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twst-drabbles · 4 months

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Soulmates AU: Idia

Summary: You were born with a run-on sentence for a soulmate mark on your arm, from wrist to shoulder. Now you finally met the man that utters these words by a trashcan.

(I was requested and wrote this long number. Over 4000 words all written within the span of four days. I wrote this for @twst-charity. Not gonna lie, pretty proud that I wrote this much in that span of time. Been a while since I could do that, though I did end up pulling a muscle in my neck. I hope this is a fun read. It's also on ao3 as well. Right here.)

The writings you were born with were practically illegible at birth. The font was rather fancy, overly so, and the words circled around from your wrist to your shoulder so tightly that your family was convinced it was a giant birth mark and not the words of your soulmate.

But you grew and so did the spaces in those words. It was a pretty spiral, but as age continued to feed you wisdom, you felt that this position was deliberate. Because, as far as you knew, this first sentence could very well be the ramblings of someone going mad or already is. But first words are hardly something to build assumptions on, especially when it comes to the subject of your soulmate.

These words covering your arm are about a fictional character named Alexius von Tuveria en Ris. Well, at least you hope it’s fictional. It’s kind of a silly name to give to a kid. And also you’re not exactly up for having a soulmate that’s this, uh, verbose and opinionated about an actual person. You’ve been exposed to the deeper parts of the celebrity fan culture and you’re good with staying far away from it.

…Alexius von Tuveria en Ris doesn’t deserve any of this, though not as if he’d do anything about it if he saw since that prince is just too kind-hearted and honestly kind of cheesy, though cheesy doesn’t mean cringe and cringe is something normies are so immune to it almost makes me sick…

That was only part of the sentence on your arm. Your soulmate, where ever they are, they sure do talk a lot. Like, a whole lot. You tried repeating the sentence on your arm in just one breath and you had to practice a few years just to get it right. Strong lungs on that one, probably.

And a whole lot of unique factors to help narrow down the pool of who is and who isn’t your soulmate. Alexius von Tuveria en Ris is a pretty unique name by itself. But, the uniqueness of it did return disappointment, since searching online for a character with such a name yielded no results. You made it a habit to search at least once a week or so, just in case it was a series that has yet to exist.

You were also sort of relieved to find out that there was no royal family with a similar name. Though, that still didn’t rule out the possibility. For all you know, this could be a fake name someone chose for themselves.

Either way, this name will come to exist at some point, someone or something will be Alexius von Tuveria en Ris, and you’d have to make sure to be on top of that.

But, then you couldn’t, because suddenly you found yourself in a place called Night Raven College. One minute you were living your regular life, and the next you found duty after duty from your “oh so kind” headmage with a cat that doesn’t learn to listen when he should.

It was… an adjustment certainly. The grating egos of everyone here, the casual and not so casual use of magic that can and will kill you if it hits you in just the right way, and large restrictions on your finances rarely left you with more than a few complaints, but all you could do was grit your teeth and trudge on.

At least, despite all of these annoyances and difficulties, there are some silver linings to the found here. Magic itself was something of a marvel to witness, you won’t lie to yourself about that. You will never say it out loud for anyone to head though, because you know the minute you do, people like Grim will gloat and unintentionally belittle you with a, “Well, something as simple as that would look amazing to you, huh?”

And out of a need to never hear those words uttered by anyone, you decided to use one of your privileges to lock yourself in the computer lab. It’s after curfew, so most of the students not in remedial classes are at their dorms by now.

Next to you were a couple of spiral notebooks, the blue one opened and already filled to the brim with notes about basic magic mechanics. Sure, you can’t do a single lick of magic as far as you can tell, but you don’t want to make the blunder of relying on your preconceived notions of it.

Though, as with all studying, even on a subject as interesting as this, your brain starts to fuzz up and suddenly you can’t even retain the current paragraph. Your eyes kept skimming over the same words over and over. Finally, you huffed and slumped back in your chair, setting your pencil aside.

Though, before you decide to call it quits and rest for the night, you felt one more search would be interesting. You pushed up your sleeve until you found the name of Alexius von Tuveria en Ris on your forearm, and typed that into the blinking bar.

Hehe, the name looked a little funny in this cutesy font this search engine uses. You weren’t expecting anything honestly. You’ve already cut your losses with meeting your soulmate young. You’ve had cousins and other distant relatives that haven’t met their soulmates until they were in their seventies. Knowing how that bird-brained Crowley works, you’ll probably return back home when you’re at least in your forties. Or fifties.

He’s really taking his sweet-ass time, huh?

Either way, you pressed enter and stretched. Nothing to come of it and nothing to lose with this simple search, right? You’ve already been through the phase of obsessively searching every day back when you were younger and had too much time. At this point, it does no harm to search at least once. You mean, why not?

But, it was a hit. Several pages of hits. At the top of the pastel blue search engine was Alexius von Tuveria en Ris in all bold. In fact, from the title of the website, you’d say it was an entire site dedicated to this character.

Here it was. The very thing you’ve searching for, waiting for, was right in front of your eyes.

You didn’t say anything, you just clicked. Paragraphs and paragraphs of detailed information about this person–a fictional character–laid before you. You nearly ripped your sleeve up your arm as you scrolled down the page, looking between the screen and your skin as you confirmed that what you’re reading is correct and not just a huge coincidence that’s made to make fun of you for having hope.

The name matches, the background of isolating himself in his castle matches, the huge blow out after attempting to revive his Kingdom of Paradise matches. All of it matches your arm.

You let go of the mouse, eyes burning from staring at a white screen with black text for too long, and just sat. You stared up at the ceiling…

…and quietly seethed.

For months you’ve been wanting to go back home, and often in the middle of the night, you’d find yourself wishing you never got transported here in the first place. Some part of you buried deep was starting to believe that you would never go home, and if you knew that the option of exploring a magical place came with the consequence of never going home, you never would have taken it.

But now your arm and this screen was telling you that you had no choice but to come here. That it was destined, preordained. No matter how hard you fought, you were going to be whisked away.

It… it sucked, you will admit that.

But you sighed out all the doubts and breathed in realistic optimism. You came here one way, there has to be a way out. It happened once, so it’s logical that it would happen again.

And so, with a light stretching of your sore fingers and wrists, you clicked and read as much information you can. Absorbing the series that’s apparently been running for a good twenty years with a handful of remakes and one live action that flopped on its face.

Before you know it, it was way past the dead of night and encroaching on morning. You took a minute to stretched and rub at your strained eyes before packing everything up. You’re going to regret doing all this in the morning, when classes start, but what can you say? You like living in the moment.

You walked out, locked everything up with the keys Crowley entrusted you with, and started down the path towards your dorm. Sure, you do have permission to use the mirrors on campus, but you’re pretty sure you need someone with magic to be able to use the thing. Or you probably don’t, for all you know, but you’re not in the mood to test the theory.

You found yourself on a cross section at the road that served as a nice resting spot before heading to Sam’s shop. It had a couple of fancy black benches with gaudy gold legs, a fountain so large you’re glad you don’t have to clean it, and a lot of foliage for that beautiful view and clean air.

With all these sights nicely lit by the evenly spaced lamps to take in, instead your eyes settled on someone that chose to huddle by a trashcan. You heard crinkling and, at first, you thought this person was riffling through the trash. You got closer, and while you can’t say you were wrong, the only thing in this man’s hands was a poster.

Then, finally, you were within earshot.

“And just when I found the perfect poster, I find it in a trash can of all things, wrinkled up and thrown away because some ignorant idiot thought this was only worth as much as a piece of paper,”

Kind a rambler huh? Sounds like he’s having a bad day. Or night. Should probably just leave him alone.

…

Hold on a moment.

You pulled up your sleeve.

“Couldn’t have the decency to give this limited edition poster back for people like me, who truly appreciate the series, to own, but no of course not, it would be inconvenient, horrible that they would wrinkle the main character’s Kingdom of Paradise that he’s always dreamed of, Alexius von Tuveria en Ris doesn’t deserve any of this, though not as if he’d do anything about it if he saw since that prince is just too kind-hearted and honestly kind of cheesy, though cheesy doesn’t mean cringe and cringe is something normies are so immune to it almost makes me sick–AH there’s a tear because of course,”

You were twisting your arm this way and that, making very sure that this random man’s rant actually matched your words. You almost pulled a muscle as he continued, eyes and neck straining to read the words on your shoulders.

You lost your balance and caught yourself just as the man before you stopped his rant with a huff.

Before he could possibly start again, you walked right behind him and said, “So you’re the dude that inked up my arm.”

Ah, you didn’t really have any special words in mind, like a lot of your classmates back in your younger days. Yes, you’re buzzing a little with excitement, but you’re so tired and drained from another emotional high that you’re in a fog. Besides, you already confirmed that this person’s your soulmate, whatever pops out of your mouth will be just as unique.

“Eep!” A high little squeak of a yelp. The student–his jacket held Ignihyde designs on it–retreated his arms to his chest, like he’s ready to either lash out or curl into a ball.

He would’ve fell backwards if your legs didn’t stop his fall.

“Whoops,” you pushed him to his feet with a hand to his shoulder, “sorry about that. You okay?”

Only then did he finally turn. His hood fell from his face and unleashed an absolute bonfire of hair. A luminous bright blue that almost blinded you.

And suddenly, his hair turned an almost violent mix of pink and purple.

He blinked, then his eyes flickered from your face to his wrist, where your words are. The man opened his mouth but his voice didn’t scream so much as it whistled before dashed to the left. He sped crawled on all fours for a moment before finding his footing.

This man, whom you would eventually find out to be called Idia, ran away upon first meeting you, his soulmate.

You weren’t offended in the least. You can understand that being seen mumbling like a maniac by a trashcan isn’t the best way to be seen by your fated soulmate. So, with that in mind, you didn’t search out for him for about three days.

By day four, you got impatient and decided to hunt down for Idia since he has not even left a hint hint about wanting to meet you. A week would’ve been the original waiting time, but this college really takes a toll on you and you just want this done before you get dragged into another magical situation.

The first day, you waited by a classroom you knew Idia attended. Well, Idia’s tablet. Being a housewarden and not a regular student, it’s rather easy to stumble upon information about him. Egocentric students love to gossip when it’s framed to either make their dorm or themselves look better.

You saw a peek of a magical tablet and grabbed without hesitation.

“Ha?” You heard clicking and felt the tablet attempt to leave your hands. You turned it around and faced the built in camera.

“Hey,” you greeted as causally as you could, “Idia, right? Met you a few nights before–”

Another click, and suddenly your entire vision went white with a flash of light. You dropped the tablet.

By the time your eyes went back to normal, the tablet was gone and you were alone again.

“So, that’s how it going to be, huh?” You’ve had your fair share of runaways. In fact, your little group was mostly made of them, running away for one reason or another, like not wanting to go to class, or avoiding cleaning duties for a mess they’ve made. This was not a new situation for you.

If Idia thinks he can run away from you forever, he has another thing coming.

The next day, you found the tablet floating in the library. You got a ladder to grab it from the bottom, but you weren’t quiet enough when you climbed it. The tablet floated right past your fingertips and dashed out the door with a “Sorry!”

Well, at least he apologized. But you still want to talk!

Another day passes and you found the man physically just as you were about to walk out the classroom. He had a stack of papers in his hands, late assignments he had to turn in physically if he wanted a chance at passing apparently. He didn’t see you, so you retreated behind the door.

When you saw Idia’s figure pass by the door, you popped out and grabbed his shoulder.

“Idia,” you firmly said with a tightening grip on his frozen shoulder, “we need to talk.”

And you were meet with a tower of papers to the face and he was gone before you dug through the pile.

By that point, you were ready and willing to start dragging your other friends into the mix. You let this skittish soulmate of yours to run off the first few times because you didn’t want to stress him out too much. But, by this point in time, it would be better to throw caution to the wind if only so you two can actually sit down and have a talk.

But, by the next morning, before you could meet up with everyone, a robot kid you recognize as Ortho shot out of the sky and landed with surprising grace. At the price of leaves and dirt flooding your mouth.

“There you are!” His voice was loud but it wasn’t grating. It was a cute kind of loud, like he was happy to see you.

You spat on the ground and leaned against a tree, still groggy from waking up. “Ortho, right? Hello. You need something? I’m kind of in a hurry.”

“To make a plan to catch my big brother right?”

His accuracy left you stunned.

“Uh.”

“Then, please come with me!” Ortho grabbed your arm and enthusiastically, “I keep telling my brother to suck it up and meet you, but he just won’t!”

“I know that,” you gritted your teeth, feeling like your shoulder will pop out of its socket, “Mind telling me where you’re taking me though.”

“I’m taking you to–” Ortho paused, floated behind you and grabbed your shoulder, “Hold on, this will be faster. We’re going to Ignihyde!”

“Wha–?” But you were forced to eat your words, just when it was finally free of all dirt and leaves.

And before you know it, you were gently placed on your feet in front of the Ignihyde dorm.

“Huh.” If you delete the last few minutes from your mind, you’d say it was a pretty enjoyable ride. Quick, at least.

“So, future soulmate of my big brother,” You’re pretty sure he knows who you are, you’re not exactly a quiet presence with that monster fire cat always around, “I have to do other things, so you just have to go down these paths and you’ll be in front of his room! Just make sure he doesn’t run away, okay?”

Ortho even gave you a little note that straight up looked printed. A clear map of where Idia’s room is.

“Well, thanks,” you turned around to properly face him but Ortho was already blasting off into the sky with a wave.

You huffed out a laugh, just because the whole interaction was ridiculous, and went on your way. You don’t really have early morning classes to be late to, anyway. You just came early to prepare for chasing after Idia.

As much as you would like to take the time to admire the hallways of the Ignihyde dorm, you’re too eager to get this meeting over with.

And then you’re finally in front of Idia’s room. You reach out to knock but the door pulls open, as though avoiding your knuckles. Idia was there, hood over his head like he was going to sneak around again like the first time you’ve met him. He spotted you in a second and slammed the door right in your face.

You waited a few minutes just to see if some miracle would happen and Idia opens the door on his own.

He didn’t.

“I’m not moving from here, if you’re wondering.”

You heard a sharp gasp and then a heavy, shaky, defeated sigh.

“…of course you’re not…” And then heard the slide of fabric against the door before a soft thud at the bottom.

He sat down, and so you got yourself comfortable as well.

“So,” you leaned back on your hands, “you’ve been running away from me.”

“I have…” and then under his breath like he thought you wouldn’t hear, “…any normal person would give up but of course my soulmate would be more stubborn than that…”

You whistled and that caught his attention with a gasp.

“Hey, focus on me,” you knocked on the door for good measure, “Why were you running? That first meeting could not have been that embarrassing.”

“Says you,” his next words came out muffled, like he’s shrinking into his hoodie, “Of all the days to meet you, you just had to see me right next to a trash can like I was some kind of degenerate rat. Anyone would think I was a loser of a freak, stroking that wrinkled poster like that. Well, I’m not! Only true fans would love this series as much as I do. So if anything, you were probably seeing me at my best moment!”

“Huh.”

You can practically hear Idia deflate from behind the door. “’Huh?’ You say… Yeah yeah, think what you want, I can’t even begin to change it.”

You… have a doozy of a soulmate huh?

“Certainly didn’t help that you were flash banged me, almost made me fall down a ladder and threw papers in my face.”

Idia shrank further. “…sorry…”

“Hmm? What’s that?”

“Sorry!” It was a burst of a yell and you had to back up a bit, “I was terrified alright?! I mean, I played all sorts of scenarios and even made a game to prepare for this moment. I had all these scripts in my head and I thought I was ready to trigger the romance flag alright?! But instead, I was stuck in my own head and completely missed it! I messed up and I panicked! You have any idea how scary that is?! You weren’t supposed to see me like that! I was supposed to be at max level by the time I met you but instead, I’m just this unevolved mess!”

You opened your mouth but Idia cut in.

“Fate is inevitable, just as death is… I was going to met you regardless and I guess, I thought, that maybe I had more time. But I didn’t. So I just, wanted you to stay away until I thought I was going to be ready… Ha, either way, it’s my fault…”

…alright, how are you going to handle this? You’re not exactly the best when it comes to emotional comfort.

Well, may as well just use what you already have on hand. Or on arm.

“Didn’t Alexius von Tuveria en Ris think he was ready to rule his kingdom when he brought it back from the ashes?”

You heard a sputter. You continued.

“I mean, the dude was kind of young wasn’t he? Well, not like it matters, he brought it back and someone had to rule it whether he liked it or not.”

Then, you heard Idia actually honk. “No, that’s not what happened! Alexius von Tuveria en Ris wanted to bring back the Kingdom of Paradise not because he thought he was fit to rule it but because he thought it didn’t deserve that fate. It’s not his fault that he was put in that position when he brought it to life!”

Ah, there we go. Switching the subject, your best skill!

You egged him on. “But shouldn’t he have been prepared for that, then? The series did say that he likes to prepare for every thing imaginable because it was a kingdom he was reviving.”

“What the–that’s stupid! He can’t see the future! No matter how much he reads or writes, there’s no way he could’ve predicted that! And even if he did, it wouldn’t have mattered! He couldn’t have stopped the tragedy anyway!”

“Oh that’s right!” you clapped your hands, “Thanks for reminding me. Totally slipped my mind.”

“As long as you know. I hate it when people don’t pay attention.”

Huh, he sounds huffy. That’s cute.

“Sorry, it’s kind of hard to remember with all the stuff that happens in the latest Red Sky Arc, where Alexius just–”

You heard a hard slam against the door. “No spoilers! I haven’t gotten to that arc yet!”

You closed your mouth, almost biting your tongue in the process.

A few seconds, then a minute, and then you burst out laughing.

Idia, meanwhile, was stunned. “W-what? What did I do?”

“No no,” you relaxed, “that’s just the loudest you’ve been.”

“I… I guess that was a bit too loud.” The tone in his voice made him seem bashful. “But I’m seriously not at that part yet. I don’t want to get a head start just yet.”

“Alright, I’ll keep my mouth shut then.” You pushed yourself up and dusted your pants. “I think I’ll be taking my leave here. Don’t want to bother you too much. I just needed to hear an apology and an excuse.”

“Wait, what?”

You turned around, stuffing the map Ortho gave you into your pocket. “See you later, Idia.”

“Wait!” The door slammed open. You turned around.

Idia’s hair was pink at the tips, but at least he didn’t look like he was going to explode. He did look like he was going to collapse though. Poor man looked out of breath.

“I-I,” the pink began to climb upwards the longer he looked at you, “I, uh, I happen to have that season downloaded… on my PC… so if you want to, you know, update your out of date stuff then, maybe you could, you know… watch it with me?”

His head practically disappeared in his hoodie and hair, but you heard him clear enough.

