#((Sorry Haru... suffer for my amusement))

[aayakashii]

(maybe) distance makes the heart grow fonder

Part 1, part 2

Author's note: as someone mentioned, it's been 8 months since the last update 💀 but I said I wasn't going to abandon it and I was serious! Either way, sorry for making everyone who likes this story wait so long. I'll try not to have the next chapter take too long but I have like 3 or 4 other fics I wanna write so they'll come first. The next chapter is already outlined though! Soon you'll have the other ghouls suffering from your absence >:3c aaanyway this one is a long one! I hope you like it and I hope it was worth the wait too. Let me know what you think!!!!!!

Warnings: angst, nightmares, blood, depictions of a panic attack

Ren was in a pickle.

He had called your name out a lot of times, but you were fast asleep on his bed and barely even stirred. He placed his hand in front of your nose more than once, in order to confirm you were breathing, each time getting more and more annoyed at the fact that, yes, you were breathing and still wouldn't budge.

That's what he gets for being nice once. Some annoying ass senior that slept like the dead hogging his bed.

Ren stood next to you, burning a hole into your forehead as he chewed anxiously on his thumb, wincing and hissing when he pulled a bit more than just dead skin. He sighed, looking at the red gash on the corner of his finger.

“This is so fucking annoying.” He muttered, rubbing his face with his hands.

What was the game plan here? Was he going to give up and just let you sleep on his bed all day? But what about him? He needed sleep as well.

Well, what was his other obvious option?

Ren grimaced at the thought of having to carry you on his arms, shuddering at the idea of being called out for sexual harassment after only trying to help. No, he did his good deed for the day already, and look where that got him.

As he pulled his hair in frustration, he heard the familiar sounds of things falling down all over the place downstairs. Great. That fucking weirdo was back. Awesome timing, in fact. He could deal with this issue then.

Ren turned on his heel, opening and closing the door to his bedroom quietly, in order to keep you from awakening, despite himself. Downstairs, Haru was sweeping an unknown pink powder while Towa watched with uncontained amusement. The pink dust sparkled and made strange, tingling sounds, like tiny little bells, as the broom’s bristles swooped them to a corner of the room. Haru mumbled to himself, eyebrows scrunched tight etching deep lines onto his forehead.

Ren lingered on the last step of the stairway, hesitant on asking Haru, of all people, for a favor. But desperate times call for desperate measures and Ren didn’t see any other way to (gently) remove you out of his room without getting in trouble for that - in his mind, the only options were being accused of sexual harassment or just straight up being scolded by you. And he didnt know which option sounded scarier.

“Hey.” he called out to the red-haired man quietly, scratching his cheek.

“Oh? Ren!” Haru looked up, face immediately brightening despite Ren’s permanent scowl. A hand flew to support his own lower back, which popped audibly as he turned around. “Think you can help me clean these things here? Towa bumped on the shelf and now we have this, uh. Little mess to clean up.”

Ren frowned in disgust and shook his head.

“Nah, actually… I’m the one needing some help right now to be honest.”

Haru’s face immediately fell.

“What’s wrong?” He stepped closer, eyeing Ren intently as he searched for anything out of the ordinary. “Did you get hurt somehow? Are you okay?”

“Ugh… Yeah, yeah, just come here in my room” he rolled his eyes, climbing up the stairs back towards his room without checking whether or not Haru would follow. After a few mumbles, the sound of a broom loudly falling down and some muttered curses, Ren heard footsteps quickly trailing right behind.

Ren put a finger in front of his lips, shushing Haru right before entering his room. A gust of cold air blew past them as he opened the door, goosebumps prickling their skin and Haru had to suppress a shiver. Right before he was about to scold Ren for racking up their electric bill with how long he kept the air conditioner on, his mouth shut immediately, teeth clacking audibly.

Right under the navy-colored duvet, you were fast asleep - chest rising and falling with every breath, almost peaceful-looking, if it weren't for the puffiness of your eyes and the redness of your nose.

“Oh…”

Ren sighed loudly.

“Yeah. Can you get them outta here? I wanna, you know. Have my bed back so I can sleep.”

Haru tilted his head.

“Can’t you carry them, though? You’re strong enough.”

“No way.” he shook his head vehemently. “What if they sue me for sexual harrassment?”

Haru scoffed in disbelief.

“They would never do that, and you know it. You’re their friend after all.”

“We’re not friends.” he mumbled.

Haru forcefully rubbed his nose that still had a bit of pink powder dust.

“Okay.” he said, sniffling, eyeing his hands that were now a bit pink as well. “I guess I can take them to Obscuary.”

Ren raised an eyebrow.

“Obscuary? Why don't you take them to their dorm?”

Haru tiptoed towards the bed, gently removing the duvet from your body, a guilty expression on his face as he noticed how you shivered under the cold air.

“They’re gonna spend a little time there.” He mumbled as he crouched and pulled you into his arms with ease. “Oh, that reminds me…” he turned to Ren, expression unusually severe. “You’re not allowed to tell anyone that they were here. If anyone asks you if you know where they are, lie.”

“What? Why?” Ren asked as Haru maneuvered his way out of his room.

“Ah, it’s a bit of a long story, and it’s best if they tell you themself, but they asked Towa and I to do that. You have to do the same. That’s a Captain’s order, in fact.”

Ren scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, fine. Whatever.”

“You can't tell that Sinostra friend of yours, no matter what.” Haru added, going down the stairs as Ren trailed behind.

“Ritsu? He’s not my friend.”

“Can’t tell those 1st years from Vagastrom either.” Haru scowled as he looked once again the pink dust that still covered a good chunk of the room. Towa was nowhere to be seen.

“None of those guys are my friends! I won't tell anyone, I got it, ugh.”

“Okay. good. While I'm out, you clean up the living room then.” Haru concluded as he opened the door to the dorm and stepped out.

“What? Wait, hold on! I didn’t say I would do that!” Ren replied, exasperation in his features as he immediately tried running towards the entrance as well.

“Counting on you! Be right back! Bahnti!”

As soon as Ren arrived at the door, Haru was already nowhere to be seen, his stigma immediately taking him far and away from Jabberwock, leaving the whole living room mess in Ren’s hands.

“Fuck!” he slapped the wall, wincing at the instant pain on his palm. “He’s so fucking annoying!”

Haru opened the door to Obscuary’s main entrance with ease, despite holding you in his arms, and sauntered towards the bar.

The bell chimed softly as he opened the heavy mahogany door and entered the dim lit recint and soft, jazzy music echoed through the place accompanied by the clinking of glasses.

“Sorry, the bar’s not open yet!” Rui announced cheerily, his back towards the door as he dried one of his many crystal cups. “I'm still organizing everything so please come in a few hours from now!”

Haru grunted, adjusting you in his arms before getting closer to the counter.

“Hey, Rui.” He said with a sigh, resting his hip against the sturdy wood.

“Oh! Harurin!” Rui took a quick glance over his shoulder before placing the cup down and turning around. “What’s u–” he paused with a gasp, eyes widening, as soon as he was faced with Haru's sheepish smile and your form, bundled in his arms.

“Uh…” Rui cleared his throat, eyes glued to the way you seemed to be holding on to Haru's vest for dear life. “What's going on?” he laughed anxiously as he rounded the counter to get closer.

“Aw, will you look at that. They look like that silly little princess from the fairytales.” Ed’s sultry voice resounded from a corner of the bar, his tall and languid form coming out of the shadows with a smirk on his face.

“Are they okay?” Rui asked, completely ignoring Ed's comment, although his grimace was fairly obvious.

“Well…” Haru shrugged, looking at you with a frown. “Physically, I guess they’re fine. They were going to come here to Obscuary and ask to stay a little while, but they passed out back in Jabberwock. Probably of exhaustion.”

“Exhaustion?”

The bar’s door slammed open and both men jumped, startled by the loud noise. You, however, remained trapped in a deep slumber, despite the ruckus caused by Lyca as he barreled through the bar with excitement.

“Is the honor student here?! I smell their-” Lyca’s expression fell as soon as he saw you bundled up in Haru’s arms, eyes still puffy, with a frown as you dreamed unpleasant dreams.

Lyca’s ears and tail popped out, an angry rumble reverberating in his chest while he approached Haru, slowly.

“Harurin…” he growled the nickname, an odd contrast to his demeanor. “What did you do?!”

“Lyca, calm down.” Rui stepped in front of Haru before the werewolf could come any closer.

Haru gulped, voice trembling as he backed away from Lyca’s very prominent canine features and tried to keep his fear of dogs at bay.

“Hey, I just brought them here as they were already planning to do, big guy. No need to get aggressive!”

“I’m not aggressive!”

“You sure do look aggressive...” Haru murmured.

“Lyca, don't worry that much. Harurin is a friend, remember? He wouldn't do anything to harm anyone, much less the honor student. Chill out.” Rui said with a warning glare.

“Ye-yeah! I would never hurt them! Please don't bite me!”

Lyca's ears and tail disappeared and he looked to the side, crossing his arms and sulking.

“I wasn't gonna bite” he pouted.

“What happened to them, though?” Rui pointed at you, trying to address the elephant the in the room once again. “They look absolutely wrecked.”

“I think… the pressure of everything and especially of all the other ghouls has finally got to them. You know how some of us can be.” he shrugged.

Rui sighed, a pitying look on his face as he clenched and unclenched his fists, keeping himself from reaching out and petting your tousled hair.

“They do look exhausted.”

Haru nodded.

“They cried a lot today.”

“They cried?!” Lyca’s eyes were wide, as if you crying was something unimaginable.

“Yeah and… They probably need to talk to you guys once they wake up, so keep watch, maybe.”

“Can't we wake them up then? So they tell us what's going on?” Lyca reached his hands towards you, but Rui shook his head.

“No Lyca, let them sleep. They probably need it. Harurin, can you take them to a room upstairs? It can be the one you use when you stay over.”

“No problem!”

“I’m gonna go with you.” Lyca grumbled, following Haru’s footsteps as he swiftly made way towards the mansion's second story.

“And you.” Rui turned on his heels to face Ed and pointed at him, accusative. “You just stay here and drink your wine while I fetch some stuff for them. Don't even think about messing with them while they're sleeping.”

Ed put a hand on his chest, feigning hurt.

“You wound me, Rui. I wouldn't dare kick a poor dog that's already down.”

Rui made a disgusted sound and walked away, to the sound of Ed’s amused chuckle.

Through the thick fog that encompassed your whole being, you saw a dog.

It felt like a lifetime since you’ve last seen one. A real one. Darkwick clearly had a preference for unnaturally skilled cats (demons? You weren't sure at that point), so you never saw dogs – at least not ones with a normal snout and little beaded, bright eyes.

Maybe they weren't as dextrous? It didn't matter.

But still, you saw a dog. And it was wagging its long, fluffy tail and panting happily, as if it was overjoyed to see you, an old friend you were supposed to recognize.

You didn't see your blurred, foggy surroundings, you just saw the dog – its dark, greyish coat and bright yellow eyes, the size of a labrador. It trotted towards you, head bowed down as it showed you it meant no harm. As it got right beside your feet, it laid down and showed its belly, begging for pets.

You smiled. The dog was so happy to see you. You wonder when was the last time anyone was this happy to see you.

You crouched down in order to pet it, and it wiggled gleefully under your hands, one paw shaking as you scratched a particularly good spot. Despite yourself, you cooed, telling him how he was so cute, such a good boy, so adorable. And it loved your praise, tail wagging a mile an hour.

After a few peaceful minutes, however, it started whining. It flopped down onto its side and got up quickly, startling you out of your happy daze.

"Hey, what's wrong?" You asked, but it whimpered and curled into itself, ears flat against its head and tail tucked between its legs. It was looking over your shoulder.

Without a second thought, you twisted your torso to see what was scaring it.

All you registered is a tall, woman-like figure with limbs bent unnaturally, one huge eye surrounded by purple, blue, red and white flowers; and a mouth slit into a wide, bloody smile.

Your mind screamed for you to leave, to run, to hide. No, no, not again, not again, not again.

But you were glued in place, breath hitched inside your throat as you can't do much but take it all in all over again.

There was something different in the scenario, though.

Right in front of the woman, there was a red headed man. He turned around slowly, as if he could sense your gaze fixed upon him. His toxic green eyes lock onto your figure, disdain and anger threatening to melt your bone like acid. Copious amounts of blood soaked his face, neck and white shirt.

You finally noticed how red your surroundings looked, out of nowhere.

The dog was long gone. You were alone again.

Taiga slowly placed the barrel of his golden, glittering gun onto your forehead with a blank expression. You tried to open your mouth and yell in a desperate attempt to have him recognize you, but your whole body felt heavy like lead.

All you could feel was the cold metal of his gun touch your forehead.

The piercing pain came right after the loud gunshot.

You screamed and flailed wildly on the bed, accidentally pushing Lyca, who napped peacefully on your belly. His body flipped to the side and he fell down with a yelp, but you didn’t even register his presence. Your eyes were still sealed shut, as if the nightmare had an unyielding grasp on your conscience, dragging your body back into its torturous depths as you left claw marks on the way.

You screamed and screamed. This seems to be your thing now, apparently.

"What's wrong? Hey!” Lyca jumped up to his feet in a rush, grabbing your shoulders and shaking you with little restraint on his strength. You kept on moaning in what sounded like incredible pain, still unaware of him

“Hey! What's wrong?" he gave tiny slaps on your cheeks, hoping to bring you back to consciousness. When that didn’t work, he settled for holding your arms down in order to keep you from getting hurt, since your arms were dangerously close from knocking everything that surrounded you and the bed.

Lyca’s eyes were brimmed with tears and he looked terrified once Rui entered the room.

“They- they won’t wake up” he stuttered, voice wavering as he looked at Rui for answers “What do I do?”

Rui breathed deeply, eyes fluttering as he tried to think of a solution. You were clearly still stuck in your sleep, unable to escape whatever seemed to be haunting you in your mind.

But what could he even do? It’s not like he could come near you and try to talk you out of your stupor, when you flailed wildly, almost as if convulsing ��� he couldn’t risk having you accidentally touch him, no matter what.

In the blink of an eye, however, Ed appeared on your bedside, an amused smile on his face as he flicked your forehead, huffing out a laugh.

“Come back here, you silly human.” he murmured, voice laced with a mischief that was unsuitable for the situation.

With a gasp, you resurfaced - your eyes finally opened and your body relaxed under Lyca’s arms. Your eyelids fluttered and you heaved, coughing as you took in your surroundings and, especially, Lyca’s pained expression hovering over you.

“Ly…ca?” you rasped and he immediately sat back on his heels, rubbing unshed tears away from his eyes and snot from his nose.

“You scared me.” he sniffed, looking away as you massaged your temples, a throbbing headache making itself known in your skull.

“What happened? What did I do?” you frown.

“You didn’t do anything, doll.” Rui chimed in, sitting on the foot of the bed with a meek smile “You were just having a really bad nightmare and it made you thrash in your sleep. It was a bit scary to see, but it wasn’t your fault. Can’t control that type of thing.” he explained, while smoothing non-existent wrinkles on the duvet.

“Oh, I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t know, I… This type of thing never happened before.” you tried sitting up, looking at Lyca apologetically.

“The blond gigolo already said it. It wasn’t your fault.” he huffed.

You remembered bits and pieces of the nightmare, but mostly, how it made you feel - all the helplessness, the pain and the terror that had slowly built up inside you ever since you arrived at Darkwick crashed upon you like a tidal wave, leaving you no space to breathe. It felt like being pushed over the precipice of death time and time again, and revived only to suffer the same pain once more - a Promethean torture that only allowed you to think what the hell could you have done to deserve that much hurt; which god could have possibly angered so badly to deserve their rage in such a way.

You sighed, still rubbing your temples.

“I'm sorry for scaring you either way… When- when did I arrive here?”

“Harurin brought you. You were fast asleep in his arms. He mentioned you said you'd apparently come here? Is that so?”

“Oh… Yeah… Yeah, it is.” gratitude washed over your body for a moment. Haru already did so much to help you. You promised yourself you'd find a way to express your thankfulness once things went back to normal – or as normal as they could be.

“What happened, doll?” Rui snapped you out of your thoughts and you looked into his eyes, an unusual seriousness in his expression. “He told us you kinda crashed out, but said you were planning something. What is it?”

You gulped, casting down your eyes and fiddling with the fabric of your blazer, mouth opening and closing as you tried to find the words to explain the mess that was your mind.

“I… I found a way to look at some of my old social media.” You muttered, finally.

Lyca scrunched his eyebrows, shaking his head in confusion.

“What does this have to do with what's going on?”

“I didnt know I was gonna be so affected by my memories.” You shrugged. “I suddenly remembered how I had a life out there. Outside of Darkwick. I don't know… I don't how I even forgot about it. I had friends, family. People who cared about me, people I don't know if I'll ever see again.” You murmured, looking everywhere but the pity in Rui's eyes. You were so, so fucking tired of crying. Your limbs felt like they weighed a million tons.

“And it made me think.” You continued, after trying to clear your throat from the knot that seemed to be permanently there. “How badly people treat me here. You guys are the exception, obviously, and a few others but…” you shook your head “I don't know what I did to deserve being humiliated on a daily basis. I'm– I'm threatened, yelled at, insulted, hurt time and time again by people who barely act as if I'm human. I think some of them might see me as lesser than that.”

Rui opened his mouth to speak, but the words were flowing freely from your lips – sorrow finally seemed to have given away to anger and you needed to air out your grievances before they dragged you down again.

“And some of them see me as a school project. Means to an end, you know? Cure that stupid human and get this cool prize. I'm not a fucking project. I had my life. My dreams. They all act as if they're doing me a favor when all I wanted was to never have met them at all; never been through this at all.”

A beat passed, heavy in its silence.

“You regret meeting us?” Lyca's voice cut through the rage that covered your vision, and you paused.

He had his eyes downcast, a pout on his lips and a line between his eyebrows. He poked the bed, trying his best not to give in to the frown that tried to tug his lips down.

You hurt him. How great.

“No, Lyca. I'd never regret meeting you, nor many of the friends I made here.” You reached out to grab his hand, quieting his fidgeting as you squeezed it reassuringly. Lyca side eyed you with barely concealed upset. “It's true, I– I promise you. I swear. I love you guys and it's the only thing that has kept me alive so far.”

