For Dru (@fortheloveofaussiegrit), thank you for completely and utterly brainrotting me with this moment 🙏

lovesick, p*ssy whipped

Pairings: sanzu, ran, chifuyu, rindou x f! reader

Synopsis: showing how the tokyo revengers men are head over heels for you

Tags: suggestive | yandere/obsessive themes | slapping | fluff |

a/n: one last fic before i open reqs and start a series!

there's always that one character on who I get carried away

Sanzu

when he saw you walking around the club in your glittery lingerie that barely covers your ass, you bet he's shoving the girl in his lap to go to you. sanzu would tap your shoulder with a crooked smile on his face, and when you turn around in all your beauty; he's deciding that he's gonna marry you.

turns out you're completely uninterested in him and just walk away when he holds out his hand (free view of your ass for sanzu). the manager apologizes on behalf of your attitude and he dismisses it anyway. how could he not forgive you when you can make up for your mistake with your mouth instead?

you don't whore around like other girls in your line of work, you focus on one man, stay loyal and milk out his net worth. letting them believe you're so dependent on him. that's how you maintained the game for so long. but looks like you've met your match the morning your client was found dead in a ditch. it makes your skin crawl to have someone so close murdered but anyways you have to move on and do your job.

"treat with respect" the manager said, but how could you respect him when sanzu disrespects you in the first place. you've never felt so low and so hot in your entire life by the way he manhandles you.

sanzu rips off the clothes you recently bought and makes you feel like a whore. he gathers your hair into a makeshift ponytail and shoves your face right into his crotch. "unzip it with your mouth" "no" you say stubbornly while looking up to him. he clicks his tongue and stands up, his heavy hand on your head and asked: "did you like that guy?"

what is he talking about? yet you answer nonetheless to provoke him. "he was gentle with me-" "then get used to me being rough" sanzu unzips his pants himself, pulls out his dick, and forcefully chokes you on it. he starts to thrust with his head thrown back as if having the time of his life. tears well in your eyes as your gag reflex comes back, all the while he's mindlessly talking to you.

"I won't promise it won't hurt, because I'll definitely make it hurt. you can take that can you?" he looks up to the ceiling before threateningly averting his gaze on you, to which you nod with muffled cries.

Ran

he's a man who has a lot of experience that greatly increased as he got older. he never thought he'd be satisfied with one but you and your pussy proved him wrong.

ran would ditch all of his booty calls all of a sudden just to go to your house. you're someone who's flustered easily and he fucking loves that when you cover your face and scrunch cutely. bonus points if you're a virgin, it would get him so hard when he thinks that you've waited for a special man all your life. he's the first in line to your body, and no one dares line up behind him.

anyone around him would see him change. he'd randomly smile all of a sudden while on his phone, and rindou would look at him weirdly and roll his eyes. the first thought was he was watching porn or supporting camgirls on his phone, but it's actually him exchanging cutesy messages with you!

the conversation would be full of innocent hearts yet the displayed messages are lewd. the contrast of it has your body heating up and thighs clenching. text him "come over?" and he'd be flying to your bedroom in no time. (if possible)

ran is lovey-dovey with you in bed as he's got you underneath him. he takes in your helpless face and messy hair while both of his hands interlock yours, pinned down. pressing kisses to your face, going down and down until he's face to face with your shorts.

you're moaning and pushing his head further into you; ran lapping up your wet folds like a man starved. his tongue feels crazily good as the muscle moves all around inside you. and when he feels you starting to thrust up into his mouth, he knows he's got you wrapped around him. smirking inside you before giving a slow sensual slitter.

"relax baby, let yourself go♡" he hummed. ran would unravel the slut inside you, use you for his pleasure while making you want more. but for now, he'd wear a mask and act merciful to his baby.

Chifuyu

major attitude problems? moody? chifuyu would tolerate all that. he's very patient with you despite being such a brat at all times. you're like a chihuahua that picks fights with him only to end up getting cuddled. plus, you trashtalk the guys who hurt chifuyu while pouting and stitching him up. he thinks it's cute but you're all bark and no bite.

pushing your boyfriend to his limits is all fun and games until he actually gets annoyed. when chifuyu scoffs darkly, you know you have to stop acting like a dumb bitch.

he'd have you on all fours, crying about how much it hurts as he thrusts behind you without a care. sometimes you're just so fucking annoying that you have to pass out to be quiet for once. wet sounds slap against the room along with your loud cries that chifuyu groans in annoyance.

his thumb goes inside your mouth, eyebrows knitting together when you're still loud even with a thumb inside you. he then enters your cavern with four of his knuckles and a thumb on your chin. making a makeshift gag as tears prick your eyes.

"you have something to say now?" chifuyu asks tauntingly while his member goes in and out of you. you shook your head frantically and he laughs at how pathetic you looked. the night continues with him trying different positions with you even if he's feeling very overstimulated. it got chifuyu shooting all he got inside you until he stops and you finally close your eyes in fatigue.

chifuyu is amazing at aftercare and feeling guilty after fucking you roughly without any hint of stopping. too bad you don't see or feel how he takes care of your mess while you sleep. but no worries, chifuyu always shows how much he loves you when you're awake. you'll always feel loved and feel good when he's around <3

Rindou

rindou is always hanging around you quietly, following you as you go shopping or whatever girly things you do. it's to ward off the men that look at you lewdly when he only has the privilege of doing that.

he thinks he's so delusional that he has the claim on you when you're not even dating him. not even fucking because you chose to see him as a brother. and it kills him every time you wear those cleavage popping and ass-hugging outfits. help him coz his sanity is only holding onto a thread.

one night when you visit him in his office wearing the usual slutty outfit. he can't help but stare at your body until you spoke: "I'm meeting my friends at the club tonight. can you accompany me? I really don't feel safe when I'm alone." how in the world are you gonna feel safe when you're wearing that?! and what is he? some kind of chaperone? but lovesick rindou finds himself agreeing to be dragged around by you. lead him on all you want but it won't last long before he snaps.

you thought he would drive you there but he surprisingly tosses the keys to a driver outside the building. it was kind of disappointing because you thought you'd have some alone time with him. but tension suddenly rises when rindou rolls the partition of the front and back, enclosing you two in privacy. "why?" you ask like you have no idea yet your body is already squirming inside.

rindou looks at you dead in the eye and hissed: "do you think it's appropriate to wear that around a 'brother'?" your eyes widen, breath hitched as you attempt to speak but fail. he slides closer to you, right hand catching your waist to pull you on his lap. "do you really see me as a brother?" rindou's fingers caress your thigh before going between your legs. "or as someone you could play with?"

he takes out his anger by pinching your clit, making you thrash in his arms wildly from the stimulation. his lips kiss your neck while his left hand fiddle with your boobs and bring down the neckline. your hole flutters from the lewd scene you're seeing on the reflective partition. his long limbs completely entrap your body as you let yourself throw your head back and capture his lips in a messy kiss. he never fails to make you feel dirty.

you push and push for more kisses, addicted to his taste. but rindou pulls away with stained lips and smirks when he sees your fucked out face. "attend the party looking like that alright?" he pats your cheek a little harshly before pushing you to the side. 'a little payback won't hurt' he thinks to himself as he ignores you, flabbergasted. he's too horny so you'll actually end up fucking

relationship hcs ; capsaicin cookie

requested by ; anonymous (07/07/23)

fandom(s) ; cookie run

fandom masterlist(s) ; hub | specific

character(s) ; capsaicin cookie

outline ; “hello!!! i hope youre having a fantastic week!!! i really like your fics, theyre so lovely!!!

i have a request if you havent done this already.. may i request capsaicin cookie general dating hcs(gender neutral reader)? if not, no worries!! thank you!! >_<!!”

warning(s) ; none, just fluff!

he gives the absolute best bear hugs — like he’ll wrap you tightly in his arms, pick you up, spin you around and pepper your face/the crown of your head with kisses

big on pda and does not care about who sees and if they judge him for it — you’re his partner and he’s going to show you off no matter what anyone else has to say

he’s your biggest supporter and will show up to each and every big/important event of yours and will cheer you on as loudly and excitedly as you could imagine — it’s gotten him nasty looks before but he’s there to support you so he doesn’t really care

calls you ‘babe’ or ‘cutie’ interchangeably but will call you ‘baby’ if he’s being extra needy for your attention

physical touch is his love language but he’s also incredibly touch starved — so he’s happy and confident smothering you with touch and affection, but you gently cupping the side of his face will make him tear up and melt

he’s a deep sleeper, incredibly cuddly in his sleep and (as one could guess) very very warm — so unless you’re really tolerant to high temperatures you’re likely going to end up sleeping in different rooms during summer

(but you sleep on call with each other because he sleeps best when he knows you’re safe)

brags about any and every achievement of yours — whether it’s leaving the house after struggling to do so for months or publishing your first novel, he’s gonna be talking to anyone that’ll listen about how proud he is of you

would 100% be up for some of the more ‘cutesy couple’ types of workouts — like having you sat on his back and counting his push-ups or laying on a table he’s bench pressing — and will use it as an excuse to show you off to everyone else

ups his dramatics and performance during training and fights when he knows you’re watching — e.g. flexing more, goading others and turning and winking flirtatiously at you

he doesn’t show it but he’s constantly terrified of hurting you or you somehow starting to fear him — it’s why he’s much more reluctant to make full use of his powers when you’re nearby and why he avoids the topic of his shackles for the most part

he’s scared of losing you, is all

doesn’t really wear shirts but he’d wear a matching outfit with you if you asked (it just wouldn’t last very long unless it’s extremely heat proof)

you (and others) will randomly catch him staring at you and smiling at odd points during the day — he also gets this lovestruck look on his face when he’s working and he starts to think about you

his fellow scovillia attendees have started calling it ‘the (name) look’

gimme a sec i need to talk about this !!

so i saw a long ass reblog under an anti-sylki blog that started off as something like "actually loki & sylvie has good romance chemistry meanwhile loki & mobius doesn't have any romance chemistry at all"🤓– and in this moment i went "alright best frien i'm not reading all that" then went to block instead of arguing.

didn't try reading that bullshit of a post further either just to anger myself, i know better.

i especially didn't wanna argue cuz i think that was a child..??? (assuming from the miracoulus ladybug theme cuz no adult in their right mind enjoys that trash) but if i'm wrong that just makes it worse tbh, like grown ass ppl who srsly think toxic relationships should be the example of peak romance needs their brain to be studied fr.

i usually try to be respectful for others' opinion but i genuinely can't see where this opinion comes from.

makes no goddam sense to me.

maybe it's cuz i can't view things through a heterosexual lens, maybe not.

who knows?

but...(i won't make this abt lokius but focusing more on the "loki & sylvie" part) this made me wonder like...

what do sylkie shippers even post about?

no i won't check it out myself to spare myself from the headache but do they go "omg today episode's syIkie crumbs was so lovely dovely 🥺" and the crumbs in question is them disagreeing on almost everything and sylvie wanting to avoid loki as much as she can & constantly seeming to be angry at him.

sure, in s1 they did have a couple of cutesy romantic moments like being under blankets despite of them being supposedly immune to cold or the literal kiss but, it truly doesn't take a huge analyzation to realize that this "relationship" became one sided, even in that one little moment when they had to hold hands, sylvie immidiately goes "don't overthink it" like omgggsfg💀😭 and it's also clear that loki eventually got the hint, in ep3 he doesn't try to be with her anymore or gets emotional with her, he silently gave up.

not to mention loki avoiding to mention the kiss, when appearantly the two has nothing to hide? 😕

i don't know where this is gonna be heading off but if they randomly switch up after all this character & dynamic development then i have no hope for marvel's writing team cuz that would basically create a plot hole.

like aside from the psuedo-incest, that used to bother me in season 1 era but now i am concerned more about how this "ship" overall has no appeal, yet some of these ppl genuinely thinks it can work healthily between them and that ppl who are against it are just "petty that their gay ship isn't canon" when there's MORE to this.

in season 2 there's absolutely *nothing* happening with them that would make us, the audience, root for them to be together as a couple like i'm sry.

so yeah you can say i'm doing too much and too crazy over a fictional tv show (yes i know that babes i have full self awareness) but i literally cannot stress enough about how unhealthy it is to think that this is how a good romantic chemistry works.

based on a syIkie shipper's views: we could technically say that me + that one co-worker of mine who we always have disagreements on political stuff with & dislikes me for no reason is my "lover"... since we wanna pretend this is how love works 😀😀 no?

Yu-Gi-Oh Review Roundup: Arc-V!

Favorite main character: Shay Obsidian

Raidraptors slap. Every era of this show has one archetype that makes the twelve year old inside my brain start cheering in adoration, and this time, it’s raidraptors. What can I say. I like birds.

Shay himself also does a whole lot to sell the coolness factor of his mechanical falcons. The blunt, to-the-point, selfassuredness he carries himself with is almost intimidatingly edgelord, but some great voice acting work by Matt Shipman keeps him on the humaner side of anime emos. (Also, if you didn’t know, Matt Shipman, also voice of Reki in SK8 the Infinity, and if you hadn’t made the connection between season one Shay and breakup arc era Reki, I’m sorry that is in your brain now.) 

His design is the wonderful kind of harmonizing amazingly well with his monsters without being overbearing. With all the old fighter plane influence of the raidraptors, it makes perfect sense for Shay to sport his trademark leather trenchcoat that comes complete with the asymmetrical zipper and wide collar of an aviator's jacket. I particularly love the red scarf being the unofficial uniform of the XYZ rebellion, and it going completely unremarked on in the story. It’s clever to see how it’s worked into everyone’s outfit without it being pointed out to the viewer; it’s like an easter egg hunt. On Shay, he wears it in mimicry of a silk flight scarf, another visual nod to WWII pilots. 

And in Shay’s case, it makes perfect sense he would need the outfit of a pilot, because asides from Yuya, he is the one who most routinely rides around on the backs of his monsters. I never get tired of Shay flying onto the scene on a 3,000 pound eagle shaped warmachine, completely nonchalantly. Why is he the only one taking advantage of having his monsters around outside of duels. Let everyone have terrifying monstrosities as their main form of transportation.

Favorite antagonist: Sora Perse

The candy munching warcrime gremlin of all time. While it’s a little weird that Arc-V out the gate started exploring the ramifications of being a card game child soldier, Sora’s arc as he grapples with it is the emotional core of season 1, and it genuinely gets pulled off pretty well. Also, he plays fluffals.

Fluffals is the pitch perfect archetype for Sora. I’ve said before how much I love in yugioh when the cards someone plays tells you more about their character, how I go off the wall when their archetype is a mirror of their personhood. Fluffals is also just great on its own. Perfect yugioh design. Cutesy cuddly monsters that are actually filled with KNIVES and SAWS like they are being dissected by a deranged weird little child. Then the double meaning of fluffals being innocent and adorable, but secretly hiding a darker side, just like Sora. He is constantly switching back and forth between frighteningly competent and “oh my god he’s just a kid”. 

