#with predictable results my hand hurts a lot actually. i was taking my anger out on those walls.

[orcelito]

Well I did my best to contain the leak, banged on the walls until my hands started to hurt, rambled with increasing hysteria about how fucking Bullshit this is, and Now I think I'm gonna go back to sleep.

Because it's 6 Goddamned am. Not even dawn yet. And I have to work in a few hours :)

[marinetteplztakeabreak]

ML Lies Episode Predictions:

There’s Two?? (don’t trust my math) more days before lies completely destroys me, so I’m going to make some predictions, and by predictions I mean wishlist. My walls are already up, so if none of these happen I won’t be disappointed, but also a girl can dream: (this is somehow 1700 entire words long because I have a lot of feelings, so it’s under a cut, you’re welcome)

—Adrien and Kagami’s are secretly dating: please I want it so bad, I’ve talked about this so much and emotionally I need it!! At the very least I want them to sneak out together so so bad I’d cry. But also, if they’re hiding it from their other friends for whatever reason, thats SUCH good angst potential.

—If we get to see some kinda montage of them sneaking out??? Id ride that high for months. Even just one actual example of them working together to sneak out would obliterate me. Like, how it shows Kagami sneaking out to go to the game in Ikari Gozen?? I’d cry

—The breakup happens as a direct result of it being a secret relationship: this would be SUCH a good parallel to lukanette. Lukanette broke up because Luka wanted Marinette to be more open with him and he hated being in the dark, so just, the parallels if Adrien wants to be more open about adrimi and Kagami is like “you dont understand, if your dad finds out about us he will end this immediately” but Adrien wants to believe that its going to be okay and no one will react badly? I’m probably explaining this badly and I’ll try to explain it better later I just,,, want parallels and opposites and truth v lies and hhhhh

—Fencing??? Friendly/ affectionate competition??? Them being idiot jocks in love??? Please??? I want to see them compete!!

—I’d love to see Kagami character growth + Adrimi relationship development!!! I want her to love herself more and be more comfortable around him!!!

—Specifically, if there was a parallel to Riposte,, and Adrien beat Kagami in a fencing match and Kagami was like “Oh nice!! :D good game!” I’d be so happy I’d cry!! And it’s kinda implied by Chat Blanc that they’re already there in there relationship?? But not confirmed?? So if I saw it or saw confirmation of it I’d cry!!

—in one of the released photos it looked like they were holding hands??? And at this point my expectations are so low I don’t even trust it yet but blease,,, let them hold hands,, i’d cry of joy

—If Adrien is also constantly leaving and disappearing due to akuma responsibilities, I want it to read SUPER differently from the Lukanette because I love parallels/foils!! Marinette disappears on her dates with Luka and its just “oh marinette is really distracted and busy and frazzled” but I dont think Adrimi but be loke that at all!!! Because as far as Kagami knows, she has the same backstory/current story as Adrien. She’s risking a lot by sneaking out to go on dates with him?? So Adrien seeing an akuma and being like “oh sorry father is calling” isnt even suspicious or anything??? Its 100% believable!!! If her mother called she’d immediately be like “oh fricking heck i Need To Leave this instant immediately.” So its less “Adrien doesnt care about her” and more of just twisting the knife and reminding her that life doesnt want them to be together and Adrien is never going to be free!!! Big ouch to her heart!!!

—also I want!!!! Them!!! To talk about their feelings!!! Because parallels to truth!!! Adrien is like “sorry I have to go” and Kagami is like “oh I hate that so much” and Adrien is like “big same.” (Also idk how realistic this is but I’d love it if ‘Kagami talking about her feelings’ wasn’t the cause of strife in their relationship!! Like, she talks about how she feels and when she’s upset and Adrien is like “yeah me too” and they’re just,, good bros)

—I need them to stay friends after the breakup, i need it i need it i need it!!! And the whole issue is!! I feel like the main reason they’d date is to try and hang out more?!?? So if the breakup was actually them talking to each other and being like “hey so this isnt working with sneaking out, we’re going to need to go back to the way it was before,” rather than them saying they were bad for each other???? Hoo boy i’d lose my mind

—Also!!! My favorite prediction, I’d die of joy if this happened (and also of angst). I want there to be so much drama with “secret relatinship” stuff that they try to fix it by going public with their relationship!! Very low chance of this actually happening but its okay if it doesnt, thats what the fanfiction I’m inevitably going to write immediately after watching the episode is for!!! But anyway,, multiple ways this could happen.

Maybe they’ve been secretly dating since Miracle Queen and they decide to go public at the beginning of this episode and that’s the primary source of plot/conflcit!!! I’d be thrilled!!!

BUT!!! if the episode ends with then Not Breaking Up, but instead deciding to go from dating secretly to dating publicly???? Holy Freaking Heck,,, I’d go feral with emotion!!!! I also need to expand on this so much more but basic rundown of how I imagine it could happen (again: Is it likely?? Probably not! but this is my last chance to dream):

Kagami is like “listen we have the same backstory and I KNOW in my soul that this relationship wouldn’t work if it was public”

Adrien is like “okay yeah I feel you, thats fair”

Kagami goes on dates with Adrien and its fun and nice and lovely and the honeymoon phase is so good and exciting

Adrien starts disappearing a lot, partly because of akuma attacks, but partly because of nathalie and gabe calling him constantly

Adrien starts to be like “well actually i think that my dad does care about me probably? And if he knew why I wanted to go he’d let me! Or at least Nathalie would because clearly she cares about me!”

Kagami is like “hhhnngg have you met them?? You think they’d want you to be happy and free??” Except she can’t just SAY that because if she did then she’d be crushing Adrien’s entire heart and possibly also making him get really defensive and he has to come to the conclusion that his parents are good on his own

Kagami also starts to get frustrated with how much more often Adrien has to leave than she does?? And its because of akuma attacks but she doesnt know that and he cant tell her

Adrien starts to get frustrated because he can take the “having to leave for akuma attacks” part but when he finally finishes an akuma battle and Natalie immediately calls him it is just aaaaaAAAAAAAA and he just wants to believe so badly that he could at least take control of that part??? He could at least get Nathalie to help him out??? Probably maybe right???

Because we all know he HATES having to keep secrets from Ladybug, but he’ll do it for her, and he’ll keep his life as Chat a secret, but Kagami??? He should at least be able to talk about that, right?? He’s not doing anything bad/dangerous/etc

Also there could very well be some angst with Adrien being so so worried about Nathalie because she’s bedridden and his dad is being sketchy and he’s SEEN this before and he doesn’t want to be avoiding Natalie or lying to her because what if he loses her too??? He’d feel so guilty! And he needs the support of a parent figure so much,,, so he HAS to tell her the truth

But he respects Kagami’s wishes and he’s not going to betray her trust

But unlike Lukanette, they DO talk about their feelings and they disagree and stuff, and even if he’s trying not to be confrontational, Kagami is like “i can tell youre uncomfortable about something, please just tell me what it is” so he tells her that he disagrees

Kagami gets akumatized?? idk if it’s even been confirmed that she’s the akuma “Lies” but I’d assume she is because parallels to Lukanette

Maybe it happens as a direct result of some moment where Kagami and Adrien are arguing and in the heat of the moment he says something hurtful??

Maybe they’re arguing and then Adrien has to leave before it can resolve and Kagami is mad about it even though shes trying not to be and she gets akumatized???

Maybe she does say something like “bc your dad sucks and nathalie sucks!” and he yells or something (i want to see Adrien yell and be flawed let me live, and this is one of the most likely scenerios for it to happen bc it would HURT for him)

Maybe Kagami shoots back with anger, maybe Adrien’s been calm but Kagami gets mean for a moment, but regardless, Kagami says something about her true feelings of anger at nathalie/gabe/ etc and before Adrien can respond he’s like “oh shoot sorry I need to get home NOW”

Then for one brief second Kagami’s TERRIFIED that he’s going to tell nathalie about this in his anger and then nathalie’s going to be like “oh kagami is clearly bad for you because she made u this upset” and Adrien will LISTEN because hes stupid and he still listens to his horrible adult figures and Kagami is so mad about the entire situation so then in her moment of weakness she gets akumatized

Look at that its a direct opposite of Lukanette because Luka was afraid of Marinette keeping secrets about why she’s always vanishing because he doesnt know and Kagami is afraid of Adrien telling secrets about why HEs always vanishing bc she thinks she does know,,

But anyway, after she gets de-akumatized, she’s so ashamed of it and she can see how far she took it and how many people it hurt,, and Adrien is really sad and apologetic and trying to support her,, and she’s like “no clearly I was actually wrong, keeping this a secret is hurting you and its hurting me and now its hurting random civilians”

So she tells Adrien that they should tell people about it and stop dating in secret

And then multiple possible ending:

Does he say “actually no, youre right, they wouldnt let this happen, so if we cant date in public and dating in secret is hurting us then we shouldnt date at all” and thats how the breakup goes??? That would literally obliterate me

Does the episode end on a false positive where Adrien hasnt told them yet and he is like “yeah this is gonna be great” and there isnt an actual breakup yet?? Because that would also kill me (even though i doubt theyre going to let adrimi take up that much time in the show but, let me dream)

Also if Adrien is like “we shouldnt tell my parents but we should tell someone” and then they tell Marinette and now shes got ANOTHER secret to keep and aaaaaaaAAAAA?? Id die on the spot

I’m still holding out hope that the episode will give me enough crumbs to at least be able to write this better, but regardless of what happens in the episode,,, the chances of me eventually writing fanfiction exploring this are SO HIGH, I’ve been thinking about this for ages

In conclusion:

—no matter what happens in lies, its going to destroy me

—please let them be in a secret relationship it makes so much sense for their characters and for the drama and aaaaAAAAA

—also please give me the parallels to lukanette where their issues are exactly the opposite and it still falls apart

Thank you for your time, I’ll be excitedly vibrating at the speed of sound for the next two days until we get answers!! Depending on how the episode goes, I’ll either be writing so much adrimi fluff to recover,, so much adrimi angst to vent,, or I’ll be staring at the ceiling screaming for a few days as I post nothing but keysmashes and try to sort through my emotions :)

[jostepherjoestar]

Imagine if over time everyone notices Trisha’s twin seems to getting more distant and focused on the goal. When they ask her what’s wrong she avoids the question but what everyone doesn’t know is that for everyone to get out alive either her or her sister has to die and she decided that she would protect trish like her sister has down for her over the years

Una Gemella (fic 1,5k)

Decided to name Trish’s twin Claudia after Claudia Schiffer, the famous 90′s model since Trish is also named after one. I hope you can enjoy this, it’s pretty sad and basically a totally different ending to part 5. Whoo boy.

part 1 and part 2 of the ask

Content warning: wounds, death

Under their capo’s watchful gazes, the merry band of gangsters actually worked together for their common goal: to take down Diavolo. With their combined strengths they’d figured out much more information, a lot faster. But with their collaboration also came the discovery that two of his own divisions were working against him, Diavolo went into quite a fit of rage, especially knowing that his two daughters had developed stands. His hatred only grew stronger and his lust to rid the planet of anyone who knew his history only further developed.

In some miraculous way no-one had lost their lives, of course there were less battles to be fought, having to no longer see the assassins as their enemies and vice versa. Diavolo had sent his Unità Speciale onto the large team with a few extra recently added members so he’d be sure of the traitor’s demises. Of course they all knew that Doppio was in fact protecting and housing part of their enemy, thanks to Claudia’s recently acquired stand.

Knowing how large the threat was, Diavolo decided to unleash all hell in Rome on the combined teams arrival. Night had fallen and all seemed normal, tourists were loudly enjoying their dinners, lovers enjoyed their romantic walks past the centuries old monuments, families put their children to bed. That calm was disrupted by the many stand attacks that would mark the city for years to come. The teams had decided to split up so they’d all have enemies to fight at the same time, urging for the safest way to ensure a quick end to the chaos.

On their way to the Colosseum to meet Polnareff about the arrow, Claudia seemed even more focused, there was barely any trace left of the shivering, crying girl from a few days ago. She’d hardened quickly, perhaps too quickly. Her more stern sister even being surprised to see her twin this way. Risotto, Giorno, Bruno, Trish and Claudia had formed their team and quickly met with the Frenchmen. Claudia offering short and stern answers, she’d already seen what would happen and there was no time to waste. Her father was lurking in this very spot. She knew she had no choice, there was no future in which they all could survive if she and Trish both lived. One of them had to go, she was sure of her resolve, Claudia was dying tonight.

Claudia had ignored or brushed off her companions concerns until Risotto cornered her. He knew there was something going on and he was sure to find out. “Tell me what’s going on. We are a team, you need to talk to us.” he said in a stern but concern filled voice. Before she would have been afraid to look the capo right into his crimson eyes but now she took it head on. “I have to die. There is no other way. Your men will suffer, Bucciarati’s will too if nothing is done.” the strength in her voice trembling as she felt tears pushing to release. She held them back with all her might but her trembling hand betrayed her true feelings. Risotto understood. He had put his trust in her since she first called the meeting, admiring her bravery for such a youngster.

The tall silver haired man sighed deeply, he didn’t even hide the pain behind his eyes. He was going to miss this one. He knew she wouldn’t change her mind, she was going to make the ultimate sacrifice. He didn’t ask how or when, he knew enough to deduct that it was soon. He didn’t want to make peace with her decision but he knew he had too. She could feel Diavolo getting closer, Trish could too. The two capo’s strategising inside the old rings of the crumbling monument but it was too late for that, the pink haired villain had already made his entrance, no longer using Doppio to protect himself.

It was time. The attacks were brutal but their team had the advantage of knowing his powers, even though it didn’t help much. The rage behind his hits were felt, Bruno and Giorno had taken quite the beating already. Diavolo’s plan was to work his way down to his “beautiful daughters” as he so lovingly said. Risotto stayed close to Claudia, somewhere hoping that it didn’t need to end the way it was going to. The solemn nod the youth gave to him made him aware the moment was nearing. Bruno had been incapacitated, Giorno by his side to protect him from any more harm for the moment. The blond looked not that much better off than his capo, his stand could only do so much.

Claudia was alert, knowing the direction her father would strike from, sure to protect her sister who’d taken place beside her. “I want you to finish him Trish, no mercy. I know you can. Do it for us, Risotto will help.” she told her sister, voice beginning to shake, avoiding her sisters confused gaze. She would only tear up at the sight of her. “Claudia what are you talking about? We’ll do it together. Ok?” Trish’s confusion distracting her from the incoming attack. It nearly hit her but not before her sister pushed her aside to accept the blow. Giant pieces of stone rubble had been hurled at them, smaller rocks hitting Trish and Risotto, a plume of dust camouflaging Claudia’s body from view. A pang of fear struck them as they saw her crushed beneath the large stone, barely breathing. Diavolo was still hiding behind pillars to avoid counter attacks, awaiting to see the result of his.

“Claudia! No!” Trish couldn’t hold herself back and rushed to her sister, tears already falling down her flushed cheeks, Risotto following suit. The pink haired sisters holding onto each others hands, Trish pleading for her to stay awake. “Giorno please help her! You have to, please!” she begged her teammate who’d gotten up to fight again. Risotto placed his hand on her shoulder. “It’s no use. It had to be this way. I’m... sorry.” he sternly said. But the sight before him tore at his heart, it shouldn’t have to end this way. “She’s not dead yet you fucking idiot. Giorno get over here!” Trish spitting her orders as her tears wet the ground beneath her. Claudia still faintly breathing, eyes fluttering. “You have to do it Trish... Do it for us. Kill that bastard... It had to be.” she could barely talk, shallow breaths sputtering her through her sentence. Her hand feeling numb from her sisters squeeze, like the pressure would somehow save her from her fate. “We have to keep fighting Trish, I’m sorry.” Giorno said with a solemn tone, knowing not even his healing powers could save her.

Risotto stayed by Claudia’s side, the tear stained sister focusing her anger on her father, not ready to say goodbye to her twin just yet. While Giorno and Trish continued, the capo’s large hand had taken the frail one in his. “You did really good out there kid. It takes balls to be a gangster but what you did? I don’t know what to say...” he could feel his heart swell with sadness for the coming loss. She was slipping fast. “Maybe in another life we’ll do it right.” a sad smile the last thing that would grace her beautiful face as she whispered her last words. Risotto knew it was time to help the remaining team finish off the cruel man. His sadness fuelling his resolve to fight on, holding on to her last words. Maybe in another life.

The end was in sight. Giorno had evolved his powers and was able to bring the devil himself to his knees before him. He looked pathetic, his eyes filled with fear he wasn’t going to admit to. Trish walked over, the tears having dried, remnants of dust making the watery paths visible on her cheeks. She bore her heel into the ribs of her father making him hiss and cough in response. “This is for Claudia you filthy bastard! Enjoy this pain now, you’ll be wishing you felt it again because wherever you’re going is a million times worse. You’re the most disgusting being I’ve ever laid my eyes on!” she spit on his face, she would have never done this in any other situation, thinking it a disgusting act, but now her rage was acting for her. Trish let Giorno finish him off, sending Diavolo into his own personal hell.

When he was finally gone Trish fell to her knees, not even caring about scuffing her skin. There was a faint relief, knowing there would be no more fighting, no more worrying. But it hurt, god it hurt so bad. She knew sacrifices had to be made to complete the mission but this... It wasn’t what she imagined. Her sobs returning, it felt like the tears would never stop. Bruno and Giorno placing themselves by her side to console her as best as they could. They sat by her until the sun had starting rising again, lighting the way for the dawn.

Like Claudia had predicted, all men were safe. Some worse off than others but they were all still breathing. Risotto felt a gaping emptiness in his soul, the little one had left quite the mark on him. Maybe next time, in another life, they’ll be luckier.

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA FIC PROMPTS

A collection of all of the fic ideas from that ask game, as of now. I’ll throw in new ones if i get any and when I remember. Feel free to use any of them, I’d love a link if you did!

with hands to the sky, I beg (what will save us?)

Izuku is a god who asks to be reborn as a human to try and help. He is warned he can’t return to being a god and will join the mortal realm, ever reincarnated. He agrees.

Izuku is a child with faint memories of a life he never lived, who knows too much about the world but not enough about the people around him. He’s not listed as having a quirk but he’s never gotten sick, never been hurt. He scares the other children and the adults don’t like his precocious nature. Inko loves her little miracle.

 My Soul is Like a Supernova

Things happen around Izuku. Always have. Everything from earthquakes and villain attacks to miraculous healing and lottery wins. He’s always attracted big events like this - as if even the universe can see how important he is and it warps itself around him.

He sees this as perfectly normal. 1A is begining to notice a stressful pattern.

This one regret of mine

Character study of Inko and how she deeply regrets so many things she’s done in her life, from her husband, to giving up on her carrier, to telling Izuku he couldn’t be a hero and then letting him keep going to UA.

But no matter what she’d never regret her son.

Of souls and lost causes

A good ol’ Izuku sees dead people AU, focused more on his younger years when he’d wander around the city helping as many spirits as he could, only to return home at the end of the day exhausted and dirty to an increasingly worried mother who believed the doctor when he said seeing ghosts as a quirk would be impossible.

my life.your choice

Underground heroics AU (i dont think ive ever posted that au huh): Izuku is the well-known son of japan’s immortal emperor, All for One. Born quirkless, he’s been emotionally abused but violently protected his whole life by his father, his mother killed before his eyes for trying to take him away. He’s never been able to make a choice for himself save for his bodyguard - his childhood friend, Bakugo Katsuki.

Katsuki made a pledge to protect him when they were in kindergarten and he’ll be damned if he breaks it now. And if it takes the two of them joining the resistance, meeting a vigilante by the name of All Might thought long dead and Izuku receiving a near-mythical quirk? Well, that just makes it more exciting, doesn’t it?

I forgot that you existed

Izuku gets hit with a quirk that not only makes people forget him, it prevents them from seeing him as well - all but erasing him from reality for everyone he knows. He can still interact with things but all it manages to do is just UA shut down under fear of villain infiltration. They find Izuku 18 hours later when the quirk wears off - a motion tracking gun trained on his forehead.

certain uncertainties

No one can predict the quirks trapped in One for All or when they’ll show up. Anthology fic of Izuku discovering each of them, some being rather helpful, and at least one piece of merch being sent into a low orbit.

Sometimes goodbye is a second chance

Set in the same universe I wrote console reset in; during the two heroes movie: they never defeat Nine and he slaughters the whole island and his class, leaving Izuku till last. He comes back at the start of their first day on the island and doggedly makes friends with every islander he can because while it hurt seeming them die, it hurt even more knowing he’d never even learnt most of their names.

They win this time the first time they meet him, even if it’s a marathon fight of 8 hours with him and Bakugo doggedly wearing him down. No one dies. Izuku thinks it’s worth dying as many times as he has to to keep the people he loves smiling.

The immortality of the heroic spirit

One of the quirks in One for All is determination: if you have something you desperately want to do, you can’t die - no matter how much blood you lose or home many pieces your body is crushed into - you’ll just heal back to where you were before you died. All Might and Aizawa find this out to horrifying effect during a brutal villain fight they are stuck watching on the news with the rest of a terrified UA.

In hindsight this makes a lot of sense to Izuku. Aizawa wants to scream. All Might has coughed up more blood than is probably healthy and all of 1A bruised hands from where they were clutching each other’s when it got too tense.

Shine on you invincible legacy

Izuku becomes a top 10 hero before hes even out of high school, hitting No.2 the second he graduates and taking No.1 from Hawks literally the next time the ranking is counted. 1A will not stop throwing him parties each time he moves up in the ranking, even if in 3rd year it was every other week. All Might comes to ever one of them.

Shake the Dirt from Your Shoes

Izuku will be a hero and no one will stop him - an AU a fair bit like the beginning of canon except Izuku fights back, remains unending optimistic and maybe engages in a light bit of technically legal vigilantism, accidentally befriending a vast array of heroes and a student or two.

To his horror, they recognise him out of costume as soon as he speaks to them, resulting in a very eventful first day at UA.

do you feel with a heart of steel

Original Sin AU, young Izuku finding feeling emotions difficult and not knowing why. He finds a dying animal on the way home and sits with it, patting it until it passes away. He doesn’t think he feels anything, but his cheeks feel wet.

all you want is milk and honey

Villains have been trying to use Izuku his entire life, much to his annoyance and confusion (I wonder who in his family might make him known to villains? hm). He’s gotten very good at being intimidating, even as a child.

When he gets kidnapped with Bakugo on a primary school field trip he decides to hell with it and breaks out all the stops. Turns out villains don’t tend to want a 10-year-old who can describe in great detail how they would hang you with your own intestines.

Bakugo decides that fuck Izuku being quirkless, he’s kind of amazing.

Even the stars

Izuku dies young and no one but the stars cry for him. They bring him back, but his body is cold and he has a nova burning where his heart should be. A four-year-old who has known death and walked among the stars is a terrifying thing. His skin has a shimmer to it, his eyes look like planets with no visible pupil, and he knows far too much.

