#perhaps... make her feel unsafe in the league...

[satancopilotsmytardis]

Pack Play

Pairing: Shigadabi

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Commissioned by an anonymous user. Dabi has been a wolf all his life and he has never had a good time with his rut, always ending up somewhere unsafe, underfunded, and unpleasant for each cycle. So when they take over the PLF and they get the funds to make a good, proper rut room, Dabi is absolutely going to take the opportunity to get himself everything he could possibly want for it. If Duster is gonna get to enjoy it too when his rut hits, then that's fine, it just means that hopefully, he won't complain about the excess that Dabi's put into the place. He really was not expecting their cycles to sync though.

Contents: Werewolves, pack dynamics, mating cycles, sex toys, knotting, multiple orgasms, scenting, supernatural AU

Word Count: 6564

Finally getting to have a real home for the first time in months is a blessing and a curse. It's good to have the PLF and know where they're sleeping, where their next meal is coming from, and that they have a minute to breathe without having to be terrified that the police or heroes are going to be on their ass constantly. It's bad because without the constant stress that's been on them keeping their instincts at bay, all of them are struggling to make sure they have what they need as their bodies go out of survival mode. Compress, a fang, has access to as much blood as he wants given their numbers now, and so does Toga, though her needs are related to her quirk rather than biology. Twice is still grappling with his curse of a quirk and how violent being around doubles of himself can make him as a doppelgänger. And he and Shigaraki, both werewolves, though Dabi thinks Duster was turned instead of born, suddenly have their own territory, packmates, space to transform and run, and plenty of food. And unlike the others who are just settling in and getting comfortable once the hard work is done, Dabi is preparing himself for a week-long frustration that he can feel rapidly approaching. 

It's been three months since his last rut, which is the longest he's gone since joining the League, because at least back in Kamino they had regular meals and the safety of a rut room. But when they ended up back on the streets, his body had plunged right back into survival mode and had left him exhausted and unable to even think about sex, so he hadn't had a rut. But he knows as soon as he sleeps in a real bed for the first time in months that the next one he has is going to absolutely ruin him. 

He gets Shigaraki to approve his plans to renovate one of the guest houses into a proper rut room. The guest houses around the villa are small single room studios with a kitchenette, bathroom, and not much else, but that's more than good enough for his purposes since no other wolves lived at this site before. And perhaps knowing he'll eventually be spending time in it as well, Shigaraki gives him a hell of a budget for the place. So Dabi looks up real rut rooms. Good ones, not just chains attached to radiators and dirty mattresses on floors, usually in a room so small that he can barely move as he goes desperate for a mate. 

He spends a week getting the place renovated. The building gets shutters installed over the windows that can't be broken, the door is reinforced, only opening for someone with claws like theirs so that no humans or other creatures accidentally stumble inside and put themselves in danger while they're feral, and a similar keypad inside that can only be opened when their claws are retracted so that they can't get out during their rut once they're inside. He gets furniture that is bolted to the ground and floors, an array of ready to go meals and non-perishable items, sinks and other appliances that have handles that will be easier to use when he's out of his mind with hormones and unable to retract his claws, and an air conditioning unit that he knows he's going to be grateful for when he's dying of his quirk as his body tries to get him to his completion as many times as it can possibly go. 

He also picks out cleaning systems for the entire room. Most werewolves don't have a full rut room in their homes that is rated appropriately for public safety, and getting a room in a private residence licensed is hard, so most wolves are used to having to share them in mating houses. Usually there are fully different wings, if not entirely separate buildings for wolves who go into rut and heat respectively, but there's always the knowledge that whatever toys or amenities are in the room, have been used a hundred times before. In good mating houses, they're cleaned so meticulously that the chemical burn of the detergent is the only thing that can be smelled, and in less savory ones, well, those are the ones he's spent most of his life in. But he does not want to deal with that when it comes to him and Duster so he puts in the effort and research to figure out exactly what he needs to make sure that the entire room can be cleaned as efficiently as possible, even making sure to have a drain installed into the floor so that the entire room can be hosed down to eliminate pheromones.   

And then he gets to pick out the fun stuff. He's never had a rut bed before and he's nearly vibrating as he gets to pick it out. It's a big square bed that is low to the floor, maybe only an inch or two from it, and it's made with a waterproof material and soft, thick covers that can be removed to be washed. He also buys every pillow, blanket, and other accessory that goes with it so that he will have it as cozy as possible. He gets pheromone air fresheners that will pump in the smell of heat, and lube treated with them to make the rut feel better even without having a real partner with him. And he gets toys. Not just sex toys, though he does, of course get those. He gets chew toys for werewolves, something that some wolves consider with a fair amount of derision, believing only pups need something to put in their mouths when they're in rut, but Dabi doesn't care. He likes to have his mouth full and he's very excited for the bit that is supposed to feel as soft as skin that can release different flavors as it's gnawed on. The reviews for the one that say it tastes like slick and the ones that advocate for the taste of blood all seem very positive, so he gets one of each. The breeding bench with a slot where different fleshlights and strokers can be swapped out on a whim is pricey, but Dabi doesn't give a shit. Detnerat is bankrolling this whole thing and he wants his next rut to be enjoyable for the first time in his fucking life. He gets a few of the different toys and a few dildos as well. He'll let Shigaraki think that's just in case any wolves who go into heat end up staying at this base too, but in all honesty, he's just always wanted to have both during his rut, and he gets toys with knots so thick he's almost jealous, and suction cups on the bases so that he'll be able to pin himself between the wall and breeding bench when the mood strikes him. 

Dabi finishes designing the rut room, makes sure that everything inside is ready, and goes back to his work. He can't make his hormones surge through him, so this will just have to wait until they do. 

///

They've been at base for five and a half weeks before Dabi starts to feel the first stirring threads of his need. It starts off in the middle of their morning meeting, Shigaraki still away for his last check-up now that his leg should be completely healed, and the rest of them are healed themselves and settling into their work more comfortably. Dabi feels his temperature starting to creep up a bit and he tries to lower his quirk, confused because he's not feeling particularly emotional looking at budget spreadsheets or quarterly reports on the book sales. When he can't make his temperature lower, he knows already that he's creeping towards his pre-rut. And he doesn't have to be terrified this time. Scared that he'll end up getting caught by police while he's out of his head, worried he might wake up with blood on his teeth that he didn't mean to take, either from a victim or a mate he wasn't looking for. He has a safe place to go, and towards the end of the meeting he says he'll be out of the building for the rest of the week, if not most of next given how long it's been since his cycle hit, and no one questions that. 

He goes back to his room and packs a bag full of soft loose clothes, if he bothers to dress at all, and then he heads out to the rut room. Going inside he finishes setting up some things, making sure the bed has all of the blankets arranged the way he wants them, making sure all of the toys are out of their cases and cleaned, that the lube doesn't have its seal on it anymore, little things that will make him feel better when his cycle hits him completely. And then he strips out of his clothes, only putting on a pair of loose pajama bottoms, and lets himself half transform. He's been careful to not do this in front of anyone else so that they wouldn't see his white ears and tail, but he'll like being comfortable when he wakes. 

Dabi climbs into the bed, circling around a few times, and then gives a content sigh before he curls up again. This is going to be the easiest, most comfortable rut that he's ever had. 

///

He wakes with a soft chuff, immediately noticing his cock is straining his pajama bottoms and that the room is starting to fill with the sweetness from the air fresheners. Dabi moans softly, grinding himself into the pillows when he hears a sharp inhale and a distinctive click as the door shuts. 

A growl tears out of his chest as he wakes all the way, getting onto his hands and knees, claws out and fangs bared as he tries to find what is disturbing him in his territory. It was the worst thing he could have done because Shigaraki is the only other person that would care about visiting this room and of course it's him standing in the doorway. Of course that defensive sound triggers his instincts too. The other man is across the room in an instant, his tail tearing through his clothes, his ears pinned back against his hair, and his own claws and fangs bared as he gets right into Dabi's face with a snarl. Dabi whimpers. His wolf accepted Shigaraki as his leader a long time ago, and he shouldn't have displayed that kind of open aggression against him without expecting a fight. Dabi is even more humiliated when he whines softly and automatically puts his head low and rolls onto his stomach in submission. 

Submission that puts his aching cock on display, erection unmoved from the embarrassment that heats his veins as his rut claws across his nerves. Shigaraki growls at him softly, leaning in to nip at Dabi's throat to ensure he knows his place and Dabi has to bite his lip and try not to squirm as that makes him even harder. Then Shig chuffs at him, letting him know that the transgression is forgiven. Dabi quickly rolls back onto his stomach and mumbles, 

"What are you doing in here?" His face flushed as his body wars with the want to submit and the desire to fight Shigaraki into submission so that he can mount him as his rut hormones soak his veins.

"...Same as you."

Dabi groans, hiding his face in his arms. "Go away," he whines. It's not uncommon for packs to sync their cycles, but he really, really had hoped that the fact that he mostly wandered away from Shigaraki when they were on the streets would mean that this wouldn't be an issue. And he had really wanted to enjoy his first rut somewhere good and safe by himself. Duster goes and grabs the backpack that he dropped by the door on his way in and starts to strip out of his villain shit, the same way Dabi had when he'd come in.

"I couldn't open the door if I wanted to." And yeah, that was the point. Keep them in here in case they go totally feral. But it doesn't mean that Dabi isn't pouting a little. "Scooch." He instructs as he comes back, now also just in pajama pants, and smelling of spice and thunder, but not overwhelmingly so yet. He's not hard as he climbs into the bed and licks Dabi's hot cheek just above his scars. It's a soothing action, something to tell Dabi that it's alright, that he's still safe here with the alpha of his pack. It's something Shigaraki has only done for him once before, when he was hurt after Kamino. These kinds of things are confusing to people who aren't like them, and he doesn't think that Toga or the others would ever let them live it down if they cuddled and groomed each other the way Dabi sometimes craves from his pack leader. Humans, even other preternaturals, often misconstrue the things wolves do as romantic when their intimacy usually comes without those ties. Dabi shifts over in the bed so that Shigaraki can curl up with him. 

But the encouragement and affection makes his body feel even warmer, and he pulses out his scent involuntarily to show his alpha that his need is so high. Shigaraki lets out a low, rumbling churr and gives him another little lick. 

"Do you want to be mounted, puppy?" 

His cock aches, his instincts screaming that mounting or being mounted would feel so good, but he doesn't know if he really wants that. "'Puppy'? I'm older than you." 

"Maybe, but you're my pack," his only biological pack until they bring more wolves into the PLF. "And I take care of you." That sentiment really does not help with the arousal suffusing his body. 

It makes Dabi swallow back some of his nerves and admit, "... I don't know..." 

"That's alright, Dabi. I'm not going anywhere. Go make yourself feel good, puppy." 

Dabi nearly whimpers. He knows this isn't uncommon for made packs, but it still feels embarrassing to want to touch himself in front of the other wolf. But he was given an order, and his need is so insistent that he pulls himself from the bed and over to the toys nearby, shakily removing his pajama bottoms. When he chances a glance over his shoulder, he finds that Shigaraki has curled up facing the opposite direction from him and that's really all he can stand. He fumbles to open the candy-like lube and wraps his hand around his cock with a moan.

Dabi manages to make himself knot once, though he shouldn't have done it in the open air, because that made it sting like crazy, and clean up a little before he climbs back into the bed. Shigaraki pulls him close when he does, and Dabi would have laughed at him if he were awake, but he's still out, his body pushing him to sleep while he can until his rut hits completely. He's too restless to sleep, but it is nice to be close like this. He's a little shameless as he tucks his nose into Shigaraki's neck so he can soak up his thunderstorm smell as he sleeps. 

///

By the time his next wave of need hits, Dabi does not give a single shit about being exposed. He slips Shigaraki's embrace and fumbles to find the fleshlight he'd picked out that was specifically made for wolves. It doesn't look that different from the ones that are made for humans and other species, but the inside was modeled off of a werewolf's body, and the false vagina has ridges inside that mimic the muscles wolves have to keep a knot locked in tight. He gets the toy into place on the breeding bench and snags the lube off of the floor, squirting a generous amount inside and along the outer lips of the toy until it's dripping wet like a real cunt would be for a wolf in heat. Fuck just seeing the toy looking so much like flesh makes Dabi's whole body tense with his need and he gets onto the bench without hesitation. 

His cock is already aching and dripping when he rubs it against the toy, feeling the soft silicone against him, cool against his burning heat and that has him growling. It's not a mate's body though, and that means he doesn't need to worry about anything else but chasing his own pleasure, so he only rubs himself against it enough times to make sure there's lube smeared along his sensitive piercings before he's sinking in deep with a groan. The toy clutches his length, nearly sucking him inside, and massaging every inch of him with soft ridges that feel so good he doesn't care that they're not real. He fucks his hips as deep as he can go on the first thrust and his claws scrape against the bench as his whole body trembles. His knot hasn't even formed yet, but he can feel those special ridges touching where it will and the tease of them has him panting harshly. 

And then he hears Shigaraki growl softly. Dabi whimpers, not turning to look at him, his tail drooping between his legs as he worries the other will want this now that he's woken, now that the smell of his arousal is pulsing hot through the air and making it abundantly clear that he's in his rut proper too. He won't fight the other for any of this, but it doesn't mean that Dabi won't miss it if he has to give it up. He's pretty sure if the other makes him stop fucking the toy so that he can have his turn, Dabi will be back inside of it the moment that Shig's knot unlocks, squelching through his cum just to find his own pleasure. 

But Shigaraki doesn't make him stop. He chuffs at him and moves closer, getting the discarded lube and then moving away again. Dabi chances looking back at him, trembling from how badly he wants to move, but his instincts force him still until he has his alpha's approval. And Shigaraki is leaning back against the pillows, red eyes half-lidded and watching him, his hand slick and wrapped around his cock. His massive cock, Jesus fucking Christ, Dabi whimpers as he sees him, as he immediately wonders how big his knot must be when he's already so thick and long. Duster makes him even more needy when the other is shameless, stroking himself with long, sure movements, as his eyes drag over every exposed inch of Dabi's body. 

"Did you change your mind, puppy?" 

He's damn fucking close to it now that he's seen the other's cock. But he doesn't have words for it, just soft animal whines as his head goes foggy from the heady smell of the two of them and the false heat hanging around in the air. Duster shifts, letting go of himself and coming back over so that he's so close to Dabi's body. 

"Let me help you feel good, Dabi." he murmurs, dipping his head to his neck and scenting his nearly broken glands. 

He's never had someone with him during a rut, and he's already drowning in the sensation of having toys, having somewhere safe, having his pack with him. "Duster," he moans and can't help it. His hips move forward again, fucking into the toy that puts sparks under his skin as his tail stands up and tilts to the side to make his ass open and exposed for his alpha to use in the same manner. 

"Need you to use your words, puppy, or I can't touch you." 

"Want it, Duster." He whines.

"Good boy," And Shig's mouth moves to his neck, his teeth nipping at his skin and making Dabi's whole body shiver as he is torn between fucking into the toy hard and trying to grind back to get Shigaraki's cock inside of him as fast as possible. Shigaraki has his gloves on, and he wraps his hands around Dabi's hips as he licks and sucks along his neck, forcing him still as his slick cock rubs against his hole. Dabi can't help the needy little moans that come out of him as he's forced to stay with that delicious pressure around his own cock as the other starts to tease at the ring of muscles with his head, trying to get Dabi's body to loosen for him without hurting so that he can have the more he's craving without them having to open him up when it will be nearly impossible for either of them to retract their claws. 

He rocks his hips against Dabi, rubbing and grinding, and putting that good sensation there even though he must be as desperate as he is to have more. And he lets Dabi move his hips at that same rhythm. It’s much slower than he would prefer, but he doesn’t care when it means he gets to rut into the toy beneath him. The fleshlight swallows up his cock on each thrust, gushing around him and squeezing deliciously, making animal sounds of pleasure spill from his lips as he fucks it at the pace his alpha sets. 

“You’re doing such a good job, puppy. Does that feel good?” 

He whines, nodding weakly. He feels like a puppy. Like this is the first time he’s ever had his rut from how small and fragile everything feels when he knows his pack leader can take it away whenever he wants. No matter how good it feels, until he’s locked inside, Shigaraki could just make him stop. He could make him sit on the floor instead of in the bed and watch him as he knots the toys and enjoys his rut instead, making Dabi endure his arousal without ever getting off the way some packs choose to when they aren’t looking to have a whole litter of pups to take care of. 

But Shigaraki doesn’t make him stop. He kisses and licks his neck as his hands guide his hips so that he’s fucking the toy a little harder, a little deeper, until his head is touching that final barrier at the tip and that extra sensation there has him whimpering and yipping, begging Duster without words to let him keep doing it, trying to show the other how good it feels, how much he wants to cum. The other keeps teasing against his rim, but lets him continue, his tongue laving over Dabi’s scent glands like he’d mate him right now, without even asking. That should turn him off sharply, but instead Dabi moans loudly, fucking the toy a little rougher, a lot rougher when Duster doesn’t stop him, letting him find the fast pace that he wanted before the other woke and saw him trying to satisfy himself. 

Moans and whines leave his lips, as he starts to feel his knot swelling, his legs shaking and his toes scraping against the floor as he chases his completion. 

“That’s it, show me your pretty knot, baby boy.” Shigaraki’s voice is slurred around his growls and that’s what sends him over the edge, nearly biting through his lip as his fangs sink into it as he fucks as hard as he can into the toy as he swells rapidly. Duster pushes the tip of his cock into his hole at the same time as Dabi’s orgasm surges through his skin and he howls his pleasure as the toy squeezes his cock, those perfect ridges locking his knot inside as he pumps it full of so much cum that the special pressure release at the back has to open so that it can spill out the mixture of cum and lube that can’t fit inside. He keeps letting out gasps and pants as his entire body shudders as his pleasure racks him, pulsing through his full knot and at his hole as those muscles are made to accommodate his alpha’s cock. He feels even bigger than he looked and Dabi had been looking forward to pinning himself between his knot and a fake one, but this is better. 

So much better when Duster smells the blood on his teeth, even though the wound heals rapidly, and he chuffs against his neck. “Is my puppy teething?” He’d have snarled at him any other time, but right now, Dabi’s body is too wracked with pleasure to do anything but whine. “That’s alright, baby boy. Open wide and I’ll give you what you need.” 