You could tease him, but you don’t know each other well enough so…

You nodded, “Sure, I have time. A lot of time actually.”

That one is a bit of a lie, but you just want to spend time with Idia. You have a number of excuses on hand anyway. You’ll send one off right before settling down.

“Huh? Oh, uh” Idia moved to the side, holding the door like it’ll protect him from his feelings, “C-come in then.”

You stepped inside.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst-drabbles #short story #twst charity #ignihyde #idia #idia shroud #soulmates au #reader insert

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queenendless · 29 days

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💗 Cafe Time 💗

A/n: Imma count this as an April Fool's prank cause it's kinda nonsense.

AU centric where JJK cast here are chibis, as is everyone else in this world, and you are the sole normal sized human there.

Cute fluffy filled crack nonsense that is short as hell and cause I've wanted to write chibi stuff for a long time.

Itafushi, NobaMaki, and HaiNana crumbs here and there but SatoSugu x GN!Reader in the end.

DON'T REPOST, PLAGARIZE, COPY, EDIT, TRANSLATE AND/OR STEAL MY FANFIC CONTENT. IF YOU ENJOY MY CONTENT THEN REBLOG, LIKE, COMMENT & FOLLOW PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

AND HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S! 💌

The tale of a regular sized normie getting teleported to a Japan where everyone but themselves is chibi sized.

Their resisting negation to cursed energy that in the strongest in the country leads to your immediate discovery and recruitment into a place to stay as well as work by a burly mid aged bearded man with shades.

Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College Cafe.

Your newfound workplace and home. Where you met some regulars that quickly became your favorites.

“L/n-san~!” Dear Yuji lifted the cookie atop him, smothered in whipped cream with a bright smile and a wave reserved for you. “Eat me~! Just kidding~!”

Your pinky finger gently ruffled his salmon haired head. “Your teasing is very much warranted, you precious boi.”

In the parfait cup filled with ice cream, whipped cream and berries, a storm cloud raged atop Megumi's brooding head. “Get me outta here or I will shatter this glass.”

Yuji's face became pale with doom, hissing at you conspiratory. “He ain't kidding.”

You reached down and pulled out said grumpy Megumi who took the shinigami dog shaped candy, bashfully thanked you, and shyly pecked you on the cheek, compelling you to smooch him right on the nose. “Favorite tsundere here.”

You dropped him down on table level for Yuji to smother his boi in a good old bear hug; his infectious smile causing his emo bae to blush and ease into it and smile back.

“Maki-san~! Nibble on me~!” Nobara sung suggested cozied smack dabbed in her macaron.

“You idiot. Why did you have to admit that out loud? Here of all places?” Maki murmured, bashfully blushing, looking away amiss her red bean filled pancake sandwich.

“Maki-san! I love you~!” An unashamed Nobara rushed outta her macaron to tackle Maki into a bean pasted draped hug.

“Here.” You lifted off their pancake cover before handing a decent sized handkerchief to the girls as you passed by, earning winks of thanks from the pair before their stained faces grew messier as they commended a make out session under said hankie.

“Konbu! Tsuna Tsuna! Mentaiko!” The orange topped Toge waves eagerly at you from his perched spot on his own cupcake.

“I see you my boi and I've missed you too.” Your offered finger was taken by the rice ball speaking boi, swinging him to land before Panda lounging in the middle of a smore treat.

“Give me a hand, little buddy, tall buddy.”

“Takana!” Toge's mini hand and your long finger were more than enough to pull the fuzzy cursed doll out, though the chocolate sauce and marshmallows stuck to his fur.

You magically pulled out a wet rag to clean him up, humming at the now pristine baby. “My gift to you, my precious Panda.”

“L/n-san! Lift off please and thank you~!”

You picked up Yu's back collar to place him atop his fruit sandwich for him to slide down the creamy path, bumping right into Nanami. “Sandwich slide, hazah~!”

“Why must you condone this nonsense?” Kento commented through a mouthful of his subway sandwich, lightly bopping Haibara on his noggin as an attempted scolding.

“He's your partner. You tell me.” Your sassiness made the stern Nanami purse his lips at you in defiance but had Haibara chortling to his further annoyance, firmly tugging on his cheeks to gargle those noises, only amusing his partner more, finally doing here and now to kiss him just to keep him quiet.

Haibara's face glowed all smitten like. “Aw I love you too – !”

“Hush you and eat.” Nanami couldn't suppress a grin as he ate his subway with his favorite boi.

“Job well done, fellow yaoi buddy.” Shoko snorted at what she just saw, lounging in her lemon tea sponge cake, raising her small palm for you to give a carefully slow high five indeed.

“Keep your hands to yourself, assassin.” Riko narrowed dagger eyes at the scarred man across the room, cherry atop her head as she floated in a literal ice cream soda float.

“Riko-sama, be cautious, now.” Misato cautioned her, doing her best to stay blended within her fruity spread.

“I think he's retired from that lifestyle now.” You assured the pair, settling their nerves down when you handed them a plush doll with two eyes, eight legs and horns for them to cuddle and ride on.

“Suguru~ They're so pretty~!” Satoru plopped red bean paste sweetness into his mouth as he watched you move to and fro throughout the cafe.

Suguru munched on the cherry that sat atop with him on the cupcake. “Despite the major height difference, I will admit they look docile.”

“In that case – !” Gojo got down on one knee. “Marry us please~!”

Geto nearly choked. “Toru, we're still dating!”

Gojo got up to kiss him fully on the lips. “Well, we've practically been wedded since day one so …”

Geto's eyes crinkled with tender mirth, humming as he kissed back. “Can't argue with that logic.”

Grabbing his hand, the albino of the two floated them both on up high to reach you. “Plus, a poly ship is very sexy~”

The fact that the iconic strongest pair landed on either shoulder to kiss you simultaneously on your cheeks touched your heart.

“Aw, I – MMPH!”

The super human chibi that is Toji threw his bagel like a Frisbee disk right into your mouth. “Oi. You. This donut ain't cuttin’ it for me. Get me some beer, huh?”

“Dad!” Megumi snapped on your behalf.

“He is a beast.” Yuji anxiously sweated at the alarmingly impressive feat.

“I wanna duel him even more now.” Maki, a fellow non-cursed fighter, got fired up after peaking outside to witness his simple yet stellar stunt.

“Eh!? We already called dibs!” Gojo flared up, steam coming outta his ears.

“Hands off, monkey.” Geto emanated pure unfiltered hatred for the brute killer.

All three men had their eyes cast in shadow as literal sparks of agitation flew between them, ruining the cozy vibe of the cafe.

Able to chew and swallow that bagel up, you could speak again. “Knock yourself out, you beast.” Whisking out a jug of booze outta the blue, you knew the superhuman killer could take it, his smug self already chugging it down with one hand.

“Physically gifted,” Yuji and Maki breathed out in amazement.

“As I was gonna say,” you cupped your hands out for GoGe to sit on, your e/c eyes sparkling down at them, “Of course I'll marry you two. Size and all.”

A giggling Satoru and an amused Suguru are over the moon with your acceptance, bringing them close enough for them to smooch your lips in unison.

However later, you got an earful of “Goddamn” from your chibi sized boss at giving someone alcohol at his fine establishment.

But, you could tolerate it.

All these cuties make it all worth it.

Especially your new beaus.

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caged-crows · 3 months

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OKAY. pissa university/college au, because i am unwell about them

Missa doesn't really have many friends. He has Roier, who he's known since he was very young, and Quackity but that's about it. To most people he's just... kind of a loner, and usually just spends most of his time reading in the library.

Phil, likewise, also has a pretty small friend group, though he has a few more than Missa. He's known Fit practically his whole life but, he's also made connections with Cellbit, Baghera and Jaiden. He also works with Tubbo, Pac and Mike at the arcade at the mall nearby campus & has a pretty good repore with them.

Phil is very scary and intimidating just looking at him-- he has a few piercings, usually wear a black leather jacket, drives a motorcycle, very prone to getting into fights. But once you get to know him, he's actually a huge softie.

Missa is the opposite of Phil-- he's very shy and quiet, insecure as hell. he loves the whole "pastel goth" aesthetic, but he's so insecure he usually just dresses like a normie since he doesn't want people to think he's werid. Phil, on the other hand, does not give a fuck and goes HARD on the punk rock anarchist thing.

They meet three times before actually becoming friends. First, Phil ends up sitting next to him in a history class they're both taking. The second time they meet at a party that Roier drags Missa to and Phil is very drunk and starts hitting on him. The third time, Missa goes to the arcade with Mariana and Q while Phil is on shift and he just goes, "alright the universe keeps throwing you at me, what's your number?"

Missa thinks the world of Phil. To him, he is the coolest person in the world and he really looks up to him... which leads to him having a massive crush on him.

Phil, likewise, thinks the world of Missa. He wants nothing more than to protect him, and would literally kill for him. (He also thinks he's the prettiest human he's ever met but shh he would never admit that)

#qsmp #pissa uni au #pissa #deathduo #{ snail speaks.

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alectoperdita · 26 days

Note

i know it’s Iconic in jk fandom to keep kaiba rich but we need AUs of them starting a business together and jounouchi getting cold feet as it expands beyond his wildest dreams and kaiba aggressively wanting to see his products on every corner

Ooooh yes, that could make for some really interesting stories in the childhood friends AU area, or other AUs of normie Kaiba attending school with Jounouchi.

So as a quick riff on one of the many possibilities, imagine Kaiba and Jou as next-door neighbors, maybe they're childhood friends who were both raised by single parents who struggled financially or maybe they know each other more recently and casually. They recently graduated from high school and are trying to make end's meet for themselves and their families. Kaiba may or may not be going to college at the same time. Jou is working part-time gigs and has been trying his luck with "get rich" schemes (he's not above shortcuts as we see in the manga, especially if debt is still a major part of the financial picture).

One day, one of them jokes about a business idea they have. The other takes it seriously. No, we should do it. We can make it work. But it's something that needs both of their talent and grit to succeed. It's hard, especially at first while Jounouchi is still working and Kaiba still goes to classes. Sometimes, it even feels impossible. But they keep going. They have each other. And they're getting even closer as they pour all their spare time and money and sweat and tears into their joint venture.

It's theirs.

I can see them nursing deepening crushes and feelings for each other. But they're both hesitant to say something, not wanting to risk losing each other as friends or business partners.

Eventually, their hard work starts to pay off. They're succeeding. They want to celebrate that with each other. Grab the other and give him a kiss. Because he appreciates him and cares about him. Because he's sent so long wanting him too. All the doubts fly out the window, for now, riding the high of their success. They did this together.

Then like you said, their business gets legs. Jou maybe starts to bulk under the pressure, get cold feet because he's not used to anything going well for too long. He's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Kaiba's throwing everything he has into it, but that means he's starting to neglect other things in life. Other people. One wonders if their partnership, business-wise and romantically, will hold up under that strain.

#replies #anonymous #joukai asks #puppyshipping #violetshipping #yugioh #hope you don't mind that I took it and ran with it anon #need some of that delicious pining

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streaminn · 1 year

Text

YKnow what I love abt the streamer wednesday au? It dials up the absolute fear of outcasts by a hundred

Like the chatters of Wednesday will always be !?! Or 'be careful wednesday' everytime Enid comes in with food. Even the lovers of the morbid and macabre know the difference between enjoying smth in fiction and experiencing smth in real life

It doesn't help that this... Enid looked threatening as well. All sunken eyes and scarred skin. She may wear a mask but there's a clip of her claws digging onto the chair right near Wednesday's head and it's a reminder of how easy an outcast can kill a normie.

They stop mentioning potential cannibalism when a massive ban came in reply. They expected sarcasm, maybe a 'I'd eat humans too if I had to deal with them as much as Enid has,' not a cold look and and the silence of half the viewers as they get kicked out

Sure, the remaining members simp for the werewolf but they're still cautious. They're monster fuckers in mind only, never tempted to act on it like Wednesday

There's articles out there, probably hundreds to thousands of normie and outcast relationships ending very badly for the more.. Mortal person in the relationship and it worries chat.

They hope they dont have to look at the news and see the pale face of aspiring author Wednesday Addams on the screen, murdered and eaten by her roommate

Meanwhile, Enid is just tired from working constant night shifts and some leftover hypervigilance from Nevermore so she has some trouble sleeping

Wednesday has a strict sleep sched, but she makes sure to lay by the werewolf when it's time to sleep.

Enid likes to cook as a hobby, next to crotchet because making smth has always been a joy.

They're roommates. Wednesday is Vibing as an heiress to an old money family and while Enid knows that she can retire bc Wednesday offers, she tries to pay for her side with her job bc she feels guilty

Unlike streamer Enid, who's alot more secure with her life, this Enid is lowkey insecure with some issues not yet figured out.

Seeing as Enid didn't want to go to college, having not known what to take. She goes and becomes a bartender in a bar for outcasts and the occasional sneaking normie. It helps that she gets to hear random gossip, reminds her of her blog except more irl.

#wenclair #Streamer wednesday au #Enid sinclair #Wednesday addams

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jungkook97 · 10 months

Text

severed;; jjk

pairing: non-idol normie!jungkook x reader

word count: 7.7k

rating: teens & up!

genre/warnings: sci-fi, romance, drama, comedy, angst, strangers to established relationship!lovers to strangers again, soulmates au, post-college au

summary: you and jungkook had a terrible breakup. and so, you two decided to delete each other from your guys' memories.

notes: have y'all ever seen eternal sunshine of the spotless mind? severance? that's it. that's the plot, but if jungkook was in it!!

“Isn’t it diabolical to delete him from your brain?”

You shrugged, taking another chug of alcohol.

"Not if he does it first."

“Do you remember him?”

You scratched your head in confusion, not understanding the question.

“Do you remember him?” the person in the lab coat asked again.

You tilted your head once more, your brain was all muddled. There wasn’t anybody else but you and the person, and it was starting to creep you out a bit as to how cold everything was.

“Who?”

The nurse wrote down a few scribbles on her notepad.

“Success. You may proceed to the rest area now.”

You squinted your eyes as you looked down, staring at the package on your lap. It was a small box with a ribbon on it with the words, “Open when ready” card on top of it. You lifted up the card, flipping it to see the words, “THANK YOU FOR DELETING WITH US - LUMON” in the back.

Ah. It seems like I’ve deleted something from my memory.

You relaxed a bit, sighing as you got up from your seat. You remembered you had an appointment today for the procedure, but you couldn’t remember for who and for what. Probably for good reason, you hoped.

The procedure, you were told, was pretty painless. It took about a month to scan through your memories, trying to discard what is good and what’s bad, put in a floppy disk, and then delete all of it, emotions and all. You’d figured that it was a pretty painful thing, maybe some childhood trauma, a bad breakup, or a car accident…who knows.

Well, it was on the floppy disk, whatever it was. And until you were ready to look at it (in which you don’t intend to at the moment), you wouldn’t know.

And so you walked out of the cold and white doctor’s room into a softer-lit, all-green resting area. The plush couches were pressed up against the walls as you see other clients taking a rest, texting their friends and family about the procedure they had just done too.

You took a gaze at the clock: 4:32.

Looking down on the box, you could see a time written in the top corner of the card.

12:01. You’d been here for four hours.

“Did it hurt?” someone asked. You turned around, seeing a pretty attractive young man around the same age as you. He was smiling of course, elated probably that severance helped him. You wondered what his reason was, although you weren’t terribly curious either. It was none of your business.

“No, actually,” you replied nonchalantly, checking your phone. Dead, it appeared. You sighed. “You got a charger on you? Need to text my friend.”

The blonde nodded, unplugging his phone to give the cord to you.

“Battery’s full.”

You thanked him, plugging the phone in to juice it up. As the phone lit up and showed itself to be charging, the man continued asking.

“Do you remember why you're here?” he inquired. “This is my first time doing severance, and I’m worried about the after effects, you know.” He leaned into you a bit closer, whispering, “I heard the last guy who was in here puked the moment he saw his floppy disk inscription. Maybe his body remembered or something.”

You blinked, pouting. That sounded rather extreme. Surely, you’ve heard that severance doesn’t work for everyone, particularly with people who have extreme and prolonged trauma that one can’t entangle and delete easily, but throwing up after seeing the disk? You weren’t so sure about that.

“I think that’s just a rumor honestly,” you reassured the man, who was caressing his floppy disk with a lot of care. “What’s yours say?”

“Hm…” he pulled it closer to his eyes, reading it. “‘kth_2021-22.zip.’ Sounds like an ex or something. Three letters always mean ‘ex’ from what I hear.”

“God, I’m so sorry,” you patted him on the shoulder. “Breakups are the worst. Hope it’s for the best.”

The guy sighed, lifting up his jacket after it slid down his shoulders. “It’s whatever. I’m sure it was the best for me. Maybe it was a one-sided love. I hear that happens a lot.”

You found yourself agreeing with him. Although you weren’t exactly sure or really ready to look at whatever it was that got you to the Lumon office, you also felt relieved. Weirdly nervous, but very relieved. As if a big weight has been off of your shoulders, and you could take on the world.

You weren’t sure why you felt that way. Maybe it was your body remembering.

“Anyway, I think I’m gonna head out. Name’s Jimin, by the way. We should get a coffee sometime, maybe track our progress together.” He waved goodbye to you before standing up.

Gesturing for his cord back, you unplugged your phone, grabbing the cable for him. He slipped a little piece of paper in between your fingers. His number presumably.

“Oh, okay,” you replied, shaking his head with it before he lightly laughed, walking out of the resting room and into what seemed like the regular cityscape. You slunk back into the chair, the box with the supposed floppy disk in your hands. Curious, you slid it open, trying to see what your severed appointment was about.

“jjk_2020-22.zip.”

Great. An ex.

“You know what, I’m gonna do it. I’m going to fucking do it!”

You were drunk. And high. Drunk and high at the same time. It has barely been twenty four hours since you found out Jungkook deleted you from his memories and the pain was not letting up. You had been crying to the point of throwing up at this point, and it was not looking pretty.

Sure, you were a bad girlfriend (allegedly, anyways), but to the point of severance? Jungkook promised when you two started getting serious that he would never do such a thing. He loved you, he said. He loved you too much to do such an experimental procedure like that.

What a load of bullshit.

“Dude. You cannot be serious!” Namjoon exclaimed, shook to the core. He attempted to take the alcohol bottle away from you, but to no avail. “You know severance is permanent, right?”

“Yeah, and what about it?” you hiccuped, sliding your hands through the photos of the two together. That awful bastard, you thought. How can this motherfucker be laughing or smiling at all of these photos? It was jeering at you really, like some sick joke. “He had the audacity to break up with me and delete me from his memories? Oh, now he’s gonna be deleted too, FUCK him.”

Namjoon sighed.

“Isn’t it diabolical to delete him from your brain?”

