#& prove that they are so much more committed to this bit than we ever expected
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& now, here’s a reenactment of the Boat Boys fandom every time Joel & Etho interact & continue to be completely unhinged about each other.
#watching all our brains collectively short circuit every time they interact#& prove that they are so much more committed to this bit than we ever expected#can’t wait to see where this goes#& for my brain to continue to melt from shock & delight#joel smallishbeans#etho#smalletho#boat boys#hermitblr#hermitcraft#ethoslab#hermitshipping#i guess???#these fucking dudes I stg
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so we know that nanami, thee standard, doesn't accept fwb and has to take you out for a proper time after a while.. curious about what you think about gojo? he strikes me as the type to enjoy fwb, but also not? also, hear me out, yuwuta... megumi? fwb with megumi... sighs dreamily
my likeliness to engage in fwb behavior scale goes like this: most gojo = yuuta > toge = yuuji > maki > nanami > nobara = megumi least
satoru and yuuta say yes if you ask them but it’s only because they already like you or already in love with you… and they know that it’s not the best idea in the world, but through their powers of delusion, they think they can make you like them back. because clearly whatever they’re doing now isn’t enough, so maybe sex will help?? who’s ever turned down bomb dick yk… besides, sex with boys who think they’ve got something to prove >> that being said, it’s never really been fwb in their head, their plan was never noncommittal sex, they have all their strings attached to you and they want to be yours forever, so good luck <3
toge and yuuji are also pretty likely to do it, because, again, who are they to turn down their best friend asking them for sex? they both go into it very naively, they go along with whatever rules and boundaries you set, and are genuinely in it to have fun with you and please you, but they get very confused very quickly. it feels like a relationship to them, so shouldn’t it be a relationship? they don’t think much of it until you bring up exclusivity and/or mention going on a date with someone else, then all the feelings come forth and jealousy rears it’s ugly head and the next time you sleep together something shifts, it’s more possessive, more desperate, more mine mine mine… think they’re the ones to either confess or just… assume you’re dating and/or tell you you’re dating now lol. like toge just throws his shirt at you when you try to get up and leave him the next day and tells you you aren’t exhibiting much girlfriend like behavior, and yuuji either says something sappy or does something sweet and you tell him he doesn’t have to and he just goes “but you’re my girlfriend! ofc i’m gonna be nice to you!… you are my girlfriend, in case you didn’t know!”
maki debates it for a bit, and then reasons that the convenience of it would be nice. she doesn’t expect to get attached, and it really annoys her when you invade her thoughts when she’s supposed to be busy with things not involving you. but she doesn’t really say anything about it. honestly, you would either have to call it off, or express interest in someone else before she realizes that the way to solve her intrusive thoughts of you isn’t to go back to being friends, it’s to go to being something more than friends.
nanami also agrees for the convenience of it, but even so, he debates it for a while after you bring it up to him. ultimately, he decides that if it’s something you truly want, he will do his best to ensure it’s beneficial for the both of you. he seems like he actually tries to develop some kind of schedule—not just for convenience, but also because he wants to make sure he has time to treat you properly. quickies on his lunch break probably aren’t what you signed up for, so he makes sure he has the time and energy to devote himself to you. the problem becomes two fold: (1) kento starts to want you all the time, not just the times you’ve set aside to have sex, and (2) the longer your arrangement goes on, the more kento believes that you deserve to have someone who can dedicate all their time to you. he doesn’t think that you should settle for convenient, arranged sex with a partner who has no attachment or loyalty to you, you deserve to be taken care of wholly. and so, he steps up and becomes that person, even if it’s not something you were striving for. you will gain a boyfriend and a committed relationship, that is the very bare minimum from him!!
nobara and megumi seem the least likely to want any kind of fwb situation. nobara thinks they too frequently develop into situationships, and she doesn’t have space or time in her life to be in a situationship with anybody—much less somebody like you who’s already wormed your way into her life against her will. you’ve unfolded your chair, now sit in it. if you want nobara, you get all of her, all the time. it’s similar with megumi; even if he isn’t the most upfront with his feelings, megumi is a romantic at heart, he does things according his beliefs, he’s moved by his own motives, he needs to be moved to do anything really—and friends with benefits does not move him. if you want megumi, then simply be obsessed with him or die tbh, like he’s not ever one to engage in anything half-way; you want sex with him, then you’re gonna learn to put up with his cold fingers and surly attitude and unwillingness to get out of bed before 11am, you are going to be his if he’s gonna give anything to you
#‘incase you didn’t know’ is wicked work like pls do not underestimate the ain’t shit-ness of yuuji itadori#bc both his mentors/father figures are their own varying degrees of ain’t shit TRUST!!! nanami is NAWT innocent#gojo and yuuta....t he psycho and delusion to lover pipeline must run in the family atp........#nobara and megumi are soooo funny tbh like they seem like they should like fwb the most#and yet theyre disgusted. btw like if ur fwb w yuuji and they find out they hit him upside the head and call him stupid#bc what the hell is he doing a no strings attached situation in general and much less w someone hes in love with ???? idiot#then they go and chew you out xoxo#jujutsu kaisen x reader#jujutsu kaisen fluff#jujutsu kaisen smut#jjk x reader#jjk smut#jjk fluff#gojo x reader
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Heya! In which of the boys route do you think Yui was broken/hurt the most?
I always wanted to know which would be the worst scenario (route) for like.. an avarage girl irl . I know most girls would not survive there😅 but just wanted to know your opinion which of those 6 doors you would never open. Or 13 if we count all the characters.
// Since it's an otome game, it goes without saying that there will be a lot of plot armor and that the love interests can't really harm the heroine seriously throughout the route, regardless of what she does, because the plot would go nowhere like that. Most characters are jerks but not really that hard to handle, since they were known for scaring Yui rather than letting her get genuinely hurt. However there were certain Diaboys who were very scary, as it felt like they had no feelings of remorse or empathy.
Laito:
Can’t say that his HDB route is the worst thing Rejet has ever written (because it’s definitely not) but it baffled me how he was so okay with Yui breaking like that to the point where she lost all her will to live and only wanted to be set free from him. I mean, she literally tried to commit and he was just there not even intending to stop her bleeding veins despite being the one who cut them?? It’s true that in the Vampire Ending she doesn’t turn out that bad but after all, this is just because it’s fiction.
Kanato:
He was easier to understand than Laito because at least you were able to know that he had a soft spot for sweets and Teddy. Nevertheless, it was a bit too much how he kept stabbing Yui with the fork and a few chapters later, I’m pretty sure he stabbed Yui with a knife in more places as well. Still, it’s surprising how she turned out worse in his route, considering the fact that in the afterstory she kills innocent people—
Kou:
I love Kou but he was a literal demon in MB. I really hated how he made his fans bully Yui JUST FOR FUN. It wasn’t even any sort of punishment, he merely wanted to make her suffer. Another thing I couldn’t stand was how he kept putting Yui’s life in danger, only to make her prove her love. I understand wanting to test someone but it would have been way better if he actually saved Yui after seeing her do something dangerous. That way it would have proved that he cared for her yet he continued to watch her get hurt for him over and over again, without feeling any empathy. He was sorta redeemed at the end but yeah, most of his route was big yikes, especially since you wouldn’t have expected a cheerful and friendly idol like him to be such a wicked person.
Carla:
I like the Tsukinami family's desire to preserve their lineage but sorry, I must say that I find it repulsive that a 17-year-old would be forced to become pregnant out of the blue with strangers. I understand that Yui was partially to blame for Carla's anger and subsequent dungeon scene but that moment grossed me out sooo bad. She lost her will to live but Carla literally jumped on a depressed girl and was on the verge of rap€ing her, if his Endzeit didn’t kick in. He gets gradually better throughout his route but this scene left a sore taste in my mouth.
Kino:
Look, Kino is a great villain and a lot of fun, but his LE route was trash. Kino killed a child, mistreated Yui, abducted both Yui and Ayato, planned to sell Ayato to the church for execution, manipulated Yui and tortured Ayato. The pain he caused them both was immense and although I appreciated Yui calling him out, it's so sad that she was brainwashed. While it's true that Kino can be quite cute when he wants to, their romance was so rushed and forced because they didn't give us any reason why Yui would fall for him other than manipulation when Ayato, who was seen to care more about her than for himself, was right there. I wish they developed Kino’s feelings better, given that he straight up blackmailed Yui to become his, otherwise Ayato would had been killed, therefore Yui had no other choice but accept the situation. That’s why his CL route is way better.
I only mentioned 5 instead of 6 but that’s mostly because no other character came closer to them in terms of bad scenario. The rest of them felt decent in their routes for a game called Diabolik Lovers, lol.
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Aside from being a Potter hater, I really do think it's a shame we lost Henry because McLean Stevenson was a comedic heavyweight not just as an actor but as a writer, giving us The Trial of Henry Blake and The Army-Navy Game. He was unafraid to commit whole-heartedly to the bit, and while some of Henry's heroism in Trial was probably McLean's positive bias, I think it was nice that we got to see Henry's competence as a doctor shine through despite his incompetence as a CO. On early MASH, this was the sign of a heroic character, so it falls neatly in line with what the narrative was trying to tell us anyway.
"Your boss is not your friend" but Henry didn't want to be anyone's boss and he doesn't appear to be suffering any delusions that he's any good at the job. He wants to hang out with the cool kids, Hawkeye and Trapper and do the things they do: get drunk, fuck around, practice medicine and dream of home. I can't think of a show that's replicated the Henry-Trapper-Hawkeye dynamic.
Any time Henry tries to use his rank, he ends up flat on his ass. Women reject him for it, Hawkeye and Trapper pull fast ones on him, and he never lives up to Burns and Houlihan's expectations anyway.
At one point Henry muses aloud to Hawkeye that he might be getting to do more interesting work as a doctor in the war than he was doing back home. I think this is one time I can actually stand to hear the other side of it. What Henry is expressing here is a disillusionment with comforts of upper-middle-to-upper-class suburban life, a very How did I get here??? moment for him if I may say so. And a pretty normal thing for him to feel.
I like how Larry Gelbart imagined Trapper might've responded to a similar hypothetical:
REPORTER: Do you feel this experience has in any way helped you as a doctor?
TRAPPER JOHN: Let me ask you a question: just how many people you figure’re going to be carried into my office someday with a chunk of shrapnel sticking out of their heads? I don’t know where you live, pal, but where I come from very few folks ever step on a landmine in the middle of trying to cross the street.
Instead of Henry coming to this himself, we have Hawkeye to shoot him down immediately, and good on him for it, but those kinds of initial reflections on the state of one's life are the first step to doing something about one's dissatisfaction. For a character like Henry, who isn't often moved to do anything that pushes him outside of his comfort zone, I like this as some depth for him. And I would've liked to have seen him stay on and be proved wrong, you know, without him dying on the way to his beautiful house, beautiful wife etc.
I also think McLean would've handled the shift from the more comedic to dramatic moments masterfully. We already see pieces of it in Sometimes You Hear the Bullet and Abyssinia Henry.
And most importantly we lost something when the incompetent draftee CO was replaced by the on-my-third-war-ex-cavalry-man-and-damn-proud-of-it guy. There's an assumed 'respect' everyone, even Hawkeye, is expected to afford Potter if not for his rank, then his age. This is the opposite of what was done with Henry, where Hawkeye and Trapper openly flouted the notion that they should respect Henry because of his rank.
Like even if Trapper had stayed on and continued in his unquestioning support of Hawkeye's campaigns, I don't think that would've flown with Potter unless the show was willing to make him the butt of the joke the way that Henry sometimes was and indeed there's not much evidence of it ever happening post season 4. There is that one episode where he gets high and the gang ferry him back and forth to get him to requisition supplies - which was great, and very Henry-like but I can't think of many other examples.
Because MASH was progressive for it's time, it's very interesting to see where it draws the line. It didn't do great with race, it was so-so with women all the way through... but these things seem pretty obvious and to some even forgivable on account of "it's the product of its time". I think another limit for the show was the treatment of the highest-ranking officer on the base in the later years. Henry vs. Potter - Henry who the show had no problem trampling over and Potter who it very politely tip-toed past, resulting in some comparatively lukewarm and dated statements on authority. When it comes to Potter "Your boss is not your friend" is something Hawkeye, BJ, Klinger and Radar all need to hear.
#mash#re: mash#henry meta#potter meta#this ended up being potter vs henry anyway but that's one fandom war i will gladly make my militant stance very clear on
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I love Goshiki so much and you all get to hear me briefly explaining his character:
Goshiki is the only first-year on the starting lineup of a powerhouse school that is absolutely formidable. Imagine the pressure, being selected out of the other hundred students: not just the other first years but also the second and third years. There aren't even any other first years on the bench, he is the only first year on the court entirely. Seriously, imagine the stress he is under to perform as calmly, perfectly and logically as all his cold and unreasonable upperclassmen, who've all been to nationals many times. Not only that, he is regularly told he will be the next ace once Ushijima, one of the top three in the whole country, graduates.
Everyone expects him to live up to being the ace of a legendary team, succeeding the local "miracle boy" himself. He probably doesn't have a lot of his friends in his classes due to volleyball commitments and probably is shunned by other first years on the club out of jealousy. The only company he'd really have are his other teammates, whom he is trying so hard to impress. He doesn't want to let them down, he wants to do them proud and be worth all the effort they put into him.
He is a bit loud, brazen, tries to talk big but you can see how much he looks for his upperclassmen's approval. He's making promises, he's trying to show the team that he's not cracking under the pressure, that he can brush it off too. He's challenging ushijima to prove he's fearless, to prove he's not daunted by the task everyone is expecting him to accept.
Some might read that and think I'm saying he's crumbling on the inside, that this pressure is breaking him into nothing but I wouldn't say crumbling. Hell, I don't think Goshiki could ever actually crumble. I think part of him believes this sense of confidence. I would say, though, that there is a voice in the back of his head that tells him he's not enough. Everytime he messes up, it sits in the back of his mind, every point missed he feels it. He knows he's giving his all but he wants to give more.
I love Goshiki Tsutomu and he is so often treated like a pet peeve of arrogance or Shiratorizawa's "baby" but think of it like this: Ushijima hates baseless confidence. He hates when someone's bark is louder than their bite, we see how he views Hinata for a start. Do you think he'd ever encourage Goshiki so honestly if he didn't have the potential to enhance Shiratorizawa?
Do you think Washijou would've even glanced at him if he wasn't something? Do you think Shirabu would set to someone who wouldn't score? Do you think anyone in the team would let him mess up and geek out if they didn't believe, deep down, he was as good as them?
When my mum watched Haikyuu with me, she said she found Goshiki arrogant, annoying and immature: it infuriated me and I could never quite articulate how she has misread him so much. Maybe on the surface he seems that way but it's because it is all on the surface. He is constantly trying to seem cool, for the validation and respect of his senpais, who do not seem to understand that the praise is really what he needs.
When Hinata compliments him, Goshiki shone and he performed with flying colours. The praise was all it took for him to change his mind on a dime and play with them and, not to mention, he was the designated leader of that training camp for sure!
He was the one everyone had their eyes on and he was the most advanced - you could tell that these players respected him and I hope he knew it, I hope it gave him the confidence boost he'd been lacking for so long ever since joining Shiratorizawa.
It got slightly off track at the end but I hope you followed :') I love my boy lol
#haikyuu!!#shiratorizawa#goshiki tsutomu#hq goshiki#character development#character analysis#he is one of my favourite characters of all time tbh does it show?
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The White House managed to get off its ass and do the bare fucking minimum for once. Now I need to reiterate something that the settlements in the West Bank are completely illegal. They are illegal under international law and nothing the US says or does will change that. Having said that this article states that the Biden Administration has “recognized” the settlements as “inconsistent with international law”(aka illegal). Now this is not necessarily new, the US has stated that the settlements in the West Bank are illegal since 1976, which has fallen under both democratic and republican presidents like Carter/Regan etc. However, the Trump administration changed this to say they no longer viewed the settlements as illegal in fact,
“Under an unrealized Trump peace plan, Israel would have been allowed sovereignty over all existing settlements and permitted to annex up to 30 percent of the West Bank.”
