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screechesincoherently · 2 years

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The Cop Out- Sam Kiszka

Part 12- Gifting

Masterlist

Synopsis: Y/n calls up a friend to help her buy a Christmas present for Sam, and finds herself in good company that night while she wraps.

Warnings: Swearing, Dad Jokes

Word Count: 4,196

In Collaboration With: @capturethechaos

By the time they had arrived back at Y/n’s apartment, both were drained, and very ready for a nap. Sam walked with her all the way to her apartment door, giving her a kiss on the forehead and letting her know that he would be back the next day to pick her up for Christmas Eve with his family.

“I can’t wait, I love you Dipshit.” She said, grinning at him.

“I love you more Giggles.” He said, giving her one last kiss before walking down the hallway towards the elevator.

Y/n watched him leave until he was out of sight, shutting her apartment door and finally letting out her excitement. She got a few steps into the entrance before she pulled out her phone and dialed a number she hadn’t in a while.

“Hey Y/n. Long time no text or call babe, how are you?” Mackenzie greeted.

“Holy— shit— Mackenzie—”

“What? Are you alright?” She asked, her voice becoming mildly panicked at Y/n’s tone.

“It finally happened!”

“What happened, you’re freaking me out.”

“It happened Kenzie, Sam and I finally got together!” Y/n borderline yelled, bouncing around on her toes.

“Hold on— I thought you two were already together. Danny was told by the twins that you have been dating in secret for a while now. He wasn’t too impressed having to hear it through anyone other than Sam.” She said.

“Oh— about that—”

Y/n walked around her apartment, aimlessly doing small chores as she explained the whole situation to Mackenzie.

“Okay, so why didn’t you just ask him out in the first place?”

“That is a great question. Short answer, I was a little bit scatterbrained?”

“Okay— and?”

“For whatever reason it was easier to ask him to fake date rather than real date.”

“Because you wouldn’t have to admit to anything.”

“Well… yeah.”

“So— You’re both pussies, that’s what I’m getting from this.” Mackenzie teased.

“You didn’t have to be so harsh about it, Kenz.” Y/n replied, her hand lifting to her chest.

“But am I wrong?” Mackenzie asked, chuckling as she spoke.

“Not in the slightest.” Y/n said, joining in the laughter.

“I’m glad it finally happened, for real this time. So is Danny. Sam can finally stop beating around the bush whenever he talks about you now.”

“It’s going to be so nice to not have to silently pine over him anymore.”

“As long as you don’t vocalize it twenty-four seven, I’m alright with listening to you gush over him.” Y/n could hear Mackenzie smile through the phone

“Good, cause I don’t think Ronnie will want me to gush about all the things he can do with his--”

“Yeah, alright I think I’ve heard enough for today.”

“Come on Kenz, you were no better when you and Danny started dating.”

The two were silent for a moment.

“Hey, do you wanna come shopping with me? I need to get Sam a Christmas present.” Y/n said as she sat at her computer beginning to look up ideas.

“Aw, you don’t know what to get your boyfriend? You’ve only known him for twelve years.”

“Okay Kenzie, what are you getting your boyfriend for Christmas?”

“I got him about fifty travel-sized bottles of his favorite shampoo and conditioner.”

“That will last him ten nights on the road, Kenz.”

“Well, it's better than him using hotel shampoo.”

God— why do so many websites say socks?

“Do you wanna help me or not?”

And cologne?

“Are you coming and picking me up?”

There’s consistently two suggestions— socks and cologne. That's it.

“As long as you’ll pay for coffee on our way back.”

“Deal.”

“I’ll be over in like, ten minutes. And tell Danny he’s not allowed to tag along unless he actually wants to help.”

“Sounds good, he was trying to convince me to help him make a third batch of cookies with him.”

Y/n stopped what she was doing, her brain taken over by confusion.

“A third batch?” She asked, staring at her phone.

“Don’t ask— I’ll see you soon.” Mackenzie said, followed by some garbled arguing with Danny before she hung up the phone.

Y/n grabbed her bag and phone before walking out of her apartment. It didn’t take long before her phone buzzed with a text.

Kenz: Hurry please lol.

She laughed and decided to take the stairs, running down as fast as she could without tripping.

The drive took less than ten minutes, and when she texted Mackenzie to let her know that she had arrived, she was out of the house in seconds. She nearly tripped on the greeting rug on her way out the door, her hands full with her phone, purse, and a container of what Y/n could only assume was some of those cookies Danny had been baking.

“Take the cookies. Please.” Mackenzie said as soon as she got into the car, throwing the container onto Y/n’s lap.

“How thoughtful of you–” Y/n laughed, taking the container and gently tossing it into the backseat.

“—So, how are you?” Y/n asked, looking over at Mackenzie with a grin.

Mackenzie looked back at her with an eyebrow raised, looking absolutely exhausted.

“I have been baking all day with Danny. I don’t know why he is so insistent on making so many cookies—”

“Have you ever asked him? Maybe it’s some sentimental shit or something. I can see him doing that.” Y/n tried to reason, pulling out of the driveway.

“I think he’s broken, he’s been making some sort of baked goods every— single— day.”

“Have you tried shutting him off and back on again?” Y/n joked, earning a snorty laugh from Mackenzie.

“— or resetting his hard drive?” She said, turning to Mackenzie with a wink.

“Actually, I have. Thank you.”

“Maybe he’s making them as a reward for a job well done then.”

“He’ll give all but fifteen away, and then complain because we don’t have any.. I’m not sure how that’s a reward for me.”

“That’s still fifteen cookies, not the worst thing.”

They reached the mall relatively quick. Pulling into a parking spot and walking into the building.

Their first stop was Target, walking around aimlessly, occasionally holding up random items to make each other laugh. The only things they walked out with were snacks— and socks.

Y/n really didn’t want to be that girlfriend that got her boyfriend socks for every holiday. So she and Kenzi made their way to the nearest jeweler. Y/n wasn’t paying as much attention, more just holding Mackenzie's hand letting her lead her around, so she didn’t notice Sam standing inside the very jeweler they were about to enter— but Mackenzie did.

Her and Sam locked eyes, and he panicked a bit, looking at Y/n like a deer in the headlights. Mackenzie chuckled, waving him off before turning to drag Y/n in another direction.

“Wait where are we going? I thought we were going to go in there.” Y/n said, looking ahead at her friend, but pointing to the shop behind them.

“I wanna make a pit stop at Yankee Candles. I think I found some candles online that I could get Jita and Ronnie.”

“Well I can tell you what Jita is getting already— well, more Jake, but it is technically for both of them.”

“Which is?” Kenzi said with raised eyebrows.

“Yeah, Sam bought Jake sex dice. It’s not going to be a great time when Jake decides to go after Sam in the middle of opening presents.”

“Do me a favor— film it and send it to me.”

“See, but I don’t want Jake to end up taking my phone and throwing it in the snow so that I don’t have any evidence. You know how he gets when he’s embarrassed.”

“That is a valid point. Have Karen record. Jake won’t take her phone.”

“Smart.” Y/n said.

The two walked into Yankee Candle, beginning the search for candles for Jita and Ronnie. As they sniffed through the endless supply of candles, Mackenzie got a text from Sam.

Sam: She didn’t see me, did she?

Mackenzie: I’m fairly certain she didn’t.

Sam: I need you to be fully certain

Mackenzie: Okay let me just ask her if she saw you at the jeweler’s or not

“Y/n, you didn’t by any chance see anything interesting in the window display at the jeweler did you?” She asked, looking at Y/n as she lifted a candle to her nose.

“Uh— no not really, didn’t get the chance to look before you turned us around.”

Kenzi went back to her phone to relay the message to Sam, and saw a frantic message from him.

Sam: No! That’s going to defeat the whole purpose if you ask her if she saw me!

Mackenzie: Sam, calm down. For one, it’s too late. Two, I didn’t tell her that you were there, so calm yourself. Three, no. She didn’t.

Sam: Okay… I guess

Mackenzie: Have you left yet? I think Y/n might pass out if she sniffs one more candle.

Sam: Please don’t let my girlfriend pass out

Mackenzie: You didn’t answer my question

Sam: Yes I’ve left… why?

Mackenzie: Cause I want to get Danny something from there for Christmas, but I can’t exactly take her with me if you’re in there

Sam: Just leave her with the candles

Sam: Wait, no. Don’t do that. That wouldn’t be a good idea.

Mackenzie chuckled at her phone, putting it back in her pocket and walking over to Y/n, who had made it to the end of the wall, and had a stack of candles in her basket.

“I think I found some that they’ll like.” She said, smiling at Mackenzie and lifting the basket to show her.

“All of these are just for Ronnie and Jita?”

“Is there a correct answer for that?”

“They’re going to use two. At most. Once a month. They don’t each need five.”

“Alright so, two for Jita, two for Ronnie, two for you, and four for me—”

“No. Absolutely not. Two candles for the girls and then we are getting you out of here.”

“No Mackenzie please, they all smell so good.” Y/n said, giving her friend the best puppy dog eyes she could muster.

Mackenzie just stared at Y/n unamused

“Fine.” She groaned, taking Y/n’s hand and dragging her to the register.

—

“Kenzi, I can’t believe you let me spend almost three hundred dollars on candles.” Y/n said, looking down at the big bag she was lugging along with her.

“Oh, no no. No. No.” Mackenzie said to her, turning to Y/n with her finger raised.

“Oh yeah— that’s right, you owe me for the candles that are being given to Jita and Ronnie. It was your idea to get them candles.”

“You are insane.”

“And you love me anyways.”

“Whatever. Didn’t you wanna go to the jeweler’s?”

“Yeah! Let’s go!” Y/n said, walking ahead of Mackenzie and pulling her along.

They walked into the store and immediately started to look through the necklaces.

“How ‘bout this one?” Y/n asked, pointing to a simple gold chain with a dainty bar hanging from it.

Mackenzie inspected the necklace, looking up at her friend, offering her a smile and nodding her head.

“Do you think he’s going to like it?”

“I think you could give him a piece of gum and he would treasure it for the rest of his life.”

Y/n rolled her eyes at Mackenzie’s comment, a smile forming on her own face. She asked the jeweler to get it out of the case for her, and immediately decided to get it. She could already envision the way it would sit on his torso.

And how it would dangle when he’s above me.

“You owe me coffee now Kenz.” Y/n said as they walked out of the jewelers.

“I think the last thing you need is coffee right now.”

“But that doesn’t mean I can’t have any.”

“I’m paying, you’re getting a hot chocolate.”

“Fine. But you owe me coffee later Kenz.”

“Put it on your wish list.”

—

The day went by agonizingly slow, Y/n more than eager to spend the holidays with the Kiszkas.

She sat on the floor of her bedroom, wrapping Sam’s gift. It turned out to be more of a challenge than she had expected solely because she wanted the wrapping to be perfect. She wanted the paper to be lined up wherever it overlapped so it looked seamless but that was easier said than done considering the small size of the jewelry box and the abstract pattern of the wrap.

Eventually, Y/n gave up with the patterns and went to her storage closet to grab a roll of plain brown wrapping paper deciding that she would add something extra to the appearance with some twine and decorative ribbon.

As she made her way back into her room, her phone dinged with a text notification.

Dipshit <3: Hey Giggles, quick question.

Y/n: Possible answer…

Dipshit <3: Do you want to have the regular dinner that everyone else is having tomorrow night, or do you want the vegetarian option?

Y/n: I’m okay with whatever is there for me Sammy. As long as I get to eat.

Dipshit <3: Mom wants to know if she has enough food for everyone, that’s why I’m asking.

Y/n: Your mom always has more than enough food anyways, your fridge is always filled with leftovers for weeks after every event you have.

Dipshit <3: Is that what you want me to tell her your answer is?

Y/n: Just tell her to not worry about me, I’ll be content with whatever is offered.

Y/n set her phone down to try to wrap Sam’s necklace for the fourth time. Once she had cut out a square big enough to cover up the whole present, her phone began to ring next to her.

Glancing over to her phone, she saw her contact picture she had set for Sam years ago fill up the screen.

She picked up the phone and held it out in front of her parallel to the floor, not registering that it had been a FaceTime call, and not a regular phone call.

“Ooh what’s that?” Sam asked, only being able to see the gift on the floor for a split second before Y/n realized that it wasn’t a regular phone call.

“Fuck!”

Sam laughed on the other end as she scrambled to move her phone so she could flip the camera without him being able to inspect the object on the floor.

“What’cha working on, babe?” Sam asked through a giant smile, while getting up from his bed.

“Christmas shit.” Y/n grumbled placing her phone on the floor, her front camera only capturing the corner of her face and her ceiling.

“I see you’re in the Christmas spirit. Good to hear.”

“Did you need something? Or did you just call to harass me about my current state?”

“I miss you, and wanted to chat while I prepped my dinner for tomorrow.” Sam walked through the house until he got to the kitchen.

“Well you could have warned me that you were going to FaceTime me though, Dipshit.”

Sam laughed as he propped his phone up against the cabinets so he could begin the task.

“I’m really enjoying the view of your ceiling, babe. Very nice, very plain.”

“Well I’m sorry I can’t wrap Christmas presents with only one hand so this is what you’re getting.” Y/n said as she began to fold the paper over the box, taping it in place.

“I can’t cook with one hand, but you can still see me.” He replied with jazz hands exaggerating his point, even though Y/n’s eyes were glued to her wrapping.

“What are you making?”

“Well, I am currently starting to work on some cheese and onion rolls.”

“Those sound like they’d be good.”

“So, whose present are you wrapping?” Sam asked as he heard her cutting the paper through the phone.

“None of your business.”

“Now I’m curious. Tell me.”

“Nope.”

Sam gasped before leaning over the counter to get closer to his phone.

“Is it mine?” He asked quietly with eyes wide, and a grin even wider.

“No.”

“You’re an awful liar. Did you know that?” His face filled the entirety of her phone screen, eyes squinting as if it would help him figure something out.

“So are you, babe.” Y/n said with a small laugh.

“Hurry up and finish wrapping my present so I can see you.”

“I’m going to take my time, thank you very much.” Y/n said, slightly leaning over the camera, now showing a third of her face.

As she went back to focusing on the present, she heard another voice come from the phone.

“Oooh, whose ceiling are you talking to?” Kelly asked, looking at his phone as he walked into the kitchen.

“Y/n’s. We’re having a very intriguing conversation at the moment.”

“Hello Y/n’s ceiling, how’s it hanging?”

“Oh my god.” Y/n said laughing through the phone at the joke.

“Why don’t you laugh at my jokes like that?” Sam asked, looking at his phone with an offended look on his face.

“You just can’t deliver dad jokes quite the way Kelly does.” Y/n said, calming down after her small laughing fit.

“I know a way we could change that.” Sam commented, completely disregarding the fact that he was in the kitchen with his father.

Y/n heard the sound of Kelly smacking Sam upside the head, and she began to laugh once again.

“Where did your manners go Samuel? You don’t talk to women like that.”

Sam gave a knowing look to the camera, a smirk on his face.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why is Sam sorry this time?” Josh asked, walking into the kitchen and picking a piece of cheese off of the cutting board in front of Sam.

“Hey, I was using that!”

“He forgot how to talk to girls appropriately.”

Josh tsked at his youngest brother, shaking his head.

“Y/n, just so you know, I could always treat you better.” Josh said with a wink, turning to walk past Sam to get to the fridge.

“I do have a knife in my hand Josh.” Sam said.

“Okay, I am not dealing with this, you two are old enough to duke it out on your own. Goodnight Y/n!”

“Goodnight Dad!” She said, making Sam turn to the camera with a grin.

“Josh, why is it taking you so long to grab me a yogurt?” Y/n heard Karen yell in the background of the call.

“Sam’s being a little shit to Y/n. I have to knock some sense into him.”

“Oh my god you guys. Leave me alone and let me cook please.

“Samuel Francis, what on earth are you saying to her?”

“I’m not saying anything!”

Karen made her way into the kitchen to interrogate Sam. At this point, they had all distracted Sam enough that Y/n could finish wrapping his gift to her liking. She cleaned up the mess from the three attempts and picked up her phone from the floor, making her way into the living room.

She sat on the ouch just in time for Karen to come into the frame.

“Hi momma K!” She said, catching Karen's attention.

“Hello Y/n! How are you honey?” She asked, ignoring her sons and walking over to the phone.

“I am wonderful, can’t wait to see everybody in person tomorrow.” She said, relaxing into the cushions of her couch.

“What did you want to eat tomorrow by the way Y/n?” Karen asked.

“I’m okay with whatever is there. I’ll have a little bit of everything.”

“Alright hon, I’m excited to see you tomorrow!” She said.

“I’m excited to see you too!” Y/n replied, watching as Karen turned and plucked the yogurt from Josh’s hand and walking out of the kitchen.

“You’re welcome!” Josh yelled to his mom throwing his hands up at the lack of manners.

Sam packed away the prepared food, placing it into the fridge before turning around to see Josh and Y/n making funny faces at each other.

“Alright Josh, can I have my girlfriend back now please?” He asked, leaning against the counter.

“I guess. I’ll see you tomorrow Y/n, love you.” Josh said, stepping back and walking out of the kitchen.

“Love you too Joshy.”

Sam picked up his phone, walking into the living room to get to the stairs.

“Josh told us you’re talking to Y/n, were you just gonna walk right past us without letting us say hi?” Ronnie said, leaning her head back over the back of her chair.

