#so uh. sorry for the semi serious post. but I wanted to express some thoughts

[idolomantises]

nothin' serious, just thinkin

The whole situation with a certain Indie creator’s work blowing up too quickly and feeling overwhelmed by it, really makes me think about how… not fun it is sometimes when your work gets popular. Obviously my level of popularity and fandom doesn’t match there’s but dealing with people who see your OCs and start claiming them as their own, disrespect boundaries and basically hound you with their preferences is such a reoccurring problem it’s a bit scary.

For example, I remember wanting to completely scrap Powers as a character when people were treating her as a self insert to be homophobic and misogynistic, despite carrying neither of those traits. People make fetish art of my OCs and then tag me in it (and if I don’t reblog/retweet it they practically spam me about it). I’ve had people try to steal my own OCs out of spite. I’ve seen people draw smut of my underaged characters. People have gotten angry with me when my characters disprove their headcanons or present themselves in ways that aren’t their preferences. The amount of times I’ve dealt with people genuinely angry with me that Sera is a woman is a scary amount. Queer people thinking my art is fetish content that is catered for straight men. I’ve had people tell me that because I don’t depict more of a specific group, that means I despise them and that my art is inherently promoting hateful ideology for not depicting them. People sending me videos of bugs being killed or mocking my characters because they think it’s funny. and I have to repeat again these aren’t random trolls online, this is from my own followers.

And you guys have seen how angry people get when I tell them to stop being bigoted under my queer art, whether it’s complaining that I’m drawing too many women/lesbians or bitching that I’m drawing gay men at all, I’ve had to deal with the unfortunate fact some of my followers, no matter how many times I try to push them off my account are just… very hateful and think my work is fetish content meant to cater to them. Lesbian art isn’t queer art, it’s a porn category for some people. And a lot of queer men think it’s fine to lesbophobic and misogynistic under my art and demand that I draw less female characters because (insert that annoying Speed quote here)

I do really like the fanart and I’m completely fine with NSFW works as long as the characters are 18+, but it’s just. It’s scary sometimes. And it scares me to imagine what would happen if I really blew up. Respect creator’s boundaries… please.

[hajimewhore]

Body Swap 👫 (Iwaizumi Hajime/Reader) ➸Rated T, fem!Reader, 3.2k words ➷Humor, slight angst, misunderstandings, mutual pining, shenanigans ofc, i missed oikawa ➷ Masterlist, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, ✈Part 7

Hajime nearly chokes, wiping the ‘potion’ dribbling down his jawline, he presses the back of his hand to his mouth in an attempt to keep the disgusting concoction from exiting his gut. 

“...How was it?”

You try to pat his back sympathetically (he’s gagging now), but you’re the one that insisted he try the mystery remedy first, and you cautiously pull your hand away as he shoots you the most menacing glare he can while he’s coughing into his palm. 

“It was made with weird mushrooms and fucking plants, how do you think it tastes?”

Terrible, you guess. And the effects were supposed to be instantaneous, according to a recipe dropped in one of the posts you found… not that you expected it to work. 

“Ahh, and nothing happened.”

You rub your jaw semi-thoughtfully, before catching the look on Hajime’s face. 

“Uh, Hajime?”

His expression is glaring, not unlike someone scheming for revenge. But that’s silly, Hajime wouldn’t blame you for the potion not working, right?

“It probably didn’t work because you didn’t try it with me.”

It seems he would, realization sets in as Hajime closes in on you, and you panic,

“I think it didn’t work because it was someone bullshitting!”

“Don’t you want to swap back? Just drink it!”

“You’re just mad, get away from me!”

You trip on your feet, stumbling into the kitchen table. It scrapes the tile as your hands clutch for purchase on anything that’ll help you get you away from the madman behind you, but the tablecloth you’ve grasped at isn’t much help seeing as you swipe it off the table entirely. You’d be impressed that all the plates and the flower-filled vase stayed perfectly set on the table from your impromptu magic trick, if it weren’t for Hajime assaulting you.

You cry out as if you’re being brutally attacked (you are, technically–just with plant juice), and Hajime takes you by the jaw and tilts a cup of the swirling cocktail to your lips, sloshing rather unappetizingly in the glass. If the thing had an aura, it’d have a thick gray cloud fuming from it. 

“And why would I be mad?”

“Because I made you drink a potion I found on a weird thread even though it was totally suspicious and completely untrustworthy!”

You confess to your sins, the thread was actually some sort of troll that promised the reader would swap bodies with their favorite celebrity, and you cast it aside for the likelihood of that never happening, it was probably a scam to get some gullible teens to drink essentially dirt.

And you admit that initially you thought it would be funny to prank Hajime, jotting down the recipe and conveniently leaving out the celebrity bit, but in your excitement to scheme you forgot Hajime doesn’t take too well to pranks at his expense. 

Not without retribution at least, and you find yourself grappling at his wrists, attempting to turn your head away from the glass.

He eyes you with a too eager grin,

“You should try it, really, it might work.”

It didn’t. 

It was disgusting. 

You have learned your lesson not to trifle with Hajime, and you're no closer to finding a solution to your problem. 

You slump onto the kitchen table, feeling especially abused and violated by the plant paste you regretfully crafted. 

“That’s number one on the list, what’s next?”

Hajime rests his elbow on the table, chin in palm as he scrolls on his phone. 

“Bonk our heads together so hard we pass out and hopefully wake up in our own bodies?”

You suggest. Who knows, it could actually work.

“No thanks, I’d rather not wake up the same way but with a concussion.”

The second Hajime turns down your cartoonish suggestion, his phone lights up and buzzes, signifying a call.

You glance at his phone, “Tooru’s calling you?”

“Fuck. I’ll just ignore it,”

The moment he sets his phone aside, the kitchen door bursts open, presenting none other than Oikawa Tooru, entirely expected given the situation and the fact that Hajime’s parents are still at work. 

“Tooru?!”

You blink in surprise, and Tooru frowns at the sight of the two of you together. 

“I knew you were ignoring me!”

“What the fuck Shittykawa, who said you could come over?”

Hajime grimaces, forgetting to stay true to your personality in his surprise. Tooru’s brow ticks at the catty response to his entrance. 

“I see you’ve been spending too much time with Iwa-chan, using his terrible nicknames! I didn’t think you’d ever use it on me either, but here we are!”

He folds his arms across his chest, and Hajime covers his mouth.

Shit, he let that one slip in his initial shock. 

“Besides, this is Iwa-chan’s house, and I say I can come over! You two have been ignoring me all week and coming up with the shittiest excuses—”

“Oikawa—”

“No, let me finish!”

He huffs, looking more serious than you’ve seen him outside the court. Judging by his posture and the worry in his brows, you can tell he’s been stressing himself lately. You bite your cheek, knowing full well you and Hajime were the root of the cause.

“Both of you have to go to the dentist when the office is closed, really? Iwa-chan studying for a test that’s not for another week, please! Give me a break. Not to mention, every practice you play like shit Iwa-chan,”

It’s not shit, you’re just not Hajime’s usual, because you’re not fucking Hajime. You want to argue, defend yourself and Hajime, but you keep your lips sealed. 

“You act like a total weirdo, you hardly talk to your own teammates and friends, and you–”

He turns to Hajime, technically you, scowl ever present. 

“You always run off with him after school! And don’t even pretend like you’re not having lunch with him too, Kunimi-chan saw you eating alone together by the art building–ditching me, yeah?”

He’s fuming, and his hair is moving in every direction accompanying his wild, frantic gestures. 

The guilt starts piling, and you’re starting to regret yours and Hajime’s way of handling the situation. 

To avoid uncomfortable situations and messing up, you thought the best method was to steer clear from everyone entirely. 

Clearly that’s backfiring, but it’s too late to erase those actions now. 

“Not only have you two spent all week lying to me, you’ve been completely ignoring my calls and texts all weekend too!”

Tooru pauses, rant seemingly over, but neither you or Hajime feel inclined to speak yet, too caught off guard by the outburst, and unsure of what you can say to remedy the situation. 

Tooru drops his arms at his sides, glancing away from the two of you, biting his lip. Your shoulders tense when you feel the atmosphere around him drop significantly.

“Are you guys mad at me?”

Oh. 

Oh fuck.

You forgot he had feelings. 

“Oikawa, it’s not that, I swear.”

You speak first, and Tooru looks to you with an expression that almost breaks your heart right there. Brown eyes glossy, lips in a thin line as if he’s trying to keep them from turning down into a frown, he looks genuinely displeased.

“Are you just sick of me? Are you tired of hanging out with me? I know I’m an asshole sometimes, but if it makes you guys that upset I can stop, I’ll be better.” 

In any other context you may quip with a ‘you could stop this whole time?’, but the joke wouldn’t sit right, and Tooru looks entirely too on edge, fingers tapping at his sides restlessly. 

Tooru’s always been the type to stay true to himself, unabashedly and unapologetically. He knows he’s flawed, has learned to accept his shortcomings as a person. But here he is before you and Hajime, willing to cast aside his pride for the sake of your friendship. It only serves to guilt you more, considering it’s based upon the lies you’ve built up.

“I promise we’re not sick of you, we just… had something come up that we had to deal with. It’s been really stressful, I’m sorry.”

You don’t particularly care if it’s too out of character, it’s what Tooru needs to hear. 

Risking a glance at Hajime, you see he’s shaking his leg and biting his lip, a few of his nervous tics, he’s contemplating something heavily. 

“And you can’t tell me? You always tell me when something is wrong.”

Tooru eyes you suspiciously, and it’s true, usually you can tell Tooru anything. But this isn’t something believable, and you and Hajime both decided it’s best kept a secret. 

“We can’t, but it’s nothing you did. Don’t worry about it, we’ll start hanging out soon, like we used to, we just have to deal with this ourselves.”

And you hope you’ll be able to, it’d be nice to go back to normal. You did miss movie nights with Tooru and Hajime, and you miss having lunch together on the rooftop. 

Tooru thinks for a moment, you see the gears turning in his head, eyes focused. He glances to Hajime, who hasn’t said a word the entire time, still tense on the other side of the table. 

Tooru’s contemplative gaze flicks to you, as if he’s had some sort of revelation. 

“Did you get her pregnant?”

WHA—THAT’S HIS REVELATION?

“You asshole, shut up!”

Hajime’s choice first words. 

“What?! No, no, fuck no!”

You blush heavily at his wild accusation, and Tooru looks visibly relieved. 

“Oh, thank god. It wouldn’t have been a bad thing, necessarily, and I always kind of expected it, but this is just too soon.”

He laughs airily, as if he doesn’t feel the weight of his words like you do, heavy on your heart. Does everyone have that assumption? That you and Hajime would one day be together like that?

“We’re not even dating, idiot.”

Ouch. Hajime’s adamant refusal jabs at you, and you try to ignore the ache that claws at your chest. That may have stung a bit, but you certainly won’t admit it out loud.

“Yeah, yeah. I just couldn’t think of any other reason you’d be ignoring me like that.”

“It’s ‘cause we swapped bodies.”

You whip your head to Hajime, physically ripped from your disappointment, too shocked he’d blab the truth to Tooru and expect a reasonable outcome from it.

“Hah. Hah.”

Tooru doesn’t even entertain the explanation, arms crossed and eyes disinterested, accompanying the dry laugh well.

“It’s true.”

You hope Hajime knows what he’s doing. 

“Funny, and I didn’t think you’d be in on it Iwa-chan, looking so surprised like that.”

Tooru doesn’t even look skeptical, or remotely fazed, as if he doesn’t want to be tricked into falling for something so blatantly stupid. 

And normally, he’d be right to, but in this case, you and Hajime were unfortunately not kidding. 

“I just didn’t think Hajime would openly admit that without talking to me first.”

You shoot a glance at Hajime, as if to convey ‘I hope you know what you’re doing’, but he merely shrugs in response. 

“And you’re a real prankster today too. What’s gotten into you guys? Seriously, are you mad at me?”

Tooru is starting to look a little peeved, visibly doubting your words of encouragement from earlier. 

“We’re not mad. We switched places. We woke up last Sunday in each other’s bodies. That’s why we haven’t been ourselves, and that’s why we’ve been avoiding everyone.”

Hajime continues with his explanation, as if Tooru would be any closer to believing it.

Which he isn’t. 

“That’s not even possible, but fine, I’ll play along. You’re Iwa-chan, supposedly. What’s something that only he would know?”

Tooru crosses his arms smugly, staring at your body, who is ‘supposedly’ Hajime, as if he’s got you two in checkmate. 

This can’t be good for Tooru, but it’s definitely going to be good for you if you’re getting in on a secret. 

“Alright. You swore me to secrecy for this one,” Hajime doesn’t hesitate for one second, “that time at the volleyball banquet last year you saw a girl with a ‘nice ass’ in a ‘super mega tight dress’ and wanted to hit on her, but when you tapped her shoulder, she turned around and it was actually Y/N–”

Now this is very interesting news to you. 

“H-HEY, STOP TALKING–”  

Hajime side steps Tooru’s attempt to cover his mouth,

“And you pre-gamed before the event so you drunkenly admitted to me that you’d still tap that but she’s practically your sister and that’s gross but her ass looked so–”

“I get it okay! How do I know you’re not just fucking with me and broke the secret pact we made?!”

Tooru cuts Hajime off and glares at you, but you’re giving him the widest, shit-eating grin. 

“I knew that dress looked good.”

“Enough games already!”

“What about the time in elementary school where you and I went to a volleyball match and you had to–”

“ENOUGH, enough, I believe you, okay!”

Tooru relents, red-faced and practically sweating from his nervous panic. 

“I wanna know about the time in elementary school where you and Hajime went to a volleyball match and something happened.”

You put your hand up, wanting to know the juicy details. You thought you and Tooru told each other everything, but apparently there’s some missing gaps in that ‘everything’, and you’re very eager to learn. 

“We made a friendship promise and he swore me not to tell anyone but because of the circumstances, he had to—” 

“I said I believed you already, stop trying to out me!”

Tooru cuts Hajime off at the best part, every time. 

He taps his foot with a huff, bottom lip twitching into a frown. Hajime gives him a smug look, staring back combatively, as if Tooru will attempt to call out bullshit again (he won’t). 

You’ll have to remember to ask Hajime about the middle school incident at a later date, but right now, 

“I’m sorry we kept this from you, and sorry I kept ignoring your calls, Tooru. We didn’t know what to do.”

You interrupt their staring contest, wrapping your arms around Tooru in a tight hug. You’re the tallest you’ve ever been, and it’s weird to hug him when you aren’t yourself, but you missed your best friend. 

“Uh…”

Tooru awkwardly pats your back,

“I was kind of lying before because I thought you guys were trying to shame and humiliate me, but this is really weird and I actually might believe you now.”

“Asshole, that’s all it took?! And stop hugging him like that, it's freaking me out!”

Hajime slaps Tooru on the back, yanking you by the back of your shirt to pull you from the hug. 

He grumbles something indecipherable under his breath, contemplating whether he should even say anything, 

“I’m sorry too. I guess.”

He gives Tooru an awkward, much gentler slap on the back, before slinging his arm around Tooru in some sort of half-hug gesture.

“I-Iwa-chan! It really is you in there!”

Oikawa’s fake tears spring to life as he bends down to wrap Hajime in a hug, who struggles like a cat wanting to be released. 

“Get off me!”

Tooru pulls back, wiping a tear from his long lashes, 

“I’m still really upset right now, I really thought you guys hated me! So if you could please shower me with adoration, that’d be lovely.”

Tooru spreads out his arms, a pathetic expression on his face that Hajime doesn’t buy for one second. 

“Tooru! I love you! You’re the best Tooru, your jump serves are great! Your setting is unmatched! You’re my bestest friend!”

You cheer him on, Hajime is balking that you’d even entertain the idea of doing that in his body, let alone acting on it, but Tooru eats it up with gleaming eyes. 

“Quit feeding his ego!”

It’s your turn to be scolded by Hajime, but you just stick your tongue out at him sheepishly. 

“He deserves it?”

“He didn’t do anything.”

“Exactly! He didn’t do anything, and we were being bad friends.”

“I’m on your side,”

Tooru slings an arm around your shoulder and gazes down at Hajime, who’s more aggravated now than when he was drinking straight plant paste. 

It hadn’t bothered him too much initially, but having to crane his neck up to glare at Tooru is sparking some caveman urge deep inside Hajime to absolutely throttle him.

“Out. Get out of my house.”

“Technically, this isn’t your house–OW, Iwa-chan, that still hurts!”

“Newsflash Asshole-kawa, girls can hit too!”

They can, and you let Hajime prove his point. 

“So,”

“If it’s something about aliens, I don’t want to hear it.”

You interrupt Tooru before he can spew something definitely about aliens.

“I wasn’t going to bring up aliens–though it’s a very valid cause you definitely need to consider. I was actually going to ask if you have any idea how long you’re gonna be like this?”

You give Tooru a tired look, and Hajime just ignores him entirely, tired of glaring no doubt. 

Tooru’s been lazing around, attempting to ‘help’ you and Hajime, but you doubt he’s accomplished anything aside from scrolling through the same threads you’ve looked through. You’re willing to bet he researched for a minute or two before losing interest, abandoning the task in favor of looking through Karasuno’s and Shiratorizawa’s match history.

“If we knew, we’d tell you.”

You respond, since it seems Hajime isn’t interested in replying.

“Ooh, that reminds me,” Tooru props his elbows up on the couch, pausing whatever volleyball match he was watching to drop his phone on his chest, “I saw this foreign family comedy once where the mom and her daughter swapped places, but they had to show each other selfless love and understand what the other goes through to swap back.” 

Tooru gasps in additional realization before turning to Hajime, “Iwa-chan, are you her mom?”

The look Hajime gives Tooru is enough to put him in a grave and send secondhand chills down your spine. 

“Sorry, sorry, don’t hit me again! Your hands are pointy and jabby now, it’s hard to get used to.”

Ignoring that, 

“Hajime and I already understand each other, we have to put up with you all day.”

“True,” Tooru is completely unbothered by that comment, “I did see a romcom where the two main characters had to kiss at the end, they ended up swapping places like that.”

You don’t like that he casually suggests this with such an innocent look on his features.

“That sounds stupid, watch better movies.”

Hajime grunts out, and you’ll admit that kissing Hajime would be nice, but under normal circumstances preferably. You don’t particularly want to kiss yourself as Hajime. 

“I appreciate all your knowledge in films that have body swaps in them Tooru, but this isn’t a romcom, or a movie.”

You sigh, and Tooru hums thoughtfully. 

“Sure, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

He sits upright with ease, sliding off the couch and pocketing his phone, 

“Anyways, I’ve got more practice to do. I’ll try not to be too hard on you tomorrow, now that I know you’ve swapped with that brute over there. Ciao!”

Tooru ducks out of the living room and out the Iwaizumi household before Hajime can assault him, and good thing, he probably would’ve had some bruises from your ‘jabby’ and ‘pointy’ hands. 

With Tooru’s quick escape, you’re left contemplating whether that suggestion would actually work or not, risking glances to Hajime across the room.

