#wow just realized this is a bit of a boys lineup

[gay-little-izzet]

I’m back and I brought reptiles

^ Chameleon Oko!!! Nobody requested him but this idea hit me like a truck yesterday

^ started this a while back and came back to it! I think he looks cute ☺️

^ went with the bearded dragon since this is a reptile post but Sarkhan Vole would also be terrific

[kiridarling]

𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐄

d.kaminari and h.sero | f!reader + corruption + weed/shotguning + praise + threesome + more! minors dni!

— 3.6k words

"I knew I wanted you the second I saw you."

Denki’s addicted to the pre-concert high.

His veins hum with a song that has yet to start, fingers drumming some mixed beat on the body of his electric guitar as he assumes his place on the dark stage. The theater’s dead silent, the room suspended in a titilating anticipation—and the steady rhythm Denki's heart dissapates into chaos when the faint crack of Eijirou's drumsticks bounce off the walls, and the click in his earpiece begins.

Eijirou hits the kick drum once. Twice. Then his hands fly across the set in a flurry, the rolling beat echoing into the packed arena and spurring the crowd to explode, fans flying to their feet to render their vocal cords for the night.

As the other instruments fill the blank space, Denki's hand grips the back of his guitar's neck, on hold for his solo, and by the time the electric blond steps up to the mic, pavlov's theory has already kicked in overdrive.

"Who’s ready to feel good tonight?”

“Dude, I’m on fucking fire!” Denki vibrates, nearly glowing in comparison to his bandmates as they sift through a flurry of fans at a meet and greet. It always seems like Denki and Eijirou are the only ones with energy after a good show—but what can he say? Being on stage lights him up like a live wire.

"You said that last concert, buddy," Hanta snorts, before his a fan ran sacks his attention by shoving a tiara into his hairline.

"And? My point still stan—" Denki cuts himself off with a gasp as a bra slings across his face, followed by a burst of pain when the metal hits him in the cheek. He peels the lacy thing off with an eye on the audience and an eyebrow raised in question, unsure of what to do with the undergarment (other than put it on) until someone screams:

“Sign it!”

Denki shrugs and pops the Sharpie cap with his teeth to sign the crest of both cups before flinging it back into the audience—he can only pray it pinpoints its rightful owner before the meet and greet ends.

Katsuki clicks his tongue (because he hates these events) and as the next round of fans lineup in front of their table, Eijirou stretches like this is a sport, saying, “Guess it’s go-time.”

"Go-time is when we perform," Katsuki grumbles in the seat to Denki’s right. "Go-time is when we're in the studio makin' a goddamn album, not meeting crazy fuckin' fans—no, I’m not gonna marry you, you obsessed fuckin—“

“Oh, you're just salty you're not popular with the ladies~“ Denki gushes, wiggling his eyebrows, and a fan hands him a canvas the size of his upper body. “Un—oh wow, did you make this for me—Unlike me, of course.”

"Okay, pretty boy." Hanta rolls his eyes, before signing a phone case and returning it to an overzealous fan. With a hand covering his mouth, he whispers, “Can you believe this guy? So full of himself, I swear.”

The fan giggles and Hanta meets the blushing cheeks with a satisfied smirk. Denki huffs from the disrespect, crossing both arms over his chest. “Full of myself? It’s not my fault I’m sexy—*an autograph? Of course!"

Katsuki chuckles, scratching under his chin with ink blue fingertips, "Call yourself sexy one more fuckin’ time and I'm projectile vomiti—no, I'm not signing your tits, give me a goddamn paper or somethin—"

"What?” Denki scoffs, chest collapsing with the disbelief that one could make such a lie. “I'm literally the definition of I'm sexy and I kno—"

"Um, excuse me?"

His gesticulations freeze at the passive voice, arms stretched wide and to the sky, and Denki knows he has to look absolutely ridiculous as he blinks down at the next person in-line; who's stood with bambi eyes and such a sweet smile the electric blond thinks it might make him sick.

"I-I'm your biggest fan! Could you—um, please sign this for me?"

She comes alive, shoving a poster into his chest with pink cheeks and shifty irises. Out of all the bras, all the breasts he's been asked to sign today, and here you are, with your pocket-sized poster and your lamb countenance. Denki beams.

"Of course, Sweetness! What's your name?"

"[Y/N]!" you say, giggling, and it's so. Cute. Denki opens the Sharpie and struggles to focus on signing instead of your gorgeous fucking face.

"Anything specific you'd like me to say?"

And he knows there's a rule—there always are when it comes to these things, and it's simple: don't fuck the fans. As tempting as it is, don't invite them back to your hotel room because there are too many uncertainties, and if something leaks to the press that’s possibly career ending, that’s it. So, Denki holds his tongue. For the future of himself and the band.

"Uhm, just write what you want! I...I think I'd like it best if it was authentic and came straight from you, so."

Fuck. Of course she does.

And maybe Denki just can't help it when he leans down to speak, perhaps a little lower, "You want something more authentic, cutie?"

You light up like a kid on Christmas, gasping, "Yes please Mr. Kaminari!"

So eager, too.

"Awe, you can call me Denki if you'd like," he coos, and you nod so quickly he starts to worry about whiplash. "Meet me out back, in the alley behind the venue if you wanna get to know me better. Sound like a deal?”

"O-Okay!" You nod, and when he returns your sign you grip it tight between both hands. "I'll um, see you soon Mr. Kami—I mean, D-Denki!"

You flush from the mix up and bow in apology, and Denki knows he's made the right choice when you light up, indicating you have no idea what he meant at all.

"Row row row your boat, gently down the stream," you hum, sniffling. You’re unsure if your nose is running, it's too frozen to tell, and it has you patting to confirm it’s presence. With your hands stuffed in your pockets and a jacket wrapped tight around your body, you'd think you'd be warm, but no.

The alley is dark. It's dank enough that you can smell it and you're positive what you're dancing in is vomit, but none the matter—today, you met your favorite band. Literally the people you'd die for.

"Merrily, merrily," kicking the loose rocks in the gravel every which way, you enjoy the sound of them scattering against the surrounding brick walls. "Merrily, merrily..."

"Life is but a dream," a voice finishes, a yelp rips from your throat and you jump twenty feet in alarm. But you’d know that voice anywhere; Denki chuckles at your reaction and it has you recoiling with timidity, unprepared for the surprised audience. "You have a lovely voice, Cutie. You should use it more often."

"I..." but you're not exactly sure what to say to that, knowing Denki's heard so many professional voices in his career to last a lifetime, and yet yours is lovely. "T-Thank you."

Denki watches your reaction with a hum and a smile, his visible breath escaping between the slit of his lips and into the cool air.

"Of course, Cutie."

Another voice sighs, shattering the friction that fills your gut when Denki gives you that look. You're not sure what to call it, but it makes you shiver, and that's enough to make you to run and hide.

"...Denki, who's this?"

"Um," the blond places his frozen hands in his pockets and swivels his head around to Hanta, guilty written all over his face. "A fan?"

Hanta sighs again, head tilting to the right in exhausperation, “Denki—"

"I know, I know," the electric blond sighs, waving him off. "But it's fine as long as we don't get caught, right?"

Hanta's black hair threatens to fall into his face so he combs through it, and you try not to drool at the sight of his bicep flexing. "Yeah, until we get caught."

A honk blares and it has you shrieking, to reveal a parked tour bus in the alley once the lights flicker on. Denki points the car keys at the vehicle and the doors swing open. "Awe c'mon, don't be a sour puss. It's a one-time thing, alright?"

Hanta's eyes narrow into slits.

"Seriously, dude! I'm a man of my word! On God."

The noirette's shoulders sag, but he waltzes around both of you to get on the bus. Over his shoulder, he warns, "Denki I swear to fucking god—"

"I'll be careful, I'll be careful~" he singsongs, hopping onto the stairs after the pianist. When Denki notices not you're not moving, he stills at the top step. "You coming, [Y/N]?"

"O-Oh, am I um, am I allowed?" You ask, biting your cheek at the thought of what Hanta just said as you peer around the electric blond’s body. Denki snorts, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, you're allowed," he exits the bus, only to tug you on via your collar. "Now c'mon! Let's have some fun, yeah?"

"Okay!"

Denki steers you through the bus and into a space that looks a bit like a living room, with a couch, tv, and a makeshift kitchen in the corner. Following Denki to the kitchen, you look around.

"Where are Kirishima and Bakugou?"

"Out drinking," Denki tosses, flicking open a RedBull. You wonder if this is always the post-concert routine. Hanta fiddles in with something on the couch, but he still has yet to look you in the eyes tonight, even when you ask him:

"What are you doing?"

It seems he didn't realize you’ve relocated from the kitchen to the couch next to him from the noirette nearly jumps. The green stuff in his fingers crumbles, and you scrunch your nose at the smell.

"It stinks," you add. Denki snorts, jumping onto the cushion to your right. There isn’t a whole lot of room and his addition causes your shoulders to slush between the two of them, but it’s strangely comfortable.

"It's weed," he explains like it's obvious. "You smoke, Cutie?"

"Obviously not," you and Hanta say at the same time. You turn his way, and for the first time that night, Hanta looks you in the eyes—and it's a smile, with his eyes crinkling in the corners, but there's...something else. Something else hidden behind the thinnest veil that makes you cower, if ever so slightly.

Something feral.

Denki, unaware of the crushing grip your hand has around your thigh, huffs, and tosses the energy drink down his gullet, "It was a genuine question! Geez."

"What are you doing?" You ask again, and the electric blond whimpers from being ignored.

"Rolling a joint," he utters, lifting the paper to his lips to lick the length. You watch, semi-disgusted, as Hanta finally folds over the last bit of paper around the crest of the joint, gluing it together.

"Know what a joint is?" The noirette implores.

"Yeah," you breathe, shifting at the new closeness Denki provides when you feel his chest against your back. "My roommate smokes, so."

Hanta taps it on a tray, or what Denki describes as "packing it down," before twisting the tip and tossing it back onto the tray in conclusion. Denki cheers.

"Aha! The joint-rolling master has blessed us! Everyone say thank you, joint-rolling master."

"Thank you, joint-rolling master!" You giggle when Hanta's face turns a ruddy red. He reaches over to pop Denki upside the head. Denki gasps, before lunging to return the favor, and you squeal from being jostled between two men.

"Okay," when Denki returns to his seat he's panting and so is the noirette. He picks the joint off the tray and though there isn't much room, turns so he's facing you, your legs smushed against his body indian style. "You ready, Cutie?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," you huff, swinging your arms in preparation despite the lack of space. Just in case.

Hanta snorts, holding the joint to your lips, and Denki raises the lighter and raises it to the end until it's hot enough to burn on its own.

“Now suck."

You do, cheeks puffing, and you blow the smoke straight in Denki's face. It's...a lot.

"Not quite," Hanta chuckles, and flips you via the waist so you're facing him. Denki whines from the change but finds solace in hooking his chin over your shoulder. "Suck, and then inhale. Act like it's a big breath—you gotta hold it in your lungs for a sec."

"Okay," you assert with a nod, eyes burning with a new determination. When Hanta holds it to your lips, you suck and inhale, and start coughing your throat raw, in a flurry of smoke and tears, eyes watering and nose burning. You scramble for water, but by the time you get some, the only thing that's left to soothe is a sore throat.

"Here," Denki offers, grabbing the joint before flipping you his way again. "Take smaller hits, like this."

Denki's mouth wraps around the tip and smoke pours from his lips so smoothly you're determined to do the same. With a raised eyebrow, he passes it back to you, and though it takes a moment, you try again.

The back of your throat tingles but the glide is much smoother, and you find that it doesn't burn on your next exhale. So you do it again. And again. And agai—

"Okay," Hanta picks the joint from your fingers with a click of his tongue, before taking a hit himself. You frown, making grabby hands.

"Hey, wai—"

"Nu-uh," he tuts, pushing you down by your forehead. "You'll feel it soon enough, trust me."

You whine, crossing your arms over your chest. Hanta gives you nothing but a raised eyebrow as he takes another hit, and you're convinced it's to taunt you. "I'm not eve—"

But then the world blurs, a bit, and your legs hum in a way they haven't before; it's warm and it's nice, and it has you blinking down at your hands in bewilderment. Whoa.

"And there she goes," Denki announces, and somehow seized the joint from the noirette when you weren't looking. Your mouth drops to say something, but all you can produce is a light giggle before it melts into a guffaw that only comes straight from the gut, your hands trying to soothe your cramping belly. Tears come to your eyes fairly easily, and when Hanta asks if you're okay he sounds like he's underwater, and that's enough to send you flying through another fit of laughs.

"I—y-yeah, I'm just—just fine," you snort behind a hand, chest spasming as you finally gather yourself enough to calm down. "I'm good. Mhm."

"Yep. Totally fine," Hanta says, but something in his tone suggests he doesn't believe you at all.

You nod, biting your bottom lip to avoid another laugh attack with your hands bunching the bottom of your shirt for extra purchase. Hanta narrows his eyes while taking another hit, so you sock him in the shoulder with a huff. "Stop looking at me like that."

The noirette snorts, "Like what?"

"Like..." you start strong, but falter under his eyes. "Like you want to eat me."

Hanta hums at the comment but says nothing, and you're not sure if your mind fabricated the quick look he gives the electric blond sat behind you. Denki speaks first.

"Do you know what shotgunning is, [Y/N]?"

You frown, "Like a shotgun?"

"So no," Hanta answers for you.

"Here," Denki offers, turning you again. Plucking the nub of a joint from the noirette, he takes a big hit before picking your face up by the jaw and hovering your lips over yours. You're not sure what to do, but once your lips connect, smoke fills your lungs, and you don't exhale until Denki pulls away. You blink, a little dazed.

You just kissed Denki Kaminari.

"Feel good?" He asks, never leaving your personal space. You nod, and he grins. "Wanna do it again?"

Your hands fist his shirt, teeth tearing the inside of your cheek due to the amount of embarrassment this question encourages. "I wan—can we do it again but without the um...without the smoke?"

Denki's hands find your hips and it's hard for him to contain a sly smirk, biting his lips to move in on his prey.

"I knew I waned you the second I saw you."

Denki's lips feel much better when he puts a little weight into the kiss, pinning you between him and the noirette. You're not exactly sure what you're doing but he takes the lead, titling his head and kissing harder, rougher, so your lips are pink and swollen by the time he pulls away.

"A-Another," you whimper, tightening your grip around his tee.

Denki hums in contemplation, picking your head up by your chin. "Ask nicely, Cutie."

Flushing deeper, your eyes dart to the coffee table.

“Another, please."

"Good girl," Denki coos, and he's propping you up against Hanta's chest. You shiver at the comment, finding purchase on Hanta's thighs as Denki kisses you on the lips again. "Wanna feel even better?"

"Yes," you nod vehemently. "Yes please."

Denki hums at that, climbing down your body as his hands glide from your waist to the band of your pants. You frown, "What—What are you doing?"

"Eating you out, Cutie," the electric blond says, hands freezing once his thumbs dip under your waistband. "That okay?"

"Oh okay," you breathe, relaxing against Hanta's chest. "Y-Yeah, that's fine."

Denki rips your pants off at that, tossing them towards the corner of the room and ultimately, to a place you'll probably never find them. Pushing your panties to the side, he licks his lips at the sight of your pussy, and flicks your clit with a smirk. You jump.

"H-Hey, that's not—"

He flattens his tongue against your slit and chuckles when you shudder, and after tossing both of your legs over his shoulders. You're not sure what he does after that though, because Hanta picks your face up by the chin and presses his lips to yours.

Denki slides a finger inside and you squeal against Hanta's chapped lips. You hear the electric blond moan, readjusting himself between your thighs, before you finally peel your lips off the noirette's, chest having from lack of oxygen.

"Such a pretty pussy, Baby," Denki gushes before his warm lips fold around your clit and he sucks, humming in surprise when you buck against his mouth. Hanta hooks his chin around your shoulder with a second joint dangling between his lips—and where it came from is beyond you.

Once he exhales, the joint finds its way between your lips and he instructs you to inhale, and the head rush afterwards has you digging your head into his chest.

"You're so wet, holy shit," Denki pulls away, lips strawberry pink and glossed with slick as he trades his both for his thumb and inserting another finger. It crooks just right and that's enough to make your hips buck, nails carving crescents in Hanta's thighs.

“T-There,” you whimper, wiggling your hips again, and Denki grins, thumb pressing into your clit. Your thighs quiver with the strain it takes to hold them back and Hanta’s calloused hands skip to your waist after dropping the burning joint off in the tray.

“Pull his hair,” the noirette commands, but you hesitate, hands glued to his thighs. Hanta sighs, reaching over you to tug for himself.

“Mph—fuck!” Denki’s eyelids flutter as he moans into your pussy with a new passion, his hands wrapping around your thighs to hold you in place. You gasp at his reaction, fingers scrambling under Hanta’s own to thread through his electric blond hair.

“Move your hips—grind against his face, c’mon,” Hanta’s grip tightens around your waist as he offers the suggestion, and you whimper with a nod before your bucking into Denki’s mouth without abandon. As the noirette trails butterfly kisses up the column of your neck, the coil in your gut snaps, and you barely have time to squeak out a warning before you’re flooding Denki’s mouth.

“Good girl...ride it out—there you go,” Hanta coos, biting your ear. You shiver as Denki pulls away with a final (and obscene) slurp, grinning like he didn’t just shatter you to pieces with nothing but his tongue and fingers.

Denki’s lips are on yours in a blink—you moan, legs still buzzing from the afterglow as you weakly grope for the small hairs on the back of his neck.

“Taste good, don’t ya?” He says with a click of a tongue after pulling away.

“I guess so,” you flush, the humiliation from so shamelessly digging your heels into Denki’s back finally settling in. Hanta reaches under your arm for Denki’s chin.

“What? Want a taste too?” The electric blond giggles, wiggling his eyebrows. Hanta snorts.

“If you could be so kind.”

Denki hums at that, placing a hand on your inner thigh for balance as he slams his lips on the noirette’s for the first time that night. He dives straight for the kill, tongue and teeth and everything, and Denki moas when Hanta’s teeth sink into his bottom lip; you find that you like it a lot.

Though eventually you tired of watching, and press the heel of your hand on Hanta’s hard cock through the fabric of his jeans. The pianist hisses, and you grin—you’ve got their attention now.

“Whoa Sweetheart, what are y—“

“I...I want more,” you assert despite the tremor in your voice. Hanta raises an eyebrow in question which has you pressing harder in hopes he’ll cave just as easily as before. Just in case, you add, “Please.”

Denki redirects your attention by squishing your cheeks until you’re looking him in the eyes. With dark eyes, he says, “You sure you want more, Cutie?”

You nod despite the restriction, “Wanna...wanna get to know you better.”

You watch Denki’s pupils dialate at that, and he can’t even hold back a groan when he says:

“Gods, Baby. We’re going to ruin you.”

unpopular opinion: bakugou's the bassist and kirishima's the drummer. fight me.

not me projecting 12yo sun's fantasy of getting railed in the tour bus by 5sos um—

[jaesvelvet]

confession — choi hyunsuk

warnings: lowercase,grammartical error

words: 1.5k words

pairing: gn! reader + hyunsuk

notes: i'm sorry if this too boring,cliche?? 🥺 happy reading!!

music echoed across the hall that your batchmate rent for a high school reunion. you stepped into the hall, frowning as you saw all of the faces you hate in the high school year. you never high school it was hell to you, full of toxic people. with a heavy heart, you walk to an uncrowded place and sit there like a fool— waiting for hyunsuk.

hyunsuk was your best friend. in the first year of high school, he's the one who approached you first and you didn't know how, after a couple of talks you guys clicked with each other. you grateful for him to be your one and only friend since you too awkward to make friends if that makes sense.

by the time he excitedly told you he got accepted in YG as a trainee, you not gonna lie, you thought your friendship will be over since he is a trainee and soon he will debut and of course fans will investigate his personal life, and you are one of his personal life, you are his friend. the fans might attack you for being a friends with their bias. but no— hyunsuk never forgets about you at all, although he is busy with his practice, he always makes time to call or message you.

and now he successfully debuts after going through another survival show, being a leader in a group named treasure. you were so happy seeing his name on the debut lineup, you and hyunsuk celebrate it at your place, you cooked his favorite meal as a treat for his debut.

you were grateful to have a friend like him. you swore you never can replace him with someone else, he knows you like the back of your hand.

you groaned as you didn't see hyunsuk anywhere in the big crowded hall, you took out your phone, texting him, asking where is he. you rolled your eyes as you saw people dancing and waste themselves, you urge to go home but hyunsuk's word hovering in your head

"please accompany me, it will be awkward to attend a high school reunion without a high school bestie... i would treat you a good food if you come!"

his puppy eyes, ugh you hate how you couldn't resist him. you cross your arms, you came here just for hyunsuk and for some delicious food that you will eat for free, or else you'd rather stay at home.

"excuse me, are you y/n?" a tall boy with black hair comes near you, he is good-looking you're not gonna lie.

"um yes, and you are...?" you asked. the only people you know in high school are hyunsuk and your teachers.

"youngkyun. i was your deskmate in music?"

you slowly blinked, trying to remember this youngkyun person. your deskmate? damn did you hate high school that much until you forget everything about it?

"i'm sorry, can't recall," you said, you gave him an apologetic smile.

he chuckled

"it's okay, can i sit here?" he asked

now you getting uncomfortable, why the person you don't remember wanting to sit beside you? you don't know how to react since the only men you talk with are your dad and hyunsuk.

"um i guess so..?" you answered but it came out more like a question.

he sits next to you, he knows you look uncomfortable so he distanced himself from you a little bit.

"you seem close with hyunsuk," he said out of nowhere

you side-eyeing him, now he wants to make a conversation!? oh hyunsuk please come here faster

"um yeah, since he's my only friend" you answer try not to sound sarcastic

he looks at your face for a while

"i regret being too shy to talk to you at high school"

you stay quiet, hoping he would get the sign that you don't want to have a conversation with him.

"you don't change, you're still pretty," he said

"um thanks," you said,

"can i get your number?" he asked

you swore at hyunsuk in your head, where the hell is he? your eyebrow twitch as he took out his handphone, handing it to you

"can i get your number?" he repeated his question

"um actually—"

"no way dude" hyunsuk suddenly appears, standing in front of you, facing the guy, he removes his sunglasses and glared at youngkyun. you let out a relieved breathe as you saw hyunsuk.

youngkyun smirks

"as far as i know, you're not y/n's boyfriend"

"y/n doesn't want your number, y/n just too polite to say that to your face," he said and grab your wrist to leave the reunion.

"hyunsuk, where are we going?" you asked

"somewhere, far from that guy" he answered you. he immediately went into a foul mood after seeing you with that guy.

you didn't reply, you enter his car, you didn't care where he wants to take you since you also don't want to be there. he wears a mask and his sunglasses in the car, you don't ask why he does that, he's an idol, and he doesn't want reporters to notice him.

"anyway, why are you so late? you never late" you asked

"um i-i got some things to do" he answers

he sides eyeing you, seeing you seem to trust his excuse, made him relief. he late because he and jihoon planning to how to confess to you. finally, after years of having a crush on you, he has a gut to confess to you. the original plan was to confessing you after the reunion in front of your house. but seeing another guy talking to you made his blood boil. and now he driving haphazardly.

hyunsuk realized he's in love with you when you stuck with him at his lowest when he felt depressed not going to debut, you're the one— besides his family, supporting him nonstop, you believe in him that he's gonna debut. he thought you would leave him after high school since you're gonna see a lot of people at university, but no. you never left his side. you always there for him, and he loves you for that. you fit him perfectly like a piece of a puzzle.

after a moment of wandering around, hyunsuk decides to take you to a rooftop parking lot. there's no car in the parking lot, so it would be the perfect place to pour his heart out.

"wow i never been to an empty parking lot before, this is cool," you said, get out of hyunsuk's car, admiring seoul city from the high place. you outstretching your hand wanting to feel the cold air, you smile as you could feel the cold air passing you. it's been a while since you go out to take fresh air.

hyunsuk laughed as he saw you standing at the center of the parking lot while outstretching your arm. he almost forgot the real reason why he brought you here.

he gulped down his saliva, try to throw his nervousness. slowly he approaching you, who's still enjoying the cold air.

