#that and commissions have been keeping me busy but I had to sneak in a little piece of fanart for my favourite sad girl

[julnites]

Just a girl and her cube, what mysteries will she uncover?

[urrameshi]

A Shot of Espresso

takami keigo x f!reader ≧◡≦

authors note: okay hiiii been writing for a long time, but never really posted before but i’m gonna try! didn’t proof read this ok xoxo also this is a repost from my old blog lolololol

Being in a secret relationship with one of the most famous heroes in the world, really boosted your ego. That meant sneaking into your place outside of the city after late patrols or pretending to ‘save you’ only to sneak you away somewhere hidden for a quick lunch or a quickie.

Was it ideal? Fuck no, you wanted to be shown off. Keigo wanted to show you off like a shining diamond. You were amazing, strong, and just stunning but he was also terrified. The city was just getting more dangerous and while he knew you could handle your own, he couldn’t help but be protective of you.

This morning was different, he told his sidekicks to amp up patrols today, that he would be out of town for a bit. Nothing major, but just long enough he wouldn’t be able to do anything heroic that morning. He had stayed the night with you a few times before, but he would always leave before the crack of dawn.

Early bird gets the worm, or whatever.

He was yours. For the first time, since the start of your relationship he was yours. You weren’t the most romantic person, But this was something you needed. You didn’t wanna have to share him all the time. You were both heroes, you both had busy

You felt his body move next to you. He was trying to be sneaky, was he really trying to sneak out like a teenager?

“Keigo? It’s too early for you to leave. You’re mine this morning, not the world’s.”

“Oh little bird, I’m sorry I know I said I would stay but you know I have a huge day, and that big interview tonight!. Still gotta keep the Commission happy.” You rolled your eyes, rolling over as he threw the covers off. Not before sneaking a peak at his ass you loved so much.

Best of both worlds came with Kegio Takami. He was your world but he belonged to the world. There was never truly enough of him to go around and he knew that. Didn’t stop him from trying to make it work though.

You weren’t anything special enough you guessed for the commission for you both to be seen together. You questioned when the news would break and both of your worlds would be shaken up. Maybe he needed some shaking in that area of his life. You weren’t one to be insecure about anything but with somebody like Keigo, it was hard not to get in your head sometimes.

-

The rest of the afternoon passed without seeing Keigo, “he was such busy, busy bird.” you thought to yourself a bit sarcastically. You wouldn’t see him till much later tonight after he would sneak into your place, and get something to snack on and depending the time, just get in bed and wrap himself around you.

After the rest of your day was much less eventful, you decided to turn in early and watch this interview with ‘The Number 2 Hero, Hawks!!’ Social media was busy, you couldn’t wait.

“Ha! I know him more than you do.” you held the last syllable on the do, stringing it out longer to sing. Joking with yourself out loud and in replies to tweets you were scrolling through helped you feel bad. you swore it did.

The interview was finally starting.

“Tonight everybody we’re here with the best up and comer we’ve had in awhile! Hawks!” The cute host gestured to the entrance where Takami walked out, and the crowd went insane. Everybody loved the flying hero! You couldn’t even lie to yourself, feeling your whole body grow hotter as you watched him on your screen.

You laughed it off, ‘God! You’re acting like a teenage fangirl! he was literally in your bed this morning!’

“Thank you so much for having me tonight! I remember watching my favorite heroes on the show when I was younger!”

“Oh Hawks, you’re always the people’s hero! So you know me, let’s get the cat out of the bag! A lot of rumors are around lately, who’s the lucky girl?”

Oh no! the moment your anxiety had been dreading, he wouldn't say a word to just keep up appearances and it would honestly crush you. maybe you just didn’t know what it was like, but pro hero or not. It shouldn’t have mattered.

Takami threw his head back laughing. “Wow! Really coming in hot, huh?”

“You know, i always come in blazing!”

“It’s funny actually, and i’m gonna get some flack for this but yeah i am seeing somebody actually.” Your mouth dropped! The crowd cheered and screamed, the energy in that studio must have been off the charts!

“That’s how we start a show, ladies and gentlemen! With news you don’t get anywhere else! Tell us about them, Hawks, pretty please?”

You were hugging a couch pillow close to your chest now, “Yes hawks, tell us about her.”

It took him a moment to reply, getting himself more comfortable in his chair. “Well you know, i’m protective so I'm not actually gonna say who it is.” He told her, getting a bit of whining from the crowd. “but I can tell you, they’re like a shot of espresso. it’s like feeling sunshine for the first time. it’s really something special i don’t know if i’ve ever had for myself before, if i’m being honest.”

A Shot. of. Espresso.

It was official you were acting like a teenage fangirl, absolutely swooned by Takami. What a cheesy way to explain it! Every doubt of your relationship had melted away almost immediately.

You were prepared to return the affection when he snuck in after the show. Dealing with everything that could come from this would have to wait till tomorrow. When Takami was here with you, its the only world that mattered.

[lance-space-mommy]

I'll Give You a Reason to Cry

Midoriya was thrilled to take Katsuma under his wing once he passed the UA entrance exam. UA High offered housing for those who didn’t have a place to stay, but anyone living at home could commute if they desired. Katsuma had no problem staying at the dorms, but his father had his reservations.

Katsuma's father recalled the young hero who saved his son. Reaching out to Midoriya, the father asked if Midoriya would be okay with hosting Katsuma while he attended UA High. Midoriya already had Kota staying in his place since he lived right next to UA and had no problem having another kid stay.

His apartment had felt very empty alone, so he appreciated the company.

Katsuma and Kota got along much to Midoriya’s joy. Kota saw a lot of Midoriya in Katsuma and took it upon himself to protect Katsuma no matter the costs. Katsuma was introduced to Eri through Kota and boom, a friend group was formed.

It wasn’t until a couple of months before their first year ended that Kota approached Midoriya to explain his worries about Katsuma’s girlfriend. The girl was from the business department.

According to Kota, the chick was trying to keep Katsuma away from him and Eri. That information wouldn’t be as concerning if it weren’t for the fact the girl would get angry if Katsuma talked to them.

Midoriya wasn't inexperienced in the dating world. Midoriya knew what kinds of people to stay away from romantically. He had been in many failed relationships, but most of the time it was because he knew his worth and what he wanted out of life.

Midoriya knew that the red light was blinking and the warning sirens were blaring. Kota's explanation was enough to concern Midoriya. Midoriya would kill for his children. There was no way he was going to let some grubby future Hero Commission worker hurt his baby.

Kota knew just how far Midoriya would go for those he cared about and was more than happy to throw the emotionally and verbally abusive girlfriend under the bus.

Unfortunately, Midoriya didn’t have to initiate the conversation because the following day Katsuma came home crying. Midoriya told Kota to give them a moment, not wanting to risk Katsuma hiding information because Kota was with them.

Kota and Katsuma got along, but sometimes embarrassing things happen in a relationship. Midoriya wasn't naive. After all, he went to UA High and his classmates were less than innocent when their third year at the school rolled around.

“Katsuma? What happened?” cooed Midoriya, letting the young teen rush into his arms.

“It’s Okamura," wept Katsuki, hiding his face in Midoriya's baggy shirt.

Midoriya tried to not sound aware of what was going on to get a full explanation. “Okamura? Your girlfriend? What did she do?”

“I was just talking to Shoji-sensei with Kota and Eri about your upcoming patrol. Okamura must have been watching and started screaming in my face about how I was hiding stuff from her and that I was a horrible boyfriend,” cried Katsuma, clearly distressed that he was screamed at for no reason.

Midoriya did everything in his power to not walk out of the home, tell the kid’s parents everything, and then tell Nezu to expel her. No one made his son cry, especially for no reason.

Midoriya let out a soft sigh before pulling back and cupping Katsuma’s wet face and using his thumbs to wipe away tears. “Has she done stuff like this before?”

“Yes, all the time. She won’t let me have any friends. She’s constantly trying to make me sneak out and spend the night,” revealed Katsuma, making it clear that Okamura isn’t respecting his boundaries or what he cares about.

Midoriya was becoming more worried than anything else. It was clear what Okamura was trying to pressure Katsuma into doing. Midoriya understood Katsuma was getting older and it wouldn’t be shocking if he was curious about sex. But, if Katsuma wasn’t interested in doing it and Okamura was trying to get Katsuma to do dangerous things even if he wasn’t interested, that was a serious problem.

“If she gets this angry at the little things, she will only get worse as time passes. This girl doesn’t respect the people you care about. She doesn’t value your space or privacy. She doesn’t care about your comfort. I’ll support whatever decision you make, but don’t expect me to allow her to step foot in this house because if I see her, she’ll be too scared to even look your way once I’m done talking to her,” said Midoriya in a scarily calm voice.

Katsuka weakly smiled, simply sinking into Midoriya’s touch and hiding his face into Midoriya's puffy sweater. “I’m scared to end things with her.”

“Don’t be. She’d be stupid to try messing with you. Having you under my wing, every hero in the school would be willing to die for you. Okamura would be expelled immediately as well. She's not fit to be a hero if she lashed out at you," reassured Midoriya, brushing Katsuma's bangs around to fluff them.

"You're right. I'll ask Eri and Kota to be nearby when I do it!" chirped Katsuma, feeling a lot better about getting himself out of a bad relationship.

Three days have passed since Katsuma ended his relationship with Okamura. The breakup was far from easy and peaceful. Eri had to step in when it sounded like Okamura was preparing to strike Katsuma. Kota had been waiting for the moment Okamura tried anything so he had permission to physically intervene.

After the breakup, Okamura wasn't backing down. It was clear she wasn't when Kota and Eri couldn't find Katsuma one day. When they were looking around, they soon realized they couldn't find Okamura either. Kota and Eri's calls went to voicemail when they attempted to call Katsuma.

Panicking, the duo ran to the teacher's lounge to help them find Katsuma. Nezu caught the drift of what was happening and quickly checked the cameras only to find Okamura forcefully dragging Katsuma to a vacant classroom.

Kota tried to beat the heroes to Okamura, but they got to the empty classroom first. Katsuma was unconscious and Okamura was caught red-handed restraining a beaten-up Katsuma to a chair. Heroes were sent to capture and restrain the teen.

None of the adults knew what to do. When it came to Midoriya, no one messed with his kids. When it came to children in general, Midoriya would happily destroy anyone who even tried to put a child in harm's way.

The adults were evenly split about telling Midoriya. Half wanted to fix the problem in privacy knowing Midoriya would raise hell. The other half wanted to immediately tell him so hell wasn’t raised upon them, there was no stopping Midoriya and he would find out any moment now.

While the adults were deciding what to do, Kota urgently called Midoriya.

"Izuku! Izuku!" shouted Kota, not waiting for Midoriya to greet him.

Deku, who was currently in the middle of capturing a villain alongside his hero partner Dynamight, froze at Kota's frantic tone. "Kota? What happened? What's going on?"

"It's Katsuma! Okamura-," started Kota, only to be cut off.

"I'm on my way," announced Midoriya in an eerily calm tone.

All Kota could do was smile as Midoriya ended the call abruptly. His dad was pissed and Okamura was going to wish she never met Katsuma when Midoriya was done with him.

Bakugo blasted the villain, watching the police force rush to capture the unconscious villain. Turning to Midoriya, Bakugo froze when he saw Midoriya's dark expression.

"Izuku? What the hell?" yelled Bakugo over the sirens.

"Something happened. I'm heading to UA. Right. Now," seethed Midoriya, shooting his gaze to his best friend.

"I'm coming with. You look like you're going to kill someone," remarked Bakugo, eager to see what was about to go down.

Midoriya chuckled to himself, freaking out Bakugo. "Oh, once I know what that dumb girl did, I just might."

Katsuma was in the nurse's office, currently getting his vitals checked since no one knew exactly what Okamura did to knock someone as strong as Katsuma out. The adults were still discussing their mode of action when Nezu revealed that Midoriya was here.

The adults were panicking, trying to figure out what they were going to tell the number one hero. Their panic only doubled when they found out the number two hero, Midoriya's hero partner, the one and only Bakugo Katsuki, was with him.

Kota and Eri were beside Bakugo as Midoriya took the lead. Midoriya entered the nurse's office, immediately tending to Katsuma. "I'm going to kill that little punk. I guess she is stupid enough to hurt one of my precious jewels."

Katsuma silently cried into Midoriya's chest, feeling safe in the presence of his guardian. "She... she."

Midoriya shushed Katsuma, seeing that Katsuma was not ready to talk about what happened. Turning to the new nurse, the pro-hero Healflame, Midoriya tried to remain kind.

"What did Okamura do?"

"From what I can tell, she failed to properly inject Katsuma with an unknown substance I'm getting tested now. Okamura also physically attacked Katsuma once she injected the substance into him, most likely the way Katsuma ended up unconscious. There will be some bruising on his head, wrists, and legs, but is fine otherwise."

Midoriya screamed at Nezu, Katsuma's teacher, and Okamura's teacher. The fact that Okamura wasn't in handcuffs only enhanced his rage.

"So you failed to protect my child, but you are now protecting a criminal? That monster practically kidnapped and assaulted my child in this school and you all are protecting her?" shrieked Midoriya, his face growing red from how angry he was.

Nezu bowed his head and sighed, "We can't do anything. Okamura's case depends on Katsuma."

"And you wanna know why you can't do anything? My son was knocked un-fucking-conscious!" Midoriya couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. "You know, after all the shit my class went through in our time here, you still manage to fail to protect children Nezu."

Nezu remained silent, staring at Midoriya in shock and hurt. Everyone in the room knew Midoriya hit where it hurt. No one could blame Midoriya because what he said was true.

Shoji rushed to bow before Midoriya. "I sincerely apologize for the harm I have caused Katsuma and I'm planning on apologizing to him personally. He mentioned Okamura was a bit on the crazy side, but I didn't know to the extent. I have failed your son and I promise to make it up to the both of you."

Midoriya smiled, patting Shoji's shoulder before giving it a tight squeeze. "The first thing you can do to make it up to me is to get that brat's parents here... now."

Shoji nodded, leaving the room to make the calls. Bakugo marched over and crossed his arms. "This is why you can't even break the top ten. If you paid attention and cared about your students, none of this shit would've happened."

Kota scoffed, "They didn't even seem to hurry when I told them to find Katsuma!"

"Yeah, they tried to tell us that we were being dramatic," ranted Eri, happy to call out the teacher's neglect.

Midoriya looked at Bakugo. "Kacchan."

"What nerd?"

"I need you to stop me if I can't hold back anymore."

Bakugo nodded, the only one equipped to stop Midoriya if he lost his cool. It wasn't often that Midoriya lost control of his emotions, but then again, Midoriya always struggled to control his heart when those he loved were hurt.

When Okamura's parents finally arrived, Midoriya guided them to a private room to discuss what happened. Midoriya genuinely believed that if he talked to the parents, they'd come to a resolution.

It didn't take long for Midoriya and Okamur's parents to disagree.

"Our precious daughter would never do that!" cried the girl's mother.

Midoriya narrowed his eyes, getting suspiciously calm. "Oh? So you want to play that game."

The woman wasn't having any of it. "How dare you insinuate our child was capable of harming Katsuma! She loves that boy with all her heart!"

"You're daughter may have loved my kid, but she had a horrible way of showing it. Your daughter is the reason why they broke up, she made my son cry. Your child is a demented lunatic! She assaulted my kid!" argued Midoriya, his composure slipping.

The woman gasped, pointing a finger at Midoriya. "You're crazy! I don't care if you're some hot-shot hero, you're the crazy one!"

"I don't care if protecting my son makes me crazy. And... just so you know, parent to parent, I don't care what you say anymore. I was willing to come to some kind of resolution, but that's over now. I won't let your criminal of a child get away with what she did and she will not be getting away with a lousy slap on the wrist. Her future is over," promised Midoriya heartlessly.

"You can't do this!" exploded the woman, her face bright red as panic settled in her gut.

"Oh, but I can, and I am more than happy to let you know that your daughter will never become a hero because I am going to get her banned from this school and all other hero schools. Your child is a villain and if she does manage to get away with this... I will make sure that the rest of her life is a hell she can't escape,” vowed Midoriya, his smile anything but welcoming.

Midoriya happily got up and left the horrified mom and neglectful dad in the room. Opening the door, Midoriya was met with Bakugo and Kota eavesdropping. Midoriya rolled his eyes at Bakugo's stunned expression.

"Damn Izuku. You should date me," suggested Bakugo, shooting his shot.

Kota fake gagged, offended. "Back off old man!"

Midoriya patted Bakugo's bicep. "Ask me later Kacchan. I'm in the middle of something."

"The middle of being a badass," complimented Kota, smiling at the memory of Midoriya giving those parents a piece of his mind.

Thankfully with Midoriya's power and status, Okamura was expelled and charged with assault even though most children don't ever get serious charges. The substance Okamura tried to inject Katsuma with was another piece of evidence that made it easy for Midoriya to get his way.

Katsuma had a quick recovery and his bond with Midoriya somehow managed to get even stronger. Kota and Eri also managed to get even closer to Katsuma, growing even more overprotective. Midoriya was happy to shelter and defend the kids who were put under his care.

No one fucked with Midoriya’s kids.

[yoonia]

foreword: 2024

Still here and writing ✍️

Happy New Year 2024!! 

First of all, I want to take this chance to thank everyone for all of their love and support. I know that I am barely present as of late, due to life getting in the way of my love for writing and being emotional for watching the boys enlisting. But thanks to you who are still following me and the new ones who have just found me, you became the reason why I’m still here and sharing my content with you all. 

Last year was rough for most of us. I witnessed a lot of authors stepping back due to having creative blocks or having big changes in life and priorities. I know because I had my own struggles throughout the year 2023. From losing my dearest pet, to moving to a new place and taking time adjusting, starting a new job, and I’ve also been busy planning for new things that I’ll be starting this year. Watch out for some good news that I’ll be sharing soon!

Though I might be busy with other endeavours, I will still be writing. My absence might get a bit more prominent at the start of the year, but I promise I’m not going anywhere. You might see me reorganising some stuff (my blog, Patreon, ko-fi) as I’m making changes here and there to create a more comfortable creative space for myself. I’m also determined to finish some of my long-awaited series, release some fic commissions that I finished last year but have yet to publish, and perhaps bring back some stories that are readers’ favourite.

As always, you can follow my writing progress and journey through my Schedule Post and my writing journal which you can find on Patreon. And for a bonus, you can take a sneak peek of the stories that I’m working on below. Just so you’ll know what to expect in the near future. 

Until then, 

Xoxo Dia

!!Bonus: Sneak peeks of my upcoming WIPs!!