Dabi does as he’s told in a haze and his tail wags a bit as the other brings one of the chew toys to his mouth. He can smell blood beneath the false silicone skin and he is so eager to have that behind his teeth– and Shigaraki feeds it to him as he feeds inch after inch of his cock into Dabi’s pliant body. His legs twitch uselessly, claws digging into the floor as he’s suspended on the breeding bench, his ass held high for his alpha and his knot trapped in the toy, as his mouth and hole are both filled. His teeth sinking into the silicone is the only thing that keeps him from blowing out his throat on a fresh moan, and even then, he can’t stop the tears that prick at his eyes and roll down his cheeks as he’s filled so much fuller than he ever has been before. 

Shig only gives him a few seconds to adjust before he rolls his hips into his body. It’s so much, but his pack leader has already been so patient even though he must be feeling the same insatiable need Dabi has been. And Dabi’s entire body goes limp with his submission. He wants his alpha to feel good. He wants to be used by him through his rut. He wants to show the other that he can be a good packmate after spending so much time running away from him and the bond their instincts kept asking them for. 

Shigaraki stiffens over him, his breath catching in the back of his throat as Dabi gives himself up completely. It’s a reprieve of seconds before the other is growling loudly and fucking into his body hard. Dabi’s teeth sink into the bit in his mouth and muffles his moans as every inch of his insides is made to feel as good as his cock, still being held tight by the wet warmth of the toy. Shigaraki’s cock is so big inside of him as he fucks into his body, setting his thrusts to the same hard, unrelenting pace as Dabi had used when he’d been allowed. It is all instinct and need and he trembles when he hears his alpha starting to make those same desperate, animal noises as Dabi had been. Duster is always so composed nowadays that Dabi can hardly tell what he’s thinking, hearing him falling apart, hearing him enjoying himself and knowing it’s because of him, makes his whole body thrum with fresh pleasure. 

He can smell, through the glands on his thighs that are still strong, how warm the air goes with his contentment, and that has Duster’s claws biting into his skin as he holds his hip with one hand. The other reaches for his chin and he forces Dabi to turn his head back as much as he’s able. He moans through his toy as Shigaraki leans over his body, hips moving even harder and faster, and the angle ensures that he is rubbing against Dabi’s prostate on each thrust. He looks at the other blearily and whines, trying to fuck his hips into the toy again as Shigaraki bites down on the other end of the bit, his fangs sinking in deep and filling their space with their tangles scents, false heat, and false blood. It’s a lie and Shigaraki’s teeth aren’t anywhere near his skin, but Dabi swears he can feel them inside. He swears, for a moment, that it feels like the other mated him. 

He thinks it must feel like that for him too, because he lets out a feral growl as he fucks him hard enough to put bruises under his skin a few more times before his knot is swelling. It’s massive as it pushes against his rim, but Duster doesn’t slow down, doesn’t let Dabi adjust, he forces his body to accept it and the complete domination has Dabi’s knot starting to shrink. It’s not because it feels bad, no, he’s unlocking so quickly because it feels too good to be claimed so completely as Shigaraki slams into him twice more before his knot is filled and his cum is pouring into Dabi’s body, leaving him completely soaked as the other growls around the toy in their mouths so fiercely that Dabi can feel the vibration of it between his teeth. His knot is shrinking because his body is so aroused it wants him to be able to do this again as quickly as possible and he’s not about to try and fight that. 

It takes a long minute for Shig to fill him, and he thinks that he’ll be forced to hold still for a while even as his cock, still hard and sticky, is able to slip out of the fleshlight as his knot shrinks. The mess he made inside of the silicone pussy drips out in rivers along the fake lips and if he wasn’t already full and aching, Dabi thinks the sight of that alone would have made him ready to go again. 

He thinks he’ll just fuck back into it again after it drains a little more so that it can take him a second time. He’s not expecting Duster to wrap an arm around his waist, let go of the toy in their mouths, and pull Dabi off of the bench. He lets out a muffled yip in surprise and then keens as the other pulls out. He doesn’t have the muscles in his hole that are inside of a wolf’s vagina to keep their mate locked inside by their knot, and he whimpers as that massive intrusion is taken out of him, when it feels so good to be full and wet, keeping his alpha’s cock warm. Then the world shifts sharply and Dabi’s back is hitting the soft nest that they shared before, kicking up more of their tangled scents. 

Shig’s hands wrap around the backs of his thighs and he pushes his legs up to his chest before he is re-entering his body, his swollen knot pushing back inside in one smooth movement that has Dabi arching with a moan as he nearly bites through the toy. Oh, oh! He didn’t know other wolves did this, but Duster starts to fuck him again with his knot still full. And if feels so good, as that swollen section reaches the perfect depth to always have pressure against Dabi’s prostate as he fucks him hard again. 

There are stars exploding behind his eyes as he scrapes his claws down the other’s back, holding onto him as he nearly chokes on his toy, spit trickling out from between his lips, but he’s scared that if he lets go he’ll say something embarrassing, that if he lets himself open his mouth, it will be to beg for his alpha to mate him and they’re barely a day into their cycle. Shigaraki fucks him with his knot, leaning down to lick away his spit and the tears trickling across his cheeks, words lost to the growls, barks, snarls, and groans that his wolf knows are all good, good, good. Sounds that tell him he’s being so good for his pack. He’s being good, giving him what he needs, and that makes Dabi’s body even hotter. 

Duster’s hair is falling around them as he leans over him, eyes drinking him in like the sight of Dabi alone is enough to make him feel so good, and seeing that affection, that want on his face has Dabi whimpering, trying to buck his hips up to show his alpha how much he likes it. How good he’s feeling as he’s used. Too good. His cock hasn’t been touched, but he’s drooling fresh pre all over his stomach. And, he whimpers as it stings, his knot is starting to form again in the open air. 

But he doesn’t try to touch himself. He doesn’t reach for any of the other toys he got to make him feel like he was mounting a mate to sate his needs. No, this kind of release can be something different, something special, because it’s another form of submission to not try and find the heights of his pleasure and let his body be used by his alpha instead. He yips and whines through the bit and Tomura chuffs soothingly, licking his cheek again in a far contrast to how hard he’s fucking into his body. He watches as Dabi creeps closer and closer, the sharpness of knotting in the open air stinging and aching, but never letting him come away from the edge of his pleasure when he feels so full of the other’s cock and so wanted as he watches his body give itself to everything he’s doing to him. 

Dabi moans loudly, a sob on its heels, as his knot fills and he pumps his spend all up his chest and across his stomach in thick spurts as he cums again. He is beyond bliss as he lays completely limp beneath the other, his eyes heavy and his head swimming through the pleasure that just keeps coming as Duster fucks him through his orgasm, one hand only coming to stroke and rub at his swollen knot after cum stops dribbling out of him. It prolongs that bliss, but Dabi doesn’t think he could ever possibly float so high he wouldn’t notice Shig’s knot inside of him. 

Which makes it particularly notable that Duster’s knot doesn’t shrink as he keeps fucking him. He stays swollen. Oh fuck. Dabi moans weakly, his jaw aching from biting the toy so hard, and it finally falls from his mouth. The second it does, Shigaraki is leaning in and kissing him, licking out that false flavor of blood from behind his teeth as his thrusts grow harder again. Being able to keep his knot like that means he’s an alpha alpha. Not just one because he leads their little pack, but because he is a holdover from history back when wolves had secondary sexes. His rut will be longer, harder than Dabi’s. He’ll cum so much more, and be so territorial that if anyone comes near the rut room he’ll tear them apart without blinking. 

Dabi doesn’t mean to pulse out the scent of warmth that he does. A scent that tells Duster how safe and good he feels knowing that he’s even more dangerous, even better suited to be his leader, than he thought he was before this started. But he can’t hide from those feelings as he’s fucked so deeply through his rut. 

It’s Shigaraki who howls this time, having to bite the pillow just beneath Dabi’s neck to keep from mating him, and making Dabi’s whole body go tight with delight as he makes Shig lose his control so completely as he pumps him full of his cum again. 

And he loses track of time completely after that. 

///

According to his phone, when he manages to find it after they wake up without either of them aching for it again, it’s been two weeks, by the time their cycle ends. The rut room is in a state, the blankets and pillows shredded and stained, some of their toys broken from how much they used them, and his body humming with satisfaction as Duster licks at his skin to clean him up after such an intense and prolonged cycle. 

But tongues alone can’t clean them up completely, and they do end up having to shower before they re-enter the main room and take in the full carnage. 

“I’ll–” he starts to propose how to clean up after themselves, but Duster cuts him off. 

“We can deal with it tomorrow, come on, I want to go eat something and see the rest of our pack.” 

Dabi nearly goes boneless. His instincts were screaming for food and comfort too after something so intense and he can’t help it when his tail wags as his leader gives him permission for that. 

They leave most of their shit in the room, just pulling on pajamas before they unlock the door and head back across to the main villa. It’s after sundown and a fresh weekend, which fills them with delight when they don’t have to go find the others, they’re already in their common room, Compress in the middle of making dinner for everyone. 

“Welcome back,” they’re greeted with some enthusiasm, though the others try to go back to what they’re doing like he and Duster can’t smell how curious they are about what they are guessing must have happened between them while they were both gone for their rut. But food is already being made and their pack is around, so Dabi just chuffs at Shig and he pulls him over to the unoccupied armchair, sitting down and pulling him into his lap. Dabi’s tail immediately starts to wag as he cuddles into his chest, licking at Shig’s neck as the other starts to groom his ears in return. 

Dabi doesn’t think his wolf has ever felt so happy and comfortable after his rut. 

Not a surprise though when he has to be human again as Toga can’t contain herself any longer, “Are you two dating now?!” 

He opens his mouth to snap at her, but Shig beats him to the punch. “No, we’re not. These are things that wolves do to reinforce pack bonds. If any of you were wolves too, we would be doing the same thing with you.” Well, not entirely. Toga would still be a pup if they turned her, but yeah, the sentiment stands. 

“Oh…” she says, not quite able to keep the disappointment out of her voice. “So it’s totally platonic cuddling, and licking, and fucking?” 

Duster doesn’t hide his amusement. “Yes.” 

“Mind your own business, human,” Dabi mocks lightly before nuzzling back in to shamelessly scent Tomura’s neck. “Hey Duster?” 

“What is it, puppy?” 

He licks his scent gland again, nipping at it lightly too, just to hear the other growl. “Date me?” 

He feels it when Tomura’s tail starts to wag too. “I’d be happy to, Dabi.” And he presses a kiss between his ears, his scent overwhelming him with how sweet and content it goes. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” 

“You two are insufferable.” Compress informs them. “Do you want your steaks bloody?” 

“Yes please.” Tomura answers for both of them and Dabi stays tucked into his embrace for the rest of the night. He has a sneaking suspicion he’s never going to want to let go. 

[nightshade-minho]

Nightmare (1)

Warnings: Angst/Fluff/Smut.

Suggestiveness, making out, eventual smut.

fake dating!au, college!au, roommates!au, best-friends to lovers!au.

(There are 13 parts to this fic, and they're all linked in my masterlist.)

You’d known Lee Minho since the two of you were in kindergarten.

The story of how you met involves macaroni necklaces, messy finger paint and the teacher scolding you for getting Minho covered in glue and sequins...something which Minho took the blame for almost immediately.

Ever since then, you’d known Minho would always be there for you, the light in your life when everything else felt wrong or unsafe. He was there for you when you fell sick, sitting by your bed and reading you Harry Potter fanfiction. He was there for you when you had your first kiss with a guy named Matt who told the whole school you were a tramp...and he was there for you when your first boyfriend of eight months dumped you for a blonde with daddy issues.

He was the one constant in your life. The one thing you knew would never change, the one person you knew you could trust with your life.

Which is why right now, you almost wanted to throw up. Cause there he was, pressing a redhead against the wall, the two of them heavily making out. His hands were on her ass, hers were slung around his neck. The sounds of the partying college students around you became nothing more than a buzzing sound in your ear, as you tried to blink the tears back. So...this was why he had texted you to say he couldn’t make it for Movie Night.

It wasn’t quite the fact that your best friend was currently sticking his tongue down some random girl’s throat....no. It’s the fact that he’d blown you off to attend this sleazy frat party. Perhaps the Minho you thought you knew was just a figment of your imagination. Maybe this was what he had been all along.

You turn around, pushing through the crowd as you search for the exit. If you had to stay there for one more second, you would probably puke.

As you finally managed to get to your bicycle and get back to the apartment you shared with him, you sighed.

Minho had always had a lot of things in common with you. It was why your friendship worked so well. All throughout high school, he’d been the perfect best friend. The two of you were in your own little impenetrable bubble, spending time with only each other. Afternoons consisted of dance parties, sing-offs and Disney movies. Halfway through high school though, you started noticing the slight changes in his behavior. How he actually seemed to enjoy the girls ogling him when he was dancing in the practice room, even though he wouldn’t admit it. How he started attending parties, and how he liked being the center of attention. Afternoons now consisted of booze and getting ready for parties, where there would be more booze.

And that’s when you realized that you and Lee Minho had one fundamental difference, and that was his confidence.

He was so self-assured, unfazed by opinions. You on the other hand, succumbed to criticism a lot more easily.

Of course people started talking about you too when Minho got popular.

“Who’s that girl he hangs out with all the time? I don’t think I even know her name.”

“Do you think they’re dating?”

“Hah! He’s way out of her league. They’re childhood friends or some shit. But you girls don’t need to worry, she isn’t a threat or anything.”

“Yeah. He would never go for someone so...mundane.”

There was the word. Mundane. That’s what people thought you were. The truth is, you had a lot to offer...a lot to show the world. However, living in Minho’s shadow made that difficult.

And now, as you cycled along, the image of him making out with that girl played over and over in your head. When did it all go wrong? When did Minho turn from your loyal best friend to a popular fuckboy who only hung out with you for old times’ sake?

When college rolled around, you two decided to get an apartment together, since all the dorms were full and there was no one else you trusted enough to live with. And for a while, things felt like old times. Living with Minho...sharing a home? It all felt right somehow. And that...that’s probably when you realized you were in love with him.

In between all the partying and fucking that Minho did, he would spend time with you. You’d watch movies together, bake, he’d dance and you’d watch, you’d play guitar and he would listen intently, his eyes closed...unaware that every song you wrote was meant for him.

•••

You’d been living with him for 2 years now. Approximately 730 days of knowing you were in love with your best friend, while being painfully aware of your unreciprocated feelings at the same time.

Could anyone blame you? Yes, he was handsome. The hordes of girls following him around proved that to be accurate. Yet none of them knew about his little quirks and habits- like the way he stayed up till 3 AM...meaning you had to kick him awake every morning. His habit of excessive blinking, his weird laugh and unhealthy obsession with anything feline...all of them did nothing but make you fall for him deeper.

You put your bike in the shed, making your way to the apartment.

You knew he was a little bit of a player ever since he hit puberty, but you’d never actually seen him with another girl. None of his sexual escapades took place in the apartment you shared with him. This place was yours and Minho’s only- no one else was allowed to encroach the space.

You unlocked the door, greeted with a sad, empty apartment. You removed your jacket, throwing it on the sofa and making your way to your room.

You wanted to take a shower, feeling filthy after all the things you’d witnessed at the party. So you stripped, and stepped under the scalding hot water...washing away the sweat and tears...and wishing you could wash away your feelings.

Once you were done, you went through your drawers to find an oversized shirt, only to see a big, black spider make an appearance.

The scream you let out was embarrassingly shrill, and you were glad no one was around to hear it. Minho was the one who usually took care of bugs, but he was, unfortunately, elsewhere.

You gathered the shirt, your underwear and your puppy plushie Gyu before quickly running out of your door and locking it. You leaned against the wall and tried to regain your breathing.

The only choice you had right now was to sleep on the sofa...but then you remembered how Minho’s room was currently unused.

Fuck it. By the looks of the way he was groping the girl back at the party, he was most definitely not coming back tonight.

You opened Minho’s bedroom door carefully, surprised at how clean it was. You lowered yourself onto his bed and wrapped yourself in the blankets, hugging Gyu close to you, imagining for a minute that it was your annoyingly charismatic best friend...and slapping yourself for that immediately.

Sleep overtook you quickly, your dreams plagued with him.

•••

Meanwhile...a certain Lee Minho happened to recall his appointment with his best friend just as the redhead kneeling in front of him was about to unzip his jeans.

He stepped back just as she leaned forward, frowning.

“What the fuck are you doing?” She asked, eyes narrowed.

“I’m sorry, but I just remembered I have this other thing I really have to be at...uh, what’s your name again?”

“It’s Rina, asshole! And fuck you.”

Minho smirked, before opening the door and leaving. “Right back at you, sweetheart.”

Yes, he was aware that this was a total asshole move, but at the same time he knew how disappointed and hurt you would be if he left you hanging...and that’s something he didn’t want to deal with.

And that’s how he ended up back home, sighing as he found the front door unlocked. One of these days, your carelessness would probably be the reason for an untimely death.

He pushed open the door and locked it behind him, surprised to find the living room dark and empty. The sofa was illuminated by the faint moonlight streaming in through the window, a lone jacket resting on top of it. He groaned as he noted the stack of DVDs and untouched snacks laid across the coffee table.

Carefully he made his way to your room and knocked on it. As seconds of silence stretched by, he pushed the door open slowly, only to find it as empty as the living room. Weird. Were you not home?

Confused, Minho shrugged and turned around to go to his room. Maybe you’d gone out for an evening walk or something, and would be back soon.

Of course, when he opened his bedroom door, he quickly realized that wasn’t the case. Cause there you were, cuddled up in his blankets with your plushie, softly snoring. He wrinkled his nose.

Fuck, she’s cute.

He shook his head with a smile, turning around to pull his shirt off, his jeans following suit. He rummaged around in his drawers for sweatpants and pulled those on, choosing not to bother with a shirt.

He quietly got onto the bed, and carefully lifted the blankets back so he could get in too...however, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

You were wearing his shirt. That was the first thing he noticed. The second thing he noticed was how far up it had ridden, exposing your entire bottom half to him.

When he lifted that blanket, catching a glimpse of his best friend’s ass wasn’t what he had expected. It didn’t help that the panties you had on were exactly the kind he liked- grey and lacy, accentuating the curve of your butt perfectly.

Minho gulped. He tried reminding himself that this was his best friend, whom he wasn’t supposed to view in such a light...but he was a man, regardless. And there was a half-naked girl lying in his bed. The fact that he still had half a boner from his previous activities at the party only made things worse.

