#'hm. still workshopping it huh? i would say we could leave and come back when youve polished it a little more but thatd be a lie.'
Note
Hello, I just read your tensei one-shot and loved it! Could I request something with him after his injury and he gets his wheelchair, he and reader adjusting to life again?
If not that's totally fine!
[ I would be more than willing to write anything involving the Iida boys. I just adore Tensei, poor baby stuck in a wheelchair. ]
You had visited him a couple months after the hero killer incident. “Is there anything else you’d like me to add to your new wheelchair?” you questioned as you tapped the tip of the pen against the paper which was currently held in place by your clipboard.
Despite trying to get over the fear of almost losing Tensei and getting used to the changes that had happened within the Idaten Agency. That is the change of command, it had taken a long while and plenty of discussion and arguments as to who was a worthy replacement for Ingenium.
You knew in reality that no one could replace the one-of-a-kind hero Tensei was. After all, he paved the way for many sidekicks and that wasn’t something that could be easily matched. Maybe it was selfish to say that you didn’t want to follow anyone else’s authority.
You were thankful that you were close to the Iida family, but it was only per Tensei’s request that you found yourself in his bedroom. It wasn’t that hard to spot the accessories that now littered the man’s room which included safety bars that allowed him to pull himself onto the bed.
But, at the moment he looked comfortable sprawled across his bed with his legs stretched out in front of him and a massive amount of pillows piled behind his back. He was dressed in a dark blue shirt, with an unbuttoned long-sleeved plaid shirt over it.
You were a little surprised he had decided to wear jeans today, but he looked handsome as always. You were also happy that his spirit wasn’t completely broken and that was evident enough from the way he smiled at you, showing off his pearly whites which made your heart race.
You glanced away in an effort to hide your flushed cheeks. “No,” he replied as he reached over to touch the top of your knee. You gasped and immediately looked down at that hand. Tensei’s touch was always gentle and you reached over, placing your hand over his.
The former hero seemed pleased and you took note of that gentle expression that illuminated his face as he looked at you. “I really appreciate it, Y/n. You’re the best,” he said just before he squeezed your knee. “Heh,” your cheeks continued to heat up as you brushed a piece of hair behind your ear.
“I-It’s nothing Tensei, I-” he interrupted you. “It’s not nothing, you’ve been there for me since we met back at Yuuei,” he leaned over with a slightly sympathetic smile. “I know I scared everyone, going after the hero killer. But hey, at least I’m still your hero. Right?” he questioned but your smile immediately faded.
“Huh?” of course Tensei noticed your now sad expression, but your sigh seemed to make matters worse. He knew it was still a tender subject to talk about and that it would take a long while to get used to the way everything was now. “Sorry, it’s just…” your hand clenched around the clipboard.
“Tensei you don’t think we stopped looking at you as a hero because of this, right?” you questioned, trying to prevent your bottom lip from quivering. But inside, you couldn’t help but feel your heart sink in your chest. Despite what happened and the end result of Tensei’s retirement and condition.
You never stopped looking at him as a hero and you never would, the day Tensei was reported injured it was like time stood still. Everyone frozen in their own grief and worry, you were surprised the Idaten team still managed to complete their scheduled hero tasks for the day. He glanced down, and you heard him take a deep breath.
“I know it was a big shock," maybe that was an underestimate, for a moment he thought he was going to die as he laid there in his hospital bed with all those injuries. "I also know I still have people that look up to me. I just hope I’ll always be a hero to my little brother and...to you,” he gave you a sheepish smile and your mouth went dry.
Once more you were reminded that without even trying Tensei could keep you right where he wanted you. Your fingers tightened around his hand that still laid on your knee and slowly, you found yourself leaning forward. Tensei remained where he was, however his eyes widened slightly.
As if he were wondering what you were doing, it was only when he raised his eyebrow that you seemed to snap out of your actions. “Oh,” you glanced away as that familiar heat coursed through your cheeks. “I-I’m sorry!” you stuttered before suddenly standing causing Tensei's hand to fall from its previous place on your knee.
“Hey,” he said as he attempted to reach out to you again. “Are you okay?” he frowned when the only response he got from you was a frantic nod. “Y/n,” he began, almost prepared to scold you but he stopped when you shook your head. “S-Sorry Tensei!” you replied as you cradled the clipboard to your chest.
“I-I’ll have that wheelchair for you next time I come to see you,” though once more you were reminded that you hated walking into the Idaten Agency knowing that Tensei wasn’t in control of it. Part of you was even worried that they would take away your workshop, the one that Tensei specifically ordered to be built for you.
It seemed unlikely, they needed you and your expertise which meant the workshop should remain untouched. But if there was anything you learned from Tensei, it was that unexpected things happen. You tried to push it to the back of your head, failing to notice the eerie silence filling the room.
“Y/n,” came Tensei’s voice and you heard the bed squeak as the former hero maneuvered his legs over the edge of the bed. You blinked and slowly turned to look over your shoulder. It must be hard to lift your own legs like that.
One of Tensei’s hands was securely holding onto the bed rail and the other was fisted into the mattress, his expression was intense as he looked at you with a present frown across his lips. It was a surprise to see Tensei so unhappy and you slowly turned around, lowering the clipboard from your chest.
“Tensei what are you doing?” you glanced over at his current wheelchair which was sitting in the corner of the room unoccupied. “Mm…” you muttered, lowering your eyebrows as if you were angry. Why was the wheelchair so far away from him?
You took a step forward, fully intent on retrieving it when Tensei spoke again. “Wait,” the command, though simple and soft, halted you in your tracks. You slowly glanced back at Tensei who took a deep breath before he held his arms out in front of him.
You knew he was indicating a hug and felt your heart begin to race. “Come here,” yet another simple command, but you followed it as if you were under hypnosis. You closed the distance between Tensei and yourself, allowing his arms to gently wrap around you.
Despite the blood rushing to your cheeks as you were pulled close to him, your chin resting in the crook between his neck and shoulder. Your nostrils were filled with his musky cinnamon-like scent and the feeling of being completely safe washed over you.
You brought your arms up to wrap around his neck, though the clipboard made it slightly difficult. Tensei didn’t seem to mind the piece of wood resting against his shoulder blades and you enjoyed the blissful moment of peace before you stepped away.
“Um...t-thank you,” the stuttered words left your mouth and you looked down at your clipboard. Part of you was eager to start on the new wheelchair but another part wanted to stay with him. Then again, you didn’t want to overextend your welcome. “I...I should go now, but-” you pointed towards the door just as Tensei spoke again.
“Are you sure? You know you’re always welcome to stay as long as you’d like," a nervous chuckle came and you directed your glance to the floor. “I...I know but-” you paused, what could you even say? That you did want to stay, that you didn’t want to leave Tensei’s side?
All those things sounded nice in your head, but more than likely would be a jumbled mess if you tried to speak them out loud. So instead you swallowed your courage back and shook your head. “I...I can’t,” you replied, trying not to feel guilty when you saw Tensei frown.
You’d much prefer to see that pearly white smile of his. “I’m sorry, it’s just…” you trailed off for a moment, your eyes glancing back and forth before you continued. “I want to get a head start on your new wheelchair.” you hoped he'd buy that explanation.
Though it wasn’t entirely a lie, you did want to make the new wheelchair and you wanted every last detail of it to be perfect. “Hm?” you watched as a surprised expression came over Tensei’s face before softening into that normal smile of his.
“You really want to get started on that, huh? Just the thing I’d expect from one of my best,” you brought your free hand up to your chest where you could feel your rapid heartbeat. You knew your cheeks were a toasty red color and you looked away.
“Y-You really think that…?” you always seemed to get flustered when Tensei complimented you but that wasn’t much of a surprise at this point. He nodded, “I do,” he replied with a chuckle, his hand pressing to the back of his dark blue hair and his eyes remained on you.
Though he’d never tell you, he thought you looked adorable with your cheeks that rosy and felt a sense of pride knowing he was the cause of it. “Um…” you pressed your lips together, your mind coming up with a thousand responses before you actually settled on one.
“T-Thank you,” the words left your mouth quickly before you bowed and scurried to the door. “I-I’ll inform you when y-your wheelchair is ready!” you squeaked out before opening the door and running down the hallway.
It wasn’t the most polite exit and it left Tensei calling after you, but you kept running with the clipboard securely pressed against your chest. “I have to make this for him,” you said with no hesitation and from that point, you spent every waking moment in your workshop.
This caused a deal of concern to the Idaten Team. Maybe they knew of your feelings towards Tensei or maybe they were just afraid you were focusing too much of your effort on something that wouldn’t benefit the able-bodied heroes that were currently employed at the Idaten Agency.
You knew it was rude to think that way, but you couldn’t help it. You had known Tensei for so long, you saw him grow since your days at Yuuei. Helped him build the Idaten Agency from the bottom up, recruit the sidekicks, watch him become the pro hero he was meant to be only to see his downfall in the worst kind of way.
Well, it just didn’t feel the same without him. Tensei was always going to be the only one you would truly follow which is why you wouldn’t let him down. Your fingers ached and you had gotten a few cuts here and there, but to see the finished product was well worth it. You had added some features to the wheelchair that most wouldn't expect.
Overall, it appeared to resemble that of a standard wheelchair apart from its blue-tinted coloring and built-in gel cushion layers. It also had specialized wheels on the off chance Tensei wanted to use his quirk which part of you hoped he wouldn't. Apart from the wheels, you also built some self-storage compartments into it.
You managed to configure a way to make the foot petals automatically retract and return when weight or lack of was present, the sensors you installed were to thank for that. You had also added a secret feature that may take time for Tensei to discover, but essentially you made it so the wheelchair can fold upward.
Allowing Tensei to ‘stand’ once again and hopefully make it easier for him to transfer from his wheelchair to whatever he desired. Still, it had taken you the span of a month to complete and during that time you hadn’t had much outside contact with anyone.
Including Tensei, but part of you wanted to surprise him and you were sure he understood how consumed you got in your work. Not to mention the Idaten Agency was planning their annual celebrating sidekick's event.
The idea was Tensei’s and you were happy that despite the new management, the event was still planned to take off in a week’s time. You knew Tensei would be excited about it and despite your slightly exhausted state, you were looking forward to attending as well.
After a good night’s rest, you contacted Tensei who was both thrilled and relieved to talk to you again. It was shortly after this, that you found yourself visiting the Iida Estate. To say Tensei was excited when you presented the wheelchair was a bit of an understatement.
The smile on his face seemed to make up for the hours you put into crafting it and his mother seemed equally as joyful. Though you weren’t expecting her to embrace you in a hug nor for Tensei roll over and wrap his arms around your waist. The feeling of him nuzzling into your side caused tingles to course through your body.
You gave an awkward chuckle and tried to play off your hard work, but Tensei seemed to see right through it. “Aw come on!” he said as he playfully punched your arm which in turn had you stumbling forward. Tensei was bigger and more developed than you which meant something as gentle as a 'playful' punch still ached.
“Ow…” you muttered as you reached over to rub your arm and looked back at Tensei who was still smiling. It was nice to see him like that, even if he was paraplegic as a result of his mishap with the hero killer. He was still looking at life through the same positive eyes as before and you never wanted that to change.
“Do you...do you like it?” you questioned as you walked over to the wheelchair, glancing over the metal and screws that you had put together by hand. “I love it!” he replied as he raised his arms above his head, then he brought them down and curled his hands into fists.
“You’re always so amazing, I could never craft such beautiful things,” he chuckled as he then reached up to rub the back of his head. There he goes complimenting you again and you couldn’t help but glance away, once more feeling that warm rush course through your cheeks.
“I-It was…” you paused, regardless of what you said. You knew he'd always find a way to continue to compliment you, to defy whatever negative thing you could say about yourself. So was it pointless? You internally sigh before dropping your head, “Hm? Is something wrong?” Tensei questioned, but you shook your head.
“No, nothing is wrong,” you said, “I was hoping you’d like it," you wrapped your hands around the handles of the wheelchair. The ones you had spent hours crafting the details into. “It took me long enough to build and I’m sorry if…” you trailed off, how would you even apologize for basically ignoring Tensei?
“I...was too busy to contact you, I just wanted to finish this before the celebration,” you said and raised your eyebrow as Tensei's jaw dropped. “Jeez, I almost forgot about that,” he said as he slapped himself which made you wince slightly. But his laugh seemed to reassure you that he was fine.
“Guess I’ve been a little out of it since the whole ordeal,” while you understood that, Tensei was the one who created the celebration event, to begin with. He was always the star attraction when the time came and you tried to suppress the chuckle that threatened to come when you recalled the way Tensei would always dance in his Ingenium suit.
It was entertaining, to say the least, but you knew this year would be a little different. 'Ingenium' wouldn’t be present, and part of you wondered how Tensei would deal with everything now that he was in a wheelchair. Would he spin around on the dancefloor or would he remain on the sidelines?
You knew you wouldn’t allow him not to have fun, but then again you had no idea how the evening would truly play out. You found your smile fading as you walked around the wheelchair and reached out to place your hand on top of Tensei’s knee, similar to how he had touched your knee prior.
However, unlike you, he didn’t seem to hesitate to place his hand over yours in turn. You shivered when you felt his thumb slowly trace over your knuckles, but you kept eye contact with him. “Are you planning to go?” you asked. “It’s not the same without you,” which was an understatement.
You always found yourself willing to go anywhere as long as Tensei was there. His thumb stopped and a few seconds later you felt his hand tighten over yours. His face softened some and he reached up, gently cupping the side of your face which caused your cheeks to grow hot.
More than likely he’d notice, but restrain from saying anything. “I wouldn’t leave my best all alone! Of course, I’ll come, as long as you save a dance for me,” he said, his voice filled with confidence as he flashed yet another smile at you. “O-Oh…” you leaned back and a nervous chuckle escaped you.
Just the thought of dancing with Tensei made your heart race, though in the past he always seemed to save his first dance for you and you loved that the rest of the world faded away when you were wrapped up in him.
“You’ll be using the wheelchair I made you right?” your eyes glanced over the hospital chair he was currently sitting in, that thing couldn’t be comfortable. Tensei looked confused before he glanced over at his new wheelchair, then he nodded.
“I have to go there in style, right?” he chuckled at his own words and the sound of your own laughter joined him. You took a breath and slowly retracted your hand, though Tensei seemed a little saddened by your action as he rather enjoyed the warmth your hand provided.
But he still smiled at you and allowed his hands to rest in his lap. “I suppose so, but you always go in style and I’m sure everyone will be happy to see you,” even though the pro heroes that were invited almost never showed up.
In fact, you were always disappointed that the only heroes you consistently saw present were Best Jeanist, All Might, and Edgeshot. More than likely because Ingenium had past experience working with them. Not that you had any sort of problem with them, quite the contrary.
You enjoyed talking to them, despite the fact Tensei would always be leading the conversation. But you were always fascinated with the stories the heroes shared. As a support agent, the only real heroic aspect you experienced was the aftermath. The damage that was done to both equipment and hero.
At least you could still fix one of them. Still, this event wasn't about you, hell it wasn’t even about the pro heroes. It was about the appreciation, dedication, and even bravery sidekicks displayed. It was true that most, if not all of the time heroes couldn't do everything on their own.
The backbone of a hero was essentially those that supported them and it wasn't much of a surprise that a sidekick would always be dedicated to their hero. "I'm really glad you think so. Hey…" he leaned over in his chair and you tilted your head, unsure of what he wanted.
But regardless, you found yourself leaning down. "Yes?" you were a little suspicious as to what Tensei had planned considering he did most things out of impulse. But you were surprised when he reached up and gently brushed a piece of your hair behind your ear.
"Hm?" you were a little concerned when he allowed his hand to linger there on your cheek. "Would it be too much if I asked to pick you up? I know I may not go as fast as I did before but I'm still proud to stan-" he paused. "Sit," he corrected himself, "by your side." Why was he so sweet?!
You opened your mouth to speak, but it seemed no words came out. You quickly sealed your lips together, looking lost a moment before he chuckled. “Uh s-sorry,” you replied as you rubbed the back of your head.
Your cheeks were yet again red and you almost wanted to run out of the room again. “I just...you’re...y-you’re sweet Tensei,” you said, noticing his confused expression turn into a happy one. He grinned at you and reached up to grasp his armrests.
“I’m glad you think so! I like being sweet for you.” he teased with a playful wink which only caused your cheeks to turn dark red and you shyly glanced away. “Heh...thank you,” Tensei grinned and reached down for his push rims, using them to roll back.
“You don’t have to thank me!” he replied before pressing his hand to his forehead. “I’m happy to see you so happy,” you lifted your head, your eyes widening and you almost wished you could fan your face to cool it down.
But all you could seem to do was smile and place your hands in front of you before bowing. “Thank you Tensei,” you said as you leaned back up. “So…” you began, “I’ll see you when you pick me up?” Tensei grinned and nodded.
“I won’t let you down,” he promised with a playful wink causing you to turn your head as a nervous giggle escaped. You took one last look at the wheelchair you had crafted. Your hands were still a bit sore, but hopefully, the small cuts would heal.
“Until then...um,” you took a step forward and leaned down, you had to stand a little back taking Tensei’s footrests into account. Still, you were happy to hug him. When the day of the celebration came as promised Tensei picked you up, he was using the wheelchair you had gifted him and you were happy to see how well he adjusted to it.
But you were more distracted by the outfit he was wearing, a blue suit with a black tie and a striped button-up shirt. Somehow it suited him. You didn’t have many fancy clothes on hand and you thought about wearing the same outfit as last year, but due to the protests of many from the Idaten Agency.
You decided to go shopping for a new outfit instead, but as long as Tensei liked it you could care less what others thought. You smiled as you approached him, once more letting your eyes roam over his figure before you noticed a bouquet of flowers resting in his lap.
You tilted your head, slightly confused and for a moment wondering if they were for you. Luckily Tensei answered your question a moment later, “I got you these!” he said as he held the flowers up and despite being a little surprised.
You took them and brought them up to your nose, inhaling their sweet scent. Allowing it to calm the butterflies in your stomach, once again it seemed no matter how much you tried to convince yourself not to be nervous around Tensei. It never worked.
“Ready to go?” he questioned with a bright smile and you shyly lowered the bouquet. “Of course,” you said and out of instinct reached out to take his arm, but you stopped yourself when you realized or rather remembered Tensei was in a wheelchair.
“Oh uh…” you gave an awkward chuckle. “Sorry,” you muttered as you glanced away, old habits died hard. Tensei seemed to catch onto what you were trying to do and chuckled, sometimes you were grateful for his easy-type personality.
“It’s okay,” he said, “I’m glad you like the flowers.” You glanced down at the bouquet, oh right. Maybe it was best if you left them at your apartment. “They’re beautiful, thank you Tensei,” you said before glancing over your shoulder.
“I’m just going to put these in water and then we can go,” you said, watching as Tensei gave another grin before nodding. “Of course, do you need any help?” he questioned as he watched you walk away. You took a deep breath, trying once again to calm yourself as the faucet ran.
“I think I’m okay, thank you Tensei,” you said as the sound of the water hitting the glass vase echoed. ‘This is just like last year, nothing has changed.’ you tried to convince yourself as you glanced over at Tensei.
He was gently swaying himself in his wheelchair. The sight brought a sense of sadness, but it was nice to see him acting so cute. You turned back to the vase and turned the faucet off before unwrapping the plastic and paper the flowers were surrounded in.
You found a place for them on the counter and took a moment to admire them before turning back to Tensei. “I’m ready now,” you said, reaching over to run your hand across his shoulders. He jumped a little and you weren’t sure if it was out of surprise considering he always seemed to welcome your touch.
Either way, you offered a smile and the two of you made your way to the car. It was somewhat of a relief that an Idaten Team member offered to drive everyone. Though it was a challenge to try and get Tensei inside the vehicle.
Watching him being lifted from his wheelchair to the seat was different as was the fact his folded-up wheelchair laid across the floor of the car. But at least you got to sit next to him and laugh as he shared stories with everyone else.
Just like old times. Though you kept quiet during the ride due to the fact you were too busy watching Tensei, even more so when he had to be lifted back out and into his wheelchair once more.
"I can't wait!" he exclaimed and you could hear faint music coming from the building ahead. You watched as he began to wheel himself forward, however, he paused and turned his chair to face you. "Hm? What?" you questioned and Tensei chuckled before he offered you his hand.
You hesitated a moment before taking it, a smile of your own coming to your face as Tensei turned once more. Both of you were facing the entrance of the celebration, there was a long red carpet starting from the end of the sidewalk to the entryway.
String lights hung from the rim of the building and you could see how they illuminated the inside of the entrance as well. You could also see the many heroes that had already arrived, particularly you noticed a group of women crowding around the number one hero himself, All Might.
The sight alone caused you to laugh which caught Tensei's attention. “Everything alright?” he asked in a concerned tone, your hand was covering your mouth in a half-hearted attempt to muffle your laughter.
“Yeah,” you said as you lowered your hand and turned back to look ahead of you. The other members of the Idaten team who were in the car began walking past you, talking amongst themselves as they entered the building.
“It’s just, I’ve always thought it was funny how All Might seems to get all the attention. Do you think he ever gets tired of having all those women flock to him?” you questioned as you took a step forward and Tensei quickly followed, rolling along beside you.
“I only want one person to flock to me,” he responded and you turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. He only smiled in return, but somehow it was clear to the both of you who he was referring to. Regardless, you felt a certain sense of pride came over you as you passed through the entrance or maybe you just felt lucky to still be by Tensei’s side.
It was always the two of you and wherever Tensei went, you followed. In a way, you were like a sidekick, and maybe in a sense part of this celebration was for you as well. You took note of the several familiar faces and some new ones that you could only assume were upcoming sidekicks on the scene.
There was a large seating area with tall tables covered in white cloth and expensive-looking glassware. On the opposite side of the room were several tables pressed up against the wall, each one covered with an impressive amount of food, and most of it looked too fancy for your taste.
You preferred simple things, but between the two areas was the dancefloor and a few people looked to be having fun. Showing off just how fast they could move or gather attention while everyone else remained standing around chatting.
Some held plates of food while others seemed to be making conversation with little distraction. You paused, reaching over to lay your hand on Tensei’s shoulder. “Hm?” he turned to look at you, but you were busy glancing around the room again.
‘Hey, it’s Ingenium!’ someone suddenly called and you turned your head, watching as more people seemed to walk over to the former hero. ‘Here we go again,’ you thought as you removed your hand from Tensei’s shoulder, bringing it up to rest against your forehead.
‘Hey man, how are you?’ watching person after person greet Tensei made your stomach twist some, especially as they leaned down to shake his hand, was it strange you were allowing such a thing to bother you?
A frown came to your lips before you took a step back, wanting to distance yourself from the scene as people continued to converse with Tensei. The few women that were around smiled and folded their hands together and had the nerve to ask how he was since the hero killer incident.
"Excus-" you wanted to interrupt but Tensei's laugh drowned your attempted words out, how can he still be so fine with talking about what happened? In a way, you couldn’t blame them for being curious. But still, it bothered you. Yet, Tensei kept smiling.
“I’ve been wonderful thanks! This new wheelchair was designed by Y/n,” he then turned his head and you paused in your movements, still attempting to distance yourself from the former hero and the small crowd he had around him.
Instead, you found yourself frozen again and by nothing more than those eyes of his. “Why are you backing away?” he questioned, and honestly you couldn’t come up with a good explanation other than the fact you felt a little envious when you weren’t the one getting Tensei’s attention.
But you would never admit such a thing, at least not out loud. “Excuse me a moment,” he said before he reached down for his push rims and proceeded to roll over to you. “Everything alright?” he questioned and you felt your throat tighten, a little embarrassed for being caught in the act of trying to back away.
“Mmhm,” you replied with a simple nod, though Tensei didn't exactly buy it. He brought his arm up, stretching it behind your lower back to grasp the side of your hip. “Ah!” you cried out as you felt yourself being pulled toward him, your opposite hip hitting the armrest of his chair.
“This is Y/n! The brilliant support agent of the Idaten Agency, they designed my wheelchair and I sort of view them as my hero.” you felt your cheeks heat up and turned away if anything to make your red cheeks less obvious.
‘Oh yeah, I remember them.’ someone said, ‘Mmhm! They’re always by your side, huh?’ another one commented. “Well, I wouldn’t say always but…” Tensei trailed off when he noticed you were looking elsewhere. "Hm?" he leaned forward in his wheelchair, observing the dancefloor before he looked back up at you.
He opened his mouth to say something, but one of the women interrupted him, ‘Hey Ingenium, are you going to dance?’ her question came off rather desperate, but you made no comment. ‘I would love it if you could save me one!’ another girl commented and yet again that feeling of envy grew in your stomach.
You knew it wasn’t right, considering Tensei always danced with you. The man in question chucked and you felt his arm retract from your hip. “Well…” he began as he raised his hands up, you knew he was trying to find a nice way to decline the requested dance.
“I...usually dance with Y/n first, it’s sort of a tradition at this point,” he said as he turned back to look at you and flashed a playful wink that had your head spinning. This man was going to be the end of you. ‘Aw come on,’ the woman insisted as she took a step forward.
‘Can’t you break tradition just once? I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time and I just recently became a sidekick. I would love to say I danced with one of the heroes that inspired me,’ she said, and you suppressed the growl in your throat as she proceeded to bat her eyelashes at Tensei.
“Heh, I’m glad I could be your hero! That means a lot, but even if I’m retired now. I still like to think a hero always keeps his promises, so maybe we can dance later. Okay?” he said with a bright smile before turning his wheelchair.
You were in slight disbelief that he had turned down the woman. She was moderately attractive and seemed to be willing to do whatever she could just to get a dance, but he still turned her down. You were lost in your thoughts until you felt his hand take yours, your breath hitched and you almost ripped your hand away from him.
But Tensei threaded your fingers together so such an action was useless. “Want to dance with me?” he questioned, despite not knowing how to exactly ‘dance’ in a wheelchair. He was willing to try for you and gently stroked his thumb across your knuckles.
“I…” you paused and turned to look at the group that was previously talking to Tensei, the woman that originally asked for a dance seemed to have walked away. You frowned and took a deep breath, slightly hoping she wouldn’t come back and bother you. “S-Sure,” Tensei smiled, though he did sense something was wrong.
Still, he hoped a dance would make you forget about your troubles You tried to ignore the looks you received as you walked to the dancefloor with Tensei, the sound of his wheels echoed against the wooden floor. You partly hoped you two wouldn’t gather much attention as you reached the center of the dancefloor.
Then you turned to face Tensei just as the lights above you dimmed causing you to glance up. “Um…” you slowly tilted your head back, walking around to stand in front of Tensei. Your hand squeezing his before you glanced around, taking note of the many eyes on you.
Why were they all staring? Well actually, you had an idea as to why. “How are we…” you trailed off when a smile appeared on his face. “I have an idea,” he said and you raised your eyebrow. “Which is?” you questioned as you placed one hand on your hip.
Once again, you found yourself letting your guard down and as a result, Tensei yet again surprised you. Your vision blurred a moment as you were pulled forward, your hand pressed against Tensei's chest and before you could properly react. You felt his hand reach for the back of your legs and you were hoisted onto his lap
“Uh…Tensei…” you began, allowing your fingers to dig into the fabric of his blazer. You wiggled in his lap, but Tensei’s arm remained draped over your legs and he kept still as you got comfortable. “I know this is kind of different, but I’m sure we’ll both get used to this,” a soft song began to echo through the air.
You couldn't help the frown that came to your lips as his words echoed in your head, ‘We’ll both get used to this.’ when? Your thoughts were shattered when Tensei spoke again. “Hold on,” he warned. You weren’t sure what he was planning, but as fairly instructed.
You wrapped your arms around his neck as he reached down for his push rims. He started gently swaying his wheelchair back and forth, the motion was slow and tousled your hair back and forth. But in a way it was nice, you found yourself smiling as you nuzzled into the crook of his neck.