"y/n" he tapped on your shoulder making you turn around facing him.

"yeah?"

"i need you to listen to me, don't interrupt until i finish, okay?" he asked

you slowly nod, feeling scared of what he wants to say. hyunsuk never this serious.

"i know we've been friends for years right now, and i glad you didn't leave me at my worse and always there for me although sometimes i'm quite busy with promotion and didn't text or call you. but you being the greatest friend you never mad at me. and because of this, y/n, i have feelings for you. it took time for me to confess to you, i considered a lot of what would happen in the future since i'm an idol, i worry about you, my fans probably would attack you, reporters would follow you around and i'm afraid our friendship will be apart if things didn't work out, but i push away all the negative thoughts, i love you so i will do my best to protect you. but i'm not asking you to return these feelings. i know this type of confession can be a little hard to get over, i'm sorry for confessing all of sudden, i just want to get this off my chest"

you froze. you didn't expect him to confess to you at all. you never have thought of having a significant other since you don't want to replace him with another person. you have mixed feelings right now, happy, speechless, don't know how to act, and surprised. you can't let out a single word, all of this happens too fast for you.

"y/n.. please say something you kinda make me scared," he said

you open your mouth to say something, but nothing comes out except a short breathy laugh. you hug him tightly, you can't express your feelings with words but you can with your body. he happily hugs you, rests his face on your shoulder. after a moment you release the hug.

"i love you too hyunsuk"

[kingstylesdaily]

What the 2021 Grammy Awards Will Look Like

Artists including Billie Eilish, BTS, and Taylor Swift will perform in a circle of five stages with masked crew at the center — in a ceremony that first-time showrunner Ben Winston calls “part Grammys, part Abbey Road studio session”

Ben Winston is exhausted. The television producer, who moved from the U.K. to Los Angeles six years ago to start The Late Late Show With James Corden, is a week away from executive-producing his first Grammys telecast. “I literally had two hours of sleep last night,” he tells Rolling Stone via Zoom.

On Sunday, March 7th, the Recording Academy revealed a slate of performing artists for March 14th’s 63rd Annual Grammy Awards that includes Billie Eilish, BTS, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, and Harry Styles. But while those names are on the lineup, Winston knows nothing about live TV is ever set in stone — especially in the time of a pandemic —so he’s been spending his days double- and triple-checking plans, waking up at 4:30 a.m. dry-eyed and restless. He’s worked to make a show “with heart,” he says — one that “doesn’t feel isolated, quiet, or alone.” He also had to take extra steps to ensure the three-and-a-half hour show, which will not take place at the Grammys’ usual home of the Staples Center, is Covid-safe for performers and attendees. Despite all that, he appears remarkably enthusiastic and alert.

Here’s what viewers next Sunday can expect from music’s biggest night, according to Winston: a multi-stage, audience-free show that highlights the year’s creative triumphs, social justice movements, as well as Covid-19’s impact on the arts. Winston hints at several “unbelievably powerful” performances on the slate, adding that the Grammys “absolutely are acknowledging what’s happened” in the country in the last year.

Winston, who in 2018 co-produced Bruno Mars’ well-received live show at the Apollo for CBS, also wanted to highlight independent venues, which are the “lifeblood of this industry” and a launchpad for emerging musicians — so the Grammys will feature guest spots from owners and workers of iconic American venues, including L.A.’s Troubadour and Hotel Café, N.Y.’s Apollo, and Nashville’s Station Inn. “I drive past the Troubadour on my way home from work every night,” Winston says. “It’s a significant thing for me when I look at it all boarded up. I always think, ‘When those boards come down, this will be over.’ That will be the sign. That will be the day where it’s like, ‘We got through this.'” Winston realized from his conversations with venues that many of them put on their last shows on March 14th, 2020, meaning the Grammys will mark the one-year anniversary of the shutdown.

Employees will come on camera to “tell us a little bit about their venue” and present some of the awards. “So, you’ve got, like, a bartender at a beautiful, independent venue — and she’s giving out Album of the Year to these megastars,” he explains. His goal is to acknowledge the people who work tirelessly to keep these stomping grounds afloat and have recently lost their jobs. “Those venues are made up by the bartender and the security guard, the manager, the box office person, and the cleaner at the end of the night.” He hopes to remind people of the importance of supporting local venues again when it’s safe to do so.

Originally, the Grammys were scheduled for January 31st, but organizers announced a move to March right after the new year. Winston says he felt American morale was at a low point in January — between political insurrection, an impeachment trial, and Covid-19 running rampant in Los Angeles — and it “didn’t feel right” to put the show on in the middle of that. The Recording Academy and CBS, which exclusively airs the annual show, both supported his decision to postpone. “I can now do everything that I wanted to do in my best-case scenario for this year,” he says of Sunday’s show.

Sunday’s location is an undisclosed building in Los Angeles, but Winston teases that the new venue is “massive,” “magical,” and “the biggest building I’ve ever been in indoors.” “I don’t want it to look like I’m criticizing Staples, because it’s the most amazing venue,” he emphasizes, sharing that he’s open to bringing the Grammys back to the arena in the future if they ask him to. While he does believe that Staples is a safe place, he says he wanted to go above and beyond to make even the most-skeptical participants feel undoubtedly safe.

A team of Covid safety officers oversaw the production set-up, and artists will enter the stage from different directions to minimize contact. Each artist also has their own backstage area. The space “allowed us to build an entire world,” he says.

The show will involve five stages of the same size and shape, four of which are for performances and one of which is for presenters. Stages are organized in a circle, facing one another, and crew members will work from the middle of the set. “People will perform while the other three or four artists on their stages watch, applaud, and enjoy. As soon as that one finishes, the next one goes, the next one goes, and the next one goes. Every 45 minutes, you change out those stages, and you bring another four megastars into the room,” says Winston, who was partly inspired for the “part-Grammys, part-Abbey Road studio session” setup by British shows he watched as a child, including Jools Holland and TFI Friday.

It’s going to be a “bespoke night of music that I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to repeat,” Winston says. “It’s about taking a camera into a room, and making an amazing musical moment by filming it quite simply and elegantly.” Performances, which started being planned in April 2020, will be a mix of live and pre-recorded — a fully live show would involve too many crew members moving sets and risking close contact — but the whole thing is intended to feel completely live. (Winston challenges viewers to try and guess which sets are pre-recorded; he designed them to be difficult to tell.)

To help plan the sprawling, immersive show, Winston brought in a suite of collaborators including co-executive producer Jesse Collins, who produced The Weeknd’s Super Bowl halftime show; co-executive producer Raj Kapoor, who handled creative direction for various artists on the last seven Grammys and produced Vegas residencies for the likes of the Backstreet Boys and Mariah Carey; producer Fatima Robinson, whose expansive background in creative direction and choreography landed her the Black Eyed Peas’ 2011 halftime show and Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 Grammy performance; producer Misty Buckley, who handled production design for Kacey Musgraves’ 2020 Christmas show; talent executive Patrick Menton from Dick Clark Productions; Corden collaborator Josie Cliff; and Super Bowl halftime, Olympic ceremony, Oscars, and Emmys director Hamish Hamilton, who Winston describes as a “legend” he’s admired since he was 14 years old. (David Wild, who has written for the Grammys since 2001 and became a producer in 2016, is the only person returning to his role.) Winston also points out that artists were heavily involved in designing their own performances.

Rather than have cameras pan over empty seats and an awkwardly small stage, the production team decided to reinvent the visual format with the five-stage setup. The pandemic’s limitations, coupled with the advantages of new faces coming in with fresh perspectives, helped them refrain from thinking in terms of what the Grammys had done before, he said.

For the most part, Covid-19 didn’t force too many changes. It did give Winston a lot of anxiety.

“There’s been so much uncertainty with what you’re allowed to do,” he says. Changing international quarantine rules made him question whether certain performers could fly in, while health guidance keeps fluctuating: “Every time my computer or phone dings, my first instinct is, ‘Oh, God, what’s gone wrong?’ I don’t know if that’s ever been my mentality before.”

While all the performers are confirmed and currently Covid-free, “you never know, one of their girlfriends could have Covid and have to quarantine, it’s all just bonkers,” Winston says. “There’s one artist that may, in the end, not be able to make it here due to rules of the country they’re currently in. There’s one immigration issue that we’ve got left.”

The show does not have replacements on hand if anyone pulls out — it’ll just cut that performance out.

Above all, Winston wants the 2021 Grammys to focus attention off of dire times. “I want people to be able to watch the 2021 Grammys in 2040 and go, ‘Wow, what an amazing show that was,’ and not go, ‘Oh, that was the Covid year, that’s why they had to do that,'” he says. “I think that’s what we could achieve if we get it right on Sunday.”

via RollingStone.com

[eijiroukiriot]

can you tell me about harutaka? i honestly am interested now bc i have no idea what it is but it being your second favorite anime ship makes it sound pretty promising :D

OKAY SO

harutaka is a ship from the kagerou project which is a vocaloid-song-series-turned-novel-series-turned-manga-turned-anime and so on and so on. the actual plot is mostly focused on a group of kids who call themselves the mekakushi dan (blindfold gang) who each have a superpower (called an "eye ability") and are stuck in a time loop that repeats every august 15th, but the main appeal of the series is the tangled web of relationships between the characters, and the songs (and chapters, etc) that focus on their relationships and histories and how those brought them to where they are today

harutaka is the ship between kokonose haruka and enomoto takane! their meeting is mostly explained in the song yuukei yesterday - basically, takane is a high school student with narcolepsy and a bad attitude who's always found it hard to make friends, since people tend to avoid her. to accommodate her during classes, her school puts her in a handicap class with just one other student - haruka, whose chronic illness has always made it hard for him to live a normal life, but who wants nothing more than to make friends, starting with takane. they're sort of opposites in that way. takane finds haruka's cheerful demeanor and relentless interest in her annoying - ideally, she'd like nothing to do with him.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR HER they both fall for each other basically as soon as they meet. the cherry on the cake is that they're dumb little teenagers who have never BEEN in love before (not to mention all the clashing feelings about having someone care about you unconditionally for the first time) so they deal with it in about the blushiest, dorkiest, most teenage way possible - haruka points his dumb cute face at haruka and she turns red and yells at him and he laughs all shy. it's a very tsundere/sweetboy romance at its core but i think the extra layers of getting to be very happy and feel normal and welcome for once in your life make this one on the surface alone

HOWEVER...you might notice that these characters don't appear to be in the lineup of the rest of the dan in the image above...except they are! just not quite as themselves. this is a bit that fits into the larger story of kagepro so it's going to sound a little strange on its own, but basically, their teacher was a part of this experiment studying the origin of the time loop they're stuck in - dealing with the supernatural powers that you gain once you're stuck in it. they don't know that he's been treating them as subjects this whole time, but going back a little into the high school romance side of things...right as the two of them are reaching the peak of their pining phase, one afternoon in class, haruka has a stroke - but to takane, it just looks like he's sleeping, and ignoring her, so she gets mad and goes home. later that day, when she finds out what happened, she realizes that this might be her last chance to tell haruka how she felt, and sprints to the hospital...except she never makes it there. when she collapses on the way, the proctors of the experiment find her, and separate her body from her consciousness, turning her into a (not quite artificial) a.i. that gets uploaded into the protagonist's computer. meanwhile, at the hospital, haruka is being offered everything he's ever wanted - a brand new body, with no weakness or illness...and no memories or emotions, either. he protests against it crying that he just wants to see takane, but it's not up to him in the end.

in their new forms, the two go by ene (enomoto takane) and konoha (kokonose haruka) - a cyber girl and robot boy. this is how they're stuck for the bulk of the story - everything that happens before this is a backstory that you only find out once you've seen both of them in action in their new lives!! and in their new lives, ene can't STAND konoha. takane really devotes herself to the role of ene, so even the people who she knew in her "past" life don't realize it's her...but it's the fact that konoha has no idea who she is that really hurts. imagine that every day you're tortured by the fact that you never got to tell the person you loved how you felt and now you're in this weird scary situation and you have no idea what's going to happen or if you'll ever get to be yourself again, and then he appears, but he doesn't look like he did or act like he did and even though you're painfully aware that it's him, he doesn't know it's you or even remember you or anything you did together...and you can't even let people know what you're feeling because you're stuck in this new identity!! through being in the dan together ene is forced to spend a lot of time with konoha but she refuses to address him by name (calling him "mr. imposter" instead which just sounds like an amongis joke now but is very emotional within the context of canon)

i really could go on and on and on about the very real angsty teenage emotions that go into this ship and the themes of love and loss but i've already gone on long enough - it's a combination of the actual dynamic and the goofy will-they-or-won't-they and the hardcore emotional story that has kept me on this train for all these years. i started shipping these two in MIDDLE SCHOOL!! and even now the fact that once the time loop is broken and august ends they get to have their happy ending and be together makes me think that wow. love is real and worth fighting for.

mekakucity actors is a bad anime and i definitely don't recommend it if you're trying to consume an easy-to-understand version of the kagerou project, but i will leave you with the anime version of yuukei yesterday because it's basically the only canon content we get of harutaka (and friends...i would explain shinaya but that's a whole nother post). thank you for letting me ramble! :)

[thecaptainhelm]

Shut Your Mouth Pt.2

hahaha, daminette part two, wasn’t a one shot, gn gn gn.

Marinette sighed as the shower warmed up, rolling her neck and relishing in the light feeling of accomplishment. Ever since Hawkmoth had been defeated, a mere two days ago, things had been tense. Hawkmoth, now known as Gabriel Agreste, was arrested along with his assistant Nathalie Sancoeur who had since retired as Mayura the year before. It was a stroke of luck to discover that the Guardian had the ability to forcibly renounce a broken Miraculous. Something Gabriel hadn’t known, granting them extra time as he futilely tried to ‘fix’ the brooch. While that happened, she managed to finally convince Chat to at least keep him as a suspect if not out of suspicion, then to actually strike him from their list. It didn’t take long rack up evidence against him, especially after learning from the Bats of Gotham. 

The battle was quiet, in the early hours of the morning, where the city forcibly cut the power to the Agreste mansion, and it only took one Venom for each while they slept defenselessly. It took only a few minutes to find evidence that he was at least working with Hawkmoth, and when they found the miraculous pin and brooch, it was confirmed that he was, indeed, Hawkmoth with Nathalie working as his henchwoman Mayura.

Soon, with what was probably the fastest trial of the century, Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur were declared guilty and sentenced to serve life in prison and an insane asylum respectively. It had only shocked her for a moment that Mayura pleaded guilty and asked to be sent directly to rehab for mental help, by reason of insanity wrought by grief. What did surprise her was that she was the one to take the miraculous and give them to the Agreste couple as an anniversary gift, ultimately setting off a chain of unforeseen consequences.

That was a whole other cake she didn’t want to bake just yet, so she decided to finally just take a moment to breathe for what felt like the first time in five years. 

So it was only normal that her smartwatch chimed on the hook of the shower caddy, a picture of a frowny eagle glaring right at her. She cursed her luck, yeah, no breaks was still her usual routine. It must be real hard for the universe to break out that particular habit.

Then she remembered that she set this particular picture and ringtone for the one person who had never called.

Robin, the vigilante that she might have, kind of, definitely made an enemy of.

Who was also her crush, so that was just. Great.

In her defense, she was a human being, and human beings were capable of amazing feats. It was just that her amazing feats were more amazing bouts of stupidity. Seriously, why did she do it? Just where did her common sense escape to make her think that was even a remotely good idea, because she wanted to go there and never come back.

She had kissed-- no! She made out with Robin, the most notoriously ill-tempered member of Batman’s team. The only reason he didn’t deck her in the face was because, because, well she didn’t know! Was it mercy, a misplaced feeling of pity, perhaps?

No, actually, it was more likely that he was frozen stiff with rage. Marinette couldn’t blame him, heck, she’d be angry too, suddenly getting passionately smooched in the middle of livid rant. 

She had planned on giving him her contact information for the longest time, since they'd come to the understanding that they only wanted to do what was best for everyone, the kind of understanding that only leaders could have. And to maybe get closer to him as much as professionalism allowed. So, it stood to reason that she had to go ahead and ruin that, too. She really couldn’t believe herself sometimes, who randomly kisses someone, hands them their number, and then trots off back to work? Marinette Dupain-Cheng apparently.

In fact, it was about time he called. She had pretty much an entire year to prepare herself for what was sure to be a concise and frigid rejection, maybe even a “Stay for away from, lest I stab everyone in this room and then jump out of a window out of utter disgust”? She might as well get it over with and then move on to be alone for the rest of her life.

She wiped the water out of her eyes and squinted at the text message, before jumping out the shower with a loud curse. She hurriedly dried off and put on her clothes, before heading to the Miracle Box, rereading his message.

Emergency evac, one person, requesting Pegasus’ portal twenty kilometers horizontally above sea level precisely fifteen minutes after this message. Coordinates attached.

The message was sent ten minutes ago. How long was she catastrophizing for?!

Max was partying along with the rest of Paris while she took a breather in her art studio. Even with the full fifteen minutes she wouldn’t be able to find him in time. Shit, would she even be able to transform in time?

She grabbed the glasses from the box and Kaalki appeared in a proud flash. 

“No time, there’s trouble,” she panted. “Ready?”

“Hmph, of course,” Kaalki tossed her head. “Let’s go, shall we?”

“Kaalki, transform me!” She eyed the time, two minutes left. She memorized the coordinates as she searched for a suitable place for him to land, and realized she was going to have to catch him in her storage closet.

One minute left. She opened the door and cleared space in the center of the room.

Thirty-five seconds. She stood on an old chair that she moved into the center of the room.

Twenty seconds, and she called, “Voyage!” and threw the portal up towards the ceiling.

Zero. She braced for impact and caught a body that plummeted through in a free fall.

“Ow,” she closed the portal with a groan, amidst the shattered pieces of what used to be a pretty sturdy chair.

“Don’t complain, it could have been worse.” A deep voice rasped.

Wow, to think she missed him, that asshole.

“Shut up, Robi-- oh my god your arm! Get up, getupgetupgetup!” She hauled him up as gently as possible, annoyance giving way to concern.

Robin was, putting it lightly, a mess. He had lost his mask, his eye was swollen shut and his face was bruised with cuts all over, and he was sticky with blood practically everywhere she looked. It was his arm that she was most concerned about, however. It was set in a splint, but he must have been in a rush because it was set wrong, his thumb facing perpendicular lyaway from his body.

“I am fine,” he sagged into her, weary. “I just need a place to stay for the night.”

“If you weren’t so grievously injured, I’d throw you out for that,” she remarked. “But guess what? It’s your lucky night monsieur, and I’m a trained field medic.” Robin looked at her, maskless, and she had to dart her eyes away from his maskless face.

“Oh, so Ladybug finally started replacing her subpar lineup? About time, either she benched them or Hawkmoth would kill them at some point. They were woefully incompent.” Yep, this was definitely Robin, no doubt about it with that attitude.

She called off the transformation and was somewhat pleased when he reflexively jerked his head away. She pulled him into a princess carry and made her way back to the bathroom, inwardly delighting at his reaction. She would never let him live this down.

“It’s me, Robin. Ladybug. Pegasus couldn’t make it, so you’ll have to do with me instead of a random stand-in.” She raised her brow, not that he could see it.

“Unless that bothers you, Boy Wonder?”

“...I’m not,” he mumbled.

“Hm?”

“I’m not Robin anymore.”

What. What.

“What?”

“I’ve retired, effective as of nine months ago today, Robin’s cape has been hung up for the next generation.”

Relief didn’t come yet. “Oh, so you’ve taken on a new mantle? Or are you finally the next Batman, though it would take some time to fill those shoulders. Literally, I mean that literally, um.” She observed his downcast expression and once again started walking to the bathroom. When had she stopped?

“I’m not taking over anything,” he said sullenly. “I can’t. Not after what I did.”

“Come on, it couldn’t have been so bad,” she opened the door with her heel as she backed them towards the stool by the sink. She set him down carefully, taking full stock of his injuries.

“It was. Batman’s cowl has always represented a strict moral code, one that I’ve always...struggled to adhere to.”

Marinette bit her lip as she kneeled in front of him. He didn’t say anymore, and she couldn’t think of anything to say. She sighed and brought out her med kit from the towel cabinet. She was always like this with him.

With Robin (now not Robin?) she had always drawn a blank. She could read his emotions somewhat well, had a good grasp on his moods, and could have genuinely insightful conversations with him. It was only at crucial moments like this that she struggled. Even with Adrien she had always known what she wanted to say, but Robin was different. Everything about him screamed “one chance only” and that caused her mind to go blank. It was so unbelievably frustrating that she could scream.

Marinette handed the glasses to Kaalki and nodded towards her purse hanging on the door handle. The kwami zoomed towards it and soon disappeared into it with the miraculous.

“Robin,” she called gently. He didn’t move. “I’ll have to cut your shirt off, okay? I need to see where the blood is coming from.”

“It’s not mine.The blood.” He kept his gaze away as she froze.

“Well, we’ll have to reset that arm,” she tried again. “It’s not...it’s not looking good, to say the least.”

He looked towards his mangled right arm and nodded. 

It took some time to undo the splint and she tried not to think about where he had been for him to only have rotted wood and prison rags on hand. She cut his shirt off at the sleeve and down his middle, pulling it off and exposing a painful canvas of mottled bruises, scrapes, and cuts. She handed him her towel and he stuffed it in his mouth without a word. She gently untied the splint.

“Are you ready?” She gazed at him resolutely. He nodded and braced himself as best he could.

“On my count, one, two--” She re-broke his arm a count early on purpose.

“Arrghh! Ffuk!!” He jerked out of her grip.

“Hold still!” He spat out the towel and glared in response.

“Mizq dhiraei allaeaynat 'aw aidbitha!!!” She only understood ‘rip’ and ‘arm’ but she got the gist of his screaming.

“Alright it’s done now, I’m setting it, so stop moving,” She couldn’t help but sigh under his vicious scowl.

“Tsk. Be grateful that I can barely discern your features Ladybug. You’re on my shit list and I don’t feel like kicking your ass today.”

“Wow, thanks for saving me Ladybug, I could have died if it weren’t for you!” Marinette couldn’t help but snark at him.

“...tsk!” Yep, that was as good as she was going to get in his condition.

After years of fighting akuma victims she was able to observe the complex and hidden emotions of her opponents and the civilians that she rescued. And right now, her experience was telling her that Robin had more than his pride ruined. His self-confident, courageous, and taciturn nature seemed to be regressing as he fell back into what was probably a self-defense mechanism. For him to be like this instead of exhausted in his current state told her that he must have been through a lot since she last saw him.

She started to gently clean the blood off and noted the bruises underneath definitely came from an intense melee battle. Most of them were in places that made her cringe just looking at them. At least he doesn’t have any other broken bones, or stab wounds. Lucky him.

Robin put an ice pack to his face in the meanwhile and wouldn’t look in her direction.

It was quiet for a while. “So, what should I call you, then?” And she had to open her big fat mouth, didn’t she? Now it was awkward. It was awkward, and he hated her, and she was never speaking again, ever.

“Damian.” Uh oh.That didn’t sound like a moniker.

“Um, nice code name?” She started disinfecting his cuts and scrapes, trying not to panic.

“I no longer require such aliases.” Ok, process that later, heal Robin now. Process. Later.

“Ro--, Damian, uh, well,” She sighed.  “My offer still stands, you know?”

He made a quiet noise. 

“Last time I saw you, I mean. I had left in a rush,”-- after kissing you senseless-- “but I’m always here to listen if you want to talk about what happened.”

Robin, or Damian now, she still wasn’t used to that, froze. His brows furrowed and he strangely went red in the face, before sighing, slumping against the sink.

“I...the blood’s not mine. It hasn’t been my for a long time, but it might as well be for how long I’ve carried it. I’m not a good person so much as to blame myself completely, but I do recognize some of the fault as mine. I’d gotten help, and I was making progress, but it wasn’t enough. I started falling back into old habits and I hated it. I tried and I failed, and I kept trying and failing for months and I…” He gained a look of despair, the first real emotion she’s seen on him since he dropped in.

“I couldn’t do it anymore. I just kept disappointing everyone and I hated it so much,” he dug his fingers into his matted hair.

