#seems like a lot of international fans are helping out though so hopefully it helps | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nights-legacy · 1 year

Text

Body Snatched - Hawks (platonic)

Masterlist ~ MHA Masterlist ~ #2

Body Snatched Masterlist

3079 words

Warnings: unwanted advances, unwanted touches, attempted assault, vague mention of injury, crude statements, violence (if there's any I need to add please let me know)

+ You and Hawks were close. Close as siblings. You had both come onto the hero scene about the same time. He climbed the ranks fairly quickly but you both were popular among the people. You however always seemed to gain some attention from unsavory fans. Ones that seemed that would do anything to have a moment with you.

You have a fan club. A pretty large one in fact. The president of said fan club is a little pushy everytime you meet him. It gets very awkward. So you try to avoid him at all times. At one point, he gets an idea that ends up putting you in a very unwanted position. Luckily, you already have Hawks on the way.

"How much longer?" I said over my shoulder. The security guard set a hand on my shoulder and leant down to hear me better over the roar of the room. "How much longer is this supposed to be?"

"Oh about 20 minutes, Mirage." I sighed internally before nodding. He chuckled behind me. "Can I get you anything to help?"

"Maybe those sweet buns I saw near the east doors?" I asked hopefully. He let out a laugh but nodded. "Thank you, Ken."

"No problem." He said. He ordered another guard to stand in his place while another group came through the line. Kids, teens, and over-zealous adults were all here for a meet and greet. I loved my fans but sometimes they could be way too much.

"Thank you so much for coming." I shook the hand of a teen girl. I could tell she nearly swooned when she walked away with her friends. It was nearly the end of this group when I heard a familiar voice yelling at me. I flinched internally and peered over at the next waiting group. There stood Milnus, the president of my fanclub.

"Hi, Mirage!!" He yelled, pulling against the ropes. I gave him a small wave back. A hand on my shoulder distracted me. I turned to see Ken back with my sweet buns. Excitement fills me.

"Thank you!!" I took them and set them next to me on the table. I took a quick bite before turning to the next person. "Sorry, I need a snack."

"It's fine!" They said before handing me a portrait to sign.

"Hey, Ken?"

"Yes, Mirage?"

"Milnus is in the next group. Just a heads up." I saw him look over and shut his eyes in order to calm himself. I heard him take a deep breath behind. I chuckled under my breath. After the last person of the group went through, I asked for a short break.

"So how do you want to handle him this time?" Ken asked as he sat down next to me.

"Let's just see how it goes and if he starts making a fuss and shit, escort him out." I said while nibbling on my sweet buns.

"Alright." After finishing up my snack, I took a big breath before waving them on. There were a few people in line before Milnus thankfully. As soon as he made it to me though, he was as enthusiastic as ever.

"Hello Mirage! It's a huge pleasure."

"Hi Milnus. You say that every time we meet." I smiled. He laughed way too hard in response.

"Well that's because it is." He insisted. I nodded before looking around.

"Is there anything you want me to sign or..." I reached my hand out and he immediately grabbed it. He pulled me forward roughly. I saw Ken jerk forward but I held my hand up.

"No, I just want to spend this time with you." He said. I stood to my feet.

"Well there's not a lot of time, Milnus. I have other fans waiting." I gestured to the line behind him.

"Oh I know of course. But they understand. Don't you?" He turned quickly, pulling my hand with him. I caught myself against the table. With a roll of my eyes, I pulled my hand free.

"Milnus. Calm down please."

"Oh I am sorry. Of course." He turned back and just stared at me. I just stood there, waiting. He started to shake like a rocket about to take off. He finally exploded. He was trying to climb over the table and everything. "Oh my, I just love you so much Mirage. Please, just, I don't know. I know, go out with me. I know you better than anyone! Please!"

"Get him out of here." I said to Ken.

"Right. I'm sorry sir but you have to go." Ken rounded the table and grabbed onto Milnus.

"What? No! I am talking with Mirage. Let me go!" Ken escorted him away, struggling. I turned towards the remaining people.

"I am so sorry for that. He will not be a hindrance anymore. I do apologize. Let's continue." It only took another 15 minutes before we finished for the day. "Ken, we're done right?"

"Yes. We're gonna wait for a bit to let the place clear before we go."

"Okay. I'm gonna make a call." He nodded before stepping away. I pulled up his contact and hit call.

"Hey there, Illusionist." Hawks' voice came through the phone. I chuckled at the nickname. "Have you finished up yet?"

"Yeah. Just waiting for the crowds to disperse. Milnus showed up today." I propped my feet up on the table.

"Seriously. Did he cause a ruckus today?"

"What do you think, Keigo?"

3rd POV

Milnus paced outside the building in an alley, disturbed and upset. He was muttering insults toward security while as10 mumbling about how Mirage didn't understand how he felt about them. If only he could show them.

"Hey!" Milnus jumped out of his skin. He looked around before seeing a figure in the shadows at the back of the alley. "Yes you. Come here."

"Okay." Milnus walked forward.

"I saw what happened in there. How they threw you out when you were only trying to show Mirage how much you love them."

"Yes they don't get it. Those guys are always in the way. If only I could show Mirage how much I love them, I know they would accept me." Milnus said enthusiastically to the person.

"Well I can help with that." Milnus looked at him intrigued. The person had Milnus follow them until they came to the back entrance. "I can switch you with that bodyguard, Ken, so you can get close to Mirage."

"Really?! That would be great! I've always wondered why heroes needed bodyguards."

"Insurance precaution. The bodyguard can put their hands as a civilian where the heroes can't." The person simply said.

"Oh, okay."

"Get ready. They come."

Y/N's POV

"So where are you by the way? Are you off?" I asked as we walked out of the building. Ken was behind me as we left.

"No, but I'm sitting on a rooftop, enjoying the clear day." I rolled my eyes.

"Of course you are Bird boy." I chuckled. "So, do you want to..." There was a flash of purple light behind me. I whipped around to see Ken groaning on the ground. "Ken! What happened!"

"What's going on?" Keigo exclaimed through the phone.

"Give me a sec." I looked around the alley to see if there were any immediate threats. When there was nothing, I ran to Ken. "You okay?"

"Yyeah. Just stunned." He sat up and got on one knee.

"Did you see what it was? Where it came from?" I asked. He looked up at me with starry eyes. I cupped his cheek, looking him over. I grew concerned when he didn't answer. "Ken?"

"Oh, no. I didn't." He looked behind him. I followed his line of sight and saw nothing. "Come on, let's go."

"Yeah." I helped him up and started walking towards the car. I brought the phone up to my ear. "Keigo?"

"Yeah? What's going on?"

"I'm not sure. There was a purple flash and Ken was on the ground. You might want to call it in."

"Right. Is there anything else..."

"Y/N!" I whipped around and saw Milnus running towards us. "Don't get in the Car!"

"Shit! Let's go!" Ken grabbed my waist and pushed me into the car. My phone went tumbling to the floorboards.

"Ken! Damn." I got settled as the car took off. Thankfully the soundproof divider was up in the car. I glared at him. "Remember your strength quirk?"

"Oh, right." He looked at his hands, stunned.

"What's up with you?"

"It actually worked!" He yelled, looking up at me excited.

"What worked?" I was extremely confused. He took my hand and pulled me into his side.

"The switch! I'm Milnus!"

"What!" I nearly screeched. I glanced at the phone on the ground.

"Yeah! I met some person in the alley who told me they could switch me with your body guard so I could get close to you." Panic started to grow in my chest. It was weird to see "Ken" acting so hyper. He's cool and collected so it was a red flag telling me that he was telling the truth. I remembered suddenly that Milius called me by my name, not Mirage.

"Shit!" I lifted my hand to create an illusion in his head but he grabbed my hands.

"Oh, no! I'm your biggest fan! I know your moves. I don't mean any harm to you, I just want you to know how I feel about you."

"Milnus, this isn't how to do it!" I struggled against his grip. It was useless because of the strength quirk Ken had. With one youk I was in his lap. "Let go!"

"Stop it." He yelled. I froze, never hearing 'Ken' yell. It was rattling. "I could make you see and understand. You never give me the time of day though. You never hear me because of..."

"Because of what, Milnus! Because you're bat shit crazy?"

"Because of him. He is always there and by your side...You want him, don't you?" He asked. I gaped at him. I saw his eyes darker until they were almost black. "Then you can have him."

"Mil..." Before any words could come out, he had me pinned to the floor of the car. I felt his lips on mine forcefully. I yelped and tried to pull away but I had no room to pull away. His hand that wasn't pinning my hands began to wander. I squirmed uncomfortably under his touch.

"I am done trying to explain. I'll just show you." He growled when he pulled back. He latched onto my neck.

"Milnus. This isn't right. Please st... Ah!" I screamed as he bit me. Warm blood ran down from the wound. I choked as he only went harder. It almost distracted me from him tipping my pants off. He let go and moved to hover over me. I flinded at the sight of my blood on his mouth.

"You understand yet or do I need to show you more?" I shook my head but he only smiled. I tried to yank my hands free but he only tightened his grip. I shrieked as something popped, sending pain down my arms.

"Stop." I tried to create another illusion as a last ditch effort but nothing came. Just as he forcefully spread my legs to further his assault, the car stopped on a dime. He was thrown off balance with a curse. I rolled away, holding my hands to my chest, to go for the door but it opened violently.

"Y/N!" Keigo was standing there with a murderous look in his eyes. His gaze moved behind me.

"Mirage!" My ankle was grabbed but feathers flew past me to hold him back.

"Don't touch them again." Keigo said so calmly, it was terrifying. Without looking away from Milnus, he took off his coat to hold it out to me. "Here, cover yourself up."

"Keigo..." My voice was now hoarse. His gaze quickly turned to me. "I can't use my hands."

"Shit. Come here." I scooted closer, trying to keep myself covered. He wrapped his coat around my waist as soon as I stood. His feathers returned to him and I turned to see Best Jeanist escorting Milnus away.

"Ken?" I looked back at Keigo.

"Fine. We found him and the woman that switched them." He pulled me away from the scene, a wing wrapped around me the whole time. He led me to an ambulance.

"Did you call all this in?" I asked in disbelief.

"Of course. Hero Mirage was in trouble. My best friend was in trouble and I wasn't taking that lying down." He handed me over to the paramedics. "Their hands are injured and they're going into shock."

"What? I'm not..." I paused and finally noticed the dazed, airy feeling that crept up on me. "Oh..."

"We got them." I heard someone say as I was laid back on the gurney.

"I'll meet you at the hospital, okay kid?" Keigo's voice asked softly. I turned my head to nod at him loosely. "Okay. See you soon."

I sat numbly in the hospital bed, tear stains decorating my face. After I came out of shock, the tears started. Panic,

pain, anguish, disgust and so many other things coursed through me. They had to partially sedate me to get me to calm down. It turns out my hands were okay with one being just sprained and the other dislocated.

"Here's your drink, Mirage." A nurse set a cup down on the tray table. I gave her a small nod. Keigo's coat was clutched in my hand. Noone would tell me what had gone out after I was taken from the scene and Keigo has yet to show up.

"Thank you." I heard a muffled voice from the hall. I turned as Keigo stepped in quickly, shutting the door behind him. He looked at me with quizing eyes. "Y/N?"

"Hey..." I turned my eyes slowly to the coat in my hand. I lifted it and held it out. "Here."

"Y/N... Are you okay?"

"M'fine." I continued to hold out the coat. He gently took it and set it aside. He immediately grasped the hand that was held out.

"No, no, no. Don't do that." He urged. I kept looking down at my lap, even when he tried to get me to look at him. "Okay. Let me guess. It all feels numb, Yeah?" I nodded. "Shit. Right. Are you able to listen clearly?"

"Yeah." I peeked up at him. He gave me a smile.

"Good. I know you don't know what to do or what to feel but whatever you decide to do is fine. If you decide to scream, go for it. You need to cry? I'll be right here to hold you. Whatever you think will help, you do it." He took a big breath. "There is just one thing that I ask you not to do."

"What's that?"

"Suffer in Silence." Those three words knocked the breath from my lungs. "It won't help at all. You are not fine and that is fine. Just please do not try to do this on your own."

"Fuck." I covered my mouth, trying to cover the sob. I squeezed his hand tightly. I couldn't hold back my cries anymore.

"Alright. Come here." He crawled up the bed, sitting next to me. He wrapped me in his arms and wings. I gripped his shirt as I cried louder and harder. I curled up in a ball from all the pain; physical, mental, emotional. He didn't even try to quiet me.

"Keigo. Why did he do this?" I choked as the words came out.

"I, I don't know. Some people just are so single minded about things. He became so obsessed he let it consume him."

"But why me?" The question came out as a shriek. His wings pulled in tighter.

"I don't know. I don't know." The statement was shaky. I knew he didn't have an answer. I didn't have one either.

Time passed and I went through fits of crying and spots of just sitting there numb in his arms. He constantly was doing something to comfort me. Petting my head, rubbing my arm, something. I had my head against his shoulder, staring at the window.

"What happened?" I asked quietly.

"Y/N, I don't think we should talk about this right now." He said tentatively.

"Please, I need to know. What happened to ken, Milnes, the person he spoke of... What the hell happened leading up to this?" I looked up at him. He had my gaze for a moment before sighing heavily. He got up and walked over to grab a bay that was laying against the wall.

"Does the name Mika Morcida sound familiar?" He asked while pulling out a tablet from the bag. My face scrunched up at the familiar name.

"Yeah, she was a bitch I used to know in high school. She got kicked out for cheating, stealing, and god knows what else but for some reason, she always blamed me. Like I had something to do with her life choices."

"Well that's who is behind this." He sat down next to me. He pulled up something on the tablet before turning it towards me. There was a picture of her but she was looking worse for wear. "Apparently she still blames you because she has continuously yelled about a vendetta against you since are caught her."

"Dang... Ken?" I asked. He smiled, setting the tablet aside.

"Don't worry. You boy toy is fine. He's actually here getting checked out after we finally got Morcida to switch them back."

"He's not my boy toy, Keigo." I rolled my eyes. He sighed heavily before laying over my legs, propping his hand up on his hand.

"Keep telling yourself that." I bat at his chest. He laughed before grabbing my hand. "Regardless, he will be up here after he's done. He said he won't come in unless you're alright with it."

"Okay." I settled back into the bed. I wiped my face and grimaced. Keigo was up without a word and went to the bathroom. He came back with a wet rag.

"Here." I smiled before taking it, cleaning my face. I let my hands drop into my lap. I sniffled a bit and Keigo pulled my head into his chest. "It'll be okay Kid. I promise."

Tag List: @lilparcheesie @dxnaii-rxse @iris-shihabi @cl0verbby @keigos-baby-bird

103 notes · View notes

hebuiltfive · 11 months

Text

Tabloid Trash!

The Forgotten Fifth: Who is John Glenn Tracy?

In another attempt to use the Tracy name as clickbait, a celebrity editor at the Daily Celebs! tabloid magazine speaks to an old friend of John's about who the often forgotten fifth brother truly is. John isn't impressed, but he's more concerned about how the tabloid found out about another, smaller detail.

AO3 link here (I coded this so it should look like a news article. Hopefully it works and isn't glitchy!)

Previous TT works: Aliens!

---------------------

by Madeleine Buchanan, Celebrity Editor

Like the Kardashians of old, the Tracys are the world’s most intriguing family. Whether we’re wondering what they’re wearing to their latest red carpet appearance, or whether we’re glued to our screens as we watch them head off on their next daring rescue with their philanthropic organisation, International Rescue, the Tracy family are firmly in our minds almost twenty-four seven.

The family (and their extended close circle) are never not working. This year alone has seen Virgil Tracy attend almost fifteen art gallery openings, Gordon Tracy visiting almost seven marine conservation centres, Scott Tracy organising no less than ten charity functions on behalf of the family’s two organisations and Alan Tracy beginning his college degree adventure. Add in all the work the family does under International Rescue and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of room left in the schedules for down-time.

Yet they somehow manage it.

Oft-forgotten brother, John Tracy, made the news this week with the publication of his new book, Times Trails Tells. It is his fifth book in as many years (find our review of the scientific breakthrough here).

Die-hard Tracy fans might recognise the name, but normies are probably wondering who John Tracy is and why his name isn’t as known as the rest of his brothers.

In fact, Daily Celebs! recently conducted a poll on the general public’s knowledge of the Tracy family as a whole. From hobbies to skills, names to numbers, our reporters asked one hundred people on Hollywood Boulevard what they knew about the elusively in-demand family. You can see a more detailed report on that here, but staggeringly, it showed that almost sixty per cent of those interviewed got one of the more simpler of questions completely wrong.

How many sons did Jeff Tracy have?

The answer, of course, is five (bonus points for those readers who can name them in order), but sixty people interviews claimed it was four.

So, why is this the case? Who is the elusive fifth brother that everyone seems to forget?

If we start at the beginning, we can paint a better picture of who this man is. Born John Glenn Tracy, he is the third son of Jefferson Tracy and his late with Lucille. Like his brothers both before and after him, John was born in Kansas and spent most, if not all, of his childhood in the state. He excelled at school and, for a while at least, was surprisingly popular with his peers. Rumours of troubles with bullies begin in the years after his eldest brother left to attend a separate High School in the area, though these reports could not be confirmed at the time of writing.

John graduated from Harvard University and has since gone on to receive multiple degrees in various subjects including, but not limited to, Advanced Telecommunications and Astronomy. Most of his published works are continuations of his previous research studies.

When it comes to International Rescue, John is one of the team’s most valuable members. Known to the world as The Guy In The Sky, John is the Tracy who filters, listens and responds to all the incoming emergency calls. If you’ve asked International Rescue for help, you were most likely talking to John Tracy.

Yet he’s the brother who is most often forgotten about. Is is because he spends so much time up in space? A former peer from John’s college days suggests that it might be.

“John was always such a party-pooper at college. He was never interested in doing anything fun. He always had his nose stuck in a book. No matter how hard we tried, the guy was never interested in any of the parties or any of the girls. Total waste of space, if you ask me. What is college if not an excuse to get absolutely wrecked? Basically, what I’m trying to say is, it’s no surprise to me that John’s the guy who’s based in space. Honestly? Best place for the loser.”

Clarence Hickory, a computer programmer for the Hickory Foundation, agreed to speak with Daily Celebs! about his former friendship with John Tracy. (At the time of writing, Tracy Industries have yet to respond to a request for a comment.)

“We met on orientation day. It was a chilly fall day. I remember it well. John stuck out like a sore thumb. You could tell he hated it. Everyone crowded round him when they saw his dad and his brother at his side. Everyone wanted a piece of him.”

Was Clarence one of these people?

“God, no! I knew to let the guy have some space. If I’m being honest, my father saw John’s as a kind of rival at the time. Both the Hickory Foundation and Tracy Industries were thinking of branching out into the same sector. Neither did in the end. My father ended up becoming good friends with Jeff Tracy.”

And you became friends with John?

“Wouldn’t exactly call us friends. We were more… colleagues. We shared a dorm along with a couple of other guys, but we didn’t get along. John didn’t fit the vibe of ‘typical college student’. He wasn’t popular with many students.”

He didn’t have friends?

“He did, just not many and our friendship circles certainly didn’t cross.”

But you studied in the same classes?

“Yeah. For Advanced Telecommunications. Bullshit lectures, let me tell you that, but it did give me a job, so I can’t complain.”

Your father gave you a position in his company, you mean?

“I like to think of my appointment as a reward for all my hard-work, rather than it being complete nepotism, Maddy.”

So, back to John. Have you seen much of him since leaving Harvard?

“I see him occasionally at conventions and conferences. He’s never interested in the talking or the mingling. I think I’ve spoken more with his brothers than John himself. I don’t think he’s changed all that much since college. In these situations, though, I can hardly blame him. I remember how terrified he looked on that orientation day, when the crowds swarmed him just because of his family name. I can’t imagine those events are much different. No wonder he doesn’t do them often.”

Our readers are going to want to know your opinion on why you think John Tracy isn’t often seen around, why he could be considered the forgotten fifth Tracy brother, but I think you’ve practically answered that.

“John is a recluse. I don’t know if he does it on purpose or whether it truly is just him, you know? But he’s definitely not an outgoing person. Never has been. Probably never will be.”

