#where's my own unhinged cutie :(

[tharatorns]

underrated but very important moment from DFF ep10: TanNew promptly hiding behind Jin ready to use him as a human shield as soon as Fluke, the one holding the gun, says his name:

10/10 man, what an unpologetic deranged iconic king i stan him with my life

[xechu]

mild suggestive themes, mentions of violence, smoking, drinking, swearing, 18+ blog mdni, fem!reader, from the same au as my one shot: “Warm on a Cold Night”

P.S. I've now created a master list for this series: Cross My Heart - check it out!

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who is the embodiment of a red flag that BookTok would have gladly ate up. 6'5", muscular, tattoos, bikes, and (slightly) unhinged.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who has a long standing fwb relationship with his college friend: Yorozu. They're both the live fast, die young type.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who owns a reputable garage with Jin. Jin is more of the business and customer facing guy, while Sukuna gladly worked behind the scenes and did the technical stuff. The two of them make the perfect team.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who was into the fast life: bikes, cars, drinking, smoking, and lots of women. His personal life may be chaotic, but he made sure that doesn’t trickle into his work—it’s his pride and safe space

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who felt like he owed a lot to Jin. Sukuna was not the kindest to him when they were younger. Seeing how close they are now, it was hard to believe that the two were practically estranged in the past.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who was sentenced to a few years in jail after nearly beating someone with an inch of their life left. It was a business deal gone bad, and Jin was willing to take the loss in order to cut ties with the man. But the man went crazy and confronted Jin in the garage, things turned physical real quick, and that's when Sukuna stepped in.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - when he was released from prison was picked up by Jin and Kaori, and a new face: his three year old nephew, Yuji. Yuji looks more like Sukuna than Jin, and that has often caused a lot of awkward misunderstanding, especially when the four were together.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who saw you in an elevator, going up to the 21st floor, while he was visiting Jin and Kaori on the 29th floor. You (unknowingly) made him nervous.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who actually owns the unit on the 29th floor that Jin and Kaori lives in, but because of that one altercation with the psycho - Sukuna told them to move into his spare apartment until everything has blown over.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who sees you again near your apartment. Some guy was trying to get your contact and you seemed uncomfortable, so Sukuna stepped in. Truth be told, he normally wouldn't give it a second thought, but it was the "cutie who lives on the 21st floor". It didn't take much, Sukuna simply scowled at the man and he fled.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who took this as a divine intervention and asked you for your number. You awkwardly said no and scurried away, which really turned him on.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who was minding his own business in the garage one day, when he heard a familiar voice chatting with Jin at the front desk. He glanced over and it was you. Your car had broken down and their garage was the closest one.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who casually leans by the office doorway where you and Jin were chatting, he could never forget the surprised look on your face when the two of you made eye contact. Jin gives his usual introduction and spiel of the garage for their new customers, and he found it weird that Sukuna was loitering around for that (Sukuna usually never cared about it). It later dawned on Jin that Sukuna had the biggest crush on you.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who sees you again when you pick up your car. Your car was rather old school, and he nicknamed it 'grannie', which initially irked you (but that was his way of teasing). Then, to your surprise, when you got into the car - there was a newly upgraded stereo system installed. He smirked when he saw the pure shock on your face, knowing that you loved it. It was worth it, because he got your number out of this, and the rest was history.

a/n: this has been sitting on my drafts for a long time (oops). I'm thinking of writing another one shot in the same au.

[pinkaditty]

i love the way you write towa 🥺 i notice a lot of people seem to struggle to write him but the way you portray him feels so true alongside just generally beautiful writing i love it 💝

vibrating with excitement THANK YOU ANON!!!!!!!!!!!! he's such a cutie i write towa with nothing but love in my heart bc he's so transparent and friendly and he will always have a special place right in my heart bc i love how he is. he's so whimsical and full of love. i can't help but adore him bc despite the horrors he's probably had 2 face, he's still kind. yk he associates u with a flower meaning "hope", "resilience", and "transformation"? i think that's beautiful, personally.

but also anon u poisoned me bro i started thinking abt towa and since im on an unhinged!char arc rn (im so sorry if u don't like unhinged towa) i present 2 u:

Flowers Can Talk, Too! (Towa Otonashi x Reader, Tokyo Debunker)

Part 1: Anthurium Andraeanum

a/n: here we are again. again and again and again i find myself here in my little chair in front of my little desk in my little room where i type up my little on my little laptop and smile at the thought of a little appreciation for my work. this has become so familiar and my heart is full of love for it. towa makes me find happiness in the small things, i think.

sorry. was that too much?

summary: towa gifts you a flower you don't quite recognize.

cw: idk if this counts as perverted or uhhhh yandere but towa's behavior will escalate after this part, so be warned. for now there's only a few sexual innuendos n stuff yea. MINORS DNI!!!!!!!

It’s not exactly Valentine’s day, but Towa gives you a gift anyway. 

When a big bouquet of charmingly mismatched flowers arrives at your door, smelling a lot like the saltwater in Jabberwock, you immediately know it’s Towa. Yellow dandelions, white baby’s breath, orange roses, and blue irises made up the small, tightly packed bouquet, tied with a pink ribbon. There was a lone red flower you didn’t recognize, with what appeared to be an unusually large stamen and one bright, sanguine petal. Initially, it almost appeared like a mixed message, but Towa’s been teaching you enough about the language of flowers and how their meanings tend to vary in context. 

You peer through the bouquet, ensuring you hadn’t missed any flowers, before gently trailing your fingers over them, labeling their meanings in your head one by one. 

Yellow dandelions for strength and transformation… Blue irises for faith and trust… Orange roses for passion and desire… and, baby’s breath for purity and everlasting love. Your heart swells as you put together the message. It was a reminder that he cared for you, and that you’d get through this. For your own sake, you ignore the romantic subtext implied by the roses and baby’s breath. You smile to yourself, and step back inside the chapel, closing the door. You wished you had a vase or something to hold these in, but maybe a bucket would have to do. 

You take one of the buckets the cats leave around for repair and fill it up with water, carefully placing the bouquet inside of it. The flowers leaned rather inelegantly, but it was good enough for now. As you study the bouquet, your eyes fixate on the red one. 

You’ve seen them before at funerals and weddings, but those were always white. This one was a vibrant red, like the blood running through your veins or the sun during a summery sunset. It stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest, so much so that you wondered if Towa made a mistake putting it in there. Despite the odd choice in color combination between the rest of the flowers, they still had some congruency, their shapes and colors complimenting one another in just the right way. This one felt like an accident or a standout. 

You reach out and pluck it from the bucket, twirling it in your hands. The red petal is shaped closely to a heart, and the stamen sticks straight up from the top end. You smile to yourself, scoffing at it. It’s almost funny, the way it sticks straight out. Maybe you’d be able to find this flower if you looked it up?

A quick web search later, and you discover its common name: Laceleaf. They were commonly associated with hospitality. You hum, looking back at the flower as you twirl it around in your hands. Was he asking you to come over to Jabberwock? To be fair, it seemed more like he meant that Jabberwock’s doors were always open, but, well, you wanted an excuse to see Towa. So, he must be asking for your company. 

One look at the sky told you it was too soon for Towa to talk to you, but you could still go and see him anyway. You hold the red flower in your hands, its stem too long to fit in any of your pockets, and begin to make the trek to Jabberwock.

Though they’re on the far side of campus, it doesn’t take too long to get there. You’ve studied the route by heart, and made enough trips there for the long trek to feel more like a brisk walk. The moment you open the door, you’re greeted by Ren, laying down in the tall grass, clearly hiding from Haru. 

He looks up from his tablet at you, nodding at you before his eyes just as quickly return to the screen. “Senpai.” He says, acknowledging your presence, but making no move to get up or even further tear his eyes away from his tablet. 

You exhale, amused, and nod back at him. “Ren.”

You do not ask him what he’s doing in the grass, and he doesn’t ask you what you’re doing at Jabberwock holding an odd-looking flower. He knows who you’re here to see, and you know who he’s here to avoid. 

You gingerly take a few steps into the dorm, closing the door behind you. As you turn your head side to side, looking for a trail of petals or a shock of silvery periwinkle hair, Ren clears his throat. “He’s by the lake.” 

You’re about to thank him sarcastically when you see hair as red as the flower you’re holding zip towards you at an alarming rate. “And he’s coming this way.”

You have barely finished your sentence when Ren jumps ten feet from the grass, attempting to run before he’s seen, but the red-headed blur veers off course before stopping suddenly, holding Ren by the collar of his uniform. 

Haru ignores Ren’s protests and cries, dragging him by the collar as he walks back to greet you. 

“Hey!” Haru nods happily at you, beaming, and Peekaboo chitters in greeting. Haru’s gaze flickers down to the flower you’re holding, and a knowing look crosses his face. “I think I saw Towa with that earlier.” He quirks an eyebrow at you. “Here to ask him what it was?”

You nod, scared that if you open your mouth you’ll laugh at the utterly defeated expression on Ren’s face. Haru points off towards the mountains,  smiling apologetically. “By the lake, as usual. If you’re going out there, remind him to actually feed the animals instead of just playing in the water, would ya?” 

You glance back at Haru, nodding. “Sure. Thanks!” You wave to him and Ren before trotting off towards the lake. 

This trek, in comparison to the one across Darkwick to get to Jabberwock, was one you hadn’t made as often, and was arguably longer, if not the same length. If ever Towa wanted to go out there, and you were with him, he’d simply scoop you up in his arms without warning and jump, leaving you to scramble to hold onto his tie or shoulders to find some semblance of grounding despite his grip being pretty firm. Despite how often it gave you near heart attacks, you couldn’t complain about it. It was nice to lean into Towa, and he always smelled of saltwater and wildflowers, with just the slightest hint of musk underneath it all. Not to mention that, if you pulled on his tie hard enough, you’d get a glimpse of the pale skin underneath his sloppy uniform, making you wonder what lay even further beneath his shirt…

When you finally shake yourself away from your less than appropriate thoughts, you see the lake just up ahead, Towa kicking his feet in the shallow water. You spot some dandelions near your feet, and pick a couple to offer to Towa. You knew he’d appreciate them regardless, even if they were freshly picked from the ground mere meters from where he was. 

You can’t ever sneak up on Towa, a fact you’ve burned into yourself. You are still, however, disappointed when he turns suddenly despite the silence of your steps in comparison to the noise of splashing water. Towa chirps excitedly when he sees you, barreling towards you and wrapping you in a hug before you could say anything. Some clouds move from the sun and it almost feels unbearably warm. You inhale as you’re huddled up in his grasp, and catch a whiff of the familiar scent of seawater and wildflowers. There was a bit more musk than usual, thanks to him being in the sun for so long. You try not to be happy about that. 

He pulls away a moment later, humming excitedly, rocking back and forth in place. You hold out the dandelions you picked, and he stares at them for a moment before bending down and chomping on them, smiling at you in thanks. You sigh and shake your head, as though you should’ve expected this, and he hums noncommittally, probably agreeing with you.

He turns towards the lake again, heading towards it and reaching behind him and grabbing onto your uniform blazer without looking, dragging you along. You follow his grasp at first before quickly realizing you still have shoes on and start pulling back. “Wait, Towa, I still have—”

He looks back at you and wordlessly points at his own shoes, discarded on the shore. You look at them, and then glance at your own shoes and thigh high socks. You hated putting these on, and you hated taking them off. You didn’t want to put them on over your wet feet, either. You pull back on Towa’s grip a bit more, and he releases you, his brows creasing downwards. He pouts at you, crossing his arms. The sun is no longer glaring in your face, and is instead hidden by a few clouds. You sigh at him, and gesture to your socks.

“Not today, Towa. Maybe another time, when I’m less dressed up?” You shrug awkwardly, giving him a pitying look. He harrumphs and pouts harder, dropping his arms and walking towards you. This time, when he picks you up, you feel inclined to panic, yelping as soon as your feet leave the ground. 

“T-Towa!” You push against his chest, wriggling to free yourself. In response, he only grips you tighter, limiting your movement. You almost give up—bracing yourself for the embrace of cold water—when you find yourself sitting on a large, dry boulder some ways into the water. You look around, finding Towa knee-deep in the water, glowering at you like he wanted an apology. You sigh with relief and shift to a comfortable position on the boulder, smiling apologetically at him.

“Sorry, Towa. I thought—” You’re rudely interrupted by Towa flicking water at you with his fingers, giggling at your change in expression. Before you can retaliate, he turns away from you, going further into the water. You still reach into the water to flick some back at him to retaliate, but it barely hits him, a few of the droplets reaching his hair and neck. He giggles again, before diving in entirely, getting his whole body wet. You can still catch sight of his pale legs kicking in the water before he swims too far for you to see. You’re only worried for a moment before the water suddenly breaks some ways away, and he rises from it, his clothes fully drenched and clinging to his body. He chirps at you again, happily trotting towards you, as something pink and glowing follows him in the water. It dances around his legs, weaving between them. Towa excitedly gestures at it, and it bobs above the water to greet you in a high-pitched trill before diving under again, swimming around Towa’s legs. It almost looked like a plastic glow-in-the-dark fish. The scales didn’t even look real. 

You watch as Towa dances around the anomalous fish, giggling and exclaiming with every move he made. You don’t have the heart to interrupt his happiness with any attempt at discussion, so you remain on the boulder, watching with an idle smile on your face. You glance down at the laceleaf you held, smoothing out its lone petal, before looking back up at Towa. Eventually, you’d have to remind him to actually feed the animals. 

It’s sunset now. After some time, you’d managed to convince Towa to stop playing with the plastic-looking anomalous fish and to feed the animals, lest Haru lose any more sleep. You were a bit wet, thanks to Towa being soaked, but you were at least safe on dry land again. You quickly move away as Towa shakes himself free of excess water, some of it still clinging to his hair and face. He smiles at you, holding out his hand for you to take, inviting you to walk back to the Jabberwock dorm. You smile back and take his hand, following his lead. 

You look up and notice that the sky is darkening quickly. Towa should start speaking soon. 

“Dandelion.” 

Speak of the devil. 

You turn towards Towa, smiling at him. He’s peering at you from the corner of his eye, his gaze flickering between you and the laceleaf you held. “Why’d you bring that here?”

You hold it up, turning towards him questioningly. “To ask you what this flower means.” You turn your gaze back to the flower, twirling it in your hand again. “I know it means ‘hospitality’, but not much else…” You trail off, surprisingly mesmerized by the shine of the red petal as it spins. 

Towa giggles, stopping his pace and standing next to you. He gently plucks the flower from your grasp, holding it up against the quickly dimming sunset, twirling it like you did. “This flower is called an Anthurium Andraeanum,” he says, with what you can only assume is perfect pronunciation. “It’s red, so it’s got a different meaning from the white ones you usually see.”

Finally, you were getting somewhere. “And what might that be?” You sidle closer to him, looking up at him as he looks at the flower, still twirling it as it catches the final minutes of light. 

“It can mean love, romance, sensuality, or abundance.” You don’t miss how Towa’s smile widens slightly as he says ‘romance’. You have to admit that you’re hardly paying attention, though. Your gaze is more interested in trying to look anywhere that wasn’t Towa's shirt clinging to his hardened nipples. Towa finally drops his arm, bringing the flower close to his face. After gazing at it a while, he finally turns back to you. “But, I didn’t add this one for the meaning, Dandelion.” His voice drops a few notes, and you tilt your head, confused at his tone and at his intentions. 

“Then…” You trail off for a moment, before gesturing at the flower. “Why did you add it to the bouquet? It kinda stuck out like a sore thumb.” You can’t hide your confusion, blinking up at him. If the meaning didn’t matter, then what was it there for?

“I added it for its name.” He brandishes the flower towards you, his smile widening and his eyes narrowing with mirth. “Do you know what this flower is called, Dandelion?”

You tilt your head, studying the flower. “Laceleaf?” You say, almost uncertainly. It was called laceleaf, but why did you have a feeling that wasn’t the answer Towa was looking for?

Your hunch was right, as Towa laughs and shakes his head. He holds the flower close to his body again, and steps closer to you, leaving just enough room for the petal of the laceleaf to span between you. “No~. These are called something different here.” He holds the flower in front of your face, close enough for you to examine it. “What does it remind you of?”

You pause a minute, before looking at the heart-shaped petal. “A heart?”

Towa chuckles and shakes his head again. “Pfft, no, no!” He holds it horizontally, and wiggles it so the stamen-looking part dangles up and down. “Here, maybe this will jog your memory.”

You watch it as it dangles, unimpressed. “Towa…” You start, frowning. Your nose wrinkles. “...Is this supposed to be a dick joke?”

To your surprise, Towa shrugs instead of laughs. “Sorta.” He holds it vertically again, twirling it with both hands. He looks up at you and leans in until his lips are right by your ear. “This flower is also known as a Naughty Boy Flower, Dandelion!”

He sounded all too excited to share that news with you, but you can hardly focus on that with his hair dripping cold water onto your cheeks and his warm breath circling your ear. You only realize you’d stiffened when he pulls away, and you relax, shivering slightly. “It reminds me of you when I look at it. That’s why I put it in there.” Towa is all smiles again, but you’re having trouble coming up with why the flower would remind him of you. 

You look back down at the flower as he twirls it, the look in his eyes getting darker by the second. “How does that flower remind you of me?” You ask slowly, pointing at it and trying not to state the obvious.

He smiles wider. “That’s because you get me all stiff, like this flower!” As he says this, he flicks the flower, making it wobble a bit in his grasp. "You make me a Naughty Boy, Dandelion."

You have to blink a few times to reorient yourself. It feels like you were just struck with lightning and revived in a split second. You look up at him, still blinking rapidly, before turning your gaze to the flower again. You barely register the genuine openness of his face, but reject it anyway. He couldn’t possibly have meant that, and not in that way. 

“Um…” You start, looking at the flower again, searching for answers as though the truth wasn’t something you craved. “What do you—”

Towa steps closer, interrupting you. Your chests are almost pressed together, and he looks down at you, the water from his hair dripping onto your face and uniform. “I think you know what I meant, Dandelion.” His voice is in a low whisper, and his eyes catch yours.

Desperate to look anywhere but Towa’s face, you look down at his nipples, still showing through his shirt. You bite your tongue and look to the side instead. If what he said was true, looking down might actually kill you. 

“Dandelion.” Towa says your nickname so gently, you can’t not at least turn to him. So you do, albeit reluctantly, glance at him questioningly. When he doesn’t budge, you uncomfortably force yourself to look at him head on, biting your lip. 

You feel the tip of something poking into your lip, and look down to see the flower. Towa presses it into the plush of your lips before pulling back, and pressing it into your lips again. You remain still, your gaze flickering between the tip of the stamen poking your lips and Towa’s gaze, locked onto your lips. He taps your lips one more time with the stamen before he holds it there, slightly pressed into them. He leans forward further, and you feel his heavy breathing caress your face. His forehead knocks into yours, and he stays there, keeping the rest of your bodies only so far from each other. 

His eyes glaze over in the dim light of the day, the sun just barely peeking over the horizon. “Dandelion?” He asks, his hazy gaze still focused on your lips. 

“Yeah?” You answer hesitantly, trying not to let the nerves you were feeling show in your voice. 

You watch as Towa’s pink lips part in a sigh, and his tongue runs over them before he finally says, “If I tapped something a little bigger on your lips, do you think you’d open wide for me?"

AND WE'RE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!! if i told u i wrote this in one setting would u believe me? bc i did it's true. i sat at my laptop and wrote this in 3 hours with little breaks in between 2 have the accursed Visions™ of what my writing would entail.

anyways. i love u guys, thank u 4 loving my writing. ofc as per usual shameless bit that I LOVE when you tell me how much you liked my writing!!!!!!! i love likes, but especially comments, asks, and tagged reblogs detailing how much you love my work! please don't be shy!

ok i was technically supposed 2 be in bed like. an hour ago LOOOOL gn everybody ily

songs i listened 2 while writing this:

roses - the chainsmokers, rozes (craving, yearning, reminiscing on times we knew, rebuilding love)

weak - ajr (falling for the same thing over again)

where would we be - nicky romero, rozes (reminiscing on the best and worst nights of your life, when you were in love)

taglist: @cupcakesmoothie @aayakashii @sunskosh @despairingy-obsessed @glamorousspoon @mmy-meow @dailyvahine @diluxama @obscuarysghoulnextdoor

want 2 (join/be removed from) the tkdb taglist? let me know!

[xmads-omensx]

Honestly Madsy if you're tired of my requests, let me know

Could you write a hc or something short for me where Noah comes home and reader is doing nails, lashes or something girly and he just hangs out with her and asks her stuff and wants to try it and is just a cutie🥹

Thank you so much, you're the best, I honestly admire your capacity do all of ours requests!💕

Pairing: Noah Sebastian X Reader

CW: none

After some encouragement I made him unnecessarily unhinged.

Tags: @shayeanna-ashlie @alwaysfightforwhoyouare @supersquirrel1996 @dontwantthemoney @tosoundlessdarkistare @bloody-spades @klutzy-kay24 @heyyoplayer @lacy1986 @collidewiththesav @kenjipepsi1 @follow-me-down-to-wonderland @chey-h @thisbicc @fadingangelwisp @heyyoplayer @dsireland86 @missduffsblog @overmydeadbodysblog @dominuslunae @littlebear423 @blade-dressed-in-red @rumoured-whispers @eclipseeetop @xxkittenkissesxx @theanarchymuse95 @blackveilomens @lilgarbitch @lil-garbitch @concretejunglefm @museonfilm @death-ofpeace-ofmind @xxkatsatwatwafflexx @kissestomyomens @flowery-mess @athenexe @oobleoob

You had been due a nail appointment for a while, but your go-to salon was packed.

Luckily, you knew how to do your own set, but you still preferred to get them done at a salon. The experience was nice.

So, you were sat in your bedroom, watching your favourite true crime podcast on youtube, doing your nails with your favourite soft drink (or a nice glass of wine) when your boyfriend barged into the room.

He dove onto the bed with a sigh, before screaming into the pillow.

"What are you doing?" You asked the 6'3 man who now lay sprawled out on your shared bed.

He looked at you for a moment before rolling back onto his front and screaming into the pillow again.

You sighed, going back to doing your nails.

"What are you doing?" He asked like a five year old.

