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n0bamak1s · 3 years

Text

mutual - mai zenin x reader

request: “Could you write mai x non-binary s/o, where mai is realizing that she has a crush on s/o, it'd be funny to see her reaction when the s/o get asked by todo before they spar, abt the kind of woman s/o like, and s/o just shrug and answer 'mai, i guess'.” - @814519

summary: reader seems to take a liking to mai, who refuses to acknowledge her schoolgirl crush on them, and todo somehow manages to be the one to get them to stop dancing around their feelings for each other. (genre: fluff, mutual pining, slice of life-y)

warnings: swearing, mentions of fighting, mostly just fluff

word count: 2.7k

a/n: i’m sorry to take a long ass hiatus again but i have some fics i’m working on rn!! thank you all sm for being so patient with how slow i can be T_T btw this one includes some very mild miwa x reader as well just as a heads up lol!

when you first transferred schools in order to master your cursed technique, your first instinct was to raise an eyebrow at your classmates. the lineup of students in your school consisted of a boy who might as well be a bodybuilder, a blonde girl whose hair seemed to defy gravity, an awkward looking stoic boy clad in traditional clothing, a girl with a gun holster on the side of her baggy pants who wore a bored expression as her gaze met yours, and a normal looking blue haired girl standing next to some rusty looking robot. with all their strange hairstyles and odd clothing choices, combined with how nonchalant they were about their mechanical companion, they might as well be the cast of some forgotten sitcom from the 80s.

after introducing yourself to your stiff new classmates, you were whisked away to be led to your dorm by the blue haired girl (would you call her a “bluenette”?) who you learned was called miwa. as you walked, you asked her questions about her cursed technique, to which she sheepishly smiled and explained how she was the most “useless” of the students.

in response to her shameless self deprecation, you simply scoffed and sent an easy smile her way. “you really shouldn’t beat yourself up like that miwa, if you do it’ll be much easier for your opponents to.” despite the teasing nature of your words, you really did hope you’d managed to encourage her a bit.

miwa turned to you with bright eyes and a sincere smile. “that means a lot, really! it’ll be so nice to have an upperclassman here who isn’t so intimidating. i’m always so nervous to ask mai for help with stuff, so it’s nice to know you believe in me!”

her smile was infectious as you mirrored your junior’s facial expression. “there’s no need to be scared of them you know, believe me, just because they’re older doesn’t mean they have any idea what they’re doing.”

she shrugged in response. “i guess you might be right, this morning mai was practically shaking in her boots about getting to meet you, so maybe it’s all just a tough facade!”

you thought back to the girl who had introduced herself as mai.

what first caught your eye was the way she carried herself. while next to her other classmates as she introduced herself to you, arms crossed over her chest and back straight, as if it was an attempt to look high and mighty. rather than a proper introduction, she simply told you her name, before looking away boredly. the both of you chose to ignore the way todo teased her, before turning to introduce himself with a smug smile. he opened his mouth to seemingly ask you something, but was quickly cut off by mai stomping on his foot, sending him a harsh look. she glanced back at you with a slightly softer expression and a monotone apology for “his idiocy.”

you chuckled quietly at the idea of the girl who presented herself as so blunt and cold getting all nervous at the idea of your arrival.

breaking you out of your reminiscence, miwa waved her hands in front of her nervously as she turned to you. “just please don’t tell her i said that!” her guilty expression rivaled that of a kid who’d been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

before she could continue in her nervous exclamation about how intimidated she was by her senior, you grabbed her hands that had been motioning wildly to match her words. “don’t worry miwa, i’d never sell you out like that.” you let out a small chuckle as you examined the genuine worry on her face, to which she just sheepishly smiled. it was funny to you how scared she seemed of her seniors, but it couldn’t help you from getting an odd urge to want to protect the small girl.

“besides,” your smile turned sly “, if what you say is true, i bet mai would be too shy to even talk to me!” a loud laugh escaped your lips as you continued your way down the dorm halls with long strides. behind you, miwa sped up when remembering she was supposed to be the one escorting you to your dorm.

“come on, that’s not fair to hang it over my head like that!” she whined as she managed to match your pace.

as miwa trailed ever so slightly behind you, you caught sight of a newly familiar head of dark hair (under the fluorescent lighting you couldn’t entirely tell whether it was green or black.)

“mai!” you called out to the girl you’d been newly acquainted with, raising one hand in greeting and slinging the other around your very embarrassed looking juniors shoulders.

the girl you’d shouted to turned to you with heavy lidded eyes that gave her face a bored, almost annoyed, expression. her turning your way was quickly followed by todo, who you guessed had been standing next to her, glancing over the hallway corner to meet your gaze. those two made an odd pair, from what you could tell. in contrast to mai’s impassive greeting, todo had introduced himself with booming confidence, before going on to complain to utahime that he’d have to leave in order to make it back to his dorm to score tickets for a concert featuring takeda. in the moment, you had to stifle a laugh at the memory of such an intimidating looking dude having a huge crush on an idol with absolutely no shame about it.

mai opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly cut off by todos roaring voice. “hey new kid!” his demeanor had been as confident as you remember, despite the fact that you were pretty sure he’d forgotten your name in the short time from when you had left to see your dorm. you gave him a smile and a lopsided wave in response.

“did you snag those tickets you were worried about earlier todo?”

“easily.” he bragged as if you cared about getting a pair of tickets for yourself. “however, earlier i meant to ask you a question, but SHE,” he pointed a thumb annoyedly at his companion, “very rudely interrupted me by stepping on my foot.”

“todo…” mai’s tone seemed warning as her eyes flickered between you and him.

“as much as i would LOVE to hear what your question is todo, i really do have to go unpack” you smiled abashedly, pulling miwa to your side, who nodded with wide eyes at how unphased you were.

“it might be better to ask when we spar later.” he shrugged. “that way i can really hear your impulse answer.” he crossed his arms, clearly to look intimidating.

“works for me! i’ll see you then too, mai.” you winked at her as you tugged miwa along behind you. mai huffed at your embarrassing show of flirtatiousness, but you didn’t miss the slight flush of her cheeks as she turned from you while rounding the corner.

even as you were close to the door of your dorm at the end of the hall, you could still hear mai berating todo for how embarrassing he was.

“i think she likes me.” a cat like grin overtook your face as you stopped in front of your dorm.

“utahime said your uniform would be folded on your bed, once you’re changed you can join us for sparring.” miwa smiled bashful smile. she’d probably chosen to ignore your previous statement in hopes of not being dragged into any drama.

“thanks miwa!” you grinned and gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder, to which she simply looked away timidly.

“it’s no problem, really.” she waved off your appreciation. “but between the two of us, i think you may be right about mai liking you.”

she bowed before running off, probably to get ready for sparring, leaving you grinning like an idiot in response to her revelation.

maybe the feeling was kinda mutual.

you were quick to change into your all black uniform pants and jacket, then breaking into a stride to the yard where sparring took place. that was, until you realized you were wandering rather aimlessly considering, you know, you didn’t really know where the yard was yet. peering around the hallway, your eye caught on an oh so familiar girl adorned in baggy black pants.

“hey mai!” you almost had it in you to feel bad for approaching her yet again.

almost.

“i’m kinda lost, d’you think i could walk with you?”

she nodded a yes in response, motioning with a hand for you to follow her.

after a one too many moments of awkward silence, you decided you’d have to be the one to bite the bullet and break it. “you know that thing todo was saying earlier about having a question he needed to ask me?” she looked up in a way that made her seem as if she’d just been brought out of being lost in her thoughts.

“what of it?”

“do you happen to know what it was? he seemed pretty serious about it.” well, as serious as todo could get.

to your surprise, mai attempted to stifle a chuckle, before a laugh managed to slip past her.

“it’s this totally dumb thing he likes to do.” she tilted her head slightly back so she looked at the ceiling as she talked. “to size people up, he likes to ask them what their type in women is.”

you let out a snort as you laughed, though you couldn’t say you were surprised.

“he seems like such a hopeless romantic, it’s hilarious.”

“yeah.” a soft smile painted her face. “but you’d better get an answer ready, if he thinks you’re too boring he’ll beat your ass.”

“really now?” you raised an eyebrow, to which she nodded in confirmation. “what does he classify as ‘boring’?”

she shrugged. “depends. whenever someone prefers personality he either beats the shit out of them or starts crying.” it was clear in her tone how exasperated her friend made her.

“what did you say? when he asked you?” you turned to face her fully, which made her realize how close together your faces were. for just a beat, she paused to examine your expression. despite your earlier teasing, you seemed sincere in your question. either you were oblivious to the blush spreading across her face, or you chose not to tease her for it.

before an answer could leave her parted open lips, she was interrupted by a voice calling both of your names.

“hey toshinori!” you smiled at the stone faced boy in front of you as you used mai’s shoulder as an armrest.

“it’s noritoshi.” the monotony in his voice made you stifle a laugh. “and you guys are running late for sparring, what were you even doing?”

her eyes glowered in his direction, clearly not in the mood to play hall monitor with him. “i was just being welcoming to our new classmate.”

he ignored her passive aggressive response and turned to you. “todo keeps asking where you are, so you might wanna hurry up.” with a swift turn, he began walking down the hallway with long strides.

once he seemed out of earshot, you burst into laughter, and from your arm you could feel mai’s shoulders shake from repressing a giggle.

“he walks like a goddamn penguin!” you referred to how his arms were wide at his sides and his stiff steps.

“him and mechamaru walk the exact same way, i’m starting to think he might just be a more advanced robot.” her dry tone was combatted by the way the corners of her mouth turned up in a lopsided grin.

“though, we should probably get going, even if i get a pass for being new here, i’m not sure how utahime would react to you being late.”

you didn’t notice how her eyes softened at your concern for her as you beckoned for her to lead the way.

“i don’t think she’d mind, after all utahime loves me for my pep and bubbly spirit.” her voice oozed with sarcasm while you smiled to yourself about how you’d managed to get her to loosen up.

the walk to the sparring field was quick, and it made you wonder how much time you two had taken just talking at the end of the hallway. you were greeted by the sight of your strangely styled classmates (plus the literal robot) beginning to split into pairs. before you could turn to mai with the question of partnering up, you were greeted by a todo with a firm hand on your shoulder.

“we’re partnering up, new kid!” it was more of a declaration than an offer. you smiled awkwardly as his shadow enveloped your figure, seeing mai be whisked away by momo out of the corner of your eye. if you’d looked close enough, you’d have been able to see the annoyed look mai sent at todo and the smug smile momo flashed at mai and her obvious display of jealousy.

you planted your feet on the ground that was caked in dust and prepared yourself into a fighting stance, with fists raised and legs steady. though it seemed you’d gotten prepared to defend from an attack that wasn’t coming. instead, todo marched over to you confidently. mai glanced over from her sparring, knowing exactly what was coming.

he called your name in his usual booming voice, which you were surprised he actually knew.

“what is your type in women?” he towered over you, his expression dead serious despite his absolutely ridiculous question.

feeling mai’s eyes trailing you, you glanced over to her. she mouthed something to you about not saying personality. you failed to hold back a chuckle, which seemed to snap todo out of his intimidating glower.

his gaze followed yours, which was still focused on mai for the briefest of moments.

“ohhhh i get it…you’ve got a thing for mai, huh?” he sounded like a child about to blackmail their sibling.

a furious blush overtook mai’s face practically instantly, while momo covered her mouth with a hand to suppress a laugh. you glanced between a boastful looking todo and a tomato looking mai.

“yeah i guess you could say she’s my type.” you shrugged nonchalantly, to which you could hear mai sputtering something about how you were just trying to embarrass her. miwa had a sheepish look on her face as she walked over to check on mai, though it only seemed to make her more flustered when miwa asked if she wanted to go to the nurse.

while witnessing the admittedly charming trainwreck happening in front of you, there was a moment for you to look back at todo.

“are you CRYING?”

“i have no shame in it. it’s like mai is my daughter and i’m walking her down the aisle at her wedding.”

“it’s absolutely nothing like that, todo.”

he ignored your blatant confusion at his reaction. “young love is so beautiful. you have my full blessing to date mai.” he sniffles and wiped his nose, then held it out for you to shake, to which you scrunched your nose in disgust.

“thanks for the ‘blessing’ and all, but now that we’re done with that, i think i should go spar with lover girl over there.” you threw your thumb over your shoulder to point to mai.

“you guys should join me and takeda for a double date! we can arrange a date once she finally answers my calls.” todo had a large grin, shameless about his tear stained cheeks.

“how about it?” you raised an eyebrow at mai, who had become significantly more composed in the time you hadn’t been looking in her direction.

“absolutely not.” she deadpanned, though her impassive look didn’t last very long as she leaned over to whisper in your ear, cracking a small smile reserved for you. “i’d rather we just hang out without that oaf, you know it’s embarrassing for them to see how you get me acting like a schoolgirl with her first crush.”

the moment paused for a split second for her to glance at todo, who was staring you down like a disapproving father.

“plus lord knows takeda isn’t answering him anytime soon.”

“I HEARD THAT!”

#mai zenin x reader #mai zenin imagine #mai zenin x you #zenin mai x reader #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk headcanons #mai zenin #zenin mai #jjk imagines

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billy-the-hurricane · 3 years

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200 harringrove

Hi sorry it took me a ridiculously huge amount of time to do this, but here we gooo

200. "He loves you, you know? He's just afraid of admitting it"

Steve and Billy's friendship was.. complicated to say the least. Admittedly, Hargrove having punched the shit out of the other boy last November was probably not helping their case. Before that fight, it had been rivalry, mainly fueled by Billy while Steve tried his best to just ignore the guy. After that, they kept their distance for a while, and Steve found out from Dustin that Maxine had threatened her brother with a nailed bat to leave them alone. But the whole thing felt off to Harrington. It's a good thing Hargrove wasn't trying to fight with him anymore, but it seemed everything else was gone with it. His fire died down. Billy came back to school with a black eye Steve knew for a fact he wasn't the one responsible for, and alarmingly quiet. Him who usually was loud and obnoxious was just trying to stay quiet. After interrogating Max (god forbid he'd ask the guy himself), he wasn't given much of an answer, but it seemed Mayfield definitely felt somewhat of an embarrassment when the question dropped. This only concerned him more. The real turn however was one time Steve drove the redhead back to Cherry Lane. Both Neil and Billy's vehicles were parked here and as soon as they got out of Steve's beamer, they could already hear some fighting was going on inside.

"Steve, you should leave now" Max had told, despite the concern written across her face.

"why? What's happening?" Harrington asked with a worried frown that only deepened as Neil's voice raised even louder. They could hear him like he was simply in the room next to them and not outside the house. Max bit the inner side of her cheek, swallowing hard.

"Please, you really sho-" The girl had started before their discussion was cut short by the most haunting pleading Steve's heard. At least in a while. It was clearly Billy screaming, with the sound of a vase breaking right after. He couldn't make up the exact words, but it was obvious the blond was begging for this to stop.

And things kind of clicked. Why Billy was behaving the way he did. Despite Max trying to avoid this being known, because Billy doesn't want it to be known he's guessing, Steve knows now. No matter how much his guts are telling him to storm inside, to just do something, anything, he leaves. He feels extremely gross for days afterwards, spent the weekend wondering if complying to the redhead's request had been a good idea at all. When Billy showed up at school with a scar forming on his eyebrow, having split it in a way that probably would never grow back, Steve had no doubt about the situation.

So he tried finding small ways to somehow approach Billy, befriend him. It was clear the guy's behaviour was stemming from his life at home, but Steve was certain that with some help, he could give the blond a more healthy outlet than knocking people out. This was definitely easier said than done, with Billy being very hostile at the idea of ever hanging out or even being seen with the guy. But one step at a time, one meaningless small talk at a time, they started actually hanging out at lunch. Then after school. Shared joints and deeper conversations ensued over the course of a few months and although this didn't fix Billy's issue, it was obvious he wasn't as agitated anymore.

The main turning point for them was a night of April. In which Steve confided in his own insecurities. Brought up his failed relationship with Nancy, the fact that his parents themselves didn't know him more than on an acquaintance type of level. He felt alone in a stupidly big fucking house all the time, stuck with nightmares he couldn't describe to the blond. For a second he thought maybe Billy would mock him, or flee his way out of the conversation but he did not. He listened. Hargrove let Steve talk and although it was clear the Californian native wasn't used to give advices, he genuinely tried and it showed. Then he opened up too. Billy seemed really hesitant for a hot minute, but he confessed to the abuse at home. The fact that it's been happening for so long and gradually getting worse. The fact that it took an awful turn when Neil caught him with a guy.

Holy shit.

That wasn't expected for sure, caught him off-guard for sure and judging by Billy's face, it showed. The guy looked like he was seeing someone dying. It hit him now. Just how much trust Billy has in him now, to even just share this.

"Nevermind, I'll just go" Hargrove blurted out, getting up with a reddening face. An awful sense of embarrassment coursing through his body. He just made a fool of himself. Again. As he walked out, Steve ran after him, grabbing his wrist but Billy instantly moved it away almost mechanically.

"Listen man, it's okay, I just didn't expect it" Harrington awkwardly let out, watching Billy's back still turned towards him. "It's a bit of a lot to process at once that's all. I think I figured out for your dad, but I didn't know you.." the brunet went on, earning a chuckle that held no joy from Hargrove. "It's okay. That doesn't change anything for me. I'm sorry this happened to you, you don't deserve any of it. Just know you can always come over if you need to sleep away from your house"

And just like this, Billy's sexual orientation was never brought up again. Steve was supportive and offered him a roof more than anyone has in YEARS. He was always stupidly kind, never asked for anything in return. Billy finally had a safe space and someone he could count on. Billy laughed harder than he ever had with him, and the experience was mutual. It was just. Easy. Stress free. Well until he caught feelings. Until he came to realize just to what degree Harrington mattered to him. He'd rather die than admit it, of course, but they were there. The stupid fucking butterflies. Whenever Steve smiled too bright of showed too much care. Usually Billy found a way to distract them both with something totally different, just so he can focus on something else than the way he feels. But with time, it became harder and harder and the fear of slipping up grew bigger and bigger. As much as it pained Billy, he slowly tried distancing himself. Just to avoid this disaster.

However, what Billy hadn't anticipated was just how much this would hurt Steve. He just couldn't understand what the hell he did to upset Billy. And whenever he asked, Hargrove would assure nothing happened and they're fine.

After weeks of useless back and forth, Steve asked Max. Asked what the hell was wrong with Billy. And apparently that was a really stupid question, judging by the stare she gave him. She shook her head with a whispered "boys" before looking around them to make sure no one was eavesdropping.

"You really have no idea?" the redhead asked, crossing her arms.

"Not really, no" the teenage boy reiterated with a sigh.

"He loves you, y'know? He's just afraid to admit it" Maxine explained. "He's changed a lot since you guys made peace. It's obvious he cares a lot for you, so please don't let this destroy your friendship. Just give him time to move on-" she started, cut by Steve that was finally processing the words.

"He's in love with me?" Harrington questioned, although the answer was given to him even before he spoke. Well, damn. He didn't even add anything else, just left with Max calling him behind him.

He just hopped into his beamer and drove off, later realizing he probably scared her to death, she probably thought he was about to fight with her brother over it. But he just had to see Billy. It's now been weeks since he's been questioning himself over this, over how much he cares about the blond. Over the implications of it. But hearing Billy loved him was like all of his thoughts now made sense. He parked into the public pool's parking lot, knowing Billy was on his Saturday shift. He walked in, ignored the girl at the entrance, vaguely explaining he was there to see Billy and headed to the lockers, finding him there.

"The hell are you doing here?" Billy told, putting his sweater on properly as Harrington was just walking towards him in an overwhelmingly confident manner. Now dragged into a changing room, he's really starting to freak out.

"Jesus man, what's your issue?!" Hargrove insisted as the brunet locked the door behind them. "What do you want?"

Steve just found himself speechless once locked in here with the other, now only fully understanding what this was. "You're in love with me" he let out, quite breathless sounding. And Billy turned white like a ghost. The guy that usually dripped in confident was losing all of his arrogance in seconds.

"No" Hargrove mumbled out, his voice now slightly shaky. There were no fucking way out. Both of the discussion and physically.

"You're not a good liar" Steve smiled, watching the blond embarrass himself like a twelve year old.

"Fuck off" Billy replied, trying to move Steve out of the way, just to get his arm pulled even closer into Harrington's space, chest pressed against chest. Steve had this dumb smile on his face, and Billy felt like this was a joke at his expense. Couldn't be anything else. "That's not funny. Just beat the shit out of me, get this over with already"

"I want you to tell me. Say it to me, please" Steve said, completely ignoring Billy's previous words.

"Are you serious?"

"Please" Harrington asked again.

"I.." he looked away, swallowing tightly. "I'm in love. With you"

In response, Steve gave him one of those beautiful bright smiles of his, his hand sliding up to cup Billy's cheek. "You're beautiful" he told before leaning in to kiss that fucking idiot.

#Harringrove #Billy hargrove #Steve harrington #billy x steve #steve x billy #stranger things #dacre montgomery #joe keery #They're dumb and in love #Billy doesn't know how feelings work #But he's trying #Really hard

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kiribakuhappiness · 4 years

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ok im not a writer but i had to get this out of my head; bakusquad being at a bar, and kirishima is being hit on pretty big time by this guy. Kiri is too damn nice to turn him down bluntly but he is trying to get away (arms up, awkaward smile). Bakugou sees and steps in, playing kiri’s boyfriend in order to get the guy away. just bakugou having a kind of smug attitude, them kinda playing of the boyfriend thing for the rest of the night 👀 idk i have nothing else but i cant get the scene out of my head

(Kiribaku Drabble Prompt) this might not be exactly what you asked for but i got the idea while reading this and just went for it. i hope you enjoy anyway x

Katsuki’s never liked the bar. Every surface was sticky, the music was horrible, the people were obnoxious, the drinks were always unnecessarily priced, and it was too damn dark in here - where the fuck were all the lights?

He’s never liked going out to the bar and he’s told anyone who would listen to him how much he hated being there but it was just like them not to care. He didn’t even know why he hung out with these idiots; Pinky with her constant stream of useless gossip, Dunceface being the most obvious thirst trap to any girl that walked by, and Sero...

Fine, Sero was decent. But just Sero. The others could go fuck themselves for all Katsuki cared.

Someone bumped into his shoulder as they sizzled passed him at the bar and he growled lowly like some irate dog, gripping his drink harder until his knuckles turned white. God he wanted to fight somebody. Why couldn’t a villain appear and save him from this stupid night?

“Woah, calm down Cujo,” Jirou mocked as she appeared beside him, sipping on a glass of water and looking just as bored as he felt. “Down boy, down. He’s not worth it.”

Katsuki glared at her over the top of his drink. “Fuck off, you’re lucky I can fucking tolerate you or I’d smash your face against this bar top.”

Jirou shrugged his comment off as though he hadn’t even spoken. “Have you seen Kirishima anywhere? I’m supposed to drive them all home tonight and I’m not about to get blamed for being a bad friend just cause one of them fucked off without telling us.”

Katsuki shifted uncomfortably, pressing his lower back harder into the bar top behind him. “The fuck would I know where he is?” he grumbled into his drink, turning his eyes away.

Jirou raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “Cause you guys come as some sort of packaged deal? Like a two-for-one bargain sale or something?”

Katsuki downed the rest of his drink in lieu of answering. He and Kirishima weren’t fighting - they weren’t. They just... weren’t talking at the moment. Which was fine, why would Katsuki care? Why would he give a fuck that he asked Kirishima to partner with him, to form their own joint agency, and Kirishima had turned him down? It was a stupid, childish idea anyway.

“Wow, you’re like, the worst liar I’ve ever met in my life,” Jirou commented, and for a moment, Katsuki seriously considered that Jirou might be able to read his mind. She’s kind of quirky and weird like that; it was possible. “Your face looks constipated just thinking about him. What happened between you two?”

Katsuki snarled and slammed his empty glass down onto the bar behind him. “Fucking nothing, mind your damn business,” he spat.

“Whatever. Can you please just go and find him? I’m on toddler watch,” she waved a dismissive hand at the group on the other side of the room; where it looked like Pinky was thoroughly egging Dunceface on to do something stupid while Sero video-taped it on his phone.

“Fucking fine.” He pushed himself away from the counter and started off into the crowd for the other side of the room, elbowing people out of his way and ignoring their grunts and complaints as he went.

Of course, Kirishima would be the one to disappear on them, and of course it had to be Katsuki that went and found him. This was starting to become a routine for them, and Katsuki was beginning to grow tired of it. If Kirishima wanted to be away from them so bad, wanted to be away from him so bad, then he might as well just come right out and fucking say it. Katsuki could take it - he was twenty-fucking-three years old, he wasn’t a child anymore and Kirishima didn’t have to worry so damn much about hurting his feelings - which he didn’t even have, thank you very much.

It was a hero partnership, not a fucking proposal. Fucking idiot.

Katsuki didn’t know how long he was looking when he suddenly stumbled across the scene in front of him.

Kirishima had his back to him, a hand resting awkwardly on his neck like he did when he was trying to stumble his way through some kind of horrid excuse. His other hand was gripping his drink tight enough to break glass, and yet, his smile was still just as wide and bright as usual. Probably nobody else would be able to decipher how fucking uncomfortable Kirishima was right now, but Katsuki had spent nearly every single day with him for the past eight years, and he knew when Kirishima was going into fight-or-flight mode.

Fucking... why did he always get himself into these dumbass situations?

The guy Kirishima was talking to obviously wasn’t taking the hint; not that there was even one to get. But Katsuki could see all the hints clear as day; the subtle way Kirishima leaned back on his heels - as though to put distance between them without seeming rude or whatever the fuck he was so afraid of people thinking - the way he didn’t make eye contact and instead chose to let his gaze wander, as though he were looking for an escape route. Shit. Kirishima really dug his own grave with this one, didn’t he? There was no way he was getting out of there alone.

Katsuki scowled and turned to the bartender cleaning a table beside him. “One scotch, hurry,” he handed the man a bill that was probably more than the drink would cost but whatever. The bartender grabbed the money and hurried for the bar. A minute later he arrived back at Katsuki’s side, holding out the drink and some change. Katsuki grabbed the glass and walked away without looking at him.

He took a long pull from his drink before he rolled his shoulders and tried not to let his ‘fuck-off-I’ll-kill-you’ vibes roll off of him too obviously as he appeared by Kirishima’s side, catching the tail end of their conversation, which was just about as cringy as he thought it would be.

“... beautiful view of the city from the balcony window,” the guy was saying, no doubt boasting about some penthouse suite or something similar that he was about to invite Kirishima back to. Fucking just slice Katsuki’s throat right now.

“That sounds... amazing,” Kirishima was saying, stilted and forced as he took another desperate drink from his dumb mojito or whatever it was called.

“Not as amazing as the view from our new office building, of course,” Katsuki cut in, startling Kirishima and pulling a very obvious glare of distaste from the man trying to woo him. As if that would ever work. The dude barely came up to Kirishima’s shoulders and he definitely wouldn’t be able to bench press Kirishima like Katsuki could. Totally not fucking manly.

“Our... office,” Kirishima repeated slowly, gazing at him with wide eyes.

Katsuki cocked an eyebrow at him as he took a slow sip from his drink before he plastered on the most relaxed smirk he could muster over top of the boiling rage he felt building in the pit of his stomach. “Perfect landscape of that mountain range across town, sunrises and sunsets like you wouldn’t fucking believe.”

“You two are heroes?” The man asked stupidly and Katsuki resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He knew they were heroes, obviously knew it by the way he was practically cornering Kirishima in this bar.

“Top heroes,” Kirishima supplied, gesturing to Katsuki. “I’m sure you’ve heard of Ground Zero.”

The man’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second and suddenly the smirk on Katsuki’s face was much more authentic than before. “Of course, number nine by age 23, if the rankings are accurate.”

“They are,” Katsuki said.

The man scrutinized them over the top of his glass as he took a drink - some pink concoction that physically made Katsuki sick just looking at it. “You’re starting a joint agency?”

Kirishima opened his mouth and Katsuki cut in before he could say anything.

“Of course. Being a hero is a very time consuming job, it only makes sense to start an agency together to be able to spend more time with my fiance,” even as the words came out smooth and steady, Katsuki really had to fight the blush from mounting up the back of his neck. Kirishima sputtered beside him, quickly covering it by taking a sip from his drink as his cheeks dusted a bright red.

