#place your bets on where my laziness for evidence came in! (I honestly don’t know lol scavenging evidence is all a blur)
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Ball’s In Your Court
Paring: Steve Rogers x Reader, (platonic tony x reader)
Summary: Steve and Y/n have been playing games for years. But now that Rogers is acting like a little bitch, Y/n throws him a curve ball that will either make them or break them.
Words: 2.7k
Warning: None man. Its fluff and angst. Language (?)
A/N: I was experimenting with the third person P.O.V for reader. Hope it’s to your liking.
MASTERLIST
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For as long as Steve could remember, their life together had been a game; bet after bet, challenge after challenge. He had met her when she was just entering her teens, a little girl with a lost wild look in her eyes. She was in all respects Tony’s daughter, rescued by him from the wreckage of his own weapons. He had almost done a double take when Tony had introduced her to the team.
“This is Y/n, she will stay with us from now”
The compound was not used to the pitter patter of little feet or their furniture appearing embellished overnight. She had lost everything, including it seemed herself. So, their first game ironically had been Hide and Seek. She was small and he lost count of how many times she had bested him by crawling under the cramped spaces of desks or vents (Thanks for teaching her that, Barton).
When Tony had complained about the hundredth time that she just wouldn’t eat, Steve would challenge her that whoever finished their breakfast first could choose the movie for tonight. When she refused to let them leave for missions, he would challenge her to a game of cards. She was too young to win against him but her stubborn streak never turned down a game.
Their every interaction had been a game. They could get each other to do anything by playing chess or softball or a game of Horse that drove everyone else up the wall. He got her to open up about school bullies by besting her at Pictionary and she had effectively gotten him to shut up about healthy food by kicking his ass at video games. They dealt with drama via games (Whoever tosses the least paper balls in the bin tells Bruce we fucked his experiment ), they dealt with humor via games (let’s see who can manage to steal Nat’s gun without getting caught), they dealt with grief via game (if you beat me at Heads Up I’ll let you choose the gravestone).
Growing up, she was Tony’s daughter and Steve’s best friend. While Tony raised her, Steve gossiped with her. They were pals and all was fun and games until she grew up from a little girl into a young woman. Steve didn’t know when things changed but the first he noticed it was when she had run into his arms bawling because some idiot boy broke her heart. It was when he found himself conflicted between anger at the boy and jealousy that this shit started.
He had tried, he had really tried to keep it in check. He had tried to keep up with their game’s night ritual, their silly bets and ridiculous challenges. He had tried his best to be a friend, but this was one challenge he lost. She was no more the 14-year-old girl asking him questions for her history project or the 16-year-old nightmare who would put cockroaches in his bed as revenge. This was a young woman in her 20s with curves for days and an attitude that raised hell. It was a classic falling for your best friend story (if only he weren’t old enough to be her dad or was her dad’s best friend).
He had of course been under the impression that he was being subtle about his change in feelings. He tried not to stare when they went out for a swim, he resisted the urge to lick her lips after a nacho eating contest. He was trying so fucking hard, but as anyone could have told him, “Steve, you don’t have a subtle bone in your body, you frisbee throwing maniac”. She was Tony Stark’s daughter; she was not raised to be stupid. She was smart and observant and almost as quick a study as her father. It was no surprise then that she figured out what had Steve so wound up around her.
Maybe it would have creeped her out had it been anyone else, but Steve was her person. He was her one constant, from kissing her boo-boos to getting her home after she drank herself silly, Steve was there. It shouldn’t have surprised Steve so much then when she cornered him one evening and planted a wet one smack on his mouth with a muttered, “This sexual tension it killing me, gotta do something about it because you won’t”.
He wished he could say he clutched her body to his and dragged her to his room for a wild night of passion. But in reality, he chickened out like a bitch and ran away. Not just from her, but he completely disappeared from the compound for two weeks. When he came back, it was with the intentions of telling her they couldn’t do it, it was wrong and a betrayal to Tony. But Steve needn’t have worried because he came back to the compound to find her introducing the team to her boyfriend.
As far as others know, Steve didn’t deliberately break those glasses that night or push the idiot boy in the pool. It was an accident, and if such accidents kept happening around men she dated then it was purely coincidental.
It was a new kind of game they played then, a more dangerous one and if one’s being honest, a very sensual game. She would date someone; he would scare them away. One of them will find the other, have a passionate make out session, probably end up straddling the other on a desk and then one of them will get up and leave with the same lie “This can’t happen again”. Repeat.
Gone were the days of challenges and competitions, in its place was a sexually charged game of Tag. A cat and mouse game where they always chased each other, touching fleetingly before retreating again. Neither would be the one to make a commitment, neither would concede to being the person who would put their hearts on the line. They were two bulls who were made to butt heads (who occasionally took time off to play a quick game of tonsil-hockey).
Steve had known there had to be an end to this. It had gone on for so long that he could bet other people suspected some shit. He had honestly expected for Tony to sucker punch him half a dozen times by now. Right now, he would have taken those punches to the news she had just given to the team.
“I am getting married!” She announced, offering her left hand so others can admire the gorgeous diamond ring that sat on her ring finger. She looked happy, absolutely radiant and it was all Steve could do to stop himself from dragging her out of here by her hair and throwing that offending ring into the garbage chute. What the fuck kind of game was she playing?
He waited until everyone was asleep before he broke into her room. Well, breaking into would suggest it was forced but truly only him and Tony had the authorization to enter. Their relationship may have changed from ‘you’re my best friend’ to ‘I want to be your best lay’, but they still knew each other the best and cared just as much as before, if not more.
She was under the covers in her bed, a small nightlamp on. It had been a while since Steve had been in her room and it was like taking a big gulp of nostalgia. Her room was her sanctuary, so it reflected her heart’s desires. Every surface of the room was littered with one of their memories together. Her pinboard was still holding the notes he would write to her in school, the birthday cards he made himself and the portraits he would sketch for her. On her desk stood the numerous gifts he had gotten her, each well taken care of despite the years between. Right beside her on the cabinet was a picture of them together, both of them holding hands and smiling at each other in what could only be called as “lovesick smitten idiots”.
He was cautious as he lowered himself next to her on the bed, her face so peaceful he felt like he would taint it by his touch and presence. He had looked at her for years, sketched her details hundreds of times and yet each time he beheld her, he felt his heart skip a beat. She was a memory that he tried to forget and yet it emerged every time he closed his eyes. She was in his skin, a part of him in a way that defied all laws of nature and social customs.
“Are you going to keep staring at me and be the creep from Twilight or do you plan on getting inside?”
Her voice made him jump because she hadn’t opened her eyes. She was smiling that lazy smile of hers when she would catch his bluff in poker. He chuckled and shifted the sheets, climbing under them and curling his body around her. It may as well have been cliché to say that they fit like a puzzle, but it was true. They were molded to fit against each other perfectly, like that lid you close over a box and the satisfying ‘tick’ sound it makes when it clicks into place. That’s what being with her felt like. Fitting in. Coming home.
“Why are you doing this Y/n?” Steve asked and she pushed her body into his so he could hug her tighter.
“Because you won’t do anything Steve. We’ve been running around in circles for so long now, and every time I think that finally we’ll be together, you abandon fort and run. I can’t do this anymore.”
Steve took her left hand and watched her ring twinkle in a taunt. It could have been him. It should be him.
“Don’t marry him. He will never give you what you want.”
“I know that Steve, no one can give me what they want because they aren’t you. But I can’t keep waiting for you in the sidelines hoping you’ll pull your head out of your ass. I want to be loved, preferably in this life.”
His arms were like tentacles around her, but she didn’t complain. Every embrace and moment between them was so fleeting, a stolen moment that she enjoyed what she could get. This was probably the longest in a few years that they had held each other without one running for the hills.
“I love you, you know that.” He whispered in her ear, longing evident in his voice.
“I know that, as much as I know that you won’t do shit about it. Loving someone is not always enough Steve. It’s just the beginning. I – I won’t keep my love a secret. I don’t want ten angry sensual minutes in the broom closet. I want walks in the park and two dogs and a cat. I want picnics with our family and pictures that are not restricted to my room. You can’t give me that. You won’t.”
She had run out of tears. Her fiancé may not be Steve Rogers but at least he was an honest man who tried his best to love her the way she deserved. She had met his family and they had met hers; they could post pictures on social media with cheesy captions and hold hands as they drank coffee from a cheap corner place.
“You can never love anyone like you love me” It was a sulky declaration by a hurt lover and she almost cooed to him like a mommy consoling her baby. Steve may have been older to her in years, but when it came to love he was an immature brat.
“That may be true, but I will try. I am not Penelope waiting in the balcony for Odysseus to return. I love you, and that love may never fade away. But my life will go on. It is your choice if you want to be a part of it.”
She faced him, her eyes open and clear. He didn’t know when the little girl who needed help to reach the jar on the shelf had grown up in this headstrong woman who could beat a sailor when it came to cursing. But he couldn’t bear the thought of her staying like this in someone else’s bed, looking at them the way she looked at him. Steve rarely coveted something in his life, but he didn’t realize until now how much he coveted her love. If he lost that, he feared he would lose himself.
“Your father is going to kill me” Steve groaned, and she laughed. Her head was on his chest and an arm around his torso.
“We can elope, you know. Run away and get married. It will be too late to do anything then. You’ll be stuck with me.”
“Did you just propose to me?” Steve questioned and she nodded, her eyes naughty.
“I’m always a step ahead of you Captain. I figured you would take another month at least to ask and I have wasted too much time already.” She whispered against his lips. He leaned up to kiss her deeply, unhurried for the first time. It was like their first kiss all over again, like two star-crossed lovers smashing through their final obstacle and uniting. Steve didn’t know how he had survived so long without having her like this, but as his hands found her soft curves, he swore he can’t go a day without it.
“Stop stop!” She said, pushing his chest and rolling away from him. “We’ve waited this long. You’re not getting your dick wet until you finally commit to me.”
Steve looked more dumbfounded than offended and responded by finally taking off the ring on her finger and throwing it away carelessly.
“I’ll steal the Quinjet, meet me in the hanger in half an hour. Don’t pack shit. We’ll make one stop for the rings and get the first officiant I can find to marry us. We’ll probably be back by breakfast. And then,” His arm wound around her waist “I will lay rest to the sexual tension of years by getting my dick wet. Repeatedly.”
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It was to be expected that Tony’s daughter wouldn’t do anything halfway through. A flair for dramatics was her inheritance and she and Steve walked into the compound newly married in rumpled night clothes and shit eating grin. They found everyone eating in the kitchen, and greetings stopped halfway when the rest of the team noticed their clasped hands.
“What the fuck…” Bruce said, half eaten celery dangling from his open mouth.
Y/n flashed them her award-winning smile and showed the matching rings on her and Steve’s hand. It was a riot under a minute, chairs scraping as they crowded them, trying to see if it was a joke. Then just as suddenly everyone stopped and Tony stepped forward, a spatula in his hand that to Steve looked as threatening as a gun.
“You sick son of a bitch!” Tony shouted and Steve flinched. He looked at Y/n but all she did was wear a smug look on her face that should be illegal in about three continents. “You little bitch! You are supposed to be from the 90s! You were supposed to ask her hand from me like a gentleman you sick little fuck!”
Steve blinked in confusion while she laughed, hopping like a little girl to hug her father.
“Pay up, daddy! You owe me 500 bucks.” She said and Tony groaned, pulling out his wallet and handing her crisp five 100s.
“I – what? What happened?” Steve sputtered, still surprised he wasn’t being beaten by the Iron Legion.
“You weren’t supposed to elope you bastard. Always knew chivalry was dead!” Tony huffed then went back to cooking. “Congratulations by the way. Fucking finally. I’m not surprised my girl had to do everything anyway. She’s taken after me.”
This was a plot twist Steve never expected and he looked at his new wife with a look of horror on his face that could only be translated to as ‘what the fuck have I gotten myself into’.
“I told you baby, I’m always a step ahead of you.” She said, trying and failing to blush like a bride.
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Taglist is open
#steve x reader#steve rogers x reader#steve x you#steve x y/n#tony x reader#tony stark x reader#steve rogers x y/n#steve rogers x you
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Just Another Class Trip :) Part 6
Marinette goes on a nice peaceful trip to the pool. Me? sarcasm? how dare you sir!
First< Previous >Next
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“Did you find what you were looking for Marinette?” Kagami asks oh so foolishly.
“Kagami look into my eyes and ask me that again,” Marinette dares, her eyes red rimmed with bags underneath bigger than Chloe's luggage.
“... You found your glasses?”
“Never mind,” She sighs, finishing the rest of her coffee, “At least that one isn't missing,”
“I thought you only wore them as M-you-know-who,” Chloe whispers, a purposeful look towards Lila’s posse leading the way to the bus.
“Just wanted to try them out without a mask,” She brushes off easily, she needed to be able to transport back to Paris at any time after all.
“Oh it was just terrible!” Lila cries, capturing the attention of everyone surrounding her.
“Did she finally hear a recording of herself?” Chloe scoffs, making Adrien shush her and Marinette crack a smile.
“This Starling kidnapped and tortured me for information,”
If only I had
“Luckily Batman was there to save me, but I knew he would be,” Lila croons, the class fretting over her all the while, “He was probably searching furiously the second I didn’t return his call,”
“When did she get Batman’s phone number?” Chloe whispers to her.
“No idea, think she’d give it to me?” Marinette smirks.
“Oh sure I bet it's 3825968,” Chloe laughs at her own joke.
Marinette doesn't get it but Kagami starts laughing, so she moves to stand next to Adrien while they share a moment.
“Any idea?”
“Not really,”
They reach the door going through it to find Gotham in the nice peaceful state it's always been.
Just kidding, lights start flashing in their faces and everyone around them is yelling. Lila of course tries to take this opportunity to get attention. To Marinette's great delight they push right past her, and to her horror opt to shove a million microphones in her face.
“Miss Wayne were you adopted?!”
“Yes but-” the cameras start flashing and the yelling increases tenfold.
“When?! How long ago!?!”
“A baby I guess?” She hadn't known her birth parents after all.
“How have you stay'n out of the public's eye for so long?”
By not being like Lila for one
“Mari I don’t think you’re talking about the same thing,”
“Yeah thanks, I’m getting that Adrien,”
“Adrien Agreste? Are you two dating?!”
“Great,” She ignores them, instead whispering to Adrien, “From now on Buttercup will be your codename,”
“Cool,” He leans in to whisper in her ear, “But I don’t think that’s helping things,”
It’s at this point the cameras are going crazy taking a million pictures of the two whispering in each others ear, while Kagami and Chloe try to push them all back. The class follow behind just as confused. Madame Bustier is trying to reason with the crowd, trying to . They reach the curb, fighting not to be pushed onto the road by the crowd. A limousine pulls up and for a wonderful second Marinette thinks Liam has come to save her, the wonderful manager he is. Instead Alfred steps out, surprising to say the least. He ushers her inside and tells the rest of the class the bus will be through momentarily. Marinette slides into the car right next to Bruce Wayne… well.
“Hello again, I um…” Marinette thinks back to their last meeting, “I don’t think I actually told you my name,”
“No you didn’t,” Bruce chuckles, “And Selina has been avoiding me ever since,”
“Sorry, well I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng Auntie Selina’s niece,” Marinette shakes his hand, “She didn’t tell me she was engaged,”
“Bruce Wayne, Selina didn’t tell me she had a niece,”
“Yeah, that's a bad habit isn't it?”
“Indeed,” Bruce pauses, both trying to reach for a conversation topic, “So you like fashion?”
She had said she would design her aunts wedding dress. She should probably double check that with the groom, whoops,
“I do I already sketched out some designs,” She takes out her sketchbook which has a good thirty pages dedicated to wedding dresses, “Oh you were probably going to hire a professional designer weren’t you?”
“We were considering MDC,”
“.... I think that’ll work out just fine either way,”
“Hm,” Bruce looks curiously at her as she hides away her sketch book, she would be using those designs either way.
“Anyway!” She changes the topic oh so subtly, “About those reporters…”
“Theres a certain rumour running rampant that you are a Wayne, after someone took a photo of you with my son at the airport,” Bruce explains, switching over to business mode in a heat beat, she could appreciate that, “We’ve been doing our best to contain it, but…”
“At the airport…” She mutters to herself, “Oh! Tim’s your son, that explains Alfred, that must mean Dick is too!... work at Wayne tower, yeah very funny,”
She tries not to roll her eyes at their understatement of the century, wasn't Tim Drake a CEO there?
“Impressive, have you met Damian too?” Bruce asks, a slight smile that would have called Kagami expressive.
“Not yet, but should I invest in a bingo card?”
“Maybe so,”
They fall into silence Marinette would usually hold polite conversation but her thoughts were in turmoil. Lila didn’t seem to know anything about the miraculous then again her interrogation was cut short by a certain someone . However Tikki had advised her against placing all the blame on Lila, she needed to consider other options as well. But who else could it be? she was in Gotham Hawkmoth couldn't reach her… unless he somehow...
“Marinette are you alright?”
Marinette startles look over at Bruce who is blurred by tears. She hadn't even realised she’d been crying.
“I-I’m sorry,” She hiccups trying fruitlessly to wipe away the tears, “I-it just…”
“It’s ok,” Bruce rubs her back comfortingly, but boy did he choose the wrong words.
“IT’S NOT OK!” Marinette yells not looking at anyone in the car, they didn’t matter, nothing else mattered, she had failed and people were going to suffer for it, “I left it behind! It’s all my fault! Now it’s GONE! It’s been stolen and I don’t know where it is!”
“What was stolen?” Bruce presses, getting over the shock of the polite and put together girl melting down into a puddle of sobs.
Now I’ve gone and messed up, time for a classic cover story and some half truths
“A good friend of mine gave me a very important jewellery box,” Marinette sighs, wiping the tears away and rebuilding herself, “It was stolen shortly after arriving in Gotham and I’ve been trying to find it,”
“Do you know who stole it?”