At the mention of the word “love”, Lyca's cheeks turned pink and he squirmed his hand out of your hold, embarrassed.

“You don't- don't need to exaggerate.” He murmured, scratching his cheek.

“It's true.” You smiled, before turning serious once again. “But I would be glad if I could never see some people ever again.”

“Okay, so… what is this plan Harurin mentioned then?” Rui chimed in, once again bringing back the focus.

You breathed deeply.

“I wanna give myself a break. I wanna spend some time away from them, from the people that have been hurting me. I asked Haru to bring me here because I wanted to ask if I could spend some time here in Obscuary, hidden from some of the ghouls.”

“Of course you can!” Lyca immediately jumped at your words, straightening his back. When he didn't get confirmation right away, he looked at Rui. “Right?”

“I mean… You can, but, uh. I'm not sure how it'd change anything…?”

“Change?” You tilted your head.

“Rui means: What is your goal with this?” Ed suddenly spoke. He had seated himself in a nearby armchair, quietly watching the exchange. You had basically forgotten he was there.

“What?”

“What do you plan on getting from this disappearing stunt? Apologies? Penitence? A sudden revelation from them that they love you and can't live without you?”

You scoffed.

“Have you been watching romcoms lately?”

Ed chuckled, amused.

“How do you know that? I found this website called Netflix and it's been a delight.”

You rolled your eyes.

“Yeah, I could tell. No, I dont expect any of them to miss me or whatever.”

“Then…?”

“I'm just tired. I’m so tired, Rui. I wanna rest. I want some peace and quiet, without someone searching for me and dragging me to do whatever stupid task they think I gotta do. I wanna sleep in without the threat of being yelled at by some asshole that's barely older than me. I need a timeout.”

Rui pursed his lips and hummed in thought with a finger tapping his chin.

“But I bet some of them will look for you. You know how they are.”

“Just pretend you don't know anything. You haven't seen me at all. I hardly doubt anyone wants to walk through Obscuary’s forest anyway.”

“Ouch!” Rui laughed with a hand on his heart. “But well, yeah. You aren't wrong.”

“So… Can I stay? For a little while? I promise I'll help out to pay back for my stay.”

Rui was already nodding, but before he could open his mouth to agree, Ed interrupted, a lascivious smile on his lips:

“You know all your troubles would be solved if you just accepted what I offered to you back in that one mission, don't you my dear?”

A hazy, pink hued memory of Ed's whispers flashed behind your eyes: a hypnotizing hum vibrating in your bones, egging you to allow him to sink his teeth on your throat and exchange your deadly curse for his own. You shivered.

“No offense, but being tied to you for an eternity is a torture of its own. I don’t wanna exchange one torture for another.”

Ed's smile faltered for a moment, but you catched it regardless.

“What the hell are you two talking about?” Rui asked, eyes wide and hypervigilant of whatever insanity Ed was referring to.

“Nothing. Your captain is just being unreasonable again.” you shook your head.

“So? Will you stay in Obscuary for real?” Lyca asked, ignoring the exchange entirely.

You looked at Rui for confirmation. He put his hands on his hips with a defeated sigh.

“Oh, honey. You know I have a weak spot for you, don't you?” he winked, back on his best host demeanor once again.

You breathed a sigh of relief, shoulders slumping.

“Thank you, Rui. Thank you so much. I promise I won't give you trouble and will help out here as much as I can.”

Lyca suddenly grabbed your hands and leaned forward, clearly on a quest to hog all of your attention.

“Now that you're staying, come here with me. I gotta show you my new drawings!” he immediately jumped out of the bed and pulled you by your hand, taking you outside the bedroom and towards his own room.

“Lyca, they barely woke up! Be careful! And reasonable! Geez!” Rui trailed behind you, exasperation clear in his voice.

You didn't miss how Ed stayed back, still in the armchair. And a weird glint in his gaze, firmly locked onto you, is the last thing you see as you leave the room.

Comments or reblogs with tags are appreciated! Please let me know what you think of this so far

[queenharumiura]

“Ha-hahi! Haru is sorry, Hibari-san!” She is both whispering and screaming in fright. What do you call it, a screaming whisper? Yeah. “Haru didn’t know that quiet giggling would wake you. Haru will do better next time, don’t bite Haru to death.” If there was a ‘sounding like a kicked puppy’ contest, Haru was winning it for the next 30 years.

When the little bird chirped on her behalf, she internally shed many tears. How gratifying that it would defend her from Hibari’s wrath. This one gets extra treats later, she makes the mental note.

“Yamamoto-kun didn’t lie… huu… that was scary.” She whispers under her breath. Hibari-san really was super cranky after being woken up! Still, scary as it was… he did spare her on the account of her being nice to his bird friends. ‘Guess he really isn’t that scary…’ she looks at the tonfa, ‘no no! That’s a lie, he’s still scary!’ Haru is shedding tears mentally and in person.

Waaaahhh Okaa-san… Otou-san… if Haru doesn’t make it back tonight, offer the leftover cake to Haru’s lamenting spirit. No worries, the (dramatic) tears are silent. She’s a quick study!

UKIGUMOS - »❝浮雲❞«

Kyouya's eyes snapped open. He had warned the woman about the consequences of disrupting his sleep. Or did he not make that clear the first time? For her to make noise like this was unacceptable. With a cranky look on his face, Kyouya sat himself up. He rubbed his temples with his thumb and index finger before shooting a warning glare.

"In case you've forgotten... If you make any sound," Out comes his signature weapon, "I'll bite you to death. Understood?"

[ Hibari! Hibari! Delicious! Delicious! ]

The yellow bird chirped, seemingly in his direction as if to defend its feeder.

...On second thought, perhaps he couldn't blame Miura too much for that annoying giggle. The bird is cute. And smart. That was factual.

Kyouya held his gaze for a few seconds more before curling back up on the couch, tossing his jacket back over himself with a light huff.

"Hmph."

[ha-hatdog]

haru kato hcs

- what is it like to be dating haru kato?

omg excited about this cuz i want me some haru content. pretty boi needs tons of love and affection. we need more haru kato content. i demand it!

requested by @beef-tomatoes : can you do haru kato dating headcanons. here you have the frog man🐸 < |> /\ the frog man says: have a nice day💖😌✌

requests open

__

first things first - congrats on getting this man to be your boyfriend because boy oh boy you gonna get the best domestic life ever

haru kato is a simple man with a simple life who knows his responsibilities so expect perfect husbando and waifu qualities

cooking for you is his favorite thing to do. he loves being able to alleviate your stress, especially after a particularly troubling day at work/university

he loves it when you cook for him too. it makes him feel special and his heart just soars. this man will not leave the kitchen just so he can watch you working your magic with ingredients and spice while wearing that dumb dreamy face. he holds himself back from sliding behind you and embracing you because you look so good with an apron for the reason he doesn't want to distract you but most of the time he just does it because you're too cute

if you know how to cook, he'll give you tips here and there but will leave you to your cooking majority of the time

if you can't cook, expect a full blown cooking lesson from him because he said he won't be able to cook for you all the time and he'll be damned if you always order take out or buy those just microwave packages in convenient stores

if your cooking turned out good, haru will eat seconds and thirds, complimenting you every now and then after gulping down what he was chewing. will definitely ask you to cook more for him and if you can't, he'll brush it off saying maybe next time but internally he was pouty because he wants more. probably thinking of marrying you already

if your cooking turned out bad, he will tell you it could use a little more work, offer himself to help you, but he'll still eat it because you made it for him aww. still probably thinking of marrying you

dates with haru is sort of rare. crime doesn't sleep and nor does he so most of your dates are at his place - just watching a movie and eating whatever he cooked

he always has to have a hand on you or an arm over your shoulder. gotta make sure you're really there

but if he does have time, he will take you out on a simple date that benefits both of your interests. haru won't say but he'll always lean more in your interests in dates because he feels so bad for depriving you of his quality time. this is how he silently atones, plys he buys you small and thoughtful gifts

remember when i said crime doesn't sleep nor does he? well, haru gets tired often. it was natural because of his field of work. haru will hesitate to go to your place because he needs some loving and some caring but doesn't want to be a bother so he calls you to ask permission before going

will want to sleep with you once he gets there but you force him to eat because he needs to he healthy to continue being a detective. he will grumble while you make him food but his heart is soft that you think about his well being

"my girlfriend is best girl" he whispers in a slur, trying to keep himself from falling asleep in the dining room while eating

will drag you to your bed after eating and will pull you down with him on the bed. haru will have his arms draped around you and snuggle in your chest. he will let out a content sigh if you snuggle back and run your fingers through his hair

haru just want cuddles with his girlfriend after a hard day at work. spoil him please

haru will be happy if he wakes up and you're still in his arms but will scoff if you are not. haru will stand up no matter how tired he still is and drag you back to bed to continue your cuddle

tell me haru won't try pranking you and feeling bad after it

head pats while saying "sorry babe, i didn't mean to, i'm sorry, yes yes, i'll be a better boyfriend from now on. come here and give me a hug"

whenever you two bathe together, he loves it when you clean his back because he can feel the stress go bye bye with your soft fingers

he washes your hair and he sometimes tries to make stupid hairstyles with your lathered tresses and you'll always rate them

most of the times you take baths together, it is nonsexual. he just appreciates you being there

but haru will slip in a few rounds whenever you two feel like getting it on

soft dom but probs hiding a few kinks

forehead kisses is his favorite because he gets to see your happy face looking up at him whenever he pulls away

haru is definitely a tease whenever you try to kiss him - lips, cheeks, forehead, neck - you can't reach any of them even if you go on your tip toes because he's tall. he won't bend down so you can kiss him because you look so adorable trying so hard to give him love and affection

he'll probably be the one to kiss you after a few minutes of teasing. he can't help it. you look so cute

gah his heart is full

when haru gets jealous, he is irritated. he will come up to you, an annoyed glare on his face, and taking your hand.

haru goer grrr my baby but i won't hurt you or anything because my baby finds it bad but i'm warning you -

when you're the one who's jealous, he finds it amusing

he smothers his grin when you get adorably protective of him

he teases you about it but hugs you after to affirm that this man ain't going anywhere

laundry days are messy, messier than when the two of you have food fights

you two keep throwing drenched clothes or bubbles or water at one another

haru is merciless with laundry throwing fights

expect a shirt thrown swiftly at your face with a resounding SMACK

this boy ain't losin to laundry throwing fights

you always stop by the precint whenever you can just to visit haru

he used to hate it because his coworkers always flock around you whenever you come by but soon grew to love it because you seem to enjoy being around them and you gain nee friends

he'll talk you through his work process and he's very proud whenever you go all ooh ahh so cool because he has an ego and loves that you are interested in his work as much as he does to yours

he tries to be professional whenever at work but he'll sneak in a few kisses if he think nobody is looking. but not you tho, you kiss him whenever you want and wherever you want

someone is always looking so he gets teased quite a lot by his coworkers and he gets all blushy and tsundere aww

hugs with haru are always tight knit. the reason? because he loves holding you, that's literally it

did i mention piggy back rides? no? well, haru doesn't do them unless necessary like you're super tired or got a sprain but jump on his back and kiss him on top of his head and nyoom you are now on a piggy back ride

haru is a huge fan of discounts and coupons so you always have to help him find the best item there is that is discounted or you have coupons for

you gave him a small notebook to keep all his coupons and his face just goes (⊙o⊙)

hand holding in the market while shopping. he won't let you go until you're at the cashier because last time he let you get some items alone, he ended up going to the intercom to call for you

"y/n where are you? i just told you to get a soap and find me at the dairy section."

but he don't mind tho because it's a good excuse to keep you close to him

arguing over which product - any product at all - is better to buy. sorry to say this but haru wins all the time. you swear, this man has a sixth sense for which items to buy

arguments with haru is . . . well maybe that's for another time

but silly arguments with haru is common. fights over who gets to clean the dishes, who makes the bed, which movie or series is better, which cop movie superior, which food to eat, who is the big spoon - but they're all fun snd games

haru will make sure to win as the big spoon tho because again, he has a hidden ego and his heart swells when he sees how tiny you are compared to him

getting drunk with haru is always a rollercoaster. he's a rambling drunk? well, you're the agree with everything drunk

"the floor is too cold. why is it always cold? i just want warmth and peace" cue haru sliding on the floor with a red face because of the alcohol. he's very at ease with you so being stupid and childish is norm for him

"yes, yes, i agree, the floor is always cold. bad floor, you're making haru sad" then you slide with him on the floor

haru turns to you "you don't make me sad"

you turn to him "yes, i make you happy"

you two are just a pair of drunk lovebirds

patch him up when he gets hurt in his work

he won't feel much pain if it's you who's patching him up

he doesn't why but that's that

kiss his boo boos he likes them he's an actual bab for you

haru will always bring you to work/university. it doesn't matter if he is late as long as gets you there

actually it matters that he is late. he just never tells you so you won't tell him to stop. that's why once you're out of sight, after you exchange goodbyes snd kisses, you bet your ass he's speeding through the streets to get to the precint in time (got tickets from speeding but he hides them from you but you'll find out eventually lmao)

since he is a cop/detective, of course he had a gun. he won't bring it to your place but whenever you're at his place or at the precint, he'll allow you to hold it, with him supervising of course, and he'll probably teach you how to fire a gun in a range

will catch you whenever you suffer the recoil of pulling the trigger

will pull a cheesy line like "falling for me now, huh?"

when daisuke joins the precint, haru is less than thrilled

since you always visit him and he became partners with daisuke, that meant you have meet to this rich bastard

and he doesn't like it because

1) he's rich af

2) he's somewhat arrogant

3) he doesn't want to admit it but daisuke is handsome

he is 101% fuming when he sees you talking to daisuke than him. his mind reverts back to all those times you always talk to him in the precint when in reality you were just talking to daisuke for 3 minutes

haru is overdramatic and

insecure

he's scared that you'll leave him for daisuke

daisuke has everything. money, looks, fame - he can't even buy you something extravagant. he's still saving up for your birthday, doing overtime and stuff while still buying you small gifts when daisuke can just give you the whole world with a snap of his finger

it'll eat him up alive

he just wants to spend the rest of his life with you but maybe you'll be happier with daisuke?

when you learned this, you just burst out of tears because

this baby is sad and scared of losing you

so you did something to make him assured you only want him and planning to be with him always

haru has always insisted that you move in with him after a year of being together

and then you show up at his place with your stuff and saying "I'll grab more of my stuff tomorrow so help me move in"

haru has never been so happy and excited that he cooked a whole feast for the two of you

you two gets stomachaches the day after

so you stay in his bed the whole day being lazy and snuggling

haru turned off his phone when daisuke was calling him because duh he's spending precious time with his lovely girlfriend

in conclusion, haru kato is whipped for you

oh, by the way, you and daisuke partnered up to mess with haru and now haru has one less braincell because it decided to be best friends with the braincell that always has money in its disposal

"she better be happy i love her"

haru loves you vewy mooch

[nalu4emily]

The Unexpected Reward - Chapter 16

Summary:  Natsu and Lucy go on a job together, but what they bring home is something neither anticipated. Forced to make a life changing decision, they have to adapt quickly, but that's never easy, especially given the circumstances. As they work together on their toughest adventure yet, they find themselves drawn to one another, in ways they never realised. Nalu/cute/fluff

Rated M for a reason!

"Hey, old lady! Open up!" The slayer bellowed through the tiny keyhole, beating the same spot on the large, ornate door repeatedly with his fist. "I know you're in there; I can smell you!"

"Go away, boy! I don't like visitors!" The occupant shouted from the other side, infuriating the dragon further.

He hammered his fist harder, determined to get some answers. There was no way he was turning back, not after running all this way. He'd kick the door in if he had to.

Haru, who was tucked into his arms, didn't seem to mind the small detour, or the loud clattering and yelling. He was perfectly content playing with anything he could get his hands on, namely Natsu's clothing. The occasional "Mama" or "Dada" would escape him but he mostly babbled nonsense to himself.

"At least you're having a good time. Daddy's starting to lose his patience." Natsu muttered the last bit under his breath, grinning at the child through his chagrin. He turned back to the door, "Look, I won't take up much of your time, I just need your advice. It's about Lucy…"

The door swung open with a rush and a thud, crashing into the very tree it was nailed to, causing leaves to fall from their branches. The noise had stunned Natsu into silence as he stared at the very person he'd come to see—Porlyusica. Dressed in her usual attire, she stepped out onto the porch and glowered at the young man, broom in hand, ready to chase him away.

Opening her mouth to scold him for the disruption, she caught sight of the little one he was carrying and closed it again, her hard lines softening. Instead of beating the slayer with her broom, which was the original plan, she held something out in her palm, expecting him to take it.

Eyeing it curiously, he took it from her hand and held it to his face, inspecting it further. It was a small, glass vile with a cork stopper lid, that contained a strange yellow liquid, its consistency was thick and it reminded Natsu, somewhat, of mashed up baby food—the kind Haru loved to eat.

"It's called morning sickness. Give her a few drops of that potion and it should quell its severity." She explained.

The boy accepted her potion and put it into his pocket for safe keeping, "Thanks! Lucy'll be glad of that. Only, it's not just her sickness that I'm-"

"I know why you're here. I could tell when I saw you all the other day, I'm just surprised it's taken you both this long to come knocking. So, where is she?" Porlyusica asked, looking behind Natsu for the blonde.

"At home actually. She… kinda doesn't know I'm here… but, I can't watch her suffer like that, I need to know what to do." Natsu pleaded, hoping the healer would help him.

She sighed, unable to refuse his request, "Has it been confirmed?"

"Not really… How do you do that?" Natsu asked, his knowledge on such things were limited.

"Get Lucy to test it, she'll understand. Then once it's confirmed, come back to me, I'll need to run some checks." She said, turning to go back inside.

"Checks? What checks?" There went his plan! Lucy would have to see her after all.

"You want a healthy child, don't you?" She said, as if it were obvious.

"U-Uh…"

The fire mage didn't get a chance to think too much into that before the door was slammed shut in his face, making him along with the baby jump.

The wind picked up a little as he turned to walk away, looking down at Haru, who was starting to snuggle down against his chest. Natsu smiled again at him, trying to mask his annoyance with the old woman's abruptness, "Sorry for making you wait, Haru, I bet you're super bored?"

"Dada…" The child yawned cutely on cue, making Natsu chuckle.

