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momobani · 2 years

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THE SECRET TO THE ART OF BEING A NUISANCE

If Your Winter Is Hard - Chapter 3 - 14.1k

medium!minghao x exorcist!reader

SERIES MASTERLIST

Warnings: exorcism(duh!); discussion of ghosts + death, reference to death of family members, light violence/ fighting, mention of guns, mention of grief, mention of suicide, mention of food and alcohol consumption

Sum: you seem to find a new friend whilst an old one won’t leave you alone.

A/N: something a little more slice of life and chilled since I think we had a little too much angst last chapter haha, a little on the longer side again oops. The song rec is ‘I got ya’ by Jung Yong Hwa from the SYHH OST cuz it’s awesome and it’s now on Netflix so you best believe I’m re-watching it.

Point of reference for series: Sell Your Haunted House (and Hotel Del Luna but to a lesser extent, both amazing dramas, go watch).

Disclaimer: lot of creative licence here lol, influenced by and used a lot of ideas from Sell Your Haunted House (e.g the setting, certain plot points and prop ideas) with some adaptation, some general/ stereotypical things about exorcism you can learn from mainstream media, nothing too intricate. [seriously go watch SYHH cuz it’s incredible and underrated af and I just had to pay homage to it somehow, so here’s a whole ass fic inspired by it haha]

You slip in and out of consciousness. A distorted recollection of sounds, movements and sensations overlapping and mismatching the way the wrong puzzle pieces don’t fit together to create the bigger picture. All you know is that you make it home, into your bed and fall asleep heavily, the way gravity takes over a falling object.

Some time in the midst of your sleep, you do wake and crack your eyes open just a smidge, to check that indeed you are still alive. You’re about to drift off again but a purple blob in your peripheral vision makes you do a double take. You edge your head towards it slightly and focus. You find a sleeping lump on the floor beside your bed, the loose bedding from your spare room, covered by your sister’s purple sheets, dragged into yours and him tucked under the duvet, still in his long coat, his boots and yours discarded haphazardly by the door.

Minghao.

You just blink and close your eyes, going back to sleep.

The way your head thumps is worse than a post frat party hangover. You roll over with a grunt and slide to a sitting position, not trusting your body to keep you upright yet. Minghao is gone, the purple bedding folded up neatly and left on top of your empty desk. You wonder briefly if he went home like the first time he slept over, but you hear a loud clang coming from the kitchen.

You shuffle down the hallway, the smells and sounds reach you before you reach the room, the door left open. You see Minghao with his back turned to you as he stands at the stove, a pan on the heat and steaming away.

“You’re awake?” He says, glancing at you over his shoulder. You’re confused, not saying anything but humming in response. “Good, I was starting to get worried. Thought you’d be hungry, you like fried eggs?” He asks, but it doesn’t matter, he’s made the effort already and you appreciate it, even if this is the second time he’s meddling in your kitchen unprompted.

“Are you going to say something?” He asks, his voice quiet and the sizzling of the pan’s contents almost drowns it out. You want to but your mouth feels dry and heavy, jaw locked. Still, you try.

“Thank you.” You say, throat still raw.

“Not what I meant, but you’re welcome.” He turns off the heat. He starts looking around for something but can’t seem to find it. “Where are your plates?”

“Bottom left.” You instruct. You mean the low cupboard to his left. He bends, scanning for the plates but the light barely reaches there and he struggles to see. He crouches, folding himself up like a little frog about to jump away and finally finds what he’s looking for.

“It’s so damn dark in here, how do you even see.” He mutters. “Seriously, you’re damaging your eyes like this.” He nags. You’re just standing there, looking at him, the way you watch daytime TV without engaging with it.

“It’s light enough.” Then you reach for the cutlery drawer. Minghao has the same idea and your hands land on the handle at the same time, pinkies brushing as you pull at it. You move your hand away, not wanting to draw attention to your bruised and bloody knuckles. You pluck out two forks and let him shut it after you.

The two of you sit at your weathered table with the plate of fried eggs between you. You’d find it odd, being comfortable to have breakfast with someone you’re not close with yet, but you didn’t have the energy to find it awkward, didn’t have the brain power to overanalyse the situation due to the grogginess of your present state.

“You want to talk about it?” He asks after you’ve started to nibble on a piece of egg. You hesitate for a second. Maybe because his tone is soft, gentle almost, as if he’s coaxing a tiny animal out of its cage for the first time. But no, you didn’t. It’s not easy to admit you broke down even if he could see that. So you shake your head. “Okay.”

You eat for a minute. But it’s bugging you.

“What happened after I left?” You inquire after struggling to stop yourself. Minghao chews, as if considering it, then puts his fork down.

“Hmm, there was a tense silence. You sure know how to make an exit.” He says jokingly, but you can tell he’s not making fun of you. “We were debating going after you but Jeonghan said to give you space. So everyone kind of left after that.”

“But you came anyway.” Your words hang in the stuffy air of your basement. “Why?” Minghao shrugs.

“Intuition. I felt like something bad might happen if I didn’t.” He says simply. “I’d remembered that photo of you and your sister at the beach. I saw it when I was here.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“And let you freeze out there by yourself?” He raises his eyebrows at you accusingly. His face softens after a moment. “I mean, you just hired me, what kind of employee would I be if I let my boss die of hypothermia on the first day.”

“I guess.”

You finish the eggs then down some painkillers with a warm glass of water. You’re starting to feel like a person again. Minghao stacks the plate next to the sink and turns to you.

“Listen, I have a class to teach in a bit, but how about after I come pick you up and we go to IKEA?”

You almost sputter with confusion, the water incredibly close to going down the wrong way.

“IKEA? Out of nowhere, why?” You ask.

“No offence but, uh,” he pauses.

“If you start a sentence with ‘no offence’ there’s probably going to be a lot of offence.” You find it in yourself to sass back.

“Okay, fine. Full offence but your kitchen is way too dark, you don’t have enough mugs and that bookcase looks like it’s about to collapse.” He juts his chin toward the bookshelf that takes up the farthest wall of the room, its shelves stuffed to the brim with books bulging to the point of bursting. You lick your lips.

“I’m not offended. It’s pretty constructive criticism. But I’ll decline.”

“What are you going to do instead?” He persists. “Go back to bed?”

“Jeez,” you sigh. When he said it like that, it sounded a little pathetic. “You don’t have to be like that.”

“Like what? I’m just trying to get you to go outside, the fresh air will help.” You watch him for a moment; his face is neutral, as if he’s only speaking factually than persuasively. There’s a part of you that agrees with him and knows he’s right but it’s still annoying.

“Yeah, I’m sure that new furniture smell will work its wonders.” You deadpan at him, voice coloured with sarcasm. “Alright. Let’s go. I like shopping therapy anyway.”

“Good, I’ll see you later.”

You see him out, then shower. The heat of the water cleanses you inside and out, it warmth caressing your skin and you watch as the dried blood from your knuckles slides down the drain. When you get out with the steam following you, you open the tiny cabinet above the sink and something falls out immediately. You pick it up.

A new pack of plasters.

There’s also antiseptic and some bandage dressing.

You feel an overwhelming warmth, unbearable hotness even, and you blame it on how steamy your shower was before leaving the bathroom.

While you wait, you find yourself in the upstairs office, reading through some files on recent cases involving vengeful spirits while a series of worried texts from Seungkwan ping your phone in succession. You text him once to say you’re fine and leave it at that. He doesn’t know much about why you are the way you are with Jeonghan and you’d rather keep it that way.

Minghao offers to drive again and you let him when he guessed you were tired. It was a good call since if you were behind the wheel, you’d have crashed already. All because something is immensely weird about him when he comes back. The car is filled with an incessant noise and it’s starting to drive you crazy: Minghao’s voice.

He talks rapidly, switching from topic to topic as the conversation (you’re not sure you can call it that since you haven’t actually said anything) morphs and grows. It’s an endless monologue and he goes from the weather (“It’s so cold for mid October, it must be one of those climate change effects.”), to the traffic (“I swear this road is never that busy, what is going on today? Just look at that!”), then about his class and how his students are bailing on him (“There’s just less and less and I’m wondering where the hell are they all going?”), circling back to the traffic when a car cuts across your lane (“Motherfucking asshole, you call that driving? Fucking stay in your lane, you piece of shit!”) and by that point you’re for the most part mentally checked out.

It’s like he compiled a lifetime of things to say and decided to unburden them on you all of a sudden. He’s like one of those pro-drivers doped up on caffeine and the nervous shaking starts to kick in except with Minghao it’s just him running his mouth like it’s an Olympic sport.

It’s somewhere at the intersection before the retail park that he realises what he’s doing.

“What the hell is wrong with me? I can’t stop talking, I swear I haven’t talked this much in the past week combined. I have no idea where this is all coming from.”

“You could become one of those Soundcloud rappers. Like Vernon.” You mutter absentmindedly.

You’re waiting at a red light, your car at the front of the line. You watch as it goes from red, to amber to green. Then it hits you.

“Oh my god, it’s the ghost!” You exclaim, your brain finally starting to shift gears. Minghao jumps slightly at your sudden outburst, trying his best to keep the wheel steady. “Of course it is, how could I have not figured it out, yet?” You mentally slap yourself. It made so much sense.

“Don’t scare the driver while the car is in motion!” He grips the steering wheel harder, visibly stressed.“What are you talking about? I’m not possessed anymore.” He pulls the car into a parking spot.

“Sometimes there are side effects, well more like after effects of an exorcism. There’s usually the ghost’s last memory that goes to the exorcist, though occasionally to the medium, and more rarely, there’s certain habits in the ghost’s life that stick to the exorcist or the medium afterward.” You explain, finally getting a word in edgewise. “For example, one time I kept craving chewing gum out of nowhere. Yesterday, I saw the memory but it seems that you picked up how talkative that lady was.”

“Great, that’s just amazing.” Minghao groans, his head banging against the headrest. “Tell me it goes away, I can’t stand it anymore.”

“You’ll be fine, it does go away after a few hours.” You reassure him. “Might have to buy duct tape but it’ll be fine.” You say under your breath as you both get out the car.

It’s drizzling slightly, the skies grey and heavy with the promise of more rain so you walk quickly towards the store. You pass a tiny locksmith shop in the retail park and something makes your feet stop short. You think of the spare key under your camellia pot, considering stopping by but you decide against it. There was nothing wrong with the actual locks, it was just Jeonghan abusing the key’s hiding spot.

Minghao notices you’ve stopped and paces back two steps.

“What is it?”

“Remind me to put the spare key in the bird feed.” You say to him. He looks perplexed but shrugs and you continue walking.

The store is hardly bustling but there’s a number of people around. While you walk around, time just passes by like a breeze. You end up arguing about which bookcase would suit the living room better, and you end up getting a matching set of three; two Billies and a Brimnes since there’s enough space along that wall to line the them up.

Your trolley gets fuller with a set of four tea cups (Färglar), a tea pot at Minghao’s insistence (Hembjuden), and a lamp that materialises while you’re not looking at the trolley (Tårgarp). You start to suspect that Minghao has a hidden agenda and he just subtly wants to redecorate your house.

You were busy looking at a metal lantern for candles. It just seemed like it would fit in with how ancient everything was in your house.

“Oh c’mon, it’s a little tacky, no?” Minghao protests when you add it to the trolley.

“Hey, don’t chat shit about Borbry.” You put your hands on either side of lantern, pretending it has ears. Minghao exhales dramatically.

“Fine, at least get two because one lantern isn’t going to solve the problem.”

You frown but ultimately concede and pull another one off the shelf, then take a good look at what you’ve already compiled and notice a box that says ‘Störtskön’. You look closer and raise your eyebrows.

“Scented tea lights? Really?” You examine the photo of little Bordeaux coloured candles.

“It’s for the vibes.”

“Are you inviting yourself to my house for tea?”

“Maybe.” Minghao evades the question by pushing the trolley and continuing down the aisle. His nonchalance makes you snort with disbelief. Now you were sure he had an agenda; he was just redecorating his new work place. You roll your eyes and follow him.

There’s nothing else you can think of needing to get while you’re there so you line up at the checkout. The cashier is an older lady with shiny white hair and a pair of spectacles. You think the way they perch on the bridge of her nose makes her look like an owl, wise and wide-eyed.

“Hello there, dears. Is that all for you today?” She asks sweetly and you muster up a genuine smile.

“Yes, thank you.” And you let Minghao bag things while you pay.

“That’s a nice ring, sugar, did your husband get it for you?” She asks, nodding her head toward Minghao as you put your card in the machine. You look up in surprise. In your peripheral vision you spy that Minghao’s ring is also on display as deals with the bags.

“Huh-”

“Oh you must be newly weds, look at you two! How lovely! Hey, let me get you two darlings a coupon. It’s so hard for young people these days-”

Minghao starts to open his mouth, obviously to attempt to protest, but you click your tongue quietly and nudge him with your foot. She looks way too happy to believe that and you don’t have the heart to say anything. He stops mid-breath and clamps his lips shut. And you pay and accept the piece of paper with a smile, teeth shiny on display.

“Aww, thank you ma’am, that’s so sweet! You have a good day now. Let’s go, honey.” You start to prod Minghao toward the door.

“All that for a coupon?” Minghao hisses through his teeth as you leave the store, pushing the trolley with your bags and boxed bookcases.

“Oh calm down.”

“You conned an old lady! Why did you do that for?” He asks accusingly. You scoff at the audacity of his question.

“Please, I didn’t con her; she assumed and didn’t give us time to correct her.” You explain. “Besides, she looked happy thinking we were some cute couple. Let her. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” And it stings, the conviction with which you say that. You knew better than anyone else to let people live under their own illusions - after all, those who didn’t believe in ghosts lived happier lives for the most part.

“Whatever. Next time you con someone, count me out, honey.” He huffs as he opens the trunk. His words ring out with an air of annoyance and it peeves you. You load the car and decide to drive on the way back.

The ride is silent.

You’re almost grateful the after effects of the exorcism are wearing off but you’d much preferred it when Minghao couldn’t shut up to this silence. You can hear yourself breathe and whilst usually it wouldn’t bother you, today it did.

“Are you that mad?” You ask him after a while. Minghao is staring out the window. It’s raining heavily now, the drops hitting the glass and sliding down the surface rapidly. He responds to the sound of your voice.

“Wha- No. Of course not, I already forgot about that. I was just thinking.” He says. You feel his eyes on you, inquisitive and quiet. It makes you feel observed. You guess he wants to ask something and you think you can predict what it is. You sigh as you stop at a red light.

“Just ask. I don’t care.” You keep your eyes on the road. Minghao shifts a little, adjusting his seat belt even though it clearly wasn’t bothering him.

“Who is Jeonghan, really? And why do you hate him so much?” His voice is soft and unimposing, and whilst you predicted the subject of the query, you didn’t predict the way he asked. He had asked this morning if you wanted to talk about it, but you’d assumed it was about the running away and going a little crazy, not specifically about him.

Nonetheless, it makes you hesitate since you don’t know where to begin and where to stop about Jeonghan.

“I don’t hate him.” You find yourself pondering the origin and verity of the statement. The light switches to green and you rev the engine.

“You don’t?”

“No. It’s complicated.” And you hate that you sound so vague but there’s no other way to even start trying to explain. Your think your heart starts to twist in your chest but you answer. “Jeonghan was part of our firm. A while ago.” You say carefully. “My aunt had taken him in as an apprentice after my sister introduced him.”

You remember so distinctly meeting him for the first time. His hair was this light brown shade and he wore a thick, black parka, his hands stuffed in its pockets. You were still in high school back then, your sister in college, but you’d been helping in the office for years already.

You were standing on the staircase, looking down at the three of them. Jeonghan noticed you first and sent a smile your way, his eyes crinkling. Somewhere in the back of your mind you wondered, was he going to stick around? It was clear your sister liked him a lot, but it didn’t matter how much you liked or loved someone, they would still leave you.

You’d learned that when your parents had left you to grow up in the office with your grandparents and aunt. You’d wondered if Jeonghan was going to be like your family too that day.

“He and my sister were close. They were dating but they tried not to show it.” You feel the corner of your mouth tug up at the memory. You don’t realise that you’re already parked in front of the house but you stay there, reminiscing.

All those times your sister shooed you out so she could talk on the phone in your shared room, the smile apparent in her voice. The times you caught them looking at each other across the office, something magnetic but secret between them. One time, you even remember Jeonghan trying to wipe what resembled the shade of lip tint your sister wore off his mouth discretely when you entered the kitchen for lunch. They really weren’t as slick as they thought.

“For a while we all worked here. Then my aunt retired and left those two in charge with me as a trainee.” You continue. “After my sister died, he couldn’t bear being in the house. So he left.” Like everyone else, but you don’t say that out loud. You were always the one getting left behind, you were used to it.

You leave out the gruesome details and lore of what lead to your sister’s death, not wanting to scare Minghao away already since he’d only just started working as a medium. If he knew truly how dangerous it was, he’d surely leave too and even if you weren’t attached to him yet, you kind of liked having him around. You did have people around you anyway, but all kept away at an arm’s length. The other guys didn’t know anything so it was easy to keep up the pretence.

The pretence of what? Of not being emotionally scarred and resenting the person who you thought was your brother?

“He’s back though. And he wants to help, why not let him try?” Minghao suggests gently. You know it’s not coming from a bad place but you’re not willing to think about that right now.

“He’ll try anyway, you don’t know him like I do.” You say, referring to Jeonghan’s ability of weaselling his way out of or into anything he set his mind to. “Let’s go, you have shelves to help me assemble.”

You bribe Minghao into helping you by immediately starting to brew some tea, rushing to wash your new pot and mugs. He agrees, giving you a sarcastic salute and a Mickey Mouse ‘Aye, aye, Captain.’ You glare at him and point towards the old bookcase.

“Dismantle that first, matey.” You say. “And be careful, some of those books are older than the house.”

The farthest wall of the living room is the biggest and emptiest out of all of them; the bookcase was the only thing against it beside a large trunk with a multitude of clasps. The connecting wall was the one where the windows were, both aged, large and single paned. One of them had a wide windowsill, wide enough to sit on and sometimes you would with a blanket and a book, watching the shadows of the outside change as the day did from your makeshift reading nook.

Inside the trunk was a collection of supplies that you never bothered to store in a proper cabinet. Mostly supplies from Joshua that you weren’t immediately using; several boxes of salt bullets, a collection of different styled exorcist blades, a couple of spare salt dispensers and a few unused candles.

You pour the tea into the pot, feeling the ghost of giddiness wash over you as you then partition some into two of your new mugs, a duo of pastel turquoise ceramic pieces with those tiny plate thingies. They’re kinda cute, you had to admit.

“Hey, what’s with the book Tetris over here?” Minghao asks suddenly. You look over there and see he’s broken through to the second layer of books on the shelf. You’d put the important exorcist books as a front layer so you could access them quickly. The other stuff behind it was just a miscellaneous bunch of paperbacks that you’d read and forgotten about.

“It’s called conserving space.” You reply. “Tea’s ready.”

“‘Kay.” He says, turning back to trying to take out more books. This layer has the spines turned around for some reason you can’t recall right now but you’re sure there must have been some thought behind it. “Oh my god. What is this?” You hear Minghao’s fake gasp as he plucks one of the paperbacks and holds it up, his lips forming an exaggerated ‘o’.

You zero in on the cover but can’t quite read the letters from the distance. Fortunately Minghao starts to read the title for you.

“‘Alpha’s Tempta-’”

Oh that’s why the spines were turned around.

“Ahhh!” You shriek and make a bee-line for Minghao. He’d managed to unearth your cringey collection of romance novels, if they could even be graced with that title because they were thoughtlessly pumped out by the authors, to hell with artistic integrity. He sees you coming and holds the book above his head so you can’t reach it whilst trying to read the blurb.

“It’s nothing-”

“Nah, it’s definitely something. ‘A steamy supernatural romance set in the city.’” He reads out. “Wow, YN, didn’t think you were into this sort of thing.” He positively giggles as you struggle. The sound would surprise you because it’s the first time you’re hearing it but you’re too busy hopping up and down trying to smack the book out of his hand and the death grip he’s got on it.

“It’s not even mine, it’s my sister’s.” You lie, almost managing to make contact with it.

“Hmm, I don’t believe you, should I go ask her?” He looks around, as if scanning the room for your sister’s ghost.

“Ugh, fine, just put it down.” You start to pant from all the jumping. You needed to work on your cardio.

“Don’t wanna.” He giggles some more, clearly enjoying teasing you. You decide to change tactics. You direct a hand slice at his abdomen and knock the breath out of him. While he’s caught off guard enough and his arms falters, you snatch the book before he recovers.

“Go drink your tea, I’ll deal with the rest.” You huff, your blood rushing around your body. Definitely needed to work on your stamina. Minghao pouts but complies. You shoo him away and get to work.

“So which one is it?” You ask Minghao, quizzing him on the case you were currently looking at. You had two possible identities of the spirit and there were several factors that gave clues as to the conclusion of who it was you were looking for.

You’re sitting behind your desk in the main office area, Minghao taking up Hoshi’s usual spot at the opposite desk. It’s been a few days and you’ve settled into some kind of routine. Minghao teaches his classes and comes in to help you with research and planning for a few hours each day, no particular pattern to his presence but a quick text and the revving of a motorcycle engine a while after. While he’s away you’re working on finishing some filing and writing reports on your previous exorcisms. It was mostly a document editing exercise but it had to be done.

“I think it’s the older one. He seems like he has more reasons to stick around and he lived closer so it’s likely he would go to that station. We still need to see his face to know for sure, but it’s probably him.” Minghao answers, his analysis as accurate as you were expecting.

You were impressed with how well he was adapting to the job, following up leads and logic smoothly. Usually you got some bizarre conspiracy theories from your mediums and whilst it was fun sometimes, you would end up more confused and doubting your own ideas and experience because they presented those slightly skewed points of view. Every once in a while they might even be on to something so you didn’t discourage them from thinking outside the box, but it was kind of nice to work with someone who at least acknowledged that the box existed for a reason.

“That’s what I thought, it’s the more obvious choice but we’ll know for sure when we go check it out later.”

“Isn’t it a little risky though? There’s a lot of trains on that line.”

“We won’t actually go on the tracks, we just need to see the ghost. Judging from the reports, it must be a vengeful spirit so we better be careful. We’ll have to summon him somewhere secluded.” You explain.

“Right, what’s the deal with vengeful spirits anyway? Like I get they’re more dangerous but how?”

“They are more dangerous - their negative energies are stronger than normal spirits who are just lost or don’t know they’re dead yet. They hold strong grudges or stay because they’ve been incredibly wronged and so it translates to them being able to channel those energies better than other ghosts. That means that they can hurt those still living.” You hadn’t worked many vengeful spirit cases in your career but you knew about them since your sister and Jeonghan had while you were a trainee.

“There’s probably another reason why the man became a vengeful spirit. All we know is that his investment went under and he lost everything. Maybe we’re missing something.”

You shake your head.

“He committed suicide, that’s enough to become a vengeful spirit.” You say. “Records show that about 8.5 times out of 10, those who become ghosts after suicide end up as vengeful spirits. You could be right that there’s something in particular related to his investment but we can operate on the basis that it’s because of the nature of his death.”

“Okay, so all we have to do is ID him and then exorcise him.” Minghao stands up, hands on hips, clearly satisfied. “Now let’s go eat, I’m starving, I skipped lunch ‘cause I had a class.”

“Sure, gimme a sec.” you say, packing your bag. You have a salt dispenser, gun, incense and five crystals - a selection of amethyst, calcite, ruby, tourmaline and obsidian. Best to cover as many bases as possible. You also make sure you’ve got your wallet, phone and umbrella, as well as some of those tiny IKEA candles Minghao bought last week. Who knew they’d come in handy.

“Should we take the bike or the car?” Minghao asks as you move to lock up the office. You now held on to Minghao’s spare helmet since you were the only one that used it. You click the lock. It had stopped raining for the day and the air was damp and humid, the atmosphere fresh but still a little wet.

“The subway.” You say and start heading down the street, toward where you could find an entrance to the metro.

You each get a day pass, getting into the first train car that you see. You have no particular plan of where you’re going to eat since you’re focused on why you got in the train in the first place. You wanted to analyse the inside of the car purposefully. It could be a good space for an exorcism, at least that’s what your theory was. You couldn’t be more wrong.

It’s cramped inside, the seats lining up each side only breaking over where the doors were. The space between the two sides was only two metres wide and there was no way you could risk a fight scene in here. One or both of you might end up with a concussion or worse.

So that’s out of the question. Instead you have a good look if you could use the car for a different purpose.

Minghao sits obliviously next to you, checking the map so you know where you can get off. That and probably what restaurants are nearby because you can hear the quiet rumble of his stomach. You feel a little bad you hadn’t gone grocery shopping recently so your fridge was empty. You lived alone so you managed to survive on whatever you found lying around so it didn’t occur to you to buy a lot of food.

You glance at the map too, looking over his shoulder. The next stop was around a park, the police station and some restaurants on the main street. Not bad.

You stand up and take another careful look around the car. You note the positioning of the poles and the overhead railing where handles were dotted around the car for those standing up. You spy two CCTV cameras above the doors at each end connecting the car to the rest of the train. You could work with that.

“What do you want to eat?” Minghao asks suddenly, waiting next to you in front of the sliding doors.

“I’m thinking chicken.” You say, a smirk threatening to appear on your lips as you formulate a plan in your head.

And you do eat chicken. There’s a quant little shop not far from the subway stop with crispy, delicious fried chicken that you imagine could move mountains and stop wars. You order two portions to eat and one to takeaway, Minghao shooting you a questioning glance when you do. You nod a subtle ‘trust me’ at him and sit down in a booth. The mouthwatering smell inside the restaurant is overwhelming and you feel your own stomach starting to growl.

“You know, I was thinking about how vengef-” Minghao starts. You shoot him a warning glare to watch his words.

“Not. In. Public.” You mouth at him. He almost rolls his eyes at you and looks around your table. There’s hardly anyone around in the shop and no one within a few metres of your booth, unlikely to hear your conversation. But you stand by what you said.

“I was thinking you need to train a little. These - clients - are more dangerous, I could teach you a few things too.” You’re taken aback by the suggestion, the offer coming as a surprise in some ways. You hadn’t thought about purposefully practicing your fighting skills with Minghao but it had definitely crossed your mind that you needed to improve, specifically in terms of your fitness.

“Alright, we can do that tomorrow then, we’re expecting Seungkwan and Vernon in the evening for a meeting but there’s time before that.” You agree.

“You can come to the studio, I only have one morning class.” Minghao says.

