloody smudge on Levi’s lips.

“I… I forgot I had fangs for a second there.”

“Only you would. Dumbass.”

They goofed around for a little while longer until Levi decided they should call somebody to actually work before the restaurant fell apart. Petra arrived soon after that, and then they were back in their usual spots in the breakroom, ready to talk.

Well, Levi was ready until Eren was touching his own lips like he was silently begging for Levi to kiss him again.

And you're supposed to give a puppy a treat when they beg, right?

It was so easy for Levi to just get… absorbed by Eren. The sound of his voice, the feel of his breath and his lips… His skin beneath Levi's fingers… His soft hair brushing against Levi's cheeks...

His goofy-ass grin against Levi's lips.

Kissing Eren was… nice. It was sharing a smile, sharing joy. It was a confession. It was confirmation. It was a reminder. It made something warm settle at the pit of Levi's rib cage with every instance. Something warm and gentle and nice. Something like comfort. Like Levi's favorite blend of tea on a winter evening.

Kissing Eren was nice. So was touching Eren, being near Eren. It was all nicer now, knowing Levi's own feelings, knowing that Eren felt the same.

If Levi thought those words could get through his throat unchanged, he would have said them out loud then, in that quiet moment between the two of them.

“Don’t stare too long."

It took a moment for Levi to register how long they had been sitting there in silence, how long he had been absent-mindedly admiring Eren's face as his mind wandered. His throat swelled for a moment, shame clogging his windpipe and making him struggle to breathe. But Eren was just smiling at him, green eyes brimming with affection that probably matched Levi's.

Levi didn't have to be ashamed. He didn't have to be embarrassed. He didn't need to pretend that he wasn't staring at Eren, not when Eren was also staring at him.

But this was… new. It would definitely take some getting used to.

Especially when Eren's smile was slowly morphing into the grin of a smug little shit.

Levi forced their conversation back to what it was supposed to be: a moment for them to ask each other whatever questions they had. Levi himself had a few questions about Eren's preferred boundaries, but in all honesty, there was only one real question that he desperately wanted the answer to.

But Eren asked to go first, so Levi let him.

"What was that thing you were talking about with Erwin? When I walked in and you didn't want to tell me?"

Levi relived all his shame within a single instant. Of course. Why didn't he expect Eren to ask him about that soulmate fucking bullshit? He felt even stupider about it now, now that he and Eren had come to like each other the normal way. Of course, that was the first thing Eren asked. Of course, that was the start of their whole conversation.

"Wha—What's wrong?! Are some questions off limits? I can change mine—"

Eren’s panic only made Levi feel worse, so he forced the words out of his throat, eager to get the conversation over with and blow through the pain. This was exactly the sort of thing Eren liked to tease Levi over, so Levi waited for Eren to joke and prod and laugh at Levi for getting his hopes up at sky level before subsequently stomping them beneath his feet. Levi was just waiting for it, for that shit-eating grin that he knew would come—

...But it didn’t. It didn’t come.

“Personally, I don’t think we should take being soulmates off the table—”

Levi thought that sentence would be the start of it, the start of the laughs and the bullshit.

“But.” Eren was holding Levi by the hand. “Either way, Levi, I love you. I’m choosing you, myth or no myth. So you don’t have to put your hopes into some old legend. Just leave all those hopes with me.”

Levi… Levi had been waiting for ridicule that never came. He had braced for it, expected it—shit, if the tables were turned, Levi might have laughed at Eren—but it never came.

Eren was still holding his hand, anchoring him. Somehow… Somehow Eren knew that this would have fucked Levi up if he had joked about it. Because Eren usually has no problem messing with Levi until the vampire hunter is glaring daggers at him. But this time Eren chose not to. He chose to listen, to comfort. He chose to support.

Levi… Levi could learn a lesson or two from this insufferable, kind brat. He wanted to, so that could do this for Eren too, when Eren needed it. Levi wanted to be good at this. This whole being in love thing.

Because Eren deserved somebody who could be good at this.

“Eren.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m… new at this.”

Eren smiled in that soft way that made Levi’s heart expand and his chest squeeze at the same time. He had Levi by the hand, gave the appendage a little squeeze. It made Levi realize how tightly he was hanging onto Eren. Eren, the one of them with newly acquired super strength, was the one with the gentler touch, at least right now. Levi tried to loosen his grip, but he kind of just wanted to hang on even tighter.

“That’s okay. Me too—I mean, I’ve never felt this strongly—”

“No,” Levi said. “I’ve never… I’ve never felt anything. Nothing like this has ever…”

Levi has friends—family that are dear to him. He has people he would never want to lose, that he would protect with his life. What he doesn’t understand is how quickly Eren joined those ranks. He doesn’t understand what it is about the vampire that puts him in a separate category from the other people he loves.