You shrugged, taking another chug of alcohol.

“Not if he did it first.”

Your booksmart friend didn’t have much of a retort after that.

“W-well, didn’t you hear about the side effects? What if you forget about me?”

You chuckled, swinging the glass around in the air.

“You’re not gonna be forgotten, Kim Namjoon. You’re my best friend, for fuck’s sake.”

“W-well, I introduced you to him.”

You swallowed.

“You’re right. You’re gonna be forgotten too, Kim Namjoon.” You gestured wildly in a big circle. “We’re all gonna be forgotten! Severed! Deleted! Vanished!”

Your abnormally tall friend looked at you in disbelief. After all, you were kidding about deleting your best friend from your memories, but he was not amused at all by the possibility of you deleting Jungkook too. Namjoon had desperately tried to get Jungkook to stop the procedure which kept him at bay until one night he impulsively booked the appointment and went to do it without Namjoon knowing. It was terrible. After all, Namjoon had no idea that their breakup would even come, let alone be that awful to the point of severance.

Oh, he hated quarreling couples. Maybe it was best that he retired from his wingman occupation and went back to actually dating people. Not that it would be a joy. He was after all, this close to doing the procedure himself on a situationship he had, only to chicken out.

“She has more balls than I do,” he sighed to himself as your eyes slowly began to close and yawned repeatedly.

“I’ll delete you…Jungkook…”

It had been a week passed since you had done the procedure, and to your surprise, there wasn’t much of a fuss. Surely, your friend Namjoon seemed upset that you did it, but due to the potential complications, he had to sign a nondisclosure to not speak of the ex–er, subject that was deleted from your memory.

“I mean, you can always look back on the disk if you want,” Namjoon egged on in the middle of your guys’ brunch. “People who do it can choose to keep the disk to look back at it without the emotional attachment. I’m guessing the non-severed you wanted to cherish some memories with it.”

“Maybe,” you pondered, swirling the straw in your cup in circles, looking at a distance. There was a pit of emptiness that you couldn’t help but to feel, in which you have already brought up with the exit team. Normal symptoms, they said. It’ll take a few weeks before you’re back to normal, they said.

You thought about what your new friend Jimin had said over lunch a few days ago. Your body still remembered the events that happened from time to time, but the emotional parts of it were voided from your mind and plopped on a disk to view from a third-person perspective.

It was a scary concept turned into reality, but you weren’t entirely creeped out by it. At this point, it was fun guessing what the topic was. So far, you were able to figure out it was a breakup of sorts, but not sure with who. After all, there are 8 billion people on this planet.

“You do seem happier though,” Namjoon remarked, sipping a bit of his latte. “Like much happier. The thing…” he said carefully, dragging the second word out, “...the thing definitely held you back. The thing…uh…” he gestured in attempts to articulate further. “Ah…I don’t know how to not talk about this without mentioning–”

“Hyung!”

You glanced up, eyes directly meeting with big doe eyes. It was a young man who had a cool effortless style to him, wearing a basic white Calvin Klein tee and sweatpants, followed by a yellow Supreme hoodie. He had a full sleeve and a couple of lip piercings to boot. He was cute, but definitely was not your type.

“J-jungkook!” he stuttered, sitting up rather abruptly as he nearly knocked down his chair. You laughed, waving the air to get him to stand up.

“Please, you’re embarrassing your friend,” you retorted as the guy smiled back for a quick second.

“I’m used to Namjoon-hyung being that way. He’s our clumsy little tall friend. Huh, Hyung?”

“Ay, stop teasing me like that,” he said hastily. Namjoon took a quick glance at the both of you, clearing his throat. He seemed weirdly nervous all of a sudden, as if he was caught cheating with his side chick. “Uh…this is Jungkook. Jungkook, this is one of my college friends…”

You extended your hand out to say hello as Namjoon continued to give a whole background of how you guys met, but you were met with a blank stare, almost as if the guy was embarrassed to talk to you. There was an awkward silence between you two, and you figured to try to say something, but there was something rather dead and cold behind Jungkook’s eyes that you felt rather uncomfortable by. You grimaced, rescinding the handshake back.

What’s up with this kid? Why is he staring at me like that?

You also felt that empty feeling again, as if something was terribly missing. It was a lot, but you thought nothing of it. It seemed like it happened rather randomly and in little bursts.

“...anyway, nice to see you, little one. I need to go to my appointment, so we’ll see each other soon, yeah?”

Jungkook snapped out of the daze to nod at his broad-shouldered friend.

“Yeah. See you,” he said before waving goodbye, turning swiftly around and leaving the scene as quickly as he appeared. You frowned as you watched the kid walked away briskly, only to be met with Namjoon’s nervous expression.

“What?”

“What what?”

You sighed.

“Never mind. You’re being weird today.”

“He just stared at you? Did he know you or anything?”

“No…?” you answered with a questioning tone, sipping some more wine. It was pouring outside and you decided to have a few drinks with Jimin at his place. It turned out he was extremely and terribly gay, and definitely was not trying to hit on you when he slipped that number in your fingers. Thank God, you sighed. At least, he wasn’t going to take advantage of the fact that you maybe had an ex and try to be your rebound. Surely, you had enough rebounds in your life as it is.

“Suspicious indeed,” Jimin squinted his eyes, sipping a bit of his newly concocted cocktail. “Ah, I thought about watching the footage on the disk back this week, but someone had told me not to.”

“Why?” you leaned in closer, staring at Jimin’s disk perched on top of the coffee table. “You think you’re gonna see some bad shit on there?”

“Nah,” he remarked, leaning back on the couch and gathering his legs up to his chin. “Someone told me that they threw up after they watched everything on the disk. Like, for 10 minutes straight or something.”

“What’s with you and throwing up?” you laughed, hitting him playfully. He hit back, giggling.

“I don’t know. At this point, I think people are just lying to me.”

“Yeah, probably!”

As Jimin gathered the glasses together to start cleaning up, you drifted off for a second. What if you’re ready to see the contents of the tape? Was it safe to see what’s on it for you? What was so awful that you chose to delete this person from your memories and detach yourself like that? You wondered how much you loved this person, how much you wanted this person to be a part of your life forever…what were the possibilities? There were so many?

One thing was for sure though. You were ready to watch the tape tonight.

And so you did.

As you plopped the disk into the hard drive of your desktop CPU, it booted up, showing the LUMON logo. As the screen loaded in front of you, you tapped your fingers nervously on the keyboard, wondering what you were going to unpack.

A virtual set of eyes popped up and opened its eyelids, finished with a pair of lips. Then, a female voice greeted you.

["𝘏𝘌𝘓𝘓𝘖, 𝘐 𝘈𝘔 𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘙 𝘝𝘐𝘙𝘛𝘜𝘈𝘓 𝘔𝘌𝘔𝘖𝘙𝘠 𝘒𝘌𝘌𝘗𝘌𝘙, 𝘓𝘠𝘓𝘈. 𝘠𝘖𝘜 𝘈𝘙𝘌 𝘈𝘊𝘊𝘌𝘚𝘚𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘍𝘐𝘓𝘌: 𝘑-𝘑-𝘒, 𝘜𝘕𝘋𝘌𝘙𝘚𝘊𝘖𝘙𝘌, 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠, 𝘋𝘈𝘚𝘏, 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠-𝘛𝘞𝘖. 𝘞𝘏𝘈𝘛 𝘞𝘖𝘜𝘓𝘋 𝘠𝘖𝘜 𝘓𝘐𝘒𝘌 𝘛𝘖 𝘚𝘌𝘌?"]

A folder appeared on the screen before it opened itself up to show a multitude of videos, seemingly time stamped in the course of the past two years. You tilted your head in amazement, scrolling through all the different files and seeing one person you had seen just earlier in the week present in all the videos.

“It’s that kid. Jung…shit, what was his fucking name?”

You scratched your head trying to remember, but to no avail. No wonder Namjoon seemed nervous around you when he came by.

Was this guy your ex? A friend? What did he do to you?

You had a sinking feeling as to what it could be, only to be comforted in not seeing any sexual misconduct or assault warnings on the side of the videos. You sighed in relief, leaning back against your office chair.

Where do you even start?

That empty feeling came up again, this time stronger than before. It felt really uncomfortable, something that you wanted to go away.

Now, it was starting to make sense. The empty feelings were probably what was missing, what this person, whoever it is, is going to provide answers for.

“There was a guy it seems,” you began replying back to Lyla. “Apparently he meant the world to me based on some of these previews. I can’t seem…I can’t seem to remember him, Lyla.”

A moment of silence.

["𝘐'𝘔 𝘚𝘖𝘙𝘙𝘠, 𝘐 𝘊𝘈𝘕𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘈𝘊𝘊𝘌𝘚𝘚 𝘛𝘖 𝘙𝘌𝘊𝘓𝘈𝘐𝘔 𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘙 𝘔𝘌𝘔𝘖𝘙𝘐𝘌𝘚."]

“Uh, I’m not asking…” you swore under your breath before proceeding. “Um. Not trying to remember. Just…I weirdly…have this empty feeling right now. Just wanna know if this is related to this person perhaps.”

Silence. Longer than usual.

["𝘞𝘖𝘜𝘓𝘋 𝘠𝘖𝘜 𝘓𝘐𝘒𝘌 𝘛𝘖 𝘝𝘐𝘌𝘞 𝘍𝘐𝘓𝘌, 𝘑-𝘑-𝘒, 𝘜𝘕𝘋𝘌𝘙𝘚𝘊𝘖𝘙𝘌, 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘋𝘈𝘚𝘏, 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠-𝘛𝘞𝘖 𝘍𝘙𝘖𝘔 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘝𝘌𝘙𝘠 𝘉𝘌𝘎𝘐𝘕𝘕𝘐𝘕𝘎?"]

Should I? What’s the worst that could happen?

“Yes.”

["𝘼𝘾𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝙊𝙉𝙀."]

The screen turned to black.

It was you and Namjoon sitting at a restaurant booth, waiting for someone. It was late 2020 as the snow engulfed the streets of Seoul and people were hurriedly trying to get out of work since it was the end of day. You sat there seemingly nervous, pondering about something that you cannot recall what it was.

“Are you sure about this guy?” you inquired.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. He’s one of my good friends actually,” Namjoon grinned. His eyes met somebody as he gestured them over. “There he is! Jungkook!”

You peered through your shoulder to see a young man and to your shock, it was the guy who you had met earlier who was gawking at you in the weirdest way.

Pausing the video, you sat back in your chair, wondering what this encounter was. Was Namjoon introducing you to a friend as a date? You swore this guy Jungkook wasn’t your type. You preferred guys who were more clean cut, academic looking and well, not have tattoos.

Maybe Namjoon saw something in this kid that you didn’t see before. Who even knows besides continuing on watching the tape.

“Ah, we’ve met before!” you exclaimed. You stood up, giving Jungkook a warm embrace. “We met at the show that Yoongi had, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he replied, smiling back. “Namjoon talked a lot about you right after the show to me. It seemed like he was the one who was interested in you rather than trying to pitch a date, haha.”

“He does that,” you smiled awkwardly, extending your hand out to have him sit down. “Let’s eat, yeah?”

And so the conversation went on as you continued to watch the tape intently, getting a notebook to write some notes down. It turned out Jungkook was a friend of Yoongi’s, graduated from a state university back in the States and worked for some finance consulting firm nearby. You were surprised, of course, considering that the kid had a very visible sleeve tattoo alongside finger tattoos to boot. You couldn’t take the guy seriously despite the fact that he fits your profile now. After all, he must’ve charmed his way into your heart for you to have spent 2 years with the guy.

“So what do you do for a living?” Jungkook asked as he volunteered to flip the meats over to cook. You covered your mouth to swallow (a movement that you looking in retrospect gagged at, knowing that you were trying to look girly and proper in front of the guy) before answering,

“I’m a marketing director at an entertainment company,” you replied, grabbing some more seasoned bean sprouts to your plate. “I can’t say who I work for though, people would freak out.”

“Really?” he chuckled. The sound of it was impeccably attractive to you, you admit to yourself. “And why is that?”

“Because my main account is a girl group who every guy is obsessed with. Or rather, just that one singular member.”

He lifted up an eyebrow.

“Oh? I don’t think I’d be weird about it if you tell me.”

“Dude trust me, she doesn’t lie,” Namjoon joked, taking a sip of his soju. “When she told me she was working for Wonyoung’s group, I was sure that none of our boys knew so they didn't bother her for the girls’ numbers.”

“Namjoon,” you emphasized as he opened his mouth in shock, covering his mouth.

“I’m sorry!” he hastily replied, putting his hands up in defeat. “I swear–”

“No, that was on purpose!” you retorted back, throwing some seasoned spinach his way. The both of you laughed as Jungkook nervously laughed back, unsure if it was a joke or not.

“Aren’t they really young though?” Jungkook remarked, putting some cooked meat onto everyone’s plates. “Like, one of them is sixteen or something, no?”

“Eh, men are men,” you replied dryly, thanking him quietly as he passed some samgyeopsal over to you. “And men are pigs. I’ve told them this and they still don’t give a shit. Especially when it comes to little Wonyo. Everyone throws logic out of the window when I talk about her.”

“‘Wonyo’…” Jungkook’s voice trailed off. “I’m guessing you’re close to Wonyoung to call her that?”

“Yeah. You obsessed with her too?” you asked plainly.

It was a test, you could tell in hindsight. You were the type to test men out to see they weren’t creeps every single time. Namjoon hated it (“You’re starting up shit for no reason!” he would say), but as a strong independent feminist yourself, you always had to make sure that some guy you were interested in wasn’t a predatory weirdo.

“Nah,” Jungkook answered just as matter-of-factly, stuffing his cheeks with meat. “I don’t like barely legal girls.” His cheeks began to flush a faint tint of pink. “Actually, I’m more into older women.”

You choked on some mashed potatoes.

“Jesus,” you paused the video, hands covering your face. You couldn’t help but to flush as well at how incredibly cute that was. Surely, you were always into older men, but younger men lately have had a death grip on you.

You can see your old self blushing too. Ah, that was what got you to be interested, you thought. You were so predictable.

There were more conversations here and there, and you could tell over time, Jungkook felt more and more confident, extending his shoulder blades to make him look bigger than he actually was, cooking the meat a bit more aggressively and not stopping once to compliment you in some way or another. He was being outwardly flirtatious, something that you, as a Libra-dominant person, enjoyed quite a bit. You couldn’t help but feel the butterflies in your stomach flutter every time he said something wildly flirty, you would coil back in your chair out of embarrassment. He was totally your type, and it was crazy how deeply charismatic he was.

“So, when am I going to see you again, my dear?” he asked as he held the door for you. You could see Namjoon’s eyeballs roll to the back of his head as the old you continued to be flustered by how directly forward this kid was.

“How about tomorrow, you little flirt?” you teased back, pulling him into a hug. Jungkook put his arms around your waist quite immediately, his nose scrunched up in embarrassment as he was doing this in front of his good friend.

“You guys are disgusting,” Namjoon muttered loud enough for you two to hear. “What am I getting myself into with y’all being a thing…”

You leaned in closer as you could see your old self’s sparkling eyes looking into Jungkook’s. His big caramel eyes were looking back at you as well with his smile getting so big that you couldn’t help but smile too. Even though you two were getting to know each other, you could tell this was the start of something really great, although, with the fate of what happened, you wondered why this seemingly good relationship was now on a floppy disk and not in your brain.

What happened, you thought to yourself. Did Jungkook break your heart that bad for you to forget him this way? Your heart sank at the thought of it. Surely, the answers would reveal itself as the tapes go on, but somehow, you were scared to watch the rest of it.

[“𝙀𝙉𝘿 𝙊𝙁 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝙊𝙉𝙀. 𝙉𝙊𝙒 𝘼𝘾𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙂, 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝙏𝙒𝙊."]

It was a routine every night to watch a few videos from the disk. It was like binging on a new show you fell in love with, except this time, you were falling in love with this Jungkook from your computer screen.

At some point during the viewing, you found yourself pausing every few seconds, usually having to stomach what had just happened. You two were impeccably adorable, going on weekly dates the moment after the brunch ended. Jungkook was full of surprises, taking you on amusement park dates. He made you get on the biggest rollercoaster in the park, and you cried the entire time because you hated rollercoasters. You, on the other hand, took him to art museums and jazz concerts, something he always found boring. As his feet tapped in anxiousness and boredom, you would relieve your boyfriend from it by promising to get frisky in the bathrooms later on in the night, only to be blue-balled because you became hyperfixated on the topic at hand, talking about it for hours after the date was over.

In fact, you two also did a lot of fucking in the beginning, a lot. It was interesting at first as you were mostly vanilla, but as time went on, Jungkook did things to you that you never thought could happen to your petite little body. It was exhilarating to watch and also fascinating.

But also, there were arguments here and there. Jungkook was younger by a bit than you after all, and he was deeply, utterly insecure.

[“𝘼𝘾𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙂, 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀. 𝙏𝙒𝙊 𝙃𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙍𝙀𝘿 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙁𝙄𝙁𝙏𝙔-𝙏𝙒𝙊.”]

Jungkook slammed the door behind him, creating a bit of a scene in your apartment. You sighed, still cooking dinner for the both of you.

“Who was that on your story?” he immediately inquired as he slipped off his shoes. You knew where this was about to go. From the last episode, Jungkook found out you were still talking to your ex-now-turned-friend, Sam. Sam was an international student turned graduate who you spent all of college dating. Despite the fact that you guys were deeply compatible, you two ended up breaking up over the lack of time together, but nonetheless, you two enjoyed each other’s company.

“Sam,” you sighed, setting the bowls together. “And yes, it’s that Sam.”

You gestured Jungkook to sit down, but he was heated, hands on his hips. With his tongue sticking out from his cheek, he started pacing back and forth, a sign of agitation.

“Why did you see him? You still got feelings?”

“Jungkook,” you said sternly.

You shook your head and snorted, chewing on the bulgogi you just made. If there was anything you knew about Jungkook at this point, it was the fact that he was a deeply jealous little guy, constantly feeling like he had to compete for your attention. Surely in the beginning, he charmed his way into your pants it seemed, but things have been different since then. You two had gotten used to each other’s presence as you could tell, and Jungkook’s flirty antics were no longer getting the old you flustered.

“Is that not a fair question to ask?” he shot back, crossing his arms. “You did say that you’re the type to always get into situationships.”

“That was the old me,” you rebutted, setting some side dishes on the kitchen island. “Now can you please sit? The food is getting cold.”

Jungkook frowned, widening his stance while staring at you dead in the eye.

“Please,” you urged, waving the food in front of you. “I really don’t wanna argue today. You’ve been on edge so much lately because of the recent restructuring and I just want it to be peaceful.”