A/N: not me ending a chapter on a juicy bit again afjknddm, anyways im posting this at an ungodly time but i hope everyone enjoys!

taglist: @cybergovl @babybellecheese @keijikunn @168-cm-png @sexy0android @cuddlesslut @bumbledunce​

[bluewahhh]

Soft Sorrow (3)

I finally figured out who the director chose to write about the recent murders. I was hoping it’d be me but I guess this was bound to happen one way or another. She’s not bad on the eyes, but that’s not entirely important. I’m curious to see how she chooses to write about Ghostface though. Danny thought. ‘I really started that off badly, I thought she would’ve liked straightforward people.” he sighed and laid back in his chair, facing a sort of cork board full almost completely of different Ghostface cases. All accompanied with a complimentary photo of each victim mutilated beside it. He greeted the ceiling with a wide and unsettling grin, if fear could kill, anyone in front of him would be dead. As you type away at your desk Alice comes into your peripheral vision, looking as sly as ever. “Ohhhh y/nnnn~,” she said. You don’t bother to look up, pretty engrossed in your work you mutter out a small hum of acknowledgment. “Want to accompany me to a bar tonight? I wouldn’t want to risk getting killed by a specific killer now would I?” She knows her safety is your weakness. You let out a breathy groan, “Alice, I have a lot of work to do, maybe some other day ?” “Oh come on, you always manage to finish those articles in time, and they’re always great. Soooo.” she yanks your arm slightly. How does a grown woman still manage to act like a high school girl? It kind of takes me back, she reminds me of my youth quite a bit. Maybe that’s why I care for her so much. After much coaxing, you finally agreed. The walk was nice and quiet, she spoke softly over how lucky I was to get to write the Ghostface articles. Which I kindly ignored. She then went on to talk about the stars, and how she and I were compatible based on our birth month. I was too tired to pay attention but it was comforting nonetheless. We finally made it and I realized it was more of a restaurant when we entered it wasn’t too loud. The music overpowered most of the conversations. We took a seat at the small bar and ordered our two distinct drinks, Old fashioned and some color-changing cocktail. She watched her drink change from deep indigo to magenta, completely mesmerized. I smiled at her expression. After it completely changed colors she looked back up to face me. “Are you gonna be okay?” she asked in a serious tone. I’ve never heard or seen her express this much concern towards me, so I realize having to work on these cases must be detrimental once you do it for so long. “I can always convince him to change it to m-“ “No” you interrupt. “I know you’re just looking out for me but I can handle this.” you lean over your drink. “What if they come after you though.” You lifted your head up, surprised, you hadn’t thought about that. “I mean..what if you write something they don’t approve of.” “I’ll just be selective with my words, I’m sure I’ll be perfectly fine” you manage to say calmly. In reality, you were kind of freaking out, what if they DID try to kill you. That’d honestly not be very cool. You exhale a bit and turn to your drink, “is this the only reason you called me here?” Her flushed cheeks confirmed your suspicion. “I assure you I'll be perfectly fine. Worry about your own skin, ‘Kay?” “I will, I will, I'm just worried about you. You were always like a sort of sister to me. I just don't want to lose you to some psycho.” Your face warmed at her tender words. You put a hand on her shoulder. “Alice, I assure you I'll be perfectly fine, and I'll do anything I need to make sure you're okay too. They won’t get either of us. Promise.” Her face warmed into a smile as she hugged you. After a few words over drinks, the night ended with you going back home. Feeling ever so slightly closer to Alice. Finally making it home and letting loose, you begin removing your makeup, suddenly your phone goes off breaking the agonizing silence. You pick it up and answer, semi groggily. “Hello? Who is this?” A familiar voice answers you. “Hey, it’s Luke, uh Alice’s brother.” You heard his voice crack slightly at Alice’s name. “Oh, uh hey. What is it? Don’t tell me Alice lost her

phone again.” you sighed with a snicker at the end. “That’s the thing, she-” his voice broke as he let out a choked sob. Your smile faded as quickly as it came. Everything clicked together as you realized the tragedy that had unfolded into your life. HAHA not sorry for the cliff hanger ! normal posts will resume next Sunday. I hope this makes up for the lack of length part 2 had ! have a good day !

[crqstalite]

You've been visited by the random writing prompts goblin!! - Write about your character just... talking. Are they talking to themselves, or with someone else? What kind of slang or phrases do they use often? Do they have an accent?

I really should quit writing these one-on-one scenes with Kodelyn and Lali (and maybe y’know, with their actual partners) but I couldn’t get the prompt out of my head! I love them too much and Citlali’s POV is one of my favorites to write -- she goes off on a lot of tangents and I find it more funny and entertaining that anything. Way different than I write Kodelyn’s. Probably should do more shippy writing at some point, but some point is not now.

Post-war. Word count: 2,008. no warnings.

-

“Y’know, she even said she might even put a good word in for me,” Citlali leans back in her chair, grinning around her straw, “Might be a real flight lieutenant, give or take like a decade. No more stowaway-ing for me.”

“Sounds nice.”

“Yeah. Dealing with ships is more my speed than people. Biotic regiment sounds too...I don’t know, challenging? Out there? For little old me.” The younger woman sighs, throwing a hand over her forehead dramatically, “Plus I’d have to work with our dear Major Alenko of all people. As if I don’t see enough of him now, he’d be my actual CO this time around.”

“Yep.”

“Still, that’s years out when the galaxy gets it’s head back on straight. Think they’re just absurdly shortstaffed right now. Not even sure whether this is a good idea or not, I mean, I spent half my life afraid of what I could do and now? Supernova. Might as well make good use of this.” She snaps her fingers, “Like lighting...something on fire. Damn it, lost the analogy that quickly.”

“That’s great.”

Citlali straightens in her chair again, looking around the atrium and shaking her cup, ice rattling inside of the plastic. The Citadel was rebuilding, after nearly a year and a half after the war had ended, and a few wards were getting back to the idea of normal. If one went wandering, one could probably still see the scars and missing shops, homes and even nearly half a ward on the other side. Yet, here they were, at a little fast food place, still very much alive and thriving.

Suck on that, Reapers. Shepard 3, Reapers 0.

The energy in the food court is different from where it had been before the Citadel had been moved to Sol. Less nervous energy to burn, less fatalistic views being preached from every corner of the Presidium. Life was getting back to good. Summer was right around the corner on Earth at least. Less death and mass murder at the hands of the Reaper putting a dampener on dinner.

She squints at her sister. Kodelyn Shepard, entirely off duty, was still in something that made Citlali think she was going to spar with James. Offhandedly she wonders if she would ever take her up on that offer to get a full wardrobe beyond the one or two shirts, jeans and boots she owned. Considering she rarely saw Kaidan out of anything similar, she’d have to do something about that soon.

She’d always looked nice in yellow.

However, said Shepard has a smile just gently tugging at the corners of her mouth while one hand flies over her omni-tool’s keyboard, not a glance up to where Citlali is.

She’s not paying attention. Probably hasn’t been since she started talking nearly five minutes ago. Her offhanded responses have gotten better though, Kodelyn almost had her fooled that she was carrying on a two-way conversation. Probably should’ve gotten suspicious when she didn’t actually offer anything to the conversation. Or when she opened the omni-tool to begin with. Multi-tasking had always been a skill that she had, not so much one that Citlali did.

“Anything good?” Citlali reaches over the table to gently (alright, she’ll admit it wasn’t all that gentle) pull at her sister’s wrist. A quick glance at the ID tells her all she needed to as she slumps back in the chair, “Damn, speak of the devil! You haven’t been listening to a single thing I’ve said have you?”

“Hey!” Kodelyn yanks her hand back, swiping at the screen a few times, “I have been listening.” She retorts indignantly.

“Have you?” Citlali raises an eyebrow. She hasn’t been, but knowing her sister, she’s good enough at halfway paying attention to reconstruct what she’s said well enough that she wouldn’t be able to accuse her otherwise.

Damn her. Sound doesn’t turn to soup whenever multiple conversations are going on around her. Lucky.

“Yes! I have.”

“Uh huh,” Citlali gnaws at the straw, wickedly grinning when she returns to typing, “Anything dirty?”

“No!” Kodelyn yelps, closing the UI, and dropping her face into her hands as Citlali cackles at her own jab, “Would you give it a rest?”

“I would, if he didn’t take over every waking thought of yours.” Citlali playfully presses a finger into her vulnerable forehead, “Fi-an-ce, brother-in-law-to-be or otherwise, you could at least spare your maid of honor and baby sister twenty minutes of your undivided attention.”

Kodelyn softly smiles. She’s at least genuinely apologetic, leaning back into her own chair with her hands out in front of her, “I know. And I’m sorry, just...”

“I know. He’s important. This whole shing-ding you have planned for the dead of summer is important. Actually, why the middle of July? Do you know how sticky July is? How humid it is to my poor hair? And yours?” Citlali gets a bit carried away (well that was on Kodelyn, July was the month of the devil. But then again she’d never been to Vancouver in July...and she was getting carried away again), “But have you spent a single second today not on that thing?”

“You know, I don’t just use it to talk to Kaidan. There is spectre business to attend to as well. Just because the war ended didn’t mean that work did.”

“Really? You had me fooled, thought he was the only contact in there,” Citlali snickers as Kodelyn rolls her eyes, “I get it, you’re still important and you’re still really busy. I respect that. Just sometimes I just want to know what’s going on with you without having to hear it secondhand, or on my ‘tool.”

“As if you haven’t been equally quiet the last few months.”

“I haven’t! I even sent the RSVP note back. In pen. That’s how much it meant to me.”

“That was your writing? Thought Mason got ahold of it. Kaidan and I could barely tell who it was from.”

“Ok, glad we can agree our baby brother writes like a chicken, but my handwriting is not that bad!” Kodelyn snickers as Citlali pops the cap off her cup, rattling around the ice at the bottom of the cup. Pink liquid still hangs onto the cubes, which meant the last of the juice was still hiding from her. She sucks on the straw anyway, “We have all the time in the galaxy now and we still just keep missing each other. Twice you were presumed or actually dead -- three if you want to count the original battle of the Citadel, and sometimes it still doesn’t feel real that you’re sitting across from me, very much alive and kicking. Three times I had to come to terms with the fact you might actually be gone.”

Kodelyn’s expression softens at her admission, “Is that why you keep trying to invite me out to ‘girl’s nights?’ Because you just want to make sure I’m still here?”

“No that’s mostly mom, you really have to start answering those. Occasionally Tali whenever she’s here, she’s asks after you, y’know. Liara and I hang out sometimes. Not as much fun, she’s as quiet as you sometimes and I’m not an archeologist. Or information broker. Or Asari. Not much we can talk about that isn’t confidential or something way out of my realm of understanding -- not like she wants to talk about the newest extranet series either.” Citlali remarks. She did genuinely like Liara, even if their interests were on opposite sides of the galaxy. Maybe she should bother the Asari a bit more before she took off again into the unknown, wherever said unknown was. What did a Shadow Broker do all day?

Beyond the point though, “Look, I won’t get sappy, but the piece of your pie chart that’s dedicated to me means a lot. It’s good when I don’t nearly get a heart attack every time you’re on the news.”

“If it was that serious-”

“-And it’s not.”

“If it is,” Kodelyn continues, “I’ll always be here. Just a call away.”

“I had to schedule this a week in advance, Dee.” Citlali gestures with her pretty much empty cup, though backs down a moment later, “Maybe I’m being a bit ridiculous, but I can count on one hand how many just...days like this we’ve spent together since the war ended. I mean, you could probably count everyday I was in your hospital room, but those are technically invalid since you weren’t conscious for most of them.”

“You know better than anyone that I’ve been pulled in thirteen different directions at once, not all of them as fun as you make them out to be. And yeah, you’re right, maybe I haven’t been making as much of an effort as I could be to spend some 1-on-1 time with you.” Kodelyn taps her nails on the table, thinking while the conversation lulls, “You still mean everything to me Lali. I’ll be better, just give me some time to figure all of this out, okay?”

Time, all they had was time these days. And yet it felt like she’d blinked, the war happened, and she was sitting in a hospital waiting room for hours on end. Blinked again, and she found herself back in her own apartment, her own bed, her semi-old life. Startling, almost like none had passed at all between when she’d picked up that call from Miranda to now. And yet, now it didn’t feel like she was wasting any of it by pulling her sister away to do something silly or inane. Death was no longer rapping at their door with increasing ferocity, almost like a much too determined salesman. Felt like they’d managed to crucible it across the front lawn and send it scrambling.

“Yeah, of course. Just...for the record.” She shrugs. The cup is finally empty, making an ugly noise when she sucks on the straw, instead still gnawing on it, “All we have is time these days. And I’m not being sarcastic, we honestly do. We’ll see the passing of another century given something else doesn’t try to annihilate the galaxy.”

“Yeah, if they could wait until after the next Council summit as well as after the wedding, that’d be great.” Her sister says, flickering open her UI again, “I spent way too much time helping planning both of those to have them ransacked by the next Harbinger.”

“Oh yes!” Citlali grins, “Councilor Shepard-Alenko, that’ll be the day. Yes ‘Reapers’, we have dismissed that claim already.”

“I still haven’t accepted,” Kodelyn laughs, turning her wrist to show Citlali something, “And I might not, I’ll recommend Petrakis but that’s as far as I’m going to help them find a proper representative. I’m not really Councilor material, and Kaidan’s had to remind me I can’t exactly hang up on them if they’re standing right next to me.”

“Really? Finally time to kick back and settle down with you, huh? Nice little place in Vancouver? Here? Part of me is going to be surprised if I see you in anything other than a t-shirt and jeans.”

“Probably not forever, but there is a piece of my pie chart dedicated to not driving myself up the wall anymore,” She gently presses her finger into Citlali’s forehead, making her chuckle, “Not such a bad thing. And I wore that spring dress you bought for me last month.”

“The day you step back from all this,” Citlali waves her arms around them, “Is the day I eat my hat.”

“I’m capable of more than just all this.” Kodelyn gestures similarly, “It’ll be nice to step back and enjoy what we saved. Preferably not from a war room anymore.”

“Never thought I’d peel you out of one,” Citlali says, “Mrs. Kaidan Alenko.”

“You have to get tired of saying that at some point.” Kodelyn’s partially right, though it amuses her. Sort of sweet at times.

“Will I? I don’t think so.”

“Really?” Kodelyn raises an eyebrow, “So how soon can I call you Mrs. Jeff Moreau?”

“New topic!”

[skiesoftwilight]

Stubborn (Jason Todd)

I found this one at the very bottom of my docs. I thought I posted it, but I was wrong, so after a brief read and edit, I got it ready to be posted :) (Sorry for the lack of writing, I’m trying hard, but I'm still trying to climb over my writer’s block :/) I hope you all enjoy! :)

Word Count: 2303

••••••••••••••••••••••••••  

“Where the hell is all my gear?”

Your brows furrowed together in confusion while you stared into your empty uniform showcase, wondering who took your uniform. All of your weapons were gone from their designated hooks; they even took your communicator that kept track of all your missions and routes. They didn’t even bother to close the glass door or turn off the lights inside to cover up their tracks, there was a bunch of evidence around you, but you still didn’t have the slightest clue.

The sound of numerous footsteps and talking met your ears and caused you to turn around swiftly to see Dick, Jason, and Damian enter the Batcave with cheeky smiles on their faces. They were so involved in their conversation that they didn’t acknowledge your presence that was only a few feet away from them.

“Really? Her? I would’ve thought—”

“Hello boys,” You made your presence known, walking in front of them slowly, trying to see if the culprit was in front of your eyes, “What brings you down here? I thought Bruce said that he gave you all the night off?”

The boys' attention was immediately brought to your small form in front of them. They eyed you up and down, taking in your tense demeanor, trying to figure out what had gotten you upset. Dick and Damian returned your confused state while Jason’s face remained calm while he stared at you in the eyes and giving you that goofy smile that you loved so much.

“Bruce received a surprise mission and he’s sending us to take care of it,” Jason folded his arms over his chest in a loose manner, “What are you doing down here? I thought you were supposed to be upstairs resting?”

“Alfred cleared me earlier this morning,” You stated with pride, looking at them with half-smiles as you continued your search, “I came down here ‘cause I thought I heard a noise, so I decided to investigate… so far, no culprit…”

Dick raised his hand to state that you couldn’t have possibly heard a noise from the manor as the only access was from an elevator, but when Jason placed a hand on his shoulder, he put his hand down as he knew that his younger brother had caught you, his charming partner, in a lie. He didn’t address it at first; he let you believe that you had fooled them in order to see if you would let it slip on why you were really down in the Batcave.

“Oh okay, well good luck trying to catch it, whatever it is that you heard,” Jason said with a hint of mirth as he walked passed you, letting his large hand cup your shoulder with a pat before making his way to get suited up with Damian and Dick, “just don’t stay down here too long, I don’t care if Alfred cleared you or not, you should still be resting.”

“Well, actually, now that the three of you are down here, I did notice that, uh, my uniform is, uh, missing from its showcase,” You brought yourself to stand right in front of Jason once again, not letting him advance further to his own uniform; he waved Dick and Damian to go on ahead while he stayed to talk, “You wouldn’t happen to know what happened to it by chance?”

“Nope, not a clue. You were the last person to wear it, and if I’m not mistaken, the only person to wear it, so shouldn’t you know where you put it?” Jason kept his facial expressions neutral as he stared down at you. His tone was dripping with sarcasm, and it didn’t bother you that much, but all you wanted was the person who took it.

“Well, I came down here earlier and seen it sitting perfectly in it case, and now I come back down and it’s missing…” You placed your bandaged hand on your hip gently, being careful not to put too much pressure on it; it didn’t dawn on you right away, but things were clicking together in your mind, “right around the time you, Dick, and Damian are going out on a mission. Isn’t that crazy?”

Jason’s eyes roamed around the empty case as if he was conducting his own investigation before letting his semi-serious gaze return to your face to see that you were starting to get irritated with the lack of new information on your missing suit. He placed his hands upon your shoulders to move you out of the way gently so he could get ready as Dick and Damian were already waiting on him.

“That is crazy. I’m sure I haven’t seen it,” Jason poked himself in the chess with an innocent look, but you weren’t buying into it; your boyfriend liked to play games and even with you being his partner, you didn’t make the exception. He turned to the other boys and asked them out of curiosity, “You two haven’t happened to see their suit anywhere, or did you guys move it?”

They both shook their heads, which made you laugh in disbelief at the lack of progress you were making in your investigation. You walked away from Jason to lean against the empty case to think about your options. You knew someone from inside the manor had to have taken it cause Bruce always has the cave on lockdown when not being occupied.

“I already asked Bruce and Alfred about it and they said they didn’t touch it at all, Tim is too cracked out on coffee and involved on his computer to come down here and actually do something, so it just leaves you three.” You eyed them with suspicious intentions, Jason just laughed as he threw his jacket on and went to retrieve his weapons that were in his lockbox.

“I don’t understand why your suit is so important right now, you literally are just coming out of recovery from our last mission that almost left you completely crippled, the suit should be the last thing on your mind and rest should be first.” Jason reprimanded you indirectly once again for not getting your rest; he cares about you way too much to let you do stupid things.

“Oh, enough talk about the last mission, it was one slip up, that was it, you were occupied and I thought that if we didn’t catch that guy, all our intel would’ve been gone.” You admitted, shrugging your shoulders, “I didn’t think that there would be those brutes in the other room waiting for us.” 

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose while images of your battered body from the previous mission crept into his mind, “Yeah, that’s your problem when you put your suit on and go out, you don’t think, just act. That one slip up could’ve killed you and you are failing to realize that,” He walked over to the Batcomputer to get his communicator, “When I saw you on that floor, all bloodied and bruised… I thought you were dying—you were very lucky I got there in time.”

You stood silent as you let his words sink in. When you became his partner, he confessed that he didn’t want you to fight alongside him because it could get messy mixing two lifestyles together, but you reassured him you had what it takes. He never once shied away from telling you that he would do whatever it takes to keep you from hurting yourself any more than you might’ve on or off duty and that is when it hit you like a ton of bricks. All of your confusion turned into annoyance and slight anger as you stared at him in disbelief.

“You took it.”

“What? I told you I—”

“You always said that you would do whatever it takes to stop me from hurting myself any more than I already was and that’s what you’re doing now. You took my gear because you don’t want me to leave the cave or the manor. You told me this the first time I got hurt and now after my last mission, you took my stuff. I want it back; where did you put it?” You demanded, your voice getting rougher as you approached him.

Jason sighed in defeat as he let his head hang low before turning upwards in the boys' direction to tell them that you were good at these types of things. He brought his attention back towards you, but his gaze was rougher and his demeanor was intimidating.

“What I did was right and you know it too. I saw you this morning wincing when you just had to turn a doorknob. How the hell are you gonna scale walls and fight when you can’t even open a damn door?” He was getting worked up as he matched your level of irritation. 

“That was this morning, I’m better now and you had no right to take my stuff, you could’ve at least talked to me first before resorting to this, I might’ve agreed with you.” You pushed his shoulder with your fingers as you were trying to show that you were getting worked up. You winced slightly as your wrist felt the firmness of his chest traveling through your hand.

“I took it from you because I knew you would go behind my back and go out and possibly get yourself killed. You’re stubborn and I have to find ways to deal with it so you don’t end up doing something stupid.” His voice was heavy and his tone was almost threatening; you were a bit nervous that this whole suit thing blew up into some ridiculous fight. Jason never got this mad at you, but you really did know how to work him up.

“Dick, Damian,” You said their names with such anger that they looked at you with wide eyes as they dreaded hearing their names come off your lips, “I know this is all coming from our last mission, but if you were working with me and that happened and would you talk to me about it or play some childish game like Jason here?”

They both looked at each other and Damian nudged Dick to be the spokesperson for the both of them, “In all honesty, (Y/N), I agreed with what Jason did, given that I do know that you can be a bit hard-headed when it comes to following rules. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt again either.” 

“You’re taking his side.” You threw your hands up in the air in disbelief. Even your close friends couldn’t support you when you needed them.

“This isn’t about sides…” Jason pushed, trying to usher those two to the car they would be taking.