You didn't reply to his question since he didn't reply to yours.

"Hey." He went on, rolling off of the bed and onto the floor before shuffling over to where you sat on his knees. "Fingers." He said bluntly pointing at your hands.

"I'm doing my nails." You replied with a whisper, concentrating on filing them into the shape that you wanted.

He sighed contently and say down with his legs crossed, flopping his head onto your lap.

"I'm staying here." He whispered to himself, making you smile.

"Okay." You relied with a whisper, still concentrating.

You sat like that for a while before Noah piped up again.

"Can I paint them?" He asked, making those stupid boba eyes that make you cave every time.

"Yeah bub." You replied, turning your hands to him and handing him the pale pink colour that you wanted them to be.

"You know what else is pink?" He smirked.

"Ew." You said in reply, twisting your face into a look of mild disgust at your boyfriend's random statement.

"Don't make it fucking weird." He scolded. "Obviously I was talking about the socks that I'm wearing." He said, rolling onto his back and wiggling his feet at you, which were in fact covered by pink socks.

You just looked at him in total disbelief.

"No I'm focusing now." He replied before delicately painting your nails for you.

He seemed to be really enjoying doing it as he was taking precise care with each nail, making sure that not a single bit of the polish ended up on your skin.

"Done." He whispered, sitting back to let you observe his work.

He seemed almost nervous.

"They look great baby." You replied, leaning forward to kiss his forehead.

He still seemed a little off.

"What's up?" You asked, tilting your head.

He said nothing but picked up the bottle of polish again, which looked tiny in his hands, and began to paint his own fingernails.

His ended up a lot messier and shakier, but he wouldn't let you help. He wanted to do it himself.

"Matching." He whispered, placing his head back onto your thigh.

"You okay baby?" You asked again.

"I'm gonna miss you." He muttered.

Then it hit you, he was leaving for tour the next day.

"Is that why you did your nails?" You asked. He nodded.

"To remind me of you so it's like you're there with me." He muttered.

You simply grabbed his hand and pulled him up, guiding him to the bed and gently pushing him onto it.

"Movie night?" You suggested, snuggling into his side.

"Yeah." He whispered, smiling softly and wrapping his arms around you.

You were definitely going to miss this when he was away.

[irritatedirishfrog]

"𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄"

𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘰 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘢

*:･ﾟ✧ In which, a suicidal boy gets kidnapped by his scary yandere girl stalker. He could care less and doesn't mind dying, however she cares and it confuses her why he doesn't. So she brings him with her into the League of Villains and for once in his life, he can say that he's genuinely felt... At least okay.

────── • ✧ • ──────

"You need help, y'know that, right?"

"... I know that, It's just that... I don't really want help."

"Then how do you expect to get better?!"

"Well, I'm not really expecting to get better. I wasn’t expecting to live this long."

"Why are you like this?!"

──────── • ✧ • ────────

Y/N was... strange, to say the least.

He wasn’t even sure why he couldn't just be normal. He wanted to be, but he couldn't shake the feeling that life would be better without him in it. Even when he tried to stay invisible, he still somehow managed to attract attention.

Whether it was the bullying at school, the constant disappointment from his parents, his friends leaving because his mental state was hurting them, or even him bothering the police and ambulances—he always seemed to be a problem.

So after a while, he just stopped trying to die. It only made things worse when he failed, and everyone around him grew frustrated. He got better over time… or at least, it took him three years to convince everyone of that. At least now, people worried less and went back to their normal lives.

Yet, trouble still seemed to find him.

So when he woke up in an abandoned house one evening after a nap, with a crazy-looking girl kneeling at his feet, he wasn’t entirely surprised. The walls were covered in graffiti, there was no furniture, and it was already clear—she had sinister intentions.

"You're awake! Hi there, cutie!" the girl squealed, happily bouncing around before kneeling right back in front of him.

Y/N wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, and what made it worse was that he was pretty sure he recognized her.

"You're... that girl… You killed that boy at my school," he stated, watching as she simply giggled and nodded, as if that detail didn’t matter whatsoever. Already, that was the worst impression anyone could possibly give.

She was probably going to kill him too. Honestly, he didn’t mind. At least he had just taken a nap—if he was going to die, at least he’d go out feeling refreshed.

"Yep! That’s me! He was my first love, but you’re my favorite so far!" she gushed, her voice brimming with excitement as she placed a knife against his neck.

"Y’know… you’d look even cuter covered in your own blood."

He simply raised an eyebrow before activating his quirk. Instantly, she shrieked and dropped the blade.

His quirk was emotion manipulation—he could suppress, enhance, or balance out someone's feelings. Right now, he had amplified her fear, which was why she was now trembling on the floor.

But strangely… he felt a little bad for her.

She was unhinged, that much was clear, but he couldn’t really blame her. People called him a freak too. Besides, it was kind of flattering—no one had ever been obsessed with him before. Though, to be fair, this level of obsession was concerning. What had he done to catch her attention? Did she even know where her parents were?

Shifting his focus, he struggled against the zip ties restraining him, managing to snap one off his wrist. He sighed, deactivating his quirk as he watched her cry, choking on her own breath. The fear still lingered in her, but she seemed calmer now.

"So… what exactly do you plan to do with me?"

"Oh! Nothing bad! I just… I wanted some of your blood..."

"Why? Don’t you have your own?" Y/N chuckled.

"...Yeah… but I want to be like you! I... I want to become you because I love you!"

"...You don’t even know me—"

"Yes, I do! Your name is Y/N M/N L/N! I know you’re strong, and that everyone at school is scared of you! They think you’ll manipulate them with your quirk, but I know you wouldn’t do that! I also know you used to date a girl… and she left you for your best friend!"

"...And you know all this… how?"

"Because I followed you! I love watching you at school and at home! Y’know, if you want, I can kill that girl and that fake friend of yours! Would you like me to do that?! It doesn’t matter either way!"

He stared at her, trying to process what she had just said. She claimed to love him, yet she was going to kill him… That made absolutely no sense.

"Just like that boy… Y’know, no one at school thought you’d do something like that. You were always that sweet, happy girl… Why’d you kill him?"

"I hated pretending to be normal! But that’s all anyone ever saw me as! For example—this house! Well, it used to be my home," she mumbled.

Y/N glanced around at the graffiti-covered walls. Now that she mentioned it, the place did seem vaguely familiar…

"I… I was born a monster. Someone who can’t live without hurting the people she loves… So, I want to become strong. I want to carve my own path… and become the people I love."

"...That’s why you want my blood?"

"Yep! I want your blood! You’re so beautiful and fascinating at the same time! I want to be just like you! I love you!"

"How do you know you love me?"

"I just know! You make my heart race, and I want to kill anyone who hurts you!"

Memories surfaced—he recalled his mother bidding farewell to the girl’s family when they moved away. He remembered how they had come to comfort them, despite everyone else blaming them for raising a "monster." But he had never seen them as bad people. He always felt like they had tried.

He didn’t say anything as she continued explaining herself. He simply watched her. Even now, she could still try to kill him.

But now that he thought about it… did he even want to live?

If someone else killed him, he wouldn’t have to pretend to want to be alive anymore. No one would blame him. No one would be disappointed. Just like she didn’t have to pretend to be normal, he wouldn’t have to pretend to be okay.

So, finally, he gave in—silently extending his wrist toward her.

She stared at it, confused, before a hopeful smile spread across her face.

"You… You really want me to have your blood?!"

"Instead of stalking me, you could’ve just asked. You would’ve gotten it faster."

"...Really?"

"Yep."

The girl stared at him, momentarily speechless. Out of all the people she had killed—out of everyone she had ever claimed to love—not a single one had ever offered her something like this.

Why wasn’t there even a hint of hesitation in his voice?

He was definitely special. Extra special. There was no way she could kill him now.

"...But why?"

"You’d be doing me a favor," he replied, his tone as casual as ever. "Believe it or not, I don’t really want to live. Though, I figured you already knew that."

She did know that. She had noticed how often he dozed off, how he always seemed bored or detached. But she didn’t like how unnervingly calm he was right now. It was disturbing how little he cared about the fact that she had every intention of killing him.

So, without thinking, she grabbed his wrist and pressed the blade against his skin, making a small cut. She didn’t drink the blood or even try to save it—she just wanted to see if he’d actually let her. If he’d react at all.

But he didn’t flinch.

That somehow made it worse.

Letting out a frustrated groan, she hastily cut the zip ties from his other wrist and ankles.

"You good?" he asked, stretching his arms.

"No… I don’t want to kill you anymore."

"Damn. Am I that boring?" he teased, hoping she’d reconsider.

"You really want me to kill you?!" she yelled.

"Yeah, why not? In fact, please do. I wouldn’t even hold it against you," he shrugged.

She almost growled, baring sharp canines—like a dog… or maybe a vampire.

"No! I… I can fix you."

"...The hell does that mean?" He gave her a wary look, suddenly worried she was one of those medieval romance novel girls.

Those types scared him. They were the kind of people who would try to marry you just because you vaguely resembled their fictional boyfriends.

"Do you know that hero killer, Mr. Stainy, from the news recently?!"

"Uh… I don’t think that’s his name, but yeah. The Hero Killer."

"I want to be just like him! I want to live in a world where I can be free!"

"...Hate to break it to you, but I don’t think murdering people is the way to do that," he chuckled.

To his surprise, she giggled—a light, amused sound, like they were having a normal conversation.

"I know that, silly! That’s why I’m going to join his group."

"His group? What group?"

"The League of Villains!"

"...Aren’t they their own group?"

"I dunno, but I want to be like Stainy! And I want to be like you, too! So why don’t you come with me? You’re bored with your life, so help me with mine!" she beamed, bouncing excitedly.

"...So… you’re not going to kill me?"

"Nope! We should take you back home!"

What?

What was wrong with this girl? Was she bipolar or something?

"...Okay… You still want my blood?"

"Yeah!" She grinned.

And just like that, she grabbed his wrist before sinking her teeth into it, sucking the blood straight from his skin.

"Ow…" he muttered. "Y’know, you still have time to change your mind and kill me. How do you know I won’t call the police on you?"

"Because you’re too sweet for that!" she replied after pulling away, licking her lips.

…She was probably right.

"Now, why don’t we get some sugar cookies, and then you can go home? I know they’re your favorite! And don’t worry—I’ll definitely come back for you once I figure out how to continue my life plan!"

"...Alright..."

"I love you sooo much!"

Y/N didn’t respond, simply glancing down at the harsh bite mark on his wrist.

This was probably a bad idea.

After all, how the hell was he supposed to explain this to his mom?

…Honestly? He didn’t mind.

─────── • ✧ • ───────

"Are you sure you're okay with being left at home?" his mother asked, placing her luggage in the van as her husband started the car.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he said, smiling at his mom as she came over to hug him.

"If you start feeling scared or depressed, please call me before you do anything."

"Mom, I think I'm fine. It's been like three years since I last tried anything like that."

"I know, but still, that shouldn't even be a last resort, okay?"

"Alright, Mom. Now stop worrying about me and enjoy your honeymoon!"

His mom gave him another quick hug before getting into the car. His stepdad just waved at him—things still weren’t great between them, but at least they were cordial.

He waved them off as they drove away. The moment the car was out of sight, he turned and walked back inside.

Yawning, he stretched, happy to have the house to himself.

Until he didn’t.

"HI!"

"JEEZ! WHAT THE HELL?!" Y/N jumped, dropping the bagel he’d just grabbed from the counter. It hit the floor with a soft thud, and he groaned. Standing in front of him, beaming, was the girl—Himiko Toga.

It had been about a month since she kidnapped him and then, for some reason, brought him back home. Ever since, she had made it her mission to invade his privacy whenever his mom and stepdad weren’t around.

"...Oh. Hello."

"How are you doing, handsome?!" Toga yelled, throwing her arms around him from behind before hopping onto the counter to sit in front of him.

"Just fine… How'd you even get in the house?"

"I broke through your window."

"...Did you break the window?"

"No, silly! I just popped the screen open, unlocked the latch, and then popped the screen back on once I got inside!"

Y/N groaned, running a hand through his hair before sighing. He grabbed a fresh bagel from the counter and handed it to her, then picked up the one he dropped. Technically, he could eat it. The floor wasn’t dirty—he had just helped his mom clean the entire house yesterday.

Was he going to eat it, though? No. He wanted to die, but not from some floor-borne disease.

"Guess what!?"

"What?"

"I found someone who’ll help me get into the League of Villains! You should come with me tonight! Oh! I also drew a picture of you and me!" Toga squealed, hopping off the counter and rushing upstairs.

"...Alright," Y/N mumbled, yawning as he grabbed another bagel.

It took her only a few seconds to come rushing back down, her small but admittedly cute cat backpack slung over her shoulders—unfortunately, it had small traces of blood on it.

"Here! Look!"

Y/N took the sketchbook from her hands, staring at the drawing for a solid two seconds, trying to process what the hell he was looking at.

As surprisingly good as her artwork was… why did it have to be of him like that?

He had to physically stop himself from pushing the sketchbook out of his face.

First off, what kind of memory did this girl have to be able to draw him from scratch? Second, this was the most non-safe-for-work thing he had ever seen. He wasn’t used to this kind of thing—he had only watched porn once, and that was by accident.

"It's…" Y/N glanced at Toga, who was practically vibrating with excitement, her eyes shining with anticipation. He mentally applauded her confidence in showing him something like this with a straight face, as if it wasn’t basically fan-art smut.

"It's nice."

"You really think so?!"

"Yeah."

Toga kicked her feet happily, content with his answer. She spent the rest of the day hanging around him, watching his every move.

Y/N wasn’t sure why he let her stick around. She could easily kill him when he wasn’t looking…

Oh, wait.

He wanted to die.

Toga sighed, staring at the ceiling in boredom. She was excited to bring Y/N with her to the League, but she worried. Would they even take him? And even if they did… he wasn’t exactly a villain.

Would he be willing to kill someone if they made him?

"So, before we go see if you can get into the League, we should stop by the store and get you a really cool villain outfit—something cute but also screams badass—"

Y/N chuckled as Toga kept rambling about clothing. Honestly, he didn’t care. As long as, at some point, he died.

Maybe that was a bit too dark, but he was just so tired. It took all his energy just to get up in the morning and brush his teeth—and that was every single morning.

"Alright."

"So, what style of clothes do you like?"

"Um… surprise me. I don’t really mind."

"You seem indecisive."

"Well, I am."

"About the whole League of Villains thing?"

"Yeah."

"Don't you wanna be a villain?"

"No… no, not really." He shook his head, fully serious.

But it wasn’t like he wouldn’t try it. He had nothing to lose—besides his mom and his life. And his mom could take care of herself.

"...Well, do you wanna be with me?!"

"...I mean… no. You’re kinda crazy."

Toga huffed, crossing her arms and pouting.

Y/N walked off toward the living room, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her grab a knife and lunge at his shoulder. Without thinking, he activated his quirk.

Why was she like this? She had to be bipolar or something.

"I don’t know why you keep trying to stab me at the most inconvenient times," he mumbled, barely sparing her a glance as she sat, looking distraught, on the floor. With a sigh, he deactivated his quirk.

"Hey, you're okay," was all he said, gently patting her head before checking the time.

The thought crossed his mind—why hadn’t he just left his quirk out of it? He could’ve died right then. Could’ve been killed. And he missed that opportunity because of reflex.

Whatever. He’d die eventually.

Toga didn’t say anything as she stood up, but she slowly wrapped her arms around Y/N again. She didn’t care if he used his quirk on her.

Y/N hugged her back before pulling away just enough to let her know he wasn’t mad. Sure, the quirk was annoying, but she knew all too well—he was too sweet to actually hurt anyone.

"So… will you come with me tonight?"

"...Sure. Why not?"

"Thank you! Thank you so much, Y/N-kun! I love you, I love you!"

"...Okay..."

─────── • ✧ • ───────

"What do you mean I need a body count?" Y/N questioned, grimacing at the so-called villain broker, Giran. Seriously? They weren’t even going to consider him for the League just because he hadn’t killed anyone yet?

Sounded biased.

"Well, I guess we can forget that for now, but have you killed anybody at all? What's your quirk? Any abilities? Got any props to show us? Anything at all that proves you’d be a good addition to the League?"

Y/N barely heard the question. Most of his attention was fixated on the barbecued man standing off to the side.

Why did he look like he was tweaking out?

Something was off about him—like he wasn’t even a normal human to begin with. He had to have been born into this villain trade. Some bloodline Taugarian stuff, for sure.

"After all," Giran continued, "I have a good business relationship with the League, and I wouldn’t want to ruin it."

"...Why didn’t you tell me?" Y/N grumbled, turning to glare at Toga. "I could’ve prepared a little better."

"Well, the Union already said I was a good pick! Sorry, I didn’t think about it, even when I said I’d bring you!"

Y/N sighed as Toga latched onto his arm, though his gaze kept flicking back to the burnt guy, who stood with the sassiest stance he’d ever seen.

Clearly impatient. Clearly did not want to be here.

"Well... I haven’t actually killed anyone yet. Except for my dad," Y/N admitted. "Hit him with a bat when I was younger. He bled out. But I don’t think that really counts—it was an accident."

He cringed at how weird his own voice sounded saying that out loud.

This was embarrassing.

"My quirk is emotion control. I can manipulate people's emotions, basically… but I don’t have a prop to show—"

"Oh! Me! Me! Use me!" Toga squealed, jumping in front of him like an overexcited child.

"The hell?" Burnt Guy—Dabi, probably—grimaced, looking seconds away from gagging. He already hated this crazy, lovesick girl. Now, he had to deal with her and some rookie attention-seeker?

Yeah. No. He’d just set them both on fire later if they got too annoying.

"Uh… how about no?" Y/N muttered, grabbing Toga by the shoulders and moving her to the side like she was a misplaced chair.

"We gotta go soon," Dabi scoffed. "So when you're done talking with the crazy one and the attention hog, let me know. I’m already tired of this."

He turned toward the alleyway door, ready to leave—until he wasn’t.

For some reason, he couldn’t move.

And he didn’t like it. Not one damn bit.

Why did he suddenly feel... worthless? Like he was drowning in his own uselessness?

Every ugly memory, every failure, every broken piece of himself slammed into his mind at once. It was unbearable.

"That’s rude, y’know?" Y/N said casually, raising a single finger in the air. "You should respect the guy when you’re the one wasting his time."

Dabi crumpled.

And then—he cried.

Not just cried—sobbed.

Y/N winced. That… that wasn’t just his quirk. That sounded broken. Like something deep inside him had snapped. He would’ve preferred screaming over this.

"That is so cool, Y/N!" Toga gasped, practically bouncing. "What emotion are you using?!"

"Sadness," Y/N muttered, still watching the grown man unravel in front of him. That’s when he noticed—Dabi’s tears had actually reopened the burn wounds around his mouth and eyes.

Damn.

"Basically," Y/N continued, "I overwhelm the brain with the chemical that triggers an emotion, then force it onto the body."

With that, he deactivated his quirk, letting Dabi breathe again.

"...That’s... actually scary," Giran admitted. "And it’s perfect. Even though the Union didn’t pick you, you’d be a great asset for what the League needs." He gestured toward the broken mess of a man still hunched over. "The dude you just wrecked? That’s Dabi. You’re in."

"Oh my gosh, Y/N-kun!" Toga squealed, grabbing his hands. "Do you know what this means?! You and I are gonna be hero killers! Just like Mr. Stainy! Oh man! I love you so much!"

"...Cool. Thanks." Y/N glanced at Dabi, rubbing the back of his neck. "Hey, uh… Dabi, right? Sorry about that—"

"Shut the hell up," Dabi growled, standing with a hand pressed to one of his burns. He didn’t even bother wiping away the tears.

He was already humiliated. Already furious.

And this dumbass kid scared him.

If he could manipulate emotions that quickly, that effectively, with barely any effort…

What the hell could stop him?

"Yeah… I-I kinda deserve that," Y/N mumbled. "I’ll shut up. That’s fair, I guess."

─────── • ✧ • ───────

"Shigaraki! Your League of Villains has been the talk of the town these past several days," Giran remarked as he pushed open the door to an abandoned bar.

Honestly, what a terrible way to start a conversation.

"Word on the street is you're about to start something big—"

"And? Who did you bring?"

Rude.

Giran just chuckled, waving the three of them inside. Toga nearly squealed, squeezing Y/N’s arm before finally letting go and skipping forward.

This was probably a bad idea.

No—this was definitely a bad idea.

The second Y/N stepped inside, he knew he wanted to turn back. This guy—the one with a hand for a mask—was the leader of the League? He looked like he hadn’t eaten in a decade. When was the last time this dude even drank water?

"So it’s really you, huh?" Dabi drawled, tilting his head. "I’ve seen pictures, but I gotta say, you’re way grosser in person."

"Wow! It’s the weird hand guy!" Toga gasped, eyes sparkling. "You’re friends with my hero Stain, right? Cool! Let us join your League! We wanna be in your group!"

She grabbed Y/N’s arm again, practically vibrating with excitement.

Shigaraki barely acknowledged her before turning to Kurogiri. "...Get rid of these three. I can already tell they’re exactly the kind of trash I hate. A girly brat, some weak mute kid, and a guy with no manners."

"I’m not mute," Y/N chuckled, though the bluntness pissed him off more than he cared to admit.

He nearly used his quirk just for the hell of it.

"Now, now, Tomura Shigaraki," the smoky guy, Kurogiri, interjected. "They came all this way. The least we could do is hear them out. Give them a chance. Besides, this broker is respected in the underworld—they’re bound to be valuable assets."

Kurogiri kinda reminded Y/N of that fire bartender from Undertale.

"Like ‘em or not, you still owe me a finder’s fee," Giran added, cigarette between his fingers. "Might as well hear them out before I go."

He gestured toward Toga first. "This one looks like your average high school girl, right? But she’s actually the suspect in a series of deaths where all the victims bled out. So far, her name and face have been kept out of the media."

Y/N almost forgot just how dangerous she was.

"Toga! Himiko Toga!" she beamed. "Life’s too hard, and I just wanna make it easier to live in this dumb world! I wanna be Mr. Stainy! I wanna kill Mr. Stainy! Oh, c’mon, Mr. Handyman, let me join your League of Villains!"

"You gotta be kidding me. Is she crazy?"

...Yeah, she was definitely crazy.