Fuck it.

Throwing all caution to the wind, Minho lowered himself so he was lying comfortably, wrapping the blanket around him as well. He wondered if he should keep his distance, but now that you were covered up he felt more at ease. He scooted closer to the warmth of your body and shifted you so that you were closer...his heart clenching when you snuggled up to him in your sleep, resting your head on his bare chest.

Minho was the kind of person who had no idea what he was feeling at any given time. Emotions were something that he had plenty of, but rarely acknowledged- and why would he? It was just unnecessary and only made him feel convoluted. Running through life without giving any fucks wasn’t probably a good idea in the wrong run, but it worked for now.

He sighed for about the millionth time that day. Everything was puzzling to him...and at this point, trying to unpackage all of the emotions he’d amassed and ignored over the years would be impossible. Being the kind of guy who fucked random nameless girls wasn’t what 10 year old Minho had thought he would grow up to be...but life had a way of surprising you.

He snapped out of his reverie when you nuzzled your face into his chest and let out a tiny whimper. Minho looked down at you, noticing that you were starting to shake. He knew you used to get nightmares frequently, so he stroked your hair, and you calmed down gradually, falling silent once again.

As he patted your back, he thought about how he could have been on top of that redhead by now, had he stayed. But it didn’t matter...cause one thing’s for sure, he would choose you over pussy any day.

He fell asleep with that thought etched securely into his mind.

[carewyncromwell]

“Now I'm seeing clearly how I still need you near me -- I still love you so... There's something between us that won't ever leave us -- There's no letting go... We had a ‘once in a lifetime,’ But I just didn't know it 'til my life fell apart...”

~“If Ever You’re In My Arms Again,” by Peabo Bryson

x~x~x~x

His entire school career and beyond, Orion Amari had always been the wise counselor to his friends and teammates when it came to finding balance with their emotions and lives. Even though he had his own struggles thanks to his less-than-balanced childhood in an orphanage and suffered from anxiety attacks every-so-often, he’d still been able to live a healthy life regardless and find proper coping mechanisms for his trauma. When Orion found himself falling in love, however, it was a struggle he hadn’t known quite how to handle, or even how best to ask for help with.

Orion realized something was off-balance when Carewyn Cromwell -- a Slytherin one year younger than him who he’d finally managed to convince to rejoin his Quidditch team after three years to help their team win the Quidditch Cup Final -- got badly injured by a Bludger and ended up in the Hospital Wing with a bruised lung. Carewyn’s condition had paralyzed Orion in a severe anxiety attack the likes of which his teammates had rarely seen before, and although he managed to get his emotions under control once Carewyn was conscious, even he was unsettled by how bad the attack was. Admittedly, though, Orion had always been quite fond of Carewyn, given how well they saw eye to eye and how much they both respected each other, and Orion had felt responsible for her having gotten injured. He probably would’ve simply passed his feelings off as just guilt and worry were it not for what he saw the morning of the Quidditch Cup Award Ceremony.

While training before dawn as he always did in good weather, Orion caught sight of a gleaming white Patronus in the form of a Winged Horse. His breath stilled, disbelieving -- it was the same as the Patronus he himself had only just learned to conjure earlier that year in Defense Against the Dark Arts. And when he flew down after the Patronus and saw who had cast it, he found Carewyn waiting for him in McNully’s commentator box. Orion would look back on that day and wonder how in the world he reacted as calmly as he did, while knowing the superstition surrounding people sharing Patronuses -- but at the time, the sight had only made him want to be with her, to talk with her, to...look at her...look upon her with more clarity than he ever had before. And when he did, he realized that Carewyn Cromwell truly was a beautiful person: a selfless, kind, resourceful person with more fire than a Fire Crab and all the courage of a Chinese Fireball. It was little wonder that her classmates regarded her with such admiration, whether because of her Cursebreaking or not. Anyone could fall in love with the likes of Carewyn Cromwell. Even he...could see himself falling in love with such a woman.

And yet, when another person might have tried to make a move...Orion hesitated. He only had one week remaining at Hogwarts, before he graduated and joined the Montrose Magpies as their newest Chaser. The dream he’d worked so hard for -- his “gold,” if one recalls Orion valuing the “tenacity of a niffler” -- was finally within his grasp. Could he really put all of that at risk, by trying to alter course now? And Carewyn had her own “gold” as well -- her quest to protect Hogwarts from the Cursed Vaults. She would never choose a romance over helping her brother and protecting her own found family. Orion didn’t even know if what Carewyn and he had could even be considered a romance. Would he even have looked at Carewyn as anything romantic if he hadn’t seen her Patronus? He wasn’t sure...but now that he had, wouldn’t he then be assuming that there was more between them than there really was? Was he only projecting the “soulmates” superstition onto them, just because he fancied her? A crush was not love, after all. As much as he himself believed in fate as well, Orion knew that Carewyn did not. More importantly, he knew she’d both want and deserve someone who loved her for who she was, not due to some old magical wives’ tale. As much as he admired her, Orion couldn’t say definitively that he was in love with Carewyn, and the thought of putting all of his dreams on hold just to try to grab at a chance -- as a Slytherin, Orion just couldn’t see the sense in it. He couldn’t make that choice, not after he’d worked so hard! A Chaser can’t get distracted by the Golden Snitch, when their job is to score goals. And perhaps, in the deepest, darkest part of himself...Orion worried that he could never be what Carewyn needed. He knew how much she loved her brother and how much she wanted her family to be as it once was -- he remembered the pain in her eyes, when he’d first told her he was an orphan. Carewyn needed a family -- a home -- something stable and warm to return to...all things Orion knew absolutely nothing about. He didn’t want a conventional family life -- he had no interest in getting married or having lots of kids or buying a house with a white-picket fence. He wanted to play Quidditch and be free to live his own life, the way he wanted. And as much as he thought it was possible he could fall in love with Carewyn some day, he dreaded the thought of sacrificing everything he’d ever wanted to pursue her -- of giving up the “gold” he’d been chasing for so long.

And so, after a lot of thought, Orion made the decision to keep his feelings to himself. If they were truly meant to be, maybe their paths would realign again someday, he told himself. It was a decision that tormented Orion for the next six years he played for the Montrose Magpies. Not that he talked to much of anyone about his inner conflict -- even Orion’s best friends Skye Parkin and Murphy McNully and “star twin” KC @kc-needs-coffee​​ could only really read between the lines, noticing that he seemed oddly avoidant whenever any mention of Carewyn was brought up. Orion even entered into a few relationships, but none of them lasted long, often because Orion’s partner wanted “more” than Orion was willing to give. The Star Chaser didn’t want to sacrifice his freedom, his dreams, or his independence. It was the main reason he hadn’t chased Carewyn in the first place...even though she’d seemed to understand him so much more than any partner he’d ever had. Carewyn would still send him letters sometimes -- Orion didn’t answer as much as he probably should have, but he always had a lot of difficulty answering her letters whenever he was in a relationship. It made him feel like he was being unfaithful, somehow. And as the years went on and Orion lived his own life and heard about Carewyn’s successful trials at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, he tried to tell himself all the more that he’d made the right choice not to pursue Carewyn. If you love someone, you have to be willing to set them free, right? Not that he knew for sure that he’d been in love with her, but...they could’ve been something, maybe...if he hadn’t been so cowardly...

Orion’s longest relationship was with a young woman named Delilah Flint, who had taken a desk job with the Magpies’ PR department. The distinction probably wouldn’t have had much weight (given that they’d still only been together for about a year), were it not for Delilah ending up pregnant. Neither Orion nor Delilah had ever been interested in marriage, Orion because he didn’t see much reason and Delilah because she came from a family who would’ve never approved of her marrying an orphan of mixed magical ancestry -- but after the birth of their daughter Eos in summer 1996, the two reacted in completely opposite ways. Orion, who had never really had much interest in having a family, nonetheless felt a wonderful new paternal feeling swelling up in his breast toward his daughter and promised himself and Eos that she wouldn’t grow up alone, unsafe, and scared like he had. Delilah, on the other hand, suffered from severe post-partum depression after giving birth, thanks in no small part to when Eos was born (right after the return of Voldemort was revealed to the Wizarding World), and she was also in such severe financial straits that she’d have to go to her pureblood family for help, who would never agree to help her knowing she’d had a child out of wedlock. Delilah tried to give Eos up to an orphanage -- Orion, understandably horrified, tried to pacify Delilah however he could, even going so far as to suggest marriage if it meant keeping her and his infant daughter in his life...but in the end, that December, Delilah dropped Eos in Orion’s lap and left, never to be seen again.

The following year, the Ministry fell, and Orion had to go on the run, just barely escaping the Death Eaters with Eos thanks to the help of his Quidditch League associates McNully, Skye, Erika Rath, Oliver Wood, and Andre Egwu. Going on the run with a one-year-old was a difficult proposition, and after several months, a group of Snatchers cornered Orion trying to covertly purchase a new wand from a private vendor after his had gotten broken, and they took him into custody. Orion, who was bundled up in a cloak and looked to be holding his arm as if it was broken under it, went quietly with the Snatchers to the Ministry, his face oddly pale as he forcibly tried to calm his intense anxiety. He was rounded up with several other prisoners and put in a room in the Department of Mysteries until they could be “processed through the court” (read: wrongly convicted of “stealing magic”) and transported to Azkaban.

Fortunately for Orion, Aurors Angelo Lancaster @angellazull​ and Talbott Winger had caught wind that a new round of prisoners had been brought in, and they reached out to their main contact in Magical Law for help in busting them out. The contact -- an old school friend of theirs who was an up-and-coming lawyer -- arranged the trial hearings’ schedule so that there was a noticeable window of time before they started. In that short time, Angelo, Talbott, and their contact were able to break into the room and rescue the prisoners...and yes, the contact in question did indeed turn out to be a pretty young woman with emotional, almond-shaped blue eyes and a short ginger bob wearing flowing dress robes and bright red lipstick.

When Carewyn and Orion got over the shock of seeing each other face-to-face again for the first time in six years, one of their very first exchanges was --

“You cut your hair.”

“So did you.”

Another involved Carewyn offering to mend the “arm” Orion was holding under his cloak.

“You’re hurt...let me -- ”

“No! No, I’m...not hurt...I...”

When Orion tentatively raised his cloak to show Carewyn his tiny daughter bundled up in a wrap around his chest and cradled in his arms, part of him had wondered how she would react. He hadn’t mentioned Delilah or any of his other relationships to her in those short responses he’d sent her -- it’d been uncomfortable for him, to try to talk about his love life in his letters to her. But regardless of the surprise that rippled over her face, when Carewyn looked from the little baby to up into Orion’s dark eyes, her pale face nonetheless betrayed a weak smile.

“Is...is it a she?”

“Yes. ...Her name is Eos.”

Carewyn’s eyes softened visibly, welling up with a beautiful warmth, like the kind Orion had sometimes seen her show toward her friend Barnaby or younger students like Cedric Diggory. A maternal warmth...

“She’s beautiful.”

Carewyn’s whisper made Orion’s heart swell up in his chest, slamming against his ribs as if it wished to push itself through a set of prison bars. Even after so many years, her soul was truly more like his than anyone else Orion had ever known before.

Together Carewyn, Talbott,and Angelo worked to shrink all of the prisoners down to a size that they could smuggle them out of the Ministry and then help them go into hiding. After the War was over, Carewyn helped Orion with the paperwork needed for him to claim sole custody of Eos, since Orion and Delilah not being legal partners meant that Delilah and her family would have first priority if they ever sued for custody. Orion wasn’t sure if the Flints ever would try to take Eos, but Carewyn was determined not to give them any legal opening.

“You fought for her, Orion, not them. And now I plan to fight for you.”

“Carewyn...”

“No. I don’t want them to ever feel like they can just waltz in and take her, not after leaving her to the wolves. I’ll do whatever I have to, to make sure Eos stays with the man who put his life on the line to keep her in his life and safe. She deserves that.”

The stubborn fire in Carewyn’s blue eyes and the sincerity of her convictions was all it took. Orion had been on the edge for so long, feeling faintly off-kilter with every step for seven years, but had always just barely managed to feign composure and balance...but now, in a single moment, it was all for naught. He had fallen -- despite his best efforts, despite all of his avoidance and his flagrant cowardice -- into the wonderful, swirling abyss of ethereal, warm chaos that men called “love.” In that moment, and in many moments after, Orion cursed himself for not chasing after Carewyn Cromwell from the very start...for wasting so much time and being so passive, so short-sighted...so consumed by “what-if’s” that he’d completely discarded the “what-could-be’s.”

Fortunately there was a chance, now, to make up for lost time. A rose is no less beautiful just because it blooms slowly.

[katsidhe]

7.02 final thoughts? (Idk if this one has been requested yet)

7.02 Final Thoughts

*rubs hands* Ah, yes, the episode that got me into SPN. I could talk forever about season 7. 

Fun drinking game: take a shot every time someone makes a different colorful idiom about Sam being insane. Hint: you’ll die, because I counted 25.

(I WONDER WHY Sam didn’t want to tell Bobby or Dean about his active symptoms of psychosis. Truly, a mystery for the ages.)

Even setting Hallucifer aside, this episode highlights so many of the things I high-key LOVE about season 7: the erosion of Sam and Dean’s support network (as tenuous as that already was)—take away Bobby’s house, take away angelic healing, take away the Impala, make them vulnerable and alone and crumbling under the weight of the trauma they’ve accumulated. The broken leg, Sam’s head injury and seizure in the ambulance? Strapped down, badly injured, the fates of their friends uncertain, headed into the belly of the beast? ICONIC. Over the top. Amazing.

It’s a similar kinda thing to Jody’s predicament—sure, she’s capable enough ordinarily, but if you give her surgery and drug her and leave her alone in a hospital with a liver-eating monster on the prowl, the stakes look a lot different, don’t they? I’ve seen this episode approximately one gazillion times but every time I get tense for her.

Quick thoughts on the Leviathans, which have a reputation as an underwhelming SPN villain. Perhaps because of how unsubtle and half-baked they are as metaphor for corporate greed/capitalistic consumption, perhaps because of how their promise of truly terrifying Old Ones, Cthulu-esque devourers, never quite came true (except for a bit in 7.01 and 7.02, yikes!). But honestly I’ve always liked them—I like how their organization and assimilation of knowledge drives the Winchesters deeper underground than even the Apocalypse did; I like how they made the Winchesters’ entire world into something mundanely unsafe and miserable; I like how they showcase the horror of a enemy composed of lockstep drones, the way that Heaven (and Hell, sometimes) tries to be, but never truly manages; I like Dick Roman’s gleeful ravenousness; I like their spooky mouths; hell, I even like the Dick jokes. 

Bobby’s solicitousness towards Dean, and how awkwardly he talks to Sam a little later in the episode, is very emblematic of how bone-deep uncomfortable he is around an honest-to-God mental illness, and, well, around Sam’s issues in general. Which doesn’t make him a bad person, or unsupportive, necessarily. But it’s very evident that he’s got no clue what to say to Sam or how to handle him, that he’s leagues more comfortable dealing with Dean’s problems (as has often been the case regardless of Sam’s mental health).

A related, but separate point: the lengths the show goes to to emphasize “look, Dean’s not okay,” while Sam’s in the middle of a psychotic break… It baffles me a little every time I see this episode, when Bobby walks away from Sam all “yyyyeah I gotta go do some work” and then is immediately all “ok but Dean, how are YOU feeling?” It’d be one thing if Dean weren’t emotionally demonstrative, and if Sam were—if Sam, at this point in the episode, was so obviously struggling to such a painful degree that Bobby wants to make sure Dean’s not overlooking his own reactions. But that’s not really the case. Apart from some flinching, Sam’s been very matter-of-fact about the whole thing so far.

This is our first deep-dive into Sam post-Cage, a full season about he returned. And I love it to pieces, you guys. I love how these inescapable, soul-deep consequences are the inevitable answer to the moral of Sam’s story, where he interred himself with his worst nightmare, forever.

Dean after Hell is clawing for moral high ground. Dean focuses on this bleak kind of virtue, this idea of martyrdom and righteous struggle that eventually unspools and reveals itself to be fundamentally unmoored. He needs some kind of redemption for himself after what he was forced to do in Hell; he needs to own his destiny, and he needs that destiny to be meaningful and good, and he channels his violence outward in that cause.  

Sam does not take any kind of high ground. He hurts... himself. He gnaws inward. No illusions about how “messed up” he is—he sidelines himself before Dean or Bobby can say a single word; he figures he needs to be on top of it, needs to get out ahead of the danger he could represent and reassure his family that he knows he’s a hazard. Sam has learned to repress and downplay and hide his traumas and his freakishness both to avoid feeling stigmatized and to avoid being a burden on the people he loves, especially on his brother. So when Dean reacts with fear (understandable) and anger (less so), Sam takes it in stride.

Hallucifer is probably my favorite thing this show has ever done. I could probably write another thousand words on Hallucifer alone—on how Sam’s using this face for coping, for compartmentalizing; both to hurt himself and to keep himself company, to sort through his pain and arrive at a place where it’s at all tenable for him to exist. 

Sam’s skepticism about professional mental health treatment—his idea that this is a problem he can handle himself, that a doctor would "just stuff [him] full of pills”—is clearly one born of the family mold. This is his dismissive response to Hallucifer!Dean’s accusation that Sam won’t be able to cut it on his own. This denial, this idea that Sam knows he needs to get a handle on this, and therefore that he MUST do it himself, make a science of it, is fascinating. 

On the subject of denial: Hallucifer poses a simple question to Sam: are you sure you got out? And Sam’s NOT sure. Faith that he’s free is yet another maybe-lie that Sam must tell himself with maniacal intensity this season, for the sake of his own sanity, to avoid the voice in his head telling him to shoot himself. 

That Scene in the warehouse. Dean’s advice to Sam is to trust in Dean as the cornerstone of his reality. Asks him to build his whole world on his trust in Dean. What choice does Sam have? Who else can Sam rely on? What else can he do? There is no one else, nothing else. There’s only Dean, or Lucifer. It’s a dichotomy. It’s so CHILLING.

Especially in the context of what we know comes next—7.03, where Dean lies to Sam’s face, murders Amy, and uses Sam’s ~insanity~ to defuse Sam’s (justified) anger. And then, season 8, and 9, and 10, and, y’know what, the entire show. 