“I thought it was one of my classmates,” Marinette frowns, they should have certainly been there by now, “Still do honestly,”
“Which one?”
“Lila probably,” Marinette tries to keep her tone neutral, tries, “Brown hair that looks like sausages,”
Marinette could almost see the words ‘oh fuck’ written across his face.
“Miss Dupain-Cheng, we have arrived,” Alfred speaks up for the first time, not leaving her time to puzzle over the reaction, “Your class arrived some time ago,”
“How did that happen?” Marinette frowns, they should have arrived ages ago.
“Alfred must have taken the scenic route,” Bruce shrugs, acting like an innocent party in all this.
“Well then I guess I’ll see you for the wedding,” Marinette tries not to rush out of the car, certain her class or rather Lila would have caused some grief by now.
“I’ll make sure to send the invites to your family personally,” Bruce promises, shaking her hand before she can run off.
“And I’ll make sure Auntie Selina doesn’t destroy them,” Marinette smiles back brightly, she can see the concern for her all over Bruce's face but doesn't have time to reassure him.
Marinette walks into the indoor pool, knowing her luck the class was already inside. They were and the owner was not happy about it.
“First your class was late then you waltz in here late as well?” The manager berates her.
“I’m sorry sir,” Marinette tries to seem more sincere but her tardiness falls short on the things she has to worry about now.
“That class mate of yours came an yelled at me that one of our pools were dirty so we had to drain the whole thing,”
“Let me guess, sausage hair?” Marinette raises a bow, it really being all the energy she can put into the action.
“Yes,”
“Sorry sir I’ll talk with her,” Marinette promises, she slips into the changing rooms as they grumble about lazy employees.
There is absolutely no way Marinette was going to talk to Lila. She enters the changing room, a shower running somewhere. She tucks Tikki and Kaalki into her bag, Tikki had insisted she relax today, recharge and get ready to find the miraculous. She couldn’t find enough will to argue not after having to wake up in the middle of the night to fight an Akuma back in Paris.
She slowly changes into a red and orange ruffled one piece swimwear. She honestly just wanted to take a nap in here, hide away from the class and the well meaning questions from her friends. Instead she drags herself towards the shower, they are all open and there's someone towards the back standing underneath the spray in their bathers.
Something fires back at her to be careful, it puts her on edge but with miraculously potentially loose in Gotham city it’s no wonder her instincts are screaming at her. Instead she steps under the spray hoping to loosen up.
She doesn't, after standing there for ten minutes she still can’t relax. Maybe it’s the cold water, maybe its the other person. The were still standing there, they had been in the shower even before she entered the changing room. Marinette peaks over, they are still standing still, with their arm out… the same way they had been ten minutes ago.
“Are you ok?” Marinette calls, no answer, not even a twitch.
Marinette creeps over. They are standing stock still, she can’t see evidence of them so much as breathing.
“Hello,” Her voice echoes off the tiles, not a noise in the empty room besides from the shower running.
She is right behind them, they haven't even moved, arm still raised. She walks around to see their face. Frozen in a look of concentration, not so much as blinking with water running into their eyes. She follows their eyeline to see them peeling off dead skin from their arm, stretching towards their fingertips. There's a faint glow of yellow all around them, concentrated at their back.
Marinette steps away, walking out the showers, she closes the nearest door to find herself in the pool area. Her friends are on the other side. Kagami is dunking Adrien as Chloe waves her over. Marinette sprints over to them.
“No running!” The life guard yells.
But that doesn't matter, all that matters is that there is someone using the bee miraculous for evil, she has to stop them before they get another Hawkmoth. They probably have the whole miracle box! She'll need the back up.
“Mari-”
“Come with me,” She doesn't let them have another question helping Adrien out of the pool.
She pulls them along despite Chloe's protests, pushing them through the door.
“Mari what's-”
“Hush now Buttercup,”
“You were serious?” Adrien gasps, Chloe just giggles.
“Yes,” She walks over to the frozen body, “Look at this,”
“Whats-” Chloe pokes them, immediately recoiling, “The fuck?”
“They’re frozen,” Kagami does the same.
“We have to help them,” Adrien waves in front of their face, looking on in horror.
“We have to hide them,” Chloe pokes them again, getting slapped away by Kagami.
“We have to find the culprit,” Marinette races at the idea that this could be the Bee miraculous.
“We’ll do all three,” Kagami decides, getting their attention, “Now first let's put them in a stall so we don’t alarm anyone or the villain, then we need to look for clues,"
They all nod, Marinette turns the water off. Adrien tries to move their arm to no avail.
“Looks like we have to carry them,” Adrien suggests, he and Marinette each taking an arm.
“Ew, no I’m not touching it Buttercup!” Chloe cringes away, backing up as Kagami lifts a leg off the ground.
“Has that really stuck?” Adrien asks Marinette, as Kagami sends Chloe a powerful enough death glare to get her to help.
“You bet Buttercup,” Marinette grins, as they shuffle through the changing rooms to the toilet stalls.
“Fine then, I’m calling you Cupcake,” Adrien teases, sticking out his tongue.
“As you wish Buttercup,”
“Someone get the door,” Kagami commands.
“I will!” Chloe lets go of the leg, the body becoming no heavier.
They manage to fit them inside the stall without too much hassle.
“Who could have done this?” Adrien looks on sadly at the person, tilted at a slight angle to fit into the stall.
“I’ve been thinking,” Marinette speaks up, “If this is a villain it doesn't make much sense to attack a random person, and if they were trying to be stealthy they would have hidden the body,”
“They aren’t dead!” Adrien says aghast.
“Exactly, why wouldn’t a villain just kill them?”
“That's very dark of you Cupcake,” Kagami says, missing Adrien’s pout, “What’s your theory?”
“This is likely a new villain, one not ready to kill,” Marinette decides, not even blinking at the nickname, “They have something against the pool, they probably want to ruin its reputation,”
“You did say that this was a very safe pool for Gotham,” Chloe closes the stall door, “Minimal murders, so why would someone want to ruin it?”
“Insurance? Sick of their job?” Marinette’s eyes go wide in realisation, “The pool!”
She darts out the changing room the others close on her heels.
“No Running!”
“Where are we going!?”
“The manager said they were refilling the pool,”
“Why- oh my god,” Chloe gasps, overtaking the lot of them, “Run faster!”
They burst into another pool room, the pool noticeable empty with diving boards on the other end. They run to the edge of the pool. A frozen body wearing employee uniform frozen at the bottom the water slowly rising.
“Get them out! Get them out!”
Marinette jumps down into the pool, causing a splash, the water is up to her ankles, barely a centimeter from covering the person at the bottom. She runs over and tries to pull them up. Kagami makes a splash behind her running over to help. They drag the person, frozen in horror the yellow focused on their chest instead. The pool is far too deep to climb out of so they pass the body up to Adrien and Chloe.
“Who would do this?!” Adrien can just reach them when Marinette and Kagami lift the person over their heads.
“I heard the manager mutter about lazy employees,” Marinette gives one last push, Chloe and Adrien pull them up over the edge.
“So we have a suspect,” Kagami says, water rising up her leg, “We should check their office next,”
“Well, they went from no murder to yes murder in record time,” Chloe huffs, the employee safely to the side.
“It’s concerning, but they may have more of a grudge against them than the other person,” Marinette points Kagami towards the ladder to get out.
“More evidence towards the manager,” Kagami nods, letting her up the ladder first, “We should choose codenames if the manager is potentially familiar with us,”
“They did have the class roster,” Marinette nods along, then grins, “You should be Teacup!”
“Fine by me,” Kagami nods, not showing how happy she truly is with the nickname.
“Oh I want to be-” Chloe cuts herself off head snapping towards the door.
They hear scratching at the door, everyone tenses. Marinette crouches in a position to defend her friends. The door slowly creeps open and… a little snout pokes through followed by the rest of the dog.
“Is this what you wanted to see Cuppy?” A person wearing a lifeguard uniform follows in a second later.
“Excuse me is your dog named Cuppy?” Marinette plasters on a fake smile quickly pulling a nearby towel over the body.
“Yes it’s a weird name I know,”
“No! It’s perfect! On another note could we please borrow your dog?”
“Um... sure?”
“Thank you, we have to go! Careful the pool is empty!” She calls as they race out the room, the person tucked away out of sight, “Come on Cuppy!”
"NO RUNNING!"
The dog wags its tail following them out the pool area and through the changing rooms. They come to stand outside the staffroom door, dripping water on the carpet.
“Everyone ready?” Marinette asks, hand on the door, they nod and Cuppy lets out an 'off', the door slowly creaks open.
Marinette looks through to see, nothing, the hallway is desolate and dark.
“It’s safe,”
“You call that safe?” Adrien pokes his head through the door, followed by Chloe and Kagami.
“Be brave Buttercup be brave,” With that Chloe pushes him into the corridor.
They creep along the empty hallway, footsteps echoing around them. The manager's office door could be seen at the end of the hall. Gold color plate glinting in the few stray beams of light filtering through. Marinette could feel every hair stand on end, danger seeming to lurk from every shadow in the dark hall. The pressure of something ready to pounce and immobilise them at any moment hung heavy in the air, dragging them down into a pressure that-
“HIC!”
Everyone jumps out of their skins, Adrien actually hits the ceiling, rubbing his head on the way down. Kagami draws her sword, Marinette falls into a defensive position.
“Hic!”
“Chloe!
“I’m sorry! Hic! It’s not like I can help it! Hic,”
“Thats it! You’re Hiccup!” Kagami snaps, Marinette tries not to snort.
‘What?!” Chloe screeches stamping her foot, “No way!”
“Deal with it and lower your voices!” Marinette shouts, Cuppy barks along, “Not you too Cuppy?”
Another yip
“Traitor,”
“Cupcake stop picking fights with the dog and lets move on,” Adrien implores, still rubbing his head.
Marinette rolls her eyes speed walking to the manager's office before the tension rises again. The reach outside the door, Marinette counts down to three on her fingers and they burst through the door.
Inside is silent, the bright light blinds them for a second, she shuffles in front of her friends acting as a shield, waiting for them to adjust. When she does she sees the desk chair is turned away, Cuppy pads forward Marinette doesn't grab his collar in time.
He starts licking someone's hand, Marinette creeps around the desk, waiting for the hand to snap out and grab her. The others follow, surrounding the chair preparing to come face to face with the villain. She peeks around the edge they are sitting there, she freezes the others following her lead. A beat, another one, nothing. They’re frozen.
“It’s not the manager,” She relaxes, patting Cuppy’s head.
She lets out a sigh, releasing all her tension.
BAM
Turning around the door is slammed shut, a striped villain standing before it. They all drop into a fighting stance watching for the stinger on their right hand. Cuppy starts wagging his tail, trying to approach the villain.
“Cuppy no,” Marinette grabs his harness, bringing the Pitbull back.
“He’s my therapy dog,” The villain growls, Cuppy wagging his tail happily.
“Not a very good one is he?” Chloe sneers, looking the villain wearing her stripes up and down with disgust.
“Wait, you’re the lifeguard at the pool?” Marinette gasps, maybe she really shouldn't have run, “Why did you-”
“I work here, you can’t imagine the horrors I face every day, people are disgusting,” The villain shudders, this was the guy who stole the miracle box?
“Yes, but murder?” Kagami gets a nod from Chloe and hissed at by Adrien.
“My co workers are completely useless and the boss always yells at me,” A sinister smirk crosses their face, “Or at least they did,”
“So you thought murder before you thought quitting ,” Adrien points out, probably not the best time to imply a villain is stupid.
“I didn’t kill anyone,”
“Ah yeah thanks to us!”
“Shut up!” They lash out at Chloe, stinging her in a single strike.
“Run!” Marinette shouts, they all scatter.
Marinette dodges the first swipe, ducking down. They get distracted by Kagami lashing out. Marinette darts around them to get closer to the door, Kagami gets hit. Marinette reaches the door the villain comes after her, they are inches away. Adrien leaps in front of her, getting stung. With the distraction Marinette bursts out the door Cuppy on her heels.
“Traitor,” She sprints down the hall, “Did you know?”
Cuppy happily pants beside her. She can hear the villain banging around the corridor behind her and runs faster. She dodges into a room around the corner, hiding among the pool noodles. She sees the shadow pass under the door. Pause. She holds her breath intently watching the shadow, she has no one, not even Tikki. He heart beat rises, she can feel her breaths shorten, this is it, this is it, this is it, this is-
Something nuzzles her hand, she looks down to see Cuppy. He starts to lick her hand, letting her relax into it, focusing on him as the shadow continues on. With a sigh Marinette starts to take off her skirt, flipping it inside out to the cape side.
“You aren't going to tell anyone about this are you?” Marinette asks Cuppy, right before pulling up her mask, he lets out a happy bark, “Good boy,”
She sneaks out the room, looking up and down the clear hallway. She walks the opposite way of the office. She doesn't need to see her friends paralysed, she just needs to help them, she just needs to fix her mistake.
She reaches the pool area, hiding behind a lounge chair, watching through the slats as the villain gathers everyone together. Starling sneaks closer, Cuppy on her heels. There are several civilians, locals if their calm demeanour is anything to go by, although they do seem uneasy at an unknown villain. Her class is significantly less calm.
She had told them time and again that there was no coming back in Gotham, no miraculous cure. It seems for once they had decided to listen to her. Unfortunately they did not do well under pressure. Lila of course was aggravating the situation, making empty threats. The villain reared up to silence her and man, Marinette could relate.
“I don’t suppose I can wait a minute can I?” She whispers to Cuppy, he settle a paw on her knee, letting out a quiet whine, “I guess that’s a no,”
She runs up behind the villain, signalling the civilians to be quiet. Lila looks down at her, anger flashing over her face. Starling bears her teeth right back, she can just try it. Lila ultimately decides her life is more precious than petty revenge, a hard choice for her to be sure.
Starling stands up to her full height behind the villain tapping them on the shoulder. They turn around in surprise, to find her dazzling smile. But the real thing that makes them see stars is her right hook. As the fall Starling rips the bee miraculously right out of their hair, their transformation falling. Marinette stands above them as they detransform, Pollen hiding behind her. It makes her stomach churn watching them detransform, looking up at her with fear. The twisting of her insides lessens when Cuppy nuzzles up next to her. She busies herself with hiding the miraculous away.
“It’s them!” Lila screeches, ah now she can get to that petty revenge, “The one that kidnapped me!”
“Look what you did,” Staling bites instead, looking down at the villain.
“I had nothing to do with this!” Starling is highly entertained when Cuppy growls at Lila, actually getting her to back off.
“Sure you didn’t,” Starling openly rolls their eyes, grabbing the villain and hauling them up by their shirt, "Where is the rest!"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" She scowls, making them whimper, guess they really didn't know,
Shit
"Where did you get this?" She holds up the miraculous.
"I found it! it was just lying out on the street!"
Shit
"Did you see any others?!"
"No!" the blubber swearing by it and begging for mercy.
Shit
The police sirens can now be heard, Starling drops them and runs from the room.
“NO RUNNING!” She turns on her heel and glares down at the villain, “... sorry, it’s a reflex,”
She nods running from the room to change, grabbing her bag with Tikki and Kaalki on the way. After a small celebration at finding another miraculous and reunion with Pollen, they have to make a plan to find the other miraculous. They are cut short when sirens are heard outside. She wears the Bee miraculous under her ponytail, to keep it hidden from view.
When she is ready she goes to find her friends. They are outside talking to the police. Marinette only gets the chance to signal she’s ok before being intercepted by officers to get her statement. When she’s retold her account of trying to find the pool freezer she is finally allowed to check on her friends.
“Hey Cupcake, glad to see you missed all the fun,” Chloe teases.
“Sorry Hiccup,” Marinette looks her in the eye deadly serious grasping each shoulder, “You were an adequate shield,”
“Shut it,” Chloe pushes her away playfully.
“Teacup, Buttercup are you alright?”
“It was nothing,” Kagami assures.
“Didn’t you guys think their powers were a lot like Queen Bees?”
“You would know Hiccup,” She nudges Chloe playfully, “If it was I think we should keep that to ourselves, wouldn't want that information somehow getting back to Hawkmoth,”
She looks purposefully towards Lila, the others nod along.
“Still some random person now might have the miraculous,” Chloe glares down at the ground, “Can we really trust this Starling person,”
I mean no I'm operating on negative six hours of sleep, but also yes
“I don’t think we have much other choice,”
“Marinette,” She freezes at that familiar, low gravelly voice.
“Batman, sir,” She adds, trying to look like someone who wasn't chased down by him yesterday, “How can I help you?”
“I heard you knew the most about this villain,” How did she get in trouble for interrogating Lila when this is how he talks to civilians.
“Not really I just found someone paralysed and tried to find the culprit,” Marinette shrugs, hoping her friends wouldn't point out that she is lying to The Batman.
“You didn’t call the police,”
Well thats a good point, not that I would have
“... To be honest it absolutely did not occur to me,”
“These abilities were spontaneous and now they seem to be gone,” Batman points out, damn he already knows too much, “Do you know what caused this?”
“I do not,”
“Very well,” Batman nods turning away, “Go to your class,”
“Yes sir,” Marinette walks away far too quickly.
How was she going to search the city with that hunting her down?!