⟶ Title | Alpha’s Inferno ⟶ Pairing | Namjoon x OC/female original character ⟶ Genre | Vampires!au, Werewolf!au, Alpha!Namjoon, Vampire!OC, Smut, Angst⟶ Summary | Alphas can only be stronger with a mate. Losing his Destined had almost sent Namjoon into the wilderness, to an illness known to shifters as the Mating Sickness. Fighting his illness, the Alpha continues to lead his pack of misfits all on his own since. Facing betrayals, living constantly with distrust, losing his allies, and finding his own pack slowly crumbling into disarray as he slowly succumbs into his sickness. But the war has turned enemies into allies, and hate becomes love, and he wasn’t completely ready to find the Moon Goddess giving him a second chance to find love in the form of the being that he had once distrusted the most.⟶ Ratings & Warnings | +18 / M for Mature

read teaser here

⟶ Title | Flux: Blindsided - from Flux! the series, final instalment ⟶Character | Yoongi x reader x Jungkook ⟶Genre | Polyamorous!AU, Smut, Angst ⟶Summary | Yoongi never knew that he did not only take your heart and soul when he walked out the door, but Jungkook’s as well. He had left the two of you behind by making you both believe that he was giving things up all due to his fear and insecurities. Little do you know that nothing is truly that simple. And it never really would. ⟶Ratings & Warnings | +18/Mature

read teaser here

⟶ Title | The Whispers in The Mist ⟶ Pairings | Min Yoongi x female reader ⟶Genre | Ghost!Yoongi, Reincarnation au, Angst, Mystery, Smut ⟶ Summary | He first came to you through your dream, luring you to find him, only to always wake up with his shadows fading with the rising sunlight. But when you can still feel his presence in the daylight, when you keep finding traces of his existence wherever you look, you start to wonder if perhaps he is more than just an object of your lucid dream. Perhaps what you have been seeing at night are your forgotten memories, and he is finally here to help you unravel every part of it, until you could finally remember who he really was.   ⟶ Ratings & Warnings | +18 / M for Mature; Dark topic, sacrilege, explicit sex scene (more warnings will be added as I continue writing this)

Teaser available on Patreon!

⟶ Title | G.H.O.S.T: The Hacker’s Tale — Carousel side story ⟶ Pairings | Hoseok x OC/female reader (feat. Yoongi/Jungkook) ⟶ Genre | Hacker!Hoseok, Assassin!reader, Detective!Jungkook, CEO Yoongi, angst, suspense, mystery ⟶ Summary | Always have an escape plan. Jung Hoseok has always been the curious boy, too smart for his own good, and has lived on the edge for as long as he could remember. Living in the shadows, he had operated under the name “G.H.O.S.T” and nobody had ever managed to catch his trail. All except for one man, who had not only given him a chance for redemption, but also a reason for him to survive, and you, the shadow that he had overlooked for a long time, but always ready to come out into the light before he gets far too deep into his own darkness.

Teaser 1 is available on Patreon; read teaser 2 here

⟶ Title | Bad For You: Vice - A Spin-Off ⟶ Character | Taehyung x reader ⟶ Summary | They say only the strongest women can love men like him. You thought you could take the challenge, but what happens when life and everything around you challenge you back? ⟶ Genre | Stripper!au, Stripper!Taehyung, Smut, Angst, Mature theme ⟶ Ratings | +18 / M for Mature

⟶ Title | Nefarious; In Motion - a side story ⟶ Character | Jimin x reader | note: with POV changes ⟶ Summary | Welcome to Club La Rouge, where your sexual fantasies come to life. For the past year you have been a member to the club, never once had they failed to help you indulge in your deepest and darkest need, the desire to embrace a part of you that you had never been able to show anyone else before. Tonight, however, you are met with a disappointment when your arranged ‘date’ had bailed on you. But just as you are ready to turn away in defeat, you cross path with the lovely attendant whose gentle gaze and soft smile have always been able to make you fluster more than any dates you have been with. You know that accepting his offer might cause some inconveniences for both of you, but do you really have it in you to say no?⟶ Genre | Sex Club!au, Gentlemen Club!au, Smut⟶ Ratings | +18 / M for Mature

read teaser here

⤑ taglist | feedback

— © 2024 @yoonia​, all rights reserved. reposting/modifying of any kind is not allowed. translations are not allowed.

[qingxintea]

the stars intertwine *ੈ✩‧₊˚

genshin impact

headcanons — aether, xiao, scaramouche

when you tell them you feel alone

AETHER ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

immediately, aether seemed to pick up on your mood. usually he wasn’t very exposed to you feeling down as you kept onto an upbeat show even if it didnt correspond to how you were truly feeling.

deeming the fact that you let it show this time to a point where he could genuinely pick it up, he determined it must’ve reached a bad point. he asked you about it.

“y/n? im sorry if this sounds weird— i just think that you seem a little down today. are you okay?”

he looked at you with the utmost concern and it almost pushed you into crying more. kinda like trying to not cry at school but someone asks “are you okay?” and u cry fr

“yeah— sorry,” you immediately apologize, feeling bad that you made him worry.

“nono, please don’t apologize; just tell me what’s wrong if thats okay,” he smiles gently and takes your hands

you stare intently for some seconds and then take a deep breath. “i just feel a little lonely.”

silence sits for a second but you could feel his hands tense a bit around yours.

finally, he speaks (:

“i’m sorry if i failed you accompany you today,” he blurts out in a rush, feeling responsible for your mood. “d-“

“what? no, aether,” you shake your head, “this is not your fault at all. its just one of those days. thats all.” you smile in reassurance.

he sighs gladly knowing that he was not involved in the issue. he knows about days where you simply just felt down— he had them all the time when he was finding his sister ):

he caresses your face and comes to a conclusion.

“then lets be alone together.”

skips his commissions and takes sick leave and spends the rest of the day never leaving your side

you tell him all about your week!

“work at liyue qixing is very busy this week, we had a lot of broken architect and paranormal cases as of lately. ganyu and keqing always work so hard so i took these extra cases for them.”

“i spent more energy than usual and spent less time talking to people i love, talking to you. everytime i return from work, i just sort of collapse.”

aether chimes in, “y/n, you’re so sweet to everyone. from now on i will rest with you when you return.”

and he does! aether always keeps his word to you— you really are thankful for him.

he even goes out of his way to solve cases and fix things for you while you’re sleeping and you never notice him sneaking out. he talks to little ming and asks her if she knows anything behind the cases, fixes broken stairs and elevators, and ultimately asking keqing and ganyu to look out of you as you’ve been passing out lately.

he even crocheted you a little aether plushie to hold whenever he’s not around! so you’ll always have a piece of him with you (:

on the weekly, he gets you flowers. this week he got you a bouquet of cecilias so you don’t suspect he’s been working in liyue for you

the next week, when you tell him that your workload in liyue has been elevated, he is extremely glad that his work paid off. of course, he never tells you anything though

cutie fr

XIAO ·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳

xiao cant really verbally address feelings well and you know this. so initially you avoid telling him in general.

but he’s not oblivious to it— even though you don’t tell him, he can sense it. like that one time you made an extremely outrageous deal with a witch to take on his karmic debt and almost died LOL crazy

you also don’t tell him bc yk he’s lived for so many years longer than u that he’s lost so many people, probably more lonely than u

he can sense it through some of your usual offerings too! your cooking is corresponding to your mood and the almond tofu recently has been a bit bitter compared to your previous. its not that it tastes bad, it aroused concern.

he is scared to address it because he thinks he will be extremely awkward or insensitive. instead, he comforts you through acts of service and gift giving.

he picks up qingxin flowers for you and ties it with a vibrant red silk ribbon and leaves it on your doorstep. also gets u a green good luck amulet

now u have it on your nightstand and it helps u sleep better, the good luck amulet is always warn next to your vision YAY

he notices an improvement in your mood but it’s not to its original state.

eventually, he appears the next time you offer something and the two of you sit in comfortable silence until you break it.

“i’m sorry my offerings have been of lower quality recently. i am not feeling well and it shows through my work,” you apologize profusely. you think that him staying with you is a sign that he’s waiting for you to say something about recent troubles bc u always overthink LMAO

“don’t say sorry for something so minuscule,” he immediately responds but has no idea what to say after that.

but there is no need to add on because you know him so well. you know that when he says that it means he is more concerned about your well being than what you produce.

you nod slightly and the conversation ends there. he probably already realizes that you’ve been feeling lonely because you’ve been lacking in social energy this whole week due to your excessive work.

he stays with you for awhile and never gets up to get milk from the fridge or anything which is great

lowkey threatens your coworkers to keep an eye on you LMAOO so silly

SCARAMOUCHE ༄ؘ ۪۪۫۫ ▹▫◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ

mention of medications and more sweating LMFAO

lowkey u just expect this guy to not care at all bc he’s emotionally constipated

BUT HE DOES HE JUST DOESNT SHOW IT BC HES SCARED HIS COWORKERS MIGHT MAKE FUN OF HIM FOR SHOWING EMOTION

so when he addresses it he makes sure ur in a completely ISOLATED SPACE so NO ONE FUCKING SPIES !!

“oookay, what the fuck is wrong with you y/n, have you not been taking your meds for the past month??”

LMAO he says it downright with no sugarcoat because he wants to get straight to the point

you get taken aback a bit bc it’s such a funny question

“no bitch i just feel like SHIT TODAY because im LONELY AND SINGLE 😭😭😭😭” you counter

“hoe, you are NOT SINGLE WE R LITERALLY DATING STUPID ASS”

“oh i forgot”

“r u fr.”

he brings u ur meds in like 2 pound crates and ur like “wtf”

he says it’s to compromise for your lack of meds the past month

“DUDE IVE BEEN TAKING THEM TODAYS JUST A CRAPPY DAY LMAO AND THATNIS NOT HOW IT WORKS????”

“??,??!!” he is so done HAHAHA “anyway why r u lonely wtf did tartar sauce say something mean to you AGAIN”

you laugh “ACTUALLY YEAH LOL HE WAS LIKE ‘at least i have a little brother’ AS A JOKE CUZ HE DOESNT KNOW THAT MINE WENT KABOOM 😵😵”

“BITCH U GOTTA TELL HIM SOON”

“SHUT UP”

the two of u end up playing super smash bros and u keep spamming villager rocket bc that’s ur favorite move and eventually u k.o. him with it even though he saw it coming, he forgot how to jump LMAO

he claims that he did that on purpose to make you feel better but u think he’s bs-ing because he’s a sore loser and embarrassed he lost by not dodging a whole ROCKET

“UNFAIR”

“LOSER”

eventually becomes a very heated roasting session because u two are the most toxic couple in all of teyvat that ur literally perfect for each other LMAO

“how does it feel to look 12 and 57 at the same time??? I BET U GET ID CHECKED AT 7LEAVES LMAO”

“PEOPLE ONLY NOTICE U WHEN U BECOME A PROBLEM”

“U LOOK LIKE A PURPLE BLOOD CLOT”

“COVID SWIPED LEFT ON YOU. FUCKING COVID”

“THE ONLY REASON YOU HAVENT DIED YET IS BC THE ARCHONS SAID ‘FUCK NO LEAVE HIM BACK ON TEYVAT OH MY GOD’”

no lonely anymore bc ur evil !

later when u don’t know he beats up childe for what he said LMAO “ARE U STUPID DONT BRING Y/N’S CRAPPY CRUMBLED FAMILY INTO ANYTHING” and childe never does it again

happy ending !

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

QINGXINTEA ONE YEAR RESSURECTION SO REAL

LIVE LAUGH AETHER

[charcoalhawk]

No Safe Harbor

He’s not surprised that his parents haven’t realized that he hasn’t been home in over a week, after almost seventeen years the pain of being forgotten barely registers.

This is my Truce gift to @lemon-snake, sorry about the wait and I hope you enjoy!

I ended up using two of your prompts: Danny discovering Vlad bugs his house and Vlad showing up to Danny’s parent teacher conference because Maddie and Jack are busy.

There is ectoplasm on the dining room table. There is, in fact, a lot of shit on the dining room table that should not be on the dining room table.

Danny carefully skirts around the edge of the kitchen towards the fridge, but once he gets closer he can see that the fridge is bolted shut. So he’s either going to have to pull from his stash of food hidden in his closet, or eat fast food for the next few days.

If Jazz was still living here she probably would have already gotten into a shouting match, she was always a lot more proactive about calling out their parents when they pulled shit like this.

But Jazz is off at college, finally able to enjoy being a young adult and dealing with boring normal human problems. She had asked Danny to keep her in the loop with what was happening at home, and to tell her if their parents got sucked down another research hole and he needed her to remind them to take care of Danny and themselves.

He had mostly held to that promise, but as the months passed it was just easier to stay with Tucker or Sam for a few days when his parents lost themselves to their research.

This is the first time Danny has been home all week, he was able to sneak over to stay at Tucker’s for a few days but after the second time he was caught brushing his teeth there in the morning he decided it was better to just sleep in The Zone.

“Oh hey Danno!” The front of his dad’s jumpsuit is rumpled like he’s been wearing the same one for multiple days, “sorry but the fridge is out of commission for a few days, we’ll order pizza tonight. You must’ve had a lot of homework these past few days, we’ve barely seen you!”

He’s not surprised that his parents haven’t realized that he hasn’t been home in over a week, after almost seventeen years the pain of being forgotten barely registers.

What is going to be painful is this.

“I-“ ancients Danny hates having to do this, “there’s a parent-teacher conference tonight, Mr. Lancer asked me to remind you guys about it because apparently you didn’t answer his email about attending.”

“Why would Mr. Lancer have you doing that Danny?” His mom sounded genuinely confused, reaching up to push back some hair that had come out from her hood and smearing ectoplasm after her. “It was just a general email letting all the parents know, there was no need to reply because we weren’t planning on going. Your grades are doing great, and you would have already come to us if something was wrong.”

Danny feels his stomach drop, and it takes considerably more will then he would like to stop himself from stomping out of the room right there.

Because that hadn’t been a general email. Mr. Lancer had kept him after class today to ask him to remind his parents about the meeting tonight, and judging by his barely suppressed frown it wasn’t going to be a pleasant meeting.

“No actually, Mr. Lancer apparently really wants to sit down with you guys about some things, he said he mentioned in the email some of his concerns?”

———

Danny takes another glance at the clock on the wall, 4:45pm, his parents are almost twenty minutes late.

He’s left at least ten texts to each of them asking where the hell they are, but knowing them their phones are either dead or buried under a bunch of junk in their lab.

Mr. Lancer also takes a glance at the clock, and with a sigh begins to pack up the remaining papers from previous classes.

“I’m sorry for keeping you so late Danny, I’ll email your parents tonight and hopefully we can reschedule. Do you need a ride home?”

“No Mr. Lancer, I’m fine. Actually I was wondering if-“

His question is interrupted with a series or rapid knocks on the classroom door, and Danny foolishly hopes in that moment that his parents simply hadn’t responded to his texts because they had been busy driving, before it opens to reveal Vlad-fucking-Masters.

“Oh I’m so terribly sorry for being late,” Vlad gives his best normal human smile, “I had to practically run to get here and I was so worried about young Daniel here that I-“

“Mr. Masters,” Mr. Lancer’s face scrunches like he can’t decide whether to smile or grimace, “as nice as a surprise this is, I’m afraid this is a confidential meeting between myself and Danny’s guardians, now if you have concerns I’m sure we could find the time to sit down another day and discuss them in detail.”

“Oh I completely understand,” a wide smile, “but you see I’m actually here as a trusted adult for young Daniel here. Maddie and I decided it would be wise to have someone who lived closer by to be written down as an emergency contact in case either of the children needed it.

Like today, poor Madeline called me explaining that she had almost forgotten about this event, but due to an experiment at home would be unable to attend. And so she called and luckily I was visiting Amity this week and rushed over.”

Mr. Lancer seriously looks like he’s about to call bullshit, but a last glance at the clock has him slumping with defeat.

“Well, seeing as you were so kind as to actually show up, I think I could discuss some of my concerns here, Danny you’re welcome to leave-“

“Oh no Mr. Lancer,” Danny so wishes one of his powers was the ability to set things on fire with a glare, “if it's ok with you I’ll stay. I’d like to hear what good ol’ uncle Vlad has to say.”

———

It’s a rare night where the school is mostly empty, any after school activities had been canceled so that the conferences could be held, and now at almost six pm the entire school is abandoned.

Danny is able to keep quiet until they are out of sight of the school, but once he’s sure Mr. Lancer can’t see them; he surges to grab Vlad and hoist him up by his stupid suit, and in moments they are both transformed and hovering miles above the town.

“What the fuck are you doing here!”

Vlad gives him the look you would give a particularly stupid child, and given that Danny has spent more than enough time with Vlad over the past two years, he is unfortunately very familiar with that particular look.

With a casual swat he sends Danny flying back and moves to adjust his now missing tie.

“I am just trying to help you Daniel!”

“Oh bullshit. You couldn’t give less of a damn about my education, and you especially had no right to show up to a meeting like this. And what is up with that guardian crap? You know mom would never have put you down as an emergency contact.”

“Ah yes, I may have been stretching that a bit, but you see I am in fact listed as an emergency contact for you and Jazz when she was a minor. Jack,” and Vlad spits the name like it was an infectious disease, “was so kind as to add me when I expressed my concerns about it.”

And doesn’t that just make Danny’s blood boil. But regardless of his dad being way too damn forgiving, there’s something much more important he needs to know.

“You know what, I don’t even really care about that right now, what I do care about is,” He shoos his hand like he’s trying to chase off an annoying fly, ”how the hell did you know all that shit! I most certainly didn’t tell you, mom would rather shoot you then tell you something was wrong, and even dad isn’t that trusting.”

“Oh,” and now that it’s just them Vlad’s smile has become a thing of nightmares, “I have my ways Daniel.”

“What? Do you just always have a duplicate hanging around our house? You fucking creep.”

“Please, I’m too important to waste my valuable time with something that barbaric and simple.”

“What then? Spies, bugs- I swear to the crown if you have my house bugged Plasmius I’ll wring you by your stupid cape-“

“And what if I do!”

Where previously Vlad had looked smug and aloof, his gaze is now blazing focused, something that makes Danny’s skin crawl.

“You have not stayed in that house for over a week, Daniel! You barely stay more than a few hours and in the past three months you’ve been sleeping ancients know where in the Zone! You are constantly burdening you friends by forcing them to house you-“

“I’m not making them do anything!”