Your legs were draped between his foot pedals and you closed your eyes when he began to roll around in a circle. It wasn’t like the way you had danced last year, but you enjoyed the new closeness this brought and almost forgot about the eyes that were on the two of you.
The music continued and on occasion, Tensei would turn his wheelchair and rock you back and forth vertically or do silly half turns which made you laugh. At least he didn’t lose his sense of humor and as the song came to an end, you pulled back and glanced down at Tensei.
He was illuminated by the lights above, his red eyes standing out as he looked at you with a smile. You reached up and gently cupped the side of his face, trying to ignore the flashes from phone cameras. Part of you didn’t care if people took photos, it wasn’t like you were doing anything scandalous.
Still, you smiled and wrapped your arms around Tensei to embrace him in a hug. The rest of the evening seemed to go by rather quickly, at one point you lost Tensei only to find Tsunagu rolling him around. By the end of the night, you felt exhausted. Your feet ached and you couldn’t wait to get your shoes off so you could lay down in bed.
Luckily Tensei allowed you to sit in his lap once more as the two of you exited the building, like before you had to wait a few moments as Tensei was transferred from his wheelchair to the car seat. You had expected to get dropped off at your place first, but Tensei insisted he had something to show you back at the Iida Estate.
So with some hesitance, you agreed. “What do you have to show me?” you questioned as you walked behind him in one of the dimly lit hallways of the estate. You assumed everyone else was asleep. “You’ll see,” he replied and you didn’t miss that playful tone in his voice just as he reached his bedroom door.
You frowned as you watched him grasp onto one of his armrests and lean forward, stretching his other hand out for the doorknob. Part of you wondered why they hadn’t adjusted Tensei’s bedroom door, but then again the Iida family seemed to enjoy having everything in order. Maybe a different door would set them off too much.
Still, you were happy when Tensei finally got it open and rolled inside. “It’s changed a bit, I’m grateful my brother helped set it up for me,” he said and you had to admit, you were in slight awe of the equipment that now littered his room. His bed now had a rail that surrounded all sides with a small opening that you assumed allowed Tensei to securely climb into bed.
There was a grip molded into the rail and you imagined Tensei used it quite frequently so he could hoist himself up properly. “He did a good job,” you replied as you watched him make his way over to the bed. “You’re not having trouble with these new adjustments, are you? We could try one of the features of your new wheelchair if you want,” you suggested as your hand came to rest on your hip.
“New feature?” he questioned, turning his head to look at you with one of his unusual eyebrows raised. You nodded in response, “Yeah did you forget I added a feature that allows your chair to extend upward so you can ‘stand’?” you questioned as you shook your head in disappointment.
"There should be a button located underneath the seat," you explained, snickering some as Tensei leaned over one side of his chair, searching for the button that you had just described. “It’s to the left,” you crouched in front of him and reached underneath.
“You just press it for a few seconds and-” you words came to a pause when you retracted your hand and watched as the wheelchair vibrated. The footrests curved inward, keeping Tensei's legs in place as the seat of his chair folded flat.
The wheels remained pressed against the floor while a single metal bar pushed the chair up, allowing Tensei to stand upright. However, you ensured that it wouldn’t extend too far as you didn't want him to fall. Though it was slightly amusing to see Tensei look back and forth in awe. A laugh escaped him when he came to a stop.
“Wow!” he began. “You always surprise me somehow!” if only he knew the feeling was mutual. You cautiously took a step forward, “Do you need any help, can you reach the…” you trailed off to glance over at the handrail that looked within his reach, but you didn't know for sure.
“Hm?” he blinked and reached up to scratch the side of his head. “Well…” he began, trying to ignore how uneasy he felt. Standing up felt slightly odd since the incident, but he appreciated your hard work. Even if he didn’t see himself using this feature much in the future.
“I think I can but could you help me?” he questioned and you jumped. “Me?” you questioned as you watched Tensei nod. Then he gave you another smile, “I wouldn't trust anyone else!” and while you knew that wasn’t entirely true considering he seemed to put his trust in people too easily.
You reached out to graze your fingers along his sides. "I'll help you," you replied, giving him a shy smile in return. "Great!" he exclaimed, “I could hold onto your shoulders and you could help me sit on the bed,” he suggested, but you tilted your head. You were a little uncertain of what the end result of this would be.
Despite that, you allowed him to lay his hands on your shoulders. You tried to ignore the way he dug his fingers into your skin and in return, you properly gripped his sides. You were a little nervous given the limited amount of space between yourself and the bed. But you tried your best to take a step back, allowing Tensei to lean forward.
Of course, he was a lot heavier than you expected and your arms slightly trembled as they tried to support his weight. “Uh...Tensei…” you felt your knees buckle as he tried to reach over for the handrail while you found your legs pressed against the mattress. “Sorry about this,” Tensei said and you shook your head.
“It’s fine,” you replied, trying to ignore the way one of your shoulders started to ache. “Can you turn to the side?” he questioned. “What?” you replied, slightly confused as to what Tensei was trying to accomplish. “I can sit down on the bed if you step to the side, then pull myself onto the mattress,” Is that really how he thought this would work?
Despite the butterflies that began to swell in your stomach, you nodded. "O-Okay," you tried to keep your hands on Tensei as you maneuvered yourself, cautiously taking a step to the side and watched as the former hero somehow turned his body. You stumbled as Tensei somehow allowed himself to fall into the small opening in the bed rail.
You were almost straddling his legs at that point and though slightly embarrassed, you did your best to regain your balance. Gees, that was a lot of work. Your hands came to rest on top of his knees as your soft pants filled the air. “Are you alright?” Tensei reached over to thread his hand through your hair.
“Yeah…” you answered between your pants. “Do you do this every day?” you questioned, glancing up at him as he continued to run his hand through your hair. “Ten usually helps me, but sometimes he’s too busy so I end up doing it myself,” he explained with a half-smile as he finally dropped his hand from your hair.
He reached down to place his hands over yours. You paused, holding your breath. “Would it be too much to ask for your help to swing my legs over?” he questioned, giving you that innocent puppy dog look that always seemed to get to you.
You hung your head a moment, shaking it slightly back and forth. “As you wish, Ingenium,” you crouched down and gently took hold of his legs before lifting them over the railing. “There,” you said as you pressed your hands into the mattress. “Thanks,” he replied, flashing you another smile before he laid back on his pillows.
Then he patted the spot next to him, “Lay down next to me,” he instructed. “Hm?” you leaned back, once again feeling your cheeks heat up. “Y-You want me to lay down next to you?” a chuckle came before he nodded and once more patted the spot next to him.
You took a deep breath. “You don’t have to blush so much around me,” he commented, causing you to flinch back. “I-I’m not blushing!” you denied, waving your arms like wild. Tensei gave a knowing smile but said no more. “Hmph!” huffing, you crossed your arms a moment before sighing in defeat.
“Fine,” you stated before climbing onto the bed, wiggling some before you laid your head against his shoulder. Allowing your legs to drape over his, “Tensei, are you comfortable sleeping like this?” you questioned as you laid a hand on his chest.
There was so much about his current condition that you wouldn’t understand, but you wanted to. “It’s not so bad,” he said as he draped an arm around your shoulders. Part of you expected him to try and pull you close, but it seems at the moment he was content with having you at his side.
Of course, in some aspects, it was a little silly to be laying in bed with your former boss. But he was your friend before he became your boss and a hero above all else. Silence filled the air and after a long moment, Tensei closed his eyes and you couldn’t help but look at his resting face.
Then you glanced around the bed, it felt odd to be surrounded by a railing. Almost like you were trapped in a box, did Tensei feel that way as well? The doubt that you would get used to seeing him like this came back to mind.
But, you knew that you would always stay by his side regardless. Maybe one day, you could make him a support item that would once again allow him to walk. Until then, you’d figure out a way to accept this new way of life.
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When they work too hard
Tamaki
He's hard at work studying for his business degree in your shared room
This is for his grandma
You wake up at night to a cold bed and no Tamaki
You sleepily get up and get him out of his desk
He tells you to just go back to sleep
He tries to convince you that he's fine and to just got to sleep
But you know better
You pull him out of his chair and into an open spaced room
You put on soothing music and having him slow dance with you
"This is a lovely song. Maybe another day I'll play it for you on the piano."
"I'd like that a lot."
You both quietly talk about random things
You ask him how his day was
What he ate that day
Plans tomorrow
It makes him happy
He knows that you care, but when you show it
It makes him so warm inside
Once the song ends you kiss him and brush his hair out of his face
You ask him if he's feeling any better
He says yes
You kiss him again and go back to bed
He continues to work before going to bed as well
The next day he wakes up with so many happy emotions
He buys you breakfast in bed to say thank you
You have him join you as you share your food
Kyoya
He's working late at night on his laptop
He would've been in his office, but you convinced him to work in the bed
You said it would be more relaxing for him
He figured that him being closer would comfort you more, though he had no problem doing it
He has his shirt off after you insisted he should be more comfortable
You don't really say anything about him working so late
You don't want to get him annoyed
He is exhausted after all
You silently sit up and start rubbing his back
He doesn't say anything but gently smiles
You rub his back while peppering kisses over it
He then speaks up
"You should be asleep, it's very late."
"I could say the same for you."
You then kiss the back of his neck and lay back down
After he's done he snuggles up against you
You're still half awake but he shushes you, sending you back into a deep slumber
The next day you're trapped underneath him, but know better than to wake him up
He deserves a long sleep anyways
So you stay there and take in the peaceful morning
And when he wakes up he seems very refreshed
He chuckles when he realizes you couldn't move from under him
"Oh, I hope I didn't alter your morning."
"Not at all."
Hikaru
Working in his mom's fashion company can be hard work sometimes
So you try to lighten the mood
You suggest trying on silly clothing having your own little fashion show
You say this in hopes to get him to smile
He tells you that you're just being stupid and making things harder
You know that he's just saying it out of anger
So you keep trying
You buy him a nice meal for lunch and drag him away from his workshop
You make him sit on the floor with you
You then ask him if you can feed him
He freaks out about it and he blushes madly
But he eventually calms down and quietly agrees
You scoot onto his lap and happily feed him
He can't help but be happy about it
He's so grateful for you
He understands that he throws fits sometimes
And he's working on it
But you're just so patient and understanding
He's already thinking of new clothes to make you as a thank you
You rest your head on his chest after finishing your meals
You both just stay like that in silence for a while
Later you then peck him on the cheek and get up to leave
He grabs your wrist and pulls you into a passionate kiss
He thanks you in a hushed voice, since you two are close to each other's faces
"I love it when you get like this."
"Ouch, just like this?" He teases
"Well what's your favorite thing to love about me?"
"Huh, I can't just pick one thing. I love everything about you."
"Hm, charmer. I'll see you tonight."
"Can we—"
"Whatever you want. You deserve it for working hard. Just finish up here first, okay?
"Roger!"
He then feels ready to quickly jump back into work and get it done already
Kaoru
Hikaru had a big fight with everybody else
Kaoru's trying his best to get Hikaru into a better mood
And for him to apologize to everyone
But after a while Hikaru still isn't having it
And you could tell that Kaoru's getting burned out
So you ask him for a day out with you
He's hesitant to leave his brother, so you tell him that you'll invite him too
You were also mad at him for the fight, but pushed it down for Kaoru
When you politely asked, Hikaru made a rude remark and told you to go away
Kaoru felt bad for you trying to be the bigger person
He then said yes to the date
You two spend your day at the block
You subtly bring out the topic of trying on clothes
To which he tells you that it would be the funnest thing ever to try on clothes together
He then races you to a clothing store
You let him pick out all the clothes that he wants you to try on
You even put on a silly little show for yourselves
After entertaining him, you do the same to him and have him put on clothes for you
You share a sundae and convince him to go see a movie together
You two then take pictures in a photo booth
After that you both search for a gift to bring back to Hikaru
He walks you home, where he lets you ramble on about whatever
For a bit you're just making out against your front door
But then he walks back home and gives Hikaru the gift
He also realizes that you secretly bought him a tiny stuffed animal
He feels a lot better and doesn't feel down about his brother at all
Hikaru feels his brother's shift in mood and realizes that his anger was making Kaoru upset
So he makes it up to him by apologizing the next day
Mori
Tamaki and the twins unintentionally make Honey upset with Mori
After he ran away angry-crying, Mori was in a very bad mood
So when he was teaching at the dojo, his students were in physical pain from working hard
He's tired too, but keeps going because he feels like he needs to punish himself
Right before he went to the dojo you knew you needed to do something to cheer Mori up
You could just tell how upset he was
So you made him his favorite foods as well as packing him snacks in a bag
Later when you got there you asked him to come with you
"I'm teaching."
You then try to tug him away, but he shakes his head
You jump up and peck him on the lips
"Please? I wanna spend some time with you."
He can't help but smile and nod
You then hold his arm and turn to his students
"You guys go ahead and take a 30 minute break, okay?"
"THANK YOU Y/N SENPAI!"
You make idle chat while he quietly eats
You then remember something
"Do you remember what you said to me after I first told you I love you?"
He nods "Are you sure."
"Yup, and remember what I said after that?"
He looks down at his food, indicating a yes
You recite your words:
"Takashi, I promise I love you just as much as Honey does."
He hums to let you know he's listening
"I know that Honey's upset right now, but he'll get over it. He loves you."
He then smiles and kisses you, nodding
"Please don't overwork yourself. It makes me worry for you."
"Don't worry."
Once you finish packing up you walk him back
You motion for him to bend down to you
You whisper to him that you'll be waiting for him at home to take a bath together
Before giving him a passionate kiss
He then quickly turns to his students and just dismisses them
---
Author's Note: I see a lot of fanfics where the go above and beyond for you, and even though I love all those stories, I thought that changing it up would be nice
#ohshc#ohshc hikaru#ohshc kyoya#ohshc kaoru#ohshc honey#ohshc tamaki#ohshc takashi#kyoya ootori x reader#kyoya senpai#kyoya ootori#kyoya x reader#tamaki suoh#tamaki suoh x reader#tamaki senpai#takashi morinozuka#takashi morinozuka x reader#hikaru hitachiin x reader#kaoru hitachiin x reader
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Day 3 (2/3)
Break:
After a long day of hard work, soldier was guiding all those sad excuses of mercenaries to their respective quarters so they could rest for the next day, and better they don't put excuses because otherwise they will know. They will have to get up early because Miss Pauling had informed them in advance that they must be awake before the said 0400 hours so that they can catch the next train that will take the nine of them to their next mission in Mountain lab.
soldier was patrolling the corridors to make sure for himself that everyone was in their respective rooms.
After having the necessity of thrown a stone directly at the window of sniper's van, and break it, so he turn off the lights. soldier was ready to go to his own barracks to rest as well.
on the way, he saw that some lights was coming from under the door that led to the same engineer's workshop.
soldier groaned under his breath, that professor was still awake after he had strictly said that he wanted to see them all sleeping at the same hour.
He broke into the engineer's workshop without even having warned first.
Engineer, turned around seeing who had entered his workshop, and he welcome his expected guest with a warmly smile. After all, it doesn't bother him that much if soldier enters in such an abrupt way, he was already used to that. also, the same soldier is the only one allowed to come in without warning.
"I thought I said lights out." He barked as he approached the engineer's work table, "What are you supposed to be doing still awake maggot?" He crossed his arms in front of the man sitting on his own breach.
"Excuse me partner, I was just tidying up my inventory before we have to leave to mountain lab tomorrow. I want to have everything in order when we come back in a week so it saves me some problems." He replied innocently, hoping the soldier would believe his words.
"So you're just ordering, huh"
"yep." He was still smiling.
"So how do you explain that." Soldier pointed to those two cups with dark coffee to one side in the work table that were freshly made.
engineer had no choice but to giggle when he was discovered red-handed. "Okay, you got me. I won't be up for long, I promise."
"Five minutes, then lights out." He warns him.
He nodded, "whatever you say, sal." He glanced at the two cups of coffee next to his blueprints and then at the soldier who was still in the room looking at his work with odd interest. then a brilliant idea occurred to him.
"Why don't you join me, soldier?"
"uh?" Soldier looks like if he wasn't paying attention.
"I mean, why don't you take a sit and have little break with me? you deserve it after doing such great job on today's mission. Also it would be great having some company here, i was starting to feel lonely."
"I just ... don't know." He scratched the back of his head thoughtfully.
"C'mon," he hands him one of his coffee mugs, "a little break won't hurt anyone." He offered him another nice smile and with this last one soldier gave up and accept his offer.
"fine." He takes one cup in his hands, "ten minutes. not more, not less."
"mh-hm." he just nodded in response.
soldier took his proper seat next to the engineer and the two chatted all night about today's mission and other issues. although most of the time it was soldier who was bringing conversation while engineer just listened carefully to what the man had to say about war and strategies on the battlefield, it was something that he likes most about soldier, that he always look so shine when he talk about battle. Also he hasn't that much to say anyways so he can enjoy soldier's words.
Those ten minutes soon turned into 30 and sooner than ever they turned into a full hour without them noticing.
After working so much, engineer's eyes started to feel really heavy and he ended falling sleep on soldier's shoulder, seems that one cup with coffee wasn't enough to keep him awake for much longer.
Soldier, when notice how the man was sleeping, just sign and shake his head. "What I'm supposed to do with you. always driving me crazy with all your behaviors." He put all the work gears on their due places and With the slightest effort, soldier manages to carry the engineer in his hands bride-style. immediately the man asleep in those strong arms adopts a comfortable position in the other's arms. "I should be mad at you, but somehow i can't." Soldier takes the man away from his workplace to where he could sleep and be more comfortable for the rest of the night.
Accidentally, or on purpose, soldier had taken him to his own room and place him on his own bed in the other half of it. Once Making sure engie was good, he too collapsed on the bed almost immediately next to the little sleeping man, wrapping one of his strong arms around him to help with his own sleeps.
Tomorrow will be a hard day for them.
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Twisted Wonderland Event: Scary Monsters - Episode 4-8
Dreamwidth link here.
Episode 4-8: Get Out
-Alchemy Workshop - Chemical Storage-
???: You seem to be troubled……
Man A & B: Crap!!
*step*……
Man A: W- Who are you? Are you a Night Raven College student?
Azul: Indeed. I’m also in charge of managing this area.
Inside the aquarium is a merman with quite the history. You are free to study him, however……
I must insist that you do not provoke him. There’s no way of knowing if he’ll curse you or not.
Man A: He has “quite the history”……?
Azul: Yes……
Azul: If you didn’t know…… Long ago, the rare mummies of merfolk were considered priceless treasures.
It is said they could instantly mend broken bones, erase scars, act as an antipyretic, cure abdominal pain……
They were believed to be a miracle drug that could cure any and all ailments. Of course, this is all just superstition, nothing but a silly story.
However, naturally, the merfolk who had been turned into mummies resented humans……
It is only when they became vicious ghosts and began taking their revenge that those incorrigible humans realized the error of their ways……
They were able to trap the vengeful ghost of this merman within this magical aquarium and barely retain their lives.
Never damage this aquarium. In order to uphold that singular rule passed down through the academy, we……
Handle it strictly! With the utmost care! Without leaving even a single fingerprint!
……We are extraordinarily careful with it.
Man B: W- Wow~ I-i-is that so~......
Man A: Um…… What if, hypothetically speaking......
What would happen if the aquarium was scratched?
Azul: Then the magic seal on the aquarium would be broken.
Though it was suppressed once before, the ghost’s resentment is deeply rooted. Merfolk are still looking for opportunities to take their revenge.
Their number one objective is to siphon life-force from humans so that they may be revived.
If, by chance, the aquarium was damaged and the seal was broken……
Everyone here would be drained of their life-force until they’re empty, dried-up husks…… We’d become mummies ourselves!
Man A: Ah- Ahaha! There’s no way! You’re totally trying to pull a fast one on us, dude!
(......He is joking, right?)
Man B: (But…… Maybe it’s just ‘cause it’s Halloween, but I think he might be serious…...)
(And…… Look at the way he’s looking straight at us! Does it look like he’s lying?)
Azul: Oya? The color has completely drained from your faces; are you feeling alright?
Man A & B: Well……
Azul: You have no reason to worry, I assure you!
The merman’s ghost will not be revived unless the aquarium is scratched……
WHAT’S THIS!?!?
There’s a crack in the aquarium! How on earth did this happen!?
Man A & B: Errrr……
Azul: No— did you do this?
Man A: I- It’s not what you think! The selfie stick moved all by itself! That’s how it got hit……
Octavinelle Student A: Oh? A selfie stick? Do you really think that excuse would work?
Octavinelle Student B: The use of selfie sticks is prohibited here. How do you plan to make up for this? Hm?
Azul: What should I do— at this rate the mummy will be revived……
Bang, bang……!!
Man A: Uwah! It started to move!?
Man B: I- It really is a merman! That means he was being serious before!?
Floyd: Get me out of here!! I know you can hear me! Get me out! I have to get out!
GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGET
OUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT
GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT
Get me out………………
BANG!!!!
Floyd: GET ME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man A & B: UWAH————! Someone calm him down———!
Azul: Please calm yourselves. If we can restore the aquarium……
*the lights go out*
Man B: Gyah! What the hell!? A power outage!?
*the lights come back*
Azul: Ah! The merman isn’t in the aquarium!
Man A: No way…… He was floating there just a second ago!
Azul: We’re too late……
Octavinelle Student A: I’m sure he escaped. He must be lurking in the dark, looking to target us!
Azul: Let’s leave this room at once. At this rate, we’ll all become mummies......
???: Ughhhhh…… Urghhhhh……
Man B: Wh- What was that!? That noise!?
Man A: It sounded like someone groaning……
*the lights go out*
Azul: AHHHHHHHH!!!
*lights come on*
Octavinelle Students A & B: D- DORM LEADER————!
Octavinelle Student B: The Dorm Leader got turned into a mummy! Someone, please, hurry and call a professor!
Even another Dorm Leader is fine— we’ve lost control of the situation......!
Man A: Huh! What!? Who cares about that— we need to get outta here!
???: it hURtS…… waTEr…… giVe me wATer……
*lights go out*
Octavinelle Students A & B: UWAH~~~! No, please, I don’t want to be a mummy! SOMEONE SAVE ME~~~！
BAM! SLAM! SMASH!
Man A: Another power outage!? I can’t see anything! What’s going on!?
Man B: I can’t take this anymore! This all happened ‘cause you used the selfie stick!
Man A: Didn’t you say it’d be fine if we were careful!? This isn’t something you can blame a person for!
*lights come back on*
???: Humans…… There are humans here……
Jade: This thirst…… it hurts…… I’ll give you a taste of this too!
Man A: GYAAAAAAH!!
Man B: I- IT’S THE MUMMY! IT REALLY GOT OUT!!
Azul: Urgh…… Urghhh……
Man B: Eek! It’s that guy from before! He’s a mummy!
Man A: Eh, wait a minute…… But he was just beside me......
Jade: Heh……
Thank you very much for breaking my seal.
Man A: He has the same face as the merman who disappeared from the aquarium! He’s really a vicious merman ghost!?
S- Someone save us! Please, mister, you have to get us out of here!
Azul: Urgh…… Ughhh……
Jade: It’s futile. He’s already my puppet. He’ll do anything I command.
Isn’t that right?
Azul: Urghhhhh……
Jade: Would you kindly cross your arms?
Azul: Uagh.
Jade: Now, sing for me—
Azul: La~♪
Jade: And do a little dance, won’t you?
Azul: !?
……Ugh.
Jade: …...How about that. You understand now, don’t you?
Man A: It’s true…… Even though there’s not even any music, he’s dancing all by himself! This is way too creepy!
Man B: And those sluggish movements with no rhythm…… He’s definitely being manipulated by the mummy.
Jade: Fufufu…… But this is still far from the suffering I endured.
I was dragged up onto land, wrapped in bandages, with nothing to do but wait for my body to dry out, day after day……
Azul: Aughhhhhh……Uraghhhhh——!
Jade: I lamented just as you do now, but no one came to save me. I suffered immensely.
I vowed to take revenge even if I became a ghost.
So, I’m very grateful to you for letting me out.
Man A: Th- Then you’ll let us go……!?
Jade: Rather than that, I’ll give you my deepest thanks!
Man B: Your thanks……?
Jade: Indeed. As thanks…… I’ll let you join us!
BOO!
Man A: AHHHHHHHH!!
I can’t see in front of me. Wh- What is this! Bandages are wrapping around me!
Azul: BOO!
Man B: Let me go———!!
-
Episode 4-7 ← → Episode 4-9
#twisted wonderland#disney twst#scary monsters event#jade leech#floyd leech#azul ashengrotto#octavinelle#my translations#long post#THIS CHAPTER IS SO FUCKING FUNNY POOR AZUL
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WHUMPTOBER 2020
No. 21
Fandom: Avengers
Whumpee: Tony Stark
Caregiver: Steve Rogers
Title: We’re Not Dying Here
By: PenPatronus // PenPatronusAooO
“Did I ever tell you,” Tony said to Steve, “about the time my dad put his cigarette out… in my ear?”
“N-No,” Steve huffed and puffed, “did I ever tell you about the time my dad spent half our rent money on new writing utensils for me?”
“Mom was at her book club. My nanny had the night off. I couldn’t find a screwdriver, so I took one from dad’s workshop… and broke it. Turns out it belonged to his old man.”
“Dad had to work double shifts for two weeks to make up for that. I think I saw him twice that whole time.”
The boys’ tried to talk quietly, but their voices still echoed a bit in the cold, silent subway. They’d been ambushed. Steve had never been in a limo, Tony discovered at 2:00 in the morning. So naturally Tony, against Steve’s wishes, called for one of his stretch limos to pick them up in front of the Tower for a joyride. Steve relented, and the pair went for a ride through a snowy Manhattan. Twelve and a half blocks later, while they were crossing an icy intersection, a monster of a black truck drove into the intersection and slammed into the driver’s door. The truck was so large that its front end stretched wide and hit the seat directly behind the driver, too. It hit Tony. The limo crumpled and aluminum smashed Tony’s leg, breaking his right femur.
The driver died on impact. Steve and Tony, leaving their phones in cupholders, got out on the opposite side of the limo while the bad guys popped out of the truck and started firing their guns. Steve tore off an icy manhole, but they didn’t go down there. Instead, they ducked into a closed subway station, Tony leaning on Steve as he hopped. They hoped their attackers would assume they escaped into the sewer, and would spend the whole night on a wild goose chase down there.
The pair got down onto the subway tracks where it was somehow even colder than it was on the street. Tony asked what street they were on and when Steve told him, he sighed and said, “This track is shut down three miles in both directions. They’ve been making repairs all winter.”
“Well, we can’t stay here,” Steve had said. He went from holding Tony’s elbow to pulling his friend’s arm across his shoulders. “Start hopping.”
“Steve…” Tony pointed back up at the station, at the bathrooms nearby. “Just stick me in there. Get out of here, get to the rest of the team and come back for me then.”
Steve shook his head. “If they figure out we’re down here then they’ll tear the place apart. It’s too risky.”
“Cap, my leg’s shattered.” Tony’s nose was red from the cold and the air turned white when it exited his throat. “I’m just going to slow you down… Get out of here.” Steve’s response was to wrap his other arm around Tony’s waist, and step forward. Now they were hopping along in the darkness, ears on alert for anyone following them, eyes squinting by the barest light coming from blinking lightbulbs that lined the tunnel.
“Bastard perforated my eardrum. I had to have surgery that night,” Tony continued. “And did anyone at the hospital call child services when I told them my father stuck a lit cigarette in my ear? Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Not Howard Stark, no, he would never do that…” Tony stumbled for a second, and Steve hefted him up into the air, only putting him back down when he found a smooth spot on the track. “Steve, I… Just need a minute, ok?”