“We can go to Hoshi’s building; there’s a gym space there and it saves one of us a trip. I was going to ask him for help anyway.”

The chicken is worth every penny and you can’t help but close your eyes as you take a bite, the crunch echoing loudly in the crevices of your head, the intensity of how good the taste is making your brain melt consequently. You definitely chose the right place.

You open your eyes and find Minghao looking at you. He averts his eyes down to his own chicken when you catch him and you get self-conscious. He must have been judging you in that quiet and inconspicuous way of his. You don’t let it bother you though because that chicken deserves the reaction it got. You’ll be coming back for sure.

It’s starting to get dark already by the time you’re out of the restaurant and you take a moment to get your bearings. To your left was the way back to the subway, straight ahead was a main street with shops and to your right was the way to the police station.

You swivel right and walk, expecting Minghao to follow. He does after a heartbeat.

“What’s next?” He asks, his large stride slower than your pace. Damn him and his long legs.

“We’re making a delivery then going to see the ghost.” You say before telling Minghao the rest of the plan in detail.

When you arrive outside the station, you fish out your phone and make a phone call. It rings once, twice and on the third, he picks up.

“Are you at the station? I need a favour and I brought payment.” You say into the phone.

“I’ll be right down.” A voice replies on the other side. You wait for a couple of minutes and hear the entrance doors sliding open.

Wonwoo emerges from the building in a thick jumper, jeans and bomber jacket, the arsenal of action and non-action cops, his lanyard hanging around his turtle neck. He walks down the low steps to where you’re standing.

“Hey, Wonwoo.” You greet, smiling at your friend.

“Hi guys, what’s up?” He smiles back. You hold up the bag containing the box of fried chicken, its powerful aroma no match for the foil it was wrapped up in or the greased up cardboard of the box. Wonwoo’s eyebrows shoot up, his glasses sliding down his nose slightly.

“For you.” You hand it to him. He takes it hesitantly after glancing over each shoulder.

“What’s the occasion?” He adjusts his glasses, pushing them by the bridge with a single finger.

“Just a little gift. I keep my promises.” You shrug innocently.

“Did you break the law again?” Wonwoo asks suddenly alarmed. You hear Minghao choke on air next to you. You scoff.

“Please, I never broke the law. I’m not Jeonghan or my sister.”

“Oh right,” Wonwoo nods, clearly recalling the incident. “That was them. Then what is it?”

“You know how you did that stuff with the museum system, can you do it again?” You ask. “Pretty please?”

“What exactly do you need?”

“I need to locate an immobile train car within half a mile of here and cut CCTV on us.” You pause, thinking. That should do it for now, but you might need more for the actual exorcism.

“Alright, can do. Can’t guarantee it’s going to be that close though. It’s not the full job, is it?” He checks.

“No, just identifying the ghost. Look at you, learning how exorcisms work.” You praise Wonwoo.

“No problem, give me fifteen minutes and I’ll send you a location. After that it’s easy, you just need to give me a serial number and we’ll be good to go.”

True to his word, Wonwoo texts you the location of an out of service train along the tracks a few stops from where you are and instructions on how to get there through different staff entrances. So you and Minghao head to it as the late afternoon gets darker.

Within forty minutes you’re standing in front of the empty train. You’re underground somewhere in the city centre, the tunnels deserted and eerily quiet, you can’t even hear the other trains. You imagine the rush hour that must be starting on the working lines and shudder.

The location, as Wonwoo predicted, was not as close as you’d liked it to have been but it would have to do for now. The reason you needed it closer was primarily because it would be harder to summon the ghost - very often apparitions were tied to one place, and the reports you’d received were close to the chicken shop stop, so it was more likely you’d find your ghost in that area.

“Well this sure isn’t creepy.” Minghao says as you stand outside the train and text Wonwoo that you’d arrived. He tells you how to open the door in front of you and then where to look for the CCTV serial number.

You spend a good few minutes trying to locate the code, several tiny letters and numbers printed on the side of the camera itself. You resort to sitting on Minghao’s shoulders in order to get close enough to the camera to see it since that particular spot has no seat next to it. You’re grateful there’s no one to witness your circus act even though you two will always know it happened. You don’t waste energy on awkwardness though since you’re working.

Wonwoo warned you that it’s possible there are rail line workers in the area and that you should be weary of them in case they do show up nearby.

“I gotta ask, how the hell did you manage the gallery exorcism without Wonwoo’s help?” Minghao asks after a while when you’ve located the serial number and texted it to Wonwoo to work on.

“That’s the funny thing, most exorcisms don’t require this sort of extensive outside help. Very often, depending on the strength of the spirit’s energies, electrical appliances go haywire and malfunction though it’s very hit or miss.” You say as you open up your bag. “This particular time, we checked the gallery thrice over and found that the cameras had a lot of blindspots. They were concentrated at the entrance and exit points and not so much on the actual art. Ironic right? Probably ‘cause it’d be impossible to just carry out most of that art because it’s heavy or there’s security walking around on intervals.”

“Yeah, the security isn’t that great. I was actually half asleep when the ghost possessed me. When I woke up after you exorcised it out of me, I thought I’d had some kind of crazy sleep walking episode or you’d drugged me.” He laughs at the thought. “Turns out it was just a supernatural phenomenon.”

“You’d be surprised how easily explainable some things are if you just open your mind.” You shrug as you pull out the salt dispenser, crystals, candles and incense. Minghao hums in response but doesn’t say anything else whilst he watches you. You remind yourself he’s still new to all this and he’s probably focusing hard in order to learn properly.

First you open the salt and crouch to the floor of the car. You start drawing a circle, your hand steady with well-learned precision and concentration. Without breaking the line, you draw a pentagram all in one fluid motion. Next you place the crystals at each point of the star, making sure that they’re nestled on top of the salt nicely. Then you place a candle in the space between each point within the circle and the pot of incense in the centre of the pentagram.

“So this is what a bat signal for ghosts looks like.” Minghao muses in fascination from his spot on the seats. You smirk at the comparison.

“Sure, let’s call it that.” You agree, pulling out a lighter from your pocket. It has metallic casing with an indented image of a daisy on the body. You flip open the lid and click it to spark the flame. The tiny light appears and you light the candles before the incense and put the lid on it. The faint smoke starts to waft from the pot, carried gently through the air.

“You remember the plan?” You ask Minghao while you wait, legs crossed and gun in hand as you sit across from him.

“Yup, get behind you when the ghost comes. It’s quite simple, y’know.” He answers.

You know it is, for him at least. For you it wasn’t complicated either - all you had to do was isolate the ghost with several bullets and identify the face of the spirit. You found this part of exorcisms a little tedious; usually you treated it as part of one of your scouting missions but lately you were falling into a different work pattern because of working with Minghao.

You remember how you used to go on these missions with your sister instead of her resident mediums, usually freelancers from the Council or she’d take Jeonghan, and you suspected that they treated these times like dates, going ghost hunting, how romantic. You sigh at the thought. There was nothing romantic about the way the lights started flickering.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Minghao asked as he craned his neck around to watch the bulbs switch on and off on the ceiling.

“It can sometimes. The ghosts you’ve seen so far have been a cake walk compared to vengeful spirits.” You tell him, watching the shadows flit across his features as the overhead light changes. It highlights the curve of his jaw, the length of his nose and the height of his cheekbones.

And then you hear the buzzing before the lights above you spark and darkness befalls the car. Minghao flinches, curling in on himself for a split second. You sit still, unbothered. The lights are fried completely, giving out under the meddling energies coming from the ghost. You’re still alone in the car, the door to one end open. The candles are still lit, their flames dancing in the darkness.

Suppose the candlelight could be considered romantic, you think in the back of your mind. Then again, you weren’t sure you wanted to be romantic with coworkers; see how it worked out for your sister. You try to focus again on the task at hand and the darkness you sat in.

Minghao is visibly on edge, his posture stiff and tense, his eyes wide open in anticipation. You’re alert too but you knew it could take a long time so there was no use in working yourself up from now. All this was normal when it came to vengeful spirits; it had been a while but you found yourself almost comfortable because you’d experienced this all before.

It all takes you back, sitting in the dark waiting for a ghost. The last time you’d dealt with a vengeful spirit was last year with Hoshi, whose reaction was so much worse than Minghao’s. When the lights got busted Hoshi was grabbing your arm and starting to hyperventilate. You can’t even imagine if you had to finish one of these with Seokmin, who no doubt would start shrieking his head off after the first flicker.

Something about seeing Minghao being able to withstand whatever he was feeling made you a little proud.

“You want me to hold your hand?” You ask, your mouth moving on its own accord. Not exactly sure where that came from. Minghao frowns when he meets your eyes, unimpressed at the subtle teasing lilt to your tone. “Just kidding.” You raise your hands in defence. As you say that you notice your breath frosting in front of you, the chill in the air becoming apparent as instantly as it happened. That meant the ghost was nearby.

It settles over you, cutting frost, setting off a tsunami of goose bumps on your skin, the exposed areas and everything covered by your warm clothes. It makes you feel palpitating dread, the type that makes you almost choke on the air in your lungs. You knew it was coming but it was still utterly disorientating to suddenly be so uncomfortable and you had to admit, scared.

You spy the fog in the corner of your eye and take two steps forward to actually grab Minghao’s hand and pull him to your side, holding your gun up to your lips as a sign to be quiet. His hand is freezing in yours and you see how he’s paled greatly even in the darkness, the energy draining away from his face. You step up onto the seat behind you and pull him up too.

There’s faint grey smoke floating into the train car, crawling along the floor, the candlelight distorting its colour and battling against its strength, the light there starting to flicker too. The fog gets thicker and it’s finally followed by the apparition itself.

He’s a shadow at first, almost human like as he glides into the space. He’s wearing dark clothes from what you can make out. You’re gripping Minghao’s hand intuitively, trying to ground him as the ghost gets closer. You plant your eyes on where the ghost’s face is and focus. The light just about reaches him, his transparent features becoming clearer by the second.

You recognised him.

It was the man who you’d been talking about in your office, the failed investor who’d ended his own life. He walks in, calmly enough for a vengeful spirit and you must think it’s the lovely scent of the tiny candles that helped subdue him. Once he passes by you, you nudge Minghao toward the exit.

He gets the hint and steps as quietly as possible, crab shuffling to the edge of the seat then down to the floor with you in tow. You raise your gun slowly, stealthily as the ghost has his back to you. He’s moved further past your pentagram setup and so you shoot rapidly, aiming to create a series of walls around the spirit. The ghost stops abruptly as if he noticed something.

The walls materialise as the bullets hit the ground where you aimed, the energy flaring upwards and isolating the ghost. You move quickly, letting go of Minghao’s hand and dropping to the ground, blowing out the candles and incense. You take out a heatproof bag and throw them all in your backpack, grabbing the crystals in one hand and shoving the whole thing back in.

The ghost is thankfully quiet and just looking around himself as if he could see the walls, but his perplexed state is starting to agitate him, the walls barely shimmering there in the dark but their energy must be starting to bother him. He attempts to keep walking but hits a wall, the energy visibly repelling him and he hits at it with a transparent hand.

“Let’s go before the walls dissipate and he gets mad.” You usher Minghao away. He was staring in fascination the whole time, both at you and at the ghost’s mime act. You don’t blame him, the sight must be interesting to those who have never seen anything quite like it but you want to remind him that once those walls fall away, there’s no telling what the ghost might do. Vengeful spirits could control energies better, maybe even purposely and if he perceives you then things could turn sour very quickly.

You start to jog away, back the way you came through the staff routes and back out to where the main part of the station was. Your legs are not used to the running so you’re puffing by the time you stop in front of the other platform.

“You saw him right?” Minghao asks, his voice even despite the running. You felt a pang of jealousy when you see he hadn’t even broken a sweat. Meanwhile you were panting with your tongue all but dangling from your gapping mouth.

“It’s our guy. He was pretty calm for a vengeful spirit, let’s hope he stays that way.” You reply. “Good job not freaking out. We’re done for the day, let’s go back.”

“Actually, I can catch the line here, is it okay if I leave my bike at yours? I’ll be there tomorrow.” You notice Minghao has his hands stuffed in his pockets but you don’t have to imagine he’s probably a little shaken, maybe enough to not want to drive. You nod.

“No problem. Text me when your class if over. We can meet in front of Hoshi’s.” And you part ways, headed in the opposite directions.

You take several steps and something compels you to turn around. You watch as Minghao walks away, shoulders tensed and hands still deep in his pockets, the nonchalance he was attempting to exude not quite intact. You wondered if he was actually scared of the ghost; the energies of this type of spirit could really mess with your head even if you were used to it. If the effect was kinda strong on you, you worried it might have been too strong on Minghao.

“I’m starting… to… regret this.” You just about manage to huff out, completely breathless as you follow Minghao curving around the corner of the block. He’s keeping a steady pace a few feet in front of you, visibly trying hard to slow down so he doesn’t leave you behind.

“We’re almost there, it’s literally been two minutes.” Even though he turns around to make sure you can hear him, his voice is muffled by the pounding in your ears. You were so not built for running. Fighting you could do, but endurance was not your strength.

He’s right though as you make it around the corner and spot Hoshi sitting on the brick fence where you’d left him. He’s got the crutches placed next to him, his braced foot stretched out in front of him. When he sees you, he raises his hands and cheers, as if you’re about to finish a marathon. Unfortunately you do feel as if you’ve been running for that long, the distance around the block short but harrowing.

“Woooo, you can do it!! Keep going!” You hear Hoshi’s woops and yelps and you instinctively speed up, unsure how your body manages it, though you have a suspicion it’s because you feel like sinking into the ground if you have to hear more of Hoshi’s loud encouragements.

You come to a stop in front of where Hoshi’s sitting and you brace your hands on your legs, your head almost hanging. One of Minghao’s hands pats your back lightly.

“Not bad for now. You’ll be better next time.” He says. You think your ears are deceiving you.

“Next time?” You shriek, glaring up at him. “I thought we were just warming up.”

“Nope, you’ve officially joined my exorcist training programme and we’ll start every session with a jog. Congrats, you’re my first student.” He gives you a thumbs up, and you almost swipe at the smugness on his face. You hack up a glob of air and finally straighten up.

“I’m your only student.” You argue as you follow the guys into the building, Hoshi leading the way on his crutches, step-hop and stopping rapidly. He’d definitely mastered this way of walking but it still made you feel a little guilty that he’d ended up hurt. You knew you had to be more careful in this field, particularly because it was so unpredictable. You hoped at least Hoshi was enjoying the time off despite his injury and you hated to disturb him but you needed his help with all the work you had to do tonight.

Inside the gym there was a sparring area lined with blue mats just as you’d remembered seeing when Hoshi enthusiastically gave you a tour of the building when he moved in. There was only one person at this time of the day, minding their own business on one of the treadmills facing the street. They wore a heavy duty headset so you didn’t have to worry about what they might hear.

“I’m going up, you guys carry on, I’ll come back in a while.” Hoshi says vaguely, uncharacteristically so but you nod and join Minghao in doing some stretching.

It strikes you how insanely flexible he is when he extends his long limbs expertly and holds the poses with perfect balance. You on the other hand are keeping up but barely; your lines are crooked and your arms and legs shake ever so slightly, the tremors only just visible to your own eyes since you can feel them first hand.

“Okay, let’s start with some light sparring. Try to attack me.” Minghao stands with his feet shoulder width apart and faces you head on. Your face betrays your confusion. “I doubt that when I’m possessed I get into a perfect defensive position.” He says pointedly.

“Alright, I’ll pretend to exorcise you.” You say. You ready your stance, angling your body and bending slightly in all the correct places, hands raised in front of you. You meet his eyes and try to read the opportune moment to attack.

You’re standing on the balls of your feet, light and mobile. You decide to step forward quickly and aim a low kick to Minghao’s side. He doesn’t quite break eye contact when he uses his arms to throw that oncoming leg down, using the momentum of your swinging leg to knock you off balance. Within the same breath you try to strike an arm at his chest as your body veers to the side of the leg you tried to strike with, but Minghao grabs that arm and pulls you to him, turning you in motion and your back hits his firm chest.

“That was too easy.” You feel his breath at your ear and let out an annoyed hummph when it tickles slightly. “Again.” He says.

You don’t waste a heartbeat before swivelling and striking out a hand slice aimed for his neck but he once again outwits you, twisting that arm before it makes contact and bringing it rest behind your back while he kicks at the back of your thigh with only enough force to bring you to one knee. You use your free leg as support to try and get up, balancing on that leg to stand up as you throw you weight up and towards Minghao. The motion manages to surprise him and you free your arm and therefore your whole body from his grip.

“Better.” He nods in approval from where he’d been forced to step back. “Again.”

And off you go again. There’s kicks, flicks, punches being thrown, Minghao blocking and sending you flying, tossing you as gently as he can as to not hurt you. You start to get into it with every failed attack. It’s true that he can predict your moves before you can formulate them in your head but when your instinct takes over, you start to land some blows.

You end up on the floor several times, the breath knocked out of you and a sheen of sweat building up over your skin. You end up trying to hold Minghao’s limbs in some complicated judo-esque position down on the mats but he manages to always break free and pin you down in almost the exact same way until you sigh in defeat.

At some point you’re rejoined by Hoshi, who finds a cozy spot on some benchpress and sits spectating in fascination as you and Minghao go at each other’s throats. It’s always fun when you’re not the one getting your ass kicked. You barely hear his reactions, the ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s just background noise as you huff, puff and grunt while you exchange attacks.

You realise that Minghao is not just good; he’s trained in some John Wick type of shit. The type that makes your muscles ache and your joints creak and your blood rush around your body as you try to fight someone so out of your league.

Just as you think you’re doing better, Minghao has you pinned to the wall, your hands above your head. You hesitate as his eyes bore into yours, the challenge dancing in his irises. The mirth you feel from him, the amusement that coats his features, makes your pulse quicken.

It’s all just a game to him. He’s having fun while you struggle to make progress.

It makes the hairs on your arms stand up - you were determined to beat him, no matter what.

Your legs are free so you attempt a strike but he barely flinches at the weak knee you throw at his side. Your body is too adrenalised at this point to be thinking straight so you do what it tells you to; you throw your head forward with a yell and headbutt Minghao.

It sends Minghao staggering backwards and rubbing at his forehead.

“Owww! That was mean,” He pouts. “And unnecessary.” You barely feel the ache in your own head as you stand grinning, unhinged and victorious.

“But it got the job done.” You counter. If you weren’t this worked up and sore for repeatedly losing, you’re not sure you would have tried to do that move. Your competitive side had lain dormant for so long that you were surprised how quickly it was spurred back into life.

“One more round?” Minghao asks. You were sure that headbutt would have been the end but he surprised you once again. The regular occurrence was starting to confuse you.

“Yeah.” And you rush him without a second thought. You flip each other once, twice and then block whatever blow comes next. You focus on trying to back Minghao into a corner, arms and legs flying.

You succeed when his back hits the wall with a quiet thud and you bring your forearm to trap his neck. You notice how wide his eyes are, an almost innocent shock painting his face as you bring your fist, clutching an invisible exorcist blade, to rest on his chest. You swear you can feel the way Minghao’s heart is pounding but you know yours is going just as crazy. After all that, it was inevitable.

“And stab.” You breathe, the exhaustion finally catching up to you. One corner of Minghao’s mouth arches up, still amused even if he lost.

“And scene.” He brings a lazy hand up to his forehead and fakes a swoon. You hear Hoshi’s round of applause behind you as he cheers excitedly. You let Minghao go, avoiding his eyes for some reason.

“Wow, you guys are so badass!” The compliment makes you smile even if you were ready to collapse. You can’t help but lean against the wall, panting and slide down it.

“Good work. Imagine how much better you’ll be after a few sessions.” Minghao says. His voice is raspy and gruff from all the yelling and grunting. You nod, unable to speak. You needed like a five day nap to recover.

“Hey, you guys?” Hoshi asks from the other end of the gym. “Seokmin wants to know if you want pizza?”

“Are they already here?” You glance at the clock and choke on air. You were supposed to start the meeting in five minutes but you weren’t even at the office yet. “Shit, let’s go.” You make to get up but find Minghao’s extended hand in front of you. You look at his long fingers for a moment, then put your hand in his and let him haul you up.

Hoshi offers Minghao some clothes so you let them go upstairs while you muster the energy to walk up the street back to yours and take a minute long shower and change. The conference room is already buzzing when you leg it up the stairs and find yourself face to face with Hoshi and Minghao as they come in.

You’re rendered speechless when you look at Minghao’s attire.

He’s wearing bright pink leopard print joggers, a purple shirt and a pink cardigan all under his long black coat. You wanted to think it was Hoshi’s work but Hoshi would never have managed to match the colours like that.

“Don’t. I rock this and you know it.” Minghao says to before you’ve even opened your mouth.

“Didn’t say anything.” You shake your head.

In your conference room you find Seungkwan, Vernon and Seokmin sitting around the table, ready to start. The table is already stacked with ten or so massive piles of paperwork; the majority of your office’s contents on display. There was some still in the basement and some more modern cases on the hard drive of your computer, but you had hard copies of those too just in case.

There’s a happy reunion between everyone when Hoshi hobbles in with his crutches and greets everyone loudly. You smile despite the perhaps irreparable damage to your eardrums. Minghao pulls up an extra couple of chairs and you all sit down with you at the head of the table.

Just as you think that everyone is here, you hear the doorbell of the office ring.

“I’ll get it.” Seokmin offers quickly, almost too quickly for your liking but you let him, watching him practically sprint with narrowed eyes.

You hear voices and sigh, steeling yourself for what was coming. He really couldn’t just leave well enough alone could he? You’d told him expressly that you didn’t want his help. Yet when Yoon Jeonghan walks through the door, you feel your blood pressure rise automatically. Behind him however, is someone you weren’t expecting.

“Hey!” Mingyu squeaks cheerfully, waving a large paw at everyone.

“I called Jihoon for some extra help.” Seungkwan explains.

“Yeah, Jihoon said you needed my biceps. So here I am.” Mingyu says, way too enthusiastic for someone who was about to pull extra hours.

Mingyu was from the Council. He ran an office that collected intel on ghost sightings and reports and compiled them in a large database for exorcists to refer to. There were times where you’d visit his office with your sister but he was still new back then so you’d only met a few times.

“Actually we need your brain but your biceps might help too.” You reply. “Nice to see you, Mingyu.” You ignore Jeonghan until he pulls up the chair to your left, while Minghao was sitting to your right. You swivel your neck reluctantly in his direction.

“Why are you even here?” You ask, your voice drowned out by the others’ chatter.

“What? No dramatic blame game today?” He asks nonchalantly, running a hand down the spines of the files in front of him. “As I said, I’m going to help you. It sounds like a big project; are you sure you can handle it, kiddo?” Jeonghan leans back in his chair, relaxed, comfortable even, and it makes you mad. After all this time, now he wants to help? After he declared that he couldn’t stand being in this office without her and left, stopped calling you and basically evaporated? You begged to differ.

“Don’t call me that.” You bite, but your voice is quiet. “What’s in it for you?” You press. You scan his face for any sign of deceit, not that you were sure you could catch it. If you didn’t know him any better, you’d believe he was sincerely trying to offer his expertise, and you only called it that because you knew that he did learn a fair amount courtesy of your family teaching him.

“There’s always something in it for me, according to you, isn’t there?” Jeonghan counters, an edge of disappointment, real or fake you had no idea at this point, to his voice. “Can’t I just do it out of the goodness of my heart?”

You can’t help but snort obnoxiously at his ridiculousness.

“Hell’s more likely to freeze over.” You tell him.

“That could happen.” Jeonghan says, shrugging. “Or you could trust me.” He looks up, meeting you eyes. You don’t look away from his challenge.

You knew what he was doing; deploying that trick where you bat your eyelashes at people and it bends them to your will. The notion of trusting him again made you dizzy. You had trusted him once upon a time, you’d known him as a person who you could rely on, who had your back. But that was then and this is now. It wasn’t going to work on you anymore. You weren’t going to fall for the angel eye trick again.

“Don’t get your hopes up.” You conclude. You rap your knuckles against the table to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, since we’re all here now, we can proceed.” You pick up a marker and turn to moveable whiteboard behind you, the newest addition to your conference room.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to read-” Seungkwan quips up. You give him a stink face glare and he shuts up.

“This is fifty years worth of exorcisms.” You motion towards the piles of files. “Everyone grab a stack. We’re looking for-” you pause for a moment, uncapping your pen.

“Anything on group exorcisms, the cemetery at the building site and anything to do with that Platis company.” Jeonghan cuts in and finishes for you. You purse your lips, a flash of annoyance flaring up in your stomach.

“Yes, and if you find anything-”

“Separate any relevant files over here,” Jeonghan points to a cardboard box on the floor beside the two of you. “Write a summary on a post-it note and leave it on the inside.”

You clench your jaw, looking to find patience. You were going to say that, since you’d left the box there this morning with a purpose.

“Right. Anything else?” You look around. You have quite the company here, seven faces looking back at you.

“Pizza’s coming in an hour.” Seokmin adds.

“Okay, reconvene in an hour. Bon appetite.” You scribble down the list of things in case anyone got amnesia, then clamp a hand over the nearest pile to you and pull the thin folder off the top. Some of them were thin folders with only about ten pages inside whilst others were at least twenty page behemoth reports.

Everyone seems to get lost in the files, the millions of words floating off the pages as you skim and flip pages and double back because you thought you saw something relevant. Usually there was a summary page in the front of the file so you could rule out the group exorcism but it was still important to scan for the location of the cemetery if it was mentioned.

You feel like your vision is slowly blurring as you look at the words, your eyes travelling across the paper quickly. You’re hunched over a file and it mentions something about a wandering spirit that passed by a cemetery. There’s an address which you’re not sure of so you grab a post-it.

“Straighten up, or you’re going to get early on set back problems.” Jeonghan clicks his tongue at you and pokes your arm with the capped end of a ball point pen without looking up from his file. The action throws you off and you’re hit suddenly with a sickening sense of déjà vu.

You’re transported back here five years ago when you were studying for some test. Your sister and Jeonghan were both working on the big table, trapping you and making sure you sat and studied. The textbook in front of you was giving you a headache and you were almost ready to nod off on top of it before your sister extended a hand, the sharp point of the pen poking your arm when she scolded you for your terrible posture.

You look at Jeonghan in the present and he appears much the same except for his hair. The red is captured and pulled back with a hair tie, some loose wisps sticking out. You think about how you also look much the same but are so different, the years of grief and the responsibility weighing your shoulders down.

You turn back to your papers.

The eight of you get through most of the files, the speed of your work much faster than you had predicted. It strikes you that it might have been too fast. It was probably just you being paranoid. Within the hour, almost all the files had been through some inspection. The pile in the box is however rather miserable. That was not a lot of leads.