“I do understand not wanting to be in that house.” And here Vlad almost looks sad, “The mess, the weapons crawling out of every corner, being forced to live in the place you died. It can not be healthy for a young man. Regardless, that house is too dangerous, one wrong move and our, your secret will be discovered. And you know your parents, they will not take this kindly.”

“Oh fuck off! You don’t actually give a shit about me, you only care because it would put you in danger, and the fact that I’d rather stay anywhere that isn’t with you.”

“My home is open to you, and your mother and sister should they ever need it. I do care, little badger, don’t ignore an offer for help because you are too prideful and arrogant to accept it.”

This argument isn’t getting Danny anywhere, and he has one more question before he’s going to blast Plasmius in his stupid face.

“We’ll see how much you’re laughing when I tell Mom and Dad that you lied and said they called you about the meeting, when Mr. Lancer doesn’t follow up there are bound to be questions. How do you think mom will respond to knowing that you're spying on us?”

“Oh but that’s not what happened at all!” He’s right back to being smug, almost seeming to settle down in an invisible chair. “If your parents ask,” and here he looks doubtful, “you are going to tell them that you texted dear old uncle Vlad to come once you realized your parents accidentally forgot about the meeting.”

“And why the hell would I do that?”

“Because, the alternative is me going right now and possessing them both to make them think they called me, and we both know how tampering with memories can, ah, potentially harm an individual.”

Danny remembers, a few months after gaining his powers, overshadowing Mr. Lancer to make him think he had given Danny an extension on an essay he hadn’t bothered to finish.

Was it a frivolous use of his powers? Yes? Did he really care at the time? No.

He had thought everything had been fine, until a few days later when Mr. Lancer collapsed in class. Later it was reported that Mr. Lancer had suffered a brain bleed due to an unknown injury. There had been no physical evidence of anything having happened to him, but it hadn’t taken long for whispers of a ghost attack to start circulating.

After that Danny had been very careful to never overshadow someone, he had never been sure that what he had done was what had caused the injury, but he had wanted to be safe rather than sorry.

The threat finally forces the fight to leave him, and with one last venomous glare Danny leaves. Vlad doesn’t chase him, but Danny knows it’s because he’s already lost the battle for today.

———

“Oh Danny! We were wondering where you were, you said you were going to help with the lab this weekend.”

“I ah- was actually at the school.”

“The school- oh fudge the parent-teacher conference! Danno I’m so sorry we just got wrapped up in this experiment, I’ll go email Mr. Lancer right now and apologize, do you know when he would be willing to reschedule?”

“Uh, actually Vlad showed up for the meeting, apparently he’s listed as an emergency contact and uh, when I realized that you guys might have forgotten I reached out to him and luckily he was in Amity.”

“Oh good ol Vladdie! I’m so glad he convinced me to add him as a contact, he really is so kind.”

His mom’s face puckered like she had been force-fed an entire orchard of lemons.

“Yes, he does have his moments…”

———

As he’s lying in his room later that night his eyes catch a glimmer from the corner of the room up on his bookshelf.

After a second of deliberation he moves, reaching out to just barely snag the small object as it seemed to skitter away.

Holding it up the object at first seems incomprehensible, but after a minute Danny realizes with growing dread that what he has in his hand is a tiny camera with a microphone attached.

Without a second thought he crushes the device, if Vlad planted one he likely has at least a dozen if not more.

And its without a doubt the frootloop’s handiwork, no other ghost would bother with something like this, and the GIW doesn’t have access to enough ectoplasm to make devices capable of intangibility.

But what can he do about the rest? Vlad would expect him to destroy one if he found it, but then he would just set up more in new locations. At least if he knows where they all are he can know where to avoid.

Grinding the remains of the machine in his palm he slips intangibly down to the basement, glancing briefly at his parents who are both passed out over various diagrams and half formed weapons.

Looks like he’s going to be spending a lot more nights in the Zone.

[seoafin]

not to sound desperate or anything but I'd be on my knees for any snippet or summary of those nsfw fics you said you'd drop next month thank youuuuu

sure! the geto curse one is actually a stsg fic (sorry for the false advertising), but the person who commissioned the nsfw geto maid outfit fic gave me permission to post it hehe and i got a commission for a shorter abo fic enough said, there's like 2 other ones i'd have to work on a little more but i'll keep those to myself just in case it doesn't happen lol

A lil sneak peak

When Suguru sits on the bed next to you, he easily pulls out the toy from you, glinting and wet with your juices, and you exhale shakily, relieved. The curse shrinks away at its master’s presence until it's only wrapped around your wrists, trapped behind your back. Suguru turns you around, and the two of them gaze at your weary body, your tear stained face, for a little longer.

“Have Satoru and I been neglecting you?” Suguru asks lightly, knuckles brushing the wetness from your cheek. His voice takes on a consolingly sweet murmur, “We’ve been busy lately, haven’t we.”

A repeat cycle of missions and meetings and days, seeing Suguru’s face in passing, and yours not at all. You’ve been holing yourself in your apartment for the last couple of days coaxing that hellcat of yours out of its place underneath the couch. As if sensing the approaching move, it had refused to come out, distressing you greatly. But Satoru is a new man, with patience and generosity to spare. He’ll endure that horrible ugly cat of yours that you refuse to be without, the monotony of missions and meetings, the constant squawking of the higher ups, if only to come home to you and Suguru, and the rings on your fingers, at the end of the day.

He’s a married man now, after all.

[owlhead650]

Could I ask for something of choice for Ace, if you’d like?

Thank you for the ask, yes you can have more Ace content. I've written a short story that's 505 words in length about Ace and Ciel Featherstone. Check it out below.

Ace tied their hair into a ponytail and tied their hoodless collar cloak around their neck. Ace was sitting in front of a linea unica mirror and preparing for another long day of performing magic tricks. Their makeup had already been done, all that’s left is to put on their dark fancy clothes. The checker pattern, the playing card symbols, purple, blue, grey, black. It gave Ace an aesthetic that was both mysterious yet approachable.

Just as they had secured the headband for their tiny tophat the door opened behind them. “Ace dear? There you are!” It was their cousin Ciel.

“Ah, little Starlet. Have you come hoping to sneak a peek at the magician’s secrets?~” Ace liked putting some unnecessary flair into their words. It helped with readying themself for the audience.

“No, Ace. I missed the better half of your first week just because of some league business. I’m sorry.” Ciel wore a feather in her short navy coloured hair. She is the circus aerial dancer and as such her dress had to be light and sleeveless to maximise mobility. Ace wouldn’t mind wearing that kind of dress sometimes, only they’d rather not copy her.

“Don’t be sorry at all, I’ve had a great time. Your Ringmaster has been very welcoming. And Terra was there too.”

“Oh right, I suppose you and Terra have some shared history. I hope that doesn't make things awkward.” Ciel knew that Terra’s eccentric behaviour was a lot to deal with. She would most often be exasperated, exhausted or enamoured by it, sometimes all three in that order.

“If anything our dark ‘shared history’ makes things easier. Terra actually gave me a genuine apology for putting me out of commission that time. When she’s loud and disruptive I can deal with it because I know mostly what to expect. Also according to the Ringmaster about 40% of resignees at the circus cite Terra as a chief reason for why they left. How does she keep her job?” Ace tried to ask the question in a way that sounded more humorous than demeaning, instead their tone found a middle ground between the two.

“Well the kids love her and the parents hate her. Terra’s unique flavour of chaos adds a thrill to Agate Circus that has become a core part of its reputation.” Ciel explained. “Alistasia couldn’t possibly fire her, begrudgingly we’ve acknowledged her as indispensable.” 

“I see. That’s practically the same reason she wasn’t kicked out of Team Meteor. Maybe my new job isn’t that different to the previous one after all.”

“Well there’s much less terrorism involved when you work for the Circus.”

“Maybe, but isn’t cornering the market with overpriced food just a different kind of terrorism?” They were only ninety five percent joking. Ace forgot to pack their own lunch one day and had to pay a ridiculous price for some crappy fast food.

“Well you’ve got me there. Ready for our show?” Ciel asked.

“I am! Your new fool has prepared all their tools.”

______________________________________________________________

So what did you think? Just now I came up with the headcannon that Ace joined Agate Circus after the events of Reborn's postgame. When everything is said and done Ace needs employment. Team Meteor isn't paying them anymore. The next best option for them is to put their magician skills to use at Agate and reconnect with their cousin Ciel now that they don't need to commit themselves to the Alcantra dynasty.

[palettepainter]

Talking about more serious things outside of art or outside of any profession you might be in can always be a bit weird, especially with the sensitivity that comes with the topic of mental health. And at times I know it can sound like a stuck record when a creator says they're taking a break for mental health reasons but, the reality is that stuff really does just sneak up and grab you when you least expect it to

More stuff is going on outside of art and that's been leading me to feeling very unmotivated when it comes to my bigger projects, it's one of the main factors for why I haven't been able to post a lot about Hired Sparky and why I've been posting more about ROTTMNT. Hired Sparky is one of my biggest personal projects that I've started working on and compared to ROTTMNT, which has it's own fanbase and story established in the show, it feels far less intimidating to post for. And also because I honestly haven't had the time to really work on it the way I could when I first started this project:

My actual job has been getting increasingly busy with December rolling around, I've had to do more shifts up at my parents warehouse thanks to big holiday orders that have come through, I'm still working on commissions from last month in my free time, the entire though of Christmas itself and the holiday season overall is becoming more daunting the closer it gets, trying to sort doctor appointments before November ends

It's all been very busy and tiring outside of art, and the real reason I've never really gone into full detail of things relating to health now is largely because I don't feel emotionally safe at home to talk about this stuff. More then once when mental health has been brought up in conversation my parents have reacted very negatively, often with anger and yelling, or by laughing. This has lead to a one sided strained relationship on my end when it comes to talking about that sort of stuff, so everything I now do that involves my health be it mental or physical I tend to keep to myself.

I'm still in the ongoing fight of trying to get an autism assessment and still trying to figure out if depression really could be a factor in my behaviours, and any female on the spectrum will vouch that it is a near CONSTANT uphill battle to get a diagnosis

Many people express how being online is a safe space for them, because it's a place where they can find community better then they can in their actual life, and the buffer of a screen gives them an out if they burn through their social battery, and in many ways I do see my socials as a safe space. I have found community on here and have made friends with incredible people, but that doesn't take away the fact that outside of that safe space, I'm constantly in an area (home) where I no longer feel emotionally safe to talk about things that I'm struggling with. And it's exhausting being stuck in that environment

With my youngest sibling now in his early teen years and my sister being 18, it feels like the topic of moving out or my parents verbalising how they're not going to support three kids forever has been brought up a lot more, and as the oldest, it feels like naturally I am the main target of those comments.

Even if the house market wasn't as bad as it is, I know am not in a financial or mental position to be living on my own. There is no safety net in place, I don't drive, and know next to nothing when it comes to owning a property

This does technically count as a vent post, but it's also just an explanation for why I've been so quite with Hired Sparky and other Muppet stuff, why asks haven't been answered why messages have gone unanswered, and in truth it's just that I've been too burnt out from everything that I've had to put projects and art on the backburner.

I don't want to have to put art and Hired Sparky on the backburner, but for Hired Sparky especially I want it to be an enjoyable story, and I really just haven't been in the best of motivational moods to work on it. My progress on making Merch with the Zoot Cousins and other Muppet characters has been frozen for months at this point, all because the idea of it is terrifying, I've tried to do merch in the past and it didn't go well. And naturally with this type of mindset and being tired and stressed all the time, as well as feeling unmotivated it's left me feeling disdain towards my other, smaller drawing ideas and stories

I'm grateful for the engagement I get on my posts and even if I don't reply to ever comment or like every reblog with tags, I do go through my notifications and I do see them all, sometimes going back to a certain post to re-read them. As someone who has been drawing virtually all of her life art and creating have played such big roles in my life, and every artist will tell you that you're your own worst critic, especially when you're already in a down mood

The only art I've been working on is commission work, and even then with the money I've had to properly shut off other distractions to keep myself focused

I don't have a neat way to finish this off, today in particular the exhaustion got to me and I wanted to talk about it, and this is my way of doing it. I plan to post my October commissions once they're all done, but as for general muppet/Oc related art I don't know when that will next be posted, holidays and birthdays have been getting harder to cope with the older I get, and with December being the BIG holiday everybody hypes up about I already have a feeling the next few months are going to be even more tiring then they already are

Sorry for the delayed in art updates, asks and message replies, I'm just at a confusing messy part in my life at the moment

[whiskehorange]

“A Somewhat Helpful Presence”

A long commission with permission to post for you all!

Michael, at this point in your relationship with him, was quite an easy book to read. Maybe he didn’t throw tantrums like a child or even as typical adult males would, or verbally accused you of everything under the sun, but from what you could gather from a “Michael Mood” changer was apparent. Think about it, what does he do? He stands and he breathes, barely. When something has gone awry in that brain of his, you can point it out like a sore thumb. Heavier breathing (but still relatively quiet for anyone else wearing a mask like his 24/7) and a slight twitching in his step. He’s harder to move from where he stands and he sneaks up on you an eerily amount more than before. He hasn’t quite stopped his stalker nature, you can’t blame him.

While it would be a lie to say that Michael has never been keeping an eye out and about with your daily activities and schedule, he's never been one to go through your phone. I’d be surprised if he ever took the time to learn how to work a smartphone properly. He’s old fashioned, if he wants to know where you are and what you’re doing he’s going to follow you around and figure it out the hard way. It was different to hear your phone buzzing and lighting up at odd times of the night once you started your new job, however, and it didn’t take him too long to catch on. 

Again, with new age tech Michael was not privy to it so opted to stay out of it when you were on your phone and even tuned out your buzzing most of the time. But even he can’t help but notice that little ting and buzzt almost every ten minutes. Shifting his eyes over towards your direction like knives every time you’d pick up your phone when he heard it, but too nosy about what was on your phone screen to notice the disgusted, aggravated eye roll and lip curl you did before dropping your phone back face-down on the couch.

After three days of constant let down notifications (which felt like a month), Michael really began to take notice, which was ultimately both a good and a very, very terrible thing. “Damnit,” you huffed under your breath. Setting down the ladle and rubbing your face with both hands. This was the 12th message you had received in the five minutes you had started making dinner. Bzzt; eleventh. Ting, bzzt; thirteenth, the classic double text. You had to admit that at first when you started your shifts with the guy he was nice and friendly, but you also regret putting your number down in the book next to the phones for emergencies. Was it nice making a few friends living here in Haddonfield? Absolutely, but maybe just not this guy. Giving a polite excuse of being busy you ended your part of the conversation and put your phone on silent for the rest of the night.

Michael wasn’t too on the case around this time, but much more so around day seven of the constant notifications and what escalated to be phone calls at any time of the day. “No, no thank you I’m actually busy that day,” “Well maybe next week,” “Aw, thank you, but I actually can’t that day.” No matter how many times you had to decline coffee and brunch was starting to wiggle itself into your schedule for as much as he started to call you, but what caught Michaels eye was your nervous fidgeting and the painful look on your face every time you had to decline what the person on the other line was saying. To put it bluntly in Michaels brain, you have no friends, so the amount of calls you got and dates was off to him. Watching you silently from the doorway, you give him small comforting smiles as you continue to decline and agree to small talk questions. “Yup, seeya,” you finish unenthusiastically. Michael stands there.

“It’s just this guy I work with, he’s really taken a liking to me I think,” you sarcastically laugh, “He just keeps calling me and asking me out to the same coffee date over and over even though I’ve declined him… over and over.” You wipe your face and look up at Michael, giving him yet another comforting smile before resuming your show, urging him to come sit down with you on the couch. There continued to be buzzes and messages during the night while the two of you watched the TV before you mindlessly turned your silencer on. It was comfortingly quiet now, despite the sound from the speakers and laugh tracks of the show, but quiet enough for you to slowly slouch into Michael's side and sleep. That didn’t stop him from seeing the small blue light illuminating from under the screen on the couch, however. Picking up your small phone in his giant hands, the most recent text on your lock screen being “You’ve got real pretty brown eyes.” Only to be quickly removed by a new text: “Could you do next Thursday for coffee? I’d like to spend more time with you, I really like you Pratt.” You seemed to be taking this quite well, through Michael's eyes at least, but you really couldn’t stand having to work the same shifts with this guy every week. It was only a matter of time before you quietly tried to change your shifts without him attempting to do the same.

Ruffling your hands into your bangs and fixing up your dark hair you look at the four consecutive texts. It was only 8:00am and you finally had your first day off working a different schedule than him and he still made time to text you while being at work. Shuffling your way down to the kitchen in your morning clothes you make your way past Michael, doing his routine checking of the house for intruders even though you try to convince him that the new security system does it for him. You leaned over the kitchen counter, waiting for your keurig to finish brewing, eyes closed and thinking about how you could possibly give this guy something that would make him be quiet. You loved your job and adored every other coworker there, so quitting was out of the window. Reporting him would do the trick, but did you really have the heart to do that to him? Maybe he just doesn’t know how to make friends, maybe he’s just really lonely. Either way you were close to doing it anyway. 

Ring, ring, ring. Michael hands his hand out to you, sipping your mug at the kitchen table, pointing to your screen. You could see that there were three previous missed calls, the call ringing through your phone ended and making it four. “Thank you, love,” you sigh, taking the phone and inevitably ruining your casual looking-out-of-the-window o’clock. You didn’t have to worry about calling back as you were certain he would within the next 15 seconds, which you were correct. Taking a moment to collect yourself you finally connected and gave a terribly fake, surprised greeting as if you didn’t know what question he was about to ask you for the twentieth time this week.

“I’m good, no you didn’t I was already awake,” “You're on your cigarette break? But it’s only 8:30,” “Oh yeah? That's nice,” ''Yup,” “Oh,” “Mhm,” “Wow, yeah, yeah I get what you mean,” “Brunch? Well, I mean…” Rubbing the bridge of your nose you sigh, really debating if working there was even worth it. “That sounds… good. Coffee at, what time is it now… coffee at 11? Yeah?” Your eyes were closed, your face defeated as you took a deep breath, Michael could hear a muffled “Do you want me to come pick you up?” before you perked up and practically yelled no over the phone. “No! No, no I can do it, it’s okay. I have to head that way anyways, don’t worry about it.”

Spending a few more seconds attempting to end the conversation you end the call, slouching into the table with your head in your arms, groaning. Composing yourself and sitting back up you put the chair in and lean your head into Michael’s chest, “I’ll be back later, I’ll bring you home something you might like from the shoppe,” and slip back upstairs to get dressed and head out.