Steve looked at his friend. He was both sweating and shivering. Tony’s hand on his elbow trembled. “Ok,” he said. “We can sit for a minute – but just one.”
“I’ll take it.”
Steve slowly lowered Tony to the ground and arranged him so that he was sitting back against the cement. Stark clamped his mouth shut and struggled not to scream when Steve accidentally put his arm on Tony’s knee. “Sorry,” Steve whispered. “Hey Tony, what… What’s… Tony, you’re bleeding!”
“Am I?” Tony looked down at his broken leg for the first time and saw that his jeans were dark red and wet. “Huh. That explains it.”
Steve took his winter coat off and pressed it against a three inch cut in Tony’s upper leg. “Explains what?”
“That darkness in the corner of my eyes,” Tony mumbled. “The fact that I see a Cap and a half right now… And you’re blurry.”
Steve looked up into his friend’s eyes. “I think we’re in trouble here.”
“We’re always in trouble.” Tony laughed at himself, then stopped when the vibrations caused his leg to throb even more. “God, this hurts…”
Steve finished wrapping his coat all around Tony’s leg. He used his belt to hold it tight. “All right, Stark, you’ve got more hopping to do.” Steve took his winter gloves off and put them on Tony’s, over his, and then helped his friend to his feet. “Here we go.”
“Here I go again on my own,” Tony sang, “goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known. Have you listened to Whitesnake yet, Cap?”
“Haven’t had the pleasure, Tony.”
“Ah, the eighties,” Tony mused. “I broke my other leg in 1987. Fell off a garage roof.”
“What were you doing on a garage roof?”
“What I always did! I was trying to impress a girl.”
Steve chuckled. “Hop a little faster, Tony. I think I see a brighter light ahead. Must be the next station.”
“Oh, thank God,” Tony groaned. “Let’s hail a cab.” His teeth rattled then – clicking together as he shivered in the cold.
Both of their stomachs sank when they came to the station. Like the first one, it was shut down. Unlike the first one, it was barricaded shut… from the outside. Steve left Tony on the track and tried his best to break through the barricade, with no luck. He did, however, find a vending machine. He put his fist through the glass and got Tony a couple Snickers bars and a bottle of water. He broke into a security station, next, and found a gun hidden under a desk. He pocketed the weapon in the back pocket of his jeans, then jumped back down to Tony. He’d ordered Tony to stay on his feet, but he’d ignored him. Tony sat against the cement again, clutching his knee. Blood had seeped through the winter jacket.
“You know what really impresses girls, Cap?” Tony asked him as Steve unwrapped the candy and unscrewed the bottle cap. “Goatees. You should grow a goatee, Steve. Might look good on you.” Tony held his lips open while Cap poured some water down his throat. Stark coughed for a moment, then gestured for more water. “Thanks…” He waved away the candy. “Slight possibility I might puke,” he explained.
Steve ate the Snickers in two bites. “We’ll be able to get topside at the next station,” he assured his friend. “Just a little more hopping to go.”
Tony had closed his eyes. “Hmm…” he hummed. “How cold do you think it is?”
“It was ten when we left the Tower… Probably five down here.”
Tony opened his eyes. “I made a giant snowman when I was five… Hijacked a bulldozer.”
“Get up, Tony.”
“You know where my dad put his cigarette out on me that time? Back of the neck. Hurt for weeks.”
Steve sighed. He pulled Tony’s arm across his shoulders and stood up with him. Tony sagged. He coughed. He rested his head against Steve’s shoulder. “Come on, buddy,” Steve urged him. “We’ve got a ways to go.”
“You know where it really hurts to get a cigarette put out on you? Back of the knee. Boy, that stings.”
The two Avengers hopped along for another half mile. This station was barricaded, too. Steve got another bottle of water and a second gun. More hopping.
Stark had stopped talking. “Tony?”
“Hm?”
“I’ve never seen you this quiet. It’s weirding me out.”
“Hm…”
Steve looked at Tony and saw that his eyes were shut. But he kept hopping, kept hopping.
They were about a third of a mile away from the next abandoned station when Tony stopped moving, except for the constant shivering from the abhorrent cold. “Steve, I don’t think I…” Tony’s left knee buckled, and he collapsed onto the track with his broken leg outstretched. Steve let him fall, but slowed the fall so that Tony wouldn’t hurt himself. He maneuvered his friend so that they landed side by side, arm against arm, Tony’s head lying on Steve’s shoulder. “Steve, it’s so cold and I can’t… I just can’t…”
Normally, Steve would say, “Of course you can! You’re Tony Stark! You strolled out of a terrorist camp, flew a missile through a wormhole, saved the President…” But, there was something so sincere, so desperately true in Tony’s voice, that he knew now wasn’t the time for an inspirational speech. So instead of arguing and insisting and lecturing, Steve gently put his arm around Tony, giving him a sideways hug. Tony collapsed against him, going nearly limp. Steve rubbed his back and arm to try to warm him up, but nothing could beat back the whistling wind in the dark tunnel. Tony was sweating and shivering and shaking. His skin was pale and there was just the tiniest, faintest tinge of blue under his chin. The blood flow hadn’t stopped. Steve looked up at the ceiling and made a wish on a lightbulb as if it were a star.
Steve let five minutes go by. Then, he shook Tony’s shoulder and said, “Time to go, Tony.” He took his arm away but Tony was limp, and he would’ve smacked the back of his head on the iron track if Steve hadn’t grabbed him and maneuvered him into his lap.
Tony groaned and pressed his nose against the inside of Steve’s right knee. “I’s… dizzy…” he sighed through a mumble. “Think I need to sleep…”
“Tony, no, Tony – you need to stay awake. If you fall asleep you might…” Steve didn’t want to think about what might happen. He lifted Tony up half a foot and pulled his friend’s face to his chest and held him there, Tony’s ear against his breastbone. “Tony, for me – stay awake.”
“t’s hard.”
Steve rubbed Tony’s entire upper body, desperate to keep him warm and alert. “Tony – we need go to a little further. Just a little further, all right? Then you can rest again.”
“Cap, I can’t…”
“Tony, look at me.” Steve gently clasped Tony’s chin between his bare fingers and forced him to meet his eyes. “Hang on. Just a little bit longer.” Tony blinked hazy eyes. He licked his chapped lips and sniffed the freezing air. “Do it for me, Tony, all right? Do it for me.”
Tony nodded. “For you,” he conceded. He nodded again. “Help me up.”
It was then – right then – that both men heard the voices. Men’s voices, coming from behind them – from down the tunnel they’d been walking. Steve and Tony shared a brief terrified look, then they scrambled up onto their feet. Tony hopped forward three steps, almost four before his knee collapsed again. Frustrated, scared, desperate, Cap tossed Tony over his shoulder and started to run. He reached the next station and lifted Tony up onto the platform. He scrambled up behind him, then dragged Tony to the bathroom wall. “This is where we make our stand,” he told him. Steve got a third gun out of that platform’s security station and put it in Tony’s gloved hand. “We’re not dying here today, you hear me? Not freezing to death and getting shot in some shitty subway.”
“Mhmm,” Tony muttered. Then he agreed, “Not today.”
“That’s right.”
The voices were getting closer. One of them chuckled.
Steve gently cupped Tony’s cold face. “Stay awake,” he ordered. “Tony… Stay with me.”
Tony looked at his friend. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to see your dad.” Tony swallowed, his Adam’s apple bouncing. “I’ll promise I’ll stay awake… For you.”
“That’s my man.” Steve patted Tony’s shoulder, then took up his post on the edge of the platform, waiting for the men to get closer.
When he saw their shadows, he aimed his gun at the nearest lightbulb and shot it dead. Only two lightbulbs remained along that short stretch of track. Steve was willing to be that he had the upper hand at seeing in the dark thanks to his super soldier eyesight. “Turn around now!” he called to the approaching men. “Unless you want to die!”
“Cap?” a voice called.
Steve lowered his weapon. “BARTON?” He looked around the corner and, sure enough, Clint, Bruce, Natasha, and Thor were jogging down the tunnel towards him. Steve sighed in relief. “Thank God it’s you guys.”
His teammates climbed up onto the platform. “We’ve been looking for you for hours!” said Bruce. “We were worried you’d frozen to death.”
“Tony is close to that. He’s practically hypothermic.” Steve turned and jogged back over to his friend. “Tony?” Tony had broken his promise. He was unconscious. Steve shook him, but he didn’t wake up.
“TONY!”
----------
Tony was delightfully surprised to find himself in his own warm bed when he woke up. He was surprised, but not particularly delighted, to find Steve Rogers where Pepper was supposed to be – lying right beside him. In Steve’s defense, he was lying over the blankets instead of under them with Tony, and he was on the very edge of the bed. Still, Tony couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. Abandoned Chinese food sat on his bedside table. Tony plucked out a chopstick, then used it to poke Steve in the nose. Cap flapped his hand in front of his face as if there was a pesky housefly there. His own movement woke him up and he made eye contact with Tony. “Hey.”
“We got out of the death tunnel, I see.”
“Of course we did. We’re us.” Steve sat up, swung his legs over the side of the bed, walked around it and then sat on the edge on Tony’s side. “You look better.”
“Did I fall asleep?”
“Uh huh.” Steve looked down at his hands folded in his lap. “You promised you’d stay awake.”
“Sorry…”
Steve raised his eyebrows. “Want to make it up to me?”
Tony rolled his eyes. “My leg is broken, and I have pressure in my chest that tells me I was hypothermic at the end. What can I possibly do for you?”
Steve turned serious. “Don’t do that again,” he said quietly.
“Don’t do what?”
“Almost die.”
Neither man made eye contact with the other. “Only if you make the same promise,” Tony said.
Steve smiled. “Deal.”
The End
#Whumptober#Whumptober2020#Whumptober 2020#No.21#No. 21#Hypothermia#Avengers#Fic#FanFiction#Whump#Avengers FanFiction#PenPatronus#PenPatronusAooO#Tony Stark#Iron Man#Steve Rogers#Captain America#Stony#Stony Friendship#Angst#Bromance#Collapse#Marvel#Friendship#Drama#Family#Hurt Tony Stark#Avengers Feels#MCU
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Part 23. That I got this far already might be crazy,,,,,,
In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. In recent chapters, Nico has been trying to make amendments with his father. Now, he and Hades decide to go somewhere together, somewhere were Nico has an interesting revelation. The rest of the story is on AO3 and FanFiction.net! (Also in tags like Nico di angelo, fanfiction, trails of apollo etc. and here).
This might be crazy: Chapter 23: Black Coffee
‘Hey!’ I screamed as soon as I set foot into my fathers’ palace.
‘Don’t go into the throne room!’ was my the warm welcome I got from my father. Today, I decided to listen to his wisdom. I went to the living room instead. Lo and behold, my father was there.
‘Hey, dad.’
‘Because the last hey was just a general hey, not specifically meant for anyone in this palace where I am alone right now.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Dad, there are also spirits and skeletons in here. Thanatos might be hanging around as well.’
‘Hm.’ He was sitting on the couch, with some paper. I wondered what he was doing with it. He could be something harmless like making a sudoku, but he could also be writing Persephone a love letter (or at least trying to do so) or counting out how many souls there needed to go to The Fields of Asphodel to hit ten billion residents this year. Alright, some of those things might have been hyperbolic, but he really was doing strange, unforseen stuff sometimes.
‘What is it that you want?’ he threw the papers to the other side of the couch
‘I just wanted to see how my father was doing. Like regular teens do.’
He arched his brow. ‘Regular teens don’t randomly go to see what they’re parents are doing.’ Yes, well dad, good job figuring out that we are not a regular family.
‘Well, I do.’
‘Hm.’
‘So, what were you doing?’
‘Nothing.’ He reached towards the papers and stuffed them under the pillows. ‘What were you doing before you came here?’
Hm. ‘I was training before, until I got some free time. Will was working in the infirmary, so I decided to go see you instead.’
‘Oh.’ He looked at his hands. ‘Ah-ha. Uhm, well, this time I actually have an idea about what you can do.’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘Really?’
‘Yes. We, uh… need special new chairs.’ I did not want to find out what he meant by special. ‘And someone needs to get them from Hephaestus’ workshop. Persephone still has to be on the surface for two months and I need them statt…’
‘We could go get them together,’ I quickly piped in. I was not going to be send out alone.
Hades stared at me. ‘...Yes,’ he answered. I could not make out if it was a ‘yes, I meant that the entire time’ or a ‘well, that is possible too.’
‘Well, then.’ It was silent for a few seconds. ‘When are we leaving?’
‘Right now.’
Less then a second later, before I had even noticed that my dad had teleported us, we were standing in front of Hephaestus’ workshop. Something about the place made me nervous. The doors were humongous, much bigger than any other gate I had ever seen. The doors of death would look like they belonged to a dollhouse compared to this. I heard my dad take a deep breath.
‘You’re not nervous, right?’ I asked. It came out before I knew, but my dad was so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t even heard it.
The gate opened with a creaking sound. The place was even more gigantic from the inside. It was hot and it was cold, it was blinding and it was dark, it was gorgeous and it was horrible. Slowly, and both more than a little nervous, we walked inside.
When we were about ten metres in, my fathers’ voice suddenly boomed through the workshop: ‘Hephaestus! Where are you?’ The sound bounced off from the walls, which amplified it even more. I pressed my hands against my ears. My dad shot a look at me. ‘Oh, sorry.’
‘It’s okay.’
We heard a clicking sound coming from the right. A few seconds later, Hephaestus appeared. I held my breath when I saw him. I’d be used to it in no-time, I tried to tell myself. But he was hideous.
‘Hades.’ He turned his attention to us. I looked at the ground. ‘Who’s the youngling?’
‘My son.’ It felt good when dad said that. He did not say it with a lot of affection, more as a matter of fact, but it felt good.
Hephaestus nodded, with a boording expression. ‘Your chairs are in the back. You can take a look at them.’
‘Nico…’
‘He’s staying here.’
‘What? No.’
‘Hades, this is my workshop. I don’t want your son barging around.’
My father said an ancient curse that I did not understand. He went in the back without giving us another look.
Hephaestus turned to me. ‘I’ll follow him soon.’ His voice was suddenly a lot softer. I looked up at him and forced myself to keep looking. ‘But I need to ask you if you are doing alright. You are the Nico di Angelo, right?’
‘Yes, I am.’ He reached for a thermoscan and a stack of metal cups that were seemingly just lying around and poured out two black coffees. I put my hand against my metal cup (which was just the right temperature, as if it was a metal cup made by a magical blacksmith), but did not dare to take a sip.
‘I heard from my children that Dionysus is helping you with a few problems you have.’
‘Yes, he is… your children?’
Hephaestus snickered softly. ‘After… after the Titan war, and after my son Leo finished his first quest I… I decided it wasn’t enough to help my children from a distance. I…’ he shrugged and gestured at one of the walls, which was covered from top to bottom with crummy and slightly less crummy projects. ‘I have been collecting stuff my kids made forever, but I realised I needed to be there for them in the flesh as well, no matter how difficult it might be. Last time I was at the camp to visit them, I wanted to have a chat with Dionysus, because he is my best friend and I haden’t seen him for some time. That is when my children said he was busy helping you.’ He scratched the back of his neck.
‘Oh.’ Wow. Someone had really been trying to make amends.
‘Eh, but what I actually wanted to say… you can trust Dionysus. He will help you. He won’t tell your secrets to anybody else. He helped me too, when I was wrapped up in feelings of guilt and revenge.’ He patted my shoulder. It felt like I was being crushed under a boulder.
‘Ergh. Yes, I know. Thanks, lord. He is helping me feel better actually.’
‘That is... that is good.’ The blacksmith studied his cup, before downing it all at once. ‘You know...’
‘Hephaestus!’ My dad called from the other side of the workshop. ‘They are good, I guess, but how do I deactivate them?’ Hephaesus stopped talking and stared at an unknown point for some time. Then, he shook his head. ‘Let’s go see how your dad is doing.’
While we were walking to the back, I absentmindedly took a sip of coffee. I just managed to keep it inside. It tasted like motor oil. I much prefered Dionysus’ drinks.
‘So. That has been fixed,’ Hades said, when we were back in his palace. I nodded.
‘Uh-huh.’
He turned around, but did not make eye contact. ‘Uh… I did not plan to take you to Hephaestus’ workshop. I just had to be there, and…’ he shrugged.
I shrugged back. ‘And you did not want to go alone.’
‘I would have gone alone otherwise. Of course.’ He turned back to the chairs. ‘Eh…’ another shrug. So I shrugged again as well. ‘I… you have been coming over more often recently. Is that… because you like it here? With me?’
I stared ahead of me. Suddenly, I noticed that I had never let go of the metal coffee cup. I took another sip and it tasted just as horrible. ‘Well, I have noticed that you want to put in the time and effort to spend time with me as well. And I like some of the time spend together.’
Hades stared at the weird furniture. What did he even need these torturous looking chairs for? They obviously weren’t for visitors or for himself, but he did place them in the living room. ‘So… not all the time.’
‘Some moments have been rough. But… that is only to be expected. The more time we spend together, the better it has become. Today was nice. Weirdly enough, I… I liked going to Hephaestus' workshop.’ Which wasn’t completely because of you, but then again, without you I wouldn’t have been there at all.
‘Eh… me too. I mean I liked spending time with you too.’ He shrugged again. ‘I hope… I hope we will have a relationship that can be called healthy when Persephone comes back. Then we can… adjust to that together.’ I did not fully comprehend the implication. ‘Will you work towards that, with me?’ As if I had not been the person clearly working the hardest. However, the spirit was there.
‘Yes. Of course.’ I got a smirk on my face. Next time we have a father-son appointment we’ll go to home depot.’
‘To what?’
‘Let’s call it Hephaestus’ workshop, but way less cool and for mortal dads.’
‘Yes, well, we’ll think about it.’ So that’s a no. Drab. Oh well, it had been more of a joke anyway. ‘Cool.’ Almost instinctively, I took another sip of coffee. This time, I spat it out. ‘Oh god, this is gross.’
‘Did you get that at Hephaestus’ place?’
‘Yes, but I did not plan to bring it here, or drink even a drop of it for that matter.’
‘I hope so.’ He shifted. ‘Dionysus helped Hephaestus, too, I heard. Eh… perhaps he should also have taught his friend how to properly make drinks.’
I snickered. ‘He should’ve. But then he might have put Dionysus out of business. Hephaestus is clearly much more efficient.’
‘Hm.’ Hades looked like he would not be incredibly sad about that.
‘Eh… but I have to go back to training now.’
‘Okay. You’ll come again, right?’ I looked at him. He wanted me to come back, he really did.
‘Yes, of course, dad.’ I put too much effort into mending this relationship to stop now.
He smiled and patted me on the arm. ‘Bye.’
‘Bye,’ I said, while slowly turning around.
I was smiling when I came into camp. I felt like it was going better. But slowly, I began having doubts. I’d have to talk about those with Dionysus next time.
A/N: When I began this chapter, I did not plan on writing about Hephaestus, it just came to me while writing. Now it seems like the best part of the chapter.
I toyed with the idea of having them go to IKEA, but that seemed out of style. Perhaps in a future chapter, if I get crazy enough (And honestly, this chapter already seemed out of my usual writing style).
I am not sure whether I should have shown some of the harder father-son sessions. Perhaps I’ll do that later. I wanted to do this, I thought it was more fun for both myself and for the people reading this (Who I appreciate very very much).
I am thinking of a chapter where Nico talks to Apollo and where he talks to Hephaestus. But first Apollo needs to become an actual god again I guess. That part will be out in a week or so.
#Nico di angelo#dionysus#hades#trials of apollo#fanfic#fanfiction#writing#writer#pjo#percy jackson and the olympians#percy jackson#hephaestus#hephaestus pjo#dionysus pjo#hades pjo#writeblr#heroes of olympus#tower of nero#therapy#hurt/comfort
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Chapter 48 - SBT
Here it is!
Mundy parked the van about a mile away from the palace Duchemin lived in. It was the end of the afternoon and the sky was turning orange. The endless desert ground was hard, dusty and brown where the few cacti would cast their growing shadows.
"It's all on me now."
He slipped out of his van and shut the door.
"Right. Let's find the bloke."
The Aussie adjusted his rifle on his back and climbed on his van's rooftop before scoping in to watch over the impressive mansion. There were guards patrolling and…
"Sick bastard…"
Mundy had to do a double take at the impressive number of lightly dressed females lounging in the gardens, the same French gardens him and Lucien had been in back when -
"Ugh…" He sighed but shook his head. Those days were over. The days where his heart would feel warm at the sight of the expensive suits and the alluring man wearing them.
Mundy focused on his scoping again. The ladies weren't a problem in itself, no, the problem was that they looked young, very young, no doubt even... illegally young.
However, Duchemin wasn't with them. So Mundy moved the scope to align it with the windows and tried to get a glimpse of what was happening through them.
"More guards… More goons… Ugh… Where the hell is he…?"
He followed one of the guards going down a flight of stairs until -
"What the hell?! Where is he gone to?"
The man had disappeared underground.
"Wait, so there is an underground to this place? Alright…"
Mundy stayed a bit longer, counting the number of guards and watching them patrol around.
"Right, I won't see more without getting closer. But there are cameras… I hope those bullets will do the trick…"
The Aussie loaded his rifle and one by one, the CCTV cameras went off.
"Perfect, now the guards…"
Mundy changed his bullets for his double-chambered sleeping darts and started shooting. Thank God for the suppressor, no one heard him shoot and the guards fell limply one after the next, starting from those on the rooftop. When he was done with the dozen or so, the Aussie came down his van and got closer to the gardens. He found the young girls next to the pool, where he had first seen them.
"Hey - Ssh! No, don't shout, don't scream! I'm here to free you up!" He took one as a hostage to make the others obey. The poor girls were scared to the bone in their bikinis. He released the little girl that he had in his arms and looked at them earnestly. "Listen, if you run that way for about a mile, you'll find a van.. It doesn't have much space but you can hide there until I come back and take you somewhere safe, ok?"
"What about Arthur?" One of them asked. "He'll find you and kill you and us for it!"
"Nah, I'm here to kill him and look around you, no guards, no alert, nothing. You're safe. Besides, this might be your only chance to get free. Now, tell me anything you know about where he is."
"He must be underground… I heard him say that something important would happen today…" A young black-haired girl said, in tears.
"Yeah, he's about to move his merchandise someplace else…" Another added.
"Alright, how do I get underground without being seen and what's my best bet to get to him?" Mundy asked.
"There's a… A sewer pipe, it's actually a whole network of them… He uh…" The poor girl couldn’t continue.
"That's where he gets rid of the corpses." Another one explained and Mundy's pupils shrank.
"Bloody sick bastard… Alright, where does it lead? If I find the end of it, I can just work backwards to him, yeah?" Mundy asked.
"You'll have to go around the house, look down and you should see a manhole."
"Alright, I'll do that. By the way, are there any others like you?" He asked.
"There were."
Mundy gulped down hard and frowned.
"Alright. Go to my van and stay there, ok?"
"Thank you so much! Be careful!"
Mundy left them and followed their instructions. He walked in the maze of hedges that he knew from that time in the party. The only difference was that this time, the sunlight was enough to see and…
And Lucien wasn't there.
"No!" Mundy said to himself and shook his head.
No, Lucien wasn't there and that was the whole point of it. Mundy would find Duchemin and kill him such that his goons would go after him and not after the Frenchman. He had a cat to raise and someone he longed for.
Mundy finally found the manhole. He moved it with great effort and took the ladder down until his heeled boots hit the floor.
"Bloody hell, that's some stench…!" He winced and switched on the light on his little keyring.
Mundy wasn't surprised by the existence of the bad smell, after all, he was now walking in the sewers. No, what surprised him is the nature of the stench, he could clearly identify rotting flesh in the air…
"Sick son of a whore…" He mumbled to himself as he progressed in the tunnels.
He had no idea where he was going exactly or where he should be going. But as long as he kept moving, he was bound to find something. Eventually.
"Fuckin' hell, that bloke has a thing for mazes or what…?"
Those sewers proved to be another kind of mazes, just like the hedges in the French garden; only this time, the visibility was extremely low. The little flashlight on Mundy's keyring wasn't powerful enough to help him greatly and the Aussie started to regret not having taken a torchlight with him. But how could he have known that he would end up travelling in some disgusting and no doubt highly contaminated sewers?
Mundy sighed and put his hat in front of his face like a mask. The lingering smell of his soap in his old, leather hat was better than the filth floating in the air.
He walked and walked, wishing he had something to mark his way, just to make sure he was not going in a circle…
Mundy let the little light explore left and right around his feet and the sight wasn't one he wished to remember. In the dirty waters he could clearly see remnants of what used to be living beings. Sometimes animals, sometimes not. He winced in disgust and pulled the light higher up in front of him.
The cracks in the walls spoke for the age of the building Mundy was exploring, the rats too, although he didn't meet that many of them.
"That's always a good sign, isn't it? If even the rats don't want to live here…" He grumbled and kept walking.
He had no idea how deep the network of undergrounds ran, or where Duchemin would be with respect to them. And even if Mundy wanted to spin on his heels and make it back home, where the hell would he go…? Through which tunnels…? Every fifty metres or so was a junction and with it came multiple possibilities not to find the damn criminal, but to get lost entirely!
However, Mundy didn't lose patience. He thought about his parents and carried on. His parents were not shown any mercy and they were put through hell itself. There was no reason why Mundy wouldn't do the same, as penance, to pay for his absence on that day, ten years ago.
He went on, walked, and with each junction came a choice and with each choice his rage grew.
"Oh bloody hell, no, not now!"
The battery on Mundy's light decided to die, leaving the Aussie in the dark. He took a deep breath and waited a minute or so, for his eyes to get accustomed to the darkness. There, that's a bit better… And he went on.
"Huh?"
There was a metallic clinking noise. It came from his left. For lack of any other clue, Mundy went in that direction. He walked further but the noise had died and there was no way to see where it had come from either.
"Hm…"
Mundy put his ear on the walls.
Rumbling.
Distant but continuous rumbling, a bit like a boiler maybe, or a power generator. The Aussie tried to walk towards the noise, his ear always probing the walls left and right. And the rumbling grew louder and louder until he managed to identify what it was.
"Oh bugger…"
It sounded like a waterfall. The sewers actually went in small cascades lower and lower down in the ground. Mundy sighed.
-- Meanwhile, in town --
"Richard!"
Lucien had barged in the tailor's shop throwing politeness and courtesy out of the window.
"L?"
"Please, I need equipment urgently!"
The tailor nodded.
"Paul, occupe-toi de la boutique!"
[Paul, come and deal with the shop!]
Both Richard's sons came out of the workshop and shut the front window.
Fortunately enough, there were no customers that afternoon. Richard nodded to Lucien and jumped to the wall with the fleur-de-lis handle before pulling on it. The secret wall opened and both slipped in.
"What will you need?" He asked as Lucien ran to the display cases.
"This gun," Lucien pointed right. "With a suppressor, please..."
"Ammunition?"
"Both non lethal and lethal, please."
Richard opened the display cases and collected the items as fast as Lucien was listing them.
"Do you still have watches?" The spy asked.
"I'm afraid they are a bit outdated and modern agents don't use them much anymore nowadays…" Richard answered.
"Do you have them?!" Lucien exclaimed, furious. "There is no time to lose!"
Richard got startled but he nodded and opened a drawer that was connected to the wall.
"Here there are."
Lucien jumped to them.
"I will need this one."
He pointed at the one with the silver strap.
"Of course." Richard gave it to him and Lucien fastened it around his left wrist in a flash.
"Do you have earpieces?"
"Yes, we do, how many do you need?"
"Two, please."
Richard opened another drawer and tossed them over to the Frenchman.
"Merci… I will also need a balaclava… this one, here." Lucien pointed at the black one.