The stars still speak to him, and they see everything.

bitter dreams and optimistic nightmares

Bakugo and Izuku grow up good friends, until Izuku is taken by villains age 9.

Bakugo’s determined to be a hero to save Izuku, even if it hurts to be at UA without him.

Izuku hates hurting people but he’s determined to make the most of his horrible situation by leaking information to heroes whenever he can. He’s given to All for One to serve as a lab hand to the doctor when All for One finds out this rag tag outpost of his had been hiding a valuable resource.

They meet at the USJ.

Mind Games for Two Shinsou and Izuku are both gen ed students in the same class, but with Shinsou stubbornly refusing to make friends and Izuku being the vice president they are almost strangers. UA has a no quirkless students policy and Shinsou has accidentally discovered that he student in his class with an analysis quirk, doesn’t, actually, have one. Izuku is aware Shinsou knows. They both want to get into the hero course but are under the impression there is only one spot.

It’s tense.

The Melody Stuck in My Soul

Izuku has an empathy/emotional control quirk that hears other’s emotions like music. He uses this both to read people, to defend himself, and, because hes Izuku, to ramp up his adrenaline/motivation/anger to kick ass. He and Bakugo are friends because baby Bakugo was lowkey impressed Izuku managed to weaponize his tears.

Advantage of the musical element: it gives him something concrete to latch on to and change, and it was very easy to work out which emotions were which. Also he has his own theme song, even if he’s the only one who can hear it.

Disadvantage: He cant turn it off. The stronger the emotion the ‘louder’ the music (it doesn’t cover up natural sounds because its not technically there, you get me?)

Error 404, childhood not found

A Hero’s Son AU, snapshot’s of Izuku’s childhood with No.1 Hero All for One as his abusive father.

Age 4 when his quirk never comes in and All for One abandons all pretences of loving him. Age 6 when he realises his son is intelligent and has a use as a lab assistant for the doctor. Age 8 when Bakugo first realises something is wrong. Age 9 when his father is almost killed by the No.1 villain All Might. Age 9 when he’s made to work in the labs with the doctor.

Age 14 when he meets All Might. Age 15 when he makes it into UA.

Darkness Growing (The Light Ever Smaller)

Villains take over Japan after the current arc, leaving all heroes and students that don’t switch sides on the run. 1A is instantly separated with a few of them  being killed, most of the living students with Aizawa and Izuku and Bakugo by themselves, both too stubborn to leave the other.

Aizawa is desperately trying to get to Izuku and Bakugo in an attempt to keep them safe, while the two of them are avoiding Aizawa to keep the rest of their class safe(er), all while avoiding the villains, turncoat heroes and police out to get them. Public support is spotty at best with anyone found ‘harboring a criminal’ given the same punishment as the hero.

Lost soul of last hope

The first wielder has been Izuku’s imaginary friend since he can remember. He’s not very imaginary.

Featuring Izuku with the world’s strangest older brother, Inko coming to the realisation her son can see a ghost, but only one ghost and no one will believe them, Izuku’s quirk being listed as Inko’s because the first wielder can help him fake it, and Izuku wondering why first looks so much like that picture of his father on his mother’s bedside table.

The kids the system failed

100% The 1A run aways au with 1A, Aizawa and Mic being runaways kids of various ages that band together to stay alive and maybe do a little vigilante work on the side.

Izuku has All for One and uses it like you’d expect a traumatised kid to - cautiously at first but when he gets the hang of it there are suddenly no more criminals with quirks in their area, and it looks suspiciously like Uraraka can fly.

Just a second to soon? For the Fic thing?

Aizawa struggles and gets knocked out just before Shigaraki lunges at Tsuyu. She and Izuku are left horribly injured by his quirk with massive facial scarring, and in Tsuyu’s case, the loss of an eye.

Daze

An illusion/fear quirk makes his teachers look like villains and convinces him he’s in danger. They try and stop him without hurting him but it’s difficult considering Izuku is convinced he’s protecting his friends, considering he can only see them broken and bloodied with villains he thought were locked away loaming over them.

Even as Aizawa cuts out his quirk Izuku still tries to shield his friends, snarling ferally.

Morning Glories and Forget-me-nots

A memory quirk of unknown duration hits Izuku, leaving him remembering none of his life. 1A starts to fall apart without one of their pillar’s.

hopeless but not broken

The Long Con au where Izuku asks All Might if he could be a hero without a quirk - he’s really asking if he can stop pretending to be a villain, if he’s worth anything without the quirks he’s been given, if he’s worth something as himself rather than the limited use he can provide. He doesn’t know how to say all of that, so he just asks if he could be a hero.

All Might says no. And Izuku basically decides right then that the only way he’ll ever be able to help people is by being a mole for the heroes like he’s been since he was 10 - that he isn’t worth anything because he’s quirkless and to be considered just as valuable as the people around him are he needs to give his life and more.

He shows up to the bar crying because of All Might and Shigaraki moves his murder plot forward a few months.

Sunflowers and Summer Gardens

All Might starts a garden on campus and 1A like to help. He uses it as a nice place to chill and as physical therapy. He likes to give the different classes bunches of flowers when they sprout.

For Dos and For Donts

Izuku runs into some of his old bullies when out with some of his friends. Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, Shinsou and Asui intimidate the fuck out of them, and Izuku realises hes not scared of them any more. Then they get frozen yoghurt!

your mistakes, my unbecoming

Aizawa assigns a project on quirk related issues, Izuku ends up with quirkless discrimination, Aizawa assumes his discomfort is just him being upset he doesn’t get to talk about quirks. He doesn’t realise his mistake until he finds Izuku dissociating on the roof.

one and one into the vast

Original Sin AU, All for One and Izuku seeing the vestiges together. One for All sees his brother for the first time and Izuku learns a lot about the voice in his head.

All for One has a mini-crisis about his not son learning he’s a horrific villain, especially considering he has the power to cast his soul out at any time, killing him at will. Izuku doesn’t kill him. He admits its probably not right of him to let AfO remain considering the things he’s done, but All for One is a part of him now and it would be like killing a friend.

All for One quietly decides to hold off on the villainy until all of 1A is dead, for Izuku’s sake.

between the stars of our souls

Izuku and All Might are old gods who keep getting reborn into human forms with their memories regained when they turn 4. Normally finding each other takes a while, and their last reincarnation they never found each other, so this time he resolves to make himself as easy to find as possible, all while saving as many people as he can.

Izuku, aged 4, memories fresh in his head, makes it his mission to get into contact with the man he knows is his father/mentor’s reincarnation. All Might’s agency was not expecting a 4 year old to repeatedly try breaking in to their office, and they especially weren’t expecting him to be so good at it.

you really should have thought this through

Different (and ill-advised) attempts at special moves or team up combo moves. Featuring:

Izuku managing to break Kirishima’s nose.

Uraraka sending Bakugo so high he broke the sound barrier coming back down to earth.

Kaminari and Shouto managing to electrify ice.

Izuku, Todoroki and Bakugo levelling a whole suburb (at least it was condemned???)

I'll Break Anything You Give Me

Different times Izuku desperately tried to repair his relationship with Izuku over the years and the one time Bakugo fully grasps how much he fucked up and reaches out his hand to try to fix it for the first time. Probably includes a lot of screaming, Bakugo learning how to say sorry, a field trip and them having a conversation on Aldera’s roof.

Sinking

One for All kind of possesses Izuku during a quiet night at the dorms. One for All, made of 8 people, 7 of which are dead and had their last experiences in life be rather painful and violent, breaks down, Izuku alone not enough to drown them out. They lash out at anyone who tries to touch them, their quirks tearing Izuku’s body apart.

All Might’s vestige reaches out a hand to Izuku to keep his mind from being torn apart as 1A set about both trying to protect Izuku and get Aizawa who was off campus on patrol.

Feat. Bakugo and All Might being the only people with any idea about what’s going on and getting more and more stressed each second that passes. Iida, Uraraka and Todoroki being good heroes and even better friends. Blood King deciding he’s never watching 1A for Aizawa again, and Aizawa deciding he’s never leaving 1A alone ever again.

A Long Way From Home

Shirakumo wakes up in Kurogiri’s body in Tartarus with only shadowed memories of his time as a villain. He’s scared and alone and he just wants to see his friends again, even if he’s scared they hate him because at least that’s something he knows.

Too Far Gone

The other side AU, it comes out Izuku is a villain with (knockoff) All for One and he has a showdown with Mirio. He and Izuku trained together under All Might and Mirio tries to plead with him but Izuku has to basically tell him to go to hell to not ruin his placet as crown prince of the underworld.

Of course, he’s not only doing this to save people, he’s also doing it with All Might’s blessing - taking over from All Might himself serving as a villain after he killed All for One to prevent a power vacuum.

Doesn’t mean that his friends in 1A know that.

Snowy hills and sunlit peaks

Probably an AU about All Might being a mountain spirit with a little shrine that Izuku is the only one who visits - Izuku gets in trouble and All Might manifests himself, saves him, and tells everyone to keep their hands off his human son.

Wilting

Izuku gets sick and he tries to hide it because he’s scared its something serious but he just gets worse and worse. His friends are the ones who eventually step in and comfort him.

I’d probably write two endings with one being a bad end and the other a good end.

My wish came true without me realising 

Izuku wakes up one morning, comes downstairs and just starts crying. Everyone panics and he reassures them they are happy tears and that he's just glad to be here. They all call him sappy and give him a hug. Later in the day he and Bakugo chat and Izuku reveals he never even expected to live this long, let alone become a hero. Bakugo grumbles that he’s too stubborn to die, and not to get too cocky. Izuku promises he wont.

[val-aquenta]

Wow her for angstpril prompt: “You Lied To Me.” Special post-Rako Hardeen mission fun :)

Here on ao3

Obi-Wan’s cough was rougher than usual, as though he was hoarse and his throat hurt. Anakin trembled with rage that never truly left since Naboo. The hurt and anger radiated off of him. Obi-Wan watched, nervously tracking his movements. “Sorry… I’ll just-” He moved to the side, dodging past Anakin and walking through the Temple hall. Anakin looked at him, noting the dark bruises under his eyes and the short stubbles of beard and hair. How dare he. Anakin thought with a scowl before moving on with his day. First he had gone and lied and then he wouldn’t even talk about it? 

They met again, right before Ahsoka and him were going to spar. Obi-Wan looked… worse? Anakin had attributed the rather pale complexion and tired look as results from his mission, but… perhaps it was not so. “What’s with the look?” He barked out. 

Obi-Wan turned large eyes at him, “Just… tired I guess.” He shifted uncomfortably, hands clinging to one another behind his back. Anakin, once more, noted the hoarseness of his voice, likely a result of his undercover mission. “I-” He began before cutting himself off. “Sorry.” He bowed his head and darted past, walking fast enough to avoid him. Anakin watched him go, confused. He shrugged and continued with his day. If it got worse, he’d… do something. 

Ahsoka remarked on it later that day. “Master Obi-Wan looks ill.” She seemed hesitant to breach the conversation, likely very worried about how Anakin would react. Anakin, contrary to her predictions, did not let out a wave of resentment and hate that he usually did when she mentioned him by name. “Did you notice?”

Anakin nodded. “Yeah. He told me he was tired, but…” He trailed off. “I don’t think so.” He finally finished with a deep sigh.

“I guess I’m… worried. He doesn’t look well at all.” She said, relaxing as she noted he seemed quite concerned as well. At least he wasn’t so hostile to the topic of Obi-Wan anymore. “I mean… I haven’t really talked to him for a while, so-”

“C’mon Snips. More sparring, less chatting.” He grinned. “Don’t want you turning into Obi-Wan on the battlefield, huh?” The worry churned in his gut though. He lost himself in the high energy of the spar. 

Two days later, he saw Obi-Wan again, looking more akin to a ghost than a living human. “Are you alright?” He asked, somewhat curtly. The betrayal still hurt and he still thought Obi-Wan was rather stupid to not tell him. He could act; nobody knew about him and Padmè yet. “You look…” He gestured vaguely at Obi-Wan who blinked, seeming kind of confused.

Obi-Wan startled, shaking his head a bit before looking up, a false smile plastered on his face. “What? Oh, I’m fine.” Anakin’s face fell. He knew this smile. He knew how Obi-Wan flashed it at senatorial galas, or in the Senate, or whenever the chancellor was in his perimeter.

“You’re lying.” He cut in bluntly. “I can tell. Why do you keep lying?” His tone became more aggressive. Obi-Wan leaned back, frightened by the display, his hands met together, clutching each other under the long sleeves of his robe. 

“I’m not.” He stammered a bit, eyes looking at the wall behind Anakin. “I told you before, I’m just tired. It’s been difficult getting the GAR back on track after my mission…” He trailed off, expecting some kind of burst of anger, something. “On that note I have a meeting with Mace.” he said and quickly slipped from Anakin’s view, darting around the corner with a swish of his brown cloak. I’ll shove him in the medbay after. Ahsoka might be necessary. Everyone knew how Obi-Wan could not refuse Ahsoka’s wide eyes if she really put her back into it. 

Three days later, he finally got the chance. Ahsoka and him were walking, still on their free time period, when he spotted that familiar gingery blonde hair coming his way. “Up ahead Ahsoka. We just need to get him to the healers.” 

Ahsoka nodded seriously. “I know, Anakin. You already told me.”

“Just making sure…” He trailed off as Obi-Wan came closer. Force, he looked even worse. The concern he felt from Ahsoka told him he was not the only one thinking this. 

“Master!” Ahsoka said, running over to catch him. “Wow… you look er…” Obi-Wan lifted his brow. “Are you ok? Shouldn’t you go to the healers or something?” She asked rapidly, her eyes wide and roving across his face. 

“I don’t think-” 

“Please…” Ahsoka seemed to be laying it on rather thick, but Anakin knew he would not notice, or would not care. “I mean… I worry, Master. It would comfort me if I knew that you were ok.” There was the kicker. Obi-Wan turned to him, a plea for help before turning back to her. Ahsoka blinked innocently, a concerned frown on her face. 

“Perhaps… we should go to my rooms. I-” He cut himself off, hand rising to his forehead. “I actually have…” He trailed off, pitching forwards in a dead faint. Ahsoka yelped, calling on the Force by instinct as Anakin reached forwards. 

“Alright… to the healers.” Ahsoka nodded, concern evident as she pressed a hand onto the really warm forehead. “Good job Ahsoka. He caved in seconds.” 

Ahsoka smiled, a bit pleased with herself. If she was honest, she was a tad surprised that it had still worked. The last time she had tried, she had been much younger, but it appeared Obi-Wan was still the same. To be fair, he still caved easily if Anain tried hard enough, but perhaps that was more because he was simply annoyed by Anakin’s rather… annoying techniques. “It did go well.” She agreed easily. 

“Don’t get too comfy, he’ll probably be harsher on you when you get older and lose your chubby cheeks.” Somehow Anakin freed a hand enough to poke her cheeks. 

“Hey!” She cried indignantly, swatting the hand. “Oh look, Bant’s on duty.” She said eagerly, nodding in the direction of the Mon Calamari healer.

“Healer Bant!” Anakin waved down. “Obi-Wan’s just fainted.” Bant hurried forwards, pressing her cool hand against his forehead and flinching back.

“Hmm, this was bad before, but now…” Anakin startled. Bant signalled for a gurney. “Alright, lay him down. We’ll bring him to the rooms. Feel free to come.”

“Wait… Bant! What do you mean before?” He raced after, Ahsoka at his side as they followed her into a prepared room. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?” 

He asked worriedly. Bant looked back, somewhat exasperated before her look softened. “He… hasn’t told you?” She asked in confusion, her hand gently pressing against Obi-Wan’s shoulder, a comfort for herself. She released the hand and lifted him from the gurney to the bed. It was more a recovery room more than anything.

“Hasn’t said what?” Ahsoka asked, breathless. Anakin blinked to Obi-Wan before looking back at Bant. “Master Bant, won’t you say?”

“I… I’m not really allowed.” Bant stammered nervously, looking down at Obi-Wan, taking a small moment to grip his hand. “If he didn’t tell you yet, he probably will soon. Just… be gentle with him. He’s been through a lot recently.” she looked up, silvery eyes pleading with Anakin. “He’ll wake soon, then you can ask questions, but please… be gentle. It’s been rough.” Bant spent a few more moments fluttering around Obi-Wan and administering some medicines. Anakin laid a hand on Ahsoka waiting until she was done before approaching the bed. 

In the end, it took about an hour which they spent seated by Obi-Wan’s bed, Anakin fiddling with his arm and Ahsoka typing away on a datapad, before Obi-Wan woke up. He blinked lazily, taking in a deep breath before letting it out in a sigh, a custom that Anakin had learned long ago. His gaze turned from the ceiling to the two at his bed. “Oh… hello there.” He offered lamely. “Oh no. Did I…?” He trailed off.

“Faint in the hallway, yeah.” Anakin offered, replacing his tools in his belt before leaning forwards. “So… what’s wrong?” There was no point beating around the bush. Ahsoka clicked off her datapad and crossed her arms. 

Obi-Wan swallowed, feeling rather nervous. He had known something was wrong at the tail-end of the mission, but he had chalked it up to the experimental tech. Turns out, that wasn’t it. “An illness, Firthopo. It’s been there a long time, but only now became aggressive.” He swallowed, his hands fiddling on the covers of his bed. “We didn’t know it was there until now.” 

“Master.” Anakin sighed out, a familiar spike of panic and fear rising. “You… you told me you were ok. Can it… will you get better?” Ahsoka moved her chair closer, hand reaching out to clasp his. The warmth she had loved so much was there still, a welcome feeling.

“They don’t know. The late diagnosis and the nature of the illness makes it… hard to tell.” Ahsoka leaned forwards, burying her head by his side as though in the dark she could hide from the pain. “I… was going to say, but-”

“You said you were fine. Did you know?” Anakin asked. “Did you know you were dying, and  did you lie?” He said, quickly wiping away a stray tear that managed to jerk it’s way down. 

Obi-Wan leaned his head back, breathing deeply. So close to him, Ahsoka could hear the gentle rattling of his breaths. She pressed even closer. Obi-Wan slipped an arm around her shoulder, gently rubbing it. “I… I knew, but I thought perhaps-”

“You lied, Master. I thought you were just tired.” There wasn’t anger, at least, not much. It was overshadowed by great sadness. “You told me…” He trailed off, his breath hitching in a soft sob. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Anakin asked, shifting a bit closer, his hands loose on his lap. “I thought you trusted me.”

“I do.” Obi-Wan was quick to respond. “I trust you, Anakin, a lot more than you think.” He swallowed. “I suppose I thought I still had a chance. That it might get better quick enough so you wouldn’t notice.” He admitted, looking right at Anakin. “I don’t know if I still have that chance.”He leaned a little, trying to soothe Ahsoka, feeling the trembles under his hand. “I think… I think it’s probably getting worse. The fainting is more frequent now.”

Anakin shook his head in denial, helplessness crawling through his head. “Can I…?” He gestured at Obi-Wan. He wished… a part of him wished he was young enough so he could crawl into Obi-Wan’s side and pretend there was nothing wrong. He didn’t crawl into the bed, but he did reach forwards and pick up Obi-Wan’s hand, cradling it between his own as if it were precious. He noted the pale complexion, the strange cold in the fingertips. “Do you know what’s going to happen?”

Obi-Wan shook his head a bit, “Not exactly. The disease is not well-documented because it’s so rare, but… if it’s too aggressive for medication, I might have a few months, perhaps even one? We don’t really know.”

“Months?” Anakin whispered, breathing shakily. “It’s not… Not nearly enough.”

“I know.” Obi-Wan said. “But that’s just how it is.” His voice was strangely garbled, in a way that only meant there were tears hidden. Sure enough, his eyes glimmered, water lining the bottom of his eyes. 

“Is that… is that why we’re on leave for so long?” Anakin asked hesitantly. “I want to be with you, please Master.” He pleaded. “I have to.”

“You know that isn’t possible. The war… it still goes on.” Obi-Wan said. “The people need your help, but I promise if it gets bad, you’ll be pulled back.” Anakin shook his head rather angrily. “It’s the best we can do. Already the Chancellor has a mission for you.” Obi-Wan struggled a grin. “You can rest here for now, though.”

[snkpolls]

SnK Episode 62 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 314 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

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RATE THE EPISODE 303 Responses

There was an interesting contrast this week between anime only viewers’ and manga readers’ reaction to the episode. Anime only viewers overwhelmingly felt positively about the episode. But for manga manga readers, many of the cuts in the anime dampened their enjoyment of the episode, and for some ruined it entirely. Still, overall, the episode got positive reception, even if it wasn’t overwhelmingly enthusiastic. 

a little rushed but still very enjoyable. it defo got the point across about Reiner's struggles

It was... Fine. I'll give it a solid 8/10 on emotional value and finally seeing these chapters animated. But accepting that the anime and manga are not the same and that there will be cuts is hard.

Wasn't very good. The cut scenes really hurt the pacing and overall story.

i thought the pacing was way too fast :(

Stunning. Beautiful 

Another great episode. My only criticisms are the music that was used at the beginning of the episode, which didn't really work, and the cuts but I understand why that had to happen.

Disappointing

Impeccable. The adaption was both efficient and emotionally effective. Zero misses so far - I'm officially a MAPPA ho. 

Really great! Feels different from the manga and makes me excited for future episodes, because even if it's not perfect, we will always have the original material + some fun new scenes that the anime is adding, can't wait for more

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 304 Responses

The much-anticipated scene where we learn amputee-kun is actually Eren was the most favored of the episode, with 37.5% of the vote. Following behind that with more narrow margins were the introduction to Marley’s titans, Annie and Reiner’s fight and Reiner’s suicide attempt. 

The first part was very rushed and I wasn't as impressed by it. But I was very impressed by the second part of the episode once the warrior kids made it to paradise. I also very much enjoyed how they animated the scene of Annie taking out her anger on Reiner after Marcel's death. There was just something about the use of colours that really appealed to me. 

The Reiner and Annie fight and Reiner's suicide disturbed me a lot more this time around, partially because I haven't read the chapters in a while, but this is easily one of my favorite episodes now.

WE GOT THE FULL ED LAST WEEK. AFTER SEEING IT IN ITS ENTIRETY, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT NOW? 294 Responses

The majority of the fandom are enjoying the new ending, with 65.6% loving both the song and the animation. 11.2% are enjoying the song… but not so much the animation. 11.9% feel that it’s “just okay.” Some are enjoying the animation, but not the song, and a few more dislike both. 

The song and the animation are truly beautiful and gorgeous. I couldn't imagine better. It is always so peaceful after the full of emotions episode. 

Beautiful song, although the bit with the streaks of shiny animation look like 480p and are a little boring. 

I didn't see it 

Bold of you to assume I watch the EDs and don't just skim ahead to the preview.

i'm not interested in the ending

There was a half ED?