The man’s eyebrows leaped up into his hairline as he took a discreet step away from Kirishima. “Fiance? I... wasn’t aware... I hadn’t heard anything -”

“You think I’d tell the fucking media anything about my personal life? Bunch of fucking vultures,” Katsuki grumbled, with feeling.

“Still,” the man was looking at him as though he wasn’t fully convinced. “You’re a household name at this point, surely someone would have -”

“You calling me a fucking liar?” Katsuki stepped forward and right on cue, just like he knew he would, Kirishima put a placating hand on his chest to hold him back. The action was enough to draw the man’s attention to the point of contact, and Katsuki tried not to think about how fast his heart was racing in his chest. If Kirishima felt it, he didn’t show it.

“Calm down Bak- babe, I’m sure he... didn’t mean anything by it.”

The man raised his hands and nodded. “Sorry for the intrusion,” he excused himself quickly before he turned and hurried off with his tail between his legs. Katsuki smirked after his retreating figure. Sometimes it bothered him how many times people compared his behavior to villains, but sometimes, like this very moment, he loved how terrified everyone was of him.

Well... everyone except -

“Wow, fiance? Really? You couldn’t have come up with anything else?” Kirishima floundered, his face red as he took a long drink from his glass.

“I wouldn’t have had to if you’d just told him to fuck off like you so obviously wanted to,” Katsuki snapped, turning towards him with a glare.

Kirishima ignored his quip, as he usually did. “You know he’s going to be telling people,” he mumbled into his drink, not catching Katsuki’s eye.

“Would that be the end of the fucking world?”

Kirishima’s eyes snapped back to look at him. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

Katsuki tensed and took another sip of his drink. It burned down into his stomach and quarreled the anger he felt growing there. “I never know what the fuck you mean anymore,” he growled lowly.

Kirishima sighed and it was only then that Katsuki realized how close they were still standing to each other. “You don’t want me in your agency, Bakugou...”

Katsuki glared at that. “Who the fuck says that I don’t? I’m the one that asked you.”

“Because of a throw away comment someone made about us in high school man,” Kirishima tried to reason with him, as he always did. “You’re a top ten hero now, and I’m just...”

Oh. Katsuki scowled hard. “Is that really what this has been about? You don’t think you’re fucking good enough or some shit?”

Kirishima drank instead of answering, his bright eyes darting around the room instead of looking at him. Katsuki stepped closer into his space to force his attention onto him.

“If I didn’t want you fighting with me, I wouldn’t fucking ask Kirishima.”

“But you and Midoriya -”

“I don’t want to fucking hear it!” Katsuki snapped. “We had a few good fights, sure, but that doesn’t fucking mean anything. You think I want to share my fucking glory with Deku? With anyone?” Kirishima still didn’t look convinced. Katsuki sighed a harsh breath out of his flared nostrils. “It’s always been you, Eijirou. Kamino, team work, agencies, it’s always been you. It has to be you.”

Kirishima blinked at him, the blush that had started to recede on his face suddenly came back full force. He chuckled into his drink and Katsuki smirked a little at the familiar action. It’d been a few weeks since Kirishima had laughed around him.

“You’re so dramatic dude,” Kirishima teased.

“You like drama, what the fuck do you want from me? It’s the only way to get anything into your thick skull. I gotta come up with dumbass manly speeches like every other fucking week.”

Kirishima laughed again, his cheeks a pretty red that complimented his stupid hair and made his eyes look like they could glow in the damn dark. “Does it really have a view of the mountain?”

Katsuki smirked. “Like you wouldn’t fucking believe. You’ll be sending me pictures of it every damn day.”

Kirishima smiled at that. “When can I go see it?”

Katsuki slammed his drink down on the table. “Right fucking now, thank god, I hate this damn place.” He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly, startling some people near them and easily pulling Jirou’s attention away from her phone. “I’m taking this idiot,” he yelled out to her, gesturing to Kirishima, who laughed with embarrassment at all of the eyes suddenly turned on them.

“Dude, holy shit, can’t you do anything quietly?”

“Tch. No damn point in that.”

“Are you sure you’re not the one that likes drama?”

“Fuck off.” Katsuki’s never been so thankful to leave a fucking bar.

#kiribaku #kiribakuhappiness drabble prompts #kiribaku drabble #kiribaku fic #bakugou katsuki #kirishima eijirou #pro heroes #bnha #my hero academia

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arlingtonpark · 3 years

Text

SNK 137 Review

I can't unsee it.

-rubs temples-

Ok, I know I’ve been absent the past two chapters. I’ll get to why and what I thought of 135 and 136 in this post, but for now…jeez, this chapter.

It was badass and dumb and sometimes both at the same time.

Where do I even start?

-sound of pages being leafed through-

Ok, then.

I actually really like Zeke’s character. He is unironically my second favorite out of the cast.

When we first see Zeke, he’s in his beast titan form. He’s lumbering, hulking, unsettling.

He’s a titan that can talk. He’s a titan that can control other titans!

And he wiped out humanity’s second strongest with ease. I forget his name. It was Mickey, right?

Worst than that, actually. He ordered his titans to kill Mickey with all the gravitas of ordering a side of fries at McDonald’s.

Iirc fans were wondering if this new character would be the main villain of the series.

He went on to wipe out the Survey Corps at Shighanshina, and after that we learned he singlehandedly foiled his parent’s right-wing conspiracy when he was a kid.

Zeke was a mastermind who shouldn’t be taken lightly…right?

Welp, the more we saw of Zeke, the more obvious it became that he wasn’t actually all the impressive.

He wasn’t very good at being a warrior. Honestly, it seems most of his high marks comes from his unique royal blood powers, and the good will be built with Marley when he turned in his parents. TFW cronyism.

He foiled the restorationists plot, but really he was just an abused kid who wanted to get away from his parents.

He killed Mickey, but Zeke was a King Kong sized titan and Mickey was caught off guard and unarmed, so…yeah, ofc he won that fight.

Zeke has royal blood powers, but that doesn’t say anything about his intellectual prowess or anything.

The Survey Corps was wiped out at Shighanshina, but the circumstances of that fight strongly favored him. The Survey Corps were trapped in the city, so all Zeke had to do to win was sit on his ass and do nothing.

And he almost died anyway.

Levi got the drop on him because of his own incompetence. He let himself get distracted, which created the opening for Levi to strike.

Throw in his gullibleness towards Eren, his bumbling demeanor, and his totally emo philosophy, and the true nature of Zeke Jeager became undeniable: this guy is a fucking moron.

Like.

A real fucking moron.

And that’s why his character is unironically so great!

Zeke’s character is such a brilliant subversion of audience expectations.

We were all made to believe that this guy was a Big Fucking Deal through what turned out to mostly be circumstantial reasons.

In reality, he’s an idiot who’s been failing upwards his whole life.

Zeke got as far as he did because he’s really lucky. That’s all he has going for him.

I liked the more fleshed out version of his world view we got here. It is appropriately emo.

My read on Zeke has always been that if he existed in real life he’d be an extremely online philosophy bro, so seeing his outlook on life being effectively copy pasted from 4chan was just delightful.

Zeke is 2deep4(chan)u.

Life exists to multiply. All actions are explained by this singular drive. As such, life is hollow and we’re better off dead.

Imagine that is how you see the world.

Life sucks. It’s an existence of suffering driven by a desire to ensure more people are brought into this world so that they can toil away ensuring that yet more people are brought into this world to toil away ensuring people are brought into this world.

On and on and on and on.

To Zeke, this is the cycle of violence.

Not war which begets war which begets war, but rather life itself.

One suffering existence that begets another suffering existence that begets yet another suffering existence.

That is the context from which the euthanasia plan came from: it was an extension of this broader world view.

Everyone gets a dose of pain in this world, but Eldians especially get shafted. If anyone deserved release from this nihilistic existence that is “being alive,” it’s them.

Hence, Zeke’s plan to sterilize Eldians so they can die out peaceably.

…

It’s hilarious how easily Zeke is disabused of this notion.

I’m not sure if it works from a storytelling perspective, but it tracks perfectly with what usually happens when emo philosophy bros like Zeke have their beliefs challenged.

The emo bro will go on a self-absorbed rant about how nihilistic life is. For sake of example, let’s say the reason is because morality is just an opinion and nothing is objectively wrong.

The n the guy he’s ranting to will drop a critique on the bro so devastating that they’re left speechless:

“What about murder? Isn’t murder objectively wrong?”

Emo bro: -surprised pikachu face-

I swear to God this happens a lot. I don’t know if transplanting that into this pivotal storytelling moment works, but I sure as hell enjoyed it.

But, yeah, while we’re talking about philosophies, let’s look at some others.

Armin thinks there is beauty in pointless moments. Moments that are meaningful only for the people who partake in them. They’re an expression of the love they have for each other. Those moments are worth cherishing and protecting.

He’s right, but you know who also thinks that way?

Eren does.

Superficially, anyway.

When Eren starts rumbling the world, he thinks of his friends and the fun they’ve had together. He’s doing it for them.

Of course, he’s hurt them instead, but that’s still his logic, however deranged it may be.

What separates Armin from Eren is their sense of boundaries.

There are places that Eren is willing to push on towards that Armin is not.

For that, Eren thinks Armin is weak. All Eren had to say to him when they spoke at the restaurant was how useless Armin was.

Armin can’t go the distance. He can’t do what’s necessary. He takes options off the table too easily. He wanted to negotiate instead of seeing the truth that war was inevitable.

To Eren, that’s weakness.

In reality, it’s empathy.

Armin cares about people. Even people who hate him.

Eren doesn’t. If you’re his enemy, you’re dead to him, period.

Eren has no soul.

He may have slept under his enemy’s roof, ate his enemy’s food, and saw the good in them for himself, but he’s still killing them.

I don’t care if he’s crying on the inside. I don’t care how many times he said he’s sorry to Ramzi.

That actually makes it worse.

Eren made the calculation, the conscientious decision, that the lives of billions of people across multiple civilizations were worth less than that of his race.

Not even his whole race; just the subset of his race he was most familiar with!

Eren and Armin represent two widely similar, yet subtly different philosophies.

For Eren, the world is beautiful, but you have to do cruel things to protect that beauty.

The world is cruel because it is beautiful.

For Armin, the world is beautiful, but it is plagued by cruelty.

The world is cruel, but also beautiful.

SNK made the right choice. Armin was rightly depicted as the superior worldview.

(I have some gripes about how endemic the series seems to think cruelty is to the world, but we’re ignoring that now.)

Ymir is more of a wild card than I thought she’d be.

It seemed straightforward.

Ymir had been beaten and enslaved her whole life, so when Eren offered her freedom and treated her life a human, she sided with him.

That still looks to be what happened, but it seemed like Ymir also genuinely wanted to destroy the world with Eren.

The world treated her with cruelty, so of course she’d want to burn it all. Makes sense, right?

But Ymir, it turns out, is a lot more complicated than that.

She was beaten, enslaved, raped, hunted like an animal, and after all that, she still believed in this world.

She saw two lovers together, and that embodied what made the world worth getting attached to.

Those two lovers were her conquerors. Her oppressors.

She saw the love between two of her slavers, and instead of resentment or jealousy, she simply knew it was beautiful.

If people threaten his freedom, Eren wishes death upon them.

When Ymir is literally enslaved by them, she still acknowledges the beauty of their romance.

It’s a cool layer of complexity to add to their dynamic. They’ve been through similar shit, but they couldn’t be more dissimilar.

My guess is that Ymir is sympathetic to Armin and everyone came back to life through her help.

I know Armin Zeke the credit for that, but…that makes no sense?

Eren defeated Zeke when Ymir sided with him and he started the rumbling.

Eren, via Ymir, is in control, not Zeke, so it makes no sense for Zeke to be able to do any of this.

The only explanation is that Ymir broke from Eren and now Zeke is her new best friend.

…Yeah, this is the part where I talk about the bad stuff with this chapter.

The exact mechanics of how all of this went down is very underexplained.

Zeke being able to reveal himself like he did can be chalked up to Ymir’s power, but if it’s true this was purely Zeke’s doing, then…how?

How was Zee able to do that if Eren is in control? Why would Eren even put Zeke there instead of encasing him in crystal and keeping him physically close by?

This whole final battle has been very underwhelming for me, which is why I didn’t do a review for the last two chapters.

The premise is pretty bland.

The Alliance’s main opposition in this fight are mindless drones. The titans they’re fighting have no humans inside them, they’re just puppets. NPCs.

What drama there has been here has been the same fucking crap we’ve been dealing with for the past few volumes.

Yes, Mikasa, Eren has to die.

I know this is hard for her, but my patience has run out.

Eren told her to her face that they had to kill him if they wanted to win, and then when the Alliance is riding on Falco’s back, they make the final call to kill Eren and this is the face Mikasa makes.

Like this is the first time she’s heard it.

This is the face you’d expect from a child, not a grown ass adult.

That was the moment I became convinced Mikasa would probably die in this fight.

Her head is too far up her ass as this point.

She is utterly incapable of processing the obvious fact that Eren hates her.

Yes, he’s theoretically destroying the world partly for her, but he’s also deranged and too self-absorbed to see that he’s hurt her. He has no real regard for her.

It is beyond annoying that there has been almost zero progression for her character on this issue.

If by this point in the story, she had accepted that Eren had to die, but was still visibly coping with that, then all would be well.

What’s frustrating is that just when it seems like we’ve progressed past that stage, we learn we haven’t.

I also feel that a lot of the major beats of the fight were pointless.

A major point in the battle comes when Armin gets eaten by the Okapi titan, and Mikasa, Annie, and the rest have to rescue him. But Armin didn’t seem to be in any danger of dying, and him being sent to P A T H S was actually a good thing in the end because he was able to win over Zeke.

The whole deal with the explosives around Eren’s neck was also pretty badly handled.

You’d think the hard part would be getting the explosives to the neck and securing them to it, but nope. Pieck took care of that in a couple of panels, and the real meat of the fight is doing the very last thing they need to do to win.

It’s very tedious and contrived.

Instead of a fight that’s interesting because they have to wrestle their way through titans while carrying the bombs, we get a totally generic fight because the story breezed through the hard part and all they have to do now is push a single button to win.

But in the end that entire sequence was pointless because Armin decides to blow everything up anyway.

Jean’s shining moment?

A total waste.

Reiner’s shining moment...wrangling that worm thing?

Also a total waste.

Armin was going to blow it up anyway. There is no way you can say that Eren would have survived Armin’s explosion but for Reiner and Jean’s efforts.

It just defies all common sense.

So yeah, this whole battle was a pretty lackluster climax.

Looking to the future, I think this is it.

There’s only two chapters left, so we need to start wrapping up. My guess is Eren’s likely dead and next chapter starts the epilogue.

Tally-ho.

---

I made a post about all the character’s chances of living or dying by the end of the manga. I figured I’d update those death ratings here.

Eren: Likely Alive --> Lean Dead

Historia: Likely Dead --> Toss Up

Mikasa and Reiner: Lean Dead --> Lean Alive

Annie: Lean Alive --> Likely Alive

Jean and Connie: Likely Dead --> Lean Alive

Pieck: Toss Up --> Lean Alive

Zeke: Lean Alive --> Ded

You’ll notice I’m still rating most of the cast as having a significant chance of dying.

While I do feel that this is probably the end of the battle, I’m choosing to be cautious in my choice of ratings.

Mayhaps Eren will pull a come from behind victory.

Ya never know.

#shingeki no kyogin #attack on titan #snk spoilers #snk 137 #snk chapter 137

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fuckingdeadbutroyal · 4 years

Text

Jasonette July- Soulmate AU- Part 3

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Bruce would never admit it. No, of course not. Bruce was a literal father of eight, Catwomans fiance and motherfucking Batman himself. Right then, standing in the ruins of what was once “The City of Love”? He could not handle the situation. There should have been more people coming to Paris’ rescue, more heroes offering their support and overall more attention on everything that was happening, more attention on what has been going on for years. The irritation seeped into the batfamily like some kind of mist. Everyone felt it, but each person was dealing with it in their very own, individual way.

For example there currently was a frustrated Cassandra Cain asking Tim for directions, while using a crowbar to open a door that has been sealed shut by the rubble of one of the broken buildings. She was angry, or at least that’s what she has been taught this emotion was called. The decade she has spent on the streets of Gotham have made her capable of handling all kinds of tools and left her with every necessary skill there was, if you needed to open a door or look for something any other person would not have paid any attention to. The young adult wasn’t keen on following her main mission. The villain could be caught later, but those people were dying right then and there. Tim has told them about the Miraculous Cure. Yes, all those people would come back to life if only their heroine would finally manage to catch that damn akuma.

The memories would stay though. The city would consist of traumatised citizens and be vulnerable to further attacks or, in the worst case, further manipulation. Dick could not stop thinking about what could happen afterwards. What are they going to do once the villain has been eliminated and the miraculous cure has been cast? How would the citizens of Paris react when some sociopath would raise their voice and demand power and set up rules and just overall exploit the damaged and desperate minds of the victims?

Would this emotional trauma lead to new extremists?

Would they have to fight a new Hitler or have to assassinate the next Stalin? Speaking of assassination: Damian was raging. His already bad temper was a perfect starting point, which means that now that he had mixed his constant anger with the situational rage... he felt alive.

He remembered that that was what superboy has felt like the first time he realised he could fly. Kon-Els’ emotions were always very...expressive. He loved to indulge every bit of adrenaline and excitement he could reach. Damian was glad to have him as his soulmate, though. The other boys positivity and extroverted way of acting was complementary to Damians introverted defensivness. Kon-Els’ habit of sharing his pleasent emotions and sensations through their soulmate-bond has opened the Wayne heirs eyes in several ways.

Now the youngest batfamily-members’ adrenaline and rage-filled soul was holding back from sharing that powerup with his lover, though. Instead he was focusing on Paris and subconciously hoping not to remember it in it’s current form, having planned on taking his boyfriend there for their anniversary. No, instead he was looking at those pained faces and ruins. His mind was tunneled, sure, but whatever he saw on the other end of that tube did not stand a single chance. The boy was rummaging through the streets, following each and every one of Red Robins and Batmans orders without giving it a second guess. Damian was reacting to everything colored red that came into his vision. Paired up with his oldest brother, who has taken to asking the citizens about what they have witnessed and if there was anyone who needed immediate help. Damian did not speak. He stared down anyone who didn’t answer them right away and “put on pause” whoever was causing trouble inside the shelters. He was following the “no killing policy”. (Which didn’t mean he held back.) A broken bone was a broken bone, no matter if it killed you or just immobilsed you for a few weeks. Dick did not approve of Damians actions, but the young one was careful not to leave a trace of his doings and knew for sure that there wouldn’t be anyone who would dare to tattle on him, not if they valued their oh so precious teeth.

Each and any trace that could lead them to the villains identity has been collected. Barbara paid special attention to accuracy and professionalism, no matter how difficult it was. She didn’t allow herself to loose focus, didn’t turn away from the mission. She wanted to, oh how much she wanted to just stop looking at those weird dusty footprints and butterfly themed anythings and pull the people in misery out of their ashes. Orakle couldn’t dare do it, though. Anyone else has already stopped paying attention to the mission. If she did too, there would be no one left to find the source of evil. She kept on playing the matra her father has taught her in the back of her head: “Find the criminal, save the future victims, find the criminal, save the future victims...”

The future was uncertain, even for Duke. His photokinetic skill let him see into the near future, aswell as a bit of the past. But that didn’t help because that day he just couldn’t see anything but death and destruction in both directions. His vision was clouded with blood and dust and he quite honestly felt blind and useless. They should’ve come sooner, they didn’t have the right to leave these people to their own devices. Especialy since they knew that their devices were malfunctioning. The boys heart was full of regret. If only he could have seen this coming, if only he could have showed the akumatised victim a way out! It was his job as “The Signal” after all, he didn’t wear this annoyingly bright yellow suit for no reason!

Tim was surprisingly calm. He had his coffeemashine working, Alfred keeping him comany in the batcave and several constant sources of information keeping him entertained. He hated to admit it, but for once he felt fulfilled. His brain was working at just the right pace, he was giving out orders and information without having to secondguess himself and could allow himself to just let the mission take it’s course. He saw the dots moving around on the screen, saw the battlefield growing and changing and knew when to usher his family away from, or even towards danger. Yes, the pressure was incredibly high, but oh god was it exhilarating.

Which didn’t mean he wasn’t annoyed when his orders were being ignored. Cass not listening to him he has already been counting on, she was saving the people and that was all he needed her to do. Stephanies string of fate, which was connected to Tims heart, was safe and sound and she kept him updated about her actions, so he was fine with keeping her out of the equation, for now. Jason though?

“Hood! What the fuck is up with you?”, Tim signaled his older brother, who was currently walking at the pace of an elderly zombie and, for whatever reason, constantly turning in the direction of the Saine, completly disregarding the route Tim has assigned him on. “I totally get your need for caffeine now, Red.”, Jason laughed in return, “doesn’t mean I support it though.” Having said that he went back to silently brooding in the direction that was making him even more tired than he already was.

Jason was exhausted, but he wasn’t dumb. He’d guessed that his soulmate had to be somewhere in the area and he was certain that the strenghtening bond was due to their proximity. The further he walked the more he felt them. Or in other words, felt his body succumb to their weakness. Whoever they were, Jason knew they were on the verge of dying. A soulmates bond can only do so much. Sure, if he ate and slept for two, his bonded would get their share, but it still wasn’t enough. Judging by the way he was currently about to collapse, they haven’t been taking care of themselves for a while now. Jason had to do something. He needed to find them and get them to someplace where they could recover, at least enough for Jason to be able to get back to work again.

Blinking, Red Hood realised where he was. Where there should have been water, just a few dozen meters in front of him, were...

“Red, am I hallucinating or is that river full of giant ladybugs?”

“Those are boats. Their color indicates them to be Lucky Charms, a creation of Ladybugs superpower. Batman and the others have found several other items all over the city and collected the ones they could. Apparently Ladybug has to throw them in the air in order to cast the cure. Are you capable of investigating these ones? I think they could be shelters but my drones haven’t arrived yet so we have no heatvision to investigate from abov-”

“I’m on it.”, Jason interrupted him, having gotten a grasp of the situation and, due to his tiredness, not being capable of listening for such amounts of information without succumbing to the monotone lullaby of another human beings voice.

Tim watched in wonder, as the big, scary, red hooded man stopped midtrack, made a 90° turn and climbed into a destroyed cafe. He came out of it, several minutes later, armed with what seemed like two cups of coffee, a bag full of food held between his teeth and unconcious parisians on each one of his shoulders. Jason carefully squatted, letting them down at the door of the nearby akuma-shelter and sitting crosslegged next to them. After carefully dropping his bag of baked goods in his lap and downing the probably burning hot coffee from his left hand in one go, he finally turned his com back on and just sat there, eating.

A few moments had passed before Tim mustered up the courage to speak to him. He’s been fighting evil in the streets of the most crime-ridden city their planet had to offer for years now, but never in his whole career has he seen something as terrifying as that man he considered a brother, who he knew had commited murder, died and come back to life, just sit and eat while everything around him consisted of ruins, death and destruction.

“Tho-those civilans. Did you-?”

“I knew you would ask that!”, a full mouth replied, “Of fucking course not. They were knocked out by their bloody ceiling collapsing onto their damn heads. They’re still breathing and I’m sure there’s like, first aid in those shelters. I just gotta-”, he took another bite, taking his time, again swallowing his second cup of coffee in one go and letting out an exhausted but slightly more energized breath, “I just gotta recharge, then I’ll be on my way.”

“Are you okay? Why so weak all of a sudden?”

“Who are ya calling weak, replacement?”

“I meant what I said, now spill.”

An uncharacteristical sigh escaped Jasons lips. He didn’t like speaking of his soulmate. It made him feel weak, especialy due to their bond consisting of literal suffering. Given the current situation, though, he decided to share.

“Did you know I have a soulmate?”

Tims surprise was evident but he did not dare speak up, in fear of disrupting his brothers confession.

“We’re kind of a fucked up pair, to be honest. Our bond isn’t as cute as yours and Spoilers. It’s like...very physical. Whenever she gets hurt I get the same bruise.”

Jason now knew she was female. He felt her much more intensely, recognized those physical attributes he was sensing. If felt weird and he would have to get used to it. (Only if the both of them were going to survive the next few hours, of course.)

He took another bite of the third pastry he was currently eating, before continuing: “Whenever one of us has hurt ourselves when we were little, the other did something similar in some sort of “payback”. It was dumb. Silly realy...”

Tim was only half listening. As much as he wanted to know every tiny detail of this secretive mans confessions, he still had a job to do. A shelter not far from Dukes whereabouts has been covered by more debris and was therefore in danger of collapsing on itself. He gave out orders to everyone but Jason. Red Robin had a guess considering what he was about to be told and couldn’t risk ignoring that possibly incredibly important piece of information.

Jason was finishing his seventh pastry, while explaining to Tim how he recognized Paris through his soulmate and pointed out how odd it was, that she knew what every angle looked like from above and how she has never set foot inside an akuma-shelter.

Saying it out loud made it painfully obvious. Especially when he paired the information with the fact that his wounds seemed to heal so quickly and the exhaustion the bonded pair was feeling.

Ladybugs powers include healing.

Ladybug was fighting the most difficult battle this war has ever offered.

Ladybug was Jasons soulmate and he knew where he could find her.

------------------------

Hello!!!

I hope you are having a great day, night, morning...probably night. Nighttime is tumblrtime after all.

Thank you SO MUCH for all your feedback, it is now my fuel, my water, my blood, I love y’all.

Also, English is my third language so please, if you find any mistakes or notice a grammatical sin: please tell me! I am still learning and would love to correct my mistakes.

Part 4 is in the making and either it will be very long or I’ll make a part 5. No promises though!

P.S.: Proper Jasonette is finally happening next chapter, I’m excited ^^

I never would have thought I’d get to say that but I now have a taglist! If you want to be added just tell me in whichever way: I will find you and I will tag you *insert evil laughter*

Tag List \o/:

@maribat-is-lifeblood @lokilex @amayakans

Thanks for reading ^^

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jackbabewang · 4 years

Text

Head over heels

Genre: Another nose bleeding ceo Jae, Fluff, Mature content

Word count: 5,818

Currently, in your mid-20s, studied for a degree in Administrative Assistant at a four-year college and working as a secretary in a major corporation. You have a good salary and excellent benefits, earning enough to rent an apartment of your own, but your workload may be more than you can realistically handle and no matter how motivated you are, it will be beyond the realms of human possibility.

Working with your superior, Jung Jaehyun, is more like a profession. There is always a sense of moral obligation to do more than the minimum laid down in the job description when the man himself works like a monster. You were prepared for the immense sacrifice as well had you accepted the offer. It was agreed.

With great reluctance, you have grown one hell of an addiction to caffeine, which is clear when you go without it for even one morning, like today. You feel foggy and crabby. None of the words seems to penetrate beyond your mind of half-conscious blank. The pen that is unfailingly in your hand, starting to draw elaborate doodles on a clean page in the notebook which is largely useless at this point.

Surprisingly, Jaehyun is not listening to the presenter as well. He has crossed and uncrossed his legs six times, peeked out the window eight times. His fingers plow through his hair, messing up the always-neat style he has probably struggled half the morning to achieve. The generality however appears to be interested in the object of the meeting, behaving orderly and attentive. Their intention is, of course, to impress their boss. However the man is probably scoffing inwardly at their obvious acts.

He is looking around, when out of the corner of his eye he caught movement. The strain on your face, your lips pressed tightly together, your body slumped almost sliding off the chair, as if your backbone has been pulled out through the top of your head. Amused, he brings his attention to what exactly you are struggling with and he sees your right foot: bared. Stretching on your toes, you try to snag your lone shoe but it is an inch out of your reach. And inside, you curse yourself to lose that annoying habit of swinging your feet.

He watches a moment more then drops his pen, letting it roll over. He bends and pretends to pick it up, catching you off guard as he picks up your shoe instead and holds it so you can slide your foot into it. You cannot quite comprehend of his gesture, and try not to think about it—even when his hand, lightly touching your ankle in turn, sent coils of heat twirling all the way up your leg and through your whole body. Nothing comparable to this has ever occurred which requires direct bodily contact with your boss, to be exact. You slightly choke on your own saliva, but refuse to look at him in the face, visibly embarrassed. In the meanwhile, Jaehyun glances at you the oftener, thus noticing your reaction of an interesting one.