You were dead set on not impressing this guy at all with your time and outfit, but you knew it wasn’t going to matter in the end. Throwing on whatever you touched first in your closet it looked like you were going to attend a college lecture early in the morning in a cold classroom; old but fitting sweats with something light to cover yourself with, and your hair in the same way you had it when you fixed it early that morning.

As soon as you rounded the corner towards the coffee shop you could see him sitting there at one of the tables in the front, staring at your seat like he was trying to manifest you there out of thin air. You had purposefully taken your time walking here rather than driving to take as much time to yourself before wasting away your day. While it was only about a 20 minute walk from the Myers house you knew he would be there early anyways, hoping to catch as much time of yours as he could, and sure enough, there he was, sitting there for who knows how long and you’re still 10 minutes earlier than you’d like to be.

Unbeknownst to you, Michael had his own plans. It was much harder to sit and watch you in these parts of town seeing how busy they are with people and drivers at almost all times of the day as long as the sun is up. Michael held no remorse for not giving you an ounce of privacy (also unbeknownst to you) these last few days. Every time you went out Michael was somewhere close by, blending in perfectly around the town like the shape he is. There was nothing you could do about it even if you did find out. That was something Michael took a small pride in: knowing you could do nothing about him nor really stand up to him, he’d cut that idea into anyone, literally. All those recent nights of you having time taken away from him by your phone was stacking in his consciousness and it wasn’t being taken very well. Michael had spent so much of his own time corralling and subtly dictating your way into his heart just for you to be going out of your way to spend it out and about?

If Michael truly had his complete way, you’d be a hermit just like him, minus the killing part. If there was one word to describe him, it's territorial. The deep trust he’s put in you and you alone to not only be alive around him, but to confide in him and show him any ounce of attention and love is immeasurable rare. While he doesn’t necessarily think you’re cheating, he doesn’t think you’re stupid enough to really go out of your way to do that to him, he still does not like this lack of… well, you. Michael’s mind is difficult to no end and being able to get him out of a funk like this without any disasters is not an easy job. You having a social life that consists of just going to work was hard enough to get him to settle with, but going out of your way to go out with someone that wasn’t him? Michael might be smart, but he can certainly be blinded by rage easily enough.

Michael festered in this toxicity, stalking you endlessly throughout the week just to notice you coming home to him every night to give your undivided attention to him, it was odd. He certainly didn’t grow up with this level of trust that you had in him let alone the trust he put in you. Quite frankly, he didn’t know how to act. He stood there, across the street, just watching you. Watching you walk into the shoppe, watching that man greet you. Watching him closely, watching him put his arms around you for a hug, boiling in his own skin as he stood there motionless.

“Hey, sorry for the wait-” “Don’t be! I’ve been waiting here early, it's okay, I promise!” Embracing you in an unexpected tight hug, you stood there stunned, looking around nervously before slightly tapping his back. He let go after numerous uncomfortable seconds, beamed back at you with a toothy grin. “You look so nice today Pratt, I’m glad I took off of work to finally have this coffee date with you. It seems like forever since I’ve seen you!” He boomed at you, practically yelling at you despite only being four feet away from you. You felt strangled by his presence, looking down at the coffee he had already ordered for you. Smiling, you cup the warm mug in between your hands, looking down into the dark brown espresso before you. God please let this be over soon, you thought to yourself, still trying to shake off that hug. There were always plenty of coworkers that you could give friendly touches and side hugs to at the right times, but this guy just didn’t understand how to take a hint. The room would always go quiet whenever he came in, everyone seamlessly slipping back into working to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with him.

“So, how was your day? You look tired, that’s why I ordered you that coffee, figured it is a bit early,” he let out a chuckle, snapping you out of your woeful thoughts. You reciprocated his laugh, nodding, “Thank you, I’m just normally a tea drinker at this time in the day, coffee upsets my stomach.” A lie, of course, you’d never catch yourself drinking something from him that you didn’t watch him bring to the table. Quite frankly, it actually smelt quite good, but you’d take your losses. The tea here was quite good and you’d stop by here frequently on your way home from work to pick you up a tea and Michael something fruity. Of course, he had also taken it upon himself to order you a tea; his choice of tea. All the while talking about his subtle love for you and whatnot, occasionally commenting on your appearance, your eyes, and even your complexion, all of which he’s been doing for the last 25 minutes. Every uneasy agreement, nod, and attempt at guiding the conversation literally anywhere else but on you fell of deaf ears. 

“I know this might come as a shock to you, but I find you very pretty, Pratt. I’d really like to get to know you better.” You smiled blankly at him, giving a half-assed half head tilt of confirmation to him “Really? I never would have guessed.” He beamed at you, the grin on his face not budging at all, leaning over the table towards you he grabbed one of your hands with both of his. Giving a slight tug to get your hand free he only tightened his grip, pulling your arm closer to him to get you to look at him. You glared at him, snatching your hand away and rubbing it between the fingers of your other hand, “Please, don’t touch me.” “Pratt, I just want to be honest with you,” He shot his hand out again in an attempt to catch yours but you pushed yourself away from the table and out of your chair.

You decided it was your time to go, you had been sitting here for almost 45 minutes trying to be nice, but you just couldn’t do it anymore. “Listen, I’m in a relationship and I’m not comfortable with how you touch and talk to me constantly. I’d really appreciate it if you stopped texting me outside of work hours too, I really just feel uncomfortable with this.” You slowly back towards the door, looking him dead in the eye as you spoke, pivoting on your heels and clutching your to-go tea in one hand and your phone in the other. You could hear him protest behind you, but you booked it out the door and down the corner, tears welling in your eyes from anger.

It was about time since Michael gave you a piece of his mind, cutting you off before you had even made it home. Seeing you leave the shop so quickly he knew something was wrong, however with how far away he was he couldn’t tell you were crying until he got up and into your face, blocking your way. You gasped as you bumped into him, catching your breath as he pulled you into the alleyway. “Damnit Michael, you scared me. Please don’t do that.” You huffed, looking up at him to see him not only unmasked but angry, almost as upset as you. “Here take this, I don’t fucking want it.” Shoving the tea into his chest for him to take you work your way around him, heading back home but Michael grabbed your arm, pulling you back in front of him. His stone cold face never wavering, he glared into your eyes. You yelled, for the first time, at Michael,“What? What else could possibly go wrong for me today Michael? Please, let me go home.” He stared at you, same expression, but slowly noticed your shaking body. Rubbing your hard gently you avoided eye contact with him, waiting for him to let you by. Moving his hand up to your shoulder rather than your arm he gave you a slight nudge to make you look at him. He tilted his head down towards you like a nod, tell me is what he was saying.

You gave one last huff before wiping your face, pushing your fingers gently under your eyes to keep the tears away. “He-” you started, but couldn’t finish before warm tears streamed down your face. You pointed back the way you came, unable to speak in full sentences as you explained to Michaels menacing figure before you just what had gone down in the shop, what he had been texting you, and how he made you feel. “He grabbed my hand, not hard or anything, but it just made me feel so gross,” you started again, before crying into your sleeve. Michael pulled you into his chest with one arm, keeping the other one by his side as you let it out into his shirt. He was fuming, but not at you. Seeing your expression this morning and your unwillingness to arrive there on time definitely sparked questions to him, but having you connect the pieces for him was enough to snap him out of his one-track thinking. You had no reason to lie, he practically witnessed it himself.

You composed yourself and looked up at Michael for a split second, avoiding his sharp eye contact once again. Bringing his hand up to your face he brushed his thumb over your wet cheek, swiping away the last tear. “Can we please go home now?” You quietly begged Michael, holding his hand in yours. With a gruff huff, Michael let you lead the way, following behind you closely as per usual. He knew that you hated when he’d put his mask on and stalk his way around town, but he knew his way around. Michael knew how to not get caught. Michael wouldn’t get caught.

[mirrortouchedsea]

Madara opened his eyes to a cloudy morning in Italy. He'd been called over for Double Face business and Kohaku was sleeping in the next room, while Leo lay snuggled closely in Madara's arms. The information had made its way to Leo somehow and Leo had forced Izumi to take him to the airport to meet Madara and Kohaku.

Madara was happy to see Leo, of course he was. He had actually planned on meeting up with him after their job was complete but Leo had surprised him like he always does. Madara got the two of them a separate hotel room and let Kohaku take their original room for himself. Madara and Leo spent the night talking, playing silly games, watching bad Italian TV shows and making up the plots for them. Leo managed to sneak a few kisses in as well, which Madara always returned.

Now that it was morning, Madara knew he had to leave Leo to get ready for his...commission. Once again, it was someone who had gotten intimately entangled with Izumi and Leo and their work abroad and there were concerns about the two of them being hurt, so Madara and Kohaku had been sent to look into it and determine the next course of action.

Madara's callused thumb gently over Leo's cheek, his face so calm in his sleep. He needed to get ready but he didn't want to wake the other man in his arms. He shifted gently to free himself, but Leo stirred and opened his eyes.

"Morning sunshine," Madara whispered lovingly. Leo rubbed his eyes.

He looked concerned. "Mama, are you okay?" he asked.

"Don't worry about me," Madara responded, lightly kissing Leo's forehead. "Go back to sleep."

"Mmm, don't wanna." Leo rolled over, straddling Madara and trapping him on the bed. "Something's wrong. Why won't you tell me?"

Madara knew he could easily escape Leo if he needed to, but the concerned look on his face kept him in place.

"It's about work, I--"

"It's always about work! You keep saying it's to protect me, idols, everyone, but it doesn't protect you! Why are you still..." Leo trailed off, eyes searching for anything from Madara's face.

"I can't let anyone else be tainted like this, but someone has to do it." Madara's voice was gentle yet firm, his hands moving to grip Leo's hips, ready to flip their positions if needed. Leo simply leaned over and buried his head in Madara's neck.

"I wish you didn't."

"I know."

Madara's thumbs rubbed gentle circles in Leo's hips.

"I have to go now, Leo-san." He whispered in his hair, leaving another gentle kiss to his head.

"Stay safe, okay?" Leo crawled off Madara's lap, curling into the sheets.

"I will. I promise."

[ramzawrites]

Petty Love - Rise!Leonardo x Reader

FEM

Pairings: Leonardo x Reader

Characters included: Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, Big Mama, Draxum

Warnings: swearing

Series: A request!

Summary: From the first moment Y/N and Leo interacted with each other, the two knew they despised the other. Leo was an annoying, egotistical ninja while Y/N was an annoying, egotistical ninja herself. What was the saying again? Opposite attract and similar repel? Surprisingly though over time the two had to admit they did enjoy the fights the two had. It was fun to test their mettle on each other whenever they had the chance. When another person enters Y/N’s life and begins to challenge her how Leo used to do, he had to admit, this didn’t sit quite well with him.

An enemies to friend to lovers fic

Word count: 13950

Authors Note: 1) If you saw this fic before, no you didn’t. Okay, yeah I posted it before but I was kind of really unhappy with the way it ended and a few other things but this means I looked it over more and 2k words more! Yay? I don’t know, this is the biggest one part fic i ever wrote. My fic that has 4 parts has only like 2k more words than this lmao 2) I hope I caught most mistake, I did my best, please tell me if this all feels maybe too disjointed or so, I read this so often now that I have no idea how it all flows (besides i can always appreciate some feedback)

Request: The request can be found here and was by @/mitarashi01 (dunno if I can tag you, so xD)

Big Mama has always been a thorn in the mutants’ sides. Mostly because she wasn’t just an enemy they could fight and that’s it. No, she had a whole organization behind her. They could try but frankly she might just be out of commission for a few days and even during that time her henchmen would keep her business up.

So, the best they could do was sometimes keep an eye on the spider yokai and deal with any weird schemes they come across. Personally, they liked to believe they have become just such a big thorn in her side similar how she has been to them. Wasn’t there a saying of do unto others as you wish they did on yourself? Something like that.

Keeping eyes on Big Mama usually meant sneaking around her hotel and trying to see what info the group can find out. At one point Leo did try to get information out of multiple employees but that usually resulted in them being chased out by big yokai with big weapons.

Now they never gave up though. They won against the Shredder! They fought back a whole alien invasion, preventing a horrible apocalypse! A measly little, but actually kind of big, spider wouldn’t deter them!

It was one of those casual sneak-in missions, that also doubled as stealth training, because might as well, when they spotted someone unusual in the hotel.

Most yokai there wore the hotel’s uniform. Those who didn’t usually belonged to security or were the guests. But even between those people this woman stood out. She was shrouded in dark cloth. Silver wrappings around her ankles and hands, closed off sandals on her feet, a silvery scarf was wrapped around her neck, two ends flying behind her back. The dark cloth was also wrapped around their head, a mask pulled over her nose. A katana was strapped to her hip. Besides the few flashy accents, they would say that this person looked like your stereotypical ninja.

This of course pulled the turtle ninja’s attention, even more so when she walked through the hotel towards Big Mama’s office as if she had done it a thousand times already. Her movements smooth and quiet against the carpeted floor. Over the years the brothers could at least tell when someone clearly had some sort of training, which this woman definitely had with the way she carried herself.

It took only a few glances between all of them that they knew that this was a person they all should follow for now. Maybe a new contractor of Big Mama’s? Maybe an assassin even, Leo mused. Either way it was probably a good idea to find out exactly why she was here and marching through the hotel straight towards Big Mama’s office.

The group broke off, Leo and Mikey stayed inside to try to get through the vents to maybe hear what is going on while Raph and Donnie tried to gather intel from outside using one of Donnie’s machines.

There was indeed a vent that still led straight through Big Mama’s office on the ceiling. Honestly it was a miracle she hadn’t made a move to close off said vent in any way, but Leo didn’t want to look a gifted horse in the mouth. With Mikey at his side, both inched closer to a grate to also try to take a look into the room.

Leo knew for a fact that Raph and Donnie were in position, but he couldn’t spot them when he looked at the huge window. Seems like the constant sneak training was actually doing something.

The door to Big Mama’s office opened and the weird ninja woman stepped inside, it was only when she closed the door that Big Mama finally looked off her paperwork. Her expression was at first a stern, annoyed one, probably assuming it was someone else interrupting her work, but when her eyes landed on the ninja, she sported a big smile.

She stood up to walk over to her guest, her arms wide open “Ah! There you are my little Sneaklypoo!”

Leo really had to pull himself together to not laugh at that name. He could only assume how the mystery woman might be grimacing behind her mask. The way Mikey’s shoulders shook for a moment, he assumed he had to withhold a laugh as well. Honestly it wouldn’t be the first time that one of their sneak missions went south because of a rogue laugh.

The ninja in the room took a deep bow to greet the spider yokai “It’s nice to see you again, Big Mama.” Her voice was steadfast. No ounce of fear seeped through. Either she might be overly confident right now or she really didn’t have a reason to fear Big Mama.

“I’m so happy to see you again. Now come over, little one, I reckon you know why I have called you?” Big Mama walked back over to desk to sit down on to her pretty gaudy chair.

The mystery ninja followed suit and sat down on the chair in front of the yokai. She pulled her legs up to sit crossed legged on it. The way the other employees reacted to Big Mama usually, Leo figured he’d never see anyone sit as nonchalantly as she did in this office. Once again either this was because she was stupid or was actually capable. Maybe a mix of both.

The ninja sighed “Yeah, I’m here for my missing payment and you probably want to schedule more fights but also I had a request to make concerning those.”

Oh, bad move. You do not bargain with Big Mama in any way. There were too many strings attached. Or webs attached. You know since she is a spider.

Leo had to physically shake his head to figuratively throw out his joke, this was not the time to joke. Well, there was no harm in it really, but Leo should really concentrate on what was happening. Not only was Big Mama paying this ninja for something, but this ninja had the gall to ask a request of her as well.

“Mhm, I told you your payment would arrive in due time.” She didn’t look at the ninja, staring down at one of the papers, tapping her pen that she was suddenly holding against the desk.

“Mama” the ninja spoke. Her voice now stern and laced with what Leo assumed was a wordless threat. Strike two. Strike three and he can already see her getting chased out the building by security.

“Y/N.” Big Mama responded with the same kind of vitriol.

Mystery ninja had a name! It was getting quite annoying to call her just the ninja. Quite forthcoming of Big Mama to reveal it.

Mikey side-eyed Leo as if to also silently confirm that he caught the name as well. The name didn’t stick out to Leo. Never once heard of her, so he huffed a quiet breath out, shrugging as a silent answer. As a response Mikey nodded. This sounded more like something they would have to ask Barry about. If anyone would maybe know about the people that worked with Big Mama, it might be him.

Y/N let out a big, disappointed sigh. If he could, Leo would tell her “Told you so, can’t bargain with Big Mama like a normal person.”

Instead of Y/N laying in on Big Mama more to maybe brute force her way through this discussion, Leo assumed that’s just something she would do, she just moved her open hand into the air, which in return made Big Mama raise one of her eyebrows.

This time when she spoke her voice was almost playful, she seemed to almost chide the crime boss teasingly in front of her, a stark contrast from before “Mama, I thought this was a private discussion!”

It was now that Leo had to painfully realize that Y/N was pointing with her hand towards the vent. The vent that both Leo and Mikey were squished inside. Mikey must have realized this as well by the way he looked at Leo with a painful grimace.

Big Mama sighed exasperatedly “Not again. Oh, turtleypoos! Come out!” She looked at Y/N for a second “I have a new playmate for you guys!” How did she immediately know it was them? Well, maybe it made sense seeing how often they have been annoying her recently.

“I’ll pay you triple your usual fee if you deal with them.”

At this point Leo tried his best to crawl back out but he forgot how small vents could be. Especially to turtles with big shells. Oops. He couldn’t even grab his swords to teleport out of this cramped space.

“Well, you are my boss! Wouldn’t want to disappoint you.” Y/N chuckled.

Leo had to watch in horror as Y/N gracefully jumped up, held on to the grid of the vent, seemed to open it without much trouble, pulled herself up and just stared at him and Mikey. Her eyes glinting in the darkness of the vent.

“Nice to meet you, I would shake your hand, but I am kind of indisposed.” Leo chuckled. His coping mechanism was still humor and will be for the rest of his life. Mikey just let his head fall down onto the cold metal, making a loud clung sound in response.

There wasn’t even so much a twitch in the facial expression that Leo could see on Y/N’s face.

“And you are the guys that have been Big Mama’s pain in the neck? How cute.”

Something about that comment just hit Leo in a way that made him uncharacteristically angry. Sure, they weren’t in the ideal position right now, but they were plenty capable. Probably more capable than her! They’ve been at this for how long now? This is the first time he even heard of her. Sure, ninja and all if she even is one, but also where the hell did she get her confidence from? She was just another henchman of Big Mama’s.