Were you surprised by the revelation of his involvement with International Rescue?

“One thing to know about the Tracys is they are probably some of the most sickeningly do-gooders the world has ever seen. Do you know how much is costs to be in their shadow as a business? A lot, okay? Did it surprise me? A little, maybe. We all had our suspicions around who IR were. Everyone did. All of us thought it was the Tracys. It doesn’t surprise me that John was involved in that, no. Not even as the comms guy.”

You described him as a recluse.

“John is a recluse, yes. He’s also a bloody enigma. There’s a reason no-one knows a lot about him, Maddy. He likes it that way. Hell, I bet half the people in his life don’t have the full story, with the exception of his brothers probably. Maybe. Who knows!”

But why would a recluse, as you put it, be the one who answers the calls?

“I think the better question isn’t why put the recluse on the calls, but rather about the work that they do. International Rescue are, annoyingly, a phenomenal organisation who do incredibly heroic and important work. Listen, I can sit here and talk to you about John all day. I’ve probably got plenty of anecdotes that could earn me a fortune, but I’m not going to share them. John and I… we didn’t get on but he’s a good man. If he doesn’t want the world to know more about him, I say respect that, Maddy, and leave him be.”

John attended three bookstores and his old university on a short tour for the launching of his new book. So far this year, that has been the entirety of his public engagements. Suspicious or, as Clarence suggested, private?

The Enigmatic Tracy will be in attendance at this year’s annual Tracy Christmas Ball, hosted by Tracy Industries LTD. Find out more here and check out previous year’s red carpet appearances here.

————————————————

John reclined back in his seat and switched the projector off. The glasses he’d been using to deflect some of the harshness of the screen were yanked off his face, and fingers pressed into the bridge of his nose as he repressed a sigh.

Time and time and time again did glossy magazine reporters (if they could even be called such a title) tried to ‘unpick’ him. Like this, most of the time it was nonsense news, though John was surprised they’d managed to track down someone who would actually speak to them about him. Normally it was all words and suspicions with no credible source to back it up. In fact, John would have been impressed if he wasn’t so exhausted by it all.

An enigma. The Enigmatic Tracy. Was that to be his new title? He’d lost count of all the others he’d been given over the years, not to mention the ones his brothers had been assigned.

He hadn’t meant to read the article. Most of the time, John actually prided himself on being able to skim past tabloid news stories about him or his family. Nothing good ever came from taking a read. In his opinion, one article like this was usually the equivalent to searching one’s name and then doom-scrolling through the feeds for hours on end, but he was in need of a break from all those numbers, and the words seemed unusually inviting to him.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been down here since breakfast, Johnny.”

Scott’s voice echoed from the glass doorway behind him. His usually immaculately styled hair was floppy and damp, suggesting he’d just come from a quick dip in the pool. John’s eyes skimmed the patio to find Gordon and Virgil still in the water, evidence enough to conclude his assumption had been correct.

He took out his ear-pods, still blasting his choice of music for concentration, and laid them on the table beside his empty mug. The sorry sight of the ceramic had him craving more coffee.

Whether it was brotherly intuition or the gleam in John’s eye, Scott took a few strides forward to confiscate the mug before the idea of a refill properly went through his mind.

“Absolutely not! You’re going to crash hard if you have any more of this.” His eldest brother chastised, breathing in once and then grimacing. “Jesus, John, how many cups have you had? You smell worse than Virgil’s studio after a long night of ‘creative pursuits’.”

Very much not impressed by the comparison — excuse him, he was not as bad as Virgil, thank you very much — John swatted Scott’s arm before trying, and failing, to reach for the mug.

“Scott…”

“No more coffee. It’s—”

“Unimportant.” John finished for him, disallowing his brother to finish that train of thought.

“I wouldn’t call twenty mugs of coffee—”

“It wasn’t twenty—”

“— unimportant, Johnny.”

“The tabloids know I’ll be at the Annual Tracy Christmas Ball this year.”

John’s bombshell had Scott take a pause.

“They… shouldn’t know. The guest list hasn’t been released yet. It’s only… what? October?” His blue eyes cast an unweary glance toward the holo-projector and then toward John. “How do you know the tabloids know?”

There was another brief pause before both brothers were scrambling for the holo-projector. The sight would have been amusing if Virgil or Gordon were paying attention to the riot that was happening indoors. Thankfully for the two battling it out for temporary custodianship of the projector, neither seemed to notice.

Scott won with ease and flicked the screen back on to reveal the article John had foolishly not completely disregarded before switching the projector off.

“John…”

“It wasn’t a bad one, Scott, I swear.”

“What have we said about reading these things? Besides, aren’t you supposed to be running the numbers for whatever it was Brains wanted you to check for him? Not exactly a productive use of your time, Johnny.”

“One, stop with the Johnny, Scooter. Two, I needed a break. Yes, even geniuses like us need breaks. And three… Are we going to pretend EOS didn’t catch you reading up on some article concerning your alleged morning Get Ready routine?”

Scott lifted a finger. “Hey, that was important! They got the hair preparation steps all wrong! I don’t want the world to think I use some crappy conditioner!”

John tried to stifle his laugh. “Yes, because correcting them was the most productive use of your time.”

His eldest brother ignored him. He sighed, scanning the article quickly and then shook his head. “I’ll check with Saf tomorrow morning, see if they know who leaked something. Of course, the journo could just be… postulating.”

He couldn’t help the raised brow. “Postulating?”

Scott nodded. “Mm-hm. Postulating.”

“That’s a big word for you, Scooter.”

The comment earned John a gentle whack of his arm, but it was worth it.

“If I can’t call you Johnny, you can’t call me Scooter.”

“I thought you liked Scooter.”

Again, Scott ignored him. “Are you going to come out and join us for a while?” He asked as he returned the projector to the table. When John reached for the mug, he held it out of reach. “No. More. Coffee.”

“If I come out and risk burning to a crisp in this stifling hot sun, will you let me have another cup?”

“It’s late October, John. It’s not stifling hot anymore.”

“Will you?”

“Absolutely not.” Scott began to trail off outside, with the cup still in his grasp, calling back to his brother as he left. “There is this thing called sunscreen, Johnny. If you’re so worried, use it.”

#fic: tabloid trash #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fanfiction #five fics #john tracy #scott tracy

45 notes · View notes

bomnun · 1 year

Note

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, it makes me feel less alone and better. If H joined BP for PTG’s sake, I think it’s safe to say that isn’t working out well and if he gets in, I don’t see any benefit to PTG. All I see is “PTG is over” and “H wants a new group/solo.” MNET successfully got the narrative they wanted with CUBE’s help! I have been a fan since PTG Maker, experienced every high and low in their story, and I don’t want to feed into the negativity so your Reddit post helped me a lot.

Hi!! I'm glad I could make you feel that way. There really is no benefit to Pentagon, if anything it's an excuse for blue box to finally properly give up them and stop their years-long indecision. I'm actually pissed at how Universe treated this show, I tried, but it's not like anyone wants to listen to me (on Twitter). They can keep pretending Hui redebuting will help Pentagon, or that they're already over - even though Shinwon's already said he's renewing, they're literally recording stuff right now and Kino is asserting they're nine, as long as they hopefully fail with their akgae project... Not that I dare to hope for that. Whatever. Why so many people want the careers of eight people who never did anything wrong to crash and burn in humiliation, I'll never understand. Is it the fact that they were supposed to just become a laughingstock/scandal-colored one-hit-wonder and give up in 2018? It's like kpop fans can't understand groups who face hardship but really want to keep going together. They've all had so many chances to leave at this point, but they keep coming back to one another because they want to. I even think they know their numbers add up, lmao (maybe I'm projecting on that part, but when Shinwon talked about learning Excel because "it might be needed for comebacks" it stuck with me.)

On the BP topic... his solo stans really want us to vote and support his supposed dream of redebuting and leaving his friends for 10 years, which he still hasn't expressed, lol.

Cube deciding to do this during their weird internal crisis they seem to have been having makes no sense. They are aware keeping them and giving them a comeback makes more money than 1/9 share of that other group, even if it becomes more popular?!

Sorry for ranting when you said my post made you hopeful dshdfjsk I feel like that's very counterproductive. I think they have more solid proof they can put out whatever they're doing now than we think. Kino's not dumb, he wouldn't be spending nights in the studio and constantly post about it on social media for nothing. Shinwon wouldn't have kept saying "I'm going back to being Pentagon's Shinwon now!" for like a week dshfdkjs Hongseok reappearing makes it feel more certain to me too. I do believe something's coming and I want to be there for it and support it as best I can. I really didn't expect so much Hongseok so early; it makes me really hopeful that he's doing better and, maybe, even something more..? Maybe it's too early to expect him in Japan next month... I wonder, since it might (sadly) cause upset for him to promote during the time he was still supposed to be in the military... but then he went to his birthday event today.

Anyway, I wish people actually looked at what the members are doing and saying before writing them off, just because you wouldn't be as passionate and give up earlier, doesn't mean they want to @ people ! :)

Thank you for this ask! It feels like I'm talking a bit out into the void sometimes.

#ask #anonymous #rant #i guess #sorry about that

1 note · View note

rendevousz · 3 years

Text

not a secret anymore

natasha romanoff x fem!teen!reader

summary: nat reveals a secret to the public when your class takes a learning journey to the tower.

requested: yes

warnings: might come off as half assed writing because this probably is one of my worst works i'm so sorry 😭😭

word count: 1681

notes: i'm so sorry i haven't been writing much, i've recently just gotten extremely busy so i had no time to sit down and write (this one was literally written between all the short breaks i had 😫) and i have a few requests piling up so i hope you guys can understand if they come later <3

"hi, y/n!" ally, an agent, greeted you as you, along with your classmates, walked through the east wing hallway of the tower. your classmates—except for peter, ned and mj— turned to look at you with confused looks.

your class was having a learning journey at the avengers tower and you had contemplated on calling in sick to avoid people who worked in the tower acknowledging you around your classmates.

you were actually an avenger—yeah, crazy—, having been rescued during one of the many avengers' hostage rescue missions few years ago. you were able to single-handedly take down a few of your captors, hence why the team took interest in you then.

now, though you had been trained enough, they decided to keep you a secret in order to protect you. lord knows how many people would try hurt you if they ever found out the avengers had a new, teenage recruit. peter was technically still safe as his alter-ego is masked so you had no choice but to only go on missions that weren't in the public eye.

you also lived in the tower so the agents and staff were undoubtedly familiar with you, some even friends with you, just like ally, who had just passed by with a wave of her hand at you before turning the corner.

"did that lady just acknowledge you?" an annoying voice spoke from beside you in a mocking tone. you gulped, not wanting to respond to flash's irrelevant question.

"hey, loser, i'm talking to you," he nudged your arm with his elbow and you held the urge to grab it and flip his whole body upside down. it's not like you couldn't—you had the skills, obviously— but it's the fact that you didn't want to get in trouble for that.

you ended up keeping quiet, like you always did whenever the boy taunted you. peter taught you to do just that. if it were up to you, flash's stupid face wouldn't even dare to show itself in front of you anymore.

speaking of peter, he was nowhere to be seen by now. you internally rolled your eyes. it had only been two minutes and they were already gone. peter was probably showing them around the place. you had no idea how your teacher didn't notice the three of them missing from your group. you were so going to kill them for ditching you and leaving you alone when they knew they were your only friends. they were also the reason why flash still had his head to this day because they'd stop you from doing anything rash. now you weren't sure if flash would be safe from your fury.

"you probably work here as a cleaner on the weekends or something, huh? that's the only way people here would know you," flash jeered. you let out a breath, trying to control your anger towards the boy.

you rolled your eyes, opting to deliberately ignore his insults and walk away instead, hoping you'll bump into those three idiots of friends of yours.

"did you just ignore me?" flash asked incredulously, as if it was a crime to ignore his annoying ass. he pulled you back by your back collar, effectively halting you in your spot.

by instinct, you grabbed his hand that was on your collar, twisting it and turning his whole body around, pinning him against the wall with his twisted arm pressed against his back. it happened in just two seconds which totally caught flash off guard, the boy groaning in pain as he begged you to let him free.

you could hear a series of gasps from all around you and you internally groaned. this is why you always ignored flash's taunting. you didn't want to attract attention to yourself and have people wonder how you could defend yourself so well. but flash just had to provoke you. especially here, out of all places.

"what's going on here?" you heard a familiar voice ask and you sighed.

"oh my gosh! it's the black widow!"

"miss romanoff!"

"oh my gosh, i'm gonna need to get a picture for my mum later, she's gonna freak out!"

you stepped away from flash, releasing him as he dramatically kept rubbing at his arm. as if you even put that much pressure. flash smirked, seeing this as a chance to complain about you to an official avenger.

"this girl right here," flash points an accusing finger at you with a glare, like he wasn't just practically begging for his life twenty seconds ago. "attacked me."

you rolled your eyes, unamused. "i hardly attacked him." you told nat. the woman turned to you, an eyebrow raised as she gave you a knowing look. "this...?" she trailed off and you nodded, knowing what she was insinuating. you'd told her about flash one too many times for her not to immediately figure out who he is from a crowd of students.

"flash thompson. heard a lot about you," she turned to the boy. flash's face lit up, thinking he must've made a name for himself or something that even the black widow knew him. little did he know he did, but not for good reasons.

"i would prefer if you stop messing with y/n/n." nat gave him a sharp look and that grin was immediately wiped off his face. "i– y/n/n?" he stuttered, confused that the natasha romanoff is calling you by a nickname.

"you do know she can kick your ass if she wanted to, right? she's been silent all this while because she didn't want to hurt you but you just never seem to learn, huh?" nat took slow, calculated steps towards him until she was towering over him.

"she doesn't need anyone to protect her because she's fully capable of that but i'm just here to warn you, kid, that she, is not to be meddled with. i'm saying this for your own good, flash thompson. she's capable of much worse than whatever she just did to you. so if i hear you messing around with her or any of her friends," she pauses before continuing with a whisper. "i'll close one eye on whatever she wants to do with you."

you wished you could've taken a picture of the dead scared look on flash's face; it was priceless. you turned to nat once she stepped away from him and she put an arm around your shoulder, leading you both away from the watching crowd.

"i–i'm sorry, miss romanoff," you could hear one of your teachers say and nat stopped, effectively stopping you too as she had you in her hold. "but miss y/l/n is on a learning journey with us and she'll miss the tour of the tower if she leaves with you. we'll be discussing a lot regarding this trip in class and she won't understand what we talk about if she misses this tour. i hope you understand." he spoke nervously.

"with all due respect, y/n's seen the whole tower already," she smiles at him but you could tell it was fake. "even the avengers' residential floors which are closed to the public and most employees of the tower."

your teacher looked at her wide-eyed, mouth open but nothing coming out. nat smiles a fake one once again. "now if you'll excuse us, the both of us have avenger duties to attend to."

gasps could be heard all around you and in the midst of it all, your best friends came back and you made eye contact with them, all of them having the same shocked look on their face.

"avenger duties?! nat, what are you doing?!" you whisper-yelled at the woman who seemed to be enjoying the reactions of your classmates and teachers.

"y/n!" peter ran over to you, your other friends following suit. "oh, um hi miss romanoff," he greets shyly. "thanks a lot, guys, look what happened." you spoke sarcastically, rolling your eyes at them. nat proceeded to drag you away from your friends and the last thing you saw was them mouthing apologies and you half-heartedly mouthing to them back that it was fine.

"relax, y/n/n, the public were about to find out soon anyways." nat said nonchalantly. "what?!" you exclaimed once you two were in a different hallway.

"yeah, you're gonna have press this weekend for this. we're gonna officially announce you to the world as an avenger." she once again says nonchalantly, as if this wasn't the first time you were hearing this. "wait, wait, wait, seriously?" you asked in disbelief. no one had told you anything.

"yeah, i—ohh yeah, you don't know yet," nat remembers and you give her an unimpressed look. she wasn't usually this dumb; she only showed this side of her to you. "sorry, i uh, yeah.. i was supposed to come get you for this. meeting with fury and the rest, yknow?" she tells you and you nodded slowly, taking in the information.

"but tell me it didn't feel good that you got to do that to flash," the woman states excitedly and you playfully rolled your eyes at her. "you got to do something. i'm practically an empty threat to him," you stated matter-of-factly.

"not after this weekend you're not. he'll be afraid of you after. that's what you get for being a smelly bully." you couldn't help the little smile on your face. she really sounded like a child right now and it was adorable.

"alright, natty, whatever you say. let's go before fury releases his fury." you look at her hopefully, waiting for her to laugh at your joke which she responded with an unimpressed look. that of course didn't work as you two burst out laughing looking at each other's faces.

you walked alongside her, the woman resting an arm around your shoulder. you smiled up at her as she talked about her day.

god, you couldn't wait to be able to finally walk out in public with these people you considered family.

taglist <3

@amourtentiaa @rqmanoff @abitofeverythinggg @andreasworlsboring101 @cay-writes-fan-fiction514 @teenwonder @sevenmorningstars @fleurlovesbucky @marauvdersfate

#marvel x teen!reader #avengers x reader #avengers x teen!reader #natasha romanoff x teen!reader #avengers #avenger!reader #mcu x teen!reader #mcu x reader #avengers x avenger!reader #natasha romanoff x avenger!reader #peter parker x reader

769 notes · View notes

makeste · 3 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 328: Pandora’s Box of Discourse

Previously on BnHA: DEKU TOOK A BATH.

Today on BnHA:

youtube

Also Naomasa grew a beard. Goddamn.

please let this be a cool chapter that plays nice with my ADHD lol

(ETA: lol I feel guilty because a lot of people hated this chapter, but I’m just happy there was a lot of stuff to make fun of, and also that I have another week to work on my backlog of meta posts since the kids were MIA.)

around one month ago?? ah, okay, so we’re gonna find out what was in that Tartarus security file huh

I love that they just randomly set the place on fire

was it necessary to do this in order to escape? no. was it a good idea to set the island they were occupying on fire while they were in the midst of still occupying it? uh. was it cinematic as fuck? fuck yeah

wow it’s a pervert!!

that’s so great that the villains set loose this fine fellow who I’m sure is definitely not a serial rapist. truly the LoV is so noble and misunderstood. they’re just trying to free society from its chains people

oh my god??!

SHANKED!!! oh my god I cheered for Stain before I realized what I was doing. time to have an identity crisis I guess

so he’s all “hey what’s going on.” which, while a respectable question, is something I personally would have waited to ask until I had put a bit of distance between myself and the fiery murder island. but that’s just my personal preference

Stain you really are tenacious I’ll give you that

“what’s the point of escaping prison if you’re not gonna be smart about it” well shit. anyways yeah you’re dead right, society is in the process of collapsing and the outside world is in total chaos, good call there

oh shit

I mean it’s not like we really expecting anything otherwise, but still. fucking brutal. I feel like these guys’ fates were decided the minute that one guy called AFO “scum” back in chapter 94. AFO is unmatched at getting long-term revenge

ahh, was it the security footage??

fdsdfk he’s still alive??

and he’s immediately launching into an inappropriately theatrical monologue even as the darkness closes in on him fdlfksjdlk. you know, was it ever confirmed that the other guy back in chapter 297 was Seiji’s dad? I’m just saying

very impressed that he’s still coherent enough to weigh the pros and cons before making the decision to gamble on giving this info to Stain, who at the very least has his own moral code and isn’t allied with AFO. it was definitely still a risk, but as we now know it was also the right call

what a weird alliance. so Stain tells him that he’ll give it to a just person, and the guy is all,

okay for real though I’m gonna need someone to run a DNA test on this guy. maybe it was some kind of cuckold situation?? the other guy had the family resemblance, but this guy absolutely 100% raised Shishikura Seiji and you are not going to convince me otherwise

anyway, so Stain is all,

PRISON GUARD: “???? ??????? what the hell. what the fuck does that fucking mean. I’m dying here, jesus christ, whatever man fuck you”

(ETA: I kind of feel like this might have been Stain’s last appearance in the manga, given all the fanfare. there’s not really much else he can do for the story at this point, and he seems to have gotten all the character development Horikoshi was planning on giving him. so if this really is it, hasta la vista and good riddance I guess.)