--------------
Taglist
@smolplantmum @flufflepuffle296 @dawnwave16 @caffeinetheory @g-arya @Maribat-2k20 @ladybug-182 @Actual-disaster-human @fusser90 @messrs-weasley @soap-lady @paintedhope7 @zeneralla @mochegato @random-nerd-3 @clumsy-owl-4178 @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @too0bsessedformyowngood @certifiedbidisaster @Purplegeekypanda @awkward0ghostfan @theymakeupfairies @tikki-marinette @insane-fangirl-of-everything @elmokingkong @inarachi02 @slytherinhquinn @moongoddesskiana @dast218 @buginetye @redscarlet95 @biodad-bruce-month @hansa-12 @waiting247 @toodaloo-kangaroo @how-to-fuction-properly @trippingovermyfeet @greekmythgal @whatthefox22 @the-alice-of-hearts @bigpicklebananatree @indecisive-mess-named-me @nalu-ismyjam @deepestobservationwombat
#miraculous#miraculous ladybug fic#miraculous ladybug#miraculous fanfic#miraculous marinette#mlb#ml fic#ml#bio dad bruce wayne#Bio Dad Bruce Wayne Month 2020#bio! dadbrucewaynemonth2020#b!dbwm2020#biodad au#Marinette#badass marinette#maribat#marinette is mdc#salt#class salt#Lila salt#lila lies#fluff
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everybody has those days // fred weasley
Summary: A drunken night at Harry and Ginny’s wedding leads to a slightly, very awkward situation with the reader and the bride’s elder brother
Request: nope
A/N: basically I read sunkissed by @ickle-ronniekins and I became, as the kids say, thirsty also as I was doing the warnings I realised that I essentially described uni so go figure!!! i don’t know why but this was so difficult to write and I’m like wow am I just losing the ability to form sentences
Reader: female
Warnings: suggestive themes, hangover, drinking, nudity, hickeys, innuendo, swearing,
A low sound escaped your lips as you shuffled, frowning at the strange weight over your waist. Peeling your eyes open, you winced as rays of bright sunlight leaked through the open curtains. So, you figured, today was almost certainly not going to be a very productive one. You huffed and then blinked slowly, adjusting to the light and letting your eyes focus, a decision you definitely regretted as a familiar face came into view.
Now, you’d recognise Fred Weasley’s face anywhere. Not only was he your best friend’s brother, but he was also half of your bosses and a man you’d been regrettably attracted to for almost seven years. So, as you looked at the slope of his nose and the freckles sprinkled across his cheeks and his brassy red hair, you knew that you had made a decision somewhere along the way the night before with very hefty repercussions. And so, as all rational and mature people do in such a situation, you decided to handle it with a certain level of grace and decorum.
“Oh, fuck.”
You hauled yourself from the bed, your head screaming at the immediate whiplash from your sharp exit. The room spun around you and your knuckles look fit to burst as you clutched at the sheets in your hands, pulling them to your chest. Whether it was your abrupt profanity or the vicious reorganisation of his bedsheets, Fred let out a deep, gruff exclamation and tumbled backwards off the other side of the bed.
For a moment, you were both silent, except for the panting noises of your combined heavy breathing, and you found yourself staring very intently at Fred’s confused expression, trying desperately to remember the night before. Why couldn’t you sleep with and forget someone you hadn’t been pining for years for? Wouldn’t that have been more fun?
“What the bloody hell did you-“ he stopped himself as he looked at you wrapped up in his bedsheets, the skin of your neck and collarbones mottled with dark purplish bruises that he was sure he could almost still taste on his tongue. “Oh.”
He stood up with great difficulty, rubbing his head with his hand, sending his hair into ruffled disarray. You didn’t exactly mean to look down and you also didn’t mean to let out a high-pitched screech at the sight of his manhood.
“You’re naked!”
You looked away quickly, heat flooding your cheeks as he grabbed a pillow, the one you’d just been lying on, and placed it over his junk.
“You’re naked, too!”
Though you hadn’t intended to, his indignant tone made you look at him, and you caught what was left of an embarrassed flush extending from his face, all the way down his neck. You clenched your jaw at the sight.
“Please don’t think about me naked,” you said, squeezing your eyes shut as the throbbing in your forehead returned.
“Sorry, love,” he said. A lopsided grin pulling at his lips despite the edge to his voice, his inner panic rather obvious beneath the surface. “But I think that ship’s already-“
“Fred!” you squeaked, your eyes growing wide. He stayed silent, but his smile didn’t budge, enjoying your flustered expression far too much. “Do you remember what happened?”
You looked at him then, properly this time. He was handsome, but you always knew that, what with his strong jawline and the long slant of his neck. The skin all over his collar and chest was pale and freckled and covered in dark, splotchy hickeys, you realised with a strange warmth flooding your system. You swallowed against the tightness in your throat as your eyes trailed down, taking silent note of the lean muscles of his arms and his toned stomach.
“No, but if the way you’re looking me up and down right now is anything to go by, I think I can take a guess how it started.”
“What- No- You… Fred, you are so irritating,” you spluttered, annoyed that he could get you so riled up so easily. He shot you a lazy grin, the same one you’d seen almost every day since Ginny introduced the two of you. From the day you met, you and Fred had a habit of bickering constantly about nothing and everything all at the same time and you were sure that had you not been a close family friend, you’d have been fired years ago. Thinking of the family for the first time, your face soured as you dreaded to think what their reaction would be if they found out about how you spent your night. They’d probably hate you.
“You’re not too bad yourself, love.”
You shot him a dry look before remembering where you were. “I have to leave. Like right now.”
You didn’t wait for him to reply, too busy searching the ground for your clothes, heat searing under your skin at the haphazard display of them on the floor.
“Hey, wait, hold on,” Fred said, reaching out to you with one arm, holding the pillow with the other. You bit your lip, forcing yourself to focus.
“What?”
“Shouldn’t we…” he voice wavered slightly, a first for Fred. “Shouldn’t we talk about this?”
“This-“ you said, pointing between you and him, your underwear flying around in your grip. “Was a mistake.”
You noticed the way his eyes lingered on your hand and huffed, reaching down the get the rest of your clothes, searching for your dignity whilst you were down there. He probably only wanted a shag and whilst that would be totally fine for someone else, you just couldn’t do that. Not with your history. Not with your feelings.
“But-“
You didn’t give him the chance to speak as you shot up sharply.
“Turn around then!”
His brown eyes turned dry as he tilted his head, a silent sarcastic question on his lips. Your frown deepened and he sighed, turning around dutifully. You rushed to put your clothes from the night before on, struggling to keep your balance, especially when your eyes stalled on his bare bum.
“You better be looking at my arse,” he said, his signature smirk loud in his voice. You couldn’t even try to respond, returning to your dressing with new-found haste.
That had been a week and a half ago and you were still avoiding a proper conversation with him. You’d talk, of course, you worked together, you had to, but it was always just courtesy, small talk, and then that deafening silence Fred hated so much. He missed the easy banter you had and more than anything, he missed you. It all just felt so wrong and he couldn’t help but feel that he’d messed everything up somehow. And so, if you asked him, that’s why he was stood there, hiding behind boxes of sweets stacked neatly on a row of shelves and watching you refill the massive tub of love potions. He felt like a creep, but he hadn’t formed the right sentences or backbone required to talk to you yet. And so, as you emptied the box in your hand and made to fetch another from the backroom, he went to follow you, stopped only by a familiar waistcoat, or rather the man wearing it.
“You alright there, Fred?” George asked, the smile in his voice more than evident as he looked down at his crouching brother.
“Just peachy, cheers, George.”
“So, you’re just stalking Y/N for fun then, yeah?”
Fred glared up at his brother, sighing and standing up under his expectant stare.
“What’s going on with you two?”
“Nothing,” Fred said far too quickly. He cursed his defensiveness and groaned. Instinctively, he knew you wouldn’t have told anyone; you said it was a mistake, he reminded himself, earning a familiar sinking feeling at the memory. And so, he’d avoided mentioning it to anyone either, even George, who was now staring at him with a very suspicious scowl.
“Fine,” Fred huffed, rubbing his face with his hands. “At Ginny’s wedding we uh- we-“
Well, he didn’t really remember, did he? He knew on a base level what must’ve happened, but you’d both been so pissed and-
“You shagged.”
“How the bloody hell do you know that?”
George’s laughter only served to further Fred’s indignance. “You two disappeared at midnight, fawning over each other like lovesick teenagers… it doesn’t take a lot to connect those dots, Freddie.”
Fred’s expression soured. “So, everybody knows, then.”
“Afraid so. Mum’s chuffed, obviously, thinks it means you’ll finally get together. With you pair, it was inevitable, though. Especially with that industrial-strength Romanian firewhiskey Charlie smuggled in.”
Fred groaned at the memory, gripped the shelf in front of him so hard his knuckles turned white.
“It’s ruined everything, George. She doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
George laughed again.
“What’s so bloody funny?”
“You’ve both been mad for each other since fourth year and you think a quick screw is gonna change that? We’ve been placing bets on you for years.”
“You what?”
“You’re so bloody oblivious, the pair of you, honestly.”
“I don’t-“ Fred huffed, immediately dismissing the idea that you would fancy him in any way. There was no chance. “I don’t understand.”
George, helpful as ever, just shook his head, chuckling as Fred rested his forehead on his hands. Neither of them spoke for a moment, but when someone cleared their throat next to him, he sighed.
“George, I’m-“
He stopped short when he saw you, with your arms cross and eyebrows raised. You were clearly unhappy with him. It was hard for him to care though when his words caught in his throat at the sight of you.
“You’re not George.”
“Why are you spying on me?”
“I’m not-“
“Fred.”
“I am Fred, actually.”
Your vaguely threatening expression made him rethink his approach.
“I’m not spying on you,” he insisted, throwing his hands up. “I’m just watching… closely.”
You rolled your eyes. As you looked at him properly for the first time since the incident, a strange feeling stirred in your chest. He was the same Fred he had been before; the same handsome features and the same five-steps-ahead ingenuity behind his eyes, but somehow it was all different. A very bad different. You sighed, turning to go back to your restocking when his hand caught your wrist. You frowned, your eyes trailing from his hand to his face, studying his almost surprised expression.
“It wasn’t a mistake,” he said, his eyes oddly sincere. You swallowed. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes-“
“I’ll say-“
“Can you not just listen to me?”
“Not when you’re acting so strange!”
“I’m acting strange? You’re the one that’s barely said a bloody word to me since we-“
“Fred!”
“Oh, give off,” he huffed, finally letting go of your arm. “George already knows.”
“You told him?”
“The whole family knows! Apparently, love, we aren’t as subtle as we think.”
You groaned, leaning back against the cash register and sliding down it until you hit the floor, rocking your head back against the wood.
“Is it really that bad?” he asked, pausing a moment before sitting next to you, your shoulders almost touching. You rubbed your eyes with your hands, thinking about Ginny’s reaction when she found out. It was a surprise she didn’t hate you already.
“It’s not the same for you, Fred. This is your family, it’s fine for you. But I’m just this girl that’s friends with your sister and probably should’ve been fired ages ago and they probably think I’m a right slag-“
He barked a laugh, his head tipping back and smacking against the register loudly. Had you not have found his consequent pout annoyingly adorable; you probably would’ve been able to keep your frustrated tone without a smile tugging at your lips.
“What is so funny about that?”
“Well, I mean, you don’t need to be worried about that, do you? You’ve always been a slag,” he said, laughing at your offended expression as you smacked his arm, unable to contain your own laughter.
“You’re such a cheeky git.”
“Oh, come on, Y/N, you were never just some girl. You’ve been a part of this family since you were fourteen.”
You didn’t say anything at that, not even when you felt his eyes carefully inspecting your side profile.
“And it wasn’t a mistake for me,” he said, softer this time. “It’s actually been a very long time coming.”
You sighed, drawing your knees up to your chest and biting your lip.
“It wasn’t for me either.”
It wasn’t until his knee hit against yours that you mustered up the courage to look at him, floored slightly by the sheer amount of emotion in his eyes.
“So, what now?” you whispered, raising an eyebrow. It felt foreign to be so vulnerable with Fred, but you found that you didn’t hate it as much as you thought you would.
“Well,” he said, pulling back his sleeve to look at the time. “We’ve got about twenty minutes till we open and an empty cupboard about,” he squinted. “Thirty feet away.”
You wanted to be mad at him; that was always your go-to emotion with Fred, but as you watched him grin with his bright eyes and his tongue between his teeth, all you felt was a familiar fondness for this stupid, obnoxious, annoying man. And even as you stood up and let him pull you to the broom closet, you couldn’t bring yourself to be mad about that either.
harry potter tag list:
@creator-appreciator
@decadentwastelandtrash
@loveisblindness
@xinyourdreamsx
@brainlesspasta
@hariosborn
@staringmoony
@rexorangecouny
@ickle-ronniekins
@harrysweasleys
@alittletoomanyobsessions
#fred weasley#fred weasley imagine#fred weasley x reader#writing#imagine#Harry Potter imagine#harry potter
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the avatar series: 01.02
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The apartment was borderline full. If anyone wanted the perfect example of the opposite of silence, it would be Doyoung’s and Tari’s apartment. Usually, the apartment would be full of conversation between the roommates – but never this many happening simultaneously. However, their neighbors wouldn’t be complaining. It’s Avatar Day! Everyone is celebrating today; evident through the cheers and large parties on the streets.
Kilari is standing on the couch, having a playful argument with Lucas who was sitting down and holding his arms up defensively. On the other side of the room, Taeil and Doyoung are discussing something they saw today at the festival regarding a strange performance that involved a clown that “looked deranged”. Sonan, Tari, and Johnny are preparing the table – Sonan talking with Johnny about his article while Tari just offered any extra commentary – which often included teasing Johnny and supporting Sonan. The food all arrived from local vendors only a few minutes ago; mostly consisting of fried rice, stir-fry noodles, chicken pan dan, and a series of skewers.
“But, you must have gotten some interesting feedback from the girl who went to her first festival today!” Sonan enthused, her emerald eyes gleaming as she motioned to Tarir. She always seems to have a positive attitude – everyone deems her as the mom friend, always the one to brighten moods and to make sure everyone has eaten. “How was it?”
Tari smiled, “It was really great.” A small silence followed as they continued putting down the plates, but was ended when Johnny looked up at her with disbelief in his eyes.
“What insightful comments, descriptive, newspaper-worthy.” This comment was responded to with a playful slap from both Tari and Sonan, making Johnny flinch. “Hey!”
“Finnneee.” She breathed out, “It was so much more fun than I imagined, but it’s just too crowded.”
“Is that why you left?” Sonan asked, looking up at Tari with a sympathetic look as she temporarily halted putting down the last plate.
“She left because she’s a coward.” Johnny teased, making Tari roll her eyes and stick her tongue out. “Honestly though, I bet you Hendery’s burn wasn’t even that bad. If the crowd was so bad, you should’ve just stayed with Doyoung and I. We could’ve protected you. Doyoung could’ve even casted an air bubble around us.”
At the mention of his name, Doyoung took his place next to the group. “Johnny, as a non-bender, you may not understand this but with great power…” he paused dramatically, “comes great responsibility. And I will not be using my responsibility to accidentally hurt others because of the bubble.”
“Didn’t you bend to fly a fork closer to you yesterday because you were lazy?” Tari reminded him, making Doyoung go red with a sheepish smile.
“Yes, but it was my responsibility to feed myself.” Doyoung excused, singing to himself.
“And Tari’s responsibility to heal me from you accidentally stabbing me with that same fork.” Johnny reminded. A glare warning Johnny of impending doom came from Doyoung, who was wondering what he did to deserve all this mockery. Especially as Taeil, Lucas, Kilari, and Sonan have all tuned in and started laughing at the conversation. “You stabbed me!” Johnny reiterated.
Without missing a beat, Doyoung turned to look at Johnny with the best sincere look he could muster. “Why are you here all the time?” Johnny decided to do a cute look, scrunching up his nose and pulling his lips into a tight smile. It was a common joke between the three of them; but it was usually said by Tari and then she would get scolded by Doyoung for making that joke.
“You love it really.” The butt of the joke said with too much pride.
Doyoung lunged at Johnny, pinching his sides. “Do not mess with me, I’m not scared to ‘accidentally’ stab you again.”
“And I’m not scared to forget my responsibility to heal you.” Tari said off-handly and quickly, making Johnny’s jaw drop with fake offence. “Come on everyone, let’s eat!” Before Johnny could retaliate, everyone came rushing to the table where the smell of relatively-fresh take-out food was enticing.
“You know, I really do nothing wrong and get treated like this.” Johnny sighed teasingly, taking his seat and eventually fake-crying. But everyone turned their head to look at him as soon as he said ‘do nothing wrong’.
Everyone in an unsynchronized chorus, everybody repeated after him. “Nothing?” Lucas let out a loud laugh while Tari snapped and did finger guns at Johnny from across the table.
“ANYWAY,” Sonan sang as everyone started reaching forward to grab their servings, “G-Dragon came across the stall today and said there will be a special event for Avatar Day.”
Taeil widened his eyes, “Honestly about time,” He chuckled, “This will be their first time doing something special for today.” NCT usually only has bending fights three times a week, but due to this special event, this week will be having four different bending fights. In addition, they normally never do bending fights on Tuesdays with G-Dragon famously calling Tuesdays and Thursdays ‘those awkward days that fail to fit in’.
“Yeah, but I can’t go because I have a warrior class to teach tonight – I’m gonna teach them some moves Kyoshi is most known for, but you guys should go.” She looked around the table, observing the reactions of everyone on the table. “If you emit aenough details, you could add that to your article.” She said to Johnny, as if he wasn’t convinced already. Everyone was on board – the bending club was how a lot of them have met and bonded with other members of the bending community. However, she couldn’t help but notice Tari scratching her head with uncertainty.
“Do you just hate fun?” Kilari poked her tongue out at Tari, also having noticed this behavior. “What’s up with you and today?”
Lucas fake gasped, “Are you secretly anti-bending?” Everyone joined his fake shocked reaction; hands covering their mouths or jaws dropped, revealing some pretty unsightly views of indigested food in their mouth. “Are you against the Avatar?”
Tari rolled her eyes, playing along. “Totally, all benders should not be benders. Okay? It’s unfair!” She said in the fakest valley-girl accent she could muster. “Also, close your mouths please, I don’t enjoy seeing unchewed food in your mouths.” That was only responded with Lucas over-exaggeratingly chewing his food, mouth open and revealing the indigested food in his mouth.