And with his family, Levi can be as much of a little fucking gremlin as he wants. He can be a piece of shit, an asshole, a person they maybe only want around out of obligation—

But Levi wants to do more, to be more for Eren. With Eren. He wants—fuck, he just wants Eren to stay.

He could’ve said that. Maybe he should have. Maybe he will someday. But at that moment, Levi just said—

“I’m going to fuck this up sometimes.”

“No, Levi—”

“I’ll fuck it up. So, I…”

Levi really hoped he wasn’t going to regret saying this.

“When I do, I… I hope you’ll choose me again.”

Hope. He’d been feeling that a lot recently, hadn’t he? But with hope… Whenever Levi allowed himself that much it was almost always followed by—

Before Levi could even think the word ‘regret,’ Eren’s arms were around him.

“I will. I definitely will.”

Levi decided that he would believe in those words. At least for now.

It took them a little while to get back on track. When they restarted their question session, it was Levi’s turn. He asked the one thing he was truly desperate to know.

“Why did you run after I told you I loved you?”

He tried to stay neutral while asking, even though it still hurt, even though the wound was still fresh. He didn’t need to be hurt by it; they had already admitted their true feelings. But Levi… Levi was not good at bouncing back and he didn’t want any bad blood to linger. If he could just understand, then maybe that’d be enough for him to let it go—

“I… don’t know.”

Oh.

Levi… Levi didn’t know how to respond to that.

“I’m sorry,” Eren said, and his head lowered. Absentmindedly, Levi imagined the ears again, the drooping puppy tail. “I just—sometimes my head just… It-it gets stuck, and I can’t get out of it.”

Oh.

It happened to Eren too?

“I’m sorry,” Eren said just as the gears in Levi’s brain started turning again. “I-I don’t know what—I… I was just—I thought that you were rejecting me, and I just… I don’t know. I heard you, I know I did, but I just couldn’t—it was like I didn’t actually hear you, or I couldn’t process it because I was already gone, I was already stuck—”

It happened to Eren too.

“It’s like… Like driving a car with no brakes, like I can’t stop—I’m sorry, I don’t—I just—fuck—”

It was probably happening to Eren right now.

But that was okay. Levi’s been there before. He had been in that car with no brakes. While their minds weren’t the same, Levi could understand enough from Eren’s words, from the previous ways he was able to bring Eren out of his head.

What Eren needed was a reminder to take his foot off the gas.

When Eren told Levi about his mother for the first time, it was a touch that brought him out of that memory. So Levi’s hand found his way to the top of Eren’s head, and then he waited for a reaction, considering how there was a time when touch didn’t work, when that caused Eren to throw a table across the room.

Eren gasped but didn’t move away. The table was still in place. Levi added another hand and waited. The only reaction was quiet, trembling breaths. Levi shifted his focus to pulling Eren’s hands away from his head, frowning when he saw blood beneath Eren’s fingernails. If his head didn’t heal quick enough, Levi would let him drink a little extra. Just for today.

“I’m sorry—”

“No,” Levi said. Take your foot off the gas. “You don’t need to do that.”

“But I—”

“You don’t need to apologize.”

Levi continued slowly, methodically. He would try something, another touch, another movement, and then he would wait. If Eren was still okay, he would continue. He would do a little more.

What he wanted was to get Eren to look him in the eye. He wanted Eren to see that Levi wasn’t upset, wasn’t angry. Everything was okay. There was no need to apologize.

He wanted to help the king of bouncing back do just that. And sure enough, by the time Levi had calmed Eren down enough to have a brief conversation—

“Can we—can we still ask questions?”

“Are you sure?”

Eren nodded.

“I… want to know how old you are.”

Levi couldn’t hold back a laugh. The king had returned to his throne.

“I’m twenty-six.”

Levi had helped.

“Favorite color?”

“Black.”

Maybe…

“Favorite animal.”

“Hm… Horses.”

Maybe Levi had a chance at not fucking this up after all.

“Favorite hobby.”

“Do I get to ask you any questions?”

“Mmm… No.”

“Fine. Cleaning.”

Maybe… Maybe Levi could be alright at this would being in love thing.

“Favorite…”

Levi wasn’t sure how long they went on like that. All he knew is that by the time he sent Eren home, Levi was having a hard time biting back his smiles.

That vampire brat had changed him. Is changing him. Will continue to change him. And Levi…

Levi’s looking forward to it.

#ereri riren #ereri fanfic #ereri #riren #riren fanfic #fanfiction

4 notes · View notes