“So, I left. I decided to go on a journey to try and repent, and it was working, at least I thought it did. But, then I had stumbled upon a Shadows base and I…” He peered unseeing at the floor.

“It was like I lost all sense of reason. I lay siege to the entire facility and found my way to the next base. It all turned into an endless cycle, all the way until I reached headquarters and inadvertently met up with high ranking members of the Justice League, teaming up to diminish their power. We were successful, but a candidate for the position of the Demon’s Head activated the self-destruct module. Everyone was scrambling to get out and suddenly my mind felt clearer than it had ever been.” He took  a deep breath and Marinette moved closer to offer some comfort. He leaned towards her gratefully.

“The Justice League had already had an escape route, but the Shadows were in disarray for some reason. After I was sure my old comrades were out, I locked all the doors, and dived down to a ceremonial bathing chamber.”

“And that’s where I came in,” she whispered. I think I’m starting to like him more than I should. What is wrong with me?! Who made me this way?! She had some complaints in regards to that.

“You saved my life,” he inclined his head in an informal bow. “Thank you, Ladybug.”

“...Marinette.” She croaked suddenly. She was left reeling from his info dump and her intense, romantic feelings. So, why not go for a confession? 

Damian whipped his head up in disbelief.

“My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Enchanté, Damian.” She smiled at his bewildered state, wiping away a bit of blood under his chin. She opened her mouth to say more, but didn’t get the chance.

Damian leapt up, furious. “You fool! I knew you were a space cadet, but I didn’t think your brain drifted beyond the stars! How utterly moronic!”

“Wait, why are you so mad?!” She panicked. She kind of had a spur of the moment idea to kiss him on his split lip, but that was looking less and less likely to happen.

(Damn it.)

“You told me your name!” he shouted.

“Yes, and you told me your’s?” She retorted. 

“Have you forgotten Hawkmoth?! Your enemy that can read the minds of the emotionally disturbed should he decide to possess them!” He started to hobble out of the bathroom, still half-treated and mostly in pain.

Oh. 

Oh!

“I have to leave, now! If I can stay calm long enough to reach the trains then I’ll be moving too fast for a butterfly to suddenly get me.”

“Uh, Damian?”

“No, it might already be enroute to someone else and might even already be on board,” He winced and stumbled on the tassel rug in the hallway.

“Woah, hang on a second Damian,” she grabbed him before he could fall, but he pulled out of her grip.

“We don’t have time for this, I can guarantee that I would be one of the worst akumas you’ve faced in your hero career, nevermind the insider information I hold within my mind.”

“Yes, but listen to me,” Damian moved towards the small sitting area, not listening to her. 

Again.

“This safehouse should be around one hundred kilometers from the city limits, you’re safe for now, but Hawkmoth’s estimated rate of growth was--”

That’s it!

Marinette grabbed his jaw and slammed it closed. She had had enough.

“This isn’t a safehouse, we’re in my art studio,” she snapped. She could see the rage begin to build to new heights in his eye.

“No, shut your mouth, and listen!” A vein in his forehead started to pulse, but he didn't move to speak.

Good.

“Hawkmoth has been defeated as of last week, and the trial was concluded a couple days ago. Going by what you told me, you've been out the loop for almost a year, so you don’t know that my team and I had closed in on Hawkmoth’s trail some time ago and were able to build a solid case that’ll go through in a court of law,” She carefully let him go.

“So, you’re safe, I’m safe, and Paris is safe too.” She’d already started to calm down in the middle of her explanation, and idly noted that she should probably take an anger management class.

And sign up for therapy. Lots of it, preferably.

Damian nodded slowly as he rubbed his jaw and she couldn’t help her wince.

“Sorry, did I handle you too roughly? Come here,” she started to pull him back towards the bathroom. He resisted.

“No, it’s fine, no damage just from that much force,” he tugged his arm away but she quickly moved behind him and began to push him through the bathroom door.

“Well, I’m not done treating you, so get back in there.” He grabbed the door frame and pushed back, and her calm demeanor left as quick as it came. Was it even truly there to begin with?

“I said,” she picked him up and threw him back on the stool where he grasped for stability.

“Come here.” She leaned in close to his bruised face, and wow, the one eye that she could see was so very, very green. “I’m not done with you, yet.”

“...okay,” he whispered. He kept his head down.

It didn’t take long to finish disinfecting the rest of his wounds, and soon she started applying ointment to the worst of his bruises. She had enough, but she was definitely going to be restocking in order to play his nursemaid for the next week or so. She rose to her feet and started packing away her kit.

“I’ll give you some pain meds for the night, I’ll leave you to take care of the injuries under the rest of your clothes. Come find me in the kitchenette. I’ll make something for us, though it won’t be anything fancy.”

“That is fine.” Marinette frowned at the strange husk in his voice. Did someone try to suffocate him? Why hadn’t she noticed until now?

She kneeled beside him and reached around him for the water bottle she had left in there earlier, but noticed him twitch and start to blush. Did he get a fever too?

She observed his red face and clear, but dilated eyes. Merde, did she embarrass him from earlier? She knew he had a large ego, but it was his own fault for being stubborn.

“Here, get yourself some water from the sink,” she handed the glittery black bottle to him and hurriedly strode out of the bathroom, calling,

“Holler if you need me!” 

Completely aware of the flustered state she left Damian in. Though not for the reason she thinks, at least.

[pinoyrella]

“A Love So Beautiful” Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Two Days and One Night

FT: Tsukishima Kei, Yamaguchi Tadashi, Hinata Shoyo, Kageyama Tobio, Yachi Hitoka, Fukurodani + Nekoma + Nohebi

TW: Mild Language + Minor Injuries (Kuroo get a lil booboo, Yaku ankle go brrr)

Genre: Fluff, Comedy, Angst, Coming of Age + Slow Burn

- This chapter contains fluff, comedy and drama.

WORD COUNT: 5,000+

“A LOVE SO BEAUTIFUL” Masterlist 🌸

A/N: HIIIII omg how r u guys 🥺 i was having a hard time figuring out how to... do this chapter, but i hope you enjoy! pls forgive me for the cringe and cheesiness of everything i fken swear im trying but i- ToT call me macaroni bc i be cheesy 🙈

PS: This chapter is taking place during the Cats vs. Owls OVA that comes after season 3! (and also a few minutes of s3 ep10)... I’m trying my best to line up the story w the actual series ToT, so it’s currently ur first year - spring time! Cherry blossom season is coming!!!🌸

A warm Friday afternoon.

“What do you guys think of this design?” Yachi asks as she passes a paper over to you and Tsukishima as Yamaguchi leans in from her side. You drop your pen to your notebook before picking up the small flyer, bringing it closer to the three of you.

“This looks great Yachi! What’s it for?” She stands immediately, her hands clenched into a fist while her eyes shine with excitement. “It’s a rough sketch for the volleyball club’s poster!” “Whoa, that’s so cool! So this is what a manager’s job is?” She nods as you hand the flyer back, smiling to your friend; happy that she’s having fun and enjoying her job.

“Hey” The four of you turn your heads, watching as Kageyama makes his way through the door. “AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” The sound of a familiar scream comes down the hallway.

The four of you watch as Hinata shoves past Kageyama, nearly knocking him over. “HEY!” Kageyama begins to charge until noticing the presence of his classmates. He lets out a low grumble before following the orange boy, making his way to you.

“GUYS!” Hinata jumps excitedly, looking between the four of you. “Look!” He pulls his phone out, facing it to you guys, completely ignoring Kageyama next to him. “What is it?” Yachi asks, confused. Hinata takes his phone back and realizes his photo gallery is on-screen. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi hide a snicker before he immediately changes it to his text messages, bringing the phone back to you guys.

On his screen shows the flyer for “Japan’s National Tournament, Tokyo Area Qualifiers”. The five of you look up to him in confusion as he continues, “Let’s go!”

...

“WHAT?”

-

And this is where you found yourself, a suitcase in hand as you make your way to your seat on the Shinkansen. You try to lift your suitcase above to the compartment, but the weight of the baggage slips past your grasp. You brace yourself for impact before you open your eyes to see it in the compartment above you. Feeling a presence to your left, you turn to find Kageyama.

“Let me help you from now on” he says softly, his hand resting on the back of a seat as one is holding onto the strap of his backpack. You immediately take a step back before thanking him, making your way to sit beside Yachi.

Just behind Kageyama is Hinata, following Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, as well as other passengers. Tsukishima, obviously unamused onto why there’s a hold up “Hey King, could you hurry up?” Kageyama realizes there’s a line of people behind him, immediately sitting in the seat to the front of you.

Hinata throws his luggage above before plopping down to the side of Kageyama, Yamaguchi and Tsukishima following.

The announcement for the bullet train begins, and you soon fall into a quiet slumber, your head resting against Yachi.

-

“Y/n, Yachi-san… Yachi! Y/N!” You are awakened to Yamaguchi’s voice “Wake up idiot, we’re here” You turn to find Tsukishima’s face just inches away from yours. Surprised, you jump, bumping your head against Yachi’s, waking you both up.

“Ah!” You both yelp, holding onto your heads. Kageyama turns from his seat to the sound of your cry, only to find Tsukishima’s face close to yours. “Tsukki!” You hiss before apologizing to Yachi.

“Come on guys, let’s go” Yamaguchi begins removing your luggages from the compartment above, as the six of you make your way off the train. Moving through the crowd of people towards the station.

-

“Are we there yet?” You yawn, still exhausted, before bumping into Tsukishima’s back. “We’re here, open your eyes idiot.” You slowly open your eyes, looking up to the building in front of you. “It looks so cozy” Yachi compliments as the six of you make your way inside. “Akaashi and Bokuto-san sent me this address, one of their teammates’ relatives owns this place!” Hinata says. “No wonder you’re able to provide a place for all of us to stay for the night” Tsukishima replies, before noticing you were no longer behind him.

The sound of a huff causes him to turn around. As he turns, he sees you struggling to move your luggage above the doorstep. Sighing, he makes his way to you, but Kageyama rushes past him, helping and assisting you instead. The carpet had stuck to the wheel of your suitcase.

Tsukishima’s eyes widened in shock by the sudden movement of his teammate, before rolling his eyes, turning his attention back to his other friends.

“Thanks Tobio!” You thank as he gives another smile. “I told you, let me help you from now on” He says, tapping the right of your shoulder; before the two of you walk after your group.

Hinata and Yamaguchi make their way to the register, collecting the room key as the six of you make your way to your room.

Yamaguchi inserts the key, twisting it before Hinata opens the door, jumping right in. “TA DA!” He cheers, the five of you walking in, Tsukishima yet again, unamused.

“This room is insanely big” You comment as you settle your suitcase to the side.

“It’s going to be like a sleepover!” Hinata exclaims, Yamaguchi turning his head. “Oh, you’re right Hinata!” “Thank god it’s only for one night.” Tsukishima bluntly adds, before exploring the cupboards.

Hinata then brings his wrist up to check the time. “AH!” “What?!” The five of you turn in concern for your friend’s sudden outburst. “We have to hurry!”

-

The sound of shoes squeaking against the floor echo throughout the building along with balls.

“Wow, so this is the Sumida City Gymnasium?” You walk ahead of your friends, looking around before turning to face them. “It’s so much bigger than the one in Sendai!” “Well, this is Tokyo” Tsukishima replies, Yamaguchi giving a sheepish smile, before the sound of squabbling catches your attention.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” “Stop it Yamamoto, don’t let that snake bastard get to you.” The man in green smiles, pointing his finger to the calmer guy in red. “You always have that hair, are you sure you’re not lying about your height? Are you actually 180 cm-” “HUH?! I’d never do something so petty!”

You watch as the three go at it, before someone from the red team’s group notices you guys. “Shoyo?” One says quietly as he makes his way over to you guys.

“Kenma-san!” Hinata runs over, meeting Kenma half way as the five of you follow. You hear Kageyama mumbling. “Nekoma’s setter… Nekoma’s setter… Nekoma’s setter…”

“You made it” Kenma says before Hinata nods. “Bokuto-san sent me the flyer! Akaashi-san’s teammate gave us a place to stay, and it fell into our weekend, I didn’t want to miss it!” Kenma nods before turning to face you and the others, feeling chills down the spine of his back when making eye contact with Kageyama.

“Hey, it’s skinny!” Tsukishima jolts, as Nekoma’s team follows their captain, making their way to your group and Kenma. “Long time no see, don’t tell me you’ve grown taller” “Kuroo-san” You watch the two, before the one named Kuroo turns to you. “I haven’t seen you before” He leans down, closer to your height. Tsukishima watches as he does so, feeling a bit irritated. “Hmm”

You become flustered, unable to move as his face comes closer to yours, before you feel someone pull you behind. Kageyama stands in between you two, having you to his back, silently staring at the taller senior. Everyone is surprised by Kageyama’s action, especially Kuroo before eyeing back up to his regular level as he smiles down at him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare your friend” Kageyama ignores him, turning to face you and whispering “Are you okay?” Kuroo is left shocked by being ignored, and his teammates snicker behind him.

“I- I-” You stutter, still flustered before another player, much calmer and collected from Nekoma, approaches you. The tall figure gives you a sincere apology for his captain’s behavior. “I’m sorry about that, our captain can be a little…” He turns to look back to Kuroo, before looking to you. “A little bitch” A much shorter boy with strawberry blonde hair joins in, Kenma letting out a snort.

“HUH?! YAKU- if anyone’s a little bitch it's your short ass, Mr. 165 cm.” “165.2 CM DICKWAD!” You watch as the two seniors get into a catfight before another player walks into the situation. “Kuroo-san!” Said man turns his attention to his teammate. “The girls’ game will be done soon”

Kuroo responds with an “alright” before collecting his team together. “Be sure to cheer us on, kitten~” He winks to you before bidding your friends a farewell, walking off.

-

Your team makes their way up the bleachers, listening to the announcer announce Fukurodani and Nekoma’s match. You watch as a very muscular man throws his jacket in the air, only for his teammate to catch it. “BOKUTO-SAN!” Hinata cheers besides you.

The crowd from Fukurodani’s side begins to chant, before Nekoma is announced. You turn your attention to a much shorter girl with a megaphone. “Go, go Nekoma! Push it, push it Nekoma!” “Great job Cheer Captain Akane!”

The bell goes off as both teams make it to their sides, the lineup and game beginning.

-

Watching as Fukurodani takes the first serve, you turn to see the excitement in both Hinata and Kageyama’s eyes.

Turning your attention back to the court, Akaashi proceeds to set the ball to Bokuto. Your eyes sparkle as you see how high the man can jump, then the sound of him smashing the ball, as it hit’s Kuroo’s palm, causing it to fly up.

You don't realize the direction it’s flying too, your eyes widening as the ball comes directly your way. You bring your palms up at the perfect time, catching the volleyball immediately in your hands. You stare at it in shock as all eyes turn to you.

“HEY! HEY! HEY!!!” Bokuto cheers along with his school, getting the point.

-

The game continues, Fukurodani taking the lead. “Holy crap, Bokuto is a beast” You watch as the millionth spike he hit touches the ground of Nekoma’s side. “Right?! He’s so cool! Hinata exclaims before you both turn to the court, only to notice a sudden change in Bokuto’s mood, after Kuroo blocks his spike.

The crowd goes silent, and you turn to Hinata making a face of confusion.

Bokuto’s attitude changes completely, causing a break to be issued, Akaashi giving the man a pep talk.

The break ends, and they are back to the game. You notice Bokuto’s attitude had gone back to his original state, as he becomes happy to spike yet again.

“It must have been Akaashi-san who brought Bokuto-san backup.” Tsukishima comments, crossing his arms as he becomes invested into the game. You turn to smile at him, not knowing he was actually watching.

-

The gym goes quiet, the final set, and Bokuto’s team is winning. Nekoma is under pressure before Bokuto sends one final spike down, earning the final win for Fukurodani.

Nekoma falls in defeat, you feel remorse along with Hinata for them, knowing Hinata really hoped to play against them at Nationals.

The six of you walk out of the gym. “So… Nekoma isn’t going to Nationals?” You ask, feeling stupid for asking such a question, before Yamaguchi speaks. “No, not unless they lose this next match.” “What?” “For Tokyo, unlike Miyagi, they have two Representative slots open, while a third for venue sponsorship.” He explains as you tilt your head, still confused. “Dumbass” Tsukishima jokingly insults, flicking your forehead. “There are four teams playing here, only one of those four won’t be able to go to Nationals. The other three, will be going. If Nekoma wins the next match against the other team, they will be going to Nationals” Tsukishima explains in a much easier way. “Ah! Thanks Tsukki!” You thank him, not even realizing he had called you a dumbass.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go cheer them on!” You exclaim, the five cheering after you. “Yeah!”

“Do you even know where the next match is being held?” You stop to turn, looking at Tsukishima. “Nope!” You say with a smile.

-

You follow as Yamaguchi leads you to another court, on the other side of the venue.

As you make your way past the gates, you stop with Yachi, the delicious scent of food surrounding the air. Yamaguchi and Tsukishima turn to see you too, before looking at each other. “Do you guys want to get food before the game starts?” You look up to your two friends, pleading with puppy eyes before Tsukishima sighs.

“Hinata, Kageyama!” Yamaguchi calls his friends ahead of them. The two stop to turn as you run up to them. “Do you guys want anything from the stalls?” You ask. “You guys can go find the seats! I can take care of everything myself!” You state, as Tsukishima looks to you. “By yourself? You have two hands. Two hands. You barely even know how to use them, and there’s six of us. There’s no way you can gather food for everyone, and make it back in one piece.” The blonde bean pole says, before you give him a pout.

“I’ll go with you boss.” Kageyama butts in, standing to your side as he ruffles your hair. “Tobio! Stop doing that” You laugh as you fix your hair before looking back to Tsukishima. “That settles it! Now go, get us seats!” You shoo your friends away before walking away with Kageyama, missing the glare Tsukishima gives Kageyama.

-

Standing in front of a takoyaki stall, you order the biggest plate, before noticing Kageyama to the stall besides you. Paying for your order and taking the ticket, you make your way to Kageyama as he pays for something.

“What did you get?!” You ask him in excitement. He jumps in surprise by your sudden presence before looking down to you, bringing the item he had brought up to your view. You stare as it dangles from his fingertips, a cute trinket in the shape of a strawberry milk carton. You blink before he grabs the ends of your bag, bringing it up to his level.

You watch in confusion as he is attaching it to your bag’s zipper, before speaking.

“It’s for you” He looks to meet you eyes as he gently drops your bag, letting it hang off your arm again. You stare at him, before looking down to it, then back up to him. “What? Tobio-” “It just reminded me of you.” He says giving a soft smile before taking the ticket from your hand and walking back to the takoyaki stall.

You watch as he walks off, looking down to the keychain with a small smile, really grateful for a friend like him.

-

Making your way into the gym, you scan to find Yamaguchi waving for you. “Kageyama- Y/n! Over here!” You make your way to them, Kageyama follows with the box of takoyaki in his hands. Handing out the sticks, you push Kageyama to be in the middle, then opening the lid to the box.

“It smells so good!” Hinata exclaims as he’s about to poke his stick into a ball. “Thank you y/n!” Yamaguchi and Yachi say in sync, as you make your way to Tsukishima, handing him a stick before he declines. “Are you not hungry?” “Not really” He bluntly replies, you pout again before turning back to the others, stabbing your stick into a ball.

Then turning your attention back to the court, seeing the game between Nekoma and Nohebi has already begun.

-

“Lev! Stop flailing your arms around! I can’t dig the damn ball!” Yaku yells, scolding the taller boy. “But Yaku-san, you’ll still get the ball no matter what!” He snaps back frustrated. You watch as the Yaku scratches the back of his head, taking it as a compliment. Kuroo gives him a look of annoyance before resuming back to their positions.

The game between the two continues, Nohebi taking the lead as Nekoma fights back. Just as Nohebi’s captain is about to spike, Lev jumps, sending it flying upwards. “One touch!” He yells, as Yamamoto runs after to hit it, then causing it to fly further away. “Shit!”

Just as the ball makes it into the audience, you watch as Yaku catches up to it, sending it back to the court. “WOW!” You cheer for him, impressed by his quick reflexes. Turning your attention towards the ball, you watch as Nohebi tries to keep the ball from touching the floor. Their captain, sending it flying up towards the net, before Lev jumps again, immediately smashing the ball back down to their side of the court.

The gym cheers as Lev turns to Yaku in excitement. Your eyes follow his, only to see Yamamoto assisting Yaku. “He fell-” Yamaguchi says. “He landed on someone’s foot as he was trying to get the ball.” You look at Yamaguchi before back down at Yaku limping. Yaku turns to apologize to the guest before facing the court. “I’m fine!” He yells, taking a step and immediately feeling a shock of pain course through him.

Just as he falls, Yamamoto catches him as their coach makes their way to them. “Shibayama!”

“I hope Yaku-san’s going to be okay” Yachi adds as the match continues. You watch as the coach tends to Yaku’s wound, before going back to the game.

Nekoma struggles, getting used to Shibayama now on court. Nohebi is still in the lead and the gym watches in anticipation.

Shibayama visibly looks calmer, adjusting himself before Daisho spikes the ball towards him. You hold your breath until Shibayama is able to stop the ball, sending it up before Kuroo smashes it back down to Nohebi’s side of the court.

“All right!” Nekoma cheers as you give out a sigh of relief. “You seem really invested into the game” You turn and notice Tsukishima looking down towards you. “Well, it’s really interesting…” You blush, stabbing another ball and plopping it into your mouth.

Nekoma begins catching up, getting used to the new player on the court, very close to winning the set.

The whistle blows, a new player making his way onto the court.

“A pinch server” You overhear behind you. “Didn’t that guy dislocate his thumb in the last match?” Turning your attention back to the court, you watch just as the ball barely hits the net. Kuroo and Nobuyaki catch it, before Fukunaga sends it to the other side. You watch the ball, thinking it would make it in before the whistle blows once again. “Out!” The pinch server yells.

“Out? No way!” Hinata cries. Bringing your hand up to your chin, “He blocked it”. Your friends turn to you, as you continue. “I saw the ball, it was in the court, but the pinch server guy, he extended his fists to block the referee from seeing it.” “Whoa…” “Talk about conniving” Tsukishima adds, before taking the stick in your hand, stabbing a ball and bringing it up into his mouth.

You turn to look up at him, watching as he puts the same stick you had placed on your lips to his. ‘Indirect kiss’ You think, bringing your palms up to cover your face, letting out an internal scream.

“Y/n-chan!” Yachi faces you. Kageyama and Hinata turn to look at you, then to Tsukishima, before Tsukishima looks back to them shrugging his shoulders as he focuses back on the game.

“Shibayama!” You watch the captain make his way off the court. “Wait- What happened to Kuroo-san?” “I think he busted his fingernail” “Ouch....” Turning your attention to the scoreboard, Nekoma is a point away from winning the game, to have their captain subbed out at a time like this is a big risk.

Daisho jumps, aiming for Lev before switching to Shibayama. Fortunately, the boy is able to receive it, sending it to Yamamoto before he aims to smash it. The ball then touching the Nohebi’s middle blocker’s hands before flying up, and far from the court. You watch as Daisho attempts to chase after it, only for it to fall, finally touching the floor. The match has ended.

“Thanks for the game!” The teams exchange before Yaku meets with his team, eyes filled with tears as he hugs them.

You watch as Kenma looks up to the stands, finding Hinata and giving him a nod. You turn to your friend, watching the smile spread throughout his face. He can’t wait to play against them at Nationals.

-

Walking out of the venue, you look up to notice as it’s night time already.

“I didn’t even think it was so dark outside already” You comment, Kageyama turning his head to you, watching the moon shine in your eyes. “We better get going before” Yamaguchi states, leading the way back to the cozy inn.

-

“Ah!” You let out, dipping into the onsen besides Yachi. “This feels so good!” Your cheeks redden from the temperature in the room. “This is so relaxing, I’m so happy we were all able to come together, traveling is so much fun, especially with your friends” Yachi replies before you give her a smirk. “And especially without your parents!”

The two of you share a laugh as the boys prepare the futons.

“One, two, three, four...” Yamaguchi counts. “I think we’re missing two more futons.” “Really?” Hinata recounts the futons. “Oh, I’ll go ask for more!” “I’ll come with you Hinata!” Yamaguchi exits the room with Hinata, unintentionally leaving Kageyama and Tsukishima together.