Seokmin and Mingyu go to the front door to pick up the pizza and soon the table full of paperwork, is full of warm cardboard boxes that reek deliciousness into your conference room.

“Good work everyone, we can stop for today.” You say and gather the remaining files into piles. You and Minghao can look at them some other time.

Once the pizza boxes are opened the chatter crescendos and you feel like you’re drowning in the noise. It’s a miracle everyone had been that quiet while reading.

“Eh, come on, you haven’t got any booze in this house?” Hoshi cries when you tell him that if he wants something, he knows where the convenience store is.

“I’ll go, it’s only around the corner, right?” Minghao volunteers.

“I can take you.” Vernon raises a hand like one of those boy scouts. Also probably the only person who wouldn’t be self-conscious if seen with Minghao right now, leopard print and all.

“Vern, get that one we drank-” Seungkwan calls out with a mouthful of pizza.

“Ginger beer. Got it.” You swear those two are telepathic. Or married. Or both.

They leave and you turn to Jeonghan, who’s putting away his phone into his pocket, looking shifty as usual.

“Take a slice and hit the road.” You tell him. He obediently pulls apart a piece and munches on it, but doesn’t move from the chair.

“Hey, how about some music?” You hear behind you. Hoshi and Seokmin are digging into a pizza, having a cheese slurping contest or something.

“I’ll go get the karaoke machine!” Seungkwan announces. You do a double take.

“We have one of those?” You ask.

“From my car, duh.” He replies.

“Is that something you keep on your person at all times?”

“Just something I have lying around. You never know when you’ll need it.” Your brain lags as you watch him practically skip away to find the item in question.

“I think I’m going to stick around for some tunes.” Jeonghan says, unabashed. You tap your foot angrily under the table, jiggling with annoyance.

“Go. I know Seokmin and Seungkwan are giving you updates, so next time just work at your own office. Now get out.”

“You’re not going to say ‘please, big bro’?” He juts out his bottom lip in a pout, begging to be kicked out.

“I have a lot of other names I could call you right now.” You say between gritted teeth.

“Oh yeah? Like what?” He waits, not bothering to hide the joy it brought him to bug you off his face.

“One that starts with ‘n’ and ends in ‘uisance’.”

Jeonghan chuckles, as if in acknowledgement. He pauses, then:

“I’ve already seen her.”

You’re struck silent.

“If that’s what you’re worried about, then I’ve already seen her.” He repeats. You feel a sprinkle of salt flowing through your veins that she would appear in front of Jeonghan of all people.

“Just leave, I don’t want my sister to become a vengeful spirit because of you.” You sigh, the irritation starting to overflow. Who was he to just invite himself to your house, where he’s no longer welcome and talk to you about your sister when he’s the reason she’s gone?

“She won’t.” Jeonghan says reassuringly, and you almost believe him. The old you might have. “I’ll go later, I’m still hungry. You should eat up too, I could hear your stomach rumbling.” He says and walks away. The guys have taken the boxes and presumably gone downstairs to set up in front of the TV and the couch. You had no idea how you’d allowed what is basically a house party to break out in your house of all places.

You wouldn’t mind the rest of it but Jeonghan’s presence was bothering you. Why was it bothering you so much though? Was it because he’d appeared out of nowhere uninvited? Were you angry at him? Or was it because a minuscule, tiny, microscopic fraction of you had missed him and him being there reminded you of the past, as if you could just walk downstairs and catch him and your sister not so subtly hugging?

You groaned out loud, almost mooing in exasperation and kicked at the chair in front of you. You checked the pile in the cardboard box, glancing at the ten or so files in there, all of them thin and a little hopeless looking. It was better than nothing, you reminded yourself.

Downstairs you heard the music blasting before you’ve even stepped off the staircase, the cacophony of cheers and woops making you shudder; this was them without a drop of alcohol in their systems. It was going to be a long night.

“You should have seen them earlier, Minghao and YN have equal and opposite scary energy; that’s why they work so well together.” Hoshi’s voice carries down the corridor as you near the living room. You stop at the door and see Seokmin, Seungkwan and Hoshi on the couch while Mingyu sits on the carpet in front. The song has just finished and it’s quiet for a moment.

Jeonghan is sitting at the table, ripping apart a pizza slice, piece by piece. It’s the same spot where he used to sit before, adjacent to your sister and opposite you. Was it on purpose or just an old habit? You don’t dwell on it.

“Who’s scary?” You call out, making yourself known as you walk in. The cowards in front of the TV jump at the sound of your voice, yelping like startled puppies. They scramble to laugh it off and you smile at how dorky they all are. You don’t sit at the table but take a spot on the carpet in front of the couch where Mingyu is.

“Oh YN, didn’t you say you were going to show me something the other day?” Seungkwan perks up. You think for a moment, wracking your brain for a recollection of that particular conversation. “Some video?”

Bingo.

“Ah, right. Almost forgot.” You can’t help but start laughing already. You reach forward to grab the laptop that sits under the TV, its space on the shelf below not its usual hiding spot but you’d left it there in a rush. You open the computer and search around for the file name ‘mammoth.mp4’ that you hid deep into your favourites folder then click on the thumbnail.

It’s the video that Wonwoo sent you from the museum exorcism and you thought it was too much of a gem to keep it to yourself; you don’t own diamonds if you don’t want to show them off to the world, right?

You hit the ‘f’ key and make it fullscreen then put the laptop on the coffee table.

Everyone’s so absorbed in the video that you don’t hear when Vernon and Minghao come back. You feel an ominous chill down your spine as you laugh at the screen.

“What are you guys watching?” Vernon suddenly materialises behind you. You glance up and spot Minghao there too.

Shit.

“What? Nothing, porn.” And you scramble to shut the laptop. Minghao is quicker though and grabs your wrist before you stretch all the way toward the table.

“Rewind and turn up the volume.” He says, deadly serious. Mingyu, ever the most helpful person in the universe, taps away and the video restarts, this time louder.

You’re trying to keep your laugh to a minimum while the others holler loudly, feeling a little guilty for airing your new medium out like that but it was just part of the job. Humiliation and danger apparently walked hand in hand (or was it the danger of humiliation?).

Your turn your head and find Minghao’s face inches from yours for the hundredth time today. The laugh dies in your throat and you stare. Minghao’s lips are parted in horror and his eyes are shinning with what seems to be sick fascination and disbelief as he watches the video. Now that you looked, he was pretty handsome.

What?

“Stop it!” You shake your head. You stamp on the thought the way you’d stomp on a cockroach, shocked to realise its existence as it scurries around your brain. You find several pairs of eyes on you. You chuckle awkwardly. “It’s loud, that’s all.” You say. You finally reach over and shut the lid of the laptop. That was bizarre, you must be more tired than you thought if your brain was loose like that.

“I don’t remember that so I’m going to say it never happened. I-it- that wasn’t me.” Minghao clarifies, clearly trying to convince himself.

“Hey, it’s okay, we all have some embarrassing possession stories.” Seokmin says with a smile. “Like back in school, I stole my crush’s ice cream whilst I was possessed. I ended up going to the prom alone.”

“God, Seokmin, that’s so depressing.” Seungkwan says. “Here, sing about it.” He shoves a microphone into Seokmin’s hand.

“Here we go again.” You get up and take a slice of pizza. You weren’t too tired to try and sort through the rest of the files.

“It’s been a long day, you should rest.” Minghao finds you trying to leave the kitchen. You turn around, caught red handed, cheese from the large bite of pizza protruding from your lips.

“I will.” You say but it’s impossible to discern with the way your mouth is stuffed; it just sounds like ‘owow’, and you make your way back to the couch.

With the amount of ballads that are sung that night, it’s a miracle you don’t nod off. It’s mostly because they are counterbalanced with some fast paced and obscenely deafening pop songs that are accompanied by even more outrageous yells and shouts, the alcohol fuelling the volume, it seemed. There are soulful ballads whose singers are worthy of divorcee status, some frenzied and almost high performances, especially Vernon’s solid rap features, and at one point one of Hoshi’s crutches becomes a guitar.

You sit there, amongst the chaos but not really taking it all in. You’d barely had any more food and were still holding the same one beer can that you’d opened like an hour ago. You even caught Minghao cracking a smile or laughing a few times but you were too exhausted and preoccupied to really participate. You’re too aware of Jeonghan still sitting at the table, watching from his spot as the rest of the group has fun, the attentive gaze of a parent over their children.

Your hand brings the beer can up to your lips and you chug the rest of it. You weren’t sure you could handle this. So you stand up just as Seungkwan is preparing his next song.

“I’m going to buy more booze.” You announce as you start to walk away.

“Wait up, I’ll come with.” Minghao unfolds himself from his seat on the floor.

“You don’t have to.” You wave a hand dismissively.

“Trust me, I want to.” He follows you, practically running out. You grab your coats and wallets and leave through the basement entrance door.

The night air feels heavenly on your skin, the freshness enveloping you and giving you energy. You watch as your breath forms clouds in front of you while you walk.

“I didn’t think exorcists partied like that.” Minghao says after a while.

“What, you thought we only went to funerals and sat around waiting for a ghost to pop up?” You stuff your hands in your pockets, imagining one of those arcade Whack-a-Mole games.

“Not really, I’d never thought of exorcists until I met you.”

“You were better off that way.” You sigh. “Then again, you already saw ghosts, so you were halfway there.”

“I’m glad I met you though.” He says earnestly. “It finally all made sense.”

“It must have been a relief to understand what you were seeing.” You thought about it before, how lonely it must have been, how confusing. You knew it was a curse, but amongst those cursed, community made all the difference. Minghao hadn’t had any of that. “You’re part of this now, even if you decide not to work any more, you know we’re all here.”

You reach the convenience store and mindlessly grab alcohol off the shelf and put it in the basket Minghao holds as he trails after you. Shopping with him was starting to become a regular thing, huh? You pay quickly since there’s literally no one else in the shop and leave. After the cashier gives Minghao a look, he tells you that even the cashier changed during the length of your party.

You’re almost back, your feet still somehow carrying you after all the physical torture you put them through today and you find the front doors opening. You’re only about twenty meters away but you stop. You watch as none other than Jeonghan emerges from the office. Finally, he was leaving.

You’re about to start walking but you see her.

The door doesn’t close, your sister’s ghost following him out, and he turns to look at her. The image is like a lightning strike straight to your heart. The breath leaves your body in a crispy fog.

Jeonghan extends a hand to your sister’s face, as if trying to caress her cheek and she tries to lean in to his touch, her eyes closed but she’s transparent, his fingers making contact with the air. Your vision blurs with hot tears, the picture before you becoming distorted.

His hand falls away as do your tears, and you can tell he sighs by the smoky frost before his face. Your sister’s ghost is fading away by the second, her lingering shape evaporating slowly.

You watch as Jeonghan walks away in the opposite direction, realising your fists were clenched as you held a bag of beer in one hand. The tears slide silently down your face, the cold freezing them to your cheeks as they roll on by.

There’s not a coherent thought you can cling on to inside your head, everything suspended in your mind suddenly lost in a void you couldn’t access. It must be shock.

You remember Minghao is behind you as he shuffles a few steps to stand next to you. You look away and swipe at your face quickly. He extends a hand without a word, offering you a pack of tissues.

“You keep seeing me like this, I’m not sure I should let you live.” You say jokingly as you sniffle and accept it. “Thanks.”

A/N: thanks for reading!! feedback is always appreciated <3 also i decided to add an extra projected chapter from the sister’s pov so look forward to that eventually as well

#seventeen #xu minghao #the8 #minghao #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #seventeen x reader #minghao x reader #the8 x reader #the8 imagines #the8 scenarios #seventeen fics #seventeen angst #momobani.writes

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wack-ashimself · 18 days

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Sorry, but the new fallout series sucks so far...

just starting episode 3, but they are doing so much backdrop/atmosphere, that real relatable characters and story are non existent.

You just don't give a fuck about anyone. They're all shitty, boring and/or 1 dimensional.

I mean, the fucking old store lady & her friend had more (at least original) personality than all the others combined.

And I know it's based on a FPS, but the violence is more over the top than accurate while zany. Difference between I killed a whole town vs my gun is a fucking cannon that no one else seems to have.

Just...here's the plot flaws SO far. Spoilers.

1-The vault just blindly accepts a previous message that the other vault they are letting in lost their leader. FINE. I guess at the end of the world, you don't question if an overthrow of leadership can happen. But how come these vault people YOU HAVE MET BEFORE (cuz clearly they have done trades in the past) are ENTIRELY NOT RECOGNIZABLE? Aka, how did you NOT think they weren't murderous thieves when you never met or heard of a SINGLE ONE? WHY WERE THEY ALL NEW TO YOU?!

2-Why did the solider get the position of his injured friend? Especially after he was accused of harming them? At minimum, the most qualified person should go, and HE IS NOT IT. Makes no sense. Also, why were they bullying him at the beginning? Just to make us have sympathy?

3-Why did the main bad guy let those other vault dwellers live? She killed ANY AND EVERYONE, but those 4 can be spared? Why? Was there a maximum of kills she would allow?

4-If I knew a man was buried alive, and unburied spasticly to be basically tortured, why would I think he would be peaceful to strangers that unburied him? Especially knowing he's a mutant?

5-The dog. OMFG, the DOG. Plot hole black hole. No one double checks the dog weights? Why did he want a dog in the first place? How was he able to sneak the dog to his private lab (and did he have 2 positions)? Clearly, STRICT rules, so WHAT was his excuse? THE PLOT NEEDED IT? How/what did he feed the dog on such extreme rations (even water)? What about the dog's waste (smell & clean up)? The dog NEVER barked EVER in the months/years growing up? Why was that guy in his lab out of no where? How did no one smell dog in such a dirty place (where you KNOW that dog did not bathe)? How did he get ALL THE WAY OUT with the alarm blaring, from HIS lab with a dead person, then an AI turret miss every god damn possible bullet, AND no one chase after him (since the turret went off, they know which was he escaped*)?

6-If she was told being a vault dweller is bad, why the FUCK did she continue to wear her bright shiny clothing with the labels? At minimum, take the dead people's clothes OR dirty yours up.

7-The dog, PART 2. Dog is stabbed, quits moving, but can still be brought back to life. FINE. But now he's AUTOMATICALLY LOYAL TO THE GUY THAT JUST THREATENED HIS OWNER AND STABBED HIM?! And then when they find the owner's body, the dog doesn't bat a fucking eye? The dog was saved by him, raised by him, loved by him, killed for him and died for him, but now, fuck the owner? FUCK THE DOG! Sell out whore.

8-This isn't a plot hole, just stupid. If you're dying, do not threaten to lie & get killed the person holding your life saving medicine. That is fucking something a child would understand! Ok...maybe a teenager. lol

*Know what I hate about these shows? They have this advanced technology, some beyond ours right now, but it's....stupid technology. Outta Idocracy or something. Like it can do amazing things, but fucks up all the time. Like the power suit; never thought to put guards around the vulnerable neckline? SUITS OF ARMOR DID THAT!

#fallout #amazon #spoiler #spoilers #plot hole black hole

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miyosamu · 4 years

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Bokuto & Kenma with a boyfriend

Bokuto Koutarou

everyone on the team learned that bokuto has a thing for someone once they noticed how he got even livelier and more show off-y when certain people were in the crowd during their practices

so they went through a whole elimination process to figure out who it was

at first, they just looked at all the girls who’d often come to practice and if bokuto was acting show off-y even when they weren’t present then they’d get eliminated

and they kept doing this until they went through all the girls

and it was none of them

so they got ?????

and they did it again to double-check

same result

so then they were like o k let’s try it with the guys i guess lol lol

and bam

they found you

konoha knew you cuz you were in the same class as him so he was like holy shit does bokuto have a crush on y/n

so they kept an eye on you for a whole week and observed bokuto’s reaction to your presence/absence and there was no doubt that it was definitely you that he was crushing on

one day during their practice break konoha called you over to talk and bokuto imMEDIATLY perked up

‘konoha knows him?? what’s his name?? what’s their relationship? can he introduce us??’ a bunch of these thoughts went through his head

and while konoha was talking to you he was trying his best not to burst out laughing at bokuto hovering around over your shoulder trying to gauge if and when there would be a good time to insert himself into your conversation

you had just started coming to their practices recently after a friend of yours dragged you to one of their matches and despite you “not being into volleyball” you were totally hooked on watching fukurodani play

you were especially intrigued and impressed by a certain Loud Powerful Ace and so you had become addicted to bokuto’s energy during his plays

something about watching him play was very exciting and he just made you want to keep cheering him on

now

you said all this confiding in konoha

but he totally took it as a chance to drag bokuto into the convo being like ‘Yo ace !! y/n over here was totally touched by your plays’

and i swear to god you’ve never seen someone pop out of nowhere so quiCKLY before in your entire life

he just popped up by your side and he wAS ALL SPARKLY EYED AND EXCITED WITH A CUTE BLUSH ACROSS HIS CHEEKS

he was just as overwhelming talking to you as he was with his presence on the court.

honestly, you were hugely thrown off by how over-excited and slightly overbearing he was since you two didn’t technically know each other Like That

but his wholehearted energy and his obvious reverence to the game and just The Pure JOY he exhibited at what konoha said you said about him was just too wholesome you couldn’t help but be fond of him

and bam

that’s it after that bokuto just latched onto you whenever he could

always trying to get closer to you

and you obviously couldn’t reject his advances i mean come on look at him

and when you two finally got in a relationship

god

g o d

the way bokuto loves is so overabundant

it just swallows you whole

you can see it you can feel it

he loves in a way that’s so unrestrained he loves with every ounce of his energy it just pours out of him

he wears his heart on his sleeve more than anyone else

which makes your relationship simple yet complex at the same time

in the long run however, he really ruins other people for you

bokuto is the kind of boyfriend you’d find yourself comparing others to

like if your significant other doesn’t love you as much as bokuto would, are they really the one for you??

hmm much to think about

bokuto has a Huge Thing for you calling him koutarou

it just hits different

not a lot of people call him by his first name even amongst his bestest friends so it makes it feel ~extra special~ coming from you

he has another Huge Thing for you wearing his jersey, just seeing his fukurodani shirt with his number on it on you just hits all the right spots for him he finds it difficult to keep his hands to himself whenever you have it on.

it’s also such a motivational boost for him during matches

when he looks at the bleachers and sees you there wearing his spare jersey and smiling so brightly at him it just erases all of his doubts and clears all his fatigue making him feel rejuvenated

akaashi begs you to attend all their matches wearing that jersey now because you really level up his plays

when you two are alone he gets surprisingly quiet

which i think is not something people would often expect from someone as eccentric as bokuto but it’s true

at the end of the day when it’s just you and him his body totally relaxes, he’s not as reckless, he’s not as loud

he just likes to lay down with you and touch you in some way and just talk

bask in each other’s presence basically

one of his favorites Come Down rituals when the day’s over is to lay down and have you kiss his bruises (cuz he gets those a lot) and have you stroke his back as he rests his head on your chest

bokuto can be very vocal with his love towards you he has no issue telling you he loves you or conveying how much he adores you, but he actually prefers to show it through special gestures he attained over his time with you

before going to bed, he likes to kiss your chest right over the spot where your heart is and it’s his way of demonstrating how much he cherishes you

sometimes during the day, he’d tap the nearest part of you he could reach three times and it’s his way of reminding you “i love you”

and of course, if you ever wanted to hear those words out loud sometime, you can just tell him and he’d shower you for hours with the sincerest confessions

bokuto is not someone who can easily get genuinely angry

but if anyone were to make disgusting comments towards you and you guys’ relationship

oohhh boy

that’s one of the fastest ways to fucking set him ablaze

he WOULD resort to violence he has no issue decking someone in the face for being a homophobic prick

he prefers not to of course, considering his status and just the overall kind of person he is

but he has his limits too

and you are a limit no one is allowed to test.

which is something everyone came to learn fairly quickly

god this is getting so long

i just love bokuto so much i still have so much i wanna say about him ksdhfsjdfuhdf so many aspects of him i wanna cover

and i still have kenma to do jfc i have no idea what i’ll write for him

often times it seems like bokuto has an endless supply of energy and it fools a lot of people into thinking he’s a man with little struggles

which is Not True

he crashes quite often and he has mental breaks more than one would normally assume from someone like him

and during those times he has this weird phase where he gets extra clingy but then distances himself

and you have to work your way around that carefully and you have to think about what you’ll say cuz if what you say isn’t clear enough or if it’s something that could have double meaning it will throw bokuto off and make him think of the worst

as i said earlier, due to bokuto wearing his heart on his sleeve it does make the relationship simple but during times like these it makes it complex because of how sensitive he is

bokuto is extremely emotionally intelligent

he’ll pick up on any emotional cues from you

he’s especially aware of the ones that are along the lines of discomfort or distress

because it’s His Duty as your loving boyfriend to comfort you

be it with his words or with his hugs

speaking of which

bokuto, hands down, gives the best hugs

periodt

kisses from bokuto always border on make outs jdjcjd

he LOVES VERY STRONGLY AND WOULD LIKE TO SHOW IT VERY STRONGLY

so you have to ensure he doesn’t kiss you in public because it WILL take longer than it is socially acceptable to kiss your s/o in public

bokuto shows you off to everyone willing to listen

which, at this point, isn’t a lot of people but he’ll still do it

‘this is my sexy beautiful boyfriend and i love every bit of him look at him isn’t he the best? he’s the best trust me i know’

all in all

10/10 would date

totally worth it

best boyfriend

he adores you

kenma knew you through lev

you were lev’s best friend and so you were doing your obligatory duties as his best friend to show up to their matches and check up on him during practice

everyone on the team knew you really

and honestly, kenma always liked you

you weren’t as overbearing as most other people and you never pushed yourself into his personal space forcefully

kuroo thought you were doing an amazing job at making their resident recluse feel comfortable around you

now when i say kenma liked you

it wasn’t like anything serious

he just preferred you to other people

of course, he thought you were handsome and had a nice personality

but still

he just liked you as a person

but then one day

their manager fell extremely ill right before a tournament and they needed someone to fill in their place

all eyes turned on you

you usually helped the managers whenever you passed by during practice and you were familiar enough with everything to do a good job

plus everyone liked you so

they unanimously picked you for the job and called it a day

that was the first time you ever heard kuroo’s pre-game speech

yknow the one kenma found extremely embarrassing about keeping your blood flowing and supplying oxygen to the brain

you thought it was lovely and poetic when you heard it but you didn’t quite get the analogy

so you asked

and kuroo explained it to you while kenma was cringing half to death behind him

the more kuroo explained it to you the more you understood how truly amazing kenma actually was

by the end of kuroo’s explanation, you were in absolute awe

you couldn’t help but turn to kenma with an expression of repressed excitement and go “KENMA-SAN YOU’RE SO INCREDIBLE!?!?!!!!”

and man

your sparkly eyes, your slightly flushed cheeks, your sincere astonishment, your grin

it made kenma’s heart do something

a flutter

a squeeze

he didn’t know but it was something

he just stood there in bewilderment with his eyes wide as he started feeling things the longer he looked at looking at him like that

you tugged at his little heartstrings

kuroo, being kuroo, totally knew what was going on and he just outright snorted

it was in shock more than anything really

he couldn’t believe what was happening he never saw kenma like that before

kenma snapped out of his daze due to kuroo’s snort and he quickly ducked his head to hide his blush behind his hair and just let out a little “mhm” before passing you and going to the court

you knew kenma was often a man of a few words but you couldn’t help but worry if you had somehow upset him

he never brushed you off like that before this felt different

maybe you stood too close in his personal space or something

you had decided you were gonna apologize later and silently hoped that whatever just happened wouldn’t affect the game

surprise surprise though

kenma’s plays and calls throughout the entire match were impeccable

it left their opponents stunned he had them all figured out

needless to say, nekoma had a certain victory that day

while the team was celebrating and rightfully fawning over kenma, you had been looking at him when he glanced up at you

you smiled at him and gave him a rather enthusiastic thumb’s up

you saw firsthand how kenma’s expression instantly changed

how his eyes widened slightly, how his body stiffened from surprise, and how his cheeks were coloured red from something other than exertion

and then it clicked

you stood there stunned as the realization dawned on you

could it be,,,, kenma liked you-

you cut off the thought before it even fully started because that’s just ridiculous there’s no way

suddenly an arm was thrown over your shoulder

it was kuroo’s

and one look at his face just confirmed everything

and sent you in absolute panic

holyshitholyshitholyshitkenmapossiblylikedyouwhattheheckohmygod

kuroo, who felt your panic, laughed and patted you on the back reassuringly

“relax man hey take your time. this is new for both of you and we don’t know if it will even go anywhere.”

-but i kinda want it to- you thought

kuroo leaned closer to you and whispered sleazily “hhooo you want it to huh you have the hots for kenma dont ya dont ya hohohoooo what do you want to do to my best friend you fiend”

HE’S SO ANNOYING HELPJFKSHDKG WHY IS HE SO PRECEPTIVE

before you could bite back at him he stood back at full length and looked at you “honestly though? i think you have a solid chance with him”

that single sentence repeated itself the entire bus ride back

and it continued to plague your mind for the following couple of weeks as you were weighing the pros and cons of this situation

over these couple of weeks, you were fixated a bit too much on kenma you couldn’t help but notice how cute he was

his little habits and the little faces he pulled as he played his video games were all too endearing

you tried to test the waters a few times here and there by getting friendlier than you usually would

yknow just to gauge his reactions

which you came to discover were also so fucking cute

he got nervous and a bit jumpy and the tips of his ears would tint red

but he never refused you and displayed any type of discomfort

so one afternoon while you two were on court cleaning duty you decided to ask him out

“kenma-san, you know the arcade a couple blocks over? i heard they installed some new games over the past weekend so,, i was wondering if you’d like to go check them out with me. yknow after we’re done here and all…”

you gulped at the tense silence that followed and wondered for a split second if you should add “haha yknow as two friends buddies good bros hanging out ahah”

as you were stuck in your own thoughts kenma let out a little huff and gave you a soft smile “i’d love to”

you heart went wooOOSH at the sight of his smile

whether you were good or bad at video games it didn’t really matter to kenma

he enjoys your company regardless and your reactions to the games amuse him

and this is something that’ll stay constant throughout your relationship

kenma loves games and you love him so whatever your stance was on video games previously didn’t matter because you loved engaging in something that kenma loved

and you also knew that he loved sharing his interest with you

even if you sucked at one game or the other you could get a good laugh out of him from it and it totally makes everything worth it

he, of course, would engage you in what interested you as well

it’s a fair and sweet trade

you guys’ relationship would progress kinda slowly but also not really?? like the pace suit you guys

one of the most hilarious things you had the pleasure of witnessing is kenma raging over a game

you have never seen kenma so animated before and it sENDS

but that’s not your favourite part

your favourite part is when he’s decided he’s had enough so he just leaves the controller and searches for you

he just plops down and burries his face in your stomach while wrapping his arms around you and, depending on how frusterated he is, he’d either let out a really loud groan or just sigh defeatedly into your stomach

if you pet his hair he hums and you don’t think he’s aware but you’ll never tell him cuz you don’t want him to stop

KENMA LITTLE SPOON

something that can be a little puzzeling with kenma is that even though he’s touch and affection starved, he’s not a touchy person so being affectionate is a hit or miss

he’ll never reject your advances for physical affection cuz you’re his boyfriend

but it’s rare for him to be the one intiating it

PDA is not a thing

like ever

not even holding hands

this is new for kenma and he’s so aware of the fact that you’re both guys

he’d just want it to be known between you guys and your trusted circle

but he knows that it sometimes can be upsetting so he does what he can to make it easier

he stands closer to you, enough to feel his body warmth

when he walks beside you sometimes he’ll let the back of his hands brush yours

yknow just little things that go unoticed to everyone else but it means a lot to you

being in a relationship with kenma just means being in the recieving end of a lot of little things that come together and make it wholesome

kenma gives these small quick kisses out of nowhere that make your heart stop for that split second but then by the time you processed it he’s already gone on his way

they kinda feel like kitten licks they’re so quick and small

!!!!!! THIS NEXT HEADCANON CONTAINS A SPOILER FROM THE MANGA SO IF YOU‘RE NOT CAUGHT UP PLEASE SKIP THE NEXT POINT !!!!!!!!!