DWLFDKSLDK MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE

(ETA: I feel like this is meant to be evocative of that Sermon on the Mount painting, but in a really fucked up way lol.)

if it were me stumbling upon this scene I would just shake my head and walk right back into the flaming building. not getting involved in that mess. sorry not sorry. I’ll take my chances with the fire, especially given that it’s half-assed neutered BnHA fire lol

blah blah blah and so he decided to pass the info on to All Might -- HOT DAMN, HOLY SHIT

NAOMASA HOLY SHIT. THE APOCALYPSE LOOKS GOOD ON YOU, BOY

“I really like that facial scruff thing Aizawa’s got going on, I think I’m gonna get in on that” yes sir. “also thinking of ditching the tie in favor of the bulletproof vest look. also thinking of getting totally fucking jacked.” good lord. except I’m pretty sure that’s just body armor, but also I don’t care. anyway I should probably stop staring and actually read the fucking speech bubbles here lol

“All Might first handed this information over to Nao, and then went to see Deku, and then came back to Nao” thanks for that tidy little summary Horikoshi. we are capable of piecing events together in sequential order, I just want you to know that. but thank you

“so has Deku finally gotten a bath? also, sucks that Stain saved the day, but what are you gonna do” Nao I missed you so fucking much and didn’t even realize. how am I just now realizing that you are the perfect man

for a second I was gonna ask why Tartarus’s security systems would be cut off from the outside world, and then I remembered that’s a basic security control, and then I actually got impressed by how sensible that is. like, it’s been a while since I could genuinely say that the good guys (excluding class 1-A) did something smart. not that it helped them much in the end, but still

anyway so they’re talking about how AFO was able to coordinate the attack by communicating between his horcrux self on the outside and his ugly peanut-faced self on the inside

huh

okay you have my attention. I am taking notes here lol please continue

ah okay so he says that prior to Jakku, the transfer of information between him and his Vestige self was only one-way. but post-Jakku when Deku was in the hospital, he was able to tell what was happening inside the OFA Radical Lisa Frank Dead People Book Club Realm when he touched him. I feel like we established that before, actually. but he didn’t talk about how it actually felt, though

boy we already know this lol. yes AFO can talk with his horcrux self. and he can also communicate with his little bro in OFA too, let’s talk about that sometime why don’t we. what exactly does that imply, based on the rules we’ve established here

my god I cannot get over Naomasa and his fucking facial hair

no wonder All Might was in such a hurry to leave Deku and get back here

like I have no idea what this radio waves nonsense is but my god, people

that jawline. also so it’s a quirk, I see. except last I checked Deku didn’t have a radio waves quirk, so that doesn’t really explain his connection to AFO. but whatever, hopefully we’re at least getting closer to some kind of reveal here

(ETA: since I sometimes forget that other people’s lives don’t revolve around my theory posts, here are the two relevant links if you by chance want to know my thoughts about this.

Hagakure is still The U.A. Traitor™ regardless of whether Deku is passing information on to AFO through his psychic link, which he almost certainly is.

speaking of said psychic link, Deku is a horcrux.

just posting these now, because whenever trippy OFA stuff happens I tend to get an influx of theory asks. so hopefully this will be a bit of a time saver lol.)

-- wait, what

THAT’S what the recording was??!? holy SHIT. I genuinely was not expecting that. y’all wiretapped his fucking telepathy. fucking quirks, man. wild

AND THEY USED THAT POWER TO DETERMINE WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW, HUZZAH. GOOD SHOW

-- oh shit wait lol, except I forgot we’re not talking about 38 days from the present, we’re talking about 38 days from the date the conversation was recorded. heh. um

yeah that’s the face I would make too if All Fucking Might just casually told me we had eight days left until the end times

oh, pardon me. three fucking days

r.i.p. anyone who thought we were going to have another band arc sob. I sure hope Deku is enjoying that nap

(ETA: I realize people were hoping for a longer rest period here, but given that the man warned us all the way back in chapter 306 that we were entering the final act, you can’t really blame him too much when that turns out to be true. anyway but I do recognize that we’ve reached the point in the story where this kind of discourse is going to become a weekly occurrence, simply because there’s no possible way for Horikoshi’s actual endgame to line up perfectly with the variable headcanons of millions of fans, all of whom have wildly differing and in many cases contradictory expectations which can’t possibly all be fulfilled. anyway, so I’m already bracing myself for that lol. this coming year is going to be a wild ride.)

damn, U.A. out here looking like the motherfucking United Nations

-- is this U.A.?? I actually just realized, U.A. is four interconnected buildings, not two. wait holy shit is this Shiketsu?

wait holy SHIT

based on the overwhelmingly powerful vibes of bureaucratic incompetence, I’m thinking this really is the (future) U.N., or whatever organization it is that deals with international hero stuff

“just let them handle it themselves I’m sure they’ll be fine” yeah okay, thanks guys. appreciate it

wait oh shit did he say that it’s not just Japan?

soooo, what you’re telling me is that AFO is this close to bringing about the end of not just Japan, but the entire world, and you guys don’t think it’s a good idea to help the Japanese heroes stop him? so, genuine follow-up question: are you guys already planning your rich people exodus into space a la Wall-E, and that’s why you don’t give a fuck?? like, what??

omg international heroes

these guys are from World Hoodie Mission, right? is this Horikoshi’s way of reminding me to buy tickets

(ETA: and it worked too lol.)

WHO??? WHAT???

don’t tell me you’re introducing yet another badass new female character for me to fall in love with only to watch as you dismember them and/or blow them up, Horikoshi. I’m getting tired of playing this game my dude. don’t lie and tell me this time will be different. we’re not doing this again goddammit

noooooooooooooooooooo

god fucking dammit lmao. [sighs and rips the previous paragraph into shreds]

on behalf of Americans I apologize for our superheroes always being Like This

I also apologize because I love her already and I’m gonna be shameless about it. so fucking shameless you guys

is her fucking hair red white and blue. it is, isn’t it

this is the volume cliffhanger, 100% lol. it will take every ounce of Horikoshi’s willpower not to put her on the volume cover. he’ll have to settle for the spine or the inner cover this time because Deku VS his class 1-a superpals takes precedence. but it will be a close thing let me tell you

tbh it’s that smile that does it for me. she’s definitely All Might’s protege. get out there and show them how it’s done girl. and maybe call Salaam and BRD and see if you can’t convince them to play hooky from their governments as well. why not. world’s ending in three days you guys. “sorry, I’m busy this weekend” ain’t gonna cut it lol

so while I am not fully caught up with Vigilantes, I have read far enough to know that there’s an American hero named Captain Celebrity whose superpower from what I recall is being a humongous douchebag. and while I haven’t read far enough to know what happens to this guy, I can’t say I’m very disappointed to learn that he’s no longer the number one hero in the U.S. (actually, didn’t they kick him out and that’s why he moved to Japan to begin with?). anyway, so my thanks to Horikoshi for having a marginally higher opinion of Americans than Furuhashi, even though we have definitely not done anything to warrant said opinion lately, and you may have inadvertently opened the door to a pandora’s box of discourse lmao

(ETA: lol I went into the tags and they don’t disappoint. “why is she dressed like a flag” because she’s an homage to Captain America and Major Victory and literally every other character on this list. again, I apologize for fictional American superheroes being Like This. “oh boy another thicc waifu to make the fanboys happy” look, tumblr fandom never seems to have a problem thirsting over Dabi or Tomura or Aizawa or Nao, lol, I’m just saying. “where is Captain Celebrity” idk, probably murdered by the exploding bee cartel, let’s just be grateful for our good fortune and try not to Beetlejuice the man.)

anyway, so let’s see if Horikoshi’s recent character development with regards to making Mineta not terrible anymore will apply to other aspects of his writing as well. I know I was making light of discourse just now, but I do think the complaints about him introducing yet another new character at the 11th hour to be cannon fodder in the final battle are absolutely valid. and again, it wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t keep maiming/killing off his female characters one by one instead of developing them and letting them kick ass long-term. but that said, I will never complain about Horikoshi adding another female character to the series, regardless of how clumsy the attempt may be. go ahead and pander away, just give us more girl power lol

anyway so we’ll see how it goes, but I think I’m gonna be optimistic and let myself hope once again, even though I’m probably gonna regret it lol. it is what it is. she is standing on an airplane just chilling for fuck’s sake. I’m only human. anyway fingers crossed

#bnha 328 #stain (bnha)#tsukauchi naomasa #all might #stars and stripes (bnha)#all for one #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #eta: how did I forget to type 'bnha' in the title sob

195 notes · View notes

delimeful · 3 years

Text

not always what they seem (3)

warnings: remus pov so lots of brief mentions of gore/violence, some NSFW comments/innuendos/saucy jokes, dissection mention, miscommunication, minor injuries

the song remus so graciously performs for everyone is "a gorey demise"! :)

Remus kicked his legs absently as his alien carried him through the giant halls of... wherever the hell they were. A spaceship? Some sort of research facility? Maybe probing was still on the table.

He was pretty sure at this point that this was real, if only because if it was one of his night terrors, there would have been at least 35% more death and gore by now. Maybe 40%.

And it wasn’t like there hadn’t already been prime opportunities at basically every moment, with how small and crushable they were in comparison to each of the aliens! If the three of them were the protagonists, by slasher movie standards, two of them would have to be grotesquely killed by the end. He wondered absently which of his fellow abductees would make a better Final Survivor.

His attention immediately switched tracks as they reached a stopping point, and Logan settled their hand down on a giant, metallic table. Remus rolled off onto the surface and sprang up to his feet, rubbing his hands together maniacally. “So, what’s first?”

The alien’s big fluffy ears twitched, but they didn’t do more than glance down at Remus before tapping at a smooth blue surface and pulling up extensive diagrams. Well, if the alien wasn’t going to bring the experiments to him, he’d bring himself to the experiments!

He trotted across the table and skipped onto the blue surface, ignoring the windows and symbols that flickered into existence behind every step. If they didn’t want him walking all over the alien version of a touchscreen, they should have kidnapped him with shoes! Or broken his legs, like very literal theatre fans.

Logan didn’t lift a hand to stop him though, their head tilted curiously like a feral cat seeing something small and breakable to maul. Remus dialed the probability of it being a night terror up a few percentages, and then turned to look at the diagrams anyhow.

Ah, yes, pictures. The universal language.

He had no idea what most of the creatures depicted were or what the labels attached read, but the drawings themselves were clear enough: bodies posed neutrally, no clothes, and some parts of them exposed to show muscle, bone, and organ.

“Hm,” Remus hummed, consideringly. “These are either dissection diagrams or some really gory pornography... Either way, I’m so down.”

He flashed the alien a double thumbs up, and flopped down on top of a diagram. Logan reached over and messed with the touchscreen for a moment, and then reached even further and returned with a long, narrow utensil, black and pointed at one end.

They set the point of it directly next to his torso without even bothering to press the rest of him down, and Remus wondered if the alien expected him not to thrash around while he was being dissected. Maybe aliens had technology that deadened nerves as they cut through them! He’d always wondered how long he’d be able to survive a vivisection.

Logan moved the utensil, and Remus’s body twitched in adrenaline-fueled anticipation despite feeling exactly nothing. He craned his neck to see what was going on, and blinked.

A line stretched across the touchscreen where the utensil had slid across it, shadowing the curve of his ribcage over what looked hilariously similar to graph paper.

The alien was tracing him.

“Oh, come on!”

---

Logan’s tail swayed in curiosity as Remus began to make louder versions of those little noises that made up the aliens’ language, accentuated with a hand gesture. The motion made it harder to get an accurate outline, but the main point was to get basic measurements anyhow, so Logan didn’t try to stifle the little creature’s movements.

He absolutely didn’t want to disrupt the odd casualness with which this one treated him, so different from Virgil’s earlier twitchy terror and even D’s careful consideration of their every movement. While quite rowdy in nature, Remus seemed the most unconcerned with the situation, only showing aggression when one of the others had been grabbed without warning.

The tiny aliens were certainly a puzzle. D had given Remus’s name for them, perhaps indicating a social hierarchy, but Remus was also the largest between the three of them and had been completely unfazed by any teeth baring or tackling from the other two.

He prodded the tiny alien lightly as he finished and saved the measurement, and when that garnered no response, he curled fingers under them and lifted them up securely. Remus ragdolled petulantly, seeming oddly mopey. Perhaps the measurements had bored them?

Hopefully, the maze would provide a little more enrichment. Logan had made the deeper areas quite tricky, after all.

---

Patton was very delicate with how he handled D.

He’d tried to be careful with Remus, too, but they’d seemed pretty intent on trying to bite off little chunks of his suit, and attempt to scale dangerous items, and generally make Patton feel a little wonderment at the fact that the tiny creature had managed to survive long enough to make it to them.

With D, it was much easier, because the alien moved slower than the other two, with a purposeful grace. It seemed Patton didn’t have to worry about D throwing themself off any available high surface just to see if Patton would manage to catch them in time, at least.

He carefully shifted his hand to his research desk, and D adjusted the cuffs of their borrowed overlayer before stepping off of his hand.

Despite D’s languid movements, something about their body language seemed much more mindful than Remus. The pause as they took in the landscape and the ambient writing scrolls scattered across the table before deigning to turn and look at Patton, it felt almost... calculated. As though they were thinking about every move to present a certain image.

Patton reminded himself that there were plenty of aliens that didn’t feel as strongly as Nilhae about the authentic self, and these aliens in particular had more reason than most to hide themselves. They were tiny and vulnerable here, stripped from their homes and families, and by all appearances, Patton and his teammates were the ones responsible.

He wasn’t sure he’d be eager to share his unfiltered self if he was in their situation, either.

Patton clasped both sets of lower hands together determinedly. The solution was the same regardless of if he wanted to fulfill his responsibility as a researcher or make any progress in befriending these little guys: they needed to communicate!

He pulled out two sets of the common alphabet, one printed and one imprinted. He wasn’t sure which senses were the keenest for these aliens, which ones they used for their own language systems, so it was best to cover all his bases.

D studied the printed one curiously, but seemed less interested by the imprinted one. Perhaps the materials used for touch-reading were different for them? Patton moved his hand closer slowly, allowing them time to protest, and held a digit out.

After a short staredown, D set their tiny hand atop it, and Patton guided them both to the surface of the imprints. The symbols were oversized for their tiny digits, but they seemed to get the idea, running their hands over the carved bumps and glancing back and forth between the printed letters and the imprinted ones.

Patton cheered internally, and then flicked a finger in the air to get D’s attention.

“Wait here please!” he enunciated carefully, and then held a hand out, palm-down, to indicate that they should stay put.

D kept their expression carefully neutral, not twitching in any way Patton could read, which made sense, since this was the first time Patton was using these words. Hopefully, context and a few repetitions would help them puzzle the meaning out.

He dipped his lowest arms in a polite be-right-back, turned, and left the room.

It didn’t take him long to duck in and out of the few rooms that held the items he needed, though he seemed to accidentally give Virgil a bit of a startle, going by the wide-eyed look the alien shot at him as Roman greeted him briefly.

Every hand full, he returned to his space, and found D standing in almost the exact same spot, shoulders loose and relaxed, attention remaining on the printed alphabet even as Patton walked closer.

He set each item down, earning a casual glance from the alien, and discreetly checked the heat register for the desk’s touch surface.

Sure enough, the past few moments showed recordings of small footprints that traced the perimeter of the desk, checking every possible side of it, likely for an easy way down. Then, they swiftly headed back to the center of the desk and settled back in place, close enough that it would appear they hadn’t moved at all.

Patton’s mouth twisted unhappily; he could teach the aliens as many words as they wanted, but if they didn’t trust them enough to even show their discomfort with the captivity, real communication would be out of reach.

They had a long way to go.

Remus whistled cheerily as he was carried back to the communal room, Logan’s padded fingers forming a more secure grip around him than before. He didn’t get squeezed to death or anything, so the alien probably wasn’t too angry with him. Or they were just contemplating a more painful method to murder him.

The other alien, the one with the freaky-awesome bug mouth and the rude grabby hands, was still in there, seated by the designated Gawk-At-Humans platform. They made some greeting noises at each other, a couple of which Remus imitated to himself, mangling the vowels in the back of his throat.

As Logan got closer, he could see Virgil standing surprisingly close to Grabby, and even better, the kid was all in one grumpy human-shaped piece. He jumped down from Logan’s hand before it was completely lowered and laughed as he felt his knees pop uncomfortably.

Logan made a warble-chirp of probably-disgust-maybe-concern, but Remus was swiftly distracted by the emo appearing at his side between one blink and the next, as though he’d teleported. He circled Remus like a starving wolf, his lips pulling back slightly as he took in the bruising around his shoulders. “What’d they do to you?”

“Well, he didn’t dissect me, which would normally be an automatic fail in the mad scientist gradebook, but,” Remus paused for emphasis, “I got to trash the electronic version of a horror movie corn maze, so I’m pleased as prostitutes!”

“He put you in that maze? I knew that thing was unsafe, holy shit—,” Virgil moved to put himself between Remus and Logan like he himself wasn’t just as squishable as Remus was.

“It seemed OSHA-approved to me! Before I smashed through all those walls, I mean.” He admired his scraped up hands with a cheek-stretching grin. “It’s much less boring now, with all the fun and sharp metal scarecrow sculptures I put together to jumpscare the piss out of future contenders!”

“An alien put you in a trap-filled rat race and you made modern art?” Virgil asked, successfully distracted from whatever horrific war crimes he was inventing for Logan in that little lemming brain of his.

“Can’t have anyone beating my time!” Remus confirmed cheerily.

“You— I. Ugh. Whatever!” Virgil threw his hands up, and then grabbed the front of Remus’s shirt and dragged him further from the two aliens like a bully stereotype from a low-budget teen coming-of-age movie. “Listen, the other one— Patton? They came in here earlier without Dee. I’m worried about— my hoodie.”

Remus would have made fun of the emo for his slip-up, but he was too busy imagining Dee splattered across some distant spaceship flooring. “That alien hardly even touched me,” Remus countered for both of their sakes. “For someone with so many hands, the guy sure didn’t want to get handsy.”

“You used that one already,” Virgil told him, unimpressed. “Get better hand jokes.”

“I’m better at jobs.” Remus wiggled his eyebrows, and received a muted smack on the shoulder for his efforts. He glanced back at Grabby automatically and found both aliens watching them, neither taking umbrage with Virgil smacking him like a cat annihilating a moth. “What happened with your xenomorph?”

“Terrible movie to compare us to,” Virgil muttered, but he glanced over his shoulder at Grabby without any of his earlier terror. Grabby waved at him like some kind of people-pleaser desperate for connection. “Pretty sure I just went through the same ordeal as one of those endangered birds scientists catch and release. Weighed, measured, photographed against my will.”

“Did you at least get a colorful tag to attract more bitches with?” Remus asked, lifting his ankle up in example.

“I would have bitten them first,” Virgil replied sourly. “I didn’t spend my whole adult life avoiding all government interaction to get slapped with a house arrest anklet now. Especially not a colorful one.”

“They’re not that bad as long as you can ignore the beeping,” Remus assured him, and then paused to contemplate. “...All government interaction? Did you get sold to aliens for being a tax evader?”

Halfway through Virgil’s resulting spluttering fit, Patton trotted through the doorway, Dee sitting on one of his hands looking just as untouchable as always. He stepped gracefully onto the table’s surface once Patton’s hand got close enough for a smooth dismount, and said something in the alien language, apparently fluently as all three of them worked themselves into a tizzy over it.

Dee turned to them with an expectant look, and they wandered over to meet him like peons to their tyrannical king, or rotting driftwood in a river.

“Congrats on the Klingon!” Remus grinned salaciously. “Did you know the ship name for the most homoerotic characters in Star Trek is Kock?”

“Shut up, it is not,” Virgil said, like a nerd. “But seriously, you know what they’re saying?”

“Yes, completely, I learned an entire language in one session,” Dee snarked back, rolling his eyes. “It’s not like short phrases such as ‘thank you’ are much easier for non-native speakers to pick up naturally or anything.”

Remus interrupted Virgil’s answering hiss with a very important query. “Did you teach them any swears?”