So it’s not so much that the Biden Administration is making a progressive step but rather returning to an established status quo. In fact he states he is going further ahead with his support for a two state “solution”, the merits of which are dubious at best and flat out ignoring the actual help Palestinians need at worst, but has not committed to reversing Trumps plan. This does not necessarily mean he is in favor or supports Trumps plan but it does lead to my main problem with all of this. It’s just lazy, bare minimum horseshit.
There is a lot to discuss about Bidens handling of the war but this whole thing really takes the cake of showing how while Biden does do things that on the surface seem like they could be helpful once you look into them, even a little bit, it just proves how lackluster his whole strategy is.
He claims that the bombings are “indiscriminate” and Israel must protect civilians at all cost, but then bypasses congress to send them more bombs. He claims he wants more aid and humanitarian assistance into Gaza, but vetoes a ceasefire for a third time and brings in another proposal that says a ceasefire will happen when it’s “practical”. It’s the same with this.
Everyday I look at the news, especially with what’s happening in Rafah, hoping that something will happen. Something, anything, to make this any better. To bring an end to the violence and death that has destroyed countless lives and scarred many others. And I read shit like this because it appears to be a silver lining, something good for Palestinians, something that gives them any autonomy and agency during this time. But all I get are basic table crumbs of shit we should’ve been doing from the very start, why is it that only now Biden has called out this very obvious illegal practice? Why didn’t he do that shit before all this carnage? Hell why didn’t he do this shit during his four fucking years as president?
The only thing keeping me from sinking further into rage is the fact that it is a shift. Biden is only doing this because he sees the pushback from protesters and knows that public opinion is turning. Israel’s response has been so overblown that it’s impossible to ignore the amount of injustice, and people are now more than ever seeing its true colors. So this push is small, and it sucks. I am not going to sit thanking them for basic table scraps. The Overton window on Palestine is shifting and we would be fools not to take advantage of it. We must do every single thing within our power to make more progress than ever.
It does not escape me that while Biden has nothing to be thanked for and has blood on his hands, Trumps plan fucking terrifies me. Its one thing to be frustrated by hollow promises, for Biden to expect a thank you for recognizing that the illegal thing is still very much illegal and punishing four people with economic sanctions even though 399 Palestinians have died on the West Bank with over a thousand more injured due to violence. Meaning that those who committed these crimes will most likely never answer for what they did. I hate that these are supposed to placate us, that this somehow makes up for everything. But the idea of Trumps plan, that not only would the recognition that the settlements are illegal not happen but they in fact would be actively supported by our country creates a pit in my stomach. It makes you realize that one small misstep and we could lose more than we have already lost. But I refuse to settle.
I don’t just want to have the settlements recognized as illegal, I want the West Bank and Gaza to have full autonomy over their personhood and over their land. I want justice for those who lost their lives and the lives of their loved ones. We have a duty to these people and to ourselves to never give an inch, to demand better, to demand more. Never settling for complacency. And we must also be strategic. We cannot assume that because things are bad that they cannot get worse. We cannot stoop to petty infighting when people are counting on us for our help and solidarity, doing whatever it takes to make things better for them. We must stand for Palestine liberation, we must never settle for complacency. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
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what we were, what we are | end.
Summary: The worst thing that ever happened to Y/N Lupin was getting sent to Azkaban for a crime she didn’t commit. The second worst thing was when she got out on parole and not because her name was cleared. Trying to get her life back proves difficult when everyone has moved on into the present while she only has memories of the past.
Warnings for the Series: angst, smut
Pairing: james potter x black!reader, james potter x lupin!reader, sirius black x black!reader, sirius black x lupin!reader
Word Count: 1.0k
Previous Part | (Series Masterlist)
“Well that went better than expected.” Sirius put the motorcycle helmet on you.
“Because the baby’s yours?”
“Because it’s a boy. I don’t think I’d be a good girl dad, not on the first try. But I can’t mess up first time parenting with a son.”
“You can’t?”
“Nope.” He popped the p as he started up the bike. “I just have to do the exact opposite of what my parents did with Reg and I.”
You made it back to Hogwarts in time for the last bit of lunch. Both of you knew that the gossip would have spread through the entirety of Hogwarts… maybe even the entirety of Hogsmeade. There was no point hiding it. Besides, you were going to have to say something sooner or later. It wasn’t like you could just show up with a baby in a few months and no one would have questions.
The other two marauders kept their faces as neutral as possible when you approached. The gossip could have been just that, gossip. It was best to let you say something instead of getting in a mood. Sirius gripped your hand and squeezed it gently before moving to hold your waist. He gave your brother a smile as he tried to figure out how to best break the news.
“I promise I will get a car before the baby’s born. Even I know a baby and a motorcycle are not a good pair.”
Remus simply blinked. “So my students were telling the truth? Are you happy, Y/N?”
You nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
Your brother raised an eyebrow, starting to give Sirius a death glare before you got the chance to explain. You still didn’t quite know what happiness felt like. Although nowadays your glass was half-full as opposed to completely empty like your Azkaban days. And when you were with Sirius, that glass always felt half-full. He was there for you exactly how you needed him to be. He was always trying to learn the new you and not focus on your past. Not once did you ever feel like Sirius was looking at someone other than you. The rest of Hogwarts staff that had been listening swooned as you explained your feelings.
“I’m glad I married him,” you finished your little speech and looked at your husband who seemed like he was about to start crying at any minute.
Remus and James choked on their drinks while the rest of the staff table just looked on with wide open mouths. Did they hear you correctly? Remus started stuttering through the question, making Sirius laugh.
“You didn’t miss anything, Little Moons just didn’t want a ceremony.”
For the first time, they all noticed the wedding bands on your ring fingers. They had seen the rings before but no one thought they were actual wedding bands. No one was even positive that you two were even dating so why would they look for anything more.
“You two look nice together, really,” James said with approving nods of his head.
“Thanks, Prongs,” Sirius said before kissing your temple. “I think we look nice together too.”
With the news out, your husband very much wanted to let everyone know that he was your husband. You had moved all of your stuff out of the bedroom attached to your classroom and into Sirius’ room. He enjoyed holding your hand as you walked to Hogsmeade together. He liked fixing your lunch and dinner plates for you and sitting next to you at the staff table. He even subbed some of your classes when you had St. Mungo’s appointments that he didn’t need to be there for. Sirius wasn’t perfect by any means but he was perfect for you.
You two were planning on moving. Grimmauld didn’t hold the best memories for Sirius that he felt no sentimental conflict when the decision was made. It was recommended by St. Mungo’s to move if you had the means to. After many appointments it was apparent that all your quick progress made last year with Azkaban was no longer happening and hadn’t been progressing for a long time. You would eventually get there but maybe after years and years. Your son— and potentially any other children— were likely to have some of your same symptoms at first. Weaker magic, chill through your bones, a bit shifty. There was a place that Sirius had been thinking of for a little bit.
“Wow, this cottage is amazing!” Lily said excitedly as she and James appeared on their brooms, Harry a few minutes behind.
The others started showing up quickly after, smiling at seeing you plant stuff in the front garden while Sirius was using magic to pick the peaches and lemons off the two trees. Your son, Oliver, was strapped to his chest in a little baby carrier. It was the middle of summer and a couple of months after you had given birth. You and Sirius had moved just before your due date, leaving Remus to take care of Grimmauld and try to start dating again. The cottage was nice and airy, full of light like the doctors recommended. The village it lived in was a half-wizard half-muggle village and often a warm place. Now that you were more comfortable, you wanted a small wedding. Really it was just a backyard reception but you and Sirius would repeat your vows for friends and family.
Your parents and Remus immediately rushed to Oliver when they arrived, already doting on their grandchild and nephew. You and Sirius were a pairing that no one would have ever seen coming in the past. But both of you fit each other so well. No longer holding his son, Sirius strolled over to you. He helped you up and kissed your forehead.
“I love you, you know.”
“I love you too.”
Sirius kissed you one more time before you both started inside to be with everyone else.
PERMANENT TAGLIST:
@venomsvl @peaches-n-sunscreen @summerellaz @supernaturallover2002 @sambucky8 @9daykrisr @thebitchinleo @23victoria @scarlets-widow @pagetpagetpagetpaget @lovexnatasha @awesomebooklover17 @1234-angelika @imatrisk @blackreaderatrisk @princess-jules47 @alexloveskili @a-marie-a @siriuslysirius1107
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Flowers for the Shadow Man
Part 1 : Part 2
Written by:
@heroes-villains-side-blog★@tratieisdabest★@just-a-space-rabbit
TW: breaking and entering
❘〣❘〣❘ ★ ❘〣❘〣❘
Shadows simply nodded in response, once again amused with her, and once again pinker, though really redder, than before.
Alexandria slowly regained her composure. "Well… what do we do now? I'd like to get to know you better before a date, which is… sort of the point of those, but I just know Mender will find out somehow, and we'll be spied on by their little club thing. Well, that is, if they keep meeting."
Shadows cocked his head in thought, a motion that Alexandria found adorable, before answering, "Well, we could just talk? Like you have my phone number, which, by the way, would've been a smart recourse to use, so you wouldn’t have had to break in —"
Alexandria's glow returned, flustered to hear yet another flaw in her plan. Gosh, this was embarrassing; normally she was pretty level-headed, but Shadows just messed that up.
"--- and we could figure out times when we can meet up, like on a rooftop, or here or something."
Alexandria nodded, and then there was silence. Neither of them knew what to talk about. So, after about… 5 seconds of that awkward silence, Alexandria blurted out, "Let's play 20 questions! You can go first!"
Shadows looked over at her in slight surprise; the sudden words had startled him, but he actually liked the idea quite a lot! And so, he began to think of the perfect first question, leading to another few seconds of awkward silence. Finally, he said,"I suppose we should start small. What's your favorite dessert?"
The hero thought for a moment before answering, "Anything chocolate, though especially when Mender bakes it for me!" Shadows happily took in the new information; Alexandria was very, very supportive of her sidekick, loved her baking, and also loved chocolate! Perhaps one day, Shadows would get a chance to work with Mender to make something for the hero, but there wasn't too much time to think about the simple answer because it was Alexandria's turn!
Before asking, she scanned the room, clad in red and black, similar to much of his base and his costume. "What's your favorite color?" she asked with slight sarcasm.
But Shadows just smiled and answered, "I've always loved the color yellow! That's why I have lots of sticky notes in that color." At that, he pointed to his desk, which had a rainbow of sticky notes, but contained 3 shades of yellow. It wasn't immediately noticeable, though, since the yellow ones were used so often that the stacks had gotten progressively thin, all combing to about the size of one. Alexandria looked surprised at the answer, but he really wasn't sure why. Why would she ask if she thought she already knew the answer?
"Huh. I… wasn't expecting that." Alexandria said, gazing around the room to try and find more hints of yellow. When he noticed that, he realized the reason for surprise; everything was always red! But who was going to take a villain seriously if they were clad in yellow, unless maybe their power was, like, bee related.
"Well what's your favorite color?" Shadows asked, voice full of challenge. If the answer was anything but orange, it basically proved his point of favorite colors not always being the best color to use (no it wouldn't). Which would make Alexandria look a bit silly, and if he was lucky she'd flustsd again!
But she just looked at him in confusion before saying, "Orange? Though yellow is definitely nice too." Okay, so maybe his plan didn't totally work, and now he's the embarrassed blushing one, but it's fine, it’s not like he's not grumpy that his amazing plan failed.
Questions like these continued on for a while.
"Your favorite crime you ever committed?" Alexandria asked.
"Well, once I stole a whole merry-go-round for Kim and Hirra to play on. They loved it, and Hirra still hangs out on it sometimes! But any one that means I get to see you is lovely." Shadows replied. And the hero flusters (success!).
"What was your favorite agency mission?" Shadows asked.
"Hmm, I really liked solving the mystery of the stolen Corinthian vase. It was one of Mender and I's first missions together, and and she taught me a lot about ancient Greek and Roman pottery that week. It was annoying that the thief escaped though. But to echo your words, any crime you commit is lovely." And the villain blushes (success!). "Dogs or cats?" She asked.
"Well, I like them both, but I think cats. They sort of remind me of Hirra if that makes sense." Shadows replied. No blush, but a cute parent moment, so… success! "Cats or dogs?" He echoed.
"Dogs. I've always wanted one, and they wouldn't mess with my things as much, so dogs. Cats are… scary." Alexandria replied. No fluster, but this one was just for information, so… success!
But the two did have deeper questions as well, and Shadows was the first one to ask.
"When did you decide to be a hero? Like, at what moment did you really want to be one?" Shadows asked, a bit nervous since it was a bit more deep than the previous questions. But Alexandria seemed perfectly fine with it, much to his relief.
"Well, when I was little, I just wanted to help people, you know? I got a few nosebleeds trying to save the other kids from bullies, stuff like that. Then I started developing powers so the agency came and explained my parentage — grew up at an orphanage, my parents died when I was really young, you know?" she said the words so casually like they didn't really mean much to her, but he could tell from her face there was a deeper story. "So I decided to go to the academy at the time. It seemed like a good idea; I got to learn how to control my strength and just help people."
Shadows’ face did not change, but internally, he knew from personal experience that that wasn't all there was to it.
"And then I became a sidekick at 15, something I later fought against. But at the time it just seemed like the natural thing to do." That wasn't fully true, but it was a lot to explain, so she left it at that.
Shadows had a lot of questions and thoughts whirling around in his head after all that, but he could tell this was a complicated subject and didn't press for more explanation.
Alexandria did want the answer to the opposite question, why did he become a villain. She definitely planned to ask that later in the game, because she was only ready for one deep question at a time. Instead, she asked, "Why do you call me 'my lady'?"
Shadows’ reply was not immediate, but the reaction was; his eyes widened and his skin colored as he tried to find a plausible reason to give her, before just giving up and telling the truth.
"Well, it's two main things, I suppose. First, I wanted to flirt a bit, and it was more original than the stereotypical flirty villain calling the hero 'darling,'" he said the last word in a slight flirty tone, making Alexandria immediately fluster. "The bonus of this is that it makes you get all flustered, which is very cute and pretty." She glowed a bit more. "And, secondly," he looked the hero directly in her eyes, "I suppose I wished you were 'my lady'. I mean, we've established I have a 'crush' on you, and those often come with wanting to date the person in question." He finished his second point with a small smile in her direction, which of course made her get even more flustered (success!) and smile back.
It was normally a bit hard to tell when the hero was "blushing" due to her skin tone. Instead, she had a light glow, and it had become glaringly obvious (pun intended) this close when she was flustered. But it was his turn to ask a question, and as soon as he thought of it, his eyes had a noticeably devious glint. "Did it work?" he asked innocently.
She looked up at him, her flustered state breaking due to confusion, "Did what work?"
"The pet name? Did my flirting work well? Would you be willing to someday go on a date with me, after a few more of these talks?" He said with a slight smirk, already having a guess as to her response.
The flustered state immediately returned (success!) and she sputtered out an answer, "Um, well… yes, I guess. Well, not guess. I would like to go on a date with you! And you're very good at flirting — shoot, I didn't mean to say that out loud. I… you. I brought you flowers! What do you think Mr. 'Would you like to date me?’" She said the last part in a mocking voice, trying to recover, but it didn't work.
"Ah, my apologies, my lady. It was quite foolish of me not to realize," He said with amusement.
"Hey! No!" She wagged her finger at him like he was a naughty cat. "You don't get to do that anymore! It's run its course, you're done."
Shadows was not done, "Oh no, my lady —" fluster, "I think I'll be keeping it now that I can see how well it works! In fact, I believe I'll be using it whenever I can, no matter how inappropriate the timing is."
She glared at him, which would've been scary if not for the fact she'd become so flustered that her ears had slightly reddened. Whatever could've caused that? When he simply raised an amused and unimpressed eyebrow at her, she changed course.
"Alright, well, did you like the flowers?!" She asked, hoping to throw him off. But all he did was gently put his hand over hers before reaching over to grab the vase.
"They're beautiful. I love them," he said with a soft smile. "No one has ever given me flowers before."
Alexandria gasped in outrage at the statement. "That is ridiculous! Everyone deserves flowers, even stupid cute flirty villains." At that, he grinned up at her cutely.
"You think I'm cute?" He asked with amusement and also delight.
She pinched her nose, annoyed the villain was clearly winning at… whatever this was. "Well,, like… objectively."
Shadows looked at her, already knowing exactly what to say. "Really? That's odd, since no one had called me cute since I was a child."