The two not even realizing they were the only ones left in the room, turn to face each other, then turning around to scan the room, only to notice Yamaguchi and Hinata are no longer with them. The tension is intense and super awkward.

They separate, going to opposite sides of the room.

As Tsukishima is about to place his headphones on, he feels a stare from behind him. Turning to see Kageyama staring at him. “What?”

Kageyama turns away immediately. “N-n… Kni.. Knife… N...” “Huh?” “Nothing!” “You should have said it clearly the first time.” Tsukishima glares back before you walk in with Yachi.

“Oh? Where are Yamaguchi and Hinata?” You ask. “Right behind ya! Excuse us” Yamaguchi replies, as Hinata runs in, dropping the futons down. “I told you I could have helped carry one.” Yamaguchi sighs before helping spread the last two futons out.

You turn your attention back to Kageyama, who is in the corner of the room. Making your way over, you squat to him. “Why are you so far away from us Tobio?” Kageyama snaps his head, coming face to face with you. He immediately stands, flustered from the close contact, before you rise up with him, giggling. All while Tsukishima hears your giggles through his headphones.

-

As night falls, you lay on your futon, your eyes shut as the sound of rustling keeps you awake.

“Hinata?” You whisper. The rustling stops, as he turns around facing you. “Yeah?” “You okay?” You ask in concern. “I can’t really sleep, did you bring your stationery pouch?” He replies quietly. “Ah” As you reach over to your bag to grab the pouch for him, the lights turn on, waking everyone up.

“Ugh-” “What happened?” “Hinata, what the hell” Tsukishima puts his glasses on, looking up slowly to the boy standing in the middle of the room, facing the five of you.

“Lets play a game!”

“A game?” The three question as Kageyama is still asleep in his futon.

-

And this is where you found yourselves, gathered in a circle around the kotatsu.

Hinata makes his way around, handing each person a slip of paper as your pens are spread across the middle of the kotatsu.

“Okay, now everyone grab a pen!” You all grab a pen, waiting for the boy’s instructions.

“In this game, we are going to write down a confession. Then, we are going to fold it, place it in the center of the table, mix it around, and we are all going to take one script!” He says as he plops back down to his seat in excitement. “What are we, 8? This is so stupid” Tsukishima comments before removing the cap of the pen, wanting to get this over with.

Intrigued, you take your pen, resting it above the slip of paper thinking of what to say. You try your best to sneak a peek from your friends’ slips, but you are all spread out a little too far. You put the pen to your chin before your eyes wander to Tsukishima, an idea finally popping to mind.

‘I really like someone in this group, but please keep it a secret.’ You write before folding your paper, being the first to drop it in the center of the table. Tsukishima glances up, giving a low smile seeing you excited, even for such a silly game.

Just as everyone drops their slip on the center of the table, Hinata jumps, swooping the papers up into his hand, and shaking them around if he were rolling dice, before bringing his cupped hands around, asking for everyone to grab a script.

You take one from his palm, waiting for the next instruction. Once Hinata makes his way to everyone, a single slip in his hands he begins. “Ready? Okay, let’s open them!”

You all begin to slowly open your scripts, reading what is written. You freeze as you read yours.

‘I’m in love with Y/n.’

You feel your soul leave your body, immediately looking around between the group of your friends, then to Tsukishima as he keeps his eyes on his.

“Yay! We’re done, okay goodnight” Hinata says before jumping back into the covers of his futon, immediately turning and falling asleep.

The five of you look at the boy in disbelief, before heading to bed.

-

You toss and turn in your futon, unable to fall asleep. Slowly getting up, you make your way out to the balcony, shutting the sliding door quietly as you lean on the railing.

Letting out a huff, you gaze up into the sky, resting your head against your arm, not noticing the door sliding open and close.

“What are you going?” You jump, turning around to see Tsukishima standing with his hands in the pockets of his team jacket. Letting out a sigh, you pout as he makes his way over besides you, leaning his back against the railing.

“Don’t scare me like that!” You quietly scold him before turning yourself to the night sky, missing the small smile he gave.

“I couldn’t sleep” You admit, as you rest your chin on your arm again. “That makes two of us” He replies, turning to lean on the railing with you, facing the night sky. “What happened?” You look at him before answering. “Nothing much really, I’m just overthinking.”

Tsukishima stays silent, the guilt still eating him up from the time he had brought you to tears during the Spring Interhigh Finals. Were you just as bothered by this as he was? Has it been keeping you awake restless at night? Did he really do this to you? He wishes, if he could promise to never hurt you again, he wouldn’t waste a second to commit.

But really, you were thinking of the confession you received on the script. You don’t realize how quiet Tsukishima’s been before you ask him. “Why are you still awake?” He looks to you immediately, staring into your eyes before shrugging. “I just felt off” “Off? What’s wrong Tsukki?” You ask concerned. He lets out a sigh, before standing up completely, facing you.

You watch as he gazes down at your features, confused as he takes his hands out from his pockets.

“I’m sorry y/n” He begins, looking straight into your eyes. The look he gives you, is a look of absolute sincerity. You tilt your head, still confused, as you were about to respond he continues. “I’m really sorry about what happened during the Spring Interhigh Finals, in the infirmary.” Your eyes widening, remembering that day.

“I…” He continues, and you listen. “I didn’t mean anything I said. I was very frustrated with the game, and how useless I felt when I had to leave because I let myself get hurt during the match… It’s still honestly, not an excuse to take everything out on you. But after seeing-” He stops himself, his eyes turning away as he was just about to admit his final outburst was due to seeing you in Kageyama’s jersey.

“After seeing?” You question still looking up to him. “After seeing… you… in Kageyama’s jersey…” He mumbles the end as he takes a deep breath looking back to you, completely flustered. You blink, looking down, registering what he just said. ‘After seeing me copy a jerky?’

He takes a step closer to you, “It was the last straw, and I allowed my harsh emotions to drown you.” You turn your attention back to him. “You didn’t deserve that. Especially when you were there for me. When you came to support me, and the team. And, I know it doesn’t look like it at most times, maybe all the time, but, I appreciate you so much. I’m very fortunate to have you in my life, even after so long.” You look up to him. “I’m really sorry y/n.” He finishes, his gaze stuck to you as he awaits your response.

You blink once more, eyes tearing as you give a warm smile. These are one of those very rare moments with Tsukishima you have come to treasure deeply. “I forgive you Tsukishima Kei.”

His eyes widen as his body comes closer, his arms wrapping around you unconsciously. You still, surprised by his action. Before exhaling calmly as you feel the warmth from him around you. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you cling to him. Your face pressed into his jacket, mumbling something.

“Huh?” Tsukishima pulls away, his arms still wrapped around you as he looks at you in confusion. “What did you say?” “Can you make me a promise, Tsukki?” He stares, waiting for your request. “Can you promise to never hurt me again?” Not even taking a second to think. “I promise, pipsqueak.”

“You get three strikes, this is your first one” You give a final cheeky smile before muffling your face back into his sweater as he lets out a sigh of relief, placing a hand to the back of your head, bringing his chin to rest above it.

He promises to himself as he holds you close, a smile warming his face.

‘And it will be the last.’

A/N #2: WAAAA!!! thank you so much again for reading💞 im sorry if tsukki seems a little off, i wanna think tsukki is actually v soft when it comes to emotional and sentimental situations.. at least w the ppl he doesnt mind showing that side to, u kno what i mean?

-

ohh!!! i also have one more or 2 exciting news!!!

i have another series wip on the way! once im able to get the prologue and at least plan the next 5 chapters, it’ll be posted!! im so excited bc i love osamu sm pls.. oops i said his name 😳

i also plan for another series but, im still debating whether or not to write it bc, as u can see, i cant write angst for shit let alone write in general how r u guys still here ASDFGHJKL😭

-

anyways, i hope to see you in the next chapter!! thank you so much for putting up with my bad grammar and english, i love uuu guys 💖

i will now go back to my excessive amount of homework and studying to do, let us pray for my dumbass, amen.😔🙏🏼

TAGLIST: @cvlliesstuff , @strawberries-en-cream , @beanst0ck , @kimiiiiiiiiii, @lucyheartfilias-wife , @lanatheawesome , @owlnymph​ . 

PLEASE LEMME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS (OR IN ASKS) IF YOU’D LIKE TO BE ADDED TO THE TAGLIST!!!

“A LOVE SO BEAUTIFUL” Masterlist 🌸

[cinenthusiast]

aew dynamite 4/20 thoughts

not going to break down everything from this, but will talk about some random thoughts/observations

page & punk: i’m so excited to see how they set this up & am firmly rooting for page, since i think it’s too early to take the belt off of him. what i’m interested with this though is the general booking direction they go with, because i have a working theory about where they could take page that i may be completely off the mark on, but regardless they’ve done such beautiful character work with page that i love that multiple things feel possible. so, they’ve done these deliberate character beats where page went from being hesitant about violence to embracing it, sometimes to the point of discomfort on his part. his title defenses have been very violent, with danielson and archer being the instigators, his intro into matches of that kind, and then with his instincts towards cole and suggesting the texas deathmatch himself (a match i loved but that was very mild lol, i popped for cole’s inability to blade). so, i think in a promotion like aew, leaning more into violence does not equal heel work; often it can mean the opposite. but the way they’ve set up the page beats has been a bit difference. page is a character that gets lost in his own emotions, they consume him. his fight to the top was him combating his own insecurities and trying not to let them drown him. i can see them running with him losing himself in a different kind of emotion, like ruthlessness. page has confidence now, but how much of it is him acting the part, willing it to be. how easily can that be broken down again? most other characters who are more permanently self-assured or just don’t have the nuance of a character like page can easily be and do both. it wouldn’t be a thing. but IF they wanted to, they could continue his story by depicting him as a man who loses himself in the violence. page’s triumph can have more story to tell, about a new challenge, a new setback.  no matter what, the eventual endgame is to get back to that elite lineup, for kenny & page to reconcile. the question is how does he get there. my idea is that he gets lost again and this time the bucks and kenny are the ones to eventually bring him back. i think most people are assuming punk goes heel for this. it makes sense, that’s been his natural role for so much of his career. but i think there’s a more interesting story they could tell, and it’s this one. i think punk’s role in this company is working really well for him right now. heel punk in this feud will be great, don’t get me wrong. no matter what i think they’re going to have a much better build than cole/page had, which felt like a missed opportunity. i’m particularly interested to see how page fairs with his promos since punk is the best promo around (save eddie) and page has grown a lot in that department, but he’s not a natural at it. so that should be interesting! no matter what, i can’t wait!!!!!

- the Undisputed Elite look united and focused now which is great. i hope they can build themselves back up. bobby fish not quite realizing they lost was very funny. Bucks notably not in flashy duds.

- Jay White hot. this Forbidden Door show is going to rule. i’m so excited for it. if Kenny isn’t back by then, then the entire event is for naught. Same with Kota. i’ll be so upset if either of them aren’t in this PPV. what an exciting thing to happen

- wow, the Kris/Leyla/Red Velvet feud sort of fell apart, huh? leyla’s injury was the clincher. you can tell that they’re trying to reposition some women into heel roles. red velvet was just not received well during the willow match (SIGN WILLOW) & now she’s a baddie. i think that’s the right move. just redefine her, forgo a transition, just make the move. i miss leyla. i’d love for kris to be a tweener. i need to catch up on Dark because i’m a big Kris fan.

- the audience seemed out on it but i really loved the kyle o’reilly/jungle boy match. they have good in-ring chemistry and o’reilly’s grappling mixes with jungle boy’s high-flying in ways that are really compelling. i also loved that kyle won. it was very unexpected. i do think that because aew overprotects their talent it means that the win/lose of most matches are easily telegraphed. so this was a nice change. it was a nice kayfabe character beat of jungle boy not being at quite the level he needs to for singles competition. he still needs luchasaurus. the moment with christian after was really lovely. & that kyle beat him CLEAN!

- Lance vs Wardlow?!?!?!?! Y E S. also the beauty of lance interrupting the warped poetry of jake the snake’s promo, gotta love it.

- ok, Sammy & Tay. lmao. this has been fascinating & infuriating & a trainwreck but at least they’re back to somewhat controlling it again, albeit very awkwardly. this is a perfect example of how real life & kayfabe intersect. sammy & tay get together. sammy & tay are seperate faces in the company. they get together and, in part because of the way sammy brought his previous engagement out into the show, ppl aren’t into it. ppl aren’t into it not for the reasons they like to think! it’s because they flaunt themselves in the most immature nauseating ways, as if they’re the popular high school power couple & you all can’t handle it. it’s extremely lame. ppl reject it. they insert themselves into the lambert feud, in the place where cody was supposed to be. & hilariously, sammy & tay find themselves in the same position that cody & brandi did. rejected even in a feud with misogyny spewing dan lambert. not good! so then it’s awkward. the powers that be have to figure out how they’re going to move forward with this feud. will they refuse to adapt like cody did? or will they lean in and turn heel together to try and salvage it? thankfully this week solidified a heel turn for them (started from the low blow to scorpio the previous week). this feud is still a disaster but i’m so glad they’ve at least turned them. i’ve disliked sammy from the start and i’ve disliked tay from the start but now that they’re heels and we’re supposed to hate them, it feels right. i just hope they can move out of this feud and start something fresh with someone else. if we MUST have a 3rd TNT run for sammy, at least him being heel switches it up a bit. bit christ almighty, they really have to get this belt off of him. i miss miro. having men of the year kind-of faces is much less natural, i’m very amused by it. their strategy so far is for dan to be dynamite dan (lol) and not really be on the mic. it’s....very funny to see them try to figure out a way for any of this to work at all. not another ladder match. let it lie! plus, the ladder match with cody and sammy will never ever be topped. like, ever. having sammy in another is just an insult to that match.

- was happy to see britt back. i grew to miss her! i liked her match with kamela a lot overall (1st time seeing her and she was really good). let’s do this tournament and pull the trigger on this jamie feud PLEASE. britt really went in on toni during her promo (bringing up the wwe cake incident wow) which has me thinking they will match up for the tournament at some point

- SHIDA/DEEB street fight Y E S

- FTR squaring off for the tournament?!?!?! who do i even want to win, idek! really love that though, reminds me of how Stardom has factions or allies go against each other very often and it’s no big.

- thought the coffin match got short shrift. loved Sting’s role in the match but really wanted it to be just darby and andrade since they have great chemistry together. the end was clearly super rushed for time so it felt like there was a lack of punctuation there. i’m hoping everyone can move onto something else now though. darby & andrade now following each other and complimenting each other on social. jeff straining his arm just doing the delete motion, oh jeff. would love to see darby & andrade as allies!

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 3: Apdnarg is Really Hard to Spell

 Yo guys, people are getting vaccinated, the sun is parting through the clouds, and I felt so nice that I even stopped listening to quite so many throwback 00′s BTS mashups (and yet I keep clicking on these dissonant catastrophes thinking “this time it’s got to be better. This time they’ll figure it out.” and like, no. Turns out you can’t match Brittany’s Toxic with BTS’ Black Swan. You can’t do that.)

This must be a sign that things are getting better. If anything, it means my personal tastes are improving. I mean I only clicked on like 3 “Dark Academia” Playlists where I could pretend I’m some sort of spooky witch in an abandoned library with a bad music player and basic taste in classical music (like can we ban Satie from Youtube for a little while?). Hell, I might even do a prompt update to this blog!

Yeah, you heard me, I’m actually going to stay ahead of the update schedule for Yugioh Abridged (maybe. I haven’t actually watched cuz of spoilers, I just noticed the thumbnail pop up on Youtube and was like “Damn it, they came out of hiatus??? I got hurry UP.”)

Anyway, speaking of the sky parting.

I’ll have you know my bro said this is actually more like a circumcision and it was one of the worst thing I have ever heard.

We get a chance to take in this lineup of confusing and varied character designs, and Joey. who is...still Joey.

The animators probably had to hold a strike in order for them to put Yugi in the audience, lets be real. There are TOO MANY PEOPLE in this shot and one is wearing a turban where you draw every single wrap. I hope those artists charged by the line.

Tea has a subplot where she’s just very frustrated with everyone she knows. They have been traveling together for like many weeks and got trapped in a foreign country so I get it. But at the same time, it’s kind of hard to picture Tea with female friends.

Because right now you got this 12 year old child, the other duelist who does not care about anything besides cards, and Kaiba’s 3 dragon cards that we’ve all collectively decided are female.

Hell it’s almost like the writers are asking themselves why Tea is here. Maybe they forgot. There’s no more ghosts to bus, no more people to knock out with her ass with random Olympic feats. Tea’s just sidelining.

(read more under the cut)

Mokuba is a itty bit bit taller this season, and so I guess that means he can legally climb on top of the cherry picker in order to give a riveting speech.

Really says a lot about Mokuba that he is so unphased about talking to, I dunno...an entire planet of people. Kind of a shame we never see this courage from Mokuba used for anything other than talking really, really big and giving everyone around him a really hard time.

Mokuba takes a moment to dunk on Yugi Muto, as is Kaiba tradition.

And then introduce the first pair of duelists, which obviously must be between the few people in this tournament that we actually know and care about.

Thankfully, in between last episode and this episode, Yugi has figured out who his own Grandpa is. This is a relief, because Yugi is such a mess, that I was fully convinced it would take over half a season for him to recognize it. I mean how long did it take him to figure out he shares a body with a ghost? Like half a season?

Instead Yugi recovered gracefully from not recognizing his grandpa, but it’s not like he bothered to tell anyone else, so the rest of our cast is just gonna be like “Is he my hairdresser? The guy who delivers my mail? Who is this guy who made absolutely no significant changes to his outfit or voice?”

Like sometimes this show goes full Spongebob silly kid’s show and you never know when to take it seriously or not. They might be sacrificing the entire cast next episode. I really don’t know. But for now their big concern is who is grandpa??? Like an innocent card version of “Are you my Mother?”

Faced with public speaking, Yugi decides to have a melt down.

We have seen him face monsters, we’ve seen him on TV dozens of times, he’s been in multiple competitions...but give a speech? Of course he can’t do that. The kid doesn’t attend enough school to know how to do that. Them’s learning skills.

And that was when a newly assembled wife-jet spliced through the sky like a souped up razer scooter and deposited 1 fully equipped Seto Kaiba in a Buzz Lightyear jetsuit.

THE RECOVERY.

Seto always watching over his Brother, ready to save this awkward party if it kills him (and it really should, that suit is held together by two seat-belts), making sure to get on that platform before Yugi starts going off about how he’s half an Ancient Egyptian. (Ah, life before social media. You could just be hella famous and also half a dead dude and people would just not know. I kinda miss the time before I knew literally everything about everyone.)

Please admire how close those flames are to setting Mokuba’s heavily hairsprayed mane completely alight. It would be an unforgettable spectacle.

These were absolutely just random ass jet packs that Gozaburo Kaiba made to kill hell tons of people, right? Like Seto found it in the family cabin, clutched to the heart of some crispy fried corpse and was like “neat! Mokuba! I found a cool toy!” and just plucked that thing out of that skeleton’s clutches and has been flying around for months?

Like this is Seto Kaiba’s Butter Glider, right?

Seriously what type of vehicle license do you need for one of these things? RIP My ‘Seto only has a scooter license’ headcanon.

Which I’m only even thinking about because I’ve had to try and make an appt with the DMV for days to get a freakin REAL ID. I went to sleep in 2019 and I could fly on a plane. I woke up in 2021 and it’s like “Want one last screw you?” and just...can 2020 please stop screwing me over? It’s March.

Anyway, the Jet is removed soon after, so no, this is not part of his new outfit. He goes right back to his Post-S4-Trauma-Normcore.

After wrestling this competition out of his brother’s hands and confusing everyone in the audience, Roland must have gotten the memo to cut the microphone before Seto got too excited and we were quickly ushered on to the next stage of the tournament.

One sec...the BTS Mashup playlist I just clicked on did a Black Swan X 7 rings mashup and it’s the worst thing my ears have ever heard.

Holy crap. I had to actually turn down my volume. Like...Ariana Grande already has music that has way too many overlapping singing parts on it--and then lets just stick a 52-person boy band on top? That’ll fix it. Yeah. Go ahead.

Wow. Even I had to change the song and you know how much I enjoy pop culture mistakes.

Spot the Mickey but like a million times easier because it’s a Massive Dick Shaped Dragon.

Yep. That’s my grocery shopping outfit. Except maybe not a lab coat and a duel disk. Wish I had a duel disk, that would make social distancing just a hell ton earlier. Just a “Yo, only one person in checkout, please” and then bap them on the head with a propelled discuss/hologram.

Anyway, Grocery shopping/Doctor man dueled the Purple Hair Boy, and considering that Purple Hair got screen time and shook Yugi’s hand once--I think that Doctor man doesn’t stand a freakin chance.

Good. I hate him.

Also, every time he breathes he’s gonna fog up his glasses. I have experience in this area. He can’t read his own cards in the same way I can’t read my phone if I’m in the refrigerated aisle.

So the way this tournament works, is everyone has to sit in the stadium to watch the show. Kinda like showing up to a football stadium just to watch a recorded TV monitor...but then again...that is how it feels to watch a football game at a football stadium when it’s live (at least with the tickets I usually get.)

And as we watch Grandpa waiting for his competitor, we find out that his competitor (Joey) is too busy eating snacks to give him the time of day.

Why do cartoon hot dogs always have lettuce? Is that seriously supposed to be relish? Or is there a place in the world where you put lettuce on your hot dog?

Sorry, bro has just informed of his favorite hot dog order, which is absolutely terrible so I will share it with you: a Five Guys hot dog with ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, onions, mushrooms, pickled peppers, and you guessed it--topped with freakin lettuce.

My own kin. How am I over 30 and just finding out that my baby brother thinks it’s normal to walk into a restaurant with normal god-fearing law-abiding people and order lettuce and mushrooms on a hot dog?

I have fully failed him.

The rest of this episode is watching both Joey Wheeler and Mokuba have a shared panic attack while Seto does freakin nothing.

Please remember that Seto has both a jetpack and a dragon wife plane and could have easily solved this problem. But nah.

Then again, Seto Kaiba has given this crew so MANY rides, that maybe he’s tired of being the Soccer Mom for the team?

Like they don’t actually say this episode, but Seto was the one in charge of like...this entire place, do you think he made the 2 for 1 special just to get Joey where it hurts the most? Or does it actually not take any subterfuge to screw Joey Wheeler because he’s just naturally this way?

Like Mokuba wasn’t there when Joey was told “stay right here, and then we will all go together to fight Dartz” and Joey was like “I’mma save Mai from herself although she told me not to!” and then he Hella Died. But, Mokuba did see the result, AKA, Joey’s dead body being carried on the back of Tristan. Maybe Mokuba never realized that Joey died because he went out of his way to be late?

Lets do a tally of every time I can recall with my dodgy memory that Joey was threatened to be DQ’d/pretty much was DQ’d either by his own fault or no fault of his own

-When he wasn’t allowed to go on the boat to Murder Island because he was a stupid nobody kid who did not have a dueling glove

-When he wasn’t actually supposed to be in Pegasus’ tourney and was, in fact, secretly using half of Yugi’s entrance ticket the entire time

-when Bandit Keith stole the ticket that Joey got from Yugi so then Joey had to borrow Mai’s ticket although she had just used it so it really shouldn't have counted. Because, really anyone could have just piggy backed off of each other’s ticket until the whole boat went through that castle.

-When his account was hacked to get entered into Kaiba’s tourney when Kaiba very clearly told him he could not apply solely because he was Joey Wheeler.

-When he was late to his sister’s eye surgery because he got mugged by Marik’s Rare Hunters, so she almost refused to do the surgery.

-When Joey got possessed by Marik, and as Marik, threatened to murder everyone else in the tournament including both of the Kaiba brother’s who’s tournament it was, and then chained himself to Yugi Muto to throw both of them to the bottom of the ocean.

-I think there was a point when he threatened to attack Kaiba in Kaiba’s own tourney while not possessed? Like several times?

-when he got struck by Lightning and almost did not stand up fast enough after being struck by lightning, which is apparently a type of DQ in Duel Monsters.