"Yeah, Dada's gonna take you home." He reiterated, turning to make tracks for home.

Natsu all but crashed through the front door, nearly breaking it off its hinges. "Luce? Lucy? Are ya home?" He yelled out into the house. Out of breath and panting, having just ran all the way back.

"Lucy?" He called out again, but with no answer still, he wondered where she could be, "Hmm… Let's go find Mama; she's around here somewhere."

"Mama…" The infant muttered, before going back to sucking on the ends of Natsu's scarf.

Once reaching the top of the stairs, he heard what he suspected might be the reason for Lucy's silence. A noise that'd become all too common over the last few days. Pushing the bathroom door open, he stood in the doorway, smiling sadly at the girl hunched over the toilet bowl once again. He felt nothing but empathy for her, the feeling of being overwhelmingly sick wasn't exactly foreign to him either, so he understood her pain.

The young man crouched down behind the blonde, cringing as she wretched her guts up. "It's alright, Luce. I'm here with you now." He spoke quietly, as not to alarm her of his presence. Placing Haru down next to him, he reached a hand out to her shoulder, the warm touch spreading over her clammy skin.

With one last cough and spit into the bowl, Lucy leaned back, breathing heavily while her watery eyes streamed down her face. She sniffled and blew her nose with a tissue, wiping her mouth at the same time. She took in a large breath and shifted to the man behind her, clutching hold of his jacket while she cried into his chest.

Enveloping her with his arms and cradling her head to him, he spoke tenderly to her, "Has it eased off now?"

"I-I don't know." Her voice was hoarse; her throat sore, "Please don't leave me again."

That struck a chord with Natsu. Never had he heard Lucy ask for him, not like that. She was always way too proud and independent, but this had really taken it's toll on her, not just physically but mentally also, making her feel vulnerable and it saddened him to see her so.

"I won't, Lucy, I promise." He said lowly into her ear, placing an affectionate peck just behind her lobe.

Nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck, she sniffled again, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, "I don't want this, Natsu. I don't care what's causing it; I just want it gone."

Really her words shouldn't have affected him like they did, yet he still felt a sharp tug on his heart. She didn't know the reason behind her vomiting; how could she? He hadn't told her. And now with her so upset, he really didn't know how he was going to do that. Where did he even start?

He'd been so ready to just blurt it out, never considering how Lucy might react to it. In fact, if memory served him, she'd most likely freak until she combusted, or worse, began to cry. This subject had to be handled sensitively and with care, but the longer he left it, the longer he had to dwell on her reaction.

"I know, Luce. Are you sure you still want to wait for Wendy? Gramps told me she won't be back for a week at least." He explained, hoping she might change her mind about seeing the old dragon woman.

"I don't care who I see, as long as they can get rid of it." She said, finally pulling back and wiping her eyes with her sleeve, "I'm just so tired! It's been so long since I've had any real sleep and the puking just won't let up. My tummy hurts, my back aches and my ribs feel like they're being squashed, I have a constant headache and food-" She placed her hand over her mouth again, feeling that overwhelming nausea return. The mention of food, any food, was enough to set her off.

"Just try and take a deep breath, Luce, think of something else."

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath through her nose and let it slowly out through her mouth, turning her attentions to Haru, "Sorry, little man, Mama didn't mean to ignore you, although you seem pretty content sucking on that scarf."

"He's been doing that all afternoon." Natsu answered for the baby, before switching back to Lucy, "Has the feeling gone now?"

"Not yet, it never really does. It just sits there until something triggers it." She explained, trying to breathe through the queasiness.

"That sucks… Oh, that reminds me, I have something for ya!" Remembering the little gift the old woman had given him, he started rummaging through his pockets, pulling out the item he was looking for and handed it to her, "Take it, Luce, it'll help with your, uh…" Wracking his brain for whatever Porlyusica had called it, "…Sickness." Was what he settled for.

Taking it into her hands she stared at it, frowning at the gross substance which could barely be called a liquid. "Um… Are you sure this is fit for human consumption?" She asked, hesitant to put it anywhere near her mouth. "And where'd it even come from?"

"Well, you know you said you didn't want to go to Porlyusica?" He blushed a little, putting his hand behind his head and grinned sheepishly, "I kinda did for ya and she gave me that. She said to take a few drops of it."

"Hmm… If you say so." She popped the cork lid open and let a few small globs dribble out into her mouth, pulling a disgusted face as it slid down her throat and stuck out her tongue. Little Haru found it hysterical and began laughing at his mother, his whole body jiggling up and down, "Well, I'm glad you're finding this funny, because that is repulsive!"

Natsu smiled, "You did look kinda funny, Luce. But at least it'll lessen your morning sickness now." That was it!

Eyes widening, Lucy snapped her head to Natsu, her amusement gone, "Morning sickness?!"

"Yeah, that's what she called it—which is dumb! It's more like all day and night sickness." He chuckled to himself, quickly falling silent when Lucy's expression didn't change at his little joke. He didn't understand; had he said something wrong? "What's up, Luce? I thought it might help."

"You… you think I'm pregnant?" She asked, eyes wide and mouth agape, her stare never leaving him.

Shit!

So morning sickness was a pregnancy thing? He wished he'd known that sooner!

Cursing himself again, he hadn't meant for her to find out like that and what's worse—she looked utterly horrified. Dammit! What was he supposed to do now? He couldn't lie to her; he wouldn't do that. With no other alternative, he did the only thing he could and sighed, nodding his answer and cringing at the sharp inhale he heard pass her lips.

Hoping she wasn't about to blow a fuse, he approached the stunned girl carefully, taking the vile out of her slack grasp and placed it back in his pocket before entwining their fingers together. Quirking one side of his lip into a half smile, he kept quiet and allowed her to process the information she obviously was not expecting.

His eyes dropped from her shocked face to her partially exposed stomach, catching her other hand instinctively come down to cradle it protectively, like an expectant mother would and it made the adrenaline course through his body.

"Pregnant… How did I not think of that?" She muttered under her breath, truly shocked that she hadn't once considered it a possibility. All the signs were there, everything pointed to it—shouted at it in fact, yet it was Natsu who'd realised it first. The boy that once thought humans laid eggs had figured it out before her? Something seemed fishy! "How come you knew? Who've you been speaking to?" Mortified to think that the whole guild knew before she even did.

"Gray, actually." He replied, shrugging, "And Porlyusica helped, obviously."

"Gray?! What does he know about having a baby? Doesn't he usually shy away from that kind of stuff?" She was astounded to find that it was the ice mage of all people. One of the girls from the guild was understandable or even someone like Gajeel who'd experienced it, but Gray?

"You think Juvia gives him a choice? She was crazy before, but now it seems she's on a whole other level." He sniggered a little, feeling kinda sorry for Gray, but kinda not. He'd made his bed and now he'd have to lay in it.

"Oh, so Juvia's pregnant too? How sweet, she's been desperate since… well, since forever!"

Natsu hummed in agreement, his attention focused more on Lucy's calm and collected demeanour, which honestly, he hadn't expected. She seemed happy by the prospect of growing their family, and that filled him with joy.

"Baby fever all 'round, it seems." Chuckling and tapping little Haru's head, the spirit wielder met the slayers eyes, smiling brightly at him with her hand still firmly placed on her lower belly, "I guess being so sick will be worth it, if it's for a baby."

"Our baby, Luce." Wiping the few stray tears away with his thumb, Natsu grinned at her, glad to see that gorgeous smile of hers split her cheeks, "Now we just gotta test it, right? Only, I don't know how you'd do that?"

"Hmm… I do, but… Oh wait! Cana!" She yelled, scrambling to her feet and nearly tripping on the bath mat. Luckily, Natsu was there for her to grab a hold of.

"What's this got to do with Cana?" He asked, confused—nothing good could ever come of her being involved.

"Her 'gifts'." The boy tilted his head; that made even less sense! "You know… ages ago, she pranked us with the condoms and a pregnancy test?" Lucy whispered to him, not wanting to say it out loud in front of Haru.

"Oh yeah! I wondered where they all went!" His eyes lit up when the memory returned to him.

"Please don't remind me…" Happy mumbled under his breath, a look of trauma on his face.

"Oh, hey Happy! I didn't hear ya come in!" Natsu greeted, waving at the exceed hovering in the doorway.

"Why're you guys looking for those things? You mean you're actually gonna use 'em?!" Nearly passing out at the thought, but shut his mouth quickly when he noticed Lucy glaring at him.

Returning to the task at hand, the blonde continued to search through the bathroom cupboards, "I put them away in here somewhere… Aha! Found it!" She cheered, holding and waving it in her hand to show Natsu.

"Awesome!" He cheered, "Now what?"

"Yeah, uh, you're gonna have to wait outside, and I'll let you know when I'm done." Pulling out the stick from its packaging, she crossed her arms and glared at the boy still standing there.

"Wait, what's happening?" The exceed asked, completely lost on their conversation.

"Why do I gotta wait outside? Can't I stay in here while you do it?" Natsu didn't want to be locked out again, it wasn't fair! He wanted to be in on the action!

She deadpanned, "Unless you want to watch me pee on a stick?" He was clueless.

"No, thank you!" Happy was gone in a flash, back down the stairs, no longer caring what they were talking about.

"So what, Luce?" The fire mage shrugged, "I've seen ya do worse."

"Just get out, Natsu, I'll call you back in when I'm done!" Lucy huffed, shooing the idiot out of the bathroom, ignoring his protests and shutting the door behind her.

Natsu exaggerated his huff, chuckling when Haru copied him, "Looks like we gotta wait out here, little guy. Are ya hungry?" The fire mage asked, taking them both down to the kitchen to retrieve some food.

Once returning to the bathroom door, food thoroughly shoved in their pie holes, they waited. When the door finally opened, revealing the girl with the stick in her hand, Natsu could barely contain himself; he wanted to know the results.

"So, what's it say? Are ya, Luce?" He asked, feeling like a kid at Christmas. Upon setting his own eyes on the girl, his face dropped instantly as he watched fresh tears build in her eyes. "Lucy?"

She wiped her snuffling nose and handed the stick to her partner, allowing him to look at the results. "Two lines means positive; one line means negative." Was all she said, using her sleeve to rub at her irritated eyes.

Peering down at the peculiar shaped object in his hand, he knitted his brows together. On the little screen, there was but a singular line—just one. He looked back up to Lucy, confusion still etched into his expression, "Negative?"

"It means, I'm not pregnant." Disappointment flowed out of her very pores; saying it out loud only reaffirmed it; a bitter truth escaping her lips. "Back to the drawing board, I guess. I'm sorry, Natsu, I know that wasn't what you wanted to hear."

Natsu remained silent, processing it all. It was definitely not the result he had been expecting, but it didn't seem to be bothering him as much as it should've. That niggle along with everything else that lead him to that conclusion, surely hadn't been wrong? He should've felt sad, a little disappointed, maybe? Or even a tad guilty for giving Lucy false hope—but he felt none of those things.

It was true that he didn't have well of medical knowledge like Porlyusica or some other doctor. He didn't read a load of books to get his information like Lucy or even Levy, and he certainly had no experience to pull from, and yet his gut still believed there was hope.

He placed the test down and pulled Lucy to him, enveloping her in his warmth to soothe her aching heart. With her nestled into his chest, he nuzzled his head into her hair, breathing in her scent, allowing it to relax him, when an idea struck.

Unexpectedly he pulled away from the sad blonde, passed her the baby and dropped to his knees, much to her embarrassment. He hugged her close, placing his nose on her lower belly and inhaled deeply, ignoring her flustered rants about 'reading the mood'. After several awkward minutes of her whining and his determination to be proven right, he smiled and let go.

"Natsu, you can't just sniff people like that! What were you doing?! I'm not in the mood for jokes." She sighed, watching him hop to his feet.

"Lucy, I think the test is lying."

Perking her head up to meet his eyes, with brows knitted together, she spoke, "Huh? Tests don't lie, Natsu! Don't be so ridiculous! I know it's hard to hear, but we're not having a baby."

"We'll see about that!" He grinned and hoisted her up, carrying her bridal style down the stairs with Haru perched neatly in her lap, ignoring her yells to be put down.

"Right Haru, let's go get some answers! You coming, Happy?" Natsu's usual electric enthusiasm shone brightly through his grin.

"Yeah! Where are we going?" Happy asked, hovering above the slayer's head.

He winked at the Exceed, then proceeded to kick the front door open and walked out into the front garden. "You ready, Luce?" His grin turning mischievous.

"Natsu, put me down! I don't even have any shoes on! Where the heck are we going?!" She screeched into his ear, making him wince, but smile all the same.

"You don't need shoes when I'm carrying you! Hold on tight guys, we're off to see the old dragon woman in the woods. She'll be able to tell us." He said, sprinting off down the path towards their destination, with Happy flying behind.

Eventually, Lucy gave up her struggle. She wasn't going to win; she never did once he'd set his mind on something. That was usually how all of their adventures started off, him dragging her off somewhere new and exciting. Although, she couldn't say going to see the old woman was new or particularly exciting, but if Natsu thought it was the right thing to do, even if the result remained the same, then she had no choice but to tag along.

Finally nearing the tree, Natsu could see from a distance that the door was open, meaning said woman was out and about, probably collecting ingredients for her next potion.

"So you've returned." They heard the gruff voice from behind, swivelling their heads to meet Porlyusica as she walked over to them. "And you've brought the whole cavalry… Well, don't just stand there gawking, in you go!" Natsu quickly made it into the tree, not wanting to be on the receiving end of the cranky woman with a broom. "And put Lucy down, a pregnant woman is more than capable of walking, boy!"

Lucy all but jumped to her feet, mortified and embarrassed by the whole situation and turned to the healer, "That's the thing though, I'm not pregnant, but Natsu insisted on dragging us out here. We're sorry for wasting your time." The flustered blonde seemed a little too eager to leave and tried to make a break for the door; however; the fire breather's quick reflexes caught her wrist before she could reach the door handle.

"Luce, I told you already: the test was lying!" He repeated, eyes pleading with her just to wait and see what the healer might say.

She sighed; feeling a little frustrated by it all, "Tests don't lie, Natsu. I'm not pregnant and that's all there is to it. I'll just have to muddle through whatever this sickness is until it goes away."

"It came out negative, I assume?" Porlyusica intervened, focusing on the blonde huddling close to the door. "Natsu is right, tests can give false negative readings, especially if it's old or hasn't been used properly." The pink haired woman walked closer to the girl, looking her up and down. "I thought that you might be when I saw you last and I'm rarely wrong."

Lucy hadn't expected the woman to actually agree with Natsu. She hadn't thought that there could be something wrong with the test, but then again, it was from Cana and god knows where she'd got it from. She perked her head up a little and was almost reluctant to look at the dragon slayers expression, knowing the smugness of being right would be written all over his face.

"Ha! See, I knew it! There's still a chance, Lucy!" Natsu shone his vibrant, toothy grin at the blonde girl. She could see the hope in his eyes; he really wanted this; to be a father again and her heart all but melted.

"I have other, more thorough ways of testing, if you'd let me?" Porlyusica asked the celestial mage, bringing her back to the present.

Apprehensively, Lucy nodded her head and went to sit on the bed by the window to await further instructions. She was so nervous, hoping for some positive answers, that would prove the test was false. She wasn't sure her heart could take the disappointment a second time, especially if it included Natsu's this time.

"There are a few different ways I can confirm a pregnancy, blood tests and so forth, but the most efficient way is a scan of the area." She said, gathering the instruments she needed whilst awaiting Lucy's approval. "I use a lacrima and it shows an image of your womb."

"O-Okay." Lucy replied, uncertain of what she'd just agreed to.

She laid back on the bed and pulled her top up, revealing her stomach. Taking a deep breath, the celestial mage twisted her head to Natsu, who had knelt down beside her. Her nerves were rattling within her body and was looking for a little reassurance, something to take the edge off of her apprehension.

He smiled at her tenderly and reached out for her hand to hold tight, not entirely convinced it was to ease just her anxiety as opposed to his own. They were about to find out whether or not their own little creation had taken residence in Lucy's womb, and he couldn't describe what an incredibly surreal feeling that was.

Porlyusica first needed to locate where the lacrima should be placed. Using one hand, she pressed firmly just above Lucy's pelvis, then several times around the area. Still tender and overly sensitive, Lucy tried her hardest not to show the discomfort it was causing. It rippled up into her throat, making her feel sick again, only this time she had no choice but to hold it back.

The wincing and quiet gasps didn't go unnoticed by the dragon slayer. He'd been watching the healer like a hawk, making sure nothing hurt Lucy too much. He leant over, understanding how unpleasant it must be and kissed her temple, whilst running his fingers smoothly through her blonde tresses.

The lacrima was a simple looking flat, green crystal that the older woman laid onto the stellar mages bare skin and waited for the image to appear. With a few flashes of light, a picture was formed like a projection hovering just above the lacrima.

"What the heck is that?! It looks like you swallowed a ball!" Happy couldn't take his eyes off of the image.

"That's so cool! I'm totally looking at your insides, Luce!" The fire breather enthused, unable to take his eyes off of the image.

Lucy rolled her eyes at the pair; typical Natsu and Happy, "You're both such idiots…"

"When you're done bickering, I'll explain what you're looking at." Porlyusica cut in. She pointed to the big black oval shape on the projection, that Happy kindly pointed out, and looked at the pair, making sure they were paying attention. "This is the outline of your uterus, Lucy. And from what I can see, it looks perfectly normal and healthy."

"Oh okay, that's good then." She pointed to a smaller, light coloured ball at the bottom of the black oval and knitted her brows together. "So, what's that?"

Moving the lacrima crystal slightly, the healer repositioned it to get a closer look at the small ball and both mages eyes near bulged out of their sockets. Their mouths dropped open and breath hitched simultaneously as the image took on a more human shape, its arms and legs moving rapidly.

"Oh my… Is that…?" Lucy had never seen anything like it, her mouth had gone completely dry and she felt the butterflies in her tummy cause her to quiver, she was in awe.

"Look at what we did, Lucy…" Natsu murmured after a few shocked, silent moments, catching the girl's attention. His eyes were glued to the image, watching it kick out with it's tiny little developing legs and feet. "It's an active little thing…"

"It's a baby, Natsu…" The celestial mages eyes glazed over, unable to control the flood of emotions that entered her system.

