Tumgik
#I still sometimes think about house's voice when he goes 'because. they're ridiculous' when you ask why you should wipe out the brotherhood
vaguely-concerned · 3 months
Text
nothing could have prepared me for the emotion that happened inside me when I heard odo speak for the first time and couldn't figure out why his voice sounded so familiar, so I did a quick google and then went 'EVIL COMPUTER DAD BOSS MAN????' (the actor, rené auberjonois, also iconically plays mr. house in fallout new vegas, is what I'm trying to say fhsdjkfaskdaf. yes needless to say my courier has issues the dsm could never hope to cover)
ETA: and whatever that feeling was has just been upstaged by the realization that one random bit character (literally on screen for like ten seconds in S2EP1) is voiced by paul nakauchi (to me primarily of hanzo shimada fame) fhdskjafhasdk. they weren't lying every actor in north america has had their five seconds on star trek huh
11 notes · View notes
Note
skeletons reacting to arriving at their SO’s house to absolute chaos? SO has their baby nephew, is on the phone, the house is a mess and dinner is on the stove. SO sees him and hands him the baby like “thank God you’re here! Take him for a sec. I’m on the phone with my brother’s doctor and the veggies are about to burn—“
Undertale Sans - He takes the baby in his arms and goes to sit in the couch to play with them a bit. He loves babies. He misses the time Papyrus was as little as this little guy. He doesn't mind the chaos. That's just how it is with babies, he knows it quite well. He's just happy he can spend some time with the baby. He's such in a good mood that he will even help to clean after the kid's parents come to take them back.
Undertale Papyrus - He takes the baby, but his jaw is wide open. The house, his perfect house is a disaster. There's paint on the walls and on Sans' skull, who passed out in the couch, there's food everywhere on the floor and the tables, the kitchen is flooded with tomato sauce. His head twitches. He goes to fetch a baby carrier and starts to clean frantically while S/O ends their phone call. No mess allowed in his house!
Underswap Sans - "N-NO WAIT D-DON'T LEAVE ME WITH THIS!" But too late. He's holding the baby at arm's length, the lower part of their body dandling in the emptiness and he doesn't know what to do??? Help? He doesn't like babies. They're small and they always cry when they see his face. And that doesn't miss. Soon, the baby starts to cry and Blue isn't sure what he could do to make it stop, so he just stays there and waits for you to come back.
Underswap Papyrus - He happily takes you nephew and starts playing with him with a huge dumb smile on the face. Honey loves chidren and he didn't knew you were keeping your nephew today! You should have call him sooner, he would have keep the baby for you all day long. You won't have the baby for the rest of the night though. It's his now.
Underfell Sans - His eyes widens in fear as you shove the baby in his arms. He looks at you like you just murdered him. "please no, take it back, i don't like it." You leave, still on the phone. He looks at the baby. Man, he wants to cry. Come on, it's not funny, take this back, he can't hold a baby he's scared. He's frozen in fear in the entrance, too scared to move. He's not ready to be a father yet even if it's not his kid! Come on!
Underfell Papyrus - He takes the baby and as soon as your back is turned, he sniffs it with a disgusted face. "EW HOW CAN YOU SMELL THIS BAD? WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?" He starts sniffing around the baby, then finds where it's coming from. "HUM... Y/N. WHEN HUMANS POOP, YOU THROW THEM IN THAT THING CALLED THE TOILETS, RIGHT?" You're distracting saying yes, not understanding he's talking about the baby. Edge goes upstairs, open the toilet and puts the baby in the toilet bawl. And wait. Now what? He looks at the baby, the baby looks at him, and this is very awkward. Did it do wrong? Suddenly, S/O screams and runs to take the baby out of the toilet bawl, their pants soaking and asks what is wrong with him. Edge is confused. "BUT YOU JUST SAID... NEVERMIND." He's done. It's too hard, he doesn't like it. He's leaving.
Horrortale Sans - He's dying inside. The baby climbed his shoulder and they're looking inside his hole, testing the echo. Oak knows it's bad to scream at the baby, so he does nothing but looking at S/O with puppy eyes, begging them to help him. Why does it have to be him? He stays very gentle and patient, but man, this is hard.
Horrortale Papyrus - He takes the baby hesitantly. He likes children, but he's always a bit worried around babies, because his hands are huge and he's a bit clumsy sometimes. The baby looks ridiculously small in his arms. He goes to sit in the couch and starts talking with the baby with a baby voice. He's a bit nervous though. A part of his brain still thinks that these hands used to hurt people very badly and he's scared to hurt the baby accidentally. He tries not to think too much about that. He doesn't mind the mess, Oak is pretty messy all day long, forgetting about stuff so he's used to it.
Swapfell Sans - He looks at the thing in his arms. "WHY IS IT LOOKING AT ME? WHAT DOES IT WANT?" S/O screams to try and hug the baby and leaves with the phone. Nox looks at the baby. "HUG? WHY?" He relulanctly brings the baby close to hug him. The baby burps, then throws up on his homemade jacket. His eye sockets goes black. When S/O comes back, he is still there, eye sockets pitch black, not moving an inch. Nox is broken.
Swapfell Papyrus - What have you done. You let him with the child for two minutes and now a paint bomb exploded in your living room. There's paint on the walls, the floor, the skeleton and the child. Rus is just giggling like an idiot. But eh, everything is already a mess, one more or one less can't be that bad, right? You tell Rus that if he doesn't clean everything in the next 30 seconds he's dead. What did you expect, leaving a man-child all alone with another child?
Fellswap Gold Sans - Wine looks at the child, looks at the couch, puts the child in the couch in front of a cartoon and leaves. Far away. You scream when you finds out, but he's already far away. He's not touching the stuff.
Fellswap Gold Papyrus - Coffee is very excited to hold the baby. He takes the responsability very seriously and goes to play with the baby. You can see him smile like never before when the baby answers him. The only problem being that... It's his baby now. There's no way you're getting them back. Or their parents. Coffee teleports in his room, locks the door and won't listen to you. Good luck with that.
34 notes · View notes
creepswrites · 3 years
Note
Slashers and how they treat their sensitive, scaredy cat s/o
Slashers and how they treat their sensitive, scaredy cat s/o!! (SFW)
Brahms Heelshire
he relates to you, he's also a bit jumpy and scared! i mean, not as much as you, but thats why he likes you! he understands you like no one else...
he makes his steps a bit louder so you can hear when he's coming, but sometimes when he's upset with you, he'll purposefully try to scare you.
whenever he has to... take care of trespassers, he warns you ahead of time so you can hide in the attic till he's done!
horror movies are an absolute no in this house, unless you suggest them yourself. if you DO decide to watch them, brahms cuddles you the whole time and keeps reminding you it's not real and can't hurt you!
he'd kill whoever it was that tried to hurt you anyways...
his child-like voice is used more often because its lighter and gentler
Jason Vorhees
the most understanding of your needs! he's not easily scared himself, but he sympathizes with you
warns you when he makes a sudden noise and tries to have music playing softly in the background, so the silence doesn't scare you
you usually hear when he's coming, he's a Unit of a man after all, but he makes sure you're never surprised and practically stomps everywhere he goes
he has traps set around the area to keep people out so he makes sure you never go out walking without him so you don't get hurt or scared
jason's not a big fan of horror movies but if you wanted to watch one, he'd pause it multiple times to remind you that if you need to stop, you can
he always calls you brave and strong, very reassuring to you whenever possible!
Michael Myers
without a doubt the least understanding. how can you be scared of so much and still dating him? how does that work?
still, he doesn't try to make it worse and makes an effort to muffle people's voices when he kills them if you're nearby and walks a bit louder for you
he's not bothered by horror movies so he'll watch them with you if he's bored enough. when you get scared, he'll let you hide your face in his shoulder but ONLY because he thinks you're cute...
when he comes home covered in blood, maybe he thinks its cute to watch you freak out about the blood
as hard a time as he gives you about it, he comes running when he hears you scream no matter what
kills the spiders for you, always, even if its early as fuck in the morning
Ghostface (Billy Loomis & Stu Macher)
god they're so mean about it sometimes. billy's meaner about it than stu, but whenever they team up to tease you, they're unbearable! they go out of their way to make loud sounds to spook you
they dress up in their ghostface costumes to jump out and scare you whenever possible, like its a game
it is a game for them actually! whoever scares you the most in a day wins and the loser buys dinner when you all go out to eat next
whenever they make you watch scary movies with them, they tease you as you jump at the scares. they make fun of the movie for its fake blood or ridiculous characters to try and make you laugh so that you're less scared, but they still tease you!
even if they tease you, if they can tell you're genuinely scared, they'll always protect you! billy especially is incredibly possessive of the two of you and stu cracks jokes so you'll be less nervous
their favorite story to tell is the time you broke stu's nose when he jumped out of a closet to scare you
Bubba Sawyer/Leatherface
bubba always feels bad when he has to use his chainsaw or make loud sounds, so he gets some noice cancelling headphones for you to help drown out the sounds!
he doesn't usually creep around, he has no need to, so you never have a problem hearing him when he's behind you
you're too afraid to go into his basement or into the barn on your own, so he always offers to go for you or at the very least hold your hand
he tries to never leave you alone for too long so you don't worry about him!
bubba doesn't care much about horror movies, so he never really asks to watch them. if he found you watching one, he'd Pick You Up and carry you away from the tv. nope, not happening! it's too scary!
whenever he has to use the chainsaw he always warns you! he makes sure your room is secure so no one can bother you when he and his family have to deal with visitors
Ghostface (Danny Johnson)
pretty understanding! he's a huge horror movie nerd so he doesn't really get it, but he tries to be respectful
he'd probably try to help you get over your fears! watch really dumb, bad horror movies with you and build up to scarier stuff
he's accidentally scared you a few times but he just laughs it off and reassures you its okay
actually likes how scared you get sometimes, ESPECIALLY if you lean on him for comfort when you're scared. that's his favorite part
whenever you get scared by anything, he'll point out that it's not gonna hurt you or that it's not real, anything like that to calm you down
ignore the fact he brutally murdered a woman who surprised you in the grocery store the other day. ignore that fact, he totally had nothing to do with that.
181 notes · View notes
strawbabys-blog · 2 years
Text
Regressor!Techno Cg!Wilbur Headcanons
Hiii, sorry for not posting for a while, I've been ridiculously busy. Anyway, I thought I'd make some headcanons for one of my favourite duos! Babyblade and caregiver Wilbur have my heart, hehe
-Techno is a really clingy little, he gets really shy about it but he really wants cuddles and kisses all the time
-He didn't have a cg for the first few years he regressed, he didn't want to tell anyone because he thought they wouldn't accept him so instead of getting cuddles from someone he'd cuddle a big teddy bear and pretend it was a person
-He can regress to older ages but usually he goes into babyspace, he doesn't do much when he's regressed because of that
-He has a few baby toys, like a rattle and a few wooden cars for when he's old enough to play, sometimes he can feel himself regressing and makes a bottle beforehand so he can have it when he's small, he has lots of plain pacifiers dotted around his house so he can just pick one up if he slips somewhere unexpectedly, like on the couch or in the kitchen, and he can't move
-Will already knew about regression after a random late night information dive, he saw a post about is and proceed to learn everything about it that he could
-He found out about Techno's regression by just spotting the signs when they were on discord together
-He didn't confront Techno about it because he thought that if he wanted him to know, he'd tell Wilbur himself
-Techno didn't mean to tell Wilbur, instead he accidentally regressed on call once
-He started slurring his words more and his voice was a pitch higher, he wasn't talking much and Wilbur could tell he'd regressed
-Wilbur treated him like he was regressed, which Techno was confused about but he was too small to think about it much. Will asked if he had a pacifier and if he could get to his bed by himself. Techno eventually managed to make it to his bed, pacifier in his mouth and his big fluffy teddy bear in his arms
-Wilbur talked to him for a while, keeping Techno entertained by playing a few games and singing some songs, when Techno starts getting tired he tells him to go to bed and sings him lullabies until he falls asleep
-The next day, Techno is mortified. He doesn't talk to Wilbur for as long as possible but Will calls and he doesn't want to be rude so he picks up and tries to say sorry
-Wilbur instantly stops him and tells him it's okay. He has to reassure him over and over again before Techno actually believes him
-They fall into a caregiver and little relationship quite easily, no one actually asks the other for a long time but one day a very small Techno called Wilbur 'dada' and Wilbur asked if he wanted him to be his official caregiver
-They call a lot, usually with face cam so that they can see each other. Techno's favourite thing to do with Wilbur is have him sing songs and tell stories for bed time
-The first time they meet up and Techno regresses, he hardly let's go of Wilbur at all. Will is taller than Techno and can pick him up quite well so when they're on the move, the little is practically attached to his hip, when they're sat down, you can usually find Techno somewhere in Wilbur's lap
-When it comes to discipline, Wilbur doesn't need to do much, Techno actually enjoys being good for his cg and if Wilbur sets a rule, he takes pride in following it (the praise Wilbur gives him for being a good little boy helps too, hehe)
-Wilbur absolutely loves taking care of his little boy, he wishes they lived closer but what they have is still great for both of them
-He sends Techno little gear all the time, Techno insists that he doesn't need him to and he has more than enough money to get himself stuff but Wilbur can't help but spoil him. Techno often gets packages with deco pacifiers, bottles, baby toys and a few activity books and things for when he regresses to the older end of his age range.
-Techno opens the packages on call with Wilbur so his cg can watch him get excited over his new things
-Both of them love spending time together and seeing the other happy, making them a very cute duo to be around, when Techno finally feels comfortable being small around his other friends, they can't help but mention how sweet they both are together
53 notes · View notes
Text
Inked
Still on hiatus. But I found an old piece of writing and I revamped it just a smidge! It was originally published in 2018 on calumh-excess. Which is now deactivated. Hooray for finding pieces!
Calum's been watching Jay for a while. She's cute, talented, but a bit of mystery. Should he really give into her? What will it take for him to admit he has a crush?
Enjoy my masterlist (on hiatus)
Tumblr media
______________
He watched her sometimes for far too long. The way her tongue stuck out as she pulled the skin and her hand worked steadily with the needle made it hard for him to resist. Her face always seemed to catch the harsh fluorescent lights and reflect it back so that it twinkled against her skin. A slight sheen, but nothing just of ethereal. He wasn’t even interested in any new ink, not seriously anyway. He had slowed on the ink train, but the shop his tattoo artist owned was a nice place to hang out sometimes. When he wanted to get out of his house but didn’t want to actually go somewhere, he could hang out here, listening to the buzz of the tattoo gun, poke his hand at trying a design here or there. They weren't great. He hadn't considered him this kind of artist, but the shop felt like a second home.
Besides, having her around was a more than welcomed bonus.
He wasn’t even sure what it was about her. She showed up about a year and a half ago, under an apprenticeship. Calum’s artist was unsure of her, much like everyone else that asked to work under him. A hazard of the job, according to the job, according to Calum's artist. However, her drawings spoke volumes; the colors and line work were impeccable. She had talent and knew it without being cocky about it. Well, sometimes she wasn’t. Calum watched her run into the occasional asshole that tried to belittle her; she always put her foot down in those situations. He didn’t fault her.
Today’s no different. When Calum walks in, he greets the guy at the front desk, eyes searching for her. He spots her in the back with her oversized frames creating a small glare over her brown eyes. He never quite got the appeal of the grandma-shaped glasses trend, but on her, they worked. She looked wise but soft. The glass pulled him in, felt like she was seeing into his soul. Maybe she was; maybe the pain made people more vulnerable than they anticipated--entrusting someone, a stranger in some ways, to permanently mark you and not fuck it up. Whatever the reason, looking at her felt timeless. Like she had seen it all, and you are just waiting for you to spill all the secrets.
“You finally going to get some new ink?” Calum’s artist teases.
Calum shakes his head, turning his attention away from her. “You finally took her training wheels off?”
“Your girlfriend’s got mad skills. I couldn’t baby her forever. Jay works hard on each piece, learned fast. Got a steady ass hand and pretty gentle for handling a needle.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Yeah, because you haven’t hardly even talked to her. Go for it, you wuss. What’s the worst she says? No?”
Calum exhales a chuckle. "I mean, the worst she stabs me with the tattoo gun. But considering the ink I'm already sporting, I doubt that's really all that bad.”
“Jay would not do that unless you asked for it, ff course. But really, go on, ask her out.”
Calum glances back at Jay. It’s a nickname. No one in the shop calls her by her full name. The only reason Calum heard it was when a client came asking for her. Jay was quick to correct them.
She wipes, clearing excess ink, before dipping back into the small cup. Jay smiles up at her client. Calum's sure they appreciate the reprise. Getting tattoos weren't always fun, but bearable enough to forget about it and get more.