“I love how the only non-bender in the room seemed the most angry with that statement.” Kilari pointed out Johnny who was looking at Tari in complete disbelief, playing along as well. Johnny looked like a deer in headlights; his eyes widened, his lips slightly parted – having flinched to face Tari. “Okay, but seriously, why not? You love being there.”
Tari just shrugged, “Isn’t a whole day of festivities enough? Like, I’m not anti-Avatar but like, I don’t know! All we do is celebrate the Avatar today, but it was a group of people who helped? Like Katara and Sokka and Suki,” She pointed at Sonan as she was the granddaughter of Sokka and Suki, “And Toph and a shit ton of tribes.” She sighed, “And like, yeah, Aang was amazing, all the Avatars are amazing. But… where is the new Avatar? Will they even be good enough to live towards that standard? If we keep hyping them up, then the new Avatar will seemingly be nothing.” Even saying those words made her heart drop, a guilty feeling rushing through her veins as she put her thoughts into words – the first time she has said these feelinsg out loud.
Everyone went silent. Usually perspectives were for the Avatar and expressing excitement for the new one. They’d expect Tari to have that attitude; she was always the one who’d always uncontrollably smile at the sight of people bending. She was always the one who was quick to name facts about the Avatar or the history behind their world. In fact, when Tari was brought to a pub quiz night, she basically knew all the answers immediately.
Kilari was quick to speak; after all, she grew up in a family that’s the head of the group that basically focuses on celebrating the Avatar and identifying them. It helps that she’s one of the most outspoken people - other than Johnny - Tari knows. “The Avatar will only be as good as their training, but they also have access to the previous Avatars.” She reminded, “And, the Avatar doesn’t need to do anything unless the world is in danger. Which, luckily, we currently aren’t. Their main purpose is to protect mankind and there’s not much to protect them from.”
“Except our danger is the current government,” Lucas added, about to say more but then noticed Doyoung and Taeil’s expressions warning him to stop the talk about politics. “But, let’s not talk politics over dinner. I definitely want to go to the fight. Majority rules as we all know everyone has nothing to do tonight.”
“Excuse me?”
“Except Sonan.”
Johnny came equipped with his camera, of course. It’s like these days he’s nowhere without it. He always wants to capture the action; even if the action is just his friend smiling at a cup of coffee. He wasn’t going to miss any action here. Before coming, everyone changed into less heavy clothes with the knowledge that the theater will be absolutely packed, and they’ll only sweat from the amount of heat from the crowd.
Entering the arena; which is flooded with people as it normally is, everyone felt like family. For such a secret community, it’s quite large. It’s always the same people attending, maybe with one or two extra people. The people who come are a community; they all support the same cause of allowing benders to be treated equally and enjoy seeing people try and improve their skill or show it off in the ring.
The theater itself is unknown, but the fighting ring is whispered about by everyone. It’s not like the government doesn’t know its happening - they just don’t know where, when, or how. It’s how they chose this abandoned theater, left in ruins that G-Dragon and the Big Bang crew bought and fixed to host make-shift, illegal probending tournaments since the government banned it 20 years ago. Due to the illegality, a community was built - but to be fair, its more like a family.
The arena was full of whispers; everyone chatting and theorizing what they might do for the secret festivity. This year would be the first year G-Dragon did something explicitly special for Avatar Day, as the years prior, the day fell upon the usual fight days and therefore nothing special was done. “I’m going to try and go to the front, I think Renjun is the announcer for today’s match.” Taeil commented, excusing himself to the front.
“No way!” Both Doyoung and Lucas chorused, both obviously familiar with Renjun. “Let’s drop by and say hi, yeah?”
With that, it was Kilara, Johnny, and Tari against the crowd – going the opposite direction as their friends who already managed to move with the current and made their way to the announcer’s location. “This is the most crowded fight I’ve seen in a while.” Tari commented off-handedly, noticing how although it was the same people – all of the usual people were in attendance. As of the last year, only slightly above half the people would attend the event due to previous commitment or work.
“It really feels like the community is all back together, huh?” Johnny winked, smiling wildly as he scanned the crowd – diverting his attention similarly to Tari. They were on the first floor, which has an audience that is half-standing and half sitting, while upstairs is all standing. “It’s most likely due to the lack of work people had today so everyone can probably stay until the end of the match.” He reasoned before grabbing his camera to take photos of the crowds.
“Do you think the Osaka Prince will fight today?” Kilara asked, standing on her tip-toes to look over the crowd of people to try and get a better view of the fighting box where the pre-signed up fighters would sit and stretch. All benders who participate fight under performance names. There was Mouse, Boulder, Osaka Prince, Flyer – all the names you can think. The cringiest one? It was a school boy who wanted to take a swing and signed up under the name ‘Swagbucks69’. “Literally, he is so hot, I will jump on him if I could.”
Johnny only chuckled, “I mean, he always fights. He is practically the king of NCT.” The Osaka Prince attended his first match two years ago and ever since then, he’s practically undefeated. Everyone looks to him as the owner of the rink – he managed to beat even G-Dragon, a previous pro-bender, during a match. The Osaka Prince is usually the last fight of the night, fighting whoever won the most matches and anyone who dares to go against him.
“And I’ll do anything to be his queen.” Kilara winked, making Tari chuckle and Johnny go beet-red at Kilara’s flirty manner. “Literally, like, he makes me so flushed.” She started attempting to use her tight-fitting crop top to fan herself over exaggeratingly. While Kilara and Johnny discuss the local celebrity, Tari made eye-contact with someone she didn’t expect to see there. The person was wearing a dark hood, her eyes making direct eye-contact with Tari as if she watching her the whole time. She held up her arm and signaled Tari to come over. Tari shook her head, refusing the offer and trying to look away, but as soon as the lady started mouthing words – she found herself entranced.
“You barely see his face!” Johnny commented, looking confused. All fighters also wear a mask that covers most of their face to avoid their identities being leaked.
Kilara suggestively looked at Johnny, “I don’t need to see his face to see the muscles on that guy. Were you not there when he fought shirtless?”
“I was, I think I have some photos of that actually.” He teased.
“Send me!” Kilara practically begged, “I bet Tari will enjoy the view too.” The use of her name snapped Tari out of her trance. “Okay wait can we try to get closer? I think I see him and I want him to see me.” Tari’s vision shifted and at the sight of a familiar face, a smile graced her lips as she lifted her hand up to wave.
Johnny thought for a moment, sighing in defeat. The things I do for my friends, he thought. “I know G-Dragon quite a bit from interviewing him a lot, do you want to sit in the medics box today? He lets me sit there whenever I ask.”
Tari stood back – not wanting to hold them back from having fun, “You guys go! I see a friend over there, and I don’t think I’d like to be that close.”
“You okay being alone?” Johnny asked, concerned and serious. Tari bit her lip and nodded, noticing this is one of the first times in two years she’s seen Johnny this serious.
“I won’t be alone, I see a friend.” She reassured, “I’ll meet you guys outside? We can work on your article tonight, Johnny.” The duo nodded, letting Tari head off, walking over to someone Johnny doesn’t recognize.
“And you never asked for me before?” Kilara sounded almost offended as the two started their journey of squeezing through the crowd to get to the front.
“It’s because I almost always watch with Tari,” He commented between apologies to familiar faces for moving to the front to where G-Dragon usually stays, “And we know Tari. She gets sometimes flakey or anxious during these events and just needs to leave. I don’t like her leaving alone.”
Kilara sighed, remembering that Johnny and her only met a year back due to both of them knowing Tari. Tari actually brought them both here, accidentally promising both of them to hang out. It was a tradition for Tari to come to these, and Johnny and Doyoung always go with her. “You’re right, but I’m glad she found a friend.”
“Do you recognize him by the way?” Johnny asked, concerned to the unfamiliar face. Johnny, Doyoung, and Tari are practically inseparable – they know almost everyone the other encounters regularly.
“Umm,” Kilara searched through her head as they finally reached the edge where the rink meets the audience, “I think his name is either Sehun or Kyungsoo. They know each other from the coffee shop. I remember seeing him always come in to the café when I worked there for a bit and he was always with someone and I never distinguished who was who.”
Johnny nodded solemnly, “Okay, I’ll go ask G-Dragon if we can sit with Ten.”
“Hello everybody!” G-Dragon screamed, getting into the middle of the ring. “Welcome to the first ever Avatar Day special!” Everyone cheered, including Sehun, Suho, Chanyeol, and Jongdae who stood beside Tari. She came initially to say hi to Sehun after months of not seeing him, but he was quick to introduce her to some of his friends and mentioning that Kyungsoo had signed up to fight today. Tari remained more quiet, cheering not as loudly as the other people around her.
The spotlights lit up the arena, bringing the light to center the focus on whoever will be in the ring. The gray walls of the abandoned building felt blank in comparison to the lit up stage. It also reminded everyone here of the severity and the illegal nature of the event they’re participating in; even just as audiences. Everyone found this ban ridiculous; they still allow non-benders to fight with guns and tasers, and they still allow boxing. But they don’t allow bending tournaments. And the first duo who got caught in a bending tournament ended up in jail for 10 years and are still being patrolled and watched closely every day since.
The stage is distinguished from the rest of the theater through a risen up ovular stage and with a buffer zone and a air bubble by an air bender to prevent any audience members to get hurt.
“Today, we celebrate the end of the 100 year war. But we first must acknowledge the beginning of it – by a fight between the air nation and the fire nation.” G-Dragon said in his story telling voice that entranced the audience, “Although we know the results of this in history, we’ll allow for some creative liberties.” G-Dragon had a marvelous stage persona; he was hypontising the audience with his gleaming smile and his charisma. “Once that fight is over, the competition will begin. We’ll host 10 to 15 competitions between benders and the winner will move on to the next round. Whoever wins the finals will be, drumroll please” The sounds of people clapping their thighs filled the make-shift stadium with the drums by the medic box bellowing along. Tari noticed how Kilari and Johnny sat next to the famous dancer Ten, who Tari always wanted to talk to. She also noticed how Johnny looked up at the very moment she noticed him. When he noticed her eye contact, he greeted her with a soft smile and a wave. She returned this and then chuckled, pointing at the stage to remind him to watch.
“So, you’re probably sick of me yapping about! Today, our announcer is the amazing Renjun, who you may know from his podcast ‘Reloaded”. G-Dragon motioned to the box suspended on the second floor, where Renjun sits with Doyoung, Taeil, Lucas, and someone with blue hair she didn’t particularly recognize. She noticed Doyoung was already looking at her, probably previously looking for her in the crowd. He gave her a thumbs up as if asking her she was okay, to which she nodded and did a similar motion to him. He grinned and nodded, before turning his attention back to Taeil.
Renjun’s voice then filled the stadium, “Hello everybody, my name is Renjun and I’m your announcer for today.” He grinned, “Today we have an amazing group of contesters, but first we start with a fight between the Figure Penny and The Foreign Swagger!” Two people stepped on stage; The Foreign Swagger wearing a red vest with cream one-piece outfit and Figure Penny wearing black over wear reminicient of traditional army wear with red traditional bottoms. Figure Penny also wore a black headband, keeping his hair from his face. “After this, we’ll have The Mouse and The Ice Queen fight!”
Everyone’s shouts beat with the beat of the drum, with the beat of their hearts. Adrenaline – even second hand – seemed to be pumping their blood. The last fight was between the Mouse and The Osaka Prince, which made Tari think that G-Dragon set this up. No one has beated the Osaka Prince, so she cheered for the Mouse. Unfortunately, she was now left alone as the people she was with left to check up on Kyungsoo after someone messed up their aim and hit him in the crotch – which is a no-go area in the rules of the game. She told them to congratulate him for her as she didn’t want to fight through the crowd.
The Mouse was one of the smallest contestants whose been fighting for a while. He hasn’t won any big games yet, but he won all the smaller matches he would do. It was impressive – he can’t be older than 17. Despite the mask on his face, Tari could distinguish some youthful features; particularly kind and innocent doe eyes and a face that looked like he has yet to see any major wrongs. She hopes nothing bad happens to him, she’ll make sure of it. At least, she hopes she can.
Tari mentally focus on each of their steps; they were both amazing benders. She knows she can never live up to them. They all equally deserve to be Avatar for the day, hell – Avatar for life. Every single bender today only showed that literally anyone is better than Tari in bending. If Johnny had powers for a day, he’d better than her in a second.
She couldn’t help analyze his movements; the beauty behind it, the skill. He truly is the king of the ring. The Osaka Prince moved in a way he is compressed. He kept his energy close to him, not trying to do any flare or any energy draining movements. He kept himself close, probably to prevent him from having more available targets. It’s clear that he uses multiple culturally bending techniques into his; Earth Bending’s conservation of energy and efficient movements plus its stability and Fire Bending’s precision and agility. He has the momentum of a waterbender – he gooes with each movement, completing each of them to it’s fullest and avoiding losing energy as a result of hastily ending it. It looks like he has some ability to control how long he stays in the air – probably something he learnt from the Air Nation, where they encourage the use of arms to make your momentum last longer while jumping and lunging. He also goes against tradition - she notices he doesn’t step off the balls of his feet – only a few times letting his heel touch the ground. She was always taught to stand with at least oone heel always on the ground to keep herself stable, but he doesn’t need that.
She also looked at the Mouse; but noticed it seemed he was mimicking some movements from the Osaka Prince. She swore the last time she watched the Mouse, he was more rigid with his movements. He must be learning from The Osaka Prince. She can physically see how much the Mouse seemed to cringe whenever his heels naturally touch the ground, as if someone taught him to stop doing it.
Tari was so distracted by analyzing the movements, she didn’t realise the Mouse hit the floor with a thump. The Osaka Prince has won again, making Tari roll her eyes. His movement was beautiful – but no offence to the Mouse, but he had no chance. This was a set up for failure.
About to leave early, she heard G-Dragon announce the winner before The Osaka Prince’s disguised voice took over the room. She turned around to face the stage, intrigued to what he will say.
“I win everyday,” Okay, so cocky, Tari thought to herself, chuckling. “And I am treated like royalty here already, but I’ve been training The Mouse and I think he has improved. He deserves to be the Avatar. I give my title to him.” Two thoughts ran through Tari’s head – both ‘I knew it’ regarding The Osaka Prince influencing The Mouse and ‘okay that was really sweet’.
She decided to leave early still, despite the amount of claps and applause that filled the room during the bowing moment. She overheard many people as she pushed through talking about ‘how fun it would be to be the Avatar’, ‘how blessed’ the Avatar is, ‘how powerful’ and ‘how amazing’ they must be.
It felt too much. Overpowering, her head spinning. She needed to leave. And once she managed to get outside, she let her back rest upon a wall, and she took deep breaths. She aimed her palm facing her and blew a gust of wind at her face.
“I’m glad to see you haven’t ignored your powers completely.” A voice chuckled. Tari quickly stopped an action – fuck, I’m caught, she thought to herself before berating herself. She’s usually so careful. “No, no, no, continue! I’m happy to see you do it. I thought you’d forget who you are when you got here.” It was the same lady frorm earlier.
“Sukiara.” She pushed herself off the wall, startled.
“Tari, I need to talk to you.”
As Johnny and Kilara left the theater to wait outside for Tari – they didn’t realise Tari would be out before them. They invited Ten and his friend Taeyong to come along, knowing Tari mentioned seeing them in the water bending gym and how she finds them impressive. Tari wasn’t with the person they saw her with earlier; but with an older woman. Tari’s arms were folded across her chest as she was looking at anywhere but the lady in front of her. They couldn’t see her face directly nor could they see the lady’s but it was definitely not the same person as earlier and clearly, Tari didn’t want to be there.
“I’ll try and pull her away.” Johnny noted, before a hand pulled him and Kilari back – startling them both, making their heart race faster than prior.
It was Lucas, who was followed by Taeil and Doyoung.
“I swear to the Avatar, you are a massive doofus.” Kilari swore, holding her heart. “Why did you do that?”
Ignoring the question, Lucas started rambling – loudly. “Dude, it must be so cool to be the Avatar. I swear, I think The Osaka Prince is secretly the Avatar and disguises himself as a fire bender to keep it a secret.”
“Interesting theory actually.” Johnny commented, still glancing over to Tari. But Tari heard Lucas’s voice from over there and she quickly walked away from the lady dressed in black.
“Bro, I’d kill to be the Avatar.” Lucas kept talking, making the crowd around him laugh. Tari can hear every word and it felt like her head was about to explode.
“You good?” Doyoung asked, quickly noticing the water bender walking their way.
She hid her grimace and pain behind a smile, “Yeah, perfect.”
Doyoung made a mental note in his roommate to do list; get Tari some ice cream, watch a movie, and once she’s in a better mood, ask her what’s up.
“ANYWAY,” Kilari said, interrupting Lucas who was still rambling about how cool it would be to be the Avatar and how he’d use his powers in a way that’s definitely not the purpose of being the Avatar. “Taeyong and Ten, this is Tari. She’s also a water bender.”
“Oh my gosh,” Tari quickly recognized their faces from the gym and from their performances, “I’m literally always in awe whenever I see you guys practice,, I always see you whenever I’m in the gym.”
Ten dramatically flipped his not-long enough hair, “Thank you, we try.” Taeyong got flustered, turning pink as he smiled and thanked her. “Why don’t we normally see you at the gym?”
Tari smiled softly, “I normally go to visit Irene, she’s the head of the gym. I bring her coffee and we have a chat once in a while.”
“How do you know her?” Taeyong asked. “I literally never see her around, she stays in her master room.” Irene is the designated Master of Water bending in Sooman city.
Tari decided to tell a half truth, “She’s a regular at the café I work at. We bonded over our families both being from the Northern Water tribe.”