It was true. Jungkook’s job had recently merged into a bigger conglomerate and as a result, his department had been cutting people and laying off folks for weeks now. He felt extremely nervous and unhinged for quite some time, and as a result, he has been particularly accusatory toward old you in the past several episodes.

You could see the old you pleading with your eyes, sighing as Jungkook eventually swallowed his pride and came over, sitting down next to you.

“I’m sorry,” he opened his mouth sometime later in between chews. “I’m just–”

“...stressed, I know,” you completed his sentence, giving him a piece of stir-fried pork chop. “Now eat. Your girlfriend spent a couple of hours out of her day to feed her easily jealous boyfriend.”

You smiled softly back at Jungkook, in which he smiled quietly to himself, sighing.

“I wish you were there with me every day. I wouldn’t go as crazy, you know.”

“But I can’t and you know that,” you logically explained it to him. “Have you thought–”

“...of quitting?” he scoffed, shaking his head. “No, I can’t quit now. Especially since Eunwoo got promoted. If he out of all people could get promoted before I do…”

He trailed off. You sighed.

“What did I say about caring about what Cha Eunwoo is doing?” you warned.

“Ignore him,” he answered through gritted teeth, munching on the pork chop slices you gave him. “But he’s so annoying, my love.”

“Well, my love, you need to keep ignoring him for your peace! Your peace is important to me, and you’re always getting so riled up over the smallest things.”

Jungkook grimaced a bit before pouting.

“You’re telling me that the whole Sam thing is a ‘small thing’?” he did air quotes at the last two words.

At this point, you paused the video. It was getting ridiculous at how incredibly immature Jungkook was, and you were also full from your dinner.

While it was true that Jungkook was this rebellious kid who doesn’t listen for shit and gets feisty too often, you were also the same way. It was a shock how you two were compatible considering that you believed in opposites attract, but at the same time, it made all the sense. Jungkook was a mirror to you, and it was incredible how intoxicating the relationship has been. You felt a pit in your stomach in where this could go, and frankly, you weren’t looking forward to seeing it.

[𝘼𝘾𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙀𝙀 𝙃𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙍𝙀𝘿 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔-𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀.]

You two were at a wedding. Jin’s wedding to be exact.

It was a lively affair, filled with friends that you grew to know over the course of a few weeks. Seokjin was the oldest in your little quartet of friends who finally proposed to his sweetheart of five years (in which she already knew way in advance because Seokjin was terrible when it comes to keeping secrets). Namjoon had finished singing some cheesy English-only number he wrote specifically for the couple, drunkenly crying after as he toasted for the newly wedded.

You were sitting with your now 2-years-older boyfriend as he goofily danced with his guitarist friend Yoongi, who was too shy to show some of his moves. He took it seriously though, doing parts of a choreography of a song he composed for Jaesang with some chic flair. The man had made good money by producing a lot of amazing beats for the industry, but this was nothing compared to how much Jungkook teased him for it.

As the song came to an end, Seokjin grabbed the mic from the DJ as audio feedback irritated everyone’s ears. He was incredibly drunk, and his new wife was urging him to sit down and drink some water to no avail.

“Ah ah, let me SING!” he protested, making his wife sit down as he continued to hiccup his way through it all. “I am the best singer on the planet, let’s goooooo~!”

The DJ soon played a slower song with Seokjin singing a half a second too late, only to start over again. Everyone was laughing, charmed by the barely married man feeling confident to sing in front of his beloved friends and family.

“You know, he isn’t bad,” Yoongi piped up as everyone began to bring out their phones to record with him doing the same. “I would love him to be in the studio with me and record something.”

“You’re scouting people now, Yoongi?” you giggled as Yoongi chuckled back, smacking his lips.

“I gotta keep my bag flowing,” he sheepishly replied.

The both of you continued to have a good laugh as Jungkook swung by in his sleek black and grey checkered Louis Vuitton suit, wrapping his arms around you.

“Babe, let’s slow dance,” he whined. “We haven’t danced together all night and we look hot together.”

“Jungkook,” you pleaded, pointing at your injured ankle. “Ankle. Sprained. Cannot dance very well.”

“I’ll carry you,” Jungkook reassured you, starting to pull you onto the dance floor. “Come on, let’s dance under the disco ball and make out. Please?”

“We’re already halfway there,” you grumbled, turning your pout into a smile. He was cheekily smiling from ear-to-ear at your approval and pulled you right in the middle of the dance floor, supporting your whole body to ensure that your sprain wouldn’t get worse.

It was a beautiful sight, and as the lights slowly dimmed for Seokjin’s impressive high notes, it looked like you two were deeply in love with each other, that happiest that you seemed to have ever been. Surely, you had a few boyfriends that made you feel something, but genuine happiness? You haven’t seen yourself smile like that in a long time. It was a core memory for sure, a core memory you wished you remembered for the life of you, but cannot.

All you could do was continue watching the tape with absolutely no control of what was to happen next. It was a rollercoaster, similar to the one that you were terribly afraid of to go on. On some days, it felt like you two were a perfect match, while other days, it felt like there was no way to understand each other. It was hot and cold, fiery and icy. Sometimes you felt like you could connect to this Jungkook, only to realize that it doesn’t matter. Fate had other plans and you two are no longer together, not knowing that this history happened.

You wondered if Jungkook now had deleted your memories of you. Namjoon didn’t want to reveal much. After all, he’s still tied under the NDA to not speak about you two because you guys weren’t supposed to know each other. You wondered if Jungkook didn’t delete you, if he missed you the way you strangely and unexplainably missed him. After all, how can you miss someone you never met? You were unsure, but you definitely felt it.

As the star of the night sings the closing notes, the two of you had your foreheads against each other, staring into each other's eyes. You couldn’t help but to feel emotional from seeing it, shedding a tear as you paused for a moment to take it in.

You fell in love with Jungkook. It wasn’t even funny anymore, you had successfully fallen in love with someone you loved and decided to forget. You couldn’t help but to feel pissed at your old self. Like, why did you do it? Why did you choose to delete him from your memory? Was it out of spite? Out of anger? What was it?

It was killing you inside, and you continued to replay the moment over and over again, seeing the happiness in both of your guys’ eyes.

“I love you,” Jungkook finally whispered. His eyes were closed now, shaking a bit out of nervousness probably.

“I love you too,” you said back immediately. “I love you so much more.”

“I love you the most,” he pressed, trying to end it.

The both of you laughed before sharing a sweet kiss together.

“Guys, let’s gather together! Bouquet throwing time!”

All the girls began to scream as the two of you parted lips. He opened his eyes to peer over your shoulder, turning you around and pushing you lightly toward the growing crowd of women.

“Go, go, go!” he urged.

And so you walked over there through the crowd carefully, making sure you weren’t putting so much pressure on the injured ankle. Eventually, you were in the back as Seokjin’s wife slowly began to rock her bouquet front and back before turning around to get ready.

“Okay, let’s…go!”

The bouquet was thrown up in the air and as everyone swarmed each other to block their way, it ended up landing in…

…your hands.

Everyone cheered on for you as you giddily yelled at the top of your lungs, ecstatic. You turned around to try to find Jungkook in the crowd, only seeing him beaming at you. You held the bouquet up and then…

…smile vanished.

“What?”

You paused the video. You wouldn't believe it. And so, you watched it again.

And again.

He did indeed turn stone-faced at the moment you pulled up the bride’s bouquet. It wasn’t a sneer. It wasn’t a frown. Just. Nothing.

“What the fuck…” you said out loud, slinking back into the couch. You unpaused the video and the scene continued.

Your smile faded at the sight of it, in which you made the same face as him, throwing the bouquet down. Jungkook, upon seeing you, turned around hastily, smacking his lips together to sit back down on his seat. You went back to your seat as well, not looking at him.

Shit. This is where it goes to shit, huh.

["𝘼𝘾𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙂. 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙀𝙀 𝙃𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙍𝙀𝘿 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔 𝙎𝙄𝙓."]

The car ride home was quiet. Too quiet.

At this point, you were seething from the tape. It didn’t help that you two ignored each other for the whole night, after exchanging some “I love yous” before this bouquet incident unfolded. No one was saying anything, and it was pissing you off.

“Is someone going to say something?” you muttered under your breath, pressing the fast forward button a bit to see if things changed.

Then, a single sentence came out of Jungkook’s mouth.

“About earlier…I didn’t mean that.”

“Mean what?” you shot back, sitting up from your seat. “You literally told me to go catch the bouquet and then when I did, you made this face like…like…you don’t want to marry me or something.”

“No, that’s not what I was thinking,” Jungkook rebutted, his hands gripping on the steering wheel tighter. “I was just…taken aback, that’s all.”

“Why?”

Yeah. Why?

“Why…” he repeated to himself, trailing off. “I don’t know, my face just reacted. I don’t know what I was thinking, okay?”

“Oh really. And I’m supposed to believe you?”

“Sweetheart, can we please not argue tonight? I had a lot of fun, and it’s been a while since–”

“Oh, it’s been a while?” you interrupted, scoffing. “Oh, it’s been a while since I wasn’t a killjoy, is that it?”

You could tell Jungkook was starting to tense up, gritting his teeth.

“Yes, maybe that was it. Because, I don’t know, you have been on my ass lately about not finding a job, and you don’t pick up after yourself.”

“What? What the fuck?” you laughed bitterly as the two of you pulled up at your place. “What the actual fuck? You don’t even live with me!”

“I don’t, but I sure stayed at your house long enough to know that you’re pretty fucking gross when we’re not together. And maybe, I don’t want to move in seeing all of that, I don’t know.”

“Oh, we’re just speaking our feelings now? Clearing the air?” you shook your head in disbelief. “Well, you’re not really the most pleasant person to be sleeping next to. Have you ever thought about going to sleep at a regular time instead of playing your video games until 5 AM?”

“I have insomnia, my love,” Jungkook refuted. “You told me you weren’t a light sleeper.”

“I’m a pretty heavy sleeper. You,” you pointed right at him. “You are just loud!”

“Well, it’s not like you gave a fuck up until this point, haven’t you? You just care now because I fucking made a face at the wedding.”

“Yes, maybe that’s the case but…maybe, maybe, your little face was a sign.”

“A sign of what?”

“That we’re not going to be endgame, Jungkook.”

You were breathing hard at that point, and same with the present you. The two of you looked at each other blankly as Jungkook’s voice shook in anger.

“What the fuck are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying…” your voice quivered a bit. “I’m saying, if we can’t seem to stand each other’s habits, maybe we should break up.”

Boom. There it was.

“What?” Jungkook scoffed, licking his lips. “You’re going to break up with me after I fucking told you I love you the most?”

“You don’t,” you pressed. “If you do, you wouldn’t constantly be so insecure about Sam or any of my old exes. I shower you with endless amounts of approval every day, trying to make you feel a bit better about yourself, and you just don’t care. You pull me in with all the lovebombing, telling me we’re perfect for each other, and then you pull some shit like all of it is nothing.`

Jungkook was silent. You stared back at him, tears welling up in your eyes.

“I don’t know…I don’t know if I want to continue doing this. It’s been two years since we’ve dated and I feel like every day, I don’t know who I’m going to get next. It feels like you’re just here to only want me when you’re happy and don’t when you’re not happy. Like, what is the point of all of this?”

“‘What’s the point…’” he repeated, only to stop from there. Putting his face in his hands, he sighed deeply. “Maybe you’re fucking right. Maybe I really don’t know what the hell I want in this relationship. We fight so much and it’s so volatile. I don’t know why, I just…I always feel like I have to argue because sometimes, my dear, I cannot stand you when we do. Like, you don’t understand how I feel, how much I need to be consoled that I’m the only one–”

“YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE, JUNGKOOK,” you yelled, your hands shaking. “I keep telling you this and you don’t FUCKING believe me!”

“Then, why are you still having lunch with Sam?”

“Because we’re close friends!”

“And I’m not to you? My feelings don’t fucking matter, does it?”

“It does, it’s just–FUCK.”

You broke down into sobs as Jungkook hit the steering wheel, crying as well. In fact, that was all you two did for a bit.

“I’m going to go,” you said after a while, sniffling as you grabbed your purse. “I don’t know if we’re going to be okay after this–”

“We’re not,” Jungkook said with finality. “Let’s do it. Let’s break up.”

You turned over to him, looking at him straight in the eye. He was dead serious.

“Fine.”

You opened the door, got out, and closed the door shut behind. Jungkook put the car into drive, and drove off almost immediately.

[“𝘌𝘕𝘋 𝘖𝘍 𝘍𝘐𝘓𝘌 𝘛𝘏𝘙𝘌𝘌 𝘏𝘜𝘕𝘋𝘙𝘌𝘋 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘚𝘌𝘝𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘚𝘐𝘟. 𝘌𝘕𝘋 𝘖𝘍 𝘑-𝘑-𝘒, 𝘜𝘕𝘋𝘌𝘙𝘚𝘊𝘖𝘙𝘌, 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘋𝘈𝘚𝘏, 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠-𝘛𝘞𝘖 𝘋𝘖𝘛 𝘡𝘐𝘗.”]

And so the tape ended.

It was days, days before you could move on from the contents of the disk. You miss Jungkook more than ever before. The doctors were right about the empty feeling, it does go away.

Except, it was replaced by something else, an array of feelings you feel after watching the tapes.

And so, you went on about your days. Typical, normal days.

Then, you ran into somebody. Someone who you only saw on the tapes.

It was a nice summer day when it happened. You were running errands, trying to catch up for the week and decided to stop by your favorite coffee shop.

“Jungkook?”

The young man turned around. He was wearing all black with another colored Supreme beanie with Birkenstocks.

“____?” he replied back, although unsure. You nodded, putting your small bag of groceries behind your shoulder.

“Yeah,” you answered. “It’s me.”

A moment of silence.

“Uh, I watched the tapes…um, well. I should probably preface that I deleted you from my memories–”

“Me too.”

You stood there, frozen.

“Oh.”

So that answered your question whether he did the procedure too.

“Yeah…” Jungkook continued on. “Um, I went back to see them too and uh…” his fingers began to fidget with the bottom of his shirt. “Well, I know that I don’t necessarily remember anything or remember why I chose to severe you, I can’t help but to feel sorry. For us. For what happened. I don’t know why I feel that way, but I do.”

He was deeply remorseful, very apologetic. You couldn’t help but to feel bad, lowering your bag of groceries to the ground as Jungkook stared at them, unsure of how to really react.

“I wish I didn’t delete you,” he concluded. “I wish we were still together. Watching those tapes made me feel like I lost out on something. I don’t know why I was so insecure. I could care less if you’re friends with your exes. Maybe I’m just too immature at the time. I know a great deal of time has passed, but I want us to–”

He coughed a bit, choking on his words.

“I want us to–”

He coughed a bit more, and then…

Vomit.

“Oh my God!” you exclaimed as the crowd did the same, with a few people hastily grabbing napkins from their bags so Jungkook could clean himself up.

You stared at him agape as you remembered what Jimin had said the first day you two had met.

“You…you were the guy who threw up when you saw your disk, didn’t you?” you inquired. Jungkook, now, wiping his mouth, looked up.

“How did you know?”

Your mouth grew into a smile.

“Heard from somebody.”

Jungkook smiled as well, standing up as he straightened himself up in an attempt to try to look bigger.

“Ah, well, they say it’s a side effect or something. Your body remembers.”

“Yeah…” you trailed off, smiling back at him fondly. “Your body does remember.”

END.

#jungkook #jungkook x reader #jungkook drabble #jungkook fanfic #writing #mine #I HAD A DREAM ABOUT THIS!!!!!!! I DON'T KNOW WHY I FEEL COMPELLED TO WRITE IT AT 3 AM BUT HERE I AM!#honestly i thought this was gonna be longer but alas. whatever fdjkghak;h

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poisonder · 10 months

Text

i made a normal college au for my npcs who are fantasy college students and this is casmir. he still bullies one of the pcs Calibri for no reason its very important to his character

#Casmir seastare #dnd #dungeons and dragons #art #oc #npc #tiefling #normie college au

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bagdaddyb · 1 year

Note

Ayo Little Apple was so good! Do you think you can do a prequel? Maybe of how Larissa and r got together or how they met?

How I Met the Real You

Warnings: College (yes that’s a warning), alcohol consumption, cursing

Author's note: I've decided to make Little Apple into an au since people loved it so much! Go ahead and send the Little Apple au ask and req my way

The walls shook with the force of the speakers in the small house. People's shoulders touched due to the overcrowded nature of the party and Larissa can't help but wonder why she even showed up to the stupid frat party. No one liked her that much she knew but Steven, oh people loved Steven and Larissa didn't mind having to pretend at least it allowed her human interaction every once and a while. So fighting back a grimace at how uncomfortable she was she tried to tune back into what her group... Steven's group of friends where talking about or trying to talk about over the music.

"Fuck this school."

"Fuck these teachers too but please don't get me started we came here to have fun not continue to wallow."

"If we could have fun we would. House full of people and still nobody here."

Larissa fought back a scowl towards the boy to her left. Normies always put themselves on a pedestal, make themselves out to be so much better than the rest when in reality they're all the same.

"I'm going to grab another drink."

Larissa said in a voice she didn't recognize before standing.

"I'll come with you."

A girl named Holly said quickly standing and attaching herself to Larissa's side. Rolling her eyes Larissa pushes through the crowd ignoring the girl as much as she can, Holly seemed to have a crush on Steven and that was simply something Larissa didn't have time for. Reaching the kitchen that held all the drinks Larissa grabbed a cheap beer before also handing one to Holly.

"Thanks Steven."

Holly said while tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"Whatever lets get back."

"Wait."

Holly said grabbing Larissa's arm but before she could speak a loud noise coming from the main room caught their attention. Thanking whatever the distraction was Larissa was quick to leave the kitchen pretending to eagerly want to see what was causing the commotion. Making your way through the crowd people seem to step aside and let you by like there isn't hundreds of others here. Something about you wouldn't let Larissa's eyes leave your form. In a moment the whole party seemed to revolve around you, (Y/N) (L/N) the whole campus knew about you. Transferring to this school just last year you were already very popular among the student body but no one knew you like Larissa. She grew up an outcast surrounded by outcast she recognized the familiar shine of siren eyes, knew the telltale pendant for power suppression. Yet there was something different about you, Larissa couldn't breath when you looked her way, lost her train of thought when you spoke, started to sweat when you smiled. She didn't know how to deal with these feelings having always been perfectly composed she was completely unused to becoming a babbling mess in your presence. She couldn’t understand your affect on her and to make matters worse it wasn’t really even her you were talking to.... it was Steven.

“Steven.”

Holly said making Larissa jump, snapping her eyes away from your form.

“What?”

“Steven listen I... I actually really like you, I know you aren’t seeing anybody so I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go out sometime?”