Calum turns his gaze away. “I recommended you to a friend,” he says, hoping that he’ll escape the teasing. It’s not likely to happen. But at least he tries to minimize the ridicule.
"I appreciate it. Are they a first-timer?"
"A second-timer, but they're visiting town and want some new ink. I figured best not to fuck them over."
The two men laugh before Calum's escorted back to look through some new designs. Just in case something sparks his interest. Calum's visit is supposed to be short, but there's not much else on his to-do list for the day. He could kill a few hours here.
When Calum comes out from the back, after spending too much time pretending art was ever a talent of his, he looks for Jay again. She’s not in her corner, nor is she at the front. Calum shrugs, figuring she might have gone for lunch, or home depending.
As Calum walks to his car, he checks his phone. Nothing major's happened.
“Leaving so soon?” A voice states. Calum knows that voice, a little gravelly, mostly sweet. He’s dreamt of it every so often. He prays to hear it when he visits the shop.
He turns to Jay, who leans against the bricks. A vape is wrapped in her fingers. “Gotta get some dinner, maybe make a run to the grocery store," Calum returns. "I've gotten lazy."
She nods. “This reminds me that I can't survive off BLTs forever," she laughs.
"You could try, but I think you'd need other vegetables and some fruit in that mix too."
She pushes up on her glass with a nod. "Ah, yes, gotta get the whole food pyramid." It goes silent between them and Calum gives another nod, raising a few fingers to signal his departure while still keeping his phone in a secure enough grip.
"Hey, wait!" Jay calls out again, taking a half step forward. Calum turns to her. "Can I give you something before you leave?”
Calum nods, not trusting his voice. What would she give him? She nods back to the front door, taking back that initial half-step. “It's inside. Give me like two minutes.”
She disappears inside and Calum stands, his phone still in his hands, staring at the spot she once stood. Just as quickly as she disappeared, Jay reappears. In hand is her portfolio. She flips through before stopping and slides the heavy-duty drawing paper out.
Calum stares down at the green and black drawing. It’s his face, for the most part, that stares back at him. It’s distorted by a crystal ball that glows green. Inside are some instruments and something else, but right now he can’t really put it all together. His eyes keep moving over the lightning bolt, the crystal ball, the uncanniness of his face on a piece of paper, his three-dimensional face somehow translated perfectly into a 2-D space.
“Holy shit, this is amazing,” he breathes. “Thank you,” he says looking back up to her.
She shrugs with a smile. “You’re welcome.”
“Seriously, this is so fucking awesome. I’m going to frame it,” he gushes. He’s too excited to be nervous, or be embarrassed. "What are the dimensions?"
“I'm just really glad you don’t find it too creepy. I was watching you a couple weeks ago when you stopped by. It just sort hit me, the image of the crystal ball and lightning bolt; I had to draw it,” Jay elaborates. "And it's 8.5 by 11--standard printer paper size."
Calum shakes his head, staring over the drawing again. It feels so delicate suddenly in his hands. It’s almost like Jay recognizes the change in his handling. She shuffles her load in her hands and pulls out an empty plastic over. “Here,” she laughs handing it over. “So it doesn’t smudge or anything if you're worried."
Calum slides it in. “Thank you. Again. Seriously.”
“You’re welcome, Calum. Good luck with your grocery store trip and dinner,” Jay nods and then heads back inside. Calum watches the way the denim stretches across her hips, the way her hair billows just a little in the breeze of her strut.
For a moment, Calum can't move. The weight of the paper in his hand is hardly ounces, but it holds him--traps him to the point of the sidewalk. Jay thought enough of him to draw him. What did it all mean? Should he have found the courage to ask her out? He could walk back inside. But what if she didn't like him like that? Would it be too weird?
Calum blinks up into the hardly settling sun and thinks to himself, the second he can come back here, it better be with a bit more courage and possibly a gift certificate. No one can be made about free food, right?
It’s months before Calum can visit the shop again. The tour is a whirlwind and he only gets a few days off between legs. Not long enough to get back home or feel like he had any energy to drive out to the shop. But now that he's settled back in at home, he knows exactly where he's going.
It’s not his typical practice to just walk in and ask for a tattoo. But given the ink already on him, worse things could happen. When he pulls open the door, he notices it's kind of slow. Jay greets him at the front desk. “Hey, stranger,” she grins.
“Hey, how are you?” he asks in return.
“Pretty good. How was it? The tour? See any cool places?”
He nods. “Yeah, got to explore a few cities.” He taps his fingers against the wooden desk. “Do you have an appointment anytime soon?”
Jay shakes her head. “My 2 o’clock had to reschedule. I’m here until 4 before I see anyone. Why? What's tickling your fancy?”
“I was wondering if you could do a tat for me? I know this is very last minute and if you need me to come in another day this week, I totally can.” His words run into each other; his palms start to sweat. He wipes them on his jeans.
Jay laughs, holding up a hand. “Whoa, pump the brakes. One, what are you looking for?”
“You know that drawing you did for me?” She nods. “I was kind of hoping you could create something with just the crystal ball and lightning bolt. I know the drawing itself is kind of big.”
A grin lifts her cheeks; Calum’s heart settles for a second. “I think I can do that. Where are you thinking to put it?”
“Inner bicep.” He watches her gaze land on his arm. The t-shirt is baggy, he at least thought about that with enough advance.
“Give me 30 minutes to come up with some sketches.” Jay pushes away from the front desk and heads to the back, but not for calling to the shop to watch the front desk.
Calum slides into the seat at the front, leg bouncing as he settles down. This isn’t even his first tattoo, but the nerves flood his body. His scalp tingles. The thirty minutes move by too fast, but also too slow simultaneously. The seconds feel like hours but move by milliseconds.
Eventually, Jay resurfaces, waving him over to her. He walks back and looks at the sketches she places out in front of him. There are two different ones. One’s a bit more minimalistic, which is her style, with the lightning bolt in the background and a simple crystal ball at the point. The other is a bit bolder, the ball has a slightly warped edge where it connects to the bolt. It looks like the bolt is melting the glass ball.
“I can whip up more if neither one of them are quite right. But I wasn’t sure if it wanted something a bit more crisp and sharp or not,” Jay explains.
Calum admits that most of his tattoos are more cleaned up and sharp. He likes the idea of playing with a new style. “I like the second one,” he says, tapping it.
“You sure?” He nods, he’s never been more sure of something in his life. “Which bicep? Let me line it up and make sure it’ll fit.”
Calum lifts his left arm up for her. Laying the stencil over his skin, Jay notes she has to make a couple small tweaks. But after that, she’ll be ready. They discuss full color, or just outline, or shading, price, and a few other details before Jay concludes with, “Hop in my seat. I’ll be there soon.”
Calum nods and walks over to her station. Her stuff is already laid out, probably for her canceled 2 o’clock. It’s about five more minutes before Jay returns with the final stencil. Calum rolls up the sleeve of his shirt before she places the stencil. Happy with the placement, he stretches out on the table.
Jay gets herself ready before she brings the needle over his skin. The first puncture always makes him jolt a little, the first jab of pain causes his heart to race. “Do you plan on relaxing now that you're back home?"
"Yeah, for a little bit. I might go see my family, but I know we'll be back in the studio soon. Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"
"I mean exciting things happen every day at this place. But it's not like I could recall them all now."
Calum hums, acknowledging her statement, but not quite sure what to say next. Luckily, Jay's faster to fill in the silence. "You do realize you didn’t have to get a tattoo to have a real conversation with me?” Jay teases, pushing up her glasses.
Calum’s cheeks heat. “It’s not like that,” he chuckles.
“Well, that’s how it seems.”
“You were always busy when I stopped by. I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Not always,” she laughs. “But it’s alright. You’re going to have plenty of time while I’m stabbing you to say all those things you didn’t.”
A chuckle escapes him; of course, Jay would have this sense of humor. “Wow, I can’t believe I’m paying so much for people just to stab me and act as a therapy. Maybe I am a masochist.”
“So are a lot of people. Sometimes you just take the emotional pain out in the physical realm.”
“I always imagined people that worked in a tattoo shop to be more heavily tatted,” Calum hums, taking in scattered ink across her arms and one pokes out from the V in her t-shirt.
“I focused it more on my back and legs and not so much my arms. I’m getting there. So, why this one today?”
Calum goes to shrug, but stops himself as he hears the gun nearing his skin again. “Not really sure. It looked cool. I guess it also serves to remind me that fate isn’t linear. There’s going to be twists and turns, maybe some trouble. And that’s okay. Don’t be afraid of the journey. Also, it's really fucking cool art.”
Jay hums her laugh, “Why thank you. Wise brain you got there. Besides, it seems like you also have people you keep close to you.” She eyes the initials and the name under the bird. “Whoever they are to you, I hope you all stay close.”
“Those are my parents' initials,” he explains. “And my sister’s name. They’ve been with me through it all--I love them dearly.”
“So sweet. I wish my parents and I were closer. I tattooed my brother’s jersey number on me. It was my first tattoo.”
“What did he play?”
“Soccer, or for your kind, football.”
“Hey now, it’s played with the feet, it makes much more sense.”
Jay laughs, wiping off excess ink. She cocks her head to the side a little, then goes back in for the black ink. “I’m only teasing. Us Americans are so dumb sometimes. Like why is our football not called something else? Literally, the only thing that happens with the feet is the running. We carry the fucking ball.”
“I’ve wondered that as well!” he laughs. "Does your brother still play?"
“Yeah, the whole knucklehead still plays for his college.”
“What position?”
Jay laughs. “I'll have you know my job as the older sister is to show up and cheer him on. Something defensive? I don’t remember off the top my head.”
“I’ll give you credit for that. I’m sure he appreciates it.”
“He does until he sees with me in face paint on and then he’s acting like he doesn’t know me. Oh, oh wait, I think remember what he does. It’s defensive,” she pauses, lips pursed together, “something fielder.”
“Defensive midfielder?” he asks.
“Yeah, that. But like I said, I show up when I can and scream. That’s it. When he’s old enough, I’ll buy him a beer after his games too.”
“How old is he?”
“Nineteen, we’re three years apart.”
“The only sibling you have?”
“Nah, got a baby sister too. She’s fifteen. If you’re impressed by my eyeshadow thank her. Because she’s the one that taught me how to do it.”
Calum finds himself staring at the red and gold coloring her eyelids. “It looks really nice,” he breathes.
“Why thank you.” She pauses to bats her eyelashes. “I even managed to get those godforsaken falsies on right too. They look good, but the raise hell.”
“I think you’re the first woman I’ve met in LA that’s not obsessed with makeup,” he notes.
“Oh, you were doing so well. There are a lot of people of who aren’t huge in the makeup scene.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he tries to backtrack. “I’m sorry. In my experience, it’s not like that. They’re hiding the fact they aren’t wearing makeup--embarrassed by it or something.”
Jay nods, pushing up her glasses yet again. “Yeah, it’s not easy. We’re told to be perfect, but in reality, we’re just like everyone. We’re human, imperfect and flaw-full and beautiful.”
“Not in spite of, but because of.”
“Exactly,” she chuckles. Silences settles in around them. Calum wonders why she said she was closer to her family, but the way she talks about her siblings doesn’t match. She’s cheering her brother on at his game; she’s sitting down to learn makeup with and from her sister.
“Can I ask a bit of a personal question?” he asks.
“What kind of personal? Do I get a lifeline?”
Cal exhales a laugh. “You can always say no.”
“Hit me with it.”
“Why say that you’re family isn’t close but you clearly take a lot of pride in your siblings?”
“An observant one on my table, I see. It’s my parents. They don’t like that I’m pansexual, say I’m going to hell. My siblings don’t fucking care. I’m still the crazy-ass sister that loves and supports them.”
With a hum of acknowledgment from Calum, it goes quiet again around them for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. He knows it doesn’t really fix anything for her; it doesn’t take away the potential years of her suffering. It’s the only thing he can offer her though. It feels right to say.
“Oh, no need for you to be sorry. It’s not like you threw me out of the house.”
“Ouch. You’re making it though right?”
“Yeah, now that I work here, things are on the up and up.”
“That’s good; I’m glad.”
“Thanks.”
“Favorite tattoo you’ve done?” he asks, wanting to hear her voice again.
“This one,” she laughs. “Though I had someone ask for a pin-up witch, which was also pretty fucking cool to do.”
Calum remembers seeing that on her Instagram. “That one was amazing! Her lips looked so good; I know that’s a strange thing to admit.”
“Don’t worry. I am quite proud of that myself.”
“Do you have a favorite tattoo on you?”
“The blue jay on my shoulder. My parents would take me on walks when I was still an infant. According to the legend, while they were sitting on a park bench a blue jay landed on me. I didn’t cry; it didn’t hurt me. It just landed for a second and then flew off. They called me Blue Jay ever since. I just shortened the nickname as I got older.” She gives one more wipe. “Finished. Check it out.”
Calum sits up, walking over to the mirror. He grins seeing the melting ball sitting against his skin. He grins over to Jay. “It looks amazing. Thank you.”
“No problem.” They head back over to her station. Jay cleans it and wraps the fresh ink. Calum carefully gets his sleeve back down with a little help from Jay. He pays their agreed price with his card, but slides two fifties over to her. “You do know that’s more than double a twenty percent tip right?”
Calum shrugs. “Is it? I’m bad at math,” he grins. “Treat your sister to a new palette or something. Treat yourself to something.”
“Thank you. Now next time, you come by, I hope we don’t talk while I’m stabbing you repeatedly.”
Calum shakes his head, a grin still on his face. Of course. He had forgotten to get the gift certificate. But possibly asking Jay to dinner wouldn't be such a bad idea. “Give me your number and I can promise the next time we talk, it won’t in your chair.”
She holds out her hand, waiting. He hands her his phone, after unlocking it. She puts her number in. She goes to hand the phone back but just before his fingers touch it, she draws it back. "I mean it--actually text me. I adore memes, dogs, TikToks, your favorite songs."
"I'll actually talk to you. I promise."
Jay hands over his phone with a smile. Calum steps outside the glass doors. Why should he wait? He could do it now. For fuck sake, the last hour had been the groundwork for a clear sign a date was absolutely an option. His fingers hovering over her name. He taps it, and then presses for a call. Holding the phone to his ear, he listens to it ring for a second.
“I can still see you, you know?” Jay laughs.
Calum turns around, catching her leaning against the front desk. “I told you the next time we talked you wouldn’t be inking me.”
“What can I help you with, Calum?”
“Dinner, tonight-- I may have ordered too many appetizers for just little old me."
Her laugh trickles in over the speaker. She drops her head, giving it a shake before looking back up to him in the afternoon sun. “I think I can help you with that. Give me the time and place."
Calum rattles off the name of a restaurant that he had been wanting to try. Nothing too upscale, but not something that would be too casual. "How does 8 sound?"
"I love it there. I'll see you at 8."
“Bye, Jay.”
“Bye, Calum.” As he walks to his car, his phone buzzes yet again. This time a text from his artist, I’m being fucking replaced, I see. I can’t be too mad since it’s Jay. Calum laughs as he slides into his car. Maybe he is getting replaced; maybe he’s not. Calum’s not sure. He is sure that he needs to figure out if he can make reservations and what to wear for tonight.
47 notes · View notes
cangrellesteponme · 3 years
Note
Maybe “you’re my favorite” for Sebagni? 🖤
so, thinking about this, i wanted fluff, but my brain hit me with character death and grief and shit (but not agni. never agni.) with like. so little sebagni here. so. if i wrote a short fic about this it'd be fairly simple:
(one rambly semi-narrated idea with bad dialogue, coming right up!)
Imagine one of those "everything goes smoothly contrary to the intense and unbearable pain of canon" AUs. Sebastian still ends up eating our favourite blue boy's soul, but their relationship was just overall better because this version of Seb is not as much of a dick. The secret twin drama resolves itself WITH NO DEATHS and everyone lives a nice little life, vengeance is achieved, contracts are fulfilled, souls are consumed, all that good stuff.
Even years later, Sebastian keeps his current name and appearance ("Just for a moment," he probably says, "I liked that one, so there's no need to leave it behind, yet.") and settles down with the greatest man and softest husband, Agni, in the cliché little house everyone imagines when they think of calm, happy days, away from the troubles of a conflicted life. They're the grossly smitten couple that never moves past the honeymoon phase, even though their version of it is not endless passion, but more of a consistent, certain and reliable kind of love. Overall adorable, as these two are.
Their daily life is all the nice shit you could ever imagine. Soma visits on (most) weekends, they get to be annoying parents with him, and it's great. Really. Even though it does, sometimes, remind Sebastian of another young boy he had gotten used to caring for, and of how empty the house can feel, and of how much he misses days that were less peaceful, less pleasant, and other things he can't find the words for because he never bothered to think about it when the brat was still alive. Because yes, all of this is nice, but grief isn't something that ever goes away when you're not even used to loving things enough to miss them when they're gone.