“No,” Dee’s eyes flashed in warning, “and you won’t be teaching them any either. Or any English at all. The longer we keep our conversations incomprehensible to them, the longer we’ll maintain what little privacy we have left. I’ll share the alien language with you both, naturally, so you can report to me on what they say when they think we’re not listening.”

Remus and Virgil stared at him for a long moment before exchanging glances.

“I can’t believe you accused me of tax evasion when Dee is right here,” Virgil complained, earning himself a sharp look from the man in question.

“Who told you about that?” he hissed, and then visibly remembered that they were in space and so it probably didn’t matter. He adjusted his cuffs, which looked absolutely ridiculous from a guy wearing a hoodie instead of a suit. “Ahem. Regardless, we’re learning their language, not the other way around. If they have half a brain between the three of them, though, listening to me teaching you will be enough for them to pick up on some English. We’re going to need a distraction.”

“You had me at ‘between the three of them’!” Remus announced suggestively, making Virgil fake-gag next to him. “Leave it to me!”

Dee seemed completely content to let him wreak his havoc, grabbing Virgil and sitting down near the back of the table, the side where the aliens weren’t.

Remus strode up to the three giants confidently and cleared his throat pointedly. When that didn’t work, he screamed at the top of his lungs instead. That worked no matter where he was!

“Alright, everybody sit down, quiet down, listen up,” he started brightly, spreading his arms wide. “I brought you all here to recite the annual obituaries. Like every year, we’ll start with A and we’ll end with Z…”

---

Patton blinked, absolutely entranced as Remus belted out words to an invisible tempo.

The little creature’s vocal chords were stronger than they looked, because their melody came out loud and clear, with accompanying charades that Patton could make absolutely no sense of.

Once they had wound down to the last words and then silence, Remus looked up at them expectantly.

“Wow, that was so beautiful!” Patton cheered enthusiastically.

Remus’s eyes rolled up in what was probably an exaggerated expression and not a medical condition, and they clapped their hands together pointedly. Patton hesitantly mimicked the motion, and then more confidently when Remus visibly perked up. Eventually, he was using all three sets of hands for maximum clapping.

Logan and Roman followed suit, clapping to congratulating the abrupt performance while whispering about the implications of it between each other. Remus folded over in a deep bow that was probably an accepting gesture, and then took a deep breath.

As they launched into another song, all three aliens fixated on them, one of the two humans at the other end of the table smacked a palm against their face, utterly exasperated.

#sanders sides #g/t #ts remus #ts logan #ts patton #ts janus #ts virgil #ts roman #nawts #not always what they seem #alien au #writing #my writing #mind the warnings

284 notes · View notes

13eyond13 · 3 years

Note

Hello! I've recently seen a post about how Light often does something heteronormative when he wants to avoid suspicion. And that gave me a thought, bc it was said as a joke, but i think there's some truth to it?? I mean, he was dating a girl during Raye Penbern situation, looking at hetero porn magazines to appear less suspicious to L, dating Misa etc. Do you think that maybe it can be his internalized homophobia? (like, maybe he thinks that a straight person is by definition more "normal"?)

Haha, I know what you mean, and I think this is a huge part of what made him feel relatable to me when I was younger and living in a pretty strict/traditional/heteronormative/homophobic environment and closeted myself (I didn't even realize I was gay yet the first time I watched it, but so much of what he does around his dating life still resonated with me strongly nonetheless... like I literally did the same bookshelf hiding trick with some trashy novels I wasn't allowed to have before I even watched DN, ahahaha).

I think that since Light wasn't intentionally written to be gay that it's probably not so much internalized homophobia as just him trying very hard to appear like your average "good citizen" who is well-liked and leading a very ordinary "respectable" life. He wants to both blend in and to also seem pristine to everybody at the same time, and so appearing to have a robust (and straight) dating life benefits him for giving him convenient alibis, and for helping his actual Kira followers like Misa more easily blend in with the mix. But you can definitely read Light's excessive womanizing as cover for his true sexuality pretty easily as well; especially because he has such a traditional family, seemingly so little genuine interest in women, and so much constant ambiguous tension and emotional intrigue between himself and other male characters like L. That being said, I do think that if he were gay and trying to deny or hide it that he would probably be doing incredibly similar things to keep up the façade.

I have to admit I am not a HUGE fan of how the fandom turns the idea of Light being gay into the biggest joke of all time at his expense, because oftentimes it really smacks of homophobia the way it's worded (like him being gay is a big flaw and he should be mocked immensely for it... or for being in the closet/in denial about it instead of out, which isn't that much fun to hear when you're a gay person who struggled with the idea of not being straight for a really long time due to internalized homophobia yourself). I remember how much those jokes were almost always snide and derogatory comments made by straight people as well as gay people back in the day, and it hasn't actually changed all that much in tone even though the fandom now seems to be very openly LGBT+ positive in 2021. Light hiding his Kira identity and all the stress and anxiety and cognitive dissonance he experiences definitely has some strong parallels to what it feels like to be repressed or closeted. And so it's really easy to identify with those sneaky double-life leading behaviours that are unfortunately so familiar to people who have had to hide their true sexuality from themselves or from others in some way. For me the joking about this always comes from a gentler place of "I remember that feel" sort of solidarity with Light over the experience of once being repressed and closeted, and I think a lot of times that's what it is for other people making fun of it now too... but hopefully it doesn't also add to other fans feeling even more internalized shame about the thought of being gay themselves. Because unfortunately that's maybe what happens sometimes when people see that kind of thing laughed at over and over again.

#light yagami #ask #anon #p #not saying thats what you were doing either anon #just adding it on bc it was in my thoughts

41 notes · View notes

flooffybits · 4 years

Text

Sing Me Something

Idol: Lee Siyeon (Dreamcatcher)

Everyone knew that the members liked to learn how to play instruments. So imagine their surprise when one of them receives a present that Siyeon is more than happy to have around.

A/n: yes i am aware that this is not angst

☕buy me a coffee☕

People knew how much you loved to learn new things, more so when you showed them a completely new talent during one of your appearances in Fact In Star. They all knew you could speak two languages due to you being a foreigner, but imagine their surprise when you had spoken in a very different language they hadn’t known you already knew.

Yoohyeon explained at some point how you had picked up after her, learning a new language due to your desire to further interact with your international fans. So now, as you faced the camera and spoke with said fans, they wondered what you were still doing at the company at such a late hour, knowing full well that you should be tired due to the fact that your comeback was slowly approaching.

“Why am I not home?” You read outloud, eyes wide before you cocked your head to the side and then pointed to the instrument leaning against the wall behind you. “Everyone, there’s no guitar at the dorm, and I haven’t exactly decided on buying one yet.” You answer with a small sigh and lean against your seat.

Someone commented about Yoohyeon having one and you shake your head. “Yoohyeonnie is sleeping early now because we’re all getting ready. But I also don’t want to use hers because I’m scared that I might break it.” You say while pretending to cry.

It truly was lonely when none of your members were around to accompany you.

You read as the comments kept going up, smiling to a few. "I've been trying to learn for a while now. I've always been so interested ever since I was a kid." You grin before picking up the instrument and then pluck at the strings, the sound filling your ears when you try to play a few chords.

Looking back up, you find various requests and suggestions of songs to sing. "I'm not that good at it yet." You laugh bashfully but try to think of a song easy enough to play, using the suggestions of your fans as well. You try recalling a few chords and check the comments to see if you were doing alright.

When you finally settle for a song, you let your muscles relax before beginning to play the intro to Blackpink's Stay after seeing a few fans commenting on it and they all seemed to be enjoying it even when you keep your focus on your fingers on the fretboard. Though you do look back during the chorus, pretending to sing it for those who were watching.

At some point, you forget one of the chords and look up for help, laughing as you did. “Like this?” You ask when you place your forefinger on one of the strings, nose crinkling when you don’t follow right away. But with the help of your fans, you were able to get back on track.

You end it a little earlier than the people would hope, laughing before you checked your phone to see a text from one of your members. "Siyeon unnie just messaged me." You inform them while picking your phone up to check on the contents of her message. “Was she watching the live?” You wonder out loud.

y/n come hooome TT as much as i love hearing you sing, its late and i want to cuddle you

You giggle at the cute little message before sending her a reply about how you were busy talking with InSomnia. In response, your phone started to ring a few seconds after, making you laugh some more as you answered the older woman's call, putting it on speaker for people to hear.

"Unnie, what's wrong?" You ask before her whining reaches your ears. "I said come home." The already present smile on your face only grows as you gently set the guitar down. "But I told you that I'm talking to Somnia. I’m also practicing." You retorted playfully and fans are cooing as the two of you continue to converse.

"Everyone!" She calls out this time, knowing full well that you've put her on speaker after she had called and with the way you spoke. "Please say goodnight to our Y/n. She has to come back home and tend to her favorite unnie."

The comment has you giggling and you bring the phone closer to your lips just so you're sure she can hear you. "Dong unnie hasn't texted me though.” You tease before she’s making a sound. “Yah! Since when did you replace me?” She demanded and you had to stop yourself from laughing too much. “I didn’t replace you, Dong unnie and Jiu unnie are my favorite.”

“Ah, is that so?” She asks and you’re suddenly wary of the change in her tone. “Just wait until Sua unnie hears this.” There it was. You felt your throat dry up and you looked as though you had gone pale at the mention of the dancer, knowing full well that she will not stop bugging you for not choosing her.

And it looked like your fans had the same thought.

“Okay, maybe Sua unnie is my favorite, too.”

“Yah!” The vocalist protested and you just smiled before shaking your head. “Okay, okay. I’ll come home in a while and take care of you, unnie.” You finally relent after the continuous whining noises she’s given, chuckling as you can basically hear the pout in her voice. “Tell me I’m your favorite.” Her voice was so small and you didn’t have the heart to keep teasing her anymore.

“Siyeon unnie is my favorite. Don’t worry.” You assure her before she finally perks up. “You heard that, right everyone? Y/n is mine!” She boasts and you finally put her off speaker before pressing the device to your ear. “I’ll see you in a while, unnie.”

“Be quick.” She replies and you finally say goodbye before looking back to the live, grinning as you addressed your viewers. “Well, you heard unnie. I have to get home soon.” You explain to them, opting to read a bit more of the comments instead of leaving right away.

But you did find comments telling you that it was fine to leave and that you should tend to Siyeon. Even your ship name had been mentioned a lot after the little interaction.

“Unnie is really cute, right?” You laughed before standing so you could put the guitar back from where you first got it. “But, she’s right. It is pretty late and we still have practice tomorrow.” You pout, zipping the bag up and then safely putting it away before returning to the camera, only to see a few more of Siyeon’s messages.

You said you were coming home now :((( youre still doing the live

ynnnnn

why are you making me wait

“Siyeon unnie just texted again, everyone.” You say amusedly. “It looks like she is watching. Unnie, hold on, I’m just fixing up and saying goodnight to InSomnia.” You explain as you tie your hair up so it wasn’t falling on your face. “I’ll talk to you all next time, hopefully I can play the guitar well for you all by then.”

You smile at the encouraging words sent your way before deciding to finally end the live. “See you soon, goodnight. I love you!” Waving goodbye, you finally turn it off before gathering your things and finally leave the company, sending Siyeon a quick text that you were on your way home.

Siyeon waited for you as you finished getting your makeup done. She was happily admiring your outfit for this fanmeet, seeing how you seemed comfortable in it and that it wasn’t too much for you while keeping the theme of everyone wearing black. In fact, it looked like something you would wear during a casual hangout, yet it still looked stylish.

“Please make our Y/n extra pretty.” She had requested in a cute tone, making your stylist chuckle and you to smile. “Y/n is pretty already, so there’s not much for me to do.” She had replied as she made sure your hair was in place, clipping two parts at the back before leaving the rest of your hair down in waves of ash brown, and Siyeon all but bounced in her place when she saw that you were finally finished after your stylist applied a bit of hairspray.

Making sure that there was nothing else missed, your stylist nodded approvingly before gently nudging you towards the waiting woman. “Don’t mess her hair up, please.” Siyeon salutes playfully before encasing you in her arms, lightly pecking your cheek just so her lipstick doesn’t leave a mark.

“Our Y/n is so pretty. I could kiss you.” You crinkle your nose at her claim before poking her side. “Unnie just said not to mess my hair up.” You remind and she pouts. “Come on, just one kiss. It’s not even going to bother your hair.” She reasons, but your stylist pipes up behind you. “Don’t ruin her makeup either.”

You laugh at the face Siyeon makes, Minji doing the same when she catches what’s going on. “You’re both so cute! But unnie is right, Siyeon-ah. We’re starting in a while and you don’t want Y/n late because she has to redo her hair and makeup.” The leader warns and Siyeon lets out an exaggerated sigh before resting her head on your shoulder instead. “Fine.”

Siyeon’s pout would grow whenever your attention would flit away from her and to either Handong or Minji, recalling your past live where you had told her that the pair were your favorites, though you’ve already stated that you were only joking around. When Bora was there, however, the dancer made it her goal to wreak havoc when her sight zeroed in on you after Siyeon told her she wasn’t your favorite.

You remember running away from her the morning after, only for it to be in vain because she had you trapped in the practice room and the only way you could avoid her was when you used your members to shield yourself, yet the only ones who helped you out were your leader and Handong, fueling the little jealousy that Siyeon already felt after your admission.

Since then, Bora decided to bring it up whenever she could, though you know that she just wants your attention just as much as Siyeon does.

“Y/n, come here!” Siyeon groaned as Bora called you once more, tightening her arms around your waist as you looked over. “Why?” She asked for you, the pout already set on her face as Bora grabbed your hand. “She’s sitting next to me.” She stated with a smirk and you grimaced before trying to spot your manager.

“Don’t even try it. Let’s go!” Bora tugged at your arms and you reluctantly left Siyeon’s arms, despite her protest. “Why can’t she sit next to me?” The brunette whined and Gahyeon looked at Siyeon. “You spend the most time with Y/n unnie. We’re her members, too!” Handong chuckled at their squabbling. “I think Y/n spends a lot of time with all of us.”

“That’s because you’re also hogging her when Siyeon unnie isn’t around.” Yoohyeon pointed out with Bora nodding in agreement. “She comes to you often, especially when she wants to study Chinese.” Yubin added as she fixed her skirt and then dusted herself off. “Basically the unnies have taken Y/n away.” Minji chuckled amusedly when she reached to pinch your cheeks.

Siyeon huffed at that, crossing her arms as she watched Bora cuddling you already. “But Y/n is mine!” She complained and Yoohyeon leaned against her shoulder. “Y/n unnie is going to get tired with all of us if we don’t stop arguing and go. Our manager is also going to get angry, too.” She laughed when you all saw your managers waving you over.

“Come on, kids! Time to meet InSomnias!”

While you’ve done this numerous times, it never failed to bring a smile to all of your faces. As soon as the screaming of fans met your ears, you had all forgotten about the little argument you all had in the dressing room and greeted your fans with vigorous energy.

If you could, you might have already hopped out of your seat to hug them.

As everyone was happily interacting with the people that sat in front of them, thanking them for coming and accepting gifts, Siyeon smiled when she greeted one of your fansites. “You’re the person who always makes cute edits for Y/n.” She beamed and the fansite smiled shyly while nodding their head.

“There aren’t that many people who make them for Y/n unnie, so I try my best.” Siyeon’s smile widened at that before nodding her head while she signed the fan’s album, leaving a quick thank you message. “Y/n really appreciates it, so I hope you keep up the good work.” She encourages and the fansite nods happily. “Of course!”

When your fansite reaches you, Bora is telling her to make sure that your best edits are the ones with her in them, earning a laugh from you as you greet them. “Don’t mind unnie. She’s still upset with me.” You tell her, and your fansite giggles while nodding her head. “I figured as much since your live before the comeback.” She answers and you grin before opening their album to sign your name on it.

“How is your guitar practice going, unnie?” She had asked and you look up with a smile and she mimics it when she sees how your eyes sparkle at the mention of your little hobby. “I’m getting better! Of course, you all helped me last time. I should hire you guys.” You joked and she giggled with you before nodding her head. “Then that means I can give this to you.”

You were a little confused by what she meant, but when she moved to remove the strap of the guitar bag from her shoulder, your eyes widened when she brought it forward. “You said you don’t have a guitar yet, so I got you one! It’s a little similar to the one I have at home, but I had this one customized with your animal and favorite color.”

“You didn’t have to. This must have cost a lot!” You say worriedly, but she shook her head in reply. “It’s not much, please don’t worry. I also got this for you so you don’t have to be at the company so late.” She explained while lowering the case a bit. “Also this way, you can practice while you’re in the dorm and you don’t have to borrow Yoohyeon’s guitar.”

You were a bit overwhelmed with such a heartfelt gift and you quickly stood to bow at her, surprising your members who sat on either side of you, and fans who caught the interaction. “Thank you so much. I promise I’ll take care of it.” You told her when you sat back down as she blushed and waved her hands.

When it was time for her to move over to Yubin, you bid her goodbye with the biggest smile on your face before you asked your managers to handle the item with care as they came to put it in your box of gifts.

Once that was done and you were able to talk with all of your fans, the tables and chairs were cleared and all eight of you gathered on the stage to take pictures while also answering some questions, along with conversing with them in general.

Seeing how happy you were at the moment, your members watched you with fond smiles as you kept waving to everyone, posing for the camera like the rest of them were. They could also see how you were excited to see your new guitar, seeing as you haven’t really checked the inside of the bag to see the actual present.

“Unnie, do you want to open it?” Yoohyeon’s voice had caught your attention and you see Yubin already walking over to your box of things to carefully retrieve the guitar with the help of your managers. “Is that okay?” You ask confusedly when you walked closer, though it was clear that you were more than happy to see it.

Bora grinned before nodding her head. “Go ahead. I think everyone wants to see it, too.” She tells you before Yubin handed it over and you gently put it down, crouching as you unzipped the bag. Siyeon had come up next to you and crouched beside you, making sure that you were covered up.

She observes you when you take a look at the instrument and she aww’s at the expression on your face when you finally see what it looked like. The body was in your favorite color and a copy of your signature was on the upper part of it along with little doodles of your assigned animal. When you turn it to check the back, both you and Siyeon are pleasantly surprised to see words carved on the neck of the guitar.

We dream of you the way you dream of us

You let your fingers lightly trace each word, your smile not once faltering and Siyeon had to stop herself from tearing up as she stared at the message before you looked up, searching for the fansite who had given you the guitar before finally meeting her eyes.

Shooting her a smile, you borrowed Gahyeon’s microphone before speaking. “I love you, thank you.” Though you didn’t say much, everyone could feel the various emotions and feelings it held underneath, and there really was no need to further ask you about it as you stood to try it, Siyeon helping you with the strap - one that also had a few more characters you adored.

“Is everyone up for one more song?” You ask and your members had no complaints along with your managers since there was still a bit of time before you had to perform What.

“What are you singing for us, Y/n?” Handong asked as you tuned the guitar while Siyeon rested her head on Gahyeon’s shoulder as they watched you.

There was really only one song you could think of at that moment, so you didn’t waste time playing the chords to Full Moon, it being one of the first few songs you really wanted to know how to play.

The girls didn’t seem to catch on to it right away, but once you started singing, fans started cheering while your members beamed and sang along with you.

The moments when you and I were together

It is like I’m a star in the sky

It was easy for all seven of them to adjust to the slower tempo of the song since you often practiced with them around, and the girls would admit that they had heard you singing it at a slower pace.

When the fanmeet ends and you were all back at the dorm, Siyeon came bounding into your room, grinning when she saw you already on the Vapp and conversing with fans dispute having seen them earlier. She listened as you happily spoke about the event and how you wish you could have an event with InSomnia from all around the world in just one place together, and her heart melted just a little at how fondly you spoke about your fans.

“Unnie, I didn’t notice you coming in.” You were surprised when you finally noticed her in the room and she laughed lightly before shaking her head, keeping herself out of frame since she had already changed into her sleep wear and she didn’t feel like stealing your attention away from everyone so much.