“You’ll be seeing her in less than twenty-four hours.” Sam said impatiently, wanting to get to his room.

“And? Let us see Y/n!” Jake said, throwing a pillow at his brother.

Sam rolled his eyes, turning his phone to show Y/n to his remaining two siblings.

“I can’t see her Sam, come closer.” Jake said, gesturing for Sam to move towards him.

Sam reluctantly followed the instruction, moving closer. Jake remained unsatisfied, shooting up from his seat and snatching the phone from Sam's hand.

“What the fuck you guys?”

“Sorry Sammy, figured she’d rather look at me than your ugly mug.” Jake said as he skittered away from the living room.

He only made it a few feet before his feet slid out from underneath him, Sam’s phone went flying as Jake’s body hit the hardwood floor with a thump.

“What the fuck just happened?” Y/n asked concerned laced within her laughter.

Sam walked over, stepping over his brother and grabbing his phone off of the floor.

“Jake tried to steal my phone, but apparently forgot that socks don’t get traction on hardwood.” Sam explained, looking down at his brother and turning his camera so that Y/n could see Jake sprawled out on the floor.

“Are you okay Jake?” She asked.

“Yeah, I think I’m just gonna sit here for a minute.”

“And wallow in self pity no doubt.” Sam quipped, causing Jake's head to whip around in his direction.

Jake squirmed, reaching for Sam’s feet, and Y/n watched as Sam bounced around, avoiding his brother's grasp.

“I don’t wallow Sam.”

“What would you call this then?” He asked, gesturing to his brother’s position on the floor.

“Alright, now you’re gonna get it.” Jake said, pushing himself off of the ground.

Sam took off in a sprint, running for the stairs. He made it about half way up before Jake grabbed his ankle, causing him to fall forward on the stairs and throw his phone a couple steps up.

Y/n could only see a black screen, but could hear the sounds of Jake and Sam bickering. She sat like that for a couple minutes, listening, before the phone was picked up again.

“Finally decide to act like a grown up Dipshit?” She asked, staring at her ceiling as she spoke.

“Try again.” She heard the melodic voice of Ronnie Kiszka coming through the speaker of her phone.

“Ronnie!” Y/n said, looking down at her phone with a wide grin.

“Hiya Y/n! Long time no see. How was the cabin?” Ronnie asked, leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs.

“Very romantic— nothing says Christmas getaway with my boyfriend like having my family consistently walk in on us doing god knows what.”

The sound of conversation made Sam and Jake stop moving, looking up at their sister holding the phone.

Jake let Sam out of his grasp, sitting on the step to catch his breath. Sam stood and walked to the top of the stairs. He stopped in front of his sister, holding out his hand and looking at her expectantly.

“Look at your man Y/n, so demanding. He won’t even ask politely for me to give him his phone back.” Ronnie said, turning the camera to show Sam’s pouting face.

“Oh yeah, he looks so demanding.” Y/n said, laughing mildly at the look on his face.

“Can I please get my phone back so that I can talk to my girlfriend alone?” Sam asked, making a little grabby motion with his hand.

“Alone you say? I don't know, how do you think mom would feel?” Ronnie teased, handing his phone back.

Sam made a mocking sound as he took the phone.

“Bye Y/n!” Ronnie and Jake yelled as Sam walked into his bedroom.

“It’s nice to know that they like me more than they like you.” Y/n said, trying her best to keep a straight face.

Sam shot a glare at his phone, making Y/n laugh.

“I love you.” She said in the gaps between her laughter.

He couldn't hold the stern expression long, his face softening as he listened to her laughter.

“I love you too.”

Taglist:

@gretavanwinkle

@gvfrry

@theweightofstardust

@jakekiszkasgiggle @@alwayssotiredbutneverofyou @chalametpwk

@cowboysamkiszka @katie-gvf

@sammykiszkasunusedshoes @thehippieelement

@welightthefire

@h-e-l-l-o-s

@lucidliving1205

@kaylal15

@miidnightcarlights @gretavanfleetwoodmacncheese

@gretavanhoney

@dannythedog @oopslashes @obetrolncocktails @samsdirtyfeet @godblessmarywanna @joshkiszkastea

@prettyxvenomx @basically-hayley @j3rboa

@fictional-duchess

#sam kiszka #sam kiszka x reader #sam kiszka imagine #sammy gvf #greta van fleet #greta van fleet imagine

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marauderundercover · 3 years

Text

Taking Chances Ch. 16: Summertime Nightmares (Alt prompt: Consolation/advice)

AO3

The following week was the last of the school year. And it was...weird to say the least. Some of her classmates were upset that she hadn’t been the one to tell them. Many of them (most) assumed that she’d known and just hadn’t told them. She didn’t want to argue with them and she knew her dad hadn’t announced her existence in Gotham yet, so she just pointed out the fact that the Wayne family was very private.

That mostly worked. Lila kept poking though, insisting that Marinette would have told them if she trusted them. Nino disagreed, which shocked Marinette. He usually believed Lila, or at least he hadn’t ever openly gone against her before. But not this time. This time, he insisted that Marinette trusted them and it was probably her dad who asked her not to say anything. While wrong, Marinette didn’t disagree. She’d let her dad take the fall for this one. Alya though...she wasn’t taking it well. She thought Marinette should have told her ages ago. If she had known before Lila came, maybe she would have told Alya. But Alya had been more lax on what she posts on the Ladyblog since Lila’s arrival. She’d done less research, and was posting things not related to Ladybug and Chat Noir. While that wouldn’t usually bother her, Marinette did not want her newly discovered family to be the next big story on Alya’s blog.

So she basically just kept her head down, kept quiet at the class hangouts. And now school was finally out for the summer. It would be a little over two months with no Lila. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Marinette walks into the bakery and smiles widely at her Maman and Papa.

“Hello honey, how are you?” Her Maman asks, sliding a croissant into her hands.

“I’m fine, Maman.” She says, mentally preparing herself to ask what she’d been avoiding. Her dad had offered to let her stay in Gotham for the summer. It was both a chance to bond, and a chance for him to train her a little so that she could fight better, help her make a case against Hawkmoth, maybe even find his identity. He also wanted to give her a break. He thought that taking a step away from Paris, from always policing her emotions, was in her best interest. She agreed, but she still hadn’t talked to her Maman. Or her Papa.

“Bruce called.” Her Papa says. Marinette freezes. He wasn’t supposed to call yet! “Asked if we’d made a decision about letting you go to Gotham for the summer.” Rats.

“I was gonna talk to you guys today! I didn’t wanna upset you. I love you guys so much, but I also really wanna spend time with the other half of my family because I just met them and we haven’t really had a chance to bond or get to know each other and-”

“Honey, we understand.” Her Maman says, cutting off her ramble with a smile. Marinette blinks.

“Really?” She asks in a small voice. She didn’t want to hurt them. Her Maman smiles and relief floods her body.

“Of course honey. It would also give you a chance to not deal with constant akuma attacks.” She says. Marinette squeals in excitement, running over and wrapping her parents in a hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She yells. Watch out Gotham, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Wayne is coming back!

---

“Why hasn’t Marinette answered yet? She’s always down for a class picnic.” Alya says with a pout. Lila suppresses an eye roll, opting instead for a worried frown.

“Do you think she’s mad at you?” She prompts, knowing exactly why the little brat wasn’t answering. She was supposed to be on a plane right about now. Lila had borrowed Alya’s phone the day before (to make sure Marinette hadn’t tried to say anything about her again) when she saw the text. Marinette would be spending the entire summer in Gotham.

Lila, in a moment of what was surely pure excellence, deleted the text. It was perfect! Alya wouldn’t know Marinette had left and Marinette would be waiting for a text from her stupid BFF. But Lila had thought of that too. She’d changed the phone number on Marinette’s contact in Alya’s phone. It was now set to go to a fake number in a messaging app that Lila spent €1 on each month. It was worth it though, it’d definitely come in handy before. And now all she had to do was wait. Sure Marinette could always text Alya first, but Lila had heard too many times that Alya usually reached out first. Probably because of how much of a scatterbrain Marinette is.

“Why would she be mad at me?” Alya asks with a nervous smile. Hook, line and sinker. Lila frowns and places a hand on Alya’s arm in a faux attempt at reassurance.

“I didn’t wanna say anything, I really shouldn’t.” She says, shaking her head.

“Please. I’ll owe you one!” Alya insists, just as Lila had hoped. This would be a key part of her plan later on. Once Marinette has been silent for a few weeks.

“Well...okay. I heard her talking to Adrien the other day.” Lil starts, using the only other person who could go against her (but won’t!) “She said- she said she couldn’t trust you!” Alya flinches back as if she was hit.

“She said that?” She asks in a small voice. Lila nods sadly, celebrating on the inside. She’d be able to use this summer, while Marinette is away, to finally take everything away from that no good brat. It would be glorious.

---

Marinette was moments away from committing a murder. She was only going to do it because she knew for a fact that she’d get away with it. With a singular pout, she’d have the world’s greatest detective on her side. She was certain of it.

“Miss Marinette please put down the knife. I assure you prison is not lovely this time of year.” Alfred says with a sigh as he walks into the kitchen.

“Then tell Dick to get out of the kitchen!” She complains, pointing at her oldest brother who was currently covered in frosting and flour. She was trying to make cupcakes for after dinner, since she knew how much Dick likes sweets. She was trying to do something nice. And when Dick came into the kitchen, claiming he just wanted to spend time with his baby sister, Marinette let him stay. Because she loves her brother, she does.

But somehow in the two minutes that he was in the kitchen, he managed to dump the entire canister of flour. Not good, but she’d already baked the cupcakes so it wasn’t the end of the world. But then somehow, he’d managed to dump the entire mixing bowl of frosting. The entire thing. She had no clue how he had managed to do that, considering the fact it was frosting. It didn’t exactly run smoothly out of a bowl. It’s supposed to be able to hold its shape. Honestly, it was a mystery.

“Master Dick, you know that you are not allowed in the kitchen.” Alfred says with a frown. Dick pouts.

“I just wanted to spend some time with Mari.” He mumbles. Marinette almost regrets wanting to kill him. Until she watches as he wipes some of the frosting off of his head and eats it. Yeah, she doesn’t regret it anymore...but she does still love him.

“Okay, we’ll definitely have to spend more time together later. But for right now please go take a shower or something. I need to make more frosting and I do not trust you to be in the room when I do.” Marinette says exasperatedly. Dick sighs but leaves. Marinette puffs out her cheeks, giving Alfred a look.

“Yes?” He asks, his lips quirked up slightly.

“I honestly don’t know how you deal with them sometimes.” She grumbles before grabbing a new bowl. The cupcakes aren’t going to decorate themselves.

---

Jason huffs, annoyed that he’d been talked into staying at the manor with Marinette. He wasn’t mad at Marinette, he would do just about anything for the kid. Didn’t mean he wanted to stay at the manor just to make sure she didn’t sneak onto patrol. She’d assured them that she was too tired to try anything, but Bruce hadn’t believed her. Thus, Jason stuck at the manor.

But the kid had made a shit ton of cupcakes and Jason had a copy of his favorite book, so the night wouldn’t be too bad. After a few hours lounging in one of the rooms near Marinette’s, Jason starts to nod off. He’s about to welcome the rest, knowing everyone would be back from patrol soon, when he’s yanked from sleep by an ear piercing scream. Shit.

---

Marinette blinks as she looks around. Oh god. No, no please don’t let this be real. She chokes out a sob as she looks around her. Paris was once again completely underwater. The Eiffel tower was split in half. Hands shaking, she glances up and sees the moon. Or, what’s left of it. She moans in distress, letting her tears fall freely. She tries to breathe, but it won’t come. She’s panicking now, trying to ignore the burn in her chest as she sees the disaster around her. The terror around her. The destruction. She clutches her throat, trying to force her body to breathe. Force herself to suck in air, to be okay.

“Oh, Marinette, I see you’ve decided to join us again.” A familiar voice says. She tenses, slowly turning and looking behind her. Standing in front of her, just as she remembered him, was Chat Blanc. She should’ve known. She should’ve known that just because it was okay for a couple days didn’t mean it would stay okay. She should’ve tried harder to find Bunnix, should’ve tried to find a way to stop Adrien from finding out. Movement by Chat Blanc’s feet catches her attention and she glances down, regretting it immediately.

“What have you done?” She asks, rushing forward and falling to her knees, desperately trying to stop her little brother from bleeding out. “What have you done?” She yells, glaring at Chat Blanc through her tears. Her hands shake as she puts pressure on the wound, using Damian’s cape in an attempt to stop the blood.

“Marinette-” He tries to say, and she just shakes her head, hating that there’s blood coming out of his mouth. She knows what that means. She knows that this is bad. And there are no hospitals anymore. Everything is underwater. Everything except the three of them.

“Hey no, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay, I’ve got you little brother.” She chokes out, trying to smile at him.

“Father,” He manages to say, his voice barely audible. “Help him.”

“No, no, please. Please don’t leave me! Please, no, no!” She screams, trying to wake him back up, trying to force him to get back up. He couldn’t die like this. He couldn’t die at all. She just found him. And now she’s lost him.

“Now we can be together forever Marinette.” Chat Blanc says, finally speaking up. She glares at him and his stupid smirk. The smirk that had haunted her since the first time she saw the white suit.

“I don’t want anything to do with you! You killed my brother!” She screams. Glancing down at her shaking hands, she can’t help but notice they’re covered in blood. She shudders, trying hard not to throw up.

“Brothers, actually.” He quips. She snaps her gaze back to him.

“What?” She hisses, standing so that she can hopefully run and get to one of her brothers before it’s too late. She can’t lose all of them. She can’t. He casually steps to the side, revealing her other brothers. But none of them are moving. Cass is also lying with them, but she’s not moving either. Gone. All of her siblings. And it was all her fault. She let Adrien know her identity. She didn’t try to fix that mistake and this is what happened. She lost every- her dad. Damian said- She turns and runs away from Chat Blanc, scanning the horizon and trying to stay as together as possible. She had to try. She could still save her dad. She could still help him. As she looks around, she manages to spot his cowl. Rushing towards it, she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Marinette?” He says, looking at her with a frown. She scans him for injuries, relieved that he just had a few small wounds. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

“I’m so sorry dad.” She whimpers, throwing her arms around him. He holds her for a moment before pulling away.

“Marinette, we have to go. We can’t stay here. It’s only a matter of time before-” He stops talking and his face morphs into the most horrified, anguish filled face that Marinette had ever seen. Right before he starts to crumble into ash.

“No!” She screams, horror and grief washing over her in waves. She was all alone and it was all her fault. And now she was going to die too.

---

“Come on Pixie, wake up kid. Come on, it’s okay, I’m here. Jay’s here.” A familiar voice soothes. Marinette stops thrashing, coughing slightly as she realizes the loud noise had been coming from her. She’d been screaming. Jay’s here? But then- She immediately opens her eyes, sobbing in relief when she sees Jason looking at her. No blood. Okay. She lunges forward and wraps her arms around him, sobbing into his chest.

“I’m sorry.” She cries. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh kid, you don’t have to be sorry. It’s okay. You’re okay.” He whispers, holding her close. They sit like that for a few minutes, until a knock on the door frame makes her reluctantly pull back. She glances over and a new wave of tears immediately appears. She launches herself off the bed and runs into her dad’s arms, sobbing once more.

“Jason, what happened?” He asks quietly, she knows that Jason doesn’t know, but she doesn’t answer for him. She can’t. All she can do is cry in her dad’s arms, relieved that she could cry. That her nightmare didn’t end with her almost being akumatized like it had before.

“No clue. Heard her scream so I ran in here, but she was asleep. Once she woke up she started crying and apologizing.” Jason says softly, probably for her benefit. She tries hard to remind herself that the nightmare didn’t mean anything. Her family wouldn’t be hurt because of her.

“Is everyone okay? Damian and Tim and Dick?” She asks, still buried in her dad’s arms. She’d ask about Cass, but she was still in Hong Kong. Marinette made a mental note to text her later.

“Everyone’s fine. Did you- do you want to talk about it?” He asks, and she almost agrees. Maybe it would be better to finally tell someone about Chat Blanc. To share that burden with someone else. But...maybe not her dad. Especially not since Adrien actively knows her identity and she wouldn’t be opposed to dating the boy in the future.

“I- er, um.” is all she manages to say before shaking her head. She won’t talk to her dad about this, and she doesn’t want to leave his arms right now. Not while she feels safe. She can almost hear him whispering to Jason, but she knows he’s trying not to let her hear, so she ignores them and instead wraps her arms around him tighter.

“Can I go get you a glass of water? Maybe a cookie for Tikki?” Her dad asks after a few moments of whispering with Jason. Marinette frowns. She didn’t want to be left alone. Not yet.

“I’ll stay with ya Pixie Pop.” Jason says, almost as if he had read her mind. She nods, giving her dad one final squeeze before walking back over to the bed and climbing up, letting Jason wrap her in a hug.

“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” Her dad says before walking away. The silence only lasts a beat.

“You wanna tell your big brother why you woke up screamin’?” He asks. Marinette squeezes her eyes shut, desperate to get rid of the images from her nightmare.

“Nightmare.” She says simply. Jason chuckles.

“Kinda figured that part out Pix.”