On of my favorite moments in the show is when he and Zuzu reunite and she says farewell by doing the fusion summon salute, only for Sora to jokingly correct her posture. Their friendship is so wholesome okay. Deep down, this kid is genuinely hurt and doesn’t know how to make friends, so he’s reaching out with the only way he knows how, by taking the role of teacher but that's only a facade to get to hang out, and that line is where we first hear them acknowledge it to each other, grins on their faces, happy to still be teacher and student, but also, friends. 

This is in the same stretch of episodes as Sora casually stowing away on a helicopter by jumping fifteen feet into the air and grabbing the wheel well.

Favorite side character: Yugo

I guess they just put a special sauce in the Arc-V blue haired bois.

Why do I list Yugo as a side character? Surely, by virtue of being an au version of the main character, he should be counted with equal narrative status?

Nope! He shows up maybe a dozen times, usually randomly, to yell and crash his motorcycle into things. Then disappears again. I love him.

Yugo has, unlike the other two blue haired bois, this endearing puppy quality that makes every conversation he’s in feel playful and exuberant. And that lends itself well to the few dynamics he does find himself in, whether it’s bouncing off Yuri’s smirky villainy, or having genuinely a more emotionally intelligent discussion with Zuzu about what going on than Yuya ever manages to have with her in the whole series. And while I would have loved to get more time between him and Rin, it’s clear from just a few minutes with him how deeply he cares about her. Winning him the coveted medal of “#1 straight relationship in yugioh I would 100% believe in”. They’re just really sweet. And I would storm the Konami headquarters to get them the happy ending they deserved.

Favorite duel: Shay vs. Sora

They’re my favorites for a reason. 

Shay v. Sora is peak, not only for both characters, but the entire show. It’s certainly in my list of Top 5 Yugioh Duels Ever. Everything about this duel is pure character expression. Shay’s cold and unemotive dueling crashes right up against the peppy dueltaining that Sora has spent the past few weeks learning. At first, Sora doesn’t even seem to take the duel seriously, countering audience expectations that this duel is going to be important. Because we know at this point, that something is up with Sora. That he knows more than he is letting on and this Shay guy is someone who can seriously engage with him about the larger mystery, unlike everyone else who is still in the dark on the dimensional wars.

Then Sora’s slow burn of the facade melting away. All that theatricality can equally double as a dang good yugioh villain performance. The way the duel slides from using its standard duel cinematography to more of a Marik Ishtar unhinged closeup. There is more dramatic tension in the increasing ferocity that Sora chews on his lollipop with than a full fledged horror movie.

On Shay’s side of the duel, we get dramatic monologues of backstory, finally filling in our understanding of the larger plot, delivered by a seriously shaken refugee who is finally able to traumadump about what he and his friends had to live through. It’s chillingly intense, especially contrasted by Sora’s increasing villainous theatricality. While Sora cartwheels and flips around the crumbling city like an acrobat, Shay’s got a utilitarian body language as he dodges debris. He’s not here to put on a show. He is here to survive and get revenge.

And the conclusion. By gods. There’s something haunting about seeing Sora, who has up to this point been laughing and gloating, crack. Not at the thought of being hurt. But at the thought of losing. Of being second best. He screams as Shay walks away, no longer violent and dramatic, but just a broken kid, terrified of receiving a bad grade.

Gods. Good duel.

Favorite arc: Arc league championship

Shay v Sora may be the highlight, but it’s not the only banger duel from that arc. And there’s also a great variety of good duels. From character duels like Julia v. Zuzu, or plot important duels like Sora v Yuto, to just plain fun duels, like Gong v Grizzlepike. And once the finals get going, it’s basically a nonstop duel fest, cutting between a half dozen parties finding eachother and splitting off again, while some duel and others just try to sit down and figure out what on earth is going on. Which shouldn’t work, but it does. 

Listen, if battle city worked the first time, the second time, the third time, and the fourth time, it’ll be good the fifth time. Trust us. We did the math. Now go out and duel in [interesting environment] and wager [this tournament’s gimmick item] on duels until you have [arbitrary number]. 

And hey! The formula works once again! This isn’t sarcasm, I genuinely think this is a great way to make tournament arcs interesting. The citywide split of four biomes allows for some cool backdrops, and every duel being able to happen basically simultaneously means we can simply cut between whatever's most interesting at the moment, instead of having to see every duel start to finish. 

Also, Moonshadow gets introduced in this tournament, and he is the unsung mvp of the entire series.

Greatest strengths of the series: Polish

The Arc League Championship also stands out to me because I was startled by the quality of its episode-to-episode writing. Plot information is slowly revealed on a regular basis, instead of thirty episodes of Shenanigans that’s interrupted by a lore dump. There’s genuine mystery, and intrigue, as we try to figure out what is up with these mystery xyz summoners and Declan’s master plan. And it’s not just scenario writing that’s received a massive punch-up! Dialogue is flowing better than ever, and effects animation is legible and looks awesome, instead of hyper-compressed pixels. Heck, Yuya has a really good looking 3D model, and his eyes aren’t covered by a helmet, and his jacket realistically flutters with his movement!

This may not sound like that big a deal, but the very premise of Arc-V gives us such a clear point of comparison for “How It Started” versus “How It’s Going”. It warmed my little 5Ds adoring heart to see turbo duels back, and rendered in such believable and genuinely excellent modeling. (Though points off for making Jack’s duel runner drive sideways. You guys know it can’t do that.) Aside from a few minor nitpicks, almost everything that made previous shows awesome is lovingly given a fresh coat of paint, from summoning to landscapes. 

And the writing is also pretty good on the au versions of prior characters! I particularly love Actually Not Problematic Celebrity Jack Atlas, the fun writing challenge of taking a character whose story is so deeply rooted in his setting, then trying to figure out what he’d look like without those factors. Happily Married Crow Hogan. Rebellion Leader Alexis Rhodes. Genuinely Lost His Family And Turned Murderhobo About It Kite Tenjo. There’s something so fun about seeing the paths certain characters could have taken, if only their environments had been different. And it’s a far more challenging premise to convincingly pull off than I see it get credit for. On so many levels, yugioh shows, on a purely technical level, have just gotten better as time goes on, and I absolutely adore seeing what each new series manages to perfect.

Weakest points: Scope

Unfortunately, Arc-V just has a lot to juggle. The devotion to quartets means the math spins out of control. incredibly quickly. Four versions of the protagonist, four versions of the female lead, four story arcs in four separate worlds. A handful of cameo appearances for each dimension, but also two to three original characters as well, bloats the main cast to nearly three times that of any previous show. Four different types of playstyles to write, and for characters that use blends of all four, duels four times as complicated in a single turn. Let’s never forget that this is the era that gave us the infamous D/D/D spreadsheet.

Individual moments stand out as excellent, but there simply isn’t enough time for any of them to really shine. All of the characters I’ve stated as loving, Shay, Sora, Yugo, I love in spite of the fact that their stories never really go anywhere. Shay and Yugos’ primary motivations are to find and reunite with their bracelet girls. And they don’t. Sora? After a wonderful bleed from “no morals allowed” to “one moral allowed”, after struggling for almost a season and a half to rationalize his child soldier upbringing, the camera just stops looking at him. And that’s one of the most complete stories Arc-V manages to tell. Even Yuya, our protagonist, ends the series having not confronted anything about his father, or his blatant mental health issues, both things that he is literally introduced with being shockingly core to his character. Very few plotlines are resolved in a satisfying way, if they’re resolved at all.

In the end, I can’t help but feel that Arc-V wrote more ambitious checks than its writing budget could cash. 

Most yugioh moment:

The entire episode where they break out of prison by hosting a talent show. Specifically, the cheer in Yuya’s voice when he says “Good night, FACILITY! <3”

One day I randomly thought up kurumada anzu and shin trio and now they just Live. Inside my head. So can you Liek come up w hcs for them and maybe some non death game au hcs

Sure!

Death Game Headcanon's

A: A part of Anzu understood that Naomichi wouldn't be able to kill Shin. For all his talk of winning, he still likes to win fair. Even she can understand that a fight between them wouldn't be on even grounds.

B: Shin could tell that Naomichi was starting to bond with Anzu as he did with Kanna. He considered pulling him aside and warning him against it…but then he decided it wasn't his fight. And maybe a little part of him thought that she could use a protector.

C: Naomichi and Shin both admire Anzu in a way. They think it must be nice to be able to go through the death game without second guessing your trust in others.

D: Anzu made sure to mention that they all had blue in their hair. She called them the true blue trio.

E: When Naomichi yelled, "Bam!" when he pretended the collar exploded, it scared the hell out of Shin. It took his heart a few moments to recover.

Non Death Game Headcanon's Undercut

F: Anzu has Naomichi and Shin help her with her clown performances. Naomichi does really well because he's athletic and able to pull off some cool stunts. Shin does much less well but people still like him because they think he's doing a slapstick routine.

G: Naomichi invited Shin and Anzu to watch one of his boxing matches once. Only once because when he looked over during the fight Anzu had fainted and Shin was clutching his beanie so hard it looked like he was about to break his hand.

H: Naomichi and Anzu frequently stop into the convivence store Shin works at. It's strictly because they like visiting their dear friend and not at all because he'll let them get free stuff.

I: Anzu was how Shin learned that he was scared of clowns. Anzu was how Naomichi learned that he loves making fun of Shin for being scared of clowns.

J: Anzu buys them little trinkets sometimes. So now Shin wears a little rainbow pin on his beanie and Naomichi has cutesy stickers on his water bottle.

Lab Partners - Chpt 1: Realisation

A decade or so after defeating the Kraang, the turtles continue to protect New York City and Donnie continues to protect his heart. Until feelings hit him in the face like a sledgehammer.

Read on Ao3 or below the cut:

Leo had had a sneaking suspicion for a while now about April and Donnie. There had to be something going on there. She had complete free access to his lab, frequently invaded his personal space, and sometimes just popped over randomly in the middle of the night. Like now. He slouched at the door to his brother's lab. "Hey D, your girlfriend is here!" "Not my girlfriend." Donnie didn't even turn around. "You still knew who I was talking aboooout." "Go awaaaay, Leo!" Now he did turn around and lift his goggles up. "April is bringing me a component I've been looking for." "Mhm, is she now~" Donnie glared. "Why must you say it like that." "Mm, I what now?" With a sigh, Donnie dragged his hand down his face. "Just go." "Alright alright," he held his hands up. "I see how it is. I'll give you two some alooone time." He started backing away, a giant shit-eating grin on his face. About to retort when April walked in, Donnie instead huffed and turned back to his work. "Hey, Donnie." "Hello, April," he sighed wearily. "It's so hard being surrounded by idiots." April patted his shoulder. "I know, but I manage." Donnie snorted and shook his head. "Ha, ha, very funny. Did you get the part?" "Mhm!" She pulled out a gold ring with a mesh attached to either side. "Behold, the diaphragm from an AKG 414!" "It's glorious!!!" A metal claw held it up to the light. "This will do nicely indeed, thank you for... procuring the item for me." He cackled a little and set it carefully aside while he prepared the rest of the device. April watched for a moment. "You know, if you integrate the diaphragm fitment with gold plate into the motherboard-" "It'll prevent disconnect issues but still allow for optimal performance and fluidity in parts! April that's-" "Genius, I know," she grinned at Donnie and thumped his shoulder gently. "I am mid-PhD, give me some credit." "To the electroplating machine!" April laughed and watched on fondly as the purple turtle sent himself across his lab on a spiny chair, skidding a little too far and falling off into a heap of limbs. "Need any help?" she called, not moving. "Nope! I'm good!" A thumbs up popped up from the heap and Donnie soon gathered himself, goggles down as he started to work. Still laughing, April wandered over and sat down next to him. She always loved watching him work, the concentration as fingers moved deftly across parts, mechanical claws from his battle shell holding the more delicate ones. Over the years they'd been inseparable, bouncing ideas off each other, protecting each other in fights, going all out when needed. They were a chaotic duo. "Snips-" and they were already in his hand, April having anticipated this need. He took them without a word, clipped the wires down to size, and passed them back. They continued like this for a while, both concentrated on the work at hand. "Hey guys, pizza's here!" Donnie's head jerked up at Leo's voice and almost bumped April's. He hadn't even realised how close they were. It had just felt so natural. "Uh, just-" he glanced back at his work. "Five minutes?" "The pizza will be gone by then, you know what Raph's like." April laid a gentle hand on his arm. "You go, I'll finish this off, it just need soldering to the motherboard now." "You sure?" When she nodded, Donnie grinned. "Thanks, April." He had the sudden instinct to kiss her cheek in thanks. He caught himself and squeezed her shoulder instead before hopping off his chair and racing out the lab. "You're the best!" He yelled back. "I know!" "Did I interrupt something with you two?" Leo teased. "You were like this." He spun to walk backwards and put his fingertips together, making a cutesy face. "What? Psh, nooo." He slapped Leo's hands apart. "We were just working." "Riiiight," Leo folded his hands behind his head, still walking backwards. "Because you always like working as a team and definitely enjoy your personal space being invaded." "What I enjoy is-" he stopped and grinned just as his brother walked backwards into a wall. He stepped over the crumpled turtle pile. "That. That was very enjoyable." Leo just groaned and reached out, missing his brother's ankle by a mile. "Don't forget about me! Save me some pizza!" "Sorry, what's that?" Jogging down the hall, Donnie held a hand out at the side of his head. "I can't hear you!" "Donatello!" "Buh-bye, now!" And he rounded the corner. That was a close one. Though there was no way he was going to mention that he'd wanted to kiss April on the cheek. Especially not to Leo. Besides, it can't have meant anything serious. April was his oldest friend and lab partner, of course he felt close to her. That was just natural, right? Donnie shook himself and set his sights on pizza. He wasn't much into his first slice (okay maybe it was his fourth or fifth) when Leo slid in. "Our brother dearest here has a crush~" Mikey's eyes sparkled and he sprung up into Donnie's face gasping. "Who is it? Kendra?" "What, no!" "Sunita?" Raph suggested. "She did rescue you that one time." "I don't have a crush on anyone." Leo chuckled and pulled Donnie's arm towards himself to eat his slice of pizza. "You absolutely do-" "Give me that," the cheese fell off into his lap. Donnie sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Get off my pizza and out of my business." "So you admit there's business!" Leo pointed accusingly. "Why won't you talk to them, bro, c'mooon." Donnie threw his hands up, pizza sauce splattered on a wall. "There's nothing to talk about!" Mikey's eyes went wide. "Ooooh, it's Cassandra isn't it!?!" "No!" "You guys are really missing the obvious, here~" Leo sing-songed, slouching across the floor and letting a slice of pizza drop into his mouth. Raph furrowed his brow and Mikey supported his chin with his free hand, squishing his cheeks a little. "Works with us a lot. We all know her. We go waaaaay back." "Leonardo." There was a firmness to Donnie's voice which was immediately set aside by his twin. "Cute space buns, very smart, red glasses-OW!" Leo rubbed the back of his head where one of Donnie's battleshell claws had flicked it. "C'mon, bro, it's obvious! You're head over heels for April." "Leonardo!" Mikey and Raph both spat out the pizza they'd been eating. "O'Neil?" "Yeah, duuuh. They spend all day together in his lab, I bet they're just smooching up a- OW, DUDE!" It was two claws this time. "We are not smooching!" "Would you like to?" Mikey tilted his head. Donnie couldn't hide the blush that snuck through below his mask. "You do have a crush!" "It's not a crush, Mikey! She's my best friend!" Raph shurgged. "Your partner should be your best friend." They all turned to look at him. "What? They should." He held a finger up and recited. "The best relationships are built on a foundation of support, trust, and mutual understanding." "Wow, did you get that from Teen Vogue?" Leo smirked. "Yeah, they had an article on healthy relationships last month. It's the double spread with a couple holding hands." "Oh, fair." Leo shrugged. Donnie thought about this. It was true that he trusted April, and he knew that she trusted him. They supported each other and did understand each other better than anyone else they had around them. He thought about holding hands with her, rubbing his thumb over the back of her tiny hand... He blushed again. "Hey, guys, you saved me some!" April flopped down next to Donnie, seemingly non-plussed and reached into his space to take a slice of pizza. "What're we talking about?" "About Donnie's crush-" Donnie quickly elbowed Mikey to shut him up. "How I crushed it last night during patrol." April raised an eyebrow. "Riiiight." "Is our little project complete?" Donnie tried to distract her. "Oh, almost! It just needs your magic touch~" He grinned and framed his chin. "My touch is magical." Leo audibly snorted. The twins exchanged a very fast series of looks that ranged from dude seriously, do you not hear yourself to shut up before I shove an entire pizza down your gullet. April sent Raph a questioning look who just shrugged and carried on eating pizza. Eventually, it seemed like Leo backed off, though he was still grinning. "Back to the topic at hand," Donnie glared at Leo one last time. "The sonic boom launcher is almost complete!" "Isn't that a video game?" Mikey pipped up. "What? No! It's a scientific term first and foremost." Leo smirked again. "Pretty sure it's a video game dude." "I thought it was a TV series?" "It's both! But it is first and foremost a scientist term!" Donnie hated having to repeat himself. April patted his shoulder sympathetically. "Just tell them what it does." Donnie clutched a hand to his chest dramatically before standing up, pulling out a prototype of the weapon and striking a pose. "Behold the SBL! Designed to amplify the smallest sound to deliver a sonic boom directly into the eardrums of our foes to deafen them so we can strike while they're clutching their head and reeling from the pain of a hundred and ten dBs!" He cackled manically as the tiny device hovered into the air and made a tiny beeping noise. "Uuuuh, did it work?" "This, my dear blue brother, is just a design test." Raph gave him a doubtful look. "And will it actually work? Or will it deafen us too?" "Raphael! Of course it'll work. Are you really going to question my work?" "Uh, yes." Leo deadpanned. "Okay, fair. Hurtful, but fair. But! Are you going to question the work of the amazing and wonderfully talented April O'Neil?" He gestured to her as she was mid pizza bite. April stopped and looked up. "Mmph?" Leo leant across to Mikey. "See this is what I mean, he's smitten with her," he staged whispered. Donnie rounded on him, eyes twitching and full of fury. With a SHIIIING his claws sprung up from his battle shell. Raph leaned over. "You should probably run." "I am thinking about it, yes..." "Leonardo." Donnie took a step forwards. "Brother. Compadre." "Mmm... you should definitely run." "Yes, thank you, Michael." Leo slowly stood up, took a deep breath, then bolted out the door. There was a scramble as Donnie flew after him, and the sounds of screams, threats, and crashes slowly dissolved into a background cacophony. Raph and Mikey eyed April, inching closer. She hadn't reacted yet... She was just, eating pizza. No cares in the world. "I'm sorry, can I help you boys?" she said sarcastically, making them jump. "Didn't you hear-" "Nono, let me handle this," Mikey pulled Raph aside. "I'll be as smooth as a cucumber." "Do we need to be smooth?" "Duh, she's about to break his heart! I mean, c'mon, April is waaaay out of Donnie's league." "I can still hear you," April raised an eyebrow and leant back with her pizza. "Also I already knew about Donnie's crush on me." "You knew?" Mikey swung around and sprawled across the floor in front of her. "He's not exactly subtle about it." The two remaining brothers exchanged a look. "That he is not! Haha! We definitely knew that, right Raph?" "Oh yeeeeah, we've known for months!" "You only just realised about five minutes ago, didn't you?" she gave them a patronising look. Mikey touched his fingertips together. "Maaaaaaybe." He moved closer and popped his face up in front of April's. "Soooo are you going to let him down gently?" "What? No!" Raph gasped and stood up, pointing down at her as tears started streaming down his face. "She is going to break his heart! How could you?!?" April gave him a deadpanned look and moved his finger out of her face. "Yeah, no. I like him too. I've just been waiting for Donnie to realise." She looked behind them at the dust cloud of green limbs, blue flashes, and purple explosions. "Though I get the feeling he hasn't fully admitted it to himself yet." "Nu-uh." "He is in deep denial." Raph nodded solemnly. "Idiot," she said fondly, then stood up and yelled, "Splinter is giving away free hugs!" The chaos immediately stopped and the twins' heads popped up from the cloud of dust. "Oh maaan, free hugs!?" "Fatherly affection?" And they sped off to find Splinter. Raph almost followed before Mikey placed a hand on his arm. "Oh Raphael... I'm afraid it is a ruse." "Yeah, it was just to get them to stop fighting." "A ruse... So father doesn't want to hug us?" The tears were back. April glanced at Mikey. "Nono, I'm sure he does!" she said quickly. "Why don't you go ask him yourself, hm?" He beamed and ran off. With a chuckle, April shook her head. "You should probably cash in on these hugs too. I'll be in Donnie's lab, let him know for me, will you?" "Will do!" He gave her a two fingered salute and was off. "Oh no, not another-" Splinter sighed as he was tackled once more. "What has gotten into you boys?" But he did smile, ever so slightly, and continued to hug them. When they pulled back, Leo nudged Donnie's arm. "See, I told you April wouldn't lie about hugs." "I never said she did! I just found it suspicious how she knew-" "Yo, Donnieee! April's waiting for you in your lab." "Thank you, Mikey-" "I think she wants to ask you out." Donnie reached his hands out in a strangling motion. "No, she does not! Why do you all think that? Why do you insist I have a crush on April?" "Because you do," Splinter muttered as he settled back down into his armchair. "Even I see it. And I am legally blind!" He laughed and hit the TV remote, shooing his sons away from in front of the projector. "This is ridiculous! I'm going to my lab," he stormed off then moments later popped his head back in. "And not because April is there! It's because I'm working!" The remaining brothers shook their heads. "Oh Donnie..." "He will get there," Splinter reassured them. "Now shush! I'm trying to listen to myself." There was a pause. "Sooo shall we follow him?" "You're the leader!" Mikey beamed, and so off they went, stopping just outside the lab and listening carefully. "Ah, true love~" "Shush, I'm trying to listen, Leo." Raph repositioned himself, bumping into the door as he did so. Eyes went wide and they held their positions. "We've been compromised..." Mikey muttered. "Nooo, we haven't, it's fiiiiine-" The door slid open. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" There was a scramble backwards and Leo pretended to look for something. "Ah, there my contact is." "You don't wear contacts." Donnie deadpanned. "And if you did..." He pointedly looked at some ooze as it dropped onto the floor. "You'd have a permanent case of pink eye." "Haha, they're red, thank you very much," he pointed to his stripes. Donnie sighed. "Look, I just want to be left alone for a while- and why are you all suddenly very tense?" He glanced behind him and jumped. April was looming in the door glaring down at the brothers. "I would like. To speak to Donnie. In private," she said through gritted teeth. "OoooOOoo-" "LEO." "Going, I'm going, we're going," he hastily started pushing Raph and Mikey away. "See, we're out of your hair!" Donnie slammed the door shut, extra security locks clamping shut one after the other. "There, now we won't be disturbed- whu-what are you doing?" "Getting reeeeeal close to your face, that's what." "Whhyyyyyy?" Usually he didn't mind her being in his space, but this was extreme. Even for April. "To see if you've realised yet..." He blushed and felt the sweat beads dripping down his face. "R-realised what?" She smiled and stepped back. "Nothing." "Phew. I mean uh, oh no?" He gulped. "A-anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?" "Oh I wanted to ask you out." There was a thump, then a hiss as the lab doors opened back up and April's head popped out. "Hey guys..." She called down the hall where she knew the turtles would be waiting, and sure enough they were. "Donnie passed out." Ever so slowly, Mikey passed Leo ten bucks, who then passed it to Raph. "SERIOUSLY?"

I rewatched Snow White a few times over the past several months as research for my fics. Something I notice more and more I watch that movie is that Vil is like if Snow White was a well written protagonist.

Vil shares a lot of the same qualities as her. They both value hard work. They are both stern and able to stand their ground. They're both kind and considerate (most of the time for Snow White), wanting to help out others become better versions of themselves. Where they differ is their intelligence and negative qualities.

Snow White has almost zero major flaws. Everyone minus her stepmother either automatically adores her or are won over by the end. Snow White's negative qualities are her nativity and overly trusting nature, which only get her in trouble at the very end and that might be only for plot reasons. She reminds me of YA heroines from the 2000s/ early 2010s like Bella Swan, whose flaws often consisted of something cutesy like clumsiness and are devoid of any true flaws. In the creators of Snow White's defence, this is probably thanks to this being one of the first animated movies ever, so they probably didn't know how to write compelling characters let alone female ones at the time. However, that's still not an excuse. (This criticism also applies to Cinderella and Aurora as well.)

Vil's, on the other hand, make him more human and compelling. One of his biggest character flaws is his domineering and overly critical attitude. Despite having the best intentions and wanting to help others become their best selves, he is often so blunt that he comes off as an asshole, which gets him into trouble plenty of times. He also takes things way too far and is often times inconsiderate of others' feelings like with how he treats Epel. (I think that could've been hammered home even more in his arc where the team talks smack behind him behind his back and called him out a ton more when he did fucked up shit like paralysing people with his UM. But that's another story.) He's also impulsive, judgmental, in his own head, stubborn and even has a quick fuse at times. These negative traits make some characters in the game and sometimes people in the audience not very fond of him, but that's okay. Not everyone is gonna love us, and sometimes that's thanks to our flaws or things out of our control. The same applies to well written fictional characters.

Snow White is a bit of an idiot. She lets in the Evil Queen and eats the poisoned apple without second guessing anything, ignoring the dwarves warning her not to open the door for anyone she doesn't know. While I know she was barely a teenager in her movie, come on! She should've suspected something was off considering peddlers usually frequent CITIES so people can buy their products, not the forest. That's like if a serial killer, who was pretending to be a door-to-door salesman, came to some farm in the middle of nowhere and claimed they were selling shit. I think most people would think something was off. Why even do that, especially when someone is out to kill her? Being wary of her should've been her first instinct. She also randomly cleans the dwarves cottage, because she figures children live there. Like...what? Whose first instinct when coming to someone else's home is to break in and start cleaning it? I know she wanted to do it to potentially have somewhere to stay, but that still doesn't excuse her breaking into someone's house like that. (Personally, if I wrote that part, I would have them already there and question her presence. Then, she can explain her situation, and then she offers to clean their house, which they allow. That way she's not breaking and entering someone's home.)

Vil is a lot smarter. He's a potion master and well read. (Which makes the ending of Chapter/Book 6 super fucking annoying and out of character for him. But I hate that arc, so I want to pretend like it never happened.) Like anyone, he has his limits and isn't all knowing. Him avoiding a lot of those more obvious pitfalls makes him much more fun to watch and write than her.

I hope Snow White is more like Vil in the upcoming live action movie. Not that I want her to be a carbon copy of him, far from it, but that she is written as more human while still retaining those core qualities from the original. Her good qualities are fine as is and are a part of her charm. While I find a lot of the live action Disney movies to be meh to downright terrible (*cough* Mulan and The Lion King *cough*), sometimes they update stories for modern audiences in a compelling way while containing the heart of the original like in Cinderella or The Jungle Book, which is something Snow White is in desperate need of.

Confusing family tree continued!

Now we're starting with Maria, who is married to Michael Black, Ivory's late husband's brother. This immediately ties them back to Rose and everyone else, but it goes so much deeper.

Maria has Leo Martier as her son. He was initially adopted, but it has since been found out that he's actually hers because of a bunch of fucked up shit that happened to her as a teenager done by his dad and Ren and Dean's uncle, Mathius. Mathius is also Bane's actual dad, but Maria is not his mom. Michael has a son, Kade, who has a gold digger, druggie mom that his wife Alyssa, who is super cutesy and upbeat, made him drop because she was toxic af. Alyssa is the (former) daughter of a governor who abused her and her sister with his wife. Then friends of Kade got rid of them and essentially adopted her sister.

Alyssa works for Maria with Remi (not much plot around her yet) and Dean, as a waitress. Dean got the job by seeing a flyer, told Daisy, and basically got told, "oh, I could have talked to Maria." Because she works with Maria's adopted dad, Steve. Steve and Daisy also work with Alexander, who's son Steve is dating, Aspen. This happened without any of them realizing it and Daisy makes fun of him for it a lot.

Steve has two adopted kids, Maria and May. May is married to Daniel Jackson, and extention of the Black family. They have triplets (that we haven't named yet *cries) and they're both doctors. Daniel is a Pediatric doctor and May is a neurosurgeon. She also owns the hospital they work at. Ren also works there, after randomly appearing for a few years to help and watch her work.

May and Maria have siblings that weren't adopted by Steve, because they were sold twice and the others weren't. Their youngest sister, Lilac, married Reggie Martier, Ren's oldest son from a previous marriage. Did I mention Ren is a widower? Twice?

Ren's other son from that marriage, Dem, is dating Lori, one of Rose's children.

Lilac and Reggie have 3 children, Ginger, Sage and Ren Jr.

Going back to Ruby and Ren's part of the family, they have 7 children together, not including the ones from Ren's previous marriages. Renzo and Perry, their first borns, ended up being Kitsunes. Perry has her mate Ripley and Renzo has two mates like his grandma Essie, Morrison and Crystal. Morrison is Leo's(a different one, not Maria's kid) kid, who used to date Vic when they were younger.

Rai is their second born, Raven their third born. Then Ruby had twins with Dean, due to circumstances out of their control. Make no mistake, they are all very loyal to their partners. Garnet was just very evil until recently.

Then there's Ahishar, or Ash for short, who was Ivory's son, then snuck her disownment papers. Then snuck adoption papers into Ruby's paperwork for months until she slipped up and accidentally signed them. So now he's Ruby's son. And he's married to Melody, one of Damien's children. He is also the first non-blood lineage born kitsune since the creation of the race. He and Melody have 9 children, all kitsunes as well.

And this is still not done, but the rest is kind of more one off characters.

thoughts on threesum w SooGyu ??

*cracks knuckles*

SO.

i think that beomgyu and soobin are both switches (beomgyu true switch and soobin sub lean) so the dynamics of a threesome with them could change depending on the day, but there are a few main ways i think it would go.

