#the purple flower boy is the hardest since she changes places so often

[avasts-nightmare]

spiderlings (NOT those idiot color coded stick figures or anyone from rocket corp OR chosen. if ur any of those DO NOT READ!!)

Im gonna be honest when Im mad at any of them I find where they are at the moment and I yell and throw punches and fireballs at them. theyre none the wiser since they cant see or hear or touch me or anything.

it helps. for now. plus its funny.

[faeflowerfeline]

Tangle of my innocence

Desperate thoughts, your hope calls you a liar Fear begins to revel Nothing but your will sets you on fire Fire lasts forever

- Under The Ladder, MELOVIN

ao3 version: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14631909

your hope calls you a liar

When Katsuki was young, bruises bloomed like flowers on his skin. He was black and blue and purple and yellow and green, colours with no discernable source, colours that formed in the night and threw aches and pains through his body.

When Katsuki was young, he was constantly in pain.

He grew to hate his soulmate.

When Katsuki was young, he woke up screaming. The skin around his eye bubbled and burst and burnt but never scarred.

(This, really, is what twisted everything from concern to hatred. Someone was bruised, burnt, in pain, but so was he. Whoever his soulmate is cannot find it within himself to care for his health.

It never mattered. Katsuki hadn’t wanted a soulmate anyway.)

He went from bruises on himself to bruises on others, painting people black and blue the same way his soulmate painted him. It’s wrong, he knows this, knows he shouldn’t be doing this. His mom tells him, his dad tells him, fucking Deku tells him.

Katsuki doesn’t care.

(He is black and blue and cracked ribs and intense pain, the shaking in his forearms where he’s overused his quirk and the fires of victory and hatred and anger bright and strong and brilliant in his belly. He is Bakugou Katsuki and he is a winner, he is Bakugou Katsuki and he hates his soulmate, he is Bakugou fucking Katsuki and he will be the best.)

“Katsuki,” his mom says, disappointed and angry and not at all soft - she is loud in her rage. “You know this isn’t right.”

“Kacchan,” Deku says, angry and scared, voice wavering but standing determined and Katsuki hates him, “I’ll never forgive you if you do this.”

“Katsuki,” his father is soft but disappointed all the same. He always feels worse about upsetting his father. “You won’t do this anymore, will you?”

“No,” he replies, quiet and sullen with pursed lips and folded arms; the epitome of teenage rebellion.

“Promise me,” his father says. It leaves no room for argument. “Promise me you won’t hurt people anymore.”

“Fine,” Katsuki says, pointedly looking away when he follows it up with; “I promise.”

He gets into UA with aching wrists and what feels like a broken rib or two. Katsuki just grins fiercer, fights harder, destroys more and more and more until he’s almost calmer and the timer is gone.

The exam was what he knows; violence and fighting, knowledge and power.

He comes first in the entrance exam, first place in the U.A. Entrance Exam, but still; something doesn’t feel right.

(A vague memory of fire and pain flicks through his mind and is instantly dismissed. He doesn’t think about that; doesn’t care about that. He is Bakugou Katsuki, goddamnit and he is winning.)

U.A. is different - loud and bright and practically tasting of power. Katsuki grins, feral and ready and pushes open his classroom door.

The day is a blur from then; of people weaker (fucking Deku) and people stronger, of tests and admiration and growing horror as he realises.

Realises as he watches Todoroki Shouto spread ice over the whole building that he can’t beat him. Realises as he watches everyone in the class try their hardest that they are stronger, better, more than his old classmates.

It scares him.

It’s during the sports festival that he realises - of fucking course it’s him. Heat and pain and bruises are Katsuki’s past and Half-’n-Half shares it; shares it because he caused it, caused every bruise and every burn.

(Endeavor is someone Katsuki had looked up to, but, well, if he tears down his poster, that’s no one’s business but his own.)

It’s with a sinking heart and a raging fire in his stomach that Katsuki fights his soulmate; feeling every hit he lands deep in his own bones. They don’t know he’s hurting himself, of course they don’t.