Before Leo could respond though Y/N disappeared. Falling back down onto the ground, standing directly under the vents. Then there was the horrible sound of metal colliding with metal followed by the sudden feeling of vertigo as the front part of the vent flew down, gravity literally pulling both Mikey and Leo out of it.

Both reacted immediately, pulling their weapons out, expecting to see Big Mama in her huge yokai form. But she was standing at the back, still in her human business attire. Her arms crossed as she just observed what was happening with amusement.

That said Y/N was standing in front of the two turtles with her katana out. She moved it up towards her head. Falling into some sort of fighting stance, further proving to Leo that she must have had some sort of training.

“Oh, two Battle Nexus Champions are about to fight, it’s a shame this isn’t being recorded. But that is life, no? Deal with them however you wish, my little magpie.” Big Mama waved her hand, as if finally giving Y/N the sign to attack.

By the way her legs tensed she would have if Raph and Donnie didn’t came crashing through the window in a big red glow. Raph immediately landed in front of his brothers, Donnie had his bo-staff in hand, standing at his eldest brother’s side.

“Sorry Big Mama but no entertainment for you today. Me and my brothers are leaving.” Raph growled, twirling his sais in his hands.

Leo would have expected for Big Mama to call in reinforcements, gnash her teeth together, finally transform, but no. She just stood there as if the four mutants weren’t ready to beat her up once again. As if she was just watching a show.

“Guys, jump! I’ll catch you!” Raph yelled out, running over to the now broken window but before he could reach the window, Y/N suddenly stood in front of him. As soon as he moved, Y/N quite literally jumped into action to cut their escape off.

“Already leaving the party, big guy? That’s rude you know?”

She fell back into her fighting stance “Besides, I’m finally getting my chance to test my mettle against the turtleypoos? I’m not giving this up. Let’s tango.”

Something about her was just so infuriating to Leo. Maybe it was just because she simply was the enemy. He should be annoyed at the enemy, right? But even with Hypno or Big Mama he could keep his composure rather well. Maybe her attitude just reminded him too much of himself. Damn, was this how his enemies felt when they had to fight him? Nah, she was just genuinely infuriating.

Leo got his katanas out “You wanna dance? Then let’s dance.” His mind wandering back to what Big Mama said before “Champion versus Champion” It shouldn’t surprise him that a Big Mama’s henchman might fight in the Battle Nexus as well. He had to admit, he was intrigued as to what her abilities were.

“Nardo, let’s just leave while we can.“ Donnie sounded more than annoyed.

Yet Leo stepped forward, ignoring the pointed looks of his brothers. Was this selfish? Yeah. Was this stupid? Yeah. It’s just, he couldn’t wrap his head around the person standing in front of him. She exuded confidence, Big Mama seemed to trust her as well, more than the average employee at least. Besides, couldn’t hurt to test out the abilities of their new enemy, right? After all she clearly worked for Big Mama.

“Alright, Blue.” Y/N’s eyes were now fully trained on Leo. Her eyes making sure to catch any sudden movements of his.

He rolled his shoulders before he too got into his own fighting stance “Leonardo.”

“Leonardo.” She repeated.

Both sprang into action. Leo tried using his height to attack her from the top with both of his swords, Y/N must have seen through this, ducking down, her own sword sliding across the two blades to stop them from colliding with her head, while she used her own momentum to slip past him. Her knees hitting the ground only for a second before she jumped up and was suddenly standing behind the turtle.

Both turning around to look at each other. Leo had to admit he was impressed and by the slightly narrowed eyes combined with the small crinkles around them, he assumed that she must be smiling beneath her mask. Oh, so she was enjoying this? Let’s see for how long.

He jumped again towards her, this time before he could even properly get into contact with her, he opened a portal to fly through and drop down on her from a different angle. Her eyes widened as she saw him disappear, only barely being able to dodge the turtle that was literally flying down on her from the back.

As she rolled to the side, she angled her hips and swung her legs around. Connecting with Leo’s ankles as he made contact with the ground again. He lost his balance, forcing him to catch himself with his hands. Y/N took the chance to jump back up on her own feet again. Trying to swipe at the turtle in the process but Leo just had to push himself off the ground and away from her. He immediately jumped back up, his sword in a defensive position, expecting Y/N to attack him but she didn’t.

No, why would she attack him if she could play with him? She didn’t even take this seriously, did she? At this point Leo was sure he could see her smiling beneath her mask! She definitely knew what she was doing. It was different than fighting any of the other villains. In a weird way, both their fighting styles just flowed seamlessly together. He had to wonder what kind of aces she might have up her sleeves if the two started to go full out.

“Leo! We are going!” Raph spoke up before either Leo or Y/N could attack each other again. There was a finality to his tone, a promise of getting chewed out later at home for this frankly reckless stunt. Genuinely Leo was incredibly lucky that Big Mama seemed to get enough entertainment from this and wasn’t annoyed enough to call security. And the worst part was, he knew that.

Leo took another glance at Y/N who was still ready to fight. His grip tightened around the hilts of his swords. The next time he swung them was to open a blue portal in front of his siblings. All four didn’t waste a second to jump through. Landing in the living room of their lair.

Once the portal was closed all three of his brothers turned to Leo.

“What was that?!” Raph asked. Oh, he was angry, and Leo couldn’t even fault him.

Leo put his swords back on his shell, his hands on his face as he groaned “I don’t know! I guess I wanted to know what she can do? A ninja looking person working for Big Mama? I- I don’t know.” He sighed “I know this was stupid. This could have gone really bad, I know. This is on me.”

He really meant it. He didn’t go through an almost apocalypse without learning a few things. This included how to best work in a team, and this was not it. Even if there was an admittedly intriguing person out there that just managed to somehow really get under his skin with simple taunts.

Raph sighed, his own shoulders relaxing as he let the tension out “Well. It all went well, let’s just make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Leo might be the leader now, but Raph will always be the big brother.

Mikey and Donnie still seemed somewhat skeptical.

“So, what do we do? Should we try learning more about her? Is learning about Y/N even… useful? She is one of many employees of Big Mama after all.” Mikey spoke up, probably trying to keep things going so there wasn’t any room for more arguments. He knew that Leo would beat himself up for this enough anyhow.

Dr. Feelings or even Dr. Delicate Touch might come around for a visit.

“We could ask Draxum? If she was or is the current Battle Nexus Champion, then there is a chance that he might know about her? She might have done some work for Big Mama beforehand that he caught wind of. If he does know something we can still decide if she is another person to keep tabs on.” Donnie offered.

So as soon as they could, the group visited their other dad. The relationship between the turtles and Draxum was still on the tense side, but they were working on it. Mikey firmly believed that he was a good person and if he was willing to offer Draxum this chance, they might as well follow suit for now.

Draxum sat awkwardly at the table while the turtles sat at the other side. All of them had a cup of tea but no one, including Draxum himself, but Mikey dared to touch it.

The yokai sighed “I haven’t heard much about a Y/N if at all but from the description I would wager that she is indeed the current Battle Nexus Champion. I don’t keep up with frivolous things like that, but the Champion is usually pretty well known in the Hidden City.”

Really? And Leo never got the chance to properly take advantage of that? Damn.

He leaned forward “I think her stage name might be Silver Magpie. Always thought it was a rather… weak name. Too showy.”

“Says the Warring Warrior Scientist.” Leo deadpanned.

Draxum scoffed “It’s a strong name!”

Before Leo could make another quip Donnie interrupted him “The name does make sense though, right? Wore silver and Big Mama did call her magpie once. So, let’s assume the current champion is Y/N. What else do you know about her, Draxum?”

“Only that she isn’t always in the Battle Nexus. There were talks about her if she will even defend her title since she tends to disappear for a while before returning. That’s all I can really tell you. I can only hypothesize that if she keeps fighting in the Arena, that Big Mama might use her talents for her business. Makes sense, no?”

“Nothing more?” Leo asked.

Draxum nodded “Like I told you. I never much cared for the Battle Nexus. Not like the average viewer might at least.”

Leo narrowed his eyes at that. He didn’t particular like the sound of that.

“So, what do we do?” Raph asked his brothers “Should we try to seek her out and what, ask what her deal is? Or do we just keep our ears and eyes open for what might happen.”

Leo huffed, not particularly liking what he is about to say “Frankly, I think it wouldn’t do us any good to chase her down. Sure, she works for Big Mama but what will we do? Ask her why and then beg her to stop? Something tells me this won’t work. Besides, maybe we are lucky, and she disappears again for a while, and we won’t have to deal with her.”

His brothers eyed him warily. Draxum eyed the display curiously.

“What?” Leo cut through the silence, feeling the judgment of his brothers.

Mikey rose one side of his eyebrow ridge in an accusing gaze “And here I thought you would jump at the opportunity to fight her again.”

“It was one time!”

“We only met her once, bro, and you have never done anything like that before. Well, not for a while.” Mikey explained.

“Okay, she annoyed me! Happy? Besides we now know that she isn’t just hot air.” Sure, they barely fought and the fact that she was Champion could have tipped him off as well but now it was proven fact. He didn’t need to explain himself, okay? Actually, his brothers deserved an explanation, there just wasn’t a good one.

Either way the turtles kept their usual routine up from that point on. Acting like this meeting never happened in the first place. They went patrolling at night when they could, sometimes fought off some of their usual enemies, trained, watched movies and the like. Life was flowing along normally.

Y/N didn’t make another appearance for months.

Then suddenly she did. The group was fighting off Hypno on a school campus and Y/N just suddenly jumped in. Deflecting all of Hypno’s attacks on their own. Leo had to admit he was a bit in awe seeing how focused she was as she fought back. Showing amazing control over her own blade. How long has she been training and fighting to gain such skill?

When Hypno threw his weapons and they came flying around, Leo jumped in automatically to deflect those attacks. Standing back-to-back with Y/N as his brothers took the chance to destroy the loudspeakers that he hid all around. Why he jumped in to protect his enemy? Out of the good of his heart of course. Letting two enemies distract each other could have been easy but sadly he had morals.

“Miss me?” Leo grunted as he deflected yet another attack.

Y/N laughed “You wish! Saw you struggling and decided you needed a hand.”

“Pretty sure if I didn’t deflect the last few attacks, you’d be sliced cheese.”

The two switched positions so Leo was now the one attacking Hypno directly while Y/N dealt with the attacks flying towards the two. It was a wordless transition. Their feet and bodies moving around almost as if they weren’t fighting but dancing.

“That’s what you think! I’m quite nimble, not the slow turtle type, you know?” She gasped out as one projectile connected with her blade.

He could practically hear her smirking which made him involuntarily roll his eyes.

A few loud crashes and suddenly heaps of electronics flew towards the ground, turning into scrap metal.

His brothers took care of the loudspeakers before Hypno could use them on people. It was actually only by pure coincidence that they caught him as he was just setting his stuff up.

With his brothers back in action it didn’t take long for them to send Hypno limping away. Before he could flee though, Y/N approached him and grabbed a necklace he had around his neck. It was a red ruby with a golden chain. So, Leo wasn’t just imagining it, it probably was a new item.

“You intervened just for the jewelry?” Leo asked as Y/N pocketed the necklace, “So you are a thief? Do we need to beat you up after all? And here I thought you wanted to collect some good karma.”

Y/N snorted “I still am. I’m here on the behalf of the original owner. Wants his little amplifier back.”

Leo narrowed his eyes “You know by the company you keep I do have to wonder what kind of person this owner is. I have to ask. Are you just evil or are you so naïve to trust anybody around the Hidden City? I’m leaning more towards you just being simply stupid.” He was clearly referencing their first meet at Big Mama’s place.

“Say, do you always belittle the people around you when you feel inferior or is this just your quirky personality coming out?”

“Inferior? Me? I’d beat you any day.” He snarled out, trying to hide his annoyance with a smug smile.

Y/N was still holding on to her own katana, twirling it around, both Leo and her began circling each other “Wanna put money where your mouth is because by the looks of it I did save your bacon today.”

Sensing that the tension was rising Mikey jumped over to Leo “Come on. Let’s go home. We just got out of a fight let’s not start a new one.”

“Yeah, listen to him, Leonardo.” The way she spoke his name was full of distaste “Don’t start fights you can’t finish.”

Donnie and Raph walked past Leo, pulling him along.

“Home. Now. We don’t wanna hang out with Big Mama’s guard dog.” Donnie spoke.

Right. Leo didn’t want to waste more time if he could be at home and be eating something nice. Before he walked through his own portal though, he looked back to look at Y/N but she was already gone. Probably took the chance when his brothers pulled him along. He couldn’t decide if he was disappointed or happy about this.

From that point on the group sometimes met Y/N again. Usually, she would come in in the middle of fights, help here and there but only when it aligned with her own goal. These could range from everything to collecting a bounty in the Hidden City to grabbing something one of the people carried with them.

Either way, whenever Y/N and Leo’s eyes met, insults flew. Throwing whatever petty comment they had at their disposal. Both taking any chances they had to exchange blows. Often enough they would start fighting each other while simultaneously fighting the same enemy. These fights were always very interesting. If you’d ask them, they both would deny that they enjoyed the little fights, but others would see their smiles whenever the two readied their weapons. Excitement shining in their eyes.

Now, Leo’s brothers didn’t particular care about Y/N as well, but the way Leo reacted around her was more extreme. Whenever she insulted his abilities, he would immediately respond with a venom filled quip. It was only after yet another meet between the two, when the three figured it must be because the two were more similar than Leo might realize. After all, opposite attract and similar repel.

Both were sassy, flashy and flamboyant with their attitude, fought similarly and it certainly didn’t help that both were also at some point Champion of the Battle Nexus.

Things began shifting though when Leo one night was sitting on one of his favorite roofs alone. Just wanting to spend time on his own. He held his sword in front of him in his lap, looking at the blade. Watching how the lights of the city reflected off the cold metal. He moved it around a bit to see how the colorful specks of lights danced across it.

There were soft footsteps behind him, and a black, silvery reflection appeared on his blade.

“Appreciating your own looks, are we?” Y/N spoke.

Leo ignored her, just huffing out to show how unimpressed he was.

Yet Y/N took it as an invitation, sitting down next to him, letting one of her legs dangle off the roof. Maybe Leo should have been more alarmed when she appeared but one thing he soon learned was that she did follow some sort of honor code. Never once has she attacked him without the two making it clear that they wanted to fight each other.

“I didn’t think I would see you out without your brothers.”

Leo frowned and finally he looked over at her, she had her eyes firmly up into the sky, probably watching the moon and the clouds moving along.

“What do you want?” His voice cold, not trusting this situation at all. Leo’s grip around the hilt of the sword got stronger.

Y/N finally turned to pay attention to him. She seemed to mull something over. Her eyes practically burning through him. It made him uncomfortable to say the least. It was like she was trying to communicate something to him. Then suddenly she moved her hands to remove the hood and mask, showing of her full face to Leo.

He felt almost embarrassed. Felt like this was some sort of show of trust, never expecting her to show herself like that to one of her enemies. It felt private even. This time he could watch as the corner of her mouth turned up into a smug smile as she noticed how his eyes darted all over her face, as he gulped, surprised by this action.

Taking in the new sight. He had to admit she didn’t look half bad. She was his rival after all, only natural he supposed. Not that he would ever tell her that.

He cleared his throat “Hi.”

She smiled “Hi.”

And for a moment there was just the background noise of the city. Leo trying to understand what was going on and getting used to the new sight while she seemed to analyze his reaction.

“What’s the occasion?” he eyed her curiously, burning her facial features into his memory. Thinking this might be his only chance.

Even though she had right now a bit of a playful expression on her face he could see something hardened there as well. Something he only saw on other people who went through their own battles over time. He could have guessed that by her fighting abilities but now he could actually see it.

That was an actual person in front of him and not just the ninja that annoyed him. She was still that but there was more now. Leo couldn’t decide if he preferred this or not.

She shrugged “I’m not here for business. Thought it would be rude.”

“So, you aren’t here to stab me in the back?” He retorted. It was a rhetorical question.

“Clearly missed my window for that.” She quipped.

Leo nodded, turning his gaze back to the city. Both fell into a comfortable silence. Frankly he didn’t even know it was possible between them. Maybe he was more tired today than he realized. Tired of fighting. Of fighting her.

“Can I ask you something?” Leo tried. Might as well satisfy his own curiosity while this was happening.

Y/N just gave him an affirmative hum. If this was her way to be non-committal or if she was earnestly open to answer questions he couldn’t tell.

“What is your deal? How did you get wrapped into all this nonsense?”

“You mean the constant fighting?”

He nodded, not even looking if Y/N saw it.

She sighed as she no doubt looked for the right words “I- I’d wager it would be similar to you guys. I think at least. Not that I’d know. It’s just something I was born into. Something I could do.”

“You were born into being a ninja?”

“Something like that, yeah. My family belongs to an old clan that used to live in Japan and came over to America ages ago. I just know this is the reason why I was always aware of Topside and the Hidden City. Mom and Dad started with my training mostly to just ensure I’d be safe but then I figured I might as well use my talents and knowledge.”

Leo chuckled “So, Big Mama was your first choice, or…”

Y/N let out a soft laugh as well. A rare treat to Leo’s ears. Usually, her laugh was steeped in sarcasm and mockery. This was a light and easy one.

“No, it’s mostly a thing of she is using me, and I am using her. I use her Battle Nexus as training.”

Now this pulled Leo away from the city lights to look at Y/N who had at this point her back on the roof. Her arms behind her head. The silver scarf almost framing her face.

“Really? Training? The Battle Nexus?”

She moved her head a bit so she could look better at the turtle who was now leaning back on his hands, one side of his eyebrow ridge pulled up in disbelief.

“Honestly, it’s the best place to train. It’s also the only reason I’m wearing this gaudy scarf. The Battle Nexus appreciates a good show and if you give them that they give you interesting fights.”

Leo hummed as something seemed to click in his mind “The Silver Magpie, huh?” The name must be part of showing off.

He laughed when Y/N broke out into an embarrassed blush and she purposefully looked away, not daring to look into his eyes any longer “Not my idea. It was Big Mama’s. But if it meant that I could have interesting fights I was willing to go along.”

“Because you clearly would have better ideas.”

“I’m sure my ideas would be better than yours. Besides, I will forever life in the knowledge that Big Mama probably would have just called you Blue because you’d never make it to main stage.”

He rolled his eyes “May I remind you, I was Champion as well.”

She moved her head up so she had an easier time to snap her finger before dropping her head again “Yeah. Was.”

“So were you! Didn’t this bull yokai become the new champion?”

