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coralinnii · 2 years ago

Text

❋ If you are a villain, then let me be your accomplice ❋

feat: Lilia genre: mild hurt/comfort, slow burn romance note: sequel to reincarnated into a new world as the bad guy AU Lilia ver, no pronouns used, Lilia is depicted as his older appearance with long hair, human!reader, mentions of minor injuries unintentionally inflicted on reader, 1.6k word count

I liivvveee! For now, anyway. I still have my job projects and finals are upon me but I finally found some time to myself so I hope you enjoy another addition to the Villain/ess!series. I might end up failing a class but I know it’s not the end of the world for me and I really enjoyed the class so I wouldn’t mind retaking the class.

Yeaa...this did not end up as domestic fluff

WARNING: This part has kinda hard-to-read topics regarding children and childrearing. Sometimes parents, guardians, caretakers and/or other children accidentally get injured by a child and the child doesn’t know how to get over that. We never want to blame the child for these mistakes but we want to make sure they can learn to avoid such mistakes again. This is an odd case since these are fictional non-human characters and some people can view Lilia as too harsh or see MC/reader as too lenient. I’ve seen parents approach this concern differently and honestly to me, the next course of action is never easy to figure out without truly discussing with the child and those involved. I'm not saying whose method is right or wrong, I just wrote what would be the best course of action in this scenario. You might have your own opinions or approaches. Read at your own risk

A lot has happened since your first visit to the Vanrouge household. Lilia surprised you by taking both of you into his home, protecting you while helping to raise the young Yung. He offered a room to the small dragon and one for yourself (though Yung still prefers to sleep in your bed with you).

Speaking of Yung, he was still wary of Lilia and his servants, choosing to hide himself in your embrace or behind your legs. He refused to speak to anyone and if he needed something, he would whisper into your ears and being the pampering type, you would oblige.

“Dear me, he seems to have really imprinted himself on you” Lilia chuckled casually but then he quickly hardened his gaze and the conversation turned more serious. “However, if he does not grow out from this phase, he may end up unable to control his dragon side and hurt himself or you”

This worries you as you know due your knowledge from your previous life that Yung will grow to be very powerful but he fell victim to his own strength and destroyed himself with his power.

Distressed, you begged Lilia to give his guidance as the former guardian of the Dragon King and with a playful smile, he gave an offer to you.

“Very well, I will be his guide. But as a fair trade of service, why don’t you become my attendant? This would occupy your time and perhaps young Yung could use this to be a little more independent?”

And thus began Yung’s days of torture as your new job constantly took precious time from him by Lilia. Yung can no longer ask for walks with you because you’re needed to look over some paperwork with the duke. Nights where you would lull him to sleep were getting less and less as Lilia requested your assistance in looking over some schedule details before the new day. And even when Yung gets to hang out with you, Lilia would almost always be there to monopolize your attention.

At first, you decided to trust the young(?) duke and his tactics since you did come to him for his guidance anyway. Despite the rather playful demeanor he seems to have, Lilia seemed so confident to you and assured you time and time again that this is a rite of passage of sorts for fae like him and Yung since powerful beings like them must learn self-control before anything else.

But self-control continues to elude Yung and it wasn’t long before the cute little dragon decided enough was enough.

“Wuv is mine! Mister duke go away!”

To the best of his ability, Yung wrapped his short arms around your waist as he screamed at the duke. If Yung was any normal child, his growth would have been unprecedented as he was already walking (to chase after you and Lilia) and speaking fairly comprehensible sentences (to yell at Lilia). But as a fae, this was a typical growth spurt, quickly growing stronger and bigger than a typical human to ensure his survival. His physical strength was more obvious to you right now as the young child was unintentionally tightening his grip on you which started to hurt.

“Yung, l-love” you tried to speak but it came out as a short gasp as the small fae ignored your call. His hands, while small, kept digging through your clothes and into your skin which made you wince slightly. You tried other means of grabbing the young one’s attention but all was moot as all of Yung’s focus zeroed in on Lilia alone, his eyes glowing a slightly menacing color and a glare reminiscent of a dragon ready to defend his territory.

“Sigh…you are still a foolish child”

In an instant, the pain in your sides lessened as you found yourself in the arms of the duke instead of Yung’s hold. Both you and Yung were shocked by this sudden change of the situation. How did neither of you notice Lilia as he somehow managed to rip you out from the young dragon’s grip without his notice or harming you in the process?

“Are these the skills of an experienced fae?”

After looking over you for any major injuries, Lilia sighed again with slight disappointment, reminiscent of a father figure upset with a child that nearly broke something precious. “How can you protect your treasure when you can’t even protect them from yourself?”

Following Lilia’s previous line of sight, Yung’s heart sank when he saw the torn fabric of your outfit. With his extraordinary senses, he caught glimpses of red lines across your skin through the ripped clothing. He instinctively reached out his small hand to you but saw his nails were longer and sharper, like talons of a dragon.

He hurt you. He hurt you. He hurt you.

Yung broke into tears as those words cycled in his head, haunting him for his crime. You were instinctively pushing yourself from Lilia by the sound of his cries, running to enclose your arms around the poor fae child, holding him while softly giving words of comfort.

“Love, I’m alright. It was an accident, I know that”

But Yung continued to sob and he apologized profusely, his voice getting sore from his cries. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Lilia stood still behind you, watching silently as you continued to console your child, wiping Yung’s tears and holding his small, shaking hands.

Night came and Lilia visited you in your room once the family doctor was done tending to your scratches. The head of the manor immediately called for the doctor but you refused to show your injuries while Yung was still panicking over the incident. It was only when Yung calmed down and stayed with him until he fell asleep in his room. You kept your smile as you downplayed your wounds, not letting Yung blame himself.

When Lilia entered your room with your permission, he shocked you as he said something unexpected.

“I’m sorry.” He even bowed his head to you, showing the sincerity of his words.

You replied with confusion in your voice. “Pardon? What for?”

“I expected that Yung was getting possessive of you but I didn’t think that you would get this hurt in my attempt to distance you two. I should have intervened sooner”

Lilia held this guilt throughout the day, ashamed that he roped you into his little test for the dragon fae. He knew raising a powerful fae will be a rough journey, taking his experience from caring for Malleus. But if Lilia were the one to get hurt, it would be but a scratch that would heal in an instant. Whatever Yung would do, Lilia can handle it with ease.

But you weren’t fae. You were a human that bleed at the lightest touch from his kind, that break much too easily, and perish much too soon.

“You should leave this manor” Lilia stated with an uncharacteristically serious tone. “I will find a comfortable inn for you to stay in and provide other essentials until you can find another living situation to your liking”

“Wait a minute!” You jumped from your seat, your mind thrown for a loop. “I can’t just leave, what will happen to Yung? It'll break his heart! I didn’t mean to inconvenience your grace and your plans but I’ll be care-“

“Do you not understand the dangers of your situation?” Lilia’s tone was ice cold. “You nearly bled from what Yung thought was a childish hug. What if he were to get angry one day and suddenly knock you unconscious? He is not a mere human child but a fae, and a strong one as well. You are a human that may die by his own hands”

Silence filled your room as the weight of Lilia's words sink in.

You won’t lie, Yung’s nails were painful and your wounds still sting even after treatment. In the story from your past memories, Yung’s power will be on par with the current Dragon King, with the power to move mountains and call upon flames that would leave nothing in its path. Yung will continue to grow stronger and nothing you, a powerless human, can do that will be able to stop him.

But still…

“I stayed silent because I didn't know what would be good for Yung. But damn it, I love that child! As long as he needs me, I’ll be there for him” you locked eyes with the long-haired fae with determination. “He’ll become stronger, but he wouldn't hurt others. He is a happy, kind child"

"And how will you ensure that?"

"I will be there to make sure he stays that way” you made a bold choice, but you're confident in this. You were confident in your little Yung that he will go against his ending in that story nonsense of your previous world.

Crossing your arms, you made another bold comment.

“Besides…you still agreed to guide him. So, this will be a team effort” You were testing your luck but you assumed that should anything like today happen again, then you could always hide behind the great general Vanrouge. That's a team, right? Being able to depend on them during tough patches?

But Lilia stayed quiet and chose to simply match your stare with his. It was intimidating to have such an attractive man look at you with such intensity but you held your ground. You puffed out your chest and refused to look away from Lilia’s admittedly beautiful ruby-coloured eyes.

Then…Lilia giggled.

“Lilia, the renowned general…giggled….and it was so cute?!”

You were taken aback when you saw a soft smile crept onto Lilia’s lips, so different from his mischievous grin whenever he scares you from behind during work or the confident smirk when he wins a round of a card game that you introduced to him from your original world. You were upset, offended even that he would giggle at your proud proclamation to care for Yung. But wow, he was really attractive doing so.

Not noticing your conflicted expression (or choosing to ignore it), Lilia placed a hand on your head, closer to your forehead, then moved slowly to caress your head. His touch was so gentle, careful not to scratch you or add unnecessary pressure.

“He’s good at holding back his strength” you thought, only having heard the stories of the unbeatable general. Lilia is a playful man but his power is impressive even among other fae so this gentle side of him was a pleasant surprise to you.

“Goodness gracious, I wonder if this is where Yung gets his audaciousness from?” Lilia had a shine in his eyes as he kept his gaze on you, almost as though he was captivated by what he saw. “I look forward to your cooperation then, teammate”

#twst x reader #twst #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst imagines #disney twisted wonderland #villainess au #twisted wonderland imagines #twst scenarios #lilia vanrouge #lilia x yuu

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th3cadav3r · 24 days ago

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I wanna try to do smth again with the hurt/comfort angst again, but it's different. Keep the Anya x Male/GN reader, but it's after Jimmy did... y'know. Anya shares a bed with a reader to feel safer, considering the reader and Anya are close ever since the Tulpar's launch. It leads to a confession of feelings and ends with cuddles. However, it only happens when Anya wakes up from a night terror in the middle of the night.

You Alright?

Anya X Male Reader

summary: You hear your coworker Anya crying in her room due to a night terror. You try your best comfort her but in the process you learn something very unexpected

content: hurt/comfort, angst, fluff, mentions of SA, romantic confessions, happy ending

author’s note: Thanks for requesting again! I hope you enjoy this one too!(I also hope this one does better than the last Anya X Male Reader fic cuz uhhh it kinda flopped)

For some reason, you just could not fall asleep tonight. You stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours, eyes fixated on nothing in particular. Your bed wasn’t the most comfortable, but it was usually warm and soft enough to have you falling asleep in only a matter of minutes. Not this time though, because for some strange reason you just couldn’t close your eyes long enough to drift off. So you wait in a stagnant silence that is shortly interrupted by what sounds like crying.

You pause for a moment, making sure that the noise wasn’t just your sleep-deprived brain playing a trick on you. But sure enough, you do indeed hear someone crying softly. You sit up, shivering as the blanket slips off of your body and you make your way over to your door. The sound was definitely coming from the other side of the wall. Anya’s Room

You slowly walk up to it and hesitate before knocking on it. The crying stops immediately, followed by an eerie silence.

Your hand slowly slides the unlocked door to the side and you peek your head into her room. “Anya?” You whisper while looking around, trying to find her in the dark.

Your eyes finally land on her. Anya stares right back at you, wide eyed and unblinking. Her body trembles as she clutches onto a pillow that she placed in front of her, almost like a shield. Though, she becomes noticeably less tense when she realises that it’s you standing in the doorway.