-When he tried to save Mai from getting hit by a fireball, but then Yugi did it instead, and then so many people were standing on the dueling platform that Kaiba couldn’t possibly DQ them all.

-When he entered the restricted area of the blimp in order to hassle Kaiba into landing the Blimp, which Kaiba did not do.

-When Marik killed Joey before Joey could press the “go” button on his duel disk to play the card that should have won Joey the match.

-When he was dueling a lawyer in a digital universe but then the dice was like...weighted? So Noah had to walk over and be like “The hell is this weighted dice? This is my perfect digital world? How did you even do that?” and then Joey won because the match was no longer legit.

-When Joey yelled at Noah too much and so Noah turned Joey to stone for being a rude ass spectator

-When Mai was like “Wheeler and Valon, listen closely: do NOT murder each other” and then Joey did a murder on Valon so she was like “I guess I have no choice, I was very clear” and killed Joey straight up.

-When Joey decided to block Seto’s fireballs while Joey Wheeler WAS a playing card, somehow disrespecting both Dartz and Seto Kaiba at the same time.

-When Joey was playing cards but then got absorbed into a giant Leviathan and basically couldn’t play anymore after that.

-There’s probably hell ton of S0 stuff I just haven’t seen yet.

-This episode

And Joey runs fast for a montage of wacky things that really have no business being in a theme park. Things like this:

(remember when Bakura almost died from a rock that ended up being a balloon? It comes full circle.)

The stuff that the Kaiba brother’s think is normal and fun.

Anyway Joey fights off a bunch of hologram snakes and bats and everyone is like “Should we tell him it’s just holograms???” And it’s like wow, guys, how many times have these ‘holograms’ straight up murdered Joey Wheeler and everyone else on this cast? Too many? Because I have a google doc with so many deaths on it. 7,805,844,048, to be exact.

Anyway, he gets there with five seconds to spare and Mokuba’s like “well at least you were still entertaining while we filmed you in front of a live audience being a total spaz for 15 minutes straight, so I’ll let you go.”

Grandpa and Joey start playing, Joey completely oblivious that this is just an older Muto, while Hawkins walks up awkwardly and is like “hey guys. I’m so sorry about this.”

(welcome to my font choices, for those new here, I have to make weird font color choices to make sure it’s legible for the colorblind and also for the non-colorblind. This one is not much contrast, so I may change it up in the future, but for now, this is Grandpa Muto’s new font. I apologize to every graphic designer reading this. Please don’t tell anyone who has ever hired me for graphic design about this blog.)

What’s funny about this exchange is that after they find out that Yugi’s Grandpa is Apdnarg (HOLY my brain cannot get around the spelling for that, and I will not change it in the caps. I cannot do a ‘pdn’ ever again), they don’t stand on his side of the field or anything. Hawkins is legit Solomon Muto’s only fan during this exchange and like...damn. Way not to back your Grandpa, Yugi.

Yugi immediately strides up to Mokuba to non-confrontation-ally inform him that he has stepped over a line and Mokuba is like “what are these things you say called ‘lines?’”

According to Mokuba, Solomon Muto begged him to be in the competition so he could relive his glory days (glory days making no sense here, because the game has only been released for the past 15 years, so glory days is like...the before times that can only be referring to disgraced archeologists and Pegasus ((who is, in his own way...a disgraced archeologist, too))) and Mokuba was like

“You trained Yugi Muto, right? Hey that’s good enough for me. This drama is gold. People will eat it up. Hell yes. Don’t be afraid to abduct him a little bit. Maybe trap a couple people in a digital hellscape for a little while? Now we go by Pegasus house rules here, so fire as many lasers as you want, but just make sure not to hit anyone in the face. Oh man, we are going to be swimming in cash. Love it, Muto Sr, love it.”

But I dunno, I feel like Grandpa won’t make it past next episode. It is Joey. We kinda need him to make it past Ep 4 of the arc. If Grandpa Muto becomes the new Joey Wheeler, that will be a weird transition for this show to make.

But that’s all for today, as always, here is the link to read these in chrono order becuase there’s SO MANY that you don’t need to read backwards--don’t do it--just use the chrono tag (and I don’t know if you can add compound tags, but I did separate the Season from the Episode, so if you write S4, it should only pop up stuff from S4. I didn't’ do that to seasons 1-3 though because I just...didn’t.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And because I brought it up: here it is, the best BTS Mashup that I found on my deep dive. Like legit--this one isn’t a mess:

Most of other ones are horrible in a fascinating way. Like I’m not even a BTS fan, I think I sort of age out of that metric, I’m just bored and quarantined. And lets be real, we all appreciate a good bop when we hear it.

[seokiloquy]

Lost In - What Word? Pt 4 - Akaashi Keiji

AU: Single(?) Parent

Requested (Ya’ll. Really?)

Tags/Warnings: Fem! Reader, Time skip spoilers, short fluff

Word Count: 1.1k+

In a household with two women and a young child, there are just a few things that aren’t said, and a few more that are. For instance, Yukie —who you found out was the manager of Akaashi’s volleyball team in high school. Wow, small world— was often called “Okaa” with the occasional “san” honorific tied to the end by Naoko. She would laugh, saying something along the lines of that being way too formal, but Naoko still would, even if others his age wouldn’t. Yukie was a mother to him after all.

“Mama” was the more commonly used word, used when Naoko was calling for you.

There was one word though, that didn’t land on your ear quite right when your son yelled it through your shared apartment. 

It was a sunny day, hot enough that the windows were open and cicadas screamed from their perches on building walls and telephone poles. Naoko ran around the living room, waiting for your guest to arrive as he bumped his volleyball at a low height. The tv played quietly in the background of his excited chants. Yukie was out for the day.

You dropped some strawberries onto the tray on the kitchen counter before grabbing a cucumber from the fridge and cutting into it. 

A two-women household had a certain vocabulary for sure. “Otaa-san,” wasn’t in such vocab. It wasn’t something you heard, ever. Despite the initial shock of the word coming from your son’s mouth, it was quickly followed by an even louder cheer of “Dad!”

Your hand stilled, holding a sharp knife in the air with the tip dangling just above the wooden cutting board. Your breathing stopped and your heart began to race.

You should hear the man’s voice as he chuckled and kicked off his shoes. “Hey, buddy,” a huff and shuffling. “Where’s mom?”

Your arm tensed, cutting the cucumber you held with a sharp thump against the wood beneath it. The breath you held stuttered its way out of you. It suddenly felt much hotter, even with the summer heat.

“In the kitchen.” You could hear Naoko say, followed by a single set of shuffling slippers.

You turned as he became visible in the door frame. “Keiji.”

He bounced Naoko in his arms, giving the kid an uncertain side-eye and patting his back. Akaashi set the boy down, letting him run to the couch where the pre-game ads were running. “Sorry, about that.”

Wide-eyed, you leaned to look over Akaashi’s shoulder. Naoko sat cross-legged on the couch, swaying side to side with his volleyball in his lap as the team lineup started and the national anthem played. Standing straight with an anxious smile pulling at your face, you set the knife down and raised your arms up for Akaashi to step into them.

As his warm hands hit your sides, you let your arms fall over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.” You tried not to smile against his shoulder. “Now, I’m gonna finish making some snacks.” You pulled away, placing your hands on his shoulders, playing with the grey fabric. “You’re gonna sit with your son as the game starts, and afterwards we’ll finish editing for Tenma.”

“Do you want any help?” He tried to keep his voice calm and slow. A rush of heat built up under your fingertips before becoming visible on the apples of his cheeks.

A broken whistle of air blew out of your nose and you tried not to laugh. “Go”

As most sports games run late, and volleyball’s time limit is non-existent, by the time the game finally came to a close Naoko was dozing off. Tired from the day’s excitement, the boy’s head flopped to the side, landing on the stiff surface of Akaashi’s arm.

Smiling, you grabbed the plates off the coffee table and made your way to the kitchen. “Do you mind putting him to bed? I’ll take care of the dishes.”

Akaashi could see your eyes glitter as they took in the image of your son cuddling up to his adoptive father. “No problem.”

When Akaashi came back to the living room, you were scribbling down notes as you flipped through the most recent script Tenma had given you. He took his seat again, lipping his lips in thought as he stared at the black laptop screen in front of him. Gulping some air, he was about to speak when your voice caught his attention instead. Only then did he realize you were staring at him, and the gentle curve of your grin made him lose track of his words.

“He in bed?”

“Ya, he called me Papa this time.”

Your heart fluttered as he looked down, flustered. Closing your notebook, you dropped in next to Akaashi’s computer and sat sideways, resting your head against the back of the couch. Pulling his glasses off from the frame, he placed them on your book before mirroring your position.

You held his eyes for a moment, taking in the familiar colour. “He looks up to you. So much.” Your cheek pushed against the fabric of the couch as you smiled. “I’m so happy that you’re around, you know.”

He shuffled closer, taking your hand in his warm palm, caressing the back with his thumb. “It must be a bit weird for you though, right? Suddenly having me around in your life.”

“Maybe a bit weird. But I’m glad.”

The slight curve of his lip made your stomach stutter. “You’re okay with him calling me ‘dad’ then?”

“I thought I—”

“I want to hear you say it. I want you to be confident in your choice, be confident in me.” he dropped his hand to hold your cheek instead, making the skin feel incredibly warm.

You slowly sucked in a cold breath, trying to quell the nerves that tried to stab at your heart. “I wouldn’t want Naoko to have anyone else as his father. If given the choice, I’d find a way to choose you every time.” You dropped your gaze to his empty hand, making a reach for it. 

Years as a single mother, though empowering in its greatest forms, can be draining. You’ve lasted so long with just yourself and Yukie’s help. Consciously adding another person to the equation made your head hurt and heart squeeze with worry. Sometimes you wish your mom had come to japan with you, for guidance.

Akaashi’s eyes seemed to burn into your skin. You felt like an ant at the sun’s mercy. “Please choose us too. I don’t think my heart could take it if you left our lives now.”

The work went left untouched.

I finished One piece and watched 2.43 this week. I’m not being very productive. - Bacon

Posted: 28/03/2021

[ruzek-halstead]

🌺 challenge accepted 🌺 chapter two 🌺

pairing: luke patterson x julie molina

luke and julie go to rival high schools, but come together at a party after their latest ‘friendly’ match. luke starts off on the wrong foot but redeems himself by the end of the night, by inadvertently becoming julie’s knight in shining armour.

“save it for your groupies, patterson.”

high school au

series masterlist || masterlist || ao3

prev. chapter one

warnings: swearing, fluffery

Having a best friend has many benefits.

They’re always present to listen and support you and help you with things you don’t think you can do yourself. They’re always there even when you think you don’t need them. They’re necessary to carry on in life, and Julie agrees with that; she loves her best friend. But there are instances where she would prefer to smother her with a pillow.

This was one of those times.

Alex’s face lit up when he spotted Julie and all her curly-haired glory. She could feel herself blushing and she honestly wanted nothing more than to slide underneath the table and hide.

“Julie, hey!” He greeted her excitedly. Willie followed behind him with a polite smile. “It’s nice to see you again,” he turned to face Carrie, “I’m Alex, this is my boyfriend Willie.” The brunet beside him waved.

Carrie was much too excited to meet them. “I’m Carrie, Julie’s bestie!”

“It’s nice to see you guys again,” Julie replied politely. She wasn’t sure what they knew, if Luke had even mentioned anything, so she wasn’t sure how to act around them. “Did you guys have fun at the party?”

Willie nodded his head excitedly. “Yeah! We hit up the karaoke machine; we were awful but it was hilarious.”

“Yeah, I heard it was quite an interesting night,” Alex remarked, shooting Julie a smirk. She paled; now she really wanted to hide underneath the table. “How about you, Julie? Fun night?”

Julie narrowed her eyes at the blond; she could see right through him. “I’m onto you, Alex,” she replied sassily, “I’m betting you know exactly how my night went.”

“I do,” he admitted, shrugging, “but I wanted to hear it from you.”

“Yeah, tough luck,” she snorted in response. He shot her a smile and Julie’s insides fluttered. There was something about making a new friend (and knowing that he was Luke’s best friend) that made her inherently happy inside. Plus, the best friendships always include sarcasm and sassiness, where both sides can dish it out and take it in stride. She feels like friendship with Alex will be exactly just that.

Willie chuckled, his eyes flickering between the two. “Hey, you should invite them to the show tonight.”

Alex’s face lit up once again. “Oh my god, yes!”

Carrie shot Julie an excited eyebrow waggle.

“Luke told you we’re in a band, right?”

Julie couldn’t help herself; she smirked before saying, “Sunset Swerve, right?”

Willie choked on his own spit, while Carrie simply looked confused. Alex’s eyes narrowed and a frown marred his face.

“I know you said that on purpose, so I’m going to ignore it and extend a gracious invitation for you both to come to our gig tonight at King’s.”

Julie blinked. “Oh, you’re playing a show tonight?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied, “are you interested?”

Carrie instantly jumped in with a squeal and large smile. “Yes, we’re interested!”

“Uh, well —” Julie stuttered, avoiding eye contact with all of them. It was one thing to be waiting for a message from Luke; it was a whole other thing to simply show up at his show, not invited by him directly. “I’m not entirely sure that’s the best idea. Luke—”

“Luke will love to see you!” Alex interrupted. “Trust me, I’ve known that dumbass for way too long. He’s probably sitting by his phone thinking of different pick-up lines to text you, because, like I said, he’s a dumbass.”

If Julie wasn’t embarrassed before, she definitely was now.

“Seriously Julie, he’s probably just too nervous to invite you,” Willie added, and she was surprised he was jumping into that part of the conversation. Alex sent him a fond smile. “I think it’ll be a nice surprise for him.”

“I agree!” Carrie exclaimed. “Plus, I need to meet this Luke. So, we’re going.”

Alex smirked in Carrie’s direction. “I like her. I’m counting on you guys tonight. I’ll leave your name with Flynn; she’s our good friend and social media coordinator. She’ll meet you guys at the door.”

Julie could feel her milkshake bubbling inside her stomach; she felt like she was going to throw up. Surprises? Definitely not her thing.

“And no backing out!” He added with a trained gaze on Julie. She sputtered in denial. “I can see it all over your face. Carrie, you’ll make sure she’s there, right?”

“Even if I have to chloroform her,” she replied with an even expression.

The boys laughed and Alex continued speaking, completely oblivious to the utter horror on Julie’s face. “Oh, and bring Nick! Luke will be on his best behaviour, I promise.”

“So will Nick,” Carrie winked.

“Great!” Alex clapped his hands. “Well, we’re going to go get some milkshakes but I’ll see you all tonight!”

Alex made sure to squeeze Julie’s shoulders as he walked by and Willie shook his head, laughing at his boyfriends antics. “I’ll see you girls later; I’ll save some seats,” he added before he left.

“Oh my god.”

The words flew out of Julie’s mouth before she could even stop them.

“Oh god, I am so excited,” Carrie laughed at Julie’s misery. “Jules, we have to go right now. We have to make sure you look amazing for tonight!”

Julie groaned, but there was no stopping a determined Carrie when she set her mind on something.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

When Julie found herself outside of King’s that same night, her nerves had calmed down slightly, and she was actually looking forward to their show.

She was absolutely freaking out as Carrie dragged her home, but the blonde easily talked her down and convinced her on how fun the night will be. She was also looking forward to seeing Luke again, even though she still hadn’t heard from him. She believed Alex when he said Luke was probably nervous to reach out to her, because here she was, almost throwing up at the prospect of seeing him again. So, she tried to not let that bother her.

Carrie had spent hours looking through outfits for Julie. The brunette thought it was pointless, but Carrie was so excited, she just let her be. The two of them decided on a simple, yet stylish outfit; a pair of black ripped jeans, a white short-sleeve crop top and a jean jacket. She added a pair of white converse to tie the outfit together and left her curls down and natural.

Julie was surprised to see there was a bit of a lineup outside King’s. She could tell Carrie looked impressed as well, but Nick on the other hand, just looked straight up miserable.

“Babe, can you at least try to look like you want to be here?” Carrie whispered to him, trying to hide it from Julie.

Nick rolled his eyes grumpily. “Yes, okay, sorry.”

When they got to the front of the line, Carrie smiled politely to the bulky bouncer. She fluttered her eyelashes and said, “I believe we’re on the list? Julie and friends?”

“Hold up, Jason! I’m comin’!”

They heard a powerful voice, but couldn’t see anything behind the bouncer. A second later a girl dressed in a colourful outfit popped up from behind the bouncer. She was sporting a bright smile and didn’t hesitate to nudge the bouncer (with her whole body weight, to which he didn’t even budge).

“They’re with me, Jason! Let them through!”

With an excited grin in their direction, the girl Julie could only assume was Flynn, led them deeper into King’s. King’s was known for their live performances and chill vibes. The lights were dimmed and music filled the room; Julie was immediately in love with the atmosphere.

“I’m Flynn,” she introduced herself excitedly, while making her way to one of the front tables. “I’ve known the guys forever, but I mostly thought they were idiots. It wasn’t until they started their band that I realized ‘wow, this could be something!’”

Flynn took a seat and waited until they followed suit to continue. “Now, I’m their social media coordinator and baby-sitter by default.”

“Sounds like a lot of work,” Julie giggled.

“Girl, you have no idea!” Flynn laughed. She paused and took a long look at Julie. “I like you. I think we’re going to be great friends.” Julie smiled, ignoring the blood rushing into her cheeks. “Also, my boy Luke, cannot stop talking about you!”

Julie’s face immediately dropped in mortification. “Oh my god, tell me more!” Carrie gushed, moving in closer.

“Oh my god, tell me never!” Nick mocked, rolling his eyes.

Flynn immediately smirked, noting Julie rolling her eyes and Carrie smacking his bicep. “Oh, hold on. Are you Nick? Captain of Illyria Nick?”

“The one,” Nick replied with a small smile.

“I’ve definitely heard a lot about you,” she laughed, but it faded quickly, “I probably shouldn’t repeat it though…” To that, Nick actually cracked a laugh.

They were interrupted when a pair of hands landed on Julie’s shoulders, to which she jumped. For a moment, her heart leapt into her throat, thinking it was Luke, but she quickly discovered it was Willie, with an infectious smile. “Hey guys! Nice to see you all again,” he nodded to Nick, who he hadn’t officially met except on the field; Nick nodded back (men… honestly.) “Get ready! The guys are about to go on!”

For the first time since she’d gotten there, she noticed the drum set on the stage and realized she didn’t actually know what instruments the guys all played. It’d be a nice surprise, she guessed. With a quick introduction from an unknown speaker, the lights dimmed completely except for the show lights. She watched as Alex made his way behind the drums (she should’ve guessed that), beginning a drum solo and shooting a large smile in their direction. She didn’t miss the wink in her direction once he noticed she didn’t skip out on the event.

She noticed Reggie and Luke at the same time, as they both came onto the stage at the same time from different sides. It was a different feeling watching Luke from the crowd; he was so in his element, a bright smile on his face as he looked over the clapping figures. It didn’t take long for his eyes to scan over her table, as he was expecting to see Willie and Flynn. He definitely wasn’t expecting to see Julie, and his expression showed as much. His smile dropped momentarily and he looked a little stunned; she noticed he dropped the guitar pick in his hand, but he was too busy looking at her. Alex made a comment into the mic about their first song, and she noticed him staring into Luke’s back, almost as if that was supposed to be Luke’s line.

Quickly, Luke snapped out of his fugue state, grabbed a new guitar pick taped to his microphone stand and began strumming his guitar to the beat of their first song. Before he forgot, he dropped his right eyelid in a wink, shooting a cheeky smirk in Julie’s direction. Of course, he was stunned when he saw her; he wasn’t expecting to see her at all (he wanted to invite her tonight, but he couldn’t figure out what should be his first text to her). And he definitely wasn’t prepared to see her looking so damn good. He was smitten.

1, 2, 3!

Alex counted them off before Luke took it away. Julie was nervous to hear them. What if they were absolutely terrible and then they asked for her opinion? She couldn’t lie; oh god, what if they really were bad?

Take off, last stop

Countdown till we blast open the top

Face first, full charge

Electric hammer to the heart

Julie’s jaw literally dropped open.

Holy shit, they were good. Luke was amazing!

The butterflies she felt in her stomach earlier came back full force. She was falling for an adorable rockstar and she had no intentions of stopping herself.

Clocks move forward

But we don’t get older, no

Kept on climbing

Till our stars collided

And all the times we fell behind

Were just the keys to paradise

Julie could do nothing more than stare in amazement. Her whole table (and the whole club) was up on their feet cheering on the band. She, however, could not bring her limbs to move because she was just so enthralled by their energetic performance. She longed to feel what they felt; to be able to get up on stage and perform so seamlessly. But that was a story for another day.

Don’t look down

‘Cause we’re still rising Up right now

And even if we hit the ground

We’ll still fly

Keep dreaming like we’ll live forever

But live it like it’s now or never

By the time the chorus came around, her whole table was fist pumping and head banging. To her surprise, even Nick seemed to be enjoying himself (although, she’s sure he’ll deny it to the death). As the song continued, Julie couldn’t help but dance in tune to the song. In fact, Julie was on her feet for the entire set, and by the end, she was even more hooked than she was before. There was something about watching Luke sing and play his guitar (without sleeves of course). This just meant his biceps were on full display and of course, he was all sweaty and by the end, Julie couldn’t look him in the eye without her breath catching in her throat.

“We’re Sunset Curve! Thank you very much, and have a good night!”

The boys all dipped in a bow before running off the stage, smiles and all.

“Oh my god,” Carrie murmured, turning to Julie; she definitely didn’t want Nick listening to her next words. “Julie, he is perfect for you. I haven’t even properly met him, but he is so perfect for you! That was so amazing!”

Julie appreciated her enthusiasm, but it only made her more nervous. “This honestly just made it even more painfully obvious that he is way out of my league.”

“Excuse me?” Carrie hissed. “Where is the badass girl who told him off on that soccer field? I need her back because there is no one out of your league. You’re Julie; you’re amazing and I need you to know that.”

Julie was blushing again. “Carrie…” she groaned.

“Nope, I don’t want to hear it!” Carrie cut her off with a sharp tone. “And if it helps, there was dozens of people in this room, and he only seemed to have eyes for you.”

If she wasn’t blushing then, she definitely was now. And it certainly didn’t help when she saw Luke and the guys exiting backstage and making their way over in all their sweaty glory.

“That was awesome!” Willie was the first one to break the silence, jumping up and giving Alex a hug and a sweet kiss. God, they were so adorable.

Flynn immediately jumped into work mode. “That was killer, you guys! I’ll edit this video tomorrow and we can post it to your YouTube channel,” her eyes flickered over to Carrie with a shocked expression. “Speaking of, how could I forget? Tell me more about Dirty Candy!”

Carrie’s face lit up. “Oh my god, you know about that?”

“Know about it? Girl, Alex and I dance to your routines all the time!” Flynn exclaimed excitedly. “How the hell did he not make the connection when he met you earlier? Tell me more!”

Julie quickly tuned them out; it’s not that she didn’t like Dirty Candy, she was just so distracted with Luke and everything about him. He was currently chugging a water bottle and Julie’s focus was lost once again. She didn’t realize he was speaking to her until he was right beside her.

“Julie? You okay?” He asked with a concerned expression.

“What?” She blurted, blinking rapidly. A slow smile spread across his lips and she nearly fainted. “Sorry, I was just in my head — Luke, that was amazing. You definitely underplayed the whole band thing. You guys could really be something.”

Luke’s eyes softened and for a moment, she was the only person in the room. It was the sweetest thing she could say and she didn’t even know it. “Hey, you want to take a walk real quick? I just need some air.”

“Yeah,” Julie nodded, biting her lip. She whispered where she was going into Carrie’s ear and pointedly ignored her smirk. She also avoided looking at Nick, but noticed Luke sending him a nod (seriously, what was it with these guys and nodding?).

Luke led her out back, into an old but spacious alley; they walked side by side, silently. “I didn’t know you were coming today,” he told her, but then cringed at how bad it sounded. “Not that I didn’t want you here! I — I did, I just didn’t know how to —”

“It’s okay, Luke,” she giggled, “I happened to see Alex today at Mel’s and he invited Carrie and me. I was a little nervous though, because I hadn’t heard from you since.”