“I’ve had it before.” She starts, aware of how her voice shakes. “But this time it was a lot worse. This time, I wasn’t the one who died.”

“What could be worse than dyin?” Jason asks, though she can tell by his tone that he knows. He knows what’s worse than dying.

“Watching all of you die.” She says simply. His hug tightens and she lets out a shaky breath, desperately wiping at her tears. “That’s not even the worst part Jay.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wanna.” He says softly.

“I know.” She says. “A version of it has happened. In a different timeline. That’s the worse part. Luckily when I had to go save that timeline, I didn’t know you guys. So you weren’t caught in the middle of everything. But in my nightmare, since you know about me and- and you guys just wanted to help but no one can win against that. No one. It was so hard to beat him when it actually happened. But the dream. It was awful.” There’s silence as he just holds her, lets her know he’s there without saying it. She’s so thankful for her family. For her brothers.

“Here’s your water.” Her dad says. She finally sits up and looks at him, noting the way his face is creased in worry. She manages a small smile.

“Thanks dad.” She says, her smile growing slightly as his face begins to relax.

“Mari! You’re still up?” Dick says, walking into the room. She blinks at him in confusion, not expecting him to just walk in. She watches as he looks between everyone else, clearly putting it together that something was wrong. He frowns, before his face stretches back into a grin. “Come on, bring all your pillows and blankets and we’ll have a Disney movie marathon until we fall asleep.” He directs, running out of the room to presumably get his own materials for the movie marathon.

“You don’t have to.” Her dad reassures her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. She shrugs.

“Might as well. I know I’ll definitely not be able to sleep anymore tonight.” She says, grabbing a couple pillows and her blanket, dragging it with her to the movie room. Leave it to her brothers to have a way to help her feel better after a nightmare. Marinette smiles to herself, once again relieved that she was in Gotham.

Masterlist

Tag list: @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @jayjayspixiepop @jjmjjktth @mizzy-pop @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @waiting247 @laurcad123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @nerd-nowandforever @tazanna-blythe @jaybird-and-co @jumpingjoy82

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ravennm84 · 4 years

Text

The Inspector

I read a short story on AO3 a while back about a teacher or adult sending a letter to the Board of Governors about the teachers of the school and how terrible they were, and decided to write a story about the person who was assigned to look into the accusations. Got some salt and justice coming along. And I must say, this was very therapeutic to write. Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!!

Inspector Walters had a bad feeling about the Francois-Dupont College since the moment he’d received the assignment. The Board of Governors had been debating conducting an investigation on the school since one of the classes had been nicknamed “The Akuma Class” by social media and a few news sources. It became a necessity when a complaint had been filed by the Dupain-Cheng family about their daughter’s expulsion.

That complaint had surprised him. Only the Board of Governors had the power to expel a student after an investigation, and they hadn’t expelled the girl. The parents claimed that it was done on the same day as the accusations against the student, and was then retracted the following day. Again, something that only the Board of Governors had the power to do.

Looking over the incident report, the details were slim at best. Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was accused of cheating on a mock exam and the answer sheet was found in her backpack. When looking at the schedule, he saw that the mock exam had been taken the day before and the teacher only noticed that the answer sheet was missing after receiving the exams. A fact which bothered him a bit, but he’d seen a few scatterbrained teachers, as well as students make the mistake of not getting rid of the evidence. However, he also saw from her student records that she was one of the top students and always got high grades, so there was some doubt that she would have cheated.

The next thing was the accusation that she had pushed another student, Mlle. Lila Rossi down the stairs, injuring her right knee. However, there was no mention of an ambulance being called or even a trip to the nurse’s station. It was also suspect that there was no mention of other injuries that someone would have received after falling down stairs; no recorded cuts, bruises, or anything. So either Rossi had the most well placed fall that kept her from major injury, or she was lying.

The last part of the report was that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng had stolen a necklace from Mlle. Rossi and put it in her locker. Again, he was a bit skeptical considering that the same two girls had been involved with a separate incident on the same day. There was a picture of the locker, but Walters quickly noticed that there was no actual lock on the locker, something that he should be seeing since the Board had funded upgrades for lockers months ago. There was also no CCTV record attached to the incident report, meaning that the system was down and not reported, or the principal never checked them and only went by the word Mlle. Rossi.

Looking over the rest of the file, it was even more suspect when he saw that only Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents had been called in. Mlle. Rossi’s contact, her mother, had been listed as “unavailable”. This was yet another thing that didn’t sit well with him. Following his gut, M. Walters set aside the Dupain-Cheng student file to look more closely at the Rossi student file.

Not five minutes in, he knew that things were not right. The disabilities she had listed in the current file were not consistent with the files from her previous schools, and there were no doctors notes to support them as being recently discovered ailments. He attempted to call the number listed on the current file, but it kept going straight to voicemail. Comparing the number to the previous files, he noticed that the number did not match.

Finding himself very unhappy with the incomplete file provided by Principal Damocles, he decided that he would have to go to the school in person the following morning and see for himself what was really going on.

~oOo~

First stop he made was to the principal’s office. M. Walters had not alerted him of the inspection so that the man would not have a chance to change or hide specific documents, he’d seen that happen more than once. What he had not expected was to see a grown man playing with dolls/action figures behind his desk. Damocles quickly straightened up, hiding the dolls in a drawer before scowling at him. “What is the meaning of this? You can’t simply barge into my office without-”

��Actually, M. Damocles, I can,” he interrupted, pulling out his identification. “Inspector Walters, I’m with the Board of Governors, looking into a recent complaint filed against the school.”

“Complaint? What complaint?” He asked, sputtering a bit in surprise.

“The expulsion of Mlle. Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he glared at the man.

“Oh, that incident has already been handled.”

“Is that so? Then please, explain to me how the incident was handled.” Pulling out a chair, Walters flipped open his notepad and clicked open his pen. Some of his colleagues considered the whole pen and paper thing to be a little old-school at times, but it had its purpose. He waved a hand at Damocles to begin.

“Well, Mlle. Lila Rossi suffers from a rare disease that makes her lie uncontrollably when she is stressed-”

“I’m going to stop you right there, M. Damocles. We will get to the reason why you reinstated Mlle. Dupain-Cheng in a moment. First, I want you to go through everything on the day of the incident.”

“Oh, of-of course,” he was beginning to fidget. “I was sitting in my office when I heard screaming outside of my door. When I came outside, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was standing at the top of the stairs and Mlle. Lila Rossi was at the bottom of the stairs, crying that she had been pushed.” Walters wrote this down and waved a hand for him to continue. “M. Harpele and I brought her upstairs and wrapped the knee that was injured, and then contacted Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents to talk about the incident, seeing as Mlle. Rossi had been badly injured.”

Walters finished writing that down before looking back up at Damocles. “And is that when you called an ambulance to look over Mlle. Rossi’s injury and check to make sure there were no other injuries?”

It was no surprise to him when Damocles mouth did an impersonation of a fish for a moment. “Well, um, no. I did not call an ambulance-”

“Then I can only imagine that you called the school nurse to your office to look her over and deem whether or not a trip to the hospital was necessary?”

Again, he began impersonating a fish. “I-I didn’t think it was- Mlle. Rossi claimed that she was fine and that only her knee was injured.”

“You just told me that you believed Mlle. Rossi was, and I quote ‘badly injured’, and yet she received no medical attention?” Walters hummed in a disbelieving manner as he looked down at his notepad and wrote down his thoughts. “That was quite irresponsible of you. I’ve read your personnel file and nowhere does it list that you have a medical background. Yet, you thought yourself qualified to treat and diagnose a girl that claimed to have been pushed down the stairs and could have underlying injuries, such as a concussion, broken bones, or internal bleeding?”

To his satisfaction, the principal began to sweat, but he was nowhere close to finished yet. “I can imagine that Mme. Rossi was upset when you called her to the school for the meeting with M. and Mme. Dupain-Cheng.” Just as he suspected, Damocles wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You have contacted Mme. Rossi about the incident, have you not?”

“Well, Mme. Rossi is an ambassador and is very busy-”

“Are you meaning to tell me that you failed to alert a parent that their child was injured while in your care?” When the principal looked away again, Walters glared before double clicking his pen and writing down more notes.Taking his time as he wrote to allow the man to sweat and worry about what was being written.

“We will return to your failure at contacting parents and guardians later. Now, tell me what you observed when you reviewed the CCTV footage of the stairs at the time of the incident.” Just as he suspected, the man became flustered and refused to meet his eyes. “Are you telling me that you did not, at any time, look over the footage to corroborate whether Mlle. Rossi was pushed or accidentally fell?”

Hesitating again. “I, um, thought it unnecessary. It was clear that she was pushed-”

“And you know that for fact, how, exactly?” He glared as he kept writing.

“As I said, Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was standing at the top of the stairs while Mlle. Rossi was at the bottom of the stairs, crying that she’d been pushed-”

“You also said, and I quote ‘I was sitting in my office when I heard screaming outside of my door’. Meaning that you did not actually see whether Mlle. Rossi was pushed or simply fell. Am I to understand that you believed one child over another without gathering evidence to prove or disprove the claim?”

Walters watched as the man’s parlor turned a pale green while muttering multiple failed excuses, which only served to anger him further. So far, Damocles had failed to show him, in any way, that he was qualified to run this school and had let an innocent girl suffer for his mistakes. “You are going to pull up that footage right now, and have it prepared for a meeting I will be setting up with Mme. Rossi later today. And not just the stairs, but the footage of the classroom to see exactly who stole the test answer sheet and the lockerroom to see if the accusations of Mlle. Dupain-Cheng stealing Mlle. Rossi’s property is at all valid. And allow me to make something very clear, you are already looking at being brought up on negligence and abuse of power, seeing as you expelled and reinstated a student, something that only the Board of Governors has the power to do. If I find out that the footage is somehow ‘missing’, I will have no choice but to assume that you have purposefully erased it to protect yourself and will have you brought before the Board by tomorrow morning. Am I clear?”

The man gave a shaky nod, as he immediately got on his computer and began pulling up the footage from that day.

Getting on his phone, Walters called the number that Mme. Rossi had listed in the previous files and it went straight through. He easily scheduled a meeting for later that day and hung up.“I will be sitting in on Mme. Bustier’s class for the rest of the day, until Mme. Rossi arrives at 1pm for our appointment. Have all the footage ready by then.” Without another word, Inspector Walters left the office and made his way down to the Akuma Classroom.

~oOo~

Lunch had finally come and Walters was anything but impressed by what he had seen. To her credit, Mme. Bustier had been polite and understanding towards his presence in the classroom and seemed to go about teaching as usual. She was also a very upbeat type of personality, something needed in a city plagued by akumas. But that was the extent of his compliments towards the teacher.

During the first half of the day, he witnessed the woman allow her students to become disorderly multiple times. Three of which stood out to him beyond the normal rowdy teenage energy that is normal for a classroom.

The first was how a boy in the front of the room kept flinching and curling into himself whenever another student, who just happened to be Mlle. Lila Rossi, touched him. She was sharing his desk in the front, sitting inappropriately close, clutching his arm in a possessive manor, and ignored him when he asked her to let him go or give him space. All this was done in full view of Mme. Bustier, and she did nothing.

During the literature lesson, they were studying Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mlle. Rossi interrupted and began telling a story about being a descendant of Vlad the Impaler. A complete falsehood since Vlad’s only child had been killed as an infant. This was a fact that the teacher should have corrected or told the girl to pay attention to the lesson, but she did nothing. Allowing the girl to prattle on for close to 15 minutes before returning to the lesson.

The worst though, was when Mlle. Rossi, made another scene when she began complaining about how her left knee was still hurting from when Marinette pushed her down the stairs. The other students proceeded to glare and speak harsh words about the girl. It was at this time that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng stood from her seat in the back and attempted to defend herself. Mme. Bustier did intervene this time, but she did not reprimanded the other students that were ganging up on the one girl. Instead, she reprimanded Marinette and told her that she was not setting a good example for the class. Then forced her to apologize to Lila for upsetting her. Blatant victim blaming, right in front of him, and the teacher had the nerve to smile at him as if to say that she had handled the situation.

Walters had written everything down, already deciding that he would need to call the Board at the first possible moment to alert them to the incompitent administrative practices of Damocles, as well as the toxic teaching methods of Bustier. It was now little wonder why this class had produced so many akumas. It was a miracle that there were any students left in the class that hadn’t been akumatized. But seeing as one student was clearly being bullied and the other was being sexually harassed, it likely wouldn’t be long.

He was just barely able to fit in the call and look over the CCTV footage before his meeting with Mme. Rossi in M. Damocles office. That had been interesting, to say the least. Before the meeting had even started, Mme. Rossi was voicing her worry about the amount of time that the school had been closed due to akuma attacks…

Once that had been cleared up, M. Damocles got to the matter at hand. Beginning with requesting information and doctors notes at her earliest convenience pertaining to her daughter’s injuries, disabilities, as well as requesting more information about her lying disease. Again, that had been a very interesting conversation that resulted in the woman yelling at Damocles in French and Italian about how incompetant he was and why hadn’t he gotten ahold of her sooner?

But the worst reaction came when Damocles told her about the day of the incident. They showed her the footage found of Lila, and yes it was Lila, stealing the answer sheet off of Mme. Bustier’s desk and then slip it into Marinette’s bag on her way back to her seat. Then the footage of Lila breaking into Marinette’s locker and planting the necklace. And finally, Lila smiling at Marinette before walking down the stairs and sitting on the ground before she started screaming.

By then, another inspector from the Board of Governors had arrived to assist in the situation that he had reported during his earlier phone call and the students had returned from lunch. Walters requested Mme. Bustier to join them and to bring Lila along. When the girl entered the office and saw her furious mother and principal, she paled immediately and started lying.

Even when Walters, Damocles, and her mother tore apart every one of her lies, she kept trying to turn things around and make herself a victim. And to Walters’ horror, Damocles was actually buying her lies! It was at that moment that he decided that the man had no right being a school administrator and would be put on leave, pending the end of his investigation and the Board of Governors decision.

Bustier attempted to side with Lila as well, claiming that the girl suffered from a disease and shouldn’t be punished. Completely ignoring that Mme. Rossi told her that her daughter suffered no such ‘disease’. The other inspector, Marchand, looked on in disgust before pulling out his phone and calling the Board of Governors right there, relaying his support of Walters’ recommendation against Damocles and Bustier.

Walters took charge of the situation, forcing Damocles out of his chair to take his seat. “Mme. Rossi, as an inspector of the Board of Governors, I must ask if you fully understand the situations that your daughter has caused?”

The woman took a deep breath before slowly letting it out, all the while retaining a firm grip on her daughter’s arm after she had attempted to flee the room earlier. “If you would, please go over everything from the top.” The woman requested, her voice a bit hoarse after yelling at the principal, the teacher, and her daughter.

Giving the woman a sympathetic nod, he flipped open the notebook and went over his notes while Marchand kept Damocles and Bustier quiet and standing in a corner. “I have personally observed your daughter disrupting class, bullying a student named Marinette Dupain-Cheng, lying to her peers, leading them to also bully Mlle. Dupain-Cheng, and sexually harassing another student who verbally asked her to stop. We have video evidence of her committing theft, harassing the same student I witnessed her bullying, framing that student for assault, as well as framing that student of theft and cheating. All that, as well as your testimony of her lying to the school administration about different injuries and illnesses, fraud in regards to changing your contact information, and four months of truancy.

“At this point, the school has no choice but to suspend Lila, pending an investigation to be completed by the Board of Governors,” he said, handing her the paperwork to sign, which she did right away. “At the time the investigation is complete, she will have the opportunity to plead her case to the Board. However, I want to make it clear that, from what I have seen, it is very likely that your daughter will be expelled.”

To her credit, Mme. Rossi held her head high as she nodded and handed back their copies of the suspension papers. “I suspected as much. However, I do request that a meeting be scheduled with Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents so that Lila may apologize in person. I also want her to apologize to the class and admit her lies to them so that there won’t be any backlash on that poor girl.”

Lila turned to her mother in a panic. “No, Mom! Please don’t make me-”

“YOUNG LADY, you are going to tell the class everything you lied about, apologize to that girl, and admit that you have been bullying her. Am I clear?” Walters was impressed that the girl simply nodded as she curled into herself before Mme. Rossi looked back to him. “I will not allow Lila to escape her punishment, that includes telling the truth to the people she has wronged.”

He nodded in understanding. “I’ll see about arranging a meeting. However, the suspension will be taking effect immediately, if you wish to have her confess to the class, I suggest doing so right now before school lets out.” Walters then turned to give the teacher a hard look that had her wilting under his gaze. “I’m sure Mme. Bustier would have no problem with that, I will also accompany you. M. Marchand, would you mind keeping an eye on M. Damocles?”

“Of course, I would like to word with him in private, myself.” He said, sending the man his own scathing look.

Mme. Bustier quietly escorted the Rossis and himself back to the classroom. The gym teacher, M. D’Argencourt had been watching over the class while Bustier had been in the meeting. Walters asked him to stay, and that they would only be there for a moment before turning to nod at the other teacher.

“Students, may I have your attention, please?” She waited a few seconds as the students put away what they were doing, likely hearing the tremor in the woman’s voice. “As you know, M. Walters, from the Board of Governors, has been sitting in with us today. It has been brought to my attention that one of our students has not been honest with us and has been causing a fair amount of trouble.”