Sam drives his thumb into his bleeding hand, and it’s SPN in a nutshell—forever choosing the claustrophobia of the path of slightly less resistance, forever clinging to the misery of a life that’s only just this side of bearable, burying yourself in the toxic fallout because the alternative is unimaginably nightmarish—using the trappings of free will, of defiance, to choose to claw holes in yourself so that someone else won’t. There is no escape.

Dean’s threat of murder-suicide on the phone is so clearly meant to be sympathetic. And yes, on a certain level it absolutely is; and then on another level, it’s, y’know, MURDER-suicide, where Dean’s taking explicit responsibility for and ownership of Sam’s life, even though Sam’s pretty clearly lucid. Dean’s assuming as a matter of course his ability and right to make that decision for Sam. How Dean views and deals with Sam’s instability in season 7 lays major groundwork for Dean’s willingness to let in Gadreel in 9.01.

[queen-ofsunflowers]

Falling and Rising: Chapter 1 Preview

Ready Set...

Cinder glanced at the young, scraggly-haired man sitting next to her. He showed no reaction to anything that had just happened, focusing too much on the photos in front of him. Cinder let out a short huff.

Ever since Tomura Shigaraki’s little tantrum a few weeks ago, things had been… well, rather different. According to him, harassing that U.A. the student he seemed so fixated on was what he needed to help figure everything out. Or at least, he figured out why the Hero Killer pissed him off so much… why he hated those U.A. students. He had found blame in All Might.

He hated that grin of his, as he smiled thoughtlessly without a care in the world… he acted like there was no one that he couldn’t save, and it made Tomura’s blood boil.

That was one thing that he and Cinder could stand to agree on.

A moment passed before Tomura got up and left the bar, a maniacal grin hidden under that hand he wore on his face. Cinder sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. He hadn’t set a word, only cackling under his breath once their plans had been finalized a mere few minutes ago. What the hell even happened to the brat anyway? He leaves, causes a public scandal and comes back like he’s the king of the world. ...just what the hell happened?!

“Izuku Midoriya…” mused the man behind the bar, placing another drink in front of Cinder. She glanced from it and up to Kurogiri’s misty form. He himself was looking down at one of the pictures that Tomura had left behind. This one was of a certain plain-faced both with green curls.

“How many pictures of that kid does he even have…?” Cinder asked as Neo hopped down from her own seat to get a better look at the photos. Last Cinder recalled, Tomura had disintegrated that picture with his Quirk.

“I’ve lost count.” Scratch that earlier, Tomura had a borderline unhealthy obsession with this boy.  Neo picked up Midoriya’s picture. She stared at it for a moment before turning it around and pointing to the boy it displayed. Not much for words, Neo allowed her actions and her Quirk to do the talking for her. Whether this was by choice or not, Cinder did not know. “You have a fascination with him, as well?” Neo nodded.

Cinder raised a brow as she took her glass, looking down at the picture herself. “Fascination? What’s so special about nobody like this?”

“He was Quirkless until middle school, when he suddenly manifested a power shortly before his high school entrance exams. After enrolling at U.A. High,  he distinguished himself by finishing in the top eight at their world-famous sports festival. Then, during the Hosu incident, he and his friends fought the Hero Killer, Stain…” Cinder hummed, taking a sip from her glass, “and won.” And nearly choked on it. That pathetic looking boy? He was the type of child that everyone usually bullied whenever they got the chance. “Afterward, the Hero Killer chose to spare the child’s life. Izuku Midoriya was acknowledged by Stain, the man seeking out true heroes, as worthy.”

“If I recall, he judged our Tomura Shigaraki quite differently.” Cinder swallowed down what she could of her drink. The cut the Hero Killer had given her had healed by now, but it didn’t mean that Cinder forgave the person who had caused it and paralyzed her for nearly five minutes. Kurogiri nodded. “The boy is ambitious, but also reckless and stupid.” Out of the corner of her eye, Cinder caught sight of Neo glaring up at her.

“Have faith in him, Ms. Fall.” Cinder blinked. Ms.? She was pretty sure she was younger than Kurogiri, even if by just a few years. “The rest of the League of Villains and myself both do.”

“He wants to uproot hero society and cause civil unrest in people in order to make them feel unsafe. If he wants to play these mind games, then he’s going to need to step up his own a little.” From beside her, Neo began to shift through the pictures that were sitting on the counter. ...wait, Cinder through those were playing cards— what was with these photos?! Neo stopped at one photo in particular, and her eyes narrowed. The mismatched pair filled with so much anger and mirth in that moment, that Cinder swore Neo was about to blow.

“What is it?” asked Kurogiri. Neo showed him the picture. It was of a girl around the same age as Izuku Midoriya. She was even wearing a U.A. uniform, too — standing atop a platform with a bronze medal around her neck at their sports festival. She was short, with shining silver eyes and black neck-length hair that faded into red at the tips. The girl looked somewhat familiar to Cinder. Where she had seen her face before, though, she couldn’t quite recall.

“Ruby Rose. If I recall correctly, she’s the daughter of the late Silver-Eyed Hero, Ms. Moonlight. It only seems like luck for us that she didn’t inherit her mother’s power,” Kurogiri explained upon seeing the picture clearly. “Either way, she has found a way to use her Quirk strongly to her advantage. She placed third in U.A.'s Sports Festival and was one of the participants in this fight against the Hero Killer. Wherever Izuku Midoriya seems to be, Ruby Rose is likely to follow… However, due to the lack of her mother's power, Tomura Shigaraki believes her to not be a threat. But… Personally… it’s best to avoid her… Though, there is a possibility that he wishes to attempt to revive. Something that his master failed to do in the past that he wishes to follow through on.”

Throughout all of that, there was one small… tick, of Kurogiri’s that Cinder picked up on.

“You seem hesitant,” said Cinder, tracing her finger around the rim of her glass. Kurogiri looked up at her. “When you speak of Tomura’s thoughts on the girl, you’re hesitating.”

“Am I?” he asked. Cinder nodded, leaning forward.

“Is there something about this girl that you know that I don’t? Perhaps you know here personally?” In other words, a weak spot. There was a moment of quiet, and the empty yellow eyes flashed with something for a moment, and Kurogiri shook his head.

“...No.” The dark, misty man seemed to pull himself into deep thought, thinking as hard about Cinder’s question as he possibly could. “I don’t… I don’t believe that there is.”

Cinder merely hummed in response, taking another sip from her glass. Neo continued to stare at the picture of Ruby Rose, looking like she was trying to burn it with her sight alone. Ruby Rose… Cinder glanced at the girl in the photo.

Just who was she?

The full chapter will be up on Ao3 on April 3!

[mango-forest]

more than survive (part 4)

part 1, part 2, part 3

Maybe we’ll see each other. Yeah right, Damian mentally scoffs. The French class is arriving today. If he and his angel go the entire length of the trip without seeing each other, he will fight the entire Justice League himself so help him. The only problem is the fact that Marinette never told him where she’s staying.

As if called on, his phone pings with a notification. Damian’s lips twitch up as he checks the text from his angel. 

Angel: [a picture of Marinette taken in selfie position, with stairs and the bottom half of a hotel entrance in the background.] Guess who just arrived!!!! :D

Damian feels a curl of pleasure wrap in his chest. Perfect. There are only three hotels close to WE, and based on what he can see in the background, Marinette’s at the one twenty blocks from Crime Alley. Which. . . was worrying, now that Damian’s thinking about it. He’ll have to tell Jason to put more effort during the trip to contain the area. 

Damian’s entirely sure that his family knows about the trip. It’s naive to think otherwise; Tim is CEO, he’d see any forms mentioning a foreign class tour most likely; Father will need to sign it for appearances if Tim decides to be an inconvenience, which he certainly will; and Jason and Dick will be annoying and nosy, respectfully.

But Damian doesn’t have to worry about that for at least fifteen more minutes. For now, he looks at his schedule and align events in his mind. Tonight the class won’t do anything, sleeping off the jet lag; tomorrow is the trip to WE. Damian doesn’t have anything tomorrow. What he does have is enough blackmail on his brothers that letting him be near the tour group will be the least they can do.

At dinner Dick sends him a sly glance. “So. . . Damian.”

“What, Grayson?” Damian sends a disdainful glance back.

“I heard that there’s a French class coming to tour WE tomorrow.” The older man taps his fork against his food. “Got anything to say?”

“Oh yeah,” Tim says tiredly, sipping coffee. “We had to get a person who could translate just in case.”

“Marinette’s class is visiting Gotham, yes,” he answers curtly.

“Marinette? What happened to Angel.” Jason chuckles.

Damian scowls. “You need to keep a close eye on Crime Alley now. I will not have you endangering her and her. . . friends.”

“Nice hesitation,” Tim says dryly.

“Sure, Demon Spawn,” Jason replies. There’s a grin plastered to his face and Damian rolls his eyes and gets up before his family can induce any more annoying tactics.

Gotham is busy tonight. Robin’s almost glad for the distractions. It’s all too easy to fall into a routine of beating up criminals and making sure he doesn’t go too far. His brothers are still insufferable, but now they’re interrupted with Father’s gruff voice and occasional grunt. It’s only an hour into patrol when he spots a teenage girl walking by herself.

Robin almost sighs. She must be either intoxicated, a tourist, or just plain stupid. He drops down in front of her and there’s a spark of interest when she shifts so her weight is evenly distributed and her hands tense. Then he actually takes a look at her and it takes most of his willpower not to inhale sharply.

Marinette’s hands lower a bit and Robin distantly registers that she has a purse on and a bag in her hand. “Robin,” she says uncertainly, with a hint of an accent.

“Hello,” he says, a bit breathless. He silences his comm and clears his throat. “What are you going out here? It’s not safe to be out here alone, especially at night.”

Marinette—his angel!—shrugs. “Couldn’t sleep. I just headed out to a fabric shop. My friend recommended it to me.”

(Perhaps you’d like the shop a few blocks away from the shopping center.)

(Depends, how much is it?)

“Well this isn’t very smart of a decision. No matter what your friend says.” Nice job at mixing up your words, idiot.

She hangs her head. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll just go.” She tries to hurry past him but he reaches out a hand, aborting the movement as soon as he sees her flinch. He frowns internally.

“Sorry,” he says, retracting his hand. “I just—I thought I could walk you home? I mean, if you don’t want to it’s fine, but it’s unsafe. So. . .”

Robin sees her contemplate it for a moment. “Well,” she starts, “my friend did say you’re trustworthy.”

Robin hums and holds out a hand. “You place an awful lot of trust in this ‘friend’ of yours.” She trusts him. His angel trusts him. Robin’s filled with a pleasant feeling.

“Excuse you,” she says, taking his hand, “he’s my best friend, and he’s a Gothamiu—Gothamite. So I trust him.”

Robin huffs and pulls her close, taking out his grappling hook. “You afraid of heights?”

“No,” she answers cautiously.

“Good.” He smirks and holds her firmly as he aims the tool. “Thick coat you have on. Along with earmuffs and a scarf, very cozy.” No, no, what are you doing? You act like that as Damian! She hasn’t met Robin yet.

“Well it’s cold—“ She gets cut off by her own yelp as the pair suddenly goes into the air. Robin doesn’t speak as they swing. He can feel a grin press against his shoulder. He won’t un-silence his comm for a while, orders be damned.

The trip is over too soon, landing them in front of a hotel, lobby dimly lit up. He and Marinette pull away and Robin looks at her. “Uh, here’s your hotel.”

Marinette nods and takes a step to the door, but then she stops. “Hey, Robin?” she asks, turning only her head towards him. “How did you know where I was staying?”

Oh. Robin scrambles for an answer. “Your voice has an accent. We—Batman and associates—got notified of a French class visiting. And this is the closest hotel to the shop you went to.” Does that work? It should.

Marinette nods slowly. “Okay, Robin.” It works!

He watches her walk into the lobby and only leaves when she’s in the elevator. He remembers his comm, goes to un-silence it, then remembers that all them most likely heard all of the conversation he had with his angel. 

A few more minutes of silence won’t be too bad.

@god-is-dead-and-so-am-i @birb-didnt-survive-the-snap @iggy-of-fans @never-neverland @urbanpineapplefarmer @zalladane @littleredrobinhoodlum @unabashedlyswimmingtimemachine @ellerahs @drama-queen-supreme @literallytryingmybestbutok @blue-peach14 @thatrandomfandomsgirl @alexzandria-747 @spicybelladonna @fiendsangelical tell me if I missed anyone!

[randomguywithwords]

As The Dust Settles: Chapter 13 (Geten X Dabi Slowburn)

Chapter 13: Violet’s Assignment

AO3 Link: Here

Previous Chapters: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

––––––––

After the training session, Geten returned to her room, the afterglow of her victory still present on her lips. The wind that whipped through her parka as she rode her ice platform felt cooler than usual; she felt more free and giddy. A minute had passed before she realised she had been humming from satisfaction, to a song she did not remember. 

Perhaps her good mood would last for at least a day or two. 

But as she reached the window of her floor, she saw a soldier standing outside. 

“What?” Geten fixated him with a glare. 

With a shaky bow and a total refusal to make eye contact, he passed her an envelope with arms which were trembling even more, and ran off the second she took the letter. 

Smirking as she saw him sprint down the hallway, she opened it to see a typewritten message by Shigaraki. 

“Emergency meeting, 10am. Usual.” His signature was scrawled at the bottom.

That’s a couple of minutes from now. Damn it. 

With a sigh, she created her ice platform once more and glided towards Re-destro’s mansion. But as she opened the doors of the council room, she frowned, but then...Ah, I see, so that’s what he wants.

“I assume you want to talk to me alone.” Geten scanned the council room, all chairs unoccupied except the one in the middle, where Tomura Shigaraki was leaning back on his, dressed in his black jacket and wearing his signature disembodied hand on his face. 

“Take a seat,” Shigaraki said. Geten did, and then Shigaraki began.

“Have you and Dabi settled your issues?” 

“Somewhat.” Geten met the boy’s eyes. They were sunken and darkened around the edges, like a skull which refused to die. Those crimson irises were the same ones which had rooted the charging Liberation Army in their place out of pure terror, despite Trumpet’s Inciting. 

A question arose to her lips, albeit she did not speak it, as those eyes bore into her: Can he see? Does he have vision? A vision for the Liberation Front? 

These thoughts had formed whenever she saw him address the PLF: at the festival where Re-destro had abdicated his throne, and at yesterday’s meeting.

“So you two can lead the Violet Regiment?”

“Yes.” 

“Good, two more questions.” Shigaraki relaxed his arms on the table as he leaned forward. “Who are you, Apocrypha?”

“You know my name.”

“Apocrypha? Geten? Iceman?” Shigaraki snorted. “Cut the bullshit, they’re your...usernames. The first two mean the same, and it’s ironic, because their meaning tells me you don’t know the answer either.” 

“Then why ask me?” 

“Because I’m wondering if you want to know.”

“No. I have no need for a name. I was Re-destro’s weapon, Shigaraki. A sword has no need for a name any more than a stray dog does. So please, get to the point.” She ended her speech with a glare.

Shigaraki met it with an indifferent expression, perhaps even surprised by that sudden outburst, but then his cracked lips widened in approval. 

“I would’ve killed you for uttering my name.” Shigaraki’s smile was unnerving, and Geten flinched despite herself, “but I could tell you’re different. You’re different from the rest of these cowards.”

“When you have 2 CEOs and a politician, and you had a...journalist, or whatever she was, you were never spoken to properly. Everything needed a bush to beat around. I like to disintegrate the whole forest.” Shigaraki placed four fingers on the desk. Geten knew he could activate it autonomously now, but she understood his point. 

Her hands were off the desk before she realised it. Shigaraki seemed to notice it, and continued,

“I’m asking for your loyalty, because it’s bleeding dry in this army. I’m not stupid. You don’t take over an enemy city and expect the people to bow down. There’s gonna be riots. There’s gonna be a lot of plotting. If you’re smart you would have realised it by now, or even gotten involved…” He looked at her with a suggestive grin. She kept her face impassive, as a bead of perspiration rolled down her forehead.

“But I get the feeling you like to settle things face to face. You’re no assassin, are you? Your skill points seem more geared towards strength.” Shigaraki’s gaze felt like it was penetrating her mind, probing her thoughts. She felt unsafe – a person walking through an alley at twilight. That person never saw the blade of ice, just darkness, and then darkness eternal. 

She felt as vulnerable as the people she had killed.

Does he know too? There’s no way he couldn’t, right? He knew about Takame, wouldn’t he question Skeptic and Trumpet why he wasn’t on the official register? But he said he spoke straightforwardly, not like them. Not like the MLA. 

“Of course not.” The words flowed from her mouth before she could think about it. “And…you have my allegiance, Grand Commander.” She gave a slight bow of her head, even as her mind was suspended in a frenzied blizzard – blind, in chaos, terrified. 

She kept her head down, feeling queasy looking at those red eyes of his. She finally understood why the army had stopped in their tracks then. 

“Good. I look forward to seeing what you can do for me,” Shigaraki said. “Ah, right on time.”

The doors opened behind her as the rest of the PLF lieutenants arrived, one by one.

So there is a meeting? Geten quickly regained her composure. The rest of them could not see her in that state. She could tell some were staring at her, probably curious as to why she was so early. Bowing her head, she made eye contact with no one, her face heating up. 

Once everyone was in, with Dabi strutting in last, the meeting commenced. 

“We have a problem.” Shigaraki stood up. “We wanted to lay low till next Friday. Well, it was going fine, but lately we’ve been picking up some chatter, chatter directed at us. Skeptic, if you would.”

Chikazoku arose with a bow towards Shigaraki and continued with the briefing. “I’ve been watching the media and the attention about the ‘Deika City Incident’, and it was dying out as expected, but I noticed one source that was constantly publishing article after article about conspiracy theories about the Incident. We’re still being talked about, and that cannot happen. I’ve tried on my own ends to stem the flow, but whoever this group or individual is, they’re not stopping. We sent some soldiers from neighbouring provinces to investigate, but they’ve all went silent. So we’re sending Carmine to deal –”

“No.” Shigaraki’s voice cut in as sharp as a knife. “Send Violet.” 

“Tomura-kun!” Toga pouted. “I wanted to taste some blood. Send my regiment!” 

“No, I want Apocrypha and Dabi to do this.” 

All eyes were scattered between Shigaraki, Dabi and her. She kept her eyes on the table, flickering upwards as Re-destro began to speak. 

“But...great leader,” Yotsubashi chuckled nervously. “Isn’t it better to send people like Mr Compress and Himiko Toga who can eliminate people silently?”