"Do you need a matching suit? I have a few black ones in stock, one of them should suit you…"
"Oui, please, and hurry!"
After a few minutes, Lucien exited a changing booth dressed in a black three-piece suit: jacket, vest and trousers, even the shirt was black.
"Parfait, merci Richard!"
[Perfect, thank you Richard!]
"Here, a utility belt with throwable knives and additional ammunition. And this is a special pair of garters with an additional hidden blade in…"
Richard threw the items above the curtain of the changing booth and Lucien caught them with ease. About a minute later, he exited the booth.
"I don't have much time, Richard. See you!"
And the masked man ran out. He hopped on his motorcycle and dashed out of town. He drove as fast as he could through the desert, not even on the asphalt itself. He needed to get to Duchemin's palace as fast as possible.
What on Earth did Mundy think he could accomplish on his own? Find Duchemin, in broad daylight and then what? Kill him then and there?! That would for sure end up in Mundy's death!
The Frenchman saw the van in the distance and switched the motorcycle to silent mode. He parked next to it and turned it invisible before dismounting it.
"S'il vous plaît, mon Dieu, faites qu'il soit encore dans son van ridicule…"
[Please, Lord, tell me he is still in his ridiculous van…]
"Mundy…?"
Lucien approached the van and heard some muffled noises coming from the inside which fell completely silent after he called for the Aussie.
"Mundy, I can hear you are in there, come out and I promise to stop punching your idiotic self before you die."
Nothing.
"Bien. You have chosen poorly, for if you do not come to me, I will come to you!"
Lucien took his blade out and forced the lock open before slamming the door wide open. His jaw dropped as he saw a group of young teenage girls in bikinis, scared to the bone, trying to all hide and fit in the van. They all screamed with their high-pitched voices at the sight of the man with the mask.
"Mon Dieu! Mais qu'est-ce que c'est que ça?!"
[My God! What the hell is that?!]
"Don't kill us, please!" One of them cried.
"I will not kill any one of you, what are you doing here?"
"Fuck! Duchemin's gonna kill us…!" Another one said, sobbing in her hands.
Lucien jumped in the van and they all gasped. He knelt down and put a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Listen, my… friend is the owner of this van. He is off to kill himself and I am trying to save him. Have you seen him?" Lucien asked.
"He saved us… We were Arthur's girls…"
"His girls? I thought he had no children?" Lucien asked, confused.
"N-not his children…"
"What do you - ? Oh mon Dieu…"
[Oh my God…]
Lucien couldn't be more disgusted if he had wanted. "Don't tell me that…"
The girls grouped around the sobbing one and hugged her.
"I am truly sorry for what you have lived with that man. But please, tell me where I can find him. My friend, you see… He is my best friend. I can't let him die."
There was a kind of honesty in Lucien's eyes that the young girls understood without really knowing what it was.
"He is off to kill Arthur. He freed us and asked us to hide here until he comes back."
"Do you know where I can find him?"
"Your friend or Arthur?"
"Both."
"Your friend is going through the sewers to find Arthur. His offices are-"
"Underground, oui, I know. Stay hidden here. I will call someone who will pick you up and hide you."
"How will we know that it's not one of Duchemin's men?" One girl asked and Lucien looked in her eyes.
"Ask them who sends them. If they answer L, they are an ally. If they answer anything else…" Lucien looked around the van and saw a few kukris hung on the wall. He pointed to them. "Use them and do not think about any consequences. You are now under protection from the French government."
"French?" One the young ladies asked.
"Oui, in coordination with local authorities. But you do not care about this nonsense. And remember what I told you: a friend of L is your friend. Anyone else…" Lucien took the three kukris and gave them to the girls. "No hesitation. It's you or them. Understood?"
They all nodded.
"My friend will be here shortly."
Lucien exited the van and shut the door. He pushed a button on his watch and put the earpiece in his ear.
"Richard…? Yes, it is me. Call Maurice and ask him to send a van or a minibus here. There are young girls who need to be evacuated. They are safe in a van so far."
"Will do immediately."
Lucien pushed the button on his watch again and headed for the gardens. The sun was below the horizon now and the Frenchman took advantage of the dark to make very fast progress.
When he arrived in the maze of hedges, he was only half surprised to find Duchemin's guards down, all struck by a double-chamber dart to the head or the neck.
"Hm. The guards are still here and asleep. No one has found them yet and I hope that the same can be said about Mundy."
Lucien headed for the house and switched a button on his watch. He looked at his reflection on a window and couldn't see any.
La bonne vieille montre d'invisibilité.
[The good old invisibility watch.]
He nodded to himself and entered through the window.
Ah, la bibliothèque…
[Ah, the library…]
The Frenchman was standing in a wooden room filled with endless rows of books. No guards there. He went to the door and peeked through the lock before slipping out of the room. He found himself in a corridor with doors left and right.
He walked through it until he met a guard and passed him without being seen.
Je ne comprends vraiment pas pourquoi les agents actuels n'utilisent plus ces montres, elles sont divines!
[I really don't understand why modern agents don't use these watches, they work wonders!]
He thought to himself as he soon found the stairs. He took them and spiralled down, stopping at each level and trying to find any way to see where the sewers could connect with him.
Lucien was on the third level underground when he overheard a conversation between a group of guards. They were sitting around a table with drinks and playing a game of cards.
"The bloke stinks like there's no tomorrow…"
"How long has he been in the sewers?"
A card was placed on the table and the guards frowned, planning their next moves.
"No idea, but when Russel found him, he got a decent beating and his nose is broken now. Thank God I arrived in time with Jimmy to help."
"The Boss knows about it?"
"Of course, we told him, he might be with him now or something, I don't know."
Another card and another second of thinking.
"Jimmy told me the bloke was weird, I mean, apart from the smell."
"Yeah, he was carrying weird stuff. When we searched him, we found a blowgun, some darts, a sword of some sort, like a machete, and some bullets."
"Just bullets?"
"Not just bullets, they're a rifle's bullet, a big one, like a sniper would use. I've seen some like that back when I was serving."
"Bloody hell… And what did he want?"
"Finding the Boss and killing him."
Another card landed on the table and the guards burst out laughing at the idea that a single man had gone through the sewers to try and get the most protected man in the whole of Oz at least.
Lucien frowned.
"Oh, God, that's a funny one, mate…" One of them resumed the chat as he laid another card on the table.
"Yeah, I know. Well, I guess the boss is gonna kill him and throw him with the others, eh."
Lucien's pupils shrank. The others?
"Yeah, I reckon he'll just scare him off a bit before killing him and poof, back to the sewers but this time, dead."
They shared a laugh around the table as they raised their glasses and had a drink.
"Oh I don't know about that, he took him down to cell 1."
Lucien frowned. Cell 1.
"Cell 1? For a dude fished out of the sewers?"
"Yeah, the Boss asked us to do that after having had a quick chat with him."
"Might be more serious than that then, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but the bloke's alone and smells of rottin' shit. He can't do much."
Lucien had heard enough. He needed to find Cell 1, which he felt was a bit of a special one, from what the guards said. He took a quick look at his watch and slithered against the wall back to explore the place.
One of the guards had said 'down to Cell 1', so presumably Lucien had to go down some more stairs…
And he did until he came across a very useful plan of the place. Finally! He had been looking for it! As secret as a place might be, there always is a fire escape plan somewhere on the walls, finding it reveals a lot of information on the building.
Lucien stared at it and studied it carefully. He was looking for a floor with cells, so presumably, a row of small rooms… Hm…
Ah! There! Two levels below him! Those must be cells!
He thurtled down the stairs as silent as a shadow and went through a few doors before finding that he had been right. He found a corridor with cells left and right and in front of him, at the end of it, was a larger cell with a man chained to the wall from his wrists and his ankles.
Lucien winced. He passed a table on which was Mundy's blowgun, his darts and a few bullets. He came closer to the prisoner and, after making sure no one was around, he tapped on his watch. Out of a thin cloud of smoke, the silhouette of the Frenchman appeared in thin air.
"Ugh… Spook…? Oooh, you look like a burglar, dressed all in black like that…" Mundy was sitting against the wall limply, he was speaking comically slowly and Lucien guessed he had been drugged.
"Ssh! Bushman, I will get you out of here but you must stay quiet!" Lucien whispered as he took his cigarette case out. He flipped it open and took the pins concealed there to pick the lock.
"Eh… Spook…? You came here through the sewers too..?"
"Non, but I can clearly smell that you did. Now, keep your mouth shut!"
Lucien managed to pick the lock and entered the cell before shutting its door again. He went straight to Mundy's wrists and ankles and started picking the locks there too when a door opened in the corridor. The spy tapped his watch again and turned invisible.
"Woohoohoohooo Spook…? I thought only yer bike could do that…!"
Lucien didn't move and just watched the guard approach.
"Eh… Eh mate? See the Spook? Hey! Can you see him?" Mundy drunkenly asked.
"Shut up in there, will ya?" The guard shouted back. He looked in the cell and judging that everything seemed normal, he left.
Lucien waited for the man to be completely gone before reappearing and dealing with the cuffs.
"Bushman, keep your mouth sealed. If they learn that I am here, we are both doomed."
"Yeah but at least I'll get to be… I'll get to be with you, eh? I mean…"
Lucien blushed but kept on trying to free his stinking friend. The ankles were free, time for the wrists.
"Ssh, Bushman."
"No, no… Listen… I mean… If we both die here and now… I mean… No… That's not what I mean… Pearl needs you…" Mundy raised an index finger and stared at it. The poor man was seeing double under the drugs he had been fed. "And there's this bloke you like… Ah, damn him… Damn him to hell and back…!"
"Oh for that, I couldn't agree more. Damn him because he can't keep his mouth shut!"
"No, not for that, Spook…" Mundy missed the meaning entirely. "Damn him cause you… you like him and that's a problem, see?"
One wrist free. Now the other.
"It's a problem cause… See, I like you…"
Lucien stopped his picking of the lock on Mundy's wrist and raised his eyes to him.
"Bushman. Stop talking before I make you."
"No… But seriously… I like ya… You're…"
Lucien expected a compliment.
"...weird." The Frenchman rolled up his eyes. "But a good kind of weird, eh…?"
"Bushman, listen to me."
"Huh?"
"If we want to make it out of here you will have to stay quiet. We can't afford to be spotted, especially you, running free outside of your cell. How often do these guards come and check on you?"
Lucien helped the Aussie up and Mundy naturally put an arm on the Frenchman's shoulders. The spy realised that he had been beaten up quite badly when Mundy started limping. They moved to the table and Lucien took Mundy's equipment that he stuffed in the poor man's pockets.
"I don't know, mate… Quite a bit of time… Gets lonely here y'know… So I just think of my parents… Heh, keeps the motivation goin'... And I think of you too… Keeps me warm inside… Can't help it…"
"Listen here. Let us make a bet, shall we?" Lucien tried another strategy to make his rescue shut up.
"Yeah, alright, anythin' for you…"
Lucien rolled up his eyes again.
"I bet that you cannot remain quiet until we reach your van."
"What's in it for me…?"
"If you succeed, I will owe you a dinner. If you fail, we will however both end up back in this cell before getting killed and thrown in those infamous sewers you went through. How does that sound?"
"Dinner… with you?" Mundy asked.
"Oui. Dinner with me."
"Just you and me…?"
"Just you and me."
"Like… a date or something?"
Lucien sighed.
"Oui, Bushman. Now, do you take the bet, yes or no?"
"Right, I'll uh… I'll shut up until we get to the van… Easy…"
"Good."
Lucien tapped his watch and both turned invisible. They went to the stairs and started climbing them. To his honor, the Aussie stayed silent even though he looked like he was suffering immensely while taking each step up. His gait was slow and heavy but Lucien was patient.
When they finally made it back outside and on ground level, Mundy tapped his friend's shoulder and asked for a break. Fine, Lucien stopped pulling him and gave him a moment.
They were in the middle of the maze of hedges and no one was around them except the bodies of tranquilised guards.
"Huh…" Mundy frowned. His vision was blurred and seeing double did not help, especially in the middle of the night. The lights from the lanterns in the garden waved and danced before his eyes and his whole head was spinning. "Ugh…"
"Mundy?!"
The Aussie collapsed but thank God Lucien caught him before he hit the floor. He carried his limp body over his shoulder all the way to the van. When he arrived, Lucien went straight to the passenger's seat and laid Mundy there. The Aussie was only unconscious, thank God.
Lucien fastened his seatbelt to secure him before going to the back door.
He opened it and the girls had gone, the kukris were all back on the wall as well. Good. Lucien rummaged through the Aussie's belongings before he found some deodorant. He grabbed it and went outside again. There was one detail to arrange: the motorcycle.
Lucien double tapped it and it appeared. He fiddled with its dashboard for quite a long time before he managed to make it understand that it had to follow the van. Once it was done, the Frenchman went back to the van, on the driver's seat this time.
"Oh…!" He winced at Mundy's smell and sprayed some deodorant on him. There, that would do, at least momentarily. For now, the Frenchman raced through the desert back to town. He needed to get Mundy to the Doctor's.
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All We Want for Christmas Is You, Chapter 1
WestAllen secret santa gift
From: @jade4813
For: @abbeyb77
Note: I hope you have a Merry Christmas, and I REALLY hope you enjoy your Christmas present!
Title: All We Want for Christmas Is You
Rating: G
Synopsis: When a bolt of lightning splits Barry Allen and the Flash into two different people just in time for the holidays, Barry struggles to find a way to tell Iris how he feels about her - and figure out if she really loves him or the scarlet speedster. My Westallen Secret Santa gift for @abbeyb77!
Chapters: 1/5
Iris had always loved Christmas. She loved everything about it. She loved the songs and the snow and the lights strung up in every window. The cheesy movies, decorations covered with glitter, and sugar cookies with brightly colored frosting. Every year, she looked forward pouring herself a giant glass of eggnog, putting on her dad’s old record of Christmas carols, and decorating the tree.
Everything about this time of year made her so happy, she didn’t complain when her editor called her at the last minute to ask her to cover a fluff piece after the reporter who was originally assigned to it got the flu. It was hardly the type of story to land on the front-page, but she didn’t mind. She wasn’t even bothered when a road closure doubled her morning commute. Instead, in the privacy of her car, she belted out Christmas carols the entire ride in. “I have been so good this year! And all I want is one thing; tell me my true love is near! He’s all I want, just for me, underneath my Christmas tree. I’ll be waiting here. Santa, that’s my only wish this year,” she sang off-key as she shut off her car and hopped out.
Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she continued to hum to herself as she jogged up the front steps to the Central City Police Department. Just walking through its front doors reminded her of the thousands of times she’d come to visit her dad at his desk, growing up, and the memory made her smile.
But this trip wasn’t for a casual visit. She had work to do. Pulling out her phone, she skirted a crowd of tiny, rambunctious children and leaned against the wall as she waited for the show to start.
—
“I look ridiculous,” Barry muttered in the next room as he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. For the tenth time in at least as many minutes, he tried to straighten his cap. It of course immediately tilted askew again.
“You look…well, the kids will love it, at least,” Singh replied, trying to cover his smile.
Barry huffed and adjusted his hat again, trying not to think about how absurd he looked. Or how his tights were starting to chafe. “How did I get talked into this again?”
Singh chuckled. “Because you were late to the meeting where we talked about the governor’s new STEM initiative in the local school system, so when I announced the governor wanted us to host a program, everyone voted you for the job. Let this be a lesson to you. If you don’t want to dress up like an elf, show up on time.” In the other room, he heard teachers call their kids to order, and Singh handed Barry a giant plastic reindeer print. “That’s your cue. When you get out there, just remember…they’re six. Try not to confuse them.”
“Six. Right. Got it.” Sucking in a deep breath, Barry adjusted his cap one more time and then pasted a grin on his face and bounded through the doors. “Hey, kids! I’m…um…I’m…”
His lines completely evaporated from memory when he scanned the crowd and saw her. Iris West. Ace reporter for the CCPN. And girl he’d had a massive crush on for over almost a year. He’d known CCPN was sending a journalist, but he never imagined it would be her; she usually covered more hard-hitting stories than this type of fluff piece. There were rumors her last story breaking a bribery scandal at City Hall could land her a Pulitzer.
He’d been trying to find a way to say more than five words to her for months now, and he’d gotten too tongue-tied every time. And now she was standing three feet away, staring at him in his ridiculous elf costume. With tights. Her eyes bright with laughter, she hardly was hardly looking at him like he was the man of her dreams.
So much for suavely sweeping her off her feet.
His heart sinking, Barry tried to pull his attention back to the task at hand. He suspected his face was bright red as he stammered, “I’m…um…I’m Barry, Head Elf here at Santa’s workshop. I’m responsible for helping to make sure things are neat and tidy around here.” He gestured around at the lobby, which had been decorated for the holidays. Half of the area had been decorated to look like Santa’s workshop, and that’s where Barry was holding his show. Tearing his eyes away from Iris, he plowed ahead with the script. “Oh, my gosh! Who made a mess of Santa’s workshop? We’ve got to get this figured out before the big guy comes back! You’ll help me, won’t you?”
As the kids cheered, he held up the plastic footprint Singh had handed him. “Excellent! Whenever there’s a mystery around here, I help get to the bottom of it by looking at clues. I found this one outside. You know we elves can tell a lot from looking at footprints just like this. We can tell what kind of animal it’s from. Will you kids help me out?”
The kids cheered, and Barry tried not to think about what she might be thinking as he turned his attention back to the children in the audience. “Thank you! So, like I said, elves can tell what kind of animal left prints just from looking at their shape! Take a look at your feet. Have you ever noticed the prints you leave behind when you walk in the snow? I bet they look a lot like this.” He held up a large picture of a footprint and then stared between the two with an confused expression on his face. “Is this what the footprint I found outside looks like?”
The children shouted no, and he shook his head. “I think you’re right. What about a polar bear?” As he held up a picture of a polar bear’s paw print, he gave in to the temptation to look towards Iris again. She had a hand up, covering her mouth, but her eyes were filled with laughter. His stomach twisted at the sight.
What must she think of him? Given his luck, probably that he was a giant dork. He’d never have a chance with her now.
—
Iris tried not to giggle as she watched Barry teach the kids a few basic concepts of forensic science in a fun an engaging way. For their part, the kids were engrossed in his show, their excitement almost overwhelming when they realized that the “prints” Barry found outside belonged to a reindeer. From there, Barry found some crumbs and they helped him identify that the crumbs came from sugar cookies. Finally, Barry found some white hairs, which he held up for the audience to see.
“You know, I bet if we can figure out who left these behind, we’ll finally uncover who made a mess of Santa’s workshop. But this hair is white. Who do we know that has white hair like this? Is it me? Does this look like my hair?”
“No!” the kids yelled, practically bouncing up and down from their seats on the floor.
“No? Hm…I guess you’re right. What about…this pretty lady.” He pointed right at Iris, and she rolled her eyes at him with a good-natured smile. “Does she have hair like this?”
“No!” the kids screamed even louder.
Barry approached one of the kids in the front row. “What about you?” he asked the little girl with red hair and freckles. “Does this look like your hair?”
The little girl giggled and shook her head while the children around her shouted louder still, “NO!”
“Huh. So who is it? Who has hair like this?” Barry asked, feigning confusion for the audience.
“SANTA CLAUS!”
“Santa Claus?” Barry gasped. “Do you think this could be Santa’s hair?”
The audience shouted their agreement, just as the door opened and Captain Singh strolled in, wearing a red suit with a white wig and beard. “Ho, ho, ho! Did somebody call my name?” he asked jovially, with a voice that had grown accustomed to carrying over a room full of busy detectives for many years.
At the sight of Santa, the children lost whatever shred of composure they had left, squealing in excitement. “SANTA CLAUS!”
The wave of sound almost bowled Iris over, and she watched Barry wait for it to ebb a bit before continuing. “Santa! Did you make this mess?”
Santa hung his head. “I did. I’m sorry, Barry. Everyone knows when you make a mess, you’re supposed to clean it up. Isn’t that right, kids?”
The kids screamed their agreement, but Iris wasn’t really paying attention anymore. While Barry’s attention was distracted, she lifted her phone and snapped a couple of surreptitious photos, telling herself they’d be a great addition to the story. But if she was honest with herself, she really wanted the photos because Barry just looked so darn adorable dressed up as an elf.
She’d met Barry before, of course. They’d even spoken a few times in passing at various crime scenes, when Iris was looking for a quote. She’d always thought he was kind of cute, but that was about as far as it went. Every time she and Barry talked, he seemed desperate to be anywhere else, so she’d assumed that he wasn’t a fan of reporters and hadn’t given it a second thought.
But seeing him now, dressed up in his ridiculous costume and going through this whole act just to make some kids happy – and hopefully get them excited to learn about science – he was…perfect. Charming. Adorable. And so damn endearing, when Santa made his excuses and left and Barry the elf ask the kids in the audience if they had any questions, she almost raised her hand and asked him out on a date. She knew he wasn’t a fan of reporters, but maybe she could convince him to give her a shot.
Before she do something utterly humiliating – like give in to the urge to ask Barry about the dating habits of elves at the North Pole – a tow-haired child in the front row asked, “Mister Barry, is Santa really the Flash?”
Barry straightened, clearly surprised by the question. It wasn’t what she had been expecting, either, though she supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised it came up. Ever since she’d broken the story of Central City’s resident superhero and given him his official moniker a few months before, he’d been a hot topic for discussion. Mystery surrounded him, since nobody had yet landed an interview, including Iris. That didn’t stop everyone in the city from having an opinion – on who he was, where his powers came from, what he could do, and even what it would be like to date a superhero.
“Oh. Um…no, the Flash and Santa are two different people. The Flash helps Santa out sometimes, though! It’s hard to deliver all those presents in one night, you know!”
“How old is Santa?” another little boy asked.
Barry considered the question. “I don’t think anyone knows. He’s really old, though.”
Undeterred, the little boy pressed, “My daddy said Santa and his elves don’t age, so why do you look so old? How old are you? A thousand? Are you thirty?” His voice made it clear that might be even worse. Iris had to press her hand to her mouth to muffle her giggles.
“I’m…um…elves don’t…they don’t age like normal people so…I’m actually pretty young for an elf! I…um…next question?”
A shy little boy raised his hand and asked in a voice barely above a whisper, “Does Rudolph really have a red nose?”
Barry’s excitement was visible as he replied, “Yes, actually! Some reindeer really do have red noses because of dense nasal microcirculation.”
“Micro what?”
Barry grimaced. “Six. Right. Um…some reindeer have a lot of blood vessels packed into a really small space, which helps regulate their temperature up at the North Pole. So that makes their noses look red. Rudolph…um…just has a brighter red nose than most!”
A little girl raised her hand. “Does Santa have any girl reindeer?”
He nodded, once again losing himself in excitement over the topic. “Absolutely! You know, reindeer are unusual because both boys and girls grow antlers. Of course, the male reindeer usually lose their antlers in winter, so really, when you see all those pictures of reindeer with huge antlers, they’re probably either girls or boys who have been…um…” As though remembering once again the age of his audience, Barry shot a desperate look around, blushing bright red. “Um…boys who have kept their antlers due to…um… Santa’s magic. Any…any other questions?”
Oh my god. He was so endearing, so adorably flustered, Iris’s hands tingled with the desire to grab him by his silly elf shirt and pull him in for a kiss. However, this turned into a bark of laughter at the expression of sheer terror on Barry’s face when another little girl asked, “My mommy said I’m getting a baby sister for Christmas and it’s growing in her belly. How did you and Santa put it there?”
“What?” he squeaked in alarm, and Iris had to smother her laughter behind her hand. “I…I…I didn’t…I…it’s…I…” His face was almost puce when Iris finally took pity on him.
Stepping forward, she cleared her throat to get the crowd’s attention. Meeting the little girl’s eyes, she said, “You know, my daddy used to be friends with Santa when I was growing up, and do you want to know what he told me? He told me sometimes Santa’s greatest gifts aren’t presents. It’s making wishes come true. So he didn’t really put your baby sister in your mommy’s belly. He just helped make your mommy and daddy’s wish come true.”
“So that means he can turn me into a dragon?” a little boy yelled excitedly from the other side of the room. From the long-suffering expression on his teacher’s face, Iris suspected this was a recurring topic of discussion.
She pressed her finger against her chin as she considered the question. “Well…I suppose he could,” she began slowly, prompting a glare from the teacher. “But I don’t think you’d really want that. And neither would he.”
“Yes I would! Because then I could eat anyone who annoyed me! Rawr!”
Iris laughed. “That is a good point,” she conceded. “But Santa loves you just the way you are, and you wouldn’t be that person anymore. And, anyway, Santa only brings presents to human boys and girls…and sometimes the pets that love them the most. So if he turned you into a dragon, he wouldn’t be able to bring you presents. And I’m pretty sure eating people would put you on the naughty list, so he wouldn’t be able to come visit you anymore. Wouldn’t that make you sad?”
The little boy looked stunned. “I…I never thought about that,” he murmured, sitting back down with an expression of intense concentration on his face as he mulled over her revelation.
“Anyway, it’s time for me to get back to making toys with the rest of the elves!” Barry blurted, and Iris could swear she felt his hand brush against hers before he started to edge towards the door. “Thank you all for coming and for asking really insightful, really hard questions. Don’t forget to see Shirley at the reception desk for some cookies! Bye everyone!”
Seizing the opportunity, Iris darted through the door behind him. “Great job out there.”
He jumped and whirled around. “Iris! I…thank you. I probably looked like a giant dork in this costume.”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know. I think it takes a lot of confidence to go out there like that.” Sucking in a deep breath, she seized her courage. “So, anyway. I’ve been thinking. I was wondering if you wanted to –”
Before she could finish asking him out, several cops flooded into the area, racing towards the door. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Metahuman spotted downtown,” one replied quickly as he hurried to the door. “Singh said to get your CSI kit ready. We may need you later.”
“Oh. I –” Barry began apologetically. “I’m sorry. I should really –”
“No, of course. You have work. I can come by later for those, um, those questions I was going to ask you. You do what you gotta do. Um…but you might want to change before you go.”
“What? Oh, right,” Barry replied, looking down at his costume with a sheepish smile. “Thanks for the help earlier.”
“My pleasure,” she responded with a warm smile before turning and darting out the door. If there was a metahuman downtown, she needed to get down there. Everything came second to a story, including her love life. When she jumped in the car, she turned on her police scanner to the site of the action, pulling over a half block or so away and jumping out to get a better look.
She gasped when she noticed two tornadoes forming in the sky overhead. “Oh, my god,” she breathed. The winds picked up, lifting a semi off the ground and sending it hurtling down the street toward her. Iris knew she wouldn’t be able to get in her car and get away in time, so she turned to run.
Before she could take more than a couple of steps, she felt herself get swept off her feet and had a moment of terror that she’d been caught up by the tornado. When she opened her eyes, however, she saw that she was wrapped in the Flash’s arms as he carried her up the side of a building to the roof.
“Hey there, pretty lady. Just getting you out of the path of danger.”
“Um…thank you,” she breathed. “And I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything. But with those tornadoes overhead, I’m not sure this is a lot safer.”
“I’m on it,” he reassured her, setting her carefully back on her feet. “Thanks for the name, by the way. The Flash. I like it.”
“You – you know who I am?” It hardly seemed like the time to worry about that kind of thing, but her brain seemed to be stuck in neutral.
“Of course I know who you are, Miss West. Believe me, you’re not an easy woman to forget.” Without another word, he raced off, leaving Iris dumbstruck behind him. She raced to the edge of the roof and bent over the ledge, watching the trail of lightning that trailed behind the Flash as she tried to get a better look at the action.
—
It felt good to carry Iris in his arms, Barry mused as he raced back to the ground. Not that this was the best time to think about that, but he always found it hard to get Iris out of his mind. He thought about the look on her face when he’d put her back on her feet. Like she was as captivated by him as he always had been by her.