“I just wanted to check in on you. How’s your guitar?” She asked, eyeing it as it rested beside your and Yubin’s desk. “I could hear you earlier, before I went to wash up.” She stated as she sat on your bed and then peeked at the camera, poking her head in just so it only showed her eyes and forehead. “Hello everyone. I can’t show my face right now, but please enjoy our Y/n.”

You giggle before looking back at the guitar then shift your gaze back to the older woman. “I really appreciate them a lot.” You say softly and Siyeon smiles as she reaches to run her fingers gently through your hair. “I’m sure they know that.” She nods to your phone that has various comments coming in, agreeing with her statement and you nod your head in reply, smiling and radiating pure happiness.

As you continued with your conversation, Siyeon decided to just lay down to listen to you, humming as you told her what fans were saying and just enjoying as she listened to you speak. She had always found your voice soothing to listen to and it was also endearing how much you showered your fans with affection, so it made her feel at ease.

When she turned her head, the vocalist suddenly noticed your guitar again before the words fell from her mouth when you paused to read the comments. “Sing me something, Y/n.” She shifted so that she was laying on her side and you hummed in response before looking at her.

“Sing me something. I like listening to you.” She said quietly and you smile before nodding your head. “I’m going to get my guitar so I can sing for you guys, okay?” You announce before quickly leaving the bed to fetch the instrument.

You’re quick to settle back though before looking at the other with a thoughtful look on your face, making her giggle as she lightly pinched your leg. “What?” She asked and you laughed in reply. “I was thinking of what to sing for you.” You reply, opting to come up with a song by yourself despite fans sending in requests.

It doesn’t take long though before Siyeon sees you setting the guitar on your lap and then start playing, singing right along. Though she doesn’t understand everything that you're saying since it was an english song, she did smile when she was able to catch parts of it.

They say that love is forever

Your forever is all that I need

Please stay as long as you need

Though your eyes often check if you were playing the right chords, you make sure to look at Siyeon as you sing, smiling at her as she does the same, listening to your gentle voice as you both seemingly forget that you had an audience.

When you finish, Siyeon is close to falling asleep and you can’t help but coo before placing your guitar away before leaning down to gently caress her cheek. “Unnie, you should go back to your room. You’re falling asleep.” You say with a giggle but she makes a small whining sound as she nuzzles against your hand.

“But your bed is comfy.” She murmurs, fighting back a yawn as you shake your head. “Please?” You try again and she huffs with a pout before weakly tugging at your wrist, an indication for you to come closer.

Your upper body is off camera when you do as she asks, leaving fans to only see you from the torso down, and her arms loop around your neck before she presses a light kiss against your lips.

“Do you want me to tuck you in?” You ask quietly and she presses her head against your neck before nodding. “You have to let go first so I can say goodnight to everyone.” You giggle, recalling the live that you had forgotten due to your tired girlfriend.

There are questions coming in when you look back and you merely smile before glancing back as Siyeon’s eyes close. “It looks like it’s time for us to go to sleep. Unnie is literally falling asleep on my bed and she won’t go to her room unless I tuck her in.” You joke lightly while reaching for her hand and giving it a light squeeze.

“We’ll see you again. For now, have sweet dreams and I’ll see you then, okay?” There’s a meaningful smile on your face before you finally turn the app off and turn to your sleepy girlfriend.

Seeing how tuckered out she was, you didn’t have the heart to force her to get up, so instead, you adjust your positions before laying her head on one of your pillows before laying next to her. The action causes her to stir, and she’s a bit confused when she realizes that she’s still in your bed, but you’re already pulling her closer before she can question you.

“Goodnight. I love you.” You whispered, drawing a small yet sleepy smile to her face as she draped an arm across your abdomen. She didn’t have to tell you she loved you back.

You knew more than enough.

#girl group #girl group scenarios #girl group imagines #dreamcatcher #dreamcatcher scenarios #dreamcatcher imagines #dreamcatcher siyeon #siyeon dreamcatcher #lee siyeon #siyeon #siyeon scenarios #siyeon imagines #dreamcatcher x reader

158 notes · View notes

shushiyuii · 3 years

Text

Interview with CEO of L’manburg’s RaM! (Part 2 for Subject T0M au)

Part 2! And it’s mainly just important world building and lore dump! Don’t worry there is a moment of fluff in there!

Warnings: Descriptions of experimentation (background on the speciemens), Dehumanisation? That’s about it I think? Lemme know if I should add anything else

Words: 1K (It’s short I’m sorrry)

“Greeting Viewers! And welcome back to L’manburg’s daily talk! Today, we’ve managed to get in contact with The J’Schlatt and get him on the show for an interview! And we’re also joined by one of his associates, Doctor Philza Watson!”.

“Hello!”. “Heya!” Both of them greeted as they waved to the camera. “So, how are you both today?”, “I’d say we’re pretty good, just been working on a lot of things recently”, “Yep-“ Philza snorted, “A lot of things go on in our facility so it does take up a lot of time, this seems like a break honestly!”.

“That’s great to hear! So, we’ve asked our audience for questions for you both today so let us begin!”, “Of course! Send em’ in!”

“Okay firstly, what does your facility specialise in?”. “Really? I thought that one would be pretty obvious!” He playfully pushed Philza to which made Philza laugh.

“We specialise in special research on medicine, we focus our research on specimens that produce chemicals mostly unknown to humans, we research it in order to hopefully use in human medicine to help those who really need it”.

“Great response! Secondly, this is directed towards J’Schlatt, how did you found your company and how did you get so successful?”. “Well, it all started with me and a couple of friends of mine, like Phil here, they did extensive research into medicine and made fascinating results, leading to better treatment.

And with this research, we managed to get noticed by the government, to which they made the offer of funding us for more of our research, to which we agreed, and I took it upon myself as a leader since I was one of them who had studied business practices. And it only took off from there”.

“Ohh- That’s quite fascinating how all of you have come so far!”. “Heh- Yeah I suppose so, some of our friends have left the company since they’ve wanted to focus more on their personal things and families, but we still keep in touch!”. Philza smiled.

“Speaking of families, Phil hasn’t your son started working in the place? I’ve been so busy recently I haven’t been able to meet him yet!”. “Yeah, he has actually! He’s been working really hard, and I’m honestly can’t wait to see what he discovers!”. Philza said proudly, “Can’t wait to meet him then!”. Both them and the interviewer seemed content after that statement.

“That’s lovely to hear! I hope your son is watching this! Then he can see how proud his father is! Now next question, “What have you guys recently been working on?”.

“Oh! That’s a bit confidential for the time being, we are a government facility after all but what we will say is that we’ve recently made a new discovery and have been putting a lot of research into it, hopefully soon enough it could be used for medical purposes!”.

“That’s amazing! Now you don’t have to answer this question in detail if you don’t want to but what about the rumours of monsters roaming your facility?”. “Oh, we can strictly say that we do none of the sorts and other than that it is confidential, my apologies.

(I might as well go into this now, LORE DUMP TIME! L’manburg RaM is a government facility that does in fact work with monsters, but they wish to keep this a secret because they wish to keep their specimens protected from the public eye, if the word were to get out, there’d be mayhem.

And allow me to elaborate on the specimens, the chemicals they research do come from somewhere and in order to research their behaviour on humans, they’re injected into the specimens.

And that’s how Tommy and others were created, they weren’t just experimenting on regular humans though, they don’t have the heart to do that, I won’t spoil too much because I want to write more about this at some point in-depth, but they work with humans who have become tragedy injured or ill and will only do it with the consent of the subjects.)

“That’s completely fine! Don’t worry about it! Now last question, there’s been a recent rumour that your facility is looking for internships?”.

“Ah yes! Phil can go into detail about that!”, “Right so we’ve recently been looking for interns who wish to research just like us at our facility, so we’ve started up this opportunity for university students, not only that but we’ve been meaning to get assistance since there’s quite a low number of researchers.

This program allows these university students to gain a higher position in our facility when graduated or a good look on the resume and such! I’ve personally been looking for a helping hand since a majority of the time I have my hands full, I need somebody who can keep an eye on things for me! So please spread the word if possible!”.

“Glad to hear about it! We look forward to seeing more of your facility’s work in the future! Thank you both so much for taking the time to come to our show tonight! It’s a pleasure to have had you both here tonight!”.

“No, it’s our pleasure, and thank you so much for tonight! We promise that we’ll do our best!”. “That’s all for tonight folks! Hope you enjoyed it!” Was said as the ending of the broadcast was shown with Philza and J’Schlatt walking off stage.

Back in the facility, he groaned as the interview ended, his father had to embarrass him in front of live TV, didn’t he? Tommy looked over from playing with Shroud, curious about Wilbur’s quick change in mood. He made a questioning groan in response.

Wilbur peaked at the sound of Tommy and rolled back his office chair and rotated it to look at the gremlin, he laughed at Tommy’s expression. “Philza’s such a bitch isn’t he Tommy! He just embarrassed me in front of live TV!”. Tommy bickered back angrily, seeming to disagree with him, he was always a fan of his father when Phil came to visit them.

He smiled and started to have a meaningful discussion with him.

Meanwhile, “Internship huh? I mean I do have a lot of spare time on my hands, not only that but I am curious about these rumours. Better well sign up!”. He looked forward to what was to come.

#mcyt g/t #mcytg/t #dsmp g/t #sizeshifter!tommy #tiny!wilbur #tiny!phil #tiny!schlatt #also with mysterious figure that will not be named until the next part because i wanna keep a mystery for now-#Shushi's writings #Subject t0m au

40 notes · View notes

writersrealmbts · 3 years

Text

Cruise

Description: Part of the summer #btswritingbingo, hosted by @bangtanwritingbingo! For the Boating prompt. A summer cruise as a translator for world-famous band BTS: what could go wrong? WELL, the zombie apocalypse. In the middle of the ocean, are you safe? Or is there danger lurking in the deep?

Warnings: Mentions of death, violence (especially after the third content break), mild language? (I can’t remember if there’s language or not but I’ll tag it)

Posted: 06/11/2021

Tags: Zombie apocalypse au, Yoongi x reader

Angst?: 8,342 words

A/N: Oh look, another zombie au.

The engine was idling.

The radio was on, and everyone was listening to the broadcast in silence. The horror was slowly growing in your stomach.

“The country is overrun, we’re broadcasting from a locked room, and we aren’t certain how much longer we can hold out…how much longer we’ll be safe. We’ve had news from several other countries reporting the same conditions. They’re mindless, react to movement…don’t like bright lights…most active starting at dusk all the way through dawn. Don’t let them injure you. They hid the mutagen in vitamins and supplements. Whatever you do…don’t ingest anything from Biogene International.”

You swallowed hard, hugging yourself as background sounds of other voices and banging echoed through the radio

“Oh God, they’ve found us,” The radio announcer murmured. “I guess this is it. If you’re isolated from infestations, I suggest you stay isolated. Cut off the heads. And enjoy this last song by Andy Lange. God save us all.”

The radio started playing ‘Not Sure Yet’, and you just listened to it as your heart broke.

They finally ruined the world.

And you weren’t with your friends and family when it happened.

You were with your stupid ex-boyfriend that you’d just broken up with, the staff of the ship that hired you as an extra translator for the last group—a kpop group and their staff that were filming a vacation show of some sort.

And you’d have to be born under a mountain of rocks to not know that the kpop group was BTS, and in any other situation you’d be excited about helping them as a semi-casual fan of theirs.

But right now you really hated them, and their choice of this ship that employed your ex-boyfriend—even if you’d been the one to get him that job.

“So,” The spoken-of devil murmured, coming to stand next to you. “Sounds like the world is actually ending.”

You took a deep breath, because everyone could hear, and were subtly watching.

“Changes a lot of things doesn’t it?”

“Except one.”

“What?”

You turned to him. “I still would rather die alone than live my life with you.”

He sputtered, but you didn’t stay to listen to him try to argue with you, turning off the radio since it had turned to static and going to the other translator.

“Do they know?”

He nodded gravely. “They’re trying to check on their families.”

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” You told him, bowing slightly to the other staff and the boys before going over to some of the other crew. “How much food do we have?”

“Maybe enough for a week,” The cook, Lori, answered. “If I ration.”

“Do it. Same with water?”

“We should have two weeks, more if we cut back on showers, mopping, other excess water usage,” The first mate said, staring out at the horizon. “Hopefully by then we’ll know if there’s a safe port. The captain went to try and radio as many other ships as possible.”

“We should make sure none of that Biogene stuff is on the ship,” One of the engineers said.

The first mate nodded, quickly moving. “Everyone! We need to make sure that there are no Biogene products on this vessel. Please go check all of your pills and supplements, anything that could be pharmaceutical or…just check everything!”

You translated quickly, then went to check your own things. You didn’t have much that could be from that company, but you checked absolutely everything just to be sure.

Then you went to help the staff and band just in case.

They weren’t coming up with anything, so you headed for the captain’s cabin just to see if there were any more plans at that point.

Captain Cobden Alby was an elder man, who tended to become an Uncle, Brother, or Grandfather figure for anyone who’d let him look out for them. You knew him relatively well, because he’d looked out for you when you started working with his tourism company, helping foreigners book trips with him and accompanying them on trips to help out. You’d worked with him for the past three years, and he’d been kind enough to hire your then boyfriend when he needed a job—though you now understood his reluctance. You wished he’d been more reluctant.

“Well, y/n,” Cob sighed. “Guess this is a new chapter. Any ideas?”

“Islands will gain control more quickly, I think, and there are a couple uninhabited islands we might be able to land at if we get desperate. We have nets, so we can fish if we have to. And if we start getting stills set up now, we can provide ourselves with more water. Revert to basic survival, I think.” You chewed your lip. “But if we’re going to use an uninhabited island, I think we should find one and stick around it, because people are going to try and escape by boat and they might bring it with them. The likelihood of the messages and warnings reaching everyone is slim.”

He sighed and nodded. “Our passengers?”

“Scared. But everyone is checking for the products to dispose of them, as you know, and they’re trying to contact their families back in Korea.”

“Have you tried your family?”

You stared out at the water. “I’m afraid to.”

He nodded again, looking grim. “I’ve heard from a couple other ships. We’re going to have issues with food at some point, so the island idea might be good. Maybe we can work with the other ships as long as they stay uninfected to build a sort of safe-haven?”

“Maybe,” You agreed. “We’ll be breaking laws if we land on some of the islands though. Or fish near them. They are wildlife refuges right now.”

“Hon, I don’t think that’s as big of an issue as of yesterday,” Lori said, shutting the door. “We can respect the wildlife. It would only be temporary, right? I mean, things have to stabilize sometime, and I think the islands should stabilize more quickly.”

You didn’t have very high hopes for the islands stabilizing, unless they were able to quickly regulate who came in and out of the populace of Hawaii. But people were creative and there were thousands of boats and planes in existence.

“Alright, so we’re going to go near the closest uninhabited, and weigh anchor, just for safety. But we’re not going to do anything on the island or any fishing until absolutely necessary. We’ll get some water stills set up, and start rationing the food. Try to preserve some fruits, Lori.”

She nodded. “You got it, Captain. But you better get someone else on those stills. Not my division, you know.”

“I’ll get our engineer on it. Dobby will need to be distracted anyway. Y/n, you should go tell our passengers the plan for now.”

“Right. First, I want a thank you.”

“For?”

“Convincing you to invest in some backup solar power for the ship to run things like the radios.” You paused at the door. “How long can the engines run?”

“I made sure we had enough to last us a couple of months, and I’ve got us going slow to reduce consumption. But we’ll have to start thinking about how to move once we run out, which is why I think your idea for the islands is a good one. The ship would be a safety point, and we could use the life-boats to get back and forth. At least until we have some sort of relief. And we might be able to go somewhere before we run out of gas. You never know. This might blow over quickly.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” You went out to check on the idols and their staff again.

They had gathered in the dining lounge, and everyone was double checking each other to make sure that there weren’t any Biogene products.

“Everyone, I’ve just finished talking to our captain, and he’s asked me to tell you our current course of action,” You started, gathering the idols and staff’s attention to explain things. “We’ve communicated with some other ships, but our current course is to head for an uninhabited island and keep to the coast of that. We have the supplies to fish, and our cook is currently working on preparing the food for rationing. Our top engineer is going to work on making sure we have a constant source of drinkable water, but for now we’re reducing our water usage. We’re scanning the radio frequencies to try and find another source of information for what’s going on out in the world, but right now it’s very quiet. We ask for your cooperation as we continue to approach these problems calmly and rationally, and your patience as we try to figure things out.”

“Is food an issue?” Seokjin asked.

You shook your head. “Not at the moment, we’re just trying to make sure it lasts as long as possible, especially our fruits and vegetables. Anything in the kitchen that we can regrow here on the ship, we will attempt to do so. The ship was stocked for at least a hundred passengers, plus the crew, and since we don’t even reach sixty with the passengers and crew combined, we should be able to hold out for a while, we’re just trying to make our food last as long as possible, which is why we will likely be utilizing the fishing nets, so we can eat and still prepare for the future. Because we have had warning, we have time to prepare for the worst, but we are still hoping for the best. We are not giving way to fear. At the moment, all we’re asking is that you remain calm and patient with us.”

That seemed to be agreeable for everyone, so you bowed a bit and then went to check in with the other translator and manager to find out what you could do to help.

Yoongi intercepted you. “Hey, sorry, I know you’re busy.”

“It’s fine, how can I help you?”

“Um, actually, I was going to ask if there was anything we could do to help? It’d be…hard to just ignore the situation.”

“I understand, unfortunately, at this moment, we’re not even certain what we need to get done. When we do, I will let you know if there is any way for you to help. For now, we have solar power that you can continue to use for charging your phones, just in case you get a call from your families, and we can power the lights. Any extra batteries, try to save them.”

He nodded. “Okay. Shouldn’t they turn of the air conditioning then?”

You shook your head. “That would be inviting trouble. People get less rational when they overly warm or cool. Turning it off would reduce morale.”

He considered it, then nodded. “Okay.”

You nodded as well, then moved on to talk to their managers.

You didn’t sleep that night, helping in the kitchen and mulling over different ideas to try for powering the boat. In theory, with the engineers’ help, you might be able to convert the engines to wind power, or at least move the boat using wind power, if you were careful enough. But where would you get the parts?

And theoretically, some of the fruits and veggies and other things could be regrown.

But what would you grow them in?

Lori had some sitting in a shallow tray of water to start sprouting, and some would continue to grow in just water, but others would need soil.

“Wake up, hon,” Lori said gently, patting your back. “Cap’n wants you. Something on the radio he wants you to hear.”

You rubbed your eyes as you forced yourself up. “How long was I…?”

“An hour,” She said in a scolding tone, giving you a look of disapproval. “A young thing like you needs regular sleep. I could have done that in the morning.”

You shrugged. “My mind wouldn’t shut off. You were awake. Like you said, I’m younger.”

“You tried calling your family?”

You shook your head. If they hadn’t tried to contact you, then there would be no point in trying to contact them. Either the call wouldn’t go through, or there was no one to make the call. Or they just weren’t able to call because they had no means or it was too dangerous. Any way you looked at it, it was safer to allow them to try and contact you. They knew you were on a ship, and your father studied epidemiology, so he would know that the ship would either go down quickly or not at all, barring a few statistical outliers.

Your father always called you a statistical outlier.

“Here, take this up with you, find a spot where it won’t get knocked over that gets some sun and some shade. Okay?”

You nodded, taking the tray up with you.

“Y/n,” Yoongi called, waving.

You nodded your greeting to him and the others, trying to pinpoint a good spot for it, finally finding it on a table that was bolted to the wall.

“Is this what we’re regrowing?”

You jumped a bit, turning to the boys with a hand over your heart. “Um, yes. One of the trays, anyway. We’ve got more down there, but they aren’t full yet so…this is the first one to come up for sunlight.”

“Cool,” Taehyung whispered.

Yoongi looked it over. “It…doesn’t look like much.”

You sighed. “I know. But like I said, if all goes well, these should regrow and we’ll just start the process over again. But I’ve been summoned.”

“Summoned?”

“Y/N to the Bridge, Y/N, please report to the bridge.”

You pointed up at the speakers.

“Oh, and maybe bring one of the representatives with you.”

You sighed. “Um, know where your managers are?”

They all shook their heads.

“I could come,” Yoongi offered.