"Well, she can hold a conversation— for the most part, —so c’mon, she can be useful."

"Yeah," Y/N added, shoving his hands in his pockets. "In fact, I was gonna be her next victim before she asked me to come here."

Silence.

Shigaraki blinked.

For a second, it looked like he was about to rip his hand mask off in shock.

"...What?"

"Long story. Well—not really. But it’s not relevant to the topic right now."

Giran continued, pointing his cigarette toward Dabi. "And this guy hasn’t committed any flashy crimes, but he’s taken Stain’s ideology to heart."

"I don’t like this," Dabi muttered. "Is your group really dedicated to the Hero Killer’s mission? I can’t imagine you are if you’re letting this little psycho join."

Toga pouted.

"Grow up," Y/N sighed. "At least she can introduce herself."

"Yeah, I actually agree with him," Shigaraki commented, waving a lazy hand toward Y/N and Toga. "Don’t just stare—what’s your name?"

"Right now, I’m going by Dabi."

"No, I wanna know your real name."

"I’ll tell you when you need to know it. My new purpose is to carry out the Hero Killer’s will."

Shigaraki scoffed. "That wasn’t what I asked you, Patchwork. Jeez, why’s everyone so obsessed with Stain?"

Y/N raised a hand. "Okay, I’m not the smartest person here, but… why are we carrying out the Hero Killer’s wish when he’s not dead? Isn’t he just in prison? Shouldn’t we have our own wish if this is our group? Why are we living off someone else’s—"

"Shut up."

Shigaraki stood.

"It’s all I ever hear about. Every. Damn. Day. It’s pissing me off!"

"No, don’t do it!" Kurogiri warned.

...The hell was he about to do?

"WE’LL KEEP THE BOY. THE TWO OF YOU ARE DONE!" Shigaraki roared, throwing his hands toward them.

Dabi immediately countered, flames sparking to life.

Y/N grabbed Toga before she could do anything—or get herself killed—but not before swiping her knife. If it came down to it, he wasn’t against stabbing the dude’s hand. He hadn’t killed anyone, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight.

Before anyone’s attacks landed, purple smoke engulfed them, warping their hands away from each other.

Portal quirk.

"Please calm yourself, Tomura Shigaraki."

Why did this dude keep saying his full name like it was some official title?

"If your desire is to be realized, then we must increase our numbers."

Y/N sighed, already tuning out the conversation.

He flipped Toga’s knife in his hand before passing it back to her. She immediately latched onto his back like a koala.

"I’m outta here."

Y/N moved past the still-fuming League leader. He wasn’t sure how he felt about this guy yet, but he definitely didn’t like how that ended.

"Where are you going?"

"Shut up."

Giran sighed, shaking his head. "I try not to complain about my clients, but he’s too young and far too immature."

"Really thought he was gonna kill us for a sec!" Toga giggled, finally hopping off Y/N’s back.

"Yeah, he looks like he needs a psych ward. Like you, Toga."

Toga pouted, weakly punching his shoulder.

"That guy makes me wanna vomit."

"I’ve only known you for, like, thirty minutes, and I think everything makes you wanna throw up."

"What’d you say?"

"I said—"

"Shut up! No one asked you anyway!"

"Okay, Patchwork."

"What?!"

"I said okay, Patchwork. I’m gonna keep calling you that, too."

"I hope you drown."

"Been hoping for that a long time, dude."

─────── • ✧ • ───────

"I can't believe we're actually in the league! Oh my gosh this is gonna be so cool! I can't wait! And it'll be even better with you Y/N-kun!" Toga yells, blushing to herself as the both of them sat on top of a building.

"... How high do you think I'd have to jump to crack my skull?"

"... What?"

Y/N turns to Toga only to be graced with a small smile concealing her worried expression.

"... Oh sorry, I wasn't trying to scare you."

"No, you didn't scare me... I just... I think it's about two stores high."

That was the first time anyone had answered him a question like that before, and of course it had to be the crazy blood stealing girl.

"Alright."

"..."

"..."

"Hey... Y/N-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you call me Himiko?"

"... Why?" Y/N inquired, wondering if he was being caught in some strange trap by her again.

"Well because I love you and it's just that I don't want to see you die yet. I want to be there for you like you were there for me before and I want you to love me too."

"Um... I was never there for you though-"

"Yes you were! You were always there, someone that was always consistently in my life!"

"... Is that because you were stalking me?"

"I wouldn't call it stalking, I'd call it a romantic walk that you didn't know you were doing with me!"

"Oh... Alright." Y/N sighed slightly, letting you ye girl hug him as he looked down at the people below. Everyone was just walking around, trying to get the last of what they needed so that they didn't have to stay out too late.

None of these people would be prepared for something like the league of villains... So why was he partaking in this? He was one of these citizens, one of these people.

"Do you love me Y/N-kun?"

Y/N briefly turned to look at Toga once again, her sick and flustered smile looking right back at him.

"... No... I don't love you Himiko."

Toga nodded her head, accepting the answer for what it was before looking up at the sky. The stars were very pretty when there weren't many lights.

Y/N though for a bit more about this whole thing, not sure why he was agreeing to this. Sure he didn't value his life all that much but he had family, he had people that cared about him, and he had people he cared about.

But there was something about this that made him feel excited and energetic about it all. He can't remember the last time he felt so much thrill being near a person that could kill him.

It was always him that was trying to kill himself, not someone trying to kill him. No one had ever tried to kill him before.

It was exhilarating.

Heck, the guy wasn't even really trying to kill him, he was trying to kill Dabi and Toga and yet he had pulled her out of the way to protect her. It seemed like he'd really enjoy being a villain but at the same time, he could be a pretty good hero.

He must have been a villain or a hero in his past life because even with that sudden stress he felt so calm, like nothing had even occurred and he wasn't bored like he had nothing to do either.

If this villain thing didn't work, he would try to transfer into a hero school like UA or something like that, though that was setting the bar higher, it was something.

He actually didn't feel like killing himself right now.

"Hey.... Himiko?"

She didn't respond and when Y/N looked at her, she was asleep, resting her head against his shoulder.

"I don't love you... But I think I like you, I'd like to be a villain as long as you're there." He mumbled, gently placing his hand on top of her head.

How did he even let an evil and crazy yandere girl swoon him into joining her in a group of other evil people?

He's not sure but at the moment, he doesn't mind. He'll figure out the details later.

Wow, he's actually feeling pretty okay right now.

[muniimyg]

OKAYYYYY MY THOUGHTS (I have so many of them)

first of all - this fic is a mf masterpiece

the tension, them being mean to each other and jk being a simp UGH!😩😩😩😩 I want him so bad

the scene where he asks her to feed him and I’m like this man is NAWT shying away and so he is THAT kinda boyfriend like.

and him not going to that function because “his girl” is sick. like I was shy reading this as if he was speaking about me🤣🤣🤣 and the dolphins book he finds - oc was such a cutie for that🥰

and then the scene where they Yk do THAT when he is wearing his glasses I FOLDED. I FOLDED SO BAD CAUSE HE IS SO HOT AND THWIR BED CHEM WAS BED CHEM-ING.

and then the jealousy era like girl why would you push his button like that but also valid cause walk him like a dog sis 😁

And then their talk and finally a man who has communication skills 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 cause real men just cannot🤓 at least the ones I have dealt which. Just like oc only had situationships😁 waiting for my jk now.

and then they started dating and everything is amazing in the world again😪💕

in all - a mf masterpiece like I said ❤️

you have done it once again.

Just a future drabble if you decide to do it - the gangs reaction when they found they are together 🤨🤨 jus a small little idea hehe

Also big props to you for writing this in a fic cause I can imagine how stressful that might have been plus you being sick. hope you are feeling better ❤️

also my take on ranking the kimi verse jk’s - ITS VERY HARD

fuck - bed chem jk (Obviously) but also like c2u jk cause laundry scene was insane 😭

kiss - aao jk or baby daddy jk

marry - baby daddy jk no questions asked

WE DONT KILL c2u jk in DIS HOUSE CAUSE HE IS SUCH A CUTIE 😭😭💕

ok lemme yap with u 🤝

tension/dynamic

i've been absolutely CRAVING to write a tension filled fic where they both want each other but don't know how to have each other. oh my god,,, did this concept absolutely scratch my brain.

i personally had to think for a hot minute abt their banter cos,,, yes, banter is 60% of their chem,,, but the stillness??? between them??? the way they react to each comeback??? how they look at each other or stand or sit too close??? how thick the air feels and how easy it would be to just have them kiss??? oh !!!! i really had to sit in their moment and intensify their feelings

the tension between them was slow with a sense of pressure... ugh. i really wanted to emphasize that their situation was easy. no one was stopping them from being together... but instead,, it was the pure fun of it that complicated things for each other. their dynamic is established since part 1. it's too easy to show the sudden change and honestly? unrealistic.

real tension,, real friends to lovers,,, is slow. awkward. it's this weird sense of uncertainty but also knowing and believing in them.

further, subtle things were so purposeful in each chapter imo. when i write fics,, i take a moment to think abut what each character has to offer the other/their specific traits. (my uni/college au's for example) deeper than what major i give them,, i think about their attitude and how it ties to to their little things.

for bed chem,, jk as a chem major was like a lightbulb moment for me because 1) it fit the title 2) it made it easier for me to write him as a grumpy nerd 3) it practically paints the picture of what kind of guy he is by all by itself... like, all i really needed to do was be specific with word choice and body language. being a part of the marine conservation club was like a hehe haha thing but also showcased his softer side (caring for the world and wanting to make change,,, etc).

meanwhile, oc majors in psych and she's kind of reckless. she's constantly tripping over her own feet and is unhinged for most for their banter... but she's intentful. she's good at talking around her feelings and her actions,, but she's even better at sticking to what she wants.

part 5 behaviour

because at this point,, they're together but not together,, jungkook tests the boundaries. they have a lot of unspoken rules so he does all he can to break them. oc,, doesn't really do much to stop him and i found it really important to decrease/limit her doubts because 1) the tutor thing wasn't really meant to be this whole trust issue thing 2) they have a lot of security in each other 3) the scenes where he skips the gala,, shows up when she has food poisoning,, when she had a hard day and he comes over to check on her ... it all shows the kind of friend he is and oc feels safe and secure in the man he is and how good he is to her

smut

ok i was realy nervous about this because 1) i was sick as a fucking dog writing the scene 2) i didn't want to disappoint 3) it had to live up to thefic title.

sometimes, i think i have to write these really wild scenes with position switching and insane dirty talk,, but because oc is a virgin... i thought it would be more fun to show her increasing interest to be intimate with him. the dry humping scene was HILIARIOUS to me. i thought it was a funny way of her exploring how fast jungkook would fold and the glasses part... yeah. i really like the way it led to their moment lol.

the actual sex scene i think turned out really cute. they have this... intense yet intimate energy between them. jk taking the lead but oc also knowing what she wants? the way they fuck and kind of just get lost in holding each other... the kissing narration?? learning her?? yeah. that tickled my brain. love the way oc has this playfulness during the entire thing,, meanwhile jungkook was losing his mind seeing her tits.

jealousy/communication

what's a kimi fic without her collateral damage hottie of the month ? first it was eunwoo/dex for c2u, mingyu for aao, and now it's dohwan for bed chem LOL. i think adding this and specifically my choice in who is coming in to play brings this relevancy into my fics that readers are able to laugh and relate to. brings connection yk!!

dohwan was so harmless ahahhaa. ngl, i think oc hearing jk fuck someone was like a "uh... omg. yikes.. i think i'm kinda jealous rn lol" moment but jk seeing a hickey on oc + being in a complicated state with her was a very "i want to die and i want you in the front row so you can see how much u hurt me and then i want u to cry over me,, only for me to beg god in the afterlife for another chance to live so i can comfort you" moment for him.

their communication/banter was such a big part of this fic. i think the plainness of their words held so much significance that after each line,, it felt like their tension would shift. again, specific word choice was really important. their banter and ongoing walking around their feelings was essential in keeping them (and readers) on their toes. their original ending was supposed to be this vague realization that they wanted to be together and the irony was that i wasn't supposed to write their smut scene and leave it as this tension filled open-ended fic,, but i'm glad i did what i did and gave them a definite ending.

some key lines i put into oc's dialogue was

"think i can do it? get you to want me?" to "i don't know how to have you" and finally; "i want you" was veryyyyyyy... premeditated. it gave this storyline through 3 lines and i really liked thatttt

the pavlov thing was funny as fuck cos again,, she's a psych major LOL. and the woof woof thing LOLLOLOL. very kimi core crackhead vibes

kiss, marry, fuck,, and kill;

you're so real and so funny for that HAHAHAA. protecting c2u jk fr cos that kid went thru so much chasing after c2u oc LOL

extra/ending note;

i'll think abt the extra!! i don't really think they have much left in terms of plot cos everything is basically all done... the friendgroup def knew smt was up but never said anything cos they mind their own business. i think it's pretty obvious as they 1) always sent oc to jk's room 2) teased them a lot 3) scolded them a lot esp taehyung

anyways,, u are literally the sweetest !!! i love receiving asks like this. i was afraid that ch5 would be too long and because there were so many scenes,, i felt like the significance of each one would be mushed up into one entire review/outcome. thank u for going into detail !!! i know a few readers say they read every word i write ,, so it's very rewarding to hear your thoughts with each scene and letting me yap from a writers/creative perspective

currently still recovering from being sick ,, finishing up my winter sem at school + preparing holiday related events for my preschool LOL. bed chem was so fun to write and i'm so incredibly blown away from the amount of love and support it has received in the past since i posted it. like... 1.7k already?? almost 1k on avg with each part?? uhhh... what the heck !!!

all in all,, i'm glad it fed everyones delulu mind. glad to know we're all ovulating together <3

i can't wait to share more fics with you all in 2025 😽💓

mwahh

kimi

[wannaeatramyeon]

I know you’re already super busy and booked but if you can, Munseong Kim/Ji Yeonwoo fluff and headcanons would be cool. There is little to none on them, please pace yourself I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed.

Hmmm. Let's do... texting habits (ish). And sorry I included my cuties Wangguk and Taehoon too 😊

HTF texting habits hc: Munseong, Yeonwoo, Wangguk, Taehoon

Munseong is a pretty cool and reserved guy, and that shows with his texting habits

He keeps it short and to the point, not a lot of emojis and everything comes across a little deadpan with his replies.

However, he is extremely fast respond back to you and usually within the minute... even if it doesn't warrant a response he'll at least send back a 😄 Sweet boy doesn't want to leave you hanging!

And if he's late to text back (by his standards), he'll always apologise even though you've explained a million times it's fine and you know he's doing his own thing.

Don't expect any memes, or him to react with anything apart from confusion. But you can always expect a good morning or good night.

Whenever he's feeling a bit down, he will read over your old messages and imagine your smile and your face lighting up on the other side.

...Or just call you to hear your voice.

Yeonwoo always makes time for texting you even with his hectic study schedule.

Thinks of it as a little treat, something to look forward to after frying his brain for the last couple hours.

He's always a bit contrite for his late replies too but it doesn't deter you with your double, triple, quadruple+ texting. It brightens his day seeing your name pop up on his phone, even if there are 10+ messages waiting.

Once his study schedule chills out and he makes more time for Kyokushin, he also makes more time for you!

Anything that pops into his head that he thinks you'll like, or that he thinks of saying, he'll just come right out with it.

More often than not it's a cute cat/dog meme or silly fluffy pics.

Occasionally it'll be blurred selfies of him during training. Just a lil hi and a way to say he's thinking of you.

Ah, another pretty reserved one.

Wangguk uses emojis more than you would expect, and is pretty cute with them to be honest. Adds them to provide a bit more context and depth with his responses because he knows how dry he can sound 🥺

Keeps his messages pretty short unless there's something that he is passionate about then he'll just ramble and send a full on essay. Punctuated with another follow up message to say sorry. It's pretty goddamn cute tbh.

Sends you a LOT of pictures. Innocent ones that is. Pictures tell a thousand words and he loves his photography.

Pics to say good morning, good night, thinking of you, thought you would like this. Usually Wangguk isn't in them, which makes any selfies even more special.

Also loves when you respond back in kind, sending him snaps of your day and just you.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, is extremely clued up with memes or anything slightly unhinged thanks to Gyeoul and her sense of humour. Will send on any to you that makes him chuckle.

Listen if Taehoon wants your attention, he'll let you know. That includes messages and calls at 4am just to fuck with you. Especially when he hears your exasperated sigh and groggy voice. Or even an angry reply to "GO TF TO SLEEP!!" It will never not be funny to him. Maybe that's on you for continuing to respond and pick up all the time.

Cute good morning, good night texts? No chance.

Although he is very good at letting you know where he is, what he's up to. And expects similar from you. It's not that he doesn't trust you, he just wants to know you're safe. A hangover from Dowoon.

And this bastard is also pretty leisurely with his responses. You can be having a full on conversation, responses back within the minute then he leaves you on read for hours.

However, if you do the same then expect a call "why the fuck aren't you answering me." If you miss that, then expect an annoyed Taehoon on your doorstep.

Again, another hangover from Dowoon. His mind just goes to the worst case scenarios.

[paikothecateater]

Dear paiko I humbly request more fluffy whale bros😔🤲🏻🐋

I shall fulfill that request.

- Norway likes bothering Iceland a lot. One of his favourite things to do is come up next to him wherever he's sitting and trying to disturb him as much as possible. He'll put his hand over whatever book he's reading, nudge his phone, so it falls out of his hand and he'll poke him all over just to bother him. Iceland very rarely gets bothered by this and will almost always end up stroking Norway's hair because he knows that he wants his attention.

-Norway's love language towards Iceland is surprisingly physical touch. He can't not touch Iceland for a full day. He does this thing where he'll grab Iceland by the head and pull him to give him a forehead kiss. Iceland hates it. He also always has his arm around Iceland if they're in mixed company because he has to make sure Iceland doesn't disappear or something. Then he'd have to interact with people. Ew.

- Norway talks about Iceland like he's a newborn baby. If you haven't met Iceland, and you've only heard of him from Norway, you'd think he's a baby. "oh, I have to go. I don't want to leave Iceland on his own for too long." "I was tucking Iceland into bed the other night." stuff like that.

-Iceland wakes up a lot earlier than Norway, but some times he'll still be tired. Rather than go back to sleep in his own bed, he always gets up, walks into Norway's room and slides into his bed. Older sibling/parents bed>>>>your own bed. Everyone knows that.

-Iceland has a ton of affectionate nicknames for Norway. Like bug for example, but Norway has a massive assortment of nicknames for Iceland. He has so many. Some of them are super sweet like firefly, friend, babe (yes, siblings call each other babe platonically, if I see this tagged as a ship, I'm throwing people in volcanoes) but some of them are super unhinged. You know the overly affectionate word vomit a lot of us spill on our cats for doing literally nothing? Yeah, Norway with Iceland. "are you a little baby cutie pie? The babyest baby?" "Kys"

-Iceland likes to make it seem like he and Norway aren't that close, but his lock screen is a picture of both of them, they have a secret handshake (which Norway obviously insisted on) and they even have their own weird little language (majorly consisting of one of them making a random noise and the other responding.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the cuteness explosion. Whale brothers headcanons are the best headcanons.

(again, not to ruin the mood or anything, but I feel like this is a good time to say this: please don't tag any of my content with shipping tags. Especially not when it comes to Iceland. I understand everyone likes their own ships, but I just ask that my content isn't tagged like that. Please and thank you)

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

Random BL Superlatives: 2023

I'll still probably do a proper wrap-up post at year's end, but I adore this idea by @lurkingshan, so thought I would toss out a few of my own.

Character who most needs an immediate spinoff: Nawin from Laws of Attraction

I need more of our unhinged himbo and his crew of loyal idiots. I'm thinking something along the lines of an uptight young cop comes to town to investigate, gets his world mind-blowingly rocked mentally and physically, and leaves the force to join his himbo on a life of wild crime.

Best chewing of the scenery: Wayne Song in Kiseki: Dear to Me

I know some people thought it was too much, but my beloved Wayne can do whatever he wants. He was clearly having the best time going all in on the unhinged energy of Zhang Teng, and I love that for him.

BL boy I most want to feed soup and give a warm hug to:

As I mentioned in my carnal list, there are a lot of cuties out there that I can appreciate, but also kinda look like babies to me because of their age. Khaotung is one of them. I love him, he's gorgeous, and a brilliant actor, but I just want to take care of him. Give him a cinnamon roll character like Gaipa, and I'm lost. Let me feed and cuddle you!

Best saving grace in a mediocre series: Bosston in Be Mine Superstar

I did a whole post about my love for Bosston and getting to see him sink his teeth (and entire body) into a role like Muang. As much as I like Ja & First, they felt underwritten and forgettable. But Bosston made the watch worth it. (And we're getting him & Jo in another series, woop, woop!).

Moment that most sticks in my head from this year: Chen Yi & Ai Di in Kiseki: Dear to Me

Honestly, this series and this couple did me in so many times, but there is something about this scene in particular. Chen Yi's smirk knowing he's got Ai Di where he wants him, the fact that he's been practicing eating spicy food just for this very moment, the ease with how he lifts Ai Di, how Ai Di can't help himself from putting his arms around Chen Yi. So unwell.

This is a close second:

The Best non-BL BL relationship: Khatha & Dome in Midnight Museum

Brothers, my hiney. Also give us our sequel!

[anerdinallherglory]

Approaching Sun (39)

Author’s Note: UPDATE 10/22: Due to some recent controversy of this chapter, minor changes were made to emphasize the reasoning behind Sakura’s actions. In no way, am I downplaying the seriousness of suicide attempts or making Sasuke out to be a toxic asshole. This is new for him and new for Sakura, and for more of my rational behind this chapter, visit my tumblr account to see my full response. With that being said, please read this version first, and if you can handle more, read the AO3 version. I understand that I cannot make everyone happy, and it’s not my intention to, but I do want to depict the seriousness of such topics with care. Other than that, I wipe my hands of this chapter. If you don't like the direction of this story, please let it go and try some other sasusaku fics who might do the characters more justice for you. Thank you.

CW/Important Note, PLEASE READ: There are two versions of this chapter. This is the edited, non-explicit version. This version is a more poetic, fade-to-black version that adheres to site rules and guidelines. 