Maybe things weren’t as dire as he’d thought. Sure, she’d seen him in a dorky elf costume, but surely he could recover. Maybe someday he could get her to think about him the same way he thought about her.
Not that this was the time to worry about that, he acknowledged as he saw a tall man with sandy brown hair tuck a metal wand into his coat before turning to the window behind him. Incredibly, the window seemed to ripple, its surface turning reflective, and the man stepped through. Another man with dark hair and a beard followed, and Barry followed without a second thought.
A second later, a flash of lightning streaked overhead. It arced toward the ground, striking Barry just as he touched the strange, shifting window into which the two men had disappeared. The impact blew his body backwards, sending him sprawling into the alleyway, and he groaned. It was the second time in his life he’d been struck by lightning, and he couldn’t say the experience became any more enjoyable through repetition.
Feeling like he’d been hit by the semi he’d saved Iris from a few minutes before, Barry moaned again. When he finally gathered the strength to open his eyes, he saw that he was naked. Desperately hoping nobody was around to see him in such a state, he staggered to his feet.
That’s when he saw it. A man dressed all in red, lying a few feet away. Even as he watched, the man groaned and struggled to stand, pushing his cowl off his head as he did so. When he finally straightened, Barry found himself staring into a face as well as he knew his own. In fact, he knew that face because it was his own.
Somehow, Barry was staring into the Flash’s face. Which shouldn’t have been possible, because he was the Flash. Then again, if there was one thing he’d learned in the past year, it was not to doubt the impossible.
Still, it was hard to believe his eyes. “What?” he asked, feeling all the blood rush away from his head. He tried to vibrate his hand at super-speed, but nothing happened, which is when Barry realized he no longer hand his powers.
“What?” the other man asked, sounding as incredulous as he did. Lightning sparked in his eyes, and Barry realized what had happened. As hard as it was to believe, the lightning had split Barry Allen and the Flash into two different bodies. What was he supposed to do?
“What?”
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Natsume Yuujinchou: “Village of the Sleeping Vessel (Part 2)” Summary (Chapter 101)
The person who appears in front of Natsume during a crisis… Is he an enemy, or an ally—…?
The long-awaited continuation to the latest arc! This chapter was so intense I felt like I was doing more translating than summarizing lol. Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!
This issue comes with a Nyanko-sensei cable tie, so if anyone likes that, feel free to get a copy.
The next chapter will come out on September 24th.
Special thanks to Jessica for proofreading, as always!
- Niji
[Everything under the cut]
Chapter 101: “Village of the Sleeping Vessel”(Part 2)
Natsume: Ma… Matoba-san!? Why are you here…?
Matoba: I came to help.
Natsume: Huh————
Nyanko: They are coming.
Just as Nyanko-sensei says, a swirl of wooden dolls head towards them. Matoba, unfazed, looks at them with a smile.
Paper dolls attack their wooden attackers, just as Natori appears.
Natori: Thank goodness you’re alright. Take this chance and come with me!
Natsume: Natori-san!
Natori: Hey, Natsume.
The five of them take shelter behind some trees.
Natori: ——Hiiragi, good work protecting them until we came.
Hiiragi: Master.
Natori: For now, let’s look for a place to hide. Seriously, Natsume… Why did you turn up at a place like this?
Natsume: Well… Nyanko-sensei mysteriously ran away from home, so I was looking for him…
Natori: He ran away from home?
Nyanko: AS IF I’D DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT! It’s just Natsume with his super-ultra-level misunderstanding!
Natsume: …Um, the whole story is pretty complicated… Meanwhile, why are you here at this village as well? Even Matoba-san has come along…
Matoba: …I was in the middle of an important lunch meeting as the head of my clan.
Matoba: All of a sudden that Natori dashed in and dragged me away by the scruff of my neck.
Natori: ……
Natsume: What?
Matoba: When I asked for the details, he said that you were in danger. With the other party being who he is, it seemed he needed my help. Honestly, this is extremely bothersome, but well… I think it’ll be interesting to have you be indebted to me, Natsume-kun. Besides, I was curious as to why Natori’s shiki were in this village. Why were you monitoring that man?
Natsume: Monitoring… Do you mean that man with long hair?
Natori: …Well, we have our circumstances… ——Hiiragi, what was that man doing here?
Hiiragi: ——… That man…
Hiiragi: ———He was walking around the village as if he was looking for something. He would check abandoned houses or sheds, and eventually he even entered the workshop and warehouse of the only family that remained in this Homura District——
Hiiragi: There, I saw Natsume and the cat, who had ran away from home.
Natsume: No, I came here because——
Sasago and Urihime appear in a puff of smoke, interrupting their conversation. It seems that they've been looking around, and found that a barrier has been erected around the village.
Natori: It’s as I thought… This will be troublesome.
Matoba: Well, this does sound like something he would do.
Natsume: ——A barrier…?
Natori sends Sasago and Urihime to investigate the nature of the barrier, and they leave.
Natsume: ——Natori-san.
Natori: Natsume… I would like to send you back home immediately, but…
Natori: Ayakashi——— Your Sensei, is currently unable to get out of here. This village has already become his hunting ground.
Natsume: Hunting ground…………
Just as they say this, they catch a glimpse of a wooden doll in the sky. They will need to find a new hiding place soon.
Nyanko: Hey, Natsume. Do you smell something? From beyond those bushes.
Natsume: Huh…? I hope it’s not a delicious-smelling udon shop or something, Sensei.
Nyanko: NO!! Still, it’s still a strange… scent…
Natori: … *sniff* I can’t smell it.
Hiiragi: ——No, now that he mentions it… It doesn’t smell bad, but it makes me feel like I shouldn’t get close…
Matoba: In that case, we should head towards it.
Natsume: Huh? But…
Matoba: If that place makes ayakashi feel as though they shouldn’t get close, then those wooden dolls are unlikely to come near it too.
Natsume & Natori: WOW… (……I would have preferred an udon shop……)
Matoba: Isn’t it great that it isn’t an udon shop? Seems like it isn’t really a significant building. Let’s enter.
Natori: Wha-! Oi!
They enter the building and look around, but see that nothing is inside. Natsume finds the building rather strange, and asks if Nyanko-sensei and Hiiragi are feeling okay. They both confirm that they felt alright the moment they entered the building.
Natsume: ——Why is there something like this here…?
Natori: It’s probably because… this place is connected to an exorcists’ neighborhood. In the past, under the guise of a pottery village, Homura specialized in creating porcelain that could be used as effective exorcism tools*.
Natsume: Exorcism tools——?
Natori: Somehow, Hakka Pottery harbored mysterious powers. All the exorcism tools that were created here, be they masks or pots, were all top class items.
Matoba: Many of them were artisans who took their work seriously, so they weren’t keen on dealing with anyone who weren’t interested in their art. Because of that, their work don’t often appear on the market. They truly are phantom tools. However, time passed and the artisans with the power to create such works began dying out.
[A more literal translation of this term is “tools to aid their technique/magic”. I’m exercising some creative liberties here in order to make it digestible in English.]
Matoba: Now, it’s but a miserable village with only one pottery kiln left.
Natsume: ——… (That person’s——)
Natori: In any case, this is a place with such a history. Something might have been left behind here. There are also violent people who come to this place. Be they exorcists with strong ambitions, or Collectors with no integrity.
Natsume tells them that the long-haired man was called a collector, and Matoba explains that a “Collector” is a term used in their business to refer to people who collect items related to ayakashi, or exorcism tools that harbor strong powers. Natori says that the man Natsume met was called “Ban”, an infamous practitioner who serves a female Collector.
[Imma just put all subsequent mentions of ‘Collector’ with a capital letter, since it’s now established that they aren’t just normal collectors. Also, “Ban” literally means ‘companion’, ‘attendant’, or ‘follower’, which makes me laugh a little because his whole identity is apparently just acting as someone’s servant. It’s a bit ironic considering the threat he’s supposed to pose in this arc.]
In the forest, Ban discovers his broken wooden dolls among shreds of paper.
Ban: Where... did these rats come from?
Back in the building, Natori explains that Ban comes from an old line of exorcists and can control dolls made from wooden planks. He is known for surrounding his prey as though he is on a hunt.
Natori: You could joke that he’s like a hunter now that he’s working to collect exorcism tools, but it is nothing to laugh at. Anyway, as long as it’s for his master’s collection, he will show no mercy. Once he has his eye on something, he must attain it. He would even visit various places for unknown items.
Matoba: ——And then, when he came to this village, Ban happened to encounter an extraordinary exorcism tool. It’s what you are holding. The vessel that your cat is in.
Ban: (I also want that.)
Natsume: ——… …… Thank you, very much……
Matoba: ——… Huh?
Natsume: …You came all this way… Natori-san, Matoba-san, and even Hiiragi and the other shiki… You came to help Sensei and me… Thank you very much……!
Nyanko: *Chomp!*
Natsume: OUCH!
Nyanko: You fool! What are you getting all afraid for!? I could easily beat this group of weaklings at their own game—
Matoba: *grab!* Shush!
Natsume: (——He’s walking around the building——…)
Eventually, Ban leaves the area, and disappears into the forest. Matoba, seeing this as a chance, suggests that they head towards the pottery workshop.
Natori: What!? Moving around is a bad idea—
Matoba: Though I was unwillingly brought here, it’s still a rare chance for me to come to Homura. We can make this our hideout, so until I return, you can just hide at that corner over there, Natori.
Natori: ……
Natsume: If you’re going, can I come along too? The potter stayed behind when I ran away, and I’m concerned about his well-being.
Matoba: Hm… I would love to have a talk with the potter as well. Why don’t we invite him over to this hideout of ours?
Natsume: …… …Sensei, could you hide here as well? If that person finds you��
Nyanko: Are you an idiot? Just what do you see me as?
Nyanko: The one you should be afraid of isn’t that vulgar huntsman. It is me. You should be doing your best to worry for that man, so that I don’t run out of here and gobble him up.
Natsume: ——Is that so?
Nyanko: It is so.
Sasago and Urihime investigate the barrier, confirming that they cannot escape through the sky. The barrier is shaped like an overturned bowl, a type unique to Ban’s family.
Urihime: If we want to break it—— I hate to say it, but perhaps we can ask that clan head—
Sasago: *shudder!*
Urihime: What’s wrong, Sasago?
Sasago: —Nothing, it’s just, I saw something pass under us.
Sasago: ——It’s an eerie village.
Urihime: You think so? Do you feel something from this empty land?
Sasago: I do, however… When I try to find their presence, somehow… There’s something that makes me feel uneasy———
Back to Natsume’s group, they are all making their way towards the workshop when Matoba decides to split from the group.
Matoba: ——There’s a warehouse in this direction, isn’t there? I’ll part here.
Natori: Matoba-san! You can’t just enter them however you want———
Matoba leaves anyway, leaving the rest to continue towards the workshop. Things are strangely quiet around them, as Natsume slowly evaluates the dilapidated state of the village, and how only one person — the potter, “Tomuro” — is living in it now.
Natsume: …Isn’t he afraid? (Isn’t he lonely——?)
Nyanko: ——…
Nyanko: Hop!
Natsume: WHA-...!?
Nyanko: Natsume, you head on with the other brats. *dash*
Natsume: Oi, Sensei-...
Seeing how the figure of Sensei running away matches with that in his dream, Natsume chases after him. He comes to a house, and sees Tomuro lying unconscious.
Natsume: (The potter is in a place like this!) Are you alright!?
Natsume: Ah! Hey, Sensei. What are you doing? We even told you that you’re being targeted… Thank goodness you’re alright… *hug…*
Nyanko?: ——…
Natori and Hiiragi catch up to him, and they determine that Tomuro was caught under a sleeping spell. They agree that it might be safest to bring him to their hideout, since it dispels ayakashi.
Natori: ——By the way, Natsume. Right now, is the Book of Friends…
Natsume: ——I brought it with me…
Natori: …I see. I’m sorry. Even though it was for an emergency, I ended up bringing a dangerous person along. Since we are going against Ban, I needed Matoba’s advice no matter what…………… ——Natsume, since Matoba and… Ban, are both focused on Sensei, you must make sure that they don’t take notice of that.
Natsume: ———… Yes.
Natsume: Haaaah…
Natori: ———What’s wrong?
Natsume: Nothing. I just thought it was a good thing I told you about the Book of Friends—— I can’t tell people about it carelessly… And I intend to continue keeping it a secret from here on. But whatever happens…… I thought I should let you know about it, Natori-san——
Natori: ——…
Natori: Is the Book of Friends… heavy?
Natsume: Yes. It’s my treasure.
They begin heading back to their hideout, with Tomuro in tow. Matoba returns right at that moment, with books and scrolls under his arms.
Natori: Matoba-san! What’s with those items!?
Matoba: There were so many interesting books, I couldn’t help myself. Don’t worry, I’ll return them soon. ——Oh my. Natsume-kun, what happened with him?
Natsume: Huh?
Matoba: Who is that cat you have with you?
Natsume: Huh? What do you mean? It’s Nyanko-sensei…
Nyanko: *rustle* I’ve kept you waiting! There were some rare mountain grapes in the back…
Everyone: WAAAH—————!!?
Nyanko: Who in the world is that!?
Natsume: !? Why are there two Nyanko-senseis!? Ah!
The fake Nyanko-sensei leaps out of Natsume’s arm, when Natsume spots a missing piece from its back. Nyanko-sensei tells Natsume to chase after his impostor, and they find themselves in a house, where the fake Sensei slips into a room. Natsume and Nyanko-sensei dash in.
Nyanko: Natsume, above!
[OMG LOLOL]
Natsume and Nyanko-sensei scream, scaring all the cats away. When Natori and Hiiragi finally reach them, both of them are in so much shock that they can’t even form coherent words.
Back at their hideout, Tomuro wakes up and sees them sitting around him.
Tomuro: …Are you exorcists?
Natori: ———………
Matoba: Yes, it’s amazing you could tell.
Tomuro, in a delirium, explains that only exorcists would visit this village. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the power to create exorcism tools, and that, as they can see, there’s no longer anything left.
Matoba: ——But it seems like you have quite a few cats.
Tomuro: ...Cats? Ah… That brings back memories… Indeed, there was a period of time in the past where vessels, used as cursed tools, were made in the shape of fortune cats. However, it turned out to be much too powerful of a tool, so they stopped selling them. I heard that they were sealed in a warehouse on this land. However, a long time ago, a huge fire consumed the contents of that warehouse, and not a single one remained. I have never seen it outside of the catalog, so I’m afraid I can’t sell it to you either.
Natsume realizes that the black Nyanko vessel that Riou was sealed in was probably made here. And, likewise, Nyanko-sensei’s fortune cat form was also made here…
Tomuro continues by saying that the village has nothing but a potter who is only able to make commonplace pottery, and implores them to leave. He immediately falls asleep after finishing his words.
Natori notices Natsume looking thoughtful, and asks if he is alright. Natsume explains that he recalled what Ban had told him back at the workshop… “I also want that, which you have.”
Matoba: ——I see. It seems like Ban wants every single one of them. All the cats that are hiding in this village———
Urihime and Sasago continue their investigation in the forest.
Urihime: So this is where you sense that presence to be? It’s no good. We can’t find anything.
Urihime: Perhaps we should head back to where our master is.
Sasago: Indeed. Meanwhile, it’s likely that there’s another…
Urihime: ——… Sasago…?
Back at the hideout…
Natori: ——So that means, Ban also noticed the group of cats that Natsume saw…
Natsume: Just who…… could those cats be? Are they like Sensei, with something sealed inside each of them…? (If that’s the case, why would they all be at the village…?)
Matoba: Well, whoever they might be, it wouldn’t matter to Ban.
Natsume: Huh?
Matoba: We told you, didn’t we? The Collector of exorcism tools that he is working for, couldn’t care less what is inside.
Something moves behind them, causing Natsume and Natori to flinch. They turn around, only to see that Tomuro has disappeared. Searching for where the sound might’ve come from, they run downstairs, and there—
[Every single part of this arc is just gonna end on a cliffhanger, isn’t it? God dammit Midorikawa-sensei!]
“Village of the Sleeping Vessel” TO BE CONTINUED
#natsume yuujinchou#natsume's book of friends#Natsume Takashi#Nyanko-Sensei#manga#summary#apta scans#spoilers#natsume manga spoilers#translation#Midorikawa Yuki#Yuki Midorikawa
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SCENARIO REQUEST: ❝Sailor Moon isn’t outdated.❞
[ Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia ]
[ Characters: Kirishima Eijirou ]
「Aoyama has a younger twin in the support course. The class doesn't know about it until you showed up in class 1-A on Halloween, dressed as Sailor Moon. Kirishima finds himself entranced by your personality.」
KIRISHIMA EIJIROU
"[Last Name], what the hell are you dressed as?" your classmate asked.
"I'm the warrior of love and justice and I order you to be quiet and go along with it. This thing here is a freaking laser beam and it can cut you in half." you waved your wand at them. They chuckled softly in responded, stating that you were getting a bit too into it but it wasn't a bad thing.
Halloween was the perfect holiday. That was what Hatsume always said. The perfect excuse to create new things to your costumes and you can't help but agree. You didn't plan on going as Sailor Moon but when you found the unused laser stick laying in your inventory, it got your creative juices going. And you ended up making it look like some girly magic wand and one of your friends jokingly mentioned that you should cosplay as Tsukino Usagi, who's more known as Sailor Moon to most people. Carried away by Hatsume, you ended up making a replica of the costume. It was a bit embarrassing to be dressed up like this but you don't even know what Hatsume was dressed as and it actually assured you.
The UA Halloween Party was held at one of the gyms but you and Hatsume wandered around the school building for a while. You intended to visit your older brother who had forgotten to bring his wallet, having misplaced it on the shelf in your living room. The pink haired girl accompanying you was talking about what she was going to invent next week in the workshop. Inventing new things was your passion but you don't go overboard and obsess over it like Hastume. You had heaps of ideas and created tons of things, a lot were failures but it never got you down. As the sight of 1-A's classroom came into view, you stopped your conversation with your friend, telling her that you'd be right back.
You stepped into the classroom, everyone still unaware of your presence. Yuga was easy to spot, considering that he was wearing such a flashy and bright costume. And by flashy, you mean a suit that looked like an entire bucket of glitter had spilled over it. His hair stood out from how much gel he used. Why do you need a flashlight in the dark when you have Yuga in the room? He's bright enough to light up any room. Your twin brother rose his head when he saw your silhouette cast over his desk.
"Bonjour. Comment ça va?" you waved at your brother who was seated at his desk. Hatsume stayed outside while you went in. Yuga turned his head to see you standing by the doorway and waved you over.
"Ça va bien, [First Name]! What brings you here on this lovely day?" he asked as you took a seat on his desk.
"You forgot your wallet at home, Yuga. Don't go leaving something so important in random places." you waved his wallet in your hand. He took it from your hands, flashing you a smile.
"Merci!"
It was a long time ago, your brother was infuriated with French and he picked up a few books to study the language. But of course, it was only as a hobby. There's almost zero chance that you'd be using it in Japan. As Yuga's younger sibling and his only playmate, you were dragged into this and you learned quite a handful about the language. It was often that you mixed the words together with Japanese. As the two of you continued your conversation, the students of Class 1-A started to shift their attention towards you.
“Who is Aoyama talking to?" Kirishima hummed, keeping his attention on you. The red haired male was seated on his desk, glancing at your direction. Kaminari, Sero and Bakugou was there with him too, the latter had been dragged by the three of them. Bakugou barely spared you a glance.
"Don't know, don't care." he grumbled.
“I don’t know. But her costume is pretty cute, huh?” Kaminari said, eyeing the perfect replica of Usagi Tsukino’s iconic outfit. Kirishima looked at you a little bit longer. It was rare to have visitors and judging by the way you were interacting with Aoyama, you must be a close friend. He had never seen you before, were you a student or an outsider that Aoyama invited?
“Bonjour, my lovely classmates! I would like to introduce you to my dear sister, [First Name]." Aoyama beams, a bright smile adorning his features, turning around so that everyone could see you. You give them a shy wave, nervous from being put under the spotlight all of a sudden.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you all. I'm Aoyama [First Name]. I'm a student from the Support Course. I'm in charge of my brother's costume upgrades but I actually don't really stick to one student. I actually help with upgrades" you said with a small smile.
“Your costume!” Mina squealed, stepping closer to you and pointing at your costume. You put your hand over your chest, a scarlet blush adorning your cheeks now that everyone's attention is on your outfit.
"That's Sailor Moon, right?" Uraraka questioned.
"Yes, I accidentally made this thing here so I thought why not? I was messing around with laser beams, and made what's basically a Sailor Moon light saber." you waved the wand that you had been holding onto this entire time.
“Do you make any other of our costumes?” Kaminari asked. You nodded, a big grin present on your face. You always loved talking about your work, having those you were making your work for, acknowledge you was the best feeling ever.
"Hm.....I did Froppy's goggles, Yuga's laser belt, Uravity's helmet.....Nothing too remarkable. But speaking of Uraraka-san! I have a few enhancement ideas for your costume after you sent the Support Department a request for something that can aid in rescuing. I can add this thermal tracker feature to your helmet which will help you look for people much easily! If not, maybe X-ray? What do you think?" you turned your attention towards the brown haired female who was caught off guard.
"Uwa! You can do that? That'a amazing!" Uraraka clapped.
"And Kirishima-kun!"
"Y-Yes!?" Kirishima didn't realized that he had been staring at you the entire time you were talking. It was so embarrassing to stutter with his classmates there to witness him.
"I hope you have something interesting in mind because I just received your rough draft. I'll start on your upgrade as soon as possible. I hope you don't mind me being in charge of such an important upgrade." you explain, your mind wandering back to the piles of blueprints you had at the work shop, all of them being new and old ideas. You got a bit too excited talking about work and hopped off the desk, only to lose your footing and fall backwards.
All of a sudden, Kirishima was in front of you, grabbing your wrist and preventing you from falling.
"Thank you, wearing these things isn't exactly my thing."
"No problem!" Kirishima beamed.
"You're such a gentleman, Kirishima. Just like a real life Tuxedo Mask." you chuckled. Kirishima's entire face burned and at this point, he was certain that the color of his face was the same shade as his own hair. How could you say something like that with a laugh?
Suddenly, Hatsume waltzed in the room, grabbing your hand. She scolded you for making her wait at the corridor for such a long time, assumed you for forgetting about her and complained about how boring it was.
"Come on, [First Name], a little bird told me that they're serving [Favorite Food]!" the pink haired began dragging you away.
"It was nice seeing you all! See you at the party or maybe see you when you need upgrades on your costumes!" you gave them a wave before disappearing out the door with Hatsume.
As you left with Hatsuma, Kirishima stared at his hand that had been holding onto your wrists. The girls were still talking about you, mostly going on about how passionate you were with your work. Kaminari, was as usual, talking about how pretty you looked. While Mineta....was just being Mineta. You had left an impression on him, not just him, but everyone in class. No one knew about Aoyama Yuga having a twin sister in UA and were surprised at the difference in personalities.
Total: 1414 words
Published: 03.10.2019
We’re open for some limited edition prompts featuring Fall and Halloween!
Read more here!
Thank you for requesting! *｡٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و*｡
As you can tell, we ran out of title names.
I am not afraid to admit that I have never watched Sailor Moon! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ.
I mean, well, its those anime that you'd watch as a kid right? It's released on the 1990s and I wasn't even born back then.
Besides, I spent my days watching Naruto (￢ ֊ ￢)
So, we tried our best to not go into full detail because we have nothing on Sailor Moon.
Hope you liked it, though! ― author Hibiki/Lou
Thank you for requesting!
I. Have. Never. Watched. Sailor. Moon. Either!
I didn't watch anime until I was a bit older and I was more into Shonen stuff.
So, the two of us, who knows pretty much almost nothing about Sailor Moon, did this request.
If this doesn't meet your expectations, then we apologize. ― author Natsuki
Please do not mind the grammar mistakes and typos.
#stellar-imagines#bnha:kirishima eijirou#kirishima x reader#kirishima eijirou x reader#scenario#kirishima eijirou#bnha#bnha scenarios#bnha imagines#bnha headcanons#bnha x reader#mha#mha imagines#mha headcanons#mha scenarios#my hero academia#my hero academia imagines#my hero academia scenarios#my hero academia headcanons#boku no hero academia#boku no hero academia headcanons#boku no hero academia scenarios#boku no hero academia x reader#boku no hero academia imagines#fanfic#reader insert#mha x reader
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What about an AU where Tony can read peters mind? I don't know if he tells him or nah, but he keeps hearing Peter talk about how sexy, intelligent... Etc Tony is, and .... Or maybe thee other way around, and its Peter who reads Tony's mind(?)
i may have changed this up a bit, nonnie, but i got this idea and there isn’t anyway i couldn’t do it
soulmate au, you can read the mind of your soulmate.
Tony knew Pepper wasn’t the one. They both tried and say they had The Connection, the telepathic one someone has with their soulmate once they meet, it’s literally like the other half of you was found.
And as much as Tony wanted that to be Pepper, as much as Pepper wanted it to be Tony, it just wasn’t going to happen.
So, as he got older, he has just assumed he would never find his true soulmate. A bunch of people didn’t and they were in a similar situation, they would just conjure something up that wasn’t there.
And, that’s what Tony realized he was doing.That was until he met Peter Parker. The boy was so young, in fucking high school for God’s sake, but there was no mistaking it, Peter knew it, Tony knew it, they were connected. There were some sick fucks up in the universe that had decided this and now Tony was somehow going to have to deal with it.
Mainly, he just felt bad for the kid for getting stuck with someone like him.
It all happened when he greeted him when Peter got back home from school, Tony was waiting on the couch, only wanting to recruit him for the team, and it was an instant feeling of we’re connected, it was a way of knowing what the other was doing and thinking, without really knowing.
Tony knew that Peter wanted to go talk privately, Tony knew that Peter was confused - he could know his basic emotions like second nature - and that’s how he knew, that for some sick reason, Peter Benjamin Parker was his soulmate.
Yet, when they went in Peter’s bedroom, Tony did what he thought would be best. Pretended like he didn’t feel any different. He addressed what he came here to, speaking only of business, and then leaving, pretending nothing was different.
Tony was going to tell Pepper at first, it made sense. He had found his soulmate, it would only hurt Pepper to stay with her longer than he should. After thinking about it, he realized he wouldn’t tell Pepper and he would stay with her, and his reasoning was good enough.
Peter was too young and it would only hurt the boy more if he did give into temptation. Pete deserved better than what Tony could give him, so no matter what, Tony was going to continue on as he was, he couldn’t be with Peter no matter how bad he wanted to.
And it wasn’t really a problem. Of course everytime when they were together it hurt. Because Tony knew. Tony knew this was the person he was meant to be with. Yet he couldn’t say anything because he wanted the best for the boy, and he wasn’t the best for his soulmate.
So, they worked together, working on new suits, upgrades on the tower and so on. And everything was bittersweet, Tony knew he was falling in love with the boy, but he couldn’t stop it. He could only hide it.
“Mister Stark,” Peter said one day as they were working on suit updates, Tony looked up at him with a smile.
“Yes?” He asked, turning back to the project at hand, however he was all ears for Peter.
“Can I ask you something… kinda personal?” The boy said, obviously growing nervously.
Tony let out a laugh. “I don’t see why not kid,” The mechanic leaned back in his chair. “What’s on your mind?”
Tony wished he would have said no then. He wished he would have told the kid personal things weren’t what they discussed at work, because he could read what Peter was thinking, and while it wasn’t an exact thing, it was pretty clear to see ‘Soulmate’ Was a thought, passing through the kids mind.
Tony had to start thinking of something to say, something for every possible outcome.
“Pepper,” Peter began, standing awkwardly in the workshop. “Is she your soulmate?”