His soulmate, the fucker, is too much of a fucking pussy to fight back; completely, breathtakingly oblivious to the fact that he’s facing off against his soulmate. Katsuki hates it, hates him, desperately, desperately wants just one hit to land.

None do.

He rages against his metal bindings as he stands first on the podium, hopes deep in his heart that the half-assed bastard beside him feels every chafe and cut and then crushes that hope before it’s fully formed; raging and raging and raging with all the force of a hurricane.

(He refuses to analyse why he wanted to be hit so badly. Refuses to analyse why he wanted him to know. It’s bullshit, everything’s bullshit, soulmates and fighting and the sports festival and his win.)

Every injury his soulmate gets is shown and he hides it, glaring and cursing and doing what he’s done since he was a child - hating his soulmate with everything in his dark, shrivelled fucking heart.

Every injury he gets is hidden just as well; a cracked rib wrapped up under his shirt and ignored, the bruise on his cheek covered with makeup. His soulmate shows them almost proudly like he’s looking for his.

(You found me, he wants to scream, you found me and you didn’t even fucking try, fuck you, you’ve spent your whole life hurting me. He can’t find the voice to.)

It’s during the training camp that his soulmate finally realises, he thinks. Katsuki isn’t hurt, but he doesn’t have the same privacy to change and to hide the small things that he could have before.

(That’s what he tells himself, at least. It’s not because being taken felt like suffocating, losing all air bit by bit until all that remained was the crushing pressure in his lungs and on his skin and the complete and utter darkness everywhere -)

Wide blue and grey eyes meet his own and then there is a glimpse of a bar and then there is nothing.

He hurts himself trying to get out and he hurts himself trying to hurt them, feels cuffs cut into his wrists and straps into his shoulders and his chest; the inspiration for his bindings visibly, obviously, the sports festival.

They offer him a place, he explodes someone in return gets taken and everything swirls, places switching, heroes and villains flashing in and out of focus until he sees - Shitty Hair and fucking Deku and the class fucking president - the kid with glasses - and his soulmate isn’t there.

(It hurts and he doesn’t know why, but he reaches up and he takes Kirishima’s hand regardless.)

The dorms are quiet at one in the morning. Katsuki would have expected them to be louder, with the amount of complete and utter idiots in the class. But they’re almost as silent as a grave would be, to the point where it’s almost disconcerting.

(There is nothing but silence and the time to think about everything he did wrong, every reason his soulmate would choose anyone but him.)

your will sets you on fire

The first time he breaks a rib, Shouto’s only thoughts are that he hopes his soulmate is okay. With every bruise and broken bone after that, it’s the same.

Until his mother pours boiling water over his face and he has no thoughts to spare for his soulmate as his world is consumed in burning, fervid, pain.

Shouto loves his soulmate. They don’t get hurt often - small bumps and scrapes, an occasional persistent ache in his wrists and forearms - and to him, they seem nothing but considerate. Seeing that he’s in pain and ensuring to the best of their ability they do not add to it. It’s something he’s proud of, having such a kind, considerate soulmate.

(His father will beat that pride out of him. Soulmates are worthless, useless, cause you nothing but pain and suffering and anger and they are worth nothing. They will slow him down. Shouto’s last act of defiance comes in two parts: his refusal to ever use his fire; and his all-consuming love for his soulmate, whoever they are.)

He gets into U.A. on recommendations, as is expected of him. He is placed into Class 1-A, with fighters and Iidas and Yaoyorozu Momo, someone he knows and wishes he knew better.

(There is a hope, somewhere, deep, deep inside him, that he will find his soulmate within this class. But there is no one who throws or fights or anything with the telltale hesitance of broken ribs and he gives up on that hope. One of the other classes may hold them, whoever they are - but it is far more likely he will not find his soulmate in his teenage years. Most don’t find them until much, much later.)

He spills his life story to Midoriya Izuku during the sports festival and thinks, perhaps, that it is because he is his soulmate. But Midoriya shows no recognition at his story and he gives up, again, because his soulmate would - would at least recognise the constant beatings that came with growing up with Endeavor, if not the burning pain that comes with a kettle of boiling water over one’s eye.