The hero fell into the trap. "Well, that's also ridiculous! I mean, you have a sweet little nose, and freckles, and your hair is so pretty and — hey! Stop doing that!" she said, realizing what he'd done as he listened intently with a smile.
"Alright, I'm sorry. But it was very sweet, my lady!" He replied, unable to resist one last quip. She looked at him disgruntled, though of course flustered (success!). "Now, I do believe it's my turn. What's your favorite season?"
"Either winter, since I get to go sledding, or summer, because I get to swim. Oh, and also hot cocoa and lemonade are great!" She said shortly, still a bit flustered from all the earlier flirting. Shadows simply nodded in approval.
"What about you? What's your favorite season?" She asked.
"Well, they all have pros and cons, you know? Summer and winter are great for the reasons you said, but also are way too hot or cold. Spring and fall are nice, since I get to wear sweaters in fall and see the leaves, but everything is dying. In spring, everything is blooming and on some days you can still wear sweaters, but the ambiance is sort of interrupted by all the poor souls with allergies sneezing up a storm." Alexandria nodded in sympathy at that. While she wasn't allergic to pollen, she had friends who were, and they always seemed miserable in the spring. As one had put it whilst rubbing at their eyes, "Flowers pretty but itchy."
Shadows continued his little speech. "So I guess they're all alright. I do agree that winter is quite nice, since no one can really commit crime then. It becomes a break of sorts." Alexandria knew exactly what he meant. Winter was also nice because everyone got a bit of a break; the cold forced a ceasefire, and even on the relatively warmer days villains chose not to commit crimes out of courtesy.
It was now Shadows’ turn, and he had a question that'd been eating at him since he first saw Alexandria was breaking into his room. "What kind of flowers are these?"
Alexandria brightened at that. Her friend, who was a florist, had some extras and gave them to her. And they always went on long rants about flowers and their meanings, so she knew all there was to know about these. "They're white, camillas and carnations. They mean-" she cut herself off at that, realizing that neither of them were ready for a love confession (she wasn't even sure if she was there yet), so she needed to leave some of the meanings out. "They mean that I think you're adorable, and also that I have pure intentions." Shadows blushed at the confession, and gave her a light smile.
Alexandria had that deep question sitting in her mind for a while, and she just couldn't contain it any longer. Hopefully it wouldn't ruin everything. "Why did you become a villain? If you don't mind me asking, that is."
Shadows blinked, surprised by the question. Clearly it'd been sitting in her mind since he first asked her the opposite. "Well… I didn’t grow up wanting to be a villain. In fact, it was the opposite. But…" He paused, unsure how to best explain. "I had this 'friend' in uni, he… ruined everything for me,” Shadow said before pausing. Just the memories alone were painful, but talking about it felt both better and worse at the same time.
“In our last semester of uni,” he continued, “I finally felt that my life was going the right way, and then he took that away from me. He destroyed all of the chances and opportunities I had for a good life. And the worst part was that he succeeded in every way. I ended up with no mentor, lost my bachelor’s degree, got expelled, and even though the person that had given me the job still wanted me, the Aura commission would not allow it.”
He took a deep breath before continuing, looking at Alexandria for a second, who had wide and equally outraged eyes. "My parents never liked my powers, thinking they meant I was evil, which is stupid! So when they were 'proven right' by this, they cut me off."
“So I felt cornered, and alone, and sad, and didn’t know what to do. I left Nizorro and became a villain, the very same thing my parents had said I’d end up as. It was just for survival at first, but is now something that I do because I can help people through it. But anyway, originally I um… well… we, that being Kim and me, just came back to Nizorro so that they could go to university here. Then we took in Hirra, and I'd also reunited with some old friends, so we just stayed…”
He noticed Alexnadira’s expression, so hastily added, “But, don't feel too sorry for me! If I had the chance, I’d do the same thing again” he said with a light smile.
Alexandria was shocked to say the least, “What? After everything that happened to you? After your parents and fake friend? Why?”
“Kim and Hirra,” he said softly. Alexandria’s mind stopped for a moment but Shadows continued, “I don’t even want to think what would have happened to those two, especially Hirra, if I wasn’t there as a villain at the right time and place.”
She smiled at the last bit, but still pulled him into a tight hug. "I’m so happy you found Kim and Hirra, but I wish you hadn't had to go through all that for that. It just sounds so terrible, and nobody deserves that, especially not someone as sweet and kind as you." Shadows clung to her before pulling away in slight embarrassment.
"Gosh, I'm clinging to you like a toddler when I don't even know your real name," he said, annoyed with himself.
Alexandria looked at him for a moment and then said one word. "Alexa."
He looked up at her in confusion. "What?"
"My name is Alexa. You don't have to give me yours, but I would like to have it some day."
He thought for a moment, wondering if he trusted her before realizing: He had let her babysit his children. He had given her one of his biggest secrets freely; very few people knew about his past. And she trusted him enough to give him part of her civilian name. So he obviously trusted her. "Lukas. My name is Lukas."
Alexa smiled at him before her phone suddenly pinged. "Well, it was nice talking to you, Lukas. Very lovely name, by the way. But I'm afraid I have to go or my sidekick will come looking for me." She moved to the window, which he unlocked with a button on his watch, before waving. "Bye! Also, don't read all the notes I wrote, they're stupid and embarrassing."
Lukas was absolutely going to read those notes, but all he did was nod and reply, "I’m absolutely going to read those notes.” The crime-fighter groaned. “Have a nice night, Alexa." As soon as she was out the window and sight, he rushed to the nightstand the flowers were on and collected all the crumpled notes on it.
"Dear Shadow Wraith, I think you're really cute and it seems like you maybe feel the same? You don't have to or anything but my sidekick is very smart so it seems likely. But anyways —" the note cut off.
He read every single one, and determined 3 main things.
One: Alexa feels her sidekick is one of the smartest people in the world (how sweet!).
Two: Alexa also thinks that about Lukas (that made him blush).
Three: Lukas is very sweet/cute/adorable/kind/amazing/etc (which also madke him blush, though he smiled a bit since he knew the confession made her blush as well).
Thank goodness he had such a good security system, otherwise they may have never had this talk and he would have had to wait even longer to get her name (not that he would've minded).
—
Alexa was met with an interrogation when she got back to her and her sidekick's shared room.
"Where were you?" Sadie asked as soon as she entered.
"I was on patrol, like I said." Alexa calmly replied, taking off her mask and grabbing some sweatpants and a shirt to change into (she had come in through the window, which Sadie had apparently been expecting).
Sadie immediately raised her eyebrows. "You sure about that?" Alexa simply nodded in response, closing the door to the bathroom so she could change and quickly use the toilet. When she came back out, Sadie was on her bed, staring her down.
"Well, I called the agency to double-check since when you do late patrols you typically only do small ones for just an hour or two. It’s 12:15. You left around when the text was sent, so 8:57. It had been over 2 hours, so I was worried, so I called the agency at 11:47. They said you hadn't done a patrol since earlier today.” Sadie stared her down. “Where were you?"
Alexa was caught, but had a plan to get out of it. "Isn't that my business?" she rhetorically asked.
Sadie hummed before answering. "Yes, but you don't have to lie. All you had to say was 'I'm going out for a while', but you felt the need to cover your tracks. Now the question is, what tracks are you covering?" she asked, brown eyes drilling into the other hero's soul.
"Well, why don't you tell me, Detective Sadie?" Alexa asked, dodging the question.
"Well, your flowers are missing.” She nodded in the direction of the empty vase. “Were you giving them to someone? A date, perhaps?"
Alexa had 3 moves here. Tell the truth, say she had a date, or come up with a different lie.
"I didn't have a date. I was bringing them back to my friend, Firefly, you know, the florist, since they were from a new supplier and she wanted to check for quality." Lie, it was from the same usual supplier and had been extras from a wedding. "I forgot to bring them back, but they'll probably want to do a few experiments on them anyway, so it's fine."
Sadie blinked at her, an impassive poker face put on. "Fine. I'm not sure if I believe you, but it's your business. Just don't do anything dangerous… though I'm not really sure how flowers could be dangerous. Maybe you could fasten them into an arrow, like in that one Norse myth." Oh, Alexa had an opening.
"Could you tell me that one again? I can't fully remember it…"
Sadie leapt up and grabbed a rolling whiteboard from the other room. "Okay, so listen." She began drawing a few images on the board. They'd probably be up a bit late, but tomorrow they were planning to take a day off anyway, so it wasn't too bad.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
#hero x villain#heroes and villians#hero x villain community#flustered villain#flustered hero#snippets#Alexandria#Lukas#the sidekick club#tw breaking and entering#snippet
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Love Island the Game S5 Ep.30-32 Spoilers:
The way I literally gasped when Meera came out to hold Alfie’s hand??? I mean I’m really over Alfie not communicating and things, but Meera??? I was not expecting her again, tbh. However, Meera constantly like… glaring at MC and stuff even when you try to be nice? It’s a bit weird.
The way I literally cheered when Finn came back for Kat? Not going to lie, I cheered. Which made my conversation with him later rather disappointing, because he has feelings for MC too? Had to LET HIM DOWN. ….I mean, I did it nicely, but still. As mad as I am at Kat for what happened with Alfie, I can’t say she’s ever really swayed her head, and we saw some pretty vulnerable sides to her during Casa, so… it’s hard to do that to her. Like she kinda did it to me, but I can’t really do it to her.
Eddie, throwing a tantrum? ..I wish I could say I expected better, but truthfully, I can’t. He’s literally so entitled and I’m so glad he’s gone. Also, like… he claimed that he did all this good by Dana, and I’m like… where? And also, he said I was the only one who ever did good by him but also… BITCH WHERE? When he tried to stir the pot before going, I was like nah. Get outta here.
Gabi’s personality took a hard turn when Suresh came back and she had a point to prove, and I was all for her clearing the air and fixing it, but uh. She didn’t, really. She didn’t achieve squat? And now Dana’s all jealous and Lulu, Suresh, and Gabi are having hushed chats and I’m just like…. Gabi, I’m so sorry you have to come to your acceptance phase of your Suresh grief, but you gotta, girl.
Speaking of Suresh, seems like he’s onto yet another. Okay. Good for him, but it does seem like he’s running from commitment. 🤷 Also Lulu may seem okay, but she seems a little secretly cutthroat? Like I think I respect her out of fear?
Dana. She’s really a bit worse for wear here and honestly, there’s not much I can do to convince her here. It’s tough for me to read where Gabi’s at.
I switched with Nicolas, which, THANK GOD, because Suresh coming back with Lulu, and Dana coming back with Gabi, and Alfie coming back with Meera??? THAT’S A YIKES FEST. Nicolas has been kind of scheme-y: he wants us to be perceived well as a couple so, we can stay on the show. Matching outfits, talking up our bond more than it is so we appear stronger… And I’m not going to lie, I’m enjoying playing these roles with him. For once, we’re playing the game, and while we may not be a power couple for real yet… in his own words, he wants to buy more time to see if we could be. And I’m on board with that. And for once, we’ve got someone who seems 100% in our corner and fun to be around and gossip and plot with. He has been saying he doesn’t mind the baggage, and he’s interested in the drama. To be honest, rather than alarming, I find it to be telling of his desire to face things head on and communicate them. I massively respect that. He is giving massive trickster vibes, but I’m liking that about him actually.
#ramblings and dr pepper#litg eitv#litg season 5#litg s5#litg ex in the villa#ex in the villa#love island the game 2#nicolas litg#litg suresh#litg lulu#litg gabi#litg dana#litg kat#litg alfie#litg meera#litg eddie#litg finn
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"Oh, well" Frank said "This is a surprisingly boring day."
"We could play a game." Dewey sugested, mostly because being a secret sub-librarian is very lonely.
"Maybe." Ernest said a rising eyebrow in Kit's direction, she took her atention of her book to look back at him annoyed. Dewey asked to himself if the two of them would ever stop disliking each other. "It has to be all of us?"
"Of course. I want my three favorite people on it." Dewey said and with that specific composition of words neither Kit nor Ernest felt apt to object.
"I imagine you already have a game in mind, D?" Frank asked after a short moment. The lack of moviment in the hotel making him antsy.
"I have some." Dewey said smilling. "Spending one's teenager years as a mistery means I lost a lot of teen drinking games and is never too late to remediate it."
Ernest opened his mouth, probably to insult VFD for putting his baby brother in this situation to beging with, but stopped. Dewey won't enjoy the comentary and it wasn't as if he and Frank got much better anyway.
"I suppose we gonna need alcohool?" Frank asked already going to one of the sub library exits on the direction of the wine cellar.
"I guess." Dewey said. He hadn't exactally gave much though about the whole thing, being merely nostalgic and curious of the possibilities he missed over the years. "Any game sugestion?"
"None of the kissing ones, of course." Ernest said. "The only thing I would despise more than incest would be to kiss Kit."
Kit showed him the finger. Though she nodded in agreement. "I don't think, Dew, was even thinking about kissing games, asshole."
Dewey was obviously not thinking about kissing games. Ernest knew it, he just had a bad sense of humor sometimes.
And that was how the four of them ended up siting in a circle in the floor of a secret sub-library playing Never Have I Ever.
▫️
"Never have I ever commited murder."
Dewey said completly forgeting who he was playing with. He was a light drinker and constantly reading novels were characthers heroically or circunstancially didn't took lifes.
Ernest, Kit and surprinsingly Frank all drank.
"And you two have the gal to question my morality." E said. Frank humfed, still seeing his kills as way more moraly explainable.
"Just cause we also did imoral shit, doesn't mean your morality doesn't suck." Kit rebuted and E was annoyed she had a fair point.
Dewey drank because he was afraid of the chaos he caused. Frank mouthed "you killed people before?" in betrayed shock and drunkily panicking Dewey responded with "Esme says I killed a lot of people of boredom." Frank patted his shoulder. Kit and Ernest were too busy bounding over murder to notice the interaction.
It was imoral that Dewey was happy his girlfriend and his brother were disliking each other less thanks to unaliving some possible not inocent people?
▫️
"Never have I ever romantically kissed a Denoument."
Frank said. It was totaly revenge over Kit's "never had I ever spoiled my cover as a hairdresser because Jacques wrote a hit mean review about my salon in the fashion colune" . It happened ONCE! And Jacques was really mean. He had even asked Georgina's help with the review so it was extra harsh. What? Were they expecting that he wouldn't write a letter to the Daily Punctilio explaining his position?
Ernest laughed happily. As Kit angrily drinked. It was a good revenge.
▫️
"Never have I ever started a fire."
Ernest may have sayed it just for the chaos.
"You're cheating." Dewey pouted. "You can't just lie!"
"Not lying." He said and drank to prove his point.
"Why them?" Frank asked exasperately.
Kit was quietly drinking while sending him a death glare. He smilled.
"I had my reasons."
Besides it was a good wine.
▫️
"Never had I ever romantically kissed a Snicket."
Kit sayed. Dewey sended her a betrayed look while taking a sip. "Et tu, Kitty?"
"Sorry, Dew, I'm mostly out of things I haven't done at this point."
He nodded, smilling understanding. She felt a bit warm inside for no reason.
Frank dranked. No surprise there. Jacques is not as discreet as he likes to pretend he is.
Than Ernest drank and all hell as loose.
"Wow." She said. Maybe Jacques was actually discreet. It was a wrong move though 'cause now everyone was looking at Ernest shit eating grim.
"Did you also kissed Jacques?" Frank sayed. "Did he knew it was you?" He added worringly.
Ernest rolled his eyes. "That is a low blow, Frankie. I would never kiss someone under false pretence. Besides I never kissed Jacques."
Oh no.
"Oh no." Kit exclamed loudly.
Dewey looked at her than back at Ernest and said. "Wait, did you two kissed at some point?"
Ernest laughted. Kit panicked. Dewey was certain he discovered something he really didn't want to.
"Of course not, little brother. I'm gay, a word which here means-"
Oh no. Oh no.
Realization was drawning in everyone's faces.
"How?" Frank interrupted, getting out lf his own surprised shock.
"When?" Dewey asked curiosly.
"Why?!" Kit exclaimed in pain.
"Like everyone else does. The night after Beatrice and Bertrand's wedding. Why not?" He said simply. Still with an evil smille. "Do you guys have any more questions?"