For the first time, the fire breather peeled his sights away from the projection and looked to his partner. His own tears peaked at the corners, feeling so overwhelmingly happy to be able to share this with her.

"Mm… it sure is, Luce." His voice sounded airy, sleepy almost, like his body had simply relaxed. His brilliant smile beamed at the blonde, making her heart skip a beat as she turned to face him fully, the sound of their little one's heart beat filling their ears.

"Look Haru, you're gonna have a little brother or sister." Lucy said as Natsu held him up to see, pointing at the even tinier one wriggling around on the projection. "It's a little one, just like you!"

Porlyusica turned the crystal once more, allowing them to see the baby from a different angle, "As you can see, Lucy, you are pregnant and by the looks of it, I'd say you have been for about ten weeks now."

"Ten weeks?! Surely that's not right; I would have noticed long before now!" Lucy was stunned to learn she was that far along already. The symptoms had only just started and she'd menstruated within that time—hadn't she?

"Not necessarily, pregnancy doesn't follow a certain set of rules. When Juvia came to see me regarding the same thing, she'd been suffering with symptoms from around the six week mark. Levy, on the other hand, had no symptoms and she was carrying twins. Some women experience symptoms just at the beginning while others, all the way through. Some later and some sooner, and some none at all."

"Oh… I didn't know. So, what happens now?" Lucy asked, feeling a little bit of disappointment when the healer deactivated the lacrima and removed it from her belly—she could've easily watched it all day.

"Yeah, when will it be born? Is it a long wait?" Natsu butted in, moving to sit next to the girl on the bed.

"And I thought Gray was clueless… A pregnancy takes nine months or approximately forty weeks, meaning Lucy has about thirty weeks left to go."

"That long? But that's ages away!" Natsu whined, turning into a child himself.

"Yeah, why can't it be born now?" Happy joined in, wanting to meet the little one already.

"Quiet, boys, before I kick you out!" She threatened, returning her attentions to the blonde, "Look after yourself, Lucy. A stressed mother is a stressed baby, but so far everything is looking as it should." The woman returned her equipment to their places and snapped her head to the little family still sitting there, "What're you both still doing here? Get out!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Natsu and Lucy jumped to their feet at lightning speed and ran out of the door, making sure they were out of sight of the old woman before slowing to a halt.

"Ugh! Now my feet are all dirty!" Lucy groaned, lifting her bare feet up one by one to inspect them, grimacing at all of the mud now coating them. "This is your fault- Mmph!"

A pair of warm, smooth lips silenced her, pressing urgently to her mouth, his hot breath sending shivers down her spine. With him taking the lead, Lucy relaxed into it and enjoyed the feel of his mouth on hers, their tongues interloping, causing butterflies to re-enter her stomach.

Pulling apart, but barely, he stared at her angelic features and couldn't help but smile at the beautiful girl before him. Thanks to her, he was going to be a father again. A father not to just one, but two precious babies and he felt like the luckiest man in the world.

"I love you, Lucy." He grinned, the biggest, widest grin she'd ever seen, so enormous it was almost too much for his face. But it was still heart meltingly cute and to hear him say those words again was enough to turn her into a puddle. It wasn't something he said very often, but she was fine with that. It made times like this all the more special.

"I love you too, Natsu." She could see just how happy he was, his very soul glowing like the fire he wielded. "So, are you going to tell me how you knew?"

He quirked his brow, "Knew what?"

"That the test was wrong." She said, her eyes flickering between his.

"Oh… I, uh, sorta had a feeling, I guess. And I was sure I could smell something." He shrugged, about to lean in for another kiss.

"You could… smell something?" Horrified she pulled her face back; did she smell?!

"Yeah, another scent. I've been able to smell it since I came home the other day, but didn't know what it was until now." The boy explained, bringing her head back to him.

"You can smell the baby?" Lucy's eyes widened in fascination.

"Sure. It's real faint, but if I try hard enough, it's there."

"Wow! That's incredible!" She looked down at herself again and cradled her belly, right where the lacrima had been and pictured their perfect little baby safe and sound in there. "I'm so happy, Natsu."

"Me too, Lucy." Natsu chuckled and finally managed to pull her back in for a loving and tender kiss, relaying all of his own happiness to her in one fluid motion. His hand came up to rest on top of hers, caressing the soft skin of her belly, imagining just how beautiful she was going to look in the months to come, carrying his child.

But their passion was swiftly halted when a certain little fella stopped them in their tracks, placing a hand to where their lips joined and made a cute babble sound, as if he were trying to work out what they were doing. Chuckling, they both turned to Haru, who was still looking at them curiously.

"You two are just nasty!" Happy said, placing himself down on the floor. "Not only do you eat each other, but you're now doing it in front of Haru!"

"We don't eat each other, I have no idea what you're talking about!" Lucy defended, shaking her head.

"Yeah you do and other… more explicit things!" Happy shivered at the thought, "Otherwise you wouldn't be in this situation."

"What situation is that then?" Lucy asked, defiance lacing her voice.

"He means the baby, Luce, even I understood that one!" Natsu piped in.

"Really?!" She exclaimed sarcastically, "Ugh! You guys are infuriating! With any luck, this baby will be a girl, then I won't feel so outnumbered!" She huffed, crossing her arms.

"And she'll still end up like Natsu, and you know it!"

Lucy's expression deflated, her arms sinking to her sides ans sighed "You're right…"

"Anyway, with another mouth to feed, you might wanna reconsider that job, Natsu!" The exceed mentioned, not noticing the dragon slayer shoot daggers at him.

"Oh… What job is that then?" The blonde asked, curiously. She didn't remember Natsu mentioning anything about a job.

"It's nothing really, Luce." Natsu shrugged, playing it down.

"You should have seen the reward! I've never seen that many zero's in a number!" Happy chirped, only now noticing the look his friend was giving him, telling him silently to shut up.

"Natsu, what's up? How come you never said anything?" Lucy asked, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"It's not that big of a deal. Gramps gave me a request yesterday, but I turned it down, that's all." He explained, seeming a little dismissive but otherwise normal. "Why don't we get ya home? It'll be dinner time soon." Seeing the reluctance in Lucy's face to believe him, he sighed and smiled at her, not ready to have that conversation just yet.

Suddenly her feet were whipped out from under her and she and Haru found themselves in the air, with two strong arms holding them up, "Natsu!"

"What? Can't have Mama all pooped out now can we, Haru?" Natsu laughed along with the infant, grinning widely, "'Cause she's still gotta cook us dinner!" He smirked at the young woman in his arms, who's eyes snapped at to him, glaring at his handsome face.

"Hey! How come I gotta slave away in the kitchen?! I'm pregnant now, you should be making me dinner!" She retorted, huffing and turning her head to the side.

"I don't mind cooking, it's whether you mind having a kitchen or not?"

"On second thought, stay out of the kitchen, you're too much of a fire hazard. But you owe me a foot rub, after all, this is your doing!" She smirked back at him.

"Oh… I never remember you complaining, maybe I'll have to get you to jolt my memory later." He chuckled lowly back, rising to the challenge.

"That's it! You two are disgusting! I'm taking Haru and you can both find somewhere else to do your dirty stuff tonight." Happy whizzed down to snatch the giggling baby from Lucy and speedily zoomed off into the distance, leaving the other two behind.

"Hey! That's no fair! You got a head start!" Not willing to be beaten by a flying cat and a baby, Natsu hurtled himself and Lucy in the same direction, her screams of terror echoing throughout the forest.

[datheetjoella]

Fantober 2020, Day 17: Haunted

Author: DatHeetJoella Fandom: Free! Pairing: MakoHaru Rating: T Part: 17/31 (read the full collection here) Word count: 1,761 Tags: Canonverse, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, School Festival, Haunted House, Mentions of Fake Blood Read at: AO3, FFn, or right here!

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Ever since elementary school, the cultural festival had been something Makoto looked forward to all year. In the weeks leading up to it, the atmosphere surrounding the school was even more pleasant and amicable than usual as everyone put in effort to make their class' event stand out. Preparing their event was a lot of fun, but the real fun came when their hard work came to fruition and the festival began. Seeing what all his classmates came up with, showcasing what his class made, enjoying all kinds of food at the various stalls and cafés, watching recitals and plays, it was a blast from start to finish. It was a time of unity between classmates and at the end, he was left feeling satisfied and fulfilled.

Makoto hadn't expected the enjoyment of it would dwindle when he got to university. On the contrary: everything was on a much grander scale and there were a lot fewer restrictions than in high school. Because of his job, Makoto wasn't in a club and therefore hadn't participated in the organisation, but he'd been looking forward to going to the festival with Haruka and experiencing what his friends had been working on for so long.

But more than twelve years of amusing cultural festivals were at risk of being destroyed in a single minute.

"Come on, Tachibana," Takagi said. "It's not that scary, I promise."

The axe headband sticking out between his copper-coloured locks and the fake blood trailing down his forehead did not support his claim. The instant Makoto spotted his friend, he had let out an audible shriek, drawing the attention of everyone in the hallway and sending his own blood rushing to his cheeks.

"You don't have to, Makoto," Haruka said from beside him and although he appreciated his support, it only strengthened Makoto's doubt.

Takagi had been a good friend of his since day one of university. They sat next to each other in Psychology and hit it off right away, agreeing to swap notes and help each other wherever they could. Quickly thereafter, Takagi had joined the Movie Research Club and, in collaboration with the Creative Writing Club, they had created a haunted house for the festival.

According to the advertisement posters, it was supposed to be like stepping inside a horror movie, a storyline the visitor was the protagonist of. That description set off numerous alarm bells in Makoto's head. He avoided haunted houses like the plague and vehemently refused to watch horror movies and this brought the worst of two worlds together.

The decision of whether or not to partake in this particular event seemed crystal clear. After all, he had strategically evaded the haunted houses in past festivals and had planned to continue this streak. But there was one roadblock: Makoto was a giant pushover.

"We all worked so hard on this and I would love for you to see what we made." Takagi slapped his hands together and bowed his head, nearly smacking Haruka with his axe-handle. "It's like a compilation of horror movie clichés, so it's more funny than anything. But if you do think it's too scary, I'll treat you to whatever you want."

There it was. It was not so much the promise that persuaded him, but the fear of disappointing his friend.

"W-Well, if you insist it's not that scary…" Makoto trailed off with an awkward chuckle.

"Thanks man, I appreciate it," Takagi said with a pat on Makoto's shoulder. "I hope you enjoy it. You too, Haru!"

With that, he stormed off to a group of young women to coax them into entering the haunted house as well.

The exchange left a frown on Haruka's face. "How am I on a first-name basis with your friend but you aren't?"

The dry comment dissipated some of the tension gripping Makoto's stomach. "Sorry, I think it's because I talk about you so much."

"Hm," Haruka hummed, and when he was sure Takagi was out of earshot, he said, "Makoto, you don't have to go in if you're not comfortable. I can go in by myself and tell you about it afterwards, in case he asks you what you think of it later."

Despite feeling like he was seconds removed from willingly throwing himself off a cliff, Makoto smiled. "Thanks, Haru, but I'll go with you. He said it wasn't that scary, so I should be fine."

Except he wasn't fine. The instant he stood before the room and heard the eerie music, Makoto knew he made a huge mistake.

When they entered the house, they got a handful of cards with dialogue options that they would need for certain checkpoints, then the interactive movie began. There was no way back.

Following the story that was being portrayed, Haruka and he moved into a vacant house that was far cheaper than the surrounding lots in the neighbourhood - a house Makoto would never buy in reality for obvious reasons. Right away, strange things began to happen in the house: lights flickered, keys clinked, lamps fell over and the phone rang, but when Haruka picked up, the line was dead. That was already enough to have Makoto clinging to Haruka's arm.

"It's alright, Makoto," Haruka said, rubbing his skin with his thumb. "Just close your eyes and try to think of something else. I'll guide us through."

Haruka's advice was a small comfort, but it was futile. Makoto's heart was actively trying to burst through his ribcage and his fight-flight-or-freeze instinct had kicked in, therefore he couldn't tear his eyes away from any of the things that were happening around him. Logically, he knew everything was fabricated by his peers, but it felt so real. This was exactly why he hated horror. How could anyone enjoy being scared?

When Makoto had unsuccessfully convinced Haruka it was fine, they continued. They had to investigate the reason behind these weird occurrences and found out that a hundred years ago, a young girl was murdered inside their house. It had been haunted ever since by various vengeful spirits and the only way to break the curse that had befallen the house was to figure out who the killer had been.

What the conclusion to the story was, Makoto didn't even care. A light, feminine voice ruptured the silence, ominously whispering about bringing forth suffering to those who had wronged her; suffering that exceeded the torture she endured. Makoto clamped onto Haruka's shoulders as he scanned the room to see where it was coming from. A short girl in torn, ivory robes emerged from the darkness, hunched over with her long dark hair obscuring her stark white face. She glided closer and when she stood before them, she looked up and revealed her pitch-black eyes.

When she popped up into his field of vision, Makoto screamed so loudly it alerted all the orcas within a thousand-mile radius. He nearly jumped on Haruka's neck in an attempt to hide his large frame behind Haruka's smaller one.

Fortunately, the girl noticed how genuinely terrified he was. She recoiled and forwent her script in favour of asking if he was alright, voice a bit heavier than the childlike tone she put on. Before Makoto could come with excuses, Haruka spoke up.

"He's not alright. Is there a way for us to leave?"

The girl nodded. "Code yellow!" she yelled, her voice vibrating throughout the area, then she turned back to them. "You can walk through now. No one will bother you."

"Thanks," Haruka said, and he tugged Makoto along by the hand. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Shame filled Makoto's senses, but when they passed through the rest of the haunted house and he saw the bloodied decor and props, relief washed over him. If he had to stay for the rest, he would either leave crying or in a fear-induced coma, so this was better for everyone involved.

What he did take away from this was that he would no longer trust Takagi's judgement. More funny than anything, he said. The only funny thing that happened inside that haunted house was Makoto's pathetic reaction.

When they were finally outside in the daylight again, Haruka dragged him over to a bench. Once he was seated safely, Makoto's soul returned to his body and his back slumped like all the life force had been sucked out of him.

"Are you okay?"

He looked up at Haruka with blazing cheeks. "I'm sorry, Haru. Because of me, you didn't get to experience the haunted house like it was intended."

Haruka merely shrugged. "As if I care about that. I just want you to be comfortable. But you do need to grow a spine."

"I know," Makoto said, head hanging low, "My childish fears always ruin everything."

"That's not it," Haruka said with a squeeze to Makoto's knee. "It's not weird or embarrassing to be scared of these things, a lot of people are. But next time, you need to come out for it and reject these offers right away. Stop being so afraid of letting people down and straight-up tell them no if you don't want to do something."

It was hard, but Haruka was right. He was an adult now and he should act like one. That included setting boundaries and adhering to them. "You're right. I'll tell Takagi-kun I couldn't handle it and that I won't go in next time. From now on, no more haunted houses or anything else ghost or murder-related for me."

"Good," Haruka said, bidding him a gentle smile that calmed Makoto's overworked heart. "Takagi owes us, but we'll find him later. First, is there anything you still wanted to see or do?"

The terror within his gut mellowed out and he smiled back at Haruka. "Well, I saw a sign for a sweets café earlier. Maybe we can check that out?"

"Sure. My treat," Haruka said and Makoto opened his mouth to protest, but he sent him a look that made it clear there was no room for argument.

Hand in hand they strolled over the campus towards the building that hosted the café. Haruka asked him what kind of pastries he was hoping they'd have and Makoto's mouth began to water at the thought of cakes and brownies.

If there was anyone who could chase off all the bad images and demons that resided in Makoto's mind, it was Haruka. It had been like that since they were kids and it would stay that way even as they grew older, because some things never changed.

[zuffer-weird-girl]

So yesterday me and couple of friends were playing uno cards things got crazy LMAOOO. So than I thought what if everyone in the base played uno including overhaul, his s/o, kaito, kin, haru, kurono, mimic, rappa and the rest of the members. Sorry I forgot the names of the rest of the guys ;-;

Its okay they are eight in total so its gard sometimes to remember all of their names 😂

"This is ridiculous."

"You say that because you only have red cards hon..." you muttered receiving a pinch on your side which made you yelp.

"No cheating brat. Have your eyes on your own cards."

"I didn't even look!"

"That is kinda true." Chrono interjected, eyes still focused on his left four cards.

"Shut it blockhead."

A break of the tension on always working on the yakusa business was rare but definitely appreciated by their members and surprisingly interesting and accepted.

... especially when the young leader's lover had suggested on playing cards.

At first you wanted ALL of the eight precepts but Chisaki immediately turned down the idea, only accepting a few to enter the game; which he was hesitant to even play..

Why couldn't just only BOTH of you and him play shogi instead...?

"Come on! Why not all of them?"

"Some of them think themselfs that they are just trash and only will bother us. I didn't even say nothing but they quickly neglected, saying that they weren't worth it."

Poor of those three...

"So... who is playing them? Besides Irinaka and Kurono?"

"I'm GoiNg To CruSH ThEm AlL To DuST!" Yelled Mimic from the other side of the room while Chrono deadpanned.

"Is just a card game..."

"No, no Kurono." You interrupted "He is right. Is UNO that we are talking about, so I'm going to crush all of enemies down."

Chisaki for a brief moment widen his eyes at your words before sighing in annoyance, you were always dramatic, so this was just a show...

It wasn't..

It was honestly kinda intriguing how such a stupid game had proved to be such a... murderous one.

"Not wanting to bust ya bubble arrow hair but TaKE ShIT!" Irinaka yelled while hitting a plus four om the table, laughing maniacally at Kurono's expression.

"... I fucking hate you Mimic." Hari growled in rage as he picked more cards to his deck.

Rappa started to laugh out loud while hitting his knee as Tengai merely gave him a judgmental look.

"If I had know this was going to turn out this way I would've accept this fucking earlier!" The man exclaimed while saying to his commurate besides him to go fish...

Poor Tengai didn't have blue cards. But he at least got a reverse blue one, so he had made Rappa instead but more cards.

"Angel how about a deal?" Kai muttered to you lowly as he indicated to your own deck.

You immediately catching what he meant, brought the cards close to your chest and poked your tongue out in mockness.

"... little traitor."

"Oi! Aim to Nemoto everyone." Mimic pointed at the man "He only has two fucking cards."

Nemoto merely lifted an eyebrow at Mimic before turning to you and asking normally.