“—I can’t believe you! What next? You lock me in my room like a misbehaving child—”

“—You could have died!” In the aftermath of the shout, the silence seemed deafening. Jason took a step closer, grabbed a hold of you, pulling you into his warm embrace, cradling your fragile form. “You could’ve died,” he spoke softly. “I nearly lost you. If you want to make this about sides, I’m on whatever side keeps you alive. Can’t you see that?”

This whole argument struck a chord deep within Jason and he finally expressed his true fear of losing you. You didn’t want to bring it this far, but it happened. While Jason cradled you in his arms, you swayed the both of you as you were thinking of ways you could apologize to him for making him get mad at you over your suit.

Jason kissed the crown of your head while he pulled away to look you in the eyes with compassion. He flashed his goofy smile at you to lighten the mood of the room before grabbing his communicator off the computer top.

“Look, Jason, I’m sorry, I really—”

“Just save the apology for when I get back. Just don’t think too much on it, for now, if you want, we can talk about it when I get back, but for now, I really gotta go before Bruce finds out that we haven’t left yet.” Jason pointed at the ceiling and rolled his eyes, which made you chuckle, “Just listen this once and go back upstairs and get some rest. Keep the bed warm for me.”

You folded your arms across your chest as you were calming down, “Alright, but when you get home, will you give me my suit back?”

Jason turned back around and gave you a look that could kill before letting it melt away to reveal a smirk, “You really are stubborn are you?” 

A smile crept onto your face as you quickly ran up to him and gave him a peck on the lips and wishing him good luck and to stay safe as well as the rest of his brothers. He gave you a light tap on your butt and only pointed to the elevator with a playful, yet serious gaze. You backed away from him slowly while you waved goodbye before making your way to the elevator and taking it all the way up to the manor.

You were happy that you had finally found firm footing with Jason, but even happier—if you had to be truly honest—that you found your suit. While you continued to think of the words of apology to Jason, you made your way up the stairs and crawled right into your bed and buried yourself under the plush blankets with the t.v. remote in your wrapped hands, ready to begin resting. You were going to wait up until Jason got back; he never said that you should get some sleep, just rest and that could mean a whole lot of other things.

[yamagucci-x]

Read on Ao3

Daisuga Avatar AU

Rated: T

“I take it some of that is for me?”

“Of course, Sifu Mineo.” Sugawara greeted the old man who grinned at him from behind the front desk. “I have to keep Daichi in your good graces somehow, don’t I?” He deposited a paper bag of kale cookies next to a stack of flyers that read Northways Bending Gym in bold lettering. He paused, remembering something Daichi said about memberships declining after a modern facility opened a few blocks away. Northways was well-known for being old school, like the gyms where pro-bending originated, but of course Republic City didn’t always appreciate traditional. “Doing some advertising? I can take some on my way out and put them up in the Little Water Tribe, if you’d like.”

“Why, that would be perfect!” Mineo shook his head with a fond look. “I’m tellin’ you, it’s upstanding young men like you fellows who are keeping this city from going to the goat-dogs. I just wish I could steal you from Narook’s— but then how would I get my kale cookies?” He let out a hearty laugh, waving away Sugawara’s assurances that it was the least he could do. Mineo popped a cookie in his mouth, calling as Suga made his way to the back, “Sawamura has a client, but he’s in the usual room with Yu and your long-haired friend!”

Nishinoya’s grandpa could never remember Asahi’s name, much to his dismay and everyone else’s delight. Suga chuckled as he strolled past lockers and small training rooms until he got to the large open-air courtyard where Daichi worked. He spotted Noya and Asahi in the back and gave them a wave. Toward the entrance, Daichi’s client was scaling a climbing wall, using earthbending to create grips and footholds as he went. Daichi stood at the bottom in a tank top and Suga’s favorite pair of harem pants, occasionally driving his foot into the ground to send a tremor through the wall. Suga sighed, leaning against a wooden post along the outside hall. He loved Daichi’s job.

“Good job!” His boyfriend clapped, “Let’s take a quick water break before we move on to balance exercises.” 

Sugawara knocked on the column, coughing innocently. “Excuse me?” he called in a loud voice, “Someone ordered seaweed noodles to go with their hunk of man meat?”

He heard a snort from the other side of the courtyard and Daichi whipped around with a beet-red face. Spirits, it was too easy. His client looked a little stricken but Suga didn’t care. He had to assert himself over these jacked gym rats somehow, didn’t he? “Uh, let’s make that a fiver,” Daichi stuttered before jogging over to Suga. He frowned as took his to-go container, wrapped in blue fabric. “You’re incorrigible, you know that?”

Suga crossed his arms. “Thank you for lunch, honey. I’d starve without you, babe,” he said in a mocking tone.

“Thanks for embarrassing me in front of a member, too, babe,” Daichi rolled his eyes.

Sugawara just snickered. Daichi looked like he was gearing up for a lecture but Suga was saved when Nishinoya and Asahi wandered over. He high-fived Noya and gave Asahi, who was sweaty and breathing heavily, a smack in the gut. “Getting your ass kicked, huh? What’s the point of all those muscles if you can’t even spar with a guy like Noya without getting winded?”

“He’s way better at defense!” Asahi protested, looking deflated, “I can barely land a hit.”

Noya put a hand on his arm. “Asahi’s going great, he almost singed my eyebrows off! He just needs to have more confidence,” he beamed.

“Almost singeing your eyebrows off is exactly why I don’t have confidence.” Asahi sighed, glancing down at Noya’s hand with flushing cheeks.

Suga and Daichi exchanged glances but Suga just said, “Well I can’t stay, I have to get back to the restaurant before my break’s over. Are we still on for drinks with Tanaka later?”

“Actually Ryu said we should come by the diner later, he didn’t have any clients today so he picked up a shift to help Saeko out.”

Daichi scratched his head. “Are you sure she’s fine with us hanging out there? We get...rowdy sometimes.” 

“Big Sis Saeko? No way, she loves when we show up!” Noya gave a thumbs up.

Asahi laughed, “But does her boss?” 

“Hey, I get a free beer out of it either way so I don’t care,” Suga said with a grin, waving goodbye to Noya and Asahi as they returned to their workout. He turned to Daichi and tugged on the front of his shirt. “Now pay up for those noodles I worked so hard to deliver.” Before his boyfriend could protest, he pulled him in for a deep kiss. Suga released him with a sly smile playing over his lips. “See you later, Sawamura,” he breathed.

Their friends whistled and whooped as Daichi, red-faced once again, apologized profusely to his client. 

“Oi, Suga!” Noya yelled as he was leaving, “Tell the old man not to eat all my kale cookies!”

Suga delivered the message and grabbed a stack of fliers on his way out. As he settled into his seat on the streetcar, his eyes fell on a bubble at the bottom of the ad. 

Coming Next Month: Northways Bending Gym Hosts Its Annual Pro-Bending Borough Tournament!! Big Prize Money! A Chance to Play in the Official League!

He stared at the words for a minute. A smile slowly spread across his face as a stupid, amazing idea came into his head.

Suga raced excitedly home from work, but since their apartment was in the Little Water Tribe he didn’t really need to hurry to beat Daichi there. He jumped up when their front door opened, tossing aside his book. “Hey!”

“Hey.” Daichi dropped his gym bag in the entryway. Suga leaned in for a kiss but he merely pressed his lips against Suga’s forehead. 

Oh. 

Suga crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. “You’re still mad about earlier? Y’know, I wanted to grab your ass too, but I didn’t. So really you should be thanking me,” he teased, raising an eyebrow.

“Koshi-” Daichi sighed disappointedly. Suga’s expression deflated. He was in it now— mad Daichi was one thing, but disappointed Daichi was way worse. “You know I don’t mind when you stop by,” he frowned, putting his hands on Suga’s hips, “But Sifu Mineo already did so much giving me this job, and with the way the gym’s doing lately...”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. I don’t want to scare away any customers,” Suga said, toying with the collar of Daichi’s shirt. He pursed his lips. “But sometimes I see the people you’re training and I feel like I gotta remind them who’s boss. I mean, who even was that one guy last week? I know it’s August but put a shirt on, y’know?”

Suga felt the grip on his waist tighten. A grin spread over Daichi’s face. “Wait a second. Is somebody jealous?”

“Okay, that’s not what I said-” Suga tapped Daichi’s chest as his face went red against his will.

Daichi laughed, grabbing his hands with flashing eyes. “No, you’re totally jealous! That’s adorable.”

“Alright, watch it,” he mumbled, “Or you’ll lose your seaweed noodle privileges even before I go back to teaching.”

But Daichi wasn’t done. He put on a sad face, evidently set on punishing Suga further. “You really think that poorly of me? That just the sight of a buff guy is enough to make me lose control?”

“No, you’re not my aunt.” Sugawara rolled his eyes. “Can we move on? I said I was sorry.”

“Fine.” Daichi held his chin and kissed him, smiling against his lips. “But y’know last week I really wanted to grab that guy’s ass, and I didn’t. So really you should be thanking me.”

Suga tsked. “Asshole,” he mumbled, clasping his hands around the back of Daichi’s neck to pull him closer. He could have fallen deep into that kiss, losing himself in the feeling of Daichi pressing him against the wall and burying his hands in his silver hair, but he forced himself to pull away. Daichi chased his lips but Suga only gave him a quick peck before ducking out of his touch. “There’s something I wanted to ask you-” He grabbed a Northways flier off the kitchen counter and held it out to Daichi, tapping the bottom. “Have you seen this?”

His boyfriend took it and sat down at the kitchen. “The pro-bending tournament? Yeah, Sifu Mineo does it every year. It’s sort of a minor league thing, there’s a few gyms across the city that host them to drum up support for local teams.” He glanced up and, seeing Suga’s eager expression, pressed his lips into a thin line. “I- are you serious? You want to enter?”

Suga sat beside him, grabbing his arm. “C’mon Daichi, at least consider it.”

“Suga, we haven’t done anything like this since our school days.” 

“That’s exactly why we should compete! Don’t you remember how fun it was, the rush?” He grinned, and could tell from the look on Daichi’s face that he was also getting flooded with memories from their days in the youth league. It’d been only semi-formal, but the competition could be fierce. It was how he, Suga, and Asahi had become good friends, and how they met Tanaka and Noya. It was also how they’d gotten to learn from some of the best benders in Republic City. “Besides, it’s not like that was ages ago. We’re not that old.”

Daichi couldn’t deny that his pulse had quickened at the thought of stepping into the ring again, but still, he hesitated. “I don’t know, Suga. The guys at these things are aspiring pros, would we even stand a chance?”

“With Sawamura the Rock? The guy who helped train the Avatar? We’ll demolish them!”

“Okay, I was never called the rock,” Daichi threw his head back in laughter, “But we were pretty good in high school, huh?”

“The best,” Suga grinned. “Well, maybe not the best- but if we work hard for the next month we could be a force to be reckoned with. And wouldn’t it be nice to bring in some extra money, maybe enough to finally move out?”

Daichi glanced around their studio apartment. They’d done it up nicely, but it definitely wasn’t ideal. “It would be nice not to live in the same building as your grandma.”

Suga snickered. “You mean you don’t love having to put out all twelve housewarming pelts whenever she shows up unannounced?” 

Daichi sighed, laying his hand over Suga’s with a smile. “Alright, fine. Let’s do it.”

“Yes!” Sugawara grabbed his face and kissed him. 

“Hold up-” Daichi raised his brows. “You know he’ll never agree to this.”

“Oh, he’ll agree. I have a plan.”

—

Tanaka, fresh off a busboy shift and still wearing a rag around his head, was already scarfing down a combo platter when their group got to the Dragon Flats Diner later that night. He waved them down, calling something incomprehensible through a mouthful of food.

“-I just don’t think I can do it,” Asahi was saying.

“See? I told you, he’s a coward.” Daichi leveled a look of disdain at him as they slid into their booth.

Before Asahi, who was already sweating under his friend’s frigid gaze, could defend himself Saeko appeared with a tablet and pen in her hand. “What’s up guys? Yu, looking cool as always! Sawamura, I see you’re keeping it tight.” She elbowed Daichi’s shoulder roughly and winked at Suga. “Sorry for spoiling your barhopping plans tonight, but wasn’t my baby brother so sweet to help me out?” She grinned devilishly, putting Tanaka in a headlock until he started choking on a dumpling.

They all assured her it was no problem and enthusiastically accepted her offer of free fire flakes. Sugawara suggested they order drinks and their conversation wandered naturally, from work to Tanaka’s dating life to Kageyama’s latest write-up in the tabloids. When Saeko plunked a mug of beer down in front of Asahi, Suga grinned. “Drink up, Asahi! It’s on me.” 

Daichi side-eyed him. “This is your plan?” he muttered.

“You’re not going to buy me off, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Asahi warned as he took a sip. 

Suga scoffed into his drink. “So suddenly the mouse has found his courage, huh?” 

Asahi rubbed the back of his neck meekly but wouldn’t budge on the subject no matter what tactic Suga and Daichi tried, be it flattery, bribery, or blackmail. The argument lasted through their second round, when Asahi said, “I was never good, anyway! I’d only hold you guys back. Why don’t you ask Tanaka?” 

“Oh hell no-” Tanaka drained his mug and slammed it down on the table. “You know I’d never leave my bro like that. If I’m on a pro-bending team with anyone, it’s Noya.”

“Hell yeah!” Nishinoya shouted, raising his glass. “Wait— should we join the old man’s bending tournament?!”

Tanaka’s face lit up. “It would be sweet to get that prize money. You think Gramps would rig the bracket for us?”

Asahi sputtered into his beer. “Do you even have a waterbender?”

“Duh, Ennoshita will do it!”

“You sure about that?” Daichi smiled.

“Of course!” Noya beamed, a determined glint in his eye, “We can get the old team back together, and we’ll kick just as much ass as we did in high school!”

“And we can come up with a kick-ass new name,” Tanaka cackled. “Something manly, like the Blazing Tigersharks!”

“Or the Blazing Sea Vultures!”

“Or the Blazing Demon Wolfbats!”

“Demon wolfbats?” Daichi asked.

Suga raised a brow. “Why are they blazing?”

Noya shook his head like they were children too young to understand something obvious. “It’s always cooler when they’re blazing.”

“See what you’re missing, Asahi?” Suga laughed, “Getting the old team back together? We could re-brand as the Blazing Spiderwasps.”

Asahi was clearly trying not to give in, but he couldn’t help smiling. “Way cooler than the plain old Crows. What were we thinking?”

“So you’ll do it?” Daichi prompted.

“I dunno...” Asahi looked down at his drink. “I don’t want to end up inconveniencing you guys.”

Daichi leaned forward, his expression serious. “Asahi, I once saw a guy take a dive off the arena rather than face one of your fireballs head-on. You were one of the best guys in the league.”

“You can’t honestly tell us you don’t miss it,” Suga went on, “You spend all day in that stuffy tailor’s shop, just training with Noya can’t be enough. Won’t you at least give it a shot? This is just a local tournament, the pressure’s low. Let’s reunite the Crows!”

Asahi hesitated for a long minute, glancing between his friends’ boring eyes and Noya’s encouraging nods. Finally he sighed, hanging his head. When he lifted it back up, he was grinning. “Okay. Let’s go for it!”

The table erupted in cheers. Noya clapped Asahi on the back and Suga grabbed his hands tightly. Tanaka stood up in his seat to holler across the room for more beer.

The moon loomed high in the night sky by the time they staggered out of the Dragon Flats Diner. They left Tanaka in Saeko’s hands after multiple promises that she wouldn’t let him fall off her motorcycle. Nishinoya and Asahi both lived nearby so they went off together, vowing to have a scrimmage at Northways by the end of the week. Daichi and Suga waved goodbye and set off for the streetcar arm in arm, laughing as they heard Noya’s booming voice echo down the block. 

“I hope the trolley is still running,” Daichi said, glancing at the clock on the corner, “I don’t wanna have to walk all the way to the railway station.”

“If it’s out you’re carrying me home,” Suga mumbled, already making Daichi prop him up as he leaned into him and wrapped his arms around his waist. He nuzzled his face against the warm plane of Daichi’s chest. “You could do it. You’re so strong.”

Daichi giggled, the laugh that always came out when he was tipsy, and kissed the top of Suga’s head. “If you say so, Koshi,” he smiled, brushing a stray lock of hair from his boyfriend’s flushed face. 

“It’s true!” 

“You think?” Daichi grinned and suddenly scooped his arm under Suga’s knees to lift him up to his chest in a smooth motion. He teetered for a second, laughing as Sugawara squawked his name. When Suga threw his arms around the back of Daichi’s neck to anchor himself, he pulled him up further to press a soft, slow kiss to his lips. Suga made a little noise and started kissing him back but Daichi nearly lost his balance completely and had to put him down. They stood in each other’s arms on the street corner, laughing and trying to catch their breath, until they heard the tinkling bell of an approaching trolley. 

“Oh crap! Daichi, we gotta go!” Suga grabbed his hand and pulled him along as they ran to the stop. 

They collapsed onto an empty bench and let the rumbling of the car fill their comfortable silence as it lumbered toward the Little Water Tribe. Suga let his head fall against Daichi’s shoulder, his eyes closing under the weight of the night’s beer. The gentle rise and fall of his boyfriend’s chest, the steadiness of the hand on his shoulder, was comforting. “I love you, Daichi,” he sighed.

He felt Daichi’s chest vibrate with a hum. “I love you, too.”

“We’re gonna kick some pro-bending ass, right?”

A puff of air tickled his hair. “Right, Suga.”

[themadlostgirl]

Peter Pan Won’t Fail (1/2)

*HEY! I’m back with the requests! Also, this one was too long for one post so the next part will get posted later.*

Prompt: Modern Reader ends up on the Neverland from her favorite tv show Once Upon A Time and proves to be very helpful

Requested by: anon

Warnings: language

---

I can reasonably say that going to sleep in my room and then waking up in a jungle is at the top of my weirdest moments of my life. All was normal. I was at home binge watching some Once Upon A Time, decided four in the morning was a reasonable time to go to bed and fell asleep. Now I was in a freaking jungle! Is this a fever dream? Am I experiencing sleep paralysis? What is going on?

I pinch myself to make sure that I am not dreaming or hallucinating. Nothing changes. I pinch again harder. Still jungle. Okay. Fine! Guess we’re doing this then!

I get up and look around. Something about this place was strangely familiar. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. I kept moving until I heard a voice. With no other options I moved towards it hoping it was someone that could help me.

“Excuse me,” I approach what looks to be a group of teenage boys, “Can you help me?”

The boys looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Who are you?” One of them asks.

The boys are all dressed like they’re Robin Hood wannabes. “I’m Y/N,” I tell them, “I don’t know how I got here or even where I am. I could use some help.”

“Not the strangest story I’ve ever heard,” one of them shrugged, “Come back to camp. Pan will want to see you.”

“Pan?” that familiar feeling was getting stronger. Jungle. Pan. Teenagers. There is something here.

I followed the boys till we got to a camp. Tents were scattered all around and a huge bon fire burned in the center. There were more boys here. All their eyes followed me as I walked into their camp.

“What do we have here?” A tall boy with a long jagged scar across his face strolled up to me, “And who might you be?”

“Felix?” My eyes go wide. I can’t remember the actor’s name but this was definitely him. “Holy shit am I on Neverland?”

“How’d you know my name?” he asked. His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“How the hell did I end up in a fictional world? Why this version of Neverland? Is it cause I think Robbie Kay is cute? What is happening here?”

“Is she alright?” One of the boys I had followed asks.

“Oh this is so messed up,” I plop myself on the ground and try to focus the information, “This is so messed up.”

“Hey, crazy lady,” Felix knelt in front of me, “How do you know my name?”

“Uh…” I take a deep breath, “That’s kinda complicated. Not really complicated but more impossible.”

“This is a land of impossibility.” Felix smirked, “Try me.”

“Okay. My name is Y/N and where I come from you, Neverland, everyone on it are all a part of a TV show called Once Upon A Time.”

“What’s a TV show?”

“It’s like a series of short plays that are recorded on a machine and then played back on another machine. I really don’t know how to explain it in words that you would understand.” If I had my phone that may have helped but no such luck.

“Someone go get Pan.” Felix said, “I think he’ll want to talk to her.”

“Oh great, I get to talk to Peter Pan now. This is fine! I’m fine!” I took a deep breath, “Sorry, ignore me, I’m reeling.”

No one said anything else until Peter Pan showed up. Still looks exactly like Robbie Kay. What should I call him? Peter Kay? Robbie Pan? Screw it, I’m going by character names.

“I heard we had a crazy girl land on the island.” Peter smirked at me. “How did you get here?”

And the boy is still cute as anything. Focus, Y/N! We are in a meta situation right now. No drooling over the magical entity! “No idea.” I shrug.