If you would like to read the full, unedited, absolutely unhinged-in-how-filthy-it-is version, visit my linktree anerdinallherglory, (located in my bio description) to find the link to the fic on AO3, where appropriate tags will be used. After reading the tags, you may have decided not to pursue reading that M version. I do believe that many would prefer this edited version, but I could be completely wrong for some.

!!BOTH VERSIONS have a depiction of a panic attack and intense emotions and discussion of a fake threat of suicide

*Songs for this chapter Black Sun by Death Cab for Cutie, The Hearse (Stripped) by Matt Maeson, Difficult by Billy Raffoul, Habits of my Heart by Jaymes Young, and Die Trying by Michl

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38

Chapter 39: On Behalf of the World

Sakura had been right. Kakashi had been positively miffed when Lady Tsunade and Sakura promptly reverse-summoned an entire group of ninja—via the slug express as Sasuke had so eloquently put it—and marched them all straight into his office at two-hours past sunrise. Kakashi and Shikamaru, who looked as if they had only recently returned themselves from their mini-vacation in Sunagakure, practically leaned over from behind each of their designated towers of late paperwork to drop their jaws in astonishment at the suddenly cramped room. 

Sakura smiled guiltily, Sasuke ‘hmphed’ humorously, and Tsunade, who had insisted on coming along to see the Sixth’s reaction, cackled loudly and pointed a finger at Kakashi who, in return, frowned at the former Hokage with obvious envy about life on the other side of retirement.

Tsunade’s laughter grew louder when Sasuke didn’t hesitate to activate his Rinnegan and reveal another twenty-five fear-stricken members of Zenshin who clung to their reunited acquaintances. Sakura caught Sasuke’s eyes with her own when the newcomers recoiled from the Uchiha’s presence in obvious traumatic fear, and Sakura suddenly became highly suspicious that they had endured a torturous genjutsu for at least a small length of time before they had been ejected into another dimension.

Kakashi sighed loudly for all to hear and leaned back in his chair in disbelief at the increasing crowd of convicts. To Sakura’s amazement, they all looked down at their feet in the Hokage’s presence, even the loudest of them, quiet now that they were among five of the most powerful ninja in the Leaf Village. They hadn’t even met Naruto yet. They knew their inadequate skills and ninjutsu would get them nowhere here. 

Sakura rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly as she pushed forward through the gathering of people who had been intent on killing her just twenty-four hours ago. Some sneered at her as she passed while the newcomers stared openly at her in shock. She felt Sasuke’s narrowed eyes on her back as she made her way through the pit of vipers. 

“Please tell me you didn’t just bring fifty more criminals into my village,” Kakashi frowned at her. It was technically fifty-one, but she wasn’t going to add that additional number right now. It would have been fifty-two if they hadn’t woken up this morning to discover a member of Zenshin missing to the shadows of the Shikkotsu Forest. Toka had taken the risk after all, it seemed, rising at some point in the night to face the terrors within, gambling his life on the small likelihood he might survive the Forest for a chance at a future as a father. Sakura had silently wished him luck upon discovery, for Tabi’s sake, but she wasn’t going to be fool enough to provide him any sort of assistance—there was always the risk of him returning to whatever was left of Zenshin now, even though Sakura wasn’t too worried about it in the long run. She’d handle it as it came.  

Kakashi continued his scowling reprimand. “I had thought at least half of this group would be going to Sunagakure when I signed off on that.”

When she placed the mentioned scrolls with each of their names and sentencing on his desk, and smiled again, saying, “I sort of gave them the choice,” Kakashi gave her the most affronted look he had ever given his student. She knew he was wanting to respond with something like ‘on whose authority?’ but then she saw his next train of thought cross his face, register behind his eyes, and evolve into acceptance with another resigned sigh. Team 7 was as close as Kakashi would ever get to having children; the three of them took advantage of their old sensei at every turn, especially since he became Hokage with much more influence at his disposal. Just when Sakura thought Kakashi would finally put one of Team 7 in their place, Sakura could practically see when Kakashi weighed the request and caved like an overfond parent, deciding that there was very little he wouldn’t do for the three ninja he had almost lost at one point or another in the past. 

He pulled Sakura’s scroll across the desk like it was the heaviest thing in the world, unfurling it slowly, as if he dreaded the finality of the contents inside. 

“I don’t know why you’re laughing Tsunade, since it says here that all twenty-seven—” he looked up at the assembly Sasuke had revealed—“double that, now—are to attend the Mental Health Clinic you are currently in charge of. In addition to any medical attention they might need beforehand.” 

The laughter did stop then as Tsunade opened her mouth and swung her head in Sakura’s direction, obviously not aware of that particular clause in Sakura’s sentencing. Shikamaru laughed under his breath when the Fifth released a sigh to compete with the current Hokage’s.

Sakura just giggled lightly, continuing to blush deeply and smile guiltily at her two former masters. “Um, well I will definitely help with that this evening, Lady Tsunade. I’d like to check up on Isao, as well. He did make it back here with you guys, correct?” She easily got distracted when her mind wandered to a patient she cared deeply for. And it was Isao, the young boy she had gotten quite attached to over the past few months; she hadn’t been this emotionally invested in a while. It was easy to spiral when her work was involved, and Sakura sometimes found herself completely forgetting everyone else present. 

“One thing at a time,” Kakashi sighed, turning to Shikamaru, who flinched under the Hokage’s sudden attention. It usually meant that he was about to have work to do—work that the Hokage was redirecting to him, and Sakura silently wondered to herself how anything got done between the two. And then she was thinking of Naruto, the soon-to-be Hokage-in-training, and was suddenly overcome with agita at the future ping-pong match of responsibility between the two laziest ninja of their year as Shikamaru continued his duty of chief aide to the Hokage.  

“Shikamaru, please escort this caravan to the prison-hold, for now. Arrange for them to be brought food and water, and whatever basics can be provided for them while we assemble a team of medics to see to them. I’ll have to think of where to house and facilitate them in the meantime. Lady Fifth, do you mind assist—”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Tsunade sighed, and Sakura laughed awkwardly at the former Hokage’s inability to take orders since she had been so used to dishing them out for five years. “Come on kid, let’s get this over with,” she said to Shikamaru, and he slowly rose to his feet with a sigh, mumbling something about his unfortunate lot with Hokages. 

“This way,” Shikamaru waved them all behind him and they filed out after him like ants, Tsunade on their heels. They must have heard the rumors of the Fifth’s temper and strength, then, Sakura thought, as nobody took a step out of line. Sakura couldn’t believe her luck as a few of them even looked back to her for reassurance, fear of the change in warden crossing their features. On her way out the door, Tsunade gave Sakura the ‘You’ll-be-following-shortly-to-help-with-this’ look, and Sakura nodded out of the teenage habit of student compliance. 

This left Sakura alone with a silent, brooding Sasuke in the back of the room, and a silent, exhausted Kakashi at the front. Sakura suddenly felt like an uncomfortable sandwich. 

She cleared her throat as Kakashi stood and made his way around his desk to stand before her, placing a hand on her shoulder, a different, relieved sort of sigh escaping this time. “I’m glad to see that you are okay.”

Sasuke immediately scoffed to himself at that declaration, an ejection of air from his nose, and Sakura and Kakashi both looked over at him as he stood perched against the wall as still as if he hadn’t just made a noise at all. 

Kakashi looked back to her, gripping her shoulder encouragingly before releasing her altogether. “Sometimes I miss the girl who fainted multiple times during that first bell test—where has she gone? She certainly isn’t before me, now. Hasn’t been for years.”

Sakura wanted to laugh at that and tell her sensei that if she remembered correctly, she was fainting because she thought Sasuke had been hurt and would probably do so again under more authentic life-threatening circumstances if they occurred in the future. And that she was still prone to fainting spells if she got worked up enough. But her sensei was giving her a compliment right now and she didn’t feel like reminding him otherwise at the moment. She smiled and thanked her sensei. 

“Is this all of them?” he asked. “Is the situation finally settled?”

“Not quite,”Sakura confessed. “I never learned the exact number, but we might have more luck with interrogations this time. I do know that there’s still someone out there—a man named Mozai, and who knows how many more.”

“Gaara got the same name from the Shade,” the Sixth declared, and Sakura’s eyes widened, not ever having expected the Shade to be the one to give that up. Mako hadn’t been given the name at all. “We thought he was the leader at first.”

“So did I, until Mako told me otherwise,” Sakura confirmed, but remembered her shock when Mako had told her that the organization worked in cells similar to the Akatsuki, the Shade being in charge of those who had attacked her back in the deserts of Suna. 

“We can investigate it further and send a team to handle it this time,” Kakashi reassured her. “In the meantime, I’m just glad the two of you are home.”

“No need. I’m sure they’ll either disappear or come for me eventually. And if I could handle the others, I’m sure I can handle a few more when the time comes.” 

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, and she caught him glance over to Sasuke, whose stare she could feel straight into her back. 

She cleared her throat, “If that’s everything sensei, can I be excused? I just want to check on Isao now.”

Kakashi nodded emphatically, gesturing for Sakura to go ahead and take her leave. She turned quickly, making eye contact with Sasuke before she made to exit. He wasn’t moving to follow her, and Sakura realized suddenly that he was intending to hang behind to talk to Kakashi on his own. Her stomach turned a little at that, wondering what he might have to say without her, but he nodded and boldly said, “I’ll find you afterwhile.” 

And her mood instantly lifted, and she nodded back, trying not to grin stupidly in the presence of an everwatching sensei who always knew more than he should. It was like if Sakura smiled, then Kakashi’s sharingan-less eyes could still see straight through her like a parent who knew their child was keeping a secret. She cleared her throat and left them, saving her face-splitting smile for the hallway as she skipped to find Isao.

.

.

.

Kakashi was back to sighing when Sakura left, and Sasuke’s eyes landed on him like sharp kunai. In contrast to Sakura’s ten-year change since the Bell Test, Sasuke was giving Kakashi that same hateful stare that made Kakashi reminiscent of the relentless youth who had always been determined, always had a purpose, and never really cared whether he came off as rude to anyone else. Kakashi was used to this Sasuke—had dealt with him a few days ago in the presence of the Kazekage.

“If I have to watch someone who I love die, sacrificing themselves for the sake of the Leaf Village, again, the person who I am now won’t survive it. What’s left of the shinobi world will either fall to the Otsusuki race in my absence, or it will fall to the person I will become. That will be its fate if you keep me here and she dies, Kakashi.” Those were the words Sasuke had used to manipulate the Hokage and Kazekage both when the Uchiha was being retained against his will. When Sasuke had uttered such words before the very ninja who had given him another chance, Kakashi had felt like a stone of foreboding had fallen into the pit of his stomach. 

After Sasuke had been allowed to leave, a very tense discussion followed. Gaara had raised his concerns once again about Sasuke, to which Kakashi had no immediate response, because Kakashi, himself, didn’t know if Sasuke would ever be capable of turning on them all once more. He was unpredictable, the Uchiha. His attachments either tethered him to goodness or dropped him right into the depths of darkness. Kakashi had believed Sasuke to be returned for good, had taken up his self-sacrificial role of a journey of atonement in order to ensure that no threat could be posed to the shinobi world again. But Sasuke’s response to the situation with Sakura contradicted his very goal, didn’t it? Where did his allegiances lie? Who could guarantee that Sasuke would never fall again?

Naruto had apologized to both Gaara and Kakashi on his behalf, saying, “You don’t have to worry. He doesn’t mean that. He’s just upset and concerned. He and Sakura, they’re—”

“Don’t make excuses for him Naruto,” Gaara had responded. “Threats like that have to be taken seriously. Especially from him.”

“He’s not like that anymore,” Naruto insisted. “He’s under a lot of stress. Think about what we’ve asked him to do for the world. He thought he’d never get a chance to pursue a happiness like this. And now you’re letting Sakura go and face a threat to her life all by herself.” And then Naruto was glaring at Kakashi, too. “You taught us about teamwork, remember? That was our very first lesson from you, and you let her go alone. Has being Hokage made you lose sight of that? He wouldn’t have had to make that threat if you remembered that lesson yourself in the first place.”

And it had felt like a punch to Kakashi’s gut. Gaara had frowned as Naruto spoke and he had turned back to the Kazekage and added, “I’ll handle it. It won’t, but if it ever gets that bad again, I’ll be here to stop him. However many times it takes. I have already made that promise to him, myself.”

The conversations had ended after that. And Kakashi had holed up into the guest quarters of the Sand, staying through the night before making the trip back to Konoha. The jinchuriki was boisterous and loud for the sake of their tag-along, Isao, who nervously chose the path forward into a new land, carrying his entire life’s belonging in one rucksack. He looked to Naruto as a sense of comfort, but the following night, after Isao had fallen asleep beside their fire, Naruto had dropped his faux excitement and stared up into the stars a long time as he quietly kept to himself. The following morning, as they stood outside the A N gates, Naruto spoke his next request lowly. “Don’t tell Sakura,” Naruto had breathed between them, a hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. “Whenever she comes back, don’t tell her what he said. She deserves this newfound happiness with Sasuke. I’ll talk to him.”

And that had been the end of it. Until now. Because despite Naruto’s assurance and his promise to talk to Sasuke himself, Kakashi was feeling responsible again. As Sasuke’s sensei, Kakashi had taken him aside before, explaining to the youth how he, too, had already lost all his loved ones to the shinobi way of life and that Sasuke should give up on revenge. And now, he felt the need to remind Sasuke of the hard lesson he had thought the Uchiha had already learned. 

“If you want to remain in the good graces of the Kages, you shouldn’t carelessly throw around threats. It wasn’t well received. Your reputation isn’t going to improve if you still come across as an insubordinate. Naruto and I had to do some damage control after you left.”

Sasuke scoffed aloud again, and Kakashi bristled when the Uchiha didn’t even seem to listen to the beginning of his lecture, falling straight into that sardonic voice as he said, “I hope this next threat is better received, because I don’t plan on breaking the habit today.”

Kakashi raised an unexpectant eyebrow at that statement. A threat to him? He shook his head as he prepared himself. He didn’t like where this was going.

“You sent her to a brothel.” Sasuke stated contemptuously, narrowing his only visible eye. 

Ah. That. Kakashi supposed he would be hearing about this from one of the boys; hadn’t quite expected it to be Sasuke, though. Kakashi had hated that part of Sakura’s plan. Was very tempted to force her to stay with them in Suna when she had confessed it to him. However, as both a Hokage and someone with a very fair estimation of Sakura’s capabilities, the plan had made sense. He had full faith that she would be able to protect herself and execute her plan flawlessly. When Kakashi had raised concerns, Sakura did specifically tell him that the bathhouse was just a stage and she didn’t quite plan on performing the entire act that went with that stage. She had walked him through step-by-step of it. And he trusted her, as a medic, to be able to excute the anesthetic approach to captivation flawlessly.

“That was her plan; it sounded foolproof, and she assured me she would be safe. No one here is forced or asked to do that sort of thing for a mission. It’s been a thing of the past since Tsunade became Hokage. She made sure of it. Except for the rare occasion, on a voluntary basis—"

“It ends,” Sasuke drawled, interrupting him once again. “For everyone. Today. No matter the occasion.”

Kakashi sighed, feeling like Sasuke wasn’t quite understanding that his former sensei wasn’t saying he condoned Leaf ninja using their bodies as a means of success in a mission. That wasn’t what Sakura had been planning to do; it was the illusion of that to get inside. 

“Or Naruto will hear more about Sakura’s recent mission himself,” Sasuke finished, finally delivering that threat he promised. And Kakashi really did feel more like a father than a Kage. An old man who had just had one troublesome son threaten him with the other, just as problematic, one. Meanwhile, the second son was yelling at him about sending Sakura (the daughter in this ridiculous scenario?) and foregoing all their training about teamwork. This entire thing made Kakashi feel like a figurehead, a reminder that Sasuke had begun his covert Kage rein long before Naruto would begin his official one, and Naruto, who acted like Hokage before he had even started. Not to mention Sakura forming plans on her own and expecting Kakashi’s approval to follow through with them. Ugh. If they only just saw him as someone to manipulate as they saw fit, then they should just relieve him of such duties and provide him the retirement check he wanted. But alas, he was still in charge. Kakashi loved the village and would die protecting it, but he knew the title of “Sixth Hokage” was a temporary placement holder until Naruto was ready to take over, and Sasuke and Shikamaru with him. 

“I agree that it shouldn’t be allowed,” Kakashi informed him, just so there was no confusion about this topic. “Sakura was successful because of the disguise. She assured me she wasn’t going to go as far as that. I never would have let her go if she had.”

“Do you think she would have told you if she had planned it? She did more than she should have had to simply because she was in that situation. And that’s my point.”

“What did she do? You’re not saying—" Kakashi asked, suddenly feeling like his stomach was twisting violently. Would she have lied to him? Had Naruto been right? Had he just sent Sakura without a team into a situation Kakashi shouldn’t have?

“You don’t get to know what,” Sasuke hissed. “Because if I hadn’t followed her, then no one would know.”

Kakashi’s stomach turned again as he thought about what Sakura might feel obligated to do to complete a mission she had proposed herself because it had been about her. Would she have done anything to ensure it was a success? Would she have felt like it was her personal sacrifice to make in order to obtain the members of the organization simply because she was their target? A part of the Hokage’s duties  came with giving orders and entrusting missions to the ninja the Hokage believed would deliver and follow through with those orders.  

He looked back at Sasuke differently, then. Kakashi always thought he might be the one to know his students best in the beginning. But Sasuke knew a great deal more now about personal sacrifice because he, himself, had taken that road as his ninja path. Maybe Sasuke understood Sakura in her most recent mission on a level the rest of them could not, simply because it was his own personal convictions being mirrored back to him in the girl who loved him. Maybe it was that particular fact that had Sasuke braving to threaten the Hokage again, because he somewhat felt responsible for her choice. Sasuke was doing more than threatening Kakashi; he was asking him to stop Sakura in circumstances like this in the future. To continue to look after her as he had always done as her sensei. Because he was going to be gone and couldn’t do it himself.

“And why do you suddenly care so much Sasuke?” Kakashi prompted, already knowing the answer but wanting to force the Uchiha to admit it. It was the truth Sasuke needed to acknowledge outright before Kakashi confronted the Uchiha further. “Naruto, I could understand, but until two days ago in the Kazekage’s meeting room, you’ve always acted like you couldn’t really be bothered—”

“There’s no point in telling you what you already know, so move on with it,” Sasuke interrupted and Kakashi nodded thoughtfully. So, he was past the point of denying his growing attachment to Sakura. Kakashi’s thoughts returned to that ever-growing connection. Just a few days ago, Kakashi had been beaming with joy at having caught his two students together in a shared room in Sunagakure. But now, after Sasuke’s threat, the Hokage was concerned about it. As much as he wished otherwise, maybe the opening of the Uchiha’s heart wouldn’t turn out to be a good thing after all. Sasuke cared about Naruto. He cared about Sakura. But she had become something more over the course of the last few months at the very least, if not before that. He suddenly thought of Obito and Rin, and what Rin’s death had done to Obito.

Would a matter of a few months change Sasuke’s bearings and weaken his resolve about a peaceful future in a worst case scenario? 

While Sasuke was complying with responses to his questions, Kakashi pushed further, “Naruto says that we don’t have to worry about the threat you made to the shinobi world in Sunagakure. Is that true? Being a shinobi comes with risks; Sakura is a frontline medic and more. There is always a gamble of her safety. As there is for me. And for Naruto, as well.” 

There was silence as Sasuke stared beyond Kakashi and into the faces of the Hokage Mountain at his back. Kakashi wasn’t certain if Sasuke was going to even respond at first, but then he reached some sort of conclusion in his mind, “If Naruto exists, the world will never have to worry. We have the same goal. I will protect the Leaf. More so now than ever, I must find out everything I can about the Otsusuki. I’ve sacrificed everything for that.”

“Not everything, it seems,” Kakashi said aloud and Sasuke’s scowl deepened. 

“Everything and more,” Sasuke corrected. “My future and hers.” It was a brutal truth that made Kakashi frown in contemplation. Being connected to Sasuke would bring Sakura a future of suffering and sacrifices of her own. 

And then Sasuke was making his exit, excusing himself as he always did. And as Kakashi watched him leave, he thought of something else. Even more than Sakura, Kakashi was suddenly concerned about another unspoken factor. The Uchiha may not go to such lengths again on behalf of his current bonds, but the ultimate attachment to those who might be born from this “newfound happiness” between teammates—that might different. The loss of a friend is one thing. The loss of a spouse another. But the loss of a child was a pain more terrible than the first two. And definitely one to seek vengeance over. Would anyone truly be able to stop him then? But Kakashi didn’t say this aloud to Sasuke, hoping that Naruto would always be the insurance the shinobi world needed to keep the Uchiha in the light.

“Use the Uchiha compound,” Sasuke called back to him as if he had just thought of something else to add. “Build the clinic, the wards, or a prison. I don’t care. Whatever she wants, you can build it there, but put the Uchiha crest on it. I leave tomorrow to hunt down the rest of Zenshin, so there will be more coming if I don’t end up having to kill them, first.”

Kakashi rose an eyebrow at Sasuke’s parting words. The Uchiha had just given him permission to use his ancestral clan territory to expand Sakura’s professional reach and display the symbol of Uchiha pride once more. And told him he would have even more prisoners to take care of. Kakashi sighed.

.

.

.

The sun was high and bright over the ninja academy when Sakura finally found Isao and Naruto. They stood just outside the red doors of the building, that leaf symbol towering above the entrance crippling Sakura with nostalgia as she approached. That same lonely swing hung from the tree just outside. She was glad to not see Naruto sitting in that swing anymore. Now, he was serving as a personal tour guide, introducing Isao to Iruka Sensei, who had been promoted from homeroom teacher to Konoha Academy headmaster. Iruka was teasing Naruto’s past behavior lightheartedly to which Naruto was guffawing loudly over or cheesing bashfully at the accusations. Konohamaru was also among the group and Sakura was shocked at how much he had grown as well. Full of reminiscent wistfulness, Sakura hung back a moment despite how much she wanted to rush to them. Isao’s wide smile was just as vibrant as the others and Sakura felt relieved to see him surrounded with a group of men who had a history of supporting and looking up to one another. It was such a contrast to the treatment he had grown up with, and Sakura’s concern for Isao’s adjustment to life in the Leaf lightened considerably knowing that this group of ninja would be there for him. 