“Hey,” you speak calmly yet still concerned, “you alright?”

You step into her room slowly, making your way towards where she was huddled. But she tenses up again, making you stop dead in your tracks.

“Sorry, I—” you apologise frantically while taking a step back, “—I heard you crying and wanted to make sure that you’re, y’know, okay”

She relaxes again, sighing deeply as her eyes fixate on you. They were as big and beautiful as always, though they were noticeably glossy and slightly red.

“I’m…Fine,” she muttered. “Just had a nightmare, that’s all.” She tries to force a reassuring smile, but you saw right through it. You had spent almost an entire year with her by now; you could always tell when she had something to hide.

“A nightmare hm?” You say while slowly making your way towards her again. This time she doesn’t tense up, allowing you to take a seat right next to her on the bed. “Wanna talk about it?”

Anya draws in a sharp and shaky breath, burying her face in the pillow. You hear her sniffle as she desperately tries to stifle her crying.

Your heart drops at the sight of her in pain. “Hey, it’s alright” You reach out and gently place your hand on her back. She flinches, making you retract it and keep it hovering just above where it was. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to”

She shook her head. “It’s…because of Jimmy,” she finally spoke, her voice muffled by the pillow. The way she said his name sounded like it physically hurt her to say it.

“Jimmy?” You said tilting your head to the side in confusion. He and you were never really that close. It’s not like you had anything against each other, it’s just that he seemed more reserved than the others, who opened up to you almost immediately. Still, he wasn’t a bad guy in your eyes

“The night terrors. They’re his fault,” she confessed quietly, lifting her head but still avoiding your gaze. “He did something to me”

Now you were really confused. She probably sensed that because not too long after she shakily whispers, “He…raped me”

Your eyes widen. Your heart pounds in your chest as your mind races. An intense wave of rage, sympathy, and sadness hits you all at once. You have so many questions and so much hatred in your body for that damned co-pilot that you want to release right here and now.

But you stop yourself. That wouldn’t help. She feels far worse than you do right now. The fear and hurt that she is feeling right now is something that you flying off the rails wouldn’t help.

So you embrace her, approaching her gently enough for her not to be startled or frightened. She hugs you back, clutching onto you tightly.

“Oh, Anya,” you tell her softly, not really knowing what else to say. The last thing you wanted to do was make her feel worse. “I’m so sorry”

“It’s not your fault.” Her voice trembles as she speaks.

“It’s not yours, either.” You gently caress her cheek, prompting her to look up at you. “None of this is your fault, okay?”

She nods as her eyes gaze directly into yours. Hearing you reassure her with so much care and understanding in your voice was what she desperately needed.

You held onto each other for a little while longer. “Can I sleep in your room? Just for tonight?” she asks.

“You can stay with me for as long as you want,” you respond without even thinking. You feel like you already failed to protect her and there’s no way in hell you’re going to let that happen again.

You both eventually make your way over to your room, walking down the hallway quietly to not wake the others. Before entering your room, though, you glance over at Jimmy’s room a few doors away. You huff, fighting the urge to go in there and beat him to a bloody pulp right now. You knew that right now, you need to be there for Anya. You tell yourself that you will deal with him tomorrow

“Make yourself comfortable,” you tell her. She smiles and climbs into your bed, taking the side farthest away from the door. You join her, sliding into the warm sheets and turning to your side so you can face her.

“It’ll be alright, Anya. I’ll make sure that asshole never harms you again, I promise”

“Wait–” Her pale face shifts to a look of concern. “–He can’t know that I told anyone”

“What?” You looked at her confused. “But we should report this to Curly, shouldn’t we? So he can inform the company–”

“No,” she cuts your words off. “No one else can know. Just…please don’t tell anyone. At least not now”

You don’t want to fight her on this. As much as you wish to report it to the captain and bring that bastard to justice, you try your best to understand why she’s so hesitant.

“Okay,” you reassure. “I won’t say anything. Not until you’re ready”

Her face relaxes again. She sighs, smiling softly. “Thank you. I knew you’d understand”

You feel a warmth spread throughout your chest. Out of the entire crew, she chose you. She trusted you with her secret. She loved you, and you loved her right back.

“Thank you for trusting me,” you respond.

The air between you two feels different. You’ve both changed and transformed together in just this one night. You reached an entirely new level with her–one that felt even deeper than a friendship.

You have more to say but you hold your tongue. You both feel the same about each other, there’s no denying that; you just want to wait for a better time to actually say it outloud

“We should probably get some rest,” you gently suggest.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she responds. She snuggles in closer to you, resting her head against your chest. She could definitely hear your racing heartbeat, but she says nothing about it. You put your arm around her protectively, drawing her in close

“Goodnight,” she whispers

“‘Night,” you whisper back, kissing the top of her head

#anya mouthwashing #anya x reader #male reader #hurt/comfort #fluff #romance #mouthwashing #mouthwashing x reader #you and anya eventually tell the crew and you all beat jimmy mercilessly and lock him up in the cargo room until you get back to earth #the crash never happens #happy ending #thecadaver

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wayfayrr · 9 months ago

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I’m asking as a request but if u can’t or don’t want to it’s ok. Then maybe just a quick 1 sentence answer for each Link bc I’m curious? lol, So a little while back @luimagines wrote some divorce hcs. So…how would the yandere Links deal with a reader that wants a divorce?

Divorce? you think you can be rid of them? no, no hope whatsoever.

not even death can separate you

but I do think they'd be a little different in how they handle you suggesting it (also going to be using reader suggesting a divorce because they found a way home and didn't want to make the links choose between them and hyrule)

also pinky if you see this I absolutely adore your work but never actually read the divorce hcs dfbgdgbdbfcgb (got too sad like a fool)

[masterlist]

Legend would be the fastest to start outright panicking, immediately shutting down any hopes of you leaving. Barring windows and even going as far as to chain you to the bed so you can't leave. You're his and his alone.

Tears would break down, after thinking for a second that it's a joke he'd collapse onto you sobbing for you not to leave and forget him like everyone else does. But he won't force you to stay. If he learns why you did it? well remember this fic where wars lost himself a bit- Tears would kinda come to this conclusion a lot faster quickly following you into your world

Rulie takes after legend a little, in how he handles it after the first few hours. To start with though? He's a shaky stuttery mess trying to breathe and stay calm while failing but then he instantly jumps to keeping you away from society and tied to him.

Sky would laugh it off, seeing through you and the reason that you've even suggested it, divorce isn't even a potential for him. He's been reading your diarys and keeping a close eye on you - you think he wasn't aware of this beforehand? He promises you that it isn't even a choice to follow you to your home rather than staying here before kissing you silly and grabbing your waist so tight it almost hurts. Like he's offended you'd even think such a thing.

Twilight would freeze up to start, not, refusing to believe what you said. you have to repeat it a couple of times for it to really sink in, at which point he's already started snarling, wolfie starting to show in his actions and words. He could be rational and hear you out but he's just all over the place like he's been hit by a flashbang - take your chance to get away while you have it

Four would split instantly, the colours not being able to work together through it. Each wanting to handle it in a different way ( yes I know this isn't the most canon but it's more interesting sfvvsfvs) vio wants to plan out the why, blue is in charge of safe proofing the house while green and red are all over you, taking turns to watch you so you're never unsupervised. It'll take a lot of time and rebuilt trust to get him to rejoin.

Warriors would shatter, begging, pleading, sobbing and doing anything you ask of him to stay. even if you were to ask him to make himself bleed. he doesn't eat nor sleep for days on end as he tries and begs you to tell him why, why you would ever want to leave him. He looks more ragged than he ever did on the journey like he's seconds away from death. And when you finally do tell him- he breaks down all over again tugging you into his arms as he's begging for there to be more, that you didn't do all of this to him for something so small and that it isn't even a thought to him of course he'll choose you.

Time is in a weird place, he isn't entirely familiar to hylian/human traditions yet so the word divorce itself throws him for a loop, until you explain what it is to him. Which is where he turns ice cold, the more happy go lucky time you knew is gone, replaced by someone simply wearing his face as he goes through robotic motions. for time though I could also see him using the ocarina throwing himself into a pointless loop trying to stop you from suggesting it but he can't and it slowly destroys his sanity

these got longer as I went oops, I didn't think I'd write so much for it ngl got into the flow a bit

#yeah going with short answers #I am not really in a place to write breakups or divorces lmao #I will cry <3 /lh #ex's and parents are bitches lmaooooooooooooooo #although #now saying that #I wouldn't mind writing something involving ex's of readers meeting the yan links :3c #that could be fun #linked universe x reader #yandere linked universe x reader #yandere linked universe #link x reader #yandere link #linked universe #moss✦answers #🐰 anon

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arceus-insanity · 4 months ago

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This is a long rant so you can totally delete if you’re not interested, though I don’t know who else to talk to about this so I hope you don’t mind me getting something off my chest: I feel really bad for todoroki.

He tried the hardest to save his villain (making a plan to stop Dabi by creating a new move, continually tried to get Endeavor to cooperate with him to meet Dabi, letting Dabi take his anger out at him, and racing meet him not once but twice, saving him from killing himself even when he was the most suicidal out of the villain trio), hell, he was the most empathetic to his villain without ever needing to see the child self because he thought they would have been the same if Todoroki didn’t get the support from his friends. Too bad Touya was so hell bent on his suicide mission with Endeavor that Todoroki couldn’t get through him the first time.

Which leads to the ending of Touya dying in a machine and the brothers still having glass stuck between them. Endeavor may have took over the ending, but Todoroki was the only one who connected to Touya by asking him about his favorite food instead of talking over him. Even then, Endeavor gets to seem cool with “I’ll handle the consequences” and Natsuo complimenting him despite him running away until he couldn’t and almost did a murder-suicide with Touya. Hell, Endeavor literally never faced any consequences in the end as the next time we see him with his psuedo-family (on another note, it feels like salt in the wound Hawks got to live out his happy family dreams while Also not getting any consequences for killing Twice as a hero). Rei sticks by him for some goddamn reason and the last thing Fuyumi talks about is losing her job because of Endeavor’s actions. Before then, the only consequences Endeavor faced was for him failing as a hero and civilians getting mad at that. Everytime someone brings up the abuse, it always brushing it aside besides Iida/Kirishima commenting on it. Sero’s “no one needs that tragic crap” doesn’t really help either since it was more about his own motivations than helping Todoroki dialogue wise. We don’t even get to see All Might’s reaction who was told in the beginning Todoroki was only born to defeat him (Endeavor actually used pronouns calling Todoroki an object in the original Japanese in this convo). We don’t get to see anyone who knows Eri (outside of Midoriya) give the same sympathy to Todoroki because now they know he went through a similar experience a decade of his life (but even then Midoriya praises Endeavor once when fighting Dabi so :/).

Barely anyone in the family comforted him on screen and it truly feels like his family fell apart despite doing his best learning about them in under a year. Todoroki doesn’t get to have that bowl of udon OR soba with Touya now.

The narrative kinda also barred him from the origin trio thing in the end, and he didn’t even get to talk to/cry about Touya to Uraraka and Midoriya (even though I personally feel like both their stories kind of fell apart because of that talk) (also he has the most complicated/interesting relationship with both All Might and his villain/brother but whateve). Todoroki is still haunted by Endeavor’s name a decade later (even if it’s a smaller shadow) and EVEN THEN Endeavor is still looked at as one of the greatest heroes. Endeavor almost killed Touya and the family for not acting sooner and he gets labeled as great. Endeavor gets to have replacement children while everyone else don’t get the justice they deserved.