" Miss (Y/n), what exactly you have in your own deck if you don't mind me asking?"

Before you could even open your mouth a gloved hand blocked your words as Chisaki glared at the man.

"No use of quirks on my angel Nemoto." He growlef threateningly.

"S-sorry master!"

You sighed in relief and looked at your three remaining cards with glee. That was why Nemoto was aiming at you, you and him were close to finish this.

"I want something in return for my kindness." Your boyfriend muttered into your ear while picking a card from the 'shop'.

Holy shit, a plus four. Now he was happy.

"Throw that plus four of yours and I might." You had accidentally saw his card since you were laying your head on his shoulder

He gave you a look like you just had emerged three heads. If he used this card you were going to be the one prejudiced. What are you? A idiot?

"Trust me."

"Hey! No contribution between the couple!" Kurono protested, ignoring Kai's glare.

"Yeah just because Overjerk gets a quick fuck after this it doesn't mean th-" in a blink of a eye Chisaki had lifted himself and overhauled Rappa without any second doubts.

"KAI!" You protested even despite feeling your cheeks buurning in embarrassment.

"He deserved it." He growled a response before putting back the man and abruptly taking his seat close to you again.

Tengai merely looked at Rappa in dissapointment before handing him his deck.

"... you're going to lose Rappa." Tengai said receivinga bunch of yelling from the man besides him.

Kai sighed in annoyance before throwing the damn plus four, getting surprised at seing you threw another one right back.

"Buy eight Nemoto." You said smugly at seing the man's surprised face while the others, except Chisaki, screamed in joy.

Kai half smiled down at you with proud before under the table he gently picked your hand to carress his covered thimb in the flesh of your skin.

You blushed bit smiled anyways at him, shortly after getting back your concentration.

Now you had two cards... and you were the one being chased now.

"Everyone, now is to fuck up with (Y/N)'s cards. Is this or failure." Mimic said while he scrubbed his hair and looked down at his cards in deep thought.

"... try me."

"WhAT waS ThAT yOUr LiTTLe PuNK?!"

"Silence. This is only a card game for God's sake." He said monoustly but clearly irritated at the way Mimic had just shouted at you.

He was going to have a little chat with him later.

"He is not wrong though. Is this or they win." Chrono pointed while glaring at you.

Suck it Kurono, can't win forever.

Chisaki relaxed at seing that now the color was red and that he could get rid of this mass of cards...

He almost shouted at Chrono who had placed a skip card... making him lose his turn.

"Do you even enjoy living for doing this Chronostasis?" He darkly comented and before sending a death glare at your giggling figurine.

He smirked at seing your face fall... you didn't have any cards...

The game lasted for a about one hour but unfortunately the tables had turned from upside down.

Evryone was tense while Chisaki stared smugly yet monotonously at his only two left cards.

"Does anyone have any ideas? I can't believe the boss is going to win!" Rappa said in desperation as he looked through his cards in panic.

"As expected from master." Sighed quite sadly Nemoto while he placed a plus four card "Buy four miss (Y/n)."

"Actually... no." You placed one more plus card and looked at your boyfriend smirking devilish. "Buy eight Kai!"

"Bold of you to assume that I would do such a thing." He slowly placed one of his cards down. Leaving everyone with mouth agape.

"Buy twelve Chrono. Also, Uno." He said monotonously.

"FUCK! COME ON!" Hari threw his cards at the table in both irritation and disbelief while Mimic just errupted in laughter.

You giggled at everyone's faces... even despite being such serious mans whose always dealed with much more extressul problems they still had fun at least.

You smiled warmingly at your boyfriend, noticing the hints of a smile growing on his covered lips.

"Can I reward you my winner?" You whispered into his ear, giggling at seing the way he shivered.

"Wait just a bit. I need to savour their suffering."

"Kai!" You exclaimed in both amusent and horror before you got pushed to him again... his firm grip around your waist.

"I want revenge."

"Round two then? Anyone up for it?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Don't yell, its almost night." He got up and walked for a bit before stopping and looking at you expectantly "Come."

"But-!" You whined. Now you wanted to play more!

"Now. Its a order." He growled before you sigjes and wished everyone goodnight, following your boyfriend out of the room.

"... I told you he was going to get a quick fu-"

And the man was overhauled again... seriously Rappa learn your lesson, is for your own good.

[soranihimawari]

the truth is...

“Kindness is free. Love is free,” I said triumphantly raising the bottle of sake in the air.  Today was one I didn’t see coming at all. As fate would have it, running into my high school crush was not particularly high on my to-do list when I left the cafe I worked in earlier in the afternoon. I was hired on as one of the patisseries which specialized in parfaits and seasonal tarts during my last year in culinary school. Tonight, I was drunk on celebrating this latest turn of events.

“Of course,” my company teases me right as he raises my hand to his lips. he lets go of my hand with a cheshire cat like grin. “How could I ever forget that. C’mon, let’s get some food in you before you suffer the worse hangover in your life. I know a great place not too far from here.”

I took another swig of the sake bottle before I nodded.

“Lead the way Atsumu-san.”

I swore those hazel eyes never looked so inviting as they did at that point in my life. I recalled my coworkers’ conversation earlier in the middle of our shift:

“Say, y/n-san,“ the interning barista, Haruna, began.

“Hmm?” I hummed my response. “What’s up Haru-chan?”

“I was, well we were all wondering about something,” she said.

I picked up a towel to dry another cappuccino mug beside her. The other members of our cafe were within earshot when their senior intern asked her question.

“How come your boyfriend only comes in after we leave? When are you gonna introduce us?”

“Boyfriend? Haruna, I hate to break to you, but I don’t have one.”

“No, you do,” she begins to state her case. Haruna nervously twiddled her thumbs while our other coworker, Senna, approached us. “Tell her Senna-senpai.”

“We didn’t want to say anything, but there’s this hot blond guy who looks eerily similar to Miya Atsumu, y’know. From the MSBY Black Jackals? Anyways, he stops in here every once in a while right at closing time when it’s Erina’s turn to lock up the cafe. And apparently there was one day he asked me if you worked here,” Senna confesses. “You went to Inarizaki too, right?”

“Yeah, so?” I asked. My small smile was caught by both of them before I picked up the next mug to dry.

“You should of seen the relief on his face when Senna told him that you did and now he hasn’t stopped coming by on random mornings, but you’re never here when he comes by,” Haruna says with a dreamy sigh.

“Listen,” I said. I placed the second mug upside down on the drying rack and folded the drying towel before continuing. “The next time that blonde pretty boy walks in here is the day I will need to buy a bottle of really strong orange flavored sake to get through any sort of time with him.”

“You liked him didn’t you?” Haruna giggled.

“I do not.” Oh fuck, they’re both going to pick up on that slip, I thought.

“You’re blushing really hard now, Senpai,” Senna teased. “You still find him really hot don’t you?”

***

A couple of days go by without Miya stopping by the cafe. I had reminded my fellow cafe employees the MSBY team had a few away practice matches while promoting a newly signed member of their team. Even with this knowledge, their collective curiosity got the better of them inquiring about my relationship, or lack thereof, with the good looking setter. 

It wasn’t until two weeks later Miya Atsumu stopped in for his usual. Apparently there were perks of his frequent visits one of them being on his social media account pages tagging our cafe location with the quote “she always makes the best parfaits”. Business actually had been steady since then. After all, it helps when your three coworkers all had conversed with him once or twice before.

One Saturday around four forty-five in the afternoon, I was in the middle of setting my fudge in a star mold when Erina, Haruna, and Senna texted me to come out of the kitchen saying that there was a regular who had a question about the menu. Judging by the messages I received, I rolled my eyes. 

“Unbelievable,” I muttered before patting my hands on the apron; I had a coy smile on my face when I opened Haruna’s photo message. Damn Atsumu, you still are as handsome as ever. I pushed through the swinging kitchen door walking toward where my former classmate was standing on the opposite side of the display counter.

“Miya-kun?” my voice maintained its curious tone.

The blonde professional athlete stood in the middle of the cafe reading the menu wearing a casual sponsored street attire that included a hoodie with his team’s logo stitched on (along with a pair of cotton jersey shorts and running shoes). Compared to me being dressed in a humbling combination of tapered royal blue jeans and a sunflower yellow blouse paired with nonslip ebony ballet flats, the setter looked like he was in athleisure campaign.

“Hey there dollface. Long time no see.”

I folded my arms over my chest when he sat down in front of the short counter space near the espresso maker. I was skeptical of his presence here, but my brain kicked into fight or flight mode ever since I heard him poke fun at the odd shaped friendship chocolates I left for him on his desk when we were fifteen (to be fair, it was my second attempt at making sea salt chocolates at home, but apparently, the Miya twins were going through their high school jerk phase). I watched Atsumu from afar trash them without even tasting one in favor of his fangirls’ fancier box saying something about how he had to avoid excess sweets for a week because of some stupid bet he had going on with his twin.

Does he need to know he was the reason why I wanted to perfect my sweet making skills? No. Absolutely not. Because if he did, that ego of his would skyrocket and I’m actually ok with not letting that bit of info reach his ears. Damn it Miya, why are you still as good looking as I remembered you being? The fuck was I thinking when I was fifteen...Gods do I need a drink. I thought.

“What’re you doing here? Shouldn’t you be off training or at practice or something?”

“Nope. I got the day off and thought I should come by to see what’s the newest parfait my favorite old classmate made for me.”

“Bold of you to assume it’s for you, ‘Tsumu.”

Me saying his nickname caused him to raise an eyebrow at me before he closed his eyes and I watched his lips draw back into a wider smile.

“Erina, Haruno, mind staying behind to help Senna clean and lock up tonight? It seems the owner of this cafe and I have dinner plans.”

“You’re not their boss Miya, so you can’t tell them what to do.” I pushed my finger against his shoulder which caused a chortle to come from him. I turned around to face my coworkers with an amused stare.

“Erina, Haruno, mind helping Senna out tonight? I’m leaving early. Apparently I have plans with the starting setter for the MSBY volleyball team.”

That was at five-thirty that afternoon...

---THE NEXT DAY, 9:56a.m.---

The soft chirping of an alarm located on the nightstand next to the plush king sized bed where I found myself waking up in. I am by no means a rich lady and for the life of me, I couldn’t even afford a place like this with a killer view of the neighborhood. Suddenly, as I hoisted myself up from the sheets, my memory came back in little flashes. Memories ranged from me getting drunk with Atsumu at the local pub next to his brother’s restaurant to Atsumu’s declaration on which onigiri his brother makes was the absolute best in town and how not one of his ex-girlfriends could ever replicate it properly.

I don’t recall much of what we talked about at Onigiri Miya when Osamu left us to ourselves for a little bit, but I could of sworn Atsumu tell me how he was searching for the cafe I worked at trying to formally apologize about dumping out the chocolates I had made when we were in high school:

“I heard you made them at home, right?” he asked, watching my nose twitch before I rested my head in my palm on the table. When I nodded, I didn’t notice he was pouting when he muttered an, “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, hah. I did. It was my second batch too. I made them look like stars because those were the only molds I had. If I had known they’d wind up in the trash, I wouldn’t have tried to make you feel better after the results of the spring tournament that year,” I said exhaling a sigh. I leaned my head against Atsumu’s shoulder gently reassuring him I had long since forgiven him. “But it’s in the past. Don’t worry about it so much, ‘tsumu. C’mon, the night is still young and I need at least one more bottle of sake before the convenience store stops selling them.”

---

“Oh my god,” I groaned when I flung the blanket off my top exposed body. My bra was still on, which was a good sign I guess, but instead of wearing my sapphire slacks, I noticed they were replaced with an older pair of white with black striped sweatpants (the color combination of the sweatpants reminded me of my high school’s volleyball team). I snatched the closest shirt I could find, yet I didn’t have enough time to throw that over my shoulders since I heard the bedroom door creak open.

“Good, you’re awake,” a disembodied voice called out from behind me. Give me a damned minute, I thought. I know that voice; it belonged to one of my classmates whom I recalled walking into my cafe yesterday asking me to spend the evening with him. Inhaling a sharp breath when I felt the mattress dip behind me, I barely remember him telling me to confess about something when I was sober in the morning and for some reason I had agreed.

“You’re really pretty, y’know.” Miya stretched his arm around my shoulder before he stood up to help me to my feet. I was a bit skeptical at his compliment, yet he squeezed my shoulder twice allowing me to know that he said was true.

“You flatter me, Miya. Why don’t you try complimenting me when I’m sober, yeah?” I tapped the left side of his cheek when I hopped off the stool. 

“Fine,” he chuckled. “You’re drunk enough as it is. Let’s go. Later ‘Samu.”

I shook my head right as I felt his arms wrap around me from behind, I let out a shaky laugh when he pulled me to lean back into him. I was quick to notice the soft fabric of his shirt when my head came into contact with it. There’s no way in hell we’d ever sleep together because I might have let it slip we should try to avoid a publicity scandal...

“How’re ya feeling dollface?” his voice whispers into my ear. A shiver ran up my spine when he did this, allowing me to focus on anything else besides the sun peeping through the blinds of the window.

“Better now that I’m here, ‘tsumu,” I replied in a groggy tone, my voice was barely above a whisper. Honestly, I’m not as hungover as I thought either, so he must have coerced me into eating some left over onigiri he had when he offered his place to me to crash, I thought. Then, I made a mental note to add a few extra half dozen macaroons for his brother when I see him next time. What Atsumu said next threw me for a loop:

“That’s good because I want you sober to remember this,” his voice taunted me right before I felt his lips press into the sides of my neck, down my back, and onto my shoulders.

“Mmm,” my voice hummed. “’Tsumu, you’re~aah~gonna leave a mark.”

My lips curled in amusement at the map his kisses left behind. He mentioned something like he wasn’t going to stop until I properly forgave him, to which I replied with a resounding, “If I didn’t did you think I’d have accepted your offer of spending the night out on the town with you?” I held onto his hands when he paused for a moment to think.

I raised my head up when he stopped, a smug smile tugged his lips upward. I felt my eyes blink a few times processing what he was trying to ask me to do. Thankfully my partner was a patiently affectionate person this morning because he didn’t leave out much for me to figure out when I twisted around his hold to plant my lips over his own. Yet although I claimed I was sober, I was already drunk off this warmth radiating from him.

You would think that after all the hours I'd spent with Atsumu last night - watching him talk, laugh, and frown (and the same with the way I noticed his stolen glances for a few seconds when he wandered into the cafe I worked in)- that I would know all there was to know about his lips, but I hadn't figured how kind they would feel pressed up against my own just yet.

When I pulled away first, I watched the way Atsumu looked down at me, his face a little flushed from my kiss. He smirked before pressing his lips on mine again and this time, the kiss was just as invigorating as before; his calloused hands roaming every inch of my body and with one of his hands becoming lost in my hair. Eventually I crawled into his lap, using his shoulders to steady my balance when he hoisted me up prompting me to straddle his upper body. My arms looped around behind his neck, running my fingers through his hair in a coquettish manner. I blew short streams of air onto the side of his neck causing his breath to hitch in his throat right before I burrowed my face in his neck kissing the space under his ear, causing me to feel his chest rumble when I heard him chortle. I seized the opportunity to guide Atsumu’s lips back onto mine. 

We were both lost in a sea of bliss after that because from what we both could tell, this was the starting point of a hard-earned love that took it’s sweet time to develop and gods be damned was his love worth it.

[xxemitsuxx]

You deserve better - a P5R bad end FF

hello it is I and this posts contains HEAVY SPOILERS FOR P5R READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Summary:  A God who wasn't unnecessarily cruel, who didn't make innocents suffer; a God who knew what humans felt through first hand experience, who knew loss and pain and only wanted the best for everyone. Did he really make the right choice? | How Akechi and Ren cope with the latter's decision of living in Maruki's perfect reality.

"Well, I have your answer."

**

When Ren opened his eyes, the first thing that hit him was confusion.

"What's wrong? You seem out of it." Ren blinked at the scene unfolding in front of him. All of his friends, chatting happily in Leblanc. He turned his head to stare at Sojiro. The man was looking at him in mild amusement as the question lingered between them. Huh...what?

"Where's Maruki?," he carefully asked, clenching and unclenching his fists. The answer that came was entirely unsatisfying.

"Who?"

So. Maruki had done it, hadn't he? It made sense, Ren had agreed to it. He still felt it was for the best... yes, it was. He hadn't known what to expect; maybe he thought Maruki would wipe his memory and overwrite his cognition like he had done with his friends. In fact, he was surprised he hadn't. Maybe it was too early, maybe...

The reality of the situation hit him as he watched his friends, his teammates, squabble with each other without a worry in the world.

They were all here. Morgana, Ryuji, Ann,S̸͕̼̱͕͋̓ͅu̵̳̯̥͙͉̙̾̋m̶̢̱̗͉̼͇̍͌̐̔̕i̸̠̒̅̒͜͝r̶̘̥̘̙̈́̐̉͒̔̕ḛ̷̯̫͇̫̌̏̇̃̑ Kasumi, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru and... Akechi.

Ren's gaze rested on Akechi and he felt his stomach turn.

"Your indecisiveness on the matter is essentially a betrayal of my wishes."

He... he had to remember, too, didn't he?

"It says that's north-northwest of here, and a bit to the right, so... Roughly, that way."

Did he?

Ren kept close watch on Akechi and also his other friends during the party he had apparently planned for them, but he couldn't find any kind of abnormalities. They all seemed... happy. Not an unusual kind of fake happiness, but the normal kind.

This is what he had wanted for them, wasn't it?

The days passed like they were nothing. It was baffling. Every time he saw Futaba laugh with her mother, Ryuji bicker with his track teammates, Ann smile at Shiho, Morgana trailing close behind them with a blessed smile on his human lips, he felt like crying and he didn't know why. He was happy for them, so happy that they were happy, but there was this deep sorrow seated in his chest...

Did I really make the right choice?

The news barely reported anything bad happening anymore. Japan prospered, the people truly lived just the way they wanted, criminal rate broke down to a never seen before minimum as the world slowly melted into what God wanted it to. A God who wasn't unnecessarily cruel, didn't make innocents suffer; a God who knew what humans felt through first hand experience, who knew loss and pain and only wanted the best for everyone.

Did I really make the right choice?