(also i love making characters suffer in ways they cannot ever fix. i'm mean like that.)
So the routine has one more step. Regular visits to the Phantomhive manor, and to the neat little stone in what i assume would be a backyard-turned-graveyard (or is it cemetary... i do not know), become a thing.
(and this is where we get ridiculously dramatic and mostly one-sided dialogue! agni is my fave but i never let him say a word istg, my man's a dearly beloved plot device)
During one particular visit, Agni notices that his trash demon's eyes simply won't leave the building, rather than the gravestone, which is unusual. (or as unusual as it can be, considering that there's no real habit here, since the only thing these visits have in common is that they're definitely not fun! like, not fun at all. agni's out there being a supportive husband but this is depressing as fuck)
(anyway basically he's like, "what's up" and seb is like *dramatic pause* bc he's just Like That and eventually he actually opens his damn mouth)
"Human life is so ridiculously fragile," he starts, and his tone is so casual it makes it sound like a boring scientific fact that has no incidence on actual people's lives, "I should know better than to let it affect me. Yet so many of them have. And most of them belong, or belonged in that manor."
"Most of them?"
"Not all of them, obviously. Don't you know?"
(and here we would have some comment about seb's completely ridiculous tendency to be the sassiest little bitch at the worst possible times, and about how that cheeky little "don't you know?" is not as ckeey as it should be, actually, and agni thinks he kind of looks like he's about to turn into a sobbing mess right then and there, even though he knows demons can't cry, but before he gets to voice any of that concern, seb decides to hit him with more dramatic dialogue.)
"You're my favourite. And I think you will always hold that title, as a boring old man, or as worthlessly precious ashes on a shelf," he rushes through some of the words, taken by an uncharacteristic agitation, hands held out in front of him in some meaningless gesture, "and even just as you, right now, listening to me like you always do, because for some odd reason you still love me."
"And I'll love you forever."
It's all Agni says, because sometimes people only need someone to listen and to remind them of simple things to soothe complex pains.
(he's a saint and i love him)
"I don't doubt that you will."
(and seb will definitely love his sweet husband because that man. that man. and he's the only person he hasn't failed to care for, have a nice day)
17 notes · View notes
risingmoonyue · 4 years
Text
Batman/P5 Crossover
-Sometime before Akechi but after Futaba or Haru
-Damian is sent to Tokyo to check it out for whatever reason (maybe they had a fight, or he’s going stir crazy, or he’s just the only one they can send at the time and didn't bother with all that "you're not old enough" business)
-Dami is younger than Futaba by a year or three or four
-He is baby
-He is transferred to Shujin as a child prodigy where he also immediately joins the "outcast" community because of his attitude and intelligence
-Talia goes too, manages to cut off all his communications with the Batfam, and is planning to take him home in a month whether he likes it or not
-For whatever reason, Batfam doesn't realize this??? (Like, either she's faking reports or they're too busy (think fight or chaos in Gotham scenario maybe???))
-Anyways, obviously Dami doesn't want this
-Somehow the Phantom Thieves hear about the situation
-Maybe he was assigned to shadow Makoto for a while, and they managed to overhear a phone conversation either to Talia or Dami trying to get in touch with the Batfam and nothing really working
-And eventually they outright see him fighting with his mother with him at some point (either in person or over a phone call) mentioning that she already disowned him, he's happy with his Father's family, and that he will head her family business over his dead body—and oh would you look at that, you already managed that, care to try again Mother?
-The PT's are understandably alarmed
-And learn her name from Damian (from Makoto maybe or someone else he bonded a little with) (MORGANA) (THEY GAVE HIM MONA FOR A DAY AND NOW THEY KNOW EVERYTHING FROM HIS MANY PETS TO HIS LEAST TO MOST FAVORITE SIBLINGS STARTING FROM TIM TO DICK TO HIS FAVORITE FOODS TO EVERYONE IN HIS FAMILY’S NAMES TO HOW STUPID HE FINDS EVERYONE AND WHY THEY'RE STUPID TO HIS FAVORITE MUSIC TO WHY ANIMALS ARE SUPERIOR TO HUMANS AND MONA’S LIKE OMG TMI BUT LOVED IT THERE BECAUSE HE WAS PAMPERED LIKE NO TOMORROW GOT ONLY THE BEST FOOD AND THE BEST BEDS AND TOYS THAT HE GOT TO TAKE WITH HIM BACK TO LEBLANC AND NOW AKIRA AND SOJIRO ARE LIKE DUDE WHY AND MONA’S LIKE IM KEEPING HIM THIS HUMAN IS GOOD SORRY AKIRA YOU’RE DEMOTED)
-The palace is basically a fortress full of assasin ninjas and clones
-Dunno what her keywords are tho
-Or her what her palace actually is
-Help?????????
-Cognitive Bruce, Ra's, Damian, Dami clones, and Jason (maybe rest of batfam??? Idk)
-Long story short, the traps are so assassin-y that they need someone who knows the actual Talia because egads, this is the closest they have all come to actually dying
-And they didn't really want to do it and were just gonna power through
-But Dami manages to find out and get in and of course uses his background to help out whether they like it or not
(-he's slightly off put by Joker's name, but then decides to just solely call Gotham!Joker "The Clown")
-At some point they are captured by the Shadow Talia who is decked out in super fancy traditional Arab clothing and probably every conceivable hidden weapon known to man
-Talia says Damian won't and can't ever change from who he "is meant to be", referring to him as her Alexander and basically brutally addresses all of his insecurities concerning the batfam and people and society in general
-And all this is kinda killing him cause he still loves Talia despite the fact that she killed him and had a violent citywide custody battle with Batman but he also loves the batfam too even if he would absolutely never admit it (except to maybe Grayson)
-Joker does his emotional kick-start thing and/or Dami is like Makoto and just gets so mad he triggers it himself, but either way, lo and behold, Damian is now a persona user, usurping Futaba's place as the baby of the team
-The outfit is kinda inspired by his future adult league outfit with the top and bottom and gold jewelry, but has a raggedy cloak with dull gold edges, a Robin mask and gauntlets, and his main weapons are batarang-sword hybrids
---acknowledging his past and moving on with his present
-Persona: Aladdin, Tsun Zu, Ali Baba, somone else???? Need ideas plz help
-Probably the fastest member of the group
-His small body makes his hits not as strong, but hoo boy can that kid move around
-Hits a lot and dodges most
-Most of his Persona abilities are physical and have high crit and/or are status affects
-Downside is he has not a lot of SP (compared to the rest of the group)
-And he has pretty good HP
-Those good ol' “superior genetics” have to be good for something after all
-Anyways they escape to find the treasure another day
-And Dami is all smug because HA you definitely can't stop me now
-And the PTs are just resigned to keeping an eye on the extremely competent snotty assassin/vigilante child
-They do like him though so it's not too bad (comes with learning all his darkest secrets via his mother and thought processes that tends to accompany watching someone at their lowest get a persona)
(-They do manage to temper him a bit and help him adjust better to actual society too that's nice)
-As such, they also know about Batman and Robin and his whoooole family. Both sides.
-Damian decided not to tell batfam because he does agree with the whole "most adults suck" mentality that the Phantom Thieves have; despite his deep, deep respect for his father and mother and Grayson, they all do kinda suck
-And he’s rather not get pulled out as he surely would if he told them
(-On a side note, he likes Sojiro
-The man gives him coffee, curry, and leaves him mostly to his own devices
-Instant win)
-He is dubbed "Mockingbird" apon return to the metaverse because of his freaky talented vocal skills in mimicking anyone and everyone's voice
-Eventually, they beat Talia
-She doesn't publicly confess to all her sins unlike everyone else
-PTs don't realize it worked until Damian came into school with a genuine smile on his face, and more relaxed than he'd been since he got there
-PTs are confused until Damian's like, this works out because hey, don't want to have several people assassinated and draw the entire freaking league to Tokyo
(-Which was probably why Talia didn't)
-They agree
-But she does break down to tears in Dami's arms and promise to ACTUALLY TALK CIVILLY with Bruce to try and make up for everything and try to fix up the league
-He stays for the rest of p5
-But steers all his reports very much away from the Phantom Thieves
-If anything, he downplays absolutely everything, and makes it seem like it's nothing super big but he's gonna stay a while to keep and eye out because y'alls are busy and I like it here and I haven't gotten expelled so there
-The PTs like to add funny stuff on there just to see if they’ll notice
-Like, Akira likes to have Dami describe his day in excruciating detail. Like, recounting the entirety of his nine or so months to Sae during police interrogation, excruciating
-Mona is pushing for the shiny stuff
-Yusuke just likes to put in bursts of randomness (Dami once mentioned that an acquaintance made another acquaintance T-pose in a church for art lol)
-Ann loves to rant about food
-Haru is always insisting on about feelings
-Ryuji likes to complain about everything and puts in ridiculous requests
-Futaba is just putting in every gen-z thing ever
-Makoto is actually responsible and tries to get him to talk about his progress in school and his social life
-And Akechi is absolutely nowhere near any of this and doesn’t know it exists
-When they have the Tokyo/Japan-wide calling card, Batfam sees it too because let's face it, that's totally the sorta thing that they would keep an eye out for even if he didn't look at the news in the entirety of the time Dami was in Tokyo
-And they send a message to Damian (the first actual communication they've had since before Talia) saying "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON OVER THERE????"
-And with the entirety of the Phantom Thieves looking over his shoulder, Damian's just like "Chill dudes, everything's fiiiiiiiiiine"
-And they're like "UH WHAT PART OF THIS IS FINE????" because they've dug around a bit and found every news report, and oh hey, this isn't anywhere near as calm as Damian described and he’s being super OOC and what’s going on?!?!?!?!?!
-And Damian, being egged on by the most of the PTs, just sends a winky face
-Just
-😉
-And he's smug, because it's still chaos over there so they can't actually come get him and try to pull him out because he's being super ooc
-Which means he's free to do what he wants/needs in the meantime
-Cue the end of the game
-And Dami is going with them on their summer road trip and cackling because the batfam is scrambling to find him in Tokyo but lol nope he's in a van the Japanese government tried and fail to follow
-And he found all the trackers like, a year ago
-Every
-Single
-One
-They eventually track him down to Akira's house where they're calmly eating dinner (and they've been expecting this for the past week so Mona was keeping watch just so they could pull this off) and talking about how uneventful the school year was
-Cue mass confusion in the batfam
-As the PTs enjoy just confusing them so much
-By talking to Mona
-Talking normal then crazy then normal again
-And just generally being their normal selves lol
-They explain absolutely nothing beyond gushing about how much progress socially and academically he’s made (gotta embarrass the baby of the group somehow) and making sure that if Dami absolutely has to go home that he's able to stay in touch
(-Later, Damian forms his own hero persona outside of Batman and Robin)
(-He names it Mockingbird)
(-Batfam proceeds to have a brain aneurysm while the PTs dab their happy proud tears out of their eyes on their regularly scheduled tea time at the Wayne Manor)
(-Damian sends a private plane every week or two lol)
(Bonus: ARTTTTTTT)
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
(Psst if you guys have ideas for art, outfits, interactions or scenarios, let me know)
54 notes · View notes
thetriggeredhappy · 4 years
Note
Scout's been having a rough week because everyone seems to be too busy for him, even though the team is on vacation. At first he's bored, but as the days continue, he finds himself angry. But soon he just feels awful lonely, desperately craving the attention/affection he's been lacking. Finally he goes to Demo and Sniper, who are working on an important project. They tell him they're busy for the time being, but are suddenly alarmed when he breaks down sobbing. They do their best to soothe him.
friendship fic is best fic end of story. (fic below the cut, no warnings)
“Hey Hardhat, think we could—“
“Now’s not a good time, Scooter. You run along now.”
“Yo, Snipes, you busy?”
“Yeah, actually. Got things to do. Sorry, mate.”
“Mumbles, what’s up?”
“Mmm-phm. Bmm!”
“Demo, what are you up to, man?”
“Defusing a bomb, lad, best you go on and leg it. Probably to the other end of the base. And maybe find some headphones.”
“Hey Soldier—“
“Not now, Cadet! I am currently engaged in a battle—of wills. Private Munches once again has fleas and they are very contagious. It is in your best interest to retreat now!”
“Hey Heavy—“
“Heavy is welding. Leetle Scout should leave.”
“Hey Doc—?”
“Nein. No, I don’t need to know what you were going to ask. I do not care.”
“Spy—?”
“Clearly you’re desperate if you’re trying to talk to me to find something to do.”
Scout puffed out a breath of air, slumping. “Look, I dunno either, okay? We get the first real break for the first time in like two months and all the guys still sit around acting like they have better shit to do.”
“Have you considered that they’ve also been looking forward to a break and have things they have been saving for that break?” Spy asked, not even looking up from his newspaper.
“I mean, maybe. But c’mon, it’s ridiculous! I’m not asking to like, go do a whole thing all day, I just wanna hang out a little bit!”
“A shame that I am busy,” Spy said, sighing in faux disappointment.
“With what?”
“Anything else.” He waved Scout off. “Go on. Get a hobby or something, something besides pestering all of the rest of us like some kind of annoying dog.”
Scout sulked, leaving and heading back to his own room.
The rest of their first day off, Scout ended up mostly messing around in his room. He flicked through some comics, got bored, flicked through some other comics, got bored, paced around for a while listening to a record before he lost interest in that too and wound up trying to take a nap. About five minutes after he laid down he realized that was gonna be a no-go, and he ended up so frustrated that he cleaned his whole room, right down to vacuuming under his bed. He was up until about two in the morning cleaning and putting stuff away before he realized what time it was and tried to lay down to go to sleep.
He finished cleaning after he went and grabbed breakfast for himself—kitchen entirely empty—and then was left standing in his room, looking around aimlessly for anything else to do. He rearranged his whole little bookshelf, sorting his comics by franchise then by hero then by issue.
He got lunch early. Kitchen empty. Halls quiet, only the sounds of machinery in the distance to tell him there was anyone else around.
By the time he finished eating, he was pretty much desperate for something to do, so he did rounds again to ask the team if anyone needed help with anything. He got a pretty harsh dressing-down from Engie about interrupting him when he was focusing hard on work, very important things. Soldier rambled and ranted at him for about twenty minutes, at which point Scout realized Soldier was barely even talking to him, and was mostly just talking to himself. He tried to track down Spy for an hour to try and ask to borrow his car so he could go into town and find literally anything to do, but the guy wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and he eventually gave up. He got desperate enough for something to do that he even went over to the infirmary, and was pretty sure he would be roped into some dumb experiment or something, but it turned out that Medic was stitching something into Heavy, so even that was a no-go.
So he just went back into his room again.
It had been kinda nice at first, having a place all to himself. As a kid he could count on his fingers how many times he was left alone in any capacity, and then as a teen he found peace and quiet to be pretty scarce. But then his brothers all graduated, and started moving out one by one, and he was left there pretty much alone, just him and Ma. And even then he was constantly surrounded by people, the walls thin in their apartment.
But then he moved out west for the job, and suddenly it was really freakishly quiet. And it kind of blew his mind at first, the quiet. He appreciated it. Especially considering most of the time all he had to do was go in the common room to find someone to talk to. He realized, with his pool of people he could potentially talk to so limited, that he was kind of a clingy person, needed to talk to people a lot.
He got lonely quick.
He remembered after he graduated, splitting up laundry into a once-a-week thing instead of a once-every-two-weeks thing just for the sake of having more time around other people, even if he wasn’t talking to them. Ma kinda got in his case sometimes for how much he would go get food somewhere besides at home, but he kinda had to, kinda needed to talk to someone else on the daily or else he started going stir-crazy. Started feeling bad and gross, started in with having all kinds of dumb ideas running through his head.
Mostly ideas like, maybe the team wasn’t that busy and they just made excuses and tried to seem busy because they didn’t like him. Ideas like, well he already knew that they didn’t like him, he was a lot younger than most of them and a hell of a lot stupider and they called him loud and annoying pretty much on the daily. Ideas like, none of them ever really talked to him besides during battle, and maybe they were just trying to be polite when they did talk to him, and when was the last time anyone asked how he was doing? Ideas like, maybe they really did just hate him. Ideas like, maybe a lot of people hated him. Ideas like, if literally everyone he talked to on a regular basis—all eight people—didn’t like him enough to hang out with him for a little while when they got their first break in forever...
Ideas like, did he really not have any friends? Ideas like, wasn’t that pretty pathetic? Ideas like, well, if he didn’t have any friends, if nobody liked him, did that maybe mean that he deserved it?