Looking back at the girl and her mother, Mme. Rossi forced her daughter to step forward while keeping a hand on her shoulder. At first, she didn’t say anything. Then her mother leaned forward to whisper something in her ear, causing her to slump and tears to fall down her cheeks. “I-I lied, about everything. *sniffle* I don’t know any celebrities. I’ve never helped charities or been to Achu. *sniffle* I don’t have tinnitus, arthritis, or anything like that. I’m not Ladybug’s best friend and I’m not related to Vlad the Impaler. And-and…”

“And…” Mme Rossi said in a forceful tone, ignoring the stunned looks they were receiving from the class. Lila tucked her chin to her chest, muttering the rest of her confession under her breath. But her mother wasn’t going to allow that. “Speak up so everyone can hear you, unless you want to be grounded for twice as long with no allowance at all.”

The girl’s hands fisted at her side as she spoke loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. “Marinette never bullied me. I-I bullied her. I told her that I would take her friends from her. I pl-planted the answer sheet in her bag. *sob* I put my necklace in-in her locker. She never pushed me down the stairs either, I faked it to get her expelled.”

“And why did you do all of this to that girl, Lila?” Her mother asked, making it clear that she had to answer.

“Be-because sh-she knew that I was lying *sob hiccup sob* and I wanted her gone.”

“And what do you have to say to Marinette?”

Lila lifted her chin, glaring dangerously at the girl sitting in the back. “Sorry,” she snapped.

Mme. Bustier looked up at the girl, giving her a kind smile. “And do you accept her apology, Marinette?”

That really pissed him off, that woman had no right to put that girl on the spot after Rossi had done everything in her power to ruin that girl’s life. Before she could say anything, Walters stepped in front of Bustier. “Marinette, you are under no obligation to accept her apology, that is completely up to you.” Waiting a moment he saw the absolute relief on the girl’s face before quietly shaking her head and settling back in her chair.

Walters then instructed M. D’Argencourt to continue with the class while he escorted Bustier back to the office while Mme. Rossi took her daughter home.

There was still a lot to do in this school, it was clear to him that the two educators, and he used that term loosely, needed to go. There was paperwork to fill out, more CCTV footage to go over, interviews with the students of Bustier’s class, and calls needed to be made to the Dupain-Chengs and the Agrestes about Lila Rossi and what she’d done to their children. The investigation literally had weeks of work to do, but it had to be done. But Walters knew, by the time they were done cleaning house, the students and school would be better off for it.

~oOo~ Four Weeks Later ~oOo~

Walters was working on the last of the paperwork having to do with the Francois-Dupont College debacle, greatly relieved that it was over.

Lila Rossi had been officially expelled after the investigation for bullying, harassment, theft, sexual harassment, cheating, destruction of property, fraud, and truancy. During her trial before the Board, the Dupain-Cheng family had been present and she had been forced to apologize to them for what she had done to her daughter. From her file, he saw that the Dupain-Chengs, as well as the Agreste family, had placed restraining orders on the girl. The Agreste family were also pressing charges for sexual harassment. Mme. Rossi had mentioned a reformatory school for delinquent children in Italy, stating that she had already enrolled her daughter, despite the outcome of the Board’s decision. He was glad that the woman was taking everything in stride and seemed to be doing the right thing.

The investigation into M. Damocles had uncovered even more skeletons than Walters had expected. Negligence and abuse of power, those were easily confirmed. They also uncovered proof of favoritism, taking bribes to ensure that certain students were not punished for offenses or that they passed their classes, despite failing grades. But the nail in the coffin was when Walters tracked down the money that was supposed to go to upgrading the lockers, Damocles had embezzled it to fund his vigilante superhero activities. He had officially been fired and blacklisted from ever working for the educational system or any branch of the government. The new principal was a vice principal from another school, well versed in bullying situations and had degrees in accounting as well as education. She would be going over all the books to see exactly how much money Damocles had embezzled over the years, so the Board of Governors would be able to sue for the proper amount of restitutions.

The issue of Mme. Bustier turned out to be an interesting matter. While looking into her qualifications, it had been revealed that her teaching license had been suspended before she had been hired by Damocles to teach at the school. Not trusting her file, Walters contacted her previous school and found out that they had fired her for much of the same reasons he had put her on leave. She had enabled bullies, blamed the victims, and pressured her “star pupil” to take on the work of a teaching assistant. When that same student complained and refused to help anymore, Bustier had told his parents that the boy was a troublemaker, refused to follow instruction, and was talking back. The boy had insisted on talking to the principal, who had cleared things up with the student and his parents. Bustier had been fired for her behavior and her license suspended until she completed anti-bullying classes, which she never attended. She simply applied to a new school, where the principal didn’t look too closely at her paperwork, and resumed her toxic teaching methods. Because of this; Bustier had been fired, blacklisted from ever teaching again, as well as arrested for teaching without a license.

The whole of Bustier’s class had been assigned counselling sessions for the foreseeable future until the toxic habits that the teacher had instilled in the class could be rectified. Though Walters was pleased to see that there seemed to be progress, as none of the students had been akumatized since the day he had gone to the school. A new record for time between akumatizations. The substitute that had been hired was stern, well versed in squashing bullying habits, but was sympathetic to the victims. That was what that class needed for the time until the Board could find a suitable, permanent replacement.

All in all, Walters felt that he had done his job with investigating the Dupain-Cheng expulsion, and was happy to hear that the girl was doing much better. Her record had been cleared, her grades were still at the top of the class, and she had given the Board a basket of baked goods on the day of Lila’s trial, which had been like eating little bites of heaven. She had even given him a custom notebook cover, that he was pretty sure she made herself, and a matching pen. It was a very kind gift, and might have thought it was a bribe if anyone else had given it to him, but he could tell that she was just grateful to him for listening to her and making her school life better.

That was the reason he enjoyed his job.

Taglist:

@7-sage-7 @fantasiame @seraphichana

@t1dwarrior-of-earth @ghostmaster83 @izang

@ulmban @plushbookworm @corabeth11

@ramos123 @darkened-flame @caffeinetheory

@iamblinkmarvelarmy @abrx2002 @cheshire5210

@delightfulcookiesrecipespizza @raiderofthelostbooks

@plz-excuse-my-inner-ravenclaw @chocolateherringtacofan

@city-of-all-tunas @aadnrsstar @kitten12113

@interobanginyourmom @pandacatxd @zoiechance

@nerd-nowandforever @jesussavedevenme

@the-smallest-kittenz @will-zeke-thomson @omgpercabethadrinette

@ironspiderstark @goblinwhoships @toodaloo-kangaroo

#bustier salt #lila salt #lila gets exposed #marinette deserves better #ml fic #mlbjustice #ml au #marinette dupain cheng

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damnredthing · 2 years

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Hijinks ramblings – SNW S1E05

This post – naturally – contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the episode yet and do not want to read spoilers, please do not read any further.

This is not an episode review but rather just a bunch of ramblings which I’ve tried to at least sort a little bit into categories.

Season 1 – Episode 5 – Spock Amok

This was more of a funny, goofy episode with some character development built in. And of course we do have to discuss THE green wrap uniform. But one at a time.

Pike’s inner demons - continued

Erm nope. Nada. Nothing at all in this episode, not even hinted. So lets just move on with the next topic.

Correction to my last rambling

Because I’m stupid and scatterbrained, I mixed up Lt. Mitchell with Ensign Christina. But the message stays the same, for both actually! I hope we keep both in SNW for a long time and we’ll see more of both! Especially Ensign Christina is so cute, I want to cuddle her!

T’Pring and Spock

I do love, love, love T’Pring being played by Gia Sandhu. Not only is T’Pring very beautiful, she’s also extremely well characterized. In TOS T’Pring wasn’t very likeable, because she flat out requested kal-if-fee on Spock who by then was already one of THE most liked characters. Of course we’d be biased by the time T’Pring was trying to hook up with a new partner.

But SNW now allows us to learn what’s leading to that point. And we learn what T’Pring’s desires are. I hope Spirk shippers don’t lynch me for saying this (btw, just because Spock is in a relationship now doesn’t mean all is written in stone) but, even though the relationship was arranged (as it usually happens on Vulcan), Spock’s and T’Pring’s love for each other is true, yet conflicted. The little nuances of affection and love we see from T’Pring (who is a full Vulcan mind you!), hidden within stoic logic, are a treat and joy to watch. And when both swapped bodies, it was a lot of fun to watch both actors pulling off the opposite traits so well.

For comedic reasons, I wish they had kept their secret towards Pike a little longer. IMO it would have been funnier if Pike only found out by himself while the diplomatic talk with the R’Ongovians was already ongoing. But on the other hand, Pike seems to know both well enough that he most likely would have found out way before the meeting anyways. The writers would have to be super careful not to turn it into a farce, so maybe revealing it as early as they did was the best way, as it was believable.

Pike’s reaction was super cool though. It was kind of oh, another day on the Enterprise, another of the usual problems. Today is body swap Tuesday. Haha! Okay, let’s get this done anyways. And I also love how he’s totally unabashed when Spock calls him Chris (before he knew it was actually T'Pring).

(Dimple alert!)

Pike is a diplomat through and through

I begin to understand why all his Timelines cards have a high diplomacy score. This episode demonstrated so well why Pike is an expert for intercultural diplomacy. He doesn’t just go by protocol, he really tries to understand the people he’s talking to.

To find out that the R’Ongovians don’t just imitate their respondents, but that one of their prime traits is empathy, and that their desire is to be understood, wasn’t so easy to conclude from their behavior. Even though they even told Pike that right in his face when Captain Vasso said “We too listen. Empathy is a hallmark of our people. Few understand that.”

But who would go that far and realize that is their main desire?

Pike analyzed all encounters and came to that conclusion anyways, while everyone else was more or less confused about the R’Ongovian’s weird behavior. Pike also took a lot of risk when he talked like a waterfall about why they should NOT ally with the Federation. I could literally see Robert April die a little bit more inwardly with every word Pike added to his speech.

(Robert April be like “Shut up you idiot!”)

And that cocky grin Pike had when the R’Ongovians left? At that point he KNEW he hit the bulls eye.

I begin to wonder with all of Pike’s diplomacy (omg I misspelled it at first and wrote dimplomacy! haha, Freudean slip!) skills why he didn’t become a Federation ambassador after his time on the Enterprise. Instead he became Fleet Captain with the focus on overseeing the cadet education. Sure, you need a lot of empathy to train cadets (which Pike totally has! And which is a trait I am missing on his Timelines cards as well btw!!). But what a wasted opportunity not to use Pike’s diplomacy skills even more after his active duty on the Enterprise.

The green wrap uniform

I cannot write about this episode without talking about THAT! I gotta admit when I saw the trailer, I wasn’t too fond of it as I only saw a small part of the uniform. And that color on Anson was just….

But when I saw Pike in the full uniform, I changed my mind. I am still not 100% fine with the color, but the uniform cut and the level of detail was a wonderful homage to TOS. Needless to say that Anson rocked the uniform as he fit very well into it, if I may say so.

The only complaint I have is that undershirt was not needed at all. 😇

I am not sure what the official purpose of this uniform version is though. Is it for diplomatic meetings only? Wouldn’t Pike wear it for every first contact situation then as well? Or is Pike going to change between uniforms whenever he feels like it, just as Kirk did?

Some Randoms

The way Spock’s and T’Pring’s katras were switched back to their own bodies felt like a quick and dirty fix for me. On one hand it fit into the comedic episode. It’s hilarious that the solution is some stuff smeared on their foreheads with some crystals stuck into them and then magically, their katras are made to travel. But I’d much rather have seen this issue being fixed in a Vulcan way. I just don’t see a human finding the solution for a centuries old Vulcan procedure, even though I have no doubt that M’Benga is one hell of a doctor. Surely situations like these must already have happened in the Vulcan history? Even if it’s rare, I am sure a solution could be found in the Vulcan database. But this is just a minor nitpick as it fit into a comedic episode.

Una and La’an felt a bit out of character, and then again not. Especially La’an’s usual no-nonsense behavior makes her behavior in Spock Amok a bit unbelievable. But it seems when she’s around Una, she is a lot more opened up and ready to just enjoy her life. The contrast is stark though. It makes me wonder why she has so much trouble to open up to other people even though they already have proven to La’an that they want nothing but her well-being. But maybe that is her story in this show, that she’ll slowly overcome her deep trauma and is able to open up to other people. Time will tell.

We got Robert April again! YAY! I am so happy about that. I love his dynamic with his former Number One and I love how close they apparently are. There is no rank calling involved at all between the two. And around April, Pike can act like one of his protégés. For a change he can be the one who gives April the headaches. 🤭

In my last rambling I wrote that we’d make a time jump in this season to have the Enterprise repaired offscreen. It looks like that assumption was wrong. Instead this episode is a bit of a continuation from the last episode and the Enterprise gets repaired at Space Station One while most of the crew is granted shore leave. I didn’t know space stations also have space docks. I always thought space docks were their own kind of orbital stations.

Speaking of shore leave, I would have loved to see what Pike had in mind for his. Also, can we appreciate his civvies for one moment please? Please more of that!

Kyle is mean? 😱 Can we please also see that and not just get told?

So Una and La’an punish the two ensigns, and then do exactly the same things? I would have preferred once they completed their bingo cards they had gone to the transporter room and told the Ensigns that their punishment was lifted. But from now on the air lock part has to be scratched from the bingo card. It feels a bit mean and hypocritical to me that they didn't.

What exactly is this thing in Pike’s quarters? Is it some sort of moving picture? A video frame? An aquarium but for a forest? Or is it a hologram (which would make all the canon crusaders go berserk)? It is very pretty, that’s for sure!

#strange new world spoilers #snw spoilers #christopher pike #anson mount #Ensign Christina #Jennifer Hui #Lt. Mitchell #Rong Fu #Robert April #Adrian Holmes #una chin riley #rebecca romijn #la'an noonien singh #christina chong #christine chapel #gia sandhu #Spock #ethan peck

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mcyt-imagines · 3 years

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TommyInnit Confession HCs

This is a combination of an imagine and some headcanons, this is a new way of writing for me so let me know if you enjoyed this format!

- Tommy realising he loves the reader and how he’d confess to them -

Tommy definitely would deny being interested in the reader in the beginning.

It would probably be a natural progression of feelings but tommy just wouldn’t realise it until WAY too late.

Like he just catches himself thinking about them when he’s just doing schoolwork and chores. And then he’s aware of just how much his mind wanders to them. Far too often in his humble opinion.

He lays hints about his crush when talking with Tubbo. He’s real defensive about it though. “You much of a ladies man Tubbo?” Trying to discretely get advice without actually asking for any. And Tubbo being Tubbo means he completely missed all the hints Tommy was dropping. (Not that Tommy’s hints were any good)

His stream for sure notices a change in his behavior, more scatterbrained showing visible signs of stress maybe a little more irritable too. Tubbo definitely notices the changes too and asks him about it.

Tubbo would probably ask tommy on stream or in private something along the lines of. “What’s up Tommy, you’ve been kinda uh, distracted lately…”

Tommy for suuuuuure blushes and stutters out a response that even Tubbo doesn’t buy. (So instead he talks to Tubbo about it off stream, doesn’t mention his crushes name, but he keeps Tubbo in the loop. Tubbo finds the whole thing very funny because of how defensive Tommy gets in response, however he offers his support to Tommy, obviously. “Even though I have no experience with romance Tommy. I’ll do my best to be the best wingman ever!” With a salute to Tommy on his webcam. Tubbo quickly leaves the call saying he needs to do some ‘research’ (he puts the word in quotation marks with a wink)

Tommy would be a stubborn flustered MESS if stream ever figured out that he was crushing on someone.

And of course they find out because Tubbo slips up and mentions Tommy having a crush.

By that point he is absolutely CONSUMED by his thoughts about the reader as the more he tries to not think about them the more he wishes he was with them.

He also would 10000% be ignoring or avoiding his crush for as long as possible because he knows he wouldn’t be able to utter a single word to their face. His usual ‘big man’ façade would be in absolute shambles if he were around the reader during this time.

There would be a lot of internal and external swearing from Tommy when he finally realises and accepts that he likes you though.

However, this acceptance doesn’t make him any less stressed because now he needs to figure out whether he is even going to tell you!

But he knows he can’t keep living like this as he can’t keep avoiding his crush forever. And he knows the next time he sees you he knows his heart is going to literally burst out of his chest. And he won’t be able to stop himself. So, he devises a plan.

He gets a pep talk from Tubbo in which they help brainstorm his confession plan but he finds himself messaging Wilbur one late night after his stream. “Hey, can I get some advice?” Wilbur is shocked. “Tommyinnit asking ME for advice? Never thought I’d see the day.”

Wilbur teases him for a short while surely. But when Tommy finally puts his pride aside and tells Wilbur about his crush he sobers up quick and dishes out some solid advice and support for Tommy. “In exchange for my services I better be meeting this crush of yours Tommy.” “You got it big man.”

After speaking with Wilbur Tommy feels as if he can finally breathe for the first time in weeks since he first started to realise his feelings for the reader.

CONFESSION DAY!

Tommy sends the reader a text in the mid-morning asking if they wanted to hang out sometime later today. Also apologizing for how ‘busy’ he’s been the last few weeks using schoolwork or chores as his excuse.