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on kenma’s youtube videos and streams there are a lot of videos where you appeared in the background doing your thing or just moments where you just check up on him, maybe bring him some food/water, and because of it a lot of his subscribers ship you guys together and whenever kenma comes by comments regarding that he smiles a little and even though he’ll never comment on it, it does kinda make him giddy

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

!!!! OK YOU CAN READ NOW !!!!

kenma has this Special Look that’s reserved just for you and it’s so so soft and full of adoration and he usually gives you that look when you’re not looking

his friends see it though and it makes them so happy seeing kenma like this

you make kenma happy

#haikyuu #bokuto koutarou #kozume kenma #bokuto x reader #bokuto x male reader #kenma x reader #kenma x male reader #haikyuu hc #bokuto hc #kenma hc #hq #haikyuu!!#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x male reader #x male reader

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feminaexlux · 3 years

Text

Silence is Golden, Duct Tape is Silver

Re: title -- there's no bondage or being duct taped anywhere I just can't get the title out of my head 😂

For @verfound, happy birthday!!! This is based off of a MegaMind AU some of us at LBSC were shooting around for a long while. I decided to make some of it a reality, and of course I also decided it would be moderately fun to do it as smut.

Rated E, for reasons above lol

Find on AO3 here :)

(Okay so it's a day late)

Notes:

Adrien Agreste is Chat Blanc, hero of Paris (Metroman), sir not actually appearing in this fic

Luka Couffaine is Silencer, villain of Paris (MegaMind), working together with Sass (Minion). Sass is also not appearing in this fic but I thought I'd give it a mention

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is the intrepid special-news reporter (Roxanne)

Felix Graham de Vanily is the museum curator (Bernard)

Theo is (now) Chat Noir, new hero of Paris, formerly creepy cameraman (Hal/Titan), now creepy superhero stalker mentioned here and there

Also for all of you out there thorsty for Felinette I apologize 'cuz I will be serving up a gallon of POISON BREW, aka this was always Lukanette. Altho I appreciate your visit! This is an official apology for the bait and switch.

⁂

Felix looked nervously around the restaurant, taking in the families and other couples dining quietly at the fancy-ass place he reserved for his dinner date with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She was running late… which wasn't hugely out of the ordinary for her, but still… this seemed later than usual? He adjusted his bracelet, re-checked that the flutes of champagne were perfectly topped off, centered the now burnt-out candle on the table. Taking a quick peek around and making sure no one noticed, he pulled out his raygun and fired it into the candle, re-lighting it. He tucked away the gun as fast as he could.

"Felix!"

"Marinette," Felix sighed in relief.

"Sorry I'm late," she breathed out a sigh, dropping down into her chair.

"Wow, your hair…" She didn't have it up in pigtails! It was flowing loose and was wind-swept. So wind-swept that her bangs were sticking straight up. She'd always been gorgeous but this took it up to another level, geez. "Looks... exciting?"

"Hmm, not the only exciting development of the night," she said, leaning in closer. "Silencer's created a new hero, and I know why!" There was a pop as another bottle of champagne was opened nearby and Felix jumped a little. "It all makes sense now!"

Felix choked. "Uh huh, yeah?" He shakily drew up his water glass to take a sip.

"He missed getting his ass kicked so he created a new hero to kick it for him," Marinette explained. Felix nearly spat out the water but luckily the glass was still in front of him so it sprayed back into it. "But why pick Theo? Theo is the worst possible person you could pick!"

"Wow," Felix said nervously. "That's a lot to take in."

"It boggles my mind," Marinette huffed, leaning back into her chair.

"I am extremely boggled. You know, I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of who's kicking whose ass, but in the meantime," Felix held up his champagne. "Let's enjoy each other's company."

"Ah, I'm sorry Felix, of course you're right," Marinette smiled. "You know I could use a breather," she sighed again, but raised her glass of champagne to toast. "To Felix, for being the only normal thing in my crazy, upside-down world."

Felix felt a pang of guilt but tried not to let it show on his face. "To… being normal," Felix said, clinking his glass with hers. "Marinette?"

"Yes, Felix?"

"Say I wasn't so normal… Let's say I had the complexion of a popular primary color, as a random, non specific example. Would you still enjoy my company?"

"Of course," she said easily. "You don't judge a book by its cover or a person from the outside--"

"Oh, that's a relief to hear," Felix chuckled, leaning in closer.

"You judge them based on their actions!" Marinette finished.

Felix blinked, sitting up straighter. "Well that seems kind of petty, don't you think?"

Marinette smiled pleasantly, but he could tell there was something she wasn't saying. "I am starving," she said, changing the subject. "But I see this is such a cute restaurant, I love the décor!"

"Oh yeah, I'd recommend their special entrée for tonight, it sounds delectable."

The dinner was actually very good and they enjoyed chatting about various subjects. They had just finished up dessert when Marinette sighed again, looking a little… spooked, maybe? Nervous? "Hey Felix?"

"Yeah?"

"I… I'm not sure I want to go home alone… Do you think it'd be okay if I… stayed with you tonight?" She looked up imploringly at Felix.

God her big blue eyes were so beautiful… wait, what did she just ask? Oh shit, Felix thought. He choked, coughing. "Uh w-wow, I…" Felix put a hand to his collar and loosened it a bit. "Th-that's uh… S-sure. I'll be… I'll be right back," he said awkwardly. "Promise I'll be back," he said belatedly when Marinette raised an eyebrow at him. "Just need to… take care of something," he kept talking. Just GO, dumbass, Felix thought at himself.

He practically ran to the bathroom. Oh fuck he had no idea where Felix actually lived. He pulled out a dehydrated cube from his jacket pocket, running the sink tap. He threw the cube into the sink and the real Felix popped back into being. "What the hell--" the real Felix started.

Silencer pulled back the serpent's head on his bracelet and detransformed. "Where do you live?" he asked Felix, pointing his raygun at the startled man in the sink. "Give me your keys."

"Wh-what?! OKAY, okay, okay I'm at--" Felix blabbed, panicking when Silencer shoved the raygun under his chin. Felix took out his apartment keys and handed it to Silencer.

"Cool, thanks," Silencer mumbled, firing the raygun and re-dehydrating Felix back into a cube. "Alright, Silencer, she just asked to spend the night with you," Silencer talked at himself in the mirror. His face was kept neutral but inside there were Code Red alarm klaxons ringing through his entire body and he was fucking ecstatic and goddamn petrified at the same time. "And you said yes. She's… spending the night. With you, you lucky asshole," Silencer chuckled a little disbelievingly.

Well, okay, she was spending the night with Felix, but… it was really him anyway? Silencer felt an even bigger pang of guilt run through his system after thinking that, but… he'd been so in love with her and she'd never give him a chance as the real him. He thumped his head into the mirror and sighed. "I should tell her," he thought despondently.

Maybe? She'd probably throw water at his face and walk out on him if he did admit he wasn't who she thought he was. And… and why did he care? He was Paris' Big Bad. He was bad to the bone. So what if he was lying to his most favorite person in the entire world (outside of Sass)? She was… she was just Marinette Dupain-Cheng, reporter for TVi, and he was a Supervillain.

Supervillains never got the girl. This was his only shot.

And he'd take it.

He fiddled with his bracelet again, re-disguising himself as Felix. He straightened his collar, necktie, and vest, combing back his hair with his fingers. He smiled back up at the mirror. "Let's do this," he said to no one in particular.

He went back to their table, feeling much less nervous about things. "Sorry about that," he chuckled. They went ahead and took care of the check and they walked out to his car. He'd been able to hold her waist while she leaned against his arm. His heart still thumped double time whenever she touched him and he was able to touch her. They'd been comfortable holding hands for a while, but this was all pretty new since it was basically the first time Silencer had ever been able to get that close with anyone.

"Wow," she giggled. "This is pretty… rockin'," she commented wryly. The normally-invisible-but-currently-visible car was black but still stood out against the rest because of its many spike ornamentations.

"Oh, uh, yeah, it's a classic," he laughed nervously. "Didn't want to change too much from the way I… I found it, you know?" He helped her into the passenger seat and got in the driver side. "Don't touch anything, by the way. The buttons are… just for show but they're very delicate."

"So strange," Marinette smiled as she looked at the console. "What is this, a jellyfish launcher?" She'd pointed at one of the buttons. "Is that a shark with a laser attachment?!" she yelled excitedly, looking at another button.

"Th-those darn people from the ol' days. They were… eccentric," Felix chuckled, shrugging. He started the engine and the car blasted Jagged Stone at them. "Oh shit, I'm sorry," he said, panicking as he turned down the volume.

Marinette laughed and it was beautiful to his ears. "I don't mind actually, I kinda love this music."

"Huh, really? Cool," he said, internally screaming a YESSSS SHE LIKES THE SAME MUSIC I DO. "He's my favorite musician."

"Mine too!" Marinette started singing along to the tune and Felix turned the volume back up to a comfortable level. "Oh, you know I actually designed one of his covers when I was still in Collège, the one for Rock Giant."

"No way," Felix gasped, driving out into the Parisian streets. Oddly enough Felix lived in the same direction his lair was in, which sort of stressed him out a little. "That's my favorite album. Very nice work on the cover," he said, distracting himself. They continued talking about Jagged Stone on the ride until they ended up in front of Felix's apartment and he parked, shutting off the engine. "Uh, we're… we're here." He felt a little on-edge now that they arrived.

"Huh, I thought it'd be more…" Marinette trailed off. "Lair-like."

His brain ground to a halt. "Excuse me?" Felix asked blankly.

"Ha, right. So here's the thing," Marinette started, turning to face Felix. "I was late tonight because, guess what? I got a visit from Chat Noir! He flew me off around the city and decided I needed to be rescued, so he dropped me from 1000 meters in the air into traffic and 'rescued' me! I nearly died about 3 times." Marinette grabbed Felix's lapels angrily and pulled him in. "I was trying to tell him that Silencer was planning something with the new hero, but Chat Noir got angry and he left me nearly stranded at the top of the Eiffel! And now I think Chat Noir has a vendetta against me and I'm scared as fuck and you need to help out and keep me safe because you created this mess, Silencer!"

Felix blanched, his mouth gaping wide open in horror as he searched for words. "I… I'm so sorry you had to go through all that b-but I don't know what you're talking about," he tried to laugh. "That sounds terrifying, though! I-I'm not--" Marinette heaved a sigh, rolling her eyes. She grabbed the bracelet on his left arm and moved the serpent-head, going through a series of disguises before it finally detransformed him entirely. "Okay, you got me," Silencer smiled nervously. "Su-surprise?" She didn't respond except to take her hands off him and glare. He lowered his head and thumped it against his steering wheel. "How'd you find out?"

Marinette folded her arms. "Remember when I broke my sunglasses?"

"Yeah."

"Well, turns out when you change the angle of the polarized lens filter you get to see things from a brand new perspective. Your disguise thing didn't work when I saw you through the lens at a different angle."

Silencer tilted his head toward her and frowned. "That… was a month ago."

"And?"

"Aaand you kept dating me even though you knew?" He tried to keep the hope out of his voice but he wasn't sure he was successful.

Marinette rolled her eyes again. "It's called putting up a front, Silencer. I needed to keep tabs on you." She stared forward, looking pretty angry.

Shit. Ouch. He'd been bruised and battered and broken being beaten up by Chat Blanc countless times, but for some reason this hurt more than anything. "Sorry," he breathed out, straightening himself back up into his seat. "Okay." He turned the engine on again, the music continuing to play a mix of Jagged Stone albums, but the two car occupants sat in silence on their way to his lair.

He drove toward the sewers, going through a secret entrance down a level into the garage of his lair. The huge, heavy metal doors shut close behind them in a booming metallic thud. He parked, turned off the engine, and got out first to open Marinette's door for her. She got out and folded her arms again, looking tired and sad but unafraid.

"My room's over there," Silencer pointed at a door heavily decorated with gothic elements. "You can have it, feel free to use whatever inside. Let me know if you need anything, I'll… be at my desk." The little brainbots hovered nearby, beeping and whirring anxiously. They somehow knew not to attack Marinette.

"Thank you," Marinette said softly, heading toward his room.

"You've got a surprising amount of trust in me," Silencer said offhandedly after she'd taken a few steps. "I could have -- might have just kidnapped you for nefarious reasons."

Marinette stopped but didn't turn around to face him. "No, you haven't. I made you come here. And besides," she glanced over her shoulder. "Between you and Chat Noir, at least you haven't ever hurt me." She had a sad smile on her face. "So, yes, I do trust you."

"I would never hurt you, Marinette," Silencer whispered to himself after she went into his room and closed the door.

⁂

Okay, Marinette, she thought at herself. You just willingly allowed a Supervillain to take you back to his lair and now you're in his room because you were being stalked by a brand new superhero creep calling himself Chat Noir and this was literally the safest place you could be. She took a look around his room and while it was all painted black or blue with lightning bolts everywhere, she saw a bunch of music posters and guitars hung up on the walls.

She smiled, remembering that Felix -- no, scratch that, Silencer -- had always been kind of a music nerd. She walked forward and flopped onto the bed in unexpected exhaustion, but God, she needed a shower. After that horrifying experience with Chat Noir and the… weird sense of guilt she felt for pushing Silencer to do this for her, she just wanted to wash herself of the grime and sleep it off. It was largely Silencer's fault anyway, even if he did look completely surprised and shocked when she said Chat Noir had paid her a nasty visit.

She went into the bathroom and turned on the lights. She opened the shower door and turned the faucet to hot, testing the water after a bit to make sure it was the right temperature. She stepped in after taking off her clothes and shoes, sighing in contentment as the hot water hit her skin.

But she wasn't relaxing as much as she hoped she would.

She couldn't forget the heartbroken expression on Silencer when she told him she'd been dating him as a front. Well, he had to be a Supervillain (even if he never actually did intentionally hurt anyone), if he'd just been a Hero instead she probably would have loved to -- Wow, fuck, where did that thought come from? Ugh.

So what if he was actually kind of cute, blue skin and all? And so what if, when he wasn't terrorizing the city and causing massive property damage, he'd been sweet and kind and thoughtful and she felt the happiest and safest she'd been in a long time when she spent time with him? "Ugh, stop it, Marinette," she groaned, slapping her palms against her face. "You're being stupid." So stupid it sounded like she was in love with a Supervillain. Yeah right, as if…

Fuck, she was.

She turned off the faucet and angrily stepped out, drying herself off. It hadn't ever been about superpowers. If she'd been interested in heroes she would have probably propositioned Chat Blanc, but she hadn't. Chat Noir was a definite no-go. Instead she'd flirted with Silencer and was now in his Lair, because she had trusted him.

She stepped out of the bathroom and rifled through his closet to find and put on a robe. It'd been embroidered with "The King" across the back and it made her laugh. King of what? Evil? Silencer was bad but he didn't have an evil bone in his body. Which was kinda weird to think about so she stopped thinking about it.

She crawled into bed. 30 minutes to an hour later she found that she couldn't sleep after tossing and turning. She sighed, sitting up and getting out from under the covers. She slipped on her flats and walked out of the room, finding Silencer looking through the exterior surveillance cameras in his chair, but he was facing away. She pushed on his chair and turned it around to face her. "So what did you--"

"Aah!" He nearly jumped straight out of the chair. "Ma-ma-ma-Marinette?!" He flushed, the tips of his ears were pinker and there'd been a red tinge to his cheeks.

She giggled. "Are you alright?" She left her arm on his chair, noticing that she was leaning over him a little bit, maaaybe showing a bit more skin than usual as the robe had separated slightly. He definitely noticed that too and was desperately looking away.

"Fine, fine. Why do you ask?" He was playing it cool but it was obvious he was trying his hardest to not look at her. "Did you need anything?"

Oh now this was precious. "Why, Silencer, are you scared of me?" she teased.

He started sputtering, finally looking back up at her. "Wh-what? Pfft no, nooo. S-scared? Of you? Nope. So what if you're unbelievably brave and amazingly intelligent and manage to outsmart even me sometimes? A-and so what if you're really, really ridiculously good looking?"

She smirked. "Are you trying to charm me, Silencer?"

"H-hey, you're the one trying to seduce me, you-you temptress," Silencer continued to stammer, his blush getting worse as she sat down across his lap and leaned against him.

"You know, Silencer, it's strange. For all the times you've kidnapped me, you've never treated me badly and you'd only kept me until Chat Blanc came to fight you. When we were dating and I found out that you were impersonating Felix, I thought you were trying to use me or control me or brainwash me, but you haven't. There were so many times, like now, where I'm clearly unarmed and helpless, and yet you've never done anything to make me think I need to be afraid of you. So what's the deal here? What do you want with me?"

He looked elsewhere (anywhere but at her) and she could see a slight grimace forming as he ran through his options. "Can't I just like spending time with you?"

"So you've been lying to me, pretending to be Felix, to spend time with me?"

He laughed a little despairingly. "That's the only thing I've lied about. Everything else I've told you was the truth. But you like me as Felix. You don't like me as Silencer. So yeah."

"Would you have slept with me still pretending to be Felix?" Marinette asked the question that had been plaguing her, preventing her from being able to sleep.

He looked ashamed. "Honestly?" he sighed. "No. I would have bailed."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"I want you to be with me," he said quietly. They both went quiet, and outside of the occasional beeping of the brainbots hovering nearby the room was nearly silent.

"It's funny," Marinette said after a few moments, placing her hand along his cheek and guiding his gaze back down to her. "I've gotten to know you when you're not blowing up half the city, and you're pretty fun to be with. So maybe I do want to be with you. As you are, right here, right now."

"I-I thought you said you were just 'putting up a front,'" he said, sounding confused.

"Doesn't stop me from wanting to kiss you," she said. "And more, if you want that."

He choked. "M-more?"

"Even if your spandex suit doesn't leave much to the imagination," Marinette said, her voice sultry and low. She traced a finger from the tip of his jaw down his chest. "I'm still... curious about what you have underneath it." His gulp was audible. It was simply so fascinating to see his reactions and it made Marinette want to keep teasing him.

For a long moment he looked like the physical equivalent of a spinning loader icon. "Wait, you're not making fun of me, are you?" She pulled his face toward hers, pressing her lips against his. She kissed him again, harder the second time after he looked so deliciously surprised. She got back onto her feet standing up from his lap and he numbly followed his gaze after her, forgetting that he had the rest of his body in his chair. "Wh-what--"

She smiled and partially bit her bottom lip. "So, still think I'm joking?" She spun one end of the robe's tie as a little show of impatience. "Like I said, there's more if you want it."

"Uh, I..." he trailed off, the fingers of his hand touching his lips where hers had been just a few seconds ago. "Is this real?" he asked, still apparently dazed. She sighed but kept a smile, placing her hands on her hips, which had apparently been enough to bring him back to the present. He braced his weight on the armrests and got halfway up. "Hell yeah, I want--"

"Sit down," she commanded. He dropped back into his chair, surprised. She unfastened the robe and let it slip off and fall into a pool of fabric at her heels. She hadn't had anything on underneath. She sat back in his lap, straddling him, watching his expression grow ever more wide-eyed and mesmerized. There was a little whine that escaped him as she leaned his head back, running her fingers through his hair and kissing him again. She pulled back, raising his chin further to find the zipper at his neck, and pulled the tab down. There were some intriguing shimmery purple striations across his chest that seemed to define the valleys of his muscles...

"Oh shit," he murmured. She giggled and bit at her bottom lip, then thought of a better place to set her teeth, nipping lightly at his neck while she unzipped the shirt or whatever it was all the way and pulled it off. Soon after he wrapped her in his arms, pulling her in a tight hug while he let out a shuddering sigh as she was pressed up against his bare chest.

She froze in place. "… Do you want me to stop?"

"No! No. Just need…" he groaned a little. The brainbots hovering nearby chirped quizzically. "Privacy." Whoops. She forgot they had cameras.

"You're not recording this, are you?"

He cleared his throat nervously. "Not... intentionally." Shit. At least he was honest. Oh well.

She leaned in to nibble at his ear and tugged at the earring stud. "Then take me to bed," Marinette growled. She had felt a burgeoning warmth press up against her inner thigh before, but she felt it -- him -- flare a little more when she growled. He liked that, then? Oh god, he whimpered when she pressed herself into that warmth. She was going have so much fun torturing him and she'd just barely begun. She was already reveling in the way he was responding to everything...

Apparently he felt a little in over his head. "A-are you sure?" he asked, a little breathless, his voice strained. She saw him swallow again. "It's... it's me," he continued, as if she hadn't been well aware of that and was mostly naked on top of him anyway. "You know, the villain?"

It was equal parts endearing and frustrating that he wanted to check like that. "Yes, I know. Now do you want me to fuck your brains out or not, Silencer?"

Whatever he'd been worried about halted abruptly. He nodded emphatically and mouthed a yes even though no sound came out. He stood up from the chair, supporting her weight by gripping onto her ass, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Yep, she could definitely feel the bulge in his pants. He groaned and shifted her so he could carry her in his arms bridal-style when she brushed up against it -- she was probably teasing him a little much. Thankfully it wasn't too long before they got to his room and he kicked the door closed behind him.

He didn't get a chance to go much further after that. Marinette pushed off from him and got back onto her feet, then pressed him up against the closed door. She brought him in for another kiss, one hand working its fingers through his hair and down his neck, the other hand causing him to jump a little when she cupped and squeezed his erection. "Mmm, too much?" she asked.

"N-no," he shook his head, half a shy smile on his face.

"Good." She pulled down both his pants and boxer briefs to mid thigh and got on her knees. He yelped in surprise but other than shivering he didn't move. He made little gasps as she kissed his inner thighs, then the delicate skin bridging his legs to his groin, deliberately putting her mouth anywhere but his penis, hearing him whine at the lack of attention to his most sensitive part.

Then she wrapped her fingers around the tip, running her tongue along the underside of his cock, marveling at the way it was so (thankfully) familiar but still uniquely his. His cock was oddly beautiful. There were... shimmering purple ridges and thick veins running across the length of his skin, accenting the normal coloring of blue at the base shifting to a lovely pink at the tip. She uncovered the head of his penis with her tongue, pushing his foreskin back gently, and then took him as far as she could into her mouth and squeezing the rest with a firm grip.

He groaned loudly at that, his hands reaching for anything to hold onto and ended up just bracing himself against the door as his entire body shook. It made her giddy that she was having this effect on him and she giggled with him still so full in her mouth. While he was already plenty hard and thick she felt him surge, making it harder to breathe, but all she was thinking about was how good it would feel when she would finally ride him.

She pulled her head back to take a breath, then ran her tongue across the flared ridge of his head, licking up the sticky fluid dripping from the very tip. She went down on him again, squeezing tighter with her hand gripped around the base. His moans were getting more strained, getting louder every time she took him in as deep as she could and pulled away, all up until he slammed a fist against the door and exploded in her mouth with a stifled yell.

He put a hand on her shoulder and pulled away from her when she swallowed and kept on going. "S-sorry," he breathed out, sliding down against the door until he landed on his ass. "That was... too good..." He was sweaty and breathing hard. She just smirked, satisfied with herself, pulling off his boots and finally taking off all of his clothing with no resistance on his part. Then she wordlessly lead him back to bed.

He turned her around and kissed her, pressing his tongue up against hers, and kept kissing her as he laid her down on her back across the bed, just at the edge of the mattress. He was already hard again, now that was fun, and she reached out and stroked him but he jerked back slightly. "Not yet," he laughed softly, placing her hand back on the bed. He kissed down her neck, seemingly encouraged by the soft little gasps she made. He moved further down, hesitantly resting his fingers around her breast, then squeezed, flicking a tongue across her hardened nipple.

"Mmm, yesss," she moaned, weaving her fingers through his hair, scoring lightly down his scalp and neck with her nails, causing him to shiver. He kissed down her stomach, and went further down still until he was on his knees between her legs, which Marinette was only happy to encourage. He lifted her hips a little, bringing her thighs over his shoulders and decided to pay her back for teasing him in kind, his mouth pressed against her inner thigh and ghosting his lips across everything but her pussy. She laughed.

He stuck his tongue deep in her.

"Ah!" She raised herself up further to get his tongue in even deeper. "God, yes, Silen--" He pulled away after lapping her up. She... didn't actually realize how wet she was until she felt his breath against her. It was both hot and cold at the same time. "Silencer?"

"Luka," he said quietly, but she heard him clearly enough.

"H-huh?" she asked, a little dazed. He sucked on the sensitive little nub, flicking his tongue across it, and she cried out an "Oh god, yes, there!" He pulled away again, a little further this time.

"I want you screaming out my real name," he said, voice dangerously low.

"Luka?" Marinette repeated. She saw his eyes darken at the mention and he dove his tongue back into her, tasted more of her juices, drank in more of her until she was dizzy. "Luk-aah!"

"Just like that," he sighed. He went back to devouring her, switching to lavishing her clit with attention, drawing circles with his tongue around her most sensitive part, then back to going as deep as he could with his tongue until she felt her blood rush to her core and she was screaming.