Scout stayed up staring out off into space and occasionally getting up and pacing around until about two in the morning.
-
Scout was up early the next day, and paced for just about the hour and a half in anticipation for his usual call home—once a week unless he said he wouldn’t be able to the week prior—before giving up on waiting and just calling early.
It got picked up in the middle of the fourth ring, and by then, Scout had already tangled the phone cord in his fidgeting.
“Hello?” came an immediately familiar voice, and he relaxed.
“Hey, Ma,” he greeted.
“J-Bear!” she practically gasped. “Honey, you’re two hours early. Why are you callin’, shouldn’t you be at work?”
“We’re on a break while some maintenence stuff is happening,” Scout explained, starting to untangle the cord. “And, y’know. I’m wicked bored.”
“All caught up on chores, then?” Ma asked, already the warning note in her voice that meant he might be in for a little bit of deserved nagging.
“Yeah, actually. Cleaned my room finally, all good on laundry, organized some stuff, all that,” he replied. “I was gonna do groceries, but my usual ride places is, uh... ghosting on me a little.”
“Well, are you getting enough to eat?” Ma asked next, sounding worried.
“Oh, no, yeah, I am,” he said quickly. “I’m just, y’know. I gotta eat like, canned beans and stuff like that for a while.”
“As long as you’re eating,” Ma said firmly.
And Scout went to say something else, to start going on about how he was so annoyed with his teammates, see, because they were all being total assholes, right? And then Ma would say something to him, and he’d feel better, because every time he told Ma about something that was going wrong he always walked away feeling better.
But Ma started talking again.
“Honey, I’m really sorry,” she started in, and it was clear that she meant it, and Scout’s heart dropped. “But I can’t really talk for long. I had plans today, and I’m already running late.”
He couldn’t speak for a moment due to the fact that his heart had suddenly jumped into his throat. “But Ma,” he said, brows furrowing, “what about the phone call?”
A short sigh. “I’m a little glad you called early, actually, that means I can ask you—would it be alright if we didn’t have our chat this week? It’s just that your older brother is finally stopping back in town for a little while—“
“Ma, which one?” he asked with a laugh, managing to fit some humor into his voice even as he forced it not to wobble.
“Oldest, sweetie. Anyways, I’m headed out to go meet him for lunch actually, and then we’re gonna come back to the house and chat and all, your niece is real excited to meet the cat, and I’d feel terrible if I left to go talk on the phone for an hour when I have guests over—“
“Yeah, Ma,” Scout said, bracing himself to lie through his teeth to his mother. “It’s totally fine. No worries. We’ll just talk next week, it’s no big deal.”
“You’re a lifesaver, sweetheart,” Ma said, and meant it, and Scout winced. “I love you, we’ll talk next week for sure, okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. Love you too,” he said. And he listened for the sound of the phone being put down, and he sighed, breath shaky on the exhale. He only put the phone down when it started to beep at him, and then continued to fiddle with the cord for a long while.
-
“The problem is that to send a bullet that far and that straight, the force needed is fairly strong. If you tried to fire this round out of a proper rifle, it might just explode in the barrel, mate,” Sniper explained, turning over the bullet in his fingers.
“So we fire one to test it,” Demo shrugged.
“Not out of my gun we won’t,” Sniper replied, raising an eyebrow. “If you’re aiming to send explosives long distances, best to just stick to rockets or canons or the like. Biggest boom you’d get shooting an explosive round like this anywhere over a hundred meters or so would just be a firecracker. It would just be distracting.”
“Distracting. Now there’s an idea,” Demo nodded, starting to scribble something down on the paper in front of him. “Now here’s a concept, lad; smoke rounds.”
Sniper considered that for a few seconds, tapping his own pencil against the side of the table. “As in proper smoke like a flare, or as in just some sort of, er, blocked visibility?”
“Either,” Demo shrugged.
“Again, anything too flammable would go off in the gun. Maybe some sort of,” he said, gestured loosely for a moment. “Maybe just a round full of some sort of fine powder that would go up when the casing shatters against a wall? Hell of a heavy round I think, probably need a special gun for it. What sort of powder like that wouldn’t be flammable?”
“Well, technically speaking, everything is flammable, if we want to get down to what the word flammable means,” Demo replied, pausing in his own writing. “But there’s a few things that might work. A good powder for that might even just be potassium bicarbonate, that’s easy enough to come by.”
“Why’s that?” Sniper asked.
“Well, most commonly it’s used in fire extinguishers,” Demo shrugged. “I imagine that could really do a number on someone else’s guns or machinery, as well. And I wouldn’t need to put in a budget request to our boss over it, I could just snag the spare canister we keep in the kitchen.”
“Tavish, how often do I tell you you’re a bloody genius?” Sniper asked, watching Demo scribble down some formulas with practiced ease.
“On the weekly, must be,” Demo replied.
“Might end up going over the regular amount during this project, because you’re an absolute bloody genius.”
“Thankin’ you kindly, lad,” Demo said, flashed him a grin.
A knock at the door to Demo’s work space. Sniper got up first, moving to open it.
“Oh. Hey, Snipes,” Scout said, looking surprised to see Sniper answering the door.
“G’day,” Sniper greeted, a little confused. He stepped aside to let Scout in, slightly befuddled.
“Hey, Demo,” Scout greeted, saw the spread of different papers and bullets across the table. “Uh, you guys workin’ on somethin’ in here? You busy?”
“Very,” Demo agreed, stretching his arms up over his head, back aching from being hunched over paper for a bit too long. “You need somethin’?”
“I, I mean, nah. Not really. Just wanted to see if you—uh, either of you guys—were free is all,” Scout shrugged, putting his hands into his pockets.
“We’re working on a project,” Sniper replied, moving to go take his own seat again.
“Trying to figure out the mechanics of a new kind of sniping round,” Demo elaborated. “We’ve just moved on to the part that’s all math and chemistry and physics and the like.”
“Yeah?” Scout asked, a little fidgety, a little awkward.
“Yeah,” Demo nodded. Picked up his pencil again. “Gonna be awfully boring, I imagine.”
“Especially since you don’t really have the head for this sort of thing,” Sniper said, a little jokingly, glancing up at Scout. “Might ask to use you for target practice with it later though, if you’re still bored around then.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Mundy,” Demo chided, then grinned. “Lad’s far too skinny. Even a marksman like you’d never be able to hit him, aye?”
Sniper laughed, and Demo laughed. And then they looked over at Scout, and Scout wasn’t laughing. He was just stood there, shifting nervously. Not the same kind of nervous as he got when he’d poked and prodded at Heavy a little too long and finally just got hefted up and put somewhere high up that he’d take a while to get down from, or the same kind of nervous as when Spy pulled his knife out and started flipping it open and closed during an argument, because both of those had an amount of “do it, I dare you” in them, an amount of “bet you won’t” in them.
But this time, Scout just looked tense. A little too wide-eyed, a little too avoiding-eye-contact. His chest rose and fell in a breath that looked far too deliberate and therefore awkward.
They both stopped laughing, just looking at him. “Lad, something the matter?” Demo asked, expression falling.
“Yeah, you awright, mate?” Sniper asked, turning in his chair to regard Scout.
Scout removed his hands from his pockets, fiddling for a few seconds. Then he looked up at Demo, then at Sniper, then at Demo again. He opened his mouth to say something.
He burst into tears.
Sniper startled, and Demo’s eye widened. They looked at each other, Demo largely with concern and Sniper with open alarm as Scout hunched forward, burying his face in his hands and crying openly.
A brief nonverbal argument took place, then Sniper was standing, moving over.
“Scout, mate,” he started gently, awkwardly, and after a second put a cautious hand on Scout’s shoulder. “Scout, what happened? What’s wrong?”
Scout moved to cling to Sniper’s shirt, tears redoubling, and Sniper stiffened, freezing up, eyes going a little wide. He shot a look at Demo that could not have more clearly read as “help me”.
Demo quickly rose, moving over. He put a hand on Scout’s shoulder to test the waters, and when Scout didn’t react poorly, he pulled the shorter man off of Sniper and into a hug. Scout crumpled into it immediately. Sniper settled for standing just to one side, patting Scout on the back once or twice.
“I’m sorry,” was the first thing Scout managed, and Demo shook his head, hugging all the tighter.
“Nothin’ to be sorry for, lad. It’s alright. What’s got you so blue?” he asked, tone calm and level.
“Just—just, a lot, okay?” Scout managed, and Demo nodded, tucking Scout’s head under his chin after a second. “It’s just, everyone’s all busy doin’ important shit, and I’m just—just sitting around, and I wanna help, but everyone keeps telling me I’m bugging them and bein’ a fuckin’ nuisance, but I’m really bored and it’s really lonely out here and I—I miss Boston and I miss my family and I’m fuckin’ tired of eating whatever garbage we keep stocked in the kitchen but I can’t go into town because Spy’s being a dick and I can’t fuckin’ find him to borrow his keys, and I’m just...” He burrowed in closer to Demo, taking a shaky breath. “And now I’m bothering you guys while you’re working on something that actually matters.”
“You’re not,” Demo said right away, squeezing him tighter for a moment. “No expiration date on maths, aye?”
“And you’re not a bother,” Sniper added, tone dripping sincerity. He paused for a second. “It’s alright. I’m not going to be upset with you for talking to me.”
“Snipes, you and I both know I’m fuckin’ annoying,” Scout all but snapped, only lacking venom because he didn’t seem to have the energy for it.
“No,” Sniper replied, and exhaled. “You don’t annoy me. I like having you around. You... and Demo s’well I think,” he added, looking over at the Scotsman before glancing back away again. “You’re the best mates I’ve ever bloody had, awright?”
“Can’t imagine there was much competition for that, ya feckin’ hermit,” Demo said dryly, arching an eyebrow.
“Stuff it, Tavish,” Sniper scoffed, flushing, pulling his hat off and shoving it into Demo’s face, making him laugh. “Bugger off, ruining the moment. Absolute piker.”
“I’m still sorry,” Scout said, quieter now, and Demo and Sniper stopped their shenanigans for a moment to listen. “I just feel bad. I’m being a total baby, getting lonely when nobody talks to me for like, two days.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Demo shrugged. “Just means we need to watch out for you better, aye?”
Scout made a noncommittal noise. Sniper and Demo looked at each other, then Sniper spoke.
“We really are working on something, but... you can hang about in here if you’d like,” he suggested lightly. “Might get boring and all, but it’s nothing classified.”
“Just tinkering,” Demo agreed. “Would that help at all?”
Scout nodded, sniffled. “Okay.” He paused for a few moments before he finally pulled away from Demo, wiping his eyes with the his forearm self-consciously, unable to maintain eye contact. “I appreciate it, guys. Really. You guys are the best.”
“No worries,” Sniper said, and gave him a parting pat on the back before he went to pull up the spare chair, situating it between he and Demo’s chairs before sitting back down. Scout took a seat, pulled his legs up onto it to sit cross-legged, and looked down at the papers.
“What were we saying, potassium bicarbonate?” Demo prompted, taking his own seat.
“Right. Might need to talk to Heavy about using his welding materials, but we’d need a real finnicky piece of tech to make the thing without making a bloody mess,” Sniper said.
“And it can’t be from a standard press, we’d want to go for extra precision on a bullet that’ll be going through a sniper rifle,” Demo agreed. “Might need to talk to the Engineer, ask for an hour or two in his shop to borrow his metal casting nonsense.”
“Maybe. Does that, er, potassium carbon whatsit, does it melt down?”
Scout just sat and fiddled with the bullets on the table while they talked, and eventually snagged a piece of paper that wasn’t being used and started to doodle idly. And Demo and Sniper could both tell pretty soon that his mood had improved significantly, shoulders squaring and head being held higher even as he hunched over his piece of paper. And for the rest of their break, Scout took to sitting with either Demo or Sniper while they worked on various things, and at the end of their break, on the last day before they headed back to work, Sniper borrowed Engie’s keys to his truck and the three of them went out to get the greasiest fast food they could find.
And Scout felt better. Really, honestly, better.
52 notes · View notes
luminescentauthor · 4 years
Text
Sora/Tobi Getting Together and Relationship Headcanons
THEY’RE HEEEEEERREEEE! Maybe Tobi will finally leave me alone now and stop taking up my whole brain.
Please read this post or this won’t make sense, it’s HCs about their third year. There’s also a part two that you don’t need to read, since everything you need is in part one. (U can if u want to tho.)
(If you don’t want to, basically all you need to know is: Nao, Sora, Tobi, and Mokichi are on first-name basis since the end of second year; Sora and Tobi have had a running prank war since the end of their first year and everyone on the team hates them because of it; Sora is captain, Mokichi is vice. Oh also Tobi’s aunt is awesome and she stormed into his parents’ house in Hiroshima to yell at them for being terrible parents. Tobi didn’t find out for the longest time.)
This is some 10-ass pages so headcanons below the cut!
This. Is. So much more chaotic than my Sora/Nao HCs. Prepare for disaster gays, very tired and very exasperated queer parent friend Momoharu, very very tired Mokichi, "usually a functional bi but the second you involve emotions he becomes a grade-a disaster bisexual" Tobi, Sora struggling to deal with "OH shit I'm gay," and "bows to absolutely no one and done with everyone and everything 24/7" Nanao Nao. This version of Nao is so much more of a tired badass than Sora/Nao's Nao, who stays more true to her canon self. 
It's also twice as long. Yeet.
Tobi and Sora have had growing feelings since their first year and Mokichi and Nao are fucking suffering with these stupid gays.
They were friends at first, and it really was just pure platonic feelings. It started to turn into something more a little after the first Taiei game, but Sora is shy and a certified disaster and Tobi is way too emotionally constipated for either of them to do anything about it.
Tobi I love you but you're a fucking mess.
Tobi actually got kicked out by his "father" in large part for being bisexual, and therefore wants absolutely nothing to do with growing feelings for tiny cute short teammate, nope nope no thank you-
But basically, Tobi has known he's bi for a while now, and while he's having some acceptance problems, he's not having the "OH GOD I'M GAY" panic
Sora has not known, and he's having a panic in the background because "I'm attracted to guys?!"
Sora starts realizing what's going on some time in second year, and Momoharu takes one look at the panicking Sora and goes "aight the fuck happened to you?"
You will have to pry their friendship from my cold dead hands and I'm not sorry. I love Momoharu and Sora's dynamic. 
Sora eventually confesses to Momoharu (after a lot of prodding) that he thinks he's turning gay, and Momoharu immediately starts laughing. Sora, hurt and feeling very stupid, goes to run, but Momoharu tugs him back down to sit and tells him, "Jesus, Sora, you don't turn gay. You either identify as gay or you don't. Sorry for scaring you, the concept of turning gay is just... oddly funny. Don't worry about it dude, I'm pansexual."
"...Pansexual?" Sora asks nervously.
"Yup, I'm attracted to all people regardless of gender. Men, women, people who don't fit either -- I don't much care. Gender doesn't really factor into whether or not I'm attracted to people."
"You can be attracted to multiple genders?" Sora asks, eyes wide.
Oh boy, Momoharu thinks. Poor kid. "Yeah, folks who are attracted to just men and women are called bisexual. Homosexual is the official word for those who are only attracted to their own gender, but gay or lesbian is usually used. Heterosexual is for those only attracted to the opposite gender. Of course, the lines aren't as clear set as those labels suggest they are. Sexuality is fucky, dude. Don't worry about not having it figured out. I only decided on a label a few months back, myself. Some people just choose not to label it at all."
That makes Sora feel better, and he takes to talking to Momoharu about it quite a bit.
At one point, Sora brings up how the team would react, especially since they share a locker room. Momoharu just gives him a deadpan look and then says in the flattest voice ever, "Wow, imagine being so insecure in your masculinity that you can't share a changing room with a gay man." That gets a laugh out of Sora and makes him feel a lot better.
As it turns out, this was word for word Chiaki's reaction to Momoharu being nervous about coming out to the team back in their first year.
It is also, word for word, Chiaki's response to Sora coming out to him going "I'm sorry I hope this doesn't make things awkward-"
Momoharu laughs hysterically when Chiaki pulls the exact same face he did and says in the exact same deadpan tone, "Wow, imagine being so insecure in your masculinity that you can't share a changing room with a gay man." Sora also stares at Chiaki for about ten seconds in silence, then doubles over laughing. Chiaki is so confused until Momoharu explains. 
However, this does mean that Momoharu has to deal with the brunt of Sora's "TOBI DID A THING HOLY SHIT" rants for the rest of the year, even though he denies that Tobi is the one he was attracted to if ever asked.
Momoharu, rubbing his forehead: Chiaki the baby gays are being stupid what do I do
Chiaki: I'm a straight so unfortunately I don't think I can help here?