FIRST. imagine beomgyu is in one of his lil cutesy moods (you know like when he randomly does aegyo and acts like a baby and clings to people? i think it's basically just him slipping into subspace BUT) he'd need you and soobin to help him out 🥺 i don't think gyu would submit in front of soobin– much less submit to soobin– very easily but if it meant he got to get all the attention, he'd do it. he'd love to just lay there and look cute while you and soobin praise him and jerk him off and call him cute 🥺❤️

NEXT (and this one is my favorite) imagine domming soob with gyu 😩 the situation i always imagine not that i've imagined it haha is soobin hearing you and gyu fucking and getting super turned on 🥺 like he walks past gyu's door and he hears moaning and slapping and filthy words being spit back and forth and he immediately gets hard. we all know soobin is a lil perv so he'd press his ear to the door and start palming himself through his pants while he listens :( but when gyu notices a huge pair of feet standing outside his door, he'd immediately rush to open it. soobin's standing there all sweaty and red and fucked out, and gyu would just ask "did you like what you heard, binnie?" nd eventually you're passing soobin between the two of you and whispering more filthy words to him while you make him cum together 🥺 ANYWAY

FINALLY. mean dom!gyu has entered the chat. and i think that him domming you and soobin would mostly just be him bossing the two of you around 😭 specifically i think he'd love teaching soobin how to dom you. and he would love watching two subs messily make out and hump each other :( he's definitely gonna say things like "look at these two stupid little sluts. soobin, pull their hair. slap them harder." and if he's not satisfied with soobin's performance, he'll take matters into his own hands and pound the shit out of you while poor binnie just watches and humps a pillow 🥺💓

PINING AND WOOING AND FLIRTING

pairing: fwb!gojo satoru x gn!reader

tag(s): a little suggestive (nothing graphic but there is talk of sex + hickeys stuff like that)

we’ve established that: one, gojo is in love with you, two, y’all are friends with benefits, and three, he’s 90% sure you don’t have feelings for him

and the last point is why he asked you to be fwb anyway–– because he never thought he’d fall in love and never wanted to

but now that he is in love, he’s making it very clear

when he sees you, he slings an arm around your shoulder and presses a kiss to your temple to say “hi”–– especially whenever you’re around other people

he’s always looking at you, watching over you to make sure you’re safe. and if you look back (and you always do!) he’ll send you an air kiss aww

and when he looks at you, his gaze lingers

he’s always randomly bringing you gifts or giving you something. souvenirs from his missions or dinner at a fancy restaurant

he’d done this all before when you were just friends, but when you do things with love, the energy changes

gojo is shameless with the flirting too

when you walk by he’ll wolf whistle no matter what you’re wearing (pyjamas, sweats, a shrek halloween costume)

and when you laugh and pretend to fight him because he’s being annoying, he’ll grab your arms and pull you into his chest, the tips of your noses just barely touching

he’s the king of creating sexual tension; he’ll do anything to get you closer because with the way you guys are, close is never close enough

how he acts during sex has also changed

he used to be a little rougher and a lot more playful–– like the sex didn’t mean anything to him but a means for a dopamine rush

but now he’s a more tender lover

he calls you “baby”, sweetheart”, “angel” (and he’s starting to outside of sex, too)

he leaves a lot fewer hickeys but now they’re all in more visible places (and after sex he always kisses them over, rubs his fingers over them as if to apologise for the roughness)

and he used to never kiss you during sex but now he can’t stop–– that’s the only time he can, anyway

what really changes the nature of your relationship is the first night he asks you to stay over

he’s just finished cleaning you up and you’re putting your clothes back on when he asks, “do you wanna stay the night?” and he says it in such a casual manner that you don’t even think twice about it

but when you both settle in after showering he’s like, “it’s kinda chilly in here, dont’cha think?” and of course it’s just to get you to cuddle with him

anyway you snuggle up to him and he just melts (he calls big spoon, by the way)

and the morning after, he makes you both breakfast

but this is the moment you realise that maybe gojo has caught feelings–– feelings you can’t afford to have about a guy whose job is to literally die for humanity

so you break the deal off a week later and gojo is heartbroken

of course he hides it–– and he hides it so well–– beneath his usual jokes, random shenanigans, and god-complex; but inside he’s hurting really bad trying to just act as “friends” around you

so soon afterwards, he’s just fed up with feeling so helpless and upset, especially when he hasn’t even tried to confess to you (which is loser behaviour, in his eyes)

and he shows up at your door at night with a bouquet of the prettiest flowers you’ve ever seen and he just says, “listen, i’m in love with you and i want you to be mine. and i wanna do all that cutesy shit with you and go to sleep every night with you in my arms. i just need to know, do you want the same thing? you don’t even have to love me back–– i just need to know: could you? could you give us a try?”

(and because this is gojo, if you say no, he’ll let it be. he’ll probably never love again, though. there’s no need to when you can’t have the best)

you tell him you wouldn’t mind giving it a shot but you’re scared you’ll just lose him and end up with a broken heart

but gojo just beams and promises there’s no way you’d lose him to cursed spirits

“i’m the strongest,” he reminds you. “i literally can’t die.” and then he adds with a shit-eating grin, “except maybe of a broken heart…”

and that’s when you finally give in and give him a shot

Crossroad ♱ Chaos 1

Talks of death and depression.

Location: Student Council Room

Season: Spring, the previous year

Keito: Sakuma-san! We’ve got a situation—I need you to lend me a hand![1]

Rei: Eh~...?

Ugh, c’mon. So impatient, Nobita-kun… How about I give ya this secret gadget you can use instead—then you can go an’ massacre the whooole lot that’s pissin’ ya off![2]

Dun-duh-duh-dun—An automatic handgun! (With sixteen rounds)~♪

Keito: Stop making dark jokes! I won’t tolerate anyone who makes fun of Doraemon and Anpanman![3]

Is that gun real? The Firearms and Swords Possession Control Law doesn’t make exemptions for anyone, you know![4]

You, and that idiot Kanzaki too—How hard is it to follow the law?! When did Yumenosaki Academy turn into an action manga…?!

Rei: Hey, you’re throwin’ a real temper tantrum. Chillax, if ya keep screamin’ you’re gonna hurt your throat.

You’re an idol, ain’tcha? Takin’ care of your singin’ voice is crucial, yanno.

Keito: Don’t pull the idol card on me like you’ve just remembered it, you half-baked delinquent!

If you’d be more obedient and just listen to me, then I wouldn’t have to shout at you!

Rei: Hahaha. You’re whisperin’ the nenbutsu to a horse’s ear. [5]

Keito: Don’t laugh at me! It’s annoying!

Rei:There there, take a deep breath~… you’re ruinin’ the stoic beauty in that face of yours, Hasumi-chan ♪

Keito:Don't refer to me with some cutesy name! Adding “chan” to my—I swear, every single thing you do annoys me!

But you’re right. There’s no use in shouting… Wait a moment; I need to refocus my mind. Chanting a few sutras should calm my anger.

Rei: …Oi, Bouzu.[6] Don’t ya start tappin’ on that mokugyo without tellin’ me what the hell’s goin’ on. [7]

I’m goin’ back overseas as soon as next week rolls around—meanin’ I won’t be able to lend ya a hand if something happens.

If ya wanted to beg for help from the groovy, fierce, reliable Rei-sama-chan, just keep in mind that this might be your last chance~[8]

So talk to me. If it sounds interestin’, maybe I’ll even twitch the tip of my pinky for ya.

Keito: How about you move your whole body? Why are you so unmotivated?

Rei: ‘Cause the daytime gets me all sluggish. I should be sleepin’ right now—ya oughta be praisin’ me just for bein’ conscious.

Ugh, whatever~ C’mon, chop chop—Let’s head to the scene of the crime, I’ll shake the details outta ya on the way. This incident didn’t happen in the student council room now, did it Bouzu?

Keito: You’re right, but… give me a moment, I must properly lock up.

Rei: Haha. This got somethin’ to do with that ol’ buddy of yours ya dragged here—that Tenshouin-kun?

That guy just randomly decided to haul in a lotta lavish furniture, so here’s a prime target for thieves… That’s why ya gotta lock everythin’ up, huh?

Keito: These aren’t even to Eichi’s taste. It’s all the doing of those around him, who think they’re being helpful by creating what they believe is an environment befitting of the Tenshouin heir.

At the moment, I’m sure he doesn’t want to stand out… In fact, he might even want someone to steal all this extravagant furniture.

Rei: Well, say it was stolen—he wouldn’t want idiots sellin’ it off for cash an’ pissing it all away, right~?

In that case, ya should get someone who looks the part to be our bodyguard—or well, a house-sitter of some sorts.

It seems the student council is short on hands… Say, I know juuust the right kinda hardworkin’, reliable guy for the job—so how about I introduce ya?

Keito: Your network is vast, as per usual. But you ought to quit talking like this has nothing to do with you—you’re the student council president. You need to carry out your work and responsibilities, as is expected of you.

Rei: You’re the one who begged me to use my name, comin’ all up to me with your head bowed.

I don’t really have that go-get-‘em attitude~ I just took this seat ‘cause I like ya.

So try not to disappoint me too much, Bouzu~ So long as ya entertain me, I’ll look after ya—but if it's more trouble than it's worth, I’m out.

‘Cause right now, my greatest enemy is boredom.

Keito: No one has ever, even once, died of boredom.

Rei: It's more painful when you can't die—even if you want to die, even if it'd be better if you did die. …Never mind that, let’s get goin’—ya talk like it’s goin’ outta style.

Speech is silver, silence is golden. Keep chattin’ and you’re gonna get tripped up, Bouzu.

Location: Hallway

Rei:Alrighty, we’re off~♪

Keito: Wait, wait—You don’t even know where we’re going, so don’t take off before me. I’ll take you there, so just come with me.

Rei: It’s off campus, ain’t it? If somethin’ inside the school ruffled your feathers like this, Bouzu, there’s no chance I wouldn’t hear ‘bout it.

Sooo, lemme go change my shoes. If it’s a situation that silver tongue of yours can’t settle, it’s probably some kinda riot. So I’ll pick a pair that’s easy to move in.

Keito: …That spares me the need to explain. And when you say you’ll “pick a pair”, does that mean you’re planning on taking a pair of those shoes scattered throughout the passageway?

Rei:Yeah, that’s why I’m headin’ that way. It’s a waste of oxygen talking ‘bout something we both already know.

← previous | all | next →

jp proofing: ciel eng proofing: ciel

Keito is calling Rei あんた (anta) here, which is a more friendly way of saying you than he uses for everyone else. In second year he used おまえ (omae) to refer to people that aren’t Rei which is a general highschool boy way to do it, and he currently uses 貴様 (kisama) to refer to practically anyone, which is very haughty of him, pretty rude too. What's special about anta is that it is more friendly than omae, used for people of equal or lower status than you. Anta is also used by wives to refer to husbands, kind of like saying “dear”.

Rei is comparing himself to Doraemon and Keito to Nobita. If you needed a summary, here's a link to one I've made.

Anpanman is a popular japanese superhero with an anpan for a head. So, a man made of bread, with red bean paste inside. You can think “bean bun man” if you need a way to remember him.

This is a real world law enacted to prevent gang fights involving swords and guns. Because of this, people owning guns in Japan is almost unheard of, and Keito has a good reason to ask Rei if his gun is real.

Nenbutsu used to be a prayer only said in hopes of being rebirthed into the Pure Land, but nowadays it can also be used in hopes to cancel bad karma or to gain immediate enlightenment. So “Whispering nenbutsu into a horse's ear” (馬の耳に念仏) is like saying someone is “preaching to deaf ears”, but more that you're sharing your wisdom/opinions/hopes with someone who can't appreciate what's being said to them, because a horse can't understand Buddhist prayers.

What Rei's calling Keito here is 坊主 (bouzu), which can be a way to refer to a Buddhist priest, but can also be a way to refer to someone younger than you in a way that's looking down on them. Since it seems that Rei is using it to look down on Keito, probably take it as Rei calling him something like “priestie/boy”. I decided to keep this as is since there's no real english equivalent.

A mokugyo is a round wood block that's struck with a stick while chanting sutras, common in Buddhist practices. It's also sometimes called a fish gong, since they are usually vaguely fish-shaped or completely designed to look like a fish.

What Rei is really calling himself here is 俺様ちゃん (oresamachan), which I'll break down. 俺 (ore) is Rei's personal pronoun in second year, as opposed to his current personal pronoun of 我輩 (wagahai). Ore is a very masculine and self-important personal pronoun, while wagahai is a more outdated, but still fairly masculine and self important personal pronoun. 様 (sama) makes it much more conceited, since sama is something polite when used for someone else of higher status, kind of like saying sir. Using it on yourself is basically saying you're better than everyone else. Finally, ちゃん(chan) is the same honorific Rei used on Keito earlier. It basically makes it cutesy, girly, and is also used amongst close, young friends.

MHA RAVE AU HEADCANONS

Part 1

Ok so I had started artworks for this idea because being a weeb and a raver, it only made sense to me.

So here’s a list of the MHA characters (all 18+) and what I think they’d be like as ravers including the genre, style and uh….. “party favors” they’d indulge in if they do indulge.

Izuku Midoriya

You can’t convince me that Deku isn’t a baby raver. He’s one of those that starts off wide eyed and so excited to start raving.

Definitely a budding Kandi Kid. He loves making kandi and trading with other people and he definitely takes videos or pics of his trades to add to his scrapbook.

Is the kind of baby raver that scrapbooks for his memories of each show/festival he goes to. He saves the admission bands and takes tons of pics.

Is fairly mainstream with his taste is DJs but will go to check out other sub genres if he goes with other groups. Mostly along the lines of Zedd, The Chainsmokers, David Guetta. Very house/pop vibes.

He’s very comfy style. Is big on merch shirts. Has a Fanny pack and a camel pack with essentials like gum, water, hair ties, a mini first aid kit, power banks, a couple fans and Vick’s.

Is the kind of guy that is very sweet so girls flock to him to either treat him like baby or flirt with him cuz he’s good boi. Will lift people on his shoulders, guy or girl.

Light show caretaker. He’s the one who holds your hand, fans you, will probably sit you in his lap whether you’re a guy gal or non binary pal.

His rave name is either Deku or Broccoli.

Izuku isn’t one to take any kind of “party favors”. If anything, he’s the one making sure everybody else is staying hydrated and safe. Usually the designated driver.

OFA gives him great strength which proves very useful when going to 3 day festivals as he ends up as the pack mule. Along with the multitude of other quirks attached ro OFA, he uses them as needed.

Shoto Todoroki

Wasn’t really ecstatic about raving but also didn’t hate the idea. He kinda just tagged along because Izuku wanted to go.

Also very big on house/pop/mainstream stuff. Will listen to trance on occasion but he has to really be in the mood.

Only really takes pics if he remembers or if Izuku tells him to. He likes to enjoy the shows in the moment.

Because he’s from a rich family, he usually gets to have VIP passes and will either sneak his friends in or just flat out walk them in. No fucks given.

Also very comfy. Will take his shirt off only if it gets too hot. Very little kandi but faithfully wears the one Izuku gave him.

