#which is a shame because it also contains one of the snippets that clawed its way into my brain and led to the series

[angst-fairygodmother]

Light Fingers (The Umbrella Academy)

Diego’s vigilantism brings him repeatedly across the path of a young cat burglar. But as he finds himself developing feelings for the thief, he begins to wonder if there’s more to her than meets the eye, and whether they’re really on opposite sides. And as their relationship deepens, it brings with it a plot involving his estranged adopted father, and threatens to destroy all of them.

CHAPTER 2: WE KEEP MEETING

Word Count: 1484 Pairing: Diego Hargreeves x Reader Rating: T Cross-posted to AO3: here

Previous Chapter: Cat and Mouse || Masterlist

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You were wiping down tables during a slow period, several days later, still thinking about the museum kiss, when the bell above the door jingled and your breath caught in your throat. Walking in, looking casual as could be despite still basically being dressed in the same outfit he wore in all of your late night encounters including the harness of knives, was the vigilante. As he sat at the counter, you glanced around and realized with a nervous pang, that you were the only one on shift.

“Hi, welcome to the Ace,” you said, plastering on a smile and a slightly higher than normal voice, hoping he wouldn’t recognize you. You handed him a laminated paper menu and moved away quickly to get him silverware and a placemat.

“Do I know you?” he asked when you returned a few minutes later to take his order.

“I don’t think we’ve met. I doubt I’d forget a face like yours.” You smiled even as you mentally scolded yourself for flirting. That was the exact opposite of a good way to get him to stop paying attention.

Still, you found yourself gravitating back to him, chatting and keeping him company throughout his meal, laughing at his jokes. For his part, he seemed to welcome the attention, laying on the charm and flirtation thick.

When you brought him his check, his fingers brushed against yours, lingering longer than necessary but not so long as to be uncomfortable, and you felt the heat of a blush creep across your cheeks.

“I’m Diego, by the way,” he said with that damnable charming smirk.

“Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you, Y/N. I’ll see you around, yeah?”

“Oh I’m sure,” you smiled mysteriously.

He raised an eyebrow but you said nothing more, waving your fingers at him as he walked out.

~

Three nights later, you were working on your latest score, but you mind kept playing through your interactions with Diego Hargreeves. His little visit to the diner had finally chased the kiss away from the forefront of your mind. But not the rest of him. Not the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed, or his tongue pinched between his teeth in his rare, genuine smile, not unlike the ‘blep’ of a cat. And if anything it had only made the racing of your heart and the singing in your veins worse at how easy you had fallen into conversation, about anything and everything, how comfortable you felt around him.

You jammed the long metal shim into the window, anger overtaking you and interfering with the usual delicacy that you used when approaching a lock, practically brute-forcing it open instead.

‘Get it together, Y/N,’ you scolded yourself as the lock popped and you eased the pane open. ‘You don’t have time to be distracted by some pretty man-child playing superhero.’

You swung yourself inside, shifting your weight carefully so that you boots barely made a sound as you dropped to the polished tile floor.

An office complex wasn’t your usual target, not soft enough, not enough that was easily fungible, but tonight you were making an exception. The CEO of this particular company had built himself a name on the backs of people far smarter than him including his wife, whom he left for a much younger woman as soon as he’d made his fortune and in the divorce had managed to manipulate the courts in his favor and leave her with nothing, not even the patents and plans to her own creations. She had come to you, hearing about you through a friend of a friend, and begged you to help her get something, anything back. When you heard the story, you decided that such misbehavior could not stand, and had agreed not only to get her back what was rightfully hers, but to take him down. And your quest to do so started right here, in a tragically unsecured file room.

You were flipping through a stack of designs, looking for any of the project numbers she had given you (written along the inside of your gloved wrist so you wouldn’t forget them), when you were startled by a knocking sound. Panicked, you plunged the room into darkness, save for what trickled in the window from the streetlights.

You mind raced. There shouldn’t have been anyone else in the building and you weren’t going after prototypes or payrolls or other things that would be expected to be stolen and therefore be under watch. The only thing that you could think was that it was a trap, and you had fallen for it.

Hoping that whoever it was hadn’t seen you, you pressed yourself into the space between the filing cabinets.

“Relax,” Diego drawled and you felt your shoulders sag with, as much as you didn’t want to admit it, relief at the sound of his familiar voice. “I thought it might be you.”

“Is that why you didn’t bother with the knife this time? I finally rate a warning before you try to stab me?”

“If I’d wanted to stab you any of those times, I would have. I don’t miss.”

“Yes, I remember the claims. I read all the magazine articles growing up.” You smirked, stepping back out of the alcove to face him, arms folded across your chest and one hand resting on your chin cheekily. “You used to be quite the heartthrob.”

He shrugged.

“I know no one saw me come into the building, so how did you even know I was here?”

“Silent alarm. Tripped when the window opened. Guess your partner missed one.”

“What partner?” you frowned. You worked alone, and if someone was out there giving the impression otherwise, you needed to nip it in the bud, for your professional mystique if nothing else.

“No one’s ever caught you on a security camera. Not even the museum, which has a state of the art system,” he stated accusingly. “You must have a partner tampering with the tapes.”