“Yeah! I like you, Re-destro! Lemme taste your blood!” Toga cheered, waving a knife at Re-destro like a toddler, who shrunk back into his seat looking even more anxious about the mentally insane girl. 

“Exactly. I want to see how the two of them deal with an assassination.”

The matter seemed to be settled. Even Dabi hadn’t spoken a word in protest. Looking at the corner of her eye, he was shrugging. “Whatever. I get to get out of this shithole and burn some people. I’m cool.” 

“Weren’t you late because you were stuffing yourself with ramen?” Spinner deadpanned, receiving a glare from the fire-user. 

“We’ll get it done, Shigaraki.” Dabi ignored the statement. 

“As long as you don’t draw attention,” Compress warned, causing Dabi to wave at him with a “Yeah, yeah, got it.”

Then Dabi turned to look at the CEO. “Skeptic, fill us in.”

–––––––

Violet Regiment left almost immediately after the meeting. Well, it wasn’t so much of a regiment as it was just Dabi and her. They had decided that an assignment of this caliber did not require any cannon fodder. So, after gathering the items needed and taking a shower, the two of them were on a private plane heading to the Tokugawa Prefecture. 

“Damn, I could get used to this.” Dabi leaned back on his luxury seat, kicking his legs up on the table. Geten, who was seated on the adjacent, opposite seat, snorted. 

“You could. But the ride is only a few hours.”

“Let me enjoy it, come on.” Dabi opened his can of coke and taking a chug.

Sighing, she looked out of the window, seeing the afternoon sky tinted with pink on the horizon. It would be evening when they landed. 

“Aren’t you wondering why we were sent?” Geten looked back at the relaxing Dabi. 

“It’s probably a punishment. Either one of us pissed Shigaraki off.” 

“So you think this whole thing is fake?”

Dabi shrugged. “Maybe. Or Shigaraki doesn’t think it’s that big of a threat to deal with it properly. Or he doesn’t care about us.”

“Does that not bother you?” Geten crossed her arms seeing how nonchalant Dabi was. 

“Nope. Deika City was getting boring anyway. If I have an excuse to leave, I’m taking it. And Shigaraki can send me wherever he likes, I know when to listen and when to do my own thing. You, on the other hand…” Dabi wagged a finger at her. “You were Re-destro’s little puppy, weren’t you?”

“Call me that again and I’ll slap you.” She sent a look of venom his way. 

“But you get what I mean.” Dabi finished his coke. “From what I can tell, you’ve spent your whole life at the heels of these MLA snobs. Now, we’re here, and you have no idea what you’re doing.”

“I know what I’m doing. I’m abiding by Destro’s principles of the strengths of Meta Abilities. But…” Geten’s eyes trailed to the floor. “You got everything else right.”  

That’s it. That’s what I’ve been missing. The League was so...free, and the MLA was so stringent with its rules. 

“Hey.” Dabi’s voice made her look up, expecting more taunting, but his expression caught her by surprise. His eyes were unusually soft, his expression not as condescending. Basically, he looked less like himself, if that was even possible. “You don’t find anything wrong with that?”

“With what?” She tilted her head curiously. 

Dabi opened his mouth, then closed it. Putting his empty can on the table, he said, “Nothing. Why you’d even ask me about this assignment in the first place? Did you do something to Shigaraki?” 

Right, he was late. 

“Well, besides wanting to kill him and everyone else when we met, I can’t imagine why he would want to punish me,” Geten said. 

Dabi saw past her sarcasm studying her expression. “Really, what happened?” 

He could be relaying everything back to Shigaraki. I can’t tell him about what I’ve done, or he’ll do something, or not trust me. 

Why does that matter? Another part of her argued. You can finish this job on your own. 

But that was it, wasn’t it? If she finished this assignment flawlessly, Shigaraki’s suspicions would be confirmed, assuming he didn’t know about her deeds beforehand. And what would happen then? Would he kill her? Lock her up? Demote her to a common foot soldier?

And why was she caring about his trust anyway?

She stared at Dabi, unable to totally decipher his expression, but there was some hint of genuine curiosity, since his eyes were slightly wider than usual. He didn’t seem like the type of person that would be Shigaraki’s servant to the extent of spying on her. 

Can I trust you? She thought.

“He asked me if I wanted to know my name.” It was a good-enough truth. 

“Really? You don’t know yours?” Dabi raised an eyebrow. 

“No. And I don’t care about it either. My name – even if he actually knows it, won’t be a bargaining chip.”

“Why? Don’t you want to know who you are?”

“It’s not important.”

“Hm. Okay,” He said. He didn’t press further, but Geten knew there were a lot of things he left unsaid. The conversation died as Geten turned back to look out the window. 

She had a lot of things unsaid too, but saying any of them to the wrong person could spell death for her. 

Hawks’ words now felt a lot more real, like a spider’s web wrapping her up. No, she didn’t feel safe. Because, and she realised this with a start – if she didn’t need real allies then, she did now. 

The word sounded so foreign. Whatever the meaning of it was, she knew at its roots, she just needed people to trust. And loyalty was bleeding dry in the PLF. 

She looked to the corner of her eye to see Dabi taking a nap. A realisation dawned on her. She had no idea why – It could have been because she had, at the very least, the leverage of strength over him, or that he spoke of Shigaraki and the MLA with disrespect, or the seemingly genuine interest in her name…

But out of all the people in the PLF, if she had to pick one person to trust, it would be him. 

But can I, Dabi? Can I trust you, and would you trust me?

––––––––––

Done. Yay. Entering a new “arc” so to speak. I really hope the tonal issues doesn’t throw your reading off. On one hand I’m trying to craft a proper internal struggle in both characters about their identity and on other issues plaguing their lives. But on the other I still want their witty banter (and fluff in later chapters), so if the disparity is too apparent, let me know. Thanks. 

And I haven’t forgotten about Dabi’s backstory, or Twice or Hawks. All in good time. I have the next few chapters planned out already. Not sure how long they’re going to be, but for this “arc” it’s really just gonna be the two of them. 

Also, anon, if you’re reading this, I hope the Geten/Shigaraki conversation was what you envisioned, or that you’re okay with how it turned out. If the dynamics wasn’t what you thought it would be, sorry ><

As for everyone else, I hoped you liked it. Any feedback is appreciated (like, really, if you didn’t like it for anyone reason, do let me know. If you want to send anon hate, I’ll genuinely entertain it as long as you really do have something constructive to discuss, and not like, idk, you just hate Dabi or villains in general. Doesn’t add anything to the discussion – well, nothing useful anyway.)

[youarejesting]

BTS365 Prompts.week 28

[Full Masterlist] [Prompt Masterlist] Beta: @jung-hoseok-s-airplane

Please tag me in your work if you use my prompts. I want to see your work. Ever your Jester.

Tell me your birthday and I will tag you on your special day!

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         July 9th - 15th

═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════

Kim Seokjin - Kissing

“Kim Seokjin what do you mean you have never had a first kiss?” You shouted in the middle of the party.

“Shush, what if someone hears you?” You raised an eyebrow as the music was practically deafening and dragged him to an unoccupied bedroom. It was too early for couples to be doing anything naughty just yet. Everyone was only one or two drinks in, so it was easy to find refuge in one of the bedrooms, where you could talk together in peace.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly as I stated, I can’t dance with that girl because what if she wants to kiss, I have never kissed anyone before,” he clearly was overthinking things but you understood his nerves and shivered, remembering how your first kiss was a horrid memory cause you had no clue what you were doing.

“Okay sit down, I think I can teach you?” You pushed him to sit on the edge of the bed because he was taller than you and stepped between his legs so you were closer to him. 

He looked nervous. “Don’t worry, I am nothing more than an acquaintance who speaks to you at parties, we don’t hang out or see each other much so nothing will change. I will just teach you how to kiss so you don’t make a fool out of yourself.”

You took him through the different types of kisses explaining how to tilt his head and how to initiate different levels of the kiss. After explaining certain aspects you showed him with a kiss. Finally, you explained where he could put his hands and something clicked this beautiful specimen was kissing you while holding you in his arms making your heart flutter. 

Min Yoongi - Truth

Min Yoongi never lied, he was blunt and saw no reason to. He watched you though a swindler, you could bluff like the best of them and he knew exactly when you would lie. Of course, he would after watching you work your magic on the passersby out the front of his building. He had no idea you would appear before him asking for his help. You were being blamed for the murder of a young woman and he could tell by your expression you were telling the truth.

Jung Hoseok - Video Games (I want to write this)

You were the best of the best, theû big leagues coming together for the new video game of the century. A breakthrough and something people would kill for. You were given an invitation to participate with nine others, all elite gamers. Unlike a regular virtual reality game, this was a full submersion of the subconscious into the digital realm where your bodies would be semi-paralyzed and brains wired into the system. 

While you couldn’t move physically you were strapped into a machine that moved you the same way as you moved in the game. If you were running you were running on the spot, if you sat danced or anything the machine would simulate this and you had your original limits of flexibility and more. 

It was the first time this was being conducted after years of research and safety testing. The whole game process was said to take at least a year and you would be filmed in the game to show the audience your progress within the game and promote the game style. 

None of you had ever met in person until you were asleep, you all logged in and created your characters.

You met them all one by one but Hoseok caught your eye first. He was an extremely famous strategy game player, ranked number one. You, however, were a master at all types of puzzle games, there was a kid who was a pro at first-person shooters. 

You were going to spend a year together in the game. The only problem was you could feel everything the system tapped into your nerve endings and every artificial breeze every movement was felt. Your vital signs were being monitored so you already had to explain to your team that the spikes in your heart rate were because of Hoseok’s character's tight pants and how he smiled at you.

Kim Namjoon - Math 2.0

“Thank you for coming, she is in her room, I really appreciate this,” your mother’s voice came through the house, to whatever middle-aged tutor she had pulled last minute, “I have the money here please she needs to pass this class otherwise she will have to repeat.”

“No worries Ms. y/l/n,” the voice was kind of deep and raspy. Definitely a smoker probably thirty to forty and aged decently. 

Imagine your surprise when Kim Namjoon the nerdy class president and your nemesis steps into your bedroom talking to your mother. “I will make sure she can pass the class, do not worry ma’am I have been tutoring for a few years now and I have a knack for it.”

Your mother turned to him and you flipped him the middle finger and he smiled back taking your mother’s shoulder and explaining how he planned to have you a model student in a few short weeks. 

His style of teaching was unlike anything you had ever experienced but once you fell in love you looked forward to your tutor sessions. 

Park Jimin - Sugar Cookie (I want to continue this one so bad.)

“Hello welcome to candy land I will be your waiter for this evening can I get you something to drink?”

“Hi, Ms. uh,” A tall man grinned standing and leaning to read the tag on your left breast. “Sugar Cookie, I want you to take this young man here and give him a dance equivalent to this price.” 

“Of course,” you allowed him to offer you a large wad of cash, taking the blushing man's hand. You smiled softly noticing he was very handsome, a real rare gem compared to some customers. “Sweetheart, would you like to come sit with me and we can chat and have some drinks.”

You handed him a drink and headed into the private room sitting beside him, “come sit down, you don’t need to be afraid, I can do anything you ask within these guidelines. No violence, no touching in a sexual nature. You and I have the right to leave if we ever feel unsafe.”

He sat down and you mirrored his posture, “you don’t seem as happy as your friends, is there an Occasion?”

“Yeah I am getting married tomorrow” he sounded sad, his eyes full of despair. 

“Tell me what’s got you sad?”

“I have never met her, it is arranged by our parents.” 

“Well you have some choices,” you smiled standing up, “you live your last night as a single man to the fullest and marry a woman you have never met or you could do everything in your power tonight to prevent the wedding, like fake your own death, or perhaps find someone to marry before tomorrow and then you might be free, I mean your very handsome it should be easy.” 

His eyes lit up and you bit your lip nervous. “Would you marry me?” He said “I could pay and it’s only on paper we don’t have to do anything, we might need pictures though miss um...” he said  gesticulating while trailing off.

“Y/n and I mean I have no plans I can end my shift and sign a document with you.” 

He grabbed your hand and raced to his friends, “change of plans I am getting married tonight let’s go!”

“Hell yeah, let’s go guys Jimin’s gonna marry a stripper!” 

Kim Taehyung - Teddy Bears Picnic

“Hey, little man, what are you doing all the way over here don’t you want to join the picnic with all the other kids?” You asked the Kim boy, he was unique from the other children. Originally from Korea, sometimes it was hard to understand the young child's customs and way of life but you tried your best. He was an adorable little boy who had big round ears which made him look endearing.

“My dad isn’t here yet, he said he would be here?” He said looking out towards the parking lot.

“Theodore is it because you haven’t got a Teddy bear?” You questioned using the boy's English name as it was easier for you. “I have many teddy bears you could borrow, come have some lunch?”

“Teddy!” a voice called and you turned to see a very handsome young man appear.

“Don’t worry, miss this is my bear right here,” the boy grinned up at his dad who scooped him up into a hug.

Jeon Jungkook - Poem

“Poetry slam, Taehyung it’s not my scene?” Jungkook complained for the fifth time but followed his friend with the promise of free pizza. 

“Just be quiet I like poetry, please don’t laugh”

“I will try,” Jungkook sighed, sitting down, he was bored and lost in the dull words from the uninteresting people. 

“Next we have y/n,” the host called and Taehyung clapped enthusiastically. Jungkook sat up hoping this was going to be good. 

She started speaking and painting a picture in his mind with words that felt so romantic, he caught a double meaning to her words and felt his ears and neck turn red at the thought this woman could weave such sultry tales. 

[sarissophori]

Hither Yonder, Chapter 11

Among the White Wolves

After a half-league trek along the cold banks and frozen waters of the ravine, Chieftain and his pack led Halli and Noma up a narrow goat-path hidden by the slopes, covered over by snow. It rose with the mountain flank, more north than the highway and winding through craggier, uneven places, on and up, curving with the slope. The Wolves effortlessly scaled the ledges and worn natural steps, but Halli and Noma kept pace with them despite their weariness. Chieftain would at times look back to make sure, then sprint on.

      The goat-path snaked through a maze of tumbled rises before broadening out as a long open lawn, enclosed by dark walls of granite –a mountain hall open to the sky, but sheltered from the wind. Into the side of the ‘hall’ were many tunnels that led to dens, kennels and caves for gathering, occupied by the White Wolves since before Tarmaril’s founding, and the western seas were explored by men.

      “This is the home of my clan” Chieftain said. “For now, it is yours as well.”

      As they entered the lawn, a sentry standing watch gave a few short barks to herald their return. The clan gathered out onto the lawn to welcome their return, young and old, hunters and mothers with pups, intrigued by the sight and smell of two outsiders in their leader’s company. They held their curiosity in check and waited for his address.

      “We return” Chieftain said, his voice carried by the hall. “Not from a hunt, but from battle, for the Beasts had defiled our sacred place with their presence. They will not again, thanks to the aid of these two who stand with us; Nomatakana, shepherd of the Gallenwood, and Halli, human of Hanan. They have my blessing to take shelter here until the weather favors their travels. Give to them every courtesy. It is their earn-right.”

      Halli and Noma bowed to the clan, who returned the gesture.

      “Friends of the clan, welcome” the eldest female said, the first of the Chieftain’s many mates, and their ruling Matriarch.

      “A den shall be set aside for you and made comfortable, even perhaps to a biped’s liking. Will this be good for you, child?”

      It took Halli a moment to realize that the Matriarch’s question was directed at her.

      “For me?”

      “Bipedals are more sensitive to the cold than a Wolf of the mountains” she said. “We have little bedding, but we will spare you what we can.”

      “Thank you” Halli said. “You knew I understood wolf-speech, then?”

      “We guessed it” Matriarch said. “Your scent is similar to the Westerlanders, though more tolerable. Worry not, wolf-friend. We shan’t hold it against you. The Chieftain has spoken in your favor.”

 So Matriarch lent to them a den close to her own, far enough within the caves for warmth, but still touched by the lawn’s tempered light. The den’s floor was covered with dry grass, piled so thick Halli couldn’t feel the rock underneath; cozy, though the smell of dank fur and past litters made it very pungent. Noma went to a corner and curled up in the grass. Halli sat down beside her and counted what remained of their supplies.

      By evening Chieftain and Matriarch came to check on them, giving them a portion of meat saved from a recent hunt.

      “It is said humans prefer their meat to be cooked” Chieftain said. “Kindling is scarce in these heights, and I do not recommend searching for any soon. It is unsafe for you beyond our shelter.”

      “I have enough with me to last a few days” Halli said. “Noma may take my share.”

      Noma’s appetite concurred, and Halli nibbled on a few cold strips.

      “If you have any other needs, tell us” Matriarch said. “Until then, sleep well.”

 The storm picked up, carrying on well through the night. The dark inside and outside the caves was seamless, though Halli could hear the wind whining high over the lawn, and when it died down, the subtle crunch of sentries pacing. As a late hunting party returned with fresh hares for the pups, a low, rumbling groan echoed over the open hall, answered by booming moans that shook the air. The sounds of great cumbersome things were heard in the darkness, stomping heavy feet, beating heavy fists. The Wolves looked out with their ears pulled back.

      “They are close” one said.

      “Something has stirred them” another said.

      “Stirred what?” Halli said, crawling out of her cloak to peer out from the hall. Noma sat and listened, ears up and intent.

      “The Stone People” the first Wolf said. “We share the mountains with them, but they are friends to none, especially when roused. It would be wise to postpone all patrols until morning.”

      “Stone People…you mean Stone-golems?”

      “If that is your name for them.”

      Halli glanced at Noma’s darker outline in the den. “They’re real?”

      “So they are” Noma said.

 The storm went on for two days before finally ebbing, yielding to the clearest day since Halli and Noma entered the Grayrim. The wind was subdued, making the mountains eerily quiet. In the open hall yipping pups were at play, shaking off their boredom. Pale autumn mists clung to the slopes, roaming and fading, dotting the frost with glinting droplets. When the mists lifted Halli and Noma thanked the White Wolves for hosting them and then, accompanied by Chieftain, left the hall along the old goat-path.

      “What road will you take into Westerland?” Chieftain said.

      “The surest I know is the highway” Halli said. “But I fear to take it.”

      “You should. Now that the Beasts have your scent, they will hunt you again as soon as you leave our territory, especially if you go that way.”

      “Know you another?”