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, HOW MUCH DID YOU ENJOY THE SEQUENCE INTRODUCING ALL OF MARLEY’S TITANS? 303 Responses

A very tiny fraction of voters weren’t impressed with the way MAPPA executed the scene that introduces us to the Marley titans and why each warrior was picked for the titans they received. However, the majority of respondents felt very positively about the scene, with 221 even feeling they, too, will become a titan as a result of the awesomeness. 

I really liked the marley titan montage but why the hell were the female titan's boobs so big? It looked so out of poportion

It was awesome and I loved the introduction to the Titans

OUT OF ALL THE TITANS THE MARLEY MILITARY HAD 9 YEARS AGO, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE? 299 Responses

Whether it’s for practicality or aesthetic reasons, we all have different titans that appeal to us more than others. This race was a close one, with the Female Titan holding on just slightly over the Jaw Titan in terms of favoritism. The Armored Titan came in at a distant third with the Beast Titan and Colossal closely behind. Only a very small fraction would like to inherit the Cart Titan from Piku-chan.

WHICH OG WARRIOR CANDIDATE WOULD YOU WANT TO ADOPT? 299 Responses

Overall, the majority (29.1%) wouldn’t want to adopt any of the OG warrior crew, whether because the responsibility is too much or because they don’t like kids at all (or perhaps, a missing third option being they don’t like any of them). But for those who would happily take on one of the OG warrior kiddos, 24.1% would most like to take Reiner home (and probably give him lots of hugs). 21.1% adore little Pieck and would shower her with parental love forever. 9.7% probably want to pinch little Bertolt’s cheeks, and 8.4% wish they’d adopted Annie instead of her father.

A LOT OF THE SHIGANSHINA BREACH HAS REUSED WIT ANIMATION FROM PAST EPISODES - THOUGHTS? 303 Responses

The majority of respondents felt positively enough about seeing WIT’s S1 style mixed in with MAPPA’s, with 42.9% feeling it flowed together well enough, and 26.4% understanding why they didn’t reanimate the event (despite preferring it if they had). 11.2% don’t care at all, and 8.6% think it was way too jarring. There are some who are reminded that they miss WIT’s style, and others who have a continued appreciation for MAPPA.

KAJI YUKI HAS LOWERED HIS VOICE A BIT TO DEPICT AN OLDER EREN. THOUGHTS? 301 Responses

Overall, nearly everyone seems to be pleased with Kaji Yuki’s more “mature” sounding Eren, with 76.4% feeling he is portraying an older and more jaded Eren perfectly. 11.6% are lost in their lust for a 2D drawing and are focused entirely on that (we understand lol). A few are simply indifferent to the lower tone, and a smaller percentage just prefer Eren’s voice prior to the timeskip. 

Anime onlys can spot him more difficult, which I like

Made sense to me, he’s not a teenager anymore after all, plus works better for this “new” Eren who’s less angry and shouty all the time.

I didn't even notice lol

Eren is adult so changing his voice was a very good choice. I like his new sound.

It was stupid that he ever talked so low before now. He was fifteen and he sounded like an adult, well they all do that bc it's standard anime shit but it makes it even harder when they become real adults.

NOW HE REALLY SOUNDS LIKE KENMA 🔥

WE’VE LOST COUNT OF HOW MANY TIMES WE’VE SEEN MARCEL GET EATEN. BUT OF THE OPTIONS BELOW, WHO DID IT BEST? 296 Responses

Seeing Marcel get eaten 2000 times seems to be a running gag at this point, so naturally we had to include this question. Whether it’s recency bias or objectively true, 44.6% feel that MAPPA’s take on Marcel’s death was the best. 30.4% feel that Isayama’s more recent art style truly does Marcel the most justice. 14.2% liked the way WIT Studio portrayed the scene and 10.8% like Isayama’s older, more grungy art style.

RIP Marcel

DO YOU THINK THAT REINER WAS CORRECT, THAT MARLEY WOULD HAVE HAD ALL OF RBA EATEN IF THEY HAD FOUND YMIR AND RETURNED HOME IMMEDIATELY? 292 Responses

In the hypothetical scenario that Reiner hadn’t convinced Annie and Bertolt to stay on the island, the majority feel that Reiner was wrong in his assessment that they would be executed practically on-site. 55.1% believe that the idea would have been out in the open, but ultimately rejected. Though, 35.6% feel that Marley is too ruthless and uncaring toward Eldians to care what the situation is, and would absolutely hand over their titans to others deemed more capable. Very few felt Marley would be understanding by default. Many write-ins feel that Reiner is the only one who would have been executed for the failure. 

Depends on if B/A emphasize that it was Reiner’s fault rather than their own.

If all of RBA got eaten then I think they wouldn’t use kids for their next attempt. Maybe teens around the age RBA were after training in Paradis military

Magath would have pointed out how wasteful it would have been, but probably even him couldn't have saved reiner

He was wrong. What would be the point of feeding them to other children, if they were the best candidates? Too much of work. 

Reiner said that there's a possibility that they couldn't find Ymir even if they try. He has a point. But I don't think Marley would have RBA eaten even if they lose Jaw.

They wouldn't go through with it because they seem to lack other qualified warrior candidates.

I think Magath and maybe Zeke would have tried to convince the government to not go through with it and that Reiner might have been the only one sacrificed.

Obviously. They would have indisputable proof that sending a bunch of kids to carry out a massively important mission is the dumbest shit they could have ever done and immediately they'd put the titans into older soldiers.

They'd let them live a few more years just for propaganda and used them for other battles, then they'd have them killed around their midterm.

Possibly, but they put a lot of time, effort, and money into training their warriors. It would be a big decision to execute all of them and start over. Maybe they would have executed Reiner as an example.

WHAT’S THE FORECAST FOR TONIGHT? 295 Responses

In our least-serious question of the poll, we asked you guys to try and predict the weather based on Bertolt’s sleeping pose. 18.3% believe his legs-on-the-wall pose means clear skies, 13.9% are certain it means rain. 13.6% are confident in an overcast night. At 11.5% foresee storms coming and 11.2% think it’s gonna be snow. 18% are probably just annoyed with the question. A few write-ins pointed out that Bertolt was, indeed, sleeping in the Hanged Man Pose.

It’s gonna be partly guilt ridden old man with a 90% chance of suicide by hanging

Blood and guts

HOW IS THAT EVEN COMFORTABLE?

Let's just call it hail

Hanged man posture, dreamed about the old man

raining titans

No one can make me like the warriors even if I don't blame them for what they were forced to do as kids. idc what quirky habits they have.

There'll be clear skies for some time but don't be deceived, heavy rain is incoming

This was amazing because it's a reference to The Hanging Man on Tarot cards: he's willingly being hanged for his sins. Look it up, it's so cool.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAPPA CUTTING A GOOD CHUNK OF REINER’S TRAINING? 302 Responses

With only 20(ish) minutes to fit in all of Reiner’s backstory, cuts were inevitable. MAPPA made the decision to nerf most of Reiner’s struggles training as a Warrior Cadet (among a couple other more lengthy scenes during and after the wall breach). 62.9% are sad that some of these scenes didn’t make the cut, but also understand that we can’t have it all. 13.2% actually preferred seeing Reiner’s backstory in MAPPA’s condensed version, while 12.9% feel it completely ruins the characterization of the warriors.

I don't even remember what was cut 😂

Slightly ruined the warriors’ characterisations (especially Reiner’s)

I thought they could have shown a bit more about Reiner's underdog, it's something that really made me sympathise with him in the manga. 

Kinda disappointed, since some scenes were essential for a little background on their lives

Honestly, even after all the cuts and the restrains it tells the story of a "warrior", Reiner.

Mappa fucked RBA backstory and I would bet it's because they are biased towards Eren and 104th...

I wouldn't say it ruined their characterisation, but it did leave it a lot more shallow. I would've loved to see those scenes animated, but I also realise that things will have to be cut to fit everything in, and I think these cuts still preserve the forward momentum of the story reasonably well. 

The important scenes were animated, so it's good that way

MAPPA cannot animate every panel and the best will be, if fandom finally understands that. Every episode has limited amount of time and MAPPA is doing everything they can to make episodes good and easy to understand for anime onlies. I was fine with cutting because I know that episodes aren't long and there are more important stuff to animate than every part of training.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT NOT SEEING ANNIE PARTICIPATING IN THE FIRST WALL BREACH? 298 Responses

MAPPA completely glossed over Annie’s role in the wall breach, showing her being choked by Reiner and then waking up in the refugee camp later. 40.9% state they would have preferred seeing Annie play her part in the mission, though they accept that it isn’t there. 34.6% are concerned that those who don’t read the manga will just be confused as to where Annie was during all of the chaos (Oh no! Did RB leave her passed out in the fields!?). 16.1% are simply just disappointed altogether. A small fraction felt it wasn’t necessary anyway and have no problems with the cut. 

I feel kinda iffy about it because that was one of my favorite parts of the chapter, but oh well... it is what it is.

Kenny's scene should be eliminated.

I mean it's not like the female titan could destroy the walls herself. I think nobody expects it and then her absence makes sense

Yams did an oopsie in the first place retconing 

It really confused me lol for a moment I completely forgot what she even did in the manga and had to reread

KNOWING NOW THAT ANNIE IS ACTUALLY ADOPTED, DOES THE JOKE ABOUT HER BEING KENNY’S LOST DAUGHTER HIT DIFFERENTLY NOW? 299 Responses

We learn after Annie comes out of the crystal that her father is actually an adoptive parent. Annie, in an attempt to cover up why she’s stalking Kenny in the underground, claims (or jokes) that she was born to a brothel worker and is Kenny’s lost daughter. We asked if this made the joke any less funny to readers, though most of them didn’t think so at all. Only 14% of respondents say the new knowledge actually makes it a little sad. Some people forgot entirely that Annie is adopted and voiced their confusion in the write-ins. 

wait,,,,, she.,,,, she's adopted ??? wha- how did i completely forget about this

Kenny's gay anyway so it's impossible! Sorry, Annie :/

I don't really get this joke tbh 😅 Do people think she and Kenny look alike?

We're all Kenny's lost daughter

It just brings into question her true parentage, like how she can scream summon other Titans and if that’s a royal blood thing or not. But probably doesn’t matter since it hasn’t come up in the manga yet 

I hadn't thought about it before today.

She's adopted?!?

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAPPA’S EXECUTION OF REINER’S ATTEMPTED SUICIDE? 302 Responses

With such a weighty scene, execution is of utmost importance. So we were curious if you guys felt that MAPPA hit the mark. Overall, MAPPA’s take on this scene got positive responses from the fandom, with 42.4% feeling they felt about the same as they did when the scene came up in the manga. 26.5% actually thought that MAPPA did a better job with the scene, whereas 26.2% felt that Isayama’s original take on the scene is still superior. 

I think that while the manga's intent is for the reader to feel Reiner's pain and emotions during what he thought were his last moments, the anime focuses much more on making it disturbing and depressing (both taking into account the same things, just choosing to highlight different aspects of the scene). Not a bad change but I prefer the manga's portayal, it made me feel so much more attached to Reiner

Actual scene was good, but the build up was lacking.

I really liked the flipping back and forth 

Not nearly as emotional as I expected

The lighting was so good in the anime version. 

Bruh we needed the flashbacks cause they depicted Reiner's journey and regrets

I think it was more impactful in the manga, but MAPPA did it amazing too

The scene looked more serious but the building of the characters didn't live up for the moment. 

It impacted me differently than in the manga. I prefer the manga scene, but the anime's was still really good

I was worried about it being overly censored so I’m glad it wasn’t 

The execution was about the same, but it had a bigger impact when you read it for the first time

The drool was a great touch

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING CUTS WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED DIDN’T MAKE THE EPISODE? 292 Responses

While we shouldn’t dwell on cuts too much, there will still be things that people are disappointed didn’t make it into the anime. The scenes which were most missed this week were Annie’s role in the wall breach, Reiner passing along a tired Annie over to Bertolt atop the wall, RBA discussing their infiltration plans in the field (also known as the tree-uprooting scene), seeing Bertolt, Annie and Marcel surpassing Reiner in their training, and Reiner breaking up Eren and Jean’s fight (noticing Annie is exhausted). Well, at least the manga still exists, right?

I wish they didnt cut some of the flashbacks right before Reiner tried to kill himself. 

Really great episode, but Bertholdt looking up at the wall before breaking it was such an iconic panel, I'm a bit sad

Any cuts are a negative. I dont care how much it makes sense for the anime onlies, I just wish they somehow incorporate some of the small slice of life scenes that made the Marley arc special.

Truly loved it despite cuts and pacing, but just wish we could’ve seen that tree uprooting scene!

I still hold the sentiment that Mappa is cutting way too much from these episodes. The amount of small details getting cut from every chapter/episode results in losing out on smaller moments that in my opinion have a real impact. While I understand a 1 to 1 replica might not be possible, the amount of cuts is too much imo. Missing out on nearly all of RBA assaulting Shiganshina was a huge disappointment, and less Falco and Gabi scenes makes it tough for me to connect to them. Talking to my Anime-only friends though, they are very into this season, so I'm glad to hear it works for them. 

I'm not necessarily sad they cut so much, I feel like as an Anime only I wouldn't have noticed! The only thing I wish that had been kept was Annie's involvement in the destruction of wall Maria. 

I was sad they cut stuff but that’s inevitable.  The only cut I’m sad about is the scene before Bertholdt  breaks the wall.

some of the cuts made sense, some made other scenes kind of occur out of nowhere, like annie with kenny.

SO FAR, WE’VE LOST A FEW INTERACTIONS BETWEEN FALCO AND GABI AND SOME MOMENTS WHERE FALCO IS BLUSHING OVER HER. DO YOU THINK THIS WILL LESSEN THE IMPACT OF HIS EVENTUAL LOVE CONFESSION TO HER? 296 Responses

While the Falbi romance isn’t a major focal point of the series, it does play a big part in their storyline and overall character development as their involvement in the plot increases. MAPPA has had to let a few scenes go, so we were curious if manga readers felt it would lessen the impact of Falco’s inevitable confession just before the rumbling starts. 31.4% feel that the anime is doing just fine at portraying Falco’s feelings. 28.4% feel the impact will be lessened, but that it’s fine due to it being a minor plot point anyway. 14.5% are upset about the missing pieces and 11.8% think MAPPA will make up for it later. Smaller groups of voters either don’t understand why Falco likes Gabi or just don’t care. 

I'm more dissapointed about Zofia and Udo getting cut than those two.

Kid romance is lame anyway

It's not gonna hit like the manga but it's still pretty important plot imo

What works on paper doesn't always work animated, they're doing ok 

I hate gabi gahh

It is obvious he likes her anyway

Not really, they've established he has a big crush on her since he pretty much came out and told it to Eren

DO YOU THINK MAPPA DID A GOOD JOB OF HIDING EREN IN PLAIN SIGHT? 297 Responses

We failed to ask this question last week, but it still applied well to this week’s episode. When it came to anime only fans, we wondered whether manga readers felt MAPPA did a good job at making him as mysterious to anime watchers as Isayama did to us manga readers. 40.1% felt that MAPPA did a great job, as many anime watchers didn’t seem to catch on. 25.6% feel that they didn’t do any worse or better than Isayama did. 13.8% feel MAPPA did not do as well as Isayama, as some anime watchers easily caught on. 9.4% think they did completely awful at pretending it’s not Eren. Some write-ins felt we couldn’t objectively judge this as we already knew it was Eren anyway. 

I think the voice gave it away the most. The sneaky animation was great! 

Hard to answer because chapters were a month apart while episodes are weekly and I’ve already read the manga when it came out

well, I can't say much about this. since I know he is eren, I was just focusing on how Kaji Yuki will handle this important speech

They even didn't try to hide him. I'm disappointed because I wanted anime onlines to feel what we - manga readers - felt, when after few chapters we found that the hobo man was Eren. 

I honestly didn't even realize he was supposed to be hidden from the readers/viewers at this point. It was so obviously him in the manga and the anime. Genuinely confused by how many people did not catch on. 

Watching some reactors they were like "...wait...that *looks* like Eren...but his leg is amputated...his leg would've grown back??" but as soon as you heard his voice it was instantaneous 

I, being a manga reader, had a hard time getting how you couldn't see that it was Eren, but some of my friend only got it at the last scene.

Hard to say. WIth the manga, it took me a few reads to catch on, but now that I KNOW, it's hard to say anything.

Yes, I'm watching the episodes with my anime-only friend and he still hasn't figured it out

I think they did a good job, but with anime being the medium it was easier to guess due to both hair/eye color and voice.

It was nice, I was actually surprised that some of my anime only friends didn't even realize that it was Eren talking to Falco this episode

When Eren was finally revealed in the manga, I was *shocked! I had *no clue that was him! I think the anime did a great job, but of course had to reveal him sooner. It was perfect both in manga and anime imo.

It's obviously him once you see his eyes, but I don't think that the animation team were trying to make it a big shock reveal, they want this scene to say "this is probably Eren, but can you be 100% sure" to keep anime onlys engaged and reassure them that the main cast is still relevant.

Yes, but the manga hid him better, it took me way too long to realise it was him while reading

HOW WAS KAJI YUKI’S DELIVERY ON EREN’S SPEECH TO FALCO? 299 Responses

The vast majority of respondents were very pleased with Kaji Yuji’s delivery on one of Eren’s most prominent speeches. 38.1% felt it was exactly as they had hoped it would be. 28.1% were extremely happy, and feel that any delivery by Kaji Yuki as Eren will be 100% spot-on. 24.7% are simply just content with it. Smaller fragments of respondents just wanted to voice their thirst, or felt that the delivery could have been better. 

Better than I could have ever imagined

I don't really care

Eren is the best main character ever

Not my native language so I can't really tell how good it is, but Kaji's delivery seemed about right

It was a bit fast but good

Very good. You get a real sense of how clueless but trying to be tough Eren really is.

EREN TELLS FALCO HE HOPES FALCO LIVES A LONG LIFE. KNOWING WHAT WE DO NOW, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM SAYING THIS? 298 Responses

Eren already knows he will bring destruction upon the world, so it’s a wonder why he would bother telling Falco he hopes Falco will have a long life. 64.8% believe that he truly means it from the bottom of his heart, despite knowing his future actions will likely affect Falco. 10.7% believe he said this because he has already seen that Falco will survive the Rumbling. 10.1% aren’t really sure what to make of it at all. Smaller numbers of people think Eren was only trying to gain Falco’s trust and didn’t mean it at all, or believe that Falco will take part in Eren’s eventual demise and Eren is already aware of that. 

He saw him in his memories so imma believe what he says

I'm sure there is part of Eren that hopes for a good long life for Falco. Just like there was part of him that couldn't help but save the refugee kid. But that doesn't mean he isn't any less dedicated to his plan to genocide a whole lot of people. He has his conflicts, but in the end he's still going ahead with the attack on the square and later with the rumbling.

I think it's the same deal as him saving the immigrant kid when he knew that he would die in the rumbling.

In an ideal world Eren would want *everyone* to live a long life--he's been portrayed as someone who cries and disassociates while he commits his genocide so we're meant to understand he doesn't enjoy it. Sadly it doesn't matter what he hopes or wants when he's decided murdering everyone is what has to be done..

THE PREVIEW SHOWED PIECK AND PORCO NEXT TO REINER AT THE DAYTIME FESTIVAL. THIS WAS NOT IN THE MANGA. WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS MEANS ABOUT POSSIBLE ANIME-ONLY ADDITIONS? 298 Responses

Many of our respondents seem to be looking forward to Pieck and Porco’s inclusion in the daytime festival. 47% are hopeful that this will mean some wholesome bonding scenes between the Warriors and the kids. 26.5% don’t know what to make of it, but are looking forward to it nonetheless. A handful of people think it will be similar to how WIT included Sasha in the Clash arc - adding minor details without changing anything in the story-line. 7% wish that MAPPA wasn’t doing this at all, and 5% are hopeful this means that MAPPA will find a way to repurpose Pieck crawling on all fours next episode. 

I still want Pieck butt

IN THAT SAME VEIN, IT SEEMS LIKE EPISODE 4 WILL ADAPT CHAPTERS 97 AND 98, ENDING ON THE FINAL PANEL OF 98. HOWEVER, THE VAST MAJORITY OF CHAPTER 97 WAS ALREADY ADAPTED IN LAST WEEK’S EPISODE. WHAT WILL THIS MEAN FOR EPISODE 4? 293 Responses

Who wants to place bets on the contents of next episode? While the largest chunk of people don’t know what to expect in episode 4, others are happy to speculate. 19.8% feel (or are at least hopeful) that MAPPA will fill in some screen time by repurposing already-skipped scenes. 19.1% feel that there will be minor additions, but not too much. A solid 16% feel that there will be a few anime only additions during the daytime festival. 10.9% are placing bets that episode 4 will actually bleed into chapter 100 before the end.

Mappa won't have to cut a lot of stuff like they did to ep 3

The title "From One Hand to Another" immediately made me think we would actually be getting Eren grasping Reiner's hand and transforming at the end (meaning chapters 100 and 101), but that's just so much. The title may just refer to Magath and Willy's handshake. 

What about just enjoying the show?

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 298 Responses

As expected of the fandom! Reiner and Eren’s reunion is the most anticipated scene for episode 4, with 74.8% having voted for that. 17.1% are most looking forward to the daytime festival, and 6% are excited to meet Willy in anime form for the first time. One commenter is very invested in the banquet and how it’s executed. 

Not this ep but if they cut the Udo and Kiyomi scene I'll RIOT!

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I'm upset so much was cut from Reiner's backstory but the cinematography is freakin' excellent I can't even complain

*cheers MAPPA animators for their hard work* ... Perfect for anime onlies, I think. Made me almost wish I hadn't read the manga so I wouldn't have missed the cut scenes.

Cuts aside, the animation was much better than the previous episodes. 

"The one scene I really wanted was Bertholdt looking over the wall and seeing the EMA trio. Of all the cuts, I think that was the only one that was damaging to the story. I also kind of wish that MAPPA animated the reused scenes. I kind of like comparing and contrasting the animation styles of both studios so its a bit of shame that we didn't get anything new from Episode 1.

I'm really impressed with how much MAPPA is managing to squeeze in each episode and I'm content that Reiner's flashback was covered in a single episode rather than two. It just makes sense pacing-wise. The only real criticism I have is that in the flashback scenes where everyone is supposed to be 12 years old, they don't sound 12 at all. Their voices are way too mature, especially the males, and I understand they're voiced by adults, but I feel like they could have at least tried to sound more like kids. Other than that, great episode.

Elaborating on the missing content: they really shouldn’t have cut Annie’s transformation prior to wall Maria being breached. It makes it look like Reiner choked her out and then a minute later bert was kicking the wall through. 

I'm in the boat, where i think it wouldve been better if Mappa didnt cut out so much, but considering what there is to cover, we will live,but i hope they dont end up butchering everything Also the bit with reiner’s dad would be confusing to anime-onlies since it cross-cuts between that scene and him on the parade. I’ve seen some reactors think it was a daydream, or that he left during the parade. 