Isao’s small voice carried to her on the wind. “What if no one likes me? What if I am alone?”

And she saw Naruto crouch down in front of him and grab each of his shoulders. “Impossible. But even if they don’t like you, that’s okay. Even if you feel alone in the beginning, friends will find you.”

And Sakura heard Naruto’s reflective laugh before continuing, “And if they don’t come to you, you go to them. Find the person who is also alone, and in them, you’ll have a lifelong friend. My best friend is often still alone, but we find our way back to one another, because we are each other’s closest friend to this day. He needs to be punched occasionally, but he is a good guy.”

Sakura chuckled to herself at that, then revealed her snooping by acting as if she were catching Naruto in a love confession. “Never thought I’d ever hear you admit that aloud.” 

And Naruto turned to her, looking as if he had been caught with his pants down. He rubbed the back of his head, “Oh, hey Sakura! Don’t tell Sasuke I said that, ‘kay?”

When Isao finally caught her standing there, Sakura raised her hand and waved, revealing her own jovial smile. The child abandoned the party and sprinted toward her like no child ever had. He clutched her around the middle and Sakura had to summon chakra to her feet just to keep from sprawling on the ground from the force of his hug. 

“You’re here!” Isao was mumbling into her side, large tears brimming along his bottom eyelids and Sakura realized suddenly that despite his smiling, this was the moment where he felt safest and was letting all that pent up stress directly fuel that sniffling. Sakura hugged him tightly back, catching Naruto’s giant grin as he walked toward them with his fingers laced behind his head. 

“I’m glad to see you well,” Sakura admitted to Isao truthfully, her own emotions beginning to make her throat swell. She did her best to swallow them, coughing out, “How are you enjoying the Leaf so far? Naruto isn’t pushing you too hard, is he? He can be a bit oblivious, so telling him directly is what always works best for the rest of us.” She teased her friend, who grumbled, “not you too, Sakura.” Iruka and Konohamaru were laughing again. Sakura waved at them, too. 

“It’s so lively here,” Isao admitted. “It’s a lot to take in. But everyone has been so nice.”

“I was just trying to convince Iruka to take us all out for Ramen since it will be Isao’s first time!” Naruto confessed as he came to stand beside her. He nudged her with his elbow. “But it’s not working. Your treat Sakura?” 

Sakura wanted to habitually threaten his life like she had always done as a genin, but found herself sighing and nodding instead. She’d buy Naruto a hundred bowls of ‘Miso Ramen with extra pork!’ just for the kindness he showed Isao in her absence alone, not to mention everything else he had ever done for her. And besides, the last thing she had eaten was a stick of slimy eel fish, so Sakura was beside herself with hunger. At Naruto’s ‘huzzah’, Sakura placed a hand on top of Isao’s head after he let her go and wiped his eyes. “I was just coming to retrieve you for a short health check, but let’s get you some food first.” 

Together, the three of them headed for Ichiraku, and Sakura watched with a smile as Naruto explained to Isao what the best ramen order was. Eager to please, Isao did everything Naruto was telling him to do, and Sakura elbowed him sharply. “Let him pick out what he wants.” She grinned innocently when Naruto overdramatized his new pained ribs. But Isao only nodded his eager approval at the food when it finally arrived. 

When Isao began to eat enthusiastically, Naruto elbowed her back privately, saying, “Congrats by the way. It was about time that you two—”

And Sakura’s hand found his mouth to silence him as she looked back to her left at Isao to see if the child had heard her obnoxiously loud friend, but Isao played it off as if he hadn’t, turning back to his food and slurping loudly. Perceptive child.

“Geeze, Sakura. I wasn’t going to say that, but that too, huh?” Naruto whispered and grinned cheekily and Sakura dropped her jaw in absolute shock at his bluntness. 

“Na-ru-to,” Sakura seethed, steam to compete with the ramen once again coming fresh off the planes of her too-large forehead. 

“Alright, sheesh,” Naruto sighed, raising two hands to ward off her temper. “I just wanted to wish my two best friends a lifetime of happiness together.”

“So now I’m your best friend, too? Not twenty minutes ago, you just told Isao that you had only one best friend. Being the third wheel is starting to get old, you know.” She pretended to pout with her chin in her palm.

“Doesn’t seem like you’re much of third wheel anymore, to me.”

And Sakura immediately asked, “What did he tell you?” Because Sakura was trying to fit the information together. Sakura hadn’t told him; she had confirmed it for Kakashi, but Naruto had purposefully been kept in the dark. She took a calming breath because she certainly hadn’t told anyone about how official things seemed to have become just in the last twenty-four hours. 

Naruto glanced over her shoulder to catch Isao strategically ordering another bowl of ramen while they talked, and Naruto stopped mid-conversation to say, “Make that two, old man!”

And then lowly, he said, “I’m not as dumb as you two believe me to be. I have eyes, too, sometimes.” 

“Emphasis on the sometimes.”

“I’m happy for you two,” he nodded, leaning across her to ask Isao if he had ever had Naruto fishcakes in his ramen, to which Isao had replied that he had never had ramen, which sent Naruto into hysterics. Sakura was near-hysterics herself because talking about her relationship status with Naruto was not on her to-do-list and it took her by complete surprise. She didn’t even know what to say. 

“Thanks, Naruto,” she ended up whispering to him, “for everything you’ve done for Sasuke. And for me. You kept your promise, you know. You brought him back.”

“And I always will. You have my word.”

Sakura shook her head. She wouldn’t ever burden Naruto the same way she had as a genin. “No, I’ll never let you make that sort of promise again, Naruto. You have a family now. A baby on the way. I’ll be there for Sasuke now. Keep him in line. That sort of thing.” She grinned as she raised her fist in an illustrative threat. 

But, in response, Naruto reached out an arm and clapped a hand on her shoulder. “We can take care of him together. Take shifts, since you’re right. I do have a baby on the way!” It was a celebratory statement, at such a volume that revealed that Naruto had reached his limitations on whispered speech for one evening. “But I’ll trade you night shifts when the baby gets here.”

Sakura laughed at that intrusive picture. An exhausted, dark eyed Naruto showing up on her doorstep with a baby in his arms and handing him to Sakura, while heading toward her room where Sasuke slept, curling up next to the Uchiha as if he were the baby that needed snuggling, except Sasuke was a prickly porcupine who would kick him straight off the bed. Maybe she could rope Kakashi into it somehow and it would be like Team 7 was raising a baby together. Well, when Hinata needed a break, of course. She wasn’t the sort to hog a newborn baby that didn’t belong to her—those sort of people were odd. But helping when asked—Sakura wasn’t bothered by that notion. She thought back to her and Sasuke’s mutual understanding about a delayed family start, if they even got that point. So, if Hinata felt up for sharing, Sakura would spend every night awake with her and Naruto’s sweet child. Unlike Naruto himself, this baby would be surrounded by a family who loved him. 

“You’re having a baby?” Isao suddenly chimed in as he leaned across Sakura to talk to her boisterous shinobi friend, no longer pretending not to hear their conversation. “I love babies. I always wanted a brother or sister.”

“Really?” Naruto asked him, “because I’m sure that Hinata and I could use all the help we can get!”

Isao’s face brightened as he smiled at Naruto, and Sakura was suddenly seeing another copy of an adoring Konohamaru in Isao, who was essentially a copy of Naruto. Not to mention the copy yet to be born. This world was going to be full of Narutos, Sakura thought to herself, but she also found herself smiling and admitting that it wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Long after Naruto left them in pursuit of Sasuke, Isao glanced over at her as they walked back toward the hospital. Curiosity getting the better of him, Isao questioned, “His best friend, the one he was talking about… That’s the man you love? The one who was in Sunagakure with you?”

Sakura didn’t know why exactly he was asking, but she nodded, suddenly nervous about Isao’s perception of Sasuke and what her choice in him might mean to the young boy. His father had been cruel to him, his mother lost forever. She felt the weight of her choices in the contextual lens of a young person’s impressionable viewpoint.

But that feeling went away when Isao said, “Why’d you and Naruto breakup? He said something about you two dating in the past—”

Sakura dropped her chin, and her face turned red, “Narutoooo,” she growled. “Don’t believe anything that idiot tells you!”

Isao’s laughter was sharp and bright and Sakura realized that for the first time, she had never heard him truly laugh before until now. As a medic, she knew it was a good sign that came with a change in environment. As someone who cared about the youth, her heart felt such peace.

.

.

.

The August cicada song of Konoha summer evenings was a comforting sound to Sasuke. It was loud, definitely, but not near as loud as the deafening roar of life in Shikkotsu Forest. It was warm and humming, and it was also a sound that Sasuke had once associated with his birthday. Being in Konoha for the first time since May, he realized his birthday must have passed under his nose without his remembering. That’s how it was when one got older, but for Sasuke, he had forgotten his birthday and age altogether the moment his family, the people who celebrated those things with him, were murdered. All dates of celebration were eclipsed in his mind by anniversaries of death. It was probably the same for many shinobi who’d lost their loved ones to a world of war.

After Sasuke had forgotten about his birthday, the cicada sound became attached to new memories other than his birthday. It was the sound of conversations between friends, camping by a fire in the forest, D-rank missions, and competitive sparring. Pairing it with the smell of street vendors and the Konoha evening dinner crowd made Sasuke suddenly overcome with nostalgia. 

“Is that everything you need dear?” came the vendor’s question and Sasuke suddenly realized he was spacing. 

He nodded, accepting the bag of supplies from the older woman, a face he recognized from his youth, but she didn’t seem to recognize him. Speaking to anyone in Konoha was sometimes nerve-wracking because Sasuke didn’t know if he was going to be receiving a fearful reception or indifferent one. 

Sasuke was walking back in the direction of the Uchiha compound when that idiot blonde’s voice became louder than the cicada song. “Yo. You need help with that? Unlike you, I’ve got two arms now.”

Sasuke closed his eyes and scoffed. “Don’t you have anything better to be doing loser? Aren’t you about to be a father? Won’t your wife be angry if she catches you goofing off?”

“Hinata doesn’t get bent out of shape easily. Your wife, on the other hand.” Naruto countered and pointed at Sasuke square in the face when the Uchiha snapped his neck in his direction. Naruto laughed. 

After a minute of solid glaring and no denying on Sasuke’s part, Naruto stopped mid-step and dropped his mouth. “Wait just a second! Are you serious? You two are married!?”

Sasuke turned on his heel and continued to make his way into the tree line. 

“Why didn’t Sakura tell me that!? And here she was going on about a third-wheel, but you two are leaving me out of the know!” 

Sasuke sighed again, not sure if he was relieved or frustrated that Naruto had discovered that secret. Well, maybe. He could still patch it, possibly. If Sakura wasn’t saying anything, then Sasuke sure damn well wasn’t confirming anything. He would let her tell it in her own time. “There’s nothing to tell. So shut up before the entire village hears you.”

“So you’re not? I need to know! Spill!”

“Why do you need to know anything? It’s none of your business.”  

His joking voice changed, that quiet solidness it sometimes took on when Naruto was trying to get on Sasuke’s level. “It is my business when you go and threaten the Leaf and shinobi world again.”

Sasuke stopped walking then, turning to Naruto once they were both under tree cover. “Kakashi already gave me the lecture, so you can save your breath.” He sat, unfurling his scrolls and dumping the bags contents on the ground beside them with the purpose of restocking his summoning scrolls. 

Naruto leaned against an opposite tree, arms crossed and eyes upward to the treetops. “I know that you don’t mean those things. That you only said it because they allowed Sakura to walk into danger alone. It makes more sense, knowing the scale of what she means to you now.” 

Sasuke wanted to correct him. He wanted to tell Naruto that before and after he was consumed in darkness, Sakura had always been important to him. The only difference was that his goal had changed and that he was on the right side, the side that allowed him to admit and develop his attachment to her. Essentially, only after Sasuke had experienced death, that zone of in-between where he could still talk to Naruto and their souls collided, did Sasuke see that whatever goals he had in life, the only way to reach them was with the help of Naruto and the multitude on his side. While being the only one cutout for his solitary role, Sasuke had still tried to keep that distance from Sakura, but because he had believed it to be for her own sake. Not because he didn’t care for her on the same measure as now. Making her his wife didn’t mean he had cared less before. It was just a little different now, because he had finally admitted it to himself, something he had never done before. For both of his friends, Sasuke had denied their bonds to spare himself of the pain of losing them. And there was another factor that altered the situation. If Sakura were targeted because of their marriage and killed because of the Uchiha tie, then yes, Sasuke would avenge her. He would avenge her regardless, but it would be an entire new level of vengeance. A intense and dark sort of retaliation.

Which had Sasuke considering his threat. Despite what Naruto believed, Sasuke had meant every word of it, and even though it scared everyone for him to say those words, it also scared Sasuke. Because he didn’t want to fall, didn’t wantto pitch back into darkness. He had tried to stay far away from the edge of it for the last two years, but falling in love with that pink-haired Kunoichi… it just might make him stagger. Because that’s what love did to an Uchiha and Sasuke was well aware of that. Had faced it very recently with a display of Amaterasu on the prick who had marred Sakura’s skin with her own blood.

However, this time, Sasuke had the confidence that he wouldn’t fall to such depths again. Because of hia closest friend across from him. Because of Naruto. Where Sakura had become a tether to sanity and happiness, Naruto was still the savior when that lifeline snapped. The person who dove after the falling and careened over the edge along with them, and just when you thought their strength would run out and they would let go or fall too, they somehow managed to pull you both back to safety.

“Your promise still stands?” Sasuke asked aloud, glancing up at Naruto through his eyelashes. “To stop me no matter what?”

Naruto held his eyes as he nodded. “Hell yeah. Always.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. The future remains bright.”

“What are you two going to do now? Are you staying in the Leaf?”

“No,” Sasuke admitted bluntly, resuming the task of sealing each item into his travelling scrolls. “I know my mission. This doesn’t change that.”

Naruto frowned. “Then Sakura.. is she—”

“Staying here. She has her own goals, and her work is essential to the Leaf. She belongs here.” 

“We can think of a different plan, Sasuke,” Naruto sighed, a sound that was both frustrated and sorrowful. “We can do this thing together.”

“We are doing it together,” Sasuke countered. “This is the only way to do that. The three of us—we each have a role to play. Think of it like stars and orbits.”

“Hmm,” Naruto hummed, that blank squinting confusion passing his features. “What was that now?”

Sasuke tsked. “Forget it. Should have known it would be too complicated for you to understand.”

Naruto started his fake nod, like he was following, even though he clearly wasn’t. “Something about space, got it. I can be a part of this space thing. Because I’m out of this world. Get it?”

“Definitely spacey,” Sasuke deadpanned, smirking at his own joke that still went over Naruto’s head.

The cicada song in Sasuke’s heart grew louder.

.

.

.

“We need to talk.”

Sakura turned from her work of capsulizing the newly aquired H. Perforatum to find Shikamaru there. She was finishing reviewing the anti-depressant’s trial period and clinical practice schedule with Tsunade, smiling as her old mentor assisted and simultaneously tried to pry the details of her last couple months of travelling with Sasuke. Sakura had been blushing furiously from that last very personal question her mentor had boldly asked just before the door had opened.

Tsunade and Sakura had turned to one another in surprise at Shikamaru’s interruption, and big-eyed, Sakura had answered, “okay?” already nervous about the tone of voice delivering that declarative statement.

“What’s got you worked up, Shikamaru?” Tsunade crossed her arms, before leaning in Sakura’s direction and whispering, “Probably overworked. Shizune used to get cranky, too. Or his ponytail is too tight, either one.”

But Shikamaru ignored the loud whispers, staring only at Sakura. “We need to talk about Sasuke.”

Both the sanin and her pupil got very still at that. “I’ll leave you to it, then,” announced Tsunade immediately, ditching Sakura not because she wasn’t going to be the sort of mentor to take Sakura’s side, but because she was the former Hokage, and Sakura knew that Tsunade had had several uncomfortable conversations about the Uchiha with the rest of Team 7 over the years; Sakura suspected she was either staying out of it completely or she believed the conversation might be a necessary one, whatever it was about.

Sakura caught the unwavering determination in the set of Shikamaru’s shoulders. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, and Sakura tried her best not to immediately bristle or react in Sasuke’s defense. She had a strange sense of deja-vu, recalling that time Sai and Shikamaru had come to talk to her about what needed to be done about Sasuke. The Konoha 11 had decided to take it upon themselves to eliminate Sasuke because Naruto’s defense of him was causing strain with the Hidden Cloud. At the time, it was believed to be essential in avoiding a war with the Hidden Cloud. In the end, Sakura had been the one to try to shoulder it alone, and she had failed. And after all this time, here was Shikamaru, approaching her in the same manner he had done back then, and it made Sakura’s stomach turn violently.

“What about him?” she asked, crossing her arms and leaning back against the table. 

Shikamaru sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Naruto didn’t want us to tell you. But considering Sasuke’s past, and the importance of our present peace, I feel you ought to know.”

With every word, Sakura’s heart was sinking until it hit the floor. No. It hit the first level of the building. “What? What happened? Whatever it is, I’m sure there’s an explanation.”

Shikamaru sighed before looking her dead in the face. “Sasuke threatened the Leaf, Sakura. Again. He threatened to personally become Konoha’s—no, the entire shinobi world’s—enemy again.”

Sakura froze and her arms fell from their rigged position and her entire body went numb as those word registered. “When? What are you talking about?”

“Back in Sunagakure,” Shikamaru explained brusquely, not pulling the punch of the truth of it. He gave it to her frankly and quickly. “After you left, the Lord Hokage and the Kazekage denied him permission to follow you. Him and Naruto, both. Because that’s what you had asked.”

“And?” Sakura asked breathlessly, not sure why Sasuke was being singled out if he and Naruto had both reacted how she had expected them to. 

“But Sasuke didn’t accept the Hokage’s orders,” Shikamaru continued, like this choice alone was Sasuke’s noose. “Unlike Naruto, he threatened his way out of that room.”

She fell silent, because she didn’t know what to say to that. 

“And Kakashi—not just Kakashi—we all knew he meant it. Every one of us. Kakashi let him leave because of that threat.”

“I’ve talked to him,” Sakura rushed out, panic gripping her chest. Her words came out choppy like the floodwaters of that cave she was suddenly remembering. “He promised…Well, I promised. We will take care of him. Naruto and I will stop him if he ever—"

“Will you?” the shadow-wielder asked incredulously. “Will you two always take the fall for him? Will you always live in fear of his derailment? You two will spend the rest of your lives trying to keep him in line. He ran out of second chances this last time; there aren’t any more.”

“He’s not going to need another one, Shikamaru,” Sakura rushed to reassure him. She was remembering her and Sasuke’s conversation in the black abyss of a fire-lit cave just three nights ago. Right after she had just witnessed Sasuke try to de-limb someone, she had confronted him. “I don’t want to become a detriment to you, Sasuke. I don’t want to be what breaks you,” she had said. To which he had responded with: “It’s a part of me. No matter how hard I try to eradicate it, there’s a monster in here. And we both know what he’s capable of. Even now, I don’t feel regret when I should. I have absolutely no desire to apologize for my actions tonight. But that look on your face is the same expression you looked at me all the times I’ve been lost. I don’t want to see that anymore.” Sakura had promised that she and Naruto would not let him become a monster again and he had told her he could choose her because of it. 

Sakura sucked in a breath, before adding, “It won’t get that far. The world needs Sasuke if there’s to be a future at all.”

“Let me ask you this then,” Shikamaru questioned without delay. “Do you need him more than the world does? His threats were concerning you, Sakura. Naruto told us you two were together now. And whatever. I don’t really care what you two are. What I do care about, is the ninja world, Konoha, and our current peace. That should be your priority as well, Sakura. If cutting Sasuke off is something that will save all of us, I am begging you on behalf of the world to do so.”

.

.

.

It was dusk by the time Sakura finished helping settle the new group of convicts she had delivered this morning and made her way toward her apartment on the outskirts of town. She didn’t know where Sasuke was, but she imagined he was caught up with Naruto, the two probably knocking each other’s teeth out or something somewhere. They had that annoying habit of having to challenge one another to a duel every time they reunited. And to be quite frank, Sakura needed a few minutes to herself just to think. 

She revealed her copy of the apartment key from a hidden jutsu she kept it under when she was away on missions. It materialized into existence on the ground before her, like a stepping stone into a sanctuary. 

Everything was exactly how she had left it. Clean, but bearing evidence of her quick departure. Sasuke’s pallet on the sofa was still there as if it had only been yesterday when Sakura had forced him to stay over. Her father’s clothes that he had borrowed were folded neatly and placed on the arm. Leftover—now expired—Onigri in the fridge. Their clean dishes stacked to the left of the sink. It was incredible how the official beginning of them was right before her face, preserved by the time capsule of four private walls. And yet, despite their previous time of residence, the house had returned to the odor of its original making, the familiar scents of fresh tea and herbal concoctions no longer attaching itself to the walls simply because she had vacated and taken them with her. It suddenly reminded Sakura of the fleetingness of life and of the impending departure of Sasuke once more. The evidence of his presence in her life would be there, but suddenly, hewouldn’t. And he would take his scents, his smirking confidence, his ridiculous stoicism with him. It hadn’t even been twelve hours, and Sakura’s heart already ached for him. How was she supposed to do this? How was she supposed to accept his leaving again? She couldn’t even bring herself to let him leave, let alone choose to suddenly live without him. Shikamaru had asked her to choose the world. As ridiculous and weak-natured as this self-confession made her, Sasuke was her world. Shikamaru had asked her to make a selfless decision and impossible choice. Shikamaru was asking her to live without her world, so everyone still had theirs to live for. Just as the Konoha 11 had once done years ago.

And Sakura would do it this time, wouldn’t she? That’s what she had told herself the entire walk here. For Konoha, she should. As a Leaf Shinobi, it was her duty to put the village first.