He’s furiously texting Tubbo the WHOLE time he’s waiting for a reply from them. Tubbo pulls Tommy onto Minecraft to try and take his mind off the situation. Offline of course, Tommy would not be able to handle streaming right now.

Even Wilbur sends him a few messages to check in, jumping on discord to give his ear for Tommy to chew off. Which he most definitely does.

Eventually his phone dings and Tommy DIVES for it. “THEY SAID YES!” Both Wilbur and Tubbo groan from Tommy’s mic peaking with his screech.

Tommy waits for a few minutes before replying per Tubbo’s request. “I read it online! You don’t want to seem too into them.” He proclaims with false authority as Wilbur chuckles in the background of the call.

The rest of the afternoon blurs for Tommy as he stays on call with Wilbur and Tubbo as they do their best to distract his overactive mind.

However, as the clock ticks on he knows he needs to start getting ready or he’s going to be late.

Wilbur demands that he choose Tommy’s outfit. So for the next half hour Tommy proceeds to perform a free fashion show for the two, only for Phil to join for a short while to give his two cents before going back to his stream.

Eventually Wilbur settles on what he dubbed “-a classic Tommyinnit look-” one of his favourite red shirts paired with one of his nicer black jackets and the dark charcoal pants his mum had made him get a few months ago for a wedding. They are very uncomfortable.

Tommy heaves a sigh as he thanks Wilbur and Tubbo for sticking around with him today. They both send him away, “Good luck Tommy!” “Go get ‘em big man.”

Tommy had agreed to meet the reader at the park, he thought dinner would have been a bit much. Wilbur and Tubbo both agreed on that front. This park was right near the water, so it had a great view of the sunset. He was still pretty chuffed about that fact, his chat was sooo wrong, he could be romantic if he wanted to after all.

Of course, he was a little late. He repeatedly told his mum to speed. She refused of course. His mother of course had noticed exactly what this ‘hang out’ was and had quizzed him about his crush the night prior.

“Don’t leave the car mum.” Tommy was quick to warn her, he did not want her to be anywhere near them. She didn’t need any more dirt on him to embarrass him with. She could end his whole streaming career in an instant if she wanted. A truly terrifying thought.

Tommy was quick to move near the waterfront puffing slightly, nose a tinge pink with the oncoming chilly wind from the lake. “Hey Tommy.” Tommy would freeze instantly before quickly turning with a forced smile, a little too big for his face. “Hey!”

His crush would lead Tommy over to the nearby bench they had been sitting on before he arrived. And they would definitely sit closer to Tommy than he would have wanted.

Tommy would be so obvious. Stuttering over his words, a LOT of frantic hand movements whenever he’s speaking to them.

Mid-conversation his crush starts to laugh. “Tommy I think I’ve figure out why you have been ‘busy’ recently.” Tommy stills immediately, sweat dripping off of him in POOLS. “H-Huh!?” He makes a noise in the back of his throat that he has NEVER made before.

This seems to only make his crush laugh more, they turn fully to him and take one of his clammy hands. He quickly goes to yank it from their grip knowing how sweaty it is. But their grip is strong, and surprisingly calm in contrast to his shaking hands. He gulps simply staring at the spot where their hands are touching. “Tommy.” His gaze snaps up to their smiling face hiding slight worry. “Breathe.” And he finally does. His tense shoulders drop, and their hand leaves his. And suddenly he’s laughing harder than he ever has before realizing how ridiculous he’s being right now. And when he looks over, so is his crush.

The conversation from that point on flows naturally as the two finally begin to catch up after not seeing each other for a few weeks.

Tommy finally realises how comfortable they make him feel. He simply stares at them as they speak. Awed that it took him this damn long to figure out he liked them.

His crush stops talking, noticing him staring. He jumps out of his thoughts, “Hey Tommy, take a picture it’ll last longer.” And suddenly he’s sweating all over again as they laugh.

His crush is having the time of their life watching ‘big man’ Tommy squirm beside them. Trying his best to scrounge up the courage to say something, anything to them.

They open their mouth to speak when suddenly Tommy yells, “I LIKE YOU!”

Tommy isn’t even looking at them, he has his eyes squeezed shut and he thrusts his arm outwards holding something which promptly shoves into his crush’s chest. Effectively winding them.

They wheeze in response, “Me too. Don’t know why though goD!” They push out through gasps of air, pressing a hand to their chest. Pain beginning to subside as Tommy realises he literally just punched his crush.

His jaw drops and his silence continues as they take what was in his hands. A small book.

A scrapbook.

His crush’s face softens as they flip through the photos, memories flooding back to them of days long gone by.

Tommy stayed up all night yesterday just to finish the final details on the scrapbook, it isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing thing. (Even he knows that) But he put his heart and soul into it.

“Very sweet of you Tommy. But I didn’t bring anything for you…” They end up mumbling in response. Tommy only grins. “So you like it?” They scoff and finally pull Tommy in for a hug. He stills for a moment, then melts into their hold.

Tommy mumbles his apology for literally punching them into his crush’s hair. They giggle into his chest in response, letting him know that it’s fine, they’re okay. Tommy mumbles something incoherent into their hair and presses a cautionary kiss to the top of their head.

“AWWWWW!” A loud noise comes from behind their bench. Tommy and his crush dive apart only to see Tommy’s mum hidden behind a nearby tree.

“MUUUUUUUUUM!” Tommy screeches as his crush cackles out a laugh.

Tommy’s mum ends up driving his crush home as well, they sit in the back seat of the car holding hands.

“This didn’t go at all how I’d planned…” Tommy complains with a deep pout. “Oh really? Your plan didn’t involve punching me? Huh?” Their crush sniggers at him.

“Oh! His real plan-“ His mother starts and in order to cut her off Tommy just starts yelling at the top of his lungs “Nononono!!”. Causing his crush to burst into laughter as the two try to increase their volumes to drown out the other.

His crush shakes their head with a grin and wonders what the hell they’ve just gotten themselves into.

#tommyinnit #tommy x reader #mcyt headcanons #mcyt imagines #mcyt x reader #tommy mcyt

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hopeymchope · 3 years

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Judging the Danganronpa x Sanrio character pairings

You may have already heard that a DANGANRONPA X SANRIO line of crossover merch was announced a few days ago! Which is obviously AMAZING, because they’re combining cutesy characters that have often been marketed to wee children with everybody’s favorite murderdeathkill game! I LOVE IT.

I have a niece who went through a Sanrio/Hello Kitty phase, so I actually know a few of these characters. In turn, this means that I have THOUGHTS on how the DR1 and Sanrio cast were paired up.

Granted, I still had to look up a lot of these guys and read about them. But now I feel adequately educated to the point where I can judge just how well the Danganronpa and Sanrio pairings actually match up.

Makoto Naegi/Cinnamoroll - Obviously this totally works because Makoto IS something of a cinnamon roll, eh? EH? But Cinnamoroll is said to be shy albeit still very friendly. He also likes to seek out fun new adventures. So, aside from “very friendly,” I’m not sure that this sounds like Makoto. I also doubt that calling a character a “cinnamon roll” is common slang in Japan. So this is whatever.

Sayaka Maizono/Wish Me Mell - Mell has the power to connect people’s hearts by simply stating the feelings they keep inside. She was initially withdrawn and believed she didn’t have any friends, but the people who cared for her finally broke through her shell and convinced her that she DOES have friends. So uh, Maizono... I guess music can also bring out people’s feelings? And perhaps you could plausibly HC that Sayaka has often felt like her surrounding friends were “fake” and only there because of her celebrity status. There’s not really much to go on here.

Leon Kuwata/Tiran - Tiran is an orange T-rex that is said to be scatterbrained but still a strong and reliable leader. Meanwhile, Leon has orange hair, and he’s certainly strong and kind of scatterbrained sometimes. It sorta works.

Kyoko Kirigiri/Marroncream - Marroncream is bright, positive, and fashionable. She is talented at making crafts and sweets. She lives in Paris. She has nearly nothing in common with Kyoko, although Kyoko did live abroad a lot in her younger years. So I could try to latch onto the Paris thing.

Hifumi Yamada/Pokopon - Pokopon is a raccoon that loves to read but dislikes ghosts and “the thunder god.” (uh... what?) He also finishes his sentences with the unusual suffix “-das.” Of course, Hifumi loves to write (which certainly is connected to reading), and he likes to end all names with a weird suffix (”-dono”), so I can see how they might make a cute pair.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru/Pekkle - Pekkle is a duck who is good-natured and kind. He loves to sing and dance. It kind of sounds like he should’ve been matched with Sayaka, but instead he’s here with Taka. While Ishimaru is definitely a good person, I don’t think most people would immediately describe him as “kind.” And he certainly isn’t known for his love of music.

Yasuhiro Hagakure/Monkichi - Monkichi is a laid-back, easygoing guy who is upbeat and loves puns. His dream is to become a poet. It’s said that once he sets his mind on something, there is no stopping him! And in comparison, Hagakure is... well, he’s kind of laid-back in the sense that he’s kind of lazy? But he’s actually pretty high-stress a lot of the time, too. Honestly, there’s not much linking the two.

Chihiro Fujisaki/Kurousa and Shirousa - Shirousa is the white one and is the older sibling to Kurousa, the brown one. Shirousa is described as an energetic leader and Kurousa is described as being nice but lazy. They like to make cakes. What does any of this have to do with Chihiro? Beats me. This particular pairing is nonsense.

Byakuya Togami/Badtz-Maru - Badtz-Maru is said to have a bad attitude and dreams of being “the boss of everything” when he grows up. He tends to act a bit selfish, and he mocks things he dislikes/disagrees with. He enjoys expensive food and collecting photos of movie villains. With the exception of that last point, I’d have to say that this sounds like a near-perfect match for Togami.

Mondo Owada/Goropikadon - The Goropikadon are a group of cave boys whose actual names are Goro (blue hair), Pika (pink hair), and Don (teal hair). Goro is always hungry and joking around. PIka is a thoughtful, shy mama’s boy. Don is serious and places a high value on honesty. Overall, I suppose that how quick Mondo is to get angry and resort to violence kind of makes him seem like a stereotypical caveman? But in terms of their distinct personalities, only Don’s focus on honesty rings true for Mondo.

Toko Fukawa/Lloromannic - Another multi-character one. The Llormannic are a pair of creatures named Berry (the black one, who is male) and Cherry (the pink one, who is female). They are mischievous and love to play pranks on humans. Cherry was originally alone and created Berry for companionship; however, she mixed up her magic spell ingredients and used salt when she meant to use sugar, which resulted in Berry turning out to be a more hostile being than Cherry. I suppose the fact that Berry is a darker creation of Cherry’s sort of reflects the relationship between Toko and her other self, Genocide(r) Syo/Jack. However, Berry and Cherry are still best friends. Toko and Syo/Jack are definitely not that.

Celestia Ludenberg/Kuromi - Kuromi is the rival of a bunny named “My Melody” who doesn’t appear in this promotion. Kuromi is said to look “tough and punk” in her jester’s hat with the pink skull on it, but in reality she is very girly. She enjoys writing in her diary, reading romance books, cooking, and checking out good-looking guys. I suppose Celestia did have that dream of living in a mansion where she was served by handsome guys dressed as vampires? So... they both like hot guys? But that’s all I’ve got here. Pretty sure this pairing only exists for aesthetic reasons. And admittedly, their aesthetics mesh very well.

Aoi Asahina/Keroppi - Keroppi lives with his family on the edge of Donut Pond. He is bubbly, a fantastic swimmer and, because of the name of his home pond, is often associated with donuts and/or things that are donut-shaped. Ok, so this was an obvious pairing, then. They nailed it. Probably the single best pairing they came up with.

Sakura Ogami/My Sweet Piano - Yes, the character’s name is literally “My Sweet Piano.” She’s described as soft, kind, and girly. Given Sakura’s secret love of girly things, I can see how this soft, pink, girly sheep would be something she’d love to be around.

Junko Enoshima (...?)/Hello Kitty - Hello Kitty (a.k.a. Kitty White) is described by Sanrio as “cute, bright, sweet, kind-hearted and tomboyish.” They also say that Kitty is very close with her sister, Mimmy. As for Junko... look, the only reason I think maybe this is supposed to be Junko is because Mukuro already has her own Sanrio matchup (see the next entry), but in terms of her appearance, this “Junko” sure looks like it’s “Junkuro.” The telltale sign is that giant bow on the left side of the head, which only Mukuro-as-Junko has ever worn. I doubt we’re supposed to be thinking that they did two Mukuros in two different outfits, though?

It’s like this: If it’s Junko, well, I guess both Junko and Kitty are icons within their respective brands. And Junko tries to put on a “cute and bright” exterior persona, I guess? But that’s pretty thin. On the other hand, if this is Mukuro in disguise, this is actually a semi-decent matchup! Mukuro is arguably tomboyish and certainly very close to her sister (at least from her own perspective), so these two are not without their parallels.

In either case, both Kitty and the Unknown Despair Sister have a big bow on the left side of their head. Which I think is the real reason they’ve been paired, honestly.

Mukuro Ikusaba/Little Twin Stars - Kiki and Lala are a pair of twins that were born on December 24th. Mukuro is one half of a pair of twins ALSO born on December 24th. Instant connection! Kiki (the blue-haired boy) loves fishing and inventing things. He is curious and cheeky. Lala (the pink-haired girl) loves drawing, writing poems, and cooking. She is rather timid. In short, the “twins with the same birthdate” thing is the only thing connecting Mukuro to these two. Still, it’s not bad.

Also, the most amazing thing to come out of this team-up so far HAS TO BE MonoKitty. Hello Kitty cosplaying as our favorite psychotic MurderBear? How great is that? SELL ME MERCH OF MONOKITTY.

#sanrio #danganronpa x sanrio #sanrio characters #danganronpa merch #hello kitty #danganronpa crossovers #danganronpa official art

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d-criss-news · 3 years

Text

1883magazine.com

Darren Criss

On his new EP ‘Masquerade,’ the multi-talented Darren Criss welcomes everyone to the party.

Throughout his career, Darren Criss has never been one to shy away from boundaries. As an actor, he has won numerous awards and critical acclaim for his portrayal of Andrew Cunanan in Ryan Murphy’s award-winning drama American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, as well as hearts and a cult-like following for his portrayal of Harry Potter in Team Starkid’s A Very Potter Musical. As a musician, his talent shows the same range; he is as well known for his ability to belt a broadway ballad as he is for his covers of Top 40 hits on Glee.

For Criss, this is because all music is simply music. Musicians and listeners alike need not box themselves into certain genres and while this concept is currently growing in mainstream media, it is one Criss has known since he was a teenager. At Warped Tour, he encountered fellow San Franciscans Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, a punk-rock cover band that specializes in the unexpected (their most played track on Spotify is Country Roads.). Inspired by what he’s always known was possible, Darren’s career has had freedom most artists take years to explore — and with his new EP, it’s clear that is the most recent chapter.

‘Masquerade’ is an exploration into Criss’ more eclectic side with each track on the record representing a different persona or masque for the artist. The overt character-driven quality of the EP lends not only to allowing fans to learn more about Darren Criss, but also to create a project where something can be found for everyone.

1883 Magazine spoke to Darren Criss about his perception of genre, his new EP, and the curse of creative people.

Congratulations on ‘Masquerade’. I love it. It’s so fun!

Fun is a very fair adjective, I would agree.

I feel like there’s a very cohesive vision or aesthetic to it. When you set out to make the project, did you have this end goal in min or were you just making music?

Yes and no. First and foremost, when you’re dealing with the whole of what an artist does, there are so many different facets that make the whole piece. To start, I’m just a songwriter — that’s the main thing that seeds everything else. But, because I’m a creative person, I’d like to think that I have a somewhat cohesive vision for my projects. However, you can conjecture and pontificate over what you want to happen, but ultimately a project is going to come out how it does. The thing that ties it all together, hopefully, is the artistry of the music or the person’s voice. When I heard you say “cohesive” my mind was like, “Phew!” Because we’re all scatterbrained people and we just constantly pray other people somehow think that we planned something or we had it envisioned all along, so to hear that is an enormous relief.

That being said, I had hope for how the EP would come together. I’ve been leaning into this notion of a character-driven song. The dirty secret about that is all songs are character-driven; all art is character-driven in some way or another. I just use that wording to aide folks that might be perceiving me as an actor and to apply that methodology to music.

How so?

I always thought it was a bit of an unfair double standard — where actors can be in a horror movie or romantic comedy — and we’re still behind that person as an actor. Actors can put on a prosthetic nose or a wig and do different things to service whatever story they’re doing. Historically music has been a little trickier, but now I think that’s changing. I’ve always been a self-proclaimed genrephile. I love so many different kinds of things. Growing up it was difficult for me to really assert this without confusing people. Now, that kaleidoscope has shifted in my favour, because people are more into eclecticism and musical diversity due to playlist culture and the whole homogeneity of everything. I’m employing this notion of being an actor and being behind a character and applying it to music by treating each song as its own kind of character. I want the art to correspond with that.

That’s an interesting concept to apply to music.

I know that everything I just said is horrifically more cerebral than it needs to be. If you like the music and it’s fun, great. I’m just trying to help people out that might be confused by perhaps some of the cognitive dissonance that’s happening between some of the styles. At the end of the day, it’s an artist’s voice, literal singing voice, and heart voice — what they have to say and how they say it — that tie everything together. People are more accepting of that than they used to be. This is exciting for me because I finally got to lean into something that I’ve always leaned into my entire life.