“You just appeared out of thin air, did you?”

“That’s what I’m going with.”

“She says that Neverland and the rest of us are characters in some kind of story. Purely fictional.” Felix told Peter.

“Is that so? So you know all about us then, right?” Peter looked back at me.

“Kinda.”

“Tell me something about myself then.”

“Sure...Malcom.”

Peter’s face drained. “What did you just say?”

“Things with Fiona didn’t work out all that well did they? Not to mention the crap you put Rumple through. I mean I get it, eternal youth and power is nothing to sneer at but you gotta think of what that does to a child.”

His hands wrapped around my throat, “Who are you?”

“Okay, I get it, shouldn’t have mentioned the family. Bad move.” I try to pry his hands off, “I know useful stuff if you want to not choke me.”

“What?” he growled.

“Truest Believer.” I whisper. His grip slackens. “I know who he is. I know everything that happens from the moment he sets foot on this island.”

“You’re a seer.”

“Nope. Just a girl that’s obsessed with a tv show.” I relax as his hands finally release me.

Peter stared at me for a long time. It was hard to tell what he was thinking. Probably deciding if I was going to actually be useful or not.

“Put her in a cage,” he ordered and a pair of hands grabbed me.

“Hey! What gives? I just said I was useful!”

“Which is why I’m locking you up instead of killing you.” He smirked.

Alright, now I see why all those fanfiction OC’s hated that dumb crooked smile of his. It is not endearing! He is an asshole! An asshole that is literally locking me in a cage to be of use later. How else did I think this would play out? He’d give me his tent to sleep in while he debated if his interest in me was professional or romantic? Eleven herbs and spices of no!