"God yes, yes, aaah!" Her back arched and everything in her body was taut, her mind's focus on the heat and the slick and her nerves lighting up bright as she came. She felt him holding her down as her body nearly writhed in the ecstasy, and he continued, her muscles tense and vibrating, aching now for something more... "Luka, I need you," she moaned, heady and nearly delirious.

He groaned and pulled his head back again, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He buried his face in her thigh, nipping and sucking at the delicate skin until it left a mark. Marinette was still breathing a little ragged but the sounds escaping her mouth set him to get off his knees and do it again on her stomach and breasts. He stopped there and Marinette felt him shudder, his eyebrows furrowed in a wince. "I am so hard it hurts," he breathed out in a soft chuckle. Her toes curled as she imagined feeling his length sliding in her, hard and hot and spreading her wide.

Why the hell was she waiting? She wrapped her arms around his torso, pulling him in and rolling them over so she was on her knees straddling him again. "I want you to watch me fuck you, Luka." She sat up on his thighs, gripping him upright and sliding along his underside until she reached the tip and sank down slowly on him, making sure his eyes were on her. He was most definitely watching and she saw the furrows in his eyebrows deepen as she sheathed him, fully seated. "Did you like that?" She felt him tense beneath her.

"I--" she wasn't sure how his voice could break in the middle of a single syllable but that happened. He cleared his throat. "I did, yeah." She couldn't keep it serious and started laughing, especially since he was trying so hard to sound smooth. She bit her lip when she couldn't keep the grin off her face. She leaned back, getting back into business and watching his frown quickly turn into wonder, supporting herself by putting her hands on his thighs as she moved, letting him reach out and hold onto her hips. She lifted herself up and came back down, feeling him fill her up so full as she inched down, savoring the sensation. It wasn't long before she moved faster, squeezing him as hard as she could on the way down to get him to moan as loudly as he did before.

It wasn't long before he had started losing control. He gripped her hips tight and she saw him swallow hard. There were beads of sweat at his forehead and she was half starting to wonder if he was...

He pulled her down on him suddenly, an arm wrapped tight across her shoulders, pushing her hips hard against his with his other hand gripping her ass, his fingernails leaving marks into her skin as they dug into her flesh. "God, fuck, I'm coming," he breathed out through gritted teeth, jaw clenched tight. She clenched her core harder in turn, setting her teeth at his neck and biting down, reveling in the way he groaned and spasmed inside of her. She could feel how hard and fast his pulse was on her lips. There was a deeply primal sort of satisfaction in all of this.

"Ugh," he groaned in a much less sexy way. "Shit." He brought his hand to his face to hide his embarrassment. She started giggling again before she could catch herself.

"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you, I swear." Actually she kinda was but it was over how powerful she felt bringing him to the brink that fast (honestly it was kind of flattering), and how stupidly cute he was being.

"I'm--we're not done." Before she could ask what that meant he rolled on top of her and kissed her, and to her surprise he was still hard inside of her. He pulled out slowly and sank into her deep, going a steady rhythm. She hooked her feet together behind him over his back, making sure he didn't dare pull out all the way. Their breathing grew rougher as they continued, tongues dancing together as they kissed. He dragged his lips from her mouth to her neck, to the sensitive spot behind her ear and she shivered and cried out beneath him. It felt so good with him inside her, his weight on top of her, his heart beating as fast as hers.

There it was, she could start to feel the tension down where they were joined, that hypersensitive tingle that told her that she was building up to something grand. She needed a bit more to push her to that peak... "Luka, harder, please -- I'm so close," she gasped out. He made a low, deep growl that left her tensing up in anticipation, then she held a hand above her head to brace against the headboard as she started to get driven into hard and fast. That was exactly what she needed. All of her senses rushed down her body to focus on his rock hard cock hitting her deep, stretching her open, so hot she was melting on him.

There it was, it was her turn to come hard, and she did. "Aah, Luka I'm coming--!" She was stretched so taut and he was so much bigger than what she was used to but she felt herself tighten and collapse into a singular point, squeezing him with so much pressure that he was gasping for air. He kept pounding his cock into her over and over while she kept screaming out his name.

He came again with a reverent murmur right before he kissed her. "God, Marinette, you're so amazing." She could feel his whole body turn rigid, felt his arms get threaded underneath her to hold her tight against him, and felt herself being flooded inside as he continued thrusting. But he was slowing down, falling back to his deep, languorous penetration.

God, they were both exhausted. She kissed up his neck, barely able to do anything else. She still had tiny little echos of her orgasm run through that made her shiver and him gasp as he was still inside her.

Maybe sometime in the morning they'd be able to figure out where to go from here. If she had the opportunity she would have heard him say she was the best thing to ever happen to him. She would have wondered about saying that she was his and had been for a while, and except for that whole villain business she was happy.

Except that Chat Noir had followed them. And was waiting outside.

And he was pissed.

⁂

Additional notes:

Jellyfish launcher :p

I'd been imagining a little bit of Divinity: Original Sins 2 elves for how Silencer/Luka's built?

DEFO NSFW but I was also sorta thinking BadDragon's Elliot >_>

I kinda love that I switched the chill levels of Marinette and Luka. Luka's the one with high anxiety around Marinette. Marinette just wants to kiss him (and more).

#fxl fic #rating E #lukanette #lukanette endgame #endgame lukanette #megamind au #angstyish #surprise ending?#Dunno man I just thought it fit #luka couffaine #villain!luka #marinette dupain cheng #felinette #sorta #but not rlly lmao #smutty literature

73 notes · View notes

palbabor-writes · 3 years

Text

So, uh, I got excited with this ask

Anonymous said:

so what if, and I’m just spitballin’ here, you wrote a little something for Tomura, a jealous!reader x Tomura, perhaps? Ik there probably wouldn’t be an actual situation where somebody would try to steal him away or anything but just a little something on the reader seeing something that wasn’t what it looked like and Shiggy kind of reassuring her in his own special way? 😌 pls &thank you sm in advance, but you of course absolutely don’t have to write it if you don’t want to (: love your work!

Pairing: Tomura Shigaraki x Gen!Reader

Warnings: Adult language, angst, jealous feelings, mentions of past relationship and heavy petting, mm, imma say it’s rated T, for the teens and upper betweens

Word Count: 4387

Notes: Lol. I’m pretty sure this was meant to be like, a drabble or head cannon in your mind nonnie. Me, being me, I stretched it out into a freaking fic. I can’t shut uppppp sometimes. First time trying for a Gen!Reader, so hopefully it’s a thumbs up. Not beta edited, so any mistakes are mine, and mine alone.

“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on.” ― William Shakespeare, Othello

It’s been two months, two freaking months and you’ve hardly gotten two texts strung together, let alone a call, from Tomura.

While he’s never been what anyone would call a frequent texter, your last message has sat, unread, on his phone for the last 3 days. You know he’s busy, you know he said he’s got shit to take care of, but you can’t help the angry pit of worry that simmers in your gut. He could at least tell you something. Like, hey, I’ll be out of touch for a few days, talk soon. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently it is.

The two of you have always been a quiet item. Most of the League knows, or at least, heavily, heavily suspects. It’s not like you tried to keep it a secret, it’s just the way you both are. Besides, you usually liked how the arrangement worked.

You’d met him through your job. You worked with Giran as a courier of sorts. Sometimes you’d lug shipments back and forth, sometimes you’d make deliveries. It was one of these deliveries that introduced you to Tomura. He was quiet, sulking toward the back of the bar, but you’d managed to strike up a conversation with him as Compress double checked his requested items.

He was waspish, sharp. At first, you worried that your questions had only managed to pissed him off. But then, just as you started to chat with another guy in the bar, a snarky fellow, who was covered in some serious, serious burns, Tomura tugs your attention back to him with a pointed question.

“Can you tell Giran that you’re only one who’s permitted to transport the deliveries to the bar?”

That one query had started a landslide.

You were summoned to the hideout frequently, practically on the daily after that. Giran just shook his head and asked you not to fall too deep. You didn’t know what he meant then. Two months later you understood his meaning perfectly.

How could you not fall head over heels for this guy? Fuck, he was so desperate, so wanting, so fucking needy for you. God, you missed it now that you didn’t have it. After the Kamino incident, he’d called on you even more and you loved that you could help him. He honestly seemed, in his own, gruff way, appreciative.

But, then he’d said he needed to leave the city.

At first, your contact with each other had maintained some semblance of normalcy. You would text and he would reply. You could call and he would answer. Often, he sounded tired, strained, but every once in a while you could pull a laugh from him and all would feel right with the world.

Now?

Now nothing feels right and the only link you have to him is Dabi. He’s the only person in the League that’s responding to your emails or texts. Even Giran isn’t answering anything. That’s not normal either because Giran always, always answers. What the fuck is going on?

It’s starting to feel like you’ll never know. This is mainly due to the fact that Dabi is a shitty, shitty font of information. At first, you’d eagerly taken his calls and texts. In lieu of a tip, you asked him about this mission Tomura was on. He fed you vague, flippant, answers.

“Tch, this again? I already told you, they’re all fighting this giant. It’s some pet of the doctors.”

“And like I said the last, oh, I don’t know, twelve times, giant makes no sense to me. Can you expand on that a little bit? Like, what the hell does that mean? They’re fighting a fucking giant. Is that supposed to be some kinda bizarro hint? Cuz’ it sounds like you’re giving me shoddy information to get me off your back,” you snap, placing your foot on his box of requested medical kit supplies.

Dabi practically keeps you on standby now. The guy has gotten more aggressive in the last month, and the heavy price his fire quirk extorts on his body meant he needs a steady flow of burn cream, meds, stitches and pain relievers.

“Fuck, look, I don’t know how else to explain that fucker. I didn’t give a shit about boss man’s little mission to tame him, so the doctor and I worked out something else for me to do. I’m not around those guys right now, I’ve got other things I’m working on. Now give me my shit and get out of my face. Ask Toga about your little fuck buddy, I could give two shits about his well being.”

“Why follow him if you hate him so much?” God, this asshole is such a prick.

Dabi considers you for a long moment, his vibrant blue eyes lingering on your scowling face. “He’s a means to an end. I’m just here to see this society fall to its knees. Boss wants the same thing, so, for now, this arrangement works for both of us. Now, if I have to ask you to give me my fucking shit one more time, I’m gonna’ singe you where you stand.”

Sucking your teeth, you kick the box toward him and turn on your heel, slamming his door behind you. If he’s not going to be useful to you, why be useful to him? We’ll see how he likes it when you accidentally miss some of his shipment deadlines.

You pace out into the night, shrugging your jacket up on your shoulders. If they’re so far out, if they’re fighting something that sounds like an impossibility, why not ask you to bring them some supplies? Why haven’t they reached out to you?

As you wait for your train, you pull your phone from your pocket, your cold fingers resting against the glass. There’s a missed call from another contact, but no other notifications. You swipe over to your messages from Tomura. Your last text sits, still unopened, unread, uncared for, in his box. It’s not fair, you think, sliding your phone back and pressing your hands into the meager warmth of your pockets.

Tomura used to confide in you and you felt close to him. And not just in a physical sense. At first, the relationship between the two of you was just that, something that eased an itch. But you kept asking him things, liking the soft tone his voice could take on when he lost some of that anger.

Then, he started to wordlessly ask you to stay a little longer, his arms wrapping around your bare form, holding you against his warmth. It was nice. It was so, so satisfying and now it’s gone. Is this his way of moving on from you? You would have thought that he would have said something. He’s never struck you as someone who hides from a confrontation. So why the radio silence?

Another week passes and Dabi keeps calling. He’s practically got your entire schedule blacked out now with deliveries, upcoming shipments and transports. What. The. Fuck. It’s gotten so frustrating that you’ve started to waffle on picking up his calls, sending him straight to voicemail.

“What kinda courier leaves their fucking name on their voicemail? Stop ignoring my calls, (Y/N).”

Yeah, he’s a real charmer. At least he answers your messages though. It’s better than nothing, you keep telling yourself, trying to ignore the gnawing, munching feeling of bitterness that keeps rising. Yeah, Dabi’s gotten to be such a constant in your life that your phone keeps recommending him as a new favorite.

Would you like to add the contact: Dabi, to your favorites list? No, no you would not.

Then, suddenly, out of the blue, Dabi’s not answering you either. Your first, gut instinct, tells you that he’s likely annoyed with your spotty replies or he’s busy with...”Dabi things”. He’s always reminding you about the oh, so important “Dabi things”. ‘Don’t pester me with your shit, (Y/N). I’ve got something big I’m working on.’

But now? Fuck, now you’d kill to hear from him.

There’s absolutely nothing. No response from Toga, Compress, Spinner, Dabi and most important of all, Tomura.

He’d finally read your text. After two whole days had passed from the sent time stamp, he’d read it, and then opted to not respond. It stung. You can still feel that tightening emotion of dread, of abject hurt, that had radiated from your chest when you saw that he’d finally looked at your message and then just decided you weren’t worth his time.

Yeah, after seeing that, the last few days have been nothing but a full tilt boogie of emotions for you.

This must be a planned thing. Why else would they all coordinate their ghosting. He must have wanted to leave you behind and now, this distance has made it possible.

He’s been changing a lot lately.

Even before he left for this, whatever it was, he’d grown in confidence and skill. Fuck, he’d taken on a Yakuza boss and won. He’s becoming a leader, a competent force to be reckoned with. He doesn’t need you to bounce ideas off of anymore. A courier picked up at the start of his career isn’t a necessary piece to add to his collection.

Yeah, chances are, he’s moved on. He’s out of your reach now and you can’t help the thoughts that rise in the back of your mind. What if he’s found someone else? What if he just got bored with you? Did you put too much thought into this relationship? Well, that question has kinda answered itself. You put way too much into this. You had planned for things, hoped for…

Your phone rings and the noise startles you out of your head. You fumble for your vibrating device and lift the screen up before swiping to answer the call. Oh, it’s Toga. Fingers shaking, you lift the phone to your ear and are so happy to hear her babbling voice.

She tells you that she’s been meaning to call you, but, gosh, everything has gotten in the way. Plus, she took a bad hit in a fight. Oh, she’s ok, but it’s been a crazy week for her.

As she chatters about some random series of events that you can’t string together, you let out a long sigh. That coiling that’s been building in your stomach loosens and you’ve never been so relieved in your life. There’s still a chance. Maybe he hasn’t decided to leave you in the dust. Maybe...whoops, Toga asked you something.

“Deka City? No, I’ve never been there.”

“Oh good, well, I wouldn’t try and go now. Tomura sorta, mmm, crumbled it to bits.”

“What?”

“Oooh, and we’re part of a bigger group now…”

She tells you about something called Gigamantia and their new connections. Apparently, Tomura’s made another step up in the world. Now he’s leading something called Meta Liberation? What is that? It sounds kinda familiar, but where have you heard it?

Toga is winding down her conversation, her voice smoothing out. She promises she’ll answer your other texts soon and emails you a set of coordinates, saying they’ll see you there and clicks off.

You lower your phone to your lap, biting back the grin that won’t stop spreading across your face. Ok, so, maybe you’re not as abandoned as you thought. Maybe they, no, maybe he still needs you.

******

You found the building alright. It was impossible to miss. This place is massive, fit for an army. The security is tight, so tight that you’d even been screened by a guard at the door. Once they confirm that you are who you say you are, and you know who you say you know, you’re permitted entrance.

Who are all these people?

As you enter the “meeting room,” which is really a space that looks like a concert area, complete with a well lit stage, you’re pressed into the mass of bodies. There must be hundreds of people here and there’s some hulking creature, dozing in the corner.

Is this that giant Dabi mentioned? You totally thought he was making that shit up. And, wait, wait, is that a pro hero a few spaces away? What is this? Where is the League?

The overhead lights dim and your attention is drawn back to the sage. People are bustling around the elevated area and a plush chair is placed in the center. Looks like the show is about to start.

A loud, booming voice announces the arrival of a man called Redestro. He must be that long faced guy in the motorized chair and, oh, there he is.

He walks up slowly, it looks like he’s leaning on something, but you can’t see clearly. The crowd shifts around you and an inordinately tall man is blocking your view. Huffing out a sigh, you try to maneuver yourself to a better vantage place.

He’s seated now, his long legs spread out in front of him. Fuck, he looks both wonderful and terrible, at the same time. Wonderful because it��s Tomura, terrible because he’s covered in bandages and he’s got a brace on his leg. What happened to him?

Your eyes can’t stop roving over him, trying to drink in everything. He looks like he’s on edge, his fingers clutching at a small slip of paper, as his good leg jiggles against the chair. Why...ah, he’s being introduced. Wait. He’s being introduced as the leader of the Paranormal Liberation Front? So...so all these people...this entire organization...is his to command?

He clears his throat and you hear his voice for the first time in months. He’s halting at first, but as he continues his speech his tone deepens, strengthens, losing that early hesitation. He sounds good, powerful and confident.

You tear your eyes away from him and give the crowd a quick glance. They’re enraptured. A few paces away you can hear people whispering to each other, their voices low, awed.

“He took down Redestro…”

“He’s so young.”

“He’s kinda...I don’t know...handsome.”

“You’re right, he looks regal.”

That coiling, trembling feeling is making a strong comeback. It’s an ugly return and it makes your flesh prickle and cool. He’s left you in the lurch for months and now he’s become some sort of leader, of an entire, what is this...a cult? An organization? An army? How the fuck, would you know? No one, least of all Tomura, has told you anything, about any of this.

When the address and introductions (the League had made a, uh, flashy entrance) are over, someone comes up and taps you on your shoulder. It’s another one of those security guards. She says you’ve been requested, the League wants to see you.

She takes you past the stage and down a long hallway. It’s quiet back here and the silence doesn’t soothe your frayed nerves. You’re pointed to a large set of doors and you bite your lip before pushing them open.

Another large room greets you. This one is filled with plush couches, elegantly carved tables and multiple chairs. There’s so much to look at, you don’t even see them at first. No, you hear him before you see him. He’s talking with a tall woman, who is writing down what he dictates, her pen moving rapidly across her paper.

Fuck, you’ve missed his voice.

It’s quiet now, a little hoarse from his speech and you want to step closer. He’s standing next to some large windows, his back turned to you. He hasn’t even noticed you. What were you thinking? He’s this...God, leader now. What are you? Just a nobody he met when he was still pounding the pavement, looking for anyone who could help their cause, their mission. There’s nothing for you here, he’s…

“(Y/N).”

Your eyes snap up to his. Tomura has turned, one arm braced heavily on his crutch, and is looking right at you. His eyes are hooded, dark, you can’t get a read on him from here. You want to step closer, but that sickening feeling is falling, like a stone, into your gut. Despite your turbulent emotions, you can’t stop staring at him.

The thick bandages are off and his hair is longer, the white strands hang close to his collarbone now, gleaming and pearlescent. He looks, damn, he looks tired and...what’s that? There’s something dark on his hand, it’s black and it covers three of his fingers. Why is he wearing that half glove, oh, oh no. It’s not a glove you realize, horrified, it's a prosthetic. He’s lost some of his fingers.

“It took you long enough, come here, (Y/N).”

His voice has dropped an octave, lingering in that distant tone that he would use when he dragged his lips across your neck, rumbling and murmuring against your skin. He knew that you liked that, he knew that it would make you so desperate for him, your hands pawing at his shoulders, pulling...

No. He’s ignored you for weeks, no, months. You’re not about to just fall to pieces at his feet, crawling and begging for him to want you. Your eyes latch onto his and you minutely shake your head at his request, fingers squeezing into your palms.

The woman, noting the tension that’s suddenly entered the room, looks between the two of you, and abruptly makes herself scarce, her heels tapping against the floor as she walks to the door. Once you hear it close behind her you unstick your mouth, your tongue heavy against your teeth.

“Who was that?” you ask, your voice croaking, thick with disuse. You can’t help the question. It tumbles from your mouth before you can stop it. You’d meant to ask him something else, but the query just, pops out, angry and trembling.

“I don’t know. One of Redestro’s cronies. Why-” His face scrunches abruptly and a wince of pain passes of his features. “Why does it matter?” He finishes, his hand gripping a little tighter against his cane.

“You didn’t have to send for me, you know. It looks like you’ve upgraded everything else, why not me too?”

A scowl echoes across his lips. “What-”

You won’t let him finish his question, you can’t stand it anymore. You also can’t seem to stop. All of the emotions, the anger, the betrayal, the fucking, God, jealous thoughts that you’d slip into, alone in your cold bed. No, you’re not going to back down.

“You didn’t call, you didn’t text, and when you did, finally, manage to remember that I exist, the texts were so far and few between...fuck, sending a letter would have been faster. The only link I had to you was Dabi-”

“What?” He snaps, repeating his question, his red eyes, flashing, gleaming, glaring. “What does he have to do with anything?” His face is set in a deep snarl, his scar lifting along his white teeth. His fingers coil into his crutch, one digit arched away, and he begins the long journey to where you’re stubbornly standing.

You watch him on bated breath. The sheer excitement of his renewed presence is making you shake. The warring feelings that are rising inside you are too much. It’s too much, it’s, oh...he’s right in front of you now.

“Answer me, (Y/N). What the fuck does Dabi have to do with anything?”

You gulp. Tomura has never, ever liked you interacting with Dabi. It was that first subtle flirtation between you and the flame user that had set Tomura off in the first place. He had barely given you a second glance that first time you met him, but once your attention wandered over to Dabi, suddenly he was all ears. That animosity grew as time wore on.

If anything, Dabi took advantage of it. He liked to press you, corner you, it was one of the many things you disliked about him. He was a selfish ass, only manipulating things for his own, twisted amusement.

It’s a low blow for you to land on Tomura, to play up his own jealousies, but turnabout is fair play, right?

“He’s the only person I could reach. You want to know who my phone keeps asking me to favorite now? Fucking Dabi. I kept asking him about you, about what was going on, but he never knew.

So, then I tried reaching out to you, directly. But then you decided to conveniently lose my fucking number, or something. You didn’t answer a single thing after that last text I sent you, what, two weeks ago? You didn't call. You didn’t even act like I exist, it-”

“I told you it would be a while.”

“Yeah, a while doesn’t typically mean two months. And how do you come back to me? With a broken leg and, fuck, three missing fingers? What is going on Tomura? You’re a different person now. Do you even want me anymore? You don’t have to ghost me. You could have just told me that you were moving onto bigger and better things.

Congratulations, by the way. You’re the leader of a cult. Now, you can cut off all those lousy loose ends, like me-”

“You’re jealous.”

His voice has dipped into that low octave again, rasping, deep, and oh, fuck. You sputter at his assessment, your hands clenching into your pants. You need something to tether you, to keep you from reaching for him. You’re angry, remember? He’s left you, all alone, so alone and...

He’s shifted to lean into you, the warmth of him rolling over you in waves. You can hear his breathing, if you move a little bit closer you could feel it, too. He knows what he’s doing. He’s used this tactic on you before. It’s very effective. His crutch taps him nearer. He’s practically flush against your heaving chest and your eyes flick up to his.

The red is dark, tempered, and that swirling agitation has left him. He looks…

No, no, he left you for months, he can’t look at you like that. You shake your head, your eyes wincing shut, blocking him from view.

“I’m not...I-I’m not jealous, I was just-”

“Come here, (Y/N). Don’t make me ask you again.”

His new, half prosthetic hand reaches for your neck and traces over your trembling throat, ghosting over you, forcing you to press toward him. Once he’s satisfied you’re not going to reject his touch, he lets the digits tap onto you, gently, slowly, like he’s coaxing you out of your temper. The contrast of cool metal and warm skin makes you gasp, your eyes fluttering open.

He’s curved over your lips, his white hair drifting softly around your face. Unthinkingly, unquestioningly, you reach for him. Your fingers lace into the silken tendrils and he lets a slow exhale wash over your face. His verdant eyes are so close. They’re fixated on yours, refusing to let you slip from his gaze again.

You can’t breathe. There’s something else you want to scold him for, but...but his lips are so close. His nose bumps against yours and you bite your lower lip. He’s so warm. He smells nice too. It’s a rich smell, earthy, thick with some enticing aroma that’s all him. It floods your senses and you’re downing, distracted and lost.

Tomura’s won this little stand-off because you reach for him first. Your fingertips urge him to you, one thumb dragging a familiar trail across the mole on his chin. His lips are chapped, rough, but oh, oh you’ve missed this.

He lets you lead him, your lips pressing and lifting, planting feather light caresses against him. Your tongue swipes across his lower lip and he groans. It’s a husky, broken sound and it makes you yank at his clothes. His new suit crumples under your hands. You’d almost feel bad, if he hadn’t been such a neglectful ass to you. You’re nipping at him now, your kisses losing that sweet vulnerability.

Tomura approves of this frantic pace and one arm cages against your back, lifting you closer and dragging you against his front. His crutch clatters to the floor, but neither of you have the wherewithal to care.

Besides, you think happily, you can be his crutch now.

He’s biting and sucking, his teeth drifting from your trembling lips and pressing into your pulse. One particularly hard nip has you arching into him, a gasping whimper on your lips. His tongue laves over the hurt, lulling the nip.

Your hips instinctually lean into the his and you moan when you feel the hardness that is waiting for you there. Tomura presses back, dipping his nose into the juncture of your shoulder, his lips distractedly kissing against your skin. Your fingers trace down his front again and one hand goes lower still, running along his pants until you find what you’re searching for.

He growls when you apply just the right amount of pressure and he’s pulling your lips back to his, demanding more. You’re skirting your other hand to the clasp of his belt when someone barges in the door.

Gasping, you start to pull away, trying to turn, but Tomura holds you to him, lifting his chin until it’s resting against your shoulder. He’s glaring out at whomever the fuck is standing in the doorway, but his fingertips are moving against you, pressing and soothing down your fevered skin.

“Hey boss- ah…” Dabi is brought up short by the sight that greets him and you can hear the sneer that he must have thrown Tomura’s way.

Tomura, for his part, is quiet, content to silently stare down the man who stupidly interrupted him. He turns his head a fraction of an inch, but it’s enough room for him to drag his rough lips against your neck. You quake at the stimulation and hear Dabi let out a barking laugh.

“Ew, well this is fucking disgusting. Looks like the two of you can go back to fucking normal, eh (Y/N)? You and boss man can bone and get all that pent up insecurity out of your-”

“Get the fuck out,” you and Tomura say in unison.

You hear another scoffing chuckle and then the door slams shut.