"Was it good?" Frank asked, his old woman gossiper spirit waking.
"I'm not sure yet." Dewey sayed honestly.
"Absolutetly not." Kit answered exasperatly. Was that the feeling L had when she was dating Olaf?
Ernest smilled wilder.
She was soo repressing this night.
#a series of unfortunate events#asoue#sugar bowl generation#hotel denoument gang#ernest denouement#frank denouement#dewey denouement#kit snicket#traumatazing my baby kit#kit's bissexuality isn't mentioned but it is there#kit and ernest w|w m|m hoestility#idk what this is
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Scream VI
“Scream VI” starts off extremely promising, but ends up feeling like just another “Scream” sequel.
Sam Carpenter has moved to New York to look after her younger sister, Tara as she attends college. While Tara wants to forget about the Ghostface incident a year ago and just party like a college student, Sam seems to have difficulty moving on from it. Public opinion and baseless conspiracy theories shine a bad light on Sam, which is starting to chip away at her self-image. Her fears manifest once more as a new Ghostface takes up the mantle, swearing to prove that Sam is the murderer she thinks she is.
Just to be clear, I’m going to be spoiling things from this movie, so if you haven’t watched it already and you don’t want to be spoiled, then read this review after you’ve watched it. I usually don’t try to include spoilers in my reviews, but sometimes I feel like I have to in order to illustrate my points better. After how promising the previous movie was, I had high expectations for this film. The beginning of this movie delivered the creativity that I’ve come to enjoy from this film so much. We all know that the Scream movies start off with a kill and that’s our introduction to the movie’s Ghostface. Sometimes the formula is shaken with the multiple fake-outs and this time is no different. I’ll give it to these new requel movies. They know how to open a Scream movie extremely well. The first one had Tara being the first survivor of the initial Ghostface attack and going on to be a main character for the rest of the movie. This movie has an instant reveal of Ghostface, only to establish a brand new Ghostface. It’s so much fun and I was so excited to see what this movie had in store. The rest of the movie was a bit lackluster. It was littered with underdeveloped characters that acted as cannon fodder. I know these movies always have these types of characters, but this movie fails to develop any of them. Mindy has a new girlfriend in this movie who dies, but when that scene happens, I felt nothing because she wasn’t a real character. I didn’t know anything about her other than the fact that she was dating Mindy. The same goes for the reveal of the Ghostface killers. I like the idea of shaking up the formula once more and introducing a mastermind behind the two Ghostface killers, but they were so underdeveloped that I didn’t care. One of them just likes having sex and the other one was here throughout the whole movie contributing virtually nothing. Dermot Mulroney’s performance as Detective Wayne Bailey left much to be desired. I thought his line deliveries were off like he was overacting with his face for too much of the movie’s runtime. The whole movie just felt aimless because I couldn’t really play along and try to solve the mystery. This movie gave me nothing to work with. I will say, the action set pieces were really great in this movie. They’re probably the best in the entire franchise. The problem was that it felt like this movie was just going from one set piece to another without much thought. This movie, like the last, also flirts with the idea of Sam becoming the evil killer that everything thinks she is. I would really like to see something meaningful come out of this hinting because it just feels like the movie uses it to try and seem interesting without actually committing to the idea. I would love to see the fall of Sam and watch her become the best Ghostface there ever was because she’s had experiences that no other Ghostface has had. Also, I don’t understand why she had to put on the Ghostface costume at the end. It felt out of nowhere. I thought it was going to lead to the public catching her killing the Detective while wearing the costume and putting two and two together. It would’ve been an excellent cliffhanger and I’m sad that the end of the movie basically says it's done with this whole killer Sam idea. I’m also bummed out about Sydney Prescott not being in this movie. I know that it’s because of a pay dispute behind the scenes, and I feel bad that she feels like she wasn’t being paid what she was worth. It still just sucks to not see the main character that started this whole thing off. I hope she comes back around in the next movie and gets a proper send-off because if she never returns to the franchise, it feels like a lackluster way to finish Sydney’s story.
★★★
Watched on March 9th, 2023
#Scream VI#March#2023#Horror#Slasher#Thriller#Mystery#R#Tyler Gillett#Matt Bettinelli-Olpin#March 2023#3 stars
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Hi! Thank you for all your hard work! Despite all the problems, GK had a legacy of good characters and a very interesting background that can be poured on endlessly for inspiration. I have a question for you, if you do not mind. When Tsurumi mentions that Ogata's grandfather was "in the military" too, he was refering to Hanazawa Kojiro's father right? I don't think Noda ever said much beyond what was needed for the story about them, so do you have any thoughts about the family itself or even Kojiro's younger days? Thank you for your time!
Thank you for enjoying my work!
Yes, “Golden Kamuy” has an awesome universe, both in term of characters and setting ideas as well as psychological deep. I love this part of this story.
I don’t mind questions, only, sadly, not always I know the answers to them... -_-;;
In regard to that scene yes, the implication seems to be that Tsurumi is referring to Hanazawa’s father both in the scanlations and in the official translation.
The Japanese text refers to him as
‘Hanazawa Chūjō No chichi-ue’
花沢中将の父上
“Lieutenant General Hanazawa’s honorable father” (.ue is a honorific that denotes a HIGH level of respect)
So yeah, it’s Hanazawa’s father. Pity we don’t really get info about Tome’s father instead. Iwould have enjoyed them.
In regard to my speculations about Hanazawa, I don’t really have much.
What follows is a bit o my speculations, tied to the canon info we know, but as I didn’t really study him in deep (even Noda doesn’t seem to care much about him, in fact, apart for his death scene, he always recycled the same image of him OVER AND OVER and never let him voice his opinions again) don’t expect it to be that accurate.
So, Hanazawa.
I would say he was probably the second son, (due to his name being ‘Kōjirō’ where ‘jirō’ was usually a name ending given to the second son).
As Hanazawa is based on Nogi Maresuke (although, visually, he looks more like Ōkubo Toshimichi), my guess is that he was likely meant to have a similar backstory, though not a similar personality since Nogi Maresuke wanted to commit Seppuku and was stopped while Hanazawa’s Seppuku wasn’t exactly something he did of his own volition.
Long story short, I believe that, same as Nogi, although Hanazawa was the second son, his older brother died, so he became the heir.
His friendship with Koito Heiji (who’s based on Tōgō Heihachirō) starts early due to their families being close despite one being in the navy and the other being in the army.
Hanazawa would have preferred to become a scolar than a soldier but, being the heir, this wasn’t an option. With time though, he’ll grow to become more devoted to his job, starting to think of it as his true vocation.
My guess is Hanazawa’s father was cold, in the kind of way that was typical to that time period so not cruel or anything, but definitely not someone like Koito Heiji either. When his older son was alive, he didn’t really care much about Hanazawa because he had a heir, when he died, he put pressure on him so that he’ll start behaving properly.
Hanazawa is roped into a marriage of convenience with his wife, Hiro, while he was a Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Guards (近衛歩兵第一連隊長 ‘Konoe hohei dai ichi-ren tai’). He doesn’t care about her beyond what his duties required and, as his father dies, short after, this gives him the chance to spend his free time in Asakusa in a small act of rebellion, where he met Tome, who was working as a geisha.
Hanazawa favours her, partly because his wife isn’t managing to give him a child, which reflects negatively on him too. partly because he can have deeper discussions with her than with Hiro.
Tome deludes herself this means something, and when she gives his a male son she thinks he might consider rejecting his wife and marry her. Hanazawa (despite being happy this proves if he and his wife not having children is not his fault) never planned to do so and thinks its insanity from Tome’s part to do so much as consider he might do so.
This, and the fact Hiro manages to give him a son, persuaded him to cut all ties with Tome and her baby son in a rather rude manner.
Tome won’t accept this and continue to live in her delusion.
Hanazawa and Hiro continue to be a poor match but, outside, they perform in an appropriate manner, Hanazawa becoming more and more interested in rising in his role.
Eventually Hanazawa is moved to the 7th division. Of course, since it’s not fun if sons don’t repeat the mistakes of their fathers, Hanazawa wants his son, Yuusaku, to follow his footsteps in the army, raising him with strictness and trying to push on him his beliefs, Hanazawa hoping Yuusaku, his very obedient son who’s starved for affection, would become the regimental flag bearer.
Hiro disagrees but doesn’t voice her opinion, she merely plot to get Yuusaku a nice girl so he won’t have to be the flag bearer.
Hiro’s action further cause Hanazawa to be displeased in her as her actions might put in question even hi own patriotism.
Unable to stop his wife, to avoid a scandal, Hanazawa is forced to contact Okuda, which further displeases him.
Hiro’s plan doesn’t work and, as Yuusaku becomes flagbearer, this leads to her and Hanazawa to further distance each other. After Yuusaku’s death she won’t be waiting for Hanazawa at home, which means when Ogata will drop by to have a last chat with his father, Hanazawa will be alone.
Too proud to listen to others and too career obsessed he’ll make many mistakes in the Russo-Japanese war, the worst of all, undervaluing Tsurumi due to the latter low rank and family fallen into disgrace.
He was however a person who wouldn’t have let Tsurumi blackmail him, so Tsurumi decided to simply move him out of the picture, understanding soon he wouldn’t be able to manipulate him through neither of his sons the way he did with Koito Heiji.
Thus Hanazawa dies and Tsurumi even writes for him a nice note to deliver to Heiji then, as if moving him out of the way wasn’t enough, uses Central’s reaction to his death to further win the loyalty of his men. Yodogawa, who replaces Hanazawa, is easier to blackmail and manipulate so really, everything goes in Tsurumi’s way just fine as he sets up to replace Hanazawa for the control of Hokkaido’s army.
Sources of interest for more Hanazawa info/speculations might be the wikipedia pages of the man who inspired him, Nogi Maresuke (although, visually, he looks more like Ōkubo Toshimichi).
Also in regard to Nogi Maresuke and his parallelisms with Hanazawa @osomanga used to have many more awesome posts on him, his sons and that time period, though I can’t track them anymore. Maybe tumblr swallowed them in their mad and senseless flagging and I don’t know if osomanga will ever make an appeal to unflag them or if they just preferred to erase them.
An interesting and very good post dealing with Hanazawa is the one of @prancing-uboot who has a more positive view than me about him and who studied what might have been Hanazawa's life much more in deept than I did and with a good reference to historical facts.
I’m afraid I don’t know any other post about Hanazawa, though, if there’s more, people is welcome to give me a head up.
Thank you for your ask!
#Hanazawa Koujirou#Ogata Hyakunosuke#Ogata Tome#Hanazawa Yuusaku#Hanazawa Hiro#Koito Heiji#Tsurumi Tokushirou#Okuda Hidenobu#Ask
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A Curse In Your Name - Chapter 44 - Double Dare
“Hey, Mika-Chan; what do you think of these..?!”
Asked Saturo after trying on yet another pair of ridiculous sunglasses; these ones pink and in the shape of clouds that his eyes made it look like the blue sky was peering through.
“They look just as stupid as the last ones…”
She replied, having already had to have dealt with him trying on the heart shaped ones, and some laughably undersized ones that looked like they were out of The Matrix.
“Oh; come on! You haven’t liked any of the ones I’ve tried..!”
Complained Satoru, taking off the glasses so she could get a glimpse of his sickening blue eyes; the colour so bright she had no choice but to look away.
“Maybe it’s because your taste in accessories is shit..?”
She suggested, the boy looking thoroughly insulted at the very implication, but Satoru was hardly the pinnacle of fashion.
“Is not!”
He objected, only for her to tow him out of the store, no longer interested in playing dress up with a 6’4” Barbie when they were supposed to be looking for Getou.
“Hey! I was gonna buy those!”
Protested Satoru, hands reaching out to grab ahold of the glasses as she dragged him by the back of the shirt into the street.
“Trust me; I’m doing you a favour…”
She replied, already knowing that he had quite the sunglasses collection, none of which he actually used aside from his current blue pair.
“You’re a real killjoy, you know that?!”
Satoru continued to gripe, reluctantly following her through the crowds as she tried to work out where to check next.
“Have you ever considered that not everyone wants to be an accomplice to your dumbassery..?”
She asked, more concerned with where that damn Curse had gone than Satoru’s feelings.
She hadn’t seen that mutated bug for at least half an hour, and at this rate she’d probably lost it forever.
“It’s not dumbassery if it’s fun; and you are no fun, Mika-Chan…”
Replied Satoru; the boy still pushing the ‘good times’ angle, ignoring the fact that this was meant to be a mission and not a shopping spree.
“I’m plenty of fun…”
She disagreed, already knowing there was really no point in arguing, but she was bored, and at least it was entertaining.
“Pffff..!”
Scoffed Satoru, the sound coming out more like a raspberry, but then when had she expected him to be mature?!
“What’s so funny?”
She asked, threading her way through another dense patch of tourists as they stared up at Takeshita Street’s neon lights like moths to a flame with half the IQ.
“You?! Fun?! I don’t think you know the meaning of that word!”
He laughed as if the very concept was absurd to him, Satoru so used to taking his entire life as a joke, that anyone who didn’t was a stick in the mud.
“I thought we had fun the other night…”
She replied, lowering her voice ever so slightly as she let her hand brush against his, Satoru’s neck turning a subtle shade of pink beneath his collar.
“Ehem… That was different and you know it…”
He cleared his throat as he replied, looking ever so slightly embarrassed to be reminded of his submissive display in the light of day.
It seemed Satoru Gojo didn’t enjoy it so much when it wasn’t him doing the shameless flirting.
“So what exactly can I do that you’d consider ‘fun’?”
She asked, willing to indulge him this once if it meant shutting him up for a bit.
“Well; you coooouuuulllld…-“
He began to drawl, and she could already tell it was going to be something stupid and probably illegal.
“I’m not committing a felony…”
She told him; already seeing his face drop, before yet another smile began to spread there.
“Or any weird sex acts.”
She added for good measure, because Satoru was a kinky bastard who saw no problem in double daring her to do the dirty in public.
“Well; how else are we supposed to have any fun?!”
Lamented Satoru; his face resembling a petulant child in levels of poutiness and cuteness.
“Be creative! I’m sure you’ll come up with something…”
She replied, eager to prove to both him and herself that there was more fun in life that didn’t include handcuffs and a stolen police uniform.
“Then how about we go in there..?”
Suggested Satoru, the tall blonde pointing towards perhaps the only worse idea he could have other than public indecency.
Saturo was pointing at what otherwise looked like a very bright and colourful shop that seemed to sell raunchy cosplays; that was, until you looked closer and realised that wasn’t the only raunchy items they were selling.
“Oh no! Absolutely not happening…”
She refused point blank, already having her mind up that she wouldn’t be caught dead with him in there, no matter how many times he quadruple dared her.
——————————————————————
“ARRROOOOOOOOOO!”
The sound of Megumi’s Demon Dog was both terrifying and exhilarating; the signal that both him and Nobara were safe coming as a great relief to her fretting heart.
But still; she had Yuji to worry about, the kid’s fist still being held hostage by an extremely dangerous and malignant Curse, whilst the pair of them were rendered completely powerless by its attacks.
Yet they had a back up plan; a horrible, unthinkable back up plan, if only Yuji had the will to do it.
“What a pain this brat is…”
Rumbled a low, demonic voice that haunted her nightmares and plagued her dreams; Yuji clearly having bitten the bullet and switched out with Sukuna like she’d suggested.
“He he he…”
Chuckled the Fingerbearing Curse; the sound more out of curiosity as it tilted its head with slight interest, the creature clearly picking up on the sudden change in nature of the person in front of it, Sukuna’s spirit warping and changing Yuji’s form until he looked more like a man masquerading in a kid’s body.
“Without a doubt, you’re the most annoying little wretch I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with-“
Growled Sukuna; still clearly complaining about what he felt was an unfortunate vessel for him to occupy, only for the Fingerbearer to reach out a try and touch him.
“Hold on! I’m talking here…”
Interjected Sukuna, reaching out to almost companionably pat the Curse on the shoulder; his fingers miraculously growing back as the Fingerbearer instantly froze on contact as if paralysed.
“Now; I should probably teach that damn brat a lesson for thinking he can tell me what to do, but if I go after his friends, he’s only gonna switch back…”
Mused Sukuna, thinking out loud as he paced contemplatively; the image of the muscular Curse stretching and filling out Yuji’s clothes disarming to see as she did her best to lie down and play dead without notice.