Kilari noticed odd behavior radiating off of Tari and changed the conversation the best way she knew how. “Yo, you should’ve joined us there. I think the Osaka Prince winked at me.” She boasted.
Ten teasingly smirked, “it was at me honey.” This made Tari grin widely.
“Okay but back to the Osaka Prince,” Lucas started again. He was oblivious to the daggers Kilari was sending his way, “he is definitely the Avatar. Only the Avatar can be that good. Like I don’t think anyone is better.”
Kilari sent a hesitant glance to Tari, knowing how insecure she is with her water bending abilities. “Yeah,” Tari agreed softly, “I don’t think anyone can be better.”
request anything for future parts / penny for your thoughts here
#nct avatar au#nct imagines#nct imagine#wayv imagines#wayv imagine#wayv au#nct127 imagines#nct 127 imagines#nct127 imagine#nct 127 imagine#nct 127#nct 127 au#nct127 au#nct dream imagines#nct127#nct dream#nct#nct u#nct dream imagine#nct au#nct alternate universe#kpop alternate universe#kpop au#au#alternate universe#lucas imagines#lucas wong imagine#lucas wong imagines#johnny imagines#johnny suh imagines
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Beyond Words
A fluff fic for my best buddies @trademarkblue, @wildegreenlight, @jenn582 @aloemilk , @remedial-potions @callieskye @theperksofshippingromione, @idearlylovealaugh and @thefinalhorcruxx . No reason really, just that I love them beyond words.
For some weird reason, everyone keeps asking Ron the same question.
Paring: Ron/Hermione
Genre: Fluff
Words: 2K approx
Rating: General
3rd Year
“When will you tell her you fancy her?”
Ron looked up from the chessboard where his knight was in imminent danger of getting mauled by Bill’s rook and stared incredulously at his eldest brother.
“You’re talking to me?!” he asked, staring around and noticing that the rest of their family was huddled at the table, looking through what appeared to be their holiday pictures.
“Of course I’m talking to you,” replied Bill, casually moving one of his pawns.
Ron grinned and pushed his queen three steps ahead. “No clue what you’re talking about,” he replied honestly, cheerfully.
“ ‘Who’ I’m talking about, not ‘what’,” corrected Bill, shifting his knight away from harm’s way.
“You know, you sound exactly like-”
“-Hermione?” Bill interjected,
“Yeah!” he grinned.
“And you still don’t know who I’m talking about?”
Ron literally wracked his brains for a full minute before shrugging. “Erm...No?”
Bill let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head, chuckling to himself. “I guess I’ll give you a few years to find out for yourself.”
…..
4th Year
“Have you told her yet?”
Ron picked up one especially fat gnome out of the ground, swirling the creature over his head before letting go. It flew off for around twenty feet before landing on the other side of the field. Laughing, he dusted off his hands and grinned at the twins.
“Of course I’ve told her! She’s coming down for the World Cup, isn’t she,”
Fred and George looked at each other gleefully and shared a smile which alerted his brain to keep a lookout for danger; that look never bored well for him.
“We’re talking about Hermioneee,” smirked George in a singsong voice.
“What’s gotten into you?” he asked, looking around for more gnomes.
“Nothing, Ronniekins. So what have you told her?” asked Fred gleefully.
“Errr…that Dad got tickets for the World Cup and we are expecting her?” he added, wondering what he was missing.
“You know, Fred, we really need to ask Mum if Ron got swapped with some other kid at the hospital. Our brother can’t possibly have the brain of a troll.”
“Oye!” he yelled, but his brothers ignored him.
“I bet he’ll find out by the end of this year,” suggested George.
“Tch- Christmas,” quipped Fred, pretending as if Ron wasn’t right next to them.
“Find out what???” he asked annoyed. But they began placing bets instead, and he fumed, grabbing hold of another gnome that was trying to sneak away.
…
5th Year
“I’m sure Hermione Granger knows.”
Ron concentrated harder, and by the third try, the cushion he was trying to summon, zoomed into his hands.
“Of course she does. She knows everything, doesn’t she,” he replied, glancing at Luna who was supposed to practice Summoning Charms, but for reasons best known to her, was waving her wand in lazy patterns around his head.
"By the way, what does she know?“ he asked. He was sure Hermione knew a lot of stuff but if Luna was talking about Wakspurts or something on those lines, he was sure Hermione would rather not know.
“She knows you fancy her- or should I say, love her?” Luna replied promptly and continued to wave her wand, while Ron narrowly missed getting hit by all the hundred or so cushions that came hurtling towards him.
After they escaped the mayhem that issued with the cushions barging in all directions- Ron wasn’t even sure what he had done to cause it- he found Luna alone near the bookshelves, going through a spell book.
“ Er…Luna?”
“Yes, Ron?” she quipped eagerly, giving him her full attention.
“Why did you say what you said? I mean, what made you think I fa-fancy Her- her?” he whispered. Merlin forbid, no one could know he was even uttering these words.
“Oh that’s simple!” she replied happily, “You have so many Flutterbirds fluttering around your head each time you talk to her or even as much as look at her!”
“Oh!” he exclaimed, stunned into silence for minutes before he found his voice back. “Are-are these ‘Flutterbirds’ visible to everyone?” he asked, feeling like he had been knocked with a bludger, coz he was damn sure he wasn’t making any sense. But then, he didn’t want anything fluttering around his head telling Hermione what he was thinking- not right now at least.
Luna pondered. “I don’t think so-” she said after a while, “-if they did, Harry would know Ginny fancies him, wouldn’t he?”
….
6th Year
“So…when are you going to tell her?”
Ron looked up from his cauldron that was hissing rather loudly and giving off purple fumes intermittently to stare at Neville, confused.
“Tell whom what exactly?” he inquired, glancing a look at Neville’s potion. It seemed the bloke was doing better since Slughorn took over Potion, but not by a large margin. The clumpy sludge was a brilliant shade of indigo which Neville was stirring frantically with his wand, sweat dripping from his forehead.
“Hermione, ’course!” replied Neville, gritting his teeth as he attempted to pull out his wand which the potion-if it could be even called that- was now attempting to swallow.
Ron paused, his wand hovering mid-air as Neville’s words struck him with the power of an errant bludger. He glanced at the subject of their conversation- she had taken up the table furthest from him, right in front of the teacher’s desk. He could see the red fumes emerging from her cauldron as she twirled her wand in a circular motion, a self-satisfied smile playing on her lips.
“No clue what you’re talking about, mate,” he replied dismissively, pretending to be engrossed in his book. For a while, there was only the sound of Neville huffing before the bloke finally managed to retrieve his wand and drop it with a clank on the table. He wiped his brows on his sleeve and picked up his own book, unaware that Ron’s ears were still perked, keen to know what he was talking about.
“-tell her you fancy her,” Neville said suddenly when Ron had almost assumed that the discussion was over. He was so shocked that he dropped his pestle, which missed the table and landed instead on the floor with a loud clunk- narrowly missing his foot.
The soft murmur of the class died down to an abrupt silence, all faces suddenly turned at his direction. He blew out softly through his mouth as his eyes found Hermione.
One look and she turned away...
“Sorry…” he muttered to no one in particular, reluctantly taking his eyes off her and bent over to pick up the pestle, secretly glad that Lavender had caught a nasty bite in the Care of Magical Creatures and was currently resting in the infirmary. He wasn’t happy about her injury- just that, she wasn’t around to hear the conversation they were having.
“I don’t know why you’d say that, Nev,” he replied, pounding his beetles a little harder than necessary, “-I am with Lavender.” His words sounded hollow, even to his ears.
Right next to their table, he noticed Harry pouring something in his cauldron. He seemed to be doing pretty good with his potion too- no surprises there, Ron thought a little bitterly to himself.
“Yeah, I know that,” replied Neville, somehow still unwilling to let the discussion rest, “-but we’ve all been wondering why, since it’s evident you fancy Hermione.”
Ron wondered if it would be worth it to intentionally drop something heavy on his foot, injure himself just to escape this interrogation. Then he remembered that Lavender was in the infirmary too. Nope, he’d have to think of something else. Grumbling to himself, he chucked the finely powdered beetles into his cauldron and whisked the contents furiously.
The potion period trudged on slowly, and he was least worried about his less-than-satisfactory potion affecting his grades when he escaped the classroom half an hour later; his mind on the girl who had disappeared from the crowd of students filtering out as if she had disapparated.
But you can’t disapparate within Hogwarts! his brain reminded automatically, leaving him feeling miserable and extremely furious at himself.
….
7th Year: Beginning
“Tell her,” Ginny muttered discretely as they set the table.
Ron looked up, his eyes finding Hermione easily at the far end of the kitchen where she was helping Fleur slice up the bread. He noticed her tired smile, remembering the moments that very afternoon when she’d arrived, and confided in him that she’d carried out what she had planned. They had stayed holding each other for a very long time, separating only when Ginny had come knocking at his bedroom door.
“It’s too early,” he confided in his sister, “besides, she has way too much on her plate. She doesn’t need the distraction with- with the task at hand.”
Ginny stopped placing the dishes suddenly, and when she looked up at him, Ron was sure he’d never ever seen her so miserable. Despite everything, he had an insane urge to punch his best mate into a pulp.
“She might not need the distraction, Ron, but I’m sure she needs the hope.”
..
7th Year: On the run
“You really need to tell her.”
Ron poured the lightly coloured water that was supposed to be their 'tea’ into three mugs, without bothering to look at Harry.
“I dunno,” he replied automatically, handing Harry his tea and picking up the other two.
“At least give it a try,” coaxed Harry as they moved towards their dining area.
“Is it even necessary,” Ron pondered aloud, “I know she knows.”
“She does?”
Ron took a sip from his mug before placing both their mugs on the table and Accio-ing his jacket. “She knows I love her,” he responded, pulling on the jacket over his jumper. Only when he made to pick up the mugs again he realised Harry’s shocked expression.
“Erm…I was talking about convincing her to shift near a Muggle village tomorrow?” mumbled Harry, amusement marked all over his features. “But to answer you, she has to be really daft to not know, which we know, she most certainly isn’t.”
….
Year 7: Shell Cottage
Hermione, still weak from her attack at the Manor, limped out of her room, supported heavily by Ron. But once at the last landing, she lost the little energy she had mustered and was forced to rest her back against the bannister to catch her breath.
“I told you, you should’ve had your dinner in your room,” Ron told her, grabbing her firmly around the waist.
She sighed, coaxing her aching muscles to cooperate, allowing her weight to rest against him instead. “Fleur has so much on her plate already, Ron. I don’t want to give her more trouble,” she replied.
Ron huffed and shook his head, and in one swoop picked her up in his arms. “Ron!” she admonished, blushing as her arms wrapped around his neck, “you really don’t need to!”
“Shhh,” he told her, pressing his lips to her temple in a chaste kiss before carefully carrying her down the steps.
..
From the far corner of the living room, Bill noticed the scene unfolding.
“Do you theenk he has told her?” Fleur whispered next to him, beaming.
“Maybe he has-” he chuckled.
Maybe they didn’t even need the words, he pondered quietly to himself as Ron lowered Hermione carefully on the couch.
Clearly, what they shared was beyond what words could even begin to describe.
…..
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Necklace | Ignis Scientia x Reader
So Iggy is either my first or second favorite character in all of FFXV (his only rival is really just Ardyn sksksksk) and honestly there’s not many XV fanfics on here so take my horrible fluff :) Actually, not many authors include the fact that Iggy wears his skull necklace and I disregard it to so here is my way of remembering it.
Where Ignis Scientia accidentally leaves his skull necklace at Noctis’ apartment and finds out Y/N is wearing it.
Warnings: None
---
You quietly stared at the small chain necklace laying on the glass coffee table, fumbling with the buttons of the dress shirt you had on. Sunlight warmed your back and spread all around you throughout the vast, modernly decorated room. The small dents and curves of the skull pendant were glazed with rich highlights and dark shadows. The actual chain of the necklace was a little short, nevertheless a charming accessory.
Giving a quiet sigh before leaning back into the couch, your thought train was interrupted by the voice of your best friend. “What are you looking at?” Noctis questioned while weaving his way around the couch to face you and the small piece of jewelry. His lazy blue eyes made their way to the skull and he smirked once he figured out why you were so quiet. “Iggy left his necklace.”
“Yeah.” You huffed before standing up, taking hold of the school blazer on the couch and enveloping yourself in it. The jacket was your friend’s, or really, the prince’s. Your closest friend was the future king of Insomnia—and you were happy with that. More time to stare at his beautiful royal advisor.
You had always been close friends with Noct. Ever since your childhood, you and him would constantly banter and trail each other around. His kingly father even took note of your relationship and invited you to one of the royal galas a few years back. Your eighteen-year-old mind still can’t really comprehend why your little thirteen-year-old self was so stupid back then
You had worn a simple dress that night and seemed a bit childish due to its loose fit but heck, you were thirteen. The whole night was filled with trailing Noctis around until one of the songs. The prince had gleefully introduced you to his shield and advisor, who was a total cutie even back then. A small face was framed with quite large glasses and despite you thinking he was stuck up, you didn’t know you would fall in love with him now. Noctis ended up forcing you to dance with the fourteen-year-old advisor that night and boy did you hate it. You simply wanted to stay with the prince that night and you ended up ditching him at school the next day.
The present is a different story. Ignis Scientia, a prim and proper royal attendant, had stolen your heart. So as you returned your gaze to his own necklace that was in your reach, you thought about possible scenarios on how he would react if he saw it in your possession. Before you could elaborate more on your ideas, Noctis bent down and snatched the chain as you started to reach out for it. He gloated confidently as your eyebrow rose in annoyance.
Noctis wagged a finger in front of you before straightening. “It’s better that I return it. After all, I am his prince.” He beamed while you scoffed and stood from your place on the couch, grabbing your bag as well. “Unless,” He started while walking forward towards the door. “my great friend here would like to wear it for the day. She’s got a small crush on him anyway.” Your face reddened at the teen’s statement before you stomped in front of him, taking your place at the elevator after you exited the flat.
“It’d be a shame if she missed out on this opportunity to finally hint that she likes him.” Noct beamed as you seemed to grow even more annoyed. Your feet brought you outside to feel a slight gust of wind rush against you and the sun intensely firing down. As you walked in silence, Noctis sped ahead of you to gloat even more once he started to walk backwards to face you. “I bet little Y/N here would love to know if her crush liked her back.”
You have had enough of this boy! Noctis had been dangling the necklace loosely at chest-height the whole time so as you grasped the thing by the skull, you found it very easy. Unlocking the chain, you bowed your head and had it circle around your neck. Due to Noctis fondling with it the whole time, the chain was warm but the skull was cold against your skin. As you finished adjusting the accessory, you looked up at Noctis before raising your arm. “Tease me again and I won’t be afraid to rip your oh-so-precious jacket here.” You threatened but Noctis nonchalantly laughed it off.
“Please do. Ignis will just buy another one or repair it.” You swore to the Six that you would torture the future king yourself one day. The school building came into view quickly and as Noctis started to meet with his own friend group, you rapidly dashed to class.
Throughout the whole day you had been questioned about your new necklace. People swarmed around you to see the new type of fashion you had acquired and you brushed them off with “oh, I just found it lying around,” which wasn’t lying, but surely wasn’t telling the whole truth either. Prompto did have the nerve to boldly state that he knew who the necklace really did belong to and you had to bribe him to get him to shut up. Now with the new information, the gossipers of the school started thinking about who you were ‘dating’ if it wasn’t the prince. You had to quickly dismiss their thoughts once they came to you during lunch.
However, with the necklace, you felt safe. A weird feeling for you to have with a necklace. During language arts, you started thinking about the feeling, wondering if you and the royal advisor were connected somehow. You deemed it to be inappropriate to have these thoughts and tried pushing them away but they kept coming back.
Not only were you questioned about it, but you kept messing around with it too. While taking notes in math, your hands magically found their way up to the skull and rolled it along. It was calming to say the least. Some people took in the sight of you playing with it and made it evidence that you were very fond with it. They weren’t wrong but you didn’t want to admit that.
Now, you sit patiently at your desk during homeroom, waiting for the tardy bell to ring as students scampered in. Usually, you would have band during this period but all students had to work on their festival decorations. Leaning back, you closed your eyes and felt a weight on your desk. Grimacing, you opened them to find one of your friends (other than Noctis and Prompto, of course) crossing her legs and smiling down at you. You confusedly peered back as the tardy bell rang and your homeroom teacher announced to just work on the class decorations. Your friend smirked before leaning down. “I bet you are dating someone, aren’t you? You’re just hiding it because your boyfriend’s a sugar daddy.”
You angrily pouted and playfully punched her shoulder. “I’m not dating anyone. Plus, if I was, he wouldn’t be a sugar daddy.” You stated while getting your supplies out. She jumped off your desk and plopped into a chair from another one while sighing and crossing her arms. You felt like she was acting quite weird as she maliciously glared at you trying to get work done. Noctis and Prompto started to goof off while working so you had no one to run to for help. You tried to focus on cutting and coloring but her gaze was simply stabbing you. You bit your lip as your pencil’s tip broke, causing your hand to shake as you sketched a line.
“You’re lying to me. To us. To this whole school. You know, I wouldn’t mind if you just spat out that you’re dating his Royal Highness. At least you would be honest.” She devilishly stated. You gawked at her behavior but tried to keep on working on the project. “But I think the prince would never go for someone like you. He’s much more deserving of a—” “Don’t you have work to do? Like, the festival decorations?” You cut her off while skimming across your to-do list. How could you think this girl was your friend?
You felt a strong urge to punch her but instead your hand came up to squeeze the small skull resting upon the hollow between your collarbones. The small craters and dips of the object instantly calmed your nerves and you felt happy once again. However, your happiness was cut short as the girl jeered another insult. “I’ve got better things to do like listen to your sad love life story of how you deny having a boyfriend.” Oh, your blood boiled now. “I think that skull is just a memory of how your relationship is right now—sad and dead.”