I didn’t put up much of a fight as I was shoved inside a wicker cage and suspended in the air. I could spy another one hanging next to me. If that is Wendy Darling then at least I know where I am in the timeline.

~~~

Surprisingly, sleeping in a cage is about as comfortable as you’d expect. It’s cramped and hard and the bumps of the wicker make everything ten times more uncomfortable. Not to mention being swung around all night so that when you do finally find a semi-tolerable position you’re swinging around like an out of control pendulum.

I was grateful when morning came and I was cut down and let out. Everything is sore and I hate my life.

“Morning, soothsayer,” It was Felix that greeted me, “Pan wants to see you.”

“I’m not a soothsayer.” I grumble as I stretch, “Am I being useful or am I being killed?”

“Depends on what you’ve got to say.” Felix grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off into the jungle.

“Got her,” Felix shoved me forward when we finally came across Peter.

“Good. You can go now.” Peter nodded and Felix left. His attention shifted to me, his expression serious and guarded. I really shouldn’t have brought up the family thing. I could have said a million other things to prove who I was.

“Good morning,” I try to keep myself calm, “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes.” he said, “I’m not one to beat around the bush so I’ll be straightforward. If what you’ve said is true and that you know what happens with the Truest Believer I need to know. What can I expect? How close of a call is it?”

“Before I tell you anything I want some insurance.” I was not spending another night in those cages.

“What kind of insurance?” his eyes narrowed.

“That I won’t be treated as a prisoner. I want to be a member of Neverland. I cooperate with you if you respect me.”

“Big favor to ask from someone who might not even be telling the truth.”

“How else can I prove that I am? I already told you something that no one other than you should know. I can tell you a lot more.”

“Point.” he shrugged and leaned against a tree, “If what you say is true then on my life I swear you will be treated as an equal in my land. No cages. No poison.”

“Great.” I took a moment to collect my thoughts, “Where do I even start?”

“Tell me how close I come to getting the heart. Is it a close shave?”

“Oh yeah...about that…”

“What?”

“Well, you do get the heart right in the nick of time. All is well until the Evil Queen, Regina, manages to rip it back out of you and everyone escapes on the Jolly Roger back home.”

“WHAT!”

“I mean you tried to rip Henry’s shadow from his body after you were beat and then your body got sucked into Pandora’s box. Right before it did though you mentally switched bodies with Henry and his consciousness went in the box. Now in disguise you tried to cast a spell to recreate Storybrooke into the new Neverland but that too failed and you get killed by Rumplestiltskin.”

“No. You’re making this up.”

“Why would I make up my favorite character dying? It was years before I got to see you again when the heroes travel to the Underworld but again Rumple killed you by stuffing a glamoured heart full of water from the River of Souls into your chest. Then all you got was a cameo appearance in the series finale which bummed me out.”

“But Peter Pan never fails.”

“With me around you won’t.” I grin, “I know every move, every word, that your opposition will make before even they do. This time we can make it so you don’t fail.”

“You know,” Peter threw an arm around my shoulders, “I think this is the start of a beautiful partnership my dear, Y/N.”

“Nice to hear.”

“You know, you are taking all of this very well. Being in an alternate dimension of your own and betraying all these people that are the heroes in your story.”

“I think the best way to cope with this is to just dive into it wholeheartedly. I’m on Neverland and nothing will ever make sense again. Let’s do this!”

“I like you,” he grinned, “Let’s keep talking. Tell me everything you know.”

The afternoon stretched on and I recounted as much as I could recall from Once Upon A Time that I thought relevant. Occasionally Peter would ask for clarification about something or someone. Eventually it went from him getting all the information he needed to asking about my world. The world outside of the tv show. Questions about me. My home and family.

It saddened me to think about my life back home in my own world. What if I never see my home again? My room? My family? It wasn’t perfect but it was mine.

“Hey,” Peter waved a hand in front of my face, “You got a faraway look and weren’t responding.”

“Sorry. It was all starting to sink in that I’m probably never going to get back to my own world.” I drew my knees to my chest, “My home, my family, it’s all gone.”

Peter placed a hand on my shoulder, it was surprisingly comforting. “This could be your home. I know the Lost Boys aren’t perfect but they’re loyal and fun. It could be a nice family here.”

“Thanks.” I leaned closer towards him, “That helps. Truly.”

“Good to hear. You’re a Lost Girl now, you should feel at home here.” He stood up and held out a hand for me, “I think I’ve interrogated you enough today. Let’s head back to camp and set you up with a place to sleep.”

“What? No more cage?” I teased as he helped me up.

“I mean if you want the cage then you can sleep in the cage. I just thought that you’d like something more comfortable than cramped wicker.” he teased back with that signature smirk of his.

My face warms and I turn away so he can’t see the panic in my eyes. The chuckle I hear from him though tells me that he knows exactly what I’m thinking. I keep my eyes on the ground as he leads me back to the camp. Why is Hollywood so intent on making villains hot? It is messing up my ability to function normally!

Focus, Y/N! We are not here to flirt! We are here to help keep this idiot alive.

Wait. Does that mean I’m going to end up facing Emma, Regina, Rumple, Hook and the rest of them? I know I’m gonna end up running into Henry whenever he gets to the island. This isn’t just a story now. These are real people with actual stakes. Can I live with myself knowing that I’m probably going to help in causing the deaths of multiple people?

When Peter looked back at me to make sure I was still following I nearly fell all over myself. This boy isn’t just an actor. He’s real. Everything from the show, he’s actually done. He’s killed and kidnapped and held people for ransom. An entire population is under his control because he holds the only way off the island. And here I am blushing at his lopsided grins and finding comfort in his presence. What does that say about me?

“Having trouble keeping up?” he proffered up his arm, “Don’t want you getting lost.”

Unable to speak I took his arm. I locked the troublesome thoughts away for when I was alone and could go over them in peace. Right now all I wanted was to enjoy being in one of my favorite fictional settings with one of my favorite characters. Murderous tendencies aside.

---

(Part 2)

[its-love-u-asshole]

Let My Love [Ch. 11]

Pairings: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei

Summary: For Kuroo, finding love was all about patience. He had no problem with waiting for the right person to come along, no matter how many awkward dinners or weddings he had to endure as a single man until they did. Regardless, meeting Tsukishima was something he’d never been prepared for. The feelings were overwhelming and intoxicating, ones he was sure he’d do anything for. However, it seemed his endless waiting wasn’t over.

Rating: T

Note: Hello! I am back with a longer chapter as promised, I’m so relieved I managed to power through this lol it was a struggle. Thanks to @emeraldwaves for reading this over! Also be sure to check out some art for this fic here and here <3

Read on AO3! 

Fic Playlist

Tsukishima hadn't realized how rare alone time was at the lake until he found himself wandering about the house.

Sounds rang out from each direction, footsteps up above, muffled voices from the television room. He stayed in the kitchen.

The weird presence of too many options gnawed at him. Where should he go? What should he do? Kuroo would've poked the middle of his forehead for frowning this much, like he did when Tsukishima began fretting about which books were worthy of which display case at the library.

Tsukishima huffed to himself, and he heard Semi laugh from the other room. Right. He should go, and yet his feet stayed put on the refurbished tile.

Normally he'd have Yuuji by his side, showing him around and directing all their activities and conversations. Tsukishima consented to being led around and controlled in that sense, he'd never been one for initiating things with people he didn't know. It wasn't that Tsukishima hadn't spoken to anyone other than his boyfriend, but he'd never gotten the opportunity to socialize on his own.

He leaned against one of the kitchen counters, thankful for the breathing room. He certainly needed it, had forgotten what quiet was like.

It was...strange, but not unwelcome, but he hadn't exactly had a choice. When they'd all returned from their canoe trip, hungry and in need of a lazy afternoon, Yuuji had whisked Kuroo off somewhere to continue their talk. Tsukishima had been too busy helping Yachi prepare lunch to see what that was about, and now no one could tell him where they'd gone off too.

Great.

Tsukishima's hands gripped the counter a little harshly, and he busied himself with rearranging the dishes in the sink.

He'd almost forgotten this too, their situation. Relaxing was impossible.

He missed Kuroo. At least then, someone could understand.

Tsukishima tried to not think about it as the water ran through his fingers, washing over already rinsed dishes.

Kuroo.

Kuroo wouldn't keep things from him. The raven hadn't given him any indication they'd been found out, or that something was wrong, but...

Kuroo wasn't the most subtle person out there and neither of them had the best luck. The idea that Yuuji needed to talk to him, and hadn't told Tsukishima about it...

The pasta strainer clanged against the granite, and Tsukishima shut off the water in less than an instant.

Nope. Not thinking about it.

Tsukishima sighed, pressing his head to the cold surface of the fridge. He was by the door now.

He couldn't help but laugh; nervous or not, he'd gradually worked himself up to inching further and further towards civilization. No where else to go now, unless he wanted to lean against the kitchen door for a few hours. He just might.

But before he could resign himself to hours at the post, the door swung open, and Tsukishima stupidly grappled with the fridge, pulling it open and grabbing whatever he could find.

Orange juice.

With pulp.

I hate pulp. Fuck.

Semi looked surprised to see him there, like Tsukishima couldn't possibly exist on his own, and the thought made him smile even as he poured his glass of fresh disgrace.

"Oh, hey Tsukishima," Semi said, his shock quickly dissolving into something friendly, with maybe the barest hint of mischief laced beneath. Tsukishima found it odd but, hey, this was Kuroo's cousin. Yuuji's too. Oh man, it was genetic.

Maybe Semi was more deadly than he'd given credit for.

"Lonely?" Semi asked, and yeah, definitely deadlier. Tsukishima looked at him suspiciously as he put the jug back into the fridge. Semi's smile never faltered, that challenging competitiveness of an athlete shining through. The question was framed innocently enough, but Tsukishima wasn't an idiot. The automatic assumption would be for him to say yes, because Yuuji was gone.

But.

This was Shirabu's husband; neither of them seemed particularly dense. And well, according to Kuroo, they were 'gossipy bitches' and that told Tsukishima all he needed to know.

"They aren't back yet?" Tsukishima asked instead, and Semi's smile grew. Clear avoidance on Tsukishima's part, but it made gauging Semi's knowledge easier, and well...

Now he knew for sure.

That smug little smile was enough.

"Nope, but don't worry," Semi said, grabbing Tsukishima's unfinished glass right from his hands. "Teru looked pretty happy when they came back, excited even. I doubt anything happened."

Tsukishima couldn't fight it, he sighed in relief, and it must've been another point earner because Semi looked pretty pleased about it.

Tsukishima didn't know whether to like him or hate him, but he figured that sensation alone made Semi genuine. Tsukishima didn't understand what the look was for though. Wasn't he technically ruining their family? He'd come in here, created an invisible divide which would soon be not-so invisible, and then...then...

"Ah, sorry if this is weird," Semi said, laughing as he rubbed the back of his head. Tsukishima's eyes snapped up at the movement, the confusion cancelling out all his overwrought musings. "But I wanted to say thank you."

Out of all the things Tsukishima expected him to say, ‘thank you’ was not one of them. Maybe a serious discussion about consequences, or Kuroo, or something, but not...this.

....what?

Tsukishima didn't even have enough brain power to stutter out a full response, much less act like he knew what was happening. "Uh--"

"For caring about him so much I mean, for...waiting," Semi said, coughing. And ah, now Tsukishima saw it, the nerdiness and protectiveness which Kuroo spoke of. "I'm glad Yuuji got to date someone like you, someone who cares enough to--"

"To lie and hide?" Tsukishima's own guilt slipped through, as much as he'd come to terms with his decision, things would always be hard.

"For doing what's best for him," Semi corrected him, the firmness actually settling in Tsukishima's bones like weights. It was praise he'd never give himself, comfort he'd never allowed himself to have. So, it was only natural someone else provide it. "And...for Kuroo too."

Tsukishima knew it was ridiculous, but his eyes lit up. Just from a name. So embarrassing. He brought his arms around himself, hugging tight. Otherwise, it felt like all the emotion might spill out for all to see.

Maybe he shouldn't have cared so much about showing such vulnerability, when it was clear Semi already knew.

Ah, damn.

"I wouldn't say that just yet," Tsukishima whispered, almost laughing as he did his best to smile at the floor. "I owe Kuroo a lot more than this."

And he planned to give back in full, very soon, and for however long after.

Forever, his traitorous brain whispered, still too hopeful for his tastes. But the content didn't fade away as Semi laughed, expression about as soft as Tsukishima felt.

"Well, time won't pass any faster with you in here," Semi said, patting Tsukishima's shoulder cautiously. When Tsukishima didn't tense, he set it down again, firm and certain. Accepting.

One down, Tsukishima joked.

"Want to come play a board game with us? Shirabu and I need a third player," Semi continued. "We would've asked Kyoutani but...after last year he won't play with us anymore."

"What happened last--"

"Don't ask."

And well, Tsukishima's curiosity couldn't say no to that, even as he felt the impending headache.

"Sure," he said, and a weight was lifted, freeing him from the confines of the tiny kitchen.

Quiet time was nice, needed, but he was ready.

Of course, Semi blocked his path, one more opinion dying to get out. Somehow, Tsukishima figured all of Kuroo's friends were like this, and he couldn't wait until he was confident enough to put up his own fight with them.

Right then though, he'd take the blows.

"Also," Semi said, the smirk back and powered on in full as he poured Tsukishima's orange juice down the drain right in front of him. Tsukishima's jaw dropped. "I know you hate pulp. Nice try though."

Yeah, Tsukishima could get along with these people just fine.

--

Given that they never ever played Jenga again.

"Kenjirou, Kenjirou! Oh my god, stop--"

"Fuck you, I'm going to win," Shirabu said, and it scared Tsukishima how his tone held absolutely zero emotion as he slowly inched out a piece from the flimsy tower. The game had only been going for about fifteen minutes (they all took their turns way too seriously, sad to say), with each move about as cold and calculating as the next.

Kuroo would surely come to regret bringing them together.

The tower currently looked bent at a near 45 degree angle, which...Tsukishima didn't realize was possible, but the more minutes passed, the more stressed he became. The upside? He'd managed to take his mind off of Kuroo and Terushima for a little bit.

"You can't even really win Jenga, the attention goes to whoever loses," he said slowly, distracted by Shirabu's nimble fingers as they worked on pulling a piece from the top. Smart. By now the foundation was fucked. The tower was basically sitting on one block towards the bottom; going for a base piece meant death.

However, if Shirabu managed to successfully get this piece, it was highly unlikely the next person would be able to do anything to stop the collapse.

Whatever. Semi's fault for marrying evil incarnate.

"Yeah, and it's gonna be Eita," Shirabu hissed, pushing the block out little by little. His eyes flicked to Tsukishima for only a split second. "If it’s you, I'll only be mildly appeased."

Thanks.

"Unless you lose right now and ruin the whole game," Semi singsonged, but even Tsukishima could tell he was wound up, afraid as he watched his husband. They'd had to have played enough games together to know each other's skill sets. If Semi was nervous, it was all too telling of the outcome.

Shirbau smiled, sugary and fake, like talking to a little kid. Classic 'sure honey.’ "Which I won’t."

"You don't know."

"I know everything," Shirabu huffed, and at that moment he pulled the block free, the tower swaying just so before settling again. Semi and Tsukishima groaned as Shirabu let the block hit the carpet, triumphant as he gestured to his husband. "In fact, I know everything before you know anything. Exhibit A over here."

Tsukishima stared at Shirabu's finger in disgust as it pointed at him. If only they weren't in the middle of the living room where anyone could walk by, Tsukishima would relay back all his points as to how Shirabu was truly too full of himself.

Actually. Fuck it.

"I wouldn't call walking in on a private moment as being evidence for good intuition," Tsukishima said to the side, knowing full well he'd be heard. If they'd be petty, so would he. Semi made an 'ooo' sound, but he still looked stunned.

Granted, Tsukishima had been mostly polite and reserved the whole trip but, well… They had to know anyone with Kuroo's heart had to be somewhat of a shit.

Just look at the guy.

Shirabu smirked, pleased. "I don't consider the middle of the fucking woods with no doors being somewhere one could have a 'private moment' as you put it."

Semi sipped from his coffee to hide his laugh.

"Well, seems I'm on Semi's side after all," Tsukishima sighed, though neither of them were giving him the desire to cheer them on. Whatever, Jenga was a lawless game.

"Ha!" Semi only barely managed to refrain from hitting the coffee table, and they all held their breath before releasing it slowly. The tower was still secure. Er. Standing.

"You do like losers," Shirabu muttered, and Semi choked at the same time Tsukishima snorted, the first genuine laugh he'd shared without Kuroo being around. It felt nice.

The image of Semi trying to look upset as he physically gripped his stomach from laughter was truly a sight to catalogue as well. Eventually, he did manage to regain control of his lungs, but just barely. "Kenjirou, don't be rude to Kuroo when he's not even here to defend himself."

Tsukishima glanced at him, shrugging. "You have to admit, he has a point."

Kuroo was the most lovable loser Tsukishima had ever met, but the thought would stay chained in his own brain, too ridiculous to speak aloud. The couple stared at him, quiet for a long moment as warmth settled in Tsukishima's whole body, because it almost felt like he'd come here with Kuroo, the way it should've been. He knew the truth of reality though, but it didn't dull the calmness he felt. Somehow, unintentionally, he'd made the best of things.

Good enough for him, and he was sure Kuroo would be happy too.

Semi and Shirabu glanced at each other before they erupted with poorly muffled laughter, and Tsukishima didn't resist joining in when the tower collapsed a few seconds after. None of them cared.

A rematch was sure to be scheduled anyways.

The day unfolded in much the same, albeit unexpected, manner. Tsukishima watched some old volleyball matches with Yachi, commentating along with her and joking during commercials. He'd then managed to get into a heated book club debate with Oikawa and Suga in the den. Apparently Iwaizumi had gone fishing after stating some controversial statement about their favorite book series, and now they were going at it.

They were both wrong about the endgame couple too, and Tsukishima felt perfectly in his right to tell them so. The ensuing argument lasted a good hour, but ended with them shitting on a completely different series they all hated. Over drinks too.

Afternoon turned into evening and Yuuji had yet to blindside him with a hug or outburst, but the wait hadn't been as anxiety filled as Tsukishima had assumed. He'd kept himself distracted, easily so, and hadn't worried about either Yuuji or Kuroo in hours. He wondered if that was unfair, allowing himself a reprieve while Kuroo suffered. But he couldn't imagine Kuroo being upset at this development, at Tsukishima getting to know everyone.

Tsukishima could already imagine his stupid grin. He'd be powerless to return it. Yuuji's too actually, ecstatic Tsukishima had put in the effort.

Dorks.

In fact, now Tsukishima wished they were here, not so he could find out what they'd been discussing, but because they deserved to be having fun here too. That's how it should've been, he realized. Now they were missing pieces so to speak, like the house had one empty space begging to be filled with their dumb laughter and wild gestures.

If not for all this drama, they could've had a good vacation, without Tsukishima...

Shaking his head, Tsukishima willed his thoughts to not take a turn down a darker road. It was tempting, oh so tempting, especially when it was his first instinct when he was younger. But Kuroo was right, he had to stop dwelling on the guilt.

Tsukishima sighed as he walked into the dining room, where Yahaba sat, hundreds of pictures spread out in front of him on the table. It was odd to see the brunet so quiet, and without Kyoutani next to him, so the scene pulled Tsukishima in, as did the pictures as soon as he got close enough.

Oh.

They were pictures of the group from when they were younger. Semi riding a bicycle, Yuuji covered in mud, the classic embarrassing high school candids when no one knew the camera was on. Tsukishima pulled some of them towards himself, delicately holding the old wrinkled corners. Some of the pictures were torn and water damaged at the sides, but Tsukishima thought it fit. His eyes lingered on the group shots, the ones from weddings or camping trips, where it was easy to see how family-like they all were.

How they'd allowed him to mix in with that, he didn't know.

"Oh, hey Tsukishima!" Yahaba said, finally noticing him. He'd been rifling through a stack in his hands from a box labelled 'graduations,' and Tsukishima almost excused himself for interrupting, but Yahaba was already gesturing to the open chair across from him.

Oh well, guess Tsukishima got to hang out with everyone that day.

"Crazy right?" Yahaba said, gesturing to the mess of photos. "Ken was supposed to help me but he went fishing with Iwaizumi last minute."

The brunet sighed, shoveling some pictures towards Tsukishima. The blond squinted, picking up up some of the muddier ones to try and make out the faces. "Why do you have all these with you?"

"Oh, I'm a softy deep down," he began, but Tsukishima cut him off with a laugh. Yahaba was almost as deadly as Shirabu, with a bark to match the bite. Yahaba nudged his foot under the table. "I'm serious! I like to reminisce. Plus it's fun to pull baby pictures and embarrass everyone."

"Ah, the true motive," Tsukishima said, to which Yahaba sent him the fakest of glares. Though, Tsukishima approved. What did Kuroo look like as a kid? Had his hair really always been like that?

Tsukishima set down one of Semi and Shirabu's wedding photos, eyes searching with his new goal in mind.

The universe must've been sparing him today, because Yahaba was handing him the set he needed about a second later. "I mean c'mon, look at these idiots! I'm almost sad I haven't blown these up to portrait size yet."

The three photographs were in good condition, given the graininess of the cameras back in the day. One was of Semi climbing a tree, tongue out in concentration as he struggled for another branch.

"He made it to the top," Yahaba sighed, shaking his head as he reorganized another pile. "But he fucking twisted his ankle like two seconds later."

Tsukishima covered the smile with the back of his hand. The next photo was of Yuuji, and yeah, he seemed as energetic as Tsukishima expected. He was at a theme park, devouring what looked like two or three hot fudge sundaes. He had a birthday crown on. Tsukishima always did like the fact he could take Yuuji to any dessert bar without worrying about criticism. Yuuji could eat, although Tsukishima still won when it came to who could keep down more cake.

Tsukishima shook his head fondly, flipping to the last picture, and his heart sped up in that all too infuriating way.

He'd never admit Kuroo had been a cute kid, never. But...

Ah, so he's always had that grin huh?

Kuroo's hair looked even messier back then, as he excitedly held a fishing rod, knee deep in murky water. Another infamous camping trip, Tsukishima supposed, but he didn't care to take in the surroundings. His eyes stayed on Kuroo; young, happy, unburdened Kuroo. He looked overjoyed with the small fish he'd already caught in the bucket beside him, smiling brightly at the camera. The shot was lopsided, like whoever had taken it hadn't been able to stand completely still. It was funny, Tsukishima guessed. Kuroo, all scrappy and energetic at what was no doubt an ungodly hour of the morning.

Kuroo had always tried to look at the positives, regardless of his situation. Even if the world felt like it was crumbling around them, he kept his head up. Tsukishima owed him for that, for not giving up when Tsukishima himself hadn't known what direction to move in.

He wanted Kuroo to be smiling like that always, like in the picture, and at him...

He couldn't see his own face, but Tsukishima couldn't stop the smile, the softness of his eyes, the light tremble of his hands out of fear of damaging it. His thoughts ran wild, along with the beat of his heart, and by the time he wondered how he must’ve looked, Yahaba’s face showed nothing but realization.

"O-oh," Yahaba uttered, because was there really much else to say? The brunet's eyes widened, jaw hanging open, and it was much more than Tsukishima could take. Like that, the calm and relaxation he'd accumulated throughout the day diminished.

"I..I'm sorry," he rushed out, so fast he could hardly tell where the words ended and began. He didn't know what exactly he was apologizing for. Everything? Maybe. But he didn't take time to think about it, he darted off as far away from the dining room as he could, landing himself in the now deserted entranceway of the house. Each step he took felt heavier, the muffled voices from various corners of the house slurring. At least Yahaba hadn't followed him.

But he still had the picture.

Okay, breathe. Breathe. No freakouts here.

Tsukishima's body didn't seem eager to listen. He chest rose and fell in rapid rates as he leaned against a hutch, eyes focusing on the front door for the sole sake of a distraction.

God, what was he doing?