Gets hit on a lot. Gives the strong silent type vibes so he lures in the girls but he’s kinda clueless. Will help put people on his shoulders if they ask but he’s not one to offer.

Not a big “party favor” person so he’ll just drink every now and again.

I feel like his rave name will be IcyHot, Peppermint, or something along those lines.

His dual-quirks of ice and fire help tremendously in warming people up or cooling them down.

Katsuki Bakugou

Katsuki took a bit of convincing but when he heard the boom of the bass, he was hooked. He loves the heavy beats and drops and loves to mosh pit.

Is a kandi kid but focuses more on head banging and rail breaking. The ones he trades kandi with are usually the ones he liked head banging with or got good vibes from. Will infamously wear his kandi gauntlets to festivals.

He is HEAVY on the bass. Very into hard style, dubstep, deathstep, drum and bass and moombatah. Sullivan King, Excision, Dion Timmer, etc.

Loves doing that headbanger thing with Kirishima where they lock hands and headbang at each other. Will also break his neck with Kirishima.

Absolutely is the type of guy to be shirtless the entire time. Will vary between bandanas, face masks, kandi masks or gas masks. Camel pack is a necessity and so is gum and vicks.

Does get hit on but his aggressive nature is off putting to most. Takes pics with a lot of people because of his Kandi gauntlets. If he does click with somebody he’s very possessive and the “party favors” make him very flirtatious and grabby but he’s v respectful.

Gives amazing back/shoulder rubs. Will usually put a girl in his lap when she gets a light show so she’s not uncomfy on the floor. For guys, he’s very selective but good vibes unless you give off Chad energy.

If he didn’t click with anybody at the show/festival and is feeling touchy feely, Kiri is his go to. Even if Kiri makes a connection, you’ll often see Katsuki close by and being the “tag team top” to Kiri.

Definitely uses “party favors”. Prefers E and acid. Big on Kandi Flipping. Will try Jedi Flipping but doesn’t wanna overdo it.

His rave name is either Dynamite or Grenade. Was almost gonna be Kacchan when he went with Izuku but he shut that down real fast.

His explosion quirk comes in handy with hyping up the crowd with mini explosion. They also double for giving light shows. Likes watching faces melt.

Kyoka Jirou

I definitely think she’s one of the ones that introduced everyone to raving to open up their music taste.

She listens to a little of everything but prefers house, trance, techno and probably a little psy-trance.

She’s definitely a budding DJ/Producer. Has her own EPs out on SoundCloud and shit. Definitely invites everyone she knows to her shows.

Not so big on kandi but she loves spreading the PLUR vibes. Will give hugs, braid hair, have spare hair ties, etc.

Super into hearing different types of music so will definitely wander around different stages.

Style is very lax but also very rocker. Ripped tank tops, fishnets, leg wraps face masks, boots.

Sometimes partakes in “party favors” but very low doses. Mostly E or molly water

She’s the kind that will give amazing massages when someone is getting a light show. Does get hit on but usually ends up befriending everybody.

Her raver name is tricky. I feel like she’d get something Joane Jet or something very rocker.

Her quirk is tricky for this environment. It can be a hit or miss. Because of the volume she obviously can’t amplify the sound. Because her ear jacks can move on their own, she usually is the one catching people’s stuff, getting a better grip on them etc.

Ochako Uraraka

Very bubbly and upbeat. Definitely pop-ish/mainstream vibes. Will randomly be on a bass kick and it’s frightening.

She was super excited to go to a rave and was very baby raver but she loves it now.

She’s definitely the type to wear the cutesy outfits with tutus and bright colors and patterns and the body glitter everywhere and jewels. Probably leg warmer floofs.

Loves Kandi and trading kandi. Super friendly and bubbly. Makes friends with everybody.

Carries a fanny pack with the basics. Usually relies on Izuku for water and stuffs.

She’s a molly water chick. No debating. She can’t take a whole dosage. She’s gotta take it in Gatorade or water. Has to be watched cuz her bubbly nature makes her wander off so she’ll usually be tethered to somebody.

Usually hyping up the light show artist while they melt your face off. Will fan you off, hold your hand, give you shoulder and scalp massages.

I feel like her nickname would be something like Pinkie Pie or Bubbles. Very fitting for her personality.

Her quirk is definitely a god send for the other vertically challenged ravers. She’ll use her quirk to help float up to get a better view. Izuku is usually nearby keeping Ochaco and whoever she floats in his hands so they don’t float away.

Eijirou Kirishima

Is good boi himbo who wanted to be included. Listened to dubstep and loved it.

Very much into dubstep, hard style, deathstep and moombatah. Drum and bass too because of Katsuki.

Is a headbanger and rail breaker. Loves doing the hand holding, head banging thingy with Bakugou and is always ready to dive into the moshpits. Is totally that guy that’s crazy in mosh pits but then profusely apologizes after.

Trades kandi like it’s water. He’s so cute and always down to make trades.

Is absolutely big good himbo boi who drank his respecc womens juice. He will happily give them a lift on his shoulders and will fight everybody who disrespects any girl at the raves. Douchebag Chads beware.

Relies on Katsuki for stuff like water and gum and shit.

Will partake in some “party favors” and makes sure he doesn’t dose too high so he can keep an eye out for the females in his group. E, Molly and Acid are a yes. Shrooms scare him

His rave name is totally Daddy Shark or Jaws or something shark related.

Unbreakable gives Kiri great strength which, much like Izuku, makes him one of the packmules for festivals. Also keeps him unscathed by moshpits and makes him a terror to Chads that are quick to throw hands.

Tsuyu Asui

Was invited to a show by Jirou at first but always tags along with Izuku and Ochaco and Shoto. The bigger the crowd the better.

I feel like while she’s very cute and bubbly, her outfits are more on the conservative side. Still cute and slightly sexy but she’s heavy on the frog aesthetic. Lots of greens and Froggies. Braid to keep her hair out of the way.

Also very mainstream. House heavy. Pop main.

Comfy shoes are a must. Has a camel back that is always filled with water. Carries a giant fan and always has Kandi. During the day, she likes to carry an umbrella so the sun isn’t such a pain.

Has tried “party favors” and every now and again she’ll partake. Prefers super light drinking around her group tho.

Is hit on but is always very nice to turn people down. She’s more focused on the fun and her friends rather than hooking up or anything.

Her froggy quirk isn’t of too much in the rave environment other than using that long tongue to reign in her wander friends.

Denki Kaminari

Was introduced to raving by Jirou and loves it. He’s definitely her hype machine, promoting her shows, pushing merch and even volunteering to use his quirk for lighting during her sets.

Will definitely join the Bakusquad at the hard style and dubstep stages. Also loves techno and moombatah. Loves the high energy stuff.

Neons and glow in the darks are big in his rave wardrobe. Can and will rock fishnets with pride. Tank tops are more common but will go shirtless if it gets too hot or he gets too touchy feely. Kind of a cyberpunk feel sometimes.

Is a die hard kandi kid. Usually has them in the theme of video games or anime. Basically his arms are covered in kandi but the ones from his friends stay safe in a Fanny pack.

As an avid raver, he knows what you need and has it when you need it. Chapstick? Check. Gum? Tons. Lighters? Honey it’s a sin that you’re even asking.

Absolutely partakes in “party favors” and gets very handsy and flirtatious. Is respectful but can be a handful. Usually ends up being babysat by Jirou. E, Molly, acid and shrooms.

Is a huge flirt. I personally feel like he’s Pan so the whole crowd is fair game for his flirting. Hella good kisser with guys girls and non binaries. Uses his quirk for minimal stimulation.

His quirk is definitely a raver’s delight. He’s usually the one helping power people’s phones, helping keep machines running in the off chance the power surge is too much. Uses it for stimulation during make out sessions or light shows. Will also give light shows. Can’t do it for too long though because the light shows require a lot of focus on maintaining the output to smaller levels.

His rave name is Pikachu and I’m not taking any arguments/complaints/criticisms.

Tenya Iida

Was invited a rave and didn’t mind it but too chaotic for his taste.

He’s usually the guy working the rave at the water stands, merch stands or medical tent.

Rave dad vibes. Yells to not run, drink water and highly discourages use of “party favors”.

Has been hit on a couple times but is a dork and it usually goes over his head.

T-shirts and cargo shorts are his staple outfit. Always with a camel pack

His engine quirk helps him get from one end of the festival grounds to the other in no time flat so he has a specific path for him to run through cuz those speeds will knock a bitch out.

Even though he doesn’t really rave he was given a rave name and it’s Sonic.

Mina Ashido

The epitome of a fucking rave queen. She’s one of the other reasons that everybody else got into raving.

Is everywhere. She listens to a bit of everything. Loves the energy of dubstep, loves shuffling to techno, can and will throws elbows in a mosh pit at a hard style stage and will sing with you at the mainstream stages.

She’s definitely a brand ambassador and wears all the cutest outfits with the coolest patterns and most awesome styles. Tastefully sexy outfits that show off just enough.

Absolutely a kandi kid. Very alien friendly themed kandi. Full arms of traded kandi and kandi that is yet to be traded.

She’s a super bright personality that draws people in. She gets equal attention from guys and girls and non binaries and will gladly make out with anybody that gives her a good vibe.

Definitely partakes in “party favors”. Loves Kandi Flipping and Jedi flipping. Is the kind to chew her cheek raw so she needs either a pacifier or lots of gum.

For obvious reasons, her quirk is a no no. Shooting acid everywhere? Yea let’s not.

Her rave name is Alien Queen or ET Babe

Hanta Sero

Absolutely loves raving and I’m gonna stick with the Latino HC. He is a moombatah and trap king. Also loves artists like Deorro that have a lot of Latin fusion in their stuff. When “Bailar” came out, he played it for hours on end.

Very lax clothes. Very much stoner style. But on rare occasions he goes with the Chad aesthetic. Has that undercut but with longer hair up top style and will often swing it it up in a man bun.

He’s a promoter for sure. Usually has access to backstage because he gets in good with DJs.

Does use “party favors” but is mainly 4/20 friendly. Loves shotgunning. Is usually the guy that carries extra “party favors”. Will def go on an acid or shroom trip with first timers.

Very sexually fluid so good vibes are pretty much all that are required. Hella god dancer and uses that to his advantage.

Has all the essentials. Especially lighters. Is the one that remembers the eye drops.

His rave name is definitely Papi or Rey (Spanish for King).

His quirk is another one that doesn’t have much use other than to wrangle in his wandering friends.

Momo Yaoyorozu

Wasn’t keen on going at first but when she saw that even Shoto was going, she thought she’d give it a try. Is another rich kid so does have the VIP access for the sake of having a good/comfy place to sit and rest.

Mainstream for sure. Very pop heavy vibes. Some house and trance

Very much the rave mom. Keeping everybody hydrated and safe.

Given that her quirk relies heavily on her energy and all that, she doesn’t partake in party favors

Tries to keep it cute but usually ends up looking more on the sexy side.

She’s been convinced to be a brand ambassador for the sake of modeling the clothes. But she always asks for the more covered up options.

Is too busy taking care of everybody to worry about meeting people.

Her quirk is perfect for raving. Being able to create anything certainly has come in handy. Makes her a god send to those who forgot something like lighter, chapstick, hair tie etc.

Her rave name would probably be Mama Momo.

Hitoshi Shinsou

Now this guy is heavy into psy-trance. Think more along the lines of artists like Infected Mushroom.

He’s the connect that everybody goes to. Meaning yes, he partakes in party favors. Particularly the psychedelics like shrooms and acid.

Very cyber punk/street wear vibes. Comfy but still fits that aesthetic. Absolutely uses either his voice mask or a gas mask.

He gives the mysterious vibe so he has a lot of people drawn to him. I feel like he gives major Pansexual vibes. He’ll mainly go make out with Denki if he’s solo.

Just a basic Fanny pack with a few things in it like gum, chapstick, lighter.

Definitely a glover. Loves giving light shows because it almost feels like he’s using his quirk.

Can use his quirk in this type of environment but the loudness makes it tricky. Will mainly use it for the purpose of making sure people take care of themselves.

Fumikage Tokoyami

I feel like Tokoyami would definitely be into more dubstep and psytrance.

He was very open minded about raving and definitely wanted to try it at least once.

Occasionally partakes in party favors but likes to be lucid.

Is also a glover like Shinsou. But with Dark Shadow, he can go all out with the tricks and visuals.

Very casual and comfortable. Baggy t shirts and sweats. Will sometimes dress with a cyber punk aesthetic if he feels like adding a little extra oomf.

Trades some kandi but not always.

Dark shadow is a conversation starter and the darkness proves to be particularly tricked but because there are constant sources of light (glow sticks, laser light shows, etc) it’s easily tamable.

Won’t put anybody on his shoulders but Dark Shadow will definitely help hoist somebody up for a better view.

Rave name would probably be things along the lines of ominous authors. So probably Edgar Allan Crow, F.T. Lovecraft, or just Lovecraft.

Keigo “Hawks” Takami

Oh this man? This man eats, sleeps, raves, repeats. He breathes PLUR.

He does partake in party favors but is responsible. He’s the one making sure you keep dosage to a minimal. E and Molly water. Acid sometimes. Shrooms make him feel funny

Can definitely afford the VIP tickets but would rather be in the crowd. Especially because he loves big groups. He’s definitely the kind of guy that gives Chad vibes when you first see him but he’s the complete opposite. Will definitely be the kind of guy to start shit with a Chad that won’t leave girls alone.

Totally shirt off the entire time. Will purposely do some subtle flexing just cuz he can.

Is totally hit on by guys gals and non binary alike. He is a looker so that’s to be expected. Usually cargo shorts are a go-to and he rocks bandanas.

Is a kandi kid for sure and loves to trade. He’s even made a few with his feathers attached but those are especially for people he REALLY vibes with.

He’s got a good mix of music taste. Will totally throw down with the hard stylers but definitely get lost and philosophical with the trancies.

Is a HELLA good kisser and uses his wings when he wants a little privacy.

Speaking of wings, those definitely come in handy at raves. I mean for one thing, they work like an umbrella when it’s hot out. Secondly they’re basically built in fans. Thirdly, they work for privacy. And he’ll totally fly you up and get you a better view of the show.

His charisma is definitely at 100 and I can totally see him getting you backstage to meet your fave artists.

The rave name is tricky but maybe Hawks will be the basic one. His friends use KFC or Red. No wait. Fuck it. Maverick or Top Gun. Something like that.

Alrighty my thirsty gremlins. I’m gonna stop this here. I’m getting a tad lazy so if there are other characters you wanna see from MHA as ravers, blow up my asks and I’ll make a part 2.

Keeping a Secret - Part 2

pairing: Tsukishima x f!manager of Sendai Frogs genre: sexual tension/crack/fluff/slow burn warnings: lots of swear words, tsukki being a a closet softie wc: 6k (lol no chill as always)

[a/n]

Sorry for the delayed update. I added almost 1k words just to solidify the characters to give depth even more to the story. Feel free to reread. (It's totally not because I started a different series altogether.)

When I say this is slow burn, I meant sloooooooowww burn. 