Weeks have gone by, you never spoke of the incident, and he never brings up the subject either as though nothing ever happened, despite the tension that is sometimes evident in the way he watches you like he demands a “thank you” after the act and thinking you are a woman so ignorant, unmannered and … immodest. That thought troubles you more than the other, though.

Troubles always, somehow, never come to an end, never reach exhaustion; they are new every morning, one woman in particular is trouble herself—Park Sooyoung, the embodiment of your day-to-day horror. You have to admit, from head to toe, she is more beautiful than any female, including yourself in this workplace. She is gorgeous with a perfect figure and has all the attention of the men here, except for the one enclosed behind glass doors on the 45th floor. Mr. Jung, Jaehyun, is eye-candy extraordinaire. Or ‘sex on a stick’, which you overheard her conversation that day in the pantry.

The employee manual says, “Keep the dating scenes away”, as it is most likely to ruin the workplace or kill your career. She interpreted otherwise, eagerly looking for her dear ones. You do not understand her, her constant attendance at Jaehyun's office with a stack of papers which she claimed as her legitimate reason to meet the CEO. And every damn time, exercising intense self-control, you refrain yourself from laughing seeing her walk out a minute after with her ‘documents’ left untouched, indubitably not a single glance from the man.

Then you know you might be in trouble when the buzzer system, a companion to the intercom, alerts you with two buzzes to indicate that you are to come into Jaehyun’s office. Knocking twice as a courtesy and you enter after hearing his bid and shutting the door behind. You utter no word, make no sound as you cross the thick carpet. You know the instant you set foot in there is something about the air that gives you a bad feeling. The familiar prickle ripples over your scalp and spreads down your neck and shoulders. You gulp.

He stops, looks up, then back to the chaos on his desk. “Could’ve stopped her…” Phew!

“Yes, Mr. Jung. I should. Next time.” Your sentence breaks into phrase, phrase separates into words, you speak out like a robot, totally expressionless.

“No more next time, please.” He has never used the word before, rarely hear it from his lips, which sounds like an exasperating term because it shows the helplessness in him. “And put this away,” he orders, without lifting his head.

The bittersweet fragrance of coffee curls enticingly around your nose, the porcelain filled and still warm in your hand, whereas he has not even touched the beverage. Sooyoung needs to step up her game if she is ever so determined to get into his pants. Brown is the colour of the milky coffee that Jaehyun absolutely dislikes. He has them dark brew, no milk, no sugar, no creamer. You have tried it once and it tastes bad, it tastes awful as its poisonous-looking black. You switch the flat-out rejected beverage for the one to his liking and not so long after he finished with nothing left in the bottom of the cup.

He works all day, and you work all day. As the saying goes, “A good boss does not leave until after his last employee does.” But if it is the other way round, does that make you a good employee? Totally. The corporation has an extra busy month with the expansion to take all the business it can get. To demonstrate how busy it is, longer hours of work on the same day has been introduced. Even on a Sunday, you are with your friends having brunch when you receive a call to work where your boss has clearly heard the munching of food and clanking of silverware against China over the line. How sucks it is even when you have not drive today and given ten minutes to be there, you have to pay the additional for cab fare.

Inside, Jaehyun is leaning over his laptop and typing furiously. His fingers are almost a blur over that keyboard.

“Sorry, Mr. Jung. I’m—” you glance at your wristwatch, holding the tiny face of it between the fingers of your right hand and squinting, “—six minutes late. I was caught in a traffic jam.”

“It’s fine. Come sit.”

You do what he asks. You peek over his shoulder and see a screen full of words, you peer harder at the teeny-tiny letters and it takes a fraction of a second to realize he is doing your portion of work. Almost immediately you interrupt him, almost instantly you regret your harsh manner when he turns to you with eyes filling with confusion before his brows knit themselves together in concern.

“Move over,” his fingers wrap around your wrists, pulling your hands away from which you have shielded the brightness of the display.

“No, that’s my work. I should be responsible for it.”

“I don’t have time for this,” he warns.

You grumble right back, “Just this one, alright? And I’ll do the rest.”

“If you’re feeling sorry then stay until I leave.” Oh so easily he is keeping you captive, simply taking advantage of his position because he knows that he can. And of course, you will.

There is the occasional tap tap on a keyboard, turning of pages, then comes the restlessness where conversations are strained or non-existent. As you let the spin of the swivel chair stops on its own, it yields to face the spectacular turquoise tank behind the ornate desk where Jaehyun is sitting at. There swims a three foot long koi which his father bought for 1.4 million after a fierce bidding war at a fish farm in the city of Hiroshima. The bare tank with no gravel or decorations is built into the wall covered with white marble; its simplicity yet luxurious touching makes it a convincingly beautiful moving portrait. Staring at it for the rest of the afternoon, or a probable evening, is enough to elevate your somber mood.

“Mr. Jung—”

“Jaehyun,” he corrects. He has previously asked you to dispense with the “mister” treatment when you and him are alone in the office but you cannot drop the formality just because he said so. You have to maintain the dignity of his position and allegedly emphasize an atmosphere of collegiality.

Suddenly you are eager to initiate a conversation, “I like your fish tank. Salt water?”

“Fresh actually.” Right there. He is giving you the look again. “It’s a carp.”

“I know I sounded dumb… You don’t have to make it so obvious…” you mumble under your breath, but he heard you nonetheless.

The sky has sunk nearer to the horizon and everything is deep red. Your Sunday is like an ordinary weekday and ordinary rounds of filing, opening and sorting the mail, verifying facts and assembling data—which you have gotten everything complete by now. However the workaholic’s compulsive ass stay rooted to his leather seat, as if he is growing right into it. Only when you call out to him for food does he excused himself from the havoc on his desk, reluctantly. It fascinates you most of the time how he actually listens to you when it comes to reminding him to drink, to eat, and never not to eat, because he always, always got carried away and forego meals. At some point, you are like his mother for real and feel an obligation to take care of him his health; while it only increases his dependency on you. Pretty sure you can accurately state his likes and dislikes with the certainty that you understand him better than he understands himself.

Two years of working with Jaehyun, you have never once put your foot in his pantry and you assume he never does too. It fills with the distinctive smell of those new things untouched by humans; pristine white cabinets reach to the floor and ceiling, bisected by a tasteful granite countertop and subway tile backsplash. The warm glow from the overhead lights giving the place a cozy, homey feel (and hiding layers of dust). Rather, you will work in here instead of facing the boring office neutrals 24/7.

You eyed him as he slurps his bowl of jajangmyeon and chomping down the strands of noodles with his front teeth. He resembles a rabbit eating like that but in all honesty you are hyper aware of the black sauce being splattered on his white shirt.

Or what he thinks about the food, “Do you like it?”

He ponders momentarily before answering, “This thing is unhealthy.”

Well, you are unhealthy for your unhealthy eating habits!

Jung Jaehyun, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, is made for fine dining and ridiculously expensive food anyway. What will he even see in these cheap Chinese food?

“How about this— Try this—” Fried dumplings dipped into the red sauce of tteokbokki topped with a piece of kimchi. You pick up the salivating fusion with your chopsticks, before you know it, he leans forward and captures the heaping amount in a huge mouthful. It then follows by approving nods and satisfied hums, all the while your mind comes into play. Purposefully, you ignore the jolt of awareness, even though it twists you up like a pretzel.

“What’s the matter?” he asks. “Do I make you nervous?”

The hell is he talking about. His speech is all but business-like and you are internally freaking out at this cheeky side of your boss.

“N-No…”

“I think I make you nervous.”

“You don’t make me nervous,” you reiterate. Collecting yourself, you pick up overlapping circles of sliced radish and pop them into your mouth only to feel the choking burn of vinegar at the back of your throat.

“Why do you shy away every time our shoulders brush?”

“I don’t like being crowded.”

“You didn’t seem to mind so much before.”

“That was different.”

“What was different?” He wears an open grin of amusement, enjoying every second of your embarrassment.

As you continue to stuff your face, you glance over at him, and caught him staring at you. You look away for a moment, then look at him again. “What are you looking at?” you ask through gritted teeth.

“I didn’t mean to,” he says. “It’s just that, I’ve never seen you dressed in casual clothes.”

You are always in a buttoned-up white blouse, black pencil skirt and matching fitted blazer. “Right, and I get tired of wearing the same thing all the time.”

While he has always dressed in fine shoes and classy suits, you have never before, indeed, seen him like this either—oversized cotton-poplin shirt and black ankle pants. Though someone else may look like a baggy, slouchy mess in the outfit, he looks like a whole meal. This Jaehyun radiates comfort and soothing kindness that for a minute you have forgotten about him being your boss.

“Well, you don’t look so bad yourself.” You tell him and he grins in that lopsided way.

Yet a man has his pride. So you add, “Ugly as ever.” The comment itself is certainly a rude way to speak to your boss and instantly you regret it, but he does not seem bothered anyway.

“I may be ugly, but I’m still better looking than you,” for which he retorts quickly. “Say. Why don’t we skip work tomorrow?”

You blink, taken aback by his idea, but in truth you desperately want to stay home and shed your responsibilities and act as lifeless and unrestrained. “We can’t skip work.”

“C’mon,” he whines, “I know you’re fucking tired of this shit.”

Though once again taken aback by his unusual words and speech patterns—which you can only assume the filters of polite society is not working when he is overtired—his facial expression implies reference to something else. But why the teasing tone?

Then it hits you. Your Twitter account, where you have been very active the last few weeks, as a platform to express your thoughts and emotions on working tons of overtime. Your rants are so insane that it is as if someone has pixelated your brain. The ungenerous, unladylike words blurted you regret them.

“You stalked me!”

“It’s not my fault that your profile is public.”

“Why would you even search my profile?”

“Just checking out what my employees been up to.”

He speaks about it so nonchalantly. You almost roared at him.

“There’s a meeting tomorrow morning with Mr. Kee,” you remind.

He groans only at the utterance of the name of the presenter. Recalling what has occurred in the last conference, he resents waking up early to another yawning dullness, however he chuckles at the reminder of the little interaction between you and him. That brings a pleasant recollection and something to look forward to. Under the table, maybe games of tic-tac-toe, dots and boxes, or maybe, just maybe he can play with your fingers. He stares at your hands to savor the lingering and wonder if you know how incredible they are. Hands like that—small and soft-skinned next to his—should be pampered. He can spin a dream of what those hands will feel like on his flesh.

Suddenly, an overwhelming feeling falls over him as he says, “I’d like to take you to dinner.”

“What?” you ask.

“Dinner. Food.” A few seconds lapsed, and he says, “It seems that I’ve been eating alone a lot lately, and I’d like some conversation with good food.”

“I have plans for—”

“You’re not married, are you?” he asks.

“Me? No, I’m not.”

“Engaged?”

“No.”

“Involved?”

“No,” you answer, a little offended.

“Then let’s have dinner.” That’s it?

“Like… on a date?” Stupid, stupid, stupid, you tell yourself. Dinner. That’s it. You know that you are not supposed to overthink it as a romantic appointment, not with him. Perhaps, he wants to talk about the company’s cash flow in a private setting, or he wants to inquire on the status of recent projects, or he wants to find out which projects are running. Perhaps, deep down, you want to casually talk about everything over good food, as a friend for the least.

“A real date?”

Date. He likes the sound of it, oh he likes it even more when you are the one clarifying it.

“There’s such a thing as a fake date?”

You roll your eyes at him.

“Call it a date then, as you wish.” And you resist scoffing out loud at his cockiness, while there is bursting red upon you the shyness of a young girl.

Hours elapsed upon return to work, but the ambience is more calm, peaceful and comfortable in the moment. Presumably Jaehyun had quelled his distress with food as he is adorable high-spirited than ever. The once deadly dull office is now filled with music of Cigarette After Sex’s and Frank Ocean’s, such that you poke fun of him being an emotional teen, while you secretly enjoy the songs as well.

By the time Jaehyun finally shuts down the computer, though the files are left open on his desk, it is already midnight. With a groan, you sink in the fact that you still have to wake up early tomorrow as per usual.

At the sound of it, Jaehyun turns to you with a raised brow, “What? Don’t want to leave?”

For a minute, he looked unusually handsome and resplendent, marked by deep-set brown eyes, little indentations in his cheeks. He is teasing and it does not help with how awestricken you already are by the look he gave you. For a second, you stand rooted to the spot with nerves twisting your insides; Jaehyun holding the elevator door open and waiting.

His fake cough brings you sharply back to your senses. “Oh, no— shit— sorry,” a smile pulling at the edges of your mouth with false gaiety.

The elevator comes to a stop. Later taking larger steps than you usually do and out to the ground floor lobby, there he cocks his head, confused, “Where are you going?”

“I’m not driving today. I’ll take the bus home. See you tomorrow, Mr. Jung.” You bow and wave in a polite manner but he is quick to stop you from taking more steps away.

“I’ll give you a ride. Come in.”

“It’s fine. The bus station is not so far away.”

And just like that the both of you end up arguing at a distance over the way to get yourself home, with him still pressing the ‘open’ button that his finger is most likely indented at this point.

“Don’t keep me waiting,” his eyes stern as he scolds (but with no harshness in his voice) yet you then are aware of this mistaken outburst of his and so you quickly step inside. His lips curled up in a victorious smirk unnoticeable by you, a clear winner once again.

Jaehyun drives this maddeningly slow pace when the road is not even under congested conditions at this hour. Inside this four wheels, you seem to get strangely awkward with all the fidgeting of fingers on the seatbelt despite being on the same ride for multiple times. But those times were with his private chauffeur as well. Have you talk about the Jung Jaehyun drives one-handed? Because that is freaking hot. Spicy.

Things take off another note—when the next morning you arrive with a cup of hot, steaming coffee and your favourite cinnamon sugar donuts on your desk. Judging that you appear to be showing up behind schedule for sleeping in—the reason being so, it is better not to be reminded of. You run a list of names in your head to figure out who that ‘secret angel’ could be. Aside from your only friend in the workplace, Chaeyong, who received maternity leave a few months ago. You hardly associate with the rest of the employees due to your position that you only need to deal with one person. And that only person seems to have been watching you the second you walk in, however, there he is sitting in his office, eyes trained on the documents from the night before.

It is of infrequent occasions he has the shades rolled up.

The said meeting with Mr. Kee goes by smoothly with the respective project itself taking form now and the next thing you know—you are sitting at a table of two in a fancy Italian restaurant located within the affluent area of central Seoul. You are still unable to stir the reality that the ‘date’ is actually happening, judging that Jaehyun could have or should have brushed it off when both are time-poor during the day. Here you have him twirling a glass of red liquid by its stem mindlessly and show no signs of initiating a conversation. It is frustrating at first, but you think that there is a need to make the most of the night when you could have been eating cheeseburger and greasy food back at your little chamber.

Unfortunately, what should have been a long-winded conversation dies down fast with Jaehyun answering questions by questions in straightforward and short factual answers instead of throwing the ball back to you in effort of prolonging. You bet your entire fortune that Jaehyun is a mo-ssol (one who has never dated since birth), judging the way he speaks in a manner so expressionless like a piece of log, so stubborn. All those meetings or business events do him no good.

Sigh. You have to do everything yourself around here.

It almost takes you off guard when he asks, “So… tell me about yourself.” You definitely knows him very well but it was never the other way round. Your heart beats with odd little jerks at the thought of his possible interest in you. Now, you do not want to give yourself a false hope of it being a romantic interest otherwise.

To make things easier, you suggest on the game of “I Like”, to which he shrugs and says, “Okay.”

You begin, “I like… visiting zoos, scented candles and everything chocolate.”

“That’s odd.”

A weird combination indeed but, “That’s how the game goes!”

“Well… I like…” he ponders for such a long time, as if mulling over the merit of finally revealing the side of him that you never knew of, nonetheless, “I like… turntable, pistachio ice-cream and Batman.”

Your chuckle comes in response at his last item, “Batman, really?”

“Hey, never judge someone’s favourite superhero!”

“Whatever,” you mumble a, “Superman is way better,” under your breath to which he catches on immediately and a childish bickering breaks out from then on who is the best superhero.

After paying the bill and a bit of you whining, “I don’t want to go home… It’s cold, dark and lonely, and cold…” after wine after wine intake. Jaehyun takes you back to his place and things escalated from there. You kick off your heels attempting to slide across the marble floor in bare feet, stumbling forward you slam him against the wall while still holding on to him.

Though genuinely surprised, he cannot ignore your eyes like cataracts producing the hazy look, blush tingeing your cheeks from too much alcohol and every inch nearer you get he finds himself having trouble refusing your anything. Letting your index finger, delicate, almost like a feather, trace the arch of his eyebrows to the tip of his nose and along his pouty lips.

“N-no… We can’t do this…” he groans in protest, holding onto a dangerous slippery rope that is ‘lust’. He finds it completely wrong to take advantage of you in this drunken state, but you seem to not care at all as you slide closer to him stepping on his sock clad feet. Your narrow rib cage with the pillowy softness of your bosom pressing against his chest, so alluring with your breath mingles with his own—that is his last straw.

He inches a hand downward and wraps itself around your waist as he gathers you close capturing your mouth with his in a dance of sorts, tasting with tender, tantalizing nips and slow strokes of his tongue. Feeling—yes—the excitement of his racing heart and the ragged edge of his breathing. You are so generous, so giving, so primally female. He has never done this before, but his body reacts, it is taut and hard and humming with impatience.

You ease his suit jacket off his shoulders and it drops on the floor behind him. Then he twists around, shuffling to his room until he falls backwards when his foot hit the edge of the gargantuan bed. Straddling atop him, you curl your hands into his pristine shirtfront and surrender to the consuming heat of his kiss. In semi-consciousness, your fingers flick open the buttons. He weaves his fingers into your silky hair as you continue to undress him. He spins your bodies around again, this time having his hips nestle their way between your thighs.

You want to touch him. You want him to touch you—all over—but all he does is touch you with his mouth and feed you kisses while devouring your good sense. He growls low in his throat as he abandons your mouth to drag his lips along your jaw. He licks at the delicate skin of your throat and closes his teeth on the tendon joining your neck and shoulder, sending sensation shooting through your body like a hot bolt of lightning. You shudder, half expecting your head to explode.

“Jaehyun… it tickles,” turning into a giggling mess when he slides his lips over your neck, kissing from the front to the sides to the back. He chuckles boyishly all the way and those giggles turn into breathy sighs, gasps when he lingers on the tender skin behind your ear. You moan, moving restlessly against him and nearly combust when the long, thick ridge of his arousal presses against you. Right where a painful, empty ache blossoms.

Every stitch of clothing removed and your entire body gives a single shiver as he enters with perfect precision, penetrating slowly all the way inside. He is so tender, so gentle with each thrust, making you cry out in blinding ecstasy and only crave him more. He revels in the new sensations of you enclosed around him so tightly, and how good your bare skin feels against his. It is a level of heaven he has never known existed.

“Oh God, you feel so good,” he curses under his breath, closing his eyes as he savors each moment rising towards his own orgasm, “Want to come inside you, is that okay? Can I?”

You cannot even form an answer properly with your mind fuzzy with absolute pleasure that adds to your intoxication, giving him a weak nod and clenching around him so he is moaning your name loudly. As you both reach the edge and shatter, you hold onto each other and squeezing whatever is there to reach out. Breathing deeper and faster, hearts pounding in your chests, laying there limbs tangled for quite some time.

Your internal clock wakes you up at eleven and you glance around trying to assimilate something of your surroundings. Your eyes, squinting in the sunlight that dance through the large windows. Your body, dressing in a pair of silk pajamas that is of luxuriousness you will never possess. Immediately, you head in the direction of what you assume is the bathroom. And your reflection, astonishingly clean and tidied up of the makeup from the night before besides the remnants of waterproof mascara and some semi-permanent “stains” on your skin.

Jaehyun looks to you popping out from behind the wall like a thief, his eyes falling to the shirt you are wearing and the corners of his lips twitch upward at the sight. You have not acknowledged his presence yet as you continue marvelling at the large apartment until you hear a soft chuckle from a distance. You shriek, there sits your superior at the dining table with a tablet propped up in a case.

“W-we’re… late for work,” you blurt out awkwardly, glancing at the clock on the wall.

There is a short pause before he speaks, “Well, good morning?” and tells you that he has called in to say that you are both away on a business trip. Skipping the fact that you are walking funnily.

The tips of his ears a cute shade of pink and it hits you, “D-did we…?” Such a stupid question when your neck and chest all over have hickies that match the big one on his clavicle. Boy, were you wild last night. He only answers with fake coughs and avoids looking directly at you.

Your eyes squeeze shut with a heavy sigh upon an internal breakdown. How are you supposed to maintain a great performance at work when the embodiment of your disaster is only a few feet away. Things will never be the same. Heck, it was never the same since the incident from a month ago.

“Please tell me I didn’t do anything stupid…” if sleeping with your boss is not dumb enough. You just have to be reminded about it over and over again. Is there any way you can shut down your brain or even better, trade it with someone else?

“...besides dragging me around by my necktie,” he mumbles, the shade of his ears intensifies and spreading to the column of his neck. Anyways, “Are you hungry?”

You are about to reject and scram off to your apartment just to hide this enormous feeling of embarrassment you are suffering at the moment but heaven does not help you. Your belly rumbles in hunger and he is instructing you to take a seat.

The smell of lightly burnt toast with a side of eggs and delicious bacon as well as the aroma of caramel coffee makes your mouth water. Though it is just a combination of simple brunch menu, he manages to get the job done perfectly and you are inhaling the food with a childish grin. The humiliation from before has whisked off and thrown to the back of your mind, replacing with the appreciation of having someone to fill you up instead. Wait— that sounds wrong. You choke on food and on the air itself at such polluted thought.

“Are you okay?” he rushes to your side giving gentle pats on your back.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine, just—” you find yourself going red again when you see that maroon mark on his skin.

His hand finds purchase on your head, stroking endearingly, “Don’t get all shy with me now. You’re practically all over me last night.”

Right when you are getting mushy from the affection, he has to add that so you remove his hand and sigh heavily, “Mr. Jung—” his brows furrow at the formal address, “Maybe we should just forget about the whole thing—”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” he interrupts, “I’ve seen the way you look at me and you should’ve known better. I would’ve transferred you to another department if I were so against it but I kept you by my side, didn’t I? You knew that I could hardly work with anyone else, I am stubborn at times and couldn’t even take care of myself, but the fact that you are always there when I need you… You understand me more than myself and you’re…” he heaves a sigh of overwhelming relief for finally getting off these words from his chest, “You’re just amazing…” There are sparkles in his eyes with the utmost sincerity.

Oh my Lord, is this a confession? Is it? This is a confession!

“So… you took me on a date to fuck me?” Your mind chooses to betray you at the very moment, being equally submerged by the revelation.

“I’ve never said that.” Bending, he leans closer, “But we had a great time. True?” and kisses your lips you stiffen unprepared. Seeing that you did not answer, he adds, “I don’t mind going for another. If you’re down for it too.”

Things do change afterwards. The atmosphere of that particular 45th floor of the office building has now blossomed with bubbles of pink. Jaehyun has the shades rolled up ever since and sometimes sending you flirty gazes. It is surely distracting but you do the same and never fail to grasp the chance just staring at him in awe and thinking, “Oh, this handsome man is mine!” The oftener he catches you watching and the intercom goes, “Missy, get back to work.”

Even so, Sooyoung still pay her regular visits. As she finally leaves his office, you are called over immediately and the first things you say, “What does she want this time?” not realizing your tone of speech.

He grins, victorious, “Were you jealous all this while?”

With a scoff, “Jealous my butt.”

“Had I known…”

“What?” What are you gonna do? I dare you!

“I would’ve kept her in longer,” he says nonchalantly, though you are fuming with his ridiculousness (knowing that he is only teasing). But still!

He is quick to catch your wrist when you turn to leave, and tucks you in the warmth of his embrace. Your nose filled with the scent of him. His cologne makes you think of green, grassy meadows covered with yellow flowers. So fucking good.

“Mr. Jung, it’s against the rules— Keep the dating scenes away,” you warn in a stern voice, feigning annoyance from his previous remark.

He leans closer instead and invades your space, capturing your mouth in a scorching kiss like he has been holding himself back for hours.

“My rules, my way.”

#nct jaehyun #jung jaehyun #nct scenarios #nct smut #nct fluff #jaehyun fluff #jaehyun smut #pardon me I have no idea what I'm writing #this has been sitting in my draft for quite awhile

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ourloveisforthelovely · 4 years

Text

The Second Time Around Part 2

A/n: RPF fic. Smut warning

Link to Part 1

Words: 2,812

Pairings: Elon Musk x Reader

_________

Elon opened the passenger side door with a small smirk on his face. He already had a feeling that you were going to agree to try the relationship again. If you were going to say no then you would have said it by now. You would not have him drive you around just to crush his hopes mercilessly.

Just to be safe, it was time to turn up the charm. Elon had already gone over the top with the flowers. If he could just get you alone with no interruptions, he was positive things could go in his favor.

Things will be different this time. I’m not an idiot. I know that Y/n is the one and nothing is screwing this up. Y/n will be happy and I won’t be alone anymore.

The thought was presumptive but Elon didn’t care. The last thing that he wanted was another failed relationship. It wasn’t happening!

His own bitter feelings about the break up returned. It only took a few months for his relationship with his ex to fall apart (just like you said it would).

Another horrible morning...how surprising? Elon thought bitterly as he sat at his desk looking at another mind numbing slide on a pointless PowerPoint presentation. The sound of someone on the other side knocking pulled Elon from his brooding. He wanted to yell at the person on the other side to “enter and die” but decided not to.

“What?”

He snapped. Elon rolled his eyes when his brother stepped in. Kimbal’s cheerfulness was too much for his older brother to deal with at the moment.

“Good afternoon. You look….well.”

Kimbal said looking at Elon with a fading smile. Nothing about his brother looked well anymore. From the time of his breakup with you Elon had gone down hill! He looked always exhausted and miserable.

“I look like stomped over crap.”

Elon grumbled. Kimbal sighed before sitting down.

“I’m sorry, starshine. I just came by because I heard that you and psycho number 3 split...again.”

Elon nodded, leaning back.

“I texted you about it the day before yesterday.”

Kimbal nodded.

“Yeah, I was doing something when you did that. Oh, the reason why I am here. I saw Y/n today.”

Elon’s eyes were immediately on his brother.

“Where?”

Kimbal smirked. If he needed any sign that his brother was still in love with you...there it was.

“I was out shopping and ran into her. She’s looking extremely lovely. I can see why guys drool over her.”

“Is THIS really what you came here for?”

Kimbal shook his head.

“No, I came on behalf of our dear mother, sister, and myself to beg you to go talk to Y/n. You are a miserable wreck without her and we are, for lack of a better term, worried about you.”

“I am just fine.”

Elon said stubbornly as Kimbal shook his head.

“No, you aren’t. I’ll go talk to her for you if you want. I can tell her that you were having a midlife crisis or something. That would be totally believable.”

Elon put a hand over his face.

“I don’t want you to talk to her, period. Y/n is better off without me.”

Kimbal faked a gagging motion.

“That is the most unlike you thing that I have ever heard come out of your mouth! What are you going to do when Y/n moves on and starts a family with another man? Oh wait, I’ll answer that. You are going to be the miserable ass that you are now just multiplied by 100%. I hate to be this guy, Elon, but you are getting older and that puddle of girls is going to be shrinking. I’m telling you the puddle is small and you need to give her a call.”

Elon sat staring at his brother with an annoyed frown.

“That was a horrible rhyme. Fine, I’ll go talk to her.”

Elon pulled himself from the memory as your hand wrapped around his.

“Are you okay?”

You asked softly. Elon quickly nodded and walked to the passenger side of his car. He opened the door with a small smile.

“Of course. In you go, sweetheart.”

Right as you started to get in, Jeffree stepped out onto the porch. You didn’t have to look at your best friend to know that he was worried.

“Rocket man, wait. I have something else to say to you.”

Elon quickly shut the passenger side door. There went any hope of you hearing whatever Jeffree had to say. Maybe you could get it out of him later?

Elon, meanwhile, rolled his eyes before turning back to your best friend. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was treading on thin ice and was trying to win you back; he would have told Jeffree to go kick rocks.

“You do realize that is not my name right?”

Jeffree nodded.

“I know. I just want to torment you. You’re welcome. Anyway, I have a request to make of you.”