Notes: The Dabi bits miiiight be in there because I finally got my belated birthday present of his Banpresto figure in today ԅ(≖◡≖ԅ)

Tags: @spicy-skull, @xwildskullx, @yixxes, @ghstmthr, @evesmores

*I think that’s everyone for now. If you wanna be added to a list just drop me a line & I’ll get you on the Google Doc: Shigaraki works, Dabi works, Hawks works, BNHA works, All works...works, works. There’s likely more to come, but that’s what I got for now. k byeeee.

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ri-ahhh · 4 years

Note

I hate to be that person but like today’s been really shitty and embarrassing staining at work and I was just longing for some boyfriend gray (or e hehe but I know it’s easier for u to write gray!) just comforting you after an embarrassing period moment like that 🥺🙃 is that silly idk u really don’t have to hehe love you so much!

Ugh the strug👏gle👏 Shout out to anyone who has been through the horror of bleeding thru ur pants in public I think we all deserve a medal of bravery or something lol. Or an ott bf that looks like a Dolan twin to comfort us.

How’s your day going baby? Ily

The text from Grayson couldn’t have come at a better time for you mentally. You’re on the home stretch of when it’s time to get off work, and it can’t happen soon enough.

shitty tbh :/ urs?

Good. But imma shut up tell me what’s wrong

started my period at work, had to tell my boss and come home to change cuz I forgot to replace the extra set of work clothes in my car from when I stayed at your place last. then realized I only had like 2 tampons left so I’m gonna have to get those after work and I’m just ready to be home

im glad urs is going good tho

that sounded sarcastic. I really am glad ur having a good day haha sorry

Grayson sends you back a frowny face and four little dots, which is the little code the two of you use to indicate you’re busy and aren’t ignoring the other person mid conversation. You tuck your phone back in your purse under your desk and get back to the email you’re supposed to be typing up. Having to concentrate doesn’t help your mood any, head throbbing and your back aching both in the middle from your crappy office chair and in the lower part from Mother Nature.

Just as your phone buzzes by your foot, a cramp seizes your belly and radiates throughout your pelvis. You wince and bite your lip through a grunt, cursing the fact you were born female as you reach down to grab your phone. You cover your mouth to stifle your giggle and keep your boss a few offices over none the wiser when you read Grayson’s text.

What size pussy are u? ;)

You’re even more amazed when you open the message and a picture of a shelf full of tampax products fills your screen. How many boyfriends are out there buying tampons - the only brand of tampons you ever buy, at that - for their girlfriends unprompted and without coercion?

Grayson.. ur not real

I’m the realest bb. Now tell me which ones to buy cuz I’m starting to look like a weirdo

You chuckle and shake your head.

regular pls. the one w yellow on it. and a box of overnight pads. look on the box and it’ll say specifically.

Oh yeah u stopped wearing them tamps at night.

God, who is this man and where did he come from? How in the hell did he pick up on that of all things. Before you can respond, he hits you with a double text.

Sweet, gottem. What else?

You bite your lip and think. He’s already being so sweet and you don’t want to run him ragged all over town to get your period cravings. But then another cramp hits, this time one of those especially nasty ones that makes you feel like you got punched right in the vagina, and you think if you’re going through all of this to potentially carry and push out one of his babies one day, he can run a couple of errands for you.

if ur not too busy... watermelon sour patch, Trader Joe’s takis, milanos, and those frozen chipotle sweet potato fries. pls:)

Grayson hearts the message, and you sink back into your chair with a sigh. Just the thought of not having to trudge into Target or CVS after you leave the office is enough to alleviate some of your stress. You check the time and realize you only have an hour until you’re home in a bath, with no pants on, and your heating pad ready in bed with Grayson as well. An hour seems doable now.

You make your half hour commute home in a record 22 minutes, desperate to get out of your work clothes and into one of Gray’s oversized t-shirts. You saw the Porsche in your guest spot in your apartment garage, so you know he’s here when you kick the door shut behind you. “Gray?”

“In the bathroom!” His voice is muffled but comes distinctly from your room. You hang up your keys and toss your bag on the kitchen island, kicking off your heels lazily by the door before following the now audible sound of the bath running.

You stop dead when you turn into the bathroom, shocked to see your tub already halfway full, the tampons and pads you requested sitting neatly on the counter next to one of his faded Cub Sport shirts, and the distinct color and smell of the Lush intergalactic bath bomb (your favorite) wafting from the steaming water.

“Gray-son,” you whine, throwing your face into your hands as your throat swells up and tears prickle behind your eyes. You hear him chuckle before you feel his arms wrap tightly around you. He presses a lingering kiss to your hair as he strokes your lower back gently, his touch and the heat of his hand providing an instant modicum of relief to the dull ache there.

“What?” he says quietly. He moves in front of you and untucks your shirt, removing your hands from your face so he can drop a sweet little kiss to your nose as he unbuttons the top two of your blouse. “Is it too much?”

You shake your head and open your eyes to look at the pretty hazel of his own. “It’s perfect. I’m just a hormonal mess.”

He laughs again and kisses your lips softly this time. “If you want your fries, I’ll make them while you soak.”

You nod, and he leaves you with another kiss before shutting the door behind him to give you your privacy.

The bath is amazing, the sparkly blue water relaxing some of the tension in your body and alleviating some of your pain, and you’re almost sad to get out, but you’re starving and the cravings are real.

You re-enter your bedroom to find heaven on earth: Grayson, shirtless in your bed and scrolling through Netflix on your TV; a steaming plate of fries with a mountain of ketchup already squirted out for you; and each bag of goodies you requested already sitting on your nightstand, one of which catches you by surprise.

“Holy shit, they make this?” you ask incredulously, picking up the giant three-and-a-half pound bag of watermelon sour patch as you slip into bed with him.

This is the only time you ever allow yourself to eat in bed, and you don’t catch his reply as you instantly seize the plate of fries and dig in, moaning loudly as the taste graces your tongue. He selects The Office on Netflix while you chew. He really knows you too well.

While Grayson takes your half-empty plate back to the kitchen once you’re done, you help yourself to a couple of the Milano cookies until he returns. You offer him a smile, which he returns happily as he sinks back into bed with you.

“Feeling a little better, baby?”

You roll up the bag and nod, coaxing him to lie down with you as you turn onto your side. He settles close behind you as you situate your heating pad across your abdomen, and he puts his arm across it to keep it in place for you. Space heater that he is, he’s creating a similar effect against your aching back, and it’s the most comfort you could possibly feel while you bleed out of your vag.

He’s made you forget about the work fiasco completely, and you cuddle into his warmth. “Thanks again, Gray. Seriously, you’re unreal.”

He nuzzles into your hair and smiles against the back of your neck. “Anytime. I mean, once a month. But anytime.”

#i made myself jealous writing this ngl #pao also said she likes gummy bears but i think tjose are vile and they have no place on my blog #😋#sorry pao u still got ur milanos lol #dolan twins #grayson dolan #grayson dolan fic #blurb #g blurb

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n-anon · 3 years

Text

Fallout (Chapter 1)

Disclaimer: I don’t know how long this will be yet in terms of chapters, BUT THIS IS A SEQUEL SERIES. If you’re planning to read this, Please read My multi-chapter series of Ready Aim Fire, this will have spoilers to that! I’m linking it down below just so y’all can do so.

Ready Aim Fire Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5

Okay done? All good? Then lets go.

Description: And as the ashes settle, everyone tries to return to what’s normal....And what’s left.

(TW: mentions of death, burning, and self-blame)

“Its been two weeks. His funerals on Tuesday. Are you coming?” Marvin stared at his hands. Still imagining the fire as it leaked through is fingers, he sighed, staring up at Schneep. “....Yeah. Of course.” Schneep nodded, jotting it down, he then set down the notepad, and grabbed the cup of coffee, drinking from it eagerly, “Okay. Now talk to me.” Marvin scowled, “I-I can’t. You know that.” Schneep hummed, “Can’t? Or Won’t? Jackie told me you will hardly speak to him. Hell, you can’t even look JJ in the eye. You did what you needed. It doesn’t make it any easier, yes. But locking yourself up for it in your own little mind prison and not talking is going to make it worse.” Marvin grit his teeth, the urge to just-burst out. Let it all burn.....let it go. He couldn’t. Not now. “Also. Jackie says the police need an account, they want it to go well with the public....That you didn’t mean to burn it down.” Marvin opened his mouth angrily, but Schneep cut him off, “I know you meant to burn it down, we all do. But ze people don’t. They want assurances that as Jackie’s new sidekick you weren’t trying to burn it down. That’s what their calling you by the way.”

Marvin snorted. He was hardly a sidekick. He was the whole damn show...but the show was a mess. He nodded silently, “Can I go now?” Schneep sighed, then took another sip from his coffee, “Yes. Again, if you ever need to talk....well-You know.” the Magician nodded and with that he stormed out, unintentionally slamming the door as Schneep winced, and turned back to his work. He grabbed his pencil and began working, yet again. Of course, Marvin wasn’t the only one going through something right now...they were all suffering. The pieces were on the floor, and he didn’t know who was going to pick them up. Not without.....Nein. They would make it. It would be hard.....But they had to. His phone rang and he answered. “Dr. Schneeplestein’s office, how can I help you today?”

JJ stood at the pier, staring at the spot. His fists were clenched, remnants...ashes. That’s all it was now. No heartbeat. Nothing he could do. The blaring yellow of the caution tape surrounding what little was left of them....He was happy. Sad.....All mixtures of emotions he couldn’t express out loud. He thought that when he died...It would return. That he could finally....But that was a dream, a false hope that kept him going. And now? All that was left was just the rubble. He felt the hand on his shoulder and the familiar steps. “Jameson? If you’re not ready we can-” He shook his head, and walked forward, glancing at the crumbled warehouse, “I just want to make sure there are no weird temporal differences...is all. They still found the knife, like you-made....them do. I’m just...worried, call it double checking.” Jackie told him that afternoon, JJ was eager to at least get out of the house, seeing boxes piled up near his door was too much to bare. If he was just stronger-No. They would’ve eventually found out. At least, that’s what he told himself. Jackie motions to the security guards, he had told them that JJ was a private investigator friend, he just wanted to double check, what little the police force knew of Anti-before...this, wasn’t much, but they understood he was dangerous, and could probably kill everyone in town if he wasn’t actually dead. He walked, looking around, what was left of the body of Chase had been removed. He sighed, closing his eyes as tears came up, he couldn’t think of that right now. He had to focus. He reached out for anything. Any sign, looking at his wrists he remembered the connection that was there before everything went wrong. Nothing. Not even a yoink. He turned to Jackie, and shook his head. Jackie seemed to relax, as he patted JJ on the shoulder, and the man left in a daze, he needed to get out. To breathe. Jackie stayed behind to talk to the cops, as he made the long journey home.

Stacy Brody wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or just dying inside, but she cried anyway. Finding out that Chase did none of the things he thought he did, Jackie’s final explanation filled with words of vitriol and persuasion, her mind swam as she tried to wrap her mind around it all, but one thing was clear. Chase had died a hero. And she was going to do what little she could to make sure he had a funeral like one. “Mommy?” She turned to see their-her youngest son, still wearing that hat Chase gave him, he looked so much like-She wiped the tears from her eyes and turned off the sink, “What’s wrong?” She asked, turning to him and pulling on her best smile, “Nothing, honey. Just remembering your dad.” The boys expression grew muted, sad, quiet, “Oh.” She had surmised he would know what was happening soon enough anyway, and what kind of mother would she be if she kept that from them? They deserved to know what happened...what kind of person their dad was, before they started forgetting, anyway. “Is...Are Uncle Jackie and the rest gonna be at the funeral?” Her son asked in a quiet voice, “Of course honey, they’ve assured me they’ll make it.” She knew the kids all loved their adoptive ‘Uncles’ “Now, where’s your sister?” The boy crossed his arms, “She’s still in her room.” Stacy sighed, “Okay. I’ll go talk to her, its time for both of you to get to bed anyway. Its late.” The boy pouted, “But mom-” Stacy walked up and picked him up, he was just 8, and she was tired. “C’mon, help me go get your sister to bed, alright, Grayson? You gotta be strong for mommy. If you go to bed early we can read that story about sharks you love so much.” Her sons eyes lit up and she smiled softly, as he ranted on about sharks, she closed her eyes, we’ll be fine. I think.

‘Oh, so you’re new? Welcome to the group chat! You got a name or nickname you use?’

‘You can just call me Blip for the moment, I usually go by that lol. Sorry to hear about your dad D: that really sucks. If you need someone to talk to, I’m here. We all are, I think. Anyway yeah I know we’ve just met but hey, if you need someone to talk to...’

‘Absolutely! We’ll help you in anyway, if you need anything, we’ll be here for ya Oli.’

‘Thanks guys... I might honestly just take a quick break from....everything, ya know?’

‘Understandable, take all the time you need!’

‘Yeah. I think I can figure out how this place works before too long :P’

Oli laughed at the comment, and smiled, she was glad her friends understood that, she let out a hiccup and wiped the tears from her eyes. She just didn’t know what to think right now, Everyone online was saying it was an accident. She wasn’t stupid. She knew Uncle Marvin had something to do with it, and the funeral was the best place to confront him about it, they needed to know the truth, if not for her for Grayson...at least. She sighed as a knock on the door came, and she exited the chat without much of a goodbye, and laid in bed, “Olivia honey, are you awake?” Her mothers voice creeped through, she let out a very fake snore, hoping she’d take the hint as her mother sighed, “Okay...Love you honey.” She heard the door close as she just buried her face in the pillow, and eventually she fell asleep for real, dreaming of fire.

(A/N: THIS IS A LONG BOI. Also sorry for this very sudden, very out of nowhere sequel series, @rogue-of-broken-time’s post about posting fics we never thought we would make really got me thinking, and eventually thinking got me to go like ‘lol what if I wrote a sequel series based in this uni about the aftermath. And yes the sons name is Grayson cuz haha references, and if you get that reference, you get a gold star. Hope you enjoyed, and as for how long this series is gonna be-Uh...No idea lol We’ll see. This is just mostly set-up. If you want to be added to the tag list, as always, send me a DM, comment below, or ask, and I’ll get right on it!)

Tag List: @segernatural @pyranoia @caithesavage777 @vwoop-prince @antis-gauge @heely-um @therealtiger77 @a-bnana @randowaffle @sharkyg @miishae @innocent-angel3 @darcywillfindyou @asexualerror

#N writes #jacksepticeye #antisepticeye #chase brody #stacy brody #jse community #writers of jack #marvin the magnificent #jackieboy man #henrik von schneeplestein #dr. schneeplestein #jameson jackson #jj

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therovingstar · 3 years

Text

Things Odzaya has allowed me to discover over the course of the last few weeks (aka I am leveling jobs and booooored):

- She was not a hyperactive child as I originally thought, but actually a fairly quiet one. Didn’t talk all that much, and had a reputation even at an early age for observing and absorbing. Adults very quickly learned that when having private/important/adult conversations, they needed to double-check their corners, as there was a solid chance a little Zaya was curled up somewhere nearby ready to listen in and pocket information.

- Related to the above: her being quiet did not mean she couldn’t be a bundle of childish mischief. It just meant she was a little less likely to be accused of mischief, and better at not getting caught when she inevitably was making mischief.

- Her ethnic background is pretty varied. Taking into account just how far and wide the Au Ra have spread across Hydaelyn (especially the Raen), Odzaya’s got potential relatives in a lot of places. While her mother’s side stuck to the Steppe, her father’s side includes roots in at least Hingashi, Thavnair, Sharlayan, and Werlyt (it’s why she has a middle name despite that not being a thing in Steppe culture). I’d like to think she was given at least a little knowledge about this before her parents vanished. Speaking of...

- I’d been on the fence about whether or not Odzaya’s parents were alive, or if she ever even knew/had memory of them. Now, I’m pretty sure she not only has memories of them, but spent the first several years of her life traveling with them before they made the heart-wrenching decision to drop her off on the Steppe to be cared for and raised by her mother’s tribe when destiny called and they left to do their part to help the world. They may have been part of the Battle of Carteneau. Odzaya’s father may have been a friend and former student of Louisoix. They may or may not have survived. I’m still piecing it together.

- She’s a little more feral than I gave her credit for (as they say, it’s always the quiet ones). I recently, experimentally altered/streamlined her canon job timeline, only to realize it made a lot more sense than her current one, and did a much better job of highlighting her personal growth throughout the story (cuz I can’t just give her jobs cuz I like them, they have to ‘make sense’, ugh). But it also added an extra tank job and more DPS to her roster, and stretched her gradual growth into the healer role a good bit further out. Girlie likes thrill. And sharp objects.

- I think she might very well be on the ace spectrum? I keep having a hard time getting her genuinely attracted to people lol, romantically or sexually. She notices when a person is attractive, but it’s like a little background tidbit she doesn’t pay much mind to, and hardly ever anything she wants to actively do something about. She does enjoy sex quite a bit, but doesn’t prioritize it at all; she can go weeks or maybe months without the thought of it or her libido really rearing it’s head, and when it does, she’s perfectly happy handling it solo and going on about her business.

- On that note, she has had two serious romantic entanglements to date: a currently unnamed Raen girl from her youth whose family were refugees who stayed with the Malaguld (first sexual experience as well as first heartbreak), and Magnai (a love/hate rivalesque thing that grew into her second sexual experience, an ultimately short-lived betrothal, and then her second heartbreak), as well as…

- Another two acknowledged “almosts” or “kindas”: Sadu (another heavily chemistry-laden rivalesque thing that’s lasted years and still persists to this day), and Ardbert (that complicated but weirdly comfortable, ever-present literal soulmate thing that can never really be defined).

- There are some honorable mentions/moments, too, from throughout the MSQ, but we’ll save those for another day. Just know there seems to be a trend, and it’s that Odzaya likes ‘em a little rough around the edges, in appearance if less in personality.

- In light of the fact that I cannot get that “thicc Au Ra” fanart I reblogged some time back outta my head, as well as an ever-present frustration that the Au Ra are so skinny despite their very lore encouraging the idea that they honestly shouldn’t be (at least not the Steppedwellers), I’ve decided that while Odzaya is relatively thinner and flatter up top, she’s noticeably pretty thicc down below, a la our lovely Dravanians and their huge cabooses. If you’re gonna say a race of people resemble dragons, and the predominant dragons you show us have fat arses, then guess what? I’mma run with it.

#odzaya malaguld #odzaya meta #i do lists like this instead of writing lol #she’s opening her heart to me piece by hard-won piece #laughing at that last one #me: my love reveal to me your secrets. any will do #odzaya: i have a big ass #me jotting that down with tears in my eyes: thank you!

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iaintyourbro · 4 years

Note

What’s your take on Cloud’s depression during AC? People on twitter are suddenly talking about this, again. This matter was brought up by those antis saying that we Clotis should accept the fact that Tifa wasn’t the one who “healed” Cloud and that she was also being mean and not considerate whatsoever. The funny thing is that, they also accused us of denying his depression and not understanding it. TF. Let’s be real, Tifa played a major part, in fact she gave him morale thx to her “scolding” lol

Hey anon..

Yeah, Twitter has me depressed today. I think it started last night. I was enjoying it for a bit, but the last week or two have been so bad over there with bullshit that I’m about to just take a break from the entire fandom.

My Take on AC Cloud:

I watched AC when it first came out, and I barely remember it. I remember I didn’t like what they did. Why was Cloud so depressed and brooding? Oh Aerith is in this? Interesting. I felt like it was disjointed and removed a lot of the great progress Cloud made in OG. They kept this depressed, brooding guy in KH as well... It just didn’t seem right to me. I was young, too.

At this point we also didn’t have On the Way to a Smile, Crisis Core, or anything else, really.. None of the Ultimanias were in English at this point. I also was not interested enough in going online. It was a weird time when I was playing other things and was meh on FF7 for a while. I was always a FF8 fangirl, so was jealous of FF7 at times hahaha. It got so much more attention and love.

It took me a long time to watch it again. I remember my husband watching it before Remake came out and I felt mad or sad. It was like an emotion from memory, and I didn’t know why. I can’t describe it. I saw it on the TV and was like why is this on here...

After playing Remake, I bit the bullet and ordered AC Complete, which had things tweaked and added. I also am now in my 30′s and have a lot more life experience.

Antis like to say Cloud is depressed solely because Aerith is dead and he wants to be with her. This may be one of the reasons I didn’t like AC, because when I did happen to come across some FF7 thing online, I’d see this shit and be like whatever, that makes no sense.

I enjoyed ACC. My heart was actually pounding and I was nervous/intrigued by what was going on even though I knew the story. I haven’t read all of CoT yet, but I’ve seen the excerpts online, so I know the general gist of things.

Based strictly on ACC:

Cloud is really upset that Denzel is sick. He’s obsessively looking up medical stuff to figure out how to cure it - this is shown with everything all over his desk. He’s closed in on himself to do this. I did the same shit when my dad had cancer. I did it for three fucking years while he was alive - from the time he got diagnosed to the day he was dying. Every damn day I looked up articles, research, and theories. It’s not healthy. It’s depressing and I closed myself off from the world half the time and didn’t realize it. Thank God my husband is a patient saint.

Cloud does care a lot about Tifa. His reaction alone at seeing her knocked out in the church is heart wrenching. When they’re brought back to Seventh Heaven, Cloud pops right up when he sees Tifa there. He then stays with her until she wakes up. This is a pretty good amount of time. The sun is up when he’s looking over her, and when she wakes up, it’s dark outside. He could have slipped out again without her noticing if he really wanted to. I’m sure he may have contemplated it.

She calls his ass out on how he’s acting. She knows he’s sick at this point. This was huge for Tifa who’s not confrontational. He clearly doesn’t want to completely disconnect, or he would have gotten rid of his cell phone voluntarily. He doesn’t. They actually show him checking his messages.

Ultimately Cloud leaves because he ends up with Geostigma. That’s the last straw. He can’t face the fact that he’s going to die and what it’ll do to his family, so he leaves. Listen, I think the only reason my dad didn’t try to leave when he was diagnosed was because he had nowhere to go and by time he started verbalizing wanting to leave, he was physically unable to. Yes, I remember him being angry because he was hospitalized again and he told my mom he was going to get an apartment by himself so she didn’t know when he was getting bad. It’s very hurtful to even think it, and even worse when you know they don’t actually mean it... They do it because they don’t want to see their family hurt.

The setup he has at the church as his “living” area is super depressing. It looks like something a homeless person sets up. He legit was going to wait to die. He had a lot of knowledge about this, so he figured there was nothing he could do.

Marlene calls Cloud out on his bullshit too. Cloud admits to her he doesn’t think he can take care of anybody. Marlene Barrret quotes him and it’s cute. I think Cloud appreciated it and I think it made him think.

In ACC, Cloud has a short conversation with Aerith. Aerith seems almost annoyed with him like “wtf is your deal, dude” kind of attitude. Zack shows up when he’s bloody and half dead fighting Sephiroth to encourage him. There are scenes with him talking at Zack’s grave and saying he couldn’t keep his promise to him. He flat out tells Aerith he wants to be forgiven. He doesn’t say I miss you, I want to be with you, none of that happens. In fact, it’s mainly her telling him HE needs to start doing some forgiving - ultimately to himself.

When Cloud is in limbo - between living and dying - Cloud says “Mom.” Very romantic, I know. Then Zack and Aerith have a conversation very similar to a couple that’s going to adopt a child and they tell Cloud he’s too big for them. This is the “I see the light” and the person on the other side is like “nah bro go back, not your time yet.”

He wakes up, Tifa and crew is there, he smiles at Tifa... and it’s a happy ending. He sees both Zack AND Aerith at the end, and they walk off in to the light together all cute and shit.

Adding in Things from the Novels/Interviews/Thoughts:

The devs have said Cloud was happy with his family and that scared him. The happier he got, the more scared he got. We know he cherishes everything. He especially cherishes the family he has.

Cloud’s depression spiral started from the high anxiety of having a happy life and Elmyra asking him to deliver flowers to Aerith’s grave. Now, I have my feelings about this, but when I look at it logically, I don’t think Elmyra ultimately does this out of spite. I actually don’t think Elmyra thinks Cloud and Aerith were a thing - so it wasn’t that either. I think she knew Cloud was friends with her and maybe he’d want to deliver some flowers - to give him some business.

This flower delivery reminds Cloud of what he thinks is his failure to protect somebody else. At this point he has his memories of what happened to Nibelheim, his mother, Tifa, and Zack. The Sector 7 plate drop and Aerith are the most recent “failures”. So this brings up Aerith.

Then Denzel comes along and he’s an orphan because his parents were... yeah... killed during the Sector 7 plate collapse. Double ouch. But Cloud and Tifa are going to take care of him.

Tifa herself has a lot of guilt because of the same reasons, she just deals with it very differently. Tifa tells Cloud to bring Denzel right home. She can make amends by adopting him in to her family and caring for him. Cloud thinks Aerith brought Denzel to him (Tifa corrects him). This is a Cloud thing, it’s not romantic. Cloud doesn’t know the guilt Tifa feels. He legit thinks all of this is his fault. Tifa’s guilt stems from the fact that Shinra drops the plate because Avalanche was in Sector 7 - she was in Avalanche. She feels guilty about Aerith because she thinks its her fault Aerith followed them to Don Corneo’s mansion. The thing is, Aerith doesn’t blame EITHER of them - I just wish they’d cover a Tifa/Aerith conversation about this as well...

Cloud and Tifa do have fights in the novels from what I understand, but it’s because he’s acting weird. He feels bad hiding the fact that he’s been going to the church a lot, and I think that does turn in to a whole LTD debate. So you can take this as Tifa is jealous that he’s going to the church all the time or she’s upset that he is hiding from her.

In the novels, Tifa has a breakdown when they go see the church after they defeat Sephiroth. This is where you get to see how badly Aerith’s death impacted her. So my thought is... Cloud thinks bringing her to the church hurts her because of her feelings, not because she’s jealous. I think Cloud is oblivious to the jealousy thing, honestly. Don’t think it’s a thought in his mind.

I honestly don’t know the real reason why he goes to the church to hide. I think this is another point of fight with both sides. My personal take is there was nowhere else he could go and be alone. Most of the stuff had been destroyed. It was still close by, so he could still do his work and keep an eye on things/be nearby.

There is a quote that is taken to be literal, but I think it’s just a way to say it wouldn’t have mattered who Cloud was “with.” Yes, Tifa and Cloud have issues, and I believe the quote goes “Perhaps it would have gone better with Aerith, but I think her responsibility is too great. Maybe the children will help them with their issues.” This isn’t exact, but it’s the jist of what they said. The children do help them - that’s the point of the scenes with Marlene, to slap him silly with reality.