Your eyebrows knitted together and you really wished the boys could help you. Giving a glance towards their direction, you saw them laughing about. You screamed in your head as you found the teacher laying back in his chair, taking a lazy nap. Pursing your lips, you rolled your shoulders in anticipation and stiffness.
A wish briefly crossed your mind. It was that the one and only Ignis would come to your rescue from whatever was happening right now.
Alas, things like that don’t happen in Insomnia. The girl cocked her head to one side and also seemed to become more and more frustrated. This caught the attention of some people as the girl started another rant. “Why don’t you just spit it out already!? It isn’t going to hurt anyone! Just say you’ve got a boyfriend.” She quipped with venom lacing her words. You stood from your chair abruptly, garnering the consideration of the rest of the class. Your flaming scowl pierced her soul now as you stood at a taller height than her.
At least the teacher finally noticed the situation as a visitor knocked at the door of the class. You widened your eyes and quickly sat back down. Your classmates mirrored your action as you impatiently waited for the door to open. Presuming it to be the principal, you tried to look like you were doing your hardest with your construction paper.
Remember when you dear author wrote down the words, “alas, things like that don’t happen in Insomnia.”? Ah, well this situation was an exception.
The teacher hollered for whoever was out there to come in and when a shiny, leather, dress shoe made it’s first step into the classroom, Noctis immediately knew who it was. He rose from his desk loudly and expressed a face of disbelief. “Iggy?” He queried as the tawny haired visitor entered the area fully. His hair was slicked back, a new style for the advisor that came about a few days ago, but a few strands still fell onto his forehead due to the lack of time invested into the hairstyle this morning. His sharp eyes were hooded by his glasses and were directed towards you and the girl still looking like she was going to murder you. His usual vest that accompanied his white button-up was gone but his slacks and shoes remained. He even had his gloves hanging out of one of his front pockets.
Your hardened exterior softened but you soon realized that his necklace was out in the open for him to see. The girl noticed your change of mood and looked behind her to see the royal advisor judging her. She quickly turned her face away to look at something else for the period of time he would be there.
Ignis wasn’t an uncommon sight at the school. If anything, he had his own secret fan club there. Be that as it may, he did not come to disrupt classes like this. “Ah, hello Mr. Scientia. If you need Noctis, he’s all yours.” The homeroom teacher welcomed him. Ignis swiveled around to smile gently at the man before nodding and returning his thoughts to what was going on. He gave a small grin at you and his eyes hinted at the little necklace around your neck. He sighed contently as you gave off your own little smile and recomposed himself to glare at Noctis. “Your Highness, you have been called by the council to visit Tenebrae. I have come to escort you though,” he paused and gave a little time to ponder for a moment. The class attentively had their attention on standby. “—I think the king would love for your friends to come along. It’s Friday and the end of the school day, after all.”
Noctis bit his lip in excitement not only to see Lunafreya, but to bring along some other people. He aligned his posture and skimmed along the waiting faces of the classroom. It wasn’t a joke to say they all expected to be brought along. You, on the other hand, wanted to be brought along for a reason different from theirs.
Noctis looked to his side to Prompto. “I pick Prompto and Y/N.” He gave you a look as you gasped at his choice. “Very well. I suggest you three to pack now.” Ignis stated and backed out of the room to wait in the hallway. You quickly gathered your belongings and exited with Prompto while Noctis had to take a little longer due to the chips he spilled on the floor.
As you exited, you felt a thousand frowns follow you and you sighed once you went out to stand by Ignis. He held his hand out to hold onto your suitcase of school supplies and you reluctantly handed it over. He already had Prompto’s in his other hand and planned on holding Noctis’ in that hand as well. You looked the other way, trying to avoid his eyes as much as possible as your fingers unlocked the chain from behind your neck. A voice stopped you. “Leave it on. It looks ravishing on you, Kitten.” He smiled and you felt your cheeks get a little hotter. You had heard Ignis call you the pet name before but it felt way more humiliating now. You clicked the necklace on again and let your hands fall by your sides as you leaned with your back against the wall, imitating the advisor’s stance next to you.
The door opened to reveal Noctis hunching over with his arm holding his bag over his shoulder. Multiple students rushed to see what was happening in the hallway and, without you noticing due to Ignis now resting his right arm on your left shoulder, had been brought back to their seats due to your friend’s intense gaze that made them feel it was fixed on them.
The four of you started to saunter your way to the exit of the school, Noct and Prompto snickering at the site of Ignis walking closer and closer to you. The action made your heart flutter and your thoughts crash into each other. The duo continued to walk in front of you and the advisor, making you feel much more comfortable with the nineteen-year-old at your side.
Ignis handed the school bags to a chauffer waiting patiently at the door of the building, freeing his arms of the weight. He then instructed him to drive to Prompto’s apartment before going to yours, you saying nothing out of pure nervous unease. The walk to the vehicle was tiring and awkward. That was, until you felt an arm wrap around your waist protectively. “I heard the ensuing insults thrown at you earlier, kitten. It truly pains me to know you had to suffer such a thing.” You giggled childishly, not leaning into Ignis’ embrace due to your own feelings. “I should have never thought of her as a friend—”
“I mean, how could a woman as beautiful as you have no significant other? It really is a sad thing.” You stopped your sentence once Ignis cut you off. He‘s talking about how you’re single!? His accent coated his words heavily but you could understand every single thing he was saying. Eyes widening, you looked up at the man. “Though,” He paused, stopping his steps as well. You instinctively looked down once he also tried to catch your eyes with his own jade green ones. The cement was a wonderful sight to you at the moment.
“...I could fix your little relationship problem. Yesterday, a child claiming to be the prince told me that the person who I fancy, has been in love with me as well for the past two years.” Do you want to slap Noctis right now? Yes and no. Thanking your best friend mentally, your mood changed from embarrassed to excited with the news.
“So do tell me, kitten, would you accompany me to a dinner at Tenebrae once we arrive? After all the important meetings, that is.” Ignis questioned smoothly before continuing. “It would also be a great time to return the necklace. I could ask for it right now, but it suits you so well I can’t bring myself to. Who knows? I may fail to ask for it again at the dinner.” You felt a smile tug at your lips as you finally returned your gaze to meet his. “You little smooth snake!” You exclaimed enthusiastically while blithely slapping his chest. “I would take you as my ‘significant other’ any day, Mr. Scientia—even without that little dinner date!”
“So, I’ll take private supper at Tenebrae off the to-do list?”
“What? No! I still want to do that! That was just a joke—I mean I’m serious about having you without the fancy dinner because I just love you that much but like, I want the food—”
“I was kidding, my dear Kitten. And, I love you too.”
AN: I’m sorry this turned out so bad but I’m tired and I do not want to rewrite anything hhhhhnnngggg
#ffxv ignis#ff15 ignis#ignis scientia#ignis#ffxv#ff15#final fantasy#ff#x reader#reader#ahhh this sucks so much#fanfiction#fanfic#random#it's almost 10 pm and i'm struggling with tags#read#reader x#ignis stupeo scientia#scientia#ffxv noctis#noctis lucis caelum#prince noctis#fluff#fanfic fluff#late night#writing#author
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To Land On Your Feet - Chapter 09
Oof, so it looks like I'll have to do updates once a week on Friday/Saturday where finals are kicking in at college for me. I barely survived the week, but here we are with a fresh chapter! It's more of a transition chapter, but hopefully you all enjoy it anyhow!
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Summary: Aizawa Shouta had a good life. He was a happily married pro-hero teacher, had two cats that loved to make his life difficult, and soon, if things went well, he would have Shinsou Hitoshi as a son. Thanks to an unexpected attack by a man with the League of Villains, though, Shouta is turned into a cat. While he had a fondness for cats, that never meant he wanted to be one, especially when no one seems to recognize him and his friends and family are trying to find him when he’s right there.
He had been planning to find a way to change back, but instead he ends up following Shinsou Hitoshi to the foster home he lives in after hearing some worrying information from the teen himself. Shouta himself was guilty of venting his frustrations to cats, but hearing that Hitoshi would be locked outside in the cold if he was late getting home was just another clue among countless that something was wrong. He has to get back to normal, but he’d be a poor hero and a shit father-to-be if he didn’t follow the kid and make sure he was okay.
Besides, quirks like this usually had a time limit. Right?
<<First Chapter>> <<Previous Chapter>> <<Next Chapter>>
Chapter Nine
‘You know, you’re not very subtle when it comes to avoiding people.’ Shouta grumbled and made other odd noises he didn’t have a name for as he watched Hizashi avoid him, yet again, during the break he and Hitoshi were taking from training. ‘I know you’re not afraid of cats, ‘Zashi, so now you’re just being ridiculous.’
It was utterly ridiculous, but Hizashi was no doubt avoiding him because he reminded him so much of his ‘missing husband.’ Avoiding him, however, made it so that Shouta couldn’t tell Hizashi that he was his missing husband. While Shouta had no regrets about following Hitoshi home, especially since now he had all the evidence he needed and the kid seemed much brighter than before, it was still impossible to get Hitoshi to understand who ‘Eraser’ really was.
It was perhaps for the best, all things considered at that point. Shouta didn’t want to get Hitoshi involved in this anymore than he was in case the League of Villains realized their success and sent someone else after him. It was unlikely, but Shouta had been a pro hero for a little over a decade. Unlikely was never impossible.
His best bet was to try and convince Hizashi of the truth and go from there, but trying that was made difficult by the fact that Hizashi wouldn’t even so much as look at him. As much as Shouta would love to climb his way up to Hizashi’s shoulder and scream at him until he understood, the last thing he wanted to do was interrupt Hitoshi’s training.
The kid had a mock trial exam coming up in a couple of weeks that would determine whether he would be placed in the Hero course and, subsequently, Shouta’s class, since there was now an empty spot. It was best not to distract him, but that didn’t mean Shouta couldn’t sulk from the corner.
‘When this is all over, Hizashi, I’m going to hold this over your head until we’re both dead.’ Because for as clever and open-minded as the man was, he had a horrible time listening to his instincts in a tense situation. It was the reason they worked so well together, Hizashi’s high intellect and Shouta’s trained instincts, but sometimes it was also the reason tension could be caused.
Thoughts starting to trail off again, Shouta focused on where Hizashi was teaching Hitoshi the proper way to break out of a hold, Hitoshi intently focused and Hizashi smiling softly whenever Hitoshi wasn’t looking directly at him.
‘And you thought you’d be a terrible parent,’ Shouta scoffed to himself, flexing his paws for a moment as he stretched. It was another thing to add to the list of things Shouta needed to say and do once he could.
Hizashi was goofy and silly and loud, but he was a wonderfully kind, loving man, and Hitoshi easily adored him as much as he tried to hide it. They were both thinking the worst of what had happened to him, but Shouta couldn’t help but feel a little relieved that he was able to at least be close to them both.
‘I’ll fix this, you two.’ He didn’t want to interrupt Hitoshi’s training, and Hizashi was avoiding him, but that was all okay. Shouta had other options.
::
It took another full day, but never let it be said that Shouta wasn’t patient. Not even bothering to wait outside the gates, Shouta kept pace with Hitoshi, seeing the boy off to class and enduring a hug goodbye and a warning to ‘be safe.’ After he was sure Hitoshi would make it to class, he let his paws carry him to the, yet again, open window of Class 1-A.
This time he didn’t stop to listen to their chatter, jumping inside and ignoring the yelps and muttered swears from the students near him. A quick run and jump onto his desk and Shouta felt his rising hope shattered as he saw the empty seat.
‘Still out, then… Must be a nasty bug he caught.’ Kouda might not be back until the end of the week if what he overheard the other day was true. He mused that things like this never could be easy.
“The demon cat is back,” Kaminari ‘whispered.’ “Dude, do you think he’s a zombie cat, or something?” This caused a wave of reactions, a few students shuddering and yelling not to say things like that, while a few, like Bakugou, called the kid a dumbass. Shouta was on Bakugou’s side. “What?! I saw an American horror movie about something like this! He even looks evil!”
‘Keep in mind, Kaminari, that you’re on the verge of failing math and I can and will force you into a room with Ectoplasm until you understand it.’ Honestly, how that kid could be so good at English and yet so bad at Math, Shouta would never know.
“Well, I think he’s cute!” Uraraka was up and out of her seat, Shouta not having time to run before he felt her fingers carding through his fur and scratching him. “He looks well taken care of, though. Do you think he escaped from someone’s dorm?”
Oh, jeez, now the whole class was chiming in and talking about finding his ‘owner.’ Shouta had a lot of comments he could make for that one, but he avoided even thinking them, just in case. The last thing he needed was a class full of traumatized students.
“Maybe he’s a kid with a shapeshifting quirk!” The call came from Kirishima and Shouta made a mental note to give him a few extra credit points and a gold star or something because that was a brilliant idea.
While animal communication quirks weren’t rare, they were less common than shapeshifting quirks. It was far more likely that Shouta could find a student in the school who could shapeshift into a feline and be able to understand what he was saying - at least to some degree. They would at least be able to tell he was once human.
‘There should be a third year with that quirk in General Studies, but how to get to her…’ The General Studies classrooms were further away and Shouta doubted he could get away with just wandering the halls. It was possible he could just follow Hitoshi to his building, tomorrow, but the less time he wasted the better.
“-so cute!” Shouta focused back in on his students, putting up with all the touches with minimal growling. Maybe he should get them a dorm pet if they looked this cheered up over a cat. Although he wouldn’t get them a cat. A porcupine or armadillo, maybe; something that could withstand their quirks.
Before he could get too far in his thoughts, the door was opening and Nemuri was walking in with a large, dramatic sigh that she had learned from Hizashi, “Sorry I’m later than usual, everyone.”
‘Nemuri, I want you to remain calm.’ Shouta tensed the moment Nemuri’s eyes fell on him, her eyes narrowing. ‘Screw it.’ Looking towards his escape, Shouta felt his blood run cold when he saw one of them had closed the window - probably to prevent him from leaving in case he was a lost pet. ‘Shit.’
“Wait, Sensei, he’s a nice cat, we promise!” Uraraka leapt to his defense, Shouta soon surrounded by his students all whining and complaining about ‘keeping’ him.
“Yeah, come on, Sensei, he’s a really sweet cat even if he is possessed by something evil!” Sero complained, not even bothering to hide his grin.
“He’ll die if we kick him out into the cold!” The screech came from Ashido as she gestured to the outside where it was pleasantly warm and sunny.
As they all screamed, it took a moment to remember that these teenagers were in one of the most rigorous schooling programs within all of Japan. Then again, Bakugo had set Sero’s hair on fire and Todoroki had almost frozen his head trying to help put it out.
“Oh, such youthful energy!” Ah, right. ‘Midnight.’ Shouta much preferred dealing with Kayama Nemuri who snorted when she laughed and wore week-old sweaters because she was too lazy to do the laundry. “Alas, my sweetlings, I’m afraid this cat is already spoken for.”
‘I’m what?’ Shouta frowned as Nemuri walked over and extracted him from the mess of students, picking him up without a bat of her eye. Shouta would be impressed, but he had also seen her bench press twice her weight without flinching. ‘I don’t suppose you can read minds all of a sudden, can you?’
Nemuri continued without even looking down at him, “He’s the pet cat of a homeroom student of mine. The poor little kitty here gets lonely and so he follows him to school all the time. Not to worry! I’ll make sure he gets back to his proper home! Now, you all should sit down and get ready for your first class and I’ll be back very soon, okay?”
Shouta rolled his eyes at seeing some of his students look starstruck as they quickly moved to comply, a few of them just having a healthy dose of respect and fear for teachers in general.
“As for you,” Nemuri mumbled, sounding much more like herself. “Let’s get you to the teacher’s lounge, for now, and I’ll drop you off with Shinsou later.”
‘Wait, where did you hear I was- Ah.’ Hizashi. That man couldn’t keep a secret to save his life and had no doubt gushed to the entire staff about the stray cat that had taken to following Hitoshi around.
“You can spend a bit of time with Hizashi, even!” Nemuri’s cheerful tone fell flat, Shouta looking up at her and feeling his heart hurt as he did so. She looked so tired. “He could use a bit of cheering up, lately.”
‘Nemuri, come on, you know me. I know I don’t look that different and you’re always the one with the crazy theories, right? You were the one who thought our entire year was getting dosed with drugs for some government experiment! You have to at least be suspicious about all of this!’
Shouta ‘yelled’ at Nemuri, trying to get her to understand, even trying to do morse code with his eyes like he had done with Hitoshi. The only thing that happened was that he made his eyes hurt as Nemuri didn’t even glance down at all his ‘words.’ ‘I’m going to hold this over your head, too.’
“Hey, Mic!” Nemuri burst into the staff lounge as she often did, startling at least three teachers because, as usual, Nemuri seemed to forget that all of the staff were either current or retired pro heroes with hair triggers towards loud noises and sudden movement.
“Jesus, Nem, can’t you ever enter a room normally?” At the familiar complaint, Shouta couldn’t help but to let some of the tension in his body drain away, Hizashi’s voice, as always, his guiding point to centering himself.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Nemuri walked over and promptly dropped Shouta into Hizashi’s lap, Shouta doing his best to keep his claws hidden and not hurt the man. Luckily, they had two cats at home, so Hizashi was well trained in catching a cat in a way that didn’t hurt. “Found your kid’s cat in Shouta’s classroom. Make sure he gets him, okay?”
“Wha- He was in the Class 1-A room?” Hizashi frowned as he looked down at him, that same suspicion from a few days ago in his eyes that had Shouta feeling elated in an instant. “How did he-”
Nemuri was talking over him, drowning him out before he could finish, “Sorry, hun, no time to talk. Shouta’s kids can cause trouble the second you look away, but I’ll see you at lunch!”