He spent a lot of time with his friends, pushed down the suspicion that he only did it to distract himself and instead decided he did it to get an answer to the question plaguing him. Not that he could change anything if he got the false answer, not anymore.

"What's wrong, Ren?," Ann asked him one day as Shiho excused herself to go to the toilet. "You've been acting a little strange lately." Ren sheepishly dragged a hand through his hair, smiling slightly.

"Ah... sorry. I'm just a little restless in the last time." Ann laughed affectionly.

"I know how you feel! It's insane that Makoto and Haru are graduating soon, isn't it? Not seeing them at school anymore every day will be weird... But they'll be fine. I know it." Ren nodded slowly. "Yeah... me too." He said it with conviction, but for all the wrong reasons.

**

He obviously hadn't known Wakaba Isshiki in life, but in this reality, he did. The woman really was a lot like Futaba and it was hard not to like her. She was apparently fond of him as well and it felt so good to see Futaba smile without a worry in the world while nagging Wakaba to take them to Destinyland. She was so happy and he was so happy for her.

This must have been the right choice.

They also met up as a whole group a lot, apparently to not waste the precious time they had left before the third years went their own ways. Those outings were quite interesting to watch and also enjoyable to participate in, but he found himself staring at Akechi more than he wanted to. He couldn't shake the suspicion, as well as the incredible guilt nagging at his insides whenever he saw the detective laugh at something stupid Ryuji said in the same way he had once at Ren's words, in a way Ren had once thought genuine until finding out that all of it had been a lie. Was he being honest this time? He had to be, didn't he? Maruki had promised to make them all happy. Even if Akechi hadn't agreed with it, even if the the disappointed fury in his eyes as Ren had turned him down had almost consumed him..

He had to be certain.

"Hey, Akechi. Are you happy?" He asked this after having Akechi accompany him to get some drinks for the others. The brunet looked at him with an unreadable look in his eyes and for a moment Ren felt his heart drop; he remembers, he's acting, he's probably incredibly furious-

"Thats a weird question to ask. Are you okay, Ren?"

…

"... ah, sorry," he said after being dumbfounded for a moment. "Nevermind." The concern on Akechi's face looked genuine, but he couldn't be sure...

More days passed and Ren felt like he was going insane. Torn between guilt, uncertainty, the smiles of his friends and the shadows of a reality long passed, he felt like screaming, like punching something, like breaking down. He had never felt this way before and he couldn't help resent Maruki a little – hadn't he promised happiness? Why was he feeling this way? He wasn't happy, not even close to it.

Then suddenly, he was.

**

"Hey, Ren." Ren turned towards the voice and smiled when he recognized Akechi, excusing himself from his chat with Hanasaki and walking towards his friend. "Hey Akechi. What's up?" The other eyed him, also smiling a flawless smile.

Hm, weird. Why had he felt the need to point out that it was flawless...?

"Ah, you know. This and that. Preparing for graduation." Akechi laughed fondly. "It's been busy." His eyes met Ren's. "How have you been?" Ren tilted his head with a hum. To be honest, he felt the same as always; although lately, it seemed like Wakaba's food was even more delicious and the smiles of everyone a little more radiant, Morgana's hair a little nicer, Ryuji a little faster during his track runs.

"Really good, actually", he said, twirling a strand of hair on his finger. "Can't complain." Akechi nodded, still smiling. "You wanna come over to Leblanc and play some chess? We haven't done that in a while." Akechi stilled.

"Chess?"

"Hm?"

"Ah, I apologize. Of course. But not today. I have work to do." Ren laughed heartily, not noticing the way Akechi looked at him when he did.

"Of course you do. Good luck, detective." Akechi smiled so brightly it was blinding.

"Thank you, Ren." He waved as he turned. "Best of luck to you, too. You'll need it."

What a weirdo, Ren thought fondly as he turned back to Hanasaki without a care in the world.

**

A week later they stood in front of the school, ready to let a nice stranger take a picture of them. When said stranger walked away, Ren stared after him, feeling for the first time in his life like he was forgetting something important, but when he turned to his smiling friends, he quickly forgot about that, too.

**

After arriving home that day, the stranger from before was seated at one of the tabled in Leblanc. Ren didn't think it was strange that he was alone, Sojiro and Wakaba nowhere in sight.

"Oh, you're..." The man turned towards him, smiling.

"Hello there."

Ren bowed his head. "Thank you for earlier." A laugh.

"No problem. Could I have a house blend?" Ren nodded, stepping behind the counter to get to work. Silence unfolded and he found himself humming cheerily. He wasn't entirely sure why he was in such a good mood, but it didn't matter, did it?

"Hey, Amamiya-kun." Ren looked up and a distant part of him questioned why this total stranger knew his name, but somehow, it appeared right.

"Yes?"

"Are you happy?" That wasn't a question he had expected. Ren frowned in confusion and opened his mouth to answer, but in that moment words flooded into his mind, words from a distant memory which seemed far away and close at the same time:

"Hey Akechi, are you happy?"

He stopped in his tracks. Had he asked that? Why? The world spun and he felt hot and cold at the same time as if someone had ripped a curtain away which had been hanging in front of his eyes.

"Ah- I'm sorry Amamiya-kun- please, don't cry..." Ren suddenly felt incredibly disattached from reality, barely felt it when he raised his teary eyes towards the strange man and didn't realize his mouth was forming words foreign to him: "Maruki-sensei.." Distantly he wondered who Maruki was, but he could barely- he felt like he was forgetting something really important- "Maruki-sensei, I..."

"I'm sorry, Amamiya-kun," the man had gotten up to move in front of him; Ren's eyes saw the worry on his face but he couldn't comprehend anything-- "This... this is wrong..." What was wrong? "They're happy, but.." Who was happy? He was happy, wasn't he? Why was he saying these things? Was it even him saying them?

The man he didn't know looked at him with nothing but sympathy and pity in his eyes and put a hand on top of his head, "I'm so sorry.. I shouldn't have brought it up. I know how much you struggled with your choice so I tried to take at least your memories so you can live without the burden... there is something external which seems to shield you from me, I'm still trying to figure out what it is, I promise I'll do better soon." He sighed and the hand on top of his head moved affectionately. The gesture didn't reach Ren- or did it? He couldn't tell, he was so... so... "I owe you this much... If only I could help him like this, too..." Him?

"...Akechi," he heard himself say, and how did Akechi's name fit in here? "Does Akechi-"

"Pssh," the man interrupted him gently. "Don't think about it, Amamiya-kun. Your friend will be fine. You will be fine. Just leave it to me." Ren's eyelid fluttered and he thought how yes, it would be so nice to just leave his problems in the hands of another, because the feeling in his chest threatened to choke him without knowing why. Before he could properly think about how wrong that was, an all-consuming exhaustion overcame him and he closed his eyes to the soft humming of the stranger.

**

"Rennnn pleaaase~"

"Not a chance."

"Awww~" Ren snorted and gently pushed Futaba away after his sister-not-sister let herself fall against him when he once again denied her the money to try again for a Jack Frost figurine. They had been at this ever since the entire gang had met at the arcade in an attempt to relax during the Easter break.

"Just ask Wakaba-san for some more allowance."

"She'll never do that!"

"Maybe she would if you wouldn't waste all your money on video games."

"Shut it, Inari! At least I'm not broke like you!" Yusuke frowned."I am not broke."

"Ah yeah? Then how come you never tag along when we go out for lunch?"

"That's... I save the money sensei gifts me for more important things." Yusuke and Futaba kept bickering. Ren smiled fondly and let his gaze travel across the arcade. It was surprisingly empty; only they were there, as if the place had been booked for them alone. Ann and Ryuji were playing some shooter game together with Morgana cheering the former on, Makoto and Haru laughing while moving to Dance Dance Revolution, and Akechi...

Ren frowned. Where was Akechi?

"Is something wrong, senpai?" Ren looked at Kasumi; the younger girl had been laughing along with Futaba and Yusuke earlier, but was now looking at him with worry in her eyes.

"Ah, yeah. Kasumi, have you seen Akechi?" Kasumi frowned and tilted her head, thinking.

"Hm... He was talking to Morgana-senpai earlier about getting some fresh air, I think... So he should be outside?" Ren nodded, giving her a grateful smile before stepping outside with a quick excuse.

It wasn't unusual for Akechi to wander off on his own, but he had made a promise to beat the detective at Gun Online and he intended to keep that promise. Where could he have gone?

"Looking for someone?" Ren turned his head to find Akechi leaning against a wall in a narrow, easy to overlook alleyway. A soft smile rested on his face, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Nah," he responded while trailing towards him, "just some weird guy who's too scared to face me in a video game." Akechi scoffed and shook his head. When Ren got closer, he got a better look at his face; he was smiling as always, but... something felt off.

"Something wrong?"

Their eyes met and yes, he hadn't been mistaken; the other's face looked unusually empty. It didn't fit the boy at all- or wait... did it? It fit. But why? Akechi was pretty much always smiling, always looking out for Ren just as Ren looked out for him. They were-

"Your friend will be fine."

Ren felt his eyes widen, and after a moment, Akechi's empty, calculating expression melted into one of concern. "Ren, are you okay?"

"I-I..." Why had he just thought the sharp expression didn't fit Akechi? Why did the current concern, the soft eyes, feel so wrong? When their eyes met again, Ren suddenly felt as though he was drowning; air wouldn't come to him, he couldn't breath-

"I hate you."

"You're just some attic trash!"

" Let's make a deal."

He felt his eyes widen and he hadn't even noticed that he had crumbled to the floor, trying to gasp for air but not being able to move. What was...?

Usually, a friend of his or even a bystander would immediately worry, crouch down in front of him and ask him what's wrong. Akechi however stood still. Ren felt his eyes burn into his neck.

Then, "Hmph. You deserve this, you know." The other's voice was cold, colder than it had ever been before- or had it...? "Honestly, when I noticed that you're starting to forget I wanted to vomit. But looks like you're still struggling, so that's something. I could get used to that." His voice wasn't just cold now, it was seething with suppressed anger, and Ren couldn't- he didn't understand-

"That's enough, Akechi-kun. Can't you see he's in pain?" It took Ren all his will power to slowly raise his heavy head. It occurred to him that huh, since when where they in Leblanc, but the thought quickly faded away. Someone had manifested next to them out of thin air, and Akechi had jumped backwards, obviously startled. However, he quickly regained his composure and crossed his arms, glaring daggers at... „ "Maruki...sensei..." Ren again didn't recognize his own voice. The man he didn't know looked at him with a sad face and smiled fondly, before turning back to Akechi.

"...I can see that, thank you very much," the brunet spit out.

"Then why?" Akechi scoffed, directing his glare towards Ren. He flinched. "Why? Maybe I want to see him suffer. Suffer for choosing- whatever this is. Your stupid fucking puppet house realit-" Akechi stopped mid-sentence as he choked, hands flying to his throat in obvious panic. The strange man's eyes widened and he quickly shook his head. One of his hands was slightly raised. It dropped to his side.

"Oh, I- I apologize, Akechi-kun. I didn't mean to hurt you." He looked at Ren complementary, then he flicked his hand.

The world turned upside down and Ren felt himself crumble to the ground from his kneeling position. His eyes suddenly felt incredibly heavy so he closed them. Thinking became hard.

"What are you-"

"Don't worry. I'm simply putting him to sleep. He doesn't need to suffer because of our disagreements, does he?"

"Damn well he does!"

"Why are you so angry?" Another scoff.

"Ha! Are you seriously asking me that?" The voices were fading away...

"I'm sorry, Akechi-kun. I'm really trying to take the pain away from you, but it's proving to be challenging. The both of you are being shielded from my powers by... something. In Amamiya-kun's case I can still influence him to some degree, but because of your resistance I can't seem to-"

"Fuck off."

"- do anything. I'm really sorry, you'd be so much happier without..." The voice hesitated.

"Without what? Without my memories? My feelings? My free will? The things which make me who I am, which you are trying to TAKE AWAY from all of us?"

"No, that's-"

"I can't believe you. I can't understand how someone can be so disillusioned and in love with themselves that they think they can decide what's best for everyone. You make me sick to my core."

"Akechi-kun, please..." Footsteps passed by Ren.

So tired...

[it-will-not-last-the-night]

‘First’, Technically

For @ryukitaweek

Prompt: First

Synopsis: It takes a certain combination of thick-skulled obliviousness and artful vaguery for two boys to successfully go on about 50 dates together without any of them, technically, being their ‘first’. 

Today

The sound of the door opening prompted Ryuji to snap his head back reflexively, eyes wide…but only to be greeted by the sight of a pair of strangers bustling into the already crowded eatery.

Not him, not yet.

With a sigh he returned his attention to scrutinizing the table before him, elbow propped up, chin resting on his palm, he waited. One foot tapped nervously at the floor beneath him as he habitually checked his phone again. In an uncharacteristic bout of diligence, he had come several minutes earlier than usual to their meeting spot, glad that he’d actually reserved a spot for the two of them. 

Grabbing a beef bowl with his friend wasn’t supposed to be this hard, wasn’t supposed to leave him glancing at his phone and looking to the entrance every minute. The whole situation sat unwell with him, his stomach twisting itself into knots, spoiling an appetite he’d been carefully cultivating all week.

Like so many things in his life the culprit for his discomfort was obvious; Ann Takamaki. 

Yesterday

“Tomorrow afternoon, you’ll be open?” The blonde pair, one natural one dyed, had been lounging atop the roof of Shujin as they were want to do during their break periods. Ann had been studying over some textbook, cramming what little she could before the test in the next period, whilst Ryuji had already moved past that stage of procrastination and straight into the ‘I’ll fail this one and then make up the marks in the next one,’ stage. He sprawled out near some of Haru’s old garden, finger tapping away at his phone, as he absently answered;

“Nah, tomorrow won’t work, meeting Yusuke,” he grimaced, something about the game upsetting him as Ann continued to speak; “Oh? What you guys up to? Beef bowls again? Didn’t you just go last week?” 

“I mean…we go every week so, yeah, duh again, it’s like our thing,” it was hard for Ryuji to focus on both their conversation and the game and he was suffering for it, but Ann seemed determined to continue; “That can’t be cheap, you’re not making Yusuke pay for it, I hope, you know he can’t waste what he gets,” 

“Of course not, why ya think I got that job last month? It’s more than enough for just two beef bowls a week, relax will ya, he enjoys it to,” there was a pause in his friend’s questioning, giving Ryuji a chance to try to rally for a last-ditch effort. The reprieve was barely a few seconds long, though, before he felt Ann’s shadow cast over him, eyes glancing up to see her looming, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed to a point;

“You…got a job to pay for the two of you? That’s why you got it?” Although it wasn’t fair on his side the disbelief in her voice strangely rankled him. “Yeah…so?” He pushed himself up, head cocking to the side as Ann’s own mouth opened, as if to say something, closed and she placed a finger almost contemplatively to her chin;

“Hmmm…it couldn’t be…right?” She mused to the space about her, Ryuji letting out a disgruntled guffaw; “Couldn’t be what? What are ya even gabbin’ on about? I just got a job to pay for us to hang out, that’s all, that’s it. You use some of that modelling cash to visit Shiho over the holidays always, ‘member?” 

Ann’s eyes widened but not because she seemed affronted or offended, an expression Ryuji was accustomed to. No this was…almost as if some sort of understanding had just come to her, an answer, and for a moment Ryuji wondered if she’d figured out some clever trick for helping her through her test. 

“Ryuji…I go down to visit Shiho so we can go on dates, you know that, right?” Ann was never coy or subtle about her and Shiho’s relationship, it had never bothered her friends, so Ryuji was even more perplexed at such a strange turn of the conversation; “Yeah…so? What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Ryuji…are you and Yusuke…d-”

Today

“Ryuji? Is everything alright?” “AH!”

In compliance with practically every narrative rule of irony Yusuke had slid in undetected as Ryuji had mulled over his conversation with Ann. Under normal circumstances Ryuji would not have been so shocked at his sudden arrival, he’d grown accustomed to the fact that, when he wanted it, Yusuke could seemingly move with stealth and grace of a tiger. What had alarmed him so much today was how close the artist had thrust his own face to Ryuji’s when he’d finally announced his presence.

“Gah! N-not so close Yusuke, geeze! Give a guy some space!”  The blonde had sputtered, reeling back from his friend as Yusuke’s lips pursed, the artist sliding in to sit alongside him. It wasn’t something Ryuji would have questioned before, the two had taken to sitting next to, as opposed to opposite, each other sometime ago, it’d just felt like an easy natural development, but now it was one that only made the squirming sensation in Ryuji’s stomach seem to intensify.

“My apologies, you merely failed to respond to my greeting, I thought perhaps you’d lapsed into a state of deep introspection,” Ryuji couldn’t help but give an amused snort, lips involuntarily twisting into a half-smile before his newfound sense of self-consciousness kicked in. 

“Nah, nah it’s cool, I was just…thinkin’ and stuff,” Yusuke’s eyes seemed to spark with an eager curiosity, once more the tall, elegant, boy leaned forwards; “Oh? So, I was correct? You were deep within the labyrinth of your own mind untwisting sordid truths?” In the past Yusuke’s frankly bizarre exclamations, and the looks of confusion they elicited from others in the eatery, might have prompted Ryuji to try to silence him out of some misplaced sense of embarrassment, but by now he couldn’t help but find them endearing…even if he still didn’t quite understand them most of the time. Today he did certainly understand at least one of the words he used;

“N-nothing’s sordid! Why would ya even talk like that? We ain’t sordid, j-just normal stuff, ya know, homework, meat, running, games-”

“Girls?” A thin eyebrow lifted on Yusuke’s face and Ryuji found himself strangely spluttering; “’C-course! Them too!” He insisted. “Glad to see nothing has changed then, you remain predictable as ever,” Yusuke turned away, disinterested now, eyes dropping down to the menu as he began to peruse it. Instinctively Ryuji felt a strange disappointment welling inside of him, but he shoved that down as he tried to gather his thoughts and rally his way out of the incredibly awkward situation Ann had clearly put him in by filling his head with ridiculous notions.

He took the chance, knowing from experience that Yusuke could take ages searching for the right dish for the moment, to study his friend. Yusuke had always been a handsome boy, elegant, tall, poised, but he’d leaned towards waifish from his diet, or rather lack thereof, for a long time. In all honesty Ryuji was glad to see that their regular get-togethers had helped him grow a bit more meat on his bones. Not so much for him to lose that almost crane-like beauty that he held, but enough that Ryuji could see the positive impact he was having, and that knowledge made him unable to stop a faint smile on his face.