He doesn’t even get his rising title in the anime!! They took it away from him!! The anime wants you to think all of the Todoroki family saved Touya, but Todoroki did 90% of the work!!

This might seem odd change in topic, but Tenko/Shigaraki has a lot of parallels to Todoroki, and I guess their abusive guardians taking over their plots and leaving behind tragedy can be added to that list.

I’m so mad Endeavor got to live… Though it seems like anyone didn’t get any justice about their abusers besides Eri.

I’m not the biggest Shoto fan, but I’ll do my best to focus on him for this

You know, I’d say there are three levels to why I hate Endeavor so much.

He is a shit guy. He’s an abuser, who’s entire reason is oh he didn’t get first place in a popularity contest, and couldn’t be bothered to try and be decent to the public.

The narrative refuses to acknowledge it. His actions once All Might is forced to retire are all massively downplayed mixed with excuses, and he gets an undeserved angst fest every time he faces even the possibility of consequences.

Every other character and the plot has to be sacrificed to prop him up.

And even after Endeavor’s ‘redemption’ and cryfest at the hospital, the whole fucking family puts Shoto at the center of everything. As if that hasn’t been one of the main reasons everyone in the family (except Endeavor who gets nothing but benefits from this) is struggling. If either Endeavor was dead, or Shoto was allowed to hate Endeavor, things wouldn't have turned out so badly.

I saw a fic a while ago and the premise was that the rest of the Todoroki family was with Touya and Shoto was left all alone. And even just reading the fic’s description I’m thinking what are they talking about they weren’t there for Touya, they were there for Endeavor!

Shoto is the only one who talks to Dabi, everyone else is at mass talking at him, in both the battle and epilogue. The battle the rest of the family is just victim-blaming/ scapegoating Dabi blindly, not questioning anything. Natsuo, Fuyumi and Rei don’t say a single word to Dabi after, no they’re talking to Endeavor, they only get a few minutes to see Dabi, possibly forever considering the prison system, and they spend it on the Manbaby. Shoto only manages to ask one question at the end, while they're being forced out, which Dabi demonstrates that he aware and was willing to talk to the best of his abilities, the family just couldn’t be bothered.

I’m disgusted by 1A, UA, the other pros, etc, ’s response(s) to the reveal, no one ever asks if Shoto is okay, or his feelings are. They all just assume, and earlier in the series we see Midori-enabler-ya tell him that he’s forgiving Endeavor, and that shows he’s moving on. Forgiveness isn’t needed to move on, and I believe can very much get in the way of it. And that��s the closest we get to anyone actually caring about Shoto’s or any of the other victims feelings that weren’t the villains.

I wish I could say I was surprised by Rei (or Fuyumi) but I’m not. Rei basically tells Natsuo and Fuyumi they have to forgive him because he sent her a flower. Besides the disturbing parallels from "Harlequinade" Batman: The Animated Series except this one sees it as a good thing. This moment and the continuing progression/ reveal of her character, never made me think highly of her. She reads as someone who is massively codependent and an enabler, regardless of the reason for that, that is the result

Natsuo I was disappointed by, he was the only one who didn’t see the bare minimum of effort from Endeavor as reason to forgive/ forget everything he’s done. Yet in the final showdown he directly blames Dabi for being difficult.

And about Eri, I firmly believe that she was only helped at all because Overhaul was a villain outside of abusing/torturing her. If he was an ‘innocent’ civilian, hero, or part of the commission, they would have given(read forced) her back without hesitation or a second thought, they basically did that anyway when she was first introduced. Here’s a link on what I mean https://www.tumblr.com/thr0wnawayy/764328039502987264/whats-your-opinion-about-eri-i-mean-shes-cute?source=share And a whole lot of @thr0wnawayy ‘s first reblog could be taken and applied to Shoto

#bnha #bnha critical #mha #bnha meta #mha critical #anti endeavor #mha meta #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #anti enji todoroki

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bots-and-cons · 10 months ago

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oh my god I LOOVE your hcs about Knockout and Breakdown adopting a human reader they ARE EVERYTHING RIGHT. So I would like to request some headcanons of human reader that is celebrating fathers day(and teaching them what this day is about) and I like to see them being appreciative of their fathers and telling them how much they mean to them? 🥺 can we get hcs of how Ko and Br would react? Just a side dish of pure fluff pls 🙏

Let us give these cons some hugs ✊🏻

okay hope that’s acceptable, thank you and take care of yourself!!

A/N: I really liked writing those, thank youuu. You can find those posts here and here if someone’s interested. This seemed like a quick and fun one to write, so I can do it even though I’m pretty busy. I think this would be between the two other posts timeline wise but Idk if it really matters. I think this is a really cute idea btw I hope I did it justice :D

~Knockout & Breakdown~

•Neither Knockout nor Breakdown has ever heard of father’s day, because it’s definitely not a thing on cybertron, and they’re not familiar enough with earth culture to know something like that

•Cybertronians don’t reproduce in a way that would make someone a father or a mother or a parent in general, so they don’t even really have the need for terms such as “dad” or father”

•So when you mentioned you wanted to do something with them for father’s day, they’re like “What’s that?”

•You explain the premise of it and Knockout and Breakdown look at each other for a while, before Knockout starts tearing up with happiness

•Breakdown just nods very seriously, but he’s also smiling

•They don’t want to let you down, this is the first time you’re really calling them your parents, even though the whole unsaid family thing has been going on for a while now

•So you start planning your surprise for them, now that they’re on board

•You were kinda scared they wouldn’t be interested, or would think it was weird, but you were so happy to see they were into the whole idea

•You’re having some trouble deciding what to do, because you do want to get out of the Nemesis with them, but what could you do together?

•You end up kind of improvising on the actual father’s day, because you had a few options you wanted to do

•You settled for something pretty basic, you took them to a diner (in their holoforms ofc) you all liked and gave them the gifts you’d made them

•You had made them these braided bracelets, that were a mix of red, blue and (your favorite color) yarn and were braided with some nice patterns

•You confessed you’d made like ten versions, because you had to learn how to make them, and these were the best ones

•Then you revealed a third bracelet under your sleeve and told them “We match now” with a smile

•Knockout almost started crying happy tears again, but he settled for sniffling and holding you and Breakdown’s hand

•You were sitting in your little booth, holding each other’s hands and you couldn’t have been happier

•You’re sometimes kind of bad at telling people you love them, but you really wanted to make sure they knew you appreciate and love them

•You’re holding their hands and look at each of them while saying “Dad” to Breakdown, and “Papa” to Knockout and “I love you guys” to both

•Now Knockout is just straight up crying and almost knocks over a drink glass while moving to your side of the table and hugging you

•Breakdown isn’t far from tears himself, but he manages to keep himself composed

•They both tell you they love you too, and thank you for the gifts

•You just sit and talk for a while after, and eat the rest of your food of course, all together, it was a fantastic afternoon

#transformers #tfp #transformers prime #decepticons #breakdown #knockout #knockout x breakdown #kobd #tfp headcanons #transformers fluff #reader insert #platonic transformers x reader

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year2000electronics · 3 months ago

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General thoughts on Luigi?

MY GENERAL THOUGHTS ON LUIGI.

- he is adorable. as is his brother. he and mario have a cute quality to them and the universe needs to accept this

- i think it’s always been kinda interesting how a lot of people seem to treat luigi as a character as if he’s still “the underdog in his brothers shadow”. i can see where they’re coming from, since it just makes such a compelling story of being a Victim of Circumstance, and his eventual “rise to the call” in luigi’s mansion really giving him legs to stand on, and games like spm exploring luigi’s specific lot in life as “player two”, but the culture and treatment of luigi has definitely shifted since the experimental period of the 2000s. not only is he treated as just as much of a hero as mario but i feel like the public opinion of him has grown so much that he’s likely more popular than even mario himself is (just look at how big of a lead he had in the schafrillas mario ranking).. i frequently find myself pondering the logistics of Underdog Luigi but i feel like more people need to recognize that it definitely isn’t the case anymore in mario canon writlarge

- he needed more screentime in the movie! and i’m NOT just saying that because i love him! genuinely think about it for a moment. luigi gets stuck in the darklands through no fault of his own. neither brother knew what was in the warp pipe, and their separation in the warp zone was almost random. so then, yes, he does spend a lot of the movie cowering in fear, but that’s because he HAPPENED to land in the darklands. hell, he even stands up to bowser (verbally) at one point! and why this is a problem for me is that luigi is supposed to be a shrinking violet and a scaredy cat, and i love how weird and socially awkward he can be in the movie, but because this is MARIO’s movie, mario as a character ends up more flawed (in the fleshed-out character sense) and needing to learn more than luigi does! it’s just WEIRD when mario has to learn all these lessons and be the better man and then luigi is just kinda. coasting? like no! no no! that man should be NEUROTIC!!! (and the icing on this cake is that mario’s dad is all “you’re holding your brother back” I FEEL LIKE IM IN BIZZARO WORLD. WHAT. WHY.)

- my fav version of him is paper luigi <3 he’s the closest thing we’ve had of a luigi who is able to start his respective series as the man in the shadows and then graduate into self-confidence. it’s not a perfect “arc” for him since the modern games don’t exactly follow up on SPM but i’ve always found it more interesting the way he’s positioned in the paper mario series. there’s not any room for him in your party so you see the most distinct divide between mario and luigi we’ve ever had aside from luigi’s mansion itself

- i miss his striped socks from early m&l art :(

- him and e gadd are so funny together i think more people should acknowledge how bitchy they are at each other. it’s fantastic. luigi and this old queen

- i can’t wait to hear more of kevin afghani’s luigi VA :] i have unfortunately heard a lot of his luigi’s screams of death in wonder though. sorry to luigi for killing you so much.

- i want to see nintendo continue to try and figure out what they want to do with luigi in 3d marios. in 64 and sunshine he just wasn’t there (boooo), in galaxy he has probably the best compromise? being someone you run into in the overworld as well as being an unlockable character after getting every star, and odyssey has him doing balloon world. which is not really anywhere near the action but he is admittedly very cute with his balloons and bow tie. i feel like neither of these answers are the “true, cohesive 3d luigi experience” though. i hope they don’t give up on it.

- mr. l has and forever will be cool. technically not a luigi thing but i’m ride or die for him.

i always have thoughts on luigi. i could go on like this all day.

#mothra answers #mario #luigi

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harringtonswriting · 2 years ago

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slowly intertwining fingers while the other is driving with rooster because he is SO a holding hands while driving kinda guy i know it in my heart and soul. thank u so much my dear bree!!! <33

Kait my love!! god you are SO right and you should say it louder bc rooster is absolutely a holding hands while driving guy <3 i feel like he just loves skin to skin contact you know? always gotta be holding his love <3 i am so sorry it took so long, but i hope you like it!

...

Sometimes, on the hard days, Bradley will ask you to drive around with him in the Bronco. He never has a destination in mind, just wanting to spend some time with the windows down and the radio on as the two of you drive aimlessly around Fightertown, or along the coast, or even into the city. Wherever the wind and the roads might take him. There was one time the two of you had ended up in Long Beach because you’d accidentally fallen asleep and Bradley had decided to follow the coastline until you woke up. You’d had a good time, of course, once you’d woken up, but that was the furthest you’d ever gone when he needed to work the next morning.