You considered for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, only to save time though, I’m not going to be the one to get in trouble—got it?”

He nodded, gesturing for you to lead the way.

Cob glanced up when you came in. “You’ll love this. Hey, Johnny, I got my person here, mind repeating that now?”

As Johnny started retelling his tale, you slowly processed and translated for Yoongi.

“They were near one of the islands of Hawaii, and sometime in the night they started hearing noises against the hull of the ship…” You paused, horrified. “The creatures…they can survive in the water, and swim. He lost three people when some of the creatures managed to climb aboard.”

Yoongi looked just as grim. “So we’re not safe, even on a ship away from shore?”

You didn’t know the answer to that. “He says he’s going to see how far away from shore they’re able to follow him. That will help us determine how safe we may or may not be.”

Cob thanked Johnny, then turned to the two of you. “Well, what do you think? Do we tell the others of this possibility, or keep it quiet?”

You weren’t sure how to answer that either. There were pros and cons for both sides. But there were more cons for—

“We don’t tell them,” Yoongi said firmly.

You met his gaze and nodded, translating. “It would just incite panic. We don’t tell them until we know that it is a possibility, and even then, we wait until we’ve calculated when they could reach us.”

Yoongi nodded his agreement.

Cob sighed. “Right. You’re right. I just….”

“Take a break. That’s what Jones is for, so you can take breaks. They’re most active between dusk and dawn, right? Then for now, we just slowly make our way to the proximity of an island, Jones can do that.”

He slowly nodded. “Yeah, he’s on his way, just wanted to try his brother one more time.”

You nodded, then signaled for Yoongi to head for the door. “I’m checking back in half an hour and if you’re still here, I’m kicking heads.”

Cob snorted, but didn’t respond further.

Yoongi sighed outside, leaning against the railing. “This is really bad.”

“Really, really bad,” You agreed, leaning next to him. “You okay to keep this from your bandmates?”

He nodded. “I’ll just say that he asked for a representative agreement from our party that he should head for the nearest uninhabited island, as a formality, obviously.”

“Sounds good. And I was there as a translator.”

“What name would you give these creatures?”

“Based on description? The only word I can think of is in English.”

“And?”

“Zombies,” You offered, giving him an apologetic look.

But he nodded. “That’s what we were saying last night. Jungkook said it first, I think we were all afraid of saying it, but he likes watching those kinds of movies, so it wasn’t surprising that he named it first.”

“But watching movies about it isn’t exactly preparation for the real thing,” You whispered, staring out at the ocean. You usually loved going out on trips like this, even if you were just a translator. This time, though….

“Part of me wishes we’d never come on this trip, but part of me is glad that we did.”

“I understand that,” You whispered. “There are a lot of things that I wish. There are a lot of regrets I could have about this.”

“Y/n!”

You closed your eyes. “Speaking of regrets.”

Your ex came over, half-glaring at Yoongi. “This guy bugging you?”

“No, but you are,” You replied, rolling your eyes and pushing away from the railing, walking toward the stairs. “Don’t you have a job to do?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were holding up okay—”

“Well, I am. There’s no need for you to check on me. I’m doing just fine. Please, don’t check on me again. You do your job and I will do mine,” You snapped, turning to glare at him. “I told you, I have no regrets breaking up with you, and even if I knew the future, I would do it again, and probably sooner.”

“Whoa, no need to be so hostile babe!”

“‘Babe’?” You sneered, resisting the urge to shove him over your shoulder and down the flight of stairs. “You never have, and never will be allowed to call me ‘Babe’.”

“Chill out!”

Yoongi pushed past him and grabbed your wrist, pulling you down the stairs after him while rambling in rapid korean about it being dangerous to fight on stairs and ‘that’s how people get murdered’ and ‘unless that was your plan, which I would vouch for you, but I’m not sure who would believe it’ with an added ‘besides, there are a few witnesses’.

Damn was that hot.

No.

Wait.

Yes.

No. No, no. No, no, no.

He was someone you were working for, he wasn’t allowed to be hot.

And his hand definitely didn’t feel strong and sinewy and attractive.

“Don’t walk away when we’re talking!”

Your hold on Yoongi’s hand tightened.

“Ignore him, come with me. Our security team will block him,” Yoongi said, not looking back. “We have a head start, unless he starts running after us. Why did you break up with him? I mean, I get it, but what was the main reason?”

“Cheating, threatening, trying to emotionally manipulate me,” You listed, doing your best not to look back.

“Figures.”

You could see that the heading of the boat was changing, even as you and Yoongi made your way down to where the other boys and their staff were waiting.

“Block the guy following us,” Yoongi called to the security team as both of you passed by them. “He’s letting the panic get to him.”

The security team easily blocked your ex, and Yoongi led you straight to the poolside.

Namjoon came over quickly. “Any news?”

“Nothing new. Just needed a formal agreement to their plan from someone in our party.”

Jungkook dropped onto a seat nearby. “Any new information about the zombies?”

Yoongi shook his head. “Same as before, I think.”

Jungkook tilted his head. “And what is it that we do know?”

“The mutagen makes people into crazed killers, who don’t like bright lights and can only be stopped by cutting off their heads. Strong mutants that can only be stopped by cutting off their heads, and appear to be decaying. I think the mutagen might stimulate muscle growth while suppressing the nervous system. If I’m understanding things correctly, anyway.” You hesitantly sat down, wondering if that would be okay.

“I don’t know exactly what that means,” Jungkook replied, looking a little lost but curious.

“Well, we know that they’re significantly stronger, but their response to injuries is non-existent. Our nervous system is responsible for sending signals to the brain,” You explained, still thinking it through yourself. “Because it isn’t functioning the way it’s supposed to, maybe the pupils aren’t contracting, or something which makes them more sensitive to light.” But that still didn’t explain how they could survive in the water like they did.

“That makes sense,” Yoongi agreed. “I mean, for me, not knowing that much about the human body.”

“Same, but I remember some things, enough to try and puzzle it out, I guess,” You replied, shrugging a bit and looking around. “I should see if there’s anything I can do.”

“Sleep,” Yoongi said. “You should sleep. You look exhausted. I’ll walk you to your cabin so that jerk can’t ambush you.”

“I don’t want you to go out of your way—”

“It’s fine. You’re our designated liaison between the crew and us. It’s important that you’re safe so that we can continue knowing what is going on without pestering the crew.”

That reasoning was fair, and you appreciated it.

But also, you could see it causing issues.

“Come on, I want to make sure you at least go into your room. You should sleep, you look exhausted, and we know that the zombies aren’t going to attack while it’s this sunny out.”

You squeaked slightly as he pulled you up and after him.

But you didn’t fight him on it.

“Which way is your room?”

You quietly gave him directions, following until he reached your door and then tugging lightly on his hand to get his attention before he kept going. “This is it.”

He glanced over the door and nodded. “Right. Okay. Try to sleep, okay? We’re pretty far away from any major population so it should take a while for any zombies in the water to reach us, if they even can. We know they can go some distance, but not how far that distance is. So, rest. We’re going to have to be more alert at night anyway.”

You nodded. “You try to rest too. It’s easier to lie when you’re well-rested.”

He looked a bit grim at that. “Right. Good point. Good thing I’ve always been one to rest when possible.”

You unlocked your door and started in, stopping when he gently caught your upper arm.

“Hey, thank you, again, for everything you’re doing. I know you probably feel guilty because you sold us this package and now we’re all here, but you have no idea how grateful we were to have a ship like this essentially to ourselves.”

You shrugged. “You were booking in the off-season. We were lucky anyone was looking for a ship to commandeer.”

He smiled. “Whatever you say. Sleep well, y/n.”

You watched him walk away for a while, then slowly closed the door, once more pushing down thoughts of how attractive your client was.

———

The first zombie crawled onto the ship during a storm.

You had been eating with all of the guests, looked out the window and did a double-take. “Dobby! Come here.”

Dobby, the head engineer, politely excused himself and came over to join you at the window. “What is it?”

You pointed. “Stern, crawling over the railing.”

He squinted as he tried to see, flinching as lightning flashed—but gasping a bit as he spotted the zombie.

“Everyone is accounted for, right?”

“Right. Okay. Show-time, I guess. Bernie! Clyde! Time to get the lights on and try and decapitate a creature!”

You kept scanning the ship to check for anything else. “Someone tell the captain!”

“Yes, miss,” Clyde called.

Yoongi joined you, looking out. “Guess we know how long it takes for a zombie to swim to us.”

“Yup. Seven days. But it looks weaker than I expected. Maybe it is physically tiring?” You folded your arms, wincing as the floodlights turned on.

It was hideous. It looked like a human, but the skin looked like it had been boiling, and the eyes were strange—the irises almost black, and far too large, to easily noticeable from the distance. It’s jaw seemed unhinged, the mouth hanging open and not moving at all as a guttural screech emanated from it.

“No wonder people are so terrified,” Yoongi whispered.

“I’d like to wake up now,” Hoseok whispered behind you.

“Let’s get to safety, everyone,” You said softly. “Head down into the hallway. Just like we practiced.”

The soft noises of activity soon followed, everyone hearing you in their horrified silence, and moving to act as you had all practiced in the evacuation drills that had started four days ago. There were about eight different contingencies and several ranks of command.

Yoongi’s hand slid around yours, fingers locking around your fingers, and he squeezed your hand slightly. “Assuming it’s contagious. How long do you think we can hold out against the majority of the population of the world being zombified?”

“I think we’re lucky if we last a month like this,” You replied quietly. “We have little fortification, a few sporadic ships that may or may not be able to provide us with help, and no signs of any government being able to assist those who have survived. We’re in a warmer climate, which probably isn’t helping, and we have no idea if this contagion can spread to or through animals.”

“And no way of finding out except through evidence.”

“Essentially,” You whispered, looking around the deck and checking the positions of the crew as they carefully surrounded the zombie to try and dispatch it—the storm not exactly helping matters. “Come on, Dobby.”

You both fell quiet as you watched the crew carefully, and successfully, dispatch the zombie, both breathing sighs of relief.

“The storm should let up soon,” Yoongi murmured.

You nodded, still watching the crew members to make sure they made it to safety.

A few minutes later the all-clear signal sounded over the P.A. system.

Yoongi tugged your hand lightly. “Come on. I need a break from everyone.”

“Then, go, I’ll cover for you.”

“Nah, I want you to come with me. You need a break from everyone’s expectations.” He squeezed your hand, and gently tugged you along.

“But, why do you want me with you?” You asked.

He huffed. “Because I do.”

“Okay,” You replied, still confused.

He led you to his cabin (which was one of the best) and locked the door. “So they don’t come barging in. They do that sometimes.”

You nodded, looking around the cabin casually, even though you knew what they looked like and had cleaned these rooms on more than one occasion.

“We were actually worried at first, because Hoseok gets seasick, but he’s being doing well. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that we’re on a ship.”

“And then a storm hits and you remember all of those movies and true stories about shipwrecks?”

He chuckled lightly. “Yeah. I don’t think I could face them all right now, especially since they’ll be figuring out that zombies can reach us out here. Let them think what they want about us not being around. Our video crew has been filming for posterity, and it’s exhausting. Who’s going to care about how we spent our days on this ship?”

“Well, if we survive, meaning the human race as a whole, I imagine one day they may use it to make a film about you,” You joked, watching the rain pelt the windows.

“You too.”

“Why would they care about an extra translator? No, I’d be cut out and replaced with a super-secret girlfriend love interest, who obviously is terrified and you would save her from the zombies, because the truth and accuracy are inconsequential, and what’s important is the story.”

“Not that you care,” He teased.

“No, never, why would I care. Like I said, I make for a boring story,” You waved it away. “Besides, their movie would probably have a better ending than what reality will give us.”

“Maybe not,” He whispered, also looking outside. “You’re looking at the worse situation, right?”

“Probably.”

“So, best situation is we’re able to survive. We get through this. We set up defenses and we help other people to defend themselves and join us in fighting against these zombies, and…yes, the world will be different, but it will still be here. I mean, there are people in all sorts of remote places in the world, and we hope they’ve been warned, but most of all, they’re there. They may be safe. And maybe some of the defenses of the different countries are still standing. Military bases, forts, bunkers…we have to believe that there is still hope out there. We just…don’t know how to gauge how much hope there is.”

You pulled out your phone, noticing that you still had a signal. Noticing that you had a notification. “We need to get you back to the other boys.”

“What?”

“Come on. We’re going to talk to your staff and get you set up for a live on YouTube.”

“You don’t really think that’s still—”

“I do.”

“Wait,” He pulled you to a stop and turned you toward him. “Explain.”

“You have over 50 million subscribers, and are one of the top boybands in the world. You go live, you might be able to help us figure out how many people are still out there. It might connect you guys back to your family. To the family of the staff. We might be able to get help with making our boat defensible, or we might be able to meet up with a naval vessel that has been unaffected. It’s a long shot, but any sort of chance is a chance we should take, right?”

His eyes widened, and he looked troubled, but he nodded. “Okay. Alright. But you should join us in the video as a proper translator.”

“No, you’ll be fine, we can write out a message for Namjoon to read or something. We can plan things out, what you guys say and all of that. If there are other people out there, members of army, maybe they could use a familiar face.”

He still held you in place. “Okay. Let me change.”

You nodded. “I’ll wait outside.”

He nodded, but didn’t let go. “Hey, y/n?”

“Yes?”

He smiled softly. “If we were destined to get stuck on this cruise ship, I’m glad destiny chose you to be here too.”

Your heart was pounding in your ears, and you felt too warm all over and you spluttered something out and darted out the door as your brain went into a complete meltdown.

“Playboy!” You mind screamed.

“Honeyboy!” Your fangirl screamed.

“BREATHE!” Your lungs shouted as you wheezed and slid down the wall of the hallway.

He came out a few minutes later, and looked at you slightly confused. “Um, why are you sitting on the floor? Did I take that long?”

“Nah, I’m just, you know, meditating,” You refused to meet his eyes because if you did you would start your freakout all over again. Stupid fangirl. It was the zombie apocalypse and all your brain was telling you was that he was glad you were there and he was looking at you and that he kept getting you alone and talking with you and….

And oh no. Oh no no.

Did he like you?

Zombies. Focus on the zombies.

He was holding your hand again.

Apparently, he’d messaged the other boys and they were already gathered and the staff were there setting things up, and you guessed the translator or Namjoon had told some of the crew what they were doing, because they were helping set up. And they were doing V-Live and YouTube at the same time.

You stayed behind the cameras with a small whiteboard to help when they got stuck and to give them further things to say in English to try and help.

You considered them having at least half a million views encouraging, but you could tell that even the BTS staff were disconcerted at the small number.

Eventually the boys were mostly just talking to continue it and reassure anyone that may be watching that for the moment they were safe, and that they hoped that everyone else was safe as well. That they hoped this would pass soon.

They talked about the food, Jungkook and Taehyung belted out a few bars of different songs at intervals, Hoseok did his best to be bright and hopeful, Seokjin and Jimin jokingly flirted with the camera, Namjoon made faces and cracked a joke or two, and Yoongi talked about the future. Yoongi talked about someday looking back on this, just as we look back, and being able to think of it as a historical event that the world conquered.

They had over four million viewers when they ran out of things to say and decided to end it.

“So, again, these videos are going to be posted as soon as possible, and we hope we can meet up with and help those who may be in similar situations, or maybe those who are trapped can get help through this. Even if we just brought a moment of happiness, we will find fulfillment in that. We love you, and hope to see you all again.”

Jungkook and Jimin were crying shortly after the cameras were off.

Hoseok hugged onto them, which prompted Taehyung to hug them as well.

Seokjin tugged the other two into their impromptu group hug.

You set aside the whiteboard and headed outside, the rain finally gone. It was lighter than before, and the sun was trying to peek through again. Not quite successful yet, but every here and there you could spot a beam of sunlight breaking through.

The waves were still pretty intense, but not as bad as they could have been given the storm.

And there were gulls.

Which meant the boat was close enough to a land mass that the birds could fly out.

You hurried up to the bridge, not bothering to ask permission. “How far are we from land?”

“Well, we’ve slowed down and drifted slightly off course, which may be a good thing, since that creature crawled aboard, but,” Cob gestured to the maps he was using. “According to radar and such, we should be able to see the island in about half an hour.”

“But if the zombie came from there, we could be in trouble.”

He grunted.

You sighed, staring out at the turbulent waters. “The island could only be so big, though, which means that if they did come from there, there couldn’t have been too many people there to begin with. Right?”

“Unless it came from one of the ships we were going to be meeting up with.”

“Are we going to die?”

“Not if I have any say in it.”

“Okay. Then we’ll circle around, do our best to fortify and defend the ship, and hope for the best.” You bit your lip. “Right?”

Cob placed an arm around your shoulders. “Take heart, lass. Do something fun, would you? It’s not the end of the world yet, and there’s plenty of daylight to be had. Why don’t you see if that cat-boy wants to go to the bush-whacked deck and splash some paint around. You can take the others there some other time, but he seems to help you lighten up.”

You were a little busy trying not to die from Cob calling Yoongi a cat-boy. “Yoongi. His name is Yoongi.”

“Right. Couldn’t recall. Lots of names to remember. But he reminded me of a cat. Not in a bad way—”

“I’m going to go paint in the bushwhack deck. Don’t expect anything pretty.”

“I don’t,” He laughed happily.

You weren’t sure you wanted to try and find Yoongi, so you resolved to go change into clothes you could paint in first.

“Hey.”

You jumped, squeaked, and lashed out—nearly missing Yoongi.

He looked at you with wide eyes, just sort of blinking while you processed everything that just happened.

“Hi. Sorry. Hi.” You covered your heart to make sure it was still inside of you.

“Where you off to?”

“Um, you know the deck that’s off-limits?”

He nodded, looking a little wary.

“That’s because it’s under renovation. So, the crew goes there to vent and get away from everyone else. So, I’m going to change into clothes that I don’t mind getting paint on, and I’m going to go have fun splashing paint on everything.”

“Ah.”

“Would you like to come with me?”

He glanced over to where the others were still gathered, contemplating it. “Just me.”

“You can tell them to sneak down at a later time.”

He nodded slowly, then more vigorously. “Okay. I’ll meet you down there in ten, and tell them to come down in an hour or something?”

“That works.” You smiled a bit. “See you there.”

He nodded again, leaned in and kissed your cheek, and then walked back toward the others.

Your brain short-circuited as you hurried to your room to change and go down to the deck to pull out the paint and brushes.

Yoongi didn’t say anything as he joined you, simply helped move the paints into the room you wanted to paint in. It was one of the rooms with windows, so it had some natural light. But it also still had a bed in it, so you had to cover that with the plastic tarps.

But Yoongi stopped you. “You rushed up to talk to the captain. What scared you?”

You shrugged slightly. “The seagulls.”

His eyebrows drew together. “Birds scare you?”

“The fact that they can only go so far from land without dying does,” You elaborated. “I just wanted to see if it was a fluke from a storm.”

“And?”

“We’re nearing the island. It will be visible in about an hour at the speed we’re going, which is the slowest speed possible.”

He nodded. “So the zombie may have come from there.”

“Possibly,” You whispered.

He swore, closing his eyes as he pulled you into a hug.

You froze for a moment, then relaxed into the hug, wrapping your arms around him as well.

“You wouldn’t be some insignificant side character, y/n,” He whispered. “You’d be the main character.”

“Yeah right,” You choked out.

He held you tighter. “You would. You definitely would. That would be the only way the movie would have any plot.”

He drew back, resting a hand on your cheek. “I would love to be your romantic interest in the movie too.”

“We’re facing the end of humanity.”

“Which is why it’s important,” He answered easily. “Which is why I want to tell you that I was interested in you from the day we met you on the docks. You’re intelligent, beautiful, and strong. Stronger than me, stronger than most people on this ship. Do you object to me being interested in you? The world has gone to hell, people won’t need a boyband when this is over. They’ll need farmers, builders, engineers, and families.”

“Families,” You repeated quietly.

He nodded, taking your hands. “Families. I can never leave the other boys, they’re my family, especially if my actual relatives….”

“I understand.”

“But…maybe we can live somewhere together. Near each other, but separated.”