So much for keeping things secret, he hadn't even done that right. And on top of it, the guilt was back. Here he was, openly fawning over Kuroo with no shame...these people had the nerve to think somewhat highly of him.

Tsukishima shook his head, his stuttering breaths a telling sign of something he hadn't let himself do in a while.

No. He would not cry. Not yet, not now.

They were so close.

The rush of anticipation over the fact made the self-hate spiral further, and he dug his nails into the wood beneath his palm, supporting all his weight. His throat felt dry, scratchy, every noise making his head hurt and his brain scream. His hand began to ache from how it dug into the wood, but it would just have to for now, his other hand held the picture.

The picture.

Tsukishima's eyes snapped open, a little red but salvageable. He couldn't shed tears when Kuroo had been strong enough to keep them in. Besides that...

Tsukishima sighed and brought the picture up to his face, the water in his eyes clearing until the sharp lines of Kuroo's grin became visible once again. Despite his near breakdown, he'd been gentle with the photo, his hand barely crumpling it.

Kuroo stared back at him. Smiling, happy.

It wasn't the Kuroo he knew, but the little boy in the picture held enough of his essence to remind Tsukishima to stay strong.

"Kei, you need to stop beating yourself up."

Yeah, I remember.

Didn't make things any more bearable though. Tsukishima set the photo down as he breathed, deep, trembling, until he felt the word realign itself. Shockingly, it did, having mercy on him.

The noises around him returned to normal, his balance returned, the need to cave in paused itself.

His problems continued to exist yes; now Yahaba knew, and he didn't know what that could possibly mean. Maybe he'd rat them out. Maybe Kuroo would panic. Tsukishima still had to break up with Yuuji soon. He still loved Kuroo.

Despite those realities, he felt like things would be okay. Or at least, he knew Kuroo thought so, and Tsukishima had to put his faith in him. That positivity had become everything to him, the sliver of it kept him going.

But the familiar itch remained, didn't matter how patient Tsukishima could be. He just wanted to speak to Kuroo, to see him and--

The front door opened, like a dream almost, the universe granting Tsukishima's wish just one time. Kuroo looked beaten down, his eyes at the floor, the weariness etched into his handsome features. Not a good sign, especially when the vacation was almost over.

But Tsukishima didn't notice right away; he only saw Kuroo. The raven noticed him instantly, his head perking up, and his eyes filled with that familiar light Tsukishima didn't feel he deserved.

It made Tsukishima smile, his feet moving on their own accord to bridge the gap between them, to have a reminder that all this waiting would be worth it. "Kuroo! I--"

"Hey babe! Just in time!" Yuuji came barreling in behind Kuroo, the excitement barely concealed, and effectively grounding Tsukishima back to earth. "I want to show you something!"

Tsukishima tried not to let the shock or disappointment show in his face, and it wasn't too difficult. He yearned for Kuroo, but seeing Yuuji so upbeat was never something anyone could shoot down. He simply looked too happy, it would be like kicking a puppy.

Tsukishima smiled lightly as Yuuji ran up to him, grabbing his hands and pulling forward. Tsukishima laughed, but the confusion won out, and he glanced at Kuroo anxiously. For a sign, a warning, a reassurance?

Kuroo wouldn't look at him.

Tsukishima remembered how much he hated that. His stomach sank, and he looked back to Yuuji, unwilling to linger on those tired features for a second longer. Whatever was about to happen, he found himself apologizing to Kuroo for the hundredth time, sorry he'd had to endure this. If only he could've said it aloud, he would've tried to say so many things aloud.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Yuuji laughed, and Tsukishima had no choice but to consent to yet another surprise. He squeezed Yuuji's hands as he led him out the front door, and only when he couldn't turn back did he finally feel Kuroo's eyes on him.

--

"Surprise! Er...sorta? Mini surprise! Hardly a surprise at all," Yuuji's words were punctuated with nervous giggles and coughs, the likes of which Tsukishima hadn't heard since he'd first been asked out. It hadn't been too long ago, but Yuuji tended to be so sure of himself, so infuriatingly confident...

Now Tsukishima saw why. This was far from the typical surprises Yuuji usually brought to the table.

The first thing Tsukishima noticed after being led to the rooftop was the well concealed deck; the second had been...everything else. The string lights and paper lanterns wrapped along the rails, giving the space a gentle white glow. The light music coming from the speakers set up on a small folding table, and the plush knit blanket which lay across the floor, oversized and inviting Tsukishima to wrap himself in. It was the kind he liked, the kind he'd always look at in old magazines at the library when things were slow.

"Wow," he breathed, he couldn't help it. The place had obviously been cleaned up significantly, the floor only lightly dusted with pine needles, and atop the blanket sat a bottle of pink wine, the only type he liked to drink, and an assortment of food.

And like the predictable glutton he was, his eyes zeroed in on the dessert. Strawberry shortcake...another of his favorites.

In fact, even the speakers blared soft alternative music, picks from his go-to artists.

Tsukishima's heart squeezed like it was wrapped in garrote wire.

It hurts.

"Uh, babe?" Yuuji stepped forward, and even then Tsukishima noticed he was more dressed up than usual, with black slacks and a button up. Yuuji never wore formal clothes. He looked nervous again, his hand ruffling his gelled hair, effectively messing it up. Endearing, Tsukishima thought. "Is it...it's too much again, isn't it?"

Ah, had Tsukishima really been that bad? He guessed so. Then again, Yuuji's surprises never mixed well with him, those spontaneous declarations of affection. And then again, Tsukishima’s subtle ones had never been Yuuji's favorite either. He regretted that.

But this time Yuuji had obviously given it his all, had poured everything into this. And it wasn't grand, it was simple and quiet, just the way Tsukishima liked. It meant more than Tsukishima was capable of saying. He would've given back so much more if he could've, but deep down he knew it would never be enough.

Because even for him, with this date, the best kind of date laid out in front of him, it wasn't enough. But he still loved it, appreciated the softness and the effort enough for him to reach out and grab Yuuji's hand.

"No," Tsukishima shook his head, and it wasn't a lie. "It's perfect."

Seeing Yuuji's smile illuminate the world made the lump in Tsukishima's throat worth it, one hundred percent.

He did the best thing he could think of to take his mind off the pain as he sat down on the blanket, and he opened the wine. If there was a questionable amount in his glass, Yuuji didn't notice, gladly pouring his own.

He let the scent envelop him, the alcohol refreshing him like cold morning fog. He smiled into his glass; good thing Kuroo wasn't here, he hated wine with a passion. His loss.

"Whoa slow down," Yuuji said with a laugh, his smile as fond as ever. Tsukishima tried not to focus on it. "I don't think I've ever seen you drink anything other than beer."

Ha.

Tsukishima threw him an unamused look, tilting his glass in Yuuji's direction. Yuuji's glass clinked lightly against his, loud in the still evening air. "That's because you only ever have beer at your apartment."

"Well...yeah, I just assumed you were cool with it." Yuuji shrugged as he offered Tsukishima some of the french bread he'd brought, organized carefully in an old school picnic basket. Classic, a little cheesy, but fitting. Sadly, Tsukishima couldn't give it his full attention as the words rang in his head.

For whatever reason, he was getting tired of talking to himself when these things happened, so...he didn't. Tsukishima laughed as he took the corner of the loaf, popping it into his mouth. He couldn't focus on the taste. "You assume I'm cool with a lot of things."

He said it with a laugh, like a joke.

"Because you are," Yuuji said, laughing all the same. Because it was a joke, to him anyways. "I mean okay, not about everything. But most things right? I wouldn't like you if you were uptight all the time, you're totally laid back and...whatever."

The 'whatever' was followed by a wave of Yuuji's hand, which Tsukishima followed, swallowing more wine. It was a little cute, this idealized version of Tsukishima Yuuji talked about. He almost wished he was like that. Spontaneous, wanting to go along with 'whatever' no matter how tiring. No recharges, no alone time. Just the willingness to be towed around.

But they'd argued about this before. It wasn't like Tsukishima didn't communicate, he'd gotten fairly good at it actually. It never got them anywhere; either something went over Yuuji's head or Tsukishima's own. They could never please each other.

But Tsukishima would enjoy this night, he wanted to. No more of this back and forth. He'd endure for one more night, especially when Yuuji had remembered all this stuff about him, had tried so hard. Maybe Tsukishima had been too harsh; Yuuji pleased him when it mattered, and that counted for something.

"I admit," Yuuji continued, sighing heavily. His hand gripped Tsukishima's, and he could only listen, stunned. "I shouldn't have sprung this on you, coming here I mean. It was a bad idea, and I'm sorry."

The apology was quiet, but it was out there. Tsukishima's mouth opened a little, the words lost. Yuuji hated admitting he was wrong, detested it. And to bring up a fight they'd somewhat settled earlier...it had probably taken a lot out of him. But this apology was real, it wasn't a pause, wasn't shallow like the one in the morning. Yuuji wanted to bury this fully, and Tsukishima's burdened heart softened. His boyfriend was doing a lot of things for him tonight apparently; he cared that much.

Tsukishima's bit his lip, fingers curling in Yuuji's. The least he could do was return the favor. "I forgive you."

Regardless of what else might happen, the relief which passed between them made Tsukishima just a little readier to end things. Maybe that had been dangerous though; as the end felt nearer, the waiting got harder, and Tsukishima realized it way too late.

"Can I ask you something?" Yuuji asked, setting down his glass. His hand had begun to feel clammy. Tsukishima didn't even feel the need to be a smartass, not a good sign. But Yuuji did somewhat know him, and he rolled his eyes playfully. "After that one of course."

Dammit.

Tsukishima laughed as he scratched at his palm. The sound came out too loud, and he cursed himself again. His wine glass was still full, but the taste no longer appealed to him, or it wouldn't help anyways. He had a bad feeling, and so far his intuition had been spot on during this trip. The lights around him were too bright, the music not loud enough. It wasn't drowning out anything.

Above all, he wished Kuroo was there to help him. He would know what to say to make him feel like he could do anything.

He nodded stiffly, and Yuuji's hand pulled away as he turned to face Tsukishima fully, eyes burning. "What...do you think about when it comes to like, the future? Not like a specific time just, in general I guess?"

It was about as bad as Tsukishima expected, since there was no way the answer to this question would meet Yuuji expectations. The shock and panic must've shown on his face, and Yuuji backpedaled, waving his hands. "No, no! I didn't meant to make it sound--I wasn't implying, we haven't been dating that long! Like you said earlier...I was just curious I guess. We've never..."

We've never talked about it.

Probably for good reason. Tsukishima wondered if they'd both been putting off the inevitable, if both of them knew deep down this discussion couldn't possibly go well.

Tsukishima swallowed, shrugging as if he didn't know exactly what he wanted from his life. "Well, what do you mean?"

He breathed in once, and let the rest of the words escape him. "Tell me about you first."

Yuuji never passed up the chance, Tsukishima knew that, and he selfishly used it to his advantage one last time. He just needed extra minutes to prepare for Yuuji's smile to disappear, to see disappointment weigh down his youthful features. To keep in the tears.

"Oh man I don't know, it's kind of hard to fit together but," Yuuji said, the image and fantasy no doubt embedded in his mind. He most likely knew what he wanted as much as Tsukishima did. "I definitely want to live in a big city, bigger than ours, lots of people and things to do. I could never live in a suburb or out here, as nice as it is."

Tsukishima looked up at the starry sky at the same time Yuuji did, and he thought about how the woods had really grown on him, how willing he'd be to having a cabin of his own.

"And?" Tsukishima prodded, trying not to sound choked.

"Kids of course, two at least? I think that's a good number, especially for city living," Yuuji said, like he'd really sat down and thought about it.

Tsukishima didn't want kids.

"I love my job so that doesn't need much changing, but yeah I'd say that's what I'd want most," he finished, looking to Tsukishima, hands fisted in the soft fabric of the blanket.

Tsukishima didn't want to be there. Of course everything Yuuji wanted, included nothing Tsukishima did. How was he supposed to refute all that? Here? Now? If he lied...he couldn't. Would not. That would give hope to Yuuji, would make it seem like everything was fine, like things weren't approaching the end. It wasn't fair to him. Yuuji needed the truth, but god, Tsukishima wished he would've waited to ask.

The universe hadn't been on his side it seemed, it had just been kind to him all day in preparation for this. What a joke.

Yuuji kept smiling at him, and Tsukishima savored the image, smiled back hesitantly one last time before he fixed his gaze to the ground. I'm sorry.

Tsukishima sighed, and his voice was the smallest he'd heard it, so stilted and broken. "I'm not really...I don't really want any of that."

He swallowed. No, clearer.

"I don't want that. The city, the kids...both are too much. They're too much for me," he emphasized, because Yuuji's demands weren't out there at all. He'd find someone who'd love every single one. He had to know that.

The silence between them stretched on, and he watched Yuuji's hands uncurl from the fabric, but Tsukishima had partly stayed the same since high school, he was still a coward, he didn't want to look up, to see the consequences.

At least this time, he knew things had happened for the right reasons.

Yuuji's shaky reply hurt despite that. "Oh."

Tsukishima first instinct was to get up and pace the floor; he needed to do something to keep it all in, to squash it all down.

"I mean, we're both young though. You never know, we might change."

Somehow, Yuuji's words made Tsukishima's head snap up. The smile on his boyfriend's face was still there, if not stiffer now, forced into place like a law. Yuuji didn't want him to see how he felt. Great.

Tsukishima could've said so many things to rebuff that statement, to chase after Yuuji's denial and stomp it into the floor once and for all. Why did Yuuji have to cling so much? He knew, he had to know, and yet...

He cares about hurting you too.

Yeah, Tsukishima always forgot that detail. Breaking up with someone was never fun no matter how much it was needed. If Yuuji wanted to put it off, Tsukishima would be frustrated, but he understood like no other.

'We're not that young,' is what he wanted to say. Along with 'let me go' and 'stop doing this' but part of him knew the damage was done. It was simply settling into Yuuji's heart and soul, and sooner rather than later, it would overwhelm him as it had Tsukishima.

"Yeah..." He said instead, and the syllable shook as he let it drag out for too long, like he couldn't reel it back. Shut up, shut up.

Tsukishima wondered why all sounds of wildlife stopped as soon as something serious happened. Like the woodland itself was holding its breath, watching and waiting. He hated it; the silence it left sat too heavy between them.

Frustrated, he looked to the cake sitting a few feet from them, as sweet and fresh as thirty minutes prior. It hadn't been tainted by the atmosphere, but Tsukishima didn't know if he was hungry anymore. It was a nice reminder though, that this night hadn't been a complete drag. Maybe the ending had been ruined but...it had been his idea of a perfect date. He'd loved it.

Beside him, Yuuji chuckled, tapping a finger against the plastic casing of the cake. "You know, I've never seen your eyes light up like that, like when we first came up here. I did a good job I guess...with all this."

Yes, you did.

Tsukishima nodded, biting back another pathetic sound. "You did but, the cake was the real selling point."

Another joke of course, a genuine one this time. Yuuji had gotten way more than the cake right, it was kind of amazing.

Yuuji's brow furrowed, glancing at the glazed strawberries which sat on top of the sponge. "Is it your favorite or something?"

Tsukishima balked a little, his expression twisted in confusion. Was that supposed to be a joke? Yuuji's poker face was not usually that good...

He laughed anyways, because what else was there to do? "Uh yeah, I could eat this whole thing myself."

Easily too.

"Oh wow, good thing I got it then," Yuuji said. "I thought it might be kinda boring at first."

What...

That bad feeling was back, but he pushed it away so defiantly it hurt. It was just one thing. One thing out of everything else on the date which had been perfect. A happy coincidence. Didn't matter that Tsukishima had told Yuuji his favorite food on their first date, not at all.

But he had to be sure, always had to be sure, and he'd never considered that a downfall until now. "So...you didn't know? I figured with...the blanket, and the music..."

Yuuji's brows shot up, and he looked around the space, like he'd forgotten the elaborate setup. He shrugged, fiddling with the frayed edges of the blanket. "Oh, yeah I mean they're great. I'm glad you like them, but honestly I wasn't sure what would be good for a date like this. Kuroo told me everything so I just went with it."

The world tilted completely, and Tsukishima felt like he'd been shoved underwater.

"What?" He asked again, but he wasn't delusional enough to believe he'd heard wrong, he just didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah, the guy's always been a romantic," Yuuji said with a laugh, like Tsukishima didn't know that. "He suggested the music and everything, even picked out the blanket. Don't be mad! I just needed some extra help! And it worked out great! He was a big help huh?"

Yes, he was.

Because he knew what Tsukishima loved.

Tsukishima couldn't breathe, didn't know if it was necessary since he'd gone so long holding his breath this week. Kuroo. It had all been Kuroo.

Why was he not surprised?

Kuroo seemed to be everywhere, and Tsukishima didn't mind one bit, not an ounce. Right then though, he felt chained. He couldn't express that gratefulness, how touched he was, not to the right person. To be able to do that...

Oh. He'd have to let Kuroo down one last time after all then, wouldn't he?

What he'd thought earlier, about the end coming too ahead of schedule, this was what he'd meant and feared.

The next song which played was one he'd recommended to Kuroo during the first week they'd known each other, he'd taken out his headphones and let Kuroo hear the soft notes, the overly poetic lyrics.

This was the last barrier, broken down. Tsukishima couldn't do this anymore, and nothing would get to change that decision.

He stood up with a grace he didn't have, given the storm in his mind, but the resolve steadied him, made his limbs work. Yuuji tilted his head, questioning.

"I'm going to run to the bathroom," Tsukishima said, as calmly and flippantly as he could, already off in the direction of the stairs and down to the house. He moved like a robot, one directive, one goal. He felt like nothing could stop him, and he felt relief, real relief. Soon, it would be permanent.

If Yachi wondered what he was doing when she saw him walk straight to Kuroo's room, she didn't say anything about it.

Kuroo was pacing the floor of his room when he entered, trying (poorly) to act like he hadn't been doing so at the sound of a door opening. He'd flung himself onto the bed, grabbing the nearest book (a boot catalogue) and looking to the door.

Tsukishima's dumb, terrible actor.

All pretend stopped as soon as Kuroo saw Tsukishima's face. The way Kuroo's face lit up...half concern and half joy...

Tsukishima wished he could kiss him.

But if he let Kuroo get a word in, if he showed the slightest hesitation, he would be disappointed with himself. Even Kuroo had to understand, sometimes he'd have to be selfish. Not just for his own good, but...

"Kei, what's--"

Tsukishima backed up as Kuroo took a step towards him, and going against that magnetic pull felt so damn unnatural. "I can't do it. Not for another day, not for another second."

I won't do it.

Kuroo's eyes widened when the words clicked, comically, and Tsukishima still thought he looked handsome like that. The panic set into those sharp features, and again Tsukishima apologized on the inside. It was almost over. "What are you--did something--"

"Thank you for the date," Tsukishima whispered. He had to get that out of the way first. Kuroo needed to understand. The raven froze, caught red handed. Had he expected it to stay a secret? Probably. Kuroo was way too generous. "You let him use your ideas?"

You let him have what I'd given you, what you'd cherished about me.

Kuroo stared at the floor, the regret clear on his face. It could've been their first date, but Tsukishima wasn't about to dwell on stupid stuff like that. There would be more. "I...I'm sorry--"

"I'm not mad," Tsukishima said, and he couldn't raise his voice any higher. It stayed weak, choked, but this was hard for him. Kuroo reached forward, and Tsukishima was so weak, he let it happen, let those fingers curl around his wrist because it was less intimate than holding hands.

He'd held the wrong hand all night, and still he was being deprived.

"Then, why?" Kuroo asked, at a loss. So sweet, so caring. Tsukishima would make the bad decisions for Kuroo, so he didn't have to deal with this anymore. To make sacrifices. Kuroo, who still didn't get it. "I don't...It's one more night Kei, and then everything will be fine."

That was debatable, but Tsukishima understood what he meant. The original plan, the one they'd agreed upon. He was supposed to stand by it, but he wouldn't. After all this, he wouldn't pretend anymore.

It wasn't fair to anyone, and prolonging the inevitable made no sense. It hurt more this way, but for whatever reason, Tsukishima knew things would work out. He thought of Yuuji's strained smile when they'd talked about the future, remembered the hope dying in his eyes. They all knew it was time.

He could've said all that and more, but he knew the best answer, the answer he felt above all else despite his logic and reason. Tsukishima let emotion win out, and he tilted his head, imagining what it would be like to lean into a kiss right then...

"I don't want to spend another night...without you," he whispered, and he didn't mind the cliche of it all, or the fact he'd probably blush like crazy later over having said something so bold.

Kuroo's grip tightened on his wrist, his eyes softening from pain to acceptance, and that was all that mattered.

"Are...are you sure?" Kuroo whispered, his pinkie teasing the edge of Tsukishima's palm. Tsukishima smiled, knowing he'd already won. Kuroo knew the answer as soon as Tsukishima pulled away from his grip.

Kuroo was weak to him, and there was no guilt in taking advantage of that.

Tsukishima walked away, opening the door with a deep breath. If he stayed any longer...he wouldn't want to leave. He had one more conversation to have that night, and putting things off was no longer his style.

"Hey Tetsurou?" He asked, turning back one last time. Kuroo's head perked up, his feet planted to the spot as his eyes followed Tsukishima's every move. "Do you remember how I like my coffee?"

Naturally, Tsukishima knew the answer to that too.

Kuroo's brow furrowed in confusion, but he smiled all the same, smug. "Of course I do."

Yeah, of course you do.

Tsukishima laughed, gripping the door handle. "Then I'll see you soon."

And Kuroo, with his trust and blind faith in him, only nodded. "See you soon."

If Tsukishima regretted anything, it was leaving Kuroo here to deal with the goodbyes, but he doubted the raven minded. Tsukishima would wait for him to do things right, to come to him.

After all, they'd both waited this long.

[ghostyprince]

title: i’ll fight you in front of a starbucks

word counts: 1.388 fandom: BuzzF. Uns. relationship: Ryan B./Shane M. summary:  Ryan just wanted a nice coffee after being up all night, but he starts his morning with spilled coffee and meeting a tall stranger instead.

author’s note: inspiried by this post i just had to.

[Read on AO3]

or read more here

It has been a long, long night for Ryan Bergara. Full of visiting a supposedly haunted location, and then spending at least 4 hours editing the footage they got.

His friend, TJ dropped him off at home around one in the morning, and by the time he wrapped up the editing, it was 5:40 AM already. Was there even a point in going to sleep?

He thought he could just power through the day and pass out after he finished his part-time job.

YouTube alone did not pay the bills yet, sadly.

So Ryan just opted to go to Starbucks, have like six cups of coffee that day, and survive. Sounds like a plan, right? Not a very good one, he knew that, but a plan nonetheless.

What Ryan failed to take into calculation was that a tall (very tall, what the fuck) guy would slam into him, full force as Ryan opened the door of the establishment.

To be fair, he’s been quite distracted too, mortified by replying the barista with “you too” earlier when she told him to enjoy his coffee.

Not one his proudest moments for sure.

But now, this guy just had to fuck up his day even more.

Ryan couldn’t fucking believe this shit.

The one, and only thing keeping him semi-alive was splattered all over his favorite Back To The Future t-shirt, dripping down on his pants, and the concrete ground.

Why did he have to wear that one out of all of his clothes?  If he ’s gonna be honest, he kind of hoped it would give him some luck for the day, because Ryan’s the kind of person who believes in that stuff.

He should’ve known something like this would happen.

The stranger, (who of course hasn’t gotten any coffee on his pale blue button up, that lucky bastard) stepped back, sputtering apologetically.

So, yeah, okay, that’s not how Shane planned to start his day. He had work in like two hours, so he thought: hey, why not grab a coffee and some breakfast too, maybe? It’s such a nice day in LA that he has to spend cramped up in an office. Might as well enjoy it while he can.

In hindsight, he really should’ve watched where the hell he was going. He didn’t think until it was too late, of course.

And now he’s staring at this short dude in a soaked white shirt, totally helplessly and holy fuck he’s cute.

His hair was a bit messy, and the black framed nerdy glasses he wore were adorably perched on his nose. And he looked absolutely pissed.

At Shane.

Shane liked his lips, trying very hard to not stare at the spots, where the shirt stuck to the guy’s seemingly toned chest and stomach and he mentally kicked himself, to finally say something. Apologize, you idiot!