Elon crossed his arms over his chest.

“Calling me rocket man then asking for a request is really poor form...just so you know.”

Jeffree chuckled.

“Since you are about to start screwing my best friend again...if you knock her up, which I expect to happen with your track record, please give the child a name that us simple folk can pronounce. I would prefer you to not get her pregnant in the first place…”

Elon held a hand up.

“That isn’t happening.”

Jeffree raised an eyebrow.

“If you say so. Well, later.”

Elon watched with a frown as Jeffree turned and walked back into the house before rolling his eyes and going to join you in the car.

“What did he want?”

You asked. Elon smirked.

“He was just being ignorant. Nothing to worry about, love.”

Something about the way that Elon said nothing to worry about made you nervous. Maybe now wasn’t the best time to ask questions.

“So what is your decision?”

Elon asked bluntly. You motioned to the parking lot of an abandoned shopping center.

“Pull over.”

Elon quickly did as you asked. You sat silently as you tried to contemplate one more time why saying “yes” would be wrong but was coming up with a big old blank. What was wrong with you actually being happy? Elon made you happy and he seemed genuinely sorry about his bat shit crazy break up.

“So...we are sitting here in this abandoned parking lot not saying anything.”

Elon said casually. You blushed, realizing that you had zoned off into your own world.

“Right, I don’t think that we want to look at a prime example of failed capitalism.”

Elon nodded, looking at the old building in front of him.

“Yeah, woohoo. Y/n, can you please give me an answer? I am about to go crazy over here.”

You turned and took a breath.

“I still love you. That hasn’t changed. I just don’t want to get hurt again.”

Elon reached out taking one of your hands in his. He stroked his thumb over your knuckles as he took in your appearance. Elon remembered that sundress. It had been the one that you had worn the second date. Of course, he would remember that blasted dress! He wanted nothing more than to see it on his bedroom floor.

“I will not hurt you like that ever again. I promise. Y/n, you know that I am not the easiest person to be with. Our schedules are crazy but we always made it work before. I don’t want to throw something away that I so ignorantly tossed away in the first place.”

“I want to be with you again.”

You said softly. Elon immediately smiled. You cut him off quickly.

“But you have a lot to make up for.”

He considered your words before nodding.

“Fair enough. Would you like to go back to my place now?”

You knew exactly where this was going and you were going along with it. For once, you were putting the tough girl in the closet and was going to let the man beside you woo you properly.

“For some wild and crazy sex?”

Elon shrugged.

“I wouldn’t complain about that if that were to happen…”

You giggled.

“Why are we still sitting here?”

Walking back into Elon’s house, you couldn’t help wondering if you hadn’t bailed out on him the week before what would have happened? It was a dumb thought really. You knew exactly where it would have led...right back to Elon’s bedroom (or the first surface the two of you could have reached).

“If you get a weird thank you note from my brother, ignore him.”

Elon said with an eye roll as he locked the door. You gave him a confused expression

“Why would he send me a thank you note?”

Elon sighed.

“For making me less of a miserable asshole. I’ve been a bit of a difficult person to be around the past few months.”

You shrugged.

“I’ve been no box of candy myself. I actually went off on my mother a few times.”

Elon was surprised by your response. In all of the time that he had known you, he had never seen you once go off on your mother. It would have been a joy to watch you complete that action. Elon had always found your mother to be too spoiled for her own good. The woman always seemed jealous of her own children. She was so jealous over the fact that you preferred your father to her and making your life hell seemed to be her hobby.

“I would have paid money to have seen that. Did she cry?”

You chuckled.

“No, she didn't know what to say.”

You didn’t tell Elon how your mother called you foolish for throwing away a guy that could take care of you. She had gone off on your for hours about how you could be a kept woman and wouldn’t have to want for anything. When you screamed that she didn’t know anything and to never speak to you again; she realized that she was wrong to put her nose in on that bit of business.

Elon seemed to notice that stormy expression in your eyes as he wrapped his arms around you.

“Do you want to come upstairs with me? If it makes you happy, I will get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness.”

Your mouth dropped. That was a lot coming from Elon. He never never said anything like that! With his alpha male attitude, that would have normally been beneath him. He would have never lowered himself to that level.

“Uh…”

You managed to get out. The moment that Elon dropped to his knees in front of you and fucking crawled you almost lost it!

“I’m sorry.”

He said softly before taking your right ankle in his hand and pressing a series of soft kisses to your skin. You were happy the wall was behind you or you would have fallen. Elon’s eyes were glued to yours. He watched your every move carefully.

“I love you, princess. I was being a typical useless man.”

Elon was on his feet before you could utter a word. Maybe you were so lost in the moment or maybe it was the shock? Elon had you in his arms for a long kiss. His free hand stroked up your thigh before stopping at the start of your bikini line.

“Do you want me to go further?”

He asked, his voice deepening a few octaves. You nodded.

“Please.”

You managed to get out. Elon didn’t wait for anymore confrontation before running his middle and index finger over your clothed mound. He manipulated your body until the thong that you were wearing was soaked.

“So about going upstairs?”

He asked, his accent making your inner core pound even more with need. Your brain was screaming at you to wait before going this far but your heart was saying otherwise. All of the advice that you had received from Jeffree about “taking your brain with you” went flying out the window as quickly as your virginity did the night of your first date with Elon.

“Upstairs now.”

You managed to get out. Elon smirked and pulled you into his arms bridal style. You were thankful that no one else was in the house at the moment. If someone interrupted the love making, you would have cried!

Elon pushed the door open then kicked the door closed with his foot before putting you down. He arms wrapped around you from behind. He leaned down and snuggled his face into your neck.

“Do you still like to be held like this?”

You nodded, wildly.

“I think that you know the answer to that.”

Elon chuckled before unbuttoning the back of your sundress. He let the thin piece of fabric fall to the floor.

“That looks better on the floor anyway.”

He said cheekily before cupping your breasts from behind. You had to fight back the moan that wanted to escape your lips as he pinched your nipples.

“I missed you.”

Elon said in almost a teasing tone as one hand dropped from your breast to slide down to your panties. You gasped the moment that he literally tore the dainty thong off of you.

“I liked those.”

You said as Elon tossed the fabric over his shoulder.

“I can buy you another pair.”

You swallowed any sassy comment as Elon’s hand returned to your body and stroked from your clit to your opening.

“I still have all of the lingerie that you bought me.”

You managed to get out. Elon smiled against your shoulder.

“I’m glad. I can’t wait to remember what it looks like on you.”

Without another word, Elon carefully picked you up and laid you on the bed before kneeling between your spread legs.

Looking down at your now nude body under his gaze, Elon was satisfied. Your body hadn't changed in the past six months. Everything about you was still the same alluring details that made him fall in love in the first place.

You lifted your hips hoping to hurry Elon into touching you.

“Impatient little minx.”

Elon said, placing a small kiss to your hip bone. You moaned as his hand stroked over your flat stomach. Leaning up on his knees, Elon began to press kisses to your stomach, hips and thighs before spreading your legs wider. He internally sighed when he noticed how wet you were.

“So wet.”

Elon muttered, teasing your clit with his index finger.

“Please, touch me.”

You hissed. Elon gave you a small smirk before slowly rising and slipping the tip of his cock in. You fought back the moan that threatened to escape your lips as Elon continued to rock into you lazily. This was his perfect form of teasing. He would just give you half of his cock then suddenly slam all the way in.

“Like that?”

Elon asked, innocently as he increased his pace. You could only nod as you had the daylights fucked out of you. Elon slowly pulled out and straightened up.

“On your belly, baby. Put that ass in the air.”

You quickly did as you were told. Elon returned to his previous position and slammed back in.

“What do you want, sugar?”

He asked, pressing slow kisses down your spine. You swallowed, knowing exactly what was in store for you. Elon wanted to play rough and you were 100% down for it!

“Fuck me, harder.”

Elon chuckled and increased his pace. Your fingers clenched in the sheets as you tried to preserve any form of thinking. All that your mind could formulate was the word harder or fuck. The burning sensation that you had missed so much was begnining to form in your core. You didn't want to let go but damn it had been so long since you were touched like this!

“I need to cum.”

You whimpered. Elon pulled you onto your knees while keeping his pace.

“I can’t keep my hands off of you. You’re all mine now.”

You tried your best not to come apart on Elon's cock. He knew exactly how to push you to your limits. Between his erotic words being whispered in your ear and the way that he was slamming into your cervix... you were a literal mess!

“Come for me, beautiful.”

You cried out the moment that Elon's cock slammed into your cervix one last time. The moment that your body tightened around him, Elon spilled into you. Neither of you moved for a few moments.

Elon slowly pulled out and laid down for you to snuggle down in his arms. The two of you lay in silence catching your breaths.

“So, are we friends again?”

You asked. Elon looked down at you before laughing and tightening his hold on your body.

“Oh yeah. We are friends again.”

_________

@elonscult @xjjlex (surprise! I actually did get it done today)

#Elon Musk #elon musk fan fiction #The Second Time Around #Elon Musk x Reader #Reader x Elon Musk #request fic #ourloveisforthelovely

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princeasimdiya12 · 4 years

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Hello! I’m sorry this took very long :[[[[. It took long because I actually write it only when an inspo comes in so I stop writing the fic from time to time! But I hope you like it and I’m sorry if I won’t pass your expectation 💓💓

The Huntsman and the Green Maiden (ToshInko Snow White AU)

When Toshinori told his self that he needed to work to save enough money, he didn’t expect it to be an assasination mission.

“It’s not an assasination mission,” the Evil Queen clarifies as soon as she sees Toshi’s skeptical face, “I just want you to get rid of her, that’s all.”

“It is…” Toshi spoke at the back of his head but chose to kept his mouth shut anyway.

“Why do you want to get rid of this…maiden badly?” Toshi asks as his fingertips play with the rim of his glass the Evil Queen has offered earlier.

The queen stares at the nosy huntsman, her eyebrows flinching slightly as she shrugged, “Just because.”

Upon hearing the townsfolk talk about how the palace is in need of skilled huntsmen, Toshi did not hesitate on heading to the queen’s palace. She always had a bad reputation on her people but Toshi, giving her the benefit of the doubt, went anyway and the result? He has proven that she indeed is evil as her name suggests.

Toshi is not clean to begin with. He has killed before with his bare hands. Any form of living as long as it is crucial for his survival. He has long retired from hunting but now that he needs the gold, he’s back from the start and somehow, he despises it.

“Will you take it, huntsman?” The Evil Queen says in a modulated voice that implies intimidation and dominance.

Toshi’s sunken eyes blinked once before exhaling heavily, “Yes.”

An impressed grin creeps in to the Queen’s lips, satisfied by the huntsman’s response, “Excellent. I want the job done in three weeks. The Magic Mirror says she hides in the magical forest, struggling to survive as of. I want you to find her and finish her,” she instructs with her voice laced with amusement.

“But I don’t know her face…” Toshi mutters.

“Oh, you will know once you see her,” now the Evil Queen sounds sarcastic as she clicked her tongue, “She’s the fairest maiden of them all, after all. Also, it’s hard for her not to stand out with her green hair.”

Ar first, you didn’t want to believe the Evil Queen. A person with green hair? Ridiculous. A maiden who hides in the middle of a magic forest? More ridiculous.

----

Huntsmen and adventurers try to avoid the magic forest as much as possible. As its name suggests, unknown forces of magic lurk around its trees. Stories of people who never returned from the forest increase from time to time and this sends shivers all throughout Toshi’s spine.

He’s never tried on going inside the forest himself. He’s never been in a situation wherein he needs to go.

“It’s not as eerie as the rumors make it sound…” Toshi thoughts to his self as he passes through thick roots of an old tree.

“Not bad…” Toshi rests after walking for hours, deciding to settle for a while under the shade of an enormous tree, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

The rumors about the magic must be a bluff. He’s been walking on its domain for a while and so far? So good. No weird creatures suddenly appearing before him or whatsoever.

That’s what he thought.

Before he knew it, a striking pain hits his nape. He failed on reaching for his neck as his vision suddenly spins, confusing him. He tries to stand up, attempting to escape the unknown force that has attacked him but he fails once again as he falls to the ground, with his head hitting first.

He groans, slowly fluttering his eyes as he hallucinates of hearing laughter of children. Toshi tries to crawl but goes in to a halt when the illusion of laughter he heard goes louder and louder.

“Hell yeah! Die, you scum!”

“Wait, Kacchan!”

He couldn’t even distinguish if it’s his mind playing tricks with him or he actually hear children’s voices near him. Toshi then figures out it was the latter when he groans as a fistful of his hair gets pulled up.

“I WIN!” A blonde child literally speaks in front of Toshi’s face, making him close his eyes as droplets of his…Toshi would rather not know what it is splattered in to his face.

“NO ONE SURVIVES MY BOMB KILLING DART!” The blond child screams in a very chaotic manner Toshi couldn’t understand what the grinning child was trying to say.

“K-Kacchan! You’re not supposed to hurt people!” Another child with a frightened boy goes near this ‘Kacchan’. His green hair exploding all over as his round eyes glistened with tears.

“Huh? Don’t boss me around, dumb Deku!” Kacchan spats angrily as he lets go of Toshi’s hair.

Groaning, Toshi-who has recovered from the dizziness and the pain from his nape at this point-sits as he looks at the children in front of him.

“Bu-But, Kacchan-”

“What?! You want to die, huh?!” The aggressive Kacchan retorted as he flicks this Deku’s forehead, making the latter wince and the tears stream on his face.

“Kacchan!” He attempts on growling only to sound like a whine. Ignoring his friend, Deku glances at bewildered Toshi.

“Hello, Sir, are you lost?” He asks Toshi amidst his tears and his blushing forehead.

“DEKU, DON’T IGNORE ME, YOU-”

“No, I’m actually looking for someone,” Toshi groaned after inhaling, “Are you two from this forest?”

“OY, DON’T YOU USELESS SCUMS IGNORE ME-”

“We live here,” Deku cheerfully replies as he offers his hand adorned with wornout gloves, “My name is Deku, Sir. And that guy is Kacchan-”

“DON’T CALL ME KACCHAN-”

“It’s your name!” Deku points out before ignoring his comrade once again, looking at Toshi who unexplainably grinning glancing at the children in front of him, “Who are you looking for, Sir?”

Toshi looks away, finding it hard to reveal that he’s looking for the fairest lady, “I’m looking for someone…with green hair…”

Toshi and Deku both fell silent, staring at each other. Toshi then realizes that this Deku literally has green hair.

Swaying his hands furiously in the air and head shooking, “No…No… it’s not what you think.”

“Are you…” Deku says as he takes a step back, going beside Kacchan once again, his brows furrowed and his eyes wide clearly because of fear, “Are you here to kidnap me?”

“That’s not it!”

“Kacchan! He’s here to kidnap me!”

“I told you, it’s not it-”

“DIE, YOU BASTARD!”

----

That pretty much explains how Toshinori is following the lead of these two forest children as they take him to their home.

He couldn’t help but question if it was a right thing to follow them deeper in to the woods whenever he sees Deku and Kacchan have contradicting directions.

“We turn right!”

“N-No, Kacchan. Turn left before right-”

“ARE YOU SAYING I’M WRONG?”

Toshinori, silent at the back, only stares at the children bickering as they guide him along the misleading trees, telling him stories of their everyday adventures and few of their 'friends’ left behind the cottage.

In all honesty…Toshi couldn’t care less. He’s not very interested with Deku and Kacchan’s adventures, or the rest of their friends. The only reason he’s following these kids is…

“Feeling tired, Sir Toshi?” Deku looks back at him with his eyes beaming, beads of sweat adorning the side of his forehead as he jumps from a huge root, “Don’t worry, we’re almost there! We’ll let Inko heal your wound.”

“Hmph! If he couldn’t handle walks like these, then he doesn’t deserve to see Inko!”

“Kacchan!”

Right. The only reason he is here is for this lady who goes by the name Inko. When Deku invited him to his cottage, he wanted to refuse, finding it an unnecessary detour for his quest. But what caught his interest was that Inko is, according to Kacchan, a badass woman with green hair but is way more beautiful than dumb Deku’s.

Toshi’s speculation could be wrong but he is willing to take the risk. The way Kacchan has described this Inko totally fits the maiden the Evil Queen wants him to find.

“We’re here!” Deku exclaims the moment they see a poorly-made fence out of sticks surrounding a small cottage.

“Oy, stupid idiots!” Kacchan exclaims as he nonchalantly follows the path towards the cottage, “Were here!”

Toshi looks at Kacchan and Deku brisk walking towards the cottage in glee. He looks at the surroundings after. Tall trees surrounded the cottage adorned with different plants that he knew where edible. On the right side is where a well errects surrounded by small wooden chairs and different gardening tools. They basically have everything they need here to survive…

“Deku, Kacchan, welcome back! How was it?”

“Heh! It was boring!”

“It was fun! And Inko, I’m sorry. We weren’t able to get the flowers you requested!”

“Oh, Deku, it’s alright. Don’t cry, please!”

Enchanted by the sweet voice, Toshi took his gaze off the mesmerizing well, looking back at the cottage and with one glance, he immediately knew this was the fair maiden the queen was looking for.

“Bu-But we brought a friend! Toshinori, Sir!”

Not minding Deku’s call, Toshi’s eyes lingers at the woman named Inko. Indeed, she had beautiful green hair now that he sees it exploding with the gentle wind. Her green eyes are wide as she stares at him as if he were a puzzle meant to be answered. Her head slightly wobbling to the side which made Toshi look at her chubby cheeks.

“Deku…” Ah, he hears it again. Her voice sounded quite dreamy as he unconsciously took a step forward.

She knelt to match the children’s height, which was not really necessary given that her height is close with theirs. Her hands dragging Kacchan and Deku slowly towards her back as her curious eyes become wary of his presence.

“Who…who are you?” She asks. It was clear how terrified she was and yet, she remained firm looking at him.

He didn’t really care of how she sees him, honestly. She could be doing anything and he’d stare at her all day, completely mesmerized by her adorable frame.

But Toshi knew it was rude to remain silent especially if a lady has asked you. He clears his throat, hoping his voice is in its best condition even after that long walk, “Uh…I am-”

“That dumb scum is Toshinori and he’s a loser,” Kacchan cuts him off with an annoyed face.

“Kacchan!” Deku exclaims, clearly unimpressed of Kacchan’s indifference, “Inko, don’t listen to Kacchan. That’s Sir Toshinori, a friend! Also, Kacchan hit him in the nape with his slingshot.”

“It’s not a slingshot. It’s Bomb Killing Dart.”

“Oh my!” Now gone was the wary face of Inko. She looks at Kacchan with a horrified look in her face. Her brows pulled together as her hands gently went to his shoulders, “Kacchan, didn’t I tell you we don’t hit friends?”

Kacchan pouts beneath his scowling face, “He’s not a friend. He’s dumb!”

Inko’s brows furrowed deeper with an obvious frown in her lips, “Kacchan…” She speaks in a modulated voice, showing how she’s unimpressed.

Kacchan’s cheeks turns in to red as he becomes flustered, somehow feeling humiliated he is being lectured, “Fine!”

Kacchan looks at Toshinori, back with the disgusted face, “I’m sorry for hitting you with my Bomb Killing Dart.”

Toshinori, not really paying attention to his half-assed apology, gave the child a nod, “It’s alright. I wasn’t hurt.” What a load of bull as he remembers at the back of his mind how distorted he felt for a couple of seconds.

Snapping back in to reality, he stares at Inko in awe as she walks her way towards him. The ends of her skirt rustling against the trimmed grass. Her hair flying all around as she now holds his calloused hands.

“Soft…” Toshi comments at the back of his mind.

“I’m really sorry for what Kacchan did to you, Sir Toshinori!” Inko bows and you noticed how her hair is made stylishly with a small bun.

Toshi, breaking free from getting petrified for a good three seconds, becomes flustered as he registers Inko is holding his hands, “I-its alright! I don’t mind!”

“Thank goodness!” Now Inko stands straight, her face looking relieved with his answer. Her brows are up and a sweet smile creeps in to her lips, her eyes turning in to crescent moons.

A little repetitive but Toshi is in awe again now that Inko is literally only a couple of centimeters away from him. Being this close, he sees how her skin is very fair and how pretty the sunlight reflected in to her beautiful green eyes. Not to mention, her thin lashes casted soft shadows underneath, which made her look so beautiful.

“But we still must treat your wound!” Inko says as she snaps, frowning at you but in a funny manner, “Kacchan’s slingshots can sometimes be too-”

“BOYS, READY!”

Surprised after hearing another voice, Toshi’s gaze passes through Inko, going to the cottage’s doorway. He turns pale as he sees four? No, five children with different hand-made weapons with them, all aimed towards him.

“ATTACK!”

“B-Boys!” Inko screams as Kacchan pulls her away from him, giving clear path for the children, “No!”

----

“Here, Sir Toshi….”

Toshinori looks up at the red haired child who is offering him a plate filled with food they’ve prepared. Toshi couldn’t help but glare at the red head, especially with that annoying smirk. This red head was the one leading the other children earlier.

“Thank you…” He says but his furrowed brows, glaring sunken eyes, and frowned lips says otherwise.

The red head sheepishly chuckles as he blushes while scratching his spiky hair, “We’re sorry for earlier…Kacchan was silently telling us that you were a threat; so we did that…”

Kacchan. He shouldn’t have underestimated that boy. He knew that child was a problem but he didn’t expect him to be this much of a problem.

“And you believed him?”

Toshi now looks at the purple head child with a blank stare in his face, bringing with him a cup filled with water.

“Shinsou…” Red head pouts, cheeks getting redder than it was, “Well, you guys believed in me as well!”

“Because you were persistent and we didn’t really have a choice,” the purple boy in which the red head called as 'Shinsou’ nonchalantly replies as he offers Toshi his cup.

“On behalf of my friends, I apologize for their stupidity,” he respectfully bows.

“Oy, Shinsou, who are you calling dumb?!”

“You and Kacchan.”

“M-Mean! I am not dumb. I am manly! Kacchan will hear of this!” Red head looks at Toshi again. He swears the red child looks like getting drowned with the red tint in his skin.

“M-My name is Kirishima, Sir!” The red head exclaims while bowing once more, “Please excuse me!”

Not waiting for Toshi’s reply, Kirishima vanishes from his sight.

“Please eat until your hearts content, Sir Toshinori…” He looks back at Shinsou who is still standing in front of him.

“I’m…not that hungry,” Toshinori says while looking at his bruises.

With Kirishima on the lead, they mercilessly attacked him with all their might using their hand-made guns, swords, and catapults. Being a huntsmen, fighting would’ve been a piece of cake. BUT it’s a different thing when you fight in front of a beautiful maiden.

Beat from walking and from Kacchan’s…Bomb Killing Dart, plus the children’s ambush, covered with bruises all over his body, of course he’d lose his appetite to eat.

“I don’t really care if you’re full or not,” Shinsou says with an indifferent tone, his eyes wandering around, “But Inko keeps on asking us to check on you. I can’t sleep well if she does that.”

Completely surprised, Toshinori immediately looks for Inko, only to catch her watching him. Both Inko and Toshinori taken aback of how the other caught them staring, they both looked away in synch.

“Thank you…” Toshinori says to Shinsou in a low voice, looking down, trying to conceal the blush in his cheeks.

At that moment, the quest could’ve ended if he killed Inko at that cottage. But there were things he had to consider, like the children. He was certain despite of their small physique, they would not hesitate on protecting Inko as she had become their mother.

----

“We own the cottage,” Shoto, one of the seven children, says in with his eyes looking down, fingers running through the grass as his feet is submerged in to the river, “Then we found Inko.”

“Wounded! And exhausted!” Testutetsu, who is oddly very similar with Kirishima’s physique and appearance-wise, screams in order to catch his attention.

Keeping his hands steady while holding the rod, Toshi looks at Tetsutetsu, “You found her?”

Shoto nods, the reflection of the crystal blue river reflecting on his eyes, “We treated her wounds and she didn’t leave us ever since. We like it, though,” he says with a small smile, “She takes care of us.”

“But there’s one thing that we don’t know about Inko,” Kirishima butts in with Denki, the seventh child, leaning on his back.

“We don’t know where Inko is from or what her life was before being with us,” Denki says, playing with the tips of Kirishima red hair.

“Deku thinks she was a princess…” Denki whispers as if they shouldn’t be heard, “Kacchan doesn’t buy it. He says Inko is a badass lady who rules the drunkards.”

“I don’t think Inko is in to that lifestyle…” Kirishima says with a doubting smile, “I think she is a princess, too!”

“But if she is a princess, why would she wander in to the magic forest?” Shoto asks hypothetically which made Kirishima and Denki shut up.

“What do you think, Toshinori, Sir?” Tetsutetsu asks, looking to Toshinori.

Toshi keeps his eyes glued at his bait, floating in the river, as if trying to avoid their looks. The guilt he has been disregarding for days creeps up into his heart, making him grip his rod tighter, his teeth digging to his flesh.

“I don’t know…” He says with gritted teeth.

He knew he was lying. He could easily get rid of the children if he wishes to. He has killed men and animals that are hundred times stronger than he is. Killing children would’ve been a piece of cake for him.

He knew that he purposely made excuses just for him to disregard the main purpose of his presence at this magical forest: to kill the fairest maiden of them all.

----

Undeniably, Inko is enchanting. But Toshi knew it was not all with the looks or with her mysterious green hair. It was with how kind she was to anything she touches, how gentle her words could be and how she resembled home to anyone.

It is true. Because he himself felt it, especially now as he stares at Inko, patiently waiting for him and the children, Kacchan and Deku’s heads on her lap. Her smile, gleaming brightly as ever as her shoulders raise in joy, waving at them. Nostalgic memories of Toshinori’s younger years flashes before his eyes with the mere exposure under Inko’s warmth.

“It feels like…” Toshi whispers under his breath, slowly taking off the net filled with fishes from his shoulders.

“HOME!” Kirishima, Denki, and Tetsutetsu screams as they run towards their cottage, leaving behind them the bashful Shoto.

“Children!” Inko giggles as Kirishima, Denki, and Tetsutetsu shower her with pepper kisses.

Kacchan and Deku groans as they get disrupted on their sleep, “YOU DUMB IDIOTS!” Kacchan growls, standing with his death glare on.

“K-Kacchan!”

“Ah! We woke Kacchan up!” Kirishima screams.

“RUN!”

“DIE!”

Your eyes trail towards the children who are now running away from Kacchan. Their loud laughter echoing across the terrain as they dance around the grass, bathing under the sun.

“Shoto…”

He looks at Inko who is now caressing Shoto’s arms. Again with that familiar smile in her face. Of all the looks she gave, that was Toshi’s favorite expression.

“Go play with the rest…” She coos using her soft voice, tucking her green hair behind her ear.

Shoto gives a curt nod before running towards the direction of his brothers, leaving Inko and Toshinori alone at the cottage’s doorstep.

Suddenly realizing this fact, Toshi stiffened, heart beat slightly raising as he stops his lips from grinning.

“Toshinori, thank you…”

Baffled, he looks at Inko. Her lips in a smile in between her flushed cheeks.

“For…?” Toshi asks, his brows slightly furrowed.

“For catching fish for us…” She chuckles, slightly scratching her cheek with her small finger, “We don’t really eat fish that much. No one is that excellent in catching fishes, not even Kacchan…” She says in a joking manner.

Toshi couldn’t help it. He smiles as he looks at Inko’s face. Slowly, he sits beside Inko, disregarding the fact that he’s slightly bothered by how close he is to him and how ridiculously small he is next to her. She would definitely fit in to his frame even though he is skinny himself-

Toshinori shook his head, trying to shake away his thoughts. Focus…focus…

“It’s nothing…” Toshi says nonchalantly, his eyes on the children who seem to be playing tag, “I…liked it,” he admitted.

“That’s good…” She comments, her face resting at her palms as she pulls up her knees, “The kids like you…”

Toshi made a face as he remembered how Denki and Kirishami pulled a prank on him on their way home. Not to mention, the way they treated him when they first met.

“I doubt that…” He spatted bitterly.

Inko chuckles, her shoulders slightly shaking along, “That’s not true. They like you. The moment you were able to catch a wild boar, you immediately captivated their hearts. They love meat,” she pointed out with as-a-matter-of-fact-voice.

Giving Inko a side glance, Toshi says, “You really love them, do you?”