      “There is one, inside our territory, that we use at times” he said. “It is barren and not well-marked in places, however. Without a keen sense of smell, or a sure guide, you would risk becoming lost. I will lead you, if you are prepared for it.”

       “Lead on” Halli said.

      Chieftain nodded and trotted ahead of them, taking point. Passing through the tumbled knots and hills on the slope, they walked quickly first in a southerly direction, then went curving northward as they left the goat-path and traced another, rutted into the gravel, going around an outcropping that dominated the hall’s western vistas. The ravine was below them, thawing out to a trickling flow between ice patches smoothed to a crystalline shine.

    Past the outcropping, the rutted path turned west and kept with the ravine for a while, until it took them up and over the shoulder it ran along and dropped into a dimple in the stone, then carried on as a track between two ridgelines, worn yet jagged. It was rocky, patched with frost, and lined by hardy shrubs that bristled with thorns; and on it went, through miles of trying terrain, confused in its turns if keeping discernably west. At length the ridgelines met and merged with a bluff thrust out from the mountainside, blocking their way and ending this particular section of the path. Here Chieftain allowed a small rest, for they had gone the entire morning and noon unceasing in pace, making better progress than he supposed of them.

    He sniffed the air. “Our luck holds. The weather remains favorable, and the Beasts have yet to catch our scent. That said, I have no desire to press our fortune. Eat a little if you must, but no sleeping.”

      “Just as well” Noma said. “I’m hardly tired. I actually missed the distances we used to cover, wouldn’t you say, Halli?”

      Halli groaned. “Maybe when I wasn’t wearing boots.”

 There was a deep gouge where the bluff began to rise over the ravine, leading down as short choppy stairs to a slender vale choked with boulders from rockslides. Chieftain weaved them among the boulders, beginning their trek south and out of the Grayrim’s frigid reaches. The vale gently dipped as its west arm pulled suddenly back, offering Halli and Noma their first view of Tarmaril proper: green plains stretched out before the knees of the range, low and fertile, with rolling fields like an emerald sea and small woods scattered like islands; the lofty heads of the Andrim Mountains were set against the far horizon, their flanks sheathed in lush pine forests hiding meadows and glens fed by streams of melted snow. Now, after so much hardship, they beheld Tarmaril’s true beauty.

      “Our path is nearly done” Chieftain said. “There are springs close by, from which a river flows. The Westerlanders once held them sacred and use to make pilgrimages to them, in their better days. If they still do, I cannot say. I will take you there, but no further.”

      “Understood” Halli said.

      The path followed the vale’s descent, making a slow transition from bare stone to traces of shabby grass and pine needles as gaunt trees leered over them. The air was warmer here, showing little trace of the winter-like clime higher in the mountains, until all the frost was gone, and they felt the touch of sunlight. Whatever spell or chance of nature held the Grayrim’s snows at bay Halli couldn’t guess, but she was thankful for it.

      They walked deeper into a growing mix of trees and ferns, many laden with their final autumn blooms. For the first in a long time, Halli heard birdsongs and the scurrying of small animals through underbrush. Pale flowers grew along the path, opal-lilies and moonsickles, wildflowers like painted fans and god-fingers, and winding around the boughs of many trees were ivy vines laden with golden flowers, eyes-of-sun, and the trees themselves looked in blossom. Purple posies sprung out between the roots, among indigo suckles and jade-petals. A smoldered nostalgia took her, reminding her of the Irdon Forest and the groves of Lake Onu, beautiful in that spring since passed. Down the slopes they went, into yet more pleasant country.

 The path turned south and a little east, coming to the edge of a narrow outlook from the mountain-flanks. It ended before the rim of an enclosed dell, oval-shaped and flecked with feldspar, holding in its embrace clear, crisp springs, the birth-waters of the Valos River. There were three pools, blue as sapphire at the edges and dark as obsidian at their hearts, welling out from mouths of marble and granite, strung by veins of ghostly quartz. Watching over each pool was a monolith of vague human features, quartz-striped and rune-etched, monuments dedicated to keeping the Valos pure; they were remnants of Tarmaril’s earliest age, when her people had a greater love for nature than warcraft.

      “Here is where I leave you” Chieftain said. “This is as far as I go into the Westerlands.”

      Halli bowed. “You have given more than was our right to ask, thank you.”

      “Return with speed to your clan” Noma said. “Give them our thanks as well, if you would.”

      “I shall” Chieftain said. “You were respectable guests, while we had you. Farewell.”

      He turned away and made to depart, then stopped and looked back.

      “The business of outsiders is not ours to know, yet I must ask, if you will answer; why seek you the Great Water? Why risk such a danger?”

      Halli stood silent for a moment, then said softly, “To find someone I lost, beyond the sea.”

      She looked westward and said no more, but Chieftain understood her.

      “Then the greater part of your journey still lies ahead. May all the luck in the world go with you, and may your strength never fail you.”

      With that he returned up the path, leaving Halli and Noma to continue their journey by their own way.

[sassycassie-s-series]

All My Fault 33

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Damian Wayne/Batman

Rating: PG-11/T- (for violence)

Notes: (Masterlist) This one jumps around a bit. Hopefully it’s not too difficult to follow.

Tag List (Open): @batboys-and-other-messes @welovegroot @probsjosh  @spooder-moon @lostredrobin @haylo4ever @na-n-na @rachelmorganroth  @reclusive-chicken-nugget​ 

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31, Ch 32

^^^^^

“So, what do we do, Damian?” I asked quietly as Damian and I sat in my room on the floor across from each other. Jon had left to go home to Metropolis so we were alone to have our private discussion.

Damian reached across the distance between us and took one of my hands in both of his. “I want to be with you more than I’ve ever wanted to be with anyone else. However I don’t believe we should go public with any sort of romantic relationship immediately. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, you’ve been back nearly two weeks less than you have actually been in this future, which would make it seem as though you haven’t been back long enough to be in a romantic relationship—perhaps.”

“What about Bruce?”

Damian’s eyes dropped to our hands. “He returns from Metropolis tomorrow,” Damian said. “As I said earlier, he could look between the two of us and make an accurate estimate of what we’ve done while he was gone if he believed we had something to hide. I can tell him that we’ve fallen in love and intend to pursue a relationship—”

“No,” I interrupted. “Let… let me tell him.”

“Nora?” Damian asked, using my name instead of why?

I sighed. “If I tell him he might… freak out less. You know what I mean? Like, if I say I don’t want to go back to the past and explain why… I doubt he’d drop his coffee.”

I set my other hand on top of Damian’s hand holding my other one. I looked up and met his eyes.

“I love you, Damian Wayne. Strange as our situation is, it’s true.”

He gave me the widest and most genuine smile I’d ever seen from him—or either blood Wayne for that matter. “I love you as well, Nora McCloud.” He leaned forward. I closed the distance and pressed our lips together.

It was a far less heated kiss than the night before. Instead it was simple and tender, full of softer emotions than passion.

Damian pulled away first. “I believe you’re correct. You informing Father would be far safer.” He squeezed my hand. “And in a few weeks—perhaps even a month—we will announce that Nora McCloud and Damian Wayne are officially together.”

I snorted. “Press can finally have their field day about us,” I said.

Damian bounced an eyebrow. “S’pose so,” he agreed.

I smirked. “Let them,” I said.

Damian tutted. “Tt. Alright then.”

“But in private, are we officially together now?”

“Only if you agree to be.”

“I do. Heartily.”

We both snickered.

^^^^^

WHAM! My foot connected to the mugger’s chest—and I was fairly certain I heard a rib separate from his sternum. Yowch.

“Batman’s smitten,” Jason said in the open channel. Tonight it was all of us out on patrol except Tim, who volunteered to be on monitor duty. Dick and Jason had told Cass and Tim that Damian and I were in love and semi-officially a couple while we were in private.

I glanced around to see Damian standing on top of a building that made up one of the walls of the alley I was in, looking down at me. Even from my distance below I could see him grinning. I smiled back at him, whacked the mugger again and effectively knocked him out, and nodded to the man he’d been trying to steal from. “Are you alright, sir?” I asked.

He nodded.

“GCPD is on its way,” Damian supplied to me.

“The cops will be here soon,” I said to the man. “They’ll take your statement.” As I spoke I tied up the mugger. “He’ll be out for at least an hour.”

“Are you leaving?” the man asked me, looking a bit spooked by the mugger.

I gave him a smile. “Not if you don’t want me to,” I said, rocking back and forth on my heels. I realized how that could sound if taken the wrong way and quickly amended, “Not if you feel unsafe alone here with this man.” I didn’t need this guy hitting on me or trying any funny business when Damian was literally only a few stories above me. That being said, most of the creeps and misogynists in this city knew that trying anything rude with a girl in a mask and body armor—Batgirl, the Spoiler, Orphan, Batwoman, Cloudburst, and any visiting female heroes—was a recipe for getting several bones broken and sometimes a verbal smack-down.

Didn’t always discourage them from trying, but I’d dislocated eight shoulders and paralyzed three sets vocal chords in the first two years of being Cloudburst and had since lost track of injuries I’d dealt to creeps who grabbed my backside or hands or other places or made disgusting comments.

As it was, this guy didn’t say anything rude or try to touch me.

I touched my comm-link. “By the way, Hood?” I said.

“Yes Cloudy?” Jason asked.

“Shut up,” I said.

I heard lots of snickering from the rest of the Bat-family.

After a few minutes of waiting, the cops came. Once they turned up, the mugging victim thanked me. I nodded and shot a grappling hook to the roof, whizzing out of sight. Once I swung onto the same rooftop as Damian, I felt his arm ensnare my waist and pull me closer to him. He tapped his comms to mute his microphone and smirked at me. “That was attractive,” he whispered.

I snickered and muted my mic too.

He leaned closer.

I put my hand between our lips before he could kiss me. “Batman and Cloudburst can’t be together, Damian,” I said quietly.

He closed his eyes and sighed with complaint. “Why not?”

“Because as far as civilians are concerned, Cloudburst is still between five and ten years older than Batman. That would be weird. And the coincidence of Nora McCloud returning only a week-and-a-half after Cloudburst can be ignored and forgotten. But Cloudburst and Batman getting caught kissing on a rooftop a month before Damian Wayne and Nora McCloud announce that they’re together is downright suspicious,” I said. “Especially coupled with Cloudburst and Nora’s reappearances.”

Damian pursed his lips and stared at me, his green eyes glinting through the eye holes of his cowl. “Alright,” he relented. “Batman and Cloudburst have a professional relationship.”

“You can kiss me in uniform when we get back to the Batcave,” I said quietly.

^^^^^

“Their mics are muted,” Jason remarked to Dick, Tim, and Cass on a private channel. “I can see them talking through my scope but I can’t hear them.”

“What do you mean, ‘scope’?” Dick asked. “Hood, you don’t have a sniper rifle, do you?”

Jason hesitated. “… No?”

“Hood!” Dick protested.

“Hey, wingding! Now is not the time! They’re being lovey-dovey and you’re complaining about me?!” Jason snapped.

“Okay. So their mics are muted so we can’t hear them. What do you mean, lovey-dovey?” Tim asked, interrupting the argument.

“Well Damian’s got his arm around her waist and she just stopped him from kissing her. She’s got this goofy type of lovestruck grin on her face and Damian is grinning. Grinning,” Jason told the others.

Tim and Dick both “Wow”ed Jason’s description.

“Who wants to bet twenty bucks on how long they date before Damian proposes?” Jason asked.

“Me!” Dick and Tim said at the same time.

“I will too,” Cass added.

“I bet six months and under,” Dick said.

“Whoa. Cutting that one fine, eh?” Tim wondered.

“Well it’s not entirely unheard of—especially if both parties know each other well before becoming a couple,” Dick said, a shrug in his voice.

“Which they don’t,” Jason deadpanned.

“Shut up,” Dick retorted. “Sure they do. Cloudy probably knows Damian better than anyone except B, Alfred, and maybe me. Heaven knows she put forth the effort to do so.”

“Mm,” Jason grunted, unconvinced.

“I will bet six months to a year,” Cass said.

“Hmm. A year to two years,” Tim put in.

“Then I guess I bet two years or any amount longer,” Jason said.

Dick scoffed. “Oh please. I know them. Marriage is an important concept to Cloudy and Damian was raised with the League of Assassins where I'm relatively positive arranged marriages for political reasons aren’t uncommon. I doubt they’ll date that long before getting married.”

“Well twenty bucks says we’ll see, then, hmm?” Jason challenged.

“Guess so,” Dick agreed.

“Yup,” Tim said.

“Yes,” Cass added.

^^^^^

“By the way, we should probably sleep in separate rooms when we get back tonight,” I said. “Because Bruce will be back in the morning and I don’t want to have to edit more security camera footage.” I’d already told Damian that Jason and Dick had taken care of the night before’s recordings. “Plus I don’t know when he’ll be back and I don’t want him to come check on you and find us, y’know, in bed together.”

Damian thought for a moment, still holding me close. “You are… correct. We should probably stay in our own rooms anyway, for as much as we can help it. As though we’re a couple who does not live together yet,” he said.

I nodded. “I agree,” I said.

Damian let me go with a little smirk and jerked his head toward the highest buildings in Gotham. “Let’s go finish this patrol,” he said.

I smiled. “Sounds good,” I agreed. He squeezed my hand before letting go. We took off running over the rooftop and leapt off the side at the same time, unmuting our comms as we went. My hair streamed behind me in the wind as we swung off toward the deeper parts of Gotham. I whooped. I’d never get tired of this.

^^^^^

Damian and I climbed out the Batmobile, beating everyone else back to the Batcave. Except Tim. Who was no longer sitting at the bat-computer and probably up in the shower. Damian and I met at the front hood of the car. Damian rested his hands on my waist, tugging me gently closer. My hands found his shoulders. “May I give you a kiss goodnight, my darling?” Damian asked.

I smiled. “You absolutely may,” I replied.

Damian bent down and pressed his lips to mine. I felt a small grin in his lips. “Everything will be alright,” he breathed when our lips parted but our foreheads rested together. “No matter how Father reacts. Everything will be alright.”

“I know,” I said. “I trust this. I trust you.” My hands slid up from his shoulders and around the back of his neck, my fingers sliding over the short hair on the back of his head.

“I would wait forever to be with you.”

“I would too. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen.” I tilted my head forward and kissed his cheek.

—

Next

[icavallilamiaconsolazione-blog]

When Do You Need To Work With An Automobile Accident Lawyer?

No-fault regulations can make it difficult to safeguard ample settlement, however a lawyer can help you promote the settlement you need to guarantee your long-lasting recuperation. It is very crucial for targets of auto accident to get professional assistance from attorneys when auto crash insurance coverage is included. Furthermore, accident victims without attorneys usually make large blunders when chatting with insurance coverage insurers. Finally, see to it you place your case in the hands of a specialist that is skilled at managing the insurance policy companies. No matter of the degree of your damages as well as the value of your insurance claim you can find out a riches of details about just how to relocate forward and protect on your own from exposure in a challenged instance. A lawyer that recognizes how as well as when to discuss with the insurance provider in order to get the amount of your case. I have actually had clients call my 24-7 hotline from the scene of a collision to get suggestions on how to proceed. Often customers consult me when they go to their wits end, really feeling disappointed with delays or rejections of liability from insurance companies. Sign up with an on-line community, takes an adult education and learning course in a subject you don't usually have much interest in, register for a sporting activities league, take a getaway with a group, frighten the wits out of on your own by going skydiving. In this car crash compilation video watch these car  accidents.

10,000.00 or learnt you have a major injury like a herniated disc or busted bone, it is most likely time to hire a lawyer. They are stunned to find out that insurance firms aren't actually in your corner; they are keeping an eye out for their profits and their investors. This line of reasoning can be an unsafe as well as expensive mistake-- oftentimes, automobile crash injuries do not show up for weeks or perhaps months after the preliminary crash. As an example, if you have relatively minor injuries that do not need or did not call for greater than a few weeks of traditional therapy (i.e. no surgical treatment etc.), after that you may be able to take care of that case on your own. Older vehicles have a lower blue publication worth; therefore it'll require much less in the way of real body damages for the insurance firm to compose the cars and truck off. Driving fast may seem interesting yet it's a sure-fire way to harm yourself as well as other individuals. Nevertheless, if your distracted driving puts others in danger, you can encounter offense and/or felony costs. Without a seat belt, your legs may strike the dashboard and/or the guiding column. 10,000.00 then it is something you might have the ability to decide on your own without the demand for a legal representative's assistance.

If you were hurt in the accident after that it is more probable that you will certainly intend to employ a cars and truck accident legal representative. A lot of firms will offer a FREE appointment to individuals harmed in a vehicle crash despite scenario. Several attorneys will offer you a complimentary assessment, so contact a knowledgeable one and see what they can do for you and your situation. The more blame they can offer you, the reduced your auto mishap insurance claim. As a general guideline, if any time you do not feel comfortable handling your case on your very own, for any factor, you need to seek advice from as well as hire an automobile mishap lawyer. For that reason, you must highly consider seeking out an experienced automobile crash attorney. It is constantly excellent audio advice to look for a seasoned cars and truck crash lawyer. Try to find out if the other driver is the registered proprietor of the lorry, if they are not, learn that the proprietor is as well as get that info as well (for example it could be a business cars and truck). However you can still take advantage of hearing a detailed explanation regarding exactly how an injury attorney might aid you recover even more money. Navigating the no-fault insurance policy system and mishap legislations can be intricate, as well as a seasoned lawyer can aid you recognize your alternatives, pursue your insurance claim, as well as safeguard you against unjust negotiation offers from insurance coverage business.

So insurance adjusters typically do not point out legally readily available problems when an injured sufferer contacts them without an attorney. A criminal cost, which is intended at penalizing the drunk vehicle driver, and a civil law claim, which is aimed at making the drunk motorist's sufferer whole again, are absolutely separate lawful matters. The automobile is named after Pierre Veyron who occurs to be a French Competing driver, who won Le Mans in 1939. Veyron includes 8 litre W16 engine with 16 cylinders in 2 rows of 8 cylinders. On top of that, 2 other parties reportedly received serious injuries. Most typical injuries caused during a crash are the knee injuries, back cable injuries, and also brain injury due to shock. The aftermath of a car crash is so demanding that working with a lawyer may take a rear seat to instant issues like addressing your injuries, taking care of your insurer as well as repairing your vehicle. Your injuries, lost salaries, damage to home, pain as well as suffering, and also other compensable injuries all influence the amount of a feasible settlement. It is essential to keep in mind that insurer are very first and primary an organisation, so insurance providers will frequently attempt to pay the minimum quantity of settlement possible to secure optimal revenue for their business.