Holly’s hand grabbed Larissa’s arm as she spoke rubbing up and down as she brought her body closer to Larissa’s.

“Steven!”

An alluring voice yelled snapping Larissa’s eyes away from Holly. Your razor sharp gaze cut into Larissa, despite being across the crowded room there seemed to be a straight path between your two bodies. You waved once motioning Larissa over and that was all it took for her body to move.

“Sorry Holly we’ll talk later.”

Walking away without looking back, Larissa gulped her beer hoping the liquid courage would allow her not to become a mess in your presence.

“Hey (Y/N.)”

Larissa said as she approached praising herself for sounding cool and collected.

“Hey sexy.”

You responding with a bright smile hand running up the arm Holly had previously touched once Larissa got close enough and just like that all the walls she had built on the walk over came crashing down and Larissa was putty in your hands.

“I missed you today, I hate when I have to miss class.”

Larissa hummed in response lost in the brightness that was your eyes. Looking in your purse you smack your lips before pouting.

“I forgot something in my car, will you walk out with me I don’t want to go out alone.”

Nodding Larissa stuffs her hands in her pockets.

“Of course.”

Your blinding smile is back as you stand from your seat at a table linking an arm with Larissa she doesn’t stop you as you both make your way through the seemingly parting crowd. Once outside the cold air washes over Larissa, the breeze a relief from the excessive amount of body heat within the frat house. The walk to your car is semi long you arrived rather late resulting in you having to park on the next street over but you were grateful for it now, enjoying your extended time with ‘Steven’ or at least that’s who the white haired girl in the back of your public speaking class wanted you to believe you were with. Larissa felt awkward in the silence as you walked but also found herself unsure of what to say, not being any good when it came to talking to you.

“Can I ask you something?”

You said as you finally approached your car turning to lean on it while you stared the shapeshifter in her same hypnotizing blue eyes.

“Sure.”

Larissa said tucking her hands deeper in her pockets.

“Does it get tiring pretending?”

The world seemed to stop around Larissa as she took in your words.

“What do you mean?”

She responded trying to hide the quickening of her heart beat.

“I mean...”

You said standing off the car moving into Larissa’s space.

“When am I going to stop having to talk to ‘Steven’ to get you to hold a conversation with me?”

Your hands wrapped around Larissa’s waist as you looked deep in her eyes. Larissa began to panic eyes searching for a quick out yet finding nothing as she found herself to far from the party to use that as any excuse.

“I don’t know what you’re...”

“I much prefer your white hair and long legs if you ask me.”

Larissa full body flushed the anxiety at being caught completely covered by your compliments about her true self.

“So I ask again, when can I stop talking to ‘Steven’?”

Larissa’s blush never faltered even as she changed forms right in your arms loose white locks falling over her shoulders blue eyes now refusing to meet yours.

“There we go.”

You say softly blinding smile still shining up at Larissa. Letting go of the woman you stretch out your hand.

“Allow me to properly introduce myself. I’m (Y/N).”

Taking your hand with an amused yet shy smile Larissa allowed her eyes to meet yours again.

“Larissa.”

#larissa weems #larissa weems x reader #principal weems #wednesday #wednesday netflix

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liesmyth · 5 months

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For the choose violence ask game 👹

1, 8, 14, 16 for tlt

2, for hotd

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

This is SO hard as a switching enthusiast but maybe I've got it: Alicent would never top Rhaenyra because she doesn't want to admit how badly she wants to fuck Rhaenyra. If she just lies there and thinks of King's Landing and makes Rhaenyra really work for it, maybe it's a win and not a surrender.

1. the character everyone gets wrong

It's too easy to say John but only my trusted circle GET John. But also:

Wake: unhinged would be a terrible mother. not a good person, nor very nice, extremely charismatic. anything for the revolution but she'd also fuck a Lyctor

Cytherea: also unhinged definitely not a good person, killed teenagers in a horrifying way for fun! I desire ger carnally

Pyrrha: She's not your Team Mum she's a sleaze! That's why she's hot.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

More of a theory than an opinion at this point I don't think Anastasia was an especially nice person either! Or Cassie tbh. Just because they had beef with John at some point, I don't think they were a pinnacle of morality.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

I see a LOT of uncomplicated griddlehark, especially in AUs and while I understand why it's there, it's not for me.

Also every time I see a post series fic that starts with "We killed God and everything was fine" No it won't be fine.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

Mundane / no powers / uncomplicated AUs. I care too much about the sff elements of the canon. I dig some highly specific modern AUs (like, cults, serial killers, academia) but the moment they're college undergrads or other normies I'm like "Good for you author!" and I go looking for something else.

[choose violence asks]

#lvsifer #askbox games

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frosty-the-killer-doll · 5 months

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What are your karamel headcanons/opinions? I love your blog btw

thank you, it's so beautiful here

now just because i do honestly ship karamel, that doesn't mean i think their canonical relationship was without its toxicity. mon-el had a running habit of talking over kara, lying to her, deciding things about them by himself, generally disrespecting her. i do believe he loved her, honestly, but i also know that when he started loving her, he was a douchebag. and that's canon.

kara was his first real relationship. kara was the first girl he loved, the first girl that was stronger than him, the first girl that he didn't have any power over as her prince. i think a lot of mon-el's trouble with respecting her comes from that; he's a prince of a tyrant-led planet, his entire life he's had things handed to him and suffered no consequences to his actions. he doesn't know what a real relationship looks like, he's not used to someone having complete equal say with him.

he's a dick. he's not completely sure how to not be a dick. he has never been in a situation where he suffers for being a dick. mon-el is like if toh's the collector character was an adult dudebro. so throughout all of s2, he is trying to learn to better himself, with varying success. fratboy rehabilitation. he's still not... good for kara, though. i do not think their s2 dynamic would have been sustainable in the long run

but then, s3. mon-el is, what, almost 10 years older? by then, he's a better man. he's good for the one he loves, even if that woman isn't kara but rather imra. and imra has kara to thank for mon-el not being shit. mon-el being married is as much of a shock to kara's system as is him being, like, completely fine. respectful. friendly. articulate, communicative, generous. he's become a leader and a husband. what the fuck.

i love to ship this version of them. the old version was interesting for angst sake and how fucked kara's perception could get, as toxic relationships often provide, but this flavor of karamel? it's syrup-y sweet. kara has equal footing and mon-el doesn't think to change that, not even subconsciously. it's the bare minimum, maybe, but. it's better.

and i think the dynamic would change even more. kara becomes... feisty with him. playful and smug. they like fucking with each other, in a healthy way this go around, play-fighting like superpowered kittens. this is such a fucking nerd comparison to make but if you've read pettigrace's arrowverse college groupchat au, it's like when coldflash (known as coldbar in their au) reconcile after their big blowout fight. i've delved into this headcanon change in their dynamic in basically all my karamel fics, tehe

OKAY EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP ITS HC LIST TIME

in the polycule au, he still left in the s3 finale, but when mon-el comes back to leave brainy and take winn, he ends up staying in the normie century. in that time, imra has taken up the official leadership role in the legion. the only change to them going back in the s3 finale is that they took psi with them, per imra's request. psi has then become imra's budding girlfriend and co-leader, so that's why mon-el feels safe leaving the 31st century this go around

when they get back together, iris suggests couple's therapy with dr finkel like caitlin once did for her, and it goes well!

kara once told him he showed valor after a crime-fight, back before the future shit. that's why mon-el chooses it as his superhero code name

remember when he spent forever teaching her cape tricks? okay now imagine the kink potential of that

did you know monel is the name of a group of nickel alloys? kara gets him an electric bass made with monel strings as a lil gift, calling it his mini-me

when mon-el learns that kara is like, technically in her 50s thanks to phantom zone fuckery, he starts hiding grandma candies in all her pockets. and her plants. and her cushions. she's finding pieces of butterscotch in her dresser. mon-el thinks he's hilarious

on that note, kara dares him to do the fluffy bunny challenge with the candies. if he loses, he no longer hides candy everywhere. he was so sure of himself. he was wrong

mon-el's her first alien boyfriend, right? so she doesn't actually need to be scared of his fragility. again, the kink potential

kara made him watch her fav musicals, he has joined barry allen and ray palmer in a love for singin' in the rain

mon-el isn't big on bands like nsync like kara is, yknow like, teen/dance pop? he does like pop, but prefers alt pop and pop punk. she introduces him to kpop in the hopes of converting him, and she's successful, but he also came out of it with a love for what the band babymetal call kawaii metal after being recommended jpop from all the kpop he was listening to. what have you done, kara.

considering we all know kara is a romcom boygirlie, mon-el found an insane subgenre that he fucking adores: zomromcoms!! romantic comedies with zombies!! disney even has a zomromcom musical trilogy and he annoys kara about it on the daily. warm bodies is one of his fav movies. kara agrees to listen to his disney zombies headcanons if he hears out her game of thrones theories

okay that's all i got rn, goodbye forever 🫡

#frosty answers #arrowverse asks #karamel #mon el #mon-el #kara danvers #supergirl #supergirl cw #cw supergirl #arrowverse

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bd-wlf · 3 months

Text

Okay okay so Wing Au right? For Dean-O?

Yeah okay

when he was still in school around normies his wings were invisible almost like they weren't there, like angel wings in the actual show but they were little like baby Cupid wings and he got really self conscious because Sam had massive wings that made him awkward lol. During that time they were titanium white almost glowing Sam had massive wings for a kid but they were like charcoal grey yknow.

Dean grows up, Sam splits to college, and at that time his wings are about the same size as Sam's. Still as white as they were and he's no longer self conscious. Daddy dearest teaches him how to use them in a fight. Sam still has black wings.

Now it's Mark of Cain era they have the bunker, it's covered in all types of feathers, right before dean dies and turns into a demon. His wings finally fit his body and so do Sam's. Cas teaches them grooming methods on the off days. Except the color on Sam's wing plumage has changed its no longer grey or black, in some places it is black but majority it's white. Dean's titanium white wings have turned red, a deep dark wine red. To fit the mark and as a reminder of all the blood that he's taken and is yet to be taken.

Demon dean, his wings were ripped from his back by an invisible force.

Post-MoC the lighting bolt gave him his wings back just like it took the mark away

#supernatural #dean winchester #wing au #sam winchester #spn #supernatual au #castiel spn #moc era #moc dean

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bcofl0ve · 20 days

Note

Why are you a fan of Kaia? Genuinely asking, very neutral on her

at least based on what we've seen of it i think we have a very similar dry sense of humor which endears me to her. as does her passion for book club and wanting to go after the acting dream instead of just being a model forever and ever.

people who give a shit about what they choose to do with their life are my kind of people and i think she fits that mold! (as does austin- that's a part of why i'm a fan of him too). all the fan interaction stories about her are nice- there's no whispers of her being a snooty mean girl or anything. not that i'm a diehard fan of every nice person in hollywood LOL. but y'know what i mean? like that video of her getting a friendship bracelet at the eras tour gen warmed my heart because she seemed really excited about it!

maybe not uh- socioeconomic status wise bahaha, i know in reality we are in polar opposite social circles and wouldn't be able to relate to each other at all in that regard. but in an AU where she was a "normie" she seems like someone i'd be good friends with irl- and actually reminds me a lot of my college best friend kenzie. she's just my type of gal i think!

#misc kaia gossip

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xbraincells · 2 years

Text

MASTERLIST

Pairing: demon!jay x Fem!reader

Synopsis: Jay has been imaginary pinning Y/N throughout their years of college. So, what happens when the struggling college student Y/N accidentally summons him after goofing around with her best friend Bri, and he offers her a deal she has been wishing for her whole life, financial stability. Will she sign the paper of their supposed contract and make a deal with a demon?

Genre: SMAU, college life, supernatural au, stranger to lovers/acquaintance to lovers, slowburn, fluff, comedy and crack (kinda).

Warnings: School, Classes, Studying, Test, Due-dates, dark humor, kys/kms jokes, offensive jokes, inappropriate jokes, cursing, characters can be unhinged, manipulation, slight stalkholm syndrome (??? kinda), non-consensual deal, jay and jake are delulu’s but are also sweethearts.

Featuring/Mentions: 2Fem!oc’s, Enhypen, Beomgyu of txt, TXT, Skz, Seventeen, itzy, kep1er, ateez

Status: On-going

Updates: idk i’m sorry babies

A note to readers~

hello, I’m still not to sure how to use Tumblr. So, please bear with me! Also, please do not take any jokes said in this seriously, they are not meant to come at or harm anyone in any way. Please do not hold idols accountable for jokes or actions portrayed in this story, as they are not actually done by the person themselves. Please enjoy it, Thank you!

TEASER

Normies l Monster High Ghoul’s

Deal 1: Bri’s voodoo dolls

Deal 2: yk jesus right? NEW!

Deal 3: TBD

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concussed-to-pieces · 2 years

Text

Verbena: Vibrant Once More!

Fandom: Boku No Hero Academia/My Hero Academia

Pairing: College!Mirio/AFAB Reader

Rating: Holy shit M.

A/N: Written for @hijackser's Hanakotoba (Flower Language) collaboration event! This is a College AU and contains spoilers for most of season four, so read at your own risk! The flower I picked was Verbena, which represents safety, healing, creativity, and joy. While the flower is not explicitly mentioned, these themes will run through the entirety of this story. Enjoy!

Tag List: @hijackser, @nonstop-haikyuu, @zombiexbody, @buttons-beads-lace, @honey-shippies

[!TRIGGER WARNING!: This installment contains emotional distress, mentions of past abuse and past character death. Stay safe!]

"More flowers for you, Mister Mirio!" You chirped as you lugged yet another overstuffed vase of blooms and greenery into the room. Honestly, this was the third one today! You were starting to realize, much to your chagrin, that the no-doubt valedictorian posted up in the hospital bed in front of you was very, very popular.

The aforementioned Mirio laughed sheepishly, trying to clear space on the already-crowded windowsill for the latest arrival. "Guess this encourages me to get better even quicker, right? If I don't, soon this whole room will look like a jungle."

"You take all the time you need," was your firm reply as you shimmied the vase in between its fellows. You turned to leave but a hand lightly grazed your own, and when you glanced back Mirio was looking at you oddly. "What?" You asked, a little perplexed.

"Thanks for that." His voice was quieter, very unlike the happy-go-lucky mood he usually affected. "It's…it's been hard, you know? Losing Sir," and my Quirk, you could almost hear in his brief pause, "...it's just been difficult to smile. Not hopeless or anything, but…tough." As if to contrast, he offered you a weak grin. "Still gonna', though. Promise!"

You gingerly patted his hand. "Even if you can't for a little while, that's okay. People are so eager to give heroes burdens to bear, but I promise you won't always have to shoulder it alone." You had seen far too many chewed-up collegiates from the local campus come through the triage area for you to truly believe your own words, but Mirio was clearly searching for some reassurance. "Let the normies hang onto their problems for a few days. Take your time to recuperate."

"I-" Mirio hesitated, his fingers worrying at the worn edge of the thin hospital blanket. "Thanks. Again, I mean."

A soft chime from your work phone alerted you to the fact that someone was at the reception area and you quickly rushed to check them in, waving goodbye to Mirio as you departed.

Unbeknownst to you, the young man stared at the door for a long time after you had left.

…

While a medical professional in your own right, you had accepted an entry level position at the prestigious UA campus' medical center instead of heading directly to the grind of regular medicine. Entry level though it was, it offered you invaluable insight into the current generation of heroes being forged, and you felt more sympathetic towards the young men and women you would see a little too regularly. Panic attacks and academic burnout were incredibly common. There were also fights that occurred between members, dormitory living difficult for some of the students to adjust to.

Though there were no real fraternities or sororities to speak of, the student body was still not a unified group. Rather, it had splintered into bands of different classes and Quirks, the tight cliques ever-evolving as the semester progressed.

One such group had come to the center early one morning during your first few weeks of work. It consisted of three twenty-somethings; a blue-haired young woman, a dark-haired young man and their towering blond compatriot. The taller of the two men seemed to be gently manhandling the other while the woman spoke to him, but they all quickly fell silent when you approached the counter to check them in.

"Tamaki hasn't slept well for a while." The blond man announced, writing as much down on the intake sheet. You thought you vaguely heard a noise of protest from the shorter, dark-haired man, but he was making a valiant effort to stare a hole in the floor. The blond carried on, "I think it's because living in the dorms is still kinda' new and it can be pretty unsettling. Especially if you start thinking late at night about why we're all in the dorms and stuff."

Like magic, you watched the shorter man's shoulders relax back down into a slouch. The blue-haired woman bumped her forehead into his, as if to offer silent comfort.

The taller man eventually handed the filled sheet back and looked at you expectantly. "I just need to scan your school IDs so I can get your friend seen. And I need the name of the professor that cleared you guys to accompany him." You informed him gently.

"Oh sorry! I'm Mirio Togata. That's Nejire Hado, and our friend is Tamaki Amajiki." The blond rushed to say, collecting his companions' IDs and slapping his own on top of the pile. "We were cleared by Professor Aizawa."

"Alright, have a seat and someone will be with you shortly. Would you prefer to meet with the campus psychiatrist? I can check to see whether she's available." As you carried on speaking you could see Tamaki stiffen back up, though he did nod in reply to your question and mumbled something that sounded affirmative.

His large friend clapped a hand on his shoulder, seeming to half-buckle him underneath the weight. "Don't worry Tamaki, Nejire and I are gonna' stay put! Heck, we can even come in with you if you-"

"That…shouldn't, uh, be necessary." Tamaki hastily cut Mirio off, his voice stronger now. "It's…it's like I told you guys. I'm just tired."

…

"Another care package for you, Eri!" You announced, knocking on the doorframe. From what little information you had been privy to, you knew that the child had experienced a fair amount of trauma at the hands of adults, so you did your best to not sneak up on her when you stopped by. "You have so many friends already!"

The pale girl looked up at you from her spot on the floor, a few interlocking plastic blocks falling still in her hands as her expression shifted to one of cautious curiosity. "Is it from Midoriya?"

"Yeah, how did you guess?" You were thrilled when the child bounced to her feet, one little hand wrapped around the IV pole to wheel it along with her. While she had yet to smile, she was showing more interest and enthusiasm every day. Not to mention her body was on the mend, as it was becoming harder and harder to get her to rest.

You knew you weren't the only one excited with her progress. Midoriya and Mirio were in her room nearly every day, checking up on her. Ever since Eri had vocalized her desire to see the two, she had been allowed supervised visits with them.

It was difficult at first; she had been healing and was easily exhausted so it was all she could do just to keep her eyes open. But Mirio and Midoriya were nothing if not patient, occasionally stopping by to just sit quietly while she slept.

"We're heroes, and she's a person in trouble," was Midoriya's reasoning for his visits. You had never quizzed Mirio, just assuming that he felt the same about the young girl.