Bradley never tells you what causes the hard days, at least not right away, but you know today is a particularly bad one when he’s completely silent as he comes through the front door. Normally he tries to at least make some noise, banging his boots against the front mat or dropping his bag on the floor to make sure you knew he was there. But the complete silence, even with opening and closing the door, means today is a particularly rough one.

You’re worried, of course you’re worried, but you give him some space and let him come to you. You’ve learned during the time you’ve been dating him that trying to confront him before he’s ready–even if you’re not confronting him you know Bradley will still most likely see it that way–never ends well for either of you. So you listen to him head from the front door to the kitchen, and then up the stairs, and then the sounds of doors being open and shut.

Bradley’s changed into a t-shirt and jeans as he walks into the living room where you’re lounging on the couch, ones you’d washed earlier that day and laid out on your bed for him to change into after work. His aviators are tucked against the collar of his shirt, and he’s got two sweatshirts in his hand as he comes over to press a kiss to the top of your head. It lingers longer than normal, and you reach a hand up to cup his cheek before he moves away.

“Come for a drive with me?” he asks, voice even and lacking his normal warmth. You nod, getting up off the couch and taking the sweatshirts from him as the two of you gather your things and head out the door to the Bronco. Bradley peels out of the driveway almost as soon as your seatbelt clicks into place, slipping his sunglasses on and turning the radio on with the volume down low as he starts to drive.

His right hand is resting on the gear shift, fingers tapping out a staccato rhythm against the kitschy eight ball that he’d told you Natasha had given him as a joke once upon a time. You don’t mention how twitchy his hands are or the hard set of his jaw, but you do rest your hand on top of his where it’s palming the gear shift.

Bradley’s fingers stop tapping almost immediately, the muscles relaxing under your hand.

I’m here. I love you. It’s okay.

You don’t say the words out loud, but as you swipe your thumb along the back of his hand, you let your actions speak for you. You interlock your fingers with his but leave them where they are. Feeling the warmth of his larger, calloused hand holding yours is calming for you, and you hope it is for him right now. He normally finds any excuse he can to hold your hand in his, though normally he liked when he could hold your hand and press it to your thigh–he never even tried to be subtle about it.

But tonight, it’s more for his comfort than it is his love of your body. Bradley brings your entwined hands up to his mouth, and you feel his lips press a soft kiss to the back of your hand. His mustache scratches against your skin, but the sensation is a welcome one, a familiar comfort. It’s his answer, without words, letting you know he’s grateful you’re here. He squeezes once, twice, three times in succession, lingering kisses on each knuckle as he keeps his eyes on the road.

Bradley will talk when he’s ready. Maybe that’ll be in a few hours; maybe it won’t be for a few days. But you’re glad you’re here with him, that you’re in his Bronco with the windows rolled down and the evening air blowing cool across your skin, existing with Bradley through the good and the bad. You’ll always be here for him, and by the way he’s moved your hand to cradle it to his chest as best he can, you’re sure he knows it, too.

#top gun maverick fic #top gun maverick #bradley bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster fanfic #rooster bradshaw fic #rooster bradshaw #rooster top gun #kait 🌼

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ofmermaidstories · 6 months ago

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i just wanted to say as a long time reader i'm so happy to hear your thoughts on the ending, because i feel like so many people were very "this is the worst ending ever and it ruined the series" or "this ending was perfect and anyone who disagrees just didn't understand the story" when i think neither is really true at all lol... like it's okay to take what you need from the ending and agree and disagree with certain parts! no perfect story exists because if it did then writers would stop writing! but i'm still so excited to see where your love of the series takes you in the future, and i'm grateful that you share your work with us always :) i hope you have a good week!

i love the series too much to swing blindly either way. 🥹 and i understand/can see perfectly how like, there’d be readers who’d be upset with the wrap up, or otherwise feel the knee-jerk reaction to defend it from all criticism. 🥺 i’m not one of them though. 🥹 hori achieved what he set out to do (tell a very specific story about a boy learning what it means to dream, and the cost and responsibility of gaining and losing them), there’s just some pot holes on the road to it. 🥺 and maybe they could’ve (should’ve) been addressed, maybe easily, maybe not (maybe it’s a problem for when the road was first built, in terms of foundation or missing approval plans, maybe) but the road still works. we still get there in the end. 🥹

i had fun the entire time, even with the complaints lmao. i agree with you, anon! like, i don’t think perfect creators/writers exist. we all have blind spots, or biases that otherwise skewer what we try to achieve. i think flaws make creators and their creations interesting!!!!!! if anything i think that tells you more about them and their work than the things they get right does. The way Hori protects and almost babies his hero boys—his men—from their consequences, lmao, like he’s almost too scared to truly hurt them in the long run? He always just shies away from saying things outright—things are always left just open enough that he can back peddle later on, fix things. The complete dry lack of romance, despite him taking pains to hint at it and the way it’s guarded among Ochako and Tsyu like some precious, girlish secret. 💀 Idc what anyone says about that last one, I don’t believe he’s deliberately subverting expectations—I think he’s just bad at writing romance (that isn’t unintended 💀) and also a coward, lmao.

But that’s the stuff that’s fun! It’s fun to pick it apart and then it’s fun to piece it back together either by writing fic or trying to find fics that have like, the fix-its you want. 🥹 Hori’s flaws and deliberate gaps are what makes it the perfect sandbox we know and love. and i think he knows that, tbh—there’s so many tiny things he hints at, throughout the story, that we just never get full explanations of. The UA robot uprising, lmao. The cyberwar after the kids leave school, mentioned in this last chapter?? The fact that he’s plotted out the past users lives, and is just kinda like—eh, yeah, i’m never gonna tell. LOL. Maybe what I keep calling cowardice is just a misjudgement of the lines he draws for himself, in the sand. 🧐🥺 I guess we won’t know, lmao.

i’m waffling. Anon, I hope you’re having a good start to your week. 🥹 Thank-you for being so nice, specifically with your last words—there’s a lot I wanna write for MHA!!! I’m excited to start something new that gets to play with what Hori left for us. 🥹 Like Lili said in her earlier ask—I’d like to write them a hundred other happy endings, too. 🥹

#ofmermaidstories-asks #mha spoilers #bnha spoilers #my hero academia: the story of how we became heroes

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tamtamandtim · 11 months ago

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So I’ve finished Moominvalley season 2 (2019) and my god I loved it but it hurt me so much in return holy wow. Anyway if you’d like some of my thoughts about it feel free to keep reading ^-^

(fair warning it’s a lot longer than I thought it’d be)

Episode 2 the fire spirit got me so bad in my feelings and even funnier yet I could tell it would by not only the title and thumbnail but the second I heard the song by cavetown I literally was like ‘hm it sounds like something by cavetown…This should be fine’

oh how wrong I was because of how it ended with the little fire spirit sacrificing itself to save Moominvalley and how upset Snufkin was, he seemed to be pretty attached to the lil goober when the gang dropped it off.

So having his care and attempts to protect it, be basically for nothing would’ve been soul crushing for him.

Holywow I loved how the Hobgoblin and Sniff were just bouncing off eachother so well. Then the Hobgoblin giving Sniff ✨EMPATHY✨ my god that was amazing, especially with how Moominpapa and Little My were like “ew get away from me”

I love how the Groke is now just becoming a more casual part of the community especially with the trial episode, like don’t get me wrong they’re still uneasy with her presence but they still wanted to give her a fair trial and everything.

Ooooh no the ✨The bad feelings✨ I was having about Snorkmaiden and Moomintroll were riiiighttttt. Moomintroll seemed more angry about having to leave the valley (and Snufkin by association) than leaving Snorkmaiden to the point he was unintentionally hurting her. Twice. Technically thrice if you include the fact they broke up. But I’m glad that Moomintroll is beginning to learn that he’s gonna have to accept a couple of things about Snufkin, if he ever wants him to stay. But still kinda hurts a bit.

I loved that Moominpapa and Moominmama have character arcs that don’t involve getting divorced, it’s refreshing and sure they still fight and have moments being mad at eachother but at the end of the day they still love each other and honestly? I love them for that.

Ah Moominpapas midlife crisis, I hope that I can be able to just pack up and go when I hit mine. Sounds like the dream honestly and I wish I could be as creative as Moominmama, just painting the walls with no worries.

I also LOVED the sea shanties just 👌😩 it brings me so much joy because there was a good chunk of time where that’s all I’d listen too.

The last episode though also gave me a gut punch because of the fact Snufkin came back before he left for the winter, and that he just welcomes himself in because he knows that they wouldn’t mind him being there, regardless of if they are or not. I hate it here. Snufkin you found family fuck. And that everyone there played ‘The Moomin Family’ for the kid.

“Have you checked his bedroom yet?”

“Naturally c:”

of course you have you absolute loser I love you for that. Seeing him get so excited about possibly finding HIS letter, only to be disappointed was devastating too.

Oh but the puppet show, oh when I tell you I almost cried, It’s even sadder that Moomintroll (seemingly) isn’t going to back to Moominvalley. Also my heart dropped to my ass when they almost lit the fire with the ancestors inside, but Snufkin excitedly finding the note inside the fireplace? Put my heart right back in my throat

But more lightheartedly damn Snufkin has got some moves and seeing everyone close to the Moomin family looking back at their time and memories together fondly was so incredibly sweet.

Anyways TL;DR a super strong season that got me right in the feels every time, I’m so excited to be able to start the 3rd season soon!! But thank you so much for reading this! I hope you have a wonderful day, night or time and take care!!

#snufkin #little my #moomins #moomintroll #moominvalley #snufkin moomin #melody of moominvalley #moomin valley #moominmama #moominpapa #snorkmaiden #moominvalley 2019

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imagineanime2022 · 8 months ago

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Prove It.

Hatori Sohma X Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3387

Requested: @girlsforpjm

Request: Plssss more one shots for hatori I’ll pay and everything im begging😞 AND I can’t even remember if I put in a request already but can you do another hatori x reader :)

Warning: More angsty then my previous works, kinda happy ending, spoliers for Hatori's backstory

Willing to write a part 2 for this one if anyone is interested.

You were only young when you met Hatori, you remember the small smile that he had returned your wave with, you were both too small to realise then but your friendship would be tested in more ways than one. You grew close quickly and even with Shigure and Ayame inserting themselves into your little group when you started middle school, you were still almost inseparable.

“Hatori!” You called as you walked into the student council room, a smile bright on your face as you waved. Having been friends with him for so long now, you’d learned of the curse that followed his family and tried your hardest to stop others from triggering it and stop yourself from triggering it as well. “What are you doing here?” He asked, watching you sit in the seat next to him with a smile. “I knew that you’d hide yourself in here, I know you’ve got a lot of work to do since Ayame’s not going to do it,” You mumbled as you pulled out a small bento box from your bag. “You need to eat though.” “Oh, I wasn’t expecting anyone to realise that I was gone.” He said softly as he took the box from you, placing it on the other side of him so that he could easily swap from writing to eating. “Is there something else?” “No, I’ll just stay here. I have some work to do as well. It's quiet here so it’ll be easier to work.” You explained as you pulled out some homework that he had more than likely finished. “You should have done that already…” He sighed as he glanced at the work that you had laid out. “I know, I just don’t understand it… so I’ve been avoiding it.” You shrugged looking at the papers as if hoping that it was spontaneously stick in your head. “You should have said something, I can help you with this.” He said as he turned away from the work that he had been doing. “No you have your own work to be doing, I can figure this out on my own.” You mumbled “I didn’t mean to bother you.” “You could never bother me, I’ll teach you the basic concept again, and while you do the first half of the worksheet I’ll keep working on this.” He explained and you looked at him and nodded. “Okay, as long as you let me know if I can help you as well.” You ordered and he nodded.