“Mhm, but you forget.” She mused with a grin “All that counts is that I’d be able to beat you if we ever got the proper chance to fight.”

Leo would have loved to retort that now was the perfect time since his brothers weren’t here to intervene but surprisingly, he didn’t want to.

It was the first time he talked to her and didn’t feel incredibly aggravated. Maybe it was the causal environment. Maybe both just got tired over the months. Maybe it was just somehow a special night.

Instead, he too laid down on his back, propping his head on his arms “Nope. I’d win easily. I have actual magical powers. Don’t think you have any, do you?”

“Don’t need them. I actually use my head.”

This time as they argued it didn’t feel as filled with venom like it usually was. Leo managed to somehow connect to Y/N. She didn’t come over as malicious. Thinking back on it she never once stopped a fleeing enemy to continue the fight and she did jump in multiple times to help the four turtles out. Protecting them.

Maybe it really was a big worst first impression for the two. Yet it still didn’t sit with him all to comfortably that she worked for Big Mama just so she could continue fighting in the Battle Nexus. It wasn’t worry for her but more disappointment of her decisions.

When the Mad Dogs met Y/N once again as they chased someone through the Hidden City, a group stole from the police department which was very ironic and funny to Leo, the new dynamic between Y/N and Leo was immediately noticeable.

Instead of the immediate curses and insults they gave each other a quick nod. As if they were going mentally through the plan of catching these guys. Hell, Leo even teleported Y/N so she could be in front of the thieves and cut their escape of. Mikey used the chance to wrap his Kusari-fundo around them, holding them in place for the Hidden City police to collect them.

And when Leo caught up with her, he just made a quip of that he couldn’t believe he had to help Y/N only because she was way too slow. Apparently, it was hard to watch.

And she chuckled. She chuckled!

The fighting was tame, still biting but tamer nonetheless. Nothing like how it used to be. It was obvious that the group missed something between the two.

Once they all were back in the lair, they immediately interrogated Leo. He gave them a quick rundown of Y/N’s apparent deal.

Mikey went on the tip of his toes to lay his arm on Leo’s shoulder “I can’t believe you actually were the bigger person and didn’t immediately go for the kill. You actually talked to her.”

Leo scratched the back of his head embarrassed “Well, I think she was the bigger person. She just sat down and took her mask off.”

“Wait you saw her face?” Raph’s eyes were wide.

“And here I thought similar repel.” Donnie spoke and Leo could only watch in confusion as both Raph and Mikey nodded along. He was sure he was missing out on something.

“But this confirms it! Y/N isn’t a bad person. She might be a little confused, but she’s got the spirit.” Mikey suddenly exclaimed.

To which Raph shrugged “Eh, I figured but I do trust your sense on these things more than mine. Haven’t been wrong about Draxum, yet.”

A big toothy grin appeared on Mikey’s face as he hugged Raph “I know. I’m always correct when it comes to these things.”

Soon Leo and Y/N met every few weeks on the same roof. Just sitting and talking. Both vowing that this place was neutral land. No ninjas. Just two tired warriors talking. The two even exchanged phone numbers and when Y/N suddenly stood inside the lair to the surprise of Raph, Mikey and Donnie, they quickly realized that they went from being enemies to finally being friends.

In fact, this was Leo’s first friend that wasn’t also his brother’s friend. Y/N was doing fine with them but somehow Leo and Y/N just clicked. It almost seemed like the whole Cass situation all over again. An enemy becoming a friend.

“I’m-a going, bros!” Leo yelled through the lair, ready to open a portal.

“Going out to meet Y/N?” Raph leaned into the living room where Leo was standing.

He nodded “Yep. She decided she wanted to get back into Battle Nexus and asked me if I wanted to come along.”

Raph looked at him, worried “You… Will you fight?”

Leo blew a raspberry “I might firmly believe that I could beat Y/N and be champion over her, our scores are currently 18 to 17 in my favor after all, but I honestly don’t want to deal with Big Mama and her stupid deals. No, I’m just watching and playing coach. Also I can make sure this was nothing weird is happening.”

His brother relaxed at that “Okay. Good. Not that I don’t trust you, but-“

“I know.” Leo smiled “Just worried, I get it. Now, I gotta go or she will think I screwed up my teleport.”

“Have fun!” but Leo was already through the portal. With a shrug Raph returned back to his own room.

He stepped out of the portal and arrived in the Hidden City. Y/N was already standing close by. The way she had her eyebrows pulled up he already knew what was coming.

“Did you mi-“

“Nope. No wrong teleports. Just a worried brother.”

Y/N chuckled, lightly patting the back of his shell “Sorry, forgot. Sore topic. Still on training wheels and all.”

“What does that even mean?”

“You are still a novice, now let’s move. I wanna get into the Battle Nexus and train and warm up before the first fight starts. Come on, old man.”

Y/N pulled her ninja hood up and moved the mask over her mouth. Leo couldn’t help but miss her full face. Now he can’t see how her mouth always quirked up right before she tries to deliver a new quip. The prouder she felt the more shit eating was that grin. He liked that grin.

Before the two entered the building Leo turned to her with a snicker “Do I gotta start referring to you as the Silver Magpie?”

Y/N poked his plastron, looking up into his eyes with her own narrowed ones “Oh no you don’t. I’ll kick you if you do.”

Now he was actually laughing, moving his hands up in defeat “Alright! Alright! Feisty today, aren’t we?”

With a roll of her eyes, Y/N moved again, grabbing Leo’s wrist to make sure he would come along.

They walked through the doors, Y/N ignored the counter with a secretary right in front of them but instead walked down a flight of stairs to walk into a small office. Never letting go of Leo who was walking along as if he was a lost child.

In the office sat a tired looking alligator yokai. When Y/N saw him, she hissed in surprise. At first this alarmed Leo, but Y/N let out a snort.

“What did you do to get put down on sign-in duty?”

The yokai let out a deep grumble what Leo thought must be his way to sigh.

“The nexus isn’t doing so hot at the moment. I’m filling in.”

For some reason Leo felt like he has seen this particular yokai before. So, he clearly worked for Big Mama, this wasn’t his usual position and Leo saw him somewhere.

That’s when it hit him “It’s you!” He but yelled out. Finger pointing at him.

The Alligator sighed again “Yeah. Well. You are lucky I’m off duty. I’m not the security chief right now. My second in command took over for the time being and frankly I’m way too tired to chase after you, turtle.”

Guess some of his adversaries only chase him around for the paycheck. No passion for their jobs nowadays.

“Anyway, Leatherhead. Write me down for the fights. I want my belt back. And, oh, he is my coach. Never had one but I think I have to tell you that. Might wanna use a nickname for him.”

He nodded “Yep. You got it. One Silver Magpie accompanied by Blue Bird written down.” Suddenly he stopped moving and stared at the paper in front of him, before he looked up again at Y/N with a mischievous expression. As mischievous as it can be with his teeth and huge snout.

“It’s good that you decided to come back again now.”

Y/N looked at him, eyebrows pulled together in a silent question.

“The people will be happy to see The Silver Magpie again. If you help bring Big Mama the money back in again, I’m sure she would be grateful towards you. Do good and I’m sure Mama will be happy to pay you extra.”

There was an understanding glint in Y/N’s eyes. At this point Leo knew her well enough to know that she must be grinning.

“Coach and I will go train then. I need to be ready to show off.”

He waved his huge, clawed hand dismissively towards her “Go ahead. You are a regular, I think I can fill the rest out for you.”

“You are a sweetheart!” Y/N just said and begun pulling Leo along again. Walking down the corridor to reach an open space outside with sandy ground. Other yokai were walking around, doing shadowboxing, swinging around weapons or fighting each other. Apparently this was one of the smaller arenas the Nexus sometimes used.

“So, as your coach I can order you to run like fifty rounds around here, right?” Leo asked as Y/N settled at one corner of the place, beginning to do her stretches.

“You could but I won’t do it. As a fellow ninja I can respect your abilities, but I doubt you warm up like that.”

Before Leo could retort to one of her rare compliments, that definitely didn’t inflate his ego at all, there was suddenly a fox yokai standing behind Y/N, coughing to get her attention.

He wore traditional Japanese clothing and with the sword at his side it screamed Samurai to him.

He had one of his eyebrows pulled up as he carefully eyed Y/N up and down “You… are a ninja?” His voice was smooth as he spoke. He sounded well put together. Not the type of person Leo would think to meet here.

A bit confused by him suddenly approaching Y/N, she slowly nodded her head “Uh, yeah. Trained as a ninja. Curious or do you want to try to fight a ninja?”

The fox scoffed.

As if to see if Leo also heard that Y/N looked at him before pulling their attention back on the fox who took a few steps around them.

And then he let out a laugh.

“You are not ninja.”

“What the hell dude. I’m not walking around telling people what they are and what they aren’t. What’s your problem?” Y/N crossed her arms, squaring her shoulders. Leo took unconsciously a step towards her. As a fellow ninja he felt insulted on her behalf.

“Tell me, ninja.” He practically spat out the word “How come that you are here when you are meant to be in the shadows. This place is not for ninja. You might believe you are, but you are lying to yourself.”

“Well, this ninja wants to earn a good paycheck and get better at martial arts. The way you speak I’m surprised you are still walking around and not dust already with how ancient your views are.”

Leo recognized this tone of voice. It’s the one Y/N used to direct towards him. Now that he was not involved, he was surprised how hostile it sounded. Maybe now that the two were friends his memory was skewed?

“Who are you that you can tell her what she can and can’t do?” Leo finally spoke. Not liking the look of all of this.

The fox looked at Leo “I’m Akira and I’m a samurai. I’m here for glory and honor.”

Y/N and Leo immediately locked eyes, both bursting into laughter. It took a few moments for them to calm themselves down again. Oh, this was too good.

Y/N wiped a tear away that threatened to run down towards her dark mask “Oh man. Listen Akira, you won’t find honor here. Glory? Money? Maybe. But honor? No. Not when you deal with Big Mama in any capacity.” She might be a lot of things but not self-aware wasn’t one of them. Well, sometimes.

“Why should I trust the word of a ninja. You work from the shadows, you are tricksters, you don’t know the first thing about honor.” Akira was fast to retort.

Y/N moved closer, putting her hands on her hips “Listen here furball. You were the one who approached me! You were the one who made wild accusations out of nowhere! I’m telling you how it is! You can either take it or leave it! I’ll be training and hey if you are lucky, we both will meet one day to fight in the arena. I’ve been fighting here for years now. I know how this works and I can tell you, with your attitude, you will sink. And believe me, I will watch. Now move along and leave me be. I have actually important things to do. I don’t need to try to belittle my opponents, so I have a chance to win because I’m actually good at what I do.”

The yokai scoffed, turning around to do whatever he was doing before he thought this was a good idea.

“God damn superiority complex.” Y/N grumbled as she turned around towards Leo.

Leo looked at her for a long second “Do you tend to make enemies wherever you go?”

He expected a laugh from Y/N, but she just stared at him.

“No. This is only a thing I do for special people apparently. Fair, when we two met, I was a bit cocky and all, but I was trying to impress Big Mama, but this here was just plain unnecessary. I don’t want to waste my thoughts on this weirdo. Let’s train, Leo.”

“Well training it is. Don’t want you to eat dirt here, as your coach this would look horrible on me.”

This finally elicited a chuckle from Y/N.

According to Y/N the first few fights were mostly against monsters. Some sort of plant, beast like beings. Those were mostly there to weed out the weaklings. Haha, get it? It does start with four people in the same ring as they try to defeat as many as possible.

Leo was allowed to sit at the sidelines since he was officially written down as her coach. It was just as a way so that he didn’t have to be stuck with the other viewers and Y/N promised she’d deal with Big Mama should she catch wind of him being there. And apparently Leo lives in a crazy enough world now where he trusted Y/N like that.

When Y/N walked into the arena with the other three fighters, Leo could already see how tense she was with how she was swinging her sword around in anticipation. And judging by the simple fact that Akira stood next to her with crossed arms, he wagered that her being tense wasn’t because of the upcoming fight.

As expected, Y/N didn’t have a lot of trouble with the monsters. Flipping and jumping around as if this was just another Thursday, which to her very much was. After all it wasn’t her first time going into the ring.

Leo did understand Y/N’s outfit a bit more now. The way that the silver scarf flew behind her, combined with the lights of the arena, it did kind of look like silvery wings. Only if you squinted though.

There were people in the audience who held up posters and cards, screaming out Y/N’s stage name. Sometimes he forgot that she was a known quantity here.

At one point Y/N stood in the middle of the arena while the other fighters fought, she moved her hands up in a manner to encourage the audience to cheer louder. Even doing some spinning flips to egg them on. It worked. The lights were on Y/N like a spotlight and between all the general yelling and screaming there were a few “Silver Magpie!” No wonder Big Mama appreciated her the way she was able to make the audience roar.

This must have annoyed Akira since from that point every time Y/N was about to deal with another newly grown plant monster, he swooped in and dealt with it in her stead. Leo didn’t need to be in the ring to see how Y/N was getting more and more frustrated. She tried her best to combat his aggressive attacks by using her speed to weave through the chaos and deal her own strikes.

At this point the other two contestants were forgotten. This was clearly now only a power struggle between Y/N and Akira. The time was up, and the fighters walked out of the arena. It took a good few minutes before Y/N returned. Leo was greeted by an icy stare, the last time he saw that one was way back when he and Y/N had another one of their fights and he just kept teleporting her a few feet away from him, all the while he made comments about her being all out of breath while he was fine. This was a day where he particularly pissed her off.

He grimaced “Hey, fighter. You did awesome!”

She grabbed his arm and began pulling him out of the Battle Nexus “Big Mama will have to pay me if I have to keep dealing with that asshole.”

“Doesn’t she already pay you?”

“Only for special fights. Basically, buys me to fight for her to rile up the people. This? This here is all about the price money at the end. It’s also the best way to get your name out and for me it’s amazing for training since all kinds of new people appear but also shows that I’m still useful to Big Mama.”

She stopped moving when they were out of the building. Heaving a heavy sigh.

“That bad, huh?”

“I’m this close to committing manslaughter, Leo.” When she held her fingers up to show the exact amount, her fingers were touching.

Leo blinked “Oh, damn. You already killed him? Do I need to help to hide the body?”

“No, just the amount is so small it’s hard to see. Let’s just go. The next fight will be in the next few days. Actually no, wanna train a bit? We haven’t fought in a while. Like properly. I need to work through my frustration.”

When Leo laughed, Y/N just stared at him confused.

“It’s just weird. This is how you used to react to me and now I’m the person helping you through your anger.”

“Oh, this is nothing. There were times where you got under my skin worse than this.” She chuckled and laid her hand on his shoulder “Don’t worry, Leo. You will always be my number one.”

“Good because if I get beaten by that weird dude that would be a bit of a blow to my ego, not gonna lie. I worked hard for that position.”

During training for the championship Akira would sometimes approach Y/N and the two just began spitting out insults. The fights where both were involved riled the audience up more since it was obvious the two tried to show each other up.

Made only sense that the Battle Nexus would begin pairing the two up for every challenge.

This meant though that Y/N would meet up with Leo and just grumble about Akira and what stupid stuff he said last time during prep or during fights.

One day Y/N burst into Leo’s room unannounced, throwing herself on his bed with a huge groan.

“Knock knock. Who’s there? Y/N, can I come in? Yes, of course my lovely friend, you may! It’s nice to see you! Aw, thank you Leo! It’s so good to see you!”

He gave her a pointed look, but she had her hands on her face, a muffled yell came out behind them.

“Okay. So. What’s up?” He sat down next to her on the bed.

She was an emotional person so it didn’t surprise him to see her like this and yet something big must have happened.

Only a muffled mess came out of her mouth, Leo couldn’t understand anything. So, he just carefully grabbed her wrists and pulled them away from her despair ridden expression.

“Can you say that again now?”

Her wrists still in his gentle grasp.

“He got a name!”

Leo narrowed his eyes “I feel like I’m missing something essential here. Almost sounds like your son received a name and you, as the horrible mother that you are, are in despair over that.”

Y/N just rolled her eyes. Not even a chuckle. Yikes.

“No, you don’t get it. Big Mama gave Akira a stage name. The Samurai Blitz. Stupid name but that’s just Big Mama, I guess. Do you know what that means though?”

When Leo shook his head, Y/N sat up, never removing her arms out of Leo’s own hands. He was at this point rubbing circles with his thumb into her skin, trying to distract her a bit from her anger.

“Basically, that means Big Mama is sponsoring him. He is going to be one of the main fighters in the Battle Nexus and do you know what that in return means?”

Once again, he shook his head.

“I’m stuck with him! Knowing Big Mama, she will try to schedule fights between us, and you know me. I’d love nothing more than to beat the snot out of him but it’s just… frustrating!”

“Well, he is a newcomer, and you are like one of their star fighters. Just beat him up in the fight then maybe Big Mama will drop him?” Frankly he had no idea, and this sounded easier than it was, but he wanted to ease her anger and worries a bit.

“Maybe. I hope. Let’s just do something else so I can ignore this whole part of my life for a moment?”

“I came up with a new skating trick using portals. Wanna see?”

Y/N laughed, Leo has been trying to teach her skateboarding since this was apparently something she never did “Yes, of course. Go ahead, Master Leonardo.”

The next time Akira’s name came up was when Y/N and he had to fight for the next spot in the championship. Y/N really began to drill herself and basically trained every free moment. She was tense. Her temper short and downright petty at moments. Being frankly used to her being petty towards him, Leo tried his best to help where he could.

Leo wanted to watch her big fight but alas crime doesn’t like to call in to make an appointment.

When he did have time though he made his way towards the Battle Nexus, expecting to see Y/N in front of it after having texted her that he would be coming over. When he couldn’t find her, he snuck in to investigate the pre-fight locker rooms.

Y/N was still sitting on a bench. Her arms propped on her legs, leaning over.

“Hey, Y/N.” he almost whispered, trying not to scare her.

It took a moment for her to look up, her expression was somber. Leo couldn’t help the small pang of guilt seeing her like that. Wishing he could have been there for her fight since whatever happened made her upset. He preferred her smile much more than seeing her like this.

“Did you… loose?”

Honestly, it happens. She knows it. But he also knew that one loss wouldn’t hit her that hard. Sure, might be annoyed but this wasn’t the reaction he imagined on her. Something else happened.

“N-No…”

Now that confused him “So, you won? Why are you looking like someone just kicked your puppy?”

“Leo. He forfeited.”

“He… what? Why? That’s good though, right?”