Inko nods, “Very. I owe them my life. If it weren’t for them, I might not be here…” She says, the smile in her eyes slowly disappearing.

Toshi couldn’t help but to look away. Somehow, he feels guilty, especially that he knows the reason why she is at this state.

“I…grew up from a…bad place. I was banished from where I lived, you know…” Inko talks despite of Toshi’s silence, “I spent all my life inside the walls of my home and when they asked me to leave, I didn’t know what to do and before I knew it, I found myself wandering the magic forest.”

Toshi glances at Inko again, catching her fingers interlacing playfully from one another. Her eyes clearly in pain as she talks about her past.

“Then I woke up with Kacchan snuggled under my arms,” she laughs, “These seven children brought me to their cottage and before I knew it, I became attached.”

“Understandable,” Toshi nods, “They leave an impression,” he agrees, slowly looking at Inko who looked at him as well.

His blond hair slightly being swayed by the wind, he stares in to her eyes. Hoping he’d find answers to his confusion, of how troubled he is of what he is supposed to do next.

“You leave an impression…” He muttered so softly, not breaking his stare at her. Which made him see how her cheeks flushed with red tint.

“You leave an impression, too…” She says, completely flustered with how her voice went high, “… Toshinori, Sir.”

----

Living with the seven children and the fairest maiden in the middle of the magic forest felt like a bliss. A daydream he always had in his mind whenever he was out to hunt. A place he always envisioned whenever he was sick or was feeling nostalgic in a hot afternoon.

“Inko is good at making pumpkin pie!” Deku exclaims as he dreamily thinks of it, “She makes them so good I always ask for more!”

“You just love eating, Dumb Deku,” Kacchan says in an upset tone as he walks along Shoto, “It’s not that great!”

“Not that great? Quit being a liar, Kacchan. Real men don’t lie!” Kirishima snickers as he brings the smaller net filled with fish, “Plus, you also ask for more with Inko’s food!”

“No, I don’t!”

“Yes, you do!”

“YOU STUPID TURD, I DON’T-”

“Inko?”

The wild bickering of Kacchan and Kirishima went in to a halt upon hearing Shinsou’s surprised voice. Before they all knew it, they have arrived in front of the cottage.

Trailing after Shinsou’s stare, Toshinori looks to the cottage, only to be taken aback to see Inko spilled on the doorstep, barely conscious.

“Inko!” The Kirishima, Kacchan, Deku, Tetsutetsu, and Denki screamed as they dropped the fish and meat they’ve hunted from the forest, running towards the woman who has become their mother figure.

“No…” Toshinori muttered under his breath. Knees wobbling, palms suddenly sweating, and a large amount of hair suddenly caught in his throat. Somehow, an idea flashes in to his head…

“Toshinori, Sir…”

Snapping out from his thoughts, he looked down when a small warmth touches his hands. He sees Shinsou and Shoto, looking up to him, fear evident in their eyes.

Without saying anything, he drags them along, running as fast as he can towards Inko.

He hears the children’s cries as they surrounded the beautiful woman. They loudly screamed her name in the hopes that it would wake her up but to no avail.

Shaking, Toshi lets go of Shoto and Shinsou’s hands as he pulls Inko’s frail body, making her lean towards his lap.

“No…” He muttered, lips shaking as his fingers trail on her unconscious face, “She found her…” He said as realization dawned on him.

The queen…she might have grow impatient and…looked for Inko herself.

“We lost her…” He said, slumped in despair as the world was drowned with the screams of the seven scared boys around him.

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thetriggeredhappy · 4 years

Note

Hi! Love ur work! Scout is scared n feel overwhelmed of his feelings for both Demo and Snipes. Scout likes to talk about himself, sure, but not about his feelings, he doesn't know how to, he thinks that if he tried to show or express his feelings he'd be a mess at explaining it and hed be made fun of. And he knew no one would put up with his shit, right? No one liked him, the team didn't like him, Demo and Sniper didn't like him..., *right*? But, what if scout couldn't hold it in no more? -🐑

tentative name for this ship since i haven’t been able to find one anywhere--either Caffeine Shot or Caffeinated Cocktail

(warnings for mention of alcohol and brief mention of homophobia)

Okay, so—okay. So it wasn’t exactly one of those problems that he could call home about where he could be like “hey Ma, how did you always get the grass stains out of my baseball pants?” and she would go “cold water regular wash then rubbing alcohol and a rinse or just wash and bleach if it’s white, dummy” and that would be that. And it wasn’t exactly one of those problems that he could call home about where he could go “hey Ma, I’m kinda worried about life stuff and kinda wanna talk it out but it’s embarrassing so I wanted to talk to you specifically” then followed by like an hour long conversation laden with both of them rambling and getting sidetracked.

And it wasn’t exactly one of those problems where he would go to Medic like “hey Doc how come since I started working here I feel jumpy and exhausted all the time” and Medic would prescribe better diet and exercise and an actual sleep routine alongside having more prep time before and after battle to warm up into it and back down afterwards. And it wasn’t exactly one of those problems where he’d be playing poker with the guys and go “hey so I tried to go on a date again and it went bad again because she got annoyed with me and left after like half an hour” and they’d give him wildly different advice and play out wildly ridiculous scenarios just riffing off of each other and joking around and he didn’t really know what to do any differently but at least he felt better.

He was actually pretty sure he couldn’t talk to anyone about this, and he was actually pretty sure that he was going to drop dead as a result.

Because yeah, there was the spare guy from math class in high school or upperclassman on the track team who Scout would look up and down and kind of a little bit sort of wanna make out with, but that was like, one guy, and only for maybe an hour at a time, and he didn’t have to talk to them if he didn’t want. So he could go ahead and take that secret little tickle at the inside of his ribcage and shove it deep deep down and desperately try not to think about it or talk about it to literally anyone.

And it worked great! It was a great system! Because he didn’t not like girls, girls were great, he’d totally go out with girls and be more than satisfied, so nobody needed to know that somewhere in the very back of his mind, guys were also kind of a little bit on the table. Like, when in the movie where the guy spins the bottle and it lands on another guy and they both flinch and spit in disgust, Scout would always go “I mean, I would do it” in his head. Like, he would say yes if someone asked and he knew they could keep it quiet. Like, he was always a little bit jealous of the people back home who were out and proud and could kick around the South End holding hands with dudes and seeming not particularly scared about it.

But this wasn’t some guy in math class or on his track team. This was a crush on someone he shared a base and fought a war with. Worse, two someones. Worse, two hot someones.

Worse, his best friends.

That was the part he felt the worst about, when it came to his crush on Demo and Sniper. He felt so guilty, all the time. Out getting drinks on the weekend and trying not to stare too hard when they laughed at his jokes, so different and so distinct and so nice. Trying not to blush when they assured him that they didn’t think he was annoying when apparently everyone else on the planet who he’d ever tried to date had disagreed. Curling his hands into fists instead of reaching over to lace his fingers together with one of them. Both of them. Biting and chewing his lip to absolute goddamn shreds like he used to do in middle school to keep from saying anything embarrassing and getting caught. They trusted him on some level, and there he was, glancing at them and looking at them and feeling like his heart was going to swell up and spill out of his mouth any second and they had no idea.

It would help if he knew how to talk about any of this. He didn’t know how to have tact, or how to talk about things like an adult. He generally did one night stands at most, partially because most people couldn’t stand him for much longer than that. He was frustrating to be around, contrary, always mouthing off, loved to argue too much, liked playing dumb games. And he tried to be up front about that with people, but either they’d check out of that conversation around then and leave him be, or they wouldn’t believe him and they’d ditch him somewhere down the line.

He wasn’t in a lot of relationships.

Maybe that was part of the problem, is he didn’t ever wanna dive too deep with people, was always just joking around or making light of stuff and not taking it seriously because he had to expect whoever he tried to date to leave him in the dust the second he got to be too much. So that meant he never really... learned how. How to talk about things seriously, how to have those conversations. Even his usual pick-up line, the walking right up to someone and asking if they wanted to have sex with him, that felt so non-serious, so much like a joke, even if it was a really great way of establishing “hey I’m not necessarily looking for a long-term relationship right now with you but this is what I want and I’m gonna be entirely up front and you can shoot me down right here right now and you won’t look crazy or weird at all”.

After however long of being friends with all the guys, but in particular Demo and Sniper, it felt almost disrespectful to reduce things to a joke. But he didn’t know if he had it in him to set up what he wanted to say and be super honest with them and get all vulnerable, not when he was so sure that he would probably be shot down.

Like, just because they hung out with Scout voluntarily from time to time, that didn’t mean they would want to date him. Who knew if they even liked guys? Probably not. Who knew if they even actually liked him, personally? Also doubtful, as far as Scout was concerned. That would make them two of very, very few people who would even just put up with him when they weren’t required to.

It was... frustrating.

He just... he knew that if he told either of them, they would be understanding, probably. Sniper didn’t have it in him to be outright rude to anyone he considered his friend, and Demo always seemed to know what Scout meant when he rambled about anything. They wouldn’t be mad.

Still, his brain continued to hit him with useless “what if”s on what all could go wrong for him, and they held him back from doing or saying anything at all.

Months of that. Entire months. And ultimately, he was too much of a coward to crack open that particular can of worms. Luckily, he didn’t have to.

It was a work night, so Sniper insisted they don’t get properly blasted when they went out drinking, but they did have a nice solid buzz and a nice healthy appetite, so they’d dragged their asses to a truck stop diner (the nearest place open so late that wouldn’t give them weird looks), and they’d squeezed into a booth a little away from the bulk of things to keep from having to watch their words in case the topics switched over to talking about work.

And it was like it always was—easygoing, friendly. Steady rhythm, steady laughter. Scout got teased on the regular for his face going red whenever he slipped up or forgot a word when speaking and Sniper had to fill in the blanks, and Demo got flicked with the fry bits left on Scout’s plate whenever he had a particularly good zinger, and Sniper got put on blast for his unique vocabulary that he claimed just “wasn’t an American thing”.

And Scout sat there, across the booth from the two of them, pulse quickening, hands kind of sweaty, wishing he wasn’t such a coward.

“Know what’s got me thinking?” Demo asked, nicking some food from Sniper’s plate and ignoring his grumble of protest.

“What?” Scout prompted.

“How you,” he said, pointing at Scout with a fry for emphasis, “haven’t gone on a date in ages. Used to be that you couldn’t hardly do diner runs because you had a date to catch, these days you’re the one suggesting them.”

“Yeah, well...” Scout shrugged, trailed, the cogs in his heads throwing up smoke as he desperately tried to think of an excuse.

“Bloody got his heart taken, doesn’t he?” Sniper asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nah, nah, he’s given up on Pauling,” Demo corrected before Scout could pick that idea up and run with it. “Told us months ago.”

Sniper turned that raised eyebrow to Scout, who shriveled a little bit. “Well. Didn’t know about that. But that’s not exactly who I was talking about.”

His heart dropped to his toes. “What’re you talkin’ about?”

“Well, there was that month or so after you started slobbering over Pauling where you were like this, and weren’t dating, and were acting like a right mess,” Sniper shrugged, and god damn it, why did he have to be so observant. “And then there was a gap of time, and now you’re back at it, but apparently not for her.”

Demo was also looking at Scout, and he sunk in his chair, face on fire. “Well. Not like it’s a total mystery,” he admitted. “Been a bit obvious about it.”

“You figured it out too?” Sniper asked, blinking, as Scout tried to figure out whether he could make a break for it. “Thought you didn’t know.”

“How could I not know?” Demo scoffed. “Blushing like a damn schoolgirl, laughing at every joke—“

“Forgetting words, making excuses to go drinking—“ Sniper agreed.

“Getting flustered over compliments—“

“Paying for meals—“

“I, okay,” Scout scoffed, maybe the worst bluff of his life. “Who exactly do you two dummies think I’ve got a crush on, then?”

“Him,” they both said, jerking a thumb towards each other, then they were both blinking, heads spinning around.

“Why would he have a crush on me?” Sniper asked.

“What makes you say that?” Demo asked at the same time.

Scout was barely visibly over the edge of the table, hiding his face in his hands.

“You’re the one he’s always running a mile out from base for to knock your damn door down to get you to go to breakfast,” Demo pointed out.

“You’re the one he’s always pestering with the scheme of the week and bugging to set off some fireworks with after hours,” Sniper pointed out.

“Yeah,” Scout agreed, voice a squeak, knowing he was caught.

“Well, which one of us is it, lad?” Demo prompted.

“Yeah,” Scout agreed, mortified.

Silence, for almost twenty seconds. “Oh,” Sniper finally said quietly.

“You’ve... got a thing for both of us?” Demo asked hesitantly.

Scout nodded.

Another silence. When Scout briefly peeked through his fingers, Demo and Sniper seemed to be having a non-verbal discussion that appeared to morph into an argument of some kind, both gesturing and mouthing words at each other in turn, occasionally jerking their heads towards Scout meaningfully.

“I’m sorry,” Scout mumbled.

“Don’t be, lad, nothing wrong with that!” Demo was quick to assure, and reached over across the table. Scout met him halfway, and Demo squeezed his hand tightly. “Look, we—we can figure something out! Right, Mund?”

“Right,” Sniper was quick to agree, also reaching across the table, following Demo’s lead. “It’s—it’s bloody 1971, mate, right? Modern era and all, we—we’ll figure it out.”

“What, like... like, all three of us?” Scout asked, blinking.

“Sure! Why not?” Demo shrugged, and he had a great point. Why not?

Scout was quiet for a few seconds, processing. “...Feel like we’re skipping over the part where—you’re—you guys like me?” he asked, surprised.

“Bloody showing up to a diner at two in the buggering morning just to spend time with you, aren’t we?” Sniper pointed out, grinning a little.

“...Shit, you totally are.”

“So? That sound alright with you?” Demo asked, raising his eyebrow.

“...Yeah. Yeah, it does. Fuck yeah! Yeah,” Scout agreed quickly, waiting for the catch. The addendum.

Apparently the addendum was that then when they went back to base they hung out in Demo’s room and made out a little bit, and y’know what? Pretty good addendum.

#demosniperscout #tf2 #team fortress 2 #seriously we all gotta figure out a clever ship name yall #shut up me #my fanfiction #everybody talks

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astralshipper · 4 years

Text

I got sappy. wanted to write about what the show means to me. trigger warning for depression, bullying, all the rough stuff that goes along with that. also trigger warning for this being long as all hell. I had a lot to say about this dumb ass show. please feel free to ignore this, it was mainly for me to get my thoughts out.

Supernatural was there for me through… everything. I remember watching the pilot episode really vividly, though the date is fuzzy. I say it was 2012 at the time, but my mom insists it had to have been earlier than that, so I’m not entirely sure. The years really ran together back then. I wasn’t in the best place. In fact, I was in the lowest place I’ve ever been. The past few years of abusive friendships ended up finally getting me worn down, and I was in the biggest depressive slump I’ve ever felt. I thought I was weak, useless, selfish for feeling like that. I didn’t see any reason to go on, if I was just gonna be like that.

I had two people irl at the time that I considered my actual friends, as opposed to just the people that hung around me and made me feel pretty shitty. These two friends had started talking about this show they started watching. Supernatural, they kept telling me, it was the best show ever. They said I’d totally fall for Dean, and if not, then to wait for Castiel to show up. So I told my mom about it.

My mom watched the pilot episode while I was at school one day. When I got home that evening she agreed, I would love Dean, but I would be terrified of the show. So, being the dumbass I am, I trudged upstairs to do my homework for the next 7-8 hours, finishing around 1:30 in the morning. Perfect time for a wimpy little kid that’s scared of her own shadow to watch a new supposedly scary show, right? So I did. Dean didn’t even have a chance to show up before I was smitten with Sam, which makes me sound totally like becky, but let’s just skip over that and pretend that doesn’t sound familiar lmao

My mom and I got into a routine of watching the show in our free time. I would get home from school, drag her off, and we would binge a few episodes before dinner, so long as I could get my work done on time. So I started to, slowly but surely. Because Sam and Dean were waiting for me.

I wish I could say it was a quick fix for all my issues, but that’s not,,, how life works, you know? I was still getting pushed around, I was still that lanky kid that played minecraft and couldn’t maintain eye contact, and carried around a new book every week. I was still the kid with tourettes that twitched and jerked and made funky noises throughout class. And middle school kids are damn mean. It wasn’t a cure for my depression, or my ADHD, or my anxiety, or anything like that. But it was a start. Sometimes I would text or call my mom from the school bathroom, sobbing and begging her to let me come home early. I did this a lot. Finally, she had a response. Stay there for Sam and Dean (and later on Cas, too), she would say, and we can watch an extra episode tonight to celebrate. She told me they were waiting for me back home, and that they were proud of me and that they believed that I could get through it. And how was I supposed to say no to Sam, Dean, and Castiel? So I would clean myself up, head back to class, and do what I could to get through the day, knowing that Team Free Will believed in me.

When I first started this show, that dark place I was in led me to doing a lot of stuff that hurt me in the long run. One of those things was pushing away my family as much as I possibly could. My family has always been really close. Hell, I’d do anything for them, I always would have. But during that time, I didn’t want to be a liability. I thought they would all be better off without me constantly in their lives. So I stayed as far from them as I could. Until Supernatural came along, and things changed. This show gave me a means of talking to my mom and becoming closer with her. It gave me the ability to cry with her, laugh with her, talk about things with her. It gave me my mom back, and in the end, gave me my family back. I finally trusted someone close to me again, someone that could help really make a difference.

Jared Padalecki plays Sam Winchester, right? Well, a bit of time after I started following the show, he became very open about his own mental health struggles. He spoke up about his depression, and how it made him feel, and how he was working towards getting help and recovering. And all of a sudden, I could start to believe that maybe… my depression didn’t make me as weak as I thought it did. I mean, if Sam fucking Winchester himself can have depression and feel this way, if Jared Padalecki, a man that’s brought so much joy to so many people and has helped so many people through rough times, if he can feel like that too, then maybe I’m not weak. Maybe it makes me strong, the fact that I’m still here. Maybe it’s not selfish to ask for help. Maybe it doesn’t make me weak to need help from someone. I talked to my mom about getting put on some new medication. We started thinking about therapy options. I was finally open to maybe getting some help. And I was willing to start a journey towards not feeling like my mental health made me weaker, but stronger. Always keep fighting, he would say. That was the goal. So I did.

After I got my cap and gown for high school graduation, I broke down as soon as I was alone. That hadn’t been in the plan. Graduation was never an option. My plans never reached this far, because in my mind, I wouldn’t still be there to see it. I never expected myself to walk across a stage to get a high school diploma. I never expected myself to shake hands with my principal and have her tell me she’s proud of me. I never expected myself to make it. But I… did. And I know, I knew, that I owed a lot of that to Sam, Dean, and Castiel. I might not have gotten there without them, and everything they brought to me over the years.

Life isn’t perfect. I’ve continued to hit my depressive slumps every once in a while. I have good days, bad days, and worse days. But every time things get hard, every time I just want to give up, this one damn show has been there. These characters have been there, and I know they would want me to fight. So I keep fighting, as long as I can. I know it’s not cool to like Supernatural. I know it’s cringy. I know it’s problematic. I know and I acknowledge that a lot of things that have happened on the show aren’t handled properly or are insensitive. I’m always going to be critical of the media I consume, but god dammit, that doesn’t diminish everything this show has done for me. Along this road, it stopped being a show, and it started being an anchor. They stopped being characters and started being reasons to keep trudging on. And seeing it go, it’s a really, really difficult goodbye. I’m not just watching a show go off the air, it’s saying goodbye to one of the biggest supports I’ve ever had.

I don’t love Sam just because I think he’s cute. I don’t have a soft spot for Dean just because I think he’s funny. I don’t care so deeply for Castiel just because I think he’s a quirky dude. They’ve all been there for me when it felt like no one else could ever care about me. I love them, and I always will. I might not always hyperfixate on the show, but I can assure you, these guys are always going to hold a special place in my heart. They’re my heroes, they saved my life, and they did it universes apart from me. They’re a big part of who I am and who I want to be. And I wish I could thank them for that.

#astras dumb shit #astras bad brain #this is depressing as SHIT im so sorry omfg.#head hurty heart hurty just want to give tfw hugs #i feel like all of this sounds so ridiculous but like. ksjdfhjg idk this show means. a whole lot #supernaturally soulmates #hunter in-laws #ethereal family

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kingreywrites · 4 years

Text

Time and time again

Words count: 3636

Eugene Appreciation Week Day Seven: Birthday

Summary: Throughout his life, Eugene was confronted with the concept of birthdays, and the fact that he didn't have one, being an orphan and all. He didn't care, anyway - birthdays were dumb.

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@fishskiin

Note: On this last day of the EAW, I wanted to thank once again the people who organised it, because they are awesome! I loved participating and seeing all the other partcipations, so thank you so much!!

Eugene was four, and he was jealous. Today, Erica - an older girl who was mean to everyone - got the right to not do any of the chores, and had an extra serving at dinner. When he asked miss Hannah about it, she answered curtly that it was Erica's birthday and, as such, she deserved to have a nicer day than usual.

Eugene thought it was awfully unfair. He was sure that he never had a birthday and, anyway, who decided which kid got the right to have one? Because Eugene would like a word with them, Erica definitely didn't deserve it. She was insufferable. She was always accusing someone else of her mistakes, and Eugene had already been punished twice in her place, when he did nothing!

"Give it back!" Eugene demanded, on his tiptoes as he tried to reach his pillow, that Erica was holding high above his head. She laughed and it was an awful shrilling sound. "Erica! Give it back or I'll- I'll…"

"You can't do nothing, Eugene," she smiled, "it's my birthday, they won't get mad at me."

"Well I don't know who decided that, but that's dumb!"

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, because she laughed even harder, even letting go of the pillow - and Eugene immediately gathered it in his arms, blushing since he knew she was mocking him.

"No one decides it, you idiot," she snorted, "but I guess someone without parents wouldn't know."

Humiliated, Eugene fled the scene, pillow in his hands, and tried to ignore how much his heart twisted each time someone brought that up. Erica was the idiot here, because she might have parents, but she ended up in the orphanage anyway - and Eugene believed that one day, his parents would come back for him. No, he knew they would. And that day, Erica'll bite her tongue.

He continued his little investigation though, because he was now officially intrigued by the concept of birthdays that parents apparently gave. How did they decide the date? Did it change each year? He didn't understand why he hadn't heard of this before, but he guessed that Erica was the first one to really insist on being celebrated - and he didn't like talking to others too much, anyway.

He bugged miss Hannah a week about it before she finally caved, and took him aside five minutes to explain.

"Birthdays are simply the day you were born," she sighed, tired as usual, "each year, you celebrate that day. It's not that complicated."

"But why don't I have one?"

"Well, the person that left you there didn't leave a note, so we don't know what day it is. Is that all Eugene?"

It wasn't, really, but miss Hannah was already gone. Eugene thought about calling her back, because that didn't make much more sense. After all, he didn't have a name either at first, and they gave him one, why wouldn't they be able to choose a birthday too? But, as he thought about it, he realised that they wouldn't want to have a special day for each and every kid. Plus, they already didn't have the best ideas for a name - Eugene was a pretty lame one. Perhaps it was better that they hadn't chose a birthday date.

Well, if Erica liked birthdays, it probably meant it wasn't that cool anyway. Eugene was four and he decided he didn't like birthdays.

------

Eugene was ten, and he was in so much trouble. He hadn't mean to, really, but he maybe kinda stole a little from a store. Miss Hannah was going to kill him, and if that didn't work, Arnwaldo would laugh at him until he died of shame probably. The bad thing, actually, wasn't that he stole something - he had already stole a lot of things from street vendors, even if it was only food until now. But, he figured that, with a satchel, he could store more food on him, and share it back at the orphanage, so it wasn't that bad.

No, the real problem here was that he got caught. By a mountain of a man who could probably kill him if he wanted.

"Uh, hi sir," Eugene squeaked, taking a step back to a wall, now officially stuck. "I was- I mean- There is an explanation for this-"

"Is there?" The man grumbled from under his black beard. "Let's give it to the guards, then."

Eugene paled, clutching the useless satchel tighter. "The guards? Oh no, no, no need, they're very busy being, you know, guards!"

He laughed. The man didn't laugh. Eugene stopped laughing.

Miss Hannah was going to kill him, slowly and painfully.

"Flynn!" A voice that Eugene knew all too well cried out. "Thank god you're here!" Arnwaldo exclaimed tearfully, pushing the vendor out of they way to go and hug Eugene. "Play along," the other boy muttered, before turning on his heels and hugging the man looming angrily over them, "oh, kind sir, thank you so much, you found him! I was so worried!" Eugene's best friend wailed.

Eugene hesitated, unsure of where Arnwaldo was going with this - well, except that he called him Flynn, meaning that he had to call him Lance, their recently chosen shenanigans-names. But Arnwaldo was always good at getting them out of a pickle, even if said pickle was a big muscular and menacing man who wanted to kill Eugene, so he trusted him.

"That's enough," the man growled, pushing Arnwaldo away.

"Yeah, that's enough Flynn," Arnwaldo nodded, putting his hands over his heart dramatically - an adverb that should be employed as a whole for Arnwaldo entire demeanour. "I know that you're hurting, pal, I know-"

His voice broke and he sniffed so loudly Eugene had to do everything not to burst out laughing. The glare of the vendor was enough to dissuade him though.

"Listen, kid-" the man tried to interrupt.

"Please, sir, you have to understand! It's his birthday!" As he said that, Arnwaldo tore the satchel from Eugene's hands and shook it in front of the man's face. "Little Flynn is eleven today!"

"And that gives him the right to-"

"It's also his parents' death anniversary!"

Eugene cringed, but the man kept silent - a fact that Arnwaldo was quick to take advantage of.

"This is all so tragic," he whimpered, the back of his hand going to his forehead, "they were off to his birthday party, ready to give him the gift of his life, when they were both hit by falling roof tiles!"

"Both of them?"

"It comes in threes," Arnwaldo nodded wisely, unaware of how ominous he sounded. Eugene tried to look as pitiful as possible when the man glanced at him. "And you'll never guess exactly what gift they were planning to give poor little Flynn!"

"... A satchel, I suppose," the vendor sighed.

Arnwaldo and Eugene nodded eagerly at the same time. Then, Eugene remembered himself and went back to looking sad - if a little hopeful.

The big man sighed - again. He pushed a hand through his hair, looking a lot less threatening for a moment, before biting out "Fine. Take the damn satchel if you want, but don't come back."

"Thank you sir!" Arnwaldo yelled, already halfway to the door.

Eugene smiled awkwardly and tried to run to the door too, but a big hand stopped him mid-movement.

"That satchel is going to be your gift for whenever your birthday truly is," the man said, and Eugene gulped as his piercing stare seemed to bore through him. "But kid, whatever you think you'll get out of stealing, it's not worth it."

Eugene nodded and fled the scene, catching to Arnwaldo a few streets down. His friend was laughing as he threw him the satchel, and Eugene looked down on it, the first "birthday gift" of his life. What the vendor didn't realise was that Eugene himself had no idea of when was his actual birthday. He fiddled with the satchel's material all the way back to the orphanage, even as he joked with Arnwaldo about what just happened.

Late at night, when everyone was asleep and he could think peacefully, he decided today could as well be his birthday, since, until now, he changed the age he gave to others on each new year. He didn't celebrate his birthday anyway, because he didn't have any and because it was dumb, but he could chose the date when he changed the number. It was totally not the same thing.

Eugene just turned eleven, and he fell asleep clutching a satchel to his chest.

------

Eugene was fifteen, and he was in love - well, Flynn was. Maybe.

Today was the Baron's birthday and Flynn gave him a stolen gold statuette, which seemed to please the man. Well, as much as this gruff, always angry man could be. Flynn knew that the Baron didn't like him that much, and it was shared sentiment, but he kept trying because of Stalyan - and because Lance and him didn't want to die, but that was beside the point.

They had organised a party in which everyone seemed to be plotting the murder of everyone else, especially Flynn's, but, anyway, he never managed to relax entirely in this castle - except when he was with Stalyan. Who was, for now, somewhere lost in the crowd, while Lance had been a no show, probably too busy getting into trouble.

Flynn sighed, leaning on one of the swan's statue he found pretty cool, wishing he could be anywhere else but here. Well, not quite - wishing that he could be alone with Stalyan. Speaking of the devil…

"Hey stranger," Stalyan smirked, popping from nothing and nearly giving Flynn a heart attack. He salvaged his reaction by leaning more heavily on the statue, as if it was suave move from the beginning - though, going by Stalyan's raised eyebrows, it didn't work.