The first time that you were really tested was the day that your parents told you that you were moving, you wanted nothing more than to stay but there was no way to make it work no matter how you looked at it. You hadn’t actually planned to tell Hatori when you did, you had been sitting in the park near your house after talking to your parents, you were trying to figure out how you were going to tell him. It seemed the universe was ready for you to tell him because he took a seat next to you. “You look upset.” Was all he said, you bit your bottom lip, eyes trained on the floor as you tried to find the words to explain everything. “I am upset.” You finally answered, you hoped that voicing your feelings on the matter before explaining it to him would help preserve the friendship that you had. “Why?” He asked. “My parents want to move.” Again putting the blame on someone else so that he wouldn’t be angry at you. “Out of town?” Hatori asked. “Yeah.” You answered, as if saying it out loud called on more tears, they poured down your face as you pulled your knees up to face wrapping your arms around the back of your thighs. “They won’t let you stay?” He asked. “There’s nowhere for me to stay, I don’t have any other family here.” You shrugged and you heard him sigh as he moved, you expected that he was going to leave you there, go home and leave you to your own sadness but instead you felt him gently pull your legs down. “Then I will wait for you.” He promised. “Wait for me?” You asked. “You plan on coming back right?” He asked. “Of course.” You answered. “Then I will wait for you, no matter how long it takes.” He answered. “And I will do whatever it takes to get back here.” You promised.

You talked everyday for the next 4 years, as you tried to make the best of a bad situation, as you got older you knew that the promise to wait for you was one made by two children and you never expected him to honour it but when you found your way back to town and found that he was about to get married and have a child you realised how much you wished that he would.

“They look happy.” You said softly as you stood with Shigure. “He’s missed you.” Shigure said and you looked at him and shrugged. “Doesn’t mean that he’s not happy.” You said as you looked back at them. “She’s pretty, I shouldn’t ruin this for him.” “Ruin something?” Shigure frowned. “You wouldn’t ruin anything. He’s been waiting for the day that you come back here.” Shigure said. “We both know that I can’t turn off these feelings, it’s the reason I promised to come back, I hoped that absence would make the heart grow fonder. Instead I pushed him towards someone else, my decision, my consequences.” You mumbled. “You really should stay and talk to him.” Shigure suggested, you shrugged. “Maybe.” You answered before turning away, you still had others that you wanted to visit, you only had a couple of days.

As time went on it became harder and harder for you to actually go and see him, everytime that you saw him he was with her and he was happy, you didn’t want to ruin something good for him, you would much rather that he were happy then confused or torn, so on your last day you decided that you just wouldn’t go and see him. Like always Hatori had a way of messing up any plan that you’ve ever made, this time he seemed to find you sitting at a table in a coffee shop “Were you ever going to come and see me?” He asked. “You seemed busy.” You answered, honestly you didn’t sound bitter or angry about it, just a little sad. “Didn’t want to bother you.” “I’ve told you this before… You are never a bother.” He explained. “You seem to have other priorities, I shouldn’t distract you from them, I’m glad you look happy.” You explained. “You don’t sound very happy.” He observed and you looked at him for a second and shrugged. “I still can’t stay, the place I had lined up fell through so I’ll have to leave again in a few days.” You answered, covering up your mood with a lie, you had declined the place after seeing them together, you weren’t sure that you were going to be able to live with it, at least not at the moment, you needed more time to get used to it. “There’s nowhere else?” He asked. “Not at the moment, I asked the agent to give me a call if something else came up.” You answered. “Why would you avoid me all this time if you knew that?” He asked. “You looked happy.” you answered. “What does that have to do with anything?” He asked. “I’m happy for you.” You said softly “but I can’t be happy with you.” “What are you talking about?” He asked. “There was a reason that I promised to come back here, I thought… It doesn't matter what I thought, just know that I’m happy for you and I hope that I will be brave enough to meet her one day.” “Wait! What does that mean?” He asked as you started to stand. “It doesn’t matter, just enjoy what you have, okay? Promise?” You smiled and this was the first time that he had seen your smile since you had come back, the same as he remembered, though it didn’t meet your eyes almost there, it would fool anyone who hadn’t known you since you were young. “I promise.” He finally said and that was where he saw it, the smile that could have fooled him if he weren’t part of the conversation. “Good.” you nodded before turning and walking away from him. The second test one you both failed.

From there on the messages stopped and you were only ever back for special events like Ayame opening his new shop or Shigure’s success in writing. You remembered the night that you got the message from Shigure that something terrible had happened, he didn’t tell you what it was just that they needed you to come back to help Hatori. When you got there, you had no indication of what happened, Shigure met you and took you back to the house where Hatori must have been. “What happened?” You asked. “It’s better that he tells you.” Shigure answered. “A lot has happened since your last visit.” “Bad things I assume?” You asked, Shigure only hummed in confirmation. When you made it back to the house Ayame was there. “I was worried that you wouldn’t come.” Ayame sighed “he really needs you right now, you were always able to talk to him when he didn’t want to talk to anyone else.” “I can try but a lot has changed.” You took a deep breath. “The fact that you're here means nothing has changed.” Ayame said “we won’t be far if you need us.” “Thanks.” You mumbled before walking into the room. Hatori was a mess that you could tell, he seemed to be looking through everything in the room until his eyes landed on you. “They called you.” He said. “They did.” You nodded. “Why?” He asked. “I don’t know, I guess they thought that I could help, I’m still your friend after all.” You said taking a step forward. “Are you?” He asked. “Am I what?” You asked. “Still my friend? We haven’t spoken in months.” He reminded you. “You don’t get to come here when you think that you are needed and pretend that you did just walk away when things got tough.” “I didn’t walk away with things got tough, walking away was tough, I could have stuck around, told you I loved you and ruined your life.” You explained. “My life is already ruined, if you loved me you would have been here!” He didn’t yell but his tone was harsh and should have left no room for argument but you weren’t going to leave it that way. “You don’t get to blame this on me, you were the one who broke the promise first, you said that you were going to wait for me and when I came back you had moved on! I didn��t choose that for you, I’m sorry about whatever happened to you and I’m sorry that I can’t change it but you don’t get to lay that blame at my door.” Your hands curled into fists as you turned to the door. “So you are walking away again?” He asked. “I shouldn’t, I should let you hurt me so badly that I never come back here again but I love you… I’d probably still give you a chance, so I’ll save myself the pain and you the guilt and walk away again.” You answered, opening the door “if you ever feel that I’m worth the time again, Shigure and Ayame will know where to find me.” As you walked out your eyes fell on Ayame and Shigure “I told you things have changed.” Ayame was the first to move, pulling you into a hug as he walked you out.

Shigure stood in the corridor torn between following you out and confronting his friend, in the end he chose to have the fight that you wouldn’t “what was that?” He asked. “She’s better off without me.” Hatori answered. “That’s what you think.” Shigure finally spoke. “That’s what I know.” Hatori argued. “What you know is that you are afraid, scared that it will end the same way that they have with Kana.” Shigure fired back, though the words felt cold and unfeeling they only seemed to make Hatori more angry. “Would you rather she ended up the same as Kana, that she ended up hurt like Kana!?” Hatori asked. “It doesn’t matter what I would rather happen, it’s not my decision to make and it’s not yours either.” Shigure answered. “She reaches out for you even now and you still can’t see it, maybe she is better off without you but she’ll never truly walk away.” “I never asked her to stay.” Hatori grumbled. “No but you made her promise to come back.” Shigure reminded him as he turned to leave “she never broke it.”

You don’t know what gave you the confidence to move back to town but after everything happened you couldn’t settle anywhere but there, eventually getting a job as the school counsellor in the hopes that helping other people with their problems would help you ignore yours. Tohru was the sweet girl who had found her way into your office, her mother had passed away and while she insisted that she is fine, and within the first couple of weeks you doubted it but things have changed recently. “I miss her sometimes.” Tohru finally said. “Do you want to talk about it?” You asked. “I don’t know if there’s anything to talk about, I just think about some of the things that we used to do.” She answered. “As you should.” You smiled “when you lose someone like that, I would be worried if you said that you never thought of her or that you didn’t miss her, it will never feel right that she’s not here but it will get easier.” “You sound like your talking from experience.” Tohru muttered. “Well-” “Oh! Sorry I didn’t mean to pry I just thought-” “Tohru it’s okay don’t worry, I was talking from experience, though the person that I was speaking of hasn’t passed.” You answered. “That must be hard.” Tohru said softly and you shook your head. “I don’t see him anymore.” You explained. “Things seem to be different with you, you seem happier these past couple of weeks.” “I think I am happier, I have some new friends, I’ve been staying with them Yuki and Kyo Sohma.” “You like being with them?” You asked. “Yeah, they both need help sometimes, Kyo can be a little standoffish and brash but he tries his best not to hurt people and Yuki just needs a friend.” Tohru explained. “Just be careful not to give too much of yourself to someone else,” You warned and she nodded with a small smile as the conversation moved to a lighter topic before the session ended.

It was only a couple of weeks later that Hatori walked into the school, he was looking for Yuki, you had been going back to your office after a meeting and ended up running into him “is there something that I can help you with?” You asked after dodging running into him. “I’m looking for Yuki Sohma.” He answered. “Second floor, 4th room from the left hand staircase.” You answered. “Thank you.” He answered before stepping around you, the little boy following him looked at you for a second he almost seemed like he wanted to say something. “Momoji!” Hatori called, causing the boy to leave before he could say anything, you watched him walk around the corner before continuing to your office where you were surprised to see Shigure sitting on the sofa, not an uncommon occurrence, he tended to sneak in and hide here when he didn’t want to do anything. “I’m fine.” You muttered as you put all of your papers on the table and sat down. “So you saw him then? I was hoping that I would get to you before he did.” He sighed. “He didn’t say anything did he?” “Just asked where Yuki was.” You answered. “Mm.” Shigure hummed. “What are you hiding from this time?” You asked. “Nothing, I came here for you.” Shigure answered, “You're still my friend even if we don’t meet the same way that we used to.” “Thank you for checking up on me, you don’t need to do that.” You finally said, he just waves you off.

Months after that meeting with Hatori, everything settled back into the normal routine, work was simple and home was lonely but it was constant and that was it. You don’t even know what made you look out the window but you did, eyes falling on the figure just outside of your gate. You sighed as you pulled on a jumper and slipped on some shoes before opening the door “what are you doing?” You asked. “I was trying to decide whether I should darken your doorstep.” He answered. “Well you are so what do you want?” You asked. “You said that if I ever wanted to find you again I just needed to ask the others, are you still willing to listen?” He asked. “I wouldn’t have said it if I were ever going to turn you away.” You leaned against your door frame, you thought that when you saw him again you would tell him that you wanted nothing to do with him but now that he was here and willing, you were desperate for an explanation. “I have some questions of my own.” “Then ask them.” He prompted. “I know you were hurting back then but why would you say all of those things?” You asked. “It’s just like you to justify it by saying that I was hurting but in all honesty that was only part of it but the bigger part was that I was afraid.” He answered. “Afraid?” You asked “of the same thing happening again?” “Do you know what happened with Kana?” He asked “did the others ever tell you?” “No.” You answered stepping to the side “you should come in if you're about to though.” Hatori seemed thankful for the offer of shelter, waiting in the hall for you to lead him in, you both sat in the living room. “Akito was the one that ruined what Kana and I had, we were going to get married, we asked Akito for permission as head of the family but she lashed out and ended up hurting me in the process, she then blamed Kana for what happened, told her that it was her fault and it caused Kana to go into a state of severe depression, the only way that I could think to save her was to make her forget that she had ever met me.” Hatori explained. “So you were scared of Akito?” You asked. “And what she might do to you.” Hatori added. “Ever since we were little she didn’t like you around, she hated that you knew of our curse and that you stayed anyway, that we were so close, she was happy when you left, with how possessive she was becoming I couldn’t see that happen to you too.” “So instead of talking to me about it you decided to try and push me away?” You asked, there was no judgement in your voice, you were just getting your facts straight “so what has changed now?” “Tohru, she managed to break the curse, we are no longer bound to Akito.” He explained. “The first thing that I thought of doing was coming here to explain what happened and try to make it better.” “You’ve made a good start.” You informed him “but what about Kana?” “Kana I have no problem leaving in my past, she wasn’t and still isn’t the woman that I have wanted.” He explained. “I promise from here on out I will prove to you everyday that I deserve to have you in my life in whatever way you want.” “Then prove it.” You prompted and you could see it on his face, that he intended to do just that.