But, oh Midoriya Izuku regardless is a force of nature - Shouto feels fire welling inside him as it never has before during his fight with him; and he thinks he falls in love just a little - nevermind soulmates.

He fights Bakugou Katsuki next, so much more aware of his father watching on; and he cannot use his fire. Bakugou rages, landing hit after hit after hit and Shouto fights back, but he knows he cannot win.

Next to him on the podium, Bakugou is like a wild animal cornered, chained and muzzled and refusing his medal. Shouto almost feels bad for him.

(He wakes up the next day with cuts around his lips, but he does not make the connection. Bakugou’s are fine, after all; and so what if he was looking at his classmate's lips. He was concerned, after all that happened yesterday.)

He shows all his injuries. Always has. Shouto is a romantic and he knows it - he’s always wished to find his soulmate.

Now, though, showing them almost makes him uncomfortable, as every time he does Bakugou’s glare almost drills holes through his skull. The other boy never shows up injured and Shouto is beginning to think he’s immortal or something.

“Oh, no, he just uses concealer,” Yaoyorozu tells him when he mentions it, “I’ve noticed it rub off a bit before. I don’t think he wants people to know about his injuries.”

Shouto stops questioning it after that.

After Bakugou goes missing, Shouto’s lungs start to burn. They burn as he fights, a dull ache, almost like suffocation, but he fights through it. There is nothing to suffocate him and so it is nothing, but then-

Bakugou bursts out of whatever he was in and takes a breath and all at once Shouto’s lungs lighten-

There’s desperation in his gaze and he locks on to Shouto -

Then he’s gone and there’s a beat before pain explodes in Shouto’s head and he cries out, grasping at his head. When he pulls his hand away, it’s sticky and wet with blood and he realises-

Fuck.

Midoriya screams.

He spends the next few days in a haze - how could he not? His soulmate - god, his soulmate - has been taken and he was right there.

His hands and shoulders and chest ache and bruise at various intervals through the two days between the end of camp and Midoriya’s awakening and Shouto can’t help but wonder - what are they doing to him?

When Midoriya finally wakes up and Kirishima announces he’s going to go save Bakugou regardless of what the pros are doing and Shouto watches as their class splits in half and thinks ‘I have to go’. Because Kirishima is right - it feels like they haven’t done enough, feels like they could have done so much more.

So he goes, but it’s Kirishima who reaches out and that hurts, just a little, but they succeed and that’s enough, for now.

But then Bakugou doesn’t speak to him much, just rubs hands that must be aching the same way Shouto’s do and walks in silence and Shouto thinks that maybe, maybe he was too late or too little; and maybe, just maybe, he’s lost his soulmate.

(He thinks back to months ago, in fights where Bakugou seemed so desperate and thinks that maybe he was trying to tell him. Maybe.)

ao3 version: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14631909

[donotgogentlyintothatgoodnight]

Stranger Places (a stranger things tale) Chapter seven: L’eggo my Eggo

Description: Everything changes when Dustin finds his mother’s lifeless body, but he is quickly reminded that he still has family when his older sister comes home. Though she is not the company he wants, can he learn to live with her? Can she readjust to life in Hawkins?

Jackie was relieved when Saturday morning arrived. She had been looking forward to it after the week she had been through. And even though it was the weekend, she had woken up with the birds to get ready for the day ahead of her. First she had kick boxing, then she wanted to go food shopping and sort the house before Dustin and his friends came over (that was if they came over). Lastly, she wanted to get some studying done for an exam in physics. 

Jackie styled her hair into a french braid, threw on a pair of leggings and an old tshirt. She tied her shoes and pulled over her sweater and scarf and was out the door. When she got to the gym, Brodie was there waiting for her. He gave her a big toothy smile that had her smiling back.

“Goooood morning Jack!” He said.

“Good morning,” she returned the greeting.

They immediately gloved up and began warm-ups. As they moved around the gym, Jacqueline realised Brodie wasn’t going to go easy on her, but rather kick her ass each session they had. Every so often he would give her a breather, but he kept her adrenaline going. By 10:30 am, the gym was starting to get a bit busier, as the usual crowd of buffs and gymnists trickled in. Jackie noticed one person enter the gym imparticularly. She laughed.