The quantity of cash you enter vehicle crash claims, depends on just how much fault you get for the vehicle crash. We are very knowledgeable proponents of correct repayment of insurance claims, just how insurance firms need to be treating their clientele as well as will certainly ensure you and also your household get the advantages you are worthy of. If automobile insurance companies can find a factor to refute your insurance claim, they will. An automobile accident injury specialist will take x-rays of your injury to identify any kind of imbalance. If the various other motorist is at fault for the mishap, his/her vehicle insurance coverage is liable for covering automobile fixing prices. Commonly after a cars and truck mishap, an insurance coverage adjuster standing for the other motorist will certainly call you as well as supply money to settle your insurance claim. However, it is normally never ever an excellent concept to talk with the insurance policy adjuster standing for the other vehicle driver. While a traffic citation will certainly not ultimately show that is lawfully liable for a vehicle accident in a succeeding legal action, it may be used as proof that the vehicle driver was irresponsible. You will need to decide instantly whether you choose to answer these questions or complete a created statement. You have no commitment to give a main statement to the other motorist's insurer.

[needlxd-a-blog]

naminoodori replied to your post: naminoodori replied to your post: ...

BLACKMAIL!!! :DDD

i see your blackmail and i raise you psychological manipulation

[kayr0ss]

Boundaries are Important (and are Driving Me Crazy)

[LWA, Diakko, Diana is a nerd who doesn’t know how to deal with physical intimacy] [AO3 link] Hello there anon! It was just supposed to be a drabble but then 3k words

#15- …passionately [give me a number & I’ll write you a kiss challenge]

Falling in love with Akko was frighteningly easy. By the count of three, Diana was all in—mind, body, and soul.

That’s just how Akko was: she enraptures people without trying, wins over their affection without wanting. But she also gives and gives and gives and Diana reckoned that’s what made people stay; what made Akko such a beautiful soul, inside and out.

And boy was she having a crisis with all that outer beauty today.

She frowned at her book, realizing that she’s been reading the same line over and over again. She was distracted—disconcertingly so, and she found herself in this state of ‘disconcerted distraction’ quite often these days. Of course, Diana was a smart girl, she knew that at the bottom of it all was a certain Atsuko Kagari.

Her girlfriend—she blushed upon remembering—for all of eleven days by now. It was a bit past five in the afternoon, so that would make it eleven days and six-hours if one wanted to be more precise.

She snapped her book closed, finding it embarrassingly sentimental to be counting down to the hours but at the same time, she smiled. Akko had that effect on her; and while it might have been a little out-of-character, she embraced it nonetheless.

But where was Akko anyway? Diana leaned up from her recliner, noting that the horizon was beginning to grow dark and a chill would soon blanket the beachfront. It was nearly the end of summer break and they were on a (supervised) vacation at the beach. Akko, along with Lotte, Barbara and Amanda have been swimming for what felt like four hours by now. Professor Croix and Professor Ursula were suspiciously missing. The rest of their friends were huddled around a camp, and Constanze was stoking the beginnings of a campfire. Hannah was preparing utensils— she should probably go and help her after fetching Akko. Jasminka, of course, took it upon herself to prepare their food and drinks with the help of Sucy.

Diana paused, narrowing her eyes. That… might not be a very good idea, perhaps she should go help Jasminka instead.

“Hey,” a familiar voice caught her off guard. “I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your shirt. It’s getting a bit chilly.”

The blonde witch glanced towards the woman she’d been looking for, relieved that she wouldn’t have to go and fetch her from the coast, “Akko. I was beginning to worry. It’s unsafe to be swimming after dar—”

Diana choked on her words. Then she felt her blood skyrocket towards her face.

“Diana?” Akko tilted her head in concern.

She probably had an expression that no dignified Cavendish should be caught wearing.

Akko, bless her soul, was fresh from the ocean and—litearlly—dripping wet. Her skin glistened in the afternoon sunset, and her red, unfairly flattering, two-piece swimsuit could be seen through Diana’s white button up shirt. It was damp, sticking to Akko’s skin in a way that made Diana want to send herself to detention. She swallowed, noting that Akko hadn’t bothered buttoning it up properly, and the overall disheveled effect was making her face burn up in a fire that started at the pit of her stomach.

“Everything okay, babe?”

No, everything was most certainly not okay. Since when did Akko call her babe? It was a double-whammy within two minutes for Diana, and soon she was blinking to shake herself out of her stupor. Akko must have noticed the look she was getting, because she smiled sheepishly, suddenly finding the sand interesting and nervously chuckling to her feet.

“Yikes. I thought I’d try the whole term-of-endearment-thing out,” she scratched at the back of her head, trying to gauge Diana’s reaction, “we—we don’t have to do it! If you don’t want! I just thought—”

“No, no I—uh—don’t mind,” Diana finally found her voice, laughing a little at Akko how was twiddling with her thumbs. Granted, she was a fidgety person by nature, but it comforted her to know that they were both a little clueless in navigating their newly-upgraded relationship status.

Akko did what she did best to dispel a kind-of-awkward situation, “would you prefer something from the eighteen-hundreds like ‘My Dearest’?”

Diana raised an eyebrow, “I am not that old fashioned.”

“Or perhaps,” Akko had put on an exaggerated Shakespearean voice, “you’re the cheesy ‘My Love’, type!”

“Akko,” Diana nagged.

She wasn’t going to admit that if Akko called her that it was probably going to work.

But Akko just giggled at her response—soon their fingers were intertwined. Joking around was familiar territory, and the blonde could appreciate that she could at least talk and keep her eyes above Akko’s collarbone.

—

By the time summer break was over, they were twenty-eight days into dating.

Diana would always remember the eleventh day as the beginning of the end—at least, the end of her upstanding reputation and dignity as a model student of Luna Nova and heir apparent of the Cavendish Aristocracy. Sure, she was being overly dramatic about it, but she really did have a reputation to uphold and she would much rather turn into a tree than be caught ogling Akko in school; in public. Hannah had unfortunately seen the moment her jaw went slack; that moment when Akko showed up wearing her damp, white shirt on top of a swimsuit. Needless to say, the teasing was merciless.

Of course, just because it was merciless doesn’t mean it wasn’t manageable. At least it was Hannah. It could have been much worse—it could have been Amanda.

“I think you need to cut yourself some slack, Diana.”

The blonde in question looked up from her notes, the corner of the pages growing worn from her habit of worrying at them.

Hannah was sitting across her at the table in the common area. Her arms were crossed and she looked a bit… exasperated?

“You’re fidgeting with your notebook, and pulling your ‘overthinking’ face. Judging by the way your ears have turned red—”

“They’re what?”

“—it’s probably about Akko.”

Diana was expressionless for a moment, debating on whether or not she should disclose her inner turmoil to her friend, and—she sighed. Hannah was literally the only person she could talk to about it. She looked at her hands, feeling a blush creep on her cheeks while she admitted, “I feel quite… unbecoming.”

Hannah nodded, leaning forward on her elbows and motioning for Diana to continue.

“Akko has been increasingly distracting as of late.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific,” Hannah snickered, “Akko is distracting for everyone.”

Diana smiled; she wasn’t wrong. Then she sighed, and if Hannah looked hard enough she would have noticed the pleading look on the blonde’s face when she said, “but my case is—ah—a bit different from everyone, or so I hope.”

“Is this about her looking extra-hot at the beach? Because that’s totally understandable.”

Hannah was kidding. She was teasing her to put her at ease, Diana knew this, except, well, this time there was no indignant huffing or crossing of the arms. Instead, she sighed, chewing at her lip in distress.

“Oh, no.” Hannah stared. “It actually is?”

The thought of saying yes was a little mortifying, so Diana just glared.

Picking up on her friend’s cue, Hannah stared back, as confused as Diana was bashful, “you do know that’s perfectly normal right?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re dating,” Hannah gestured with both hands to emphasize her point. “You’re supposed to find her attractive.”

“I’ve always known she was beautiful—”

“No, no, that’s not what we’re talking about. You’re head over heels, we get it, but you two aren’t exactly kids anymore. You’re nineteen; that makes Akko about eighteen, yes? I’m talking about the kind of attraction related to physical intimacy, and—oh my god? Are you okay?”

The words ‘physical intimacy’ and a certain image of Akko at the beach had elicited a rather strong reaction in her. Aside from the obvious and undeniable flush of her cheeks, there was a knot doubling in on itself at her stomach, and by Jennifer, she didn’t know what to expect but she felt kind of… angry?

Her fists balled in frustration and, “she’s going to be the death of me.”

Hannah physically backed away.

“I mean—by the Nine—have you seen her? Like seen her? In the most mundane of situations? Perhaps when she is tying her hair, or chewing on her lip while she works on her essays.” Diana ran a shaky hand through her hair, fighting for composure, “she doesn’t even try. It’s everything I can do to restrain myself from—I honestly don’t even know what. And I have no right to come forward to Akko in relation to these… feelings. They are utterly my responsibility.”

“Oh my god,” Hannah shook her head in disbelief, “you are… major league repressed, Diana.”

—

They’ve kissed before, of course.

Akko lips were soft and sweet, and Diana could feel her entire being melt into every kiss they had ever shared. That part of her—her soft, loving gaze, the pads of her finger tips ghosting gently across Akko’s cheek—that was reserved only for the woman she loved.

And, of course, for places of respectable privacy.

Akko liked to sneak behind bookshelves for a peck on the lips, and Diana didn’t mind; but she was also more modest when it came to public displays of affection. Kisses on the cheek from ‘hellos’ and ‘goodbyes’ already left her flustered, and blatant displays of flirting and of bashfulness did not contribute to the reputation that a student of her caliber had to uphold.

This isn’t to say that she was ashamed of Akko. Definitely not. They held hands in public, and Diana was never one to mince words when asked about her relationship. Yes, they were dating, exclusively—Akko was very much taken.

Hers. For a good thirty-three days, if her count was correct.

But of course it is.

She gazed at Akko from two tables away. The topic was antivenom-type potions; she had already read up on it two weeks ago and could afford a few moments of distraction. And she was very much distracted. Those lovely red eyes, and smooth, brown hair was calling out to her, and the moment she noticed Akko’s forwardly short skirt she almost felt affronted. Not by Akko—but by the flare of unprocessed emotions that had thrown a party in her head. She felt a little infuriated at their refusal to co-exist with the level of decorum she had imposed on herself. This was going to drive her crazy, and she really, really wished she was just ‘Diana’ and not ‘Diana Cavendish of a thousand expectations to fulfil’.

“Hey,”

Apparently, she was distracted for more than just ‘a few moments’ and the period had flown by.

‘I want to sneak behind a bookshelf and give you more than just a peck on the lips’, is what Diana wanted to say, but of course she’d settle for, “hello.”

Akko looked amused, “hello?”

Diana blinked. “Hi?”

Akko was laughing, and the sound brought a smile to Diana’s lips. She felt fingers thread with her own, “you’re being… weirder than usual.”

“I dislike the implication that I’m usually weird.”

“Right,” Akko stuck out her tongue, “would you feel better if I used the word ‘peculiar’? No, no, maybe ‘inscrutable’. You like big words and I can’t seem to figure out what you’re thinking. ‘Acting strange’ actually works, but I think strange is too simple a word for your liking so—”

“Akko,” Diana rolled her eyes.

“So what is going on,” Akko pouted, “underneath all that soft, poofy, obscurely colored hair?”

“‘Obscure’ was a good one, although I’m quite reluctant to use it as a descriptor for my hair.”

“That segue would have worked!” Akko raised her index finger, “if I wasn’t too curious about what’s gotten into you. You’re spacing out. You know you can talk to me, right?”

Diana hummed, leaning into Akko’s personal space when she noticed that the rest of the students had filed out of the room. Was this a respectable level of privacy? Diana blushed when she realized that it was. She wanted to—to—

“Diana?” Akko softly rubbed at Diana’s forearm, her earlier teasing replaced with a tinge of concern.

She wanted to wipe that worried frown away.

So she inched in closer, cupping Akko’s cheek and pressing her lips softly against the brunette’s. She felt Akko relax, hands coming up to rest on Diana’s shoulders.

When she pulled back—a mere few centimeters—Akko’s eyes had fluttered open charmingly, and Diana felt overwhelmed by everything she had fought to keep back. She inhaled, and didn’t notice the way her hands grabbed at the back of Akko’s clothing and—

They were kissing again. Or, as it was, Diana was kissing Akko. With much more conviction than she had ever done before. Her head tilted sideways, and a tremor traveled down her spine when she felt Akko’s lips part a little. There was a sound from the back of her throat, and she noticed that Akko’s hand was threaded through her hair. Before she could even register what she was doing, she had taken Akko’s lower lip in-between her teeth and oh-so-gently-nibbled, before pulling away and running her tongue along to soothe the area.

Akko had made an undignified squeak—

Realization hit Diana like a brick to the face, and in less than a second Akko was pushed a good arms-length away.

She looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Bright, red, blinking eyes were dazed and confused, and oh my lord, her lip was a little swollen, but the sound she made didn’t sound like it was comfortable so—

“I—I apologize,” Diana stammered, her heart beating a thousand by the minute and she thought she might burst a blood vessel, “I didn’t mean to be so—” she pulled back her hands, and honestly Akko looked completely floored, “I respect you!” she promised, “and your boundaries. I shouldn’t have pushed, I—I—”

“Diana, calm down—” Akko held up her palms to placate her erratic girlfriend but it wasn’t working.

“That was utterly reprehensible of me, I should have at least asked and I—”

In a fit of too many emotions at once to name, she blinked, then turned on her heel, storming out of the classroom, cursing herself, Bellatrix, her god-forsaken button-up shirt, and fine, maybe it was reasonable to curse the length of Akko’s skirt this one time.

Diana fell into distress; Akko probably thought she was utterly impudent.

—

“Holy shit,” Akko had her hands in her hair in bewilderment, “she was so cute.”

“And she just stormed off?” Hannah tried not snicker.

“Yeah! Like. She literally pushed me a total arms’ length away and began telling me about how much she respected me—”

“That sounds just like her,” Barbara nodded.

“—and honestly? I was so… swooning? Doesn’t every girl just want to be respected?”

“But surely you also wanted her to—”

“O—Of course!” Akko cut Hannah off, blushing a little bit at the thought of what she wanted. Of course she wanted it! Diana was gorgeous, and while Akko loved her for everything that she was—not just the porcelain looks and sapphire eyes—was it wrong for her to appreciate the more… physical aspects of their relationship?

“Well, it’s been eating her up for a while now—”

“It was?!” Akko and Barbara asked in matching incredulity.

“You both didn’t see it coming?”

“Well,” Akko shrugged, “I know she’s a big softie, but when it came to stuff like that she’s just all ‘Cavendish’ and dignified and her darned reputation, you know!”

Barbara shot her a soft smile, “do you at least know that she loves you more than she cares about all those?”

“She does,” Hannah supplied, “just in case you’re stupid enough to think otherwise.”

She never doubted Diana. And while that in itself was enough for Akko, hearing the blonde’s two closest friends affirm something that was a bit of an insecurity on her part made her heart flutter, to say the least.

“But she isn’t here,” Hannah snapped her out of her musings.

Akko sighed, that much was obvious the moment they opened the door for her. But where on earth would she storm off to? The library? Unlikely, granted that it was such an obvious choice.

She blinked. The observatory?

—

“Mou, Diana!”

Diana cursed, and was honestly at a total loss regarding what to feel. Seeing Akko was always a wonderful thing, but after the amount of stupidity she had exhibited, she just wanted to phase into the observatory’s wall and hide for another hour or two. Perhaps pull off a Chariot and make it ten years. Interestingly enough, there might just be a spell for that.

“You can’t pull something like that and then storm out on me,” Akko had her arms crossed, but to the blonde’s relief there didn’t seem to be any trace of, she didn’t know, unbridled rage or unmitigated fury.

“That was completely obtuse of me,” the blonde sighed.

“You know so many synonyms for ‘stupid’, I’m a bit concerned,” Akko was walking towards her. Her hands were opened; inviting. Their fingers brushed and Diana was feeling better just being able to hold her again.

When put into perspective, the entire debacle she had suffered through was laughable. Hannah was on point. She was painfully repressed, glaringly self-conscious. But whenever Akko held her, looked at her, she was just Diana—exactly how she wanted to be.

“You make me feel things I’m ill-equipped to handle,” she admitted, breathing in slowly while Akko’s hands travelled from her palms, up her arms, to her shoulders before clasping together around her neck. The sensation was electrifying.

“Such as?”

“I love you.” Diana blurted out.

Akko blushed prettily, but she snickered, “and you can’t handle that?”

“N—No, I just—” Diana sighed, learning against the brunette’s forehead, “am coming to terms with the many different ways to express it.”

“You’re kinda silly,” Akko chuckled, “for someone so smart.”

For once, Diana wasn’t going to argue against that.

“I love you.”

Diana closed her eyes, memorizing the sound of Akko’s voice and the words she had just spoken.

“So why don’t you—” Akko’s voice was suddenly a purr. Taking a page from Diana’s book, she had leaned in for a kiss, and Diana felt her knees go weak when she felt a tongue dart out tease against her lips, “—pick up where you left off?”

“Akko,”

“I appreciate that you respect my boundaries,” Akko whispered against her lips, massaging the back of Diana’s head, “except they’re a little farther back than where you thought they were.”

One by one, with the aid of Akko’s clear constant, the gears started clicking in Diana’s head. This is okay, she growled into her next kiss, stepping forward until Akko was against a wall, this is perfectly okay, she tilted her head, urgently meeting Akko’s opened lips. With a thrill, she felt her own tongue against Akko’s, and the sensation it gave was—overwhelming.

When she pulled back to breath, she was flushed and heaving. Akko wasn’t one to take a break, though. Her lips settled on Diana’s pulse, and the audible sigh she released only encouraged the brunette continue kissing, leaving a trail upwards, to her jaw, to cheek, to her earlobe.

“I couldn’t stop thinking of you in my shirt, from that beach trip,” Diana shamelessly admitted.

“It might have been on purpose.”

“Atusko,” Diana warned. Her hands were trailing up Akko’s sides, bunching up the cloth of her uniform and sliding over smooth, bare skin.