She slowly nodded “Yeah. I guess. It’s just. We fought and suddenly he apologized and forfeited.”

Leo sat down on the bench in front of her “He apologized? For forfeiting?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. It felt like he tried to apologize for his comments before? But maybe not? I don’t know. It was weird. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. It’s just-“she stopped herself. Since her mask was down Leo could see her biting her lip. She was conflicted.

“It’s what?”

She shrugged “I don’t know. He was kind of sad. I worked myself up so much for this fight and then he just stood there all depressed and then he did this. I think I’m just still reeling from it all. I’m just confused.”

Not really knowing what to do, Leo moved to sit down next to her. Putting his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him “Well. Let’s get out of here. To me this means you won and that means I’m treating you to some good grub.”

She leaned softly against him “Food does sound good right now.”

“Onwards! To Run Of The Mill Pizza!” he exclaimed, throwing his fist into the air as if he was about to run into battle.

“What did your dad do wrong that you guys are so obsessed with pizza? Or is it a mutant thing?”

“So, you are saying no to pizza?”

“No! No. Pizza is good.”

At first Leo didn’t think much about all of this. Akira somehow might have changed his mind or someone else laid into him for being stupid. With his personality? Very possible. Or he simply didn’t saw any honor in fighting Y/N but if that was the case, he knew that Y/N would have caught on that fact and would have been even more angry.

Then Y/N told Leo that she met Akira in the Hidden City. A chance meeting apparently. And while she still grumbled about him acting all high and mighty the two did apparently start talking. After all Y/N was very much curious as to why he forfeited the fight.

It was then that a thought entered Leo’s mind “Huh, that sounds very much like what me and Y/N went through. Funny.” It wasn’t funny. Somehow it made him feel uneasy even.

Leo was on the phone with Y/N while she had to spend some time with her family, and he was busy taking care of his weapons. They might be mystical and stuff, but they still needed care.

“Ah, sorry. I’m busy on Saturday. Got a fight and you know how much I love my fights.” Her voice came from his phone that he had at this point on his desk.

“Oh, I know, Bruiser. Knuckles. Gym Bro.” He counted off more stupid martial arts related nicknames, making Y/N sigh.

“I swear. Give a man a bruise once and he will never let you forget it.”

Leo paused “Y/N. You gave me more bruises than I can count. You almost broke my wrist once!”

“Oh, don’t start this, Leo! It takes two to tango! Because of you I couldn’t use my right foot for like four weeks! You sprained it!” It was a bit funny how the static of the phone speaker mixed in with her loud exclamations. It really added to her mock anger.

“Alright! Got it! We both suck. Anyway, what kind of fight is it on Saturday? Thought there wasn’t anything scheduled for you then, Miss Champion.”

When Akira forfeited, her biggest danger to victory disappeared as well. To Leo it just made sense that she managed to reclaim her title. She was good at what she did, he knew from firsthand experience after all.

She hummed thoughtfully “Mhm, yeah. I’m just meeting up with Akira for a fight.”

Wait did he hear that correctly?

“You are meeting up with Akira? You know the guy that you love to complain about? The dude who insulted your whole family one time?”

Reminding her of this, she let out an annoyed groan “Yeah, I know! It’s just… Apparently things happened, and he wants to fight me in a less official manner. So, we decided on a neutral space to meet up and just fight. You know. For training purposes.”

This really reminded him of… well him and her. The exact same happened. The roof being a neutral space where they met up just to talk about whatever. When it all started, they also met up often to fight. Trying to figure each other out.

“Huh.”

“I don’t need to see your face to know that something about this isn’t sitting well with you. What’s up? I promise I won’t be stupid.”

“No, it’s not that.” He paused. He didn’t know what to say, really. It just felt weird to him. Something about this just rubbed him the wrong way “Do you want a referee? I could play one.”

There was an awkward silence. Maybe it was just awkward to him. He hoped it was.

“It’s not that I don’t want you there, it’s just… You know how he is not a people person and this kind of just feels personal? I don’t know. It’s a thing between the two of us.”

“Oh, yeah. Got it. No problem.” He chuckled. Trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach.

Luckily Y/N picked the conversation up again by talking about what she has been up to with her family as well as talking about her favorite topic, training. Soon the conversation flowed more naturally again.

He couldn’t let go of the weird pit in his stomach. It even stayed the day after. He just felt like there was something up with Akira. He said sorry, forfeited and now he searched her out? He seemed to have such a low opinion of ninja in general as well. Leo knew something was wrong, he just couldn’t put his finger on it.

But what he knew was that Y/N wanted to meet him on Saturday and he bet he even knew where. He sparred with her enough to know a lot of her favorite training places.

Maybe it was rude for him to sneak into the Hidden City to keep an eye on Y/N. Maybe it was petty even. But he just wanted to make sure she would be fine! Usually, his gut feeling was pretty accurate, after all. Besides he’ll stay far enough away that she won’t notice him. Even as a fellow ninja.

This wasn’t him not trusting her, this was him just being a worried friend. If anything, he didn’t trust Akira. At all. Y/N could be an ass at times, but she was also forgiving, and he feared that Akira took advantage of that.

He found her at the Hidden City beach with Akira. The two were just casually chatting. He could sometimes see the two cocking one of their eyebrows up accusingly. And for a while they just stood there talking. He wasn’t close enough to hear anything, but he could tell both were somewhat tense. Both had their hands each on their own sword.

Suddenly Y/N’s hands moved to remove her hood and mask. Leo couldn’t fathom why she would do that. Not to Akira. Hell, it even took a while for her to show her face to his brothers.

And then both shook their hands with a smile. Letting go to walk a few paces back. She got her sword out and Akira followed suit.

Both fought with only one sword, but each had their own stance. Akira’s exuded more aggression while Y/N’s was more defensive.

And then they dashed at each other.

Their sword making immediate contact. Akira wasn’t deterred, trying to push with his strength and weight against Y/N. In return Y/N pressed once with all her strength at his sword, giving her the chance to jump back a few feet.

Akira immediately pursued her. Striking at her with all he got but Y/N being nimble dodges his strikes. Jumping around him, flipping over his head to try to strike his back.

The two almost fell in a bit of a dance. Their swords making contact every now and again. Y/N moving around Akira in fluid motion while he attacked with powerful and precise blows. Sometimes she would throw throwing stars towards him to distract him, but he was able to block them with his sword, not scared to use his feet or shoulder to push her.

While their fight was impressive and interesting to watch how both were able to work off of each other, Leo’s attention was on something else.

They were smiling. Both looked focused when they started out but as they kept going, getting a sense of each other’s fighting style, smiles snuck onto their faces.

They had fun and Leo did not like that. That was something he and Y/N used to do. Meeting up at a quiet place to fight. Test each other’s mettle. It’s how they got to know each other! It’s how they became friends. It was their thing. Hell, this was one of their first places they met for a sparring match.

Leo ducked down behind the rock he was hiding. Grimacing. He was jealous, wasn’t he? Of Akira? No, what Y/N and he had was special. They worked hard to earn each other’s trust, their friendship being stronger for it. But here the two were, fighting each other like how Leo and Y/N used to do and smiling with awe and excitement in their eyes. What was this all about anyway?

Was this even the first time the two fought like that? Y/N would tell him if she met up with Akira, right? Why wouldn’t she? Well, she did say this was something personal.

He hated it. The mixed feelings and the uncertainty and the worst part of all of this was that normally when he was conflicted like that he would go to Y/N with it. He can’t possibly go to Y/N right now. But then again, maybe she’d understand? This was horrible. Annoying. He wanted to bash his hand against the surface of the rock.

A few hours later, when Y/N returned to her own apartment, she didn’t expect to see Leo standing in front of her door in his casual human get up. She didn’t get any texts from him on her phone as well, so this was definitely a surprise.

“How long have you been standing here?” She asked, her keys hanging uselessly from her finger.

Leo gasped in surprised, he was too deep in his own thoughts that he didn’t even notice her walking up to her own home.

“Uh, wha-?”

“How long have you been waiting in front of my home? Also scoot so I can unlock my door.” She was light on her feet. Acting like she just came back from a grocery run instead from a fight with an incredibly annoying person she should dislike.

He did as she asked so she could let herself and Leo into her apartment. He had been in here a couple of times. A few of those times the two might have broken a few things when they began rough housing a bit. Rest in peace coffee table. You held their snacks bravely until both Y/N and Leo jumped up on you.

“Not long. Wanted to check up on you. How was the battle? Did you commit manslaughter?” Not his finest work, it still made Y/N chuckle, making his heart beat faster in relief.

She walked with Leo into the kitchen, pushing off the hood and mask, grabbing some things out of the fridge to make a sandwich. In a silent question she held the bread into the air.

“Not hungry.” He settled down on the chair at her kitchen table. He was a bit unsettled that she didn’t immediately start to complain about Akira like she used to.

She moved her back to Leo, now concentrating on preparing her food.

“No, by the way. No manslaughter committed. Just a fair fight. Won this one, though.” She sounded happy. Naturally but she didn’t gloat like Leo expected her too.

Leo furrowed his brows “This one?”

“Well technically we fought before in the arena. This was just the first time we actually finished it.”

“And he actually was fighting fair?”

She chuckled “Yep. He did. He does take his honor seriously after all, even if his people skills say otherwise.”

“And you are okay with all of this? Not wondering what’s up with his sudden change of mind and all? It is a bit suspicious, right?”

This time Y/N finally turned around, her brows furrowed as well but out of confusion not anger “Leo, what is going on? If you have something to say, then just say it.”

He huffed, hesitating for a moment. What did he want to tell her? There was a lot actually but nothing too coherent. There were emotions that swirled around in him, unpleasant ones. “I don’t think you should meet up with Akira alone like that. Could be dangerous.”

“What?” She was genuinely confused at his statement. It did kind of come out of nowhere.

“Sure, he didn’t pull anything this time but who knows what will happen next time. Are you sure he isn’t taking advantage of your good nature?”

She scoffed “What? You think I’m that stupid to let something like that happen? Besides, I know a few things about him now. Don’t get me wrong I’m still kind of pissed at him for certain things but his behavior makes sense now, you know?”

At this point Leo was bouncing his leg. Nervous but also anger slowly making their way to the forefront of his mind. She was just dismissing these valid worries without a second thought! What possibly could he have told her to make her change her mind like that.

“Are you certain he didn’t just dish you a sob story, so he had an easier time to get on your good side?”

Leo flinched when Y/N suddenly slammed her hands on the table. He must have hit a nerve.

“Oh, because you would know, right? You talked to him and heard his side of all of this, right? Leo, I didn’t forget all the stupid things he said but I’m ready to move on!”

His eyes traveled to her hands that were slowly forming into fists “Why, though? Why does he deserve that?” It was a simple question.

To her though, she looked at him like he just said something incredibly stupid “Are you- Are you serious?”

Leo leaned forward, his eyes firmly locked onto hers “I am. I think this all is a huge mistake.”

She let out a huge sigh, as if she was trying to release the emotions that were slowly building up inside of her “May I remind you that if I hadn’t been so gracious to offer my hand to you first, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation? I know what I’m doing! I’m being cautious! You are acting like he will kill me!”

Leo threw his hands into the air “He is from the Hidden City! There are yokai around that threaten and do eat each other when they just make weird eye contact with each other! But right, you work for Big Mama, as if you’d have actually a good sense when it comes to people from there.”

“Oh, fuck you, Leo! I probably know more about the Hidden City and its people than you! The hell is your problem!”

He groaned, feeling like they were going around in circles “If you’d listen to me you would know! Just listen for once! I’m positive that Akira has some sort of- of- of hidden agenda!”

Y/N laughed in disbelief “Oh my god, you have lost it! What could he possible do with me that would be beneficial to him like that? If anything, we both know he is your typical honor boy, he wouldn’t pull anything weird! This is all so hypocritical of you! You were not long ago in Akira’s shoes yourself! If I would do as you said I would also have to cut contact with you, you absolute idiot!”

At this point, both were raising their voices. The tension was getting worse by the second as both stared angrily at each other. Leo was just trying to warn her, but she just ignored everything he said!

“Hey, you know we both worked on trusting each other! We put actual work into it! Do you think a nice walk and sparring match at the beach is enough?! Come on! Use your head!”

“I am! That’s why I’m so frustrated with you because you-“ she stopped yelling at him, her eyes widening as realization hit her, “The beach? Leo. How did you know that?”

God damn it. He screwed up. Big time.

“You- You watched us! You spied on me! I knew something felt off!” Her voice cut right into Leo, guilt settled down in his gut like a heavy boulder.

“No! I just- I had to be sure he didn’t try anything… I had one of those feelings and-“

He barely managed to stumble through the sentence before Y/N cut him off, shaking her head “No! That is not a good enough reason to fucking spy on me! I can understand you not trusting Akira, but you clearly don’t even trust me! You just said that we worked on building up this trust but, Leo, what trust? Not only do you not trust me when I want to work on getting past this animosity I have with Akira, but you also felt the need to spy on me as if I didn’t know how to defend myself if push came to shove! I know what I’m doing!”

Finally, Leo stood up as well, he might tower over Y/N by a good few inches, but she didn’t look intimidated at all. She just kept staring right into his eyes, silently challenging him.

“I do trust you! I really do! I was just-“

Again Y/N interrupted him, which infuriated the turtle even more “You are such a hypocrite! At first you are trying to forbid me from hanging out with Akira when you never once took the chance to talk to him yourself and now as it turns out you spy on me! Have you done this before? Was this even the first time? It’s so obvious you are just grasping for straws at this point!”

When Leo tried to open his mouth to retort, Y/N was faster “You are such an ass, Leonardo.”

Leo growled as his frustration finally reached the boiling point “I was jealous, okay!?”

This time when Y/N opened her mouth it was out of shock. No sound coming out of her as she processed these words.

Leo clenched his jaw “Okay, here. I admit it. I was jealous! I did have a bad feeling about him, which is why I followed you, and then I saw you fight and… and I couldn’t help but think that was our thing! And I know it’s stupid! It’s just- Fuck. Y/N I’m crushing on you hard and when I saw you two fight, I was just- I was scared, okay? I was scared I’d somehow lose you!”

Y/N was sometimes opening her mouth as if trying to say something only to snap her jaws shut again. She was visibly fighting with herself as she searched for the right words, no doubt overwhelmed with this whole situation.

Leo acted ridiculous, hurt her trust in him and then just suddenly dropped this bombshell on her. That was a lot. When her eyes glazed over in unshed tears, Leo’s feeling of guilt pulled even heavier on him.

He took a deep breath, trying to ground himself again. Most of the hot air seemed to have left both of them.

“I’m genuinely sorry, Y/N. My emotions took the better of me and I didn’t fight that at all. It all started because I had a bad feeling when it came to Akira because I thought he would do something but at the beach I realized I was jealous. The worst part is, I then took me frustration out on you of all people. I wanted to talk this through with you but… emotions… You don’t deserve this.”

God, he was an idiot. What did he expect to happen? He knew what the problem was. He was the problem from the very start and here he tried to push it on Akira and Y/N. That was unfair. That’s not how friends should treat each other. He broke the trust the two worked so hard on establishing.

He really was a hypocrite and an ass.

“I’m gonna leave you be. This is my fault not yours. If you want to talk this through, I’ll be there. If you don’t wanna talk to me for a while or at all, I can understand.”

Y/N was still standing in the kitchen like a statue. Her wide eyes following his movements as he suddenly went from angry to sad. Suddenly admitting to what was the underlying issue here. She knew that something else must have happened since this argument from the start was weird but this, she did not expect.

When she didn’t react, Leo slowly turned around and took a few steps to walk out of her apartment, but a warm hand landed on his arm. Stopping him in his tracks.

Surprised Leo turned around to see Y/N standing right in front of him.

“Y/N?”

Instead of saying anything she just pulled Leo into a big hug. Wrapping her arms around his neck. Confused by this, frankly undeserving, display of affection, Leo couldn’t help but stare at her as she let out a soft sob mixed with a chuckle.

She let go of him to wipe at her eyes, her other hand still laying on his shoulder “God. You are stupid.”

He couldn’t help but let out a chuckle himself “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“We really need to work on our communication.”

“Well, I do, for sure. This time this is all on me, but I’m, uh, you still want to be friends? Even after this stupid thing I pulled? Because I can understand it if you need some time for yourself and all.” Even after the hug he was still surprised by this. He was overjoyed if this was the case, but he still expected her to take a few days for herself to sort through this all.

The smile on her face softened, her eyes were now full with an unexplained warm expression Leo couldn’t pinpoint. He just knew it was far removed from the expression a minute ago when the two were still arguing.

“You remember when I told you, you will always be my number one?”

He nodded.

Instead of answering him, Y/N laid her arms back around his neck and slowly pulled him down, while she leaned up. Planting her lips softly on his own.

What?

Leo was happy, overjoyed even, as she suddenly kissed him, but he was equally as confused at this point. He didn’t deserve this.

Y/N broke the kiss off “I really meant it when I said it.”

“But- I just- I was so- Why?”

“I’ve had a crush on you for ages, numbnuts.”

Finally, the heat rushed to Leo’s head. He was sure that his blush was obvious at this point and together with his flabbergasted expression, this must look quite amusing.

“I screwed up though…” He almost whispered.

She nodded, agreeing with him “Yeah, but you apologized and call me crazy, but I know that I can talk this through with you. We used to literally beat each other up multiple times a week and we managed to get through that. I’m willing to work through this as well. Are you?”

Of course, he was. Leo nodded. In awe at her forgiveness but also still reeling from her own confession.

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. I’m really, really sorry.”

“I know.”

Suddenly Leo laughed “Oh my god, you like me!”

Y/N burst out into laughter as well “Yeah, I do! Glad you caught up!”

“Can… Can I kiss you?”

She let out an amused snort that he knew she thought was embarrassing but he thought was adorable “Yeah. You can. Let’s chill out today and tomorrow we can talk about all of this.”

He didn’t give her a proper reply. Instead, his hand flew towards her neck, pulling her up against him again, placing his own lips softly on hers.

[mrfelixfischoeder]

Chesterlypso - 7 >:)

7- Write about one member of your ship asking the other to dance with them.

WEHEHE i love this but also SURPRISE CHALYPSO

The hall is loud – the band the reverend hired were a tad unusual. Mary supposes with the rise of the Unmentionables, musicians are finding it harder to get jobs outside their comfort zone. So what little they had, they made do: be it the strings are far more violent and the drums louder and heavier. She does note that Orlaag’s charge, Olena, stands on stage with her violin. She is good. Unfortunate that her business seems to lie in the unknown than music. She sits at her table, happily sipping her sherry as she listens to Angie discuss her most recent commission from Orlaag.