It was quite rushed, but I understand why they did it, the flashback wouldn't have been as impactful over 2 episodes, and I do think when the Marley arc was first introduced in the manga, manga readers were quite inpatient to get back to the main cast, so they might be feeding off that feedback. 

Mappa has become my favorite studio of all time. Not just in regards to anime, but studios in general. Their discography is on another level (imo) and the fact that on top of every other masterpiece they’ve made, they’re doing an outstanding job with my favorite series of all time just solidifies them as the first and probably the only anime studio that I can truly Stan.

Lots of (I think) Important stuff cut, but the meat is still in place. I like my meat to be juicy and marbled, while Mappa cut out all the fat that makes for a flavorful meal. I completely understand why and I am apathetic about it.

disliked the fact the wall breach was so quickly glossed over, and the transition between mappa and wit style was jarring to say the least

Regardless of the cuts, i think it flows together nicely. The anime has always been more speedy than the manga so i kind of expected this. I don't think it'll get as bad as s3 part 1 in terms of pacing. I trust in Mappa, so far i haven't been disappointed at all. The animation and backgrounds are absolutely stunning. That warrior titan sequence was incredibly well done. Props to the animators!

It was a bit confusing mishmash of scenes, but there were some good moments sprinkled in like the introduction of all of Marley's titans. The emotional reactions, however, just weren't the same as they were when reading the manga, to be honest.

I’m really glad they cut the part with RBA hanging onto Female/Armoured neck by a rope. That whole thing seemed stupid to me. Doesn’t match up with previous chapters and I feel like SOMEONE would have noticed two kids hanging onto the Armoured Titan’s neck. 

I think MAPPA is doing a really good job so far, can't wait to see the battle in Liberio. I'm not bothered at all with the CG titans because firstly, they look really good, and secondly, I understand why they had to do it. I also hope they don't censor many things or cut out some dark scenes that are important to the season because I would love to see everything animated. 

Felt like watching a recap episode... And it wasn't supposed to be one, so

I'm really dissapointed that mappa cut so many things from manga. Reiner's backstory is my favoure part of snk. Suicide scene completly lacks impact. 

I really dislike the fact that MAPPA is trying to show only bad side of the marleyan officers. They removed the gate guards, they removed the scene where Magath is telling RBA to stay safe (on Paradis). One of the best parts of the manga is showing that the both races (Eldians and Marleyans) have good and bad sides. By removing positive aspects of Marleyans MAPPA is creating totally different picture. This way the anime onlines may find the whole rumbling even more justified. The episode was pretty good and the OST has made some scenes to feel more dark and serious (especially the moment where the new titans are introduced), but sometimes I feel like the characters are speaking and acting way too fast. I was waiting for the scene with Kenny and Annie, but it took only like few second and was cut. I love MAPPA's version of Kenny. He has more serious aura and looks more like his manga counterpart. In other words;  wrinkled grandpa with skinny neck :) 

It honestly wasn’t my favorite, but I still loved it. I feel as though they skipped around a lot and there wasn’t a lot of scenes that actually tied together and I’m worried anime only watchers might get confused. Definitely some of the stuff I wanted to see animated didn’t make the cut, but I still love the animation style, the characters and the story!

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 285 Responses

Thank you to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again next episode.

[greekbros]

"greek-Bros: The Return of an Old Enemy"

Chapter 11: A Joust Worth Remembering!

It was late afternoon, around 4 o'clock in the afternoon to our clock. Crowds gather to the center ring, ready for the evening's big event, Dionysus's joust. On opposite sides, Dionysus and Ares stood like two forces of nature. Ares prepared his chariot, now being pulled by Delphi's most capable mules, glared at Dionysus from across the ring. Dionysus, stared back not as a proud and fierce as the bulls he's compared to, but more of a scared fawn looking straight at the wolf eyeing it.

He glances at Hermes, Apollo and Ariadne whom were sitting within the crowd, feeling a little courage, he rides his chariot slowly towards to the ring, Ares following soon after, he clears his throat, "LADIES, GENTLEMEN AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN AND BEYOND! I give you the joust of the millenia! Me, your humble ruler versus Ares!", he reached his arm out to show the crowd a begrudged Ares. "May the best god win!", he finished his speech, he felt a cold sweat run down his tempal. "Okie dokie, just relax-", he looked again to Hermes and Apollo, he could see them both had a glint in their eyes, "-you guys better have done a good job, I can't bare losing her.", he quietly whispered to himself.

Ares however, was revved up like an angry boar, ready to once again gouge his prey. He clenched his teeth as if he was going to go for the jugular. "I'm going to wreck your shit Dio.", he growled through his teeth. He and Dionysus both stopped a little parallel to each other, setting their positions for the joust. The two chariots were ready, the lances pointing to each other....and the chariots darted to each other as if time itself slowed to a crawl. Things were looking like they were going according to plan, but fate is a force even the gods can't predict. It was going to come on four legs, orange fur and long whiskers.

Back at the food tent, the little lycan pup was still rummaging through the cloths and pillows, now all shredded open creating a storm of down feathers. He played and leaped, knawed and ravaged the pillows as if they were rabbits. Until, he heard a mew, just outside the tent. All his attention went from enjoying himself, to finding the thing that made the noise. Sniffing the air, his nose lead to the corner of ravaged tent, again a mew was heard. He poked his head from under the tent, seeing a stray cat. The pup had no idea what a cat was, but he hated it like any self respecting canidae. He gave the most hardy growl his little body could muster and barked. The cat arched, hairs on end and it hissed. The pup matched ferocity with the cat, barking again he gave chase, determined to hunt it. The car let out a yowl and ran off, the cat and pup both have way to a cat and mouse chase throughout the feild. Several Delphians saw this oddly shaped wolf pup chasing the cat, some knowing very well this was no dog, it was definitely something of a beast. The pup chased the cat....into the jousting field.

Within the meaningless seconds, Ares felt victory was a red dye tipped lance away, "oh I can't wait to see the look on that fatass's face when I get take Delphi for myself!", he thought to himself. He could feel the warm wave of confidence run down his back and the cool breeze of the chariot's speed. His face with a manic grin, contrary to Dionysus's look of fear and worry. All Dionysus could do was hope that he wouldn't lose everything he cared for.

Ares it seemed had the joust set, until he saw a flash of orange followed by a little blurr of greyish brown. "Wait wh-", suddenly just time began to start walking instead of crawling, he heard the haunting sound of something breaking. He looked to his right and saw the wheel broke right off it's wheelhub, while at the same time, the sight of the two beasts of burdens frightened the chariot mules. The mules reared back, braying in fear of the fast moving things. The same had happened to Dionysus's mules, but he quickly reacted to the situation. He tugged at the riens as hard as he could, and tugged to his right and the whole chariot took a remarkable slide. Just narrowly avoiding hitting Ares's chariot.

It's an incredible chaos! As Ares's chariot continues to crash down to the dirt, the mules struggling with the yoke and shaft, Dionysus's mules grind to a halt and both gods seem to have lost control. The two gods, now more concerned about not dieing from an unfortunate chariot accident, where orbiting the field in a cloud of dust.

The whole joust had become the world's most heavenly mess. Hermes looked at Apollo, mildly glaring at him, all Apollo could do is gawk like everyone in the crowd. He looked at Hermes to see if he was enjoying the sight as much as he was but it was clear Hermes was more mildly upset. "What did YOU do?", Hermes asked. Even he wanted to know what did Apollo do to help sabotage Ares, because even Hermes himself wouldn't have thought of something as simple as messing with the chariot.

Apollo blushed a little with childish shame, "oh nothing much.....I just loosened a thing...or two.", he explained that he loosened the wheelhub to make sure it was guaranteed the wheel would fly off.", Hermes was dumbfounded yet actually impressed at the simplicity of it all.

Next to Apollo, Ariadne was worried about Dionysus, hoping he didn't hurt himself too much. "Oh no my dearest Dionysus! Please let him be alright.", she worried out loud. Apollo gave her a friendly pay on her shoulder.

"There there, he's been through worse.", Apollo assured her. He noticed a few people shouting and asking about the joust's results. Did Ares win? Or Did Dionysus win? As the dust cleared, both chariots, both pair of mules and both gods, in a pile of a kerfuffle. Ares rubbed his hurting head, all he could remember was something whizzing through the jousting feild and BOOM, now he was laying on the side of his own chariot...belly down. His thoughts started to collect and he than quickly remembered the wheel, now fuming with anger.

Dionysus, still reeling from his epic drift, was seeing stars for a few seconds. His thoughts ran as fast as the stars did and he felt a pit in his stomach and sinking in his heart. He shook his head, as he noticed a bright, green mark on Ares's left thigh. His gaping mouth quickly transformed into a smile, he had won by luck itself. Before Ares could turn around to strangle Dionysus, a satyr shouts "LORD DIONYSUS IS THE WINNER!". The crowd roared with cheer and merriment for their patron god had won as expected. Ariadne leaps up and cheered, she hastily went to Dionysus to hug the big fool. "You could have gotten yourself hurt!", Ariadne gave him a slap on the face, but just as quickly she was furious, she hugged him again. Relieved that he's alright. Dionysus picked her up, embracing her, he was relieved that she wasn't going to be trinketed away to his war mongering brother.

Ares was confused, he looked all over his body and found that bright green paint on his thigh, it stuck out like a sore thumb, evidence of his defeat. He looked at the cheering crowd and saw Apollo and Hermes both giggling, it was clear what had happened. Those two had sabotaged him, all this because his "whiny brother was a sore loser and couldn't stand loosing in front of his adoring followers" his thoughts roared. He stood there, stewing in his own anger. He growl, snarled, and baired his teeth but he took a deep breath, knowing well that if all of this calamity happened, it was obvious it wasn't written in the stars. He huffed and snorted like a bull, he wasn't going to dignify Dionysus with a congratulations. He stormed off, to find his horses and someone to fix his chariot.

About an hour later, after Dionysus's decree of curfew had to be upheld as promised, Ares was still at the stables, waiting for his chariot to be fixed by a supposed reputable repair nymph. He sat down on a stool, brooding his loss of the perfect training ground for an army he would have to wait another century. "Bastard drunk asshole, I swear if that golden twink and thieving gnat Hermes didn't fuck up my chances...hmf. I would have won.....I want a rema-" suddenly, he heard the sniffling and whinnying of a dog. He turned his head to the sound, and slowly followed it to a pile of empty barrels. He looked inside some of the barrels, he moved some aside, he couldn't seem to find the sound. Than, he finally found the source, it was the little pup.

It had seemed that shortly after he and the cat zoomed across the field, their chase ensued. He and the cat had a tussle, they 'battled' it out but towards the end, the pup lost to the cat's claws. A scratch across his little snout, few on his body and arms, tears running down his face, poor thing had its first taste of defeat with a little side of pain. Ares watched on, just wondering who would put this poor misshapen dog in tattered clothes. "To make my day even worse, these drunken fools decided to defile an innocent dog. Well... No use having two souls suffer...", he leaned down and saw the pitiful little, "hey buddy.", he spoke softly.

The lycan pup looked up, perked his ears in shock and let out a little snarl. To the pup, Ares was a towering opponent, he was going to do everything to defend himself. Ares however, was actually curious about the pup, it was definitely a funny looking dog with oddly long arms, legs and paws. He gently picks the pup by the scruff of his tattered chiton, as he does so, the pup grabs on to his forearm and knaws on the bareskin. The pup tried to dig in deep but even his little sharp teeth couldn't break Ares's skin.

Ares gave a hardy chuckle, "You have a lot fire in you, ugh buddy? I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what kinda dog you are....Fuck it, you'll make a fine addition to my pack little one...I think I'll name you.....Ajax.", he scratched the pup behind his ear with his free hand. The pup suddenly relaxed as he felt the pleasant starching of a persistent itch had gone, his tail wagged with glee and even relaxed his grip on Ares's forearm, letting Ares carry him like a small child. Delighted, Ares carried him to his chariot to bring back to Olypmus.

Back at Dionysus's veranda, the boys were enjoying a late afternoon cup of wup. Apollo was playing his lyre while Hermes, Ariadne and Dionysus relaxed after helping the citizens put away the maritals from the games. Dionysus with Ariadne in one arm and a kylix in the other hand, "man, that was great...did you see that sweet drift, I knew Ares was going to do something weird so I ha-?", he drunkenly went on.

"Dionysus love, you know very well you didn't plan anything.", Ariadne included. She was playing with his curly, thick locks. Dionysus blushed a little on top of his rosey glow of wine, laid the side of his head on to her, "yes darling.", he responded, "shame Ares couldn't stay for our little celebration.", he said with an air of irony. Apollo looked at Dionysus and shook his head, he knew he was just mostly relieved about Ares losing.

Hermes was swirling around his kylix, he started to ponder about the event and how did it go so wrong. He knew he and Apollo had sufficiently sabotaged Ares and his chariot yet the beginning of the joust just felt odd, he felt something was going and that a perfectly simple day wasn't going to end on a high note somehow. "Say....did anyone actually see what that THING that ran in between you guys were?", he asked taking a sip of the wine.

The rest of them all started to ponder as well, Dionysus clicked his tounge, ".....maybe it was just a dog chasing a cat or something.....", he bluntly put it. "Wait....do we have dogs in Delphi?", he asked Ariadne.

"Of course we have dogs in Delphi, Dionysus. Many of our farmers have herding dogs to protect the livestock.", she responded.

Apollo chimed in, "hmm.....yes it could....but didn't the dog look off too? It looked a little lanky....and...also....did anyone knoticed the dog.....wearing a tunic?". He hopeed someone around knew what he had seen.

This comment sent shivers down Hermes's spine, he suddenly remembered his encounter with the wolf creature. "Ugh.....you guys don't think it was-", he was interrupted by the sound of Kale.

Kale strutted towards the gods, "My Lord Dionysus, the citizens would like to express their gratitude and appreciation for your entertaining performance this evening....buuuut there was a small complaint.", he eloquently noted.

Dionysus was a little surprised about this news, "what complaint?", he asked. To his knowledge the whole thing was a success regardless of the terrible bet that had taken place behind closed curtains.

Kale, with little to no hesitation, "Well the main food tent was absolutely FuCkInG destroyed, someone ate all the roasted goat, most of the breads and ugh absolutely RUINED the furnishings I worked so hard placing. I am just floored, my Lord.", he let out a depressed sigh.

Dionysus was confused, did someone break in the food tent or was this just evidence of an animal attack? He cleared his throat, "ugh, I am so sorry about that, Kale, I saw it earlier in the morning it looked really nice. Did anyone see anything?", he asked, he just hoped it wasn't what he thought it was.

Kale composes himself a little with a deep light breath, "well it looked like animal was in there...but it could have been some kid in a wolf costume or something just making mischief.", he deducted. However, Delphians weren't known for pulling such pranks, even for misbehaving youths, this would be considered to be in poor taste considering the farming population.

Ariadne slowly looked to Dionysus, suspecting he knew about something. "An animal you say?", she asked. The hair on the back of Dionysus's neck stand on end, his MAN senses were tingling, and his wife was in on it. He chuckled nervously, "maaaaybe it was just a stray dog?", his reassuring comment wasn't going to be enough.

However, Kale wasn't helping. "Well....a few people did see what came out of the tent, they saw it chase a cat all over the event field. It looked a tiny baby wolf in a chiton? I mean what kind of depraved jerk would put clothes on a wolf?". This was the final nail in the coffin, at least for Dionysus's chances of sleeping in the same villa as Ariadne.

She let out a huff, crossed her arms and crossed her legs. "What is going on Dionysus,I thought I told you not to go on with this whole thing if you KNEW if there were those beasts out there.", she was stern and her eyes could be comparable to Hera's stare of marital disappointment.

Dionysus, tried to avoid the conversation and sipped his kylix. He looked off to the side like a child who did something wrong. Hermes entered into the conversation, "Ugh to be fair, it was a BABY...and..ugh...there was just one...so...ugh...I guess it didn't do anything.", Inspite of this argument, he knew this meant that there was definitely more if these wolf creatures. "Ugh...you didn't see where it went...did you?", he asked Kale.

Scratching his meticulously groomed goatee, Kale nodded 'yes', 'I believe some of the attendees saw it run off into the field or "something" of that direction.", he replied.

Dionysus leaped up, "than it's gone! Good, let's all just hit the hay and get some sleep!", he spoke in a happy voice of a man who knew he was in deep trouble. He felt Ariadne gently pull his ear, his body flowed to the direction of Ariadne.

She gave that small smile that deceptively masked her frustration, "Dio... sweetie......you're sleeping with the leopards....not for a wekk....but for a month.", she gently whispered in his ear, patted him on his face. Regardless if she was angry with Dionysus, it seemed by the end of the day no one actually got hurt. She turn around to walk back home, "Goodnight, gentlemen.", she left right back.

The four gentlemen were all standing by themselves watching Ariadne leave, Apollo sighed and turned to Dionysus. "So....where do the leopards sleep?", he asked Dionysus.

Dionysus stared at Ariadne with loving relief. "Well, they sleep....that way.", he pointed towards the dimly lit forested yard were many of his leopards roamed freely. He scratched his chin, satisfied with the whole situation, it could have been worse yet it could have been better. Now his only priority, is to find a soft place to sleep. Before he did so, he turned to Kale and his brothers. "Kale, tell NO ONE of this weird dog shit, deny EVERYTHING and ugh....tell anyone who asked it was leopard. Hermes, Apollo, tommorow....we go and talk to dad about this. Now...I'm going to get serious.", as he said this, tripped on a raised rug and fell over on a pile of lounge pillow. "I'm ok... actually this is pretty comfy....", he muffled.

Apollo and Hermes looked down at Dionysus, wondering if they should help, but there's a likely chance he probably has already dosed off.

[masterthespianduchovny]

Early on, Severus learned that life wasn’t fair.

He knew that he either had to accept it or drown in things he couldn’t control. Life was hard and unforgiving, but he was a stubborn kid. He refused to accept his circumstances at home and refused to back down at Hogwarts.

Nothing was handed to him in life. Severus had to work for everything, which was fine by him. No one could ever say he wasn’t deserving of anything he earned.

He arrived in Norway with not enough money for food and board. Slept under a bridge until he got his first paycheck, and then rented the poorest, dingiest accommodations he could find with his first paycheck.

He grew up in poverty. What he lived in now was better than where he came from.

But it wasn’t easy.

Living on the streets and looking for a job.

Without an address, many didn’t want to employ him. However, he was determined. He didn’t leave his home and Hogwarts behind to die on the streets in a foreign land.

Severus applied for every apprentice position he could find. Every single one turned him down. Refusing for that to dissuade him working, he offered to do maintenance work. Clean the shop, put away items, and whatever miscellaneous work needed to be done.

He was hired on the spot.

Admittedly, Severus was severely underpaid, but it didn’t deter him. This was only temporary. He’d find something better.

Within a few months, something better found him.

He’d heard a group students arguing about the ingredients of a potions brew. One of the students lack confidence in their answer and the other had 100% belief that they were right. The group went with the confident person, which infuriated Severus.

“Idiots,” he spat. “If you’re the best Durmstrang has to offer, no wonder many parents are sending their kids to Hogwarts. Don’t worry about failing potions, you’ll be dead before the professor can even assess it. He may be a spineless fool,” Severus nodded to the kid who initially disagreed with the overly confident teen. “But at least his brew won’t kill the lot of you...unfortunately.”

Storming out of the deli, Snape prepared for a duel as he discreetly got his wind. Sourly, he chastised himself. This was the first day in weeks he treated himself out to eat because he had to penny-pinch to make ends meet. If the original brew wouldn’t have resulted in death, he would’ve kept his mouth closed. Now he had to fight a group of boys, which gave him a flashback of his time at Hogwarts.

As predicted, the boys attempted to attack him. As Severus prepared to defend himself, someone intervened.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” The man looked at the six of them.

“Nothing,” the man repeated. “Well, the six of you will be doing nothing or SOMETHING in detention with me for the next month.”

Severus pocketed his wand. “I don’t go to Durmstrang,” he said. “I won’t be doing shit with you.”

Assessing him, the man raised an eyebrow, and then glanced at the guy he’d been walking with. “You’re not a student and you’re not a local, there’s no accent. What are you doing here?”

Inwardly, Severus sighed.

When the school term started, he realized he was in the vicinity of where durmstrang was located. Although he didn’t know where the school was nor did he attempt to look, it was quite obvious. The shops that primarily existed for students, the crowding every weekend, the adults who appeared to be monitoring kids.

Naturally, since no one knew where Durmstrang was if they weren’t a student, teacher, or anyone directly affiliated with the school, those who were were suspicious.

“Looking for an apprentice position. I didn’t finish my seventh year, so no Master was interested in taking me on,” he groused.

“Ha,” one boy exclaimed. “You couldn’t even pass your seventh year and you’re calling us idiots?”

Fuming, Severus said, “I did not fail my seventh year, I left. Besides, there was nothing left to teach me that I hadn’t already taught myself. Your potion brew solution is pathetic and if you want to die as a result of incompetence, perhaps they’ll include you in lesson books as to what not to do.”

The other man spoke, “How was their brew pathetic?”

Severus noted the time. “Ask them yourself, they’d love to dazzle you with their stupidity.”

The man scoffed. “Just like I suspected. A bloke full of himself who has nothing to show for it. No wonder none of the masters wanted you as their apprentice.”

Scathingly, Severus explained how and why the potion brew was incompetence at its finest. That him brewing with dirty utensils would be a safer option than whatever this group of boys could do in perfect conditions. Severus cited his Hogwarts issued potions book, which he pointed out was outdated, and said that he’d trusted that over what he heard the boys discuss (and he’d stopped using the books as a source to brew from after his fourth year).

Smiling, the man said, “My name is Rodolphous Sweeney. I own the potions shop two blocks over. I’d like to talk to you more about your potions knowledge.”

“I need to get back to work.” Severus began to walk off.

“How about this?” The man spoke loudly. “If you come back to the shop with me and make three potions without any assistance or mistakes, you can be my apprentice. If you’re successful, you can start today.”

Severus stopped. “Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re right,” he said. “Their potions brew was pathetic. And a wizard that can thoroughly discuss the finer points of potion making based off of a passing discussion is someone I want as an apprentice.”

Severus followed him to the shop.

“What’s your name, boy?”

“Severus Snape.”

Without breaking a sweat, Severus completed each potion with time to spare. In amazement, Rodolphous assessed each potion.

“They’re...perfect,” he complimented. “You’ve completed these in less time than any published books states.”

“I told you, the books are outdated,” Snape said.

“Or they haven’t been updated because there wasn’t anyone brilliant enough to modify any of these instructions to merit an update.”

Blankly, Severus stared at him. “It was obvious.”