Like a whirlwind, Nemuri was gone as fast as she had come, Hizashi left with Shouta in his lap and looking utterly lost and far too tired. Hizashi was always tired considering he worked the equivalent of three jobs - teacher, radio host, and licensed hero - but Shouta could tell he probably hadn’t slept since this whole mess had started.
‘Oh, Sunshine… You’re too hard on yourself.’ Shouta leaned up to press himself against Hizashi’s cheek, almost whining when he felt him flinch away.
“Alright, cat.” Hizashi pulled him away, staring him in the eyes with his own narrowed. “I know Hitoshi said that he saw you around the school for a while, but there’s got to be more to it than that.” Considering morse code had yet to work, Shouta was about to try sign language before he realized he was in the teacher’s lounge, which meant his desk was right beside them.
Hizashi was smarter than most people gave him credit for to the point he was a genius, so if Shouta started pulling out papers with his name on them and pointing to it over and over, Hizashi would realize in a heartbeat. Hell, he wouldn’t even need papers if he found the right objects on his desk.
Ready to at least try, they both froze when they heard Hizashi’s name called in Yagi’s voice. Shouta hadn’t even heard him enter the room; although it was possible that was due to his focus being on Hizashi.
"Yamada-san? Naomasa-san is here to see you." Nao who? Shouta watched as Yagi stared at them for a moment before floundering, hands waving around in a motion similar to Midoriya. "Ah, sorry! That is to say, Detective Tsukauchi is here to see you about the case concerning Eraserhead."
Hizashi perked up at once, Shouta quickly set on Hizashi’s desk before the man was up and heading for the door with a quick call of, “Thanks! And don’t let him out of the room!” Before Shouta could even try to do anything, Hizashi was gone, Yagi left staring at him with a small frown and curious eyes.
‘I don’t suppose you recognize me, do you?’ Shouta could feel his tired tone in his thoughts, at this point.
Across from him, Snipe sat up in his seat with a laugh, “Don’t worry about it, All Might. Apparently, that kid the two are looking at adopting soon has a cat that keeps following him. Shame Aizawa isn’t here. He’d love playing with a cat-”
Hissing at Snipe as best he could, Shouta took petty pleasure in seeing the man yelp and tumble over his chair, hitting the floor with a grunt in his haste to get away from him. Shouta watched Yagi flounder and look torn between worry and amusement as he rushed to help.
‘At least I have today’s training session,’ Shouta thought to himself, jumping to sit in Hizashi’s chair and knowing he would cry if he could at the familiar almond scent that came from Hizashi’s ridiculous hair care products. Sitting down and shoving his nose towards where the scent was strongest, Shouta closed his eyes and tried to pretend he was napping at home on their bed instead of in the body of a cat and stuck with no one knowing it was him.
Taking a steady breath, Shouta relaxed into the chair and let himself start to drift off. If he was lucky, he’d wake up with a plan to put a stop to all of this.
Somehow.
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Fic: Fire and Freedom
Pairing: Stancest
Rating: PG-13 for language and some implied sexy times, I guess ^^;
Author’s Notes: Circus AU! This was written for the Stancest Discord server’s scavenger hunt. I just wanted to say a quick shout out to my very talented teammates for making this event so fun and for being so kind! You’re all brilliant and I was so inspired by your lovely writing and art! :D And a hearty thank you to my beta team @yehvaru and @reinstotheworld, who made this legible! I know you’re both really busy, so it really touched me that you made time to look over my story and give me some feedback and encouragement. You two are the absolute best and I adore you both to the moon and back! :D <3
The link to this fic on AO3 can be found here.
“Little shit!”
Carla sighed heavily, eyes rolled up to the ceiling as if seeking divine patience. “Stanley, don’t start-”
“‘He’s cheating! He’s behind a curtain! ANYONE could have got him out! You think that’s a good trick?’” Her companion continued on with his tirade in a squeaky, off-key parody of what she assumed was meant to be a child, if the child in question sounded like a leaky bike tire.
A leaky bike tire with a serious chain smoking problem.
“Seriously, kid?” He continued arguing with his imaginary, tiny antagonist, weaving haphazardly through the throng of performers backstage preparing for their acts to start. Carla heaved a frustrated breath as she attempted to keep up, neatly dodging some acrobats and coming dangerously close to Ms. Petunia’s prized, trained poodle, Rex, earning her a vicious glare from the older woman. “Anyone could have gotten me outta handcuffs and a locked tank of water in the middle of a giant, empty stage?? The entire point is that I escape on my own!”
“To be fair, the tank’s not really sealed as tightly as it looks, though,” Carla couldn’t help but point out, trying to take the wind out of his sails before he made it clear across the Atlantic Ocean fueled on spite alone.
It seemed to work slightly, as far as distractions went, as Stanley’s steps did slow somewhat. “I know that, and you know that, but that’s not the point,” he growled, punctuating the end of his sentence with a few vicious stabs in the air with a pointer finger. “My job is to create an illusion that inspires ‘wonder’ and ‘the inner child’, and that real child is being a real asshole!”
“Yeah, I see what you mean,” Carla replied dryly. “What child wouldn’t experience a sense of wonder watching a happy-go-lucky guy like you answer their innocent question with a ‘Bite me, kid!’?”
Her companion narrowed his eyes in a mockingly fierce glare and put indignant hands on his hips as his body relaxed into a more playful posture. Bull-headed as Stan was, at least he could concede the point when he was being ridiculous. In his own, silent way, of course. “Yanno what? You can bite me too, Carla.”
“Been there, done that, sugar,” she replied, patting him lightly on the shoulder as he grinned. She wrinkled her nose for effect as she added, “never again.”
He burst into laughter, resting a hand over his heart. “You break my heart, McCorkle! Just like you did that night when you left me fer some clown!”
She immediately shoved him in frustration, forcing more laughter out of him. “NO! It wasn’t funny the first fifty-thousand times you made that joke, and it isn’t funny now! Ugh, I can’t deal with you when you’re like this. Where’s your brother? Why isn’t he suffering you like the rest of us? FORD!” She yelled at a nearby camper, their original destination (Stanley’s destination was always Stanford), and relished the violent tremor that ran through it as she had no doubt startled Ford out of a deep focus.
One chair scrape and several heavy, booted steps later, and the door to the RV swung open, revealing Ford’s perplexed face and emitting a faint scent of chemicals. He quirked a brow in Carla’s direction. “You bellowed?”
She frowned at his word choice and crossed her arms defiantly, pointedly ignoring the sniggering coming from the manchild behind her. “You’re a fire tamer, right?”
His brows scrunched together in a mild frown as he thought the question over. “I suppose you could call it that. But I prefer to say I work with fire-”
“Deal with this,” she interrupted, grabbing a handful of Stan’s sleeve and dragging him over to his brother. “There was a rowdy kid and now he’s all riled up, and if you don’t take him now I’ll throw a knife at him and I can’t guarantee I’ll miss.”
Stanford rolled his eyes as he stepped back to allow Stanley entry. “I’ll deal with it, but I can’t promise it’ll stay dealt with,” he countered, leaping back as Stanley laid a comically exaggerated and loud kiss to his cheek. “AGH! Stanley, what the hell?” he yelped, rubbing a hand up and down his cheek, face flushed and lips twisted into a grimace when his hand passed over saliva.
“Thanks, bro,” Stanley said as he made his way cheerfully into their shared space. “I feel so loved!”
Ford turned back to Carla, his expression deadpan. “Run, while you still can.”
She laughed and punched him playfully on the shoulder. “Thanks. I owe you one.”
“Oh, and Carla?” Stanley popped up over Ford’s shoulder, and that’s when Carla realized she had to leave now.
“Gotta go, Stan! Talk to you later, ok?” she called over her shoulder as she swiftly turned around and began making her escape.
“Oh! Ok. Could you just thank Thistle for me when you see ‘im?”
…Damn him and damn her curiosity straight to hell. She turned around with what she hoped was an effective warning look. “Thank him for what?”
Stan quickly held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Whoa! Hey! No need fer that! I just genuinely wanted to thank him for helpin’ me put away all my props ‘n stuff yesterday.”
Carla could feel her shoulders returning to their more relaxed positions. That was actually… “…Thanks, Stan. I’ll tell him you said that.”
He smiled. “No problem, Carla. I just wanted to make sure he knew I appreciated his kind jester.”
There’s no way of knowing for sure, but it was generally accepted by everyone at the circus that day that the ensuing, aggrieved shriek could be heard the next city over.
“We’re going to need hearing aids soon if you keep winding her up like that.”
Stanley grinned mischievously from his place against the wall as he watched his twin fiddle around with his latest fuel-concoction. “That was a good one, wasn’t it? Even better than I hoped for!”
Ford shook his head in exasperation as he continued with his work. “I honestly don’t know what you hope to achieve by bothering that poor girl. Didn’t she suffer enough as your girlfriend?”
Stan barked out a laugh and pushed off the wall, coming over to Ford to wrap a hand around one shoulder as he leaned over the other to observe his twin’s progress. “Yanno, I’d clock you a good one fer that remark if it wasn’t dripping with jealousy.” He glanced to the side to look for Ford’s reaction and – there! A quick spasm of fingers around the beaker he was holding, a slight quiver of a pipette in a suddenly unsteady hand and a jaunty bounce of an Adam’s apple were all Stan’s to cherish; small pieces of evidence of his twin’s affection that he could collect like an emotional magpie, decorating his life with pieces of love and hoarding the warmth they brought him.
“Who’s jealous?” Ford asked, in the most chalant-nonchalant sort of way. Stanley hoped he wasn’t sincerely trying to sound unaffected, because that would mean his brother was the worst liar in history and bullshit was basically their trade, so…not a good combination. “I just meant that perhaps you should…ease up a little. No person should be screaming that much, that regularly.”
“No?” Stan asked casually, plucking the beaker and pipette out of Ford’s hands and setting them down safely out of harm’s way, as Ford avidly stared at the side of his head. “You couldn’t see any advantages to screaming loudly on a regular basis?” He continued his line of questioning, pulling out the chair Ford is sitting in and sitting down in the newly created space of his twin’s lap. He looped his arms around Ford’s neck, grinning in triumph as he felt strong hands grip his hips, some stray fingers slipping under his shirt and coming to a stop to lightly caress the skin underneath. He licked his lips as he gazed into brilliant, warm brown eyes, so much more vibrant and arresting than his own. “No fringe benefits, at all?”
He watched Ford’s eyes shift from side to side - searching for something, it looked like. The inner workings of Ford’s mind often eluded him. Whatever it was, he must’ve found it, because the firm, stiff line of his mouth softened and melted into a charmingly lazy grin and the feather-light caresses began to move downward with intent. “Well, Carla was certainly right about one thing. You are riled up, aren’t you?”
Stan grinned devilishly, bringing one hand up to run through Ford’s curly locks, pausing every so often to deliver light, teasing scratches to his scalp. “You bet. She seemed to think that you should deal with me.” Here he grabbed a mass of hair, pulling Ford’s head back. Ford went willingly, offering his throat in its entirety to his brother. “What do you think about that?”
“I’m not sure,” Ford admitted, looking up at the ceiling. “I’ve never really done well trying to force fire to bend to my will, as I’m sure you remember.” Stan responded with a non-committal hum and a light caress to a pale, pink patch of skin on his brother’s throat. “As I mentioned earlier, my best work seems to come when I treat the fire with respect. Like a partner.” He flicked his eyes down in an attempt to meet Stan’s despite the awkward angle.
Stan considered him briefly, laid out and submissive beneath him, before throwing aside the façade and finally giving into temptation, bending forward to kiss, lick and suck at every inch of skin he could reach. His twin came alive immediately, hands coming up and grasping at Stan’s shoulders for purchase as he gasped and moaned his pleasure, completely losing himself in the moment.
It was times like these, here in this narrow world where he and Ford were the only things in existence, that Stanley felt like everything slotted into place. Where he could slowly, carefully free his brother from all the invisible trappings of the world outside and celebrate his freedom, celebrate Ford. It was always his most thrilling escape, and when he succeeded it brought him more pride and joy than hundreds of locked tank performances could ever touch.
Every soft gasp was like the rattle of a loosening chain, every moan the click of a lock springing open under his hands. Every desperate plea was like the awed gasps of an enthralled crowd and every call of his name the thunderous applause of a phantom audience. With Ford he reached new heights and it was with Ford that he achieved some of his greatest accomplishments.
When they were together, he received some of Ford’s magic too. Every light caress trailed fire along his nerve-endings, and every kiss seared into him like a brand. Ford’s intense gaze lit a fire in his gut and his fierce embrace was scalding enough to melt away the outside fears and anxieties that plagued him while leaving his heart and soul feeling blissfully warm.
Together they were two fires that burned brightly, twining and melting into one another to become an intimidating force of nature. Together, they broke locks and rent chains asunder, lifting each other to previously unattainable heights where they could soar in their freedom.
Together, the future was bright.
Together, they made the impossible possible.
#stancest#stancest scavenger hunt#my writing#ugh this is kind of a mess lol#but i enjoyed writing this anyway#aus are so fun to mess around with ^^
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Just Friends ― CANON.
(current verse)
Max finally says something about his growing feelings for Brady. The conversation doesn’t go as he hoped. Some NSFW in the beginning.
Laying in his bed with Brady after they had sex was definitely not an unusual occurrence for them now. Max was stretched out beside him, arm slung over Brady’s waist as he pressed his forehead against his chest while he came down. Neither of them were even close to asleep, Max knew, because he could feel Brady’s heart still thumping hard in his chest. And God knows Max was wide-ass awake right now. Without thinking, he pressed a few absentminded kisses over the expanse of his skin, arm sliding up to rest on torso in a small caress. “That was hot.” He lifted his head up to smile at him lazily. “Think you’re trying to kill me here, Bradford.”
The amount of times Brady found himself lying back against the pillows, his heart pounding, one arm behind his head and the other sliding around Max’s shoulders were immeasurable. It was pure bliss, basking in the afterglow and being left to think about how good it had been. And good it was; it always was. At first, Brady could only manage a hum in response to Max’s comment and the feeling of his lips dragging over Brady’s skin, which still felt sensitive all over. He matched the weak smile and lifted the arm around Max’s shoulders to slide his fingers through his hair. “Can’t kill you. Then I wouldn’t have sex this good anymore. Or like, a job I guess. Whatever.” While Max had his head up, Brady took the opportunity to lean in and kiss him, before dropping his head back against his arm and looking up at the ceiling. He was vaguely aware that they both needed to clean themselves up, but that could wait a second while he gathered himself. “Christ. You’re always surprisin’ me.” Just when Brady thought he had figured out all of Max’s tricks, he’d do something new, usually minor, and it blew Brady’s mind every time. And as much as he didn’t want Max to get a big head about it, he knew how a good ego boost felt, especially when it was true. “You’re kinda the best I’ve ever had, y’know,” he said without thinking too much more about it. It was true. And honesty was the best policy, after all.
His eyes closed for a moment as Brady’s hand carded through his hair, and a low laugh left his lips. “Wish this was the job.” He said, dumbly, then paused at himself. “Not in a gross way.” His brain was kind of mush, like the rest of his body, so he wasn’t too hard on himself for saying dumb things right now. Max responded to the kiss automatically, kissing him slowly, a change from their earlier exchanges. It was nice, and it made his whole body warm all over again. “Am I?” A slow smile spread over his face, and he raised his eyebrows at him, half-lazy, half-playful. Max reluctantly make work of removing his condom, tying it up and leaning over Brady to throw it in the waste basket beside the bed. Grabbing a few tissues from the side table, he wiped himself and Brady off as casually as possible and honestly didn’t think twice about it. It wasn’t awkward anymore, or weird. It was just… a thing they did now. “I’m full of surprises, Brady.” He teased, and disposed of the tissues before settling beside him. It was then that Brady decided to drop an absolute bombshell and Max looked at him - completely startled. “I’m sorry, what was that?” The pride and…weird sense of accomplishment immediately exploded in his damn chest. And he couldn’t keep the dumb grin off his face if he tried. Brady just said he was the best he’d ever fucking had. Whether he meant it or not… that was…what. He was in shock, and it finally registered in his brain Brady wasn’t laughing. And just like that, Max was rolling on top of him, and he didn’t give a fuck if he was still naked. His knees were supported by the bed, and he let his palms rest on the mattress by Brady’s head. He leaned in to kiss him, the gesture playful; so much different than their usual kisses. It was light, but Max was living in the moment here. “I’m gonna need to hear that one more time so I can never let you live it down for as long as y’live, thank you.” He paused, and he couldn’t stop freaking smiling. “Wanna know a secret, though? You’re my best ever too.”
“Yup.” Brady watched Max lean over him to throw away the tissues and immediately pulled him back in. “You are,” Brady agreed. That was what he had just said, after all. Max looked at him wildly and immediately started going on about what Brady had said, and he held back another grin, rolling his eyes instead. He knew he was gonna give Max a big head about it. “I didn’t say shit,” Brady protested, but he very quickly lost the ability to hold back his smile. Max fucking did that to him. Dumb contagious grin. The way he rolled on top of him had Brady laughing a little breathlessly. Max was such a weirdo. Brady didn’t mind the kiss, but then he wasn’t really sure what to do with his hands, so he settled for pushing Max’s chest and rolling him back onto the bed beside him. “You take what you can get.” Brady was almost matching Max’s playful tone, in the way he could only manage to. He certainly wasn’t going to say it again now. But he sure liked hearing Max say it. “Obviously,” Brady said, dragging out the word and making it clear he was just being an ass. He turned to his side and propped himself up on his elbow, his other hand coming to rest on Max’s waist as Brady leaned over and pressed his lips to his neck. “Otherwise you wouldn’t keep coming back for more.” He trailed kisses along his jaw and brushed their lips together, but no more than that before once again falling back against the bed. “So are you gonna shut up now?” he asked. “And come… do what you were doing before.” Brady vaguely gestured toward his own chest, where Max had been lying before he moved to clean up and be annoying and all that. “That was soft as fuck.” And he wasn’t typically a fan of soft, but all bets were off when it came to Max. After sex, of course. That was when things were different. “C’mon, Maxy.”