“But if I can’t kill the brats; maybe something else can…”
He continue to drawl; those dark red eyes widening with a jolt of inspiration, Sukuna turning back to the Curse to address it again.
“Hey; you come with me and help me get rid of these kids…”
He ordered, the King of Curses clearly having some sort of dominance over his subjects as he loosened his hold over the Curse.
“No-!”
She cried out, too tired and drained to even move at this point, but she couldn’t just let them walk out of here and hurt her kids.
“Sweetheart; I almost forgot you there…”
Crooned Sukuna; those blood red eyes flicking to her with veiled amusement, the Curse approaching where she lay limply on the floor.
“S-Sukuna…”
She attempted to speak; her adrenaline beginning to wear off as the pain of her broken ribs started to kick in, each painstaking breath like agony in her lungs.
“Look at you… Looks like this Curse roughed you up pretty bad…”
He grinned sadistically as he crouched at her side, his clawed fingertips reaching out to seize her face roughly, letting his thumb run over her lips till it smeared the blood there.
“Perhaps I should fix that for you..?”
He mused; the phrasing reminding her uncomfortably of Gojo as his hand moved to cup her face, the gesture equally as unnerving, only to be interrupted by a wild slash from the Fingerbearer.
“You fool…”
Spat Sukuna, catching the Curse’s clawed hand in his own, Yuji’s bloodied stump regenerated until his hand had returned.
“You think you can take me unawares…”
He continued to growl as he rose to his feet once more; his grip tightening around the Curse’s hand until she could hear the crack of bone, its fingers bending back in gruesome and unnatural ways.
“Uh hahah Uh hahaha-!”
Cackled the Curse frantically; it’s laughter warping into screams as Sukuna effortlessly crushed its hand in his grip.
“It seems I’ll have to remind you of your place…”
Sukuna spoke, opening his palm only for an insanely powerful torrent of Cursed Energy to be released, the sheer force of it knocking the Curse flying in a way even Satoru would be envious of.
Yet even with all Sukuna’s might, the Fingerbearer remained standing, the sick Curse cackling gleefully as if this was what it wanted all along.
“It seems our conversation will have to wait until later, my pet…”
Said Sukuna, his eyes still fixed on the Curse as he reached out to grab hold of her; her world suddenly sent spinning as he hoisted her up and over his shoulder like a rag doll.
“You’ll have to excuse the positioning, though I have to say, I’m enjoying the scenery…”
Bemused Sukuna, his strong shoulder forcing her ribs to ache even more, the pain far outweighing her concern that the King Of Curses now had a uninterrupted view straight up her skirt.
“Now… back to the battle…”
He growled, instantly leaping into action in a move that jolted the breath out of her lungs, his hand reaching out to grab hold of the Fingerbearer’s face before slamming him straight into the concrete.
“Scrieeeeehhhhehehe!”
The Curse cried, no longer able to laugh as the sheer force of his body hitting the ground caused it crack and splinter, Sukuna standing above it with her braced over his shoulder like a prized pig.
“Do your worst, Curse…”
Sukuna challenged arrogantly, slamming his foot down hard on the concrete so it shattered beneath him, her body suddenly weightless as they fell.
“A-..!”
She opened her mouth to scream, but found no air would come out, her breath stolen either by her injuries or the Curse beneath her, even as the floor below rapidly approached at the speed of light.
“Hheheh..!”
Cackled the Fingerbearer hysterically, it’s body also hurtling through the air, it’s hand lashing out to attempt to hit Sukana again, only for it to be ripped clean off.
“Why are you even trying so hard..?”
Sukuna posed a question to the other Curse; Mikasama’s body no longer feeling quite so weightless as she felt his hand wrap around her wrist, her body suddenly pulled back until she found herself sitting in the King Of Curses’ lap.
“Can’t you tell I’ve already disarmed you..?”
Sukuna grinned from his position over her shoulder; one arm wrapped tightly around her waist, the other holding up said arm as it oozed and bleed from where he’d torn it off.
“Scriiiiieeeeeh!!”
The Curse squeeled, though whether it was from fury or from pain was getting harder to tell by the moment; the beast’s bloody stump spurting blood in the air like a sprinkler that was sure to drench her clothes.
“Don’t you think he’s hideously outmatched; my pet..?”
Asked Sukuna, his hand reaching up to cup her chin and force her to stare into those brilliant and bloody eyes.
She opened her mouth to reply; to give some token form of protest, only for the King of Curses to draw in, lips pressing down hard on her own until she could taste blood that she wasn’t sure came from her mouth or not.
“Don’t look so worried, wench. This is what you wanted…”
Chuckled Sukuna darkly, Mikasama now not so sure that she shouldn’t have taken her chance with the Fingerbearer.
#jjk#jjk fanfic#jjk fandom#jjk gojo#jjk geto#jjk sukuna#gojo satoru#satoru gojo#geto seguru#seguru geto#ryomen sukuna#sukuna ryomen#satoru gojo x oc#gojo satoru x oc#satoru gojo x seguru geto#gojo satoru x geto seguru#geto seguru x oc#seguru geto x oc#geto seguru x gojo satoru#seguru geto x satoru gojo#ryomen sukuna x oc#Sukana x oc#sukuna ryomen x oc
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Happy New Year
March, 21, 2024
For many years, I've held the belief that the true start of the year occurs around mid-March. I don’t know why; it’s just a feeling, I guess.
Harnessing the momentum of setting new year resolutions, I take this opportunity to delve deep into them. Last January, I must admit, proved to be quite a challenge, to say the least. I found myself grappling with thoughts as dark as those cold winter nights.
Having maintained sobriety for over a year now, I found myself contemplating antidepressants during that bleak January. However, after meditating on the idea, I resolved against taking anything, realizing that it could undermine my entire journey toward sobriety.
It often feels like as we near the finish line, obstacles intensify. It was a tough and painful period, but today I can confidently say that I am finally at peace.
I've attained profound self-awareness, gaining a comprehensive understanding of my inner world. My perspective on reality has changed tremendously, and I feel more grounded than ever before.
I frequently reflect upon my sobriety journey as it has utterly transformed my life. Contrary to my expectations, the journey was much harder than I thought it would be. Initially, I was naive. I believed that within 21 days or so, I would be 'fixed,' attaining complete inner peace.
In reality, the journey proved not only challenging but also rather mundane. Sobriety is not exciting, especially at first. After relying on cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol to enhance my life for many years, it's only natural that the first 12 months would be demanding. The difficulty lies in the inability to escape when life gets challenging.
A year ago, my life was completely different. I feel like I've made more changes and progress in the last twelve months than I did in the previous twelve years. A lot has changed; my relationships with the world and the people in my life underwent profound shifts. It became apparent who my true friends were, and letting go of certain people wasn’t easy; it was also necessary. Nevertheless, on a positive note, those significant relationships that I already had have notably improved, especially the relationship with myself.
There are a few things I wish I had known before embarking on this journey. Firstly, when I decided to part ways with my vices, I felt like a different person, and it seemed like most people in my life didn’t quite embrace the change. They missed the old me, and I found it tough to reconnect with them as deeply as before. It dawned on me that our relationships often relied heavily on those vices.
Secondly, everything became more vibrant and intense; my senses seemed to awaken. You know how they say quitting smoking can enhance your sense of taste? Well, quitting drugs and alcohol seemed to heighten my emotional sensitivity. This newfound hypersensitivity felt like having a superpower, though it could be a bit overwhelming at times.
Thirdly, it took me a while to realize, but eventually, I came to understand that food could be just as harmful as the substances I once leaned on.
Finally, I realized that the most addictive "drug" in my life wasn’t something I could smoke or drink; it was something I could create from within. My negative thoughts about the world and myself were impacting me (and those around me) far more than my old vices ever did. Negative thoughts are tough to shake off because they're readily available, free, highly addictive, and quite contagious.
I ended up depending on them as coping mechanisms or automatic reactions to tough situations. I realize that breaking away from those negative thinking patterns will take time, daily mindfulness techniques, and a whole lot of effort, but I'm committed to putting in the work.
I plan to use this space to document my journey toward complete sobriety, as I like to call it. Hopefully, it'll inspire at least one person to embrace a healthier, more mindful, and peaceful life. If I can drop all my vices in just a few months, so can you.
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Out of a Trillion
gif credit: @bestintheparsec
Part Fifteen of the Rough Day Series
Rating: Explicit
Word Count: 12.6K
Warnings: uhhhh so there is a bit of SMUT in this one, not too much and I imagine if you’ve made it this far then that won’t be too big of a deal LMFAOOO uh some ANGST and my attempt at HURT/COMFORT and also violence/blood/injury description, so look out for that!
A/N: I started writing this before the season finale aired and I know we all want a bit of goodness and softness after it, but hopefully this will be okay! I’ll start working on the next part tonight
***
Everything changes and yet somehow nothing does.
From that point on, it’s like… like you’re both just suspended in this perpetual state of wondering, waiting for the other shoe to drop. You know he said it’s up to you, but what the fuck? Look whenever you want? That’s way too much fucking pressure, he’s out of his mind. You’re not equipped to handle that, who does he think you are? Someone that can just… decide things?
And it’s not like you’re afraid of the commitment, or that you don’t want to look. You do, but every single time a moment comes, it just never… feels right. You don’t know what you’re waiting for, what feeling or meaning you’re expecting to magically present itself to you, but you can’t shake the idea that there should be more to it than just randomly deciding to open your eyes at some point, shouldn’t there? Din said there was no ceremony, nothing fancy, and he gave you permission to look because he said he’s not allowed to ask outright, whatever that means. It’s a standing offer because you guess he isn’t allowed to prompt it for some reason, but unfortunately, that leaves you in just about the shittiest position possible. Now everything falls to you—initiation, execution, and consequence—and Maker knows you’ve never been that great making decisions under pressure.
But you do want to look. Sort of.
Sort of. Because… well, this probably won’t make that much sense, but you’re afraid. Mostly for him. What if he’s making a mistake? It sounds stupid, but you’re afraid of what this means for him, the sheer perpetuity of this decision he’s now expecting you to make for the both of you. This isn’t your creed, not yet, and you feel like there’s still so much to learn. Not only about the Mandalorians and his culture, but about him. To know is to love, and so you’ve taken to asking any nonsensical question you can think of whenever he’s around. Though you weren’t expecting it at first, you’ve learned that he’ll always give you some sort of an answer. Some of the highlights include:
“How old are you?” (“I don’t know. Probably mid-forties, but there’s no way to tell anymore.”)
“You don’t know your birthday?” (No, I… think it was in the winter.”)
“What’s your last name?” (“Djarin.”)
“Do you have any freckles? Or moles, or birthmarks?” (“No, none that I’ve ever noticed.”)
“Do you cut your own hair?” (“Yes, but it’s been awhile.”)
“Do you have dimples?” (“I don’t smile in mirrors.”)
“Are your earlobes attached or detached?” (“What kind of question is that?”)
And so forth.
He also gives you so many fucking opportunities to look. One right after the other. You used to think Din was incredibly trusting with how often and voluntarily he decided to take his helmet off around you—he didn’t wait a single day once he first felt your hands on his skin to take it off in your presence. You remember being blown away by his unexpected willingness to part with it after hearing so many tales of the Mandalorians from Kuill; stunned by the ever-present ability to just open your eyes at any moment and that’s all it would ever take. One simple movement—life-altering, and so easy.
Now you find it nearly impossible, muscle memory just won’t allow it to happen naturally. And yet somehow, avoiding it is like stepping around land mines. He doesn’t trick you—he doesn’t set it up, he doesn’t surprise you or anything, but he’s… less careful. When the kid is awake, Din acts normal—he walks around fully armored, he goes on hunts and returns a few days later with a quarry, teaches you more self-defense techniques in the cleared out hull while the kid watches and giggles at your pain from the safety of his floating crib. But when the baby goes to sleep, he’s taken to lounging with the helmet off. He only used to remove it to eat, sleep, or… do other things with you, but he never used to take it off just… because. Now he does. Now he’s less careful about darkness, less strict about how much light he allows to touch him.
Now he shares every single meal he can with you, sitting just off to the side so you’ll never see him on accident but providing the free exercise thereof should you ever decide to seek it out purposefully. Now he interrupts you in the middle of your complaining about the bruises on your knuckles just to lift the rim of his helmet the slightest bit, lean down and give you a quick kiss, and then lower it back into position again before you can even catch a glimpse of the lips you only recognize by touch. Now he keeps the light on when he goes to take a shower, he leaves the door cracked.
It’s starting to give you heart palpitations, you swear. At one point, he lets you to see the entire back of his head and it nearly launches you into a fucking crisis.
It’s the middle of the night and he just got up from bed to use the restroom. He’s quiet enough not to wake you on the way over, but then across the hull and with his back to you, Din flicks the light on in the small bathroom without closing the door. Immediately rousing you after being so accustomed to the pitch blackness, you lift your head from the warmth of your shared pillow just enough to blearily make out the sight of him leaning a hand up against the wall and dropping his head down, and it takes you a second to realize that it’s actually him.
Soft, dark brown locks ending at his collar but somehow looking longer than you ever imagined when you’ve run your fingers through them. Cascading in shaggy, natural curls—tall, broad shouldered and trim waisted, naked as the day he was born. Your heart starts to squeeze in your chest and it just never stops, and for the second time in your life, you feel like he woke you up in the middle of the night just to show you one of the most beautiful things the universe ever decided to hide. There are trillions of people in this galaxy and how many of them have ever seen a sight that would compare? He’s just a man, you don’t think a single person would bat an eye. But to you, he’s… his own monument. Constructed in honor of everything dazzling that happens to lie just underneath something else. A breathtaking view, even from this angle, that could only ever mean something to you.
Would you ever be able to know him? No, that’s not phrased right. What you mean is that… over the course of all your time together, you remember thinking that if he ever took his helmet off, he could walk right by you and you’d never be able to tell the difference. He could be anybody. There are trillions of people in this galaxy and how many of them have the same features? Brown hair, brown eyes, sunkissed skin that only one person is allowed to kiss, not even the sun. Would you ever be able to know him?
Staring at his back in the blissful silence of hyperspace and feeling like the Maker himself is letting you in on one of his proudest secrets, some wild thought suddenly occurs to you that… you think you would. Somehow.
You can’t explain it and you’d never be able to prove it, but you feel like if you lined up every single person in this galaxy shoulder to shoulder, all however many trillions of them there are, then you could walk the entire length of it and somehow come to a stop right where he’s standing. Every single time. You feel like you could do it in the pitch black. You could do it with your eyes closed.
And, he must just be so gorgeous. Maybe not in a traditional sense (or maybe in one, you’d have no way of knowing), but mostly in just… the rawest sense imaginable. Not like how symmetry and straight lines are gorgeous, but how a mountain is gorgeous. Rocky, dangerous, steep, the product of constant conflict between two immovable sides. He’s got scars littering his body, one of which you remember giving him yourself with a cauterizer on his lower back. He holds himself like his shoulders could tell their own story if anyone ever asked them; built to endure, weighed down and made strong with a collection of burdens he chooses to strap to them, steel or otherwise.
You don’t want to close your eyes once Din slowly turns around to look at you, but it happens anyways and you’ve never been so disappointed in your own cowardice.
But then, in a way, it could just be your own self-preservation instincts taking over. No matter how stunning and life changing the spectacle would be, why would anyone ever stare directly at a supernova? For so long, you’ve told yourself that his face is something you shouldn’t ever see on principle, but in a way, you suppose it’s fair he put this decision on you because he always has, even from the very beginning. He trusted you to keep your eyes closed for months on end and you never had a problem with it, so why is it so hard to open them now that he’s given you permission?
A couple weeks of that, and you start to worry that you’re unintentionally rejecting him.
It’s the last fucking thing you want, but how can you avoid it? Din is… different, he notices. He’s made a living off of finding things that inherently don’t want to be found—he knows all too well what secrecy looks and sounds like, he’s quick and observant and you don’t stand a single fucking chance against him in all the years of his practice.
But strangely, for as often as you feel like you can figure out what he’s thinking without ever seeing his face—realizing what his intentions are ahead of time and not feeling slighted when he phrases things a certain way or just chooses not to speak at all—you never truly realized how much that extended back to you.
He knows you, too. He told you so.