“No. It wasn’t.” Rodolphous put the potion down. “What’s obvious to you isn’t apparent to most. You have a brilliant mind, Severus. With that being said, you do have a lot to learn. School only sets the foundation of what it takes to fine tune our knowledge and skill.”

Severus’ black eyes followed Rodolphous as he walked.

“We can learn from each other,” he continued.

As promised, Severus was immediately hired. Rodolphous explained the ins and outs of his business and what he expected from him. It all sounded reasonable to Severus as he shook hands with the potions Master.

In no time, he was Rodolphous’ top apprentice. Frequently collaborating on projects with him and trying experiments.

Severus lived in his dingy quarters for a year until moving into a modest apartment. Bought actual food, still cheap, books, and saved the rest. Unlike with his former employer, he was being underpaid. His time and skill was valued as he learned more about potions and how other disciples connected to it.

He felt like he belonged...somewhat.

When his mother became sick, Rodolphous gave him time to tend to her and promised he’d have a job to come back to when he took care of his personal business.

As he took care of his mother, his father was died. Tobias Snape was violently mugged and choked on his own vomit in an alleyway. His mother died little under three months later.

Complicated feelings swirled within Snape. His tormentor was finally dead. Although his father never put his hands on him, Severus still carried emotional scars. The baggage that continued to weigh him down even though his father was dead.

A weight was not lifted. He didn’t feel better or free.

He just was.

His mother was different and more complicated. He loved and resented her in equal measures. She could’ve left. Why didn’t she leave?

Why didn’t she get them out of there?

He held her hand as she laid dying in her bed. He hurt and wanted to forgive her. His anger pent up ready to boil over.

His heart breaking as her heart failed her.

What was the use in being angry?

At her at least?

Instead, they reminisced over the few happy memories they had. Severus got read his mother books and watched her favorite shows with her.

She died before the episode was over.

Another funeral in less than three months.

Severus was emotionally exhausted in a way he couldn’t deal with. In a way he didn’t want to deal with.

As he did years before, severus kept very little personal items. He sold what he could and threw away the rest. With the money he made from his sells, Severus fixed up the house and contacted a realtor about selling.

Keeping this house meant holding on to memories. Unpleasant memories.

Months later, he came back to Spinner’s end to finalize the deal.

He ran into Lily Evans—Lily Potter.

“Hi, excuse me,” she said.

For a moment, Severus was taken aback. Still beautiful. She always had kind eyes.

Ever since he left hogwarts, whenever he was at Spinner’s end, he used poly juice potion of Rodolphous. He didn’t want to risk anyone (Lily, really) recognizing him.

“Yes,” Severus said.

“Are you the new homeowner?” Severus looked at the sold sticker slapped on the for sale sign.

“No. Afraid not,” Severus said, carefully.

“Do you know what happened to the Snape family,” Lily asked. “I haven’t been around these last few years. I went away and...” she shook her head. “So, I haven’t been up on what’s been happening.”

Severus saw the wedding band on her hand. She couldn’t have married Potter, could she? And so soon?

“Unfortunately,” Severus began. “Tobias and Eileen Snape have passed away.”

Lily clutched her chest. “Oh my God, really?” Severus nodded. “Poor Severus. How is their son holding up?”

“No one has heard from him,” he said. “Apparently he disappeared a few years ago. Without a living family member to claim the house and no one paying the mortgage, the bank seized and sold the house.”

“That’s horrible,” she murmured to herself, tears welling in her ears. Lily wrapped her arms tightly around herself. “Their son and I used to be friends. We ended on a bad note before he disappeared out seventh year. I sometimes wonder where he is. If he’s safe. If he has anyone.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to wonder after him,” Severus said.

Lily furrowed her brows. “Everyone wants someone to wonder after them. Everyone. I knew Severus was having a hard time at school, but —“

“Lily, my dear, we have to go,” James said as he walked up to them with a baby boy in his arms. “You said it’ll only take a moment.”

Lily wiped her eyes. “Severus’ parents are dead and no one still has heard anything from him.”

Shocked, James looked at lily. “Snape’s a smart guy, he probably—“

“I have to go,” Severus said, walking away before they could speak.

When he returned back to Norway, Severus was quite and kept to himself when work was over. Seeing lily again was a surprise, but he still was grappling with the death of his parents. Why didn’t he feel any different? Well, better? His violent father was dead. Instead, he felt worse and aimless.

As Severus inhaled his cigarette, his co-apprentice Chorus joined him in the alley. Stealing the cigarette from his mouth, she inhaled.

“I was smoking that,” he grumbled.

“I know,” she said. Once again, she puffed, and then handed him the cigarette. “We’re having drinks tonight, join us.”

“I’m not in the mood.”

“I wasn’t asking.” A smile played on her lips. Chorus looked at Severus sympathetically. “I know you’re having a tough time. I get it.” Chorus was very open about the unexpected and tragic loss of her parents. “But you won’t feel better isolating yourself from everyone. Have one drink. If you aren’t having fun by the time you finish it, you can go home. My orders.”

If Severus could smile, he would.

Three beers in, he managed to laugh. Privately, each apprentice spoke to him and expressed remorse for his loss. They appeared to be genuine and offered to help if he needed anything.

Throughout his entire ordeal, they consistently reached out to him while he took care of his mother. Looked in on his apartment. Didn’t touch his station.

Didn’t laugh at him.

Calling it at night, Severus said, “I’m heading out.”

“Can you walk me home?” Chorus walked beside him.

“Uh...sure.”

They chatted on their way to his apartment. Chorus wasn’t just easy to talk to, she had an interesting mind.

“For a world filled with possibilities, wizarding society has such a limited viewpoint,” she said. “Dark magic. It’s a fascinating field of study, but people think that just because you find it appealing it means you’re evil. Or the bullshit categorization what is it isn’t evil.”

Severus arched an brow. “Such as?”

“I understand that there’s levels to this shit,” she began. “However, shouldn’t there be more strict guidelines other than ‘you have to mean it?’ That’s a pretty low bar. Why can’t there be ‘grey magic?’ On a purely academic level, dark magic is interesting as hell. It’s a rich subject because of how intense, unpredictable, and powerful dark magic can be. Who wouldn’t want to study that?”

They moved on to lighter topics.

When they arrived to the front of Chorus’ apartment building, she said, “You should come up.”

Baffled, Severus said, “why?”

Laughing out loud, chorus covered her mouth. “I told them you were bad at this.”

Humiliated, Severus began to walk away when chorus grab his jacket and brought her mouth to his.

She waggled her eyebrows. “You should come up,” she repeated.

“I, um—I,” he stammered.

Chorus kissed his again. “It’s okay,” she promised. “Just follow my lead.”

Slowly, she led Severus upstairs and into her bedroom.

Chorus took her time and was patient with Severus to which he was appreciative of.

[samdeancass]

Troubled

Requested by: _stellastyless on Wattpad

Pairing: Derek x Stella (OC character)

Genre: Angst/Fluff

Characters: Derek, Stella, Scott, Stiles

Before her parents died in a plane crash, Stella was a very traditional girl. She always obeyed the rules, never stepped out of line and always had the best grades. All of that changed, however, when the fatal incident happened. Her life came crashing down around her. She had no siblings, nobody to turn to apart from Stiles. Stiles and Stella became super close and he became the only one she would confide in, especially since she was a closed book around everybody else. Her parents deaths changed her in a way that nobody could have predicted. Stella went from the perfect girl with a perfect life to an independent woman, stubborn and sarcastic just like her younger cousin. Stella has had a number of fake friends and flings that ended badly which crumpled her trust with anybody apart from Stiles.

There was one thing that she didn't trust Stiles to do though: take himself and Scott home without being harmed. It seemed that Stella wasn't the only one with these doubts as Sheriff Stilinski also didn't trust Stiles enough to reach home alone which is how she found herself parked outside of Beacon Hills High School. Stella was sitting on the hood of her car, tapping her fingers impatiently on the hood when she noticed a guy standing a few feet away staring at her. She hopped off the hood and began to walk further towards the schools entrance. Looking back behind her, Stella noticed that the guy had begun to follow her. Anger was building up inside of her, but she really didn't want to kick this guys as in the middle of a high school parking lot, so it was lucky that she spotted another guy heading towards her, Derek Hale. Stella giggled internally as she remembered a conversation she and Stiles had had not so long ago involving Derek.

"There is absolutely no need for how angry he is, Stella. He just sulks in the corner of a room, not saying a word. I can always feel his eyes on me, li,e he wants to eat me or something." Stella chuckled at Stiles' description of Derek. "Are you scared of him, Stiles?" His head shot up as his eyes widened. "No, definitely not." Stella shook her head and went back to reading her book.

Stella headed towards Derek and grabs his arm, interlocking their fingers together. "Play along". Stella whispered in his ear, only to leave Derek even more confused. This feeling soon went away when he spotted the guy that had been following you. Derek's eyes turned into slits as he slid his arm around Stella's waist, pulling her close to him. The guys eyes widened at what was playing out in front of him and soon walked away. Derek's arm fell from Stella's back as she stepped away from him.

"Thanks for that. Really didn't want to make a scene in front of a high school." She gave Derek a sheepish smile as they both walked towards her car. "Anytime, Stella. I always enjoy rescuing a damsel in distress." He began to laugh as Stella dug him in the ribs. "That will only happen once, I can promise you!" Stella could feel a familiar feeling brewing in the pit of her stomach as she carried on the conversation with Derek. Stella and Derek didn't really know each other so it was hard to gauge how much she could trust him, but she really couldn't resist the flirtiness of her old self. "Wanna go out for some drinks later?" Derek stared at Stella a little taken aback. He knew that she didn't really talk to people that wasn't in her inner circle. He thought for a second before accepting the offer. Stella smiled at him before she spotted Scott and Stiles heading down the path in front of them. "I'll meet you at the bar at 7." Stella waved at the two teens before walking towards them, leaving Derek slightly confused but amused at the situation he found himself in.

Later that night at the bar after dropping off Scott and Stiles, Stella and Derek were sat at the bar having a light conversation. "So I know about all of the werewolves and supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills, but I just wanna know how in the hell you cope with it all? I'm not around here all the time, but when I am it always seems like you, Scott and Stiles are always out trying to fix the town." Stella took a sip of her drink as Derek laughed slightly. "To be honest, it's quite hard trying to keep this town safe. The amount of things that these people have witnessed over the years is horrific. I'm actually surprised there are people still living here." Stella laughed in response as she downed the rest of her drink. "Another?" Derek smiled and nodded as Stella hailed down the bartender. "So, Stella, I've sort of noticed that you don't really talk to people who you aren't close to, so I'm just wondering why you decided to invite me out?"

The question took Stella by surprise as she downed the drink that she had just ordered. "Well, I think it has something to do with the fact that you helped me, practically a stranger, scare off a creepy dude who was following her." She took a deep breath as Derek smiled in response. "The thing is Derek, I'm sort of broken. I never used to be like this, I was a totally different person before...." Her voice stuck in her throat as she tried to finish the sentence. Derek placed a hand on hers and nodded. "I understand. Something happened to my family when I was younger that changed me in ways that I didn't even know, so trust me I know exactly how you're feeling." Stella smiled gratefully and ordered two more drinks.

A lot more drinks later, Stella and Derek found themselves hooking up together. For Stella, it was partly accidental but partly intentional as well. She really felt that Derek and her had a connection with each other and she wanted to feel closer to him. Stella awoke and looked around her, finding Derek asleep next to her. She smiles softly at him before quietly getting out of bed and getting dressed. She looks back at Derek one more time before creeping out of Derek's loft.

When Stella is in Beacon Hills, she stays af Stiles' house. She was hoping that nobody would be there when she arrived in order to escape staring eyes and awkward questions. That hope quickly faded when she spotted Scott's motorbike parked outside of the house. Stella sighed inwardly and readied herself for the interrogation that was sure to come before putting her key in the lock.

When she opened the door, footsteps sounded from the upstairs of the house. She rolled her eyes as the footsteps came closer and closer to her. "Where have you been?" She turned around to see Scott and Stiles leaning against the wall, arms folded across their chests. "You don't need to know." As Stella began to move around the kitchen and dodging Stiles' questions, she could hear Scott sniffing slightly and she knew he could sense a change in her scent. She swung around and brought a finger to her lips when Stiles wasn't watching, silently asking him to hush. He nodded softly before Stella headed upstairs.

A few days later the pack had gotten together to discuss another supernatural threat. Frustration was evident between Stella and Derek but nobody wanted to admit it. Both Stella and Derek had feelings for the other but they didn't know if they were ready to admit it to themselves, especially Stella. She was so afraid of being hurt and putting all of her trust in somebody she barely knows, but somehow she knew that Derek was worth it. Throughout the meeting, Derek barely looked at Stella and the frustration that she felt began to build inside her, along with a little sadness. Stella thought that Derek had feelings for her but with the way he was acting now, she wasn't so sure. At the end of the meeting, the frustration had turned into bitterness as her mind dwelled on hers and Derek's relationship. Before he left, letting the bitterness get the better of her, she pulled Derek aside to confront him about the situation.

"Alright Derek, I need to know. Where do we stand with each other? I thought you hooked up with me because you had feelings for me, but obviously you didnt. I cared all along for you, Derek." You breathing became rapid and angry as he gave you no verbal response and shook his head. Stella's anger got the better of her and she slapped Derek across the face before walking away.

The rest of the packs meetings resulted in Stella defending everybody's reasons and plans apart from Derek's. Stella was still very bitter about what happened between them both and felt that Derek didn't acknowledge or appreciate the hard work the rest of the pack puts into putting the plans together.

At one of the meetings, Isaac sensed a change in Stella's scent and decided to talk to her. "Hey, Stella. You Ok? I can sense something's wrong." She sighed a little and reassured him that she was OK. He could still sense her discomfort and engaged her in a mood lifter conversation which Stella became fully indulged in. Throughout the conversation, Isaac could sense Stella's discomfort leaving her body which brought a smile to his face. Stella walked away and sat down, taking Isaac with her.

"The thing is, Isaac. I sort of have feelings for Derek but he doesn't feel the same way." Stiles overhears the conversation and walks over to Stella. "Seriously Stel, Derek? I get what you're saying, I really do, but Derek?" Isaac looked up at him and shook his head before kicking his shin. "Go away, Stiles." Stiles groaned in pain as he hobbled away towards Scott, who he undoubtedly will tell. "Dont listen to Stiles, he's a moron." Stella laughed in response and begins to talk to Isaac some more.

After that, at another meeting, Stella found herself having to contradict Derek. Isaac could sense the change of her emotions and immediately pulled her close and hugged her, which oddly calmed her down. Every time this happened, Stella could feel herself mildly enjoying the attention. Throughout the meeting, Derek was unconsciously waiting for Stella to snap at him like she has been. He becomes a little confused when Stella isn't contradicting him anymore and actually agrees with him. Derek looks over in your direction and sees Issac and Stella cuddling together.

Anger rose through Derek's body at the scene in front of him. "Isaac, would you please concentrate and leave Stella alone!" Derek gritted his teeth together to keep himself calm before Stella jumped to Isaac's defense. "Hey, lay off. We're talking about the plan." You frowned at Derek before turning back to Isaac, throwing her arms around him. At this point, Derek was seething with anger. He absolutely hated the way Stella seemed so comfortable with Isaac and how quick she jumped to his defense but he chose to act like it didn't bother him.

A few days after this, Stella's phone lights up with a text from Isaac asking her to hurry over to the loft for a meeting. She hopped into her care and drove to the loft. Stella opened the doors and walked inside, only to find herself with Derek. Stella groaned inwardly at how awkward this was going to be.

"Erm, how've you been?" Derek looked over in Stella's direction and cast a small smile. "Absolutely fine, and yourself?" Ste,,a looked over at Derek and kept a straight face showing no emotion. "Fine. What are you doing here?" "Isaac told me to meet him here for a pack meeting or something." Silence filled the air for a few moments before Derek walked towards Stella and gave her a questioning look. "So, I've noticed you and Isaac have been getting pretty close lately and I'm just wondering how it's going."

Stella stepped back slightly in confusion and raised her eyebrows. "What on earth are you talking about, Derek? Me and Isaac aren't a thing, we're just good friends." Derek let out an angry huff. "C'mon, Stella. Dont give me that shit." Stella threw her hands up in the air. "What are you going on about?"

"With all the cuddling and giggling and whispering, it looks like you two are a thing. You seem so comfortable with him, I just assumed that you were both together." Stella gave him a deadpan look. "We're just good friends Derek, nothing more. We just get along really well and we understand the things that we have both been through. That's it, purely platonic. I'm way older than Isaac anyway, so having a relationship with him really doesn't seem practical in any way."

"Why are you both always co,fy with each other then, always cuddling each other?" Derek's frustration was starting to show at how naive Stella was being. He placed around the room as Stella shrugged in response. "I'm like that with everyone." Derek stops and over to Stella, stopping right in front of her. "You're not like that with me, though." "I would be if you hadn't of been such a jerk and played me." Derek scoffed. "What is your issue with me?"

"I like you, OK. I have for a while now. All of the little things that you do, like taking on the big bad by yourself, putting your life before anybody elses. It's things like that that allowed my feelings to develop, Derek. I haven't felt this way about anybody in a really long time and I get that you dont feel the same way, but you really shouldn't be interfering in my personal life."

Derek's head hung low as she finished her sentence. "I do admire you, Stella. So much. It's just, my past still haunts me to this day. I've lost so many people and I don't want to lose you to." Stella huffed in annoyance as tears began to prick at the corners of her eyes. "Please stop pretending, Derek. Its hurting me more than you know." She turns away from Derek but stops in her tracks when he grips her wrist.

"I love you, Stella. So much, please don't leave." Stella looked up into Derek's eyes to try and find any sort of uneasiness but all she found was genuine love. Stella tries to push Derek off her but her fights back and places his lips on hers, engaging her in a passionate kiss. As time goes on, the kiss progresses into something more.

Stella and Derek pull apart when they notice that Isaac is skipping around them, throwing rose petals along with Erica. In the background, a soft romantic song played. Stella and Derek looked up to find Boyd and Peter looking smug as hell. "What in the hell is happening here?" Derek looked around the room at each person before the door opened, revealing Scott and Stiles.

"GET A ROOM AND HOOK UP ALREADY!" Isaac shouted from where he was standing as Scott and Peter looked at Derek and Stella. "That was step one, guys. Just wait until step 2." They both wiggled their eyebrows at the couple before Stiles piped up.

"Derek Hale, if you hurt her, so help me. I will grab some wolfsbane, wrap it in mistletoe and mountain ash and shove it up your furry ass."

[janeyseymour]

Wouldn’t Change a Thing

Hello lovely friends! Here we are again with some writing!

Jane Seymour was often left quite confused by some of the habits her fellow queens had picked up in this life. That being said, she wouldn't change a thing about any of them.

Can also be found on AO3 here! 

Jane Seymour was utterly confused at some of the habits the queens had taken up in this new life. Surely, she did some strange things herself, but some of the things that her fellow housemates had made a habit of doing left her flabbergasted.

I.

When Jane Seymour met Catherine of Aragon, the first word that came to her mind to describe her was stoic. The first queen had always controlled herself; she had her golden rule and had to keep her cool, if you will. Yet as the blonde continued to live with her in this life, she found this to be somewhat untrue.

Catherine of Aragon never lost her control when it came to bigger situations where one would often lose their cool, no. When her and Anne would fight, she kept her temper at bay and often walked away from the situation before it could get out of hand. Well, she had lost her temper once on Anne, and that had resulted in the first two queens not speaking for two weeks except for when they had to interact in the show. Since then, Catherine has learned to take the high road.

When Catherine did lose her temper, it was at the smallest things. In all seriousness, the blonde wasn’t even trying to get a rise out of Catherine this time. Yes, Jane Seymour liked to bicker with Catherine. It was fun to watch her get more and more frustrated and watch as she scrunched her nose up. The difference between Anne and Jane was that Jane knew when to stop and tell the first queen she was just screwing with her.

“Lina, I was just playing with you!”

“You’re so lucky I love you,” the first queen would grumble before pulling the blonde into an embrace.

The two were going on with their days as they normally would together: grocery shopping, doing household chores, and preparing to make dinner on their off night. Jane was pushing their cart while Catherine was trailing slightly behind.

“Lina, could we pick up the pace a little? We actually have to get home in time to prepare supper,” Jane chided as gently as she could.

“I wouldn't have to trail so far behind if you would’ve just picked a cart that didn’t constantly squeak! It’s driving me crazy, I swear!” The first queen suddenly grabbed the cart from her and pushed it to the front, leaving Jane in a stunned silence.

Jane stood there watching, almost as if her feet were glued to the ground, not knowing what to do. Catherine wasn’t one to just up and leave afterall, not over something this small. The gold queen left their cart unattended for a few seconds only to return with a new cart, and she began unloading their groceries from the old cart to the new one. She kicked the squeaking cart once in anger before pushing the new cart back over to the blonde.

“There,” she huffed. “Now I can keep up with you.”

From that day on, when Jane and Catherine went grocery shopping together, the third queen made sure to test the shopping cart she chose to make sure it didn’t squeak.

II.

Anne Boleyn was an enigma as far as Jane was concerned. She could never predict what the green queen was going to be doing at any given moment. Jane had accompanied the hyper queen to the mall on a rather gloomy day, a place where she hadn’t been yet. The idea that so many stores were all in one location absolutely baffled her.

“I just think it’s crazy that all of these stores are in one big building together. It’s quite a lot of things to look at,” Jane stated wondrously.

“It just means I get to look at more things that I can’t afford but desperately want! And, I get to... spend time with you,” The second queen trailed off at the end of her sentence. She wasn’t usually one to express her happiness to be with the others, but she meant it.

“I’m glad we get to spend time together,” Jane pulled the girl close to her and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you for asking me to come with you.”

“Well, yeah. It’s nice to do things with you,” she giggled as a thought popped into her head. “Once in a while.”

Jane couldn’t conceal her grin as she feigned hurt feelings and gently pushed her predecessor before pulling her back into her arms.

The two had been wandering the mall for quite some time when they found their way to a shoe store.

“Jane! Jane! Look at these shoes! They have wheels in them! I have to get them! Please, please, please, please-”

“Anne Boleyn.”

“Please, please, please-”

“Anne, you can get them, but I’m not buying them for you. This is what you have your own money for.”

“Well yeah, but I thought you would-” she cut herself off. “Nevermind! Thank you!”

For the next coming weeks, months, and years that the queens lived together, Anne rolled everywhere she could: to the theater, around the block, in the theater, around the house- everywhere. One silly purchase made Anne’s life so much better. Jane couldn’t quite understand why the girl needed wheels on her shoes when she could just walk, but if it made the girl happy, well she wasn’t going to be the one to stop it.

III.

Anna of Cleves was another one that was quite a mystery to Jane Seymour. At various times throughout the day, Anna could be seen eating whatever she pleased. The catch? Unless Jane herself had heated it up for her, the food was almost always cold. It’s not that Anna couldn’t heat her food up; she just couldn’t be bothered to.