“Oh but he sees Aerith when the building is falling.” Yes, you know why? Because he thinks that’s going to happen to Tifa. This is a “NO I’M NOT LETTING THIS HAPPEN.” moment. On top of it, I don’t think anybody would be right again if they saw this happen. If my neighbor was impaled by a large sword in their back, I’d be messed up from it. I don’t really know my neighbors. He’s not replaying this death scene in his head cuz he misses Aerith, he’s playing it in his head because it’s traumatic and he doesn't want to see this happen to Tifa. Especially Tifa.

It’s been put in Ultimanias time and time again that Cloud’s feelings are for Tifa. I went through my Ultimania - which only covers OG - and it doesn’t say anything about Cloud’s side of the CA argument. It does say how he feels about Tifa in the Lifestream, though.

The “He wants to die for her, see, that’s why he’s going to the church and waiting.” No, he doesn’t want to die or else he wouldn’t be so depressed. Just thinking this is fucked up on so many levels. If he really wanted to die and be with her, he’d be happy he got an incurable illness, I’d think... Cloud leaves Tifa and them because he doesn’t want to hurt him with him dying and not being able to stop it.

The other thing that would be... weird... Zack is in the Lifestream with Aerith. They walk off together for a reason. I don’t think she’s going to just drop Zack for Cloud since the whole reason she was initially interested in Cloud was because of the similarities to Zack. He had the same sword, the same clothes, and in OG had some of the same mannerisms. I noticed the dropped the squatting in Remake - the random squatting.

The ending of ACC implies that now that Geostigma is cured and Sephiroth is (hopefully) gone for good, Cloud can be happy. I’m not saying that his smile fixes everything. I’m sure that him and Tifa had to work on things, but you can see in DoC that things seem to be much better - he’s more upbeat and happy. He’s more dorky, like he should be.

Sorry this is long. I have a lot of feelings about all this stuff today. I’ve been seeing the fights over on Twitter about it and.. yeah. Cloud is depressed because of the fact he’s dying, his kid is dying, and he can’t seem to do anything right in his mind.

Thanks for the ask.

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lovelyladyventress · 4 years

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Tell me which one of these AUs sounds the most interesting and which one you’d like to read more about? (uhh rep0st?)

I’m reposting this since TUMBLR HATES MY POST/TAGS OR SOMETHING, SORRY IF YOU’VE ALREADY SEEN THIS!

Here I am, back at it again with my AU bullshit. Complete with my ugly ass dauntingly long list of AUs that I’d love to write about but can’t seem to

decide which one to start writing. This has been going on for the past week, dammit! If it’s not too much trouble, could you please help a girl out and let me know either on here or in a PM which one of these you’re curious about or would like to see implemented in an actual story.

Here are four Cloud-centric AU ideas which include (multiple) gay, bi, and (some) straight main/side pairings. Regardless of which one I decide to write first, I (wistful thinking) want to eventually complete most or all of them, even if some of them only end up being one-shots. Thank you! <3

Mercenary Zack and Delivery Boy Cloud AU

Zack, a mercenary, and Cloud, a delivery boy, have been best friends since they were youngsters. Zack is straight but is undeniably (and confusingly into Cloud. Cloud is bi (with a strong leaning towards males) and he’s only recently started to explore that. One day, while Zack and Cloud are hanging out, Zack’s PHS dies and he asks to borrow Cloud’s laptop to check some work-related emails. Cloud says sure, completely forgetting what he’d been “researching” before Zack came over to hang out.

Cloud, suddenly remembering the content of said “research”, screeches out, “NoOoOoO!” whilst comically tripping over himself as he races to stop Zack from opening his laptop.

Zack, being Zack, laughs good-naturedly at Cloud’s behavior and says, “What, don’t want your bestie to see all your fReAkY sHiT LOL?”

Before Cloud can stop him, Zack unlocks the laptop (he knows the password, because, hello, besties) and proceeds to open up about ten tabs of LOUD GAY LEMONY YOU KNOW WHAT (all with actors that are blond and black-haired, hmm s u s p i c i o u s).

Cloud is fucking mortified and literally RUNS out of his own apartment and disappears (disintegrates) into the void while leaving Zack sitting there like a stunned D U M B A S S *insert shocked Pikachu meme here* Hilarity, fluffy romance, and “LeMoNs” ensue.

Main ship and only ship will be Clack/Zakkura. Syrupy sweet, comical, with only a pinch of plot-related angst. Will most likely be a one-shot/two-shot.

Vampire Slayer AU

Set in a world where Shinra keeps the existence of vampires and vampire covens a well-guarded secret from the general public of Midgar in order to keep its citizens calm, orderly, and manageable (see controllable).

Due to the frequency of recent vampire attacks in Midgar’s slums and outlying towns and villages, they charge their best slayer, Cloud Strife, and his partner with the task of finding and killing the progenitor of all vampire-kind in order to end the covert war between humans and vampires and kill off their kind, for good.

That is, until Cloud is double-crossed by his partner, who wants the title of Shinra’s best vampire slayer for himself, and Cloud is left for dead in a forest miles away from civilization. Cloud thinks he’s finally done for this time, until he’s saved by a half-vampire named Vincent, who then proceeds to take Cloud to his maker, Sephiroth, the son of the first progenitor.

Cloud’s only shot at making it out of this alive is playing at Sephiroth’s personal interest in him in a game of cat and mouse until he can get the vampire to trust him enough to let him get close to the progenitor in order to (finally) end the war once and for all and return to his former life.

Main ships are Sefikura with a possibility of some Strifentine. Side ships are Aerti, Scarlet x Elena, and a bunch of others. Angsty, passionate, romantic, and dark. Will probably be a six-shot or more. Who knows?

Life After Meteorfall Canon Divergence AU (I’m excited about this one)

An AU in which both Angeal, Zack, and Aerith (although, just barely) live and help kick Sephiroth’s ass in the final battle. Sephiroth has been defeated by the gang for good (no really, for good y’all), and now the world has turned to healing, mourning, and attempting to rebuild itself after the scars Sephiroth has left behind in his monstrous wake.

Cloud still has lingering feelings for Zack leftover from his time as an infantryman, but desperately hides this fact from both Aerith and Zack because he knows how long they’ve waited and how much suffering they’ve had to endure in order to be with each other. He also cares deeply for both of them and wants them to be happy, despite his own conflicting emotions.

Although Aerith is (slightly) suspicious, Zack is oblivious to it all because he’s finally got the girl of his dreams and has his love-addled goggles on (god dammit Zackary) and asks Cloud to be his best man at their wedding (ugh angst me upppppp baby).

Angeal, however, is not oblivious to it in the slightest. He sees the overly forced smiles, the longing stares, the glances of complete and utter h e a r t b r e a k Cloud shoots Zack when he thinks no one is watching/paying attention to him. And finally, fed up after months of sitting back and just silently observing Cloud falling into emotional ruin, Angeal finally intends to do something about it, honor be damned.

Main ship is Cloudgeal. Side pairings are Zerith, Rude x Tifa (don’t judge me, y’all, I ship SO MUCH this fandom), and possibly many more. Angsty, fluffy, romantic, and with a ridiculously happy ending where everyone reaches a happy, healthy understanding. Will most likely be either a three-shot or a six-shot.

Omegaverse SOLDIER AU (let me liveeeeeee, dammit!)

After failing to get into SOLDIER three times in a row (the max amount of times one can attempt in their lifetime) and having his childhood dream of becoming a hero shattered like glass, Cloud, a Beta cadet, is more than done with SOLDIER and everything to do with the corrupt Shinra Corporation (Uh huh. Suuuuure).

This opinion is only further solidified when Cloud discovers the tragic fate of his hometown: Nibelheim, in an “unprecedented” explosion of its Mako Reactor, burns to the ground, resulting in the deaths of Cloud’s mother and every single person Cloud grew up with. With no home to return to, Cloud, following his best friend Zack Fair’s advice, begrudgingly decides to join the Shinra military as an infantryman and work as a menial grunt for the military’s more prominent SOLDIER members.

That is, until one day during a mission Cloud’s entire unit, including a group of skilled Third and Second Class SOLDIERS assisting them, are slaughtered in a brutal, bloody conflict, leaving Cloud the only one left alive after the mission’s end.

This not only catches the eye of the Director of SOLDIER himself, but several of its First Class members, who are so impressed with the Beta’s strength that they wish to assess Cloud’s capabilities for themselves, personally. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

This leads Cloud down a path filled with convincing lies and hard truths as he discovers the reality of his origins, unveiling secrets about Shinra and his past that he could have gone a lifetime without knowing. He realizes the hard way that sometimes what you dream for, what you desperately wish for, isn’t always something you want in the long run.

Main ships are a tie between Sefikura and Clack/Zakkura (possibly Sephiroth/Cloud/Zack or maybe even a love triangle, ew). I also really wanna try writing out Strifesodos, but I’m leaning towards Banorashipping as a side ship in this cuz its cute and passionate.

A S T R O N G side ship in this is going to be Aerti (featuring Turk!Tifa and Full Cetra!Aerith), along with minor ships like Scarlet x Elena, Tseng x Rufus, and honestly who knows anymore, lol. This will most likely be the longest story on the list, I’m planning for at least ten+ chapters.

Also, not shaming it in any way, but just FYI for the people who are interested, there will be no pregnancy in this story. It’s just not my thing. <3

Again, all of these AU’s are subject to change, but I’d love to bounce ideas back and forth and see what certain shippers would like to see in the fandom. I’m really receptive to discussing fics in general, even if its an idea about one of your own stories you wanna talk about. :)

If you actually read all of that, THANK YOU KINDLY! <33333

#Sefikura #SephCloud #Clack #Zakkura #Cloudgeal #i'm seriously so angry about this tagging thing #WHY IS IT NOT WORKING #*SCREAMS*#IM JUST TRYNA LIVE DAMMIT #why did this post disappear #I THINKS ITS BECAUSE OF CERTAIN KEYWORDS #this is a travesty #I NEED ANSWERS #the text is wonky too #UGHHHHHH

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crushzone · 4 years

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Haikyuu!! Characters As A Film Crew (Pt. 1: Pharmacy Commercial for Gardening Tools

NO ONE asked for this, but I felt a strong urge to bring it to existence. 😂

Will probably be a multi-series because I breath, eat, and sleep on film sets, and even if they are the same crew positions, they all got different styles and reactions based off the premises.

Also, not all positions will be included. I’m only typing the specific ones where Haikyuu!! characters occupy.

So consider each of these headcanons as one film shoot. And the next part as a different shoot. Some characters might get called back to be on future shoots, so expect some reappearances.

And if you have a goofy idea for our next premise, we might be able to open a lil brainstorm pool.

———————

Premise:

The crew gathers, bright and early, on a commercial shoot for a pharmacy store. They’re trying to promote their newly stocked Spring gardening products where a shopper browses through the aisles, then a group of dancers and a leaf mascot emerges and begins dancing.

———————

1st Assistant Director - Sugawara Koshi

He’s so happy to be here. When he hears that there will be dancing involved, he gets SO excited.

When the shot is rolling and people are dancing, he will be right by the director, swaying happily to the songs that they are dancing to. By the end of the first day of filming, he’s already remembered all the dance moves.

Because he enjoyed the fun dancing so much, he gets too distracted to...you know....actually do his job.

Is the main reason why the film shoot goes overtime; because he forgets to keep the director’s and cinematographer’s time in check.

He’s also not very harsh when it comes to putting his foot down and telling the cinematographer that this HAS to be the last shot before they move on.

When the cinematographer kinda brushes him off, he will pout a lil, and mentally settle on allowing them 2 mores shots just cuz the dance is so fun in this. And same goes for the other shot, then the other...holy crap we have to be out in 15 minutes?! Where did the time go.

If they need more extras to dance, he low key wishes that he could hop in and help out. And when they let him, he is freaking happy.

Is very kind to any production assistants who may be new to the gig.

Makes every instruction sound like a very polite request.

All production assistant interns have a crush on him, and they keep trying to bring him fruit snacks from crafty.

Cinematographer - Tsukishima Kei

The wrong man for this particular shoot

He’s low-key a little embarrassed that he is going to be filming a bunch of people dancing and being happy.

While everyone is happily dancing along, he just glowers by the camera when some dancers can’t seem to hit their mark right. They’re not going to get the perfect spotlight he’s designed for them, dammit!

Gets a little annoyed by how Suga is so excited about the dance.

Also hates the fact that there are so many actors, it’s making him a little anxious about any background actors knocking on his lighting or camera equipments.

Needs to sip on some Caprisun to calm his nerves, asap.

Will never tell his brother, Akiteru, how his shoot went when he gets home. That, or he’ll make it up, that he actually shot a horror film or something less “lame”.

Will eat the catering meals that are provided, but will silently judge how stiff the chicken is, or how overcooked the pastas are.

The kind of cinematographer who always remains by the camera, and doesn’t really help lighting and grips much when they need it. (It’s a very small crew, so some people are doubling duties.)

Will also leave most of the work to his camera assistants, treats this commercial shoot with the standards of a feature film, and will get kind of annoyed when his expectations are not met. However, if someone asks him if he’s okay, he’ll just smile and say that it is all dandy.

Wouldn’t even accept fruit snacks that his assistant camera brought for him, in an attempt to lighten his mood.

Sodium levels are very high.

Lighting - Wakatoshi Ushijima

Just general really quiet and stoic

No one really notices him, but even before the cinematographer can figure out how to describe the way they want the shot lit, he’s already had a massive light set up on stand by and is ready to go.

Also freaking strong, while the other electrics are figuring out a way to carry this lighting contraption across the pharmacy, and up the stairs wit no elevator, he’ll just say “Let me try”, picks it up, then walks out there alone like he’s holding a feather.

Him and his big lights lol

Somehow, his hands are heat resistant? He tends to lose his leather gloves when he lends it out to someone who needs it. So he just uses those cheap, thin gloves from expendables to adjust some hot lights, and he never flinches. We will never know if it actually hurts him or if he just doesn’t react, even when we can clearly see the smoke coming from his melting gloves.

Doesn’t know anything about voltages though, if there is an outlet, he will plug. Keeps blowing the fuse, and while some people are afraid to mess with the pharmacy’s breaker, it doesn’t bother him. Flips EVERY switch till it works, without reading the labels. definitely gave locations a heart attack.

Never complains about poor catering, but he will bring his own healthy lunch and breakfast.

Though he’ll occasionally snack on fruit snacks from crafty. However, if he got the last packet of fruit snacks available on crafty and someone wants it, he will give it to them in a heartbeat.

Makeup - Satori Tendou

There will be people dressed as leaves and trees? Some farmer-themed costume? DANCING?! He’s DOWN.

He probably had no makeup experience, but he found a way to fake his resume, so that he can put in all of his acrylic finger painting “experiments” as his experience.

When he gets there, his eyes sparkles at ALLLL of the people who are waiting for him to turn them into something.

Doesn’t really listen to what he was instructed to do, so some of the customers who were suppose to have some natural makeup, got turned into a tree as well. Fortunately, the director was able to work around this error, but now they are very short on human-looking actors.

Surprisingly not as awful with his body painting as he could’ve been? Not the best, but he’s not too shabby.

Started off doing the actor’s makeup with one of his original random humming, but when he steps outside to see some of the dancers practicing their moves, the song instantly got stuck in his head, and he CANNOT stop singing it. It’s beginning to drive some people insane.

He will be by the monitor, wiggling his lil hips and humming to the song. He had to be hushed by the Assistant Director Suga a few times, but he can’t help it, music just kind of rumbles out of him like breathing. Also, it’s not like Suga is so harsh about his hushing to begin with, but it did annoy Tendou for a hot sec, before he disregards him since he also notices him dancing next to the director.

Terrible at sanitizing his brushes. Will use the same brushes on different actors (gross). When an actor complains about sanitization, he just pretends like it had JUST occurred to him that they are right. Then he would set the brushes down and go at it with his freaking fingers.

Tilts his head like an owl and steps 10 steps back to study how his makeup job looks, before coming back to examine up close. Just really not subtle about it.

Grip - Keiji Akaashi

This man is a grip i would HIRE in a heartbeat.

Just like Ushijima, people don’t really notice him, per say, but in a way, you also can’t help but notice how he’s always shadowing the cinematographer so he can get a head start on instructions and problem solving.

However, he is very methodical though. Never just asks his team to grab a gear until he is sure it will be used. He just understands that most equipments are freaking heavy, and he never wants to overwork his crew.

Always hella crafty; need a dolly shot, but you couldn’t rent one? Here’s a shopping cart lol. Sound department misplaced their dead cat? (It’s a fluffy thing that you put over the microphone to prevent wind sounds), just let me buy a teddy bear from the kids section and make one for you. His rigs definitely makes it to shittyrigs Instagram page often.

But you have to admit that his shittyrigs are pretty impressive AND actually secure.

Ended up getting pulled into the commercial to be one of the costumers, since they were short on actors (Since Makeup Artist Tendou kept turning actors into trees). He barely reacts to anything so they had to pull him back out.

Because his roommate, Bokuto, is taking the role of the main leaf mascot, he cannot wander off to rest between takes because Bokuto keeps looking to him for approval haha.

Really quiet, but when anybody comes up to him for some advice, he never hesitates to share what he’s learnt from his experience.

Lead Actor (Mascot) - Kotaro Bokuto

Is Akaashi’s roommate.

One day when Bokuto returns home, all pouty, because he decided to quit his job, Akaashi tries to think of a way to get this man a job that he would enjoy.

Then when he tells Bokuto that he’s hired for a commercial shoot as a Grip, Bokuto basically threw him a little ice cream party (he probably throws Akaashi a little celebratory party every time he gets a gig, and he is an experienced regular who gets gigs ALL the time.) but he did sensed something wrong: As happy as Bo is for one of his many grip gigs, there’s an underlying atmosphere of sadness that he can’t brush off.

“How do you feel about potentially dancing in a leaf mascot costume for a commercial shoot?” And at that question, Bo’s eyes sparkle ✨

Seeing as Akaashi had worked with this advertising company as a freelancer for a while, he put in a good word for his friend.

When Bokuto shows up for audition, the casting directors LOVE him. Gets the role right away, and from that day on, this company keeps re-hiring him as their different mascots.

The crew loves him, the client loves him, and the casts love him. This man is THRIVING.

Not the best dancer, but he’s energetic enough that it’s just endearing in his own way.

When he gets handed the leaf costume, he’ll accepts it as if someone’s handing him a sword.

Just stomps around the pharmacy as a lil leaf, the heat of the suit doesn’t even bother him when he could look this cool. However, he’ll trip on his costume A LOT, but he’s fine because it’s actually pretty cushiony.

In one of the shots, he tripped on his costume, and simply stands back up to continue dancing like nothing’s happened, cuz the show must go on. That was the shot that made it to the final commercial.

The choreographer actually tried to teach him a dance, but because he’s pretty bad at learning dances, they just let him do his thing.

Boom Operator - Lev Haiba

This tall boi is BORN to be a boom operator.

Due to his naturally friendly demeanor, a lot of background and dancers thought that he is flirting with them. However they later realize that he’s just friendly when they figured out they were all swooning over the same person.

Can hold boom poles very high, like he can hold it over the aisles without a ladder sometimes.

This is his first gig, so he doesn’t really know tricks to hold the boom pole for an extended amount of time.

So his arms will probably tire out real fast. And sometimes you can turn around mid dance to see that he has his eyes closed and his arms are TREMBLING. (Poor boi, but please keep your eyes open when the camera is rolling lol.)

And when the shot is cut, he will bring his arms back down and smile SO big cuz he gets to relax. But will cry when they have to go again.When will this shot cut omg. The dance sequence is so long.

Because he keeps his eyes closed, he always accidentally dips the microphone in frame. I can assure you that you will hear “BOOM IN FRAME” about a 100 times on this shoot.

When the director views their favorite shot, they realize the microphone is in frame, Lev would smile VERY innocently when the director groans.

Trips on his own microphone cable. Akaashi had to come up with a contraption to save him from tripping.

No idea how to coil cables, so it’s always just a big spaghetti mess.

Always eats SO much during lunch.

Always bumping into shelves, counters, fridges. If you hear the sound of 30 cans falling from a distant aisle, it’s probably Lev and his boom pole. Will also give locations a heart attack.

Same goes for if you hear “OW!!” it’s probably him too, but this time he is tripping on his cable, before the pole lands on someone’s head.

Just overall a very chaotic and dangerous boom operator.

Transportation - Hinata Shoyo

Honestly has no idea what he is doing. JUST learnt how to drive recently, so he figured, he’d make some money.

Can’t even follow the GPS so well. GPS: turn left at Baker St. Hinata: BUT WHEN?! Is it this street? Whoa, this car is coming out of the street...oh...that was Baker St. uhh, I’ll do another loop. Actor: this is your 4th loop!!

Gets kind of overwhelmed by how many actors he had to pick up. This is a pharmacy commercial shoot right? Why are there so many actors?!

Just gets really awkward when there is no one to transport though. Like what else is he suppose to do now?

Would just hang out around crafty and stress snack. Then he’d have to run to the bathroom often cuz he ate too much.

Because of that, you can’t really find him when you need him, sometimes. He’ll have to keep responding to his radio while in the restroom.

Totally thinks that the distortion of the radio will mask his flushing. But he is WRONG.

Dancer - Terushima Yuuji

Is actually a pretty great dancer. He gets to be one of the dancers who get the most screen time.

The choreographer loves him, he even asked if he can please add his own flair to it, and when he attempts some free styling, the whole team is impressed, some even swooned.

Found a way to convince the director to have him wink at the camera, and that may or may not be why the pharmacy’s gardening products were nearly all sold out the moment the commercial aired. Never knew gardening could be this sexy, did’cha? *winks*

Playboy af. At the end of the shoot, he’s got 10 new numbers from cuties on set, can’t even decide who he should hit up first. Some of these numbers, he got them from crew/cast members who genuinely thought his cocky behavior’s pretty hot, but a good half of it also came from his persistence.

Demands some fancy snacks for crafty, but when the crafty person leaves to go find that snack for him, he quickly shoves a handful of some junky candy and cheetos in his pockets.

And those snacks will probably be his dinner tonight.

Is a little bit of a jerk to “newer” actors. Like bruh, this is not even a film shoot for a movie, it’s just a commercial. 🤷🏻‍♀️

REFUSES to be turned into a tree. He will maintain his sexy human form, please, and thank you. But sexy farmer is fine, I guess.

Background Actor (who dances too) - Kageyama Tobio

Shows up thinking that all he has do is to just push shopping carts around in the background.

Wrong

He didn’t know he had to dance too. And suddenly all blood drains from him.

What is he going to do?! He was already in 2 of the shots, he can’t back out now.

When it comes to the dancing part, he is as stiff about it as you can expect.

Why are there no yogurt or milk at crafty? :( He needs it now more than ever, to calm his nerves.

But when he did get it, and drank it, it didn’t seem to sit too well in his tummy when he dances. He’s confused.

Freaking transportation guy keeps occupying the bathroom. His name is Hinata? He knows because he can hear Hinata’s name being called through the walkie while he is in the restroom.

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

A/N This is my first headcanon, so please let me know if there are things I can improve on! 🥰

——————

Taglist (open): @shhhlikeme @ceo-of-daichi @karasu-hoes @super-noya @nonexistent-social-life

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captainillogical · 5 years

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Devil’s Ballroom Ch.7

A year after the events from the earth’s final attack, Little Homeworld is finally complete, and there’s a new jazz bar where gems and humans mingle and drink. - As you’re typing back a reply, someone pulls the stool out next to you and takes a seat. You see a sliver of pink out of the corner of your eye as you try not to actually Look. Oh god. It’s her. God can’t help us now.

Spinel/Reader

collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpants

ya’ll im sorry lmao

You spend the rest of your evening doing exactly none of the errands that you needed to deal with today. Instead, you're laying on your couch and texting your friends.

Y/N: I'm so tornnnn.

Y/N: Do I say something about the cheek smooch?

Y/N: Should I leave it be?

Y/N: Because she's texting like nothing happened.

Y/N: What if I'm reading too much into it??

Y/N: What if that's just how she shows friendship affection???

Y/N: I might make it so fucking awkward if I assume something!

Y/N: This entire ordeal is mortifying!!!

Y/N: I want nothing more than to dig a big hole and lie in it forever.

Y/N: I might be low-key having a panic attack about this rn but what's new.

Harper: Y/N. chill. you're way overreacting to this.

Harper: even if it meant nothing, she still likes you as a friend right?

Harper: i think it would take a lot for her to like.. not wanna stay friends lol.

Alex: im just saying you could probably kiss her and she'd be ok with it

Alex: cheek kisses are pretty forward

Harper: don't listen to him. all of his relationships ended in failure.

Alex: wow

Alex: im seriously hurt

Harper: am I wrong?

Alex: no..

Harper: my point exactly.

Harper: i’m not saying you have nothing to lose or anything.

Harper: because i myself had to tread very carefully with leah..

Harper: but i think you should just see where it goes and not like

Harper: put too much emphasis on this incase it was nothing.

Y/N: Yeah see now you have me worried it WAS nothing!!

Alex: oh my goooooooddddddddddddddd

Alex: the both of you approach women so.. pathetically

Alex: take a risk

Alex: live a little

Alex: what is seriously the worst that could happen

Alex: she kills you??

Alex: lmao

Alex: its funny cuz of.. you know

Harper: i can’t wait to be home and smothering him with a pillow instead of affection.

Y/N: You and me both.

Y/N: Try being the only one available to play games with him.

Alex: both of you fucking love me okay

Alex: alsooooooo i get to be home the day after tomorrow

Alex: the alex is back, babieeeeee

Y/N: Harper please come home I’m BEGGING you.

Harper: sorry you gotta deal with him alone for another month lmao.

Y/N: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Alex: can i get a fucking crumb of love here please

You swipe over to the couple of messages Spinel has left you in the past couple of minutes while you were talking to your friends.

Spinel: It’s another stupid ball, I just found out.

Spinel: I told her that I’m sitting this one out this time.

Spinel: She has so many others that would absolutely love to help her, and yet, still absolutely insists that I must be there.

Spinel: I don’t want to go back to homeworld right now, and not for this.

Y/N: And you put your foot down? Hell yeah, dude.

Y/N: Planning a ball for a bunch of gems sounds like a chore anyway.

Spinel: oh, it is, believe me.

Spinel: And they need everything to be PERFECT.

Spinel: Which isn’t realistic anymore now that they don’t expect any of the gems to stay in line with their gem class nowadays.

Spinel: The last ball they threw almost 4 months ago was utterly chaotic.

Y/N: For thousands of years y'all as a race never pushed to deviate from the norm, and now that you guys are allowed to? I’d go batshit with it too.

Y/N: Being stifled in everyday life, and finally you’re free?