For some reason, you didn’t even consider the possibility of it working just as well the other way around. That you could choose to stay silent, and he’d know why. You feel like the mystery of him just eclipses you in every single way that you don’t consider even yourself much of anything, much less something else to be contemplated and understood. While you wouldn’t necessarily qualify the conflict as not being ready to commit, he seems more than willing to respect it regardless and nothing about the way he treats you or interacts with you changes. Normally you’d say it’s like he forgot the whole thing ever happened, but it’s almost the exact opposite. Like he was just naturally expecting it from you.
Are you truly so predictable, you wonder? He said you’d say no. Was he right? You’re not saying no, you just… can’t remember the word for yes right now. It’s right there on the tip of your tongue and the harder you work for it, the more frustrated you become with your own inability to find it.
But, instead of waiting, you think Din just decides to continue the conversation with the promise to come back to you when you finally figure it out.
Sometimes, especially when he’s gone, you find yourself thinking about what moment you’d choose, if you could. Since you can never seem to find the right one naturally, how would it all go if you could construct everything yourself? Where would it be? Naboo? No, that’s too cheesy. One thing you and Din both have in common is your practicality, your respective propensities for wanting to tackle one thing at a time and not needing frills attached to something in order to find a deep connection to it, a personal value to it. You weren’t even bothered when he didn’t claim you as a girlfriend to Peli, that’s how reasonable you used to be about labels. Now you’re your own antithesis, trying to conjure meaning where there isn’t any just so you don’t feel like you’re the one who’s ripping it away. You want this decision to feel as permanent as it is. You want it to be a happy thing, something that happens when you’re both so in love that you can’t bear to have metal separating you any longer.
You think… you’ll just know it when the time comes.
***
“I have to leave,” comes Din’s hushed voice through the darkness, and even though it’s the first thing either of you have said in hours, it sounds frustrated. Like it’s been bothering him for awhile and he’s just now finally telling you. “I… fuck, I can’t stay here, I should’ve left a long time ago.”
You whine softly into the pitch black, turning your head into the pillow and curling your fingers into his hair. “But it’s still so early…”
“It’s mid-afternoon,” he groans back, dropping his forehead down against your skin and breathing hot air along it. “We’ve been parked here for hours, I don’t know how you can sleep so long.”
“I’m not sleeping,” you pout, before gently dragging your nails down his scalp and feeling his whole body shudder with it. “Earlier I was.”
“Mhm,” he murmurs, leaning down to give you one last long, slow kiss. You sigh when his tongue comes out and glides soft and hot against your lips, tightening your grip on his hair.
But soon he pulls away, lifting the covers from over his head and pushing up from between your spread legs. “This one shouldn’t take long,” he gruffs, planting both palms next to your head and kissing you once more in the darkness, dipping his tongue into your mouth this time. You moan softly and taste yourself on him, moving to wrap your arms around his broad shoulders, but he breaks the kiss and leans back before you can, preemptively avoiding the possibility of getting lost in it. “I’ll be back around dawn.”
You’ve known it was coming for hours now, so you’re able to play it off way better this time around. “Okay,” you breathe softly, dragging your palms up his bare chest as he lifts himself tall over your body. The slight disappointment underneath is so masterfully hidden, you’re almost positive you’re going to get away with it. “Be safe. Please.”
But then… well. Bounty hunter.
Din pauses for a moment like that in between your open legs, letting you slowly slide your hands down his ribs and over the lines of his stomach. You wait for him to move, find his clothes so you can get around and make some food, wake the kid up from his nap in an hour or so. Can’t stay in bed all day, no matter how much you wish you could.
Only, he still hasn’t moved and you start to become concerned. “Din?”
But then he suddenly groans like he just can’t help it, grabbing both of your spread legs and easily lifting them up. You make a sound of confusion as he maneuvers them until they’re pressed together and draped over one of his shoulders, and then his hips drop and push forward to slide himself thick and perfect into your blazing hot cunt.
Still drenched and swollen from cumming in his mouth so many times earlier, you gasp and he just groans louder, a ragged thing scraping out of his throat while you struggle through blind and unexpected euphoria to reach him. But you can’t—Din hugs your legs tight to his chest and settles in just like this, turning his head to drag soft lips and a hot tongue over your ankle before he starts fucking you. Right up against your g-spot, with your whole lower body in the way and preventing you from slowing him down.
You just have to clap both hands over your mouth just to keep quiet since you can’t reach him. You feel his teeth sink into the meat of your calf, hips pistoning far beyond your reach and it feels so fucking good that you almost don’t hear his gritted words against your skin.
“I have to go,” he groans, repeating it over and over until his voice begins to pull tight and it just sounds like a plea. “I have to go, I have to go, I h—have to… h-have to go, I have to, I have to, I have…”
***
When Din finally steps foot out of the ship, fumbling with his rifle and cursing quietly through the modulator, it’s the middle of the night some twelve hours later.
***
Steady…
Steady………
Fire.
—and… you blink as bark splinters.
Did you…? You look down at the blaster in your hand and then back to the ginormous charred tree trunk for a few seconds, wondering if you’re just seeing shit.
No, it’s real. You actually fucking did it. You…
… hit the target.
All of a sudden, your ecstatic giggle echoes loudly throughout the foresty autumn wonderland around you, reds and oranges and yellows crunching under your feet while you start to dance.
“Hey! See that, bug!?” You call out, shoving the blaster into your waistband and shimmying up to your enthralled audience of one, who just so happens to be smiling as wide as you are as he’s scooped up into your arms. “I hit the target, I hit the target,” you sing, beginning to sway the baby back and forth as he squeals, laughing while you bounce him. “No demon powers necessary, little man! I figured it out, I just have to use one hand instead of two. You can retire now, you’re the right age for—”
A twig snaps in the distance somewhere to your left, and you quickly spin around while reaching for the blaster behind your back.
Except all you see is a blue Twi’lek standing out amongst all the fall foliage, his hands cuffed behind his back and stumbling a few steps at a time while a considerably taller suit of beskar shoves him forward. You relax and immediately turn to look down at the ground, trying to bite your lip so you don’t smile too hard while they both approach. You did it—finally, you did it, you’re on top of the fucking universe right now.
You wait for them to pass by and move up the open metal ramp to the carbonite chamber, but then Din apparently decides to pause when he’s directly behind you, yanking the quarry to a sudden halt.
You know you should probably turn around to address them, but you can’t hide the happiness from your expression, it’s way too obvious. Though, after a moment, you decide to shyly turn to face the two men while continuing to bounce the baby in your arms, hoping that his and your matching expressions of excitement aren’t too terribly inappropriate right now.
Din looks from you to the splintered bark on the tree, and then back to you again, before slowly tilting the helmet up in a way that feels… proud of you.
“Congratulations,” he finally says, and you can hear the genuine smile hidden in the modulated drawl.
“Thank you,” you beam up at him, feeling the blood rush to your cheeks. “Was pretty awesome.”
“I’m sorry I missed it,” he tells you, and you don’t know why, but the tone of his voice makes you go so warm. It’s not like he’s openly flirting with you, but coupled with your giddiness and sounding like that in front of a bounty he caught in record time, it just makes your heart fucking throb for him.
“It’s alright,” you murmur, shuffling your feet through the crunchy leaves below and trying to play it as cool as possible. You have company. “I’ll be able to do it again.”
“Let’s see it, then.” He tips the helmet over at the tree, and you look between him and the unfamiliar quarry for a second, not used to Din just… ignoring their existence entirely for you. It’s not like the Twi’lek has said anything or inserted himself into the situation at all, but still. Din has one hand latched onto the cuffs behind his back to prevent him from booking it, but other than that, it’s like he’s pretending he’s not even there.
“Uh…” You immediately feel yourself get nervous. “I can… try.”
He nods one single time in silent encouragement, and you slowly turn to face the tree once more. The kid stays cradled in your arm while you reach for the blaster in your waistband, removing it and using your longest finger to flick the safety off with a practiced fluidity. Then, extending it out in front of you and taking advantage of your newfound strategy of only firing with one hand, you line up the sight and pull the trigger.
You wish you could say it hits. It would be so fucking cool and impressive if you hit the target like that, wouldn’t it? But it doesn’t hit. It misses, like usual. Miserably. And then an amused snort comes from behind you.
“Right stormtrooper, you are—” you hear an unfamiliar accent begin to snark, but the rest of it turns into a garbled howl the second Din jerks his elbow back to slam it in his face.
You whip around just in time to see a cascade of blood pouring down blue lips and sharp teeth—holy fuck. You gasp and take a step backwards with the kid, not horrified by the sudden display of violence (not after Din spent an hour teaching you how to do that, too) but not quite expecting it at that moment, either. But then, well… that’s the second time he broke a quarry’s nose for addressing you with disrespect. There was that other one he choked, you’re pretty sure—though you can’t remember exactly what initiated that.
Din yanks the bounty up the ramp without another word, leaving both you and the kid there to process while he shoves him through the hull and towards the carbonite chamber none too kindly. However, by the time he seals the quarry to his fate and eventually makes his way back to you, you just…
Fuck, you feel so stupid.
You shouldn’t even bother, what’s the point? All that practice and nothing to show for it. If you can’t even hit a stationary target with the pressure of others watching, what makes you think you’ll have any hope at all in a situation where you actually need to shoot? Are they gonna stand still for you? Are they gonna be as wide as a fucking treetrunk? You’re horribly embarrassed, so downtrodden in the face of a cruel taunt that you don’t even want to look at Din when he steps in front of you.
“Hey, just try it again,” he says without delay, but the damage has already been done. It’s not his fault, you’re just… not the kind of person who is meant to shoot a blaster, maybe.
“Ah… it’s alright,” you look out and smile sadly at the line of trees surrounding you, wondering how it’s possible that you only managed to hit one of them this whole time. You don’t see it, but Din quickly touches the tips of his fingers to the side of his helmet twice before you look back at him. “I hit it earlier. I did, I promise. You can see the mark if you look.”
His glove reaches out to brush your hair back, so unbelievably gentle after using the same arm to shatter bone just a few minutes ago. “I know you did. It was a perfect shot, you hit dead center. I see it.”
“I did it with one hand, that’s why I tried the thing,” you mumble stupidly, looking down at your feet. Dumb. Dumb.
A strand of your hair is tucked behind your ear. “Wish I was here.”
You glance over at him, feeling your expression suddenly go soft with a wave of affection. It stops all the harsh criticisms, halting your negativity in its tracks and replacing it with just… soft, abstract things. Mostly just warm, nonsensical fluff, but one clear and resounding thought breaking through. You wish he was here, too.
“Maybe I’ll get good at it eventually,” you sigh, slowly handing him the blaster with the barrel pointed down and away from both of you. Din carefully takes it from you, tucking it away somewhere on his utility belt while you gaze out at the designated target and victorious char mark decorating it. “Or hopefully just okay at it at some point. I guess I just need to practice more, right?”
“That’s right,” he tells you warmly, catching your free wrist. “Try using this one when you do.” And then a lightweight piece of metal is gently pushed into your empty hand.
Your expression furrows while you quickly look down at it, and—
You go utterly still at the gift, not even knowing what to think.
The first thing that you notice is the craftsmanship. Brilliant, structurally flawless, the perfect size to fit your hand. You don’t recognize the specific kind of metal that was used—definitely not beskar—but you think it might be constructed from the same material as Din’s old armor. Dull silver, but with reflective chrome filigree accents around the handle, trigger, and safety. It’s uniquely constructed and unlike any weapon you’ve ever seen before—no hard lines or edges, just a soft fluidity to the design that’s so aesthetically pleasing, it doesn’t really even resemble a blaster at all.
You can feel the visor silently studying your reaction while you continue marveling, noticing something new every time you look. The safety is towards the back of the chamber, just like he said it’d be. The sight is electronic, and you examine the way it’s built directly into the barrel.
Are those extra magnets on the inside? Is this able to micro-adjust the plasma release for the best shot? Holy stars, it must have cost a fortune.
“Din, this is…” you can’t decide where you want to look—the gorgeous crafting, the custom design, or him. Standing so close to you, not saying a word while you search for the right ones. “It’s so beautiful, I…”
“Was made for you,” he murmurs. “Had to be.”
You look back down at the blaster to stop your eyes from tearing up. He didn’t have to do this. This is so… sweet, such a lovely thing to do. Don’t cry, don’t cry—
“What is this?” You ask breathlessly instead, rotating the gun until he can see the symbol branded on the handle. You recognize that it’s his signet, but you never bothered to ask him what it’s called, you never saw it as your place. It’s an animal of some sort, one with a giant spike attached to its skull, and you’re glad you’ve never come face to face with one.
“It’s a mudhorn,” he answers quietly. “They’re… dangerous animals. Fiercely protective, preferring solitude. The kid saved me from one a few days after I met him. It’s… the mark of my clan.”
How fitting, you think, and an honor. Perfect for him, and a bone-deep reminder of your two favorite people in the galaxy on your hip wherever you go.
“Thank you,” you tell him, hoping the sincerity in your voice sounds anywhere close to how you feel. You haven’t even had it in your hand for longer than a minute and it’s already your prized position, the most important thing you’ve ever called yours.
Din nods and takes a small step back. “Now hit the target.”
Feeling invigorated and renewed in every single way, you keep the kid tucked firmly in one arm while raising your blaster with the other. The safety clicks off and your back straightens, chin lifting until something about the angle feels… right. The trigger moves easily under your fingertip, and there’s almost no kickback considering how light the weapon is. What you’re not expecting is the pure white beam of plasma shooting out of the barrel—unlike any blaster you’ve ever seen before—but then the immediate sight of it hitting the tree dead center sends a roar of triumph through your ears. Fuck yes.
“Look at that!” Din calls out over the kid’s happy squeal, and there’s nothing you can do to stop your loud whoop of victory. Even though you know it only hit with the addition of those extra magnets to correct your terrible aim, that still feels so good—you feel so fucking powerful and dangerous. You glance over to Din with a wide smile, but then his arm extends out towards the trunk directly next to the one with charred bark. “Hit that one.”
You automatically swing the blaster in that direction and shoot. A few pieces of wood split on impact and send sharp bits flying as soon as the bright white beam collides with it.
“That one,” Din tells you, and then bark splinters a half second later. “That one.” Bark splinters. “That one, that one, that one—” hit, hit, hit, white plasma flying through the air and bark splintering in rapid succession.
He stops and spins around, pointing to a tree at the very edge of the clearing. “That one?”
It’s furthest away but the trunk’s diameter is enormous. As you lift the blaster, you know you’re likely to get it easily with this sophisticated weapon, even across the considerable distance. So instead, feeling like nothing at all can touch you right now and wanting to see how smart the aim mechanism is, you raise up a few degrees higher before pulling the trigger. Pale plasma launches from the barrel, and then one of the tree’s most prominent branches comes creaking and crashing to the ground right where you split it.
You’re beaming by the time Din turns back to you, the most excited you’ve ever been with your own progress. He holds there for a moment while you lower your blaster and wait for him to speak, both of you looking at each other and not moving, until suddenly you hear his voice coming back to you.
Hit the target and I’ll marry you.
One of Din’s hands slowly comes up to the edge of his helmet, but before you can even process the implication behind the gesture, you’re immediately looking down at the crunchy leaves under your feet and clearing your throat.
There’s a beat of silence where you stare down at the dead foliage and wonder why the fuck you just did that. Right in front of him, right to his face, too startled at how quickly you were being confronted with the possibility that you responded in an equally startled way. It was instinctual, automatic and entirely out of your control, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to take it back.
But… you can’t take it back. That’s the way things are, and after a few moments, you hear his boots begin to cross the distance to you.
“Come on,” Din murmurs gently through the modulator, carefully taking the blaster from your hand and clicking the safety back on again. “We have to get going. The fifth quarry is far. Three day trip through hyperspace.”
He doesn’t sound upset or disappointed by your unintentional rejection, thank the Maker. You want to explain yourself somehow, but it appears it isn’t necessary in the slightest. His arm wraps around your lower back and he leads both you and the baby back up the open ramp of the Crest, squeezing you close enough to his side that you have to learn how to walk in a different way to stop yourself from tripping over his boots.
The helmet turns and presses to the top of your head while you focus on moving straight. “Proud of you,” Din murmurs quietly, and your chest fills with enough air that you’d be worried about floating away if he wasn’t latched onto you so tightly.