Let me know if you want to be part of the taglist. :)

AO3 

Part 1 || Part 3 || masterlist

What were you even thinking? Actually,  why weren’t you? Had you used at least two brain cells of yours, you wouldn’t have momentarily lost your mind and kissed Tsukishima. You could’ve justified your actions if you were drunk, but you ingested not even an ounce of alcohol that night.

History will remember yesterday as the day a a sober you and a very displeased Tsukishima who found yourselves smooching publicly in the middle of a club. You’re just glad that no other member of the team goes to the same university you both go to. Else, you'd run the risk of getting seen.

Were so touch-deprived that you couldn’t resist even Tsukishima? And what about him? Why did he get along with it? You don’t think he actually hates you. Hate is such a strong word. He just exceedingly dislikes you. So why would he make out with you? Maybe he thought of it as a way of finally standing up to you?

Ugh.

You’re thankful that you didn’t have training yesterday. You were a mess the whole day trying to make sense of what happened. Not that you’re any better today; you’re still baffled as fuck. But you’re glad you had that day off so you wouldn’t have to face him immediately. 

For the first time ever, you’re dreading going to the gym. Even if you’re tired or you lack sleep, you’ve never felt distressed as the manager of the Sendai Frogs. All this because of Tsukishima. But can you really put the blame on him when it was you who initiated it?

“Good morning, y/n,” Eiji, the captain of the team greets you.

“Morning, Eiji,” you say back. Even though he’s older than you, you dropped the salutations already, same with everybody else. 

“You okay?” he asks worriedly. 

“Oh! Yeah, absolutely! When am I ever not okay?” You toughen it up and erase the troublesome kiss in your head. You are their ever shining manager, first and foremost. Anything outside of that has no place in this gym. 

“Never. It’s almost scary actually,” he answers with jest.

“Right? ‘Cause I’m a freaking goddess.”

He gives you a noble bow. “Indeed, you are, my lady.”

You giggle softly. Your players really are the best on and off the court (except for Tsukishima). “Go do your drills instead of buttering me up, ‘captain.’” He gives you a mock salute then jogs off towards the net. 

“Y/n!”

You saunter off to your coach after you were called. “Yes, Coach?”

“Can you help tape the blockers?” You nod willingly, quickly discarding unnecessary thoughts of Tsukishima. 

“Tsukishima’s free. Go start with him.”

You almost flinch upon hearing his name.

‘Great,’ you groan internally as you get the wrap from your kit and drag your feet toward the source of your uneasiness. But what did you expect? Of course, you’d have to deal with him sooner or later.

“Morning, Tsukishima,” you greet him with forced normalcy, acting like nothing’s wrong. As you take his left hand and you’re instantly reminded of what happened the other night -- how this hand gripped your waist while his mouth moved against yours… how his skin felt against the palm of your hand as he towered over you, body against body in a dance so dangerous and so hypnotizing that you lost yourself in the moment.

You tried your best to calm down yesterday, but seeing him right now makes you want to smack yourself from your momentary insanity that led you to kiss him.

Instead, you give him the nicest, brightest smile to channel your frustrations as you start taping his fingers. You just hope and pray that he doesn’t bring it up.

“Morning,  manager .” It was an indirect jab at you. Even when he says it with a dead tone, you know he’s taunting you by addressing you as manager - a tortuous reminder that what happened last Saturday night wasn’t forgotten.

Instead of yielding to the provocation, you respond with your own. You might have messed up, but you’re not letting him get the upper hand. “How was your weekend, Tsukki?” 

“Horrible,” he quickly answers without even thinking.

“Ditto. What happened to yours?” you ask with fake curiosity, already knowing why. Even if you didn’t kiss him then, he was already acting up like an angsty teen forced by his mom to attend a children’s party within the neighborhood.

“Went to a disgusting party.”

You nod pretentiously. “Mine’s horrible too. I got g-”

“I didn’t ask,” he interrupts.

“Well, you’re still going to hear it,” you respond just as distastefully as he cut you off. “I got groped by some perv, but I kinda punched some good manners unto him.” You release his left hand and take his right one to tape it as well. 

“And?” He asks.

You shrug your shoulders. “That’s it. After that, I just went home from how  horrible  the experience was.”

You look up to him, meeting his sardonic gaze paired with a raised eyebrow from what you just said. You know that he understood that you were referring to something else other than the perv incident as horrible.

“How about you? What happened to that disgusting party of yours?” you press on.

“I bumped into someone I didn’t really want to see.”

“And?”

“Do you really wanna know how horrible it was for me?” A smirk creeps up on the corner of his mouth as he asks. There were many times before that you’ve wanted a taste of Tsukishima’s vile sarcasm, just to know what he’d say to you. Today is not one of those times. You don’t want him using that reckless kiss against you. 

“Actually, no. I don’t really care.” You let go of his hand you just finished working with and look around to look for anyone you could use as a distraction from Tsukishima’s attempt to retell the kiss from his perspective.

“Kogane!” you brightly call the setter as you bounce cheerfully towards him. 

Even if you don’t show it, Tsukishima knows he’s gotten under your previously impenetrable thick skin. He detests what happened last Saturday. The more he remembers it, the more he abhors it. The only reason he’s not totally hating himself for getting swept along with your shit is because he knows you hated it too, probably more than he does since it was you who kissed him first.

His smug grin only spreads when you march to Kogane with that cutesy act you only show to players from opposing teams to unsettle them before matches. You take both Kogane’s hands and beam at him. “Do you want me to tape your fingers?”

“Y-you don’t have to, y/n. I can do it myself!” Kogane blurts out, panicking at your sudden closeness and physical touch.

“But I love taking care of you guys,” you pout at Kogane, which only makes the setter blush a shade almost close to red.

Tsukishima follows you to help his babbling, flustered teammate.

“You’re going to kill him, y/n,” he says as he passes by you and Kogane who now looks like he stopped functioning.

You blink at Kogane, realizing what you’re doing to the poor guy.

You must have been really bothered by Tsukishima and unknowingly projected it to someone else.

Tsukishima sneers as he sees you try to ease Kogane from his severe fluster but only make it worse by rubbing his shoulders. 

A dash of pride and satisfaction swells on Tsukishima’s chest as he watches you get agitated with the situation you, yourself caused. Getting back at you feels even better than he imagined it would be. 

--

Even though you and Tsukishima are in the same class, you don’t really notice his presence. Sometimes you’d even forget you’re classmates. Now, though, you are more aware of the fact that he’s actually there than you ever have.

“Alright, class. For your main project this semester, I’m going to have you partnered up. You need to come up with a comprehensive report on mating behavior of reptiles. I’ll randomly generate your assigned reptile.”

You groan. Another collaborative work in the same subject. You don’t like working with others because you don’t want to adapt to anyone’s schedule. You like to get things done ahead of time. You hate procrastinating because you don’t want your uni requirements getting mixed up with potential tasks from your managerial job, especially whenever tournament seasons come. 

The last collaborative work you worked on is a group project where you did most of the work yourself. You wouldn’t have minded if you didn’t have fucking freeloaders as groupmates.  The little shits made you do 90% of the project because you wanted it done early.

You just pray that this time, you get to be paired with someone responsible. You tap your pen on your desk while you wait for your name to be called.

“L/n and Tsukishima.”

You drop your pen at your professor’s announcement. It bounces twice on your desk before rolling to the floor, but you don’t move to pick it up. Your gaze immediately flies to where Tsukishima is seated and find him glaring at you already. You almost want to laugh at how ridiculous this entire situation is.

Seriously? Were you a serial killer in your previous life or something? Did some higher power decide to punish you for your grave sins like this? 

Whatever. You’re not having any of this shit. 

You wait until the class is over and approach your professor. “Sir. I’d like to do this project alone.” Or at least with someone else. 

He continues to type something on his laptop, not bothering to look up at you, as he asks, “Why is that?”

“I just feel more comfortable doing things on my own, Sir. Please.” You try to give him your nice student smile but his eyes don't leave his screen.

“Then what? Have you increase my workload?”

Shit. You forgot that this particular professor of yours is known to not budge to anyone. You scramble your brain for another excuse.

“Sir. Can I do this project alone?” you suddenly hear Tsukihima’s voice behind you.

Finally, your professor closes his laptop and eyes you two unenthusiastically. “My answer is no to miss Y/n, so my answer to you, Mr. Tsukishima, is also no. I don’t know what the deal is between you two, but you’re doing this together.”

You can’t help but scowl despite being right in front of your professor. If it wasn’t for that darn kiss, you would’ve loved working with Tsukishima. Even though you don’t have the same classes, his schedule won’t be that hard to match up with because you two have the same training days. Secondly, he’s smart. You won’t have to carry the whole weight of the project. 

“You know what, I’ll reconsider.” A glimmer of hope lights up in your chest as you hear your professor’s words. “I’ll allow you two to work individually — but with an automatic ten point deduction for this project.”

“No,” you and Tsukishima respond at the same time. 

“Great! You’re already getting along swimmingly.” Your professor picks up his stuff and stands up. “Enjoy,” he waves a dismissive goodbye and leaves.

You slowly turn around to face Tsukishima and find that you share the same lour that he has. You cross your arms and lean on your professor’s desk. “Guess we’re together, Tsukishima.” 

--

You allowed yourself one week to compose yourself before you agreed to start the project with Tsukishima. You still saw him at training days, and even then, you tried to have the least amount of interaction with him so the ‘incident’ wouldn’t be brought up again. Meeting him for a project where it’s just you two is different and you needed time.

As much as you don’t want to be with him, you told yourself that it’ll be over soon. You just pushed the kiss in the back of your head and convinced yourself that it was just a stupid kiss. It didn’t mean anything. He probably just went along with it out of spite, so it’s best you think of it as a spur of the moment madness. That way, you won’t be bothered if he sordidly brings it up again. At least now, you can go back to your usual, cheeky self around him.

You’re about to text Tsukishima that you’ve arrived at the station you agreed to meet up at but you already see him there standing while he’s scrolling his phone with his usual white headphones on.

Unfortunately for you and him, the reptile assigned to you two are crocodiles. It’s the worst possible assignment you could get among the roster of reptiles assigned. You need to travel all the way to Wakabayashi for a legitimate crocodile farm to observe, compared to other reptiles which are easily accessible with nearby zoos in Miyagi. You just pray that you’ll only need this one trip to get all the data you need for your report.

You walk towards him and instantly regard how he looks. Despite being in the same university, you don’t see him around much. Even in your sole class together, you’re seated way too apart from each other to even look at each other’s direction. Not that being seated beside each other would’ve made a difference. You’re not friends. There’s no need to talk to him since everything that’s volleyball-related is relayed through line. To you, he’s just one of your players. As far as you’re concerned, the only Tsukishima you’re aware of is the one sweating his white shirt and training shorts during practice. 

To have this much involvement with him outside the gym is throwing you out of your usual loop. You continue studying him at a distance. Today he’s wearing white plaid pants, black turtleneck (probably long sleeves) with a lighter shade of black coat on top, and a brown wool scarf. He also has a gray bonnet that makes his blonde locks frame his face nicely. 

What the heck? Did he always dress like this even in class? How come you never noticed? 

He finally notices you. He puts down his phone and removes his headphones. “How long have you been there?”

“Wow, Tsukishima. You look kinda hot,” you blurt out without thinking.

His eyes expand at your statement that came out of nowhere. “Huh?!”

“Oh, sorry. That must’ve been random. But you look really good though. I kinda feel like I’m meeting a date,” you say with objective candor as you continue to stare at him. 

That catches him completely off guard. The other day you’re on the edge around him. You weren’t even paying much attention to him during training, but now you’re back to being a headache whose mouth knows no bounds as you faze him with your unfiltered thoughts. Now, it’s him who is uncomfortable again with your thorough eyes scanning him approvingly. 

“As if I’d ever date you,” he snaps back at your remark to which you scoff at.

“I didn’t say you would. Maybe you’re forgetting, I’d never go out with a member of the team.”

“Right. But kissing one is totally fine, huh?” he retaliates in an instant with a condescending look. He waits for your reaction, eager to see you distraught and bothered by it. To his dissatisfaction, you don’t behave in such a way. Instead, you sigh defeatedly.

“Yeah. Sorry about that. I got a little crazy that night,” you say casually to a degree that you sounded like it was just a petty accident. “You kissed me back, so I’m sure you were too. Right?” 

The last word is conniving, and he can tell why you phrased it that way. You’re leaving him no choice but to disregard what happened or else it’s going to seem like it meant something to him. The hell it does. It simply resurfaces back on his mind sometimes because of how unpleasant the memory is. 

‘Devious woman,’ he snarls in his head.

It should be okay. Your reason for what you did can also be his excuse for how responded to it. What he didn’t like is that he hasn’t even managed to make the most out of that incident, while you immediately found a way to undo the grave you dug for him to bury you into.

Plus, the only advantage he sees out of partnering with you for this project is the possibility of being able to pester you the way you pester him during practice. Obviously, that’s already thrown off the window. Now, there’s nothing in it for him for the duration of the project. He is left with nothing but the fact that he has to endure your company. To think that he’s already so miserable when this afternoon has barely even started.

“Yeah,” he answers with contained resentment. “Can we go on the bus now?” He asks to deviate away from the topic already. He was hoping he could still use the incident to unnerve you, but it’s for naught now. 

He enters the bus first and assumes you’ll follow him, which you do as you take your seat beside him. You get your shoulder bag and take out a notebook.

“Can you take a look at this outline I made for our report?” you ask while you hand him your notebook opened at a certain page.

“I can’t read while the bus is moving,” he says then waits for a lame comeback from you. But you don’t comment about it. Why must you keep on being such a wildcard?

“Ah, okay. I’ll just tell it to you then,” you smile at him. “This trip is going to take long. It’d be a waste of time to not make use of it, right?”

He groans internally. Why must you be right all the fucking time?

He also made an outline last night, but he didn’t tell you because he thought it’d be better if he just did the data-gathering himself and let you take the pictures the report should have. He forgot that you’re not as irresponsible and carefree as you present yourself to be.

He listens to you explain your outline, looking for flaws in it for the sake of his grade and also for his self-satisfaction. And he does find a few.

“You should have separate discussion points for mating characteristics for male and females. I’m sure they have distinct traits. Also, I think we should include more than just one species, preferably three if the farm has it.” He continues, “Maybe we can note certain unique behaviors per species. It would be inconclusive, but it would still be nice to include it as a commentary.”

He hopes to extract even just a tiny hint of embarrassment from you for he’s thought of it better than you did. But you just stare at him for a good few seconds before you break into a dazzled smile.

“Oh my God. Yeah, you’re absolutely right!”

You open your notebook and scribble the changes in your drafted outline. “Is there anything else?” You consult him genuinely. You accept his criticisms with an open mind, which vexes him even more. 

“Nothing,” he grumbles.

“Alright. Let’s just revise it again once we see what’s on the farm.”

He doesn’t bother replying anymore since you’re once again right.

He puts on his headphones again to drown out whatever chatter you plan to have with him since you’re done discussing the project for now. Instead of bugging him, you take out a bunch of readings and focus on them intently, completely ignoring him. 