“You understand I used to be an Army?” You double-checked.

He grinned, laughing. “Yeah. I knew it when you laughed at one of the jokes. Usually only army’s understand it. I think it’s sort of fitting.”

“I’ve got a concussion and I’m having a weird dream,” You said, closing your eyes because that was the only logical explanation.

Except he kissed you.

And dang was he a good kisser.

“GET AWAY FROM HER!”

You jumped, turning toward your fuming ex-boyfriend. “Oh my God, go away!”

“Take your hands off of my girl!” He bellowed at Yoongi.

YOongi frowned and pulled you closer. “What is he holding?”

You glanced down and realized it was some sort of pill bottle. “Oh my God…tell me those aren’t from—”

“It’s all a hoax, you’re doing this to try and torment me, right? I’ll prove my love for you is stronger than anything.”

“Don’t! Please don’t!” You started toward him, but it was too late.

You watched in horror as he downed several pills.

“There, see! I’m fine! It’s all a hoax so that these terrorists can take over!”

You choked a little. “You need to get those out of your system—now! Even if they don’t turn you, that’s enough to overdose!”

“I told you! I’m fine!” He yelled, but his voice had already started changing.

“We need to get out of here before he changes,” Yoongi whispered. “Windows?”

“Only if you want to go swimming,” You replied. “Grab the chair and throw it at him.”

“Uh….”

“Do it!” You ordered, hurrying to a paint can.

Your ex made an ungodly noise as the chair hit him and you were quick to follow, swinging the full paint can at his head with as much velocity as you could muster.

Yoongi grabbed your hand and both of you started sprinting away. “What do we do? If he goes up, he could run into any number of people?”

“We have to take care of it before he can fully change. We need a way to cut off his head.”

“I don’t suppose he’d hold still while we used a saw?”

“Probably not,” You answered, looking around as the two of you ran. Finally you spotted something useful. “Break in case of emergencies, right?”

Your ex made that ungodly screeching noise again, and his footsteps were unnaturally fast as they beat the ground behind you and Yoongi.

Yoongi hurried ahead and broke open the case with something he must have picked up, grabbing the ax.

You stopped to throw a piece of furniture in the zombie’s path, hoping it would slow him down or trip him up or anything that might give you the advantage.

The two of you darted upstairs after doing your best to block the door.

Then you took the ax. “Sound the alarm.”

He grabbed the handle of the ax. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Leading him away from the crowd. We don’t have time to debate—”

He took it and started running. “Sound the alarm. He’s focused on me.”

You looked after him in horror, then quickly started running toward the nearest place you could trigger an alarm, ducking into a room so that the zombie wouldn’t see you, holding your breath.

Finally, you could hear it going after Yoongi.

You signaled the bridge then hurried after them, looking for anything that would help along the way.

Only to see Yoongi barely holding the zombie off, even in the bright sunlight.

You went barreling into it, all while your mind screamed at you and tried to tell you to stop.

Or maybe that was Yoongi.

But it gave Yoongi the space and time to swing the ax, catching the zombie’s neck and knocking it back.

You grabbed a lifebuoy and pushed it over his head, trapping his arms. “Finish him!”

And Yoongi did, though you both stared in horror at the by-product of your battle.

You met his gaze, swallowing hard. “Is this a dream?”

He reached out and pulled you away from the body. “We need to wash the blood off. Come on.”

You were shaking all over, so it was a miracle you managed to walk without tripping.

Dobby and the others hosed both of you down, making sure the water sprayed straight off the deck, then went to clean things while the Bangtan staff brought both of you towels.

“How did that get onto the ship in broad daylight?” Cob asked, hurrying up.

You looked up at him. “It was Charlie.”

“Charlie let it get on the ship?”

“No,” You answered, confused. “That thing…was Charlie. He had pills. Pills from Biogene.”

“You should have let me throw him overboard,” He muttered, petting your head, and then physically maneuvering Yoongi to check him over. “Good. You look unhurt. Wouldn’t want to cut your head off too.”

Yoongi was just a little stunned.

“Get them out of this wind!” Lori huffed, glaring at everyone and then ushering the two of you inside and out of the wind. “You need to get into dry clothing, come on. You, you’re one of his brothers?”

The boys all froze.

She gently shoved Yoongi toward them. “Make sure he gets changed and tuck him in. Marta! Get soup to both rooms.”

You didn’t object to her manhandling, just accepting it because Lori could take you if she put her mind to it, and she was right there ready to take you.

She bundled you in blankets after helping you change into dry clothing, scolded Marta for taking so long bringing the soup, and she force-fed you the soup.

When she had done that, you knew it was time to push a bit.

“I need to go talk to him,” You whispered, ignoring the trembling of your hands and the comforting call of your bed.

Lori looked you in the eye, evaluating you, then nodded. “Let me fix your hair.”

You nodded and let her work, not even checking her work before you and your blanket wrap were heading to Yoongi’s room.

His door was open, and the others were there, but he saw you, and he pushed himself up.

The others glanced over to see what had caught his attention, then seemed to all find an excuse to leave the two of you alone.

You wandered over to the bed as the boys left.

Yoongi looked up at you, eyes sad. “Are you okay?”

You shrugged, slowly sitting on the edge of the bed. “I now know that my instincts to survive are strong enough to kill someone that I know once they’ve turned. So…I’m dealing with that.”

He shuddered and reached out, pulling you down into his arms. “We did what was necessary for the survival of everyone else on this ship.”

“How many friends are we going to lose because of all of this?”

He shook his head. “Let’s not go there.”

You turned your head into his shoulder, fighting back the tears. You had to separate moments out by mere seconds: him kissing you, a moment, and then your ex turning into a zombie. There was a moment in there, that you wished you could imagine was longer.

His fingers stroked your hair lightly, then rested on your back. “But you know…I think we’re going to be just fine. We definitely need more weapons, but I think we’ll make it.”

“You know something I don’t?”

He nodded. “While we were downstairs, a naval vessel contacted the captain. They’re about a day away from us.”

“They know the zombies can swim?”

“They do. And they’ve checked all quarters and removed all Biogene products. They had a small issue at the beginning, but they’ve got it under control now. They’re going to meet with us, and we’re going to work together. They had some civilians that they rescued, and not enough beds, so we’ll take some of their civilians, and perhaps some of their soldiers.”

“And the government?”

“It’s…sort of functioning. Multiple ones are functioning on a…mild capacity. Enough to try and organize their military to reclaim lands.”

“So, where are we being escorted?”

“I don’t know. That’s about all the information that was received, I guess. I’m sure we’ll find out more when we meet up. But…it’s good, right? That we’re able to meet up with a naval vessel?”

You nodded. “As long as we don’t get overrun by zombies tonight.”

“What a bright side,” He chuckled, lightly stroking your back. “Y/n.”

You relaxed at the gentle tone in which he said your name.

“Whatever happens, let’s make it through this together? I don’t have too many skills that are usable outside of music, but I’ll do whatever it takes to take care of you?”

You peeked up at him. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’m sure. I might be relying on you, though.”

You wrapped your arms around him. “That’s fine. I can handle that. If you’re okay with me falling apart now and than.”

“I’ll try and hold you together,” He replied, squeezing you. “We’ve got a couple hours of daylight. Want to nap?”

You pushed yourself fully onto the bed and let him help you under the covers. “Yeah, okay. I could sleep.”

He smiled, taking your hand as you both lay on your sides, facing one another. “Sweet dreams, y/n.”

“Sweet dreams,” You whispered back, still studying him with your eyes half-closed.

If you could make it to safety, then spending your life with him would be great. Better than great.

“Don’t let the zombies bite,” He murmured, smiling slightly at the teasing, and the way you swatted him.

Then you let the subtle sway of the ship rock you into sleep next to the man you just might love.

#yoongi #btswritingbingo #min yoongi #yoongi x reader #min yoongi x reader #suga x reader #zombie!au #zombie au #zombie apocolypse au #bts fic #suga #namjoon #jungkook #seokjin #hoseok #jimin #taehyung

83 notes · View notes

kirislut · 4 years

Note

Can I request Bakugou x reader where he's a pro hero and the reader is a civilian friend who he likes. They told him where their hidden key is if he ever needed to crash and their place was the closer option. One day he takes that offer, going in, using their shower and kitchen. They almost didn't noticed when they returned home and crashed on the couch. And then he starts doing it frequently because he likes being there and resting with them? Also happens to prevent someone breaking in too?

a/n: i always love like prohero writings, because it makes me happy seeing that class 1a made it shxksisn sorry me being soft but here ya go! also bakugou is more mature here, idk i imagine prohero bakugou more calm and cocky, still angry just able to handle it more.

warnings: bakugou(swearing), break in

you never thought you would become friends with a pro hero, especially one that you highly admired. admired for his hard work and because he was good looking.

it all started unexpectedly, you were driving home after a long day of running errands. you looked away for a second to change the song when you heard a loud shout, causing you to step on the brakes. yet a body still collided with the front of the car, then fell onto the ground. ‘did i just run someone over? oh my god.’

you nearly busted your car door wide open to go and help whoever you had just hit, but you froze when you saw bags of spilled money on the road. “woah, trying to steal all my credit? you managed to stop them before me.”

spinning around your eyes landed on the pro hero ground zero. the. pro. hero. ground. zero. now you weren’t sure what to be shocked about, the fact you hit some apparent villain or the fact that ground zero was talking to you. yea your inner fan girl won over.

“holy shit you’re ground zero.” the hero let out a small chuckle, a cocky attitude immediately taking him over because he could tell you were at least impressed. maybe even a fan? he didn’t know that his fans could be so cute. that shocked look you wore in your face because he was talking to you? that inflated his ego, as if it couldn’t grow any bigger.

“yes i am, good job taking down that villain by the way. how did you see us?” he questioned as he moved past you, grabbing the villain by the back of the shirt and lifting them up and over his shoulder.

hearing his question made you let out a little chuckle of sheepishness. “well i actually didn’t see them coming, it was an accident....” a wave of embarrassment washed over you as the pro hero tilted his head and cocked his eyebrow at you.

“you hit them on accident?”

“basically...”

the blonde stared at you before letting out a snort, “jesus maybe you should be taken in instead.” you let out a breath of relief, worried for a moment but glad he was just joking.

after that you actually had to be questioned and such by the police, for the report, so you were able to spend a little more time with the pro hero. it was nice, playful banter with maybe. just maybe some flirting?

as you were leaving the hero followed you to your car, ya know just make sure you got there safe of course. not because he thought you were kinda cute of whatever.

“congrats, you can be a sidekick ya know.” you just laughed, shaking your head. “no the hero life isn’t for me sadly. but if i ever change my mind i’ll let you know.” you opened up your car door and slide into your drivers seat.

“well too bad, just try not to hit anyone else on your way home.” he smirked softly, but his expression changed as he remembered something. he fished for something in his pockets as you shut your car door and rolled the window down.

“jesus fuck where did i put it.” as he continued to search you buckled up and waited for whatever the hero was going to give you. you buckled up as you waited for him to get whatever he was looking for.

“THERE IT IS!” he shouted, letting out of a huff of anger since it was buried in his pocket. in between his fingers he held out a black business card towards you. “it’s my number, let me know if you ever crash into someone. or if there’s a villain. i’ll make sure to save the day as usual.” he wore his signature grin as you grabbed the card, smiling and internally freaking out. thank you’s and goodbyes were said towards each other then you drove off home.

you thought you wouldn’t see the pro hero again any time soon since it was a coincidence and all, also because his agency isn’t close to where you reside. but not even a week later you see him patrolling not to far from your apartment during the night.

as you approached your apartment building, the pro hero was as well. you were currently debating if you should say something, but would he even remember you? he probably dealt with a lot of fans everyday. he was a famous hero after all. but as you were thinking and just blatantly staring at the spiky blonde, he recognized you from afar. “hey it’s the bad driver.”

bakugou quickened his pace slightly to approach you, it’s not like he wanted to talk to you or something. oh no he was just going to check up on a civilian walking alone in the middle of the night of course.

seeing him come straight towards you made you flush in embarrassment, did he realize you were staring at him? but you did your best to act cool when he stopped in front of you. “what are you doing out here, aren’t you far away from your agency?”

the pro hero huffed when you beat him to asking the ‘what are you doing here’ question. “i was about to ask you what you’re doing walking around by yourself this late.”

“oh i was just coming back from a night out with friends. and it was close enough to walk.” you explained simply as the hero nodded in response. “i’m guessing you also didn’t want to run anyone over again?”

you wrinkled your nose at his teasing, making the hero chuckle softly at your little pout. “it was an accident! and they were a villain. but you still didn’t answer my question.”

“to simplify my agency is going to start covering this area as well. so were in the process of establishing another head quarters and now i’ll be patrolling around this area more often.”

hearing his explanation honestly filled you with a childish glee, this meant you could run into hero more. just hopefully not with your car. but maybe you could be able to talk to him more, just maybe.

luckily your maybes came true, you were able to see ground zero more often and mostly during the night. the two of you would share quick conversations, just asking about how the other was and of course the usual teasing of you hitting that villain. he would never let it down.

but one night you saw that he was quite dirty and looked exhausted. you started to insist that he just rest in your apartment but of course he refused. he didn’t want to be a bother besides, he was fine. though even if he refused you told him about the spare you had taped under you door mat. not under your door mat because that was too obvious, besides no one actually checks the back of a door mat anyways.

you knew it would take a while for bakugou, he didn’t want you to call him ground zero anymore since you guys were friends now, to accept your offer. so you in the back of your mind you always remembered that he could just show up one day. but one day you were particularly exhausted, work was nothing but terrible.

so when you walked through your apartment you collapsed onto your couch, not having enough energy to make it to your bed. “oi (y/n) if you’re gonna sleep at least go to your bed.”

suddenly hearing bakugou’s voice scared you enough to fall off the couch from trying to sit up too quickly. hearing the thud, bakugou peeked out from the kitchen to see you had fallen on the floor. he didn’t hesitate to start laughing his ass off from you falling.

you sat up straight, glaring at the male. you scrambled up to your feet, flushing in embarrassment. “DON’T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!” you shouted, causing the hero to soften his laughter. “right sorry, but that was fucking hilarious.” he was still trying to calm down, but you were still upset. though seeing him laugh was pretty cute, but no you had to be upset.

actually as you watched him, you could tell that his hair was slightly damp, he had taken a shower it seemed. he was also just wearing his tank top and pants from his hero costume, but did his biceps always look that big? when did they get so defined.

“hey idiot, stop staring and lets eat. i made some food.” you hadn’t noticed he stopped laughing, but you snapped out of your dreamy state and cocked your head to the side. “food?”

he hummed in response as he turned back to go into the kitchen, coming out with two plates of pasta he made. “i figured you’d be hungry, cause i fucking am.” you were about to snatch the plate away from him so you could just eat on the couch, but he moved away before you could snatch it. “you’re eating at the table, not on the couch. you might make a mess.”

your face temporarily twisted into a scowl, you just wanted to eat. but you knew he was right, so you just followed him to your little dinning table. the both of you shared a very pleasant dinner, the food was nothing less of perfection and the chatter was comfortable.

those nights were definitely what you looked forward too now, it wasn’t every day but at least a few days a week. you would come home, he would freshen up and make food, the two of you would eat or watch a movie, then he would crash on the couch. his visiting was causing your feelings or admiration turn into a rather huge crush.

it wasn’t any better for the pro hero, if anything it might’ve been worse. he knew he could just go home instead of crashing at your place, but it was closer. at least that’s what he was telling himself. it’s not like he looked forward to seeing you and hearing you praise him for his hero work or his cooking. it’s not like he would peek into your room to see your sleeping form just before he left your apartment. no he wouldn’t do that, he was just making sure you were alright. it was his duty as a hero after all, to make sure you were safe no matter what.

tonight was a little different from usual, bakugou called you saying that he was off on a mission so you didn’t need to wait up for him. it wasn’t the first time this happened but you still felt a little disappointed that you weren’t able to see him. so when you heard some footsteps, you were quick to sit up in bed.

you waited for a moment since the footsteps had stopped, it was then a uneasy feeling washed over you. bakugou would always shower first no matter what, even if you were home first he wouldn’t go up to you until he showered. because he didn’t want you smelling his dirt and grime, so why was there footsteps near your bedroom door and not your bathroom.

quietly, you rushed over to your bed again and fished around the blankets to grab your phone. once you had it you immediately called bakugou’s phone, hearing the dialing tone and anticipating footsteps didn’t help calm your nerves.

“hello?”

“bakugou someone is here, i can hear footsteps.”

“what? wait (y/n) i’m almost there just hide!”

you nodded, feeling slightly less worried since you knew bakugou would be here soon. but when you saw your bedroom doorknob slowly start to turn, that slight relief you felt vanished in an instant.

anxiety was gnawing away at you as you sat on your bed, burning holes into the door with your intent stare. the doorknob stopped turning, but it only worsened as the door started to slowly swing open. you could make out an arm through the sliver the opening, what was going to happen when they saw you sitting there. what if they had a weapon, you were going to be taken hostage?

“DIEEEE!!” a loud crash erupted further down your apartment then then led to a series of explosions and lots of yelling. you sat there stunned, previous anxiety was replaced with confusion. but as you pieced two and two together you scrambled off from your bed and swung open your bedroom door.

bakugou was outside your bedroom door, pinning down a person dressed in all black who was probably knocked out. as you took in the scene you had never seen the hero so furious before, he was clenching his jaw so tightly you were worried his teeth would break. “bakugou—“

his head quickly twisted to look over at you, his look of anger dissipating and being overtaken by worry. he got off of the poor person and rushed to you. he grabbed your shoulders and immediately started to look around you, “are you okay? did you get hurt?”

watching him frantically look you over made you smile slightly, mostly just relieved that he was here. you brushed his hands off of your shoulder and moved forward, hugging him tightly. you hid your face in his chest as he stood there, taken aback that you were hugging him so suddenly.

“i’m fine bakugou, thank you for saving me.”

the blonde let out a sigh of relief, letting his arms wrap around your waist as he held you close. “you dumbass, you left the door unlocked. what if i was out on some mission and i couldn’t save you?”

hearing his theory, you just shook your head in response. you pulled from the hug just slightly so you could look at him. a smug grin spread across your face as he returned your gaze, “well i know you’ll always save me. no matter what.”

seeing your smug expression and confident words about him, made him all to happy. so in the heat of the moment he leaned down and closed the space between you. pressing his lips against yours in a deep kiss. your eyes widened slightly, but didn’t hesitate to kiss him back.

you only pulled apart until your lungs were practically begging for air, so little pants escaped your slightly swollen lips as you looked up at the blushing hero. suddenly you remembered your situation, “shouldn’t you get them out of here?” you asked, tearing your eyes from bakugou to give the passed out person on your floor a glance.

he tsked at you and rolled his eyes, grabbing your chin so that you were staring at him again. “they can fucking wait, right now. i need to take care of you first.”

oh it was a long night, mostly filled with kisses, but also because you had to accompany your now boyfriend to turn in the fool who tried to break into your apartment. but now you never had to be scared again, because you knew that your hero would save you. he would always save you no matter what.

939 notes · View notes

jobean12-blog · 4 years

Text

Clueless

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader (college Bucky AU)

Word Count: 1,634

Summary: You and Bucky are kind of friends and it takes a shitty night and some soul searching on your part to make a big realization...

Author’s Note: This is for the HBC’s @the-ss-horniest-book-club and the Surprise Drabble Challenge: Romcoms! This is such a fun idea and took me almost all week to figure out and decide on but I went with Clueless as my inspiration because it is definintely one of my favorites. So I used some dialouge straight out of the movie- so thank you to the writers, credit goes to them- and I kept the 90′s vibe but also updated a thing or two- hopefully it makes sense and works. Also, you can just imagine Bucky and the reader know each other in the same way Cher and Josh do in the movie- or whatever you want to think up- doesn’t really matter for this. And the reader is 18 and Bucky is maybe 19-20. Hope you enjoy and thank you all for reading! Much love always! ❤❤❤

Warnings: Lots of teasing and banter, sassy talk, flirting, soft touches, lingering glances and a good kiss (and some bad and awesome 90s references) LOL :)

As you walk down the sidewalk and search your bag for your phone you keep your eyes peeled on your dark surroundings, not wanting to draw attention but also not wanting to be taken by surprise. When your hand finally closes around your phone, you let out a breath and quickly dial the last person in the world you want to ask for help.