He eventually releases you and walks over to the armory, pressing a button to unlock the doors while you hold the kid and watch him start to remove the multitude of weapons strapped to his body.
Maybe… maybe this isn’t the right time, but something brave surges up inside you. After receiving the most precious gift imaginable from him, hitting all those targets and hearing him say that he’s proud of you, you’re buzzing with just enough energy that for better or worse, it makes you open your mouth and ask.
“Could I… come with you this time?”
Din nearly jerks upright and looks over at you immediately, but he takes a while in responding. You hope he sees it in your eyes. You hope he sees just how much you don’t want to be stuck here again when this is possibly the one time you’d be able to tag along. It’s a bullshit quarry, one he could do in his sleep, and you’ve been getting increasingly restless while stuck on this ship.
When Din eventually does respond… well, judging from his shift in tone, you’re assuming he was just shocked at the question and didn’t take any of that time to actually consider his answer.
“No.” Short. Unfeeling, and not sorry about it in the slightest, before turning back to return the blasters you were using previously to the armory as if you said nothing at all.
Okay… Um. Not great, not what you wanted to hear, but maybe if you explain yourself better, he’ll listen.
“I just… I’m the only reason you have to get this quarry in the first place.” Your voice is quiet, trying to let go of some of the concerns you’ve kept to yourself over the past two weeks. Your fingers fiddle idly with the kid’s little woolen sack as he hangs out in your arms, wanting to plead your case but feeling slightly nervous now. “You were out having a crazy expensive blaster made for me while I shook hands with Karga and agreed that you’d take more work for less pay. I hate that I did that.”
“You had no choice,” Din mutters, turning around and striding past you while pressing a button on his vambrace to close the Crest’s ramp. “My fault for being late.” And… for as warm and comforting as his voice sounded earlier, it now just sounds… dismissive. Aloof. Half-listening, not really wanting to talk but forcing himself to.
“Well this time, I thought maybe… I might be able to help? Maybe?” Maker, you feel yourself going quieter the more he walks around the hull and ignores you. “Karga said it was just a missing person, not even a criminal…”
“Karga says a lot of things,” he grunts with his back to you, voice completely monotone through the modulator.
Come on, speak up. You’ve lacked a backbone for so long, you’ll never get what you want unless you say it out loud and let it be known. You take a deep breath and straighten your shoulders, trying to put a little bit of spine into it. “I can be useful. I can fight now, I’ve been working on my—”
“You think I’m telling you no because I don’t think you’re capable?” He suddenly whips around, voice ringing sharp and challenging throughout the hull while you freeze. You don’t move but everything about you suddenly feels like it shrinks.
“I-I didn’t—” But he cuts you off, taking a step forward.
“I know you can fight, a Mandalorian taught you how. I know you’re useful, I know it’s just a missing person, and I know you hate it when I leave.” He pins you with his eyes through the visor, his tone harder than you think you’ve ever heard it before. “No. Your job is to stay here, on this ship, with my son, where it is safe, and my job is to go get the quarry. Quit asking. I’m not telling you again.”
The baby makes a tiny little distressed sound in your arms and you blink a few times up at the cold metal, feeling all the good feelings from before just… drain out of you.
Okay, that’s fine. Uh. You… the cockpit is behind you, you’ll go up there and fly then. No reason, just… he should get going.
“Okay, yeah,” you nod and tell the wall over his shoulder brace in immediate agreement, before abruptly spinning around and grabbing the ladder. Din doesn’t move a single fucking muscle while you try to find your way up to the cockpit with the baby held to your chest and a dead stone sitting heavy inside of it, hoping your face doesn’t show the vulnerability you feel wanting to take over as you retreat. Get to the cockpit first, get to the cockpit first, get to the—
“Sweet girl, I…” you barely hear murmured through the helmet from the floor, soft enough to sound slightly shocked, but you scramble into the cockpit and shut the door behind you before he can say anything else.
***
Silence didn't used to feel like this.
At first it was eerie, unnatural and stifling when you spent years in a wide open desert, wind swirling and dust pelting. It suffocated you the first few times you jumped into hyperspace, a phenomena you read all about and considered mathematically fascinating before ever experiencing for yourself. It was… foreign and strange, but you began to value it more and more as time passed.
Then, you started to get to know him and silence just became comforting. Something you could bask in, knowing it was a comfort to him. A choice he made because it just fit him best. You felt safe in it, you felt like you didn’t have to be anything else but you. You never had to break it just to avoid awkwardness, you became… closer to it, until you learned to fall in love with it.
But only when he was with you and it was his silence. Not… everything else’s. Now it’s haunting again. Now the sheer lack of sound through hyperspace is a stranger to you, and the distortion of light surrounding the cockpit feels less about the sheer magnificence of manipulating space time and more about the fundamental disconnect it causes. Gorgeous, but at its core, a severance. Ripping the fabric of the universe apart, tearing a wound in it.
It’s been a few hours and nothing exceptional has happened since your conversation in the hull.
You’ll admit that you’re a sensitive person, and because of that, you’ve always had a problem knowing if you were right or wrong when someone comes at you with a hard enough will. You second-guess yourself, it’s one of your worst traits, and you feel like trying to squash that tendency without knowing the limit is partially to blame for why you’re holed up in this cockpit with the kid. You’re quiet but in a different way from Din. When he doesn’t speak, it’s because most of the time, he’s sure of himself and doesn’t need to. When you don’t speak, it’s because most of the time, you’re insecure and don’t want to.
After being left alone with your thoughts for this long, you’re starting to realize that… he was right. What were you thinking, wanting to tag along? Wanting to hang out while he risks his life for this occupation, you probably sounded so fucking ignorant. Maybe… maybe he didn’t have to say it like that, but his point is still very valid and you’re not sure if you’re really justified in hiding like this anymore.
The way he said… your job, though. That still stings a bit. This hasn’t felt like an actual job in a very long time. Was that just an expression, or did he mean it literally? You’re stuck on it, you’ve just been going over this for hours in your head, trying to figure out if you should be the one to apologize or not—or if this is just you overreacting from the start and no apologies will be necessary at all.
“Sorry you got stuck with me, kid,” you mutter sadly to the baby, watching him fiddle with his favorite metal ball in your lap. He makes a little gurgle, purring in that weirdly adorable little way of his and it somehow feels like a reassurance directed to you that he’s just fine the way he is.
Maker, you haven’t heard anything from the hull in a fucking eternity; it’s like Din turned into a ghost, hasn’t even made a single footstep that you could hear since you last left him standing there. You remember performing a quick flight check as soon as you got up here, lifting off as fast as you could and hoping the thrusters would rumble loud enough to cover your series of pitifully shallow sniffles at being yelled at unexpectedly by a very large and intimidating man, not really crying but not really able to breathe normal either. The little monster was able to wiggle himself around in your lap as you were trying to punch in the correct coordinates for the fifth quarry with rapidly blinking, watery eyes, and then proceeded to give your belly the smallest hug you think you’ve ever been given and pretty much break your heart with it.
Lovely little boy, so sweet when he wants to be. He’s sat with you this whole time, he even tried giving you his metal ball to play with but ultimately decided to keep it to himself when he realized you aren’t nearly as fascinated by it as he is. You know it’s probably getting late for him, and you’ve been weighing the idea of handing him over to his father so he can at least get a good night’s sleep somewhere that isn’t your arms. There’s no blankets in here, just your lap.
“I think I gotta go take you to your dad soon, tiny. He’s probably missing you,” you tell him, trying to keep quiet enough that you won’t disturb Din in the hull. There’s a good chance he’s already asleep. “I think… he might still be mad at me. Maybe you can give him the big eyes, soften him up a little?”
Right on cue, his enormous eyes start to droop closed, and you let out a tired sigh of exasperation. That’s not gonna work, come on. They gotta be open, booger.
You watch him slowly drift to sleep, his ears relaxing until they too start to droop, but when you try to take the ball from him and set it down on the console, his eyes immediately pop back open and the toy slips from your fingertips. It levitates right back into his tiny hands as you watch, and then he closes his eyes once more while tightly cuddling the thing he loves most to his body.
Unbelievable.
He’s a child, and yet he’s…
“How are you so strong?” You ask him, unable to even fathom. “You’re the smallest, most helpless little thing I’ve ever seen and you’ve got such… strength. You defy the universe for a piece of metal.”
He doesn’t hear you, you think he’s asleep again. It’s just as well, you figure. He needs to go sleep in his crib, it’s time. You scoop him up and make sure the little ball stays tucked snugly in his arms, before finally standing up and stumbling over to the door on numb legs.
Only, when it slides open, you quickly stop short.
Because there, sitting on the floor and resting his helmet against the corner of this small little platform leading to the ladder, is the Mandalorian.
So much closer than you expected him to be. So big, crammed into such a tiny place. You didn’t hear his footsteps climbing the ladder, and you would’ve noticed it during the hours you’ve spent in the suffocatingly muted quiet of hyperspace. He can be silent but not when absolutely nothing else exists and he’s got a thousand fucking pounds of steel weighing him down at any moment in time. You took off almost immediately once you barricaded yourself inside the cockpit, so has he… did he follow you up in those last few seconds, right after you shut the door? The ones when you were sniffling like a child and trying desperately to turn the thrusters on before you let the tears come?
His head lifts and his back straightens as you’re looking down at him with his sleeping son cradled in your arms, your eyes slightly redder than they should be. You’re a mess and… he’s been here this whole time?
“Could you hear me in there?” You whisper in sudden mortification, but Din just keeps gazing up at you through the impenetrable metal visor. A complete mystery again. Unreadable—he could be anyone.
When he doesn’t answer you, your heart twists with the possibility that he’s still upset with you, and you quickly turn to the ladder to figure out the best way to get down without jostling the baby.
“I’m sorry.” His voice stops you dead in your tracks. It’s so soft, nearly flipping in and out of the modulator from the lack of volume, the most cautious sounding thing you’ve ever heard coming through the filter. “I… hurt your feelings. I’m sorry.”
And… Maker, if anybody else had said it. If literally anybody else had said it, you know it would’ve sounded like the most sarcastic, dickish remark in such a delicate moment. But, you also remember him telling you once that you were tenderhearted. That the galaxy would never be as kind to you as you are to it. This… comes out sounding like he’s trying to change that.
It comes out sounding like he’s trying to use his voice to hold you because he doesn’t think you want to be touched right now. Like… like he’s doing everything he can to be as careful as possible here because you think he might be attempting to do something he’s never done before. Apologize for saying something he didn’t mean.
“You don’t have to,” you quickly tell him. He’s not good with words and apologies are difficult enough to phrase for normal people, you don’t want him to fret over it if that’s what this is. “It’s okay, I know you’re not… you don’t have to. It was stupid of me to ask.”
“It wasn’t,” he instantly counters, his voice finally seeming to find the floor when it was just hovering before. Not loud—still gentle, still making sure the kid doesn’t wake up and you’re not frightened away, but a bit more grounded this time. “It wasn’t… what I wanted to hear, and I didn’t take it well. Not stupid.”
“It was stupid,” you return amicably, looking down at your feet. “That’s not my… job, like you said.”
Din suddenly hangs his helmet down to his chest, pressing his gloves to the part that curves over his forehead and rubbing it. “Shit. I didn’t mean—”
“You were right,” you acknowledge, having spent the past few hours coming to the understanding that it’s the hard truth and he just phrased it poorly. “I’m not… built for it, I’d only get in your way. I barely just managed to shoot stationary targets with a blaster today, and that’s only with that aim corrector built into the barrel. I’m here to be helpful, not—”
“What are you saying?” He suddenly lifts the beskar to study you, sounding genuinely confused. “What aim corrector?”
That… makes you pause.
“The, uh…” Now you’re confused. “The one that adjusts the plasma release on the gun you gave me.”
He doesn’t move an inch or say a single thing to you in response and you awkwardly shuffle your feet for a second, everything so quiet that you can hear every little snore that goes in and out of the kid’s tiny button nose.
You blink at him after way too long of that, not knowing why he still hasn’t said anything. “There’s an electronic sight and like a bazillion extra magnets packed into the barrel, Din, what else could—”
“Sweet girl, that’s… that’s for the Philithiorium,” Din breathes out, like he’s absolutely blown away by you right now. “That gas is less stable than normal canisters, it takes more magnets to focus the white beam without overheating the metal.”
You stare at him, not truly processing. He’s saying that… you made all those shots today without any help at all? By yourself?
Your eyebrows furrow and you blink a few times, but then his slow, heavy sigh echoes throughout the metal walls with disappointment… and you don’t think it’s directed towards you.
“You’re just… always so unsure of yourself.” He sounds genuinely distraught as his helmet tips down to look at the ground. “I made that worse today.”
“It doesn’t matter,” you quickly shake your head, your chest already beginning to loosen slightly by just being around him, hearing his voice, seeing the metal glint under the fluorescent light overhead when he’s in such a vulnerable position on the floor. “It’s okay, let’s just… pretend neither of us said anything at all, okay?”
“Is that what you really want?” He asks you after a moment of quiet, and for some reason, you hear something in your mind tell you that his arms look so nice right now, don’t they? You could fit right there, perfect and safe again.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” you smile at him, feeling a bit of the ache trapped inside you continue to work itself out little by little. You’ll be back to normal soon, it’s fine.
“No, I mean… do you really want to come with me?” Din asks you, the words sounding cautious. Confused, like he truly never expected the proposition from you at all. “Or… do you just not want me to go?”
Oof, what a fucking question.
Why would he ask this? It’s not pointed; it’s the softest, gentlest inquiry you’ve ever been posed. Maybe in other circumstances, you’d say that him leaving doesn’t have anything to do with it, but… you’re certain that internally, it absolutely does have at least something to do with it and he was just able to know it before you did. Which is probably why his sharp words seemed all the more cutting earlier. It hurt because he said the truth first, verbalized a very deep insecurity you’ve been trying to hide from him and threw it right in your face when shutting you down.
Though, if it worked differently and you were the one who had to be away while he stayed here, you’d like to think you’d handle it way better than how it is now. At least you’d have a real mission to focus on, new things to see and experiences to have. You just feel… confined sometimes.
You take a deep breath and figure you’ll use sitting down as an excuse to think for a second. There’s practically no room but you find it in the back of the cockpit near the doorframe anyways, doing your best to keep the kid level while you slowly lower yourself to the ground near him. Not touching him, but close.
“I just… I lived my whole life stuck in one spot, wanting to see the galaxy,” you finally admit to him, staring at his chestplate but seeing the helmet tilt slightly in your peripheral. “Sometimes it’s just… hard to see the galaxy and still be stuck in one spot, I guess.”
“…You want an adventure,” Din proposes quietly, and though there’s not a single hint of mockery in his voice, you suddenly feel like it’s really fucking dumb when he phrases it like that. What are you, an eight year old? Wanting to go on an adventure, see things you’ve never seen without any concept for real life? Credits? Time? Resources?
You shrug a shoulder to make it seem like it’s no big deal. Why is he even entertaining this right now? “It’s stupid, I kn—”
“Like on Naboo,” he goes on, ignoring your harsh self-criticism, not allowing you the ability to even get it out once he heard the first couple words. “Going through the forest, seeing that waterfall. Someplace to find for yourself. Explore. Experience.”
You… you want it so badly that you think your eyes might tear up just hearing the words coming out of his mouth when he says them like that. Like he… just inherently understands. He knows.
He knows you. He’s not good with words and yet he found the single most succinct way to put what you thought was a complex yearning without even trying. You can’t even answer him, he hit the target dead on and you’re left with nothing to say that wouldn’t just be a miserable lie.
“Okay,” Din says after a moment, giving you a small nod.
You’re lost now. “…Okay?”
“You’re never going on a hunt with me,” he tells you very seriously, no room for arguing. “Ever. And not because you can’t handle it, understand?” He inhales, quickly adding on to his response before you’re able to analyze it the way you want to. “But if you want an adventure, then… I can try and find a way to give you one.”
Stars. He’s… too kind. You somehow feel like it’s more than you deserve. You were honestly hoping to just shadow him on a hunt, watch him work and stay well out of the way when he needs you to. Helping if you think you’d be of any help; an extra set of eyes and hands. You would’ve been fine even if he didn’t apologize for raising his voice at you, he doesn’t have to do this for you.