There were simple facts about Yusuke Ryuji had to face. He was handsome, undeniably so, almost frustratingly so for how much attention he drew, a fact which particularly annoyed Ryuji when he was trying to spend time with him. He was also fun to be around, he made Ryuji laugh and he made him smile, often not because he intended to, but it all worked out with them both enjoying it all the same. Ryuji also knew that he could count on him no matter what, he’d be there to help, or even just stand alongside him when he needed it. He also didn’t mince words when it came to expressing his feelings on the matter, something Ryuji couldn’t help but like, blunt, straightforward, earnest, but in a different way to himself, around Yusuke things might often have been confusing, but it was never intentional, the boy always tried his best to express exactly what he felt, even if often it was hard for him to know what that was.

Previously, before, Ryuji would never have thought twice about these. They were friends, bros, just like him and Ren. That’s what bros did, right? Hung out all the time, talked to each other, helped each other, got jobs for each other, invited each other out to eat, paid for each other’s meals, asked each other to model and comment on art pieces even when one felt they had no business making such comments anyway. It was all Ann’s fault! She had to go and complicate it! She had to go and make it out to be more than what it was! He and Yusuke had a perfect thing going and he didn’t want to go stuffing it up like he always did when he overthought it-

“Are you sure you’re well? Ryuji if you don’t feel up to this, we don’t have to do it, I know how much a burden-” Yusuke might have been the type to miss obvious social cues on people, but even he could notice something was bizarre when Ryuji seemed to clam up for a minute straight staring at him. 

“No! Hell no! Yusuke sorry I just…” that was a topic Ryuji did not want to have to revisit. Convincing Yusuke to let him pay for the both of them, that he wasn’t a burden, that he didn’t ‘owe’ him, that had taken no small amount of time and he wasn’t about to let his friend lapse back into feeling like some parasite;

“Dude, I promise, I’m fine, and just hanging out with ya is all the payback I need, don’t sweat small stuff like this, cool? Sorry I spaced out on ya, just thinkin’ about a stupid test I did, like…why does maths have to be so hard, ya know? I’ll always have my phone on me when I’m an adult and it’s got a calculator, so how come I gotta know how to add things up? What’s ‘x’ gotta do with numbers anyway? It’s a freaking letter!” As much as he was paralyzed with a self-consciousness one thing that could motivate him to act was when his friends needed help. Speaking his mind came naturally to Ryuji and helped him bulldoze through the mental block forming in his own mind, even if it more often than not saw him put his foot in his mouth. Luckily, today, was one of those rare days where he seemed to have stumbled on to just the right words with luck;

“Thank you, Ryuji, somewhere in all that hot-blooded mess you really do have the heart of a dragon,” was it weird that a compliment as bizarre as that brought a soft pink blush to Ryuji’s cheeks? Sure, perhaps, but though Ryuji wouldn’t think twice about calling Yusuke weird anyone else daring to do so would have to watch themselves around him. 

From there things returned to the tempo Ryuji was accustomed to. They ordered good, Yusuke extrapolated bizarre things from their surroundings, they laughed, Ryuji made a show of being reluctant to helping Yusuke with his latest project but then, inevitably, gave in as he always did with a smile. 

They were stepping outside the eatery, any of his earlier anxieties forgotten, when Yusuke off-handily spoke up; “You know…my latest contest entry actually garnered me not to minute a purse of money. I was wondering…perhaps I could take you somewhere next time? Cover our expenses?” Ryuji had looked to Yusuke, surprised to find that, for a change, the normally stoic boy seemed nervous about meeting his eyes; “I know you’d prefer we don’t treat this as a matter of debt, so I don’t mean to offer this as some form of recompense but, perhaps, rather, we could,” Yusuke’s rambling was silenced when Ryuji put a hand on his shoulder, a firm smile plastered on his face; “Dude, chill, I’d love that,” the artist smiled;

“So then shall we do it sometime next week?” The sun was shining, the sounds of Tokyo surrounded them, things couldn’t have been better;

“Sure! It’s a date!”

 .

.

.

“…date?”

There was the sound of the metaphorical record scratching, and the sound of Ryuji literally gasping an incoherent; “Grrrfffggglll!” In response to the quizzically cocked head of Yusuke and that damnably charming tuft of slender hair that drooped across his face. “Ryuji…do you…want to go on…a date with me?”

“I…ppphhfff…ahhhh….uhhhh…it’s…ummmmm…I…I…I-”

Tomorrow

“So…yeah, we’re gonna have our first date,” the sheepish admission by a blushing Ryuji, eyes downcast, scuffing his one shoe against the other, filled Le Blanc for a moment, a silence lingering after it. Next to him, looking no less sheepish in his own way, Yusuke too tried to avoid the eyes of their friends variably arrayed seated, or communicating via a laptop, before them.

“Congratulations you two! I knew you’d go together wonderfully,” Haru, of course, was the first to say, positively beaming with joy as she clasped two hands together in front of herself. “I’m happy for you two, it’s great to hear you’ve grown so close,” Makoto offered as alongside her Futaba snickered; “Ryuji and Inari? Oh boy, this is going to be fun,” like a shark in water catching the scent of blood.

“There’s definitely something special about going on, like, five-hundred dates without ever realizing what they were. I guess we’ll have to count this one as your first if only be technicality,” Ann radiated a smug self-satisfaction and had done so since Ryuji had broken the news to her. Like a cay playing with a ball of yarn she had cooed over the two when, stammering and blushing, he’d been forced to concede she had been right, and concede to about a half-a-dozen double dates with her and Shiho in the process. 

From the laptop Ren’s whoop, all the way from Inaba, drowned out some or other catty remark by Morgana and Ryuji just about felt like he could crawl into the earth and stay there. His foot had already begun to nervously tap, unnoticed by any, when he felt Yusuke’s hand slip into his own, a soft squeeze, bringing their eyes to meet and his foot to stop. The two shared a smile, but one of those special sorts of ones. It was a young smile, a nervous one, after all it was the smile of something very new, something that would still need to grow and mature but, for the moment, represented the birth of something intimate between only two people. 

It was not Ryuji’s smile or Yusuke’s smile but, rather, their smile.

[superfreakerz]

TDDUP 13

"Til Death Do Us Part"

Immortal/Reincarnation AU.

Rated M for eventual smut and heavy themes.

Summary: There are immortals and there are those who reincarnate, but it's best to keep these things hidden. Lucy is attending college and meets Natsu, a boy with pink hair, a devilish smile, and a body that never ages.

Since links on Tumblr still aren't working, I can't post one to my previous chapters. But you can find them on FF.net. My username is superfreakerz.

Chapter 13

Girls' Day

Nothing was working. Not raising her hand, morning greetings, or even perfect exam scores were working. Getting on Aquarius' good side was proving to be impossible.

Lucy sighed, returning to her seat after volunteering to answer a question on the board. Even though she had solved the problem correctly and showed all of the steps, Aquarius still gave her snide remarks before sending her to her seat.

"Nice try," Natsu whispered once she sat down. "You're never gonna win our bet. Just give it up."

The girl stuck her tongue out at him. "Yes I will. It just takes some time."

Figuring she did enough trying to please Aquarius for the day, Lucy pulled out her writing journal. She was currently in a rut for her wizarding guild story. Writer's block was a pain that she suffered from many times. So, she figured she'd work on another story she just started writing in hopes of regaining her motivation.

This story was about a boy and a girl who mistakenly sign up for a couple's cruise. It was a simple friends-to-lovers story, with a fake relationship thrown in the mix. In hopes of broadening her writing, Lucy was even going to try to write some more mature content for once.

Natsu's brow piqued as he watched Lucy began to scribble in her writing journal. He hadn't seen that journal in weeks, as Lucy hadn't been writing in class lately and she'd gotten better at hiding the damn thing. He wondered what was going on in the world of celestial mage Ellie and dragon slayer Haru.

Eyes skimming through the girl's neatly scribed words, Natsu became confused. Now she was writing about some sort of cruise. And who were these new characters? Rebecca? Shiki? He didn't remember those characters being in her story before. Unless…

"This is a new story!" Natsu thought, a mischievous grin spreading over his face.

As if having a Natsu-mischief-radar, Lucy glanced towards him, finding him trying to read her story. So, she closed the book and shoved it back in her backpack. This was the one story she couldn't let him read no matter what. Not when she was going to attempt writing smut. She'd die of embarrassment.

Natsu pouted, nudging the girl's side. Oh well. He'd just have to tear apart her apartment later to find her journal.

Once class ended, Lucy, Natsu, and Gray headed towards Fairy Tail to meet up with the rest of the gang. Their walk was filled with the usual Natsu and Gray brawl while Lucy sighed on the sidelines before losing her patience and dragging them along with her. That didn't stop the two boys from giving each other derogatory nicknames the whole time. Lucy's personal favorites were "Ice Princess" and "Ash Tray."

Reaching Fairy Tail, the trio greeted the rest of their friends and sat in their signature spots. As usual, Natsu ordered a whole list of food from the regular waitress, Kinana.

With a mouth stuffed with food, Natsu turned to Lucy and asked, "What're we doin' tonight?"

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. It's not movie night but I wouldn't mind watching a movie anyways."

"Sounds good to-"

"Wait," Erza interrupted, her eyes narrowed at Natsu. "You are not Lucy's only friend. It is unfair that you are the only one that has spent the night there when even Levy hasn't."

"Oi! I'm her best friend! Of course it's fair!" the boy shot back.

"Umm, excuse me?" Levy said, glaring at him. "I've known her the longest! I'm Lucy's best friend!"

"Who cares if you've known her longer? Lucy and I have a connection!"

"Oho? A connection, huh?" Gajeel teased with a smug grin.

In seconds, Natsu and Lucy's faces turned pink.

"Not that kinda connection, idiot!" he shouted. "Either way, I called spending the night at Lucy's! Go find somewhere else to hang out!"

"Oh? Is that a challenge I'm sensing?" Erza questioned, cracking her knuckles in threat.

Lucy awkwardly chuckled. "Umm, shouldn't I get a say in this?"

Gray leaned closer to her. "I would give it up if I were you. Once Erza set her mind on spending the night at your house, it was set in stone."

Natsu leapt onto the table, unbothered by the way everyone else in the pub gawked at him. Smashing a fist into his palm, he gave Erza a wide grin.

"I've been meaning to challenge you to a rematch for a while now! Let's go! Winner spends the night at Lucy's!" he exclaimed.

The redhead calmly stood up, a small grin spread over her face. "I accept your terms."

"Here we go," Jellal said with a sigh.

"Natsu never learns," Levy added.

Lucy ignored them, watching as Natsu charged at Erza. She'd seen Natsu fight just about all of the guys in the group, and she'd seen Erza beat Natsu to a pulp when he was misbehaving, but she'd never witnessed a mutual fight between the two.

Natsu gave a war cry as he thrust a fist towards Erza, who dodged with ease. This didn't deter the boy, as he continued to throw punches and kicks. Their fists clashed, but neither backed down. Lucy was awed at how nimble Natsu was and admired the way Erza blocked or dodged every hit. They were locked in a stalemate.

Until Erza promptly bashed him upside the head, sending him sprawling on the floor.

"Looks like I win again, Natsu," she said with a pleased smile.

The boy groaned. "I'll get you next time, you redheaded monster."

Erza ignored him and faced the rest of the group, planting her hands on her hips and giving them a smile. "So it's settled. We'll be having a girls' day, starting now."

"Girls' day?" Juvia repeated. "Juvia thought we were just spending the night at Lucy's apartment?"

"Yes, but why not make it an all day event? We can go shopping, go out to dinner, and then go back to Lucy's place and share secrets we've never told anyone else!"

Stars practically formed in Erza's eyes, her excitement palpable. There was no turning her down now. The redhead never got the chance to do girly things as she was so used to dealing with the boy's idiocy, she couldn't wait to spend time with the other girls.

"Oi, I had plans with Levy!" Gajeel barked.

"And now those plans are canceled. You can reschedule for tomorrow."

"But I wanna hang out with Lucy too!" Natsu complained. "Lucy! Tell her you're gonna hang out with me!"

The blonde giggled, amused at how attached Natsu was to her. In truth, she felt the same way. But a girls' day sounded fun! She hadn't had one of those since her first lifetime!

"Sorry, Natsu! But you heard Erza. It's girls' day!" Lucy exclaimed.

While the boys were gloomy and depressed at the thought of being without the girls, the girls were actually excited. Even Juvia was starting to get into it. So, they all waved goodbye to their respective boys before rushing out of the guild in a wave of excitement and giggles.

"This is bullshit!" Gajeel shouted. Turning to Jellal, he continued, "Your wife just stole our girlfriends!"

"Lucy's not my girlfriend," Natsu corrected. He was slouched over the table, bored out of his mind now that his best friend was missing from his side.

"Yeah, but you want her to be."

"Oi! Say that again and I'll bash your head into the wall, Metal Mouth!"

"There's no point in denying it," Gray said. "Everyone knows that you like Lucy. Well, everyone except for her- which is weird because isn't she supposed to be smart?"

Natsu blushed from head to toe. He wasn't used to blushing. He hadn't really had problems with his body warming up until he met Lucy.

"I don't like Lucy like that!" he said, glaring at the lot of boys. His hands formed tight fists as he continued, "And even if I did, it doesn't matter! She doesn't feel the same…"

"I know you're stupid, but you can't be that stupid, right?" Gray teased. "Of course she feels the same, idiot."

"It's so obvious," Gajeel added. "Bunny Girl acts differently around you. The both of you are always follwin' each other around. It's disgusting, really."

Natsu picked his head off the table. "…You really think so?"

"What? That's it's disgusting? Yeah, that shits gross."

"Not that, dumbass! I meant about Lucy liking me!"

"Oh. Well that too. You're just too stupid to realize it."

Feeling his cheeks warm, Natsu laid his head on the table again. Even though he doubted the guys were right, the thought of Lucy liking him back made his heart thump wildly in his chest. It was exciting to think about, even though he didn't know what he'd do if she did like him.

What could he do with him being immortal?

"Even if she does like me, which she doesn't," Natsu began glumly, "it doesn't matter. She's a mortal and I'm not."

At that, Gray and Gajeel shared a concerned look. They didn't know what to say to that. After all, everyone knew that relationships between mortals and immortals were harder than most. It was messy and doomed from the start.

This time, Jellal was the one to try to cheer Natsu up.

"Natsu," he started with his usual calm smile, "even though you and Lucy wouldn't be together forever, wouldn't it be nice to explore something you haven't experienced before? You two are very close, but wouldn't you like to be closer? There's so much potential in your relationship, it'd be a waste not to pursue it, even if one day things will end. Every relationship is a gamble, including mine with Erza. We were dear friends who wanted to be more, so we risked our friendship for it. And it turned out to be the best decision of my infinite life."

"But it won't end well when it does end," Natsu replied with a frown. "We don't have long in the outside world. What am I supposed to do then?"

"Why worry about a problem that doesn't exist without the relationship? There is no use dreading that moment when you two aren't even together."

"So what do you think I should do?"

"Take the risk. Even though you'll have to separate one day, the days you spend together will make it worth the pain. They can be the best days you've ever had, you just have to live them first."

Lucy walked alongside the rest of the girls as they entered Magnolia's shopping mall. It was a large mall with three stories and a variety of shops. Hell, there was a store that only sold Tupperware.

"What store should we go to first?" Levy asked.

"I'd like to buy some new clothes," Erza replied, thus leading the way to the nearest store that sold the cutest clothes.

The four stuck together, picking items that would look good on each other. Lucy found a yellow sweater that would suit Levy perfectly, despite the clash between the yellow and her blue hair. She knew that her friend liked the drastic change in colors.

"I think this would suit you, Lucy," she heard Erza say. Turning towards the redhead, she saw her holding up a red, off-the-shoulder dress. Even though the neckline wasn't as promiscuous as her other dresses, the bottom was tulip shaped, which would make her legs and hips look great.

"That's really pretty!" Lucy replied. "But I'm not really shopping for dresses right now since it's winter. I wouldn't even get the chance to wear it for a while."

"Not unless you go on a date," Erza replied.

In seconds, Lucy's face matched the other girl's hair. "A-A date? Oh, I don't see that happening any time soon, so we can just put the dress back!"

Erza's lips curled into a smirk. "No. I will buy this dress for you as thanks for letting us welcome ourselves into your apartment multiple times. You can wear it on your next date."

Instead of arguing, Lucy nodded her head, her face still burning hot. "O-Okay."

With that, they went to the neighboring store, which sold lingerie. All of the girls except for Levy felt right at home buying this sort of stuff. Even Lucy, despite having nobody to show it off to.

"Here, Levy-chan! I'm sure Gajeel would love to see you in this!" Lucy said, showing the petite girl a strappy, black lingerie set.

Levy groaned in embarrassment. "Can we just go to the next store already?"

After Erza and Juvia bought themselves some lingerie, they decided to head to the food court. There, they split up to get their food: Erza and Juvia at the teriyaki restaurant, Levy at the seafood one, and Lucy at the small McDonalds.

Having already known what she was going to order, Lucy fished in her wallet to get the correct change. It was always an anxiety-induced hassle receiving change and stuffing it back in her wallet after ordering, so she preferred to have everything ready beforehand.

McDonalds was the busiest food place in the mall, so there were five people ahead of her. She was sure that the others were going to finish ordering before her, but she didn't mind. She'd been craving a chicken sandwich for a while.

Just as she was going to move up in line, there was a light tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she found a boy roughly her age with neat blonde hair and emerald eyes staring back at her. He had a nice body, lean and toned, and his smile was nice.

"Hello?" Lucy greeted, cocking her head to the side.

"Uhh, hi!" the boy replied. He rubbed the back of his head nervously, his cheeks a bright shade of pink. With that, Lucy knew what was happening. "Umm, do you come here often?"

She wanted to roll her eyes. He was going with that line? That was the most cliché, overused line in the book. "Not really, no."

"Oh. Well, do you go to the university here in Magnolia?"

"Uhh, yeah. I do."

"Oh, me too! What are you majoring in? I'm majoring in computer science!"

Lucy kept checking the line, praying that she could move forward in line. The sooner she reached the front of the line, the sooner she could end this awkward conversation without hurting the guy's feelings.