“Next you’ll be telling me that it’s hard to beat a laser grid.”

“It is. It should be. For any normal person.”

“Nonsense, my stabby friend,” you shrugged nonchalantly, inspecting your nails while you talked. “It’s all just smoke and mirrors. But hey, if there was an alarm, your cop friends will be come sooner than usual. So, catch me later?”

“What?”

He hadn’t even finished the word before turned and darted back across the room and through the window with a laugh like the jingling of coins, dropping away into the darkness like as ghost. He followed, close enough behind that for the moment before you hit the ground, you could see the light cast artful shadows over his face, sharpening his handsome angles and making your heart skip a beat.

After a moment’s hesitation, Diego climbed over the window sill. He wasn’t going to let you get away again, not without answers. Luckily, you had left behind the rope you’d used to scale the side of the building, the navy blue nylon swaying slightly still from your rapid repel back to the street. He twisted it into his fists, slowly easing himself down, pausing at window ledges to keep his balance, hating how much lead he was giving you. Still, he reasoned, once he was on his feet again, he was agile and could make up the ground.

~

It was nearing dawn when Diego finally gave up hope of tracking you down, slamming his fist into the wall of the alley he stood in with a growl of frustration.

‘If you’d just look up, foolish boy,’ you thought, watching him from the fire escape above him, just outside your own kitchen window. ‘You were so close.’

Watching him walk away, you marveled at yourself and the fact that you almost wanted him to catch you. Maybe, if you took the time to explain why you were doing this, why you had been for the better part of your life, he’d understand. After all, he wasn’t exactly making a legal living, and he been as cursed as you. He had grown up, maybe even more than you, too quickly, saddled with powers and responsibility and expectation.  If there was anyone in the world who might understand the emptiness in your chest and the drive to fill it with something, anything, that made the burden of your abilities and the circumstances of your birth worth it, it would be him. Maybe he was someone you could trust, lean on. Your heart ached, not realizing until the thought crossed your mind how badly you wanted that, and how much you hoped he wanted it too.

Still, the merry chase you’d led him on had taken up more time than you’d have liked and you had the opening shift, plus a client to meet. No time to dwell as his silhouette faded into the morning mist.

[razieltwelve]

Solaris (RWBY AU Snippet)

Yang peered down at the verminous multitudes that covered the plain. The Grimm were deadly foes, not simply because of the raw might and power that their mightiest members wielded but also because of the sheer numbers they could call forth. More than one city had fallen beneath a tide of claws and teeth despite having more than capable defenders.

This city was in much the same sort of position. She could feel the rhythmic flare of magic as the city’s defenders tried to simultaneously reinforce their position and pelt the oncoming mass of Grimm with whatever offensive magic they could muster. Bolts of fire, lightning, ice, and even acid rained down on the horde, but the disparity in numbers was simply too much.

On the walls, the city’s guardsmen were locked in brutal melee combat as they fought to keep the Grimm from breaching the city. Larger Grimm, some the size of the titanic mammoths that roamed the frozen ends of the world, thundered into the walls. Cracks spread through the stone bulwark, and the city’s mages shifted their efforts to try to bring the beasts down before they could smash their way through.

Elsewhere, Grimm fliers fought the city’s ever-dwindling ranks of griffin, wyverns, and drake riders. Some of the Grimm were vaguely reptilian in shape whilst others looked more like gargoyles. What they lacked in tactics, they made up for in sheer ferocity. A wyvern riders might strike down three or four of them only to be brought down as a dozen more swarmed them.

Beneath her, Ember Celica gave a low, ominous rumble of barely contained fury. The dragon’s scales were no longer simply warm to the touch, they were burning hot. If Yang hadn’t been linked to the dragon as her rider, her armour would already have begun to melt as her flesh burned away. A dragon’s rage burned hot, and few dragons could match the fury of a solar dragon.

“Yeah.” Yang agreed, knowing what her dragon wanted to do before she’d even given voice to the desire. “Let’s do this.”

Beating her mighty wings, Ember Celica soared higher, her golden scales gleaming in the moonlight as her flight carried her through the thin, low-lying clouds. Surveying the battlefield one last time, both Yang and the dragon closed their eyes in something that was equal parts prayer and meditation.

X     X     X

The most famous dragons were those born of fire and ruin. Their scales were a the red of blood, and their flames burned as hot as the molten heart of the world.

However, there were also dragons born of light and spirit. Their scales were a radiant white, and their fire was a purifying blaze that seared all that was impure.

But every now and then, a dragon was born that was a combination of both, a dragon born with one parent of fire and ruin and another of light and spirit. Such dragons had scales of purest gold, and their flames were taken from the sun itself. 

Solar dragons.

To their friends and allies, their flames brought only warmth and healing. But to their enemies? Fire and ruin. It was the duality of the sun: a force that could nourish crops yet also leave empty deserts of bleached bone and cracked earth.

X     X     X

The sun-blessed were those who wielded fire and light as their magic. Yang’s father was one of them, and she had inherited her magic from him. For as long as she could remember, she had always felt the warmth of the sun within her. But as she’d grown older, that warmth had become a searing blaze that she could turn on her foes.