"Hey Stalyan," he answered smoothly, his voice barely cracking anymore, "enjoying yourself?"

"Please," she scoffed, "you know that if I could, I'd kill every person here. Plus," she whispered, taking Flynn's collar and tugging forward, "I was missing my favourite guy."

Flynn would have answered if his brain didn't short-circuit at the kiss.

"By the way," Stalyan said, once she left him red-faced and out of breath, "I was wondering something."

"Huh?" Flynn answered dumbly, his heart still beating loudly in his chest.

"Well, I realised that I didn't know when your birthday was."

Just like that, Flynn snapped to attention. It was true that the subject hadn't been breached yet, even when Stalyan celebrated her own birthday, but until now, she hadn't asked and he hadn't wanted to bring it up. Taking a deep breath, he figured that it was time to come clean - it wasn't like he hid it because he didn't trust her, he was just a little embarrassed.

"I don't have one," he announced with a shrug, going for casual, "you know, being an orphan and what not."

"Yeah, no need to go into the whole tragic backstory," Stalyan laughed - she really didn't like when Flynn was sappy, so he tried his best not to be. "But, seriously, you never even chose a date yourself?"

Flynn hesitated. For a few second, he thought about telling her about the day he chose, and why he chose it; he thought about telling her that, if she really wanted, well they could act as if it was his real birthday and he'd do his best to bear it; and maybe, casually, he could let it slip that Flynn wasn't exactly his real name. She deserved to know, didn't she? And being Flynn, as natural as it was to him now, was only part of him - but love was about openness, he was sure, he had read about it in books.

Flynn opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Stalyan shrugged, a smirk on her lips.

"It's certainly easier to remember," she smiled, "and I hate thinking about gifts, anyway." Flynn chuckled, but it sounded strangled to his own ears - which Stalyan didn't notice. "That's what I like about you, Flynn: everything is fun and easy."

She disappeared back into the party with a flick of her hair, and Flynn ignored the pit in his stomach as he tried to convince himself that she was right - it was easier that way. Plus, birthdays were dumb anyway.

Eugene was fifteen, but he wasn't Eugene - he was Flynn, and his greatest quality was that everything with him was fun and easy.

------

Eugene was twenty-two and he had the best year of his life - impressive, especially since dying didn't even chirp at his happiness too much.

He was in love, for real this time, and he was lucky enough to be loved in return, by the greatest woman on Earth no less. Rapunzel was his sunshine, she made the world a better place just by existing, and made him the best version of himself - because, simply by being nearby, she made him want to be a better man, she made him someone he actually liked to be, backstories and quirks included.

Which didn't mean that their lives were absolutely perfect - this year had been great, but it had brought its lot of trouble.

This night, Eugene was just about ready to fall down on his bed and sleep for at least a week. Lately, his days had been packed full with concerns about Varian's turn to villainy, concerns about the King's ever growing secrets, concerns about Rapunzel's state of mind and, overall, concerns for about everything. That was without counting the healthy dose of trouble that was to be expected in their lives, plus Rapunzel's upcoming nineteenth birthday that he wanted to make perfect. All in all, Eugene was a busy man, and when he finally found his way back to his bed at night, he felt like it was his right to stay in it for his mandatory eight-hour beauty sleep.

Pajamas and night-mask ready, everything seemed to be at its rightful place - until his door was banged open, startling a scream out of him.

A manly scream. He'd swear it in front of a jury.

Scrambling to get his mask out of his face, he turned on his feet and was relieved to see Rapunzel in front of him. Then, he saw that she was frowning sadly at him, and he got worried, all thoughts of sleep erased from his mind.

"Blondie? What's wrong?" He asked, going to take her in his arms but she evaded him and went to sit on his bed. He frowned, nonplussed, and watched her fiddle with the sheet under her hands. He called her name again, making her raise her head and meet his eyes - there was a sad glint in her own, something he hated to see.

"You know you can tell me everything?" she started hesitantly.

"Of course!" He nodded, before sitting next to her and taking her hand in his. Thankfully, she didn't avoid his touch this time - instead, she tightened her grip around him, lowering her eyes. Eugene wanted to ask her what was wrong, but he didn't want to push her when she was obviously trying to get up the nerve by herself.

"And… You know that, sometimes, I may not think about doing something that's normal for everyone else? Because of-" she bit her lips, and took a deep breath. "Because of the tower and Gothel."

"Sunshine," Eugene whispered, taking her cheek in the palm of his free hand now that he recognised the guilt churning in those eyes, "yes, I know that. And I also know that you're being vague intentionally but, whatever it is that you think you didn't do well enough, I'm sure we can solve it."

Her wavering smile was hardly a comfort and Eugene was seriously getting worried about what had happened. Rapunzel still had trouble with social codes, but that translated into hugs and overeagerness - the whole castle was used to it and, frankly, Eugene didn't see what was the big deal about it. Even Cassandra had warmed up to it, and it did good to the foreign royals to receive a Rapunzel hug from time to time. Honestly, Rapunzel was way harder on herself than anybody else, but something was different here - she was worried about his reaction, particularly.

"I'm so sorry Eugene," she breathed out mournfully, "I never asked you when your birthday was."

Oh. Oh.

"And I mean," she kept rambling, "I understand how hurt you must have been, especially since you already gave me so much on my birthday but I sincerely didn't think to ask! Which is wrong of me, of course, but this year has been so hectic and I didn't even think of it and now my birthday is in three days but you never-"

"Sunshine," Eugene interrupted softly, stopping her movements by putting his hands on her shoulders, "I'm the one who should be sorry."

"What? But-"

"It's- Well, I kinda avoid birthdays discussions all together. I was happy that no one asked, but I'm sorry that it made you feel so bad when I did everything I could to not come clean about it."

Eugene sighed, closing his eyes for a second as he knew he had to tell her now. Stalyan's words for so long ago still echoed in his head sometimes - no need to go into the whole tragic backstory, Flynn - but he knew that it was different with Rapunzel. She wanted to know him, know every part of him, and it was unfair to keep the birthday thing from her just because it made him uncomfortable. She didn't deserve to blame herself for his weird hangups.

Going by her inquisitive and unrelenting gaze, he didn't think he could avoid this discussion anyway.

"I don't have a birthday," he announced, going for casual and missing by a mile. "Whoever left me at the orphanage didn't leave one, and the caretakers didn't give me one either."

"That's… That's awful, Eugene," Rapunzel gasped and he shifted, uncomfortable.

Yes, to her it probably sounded horrible - her birthdays had been a symbol of hope and dreams all her life, he knew how important it was to her and he knew how she treasured being able to make someone happy on their birthdays. Actually, he had thought that this question would pop up sooner, but apparently she just… trusted him to tell her. And he didn't. (He still felt bad about that one.)

"It's not, really," he smiled, "I can't miss what I never had! Plus, it's easier to remember," he winked.

Wrong thing to say - she looked devastated now. A determined - and quite scary - glint in her eyes, Rapunzel took his head between her hands and pulled him toward her own face, ignoring his startled yelp.

"I'm gonna throw you the best birthday party ever," she promised fervently, "or better yet, twenty-two birthday parties, to catch up on those you missed. Are you free tomorrow? We'll start tomorrow, you'll see, I will-"

"Hold on tiger," Eugene chuckled, more touched than he'd be willing to admit. He put his hands over hers and made her let go gently. "Your birthday is in three days, let's take care of that first."

"But I had eighteen of those, and you never had one!" she insisted.

"Hey, Rapunzel," he said softly, "thank you, really. No one really cared about my non-existent birthday before. But, in three days, you'll have your first birthday with your family, and me, and it's important to me that you focus on that first."

Her eyes bore right through his and she deflated, apparently convinced that he was being honest. And he was - he may not care too much about his own birthday, but hers had too been the best day of his life. And she deserved to be the centre of everyone focus that day, even her own - he wouldn't want her to be busy organizing his birthday.

"Alright," she nodded, before perking up. "You're right, anyway, your birthday can't be at the same time that mine because it needs to be yours and yours only! Oh, that means I can chose the date and surprise you!" She exclaimed, and he laughed, feeling warm and happy and - even if he wasn't going to admit it - excited at the prospect of finally getting a birthday.

Eugene was twenty-two, and he spent the night smiling as he listened to Rapunzel trying to determine what month suited him best.

------

Eugene was twenty-five - uhm, twenty-six, apparently, and, for the first time in his life, he had celebrated his real date of birth. It might have involved a lot more kidnapping and near death experiences than he ever expected, but it was still one of the greatest day of his life.

Rapunzel had wanted to propose to him so, honestly, there wasn't a lot of things that Cassandra could do to make this day bad. Eugene was just too happy.

A movement jostled him from his slumber and he blinked his heavy eyes open. Rapunzel was warm against him and her room was dark, making him notice that he had fallen asleep here - and perhaps he should make his way to his room, but he was too tired and too comfortable to care about it enough and force himself to move.

"Sorry," Rapunzel mumbled, the source of the original movement, "go back to sleep."

Eugene hummed and hug her tighter to his chest, his eyes already closing again. He kissed her forehead lightly and snuggled her, drawing a soft laugh from her.

"Best birthday ever," he whispered, and he fell back asleep with a smile, knowing that she would try to outdo herself next year to make a liar out of him.

He was looking forward to it.

#Eugene Appreciation Week #I can't believe this is over!!#it's been a while since I was so inspired!!#I loved doing this and even if I'm not always satisfied with my works I loved writing them #and just... Thanks to everyone for their kind reactions I'll never get over it :')#anyway hope you liked this!#tangled #Eugene Fitzherbert #Lance Strongbow #Rapunzel #Stalyan

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flightfoot · 4 years

Text

Divergent Points - ML Salt ch. 6

(A/N) So this one's based more on common themes and mindsets underpinning Adrien saltfics rather than on Adrien saltfics as such.

AO3/FFN

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“AAAAH!”

*Thunk*

Ooooow.

He’d really hoped that the fall after breaking out of that nightmare world, when he and the others had teleported to that white room, would be the only time he’d be unexpectedly falling on his butt.

But apparently the main method of getting from one place to another in this… place? Whatever the heck it was, wasn’t something sensible like “going through a doorway into another room”. Nooooooo. It just had to be SPECIAL didn’t it. And apparently, that special thing was teleporting them a foot above the ground so they’d all fall if they weren’t prepared.

Which none of them were. Because who expects opening a DOOR to do that?

“Is everyone okay?”

He doubted any of them would be hurt by just a small fall like that, but… a part of him worried.

“I’m fine!”

“All good here.”

“I’m good, dude.”

Looking around, he tried to get his bearings.

Which wasn’t very hard, since they appeared to be in the middle of Paris during the day.

“…Are we home?”

Nino frowned. “I hope so, but… this seems a little too easy. And in the world I was in I was able to move around freely too, and it looked just like our regular school, so… maybe best to look around some more.”

A pedestrian passed by, looked at Adrien, and did a double-take.

His face turned stormy.

Adrien automatically braced himself, backing up slightly. Oh god oh GOD what did I do wrong what will he do to my friends oh CRAP will he hurt them what will I lose-

A firm touch on one shoulder, and someone holding his hand on the other side.

Nino edged his way slightly in front of Adrien, his hand still on his shoulder, as if to shield him from this man’s wrath.

Marinette held his other hand, giving him a reassuring smile before turning to glare at the stranger.

“You… do you three know what that boy DID? How utterly HORRIBLE he is?!” The man hissed, stalking over.

Adrien tensed, ready to run. This sounded a lot like what the Not-Ladybug had said in his nightmare world, and what the Fake Marinette had said about him in Nino’s world.

But this man was a total stranger. What reason could he have to hate Adrien so much?

“Back away, dude,” Nino warned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but STAY BACK.”

“Oh, so you’re DEFENDING him now? After he threatened to leave Ladybug to ROT?! After he held the whole city hostage while he threw a little temper tantrum?! He’s supposed to shut up and fight. NOTHING. ELSE.”

…Huh?

What was he TALKING about?

…This probably wasn’t their world.

“I’m glad Ladybug took your Miraculous. You didn’t want to fight? You thought ABANDONING Ladybug was acceptable? Well, now you can NEVER HAVE IT AGAIN. You got exactly what you wanted didn’t you, but now everyone knows what a disgusting human being you are!”

Took his Miraculous – took Plagg – and he deserved it –

“Please take me and get me away from this horrible boy, the Guardian made a terrible choice!”

That- that was-

Again? This was happening again?

Oh CRAP, would LADYBUG-

“YOU. TAKE. THAT. BACK.”

Nino and Marinette marched up to the man, looking like they were about to throw more than words if he went much further.

This- this wasn’t that nightmare world. It was similar, but-

This time he had his friends here. His REAL friends.

And they would never do that.

The man sneered. “I hope it’s worth it to you, to defend such a horribly toxic person. I bet you’re just as bad. You’re ENABLING him, making him think he’s an acceptable human being. If you keep this up, you’ll be in the same boat as him. And you’ll deserve it.”

NO.

“Threaten me, call me terrible things, fine. But leave my friends out of this!”

The man’s lips curled into a triumphant smile. “So he has SOME integrity after all. Where was this when you left Ladybug?”

…This wasn’t worth engaging in. The man wasn’t going to back down or be persuaded.

“Come on, let’s go.”

He tugged Marinette away, who looked ready to launch into a volley of insults and defenses. He loved her sense of justice – the way she stood up to Hawkmoth, stood up for what was right and good and told him off, all while promising they’d both defend Paris – it was one of the reasons he first fell in love with her.

But sometimes fighting back directly would just get them hurt. And looking around, this appeared to be one of those times – at least without having more information first.

Best to just walk away.

They retreated. Thankfully the man didn’t follow them, though he had a heart-stopping moment when he thought he might.

Sequestered near a tree in a nearby park, they regrouped.

“I think I’ve found what that man was talking about.”

Adrien looked over at Alya, who was looking down, frowning at her phone.

Huh. Reception worked in these fake worlds apparently. Who knew?

He and the others crowded around her.

Useless Chat Noir threatens to quit; is fired before he has a chance.

Chat fiddles while Paris sinks

Arrogant, entitled Chat Noir revealed to be useless, conceited rich boy Adrien Agreste! Should we really be surprised?

The last one was from the Ladyblog.

The phone shook in Alya’s hand. “I- ERGH! I just – I know this can’t be real, but I still can’t BELIEVE this!”

Adrien smiled slightly. He and Alya had been hanging out more – mostly in friend groups, still not as much one-on-one – but they’d gotten to know each other a lot better than they did before, when it was mostly in passing. Though they HAD started bonding over their love of superheroes lately, even exchanging comic books. It was nice to have someone to geek out about that with. Nino and Marinette liked superheroes, but they were more casual fans who just saw a few movies and cartoons now and then. The deep absurdity of the comics? That’s something only he and Alya shared.

Turning his attention back to Alya’s phone, he frowned. ‘Paris sinks’… that sounded familiar.

Some videos popped up in Alya’s search results as well.

The thumbnails looked kinda familiar as well, though being so small and seeing from a distance… well, that didn’t mean much.

Alya clicked on one.

The video expanded. It was clearly shot at a distance, but the sound quality and picture were still pretty good.

It showed him as Chat Noir, sitting around on an abandoned rooftop, surrounded by water.

Flooded Paris… was this the Syren attack?

“This is so dumb.” He stood up. “Claws in!”

Plagg came shooting out of the ring as he detransformed.

So far it looked just like his memory of that day. He’d been so close to giving up – though he’d doubted that it would’ve been forever. He had a habit of coming around as soon as His Lady was in any serious danger.

That day, Plagg had affirmed how much Adrien meant to him, personally, not just as a tool. And Ladybug had persuaded Fu to drop by and fill him in.

That day, his closest friends had affirmed that they DID care about him as a person, not just as a tool, as a fighter. Something that he struggled with remembering sometimes, with how his father emphasized his worth being tied to what he could do for him and ignoring his feelings or protests about anything he wanted him to do.

He’d been in a dark place, but between Plagg and Ladybug, they’d helped pull him out of it.

“Tell me what Ladybug’s hiding from me, or I’m done!” Adrien put his fingers on the ring, ready to pull it off.

Huh. Something about this seemed slightly off. Nothing he could really nail down, but… it didn’t feel right.

“Go ahead. Pull it off. You don’t deserve it anyway.”

WHAT?!

Ok, that was definitely NOT Plagg. Not the Plagg that he knew, not the REAL Plagg anyway. This was like that fake Plagg, from the earlier nightmare world.

“You’re willing to threaten for everyone to DROWN, hold Paris hostage just because you’re unhappy with being kept out of the loop?! You’d leave her to fight alone, make her apologize and fill you in?! You’re not worthy of knowing what Ladybug does. THAT’S why I didn’t show you, tell you everything. And now? You’re replaceable, you know that? Go ahead, get rid of the ring, I’d WELCOME it. You’re a horrible Chat Noir and a horrible partner to Ladybug. You shut up and follow orders. That’s all you’re good for.”

WHAT.

That wasn’t- he’d never- WHAT THE HELL?!

The video froze.

Alya lifted her finger from the phone. “Ok, before we continue with this any further, I think we all need a moment. Because I’m about ready to either scream at someone or throw up from watching that, and I doubt any of you are doing any better.”

“Plagg would never say that. Would never THINK that! I may not know him as well as Adrien does, but I sure as hell know that!” Marinette spoke up, a dangerous look on her face.

Nino looked over at him. “Dude. I know we’ve all talked about how this isn’t right, it isn’t true, but… just to say it some more, just in case you’re doubting… I took on the ring for awhile. I could do it, but I still wasn’t YOU. I can substitute in an emergency, but that doesn’t make you replaceable. Not as a person. No more than Alya being able to take on the Ladybug Miraculous in an emergency makes Marinette ‘replaceable’.”

He closed his eyes and just… breathed.

He knew what had really happened.

He knew that Plagg wouldn’t do that. Wouldn’t react like that. That none of his friends would.

But… it was really reassuring to hear them say it.

“I think… I think I’m good. Go ahead and play it.”

They all looked a little uncertain, but Alya hit play. Still, he noticed they all cuddled up closer to him than was technically necessary.

“I- Wha- That’s not what I was-“

Plagg hissed, drowning out whatever the version of him on-screen was going to say.

“So it’s YOU.”

Adrien flinched at the menace, the scorn in Ladybug’s voice.

Marinette pressed up harder against him, intertwining her hand with his.

“I always thought you were a nuisance who couldn’t do his job properly. But this? This is going too far. I lead, you follow. I tolerated you because at the end of the day, you usually did what you were told. But if you’re not prepared to do that, if you demand to know more than you need to, if you THREATEN me, threaten Paris with leaving me alone, leaving me in danger because you’re throwing a little temper tantrum?”

Ladybug threw her yo-yo, knocking his loosened ring from his hand. Plagg caught it, delivering it to her.

“Then you don’t deserve a Miraculous anyway. Go home and rot, for all I care. I’ll find someone more worthy.”

Tears ran down Adrien’s face as he stammered incoherently.

A drop of liquid fell on Adrien’s hand.

“ADRIEN!”

He looked up and over at Marinette.

Her own eyes looked slightly puffy, but her mouth was set in a thin, determined line.

“SHE. IS. WRONG.”

Maybe. But…

“Some of this… some of this did happen. Or something close to it.”

As Marinette’s mouth fell open, he hastened to clarify. “Not what Plagg and Not-you said and did, but… some of the rest of it. The threatening to take off the ring part? That really happened. I did that.”

She blinked.

He braced himself for some sort of admonishment, for her to yell at him like in the video-

But she just softly ran her hand along his face. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Her tone was so different from what he’d just heard. So kind and gentle.

He forced himself to speak. “Not really. But… I think I need to.”

Gathering his thoughts together, he spoke slowly and carefully. “Shortly before we fought Syren we had a short mission with Alya – or rather, Rena Rouge. I was happy to have her on the team, but… well. I was afraid and… and very insecure. Cataclysm isn’t necessary. Not like your Miraculous Ladybug and Akuma purification are. And if Rena had your back – well, did you really need me? And with being kept in the dark about her identity, while YOU could know hers, and you were getting all these Miraculous from somewhere else and knew important, Miraculous-related things you wouldn’t talk to me about and- and I just felt like I wasn’t needed. Or wanted. I’d thought we were a team of equals, you know? Even if you took the lead, that ultimately both of us had the same authority, had the same power level overall.

But then… that wasn’t true anymore, and I didn’t know why.”

Marinette looked really downcast, her eyes dropping to her shoes as she took shaky breaths.

Adrien’s heart panged. “Crap, Marinette, I didn’t mean – I understand why NOW, why you couldn’t just tell me everything. It wasn’t your secret to share.”

“I- I know,” she said, her voice small. “But… even if I couldn’t do much about that then, just knowing what you were going through – the version of you in my nightmare world was talking about the same thing. I was sort of hoping, once I found out that that wasn’t the true you, that it was some sort of made-up version, that you hadn’t been through that level of hurt, but… now I’m thinking that maybe the one from my nightmare world was more accurate than I thought – that he represented those feelings of frustration and anger you have, just… not everything else about you.

For what it’s worth, I hated it too. You’re my partner, friend, and even boyfriend now – not my sidekick.”

She winced. “…There were a few points where maybe I could’ve done better. Like when I first found the book and suspected your father of being Hawkmoth. Fu never told me to keep the book secret, just to be careful, since he believed whoever had the book was probably Hawkmoth. But that shouldn’t have kept me from telling you about it. It didn’t really endanger my secret identity – I could just have said I found it as Ladybug shortly before confronting Lila about her lies – and I knew I could trust you.

Honestly I’m still not sure why I DIDN’T tell you about it. I can put up some guesses but… ultimately, I just don’t think I was thinking about how that would feel for you. I was hung up on other thoughts, like relief over discovering that you weren’t secretly Hawkmoth-“

WHAT.

“PFFFFT- BLAAA HA HA HA?!”

If he’d been drinking something, he would’ve done a spit-take. As it was, his mouth had apparently decided to improvise.

She chuckled too, until it turned into full-on laughter, Alya and Nino soon joining in.

It wasn’t really that funny, but… well, after all this, they needed a laugh.

“It’s- it’s such a ridiculous thought now, but… but you had the book, so maybe-“

“Maybe you thought the most meowvelous boy you knew secretly ran around mind-controlling people and giving them some of the most ridiculous and ugly costumes known to man?”

She burst into raucous laughter again, taking a good thirty seconds to calm down to the point where she could speak again. “To- to be fair, I doubt your fashion sense is THAT much better.”

He clutched his chest. “Oh, how my Princess has wounded me with her sharp tongue and piercing words! But there you are wrong, Milady. For while my designing sense pales in comparison to yours, I at least know what good supervillain designs should look like. And a child’s bathtub toy is not one of them.”

Nino shuddered. “I don’t know whether Hawkmoth just REALLY hates me or what. I don’t think even Reflekta’s design was uglier – and she was supposed to be as eye-catching and garish as possible.”

He grinned. “See, if I’d had the Butterfly Miraculous, you would’ve looked more like Zorro. Or maybe the Dread Pirate Roberts.”

“The Princess Bride? Who would you be then?”

Oh he’d THOUGHT about this one. “Inigo Montoya, of course!”

“…So we’d have an awesome sword fight where we both got to be as ridiculously awesome and over-the-top as possible?”

“You know it!”

Nino looked at Alya and Marinette plaintively. “Guys we’ve got to find some way of tracking down Hawkmoth. Our movie re-enactment depends on it!”

Marinette giggled a little. “Sure. Hawkmoth won’t know what’s coming for him!”

They all laughed a little more at that.

Marinette’s face turned serious once again. “I made a mistake back then I think, not telling you at least a little more of why I suspected Hawkmoth. I’m really glad you know now.”

He nodded, giving her a small smile. “Thanks, Marinette.”

Taking another breath, he continued with his story. The short little aside had helped at least, had given him and the others a breather from this screwed-up situation, even if only for a couple minutes.

“When you left to go do something, something Miraculous-related that I wasn’t allowed to know about, and I just needed to wait for you to come back, I just… I put up with it for a bit, but I just kept going over and over in my head what you knew, why you might’ve left, how you already had a new partner you’d gotten to pick yourself and I just… I snapped.”

He sat there waiting for her to return.

She’d done this a few times before, left to go pick up a Miraculous or something, but… the other times he’d been otherwise preoccupied, had some role to fill while she was gone, like when he helped hold off the Sapotis or was helping to preoccupy the panthers like earlier that morning. He still wished he could come with, but he had a vital role, a job he was doing, and he understood that.

But this time? This time was different.

He couldn’t DO anything about Syren. Everyone’d already evacuated themselves (Parisians had gotten VERY good at that over the past few months).

There was no greater purpose, greater reason to him needing to stay behind. He just wasn’t allowed to know whatever Ladybug knew, and wasn’t allowed to know WHY he wasn’t allowed to know, either.

Secret identities, he understood. He still thought that maybe it would be better, be worth it to know each other’s identities. Both because they could coordinate better… and more selfishly, he’d sometimes admit to himself, because then they could hang out more, get to know each other better than they could now.

But this? He could tell that Ladybug wasn’t the only one involved in this, she’d mentioned needing to talk to ‘him’ about bringing – well, himself, into the loop.

He didn’t want to take it out on Ladybug. But – he just-

He was ALWAYS left in the dark. Whether by her, now, or by his father when he asked- well, pretty much anything, but especially concerning his mother.

Didn’t he have at least SOME right to know these things? About things related to him, and people he cared about?

And no one would tell him why he couldn’t know in the first place.

Not even Ladybug or Plagg.

Did they just not care?

He stood up, muttering to himself. “This is so dumb! Claws in.”

Plagg spiraled out of the ring, groaning. “What’s taking her so long?”

Adrien slowly started pulling the ring off his finger.

“Whoa, easy!” Plagg cried out, alarmed. “W-What are you doing?!”

Something he’d had percolating in the back of his mind since that morning, since Ladybug left with Rena Rouge, leaving him out of the loop – while also showing she could bring in another superhero on demand whenever she needed help.

He loved being Chat Noir. He loved running across rooftops, fighting villains, and most of all, seeing His Lady.

But he had his limits, and his self-respect.

“If you don’t tell me what Ladybug is hiding from me, I’m done!”

He’d followed along with her plans, trusting her to come up with good ones, and to tell him what he needs to know. Trusting that even if he couldn’t see what she was doing, what she was planning, even if it made no sense to him, it was for the best.

But that didn’t mean he was fine with not being told anything at all.

He trusted her. But it seemed like she didn’t return that trust, not even enough to tell him why.

And she didn’t need him.

“You can’t do that!”

“Why not? No one’ll know if I quit. No one’ll care.”

She had Rena Rouge now. She’d barely even notice his absence. If she just needed a superhero to help her pull off her plans – well, she had another one now.

And while she’d laughed and joked with him, while they’d shared some intimate moments together – it was starting to feel like she didn’t respect him as an equal. Didn’t think he had the right to know anything beyond what he technically needed to, in order to fulfill his role in battle.

He got enough of that, of only being told what he needed to in order to get a job done, with his father.

He didn’t have any choice with that. Not if he still wanted to be able to see his friends.

He did have a choice with this.

“I will!”

“Why? Because you won’t have anyone to give you Camembert?”

He smiled as he said that, but he was only half-joking. He knew how much Plagg loved cheese, and he cared for Plagg, but… well, was he so different from Ladybug here? He provided Plagg with food. Did he care at all past what he could give Plagg, what he could do for him?

But… even just seeing that concern, that immediate alarm at seeing him thinking of quitting…

Even if he wasn’t sure of the reasons yet. Plagg at least didn’t want him to leave.

“Oh, I’m sure there’ll be another Chat Noir to give me cheese…” Plagg said in a faux casual manner, turning his back on Adrien.

Plagg looked back at him over his shoulder, “but he won’t be you.”

He cared.

Genuinely.

And not just because of what Adrien could give him.

Plagg could find another wielder easily, or someone else could find a wielder for him.

But Plagg didn’t WANT another wielder.

Didn’t just WANT someone else to give him cheese.

He wanted Adrien.

Not for what he could do for him, but for who he was.