Momoharu: Ugggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Tobi is freaking out in the background because "oh no gay feelins oh no soft feelins fuck what do I do????"
His aunt: Kid, please calm down, you'll be fine.
Tobi, putting a groove in the floor with his pacing: NO I WON'T WHA' IF 'E FINDS OUT WHAT IF THIS RUINS THA TEAM DYNAMIC WHAT IF 'E 'ATES ME-
Accent go yeet when upset!
She holds him while he panics and lets him curl into her, and then makes his favorite foods and puts on a movie and cuddles with him, and once he's asleep, she calls her brother-in-law with every intent of murder because how dare you make this child feel so unloved?
Anyway, Tobi eventually comes to accept himself and his sexuality in full thanks to her, the team, and Juri. It's primarily just a thing of time and needing to have more conversations where he's open about it and accepted by people he cares about. 
Poor Sora still isn't totally comfortable with being gay? And a month or so into his third year, he comes out to Nao and later Mokichi. They make him feel much better, but the final piece is actually Tobi himself. Tobi finds Sora having a breakdown in the locker rooms and holds him to help him calm down and pushes him to talk about it, and Sora finally tells Tobi he's queer.
And Tobi, having been through this struggle before, just kind of pulls him into a hug and says, "Well, tha' makes two o' us" and Sora goes "wHAT" and Tobi tells him he's bisexual. Tobi does not pry about who made Sora realize he's queer, because it's personal and touchy, and he respects that.
That does, however, extend the mutual bullshit period.
But also: 
Sora: oH MY GOD HE'S GAY HE'S GAY HE'S GAY I'M-
Tobi: 'E's. 'E's Bi. Deep breaths deep breaths deep breaths just don' panic and ask 'im out that's a bad plan-
Tobi that's actually how you deal with romantic feelings like a functional human being but sure, go off. 
Tobi comes out to Nao and Mokichi with Sora's support shortly after that, and their reactions are, respectively: "NICE!" "Cool." and then Nao tackles Tobi in a hug that is the start of a big grouphug. 
There's lots of hugging and crying (the latter is Nao and Sora and a little bit of Mokichi), and Tobi will vehemently deny that he cried at all, but a few tears got out.
(Lbr Tobi's gay pining for Sora was Not Subtle, so they already knew, but they don't tell him that for a while. When they do tell him, he's gotten to the point where he just stares at them blankly for a moment and then groans rather than flipping out. Mokichi chuckles quietly and Nao just outright laughs at him.)
But anyway, both of these Absolute Idiots are still crushing on each other, and everyone is suffering.
Actually, scratch "crushing,” it's moved into full-blown pining now.
Sora eventually also accepts that, alright, he has a big crush on Tobi. Tobi, their ace. Tobi, one of his best friends. Tobi, one of the best wings in all of Japan. Tobi, who is ridiculously attractive. Tobi, who looks like an actual bush when he doesn't tie his hair back somehow, because his hair is insanely (and adorably) frizzy and voluminous. Tobi, who will whoop at the top of his lungs and grin like a maniac because he just pulled off a fantastic drive and double-clutch, even though he's exhausted and soaked in sweat and they're four minutes into overtime. Tobi, who makes the cutest face with the sweetest smile Sora has ever seen when he talks to his sister. (Tobi, who is a boy, and Sora has stopped caring.)
Sora even stops denying that he likes Tobi after a little bit, and Momoharu is just in the background going, "good job, it only took you two entire years to figure that out."
Sora: LEAVE. ME. ALONE.
Momoharu: Okay but have you considered: No. Absolutely not. 
Anyway Tobi mostly complains/gay rants to Nao and sometimes Mokichi, and at this point, even Juri is slightly sick of her brother talking about "our amazin' point guard." Yer not subtle, Anchan????
Except it eventually moves from "wow he's amazin' but NO I do not 'ave a crush on 'im" to "oh my God I am SO gay," and then later it moves to a more resigned gay panic. ("Nnnnnnghhhhh I nearly fuckin' kissed 'im after practice today what do I do-")
Nao is trying to bully both of them into confessing, but neither will take the first step, not because of pride, but because they're scared. (Nao is. So. Done. Even if she sympathizes, it has been two years of this bullcrap please-)
Tobi, especially, is afraid of losing everything again after his nasty stepdad booted him out.
Sora is like "that is one of my closest friends, and given this team's stability record I am Not Poking That Mess With A Long Stick."
Momoharu, who is the one he says this to, is just kinda like, "Yeah I can't really argue with that, as much I want you to confess."
Nao, later, having been subjected to a similar rant, after he said "closest friend" instead of "a dude": HE'S GROWING UP KANAME-KUN I'M TEARING UP-
Mokichi is far too tired of everything to interfere, which is fair.
Juri badgers Tobi for a solid four weeks before he admits what's really going on, and then it kind of all comes spilling out, and she encourages him to confess to Sora, but he's still reluctant.
Nao also bluntly says, "Kenji-kun's family abandoned him, Sora-kun, and it may be because he's the words ‘problem child' given physical form, but it may be because he's queer. If you want to work this out, I think you'll need to take the first step." 
(Tobi told the team about his past late first year/early second year. Crying happened and everyone basically group-tackle-hugged Tobi, and he finally got the hugs he very much needed and definitely deserved.)
And Sora angsts over that for a while until Chiaki very simply says, "Do you want things between the two of you to change?" And Sora realizes that yes, he does, he doesn't want things to stay the same, he wants to hold Tobi's hand and go on dates and call each other at weird hours for the sake of it and hold each other until they fall asleep and kiss him and -- well, you get the idea.
So he works up the courage, and it's one night some months before the national tournament when Sora asks Tobi to stay behind with him for extra practice. Sora is really nervous, and Tobi is like "??? Sure? Are ya okay?"
Sora, voice cracking: yEaH I'M FINE
Anyway, Sora misses like a solid sixty percent of his shots that practice and Tobi is. So confused.
Tobi to Mokichi: Did. Did somethin' happen.
Mokichi just shrugs, which does not make Tobi feel better.
So Tobi stays behind all the others to talk with Sora, and they're both really nervous. Obviously, Sora is about to confess, and Tobi is just so confused, and also some small part of him is going, "oh God did he figure out I like 'im????"
Nao and Mokichi kicked all the first and second years out after just an hour of individual practice, and Sora is grateful but also, "guys please don't make me confront my problems."
Nao: "Sora-kun if we waited for you to deal with this we'd be here 'till sunrise."
Mokichi, tiredly: "No, we'd be here until we turned old and gray."
Sora asks Tobi to sit with him while blushing, and Tobi complies, still very puzzled.
They make small talk for a minute, and then Sora abruptly says, "Kenji-kun... I... I think I have a crush on you".
Tobi gapes at him like a fish, opening and closing his mouth for a solid minute, and eventually, Sora.exe unfreezes and goes, "Sorry, I-" and Tobi just goes, "Fer real? Ya aren't prankin' me again?" in a surprisingly quiet voice.
And Sora is mildly offended but knows that's a fair assumption given their track record of prank wars, and he also almost wants to use the excuse Tobi has handily provided, but he just stands and goes "I'm sorry, I should leave-"
And Tobi leaps to his feet, grabs his hand, and says flat out, "Sora, I've 'ad a crush on ya since first year."
And Sora just kinda… short circuits. "Wait, really?"
Tobi just kinda rubs the back of his neck (shyly? Tobi gets shy?) and goes, "Yeah, I... I kinda only admitted it in tha middle a' second year, though."
And Sora says slowly, "You... you like me. You like me!" He laughs, relieved. "Holy shit, I was so scared you were going to reject me and it was going to ruin everything--"
And Tobi is just going oh my God, he's adorable, I can't deal with him, and takes Sora's chin in one hand and asks quietly, "Sora, can I kiss ya?" Sora's eyes, predictably, go wide, and he nods. (And please take a moment to recall and appreciate the fact that Tobi is canonically an entire foot taller than Sora. Sora is 149 cm (4'10.7) and Tobi is 178 (5'10.1). This is fantastic because I will bet actual money that this height difference has not shrunk; if anything, it has grown.)
They kiss just as the entire team bursts into the gym. Turns out, they were watching the whole thing, and honestly, none of them look that ashamed; they put up with the pair's bullshit for this long, they're invested now, and they deserved to know what happened.
"ALRIGHT MOTHERFUCKERS, THIS IS REVENGE FOR TWO AND A HALF YEARS OF USELESS GAY PINING," Nao yells. "KANAME-KUN, EVERYONE -- GRAB THEM!"
And the team lifts the yelling and protesting couple above their heads as Sora loudly objects and Tobi swears at them. The first years learn some creative new insults. The second and third years, on the other hand, are very accustomed to Tobi by this point, and aren't remotely surprised, but -- oh, haven't heard that one before, actually, says a second year. The others mutter assent. 
We have, Mokichi grouches. We third years have heard them all. 
Sora is small and easily hauled around, and Tobi is also pretty helpless when being held up above the heads of Mokichi and their first-year center. So they can’t really like... do anything about being dragged around.
Nao leads the team forward like an army, and they march to the pool to drop the two of them in, and when they resurface, fully clothed and soaked to the bone, Sora is laughing hysterically. (Assume Sora learned to swim at some point.)
Tobi is groaning, but he's grinning, and he swims over to the side of the pool -- and grabs Nao and Mokichi's ankles and drags them in, both of them yelling.
And Sora thinks, with Nao yelling in irritation but a sparkle in her eyes and a grin she's failing to fight off, with Mokichi laughing quietly as he flings his wet bangs out of his eyes, with Tobi laughing hysterically, his hair slicked back by water, with the four of them wearing all of their clothes and soaked to the bone, their entire team yanking off their shirts to jump into the pool with them and the moon and stars shining overhead, that he's never been happier.
And Tobi turns to him and grins, and Sora can't keep himself from jumping at Tobi -- who catches him, startled -- and kissing him again.  
And, like, hey, Tobi isn't about to complain.
They take about two months to settle into things, and then it's just like... I'm sorry, who thought letting Kurumatani "Embodiment of Chaos" and Natsume "Biggest Problem Child Ever" Kenji date was a good idea?????
It's a bit awkward for a while because they're still feeling things out and figuring out what they're both comfortable with, but then they finally click, and it's... pure fucking chaos.  
Sora will not stop stealing Tobi's clothes and Tobi is not happy about it, mostly because -- Sora, if ya keep stealin' my clothes while I am in the changin' room, then I do not 'ave clothes to wear ya stupid chibi--
Tobi has stormed into the gym shirtless at least twice yelling, "SORA! GIVE BACK MY FUCKIN' SHIRT!"
Listen. Listen we have a total of three scenes of Tobi being shirtless, and two of them were in front of plenty of people. Tobi is many things, but body shy is not one of them. He wouldn't care. 
(Post-Kitasumi loss, post-Shinjo loss, and that one scene of him dribbling in a park or something at night with an audience. The night before they played Taiei.)
Tobi: Are ya ever jus' tryin' to figure out where all yer clothes have gotten ta and then ya turn ‘round and see 'em all on yer dumbass tiny boyfriend?
Sora, clearly utterly unapologetic, wearing Tobi's sweatshirt: Oops. 
Chiaki, probably: SOME OF US ARE SINGLE STOP RUBBING IT IN.
As mentioned before, Sora is canonically 149 cm (~4'10.7), and Tobi is 178 cm (~5'10.1). There's a 29-centimeter difference, almost an entire foot, and frankly, that difference has grown a few centimeters, and you bet Tobi is going to abuse the shit out of this.
He literally holds things Sora wants over Sora's head all the time and Sora hates it. Like yes, Tobi did this before they dated too, but now Tobi is doing it more just to be annoying. It's also the only way Tobi can keep his clothes out of Sora's hands whenever they aren't on Tobi's person. (It's kind of hard to steal a shirt when someone is wearing it.) 
"THIS IS ABUSE!"
"Me holdin' m' own jacket above m' head so that ya can't steal it from me isn't abuse, it’s self-preservation! It’s like -20 degrees out there, Sora, use yer own jacket!"
I personally headcanon Tobi shooting up like a weed, but whether he did or not, he's probably between 180 and 190 now (5'11 and 6'3). Meanwhile, Sora is like maybe 155-60. It is possible that Sora also shoots up, but I feel like he would hit 165 at most. That would have him growing 16 cm, which is 8 inches, so. That's a lot of inches to grow in two and a half years. 
The things Tobi holds above his head are mostly his own clothes and also food items, plus the occasional basketball.
He also sometimes will nab Sora's clothes and hold them up in the air just to get back at him. Sora will be leaping up in the air, trying to reach his clothes, while Tobi stands there with a shit-eating grin holding Sora's shirt over his head. It looks so stupid. Nao and Mokichi both have multiple videos of it. (Nao has like five.) (What? She suffered, alright? Let her have this blackmail, at least.)
Sora: :( My boyfriend is too tall for me to kiss him on the lips, what should I do?
Momoharu: Punch him in the stomach. Then, when he doubles over in pain, kiss him.
Nao: Tackle him.
Chiaki: Dump him.
Mokichi: Kick him in the shin.
Tobi: NO TO ALL A' THOSE, JUST ASK ME TA LEAN DOWN!
Nao and Mokichi and Momoharu and Chiaki and Madoka and literally all of their friends are still giving them a hard time for being useless gays and taking two and half years to deal with their feelings even five years later. They're never going to live it down.
As adults, juggling careers and their growing relationship is hard.
They both go to universities in Tokyo, thankfully, and don't have to do long distance, and get an apartment together in their third year.
Tobi probably joins the B.League, and maybe Sora does too. (I dunno, I'm not committing to anything with career HCs.)
If they do, they have to keep their relationship secret; it would be a huge deal to be gay athletes in Japan (or... anywhere.) Most of their teammates know, though. Like... Sora regularly shows up to practice in Tobi's sweatshirts.
The sexual tension whenever they play each other is intense, though.
(My pet headcanon for Tobi is actually him going to university in America and joining the NBA. While I want to do that with Sora too, the mangaka apparently turned down two anime deals because they ended with Sora in the NBA. I haven't fact-checked that, though.)
They're around 25 when the world as a whole finds out. It either comes out because one of them is like, "hey babe do ya wanna just come out? We have enough money to retire if this goes south," "Oh sure," or because they mess up so drastically that people figure it out. After all, it would take a lot to break past the "they're such good friends!" mentality of sports reporters. Like seriously. These two are not subtle. They can let heteronormativity do most of the work for them, in all honesty. 
Anyway, it comes out, and the media goes into an uproar, and they retreat to visit Sora's dad in Nagano without telling anyone except their coaches and closest friends where they've holed up and just let the world burn while they enjoy tea and the view of the mountains and avoid social media like the plague. 
Assuming it was planned:
Tobi, the day before coming out, on his official twitter: I'll be doing a no-electronics retreat with my partner for two weeks, so I won't be on social media. Enjoy your week!
Or possibly the way he came out, besides their official announcement on Sora's account, was just "I'll be doing a no-electronics retreat with my boyfriend, @KurumataniOfficial, for the next two weeks. Bye y'all, have a good two weeks! :)" because that has Tobi's chaotic energy.
Edit: Actually? I take that back. SORA would do that. That has SORA'S chaotic energy.
When people get homophobic, all of their friends -- high school, college, adult life -- are immediately down to throw hands. 
The Japanese highschool circle of people who went professional is small and pretty close-knit, and the NBA and B.League sides are quite close to each other as well. Shiraishi and Fuwa, who are both in the NBA, both riot when people attack their old acquaintances from high school. I personally headcanon Fuwa as a raging chaotic bi, because -- hair. Yozan, for that matter, is also pretty pissed off. 
Fuwa probably gets on twitter and goes, "What's this bullshit about them being gay???? Of course they're gay. Have you ever seen them interact for more than two seconds??? Are you blind??? Wait, nope. Sorry. Don't want to insult blind people. ARE YOU ACTUALLY THAT DUMB????"
Momoharu tweets," 'Wow, imagine being so insecure in your masculinity that you can't share a changing room with a gay man' --My twin Chiaki, and Sora and Tobi's HS teammate, upon them coming out in HS" and first Sora's teammates start retweeting it and then Tobi's and then every single one of both their teams’ members retweets it. It's fantastic. 
Then Shiraishi (who, again, is in the NBA) retweets it, and it goes completely viral. Chiaki is so happy but also really pissed that it's Momoharu's account. 
Momoharu ribs him about it for a solid three weeks just to be obnoxious. 
There's actually no one on either of their teams that didn't already know about the relationship. Again, they're not subtle together. If there was any drama, it was presumably resolved by getting rid of the homophobe. 