The moment that she’d met Ember Celica, she’d known that she and the dragon were meant for each other. The sun called to them both, and it bound them together. Like a raging inferno drawing strength from its own heat, they were stronger together than they ever would be apart.

X     X     X

“Oh crap.” Ruby looked up as Crescent Rose smashed another Grimm out of the air with her tail and then turned to incinerate several more with a blast of flame. “Yang and Ember Celica are going to cut loose.”

Weiss followed her gaze and paled. “Oh crap.” Beneath her, Myrtenaster winced and nodded in agreement.

A moment later, the shadows beneath one of the largest Grimm fliers split to reveal Gambol Shroud. The dragon disembowelled her foe with an almost bored expression before rolling over to toss the wounded Grimm toward the earth. On her back, Blake followed their gaze.

“Oh crap.”

Similar reactions were coming from the city and its defenders.

Above them all, the light of the moon was gone. In its place was a blazing orb of golden light that would have put even the sun to shame. It cast its blinding radiance across the battlefield, banishing the near twilight that had dominated ever since the sun had set.

But now a new sun had risen, and it was pissed off and out for blood.

X     X     X

There are many things that make solar dragons dangerous. Physically, they are amongst the most impressive of all dragons. They are large, even for dragons, and their claws and teeth are incredibly sharp. Their scales are largely impervious to physical and magical attack, and although they aren’t the most agile in the air, they can move with impressive speed despite their size.

But what makes solar dragons especially fearsome is their ability to store energy. Blessed by the sun itself, they can store the sun’s light within themselves and unleash it during battle. Given enough time and enough sunlight, there is almost not limit to the devastation they can unleash.

X     X     X

Rather than a blast of fire, what left Ember Celica’s mouth was closer to a beam of pure sunlight. It sliced down through the sky and struck the ground with a sound like every hammer in the world hitting home at the same time. The ground shook, the night trembled, and the world turned white.

The explosion ripped outward, a swiftly-expanding dome of sun-born devastation. The Grimm caught in its path were incinerated instantly, their bodies reduced to ash that was blasted away a split-second later. The strongest of their number managed to endure for a few moments before they too were swept away.

A savage smile crossed Yang’s lips.

“Let no enemy stand before the sun.”

And Ember Celica answered, replying with another ancient proverb. And let the sun’s light shine across all of Creation.

The blast continued to grow, a roiling, boiling cloud of light that was so bright that they were the only two who could stand to look at it directly. Yet despite the absolute carnage it wrought on the Grimm, their allies were unharmed. No soldier was burned. No mage was blinded. No defender of the city was so much as scratched.

This was the the power all solar dragons strove to achieve. This was the duality of the sun. This was a power that could crush their enemies without mercy or restraint yet never harm their allies.

And it was very, very tiring to use.

As the attack finally began to fade, Ember Celica’s wings faltered. The massive dragon shuddered, and Yang poured as much of her power as she could spare into her dragon to help her.

“Blake!” Yang barked. “Gambol Shroud!”

The shadow dragon and her rider rose up to meet them as Ember Celica began her descent. The solar dragon was definitely flagging now. Using so much of her own power plus her stored energy meant that she was struggling just to stay aloft.

Tendrils of shadows moved to help them, and Gambol Shroud’s efforts were soon aided by those of Myrtenaster. Elaborate circles of magic formed around Ember Celica, easing her burden and helping her glide gently to the ground as Crescent Rose circled, both her and Ruby keeping an eye out for any threats that might have survived.

As soon as Ember Celica touched the ground, the dragon took a deep, shuddering breath, and slumped onto her side.

I think I might have gone overboard.

Yang chuckled and patted her scales. Her own weariness was catching up to her, and she could feel the beginnings of a headache forming in the back of her skull. Yep. She’d probably spend the next couple of days resting to deal with magical exhaustion. On the upside, she was pretty confident they’d dealt with the Grimm.

“Totally worth it though, right?”

Ember Celica’s gaze swept over the Grimm-cleansed landscape. Although her golden scales were duller than usual, her toothy grin said it all. 

Yes.

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

Ember Celica is basically the big gun on their team. Admittedly, Gambol Shroud’s power is more flexible, Myrtenaster has a whole library of magic at her disposal, and there’s nothing in the air that can match Crescent Rose’s speed and agility, but when it comes to just raw, undiluted power, none of the others can match Ember Celica.

What makes her even more powerful is that she and Yang share overlapping forms of magic, which means that as rider and dragon, their powers reinforce each other. Ember Celica’s ability to store sunlight is one of the reason she’s often seen basking or lounging about in the sun, and its also why her scales tend to glow. The more energy she has stored, the brighter her scales will usually be. After expending that energy, her scales will be duller until she has absorbed more energy again.

In a direct confrontation, a fully-charged solar dragon is one of the most deadly things in the world. The only efficient way to deal with one is to evade and draw the battle out to get them to expend their stored energy because if you try to fight them head on, their durability is high enough to survive basically anything you throw at them and their damage output is so ridiculously high that you will be unlikely to live longer than a few seconds if they get their hands on you.

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