“You’re kidding right?” She asked Billy Hargrove, who strut his way over to her. 

“Hey princess. Whatcha doing here?”

She steadied the heavy bag she had been punching and kicking. “I should be asking you that. Are you stalking me?”

He let out a chuckle as she ripped the velcro from her gloves apart with her teeth. “I was just in the neighborhood, and saw you through the window, for your information.”

“Nice save,” she scoffed. Billy grew irritated and nervous. Girls weren’t usually a difficult task for him to obtain, but Jacqueline wasn’t falling for any of his lines or gimics. 

“I just wanted to say hi,” He told her with his best smile. She sighed, “Well, Hello, uh-”

“Billy,” he told her. “Billy Hargrove.”

She smirked. “Right.”

“What are you doing later?”

She laughed. “You don’t waste any time, do you?”

He chuckled as well, “Well, I just wanted to ask you before someone else does. I dont think you should waste your time on those boys at school.”

“I’m not wasting my time with those boys at school,” she corrected him. “I’m wasting it on you.”

Billy tried his hardest not to show just how impatient he was growing with her, but she was really starting to wear him down. Little did he know, she felt the same with him.

He leaned on the wall next to her. “Come on, Jackie-”

“Jacqueline,” she corrected him again.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “Jacqueline. Valentine’s day is just around the corner, and I don’t have anyone to give flowers to.”

“I heard Tina’s single,” she offered. Billy laughed. “But I’m asking you.”

She sighed. It was clear she wasn’t going to shake him off that easily. “Fine, if I agree to one date with you, will you stop following me around town?”

He smiled and held up three fingers. “Scouts honor,” he pledged but something told her that Billy was never a cub or a boyscout. 

She chuckled. “Whatever, I’ll see you at school, Hargrove.”

And with a wink, Billy headed towards the exit. Corey came up from behind Jackie, leaning his arm on her shoulder. “Who was that?” he asked her.

“Billy Hargrove,” she answered with just a pinch of annoyance in her tone.

“Huh,” he said as they watched billy disappear out of eyesight. 

“Nice ass,” he added. Jackie laughed, smacking Corey in the chest.

“Come ON,” Lucas asked exasperated. “Dustin!”

“I’m not going if we go there!” Dustin told the group.

“Why?” Lucas whined.

“Because,” Dustin began.

“Because you’re annoyed with your sister! News flash! That’s her job!”

“Yeah, but you guys invited her to play!”

“Because she’s an awesome dungeon master!” Mike replied.

“Wait,” Max said, sitting on the kitchen counter in the Harrington house. “Dustin has a sister?”

“Yes,” Mike answered. “And she’s a better dungeon master than me!”

“She sucks,” Dustin mumbled.

“No she doesn’t! Stop saying that!” Lucas scolded Dustin.

“What’s dungeon master?” Jane asked. She was excited to get out but confused as of what they were doing.

“Its a part of this nerd game we’re going to play,” Max explained.

Just then, there was a knock at the front door. Steve answered it to let Will and Jonathan in. “Hey guys, are you ready?” Will asked.

“Dustin doesn’t want to play at his house because Jackie’s there.”

“What? No! Why?” Will said disappointed. “I thought she was going to be dungeon master.”

“You guys decided that. She never agreed and I never asked her to,” Dustin told the group.

The group was growing impatient. They hated when Dustin got this stubborn. There was no convincing him. 

“How long have they been arguing?” Jonathan asked Steve.

“About an hour and a half,” he answered.

“Jesus,” Jonathan said under his breath. “Dustin, we gotta go now if I’m gonna drive you guys.”

“And I can’t take you,” Steve added.

“Well get comfortable,” Dustin said crossing his arms.

“Are we not going?” Jane asked.

“Yes,” Dustin answered.

“DUSTIN!” the group said in unison, followed by a bunch more come on’s and are you kidding me’s.

“Dustin just go!” Steve told him. “You promised me you’d see her this week, so just go see her. You can grab more of your shit if you want to.”