With deceivingly large puppy dog eyes, Akko implored,

“Yes, babe?”

Of course, there was a limit to whatever boundaries were crossed that afternoon. And if one wanted to be precise, it took thirty-three days and four hours for Diana to finally make out with Akko.

-

It's 5:20AM. I am procrastinating Appointments Chapter 3. I must be awake in 4 hours. Are there any regrets? Nope.

Is Diana a dork? Absolutely.

[seashanties-and-tales-blog]

Hey since you're asking for some more tomura requests and I'm thirsty for tomura here's one :3c can you do headcanons or a scenario for tomura and a civilian s/o? Thanks, you're the best!!!

I’ll do headcanons because I think they fits best for the request. They also kind of turned into regular relationship headcanons. Also, this is long

Tomura: 

⚪️ Well he doesn’t hate you, so that’s good. You’re not a hero with some backward ideology (Or backwards in his point of view, that is) and you’re not some crazy villain. You’re you, and you’re normal and in the middle.

⚪️ Though clearly you’re not entirely normal, since you love him. It’s not a bad thing, really. He loves you too in his own strange way.

⚪️ The way that he loves is not conventional. 

⚪️ He’s possessive and clingy while acting like he actually isn’t. If he hasn’t seen you in a few days, he will either call you and tell you to see him right away or he will find you. Believe it or not, your presence is the one that comforts him most.

⚪️ Because you are in the middle, he relies on you as a source for him to vent when he is frustrated. Sometimes he might not even tell you the whole issue, but it’s clear that he’s angry. It might be scary at first, but just hold him. He might curse at you or tell you to stop touching him, but when it comes to laying a hand on you, he never does. He never would. He’s all talk with you.

⚪️ However, because you are in the middle, he tries to keep you as little involved as possible. Just like how in my Dabi headcanons, Dabi would want his S/O staying away from Tomura, Tomura would want you staying away from Dabi. 

⚪️ If you ever do meet Dabi, Tomura will probably tell him to get the hell away from you, or you to get the hell away from him. Dabi might start coming close to you just to piss Tomura off. 

⚪️ He gets jealous easily. Very scared of losing you, because you really are his only source of warmth in his life. Many times he’s thought ‘I just want to destroy everything and everyone’, but since he’s realized you love him and that he loves you, he’s become less angry. The rest of the League notices this too. 

⚪️ You help him mature. When you give him advice, he acts like he doesn’t care and that he isn’t listening, however he’ll repeat that advice later on to the others. 

⚪️ Kurogiri is thankful because you’ve helped Tomura in many ways that no one else has been able to. Also less things have turned to ash in the bar thanks to you.

⚪️ In a situation where you get kidnapped…. A less mature Tomura would destroy things, seethe to himself and want to hastily jump into the fray and kill your captors. However, assuming you’re a manga reader, he has been shown to be maturing and learning. 

The more mature Tomura will be angry, of course he will be. However, his anger is expertly hidden behind a calm demeanor. He develops a plan to get you back, one that doesn’t involve mercy but it does involve actual logical and strategy. He’s going to do whatever he has to in order to make sure you’re safe again.

⚪️ Safe means with him. If you aren’t with him, you aren’t safe. 

⚪️ The only other League member he trusts around you or to protect you if he isn’t around is Kurogiri. Everyone else should ‘fuck off and stop influencing you’. Eh, but Twice is okay.

⚪️ Sometimes Toga wants to talk to you and she’ll probably ask all kinds of questions. Questions that would fluster Tomura very much if he found out. 

⚪️ If he ends up hearing Toga ask something involving your emotional or physical intimacy, he’ll drop whatever he’s doing and storm out of the room to go fume to himself.

⚪️ It takes a while for him to open up to you. He will eventually, but be patient. He also doesn’t often look into your eyes. If he stares directly at your face, it’s because he’s sure you aren’t looking.

⚪️ But he will stare at you though, he does it a lot. He loves you after all and you’re probably the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. A beautiful thing that seems to contrast him in many ways, and while he’s so used to destroying he wishes that he could preserve you forever. 

⚪️ Chances are you will get involved eventually with the League. The unwritten rules are clear to all members. Don’t touch you. Don’t hurt you. Don’t talk to you (That rule is broken often). 

⚪️ The first time you show up at the hideout, Tomura asks you, “What the hell are you doing here?” Clearly not happy since it’s not a safe place for you. If you wanted to see him, you should have called him and he’d go to your place. But ah, dammit, now you’re here so he can’t make you leave. He’ll probably end up hiding you in his room or something.

⚪️ He doesn’t cuddle you but lets you cuddle him. In fact, he enjoys it. A big part of him still craves and desires affection, but you will never heard that vocalized. 

⚪️ Will not take you out on dates. He doesn’t like being in public anyway and interacting with people. Plus the more notorious he becomes, the less safe it is to be noticed. 

⚪️ If he does take you out, it has to be somewhere in an unsafe part of town, a part that has mostly villains. He isn’t worried about your safety so long as he’s with you, and the League is in good with a lot of other villains in the area anyways. Also, it should be at night. He stands out less in all of his dark clothing.

⚪️ Is hesitant to show you his face at first, uncovered by the hand. Perhaps he’s worried that you’ll be scared of him. Your reaction to seeing his scars and intensely ominous red gaze is vital to how he feels about exposing himself any more to you. 

⚪️ The closer you become, the less she he is about being around you completely uncovered. Also, he’ll be more open about staring at you. When you notice that he’s looking and you make eye contact, sometimes he won’t even look away. If you ask him what he’s looking at, he’ll shrug and avert his gaze.

⚪️ He will wrap his arm around your shoulders while you’re together since he can’t hold your hand. But god, deep down he wants more than anything to be able to hold your hand. 

⚪️ Kisses your neck a lot. He’s most comfortable with that. 

⚪️ He’s surprisingly lenient with you. Although there is a point where he’ll take control and express his frustrations, you can sit on his lap and play with his hair all you want and he’ll just let you.

⚪️ Tomura does tease you though. He has a sense of humor. He likes seeing you nervous, embarrassed, shy, or even a little vulnerable. But, when you laugh, it’s probably the best sound he’s ever heard. Have mercy on his heart and the tone of his cheeks when you laugh and smile.

⚪️ Might not ever tell you that he loves you. Even though he does, those are words that might never leave his mouth. If you’re okay with that, then that’s good. At the most, you’ll have to hear it from others around him pointing it out. 

⚪️ Kurogiri: You can’t let your love for them get in the way of your plans.

     Dabi: What? Do you love them or something?

     Toga: You’re so lucky to have someone you love! I love lots of people. I love them so much I become them! I wanna kill everyone I love!

     Spinner: Our leader is in love with some dumb - Woah sorry I didn’t mean it..!

     Twice: Hey, I was in love before too, you know! Yeah, I hated her! She sure was ugly! 

⚪️ It’s obvious that he does love you though. So long as you understand him and how he thinks, you can tell. It’s in the way that he looks at you, the way he goes to you solace. 

⚪️ Lots of him resting his head against you and you comforting him or holding him. 

⚪️ If you come to him with your own issues, believe it or not, he listens. He probably won’t say much though. Also, if someone is causing you problems, you might hear that they somehow died a few days later. 

⚪️ He doesn’t really give you gifts or anything…. if he does, it’s something that involved him too. Like a video game that you two can play together. 

⚪️ On a related note, he likes playing video games with you. Or making you watch him as he plays video games.

⚪️ Depending on where you work, he’ll come in just to see how you’re doing and what you’re doing. But again, since he doesn’t like being in public during the daytime, especially with you since it puts you at risk of being associated with him, he doesn’t linger long. 

⚪️ Even though they’re not supposed to hang out with you, he might tell some of the members of the League to watch over you in times that he himself can’t. They’re not allowed to let you know that you’re being watched though. Sometimes they’re a bit hard to miss…

[karebshatela]

When Do You Required To Employ A Vehicle Mishap Legal Representative?

No-fault legislations can make it tough to protect adequate payment, yet an attorney can assist you press for the negotiation you require to guarantee your long-lasting recuperation. It is really essential for victims of auto accident to acquire specialist assistance from attorneys when vehicle crash insurance is entailed. Additionally, crash sufferers without attorneys often make huge errors when chatting with insurance adjusters. Finally, see to it you put your situation in the hands of an expert that is adept at dealing with the insurance provider. Despite the degree of your damages as well as the value of your insurance claim you can find out a riches of information regarding just how to move on as well as protect yourself from direct exposure in a challenged instance. A lawyer that understands exactly how and also when to bargain with the insurance coverage business so as to get the full value of your insurance claim. I've had customers call my 24-7 hotline from the scene of an accident to get guidance on exactly how to continue. Often customers consult me when they are at their wits end, really feeling disappointed with delays or rejections of responsibility from insurers. Sign up with an on-line community, takes a grown-up education and learning class in a subject you do not usually have much rate of interest in, sign up for a sports league, take a getaway with a team, terrify the wits out of yourself by going skydiving. In this car crash compilation video watch these car  accidents.

10,000.00 or learnt you have a major injury like a herniated disc or damaged bone, it is possibly time to employ a lawyer. They are stunned to learn that insurer aren't in fact on your side; they are looking out for their lower line as well as their shareholders. This line of thinking can be an unsafe and expensive blunder-- often, vehicle mishap injuries don't appear for weeks or perhaps months after the initial crash. For instance, if you have reasonably minor injuries that do not call for or did not need greater than a couple of weeks of traditional treatment (i.e. no surgery and so on), after that you may have the ability to handle that claim by yourself. Older cars have a reduced blue publication value; thus it'll require less in the way of actual body damage for the insurance company to create the vehicle off. Driving quickly may seem interesting but it's a fail-safe way to damage yourself as well as other individuals. Nevertheless, if your distracted driving places others in danger, you can deal with offense and/or felony charges. Without a seatbelt, your legs may strike the dash and/or the guiding column. 10,000.00 after that it is something you might be able to choose your very own without the need for an attorney's help.

If you were wounded in the accident after that it is more probable that you will certainly intend to work with a cars and truck accident lawyer. A lot of firms will supply a FREE appointment to individuals injured in a car mishap regardless of scenario. Lots of attorneys will offer you a cost-free assessment, so get in touch with a knowledgeable one as well as see what they can do for you and also your situation. The even more blame they can provide you, the reduced your automobile crash insurance claim. As a general regulation, if at any time you do not feel comfortable managing your claim on your own, for any type of factor, you ought to seek advice from with and work with a vehicle crash lawyer. Consequently, you need to strongly consider looking for a seasoned auto accident attorney. It is constantly good noise guidance to look for out a skilled vehicle crash attorney. Try to find out if the various other chauffeur is the registered owner of the car, if they are not, learn who the proprietor is as well as obtain that details as well (as an example it could be a company car). However you can still take advantage of listening to a comprehensive explanation relating to just how an individual injury lawyer might help you recuperate more money. Navigating the no-fault insurance system and also accident regulations can be complex, and a seasoned attorney can assist you recognize your choices, seek your case, as well as defend you versus unreasonable negotiation offers from insurer.

So insurers typically do not mention legitimately offered problems when a hurt sufferer contacts them without an attorney. A criminal charge, which is intended at penalizing the intoxicated motorist, and also a civil legislation case, which is aimed at making the intoxicated chauffeur's victim whole once more, are entirely different lawful issues. The car is named after Pierre Veyron who happens to be a French Competing driver, who won Le Mans in 1939. Veyron makes up of 8 liter W16 engine with 16 cyndrical tubes in 2 rows of 8 cylinders. In enhancement, 2 other parties reportedly sustained dangerous injuries. Most usual personal injuries created throughout an accident are the knee injuries, spine injuries, and brain injury as a result of shock. The consequences of a vehicle accident is so stressful that working with a legal representative may take a backseat to instant concerns like addressing your injuries, managing your insurance provider and fixing your lorry. Your injuries, lost wages, damage to home, discomfort and also suffering, and various other compensable injuries all affect the amount of a possible negotiation. It is necessary to keep in mind that insurer are first and also foremost an organisation, so insurance providers will commonly try to pay the minimum amount of payment feasible to protect maximum profit for their business.

The quantity of cash you obtain in auto mishap claims, depends on just how much mistake you get for the auto accident. We are highly experienced proponents of appropriate repayment of claims, just how insurance providers must be treating their customers as well as will certainly ensure you and also your household obtain the advantages you are entitled to. If automobile insurers can locate a reason to deny your claim, they will. A car mishap injury professional will certainly take x-rays of your injury to pinpoint any misalignment. If the various other vehicle driver is at mistake for the mishap, his or her automobile insurance is accountable for covering automobile repair service expenses. Commonly after a vehicle crash, an insurance coverage adjuster representing the other motorist will certainly call you as well as offer cash to resolve your insurance claim. Nevertheless, it is normally never an excellent suggestion to speak with the insurance policy adjuster representing the various other vehicle driver. While a traffic citation will certainly not ultimately confirm who is legitimately in charge of a cars and truck accident in a subsequent lawsuit, it might be utilized as proof that the motorist was irresponsible. You will certainly have to choose on the place whether you select to respond to these questions or finish a written statement. You have no obligation to offer an official statement to the various other chauffeur's insurance provider.

[hopefulsweetszombie]

When Do You Need To Work With An Auto Mishap Attorney?

No-fault laws can make it tough to secure appropriate payment, but an attorney can help you promote the negotiation you require to guarantee your long-lasting recuperation. It is really important for sufferers of auto accident to obtain professional assistance from attorneys when vehicle accident insurance policy is entailed. In addition, accident victims without lawyers frequently make big errors when speaking with insurance coverage adjusters. Finally, ensure you place your situation in the hands of a specialist that is skilled at handling the insurance provider. No matter the level of your problems as well as the worth of your case you can learn a wealth of information regarding exactly how to progress as well as protect yourself from direct exposure in a disputed situation. A lawyer that understands just how and also when to work out with the insurer so as to get the full worth of your insurance claim. I have actually had clients call my 24-7 hotline from the scene of an accident to get advice on how to proceed. Often customers consult me when they go to their wits end, really feeling distressed with delays or denials of responsibility from insurers. Join an on the internet area, takes an adult education class in a subject you do not typically have much passion in, enroll in a sports league, take a trip with a group, terrify the wits out of on your own by going sky diving. In this car crash compilation video watch these car  accidents.

10,000.00 or discovered you have a major injury like a herniated disc or damaged bone, it is probably time to hire an attorney. They are amazed to learn that insurance provider aren't in fact in your corner; they are watching out for their profits as well as their shareholders. This line of thinking can be an unsafe and also costly mistake-- frequently, automobile mishap injuries do not appear for weeks or perhaps months after the first mishap. As an example, if you have fairly small injuries that do not need or did not require greater than a couple of weeks of conventional treatment (i.e. no surgical treatment etc.), then you might be able to manage that case by yourself. Older automobiles have a reduced blue book worth; thus it'll require less in the method of actual body damages for the insurance firm to write the cars and truck off. Driving quick might seem interesting but it's a fail-safe method to damage on your own and also other individuals. However, if your distracted driving puts others at risk, you could encounter misdemeanor and/or felony charges. Without a seatbelt, your legs might strike the dashboard and/or the steering column. 10,000.00 after that it is something you might have the ability to work out on your own without the requirement for a legal representative's aid.

If you were harmed in the mishap after that it is more most likely that you will intend to work with an auto crash legal representative. A lot of firms will offer a FREE assessment to people wounded in a vehicle crash despite circumstance. Numerous attorneys will provide you a free examination, so speak to a skilled one and see what they can do for you as well as your situation. The more blame they can provide you, the lower your automobile crash claim. As a basic guideline, if at any moment you do not feel comfy handling your insurance claim by yourself, for any type of reason, you ought to seek advice from with and also employ a vehicle mishap lawyer. As a result, you must strongly take into consideration seeking an experienced automobile mishap lawyer. It is constantly excellent noise recommendations to look for out a knowledgeable vehicle crash lawyer. Look for out if the other chauffeur is the signed up owner of the vehicle, if they are not, learn who the proprietor is as well as obtain that information also (for instance it may be a company vehicle). Yet you can still take advantage of hearing a detailed description regarding just how an accident lawyer may help you recoup even more cash. Browsing the no-fault insurance coverage system as well as accident regulations can be complicated, as well as an experienced attorney can assist you recognize your alternatives, seek your case, and defend you versus unreasonable negotiation provides from insurance coverage business.

So insurers typically do not mention legitimately offered damages when a damaged victim contacts them without a lawyer. A criminal charge, which is aimed at punishing the intoxicated chauffeur, and also a civil law case, which is aimed at making the drunk driver's target whole once more, are entirely separate legal matters. The automobile is called after Pierre Veyron that takes place to be a French Competing motorist, who won Le Mans in 1939. Veyron includes 8 liter W16 engine with 16 cyndrical tubes in two rows of 8 cylinders. Additionally, 2 other events reportedly received deadly injuries. Most typical injuries created throughout a mishap are the knee injuries, back cable injuries, and mind injury because of shock. The aftermath of an automobile accident is so stressful that employing a lawyer may take a rear seat to immediate issues like resolving your injuries, dealing with your insurer as well as fixing your car. Your injuries, lost salaries, damages to property, discomfort as well as suffering, and various other compensable injuries all affect the amount of a feasible settlement. It's vital to bear in mind that insurance firms are first as well as foremost a business, so insurance providers will certainly usually attempt to pay the minimum quantity of payment possible to secure optimal revenue for their firm.

The quantity of cash you enter vehicle accident cases, depends on just how much mistake you get for the car collision. We are highly knowledgeable advocates of correct repayment of claims, exactly how insurers ought to be treating their clients and will certainly make specific you and your household get the advantages you deserve. If vehicle insurance providers can locate a factor to refute your claim, they will. An automobile accident injury professional will certainly take x-rays of your injury to identify any imbalance. If the other chauffeur is at mistake for the crash, his/her auto insurance policy is accountable for covering vehicle repair costs. Frequently after a car mishap, an insurance policy insurer representing the various other driver will contact you and provide money to settle your claim. Nonetheless, it is typically never ever a good idea to talk to the insurance policy insurer representing the various other motorist. While a web traffic citation will certainly not inevitably prove that is lawfully liable for a vehicle mishap in a subsequent suit, it might be used as evidence that the chauffeur was negligent. You will have to make a choice right away whether you select to address these questions or finish a created statement. You have no responsibility to offer a main statement to the various other motorist's insurance coverage company.