The way he looked at her sometimes was enough to break your heart though, all professionalism aside.

You knew that Eri had something to do with why Mirio no longer had his Quirk, but you were uncertain as to the details and the last thing you wanted was to broach such a delicate and upsetting subject with either of them. Better to wait and see. Your curiosity didn't entirely rule you, after all!

"A new coloring book!" Eri's soft exclamation at her present from Midoriya made you smile, the child rapidly leafing through the pages emblazoned with pictures of All Might. "All Might is Deku's favorite." She informed you seriously, little fingers tapping on one such image.

"Oh?" You thought back to the backpack Midoriya sported, covered with pins and patches of All Might. "I hadn't noticed."

…

"Eri should be able to experience the campus festival!"

Mirio felt like he and Midoriya had made a great case, truth be told. If the public at large wasn't allowed to go to the festival, and the security was already ramped up to an insane level…

Aizawa sighed, rubbing his temples. "That's risky, Mirio. We don't know if she's okay to engage with the gen pop yet."

"Aw c'mon teach!" The tall man wheedled, jamming his hands into his varsity jacket. "She's been doing really well!"

"Please sir, at least speak to the dean about it!" Izuku begged earnestly.

"I fail to see why I should whack that particular hornet's nest," was Professor Aizawa's dry retort. "Besides, we would need someone from the medical facility to assist in case of an emergency. All the pros will be otherwise engaged, you both know that."

Midoriya frowned, clearly thinking hard. Mirio however, smiled even wider. "Don't worry, Professor. I know just the person for the job!"

…

"Togata has recommended you as Eri's medical chaperone." Professor Aizawa's infamous stare had you all but pinned to your seat. Even though you understood he was just kind of like that, it was difficult to maintain your composure.

The news that Mirio had thrown your proverbial hat into the ring was a bit of a surprise as well. You weren't sure whether to be grateful or start panicking. Nonetheless, you kept your expression neutral and folded your hands in your lap. "If that's what you all think is best," was your calm reply.

Aizawa nodded, startling you. "We do, actually. The dean decided that we should have a pro manning the triage area, at least for the day of the festival. That way if there's an MCI, we'll have someone familiarized with our procedures." His expression softened to something that vaguely resembled apologetic. "You weren't supposed to need to know this stuff, so don't take it personal. It's above and beyond the surge planning you're familiar with. We're working on a new program for the center. Pamphlets and slides, that sort of thing, to bring people up to speed, but we haven't gotten the chance to implement it."

"Everything seems to be moving so fast." You remarked, glad when the pro hero nodded in agreement. At least you weren't alone in that sentiment!

"You have a rapport with Eri; she clearly trusts you. According to your resumé, you've kept up with your con-ed." The professor leaned back in his seat, looking more worn than you expected. "The question is whether you'd be okay with being in the thick of the action, should something go wrong." His already-flinty gaze hardened even further. "Mirio will be with her as well. While his Quirk is, in theory, temporarily inactive, he is still a capable hero in training. The choice is yours."

Temporarily? You wondered what that could mean. To be fair, you had heard about Quirks being briefly rendered useless, usually with experimental street drugs. But those cases had been something measured in minutes and hours, not days and weeks! "Again, if you think it's best, I won't object." You then dared to venture, "I'm glad that the college decided to clear her for this, in spite of the risk. She's a sweet little girl and I just…I feel like she's seen too much."

Aizawa cleared his throat after a moment, straightening some papers on his desk. "In order to avoid additional stress, we're letting Eri explore the campus before the festival. Dean Nezu wants you there with her during both outings, to ensure that she feels comfortable and safe." He leveled you with that fierce look, making you cringe in your chair. "If anything goes wrong, anything, you and Mirio are to return immediately with Eri. Do I make myself clear?"

…

"Good morning!" Mirio's smile never wavered even while his brain was catching up with how casually you were dressed. He had never seen you out of your uniform before, but looking at your outfit now made him wish he had. He could hardly take his eyes off of you!

You looked…comfortable. Prepared for the day, although you were currently rummaging in your bag to make sure you had the fob to your room. The staff housing was situated diagonally across campus from the student and faculty dorms, so Mirio had taken a few roundabout paths to reach your residence.

Eri had clung to his hand the whole time, wide eyes taking in her surroundings. She hadn't asked many questions, which was odd for her, but Mirio chalked it up to nerves. This was a lot to handle, after all!

"Does she have any sunscreen on? We're going to be out on the grounds for the most part, I think."

Mirio was jerked out of his reverie by your question, shaking his head with a self-conscious chuckle. "Nope! Uh, sorry about that."

"It's okay! I have some in my bag. Eri, can I put some sunscreen on your face? We'll be outside for a while." You waited for her nod to go ahead with the application. Mirio had noticed that you were always sure to ask permission from the child before you did anything. He figured you were doing your part to try and give her some level of control back.

Eri patiently put up with your ministrations and Mirio found himself allowing you to talk him into coating his face and neck with sunblock as well. It was only after he was halfway done that he realized it was a glittery children's brand of sunscreen, and he was now covered in sparkles.

"Finally! Something that matches my personality!" He joked, warmth spreading across his face when you grinned at him. "Alright Eri, let's show you around! You're gonna' love it here, everyone is super nice!"

Eri, while still holding his hand, shyly slid her free hand into your own. You looked startled at first but quickly covered it up with another smile, swinging her arm gently as the three of you walked towards the main building.

Maybe I should have asked Nejire and Tamaki to come along, Mirio thought, shoving his other hand into his pocket to keep from fidgeting. They're a lot better at this kind of stuff. I don't even know what to say! I'm so distracted–

"Mirio? Did you hear Eri?" You asked, sounding a little confused.

Mirio stifled a frantic yelp, quickly jerking his head down to where Eri was gazing up at him. "Sorry, I was thinking hard! Can you repeat what you said?"

"Candy apple." Eri's eyes were wide. "You said there would be candy apples."

"Oh yeah! That will be on the day of the actual festival though. Today's just the warm-up period," Mirio explained. "Everyone is still working hard to get things set up so that it looks nice for you. After all, you're a very important guest!"

"Are you sure?" Her fingers squeezed his hand in what he had come to recognize as an anxious tic. Anxiety already?! I must not be doing a good enough job at explaining things, maybe this was a–

"Of course!" You replied brightly. "Aren't you excited? I know I can't wait!" Eri nodded, apparently satisfied as she turned her gaze back to the hive of activity the three of you were approaching.

"Thanks for the save." Mirio whispered to you out of the side of his mouth.

"No worries. It's what heroes do, right?" You answered softly, winking at him.

The hallways were already festooned with pennants and banners, uniformed students roaming around carrying tape or even more construction paper. A few students stopped to chat, his peers expressing their happiness at seeing him up and about after his 'break'.

"Hey, it's Togata!" The faces were familiar, but Mirio couldn't put a name to the two young men who called out to him. They were from the business major if he had to guess, though that was mainly due to the colorful lecture flyer that one of them was pressing into his hand.

The other, a brown-haired young man with a large horn on his forehead, gawked at Eri, who gripped Mirio's school blazer and half-hid behind his arm. "Whoa, who's that? Don't tell me your temporary leave from school is because you have a kid now!" He exclaimed, seeming bewildered.

Mirio's mind went entirely blank at those words, leaving him standing there with a frozen smile on his face. A kid? Like, one of my own? Huh. I guess it might look that way. And with the added entourage…

His brain caught up just then, slamming the brakes on that particular train of thought and leaving Mirio scrambling to come up with a response.

"Dude you gotta' say something, now I feel like it's for real!" The student protested.

You somehow managed to straighten out the situation while Mirio was still trying to recover from the mental whiplash, explaining that the upperclassman was your chaperone for the day. You quickly steered the conversation off of Eri and onto the topic of the flyers the two young men had handed you. Apparently the business majors were having a lecture (complete with PowerPoint presentations!) to show the fiscal impacts that the college had to deal with due to the dormitory construction and housing changes.

"Sure, Quirks can be helpful, but no labor is free these days!" The brown-haired young man reasoned, continuing, "with a lot of heroes unionizing, we have to make sure that dues are paid and, more importantly, that the hero agencies are offering proper benefits. Like all-inclusive dental, or something customizable in the event of a hero having specific requirements to function at full strength."

Proper benefits. Dental. Customization options. Mirio grimaced without meaning to, realizing that he was vastly in over his head.

You, on the other hand, seemed entirely at ease, expositing about the insurance options that you had seen in your day to day work. Co-pays were apparently on the rise, nearly in sync with the recent increase of villain encounters. There was a clear connection between the two, and you were willing to allege that private companies no doubt had a hand in the current state of the world.

You were obviously passionate about what you did, Togata had to give you that much. Even if he was a little ignorant on the subject matter!

…

Problem implied that this was a thing that needed to be fixed, and Mirio wasn't sure if that was the case just yet. He might need a different word. Panic-inducing was two words, but that seemed closer to the truth. Baffling, maybe? Confusing. Dangerously close to something, and he hadn't figured out whether that something was good or bad.

You had been great with Eri, so at least he could rest easy knowing he had made the right choice when he suggested you as her medical chaperone. If Mirio was being honest with himself, you had been great in general. You were just as familiar with the campus as he was, and you effortlessly answered a multitude of Eri's questions regarding the preparations in full swing.

Heck, you had even brought sunscreen! Mirio felt a little foolish over his lack of preparation. He had kind of just…expected things to work out.

At least the three of you had been able to stop by the beauty pageant area so Eri could see the academy's most vaunted ladies getting their steps in. Plus, both Nejire and Tamaki had been there! It felt like a weight off Mirio's shoulders when you laughed along with Nejire, and the fact that you were able to discreetly enquire after Tamaki's wellbeing…

You were a member of the staff. That didn't technically complicate things even if he did come to terms with the fact that he might be crushing on you; you weren't a professor. I'm in my final semester though! Mirio reasoned later that evening. Augh, why is this such an issue for me? It's not off-limits! I haven't done anything wrong, darn it all.

"You are about a Lemillion miles away, Mirio!"

The young man jerked upright as Nejire's spoon retreated from where she had rapped it smartly against his forearm. "Ah! Sorry Nejire." He chuckled, rubbing the area she had smacked. "Was lost in thought, I guess."

"Oo, do tell!" The young woman exclaimed, bouncing in her seat. "What's up, Mirio? What's got those gears turning? Is it that little cutie from the med center? Y'know, the one you got to walk around with like, alllll day?" She grinned at him and Mirio wished his Quirk would return so he could just…sink into the ground and vanish. Probably forever.

Granted, Lunch Rush was deserted at this hour; most of the other students had filtered back to their dorms. Aside from the Big Three, there were only a few stragglers. But still!

Cutie. Was that it? Did he think you were…cute? He did, the young man admitted to himself, oh God he did. You were so cute. Everything about you was just…

Oh no.

Panic officially set in. Mirio could feel his palms beginning to sweat and Nejire was just looking at him expectantly between bites of her dinner, what the heck was he supposed to say-

"Yeah, Eri seemed super happy when you brought her by," Tamaki added hesitantly. "I know she doesn't smile, so it was more…w-well, her eyes looked happy."

Oh. Oh.

Nejire had been talking about Eri.

Well now he felt stupid and sweaty.

…

You dug the broom into the corner, frowning in concentration. After a long day of checking IDs, setting up temporary pro hero accounts on the medical center's computers and dropping off delivered goods to various rooms, it felt good to perform a portion of your normal evening routine.

Sweeping the foyer, while not required of you, helped your brain settle down from your workday. You were deep into contemplation about heading off campus to get some laundry detergent (as you were nearly out of it), when a large hand waved in front of your eyes.

"Hey there! Just leaving for the night, wanted to make sure you checked me out so you don't get in trouble." Mirio smiled, looking a little embarrassed. "I uh, I called your name a few times, but I guess you were pretty into what you were doing."

"Oh, Mirio! Sorry, I was thinking about the errands I have to run." You apologized, leaving the broom propped up against the wall and going to scan his ID.

"Gosh, you too huh? Adulting is tough stuff." Mirio commiserated, leaning on the counter. "I have to go pick up some laundry soap. Drew the short straw amongst the Big Three, you know how it is." He continued with a shrug. "Might grab a snack or something while I'm there, but that depends on whether I'm hungry once I make it down. Tamaki wants some of those…fancy bead things too, the smelly ones. I can't remember whether he wanted the purple or the orange, though. He said something about a light fragrance? He's really sensitive to smells."

"Oh, you're getting detergent too? I know I could use the campus courier service," you then lowered your voice conspiratorially, "but I feel bad about making those guys lug my heavy junk so late in their day. Definitely not when I can use the exercise, and it's a nice night out too."

"Would you--er, would you want to come with me? It's probably not safe for either of us to leave campus alone anymore." Mirio rubbed the back of his neck after putting his ID away. "I know that makes it sound kinda' grim, and I don't wanna' buy into the whole paranoia…"

"No, I get it. You're probably right. Besides, better safe than sorry!" You agreed rapidly, a shiver going down your spine as your mind supplied you with a myriad of unwanted newsreel images. "Can you wait half an hour so I can finish closing up shop and change out of my uniform?"

"Oh absolutely! Take all the time you need. The place I usually go to is open until midnight."

…

He wasn't entirely sure what he had been thinking. He had just been on his way out! He was going to go buy some soap! But now, the two of you were leaving campus.

Together.

Mirio nervously glanced at you, but you didn't seem to be suffering from the same internal conflict that he was. On the contrary, you seemed more relaxed than usual. Did that mean you were comfortable with him, or that you didn't care if other people made assumptions? Because of course there would be assumptions, word spread like wildfire on campus.

Mirio found himself envious of your ability to ignore the chatter of the student body. Maybe it was because your job required some certain level of impartiality? What he would give for an ounce of your peace of mind!

The sun hadn't fully set yet, golden light still grazing the tops of the taller trees. You tipped your head back, inhaling deeply. "Ah, what a beautiful day it's been!"

"It really was." Mirio agreed, "Nejire wanted all of us to head down for a walk, but she's been super busy practicing for that pageant. I told her to take the day off instead. It's her last year to compete, so I get her dedication."

"Oh, is she graduating soon?" You asked curiously.

"Yeah! We all have our provisionals, so for her it's as easy as passing her finals. She's going to have her associate in electrical engineering, but I'm pretty sure she's still planning on working towards her bachelor and master after that." Mirio could feel himself rambling; it was sort of like watching a train wreck in slow motion. "Tamaki and I are in different programs. I'm trying to get my bachelor in mass casualty incident management via the specialized fire science elective, but after what happened, I'm on a bit of a hiatus. Tamaki is almost done with his associate in bioscience, and he's also debating on continuing to the culinary arts program. He hasn't decided yet."

Your smile was genuine and Mirio breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't seem to have annoyed you. "That's great! I'm glad you guys all have a plan going forward. Times are so weird lately. It's good to have a little stability, right?"

Stability.

Stability had been the furthest thing from Mirio's mind since he had lost his Quirk and Sir Nighteye had passed away. It had been days of him just barely clinging to some shell of normalcy, trying to keep his spirits up after the somber affair of the funeral. He only vaguely recalled being next to the grave site with Kaoruko, Juzo and Midoriya once everyone else had paid their respects, wearing the one ill-fitting suit coat that he owned. The shoulders had pinched the entire time but it had hardly registered; a fleeting inconvenience.

Nejire had returned after giving him the time to say his final goodbyes, the young woman gently steering him back to their dorm where everyone had gathered in the central hall. There amongst his friends and peers, Mirio had done his best to smile. But he was emotionally exhausted, physically still in recovery, and he soon found himself hauled away and tucked into his bed by Tamaki.

"Stop pretending that you're fine," Tamaki had muttered, not unkindly, before shutting the door.

At least he hadn't called it lying.

"Stability is really important." Mirio murmured to you, hoping you didn't notice that his mind had been elsewhere. After what had happened, he found himself spacing out more and more. There were so many things he had to worry about now! Whether he could still pass his practicals without his Quirk, keeping his grades up so that he could compensate for his now-lackluster fieldwork…the academic hiatus was appreciated, of course, but he didn't know how long he could expect that charity to last before the dean reevaluated his usefulness.

You abruptly changed topics to the support majors exhibition and the young man found himself talking, actually talking, not just making polite conversation at the check-in counter. He could talk to people, of course he could talk to people. What kind of hero would he be if he couldn't handle public relations, after all? But this felt different. It was more natural, organic. Like how he felt talking to Eri or Midoriya, that newer sort of friendship. Were the two of you friends? Was it too soon to be friends?

The rustling in the trees alongside the road snapped Mirio's attention upwards and he inwardly berated himself for letting his guard down. He was relieved when, instead of some skulking villain, he made out the bulky form of Hound Dog. Professor Ryo was a youth counselor and despite being…rough around the edges, he made excellent progress with certain students.

The large teacher emerged from the brush, shaking himself off and nodding in their direction before trotting across the road and back into the woods.

"For being so big, he sure can be quiet." You commented after a few moments. "He's been following us since we left the gates."

Mirio turned his head so rapidly he was sure he had pulled something. "H-He has?" He managed to ask, his voice pitching funnily.

You nodded, like it was to be expected. "Of course. You didn't notice? He's quiet, not silent."

Well, now Mirio felt dumb all over again.

…

"Detergent, deterrrrrrgent," you mumbled to yourself, ticking back and forth between two large containers. On the one hand, the pods were lighter. But on the other hand, they were expensive, especially compared to the powdered options. The powder came in a cardboard box, which was easy to break down, but you could also rinse the liquid's plastic bottle and put it out with the recycling–

"Hey, can I ask for a favor?" Mirio's voice interrupted your mental quandary and you turned, finding him next to you with three different containers of scent booster beads. "Gimme' a hand. Which one of these smells the least offensive to you? I think they changed the colors since the last time Tamaki got them, because the purple ones don't smell like I remember."

You screwed up your face and obliged. Two of the scents made you grimace but the last one seemed light enough to suffice, and Mirio thanked you for your assistance. "Alright, now you help me out. Trying to pick between heavier but cheap, or lighter but pricey?" You posed the question, waving a hand back and forth between the boxes, bottles and tubs.

"Pick heavy! I'll carry it for you, so don't worry about the weight!" Mirio reasoned, his easy smile making an appearance midway through his sentence. "After all, you loaned me your nose. It's the least I could do for your heroic service!"

You laughed, waving him off as you slid the box of detergent beneath your arm. "I'll be fine! That's what the backpack is for. This isn't my first trip down the mountain, y'know."

"Oh sure! I uh, I wasn't trying to imply anything."

"No worries. I appreciate the offer! Any other night I'd probably accept, but I've been dying to get some exercise and this is just what I need."

…

"Heard you went on a late night walk with someone."