Tony gave a bittersweet smile, “No,” He said calmly. “She’s not my soulmate, I’m not her’s. We both know it, we do love each other but -”
“Can I ask you another question?”
“Actually, Kid-”
“Have you found your soulmate, or think you found your soulmate?”
The question was going to come up soon, Tony could read it on the other boys brain, but he still had no clue how to advert the topic. “I - uh-”
“Because, Mister Stark, I know this is going to sound crazy but I really think I’m your soulmate,” Peter said in one rushed breath. “I didn’t think it was true, but I feel something with you, something I’ve never felt with anyone before. I have thi feeling like I understand you I know you, I can see your thoughts. I know I can, and I also know this sounds crazy, but Tony I’m sure of it -”
“No,” Tony said quickly. “You don’t actually feel anything about this.”
“No! It’s not like that, Mister Stark, I swear! This isn’t some school boy crush! I really feel like we have a connection, an unbreakable one! I need you to believe me. I feel like I’m being pulled towards you! We have something, I just know it! You need to believe me, Mister-”
“Peter, you can’t feel anything. It takes two to be soulmates.” Tony said shortly.
“You’re trying to tell me that you don’t - you don’t feel anything between us?”
“Nope, nothing!” Tony said, a little more aggressively than he should’ve.
Peter was quiet. He didn’t know what to say. He knew there was something there, and how strongly Mister Stark was denying that, he knew that there was something. “Mister Stark,” He spoke up again after unscrambling his thoughts. “I know you don’t believe me, but just try a little, to open your mind to think that maybe, just maybe -”
“Kid-!” Tony began yelling.
“Tony! Listen to me! Please!”
“No!” Tony yelled, he was going to put an end to it. “No, I don’t feel something, you don’t feel something, no one feels anything. I’m not your soulmate. I’m not the man you’re destined to be with, I am your mentor, and only your mentor, nothing more. And most importantly, KID,” Tony made sure to put extra emphasis on that word. “I will never be nothing more to you. You’ll find your soulmate and realize you were wrong.”
“I know I won’t. We’re so-”
“Dont’ say it, Pete.”
“Tony, please.”
“Get out,” Tony said, throwing down the rag he was using to wipe his hands on the table.
“Mister St-”
“PETER! No. You don’t understand what this is yet, well of course you don’t, because there isn’t anything to feel, to understand. Nothing. So go. Tomorrow we’ll just pretend this didn’t happen. But as for now. Get. Out.”
With tears brimming his eyes, the other boy left, however, not without slamming the door behind him.
Tony broke down as soon as he was sure he was alone. He sat down, sighed, and cried. He knew the boy was his soulmate. And the Boy knew it too.
Peter stayed true to his word, the next day, he showed up for work and they ignored the elephant in the room. They danced around each other, they didn’t look at each other, not directly. Little touches they would usually share, little seconds where contact would be established as they worked ceased to exist, and they just worked, making shit upgrades, new weapons to protect the world, your typical things.
And so it continued all just like that. Of course Tony still had a extra motive to protect the boy, just because he wouldn’t ever be with him doesn’t mean he didn’t have the loving connection to be with him.
So, when Peter tried to do something on a boat, Tony was furious. He didn’t even need to be that informed of all the details, of how the boy literally tried to hold it back together, how dumb could one person be? Like sure, he’s a fucking teenager, but seriously? He doesn’t have enough common sense to know that his idea was a fucking DUMB one?
“Previously on ‘Peter screws the pooch’ I tell you to stay away from this,” Tony reasons. “And you HACK a multimillion dollar suit so you could sneak around my back, doing the one thing I told you NOT to do.”
“Is everyone okay?” Peter asks, dismissing whatever Tony was going on about. In all reality, Peter was mad at the guy, even after their whole ‘pretending to bury it’ ordeal, he very much had not buried it. It was a very present thought in his head. All. The. Fucking. Time. (As was it for Tony)
“No thanks to you,” Said Tony, emphasizing on the word ‘You’.
Not being able to keep a lid on his anger, Peter turns around. “No thanks to me?” HIs voice was already breaking. “Those weapons were out there and I tried to tell you about it!” Peter got closer to Tony, who was hovering above in his suit. He probably wouldn’t have the nerve to do all of this, the yelling and mild hand gestures, if Tony was actually standing in front of him, but chances were, the actual Tony Stark was somewhere in Italy or maybe Hawaii. “But you didn’t listen! None of this wouldn’t of happened if you had just listened to me!”
There was a beat of silence. “If you even cared,” Peter felt his arms go partially limp. “You’d actually be here,”
Cue, Tony Stark, actually being there, walking out of the Iron Man suit, fucking as intimidating as ever.
“I did listen kid, who the hell do you think called the FBI? Huh?” Tony began his rant. He didn’t particularly like his soulmate (Rather he would admit that being a fact or not) thinking that he didn’t care. “Did you know, I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else thought I was crazy recruiting a 14 year old -”
“I’m 15,”
“No, this is where you zip it!” A year really didn’t make a fucking difference.
“The adult is talking! What if someone had died tonight? Hm? Different story right?” Tony asked, barely pausing to wait for Peter to respond. “Because that’s on you. And if you died,” Tony said, lifting up his palms. “I feel like that’s on me,”
Tony watched Peter’s face instantly. “I don’t need that on my conscience.”
“Yes sir, I’m sorry-” Peter apologized, losing his nerve.
“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” Tony said quickly.
“I know, I understand, I just -” Peter sighed. “I wanted to - to be like you,”
Tony sighed, looking at the younger boy. Emotions of loathing, sadness, desperation? Flooded Peter’s thoughts. “And I just wanted you to be better,”
Awkward silence and diverted eyes.
“This clearly isn’t working out, imma need the suit back,”
“What!” Peter asked, looking up to meet the mechanic’s face. “For how long?”
“Forever,”
“No,” Peter said, he was able to do so much with the suit, the last thing he wanted was for it to be gone. It was kind of like the only thing he and Tony did together anymore. Make something for the suits. No matter what, he was down about the suit getting taken away, but everything that came with the suit was going to be missed. And, that was time with Tony.
“Yes, that’s how it works,” Tony said,
“No, No, Please,” It was like holding onto the one thing they’d shared and Peter really didn’t want that to go away.
“Let’s have it.” Tony said, not letting up on his decision.
“You don’t understand,” Peter began. “This is all I have! I’m nothing without this suit.”
Tony looked into Peter’s eyes and sighed. “If you’re nothing without the suit, you shouldn’t have it, God, I sound like my dad.”
And any hope of keeping the suit and everything it stood for was gone. It felt like Peter’s mind was racing a mile a minute. He looked away, and back, trying to focus all his thoughts. Swallowing any pride he may have had left, he looked up at his mentor. “I don’t -” He stuttered. “I don’t have any clothes,”
“We can sort that out.”
And they did. Peter always had shit at Tony’s, so they both knew there was probably the best place to go. It was originally proposed for Tony to carry Peter shamefully across New York, as he did when Peter almost drowned when Tony was on vacation and was carried out of the water with the suit, but Peter shrugged the older man off and swung all the way to Stark Tower.
Once he arrived and was sitting in the living room, he had to wait for Tony to get there. Spidey Suit - 1, Iron man Suit - 0. Peter wasn’t even sad anymore at everything. He was mad, and fed up, and ready to just be fucking done. He got screwed over my the universe. Wouldn’t be the first damn time.
His soulmate didn’t want him.
Thanks, Universe, can you fuck with someone else now?
Tony flew into the living room, his suit removing itself from his body. Ha. Ha. Apparently it couldn’t leave Peter alone. Granted, this was Tony’s house and he was awaiting Tony, but still! Did he have to home at the exact moment he was contemplating the meaning of his life? No.
“I’ll get you some new clothes, then strip from the suit.” Tony said, walking into his room, most likely going to get said clothes.
Peter sighed and just stood in the large living room, listening to every sound Tony made in the other room. It didn’t take long for the billionaire to come back into Peter’s view, holding pajama pants and a shirt that read ‘I survived my trip to NYC’.
“Ha. Ha,” Peter said very sarcastically as he held his hand out for the clothing items. “Very funny.”
“I thought so to,” Tony said, smiling with a hint of sarcasm. “Go change.” The man gestured to the general direction of the rooms. Peter did as he was told. He took the suit off, knowing this would be the last time he did it, and then slid on the other clothes, which were comfortable, but he really wasn’t looking forward to going home in them.
“Here’s the suit.” Peter says as he walks out from one of the rooms. Tony takes the suit and looks at the fabric intently.
“Thanks,” Tony says quietly. He wants to say more, but what could he really say? ‘Can’t wait to not give this back to you and ignore you, see you tomorrow, kid!’ See? Wasn’t the best conversational piece.
Peter began walking out the door in the baggy clothing, but stopped himself. “So, is this going to be it?”
“What?” Tony asked, knowing ‘what’ already. Telepathic connections, remember?
“This is it? We’re not going to talk anymore, be there anymore, we’ll just drift away from each other, right? That’s what you want?”
“Of course that isn’t what I want,” Tony said quietly.
“I say something, something true,” Peter says, ignoring the mumbling Tony had just said. “And you don’t even attempt holding a conversation with me. What’s wrong with me, Tony? Honestly? Is it because I’m a boy? Too young? Just not for you?”
Tony had two choices. Tell Peter the truth, that was the first (and wisest) choice, however, Tony decided to go with the latter, which happened to be ‘Continue to lie’. “Peter, you aren’t pointing out something true, how many times do I have to tell you that?”
“See, I know you’re lying!” Peter yelled, walking away from the door and back towards Tony. “And you know how I know that? The same way, you know already how I know, because I can see what you’re thinking! I know it and you know it! Stop lying to me and tell me the real reason.”
Once again. Two choices, two paths. “Peter,” Tony began. “Stop trying to convince me there is something when I know there isn’t anything.”
“Just tell me why, before I leave, tell me why you don’t want to love me, to accept me, we could be - Mister Stark - we could be happy together.”
“There’s nothing to tell Peter. Whatever you’re feeling,” Tony lifted his hands as if he was presenting something. “Not real,” He finished.
“I’m tired of your bullshit, Tony, tell me the fucking truth!”
Tony was growing increasingly frustrated. “No! You don’t understand!”
“Try me!” Peter yelled back, getting closer to Tony, who wasn’t having any of it.
He could have chose to fight, like he always did, but he was done harming the boy. “Peter, just get out.”
No one moved, nothing changed, not even the AI’s.
“Now.”
And just like that, Peter was rushing out of Stark Tower, exasperated tears strolling down his cheeks as he made his way back home to seek out comfort in his aunt’s arms.
And that was it for a long time. They barely talked after that incident. It didn’t make sense. Peter did get his suit back, it was Tony’s way of saying ‘I’m sorry I was an asshole’ (Pepper, who had found out about Tony and Peter’s situation, had told the billionaire that his little apologies would sometimes manage to work on her) However, Peter didn’t see the charm in them and while they were now on neutral terms, they no longer hung out.
Tony hated what had happened to their relationship, if anything, it gave him just another reason to hate the universe. Tony wanted Peter, but didn’t want Peter, and he needed Peter, but at the same time, he wanted Peter to have a good life with someone better than him.
However, Tony is human, and sometimes thoughts like ‘Would the Universe really fuck Peter over and give him me for any other reason than the fact we would actually be really good together?’ but he dismissed those thoughts, because Peter was perfect. Tony? He was the textbook definition of a mess.
The next time Peter and Tony hold a conversation, there’s no time for awkward ‘So, how’s your life been?’ Because there’s this big Purple Grape with a nutsack chin running around, wreaking havoc.
At the beginning, it was about keeping each other and the rest of the world safe. It wasn’t about petty arguments on rather they should be together or not. It was about keeping shit together and not letting half the world disappear.
Then, things went up, Peter couldn’t breathe, he was told to let go. It was a blur, but he knew one thing, he wasn’t going to stay on Earth while Tony risked his life (again) for the Universe. Though, when a parachute surrounds you, it’s hard to hold on.
Peter managed to get himself stuck in some part of the spaceship. He stayed hidden for awhile, but then thought sitting there wouldn’t do anything. So, he made his way out to find Tony and the Wizard guy.
Obviously, Tony was furious. He told Peter to stay back, one thing, that’s all he wanted. He wanted to know that at least Peter was safe on Earth. Having him here would make it hard, extremely hard, he couldn’t handle that. He couldn’t face the fact Peter, the one thing he had to protect, was now with him on a one-way ticket ride on a strange spaceship.
“What’s your situation here?” Stephen asked, looking as the two arguing back and forth. “Is he like your ward?”
“What are we?” Peter said, looking at Tony, then Stephen and back and Tony. “Sore subject,” he said shrugging in Stephen’s direction.
“We’re not doing this now.” Tony said, walking away from the kid.
“Fine,” Peter said, obviously not fine. “Whatever, but if I end up laying eggs in you or whatever -”
“What?” Tony asked, a little snappier than he had to.
“I’m trying to say someone’s coming.” Peter rolled his eyes.
When the two were fighting side by side, all problems were still VERY present, but they were ignored so they could get their task done, and the two fought together really well. They accomplished a lot when they worked together as a team, unfortunately, as soon as the enemy was defeated, their adrenaline was pumping and they needed someone to take it out on.
So it would insure for fights, fights that brought out feelings they had been holding in, tears were shed a few times, and in the end, nothing got resolved, they just ended up getting so mad that they couldn’t even put it in to words, so they’d stop talking until it was repeated again.
When the fight against Thanos was lost, and he took the time stone and went off to collect the others, moral was more than a little low. Sadness, despire, defeat, all emotions both boys were feeling. Everything felt so hard and impossible.
Tension was once again growing between Tony and Peter. It was hard for it to not, once again, the two were adrenaline’s bitches. “This is it,” Peter said. No one else was around, only Tony, the others were out of ear shot as long as they kept their voices at a regular level. “This is where it ends, you know that right?”
Seeing Peter give up hurt Tony, the kid seemed more than ready to just die, and that was painful to see. However, what was Tony supposed to say. “Kid! Don’t worry about it! This won’t be the end!” Yeah, no that’s not an option. Instead, Tony just looked up at the kid sadly.
Tony’s reaction made it real, so Peter swallowed and sighed. “It’s really it,” He repeated. There was a beat of silence before the boy spoke up again. “And you still won’t admit it,”
Tony sighed. “There isn’t anything to admit, Peter.” It had become routine to just say it. It didn’t even upset Tony to lie anymore.
Peter leaned his head back and sighed. “I don’t want to fight about it anymore, Tony.”
“Then stop bringing it up.” Tony said.
“It’s just a little frustrating-” Peter began.
“And we’re fighting about it.”
“That you won’t admit it! Who’s going to know now? No one can judge you now? Unless it’s a you thing, or a me thing, maybe me isn’t good enough for you,” Peter tried to reason back and forth with himself, Tony wasn’t going to say anything anymore. He. Was. Done.
“I can try and understand. There are a lot of factors as to why you might not want to be with me. There’s the obvious one, the age gap. Then maybe it’s because I’m a boy-”
Still, Tony gave no reply, letting the boy ramble on to the same points.
“It could also be the fact I’m not Pepper or that I’m not hot enough for you, or maybe not smart enough. Is that it? I’m just not on your level?”
“Peter,” Tony sighed. “Please, just drop it.”
And, he did. He didn’t talk to Tony for the rest of the wait on Titan.
Until it happened. Back on Earth, Thanos had collected all the stones and snapped his fingers. It was done. Slowly but surely, everyone began fading, dissolving away into nothing. Tony looked around, watching as Strange, Quill, and even Mantis slowly became nothing but dust.
“Mr. Stark?” Tony turned around and faced Peter, his worst nightmare coming true. “I don’t feel so good.” Peter said as he stumbled on the ground.
“Are you alright?” Tony asked hastily, watching as his young soulmate practically feel forward.
“I don’t know, I don’t know what’s happening,” Peter said, his voice breaking. He fell into Tony’s arms. Tony held onto the kid, shock washing over his body. “I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go. Sir, please. I don’t wanna go,”
Tony slowly lowered Peter down to the ground, hovering over him slightly. “I don’t wanna go.” He said one last time before making eye contact with Tony. He had nothing but sadness and regret in his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” He said finally. Tony still couldn’t react, shock was overtaking every other emotion as he watched the love of his life fade away and turn into nothing but dust. He sat back, looking at the spot Peter had once been laying, and then around to see he was the only one left. He looked down at his hand, waiting for whatever had happened, to take him also.
But it didn’t.
Now he was stuck, stranded, alone.
“…I’m so sorry,” He mumbled as he brought his hand up to rest his chin against it. “So, so sorry.”
#starker#peter parker x tony stark#peter parker/tony stark#tony stark x peter parker#tony stark/peter parkeer#ironspider#angst#original work#request
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Crave Ch. 6 (Bucky Barnes)
Summary; The Asset.
Makes it sound like there was only one, doesn’t it? One assassin, one soldier, one life stolen and taken over to be used as a tool for evil minds. There was never only one. Hydra’s bloodstained hands, people called them. And once one’s hands have been bathed in blood so many times, it’s near impossible to look at the skin and not see red. Yet, when Hydra has been pushed out into the open by the Avengers there’s the slightest flicker of hope for the asset left behind. You see, I never had a Steve Rogers. No one is looking for me. The only person I’ve ever had is the one I was trapped with, the one that’s now free. The one who, if he finds me, I will surely destroy.
A/N; This took forever, but I hope you all enjoy this series!
Warnings; Language, little heat ;)
Words; 3,295
Chapter Five~~~Crave Masterlist~~~Complete Masterlist
Chapter Six
Suit
“Remind me not to piss you off, Red.” He says and now I allow myself to smile. “You know, if you show me how you move I can make you a suit. Should anyways if you’re going to be a part of the team.”
My eyebrows shoot up and my mouth pops open. “You want to make me a suit?” I ask as we enter his workshop. His expression turns amused as I stop and he spins around his lab pressing buttons.
“Sure. You’ve just got to do a couple things for me.” He returns to my side and takes my hand, pulling me onto the platform as the robotic arms switch their appendages. My gaze on Tony is skeptical and he shakes his head at me. “Nothing weird. Science stuff. Promise.” He winks at me and leaves me in the center of the platform to grab small circles from a drawer in the far desk. White with small blue dots in the center of each, I recognize them almost instantly.
“Ah, I get it. They detect movement so you can see where the suit needs the most durability or maneuverability.” Tony’s eyes widen at my conclusion before nodding.
“That’s exactly right. God, that’s sexy.” The corners of my mouth quirk up as he displays the stickies on his arm. “Now, do you know where these go or can I help you?” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively and I laugh, taking the stickies from him.
“Think I can handle it, Einstein.” I quip and remove my cardigan, tank, socks, and pants. Tony watches with an open mouth as I toss my clothes over his shoulder with a smirk, then apply the stickies in their proper places. Over my heart, on both my thighs, wrists, and ankles. Now just in stickies, my purple bra, and purple boyshorts, I’m ready. And Tony’s staring happily without a qualm. “Tell me when you’re ready to look at the monitors, Tony.” He blinks and seems to return to earth.
“First, you’re a babe.” He spares me a wink before turning to the nearest desk and pulling up holographic information. My pulse and other vital signs appear in front of him and he nods approvingly before turning back to me. Excited light brown eyes look up to me and the arms of the robots now glow blue. Suddenly a little hologram of me appears in the middle of all the information. I raise my arms and lower them, fascinated when the little me does the same. “Nice.” Tony commends me and my eyes return to him. “Now, move how you normally would. Start with walking.” Nodding, I do so. I yelp when the machinery around me starts moving with me so I still remain in the same place. Grinning like a school girl, I pick up my feet and watch this weird machine catch each step. Metal blooms around my foot and soon I’m running at full speed without outrunning the arms.
“This is amazing.” I breathe and glance at Tony who is studying me and my movements avidly.
“You’re doing incredibly. You’ve the same speed and stamina as the two popsicles upstairs.” Tony reports and I smirk. “Alright, you can stop.” I halt a little sadly. Our eyes meet and I only have a moment to absorb the enthusiasm swimming in his hazel eyes before he spins to the holograms. I shift back and forth in place, my heart and muscles now wishing to move, move, move. “I’ll need you to fight how you’d normally fight. I’ll grab a dummy-”
“I don’t mind standing in.” My head snaps to the doorway and finds James leaning in the doorway, eyes like matches to light the gasoline in my blood.
“Go for it, Robocop.” Tony encourages and turns back to the holograms. I don’t even have time to object before Bucky’s stepped up onto the now smooth platform.
“Like the outfit, Rosie.” He teases and whistles lightly. I clench my jaw and crouch slightly so I’m in position.
“Can it. Why’re you down here anyways?” I ask as he rolls his shoulders. He hesitates and I realize why. “Wanted to catch us fucking, huh? Hm, didn’t know you turned kinky.” I just can’t resist joking quietly and watch his mouth turn down.
“And was that a possibility?” Bucky asks just as quietly. His eyes are sad now, but I harden my heart against them. I can’t fall just because he looks like a kicked puppy.
I scoff. “Like I’d dignify that question with an answer.”
“Whenever you two are ready.” The both of us look up when Tony speaks and we nod simultaneously. This won’t be my first time fighting Bucky and I’m fairly certain it won’t be the last either. Since this is just a little fun, I start slow. Punch, punch, kick. Punch, punch, kick. Bucky easily dodges each and every move with an intense look in his eyes. It’s distracting. Tony opens his mouth but he doesn’t need to tell me to go harder, I’m already planning on it. I circle Bucky once and a side of his mouth turns up just a little.
Once behind him I take one giant step before flipping and encasing his head in my thick thighs. Before I can break his nose again, he grabs my thighs and bows at an extreme speed to smash my head into the floor. I let go of him just enough to give me enough body maneuverability to curl into his body so I’m protected. In the moment he pauses before going to straighten himself, I plant my hands on the ground and with a loud grunt I use what leverage I have to flip him onto his back. Now sitting flat on his pecs, I roll forward between his legs before his hands can catch me. Unfortunately, his legs snap up and capture my waist. He sits up and quickly embraces me close to his chest so I can’t use my arms. I feel every breath shake out of his lungs, his skin and tight shirt brushing what exposed skin I have. Lips at my ear, he bites the shell and my eyes shut a moment. Faintly, I hear my heart monitor spike.
“I could get used to this again.” He breathes shakily and my eyes snap open. My head droops forward before I snap it back into his face. It stuns him enough that I can force his arms off and a quick elbow jab just before his knee lets me shove that off as well. Standing again, I take a few steps away from him to regain some semblance of my sanity.
“Uh, that’s all I need. Unless you two need more time here.” Tony comments and I instantly hop off the platform to land beside him. I remove the stickies from my now sweat slick skin and place them on a metallic tray for cleaning. “Impressive work, Red.” He pecks my cheek but has a different look in his eyes than earlier. “Make a list of must haves for me and I’ll get started right away.” A pen and notepad seem to just appear in his hands and I take them gratefully. I toss my clothes over my shoulder before walking out of the room without a backward glance at James. I’m dry by the time I get back to my room and didn’t sweat enough to be rid of the clothes I have on, so I take my time slipping them back on.
Sighing, I sit on my bed and run my long fingers through my blood red hair. The notepad and pen Tony gave me are beside me, so I grab them and write down what must-haves come to mind. Holsters and stealth. I write, then pause. Honestly that’s all I can think of. I’ve made do with a lot less. I stand up to get ready to walk back and give this to Tony, but of course James is standing in the doorway.
“Is skulking in doorways just your thing now?” I ask and sit back down in irritation. He walks in and leans against the far wall, letting the door swing and click shut.
“Well, at least you’re still a good fighter. Clearly haven’t softened at all.” James jokes and I roll my eyes.
“And you have. Back in the day you would’ve never let me get a hit in. You let who you were fighting get into your head.” I tsk and stand, unwilling to sit in his presence any longer. “If we go out together, on a mission, you can’t be distracted by me being there. I need your word.” I toss the pad and pen back on the bed and my arms cross as I look at him. I’m thrown off slightly by the soft smile on his face. He pushes off the wall and comes a little closer.
“You know, in normal life, it’s okay to go a little soft with someone we care about.” He tells me and I pout as I back up from his slow progress towards me.
“That’s what gets you killed, Barnes.” He pauses and sighs.
“Has it occurred to you yet that you aren’t in a war zone anymore?”
“Life is and always has been a war, James, you of all people know that.”
“No, we were always taught that.” Flesh meets flesh as he raises a hand to rub his blue eyes before looking back to me. “You’re stubborn as hell, you know that?”
“Sorry, are you trying to therapize me? I’m fine.” My back finally hits the wall and he stops just in front of me with a critical look on his face.
“Sugar, waking up covered in sweat and puking into a prepared trashcan is not okay. Not even remotely.” He tells me and I frown. He huffs and takes the final step towards me, letting his hands reach up and rub up and down my arms, one warm and the other frigid. “Wish you’d tell me what got you so spooked, doll.”
I shake my head and nearly smile at his good intentions. “Nightmares are just nightmares, James. I’ll survive.” He grinds his teeth together and reaches up to gently brush my hair back. I lean into the movement involuntarily.
“That’s what I thought too but I want more than that for you.” His hands drop to my cheeks and I instinctually put my hands over his. Our bodies know each other too well. I tell myself silently, watching him just barely move when I do and not even have to think about it.
“James-”
“Don’t you want more for yourself?” He asks, steel creeping into his voice and eyes. A smile teases my lips. He’s always believed in me. Believed I was better than I am.
“It does me good to see you like this, you know.” I admit and bite my lip as I reach up to tuck a stray wave behind his ear. “Preaching and telling me I can do more. It’s sweet.” I sigh and let my hand drop. “But I don’t deserve it. Might as well give up now, James.” My hands remove his from my face. His jaw flexes again in frustration and as his emotions spike so does the heat between us. Like a chemical reaction.
“Right. When have I ever given up on you, Rosie?” My eyebrows raise at the insinuation that I’ve given up on him. I suppose he’s right.
“You know, I seem to remember you telling me you’d back off.” My fingers touch my stomach, then his. A smile pulls on his lips.
“And I said it was a shit promise, so.” His shoulders shrug and he leans forward to barely skim his lips across my cheek. My breath leaves my body in a quick whoosh when his hands gently land on my ribs, thumbs grazing the bottom of my bra. God, he’s like heroine.
“James…no. I can’t do this. I’ve told you.” I object with difficulty and he instantly pulls back. Emotion reaches up to choke me. “It’s too hard.” My head shakes. His hands claim mine as he gives me a little more space and furrows his brows.
“Tell me. Rosie, tell me what’s going on.” He pleads and stoops a little to meet my eyes that have wandered to the floor. I look up and my heart squeezes at his concerned expression.
“It’s just-” I’m cut off by a loud blaring and Bucky’s eyes shut in irritation.
“That’s the alarm. We’ve got to get to the war room.” His eyes linger on me before tugging my hand. We walk out and head to a room I haven’t been to before. It looks like a fancy meeting room for execs. Long, oval table, leather swivel chairs, and a holographic screen at the far end of the room. Tony, Sam, and Steve are already here. Tony’s screwing with the screen while Steve sits in a swivel chair across from him. Sam’s next to Steve so I sit beside Tony’s standing figure while James sits next to me.
“What’s going on?” I ask and Steve looks at me.
“We’ll wait till the rest of the team is here to brief.” He tells me and I nod, glancing at the door as Natasha comes in. “And that’s it for now.” Steve waves to Tony and Tony nods in confirmation.
“We’ve got another Hydra base to sack. Despite not being big on clean energy, they needed a way to power their bases off the grid. The Tesseract was perfect for this. Now, I’ve got satellites scanning for that specific energy signature and we just got a hit.” We all look to the screen when Tony presses a button and watch land and oceans fly across the screen until landing.