For once, the blonde wasn't the first one awake this morning. Anna had stated the previous night she was going to wake up early in order to get a workout in before the family’s day off had taken place.

“Okay love, just try to be back before breakfast!” Jane smiled as she closed her door for the night.

Jane walked downstairs and into the kitchen in a slightly sleep driven haze, but she was excited to cook breakfast for her girls today. Jane had figured the fourth queen would still be out and sliding into her seat at the dining room table just as breakfast was served, not an uncommon occurrence. She shuffled to the coffee pot and turned it on before being startled by a chipper,

“Hey Seymour!” The blonde quickly turned around, not having seen the fourth queen when she walked into the kitchen moments ago.

“Cleves! You startled me!”

“Oh, sorry about that.”

“No, it’s my fault! I didn’t notice you when I was walking in.” The blonde grabbed a cup and began fixing it for her morning dose of caffeine. “What special food would you like me to whip up for our day off break-” The woman turned to face the fourth queen.

“Oh shoot,” Anna quicked stuffed as much of the pizza she had into her mouth.

“Are you eating pizza? At...” Jane squinted to see the clock. “7:13 in the morning?”

“Maybe?”

“Anna of Cleves,” Jane sighed. “Is it at least warm?”

“Uh,” the fourth queen drew out. “Yes?”

“You and I both know that is a lie.”

“Yeah it is. I don’t know, I just don’t mind my food being cold!”

“It’s weird, you know.”

“Oh Seymour, I know.”

Jane often found her fellow queen eating cold foods. Whether it was pizza, or wings, or even something as strange as pasta, if Cleves was eating it without the third queen being there, it was almost always a guarantee it was cold.

“It’s cold, isn’t it?” Jane sighed as she made her way around the kitchen.

“Yep!” Anna of Cleves happily dove into her food.

IV.

Katherine Howard was one that was almost always near Jane Seymour. The only times the two were ever really seen apart for longer amounts of time was when the group all retired to their rooms for the night. Even then though, Katherine had made a habit of slipping into the silver queen’s room in the middle of the night. But that wasn’t the habit that Jane found to be strange. In fact, the blonde rather liked that the pink haired queen was able to confide in her for just about everything. No, Katherine Howard had quite a few strange habits.

On a night where Jane wasn’t able to sleep, she had slipped out of her room as quietly as possible, having memorized which floor boards in the house creaked. A few steps later however, she noticed the fifth queen doing the exact same mannerisms as she was; taking large steps to avoid the creaking floor boards and making it through the house seemingly unnoticed. The third queen made her way down to the kitchen just as quietly as the fifth queen had although a few steps behind. With the younger girl’s face in the fridge, Jane made her presence known.

“Kitty?” The pink haired queen jerked into an upright position almost immediately.

“I promise I’m not doing anything wrong, I just got hungry, and I didn’t want to wake anybody, and I’ll just go back to-”

“Kitty dear, you’re not in any sort of trouble.”

“I’m sorry for eating the food and for waking you up. I thought I was being quiet,” Katherine went to push her way past the blonde but was stopped when she was pulled into a hug.

“This is your house too. You get to eat all you want. You didn’t wake me. I was coming down to make myself some tea because I couldn’t sleep either. You have nothing to apologize for.” The rigidness in the fifth queen’s body seemingly melted away at the vocalization that she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Do you do this often? Find yourself down in the kitchen late at night?” The girl shrugged. “You know, I’ve never noticed.”

“I kinda figured out how to make it through the house without making a noise. You know, because I had to back then.”

“Well, you certainly don’t have to do that now you know,” the silver queen reminded her. “Now, why don’t I whip up some tea, hot chocolate, and a quick snack for us?”

Since that night, Katherine knew she didn’t have to silently make her way through the house late at night, but she still did, especially when she thought her mother was asleep. Most nights, she was successful. Every once in a while though, Jane would find her making her way down to the stairs as quietly as she could. And every time that happened, the blonde would wordlessly make her way down too to make some drinks and food.

The nights of Jane finding the younger queen in the kitchen had become few and far between now. Now, Katherine found herself more often than not seeing if Jane wanted to accompany her on her late night endeavors before finding herself in the warmth of her mother’s arms.

V.

Catherine Parr was less of a mystery to Jane Seymour. It was a widely known fact that the writer struggled with sleeping at the right time of day and needed coffee to keep her upright most days. But still, the habits that Cathy had taken to were quite strange to the third queen.

“I just get more inspiration at night!” Cathy sputtered as the third queen went to close her laptop for the night.

“Love, I know you do. But it is 2:43 in the morning right now, and we have a show tomorrow. You need sleep.”

“You’re awake too!” She rebutted.

“I was asleep before Kat came into my room. I’m heading back to bed right now, and I advise you to do the same.” The blonde placed a gentle kiss on the sixth queen’s hair before walking out of the room. She stood outside of the door for a few moments to see if her words had done anything. Seconds later, the sound of Cathy’s quick typing was all the proof that she needed to know Catherine Parr was going to be exhausted tomorrow.

“Coffee?” Cathy mumbled as she stumbled into the kitchen.

“Did you get any sleep last night?” Jane handed her a cup off coffee just the way she liked it.

“I got like 4 hours,” the coffee addict muttered. “I just had to finish my thoughts or I would’ve forgotten them.”

“Okay, well we have a show at 2, so please be ready to leave the house by 12:30.”

12:25 had rolled around, and the rest of the queens had managed to get themselves into Jane’s van, but Cathy hadn’t left her room since she made a short appearance at breakfast.

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Jane muttered as she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. “Anne Boleyn, do not think this gives you permission to get into the driver’s seat. You’re not driving!” she threw over her shoulder as she walked up the driveway to the house.

“Catherine Parr! Where the-” Jane opened the door to Cathy’s bedroom to see the girl curled up in a ball and asleep under her desk..

“Cath,” the blonde bent down to shake the sleeping figure.

“Huh?” the writer jolted awake. “Oh hey Jane. I was just catching up on some sleep before we have to leave for the- we have to leave for the show now, don't we?”

“Yes dear, we do. Everybody else is in the car. I can give you five minutes to gather yourself and be outside, but after that, I can’t promise Anne or Kitty won’t come in here and cause you trouble.”

“I’ll be out in five.”

Most days, the third queen walked into Cathy’s room to see the writer hard at work. On those days, she had extra coffee ready, and was unphased whenever she saw Cathy asleep in some of the most obscure places. Sometimes, it was backstage at the theater, others, it was a corner in her room as opposed to the comfortable bed three paces to the left. No matter where she was though, if it wasn’t her bed, Jane found it quite strange.

With all of this being said, Jane Seymour wouldn’t trade her fellow queens for the world. Sure, Catherine of Aragon would break over small things. And yes, Anne Boleyn preferred to roll around instead of walking. Of course, Anna of Cleves ate any of her food cold if Jane wasn’t there to warm it. And her darling Katherine had figured out the floorboards much like she had. Like mother, like daughter, or so they say. And Cathy fell asleep in uncommon areas at various times of the day. Yes, they all had their strange quirks, and Jane knew she had a few too, but she wouldn’t change a thing involving her queens. They were perfect just the way they were.

[dwaynepride]

Today Or Yesterday

CHAPTER 4

Summary: The reader’s injuries are much more bothersome than just some pain and annoying bandages. And Dwayne’s arrival in DC leaves a lot to be desired.

Words: 3,280

Warnings: None

Notes: so close to the finale.... :eyes:

Part 3 Part 5

The low throb of the wound in your thigh never went away. Not really. Even after staying off it for a whole day and a half with morphine to dull the ache, it was still there. Ever present, as if the bulky bandages would let you forget. Bandages that itched like crazy, and you couldn’t even fit one of the hospitals plastic forks underneath them to scratch it. One of the nurses scolded you for using the fork, but it’s not like you were gonna use it to eat the hospital’s gross food.

And Gibbs was finally done with your bitching. He was present the entire time, just like he promised. But when you insisted on getting out of the hospital a day early, he didn’t fight you on it. Just nodded and left the room and started filling out the discharge paperwork.

With him finally gone, you were able to slowly get dressed (Abby brought you some clothes from the hotel. You didn’t ask how she got in.) ‘Slowly’ being the key word, because the simple task of pulling on your pants and shoes was nearly impossible with the injured leg. Every stretch and bend seemed to make the wound worse, and you won’t admit to anyone else that you let out one or two whimpers in that time.

But, in the end, you were successfully dressed from the waist down. The white button-up would be easy enough, since it didn’t involve your leg. Once you pulled it on and started fastening the buttons, that’s when a light knock on your door had you looking over your shoulder. “Come in,” you call out before returning attention to the buttons.

“You’re set to go,” Gibbs says as he enters. "Doc told me what you gotta stay off your feet for the next couple weeks, or you’ll pop your stitches.”

Your eyes roll alongside the nod. And once you fasten the final button, you turn on the bed to face Jethro, careful not to jostle your leg. “Yeah, I know, I got the rundown. I can still work, though-”

“Not at the office. You can work just as well from your motel room.”

The motel? Like hell. “Jethro, I’m not just going to sit around my room, all day,” you reply, voice getting harder. And you notice, surprisingly, that he doesn’t look angry at it. Not even a little annoyed.

“Yes, you are,” Gibbs replies flatly. “And Vance agrees with me.” You huff and look away, annoyed. A few seconds of silence go by before Gibbs speaks up again. “You can stick around today, to get King caught up on the case details. But only today, understand?”

Again, no anger lay in his voice. That doesn’t make you any less frustrated, though. Stupid gunshot wound.

You hear a short sigh come from Gibbs before he walks back to the door, opening it up and motioning with his head. “C’mon. Dwayne’s waiting downstairs for you.”

Whatever frustration this situation has caused, however much you want to argue with Gibbs about letting you actually work, is mostly washed away with that news. Your head whirls around to Jethro, who wears only a placid look as you stand and limp over to him. And Gibbs immediately offers his arm for you to lean on. He easily takes your weight, even though you’re leaning heavily against him all the way to the elevator.

With a heavy limp and a wound that hurts every time you put weight on it, the journey downstairs and out the entrance takes about twice the time it normally would. And, admittedly, you were pretty exhausted by the time you cleared the doors. At least you were finally out of that place.

But somehow, it all seems worth it when you spot Dwayne walking away from the car toward you. The giant grin plastered on his face is contagious as he jogs over, and for a moment, you think he’s going to tackle you in a hug when he reaches you. Pick you up and spin you and otherwise jostle the sensitive injury.

He doesn’t. Dwayne slows to a stop once he nears, still grinning but making sure to come in slow and carefully. “Hey, honey,” he purrs out. Dwayne’s arms are around your waist, squeezing gently and readily taking on your weight whenever you release Jethro’s arm. It feels so much more natural to lean into Dwayne. You can’t really hug him how you want, but it’s enough to just press your head against his shoulder. To feel him press some kisses against your head.

“I was real worried. Everyone kept tellin’ me you were fine, but I wanted to see for myself,” he says. Feeling the vibrations in his chest, you almost forget what he’s talking about.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

You hear him huff, but one of his hands comes up to cup the back of your head. Stroke the hair there before carefully backing up, making sure you’re still leaning on him enough to stay standing. “C’mon, let’s go put this bastard away.”

His tone is reassuring. Absolute in a way that makes you smile - the kind only Dwayne can muster up.

Gibbs leads you both to the car, and he’s the one drive back to the Naval Yard. Dwayne sits in the back with you, resting your legs over his lap to assure your thigh isn’t in any awkward positions where it can hurt. And his hand rests on the injured leg, almost protectively, while he holds one of your hands tight. You’d almost died, and Dwayne was very far away; it makes sense that he’s as touchy as he is.

The car ride is spent making idle conversation. Gibbs doesn’t join in (does he ever?) so it’s only you and Dwayne talking about case, which eventually moved into talking about the team, before finally arriving at the plans he’s been making for when you got back home.

Gibbs just listens the whole time, gripping the steering wheel so tight, his knuckles turn white. Odd, but you don’t bring attention to it. Don’t have the chance to, because Dwayne’s voice cuts back in to ask if your leg is still okay.

--

When Jethro said you wouldn’t be working the case, he was serious.

Somehow, deep down, you hoped he’d been bluffing. You’d sit down in your little corner of the bullpen and talk to his team and see how well you work with them and Dwayne and he’d realize that having one extra agent on the case would be great.

You were wrong, of course. Maybe being away for so long has dulled your ability to predict Jethro’s actions. Because after you showed Dwayne all the new evidence and caught him up with everything, he and Gibbs left you behind in the bullpen.

Probably to interrogate the suspect; the man who shot you. During your time in the hospital, Jethro’s team managed to hunt him down and bring him in. He told his agents not to interrogate him. Gibbs wanted to be the one who did it, and Dwayne would be there with him.

You weren’t even allowed to watch.

It was frustrated. Infuriating, even, that Jethro stuck you in his desk and walked away and ordered McGee to keep an eye on you. As if you’d somehow sneak away with a heavy limp and muffled whimpers.

At least being chained to a desk gave you some time to think. Not about the case, admittedly. If anybody could nail a suspect for a crime, it’s Jethro and Dwayne.

Your mind wondered off to a place you didn’t expect it to go: you were thinking about Gibbs. It’s odd, because Dwayne was finally here and it seemed like the case would get wrapped up pretty soon and you can go home together. But there something about Jethro’s behavior over the past day that’s been puzzling.

He’s not as angry as he’s been the last week. No snapping, no grumbling. Not one Gibbs Glare whenever you copped an attitude toward him, when just a few days ago, the attitude would’ve resulted in an argument. And the cause of the behavior change? Nothing you can think of. You haven’t exactly done anything to make him like you again. Nothing to warrant him acting so differently.

The thought of asking him about it came and went; you knew he wouldn’t say anything. He’d brush it off or tell you it was nothing or just ignore the question altogether. You haven’t been gone long enough to hope Jethro has changed him cold shoulder ways.

Still, it bugged you the whole day. All the way up until the sun started to fall, and Gibbs lead Dwayne back into the bullpen. Your eyes follow Jethro for a moment, foolishly hoping to read something on his stoic face before turning to Dwayne.

“You guys get anything out of him?”

Dwayne gives a light shrug, coming up behind his old friend’s desk. His eyes are instantly scanning your leg - no surprise, there. “He’s definitely hiding somethin’ else. We don’t know what, and we don’t wanna charge him with anything until we do,” he answers.

You huff at the news; that slimey fuck needs to be put away as soon as possible, but you saw the logic in their reasoning. The more evidence for the trial, the better.

Dwayne can see you aren’t happy with it, though. His hand comes up to squeeze your shoulder, and when you crane your neck up to look at him, he’s wearing a soft smile. His eyes look heavy, hair mussed up; a testament to how tired he must be. So you straighten up, careful not to hurt yourself. “Let’s call it a night, then. I’m pretty tired.” You push yourself up to stand; with Dwayne’s help, of course. There’s a certain spark of excitement that comes with his hands keeping you steady that no exhaustion could snuff out. “I hear your room is right above mine.”

You look back up to Dwayne, expecting him to smile and laugh. But the soft look on his face flickers with doubt. His eyes glance to Gibbs before they return to you. “Actually, I was thinkin’ it’d be a better idea if you stayed with Gibbs until the case is over,” he says.

His words floor you. Threaten to sap the strength from the leg keeping you upright because the shock is so powerful. Stay with Jethro?

“What?”

You and the Marine ask that at the same time. Dwayne looks surprised for a moment, but that doesn’t deter him. “I don’t think you should be alone, honey. Not with your injury as fresh as it is. What if somethin’ happens, and nobody’s there to help?”

“I’ll stay in your room.”

“I only got one bed, and so do you. You’ll be more comfortable at Jethro’s.”

A small huff comes up at his rebuttal. And you know Dwayne’s suggesting this because he cares. He wants you safe and happy. But the thought of staying at Jethro’s home for who knows how long puts a deep pit in your stomach. You glance to Gibbs, trying to gauge his reaction to the proposal. His brows are knitted together, but his face doesn’t give much away.

You want to say no. To tell Dwayne you’ll be fine on your own, or that you could easily share a bed with a busted leg. But looking back to him, you can see the concern written plainly on his face. If staying at Jethro’s house will make him feel better, then that’s that.

Finally, you force on a smile and nod. “Sure, it’s not a problem.”

--

With Dwayne driving back to his hotel room (and making you promise to call him whenever you need to), Gibbs takes you to his home. The drive is quiet, other than when he stopped at some fast food place for dinner; Jethro staring at the road and you watching other houses as you pass. It’s not until he pulls into his driveway do you finally look straight ahead.

The whole ride over, you didn’t expect the sight of Jethro’s house to punch you in the gut, like it did. So many memories in that house. A lot of good, but also a lot of bad. It was downstairs, in that basement of his, when Gibbs told you that things would be better if you weren’t together. When he ended something so precious to you.

That memory was so strong, so vivid, you didn’t even notice that Jethro left the car and came around to help you out. You’re leaning on him again all the way inside, and then up the stairs to a little spare bedroom he has. Gibbs makes the bed in silence, and then he holds up the extra pillow he brought with him. “This is for your leg.”

“Okay.”

“You’re gonna use it tonight. I don’t wanna find out you didn’t prop your leg up.”

“Jethro, I’m gonna use it.”

Satisfied, he tosses the pillow on the bed before once again coming to your side. Basically carrying you back down the stairs and into the dining room for dinner. The food is alright, if a little cold. You find yourself looking forward to whenever Jethro decides to cook up some steaks for dinner. That’s one of the small things you really do miss about him.

And yet, even though you two are sat down for dinner, it’s dead quiet. Tense enough to where you barely look up to Jethro’s face. His eyes are down, focused on his burger, as if you aren’t even there. Should you say something? Talk about the case? Ask him if he’s glad to see Dwayne again? You shoot that last one down instantly; that would be way too awkward.

You clear your throat to get his attention. “Could you get me a beer?” You ask him.

“No,” Jethro says, and his answer makes you frown. “You’re on pain meds.”

“Oh, come on.” You can’t help but scoff a little at his reasoning - as if Jethro had any room to talk about what’s best for you. “It’s just one beer, it won’t do anything to me.”

He doesn’t look up. Doesn’t do that frustrating clench of his jaw when he gets annoyed. He just shakes his head. “No means no,” Gibbs replies before taking another big bite of his burger.

His voice is flat, despite scolding words. And you can’t help but just watch him for a few moments in confusion. What the hell was so different about him? “Okay, what’s going on with you?” Jethro’s eyes finally flicker up at your question, watching as you cross your arms and lean against the table to get closer. “Two days ago, you couldn’t stand being around me. Hated that I was butting in. And now you’re being almost nice to me,” you continue before giving a light shrug. “I know you way better than you think.”

Finally, it seems like you struck some kinda nerve. His stone face falters, eyes averting down as Gibbs drops his burger and sits up a little straighter. All the signs of a flustered Jethro Gibbs. Under other circumstances, he’ll try to change the subject. But he knows you well, too. He knows you won’t let the matter drop.

“You were shot. Hurt really bad,” he replies. “Just trying to be nice.”

A cross snort comes out, but you can’t help it. Jethro trying to be nice? After everything that’s happened lately? “With how you’ve been acting, I thought you’d be happy I was shot.”

It slipped out, you’ll admit it. You didn’t truly mean it, or at least, didn’t mean to say it out loud. But it works to snap his eyes up instantly, turning hard and stern, like the old Gibbs use to have. “Why the hell would you think something like that?” He demands. And his voice has that familiar angry tone.

Surprisingly, instead of feeling defensive, you just feel guilty. Because you did know Jethro well. And you knew he probably felt responsible that you were shot on his watch. After all, you were still an NCIS agent, trying your hardest to catch a killer. Plus, you were dating one of his oldest friends.

“You shouldn’t blame yourself,” you tell him softly. An attempt to curb his temper. “And I know Dwayne doesn’t blame you either, so-”

“I’m not blaming myself,” he snaps out. Louder, this time. Enough to make you flinch slightly.

That’s when Gibbs glances away, exhaling heavily before he shakes his head and lets it hang. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen him look this....well, defeated. “You were just lying there, bleeding out, and the only thing I could think about at the time was that I was gonna lose you again.”

It’s fortunate his eyes were down, pointed from you, because your eyes shoot open wide at the admission. You don’t say anything. You can’t say anything, because shock keeps any words from coming up.

And he’s not done. “Then at the hospital, you were sleeping and King called. And it just reminded me that you aren’t mine to lose.” He shifts in his seat, obviously not comfortable with spilling so much of his guts, but he figures it can’t get much worse. “He deserves you a hell of a lot more than I do. He won’t make the same mistakes I did.”

There’s few seconds of silence. Your head is screaming for you to say anything in response, but what could you say? He wasn’t exactly wrong, and if you were being honest, you didn’t want to tell him he was. That would just be a lie. Still, you have to say something.

You’re still juggling with words when Gibbs suddenly stands up and starts collecting all the take-out wrappers. Trying his hardest not to look at you. “You should go to bed. You’re probably tired.”

He disappears into the kitchen, and you could probably guess he’ll retreat into that damn basement of his after he’s done cleaning up. So you stand and limp the staircase. Without Jethro there to help, it takes a lot longer to climb the steps, but you eventually make it to empty little bedroom he set up for you.

True to your word, you tuck the pillow under your leg before lying back and just staring at the ceiling. And despite a week of arguing and fighting and swallowing down smart comments whenever Gibbs says anything, you can’t push away the deep sadness hollowing your chest.

It’s hard to forget the good times with him. Laughing together and working on his boat. Dragging him out of the house to go see a movie, but you end up just making out the whole time. And laying in his arms at night made you feel safer than you could remember. Knowing nothing bad would ever happen, as long as you stay in bed with him.

But then you started running out of good memories. They all lead to the confrontation in the basement. The raw hurt and anguish that never really went away, even after so long.

And you realize Jethro was right: Dwayne would never do that to you.

Suddenly, you feel like calling him. Just to talk for a little while and hear his voice. But it was hard to find the strength to sit up and search for your phone. Besides, you were tired. And the pillow propping your leg up helped with the pain, so it was easy to just close your eyes and fall into a dark, dreamless sleep.

[fandom-necromancer]

828. part 2

This was prompted by @thetruefor3stspirit! Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

[part1]

That comment had been a weird one to hear from the human and Nines spent the remaining car ride to the precinct thinking about it. They hadn’t been working together for long, but long enough for Nines to confirm what others had told him about the man: He was rude, impolite, swore more than was good for him and still thought of androids as machines, as objects. He could play along well enough, but Nines still was met by derogatory terms and jokes about his kind. Gavin hated Connor to the bone, couldn’t care less about androids and Nines knew he was sorted in somewhere in between those two.

For this assessment the human’s words had been strangely out of character.  Maybe he had misunderstood something? Maybe it was one of Gavin’s frequent self-hating jokes, telling him that no one would take him as someone as bad as himself. Yeah, that had to be it. Anything else was impossible.