Anyway, so while shit hits the fan, Sora and Tobi just shelter in place and their friends all react by going to war, which both of them are a bit taken aback by, but like, they aren't complaining about it. They're both touched actually.  
For marriage, honestly, neither one of them proposes in any fancy manner; they probably decided to get married because the topic comes up due to taxes. Sora goes, "Hey, do you think we should get married? The taxes would be cheaper," without really thinking about it, and Tobi goes, "Honestly, if it means everyone will stop badgerin' us about 'tyin' the knot' or whatever, I vote we elope," and that's that. Some two hours later while making dinner, Sora goes, "HOLY SHIT WAIT ARE WE ENGAGED?" and Tobi, who was reading, stares at him for three seconds, processes that, and slowly goes, "...I guess? Yeah, I guess we are. Wow. We did that." 
Sora slams his head on the table and Tobi just very tiredly says, "babe, no, ya need those brain cells." 
Assume gay marriage is by this point legal and accepted.
When asked how they got engaged, everyone is just like, "THAT'S SO ANTICLIMACTIC?????" This is also the media's reaction.
Interviewer: Why did you and Natsume-san decide to get married?
Sora, shrugging: Taxes are easier with your partner when you're married.
But they went to get rings together on their tenth anniversary shortly after deciding to get married, and if that isn't sappy as hell, I don't know what is. 
They probably don't wait long for the wedding and don't bother making it a huge thing; they invite all their friends, hire some folks to keep the media out no matter what, and hire a few people to film it and figure they can share that footage later. ("I am not havin' the media at my weddin' that is a private event for friends and family -" "Love, I am not arguing with you, I don't want them there either???")
Nao will be best woman for one of them at the wedding, and you bet she will give them so much shit for being disasters back in high school in her speech.
Juri, who by that point is like 20 something, because the disaster gays don't get married till they're at least 28 to 30, is either Tobi's best woman or playing some significant role in the wedding. She also roasts her brother and brother-in-law. 
Tobi and Juri are definitely half-siblings, just in terms of time. He looked five or six when his biodad died, and she seems about the same age, meaning there's a ten-year gap. 
Also, it's implied in the manga, so. 
The newly-weds are just sitting there groaning as their friends/family members roast them, but they're both grinning. 
The vows are probably really, really sappy, and Tobi can claim it's Sora's fault as much as he wants, but he's honestly also kind of a sap too and all his friends know it.
Tobi's stepdad is not invited. In fact, Tobi goes out of his way to send an edited version of the invitation to him that basically says, "Wedding! You're not invited!" while Sora and Juri die of laughter in the background. His mother does come, though -- she eventually moved out following the "her younger sister stormed in boiling with righteous fury on behalf of her son" incident. While the couple never got a divorce, they haven't spoken in years. 
The invitees are actually mostly friends, not family. While Sora's dad, grandma, and extended family come, Tobi's only present family are his sister, his aunt, his mother, and his biodad's brother (and the brother's wife and kids.) But they have hundreds of friends there; Nao, Mokichi, Momoharu, Chiaki, Madoka, Yasu, Chukie, Nabe, their kouhai from their second and third years, Satsuki with his wife and two kids, Shiraishi, Fuwa, Yozan, Mineta, Yakku, Nino, Tarou, both of their professional teams and all the team staff, the national team that they played with, Sakamaki, Yuka and Tomohisa’s friends, Madoka's older sister, their college teammates and classmates -- the list literally just doesn't stop. For like. Days. That guest list was the hardest part of the wedding, actually.
The symbol they use on the invitations is a dragon. Momoharu and Nao both cry when they see the nod to the Kuzuryu team. (Chiaki does not cry, he claims. Momoharu calls bullshit, and Momoharu is, for once, completely right.) 
The cake has wing patterns curving up the sides; one kite wing with a healed injury, and a duck wing in front of the silhouette of an eagle wing. ("I'm sappy, Ken, sue me." "Actually, I think that's adorable, so go ahead.") 
The healed injury was Tobi's idea, though. Sora was confused, but Tobi explained that Sora and Kuzuryu brought him back to basketball as a team sport, and healed him from the pain of being pushed away from his family. Sora cries.
The shadow of the eagle wing was also Tobi's idea. He says "I agree that yer a duck because I love ya to pieces but yer still short as shit-" "Oi." "-but I also think ya learned how to fly in yer own right. Swimmin' and duckin' be damned. Ya fly on the court, Sora." 
Sora does not cry again. He does not. ("Sure ya didn't." "SHUT UP KEN-") (He definitely teared up a little, because Tobi is looking at him with a soft smile and the most affectionate look in his eyes, and holy shit, I love him, and I'm going to marry him????
They go to Nagano and Hiroshima to visit their parents' graves after the wedding. Both of them are sappy about it. "I wish you could have met him" speeches, basically, while the other stands out of earshot.
They then proceed to screw off to Hawaii on a honeymoon for two weeks, since it's the offseason. 
Either they combine their names, or Tobi takes Sora's last name.
I feel like Tobi would, just to spite his stepdad. I'm pretty sure Natsume is his stepdad's last name, since Tobi is seen wearing a helmet that is probably his dad's in a flashback, and it has a different name on it. Might've been a company name, though. Idk.
Sora is maybe crying when they change the nameplate on their Tokyo apartment to read "Kurumatani-Natsume Sora and Kurumatani-Natsume Kenji" because "holy shit that's my fucking husband!!!!!"
And Tobi just laughs and wraps his arms around him and drags him down onto the couch to hold him, and Sora thinks that life is good. Very good. 
And if Nao and Mokichi and Momoharu and Chiaki and Madoka and Juri and crew all crash their place five seconds later, well, Sora thinks, that just makes it better. 
wow! if you made it through this entire thing i am grateful to you for reading! and lowkey impressed because this is almost 5000 words. see my Ahiru No Sora Headcanons tag for more! there is also a Sora/Nao relationship headcanons post.
6 notes · View notes
mikaa-exe · 5 years
Text
Demon hunter au | Demon!Hyunjin x DemonHunter!Reader
Tumblr media
Requested by @jung-snoopy-woo, thank you so much for your kind words ^^
•Gender neutral reader
•fluff uwu
•some swear words here and there
•might have some typos but I'll fix them asap if I find any
Ok
We don't want to brag here but
You kinda were the best demon hunter of your area
Those naughty creatures got nothing on you
You were always one step ahead
You've been doing this for so long that you already knew every trick they would use to mislead you, every action and almost every face and name -_-
And you could see that they were scared of you, even if they didn't show it
You're basically a whole badass reader damn!!
Let's give some context here
So there's been demons around since before you were born
They aren't the evil bloodthristy creatures that you normally find in books or movies
Well most of them aren't
Some of them kill and do that whole satan thing but the rest are chill most of the time
They're just a pain in the butt jesus
The demons love to be mischievous and play tricks on every one
They steal not because they need money or products but because they love chaos
They go to peoples houses just to mess with their closets and dishes
They eat your food before you can even finish cooking it
They even steal candies from children >:( those bastards
So it's your job to capture these creatures when they get too out of control
You're amazing but there is one specific demon that haunts your nightmares
Hwang Hyunjin -_-
This demon has been YOUR pain in the butt for almost 6 years now!!
The first time he appeared was in your bedroom, you were about to fall asleep when you felt your hair being pulled from behind you
Boy you were hella fast to jump from your bed and grab the closest thing to you in that moment, which was YOUR GUN- no I'm joking, it was a knife, you don't bring guns to bed, that's gross
You looked around but it was too dark to see anything so you sneackly walked to the switch and BAM
No one was there
The fuck
-_-
Now at this point you were positive it was a demon but why wasn't he showing itself or attacking you again? That's not common of them
-"Did you lose something?"
JESUSWTFISHAPPENINGBITCHIGOTAKNIFEANDIMNOTAFRAIDTOUSEIT
The voice behind you made you jump and hit your head in the light that hanged from the wall
Well ouch that was really unecessary
You looked up and--
Wow hello cutie
NOP
WHAT THE FUCK READER IT'S A DEMON AND IT JUST PULLED YOUR HAIR GET YOUR FEELINGS TOGETHER
The little shit had the audacy to l a u g h
Bitch
- "Aren't you supposed to be the best demon hunter here?"
You gave this little shit your scariest gaze
At least the scariest you could while sitting on the floor with your hair all over the place
-"WhY? dO yOu hAvE A pRoBlEm SiR?"
-"Mmh idk... Thought you'd be taller"
And just like that he desapeared, leaving you on the floor still trying to digest what the heck had happened here
So there you go, that's how you two met
From that day on he made sure to visit you almost everyday
He's the one who switches your socks right before you go out just to see you wearing mismatching socks like an idiot
He puts salt on your morning cereal and sugar on your lunch
He goes to school with you and just follows you everywhere
-"Is this what you chose to wear to school? Geez"
-"vxhdbxvvx can you not"
-"That girl is looking at you funny, you should spit on her"
-"WtF sPiT?!"
-"Omg the teacher asked you a question and you're taking this long to answer?"
-"Shut up I'm thinking!!!"
-"What if you stood up right now and started dancing the floss?"
-"Why would I do that?"
-"Why aren't you talking to me? :("
-"Hyunjin I am in class and I don't want to talk"
-"Why do you keep responding then?"
-"I'm about to punch you so hard--"
-"You can't, you're in class"
-"ARHHHHHH"
You would laugh at how ridiculous this situation was if it had nothing to do you with you
BUT IT HAD UFFF
You tried everything to get Hyunjin to leave you alone
Demon traps, boxes, holy water because why not
You tried violence once but the best you managed to do was throwing him some cookies
Guess what
You missed
And you waisted some perfectly good cookies :(
You're not a violent person in general bUT THIS BOY AHH
You even tried talking to him at one point about this whole situation but he was too busy drawing on your kitchen walls with tomato sauce
It was starting to get to you so you reported him to your superiors but they said they didn't have any complains about a demon named Hyunjin
So that means this idiot is only here to mess with you and you only
WHY CRUEL WORLD WHY
Ok
Let's be fair
He never seemed interested in actually hurting you or doing anything too mean
He just seemed to want your attention God knows why
So if you're stuck dealing with him might as well try and enjoy this situation
What do people usually say?
If you can't win, join them
Instead of yelling at him or throwing him your book collection for the third time you asked how his day went and even offered him some cookies
Let's just say he was s h o o k
He just stood there, mouth open and completly lost
JSHDJDBBDNSNVDKD
READER YOU BROKE HIM!!!
You?! Being nIcE to him?!
Is this a joke, where are the cameras?!
The only thing he managed to say was a shy "Good.." and a mumbled "no thanks"
O M G :o
The demon that's capable of spending the whole night talking about God knows what is out of words .. WOW!
The next day you found him repainting his old masterpiece on your kitchen wall but with mustard this time
You quietly walked up to him and replaced the mustard in his hand with a rug
-"I like this smell better"
HE WAS SO CONFUSED THE POOR THING!!
He looked down with the face of someone who was having an existential crisis and started cleaning your wall
You smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up to which he responded with a blink and a worried smile
SJBDJSMBDJE HELP
So yeah, from that day foward you tried being nice to him and understanding his needs and actions
And if we're being honest here
He wasn't all that bad when you got to know him better
Aparently the other demons didn't like him that much so he tried to find other ways to entertain himself
You thought maybe boddering you was his way of expressing himself??
He thought that was the only way he could get your attetion
So you tried teaching him how to help instead of being annoying
He still went to school with you but now he insisted to help by carrying some of your stuff
He was quieter during classes and even started answering some questions on a notebook that you offered him
Maybe it was out of boredom but you were so happy!!
He was learning and that was so good and adorable! ^w^
He asked for your help sometimes with the things he couldn't solve
And you thought he looked so cute when he would bite your pencil whenever a harder question came up
You two started doing homework together and he was getting so much better at each subject
You felt like a proud mother :')
He would now watch you while you cooked for you both and would occasionally ask some questions like why did you put that in there or why were you mixing the ingredients with a fork and not a spoon
So you tried teaching him how to cook
Let's just say he was a whole m e s s
So after hours of intense baking you ended up with a weird red mix and some mashed potatoes
Your kitchen was dirty, sticky, slippery and oN FIRE OMG!!!!!!
After a visit from the fire department Hyunjin promised he would be more careful and ask you before turning on anything
You also discovered he was a whole teddy bear
Omg this boy was so soft and cuddly
He's such a clingy demon but he was also kinda shy, specially at first
THE UWUs
THEY EXPLODED
He started by getting closer to you until your shoulders touched but if you looked at him with a questioning gaze he would immediately push you to the ground and run away with a evil laugh and some flushed cheeks
Whenever you had free time you two would do a movie marathon that always ended up with holding hands or falling asleep on each other
He once had the brilliant idea that you two should definitely watch a horror movie one night
He thought it would be the perfect opportunity to prove you how strong he was and how he could protect you
But it didn't go like he had hoped to
You two ended up a trembling mess of limbs, cuddled up to each other as Hyunjin whispered how bad of an idea that was and how it was all your fault
THIS BITCH I CAN'T-
Some days you would just arrive home totally exhausted and Hyunjin would make you some warm tea and cuddle you on the sofa until you fell asleep
He'd try to stay awake in case you wanted to move or go to your room but you were so warm and cozy that he was gone not even a minute after you
He'd also insist on doing your hair when you were going out
He loved it and he had a lot of fun so anytime he had the opportunity he would ask you to let him help
At first you ended up with a mess of braids and accessories that formed a weird nest on your head
BUT HYUNJIN LOOKED SO HAPPY WITH HIS PUPPY EYES AHH
You ended up going out like that
But he got better with time
Whenever you had to leave him alone at home you would write him a list of things for him to do and others that he shouldn't even attempt to
You arrived later and found your house a little messier than before and Hyunjin cleaning a weird green goo that mysteriously fell on the floor
Y o u r f l o o r
But you couldn't be mad at him now, specially because when Hyunjin saw you he tackled and trapped you in a big bear hug that immediately melted all your anger
How can someone be so cute Hwang Hyunjin wHAT IS HE DOING TO YOU
How dare he mess with your feelings this way
You two started opening up more and more to each other and BAM that's how you got your super demon best friend :D
His mischievous side wasn't all gone, he still pranked you once in a while but now you were sure it wasn't for the sake of being mean
And he made sure to compensate you with cuddles, an attempt of a meal or a gift made of things he found around the house
It so was weird
At first you couldn't handle him but now you two are inseparable!
It's unusual but you both make it work
Your own way ^^
81 notes · View notes
Text
I See The Way They Look At Me (Peter Parker x Female Reader) Part One (1)
Title is from 'O.D.D' by Hey Violet (it's a really good song btw)
A/N - Uh, I might make this into a lil series
Tumblr media Tumblr media
~~
Peter Parker was a good kid. He was good in school, not counting the occasions that he skipped. And when he skipped, I skipped. You see, he's Spiderman. Yeah, that dude who can shoot webs. Yeah. It's pretty normal.
Me? Well, I'm an Asgardian. Loki's daughter. Yep. But it gets better! Because my father is half Jotun, guess what! I am too! Which means that technically I'm a princess of Jotunheim. It's a weird one. Luckily enough, the Frost Giants in Jotunheim seem to like me.
My Dad was the god of Mischief, and Lies. My Uncle was the god of Thunder. My grandfather, not biological, was just the king, but he's...not the nicest. I guess I ended up being the god of Animals? And any other mythical beast that isn't humanoid, except anything that bears human-like intelligence, with a few exceptions.
Dragons, for example. They're extremely intelligent. But, lo and behold, I can still chill out (haha) with them.
Which brings me to why I'm on...Earth? Is that what this place is called? Or Midguard, I guess.
Odin wasn't too impressed by the fact that I was a literal animal magnet. Dragons would fly in, and I would have to fly them out, although I did enjoy watching them wreak havoc.
Sometimes I would scare Thor by befriending a Thunder Dragon. Thunder Dragons are big, huge, serpentine beasts. They're long, ridiculously long, and have a massive wingspan. They also have four eyes, two on each side. They're pretty cute. Anyway. Uncle Thor is pretty scared of them, because they're one of the only creatures he can't scare off with his powers. So, when we were both walking around outside the city, I called one over, quickly befriended it, and then proceeded to prank Thor. He wasn't very impressed.
Anyway, because of my tendency to bring dangerous beasts in, Odin sent me down to Midguard so I could stay with the Avengers.
Me and Peter had taken to each other pretty quickly. We got on like a house on fire, one could say, but I don't really deal with fire. That why I stay away from any Helhounds, they're literally furnaces. Mean as well. They've got bark, literally, and bite.
So, once Peter learned of what I could do, he kept asking for demonstrations. I'd take him to somewhere remote, using the Asgardian version of a portal, and then I'd call over any creature he wanted me to. I once summoned a huge spider. We called him Aragog, because Harry Potter.