“You seem to be quite good with him,” her friend points out, and Mary shrugs.

“I find him easy in personality and in temperament.” She excuses. Though it is as if God thinks she cannot have too much of a good thing: Angie nudges her, head angling to their right, and Mary spares a glance, not making it obvious (the pair had made it their duty to be able to peer and peek and not be noticed for maximum information retention and gossip). Chesterfield approaches, snakelike eyes on the women.

“I’m not putting up with this,” Angie mutters behind her fan, “I’ll get you another drink, right?”

“No, Angie, do not leave me!” Mary hisses, trying to bring her back down onto her seat, but Angie is already up and resilient.

“I’m not gettin’ kicked out of another ‘do!” she replies, winking as she hides her smirk behind her fan. Mary grits her teeth, the fabric of Angie’s dress slipping through her fingers. Another meek ‘no!’ escapes before she straightens and clears her throat, feeling the shadow of a predator falling upon her.

“Miss Huggenkiss!” Dr Chesterfield smiles. He’s got a new suit jacket, velour and red. She despises it (it would look good on Charles). “I see you are alone. That simply will not do.”

“Oh, I find it quite adequate, Dr Chesterfield.” Mary scans the room over his shoulder for anyone she might make eye contact with. Unfortunately she already sees Roisin and Magnus sneaking out onto the balcony. Angie is following around a waiter. Finally Chesterfield leans into her vision, as casually as he can.

“Nonsense, you do not know adequacy quite like I do.” Mary wonders how he thinks these words might make any sort of positive impact, if that is even his intention. Suddenly he holds his arm up, “Come, I think a dance. I have not seen you on the floor once. Surely not all your dances are reserved for the Colonel, even in his absence?”

At the mention of Charles, Mary wants to bristle. Wants to know where he is. Wants to write him another letter. But instead she smiles, standing up, eye to eye with the doctor. “No, not only him. I keep all my friends in mind.” She makes a show of looking around, “Though you will do, if it eases your emotional state that I dance with you.”

She isn’t sure if he simply allows the comment or it’s flown over his head. But as soon as he turns, hand gripping hers a bit tightly, he grunts as he walks right into someone. Chesterfield nearly raises his voice, until he stares at the bespectacled man, still in uniform.

“Colonel!”

Charles, she thinks with a sigh of relief. The moment she sees him she slips out of Chesterfield’s hold and to his side, taking hold of Charles’ arm to make sure he is not a mirage.

“I do not mean to interrupt, but I do believe that ah – the first dance is at least reserved for me.” Charles explains, looking at Mary. As their eyes lock, her gaze softens entirely, and she doesn’t even feel the smile that is present on her face. He smiles back at the warm reception. He always feels prosperous when she shows him her beautiful smile. “That has been our deal for a very long time.”

“Yes!” Mary nods, soothing her tone, “Yes. Apologies.”

“Indeed, apologies for the interruption, Mr Chesterfield.”

“Doctor.”

“Hm.”

Charles turns with Mary, the pair effortlessly joining the crowd, leaving Chesterfield in the shadows.

[atrial-ofhorror-if]

Hey, hey y'all 👐🏿👐🏿 I meant to post this on November 27th, but my mom ended up having to go to the ER, and I ended up getting swept up and forgot about posting.

So, this months post will contain two months worth of information.

Clerical Update

Sooo... my laptop broke and I was out of commission for a LOOONNGG time. But its finally fixed, so ya girl is doing a little dance 💃🏿💃🏿💃🏿.

I've been fiddling with Twine, and I think I FINALLY fixed the theme 🥴🥴 see 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿

Of course, I have to fix the color scheme and figure out how to make the mobile UI setting box reflect the theme, but overall I feel like I'm moving in the semi-right direction? The one thing that is getting on my nerves so badly is the Theme! Like it feels so.... bland to me 😤😤!

What I wanted to do, was to have a little logo in the corner of the background for each theme. For example, Hunger Persists would have had some sort of serpent and a blood moon in the logo. I've been using HiEv's code + method of inputting images (and audio 👀👀) but for some reason it's not working??? This thing has been giving me a headache like no one's business. So, after I ran into this roadblock, I quit 😅😂.

Progress Update

Search and Destroy (Mark Route): 1%

To be Well (Alex’s Route): 39%

Intermission (TBA): 3%

I've officially reached 51k+ words 🎉🎉!!

I realized that most of the word count is stemming from the different choices that y'all can make. Alongside the different options based on personality/backgrounds.

I would say that I've gotten around 65% of the bones of Alex's route done. Once I get that done, I'll plump and fatten the rest of the route out. Mark's route will, hopefully, be easier to write since some scenes in Alex's route will be in Mark's (not the same content but similar enough so that I won't have to go too crazy with writing).

Hopefully next month, I can show you guys a lil sneak peek of the update 🤞🏿🤞🏿but we shall see.

I'm writing out the first spicy "read pentrative" sex scene between MC and Khalid, and as of now? I hate it 🥴🥴🥴 I have to keep reminding myself that it's just my first draft. It's gonna be ugly but I gotta keep going!

Next Month's Goal

Finish the Bones of Alex's route

Take a week break - I'm tired y'all, the burnout is real! 🥴🥴

Fix the Mobile UI and get those damn images to show up! Also fix the mp3 audio for the game.

I think thats it? If you guys have questions let me know! I'm still VERY slow to response so give me grace. Love y'all 🤎🤎

[lovesick-rambles]

Soft Pretzel

commission for: @bobmckenzie

summary: Richie visits Caitie while she's working about a week after the first time they met. They go on a little lunch date and try to read each other's flirting attempts.

word count: 2k

author's note: AHH CAITIE thank you so so much for letting me write this for you! This was such a cute plot idea and I enjoyed writing it so much! :)

Caitie leaned against the counter she was working behind, trying her best not to look too bored or like she wasn’t involved with working. It was a bit of a slow day in the department store she worked in since the mall usually didn’t get very busy until the weekends. She didn’t know which she didn’t like more: very slow, boring days or the days where hoards of people keep flooding in and demand to smell test every perfume they found. Well, actually, Caitie preferred the boring days since she’s usually terribly shy. But, it wasn’t that much better than being swarmed by customers looking for their new “signature” scent.

“Hey, you’re not falling asleep on the job, are ya?” A sudden voice from behind woke her up from her boredom and made her jump. She turned around to find Richie waiting for her from the other side of the counter. 

“Hi, Richie.” Caitie giggled sheepishly, “Would you believe me if I told you that I was wide awake and doing a stellar job instead of daydreaming about sneaking away early?”

“I hope you won’t take too much offense when I say no, I would not believe you.” He gave her a goofy smirk, “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

“Thank God for your generosity.” She smiled, “Can I help you with anything?”

Richie thought for a moment, “Well, I was just strolling around here in this mall and then remembered this department store and figured that I needed a new cologne so…who better to ask than you?” That was a partial truth. The lie was that Richie just so happened to stop by the department store that Caitie worked at. The truth was that he actually planned on going to the mall a day or two ago just to catch Caitie on the job so he’d have an excuse to see her. Another truth was that he was looking for a cologne. He had been wanting to find a scent that was perfect for him for some time now and knew that she worked in the perfume counter, so she would know more about this type of stuff than anyone else. He just never found the right time or courage to ask her about it, so what better time to ask than when she was at work?

Caitie was touched that he trusted her advice enough to ask, “I would be happy to find you the perfect cologne! What type were you thinking? Do you have a specific kind of smell in mind?”

He paused before asking, “There’s different kinds?” He started to feel slightly embarrassed about his lack of knowledge, but felt reassured when she gave him a nod and went to explain the different types. She wasn’t judgemental at all, in fact, she seemed more than happy to talk about it with him. Even with her knowledge on the subject of perfumes and colognes, Richie still didn’t fully grasp it. He rested his elbow on the counter, “I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really know what to pick. I’m a master at movie knowledge, not perfume. Do you think you could pick for me?”

“Hey, we all have our talents.” Caitie giggled, “Of course! I’d be happy to pick something out for you. Thank you for trusting my judgment.”

“So, uh, what did you think of that movie we went to see last week?” He asked suddenly, watching Caitie as she knelt down to eye all the colognes in front of her.

“You mean the one we saw with Gus, Liz, and Clark?” She asked back, biting her tongue afterwards. She felt silly asking him to specify when that was the first time they met and actually spent time together. Her finger traced the edge of the shelf as she studied the scents in front of her. Woodsy, musky, sweet, all different kinds. As she thought about which ones to present to him, she was silently cheering that he finally asked her about that night. Last week, all she wanted was to try to have one conversation with him but he seemed a little too tense to say more than five words to her. At least he seemed a little more relaxed today.

Richie nodded but then realized she couldn’t see him while she was kneeling down, so he quickly said, “Yeah, what did you think?”

Caitie shrugged and grabbed a few different kinds of scents for him to test, “I dunno. It was good, I think! I’m not an expert like you, of course. But, I had fun.” She then stood up and set up the colognes in a row for him, gesturing for him to give them a smell test. 

“Really? You think I’m an expert?” He laughed, “See, in school, that would’ve gotten me at least a Wet Willy. And that’s if I was lucky!” Richie grabbed one of the colognes and gave it a whiff, scrunching his face up immediately afterwards. He felt a little embarrassed by his reaction and tried to cover it up by putting that one back and going to pick up a different one.

Caitie noticed his dislike of the first one and laughed a little, “Too sweet for you? That’s alright.” She took that one away and put it back on the shelf, “You definitely know more than me! I think it’s cool!”

“Well, you’re pretty cool for thinking that I’m cool.” Richie’s flirting has never been the best. Growing up the awkward nerdy kid never did him any favors in the romance department. He cringed at his own attempt at smooth talking and hesitantly sniffed the second cologne option. This one was a lot better than the first, actually. It wasn’t so abrasive and intense. It was milder and more musky instead of a sickeningly sweet smell that burned his nostrils. 

Caitie let out a soft giggle at his clumsy flirting, blushing a little at it, “Is that the scent for you, Cool Guy?”

He handed it to her proudly and smiled, “I think it is! I owe this fine discovery to you.”

“Aw, shucks. Let me wrap that up for you.” She took it from his hand and pulled out a piece of tissue paper to protect the bottle. While carefully wrapping it, she paused and looked up at him, “It looks like you are my last customer before my lunch break. Aren’t you lucky?”

“Oh, funny how that works out! I was going to get a hot pretzel for lunch.” Richie watched her ring up the cologne he picked out and handed her the money, “Would you, uh, let me buy you one? As thanks for helping me pick out a scent.”

She took the money and traded it for the cologne, “I would love that!”

“Really? Uh, I mean,” He coughed awkwardly, trying to put on a cool guy persona to hide the massive not-so-secret crush he had on her, “Cool. Very, very cool.”

Caitie stepped out from behind her counter and set up a little sign that said “Be back soon!” and grinned at Richie. He returned her smile and strolled out of the department store with her to head to the food court to grab lunch together. They walked and talked about anything that came to mind, mainly to fill the small awkward silence. Caitie tried to decipher his body language when Richie was around her, trying to see if they’re hints at any deeper feelings towards her. She couldn’t deny that she was a little jittery around him and how she nervously played with her hands more than she usually did. Insecure thoughts flooded her head and consistently told her that there was no way Richie had a crush on her like she had on him. She told herself that she was just some shy department store employee who felt the need to have a small sense of control and that she wasn’t anything special, especially not to Richie. But then again, it did seem like he was flirting with her, even if it was a little juvenile and clumsy. So, maybe she was being too harsh on herself too soon. 

Richie whistled and waved his hand in front of her face, catching her attention, “Hey, Caitie? Are you with me?”

“Huh? Sorry!” She shook her head to snap herself back to the present, “Guess I got lost in my head.”

He gave her a small smile, “Were you busy thinking about how cute I am?”

“What?” She asked, her face heating up intensely, “I-I was just getting distracted by what I’m going to do when I go home! Uh, like what movie I wanna watch!” Her voice wavered and she stuttered over her words a little, trying her best to make a convincing poker face. He was right, though. She was busy thinking about how she found him cute.

He couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m joking! A nerd like me isn’t really the type to be thought about that way. Anyway, what kind of pretzel do you want?”

Caitie was frozen in her spot. Her mind was doing backflips overanalyzing that brief interaction and she convinced herself that she looked like a total dork in front of Richie. She searched his face for any sign of reassurance or confirmation of her worries, and she saw that he was only waiting patiently for her.

“Still lost in that head of yours?” He asked, snickering a little, “Want me to just order two of the same thing? It’ll make your life easier.”

“Yeah! I’ll have whatever you’re having!” She started to calm down a little and feel better about everything. He was still around, still joking with her, seemingly interested in her. Caitie still questioned whether or not he was interested in her romantically or not but for the time being, she decided to put those wonders to rest and just enjoy getting lunch with him.

They were just about to order when a voice behind them boomed, “Is that Richie Bitchy I see?”

They turned around to see Jerry standing there with a smug look on his face. Richie let out an annoyed sigh, “Yes, it’s me, Fairy Jerry.”

Jerry’s smirk fell a little at being called “Fairy Jerry”, but it quickly returned when he noticed Caitie was standing beside Richie. A cruel laugh escaped his throat and he pointed at her, “Aww, did you actually get someone to go on a pity date with you? That’s so…Wow! That’s adorable.”

“U-Uh,” Is all Richie could muster. This was weird, usually he was able to come up with insults quickly, even if they weren’t that great. But now, his throat felt closed up and he couldn’t even force himself to speak. He was so used to being the one insulted and having to stick up for himself, not have someone he cared about insulted because of him.

“What are you even doing with a clown like this, huh?” Jerry asked Caitie, continuing to antagonize Richie, “He’s a clown! You must have lost a bet or something, right?”

Richie was mortified. He wasn’t a stranger to being bullied or being seen negatively. But to be humiliated like this was a whole other story. He swallowed thickly, silently cursing himself. There was no way Caitie would be interested in him now, if she even was to begin with.

“Excuse me,” Caitie said flatly, “If I lost a bet, I guarantee that my punishment would be going on a date with you.”

“Huh?” Jerry and Richie said at the same time, surprised at her boldness.

“I would be caught dead being seen with someone who peaked in high school.” She went on, appalled at Jerry’s gall, “Let alone, someone who comes up with such boring insults. Really? ‘Richie Bitchy’? How long did it take you to come up with that one?”

“Seriously? You’re defending that?” Jerry asked her, not knowing how else to respond.

Caitie looked at Richie, who looked absolutely dumbfounded. He didn’t think it was possible, but her sticking up for him made his crush on her grow even more. She then scoffed at Jerry, “Why don’t you go back to your Little League team and yell at them for a sense of control, hmm?”

With that, she turned around and pulled Richie with her to grab some pretzels. Richie was still speechless with his mouth slightly agape. He then snapped out of it to order their lunch and then walked with her back to the department store.

He laughed, “Well, still. That was super cool of you.”

“...Wow.” He finally spoke, taking a bite of his pretzel, “That was…really cool. Thank you.”

Caitie shrugged, “Bullies never grow up. He needed someone to put him in his place.”

She was a little sad their time together had to come to an end, but was happy with how things played out. She finished up her pretzel and turned to face him.

“Well, this is my stop.” She frowned a little, “Thank you for lunch.”

“Sure.”

Caitie looked behind Richie and saw Jerry was still there. He was standing in one spot awkwardly and looking over at them every now and then, trying to look inconspicuous. Then, a wave of confidence washed over her and she gently planted a kiss on Richie’s cheek.

“Promise me you’ll visit me again sometime?” She asked, a sweet smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Richie placed a hand over the cheek she kissed, once again taken aback. He coughed, trying to force the words out, “Definitely.”

Her smile grew wider, “Cool. See you then, Richie.”

She turned and left him standing there in front of the store, his hand still on his cheek. He didn’t know Jerry was there behind him or that Jerry definitely saw that she kissed him. All that mattered now was that his humiliation faded into obscurity as soon as she did that. His ego was boosted to a level he didn’t think existed. That kiss was his good luck charm for the rest of the day.

[voreinthehouse]

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR 2024: YEAR OF THE DRAGON

Ming Lee locked the door to the main bedroom of her home. It'd been a busy night for the whole family - her mother, aunts and cousins alongs their spouses and children had all come to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the temple. Jin, Meimei and Ming had all been busy cooking several elaborated dishes, hoping to impress their relatives with a hearty meal and deliciously hot gossip.

Once everyone had arrived and the usual gifts of expensive skincare products, rare candies and the tips on panda management had been exchanged, the family sat at the table set in the temple's garden to admire the moon and enjoy each others' company.

Hours upon hours were spent gossiping, eating, drinking, and having fun, and by the time everyone realized how late it truly was most of their bellies had bloated twice their size from that night alone.

Despite how impossibly full Ming felt - her belly was dangerously close from ripping her dress at the seams - she couldn't shake the warmth that all the baijiu had injected in her veins through the night. It'd ran through her body and rooted itself right between her legs, growing hotter with every little glass she drank, making her pussy pulse to life in drunker hunger.

She and Jin already had a potently ardent sexual life that led them to fucking every night when they were sure Mei had gone to bed, but tonight they hadn't had the chance to sneak off to take care of themselves like usual. 

Her growing desire and increasingly drunken state of mind eventually led Ming to sticking a hand under her dress and stroking her feverish cunt over her leggings. It was almost painful keeping them on; everything in her told her to just rip them open and finger herself, but by what was surely a miracle she managed to keep the rest of her self control. And her dignity, since everyone was too drunk to notice her misbehavior.

Well, mostly everyone.

A single look shared with her husband told her everything she wanted to hear and more. 

With everyone passed out in their own rooms it was finally time for her to get her much needed due. She stripped off her strained dress, liberating a long belch in the process, and donned on a cute little red with golden trimming lingerie she'd gotten a long time ago that felt incredibly appropriate for the occasion. 

It was after all, the new year of the Dragon, and she would make sure to start it with a most powerful bang.

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SUPER LATE I KNOW BUT BETTER LATE THAN NEVER RIGHT

fun fact! baijiu is a traditional chinese liquor! i wanted to include some small details of chinese culture, mostly in the food, and while i knew that sake is traditional japanese liquor, and soju is traditional korean liquor, i had no idea what the chinese one was named. apparently, baijiu (also known as shaojiu), is considered to be the chinese equivalent of vodka! 

never thought being a nsfw furry artist would lead me to learn more about different cultures like this but honestly, reading about chinese liquors was fun! 

knowledge is power!

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