The last EP you released was ‘Homework’ in 2017. How do you think you’ve grown as an artist since then?

For me, obviously, there’s personal growth and professional growth. I think my growth is much more technical — getting better at recording music or being able to translate abstract ideas into physical recording — the things that I don’t think necessarily would be seen on the records. Again, much like an actor, ‘Homework’ was me playing the part of making a very low-key, singer/songwriter record. I’m a big believer in dressing for a party. I had some singer/songwriter songs that I wanted to honour. Each record I release shows a different version of myself that I haven’t gotten around to sharing.

The songs on ‘Masquerade’ are not like, “oh man in the past few years, I’ve suddenly become this person.” The EP was me finally getting in touch with my more Garage Band musician roots that I hadn’t been able to flex. It made sense to me to finally make this music. I had linked up with people that I thought could help me bring it to life in a way that hadn’t been done before and I felt like the timing was right. As I mentioned, it seemed like audiences might be a little more privy to this kind of thing.

I don’t want to be so stubborn as to think that there hasn’t been growth. I’ve been so lucky as an actor, that I’ve been busy as an actor. The only obstacle to me putting out more music, which I wish I was doing all the time, is time. I’m not an artist that just shows up, sings, and checks out. I’m writing, I’m producing, and I’m really in the weeds. It takes a great deal of investment, emotionally and mentally when I make music.

So, when you say, “you wish you were always releasing music,” do you mean to imply you have more music or at least ideas for more music?

I think the curse of creative people is that our ideas move faster than our bodies can execute. What this inevitably will create is a huge queue of unattended things that you will always be haunted by. From there, you have to catch as catch can. At any given moment, there’s still so much more in the queue that I want to put out. It literally took a global shutdown for me to finally have the time to look at the said queue, and say, “Okay, which project do I not only really want to do, but also do I have the resources to do and do I think fits into where I am right now?” Because I’m very cognisant of l where I am in my career. I have this huge selection of songs and when I have the time to focus on music, I go through and pick the ones I think fit where I am mentally and how I think other people are feeling.

With all these different genres of music you’ve released and all the music-centric projects that you’ve been a part of, is there a type of music that you enjoy performing the most?

I would say everything, but I don’t mean that in a way to just include everything. By nature, I’m a dot connector; I like shortening the distance between two things as much as possible and showing people how they can coexist. It’s my MO personally and professionally. Genre, while it has a lot to do with the cultural background and history of a type of music, is the boxes that we’ve arbitrarily made up to categorize and market music. I’m completely nondenominational when it comes to genre because all I can hear is chords, melody, and lyrics. It’s never been separated to me. When I’m performing live, I relish getting to lean in and bring together genres. I love using the setlist to show an audience how similar different genres are. For example, I’ll play a punk rock song and right after that I’ll sit at the piano and sing a ballad. My voice will be a little different, but it’s still my voice. Just like in acting, no matter what character an actor is portraying, it’s still their face and their body. Trying to minimize a distance between genres when I perform is an exciting prospect because I like getting audiences to rethink what they think they know about the differences between genre and how really at the end of the day it’s all just storytelling. So…I like performing it all.

I didn’t say you couldn’t say you liked everything. [Chuckles] That’s a perfectly acceptable answer.

I like putting all of it together specifically to show the similarities. Historically, all the great steps forward in a new kind of art form have been by mashing two or three seemingly unrelated things together. It’s happening constantly. It’s happening right now. Culture is a constant conversation back and forth. It’s a sharing of ideas that ebb and flow to create something new. I’m not saying that I’m taking part in this ancient conversation, but I’m certainly enjoying it. When I see pieces of it that I would like to showcase, I jump at the opportunity to do so.

Since ‘Masquerade’ has been in your creative bank for a while, what would you say inspired it?

Every song has its own inspiration. The album doesn’t really have an inspiration. If anything, I’m trying to make sure that I can show up for myself. I feel like with everything that I’ve done musically, I haven’t gotten to represent who and what I am and what I do. To me, this EP gets me closer to that goal. I still think that only a small percentage of me has been represented and that’s just because of time. I haven’t been able to focus on music in the way that I’d like, but ‘Masquerade’ is a huge stride for me.

Speaking of you being on Broadway, Elsie Fest is Sunday! On top of it just being exciting because it’s back, it’s your first public gig in almost two years. What did you miss most about the festival?

Listen, even without a global pandemic to worry about, putting on a music festival is hard enough. It’s one of my favourite times of the year because I’m very proud of what we’ve built and what we’ve continued to build and expand upon over the years. There’s been a community that has been built around not only people that come to the festival but people that have been part of it. I’ve followed these performers’ careers and I’ve been really grateful that we got a piece of their magic and got to be part of their journey at Elsie Fest. Magic which I can’t take credit for. I just lucked out with having incredible people perform. Over the years, we’ve had Cynthia Erivo perform twice. The first time she premiered a song called ‘You Will Be Found’ from a musical that would open in a year called ‘Dear Evan Hansen.’ We premiered a song from a movie called ‘The Greatest Showman.’ Keala Settle went on to win a Golden Globe for that song. Last year, we had a young girl from Disney sing for us — her name was Olivia Rodrigo. Those are just three examples. There’s been a lot of people that I’ve been thrilled to see do their thing. This year we have an incredible lineup. Barlow & Bear are coming, along with Jordan Fisher, Adrienne Warren, Pentatonix’s Kirstin Maldonado, and Alex Brightman. It’s gonna be great.

The obvious and the biggest answer is getting to perform live within as much of a safe and comfortable environment as humanly possible. Luckily we’re an outdoor festival, so that’s already to our advantage. I will be performing this new EP, but there is also a lot of music to catch up on and a lot of music I want to share. I’m mainly excited to share it with other human beings. I look at performing as a service industry. Everything that I do isn’t worth a whole lot unless other people experience it because it takes on a life of its own. The audience is not there for me & I’m there for them. I’m trying to service an experience that’s bigger than both of us and create something that couldn’t have been there if both parties were on their own.

Before I let you go, I need to tell you that Tramp Stamp Granny’s is one of my favourite bars in LA. I’m obsessed! I haven’t made it back yet. Like I said earlier, the editor Kelsey is also one of my best friends and when she comes, it’s top on my list of places to take her.

Really?! That makes me so happy. You couldn’t have said a better thing. We’re open again to limited capacity. We require vaccinations cards at the door and we’re only open Thursday-Saturday. Talk about being with people — the night we reopened, about a month ago, I got pretty emotional. It was nice to see people just being happy to sing and celebrate life with strangers. That was a really encouraging sentiment because despite the use of digital communication which I do think is an amazing thing, we, so clearly, inevitably, yearn for each other. Despite everything, people were coming to the bar and were so happy to be there and be around other people. Our need for other human beings is a constant that is extremely encouraging to me as a bleeding heart idealist. It’s nice to be a small part of that.

Finally, you said earlier Barlow and Bear were going to be at Elsie Fest. I cannot wait for the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical and was so excited to see you’re involved.

It’s cool meeting them because in a much more organized and impressive fashion they’re doing what my friends and I did ten years ago with ‘A Very Potter Musical.’ They are insanely talented and deserve to be the huge phenomenon they have become. They’re the future. I’m trying to grab onto their coattails however I can. [chuckles] They’re just getting started. I’ve been a big fan of Emily’s for a long time. She hates it when people say this, but [mock yells] she was a child prodigy and she still is. She’s an amazing human being.

Masquerade is out now.

Follow Darren Criss @darrencriss

Interview by Sydney Bolen

#darren criss #1883 magazine #elsie 2021 #masquerade ep #tramp stamp granny's #homework ep #press #august 2021

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cheri-translates · 4 years

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[CN] Victor’s Return Home Date (Eng Translation)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for a date which has not been released in English servers! 🍒

The date begins in a conference room, where a meeting has been going on for almost three hours

When LFG invested in an online video platform called SE, LFG held a press release stating that it was a strategic move for the international film and TV market

However, just within two years, SE found itself racking up billions of dollars in debt due to its poor project management

As such, people in the know have been secretly ridiculing Victor for making an error of judgement

Fortunately, LFG’s connections with the media prevented this information from leaking out

But it doesn’t change the fact that LFG messed up this time

Victor hasn’t slept in two days - he’s been poring through documents, project materials, and would sometimes sit in the conference room alone for several hours, forgetting to eat :

When Victor returns to the hotel, there are over a hundred unread notifications on his phone.

He doesn’t pay attention to such information, but taps on the only pinned message amid the countless lists of prompts.

Unsurprisingly, it’s filled with insignificant idle talk, coupled with several different emoticons.

Victor loosens his tie slightly, reading through the messages from top to bottom.

“I made an improved version of omurice. Want to try it?”

“What is Goldman talking about in his Moments - something about being angry and tired. Is the meeting not going smoothly?”

“Remember to eat...”

“And remember to sleep!”

Victor’s finger pauses at this line, and there’s a gentle emotion flowing in his eyes.

“The internet celebrity lawyer you mentioned the other time agreed to my invitation for an interview, so I’ll be rushing out the proposal this Saturday. Want to be a supervisor?”

Victor opens the dialog box. Once he sends an “ok”, the other party immediately responds with an emoticon of a winking cat.

Thinking of the time right now, he arches his brows slightly.

Nestled in my quilt, I’m just about to embark on a long speech regarding the weekend’s schedule, but the phone in my hand suddenly vibrates, surprising me.

Victor: Did you not sleep, or did you wake up?

MC: Haha...

Victor: What are you laughing at?

MC: It feels like that is something I often ask you. Why is it now your turn to ask me?

Victor: It’s only 5am now.

MC: I didn’t get a reply from you, so I couldn’t sleep...

I turn over, changing to a more comfortable position against the corner of the quilt. I press the phone tightly to my ear.

MC: What project are you busy with this time? Is it going smoothly?

Victor: Smoothly. It’s still early, you can sleep for a while longer.

MC: ...I can’t really sleep now. Are you still coming back on Thursday as you said last time?

Victor: Before Saturday.

MC: It’s only Tuesday today... and the sun hasn’t come out yet.

I hear Victor laugh, his low tone mixed with some tiredness.

Victor: You find it too late?

MC: I wouldn’t dare to. If it weren’t something important, you wouldn’t delay returning. However... even if it’s because of work, you did go back on your word, so you have to promise me one thing.

A deep and slow sigh enters my ear, revealing a faint sense of fatigue.

Victor: You can say it.

MC: You have to eat, and you have to sleep.

The other end of the phone call grows silent for a few seconds.

Victor: Mm, I promise you.

The misty morning light is on the curtains. In the midst of my quiet grogginess, I close my eyes, wanting to feel the frequency of his breaths.

MC: ...it has been raining continuously in Paris these two days.

Victor: It’s like that during this season.

MC: Is... is it very cold...

Victor: No, it isn’t.

My consciousness grows increasingly darker, but I can still clearly capture his voice in my bizarre dream world.

Victor: [in the gentlest of gentle voices] Sleep if you’re tired. I’m hanging up.

MC: N-not tired... don’t hang up...

Victor: You can’t even speak clearly, and you’re still unwilling to sleep?

MC: ...

I just need five more seconds to be clear-headed--

I let out a sound of agreement, unsure if I managed to say this aloud.

Very soon, only Victor’s long and steady breaths at my ear remain in my world. It’s very, very close. It’s a closeness that gives one a peace of mind.

Victor: Are you asleep?

MC: ...

Victor: Sleep then.

Victor: ...

Victor: Sleep peacefully.

On Saturday afternoon, I lift my head towards the wall clock for the nth time. When the needle points to the number ‘3′, I can no longer help myself, and give Victor a call.

After the dial tone, the notification that the other party is unable to answer the call sounds. Before I can react, the doorbell rings.

Victor is standing at the door and just about to put his phone back into his pocket. In a daze, I look towards at his empty hands.

MC: Your luggage...

Victor: Goldman took them back. I still have to return to LFG tonight.

As he speaks, he enters and changes his shoes in the hallway. After that, he walks straight into my bedroom.

Victor: What have you been doing these two days?

He walks to the coffee table, picking up the messy outline I was working on for an interview. He takes a glance and then lifts the corners of his lips.

Victor: You said you were working seriously for several days, but you just did a few outlines?

MC: Don’t underestimate me! I’ve looked through quite a number of materials. Look!

I point at the stack of trending societal topics and legal-related books on the floor.

MC: Preparatory work speeds up the actual process. Also, didn’t I recognise my inadequacies and ask you to be a supervisor?

I hurriedly drag a chair to the coffee table and place a headrest on the back of it.

MC: Please sit. I guarantee that from this second onwards, I’ll concentrate on the proposal. Before the sun sets, I’ll definitely have the first edition out.

Victor can’t help but laugh. He hangs his coat on the clothes rack in the corner, then pulls the chair over to himself. After sitting down, he seems to recall something and lets out a faint sigh.

Victor: Lend me your laptop for a while.

I hand him my notebook computer, and a thought flashes across my mind -- how could he not have brought a laptop out?

MC: Victor, when did you get infected by my scatterbrained habits?

Victor: Only this time. I forgot to take it with me after leaving it in the backseat.

Victor avoids my teasing gaze. With his expression unchanged, he starts approving documents on the LFG intranet.

Victor: The sun is setting in two hours.

MC: Who knows - maybe the sun wouldn’t feel like going home today.

I return to my seat, resting my chin on my palm while looking towards Victor.

The light golden sunlight streams in from the window, slowly enveloping Victor. The quiet, warm rays of light are coupled with a calming woody scent, and are very pleasant.

Victor doesn’t speak. His fingers tap against the desk from time to time. In this quiet room, the sound of our breathing is amplified.

After an inordinate amount of time, he finally lifts his eyes and meets mine.

Victor: Staring at me can help you finish your proposal?

MC: I’m not staring at you. I’m silently conceptualising ideas.

After my words are out, a short “ding” sounds.

MC: Wait for a moment~

In a flash, I rush to the kitchen and retrieve the aromatic cookies from the oven. After carefully placing them on a cooling rack, I bring it back to the room along with two cups of warm drinks.

MC: Afternoon tea time!

Victor casts a glance at the cups and arches his brows slightly. Steam floats from the hot cup of milk, and strands of warmth merge with the sweetness in the house.

MC: Your dark circles are so deep, so don’t drink coffee, all right?

Victor: I’m fine.

I thought Victor meant that he wouldn’t drink this, but he holds up the cup after speaking.

Once I sit down, I push the plate filled with cookies towards him.

MC: Look at my new mold - isn’t it cute?

I point at the cookies, which are shaped like cats with different expressions on them.

MC: This one is yawning, this one is full of grievances, this one has already fallen asleep, but I like this one the most. It keeps having an angry face. I called it “Qi Gu Gu”.

[Note: Names don’t translate well into English, so I left it as it is. The original name is 气鼓鼓, which means “seething”]

Victor’s eyes sweep towards my fingers.

Victor: Looks like you.

MC: Is that so?

I puff my cheeks, mimicking the cat on the cookie and squinting my eyes to look at Victor.

As predicted, Victor ignores me. There is a measure of speechlessness in his eyes.

I laugh and bring “Qi Gu Gu” to his lips.

MC: Give it a try?

Victor takes a bite straight from my hand, then returns his gaze to the laptop.

MC: Aren’t you going to evaluate it?

He purses his lips slightly, and I can’t tell if he’s smiling or not. He leans forward a little, then finishes the remaining half of “Qi Gu Gu” in my hand.

His warm lips brush against my fingertips, leaving behind a soft, lingering warmth. A fluffy, light, and sweet sense of happiness stirs up slowly in my heart.

Contented, I sweep the crumbs off my hands and take up my pen again.

Soon after, MC’s mind starts wandering to how fine the weather is

And how fine her man is 👀

He doesn’t show much emotion while working, and his expression looks as calm as always. But the deep look of concentration between his eyebrows is a little different from usual.

As for what exactly is different...

It’s probably how one just can’t look away.

Victor: It’s only been a few minutes. How many times have you lost focus?

I hurriedly retract my gaze, pretending to be scribbling on the paper like an “obedient” student who got caught doing something improper by a teacher.

But my ideas have not been completely formulated, and I can’t think of anything to write. The only thing I can do is draw a small heart at the top right-hand corner of the paper.

Sensing Victor’s lingering gaze on me, I continue scribbling until it becomes a solid heart, then attach a tilde at the end.

After pausing for a moment, I let out a soft sigh and lift my head slightly.

Victor: Why are you sighing.

MC: ...I can’t help it.

Victor: Can’t help what?

MC: Can’t help looking at you.

I cross my arms together, changing to a more comfortable position and plopping onto the table. I tilt my head towards Victor.

He lets out a barely audible laugh. Just as he’s about to speak, a familiar ringtone sounds from his pocket.

Watching Victor pick up the call, my messy thoughts instantly vanish, and I feel slightly downcast.

Victor: The time now is...

While speaking, Victor looks at the bottom right corner of the laptop. After a slight pause, he looks at the phone.

Victor: 4.30pm. Have them give me a reply by 8pm.

His words are concise. After he hangs up, I ask him a little hesitantly.

MC: Do you... have to go back to LFG now?

Victor: I'm not leaving.