*Part 2*

Request Here!!

#fruits basket #fruit basket oneshot #fruit basket x reader #fruit basket imagine #imagine #oneshot #one shot #reader insert #x reader #female reader

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ladywaffles · 1 year ago

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16 + icemav for the drunken confession prompts!!!

okay so this one kinda ran away from me, oops! thank you for playing <3

"This is not a dream, I think. In my dreams, we're usually kissing."

send me a pairing and a number!

It lasts sixteen months.

They run out the clock as best as they can, and then they put overtime on the clock and run that down too.

But Ice has always wanted, and then wanted more, and TOPGUN was only ever a stop on the way to the top for him.

He understood that going in; their time was limited. Maverick has never shied away from a challenge, though, especially one that Iceman placed in front of him.

Create a life that makes Iceman want to stop, for him. Make a place that Iceman won’t want to leave, when the time comes.

(It will be many years down the line when he finds out, but Maverick was almost successful in his attempt. It is only the decades they have behind them, spent together, that stops this from hurting.)

So Ice’s time at TOPGUN comes to an end. It’s almost a joke, really; Maverick’s track record of relationships in Miramar is oh-for-two. Charlie had packed off for D.C. before Ice rotated back stateside. Maverick was too burned by the experience to even think about approaching Ice in any way that hinted of romance.

Sixteen months of flying circles around hotshot flyboys with Ice on his wing, the wide expanse of the Pacific stretching out in front of him. He really couldn’t hope for anything better. He only wishes he had more time.

They spend their last night of freedom—Ice’s second-to-last night onshore—on a pub crawl that Mav will be feeling in the morning. He won’t regret it, but even as he matches Ice shot for shot, because Ice is an all-American poster boy but he hates beer more than anything, Maverick wants to slow down and take in these last memories of Ice at his side. They serve at the pleasure of the Navy, and only God knows when the brass will smile on them and send down orders to reunite Maverick Mitchell and the Iceman, the only fighter pilots on active duty to score air-to-air kills since the end of the Vietnam War.

They close out a bar on the other side of town, and then because it’s Ice’s last night and Ice gets what he wants, no matter how stupid Maverick thinks it might be, they end up on a picnic bench in some park, looking up at the admittedly bright stars.

“Do you ever miss it?” Ice asks.

“Hmm?” Maverick’s head is still fuzzy, his cheeks still warm with all the alcohol rushing through his body.

“The stars,” Ice says, staring up. “When you’re here, don’t you miss it? When you were out on the Enterprise. I swear I used to go up on deck every night just to look at the stars.”

Maverick shrugs. “They’re mostly the same, no matter where you go. Maybe if I crossed the line and the constellations changed, I’d care more, but stars are stars.”

“Huh.”

“Do you?” Maverick turns to look at Ice, who seems to be tracing out lines in his mind, vectors towards true north, or maybe the outline of Cygnus.

“Yeah. Where I grew up, the light pollution was so bad, you could barely make out the North Star. The city was just too bright. The first time I was on a carrier, and I saw the stars, what they actually looked like… Man, Slider must’ve thought I was dumb, walking around with my mouth gaping open like a fish. Nearly ate shit when we were heading back to bunk because my head was in the clouds, I hit the knee-knockers. He didn’t let that one go for weeks.”

“At least you’ll get to see them again,” Maverick tells him.

Stay, his heart begs him to say. Stay here, with me. I’m not the starry night sky, but can’t I be enough? Please, let me be enough to keep you.

“Yeah,” Ice muses. “I almost wish I could take you with me.”

“What?” Maverick lets out a shaky laugh.

Ice smiles, that small little thing that he does whenever he’s amused, the one that Maverick learned to look for early on. A blink-and-you-miss it grin, a glimpse into the real man behind the Iceman.

“What? Was it not obvious? You need me to say it out loud?”

“I don’t—”

“I’m gonna miss you, Mitchell,” Ice says easily. He doesn’t look in Maverick’s direction, even as he continues. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do out there without you on my wing. It’s been so long since I— since I flew without you right there, annoying me over the radio. What am I gonna do without you chattering in my ear?”

“I’m sure you’ll find another flyboy out there to talk your ear off,” Maverick replies, falling into the banter. It’s not what he expected from Ice, but maybe the alcohol had more of an effect on Ice than he thought it did.

“I would stay here, if I could,” Ice admits.

You can! Maverick wants to cry. You can stay here! Fly with me! Stay with me!

“I’m gonna be a tough act to follow,” he says instead.

“You sure are,” Ice agrees.

“You can’t stay here if you want that promotion, though. That’s what you want.”

“What I want,” Ice repeats. “You know, these last few weeks, I wanted nothing more than this.”

Ice looks at him now, a blush on his cheeks from the chill bite of the midnight air and the alcohol coursing through his veins.

Maverick furrows his brow. “This?”

“Just sitting here, taking a moment to enjoy your company. Don’t let it get to your head, Mitchell, I’m still the better pilot, but you’re a good man. Everyone’s wanted something from me these last few weeks, and I was worried I wouldn’t get a chance to say it.”

Maverick cracks a grin. “You were thinking about me?”

Ice groans. “Of course that’s what you latch onto.”

“Iceman, thinking about little ol’ me!” Maverick jumps up and yells it out to the world, teasing Ice. It’s the only way he can think to make it hurt a little less, that it took Ice this long to say anything. “I win!”

“This isn’t what I was dreaming of,” Ice deadpans.

Maverick turns to him, breathless. That… changes things. “You were dreaming of me?” He sits back down next to Ice, a little closer than before. Their knees are knocking together.

Ice stares down at the ground, focusing on the grass with deadly intent.

“Yes. Yeah,” he breathes out.

“And is this like your dream?” Maverick asks gently. “Is this the dream you wanted?”

“This is not a dream, I think,” Ice answers in a soft voice. “In my dreams, by now, we’re usually kissing.”

And Ice looks up at him, his heart fully bared and placed in Maverick’s hands, his eyes full of hope and fear in equal measures, and Maverick aches.

“I would’ve said something sooner,” Ice continues, “But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to risk it. It took me all night to work up the courage to say something, and all that alcohol to pry it from my own damn self, but the only thing I’ve wanted to do all night is just say it and take you back to mine, so I could have you, just for the one night—”

Maverick cuts him off with a hand on his jaw. He can feel the flush in Ice’s cheeks, the hot blush that rises to his skin. “Ice, it’s okay,” he says.

And slowly, so Ice knows that it’s coming, so Ice can stop him if he wants to (even though that might break Maverick’s heart, and maybe Ice’s too, if he’s understanding this right), Maverick presses his lips to Ice’s. He feels the hot puff of Ice’s sigh against his lips, then the hard tug of Ice’s hands on his hips as he deepens the kiss.

Maverick willingly follows where Ice leads him, because his wingman has never led him astray. He ends up straddled across Ice’s lap, hanging on desperately as Ice kisses him with a passion he’s never felt from anyone else.

It’s only when he can’t breathe anymore that he stops, leaning his forehead against Ice’s, his weight falling back on his haunches. Ice’s hands steady him as they breathe together, big, heaving sighs like they’d just done the thousand-yard dash.

Stay, Maverick’s heart chants. Stay with me, don’t leave. Ask me to go with you, and I will. Just say the words.

“You have to go,” Maverick says sadly. He’s sobering up faster than he ever has before, realizing that there are a scant few hours left between now and when Ice goes back to sea.

“I have to go,” Ice repeats. He presses a light kiss to Maverick’s lips.

I’m sorry.

“I’ll be here,” he says.

Come back to me. I can’t lose you too.

Maverick kisses him again, and again, and again, to drive the point home.

“I’ll come back,” Ice replies, understanding.

The timer on Ice’s last day has already started ticking. Maverick is surprised more than anything when Ice drives them back to his housing, seven hours after they first set out on their pub crawl, and opens the passenger door for Maverick. He leads him into his bedroom and holds him for the rest of the night, falling asleep just as the sun starts to peek through the blinds.

Maverick doesn’t want to let go, but he won’t stop Ice. He commits Ice to memory as best he can, and when the time comes, he kisses Ice hard, pouring sixteen months of wanting and desire and love into it.

Ice meets him with the same fervor, the same built-up emotion flowing out of him, a mirror image of his own feelings reflected back to him.

They’re wingmen, after all.

#top gun #icemav #ask #lamby.prompt

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decks-writing-blog · 10 months ago

Text

Whatever the Fuck Benrey is: Chapter Twenty: Caring For Him Has Downsides

Chapter One

Previous Chapter

“Wow, we used to kinda be like neighbors, huh?” Gordon said as they stopped at the door leading to the lab Benrey’s handlers had been set up in. “Or not neighbors, I guess but… I used to work a bit further down there.” He gestured down the hall they’d been heading down. “How come I never saw you around before the test?”

Benrey had rarely spent much time here outside of when his handlers wanted him for something and had always left as soon as they were done. This part of the facility was boring and his handlers had been annoying, why would he want to spend more time than needed near them and their dumb lab? And… “A lot of people from around here knew me so they wouldn’t’ve been as much fun to stop for their passports and stuff. So I didn’t hang out around here.” The team assigned to him had been relatively small so maybe it wasn’t quite ‘a lot’ but they had shown him off to their friends occasionally before he’d started actively resisting such annoyance. “But I heard there was a big experiment thingy going on over there and I wanted to disrupt it a bit before heading out to get Heavenly Sword.”

“I don’t think any of us are surprised,” Bubby said at the time as Gordon said, “Figures.”

“Well you chose the perfect test to disrupt,” Coomer said, “because look at you now! Free at last and about to start a happily ever after with Gordon. Let’s continue, shall we?” He turned to the door and jiggled the handle. “It’s locked.” Stepping aside from it, he gestured for Benrey to proceed.

They’d run into several locked doors during this little trip. Benrey had phased through them all to unlock from the other side, letting the others through. Each one had reminded him to dread this moment a little more. Not that it really mattered, he didn’t care that much if they knew he had a weakness but… it would still be nice if no one ever knew. That wasn’t happening though and this was one of the benefits to bringing them along since… “I can’t phase through it.”

All four of them turned to look at him. He didn’t flinch or cringe under their collective gazes though because he didn’t care, it was fine. Not a problem at all. He was mostly bored with these proceedings.