Like a pinprick of light, her eyes found the extra copy of the key on her kitchen counter, the one she had given Sasuke the night she had asked him to come to her as a friend while he was resting in Konoha. The very key he had given back to her, saying no and that he refused the life she offered. It still sat where she had tossed it in dismay several months ago, a cold key that bore no evidence of Sasuke ever holding it. And Sakura suddenly realized that this is what her life would be like, what she had chosen. A home that bore no witness of him being there. It wouldn’t smell like him; it wouldn’t feel like him. It would be hers and he would be a passing star whose light became too far away to even see anymore. And all that was expected of her from everyone else was to not prevent that star from playing its crucial role in the universe. She was to move along on her own orbital path, trying not to prevent their inevitable separation. To be indifferent to their fate. 

But Sakura wasn’t indifferent. She would never be able to be indifferent, and she didn’t know why Shikamaru had tried to tell her to be, because everyone knew how selfish she and Naruto were when it came to Sasuke, didn’t they? They would do exactly as Shikamaru had predicted them to. They would spend the rest of their lives clinging to his sanity forhim. 

Sakura fretted over Sasuke hours into the night as she held on to that key. On her sofa, with tea brewing as an attempt to make her home feel like its old self, Sakura finally realized that it might never feel like home again. Not after being with him these past few months. And she stood from her sofa, the scream of the tea kettle a perfect depiction of what she was suddenly feeling like on the inside. She had to go and find him. Because every second mattered. They were separating, their orbits spinning away from one another, and she needed every minute left of it. And then a myriad of unwanted thoughts came with this most recent realization: What if he already left? Maybe he was late because he wasn’t coming back. He had brought her back to the Leaf and left the first chance he gotten before she could follow him. 

And just before she exited her home in pursuit of the Uchiha once again, she swung open the door to see the man in question raising his hand to knock against the frame. He was shocked for a moment as he unexpectedly came face to face with her, and she stood motionless in the absolute relief of seeing him there. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Then sighed nervously. “I’ll take that key, if it’s still being offered.”

And she almost threw it at him. But she found herself helplessly reaching out for him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she began to sob uncontrollably. He stiffened at first at the suddenness of her grasping, confused as to why she was crying to the point of hysteria. He pushed her through the entryway and kicked the door shut behind him, wrapping his arm loosely around her waist as his body thawed of his initial embarrassment. “What happened?” he asked lowly, a worried rumble through his chest and throat. “Why are you suddenly crying?”

Sakura’s words came out through rattled breaths, and she pushed back against the surge of panic with an explanation. “I thought—” inhale, “thought y—you’d—” inhale, exhale, inhale, “left.” She cried some more, before attempting to say, “I thought you must have left again.”

He got still. “I promised not to do that anymore, remember?” he automatically reassured her. “We both did. I said I’d find you later, so you’d have no doubt.”

“Yeah,” she found herself exhaling, slowly counting in her mind the way she had taught small children to when they were upset. The tea kettle continued to squeal, and it was deafening, but so was her own thoughts. She clung to him and wouldn’t let go until he led her to the sofa. He walked over to remove the kettle, and like the metaphor to her internal frenzy, the kettle began to quiet as a direct result of his mediation. 

“This is yours.” She reached out her hand to drop the key into his single palm when he came to stand before her once more. “It always has been. Even before you wanted it.” She stared down as he took it from her hands, and she didn’t see what he did with it, but heard the rustle of his clothing as he tucked it away somewhere. 

His silence felt unsure, and Sakura knew his mind was probably spiraling, afraid he would say something else to set her off. And so Sakura whispered, “It’s not much of a home and it’s small, but when you’re here, it can be yours, too.”

He nodded, attempting to ease her concerns about their mutual habitation needs by saying. “I won’t be in your way. You can live wherever you like.”

She began to cry again at that, and Sakura could tell by his stricken face that he suddenly realized it had been the wrong thing to say after all. It broke his hesitancy, and he reached his palm forward and ran his thumb along the ridge of her cheekbone, wiping the tears there. “Don’t cry. I’m saying that you will be home to me.”

She nodded, trying to calm herself, which his soothing gesture was helping immensely. She leaned into it, hoping he never moved it away. Sakura was comforted immensely at the thought of being Sasuke’s home to return to, even if Sakura spent a lifetime waiting for her home to return to her. “I’m sorry. I’m always crying.”

“And I’m the one always making you, it seems like.” He confessed with a frown. “I hate that.”

She shook her head. “No. It’s just been a day.” 

Sasuke didn’t respond to that, so Sakura asked the next looming question on her mind, “When are you leaving?”

He sucked in a breath, not quite ready to tell her, but then exhaled. “Tomorrow. In the morning.”

Already? She wanted to cry again. Her tears rushed to her eyes the longer he refused to clarify, modify, or ask her to come with him. “So that was it, then? Our time together has stopped?”

“I’m going to continue to find the leader of the organization who is after you. I’ll find him first before I continue to pursue the Otsusuki. There’s not much more time to delay. We’ve delivered the rest of them to Kakashi. I must continue on, now.”

“I can help you,” she tried, knowing he would deny her anyway. “I can help you with the Zenshin leader and make more chakra pills for you when you run out.”

He was looking down between them, at the careful space kept between them on the auburn-colored sofa. “After what you’ve recently done, you deserve to rest. You’ll be safe here, and I’ll have peace knowing that, while I do the mission only I can do.”

She wasn’t ready to give this topic up. She argued anyway, Shikamaru’s voice like a ticking clock in the back of her mind as she approached the discussion she needed to have with him yet again. “What if they come for me here? While you’re away, Mozai could come. It would be his next logical step.”

“He wouldn’t come here and risk having to deal with Kakashi and Nar—"

She pushed on. “What if they find and kill me? What are you going to do if that happens, Sasuke?”

He got very still as those words registered, not because he was angry at the idea of it or fearful of it becoming true. He froze with a staring sourness of narrowed eyes, because he had caught on to the direction of her conversation. She suddenly knew that Sasuke had just learned that she was told about his choice words of a threat back in Sunagakure. 

She steeled herself at that stare, swallowing back the discomfort of the confrontation. “Are you going to avenge me? Are you going to become an enemy of the world again if someone else is taken from you?”

Sasuke stood from the couch at her words, turning his back on her in the darkness of the room. “I’m getting really tired of this conversation,” he retorted scornfully. “I have already had it twice today.”

“So it’s true,” she laughed mirthlessly, standing up along with him as she stared at his bowed head and bent shoulders. “You really said that? Why? You never would have said something like that as far as I was concerned in the past. You’ve risked everything you have worked toward over the last two years by doing that!”

He had started to walk away from her as she spoke, every word stiffening his posture. His only response was, “Who told you what I said? Was it Naruto? Kakashi?”

Sakura ignored his redirection, because she had to say this. She had to do this so when the time came for her to be accountable for her own actions in the world, Sakura could use this conversation as an excuse for why she couldn’t do more than this. She continued. “Why did you say that? Why go to that extent because I went on a mission of my ownvolition? In the past, I was always the ‘annoying’ person who was in your way, and now you’ve made me a liability to the world?”

“You’re being annoying right now,” he droned, using that tone of voice that always made her body fill with ice. Instead of the playful connotation of that word, it now reminded her of all the times he had chastised her and been cruel on purpose. It still hurt when he used it that way. He sighed and turned to face her then at her silence, and Sakura could see the small regret of those words. So he clarified. “You’re my wife. I’m allowed to say that I will avenge you, and I’ll make sure the world knows that I will.”

“We had made no vows when you said that. We weren’t serious yet—"

He was getting angrier every time she tried to speak. It caused him to spill secrets he had kept for a long time, words that would heal Sakura’s pain from the past and sustain her like fodder throughout her future of loneliness. “I knew where it was headed. I’ve known for a long time. Since before I left the Leaf, I knew what you would become to me. It’s why I said and did those things to you. To keep you away from me. You were supposed to hate me so this would never happen. I would have avenged you when we were genin together on Team 7, maybe even after at some points. And I would do so now. As I would for Naruto, or Kakashi even.”

After a moment, more tears streamed down her face, because Sasuke didn’t know the gravity of what he just confessed. She still hadn’t gotten to the hard part, because Sakura had been asked to do everything she could to protect the world, but she just couldn’t give Sasuke up. Her and Naruto both; he would be their weakness for life. So, she had to do the next extreme, and very gutsy thing she could think of. “I need you to add it to your vow to me. Right now. That you neverwill. If I am killed tomorrow—or Naruto, or Kakashi—you’ll never choose revenge again. You told me that night that the world will not pay for us loving one another.”

Sasuke laughed, scornfully. Like she had just said something funny, and Sakura had never seen him laugh except for when he was wrapped in darkness. He laughed again in utter exhaustion, rubbing his palm down across his face. Maybe it was the trauma of the past coming back to haunt her, but it made her blood run cold at the familiarity.

In a flash of panicked anger, Sakura pulled out her kunai and angled it toward her heart. There was a sound of metal, and Sasuke’s laughter died immediately at the sight of it, and a still rage filled his eyes as they widened at her actions. She wasn’t swayed by that wrath, and when he instantly made to make an interfering step toward her, she drew it closer to her chest, stilling him straightaway.

“Now you’re the one making stupid threats, Sakura.” He sneered lowly and she could see the flash of his red Sharingan. She was going to run out of time to make this stupid bluff of a facade count. It was an extreme thing to do maybe, but she couldn’t think of another way to get him to see what he had done by putting her in a position of choosing him or choosing Konoha. “Shikamaru said I needed to cut ties with you,” she explained. “That being with you was a risk. But I can’t do that because I am selfish. What I should do is end myself now for the sake of the village, because my life is not worth the risk you pose to the world. That’s what you will be asking me to do if you continue using my life as the rationale for your recent behavior. If you keep making threats like this, then it will be the only thing I can do to save it.”

“That bastard didn’t tell you everything I said,” he hissed, furiously, a quiet sound that still jarred her nerves just as much as the screeching tea kettle had. “I also said that I wouldn’t survive it. I said the world would just as likely fall to the Otsusuki in my absence. And that’s the truth. You dying will make a shell out of me, if not outright kill me, too.”

Her hand lowered at those words, and the Uchiha saw it with his Sharingan, and the next thing Sakura knew, she was no longer holding that kunai as it was transported places with the handle of that still-hot tea kettle. The metal singed her skin as it swung in the air and she winced before dropping it. Sasuke rushed forward and caught the handle himself before it could hit the ground, and he glared at her as he placed it on the table before the sofa. 

“Cheap trick,” she chided, as he came very close to stand before her. He held her eyes with red and purple irises. She didn’t look away.

“Don’t you ever do that again, even to make a point. If you don’t want to be with me because you choose the world, fine. None of your choices change what we are to one another.” Every word was sharp and stony. “It’s a hard lesson to learn, believe me, but you would have to erase our past. I tried that. And you fought to make me remember. All of you did. So now you have to live with that choice.”

“Tell me what do,” Sakura pleaded. “Tell me how I can love you and still protect the world from you.”

“You just have to live. Because of you, I will continue. I will find the Otsusuki race and eliminate them as a threat so that I can return to you, just like I promised. And if someone ever dared to touch you, they would die for it, and Naruto would prevent it from going beyond that. And if Naruto dies, it will be you who I have to cling to. You all just have to accept that.”

“I can’t stop you, Sasuke. And I can’t kill you. I’ll never be able to kill you. Even after you tried to kill me, yourself, I couldn’t follow through. I’ll never be able to stop you from another path of destruction because, like I said, I’m selfish. Despite what Shikamaru said, I can’t choose the world over you. My choice will always be you. Just as it was the day you left me the first time. I’d even go as far as to help you with revenge. As always, I’m pitiful. I’m hopeless. I’m in love with you. I love you more than the world. What kind of ninja does that make me? It makes me a traitor.”

His irritation faded as she confessed this long stream of thoughts to him. He reached forward and cupped the back of her neck, pulling her the rest of the way to him. “No. It makes you an Uchiha.”

More tears fell down her cheeks as he pulled her mouth the rest of the way to his. And he was pushing her toward the couch. Down onto the surface of it as he claimed her mouth with his. And it was a frantic exploration with his tongue, a touching that was high with the intoxication of tormenting truths, threats, and confessions. A type of kissing that came after you thought you might never get to do so again. In a way, he made it bruising and punishing, for having even dared to do what she had.

He pressed her body deep into the couch as he straddled her waist and Sakura reached up and desperately clung to the collar of his shirt. He leaned over her, fist tangled in her hair as he pulled her head flush against the headrest of the sofa to reveal her throat. Sakura’s skin prickled at the roughness. 

“I told you there would be no going back for us,” he breathed against her jawline, sending gooseflesh into the scalp of her head and along her arms. “It’s too late, remember? We get to choose each other, and I’ll even vow to you that the world will not pay for this. I have already chosen the world for all of us. You get to choose me and not live with the guilt of it. I won’t become who I used to be. Because I don’t want to see you look at me like that.”

She nodded before his mouth found hers again. It was hot, sweltering, fueled with the fire-nature of his chakra. He meant to burn her up, completely. So that when he had to leave tomorrow morning, she could still feel the heat of him. She would allow herself to be burned from his heat because then at least something would remain of him.

He pushed her clothing down around her, pulling the shirt up and over her head between kisses, demanding the attention of her mouth. In the next instant, he was pulling something from his cloak. A red bundle the size of his fist. Still straddling her lap, he unfurled it in front of her face. An Uchiha crest, front and center on the backside of a perfect rendition of the shirt she had just been wearing, hung before her like a territorial flag. She outright gasped.

“For a second, you had me thinking you were done with me, and I wasn’t going to get to give this to you,” he sighed between labored panting, his heart still beating loudly from their heated proximity. “I had it made today. You’ll wear it in my stead, won’t you?”

Sakura’s face hurt at this point from crying so much, and she was sure it was splotchy and red, but it didn’t stop her from crying more. She nodded through tears and Sasuke showed her his rare, sporadic smile. She slipped it over her head and he stood, pulling her with him and spinning her so he could see it on her. She blushed at the scrutiny, looking down and tucking her hair behind her ear. Her shyness melted away when he abandoned his own, tilting her chin up to claim her mouth once more. 

“You’re now the only Uchiha woman in this world,” he whispered against her mouth. “I’ve never seen someone look as beautiful as you do right now. Wearing that.” 

Okay, maybe her bashfulness hadn’t completely vanished, because she was blushing furiously after he said that. And with it, she experienced a sudden moment of disassociation. Could this even be real? Just moments ago, she was dramatically threatening her own life, and now she didn’t care about anything else other than simply just living for him. To have more of him. Every second, even in madness, she would take it all. Because she was selfish. Because she didn’t care about anything else and never had. 

But his hot mouth on hers grounded her. He was real and she could have him. And she could look Shikamaru confidently in his face from now on, regardless of her choice, because he, too, was a star locked in his own orbit of destiny, but Sasuke was the sun of her life and meant to burn her. And he did. 

The steam of herbal tea intensified that heat, searing the press of him, the feel of him, his mouth on hers into the memory of ‘home,’ and it lingered long into the blissful after. And at some point during their kissing, Sasuke reached above her head to crack open the window behind her, letting in the nighttime fading sound of hot summer cicadas and crickets. “I want to hear them. I want to remember this when I hear them.” 

She felt for him, pulling his shirt away from his muscular back, and he felt feverish, but they both knew he wasn’t sick. Just intoxicated with adrenaline and need. Sasuke continued to push her down into the very couch where she had been sitting in despair moments ago, and when he became parallel with her own body, reaching into her waistband, she hooked her leg up and over his hip so he could reach exactly where he was aiming. 

Before things escalated further and they lost themselves to the mindlessness of burning a second time, Sakura pulled back and reached into her pocket, revealing a tiny vial of citrine tinted liquid sloshing from the movements of its revelation. “Take this. So that there’s no uncertainty,” Sakura explained. “Tsunade helped me make it today. Its common here for men to take a contraceptive, as well. We’ll both be covered.” His euphoric expression of concentration turned into a frown as he met her eyes in understanding. He looked at it and then looked at her. 

. . .

Sasuke held that concoction with pure hatred. Shikamaru and Naruto, both, could take a damn hike and take their holier-than-thou lectures elsewhere. Because they got to stay in the Leaf and fuck their women, plant themselves with abandon in order to take root in the woman of their dreams and watch their children grow inside of them. Sasuke didn’t get to do that. He got a few moments of blissful ecstasy with years to divide them, and watch their families grow like mocking gardens of happiness while he dragged Sakura into the deep dark earth of a baren family tree. She would be the only branch of his dying lineage unless he could complete his goal, first. 

Which is why he had to leave tomorrow, so he could come back to her free of conflicting obligation.

Their eyes held one another’s as he pulled the stopper. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, swallowing that putrid mixture of protection that was simultaneously a death sentence of a future disguised as responsibility. It was a choice he had to make for the both of them, and it killed him to do it. But he told himself that Sakura was enough for now. Stars and orbits. Stars and orbits. Stars and orbits. 

Sasuke didn’t have time to evaluate the effects of such a potion, to see if it dulled his need, because his wife was now rising from the sofa and sinking on to the floor. And those knees hit the ground and he realized what she was planning to do as she tried to rotate his body in the direction of her face. Oh hell no. Not like that.

“Get up,” he instructed.

“I want to,” she confessed, thinking he was stumbling over his own nervousness as she had done back in the cave. He most certainly was not. 

“No,” he said in finality, pulling at her. “Get off your knees. Uchiha women don’t get on their knees for anyone. Not even their husbands.” 

Her eyes widened at that statement, and she allowed him to pull her from the floor. “How would you even know that?”

And Sasuke specifically remembered his father snatching his mother’s cleaning rag from her as she stooped on the ground to clean the dirt that had been tracked in. “Get up,” he had told her as he took the chore over himself. “You have two sons who are more than capable of doing that. I better never see you on your knees again.” When it had happened, Sasuke had been shocked by the angry reproach from his father, but his mother had only laughed and walked out of the room brightly. Sasuke hadn’t understood such context at the time—well, other than the fact that whatever had just happened meant he would soon be having to scrub floors. But he understood now, in this moment, what his father had been doing. And even if the situation had some sort of different context he wouldn’t ever have answers to, he suddenly knew that it was going to be a rule in his relationship from now on. Because he would set the precedent. He was the only one left to make those rules. 

He didn’t explain it to her in that moment, because time did not allow for it. Instead, he copied his father’s tone to the best of his ability. “Just stay off your knees.”

He was really leaving tomorrow. He was going to be walking away from this again. That’s what Sasuke was thinking as he captured her mouth. Sasuke was selfish and despite what he had told her moments ago, he wanted to ask her to come with him on his mission. He held his tongue, because then she wouldn’t be safe in Konoha anymore. She would be sacrificing her own dream and her own work here. But as their bodies found home in one another, Sasuke lost his will to hold back that request. He had changed his mind. She could come. He would let her come with him. Stay beside him for the whole of it if she didn’t care to sacrifice her own important work here in the Leaf. He could take her up on her promise from all those years ago, because he couldn’t stay, but maybe, just maybe he could take her with him. 

Sakura let out a surprised yelp when their bodies dematerialized and reappeared on her (their?) bed. A new array of scents greeted him with the change, and this room felt sacred. Because it was where she had slept every night for the last several years without him. The bedding emitted the very essence of her sweet fragrance, as if it were the concentration of all things her. This bed had just become the ribcage of his new home, where the beating heart of it would sleep waiting for his return. 

When he had replaced the two of them on the couch with the pillows of her bed, Sasuke had flipped her onto her stomach. He wanted to see the Uchiha crest. He wanted to truly be with her as she wore that symbol of his. 

They came back together, and Sasuke voiced what he had once wanted to say to her back then and what he wanted to say now. “Come with me.”

In the heat of things, she didn’t catch the true meaning of his words, interpreting it for its double entendre.

“No,” he clarified, when they lay next to one another and panted shallowly. “Come with me. I am asking you to come with me.”

“What?” she asked, her head shooting up and she raised onto her elbows to look at him. “You’re asking me to come on your mission with you?” Were those more tears? He hated seeing her cry. 

“Yes. Come with me, Sakura.” It wasn’t time for their orbits to separate yet. Maybe they could hold on just a little longer.  

[teeramoonlover]

What do you think about Stu/Sid as a couple?

Hmm, interesting pair. I mean, imagine your bestie have a boyfriend who is actually obsessing with you behind close doors. Stu will be the perfect guy to act that way.

Like, what if he went on to girls like Casey Becker and Tatum Riley just to get closer to Sidney? She did mention Casey was the one who sat beside her in one of her classes, and Tatum, the obvious, is best friend with Sidney.

That's why he wouldn't give a damn if Billy killed Tatum. He even killed Casey by gutting her like a fish. He wants all those girls dead, so there's no obstacle for him to have Sidney all for himself.

Then come in Billy Loomis. Billy took Stu under his wing to become the Ghostface to set revenge on Sidney. Maybe he thought Stu just some stupid guy, wanted to have fun in killing spree, or can be a scapegoat. But what if Stu wants to get close to Billy because he wants to get rid of him too? The scene where Stu stabs Billy too deep in the kitchen convinces me that the guy wants him dead. Seriously, bro is super jealous because he got to unvirgin Sidney. The fact he knows damn well Billy have zero feelings on her? Ofc the guy wants him 6 feet under.

You could also see Stu always giving hell on our sweet boy Randy. Randy Meek has a big fat crush on Sidney. He would not let that slide. He even attempts to kill Randy at his front backyard.

But in the end, even though Stu has this huge crush towards our final girl, she ain't reciprocate our cutie boy's feelings. He's unhinged. The girl ain't no way knows how to deal with him on her own. Unless killing him by crushing his face with the tele is the only solution to stop his obsession.

Knowing her bestie's boyfriend obsessed with her, disgust her even more.

So in this case, I can only see this pair as unrequited love type. Maybe more into stalkerish vibe on Stu's part. But for them to be together?

Ain't happening.

This is my personal pov though. Please don't take this opinion too seriously. All fun and chill here xoxo

[legacyofmanwich]

Legacy of Manwich {3.2} A Maid I Can Bang

Welcome back to the Legacy of Manwich, where we're at an all-time low for depravity, honestly.

Today is a dark day for King Martin.

IT'S HIS BIRTHDAY!! Yes, I finally threw one of these jerks a birthday party. Look! All his favorite people are here! There's Lillie, Cordelia, Regan, Goneril, some lady I've never seen before, and two of Regan's fuckbuddies!

King Martin: "Wow! I've never felt so loved, surrounded by my family and all my closest friends!"