While saying this, he sets his phone on silent mode and places it at the corner of the table. Meeting my hesitant gaze, there’s a sense of resignation in his calm eyes.

Victor: Your laptop is set to Paris’ timezone.

I fail to understand the implication behind his words, so I just nod subconsciously.

MC: Mm, it’s easier to tell the time like that.

Victor doesn’t speak. He sweeps another glance at the laptop. At this moment, the system sends a report of the weather forecast in Paris over the next five days - there will be continuous rain every day.

He smiles faintly, then closes the laptop slowly.

Victor: ...you’re really becoming more and more dumb.

MC: ...yes yes yes, taking care of a dummy like me is really a bother for Mr CEO.

I deliberately pout, but can’t help but smile along with Victor. I stand up and retrieve our two empty cups.

MC: I'll go wash the cups. Is there anything you want to eat?

Victor: No need. Are you treating me as you?

I let out an indignant “hmph”, then turn around and head to the kitchen.

I originally thought it would only take a few minutes to wash the two cups. But by the time I cleaned and tidied up the tools I used for baking earlier, half an hour has passed.

When I return to the room, Victor is lying on the bed, my incomplete outline in his hand.

I soften my footsteps and walk over, leaning close to his ear and whispering:

MC: Victor, are you asleep?

Victor doesn’t respond, but has a shallow intake of breath, his eyelashes quivering gently under the twilight.

MC: Are you really sleeping or just pretending to sleep?

Very lightly, I climb onto the bed, inching towards him.

MC: Victor?

I call his name again softly, but he still does not respond. But the corners of his lips curl up slowly, revealing a smile.

MC: You aren’t asleep, are you.

I lean one hand on the bed, and use my other hand to lift up a few strands of his hair.

Looking at his smooth and sharp jawline, my fingertips unconsciously rub the tips of his hair.

MC: ...have you been very tired recently?

Victor: No.

His words carry with them a certain sleepiness - perhaps he hasn’t had rest in a few days, so he gets drowsy once he relaxes just a little.

MC: Didn’t you already look at my interview outline? Why are you looking at it again?

Victor: To see what exactly you were scribbling.

I think about that heart with its little tail, and am left speechless, as though I got caught having a bad idea.

Victor: You specially got me here to supervise you, but you only wrote these few sentences the whole afternoon?

MC: Yeah. Next time, I won’t ask you to be a supervisor! When you’re in front of me, my work efficiency takes a nose-dive.

I reach out to take my notebook from his hand, then cover him with a blanket. Victor turns his head, his half-closed eyes meeting mine.

It’s very rare for me to see such a burnt-out look in his eyes. Right now, I can only feel the emotions in my heart towards this person becoming a hundred times more tender.

MC: Sleep for a while before going to LFG? I’ll wake you up at 7.30pm.

With the rigour of Victor’s schedule, several important meetings were cancelled at short notice so he could fly to Paris. After that, his return was delayed twice.

We already agreed that he’d return before Saturday, but it suddenly changed to Saturday itself...

This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t an extremely troublesome matter.

...and he still stubbornly said that he wasn’t tired.

I place my forefingers on his temples, making slow circles. After a while, a soft laugh drifts from his lips.

Victor: [releases a sigh which sounds like a moan lol]...

Victor takes my right hand and encloses it in his palm, wordlessly pulling me closer to him.

With this distance, every one of his breaths mingle with mine. I can’t help but bend down, pressing the corner of my lips to his fringe.

In the quiet darkness, I hear the frequency of our heartbeats and breathing mingling and becoming more and more synchronised.

Victor: ...there’s no need to worry about me. I haven’t reached the point where a dummy has to worry about me.

MC: Mm, I got it.

I respond softly, but can’t hide the touch of peace in my smile.

MC: ...I just can’t help it.

Can’t help but worry if you’re hungry or not, whether you're cold or not, whether you’re tired or not.

Can’t help but want to see you, whether you’re in front of me or not.

Can’t help but reveal the smile in my brows and lips just because you surface in my mind.

I look out the window - the clouds spread across the dim twilight and the stars are looming. The golden sunset and the quietness of the night meet at the end of the sky.

The sun is about to set.

MC: Victor, I didn’t finish the interview outline before the sun set. Are you going to punish me?

Victor: ...

The only response I get is the sound of his steady and peaceful breathing.

I lower my head and look at his sleeping face. This familiar side profile has gotten slightly thinner over the span of just a few days. I reach out, stroking his cheek in mid-air.

Afraid to disturb him, I silently watch him.

MC: Sleep then.

MC: ...

MC: Sleep peacefully.

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc spoilers #mlqc victor #Victor's dates are always so comforting T^T

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florafey · 4 years

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Spare Jurdan Headcanons

These store up in my brain so I have to put them down somewhere and share them from time to time. Here you go!

- Jude is incredibly organized and Cardan is the exact opposite

- She knows where most of his things are and he often has to ask her

- This only applies to the non-important things such as his jewelry (”Where did I take my ring off, sweetheart?”) and his books (”I put them back on the shelf, Cardan, they hide under the sheets and hurt to lay on”) and Jude honestly never minds that Cardan is a tiny bit scatterbrained

- He lets her handle all the interior decorating

- Jude really only cares about their private chambers but she has a blast designing everything and making it home

- Hand holding to the max

- Physical touch in general is huge for both of them probably because they were starved of it as children

- One of Cardan’s favorite things to do is hold onto Jude’s thigh when she’s sitting or laying next to him

- It’s such a soft place and he can hold onto her tightly

- Jude, in turn, holds Cardan’s forearm

- When Oak wants to be a nuisance, he’ll scuttle into the room where they’re cuddling and worm his way between them

- I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: they practice parenting on Oak

- Cardan and Jude also love wrestling with each other who doesn’t?

- It’s never a cut and dry situation of who is going to win this round

- Cardan is taller and outweighs Jude but she’s strong as hell so sometimes she can use Cardan’s weight against him

- If Cardan isn’t careful, he’ll find himself pinned to the ground by his wife

- Not that he normally minds

- But sometimes he does, and those are the times that Jude finds herself having to strain to keep up with him lest she catch a hand to the jaw

- They love to bathe each other

- And bathe together ;)

- Jude loves washing Cardan’s hair

- He loves the feelings of her hands in his hair so he’d let her play with it all day if he could

- Cardan’s hair gets soft and fluffy right after it’s been washed and Jude thinks it’s the most adorable thing ever

- So Cardan lets her amuse herself in this small way

- Cardan sometimes shaves Jude’s legs

- He’s never been super concerned with whether or not she shaves any part of her body, but he also isn’t going to pass up an excuse to have her bare legs over his lap

- After a few tries, Jude convinces Cardan to let her shave his face for him

- She goes slowly and doesn’t get the closest shave ever, but she doesn’t cut him

- He’s proud of her; she loves being praised

- The sharing of daily activities such as these are very common with them

- They’re extremely good friends so it’s natural for them to want to do almost everything together

- On the rare occasion that one of them needs alone time, the other is extremely understanding and accommodating

- This is a healthy relationship, haven’t you heard?

- Said alone time never lasts very long, however

- Usually it comes in the form of taking a quick nap without the other, or having a moment to sit and breathe and think about affairs of the state

- But neither of them want to be alone for very long so they always end up going to find the other before much time has passed

- Cardan teases Jude relentlessly about her attachment to him but she does the same to him

- They love it in the other, though, and they wouldn’t have it any other way

#Judan #jude duarte #cardan greenbriar #jude x cardan #jude x cardan headcanons #jurdan headcanons #the cruel prince #the wicked king #the queen of nothing #Folk of the Air

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franniebanana · 3 years

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CQL Rewatch - Ep 19

Wow, Wei Wuxian looks so rough here. He’s spent some time under the knife (with no anesthetic), and then after that, he has just been waiting around for Jiang Cheng. It’s been seven days since Jiang Cheng went up that mountain. And of course Wei Wuxian is worried about him. What if something happened on his way down the mountain? What if he’d been captured or killed by the Wens? All the while, he’s basically defenseless here in Yiling (iirc). He’s sweating profusely, clutching at his middle—it’s possible he’s even suffering from an infection due to the transfer surgery. Seriously, the poor guy!

I love the visuals here: all these cloaked figures just filling this tea house, and not another soul in there other than the waiters. It’s both comical and heartbreaking the way that Wei Wuxian tries to immediately nope out of there, because he knows it’s a trap right away. Even with his Golden Core, I don’t know if he could have escaped them all—there were too many Wens, including the Core-Melting Hand. This part always really gets to me, because it truly is the first death of Wei Wuxian. It’s the death of who he once was: that smart, quirky, rascal of a youth, who made a very honest oath that essentially guided him to this point.

No joke, the first time I watched this, I was like, “Is that Lotus Pier? How tf did he get there?! How much did they change the story?!” And then a few seconds later, I realized this was a super sad dream/vision that Jiang Cheng was having and I channeled all my anger into sadness. This part is also super depressing. He has this vision of this happy family: his mother laughing, his father kissing his hand, just the picture of love. But it’s so far from what he had growing up, and you just realize that his greatest desire was really to have that happy family. But his parents are dead, he’s lost just about everyone at Lotus Pier—it’s so heartbreaking.

God, he just looks so broken! I’m sad now.

So even though I know the cost of Jiang Cheng’s happiness is Wei Wuxian giving up his own Golden Core, I still feel so happy here, seeing Jiang Cheng feeling like himself again. It’s because Wei Wuxian knows Jiang Cheng’s heart truly that he could offer up his own future so that Jiang Cheng could have a better one. I also just love this shot of Jiang Cheng kowtowing to the Immortal One, thanking her for healing him, and the camera pans past him, showcasing the beautiful scenery again. And then he walks down the mountain path with such a spring in his step! I love it!

I love that Wei Wuxian is still able to use his mind and play to their weaknesses. Wang Lingjao is extremely superstitious and fearful of the supernatural, and just the idea that he could haunt them scares the shit out of her. It’s just very cool to me that with all the abuse he endures, he still maintains a clear head and is able to fight back with his wit. This is yet another reason why I get annoyed when I see Wei Wuxian characterized as an idiot or someone who isn’t very smart. He proves his wit in just about every scene, so I don’t know why he gets this reputation in fanon. I feel like it’s derived from some overused yaoi/shojo trope where the “girl” has to be less smart than the “guy.” I don’t know how many things I’ve watched and read with a scatterbrained (but not charming) female lead—it’s overused.

This is so cool, because Wei Wuxian is scared out of his mind—he’s terrified of being left to die in the Burial Mounds. He’s heard all the stories: people don’t return, their souls get torn apart, etc. But what is cool is that he turns everything around and makes this place his source of power. He’s the man who conquered the Burial Mounds. It’s very satisfying to see that. FYI, I’m not going to talk about how he falls for like 20 minutes.

But I do think it’s really cool how the dark spirits catch him (and that’s all I’ll say).

This part still gives me major chills: you hear so many people calling out Wei Wuxian’s name, and then a “Wei Ying” breaks through. My breath always catches in my throat the first time I hear it. And then you hear it again, and the other voices have faded away before you hear it a third time. And that all feels nice until the screaming starts, which is hard to listen to, let alone hard to watch Wei Wuxian go through the mental turmoil.

Lan Wangji is back, bitches! He’s got a new title, a new headdress, and he’s hotter than ever. Jokes aside, though, this entrance is beyond epic. Other than that tiny glimpse of him in the last episode, it’s been ages since we’ve seen him, and it’s so satisfying that we get this great entrance, walking up this enormous staircase. Obviously by this point, I’m ecstatic to see him (it’s been way too long). Everything about this scene is great, from his entrance, to the way he uses his guqin as a spiritual tool, to the way he and Jiang Cheng are now a team. I don’t think there’s an awful lot of comradery there, but they have a common goal: find Wei Wuxian.

So we’re not really used to seeing a ton of emotion from Lan Wangji. Even when he’s annoyed, he doesn’t tend to show it. But, man, he is pissed here. Because of the magic of fiction, he’s probably heard the Wens’ conversation as he was walking up the stairs, so he heard them mocking Wei Wuxian (and the Yunmeng Jiang Sect), and he is not happy about it. He even uses the Chord Assassination Technique right off the bat against at least two of the Wen soldiers. Lan Wangji means business, and he’s not leaving until he gets what he wants.

The other great thing is that he doesn’t even need to come up all the way. He defeats them at a distance, while he’s still on the stairs. And the power and respect he commands is so great that they all know him by his face.

What Wen Chao does here is so relatable. His girlfriend is freaking out, having nightmares, convinced Wei Wuxian is going to turn into a ferocious ghost and haunt them until they lose their minds, and he, of course, rationalizes: they’ve sent so many people to the Burial Mounds and none of them have ever come back. In other words, “You’re being ridiculous.” But when he turns away from her, you can see the fear in his own eyes. When something spooky happens, my first step is always to rationalize—there’s a logical explanation for most things, right? And it always makes you feel better to rationalize it to someone else, but when you’re alone and thinking, your mind starts to wonder, your imagination starts to go wild. It’s easy to psyche yourself up in the dark and quiet of the night.

There’s this really gorgeous cello version of “Wuji” playing during this scene—it’s so beautiful, so moving, hitting me right in the feels. The look on Lan Wangji’s face when Jiang Cheng is telling him about how he and Wei Wuxian were supposed to meet in Yiling, how he thought Wei Wuxian had abandoned him to meet up with Lan Wangji in Lanling—he looks so defeated there. Defeated despite taking down the Qishan Indoctrination Bureau. Defeated because he hasn’t found who he’s been searching for. And then he holds Suibian so tenderly and lovingly—I’m emotional, okay?

It’s really cute and heartwarming to see Jin Zixuan starting to fall for Jiang Yanli. We’ve known for quite some time how Yanli feels for him, so it’s quite satisfying to see his walls come down as he starts to care more and more about her. He becomes protective of her. When she gasps at the hanging head at the gates of Qinghe, his instinct is to hold her—of course, he stops himself, but it’s very obvious that he wants to comfort her physically (and not in a dirty way, get your minds out of the gutter).

I love the dichotomy here: on one end, you have Jin Zixuan asking Lan Wangji where Wei Wuxian is, while you have Jiang Yanli echoing that on the other end with Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng can’t answer—he’s crying, trembling, emotionally responding to his sister without speaking. And Lan Wangji can’t speak either. His lips part, but no words come out. Again, you get this great sense of defeat from him—he’s completely at a loss, but he can’t or chooses not to show those emotions.

It’s also interesting how they kind of clipped the reunion between the Yunmeng Jiang siblings in favor of showing the conversation between Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji. In my opinion, it’s to remind us of the reunion that isn’t happening right now—the one that should have been—the one between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. And why isn’t it happening? The conversation reminds us that he’s still missing. I don’t doubt the importance of the Yunmeng Jiang siblings in this story—they are obviously instrumental to the plot and to Wei Wuxian—but it’s choices like this where the writers/scene directors remind us that the relationship to focus on is the one between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji, and not Jiang Cheng, holds onto Suibian, the only remaining item that is most spiritually connected to Wei Wuxian. Isn’t that interesting?

“A-Cheng, you’ve grown up. As your sister, there’s nothing I can do but worry about you.” Such a wise line—such a sad line. This really brings out how powerless she feels in the lives of her brothers. She’s a bystander, she has no influence. All she can do is watch and worry, and nothing either of them says or does will change that. It’s something we as parents and caretakers and guardians at some point have to admit: we can’t control our children’s lives, we can’t control those we take care of. Once they reach a point in their lives, it’s them who has to make their own decisions. They must thrive on their own, they must fail on their own. And all we can do is watch and worry and hope for the best. God, Yanli breaks my heart.

Me in bed when I watch a scary movie any time of the day.

She does crazy so well, though.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |

#cql #the untamed #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #jin zixuan #wen chao #wang lingjiao #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #cql rewatch #ep19

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tiifalockhart · 3 years

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Invisible Enemy

Anonymous asked: Hello, I want to request also a Prompto bc i love him 😍 like his insecurities kicking in and then his s/o will kiss them insecurities away, kissing his cute freckles and adoring his stretch marks (i have them too 🥺) just to get sunshine boi smile again, not too saucy, bye thank you *flies away*

Pairing: Prompto x Reader

Word Count: 2k

A/N: hello!! thank you so much for your request. I hope you enjoy it!! feedback is always appreciated

Ao3 || Masterlist

Prompto could brave anything...

After building up enough confidence to do so, of course. He could fight off giant snake women in the deepest caves in all of Duscae, and only feel a bit of anxiety after the fight. His adrenaline would be pumping to the max and he’d actually look forward to the next battle. He’d been frozen, burned, petrified, and even turned into a frog, and yet he still was able to put on this magnificent brave front.

...That is until the enemy he’s fighting is himself.

The greatest curse to him was his insecurities. He hated them so much. His intrusive thoughts would pop into his mind and ruin his joyous mood. They sucked away so much of his life... It was almost devastating. No one knew why Prompto would randomly go silent during conversations in the car, or why he would sometimes distance himself in camp. It was saddening, watching the light leave his eyes sometimes.

It wasn’t the same when he was fighting an invisible enemy. He’d do anything to distract himself. He’d play random games on his phone, maybe go out and practice shooting, sometimes he would even offer to go exploring at night to take his mind away from the berating verbal abuse his mind gave him.