“There’s something you can’t phase through?” Tommy asked.

“Uh… yep. Just got done saying that.”

“What is it exactly?” Gordon asked. “Is it like a certain material you can’t phase through or like a device or something inside that somehow blocks you? … If you don’t mind sharing anyway.”

Of course he’d want to know; he wanted to know everything. Benrey was a scientific marvel and he was a scientist after all, what else could one expect? If he knew how to contain Benrey would he want to try it? … Almost certainly no, right now anyway. After going through Benrey’s files though and thus needing to study him directly to learn anything more, he might be tempted to. Which Benrey hadn’t been thinking about when agreeing to let him look. It would be a good reason not to, especially since he’d been given leave to change his mind. But he needed to know if Gordon cared about him more as a scientific marvel or a person. Benrey would give him what he wanted and then see if he would push, poke, and experiment to find out more or when Benrey asked him not to, if he’d listen.

It was important. Gordon was making him feel too many emotions for Benrey to not need an answer. It would suck and maybe even… hurt if he didn’t listen and would perhaps end in Benrey losing his freedom. But he could hope Gordon would listen to him, right? That was a reasonable thing to hope for… maybe.

Before the silence could become awkward… “It’s uh… kinda like plexi-glass but tinted orange. I don’t know what it is, only that I can’t go through it and they paneled the room with it. Real lame.”

“I suppose I’ll have to bust it down then,” Coomer said as he turned back to face the door and placed his flashlight off to the side, pointing at it. “Stand back everyone.”

As everyone stepped back to give him more room, Coomer took a stepped towards the door, cracked his knuckles and rolled up his sleeves, revealing his mechanical arms. Maybe now that Black Mesa was back doing stuff, Gordon could get something like that to replace his hand. If he was willing to get the gun hand chopped off though which seemed to be a problem. Probably a weird trauma thing related to it having been chopped off in the first place.

Coomer squared up to the door as if he were about to box it. Which is about what he did as one of his fists shot out, slamming into and then through the door with a crunch of breaking wood. The barrier of not plexi-glass stopped it but not without a cracking sound. His second punch hit the same spot and then the third burst through.

“Victory!” he announced for himself as he pulled back to lift his fists in a victory pose. Bubby started clapping, quickly followed by Tommy and then Benrey. Sleep deprived Gordon was the slowest at picking it up but after fumbling a bit, clapped his hand to his forearm, adding to the applause as it petered out.

Stepping forward, Coomer stuck an arm through the hole he’d made, putting himself in up to this shoulder. A few seconds later the door’s lock click as he evidently found it. After pulling his arm out, he turned the knob and pushed the door open, revealing the lab. “Lead the way.” He gestured for Benrey to go in again.

Having been in there many times before, Benrey had no problems doing so and thus went in without hesitation. Maybe he should tell the others to stay out. … Nah, it didn’t matter. It was fine.

Inside was dark of course but with five flashlights, there soon wasn’t much that couldn’t be seen. Panels of the barrier, all over the walls doors and ceiling, only small gaps between so Benrey, even at his smallest couldn’t fit through, reflected some of the light as well. Making the room almost well lit. It was clean too; if his handlers had been killed it hadn’t been in here. Which wasn’t surprising as in addition to him they’d had other projects they’d been working on too and the test thing had been a big deal, drawing many folk over to watch.

“Was all this to keep you in or out?” Tommy asked, shining his light up at the ceiling which was also covered in the orange tinted barrier stuff.

Before Benrey could answer, Bubby did it for him. “Probably both.”

“Uh… yeah, both. I got in once when I wasn’t supposed to and then they fortified it a whole bunch ‘cause they’re super lame.”

Gordon strode further in to pan his light over the back of the room where the various thingies used to test Benrey or draw his blood were located. “Jesus fucking Christ.” Apparently even sleep deprived he still wanted to be weird. Which was a good sign. As annoying as it was, it meant he cared and even if he did end up viewing Benrey more as a scientific marvel than a person, he’d likely still be nice about it. “This stuff is…”

“It’s boring and lame and sucks,” Benrey interrupted, not even bothering to look over at whatever exactly Gordon was looking at because he didn’t care. “Don’t feel bad for me.” He didn’t need pity when he couldn’t be physically harmed in any way that mattered and only felt emotional pain from people he cared about which hadn’t been any of his handlers.

“Nah, feel bad for him,” Bubby cut in again. “Black Mesa sucks. We should gather up as much stuff outta here as we can and destroy the rest.”

“Good idea, Bubby!” Coomer said as he turned to start prying one of the barrier panels off the wall. Bringing it with them, especially so much of it, was a less than fun idea but… theoretically, it’d be worse in the hands of the other Black Mesa members.

So, leaving him to it while the others set to their own self appointed tasks, Benrey turned to the computers. They main thing they were here for. All his data stuff was logged onto them and a lot of it backed up on the flash drives in the desk drawers. Before he could start unplugging and moving things though, Gordon slid up to him.

“You okay?” he whispered.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Just… it’s a lot… or seems like it should be.” More of him projecting; he found it upsetting so he was assuming Benrey would too. He was wrong of course, Benrey didn’t care beyond it being lame and boring but it wasn’t tragic. He was perfectly fine and didn’t need to be pitied and viewed as a sad little whatever the fuck.

Benrey pulled out two of the desk drawers. “We’re here for a reason so uh… hop to it. You should be able to handle grabbing stuff from drawers, right?” He was one handed and sleep deprived but not useless.

Gordon sighed. “Yeah, okay.”

Everything they couldn’t bring with them they destroyed. Naturally Coomer did most of the destruction with his mechanical arms and legs. Gordon’s gun hand helped too though, largely as a just in case disguise for why everything was destroyed; bullet holes in stuff and in the walls would make it look like proper violence had occurred. No one should suspect a thing.

There was satisfaction in watching the place get stripped and then utterly ruined. Most of the experimentation had been done on Benrey when he’d been younger, before his handlers found out everything he could do and the extent of it. Also before he’d developed much of a will to push back against it even if that meant just being difficult about it. But even once all that had slowed down, giving Benrey more time to wander around the facility or hunker down in his gamer pad to play video games, coming here had never been fun. This room in particular sucked, it deserved to be destroyed. If it wasn’t made of concrete, he would’ve asked Bubby to burn it down.

By the time they were finally done, the salvage wagon was full. They’d collected some of that on the way here but most of it was from Benrey’s handlers’ lab. All of which would be going home with him and Gordon. Meaning, to the rest of Black Mesa, their salvage operation was going to look like a failure.

“You guys gonna get in trouble for bringing so little back to the lab?” Benrey asked as they started back the way they’d come.

Tommy replied with, “We could just tell them that uh… our trauma from our first adventure made it hard so we didn’t venture far or find much. And then um, that also gives us a reason to not want to come again even after volunteering for this.”

“You could just blame Gordon,” Bubby said. “Tell the boss he fucked up again.”

“What do mean, again?” As proof of his exhaustion, Gordon barely sounded like he cared.

“I just mean, again. You saying you never fucked up before? I don’t believe that for a second, especially since the reason you’re here is a big fuck up.”

“Whatever just… we go with what Tommy said. Or um… if you guys wanna come back for whatever reason, just say it’s me who was too traumatized for this ‘cause that’s not untrue. Don’t word it like I’m the only one who fucked up though, please. I’d rather keep my new position.”

“Don’t worry, Gordon,” Coomer said, “we won’t throw you under the bus without good reason. I do believe though that I will return here on my own later or perhaps with Bubby to retrieve my stuff and his too if he would like to make sure it doesn’t end up in Black Mesa’s hands again. If you weren’t here, I’d suggest we go do it after dropping our current stuff off in the car. But we won’t make you do that or wait for us. So we will have to come back later.”

“Ugh, sorry for being a burden.”

“Apology accepted!”

From there the conversation drifted to other things, occasionally petering out for a bit before someone revived it. Gordon didn’t participate much. Benrey tried to prod him into it but it never lasted long. Whether he was having another quiet freak out or was just exhausted was hard to tell. Probably the latter but… that was worrying in its own way. He could die if he didn’t sleep for long enough.

Maybe Benrey should be upset with him enough to not be as bothered by that thought. If Gordon ended up viewing him more of a science experiment than a person after seeing all his science stuff, then it would be less of a loss, right? But even if that would be the case, heck, even if that was how he viewed Benrey right now, Benrey still liked him and was responsible for him as a pet owner. His death wouldn’t be easy to just go along with. And so when they eventually pulled to a stop to rest and eat…

“Maybe we should sleep here for a bit,” Benrey suggested.

“No,” Gordon interrupted before he could say more. “I think we should just keep going until we’re out, no nap or sleep break. I know none of you guys really need one, don’t try to pretend like you do. This place sucks. I want out.”

“Are you sure, Mr. Freeman?” Tommy asked. “I mean um… you didn’t sleep much last night, did you?”

“I’m fine.”

Benrey wasn’t letting him get away with that lie. “He’d didn’t sleep at all. Or he tried not to. He fell asleep anyway ‘cause uh… humans are like that. It was maybe an hour before I had to wake him from a nightmare.” The whole having to sleep every night thing had to suck in general but even more so when plagued by nightmares.

“Yeah, yeah but… I hate it here. I want out. I’ll be fine that long.”

Coomer spoke up next. “Gordon, for two Play Coinstm I’ll carry you the rest of the way out and you can nap in my arms.”

“No thanks. Let’s go.” He grabbed his flashlight, stood, shoved his gun arm back into the cart’s handle and started walking again. Everyone ultimately followed, even Benrey.

“I’ll be fine,” he repeated as Benrey fell into step with him. “I just want out of here. Let me have this.”

Benrey shouldn’t have agreed to helping him stay up last night. … Or maybe it had been the right move. He’d had nightmares before, they sucked. Maybe it was worth it to skip sleep for Gordon even if he could die of not enough sleep. Perhaps nightmares could kill humans too, they were awfully weak after all. And so he bit back on insisting on anything for now.

Their pace, dictated by Gordon, slowed more and more over time. Bubby complained but stayed close as Gordon had requested anyway. Another short rest to eat didn’t help much.

“Benrey, I need to slap me,” he eventually said.

“Uh… why?”

“Just do it.”

Who was Benrey to deny such a request? No one had ever asked him to slap them before so why Gordon wanted him to didn’t matter as much as the novelty of it. He switched to backpedaling in front of Gordon, giving him the perfect angle to lift a hand and slap him across the face.

“Wait…” he began a split second before it connected, snapping his head to the side. “Ow. What the fuck?”

Bubby laughed as they all stopped to turn and look. “You literally asked him to. What were you expecting?”

“I uh… don’t know. Just, I didn’t think he’d be so willing.”

“Why would you ask if you thought I wouldn’t do it? That’s dumb.” This didn’t seem to be a human thing but just a Gordon thing. It was silly.

“Yeah, guess you got a point, huh? But uh… I think it helped a little so thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” How that could’ve possibly helped with anything was beyond Benrey’s understanding but it had been kind of fun.

“You know, Gordon,” Coomer said, “if you wanted him to help wake you up, you could’ve asked him to sing you some sweet voice. You seem particularly sensitive to it so a colour that provides an energizing feeling might help.”

“Damn, you’re right. I’m an idiot.” Gordon turned his gaze back onto Benrey. “Do you think you could uh… do the opposite of your blue calm down one?”

“Ooh, I recommend orange,” Tommy chimed in.