Jeez, Marty, you almost look dignified in your old age. Guess it helped that you looked like someone's creepy old uncle to start out with.

Well, enjoy your party! You've earned it!

King Martin: "Nah, fuck 'em, I'm gonna have sex with my wife!"

MAN LOOK I WENT THROUGH THE EFFORT OF THROWING THIS FOR YOU, THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS STICK AROUND FOR CAKE!

King Martin: "Why should I? My granddaughters didn't even show up!"

Well, clearly Regan thought they'd be better off unsupervised, screaming, and languishing in their own feces. Good thing the radio downstairs was blasting salsa music, otherwise the sounds of baby desperation would've really brought down the whole mood of the party.

With Regan and Lillie both working, I had Martin retire from his job so he could take care of Portia and Valeria and keep the house clean. He's a good enough grandad, however, Martin is a lazy little shit, and he and Regan are both complete slobs. Lillie is so consumed by her lust for Martin that she refuses to clean or do anything in his presence. In short, the girls are taken care of, but the house is a rancid mess.

So that's where you've been this whole time. You better not be up to anything illegal back here.

Regan: "Am I so untrustworthy that I can't craft a toy robot for my darling daughters to enjoy?"

Um. Yes?

SINGLE FEMALE LAWYER

HAVIN' LOTS OF SEX

*cough* OH LOOK IT'S THE GIRLS' BIRTHDAY! I hope they're cuties! Because if they're not I'm gonna jump off a building! Swear to God!! In Minecraft!!!!

Here's the damage! Valeria looks like a Little Rascals cast member who stopped growing at the age of 6 and is exhausted by another bitter divorce, and Portia's got tiny little bug eyes. Not sure which is better. I will hold off on roof jumping for now.

Can *you* tell who Martin's favorite is?!

Well, it works out okay in the end because Regan's favorite is definitely Portia. She's always doting on her, reading to her and tucking her into bed. It'd be cute, if Regan weren't the parenting equivalent of MKUltra.

Regan: "With a steady diet of hallucinogens, MREs, and whey protein, she'll be remote viewing by the time she's five!"

Honestly, she's more likely to be in the children's ward at the local psychiatric hospital.

The girls' toddlerhood was significantly less eventful than their mother's, so I don't have many pictures or much to say about it. These two spent it skilling and sleeping, Regan toiled away at her robot crafting station, Martin and Lillie banged a whole lot, and nothing funny happened.

Anyway, here's the girls grown up. They're both fully active and sloppy, but where Portia is shy, playful, and nice, Valeria is mean, serious, and outgoing. They are also both huge attention whores, which entertains me very much.

Despite Portia being Regan's favorite, Valeria's taking much more after her mother. Her default interests are insane; she hates everything except Sci-Fi, Paranormal, Crime, Politics, Money, and Health. Regan doesn't even like Paranormal shit, she shuts down ghost conversations so fast, so I'm worried Val's gonna be a special kind of unhinged.

Valeria: "HANDS UP MOTHERFUCKER, I SAW YOU GLOWING IN THE DARK AND YOU'VE GOT FIVE SECONDS TO CONVINCE ME YOU'RE NOT A CIA PLANT!"

Portia: "Grandma sent me upstairs to say you need to take your Ritalin this morning or else you're grounded."

Valeria: "NICE TRY, FED! POW POW"

Valeria: "Listen here, Grandma, last night in my sleep I was visited by the archdevil Asmodeus disguised as an extraterrestrial. I made a pact with him that if he helps me become heir, I will give birth to an agent of ultimate moral corrosion, an entity of pure chaos that will glut itself on the suffering of men. It will be a cruel imitation of humanity, a sinister effigy, and gleefully it will rend the flesh of society until but bones remain. So you better start being nice to me right now!!"

Lillie: "That's nice. Did you take your medicine?"

Valeria: "No! It alters the chemistry of my brain and makes me susceptible to psychic manipulation!"

Lillie: "Okay, no internet for a week."

Valeria: "You have no power over me!"

Well, meanwhile, I've picked up the Storyteller mini-challenge, since I'm about to fail Do It Yourself here soon. So, Martin's writing his memoir! I like to imagine that before he chose to start a legacy, he was the head of a LARP guild for like twenty years, but it disbanded once all the members started having kids and getting jobs and shit and he can't move past the glory days.

King Martin: "Hmm. My agent says that if I cut out all the gratuitous sex scenes with my wife, my manuscript will go from 250k words to a very publishable 85k, but I'm not sure I want to forsake my artistic vision. Nay, I say! Nay!"

People will read any old crap, won't they? I was gonna add that this is another rare Martin W, but to be honest, he's living the life. Loving marriage, big family with loads of grandkids, retired from his dream job, lives in a beautiful house. I DIDN'T THINK HE COULD DO IT BUT HE DID AND I'M SO PROUD OF HIM!!!

Here's a grandkid or two now! On the first day of school, Portia brought home Cordelia's daughter, Rosaline. She's sweet, shy, and the most normal person to come out of this family so far. In the foreground is her half-brother Yorrick, who is the bane of my existence. Since he's Cordelia's husband's alien baby, he has no relation to Martin or the other Manwiches aside from Cordelia's kids, but he still has the last name of Manwich so I count him as a cousin.

Speaking of Cordelia, she showed up to visit her favorite little nieces!

Valeria: "I will now perform a stupendous feat of athleticism and acrobatics! Feast your eyes, audience!"

Cordelia: "FUCK YOUR ACROBATICS, YOU LITTLE GOBLIN! BOOO!"

Cordelia: "AW, YOU FAILED, WHAT A SURPRISE! DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB, DUMB ASS!"

Jesus Christ, Cordy, can you lay off? She's just a kid.

Valeria: "Asmodeus, help!"

Portia's performance, however, is received favorably by critics and audiences alike. Despite being so shy, Portia is constantly doing stunts and demanding attention from the adults in the family.

Unfortunately, adult attention is difficult to capture in this household.

Lillie: "WOOO! MY HUSBAND'S A BONAFIDE STUD! GO ME!"

I'm very pleased that Lillie and King Martin are such attentive grandparents, because I think CPS would've showed up a while ago without them. The girls are pretty needy, but spoiled, and they aren't as self-sufficient as their mom and two aunts. Not sure what it is about Portia and Valeria, but whatever it is, it makes Martin and Lillie step up and take care of them without complaint. Regan's been really busy with her sexy high-powered lawyer gig and her hobbies, so she's been absent lately. She'll be back, though.

(Also I made a mistake in an older update and said Regan was Romance/Pleasure. She's actually Romance/Fortune, but I still don't feel like that suits her.)

WHAT? NO!! I'M NOT READY FOR THIS! :(

Portia brought another cousin home from school the next day: Cordelia's adopted daughter, Cora. Get a good look at her, because I'm not certain she'll ever show up again, God bless. <3

Looks like Portia brought something else home from school today, too!

Portia: "Mom! Mom! I got an A+ on my report card! And my teacher said she really liked my essay on the JFK assassination! Mom, look!!"

Regan: "Not now, honey, mommy's building herself a bangmaid!"

That's all for now, so until next time! You can look forward to Grandma Lillie catching the plague, Regan's bangmaid joining the family, and ReShade breaking without me noticing for very many pictures! Bye!!

[twistedtalking]

Hi! assuming that the 50 follower celebration is still open i offer my Yuusona! (if not please ignore this and i apologize)

Yuuki is a female with short hair not much longer than her neck with one of her eye being covered by said hair.She has to use a prosthetic eye to fit in with the norm (not that she cares that much) due to a chikdhood accident that lost her an eyeShe has a fem boy appearance but she doesnt mind any gender assumptions. A pretty teasing little fellow who doesnt exactly play pranks as to her there is no humor to cheap stuff like this. Says the most unhinged stuff casually. She is super confident and doesnt care what other ppl think due to having dealth and overcoming bullying. Personality-wise she is cheery and seen as optimistic. Tends to sass others around her and is physically affectionate with ppl she deems close. Has great memory but hellishly stubborn. Will argue with someone for fun even if she knows shes wrong.

I think that would be all- and for her, i would like for it to be Riddle (romantic)

format: fic

trigger warning: slightly out of character

You Look in the Mirror, aBridge to Another World

An unusual sight was found in the library of Night Raven College.

Riddle Rosehearts was studying in advance...the DAY AFTER THE EXAMS.

Not that that was anything out of the ordinary.

Yuuki was studying as well.

A bit peculiar, but only slightly out of the ordinary.

They were HOLDING HANDS. Very out of the ordinary.

"Number 5, Look into each other's eyes.", Riddle recites, having already memorised the article.

"You mean "eye", Riddle.", Yuuki laughs, giggling at the absurdness of the situation.

Never in her life (in twised wonderland, at least) had she imagined Riddle and her would ever get along, much less date.

And here they were, holding hands. What a far cry from their not-so-pretty arguments during the unbirthday party last year.

Yes. Riddle Rosehearts was now her boyfriend. The strict, smart, and so fun to tease dormleader of Heartslabyul had finally accepted her heartfelt confession...

"Yuuki, Keep your eyes on me; not the window." Says Riddle, snapping yuuki from her trance.

"Aww, is my beloved jealous of a window?" Teased Yuuki. "Besides, it's "eye", Riddle. Not eyes. Remember?"

"Ah. Right. My...apologies." Says Riddle, ears a slight shade of red.

Riddle focused on something else, anything else. The relationship book seemed an easy victim. The rose-red book cover could've had holes in them, for Riddle's stare was so strong.

Yet his mind was somewhere else.

A more embarassing somewhere else.

Aww, he's embarassed.

"Such a cutie~" Yuuki coos, causing Riddle's already red face to go even redder (for a different reason this time).

.

As cute as her boyfriend's scrunched face is, Yuuki didn't want Riddle to suffer so much. She has something she got to do.

...Maybe just a few more minutes.

.

After basking in Riddle's cute pout, (It is truth, as much as he himself denies it)Yuuki excuses herself.

...by standing up. Riddle, whose hand was still intertwined with hers, jumped at the sudden movement.

"Where are you going?" Asked Riddle, confused...or perhaps mad. I cannot tell from this far. "We have not finished yet".

"Just trust me", Yuuki replied, giving Riddle what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Riddle seemed unsure, but he reluctantly let go of her hand, letting his own hang limp.

When Yuuki returned, his face lightened up like the stars in the Sunset Savannah night sky at summer. Riddle ran to her(well as much as one is allowed to run in the library).

Yet at the sight before him, he stops.

Yuuki was there, yes.

The same beautiful nose placed perfectly on her face.

The same small dimples on her smile.

The same luscious hair, the same addictive laugh, the same teasing eye.

No.

The eye was not the same.

Where a tuft of her hair was usually seen, another eye was found.

Yuuki had two eyes.

Unnerving, the most fiting term.

The eye itself was not scary.

On the contrary, it was beautiful.

But it felt wrong.

Unnatural.

It could never compare to the real thing, found on the right side of her face.

It was unsettling.

But he couldn't keep his eyes of it.

"Is there dirt on my face? Or are you just too in love to look away?" Yuuki teases, breaking the awkward silence.

Riddle, who was about to respond to the first question (he was about to say no), proceeded to choked on air. He looked away, face as red as his hair.

(That's fine, cause it rhymes)

-silence-

"Let us continue with our activity." Said Riddle after a while, trying to act composed.

Emphasis on "trying".

Riddle was not able to completely conceal his embarrassment, and Yuuki could read him like an open book.

Which meant he was also teased relentlessly.

Unfortunately, another obstacle stood in Riddle's path. One eye moved this way, the other looked that.

And Riddle, being the overachiever he is, tried to make eye contact with both.

At the same time.

Causing the nickname "goldfish" to fit Riddle more than ever.

"Riddle, you don't have to." Said Yuuki, which left Riddle a bit enraged.

Is yuuki implying that they should skip a step?

Does she not want him to express his love for her?

Has she grown tired of him?

Did he do something wrong?

What mistake had he made?

Was it how strict he was on her, even though he promised he'd loosen up?

Riddle was afraid.

He didn't have much information about love.

He hasn't read much on romance and relationships, since his mother did not see it a necessary subject. He has not even memorised 25 articles on it.

This is his first hands-on experience.

In short, he was out of his field of expertise.

Had he messed up?

"Nonsense, eye contact is necessary for showcasing romantic intentions."

Riddle would've replied, had Yuuki not interrupted him.

"Riddle, whatever you think I mean, It is not that. I do not hate you. I have not grown tired of you, and I love you with all my heart. You didn't do anything wrong. Everything is all right.

All I mean is that you don't have to force your eyes to focus on both of them. " ,Yuuki replied quickly, not wanting a repeat of what happened last friday night.

From her previous experiences, Yuuki had learned that Riddle would often avoid eye contact when he felt he wasn't being enough in the relationship. They had discussed this last friday, after their not-so-pretty fight.

And they discussed this maturely, No tears were shed.

Okay.

Maybe a few tears were shed.

But Yuuki was a really good hugger, okay!

"I am capable of multitasking" said Riddle at last, trying to sound annoyed.

Though the redness of his cheeks lessens the effectiveness of his anger.

In truth, Riddle was a bit upset. The last sentence did hurt his pride a little. Does she imply that he was not able to!? He very well can!

But his lover did say she "loved him with all her heart".

He supposed he could let it pass, if she apologised sincerely. But he will still maintain eye contact with both!

"Riddle, my dear, you looked like a goldfish when you do that."

He chose to focus on her right eye.

Her real eye.

Her beautiful eye, Shining like a gem.

He stared at her cheeks, rose-red from their "arrangement."

He stared at the little chip on her front teeth, one he once deemed imperfection, now something endearing.

He stared at her sweet smile as she looked at him, as if he was the most precious thing in the world.

Then, Riddle's eyes drifted to her lips.

Her red juicy lips, (which is in dire need of a chapstick, but Riddle took no notice).

Instead, he noticed how kissable they were. How he so desired to touch them with his own.

Riddle averted his gaze.

Instead he stared at her rough hands, from her diligence in the handicrafts club.

He stared at her hands, intertwined with his own. Hands that had comforted him, tickled him, once even slapped him (though that was when he had overblotted).

...Hey, wait a minute.

When did she get so close?!

Riddle's eyes widened.

Yuuki was so close, their noses almost touched. So close, that he can feel her breath.

And Riddle panicked.

He pushed himself away.

But in his rush, he made the chair next to him fall. Luckily, Yuuki was able to grab the chair before it could slam to the ground and break.

Yet even at a tense scenario, Yuuki was in the mood to joke around. Or perhaps, it was because of it.

"Oh? Not gonna kiss me?" Asked Yuuki. "guess i misread the signs, huh? ...Sorry about that."

Yuuki was sincerely apologetic, but she did not know how to express without teasing.

"I mean, kissing's probably not in your to-do list anyways.", Yuuki said cheekily, not able to stay serious for long.

Yet As Yuuki was pulling away, Riddle grabbed her arm. Yuuki was surprised, Riddle's grip was tight.

"I would quite like kissing you." Said Riddle.

It would've seemed quite assertive, had not he averted his eyes a second later.

Yet it still made Yuuki's heart flutter.

"But not right now, of course! We have many steps ahead of us before we reach that level! Plus, I must make sure our first kiss goes perfectly. I shall allow no obstacles to get in the way."

Riddle rambled on and on, though it did no good at hiding his embarrassment.

Oh why had he let such words slip into reality!? Couldn't he hold it in until he was alone?? It was a mistake on his part. He must practice keeping the odd thoughts out of his mind.

Or at least, not out of his mouth.

Instead of telling Riddle it need not be perfect, which she so wanted to tell him (but if she did, she'd never hear the end of it), yuuki pouted.

An intentional pout.

Now that she knows that the only main thing holding Riddle back was that lovers guide, she could find a way to work around that.

"Aww.", She started, making her eyes look as big and sad as possible. "No kisses? Not even a kiss on the hand? It wouldn't exactly be a lovers thing, since it was a greeting back in the day, wasn't it?"

(-yuuki rolled for persuasion-)

Riddle pondered on this for a while.

What Yuuki said was true; After all, they learnt this at Professor Trein's class just last year.

"Well, I suppose so. Alright. I shall allow it."

(-she rolled a natural 20-)

Hearing this, Yuuki grinned, lowering her lips to Riddle's fingers.

...Unfortunately, Riddle had the same idea.

And a comical scene ensues.

The pair bended over at the same time, causing their foreheads to bump.

And as they had both rushed to kiss their partner, the foreheads bumped with great force.

Which led to many yelps of pain.

Yet even with the pain pinching her forehead, Yuuki laughed.

"I see we were thinking the same thing". (We're practically soulmates!, she also thought, but did not say out loud)".

At the realization, Riddle laughed as well, though his was definitely softer compared to Yuuki. But it was undoubtedly genuine.

And their laughs echoed across the room. (A few weeks later, Riddle recalled this incident and scolded Yuuki profusely for laughing so loud in the library. At 3 am. HE CALLED AT 3 AM. FOR SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED WEEKS AGO!)

Riddle placed his hand on the injured spot, massaging it carefully.

.

One would think Yuuki had learned her lesson. After all, she might get her head hurt again.

Unfortunately, Yuuki was as impulsive as she was witty.

Seizing the opportunity, Yuuki kissed Riddle's hand...which was placed on his forehead, (and kissed his forehead as well, albeit very slightly).

Riddle's cheeks darkened like a rose. He was a mix of madly in love and just plain mad."HOW DARE YOU KISS ME!", Shouted he.

"You said I could kiss your hand.", said Yuuki defensively, Though, she knew she had no right to be. She was stubborn that way, unfortunately.

"Not on the forehead!" Replied Riddle, face red and steam coming out of his ears.

"I didn't kissed the forehead, I kissed the hand on the forehead" defended Yuuki.

Riddle was not able to make a comeback, since he found nothing wrong with what Yuuki said.

Moral lesson: Sometimes, stubbornness does pay off.

Only with Riddle though.

It was at this moment when the two individuals realised this was their first kiss.

(Indeed. Both parties remembered this as their first kiss, even though neither would admit it)

And now, the two lovebirds blush, averting their eyes.

Absolutely magnifique.

Riddle and Yuuki, perfectly matched for each other.

So very different thought processes and personality, yet whwn together, they make an unlikely pair. Like Honey and lemon.

This was the thoughts of Rook Hunt, Thy Narrator, who have been watching the youthful couple since the first buds of romance! Even adding a bit òf fertilizer to help it bloom.

Rook checked off the words trickster and Roi de Roses from his notebook, nodding to himself. And off he went, down the tree! Weeeee!

As Rook was jumping down, Idia had just returned from his walk (touch grass, Ortho had said). Surprisingly, he was actually quite alright. There were almost no one outside, and the cloudy sky protected him from the painful sun. He even saw Lucius taking a nap! It wasn't as bad as he expected, the tiniest of smiles even resting on his face.

Unfortunately for him, Idia was soon found rushing back to his dorm, silently cursing this world. Idia took back all the good stuff he said about the walk (it was literally just two sentences, but still!).

Soon, A rumor had spread through all Night Raven College, about an almost-completely-naked dove beastman roaming the courtyards with the hearts of his enemies on his arrows, and only a loincloth to cover his...y'know.

author's note:

I am not a writer, I am merely reporting to you what i see. Sometimes I report really crappily.

this took so long. The 1st draft was like i was writing a Sebek x Yuuki fic instead. I had to rewrite it a couple of times. And with every rewrite, Yuuki changed her personality, which led to multiple rewrites. And that's not counting the amount of possibilities I could've written. My first idea was them fighting at a heartslabyul unbirthday party and kissing. Unfortunately, it did not come together.

What was I saying again? Oh right! Please be more specific in the scenario you want too! Or I will cry again. Thank you.

Oh! Did you enjoy the plot twist? Hope you did. Thanks for requesting, by the way. Also, I blame Rook for all inaccuracies. I took some artistic liberties, to make it flow better.

“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years;the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child;the one who fails to reach[a] a hundred will be considered accursed."

Isaiah 65:20

[theskoomacat]

to my dismay, i found the main fotv characters compelling to a varying degree

Lucy is the easiest to explain - i didn't like her much because she is a typical deadmom-Break the Cutie-naive vaultie character who survives only due to her high SPECIAL scores. i find the entire "the surface is a violent hateful place where everyone beats the shit out of each other" narrative awful, and since she exists to prop it up, my distaste extends to her too. Overall she was bland, aside from the whole breeding thing that makes me thankful that at least SOME thought was put into the vault society.

(i want to mention Norm here also because i was so sure he'd be the one to poison the prisoners to show that both surfies and vaulties are capable of heinous acts, and that would complement Lucy's story. but apparently only vault tec employees have free will, so we got Bud instead :\)

Maximus was very interesting in the beginning. he's messsed up, he's a chronic liar, he grew up in a cult. when he couldn't give up the lie despite it being the worse option, i was compelled. however after that the writers started making him do explicitly stupid shit (why brand that guy and then confess 1 minute later............ what was the thought process???) so by the end i got bored. i wish he was more unhinged. i wish the effect of his upbringing in bos was more than "idk what sex is" and "brotherhood is the shining beacon and the only safe space (aside from vault 4)". in the end he also was a bit of a "naive vaultie" in his own way, which is still boring. but these two sheltered kids did make a cute pair imo.

now, Cooper, that one's a conundrum. i liked that he was living basically in his own make believe land, he was the Theoretical degree in physics guy but for Hollywood Wild West. why not, i found it fun. but i had questions about his characterization. he is named after TODD and is the Nate Falloutfour of fotv, and also there's this thing with him not wanting to shoot the film bandit, so overall it seems like he's supposed to be the asshole with the heart of gold of the story. but he's just an asshole. which is totally fine, i just don't understand what his arc is supposed to be then. it didn't seem like Lucy being nice to him "taught" him anything, so he was just a cool loser the entire season, and that's it. most of his characterization was in the past. he gets asked why he's still going, and i honestly can't say i can answer this. he was "looking for his family", but unless he 100% knew they (well, the wife) were frozen, it's an irrational goal. i think he just likes being a cowboy. and i think it would be more fun if there was some exploration of whether this kind of "justice" was what he dreamt of while in the army. i guess we'll see

[kissvamps]

honey heat: prologue

pairing: riri williams x black!oc

synopsis: when riri finds a young woman sleeping under her mother’s pecan tree during a bad thunderstorm, she isn’t expecting to get used to seeing the stranger’s face. but when the storm clears up unusually fast and the crops in her mother’s farm bounce back from the mid-june heatwave, riri can’t help but wonder about the pretty stranger with an odd taste for honey.

special dt to @clinicallykrazy, thee biggest evangeline enthusiast HAPPY BIRTH MONTH SISTER

series warnings: gay bitches from like the late 1800s early 1900s??, cowboy!riri, they live on a farm but they also have some horses so there’s a little ranch area too, nymph!oc (i love earth fairy lore, eve is my cutie patootie), lesbian yearning, eve is a little bit obsessive ngl, interesting relationnships with god/religion, death but it’s not anybody deserving of love or it’s on accident lmao, magical woo woo shit, FAWK time, tank tops are a thing cuz it’s essential for cowboy butch riri, racial tensions but trust they get handled, eve is a bit unhinged but who isn’t?

a/n: ntm on these long ass sentences and paragraphs cuz i wrote this in creative writing class and the formatting i used was different but i hope yall enjoy!!