“Fine!” Dustin said aggravated and defeated. “Fine.”

Will gave him a pat on the back.

“Thank you,” Lucas said, throwing up his hands and looking towards the ceiling.

“Okay,” Jonathan began. “Can we all get in the car now?”

The party moved from their seats and headed towards the front door. Dustin felt a hand on his shoulders. “Hey tard, be nice to your sister,” Steve told him.

“Jesus Christ, Steve,” Dustin said with disgust. “Can you stop acting like a mom for a second and go back to being an ass? Oh my god!”

 Jacqueline scurried to get the rest of the snacks together. She felt flustered and under pressure and didn’t know why. It was just Dustin and his friends. Why was she stressing? She emptied out the cheese balls into a bowl, setting it on the table she had set up in the garage, along with a box of oreos and high-c juice boxes. She was here to impress. Jackie so badly wanted her little brother move back in that she turned the garage into the d&d lair from when they were younger; complete with candles, the old purple velvet table cloth she had made, and their old twelve sided die she found mixed in with a bunch of old keys. Jacqueline heard a car out side stop. She jumped, giving the garage one good look through before going to the entry way of the house. She heard the lock on the door turn and remembered Dustin still had his key. The kids came pouring into the house. They were in some sort of discussion about something, but Jackie didn’t question it. She noticed Jonathan standing in the door way.

“Hey,” he told her, shoving his hand in his pocket and scratching the back of his head. 

“Hey,” she said, touseling her hair and crossing her arms. 

“Can we talk?”

Jacqueline looked behind her at the kids who were still debating and closed the door behind her. She gave him a weary look, nervous of what he wanted to talk about. But she had a pretty good feeling she knew what.

“Listen Jackie,” he began. “I really am sorry about the other night. I know moving back must not be easy, and I was badgering you about where you had been. And when you went to hold my hand-”

“It’s okay Jonathan,” she cut him off. “Really,” she smiled at him.

Jonathan frowned. “No it’s not. I’m your friend and I’m supposed to comfort you when you’re sad. And I did the opposite. And it’s killing me that I hurt your feelings.”

Jacqueline put her arms around him; he did the same. “Same old Jonathan,” Jackie said with a smile. “You’re mind’s always getting the best of you.”

She gave him a soft pat on the back. “I promise you, its okay.”

He nodded pulling away from the embrace.

“You should come and play,” She told him. “Help remind them who taught them what they know.” Jonathan let out a chuckle. “I can’t. Nancy and I have plans.”

Her smile softened, but she was careful not to let it disappear completely. She gave his arm a soft punch. “We’ll get you next time then,” Jackie replied.

“Yeah,” Jonathan nodded, and headed to his car. He turned around, finding Jacqueline smiling back at him, waving. He returned it and hopped in the drivers seat.

Jackie opened the door to find the kids gone. They must have made their way to the lair.

“You like him, don’t you?” At least most of them did. Jackie looked over to find a little red head lounging on a couch, flipping through a magazine. 

“It’s not nice to spy,” Jackie told her. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m Max, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Max. Jackie”

“You do like him, though. Don’t you?” 

Jackie rolled her eyes and sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to you,” she said, hopping up from the couch and heading towards the garage. Jackie hated it when other people were right, especially those younger than her. Then she heard the fridge door open, followed by some shuffling. She laughed. “The snacks I put out weren’t enough?” She asked entering the kitchen, to find another girl, poking her head out from behind the freezer door. The two stared at eachother for a moment, studying every detail of eachother’s faces. It was as if they knew one another.

“Do you have eggos?” The young girl asked.

Jackie smiled. “I’ve got something better.”

Surprise! This week, two chapters of stranger places will be posted. Since this one is a little short and leaves on a rather weird note, I figured I’d be nice and not make you all wait a week to see what happens next. I may do this again in the future. Let me know if you like have two chapters a week or if it’s easier to keep up with one a week. Whatever floats your boats, dudes. Like always, remember to like the chapter if you like and feel free to tell me what you think. If you want to chit chat, I’m down with that too :)