“Fu appeared immediately after that saying he’d tell me everything later, but for now, he needed me to go help Ladybug, and handed over a vial of the transformation potion. Realizing that Plagg cared and that you’d made good on your promise, had talked Fu into appearing and filling me in? I may have hit a low point that day, but… between you and Plagg? Both of you lifted me up that day, showed me I was wrong. That even if neither of you would tell me everything, you cared. That I wasn’t just a useful tool. That I wasn’t to be seen and not heard.”

Marinette pulled him into a hug. “God, Chat, if I’d known it was this bad I would’ve done something sooner. Would’ve pushed for Fu to reveal himself sooner. And… and even before that, have worked harder on bringing you into the loop when I could. Have tried to give you more information when possible, have talked with you more as an equal partner. I just… I got caught up sometimes in thinking that everything was on my shoulders, that everything was my responsibility, that… well, I thought it was my duty to make the decisions, to take that on, and forgot about the effect that could have.”

He gave her a small smile. “It’s fine, Buginette. It hasn’t been a problem lately anyway – not with Fu talking with everyone and the four of us knowing each other’s identities.”

“I can’t believe whatever’s causing all this, is using that moment to just… just to try say you’re horrible!” Marinette shuddered. “I know what it’s like to think you’re not needed, that giving up your Miraculous is – if not for the better, not going to make things worse, and to be insecure in general. You guys all saw that back when I tried to give my Miraculous up that first day.”

Adrien shuddered. He’d been shocked to see that – they all had. The idea of Ladybug not being there, of her honestly not thinking she was good enough – he’d seen her self-doubt before, but never so blatantly.

And just… never seeing her again, at least while not KNOWING she was her…

Alya would’ve been competent with the Ladybug Miraculous even if he believed that Marinette was a better fit. It would’ve been doable.

But he wouldn’t just miss Ladybug – miss Marinette, though he wouldn’t know it – because of the role she played.

Even back then, just knowing her for that short amount of time, he was enamored with her and wanted to get to know her better. To get to know the slightly awkward girl who fell on him and tangled them both up in her yo-yo, and the awesome, courageous, clever girl who fought beside him to defeat Stoneheart.

He’d miss HER, not for her role, but for who she was.

Same as she did with him; he knew that now.

He squeezed her tightly. “We really are a pair, aren’t we?”

She gave a small smile. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

*cough*

Adrien glanced over towards the sound, at Alya.

“As much as I’d love to continue this, we need to figure out what to do now. If a random bystander has that kind of reaction to Adrien I don’t want to know what the reaction of someone who knows him personally would be like; plus, the longer we stand around, the more likely we’ll attract unwanted attention.”

Oh crap. He’d forgotten about that. That man had been bad enough. If there was a crowd…

He shuddered. Crowds of people all fixated on him were bad enough when they LIKED him. When spewing insults and treating him as if he was one of the worst human beings alive? And when his friends might get caught in the crossfire?

Bad enough that time he snuck away to watch his mother’s movie and gotten Marinette caught up in it. But at least she didn’t seem to be too terribly upset about the paparazzi assuming they were a couple! She’d just seemed a bit flu… stered…

…Okay so in hindsight that made a LOT more sense.

Marinette frowned, putting her hand to her chin. “We’ve gotta be careful since we can’t escape or fight anything very easily, especially if one of our superpowered counterparts tries to fight us. Well except for Chat I guess, since… well…”

She trailed off, wincing awkwardly.

That’s right, the Ladybug here had taken Chat’s Miraculous.

Had taken HIS Miraculous.

But… that wasn’t His Lady in the video. That had been very clear from the start.

…the version of himself though?

Hmm…

“Maybe we should visit this place’s version of me, see whether that’ll give us any leads?” he suggested.

“You know, I think you might be onto something there,” Marinette said, slowly perking up. “Since he doesn’t have a Miraculous anymore, he probably can’t attack us if things go wrong. He seemed more normal than anyone else too, sounded and reacted more like- well, YOU. I don’t know whether that means he’ll be more able to help, but… well right now, I wouldn’t mind just meeting someone who hasn’t gone crazy.”

“Just be careful,” Nino said warily. “I thought the same thing with the Marinette in that nightmare I was trapped in, and… well, you know how that turned out.”

Nino hadn’t recounted the full thing, but from what he HAD said, he’d rather take his chances with this reality’s Ladybug than the Marinette he’d met.

…Aaaaand time to stop thinking about that before he got even more stressed. Deal with the current terrible situation, no use dwelling over a past one he had no control over and was already resolved.

“Next stop, Adrien’s place!”

-------------------------------------------------

(A/N) If Ladybug saw what went down in Syren with Chat almost giving up the Ring, there's NO WAY IN HELL she'd yell at him about it. She'd be devastated that he felt so bad he was willing to give up something he loved!

Also with the civilians in Syren (and OH HELL has Syren been litigated to death), the shots of Paris filling up with water make sure to show everyone involved escaping to higher ground or finding some manner of floatation and being perfectly fine, with no one panicking or all that worried and no one being injured or hurt, I'm pretty sure we're meant to be believe that everyone was fine, even though that's unrealistic considering what happened. Considering how unrealistic ML Paris is in general (seriously do only like. 500 people live there?) I'm willing to take it at that. There wasn't much of a reaction to that skyscraper being felled back in Origins and that was before anyone knew that Ladybug could repair things (plus she didn't actually repair anything until the next day), so collateral damage in ML that isn't explicitly shown doesn't seem to be counted as that big a deal usually. So I figure Parisians are just reaaaally good at escaping harm and also are really lucky in general.

One of the things that really bugs me with a lot of Adrien salt is how it totally discounts his thoughts, emotions, and mindset as being invalid, as not mattering. As if his only purpose in life is to be a tool and if he asserts any dissent or will of his own, he's treated as evil. He's just... he's not treated like a person in his own right.

There's NO WAY his friends would stand for that.

#Divergent points #ml fanfic #ml fandom salt #adrien agreste #Miraculous ladybug

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abigailmaitland · 5 years

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andi mack season 4.

4A ONLY.

Episode One.

Andi’s first day of SAVA. Buffy, Cyrus, Marty, TJ, and Jonah’s first day of Grant High school. They facetime before entering the school and wish each other luck. Jokes about how huge and old everyone is compared to them. They don’t have as many classes together as they used to. Jonah, feeling out of place, has a panic attack while getting his lunch. Andi feeling very out of place during her lunch texts Jonah - jokingly blaming him for making her accidentally submit her application. Jonah, instead of texting back accidentally facetimes her during his panic attack. Andi, shocked and concerned, helps him calm down. Jonah asks her if she really blames him. Andi, of course says no, and reassures him that one day she’ll probably thank him. Jonah returns to lunch, the group is confused as to where he went, he makes a face and just says “uh, high school food, right?” cyrus says “say no more. please.”

At the end of the school day everyone meets at The Spoon and talks about their first day. Andi comes home to balloons, cupcake, excited parents and a grandparent, who really want to hear EVERYTHING.

Episode Two.

Andi deals with a strict teacher who is very critical of her art for the first time in her life. She struggles with feeling inadequate because she has never had an art teacher not love her work. Definitely cries.

It’s club week at Grant High School, a week where the school encourages everyone to join a club/sport, especially incoming freshman. Buffy, Marty, and TJ immediately know where they belong (basketball & track respectively) whereas Cyrus and Jonah are lost on where to start. Cyrus grabs pamphlets for theater, photography, debate, student leadership, the student newspaper and tries to create a pros/cons list for each one. Jonah feels confused about where he belongs in school, in the group, in life. He misses the old dynamic and feels lost without Andi because everyone else is in a relationship. Being a third wheel is fine, you know, and not totally useless. But there is never a need for a fifth wheel.

Club spirit spreads outside of Grant High school. Bowie decides to join a morning yoga group, Bex starts photography classes as she’s started to take ‘before/after’ portraits for Cloud 10 as well as joins SAVA’s PTA, Cece continues her dance classes.

Episode Three.

Andi finds familiar faces at SAVA. Walker and Libby introduce Andi into their friend group. Andi tells them about the teacher who criticized her art; they reassure her that she’s tough on everyone and that she belongs here.

Buffy helps Cyrus choose the clubs he should join; debate and the student newspaper. He thanks her for knowing him; sometimes better than himself. Jonah continues to have a hard time in high school - whereas the rest of the group have slowly become acclimated to the environment. He used to know so many people and now he feels like he barely knows a fraction. Buffy, Cyrus, TJ, and Marty always include him, but they seem to be so seamless together and Jonah feels like he can’t keep us. He liked when it was just Buffy, Cyrus, him, and Andi. He likes when he hangs out with Cyrus by himself. Or Buffy and Cyrus. He feels like he still has a place with them. He’s determined relationships really do ruin everything.

TJ takes Cyrus on a date and gets embarrassed by his dyscalculia when he tries to pay in cash and finds himself taking too long to count his change and bills. Cyrus asks if he could help - TJ gets frustrated at himself and says he wanted to have a perfect date with him and not look like an idiot. Cyrus reminds TJ he’s not an idiot and offers to help him again. TJ sighs and nods his head. Cyrus counts TJ’s change with him.

Episode Four.

Buffy, Andi, and Cyrus have a sleepover weekend at Cece’s house. During the first night, they almost call it off because Buffy and Cyrus can’t stop texting Marty/TJ and talking about them. Andi reminds them that she’s supposed to be one of their best friends - can’t they have a few nights where they don’t think about boys? They sit in silence for like, an hour, and Buffy sighs, turns off her phone and gives it to Andi. Cyrus follows suit. They both apologize. They have a movie marathon, talk about school, stay up late talking about the future, Andi makes them all friendship bracelets.

At Buffy’s request, Marty invites TJ and Jonah to hang out at his house. They all sit there uncomfortably eating snacks for awhile, realizing despite being together everyday at high school they barely know each other. Marty breaks the ice and they play a game of 21 Questions. We learn more about all three boys and they become more comfortable around each other.

Bex and Bowie have a date night with another couple their age. This isn’t focused on as I think it would be boring for most viewers, but I just want to show them with age-appropriate friends, pls and thank <3

Episode Five.

Andi talks to Walker about his relationship with her and his relationship with Buffy. They reconcile with the past and admit they were pretty dumb as middle schoolers, huh? Andi says yes and then says “we’ll probably think that about ourselves now one day, won’t we?” Walker says “definitely.”

Cyrus asks Jonah why he’s been so out of it recently. Jonah claims that he’s not and they get into an argument, leading Jonah to say “I liked it better when no one was together. I’m not part of this group!” Jonah leaves lunch early, bumping into Amber. She can tell how upset he is. They sit against some lockers in a quiet hallway and talk. Amber tells him sometimes groups change. Jonah says he hates change and just wants everything to be how it was before. Amber says he feels like that now, but reminds him that he felt that way when they were in a relationship too, and would he still really want to be with her? Jonah says no (no offense) and that he guessed some changes were okay. Amber seems to have reconciled with their past and is okay being friends with him. Jonah says “Sometimes I wonder what’s wrong with me.” Amber tells him that she goes to therapy because she felt that way too. He asks if she found the answer. She says yes, and that she finds the solutions too.

Jonah texts Cyrus that he’s sorry. During gym class, he asks to go to the guidance counselor. The guidance counselor talks to Jonah and helps him come to terms with going to therapy and what to expect.

Episode Six.

Libby is angry and upset because they haven’t given her an interpreter yet and she’s struggling to keep up with the coursework and feels ostracized by her teachers. For a group project, Walker, Andi and Libby team up to create an art piece encompassing deaf culture and how deaf rights matter. They bring it to the principal’s office and tell them it’s illegal to not provide Libby an interpreter.

At Grant, Cyrus goes against a homophobic debater during a practice round (probably about either marriage laws or the guy who refused to bake a cake). He loses because he can’t keep his points straight due to getting too upset. He immediately texts TJ. TJ gets really angry and meets him at the debate room - they go to a hidden, empty corner of the high school. Cyrus cries, TJ comforts him with hugs and head kisses. Cyrus says he hates hiding who he is. TJ says he does too. Cyrus asks to come out publicly. TJ hesitates. “I don’t know if I’m ready?” Cyrus sighs. “Fine...but I’m going to come out to my parents. They don’t have to know about us, though.”

Cyrus gathers all 4 parents in the same room and comes out.

TJ thinks about coming out to his parents, but backs out.

Episode Seven.

Bowie tries to get the Mack family on a vegan diet after learning more about it during his morning yoga class. Andi is pretty accepting of it, but Bex struggles to maintain the diet. Bowie teaching them about how much meat can affect the environment. He makes them try a whole week with no meat and dairy - Bex starts sneaking to Cece’s to eat pizza, burgers, and ice cream.

Buffy notices Marty liking and commenting on two different “cute”/”model-type” girls pictures on social media. They’re both white. She texts Cyrus. Cyrus asks if maybe they’re related, but none of them share his last name. She also overheard a group of older girls talking about how real guys hate “athletic” girls and stop liking them after middle school. Buffy gets jealous, uncomfortable, and insecure. She stops talking to him and ignores during school. At the end of the week, she straightens her hair again and dresses more traditionally feminine. Marty notices and says “you look great, but...what’s up?” Buffy admits that she thought he would like her better this way. Marty asks why - she says that she found out he’s been liking other girls’ pictures and that none of them looked like her. Marty gets embarrassed and says that those girls are his future step-sisters and that his father, Antonio Sousa, just proposed and started egging him to be “nicer” and get closer to the girls. Buffy feels embarrassed. Marty assures her that she doesn’t have to be, that he should have told her and that he barely talked about his family because he thinks it’s “too messy” - he says she looks the most beautiful when she’s comfortable with herself.

Bex admits to Bowie that she’s been sneaking non-vegan food. He’s upset at first, but they come to a compromise. They will have three meatless nights instead of every single day. He understands that it’s a huge life-style change and admits that he’s cheated a little bit too, but that the environment is really important to him because “I want Andi to be able to enjoy this Earth to the fullest...and any other kid we might have.”

Bex says ‘um’

Episode Eight.

Marty, Jonah, and TJ hang out again. This time is more personal - Jonah talks about therapy and Marty talk about his changing family. Since they’re being personal, TJ admits that he’s struggling to tell his family and the wider school that he’s gay and dating Cyrus. The boys listen and try to give advice, but ultimately feel like they can’t really help and say that they’re sure Cyrus understands. TJ nods. “He understands for now, but eventually he won’t want to be with someone in the closet. He wants to be himself.”

Andi and Amber hang out for the first time in forever. Amber admits that she’s just been so bogged down because she’s taking college classes, stressing herself out plus family drama. Andi says that she’s been pretty stressed too and that the classes and projects are a lot harder than she imagined and that she misses always being with the GHC. Amber says that change is necessary and that distance makes the heart grow fonder and that she bet Andi is the best in the school, that she’s just being hard on herself. Andi shows Amber pictures of other’s art - Amber smiles and says that “yours is still the best, bambi.” Andi thanks Amber for being such a great friend.

Cyrus and TJ are distant and haven’t had their weekly date or even really texted. During basketball practice, TJ is frustrated and awful. The teammates ask where Cyrus is, saying that he’s almost always there for their practice as their good luck charm. TJ ignores the question and tries to shoot a three-pointer, missing over and over again. The teammates tell him to chill and take a break. TJ, frustrated, just yells “I’m gay!” His teammates are taken aback, but none seem outwardly opposed. “um...okay?” TJ sits down and drinks water. He says “I’m sorry. I just had to get that out there...for um...Cyrus.” it finally clicks for the team. They’re supportive bc they love Cyrus.

Bex asks Bowie how long he’s been thinking about more kids. Bowie admits that it just kind of came up - that someone in his yoga club was pregnant and his mind started wandering. He says that obviously he wouldn’t force it on Bex, just that he didn’t want to rule it out now either. He reminds her that he didn’t get to raise Andi and is disappointed he missed so many moments. Bex says he didn’t have to remind her and says she will always regret that she kept it a secret from him - but that she isn’t sure about another kid. Financially and emotionally. Bowie says he understands.

Episode Nine.

The mid-year project for SAVA is coming up. Andi is stressed as heck - she can’t think of what she wants to say to the world. She doubts she was ever an artist to begin with. It’s 3am and she finds herself texting Cyrus because she knows he’s always up. Cyrus says that she’s feeling impostor syndrome - but that she earned her place in SAVA, fair and square, and it was obviously because her application or some force in the universe. She says that sometimes she wishes she wasn’t in SAVA and that she went to Grant with the rest. Cyrus says that he misses her but knows in his heart that Andi belongs in SAVA. He updates her on him and TJ and how TJ doesn’t want to come out and he feels like TJ is embarrassed of him and who they are. Andi comforts Cyrus and reminds him how long it took him to tell her he liked Jonah and that they’re just in different parts of the journey. Andi gets an idea for her art project.

Buffy & Marty go on a date. He decides to take her to The Brazilian Day festival in town to teach her more about his culture. Buffy loves learning more about him, including that he can speak some Portuguese and that he can dance really well.

TJ asks Cyrus on a date. Cyrus hesitates. TJ smiles and says it can be a real date and that they can hold hands in public and post pictures on Instagram. Cyrus asks if he came out and TJ nods, before grinning and hugging him.

Bex hints to Cece that Bowie is thinking about another child. Cece tells her how much she’s grown as an adult and as a mother and that Cece is confident that Bex can make a choice. Bex has baby on the brain and is constantly focused on pregnancy - which all comes to head when she does a maternity shoot for her photography. She feels mixed feelings and talks to one of her friends to try to sort out her feelings.

Episode Ten. FINALE.

Andi’s project about change & growing up doesn’t go over well because she rushed it at 3am. This is the first time she’s failed a project and she’s devastated. Cyrus tries to cheer her up with The Spoon and a sleepover with a lot of ice cream.

Marty invites Buffy to his father’s wedding. It goes over well & they slow dance together for the first time.

Bex tells Bowie that she’s not against having another child, she was just scared. Bowie admits that he’s scared too...maybe they can face the fear together?

Jonah decides to join the music club, as well as participate in the high school “coffee houses” where students showcase their musical talents. He feels like he’s acclimating better.

#andi mack #this could probably be better but i'm kind of feeling it #4b will probably have more of some the characters that weren't really focused on #it was just really hard to figure out everything idk how ppl do this

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sciencelings-writes · 4 years

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Last Man Standing

Summary: I wanted to write another endgame/ infinity war fix it where instead of Peter dusting, It’s Tony. shit goes a little crazy from there. 8.7k words, get ready fam. AO3 LINK

Peter sat in the guardian’s ship, frozen in place. He was in shock. Because the worst thing that could happen, happened again.

He was gone, Mr. Stark was gone. Tony was gone. Disintegrating into dust after a single glance into Peter’s eyes. No goodbye. Not like Ben. Uncle Ben had moments more than Tony did. Bleeding out. Peter didn’t know which was worse, A father figure dying in front of him, slowly, being able to hear his heartbeat slow and stop or his new father figure disappearing without even a chance to say a word. Just look into his eyes, looking worried but not having any time to think about it.

Peter had time to think about it. Too much time. He had worked with the blue cyborg woman to repair the ship for a few days. At least then he could distract himself. But she was working on getting them to earth, and he could only think. Or sleep. But sleeping was so much worse.

He had been zoning out for god knows how long. Hours? Days? It felt like an eternity and he didn’t feel like he was in his body at a certain point. He was only shaking out of it because of Nebula’s, the blue woman’s monotone voice.

“You need to eat.” She ordered simply. He took the space food out of her hand and muttered a thanks. Peter’s normally talkative demeanor was snuffed out after they lost. Nebula wasn’t much of a talker to begin with and they worked together out of necessity. Peter would always be thankful that she didn’t leave him alone on the planet even though she totally could have.

Once she got autopilot fixed and had no need to stay in the cockpit, she seemed to always be near him. Not close but within her silent gaze. He would try to fill his time by tinkering with extra parts and pacing around.

They had their real conversation a full week into flying in space. While they were frantically trying to upgrade the air recycling system so they wouldn’t die days away from earth. They had already run out of food and Peter was growing weaker but air was a little more important.

“Was he your father?” Nebula said dryly as Peter took out the power source from his Iron spider suit. It was a tiny arc reactor hidden in the spider on his chest, made out of nanites.

“Uh, kinda… not really. He’s my mentor but he is… was kinda like a dad to me. You know, teaching me how to be a hero and scolding me when I was being dumb…” His voice was a little hoarse from not being used and from not getting enough water in attempt to conserve it.

“You are lucky. My father was the one we were fighting.”

“Ouch, that’s rough. I thought my luck with father figures was bad…” This managed to lift the sides of Nebula’s mouth for the hint of a smile. It was gone faster than it came, she didn’t seem used to small talk.

“I’m sorry about what happened to him.” She grumbled as they worked.

“It happened to your friends too and half of the universe if I remember. I don’t even know if we are the lucky half.”

“We aren’t.” Nebula muttered. Peter knew she was right. It was much harder to live than it was to die.

Eventually, the work was done and they could rest. The would probably have a few more days of air but they both knew they wouldn’t get to earth fast enough. If they had to die, they would die together and Peter would really rather not die but if he had to die, at least he wasn’t alone.

He tried to hang out with Nebula more, explain earth things, show her how to play games like thumb wars, where she almost broke his hand. She would indulge him, knowing they were not far from suffocating to death. Or starving to death… or dehydrating to death. Whichever one happened first.

Peter got weaker and weaker without the food to sustain him. Nebula had given him her last ration. They were out of fuel, out of water, hours away from being out of air, out of food and out of hope.

They were still so many days away from earth when it got to the point where Peter couldn’t even stand. Nebula sat with him. She even picked him up and placed him on the co-pilots chair so that he could look at the stars instead of the dirty metal.

He was so so tired. It was probable that if he closed his eyes, he would never open them again. If he was hydrated enough to have tears come to his eyes, they would be. They were so close to death and so far away from home. And he was so tired…

His eyes closed, for what he thought would be the last time and he wondered what he would see. Would he see Ben? Tony? Would his mom and dad be up there? Maybe Nebula would see her sister again. Maybe there would be nothing at all. The thought made him strangely at peace. The pain would be over, the sorrow wouldn’t weigh him down, it would all be over.

That’s when a bright light apeared on the other side of his eyelids. He peeked them open, squinting his eyes as it had been so long since he had seen something so bright. Was this it? Was he dead?

The light faded slightly and revealed a blonde woman smiling. Was she an angel? Peter was delirious but it was a nice thought. Maybe she would take him to wherever Ben and Tony were.

She didn’t. She flew under their ship and carried it home. Peter fought to stay awake, he tried to call out to Nebula to tell her about the angel but his voice wasn’t very loud. He smiled knowing that they were saved.

They landed near Avengers Compound, there were people waiting for them. The glowing angel woman had to help Peter out of the ship but he made it. He had never been more excited to breathe in his life.

Captain America ran up to them. Before he could say anything Peter whimpered out a few words.

“I’m sorry… I lost him.”

“We lost,” Cap said sorrowfully. As if Peter couldn’t already tell. Pepper and Rhodey came running after Steve, they weren’t as fast as a super-soldier but they had much more reason to run towards the ship. Tony could’ve been on it. The thought made a ping of pain ripple through Peter’s chest.

“Did Tony-” Pepper started. She didn’t finish. She saw the look in Peter’s eyes and she knew. She put a hand over her mouth to muffle a sob and Rhodey tried to look composed but Peter could see him trembling.

“I’m so sorry…” Peter wheezed before starting a brief coughing fit that made him blackout for a moment. It was kind of spooky. The glowing angel woman still held him up and advised that they take him to the med bay.

That was the last thing he heard before everything went dark, thankfully, not for the last time.

***

He woke up after a terrible dream. By the time his eyes were open, he had already forgotten it but he still felt his heart race and sweat, the moisture of fear, in several uncomfortable places. He noticed the sweat and looked at the optimistic side. He was hydrated. He had enough water in his body that he could sweat.

Then he noticed everything else. He had needles and tubes everywhere they could medically stick him. His throat hurt, probably from having a feeding tube shoved down it. He had an IV and as many monitors that would fit on his malnourished body. The only other person in the room was Pepper. She was on her tablet and he noticed that there were slight shadows under her eyes. He knew he looked a whole lot worse though.

“Ms. Potts?” He said weakly. She looked up quickly and plastered on a fake smile.

“Hey, Pete. Did you sleep well?”

“Uh, Yeah.” he lied, “Did Aunt May…” his voice shook as he left the question hanging, suspecting the answer.

“I’m sorry Peter, she didn’t make it…” he looked down and avoided her gaze. Preparing himself did nothing and it was like the knife that was left by Tony’s death and it was now being twisted. In other words, it fucking sucked.

“This is a pretty sucky fifty percent huh…” Peter muttered after a wet sob.

“Yeah… you could say that.” Pepper smiled sadly as she wiped a few tears from her own eyes.

“Who else did we lose?” Peter asked, desperate for a distraction.

“The kind of Wakanda, his sister came with us to the compound, she wants to be part of the solution. Uh, Sam Wilson, you know, falcon, Nick Fury, Ant-Man…” she went on, naming everyone from celebrities to anyone she thought he would know. Including his friends.

The next few days were the worst of his life. He had to deal with everyone he was close to being dusted and being unable to get out of bed. The later was much less painful but it still bothered him. It made him feel useless in addition to absolutely destroyed and depressed.

Eventually, enough was enough. He took out everything except for the IV as he was still dehydrated and could roll it around pretty easily. He carefully got himself into his wheelchair and rolled himself to where his enhanced senses heard the somber avengers gathering.

Peter was surprised but not that surprised to see a raccoon in clothes in the room with the remaining heroes. He’s seen aliens, it wasn’t that weird to see a talking raccoon with a familiar accent.

“Kid, what are you doing out and about?” Rhode said, looking mildly concerned.

“I got sick of just sitting on my ass.” He grumbled. “Now, does anyone have any idea what we’re going to do or did I just exchange sitting on my ass with access to a comfortable bed for sitting on my ass in a room full of depression?”

“If we find Thanos and get the infinity stones back, we can theoretically bring everyone back.” Doctor Banner said calmly. He ignored Peter’s grumpy mood, everyone dealt with major tragedies differently.

“We couldn’t keep the stones from him, now he has the most powerful weapon in the galaxy and we have half the ranks with some of our best indistinguishable from the sand on a beach. And you want to go back and try again. Like he can’t just snap his fingers and have you join the rest of the universe. Yeah, that’s pretty stupid.” Peter spat as he settled near the holograms listing the people who were dusted.

“Well, do you have any other ideas?” Cap sighed.

“Yeah, anything but that.” Peter groaned. “You’ll all get killed and then the universe will have no hope. Maybe we can contain the stones or something.”

“We wouldn’t be able to do any tests, if it doesn’t work we’re all dead.” Doctor Banner shrugged.

“Tony Stark’s nanotech sheild deflected a direct blast from the purple infinity stone. That’s at least a start.”

“The purple one… that’s the power stone kid! So this dead guy deflected a hit from the power stone with his tech? I’d like to get a hold of that…” The raccoon exclaimed.

“You know, it’s really too bad that this all couldn’t have been avoided…” Peter looked directly at Captain America. He didn’t know why he was consumed with such irrational anger because he would never act this way normally. His line had been crossed weeks ago when Mr. Stark died in front of him. He was just at a point where he didn’t give a fuck.

“What are you even talking about kid?” Steve raised an annoyingly calm eyebrow.

“If only everyone was all together to fight him at once rather than separated and weaker. We almost got the gauntlet off with only like seven people, imagine if it was all of you guys too…” Peter hissed. “You know Tony warned you about this. He knew something was coming and nobody listened.”

“Ultron was made because of his paranoia.”

“So was the Vision. He was our superman and the only being I would trust with the infinite power that he was given. It really sucks because if you all just stuck together and you know, didn’t become war criminals because you had your heads so far up Mr. perfects ass, Tony would still be alive, along with all of my friends and the only family I had left.” Peter gradually started to yell. He had just held too much in for too long and apparently now was the time to let it out.

Most infuriating of all, Steve just stood there. He didn’t try to argue with Peter, he didn’t make any kind of retort. He just stood there with a blank expression.

“If you had any sort of trust in him, he would still be alive!” Peter ripped his IV out of his arm, it was just in the way and it had become one of the things that were just holding him back. He shakily stood up in his adrenaline-filled fury.

“Whoa kid-” Rhodey put a comforting hand on Peter’s shoulder but it did nothing to hold him back.