Luke cringed again. “And I’m sorry about that. I’ve been wanting to message you, but I didn’t want to mess it up or say something stupid. I’m really good at that.”

“I’ve noticed,” Julie teased and he sent her an affronted look. “It’s okay, Alex explained that too.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Stupid Alex,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m really glad you came though.”

Julie made the mistake of sparing a glance in his direction and she caught his intense gaze; it was captivating. “Me too,” she replied honestly, “you guys were so amazing. I was so nervous it was going to suck and I’d have to lie to your face.”

She literally couldn’t believe she said that out loud.

But Luke was laughing and she couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “Well, I’m glad we don’t suck that bad.”

“Are you kidding me? You don’t suck at all; that was — wow, I can’t even form words.”

They found themselves heading back in the direction of King’s, and Luke knew he was running out of time with Julie.

“Uh, Julie — I know we haven’t known each other for long, and I’ve been kind of terrible at keeping in touch, but uh —” He was growing more nervous by the second, but Julie looked at him with soft features. “Would you like to go out on a date with me?”

Julie knew they had chemistry; she knew there was something there. And as much as she was hoping for it, she was still floored when he actually asked. It was a pleasant surprise though; she found herself smiling before she could even form words.

“Yeah, Luke, I would love it.”

The grin he sent her in response made her heart flutter. When he gently grabbed her hand to walk the rest of the way back, she welcomed it with an open palm. It was peaceful and quiet and she loved every minute of it.

When Luke opened the back door and waited for her to file in before him, he couldn’t help but lean in close and whisper into her ear, “by the way, you look absolutely stunning tonight.”

She squeaked in response, to which he only laughed and led them back to their friends. They quickly bid each other goodnight (but not before exchanging numbers — Flynn was adamant), and Julie sported a smile the entire way home.

🌺

oh my god, i loved how adorable this was.. i was literally melting when i was writing the end

i hope you all liked it!!! next chapter is their date!!!

drop a comment if you want to be added to the tag list :)

tagging: @haileyyanneupton || @pearlseleganciess || @deni-gonzalez || @queen-of-demons-and-hell​ || @todayithoughtof​ || @andessaga​ || @lukewearingbeanies​ || @kindess–truth || @kylobensoloskywalker || @elenaofavalor​

[mono-dot-jpeg]

fries and milkshakes - k. tsukishima

Summary: A salty volleyball player and a pro gamer walk into a room, so many insults were made that day.

Word Count: 1.8k

Genre: Fluff, Enemies to Lovers, Pro Gamer! Reader, Open Ended (?) 

Pairing: Tsukishima Kei x Reader

a/n: purely a self indulgent fanfic bc salty shima is growing on my best friend :))) follow them if you haven’t >:(((( @mangobangi​ also a very fun quote was put in here from them as well skjdksjdk

"Waa~ the season is over! Thank god. I don't have to worry about practicing with Heesu!" You sighed blissfully. Now you weren't a pro at what would be called normal sports but you were definitely a pro at gaming.

You were (streamer/name), one of the pro players of Philadelphia Fusion from the Overwatch League. You were known for being one of the first females to join Overwatch League. It was a bumpy ride but you made it far. But now you had your studies to focus on. While you weren't in the official line up (due to how young you were), you practiced hard with the benched players and streamed in your free time with your fellow teammates.

You arrived at Karasuno, it wasn't a new day for you. A pretty normal day, except you were transferring into a higher class so that was pretty new. You get to Class 1-4, entering hesitantly.

"Ah, you must be the new student! Introduce yourself!"

"Morning, I'm y/n l/n! Please call me y/n! Nice to meet you!" You bowed as you introduced yourself, you ended up having to sit next to a tall blonde named Tsukishima Kei. Soon it was free time/study hall.

Some students had come up to you as they seemed to recognize you from your streams. You never minded the attention and you just hoped it never got too bad. "Are you really s/n?"

"I prefer not to talk about it too much.." You laughed nervously.

"Wow! You're in like the top 50 in the Asia and American servers!" You rubbed the back of your neck sheepishly. You were never one to brag about your achievements. It was all just a video game to you in the end but then again, you were gonna be in Overwatch League when you get out of high school.

"She can reach top 50 and yet her height says she can barely reach the middle shelf." You turned to look at the tall male.

"Well, that's not very nice, Tsukishima-kun." You tell him. "And if you're gonna insult me, make up something better. I've dealt with years of misogyny in the gaming world, fight me." You have an annoyed glint in your eye as he glares at you.

"Oh my bad, chibi-chan." You were walking right into his trap and you didn't even realize it. "At least I'm in the starting line up on my team." He snickered. He knew very well that you were part of the Philly Fusion and you knew he was in the volleyball team. He knew of a few ways to push your buttons.

"H-Hey! I'll be in the starting line up soon! Just you wait! I'll be at the top!" You huffed. "You'll see me with the big boys, you salty beanpole of a guy!"

"Beanpole? Is that really the best you could come up with?"

"I could come up with worse but I don't think you could handle the heat. What with your petty insults and all." You crossed your arms. "At least I'm at the top with the best."

“Tch, what insults could you come up with, chibi-chan?” He scoffed. Everyone can feel the tension rise between you both. Luckily, a fight didn’t happen due to the fact that the bell had rung. While you and Tsukishima were frustrated at the sound of the bell, Yamaguchi seemed very relieved. 

It’s been several days since you got transferred to Class 1-4. You made a decent amount of friends in the class (though you weren’t sure if someone of them wanted to be genuinely friends with you or they just wanted to meet your teammates). You were really good friends with Yamaguchi, although you still didn’t like Tsukishima enough to want to be his friend. More often than not, you both spat insults at each other with no remorse. It seemed to be a mutual thing, neither of you wanted to be friends nor plan on it. 

You went to see volleyball practice pretty often as to support Yamaguchi (though Tsukki joked a lot that you were obsessed at continuing the feud you and Tsukishima had). “Hey Yama-kun.” You weren’t as energetic as it was getting close to league season and that meant less time with hanging out with friends.

“Are you okay, y/n-chan?” he asked as he was rubbing the sweat off his face with his towel.

“It’s almost league season for me, which mean I won’t spend as much time here. I’ll be home earlier to practice with my team.” You often practiced in your free time when it was off-season but the coach always thought it was better for you to practice with the team even if you weren’t gonna be in the line up.

“You really have to practice even if you’re not in the lineup?” Tsukishima scoffed.

“At least I’m passionate about what I do! You barely put energy into yourself playing!” You snapped back at him.

“Whatever..” He muttered.

“Sorry about Tsukki..” Yamaguchi said. “So, you’re gonna be really busy now, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna be going back to the Fusion base since they might want me to train over there.” That struck a cord in the duo.

“You’re gonna be leaving?” Yamaguchi asked, shocked.

“Yeah. But it won’t be forever. But they know it would be better for me if I went back to school around the Fusion base so it would be easier for me.” You ruffled your hair in slight frustration. “So funny enough, this is my first and last year here.” You sighed. Tsukishima didn’t know what to say. Nor did he realize what feeling were stirring up inside of him. But they didn’t feel good.

“That sucks, but you’re gonna get close to your dream, right?” The green haired male asked. “I’m glad you’ll get the dream you wanted but we’ll miss you when you leave.” He smiled sadly.

“Saltyshima won’t miss me though but I appreciate that you will.” You smiled at Yamaguchi while said male scoffed at your statement. “Let’s just have fun for these last few day before I leave.”

“Eh? You’re leaving that soon?”

“In 3 days actually. On Saturday.” 

D-1

You already felt yourself missing everything in this school. While Tsukishima is struggling to think about what were these dumb feelings doing to him. Why was he feeling this way? Why was it always towards you? Why were these feelings even existing?

“Okay, Tsukishima-kun. Yamaguchi and I made a promise. I have to try and get along with you before I leave to go back. So, let’s start over.” You stuck his hand out. He doesn’t shake your hand and scoffs.

“Like I wanna be friends with you, chibi-chan.”

“Okay, let’s go out to eat then. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“How about ‘I decline’?” He says back.

“It’ll just be for 30 mins after practice. You can handle that right, Tsukki?” You say almost mockingly.

“Fine.” He huffed. And so started the adventure of the salty male and the pro gamer. After practice both of you headed off to a small diner. “Wow, very fancy.” He says sarcastically.

“Hey, my mom won’t let me in on the money from Overwatch League, give me a break.” You ordered fries and a milkshake. He ordered the same thing as he didn’t seem to care for anything else on the menu. You held up a fry close to his mouth. “Look it’s you.” Before you could move your hand back to eat the fry, he moves closer and eats the fry, his lips just grazing your fingers. “Hey! You have your own sets of fries, Saltyshima!”

“Never said I couldn’t eat your fries though, chibi-chan.” He smirked smugly. How were you gonna get along with the male if he acted like this? You don’t know. You sip on your strawberry milkshake as you glare at him.

D-2

“You’re telling me, you haven’t dipped your fries in a milkshake before?! You’ve got to be kidding me.” You huffed. “Well, now you gotta try it, right now. Do it.” You crossed your arms as you waited for him to do it. You and Tsukishima had unknowingly made a routine between each other which was fries and a milkshake after practice or after school.

“No way.”

“Do it, you coward.” You dip your fry into your milkshake and eat it. “Don’t knock it until you try it.”

“If I do it, will you stop annoying me?”

“You and I both know, I’d still annoy you. Just do it.” He rolled his eyes at your statement before finally trying a fry dipped in the milkshake. “So?”

“It’s not that bad.”

“See! I’m such an intellectual!”

“How are you in my class again?”

D-3

“So...this is the last time we do this. Then I leave.” You were a little gloomy since you and Tsukishima seemed to finally get along, only to probably forget each other in the long run.

“You act like you’re leaving forever. You’ll come back when the season ends, right?”

“I..don’t know yet.” You sighed as you stirred your milkshake with your straw. “You’ll wait for me right? If I come back.”

“When you come back. Don’t say if.” You laughed a bit, but it was a bitter laugh.

“I never thought we’d somewhat get along and when we do, I have to leave for Overwatch League.” You muttered. “Why don’t you come and say goodbye to me when I get to the airport? My aunt is driving me, Yama-kun knows where I live, come with us.” You offered.

“Maybe.”

“Well, let’s not make this our last goodbye right?” You said softly.

Leaving Day

You took a deep breath. Yamaguchi is sitting beside you as he notices the sad look on your face. Tsukishima didn’t come with you to say goodbye. “I’m sure he’ll show up.” He said, trying to be optimistic.

“I don’t know, Yamaguchi...” You mumble. You finally arrive at the airport. “I’ll miss you. I’ll try to text and call as much as I can.” You give him a sad smile. You hug him as he hugs you back.

“I’ll see you soon.” He smiled. You grab your suitcase slowly starting to leave.

“Oh, chibi-chan, you think you can escape from me that easily?” You hear a familiar voice and look up, seeing Tsukishima. Yamaguchi seem to have to take that as a sign to give you and him some space.

“You came after all.” You smiled. He patted your head before pushing you back, chuckling.

“Who do you think I am, chibi-chan?”

“Well, say your goodbyes now. I got to go soon.”

“Right. We got off the wrong foot in the beginning. I will admit that. But within the last 3 days, I tolerate you.”

“Wow, you tolerate me. That’s better than before.”

“Let me finish. I will wait for you. I...don’t just tolerate you. I like you.” His face is dusted with pink, making you hold back a smile and a tease. He took a step closer and kissed your forehead, surprising you. “Take that as my goodbye. Don’t forget to text me when you land, idiot.”

“I won’t forget, beanpole.”

“Shortstack.”

“Lamppost.”

“Gremiln.”

“Salty fries.”

“Sweet milkshake.”

“When you get back, you better buy me fries and a milkshake.”

“I haven’t even left.”

“Well, hurry, so you can come back quickly.”

“I like you too, Saltyshima!” 

[simp-for-spencer-reid]

Sugar with a Side of Coffee- Ch. 2: A Name to the Face

Chapter 2: A Name to the Face Series Masterlist

Spencer strolled into the BAU later than his usual ten minute early arrival. His coffee was still hot. The label on the disposable cup gave away his being late to the rest of the unit. 

“None for the rest of us?” Derek raised his eyebrows. “You come in late and don’t even bring the rest of us coffees?” He leans back on Spencer’s desk. “Tsk Tsk, Pretty Boy.” Derek crossed his arms.

“Actually, the cart was almost robbed.” Spencer looks up at Derek from his chair. “I had to chase after a kid for the barista’s tip jar.” He takes a sip from his heavily sweetened coffee, directing his attention to the stack of files to go through.

“Well, let’s get you a key to the city, Superman.” Derek quips.

Cate scrambled bringing the cart back into The Empty Mug. She dropped the tip jar off at the counter with Marta and was already ripping off her apron.

“What’s the matter with you?” Marta raises an eyebrow.

“Some kid tried to steal the tip jar this morning. Lucky for me, it just so happened that an actual real-life FBI agent was waiting in line and caught the kid.” Cate was bitter about how the day went, and so not looking forward to going out tonight.

“No way!” Marta flipped the sign on the front door to ‘Closed’ and followed Cate into the backroom. “What was he like? Intimidating? Super buff?” 

“Firstly, wipe the drool off your chin.” Cate teased her friend. “Secondly, he wouldn’t be my first pick in a lineup of FBI agents. He was young,” Cate thought back to the events of the day. “And skinny. He had chicken legs.” Cate giggled with her friend, picturing the agent she now knew to be SR. The girls put the coffee cart away, and went their separate ways home. 

The next morning, Cate and Shrimp went about their usual routine, filling his bowl, and Cate having a small breakfast before heading out the door. She awoke in a much better mood today, just about skipping down the three flights of stairs to the ground floor. With her work bag situated upon her shoulder and one headphone in her ear, she almost danced her way to the Empty Mug.

Marta had already opened up the shop, which was easy because her family lived just upstairs. She was washing the chalk off the menu and rewriting some items. The lights were still off, the only thing lighting up the room was the sun coming in from the windows. Miranda and Marcus, Marta’s parents and owners of the shop came down the stairs.

“We’re heading to go to try some new coffee beans. Oh! Good morning, Cate! Always nice to see you” Marcus nodded to Cate with a smile. Cate and Marta looked between each other, giving each other a did you tell them look. But, Miranda quickly picked up the conversation before the topic of the almost robbery could be brought up. 

“Marta, did you eat yet? Don’t you even think of working before you eat.” Miranda gave Marta a pointed look. “You too, Cate. You girls can whip up some fresh muffins before you get the cart on the street. And please, eat one.” Miranda was always treating Cate like her own ever since Cate met Marta at their college orientation. Despite having two different majors, they hit it off and were inseparable ever since. 

“Yes ma’am,” Cate smiled at Miranda. “I just saw a recipe for a raspberry white chocolate muffin that I’ve been dying to try.” Cate started on her way to the back to retrieve her ingredients. 

“I’ll make some blueberry bread!” Marta’s excitement sent her practically sprinting to the back. 

“See you girls later!” Marcus shouted and he and Miranda were off to their new coffee beans. 

In the back, the girls’ had their arms full of flour and brown sugar and other ingredients. They grabbed bowls and spoons until they couldn’t carry any more. Marta was the first to go back to the storefront, her arms full of bread making goods. Cate realized she hadn’t any raspberries in the back, or in the store at all for that matter. She’ll have to run to the store after her shift so she can bake after hours.

“We can get the cart running a little late.” Marta assured. “These mini breads are gonna take roughly an hour, so we can send you out then.” Cate nodded, grabbing a few sticks of butter from their mini fridge and putting them on the counter to help Marta with the breads. Cate was glad that working together had never interfered with their friendship. They made a good team and knew when to take the lead from each other and when to follow.

Cate flipped the sign to signal their shop was open and took the counter while Marta baked. Customers shortly filed in after, and filed out when they got their coffees and sometimes baked goods. Cate had missed working the shop, but the cart allowed for her to get some fresh air, which she was grateful for because she certainly didn’t miss the occasional burnt coffee smell. 

The girls seemed to have lost track of time, it was almost 9 before either had looked at a clock. Cate and Marta had been so wrapped up in manning the shop together again, they had glanced at each other, before Marta took over the counter and Cate went to grab the cart. 

On her way back from her shift, she hadn’t seen SR or the blonde that had ordered for him before. She was looking forward to talking to him again. There was something about him that was so enticing, and Cate couldn’t just chalk it up to being an FBI agent. When she pushed the cart back into the shop, Cate’s feet were killing her from standing all day. Once the cart was settled in the back, Cate came back out to the storefront with Marta. 

“Once it slows down a bit, I’m gonna head to that organic food store and pick up the raspberries for those muffins. I shouldn’t be too long.” Cate re-tied her apron, ready to finish up the day and get baking. 

As promised, Cate had gone and come back from the store carrying raspberries, along with other snacks and drinks for Cate and Marta to have. Marta had already started baking while Cate was at the store. They connected the speakers in the shop to Marta’s phone and played some upbeat, fun music to dance while they made muffins and some more bread for the next day. Cate was shaking her hips while she bent down to grab milk from the mini fridge while lightly singing to the tune streaming through the shop. 

“Are you closed?” a voice rang from the other side of the counter. Cate stood up, nearly dropping the milk. It was SR. She glanced around for Marta, but didn’t see her.

“Um technically yeah, but it's alright. What can I get for you?” Cate smiled, placing the milk by her baking goods. “The usual?” SR smiled at her.

“That would be perfect.” he reached into his pocket for his wallet.

“Oh, we’re off the clock, don’t worry.” Cate smiled. The agent smiled again, and pulled his wallet out anyway to put a bill in the jar by the register. He walked down the counter to the stools and set his leather satchel down on the counter, resting his arms on the counter. “I’m also making some muffins and such for tomorrow if you wanna be my taste tester?” Cate offered.

“Oh, uh sure. I’d love to.” he clasped his hands together on the counter top. He took a minute to glance around the shop. There were a few older leather couches and a classic black and white tile floor. Some armchairs were scattered by the windows, small side tables next to them. Cate was putting together the coffee and came over with a tall mug and placed it down on the counter in front of the agent. When he went to put it to his mouth, he caught sight of the contents of the mug. Filled halfway with what he assumed to be sugar, and from just over the rim, he spotted Cate smiling proudly to herself. “Very funny.” He smiled at her and Cate could’ve sworn her heart swelled. She placed down the mug containing actual coffee. 

“You can use that sugar to tame your sweet tooth.” Before Cate could ask him his name, her timer for the oven chimed, calling her attention. She pulled on an oven mitt, and grasped the tray from the oven and onto the stove top. She placed a muffin onto a small plate and brought over a fork for the agent. “Here I present my twist on a recipe for a raspberry white chocolate muffin.” Cate watched intently as he lifted the fork and broke off a piece. It was still hot, so he had to wait for it to cool. 

“Oh my god,” his eyes widened as he swallowed it down. “This is incredible. What did you do?” Cate smiled proudly.

“I skip the eggs and replace it with greek yogurt.” She shrugged, blushing lightly. To distract herself, she scampered to the back of the shop to get her bag. When she came through the door,  a figure made her shout of fright. “Marta!” she clutched her chest. “Why are you hiding back here?” 

“I’m not hiding, I’m just observing.” Cate rolled her eyes at her friend. “I’m observing you flirt with that guy. You know no mortal man can resist your baking!” Marta tried to sneak another look at the man from the window in the door. 

“You’ve lost your mind.” Cate shook her head at her friend. She grabbed more butters from the large fridge and went back out to the counter. The agent was almost finished his muffin and his coffee. 

“Are you sure you’re allowed to be open this late?” he questioned, not wanting to be a bother. 

“Oh, please,” Cate waved him off. “You’re an honorary guest. Saved our tip jar.” Cate smiled. Then, she was overcome with a sense of bravery. “I never caught your name, Mr. Agent.”

“Doctor Agent. Well, actually it’s just Doctor. Doctor Spencer Reid.” He gulped as Cate leaned over from the counter.

“Doctor like a hospital?” Cate asked, plopping a new tray of goods in the oven. 

“Not a medical doctor. I have three phDs.” he explained. 

“Wow, congratulations. You’re so young. I barely have my bachelors.” Cate let out a small laugh. She liked that he was cute and smart. Cate pushed that feeling out of her mind. She had just met him. 

The pair spent an hour chatting and enjoying the fresh baked muffins and bread that Cate made. Spencer was no longer a mysterious agent. While Cate and Spencer were in the storefront, Marta had snuck upstairs to her own room, waiting for Cate to close up shop. 

When Spencer finally left, Cate spent some time dancing and cleaning up her mess. She had hung up her apron and padded up the stairs to Marta. Marta insisted that Cate tell her everything, even going as far to call her while on her walk home to finish the story. Cate left out her butterflies she felt for Spencer. Afterall, he was just a new friend. When Cate made it up the stairs to the door of her apartment, she opened it to find Shrimp, mewing at her and walking between her legs while she walked inside to finally call it a day. 

[fumiko-matsubara]

TARGET ON: Class E’s English Debate

“This is speaking in Japanese.”

“This is speaking in English.”

“This is speaking in Japanese but with an English accent.”

--//--//--//--//--

Sugino stood between two separate rows of desks, lightly smacking the pointer stick he has been holding onto his open palm. 

“So now, everyone. We’re going to have a debate.” He announced.

Okajima, who’s sitting on one of the desks, looked up at that. “A debate?”

Sugino nodded in confirmation. “Iced Americano even if it’s freezing VS Warm shower even if it’s very hot!” He revealed.

Everyone who was occupying the row of desks let out various vocal reactions.

“And the important thing is…” Sugino added, looking at the participants. “Please listen carefully…” he advised.

Everyone leaned closer in either anticipation or curiosity.

“You must speak in English!” He revealed.

Nakamura let out a loud amused laugh. “OH WOW!”

Maehara, on the other hand, scratched his head awkwardly. “Yes… I can…”

Takebayashi, who was the least responsive among the participants the whole time, suddenly perked up when he realized something. “Wait a minute, the other team has both of them!” He informed, pointing at Miki and Nakamura who shared matching shit-eating grins.

Both girls high-fived each other before exchanging high-fives with the other two boys in their team.

--//--//--//--//--

[Miki – a native English speaker]

[Nakamura – is fluent in English]

[Nagisa – English is his best subject]

[Kimura – Justice]

--//--//--//--//--

Sugino suppressed a smile when realized the lineup. “This team has many good English speakers.”

“They have three…” Maehara realized dejectedly.

Next to him, Chiba scratched his head in frustration. “It’s really unfair,” he complained.

Miki whipped her head to his direction at that, the grin still present on her face though. “Hey! Don’t sell yourself short, Ryuu. You’re actually pretty good in English, you know?”

“Oh yeah, sure! Leave it to me and my good pronunciation to win this debate even though I can’t form sentences. Don’t worry, alright!” He shot back sarcastically.

Maehara patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Chiba. At least we still have Takebayashi!” He gestured towards the said boy next to him.

“I’m still not sure what kind of skit this is…” Takebayashi said, pushing up his glasses.

Sugino then decided to get them back on track. “But no matter what you do, it’s still gonna be my choice. I actually haven’t decided what to choose between the two, so you’re going to have to convince me,” he admitted. “Do you understand?”

He quickly looked at all the participants once again, making sure they understood the rules. “Alright then, let’s get fired up!”

“Iced Coffee Team,” he pointed the stick towards the team to his right. “One.. two.. three…”

“ORAAAA!!”

“Warm Shower Team,” Sugino turned towards the team to his left, pointing the stick at them this time. “One… two… three…”

“ORAAAA!!!”

“Wow!” Sugino excitedly marveled at their energies. “It’s crazy, it’s hot in here!”

At that, Okajima let out another yell. “ORAAA!!”

“ORAAAA!!” Maehara followed suit.

Chiba suddenly jerked backwards, letting out a loud cackle at his teammates’ antics.

Sugino, though, shook his head exasperatedly. “OKAY!!” He loudly announced, raising his pointer stick. “Let’s begin this debate!”

--//--//--//--//--

Miki cleared her throat, raising a hand. “Okay, um… First of all, we’d like to say something! Uh… Thank you for inviting us to this beautiful debate here.”