“Thank you,” you say for the third time today, feeling like each one has somehow multiplied in sincerity.
“It can’t be right now,” he quickly tells you, apologetic but earnest about it. “I have to find the quarry, and I’m supposed to meet with Karga again in a week.”
You never did let him know about the other part of the deal you made with Karga, you admit. Four pucks, no hassling, no hard time constraints. That’s what you shook on, but you just never found a way to bring it up to Din. Especially since you’ve been so preoccupied with hiding your growing disappointment from him whenever he has to go.
“If…” you pause, wondering the best way to phrase this. Yikes, this is a toughie. “Um. If Karga… I don’t know, hypothetically, if Karga decided to loosen the time constraints back to the way they were before the Corellian bounty, would you… still need to meet with him again in a week?”
You don’t think he even bothers shuffling through all those words. “Say what you mean. Please.”
“That was part of the deal I struck with him,” you quickly explain. “You can hunt on your own timetable again and he’ll keep giving you four pucks like before, no more or less after this one extra quarry. It’s like a… replacement of sorts, for the one I kept you from getting the time before. If credits aren’t an issue, you can take more than a week. But only if you want to, you don’t have to. It’s just there and you should know, that’s all.”
He takes his time responding, lifting his helmet just the slightest bit in… surprise? Maybe?
“You never told me you did that,” Din finally murmurs.
“Ah. Well.” You look down at the sleeping kid in your arms. “I didn’t want you to think I was trying to… keep you here.”
It genuinely is a struggle for you, and you think he’s just now realizing that. As much as you know he gets frustrated with you for always wanting him to be here when he physically can’t be, you think it’s only now that he’s truly realizing the lengths you go to in order to stomp that part of you down whenever you feel it threatening to come up. You allowed him to leave every single time without telling him he could stay, knowing that all that was left for you was babysitting and target practice for days on end.
“Will you come over here?” Din finally asks, and the tone of his voice just punches you in the chest. So soft, so distressed from having you so close yet so far from him and just… full of a quiet hope, like he’s fully expecting you to say no.
“Will we fit?” You whisper after a moment, even quieter.
He doesn’t answer, he just reaches for you. You do your best to scoot over to him without waking the kid, and then Din pulls you the rest of the way once he has a grip. You go right into his arms, laying sideways across his lap and supported by his steel embrace.
Oh, it’s not comfortable but you’ve also never been more fucking comfortable. One of his knees lifts and allows you to rest your back against it without worrying about falling over sideways and down the ladder to the hull, thank the Maker. The beskar pauldron over his shoulder digs into your cheek, but Din immediately pushes an arm up to nudge his helmet off and make it better for both of you. Your face automatically fits into the crook of his neck while he sets the beskar on the bend of his knee, and then he silently cradles you while you do the same to his little boy… who does the same to his favorite metal ball.
“Ni tar’tayl su,” he murmurs into your hair, the one phrase in Mando’a you do recognize, especially with how beautiful and elegant it sounds rolling off his tongue. “Forgive me. Ni ceta.”
You sigh your contentment and melt into him, well aware that you’d still be more comfortable in bed. But when you’re pressed hard against his chest like this and the baby is fast asleep in your arms, you get to feel both of them breathing. Din’s right lung is probably bigger than the kid’s whole entire body, but you like the radically different cycles they go through. You think you count six full breaths coming from the brown sack in your palms for every one of Din’s and two of yours. It creates the most beautiful little symphony that sometimes gets a little off track, but always finds its way back around again.
“How do you say…” You ask, feeling his hand slowly move down the curve of your spine, mindless and hypnotic. It catches the edge of your shirt and goes underneath, and even though it’s not his bare hand and there’s no skin to skin, it still feels so good. Not sexual or sensual even, just… a comfort to you. “In Mando’a, how do you say… out of a trillion?”
Din’s breaths pause for just a second, his portion of the synchronized rhythm faltering. Soon it starts back up, and his head turns to press his lips against your hair.
“I don’t think there’s a word for it,” he admits, gently brushing a thumb across the baby’s forehead while he snoozes. “There could be, but I don’t know it. I’d use… out of a million million millions. Dayn alanyc bal alanyc bal alanyci.”
Your eyes begin to drift closed, exhausted from keeping them open after shedding a few tears earlier. Your first fight and you’re already completely in love with him again after a handful of hours of sulking and one conversation. How is that possible? You’re normally a very forgiving person and it wouldn’t have taken much to make you feel better, you just never expected him to… actually want it from you that badly, care enough about it to get on the floor and ask.
Din doesn’t move the entire night through. You assumed he’d make everyone get up at some point and move to the hull, but he doesn’t. You fall asleep against his chest, comforted by the silence once again.
***
The next morning, Din quietly climbs into the cockpit while you’re humming in the shower. You’re too busy basking in the indoor rainfall to feel the ship pull out of hyperspace, and then jump back into it a few moments after.
***
“How long do you think you’ll be this time?” You ask two days later, sitting on the extended flattop of Din’s old cot and swinging your legs back and forth. The baby is currently sitting on your lap and trying to roll the metal ball down your knee so you’ll kick it in the air, you think, because he keeps dropping it at different moments and forcing you to stop moving your legs to prevent accidentally denting a wall. Every time the ball clatters to the floor, he makes a sad sound and it immediately lifts back up into his tiny hands for another try.
Heavy boots clang against the metal floor as Din drops down from the ladder, having just landed the Crest on the surface of whatever planet you’re on. “I’m not leaving yet.”
“Oh…” You blink, surprised. “Okay.”
“I wanted to do some more training with you first, if that’s okay. You can say no if you want, but maybe not,” Din drawls, striding over to the armory and opening it. He carefully removes your blaster from the front shelf, speaking with his back to you. “You’re going to run.”
“Um.” You take a moment to glance around the enclosed hull, before turning to look back at him with your eyebrows raised. “What, like… in place?”
Din sighs and closes the armory before leaning back against the doors, rubbing the face of the helmet in exasperation. “From me, sweet girl.”
Your legs stop swinging, and the baby grumbles and slaps three fingers against your knee. “What?”
“We’re on Sanctuary II,” he explains, turning to grab his black bag from one of the storage shelves. He unzips it and reaches back into one of the larger pockets on his utility belt, before grabbing a handful of credits and stuffing them inside. “It’s a moon, the New Republic occupied it years ago and made it a safe world for refugees and orphans of the Empire. You’ll have your blaster, some credits, a communicator, and a day head start. You’re going to run from me. Show me how much you’ve learned.”
Is… he for real?
Right now? You don’t even know how to respond, you’re too surprised. Even when Din approaches and carefully trades the kid for your blaster, setting the bag down next to you on the metal bed, you still haven’t answered him.
“If you want?” He asks after a moment, and you quickly jerk your head into a nod and jump off the raised platform, almost knocking into him with your sudden excitement.
“Okay! Fuck yeah,” you grin, but Din shakes his head.
“Rules,” he says seriously, and you quickly do your best to frown, trying to compose your thrilled expression to match his tone. “One. This is a safe world, but things can always happen. You have a blaster now, but it’s for emergencies only. Do not shoot me with it. Do you understand?” You nod, but Din reaches forward to grab your elbow. “Out loud, please. For me.”
“I will not shoot you with this blaster,” you vow obediently, carefully cradling the precious firearm in your hands.
“Do not shoot me,” he repeats while pointing a leather finger at you. “Do not… shoot at me. Near me. Around me. No, just—don’t shoot. Unless I am… very far away. Okay?”
Well, he didn’t have to phrase it like that. You frown, but acquiesce regardless. “I will only resort to blastering if it’s an emergency and you are not around.”
He nods a thank you for putting it into better words. “Second rule. Since you don’t have a ship, I won’t either. We’re on foot. I don’t doubt you can hotwire a piece of junk to do what you need it to do, but I’d prefer it if you didn’t. Good?”
Entirely accurate and entirely fair. “Good.”
“Three,” he says. “I’ll have the kid with me, which is both good and bad news for you. Good news is he’ll slow me down, bad news is I can’t promise he won’t also try to intervene at some point if you’re serious about putting up a decent fight. What I can promise is that I won’t encourage it.”
“Reassuring,” you nod. “Also not really a rule. Please continue.”
“Four.” He pauses for a second. “I think I’m wanted by the New Republic.”
You nearly jerk back. “What?”
“I can’t confirm it and I’m not proud of it,” Din quickly tells you, probably the vaguest possible explanation he could provide. “I’m only telling you so that you’ll know your advantage and find a way to exploit it. I can’t be seen by any officers, or they might arrest me.”
Is he fucking serious? “I don’t want you to be arrested, Din, I—”
“I won’t be,” he assures you. “They owe me one, I just don’t want to cash in yet. Trust me.”
You… do. Insanely, and against every logical thought flittering through your head, you do. If you were ever going to bet money that someone would be able to navigate a safe world on foot without being caught by the numerous officers scattered across the surface, then you’d put all your credits on Din Djarin. It… also shouldn’t really surprise you at all that the people seeking his incarceration also owe him a favor, should it? It actually sounds right on par for him. “Okay.”
“Fifth, and this one is important, so listen up,” he continues gruffly. “You check in with me tonight over the e-comm, alright? I don’t care where you are or how safe this planet is, if you don’t check in, I’ll come find you before the sun rises. Say you understand me.”
“I understand you,” you tell him, your heart beginning to pound in your chest at the reality of this actually happening. “I’ll check in tonight.”
“And if,” he goes on, “by some miracle, you manage to make it more than a full day, you check in with me tomorrow night, too. Say it.”
“I will check in with you every single night for the full five days it’ll take you to find me,” you assert, the adrenaline starting to make you brash and giddy.
Din tilts his helmet at you sternly. It is a very, very stern tilt. “Okay. New plan, forget everything I just said.”
Your expression furrows. “What’s the new plan?”
“That is the new plan,” he says, dead serious. “Us. Not doing this.”
“Oh, come on,” you grin cheekily up at him, poking his chestplate. “I’m just giving you some motivation to find me quicker, that’s all.”
Din stares down at you, and… yeesh. Tough crowd.
“Tell you what,” he finally grunts, sounding incredibly unamused with your jesting. “If you can last that long with only a day head start, I’ll let you come with me to collect the fifth quarry. You can even cuff the bastard yourself.”
You know it’s just because he’s rightly confident in his own deadly skill, but hearing him propose the possibility still shoots a thrill down your spine. “Oh ho, you are gonna regret saying that, shiny,” you beam up at him, starting to hop back and forth on each foot with excitement.
“But if I’m able to find you, you can’t ask me ever again,” he finishes shortly, and you immediately go still in front of him.
“What?”
“If I’m able to find you in five days, I don’t want to hear about you coming with me on a hunt and you can’t ever ask me not to go on one,” Din tells you, his voice rough and gravelly through the modulator. Not mean or harsh, but firm. “From now on, it’ll be off-limits.”
You… take a moment, not knowing if you should feel scolded or not. When you don’t immediately say anything in response, he sighs and turns the helmet away from you.
“Leaving is hard enough as it is,” he mutters, looking at the ground. “Hearing you ask… makes it impossible.”
You slowly lower your gaze to the floor as well, feeling your heart constrict tight in your chest. There’s a real pull under his voice, telling you that information even though it sounds like he doesn’t really want to admit it out loud. It… really is a struggle for him too, then. You understand.
“Okay,” you nod. There’s not a single part of you that actually thinks you’ll be able to stay hidden from him for five days while stuck on foot, so this is essentially a given. You’re not thrilled about the idea, but you’re going to do your best to respect it nonetheless, especially if he cares enough to put off hunting and allow you this experience for yourself. It’s a better compromise than you ever imagined, and you’ll do everything you can to hold up your side of the bargain.
Din clears his throat and straightens his spine, turning the visor until it faces you head on once more. “Final rule. I reserve the right to break any rule we just agreed to, or any fucking rule in this galaxy to keep you safe. Good?”
Your cheeks flush with heat, your stomach suddenly filling with butterflies. He doesn’t do that. Din says what he says or he doesn’t say anything at all, there’s no… taking things back, he’s already breaking his own code.
“What happened to The Way says no take-backs?” You ask quietly.
“This is my way,” he answers you. Quick, not even taking a moment to think about it, before pulling out a fancy looking wristwatch thing and clipping it on you himself. “This is your communicator. It takes more power than the one you have now but it’ll reach a further distance. I have one just like it, they’re locked into the same frequency and timesynced together, and the batteries need to be charged every three days. If you make it that long, I’ll remind you.” Din grabs the bag while you slide your arm into it, helping you hook it around your shoulder with one hand while he cradles the kid in his other. Your heart is pounding now, pumping with adrenaline as he pulls you towards the middle of the hull and then wraps an arm around you.
“Hey,” he murmurs, pulling you tight to him and pressing the helmet to the crown of your head. His voice is barely a whisper through the modulator. “Gar darasuum.” For an eternity.
You find some way to wrap your arms around him, even with your blaster in your hand and the kid hanging out in his dad’s other arm.
“Dayn alanyc, bal alanyc, bal alanyci,” you murmur dutifully against the beskar chestplate, knowing your accent is probably butchering the words but hoping they still carry the same sentiment.
And then you’re squeeeeeezed hard enough to get a little air out of you, before you’re let go and he turns around, pressing a button on his vambrace so the ramp begins to lower.
It’s bright outside but not too bright, and everything is warm and gentle and breezy, right in the middle of a lush plain. You inhale the fresh air into your lungs, looking out across the wide open field, having no fucking clue this is where your day would be leading when you woke up this morning. Oh Maker, it’s gorgeous here. Not like Naboo, where every single thing is picturesque and fit for an e-card, but in a soft, understated kind of way. The sky is a canvas of swirling pastel clouds, pale pinks and yellows and blues, and the communicator on your wrist lets you know that it’s just after noon here.
You take one single step down the ramp, before immediately stopping and turning around to bite your lip at him.
“How am I… how am I supposed to outrun you?” You ask, already clueless. “You’re too good, better than me at everything.”
“That’s not true,” Din reminds you sternly, grabbing your hand at your side. “You already know who’s after you, that’s an advantage nobody else has ever had against me. You know how I think. I don’t know how, but sometimes it’s like you can…” He slowly shakes his head. “See me. Through the metal.”
“But… but that works both ways,” you point out, breathless at hearing him say that but needing to focus right now. “You know me, too—you’ll know exactly where I—”
He shakes his head again, but quickly this time. “Remember what I told you a long time ago? What your best weapon is?”
You… do not. He told you so many things, and you’re assuming every single one of them is going to come into play during this endeavor if you want to outlast. You’re going to have to think back and remember all of them individually, find the time to figure out your best plan of action based on the remarkably little you know about how he hunts.
“You’re smart, remember?” Din murmurs, squeezing your fingers. “Your mind works differently, it sees things in ways I’ll never be able to, not even with this helmet. So…” He shrugs a shoulder like it’s the simplest thing in the galaxy. “Don’t try to outrun, okay? Just try to outsmart.”
You give him a nod after a moment, still not really sure about it, before giving his hand one last squeeze in return and eventually letting go.
Outsmart. Outsmart him, use what you know about him to be the most elusive quarry he’s ever hunted down.
As you make your way down the ramp, you’re already thinking. His helmet tracks footprints, that’s a thing you know. You’ll have to find someone to trade shoes with, then—yours aren’t too beat up, maybe you can find a local who’d appreciate a better pair. Are you going to a city? Would there be one in walking distance? The wilderness won’t work, you’ll be too exposed and it would make you an easy target for either him or wild animals. The weather seems clear here though, and you don’t think you’ll need to worry about rain or snow, but if—
“Oh—but when you do see me,” Din decides to add when your feet finally touch the grass, and you pause once more to turn around and look at him. He stays quiet for a second, studying you through the helmet for too long. Like the anticipation is getting to him already.
You bite your lip back at him and adjust the bag on your shoulder, tummy swirling with nerves and excitement. He tilts the visor up, gazing down at you from the hull with the kid tucked in his arms.
“Try to outrun,” he says gruffly, before turning back into the ship and letting the ramp slowly close behind him.
#the mandalorian x you#the mandalorian x reader#din djarin x reader#din djarin x you#mando x reader#mando x you#smut#angst#hurt/comfort#reader insert#the mandalorian#rough day#no-droids
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