“Hello.” You pause at his slightly annoyed tone, pinching the bridge of your nose and smiling even though he can’t see it. “Hi Bucky. I was at a party and Brock offered to drive me home but then got too handsy and I told him no and he kicked me out of the car and left me out here all alone.” You can hear his breath hitch and the shuffling of sheets, “wait a second, hold on. Brock got handsy?! Are you ok? Where are you?”

“Downtown Brooklyn.” You suck your teeth and wait for him to unleash his frustration. “You owe me, you know that. Just find someplace to sit tight and be safe, I’ll be there as fast as I can.” With that he hangs up and you walk to the nearest gas station, standing outside the small mini mart next to the ice freezer. The fluorescent lights flicker every so often, creating an eerie atmosphere you can’t wait to get out of.

Bucky texts asking for your exact location and soon after you see his headlights pull into the station and he parks, rounding the car and rushing over to you. “Are you ok?” he asks, brushing his hand down the side of your face. “I’m fine, thank you for getting me. Can we go now?” He nods, looking you over once more before taking your hand and dragging you to the car.

He turns up the music and you make a face, earning a snicker from him. “What? You have a problem with oldies music?” Rolling your eyes, you sass back, “no Bucky, but I don’t know why you insist on making yourself seem like more of a bonehead than you already are.” He makes the music louder, completely ignoring your comment and singing along.

When you get home, you’re hungry and tired, quickly changing into less binding clothes and sitting next to Bucky on the couch. Taking some popcorn from the bowl you pop it in your mouth before snatching the remote from Bucky’s hand and changing the channel. “Hey, I was watching that.” You finish chewing and start brushing your hair, raising a brow his way, “I didn’t want to watch it. Don’t you watch anything other than the news?”

Bucky scoffs, looking to the TV then back to you. “I most certainly do, I just like to know what’s going on in the world, unlike you I don’t spend hours watching Parks and Rec.” Brushing your hair over your face you stick out your tongue, flipping your hair over and pinning it back. He throws a piece of popcorn at you, laughing when it sticks in your hair. You retaliate by taking your scrunchie and flinging it at his head, hitting him right in the ear.

“Look, I’m just curious. How many hours a day do you spend grooming yourself? He picks up the scrunchie and takes his short hair between his fingers, trying and failing miserably at putting it on. You lean over and brush your fingers through his hair not noticing how his eyes trail down your body and he takes a quiet inhale while you secure the scrunchie. “There you go,” you giggle. He pats the top of his head and shrugs, turning back to the TV.

The next day you find yourself feeling a bit down. Last night’s events catch up with you and you know the reason you had agreed to go home with Brock was out of loneliness. Brock’s advances were unwelcome, and he is the last person you want to date but as you think about at your friends, their happy relationships flourishing, you realize you want a boyfriend of your own. You couldn’t figure it out, what were you doing wrong? Were you just totally clueless?

Even after arriving home and trying to relax your mind was still occupied with thoughts from earlier and you barely heard Bucky when he walked outside to the pool. “Hey there, whatcha doin’?” You looked up, pulling your sunglass down your nose, “what the hell is on your face?” Bucky rubs his jaw and shuffles his feet. “I’m growing a goatee.” You stand and pinch his chin between your fingers, “Oh that’s good. You don’t want to be the last one at the coffee house without chin pubes.”

Walking away you feel him following you, rolling your eyes and letting the door shut in his face. “You know, you could try saying something nice for a change.” You whirl around, suddenly feeling shaky, “oh, so now I’m this awful person who isn’t nice! Can’t you take a joke?” He brushes past you and storms to the fridge, yelling, “you’re such a brat” before slamming it shut and walking out.

You’re left standing in the kitchen with an overwhelming sense of ickiness. Deciding a walk might do you some good you head outside and start down the street, no particular destination in mind. Even after you end up on 5th avenue and do some shopping you can’t shake the bad feeling. “Why should I care what Bucky thinks?” You say it out loud to no one while standing on a busy street corner, working over your thoughts.

“He listens to oldies music and he’s a hideous dancer, couldn’t take him anywhere. Wait a second. What am I stressing about? This is like, Bucky.” You’re so lost in your internal struggle that you don’t even realize you’ve walked into the street, a strong arm pulling you back at just the last moment, saving you from being run over by a cab. “Hey, watch where ya going girlie.” You suck in a breath and back up, stuttering “thank you,” as the man walks away shaking his head.

Once your breathing finally evens out the light goes on, “oh my god. I love Bucky. I majorly, totally, butt crazy in love with Bucky.” For the first time all day your head feels clear and you make your way back home. Seeing that you’re alone for the moment you head upstairs and change, hoping to have some peace for the rest of the evening so you can work through this newfound revelation.

Unfortunately, when you go to the kitchen for a snack Bucky appears to be in the same spot you left him earlier. “Hey,” you say quietly, shuffling around and opening all the cabinets. Now you don’t know how to act around him. Normally you would strut around him in your cutest outfits and send yourself flowers and chocolate, but you can’t do that stuff with Bucky. “What’s with you? You seem quiet.” Bucky’s question lays hanging in the thick air between you, your eyes wide as you search for an acceptable response.

He walks by, poking your as side as he passes and goes to sit on the couch. You bravely sit next to him, wringing your hands together and trying to think of what to say. He nudges your foot with his and you break into a smile, nudging his back until it becomes a game of footsie. He pulls the hair tie from the bottom of one of your braids, wrapping it around his thumb, “you look like pippy long stockings.”

You turn to him and flick the brim of his hat, “and you look like Forest Gump.” His lips turn up slightly and he takes off his hat, running his hand over his hair. Without realizing it you start to take out your braids and comb your fingers through your hair to tousle it. Bucky’s gaze settles on your movements and he licks his lips, opening his mouth to say something but your phone rings.

You look at it but don’t pick up and he raises his brows, “not gonna answer? What if you miss out on something?” Giving his shoulder a shove, you let out a squeak when he grabs your wrist and pulls you closer. “I can’t believe you didn’t answer it. You must really like spending time with me. What brought on the change?” With his face only inches from yours it’s hard to concentrate but you manage to find your voice, “I always like hanging out with you.”

He shifts position so his hand cradles the back of your neck, “oh yea? And why is that?” Shrugging you say, “you’re funny…sometimes. And you have rescued me more than once…andddd…” He leans in a little closer, his breath fanning your cheek, “that’s it?” Your eyes drop to his lips, “well no, but what about you?”

His thumb gently caresses your jaw, “what about me what?” Your hand lands on his chest, fingers curling into this shirt, “why do you like hanging out with me?” His head tilts ever so slightly and his lashes lower when his nose brushes yours, “I never said I like hanging out with you.” Your hand tightens around his shirt and your lips touch in a barely there kiss, his words whispered in the small space left between, “I love hanging out with you.”

Heat rises from your stomach to your chest when Bucky’s lips press firmly to yours, the soft and warm touch making your heart skip a beat. By the time you realize it your hands are already in his hair and your legs are straddling his lap. Bucky deepens the kiss, stealing your breath, the smell of him hypnotic and the taste of him nearly silencing all other thoughts.

@aesthetical-bucky @auro-ora @bugsbucky @buckys-henley @book-dragon-13 @buckys-broody-muffin @buckys-minty-breath @breezy1415 @buckstaybucky @buckosawrus @chuuulip @eurynome827 @hiddles-rose @hailmary-yramliah @hawksmagnolia @ikaris-whore @itsunclebucky @jhangelface0523 @jewels2876 @loricameback @lorilane33 @littledarlinhavefaithinme @littleredstarfish @lokilvrr @mushyjellybeans @marvelandotherfandomimagines @marvelgirl7 @nano--raptor @pinkdiamond1016 @randomfandompenguin @sallycanwait68 @softpeachbarnes @tuiccim @the-wayward-robot @this-kitten-is-smitten @yansi1923

533 notes · View notes

oveliagirlhaditright · 3 years

Text

The Mom Friend

Yeah… though Neku had certainly never signed up to be these four’s mom—and he still had no idea how that had happened—he now knew he wouldn’t change it for the world. Oneshot. Canon compliant. Mom friend Neku. Neo spoilers.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33385999

At first, if you had asked Neku if he had become the mom friend of the Wicked Twisters, he would have laughed in your face.

Because while he would admit he loved the youngins’—and was very protective of them—some old habits of wanting to be cool, and being somewhat rough around the edges, died hard.

But it was with Nagi that Neku finally realized that this was the case.

The girl had decided to go vegetarian, but her body was rejecting not having a lot of protein and thus needed something like nuts this very instance? Who was it but Neku, who went out to buy her some, at near three o’clock in the morning (because he was a good friend and had expanded his horizons that much), since her parents had recently died in a car crash and they could no longer do it for her, the poor girl.

So, Neku crept into Nagi’s dorm window around one-forty-five-ish—which, looking back on it, probably hadn’t been a good idea and could have scared his friend. But, hey: Neku had gotten used to being in the Game. And the week that Coco brought him back before he ran into Beat, he’d been in hiding, and had maybe gotten used to the idea some; and Nagi didn’t seem spooked, so maybe her mind was still stuck on sneaking around in the Reapers’ Game, too—and Nagi took the food out of Neku’s hands like it was the easiest thing in the world before ruffling his hair.

“Much obliged, Lord Neku,” she said as she fixed her glasses in this dim lighting, so she could see him better. Or so Neku guessed. “Now, hopefully, I can feel better enough, that I can work on my essay about the Canterbury Tales. …No one knows such suffering as me,” Nagi moaned, before going back to her bed and starting on the cashews.

“No, problem,” Neku said then—feeling sort of awkward, as he went to mess with a pair of headphones that were no longer on his person anymore—“if you need help with it… I, uhh, guess I could try and lend a hand. I have university coming up soon, too. And I know they’ll have me doing some English stuff, so…”

“Unless you want to be bored to tears, I suggest that you not make such a promise, unless your heart knows little joy,” Nagi warned him.

And Neku didn’t have to be told twice. So, he did backout of helping her with that paper.

But he knew when he visited Shiki soon—and she asked him what he’d been up to—she would still tease him about being the mom friend, for going out and buying protein for Nagi in the wee hours of the morning.

…

And it continued on like that… and Neku was somewhat loath to admit it, because hey: he had an image to uphold here.

But then again… maybe not, because if this was him pushing out his borders as far as they would go—as Mr. H had instructed him to do three years ago—Neku knew he would gladly do so… even at the risk was being called a “mom”, and even an “old maid”, or something.

Right now, Rindo had severely hurt his ankle… and who was he holding onto as they hobbled away, with designs to get him to a hospital? Neku.

“This is the last time I ever try something from the 90’s again!” Rindo complained, as Neku was half-carrying him to his car now (and how nice it was, that Neku could drive now—from memories of another him that hadn’t lost such formative years—that Joshua had implanted into his head).

“Yeah, Rindo… scooters were cool and everything—yours truly had one—but even I don’t know why you decided to try and bring them back now of all times… Especially since they had a bad habit of spinning right back around and nailing you in the ankle… which you know all too well now,”

And godamnit. Neku really had become the mom friend, huh, if he was now telling his younger friend this venture had been dangerous from the get-go, and how he could have easily seen that if he’d tried to?

Neku pulled on one of his spikes, irritated with himself here, but tried not to show Rindo, lest he think he was mad at him.

“Well, I’d thought about getting a motor scooter,” Rindo explained, Neku loading his pal into his backseat now. “So, I think that’s what got scooters on my brain… But I was trying to be green, and still think of a faster way to catch things in FanGo than walking! And now look where it got me. Oy! …But I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. This should be the least of my problems, when just a few weeks ago I was fighting for you guys’ survival, huh?”

And Rindo paused in where he’d been about to put a hand over his eyes, to peek at Neku now who was currently getting into the driver’s seat—as if he was asking for the past Living Legend to remind the new one to have his priorities straight.

“For real,” Neku told Rindo, whilst he started to pull away now. “When I got out, I was mostly thinking about the Game… about what Joshua did, and how even then, I still trusted him but couldn’t forgive him. And I was so excited to finally meet up with my friends—to finally have some and care about that—be glad, Rindo, that you got out with your friends, and there’s so much trust between you. Like there is between Josh and I now.”

And Rindo set down his phone then—apparently like he had when he first met Shoka in the RG—like he was really listening to what Neku had to say, and he had to appreciate that.

And it might have been his imagination… but Neku could have sworn he saw a flash of blue nodding his head at Neku’s words, as it sat back there with the injured Rindo.

…

The next time Neku ended up being the “mom” for someone in the Wicked Twisters, after the Game, it was with Fret.

It was towards the end of his and Rindo’s sophomore year of high school…

Fret had been ecstatic to come back to life, Neku had known, and wasn’t wasting his second chance. He had really thrown himself into his studies, Rindo had told Neku in private (quite proudly, Neku might add).

If he could keep it up, he would probably even be able to graduate early. And talent scouts were looking at him, Neku had been told: towards a kid who hadn’t strived that hard in school, but now was and excelling because of it.

Naturally, Fret had decided that his calling was fashion—everyone who had been playing the Reapers’ Game with him would have gathered just how much he loved clothes—and apparently he had really thrown himself into designing towards the end of the year, and was trying to put a portfolio together for Jupiter of the Monkey to look at: who the school was suggesting he try and intern with, as they had some connections with (and damn, if Neku didn’t wish he’d gone to Fret and Rindo’s school now, being a huge J of the M fan himself).

Part of Neku wondered why Fret just didn’t try to intern with Shiki during his senior year, but perhaps it was because he was afraid Shiki would just give him the position because they were friends and not because she really thought he was talented.

Anyway… Fret hadn’t gotten the internship. J of the M had said the Fret should try to use less color (you know what? Maybe Neku didn’t like them very much anymore…).

And since then… Fret had seemed to give up on his dream of being a fashion designer, and was trying to be an actor.

And, look: Neku had no problem if him wanting to do both, if he thought he could do it and this was really what Fret wanted… though call him crazy, but he felt like something else was at work here: something that Neku and Shiki had both experienced before.

So, Neku had sat Fret down to talk about it at Ken Doi’s—away from the filmmakers who were currently trying to film in Dogenzaka, that Fret had just been a part of—and laid it all out on the table, “It’s okay… to get Imposter Syndrome. I’ve had it before with my art. Even Shiki has before. But if you want to be an artist, you’re going to fall down a few times… Fret, I feel like you don’t want to be an actor, so much as you don’t mind people dinging your acting, because that isn’t something you care about as much as your designing.”

And after Neku had spoken, Fret somehow looked both like Neku had made him had an epiphany he hadn’t quite realized, and like Neku had stumbled upon the horrible truth he hadn’t wanted anyone to figure out.

Neku took a bite of the yummy curry that Ken Doi had been kind enough to make just for him, after he’d brought Joshua around recently (he’d said he’d missed the two of them. Go figure), and let Fret get his bearings.

And now he was sighing, and running a hand through his hair, much like Neku often did. Neku smiled, finding it hard not to sympathize.

“Oh, man. I really do have to get back into fashion, huh?”

“You do,” Neku agreed, wondering what wonderful articles of clothing Fret might come up with for him to wear in the future. Shoka, too. Really, with those two and Shiki and Eri, Neku had it made in the clothes department, and he was not complaining. “And it’ll be hard sometimes. But most things in life worth gaining are.”

And when Fret smiled back at him, Neku knew he’d made some progress here—which was good—and then he did one thing that was decidedly not mom-like, and let Fret get the bill. Why? Because Neku was a starving college student at this point, and Fret still had parents who paid for stuff for him.

…

And then the last person who needed Neku’s help (…for now, he guessed. Because apparently this was a full-time gig. And at this point, Neku wasn’t complaining because he happily would have taken custody of all the Wicked Twisters long ago if he could’ve), was Shoka.

…Who was freaking out after Rindo having tried to give her a promise ring and wasn’t at all being her usual FanGo loving self, where Rindo was concerned.

And, yeah… Shoka could be a bit of a tsundere sometimes, but Neku felt like the issue ran much deeper.

Neku also happened to see Shoka looking into the mirror a lot lately… And at first, he wondered if she’d become self-conscious like Shiki had been.

But upon hearing the arrogant comments that Shoka still said about herself—that Neku’s surrogate little sister so deserved to say, he thought—he knew that wasn’t the case.

He tried to use a bit of his soul power on her… because it turned out that Neku was strong enough to use it in the RG some, but all that really told the ginger was that it was a deep-rooted issue with Shoka and not what said issue was.

Finally, Neku knew he had to just talk to her.

“Let me in, Shoka,” he urged her—after he’d caught her looking at wedding dresses in her apartment at a group hang-out (it was just the two of them at said hang-out right now; everyone else had gone to get food for everybody). “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

And it was pretty fitting, Neku would later think, that he used Shiki’s old words to him with Shoka here, since she made him think of Shiki some—what with her favorite Mr. Mew hoodie and all. Especially when they’d been in the Game.

And at his question, Shoka sighed—like opening her thoughts to Neku was the biggest burden in the world—and dropped the magazine like it had burned her.

“What?” she demanded, fiddling with the zipper at her neck. “About Rindo? I feel like him wanting to give me a promise ring is silly—and of a time gone by—so of course I told him ‘no’, and give him a hard time about it. Not all of us can be you and Shiki, you know…”

And with that, Shoka seemed content to ignore Neku, and to go boot up her PS5 so she could play the “Stranger of Paradise” demo.

And, hey: more power to her—Neku thought it looked sick, too—but no way was he letting her get off that easily. “That’s a lie, Shoka, and we both know it. So, what’s really going on here?”

Shoka was sighing once more now—as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders. And it probably was, with this tragic girl—but she shuffled on the couch closer to Neku, which he saw as a good sign. “Fine… I guess I should have known that I couldn’t lie to Mr. Soul-Reader… I just- I feel I look too much like them: Ayano and my little sister. And I know it’s dumb, but I worry about it.

“Will I be like Ayano and settle into one thing? Like, say I get really into being Rindo’s girlfriend here… but I force myself to marry him one day, because he really wants that: what if we end up living a loveless life because of that, I didn’t want to tie the knot but forced myself to just because it was what he desired? And since I look like Little Sis… If Rindo and I do end up together, what if I end up dying young like she did and leaving Rindo alone. It’s too much.”

And here Neku had to pull Shoka into a small hug and kiss the crown of her head, whilst he ran calming hands down her arms. Shoka had been through way too much trauma for someone so young. It wasn’t fair. But even with all of that… Neku had to make sure she was sure of one thing right now.

So, he got off the couch and kneeled in front of Shoka, so she was looking into his eyes, and wouldn’t miss how serious this was. “Shoka… you definitely have a lot of baggage there, that I do think you should talk to Rindo about. And I’m so sorry that you’ve lost so much family for someone so young… but know that your family isn’t you. Their lives aren’t yours, nor are the things that they did. The things you do are going to be totally different from them, and you have to make those decisions for yourself. Got it?”

“Okay, Neku,” Shoka allowed, while she helped to pull Neku back up now. And she seemed to be blushing a little… but that was okay, because so was he. Neku may have been the mom of this little group, but big declarations of the heart like that could still be hard for him.

“Thanks!” Shoka beamed, before throwing herself at Neku to give him a quick hug this time.

And Neku laughed slightly. “No problem. Now, what do you say we get super far in this awesome demo before our friends get back, for being losers in forgetting to take us with them to get the food?”

“I think that sounds like a pretty sweet deal!” Shoka agreed, already pulling away from Neku and going for the controller.

Yeah… though Neku had certainly never signed up to be these four’s mom—and he still had no idea how that had happened—he now knew he wouldn’t change it for the world.

Especially when the rest of his children came back happy—which was always a perfect sight to see—and Shoka did end up working things out with Rindo.

It was a wonderful world, indeed.

Author’s Note: Yeah, I’m headcanoning here that the last Dive that you do (not counting Rhyme) for the little ghost from Shinjuku was Shoka’s sister.

Hope you all enjoyed!

35 notes · View notes