They worked relentlessly on their case, Gavin checking the evidence at hand while Nines accessed public CCTV and how many TR models were currently active in Detroit. Unfortunately, none of them got any results from their research. The evidence they had wasn’t enough to find any trace of the murderer, even after a thorough autopsy of the android victim. The footage was conveniently deleted, looped or obstructed and there were far too many TRs to just go around asking for a spare, ripped out Thirium pump. If anything, that told them the TR in question wasn’t working alone as they had neither the ability nor the computing power to hack the cameras that fast and effectively. Except for if their suspect was a RK900, of course. Then all that would be possible with just one unit. Nines really wished it wasn’t the case.

‘Hey, Gavin, Nines? You’ve got a new crime-scene to look at. I would hurry, it’s still fresh.’ Gavin was immediately up and picked up his jacket from the chair. Nines followed shortly. It had been two days since the last one and everyone knew they had enough open cases already. That could only mean… ‘What’s it, Chris? Any details?’ ‘Ripped out Thirium pump.’ ‘You are shitting me’, Gavin uttered. ‘Nope. Same shit as last time.’ ‘Phck.’

‘Phck, please don’t let this be some serial killer, please!’ Nines was processing the information the DPD had already gathered, ignoring the emotional outburst from his partner. ‘Victim is another android. It looks… awfully much like our last victim. It is very much possible that they were murdered by the same person.’ ‘Shit. Detroit really doesn’t need this kind of bullshit.’ ‘Don’t worry, Detective. At least they only target androids.’ Gavin clenched his teeth. Nines had quickly lost his uncertainty around him that had clung to him the first days of them working together. Apparently, the machine had concluded his assessment of him in keeping his distance. And what was that last comment for? Phcking androids. ‘Yeah, at least they only target androids’, he hissed at the droid. What had he thought? Nines was just a prick like any other.

They arrived at the scene and as Gavin entered the kitchen of the house, he near gagged from the chemical stench. It hurt in his nose like spilled washing agent. Only then he could squint at the body. And holy shit, that was a lot of blood. The blue liquid gathered in a pool underneath the android. It was still visible though and that let his brain run at top speed. ‘This happened less than two hours ago, right? As the thirium is still liquid?’ ‘That’s right, Detective.’ ‘And the hole in his chest is the same size again?’ ‘Correct.’ ‘How long would you need to erase all camera footage?’ ‘Detective, I am not-‘ ‘How long?’ ‘If I wanted to be as thoroughly as our suspect, it really just depends on the amount of cameras.’ ‘Well, look out of the window, I immediately counted at least five in those shops.’ ‘I see thirteen.’ ‘Ugh, smartass. How long then?’ ‘More than two hours. But we would need a warrant and it could still be a TR-‘ ‘Phck warrants, if this is a serial killer, do you want to wait until the next android dies?’ ‘What is it to you, Detective.’ ‘Phcking… Would you just hack the shit? Come on, we can argue about it later and we don’t have to tell anyone. We’ll get that footage eventually anyways.’

Nines scowled at the man, who was already kneeling in front of the victim, putting on gloves to lift the android’s clothing. Then he started to find a way to access the footage. ‘No.’ ‘What is it?’ ‘The murderer is a RK900.’ ‘Shit. Where is he now? I will call in backup.’ ‘And what will you tell them how we found it out?’ ‘I’ll bullshit something for them, okay toaster? Just find him, quick!’

-

They had found the RK900 by hacking several surveillance cameras on their way and had to fight the android in the end to subdue him. Both had the bruises to proof just how strong a RK900 unit was and Gavin swore to never anger his partner the way he had had his fun with Connor. They interrogated the machine and tried to find out where the rest of them were hiding but were met by it stating his missions and how they were not authorised to be told the information they searched. The RK900 was stubborn in his programming and created enough problems for the police that two permanent android guards were positioned in front of his cell. Or the cell next to his first one he had smashed the reinforced glass of. The machine tried everything to get out of there, displaying his brute force and disregard of his own health. He had severed his own hand to cause an electric surge on the lock of the door and had always doubled his efforts when he sensed an android outside. He babbled on about deviancy being a plague, a malfunction and that all free androids had to be eliminated.

‘It’s a fucking Terminator’, people commented. ‘How could someone build something like that?’ ‘God, this is scary.’ No one seemed to notice how everyone subconsciously kept their distance to Nines after the day the android had freed himself a second time and not only broke the glass, but also an arm and a leg of the guards before Connor could send the android into forced stasis. No one noticed how the heart rates of everyone not over two metres away of Nines spiked. No one noticed how Nines tried to make himself smaller, to not move too much in the precinct and kept seated in front of his terminal, even during break time.

‘Hey, lighten up a little.’ Nines flinched at the sudden contact of a hand on his shoulder. Who still dared to- ‘You’ve been red all day, tin-can.’ Of course. ‘Don’t you have work to do?’, Nines grumbled, scowl deepening as the human sat himself on his desk awfully close. Yeah, we got it. You are not scared. You have a death wish anyway, thinking androids are below you. ‘I actually have, yes. But it’s time for a break and your disco-light is damn distracting.’ ‘You never take your break, Detective.’ ‘Yeah, but you do. So why is your metal ass still here and not over there with drunkard and poodle?’ ‘None of your business.’ ‘Fine. But you know, keeping your distance to them won’t solve your problem.’ ‘What problem?’, Nines asked, his question more a threat than anything. A threat the human ignored as always: ‘They are scared of you because you are the same damn model than the idiot in our holding cell. You know, it’s funny, you predicted that scenario last week and somehow missed the whole thing playing out in front of you.’

‘I saw it, Detective’, the android snarled. ‘Don’t you think I would be the first to notice?’ ‘Well, you are not doing anything about it, so… no?’ ‘What is your problem? Just lean back and enjoy the show. You might lose an android on the force over this. Thought that would be a win for you?’ ‘I think you are overexaggerating.’ ‘What? You being happy when I’m gone? I don’t think so.’ Gavin sighed and slipped from the table. ‘You are a real pain in the ass, you know? Continue like this and I really would be.’

He yawned and walked over to Connor’s desk and Nines thought that would be the end of it. Until he was surprised by two folders repeatedly being smacked together. Nines looked over to the detective, who kept on doing this with two of Connor’s open case files while marching down the bullpen. Then he let them sink to his respective sides and yelled: ‘Attention, dipshits! The android in the holding cell is the killing machine here. I thought the DPD would only hire people who had the braincells to show for it, but apparently you all cheated your end exam or something. My partner isn’t the phcking serial killer and you assholes better don’t treat him like one. I need a fully operational partner and I won’t let you all pull him down, understood?’ Gavin had all the attention of a shocked crowd screaming through the precinct loud enough the people in the lobby had to hear it and the human nodded into the silence. ‘Good.’ He had arrived at the entrance and casually threw both folders into a – thankfully empty – trashcan. The man added a ‘Phcking Kindergarten’ to his speech and exited the precinct.

Nines had been left to the attention of his co-workers after Gavin had went outside and couldn’t help but blush and turn around to his terminal. What the hell had the human thought doing this? An hour later Gavin came back, holding a coffee from a local coffeeshop. He strode through the precinct as if it was a day like any other and sat down at his table across from Nines, ignoring the whispered talks of everyone else. The android however heard them loud and clear. ‘What the hell happened to Reed?’ ‘I know right? He hates attention!’ ‘Yeah, more importantly he hates androids. Didn’t you hear what he did before the revolution?’ ‘No. What?’ ‘I heard he was one of those guys abusing thrown out androids.’ ‘Holy shit. They let someone like that work at the police?’ ‘I know, right?’

Nines shook his head trying to concentrate on the screen in front of him again.

‘I bet he did it because Nines is convenient for him. Just some android he can command around.’

‘Poor Nines, stuck with such an asshole.’

‘Must be the worst. I wouldn’t last a day partnered up to Reed.’

Nines looked over to the man silently sipping his coffee, completely focussed on the photos of the crime-scene laying before him. He really seemed as if his head was in a different world, being able to ignore all of this. He had to hear it. How could he filter it out that well? As Gavin looked up to type up the report for this case, Nines interrupted: ‘Why?’ ‘Hmm?’ The man put down his coffee and looked at him innocently as if he hadn’t just guilt-shamed all of the precinct to be nice to him. ‘Why did you do that?’ ‘What? Bought me a coffee? I had my break and well, I couldn’t exactly stay after-‘ ‘You know exactly what I mean, don’t evade it!’ ‘Why did I defend my partner, you mean? Didn’t think I had to explain that. I’m keeping my promise, tin-can. Even if not, partners are supposed to have each other’s back.’ ‘What promise?’ ‘Last week? In the car? Don’t tell me you forgot that already!’ ‘You meant that?’ ‘Did I mean tha- Of course I meant that! Why else would I say it? Did you think I was joking?’ ‘At least I didn’t think you were being serious. You hate androids.’ Gavin leaned back in his chair and sighed. ‘Listen, Nines. I don’t hate androids, okay? I used to demolish thrown out machines. I could as well had been vandalising bus-stops or graffiti dicks on walls. I can’t care less about androids, that’s right. I couldn’t care less for humans either. But I care about the persons around me and what is right and what is wrong. Why else should I choose to work at the police? It definitely isn’t the nice work atmosphere and the great retirement policy.’

Nines just stared at the man, who quickly evaded his eyes. That was the most honest the human had been to him so far. Or had Nines just never noticed it? He thought back to their talk in the car. Had he really meant every word he had said? In the lights of his recent actions he might have. And Nines realised the chances weren’t too bad that he had let himself become a victim of prejudice. Everyone had told him the detective was an asshole, someone who hated androids and would rather see one in a ditch than save one on the job. He had been wrong to believe them. Gavin was a good partner, caring and compassionate about his job.

‘Thank you’, Nines said in all honesty, thinking back to what he had thrown at the human back in the car.

I don’t want to be pegged as someone like you.

‘Hmm?’ The human looked up at him again and Nines couldn’t shake the feeling Gavin had already been back at thinking about their case, not even bothering what Nines’ evaluation of him was once he made clear how he thought about the android.

‘I think I would be honoured to be put in a box with people like you.’

[scattered--pages]

For the Lukanette lyrical prompt: "And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't/So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road/And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope/It's a shot in the dark and right at my throat", cause Florence is love

Notes: Ummm, so, I love you?! Because Florence really is love and omg this song ♡ Thank you heaps for this prompt, dear!!

Send me lyrics as a prompt for a Lukanette ficlet or a drabble? ♡

 ________________________________________________________

Shake It Out

Rating: Teen+

Word count: 2759 (okay, whoops, this ended up being longer than I planned  ♡)

_________________________________________________________

About a year and a half has passed since Marinette has received the humbling, but painfully difficult task of being the Guardian of all the Miraculous. It was a role that was exhilarating, beyond exciting, a chance to grow like none other before and it ended up brining far more positive things along than she thought it ever would. However – after a very good start and after almost a year of handling everything somewhat well, Marinette got tired. Stressed. And afraid. And so, this also brought far more negative effects in ways she didn’t really even imagine initially.

Of course, the ever-rising thought of her making a wrong mistake, a bad choice, a slip-up with consequences far too grave and any or all of these resulting in the doom of entire Paris or the fate of the Miraculous, but the consequences she failed to predict were the ones affecting her personal life. Marinette’s life, not that of Ladybug.

 And there were truly moments where the line between the two faded. Where she was suddenly skipping school or being late so much and so often that it reached the level where the principle had to alert her parents and she almost got expelled, all the while being horrified and desperate in finding ways to justify her actions because, of course, she couldn’t say the truth. She could never say the truth about this. Or the time when each new threat arising in the city due to the re-empowered Hawkmoth/Mayura team started suddenly bubbling up so much internal pressure for her that she was forced to find a way to first deal with her own genuine, painful and terrifying panic attacks before she could transform and deal with the actual attack taking place outside.

Or when the more outspoken and brave Ladybug overtook the typical ‘Marinette’ in certain situations of extreme emotional hurt or vulnerability, causing her to distance herself from a few friends of hers due to her growing either too withdrawn from them or, on the other side of this spectrum, to lash out suddenly in select moments of jealousy or even slight anger. Being a Miraculous Guardian at the tender age of now 16 was insanely challenging to say the least and even though this fact only started to truly catch up with her recently, it affected both her and those around her enough to cause an overwhelming amount of worry, anger and frustration from all sides. Except from one person.

And as she paced along the Seine nervously, back and fort, during what was supposed to be a calming walk for her, in her civilian form, this particular calming voice was what snapped her back from her over-thinking mind back to reality.

“Marinette?”

She jumped a bit, even though the voice didn’t really startle or scare her, as much as it simply surprised her.

“Luka? Wh-What are you doing here?”, she wrapped her arms around her, suddenly aware of the slight chill outside, her cardigan far too thin for an early spring evening by the river such as this one.

He smiled a sad, worried smile at this and proceeded to take his jacket off. “My home is right there, remember?”, he teased gently, nodding towards a boat a bit more downstream along the river’s flow as he pulled his jacket around her.

“Oh…!”, Marinette followed the direction with her gaze and her jaw dropped slightly. She didn’t realize she managed to pace back and forth and here and there for so long and so out of focus of reality that she managed to reach all the way to here without even realizing it. “But, n-no, no!”, she attempted to slowly shrug the jacket off, “You’re going to freeze!”, her hands reached to get it off and hand it back to Luka but by placing both of his won hands against her shoulders carefully but firmly with a teasing smile, he made any attempts of detaching said jacket from her body near impossible, to which she even frowned slightly, causing him to instantly chuckle and shake his head.

“I’ll be fine, even without the jacket, I’m wearing a sweater that’s even slightly too warm for my taste, and I’ll honestly feel worse if you freeze when I can do something to help that.”

She exhaled, her expression suddenly that of sorrowful, almost guilty confusion.

“Why are you still putting up with me?”

He simply shrugged, the playful hold on her shoulders easing as he stroke them with his thumbs gently. “Because I care. Because a lot of people care about you and it breaks my heart that you seem to not believe that.”

Her expression now remained the same, as well as the emotions it carried, save for the sad smile that she added to it slowly, her head tilting to the side a bit.

“Except, a) I’ve been horrible to everyone and about pretty much everything lately and b)…”, her gaze flickered to the side a few times, cheekbones reddening in a way that made her grateful for the fact that the streetlight reflecting from the water’s clear surface wasn’t that strong of a light source at all, “… you care about me… differently…”

“You know…”, Luka now returned her sad smile, only it carried a different background entirely, his eyes drifting to the floor while he started to slowly let go of her, “I’m an idiot because I… don’t think I even really asked you if you minded that…” He prepared to step back but, within a second, Marinette’s hands were on his, keeping them in place.

“No, no!”, she was surprised by how quickly and confidently she said that, but a much as it made her face feel like it was completely burning now, she didn’t take it back. “Luka, you… Know I dont.”

And true, he had a reason to believe so. They weren’t in a relationship or anything like that yet, like Kagami and Adrien or Nino and Alya were, not officially, but they were spending majority of their time together, in their civilian forms and, of course, unbeknownst to them, in their Miraculous forms as well. More than that, they grew incredibly close quite fast. To the point that now, almost a year since Marinette made a point to get over Adrien, Adrien was just a friend and an occasional fleeting painful sting at her heart, but the majority of her affection and her emotions were now finally allowed to belong to Luka. To the point that they have already had a couple of brief moments of weakness resulting in a kiss, but nothing more was said or done. And because of the latter fact, because it was nothing more, Luka didn’t dare to be convinced that this was a confirmation of anything or to push or prod, but this time, he felt he needed to push slightly in the opposite direction in order to prevent himself from pushing on in this one.

Still, even after her hands gripped his and she, very determinately, kept him close to her, he didn’t know how to react, instead only staying still for a second, followed up by a barely noticeable quiver of his lower lip as he opened his mouth to speak but found himself unable to. She noticed though.

Her broken smile widened slightly. “I’m… being selfish, actually. There’s this… someone, erm…”, she shook her head, trying desperately to remain as vague as possible, “ …something, taking over my life and my composure a lot for awhile now, very incresingly so, and vou’re the only thing keeping me grounded and sane lately and… always have been one of the few people making me feel safe and sure of myself and, at least due to this, I really don’t want to let you go…”

What she said was a partial lie, but for once, he didn’t catch it.

“So it’s…”, he took a breath and nodded firmly, more as a way to keep himself strong than anything else, “… just because of that…” Suddenly he made sure to quickly continue, “And I want you to know it’s perfectly fine if it is, I’ll still be your fr-”

“No…” It escaped Marinette’s lips without her control. But once again, she didn’t regret it or take it back. This newly found courage paired with an impaired capability of hiding her feelings at least had some good uses, it seemed. “No, it’s not just that.”

Stunned yet again, Luka stayed silent, looking back into her eyes, running her words in his head over and over again to make sure he understood them right this time until a melody reached them, played from a near-by cafe, catching his attention.

And when he looked back at her, he smiled again.

“That… something, that’s keeping you down… You never told me everything, so I’m sorry if I don’t always manage to make you feel better as best as I could…”, she was already prepared to counter him on this immediately, but he simply placed a finger against her lips, “… but there’s something I haven’t tried yet.”

Against his touch, her lips formed a small puzzled frown, which was a vision so beautiful and adorable to him that he could have kissed her right then and there and never let her go.

“You know, one of the best ways to get rid of a lot of negative emotions, expectations or fears…”, letting go of her, he moved away slightly and outstretched one of his hands, “…is dancing.” He cocked his head to the side, asking a question without words.

“Oh, nooo, n-no, no, no… I don’t dance, or to be more precise, I’m quite sure I can’t dance!”

“Everyone can dance”, he shrugged with a soft smile, “I’m not asking you to waltz with me or do the tango”, he grinned and she chuckled, “I’m just asking you to dance.”

She bit her lips, feeling a very slight hesitation… but took his hand, nonetheless.

“Okay…”, she smirked, “Teach me.”

Reciprocating her smirk, he took her hand and slowly pulled her closer until they started moving into almost a slow-dancing kind of way. He spun her around and then back into his arms and there was something about how easily and naturally he did that, something about that gorgeous crooked smile he was giving her, just inches from her face, that made Marinette feel incredibly warm and exhilarated in the way, she came to find, only he could make her feel. But they weren’t at the cool, calming ice rink now. And the breezy spring evening was suddenly not cold enough to keep her as in check as she wanted to keep herself whenever he did something that caused this beautiful, dizzy feeling to arise inside her that quickened her heart and breath.

But, for once, perhaps because she so desperately needed something like this, she didn’t want to fight getting lost in a moment like this one. She craved and needed the way he made her feel, safe and wild at the same time, feeling just secure enough to almost be able to let go completely. Marinette never felt like that. Marinette never acted like that. Not even as Ladybug, not even at the peaks of her confidence. But with him, it just happened. And normally, she would wonder over and over again in her head if he could somehow sense this, how he’s literally driving her crazy in a way, if he thought her to be a foolish, silly girl for letting him affect her this much, especially since she practically rejected him at first and since, ironically, she felt that all of these feelings became immensely obvious and accentuated after she removed any barriers that she once upon a time used to carefully set in front of the emotions that were steadily growing for him because she wanted them kept down and silenced for Adrien. But not now. She moved with him and laughed with him and let him sway and spin her in his arms and she could swear she never felt more alive.

It was a couple’s dance of sorts, the one that they were sharing, but it wasn’t defined by any specific set of steps or movements, more like a combination, actually. And that was the beauty of it, it was just defined by – them. And as the music picked up its tempo and volume slightly and she found herself dipped down in a way that perhaps started teasingly and playfully, she could feel her heart wanting to burst in warm sparks in her chest sparkling and spreading through her torso in a way she didn’t expect so suddenly. It felt like sparks flowing down her body and as it instinctively caused her to bite on her lower lip, she could have sworn that she felt his breathing hitch for a moment. Because the way he leaned over her, pulled her waist against his, much closer and tighter than at the ice rink, as he started to pull her slowly back up, eyes staring into each other without blinking, bodies close to the point she could feel the tempo of his breathing through the movements of his chest against her… It flipped some sort of a switch inside her. Everything has been so wrong and so irredeemable and so wrong lately, the pressure constantly dropped onto her shoulders unbearable and so strong that she was fully convinced she truly couldn’t handle it at all. But now, here, with him, like always, all of her feelings just floated to the surface. Or perhaps rushed, ran and instantly flooded to the surface would be a better description of what she was feeling when he leaned his shoulder down against her, breathing heavily, as two teal eyes peered right inside of her and made her melt. And, for once, Marinette was completely and entirely sure that at least for now, she was enough. She was strong. She was alive. Her skin was burning and the air flowing heavily through her lungs at a tempo she wasn’t used to felt like breathing for the first time in months. There was no way on Earth she was letting this go. There was no way in hell she was suppressing anything tonight. As a rebellion against Hawkmoth wanting to see her destroyed, against people who knew her and were ready to judge or leave her when she was clearly going through something akin to a nightmare, against any residual feelings for Adrien and against this whole nightmare as a whole – Marinette was going to grip paradise tonight, she’s going to be young, and free and hungry and loved and to hell with anything else.

She was fire and she wasn’t blushing or pulling back this time or looking away and still, still Luka was careful and doubtful, his gaze searching hers hopeful but confused. And somehow this, the heart and patience and kindness of the boy in her arms tipped her over the brink and without being able to even control or plan it, her lips crashed against his… And they stayed like that for a second, two, before his lips caressed against her lower lip in a way that caused less than a moment to transpire before her teeth grazed his upper lip with her next kiss, then her tongue, and when his tongue just barely brushed up against hers, her mind seemed to have swerved like she was intoxicated, because the next thing she realized was that her hand was tangled in his hair and grasping at his back, pulling him somehow even closer, closer against her, before he lifted her up, swiftly and effortlessly onto a small half-wall behind them and, oh, it made her want to never let him go. She gripped at the firm shape of the small of his back and one of his palms cupped her face, stroking her lip as he kissed it hungrily, the other running against her outer thigh and something between them must have been electric because they both shivered at the same time and chuckled sweetly against each other’s lips.

There was no care or thought left in her mind other than him. Her head, her heart and her body screamed only Luka. Luka. And only Luka.

Her home.

Her acceptance.

Her freedom.

[thedyingmoon]

💚 See Me Now 💚

A/N: Never have the warning, LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY sound so serious until this.

Anyway, enjoy.

***

XXII. Rain

***

It was raining so hard.

He was quickly making his way back to the Headquarters. Logic dictated that he should've just stayed in an inn or some place else and wait until the storm subsides.

However, on that particular day, he felt that he needed to get back there for a reason he couldn't quite explain.

"Fuck,..." he cursed as the rain poured down angrily at him.

When was the last time he felt like this on a rainy day?

Perhaps, it was when they,...