With nothing to entertain him aside from the music on his ears, his peripheral keeps going back to you and how hard you’re concentrating with the papers in your one hand and a pen in the other. 

He removes one muff of his headphone from his ear and asks you, “Don’t you get motion sickness?”

You really must be into what you’re studying because you flinch when he speaks, causing you to drop your pen. 

He feels responsible for it so he leans down to pick it up, but you also do the same. As you both reach down to grab your pen, your temple collides with his. 

“Ow,” your fingers go to massage the spot, failing to notice as he does that your faces are too close for comfort. He watches you wince for a quick while before looking at him, finally realizing that he’s within a proximity familiar to you both. 

It’s reminiscent of that night except this time, the natural light affirms that it wasn’t just the ambiance of the club that made you attractive enough to pull him in and share that heinous kiss. With your well-lit features, he can see that you’re thinking about the same thing he is.

Your eyes fall on his lips and for some illogical reason, he does the same.

Like last time, you’re the first to act on it. The major difference is, instead of leaning in, you retreat. You sit up straight with your fingers still on the side of your head and smile graciously at him. “It’s fine, Tsukishima. I’ll get it,” you say, which he finds half-witted because he’s still bent down and he can already grasp the pen.

He sits back up and hands you your pen. You use the hand on your temple to get it.

“Oh, thanks.” You stare at the pen for a second, then tuck it in your pocket. “Anyways, yeah. I don’t have problems reading in a moving vehicle.”

You dive back to his question and disregard what just happened. It works for him. He’d rather not think about it as well. 

“Have you not seen me scrambling paperwork on our bus rides to and from tournaments?”

“No.” He prefers not to pay attention to you. Hell, he pretends you don’t exist when he can. So naturally, he doesn’t know what it is you do when you’re not being your pestering self. It pains him to admit it, but you do get shit done -- efficiently, too. He should be glad because at least, you won’t be like his previous groupmates.

Still, just you being … you, ticks him off.

You laugh out of nowhere. “For someone who doesn’t speak much, you’re so fucking transparent.”

He frowns, not being able to grasp what you meant.

“Okay, look. I like pissing you off. I really do. And you, you don’t like me a lot. But for this project. Can we pretend that I’m not your annoying manager and you’re not the nasty Tsukishima I know?” 

“How the fuck can I do that when we see each other almost everyday as such?”

You roll your eyes and smirk. “Right. What was I even thinking? Go ahead and be emo with your music over there while I study here, yeah?” You pat him on the shoulders twice with that patronizing grin you always give him before pulling your pen back from your pocket and focusing once more on your readings, completely paying no attention to him for the rest of the trip.

—

As soon as you reach the crocodile farm, Tsukishima suggests that you two roam the area separately to cover more ground. In reality, he just wanted to get rid of you even for just a few minutes. He needed a break from you.

He does so by taking his time strolling around the place, observing how the area is situated. It looks like a park with its vast lush green environment and man-made waters to habituate the crocodiles. There are four main areas: the museum, the hatchling house, the zoo, and the breeding pens. He first goes to the museum, looking at the skeletal structure of some crocodiles. It isn’t really significant to the project but he can’t help admire it.

When he realizes that he’s taking longer than he initially thought, he starts looking for you. He sends you a text, but you don’t reply. You had gone to the zoo’s direction so he assumes you’re somewhere around that area. 

When he does find you, you’re not alone.

There you are near a crocodile pen, getting friendly with a guy he’s sure you just met.

It’s so familiar. The only difference is that you’re not wearing the Frogs’ jacket and you’re not in the Sendai gymnasium. He walks towards your direction, not caring if he’s going to cut off your little chat. You’re there for the project, not to snag some random bozo.

As he closes in behind you, he hears your conversation.

“Actually, birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than crocodiles. You couldn’t tell, right?” you explain with zeal. 

Tsukishima stops in his tracks at the foreign feeling in his chest. Wait a minute. Is he actually impressed? Moreover, what the heck is he impressed for? You should know that. You are both in a higher herpetology class. Even though it hasn’t been discussed during lectures, it’s natural that you know that. However, the guy you’re talking with isn't as enthusiastic. 

“Can’t blame you though. Crocs and dinos share the same sexy vibe with those chill eyes and scaly skin. Also, look at those smokin webbed feet. Fucking work of art, dude. You feel me?” you press on fanatically.

The stranger looks at you with a forced smile, obviously weirded out by your ‘passionate’ description of the reptile. “Yeah, sure. I have to go now. Bye,” the guy bows and storms away from you. 

You turn your attention back to the lowered pen in front of you with a satisfied smile and shudder when you see Tsukishima already there beside you. 

“Gah! You scared me. Why didn’t you say anything?” you ask with your hand still on your chest.

“I didn’t want to interrupt you creeping out that stranger.”

You tither at his answer. “Glad you didn’t. It was fun seeing him all freaked out.” 

He finds it weird. He thought you just had an aversion towards athletes. That’s why you keep driving away anyone who’d approach you during matches. Apparently, that’s not the case.

“He looked like he’d follow you back to Miyagi if you didn’t go all freaky nerdy on him.” 

You jeer at his comment. “He could follow me to the ends of the Earth and I still wouldn’t give him my number. I’d rather date Mr. Crocodylus siamensis over here than boring dum dums blinded by how hot I am.” 

“Then why do you entertain them?” he follows up.

“Caaaauuusse it’s fun to see them squirm,” you declare cheerfully as you veer your gaze at him. “Why the sudden interest with the way I handle men, Tsukishima?”

You raise an eyebrow, the corner of your lips tugging up to form a playful smirk. “Don’t tell me you suddenly find me interesting?”

You really do know how to push the right buttons to provoke him. He grits his teeth from your audacity.

“I’m joking for fuck’s sake! My god. I already know that even if it’s just the two of us on this planet, and we’d have to procreate to restart the world population, you’d rather choose to doom humanity than have anything to do with me.”

Among all the correct things that came out of your mouth, that was the only thing he could verbally agree with. “Good you know,” he retorts. 

You don’t seem to take offense though. You still keep your unwavering smile as you get your phone out and take a picture of the Borneo crocodile. 

“Should we go see the breeding pens now?” you ask nonchalantly, dismissing the previous conversation like it was nothing. 

--

You both decide to hire a designated tour guide to assist you while you observe the crocodiles, particularly the ones for breeding. 

“Hi, Ms. l/n. I’m Sara and I will be your guide for today,” she introduced herself with a dedicated smile.

“I’m so thrilled that you and your boyfriend decided to learn more about crocodiles for your date,” she adds. 

You and Tsukishima glance at each other before turning back to her. 

“She’s not my girlfriend.” “He’s not my boyfriend.”

You both say simultaneously, except yours sounded like a friendly correction while his sounded like a dead announcement. 

“We’re just classmates for a project,” you correct her.

She bows apologetically with embarrassment and worry. “I’m so sorry for assuming that.”

“No worries, Sara,” you reassure her before Tsukishima says something unnecessary. “Can you lead us on the breeding pens? We’d like to observe the whole thing.” 

“Of course. Right this way.”

Aside from the mishap earlier, you find Sara competent at her job as she fills you in with details not included in the sign boards in the pens. She gives you information about the mating process that you didn’t find when you researched about the subject. You assume Tsukishima’s thinking the same because he doesn’t say anything out of the blue.

“By any chance, will we see a pair mating today?” he asks after a while.

“I’m not really sure, Mr. Tsukishima. It’s really up to the animals.”

You tug on Tsukishima’s sleeve when you catch sight of one crocodile latching himself on top of another.

“What?” he asks irritatedly, but follows your line of sight. 

“Oh, lucky. There you go.” Sara announces with a pleasant smile.

You get your phone and your notes. You multitask listening to Sara, taking photos, and scribbling notes on your paper pad. 

On the other hand, Tsukishima multitasks observing the crocodiles in action and observing you. 

You’re asking important questions to the guide while juggling other tasks. Yes, he doesn’t like you and loathes being partnered with you. However, that doesn't mean he won’t cooperate with you. He won’t mind if you ask him for help, but you seem to have even forgotten that he’s there. 

He grabs your phone from your hand, garnering a confused look from you.

“I’ll take the photos. You take down notes.”

You flash him an honest, grateful smile. “Thanks, Tsukishima.”

Then, you proceed with the things you’re doing more at ease. 

He can’t tell who he’s more pissed at, you or himself. Something about that display of productivity and wit unnerves him. It’s as if it’s telling him that his chagrin over you is unreasonable because you’re actually reliable when it counts. What’s worse is you’re completely oblivious to it. In fact, you’re almost ignoring him.

Goddamn it. What’s he doing? He’s completely distracted now from the project and is solely focused on you. He quickly shakes it off and calms himself down. His attention should be on the reptiles, not you.

He turns his attention back to the crocodiles, but the mating act only lasted a few minutes. After that, you both barrage Sara with an array of questions that she looked too overwhelmed by the end of your tour. 

You’ve covered almost everything for the day and it’s already around 6 in the evening when you get on a bus on the way back to Miyagi.

“That was fun!” you comment ardently with an abnormal shine on your face when you sit down on the bus on the way back. He wears his headphones on before you start a conversation he’s not willing to have. From his peripheral, he sees you turning to him and as he predicted, your mouth begins moving while you animatedly narrate words he could not hear. 

He’s already acting as if he can’t hear nor see you, but you still don’t stop. Knowing you, you will not stop until you make sure he notices you. He wearily removes his headphones only to see you not saying anything and only mouthing words with hand gestures. 

“Seriously?” He scowls at you. He’s already exhausted at having to deal with you even for just half a day, but you still have the energy to mess with him. 

You cover your mouth with your hand as you snicker but it erupts into a hoot of laughter shortly. You gasp ridiculously after you ride out your stupid amusement from poking at his patience. “Tsukki, I swear to God. You make the best faces,” you say while wiping away your joyous tears.

“Were you even going to say something worth listening to?” he questions sourly.

You study him then shake your head. “I think you’re tired, so let’s just discuss what we gathered next time. You can go ignore me now,” you tell him with an understanding smile despite the slight banter.

You tilt your body in his direction and hoist yourself up a bit to put his headphones back yourself like it’s no big deal.

You settle back into your seat while he stills on his seat, stunned with what you just did while you get your readings again and shrink to your own bubble. You don’t seem to make anything of it, so he doesn’t as well. It was very you to mindlessly get on anyone’s —  particularly his — personal space anyways.

He increases the volume of his headphones and tries to relax. Yet, his attention keeps swerving back at you every now and then. You’re really concentrating hard with your brows burrowed while you stare at your hand-outs. After a while, he notices you bobbing your head from the corners of his eyes.

He can tell you’re as tired as he is and trying hard to fight the sleep that’s taking over you. The bunch of papers you previously held are now clutched on your lap.

On the last bob of your head, you snap out of it. You blink repeatedly and return your eyes to your readings again. To no avail, you’re shutting down with your eyes fluttering when you try again. You look like you decided to give it a rest and put your papers back in your bag. You cross your arms and lean back to your seat. 

He feels relieved that you finally yield to your physical exhaustion. He doesn’t need an additional bullet point to his list of why he can’t fully hate you. Also, you won’t run your mouth at him if you’re asleep.

He feels the soft thump of your head on his shoulder. You probably did too as you suddenly bolt up and tell him ‘sorry' which he only understands based on how you mouthed the word. You lean back again and try to settle back to sleep. But when you start dozing off, you sway to the other side of your seat which is the aisle of the bus.

He grabs your shoulder to prevent you from tumbling down to the aisle. Your disoriented self looks around, alarmed at his sudden touch.

“Just fucking lean on me,” he spits out, irked that he has to say it out loud. It’s not like he pushed you away. You could’ve just stayed as you were and he would’ve turned a blind eye at it out of recognition of the effort you put in today. He’d just consider it one of those times that you do something annoying and he just ignores you as a response.

You regard him with dazed eyes. You open your mouth as if you’re about to say something but decide against it as you shut your eyes again and you let your head rest on his shoulder. But even then, your head still falls forward from time to time. He puts a hand on your forehead to settle you back on his shoulder and slides a bit downward on his seat to accommodate you. 

Jesus Christ, you can study in a moving vehicle but can’t even do a simple thing like sleep properly on it. Why does he even have to adjust for you?

He heaves furiously in contrast to your steady breathing, letting him know that you’re easing deeper to your sleep. 

He distracts himself by looking at the window, witnessing the unmoving dark sky and the changing scenery below. He lets out a sigh.

Maybe he should’ve just accepted the ten point deduction.

Part 1 || Part 3 || masterlist

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The Voyage So Far: Whole Cake Island

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano

sanji is such a self-sacrificial idiot. and i know that’s not exactly a ground-breaking statement, but it does define the entire first half of whole cake island, so it may as well be reiterated here: sanji does not value his own life as much as he should, and fails to grasp that other people care about him outside of what he can offer them, which is why he’s so surprised when luffy later comes charging headlong into big mom’s territory.

zou is a really good little arc, and it also mirrors the themes of whole cake island in miniature. the minks collectively make a massive sacrifice and risk absolutely everything to protect raizou, and wci is essentially all about loyalty and sacrifice, whether its sanji giving himself up to protect the strawhats and zeff or luffy and the strawhats facing impossible odds to rescue him to pedro giving up his life to get them all out of there safe.

huge fan of this panel partly just because it’s cute and partly because it’s a great visualization of just how dysfunctional the heights are in one piece.

zou is one of my favorite settings in one piece just for the sheer creativity of it. zunesha is so massive and so mysterious and so strange. and she really looks unspeakably old just from how she’s drawn, looming over everyone and everything, eyes hollow and empty, an entire forest and an entire people growing on her back that have been there for thousands of years. it’s just so neat and so wildly inventive.

this applies to zou as a whole, but i think it’s really cool how all the little threads that will become important during wano are set up so effectively even before whole cake island starts. we get this shot here of kidd beat to shit and then forget it because so much happens between here and when he shows up again in wano, but then oda punks us into caring about him and killer so much and this retroactively becomes very important.

ever since his introduction sanji’s always been a character basically defined by his adherence to his principles: always feeding the hungry, never wasting food, never hurting women, never using his hands in combat. he’s probably the most firmly principled person on the crew, and that’s more obvious in whole cake island than in any other arc except maybe baratie.

sanji is very stubbornly good, which puts him in acute contrast to his siblings and their general cruel apathy. it’s something i really like about him.

i’m a huge fan of big mom’s introduction, which is also our introduction to tottoland in general. it’s cutesy and colorful and musical while simultaneously being deeply creepy, with lyrics about killing people for ingredients and making jam out of blood, which is a great summary of the core of big mom’s character. she’s an old lady all in pink who lives in a cartoon fairy-tale land- but she’s also a deranged cannibal, and all those singing trees and flowers are animated by the life she steals from her citizens as tax.

whole cake island draws on a lot of fairy tale motifs (especially with brulee), and the contrast that saccharine appearance creates with how fucked up the actual content is is super effective and memorable, i think.

honestly i find most of the content of sanji with the vinsmokes just plain upsetting, which i’m sure is intentional, so i’m not going to go into it a lot here, but i am including this panel of him kicking niji in the face.