He’d think about the insecurities he��s carried with him since he was a child. Was his weight okay? Did he look okay? Maybe the others were friends with him out of pity. Was he really funny or were the guys just laughing to make him feel better? Maybe he should go on a jog in the morning. These constant thoughts plagued his mind and caused him to unendingly doubt himself until he was swallowed up by his insecure and depressed nature. He wish he could fix it within a snap, he wished that he could just make them go away, but he couldn’t.

When the two of you first met, you seemed so... Confident. He watched the way you walked without a qualm in the world, how you smiled brightly and laughed happily and took everything with a grain of salt. You seemed to love life... It was admirable. Prompto wanted to be like that desperately, to be happy and carefree, but he was sad and cared too much.

As the two of you got closer, he tried to follow your lead but it never worked. Eventually, his thoughts would come back just as he began to feel better. It was a sick circle of doubt.

You began to notice it when he became distant and quiet, how he would stare out the window of the car silently or how he’d laugh hollowly. You would grow concerned and ask him about it, but ultimately receive no answer from him. Usually, he’d brush it off, typically saying something along the lines of “Sorry, I’m just tired” or “Sorry, I didn’t realize.” You understood how hard it was to talk about feelings, but you couldn’t bring yourself to be okay with those answers.

It wasn’t until after the two of you began to date that he began to open up more about his insecurities. It would be random occurrences when he’d mention it. Sometimes it was at dinner, sometimes it was when the two of you were about to sleep, sometimes it was just out of the blue when you both were watching TV. He began to speak his mind more, which you appreciated greatly. It seemed to be healthy for him as well.

That is until he completely broke down one day.

You’d never seen anything like it before, it was like he was a completely different person. He was so on edge and upset about seemingly nothing and refused to talk about it. He tried desperately to bottle it up and swallow it, anything so that he would stop his mind from racing.

That night, you found him in your bed, curled up and crying. It was such a pitiful sight. You couldn’t find the right words to comfort him, you weren’t quite sure what was causing him so much pain. So, to attempt to comfort him, you simply laid next to him and hugged him.

“Wanna talk about it?” You asked after several minutes passed. Prompto let out a shaky sigh as he slowly shook his head.

“No... I don’t want to bother you with my issues.” He muttered, his voice rough. You gave him a sympathetic look before moving closer to him. After planting a very gentle kiss on his cheek, you cleaned away his tears with your hands.

You sat up and carefully pulled him closer, holding him in your arms. “You won’t be bothering me. Tell me about it.” You whispered comfortingly, gently rubbing his arms and shoulders.

He sighed and nodded somewhat reluctantly. “Sometimes... I feel like I’m not good enough, you know?” He murmured, tilting his head back to look up at you. “Like... I don’t look as good, I don’t fight as well, my personality isn’t that good. It scares me... Because sometimes I don’t know if those thoughts are true or not.”

You frowned at his confession, smiling weakly and leaning down. You placed a kiss on his most prominent freckle on his forehead. “I think you’re perfect.” You whispered, pressing another kiss on another freckle. “I also think you’re the funniest person I’ve ever met.” You reassured, pressing another kiss to another freckle. “You don’t have to be sad, because you’re more magnificent than you think.” You whispered, beginning to press more kisses to his freckles. Your lips traveled from his face and down to his sun-kissed shoulders. You massaged his shoulders afterward, a small smile gracing your lips.

He relaxed under your touch, his eyes slowly falling shut. “You think so?” He whispered, a little too dazed to respond properly. You let out a soft laugh as you nodded.

“I know so.” You answered, running your fingers through his hair. “I think you’re lovely.” You continued, shrugging lightly.

“Even for who I was?” He asked, a shaky breath leaving his lips. You raised a brow in confusion. Was he referring to his teenage years..? You sighed softly and shifted so that you were hugging him around his waist from the side.

“Your past defines who you are... But that doesn’t necessarily involve looks.” You murmured, looking up at him. “Experiences make up who you are, looks inevitably don’t matter, especially after the change you went through.”

“But... How do I know that it doesn’t?” He responded, shaking his head and letting his head fall back onto the pillow. You looked up at him, a glint of concern evident in your eyes.

“Well... Because when we met, I knew nothing about your past until you showed me.” You pointed out logically, shrugging. You leaned down and pressed a kiss to one of the stretch marks left on his stomach, causing him to shudder. “Have you heard Noctis, Ignis, or Gladiolus mention it? What about Cindy or Iris?”

He hesitated and nodded slowly. “No... They’ve never said anything about it.” Prompto replied, his brows furrowing.

“That’s right, because no one is worried about it... They’re more worried about being your friend and taking care of you and making you happy. They don’t care what you looked like, they just want to make sure you’re okay.” You explained as you trailed kisses along his stretch marks. He nodded hesitantly as if he silently understood.

“Can we cuddle?” He asked randomly, which caused you to smile.

“Only if I get to be big spoon.” You answered, moving up and wrapping your arms around him from behind. He sighed in relief, his eyes falling shut as he leaned into your touch.

“Thank you...” He sighed, before eventually drifting off to sleep. You admired his peaceful expression and simply held him. Hopefully this would have an impact on him... You hoped that he would be feeling better by the time you two woke up.

The next morning, you woke up to find yourself alone. A confused look formed on your features as you stared at the pillow in your arms. Quietly, you stood and wandered around the house in search of Prompto, until you came upon the kitchen. You raised a brow in confusion as you entered, noticing how Prompto was bent over the oven. “Prompto?” You called out, a confused look on your features.

“Oh-” He tried standing up, but ended up hitting his head on the counter. “Ow... Good morning.” He greeted, pulling out a pan of biscuits. “I decided to make breakfast, I feel really good after last night, you know? I was going to bring it to you in bed, but you ended up waking up. But it’s alright, we can just eat it here. Oh, what kind of jam do you like?” He rambled on, turning to take off the oven mitts and grab plates for the two of you. The confusion never left your features as you took a seat, watching him curiously.

“How... How did you make that? I thought you were awful at cooking.” You began, eyeing the tray of biscuits. “And... I don’t have a preference of jam... Are you sure you’re okay?” You asked, narrowing your eyes at him.

He grinned and laughed, placing some biscuits on your plate and handing it to you, before taking a seat next to you. “I feel a lot better after last night. You helped a lot, you know? Hey, we should go see Noct today!” He explained, spreading jam on the biscuit in his hand before eating it. He seemed to be much more energetic today... Scatterbrained as well.

“Oh... Sure, we can. I’m glad you’re feeling better.” You responded, smiling at his eagerness and beginning to eat. Maybe things were going to be okay for him after all.

After your meal, the two of you got dressed and headed out, meeting up with Noctis, Ignis and Gladio. They seemed to notice the change of attitude for Prompto as well, which made you feel slightly relieved. He was energetic and talkative, and even brought out his camera often, which you missed in the past few weeks. It seems that he’s returned to normal. You were thankful for it.

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moonbeam-writing · 3 years

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Hi 👉👈 can I request timeskip!Natsu x Sakusa!reader?

Like Natsu and y/n met when they were playing against each other on a match and became friends to lovers after

So when they were already dating they decided to come out to their brothers but y/n is scared to dissapoint Sakusa because she thinks he isn't proud of her? Perhaps Sakusa hears that and when they come out him and Hinata conforts them?

Fluff please :(💕

— Pride

๑ Requested by a lovely Anon!

๑ Quick Note: First off, thank you so much for requesting, both the request and character choice are so adorable and I'm so thrilled to be able to write this for you! Second, regards to the subject matter, though it's nothing scary, just a bit of a reminder! I just want to remind you all that this is a safe space for everyone (LGBTQ+, people of color, whatever your religion is, the only thing I won't accept is if you're against anyone in those categories,). I myself am a biromantic asexual and know how freaking scary it can be to come out and worrying about having to explain yourself and possibly not being accepted by those closest to you. Just remember that you are incredible, strong and perfect just the way you are and if you ever need someone, I am always here to help. ♡

๑ Characters: Natsu Hinata

๑ Warnings: Miniscule levels of angst, coming out. (There is a happy ending, though!)

๑ Word Count: 2,019

—

The first time you met Hinata Natsu was during a practice match against the Niiyama Girls’ High team. The two of you had recognized each other almost instantly and knew the odds of having a tight game, but neither of you would have had it any other way. In those early moments of the first set, there was some kind of noticeable chemistry between the two of you, though it was much more than people who were going to be rivals in a game.

You and Natsu had become the fastest of friends despite any distance or scheduling differences. Right after the game, the two of you shook hands and exchanged numbers, excitedly awaiting the next opportunity to play against each other. Three practice games, two tournaments, and endless texts and phone calls later, she asked if you'd be her girlfriend at the end of a game. Of course, Natsu was met with a tight hug and a resounding yes.

You and Natsu had kept a decent pace, both of you learning more and more about each other, growing to love each other more and more on a daily basis. For months, it was just the two of you, no one else knowing about your relationship, not that anyone could with the distance between you both.

The upcoming date the two of you had planned, however, was going to change that a little. MSBY was going to be playing in Tokyo the upcoming weekend when the two of you had originally planned a date, so you suggested that the two of you go to your brothers’ game as your date. Not only would it be fun, but you could introduce each other to your brothers, and possibly, if you were comfortable, come out to them in the near future.

Natsu knew that her meeting Sakusa and you meeting Hinata meant hopefully coming out to them and she was beyond ready. You, on the other hand, were nervous. You loved Kiyoomi, and even though you knew you’d be okay, disappointing him in any way was your biggest fear. Though you loved your parents, no one was more important to you than Kiyoomi. However, even though you loved your brother dearly, Natsu was who you saw yourself spending eternity with, and you planned on keeping it that way.

That weekend during the game, you and Natsu had held pinkies through the entire game, even when making your way down the stands and through the heavy crowds until you both saw Shouyo and Kiyoomi. The reason behind it wasn’t shame or embarrassment, but so you could part ways for a moment and congratulate your favorite people.

While Natsu went to hug her brother, you excitedly walked up to him, respecting his boundaries rather reluctantly, however, they hadn’t been able to go change due to the massive crowds and the press, so you supposed it was probably for the best. You had been in a gym full of strangers who could have been sick and coughing, and he was still sweaty from the game. Holding off on this hug was definitely for the benefit of both of you.

“Omi!” You called out to your brother, hearing a somewhat distant whine from Atsumu about how you can call your brother that and he can’t. In your defense, his name was slightly difficult for you when you were learning to speak.

Though it was barely noticeable to anyone else, you saw Kiyoomi’s small smile at seeing you clear as day. Your brother may have been stoic, but you could read his facial expressions like a book. What was going on in his head, however, was a different story entirely. “Hello, (Y/N).”

Taking a deep breath, you smiled back. “Way to go on the win! I’m so proud of you, you guys did so well!”

Scattered ‘thank you’s sounded around the two of you as Kiyoomi thanked you himself, only for Natsu to show up with Hinata and spike your anxiety right back up. Nothing too high, but possibly something that Kiyoomi could pick up, and that’s primarily what you were worried about

“Omi!” Hinata excitedly greeted his teammate, looking between the two of you and his little sister.

Getting a slight nudge in the foot from Kiyoomi and an encouraging look from your girlfriend, you took a deep breath and introduced yourself with a friendly smile, and a small bow purely out of respect for the boy your one and only seemed to idolize. “Hi, I’m Natsu’s friend (Y/N).”

“Nice to meet you, (Y/N)! Natsu’s told me a lot about you! I feel like I’ve heard your name somewhere else too,” Hinata trailed off at the last bit in thought, though you didn’t register it. You were stuck on the fact that Natsu would talk to her brother about you. Granted, you would talk to Kiyoomi about Natsu as often as you could, hell, he’s heard about her since the day you met, but it was still shocking. Seeing the flush across her cheeks and the tips of her ears made it worth it, though.

“She’s also my sister, Hinata.” Kiyoomi sighed slightly, though he couldn’t find it in himself to be too surprised. Just like he was back in high school, Hinata Shouyo was still a total scatterbrain at times.

“Oh! Right!” You couldn’t help but laugh, feeling a bit more comfortable in his presence, but still very aware that you’d have to see him tomorrow to be Natsu’s tether and be introduced as her girlfriend, rather than her best friend.

Following your girlfriend’s lead, you introduce the two and they make their introductions. Lucky for you, Kiyoomi didn’t say anything too embarrassing like Hinata had done.

After a few minutes, you and Natsu had left the boys to go do what they needed to and decided to spend the afternoon together before you drug her back to your place. The two of you got coffee, went to various stores, snuck sweet kisses and pictures, and made a small game plan for tomorrow.

“Are you scared?” Natsu asked as the two of you were cuddled up in your room together. “A little. Hopefully, he noticed how close we are and will beat me to it, ha ha. What about you?”

“Yeah, but I know it’ll be okay. It’ll be like ripping off a band aid.” Natsu’s bright yet sleepy smile coaxed a smile out of you as well. It gave you all of the courage you needed as you pulled her into you, waiting for the next day to appear.

Breakfast the next morning passed smoothly, everyone on the MSBY team was given a day off to rest, so you promised that you’d see Kiyoomi whenever the two of you returned from hanging out and seeing Hinata. Kiyoomi was confused as to why you needed to go with her but brushed it off, if it were important, you’d tell him. You’d always been on the independent side, much like the man himself, so he supposed he wasn’t too shocked.

The two of you met Hinata at the coffee shop that you and Natsu normally go to for dates when she’s in town. You figured that maybe a familiar and comforting place might help calm her nerves and so far, it seemed to be working.

“So, uh, Sho, I kind of have something to tell you.” Natsu slowly trailed off, reciprocating the firm and comforting squeeze you gave her hand underneath the table as she brought your intertwined hands to rest on top of the table as Hinata looked curious at what his little sister had to say.

“Yeah?”

“Ha, so, (Y/N) isn’t actually my friend. I mean, she is! It’s just a bit more complicated.” You both had to hold in a slight laugh at the small head tilt. It was as though the dots weren’t connecting, and part of you wasn’t entirely sure that they were. “As in, (Y/N)’s my girlfriend and I love her.”

With almost animatedly wide eyes and the quickly following dopey grin, his happiness was obvious. “That’s awesome! I’m glad you’re both happy together! How long has it been again?” You and Natsu happily answered all of Shouyo’s questions and small date and game stories that the two of you have made over time

.Unfortunately, a question came that you weren’t quite expecting. “(Y/N), have you told Omi yet?” You could feel your smile drop a little. “Uh, no. We were going to after we told you. Speaking of, babe, we should probably leave in an hour or so.” Natsu nodded in acknowledgment.

“You’ll be fine, you know,” Hinata reassures you. “He cares about you a lot, it’s almost like there’s a weird change after he talks with you. I mean, I only know that from the occasional time you call pretty much right before practice, but sometimes Atsumu asks about you too.” He chuckles slightly before continuing. “I’m pretty sure you could kill someone and he’d still love you, kid. You’ll be fine.” You quietly thanked the human ball of sunshine and the three of you continued to talk until you had to part ways once again.

And now, after hours of agonizing anticipation, the time for you to come out to your brother was here. Kiyoomi was home, your parents were out (not that that really mattered), and you had your ultimate emotional support at your side, hand tangled with yours, her thumb gently running over your knuckles and tracing shapes into the back of your hand.

Opening your front door, the two of you made your way inside and took off your shoes as you called out for your older brother as you and Natsu made yourselves comfortable on the couch, fingers once again laced together. You needed her now more than anything and you couldn’t explain just how happy it made you to have her here for this.

Kiyoomi made his way into the living room, raising an eyebrow at the shockingly serious, yet slightly nervous atmosphere. The amount of tension made him worry that something bad had happened to you, especially when he noticed just how tightly you were gripping Natsu’s hand.

“Are you two okay?”

The two of you wordlessly nodded at him, which only made his worry rise.

“Okay? In that case, why’d you call me out here?”

For what felt like the millionth time in the last 48 hours, you braced yourself and sucked in a deep breath. Just like Natsu said the night before; it’s just like ripping off a band-aid.

“I have something to tell you, and I’m scared, and it involves Natsu, and even though it’s ridiculous, I’m scared that once you hear what I have to say I’ll lose my brother, and I really don’t want that, because you’re my favorite person in the world.” The words spewed from your lips like word vomit and Kiyoomi was determined to not let you do that again.

With very little hesitation, Kiyoomi opened his arms and you almost immediately ran into them. You couldn’t help it. “What do you need to tell me?”

Tears pricked at your eyes, the fear of rejection nearly shutting your thoughts down. “Natsu’s my girlfriend. I love her a lot, and I’m not sorry if you hate me for it, but I also really hope that if that’s the case you understand that I can’t change that and I don’t want to change it.”

Deafening silence filled the living room, but Kiyoomi hugged you tighter, pulling away slightly to begrudgingly wipe tears away from your cheeks with his sleeve. “I could never hate you, (Y/N), and I’m sorry that I somehow made you think that that was the case. I love you so much, no matter what, and I’m so proud of you.” You were pulled against him once again as you tried to calm yourself down. “And Natsu.”

“Yeah?” Even though everything had gone well, she was still nervous.

“Thank you for looking after my sister for me when I can’t. Welcome to the family, kid.”

#haikyuu request #anon request #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu drabbles #haikyuu scenarios #natsu hinata #hinata natsu #natsu hinata x reader #hinata natsu x reader #sakusa kiyoomi

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