As she spoke, Nakamura bite down a laugh at the sight of Maehara and Okajima seemingly spacing out. Chiba, on the other hand, looked at Miki in suspicion as if she was about to commit something horrible.

“Us, uhh Warm Shower Team,” She gestured towards herself and her fellow members. “We came to discuss a very serious…”

Sugino raised his pointer stick. “Wait!” Miki blinked in confusion, taken aback when he suddenly stopped her.

“How to speak ‘Warm Shower’ in English?” Sugino questioned.

Miki perked up at that. “Oh! ‘Warm Shower’ is… I want to take a steaming warm shower in hot weather even if I die!” She jokingly said in an exaggerated English accent, which caused Chiba to let out another cackle.

“Oh my god~” Sugino marveled, giving Miki a handshake. “Wonderful!”

“Fighting fire with fire, you know?” Miki added.

Meanwhile, Maehara peered at Sugino, a plan in mind. Then he quickly raised his hand. “Oh!”

Sugino then turned towards him. “Hm?”

“Cold food in cold weather.” Maehara started. “Hot food in hot weather, no no.” He made a cross with his arms. “Cold food in cold weather, yes yes!” He then gave him an ‘okay’ sign, his grin rather tight.

Sugino contemplated his words for a bit. “I like ‘Raimen’ (cold noodles).” He randomly revealed.

Maehara’s eyes widen at that, somehow happy. “Oh Raimen? You like Raimen? We like Raimen?”

Sugino and Miki exchanged confused looks, not quite getting what Maehara was trying to tell them.

“So we like eating cool things in cold weather.” Maehara then concluded.

Suddenly, Nagisa raised his hand. “Think about that we’re outside training.”

“Training?” Maehara glared at him accusingly for some reason. “Training is Japanese!!” He yelled.

“Uhh… Training!” Nagisa then nervously corrected himself, taken aback by Maehara’s sudden hostility.

Chiba then suddenly stood up. “If it’s like that, then this is English too!” He exclaimed.

With that, everyone started arguing.

“This is English!” Okajima also joined, pointing an accusing finger at the other team. “Oi listen to me! Listen carefully you ugly!”

Chiba and Maehara laughed at that.

“What I’m saying is English!” Okajima continued. “What is the difference?!”

Miki decided to have everyone to calm down. “Okay, okay, okay”

Chiba briefly turned away from them, trying to sober up.

“Our pronunciation, our pronunciation,” Miki repeated in Japanese, the sight of Chiba still laughing causing her to lose her composure. “It’s been like this since the start...” she choked a laugh, which caused everyone to also start laughing.

“…and it will continue being like that.” She started cackling after.

Nagisa raised his hand once again. “Hey Sugino,” he called out. “Listen to me carefully, please. If we train outside during winter, it will be so cold!”

“Can’t you at least mix some English in this debate?” Sugino laughed exasperatedly.

Nagisa then pointed towards the other team accusingly. “That’s because that side is talking in Japanese!”

Chiba stood up at that. “Hey, Hey!!”

“HEY!! Y-you!” Maehara pointed back at him.

“I speak English!” Chiba loudly claimed then paused all of a sudden, blinking in confusion as if a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

“You- you guys started first!” Maehara accused back.

Sugino frantically tried to tone them down. “Calm down everyone. Calm down, calm down!”

Takebayashi, who had been quiet the whole time, pulled Maehara down to his seat, sighing. “Don’t fight, you guys…”

--//--//--//--//--

“Um! I’ll explain.” Miki raises her hand again. “We are from Australia!” She gestured towards Nakamura and herself.

Sugino marveled at that.  “Oh! You guys from Australia!”

“Yeah yeah!!” Miki and Nakamura answered in unison.

“But Miki,” Sugino laughed, “aren’t you Canadian?”

“What?” Miki widened her eyes before aggressively shaking her head. “NO!”

Sugino nodded his head in understating. “Ahh, so you Australian, then?”

“Yeah!” Miki confirmed, a grin on her face.

“Okay, go on!” Sugino permitted.

Miki cleared her throat. “In Australia, it is 40 degrees Celsius.” She explained.

“40 degrees!” Nakamura repeated, raising four fingers and showing them to Sugino and the opposing team.

 “But! We still take a hot shower. But Japan also has beautiful summer days as well, right?” Miki continued confidently.

Meanwhile Chiba and Maehara just looked at her, unmoving.

[chiba_and_maehara.exe has stopped working]

Miki paid them no attention, though, as much as they both looked hilarious to her. “And in the summer day, whether you like it or not, you are gonna end up being sweaty and smelly. But when you take a hot shower, you take all that dirty smell…”

“No!” Chiba suddenly objected, raising his hand.

“No No NO!” Maehara repeated loudly.

Chiba raised his hand even higher as he stood up, trying to get Sugino’s attention. “Hey, hey! Hey, HEY, HEY, HEEEEY!!”

Maehara also stood up then began slamming down his desk as if he was hitting a buzzer. “Objection! Objection OBJECTION!”

Sugino turned to them with a frown on his face, pointing the stick to them.

“Sit.” He ordered.

Maehara and Chiba both quickly sat down without complains.

The rest laughed at how easily commanded the two were.

“Oh man, Sugino! That was so cool!” Nakamura praised, laughing.

--//--//--//--//--

Sugino looked up at the ceiling as he gathered his thoughts. “Uhh… I used to think… I like to shower in cold water.” He admitted, which caused the other team erupt into cheers.

“YEAH!!” Chiba cheered.

“That’s right, that’s right!” Maehara laughed.

Sugino gestured them to tone down once again. “Okay wait, let’s listen here.” He then pointed his stick towards Chiba, who was taken aback at being chosen to speak all of a sudden. Chiba turned his head to Maehara, but his equally debate-passionate teammate was also looking at him expectantly.

Chiba gulped nervously when he felt all eyes on him, but he stubbornly ignored them and instead, focused his attention solely to Sugino.

“Café is hot.” He began shortly.

Sugino nodded slowly. “Okay, café is hot.” He repeated.

Chiba then acted like he was putting on a jacket. “But we are wearing padding…” He then nervously glanced at Maehara.

“Parka.” Maehara assisted.

“Parka parka!” Chiba corrected himself.

Sugino bit down an amused laugh. “Okay, okay.”

“So… you’re so hot!” Chiba continued. “Then… uhh… there is uh…” he trailed off.

Sugino quickly interrupted him. “You can speak in Japanese if you can’t.”

“Iced coffee and hot coffee…” Chiba made himself continue to speak in English, stubborn.

Sugino leaned closer, raising an eyebrow. “Hmm?”

Chiba furrowed his eyebrows in concentration, trying his best to form his sentences. “Then uhh… w-what do you want to drink?”

Sugino frowned in confusion. “Wait… in winter?”

“What?” Chiba blinked, seemingly not hearing him the first time.

“In winter?” Sugino repeated.

“Yeah, yeah!” Chiba answered then suddenly stood up when he realized something, raising his hand. “Oh! OH! But! In winter but café is hot.”

Maehara’s face lit up. “Oh yes, yes, yes, YES!”

Chiba then cocked his head, smirking all of a sudden. “yOU KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING BRO??”

“HEATER IS BOOMBOOM!!” Maehara loudly exclaimed, gesturing towards an imaginary heater.

“No no no!” Kimura, who was the only one so far who hadn’t been speaking, suddenly stood up, his hand raised. “Café is adequate temperature!” He claimed.

Maehara was about to shut him down but Sugino suddenly walked towards Kimura and high-fived him. “OHHHH!!!”

Not having it, Chiba and Maehara continued to let out various screams of disagreement. “No no no!”

“NO NO!!” Maehara raised his hand even higher. “Also, parka is very hot!”

“Yes yes yes, padding is so hot.” Chiba agreed, pretending to wear a jacket again.

“Then take your padding off!” Kimura rebutted, sliding off his blazer to his elbows for emphasis.

Chiba quickly sat down, laughing off his embarrassment.

Maehara remained stood still, his mouth stuck opened wide, too speechless to even say anything back. He glanced at Chiba who just shook his head, flustering him even more. Letting out a nervous laugh, he began saluting Kimura. “YES SIR! YES SIR!”

Maehara then sat down at the same time as Chiba slowly stood up once again for some reason.

There was a pause as the two passionate debaters looked like they were about to space out. But then suddenly, they simultaneously exclaimed. “AH! AH! AH!”

“Uh you go first.” Chiba offered, patting Maehara’s already raised arm.

“I have opinion.” Maehara started, nervously laughing as he stood up.

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

“We will freeze to death…” He claimed.

“Who’s dying?!” Chiba jerked forwards, cackling.

Sugino looked at Maehara carefully, his easy-going smile tightening.

“I cold, I cold! VERY COLD!” Maehara exclaimed, pretending to shiver.

Nagisa then raised his hand, chuckling. “Sugino, Sugino, Sugino!”

“Hey HEY!” Chiba reprimanded him while Maehara shushed him.

“BE QUIET!” Okajima loudly yelled all of a sudden after being quiet for a while.

Maehara stared at Nagisa intensely, who immediately lowered his hand. “I… I’m first…”

“Ok ok, tell me tell me, you don’t have get mad.” Sugino reassured him. “Don’t get mad. Just tell me, what?”

Maehara started shivering again, but this time pretending to warm himself with his imaginary jacket. “I’m cold, very cold, very cold!”

“Yes, you’re cold.” Sugino nodded slowly.

“Need adaption.” Maehara continued.

Sugino raised an eyebrow in confusion. “You need what?”

“Need… adjustion!” Maehara corrected, laughing at his mistake.

Next to him, Chiba jerked backwards, wheezing in laughter again before sitting down.

“So! If I drink Iced Americano…” Maehara trailed off.

“You cold inside?” Sugino finished, rubbing his stomach for emphasis.

Maehara nodded enthusiastically. “Yes yes!”

“Same with other temperatures?” Sugino asked.

Maehara shoots him a finger gun, winking. “YES YES YES!!”

“In winter, right?” Sugino asked again.

“Yes in winter!” Maehara happily confirmed.

Chiba stood up again, raising a hand. “Hey, Sugino? I have a question.”

Sugino looked at him. “Yes, what is?”

“Do you drink hot coffee or iced coffee?” Chiba asked.

Sugino started playing with the pointer stick as he gathered his thoughts. “I used to drink uhh… cold coffee…”

“OH!” Maehara exclaimed.

Chiba gave Sugino a thumbs up. “That’s right!”

Maehara smacks his palms together in realization and enthusiastically raised his hand up. “OH!”

Meanwhile, Miki just scoffed at Sugino’s answer.

“But Sugino usually likes warm things…” Nakamura muttered, writing something onto a piece of scrap paper before passing it towards Kimura.

Kimura took the paper in confusion, before cackling when he saw what was written on it. “What is this?” He then leaned towards Nagisa, pointing at some of the words. “Say, how do you read this one?” He whispered.

“Sugino!” Nagisa called out, causing him to turn towards them. He then pointed to Kimura, who was about to read out what’s written on the paper. “Kimura has… something to say.”

“Okay!” Kimura immediately began reading. “You like… warm… feelings… just… like…” He was barely halfway to what he’s reading when he began laughing. He leaned towards Nagisa again for assistance. “Wait, what does this say again?”

“Just like we give you warm feelings.” Nagisa read out for him before he turned to Sugino again. “Okay so, Sugino usually likes warm things.” He tried to translate.

Chiba frowned at him. “Hey, why you speak in Japanese?”

“OH WHY YOU SPEAK IN JAPANESE?!” Maehara yelled, smacking his fist with his palm.

Chiba suddenly picked up a notebook from his desk and was about to throw it at them. “WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING?!?!”

“HEY HEY! IEROO KAADO! IEROO KAADO!! (Yellow Card)” Maehara yelled repeatedly.

Chiba aggressively ruffled his own hair in frustration, the annoyance all over his face being more visible as his bangs were pushed back from the ruffling. “OH MY GOD!” He then face-palmed, sighing exasperatedly.

Okajima suddenly stood up, even walking away from his desk.

“I CAN SPEAK JAPANESE!”

Everyone then paused, all giving him strange looks.

“Do you want me to speak Japanese?” Okajima threatened (?).

Chiba looked at him dryly, his mouth hanging open in exasperation. “Hey hey hey hey! You, you?”

“Me?” Okajima pointed towards himself in confusion.

“Yeah, you!” Chiba pointed at him, and then directed the pointed finger towards Okajima’s vacant seat. “You sit down!”

Okajima quickly sat down without complain, causing everyone else to erupt into laughter.

When the laughter died down, Kimura decided to try his luck again. “Sugino! Sugino! Sugino!”

“Just speak with your body. You can just do that.” Miki told him earlier.

“You catch a cold.” He began loudly.

Sugino nodded slowly. “Okay, so?”

“But… Iced Americano… eat.” Kimura made drinking gestures as he explained, pausing for a bit before violently coughing. “Okay?” He pointed a finger to his own temple.

“I used to drink iced coffee but I get cold.” Sugino tried his best to translate Kimura’s charades.

“Oh! We need to keep our body warm.” Nagisa nodded happily. “We need to keep our body warm,” he then repeated in Japanese.

“Yeah!” Kimura agreed.

“Then…” He continued. “Then, so are you going to take a cold shower?”

Sugino immediately shook his head. “No!”

At that, both Chiba and Maehara started calling for him.

“Yes??” Sugino turned to them.

“Ah Takebayashi…” Maehara gestured towards him. “Takebayashi wanna say.”

“Uh Think about…” Takebayashi started.

But the other team suddenly was making a fuss for some reason, interrupting him.

Chiba pointed an accusing finger towards them. “Hey Hey Hey Hey!”

“BE QUIET!” Maehara yelled again.

“Be quiet, be quiet!” Okajima repeated.

It was quiet for a few seconds while Chiba glowered at them, his currently visible eyes appearing more intense than they naturally were.

All of a sudden, he picked up the notebook again. “YOUR BEHAVIOUR IS SO… UGH!!!” He yelled, violently slamming the notebook down to his desk, the impact causing Maehara and Okajima to flinch.

Okajima quickly pulled him back.

Maehara nodded at him in agreement, pointing an accusing finger to the other team. “SO RUUDO RUUDO! (Rude)”

“HEY!” Chiba yelled again while Okajima frantically tried to calm him down.

Sugino figured it’s best to put a stop to it. “Okay okay, class. Concentrate. Class! CLASS!”

Maehara looked like he was about to say something again, until Sugino pointed the stick towards him specifically. “Be quiet! Be quiet! BE. QUIET.”

Maehara then sat down.

When the commotion died down, Sugino ushered Takebayashi to continue.

“Okay, so think about the training we had before we went to Okinawa!” He brought up.

“OOOHH!!” Maehara’s eyes widened in realization.

“It’s so so hot!” Takebayashi continued. “So if you, after the training, showered in hot water… NO!”

“NO NO NO NO NO!!!!” The rest of his teammates loudly let out various noises of pure disgust.

Nagisa raised his hand. “Think of after late night practice for Momotaro school play. It’s so cold, are you still gonna drink iced Americano?”

Chiba looked particularly attacked at that. “Hey hey hey!”

“IFU! IFU! IFU!” Maehara aggressively raised his hand high, his voice cracking the louder he yelled.

“If you freeze to death, you can melt and LIVE! But if you get a heat wave, YOU JUST DIE!!”

Chiba, Okajima, and Takebayashi all dissolved into laughter at the logic.

Sugino couldn’t help but grin as he tried to calm everyone down. “STOP! STOP! STOP! This debate is finished! It’s done. It’s done!”

As everyone settled down, Maehara leaned to Chiba, who was still laughing. “You’ll live if you melt!!” He repeated, causing Chiba to laugh even longer.

“Ohhh so that’s how it is?” He wheezed.

“Yeah, man!” Maehara strongly replied, which further adds more fuel to his teammate’s laughter.

“I’ve really enjoyed this debate so much!” Sugino smiled.

Maehara kept ranting on about how if you freeze, you can just melt and live, etc. But Sugino ignored him, walking towards the Warm Shower team.

“Late night practice for Momotaro play, I remember when we went home after.” He then looked at the Iced Coffee team. “I also remembered our summer training before we went to Okinawa!”

Both teams looked at him in anticipation, eager to know his final decision.

“But honestly, when I got home after our late night practice for Momotaro play, I drank iced coffee,” Sugino admitted.

Chiba immediately stood up at that, Maehara and Okajima following after, while Takebayashi just clapped in amusement.

“Because when I eat, I don’t usually drink warm things.” Sugino explained, and then pointed his stick towards a certain team.

“So, my pick is the ‘ice even if it’s freezing’ team!”

“YEAHHHHHH!”

--//--//--//--//--

Nakamura: “Miki, wasn’t English supposed to be your first language?”

Miki: “… I didn’t think they’d be that stubborn though…”

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: Love, Maybe? {23}

Chris Evans X Reader OFC Vixen Giovanni

Warning: Mild Cursing, Plot, Slow Burn, Fluff

Word Count: 4K

Summary: After a night of drunkenness you wake up next to warm, hot as hell body, a migraine and no memory of the night before. When you come to realize that the hot body belongs to none other than Hollywood’s golden boy Chris Evans you freak out. As events unfold you become even more panicked to find out you got married in your drunken haze. What else is there to do but get it annulled, right? Before walking away, you share one more night of molten kisses and passion. Three years later you are still living with the repercussions of your brash decisions, but the surprises don’t stop there. The past has a way of coming back and have you questioning is this fate that you’ve been running from, hell could it have been love, maybe?

Note: Italic texts is an inner Vixen thought. Bold Italic texts is an inner Chris thought.

**Slightly Edited/Proofread**

***Interactive**

Thank you guys for reading!!!! If you enjoyed this please LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG. 😊 ❤️  ❤️ ❤️

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Chapter 23: The Four Musketeers

-Chris-

He’d never been more scared in all his life, and that included when he was ten years old walking him from school after he’d cut Jenny Park’s hair. He was afraid because he had to face his mother and whatever punishment she came up with and then had to face his sister Carly. It was not a fun afternoon. Matter of fact he didn’t have any fun for a month.

  He was filled with the same feeling of dread today, standing outside his sister Carly’s house where his siblings were inside waiting for him. Thanks to Scott and his big mouth they all knew, and he knew it was a matter of time before his mother also did. Now there was this new bit of information. Sighing, he walked the path to the front porch. Once in front of the door, he lifted his hand to knock, but the door flew open, and he was face to face with Carly and Shanna who each had a similar look of anger and confusion. He groaned and thought to himself it was going to be a long day.

   He walked inside and to where Scott was no doubt hiding, the kitchen. Sure enough there he was sitting at the island sipping a beer. When he walked in, Scott turned and gave him an apologetic look. “Ya didn’t even last a day!” Just like that they all began talking at once, over each other. He heard what they all said and responded as they spoke their next sentences. It went on this way for a full ten minutes before Carly let loose a loud whistle. Everyone stopped and looked to her.

“Everyone shut your yaps!” He groaned and lamented the oncoming conversation and questioning. He walked to the fridge and took out his own beer. After opening it against the side of the wooden island he took a few heavy gulps.

   “Chris, sit down,” Carly instructed. “I’d rather stand for now.”

   “I’ll sit down,” Shanna said, sinking into one of the stools at the island. Silence filled the room, and he realized all their eyes were on him. He rolled his eyes.

   “Okay, let me start,” Scott began. “Oh, I think we’ve had enough of you starting,” he interjected.

   “It slipped out Chris; I didn’t mean to say anything. I’m sorry.”

   “Why were you trying to keep secrets from us anyway? What the hell, Chris!”

   “I didn’t know how to tell you guys. Plus I knew once you knew then ma wouldn’t be far behind.”

   “Oh, ma is gonna kill you. Explain!” He raked his fingers through his hair and leaned on the fridge.

   “Who is this woman? How the hell could she keep something like this from you? What kind of woman does that?” Carly was livid. He didn’t know if her anger was more directed at him or you. He didn’t want his family hating you, but he knew once the truth came out the possibility was likely.

   “We had a fling in Vegas a while back, one or two nights. She went her way, and I went mine. I didn’t know until maybe two months or so ago.”

   “Two months? Chris,” Carly sighed out. “Where was the protection?” He scoffed and drank more from his bottle.

   “The one time it didn’t cross my mind.”

   “Jesus Chris.” She paced then spun around. “Who is this woman!?” He’d heard the question the first time, but he bypassed it. He couldn’t now.

   “Just a woman.” Shanna jumped up then and scurried to her bag then came back with a magazine in her hand. She flipped through the pages and dropped it on the island top. “Is this her?” He took the magazine and leaned closer to the blurry image. It was you he knew it. It looked like it was taken outside the same place you both were bombarded in front of her restaurant. He clenched his jaw and sent a text to his incompetent lawyers to get to work on it. He didn’t want you hounded.

   “It’s her, isn’t it?” All three of them grabbed the magazine and dug their noses in it trying to make out what they could. He was grateful they couldn’t make out anything.

   “Don’t worry about who she is. You have a niece. Her name is Ella, and she will be two soon. She’s perfect.” He put his phone down showing them the picture you’d sent him earlier that day of her eating a cookie. Shanna and Carly both gasped then let out a collective “aw.”

   “She has your eyes, Chris,” Shanna informed. He nodded. “She’s gorgeous,” Carly added. He smiled unable to hold it back anymore.

   “What kind of woman hides a child from her father?”

   “She says she didn’t do it out of spite. When we knew each other, I wasn’t this stable. Remember me almost three years ago?”

   They each slowly nodded. “You were pictured with a different woman almost every night,” Shanna very vocally announced. “It was not every night.”

   “Yeah, it was. You couldn’t keep it in your pants little brother,” Carly added. Scott snorted and tried to stifle his laughter.

   “Whatever. I was single and enjoying life. Anyway, who I was then—a kid—there was no way that would have worked. I’ve done a lot of thinking and assessing mainly taking my feelings out of the equation. From an outsider looking in which is what she was, I was a hot mess.”

  “Are you saying you condone what she did?” He looked at Carly’s big eyes. She was shocked. He was too. Two months ago he would never have been able to admit you were right, or think about the fact that your worries and concerns were valid. He could do that now. He didn’t condone what you did, but he was able to understand your choices; especially after spending time with Ella and feel the smallest part of the weight of having a child. He wanted to protect her from anything and everything. He understood how you felt.

   “I don’t condone it, but I understand where she was coming from. I don’t like it, not at all, I missed a lot, and I’ll never be able to get that time back. Sometimes it makes me angry and resentful, but I don’t want to live in the past anymore. I want to find a way to make this work. She’s incredible, and I want to be her father.”

   His siblings stared at him, then their smiles appeared.

  “Wow, little brother all grown up, a baby,” Carly said as tears filled her eyes.

   “Shut up you sap.” They all laughed then hugged in a group. He was grateful this wasn’t too bad, grateful that they weren’t angry with him for keeping this secret and thankful they’d accepted it so easily. He’d imagined tens of different scenarios where this went a whole lot differently.

   “Ma is going to kill you.” Again, they all laughed, but it wasn’t a humored laugh. It was a nervous one, one they shared because now they all knew the secret.

   The four of them sat at the island and ate some of the lasagna that Carly made while they asked tens of questions about Ella, questions he happily answered, and the more he answered he realized he knew a fair amount about her. That fact alone made him realize how far things had come.

By the time he left his sister’s house it was nearing nine. He made a stop at his friend’s house to pick up Dodger and went for a long walk hoping to clear his head.

   As he walked down the familiar streets of his childhood, he allowed his mind to wander without controlling it. He smiled when he caught a whiff of apple pie. He could go for a slice. He followed his nose and made it to the nearby bakery and ordered a pie. As he drove back to his place his mind ran on you. He wondered what you were doing right now and imagined you were lying in bed scrolling through the tv lineup or working nonstop. He got the feeling you were a workaholic. As his mind drifted to what you may be wearing he took notice to how his palms began to sweat.

   In the last week since the night on the cliff he’d had plenty of dreams about you, some were innocent, and others were so far from innocent they would make the worst sinner blush. He’d thought long and hard about what he may be feeling, and where his head currently was. He knew he didn’t hate you; he also knew that he still found you attractive, he also knew his body still reacted to you like oil to flame, and he struggled more lately to keep tight reins on his wanton thoughts.