Accusatory wasn't exactly the right word but Mirio still froze up on reflex, nearly dropping his controller.

Tamaki exhaled through his nose and Mirio caught him sneaking a glance, the dark-haired young man eventually pausing their game to look at him head-on. "You know I don't care." Tamaki finally continued awkwardly, "b-but Hado--er, Nejire, she thinks we talk about…that kind of stuff, and she uh, she wanted me to ask…"

As Amajiki hemmed and hawed, Mirio watched the tips of his ears go a neon shade of red. Finally he decided to have pity on the other man, grinning and explaining, "Tamaki, I went with them when I had to get those things you put in with your laundry. Everyone says it's a bad idea to roam off-campus alone after everything that's happened, right?"

"Still!" Tamaki erupted, cringing a little at his own volume. "I…you should be more careful. Take Nejire or I with you next time, we can at least keep you s–" He paused, shooting Mirio a nervous look. "Uh, n-never mind."

We can at least keep you safe.

Mirio heard his friend's hesitant declaration loud and clear. It was true, he had no Quirk. Neither did you, for that matter! Maybe it had been reckless to go without someone else. Had Tamaki and Nejire been worried about him? "I'm sorry." Mirio apologized sincerely, pressing his hands together in contrition. "I didn't think about it. I'm still not used to needing to be so careful, I guess!"

Tamaki squinted, cautiously asking, "you…you aren't mad? I'm sorry, I-I shouldn't have said it like that." A rare half-smile teased at his mouth. "You're really strong, even without your Quirk. But…yeah, Nejire and I were pretty worried when you didn't come back from visiting Eri." He admitted quietly.

"How about I make sure to keep the group chat updated if I head off-campus? Will that be a little less stressful for you guys?" Mirio threw his friend a wink. "As for the walk, you can either tell Nejire what I told you, or you can make up something!"

Tamaki then sputtered and stammered, dismissing the notion with a scandalized expression as Mirio laughed.

…

Tensions were growing as the festival approached. It felt like everywhere you went, there was a blanket of steady pressure. Both the students and the professors seemed hellbent on making sure everything went as smoothly as it could, which led to fatigue, shortened tempers and disagreements.

You had your hands full trying to make sure the triage consoles wouldn't immediately turn themselves inside out once the pro heroes logged in on the day of the festival. Everything else at the college was state of the art except for the CBMS, which seemed to be a relic of a previous establishment. Multiple days during the week before the festival you ended up staying late. At least I'm getting paid overtime, you thought ruefully on Friday afternoon, wiping down the counter and then leaning on it with a tired sigh. A little extra tomorrow too, for my 'supervisory' shift.

You chewed your lower lip, thinking about what might transpire at the festival. You were absolutely nervous, of course! But you knew you had to stay calm. If Eri picked up on your unease, it might ruin her whole day. That was the last thing you wanted, so you would have to do your best.

Really put on a…Plus-Ultra game face.

You snorted, shaking your head at yourself.

…

"Aw, visiting hours are over already?" Midoriya complained when the tones chimed overhead, the usual recorded message playing after a moment. Eri nodded, not even looking up from her coloring page on the table.

Mirio rumpled the other man's hair. "Cheer up! We'll get to spend the whole day together tomorrow, right?"

"Well yeah, I suppose. At least you guys will. I'll need to stick by the group for the tune ups and stuff." Suddenly Midoriya jerked upright, looking perturbed. "Oh no! The rope!" He exclaimed, looking at his watch and then groaning unhappily. "Ugh, the hardware store is closed by now. That means I'll need to go in the morning instead." Izuku gave Eri an apologetic smile. "I guess I won't be able to walk you to the festival with Mirio and your other friend. I'm sorry."

"I'll still get to see you, right?" Eri asked, "you'll still do your dance?"

"Of course!"

The little girl gave him a nod, her expression almost laughably serious. "Okay."

"We'll have to find you a candy apple too! That's half the fun of a festival," Midoriya continued excitedly, "all the cool things to eat!"

"You ready for our big date tomorrow?" Mirio asked Eri as he tugged on his jacket.

She replied with a slow shake of her head, her brow furrowed. "What's a date?" She finally queried.

"Oh! A date is when you go to hang out with people you like!" Eri still didn't appear to understand and Mirio wracked his brain for an example she would be familiar with. "Like what you and I did the other day with our friend from the front desk, right? We got to walk around and see a bunch of things, have some snacks, enjoy each other's company…that's a date!"

"Oh." Eri looked a bit confused. "Okay. Date. Date tomorrow."

"Yup!"

Mirio could feel Midoriya staring at him as they walked down the hall, but he figured he would just wait until the younger man posed his question. When Midoriya next spoke, however, it was a statement. "She still hasn't smiled."

"Nope." Mirio agreed softly. "I'm hoping for tomorrow."

"Yeah?" Midoriya cocked his head. "Why?"

"I don't really know." Mirio admitted. "Call it a gut feeling maybe?"

"I guess."

Izuku still looked a bit dejected as the two of them emerged into the foyer so Mirio nudged his shoulder, giving him a thumbs up. "It'll be fine! Everyone's been working hard. Now go back to your dorm and get some rest, underclassman." He ordered with a grin. "You've got a busy day ahead of you!"

Midoriya returned his smile after a moment, nodding. "Yeah, you're right. Hey, thanks for…" he paused, seeming to be searching for his words. "Well, uh, just for helping, I guess. You did so much during the fight, a-and you've been helping with Eri, too. I wish there was something I could do for you."

We can at least keep you safe.

"You've already done a lot for me!" Mirio protested, "you and everyone else, you keep people like Eri and I safe. That's a really important job, and it's one that I can't really do at the moment, y'know? So I should be thanking you!"

He had learned early on that Izuku was a bit of an easy crier, so Mirio was prepared for the way the younger man welled up momentarily. "We'll…we'll keep doing our best then." Midoriya managed to say, clearly trying to rein himself in. "Oh! My ID, sorry, I need to-" he floundered at the counter, searching his pockets wildly until he found his student card.

You took his card while waving off his apologies, scanning him out and handing the card back with a kind smile. "Be careful walking to your dorm tonight. The maintainers were out earlier so the sprinkler schedule may be off by a few hours again." You warned the younger man right before he bolted for the door.

Togata tilted his head, just barely catching the sound of an indignant squawk outside. You snorted, then composed yourself and took his ID. "So what time am I picking you up tomorrow?" Mirio queried, leaning on the counter. "Uh, you and Eri, I mean!" He rushed to amend, mentally kicking himself.

"Well that's…I mean, I figure probably by ten-thirty?" You suggested, seemingly having forgotten that you were supposed to be scanning him out for the evening. Not that Mirio particularly cared! It was just odd. "Are we bringing food, or…?"

"I got some juice packs in town the other day! Went with Nejire. Figured we'll find plenty to snack on during the festival."

You nodded, appearing satisfied by his logic. Then, you clearly realized that you were still holding his ID. "Oh! Let me get you out of here." You exclaimed, nearly knocking over the counter-mounted scanner in your haste.

Mirio quickly put a hand on top of the device to steady it but you had been about to do the same, which caused your hand to land on top of his for a moment. You glanced up at him and Mirio found himself staring at you, uncertain of what exactly was going on but not necessarily opposed to it. "Everything okay?" He asked finally.

Like you had just awoken from a trance, you blinked. "Okay? Oh yeah, everything is definitely fine." You insisted, nodding rapidly and then dropping his ID twice before you managed to give it back to him. "Sorry, I'm…it's been a long week. I guess I'm a little jumpy!" You excused yourself with an awkward laugh.

"Everything will be fine tomorrow!" Mirio assured you. "There will be pros patrolling the grounds and a whole bunch of precautions have been taken. You've got nothing to worry about."

"Ah, yes. It was definitely that that was making me nervous." You said slowly, seeming to pick your words with great care.

Mirio felt as though he might have missed something, but he wasn't entirely certain. So he simply gave you a thumbs up as he headed out through the sliding doors. He paused once outside the med center, inhaling deeply and then going stiff when he heard a low hiss next to him.

Mirio abruptly found himself getting drenched by a sprinkler. On reflex he attempted to use Permeation, before remembering with a bit of a gut-wrenching jolt that he no longer had his Quirk. All he could do instead was wipe his face and chuckle ruefully as he stepped out of range of the first sprinkler.

Directly into the range of the second one.

…

"Today's the day." You hummed for the hundredth time, digging into your tiny closet once more. "Today's the dayyyyy."

You had been trying to put together an outfit for nearly half an hour now. It had never been this difficult before! Why were you so nervous?

You blew out a breath, a bit exasperated, and finally just picked something at random. Pairing the outfit with some comfortable shoes, you gave yourself a once-over in the mirror and smiled at your reflection encouragingly. "It'll be totally fine. There's pro heroes everywhere today. Everything is going to be just fine." You told yourself aloud, checking the time. "It will all be fine."

Everything will be okay.

With every step you took, the words repeated in your head. Down the ramp to the staff foyer, outside to the small courtyard, across the campus to the medical center. One foot in front of the other, pro heroes stationed both subtly and not-so-subtly, students and staff hustling to get the last few things done.

Everything will be okay.

The sidewalks were still a little damp from the sprinklers, small puddles shimmering at the edges of the grass. You recalled Midoriya and Mirio getting caught by the sprinklers the evening before and a smile crept across your face. You had to fight back your laughter, only just managing to keep it under control.

Eri was waiting in the foyer with a nurse, the little girl already dressed and bouncing in place. "She's had her breakfast this morning," The nurse informed you dryly, "under extreme duress, of course. She wanted to save room for all the food she was promised at the event."

"Candy apple!" Eri proclaimed, grabbing hold of your hand.

"Let's put on your sunscreen while we wait for Mirio, okay?" You suggested, crouching. "I'm a few minutes early anyhow, so we have the time."

"I wanna' do it!" Eri held out her hands, her expression one of intense concentration.

"Okay, but I'll get the tips of your ears for you." You bargained, letting her squeeze a liberal amount of sparkly sunblock into her palm before you took it back. The poor child was still so pale from her previous confinement, you knew it wouldn't take much sunlight for her to burn. "Remember to keep your eyes closed, that stuff stings if it gets in your eyes!"

"Well well, looks like I got here just in time!" said a voice from behind you. It was Mirio, the blond waiting to swing Eri up into his arms until she nodded. "Wanna' put some of that on me, Eri?"

The little girl began sliding her hands over Mirio's cheeks, leaving a white snail-trail of sunscreen in her wake. You smiled, stretching over Mirio's arm to get Eri's ears while she was preoccupied. "Don't forget his nose and forehead!" You teased, laughing when Eri dipped her head solemnly and dragged two fingers across Mirio's once-pristine forehead. She even managed to get some of the sunblock in the young man's hairline, but Mirio just grinned and worked it into his gelled strands.

"There." Eri announced, finally seeming satisfied with her work. "Now we'll be safe."

…

Mirio tried to ignore his heart thundering in his chest when you rested on his arm to apply sunscreen to Eri's ears. Your face was right next to his, your eyes crinkling at the edges when you laughed and–

And then you pulled back and whatever it was was gone as quickly as it had arrived. The young man felt crushed suddenly, like something important had just passed him by. But there was no time to ruminate on that particular issue, as Eri was clamoring to get moving. So with a few sticky patches on his face and glitter stuck in his hair, Mirio took the little girl's hand and led the way.

Eri squeezed his hand tight, sandwiching herself beside his leg. "Don't be scared! I'm right here with you." The blond man assured her, smiling. She nodded with a determined frown, her free hand seizing yours as if to anchor herself.

The campus was ablaze with color and activity. Mirio wound his way in between the throngs of attendees, his large frame easily clearing a path for Eri while you brought up the rear. He knew he had to be mindful of safety but he also wanted to make sure that Eri got to see whatever she wanted to see, so he did his best to be alert for any tugs on his hand.

"Ah!" Eri exclaimed, halting abruptly. Mirio swung her up into his arms to avoid causing a pause in the flow of people, accidentally pulling you in with the little girl.

"What's up, Eri?" Mirio queried, doing his level best to play down the knowledge that your body was pressed to his side. Eri mumbled something he couldn't quite hear, pointing towards a brightly-colored food cart. "Wanna' stop for a snack?" The blond man guessed. She nodded vigorously. "Alright! Remember that we need to be careful in this crowd, so don't stop so quickly next time, okay?"

"Even if we walk past what you want to see, we can always double back!" You chimed in, checking your watch. "We can only make this one stop before the show, but after the show we can go wherever you'd like."

"Promise?" Eri asked you, the fragile hope in her voice threatening to break Mirio's heart.

"I promise," was your sincere response. "Now, let's get you your snack!"

…

Eri munched on a small twist of cinnamon pastry, her eyes roving over the crowd in front of her. You could barely see the stage from your spot next to Mirio, but you waved off his offer of lifting you as well with a laugh. Instead you kept a hand on his elbow, doing your best to maintain your position in the jam-packed area.

It seemed like the whole college had turned up for this particular show! You were a little concerned. While you didn't exactly need to be alert for threats (that was Mirio's job!), you still found yourself scanning the crowd for unfamiliar faces.

Everything will be okay.

Your grip on Mirio's elbow tightened without conscious input and he looked down at you, his expression uncharacteristically serious. "You alright?" He asked, seeming to be keeping his tone light so as not to attract Eri's attention.

"Sorry! There's a lot of people here, that's all." You apologized, smiling weakly.

"Everything will be okay." Mirio assured you, his easy grin making your stomach backflip. "I'm right here with you."

You could feel your face beginning to flush with heat and you quickly ducked, breaking eye contact to rummage through your bag for the set of ear muffs you had brought. "Eri!" You called, getting the little girl's attention so you could hand her the headset. "Can you pop these on? It's going to be pretty loud and we want to keep your ears safe."

Eri donned the hearing protection with zero fuss, Mirio helping to adjust the headband so that the cups fit snugly over her ears. "Man, you think of everything!" The young man praised, the admiration in his words enough to send a frisson of pride down your spine. "Wish I could be that prepared! I'd probably…" he trailed off, his smile fading. "Well, there's no real point to that. I'll do better." He continued quietly.

You opened your mouth to say…something, anything, maybe something comforting? But the lights overhead dimmed suddenly, and the moment was gone.

…

You even brought hearing protection. Mirio was downright awed at how prepared you were. But he supposed it made sense. After all, Eri was just a little kid in recovery to you! Little kids needed things like sunscreen, tissues, band aids…

He felt somewhat ashamed of himself for losing sight of the fact that while Eri was incredibly powerful, she was still a child.

The little girl posted up in his arms had her eyes fixed on the stage as the music began, her hands gripping Mirio's shirt collar. The blond man shifted his weight, giving her a reassuring smile when she glanced down at him uncertainly. "Look!" Mirio exclaimed, pointing back at the stage. "There's Midoriya!"

While the tight frown on Eri's face eased slightly upon seeing Midoriya and the rest of his class dance, it was nowhere near gone. Mirio knew this might not even work, but…

Mirio Togata, pro hero in training, had one goal for the day.

I want to see you smile!

The lights and sounds grew more intense and the crowd around him began to move in time with the music. Mirio found himself rocking back and forth, the rhythm too infectious for him to keep fully still. On his left, your hip gently bumped into his when you began to sway as well.

Eri's hold on his shirt started to loosen, making Mirio look up at her. Her eyes were bright in the shimmering lights, the little girl clearly enjoying the show. Streamers erupted over the audience, confetti fluttering this way and that in the fitful currents of air. Eri's tiny hands reached to grab fruitlessly for the glittery crêpe paper, her eyebrows furrowed with focus.

Your mouth brushed Mirio's ear, no doubt so he could hear you through the cacophony around him. "Lift her so she can get a streamer!" You instructed, giving him a thumbs up.

Mirio made sure that he had enough wiggle room to move safely, then hoisted Eri as high over his head as he could. Her questing fingers finally caught the tail end of a streamer, and he felt her bounce in what he assumed was excitement when she clutched the thin paper to her chest. Mirio lowered her once more, settling her a little higher on his hip so she could still see over the gyrating audience.

It looked like Ochaco was hard at work, several people closer to the stage beginning to hover above the main crowd. There were lasers sparkling brilliantly through the foggy atmosphere, more pyrotechnics erupting from the stage, were those doves-? It was all so bright, so vibrant, Mirio very nearly missed what happened next.

The music was building to what seemed to be a final crescendo and you tugged on his sleeve, pointing at Eri when he looked down at you. Mirio jerked his eyes back up, feeling Eri's arm slide past his face even as he did.

The small child had her hands over her head, waving the streamer in the air as she smiled broadly in blatant, unrestrained delight. The joy was evident on her face, her eyes alight with what seemed to be a mixture of wonder and glee.

It was as if Chisaki's shadow had finally released its stranglehold on her, banished in the brilliant glow of that hard-won smile.

Are you seeing this? Midoriya…Sir! Look at her! She's smiling!

Despite his best efforts Mirio felt a sob grip his throat. The young man hurriedly ducked his face into his shoulder to hide his tears, but something soft touched his cheek and he flinched, opening his eyes. It was you, because of course it was you, gently daubing away the moisture with a tissue. You smiled at him, your own eyes suspiciously damp.

Mirio's heart lurched in his throat. He couldn't help but laugh freely, pulling you into his side and giving you an elated kiss on the cheek without even thinking about it.

"Thank you!" He shouted over the music, trying to enunciate so you would still be able to understand him even if you couldn't hear. "Thank you, thank you so much."

You simply nodded in reply, wrapping your arm around his waist.

…

An enormous weight seemed to have been lifted off of Mirio at the sight of Eri's smile. It was a thing of beauty, the large blond man clearly torn between laughing and crying. You found yourself emotional as well, doing your best to rein it in before you went full waterworks. You were only here in an auxiliary role, after all! It wouldn't look very professional if you were caught sobbing hysterically, so you set your jaw and mentally begged your lower lip to quit quivering already!

At least you didn't have to hide your smile, even if it wavered a little.

You definitely didn't mind Mirio hauling you into a one-armed hug, his body warm and solid against your own as he tried to say something over the music. It might have been a thank you but you were unsure, so you settled for a polite nod even as your hand rested gingerly on his waist. After a moment his own hand slid down to your hip, keeping you tucked into his side.

The show ended with a bang and Eri began clamoring to go see Midoriya once she took off the ear muffs. You weren't sure if you imagined the reluctant way Mirio released you, his hand lingering on your lower back longer than it seemed to need to.

He had kissed you.

You froze, the reality of what Mirio had done sinking in. Granted, it was just a little peck on the cheek, but still! Heat flushed your face and you glanced around guiltily, wondering if any of your coworkers had been in the crowd near you.

Togata's hand grabbed your own, startling you somewhat. "We have to go against the crowd to get to Midoriya!" He explained over the noise. "Stay behind me, okay?"