Somehow this hadn’t occurred to Benrey before either. In his defense he rarely had cause to try to make anyone excited with orange. And it wouldn’t cure his sleeplessness but it should indeed energize him. So, taking a deep breath, Benrey looked up at Gordon and sang him a long string of bright orange.

Like the blue as soon as he breathed it in, he took a deep breath of it to draw in even more. His eyes widened as the slump in his shoulders lessened. As the tone ended, he stepped back and shook himself out a little. “Wow.”

“What’d it taste like?” Bubby asked.

“Like orange, not the fruit but the artificial orange flavor you find in candy or I guess orange flavored soda. By the way, why does it taste like candy? Like, there’s no way that’s an accident. There’s gotta be a reason they made it like that, right?

“Maybe uh… maybe Darnold helped make it,” Tommy suggested. “He does stuff with flavors so maybe that’s his influence. We can ask him when we get back. For now though, are you feeling better?”

“Uh, yeah, actually. Not like a hundred percent but better for sure. Thanks again, Benrey, you’re amazing. Let’s uh… keep going, huh?”

Their journey continued. Now every so often, without even pausing, Benrey sang more orange for Gordon. It always seemed to help and that was a comfort at first but… what if it made it worse in the end? The sweet voice wasn’t giving him any energy, it was just boosting his mood, making his body produce more energy. Not a human himself, the equation on that wasn’t something Benrey was intimately familiar with, but it didn’t add up to anything that seemed good. Surely it could only increase his overall exhaustion.

Benrey kept doing it though, every time he was asked. This was the place that was the source of Gordon’s nightmares so of course he wanted out as soon as possible and it would be good for him to be out. Even as the further they trudged onward, the more often Benrey had to boost him, he kept doing it. Not stopping for Gordon to sleep should result in them getting back out sooner so it would hopefully be fine in the end.

Eventually Bubby starting to visibly flag too, all the effort he’d expended clearing the room shit had gone down in finally catching up to him in a way he couldn’t hide anymore. He denied it when Coomer brought it but it was obvious even to Benrey. They kept going though because the rest of them were fine.

But even going at a slower pace, not stopping for more than a few minutes meant they did finally reach the living area again. Upon Benrey pointing this out to him, Gordon perked up a little more, picking up the pace. And thus they were soon on the elevator headed to the surface.

Upon stepping outside, it was night time, deep into it. All the way out here, far from civilization and its light pollution, that meant it was dark. The moon and stars overhead was the only thing making it less dark than the facility.

Gordon paused as he stepped out after Benrey, tilting his head up towards the sky. “Gosh, fuck, it’s beautiful.”

Benrey looked up too and… he was right. The moon and endless vastness of the stars were quite lovely out here. Not a fan of the desert night air, Benrey had never gone out in it often to see this sight. … He should’ve brought his camera. Oh well, it’s not like a picture could do it justice anyway.

“Come on,” he said as he started for the car, gesturing for the others to follow. “Let’s go home.” It was even colder out here than it had been down below. He wanted out of it and Gordon needed sleep.

Having taken the lead, Benrey reached the car first. He phased through it to reach the trunk button, making it pop open in time for the rest of the crew to reach it. Starting the car to get the heater running would’ve been nice too but Bubby had the keys. … He was going to have to learn how to hot wire a car one day, probably after he learned how to drive one. Maybe Gordon would teach him… assuming he still liked Benrey after seeing all his stuff.

“Gordon, Bubby,” Coomer said as Benrey rejoined the group, “you two go ahead and hop in. I’ll handle loading everything and then, Bubby, dear, if you are agreeable, I’ll drive us home as well.”

Bubby sighed as he dug into his pocket and pulled out the car keys. “Sure.” He handed them over to Coomer without hesitation, before dropping his pack to the ground and starting for the passenger seat. Wow, he must be pretty tired too then.

Upon freeing his gun hand from the wagon’s handle, Gordon followed suit, heading for the backseats. With nothing else to do and trusting Coomer and Tommy to handle packing everything, Benrey joined him. Despite being the first one in, Gordon placed himself in the middle seat. Even if he was going to sleep the whole way back, the sacrifice was still admirable.

He leaned in to whisper as Benrey settled in next to him. “You mind if I uh… lean on you a bit?”

“Go for it.” Benrey preferred it actually. It was cold and Gordon was warm.

“Thanks.” Gordon slouched as much as the backseat would let him before leaning into Benrey, resting his head on his shoulder. Benrey put that arm around him pulling him a bit closer.

“So,” Bubby looked back at them, “are you two fucking?”

“No,” Gordon replied, not looking up at him.

“Are you sure?”

“I don’t even like fucking so, yes, I’m sure.”

“Ah, I see. I was going to ask you later what Benrey’s like in bed but I suppose I don’t need to know that anyway. But are you dating?”

Gordon groaned. “Please shut up.”

Bubby turned his gaze onto Benrey. “You two dating?”

“Uh… no,” Benrey replied over another annoyed groan from Gordon.

“Damn, I thought I was onto something.”

“Why do you think we’re dating?” With how bad Gordon’s attempted explanation of romance had been, Benrey still wasn’t sure why anyone might think they were romantically involved.

“This whole… this.” Bubby lifted a hand to gesture vaguely at them. “He used to hate you and now he’s all over you. It’s cute, don’t get me wrong. I’m not judging. In fact, I’m rooting for you. Romance is uh… nice.” His face grew a little redder before he looked away. “When you figure it out, let me know.”

Benrey would’ve asked him to elaborate since he apparently knew stuff about it. With Gordon right here though, it didn’t feel right. But while being called cute wasn’t ideal, if Gordon being ‘all over him’ was a romance thing maybe Benrey wanted that because he liked this. He wanted to date Gordon? … Maybe. It was a tough question to consider when the question of how he’d view Benrey after seeing his records still hung in the air. After that question got answered, he’d return to the thought of dating.

Before the conversation could drift to something else or even resume, Coomer and Tommy were climbing into the car. And then from there they were finally off, headed home. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long after that that Gordon fell asleep, slumping even more into Benrey’s side as he did so. Meaning, Benrey wasn’t allowed to move him enough to risk waking him. Not that he’d been planning to anyway.

Naturally upon finally reaching Tuefort, their first stop was Gordon and Benrey’s house. As Coomer rolled the car into the driveway, Benrey saved and turned the Game Boy off before putting it his his jacket pocket. He was stuck now though as there was no way he could move Gordon out of the car and into the house without waking him so…

“You guys can walk home, right? ‘Cause I can’t move him. It’s not allowed.”

“Why not?” Tommy asked.

“He’s my pet and you’re not allowed to wake pets when they fall asleep on you unless uh… he has a nightmare. Those are worse.” Or at least Benrey was pretty sure they were. Maybe he’d been doing it wrong. Probably not though, Gordon always seemed grateful. It was also possible he’d been doing it wrong whenever he moved away from Gordon after having him fall asleep on him but he couldn’t just sit around all night every night. And moving away never woke him the way moving him probably would.

“Oh uh… that’s… I didn’t know you guys were into that. I don’t think I needed to know either but…”

“They’re not,” Bubby interrupted, “or at least I’m pretty it’s not what you’re thinking. It’s just Benrey being weird.”

“It’s not weird. I’m responsible for him. I help keep him alive, try to make sure he doesn’t do bad things and uh… stuff like that.” Like make sure he went to bed and helped him sleep. “That makes him my pet, right? And Tommy, when Sunkist falls asleep on you, you always say you’re not allowed to do anything that might wake her so… I’m stuck.”

“I guess that makes sense… sort of.”

“It’s close enough,” Coomer said. “And so since you can’t wake him, I will.” He pressed on the car horn. It wasn’t as loud as the one in Bubby car but that didn’t mean it wasn’t loud.

Gordon didn’t jerk awake this time. Instead he groaned and pressed his face into Benrey’s neck. “Make it stop.”

Coomer let up on the horn. “Hello Gordon! It’s time to wake up! We have arrived at your house and had to wake you because you would’ve woken up if we dragged you out of the car anyway.”

Gordon sat up but he did groan about it again, louder this time. Benrey pulled his glasses out of the pocket he’d put them in after they’d fallen off his face a while ago and handed them to him. “All right, okay, fine. Thanks for not just dragging me, I guess.”

With that they were soon all out of the car. Coomer again volunteered to do most of the heavy lifting when it came to moving all the stuff from the lab into the house. Gordon offered to help but Benrey sent him off to shower – being clean seemed to be important for humans’ health, how exactly Benrey couldn’t tell but having one as a pet didn’t mean he had to know the why’s and how’s of everything – and to get ready for bed instead. The sun would start to rise in a few hours but he needed sleep.

Benrey and Tommy helped moved things. And under Benrey’s instruction, they put it all in the gamer pad, even the barrier panels. It made the room much less cozy and more crowded but that’s where the computer was so that’s where they were going to look at it anyway so best to have all of it all in one spot. Hopefully things would go well and they could put most of it in the basement instead.

By the time they were done and were on there way out, Gordon had stepped out of the shower. Just in time to wish the others a, “Good night,” before resuming his bedtime preparations. Since Gordon seemed to like it when he was clean, Benrey changed clothes too. Pajamas were soft anyway. He wouldn’t have objected to a full hot shower too but didn’t want to bother.

“I really shouldn’t go to bed with my hair damp,” Gordon said as he got into bed anyway.

“Eh, it’ll be fine.” Benrey turned off the light and joined him.

“God, it’s good to be home.” Gordon pulled him close, curling into him to rest his head on Benrey’s chest.

“You shouldn’t have ever left.” Not to go to the facility anyway.

“I know. Sorry again for… you know. Thanks for not being mad.”

Benrey didn’t bother responding as the lightly pet his fingers through Gordon’s damp hair. They’d been doing this for a long while now. Snuggling up to each other like this and in any way they felt like was comfortably familiar but it was still wonderful. Despite that… Benrey didn’t feel like purring right now. The anxiety of what would happen when they looked at his records tomorrow was too much.

He should be pissed at Gordon for making him feel like this. Making him care enough to be anxious not just for his health and safety but also at the thought of losing him in a different way too. It sucked and wasn’t fair. Things had been much easier when the only other person he’d really cared about was Tommy. Back then, they hadn’t been particularly close, just pals who hung out and talked sometimes. Losing him to death or just his friendship would’ve been a bummer, more so than Benrey’s occasional guard pal, but he would’ve still gotten over it without too much issue.

Now though, Tommy was a good friend and Benrey cared about him enough that losing him would be an issue. The same held true with Bubby and even Coomer. And then there was however the fuck he felt about Gordon. He wasn’t supposed to be so attached to any of them but Gordon was a whole other thing entirely. It was often nice and fun; Gordon was warm and wonderful to hang out, snuggle, and mess with. But he also had to go and be weird, stupid, and fragile, making caring for him have downsides that were super fucking lame.

Feeling anxious for Gordon’s safety and now over him possibly seeing Benrey more as scientific marvel than a friend sucked. And that was in addition to him having made Benrey care about what he was when it didn’t matter. Despite all that though, Benrey didn’t want to move. He wanted to keep holding Gordon to help make sure he had good sleep without nightmares. To sleep in his arms in turn because he was tired too. An emotional tired that shouldn’t have been possible – how could just feeling things, even if they were intense emotions, make one need sleep? – but was for sure a thing. And so, confusingly, he wasn’t upset enough to make leaving appealing and thus would stay here, cuddling Gordon for however long they both wanted to.

Next Chapter

#hlvrai #frenrey #benrey #hlvrai gordon

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