Y/N: Fuck, I’d go around fusing with anyone!

Spinel: That is precisely what too many of them did.

Y/N: Lmao. I wish I could’ve seen that.

You tab back over to your group chat for a moment to see what they’re talking about.

Harper: see? they’re everywhere.

Harper: i wasn’t expecting the campsite to have so many.

Alex: you could have built an army and instead you took pictures

Alex: do you know how easy it is to lure chipmunks?

Alex: oh that lil guy on the bottom right is so fucking chunky i love him

Harper: that’s the one that got the closest when i fed them. :3

Alex: oh i fuckin BET

Alex: you dont get that chubby in the wild without takin a few risks

Alex: if u know what i mean ;)

Harper: i hate whatever you just implied.

Y/N: It’s not a conversation with Alex unless you roll your eyes at least 3 times.

Alex: hey i thought it was 4 times

Alex: dont insult me

Alex: anyway, y/n

Alex: are you workin the day i come back

Y/N: Yeah I’m actually scheduled a double.

Alex: scheduled

Y/N: Yes.

Alex: a double

Y/N: Yes.

Alex: he can’t SCHEDULE you a DOUBLE

Y/N: He can if he asks me ahead of time as a favor.

Alex: that fuckin bastard

Alex: always ruining my plans

Harper: you’re still mad at him for firing you last summer, huh.

Alex: OF COURSE I AM

Y/N: Bro you stole like $300 of cotton candy sugar that summer.

Y/N: It’s only fair.

Y/N: Besides, I’m only doing this because he said he’d give me a long weekend for it.

Alex: kay well

Alex: i guess i’ll just go bug you at work and wait for you to get off that day :'(

Y/N: Get me written up again, I swear to god.

Your phone chimes several times, and you swipe down to see messages from both Spinel and Steven. You check Spinel's first.

Spinel: Do me a favor and ignore any messages Steven has sent you.

Y/N: What are you, my boss?

Spinel: I MEAN IT

You quickly switch over to Steven's texts.

Steven: I was going to ask you if your date with Spinel went okay, but I'm assuming it went fine considering she hasn't really stopped talking about you.

Ohhhh my god, this is wild. You reply to him.

Y/N: It wasn't a date as far as I know.

Y/N: I had fun.

Y/N: She's telling me to not read your messages, lmao.

Y/N: Also what do you mean she hasn't stopped talking about me??

Steven: She’s been lying on my floor for the last hour basically gushing about you.

Steven: But you didn’t hear that from me!

Steven: :D

Y/N: Haha thanks, kid.

You switch back over to text Spinel, and get up off the couch to make yourself some tea. Pulling out your kettle, you turn the stove on and grab some raspberry flavored abomination tea bag that your dad loves more than any of the other good tea flavors.

Y/N: Sooooo.

Spinel: You talked to him, didn’t you.

Y/N: Hahaha noooo. :)

Spinel: The fuck did he say?

Y/N: Absolutely nothing.

Spinel: Seriously? I was sure he’d reveal something embarrassing.

Y/N: Nope! You should probably get off his floor eventually, though.

Your kettle goes off and you grab a clean mug, and pour the boiling water into it along with the tea packet. You look down at your phone, and grin.

Spinel: goddammit.

You let the bag steep for a little bit, and add in a small amount of sugar. Walking up to your bedroom you take a snap of Jellybean half lounging, half falling off the stairs and send it to Spinel. She replies with a couple heart emojis, and you wonder if Steven was the one to show her the proper use of them. You set your cup of tea down on your desk, and turn your computer on. It’s evening now, and it’s much too late to do anything left with the rest of your day productivity-wise, so you settle in on playing more minecraft. Your thoughts wander quite a bit, and you find yourself stuck on thinking about Spinel. Naturally. You wonder about a lot of things she’s learned while staying on earth, from things like - does she pay rent? Does she have a job? Does she know what taxes are? Does she know what a relationship with a human looks like? She said she watched a movie, but didn’t exactly elaborate. You don’t know what human-norms she’s been exposed to. You can’t even concentrate enough to mine any of this redstone for Alex, and you nearly die in-game when the thought of ‘does she know what sex is?’ pops into your mind. You grab your phone and shoot Spinel another message.

Y/N: Quick question.

Y/N: If you don’t mind me asking.

It takes her a few minutes to reply.

Spinel: Sure?

Y/N: Do you know how humans are made?

Spinel: w

Spinel: Yes?

Spinel: Steven told me about it a few weeks ago actually.

Spinel: Why are you asking?

Y/N: No reason! Just curious is all.

Spinel: Hm.

Yeah you’re not too confident that she actually knows, and you’re too chickenshit to elaborate right now. You’ll enlighten her later. You spend the rest of the night browsing memes on your phone, and texting your friends and Spinel on occasion. Before you know it, your eyes drift close with your phone in hand.

You wake up when your alarm goes off for your morning shift, and curse at yourself for not charging it last night. It’s at a solid 32%, which isn’t really enough to go about your day, but you’ll have to make do. You get ready for a hopefully not shitty day, lock up the house, and head in to work.

It’s a complete shitshow when you come in, and you turn your phone off to save battery and concentrate on dealing with more than an average amount of tourists. You find Mr. Smiley sleeping in the breakroom/office/supply closet, and have half a mind to lock him in there from the outside for the rest of your shift. It’s pretty busy, and messy, and it isn’t until you’re there for several exhausting hours that you finally have enough time for a break. You turn your phone on, and instantly you’re flooded with messages from several different people. Ugh.

A couple from your dad - just checking in, really. Group chat too as usual, but none of it seems overly important. One from Spinel, and several from Steven. You open up Spinel’s message first.

Spinel: Do you think we could talk about a couple of things later?

Vague, and a little concerning. You text back an apology for getting back to her so late, and open the messages from Steven.

Steven: Hey are you busy?

Steven: I’m dealing with a bit of a situation right now, and could use your help.

Steven: Spinel locked herself in my bathroom, and she won’t come out.

Steven: She refuses to answer to anyone, and several of us have tried.

Steven: I’m just really worried about her, and you guys seemed to bond, so I was hoping..

Steven: That maybe you could come over?

Steven: Thanks regardless.

You check the timestamp, and that was over an hour ago. Jesus christ.

Y/N: Steven I’m so sorry, my phone was off and I’m at work, give me a few and I’ll be right over, okay?

Y/N: I’ll be quick.

He replies almost immediately with a “please” and you pocket your phone. You try not to worry too hard about Spinel as you rush over to grab your things, and knock on Mr. Smiley’s office/broom closet door. He opens it groggily, clearly just waking up.

“Yeah?” he slowly blinks at you.

“I gotta leave early. Emergency.” You stare at him, trying to not be pissed at his lack of work ethic.

“Are you for real? You’ve got another 3 hours left.” He says and crosses his arms, and you glare at him.

“I’ve been working my ass off while you’ve been sleeping this whole time, AND I’m covering your ass tomorrow so you can go meet your old friend! So the LEAST you can do is let me go early when I have an emergency!!!” You almost yell out at him, and he holds his hands up in defense.

“Okay, okay! Fine. Only because you’re a good worker.” He says, and has the gall to look at least a little ashamed of himself.

“Damn right I am.” You spin around and head out of the building, practically running.

You almost trip and bite it several times on the way over to Steven’s place, but you’re more worried about Spinel. You’ve only been to his place twice, but once you’re there you run up the stairs and open the door without knocking. You’re greeted by the only two people in the living room, Pearl, and Steven.

“Oh, she’s here!” Pearl says and nudges Steven, who looks up from typing on his phone.

“Y/N! Thank god you’re here.” He says with furrowed eyebrows.

“What happened?” You say and shut the door, and cross the room over to him.

“I’m not sure! We were just working on something together for Amethyst, and she got a call from Blue and Yellow. She’s been ignoring them lately, and they’ve been bothering me in turn because of that, so I asked her to take the call just see what they want.” He runs his hand through his brown curls, and just for a moment, you see that 12 year old him in again. The obvious stress masks just how young he really is, and you feel bad that he can’t live life like a normal kid. “She went outside to take the call, and was out there for quite a while. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I did hear some yelling. And just when I was going over to make sure they were alright, she comes back in tears, eyes spiraling like months ago, and nearly knocks Pearl over rushing into the bathroom.”

“And nothing since?” You inquire, fidgeting with your hands.

“No,” He says, frustratedly. “I’ve been trying to reach the diamonds to see what this is all about, but I’ve only been getting the pearls. I don’t know what to do. She hasn’t been like this in months. What were they talking about to make her this upset?”

“Maybe I can find out. You said she’s in your bathroom?” You raise an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, the one right over here.” He says and points to it.

“Is it locked?” You ask.

“No,” Pearl glances towards the bathroom door and crosses her arms. “The lock has been broken on it for a while, since Peridot joined us actually. Both Garnet and I tried opening it, but I think once Spinel hears someone trying to come in she blocks the door.”

Hm.

“I’m gonna try something, but you guys are gonna wanna stay away.” You say to the two of them. “I don’t want to overwhelm her with more than one person.”

“Let us know if we can do anything?” Steven makes to pass by you and gives your arm a light squeeze. “And thanks for coming to help.”

“Anytime, dude.” You give him a half smile, and walk over to his bathroom. You turn to take a look back at the other two, and they’re already in the kitchen discussing something in soft tones. You move to knock at the door, make two light taps against the frame, and wait for an answer.

A couple seconds pass, and nothing. Not even any movement. Nervously, you knock again, a little louder this time, and wait for a good ten seconds.

Still nothing.

You take a deep breath, reach out to grab the door handle, and very slowly and quietly open the bathroom door. You see nothing but absolute darkness, and step in. You feel around the wall to your right and flip a switch just as you close the door behind you with an audible click. The room instantly floods with the dark red light of the heat lamp, and before you can even think about finding another light source, you find yourself slammed up against the wall and let out a surprised yelp. You open your eyes to see Spinel’s face inches from yours, pupils wild, her hands splayed against your shoulders.

“U-um,” Your voice cracks a little. “Hey.”

You watch her eyes take a second to find yours, and almost instantly, she lets you go, arms trembling.

“W.. what are YOU DOING HERE!?” She cries, large tears pouring down her face, eyebrows raised in confusion, mouth trembling. Her hair is in loose pigtails, strands untamed around her face, cheeks stained with tear tracks. She looks like a mess, and your heart breaks, just a little. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt y-”

“I’m fine.” You cut her off. “I should have said who it was outside the door, I’m sorry. And um.. Steven texted me while I was at work, and told me what was going on so I rushed over..” You trail off as you watch Spinel’s entire body shake, and she covers her face with both of her hands.

“I can’t believe I just did that.” You hear her wavering voice, muffled behind her fists, and she lets out a choked sob. “Maybe they were right. M-maybe I’m not meant to-” She quickly moves her hands down to look at the floor with wide, vulnerable eyes, and struggles to form the rest of her words. You hear her breathing pick up pace, and you’re starting to realize she’s hyperventilating.

“Spinel, look at me.” Her eyes shoot up to yours, lips trembling. “I need you to breathe.” You do what your friends have always done with you, and gently grab both of her hands and hold them with yours, thumbs stroking her palms in slow circles. She freezes up instantly, and you’re about to panic, because while a familiar touch helps ground you, you register that maybe it’ll make it worse for her. But before you can pull your hands away, her hands relax ever so slightly, and she lets out a shaky breath. “Good. Just like that.” You motion for her to follow your breathing inverals, and she copies you, hands still shaking in yours.

It’s been a while since you’ve had to deal with something like this, but you’re thankful for having similar life experiences. After a solid minute or two of this her breathing is back to a normal pace, but she’s still crying, and now not meeting your eyes. Almost like she’s avoiding them.

“Look, I.. I don’t know what happened with you and the diamonds, but you can talk to me about it if you’d like. No pressure, though.” You give her hands a small squeeze, and she whimpers, looking up to meet your gaze. Tears are still actively streaming down her face, and you have no idea how to make any of this better. It physically hurts you to see her like this.

“C-can I not talk about it? I don’t think I’m ready..” She pulls a hand from yours, and wipes at her face. She just kind of smeared half of her face with wetness, and she looks miserable.

“You don’t have to talk about anything, Spinel.” You look at her, making sure she sees it in your eyes. You slowly let go of her other hand, and hold your arms out in a silent question instead. Her mouth opens slightly, the red glow of the light around her making her look extremely vulnerable and soft, and she looks at your open arms with a blank face for a moment before understanding. Almost instantaneously, she throws herself against you and wraps her arms around your shoulders, shoving her face into the cradle of your neck. You envelop your arms around her tightly, giving her sides a squeeze, and you feel her start to shake again.

She lets out an unsteady sigh, and hiccups out another small sob. You pull her to lean fully against you as you stand there, bracing your back against the bathroom door. She lets you maneuver her, and you rest the side of your face against her temple while she cries. You resign yourself to letting her cry on you until she’s done, if she needs to.

You feel her sniffle against your neck, and try not to mind that she’s getting your shirt soaked. You give her back a few gentle rubs, feeling her body quiver against yours as she’s trying to control her choked breathing. You’re not really counting the minutes, as right now you’re currently having way too many rampant thoughts about what the fuck the diamonds could’ve said to her. You’re mad as hell, honestly, and if you could say shit to them, you would in a heartbeat. You don’t want to make anything worse for her though, as much as you want to steal her phone and video call them to curse them out. It takes a few more minutes, but eventually her crying dies down, and you feel her breathing even out. Slowly, she dislodges her arms from twisting around you two, and you feel a sigh, her breath hot against your neck. You do your best to school your facial expression as you’re realize just how close you are to her, and she pulls her face from its resting position to look at you. She looks awful.

“U-um,” She lifts up her hand to attempt to wipe her face, failing to rub half the tears away. “I don’t really want to go out there yet..”

“You don’t have to.” You say, quietly. “I can leave if you’d like some quiet to yourself.” Her face looks panicked for a second, and she grabs your wrist.

“Please don’t leave me.” She says, voice wavering again. You try not to let your heart shatter at her tone.

“I won’t if you want me here.” You say, and sigh softly. “Here, hold on a second.”

She lets your wrist go as you move slightly over to the sink, turn the hot water on, and grab a clean hand towel from the counter. You soak it in water, and squeeze out all the excess. Towel in hand, you turn back to her, and she’s looking at you cautiously. You lift the towel slightly, motioning to her face.

“May I?” You ask, and she nods slightly.

Tenderly, you brush a couple strands of hair away from her face, grasp her chin with your left hand and pull her forward, gently pressing the towel to her cheek. She closes her eyes, and her shoulders sag a little as she lets you dab at her face, cleaning her of any tear stain marks. She sighs into your touch, and it strikes you that it would be so easy to just.. lean in and kiss her.

Your brain almost short circuits and you snap your thoughts back to reality. There’s a time and place for everything. This is not the time, nor the place.

Once you’re satisfied that she looks a lot better than before, you pull your hands away to toss the rag in the sink, and Spinel, for a brief moment, looks disappointed that you had stopped. Which.. kind of gives you an idea.

“Can I try something? Harper used to do this thing with me when I.. had similar breakdowns.” You ask her. She raises her eyebrow in response, clearly exhausted from crying so much. “Here.” You say, and take her hand and lead her over to the rim of the bathtub. You sit down on the edge, and motion for her to sit in front of you on the floor. She takes a seat in front of you, still confused, but obeys nonetheless. “Can I touch you?” You ask her, watching her face to make sure she’s alright.

She looks up at you, the red light in the room flooding the entirety of her face, making her hair darker, and the whites of her eyes a bit more dramatic.

“Yeah.” She says in reply, voice tired.

You reach out to her hair, and stop for a moment.

“Can I have you face the other direction, actually? Come over here.” You move to open your knees, making enough room for Spinel to turn around and lean against the bathtub. She’s close to you again.

“What are you..” She trails off as you start to take the hair ties out of her pigtails, one after the other. It takes a second, as it’s a bit tangled, but you manage to get both out, and let her hair fall down. You comb out her hair with your fingers, gently, and she sighs audibly while leaning into your touch. You run your short nails along her scalp, scratching and massaging as you smooth out her hair, attempting to pull all the tangles out.

“Touch used to calm me down, and Harper was really good at it, honestly.” You say while pulling out a particularly difficult tangle without hurting her. Her hair is long like this, and you like it. You wish you could grow your hair this long, but it’s kind of a pain to deal with, and the longest you’ve ever had yours wasn’t even to your mid back, you think to yourself. “Sometimes she’d give me shoulder and neck massages, but I preferred that she’d just play with my hair. There’s just something different about another person touching your hair.”

“I kind of get what you mean.” She says, tiredly.

“Can I braid your hair?” You lean closer to look at her face.

“Do what you want.” She says, looking fairly relaxed.

“Cool. Anyway, while Harper was good at that, Alex, on the other hand, was just terrible at any kind of physical comfort. He’s genuine, and he tries, but he’s an idiot. He’s a lot better at distractions, for the most part.” You run your fingers through her hair one more time, before starting to separate her hair into three parts for a french braid. “He’s funny, and comes from a large family, so he always has stories and jokes. Whenever I’d have a panic attack, those two were always so good about being there for me. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

You notice that Spinel‘s shoulders have lost most of the tension in them, and you’re secretly relieved. You keep talking to fill the quietness around you two, because you’ve always hated the quiet during moments like these. Your friends aren’t here, so it’s up to you to make up for it.

“It was kind of hard, at first though,” You say, and start looping the chunks of hair around your fingers, starting at the top of her head. “Because for a while there, back when I was 16 and dealing with the worst of my abandonment issues, I clung onto Harper like a baby koala. I had this super weird crush on her even though we had been friends since we were practically babies. I think I idolized her because she was just.. good to me.” You accidentally tug a little too hard on a strand of hair, wince and utter an apology while massaging the spot on her scalp. “I’m glad that didn’t ruin our friendship, but for a while there I really pushed my feelings onto her, which was kinda fucked up on my part.”

“Hm..” Spinel mumbles. “I kind of had a thing for Pink, I think. Which ended up screwing with me even more after what she did.” You stare at the back of her head and pause your hands for a second. Huh. Yeah, you had a hunch.

“If she were still alive, I’d punch her in the face for you, I hope you know.” You state, in full seriousness. This gets the first chuckle that you’ve heard from her today, and you’re secretly overjoyed.

“I’d pay to watch that.” She says, and you laugh out loud. You see her smile, just barely.

“So,” You continue, with both your hands and conversation. “A week or so after my 17th birthday, right after Harper talked to me about this guy at school that she liked, I confess to her. And not like a, ‘oh hey, you’re my best friend and I really like you’ kind of way, either. It was more like a, ‘have a mental breakdown over your best friend liking someone else and make them feel like shit about it on your walk home from school’ kind of confession.” Your hands reach the nape of her neck now, braid mostly done on her head, but you’ve got around another 20 inches of length before being finished.

“Harper avoided me for nearly a week after that. I was absolutely pathetic, and inconsolable. Alex was fed up with my shit after a few days, and nearly slapped me over it. He would’ve been in the right, doing so, honestly. I was a selfish asshole who only thought about her own feelings, and not about her best friends.” Your eyes drift to Spinel’s face, and her eyes are closed, eyebrows unfurrowed.

“Anyway,” You’re nearly done with the entire braid now. “She did end up forgiving me. Thankfully. I don’t know what I’d do if it were my fault that I’d split up our friend group.” You pick up the discarded hair tie from earlier, and tie it around the end of the braid.

“I’m all done, by the way.” You say to her. She opens her eyes tentatively, and she looks sleepy. You stand up, and stretch your back. She also gets up on wobbly legs, and turns to look at you.

“Um.” She’s avoiding your eyes. “Thank you. For this.” She’s twisting her hands together, nervously. You lean your face closer to get at eye-level with her.

“Anytime.. and for the record, you look really cute in a braid.” You say and smile, giving her a cheeky wink. You watch her entire face from the neck up turn bright red, and think that you could probably do this forever, and never get tired. She gives you a noncommittal grunt, halfheartedly smacks your arm and you grin at her.

You hear a quiet knock at the door, and look over to Spinel. She shrugs, so I guess it’s okay now.

“You can come in!” You say to the door. It opens slowly, and you see Steven peek his head in.

“Um.. are we okay?” He asks, clearly very worried about her.

“I’ll be okay.” She says, and you think that maybe she should lay down and sleep. You verbalize this immediately.

“Spinel. I think you should go take a nap.” You look at her, and she blinks at you. “I’m serious.”

“She’s kind of right.” Steven says in agreement with you. Spinel gives the both of you a shrug, and even that seems like it’s taking a lot out of her.

“Okay.” She says, and turns to walk out of the bathroom. Steven opens the door wider, and you can see Pearl in the kitchen leaning against the counter, trying to not seem like she’s intently watching all of you.

Spinel makes her way over to the couch and takes a seat, sitting up rigidly. You walk over to her to make sure she’s okay before you leave for home.

“You know you can text me, right? And if you need me, I’ll be available. I’ll leave my volume turned on.” She gives you a nod. “Oh, and.. take this,” You say, and pull off the pullover hoodie you’re wearing right now, and hand it over to her. “Alex used to let me wear his oversized sweaters, and they used to help me sleep, so..”

She tentatively reaches out, and takes it from your hands.

“Thanks.” She says, and gives you a small smile. With her hair pulled back like this she almost looks human, for a fleeting moment. You sometimes forget she’s a gem. You return the smile back at her, and turn around to leave.

After grabbing your bag that you set down earlier from beside the couch, you head over to the front door and open it. Shouldering the bag, you start to shut the door and see Steven behind you. He closes the door behind him, his face searching yours for something you don’t quite know.

“I don’t know what you did, but thank you.” He says, completely genuine.

“You don’t have to thank me. I’d do it for you, too, you know.” You say to him, and he smiles.

“That’s why I like you, Y/N. You’re sweet.”

“Yeahhhh, don’t tell anyone, though. You’ll ruin my reputation.” You smirk, giving him the side-eye. He laughs and pats your back.

“Ohhhhhh no! Whatever will you do!?” He rolls his eyes in jest. “Get home safe, okay?”

“No promises.” You reply, and jump down his steps, two at a time.

It doesn’t take you long to get home, and you’re pretty tired yourself. You make yourself busy by preparing dinner, cleaning the kitchen a little, and calling your dad for another check-in. Before you know it, it’s nearly 11, and you need to sleep for your double shift tomorrow that you almost forgot about. You’re laying in bed browsing social media before drifting off, and you receive a text from Spinel. You swipe down and open the message.

Spinel: Thanks again for today.

Spinel: I baked some new cookies with Steven, and would like to give you some tomorrow if that’s okay?

You smile to yourself. Ughhhhhhhh, you’re catching the feelings disease, and you swat the air around you like it somehow physically manifested around you.

Y/N: I work literally all day, but feel free to stop by and give them to me.

Y/N: Then I get to see a pretty familiar face to break up all the lame tourists.

Y/N: Cuz that sounds super nice. ;)

Spinel: I’ll see you tomorrow, then.

She didn’t react to your obvious teasing, but you won’t let that discourage you. You fall asleep thinking of the many different ways you can poke fun at her, and this time, you charge your phone.

You wake up the next morning feeling well-rested for once, and get ready for work. Alex has sent you a couple texts about when his flight will arrive, and when he’ll roughly come to meet you. Sometime around 4pm, apparently. You shoot Spinel a good morning text, and she replies almost instantly with the same, which makes you smile.

You head to work, texting your group chat about what happened yesterday with Spinel, and give them basically all the details. Alex makes fun of you for a bit, so you curse him out and pocket your phone as you clock in. Today’s going to suck, but you’ve got a few things to look forward to.

You make it a couple hours into your shift before you finally get a break, and Spinel texts you that she’ll drop by sometime in the afternoon once she’s done helping Bismuth with something. God you hope it’s not when Alex gets here, because you are so not fucking ready for that interaction. You eat your lunch and pray to any god out there that you could have one more day of peace.

You’re outside the main building repairing a couple parts on the carousel, ignoring the bulk of the tourists to focus on work. You don’t realize that quite a while has passed by, because someone walks up to you as you’ve got your head in a small door, and kicks you slightly on your ass. You jolt and bump your head against the opening, and you hear Alex burst out into laughter as you groan in pain.

God fucking dammit, this guy. You pull your head out to glare at him, screwdriver pointing at him threateningly.

“Do you want this up your ass? Because I can do that.” You say to him, and he laughs even harder. You roll your eyes at him.

“Don’t promise me with a good time, Y/N.” He says, and you stand up to smack him.

“I don’t think the pointy end would be a good time, idiot.” You deadpan stare at him. He grins.

“You don’t know what I’m into.” He shrugs, and flips his hair dramatically. You hate that he’s stupid and charming, and you love him so much.

“I know I haven’t seen you in 2 months, but like, I feel like you’ve grown taller?” You stare at him, a little mournfully. You’re the shortest one out of your friends, and you’re of average height. He also seems.. handsomer. You think he definitely got a lot more tan. He’s definitely grown into his looks, his dark curly hair and recently shaved face making him look older than you’re used to.

“I don’t think I did, but I think you’ve grown shorter.” He laughs obnoxiously, and you smack his arm again, which makes him laugh harder.

“You’re so mean to me, like all the time. Why do I love you?” You cross your arms and pout, because you know it gets a rise out of him.

“Youuuuuuu knowww, because I’m just so loveable and gorgeous and the smartest one in the group??” He flutters his eyelashes at you like he thinks he’s cute.

“Wow, you are none of these things.” You reply, smirking at him. He puts his hand over his heart in mock offense.

“Y/N, I’m offended. I’ve been here for like, five minutes, and I’ve received absolutely no affection from you. If I don’t get love, I will wilt and die. Do you want to be responsible for my death?” He opens his arms wide, and you roll your eyes dramatically, and stand there.

“We’re not doing this in public.” You say, standing your ground.

“Ohhh, YES we are, Y/N.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Prepare yourself for the onslaught.”

You take a couple steps back, prepared to run. He grabs your arms, wraps his around your torso, and picks you up, swinging you around.

“Nooooooooooooooooo!!” You cry. “Put me down you oaf!”

“No! I want love!” He all but shouts, and spins you around. He grabs your cheek with one hand and starts giving you big ‘ol smooches all over your face, and you’re giggling and trying to push him away, when you hear something drop and spill on the pavement a good twenty feet from you. You look up.

It’s Spinel.

Her face is twisted with heartbreak, and before you can even speak up, she bolts.

You look down, and see the cookies she made you scattered on the ground.

#spinel x reader #spinel #su #steven universe #spinel self insert #fic #my fic #devils ballroom #look. im not sorry yall. i promise next chapter youll get what u want LMFAO

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