Eri waved at you from her new perch on Mirio's shoulders, still smiling even as she smoothed down his spiked hair. You couldn't help but smile back at her, struck once more by how happy she looked.

Mirio trudged through the students and faculty on his way to the stage, occasionally detouring or pausing briefly to let larger groups move past him. At one point the two of you were separated and you called out his name, only to hear Mirio laugh and reply, "Polo!" off to your left. He didn't let go of your hand after that, simply angling his arm so that you were slightly behind him. His other hand rested against Eri's shin, keeping her steady on his shoulders.

He had shoved the sleeves of his varsity jacket up to his elbows, no doubt in response to the elevated heat inside the gymnasium. In an effort to ignore the fingers intertwined with your own, you studied the scars on his forearm. Some were clearly from whatever tussle he, Midoriya and Eri had been involved in, the healed skin still fresh and nearly purple in hue. Then there were older ones further up his arm, silvered with age and half-covered by his jacket. You wondered at them a bit, but the world had always been a dangerous place whether you had a Quirk or not.

Your gaze traveled up his shoulder to his face, currently in profile as he glanced around trying to find an opening in the crowd, and you simply watched him. Your mind was suddenly full of the thoughts that you had been trying to avoid, embarrassing you to the point that you forced yourself to look away.

…

"Hey, good work buddy!" Mirio praised Midoriya as he set Eri down. You hovered a few feet away after he released your hand, which he didn't quite understand. Were you still worried about losing track of him? It was much less crowded backstage!

"That was crazy!" Eri erupted, her grin still in full effect. "At first when there was a loud noise it was scary, but then everyone was jumping with the dance-" she raised her arms over her head and started bouncing in place, "and then there was a flash and Deku, you went away for a little bit, and the guy started flying in the air!"

Mirio had been mimicking Eri's motions while she spoke, his own excitement fueling the childish action. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of Midoriya's expression, the other student looking absolutely overjoyed.

"-and a bunch of people said 'wow' and you know what I said?" Eri asked Midoriya, her eyes shining with excitement. She didn't bother waiting for an answer, simply exclaiming, "wow' too! It was so fun!"

Deku inhaled raggedly, the younger man using his arm to wipe away the tears that had started welling up in his eyes. "I'm glad you had such a good time, Eri." He said sincerely.

"All thanks to you!" Mirio clapped the other man on the shoulder. "You and the rest of your class really pulled out all the stops, y'know?"

"Absolutely!" You chimed in, giving Midoriya a thumbs up. "What's next on the Class 1-A agenda for the day?"

"Well, Mineta really wants us all to hurry with the clean up, he's excited to get to see the beauty pageant." Izuku gestured at the smaller young man, who did indeed seem to be working himself into a frenzy. "So I guess we'll head over there once we're done."

"Beauty pageant!" Eri cheered. "Will we see your friend, Mirio?"

"Of course! We should get over there now, we have to get good seats." At those words Togata heard Mineta begin to huff, the younger man scuttling past him lugging a bucket full of ice while muttering curses under his breath. "Watch the language, buddy!" The upperclassman warned him with a smile.

The beauty pageant was…well it was something. Mirio was a little confused by the whole affair, if he was being honest, but Nejire did a fun sort of dance in midair and she seemed like she was enjoying herself. Of course she got his vote. Yours too! You were obviously dazzled by her display. Eri was just thrilled to watch the princess-esque students go through their routines, the show already a clear high moment of her day.

After the pageant Mirio dedicated his time to winning the games at the various booths, the young man determined to send Eri home with a mountain of prizes. His efforts were not exactly fruitful, however.

Down to his last ball on a milk-bottle game, he surrendered it to you instead. You, to his utter bewilderment, actually managed to knock the bottles over and win! Every time he had tried, the bottles just refused to topple.

"There's a trick to it," was your nonchalant explanation around a stuffed unicorn that was half the size of your own body. "Hang on to this for Eri, would you? I wanna' see if they have a duck pond." You leaned in, the unicorn ending up mashed against Mirio's shoulder. "Eri can win that one easy." You continued in an undertone.

Mirio nodded rapidly as he draped the pastel unicorn over his shoulder, thrilled that the both of you seemed to be on the same page.

Luckily, a booth touting the aforementioned game was mere steps away. It was a simple pink plastic kiddie pool, filled with water and a plethora of rubber ducks that looked like they had been scavenged from the student body instead of bought in bulk. No two were alike! There were red ones with devil horns, blue ones with sunglasses, even a few with tiny hats.

Eri rushed forward, the child seeming elated that a game was actually at her height. She then hesitated mere inches away, fidgeting as the booth vendor patiently explained the rules to her.

Mirio lingered a few feet back, scanning the crowd a little more fiercely than he meant to. But this was important, and he would be damned if Eri's first carnival game was interrupted by anything less than a world-ending event.

"Okay, here we go." You muttered, and Mirio noticed you crossing your fingers. "She's totally got this."

Eri pulled up a pair of ducks, checking the bottoms for matching symbols. A pink circle and a green star were revealed, however.

Mirio groaned silently, but immediately perked back up when the vendor held up one finger. Okay, okay! She gets more than one try! The young man clenched his fists, leaning forward slightly in an effort to see the ducks a little better.

Eri took a moment to study the pond, her eyes narrowing in concentration. To no avail though, the next pair she picked was an orange square and a red triangle.

The vendor held up a second finger and Mirio began mentally debating whether he would be bribing this student. On the one hand, it was a dilemma of ethics and morals. But on the other, Eri really, really needed a win to keep the ball rolling–

"Congratulations! You've won a prize!"

Mirio jerked his head up, blinking in confusion. Eri held two matching ducks, both with green stars on the bottom. The little girl smiled ear to ear once more as she happily accepted her winnings, a purple pencil case with a variety of ducks on it. "Mirio! Look!" She exclaimed, bolting back to the young man.

"Gosh, I guess you really ducked out!" Mirio heard you groan at his pun and it only served to widen his grin. He took Eri's hand and then extended his other to you. "C'mon, there's still so much to see and do!"

…

"I had a great time today." You murmured to Mirio, pretending to straighten Eri's hair out in an effort to avoid eye contact.

"Hey, that's my line." was the young man's equally-soft reply as he shifted Eri's dead weight in his arms. The little girl had finally succumbed to her exhaustion moments before, heavy eyes drooping and sliding closed even in the midst of such intense stimuli. You had no doubt that she would need a few days to recover from all this excitement.

You too, if you were being honest with yourself! Mirio seemed to have boundless energy, the man darting from booth to activity with all the enthusiasm of a person half his age. It was endearing, if nothing else. You couldn't help but feel a bit sad that after today, things would return to how they were. "I don't want this to end." You admitted quietly, still fidgeting with Eri's long locks.

A hand cupped your chin and you found yourself looking up at Mirio, the blond man's expression oddly serious. "It…I-I mean, it doesn't have to be over. If…er, i-if you don't want it to be, that is." The uncharacteristic stammering caught you off-guard, your brow furrowing as you tried to piece together what he meant.

Suddenly, "there you are!" rang out from behind you, making you jump and nearly drop all the stuffed animals you and Mirio had won for Eri. It was Midoriya, the younger man's face becoming apologetic when Mirio shushed him. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to wake you, Eri. I made you something though!" He said excitedly, unwrapping the plastic-swathed object in his hand.

Eri rubbed her eyes, staring down at the bright red candy apple. "What is…what is that?" She asked quizzically.

"A candy apple! You remember, Mirio told you about them. They're covered in super crackly sugar!" Deku explained, picking the treat up and passing it to her. "Be really careful with your shirt, okay? The red will stain it, trust me." With a touch of amusement, you noticed crimson splotches still lurking in the lines of his palms and knuckles.

The child immediately bit into the apple, the crunch of the sugar coating meeting your ears. "Oh wow." She mumbled into the fruit, not resisting as you rushed to tie her hair back in a low ponytail. The last thing you wanted any of the staff to have to deal with tonight was trying to get red, sticky residue out of her nearly colorless hair!

"Where did you even get that?! We looked everywhere!" Mirio queried, obviously dismayed that he had failed.

"I couldn't find any booths that had them, so I improvised and got some help from Sato." Izuku replied, smiling.

"Wow, that was really…" you paused for effect, aiming finger guns at the younger man, "sweet of him to give you a hand."

Midoriya groaned while Mirio's delighted peals of laughter rang out. "Guess I should have seen that one coming." The underclassman allowed ruefully, quickly smiling once more when Eri thanked him profusely for the confection that was currently staining her chin. "I'm just glad I caught you guys before you left! You must be pretty tired. It's been a long day!"

"Yeah, but I can say with confidence that this has been one of the best days I've ever had." Togata said sincerely, shaking Midoriya's hand. "And it's all thanks to you guys! Your class, you-"

"Whoa, and what about you?! Everything that you did to make sure that we could even have Eri come…you've done so much to help out!" Deku protested, a little red in the face.

"Guess we all worked hard for this moment, right?" The blond reasoned, tilting his head to offer you a warm smile. "Us, and Eri too!"

Eri took her eyes off of her apple for the barest moment, her serious nod making Mirio chuckle.

Professor Aizawa meandered up as Midoriya was about to say his goodbyes, the older man looking more weary than usual. "I trust there were no further issues?" He asked, those piercing eyes oddly trained on Deku, who rushed through a farewell and then bolted.

"'Further issues'?" Mirio repeated, cocking his head to one side.

Aizawa sighed heavily. "I'll explain later. For now, I'm here to escort you three back to the medical center."

"Mr. Aizawa, I got to see a loud show and there were ducks in a pond!" Eri announced, the copious amounts of sugar in the candy apple no doubt perking her back up.

You were stunned when Professor Aizawa gave the child a thin smile. "That's great news, kiddo. Anything else happen?"

"Mirio tried to win a bottle game, there was lots of food and I saw two people get to fly today! I had a hot dog for lunch, and all kinds of snacks, and I gave a little bird some fries because he seemed hungry-" As Eri carried on regaling the professor with the tale of her very full day, you watched the older man's harsh glare soften. Evidently he had been just as worried as the rest of you, if not moreso! You got the feeling that there may have been an incident earlier in the day.

…

"Someone tried to attack this morning?!" Retroactive panic washed over Mirio in a cold sweat, the young man clenching his fists as memories from Eri's rescue flooded his mind. There was an attack and I didn't even notice?!

Aizawa grimaced, rubbing his temples. "It's not exactly so cut and dry, Mirio. Technically yes, but the situation was managed. Improperly managed. Midoriya is lucky Hound Dog didn't shake him to death."

Midoriya. So the underclassman had ended up being their first line of defense? Mirio wasn't exactly sure how to feel about that. Talk about having a full day! Midoriya seemed totally unphased when we saw him. I guess that was just a show to keep Eri's spirits up. "I'm glad we still got to go through with the festival." The blond man remarked after sorting out his thoughts.

"That was Midoriya's reasoning. He wanted the festival to happen no matter what, I guess." Professor Aizawa shook his head. "He didn't want to alert the pros because he thought it would risk the festival's cancellation. Regardless, he should have called for backup. He's on campus cleaning duty until further notice, so you may see him a little less."

"I'm happy he's safe." You said, unconsciously echoing Mirio's own sentiments. "It couldn't have been easy to deal with a threat all on his own."

"He didn't have to deal with it all on his own." Aizawa grumbled, obviously annoyed. "Kid's got guts and he's smart, but damn he's stupid." He straightened up after a moment, adjusting his scarf. "Alright, I trust the two of you can at least manage to return to your housing without further incident?"

"Of course! You can count on me, teach!" Mirio assured the older man, and then turned to you. "Well, we'd better get you back safe and sound!"

You nodded, falling into step alongside the blond. Mirio hadn't anticipated the silence that stretched awkwardly between the two of you, and he wracked his brain for some light topic of conversation.

Before he could think of something, you spoke up.

"You and Midoriya had a really difficult time when there was the incident with Eri, didn't you?"

Mirio was caught off-guard by your odd opener, clearing his throat. "Well, uh. Yes." He admitted bluntly. "As you know, I lost my Quirk. Hopefully temporarily! But still, it wasn't…" Mirio trailed off, the thought of Sir Nighteye threatening to choke him up. "It wasn't a simple mission."

"Did today make everything worth it?" Your voice was soft, uncertain, and you refused to meet his gaze.

…

There was no way. You had never had a Quirk of your own, but they seemed to be so intertwined with someone's personality and sense of self…there was no way you could imagine the thought of losing such an important piece of your identity.

There was just no way that Mirio's hurt or Midoriya's guilt could be erased with the smile of a little girl.

And yet you hoped so hard, with every fiber of your being, that maybe, just maybe, it could. That maybe the triumph of the day had been enough to, if nothing else, ease the pain, even a little.

But…

"Absolutely." Mirio's reply was instantaneous; he didn't even think before he responded. "I wasn't kidding when I said today was one of the best days of my life."

You couldn't help the way you were staring at him, you just really hadn't anticipated such a quick and succinct answer!

"What?" He queried, "Is there something on my face?"

"Well, no, I just…I guess I'm confused is all." You fumbled to explain yourself. "You lost the use of something important, and Midoriya…I mean you both suffered pretty extensive injuries from what I remember, and while I didn't have any of the specifics it just…it doesn't seem like it would even out in the end to me." You reasoned frantically, hoping that he wouldn't think you were rude.

"To me it does." Mirio's smile was serene. "Life is full of stuff like that though! The things that seem little to other people, but to you…" he hesitated, seeming to search for the right words. "To you, it's the thing that brings you happiness in a day. Like sixteen bouquets of flowers crammed onto a windowsill!" He laughed. "Sure, a smile doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but when you think about it, it's the biggest deal."

You cast your mind back to when you had watched Mirio notice Eri smiling, the progression of emotions that had occurred on his face within the span of bare seconds. The grief, the heartbreak, the joy, and the tears that had come with it. Seeing him so emotional had stirred your own heart, but it was also bewildering.

All this, for one little girl's smile?

Maybe it wasn't for you to understand. His healing was his own, after all, and it wasn't really your place to question his happiness. You hadn't been involved in Eri's retrieval, you had no idea what may have transpired, you probably shouldn't have said anything–

Clearly you had been silent for too long, because Togata quietly said, "I know it seems silly to you."

"It's not that! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry or be insensitive. If it makes you happy, then that makes me happy too." You rushed to say, smiling afterwards. "It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that, right? I'm happy you're happy."

The tall blond stared down at you as the two of you walked, his brow furrowed in thought. "Today made me happy." He finally said, his words chosen with care. "I enjoy spending time with you."

You blinked. What?

"I'd like to…" Mirio paused, beginning to fidget. "I-I'd like to spend more time with you, maybe?"

"What, like…tonight?" You managed to croak, nervous laughter bubbling out of you when Mirio's shoulders jolted up around his rapidly-reddening ears.

"What?! No, not like--I-I mean, I wasn't suggesting that!" He frantically tried to backtrack, shaking his head. "I-I just meant maybe we could go get lunch! Sometime! When you have time! L-Like a date!" His voice was getting louder and louder, forcing you to tug on the hem of his jacket to bring him down a notch.

"I would like nothing more than to get lunch with you." You stated plainly, making Mirio slow to a halt. You took a few more steps and then looked back at him, a bit confused. Was that the wrong answer? "Are…are you okay with that?" You asked tentatively.

"I…Yes! Absolutely! I'm super okay with that!" Togata replied frantically, loud all over again. "You make me feel good and I'd like to make you feel g--wait, no, that came out wrong, I promise I'm not--er, I mean, when would you-?"

"As soon as possible." You interrupted his rambling, laughing at his nonplussed expression. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow! Tomorrow works!" A broad grin stretched across Mirio's face, brightening his entire visage. "I'll see you tomorrow, then!" Suddenly, his smile faded. "Oh sorry, I…uh, I promised Eri she and I would have a lunch date tomorrow."

He looked so crestfallen that you nearly started laughing all over again. "Hey, don't worry about it! Tomorrow night, then?" You suggested. "We can get something from Lunch Rush, if you're alright with everyone knowing about this."

"Oh geez, people are going to talk." Mirio groaned, his cheeks pinking up. "Nejire especially."

"We can always order something to campus, if you're worried about that. Or we could go to Lunch Rush at separate times and eat together in my quarters." While placing a reassuring hand on his arm you gently reminded him, "people will always talk."

"No way! If I'm going to be a pro hero someday, I can't get spooked by public relations now!" Mirio reasoned, his hand landing on top of your own. "Tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night." You agreed, leaning into his side for the last stretch of distance the two of you had to walk to your housing. "Looks like this is where I'll have to leave you."

"Uh." Mirio seemed nervous all over again, his free hand jammed deep into the pocket of his varsity jacket. "I…er, I-I don't suppose I could give you a goodnight kiss?" He managed to stammer out, his tone hopeful.

"Absolutely."

"Awesome!" Mirio exclaimed. You closed your eyes in anticipation, but you were met with him giving you a simple peck on the cheek.

You tilted your head, certain that your disappointment was a little too obvious. "That's it?"

"Oh! Oh, you wanted--oh." Mirio swallowed hard. "You're sure? I…I mean it might not be any good, haven't had much time to practice." He tried to joke.

"If you'd rather not, it's-"

"No! I-I do, I have for a while." Togata admitted, stunning you with the confession. "I really…I really like you." He then inhaled, squaring his shoulders. "Okay. I'm gonna' give it a shot!"

This time was…a bit different.

His hands came up to cup your face and you could feel him trembling slightly. As Mirio leaned in, you closed your eyes yet again in a desperate bid to cling to your composure. His mouth met yours and, instead of immediately retreating like you had expected, Mirio slid one hand to cradle the back of your neck while he deepened the kiss.

When the two of you finally parted you were both flustered; you were panting and Mirio's face was bright pink. "Was that…okay?" He asked hesitantly, seemingly unaware that you were still trying to catch your breath.

"That was way better than okay." You huffed, making him laugh and punch the air victoriously. "Who the hell taught you how to kiss like that?"

"Huh? Uh, no one. I just kinda'...I mean I've seen a few movies, and they always…you know what, that's not important! We have a date tomorrow night and it's already pretty late, I should let you get some rest!" Togata responded in a rush, one hand on the small of your back ushering you through the entryway of your housing unit. "Have sweet dreams, okay cutie? I'll see you tomorrow."

"Hey, wait-!" You began to protest, a bit more than interested in what exactly he had been watching, only for him to cut you off with another kiss. Then, Mirio bolted back outside before you could recover, the blond man leaving you leaning against the wall next to the elevator in a somewhat-rumpled state.

All you heard over the sound of your heart pounding was an elated, far-off shout of, "power!" which in turn made you burst out laughing.

What a nerd!

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