“I’m so sorry, man. I-I didn’t see you.”

Alright, that was terrible.

Just as he predicted, the guy basically blew up on him.

“Dude, fuck you! This was my favorite shirt!”

“Hey, no need to be rude, I apologized! You could watch where you’re going too, you know,” Shane replied, getting a bit irritated too. Who the hell this guy thinks he is?! He hated nothing more than attractive douchebags.  

“Well, you should watch your damn sasquatch legs!”

“Excuse me? You’re the height of a freaking gremlin, maybe that’s why I couldn’t see you!” So much for planning on having a nice morning.

Ryan visibly stumbled over his words, frustrated. Shane kind of sympathized with him at that moment, poor dude looked like he hadn’t had a good sleep in 2 years.

That being said, it doesn’t mean he should go off on a stranger though.

“Says the guy, who looks like the little brother of fucking Bigfoot!”

What is up with all the cryptid stuff? And why on earth did Shane find it so endearing? Even in the middle of their fight he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the other man was, face flushed and eyes shining with anger. Sue him, but god, he was so fucking hot.

Shane could just imagine pushing him against the building’s wall and kissing him ‘til they’re both too out of breath to argue.

“Yeah, you got a problem with me? Kiss me on the lips, dude!”

Shane had no one else to blame, but himself for that sentence slipping out, honestly.

You see, his fantasy affected mind mixed up “kiss me” and “fight me” on the spur of the moment, and he couldn’t help it now.

It was out there.

At least two other people walking by heard it, too.

“Yeah, I,” Ryan said, ready fight the tall dude on the spot, but he realized what Shane had said, and paused, blinking at him in complete surprise before barking out a laugh. “What?! What did you just say?”

Shane watched him lean on the wall next to the door, gasping for air, one hand on his stomach and head thrown back.

He was very embarrassed, but seeing the smaller one lose his shit like this put a somewhat shy grin on his face.

“I- I guess I just invited you to make out with me. I dunno man, a lot of different emotions were involved.”

Ryan, still chuckling, looked up at him with the brightest grin Shane has ever seen.

He’s gonna have a fucking heart attack.

“Holy shit dude, I haven’t laughed this much in days. Thanks, I guess. Even though you spilled like all of my coffee.”

“You want me to get you another one? And I can pay for the shirt too. It was my fault, after all.”

“Don’t worry about it. I could use a coffee though. Do you want to, uh, you know, join me? If you’re not busy. We could start over, without shouting.” Ryan stuttered, ashamed that he gone off on the guy earlier.

Shane nodded, grinning like an idiot. Can you believe he got a (possible) date out of this mess?

“I have about an hour and a half to spare.”

“So, not to be rude right away, but why do you look so tired? College?” Shane asked.

They were already sitting inside, with fresh cups in front of them on the table.

“Nah, I graduated last year. I’m doing youtube with a side job, so I’m not getting as much sleep as I should,” he said, shrugging.

"That sounds cool, you have one of those gaming channels?”

“I’m investigating ghosts, actually. Me and my friend, we go to haunted locations, recording proof and I have this series that’s about unsolved murders and mysteries. You could say I’m a ghost hunter or something.” Ryan joked, sipping his drink, while Shane chocked on his simultaneously, coughing a bit. Is this guy serious?

“Ghost hun– What? You do know ghosts don’t exist, right? You’re just wasting your time, little buddy.”

“You don’t know that! No one knows for sure,” Ryan said, slightly offended.

“Yeah, okay.” Shane snorts, grinning at him and skeptically lifting an eyebrow.

“You got a problem with me? Kiss me on the lips, dude.” Ryan deepened his voice, mocking him, which caused Shane to bury his face in his hands, groaning. He was definitely not blushing.

“Shut up, or I might do just that! Asshole.”

“What if I’d like you to shut me up, uhh,” he trailed off, just realizing that in the midst of all the laughing and bickering they never once exchanged names so far.

The other man picked up on his struggle and smiled, introducing himself.

“Shane. Shane Madej.”

“Ryan. Bergara.” Ryan opened his mouth to say something else, but Shane’s big hands were on either side of his face in no second, pulling him into an impromptu kiss over the table.

It was nowhere near a make-out session but just enough to render Ryan’s sleep-deprived brain speechless.

Shane loved the way he looked like at that moment, all red cheeks and that beautiful dazed expression on his face that makes him want to kiss Ryan some more.

“Well, nice to meet you, Ryan. Aren’t you glad I accidentally, but very aggressively expressed how much I’m into you?”

Ryan let out a breathy wheeze, slapping the table and almost spilling his second coffee that day.

“I’m very aggressively into you too.”

[ariyadaivaris]

artemidi replied to your post “boy oh boy i sure hope nobody asks about the embarrassing sappy au i...”

I need......more info on this.....blease

i’ve GOT more info on this don’t you even worry your sweet fred head about it !!

nxt’s tag team division is, to say the least, KIND OF...UH...BORDERLINE NONEXISTENT AS OF LATE and so when the time comes to set up the dusty rhodes tag team classic they really end up needing to Scrumble something together! the original plan was that tyler (bate) (to name specific tylers) and jack would team up however long they needed to for the tournament, but oh NO tyler’s been gravely injured, probably by pete because he’s a motherfucker

jack is stuck without a partner and the tournament is stuck without the final team! regal puts out a desperate call for help and ariya decides to strike a deal because why would he team with jack motherfucking gallagher without something to gain from it

the deal is this: ariya teams with jack, withstands whatever mockery comes his way this time, carries the team through the tournament and when he wins, he gets a shot at the cruiserweight title. ariya is a difficult person to work with but desperate times calls for desperate measures, and so ariya and jack end up being the newest addition to the tag team classic! Oh What Drama ! 

things are TENSE, TO SAY THE LEAST

they have to take a bit of a hiatus from 205 so they can travel with nxt, some of the tournament matches take place at house shows and live events and they do still need to work together as a team outside of the tournament if only because they’d be completely fucked otherwise! jack still can’t drive so ariya (dear sweet ariya who can’t drive for shit) is the official pilot in their travels, and jack is...an...interesting co-pilot

the first few weeks are mostly ariya giving jack Ze Silent Treatment while jack refuses to shut up ever and it’s kind of an awkward uneasy dynamic, even after they win their first tournament match through SOME MIRACLE

ariya finally talks to jack during a drive because jack stumbles onto the topic of musicals and says some things and ariya gets very heated very easily and it MIGHT turn into a cutting discussion about the accessibility of theatre and of bootlegs, and about who and what gets visibility in mainstream media and who and what gets nominated for tonys, etc, but its the most fun ariya’s had in awhile and they both kinda learn smth from it and from then on ariya’s more willing to like. at least talk to jack. and it’s...disappointingly...very nice

i feel like during a house show ariya gets trapped in the corner and almost gets dropkicked but jack manages to get to his corner and use his umbrella as kind of a makeshift shield to throw off their opponent and give ariya time to collect his wits and it’s maybe a silly thing to think about but its cute imo! my city now! 

after their second round match, which they almost accidentally win (against reDRagon, no less, bc let’s be real while we’re being self indulgent here i DO care more abt this storyline than about those two probably very talented but uninteresting slices of white bread), jack compliments ariya’s performance in the match and ariya doesn’t take it well because like. to this point he’s only thought jack’s just been humiliating and mocking him for no fucken reason since they met, and why wouldn’t he turn up this opportunity to backhandedly insult ariya now. and jack doesn’t KNOW that, and so ariya starts giving him a cold shoulder again for no reason as far as jack knows. OOH this drama. OOH this suspense

after they make it to the semi-finals (which no one was expecting, and certainly not them, honestly), they’ve gotta go to a press event with the other semi-finalists and it’s maybe not the most plot relevant thing but ariya does clean up really nicely and jack is maybe a little distracted the entire time because holy shit

and maybe then jack kinda realizes he hasn’t been engaging in a rivalry with ariya so much as maybe he’s had a dumb awful crush on him this entire time and not known how to realize that or express it and spends the night trying to keep his composure (because who is jack gallagher if not composed) while internally just writhing in embarrassment and agony and going “oh nnnnNNNOOOOOOO oh my goddd what did i DOOOO why did i DO that oh noooooOOOOOooOOooOoo” and its a rough night! 

and ariya sees jack being less than 100% during all this and sees it as Oh He Doesn’t Care, Of Course, Why Would He, and he’s pissed because he really thought they were getting somewhere as a team, and alas here they are and jack isn’t even paying attention to what’s happening, what a rude asshole as fucking always, and ariya MAYBE--just maybe--maybe just fuckin clocks jack in the face after jack tries to tell him he handled that really well

and jack sincerely admires that ariya remained pretty composed and serious and focused even when jack was busy trying not to wither into embarrassed gay dust but ariya only hears that as jack intentionally leaving ariya to his own devices and mocking how shitty a job he did

(not that ariya would ever say he thinks he did a shitty job, but in his heart he DOES want to do well and be a worthy contender, and opponent, and partner, and he knows he gets lucky a lot and so when he DOESN’T and when he’s painfully in control of the things that happen to him everything feels amplified and clumsy and Wrong and jack’s not helping lmao. i love drama)

obviously this isn’t received well and jack and ariya get into a brawl and they have to get broken up by their coworkers in attendance and ariya’s just yelling WHAT DID I EVEN DO TO YOU ASSHOLE, WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM

jack stays with mustafa and lince for the night because ariya straight up threw his bags outside the door of their room and locked him out and jack plays the words back and he’s like Wait...Maybe I’m Misunderstanding The Situation Here

and the next morning he goes to talk to ariya 

(who answers the door looking just fine and who hasn’t been alternating between uneasy sleep and furious tears all night, ariya’s fine) 

and he doesn’t like...get the nerve to go “hey i think i might be in love with you a bit” but he does manage to tell ariya he hasn’t been mocking him, and he’s been sincere this whole time, and he’s genuinely sorry he’s been a dick to ariya since they started on 205, but ariya, to be fair, has also been a dick, maybe more in terms of beating people up but jack’s sorry about what’s been happening, and ariya doesn’t have to accept that apology, and if ariya wants to forfeit their semi-finals match, he understands entirely

and ariya’s just like “yo what the fuck are you kidding i’ve still got a title shot on the line and we’re gonna win this, get in the car, it’s cool or whatever cmon lets GO” and he’s a bit flippant about it but for some reason he wants to...start grinning like an idiot and never stop again? for some reason? weird

things aren’t just all Cool suddenly after that because when i say i love slow burn shit i MEAN like, years, they’re still only barely allies but something’s There and that’s endgame, don’t play with me, we’ve gotta get face!ariya calling for a parlay with heel!jack in between here and The Datening for me to feel truly alive but thats just my humble imho

also they lose in the finals but ariya puts on enough of a performance to merit a title shot anyway and after the loss they might not work as a team anymore and they’re back to their own stories on 205 but before they get back to the hotel and get cleaned up and wash off the grime of bitter bitter defeat ariya finds jack sitting with his chin on his knees in the stairwell and sits silently with him and they maybe hold h*nds for like the BRIEFEST of minutes and never talk about it again but like. we’ve gone this far with this shitty badly written self-indulgent embarrassing post right? try and stop me

just kidding im stopping myself now. i hate that i wrote all of this. im gonna kill myself thanks

[byeeden]

Operation: Get-Mahiru-and-Angel-chan-to-kiss!

Initially I had posted this on AO3 last Christmas but I kinda wanted to share it here, too. ^^ I’m not very good at writing, but I hope you guys don’t mind www and please excuse any grammar/speeling errors,, sorry !!

WARNINGS: Minor vulgar language. Not a lot, but it’s there (mainly towards the end)

The pair is here is LichtMahi with some minor TsuruMahi !!

Summary:  Hyde and Kuro go out of their way to get Mahiru and Licht to kiss under the mistletoe!

"Yosh!" Hyde exclaimed as he shook his older brother's shoulder while holding a mistletoe in his other hand. "Are you ready, Nii-san?"

Kuro sighed in return, rubbing the back of his head. "What a pain..." Sleepy Ash replied, slumping a bit with laziness expressed in his body movement and expression. "This mission is pretty dumb, Hyde... Like... Why, exactly...? Too troublesome... Can't deal..."

Lawless furrowed his eyebrows, before rolling his eyes. "You're no fun, Nii-san, you know that?" He whined. "We just have to get, ya know, Angel-chan and Mahi-Mahi under the mistletoe and- mission completion!" Kuro only sighed again.

It was Christmas Day, and all the Servamps and Eves were over at Misono's (and Mikuni (since that's technically his house too)) house. Yes, even C3 was there and Tsubaki and his subclass. Everyone agreed upon each other that they all would have a truce: no fighting, no hating, keep the positivity up, no motherfucking war.

With the truce in mind, everyone surprisingly got along well with each other (with the exception of Misono yelling at Mikuni and Mikuni sending death glares at Tetsu... and Mikuni and Tsurugi sending death wishes towards each other of course). Mostly all the adults were drunk including all of C3, but unfortunately, Tsurugi wasn't able to drink since Jun had gotten (surprisingly) drunk, leaving Takuto in Tsurugi's hands. Sure, the ace of C3 was disappointed he couldn't drink, but it was better to take care of the kid he freakin' loved than to be drunk off his ass (now he could brag all he wanted about not being drunk for once and taking care of the adorable kid).

All of this happening, and yet, Hyde and Kuro- well, mostly Hyde, had one mission in mind.

Operation: Get-Mahiru-and-Angel-chan-to-Kiss.

Hyde planned this for a week before, pestering his older brother about it. Kuro wasn't interested, but Lawless knew. He knew that somewhere in him, the Servamp of Sloth had an ounce of interest in doing the mission.

Kuro sighed as Hyde shoved him playfully to go and get Licht. Kuro didn't like the idea of talking to the Greed Eve much, but the Servamp of Greed easily bribed the Servamp of Sloth by telling him it took less work to get Licht than it is to hold the mistletoe over the two's heads. The bluenette actually bought it and agreed. Hyde wasn't lying about how much work it took, though.

"Mahiru-kun~" Hyde hummed, as he shoved the mistletoe in his pocket while waving at Mahiru to get his attention. Mahiru glanced at the Greed Servamp, before looking back at Sakuya and telling him something before walking over to Lawless.

"Did you need something?" The brunette asked with an innocent expression.

What a baby face. Lawless thought, his usual grin on his face as he looked down at the high schooler. No wonder Licht loves this kid.

"Right! Right~ You got a present for everyone, right?" Hyde chirped, ruffling Mahiru's hair. "Can you tell me what you got me~?"

"Are you stupid?" Mahiru chuckled, before putting on a semi-serious expression. "I'm not telling you. Period."

"Aw~ You're so mean! At least tell me what you got for my cool angel-chan?"

"Eh? Licht-san? Well..."

Hyde grinned widely, holding in his laughter as a small blush arose on Mahiru's face as the brunette glanced away sheepishly. This kid! Hyde laughed in his head. Kuro had told him that his Eve had made a cute dove plush for his Angel-chan, but man was Mahiru's expression priceless!

"I'm just kidding~ Nii-san told me earlier, so don't worry about telling me! I already know."

"Kuro?! Why that-"

"Oi. Shitty hedgehog," Licht said bluntly, walking over to the two with Kuro. "Cat said you needed me. What is it— ah. Mahiru."

"Oh... Licht-san."

The Greed Servamp grinned widely, holding the mistletoe in his pocket. "Lich-tan~! Right, I just needed all four of us here so I can discuss something with all of you. That's fine, right?" He questioned, as he slowly started to pull the mistletoe out, a smirk growing on his face as he did.

"Uh... Yeah, I guess so- ....What's with that smir-"

"Gah! What the hell!" Licht blurted as he got shoved to the floor in a quick motion, a small boy with brown hair and bright brown eyes laying on top of him.

"Uwoh!! It's Wicht Jeky Todowoki!" Takuto gasped, a huge smile on his face. Hyde, Kuro, and Mahiru had a look of surprise and shock of what had just happened, the two Servamps especially. But no, it wasn't because of the fact that Licht got shoved to the floor by a kid, it was because Hyde was currently holding the mistletoe over Mahiru...

...And Tsurugi.

Licht had gotten shoved out of his place and got replaced with the ace of C3, Kamiya Tsurugi, who just sighed and picked up the small child.

"Takuto-ku~n," Tsurugi whined. "I told you we have to ask fir—"

"Churugi! Pretty leaf!"

"Hah? Pretty lea— oh." The black haired male awkwardly said, as he looked up at the mistletoe and then at Mahiru. He then looked at Hyde. "Me? Him?" He asked, questioning if he had to kiss the brunette. "I get paid after this, right?"

However, Hyde was too shocked and speechless to reply.

"Papa will pay you!" Takuto chirped happily, looking up at the C3 member.

"Takuto! I'd do it for the money, but I'm not even sure if Mahiru-kun—"

"It's... It's just... It doesn't have to be a long one, right?" The high schooler muttered, rubbing his arm as he glanced away awkwardly. They all could tell he was slightly blushing.

"Oh. Is that so..." The adult hummed and paused for a moment. "How much am I getting paid, again?"

"Papa is gonna pay Chu-Chu!"

"Right. Well, okay then," Tsurugi chirped, placing down Takuto on the floor before standing in front of Mahiru. "Alright~ This'll just be quick, okay?"

"R... Right..."

The magician grinned widely, cupping the teenager’s cheek. Mahiru on the other hand, was blushing furiously. At this point, everyone had their eyes on the current situation: The drunk C3 members cheering, Hyde and Kuro being way too speechless, the other Servamps having no idea what was going on, all the Eves staring in shock, Sakuya mentally freaking out, Licht looking like he was going to kill Tsurugi...

The gap between the two slowly started to close, Tsurugi leaning in with a devilish smirk and Mahiru with his eyes closed, waiting for the kiss to happen.

Hyde slowly turned his head towards Licht, and man... was his angel pretty (very) fucking mad. His eyes- expression, showed it all.

Mahiru tensed once he felt Tsurugi's warm breath against his lips. He was nervous, but it was more simple to just get this over with, right?

"Ma~ Hi~ Ru~" Tsurugi cooed lowly in a husky voice once his and the brunette's lips were only a centimeter apart, but that only seemed to trigger a certain someone, as the ace of C3 was soon sent flying across the room.

"Bullshit," Licht said bluntly, but Hyde could hear the disgust and jealousy in his word. It was until then that the pianist had turned towards Mahiru, grabbing his chin and kissing him.

It lasted like that for a few seconds. More cheering was heard as yells from Sakuya were screamed across the room. Kuro was in total disbelief while Hyde stood there completely dumbfounded.

Licht pulled away, pulling Mahiru close to him as he glared at Tsurugi who sat up with total confusion, yet at the same time, amusement.

"Listen here, you fallen angel," Licht started. "Nobody touches my light, you hear me? Nobody. Lay a finger on Mahiru and you're dead."

The corner of the Servamp of Greed's lips twitched, a grin slowly coming to on his face.

It didn't go as Hyde planned, but... at least they kissed, right?

[thezolblade]

@the-cryptographer

(And, I hope you don't mind me saying - I can't remember where I read it now, but I'm looking forward to seeing you tackle mudshipping cliches in upcoming fic~! )

I semi-forgot where you asked this (sorry, it was that comment thread on ao3), but yeah, that might have been on a post on my old LJ, which I locked for a while until I imported it to dreamwidth? (New blog link in my tumblr bio.) If it was this summary in a WIP list:

An Isaac/Mia oneshot in the classic mudshipping style; the two of them dating and getting serious while rebuilding the Valean settlement. If you read enough mudshipping, it gets to you after a while. The plot's planned out (and has been since before Dark Dawn), so I just need to write it as a full fic at some point. 

So yeah, it was sort of a reaction to reading a lot of fic I didn’t like (in the pre-DD era, years ago) because the characters acted like OOC 13 year olds, and the “we’re rebuilding Vale!” premise ignored the way that Vale wasn’t a normal town to begin with, and should have had to reconsider its weird customs if it wasn’t protecting the seal - there was never any re-evaluation of their place in the world. So it almost left me thinking I didn’t like mudshipping, and definitely that I didn’t like the idea of them rebuilding a single settlement in the same spot with the same name. But the plotbunny was a moment of “What if Mia/Isaac where they get along well, because why wouldn’t they? Wasn’t that what you were looking for in the first place?”

Uh, it doesn’t exactly tackle the cliches directly. I’d pretty much forgotten the detail, but I’ve still got the file with the notes for the outline. I’ll post it here under a cut, since you’re curious?

(Not sure if or when I’ll do more with it, since it’s not as plot-heavy as most of my bunnies, just fluff. Also slightly nsfw text, and mention of minor character death.)

Mia/Isaac fic; building Vale’s replacement, Sheba left w/ teleport lapis, Ivan left for Contigo & training w/ Sheba and Hama; Piers, Felix and Kraden reporting to King Hydros, hoping to be back within a few months; Garet & Jenna friends and on/off together, Mia staying at Inn and Isaac staying with his parents while rebuilding (about half the town already done).

Isaac and Mia romantically involved; Mia has small room in the Inn to herself since last of friends left; she and Isaac go to her room for privacy; when they're making out, Isaac's not sure how sex works but knows it's how children are made, says they shouldn't go too far before married, embarrassed that he doesn't know all the physiology that she does and trying not to let on that he doesn't really know much about it; Mia pink and happy (been kissing for quite a while) but still fairly calm and reassuring as she tells him that 'penetrative sex can lead to conception' and that 'there are things we can do with our hands and mouths that are perfectly safe, as long as we are true to each other'. Goes on to demonstrate, and he reciprocates.

During daytime; Mia acting as healer and friend to others in the village; Isaac training some of the kids in Psynergy and swordplay, spending time around his family and learning to relax now that the fighting is over; both of them helping with rebuilding & learning construction skills in the process. Mia round at Isaac's place with him and Dora & Kyle at some point, conversation where all getting along; establishes (when Isaac asks) that the old couple Mia calls Grandpa and Grandma aren't her blood relatives, but have always been like family.

Isaac struck by how Mia was never squeamish or out of her depth during the quest; he saw her stressed out at times, like the rest of them, but she kept her calm in battle and tended to wounds without any sign of nausea or hesitance, and she never seemed to doubt that every part of their mission was within their capabilities and worth pursuing above all else (unlike Ivan and Garet). Isaac knows that she was raised and trained as a healer and had actually seen other places beyond her hometown before starting the quest, but it still bothers him sometimes -- slight envy, and doubt over what she sees in him (he doesn't fully appreciate his own impressiveness). Feels that his determination on the quest came from hardening his feelings, a deliberate focus; now that he's not fighting every day, he's gradually unwinding, able to feel more at ease in good moments but also letting his guard down in bad ones (compared to while on journey); feels like he's softening (though he's still quite toughened compared to civilians). Doesn't understand how Mia could be so 'together' then and now without her personality really being changed by circumstance; he had to grow up quickly to cope, but she didn't seem to have been shaped by the same stresses over the last few months; a part of him fears that since he hasn't changed her, she might leave him and return to Imil without ever losing her composure.

An instance of Mia healing a deep wound across (an unconscious) Valean's upper chest and shoulder, broken bones exposed; Mia describes what she's doing to Isaac as she works, knowing that he's curious, naming muscles and bones as she aligns them to make sure that Ply heals them into place rather than healing the area as a non-functional lump of flesh. [Research biology before writing this part.] After leaving patient with his family, while she finishes washing her hands, she and Isaac get to talking about how she learned the theory involved; she tells him that she once watched a dissection of a man who was hanged in Imil.

“What did he do?” (Isaac asks about hanged man.)

“He killed a couple of children.” (Mia's voice fairly flat and not particularly emotional; even so, Isaac not sure what to say, and she continues.) “My father received permission to dissect the cadaver in order to teach his students. He let both of us choose whether or not we wanted to attend that lesson. I was too young for it, really, but I wanted to learn everything he was learning.” (Isaac doesn't ask who she's talking about; has a pretty good idea, especially given the edge of anger that's crept into her voice. Mia shakes her head and finishes with flat expression.) “And I have never forgotten.”

Isaac sees what he already knew in a different light: that she was already grown up on their quest because she'd had to grow up far earlier than he had. Seems like she might need the warmth in their relationship the same way he needs it. Isaac nods and touches her shoulder, and tells her that her skill now is amazing. She smiles and reaches up to brush his hair out of his eyes (with very clean hands), and they move on from that room and that topic of conversation, getting wrapped up in each other's presence etc.