And while I showed off, Peter would observe me. He'd learnt most of my little quirks. Like how I had a tendency to slip into a baby voice when talking to animals. Especially snakes.
I must've picked that trait up from my Father. I had also inherited his personality, although I'm a little bit easier to approach.
Peter told Tony about my love of snakes, and the next day, when I got back from school, there was a full sized Vivarium, with a baby Durrell's Ground Boa inside. I named him Korealis. He's a few months old now, and where I go, he goes. No joke. He even comes with me to school.
They...know who I am. And because I am technically a god, they can't do anything. I maybe revel in that a bit too much. Korealis wraps himself around my neck, loosely, and stares at people. I mean, he can't blink, he doesn't have eyelids, so, y'know.
Ever since Tony got me Korealis, we've been close. Sure, Loki is my Dad, and I love him despite everything, and I used to see him a lot, but Tony's like a second father. Surprisingly, Dad didn't doesn't mind. He actually liked the fact that me and Tony are so close. I guess he did not care, as long as I was safe.
Hey, I went off topic again!
Peter...there were times when I wondered if he was really as fine as he seemed to be. Nobody his age should be seeing the things he's seen. The Infinity War? That was horrible. I was there. I was on Titan.
I saw him...no.
No.
I wouldn't think about that. I wouldn't think about how I cried. Oh, how I cried. I was already a mess because of Dad, but that was the final straw. After that, I helped Thor with New Asgard. I asked Dragons and Griffons and Pegasi to protect the land, and they agreed, gladly. To any non magical being, they just look like birds. But to another Asgardian, or a Sorcerer, or someone who knew what they were, they looked as they normally did. Majestic beasts, soaring through the sky. Graceful. Ready to attack. Ready to defend.
After New Asgard was stable, I headed off. I trained, honed my skills, until I was just like my Father. I think he'd be proud of me now, y'know. If only he could see me.
I missed him.
Then the remains of the Avengers came calling, and all it took for me to crack was to look at Tony, and I was a sobbing mess again. The memories came flooding back.
But it's over now. Tony was hurt, but he's okay. Pepper wants him to retire, but he's as stubborn as my Father. He won't retire.
When I first came here people were scared. Loki's attack was still fresh in the minds of some, and seeing me, smirking like the world was at my control, only caused memories to resurface. Even Tony was tense. Thor was quick to soothe everyone, though, reassuring them that, although personality wise, I was my Father, I wouldn't try to take over the world.
After I reverse engineered Tony's suit, and made my own, he warmed up to me. I guess he wasn't expecting me to be able to do it. But I did! And now I have my own suit. It's not like Tony's, mine is green and gold, and lighter so that I could move faster, and dodge easier. I replaced the repulsors with Asgardian Tech, and I chose to harness the Frixe Dragon's powers. I fired ice beams from one hand, and from the other, fire. I could freeze someone if I needed, and then unthaw them. Simple.
Peter was pretty impressed by that feat, and he literally took every chance he could to try and befriend me after that. Ugh, he makes me soft, I swear. For a while I was cautious, I didn't want to let my guard down, but I soon let him in, and, well, the rest is history.
Mine and Peter's first kiss was when he came back, after the whole Thanos fiasco. I was too excited, I couldn't contain myself, and after seeing him come back, I couldn't stop myself. I rand forwards, and I kinda just did it. Peter was grinning like a dork when I realised what I'd done, and I'd pulled away, and quickly darted off, taking to the air in my suit. Tony still teased me about that moment. Everyone did. I guess we were a little ray of sunshine in a battle.
It's kinda cute when you put it that way.
Me and Peter started dating two months after the kiss. He'd gathered the courage to ask if I could show him some more magical creatures, and I happily agreed, taking him to Mount Kilimanjaro. We sat halfway up, and I showed him Griffons, a Pygmy Faerie Dragon, and a Arachnellkero. Basically a giant spider, with wings. Once I'd sent them back, he asked for me to show him my favourite. I paused, thinking, and I then called a Basilisk. It was young, and therefore it's gaze was useless. No harm was caused. Peter smiled brightly at me, and in that moment, I couldn't help but smile back.
After I returned the Basilisk, we sat in a peaceful silence. Perfectly calm. At some point we wound up holding hands. At some point I fell asleep. At some point he called Stephen to portal us home.
I think Thor borrowed Tony's phone to take a picture of that moment. I don't blame him.
I wonder what my Father would say now. Would he be proud? Or disappointed, as Odin always was with him? But...Loki swore to me that he wouldn't be like Odin, and he wasn't. And he's dead now, damn it!
I missed him, I thought, as tears ran down my face. I wanted him back.
To Be Continued...
34 notes · View notes
lovelynojams · 5 years
Text
Can you keep a secret?
Type: Mermaid!AU ; Jimin x Reader
Warnings: None
Word Count: 2.2K
Summary: You are a mermaid living in the ocean as you decide to live like a normal girl. You visit a school in Busan, South Korea and learn about all things that humans do. You even learn how to love someone, even though he doesn't even know that you exist, until one day he finds out about your secret.
Tumblr media
It's tough being a human. There are so many rules you have to follow. As a mermaid your only rule is to not let any human know about your secret. Which isn't exactly easy since I've entered the human world but I still managed to hide my secret for nearly a year now and that's because I live with a woman, Kim Yoobin, who is also a mermaid. She acts like my mom and lets me live in her house. Her house has this room that has a pool in it which is connected to the ocean. I don't have any close friends because it's dangerous. I get along with a few people but nothing more than chitchat or hang out in a café . It gets pretty lonely, though. Every time I feel sad I go for a swim.
When I'm in the water, everything feels possible. I feel free and euphoric. I swim with the dolphins who are extremely nice. These are my only close friends and they're even better than humans. Dolphins aren't arrogant and mean. They're not Sumin. She is this popular girl who everyone thinks that she is pretty. I don't understand that because she isn't really that pretty. I hate her.
Well, maybe I just hate her because she is always hanging out with a boy I like, Park Jimin. He is this rich boy who is extremely popular. Even thinking about him gives me goosebumps. I know that I don't have chances with him and even if I did, nothing could happen between us because I'm a mermaid. It still gets me pretty upset though when I see Sumin and Jimin together even if novody knows if they are even dating.
I walked down the school halls towards my locker. I saw Sumin standing in front of it. Next to her, Jimin. She was all touchy with him what made me pretty mad. I walked towards them and waited for them to go away but Sumin just looked annoyed at me. ,,What do you want?", she asked me and threw her brown hair back. ,,You're standing in front of my locker", I said calmly and politely. ,,Just wait until we're gone, loser", she said harshly. I sighed and turned away. I wanted to walk away but an idea crossed my mind. I looked around and noticed that no one was looking towards them. Sumin held a bottle in her hand and I focused on the water. In just a few seconds the water jumped right in her face. Everyone was now looking at her and laughing. She looked pretty shocked. Madly she walked past me and I couldn't help but smile. I walked to my locker and noticed Jimin standing there still smiling. I opened my locker and he watched me what made me really nervous. ,,Are you new?", he asked me out of nowhere. ,,No, I'm actually here for about a year now", I answered him while I took my books. ,,Oh, really? Uhm... There is this big party tomorrow night at my place. You should definitely come", he said leaning his shoulder on the lockers. ,,I'll think about it", I answered and closed my locket. I gave him a smile and walked away. He really invited me? That's amazing! But parties are not my thing. I love to talk to people but at parties there is always the possibility to get wet. But Jimin invited me and I think I can handle a night, right?
,,You're not going there", Mrs. Kim said. ,,Why not?", I asked confused. ,,Because you're a mermaid! I don't want you to show the world our secret", Mrs. Kim explained and put her book away. ,,I won't do that. I'll be extremely careful. When I don't go to any party maybe people will get suspicious", I tried to debate. ,,Fine, but know that... if anything goes wrong...", she said and I finished her sentence: ,,...You and I part ways and move to other cities or countries. But that won't be the case since I'm super careful", I said and she sighed. ,,Fine", Mrs. Kim said and I hugged her. ,,Thank you", I said and went to the back of the house. I unlocked the door and went inside. I jumped in the water and my tail grew automatically. I saw out in the big wide ocean. There it was again, that feeling. The feeling of freedom. I swam to a place where I knew that nobody was there. There were rocks so I could change back without anyone noticing something. As I had my legs back I walked to a café. There were a few people I knew but I didn't want to squeeze myself next to them. I ordered myself a drink and sat down in a booth all by myself. I noticed everyone looking at their phone. I had a phone, Mrs. Kim bought me one but I never use it. I don't understand how to use it. It's really confusing.
Suddenly someone sat in front of me. I looked up and nearly got a heart attack. It was Park Jimin. ,,Hey, I didn't catch your name earlier", he said and smiled at me. ,,I'm Kim Y/N", I said nervously. Mrs. Kim made me practice that like a lot so that I don't mess it up. ,,I'm Park Jimin. Why are you sitting here alone? Are you waiting for someone?", he asked and looked around. ,,No, I like being alone", I answered and looked at my drink. ,,If you want I can leave", he suggested but I shook my head. ,,It's nice having company sometimes", I answered him and he smiled. ,,So, Kim Y/N, where are you from?", ,,Seoul", I answer practiced. ,,You don't talk much, do you?", he asks uncomfortably laughing. No, I do but when I tell a lie more detailed it can get unlogical. ,,Yeah, I'm not that talkative", I answered and smiled. ,,Well, hopefully I'll see you at my party tomorrow. If you're coming you should definitely look for me so we can continue our talk", he said and stood up. With one last smile he left the café. I wish something cound happen between us. As I was drinking, someone came to me. It was Sumin. ,,Why are you flirting with Jimin?", she asked angrily. ,,I wasn't flirting", I answered. ,,Back off or I'll make you regret even moving here", she said putting her hand on the table and leaning forward. ,,Wow, you look dry, what happened to your bottle?", I asked smiling. She even looked angrier now. She took my drink and spilled it over me. Oh, dear god, no. I stood up and ran out of the café. I walked outside and saw Jimin standing there. I ran past him to the deck and jumped into the water. I knew that Jimin saw me and he must've thought about how weird and ridiculous that was. Well, now he thinks I'm a weirdo what is still better than him knowing I'm a mermaid.
I swam back to Mrs. Kims house and stayed in the pool a little bit longer. Maybe I shouldn't go to the party tomorrow. I just had luck today. What if I'm not so lucky tomorrow. I would have to go away from here. And I would destroy Mrs. Kim's life. Suddenly someone came out of the water next to me. It was Mrs. Kim. ,,Why so sad, my dear?", she asked me and I hesitated. ,,Nothing important", I said. I wanted to tell her that I'm not going but she didn't let me talk. ,,I'm sorry. I know that you're responsible and that you can take care of yourself and protect all mermaids. I believe in you", she said and smiled. She dragged herself out of the water and took a towel to dry herself. I don't know why but her speech changed my mind. Immediately. ,,Thank you, Mrs. Kim", I said and wanted to swim out. ,,Where are you going?", she asked me. ,,Shopping", I answered and swam out. I went to a shop and bought a beautiful dress. It was a black dress with a deep neckline and wide sleeves which went to elbows. It was beautiful. After that I walked home and changed into the dress. After that I did my makeup and hair. I looked pretty good. I said goodbye to Mrs. Kim and left the house.
I was in front of Jimin's house. The door was open and the rooms filled with people. I don't fit here at all. Maybe I should just go. I turned my back but I couldn't move my legs. I don't want to walk away. I can do this. I took a deep breath and walked inside. A few people were drunk and others were laughing and talking. No one even noticed that I was here. I felt so invisible. I walked further inside to see if there were places which were less crowded. I suddenly stood in front of the stairs. I just sat down on the steps and watched the people. Of course my eyes just searched for that one special person but he was nowhere to be seen. ,,Hey, look who decided to show up", someone said and I immediately recognized the voice. Sumin. Ugh. ,,Just leave her alone", Jungkook, a close friend of Jimin, said. She just looked at me and walked away. ,,There is going to be a water balloon fight if you want to join", he offered me but I declined. ,,I don't want to get wet", I said and he just nodded.
I was looking at the people and still searched Jimin, but nobody has seen him. I wonder where he could be. Suddenly someone threw a water balloon on me. I stood up and looked at the person. ,,Oops, looks like you attract water", she said while everybody was laughing. I ran up the stairs. I didn't have time so I just opened the first door I could find and closed it behind me. After closing the door my tail grew and I fell on the floor. I sighed and looked up. Suddenly I met his eyes. Park Jimin. Out of all rooms I ended up in Jimin's room. He looked line he was frozen. He didn't move, not even blink. ,,Oh, shit", I cursed and looked away. I heated my tail with my hand. Jimin stood up and took a few steps back. After my legs grew back on I walked over to Jimin, but he stepped further away. ,,I gotta get out of here", he said and walked out. I followed him. ,,Jimin, wait", I said loudly behind him. The people looked at us but I couldn't care less. Jimin walked outside to the deck of their house. ,,Jimin, please. Let me explain", I said and he finally stopped walking. ,,Y/N, what are you?", he asked me still confused. ,,Look, Jimin. I'm a mermaid. But you can't tell that anybody because that would be the end of me and all other mermaids", I tried to explain. ,,There are other mermaids?", Jimin asked confused and I nodded. ,,Jimin, please. Don't tell anyone", I asked him and he looke at the ground. ,,Of course I won't tell anybody but this is huge. This is-", he said hectically and walked over to me. ,,I know, but please listen to me first", I said and he nodded slowly. We sat down on the edge of the deck and I started to explain what had happened in the last years.
After I've told him everything about myself he calmed down. ,,Please, don't be scared of me", I said and he smiled. ,,I know you won't do me any harm. You're a good person", he said and put his hand on my tigh. ,,Yeah, but I guess I gotta move now", I said sighing. ,,What? Why?", he asked confused. ,,The most important rule of a mermaid is to not let anyone know your secret and if someone does you gotta go far away so nobody will find you. God, how am I supposed to tell Mrs. Kim that she got to move because it's my fault?", I said frustrated. ,,No, please. Don't go. I swear to you I will tell no one about this", he swore and I smiled. ,,But still, I have to do this", I said and he looked at the ocean. ,,Don't go, because... I like you", he cobfessed. ,,What?", I asked cobfused. ,,I know that I just started talking to you two days ago but you actually caught my eye for a long time now", he said still not looking up. ,,But you asked me if I was new here", I asked him not really knowing if I should believe him. ,,I just wanted to build a conversation and I didn't know what to say", he said and smiled. He looked at me. He came closer until his lips were on mine. This felt real and I liked it. He pulled away and stared at me. ,,If you stay I really could see this going somewhere", he said and put his forehead on mine.
,,I will keep your secret forever, I promise".
1 note · View note
wickerjulias · 6 years
Note
okie dokie so i read all of the fics that you reccommended embarassly fast, do you have any long napollya recs i don't care if they're super angsty but I cannot deal with not a happy ending.... i'm sorry they were just so GOOD my favorites were toska and a literary manifesto !!! -your fic needing stalker anon
hey there anon!! i’m sorry for the delay. and omg yeah!! i love these two!! like wow!! 
unfortunately the tmfu fandom doesn’t a lot of very long fics, but i tried my best to find some for you. here you go, same format as your last ask, i hope you’re gonna have a blast reading them!
Tidings of Comfort and Joy by pinpointjudas (M)
Napoleon and Illya are sent to deepest, darkest Yorkshire to investigate a rumour that a THRUSH agent is spending Christmas at Castle Bellamy. Their brief is to hide in plain sight amongst other house guests. Napoleon is convinced it will be an almost enjoyable case, provided Illya cheers up, the ghost in his bedroom leaves him alone, and they catch the nefarious agent before anyone winds up dead...
Note: This one isn’t finished technically, because the epilogue is missing. I’d still give it a read though, because it’s written super well and because most of the issues the story deals with get resolved in the last chapter posted.
The Ghost War by manic_intent (E)
Aleppo was one of the oldest cities on earth, and once, it had been one of the most beautiful. Illya had been here before the war, when he was younger, young enough to be taken by wanderlust. He had walked through the very place he stood now, gawking at the crowds, the tightly packed stalls, listening to voices haggling in a language he did not understand, the market riotous with colour and laughter and spices. Now Al-Madina Souq was broken with rubble, its arched corridors blasted dark, its cathedral silence sometimes interrupted rudely by the distant staccato booming of artillery and gunfire, the ancient stone thick with the stench of rot and urine.
Note: This one is rather short in comparison to the others, but it’s so good!! I’d def rec it!
in sin + error by neroh, (M+E)
The mission is a simple one: retrieve a USB drive from a very bad man’s yacht off located in the Mediterranean Sea and confirm its destruction to HQ.Or another way Napoleon and Illya met.