“Pripyat, Ukraine?” My tone is disbelieving. “Outside Chernobyl?” Tony shrugs.
“Never said anyone from Hydra was smart. We should be fine as long as we go in and get out within a day. A few hours would be better.” Tony reports and I frown at the screen, not liking this one bit.
Steve stands and crosses his arms as Tony sits. “Since this is a high-risk zone, Buck, Rosalie, Natasha, and I will go in first since we won’t be affected by the chemicals. Sam and Tony, we’ll need you to be our eyes in the sky so we can see what’s coming on the ground. This should also protect you from exposure.” He turns away from the screen towards us. “Hopefully, we’ll have more information on what Hydra’s doing here soon so we’re heading out tomorrow evening. Be ready then.” Steve pauses for questions, then nods. “Alright. Dismissed.” We all stand but I turn to Tony instead of the door.
“Hey, I only have two notes for the suit. All I need is at least two holsters and something stealthy.” I tell him, hoping that’s helpful. His eyes light up.
“Good! Okay, that makes you easy. I’ll have your suit done by tomorrow Red, don’t worry.” His hand is soft and gentle on the small of my back as we walk out past Bucky. No doubt he’ll stay and talk things over with Steve, but I feel his eyes on my back as I walk out. I think a moment.
“Thanks, Tony.” I peck his cheek and spin back around to walk back into the war room. I let the doors shut behind me before walking up behind the two soldiers. “Anything we can help with, Steve?” The man turns and smiles softly at James and me. Barely, I see the corner of Bucky’s mouth lift.
“Whatever you need, punk.” Bucky reaches out and pats his shoulder. Steve gratefully pats the same hand and looks to me.
“Keep each other out of trouble and I’ll be happy.” Bucky and I glance at one another before looking back at Steve.
“I’ll watch out for you, Steve, if you look out for him.” I flick my chin at Bucky and he grins. Steve nods in agreement.
“And I’ll look after your smartass, Rosie.” James swears and I shake my head.
“If you can keep up, Barnes.” I quip and let the weight of having a team settle on my shoulders. The more members, the more to lose.
* * * * *
Tonight is very different from last night. Dinner is made by oneself and eaten in each other’s respective places. There’s definitely the feel of wary anticipation around the place. I’ve yet to see Tony come out of his workshop and I feel a little guilty about that since I’m most likely the reason. After finishing my bowl of cereal, I head down to see his progress. Steve nods to me on the stairs as he heads up them and I nod back before slipping into the place.
“Ah, Red. Nice to see a pretty face.” Tony teases through a mouth full of sandwich. “At first I thought you might be Mr. Patriot come back to scold me.” My smile comes easy as I walk to him and sit on the stool across from him.
“Felt a little guilty that making my suit is most likely keeping you from coming up. How’s it going?” Sandwich in hand, he pops up and twiddles a little with a screen before a little holographic me appears once again. Rolling over in his swivel chair, he tugs me down into his lap before rolling us back over. “Tony…” I start disapprovingly, but he puts his hands on either side of my head and makes me look at the hologram. “Oh, Tony.” I breathe in awe. “It’s fantastic. Genius. Holy shit.” Tony’s arms wrapped around my waist squeeze with happiness.
“Glad you like it. The only thing happening now is stitching and that’ll be done within the hour. See these pieces here?” He turns and lets his fingers graze over the hologram’s chest, torso, and shoulders. “All this is armored. And you’ll have these as vambraces.” He clicks twice and little blue arm braces float onto my arms. “You’ve got two holsters, one on each thigh. Two above your fine ass for small pistols, and I added these,” he gestures to what looks like two pieces of cloth wrapped around my hips, “for fun. The cloth will be strong enough to choke someone I suppose or you could wear it over your face to hide your identity. Oh!” He rolls us backwards and points under the desk. Black combat boots sit underneath with a pile of knives next to it. “Sheathes inside and you can add those knives wherever you like. The straps are adjustable.” I’m in complete awe.
“Tony. I’m blown away. Thank you.” I turn in his lap and press a happy kiss to his cheek. His shining eyes meet mine and he pats my thigh affectionately.
“Course, Red. I’ll send it up to you when it’s ready. Probably in the morning after I’ve given it a once over. I’ll have the colors be a surprise.” Tony tells me while glancing at his creation.
“Well, it’s perfect. I appreciate your work.” I tell him and fluff his hair before getting up.
“Oh, one more thing, Red.” I pause before walking out the door. Tony has a serious expression on his face and I make sure to listen closely. “I’m trusting you with all these knives and guns and stuff. There’s a toxin on each knife edge that will in capacitate whomever you hit within a minute. This isn’t a team of killers.” My lips turn up.
While I can think of three examples to prove him wrong, I let it go. “Of course, Tony. You got it.”
Chapter Seven
#buck#bucky#james#james bucky#james bucky barnes#barnes#bucky barnes#bucky fic#bucky fanfic#bucky fanfiction#marvel#marvel fic#marvel fanfic#marvel fanfiction#cap#captain#white wolf#winter soldier#sam wilson#black widow#falcon#natasha#natasha romanoff#marvel romance#love#sweet#angst#bucky angst#bucky fluff#steve rogers
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Rush Job
Orthoclase is summoned to repair a very badly damaged pearl for a mystery client. She does her best, but it may be beyond even her skills as a remodeler.
Note: So I finally got around to watching the new episodes. I'm starting to think either I am ever so slightly psychic, really tuned into a zeitgeist or someone on the SU crew is reading my fics (and that is a possibility that makes me shudder a bit). Either way, I had to write this while the thought is still in my head and I have a scrap of free time.
PS: Previous reading of my Orthoclase-and-Pearl shorts is advised to make sense of this fic. Although anyone reading the Chorus fic will know Orthoclase's pearl as Ginger, this fic takes place a good few thousand years before she was named and so she is referred to as Pearl here. Hope it's not confusing.
…..
The call came in close to the end of the cycle, just as Orthoclase was reconditioning her tools in a lye bath and Pearl finishing up the latest sets of schematics. The message was from an Aquamarine three districts away, a gem that often put through jobs by proxy.
“How urgent is this, exactly?” Orthoclase asked once she had the Aquamarine onscreen. “I charge extra for latecomers, you know that.”
“It's extremely time sensitive,” Aquamarine told her.
There was something odd in Aquamarine's stance. She was as well known for her discretion as Orthoclase herself was, and was noted for being calm and stoic. She seemed rattled. It was alarming, to say the least.
“It's worth forty thousand credits if you can fix it,” Aquamarine continued.
“Forty thousand?” Orthoclase scoffed. “They could buy a new pearl for that much. Top of the range one, even. This a military operation?”
“I am not at liberty to say,” Aquamarine said. “Will you take it or not?”
“Sure I'll take it,” Orthoclase said with a shrug. “You got me curious. Drop it off at the fifth rendezvous...”
“No, we can't let it be done in your workshop. We have a location. I'll send the co-ordinates.”
With that, she was gone. Orthoclase sighed, flopped across the couch and started polishing one of her blades in earnest.
“'I'm not at liberty to say,” she scoffed. “Imperious little shingle.”
“What do you think you'll need?” Pearl asked. She was already packing a bag for Orthoclase.
“I say bring everything,” Orthoclase said. “You might as well come with me. It sounds like this is going to be a tricky one.”
…..
Tricky was a vast understatement.
After journeying to the other side of the city, through some very rough areas, they had been picked up by a private luger with the windows blacked out so they couldn't see where they were going or who was driving them. They were let out in a huge empty facility (if she had to guess, Orthoclase thought it might have been one of the pre-zoatox war ship hangars) and to top it all off, Aquamarine wasn't even there.
A Morganite stood in the middle of the darkened hall, nervously shuffling in front of a table covered with a tarp. Orthoclase scanned her carefully; excellent posture inconsistent with military service, neatly dressed, hair pinned severely back, almost too pristine. This was someone's caretaker, or assistant. Someone very high up in Homeworld's chain of command.
“Thank you for agreeing to do this,” she began by way of a greeting.
“I haven't seen what you want me to do yet,” Orthoclase said, declining to shake her hand. “I may not be able to do anything.”
“I've been told you're the best,” Morganite said, brandishing a tablet. “The forty thousand was a starting price. If you can help us, I'll double it.”
Orthoclase whistled. That was a lot of money for one job, even a difficult one. Someone was desperate.
“All right, might as well take a look...” she said, lifting the tarp.
She put it down again a parsec later.
“Yeah, I can't fix this,” she said, consciously blocking Pearl's view with her body even though the tarp was down. “I'm good, I'm not that good.”
“It doesn't need to be perfect. Functional will do,” Morganite responded.
“Functional?” Orthoclase laughed scornfully. “I have no idea what's even holding it together anymore! What in Core's name happened to it?”
“That is not to be discussed.”
“Right, whatever. Point is, it would be a lot easier to just get a new pearl and disguise it as this one, and send what's left of this one for processing. Cheaper, too.”
“No,” Morganite said firmly. “The owner is adamant she wants to keep this one. And she will know if it's replaced.”
“I'm telling you, I can't do anything with this. It's too damaged. Anything I do will be purely cosmetic, and even that's not saying much. If it has any function at all, it's probably fried.”
“Please, at least try.”
Orthoclase rubbed her temples.
If I reroute the nacre channels....
No, it's beyond help.
But if I just cut some of the functions, it wouldn't need so much...
I'd be building it all over again, but worse.
Eighty thousand credits.
She glanced over at Pearl, who was standing in place serenely holding the bag with all of her operating tools.
“I'll try,” she said, after wrestling with herself once more. “But I can't promise anything.”
The Morganite looked so relieved she was on the verge of tears.
…..
It had probably been a very nice pearl, once. Nice clean palette, although all-white was a bit austere for some gems' liking. The two little buns on the side of its head were a cute whimsical touch, its owner was probably a young gem.
And looking at the mess that had been made of its internals, Orthoclase had to conclude it was a young gem. All gems could be careless but only the recently hatched were so callous. The pearl's inner channels were scrambled and full of knots, which meant its owner had pulled them out and pushed them back in again for some reason. They had to be individually removed, untangled and sewn back in.
As Pearl held out her arms to act as a bridge for the untangling process, Orthoclase put out her theories.
“Reverse engineering, maybe? Someone wanting to set up a distillery on the down low?”
“Unlikely,” Pearl said in response. “They would have started with the head.”
“That's if they knew what they were doing,” Orthoclase grunted, laying three arteries across Pearl's arms. “Which they clearly did not.”
“I agree.”
As they progressed down the pearl's body, Orthoclase hit a chunk of something and pulled it out with her forceps.
“Hm. Looks like a chunk of its gem,” she said, wiping the nacre from the jagged surface. “What's it doing in the stomach cavity?”
“Perhaps an attempt at fusing that went wrong?”
Orthoclase chuckled. Even the stupidest of gems knew pearls weren't capable of fusion. Still, it would account for the damage done to this pearl if some gem had decided to muck around and try to make two pearls fuse. Maybe it would have even outright destroyed the other one.
When it came to the pearls' finer motor and cognitive functions, most of the nerves that held those pieces together were snapped or fried. The part that controlled speech was black, and it crumbled when Orthoclase tried to remove it, careful as she was. She kept sneaking glances at Pearl, to see if she was in any way distressed. It was by far the most damaged pearl they had ever worked with.
But she seemed fine. Even covered in the other pearl's bleeding nacre, holding a network of body parts in her arms, she stared resolutely ahead, waiting to be of use.
“Huh,” Orthoclase said as they were just sewing things back in. “This doesn't look right...”
She tapped on the setting of the pearl's gem with her blade.
“There's no indent,” Pearl suggested.
“Exactly! It's like it's been bolted on...”
She prodded the gem a little more, and watched the pearl twitch in response. The gem felt loose. If it had been bolted on, it was a sloppy job. Gems shouldn't move when touched.
“That explains the eye, then,” Pearl said quietly.
Orthoclase hummed grimly in agreement. The eye was a lost cause completely. The current that ran from the pearl's gem through its body had burned the eye to a crisp, leaving scorched fissures in the eye socket and across the forehead. If the gem was supposed to be in the forehead, that wouldn't have happened.
“This isn't even a bad remodel job,” Orthoclase muttered. “Some stupid gem just decided to try and move their pearl's gem placement. What kind of slag-addled clod does a thing like that?”
…..
When she was finished, Orthoclase advised that the pearl was only capable of very basic tasks and should be replaced as soon as possible. The Morganite didn't seem disappointed in the job she had done, she gladly parted with the promised eighty thousand credits.
“You will speak of this to no-one,” she said before she closed the luger door on them.
“Who would I tell?” Orthoclase scoffed as they were driven away. “Who'd ever believe me that someone was stupid enough to try and move a pearl's gem?”
Pearl didn't respond. She stared at the blackened window until they were dropped at their meeting point. All the way back to the workshop, she didn't say a single word.
When she walked past all the schematic work she had yet to finish and past all of the tools she usually sterilized after an operation, straight to the back room of the workshop and under the table she'd first hidden under when Orthoclase removed her spike, Orthoclase let her go without comment. Clearly it had distressed her a lot more than she would ever let on.
Even Orthoclase herself couldn't suppress a shudder, thinking of the pearl's scorched eye and the fissures burned into its face.
What kind of gem would even think to do such a thing?
#steven universe fanfiction#orthoclase and pearl#chorus canon#breaking down su#white pearl#CW: body horror#CW: Surgery#CW: Implied violence
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I present to you - Tony gives Peter his first weighted blanket
The only reason Tony noticed was because Tony knew what he was looking at.
The fidgeting. The hyperfixation on certain tasks. The sudden and seemingly random bouts of disassociation, where Peter seemed a million miles away from the situation, and then flinched wildly at the slightest touches or quietest of sounds.
Tony Stark knew ADHD and a sensory processing disorder when he saw it. He looked in the mirror every fucking morning, after all.
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It made sense, once he thought about it. What had the kid said, at the very start- ‘it’s like everything is dialled up to eleven’. Yeah. Superhuman senses would do that to a kid. And Tony thought he’d had it bad. At least he’d had his whole life to learn how to deal with it. Peter had just woken up one day with… all of that.
Hell, medication probably wouldn’t even work on him. His enhancements just ate up most drugs and spat them back out immediately after, so it wasn’t like Tony could just hand him some Adderral and be on his way. And that was about as far as Tony went when it came to treating himself- for the rest of it, he just dealt with the sudden and overwhelming bouts of sensory overload by curling up in a dark corner and drinking until everything numbed out again- not exactly something he’d ever recommend to Peter. Ever ever ever.
So he was kinda stumped.
He kept an eye out as best he could- took the kid out of situations where he knew that sort of thing might get triggered, gave the suit an emergency Cleansheet mode that pretty much cancelled out everything other than basic functions and manual control. He did his best not to get pissed off when Peter would not stop fucking tapping at the desk, because God only knew he did it enough himself, and generally just attempted to guide the kid through methods of controlling it without actually admitting he faced the same problem himself.
Because it wasn’t exactly something he wanted to go around telling everyone, was it? I’m Tony Stark, biggest genius around, and that actually sucks a lot more than you’d think because for some reason it makes my brain hate me.
“Peter, Peter- slow down. You’re jumping again,” Tony told him, not looking up from the circuits his hands were fiddling with as Peter spun around on the chair beside him and talked a mile a minute about what appeared to be 4 completely different subjects at once. Tony could keep up, yeah- but it was more about trying to let Peter become aware of it so he didn’t do it around those who weren’t quite as quick as he was.
Peter paused for a good long moment, and then said “Huh?”
“Jumping, Peter,” Tony glanced up, wry smile on his face, “A to B, not A to Z, remember?”
The kid stared for another second, and then it seemed to click, because he blushed. “Oh, yeah. Sorry.”
“No worries,” Tony said, turning back around. I do it to Pep all the time, he didn’t add on.
“Peter?” Tony said slowly, watching the kid from across the room as he curled in on himself, suit half hanging off his shoulders in the big open-plan space of the living room, “Peter, are you good, buddy?”
He knew there was nothing he could have done to stop the situation from unfolding- they’d needed spiderman to pick out the perps as they’d blended in through the massive carnival that had been running through New York, and Tony had had to prioritise. And Peter was already good enough at compartmentalising his shit that he’d been able to effectively pick out the guys and save the day.
He wasn’t so good with the after-effects of said compartmentalising.
“JARVIS, put the lights down, sound off, you know the drill,” Tony said quietly, removing his shoes and the jacket he knew probably smelt like all kinds of stuff to Peter’s sensitive nose. “Peter, I’m going to ask you one question, then I’m going to leave the room. Do you want me to put some quiet music on, or is that going to make things worse?”
Jerkily, Peter shook his head. Tony didn’t say anything- just grabbed his shoes off the floor and turned away. It was difficult and he didn’t want to, but he knew that staying there would be like a nightmare for Peter, who could hear his heartbeat and his breathing and the creaks his bones made when he flexed.
So he shut the door of the workshop and left Peter to come back to himself.
He knew Peter hadn’t been sleeping well, because neither had Tony.
It came with the territory, he guessed. And Peter was far, far too much like Tony for his own good anyway.
When the sensations and the nightmares and the sheer frustration at having almost every thought he tried to take hold of slip through his fingers became too much to handle, Tony brought out the bottle of whiskey he kept under the bed and put half of it in his stomach. It made his brain quieter, if only for a few hours.
Peter didn’t have that option. Tony hoped to god he didn’t, anyway.
He watched the boy move through rooms like a ghost, rubbing his eyes tiredly and jerking at every movement. The things he and Tony had been carefully working on were slipping- he’d gone back to jumping almost incomprehensibly through every conversation. and could not seem to concentrate on anything that wasn’t active fieldwork. It seemed the lack of sleep made everything worse, and in all honesty, it was driving Tony nuts.
“Peter?” He asked, clicking his fingers once in Peter’s face and giving him something to focus on, “Peter, just come with me for a second. I wanna show you something.”
He’d fished it out of storage weeks ago, but never quite found the courage to hand it over. Something he’d used as a teenager before discovering alcohol, and something he would probably still be using now if it weren’t for the fact that it wasn’t so much the ADHD or SPD keeping him up now as it was the horrifying depictions of world apocalypse.
Yeah. Anyway.
Peter stared at the blanket in Tony’s hands blankly for a few seconds, before looking up. The question was evident in his eyes.
“It’s a weighted blanket,” Tony huffed, trying to sound exasperated, because it was better than sounding vulnerable, “it helps with… sensory stuff. I used to use it when everything got loud in my head. It’s great to help you sleep. I think you need it.”
Peter was still looking at it, and it was obvious he’d zoned out again, so Tony poked him on the shoulder. “Blanket, Parker. For when you’re sleeping. To help with the sensory overload or whatever the fuck this is,” he waved a hand, “I don’t know, it looks similar to my own… my own thing, so I thought it might help.”
He shoved the thing into Peter’s arms and turned away, feeling mortified. God, the first person Tony had admitted any of that to, and it was a fucking fifteen year old boy.
Peter called him. He didn’t reply.
There was a thing and it was a Really Cool Thing and suddenly three days had gone by with Tony doing nothing but focus on the Really Cool Thing and that was fine by him, meant that there were no awkward conversations between him and Peter, so there was really noting to complain about.
“I didn’t even know you had those sort of problems,” Peter said suddenly at the table, and his eyes were brighter and he didn’t look like a zombie any more, so Tony guessed the weighted blanket had worked at least a little bit. “I just thought you were…”
Peter trailed off, and Tony didn’t say anything. He knew exactly what Peter was thinking- it was what everyone else did.
“Thank you. Thank you for… helping me. I see now, what you were- it was nice of you. And I know it’s probably a really private thing for you, so- yeah. Thanks.”
Tony looked up, then. Peter was wringing his hands and looking at the ground, but the words seemed sincere. There was no judgement there, no venom. Just… gratefulness.
He frowned. “Did it work?”
Peter nodded. “Weirdly, yes.”
Tony smiled, just for a moment, and then turned back around. “Good. Keep it. Don’t try anything else- if you do want to, talk to me first, alright? You promise, Peter?”
He had to make sure the kid wouldn’t go down the same roads as him. Tony would try literally every other form of help he could get his hands on before that happened. He’d breathalyse the kid every damn morning if he had to.He wasn’t going to go there.
Peter nodded a little. “Yeah. Yeah- promise.”
Tony paused, and then nodded. Promises meant a lot to Parker. It was enough for now. “Okay, glad we got that sorted. Now at least I can tell you to quit your fucking tapping in my lab- it ruins the rhythm of my tapping, and my tapping is more important here.”
“Why is your tapping-”
“My shop. My ADHD-fuelled workshop of design and creation. My rules.” Tony waved him off, turning back around to the boot of his suit. “Now scram- I’m trying to focus.”
“See, now I understand why that’s such a big deal for you-”
Tony chucked a pencil at him. Peter caught it, but he did end up wandering off in the end, so Tony counted it as a win.
He couldn’t help but smile a little into his circuitry. The kid would be alright. He had a mentor who was old hat at this shit, anyway. What could possibly go wrong?
Hm. On second thoughts- best not get into that.
#I love ADHD Tony with all my entire fucking being okay & it has been brought to my attention that Peter could have it Also and so. yes#peter & tony#peter parker#tony stark#itsallavengers writes#Anonymous
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All Yours | Two
“Intimacy.
That’s what it was; the word that described everything. You noticed that things had become a little more intimate. A part of you craved for that intimacy but the other part of you was utterly terrified.”
↠ dust of fluff. angst. universityAU ↞
word count: 4.4k
↠ series: 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ↞
“You spent the night with Yoongi?!”
You rubbed your temples for relief. Something inside told you to not mention anything to Jin, but he just so happen to be there when you told Hani about it. All you said to her was that Yoongi stayed over last night and Jin chimed in shocked as ever.
“Jin. Seriously. Come to your senses.” You sighed.
“I know, I know. I just wanted to see your reaction.” Jin laughed to himself and walked towards the back. Hani laughed as well, apologizing for his behavior.
“So, where is Yoongi? Class?” Hani asked.
You took a peek at your cellphone that was in your apron pocket. It was a little after two which meant Yoongi had just finished his last afternoon class for the day. You had already clocked out, but you stayed for a while to help Jin out while waiting for your shopping companion.
“He should be on his way. How about you? When are you two leaving for your date?” You leaned on the counter and drummed your fingers against the granite.
“I’m waiting for handsome over there to finish.” Hani nodded her head towards Jin who just tripped over a box sugar packets. “He’s clocking out at 2:30.”
“Handsome? Are you sure, Hani?” You scrunch your face and received a light shove from the boy you slightly insulted.
“I’ll have you know, y/n, your life will become ten times more better if you learn accept how handsome I am.” Jin ran a hand through his hair as an attempt to show off his charm, but you easily brushed it off, unphased.
“There’s the man of the hour—hi, Yoongi.” Hani greeted the blond haired fellow who dragged his feet inside the cafe. Yoongi raised a hand and took a seat next to hani. He folded his arms on the counter and buried his face letting out a dreaded sigh.
“You sound happy.” Jin said.
“Far from it.” Yoongi mumbled lifting his head. “I haven’t seen Seolhyun all day, she’s blowing off my texts and calls, but one of her friends said that she had an appointment in the Writing Workshop Department at one.”
Hani shot you a glance and you raised your eyebrows, obviously not surprised. The atmosphere got a bit awkward, but thankfully Yoongi broke the ice.
“You ready to go? Or do we need to head to your dorm first?”
“I’m good. I just need my purse—hold on.” You escaped into the back room to collect your belongings. You had your back turned and you folded up your apron to fit into your purse.
“Hey.”
Jin’s voice startled you, but when you spun around, he had a sympathetic smile on his face. You could easily read his expression and all you could do was smile back at him.
“I’m okay, Jin.” He tilted his head at your comment. “Really, I am.”
He approached you and ruffled your hair with a dry chuckle.
“I know, but—just be careful, okay?”
You knew exactly what he meant and nodded. In all honesty, you were playing it all by ear. Even if you were being careful, last night felt far from it. You couldn’t put your finger on it at the moment, but the feeling of Yoongi lying on your lap was different.
“I’ll be careful.”
↠↞
It was a breezy afternoon and you and Yoongi had to wait another 30 minutes for the next shuttle into town. This was his fourth time trying to convince you to wear his sweater and you were still refusing. You were wearing a white button up collared shirt that you always wore under your apron and jean shorts. Yoongi got cold easily, and as he sat there in a simple graphic shirt and jeans, you really couldn’t take the sweater from him.
“Yoongi, you’re shaking. Just put on your damn sweater.” You shoved his gray hoodie onto his lap.
He huffed and squinted his eyes at you. “You’re stubborn you know that.”
“I learned from the best.”
Yoongi popped his head through the neck of the sweater and straightened it out. “If you start getting cold or something, don’t come crying to me. You refused my help.” You stare at him practically shooting lasers from your eyes. “Y/n, I’m kidding. Just let me know and I’ll hold you or something.”
His comment threw you off and you could already feel the heat rushing to your face. Out of all the damn things he could say, he just had to say those.
“O-Or you could just give me your sweater.” Great, you stuttered and you hated yourself for doing so.
“Oh yeah. That too.” Yoongi coughed and dug his hands deeper into the lockers of his sweater.
Yoongi scooted closer towards you, bumping his knee against yours. It made you jump in your seat a bit because your mind was still reeling about his earlier comment. He pulled out his phone to check for messages, but immediately returned it to his pocket.
“Still no reply?” You questioned.
He shook his head and slouched forward. Again, he let out an exaggerated sigh. The couple hasn’t spoke to each other since yesterday and despite how you felt about Seolhyun, you were genuinely worried.
“Her friend was 100% sure that she saw her go to the workshop. I just want to know why is she avoiding me.” There was so much hurt in Yoongi’s tone and there was no doubt that it broke your heart as well. The least Seolhyun could’ve done was text him a ‘good morning’ or maybe even a quick ‘I love you.’ You weren’t positive on what words to say to Yoongi in that moment, so instead, you mustered up the courage to put a sympathetic arm around his shoulders. Almost immediately, Yoongi leaned into your hold. You tried to control yourself but a smile spread across your face.
The two of you remained like that until the shuttle came. You shared mild conversations and basked in the warmth of his clothed torso. When you noticed the shuttle approaching, you let go of Yoongi, feeling a bit gloomy. You stood up from your seat and it was probably all in your head, but you swore you felt the same gloomy vibe radiating off of Yoongi when you let go.
Sometimes you hated having knowledge in behavioral analysis.
↠↞
Thankfully, the supermarket wasn’t as crowded as they assumed it was going to be. There were a bunch of frat boys who you recognized from campus stocking up on alcohol. It was obvious that they already had a couple of drinks judging by their distracting fits of laughter and slightly slurred words. Yoongi kept you close, tailing an inch behind you and keeping an eye out for any of the obnoxious frat boys.
“Did you take my chopsticks last week?” You scanned the silverware for a pair similar to yours.
“I don’t think I did. I always use the wooden ones from your drawer.”
“Hm, I guess I’m buying a new pair today.” As you put the stainless steel chopsticks in the shopping cart, Yoongi placed a single white coffee mug with a picture of an orange cat. “Yoongi, I already have a coffee mug.”
“I know. This one is mine. I’m keeping this at your place.” Yoongi pushed the shopping cart forward and out of the aisle. You followed after him into the next aisle.
“And why is that?” You dumped a bag of cinnamon apple crisps into the cart.
“I’ve been practically living there for the past month. You can live off of ramen and those apple crisps, huh?” He watched you toss a couple of packs of ramen along with another bag of the cinnamon apple crisps.
“You should know, you’ve seen my kitchen.” You smile at him and walked toward the refrigerated beverages. Maybe drinking something cold wasn’t ideal in that weather, but Yoongi made you feel warmer than you would have liked and you needed something cool and refreshing.
You opened up one of the glass doors and reached in for a bottle of iced tea when another had cupped your own.