A few days later, the village celebrating the completion of another house with a dance that night; keeping community spirits up. Still a few families doubling up who need the next few houses that will be built, but Isaac hoping that by summer, most of the work will be completed; he plans on proposing then, so that when he and Mia announce their engagement, they'll be next in line, and will have their own home to move into after the wedding.

At the dance, walking on air with Mia, taking in the happy and optimistic mood pervading the event. Mia takes him aside after the first dance to talk; she seems slightly lost in thought, slightly distant, and he assumes she's enjoying herself and thinking about the future, as he is. They sit facing each other at the edge of the gathering; she wraps her fingers around a cup of hot cider and tells him, conversationally;

“I need to go back to Imil soon.”

Isaac's heart freezes.

Mia continues in the same tone, gazing at her drink.

“I left a lot of supplies at home. There was only so much we could carry, you know? But Jenna asked for something for her mother the other day, and I could use all my equipment. I should have gotten this done before Sheba left, really. It would have been far easier with the teleport lapis. I could always wait until the next time she visits. If you fancy making a trip of it, though, we could rent a horse and cart from Vault and set aside a week or so for travel. You didn't see much of Imil before we left, did you? We were in such a hurry. I could show you around and introduce you properly to everyone. It would mean a lot to Grandpa and Grandma if we gave them a chance to give us their blessing. We could invite them to visit us here, too.”

Mia looks up and sees Isaac staring at her; she worries that he doesn't want to come with her and visit her family.

“Isaac...?”

He leans over and hugs her; the movement spills the drink between them, and she sets it aside, returning the embrace, neither of them too bothered. He kisses her and she melts into it, surprised in a happy way by this sudden intensity. They're both warm and short of air by the time he leans back to speak.

“Yes. Whenever. I'll go with you.”

His voice thick and happy; she smiles and runs her fingers along his lips. She considers discussing the plan further, but finds that his smile and his pulse and his eyes currently merit more attention; she pulls him close again and resumes the kiss.

Jenna and Garet soon find them and drag them back to the dance.

[spectrumscribe]

Your Heart’s Desire

a very late submission to tmntflashfic‘s valentine’s day prompt thing, since it got insanely long, and has to be broken up into parts.

Master Post of Chapters.

————————————————————————————- Chapter Four.

“So how many more siblings do I gotta watch out for?” Casey asked, tossing a rubber ball up into the air and catching it before it hit his face. Mikey was out for the evening, and Casey figured he’d take the moment to ask some important questions. Like just how many demons were going to be gunning for his life.

Maybe he was handling this better than he should be. Hm.

“Two at least, three if we’re really unlucky,” Raph said from his position a few feet away. They were lying on the floor, because Casey was stuck on an essay, and felt like procrastinating as long as he could.

“Shit. Big family?”

“I guess. It’s big by some standards, tiny by others. Depends on what dimensional plain we’re hanging around in.”

“Who’re the other two or three sibs you got? I just got the one, and she lives back in New York with my dad.”

“Two more brothers, one older sister. Plus her wife.”

“None of the rest of you married?”

“Nah. Most demons don’t do that shit. Karai’s just a huge sap underneath all the murderous intent.”

Casey turned his head, glancing towards Raph. This was more information he’d gotten on the demon’s family in one go, in comparison to the few weeks he’d been living with Casey.

“Can you tell me about them?” Casey asked. “I’ll tell you about mine.”

Raph blew out a gust of air, and rubbed his face. “I’m technically not supposed to, and Donnie would get pissed I bet, but sure. Why not. You seem less likely to use the info against us than most humans. Too stupid to do anything useful with it.”

“Wow. Fuck you.”

Raph laughed, the sound coming from his chest. “So basically, Karai was our sire’s first ‘kid’ so to speak, and then came the four of me and my brothers. There’s a couple eon’s difference in age, and Karai lords it over us all the time. Bitch.”

“Sire?”

“Equivalent of our dad. He’s basically this near god level demon, and has claim over a good number of dimensions.”

“Dude… sick.”

“He’s less cool than he sounds. He used to be a really active power, but the last couple centuries he’s really mellowed out. He spends most of the time possessing people so he can watch his soaps.”

“Still though…” Casey said, trying to imagine Raph’s dad. He probably was huge, way huger than Raph. Probably more horns too. And spikes. Shit he should totally draw that some time. “Why’d he chill out though? If I were a demon overlord, you couldn’t get me to do that even if you tried.”

“He’s old,” Raph explained plainly. “He’s been alive longer than any mortal being can comprehend, and he’s getting ready to step down.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yep. One of us’ll be next in line, unless someone tries to steal the spot like his brother did.”

“You and your sibs?”

“Yeah. It might be Karai, might be Leo. Donnie doesn’t want anything to do with it, and I’m with him on that. It’s a lot of work to police dimensions. Off chance it could be Mikey, but we’d probably see the collapse of a number of realties if that happened.”

“Yikes.”               

“Yeah. It’ll probably be Karai. She is the oldest.”

“How’s that work anyways?” Casey asked. “Like, are little demon babies are a thing?”

“Not really. Either you’re made into a demon artificially, or you’re sired as one. With sired demons, like me and my siblings, we start as semi-sentient blobs made from two or more essences, and get nurtured by whichever demon is the main ‘parent’. Mine was my dad.”

“Who was the mom then? Or did your dad have a fling with chaos or somethin’,” Casey half joked, thinking of Mikey.

Raph didn’t answer, suddenly going quiet. Casey turned to look at him again, and saw Raph staring at the ceiling with an unreadable expression. “Raph?”

“She. She, uh… she died, pretty much right after she brought us into existence,” Raph said, voice soft. “I only knew her for a little while, and then she was gone.”

“Dude, shit,” Casey said, suddenly feeling like a nosy asshole. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“No, it’s fine,” Raph said, sighing. “You asked and I answered.”

“I’m still sorry. What happened, if you don’t, uh, mind me asking about that too?”

“Well… she was human, for starters. My dad fell in love with her.”

That really got Casey’s attention. “Yooooo… demons can fall for humans?”

“Everyone can love, or so my dad says. Anyways,” Raph coughed awkwardly. “She wasn’t from this dimension, but it was close enough in design that it had humans still. My dad sort of just… met her one day, and knew she was the one. He was possessing a human at the time, and he literally bumped into her on accident.”

“Sounds kinda like a rom-com plot,” Casey commented. “But with demons.”

“Ha, yeah I guess. Point being, they fell in love, yada yada yada, and spent a few years being happy and stuff. She even knew my dad was a demon and thought it was fine.”

“She sounds like a cool lady,” Casey said honestly.

Raph grinned fondly. “Yeah. I only sort of remember her, since I wasn’t like, fully alive yet, but she was. She definitely was.” His grin slipped, and a hint of grief appeared in his eyes. “She gave her soul to my dad to save us all.”

“…how so?”

“My dad had a brother, another big time demonic influence. He wanted my dad’s turf, and he came for him when he realized my dad had created a chink in his defenses,” Raph sighed, long and heavy. “Tang Shen. She was the chink. She also ended up being the thing that defeated my dad’s brother.

“He’d poisoned us, me and my brothers. We were already starting to form inside mom, and he poisoned our essences. It was killing Tang Shen too, but it was mostly meant of us. Karai was already a fully-fledged demon, so my technical uncle went after my dad’s unborn spawn instead. Easier targets for eliminating potential successors or usurpers.

“It ended up being us or Tang Shen, and… she chose us. Told my dad to take her soul, and use its power to revive us and destroy his brother...”

“And then what?” Casey asked as Raph trailed off.

“And then he did,” Raph finished, still staring at the ceiling. “She died right after, since taking a human’s soul right away will kill them. I… I sort of miss her still. It’s been a really, really long time, but…”

Raph trailed off again, and a solemn quiet settled in the room.

Casey turned his eyes to the ceiling, feeling uncomfortable with how quickly things had gotten serious.

“That got heavy really fast,” Casey commented in a hushed voice.

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“ ‘s cool. My turn then.” Casey tossed his rubber ball again, and caught it as it fell. “I got my dad and my sister still, but I, uh, lost my mom too. She got pretty sick one year when I was still a kid, and just… never got better. It sucked really bad for a long time. My dad had it especially hard, since he had two kids to feed, a whole lot of bills to deal with, and not a lot of extra support. So I. Uh. I get it. Missin’ your mom even after a long time.”

“…hey Casey?”

“Yeah Raph?”

“Lemme try something.”

Casey felt more than saw the runes appear on his chest, and watched as it fizzled out again right after. He blinked, sitting up halfway to put a hand on the spot. “What was that for?”

“I was seeing if… if what you’d wanted was your mom to come back. I could do that. One soul for another. Um. It wasn’t though. I’m sorry.”

Casey blinked, and bit his lip.

That sounded too good to be true, and he wasn’t sure what he thought of his past self for not taking that chance. Even if he hadn’t known there was one.

“It’s fine,” Casey said quietly. “You gotta keep moving forwards an’ stuff no matter what. ‘s my motto. I’m not really surprised I didn’t ask for that.”

Casey missed his mom, and probably always would, but he wasn’t sure if he could do that to his family. To his mom. Bring her back and throw everything into chaos.

It was probably best he hadn’t made that his desire, even if the idea dragged back up old hurts. Of wanting to give anything to get her back.

Casey swallowed thickly, and rubbed his eyes.

Raph didn’t say anything, other than shifting onto his side, facing away from Casey. After a minute, Casey lay back down as well.

They lay there in silence, Casey listening to the kitchen clock ticking, and the slow breaths Raph was taking.

Oh god things had gotten awkward. Heavy and awkward. Why had Casey even asked that shit?

He’d wanted to know more about demons, not dead moms. Why did things always turn into dead moms?

Life imitates art or something like that.

“You wanna go play street hockey?” Casey asked, trying to get rid of the smothering feeling of grief.

“Yeah. Yeah I do. Don’t fuck up your knee this time.”

“No promises.”

Mikey didn’t come home that night, and Casey knew that for sure because he fell asleep on the couch with Raph, waiting up for the wayward demon.

Casey woke briefly, because some red light had been hovering over him, and it’d roused him.

“ ‘s goin’ on…” Casey slurred, mostly asleep still.

“Shh, it’s nothing,” Said a dark shape close by him. “Go back to sleep.”

“Raph…? What’re you doin’…”

“Just… just something. Don’t worry about it. Just go back to sleep already, I’ll see you in the morning.”

Maybe a few weeks ago, Casey would’ve woken up all the way and demanded to know what was happening. But now?

“Sure,” Casey mumbled, turning onto his side and pushing his face into the couch cushions. “Go t’ sleep yourself though. ‘s fuckin’ late…”

“I will. I promise.”

“ ‘kay…”

Casey trusted Raph enough not to do weird shit while he was asleep. He could rest and not have to worry about anything.

But Raph wasn’t there when he woke up, which set off a couple alarm bells in Casey’s head. It was weird, waking up to an apartment empty except for him. He’d gotten used to having another individual around twenty-four-seven.

Casey made himself a quick breakfast, and ate it quietly in his empty feeling kitchen.

The demon showed up around lunch, casual as anything as he waltzed in through the balcony doors, tucking his wings back into nonexistence as he did. Casey didn’t ask where Raph had been, and Raph didn’t supply any answers.

They had chicken strips (Casey’s) and raw beef (Raph’s) for dinner, and didn’t discuss anything from the day before.

 Casey was smoking on his balcony, because that was where you supposed to smoke dammnit, when he received yet another unwanted visitor.

Said unwanted visitor sped by his balcony, grabbing Casey as they went, and as Casey was swept up into the air yet again- he figured it might be time to quit smoking.

Thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully, the demon that’d grabbed him dropped Casey onto the roof of his apartment complex. Landing with sweeps of their huge- seriously huge- wings, the lithe demon loomed over Casey.

Casey scrambled to his feet, squaring up against the newcomer. Shit, was this a big one. Casey kept his hands steady anyways. “Okay motherfucker, I don’t know which one of Raph’s bros you are, but back the hell off! I’m not ‘enthralling’ him or whatever, so you can cool it with the trying to kill me thing!”

"̷O͡f ̵ço̶u͜rs͡e h̛e͟ pi̛c̵k͘ed͡ ̧a ̕m̀oųt͏h҉y o̵ne͢,"͜ The demon growled, flashing teeth as he stalked around Casey. The demon was a lot taller than Raph and Mikey had been, and leaner all around. He looked like he was built for pure speed, and reach too if the tail was as flexible as it seemed.

Casey was so busy examining the demon’s differences from his brothers, he missed the moment Raph’s unidentified brother attacked.

The demon was suddenly on top of Casey again, slamming him down against the concrete rooftop with a huge hand on his chest. The demon’s teeth were then right in front of Casey’s face, and he got a hot gust of demon breath blown right in his face.

Casey wheezed, feeling his ribs bruise and his lungs nearly collapse.

"͞Lęt̨'s j̵u͟st ̴gét ͘t͜his ov͞e̕r ̡w͡i̶th͝,"̢ The demon said in a put upon tone, opening his jaws wide and bearing down on Casey’s neck.

“DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE, DONNIE!”

The demon- Donnie apparently- snapped his jaws shut right in front of Casey’s nose, and leaned his long neck away. The tips of his long horns caught the daylight as he looked evenly at his furious brother. "̡Ŗa̵p̴h͝.̡ ̛Lòng͞ ̨ti̛m̢e no ́see.͢I ͢w͡as ̛ju̴s̶t̷ ͠ta͡k̷i̕n̷g c͞are ͝of ̕thin̨gs."

Casey turned his head, and woozily caught sight of a more familiar demon he knew.

Wow Raph did look pissed.

“I said-” Raph growled, snapping his wings out as he took a threatening step towards the larger demon. “-don̡'t y̛ou͠ f̴ưc̷k̴ing ͟d̛a̶r͝e.͏"

Donnie huffed, still not easing his hold on Casey’s steadily collapsing chest. "̡I'm not ̵ǵo̢ing̷ ̀t҉o͠ l̢e̡t y̢ou̴ ̀do͝ ̵t̀hi͟s̡ ̀to yours͟elf͜ ągain,̸ ͠Rap͘h. It'ş ̡for ̛y͡o͞ur͏ o͟w͞n̢ ǵo̶od͞.̢"

"́Y͟ou d͟o͟n't͡ ̀g̶et͏ ͘to make th͢at̸ dec͞i̴si͢o͘n̸ fo̴r͏ ͞me̶,̢"͘ Raph said in a hissing voice, steadily shifting closer and closer to full demon form. Scales covered his arms and crawled up his neck, same time as Raph’s eyes turned pure green. "́N͏o ̢o̸n͠e͞ ͘d̢oes.̨"

"Oh ͡pl̶ea̕s͘e͡,̡ h͡e'͜s͟ ͘n͏ơt̢ ͢w͠o̷rt͏h҉ i̵t̛.̶ ͝H̕e̵'͡ś b̴ar̨ély ̷wǫr͡th̕ ́ȩat́iņg̵.̡ A̧nd ̴b͡es͘ide͞s,͠ ͢it͠'s not ̸like̢ ͟you ҉a̶ĺready m-̧" Donnie broke off, as something flickered in the air too fast for Casey’s blackening vision to catch. Even with the reptilian features and steady loss of oxygen in his brain, Casey read dawning horror in the demon’s expression.

"Y̷ơu ͏d̡idn̶'͟t,͘"͘ Donnie said, not asked, in a quiet voice.

“Just get off him, Dee. You know the rules,” Raph said in a low tone, his own voice returned to normal reverberation.

It took another moment, but Donnie’s stupidly huge hand lifted off Casey’s aching ribs, and he sucked in a much needed gush of air.

Casey saw spots in his vision, and tilted sideways as he tried to stand up. Someone’s arm caught him though, and Casey found himself being supported by Raph.

“Why’re all your brothers-” He coughed. “-assholes,” Casey asked, throat raspy and feeling aches blooming all around his rib cage.

Donnie sneered at them both. "Ǹo͡ w̨o̵rd͢ fr̕om ̢y͏o̢ù ̸fo̢r͝ ̸o͠v̕èr a̷ ̢mo҉ntḩ, ̶a͡nd I̵ f͡i̵nd y̛ou ͢lik͏e҉ this͜.̧ A͠n͠d o̡nly͠ bèc̕au͏s͞e̛ M̧ike̢y͜ ̵c͝a̷me̕ a̛nd͟ tol͠d͜ ̨me̸ ̵w̛h͡a̴t͏ y͢o̵u̡'̡d bee͡n up͘ t͜o." ͠

“What I do in my spare time doesn’t concern you,” Raph said, stepping defensively in front of Casey.

"It d͝oés̢ ͏s̴o!" Donnie exclaimed, stomping one of his front limbs. "̡I'm̀ ̷ąl̵l͘o͞wed to be ̀çonc͢ern͢ed͠ w̷h͏e̷n͜ ̶my broth͡èr͜ v̀an̡ìs͠he̕s̶ ͡f̢ór͞ ́w͟ee͏ks̀ on̴ ̨e̷nd̨,͞ ̷aǹd̵ ̷t͞u̶ŕn̡s̢ o͠ut͘ t͝o͟ h̶a͘v̶e̴ beén h͠i͘ḑin͟g o̵u͝t wi͞t̨h̴ ͟a ́h̴uma̕n̸ ͘ţh͜ís ẃh́ol̕e ̢t҉im̨e!"̡

“He’s not hiding out,” Casey interjected. “He’s stuck here ‘cause I made a contract with him, and then forgot what for.”

Donnie shot him a look, luminous red eyes glaring harshly at Casey. "̛S͢h̸ut up. I͞ do̶n̶'̀t͠ want t͘o҉ he͟ar ̕ęxcu̵ses fróm̷ ͝s͜o͞m̧e̕ s͝t͏up̕i̷d ͜hu̡m̡an my̢ brother͞'s̷ ͜t͜a͡k͜en͘ to."

“Hey! You don’t get to talk to him like that, Donnie,” Raph said, jabbing a finger at his much taller brother. “I’m the only who does.”

"̨R̨a͢ph, quít͏ ̀i͠t w͠įth͘ th͡i̴s̵ ͟nonsenşe,͝ ͜and̷ jus͢t̀ ki̡l̶l̢ h͟i̛m ̕aĺre͠ady͞," Donnie said, lowering his head to be eye level with Raph. "̸T̶her͠e͠'̵s ́no̢ ͠pòi͘n̵t įn p̢ur͞s͡ui̵ng ͞t͡his̢. ̶Y̧ou ̷k̀n͢òw̡ ͡ḩow̕ ̴i̸t'̨l̢l͜ ́en̸d͟.͘ ͜L͟et'͘s͏ j͝u͢st ̧go̸ hơme án͜d ͜f̵o͏r͠ge͏t th̛is ȩve͜r̨ ha͘p̨p͡ene͘d͡."̶

“No.” Raph growled, not giving an inch.

Donnie flashed his teeth, and he rose back to his full height. His wings snapped out again, and his tail whipped around behind him. "̡I ͠g̀ųe̷s͜s̀ I͞'ll̢ hàv͠e̕ to ųse ̕forc̕e t͝h̸e͡n."̛

“Fucking br͡iņg ҉i͘t̶,"̧ Raph growled, starting to get bigger.

Casey was caught between ‘hell yes demon battle’ and ‘oh fuck demon battle’- when Donnie’s tail whipped across the roof the wrong way, and demolished the small garden in the corner.

Casey’s terror/excitement took a nosedive, and turned into pure horror.

The sound of clattering across the rooftop made everyone pause, and Casey turned slowly to look for the source.

April was standing in the open doorway from the rooftop entrance, her tools and watering can dropped on the ground beside her. She was staring at the disaster zone Donnie had made of her garden, clutching only her broom still.

Casey grabbed Raph’s shoulder, and started to tug him away from the danger zone. “Okay, we’re leaving now.”

“What? No, Casey I have to-”

“My garden,” April said, voice just loud enough to be heard across the roof. “You destroyed my garden.”

Donnie turned a condescending look on her, and scoffed. "͘Th͟i̸s͠ dóes̶n̕'͏t c̕o͞nc̛er̢n͞ ỳo͝u, m̸òr̸t̶al͟.͞ ̷Leáv̢e̸ w͠hi̕le ̴y͝ou st͡ill can."

“That was five months of work,” April said, pale and wide eyed. Her grip around her broom tightened to knuckle white. “Five months of work. Gone. I was writing my whole thesis on it.”

"I͘s s̡h̛è ̨d͟e͟af? ̛I told ͏her͏ ͠to l̀e̡a͠v̸e̛ ͝a̕lre̕a̵d̢y̵-"

“FIVE. MONTHS .OF WORK!” April suddenly shouted, causing everyone to jump, even Donnie. She’d lost the shocked expression on her face, and turned it into pure fury. “AND THIRTY PAGES OF THESIS! GONE. WORHTLESS.”

“Okay I see your point,” Raph whispered in an abruptly small voice, willingly backing away now. Casey nodded jerkily, and tugged Raph towards the edge of what was probably going to be the splash zone for blood.

April marched across the roof, broom swinging in her grip as she did, straight towards the visbily unsettled dragon-demon responsible for her garden’s violent death.

April glared up at Donnie, no hint of any fear from their height differences. “Shrink down. I know you can, because he can.” She pointed at Raph, who was trying to slip behind Casey. “So do it. Shrink down right. this. second.”

Donnie looked down at her, seeming confused by April’s commanding tone. "U̵h- ͡ex̶cu͟se me̢-?"

April swung her broom around in a vicious swing, and made contact with a harsh slap to Donnie’s side. He yelped, and tried to shy away, only for April to chase after him.

“SHRINK DOWN!”

"̨You'r̶e̡ i͝nsa̢n͜e͘!"

“DO IT!”

"N͝O̶!́"̴

“Do it or so HELP ME GOD-!”

Casey watched his neighbor and best friend chase the demon sizes bigger than her, using only a broom and her terrifying temper to cow him. Raph had fully hidden himself behind Casey at that point, and Casey did his best to shield his other friend from April’s wrath.

Eventually, after April managed to land several consecutive hits to Donnie’s head and horns, he poofed into smoke, and rematerialized as a long haired human with tall horns. “Okay! I did it! Leave off you insane woman-”

April whacked him across the shins with her broom, literally sweeping Donnie’s long legs out from under him.

“Now fix it, you over grown lizard!”

“Fix what?! OW!”

“MY GARDEN!!” April screamed, pure fury in her voice. Her red hair flared up around her head, exactly like fire in the wind. She looked more demonic than the lanky man on the ground, currently trying to protect his tall horns and long tail from her broom.

Donnie then yelled something Casey couldn’t quite understand, and he stumbled for a moment- vision skewing violently. Raph steadied from behind thankfully, a warm hand placed in the center of Casey’s back.

April seemed utterly unaffected, continuing her assault on Donnie. The two of them were back to throwing insults at one another, and Donnie actually seemed a bit scared now. April continued whacking him with her broom anyways.

Casey- shaking off whatever Donnie had just done to his hearing- managed a wince on behalf of the fallen demon. “I actually feel sorry for the dude.”

“Me too,” Raph said, now fully hidden behind Casey. Though, he apparently didn’t feel sorry enough for his brother to actually intervene.

“Ooooooh shit. Dee’s really getting it now.” A cheery voice said from behind them. Casey glanced over his shoulder, and saw a mostly human Mikey clinging to the roof railing. He waved to Casey.

“Mikey! You told Donnie where I was?” Raph hissed accusingly at his brother.

“Nuh uh! Just that you were okay and junk, and sorta maybe chillin’ with a human.”

“Mikey.”

“Hey, at least I didn’t say anythin’ to Leo or Karai! Or Shini. Yikes.”

“Are you giving him our names?!” Donnie shrieked across the roof. “Guys! What have we talked about?!”

Mikey shrugged with a guiltless grin. “Hey, Raph did it first.”

“Names mean a thing?” Casey asked, struggling to keep track of the situation.

“Yes, yes they mean a thing!” Donnie exclaimed. “It would have been nice to know that you’ve both been handing them out like candy, and that Raph’s human’s neighbor was a witch!”

“April’s a witch?” Casey asked, even more confused. “April, you’re a witch and you never told me??”

“Don’t call me names!” April yelled, sweeping at Donnie again. “Just because you’re in trouble doesn’t mean you get to call me names!”

“April’s a witch? What?” Casey questioned again, this time aiming it at the demon hiding behind his back.

“I thought you knew!” Raph said in a panicked voice.

“I thought so too!” Mikey added.

“I DIDN’T SO WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!” Donnie yelled over April’s broom whacking.

April, apparently unbothered by the side conversations that’d developed, hit Donnie again. “Fix it!”

“I AM, you psychotic woman- ACK-!”

“Yeesh, so no movie night tonight?”

“Not the priority here, idiot!”

“I don’t know what’s happening anymore but guys please don’t attract her attention over here she’ll- APRIL WAIT I HAD NO PART IN THIS-”

“STOP BRINGING DEMONS INTO OUR APARTMENT!”

April being a witch made a horrendous amount of sense. The plants, the insane natural talent she had with chemicals and science in general, the bizarre way she’d been dealing so fearlessly with Casey’s accumulating demon population…

Casey thought it was amazing.

April didn’t think as much.

“That sounds fake,” She said, arms crossed to the demon she was staring down.

Donnie, who had managed to get off the ground again now that things were calmed down, stared back at her. “You are. I can sense latent power all around you.”

“Fake.” April said again. “I don’t believe you for a second. Witches don’t exist.”

“I’m a demon, I’m standing right in front of you. You’ve been living with a demon, if only by association, for more than a month. How can you deny that witches exist?”

“You have to draw the line somewhere, and I’m drawing it here.”

“I don’t understand you humans. At all.”

She’d raised her broom threateningly in response, and Donnie had backed off with his hands raised.

April had eyed them all, eyed her restored garden, and then hefted her broom again. Everyone got the message.

Then she’d left, flipping her loose ponytail over her shoulder as she did.

Casey laughed aloud as she shut the door behind her. “Wow! I can’t believe none of us died! That’s a relief. Now someone explain my best friend being a witch. Seriously. What the fuck.”

Something then lashed out at his head, and Casey didn’t even have time to react before Raph yanked him down, and Donnie’s clawed hand was caught by Raph’s.

“Dammnit,” Donnie cursed shortly.

“I just said-” Raph growled, yanking his much taller brother to his level. “-don’t touch him.”

“And I just said-” Donnie growled back, knocking his long horns and forehead against Raph’s. “-this is going to end in disaster.”

“Oh my god, none of you have any chill,” Casey said, trying to wiggle out of Raph’s restraining grip.

Both of the quarreling demons let out rolling snarls, and Casey was practically tossed aside by Raph as they started fighting again.

The roof was covered in black smoke, and then there were two huge dragons wrestling right in front of Casey. He very closely avoided getting smacked in the face by Donnie’s whipping tail.

And- shit- the cement was cracking, and Raph’s mouth was starting to glow and produce smoke, and Donnie’s was crackling with purple light, and everything smelt like ozone and rain and sort of like a forest fire-

-they both summoned magic circles, bright red against bright purple, and-

-a giant portal opened up underneath them, and they both fell into with surprised bellows.

The orange ringed portal closed up without a sound, and it was like there’d never been demons around to begin with.

Casey looked over at Mikey, who was still holding his hands out with his legs apart.

Mikey looked at Casey, and gave a winning smile. Complete with deadly canines.

“What the fuck.” Casey said, not asked.

“They needed time to cool off,” Mikey explained.

“So you sent them to hell?”

“Maaaaybe?? I don’t know. It just sort of- poofed them off? Somewhere?? They’re gonna come back don’t worry. Donnie’s good at finding his way home, no matter where I poof him.”

“Oh my god.”

“Soooo…” Mikey gave him a cat-ish grin, coy and sly. “Can we go eat all the raw meat and watch a movie till they get back? I mean, they’ll probably get a snack along the ways anyhoo, so like, they ain’t gonna miss that meat, right? Ha ha.”

Mikey’s tail was lashing around excitedly, the curly crest on it bouncing around as it did. He looked way too proud of himself and way too okay with the fact that Raph and Donnie were probably going to come back pissed.

Casey thought for a moment.

Hm. If worse came to worst, he could just call his friendly neighborhood witch to subdue everyone. And speaking of-

“We can if you tell me about April being a witch.”

“Oh totally, and I get dibs on the steak too!”

“Uh. Wasn’t gonna eat it, so sure.”

Technically Raph had been planning to, but keeping Mikey from eating things that weren't exactly dead yet was more important.

next part.