Note: This one’s a series.
all that you have wished for, I know will come your way by janie_tangerine (E)
Napoleon isn’t quite sure he can put yes, because your superiors don’t get to see you gloating when you’re not playing chess against yourself, and they don’t get to discuss dumb opera plots with you, they don’t get to see you engrossed in cheap paperbacks and treat them like first editions because you care that much about what they say, and they don’t get to see that you have a personality and that it’s everything but unpleasant when one gets to know you, and I don’t understand why would anyone think it’s a good idea to treat you like an asset and not a person in words that might not sound completely ridiculous, never mind that he’s not even sure Illya would take such a rant seriously.
Or: where Illya has issues asking for what he wants if it falls under the unnecessary-to-his-job radar and Napoleon just might be a bit over in his head, but he's entirely willing to rectify that situation.
Wanting Too Much by Tallihensia (E)
A young soldier turned thief after the war, Napoleon goes to a black-market auction to sell a valuable painting... and comes away with something he didn't intend to buy – a Russian KGB agent. After an interesting night where they get to know each other, the next day finds them determined to do something to right some wrongs... but not all wrongs can be corrected that easily. As they work together, Napoleon learns some hard truths... but also comes away at the end with something more valuable than a painting.
Note: Technically speaking NOT with a happy end, but there is some sort-of sequel you can find in the endnotes of the fic.
By the Throat (T+E)
In which the KGB took some rather dubious measures to ensure Illya’s loyalty to Russia, and Napoleon doesn’t care for it.
Note: This is a series as well, but it’s restricted and only available if you have an AO3 account.
how certain the journey by Carthage (E)
Illya’s mark – Solo’s claim on his skin- is an ugly thing. In childhood it had shone like Solo’s, beautiful and good and bright, but then he had gone to the KGB, and there, they had tried to destroy the mark. To make him truly equal, and no one’s submissive. His mark has burned patches outlining it, thin crosshatches of scars, pockmarked pits of white skin- and yet, the mark returned, every time.
despite the passage by endquestionmark (E)
Illya has been waiting for something to happen for a very long time.
The Honey Trap by Mamalazzer (E)
"So congratulations, Peril," Napoleon drawled, looking so amused that he could see it was literally setting Illya's teeth on edge. "You have the supreme good fortune of getting to kiss me senseless. Now be a good sport and put your hands on my backside, would you? I'm beginning to feel neglected."
In which the boys have to go undercover as a couple, with Napoleon having a whale of a time while Illya isn't sure whether to knock Napoleon's teeth out or kiss him.
Spanning the Reaches byTallihensia (E+T)
Napoleon reflects on his partner while waiting to rescue him. Afterwards, Illya has a unique way of saying thank you for saving his life. Napoleon thinks it’s a good idea... and after Illya saves him, returns the thanks.
Note: A series as well.
The Trojan Affair bymanic_intent (E)
Ten minutes to go to ground zero and Artyom was still desperately trying to escape. “I have never attended little girl’s birthday party,” he pointed out repeatedly, and actually pouted, big blue eyes wide and pleading.
“Always a first time,” Napoleon said mercilessly, pulling on a charcoal Tom Ford blazer over his loose gray knit. “Mrs Siegfried invited us weeks ago, Artyom, don’t be a baby. You’ve had quite a while to gird your loins. We’re going to a party, not some sort of trench warfare. Smile.”
Artyom scowled, which was admittedly normally an adorable look even for a tall, blonde Russian giant of a man. “I do not like Mrs Siegfried,” Artyom declared, clearly intent on being as recalcitrant as possible.
The Gemini Affair by manic_intent (E)
In the first month of being co-opted into working with Illya Kuryakin full time at U.N.C.L.E., Napoleon stole Illya’s father’s watch four times, twice out of spite, once out of drunken curiosity, and once out of sheer boredom. After the fourth time, Gaby sprained one of Napoleon’s fingers and threatened to do worse if he did it again.
“You are not a spy,” she told him firmly, dangling the watch out of reach as Napoleon curled in a wincing, fetal position on his Le Corbusier couch in his upstate apartment. “You are a thief with the self-control of a child. Now give me back my ring.”
“What ring?” Napoleon asked innocently, even through the pain.
“How fond are you of your nose?” Gaby shot back blandly.
I am a part of all that I have met by ScribeofArda (T+M)
It's been over a year since Rome, since they stopped the world ending, since Napoleon made a choice and threw a watch across the room instead of pulling a gun. They've been spiralling together in that inevitable way, but neither Napoleon or Illya have been brave enough to take the first step across to the other.
Now it might all be too late, and Napoleon didn't think it would end like this: Illya lying in the street, ash and blood and Napoleon's name on his lips. There are a thousand unspoken words between them, begging to be heard before they become just another regret on top of the many they've already accumulated over the years, but the game never stops, not even for love.
Note: Again, a series.
Drowning Deep bySomedrunkpirate
Don’t follow the rabbit. He knows this. Don’t fall into the rabbit hole of memories. You’ll drown.
But Illya lives there, deep in the past, it’s the only way he gets through the day.
The Argonauts byleslielol
Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin accompany one another on a journey.
4 notes · View notes
summerfitzy · 7 years
Text
living the dream
Fandom: Skam Ships: Chris x Eva and Noora x William Summary: The double date is Chris’s idea. (Canon compliant if you squint and pretend Chris x Emma never happened.) ao3
Two New Messages from Christoffer Schistad:
Hey bro
You know how we’ve always said it would be cool to go on a double date
William Magnusson:
When has either of us ever said that
Three New Messages from Christoffer Schistad:
William
C’mon
 We’re dating best friends, this is the dream
William Magnusson:
You and Eva are dating now?
One New Message from Christoffer Schistad:
We will be when you talk your girl into a double date
The last time Eva went on a double date, she spent the night sitting across from Ingrid and Jonas while a guy she barely knew—and liked even less—groped her knee beneath a fast food restaurant table. She can’t remember his name.
(Unsurprising. She didn’t care who she dated back then, as long as she had someone to distract her from just how in love she was with her best friend’s boyfriend.)
Eva wishes she knew Chris back then, sometimes—a guy who might have been able to distract her out of ever dating Jonas at all. But then she remembers everything she learned about herself by breaking up with Jonas, just how much of a fuckboy Chris was when they first met, and just how unevenly matched they would have been at the time.
Sitting cross-legged on her bed as Noora applies a fresh coat of red lipstick, Eva fingers her recently curled hair. “It’s weird, isn’t it?” she says, filling the easy quiet that had settled between them.
Capping her lipstick, Noora turns away from her reflection. “Hm?”
The mirror catches Eva’s wrinkled brow and Noora’s straight blonde locks. “Could you have ever imagined going on this double date at the beginning of first year? You with William, me with Penetrator Chris?” 
It’s hard to say Penetrator Chris without laughing. She should maybe just start calling him Chris, if he’s really going to be her boyfriend. Which is seeming more and more likely by the day. The more days he doesn’t give up, the more she wonders if he might actually mean it when he calls her his girlfriend.
“No.” Noora flops down beside her on the bed, crossing her legs against its edge. “Never.”
It’s strange to remember who they were back then, to think about how much they’ve both changed. Noora had seemed untouchably independent to her when they first became friends. Eva used to feel the exact opposite.
“You said you’d never even touch William,” Eva remembers, teases. “How did that go for you?”
An innocent shrug. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
From the way her bright lips curve, though, Eva can see that Noora is completely aware of the reputation she and William have earned for ridiculously constant public displays of affection. They’re always touching or kissing or staring at each other so intensely that they might as well be. They may not hook up against walls at parties, but they're always sneaking away to free bedrooms or closets or, occasionally, William’s car. 
(Eva winces just thinking about that last one—the last time she attempted car sex, she bumped into the horn at least three times, banged her head against the ceiling at least three more, and almost flashed a couple who happened to be strolling nearby. Chris spent the rest of the night teasing her for it.)
“Of course not.” Legs still crossed, Eva falls back against her bed, glances at her phone’s clock, and segues: “There’s no way they’re getting here on time.” They still have five minutes, but she’s guessing it will be at least another five after that, between William’s hair and Chris’s vanity.
Noora tilts her head. “I can’t remember the last time William had to pick me up for date. He’s always just there, lately.”
That would be because Noora and William are essentially living together, alternating between each other’s flats, although neither of them will admit it. She and Chris have a bet going on how long it will take for them to cave and officially move into Noora’s together. 
She placed considerably less faith in William’s willpower than Chris did, mostly because Eskild recently informed her that he’s practicing the Power of Positive Thinking about this and setting an Intention that they’ll all be living together within a month. Eva doesn’t know what exactly differentiates a lowercase intention from an uppercase one, but she trusts Eskild’s power of determination.
Eva doesn’t say any of this, only raises both eyebrows. “I wonder why.”
Noora swats her shoulder with the closest pillow.
Five minutes later, the doorbell still hasn’t rung, but they do hear a knock on Eva's bedroom window.
She and Noora look at each other before rising to the their feet. Chris’s face grins from the other side of the glass; William’s keeps a bit more distance.
“Some people,” Eva says, once she pulls it open, “knock on the front door.”
Chris shrugs, widens his grin, and says, “When have I ever used your front door?”
She and Noora eye the way he’s leaning into her room, half waiting for him to come tumbling down to their feet. “You’re using it tonight. Noora and I aren’t climbing out a window in dresses.”
(Noora isn’t actually wearing a dress, but Eva figures she won’t mind if she uses her name for solidarity purposes.)
“Fine,” Chris concedes with a long sigh. Drama queen. “But first…” he pulls a bouquet of irises out from behind his back. “Your favorite flowers.”
They’re beautiful; they’ll look beautiful next to all the other bouquets Chris has bought for her over the past week, ever since declaring that he’ll bring one every day until he guesses her favorite. He gives her an expectant look now as Eva strokes the purple petals. “Very pretty,” she says, “but still not my favorites.”
Chris’s grin doesn’t falter. “Tomorrow then.”
“I could give you a hint, you know.”
“And ruin the fun?”
A moment later, Chris shuffles slightly to the side so William can reveal a bouquet of red roses.
“So cliché,” Noora says, even as she accepts and inhales them with a slow smile.
“But you love them anyway,” William says. His lips curve to match hers.
Eva and Chris match eye rolls.
“Front door, bro,” Chris interrupts their best friends’ soulful gazing, clapping a hand on his back. “We’ve got places to go, movies to catch.”     
“William,” Chris says, once they’ve started down the front porch steps. “was just telling me about the last time he rang Eva’s doorbell.”
William curls his fingers through Noora’s, and shoots his friend a warning glance.
It goes unheeded. “And sweet Anne Marit thought he was her boyfriend, when he was actually there to…”
William’s head slumps back. Chris stops talking.
The girls catch each other’s eyes, each other’s humor. “You mean when William came to Eva’s to pick up Vilde almost two years ago?” Noora prompts, slanting a smile or a challenge up at her boyfriend.
Chris wraps an arm around Eva’s waist like it belongs there—she has to remind herself that she still hasn’t decided whether she agrees. “No,” he drags the word out, possibly for suspense’s sake, probably so he can find other words to follow it. “When he saw you for the first time, standing on this very lawn, and went, Wow, damn.”
Eva isn’t entirely sure how much that helps, but still relaxes against Chris enough to whisper, “Nice save,” in his ear.
He shrugs against her shoulder, which she takes to mean, I try.
Eva doubts she and Noora are supposed to see him mouth sorry bro over her head, or that he particularly means it, judging from his smirk.
William just shakes his head. “You forgot the part where you interrogated me about Eva afterwards.”
“Interrogated?” Eva pulls far enough away to raise an eyebrow at Chris.
He remains unfazed. “I wanted to inspire you with my superior stalking skills,” he says. “You were a horrible stalker. Never showing up at my house in the middle of the night.”
Noora’s eyebrows don’t arch, but her voice does when she asks, “What did you tell him?” 
“Nothing. Invasion of privacy.”
As if flashing back to fall of 2015, Chris dons a look of mild, retroactive offense. “I’m your best friend!”
They haven’t even started the drive to the movie theater yet, but Eva already kind of feels like they should have popcorn.       
They’re early enough for the movie—some artsy, foreign film that Noora and William were already planning to see tonight—that the conversation from the car continues into their back row seats.
Said conversation seems to be a game of ‘who can tell the most embarrassing story about the other,’ waged between Chris and William.
“Give it up,” Chris says through a laugh, slinging an arm around Eva’s shoulders approximately ten seconds after they sit down. “I’m an open book. Ashamed of nothing.”
Sitting between William and Eva, Noora squints and tags in for her boyfriend. “Really? Not even the time you asked me for a foursome?”
She’s already told Eva this story, but they still share an amused smile over the slight slip of Chris’s grin as he reaches for his soda. One long sip of coke, and he recovers his smugness, “Obviously a joke. Like I’d ever touch William’s girl.”
“He wouldn’t,” William puts in. “Too good a friend.”
For once, Chris's bravado looks a bit forced. Eva wonders if he and William think she minds the reminder that random threesomes were once a regular weekend night for him.
Noora has already turned back to William. “I wasn’t your girl yet.”
“No,” he agrees into her temple. “But I liked you.”
Then they’re kissing, and Eva is looking at Chris, licking her lips, searching for the right words. “You know I’m the last person who’s going to judge you for sleeping around over a year ago, right?“
Chris’s tongue darts against his own lips, before he darts his mouth against hers. He lingers there, then eases back, just a bit, to murmur, “That’s my girl.”
She eases back a bit more to raise an eyebrow at him. “Not your girl yet.”
It takes her a second to realize why Chris looks so damn pleased. “Yet,” he repeats.
The theater’s dimming lights and opening trailers save her from having to reply with anything but an eye roll.
“That movie was shit,” Chris declares after a large bite of his hamburger.
Sitting on the opposite side of their restaurant booth, William says nothing, just plays with the ends of Noora’s hair as she protests, “It was not shit. What about the cinematography?”
Another bite of hamburger, another swallow, and then: “Didn’t make up for the fact that the movie was complete shit.“
“In your opinion,” Noora says, gathering a forkful of pasta and vegetables.
Eva could point out here that Noora and William had disappeared half way through the film to ‘get popcorn,’ only to return empty-handed many scenes later. But, given that she and Chris spent those many scenes with his hands up her shirt and her tongue in his mouth, she’s not sure she has much room to mock.
Chris has no such compunctions.
Noora averts her eyes and her blush for a handful of seconds, but William just reaches for a fry. “The popcorn machine malfunctioned.”
Chris guffaws. Eva laughs, the echo of soda bubbly and sweet in her mouth. “William,” she says a few moments later, “tell another story about Chris.”
His lips twitch in consideration.
Chris whispers traitor against her earlobe, but looks at his friend in grinning anticipation. “Pick a good one.”
 Noora and William branch off together at the end of the night to head back towards her flat, leaving Eva and Chris alone by her front door.
“They’re definitely moving in together within the next month,” Eva says over her shoulder as she turns her key.
“Nah.” Chris is just behind her, close enough that her chin almost brushes his shoulder when she turns. “Two months. I’m winning this bet.” (His eyes dance. They didn’t bet money.)
Even once she steps inside a few seconds later, Chris lingers on her front porch, smirking. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
Eva snorts. “Since when do you need an invitation?”
He’s still smirking, still standing there. “Maybe I want one.”
Rolling her eyes, Eva reaches a hand out, and says, “Come in, Chris.”
She tugs him inside, so he can tug her face against his.
 “Admit it,” Chris says later, naked and sprawled out beside her in bed. “That was a good date.”
Eva nestles her cheek into her pillow. “Maybe.”
“Such a damn good date,” Chris continues, drawling his fingers along the dip of her waist, the flare of her hips, “that you want us to go on another. Only us.”
Eva pretends consideration. “Maybe,” she taunts again, pressing her lips to his. She blinks when he pulls away.
He holds himself a few inches from her, eyebrows raised and lips curled wide. “Maybe?”
Eva reaches for him again, feels him moving back another inch, and finally says, “It was a damn good date.”
He lets her kiss him then, dragging her in for another, before prodding, “And?”
Her lips are touching his when she murmurs, “And I want to go on another. With you.”
Then his mouth is on hers, his fingers are combing through her hair, and her arms are curling around his neck.
(It’s actually the best date she’s gone on in recent memory, but he doesn’t need to hear that yet.)
“One week.” William wraps an arm around Noora’s waist, pulling her against him.
“No,” she says, her muscles loose and her hair splayed across William’s toned chest. “Eva will make him wait at least two before she admits they’re together.”
His smile lands in her hair. “Want to bet?”
282 notes · View notes