All he could do was laugh as Brady pushed him off to the side, and he immediately was wounding an arm around the back of Brady’s neck, fingers toying with the ends of his hair as Brady pressed kisses over his neck. The playfulness of it all was so nice and he didn’t bother to try to stop smiling as their lips brushed together. Max didn’t try to deepen it or anything else, just enjoying it even if Brady was being full of himself. But it was honestly just Brady at this point, and it made him smile. “Pretty sure I’d still come back for more. Have you seen yourself? Damn. You being decent is just an added bonus.” That literally wasn’t going to lessen Brady’s ego at all, but he didn’t care. He raised his eyebrows at him as Brady motioned to his chest. “Soft, huh? Didn’t know you liked that.” But Max could do soft. It’s one of the things he knew he was good at. And a glimmer of hope that had been simmering under the surface lately began to really shine through. “You’re the worst. Literally call me anything else but that and I’ll lay on you all damn day.” A little hypocritical, perhaps, with all of Max’s Bradford’s he tended to drop so casually. Nonetheless, he was pretty instantly rolling over to Brady, sliding his arm over his waist in order to bring himself closer. His hand pressed against Brady’s side; then slowly, though not necessarily cautiously, Max was resting his head on his chest. “Put your hand in my hair again, dude.” He mumbled and smiled to himself, planting a few more kisses on Brady’s chest much like earlier. But this time he didn’t pull away; he had no reason to now. “I like it when you do that.” He said, simply. And before he could fight it or think about it, he was resting his chin on his chest rolling his eyes up to meet his, the simple grin still in place. And he wasn’t thinking; didn’t think he needed to in that moment. “I kinda like this too, you know.”
“Wow. Already trying to get me in the mood for round two?” Brady teased. It wasn’t like he’d be opposed, but still. Max seemed surprised by Brady wanting him to come back, but he figured he should know by now Brady was all about the post-sex snuggling. So he just rolled his eyes, as he usually did, while Max complained about the name and moved back over to him. “What? It’s close to your actual name. At least I didn’t just make up some dumb shit like Bradford,” he said, the mocking tone evident as he said the word. He usually tried not to draw attention to the name at all, since he was lying through his teeth about it, but Max was never going to find out. “Don’t tell me what to do,” he teased, but still immediately raised his hand to thread through Max’s hair again. He was content all over again, just lying there in a position they were both familiar with, and he would have been fine if they just stayed there in silence. But Max looked up at him from where he was and said he liked this. Brady held his gaze for just a moment before averting his eyes and looking up at the ceiling. He wasn’t entirely sure what’s Max meant, but he could assume he was referring to the obvious. “Well, I’d hope so. Otherwise you’re a really fuckin’ good actor, man.” He turned back to look at him again. “I mean, I like it too. Thought we established this.”
“Maybe I am. Is it working?” He settled into the embrace easily; and they’d done it so many times before. The only difference was that Max was starting to realize that this was maybe a little more than just the usual friends with benefits deal. Especially when Brady was straight up asking him to lay with him. “Bold of you to assume you know my real name. Could really be Maximilliano for all you know.” He spoke quietly; teasingly. “How dare you diss Bradford. It’s sexy as hell.” Max thought so, anyway. “Hm, sure you don’t want me to tell you what to do? I feel like you’d be into that.” Max tilted his head into the touch; muscles instantly relaxing at the gesture. It wasn’t startling to him anymore how content he was just laying there with him. He accepted it at this point, and right now he wasn’t trying to hide how much he liked it. He laughed at that softly and shook his head, chin still planted on Brady as he did so. “I mean, I can be. Just not about this.” Max shrugged to the best of his ability, given his current position. “But no, not just that. I mean… I like this.” He repeated as he slid his arm up to slide over his torso again, and he wasn’t even trying to feel up his abs this time. He just wanted to be touching him. And he let himself get brave; let himself push all the negative thoughts out of his mind in favor of just going for it. Max always did have trouble keeping his thoughts inside his head. “Us. Like this.” Max wasn’t being clear enough, he knew, so he took a small pause to man the hell up. His heart was kind of beating heavily in his chest and his stomach felt all queasy, but he didn’t look away from Brady’s face while he spoke. He didn’t think about the repercussions, or how this might be weird, or any of that. He rarely did. “I know this isn’t…wasn’t supposed to be anything. Or whatever.” He lifted his head up as he spoke. “But I dunno.” A small, genuine smile spread across his face. And he was hopeful. “I just like you, man.”
Brady wanted to make a comment about how he was usually the one calling the shots, but he decided to keep it to himself this time around. Besides, he was allowing himself to be less and less of an uptight control freak with Max as time went on. That is… until Max kept talking. And Brady listened, watching his face, trying to understand everything he was saying. Brady’s brow furrowed as he tried to figure it out. Because right now it sounded like Max was trying to…take this a step further. And Brady had known that things were a little different lately, but Jesus. He hadn’t expected this. His heart rate picked up a bit as realization set in. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. He had fucked up. “Max,” was all he was able to say at first. Brady shifted, feeling fifty fucking shades of uncomfortable because what the fuck was he supposed to say? Max was kind and genuine and had that fucking smile on his face and all Brady wanted to do was run away instead of accepting that that was all for a fucking reason. Brady sat up, effectively separating them in the process. He wasn’t about to have this conversation with their limbs all tangled together. “Why… We were just…” He didn’t even know what to say. How to begin. Brady shook his head, looking down at the bed below him. “That’s. Not what this is.” He forced himself to pick up his head and look at Max. He deserved at least that. “It was…just sex. You know that.” Saying it out loud, right to Max’s face made that pit settle in his stomach. But he had to say it. He couldn’t let this go any further, even if he didn’t even fucking know where he own head was. He just knew that wasn’t a good idea. “That’s all there is to ‘us’.”
It was hard for Max to pinpoint the exact moment he realized he messed up, but it was like a steady progression of realization. As soon as he saw the look on Brady’s face and the tone of his voice, reality began to crash down on him. And as he disentangled from Max and continued on, it was like someone just tossed a bucket of ice water on him. He sat up straight, immediately on guard, immediately knowing he’d gone too far. But more than anything, he was confused. And…really fucking hurt. “What?” Was all he could say at first, his chest constricting so tight he couldn’t think for a second. Max didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Now he just felt so fucking stupid. “Yeah, I did know that.” Max shook his head, frustration and embarrassment settling deep in his bones. “It was that, at first. But just sex wasn’t supposed to end up like this, Brady. I don’t cuddle with my friends after sex. Or just because.” The words tumbled out in the worst case of word vomit he’d ever experienced, and once they were out, Max knew he couldn’t take them back. “Look, man. You don’t have to like me back.” He felt nauseous saying that, but fuck, now it was obvious. He still couldn’t help how stung he felt, though, so his dumb ass continued on. “But don’t act like I’m just… making things up, either.” He reached out a hand towards him, before retracting it, and his voice got smaller. “I can’t help that I feel shit for you. But don’t act like I’m crazy for it. Just… you’ve got to admit it’s confusing. ‘Least give me that.”
Brady couldn’t blame Max. He didn’t want to. He hadn’t done anything wrong. But Brady was immediately on the defense and he felt like he needed to blame someone, because otherwise he would have to fully accept that Max was right. Brady had been feeling these things and was too scared to come to terms with it. Everything inside of him screamed not to do just that. Brady shook his head, suddenly feeling very exposed in every sense of the word. He leaned over the edge of the bed to grab his previously discarded clothes. “That’s… that’s not fair.” Brady stood to quickly pull on his boxers and then turned to face Max. “If you weren’t okay with that then you should have fucking said something. We’ve been doing that shit since the first fuckin’ time.” Brady brought a hand up to run through his hair. “Don’t do that. You know it didn’t mean shit. I woke up and thought we slept together because you stayed, okay? That had nothing to do with me. And the other time I was drunk and high as fuck, that’s nothing.” He knew that was a lie. Deep down, he fucking knew it. But it was easier to point fingers. To defend. “You’re not— god, I’m not saying you’re fuckin’ crazy, dude, but. Fuck. That’s not what this is and you knew it.” Brady paused, looking away at nothing in particular. “Or you should’ve.” He was frustrated. It wasn’t fair, he knew, but how else was he supposed to feel when he had tried to avoid exactly this? He knew he had done a shitty job, but still. “Fuck. Just… What do you want me to say here, man?” Brady asked, arms outstretched. “I… we can’t, okay?”
It was escalating, fast, and Max couldn’t do anything to stop it. Brady was up in a panic, gathering his clothes and looking so caught off guard that Max would feel fucking guilty any other time. But right now? He was hurt; he was humiliated. And he hated feeling like he just made things up in his head. Had he? “Yeah, and the first fuckin’ time is what made it different.” He swallowed, feeling entirely too vulnerable saying that out loud. “And I liked it, okay? But I wasn’t going to make a deal out of it. But this?” He motioned between the two of them. “You might not want it; want me – whatever, but news flash Brady, just friends don’t just lay all over each other for the hell of it. Even after sex. And they don’t just kiss each other outta the blue either.” He felt sick; he shouldn’t be calling him out like this. But God, he felt insane. Clingy. Like someone who just didn’t get the hint. And he hadn’t felt this stupid in a long ass time. He shook his head to himself and stood up, grabbing his own clothes and tugging them on haphazard. He got his own boxers and shirt on, coming to stand in front of Brady. He didn’t understand why he was reacting like this. It was one thing to not feel the same about him. Max could handle that. But it was the way he was doing it; like he was disturbed by just the thought of it. And that’s what hurt the most, because they were best friends before anything else. “I’m not asking for a goddamn marriage proposal here, Brady. I just want —” He struggled, not sure what he wanted. Because here Brady was, telling him it wasn’t anything. “I just wanna know why it’s so bad. You’re sayin’ you can’t.” His voice softened, and he wasn’t hiding the fact that he was hurt now. “What are you so afraid of?”
Brady yanked his shirt over his head as Max spoke. By the time Brady could look at him again, Max had said something about the first time, and Brady’s heart raced as the defensiveness took over. “The first time,” he repeated, essentially spitting the words right back at him. “You mean when we got drunk off our asses and stumbled into your fuckin’ room to suck each other off. You’re right, how could I forget how romantic that was?” Brady knew what he meant, of course he did. But he wasn’t going to admit it. “If that made you think I wanted more than sex then I’m sorry you misunderstood.” Brady shook his head, searching around the floor for his pants while Max continued to speak, mostly just to give himself something to do. He was panicking. He knew he needed to reign it in, or just to walk away, but he couldn’t bring himself to without fighting back. “I didn’t say we were just fucking friends,” Brady countered, straightening up again to look at him. “I don’t fuck all of my friends. But that’s it, Max. We’re friends who sleep together and that’s the only ‘more’ there is to it.” He didn’t have an argument for the kiss. Mostly because he didn’t even know what the fuck that was and he wanted to forget it. Max came toward him and got all soft, but it just made Brady even more stressed, and he instinctively took a step back. Max asking what he was afraid of made something in him snap. He was afraid. There were too many layers to it for him to pinpoint exactly what it was. His own trouble with emotions in general. The way his parents would look at him. The fact that Max fucking deserved what Brady couldn’t even begin to know how to give him. He was so afraid of making it all come crashing down accidentally that he did what Brady did best: he took control, and did it himself. “I’m not afraid,” he lied, his voice low. “I’m telling you how it is. Don’t act like you’re gonna…discover all my dark secrets or some shit and hold my hand through it. I don’t need you to fuckin’ fix me.”
He tried really hard not to let Brady’s words get to him, but they stung nonetheless. He was right. God, he was right. Brady never promised him anything, right from the beginning, and Max knew that. It’s why he never said anything to begin with. At the time, though, it’d just been a harmless thing. A small infatuation he didn’t think would go anywhere. At least until they started hooking up regularly, and that harmless thing started becoming real to Max. “Don’t… do that.” His hurt was bubbling into frustration, and he felt the need to defend himself even if he knew shouldn’t. Should just let this go. But it was Brady, and he couldn’t just ignore this. “I never pressured you, or asked you for shit. And I’m still not. I just want to be honest.” He couldn’t help it all from pouring out now, because they’d already gone this far. May as well just put it all out there. “That night you blame me for? The one where I stayed? You’re the one who pulled me in, Brady. You fucking held me and I didn’t move because I couldn’t. Because I goddamn like you and didn’t want to wake you up. Which, yeah, my bad.” He stood his ground, and he wasn’t going to just apologize and leave. This felt too intense to just leave alone; like Brady was genuinely upset. And Max just didn’t understand why. “You wanna act like we were just passin’ the time? Okay. That’s cool. It could have been an accident, but that doesn’t explain the other times. It wasn’t just me going too far with us. Whether you meant for it or not, dude, it happened. And I’m saying something about it, so it doesn’t get any worse.” So he could just move on from it now. “You don’t owe me anything. But you don’t need to treat me like an asshole over it.” He tensed at Brady’s words, and they stuck with him. What was he even talking about? “I’m not trying to fix you, Brady.” His heart pounded in his chest; he honestly felt sick to his stomach. This was all wrong. “I’m just trying to understand. You’re my best friend. The other stuff doesn’t matter.” Even if it kind of really did. But Brady was his friend first, and he meant that. “But this? This weird defensive shit? I just don’t get it.” Max shook his head, and he looked at him imploringly, silently pleading for him to just freaking talk to him. “Why can’t you just talk to me? It’s me.”
It was weird, Max telling Brady that he had been the one to pull him in. His first reaction was to freeze because he truly hadn’t known. But the more he thought about it, he couldn’t exactly say it was surprising. He knew he had a habit of getting a little overly touchy after they had sex because it was his only excuse to, so it made sense he’d have gone for it. But he had already known how unfair it was for him to lay into Max about it the way he did the following day, so for Max to confirm that it had been Brady himself keeping him there… God, he really needed to get his fucking shit together. But he was also still overwhelmed, and they had already talked about that, and Brady had even apologized. So he didn’t know what else he could say. Maybe he lucked out that Max wasn’t done speaking. “I’m not—” Brady stopped. He closed his eyes, taking a pause to gather his thoughts. “I’m not treating you like anything, okay? I’m telling you the truth.” He wasn’t, not totally. And that wasn’t fair. But fuck, he wasn’t prepared for this.
Once again, Brady was reminded that Max was too fucking good of a person. All he seemed to want to do was understand, but Brady wasn’t ready to share that with him. “It’s not weird defensive shit,” he said, ironically, in defense. “You don’t have to get anything.” Max wasn’t stupid, and of course Brady knew that. He knew that Max could see there was something Brady was pushing down or keeping away from him or whatever it was he thought Brady was dealing with. But he also knew Max probably thought they could talk through it, and maybe they could because Max was good at dealing with problems. But this was…different. So, so different. Probably due to the fact that Brady had never fucking dealt with this before and didn’t even know how he would begin to explain it himself. “It was just sex to me. Is that what you want to hear?” Guilt racked his entire body and Brady knew he was likely being unnecessarily harsh, but he wanted Max to stop wondering and prying about things Brady didn’t fucking want to tell him right now, frankly. “I held you after all the times we fucked so you’d know it didn’t just mean nothing to me. But only because you’re my best friend. It didn’t mean I wanted to be your fucking boyfriend.” The words felt foreign to him, giving him an entirely new and strange sensation the moment they left his lips, but he stuck to his guns and kept his eyes right on Max’s face. “You wanted me to talk to you. So is that what you wanted me to say?”
Maybe Max was being overly defensive. He might have been being unfair, too, pointing all of that out to Brady like he did. It wasn’t just Brady who had a part in things; Max knew fully well that whatever inch Brady gave him he took a mile on. Brady probably didn’t owe him any explanations, but Max kept pushing until they’d gone too far. The whole thing just felt weird. This was tense and bad and not what he’d expected at all. Brady’s words cut through to him like a knife, and it felt like the breath was suddenly knocked out of him. Brady was looking him right in the damn face, and while he’d essentially already told him that, this hurt worse somehow. Max felt nauseous, shaking his head, but not being able to tear his gaze away from Brady’s face. “Okay. I hear you.” His voice sounded all too low to his own ears. It just really stung, and he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it right now. The bitterness crept into his words as he spoke. “It’s fine that it was nothing to you, dude.” Damn, though, it was something to him. It had started to be an undeniable something. “But we’re not doing this shit anymore. I’m not gonna pretend it meant nothing to me just so you feel better.” Not anymore at least, but maybe that was him just being petty. It was hard to think when it all happened so quick; too quick. He finally tore his eyes away to grab his pants off the floor. “We’re still friends. I’ll get over it. But we’re not fucking anymore.”
Brady knew, realistically, that he didn’t have to say what he said. He didn’t have to throw it back in his face like that. He was just panicking, trying to keep it all together however the hell he could. And that meant not opening up that fucked up can of worms right now. So he would just have to settle for being rude to fully get his point across. “Didn’t ask you to,” Brady shot back, mirroring Max’s action of leaning over to pick up the last of his clothes on the floor. He didn’t want Max to do anything for him. It was far too late for that. He thought they had been on the same page of just…accepting that this was what it was. Brady knew Max, though. He should have known better, been more careful. It shouldn’t have mattered that much to hear Max confirm they weren’t going to do this anymore. It was pretty much what he had expected, to be fair. But it still hit him pretty hard. “Whatever,” he mumbled, in true Brady fashion. “Fun while it lasted, I guess.” He thought maybe he should say something else. The problem was he didn’t know what, and he was so frustrated that this had officially come to an end and annoyed at himself for a whole mess of things that he thought everything would just come out wrong. So instead, Brady breezed past him and out the door of Max’s room, headed toward his own. That was that, he supposed. And it felt pretty fucking shitty.
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