Then, he heard it. Some men singing not far from where he was. He turned and saw three men near a dark alley kicking something. They were singing an old, children's song about a brat who wont shut up and a mother who was stupid enough to bribe the child with different things just to stop it from crying.

At first, he thought that they were just bullying a mangy dog who just so happened to be on the wrong place at the wrong time.

Until he saw them tearing some clothes,...

"HEY!" he called and ran towards them.

The thugs heard his loud voice despite the noise made by the pouring rain. They looked at him, and when they realized who he was, their skin turned deathly pale.

"I - it's,..."

"FUCK! IT'S CAPTAIN LEVI!"

"WE'RE DOOMED!"

"RUN FOR IT!"

And before he could even beat the living daylights out of them, they ran away like some pathetic chickens who were escaping a butcher.

He didn't bother to chase after them. He went towards the victim of their bullying.

And right there, he saw her: a small, degraded figure, clothes awfully torn and skin horribly wounded. It was a miracle that he made it in time.

For if not, who knows what will happen to her?

"Are you okay?" he asked her, trying to cover her body with his own, wet jacket.

It was no use. The moment his jacket touched her skinny frame, she looked up at him with those unidentified colored eyes. They were wide and filled with fear.

"NO!" she cried in an anguished voice. She quickly stood up and ran away from him like a lunatic.

"WAIT!" he bellowed but, it was no use.

He heard no news of her the next day. As time went by, he had forgotten that particular incident which occurred in that dark alley four years ago. He had forgotten that girl who refused his offer of help. He didn't see her after that,...

Until now,...

I will fight for you, Levi,...

Levi slowly opened his eyes, trying his best to battle with the excruciating pain he felt in his body. His stomach we're in knots and his feet were numb. He felt another round of vomit escaping his mouth. That's when he saw,...

"FUCKING BITCH!" the villain roared, grabbing (F/N)'s neck and lifting her. The girl couldn't escape him despite her efforts. The man threw her away like she was a rag doll. (F/N) landed just inches away from Levi.

He watched helplessly as (F/N) tried desperately to stand up and fight back. Despite her great efforts, she just couldn't match strengths with him. Her every attempt on taking the enemy down just resulted in her being brutally beat up and badly wounded.

Another land on the cold, hard floor gave her another wound on her head.

The villain, however, didn't wait for her to stand up. He just grabbed her neck once more, lifted her up and treated her like he was an executioner toying with his victim before the inevitable kill.

"Why are you making things so hard on yourself?" he said, squeezing her neck even tighter. "You're going to die, after all. Why don't you just give yourself to me?"

"N-no!" (F/N) choked. She tried clawing at the man's hand, but she just felt too weak. "NO!"

"STUPID WHORE!"

Levi witnessed with his own eyes how the villain brought her forcefully on the ground. This time, the girl could no longer stand.

How long was she fighting and suffering?

The man was not quite finished, yet. He positioned himself on top of (F/N) and started ripping her clothes off.

"Give yourself to me, and I'll let you die peacefully,..." he whispered to her.

Levi heard everything. From that point onward, he felt something stirring within his own heart. It was slowly scratching the cages of his being, making him feel even worse.

Am I dying?

He watched as the man finally ripped away her shirt, revealing her battered body. Once again, the thing in his heart scratched, making it harder for him to breathe.

Slowly, all of his memories flooded in his mind. They were both good and bad. He saw the countless Soldiers who died gallantly. He saw his squad. Heck, he even saw Petra.

Then, he saw her,...

The man ripped her pants and licked his lips.

"You know, despite your awful condition, you still looked ravishing,..."

The thing in his heart stopped scratching and made blood flow chaotically in his veins like a tidal wave. And after the wave came a strange sensation in his chest. It was like a small fire that was ignited in his core. Another wave came from it, and he felt the flame getting gradually stronger. It was slowly spreading its warmth all over his body. Another wave a second later blessed his body with such heat he couldn't quite explain.

Then, he saw her, yet again.

He opened his eyes,...

And he saw the universe.

It was,... so bright.

Even if it cost me my own life,...

The villain was so pleased with himself. He slowly bent down, excited upon kissing those bloody, yet luscious lips,...

All of a sudden, he felt a foreign sensation connecting with his face that his mind was not even given the chance to process what was currently happening to him.

A few seconds later, he found himself on the opposite side of the room. Dumbfounded, he touched his nose. He looked at his fingers and he saw blood.

"What in the actual fuck?" he muttered and looked back at (F/N). She was barely breathing.

And his own eyes widened with both in fear and shock.

For right in front of her stood Levi Ackerman, looking down at her.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD - ?!"

Levi looked at him. His eyes were full of hatred and anger.

He knew what he had to do.

The flame in his heart sent another tidal wave of heat all over his body, giving him renewed strength.

He clenched his fists. He gritted his teeth. His nails dug deep into his skin, drawing crimson liquid.

The drop of his blood fell onto the ground.

I will never abandon you, Levi.

"HOW CAN YOU STILL BE ALIVE?!"

Levi felt nothing but rage and sorrow as he ran towards the man, his fist ready to break the fiend's bones.

The man cowered and protected himself uselessly, for the Captain had already punched him powerfully enough to make him fly towards the wall.

The man coughed up blood. He glanced at Levi, then at the floor beneath him. He instantly saw that there were cracks on the spots the demonic man just stepped on.

"It cannot be. That's impossible!"

Levi went towards the man and grabbed his neck, lifting him up from the ground. He squeezed hard, barely snapping it. He was careful enough not to let him die.

No.

Not now.

"WHO?" Levi growled like a wild animal, his uncontrollable strength getting the better of his own sanity. "WHO ARE YOU TO HURT HER?!"

"It c-can't be! You must be d-dead by n-now!"

"ANSWER ME!" a demonic sound escaped Levi's mouth, and with it, he smashed the man's body against the wall, hearing some of his bones break at the process. He was so blinded by rage that he could not contain himself. He was also overcome with sorrow as more memories of her flooded in his mind. Of her innocent smile, her patience, her calmness,...

...even her endurance on the face of the one person who hurt her the most.

Of the one person she loved the most,...

He was turning into a beast.

Just like that rainy day,...

The villain laughed despite the pain he felt in his body.

"You're one to talk. I know she suffered a lot because of you, you emotionless, ignorant fool!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Levi punched his face, breaking his nose. He punched again and again, until his face was unrecognizable. He picked him up again by the throat and threw him on the opposite side of the room, splattering blood everywhere.

The man tried crawling away from him, which was no use. Levi's foot flew and the sound of a broken bone was heard. The villain howled in pain.

He was about to kill him with a powerful blow to his spine when the door bursted open.

The villain thanked his awful luck from saving him at the last moment, until he realized who entered the room. They were all clad in military uniform and on their backs was the insignia of the two wings; the wings of freedom.

Erwin was shocked upon seeing the amount of blood splattered all over the place. But he was glad, nonetheless, that the Scouting Legion's best Soldier was finally cured.

Just like how he predicted it,...

"Levi, you - " he began until he saw Levi's deathly glare directed towards him.

The Captain ignored the Commander as he made his way towards the figure on the ground. He saw that it was none other than (F/N), unconscious and badly wounded.

He bent down and took her unconscious body in his arms. He lifted her up, ignoring his own pain.

Everyone, including Erwin, watched quietly as the cold - hearted man stared at the girl he hated and hurt.

Does he still hate her?

They never found out the answer.

The rain started falling.

Finally, no one is coming to hurt her again. She would no longer hide in the closet. She would no longer be afraid.

His own rain started falling,...

***

~ @levi4mikasa , @yepps , @clovemcpandas , @unhappysap , @shewolfofficial , @fangurl-ontgeside , @super-peace-fangirl , @shortbty14 , @emilyackerman78 . 💚

***

💚💚💚

***

[lewis-renalia]

Here is the aforementioned ‘jon and martin get over themselves and actually talk’ fic I ranted about in the tags of another post the other day. its 100% me just venting and wanting to write a fix-it for their personal lives. 

you can read it on ao3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19021939/chapters/45174940) or under the cut

Title: No rom-com bullshit

Pairing: Jon/Martin (M/M)

Rating: Teen and up

No warnings, just a little canon typical angst and fluff

Jon locks the door of his office behind them, Martin quirks an eyebrow as he hears the lock click into place but seems to decide it not worth commenting on. Yet.

“We’re not going to do this- this stupid rom com thing anymore.” Jon blurts out. He had planned what he was going to say when he got Martin in here. This was not it. His original speech had involved a lot about tempering expectations and careful planning but being in a locked room with Martin had thrown all that out the window in an instant. For better or worse, judging by how high Martin’s eyebrows were now it was probably worse, this was the road they were going down now.

“I’m sorry, what? Are you feeling alright?” Martin walks towards him, trapping Jon between his body and the door as he places the back of his hand on Jon’s forehead. Martin’s warm hand feels like its branding him, burning into the cool skin of his forehead. Jon’s breath faulters for a second, unable to decide if he should breathe in or out. He pulls his senses back, shaking Martin’s hand away with a flick of his head. Martin pulls back, faint lines of worry etching into his face. Jon pushes past him into the room so he can lean sit on the front edge of his desk

“We’re not doing the whole ‘will-they-won’t-they’ bullshit they love to put in those movies, blushing every time we get near each other, but always pulling away when the other draws near.” He’s suddenly aware that he’s waving his hands around to emphasise what he’s saying, he clamps them to the edge of the desk, “It all being super obvious to everyone but the couple. Being jealous when one of them speaks to someone else. All that unnecessary back and forth. We’re both too old for it.”

Martin hasn’t moved from where Jon left him, hovering unsure by the door.

“What are you saying?” Martin asks after a moment, breaking the tense silence that had hung between them. His expression is guarded while Jon jumbles the words around in his head, trying to find the way to say it without being a complete arse.

“I-uh,” the bravado that had gotten him through the first part of his plan left him, his words tripped over each other as the scramble to all come out at the same time, “listen to every-uh tape made. Not to mention the things I hear aroun- they don’t matter I suppose. People don’t know, they just guess, but they’re usually better guessers when it comes to these things than I am.” He forces out a hysterical sounding nervous chuckle that only results in Martin’s gaze changing from confused to concerned.

Oh sod it.

“I’ve heard that you have uh- feelings for me.” Jon feels like he might faint. His pulse bounds like a physical entity, a trapped animal, desperately trying to escape his chest as he forces each and every syllable out of his mouth.

Martin’s face cycles through a few emotions, each as inscrutable to Jon as the last until Martin manages to school his face into something approaching neutral.

“I see.”

“I’ve always been bad at these things, I mean I basically dated Georgie for a month before I even realised that we were dating, and when I asked her if we were dating she was understandably confused because, after all, I was the one who asked her out apparently and-“ Jon snaps his mouth shut as he realises he’s babbling, a nervous trait from childhood rearing its head. He can hear his grandma snapping at him ‘Say what you mean boy and nothing more!’. He takes a deep breath before continuing.

“Anyway, I didn’t know how to deal with,” he gestures jerkily between them, “this, so I’ve ignored it, blamed circumstances and squashed it all down. But I’ve been reliably informed that that’s not a solution for personal problems and is quite mean, which I didn’t even realise, so I’m sorry about that.”

“So, what? Back off? Leave me alone? I’m fired?”

Jon snaps his gaze back to Martin (when had he looked away, he wondered), finally seeing the hurt slipping through the neutral mask.

Jon cursed himself, for all the talking he’d just done he hadn’t even said what he wanted to say.

“No!” He speaks too loudly for the small space and his shout causes Martin to blink rapidly. “God no, quite the opposite. I-uh.” He stops, unable to force himself to say the words screaming in his head.

Martin’s expression softens, something on Jon’s face lets him step closer until he’s close enough to lay a hand on Jon’s shoulder, comforting but not rushing.

Jon takes a deep breath, holds it and releases. The fainting feeling recedes slightly.

“I might like you too,” he confesses in barely more than a whisper. He stares blankly over Martin’s should, the confession weighing too heavily to allow eye contact.

He starts when Martin’s other hand rests lightly on his cheek, gently directing him to make eye contact. His heart flutters wildly when he sees Martin smiling.

“Why do you know so much about rom-coms?”

The question surprises Jon, instantly breaking the tension coiled in his body, it forces it way out as bone deep laughter. He leans forward to steady himself, resting his forehead on Martin’s shoulder. Martin shifts his hand on Jon’s face to cup the back of his head as the other hand pulls them both closer, an almost hug. Jon barely notices as the giggles tremble through him.

The laughing subsides in fits and bursts but Jon leaves his head on Martin’s shoulder, enjoying the comfort of the quasi-hug.

“In an effort to not be like a rom-com,” Martin asks when the laughter seems to have completely stopped, “can I kiss you?”

Jon lifts his head and eschews words in favour of leaning in and kissing Martin.

The angle is wrong at first, with Martin being taller than him and Jon making himself shorter still by being half perched on the desk, but Martin pulls back slightly and Jon follows, not wanting it to stop yet. Then they are both standing, chest to chest, Jon’s hand furled tight in the shirt above Martin’s shoulder blades. Then, all at once, its perfect.

-----

“My relationships never last.”

Martin looks up at Jon, confused. They had been peacefully watching Golden Eye until Jon had thrown that sentence out into the aether of Martin’s flat.  

“Okay?” Martin prompts as he sits up, he’d slumped down throughout the movie until his head had rested in Jon’s lap, Jon’s fingers absentmindedly petting through his hair as they watched Bond save the world, but he feels this is a sitting up kind of conversation.

Distractedly he hits pause on the remote, freezing Pierce Brosnan in the middle of a cocky smile, “What prompted that?”

Jon shrugged, his usual emotional constipation snapping back with full force.

“I’d love if you told me if I’ve done something to make you uncomfortable.” He leans over and presses a kiss to Jon’s cheek as the other man determinedly avoids eye contact. “I’d love to avoid ‘all that rom-com bullshit’.” As predicted, this draws a scoff out of Jon and breaks him out of his reverie, he tilts his head to meet Martin’s and returns the kiss chastely.

“It’s nothing you’ve done, but-“Martin watches as Jon retreats into his head again and waits, giving him time to organise his thoughts. He sits back against the arm of the couch and opens his legs, inviting the other man to lean back against him. Jon, grateful for a way to avoid eye contact while explaining himself, scoots over to sit with his back to Martin’s front.

Jon is quiet for long enough that Martin fears that he might have nodded off to avoid the conversation but he eventually speaks, his words slow and measured, attempting to convey without accusing.

“It’s just how things go,” he shrugs, the movement awkward in his current seat.

“Hmm, and why do you think it’ll go that way this time?” He stops Jon picking at his thumb nail by entwining their right hands together palm to palm.

“They just always have. It’s fine in the beginning, people are happy with hugs and meals and little kisses.” Jon sighs, lifting their joined hands to press a kiss to their intertwined knuckles. “Then they want more an-“ his voice falters, a common issue when he talks about emotions, Martin knows he hate it, views it as a weakness on top of weakness. The words all lain before him but out of his grasp when he needs them most.

“and I can’t give more.” He grounds out, each word sounding hard won. “Then sometimes they say that’s fine, they can live without more. But they can’t. And they drift away. Or I push them away. Because they deserve more.” His grip on Martin’s hand is bordering on painful, his body tensing into stiff angles and pulling away as he becomes more and more agitated.

“What about what you deserve then?” Martin slips an arm around his belly forcing him to relax back against him again, “do you think you’re doomed to be lonely? Unloved?”

The silence speaks volumes, not a silence of thought but resignation. Jon slumps back against him, the anger and fight leaving him all at once, replaced with anxiety so thick it seemed to radiate off him in waves.

“And do you think so little of me? I broke into a spider filled flat for you once, remember? I don’t do grand gestures like that lightly. And that was when you didn’t like me!” Jon doesn’t respond, happy to wallow in his anxieties now that they’ve been aired. Martin sighs, letting his fingers drum lightly against Jon’s stomach.

“My instincts just want to swaddle you up from the outside world so no-one can ever hurt you again. But the fact of the matter is that I can’t fix this with some big romantic gesture or say something that’ll make you wake up tomorrow without all the hurt people have left you with. But I can promise you tomorrow. And tomorrow I can promise you tomorrow. And I can keep doing that until you believe me. Or maybe you never will. But at least I can always promise you tomorrow, so you will always have that to look forward to?”

Jon disentangles himself, twisting around to face Martin. His expression isn’t happy, Martin decides to label it ‘carefully optimistic’. Jon’s broken edges hidden again, hopefully a little less damaged than they were before.

“I thought you said no rom-com crap?”

-----

Jon shifts restlessly again, pulling away from the loose hold he’d had around Martin’s back. It had gotten too hot. Too much. Too unsure. All of a sudden it had gone from comfortable to anxiety inducing. He curls around himself, pressing his back into Martin’s. He feels the spark of comfort that comes from being in contact with the other man, the calm that the contact with another living being bring - Martin specifically- crawls through his skin and soothes him. Then feeling of ‘not right’ hits again, it’s not enough, it’s too much, its uncomfortable. He groans in frustration as he turns again, Martin’s arm heavily drops across his chest, pinning him on his back. Martin doesn’t open his eyes but shifts to tuck his head into Jon’s neck, a sleepy chuckle ghosts past his lips and brushes over Jon’s neck.

“S’top movin’.”

Jon tries, he turns his head into Martin’s hair. The scent of his shampoo curling into his nose. He counts backwards from a thousand, recalling the dewy decimal categories that correspond with the numbers as he goes. It’s not enough, the feeling of ‘not right’ creeps up again as he fights it with as much as he can, desperately trying to think what part of the arts section 730 covers. His discomfort is palpable enough that Martin raises his head, Jon opens his eyes to find Martin looking at him. He brushes a hand gently over Jon’s face, pushing the hair back from his eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

A low frustrated growl rumbles out of Jon before he notices he’s doing it.

“I can’t – nothing’s comfortable. Everything is- it’s too much? But no its- I’m fine and then I can’t breathe and it’s too warm but it’s also not enough, its overwhelming and underwhelming all at the same time, and I get frustrated an- I should just get up and let you sleep. I’ll read some statements an-“

Martin rests his forehead on Jon’s, eyes slipping almost closed again, and Jon loses his train of thought. The contact is once again sweet ambrosia, comfort and calm. The undercurrent of anxiety hums, the fear that ‘this too will pass’ churns in his gut.

Martin presses his lips to Jon’s, too sleepy, too fleeting, to be called a kiss, but the intent the same. The message is clear: ‘no rom-com stupidity’

“Let me try something?” Martin asks against his mouth.

Jon’s head twitches minutely in something like a nod, as much as he can manage without dislodging Martin.

Martin lifts the rest of his body off the bed, the mattress creaking in vague protest.

“Let me know if I’m too heavy.”

He manoeuvres himself wholly above Jon before lowering himself to lie completely on top of him. Jon’s breath is taken away slightly as he adjusts to the taller man’s weight on top of him, there is a little wiggling as pointy bones are moved out of the way of soft flesh and then Martin practically melts into him, tucking his head back into the crook of Jon’s neck.

“Better?” he asks, muffled.

Jon flexes his left foot, softly brushing the inside of Martin’s calf. He feels calm? The anxious scrabbling that usually takes up a sizeable chunk of his brain space has calmed, no more than white noise in the back of his brain. The urge to move goes with it, stifled by the heat of Martin’s body pressing him into the mattress.

“Much,” he decided, half pressing a kiss to Martin’s hair while trying not to move him too much.

“Good, now sleep.”

And, to Jon’s surprise, he finds himself already drifting off.

[verycharismaticdragon]

Silver for the character HC! Or if you got him, any one of your choice! :D

I can’t believe you are letting me rant about Silver again… thank you…

1: sexuality headcanon bi w/ preference for men

2: otp To surprise of absolutely nobody, huntershipping aka protag/Silver. What can I say, I can’t resist the enemies to friends to lovers trope, especially not with a side of ‘you make me want to be a better person’.

3: brotp 

I’ve got a real soft spot for the idea of Silver becoming friends with Janine? Because I always thought she had strained relationship with her father (I know HGSS went into opposite direction with her characterization, but I played Gold so ¯\_(´ｰ｀)_/¯), and when she and Silver meet he’s right in the middle of figuring out just how much of his behaviour and personality is a result of Giovanni’s shitty parenting, so she’s like… “can I offer you a nice coping mechanism in this trying time?”

And at first that’s all there is to it, but then they just… continue to hang out because they started to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. I think they have a fairly similar sense of humor as well (sarcastic going on bitter). Also lately I’ve been thinking to add Sabrina to this friend group for maximum goth energy.

Another one I like is Silver and N! Because I’m an entirely predictable person I wanted the first stop of N’s journey to be Johto, and for him to meet my boys… 

Since it’s several years post Johto events Silver is significantly calmer, but he still doesn’t trust people much, so he’s like, okay, I’m gonna talk to this new guy, figure out if he’s up to something. And N is still wrapped up in the events of BW endgame, so he kinda spills out his entire story? Not intentionally, just because he’s still trying to process it all himself. And Silver is definitely noticing the similarities but he’s also like, fuck?! Here he thought abandoning your pre-teen kid on the street to fend for himself was as bad as bad parenting got but this guy had it worse. And Silver might be low on empathy but he’s not without it, so he just goes “Screw it, your family sucks and literally anyone could do better. I could do better. Listen, if you need anyone to talk to I’m here. Also, let me teach you how to throw a punch so you can punch your dad if you ever see him again. Or, wait, should I do it for you? I’ll do it.”

And N is absolutely confused by the whole thing at that moment, but sorta goes along with it, and before he knows it he’s included into every friend group Silver and Gold have, and invited along for any and every adventure, and he’s like. Wait. Is that friendship. Am I being friendshiped right now, is that how it works-

……i uhh may have thought about that scenario a lot ^^“

4: notp 

Lance/Silver. One is a teenager and another is a grown-ass adult, so :/

…and there’s also an additional level of squick because I see their dynamic as more found family like so i’m just sitting there like ‘excuse you? that’s his dad? i mean, that’s his non-related but objectively better dad?’

5: first headcanon that pops into my head He takes up boxing at a certain point post game events. Initially it’s just a healthier way to let out his anger, but he grows to genuinely like the sport.

6: one way in which I relate to this characterHe actually reminds me a lot of how I used to be as a teen? Trust issues, angry all the time, self-centred, constantly looking for a fight, but at the core of it just lonely and hurting and trying to cover it up. And then finding people who are like 'oh yeah, we want this person to be our friend. yea this one. our gremlin now, fuck off’. And through them realizing how much of an asshole I’ve been and resolving to do better.

7: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this characterThe tendency to shift the blame to anyone but himself he had in the beginning, I guess. But I do understand exactly where it’s coming from - he had zero support at the time so having confidence in himself was the only thing that kept him going - so it’s more of a 'bby no… get your shit together…’ feeling.

8: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?Problematic fave but like. Cinnamon sprinkled. Like yea he’s an ass but he’s doing his best and that’s what counts!