sad as this scene turns out, luffy’s absolute thrill at finding sanji and the corresponding bafflement of the vinsmokes as to how the fuck he even got there always kinda makes me grin.

i always love seeing people’s underestimations about luffy get thrown right the hell out the window- because let’s be honest, he’s easy to underestimate, he’s like a five and a half foot tall rubber teenager and not very physically intimidating and all, and then he goes and pulls off the impossible without blinking.

the thing that makes luffy unique as a captain has always been his willingness to rely on his crew, and his willingness to openly admit that reliance, like he did all the way back in arlong park. most of the other contenders for the pirate king’s crown we’ve seen- big mom, kaidou, crocodile once upon a time- have been stubbornly individualistic people who explicitly shown not to care for their crew and allies, generally seeing them as disposable.

luffy is the opposite of all of them, because his crew are everything to him, to the point of being willing to sacrifice his dream for them. and the loyalty he wins from them in return is unmatched, as opposed to big mom and kaidou, who both get cheerfully betrayed not just by their own crewmates but by their own children.

brook is really cool in whole cake island, and honestly it comes at just the right time for him as a character. ever since his introductory arc in thriller bark until this point he hasn’t gotten a ton of focus, so it’s great that he gets to be the mvp here and demonstrate exactly why he’s a strawhat pirate and how much he’s grown over the timeskip.

oda is generally really good at introducing and handling characters contained to a single arc/saga, but i do think he absolutely knocked it out of the park with pedro. he has an interesting backstory, compelling motivations, and basically an entire sub-arc ending in his death that never distracts from the main plot, but only ever adds to it.

pedro really feels like a fully realized character who’s had a whole life offscreen, who we just happened to catch at the very end of his story. i think that’s super impressive.

i really love this moment, because for me, this is the moment where whole cake island becomes a tremendous arc, and where the tides begin to turn and the dominoes begin to fall, one after the other. this is sanji hitting absolute rock bottom. the one ray of light he pinned all his hopes on was a lie, and he can’t even light a fucking cigarette.

but one piece is, very often, a story about picking yourself up even when you feel like you can’t.

i think there’s something lovely about how much one piece emphasizes the value of honestly asking for help. luffy waits for nami to ask for help, and for robin to say she wants to live, and for sanji to admit he just wants to go home, and then says, “okay, i’ll make that happen.”

it just makes me so happy how happy the stawhats are to know sanji’s back with them. it reminds me a lot of how they all brush off robin’s thanks after enies lobby. sure, they’re going to have to crash the wedding and confront big mom directly and might all die, but who cares? they’ve got sanji back. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, i love how much they love each other.

i think the gangster outfits are super fun, and i love that oda is committed enough to his aesthetics to come up with an excuse to put them all in formalwear. it pays off, they all look extremely snappy.

i know i just said it in the dressrosa posts but i’m reiterating it here because this is my favorite example of it by far: i love when oda does this split-screen thing with his panels. the contrast between the two halves of pudding is so severe and yet they’re so clearly the same person i honestly just find this pair of panels fascinating to look at.

this panel also kind of gets at my favorite thing about pudding as a character, really. i know she’s a little controversial in fandom, but i’ve always found her entertaining (at least post-reveal), especially in the contrast between her unhinged evil side and her genuinely sweet romantic side and her post-wedding tendency to randomly ping-pong between the two.

i just always like reminding people that sanji is fast enough and his observation haki good enough to dodge a surprise attack, while thoroughly distracted, from katakuri.

sanji in this arc tends to get shit from a certain side of fandom for being ‘useless’ since he doesn’t have a big climactic fight despite being the focus of the arc, which i think is thoroughly missing the point. sanji is still plenty capable in combat, as demonstrated both here and later, with chiffon and oven. it just happens that his strength isn’t what saves the day ultimately, because combat ability isn’t everything, which is the entire point of the vinsmoke backstory/subplot. sanji saves the day just by being kind.

i’ll admit big mom’s flashback isn’t one of my favorites, taken in isolation- there are some parts of it that kind of unresolved (at least as of now- i still suspect they’ll be followed up eventually), and in general, although there is a tragedy to it, it doesn’t quite hit the way many of the other more effective flashbacks do. that said, i do think it does a really good job of succinctly explaining why big mom is the way she is in the present: she’s a child who was never told no, who never grew or matured past the disappearance of her adopted mother. that’s it, and that’s enough.

i’ve always been a little bit in love with how seriously and consistently one piece handles its themes of found family, and sanji outright disowning judge in whole cake island is maybe the most outright they ever get: family is found, not made. you owe nothing to your blood and are never beholden to your abusers.

and i just like that a whole lot.

i do think the tamatebako is one of the best uses of chekov’s gun i’ve ever seen. we’re first shown it at the end of fishman island, it’s revealed it got sent off to big mom rigged with explosives which is a minor “oh fuck” moment, and then it gets forgotten about, because the entirety of punk hazard and dressrosa happens in between! which is a lot!

i remember when i reached the moment in whole cake island where we’re reminded that that bomb still exists and is still waiting to explode, i just started laughing hysterically out loud, because i’d completely forgotten, and now that i remembered i was just delighted to know it was going to definitely go off at some point, almost certainly in a very satisfying way.

pedro is, if i remember right, the first time the imagery of the coming dawn that will become quite important in wano really has attention drawn to it in-text- the recurring motif is there before this, of course, dating all the way back to the names of the first chapter (romance dawn) and first island (dawn island), but this is the first time it’s actively addressed in-story.

in doing so, oda essentially presents a fresh mystery for us, but one that has been set up so consistently ever since chapter one that it feels like it fits perfectly into the world and story.

luffy’s been punching way above his weight class ever since crocodile all the way back in alabasta, fighting enemies who clearly outmatch him but always managing to win anyways, but his fight with katakuri is maybe the clearest the sheer differential in strength ever gets, because katakuri’s powers are similar enough to luffy’s that he can pull off pretty much all of luffy’s techniques, but better. so luffy has to fall back on the two things that have always been his greatest strengths, again all the way back to crocodile in alabasta: innovation and sheer fucking stubbornness.

one thing i love about one piece is how no character is immune to being clowned on. absolutely nobody. everybody looks like an idiot sometimes, and it makes everything so much more fun than if the series took itself more seriously. katakuri basically actively tries to avert this by building up a fearsome, flawless, and utterly no-nonsense persona, but it winds up failing hard because it actually only makes the contrast and surprise of his actual personality and vices that much funnier.

i’ve always loved this one panel of carrot going sulong, because she just looks so monstrous, like a true werewolf. the same goes for the shift in big mom’s design when she starts going truly mad with starvation and gets even more threatening-looking (below). i just think oda should let women be monstrously scary more often.

i do really love that the entire climax of whole cake island hinges on the degree of trust and faith the strawhats, and sanji and luffy specifically, have in each other. they’re all facing massive challenges that would seem insurmountable to an outsider- luffy facing down a yonkou’s commander with a bounty of over a billion and sanji remaking a massive cake that took months to plan and make in just a few hours, the others evading big mom’s full forces and big mom herself for a full night- but none of them have even a shred of doubt that the others can manage it.

i wrote a meta post awhile back about one piece’s concept of ‘honor in a pirates’ fight, and what it came down to is this: honor can never be expected between pirates, but the best of them will show it anyways, and it can be a very telling judge of character. nobody would expect katakuri to do this, and luffy even calls him an idiot for it, but he has enough respect for luffy as a strong opponent to do it anyways, and that’s how we know for absolute certain that even though he’s an antagonist, he’s also a good, honorable person.

i really like the gesture of luffy leaving his hat over katakuri’s mouth, especially because until this point, we’re never even given any indication that he’s really noticed it, let alone that katakuri is insecure about it. he never reacts to or comments on it (which is in itself kind of unusual from someone who tends to nickname opponents by their appearances as often as luffy does) one way or another.

and then he does this, confirming all at once that he did fully notice and understand, he just doesn’t care. which i think sums up one of the more under-appreciated aspects of luffy’s character- he’s generally way more observant than people give him credit for, especially when it comes to people, it’s just that he has a very different sense of what’s important and what’s not than your average person.

i love the sheer contrast between big mom’s delighted, rapturous singing as she devours the wedding cake against the violence taking place on screen as her army rains fire and hell down on the thousand sunny. it parallels her initial introduction at the start of the arc perfectly, and is just an excellent way to close out the arc with a bang.

i said it earlier but it bears repeating here, for a different reason: luffy is not very physically intimidating. he’s shorter than most of the other main characters, he’s a lanky teenager, he dresses casually and his most identifiable accessory is a farm hat.

but then there are times when he looks like a captain, like a future pirate king, and it just looks so natural on him. i can never get over it.

i really like that, after spending a whole arc demonstrating just how different (and how much better) sanji is than the vinsmokes, it ends like this- showing us just how similar he’s grown up to the man he’s chosen as his real family, and just how proud zeff would be of him.

Tsuyu Can (Not) Be Trusted: A UA Traitor Theory

So when BnHA 320 dropped a couple days ago, @redblossxmm wrote a very interesting meta post that immediately grabbed my attention. In it, she goes over the chapter cover and the possible symbolism that might be at play. At first when I read it I was like "oh, that's kind of funny, wouldn't it be wild if Tsu was the UA traitor all along". But then I got to talking it over with @rikusoma on Discord and...yeah guys, Tsu might actually be the traitor.

I would just like to say before we get started that all of this is conjecture and based on a lot of admittedly circumstantial evidence. There has not been a lot of heavy handed evidence one way or the other on who the traitor even is (and if we’re being 100% honest, my primary traitor suspect isn’t even a student), but there’s still some fun stuff we can look at that could at least be considered setup against Tsu if that trigger gets pulled.

First off, I want to talk about how weirdly...in focus Tsu has been, especially in the early arcs. So far Horikoshi has only written two bonus chapters for MHA: a 5 page omake included in the character guide that highlights Bakugo's feelings after the 1st semester final exams, and a chapter completely about Tsuyu, her family, and the only friend she had growing up in middle school. Unlike the other bonus chapter though, this one was actually included in Shonen Jump with one of the chapters, and it later reappears in Volume 10.

What’s weird about this is that we ONLY see her family in this little bonus chapter. We actually do get to see a lot of the other families of class 1-A, but we DON’T see Tsu’s family. Horikoshi could have given us Tsu’s backstory and family organically in the story (or in a one page omake, he’s done a few of those, mostly notably in the chapter right before DvK2), but no, she gets a whole short chapter all to herself.

Tsu also gets a whole anime episode to herself (the first filler episode as well) in the vs Stain arc in season 2. What’s weird is that the episode opens with checking in on the other students and seeing how their internships are going, so that momentum could have been continued if they needed to fill time, but instead the entire back half is all Tsu. This should have some payoff later on, or it will have just been wasted narrative space (although since its filler, it could be argued that its empty space being wasted anyway, so it’s not as big a deal).

Now let’s get into some specific things I noticed that we can chalk up to “there are no coincidences”. First, Tsu getting dumped into the water during the USJ attack. Deku attributes this up to the LoV not knowing their power sets, but honestly Tsu is the only one who comes out on top here, compared to the other kids. Deku himself is stuck on a boat, so there’s not a lot of room for him to get going and fight, Bakugo gets blown into the ruins so there’s not a lot of room for him to do things without accidentally blowing himself up, Ojiro is surrounded by fire so he’s also going to have maneuverability issues, Tokoyami’s in the dark so Dark Shadow can’t be used effectively, etc. The low level thugs probably did not know the students' quirks because of how they reacted to Mineta’s goo balls, but if the traitor is a student and told the LoV about the class, then Kurogiri would definitely know. This would be a good opportunity to convince the rest of the class that Tsu was on their side, especially if she was able to be in her element and work as a team player.

Tsu also spends this arc adamantly trying to convince her classmates to call her “Tsu” instead of Asui, a cutesy diminutive of her full first name (like Deku using “Kacchan” for Bakugo, a shortening of Katsuki-chan). It’s interesting that she’s trying to get the boys to call her this too. While it’s fairly common for high school girls to give each other cute names, asking male classmates to also do it is honestly a little bit weird. She also calls everyone “-chan” throughout the story, which is interesting considering she’s once again lumping in the boys and the girls. You could interpret this as her trying to force a connection with the class, trying to be cute to create an air of friendship and intimacy quickly, along with getting them to drop their guard.

Next, let’s look at the Bakugo kidnapping arc. Tsu is not the only person who thinks it's a bad idea to go, but she is the one that most vehemently opposes it, comparing the mission to acting like a villain because you’re working outside of the rules. This is an extremely harsh thing to say, especially to Deku, who just broke both of his arms saving Kota and STILL pushed himself to try and rescue Bakugo and Tokoyami from Mr Compress. Seems to me like she’s very desperate to keep Deku and the rest home, enough to go for the freaking jugular like that. I could also bring up Tsuyu keeping Bakugo away from Deku in chapter 303 (because I’m convinced that if Bakugo had been able to talk to Deku he wouldn’t have run away), but the whole class was on board for that so whatever.

And now let’s get to the big one: Tsu has had two different near misses with the LoV so far. Shigaraki almost grabbed her face during the USJ attack, but it took just long enough that Aizawa was able to save her. Later on, during the Camp Training arc, Toga has her pinned to a freaking tree, but she talks JUST ENOUGH for Ochako to get the drop on her. As a counterpoint, Toga does NOT hesitate at all while trying to go for Ochako’s blood, immediately sticking her and grabbing some before making her retreat. Both times Tsu was put in enough plausible danger to make it seem like she was being threatened, but she wasn’t actually harmed in a significant way.

There are a couple other things we could point to (like how she’s on the cover for chapter 320, along with how weird it is that the chapter just randomly ends on her face, when a more dramatic ending would have probably been when Todoroki encased Deku in the wall of ice), but I think we’ve covered most of everything. To summarize: Tsuyu gets a lot of narrative space given to her despite not really being a relevant character. She is often getting put into danger without actually getting hurt, and Horikoshi has put a lot of effort into making her seem like a gungho team player that will do anything for her friends. Having Tsu be the traitor would make a lot of seemingly unconnected things make a lot more sense, and I think it would be a really good gut punch to have that rug pulled out from under us by her.

Now of course, we have the shakiest part of this theory: what would be Tsu’s motive? Well what little we know about her family is that her parents are often working and therefore she’s responsible for taking care of her younger siblings. It’s possible that she somehow got into some kind of vigilante/mercenary work in the underground in order to support her family. That would go a long way in explaining why she’s always so level headed under pressure (a lot like Bakugo, who also has a lot of experience in fighting, since he used to both bully and get bullied). Alternatively, AFO or the LoV has her family somehow, and she’s being coerced into it. Either way, I definitely think her family would be her motive here.

So in short, Tsuyu is 100% the traitor and clearly this is undeniable. Thank you to Blossxm for making my brain start turning, and thank you Riku for being my springboard the past couple days while I rambled about this ridiculous idea. More meta/theories are incoming, so if you enjoyed my shit post, please stick around and ramble with me about how crazy the last few chapters have been!