   The news that you were in fact still married was a huge monkey wrench for him. He’d just gotten used to the fact he had a daughter that he didn’t know, only just got used to the fact that you’d lied to him for so long. He’d just gotten over most of the hurt of knowing all of that and was beginning to figure out his place in Ella’s life. Now he still had a place in your life as well.

   When he walked inside his home, he let Dodger roam free then laid out some food for him. He decided to hop in the shower. He hoped the steam would help him unwind. After ten minutes of thoughtlessness he was ambushed by thoughts of you again.

   “Does she even want me in her life?”

   The question was one he’d asked himself before, but it was concerning Ella, always with Ella. Now he was thinking of you alone. Your actions were polite; they didn’t point to either possibility. It looked as if you could take him or leave him. Your indifference made him a little insecure, and it drove him crazy. He wasn’t used to the feeling. He was always secure with himself. You gave off the feeling like you wanted to keep space between you. Every time the two of you seemed to be having a good time, or conversation was flowing, and the air around you changed something always happened, and in seconds it felt like the ice age. He didn’t know what he’d done. He began to wonder if this was from the present or the past. He wanted to bring it up, but he also didn’t want to ruin what was. You’d just gotten to a point where he didn’t lash out because of your actions, and you didn’t become angry defensive. He liked where you were now, but he couldn’t ignore the part of him that wanted more.

   “I want more.” He sat on his bed still wrapped in his towel, staring out shocked by it. “How much more?” That was now the question. “Does she want more? Bro, she doesn’t act like it.”

   Groaning, he dropped back onto his bed and sighed out trying to push the thoughts away. Suddenly his eyes snapped open. “We’re still married. Maybe if I keep it that way it’ll give me a chance to get to know her—outside of Ella.” He sat up and thought about his half-brained plan. “Maybe I should date my wife.” The words together had him laughing; it was ridiculous.

   When he finally sat back down, he had the apple pie with him. He turned on the TV in the bedroom and allowed dodger to jump up on the bed. It was there they stayed. When his phone rang he reached over for it and saw it was a Facetime call from you. He smiled as he answered.

   “Hi.” Your face popped up, but you didn’t speak. Your eyes also weren’t looking in his. He looked down and realized he was shirtless. He thought to turn the camera away to pull on a shirt but decided against it.

   “Let’s do a little experiment.”

   “Vixen?” You shook your head and cleared your throat. “Sorry, hi.” He smiled and straightened his back against his headboard.

   “Did I wake you? It’s after eight.”

   “Uh, no, it’s actually close to midnight where I am, and no you didn’t wake me.”

   “Where are you?”

  “Remember I told you I had to go back home for a day or two?” You closed your eyes and hit your head.

   “I forgot, I’m sorry. Wow there’s been so much going on here.” He smiled and nodded; he completely understood. You worked too much.

   “It’s okay; I get it. You’re doing a lot, being supermom, your restaurant, it’s a lot.” You didn’t speak again for a few moments. You just stared at him.

   “Um, I was uh I was thinking about Ella’s birthday.”

   “It’s coming up, right?” You nodded. He smiled getting excited. “What are you planning?”

   “I wasn’t sure. It’s like so many things are different now.”

   “What do you normally do?” You took a deep breath, and it was then he realized you were in bed. The nightgown you wore was a low cut one, and he could tell you weren’t wearing a bra. He shifted in the bed forcing his brain to focus on what you were saying.

   “Well, it was her first birthday we did a party. I wanted to do one this year too but you’re—present and no one knows. I haven’t told my parents.”

   “You’re not alone there. I told Scott my brother told him not to say anything, he did, and now I just told my sisters. My parents still don’t know.” You were looking down. “You okay?”

   “Do they hate me?” You looked scared, and he had an overwhelming desire to protect you. Again, he shifted in the bed.

   “I won’t let them hate you.” You looked to him with a shocked expression on your face.

   “Don’t you hate me?” He began to wonder if that’s what you’d thought this whole time. He sat up and leaned closer to the camera and licked his lips. Your eyes fell to them.

   “Vixen, I don’t hate you. If I’m being fully honest I tried to hate you. I tried really hard, but I couldn’t.” Several more moments passed with neither of you speaking; you just stared at him. He wondered what you were thinking.

  “Why not?” You were really asking the tough questions, questions he still had yet to ask himself because he was afraid of the answer.

   “Guess you’re just that likable.” He took the punk way out; he could live with it for now. You looked down, and it was then he heard Ella’s screams. You smiled then bent down, and Ella’s face came into frame. His smile spread.

   “Cwis!” she waved excitedly into the camera, and he did the same.

  “How are you?” She nodded then laid her head on your chest, which brought his eyes to your exposed cleavage. He was glad the camera stopped just below his chest.

   “Why don’t you tell Chris what you did today, Ella.” She smiled sheepishly then began talking, and he just sat there listening to her broken words as they mixed with some proper ones to form a very detailed description of her day. He could listen to her talk all day, and he was getting better at understanding her words.

   By the time she finished talking, she ran off, and he was left with your smiling face. He released something close to a content sigh. “You okay?” he nodded.

  “I’m telling my parents tomorrow.” You make a yikes face then lay back onto your pillows. Your bed looked like it smelled of candy and flowers.

   “It’s okay if you let them hate me. I understand.” You sounded defeated. He knew they wouldn’t hate you. They’d be angry and concerned for him. They’d also worry you may be like the women they’d warned him about in his early Hollywood days.

   “They won’t hate you. They’ll be cautious,” he clarified. You snorted and shook your head.

   “That's just a nice way of saying polite hate.” He smiled and sunk in his bed. Dodger dropped a paw across his face.

   “Oh my god, is that a dog?” He shifted the camera to show Dodger, and your eyes bugged out.

  “Oh my god, you have a dog. Duh. Wow.”

   “What do you mean duh?”

  “Through the years I’d seen magazine pictures of you and your dog, and heard you mention him in interviews. I just forgot.”

   “Are you saying you’ve been keeping tabs on me these last few years?” Your eyes bugged out again, and you looked like you wanted to die. He pinched his lips thoroughly enjoying the fact you were embarrassed.

   “Uh—I didn’t—I didn’t say that.”

   “Yeah, you did. you followed my interviews and tabloid sightings?” You were squirming, and he loved it not only because you’d let something slip but because you looked so tortured.

   “Wow, that is not what I meant. In passing you’d be on magazine covers and friends would read the articles and talk about it,” you stuttered out. You then groaned. “Shit, not what I meant. Damn, fine yes I’d see things about you from time to time. How could I not you’re everywhere.” He laughed, and you soon joined in. “I wasn’t stalking you.”

   “Oh, I know. You would never, right.” You shook your head and rolled your eyes. Again, he put dodger into the frame. “This is Dodger. Can you say hello Dodger? This is Vixen.” Dodger licked the camera, and you smiled.

   “Hi, Dodger. You’re such a cute little thing. Yes, you are.” Dodger barked then yelped into the camera which prompted the cutest little smile he’d ever seen. It was then Ella came running back in. “Doggie!” she proceeded to marvel over Dodger who was equally interested in this tiny human. Ella grabbed your phone and from then on it was her and Dodger, neither you or he could get any screen time.

   After almost an hour, Ella was finally asleep on your chest, and Dodger whimpered clearly missing his new fixation. He was okay being replaced as long as it was by Ella. Your face came back into frame, and it was then he felt like he’d gotten hit upside his head with a brick. This was what he wanted. He wanted to hear Ella talk all day and all night until she passed out mid-sentence. He wanted to watch her, and Dodger interact and love each other, he wanted to watch her cuddled to you at night, he wanted to be domesticated. His chest felt heavy and tight all at once. He grimaced as the tightness intensified. He’d never felt like this before, and if he didn’t know his body he would think he was having a heart attack, but he knew that wasn’t it.

   He wanted Ella, and he wanted you. He wanted lazy mornings, and he wanted fun-filled afternoons no matter if they included the meltdowns of an almost two-year-old. He wanted calm nights filled with The Little Mermaid and every Disney movie ever created; he wanted playgrounds, potties, tea parties, dress up, unicorn themed dance parties and everything else that came with that little girl. He wanted to be by your side when you accomplished every goal you could dream up. He wanted to see every smile, wipe every tear, and give you that beautiful life Zack wanted to. He wanted his family.

   “Hello, Chris!” your voice pulled him out of his haze. He didn’t know how long you’d been calling him.

   “Yeah, sorry.” You smiled as you held Ella to your chest.

   “It’s okay. I’m going to put her down. Do you wanna go or stay?” It was a loaded question for him; it didn’t mean ending the call or not; it meant so much more. He swallowed and heard the gulp. It was so loud that Dodger shifted and looked at him with concerned eyes.

   “Stay. I wanna stay.” You didn’t respond or get up right away; instead you studied him. It was as if you’d heard the double meaning in his words. You shook your head and gave a small smile, a smile that spoke of timidness. You didn’t expect him to say it.

   “Okay, I’ll uh—um—I’ll be right back then.”

   You placed the camera down, and he got a view of the sheets and your exposed thigh before you stood and slowly walked toward your door, the hem of the nightgown danced just under your backside and the reminder of his desire nudged against his sweatpants. He closed his eyes and tried to take some calming breaths. He’d only ever gotten this reaction from you—no one else. He’d taken notice the first person he’d been with after you, of course he pushed it to the side and out his mind and worked to keep it buried but there it was.

   His mind went back to their night together at his house. It went over every detail again until he opened his eyes. Leaning over to the nightstand, he took up his wallet and took out the folded paper he held there. He took a deep breath and opened it and reread your words.

   When you get the paperwork, send it here and consider it done. Have a nice life. 5578 Carsington Way P.O Box 2687, San Francisco, California.

   “Have a nice life” was all his eyes saw. The way he read that sentence three years ago was nonchalant; he didn’t take too much time to think about how you’d meant them. Now he kept thinking about how’d acted the last few weeks; your house in Ella’s room, avoiding him, in the rain, the cliff and every encounter since then. Everything pointed to you not being interested just as you must not have been interested then. He studied the note and continued to debate with himself. When he saw you walk back into the room you leaned forward giving him a perfect view of your cleavage but his body did not react. Insecurities he’d held at bay for years rushed him.

   “Sorry that took so long she left a bit of a mess in there, had to clean it up. She laid on her side with her hand holding her head up. The new angle of the camera gave him the perfect view from your head to your thighs. You looked like a dream. His dream.

   “But am I hers?”

   “Is everything all right?”  

   He shook his head, “Yeah, sorry, I’m—lost in my head tonight.” He rubbed his face trying to snap out of it.

   “It’s okay. You’re entitled. Um, I’ve been thinking a lot the last few days,” you began. His breath hitched, and his pulse sped.

  “About what?” You chewed your bottom lip and toyed with your fingers.

   “Um—well—the last few months have been great. You’ve gotten to know Ella better, and she’s gotten to know you. She likes you, not a little either, like a lot. You’re really good with her, and I can tell you care about her.”

   “I love her.” You froze, and he saw the glisten of tears in your eyes before you lowered your head. After a few moments you cleared your throat.

   “I know we haven’t gotten everything ironed out with how we’ll co-parent, but you said you wanted to be involved--.”

   “I do, more than anything,” he added. You nodded.

   “So--you’re going to be around.”

   “Yeah, definitely, as much as you let me. I’d love to be around more for her too.”

   You didn’t speak again, you looked down, and his insecurities said you didn’t like that. For all he knew you probably didn’t want him anywhere. Looking at you he felt more insecure than he’d ever been. It was a feeling he didn’t like.

   “It’s late,” he began. A look of shock washed over you before you covered it with an aloof expression. Irritation filled him.

   “Yeah, night,” you responded and quickly ended the call. He sat there lost in his thoughts and unsure what he’d said.

~~~~~~~~~~~

***If you want to be tagged please SEND AN ASK SO IT WILL BE EASIER FOR ME TO KEEP TRACK OF. Thank you for reading!!!

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[ladymelissaduthe]

challenge 5 (part 1)

aka maybe the night (jackson #5: the sound check)

Jackson sings this song in the fic,,, PLEASE LISTEN TO IT YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT NADKJNDK: https://open.spotify.com/track/1yDiru08Q6omDOGkZMPnei?si=SR_Ce75XTqqO7Po7nu0_Vw

a/n: Not actually Challenge 5, but it’s the day of the ball so YEET for all intents and purposes it’ll be titled as part of challenge 5 anyway. There are going to be 3 fics cause it’s easier to digest AND BOY DO I LOVE THE ENDING OF THIS. Laidease and gents, this girl is confused. Take a shot every time Missy simps over Jackson. @jackson-graham thank you so much Bri for the gift that is both Jackson Graham and Jordan Fisher. I recommend that you listen to Maybe the Night by Ben and Ben because.... this is a song fic. AHAHHJKSDNKJDNK I PROMISE YOU’LL LIKE THE SONG. IT’S ONE OF MY WEDDING SONGS AHAHAHAHJKWNK aight bye, this is just an appetizer before the ball NJKNKKD Gdoc linked in the title as usual (2509 words)

My eyes go back and forth between the two dresses hanging in my closet.

I love my maids, I really do—but gosh darn it, did they have to be so darn talented that I couldn’t even pick a dress for the ball tonight?

Green. The color of fresh grass. Flowers and Ribbons hanging around. Long flowy sleeves. A work of art, something straight out of a fairytale.

Or…

Blue. Almost Lilac. Off the shoulder. Beaded. Short Sleeves. A true ball gown, fit for a princess.

I narrowed my choices to two very different gowns for the event—yet I couldn’t pick which one I was going to wear. Don’t even get me started with the hair and make up needed for each dress. I sigh looking over to the clock.

5 o’clock.

One of my maids, Kylar, stands by my vanity, setting things up as she patiently waits for me to make a decision, swatching shades of eyeshadow on the back of her hand. Skylar and Campbell were off getting more things for tonight too. It takes a village to get a girl ready.

I needed to take a walk. Dress picking could wait another hour, I suppose.

Maybe I can sneak a peek of the Great Hall while it’s being set up. Hmmm… not a Bad idea.

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Grammy did tell me that I should sneak a peek of the way the place was decorated, I tell myself as I slip through a door that leads into the Great Hall.

By tomorrow, people were going to start using pictures of this event for whatever party, wedding, or debut they had in mind.

Iridescent, was the theme of the ball.

I’m not disappointed, not one bit—my eyes first drawn to the crystals that hung from the ceiling. The daylight seeped into the room just right that little rainbows were already shining around the room. I wondered how they were going to look like in the night. There were fabrics being draped by the sides of the room, more silvery in color at first glance.

I try to stay at the sides of the room as staff were setting up the rest of the room and tables. 

A bunch of what I assumed to be musicians were chatting and setting up by the stage with people in full black attire were taping down wires. Must be the soundcheck. 

Musicians and bands needed to practice a little earlier than the event itself to make sure everything was working right.

Is it weird that I missed this? The little chaos hours before every event. The sound of tables and chairs being set accompanied by the rustling of people mobilizing other decorations. All that was missing for me was my clipboard and it could have felt like home.

I tilt my head up in awe of how everything looked already. Whoever was the events planner for this deserved a raise. I hear a quick strum from a guitar playing from the speakers.

Oh wow, even their sound system here was great, but my eyes stay looking up as I try to take each of the little detail of the Great Hall. I wonder if I could ask the planner for their supplier, maybe even get the card of their tech provider because—

“Check, one two.”

Something inside of me jumps. That voice was familiar. 

My eyes look directly for the source. 

The stage.

Jackson. It was Jackson standing onstage, a guitar strapped over his shoulder.

Suddenly the room was filled with music. Initially, the music too loud before whoever probably was on the sound board started to adjust things.

The band behind was playing a sort of folk-pop tune and Jackson was leading them as he sang.

He was singing.

I want to lay down by the fire with you Where souls are glowing, ever warmer too Your love surrounds me like a lullaby Singing softly, you are mine oh mine

His voice was smooth and steady, the kind of voice that gave you goosebumps when you heard it. 

What a surprise! That was my friend singing, and I find myself smiling as I take a couple of steps towards the stage.

Moon has never glowed this color Hearts have never been this close I've never been more certain I will love you 'til we're old

Being a little closer to the stage, I realize he’s wearing something different than I usually see him in. 

A navy button down with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, dark pants. Handsome as ever, maybe a little more with the singing and the guitar. 

I could listen to him singing like this every day.

Stop it. I try to push that thought away, that sounds weird. Still, I can’t keep my eyes off of him, watching as he reaches the chorus of the song.

Maybe the night holds a little hope for us dear.

This was a very sweet song he was singing. The kind you’d hear at a wedding reception. He smiles and closes his eyes occasionally as he sings through the chorus.

Maybe we might want to settle down, just be near. Stay together here.

A part of me hopes that he looks out so I can wave and let him know that I’m here. 

Let him know that I was here cheering him on, but he doesn’t, instead seemingly more focused on performing. Silly me, that sounds too sappy. 

I look around for half a second wondering if other people were catching what I was hearing, some stopping to listen. 

Glad to see people enjoying this too. 

My attention goes back to the stage, seeing Jackson glance down on his guitar, smiling as he does.

Jackson had a very special smile, the kind that reminded me of the Sun. Not because of how bright it is, but because of how it made me feel warm, like how it felt stepping into a patch of sunlight.

We follow the pull of fate, into this moment.

As he sings, I realize that I’ve never seen him this happy. I suppose he really just loved to play music. 

With a voice like his, I wouldn’t blame him. He sounded flawless as the song swell and dipped with another round or two of the chorus of maybe the night holds a little hope for us dear. 

It was very catchy, actually—I expect myself to have it stuck in my head later. I’d have to find it on Dotify too if it wasn’t an original song by him. 

The song soon ends with a nice little strumming pattern that Jackson does that prolongs the last note from his guitar, and I wonder if he’s done this before. He laughs a bit before he steps back to talk with the other instrumentalists.

Earlier I wasn’t sure if it was the drumbeat I could hear in my ears or my heartbeat, but with the song over I didn’t realize my heart was beating so fast. I still feel myself smiling nonetheless as I immediately start clapping from my part of the room.

I probably looked silly being the only one clapping, but that performance was definitely worthy of it.

I feel a little bubble in my chest that makes me cup my hands and yell, “Encore!”

That catches Jackson’s attention, looking away from the other instrumentalist as he looks over to me and from here- even I could catch his surprise and the flickering smile on his face before he puts his guitar on the stand and hops off the stage, headed to my direction.

I immediately smile as I move halfway, still clapping excitedly.

“I thought you’d be in full ball preparation right now.” he says.

“You underestimate my ability to change into full Princess-mode, Mister Graham.” I laugh lightly. I’d be preparing right now if I could figure which dress to wear. That’s  a problem for future Missy.

I make a gesture to him, wanting to direct the conversation back to what I just witnessed. I could still hear my heartbeat in my ears.

“You sound great! I mean, you all sound great! But you,” I pause, trying to find the right words, “you sound amazing.”

“Thank you, that’s… thanks.” He chuckles softly. “A sound check for this evening.”

“I didn’t know you were performing tonight.” I comment, but still very surprised about this fact. “Do you always perform during big palace events?”

“I—well, I haven’t in a couple of years.” He says before pausing very briefly, before his face lights up again.

I almost impulsively ask him why, but he clears his throat and I decide not to.

“Though I kind of wish you’d heard me for the first time later tonight.”

I can’t even imagine how good he was gonna perform tonight. He was a natural. Imagine him playing in front of a crowd of finely dressed people, him looking handsome in a suit.

“I’m glad that you’ve decided to play this time around. If that’s how you sound during a sound check, I can’t wait to hear you play later. You’ll be playing more songs, right?”

I ask that because a tiny part of me would want to hear him sing a little more than one song.

Jackson shakes his head. “Just the one. They have quite the lineup this evening.”

He sticks a hand in his pocket and gestures with his free hand to the stage where the instruments are set up, my eyes following.

“Even Wylan is playing something.” He says, and I’m surprised again. Is everyone here a secret musician? “You’ll have a wonderful evening.”

Hearing that makes me smile, the way he’s looking at me warmly makes me smile a tiny bit wider.

“A night full of festivities, great music,” I eye him at that part, “and dancing? Oh it’s so nice to finally attend a big party that I don’t have to plan.” I giggle.

He laughs a bit, “I have no doubt your events are just as great as this one will be.”

I hum, he’s not wrong.

“The only difference being that this one has a bigger budget.” I chuckle at that thought, most likely sure that the royal family was sparing no expense for tonight’s event. It was independence day after all. The ball was going to be full of important guests—and if it was anything close to the debutante balls I’ve planned before it was gonna be full of merrymaking, drinks, and dancing.

Dancing. I suddenly feel myself quiet down. I should ask him for a dance. Not very Belt Belle of me to ask first though. Grammy would chastise me for doing this.

Um… sorry Grammy.

“Say... would you save me a dance later, after you perform your set?” I try to sound friendly, like a friend just asking a friend for a dance. Not in the romantic sense of course. But slow dancing with Jackson doesn’t sound bad either.

Maybe if I’m lucky they wouldn’t play a slow song and I could maybe just do Renegade or some other Toktik dance. But yes, a dance with Jackson sounded nice.

Jackson seems to swallow, “Really?”

“Of course!” I nod, “That is if you like dancing… of course…” I wince, my choice of words sounding way too weird with that repetition. I normally don’t do that.

“No, I do. I’ll even save you two dances.” A pleased smile appears on his face, and I catch the smidge of surprise underneath it. Why does he seem so surprised that I’m asking this?

The thought of two dances sounds lovely. I grin and raise my hand to stick my pinky finger up in the air.

“Two dances, that’s a promise, Mister Jackson Graham.” I meet his eyes, actually feeling more excited for the ball more than ever.

“Dances with the loveliest lady in the room, I’m sure.”

With the loveliest lady in the room…

“Ah—” My brows raise as I let out a sound I didn’t even plan on making.

Was he being serious? My face starts to feel warm, well not just my face anymore—my whole body felt warm.

My eyes go to my pinky finger. Should I still hold it up right now? Did he just call me pretty? Why did he just say that. Oh my gosh, Melissa. Oh my gosh, Jackson.

I don’t know what my face looks like right now, but it’s enough to make Jackson chuckle a little nervously.

“Yes, um... there’ll be plenty of chances. I’ll come find you then.” He says before I watch him reach up to loop is pinky finger with mine, squeezing just a bit.

I find myself nodding, trying to reel myself back and bring my good sense back to me. I curl my lips in and try to control my expression as our hands go down.

“I’ll make sure that it would be hard for you to miss me.” I pause. It still felt warm around here. I could hear my heartbeat again. Guess this was my cue to go.

I tilt my head to one of the doors, “I should be getting ready then.”

I just needed a little air.

Maybe they just haven’t turned the air conditioning here yet. Yes, that must be why. We love an eco-conscious palace that saves energy that way.

“Good luck. Not that you need it.” He smiles softly.

Maybe the drummer was actually just practicing somewhere at the back. We love musicians who practice a lot. That must be what I’m hearing right now.

I try to laugh at that remark, shaking my head. “See you later, Jackson.”

I turn on my heel and start walking towards the door. I should be getting ready, yes. If I could only decide which dress to choose.

An idea pops into my head, and call out Jackson’s name, not completely turning to his direction.

“Jackson! Green or blue?!”

If I couldn’t decide what to wear, might as well let fate choose. Or well, Jackson in my case. This was just like tossing a coin to figure this out. Completely harmless.

He says, “Blue.”

I tilt my head at his answer. It’s set then.

Blue, almost lilac, it is.

I lift a shoulder up before turning to Jackson and give him a final wave in his direction, smiling in his direction. “Thank you!”

“You’re very welcome, Missy.” I hear him say and I wait until I’m out of the Great Hall before I let out a breath and place a hand over my chest.

The Great Hall’s air conditioning was on.

The drummer was taking a break, no one was onstage.

Still, I felt light— more excited actually.

Maybe I was just too excited for tonight, seeing the Great Hall decorated must have just made me more excited than I was before.  

That’s what I tell myself as I start walking back to my room. That’s what I’d like to believe.

As I walk back, I can’t help but sing to myself.

Maybe the night holds a little hope for us, dear.

Jackson’s song was indeed stuck in my head, and maybe not just his song.