“No matter how strong and mighty you think you are, you’re nothing compared to the guy that killed him. Don’t let your fucking ego get in the way of the fate of the universe! A fucking wizard with fucking magic couldn’t take this guy down! You’re just full of steroids and misplaced self-confidence.” Peter limped his way to Steve with so much rage in his eyes that the man several inches taller backed away a little. “ So yeah, I’ve got nothing for you. No plan, no ideas, no trust, LIAR!” he had an accusing finger stabbing at Steve’s chest.

This, of course, was the exact time he started to feel light-headed. He stumbled back a little and barely caught his footing. After not standing for so long, thirty full seconds made his useless body want to give up.

He could sense angel lady and Rhodey being ready to catch him when he inevitably fell. He looked at Cap one last time, who also seemed like he was worried that Peter was going to fall.

“I… I don’t feel so good-” His voice shook, less than a second later, his vision turned black and he collapsed to the floor.

The next time he woke up, it was days later. He physically felt as good as new but that changed when he was told what happened while he was sedated. The Avengers came back with Thanos’ blood on their hands but no infinity stones. Thanos had the last laugh when he used the stones to destroy the stones. He destroyed the only thing that could get everyone back and it finally sunk in what happened. They were all gone. And unless they had some reality-defying solution, it would be for good.

***

FIVE YEARS LATER

***

Peter had moved on. Or at least he thought he did. For the first year after the snap, he put all his effort into finding a solution. He didn’t find one. He had to move on. Without MJ or Ned or even Flash, he didn’t have a reason to stay in the same grade. He finished high school early. He sped through college and when he turned eighteen, he revealed his identity to the world and became an official avenger.

He also became best friends with the new black panther and queen of Wakanda. They were both incredibly smart and the same age and were enhanced with the theming of an animal. She was the only person he could feel normal with. Well, It started out as best friends, it evolved a little beyond that.

They became an unstoppable duo, superheroing and not superheroing. They made a pretty good team in smash. Shuri always played Samus and Peter always played Kirby. Peter visited Wakanda when he couldn’t stand living in the city, they worked endless hours in her labs and alternated music choices to blast at ungodly volumes. It was some of the best times of his life.

He moved past Thanos and he finally felt kind of stable. That was until Scott Lang came back from the quantum realm with ideas that have already been thought of. Peter and Shuri had already tried time travel to get their loved ones back but for some reason, this was different. Scott came to them. Most people wouldn’t come to them, they were often underestimated for their intelligence and sometimes ego was a larger factor than actual intellect.

Ant-Man came to Peter and Shuri because right now, they were his best bet to get everyone back. At the moment, they were probably the smartest people on the planet. Sure it wasn’t as taboo as when they were teenagers but they were still too young to be respected as tech geniuses.

But Peter wasn’t ready to change everything again. He had finally found peace after years of trauma and loss. Of course he wanted everyone back but he didn’t know if trying again would just make everything worse. The world had moved on and accepted what happened. It had been over for years, reopening old wounds, potentially for nothing, did not sound fun.

That’s why he said no at first. Even the idea of Thanos still scared the shit out of him. Thanos was dead. At least this version of Thanos was. If they went back in time to get the stones… Thanos would still be alive. Peter thought he had seen the last of that dried eggplant asshole.

He worked on the time travel simulations after Shuri had gone to bed. Scott was staying in a guest room in the palace and Peter was all alone, with barely any hope, trying to solve time travel. Then he did it. At two AM when he was about to give up, he did it. The simulation worked. With the information Scott had about the quantum realm, they could use it to time travel and actually control where they went.

He could get them back… May, Tony, Ned, MJ… all of them. He could bring them back…

He spent the rest of the night crying with joy until he fell asleep on his desk. For once his sleep was peaceful. He dreamed of seeing them again.

***

“I figured it out.” He brought up, out of nowhere the first time they were all gathered for a hologram meeting with the avengers all around the world and the few in space. “Time travel. I figured it out. We can get the stones from the past and use them now to bring everyone back.”

There was silence for a moment as everyone thought about what he said.

“You… figured out time travel?” Natasha said and if Peter wasn’t mistaken, she sounded impressed.

“At least the method. It will take a few days to make the actual time machine. But it is possible and my simulations have been successful. We only have enough Pym particles for nine of us round trip excluding two tests. We’ll have to split up into teams to collect the stones so that we can get to them all. We can discuss everything at the compound after the machine is built so… avengers assemble I guess.” Peter said calmly, but he couldn’t keep a smile from his face.

“Well, you heard Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble.”

***

Peter decided not to go on the time-traveling adventure. They would need tech geniuses on both sides, just so nothing would go wrong. Shuri would go with Professor Hulk, Captain America, and Ant-Man to New York 2012, Carol would go with Rhodey to get the power stone from some planet in the past, punk Hawkeye and Black widow were going for the soul stone, and hobo Thor with Rocket, going to Asgard for the reality stone. The hulk had managed to get Thor out of his hole in New Asgard.

Hawkeye had tested the time machine by going into the past and saving some enhanced kids’ life. Someone named Piedro. He was apparently the magic girl’s brother. Well, she better be thankful when they bring her back from the dust.

“Everyone ready?” Peter said as he flipped all the switches and pressed all the buttons that he needed to get the large time machine set up. The avengers came into the room wearing their black and red quantum nano suits sans helmets.

The vibranium gauntlet that was to hold the infinity stones was waiting to be used beside him. It was hard to accept that for him, it was only going to be a minute before all of the stones were together. They were so close to bringing everyone back that it was almost impossible for Peter to wrap his head around it.

The Avengers took their places on the platform with Shuri bringing up the rear. Before she started on the steps, she leaned down to where he was sitting and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She smirked at how red his face turned. Natasha snorted at his reaction. Rocket scoffed something that Peter couldn’t quite hear.

“Stay safe your highness. And uh, I guess everyone else.” Peter smiled shyly. “Okay, sending you all off in 3… 2...1!” He twisted a nob and everything started to glow. In a flash, everyone was gone.

“And they should be back in… 3… 2… 1!” He talked to himself as a flash of light flooded the room and everyone was back. Well, almost everyone. Everyone’s helmets disappeared and Natasha had tears in her eyes. Clint wasn’t in the group that came back. There was a moment of silence between all of the Avengers and Shuri jogged towards Peter and almost suffocated him in a hug.

“Woah woah, what happened? You okay?” He said worriedly.

“It’s fine, there were just a few bumps in the road.” She sighed. She looked a little bruised and had a few bloody wounds, nothing too bad though.

“It was a sacrifice…” Natasha said weakly. “It was the only way to get the stone…”

The room went quiet once again. They weren’t prepared for a casualty.

***

They would mourn Clint later, they had all the stones and could finally get everyone back. Peter’s veins were filled with adrenaline. He had never been so excited in his life. He wanted everyone back so fucking bad, but so much had changed. Would they even recognize him now? He was in his early twenties, he had grown so much. Physically and as a person. God, he was probably taller than Tony now…

“I’ll do it.” Carol interrupted his train of thought. Oh yeah, they were trying to decide who would do the snap. “I can absorb the energy that tries to damage me. I’m the safest option.” She said definitively. Thor and Professor Hult seemed to try to argue but Carol talked them down. It wouldn’t hurt her as it would hurt them. She was practically made of infinity stone energy, if anything, it could make her stronger.

Peter had used an enclosed robot arm to place the stones in the dark vibranium gauntlet and it was ready to be used. Carol picked it up and put it on impatiently. They had already waited five years for this moment, none of them wanted to wait any longer.

Arcs of multi-colored light grew on Carol’s arm, she didn’t even wince. She closed her eyes and snapped. There was no more lead up, she just did it.

Peter was the only one that felt an immediate change. He felt what he could only describe as a sigh of relief. It was like all the background noise he tended to tune out was doubled. He just felt the presence of people. It worked. Oh god, it worked. After all this time, they did it. Holy fuck.

It wasn’t a dramatic moment, it was just something that they couldn’t wait to be done. There was no music to confirm that everyone was back, they just had to trust that it worked. It only took a moment for the changes to prove that they happened.

Peter’s phone rang. He whipped it out at the speed of light and sobbed a little when he saw who it was. He didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Peter? Is that you? Can you please tell me what’s going on?” May’s voice sounded a little bit shaky. It took Peter a moment to find his voice.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me… It’s a little bit of a long story.” He quickly wiped a tear from his eye and shuffled out of the room of avengers. He didn’t what them staring at him. They probably also had a few calls to make. Including one to Clint’s family.

“Why does your voice sound so weird? Are you sick?” May asked.

“My voice is not what you should be focusing on. A whole lot has happened. You might want to sit down…” He said as he did the same. He knew May would be distraught for missing out on his life but it’s not like she had a choice.

“Peter!” Carol’s voice came frantically from the other room. “Kid! Get in the quinjet!”

“Sorry May, I’ve got to go. I’ll explain everything later!” Peter knew that if Carol was panicking, something must have really gone wrong. He ended the call and jumped up to sprint outside to the quinjet. He could vaguely sense the rest of the avengers following him, with a little bit of emphasis on Rocket’s scampering on all fours like the animal he looked like.

Carol scrambled to the pilot’s seat and everyone, even those who could fly independently, filed into the dark jet.

“Okay, can someone tell me what the hell is going on now?” Peter groaned as he stood behind Nebula who was in the co-pilots chair.

“Sorry kid, I guess I got ahead of myself.” Carol sighed. “I just wanted to bring everyone back, I didn’t think that the black order would come back too.”

“Including Thanos or not including Thanos?” Peter’s voice shook and may have risen a few octaves.

“We don’t know, but their ships are gathering above New York City.”

“We still have the infinity stone right? You can just dust them can’t you?”

“The gauntlet is practically unusable. Even made of vibranium it couldn’t stand the strength of the infinity stones.”

“You absorbed the first snap, right? Maybe you could just hold the stones or something.” He said frantically as they took off and headed to the city at full speed. It would only take them a few minutes to get there.

“I almost couldn’t contain the power from the first one with the gauntlet. If I used them without it, I’d explode.”

“Then explode near their ships,” Peter suggested.

“I’ll think about it.” She snorted in response. “I can deal with the ships and hopefully the black order is easily knocked off of the playing board. We need people dealing with civilians.”

“I’ll go. My weapons didn’t do much to these guys last time…” Rhodey said.

“Me too.” Natasha nodded. “Unless you want me to sneak on their ship and take hold of their weapons. I can do that too.”

“Can I come?” Antman asked as his mask flipped on his head. “I can help with small stuff!”

“Sure, go for it,” Carol said, accidentally becoming the leader instead of the other captain. Neither of them really seemed to care.

Peter stayed quiet as they discussed plans, he thought this was all over… He thought Thanos was gone but apparently, he might not be and that scared the shit out of him. Only minutes ago he was pretty damn happy that they brought everyone back but now it could all be undone again and Peter really wasn’t ready.

Okay maybe he was panicking a little but not one was noticing so it didn’t matter. Maybe he was just overthinking it, they had everyone back, it wouldn’t be like last time.

“Spidey, were you listening?” Shuri seemed to realize that Peter was having a little bit of trouble but didn’t point it out.

“Uh, kinda. You should repeat it just to make sure…”

“We’re splitting up the stones since we can’t exactly use them. Carol is taking the power stone since she’s the only one that can hold it, I’m taking the mind stone because I might be able to figure it out, Cap gets time, yadda yadda yadda. You get the Soul Stone. The guardian of the soul stone said that it was different from the other stones so we need someone special to protect it. Someone fast and with a danger sense. Anyway, we’re about there. Just make sure the stones are split up so that we can defeat Thanos without them. Got it? Cool.” Shuri rambled at a speed that only Peter could follow along with.

“Cool.” Peter put on his web-shooters and activated the nanites inside them. The nanotech left their containment and covered his body in his suit. He had adjusted the design of the iron spider suit and even got vibranium added to the mix. There were several lines and points in the suit that had a slight indigo glow from the metal but Peter kept the bright red sections. For the aesthetic. It was the perfect amalgamation of starktech and Shuri’s Wakandan technology with Peter’s own designs sprinkled throughout.

Carol gave him the little orange stone. It seemed too small to be one of the most powerful items in the galaxy. Even through his suit, it was warm. He could feel it’s energy. He put it in a pocket in his web-shooter. Normally the place had extra web fluid but he forgot to refill it. It managed to be the perfect size, thank god.

Then he remembered that people were sacrificed for this little glowing rock. Hawkeye… Nebulas sister… This tiny stone definitely was different than the others. The other ones could be stollen, this one had to be paid, and the price was a little steep by Peter’s standards.

He really hoped that the soul stone wasn’t affected by inflation and that it was always a soul for a soul. Maybe a thousand years ago it was a different cool rock for the magic glowing stone. Like a geode from a national park gift shop for the soul stone. He realized that he may have zoned out a little.

The quinjet hovered above the city and the avengers got ready to jump out. Flyers automatically paired up with non-fliers. Nebula stayed in the cockpit to man the jet while Carol paired herself up with Natasha. Rhodey had Rocket snarling on his shoulder with a gun as big as he was.

One by one, the pairs of avengers leaped out of the quinjet. Except for Captain America, who didn’t need anyone to jump with, he didn’t even have a parachute. From what Peter knew about Steve, that was completely normal.

Peter put his arm safely around Shuri’s waist and jumped out. Shuri whooped like she was on a rollercoaster as if they weren’t going into battle with a resurrected intergalactic warlord. It’s not like he hasn’t taken her web-slinging before, in much safer circumstances.

The city was smoldering and civilians were running as far away as they could. Tripping on debris on the way. Peter spotted people stuck in a crumbling building and as if they had a neurological connection, he and Shuri went to work.

There was a reason they were paired up so often. They were an extremely fluid team that was constantly on the same page. They never had to tell each other what to do, they just knew what they were doing. Okay, they weren’t perfect but they had worked together for years and they knew each other pretty well. Shuri usually depended on Peter to catch her when she fell and he usually did.

This was why when Peter threw Shuri into the window of the building, she didn’t swear at him. With both of his hands free and Shuri in the building with the trapped people, he was able to make a large net with his webs. Shuri helped the family jump into the webbing for Peter to escort to the ground, to run as far away from the carnage as fast as they could.

They carried on like this, staying away from the main fight and helping everyone that needed to be helped until a flash of light caught Peter’s attention. He and Shuri were on a building only a few buildings away from where the flash came from.

It was him. It was Thanos. Below him was Steve, bloody and bruised and broken. He looked dead but Peter hoped otherwise. The glowing green gem hovered in between the mad titan’s massive fingers. One stone down… five to go. Peter shuttered at the thought. The time stone was one of the worst ones for him to get first. Well, any of them would be terrible for him to have but Time was a really bad start.

The purple Hitler alien grinned smugly and sent the black order out to find the rest of the stones. He did so, very dramatically.

“We need to split up,” Peter said urgently.

“That’s what I was going to suggest. We’ve already been risking it with two infinity stone so close together. I wouldn’t be surprised if that asshole can smell them like a dog.” She hissed. She took a precious moment that they could’ve spent running by giving him an urgent kiss. “For luck?” she suggested as she jumped off of the roof. Peter rolled his eyes but started web-slinging the opposite way. He could already tell that he would need that good luck.

For the next half hour, everything was so chaotic that Peter wasn’t sure he could perceive it all. He was pretty sure that he pulled someone from under the debris of a collapsed building, he saved a kid from space Voldemorts telepathic attacks that were missing whatever avenger he was currently after.

One by one, Thanos collected the stones, whether through his minions or himself. He took down each avenger, one at a time. If they had a stone or not. They lost Space, Reality, Mind, and Power. Peter became the last Avenger with an infinity stone. He became the last avenger standing.

When he saw the yellow flash of light, he knew Shuri was caught and he stopped whatever he was doing. He cried out a few choice expletives, Hoping that the bastard had only taken the stone and not her life.

Peter was the last one left. If Captain Marvel couldn’t kick this guys ass, there was no way that he could. Everyone was down except for him. That was a lot of pressure. Not many things could distract him from what was happening in front of him but something managed.

There was a burning pain through his wrist, where he hid the soul stone. It didn’t distract him long, he could ignore it for a minute. But he had to do something. He was the only one that could do something.

So he stepped out into the light and let his nanite mask retract. He wanted his face to show. He wanted to breathe the burning air and he wanted to show Thanos that he wasn’t afraid. This was odd because he had been scared to death of Thanos for half a decade, to a point where he had panic attacks over it, but now, all he felt was rage. A hot burning rage that ignited his veins.

He snuck around the broken city in complete silence. His plan could only work if he had the element of surprise. He couldn’t go against all of the black order and Thanos at once. After an eternity of obsessively controlling his breathing and every movement he made, he was in position. He was right behind Thanos.

He took a breath. A moment to collect his thoughts before shit went down and he was going to get hurt. In… and out... In … and out. He lept into action.

In a flash, he flipped over the titan and grabbed blindly at the gems already in the gauntlet. Good news, he managed to get one. Bad news, it was the power stone and Thanos grabbed him by the throat before he was able to get away. His arm burned with the violet energy as Thanos inspected him with a chuckle that only a bad guy could utter.

“They gave a child the soul stone?”

“I know I look young but come on, I don’t look that young.” He wheezed and wasted what little breath he had. His arm still burned but it was fading, it was as if the soul stone and the power stone were canceling each other out.

“It is impressive how long you were able to evade us, but my will is inevitable, the fight is done now. Give me the stones or I will rip them from your corpse.” The titan said calmly as if he was actually giving Peter the choice and not threatening to murder him.

“I don’t think I will.” Peter rasped. “Jesus Christ, if you let me breathe I might be able to actually talk to you… is this normally how negotiations work with you?” Peter noticed his fist holding the power stone and in the same hand as the soul stone was starting to heat up. Not burning destructively like it was before, but with power that was starting to course through him.

Thanos tightened his grip and raised Peter to the sky, cutting off his air and displaying him thousands of feet in the air. That’s when he started to hear a distantly familiar noise. Like a sparkler on the fourth of July multiplied by a million. He could see golden sparks out of the corners of his eyes. Thanos’s expression tightened but he didn’t react to the portals that Peter knew were starting to appear on top of buildings around him.

“Kid?” A painfully familiar voice yelled from somewhere behind him. He was starting to blackout, his lungs begged painfully for air but he couldn’t even gasp. “Let go of him!”

Peter smiled in between dry gasping like a fish out of water. He saw his fist glowing the orange of the soul stone with a fiery intensity. He closed his eyes and reached out to the soul stone. He finally understood. The little glowing rock was alive. The Soul was the most alive thing in the universe. And it was just as angry as Peter was.

Peter’s vision went white. Not because Thanos had successfully choked him to death, but because of the blast. The energy from the soul stone in contact with the power stone caused a concentrated white-hot explosion that didn’t even affect Peter. He wasn’t blown back, he just landed on the roof of the building as Thanos and the black order all around him were blown away with ease.

He frantically turned around, desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of Tony but his spider-sense went off before he could see his long lost mentor. He jumped off the skyscraper before a blast of energy could catch him off guard.

The soul stone led him to the fallen avengers which were all thankfully, not dead. Peter reached out his hand and the cloudy orange energy lazily floated into their bodies like fog. Wounds faded and gasps of breath echoed from around them. Once Peter knew they were okay, he left.

He swung up to a vacant rooftop and took his first full look at the reinforcements. There were at least four armies, the Wakandan army led by T’Challa, The Asgardian Army led by Valkarie, a mess of aliens behind the resurrected guardians of the galaxy and a few hundred wizards in matching robes, led by Doctor Strange. That wasn’t even including all of the undusted avengers and other heroes that stood at the front lines.

Then, Peter saw a glint of red fly out of the corner of his eye and smiled as he turned his head towards it. Moments later, Tony landed in a fresh bleeding-edge suit, his helmet melted back faster than Peter thought that it could.

“Hey, Mr. Stark. It’s been a little while.” Peter was staying cool for now but he was so close to crying. Tony looked exactly like he did before, maybe a little smaller but that was probably on Peter’s side. He did grow a few inches over the years.

“Peter? Is that really you? You look so… mature.” The man joked and raised his eyebrow.

“I better be, It’s been five years after all... You have been gone for a hot second.” Peter grinned, just glad to see Tony alive and in front of him. He could hear Tony’s heartbeat and it was the most beautiful sound.

“Five years? That’s why you’re so tall.” Peter laughed at Tony’s reaction and couldn’t restrict himself any longer, he hugged his old man.

“I missed you… you don’t even know…” It took a moment but Tony hugged back, just as tightly.

“Thank god someone did, That strange guy seemed rather annoyed that I was with them on Titan.”

“Wait, shit,” Peter pulled back from the hug, “We’re in the middle of a fight. Hugs later okay, the big bad guy still has four singularities that are super powerful by themselves.”

“Yeah, that sucks. Want a piggyback ride to the middle of it?” Tony offered as his helmet folded back on.

“Sure.” Peter shrugged. Moments later, he stood on Iron Mans back like he was a magic carpet. Moments later he dove off to confront Thanos again. This time, he was aware of the power that he held.

The only thing life really needed was a soul, and Peter had the essence of the soul in his hand. No time, no reality, no mind would change the fact that he was in control of life. That’s why it was the only stone that needed a sacrifice, that’s why it required the ultimate sacrifice. Because it was more powerful than the power gem. It was alive and it was angry. It had a will and a connection to every living thing. Including Thanos.

Thanos, in all his strength and intelligence, was not immune to the soul stones rage. No time, no space, no reality, no mind could save him.

It was almost disappointing how easy it was. So anticlimactic. The raging energy ate through the titan like he was paper in a flame. The armor didn’t matter, the stones didn’t matter. In moments, he was gone. After Thanos was defeated, the black order was taken down easily.

It was over. It was finally over. Everything was back to normal.

***

Okay, maybe not back to normal but families were reunited, friends were back from the dead and every other problem seemed pretty minuscule. That’s why, after everyone had a nap, the Avengers had a massive party at the compound.

Everyone’s families were invited, May was there, Carol joyfully hung out with her cat goose, Maria, Monica, and Nick Fury, Sam Wilsons mom was there, she even took the time to make cookies, the Wakandan royal family was there and literally hundreds more people. Everyone was glad to be alive and there was an incredible amount of catching up that needed to be done.

Both T’Challa, May, and Tony were pretty stunned to see Shuri and Peter together but after a moment of thought, it really made sense.

Rocket was crying as he hugged a tree teenager and denied the crying bit. He also seemed happy that the rest of his friends were alive, except Nebula’s sister but most of his friends were undusted.

Thor was still kind of glum but a few conversations with Professor Hulk and Valkarie got him laughing heartily. His family may be gone but he still had his friends.

Peter reunited with Ned and MJ, which was weird at first because he was older than them, and MJ didn’t know that he was Spider-Man, she suspected but she didn’t really know. It didn’t take long for them to realize that Peter was still Peter even though he was a little taller now. He was still the same nerd who had to refrain from giving away Star Wars spoilers from movies and TV shows they didn’t know existed.

It wasn’t all good though, while Ned and MJ took advantage of being around every superhero they had ever idolized, May lowkey started flirting with Carol, and Tony was being hogged by Pepper and Happy, Peter stook in a corner, still trying to accept that everything was fixed.

Even though everyone was back now, he still felt odd. He guessed that everything didn’t just suddenly resolve after everyone was brought back to life. The snap didn’t erase what had already happened. Peter had still spent five years separated from all of his friends and family. He had spent so much time mourning only to get everyone back years later. Those feelings didn’t just disappear.

It felt like a dream that they were all back. His mind sending him a reminder of what they looked and sounded like but he knew they were real. He could hear their heartbeats and laughs across the room. They were alive and Peter was so happy, they missed so much.

Peter had changed while they were gone, he was still Peter, he was just more traumatized and more withdrawn. He had grown but he was still the same. He still liked to hang upside down to nap and he was still bad at cooking but not baking. He was just taller and more in tune with his powers and diagnosed with a panic disorder.

In the long run, those changes wouldn’t matter, at least not to people who truly cared. It would just take them a few weeks to get back into the flow of normal life with the people they thought they lost.

It was like half of the universe was Captain America-ed for five years where literally everything changed. Earth became part of the universe, known to other planets as a complete powerhouse instead of an easy steal for some galactic empire. There were more humans in space than ever before and the snap affected everything. Ecosystems, culture, interplanetary and international relations, governmental control, and practically every aspect of normal human life was changed forever.

Peter was shaken out of his thoughts with Shuri handing him a plate full of deserts. He immediately bit into a cookie.

“Something on your mind?” She asked as she stole the cookie from his hand. He didn’t even react.

“Yeah, I know everything’s all fixed and everyone is back, but I don’t know, it feels weird.” He shrugged and grabbed another treat from the plate, knowing that the cookie was lost.

“I know, a lot happened in five years. We already mourned them and cried for them, and poof, they’re back. It’s not bad it’s just, weird.” She nodded.

“I just don’t feel like the same person that they all knew. Like for them, it’s been five seconds and for us, it’s been five years.”

“Does it matter? You are you. No matter your age or what you’ve been through. People change and grow and they just have to get used to who you are now.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I can’t turn back time to be sixteen again, I definitely don’t even want to. I like the me that I am now, but it’s not the same as my friends and family know. Whatever, this is a party, not therapy.”

“That is true, it is time to avoid our problems like there’s no tomorrow!”

And they did.

***

It was three in the morning and Peter was still awake. Not because he wasn’t tired, he definitely was, but because he was afraid of what would come when he closed his eyes. Instead of sleeping, he was in Tony’s lab. He had spent so much time there during the five years of missing his mentor.

Working always helped, it kept him focused. It was calming and it came naturally for him. He played music in the background that was everything from comedy bands to musicals to modern rock and classic rock. It was so much easier to avoid his problems than deal with them.

“Hey Friday, turn down the music, I need to talk to you.” He said while he was pacing and not working on anything at all.

“Of course. What do you want to talk about?” The AI replied cheerfully. She seemed a lot happier since Tony returned.

“I think it’s time to change your primary user back to Tony. He’s alive again so the ‘EDITH’ protocol should be reset. That also means to give back the trust and all that. I can’t rely on my inheritance anyway…” He rambled.

“I’m sorry Peter but I cannot do that. Boss locked the ‘Old Man’ protocol for his retirement. He wants to keep ‘EDITH’ in place.”

“I mean he’s not dead so why would he keep it?”

“It’s getting a little late kid,” Tony spoke from behind Peter. He turned to the man and shrugged.

“Not a kid. I’m old enough to drink but it doesn’t even do anything so that sucks.”

“Believe me, that’s a good thing. You don’t even get hangovers?”

“No, I can’t even get high dude. Weed is useless.” He sighed. Tony laughed.

“You should seriously go to bed though it’s been a pretty long day.”

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” Peter pouted.

“Poor baby.” Tony practically dragged Peter out of the workshop, it had been a pretty long day.

“I’m a little too tall to be a baby.” Peter yawned.

“You’re always going to be my baby,” Tony said surprisingly fondly.

“I’m taller than you.”

“Not emotionally,” Tony noted. Peter snorted in response as they wandered to his bedroom. In the five years of living there, it had barely changed. There were still three Star Wars posters on the wall and the desk was still a mess. The only thing that really changed was the comforter on the queen-sized bed. It had a little flying Iron Man pattern on it and little arc reactors. It used to be a solid scarlet.

“I love you, you know that right? I didn’t get to tell you before and I never want the opportunity to slip away ever again. You’ve been like a dad to me and I could never ask for anyone better. Shit, don’t tell Ben that…” Peter embraced Tony before he left for the night. Tony’s hand instinctually combed comfortingly through his kid’s hair.

“I love you too kid. It’s been rough for you lately but it’s okay now. You saved the universe, not many people can say that.”

“I know right, what are the perks of that? Do I get free food a McDonald’s or something? I mean Jesus got several holidays for saving mankind in some indefinable way, will my birthday become like a day off of school or something?” Peter joked as he stepped back.

“Now that’s an idea… who do you contact for making a holiday…”

“Okay no, don’t do that. Don’t you dare.” Peter said in a serious tone.

“Fine, good night Spider-Jesus.” Tony started to head back to his own room with Pepper.

“I’m not the one that came back from the dead, whatever. Good night Iron Jesus.” He sighed and flopped into bed. He was out like a light in moments. Even if he had a nightmare, he would always wake up to something better than any dream he could conjure. And that was enough.

#webclaws #irondad #endgame fix it #infinity war fix it #MCU fic #queen shuri #black panther shuri

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