“Y/n! How’re you doin’?” The boy spoke and you could already smell the alcohol.
“I’m fine, Seung Ho.” You pulled your hand back to get another drink. You tried to walk away from him, but he gripped your forearm and turned you to face him.
“There’s a party at my beach house tonight not too far from here and I would love for you to come. Just undo the top buttons of your shirt and you’re good to go.” Your blood was boiling. Seung Ho was too close for your liking and you were seconds away from shoving your drink into his face.
“Back off, Seung Ho. She’s with me.” Yoongi came in with an agitated look on his face. Seung Ho released you and you scurried to Yoongi’s side.
“Ah, Yoongi. I didn’t know you were here. How are you and Seolhyun?” Seung Ho had a smug expression on his face whilst looking at Yoongi. “Well, then. See you later, y/n, Yoongi.”
You tossed your drink into the cart and rubbed your forearm as if his touch was contagious. “Ugh. I can’t believe he was here. Dealing with him twice a week is already horrible enough.”
Every Tuesday and Thursday was your math 102 class and Seung Ho was one of your classmates. He would sit next to you once in awhile and constantly hit on your or try to ask for your number. Seung Ho was a typical frat boy on campus: always constantly hitting up multiple girls, drinking his days away, and staying true to his frat house.
It surprised you that Yoongi also knew who he was. Yoongi always kept to himself, only hanging out with the people he was already familiar with and Seung Ho was far from his social circle.
“Despite being the fuck boy that he is,” Yoongi spat. “Seung Ho has a keen eye for writing, so he came to my english 200 class a couple of times to edit some of our papers.” You nodded your head and dropped the items onto the conveyer belt.
You weren’t lying when you said you learned from the best because Yoongi was one of the most stubborn people you ever known. At the register, Yoongi insisted multiple times to pay for your small load of groceries and of course, your stubborn ass repeatedly rejected his offer. You really didn’t want to cause a scene, so gave out your longest sight and agreed to let him pay.
“I hate you.” You gritted your teeth, walking out of the supermarket.
“No, you don’t.” Yoongi sang and taking one step ahead of you. It was annoying because he was right. You didn’t hate him, not at all.
“Whatever. Can you just pass me my drink, please?” You sat down on one of the benches right outside of the supermarket.
While Yoongi rummaged through the bag for your strawberry lemonade, you spotted a very familiar handbag and length of pitch black hair. The girl wore a beige crop top with a thin black cardigan covering her upper body and an extremely short mini skirt; she was probably heading to a party.
At first, you thought your mind was playing tricks on you and that it was just a random female shopper. You tried not to stare because it probably made you look a bit creepy, but she tilted her head to the side as she talked on the phone and you finally realized why she looked familiar.
“Yoongi, isn’t that Seolhyun?” Yoongi immediately turned his head and his mouth hung open. He seemed flustered in the moment because he kept on putting the bag down and picking it back up again. He took another glance at Seolhyun who was clearly talking on the phone. After having a mental debate, Yoongi stood from the bench and you weren’t sure why but you followed him.
“Seolhyun.” Yoongi said sternly.
Seolhyun quickly got off the phone and made eye contact with Yoongi. You couldn’t help but study her body language and she didn’t seem panic at all, she seemed surprisingly calm.
“Yoongi.” She answered and you wanted to scoff at her. For someone who didn’t contact her boyfriend for a whole day, she didn’t seem bothered by it at all.
“I’ve been trying to contact you this whole day.” Yoongi looked down at her cellphone. “I guess your phone is working.”
She rolled her eyes and took a step back. The both of you made awkward eye contact and you could feel a seething emotion coming from the look in her eyes which was weird because she never looked at you like that before. Since you met Seolhyun, she had always been kind and open towards you. You were able to hold a decent conversation with her and even if she had been shitty towards Yoongi lately, there were good traits about her.
“Honestly Yoongi, I don’t talk to you for a whole day and you’re already out holding bags for another girl?” Seolhyun spoke staring directly at you.
A fuse went off in your head upon hearing Seolhyun’s words. You tossed out all of the compliments you made about her in your head. Did she really have any right saying that to you? She was always fine whenever you and Yoongi hung out, so why was she only bothered by the idea now? You were about to defend yourself, but Yoongi cut you off.
“Don’t bring y/n into this, Seolhyun.”
“Great. Now you’re defending her?! I thought I was your girlfriend!” Seolhyun’s voice was on the verge of yelling and it startled you.
“Are you my girlfriend?! Cause if you are, you sure as hell haven’t been treating me like I’m your boyfriend for the past month.” Yoongi was obviously furious and you were all out in public. You tugged at the back of his sweater, quietly pleading him to calm down for a second.
“You know what? Whatever! I’m going. Have fun with your play thing.” Seolhyun dialed a number on her phone and proceeded to walk away.
“Play thing?! What the fuck Seolhyun, apologize to her!” She turned the corner into the extended parking lot area and disappeared out of your sight.
There was a bitter taste left in between you two. The aura was painfully thick making you at a loss for words. You were torn between apologizing and asking him how he was feeling. You chose physical contact instead by squeezing his shoulder. He tilted his head to the side to press his cheek onto the back of your hand.
“Let’s go, y/n.”
↠↞
The shuttle ride back on campus seemed much longer and painful than the first trip. Words were barely said with the exception of quiet ‘sorrys’ if you accidentally bumped into each other. You hated yourself because you had no idea on what to say to Yoongi. He was your friend, so you were supposed to be a friend and provide comforting words; except Yoongi wasn’t just a friend. Yoongi was a friend who you had romantic feelings for. The last thing you wanted to tell him was you deserve better. Just date me instead. You shook your head. Stupid, stupid.
Even the elevator ride up to your dorm was just as awkward. Yoongi still reached for your dorm keys without saying a word and you just let him. Unlike the previous night, Yoongi neatly pulled off his shoes in its designated spot as well as kept your keys, as well as his own, on your counter top. You could tell there was a lot on his mind and you were afraid you were going to say something that would set him off, but the silence was too much. You had to say something.
“Yoongi, I’m sorry. You two started arguing because of me.” You palmed your forehead once you said those words because Yoongi remained still in your kitchen. Maybe you could’ve said something different.
“It’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it.” Yoongi proceeded to empty the plastic bag of its contents. His behavior didn’t match his words at all, so you pulled on his sleeve making him face you.
“I know you’re mad. You refuse to look at me, you keep nibbling on your bottom lip, and you were constantly cracking your knuckles the entire way back.” Again, sometimes you hated having knowledge in behavioral analysis.
Yoongi finally looked at you and there was something about his gaze that made you feel tense. You’ve seen it before; you caught a glimpse of it when he parked himself in your lap last night. It made your heart beat against your chest and your breath was caught in your throat.
“I’m the one who’s sorry, y/n.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She shouldn’t have talked to you like that.”
It caught you off guard for a moment. Why was Yoongi apologizing for something like that? He didn’t do anything wrong, in fact, he practically defended you. The thought of that made your cheeks burn, so you turned to open your fridge to hide your face.
“It’s fine, Yoongs. It’s not your fault. Don’t apologize.” Your kitchen was getting warmer by the minute and it was driving you crazy.
The kitchen grew silent again and it only made you feel worse. You had no idea why you were feeling more nervous than usual. It was already second nature to have Yoongi in your dorm and to add fuel to fire, he spent the night sleeping on your lap. You could already tell that your face was crimson at that thought, so you disappeared into your room to finally change out of your work attire.
Moments later, you return to your kitchen where Yoongi was now sitting on top of your counter helping himself to one of your newly bought apple crisps. You joined him, leaning against the counter and reaching for a chip.
“You don’t want to join me up here? There’s room.” Yoongi patted the white surface in front of you.
“N-No, I’m fine here.” God, why did you have to stutter? You caught Yoongi in your peripherals looking through his phone. He had a furrowed brow that was easily recognizable. “Still not texting you even after you caught her red handed?”
The sigh he let out was an annoyed one. He shoved his phone into his sweater pocket and stuffed his mouth with apple crisps.
“I just want to know what the fuck is up with her, you know?”
You nodded.
“I don’t deserve a lot, but I do deserve an explanation or something.”
You nodded again.
“She is my girlfriend and communication is key.”
This time you faltered. Girlfriend.
“By the way, Yoongi,” you avoided eye contact with him and picked at the dry skin around your nails. “Thank you for uh, earlier. I could’ve said something myself. I think you seriously pissed her off that’s why.”
You thought back to Seolhyun’s words.
“Now you’re defending her?!”
Honestly, her words set you off, and you could’ve stood your own ground. You were prepared to go off on her and how she has been a shitty girlfriend to Yoongi lately, but he stepped in and basically protected you.
“Well, I wasn’t just going to stand there and let her disrespect my girl like that.”
You almost replied. You almost smiled at him with flushed cheeks. Instead, you parted your lips and let out a choked out cough.
Did he just say my girl? Maybe your ears were deceiving you at the moment or you unconsciously replaced his words in your head with the ones you wanted to hear. But you swore you heard it loud and clear.
“Y-Your… girl?” You didn’t even realize the words slipped from your lips and you were directly looking into his wide eyes.
The feeling of instant regret washed over your body because Yoongi didn’t say one word. The only thing he did was stare back at you in complete silence.
He had the tiniest hint of pink on his cheeks that was almost impossible to ignore. You wanted to look away, but there was something about Yoongi in that moment that drew you in. He looked the same as always; simple and attractive, but why was your heart racing?
You tore your eyes away from his own and directed your attention from him eyes, to the apples of his cheeks, and finally to the flesh of his lips. The shape of his lips always intrigued you because from a distance they appeared thin, but up close, they were full, beautiful, and tempting—
Oh my god, y/n stop.
Yoongi’s eyes were locked on your face, darting downwards. His gaze was burning holes into your skin and you couldn’t help but notice a quiet shift in his body language. His body was leaning in towards yours and the room was incredibly silent you could hear him take deep breaths. You were in a daze and if you were to stare at his lips any longer you were bound to snap.
You abruptly excused yourself from his side to reach into the cabinet across of Yoongi. “I’m uh, I’m gonna eat ramen for dinner. Do you want some?”
You hear a low grunt and the thud of his feet hitting your floor. Your back was turned to him, but you could feel him staring at the back of your head.
“I’d love to, but I promised Jungkook to eat dinner with him tonight since I didn’t return to the dorm last night.” You turned your body and spotted him on the opposite side of the counter reaching for his keys. He caught your stare and when he pursed his lips into a smile, your knees suddenly turned into jello.
“O-Oh, okay.” The disappointment in your voice was crystal clear and you really wanted to strangle yourself for making it obvious. Yoongi understood your tone of voice and chuckled. He leaned against the surface and propped his chin on his palm.
“Don’t worry. I’ll come back another day to have dinner with you. Plus, I now have a coffee mug here so I have to break it in.” Yoongi had a smug look on his face as he spun the key ring around his finger. “Good night, y/n.”
Before fully disappearing out the door, he looked at your with the softest expression and you couldn’t help but smile at him. You whispered a short good night, yoongi and watched him take his leave.
At the soft click of your door closing, the blush you’ve been failing to hide fully bloomed across your face. It terrified you on how much you liked Yoongi and the fact that he was already in a relationship made everything worse.
But, why did he look so—
You groaned loudly and swung open the cabinet that contained some of your plates and drinking ware. The mug Yoongi purchased sat right beside your designated coffee mug. In comparison to his mug design, yours was a light gray with a very adorable cartoon painting of a turtle. Although Yoongi seemed cold and closed off, he had a huge soft spot for all things cute and the mug he chose suited him perfectly.
There was a part of you that so badly wanted to be with Yoongi, but you knew it wouldn’t be fair to assert yourself romantically in his life at this time, especially since he and Seolhyun weren’t on good terms. You couldn’t do that to him and if you did, you wouldn’t be able to forgive yourself.
With a quiet mutter of various curse words, you sunk to the floor of your kitchen and hugged your knees to your chest. You needed to get a grip on reality; Yoongi was in a relationship and you couldn’t just keep on wracking your brain with “what ifs.”
For the past month, your feelings for Yoongi intensified because of how much time the two of you spent together. He would come over to study, possibly stay the night, or you would be invited over to his dorm instead. You hated to admit it, but you slightly took advantage of his situation to give him comforting hugs or even let him lean on your shoulder to provide him a listening ear. You weren’t sure what it was earlier, but all of this thinking made everything much clearer.
Intimacy.
That’s what it was; the word that described everything. You noticed that things had become a little more intimate. A part of you craved for that intimacy but the other part of you was utterly terrified.
You stood up from the floor and took a deep breath. All of this thinking was making you lose your appetite, so you decided to brew yourself a cup of coffee instead. It occurred to you that if you continued to let yourself melt easily into Yoongi, you were going to fuck up eventually. Whilst pouring the bitter cup of joe into your mug, you made the decision to stay away from him for a little while.
The decision made you feel bitter, so bitter that you didn’t add in any milk or sugar into your coffee. You sat in your living room and switched on your television to watch more reruns of Forensic Files. You took a small sip of your coffee, knowing how much you hated your coffee black. Ergh. You didn’t want to add any sweetener because you thought you could drown your bitter feelings with something similar.
You were barely focused on the episode because your mind was solely focused on Yoongi, but the sound of your text message tone snapped you back into reality. Speaking of the devil.
[6:27] Yoongz: What a surprise, Jungkook is making us ramen for dinner too.
You smile at the text.
[6:28] You: ah well, i decided not to eat. im drinking coffee instead
Maybe you didn’t need to stay away from him as long as you set a boundary for yourself. If you knew where to draw the line, then it wouldn’t be too bad. You could keep spending time with him and if you felt any sort of intimate advances, you could excuse yourself.
[6:30] Yoongz: You need to eat, you know
[6:30] Yoongz: Is it because you’re lonely right now since I stayed last night?
The text made you choke on your coffee.
[6:31] Yoongz: I can come back to your dorm and eat dinner with you
[6:31] Yoongz: Just say the word and I’m there
It was only a text message, not a face to face response and yet he managed to raise your temperature and speed up your heart rate.
Yeah. I need to stay away.
finallyyyyy, ive been rereading this over and over, editing, and fixing up stuff and i finally uploaded ^-^ this series is definitely not over huhu. i hope you guise enjoyed part two :D
♡ rae jagi
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A Collaborative Spork of “Why?”: a Lord of the Rings Fanfic-- Chapter 4
Time to “enjoy” chapter 4 of this mess with @icykalismsts!
Special thanks to Liz Lemon and Castiel for helping me as snarky as possible.
Chapter 4: Not Quite Home Sweet Home
Hey, it's Nyanko-chan again. I'm writing this next half chapter for my friends.
(Damn the influence you have on me!) However, I'm considering pulling down
this fic.
W: You can’t pull it down any further than it has already sunk.
I put this fic for others to enjoy, and if they don't, well obviously I could
just give the rest of the fic to Crystal-chan now instead of putting her in suspense.
::sigh:: There goes all the fun.
W: That’s my line, buster.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A little girl from the group walked up to Crystal.
~ Onee-chan (sister), what are we going to do with him? ~
W: For once, author is right about the translation, but it actually means more specifically “Big sister/older sister.”
Sarcastically, she said, "Well jeez, why don't you tell me? YOU'RE the
one caught him!" The girl blushed.
~ Hai, hai. (can mean anything between yes, agreeing, or agreeing in an
offhand way) ~ What do yall think? ~
K: That these “translations” are incredibly intrusive.
W: That “y’all” doesn’t seem like very sophisticated language. And oops, if the author’s translations are intrusive, mine are probably even more so. Sorry, guys.
Several murmurs were heard, saying things
like, "Why not do to him what he did to Crystal-sama?" and such. Comments like
these made Legolas a bit nervous.
Crystal hushed them up with a careless wave of her hand.
W: It was careless because she had knocked over a nearby flower vase.
"No matter what
we do with him, no one, even an ordinary elf deserves this kind of treatment. We'll
take him to the camp, and THEN decide what to do with him."
K: Is it bad that I immediately thought of a prison camp?
W: Well, I thought of a concentration camp, so really yours was better than mine.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Aragorn hurried and woke the others as soon as he got up. As they packed,
they all thought about what could have been bothering Legolas so much about this
stranger that he took off after her without telling anyone.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
When they arrived at the elves camp
W: --which is where young elves undergo training to one day assist Santa in his workshop--
around 10:00 a.m., they closed the
gates and untied him.
K: It is an Elf prison camp!
W: Oh god, no!
Crystal gave a mock bow. "Welcome, Prince , to our humble lodgings." As
Legolas looked around, he thought, "I'll be damned if this was humble! This place
puts shame to the city of Mirkwood!" (Was that correct?)
K: No, that’s rude. He should be grateful that he’s in a prison camp, duh.
W: Man, Mirkwood’s really changed, I guess.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As they were walking down a corridor to Legolas' room, a little thing ran
down the hallway, screaming, ~ Oneeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-chan! You're back! ~
K: Oh. Good thing I didn’t need those eardrums.
Crystal turned around a millisecond too late as the thing, which happened to be an
Elf,
W:
tackled Crystal in a bear hug. They both landed with a big thump on the floor.
~ Iiiiiiiiita!!!
W: She means “itai,” which pretty much is the Japanese equivalent to “Ouch!”
Suppi-chan, what did I tell you about doing that to me while
I'm walking in the MARBLE FILLED rooms?! ~ she mock-scolded.
K: That’s where people’s marbles go when they lose them.
~ The girl
blushed. ~ Gomenasi.
K: Is this what you say when you’re apologizing to a Nazi?
W: Oof. That joke makes me feel guilty after my mentioning the concentration camps. I have to go lay down and think about happy things for a bit.
(Also, she means gomen nasai.)
I wasn't thinking when I did. Demo (but), I was so happy
you're safe from your travels! ~
Legolas stared at the girl. * She must be no older then 25 to be that small! *
W: ??? Do girls have a growth spurt after age 25 or something? If so, I better prepare myself, since I’m 25 now, and in fact will be 26 in a few months.
(Okay, I was thinking, "I want Crystal to have a little sister, but I want her to be
more skilled than the average person."
W: “Okay, I want my Sue to have a five-year-old companion, but she has to be better than all the other five-year-olds.”
So I decided that in this fic, and elf may
choose how old he/she likes,
W:
as long as they have already lived that age in human
years.)
W: I have read so many stupid things. But this is still one of the stupidest.
Crystal began get annoyed when he didn't answer her. ' Hello?! Are you coming? '
Than she added slyly. ' Or does the almighty Prince know his way around everywhere,
even when he's never been here before? '
Legolas snapped out of it. When he realized the two were staring at him
oddly, he blushed, and apologized.
Crystal took him to a room, and showed him around it. There was a queen bed,
a view that over looked a beautiful lake, and a nice bathroom with towels, soap, etc.
W: Thanks for that totally not-lazy description.
"You're probably tired, so I'll leave. Feel free to go anywhere, except our
rooms, outside the gate, and wherever the others tell you not to." With that, she left
him to sort out the emotions that he hadn't felt in years.
W: “Well, I’ll put this one in the Sadness pile, and this one in the...hm...Embarrassment or Happiness?...”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
She went into the meeting room where the others were waiting. Actually, it
was a patio in the garden they had.
W: Actually, no one gave a shit.
'What DO we do, Crystal? We can't just let him stay here all happy when it
was HIM that did that to you.'
Crystal thought. ' First thing's first. We need to gain his trust. I want him to
feel the pain that I felt al those years ago.
W: You felt up someone named Al?? How could you??
K: Poor Al. You can call me, Al. And you can call me Betty.
Until then, we need to capture his friends
as well. They're on their way. I left a quite noticeable trail once we entered the
woods.' She smiled.
K: Hansel and Gretel taught her well!
'We should send a welcoming party. It's not nice to leave
your guests in the dangerous forest all by themselves.' The others laughed.
W: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EverybodyLaughsEnding
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The other rode through the forest. All were wary about the place, even the
Hobbits. Why would the trail that was Hell to follow at first, all a sudden
K[sarcastically]: Hey, you can either have one sudden or all of them. Make up your mind.
be as clear
as day?
W: Worst poem ever, I’m telling you.
As they made their way, they never felt the tiny wires begin their trek around
their bodies.
W: Well that’s disturbing. Are they alive??
Nor did they feel each one slowly and lightly knot around them...
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As the wires wrapped around them, the Fellowship was oblivious. Boromir,
Aragorn, Gilimi,
K: I get it now! The author didn’t mention a Dwarf in chapter one because he’s canonically a mini-Balrog in this fic.
and Frodo DID sense something wrong though. * What in these
peaceful forests could possibly make me tense? There's nothing seemingly wrong.
So why am I wary? * thought Aragorn. * Probably because whatever was in here
was able to get Legolas * he thought wryly.
Suddenly, the hobbits began saying odd things. Things such as, "Can
someone give me a hand? I'm stuck," or, "Hey! I can't move!"
W: I mean, I’ve heard much odder things before, but whatever.
The others turned
W: ...to stone, and then a sudden lightning strike utterly obliterated them. The end.
to the hobbits, thinking they were joking. Boromir strode up to Frodo. "Come on,
lets not mess around anymore." As he neared Frodo, he lost the ability to move
his legs. "What the Devil?!"
K[Boromir]: Yeah, what is the Devil? I’ve never heard of such a thing, so why did I shout about it?
Soon, the others stopped moving as well. Their mounts sensed something
was amiss, and high-tailed it out of there.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~ Crystal-sama won't be pleased. ~
~ Doshta? (why?) ~
W: “Doushita.”
The elf smiled. ~ Because these two men are giving me a hard time, keeping
them still. ~
The other laughed. ~ Someone hasn't been training lately, huh? ~
~ I guess you could say that. ~
After the 4 elves were positive that the Fellowship couldn't get loose, they
hopped down from their hiding place.
' My, my. Aren't we lucky, Yura? We set our traps for animals, and here
we caught ourselves some celebrities. '
W: Why would you name a character a Japanese name that means “farmer”? Or I guess it could be the onomatopoeia for swaying gently but whatevs
Strider thought it would be best to act calm. ' We apologize for setting off
Your
K: ...bear...
traps. Could you help us out? '
W: “This leg is pretty much done for, so you can just cut it off or something.”
The girls thought about it. Then they conversed among themselves.
K: They threw converse shoes all over.
W: It’s a hipster parade!
~ How about this. We'll let them go, but keep the wires on them. We'll
take them near the city, and when we're about 100 yds. away, we tie them back
up? ~ The others nodded.
"Why not?" Yura took a comb out of her clothes, and touched a certain
tooth on it.
W: Holy fucking shit. She did not. [sighs] Okay, guys, the author has once again stolen from InuYasha. There’s an early villain called Yura of the Hair who can control unbreakable, razor-sharp hair that is invisible to most mortals. Her true form is a cursed comb, so her “human” body is p much indestructible.
This has been Wing’s Frustrated Crash Course in InuYasha, lesson 2.
The wires "magically" came off.
"Thank you..."
Diamond cut off whatever Strider was about to say. "We know what you
came for. Would you like us to show you the way?"
Gimili cut in before Aragorn could say anythiing.
K: Gimili’s special power is to cause misspellings wherever he treads.
W: Yeah, I don’t know why Aragorn would say “anythiing” otherwise.
"Wait a minute. You
wouldn't trust these four, would you? For one, they're elves. For another, they're
FEMALES.
W: “Calm the fuck down. No need to shout.”
Thirdly, they're wearing masks on their faces that give me the creeps."
K: Come on. It’s no Eyes Wide Shut situation.
(For an example of the masks a few of the masks, e-mail my friend, Crystal, at [REDACTED]@hotmail.com)
W: I bet she’s talking about Noh masks, another thing that is focused on briefly in InuYasha.
Aragorn thought. "It's the best lead we have. Might as well follow it." The
girls simply smiled. ~ Jeez, this was easier than I thought. ~
K: Okay. I can almost understand an author saying “God” or “Hell” in a LotR fanfic by accident. But “jeez?” Really?!
W: Speak for yourself, author. I’ve got a headache this big.
~ No kidding! ~
W: BUT THAT’S THE ONLY WAY I’LL SURVIVE THIS FIC!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A while later, curiosity got the best of Aragorn. " Why do you wear those
masks?"
The girls shot him a glare.
W: Aragorn crumpled to the ground with a groan of “I’VE BEEN HIT!”
~ If you must know, it is
K[girls]: ...because we miss Mardi Gras.
to hide our emotions. ~
"Pardon?"
Yura rolled her eyes. "If you don't understand what we said, that is your
own fault." Then she added slyly, "Maybe you could get..."
Diamond clapped her hand over Yura's mouth. ~ Unasi baka! (shut up stupid!)
W: “Urusai, baka.” Once again, the correct spelling AND my current sentiments towards the author.
K[Yura]: What?! You’re calling me a dummy and claiming I’m a Nazi?! What’s wrong with you?!
If you provoke them like that, he'll actually ask about it later. And we know he'll
tell him the Royal language!
W: How the fuck do you tell someone an entire language???
Crystal will choke you! ~ Yura shut up the rest of the
trip. The tense aura returned after that.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Legolas was walking around, when he stopped.
W: Bahahaha, oh my god, that’s the best sentence so far.
His jaw would be on the
floor if that were possible.
K: It’s possible… but the circumstances would have to be pretty horrific.
In front of him was the most beautiful garden in the
whole world. It wasn't kept trimmed, but it was a wild garden, so to speak.
W: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
As
he walked around, he noticed the figure near the lake. He walked toward it,
trying to get some sort of companionship.
W: “Oh, lake. You’re my only friend in the world.”
~ May I sit here with you? ~
The figure jerked with surprise.
W: “Holy shit, put yourself away!” the elf cried, hiding his scandalized eyes of undetermined color.
It was none other than Crystal herself.
~ I hope you're enjoying yourself, Legolas. ~
W: “Not as much as you just were! Holy shit!!”
~ It's been a while, hasn't it? ~
K: Well, at least it’s not a mean while.
Crystal laughed. ~ I guess you could say that. Of course, to an elf that
was nothing. A mere, what? 1,000 years or so? ~
~ That's true... ~ Legolas was relieved. It seemed that the pains had
been forgotten.
Crystal, on the other hand, was in a whole new ballgame.
W: New indeed, since I don’t think there are any ballgames in this universe.
Her
emotions reeled. It was torn between sadness, hate, betrayal, pure bliss, and
Uncertainty.
W: That’s too many fucking things, yo.
Legolas' question caught her off guard.
' Why do you wear a mask and cloak Crystal? It is as if you are hiding
from something. '
W: Uh, yeah, that’s what a mask and cloak are for. Hiding yourself.
* Or someone, * she thought wryly. Still though, she said nothing.
Legolas was confused. One moment, she was more or less talking to
him,
W: Can it be less?
and then she suddenly cold-shoulders him.
K: Well, she is Frosty.
W: YES!!
Then he asked a question
that had been plaguing him ever since the last time they met.
W: “Did you know there’s a piece of broccoli stuck between your teeth?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cliffhanger! In order to find out what he says, you must review! ::laughs
evilly:: Before I set up the next chapter, I want at least a total review count of 25
reviews.
W: What are you, a fucking English teacher? “I want two pages, double-spaced, 12-point font!!”
Five per chapter or half chapter that I put up.
K: She’s holding people ransom?! I hate it when fanfic authors do this. The sad thing is, it sometimes works...
Two more things. I'm working on the story on how they met from Crystal's point
of view. The other thing is that I've finished the story. Yay! I've typed all the
chapters. All I have to do is post them. That means I'll post a new chapter up every
time I see I have 5 new reviews.
W:
Please remember that I don't get on everyday
anymore,
K: With an attitude like that, I’m surprised you get on with anyone.
so if my request if fulfilled, I'll probably have about 2-5 chapters a week.
Look for Chapter 5 sometime before next Monday!
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