—

Evangeline wasn’t stupid, she was far from it. She knew why her mother urged her not to sing, not to tell the garden of her perils, not to rejoice in the nearby river. Nature laid in the palm of her hand. She was terribly familiar with it, the way the sun treasured her skin, the way the trees hung off her every word. Her mother called it an illness but Evangeline knew what it was. Much more than a gift, this was ethereal. Evangeline had god in her.

It was the easiest to resonate with the life around her with song. They loved her song, the way god spilled from her lips like honey. The trees swayed gleefully and the wind whistled a supporting melody while the garden animals flattered her with their charmed chatter. The young woman sang and sang, ‘til night fell sometimes. The moon would greet her just as enthusiastically as the sun, setting a fairy glow over her. This was only when it was good, when god was good, when Evangeline felt good.

Her mother, Rosemary, had strong reason for casing her daughter in these emotional bubbles. As a baby, her cries had started endless thunderstorms. Always knocking down the distant power lines of cities and unearthing the beloved trees, Earth was eager to bow to Evangeline, to correspond with her mood. Evangeline, Earth, and God were all one, and this was simply the way things worked.

The worst it’s ever been was Evangeline’s first heartbreak; her best friend, Kiara, moved away to a small country where her father could find better work. The Earth ate away at itself, tearing the surrounding forestry apart, stripping the sky of any light because why should anyone see light in such a dark hour in Evangeline’s life? Evangeline split the Earth’s ground as lightning tore through the darkened sky.

Thunder roared over the sound of the little girl crying for her friend, the only other girl her age for miles, the only friend she had that didn’t despise her for the way god flowed from her eyes. Her mother and father struggled to console the little girl, bursting with lightning shaped-scars and sobs that coincided with the booming of thunder. No matter how tight they held her she kept crying.

Of course, it wasn’t all bad. Especially not to Evangeline, she loved being so close to nature, able to hear the inquiries of rose bushes as if they were her own thoughts, having the love of sun radiate in her heart, it was dream-like for her. Her mother, Rosemary, worried deeply for her daughter. When she was much younger, Rosemary witnessed her mother battle the ‘illness’ that swallowed Evangeline whole.

Over and over again, Rosemary watched her mother struggle to keep the lightning in her fingertips, to the ocean coasting over her emotions. By the time Rosemary was Evangeline’s age, moonlight was already starting to favor her presence, all while her mother fought to distinguish herself from her Earth, from her God. Nothing helped and by the time she passed her death brought a wave of grief to her Earth and anger to her God.

Plenty of the shrubs and old growth trees behind the house fell over in a way that would suggest they uprooted themselves, the wind blew a mournful hymn and the animals were scarce besides the few that fell so ill they suffered a fate similar to Rosemary’s mother. Rosemary had learned to suppress it, feed her Earth laughter and joy every few weeks and pray that her God didn’t find her sorrows or her rage.

Rosemary kept her Earth fed and her God sedated almost always. She couldn’t help hurting, though. As much as nature loved to cater to her, she was still human, still feeling. Her mother’s death almost rocked the cradle too hard, just a few weeks before Evangeline was born. Rosemary tried to travel where her Earth’s grief couldn’t touch her but she was surrounded. Isaiah was good though, he was an anchor through all that storming pain and heartache.

He was a good man, a good father to Evangeline, too, but still she felt he didn’t fit into her view of life. Isaiah wasn’t hard to look at, he was somewhat funny, and well-skilled with mechanics and botany, subjects Rosemary loved dearly. But Isaiah disrupted the calm she worked so hard to give her Earth and the tranquility she fed her God.

Sometimes she’d just look at him and frown, hear him speak and be beyond irritated with his existence. It wasn’t any help that Evangeline favored her more, Isaiah always second place. It wasn’t like he was bad to either of them, Rosemary just quietly wished he’d go away and Evangeline heard those whispers.

Her mother was always too busy trying to keep her God comatose that she had no clue their Earths talked to one another. One of many factors of why Evangeline favored her mother. When her mother slept at night after another day numbing her God, her Earth would reiterate some of those secrets to an Evangeline much too awake to turn her own mother’s Earth away.

Rosemary’s Earth bustled through the leaves of the shrubs next to Evangeline’s bedroom window and the new moon would cast a menacing shadow on the energetic hummingbirds that, much like Evangeline, were too full of life to sleep tonight.

And these hummingbirds chirped out the thoughts Rosemary was too scared to let her Earth hear, let her God know of. But they knew better than Rosemary did. She kept them too starved to do anything but tell, and tell they did. Evangeline’s Earth was much too connected to her to be restrained.

The wind howled as the young oak tree, barely as old as Evangeline that day, reached its branches into her parent’s bedroom and inched further and further until the branches snagged on kin. Her mother slept a restless sleep as the beloved oak tree turned Isiah into an ornament. Evangeline didn’t mean to let the branches grow that far, she didn’t even intend for her Earth to react to her mother’s secrets.

She told this to her mother when she woke, uncharacteristically distraught at the news, and Rosemary only had words of contempt for the young fae.

“Always. It’s always unintentionally. That’s your problem, you never mean to cause thunder showers, you never mean to put your father in an early grave because you never meant to do anything. You let your Earth siphon your emotions right from your heart, you can’t control it. You never could.” Her mother ranted to her with conflicting tears running down her face.

Evangeline’s Earth sent two twin flashes or lightning at her mother’s harshness.

“It wasn’t even on purpose! And you’re acting like you’re gonna miss him, like you could even stand to look at him. You’ll forget what he looks like by next week, momma!”

The truth in Evangeline’s worlds shook Rosemary so deeply a harrowing symphony of a storm began outside. The lights shut off barely a moment later. “Just because I don’t like him doesn’t mean you gotta send him to kingdom come.” Rosemary’s voice broke as she whispered to her daughter in the dark.

“You still saying that like I did it, like I did it on purpose, like I wanted it to happen.” Evangeline spat out, tears of her own welling in her eyes as the storm outside worsened, tree limbs loudly knocking on the windows in a manner that suggested they were trying to check on the two women.

“Just cuz you can’t stand the love I have for my power doesn’t mean you gotta blame me for everything my powers do.” The young fae huffed angrily at her mother. All this upset over a man her mother could hardly stand being in a room with, it was unbelievable to Evangeline.

“I didn’t love him like a wife does, I hardly liked him to be truthful, but he made me feel like I could be normal, like if I ignored my God enough, kept my earth happy, it’d be just like I was normal.” Rosemary spoke so softly her daughter was unsure of whether or not she meant to say it outloud. The confession brought a swirl of understanding and pain to Evangeline’s chest. It was common for the younger woman to try and socialize, make a friend, or even just enjoy a book and be hit with the reminder that felt like a tidal wave; she wasn’t normal. Never would be.

She considered herself lucky compared to her mother, Rosemary. She’d cried away her contempt for herself, her Earth, her god, when she was still little. Rosemary had this hatred festering for herself for decades. Marrying Isaiah for the sake of trying to gain a form of normalcy couldn’t have been helpful.

“We’re normal to us, they normal to themselves. Don’t hate yourself for that, it won’t make you any less earthly.” Evangeline spoke warmly to her mother, hugging her to try and provide some comfort to a sobbing Rosemary. The two sat there crying for a while, the storm outside lightening to a soft drizzle, the trees swaying as Rosemary’s sobs lessened. By the time the sun returned the mother and daughter were tiptoeing around a question that needed an answer, and soon.

“What’re we gonna do with him, momma? He might start stinking up the house soon.”

Isaiah’s body was disposed of in the typical way. Incineration had become increasingly common amongst people as decades passed and Rosemary and her daughter figured it would make answering any questions easier. Especially those asked by figures that were too nosy and emboldened by their badges to stick their nose in things they couldn’t begin to comprehend. Once Isaiah was cremated the two decided to put him in a deep blue urn.

Evangeline giggled, “You know this was one of his least favorite colors?” Her mother dropped her jaw at the news in disbelief.

“You let me pick out that urn, Evie, why you ain’t tell me?” The younger woman simply shrugged and played innocent, twirling one of her braids around her finger, “I mean, you the one that married him.”

Rosemary rolled her eyes at her daughter’s antics. Her father had just passed, partially due to her own emotions, and here she was having a laugh about letting her mother stick him in an urn of his most hated color. She smiled after a while though, seeing the joy and brightness in her daughter’s smile. Rosemary much preferred her daughter’s mirthful attitude than the tears that fell from her eyes like water from a broken dam.

—

Evangeline and her mother began to return to normal, a better normal, actually. Rosemary would help Evangeline with the garden and she taught her mother how to connect with her own earth and her god, how not to let them rule her. “I love my earth and my god, you fear yours. That’s the difference.” She explained to her mother with an understanding smile on her face.

Just as her mother began to finally make peace with her earth, she left. Left Evangeline.

—

Rosemary had just begun to find peace in her Earth, truly understand her God, and then she passed. Barely a year after Isaiah, Rosemary left her daughter all alone with her Earth and her god. Evangeline cried and screamed so much the first few days after, the rural area she lived in was practically washed away by the downpour of tears her Earth shed and the furious howls of her god blowing away any and everything besides for the little home housing a young woman too tired to be meek. Even if she wanted to, Evangeline couldn’t stop her Earth from pulling itself apart and her god lashing out at whatever it saw fit. The same way she was connected to her god and her earth, they were connected to her.

Whenever her god tore trees up by their roots, Evangeline would have to weep. Evangeline and her only companions, her Earth and her god, grieved together like that just long enough for Evangeline to have cried herself sick. All her screaming sobs only strained her voice until it was no more than a whisper. Evangeline opened the door of the house pleadin for the sunshine to hold her since her mother could no longer wrap her arms around her. There was an unusual briskness to the air, it was well into late summer, the sticky humidity of July should’ve been clinging to her skin. Her grief was all around her, suffocating her with the strange chill in the air and the knee-high flood water caused by her own grief.

Dragging her feet, Evangeline swayed eerily back and forth as she trudged forward. The young woman had no destination in mind but she couldn’t keep this up, screaming herself sick in the home that held every single memory she’d ever have of her mother. It wasn’t a safe place for her to grieve. And even if it was safe, she didn’t want to grieve.

Evangeline trekked on through the flooded valley, barefoot and stumbling over herself when her mind replayed particularly wondrous memories with her mother. It hit her that was an orphan, a motherless child. Though she was an adult, she was still so young, she needed the guidance of her mother, the protection and safety of her love. Evangeline felt like nothing she cared for could stick around. Not the pet squirrel she had when she was five, not the pet rock she adored when she was 10, not her best friend when she was 13, not her mother that taught her so much and learned from Evangeline as well.

A dull ache settled firmly in the center of Evangeline’s chest as it began storming again. The fear and despair rolling over her distorted her perception so bad she wasn’t even sure if all this storming was her doing. She didn’t feel strong enough to put a could in the sky, let alone bring about a downpour like this. Evangeline was so far from that little house she and her family lived in, that little shoebox full of life and love, it was ages away now. Her lips would be cracked if not for the rain, and for the first time in her life, she had bags under her eyes and a dullness to her brown skin. All the cold, wet weather was gonna get her sick. The girl didn’t even get allergies but she could feel an unfamiliar itch at the back of her throat and the congestion in her sinuses. Barefoot, sick, and too far from home, Evangeline fell dizzy as the dread spilled down on her in sharp, icy rain drops.

—

Evangeline found herself wrapped up in a quilt. She could tell it was handmade from the stitches, for a moment she’d mistaken it for a new project her mother was working on. It felt like vines of ivy were twisting around her heart when she remembered that wasn’t possible, that her mother was gone. The reminder also brought an intense sense of fear to the young fae. She’d wandered away from home trying to negate some of the overwhelming burden of her own grief. Evangeline had no clue where she was and was scared to find out. This was no time of guaranteed safety for women like her, there hadn't been a time like that in this country, ever.

Another realization; she was in new clothes. These clothes were made for someone quite a bit shorter than she was. The shirt she had on had loose sleeves that stopped just shy of her wrists and the waist was wide, she guessed they were old maternity clothes. Her pants fit loose as well, a bit tight around her waist and stopping well above her ankles. Evangeline was more than grateful though. No one who intended to harm her would give the clothes off their back and a warm bed in their house.

Evangeline was still a bit scared but reminded herself there was no need to be. If there was true danger here, her Earth would’ve stretched blossoming tendrils of vegetation to tickle her ear and pull her out of her slumber to observe the danger. Her Earth and her god were just parts of her but her mother knew well enough to teach her daughter how to protect herself with this gift.

Quietly easing out of the comfort of the mattress, Evangeline crept out of the room to meet whoever was kind enough to save her from her own grief. A small frown began to form on the young woman’s face as she tiptoed around the cozy house, only to find it was currently empty.

Briefly, Evangeline pondered the possibility of her own abilities saving her from that storm but she quickly dismissed it. Someone, multiple someones, lived here. And a small animal, judging by the two little bowls just outside the kitchen. Creeping towards the front door, Evangeline took in a deep breath to calm herself again.

—

Evangeline’s heart was still heavy beyond words with the loss of her mother but the hot, humid air of late July in the south was refreshing, comforting.

Almost immediately after stepping outside, her eyes found someone plucking some ripe fruits from a tree that was much, much older than Evangeline. The tree also looked to be much older than the person gathering its fruit. She was young, Evangeline’s powers could actually tell her how old exactly, but she figured she shouldn’t do that to the stranger that’d been kind enough to take her in.

The stranger had rich brown skin just a few shades lighter than the lively dark brown bark of the fruit tree she busied herself with. Her shirt was the same material as Evangeline’s but the sizing was much different, the same going for the stranger’s pants, which were rolled up to her calves. The stranger had her coily hair pulled away from her face in cornrows that tickled her shoulders.

Evangeline walked away from the cover of the house and closer to the farming stranger, wanting to get a better look at her. Evangeline walked further from the cover of the house and closer to the farming stranger to get a better look at her face, which was beautiful from what Evangeline could see so far. Brown eyes framed with dark lashes, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, a wide nose and full lips. She reminded Evangeline of a painting she’d been obsessed with when she was little.

“They don’t say hello where you from?”

The sudden speech shocked the young fae. For a moment, she thought she heard it in her head. When the stranger fully turned her face to Evangeline, and the sounds of fruit being plopped gently into a weaved basket stopped, she realized the speech was indeed real. This stranger wasn’t some figment of her imagination.

“Sorry, I’m Evangeline. You the one I should be thanking?” Evangeline kept her eyes on the leaves just above the young woman’s head, preferring that over direct eye contact. She found direct eye contact to be strange most times, especially with strangers.

“You can thank my mama when she get back from the market, I’m just the one who took you out that rain. Well, me and June.” The stranger grinned a little at the end of her sentence as she returned to her tedious task, her eyes set on something off in the distance.

Turning around to see what had grabbed the kind stranger’s attention, Evangeline saw an adorable puppy with sandy fur and umber patches running towards her. She giggled as the small dog pawed at her leg, whining for the new stranger to pick them up.

“What’s your name?” Evangeline questioned the young woman as she picked up the energetic puppy. June immediately began yipping as the fae scratched under her chin.

“Mamma named me Amary, something to do with them flowers she love so bad.”

Amary. Amary. Amary. Amary. Evangeline let the name roll around in her head, making an effort to stick Amary’s name to her face. She knew exactly what flower Amary was talking about, too. A beautiful winter flower that was red.

“Amary like Amaryllis?” Again, Evangeline asked Amary a question. This time, the friendly stranger climbed down the wooden ladder with the basket full of fruit up against her hip, chuckling at Evangeline’s curiosity.

“You a bit nosey, huh?” Amary joked with the other young woman while guiding her to the little table set up on the porch of the house. “Now, you wanna help me pit these plums and tell me where you from while we wait for my mama to get back?”

Evangeline smiled softly as she took in the scenery of the place, felt the livelihood of nature, the warmth of this stranger’s actions. She gave Amary a nod as she headed to sit down at the table with her. Evangeline and her Earth felt a bit of peace, her God full of hope.

Maybe, just for a while, she could grow here.

[respectthepetty]

Let Me Introduce Myself

I’m Respect the Petty, and I love colors. I’m on my own little mission to annoy all of y’all about how colors, lighting, barriers, clothing, and other visuals enhance QLs and add depth to the story.

For those of you who keep asking me for a “Master List” (bleh!) since apparently it takes too much time to scroll through my insane amount of posts because I don't know how to stfu, here it is! Plenty of posts didn't make the cut simply because there is a limit, so I included the ones that delivered the most features from above, and if you search my tags by the series' titles, other posts regarding the show's colors should be able to be found.

The goods are below the cut 👇🏿

A quick overview of what I do and what the colors mean

Key:

Color Coding shows the main colors associated with the characters <- most of you are here for these

Barriers examine the physical barriers that separate characters in a scene and what they represent (emotions, miscommunication, etc.)

The Clothing Tells the Plot looks at a specific clothing item in a scene  

Background Noise includes various elements like barriers, clothing telling the plot, lighting showing feelings, and general details for the show

Episode Reviews cover all of the above for each episode plus my unhinged ramblings

Series (alphabetical order)

*If you don't know where to start, I suggest Big Dragon, Semantic Error, or Between Us

180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us

Background Noise

Background Noise (chopsticks)

Background Noise (puzzle pieces)

609 Bedtime Story

Color Coding

Barriers

Episode 4

All the Liquors

Color Coding

Bed Friend

Color Coding

Color Coding (Jade)

Background Noise (lighting and reflections)

Between Us

Color Coding

Color Coding (Negative Blue)

Color Coding (Cups)

Big Dragon

Color Coding and Episode 1

Background Noise [Where the Sun and Moon Meet]

Episode 8 (Finale)

A Boss & A Babe

Color Coding

Candy Color Paradox/Ameiro Paradox

Color Coding

Catch Me Baby

Color Coding

Chains of Heart

Background Noise

Cherry Magic

Color Coding

Cutie Pie

Color Coding

Dark Blue Kiss

Color Coding

Background Noise

Destiny Seeker

Color Coding

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner

Background Noise (lighting)

Barriers (lighting)

The Eclipse

Color Coding

Color Coding (Teacher Sani and Teacher Waree)

Background Noise (sun & moon symbolism)

Background Noise (wealth and class)

The Eighth Sense

Color Coding

GAP

Color Coding

Color Coding (finale)

Ghost Host, Ghost House

Barriers (brief)

God's Own Country

Color Coding (brief)

Happy Ending Romance

Barriers

I Will Knock You

Background Noise (lotus)

Individual Circumstances

Color Coding

KinnPorsche

Color Coding

Background Noise (parallels)

Background Noise (VegasPete parallels)

Light on Me

Color Coding

Color Coding (Color Exchange)

Love Mechanics

Color Coding

Made on the Rooftop

Color Coding

Manner of Death

Color Coding & Barriers

Moonlight Chicken

Color Coding

Color Coding (exchange)

Background Noise

Background Noise (Alan)

My Beautiful Man/Utsukushii Kare

Color Coding (Pending)

Background Noise & Barriers

Background Noise & Barriers (ep. 2, 3)

Background Noise & Barriers (ep. 4)

My Love Mix-Up/Kieta Hatsukoi

Color Coding

My School President

Color Coding

Color Coding (Parents)

Barriers

The Clothing Tells the Plot

Naughty Babe

Color Coding

The New Employee

Barriers

Never Let Me Go

Color Coding

Color Coding (Nueng x Palm)

Color Coding (Chopper)

Background Noise (Positions)

Background Noise

Barriers (Nueng)

Oh! My Assistant

Color Coding (brief)

Old Fashion Cupcake

Background Noise (brief)

Our Dating Sim

Color Coding

Color Coding (Orange)

Background Noise

Episode 3 & 4

Episode 5 & 6

Episode 7 & 8

La Pluie

Color Coding

The Promise

Color Coding

Color Coding (Pink)

Secret Crush on You

Color Coding

Background Noise

Semantic Error

Color Coding

Background Noise

Smiley

Color Coding

A Tale of Thousand Stars

Color Coding

We Best Love

Color Coding

What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Color Coding

Young Royals

Color Coding

General Posts

Cinematographers

Joy Maneerat Srinakarin (The Warp Effect, I Told Sunset About You, KinnPorsche, Great Men Academy)

Ratchanon Kaeosaart (I Promised You The Moon, Big Dragon)

Rath Roongrueangtantisook (Never Let Me Go, Mama Gogo, He's Coming To Me, A Tale of Thousand Stars, 3 Will Be Free)

Suthipong Teerasakul (Chains of Heart, The Eclipse, 609 Bedtime Story)

Language

Lost in Translation

Language as a Weapon

Hostage Posts

Japan’s Use of Space

Why QLs?

Notes:

If a link doesn't work or goes to the wrong post, let me know

If you have an ask or a request, feel free to send me a message, but be warned that I really don't shut the fuck up about colors, so you could get a ten-page report back in response

If you write a post about colors, lighting, barriers, clothing, or other visuals, feel free to tag me

I'll update this post at the end of each month depending on what discoveries I've made during that month (Updated: 4/15)

Now that you know who I am, remember that a world without colors is a world devoid of emotions and feelings, so embrace the magic and follow me down this chaotic path of visual rhetoric.