"That's cool. I'm majoring in creative writing," she answered, only for the sake of being polite.

"That's amazing! I actually write a little too! But I'm not that good, it's just for fun. Umm, maybe we can get together sometime and show each other our work?"

Lucy wanted to sigh. He seemed like a nice boy, really. He asked questions about her, didn't talk too much about himself, and he even had some shared interests. And there was no denying that he was good looking, but…

He wasn't Natsu.

"I'm sorry," Lucy said with a frown. And she meant it. She never liked rejecting people. At least, not the nice ones. "I don't think that'd be a good idea."

The boy frowned as well. "Oh. You have a boyfriend?"

"Not exactly…"

He nodded. "I get it. Well, I wish you luck with that and thanks for letting me down gently."

Lucy gave him a nervous smile and turned back around. It was awkward standing in line with him still behind her, but she pushed through it for the crispy sandwich she'd been craving.

Once she got her food, she nodded her head slightly to the boy who asked her out before walking towards the sea of tables. She scanned them all, searching for her friends. It wasn't hard to find them when two of them had blue hair and the other scarlet. They were like beacons for her.

"Who was that guy, Lu-chan?" Levy asked once Lucy reached them. "He was cute."

"I don't even know," the blonde replied. She hadn't realized that they didn't even introduce themselves. "He was just asking me out."

"What did you say?" Erza asked, placing all her attention on the other girl. She was rooting for Natsu to make things work with his first crush. so she hoped she'd said no.

"I said no and he was nice about it, thankfully. I hate when boys make a scene over being rejected."

"Do you get asked out a lot?" Juvia asked.

"More like all the time!" Levy answered for the blonde. "Almost every time we get smoothies, some guy would ask her out!"

"It's not like I want them to ask me out," Lucy said. "I'm not into any of them."

"Yeah, because you're into Natsu."

"Levy-chan!"

"It's true, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah but still! Don't just bring it up!"

"That's what girls' day is for, Lu-chan! Talking about the people we like! Have you and Natsu made any progress, by the way? You guys hang out more than we do now!"

Lucy took a sip of her drink and shook her head. "Not really. But I'm fine with that. I don't expect to date Natsu or anything. Things are fine the way they are."

"But what if Natsu did ask you out?" Erza asked.

"That wouldn't happen."

"Humor me."

Lucy blushed at the thought of Natsu asking her out, wondering how he would do it. Would he make some grand gesture? Or would he just pop the question while watching a movie? Would he ask her on a date first or straight into a relationship?

Either way…

"I-I'm not sure," Lucy answered, staring at the table with a frown. Even though she liked Natsu, she hadn't acted on her feelings for many reasons. For starters, she didn't want to ruin their friendship. She also didn't want to deal with the mess of dating with her reincarnation.

If they were to date, one of them would die eventually. If she died first, she'd have to be born again and see Natsu had moved on with someone else while she'd have to start over with the thought of him fresh in her mind. And if it wasn't her that died first, then it'd be him.

Both thoughts were devastating.

And it wasn't like her friends would understand her dilemma.

"I don't think I'm ready," Lucy answered honestly. "I want to be, but I'm not."

"That's totally fine," Levy assured, placing a comforting hand on the other girl's shoulder. "It's fine not being ready."

"Gray wasn't ready to date Juvia for a long time," the blue-headed girl added. "Juvia had to wait for years." Eight years, to be exact.

Erza frowned. "I'm sorry if it came off as me pressuring you. That wasn't my intention."

"No, no, it's fine," Lucy assured. "I think… I think one day I could be ready."

Or at least she hoped.

Once they finished shopping, the girls headed back to Lucy's apartment. Lucy set up a movie they could watch, but it ended up only being background noise as the girls talked all the way through it. This time, they didn't just talk about boys- though Juvia did bring up Gray quite a bit. They talked about anything and everything, laughing the entire time.

"You're saying that you'd rather live in space than the bottom of the ocean?" Levy asked, bewildered. They were currently playing a game of would you rather.

"Duh!" Lucy replied. "First of all, I would be closer to the stars. Second of all, do you know how terrifying it would be at the bottom of the ocean? It'd be pitch black! And most of the ocean is unchartered territory! Who knows what's down there!"

"That's all the more reason to go down there and find out for yourself!"

"I'm with Lucy. I would rather go to space. That way I can see what it's like without gravity," Erza chimed in. "What about you, Juvia?"

"Juvia would rather go to the bottom of the ocean. Juvia loves the sea," the blue-headed girl answered. "Would you rather go back in time for five minutes or into the future for five minutes? Juvia would go to the future to see what her lovely Gray-sama would look like!"

"I'd go to the future to see what the world is like by then," Levy said.

"I'd go to the past. I want my future to be a surprise," Erza answered.

"Me too," Lucy agreed. That, and she could change some mistakes she made. Especially mistakes from her second lifetime… Shaking her head, she forced those thoughts to the back of her mind. Tonight was about having fun, not wallowing in the past.

Hours felt like minutes as they talked about the most random things and played games. Soon enough, it was already three in the morning.

"I'm going to go to bed now," Levy announced with a yawn. "I have work in the morning."

"Juvia is tired too," the other girl added.

"Goodnight then, everyone," Erza said, laying down on the floor.

In no time, Lucy was the only one left awake. Grabbing her phone, she found that there weren't any texts from Natsu, which was surprising. Usually, he'd be blowing up her phone whenever they weren't hanging out.

"Are you awake?" she typed. She didn't want to wake him up, but she hoped he was awake. Luckily, her phone buzzed not too long after she sent the text.

"Duh. You know I don't sleep this early," Natsu replied. "How's girls' day?"

"A lot of fun," Lucy answered with a smile. "But I guess I sort of miss a certain idiot who hasn't texted me all day."

"My bad, my bad! I wanted to let you have fun with the other girls! And I got dragged into some kinda bro day."

"Bro day?"

"It's our revenge against the girls for not inviting us."

Lucy giggled quietly. "How's that going?"

"Ehh, it's alright I guess. Everyone's asleep now, though. Wbu?"

"Same. Now I'm bored."

Lucy stared at her screen, waiting for Natsu to text back. He usually texted back in seconds, but it'd been five minutes now. Had he fallen asleep? Just when she was about to put away her phone for the night, it vibrated.

"On my way! See ya soon! :D"

Lucy's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. Her fingers were fast as bullets as she typed back, "Are you serious? It's 3 in the morning!"

"Who cares? I'm bored too and I wanna see you! I'll be there in five!"

"It's a twenty minute walk!"

"Yeah, and I've got a six minute mile time. What's your point?"

"Okay fine!"

Lucy grinned, locking her phone. Her heart was beating so fast, she felt it would beat right out of her chest. Her crush was running over to her place at three in the morning because he wanted to see her.

Grabbing her pillow, she shoved her face in it and squealed. She was lucky she didn't wake any of the girls up. She didn't want them to know that Natsu was coming. The moment felt like a special one that was only between them and she wanted to keep it that way.

Seven minutes later, Lucy's phone lit up.

"Here!" read the text that Natsu had sent her.

Lucy carefully got out of bed so as not to stir Levy who was sleeping beside her, tiptoed over Erza who was sleeping on the floor, and crept by Juvia who was asleep on the couch. She made it all the way to the door without making a noise. Slowly turning the knob, she opened the door, relieved that it didn't creak.

Closing the door behind her, Lucy turned to see Natsu standing outside her apartment. He was dressed in shorts, a tee shirt, and running shoes. Sweat dotted his face and his pink tufts of hair were messier than usual.

"You lied," Lucy said, locking her hands behind her back and grinning at him. "It took you seven minutes to get here, not five. Looks like your mile time is going down."

"Oi! It's three in the morning! Cut me some slack!" Natsu replied, playfully shoving her. "So can I spend the night too or is it still girls' day?"

"Still girls' day. Besides, Juvia's in your spot."

"In the bed?"

A vein ticked in Lucy's forehead. Poking him in the chest, she said, "Your spot isn't on the bed. It's the couch. You just have listening problems."

Natsu grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer so he could stare into her eyes while giving her his signature, mischievous grin. "That's funny, because every time I sneak into your bed, you use me as your human heater."

Lucy's face was set ablaze as Natsu's breath fanned over hers. They were close. Too close. And yet, she didn't have it in her to move away. Her legs were shaking. She felt if she moved even an inch, she'd topple over. Her heart was racing. She cursed her body for acting the way it did.

Her eyes darted to his lips and she subconsciously licked her own, not noticing the effect it had on Natsu. In all of the books she'd ever read or the movies she'd seen, the guy was always the one that made the first move. Her body screamed at her to change that. To give into her insatiable cravings and press her lips against Natsu's. All of her friends told her he felt the same, why not find out the truth now?

She pressed forward just a bit before stopping herself. Thoughts of her conversation from earlier with the girls replayed in her mind. Thoughts about dating Natsu and thoughts about how it'd end.

She wasn't ready. And with her reincarnation, she feared she never would be.

Feeling deflated, Lucy tugged her arm free from Natsu's grasp, letting it fall freely to her side. Sighing, she leaned against her door and stared at the starry sky. Her mother from her first lifetime told her that everyone who dies turns into a star, and that the nicer you are in your life, the brighter your star would be. Since then, death didn't scare her so much. She would just become a bright star that shined down on the loved ones she left behind. But reincarnation stole that away from her. Just as it had with everything else.

Natsu stared at Lucy. Seconds ago, the atmosphere was light, and it seemed like they were having a nice moment. In fact, he could've sworn he saw her lean closer. His hopes had told him it was for a kiss. But now, she was frowning and staring at the stars. She usually smiled when she did that.

"Lucy? Are you okay?" Natsu asked in concern. He loved her smile and hated seeing her upset. Did he do something wrong?

Lucy's gaze never wavered, her stare glued to the sky above. "Natsu, do you believe in reincarnation?"

"Reincarnation?"

"The act of being reborn after you die. Do you believe in it?"

Natsu frowned. He knew what it meant, but he didn't know where the question was coming from. Just what exactly was on her mind? Seeing as how Lucy's gaze hadn't moved, he figured he needed to tread lightly. To answer her question to the best of his ability.

Did he believe in reincarnation? He'd thought about it a few times, but that was before he found out he was immortal. Now, it didn't apply to him. But could it apply to the mortals?

"I don't think I do," he finally answered, rubbing the back of his head. He figured that if they weren't cursed with being immortal like he was, then their lives just simply ended. He had no clue what came after death, but the thought of mortals being reincarnated while his life continued forever didn't make sense to him for some reason.

Lucy smiled, but Natsu noticed immediately that it didn't reach her eyes. Had he messed up? Did she want him to say that he believed in reincarnation?

Hoping to fix it, Natsu said, "Reincarnation sounds awesome though!" Wanting to lighten the mood, he joked, "I just hope I wouldn't be reincarnated as Gray's son or somethin' like that."

Lucy didn't seem to find any humor in his comment. She still hadn't looked at him. He hated it.

"Yeah," she finally said. Finally, she turned to face him with a smile. "Well, I better go back inside. It's still girls' day and I feel like a traitor spending time with you. I'll see you tomorrow, Natsu."

As Lucy reached towards the doorknob, Natsu grabbed her wrist. It was clear she was upset about something, and he couldn't just let her leave like that. He wanted to fix it. He wanted to help her the way she helped him last night.

"Lucy, can you tell me why you're upset?" Natsu pleaded, his eyes searching hers as if the answer would shine through them.

Lucy stared at the ground, her lips curling into a frown. "I wish I could."

"You can tell me anything, Lucy. We're best friends, remember? I just wanna help."

Lucy studied him. Concern was etched into his features as he stared right back at her. There were no signs of deceit anywhere on his face.

She wanted to confide in him, she really did. She wanted so badly to speak of her reincarnation and to get everything off of her chest. He was her best friend. He trusted her and told her about his father, she felt wrong keeping this from him when he was just trying to help.

But would he believe her? He'd already told her that he didn't believe in reincarnation.

"He'd probably just laugh in my face," Lucy thought, biting her lip. After all, how was he supposed to believe her? She wouldn't have believed someone in her first lifetime either if they'd told her they'd been reincarnated. He'd probably just have her locked in some mental ward.

And what if he actually did believe her? Would he be scared of her? Would he send her away to some science lab to be dissected?

Either way, she couldn't tell him.

"I-I'm sorry," Lucy said, shaking her head and refusing to meet eye contact. "I-I know you told me about your dad and I should trust you, but I just… I can't."

"You can't trust me?" Natsu asked. His heart squeezed in pain.

"No! I do trust you!" Lucy said, lifting her gaze to meet his. It was obvious her words had hurt him, and she hated herself for it. "I'm sorry. I meant I just can't talk about this."

Natsu was quiet in thought, which scared Lucy. She hoped he wasn't mad at her, but she wouldn't blame him if he was. He had confided in her about something that plagued his mind for years and yet she couldn't bring herself to do the same.

"Alright. I'll drop it," Natsu finally said. "I don't wanna pressure you into talking about things you aren't ready to talk about."

Lucy's mouth parted as she stared at him. Her throat felt like it was getting tighter as tears pricked her eyes. "…You aren't mad at me?"

"What? 'Course not, weirdo. Why would I be mad?"

"B-Because you just told me about your dad and yet I won't tell you about this! It's unfair to you!"

Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He watched as the tears that gathered in Lucy's eyes spilled down her cheeks.

"It's not unfair, Lucy," he said, his voice serious. "Just because I was ready to talk about something doesn't mean you have to be. We're different people. Ain't nothing wrong with that."

Lucy's resolve shattered and she threw her arms around Natsu, hugging him tightly. Her body shook as she cried. She felt one of Natsu's hands land on her back while the other cupped the back of her head, letting her tears soak through his shirt. Minutes passed by without either of them saying a word.

Eventually, Lucy's sobs turned into sniffles, which led to her having a bad case of the hiccups. And even though she wasn't able to talk about her reincarnation with Natsu, she felt as though a large weight was lifted off her shoulders.

"Thank you for being so understanding," Lucy said, pulling herself away from Natsu and rubbing her face.

"Don't mention it," Natsu replied. He shoved his hands back in his pockets. "Listen, like I said, I'm not gonna pressure you into telling me anything. But if you ever do wanna talk about it, I'll be there. I'm always gonna be there for you, Lucy."

Lucy blushed from the look he was giving her, and for a brief moment, she wondered if her friends were right about Natsu liking her back.

"Thank you," she said. "I really should go back inside. Thank you again, Natsu."

The boy ruffled her hair, giving her a toothy grin. "Quit thankin' me, you weirdo. I'll see you at Fairy Tail tomorrow."

"Okay. Goodnight, Natsu."

"Night, Lucy."

[faveanimeships]

MATCHUP

hi!! i saw your thing about sending you ship requests, so here's mine! i'm 5' 4", korean, and i have shoulder-length dark hair. i wear circle glasses, and i have a terrible prescription. i love to read, listen to classical music, and i'm a foodie! i eat when i'm sad. i'm blunt and direct, along with rather reserved, and i have a hard time letting people get close to me. but, once i do, i love and care for them to no end!!!! i like to dress comfortably (ex. leggings and sweatshirt).

i’m so sorry i just read your rules for your ships and i sent in the description about the korean girl w circle glasses please forgive me … this is for free and BNHA , i am infp-t, ravenclaw, and i am bisexual (i use she/her pronouns). i’m so sorry for not reading the rules before!!

LOOK!! A finally a fricken update lmao I’m finally writing again after procrastinating heh i hate myself thank you for waiting bubba yunseo I hope you like it!!! 

I analysed your character before but now I have more to add lmao!!!

FREE! SHIPS

You are reserved, shy, blunt, comfortable, open-minded and prefer to trust your gut feeling; you’re also thirsty for knowledge and love to learn. Your ability to have an open mind will only lead you to pursue new interests and new genres. When you’re looking for a partner you would probably look for someone accepting or equally open-minded, and probably someone empathetic. I’m not sure bur your reserved personality may bring you lots of outgoing friends, and maybe when you’re looking for a partner, you’d be the listener in the relationship. You’d be great at giving empathetic advice, especially emotional ones since you know, you’d get a feeling of what and what not to say, which IMO is amazing. Looking at your description, you’d be the calm person in the relationship due to your reserved and caring nature, and so you’d probably prefer a louder partner?

ADD+ You’re not confident in yourself, you’re a bit clingy in a relationship you’ll probably want to date someone who can tolerate and understand that. You need your other half to be dependable, understanding and patient.

I ship you with !!

KISUMI SHIGINO

Kisumi is warm, friendly, fun to be with, reliable (in the anime he’s a very strong and supporting friend for Haru and the other boys when they had the whole Ikuya drama), he’s outgoing, patient, caring (him and his little brother TUT sibling goals). However, he is very popular, and has a very active social life- he’ll obviously try to introduce you to his friends, make you go to his gatherings, pout a little if you say no but overall very understanding if you just want to relax after a long day. Due to your very different personalities, you might fight with him a little due to his overly active social life, and while he’s not ready to give up on his social life, both of you will work to find a balance to this relationship. 

Obviously, when he’s with his other friends he won’t reply much but he’ll try to cut down meetings with his friends and try to reply to you when he’s out with other people. If you overcome that first hurdle, you will have a very strong relationship! Of course, Kisumi will spend a night in with you, binge-watching movies and cuddling, ordering uber eats and just listening to you talk. Of course, due to his talkative nature, he’ll be talking a lot too, but yes, you’ll learn how to balance it out in the end. 

Not only that, I feel Kisumi can tolerate your blunt nature (he’s friends with Haru lol) and he’ll definitely be that boy who will talk back, maybe that'll improve your comebacks. Dating Kisumi may be difficult but I feel if you date someone like Kisumi, you’ll learn how to open up and talk about your feelings, learn how to communicate in like a better way instead of being blunt all the time (because you know when you actually go work for other people in the future, being blunt, might not be the best choice haha) I feel like although your relationship might be a little messy and all over the place, you’ll work together to hold it together, and being in that situation allows you to be much more mature, and understanding. 

Additionally, as his girlfriend, you’ll attend at least some of his meetings with his friends and you’ll probably collect a lot of connections thanks to that, or even discover a new hobby or passion you’ll take on later in life. ALSO we know Kisumi likes to meddle in people’s lives so maybe he’ll make you overcome any fear you might have and be super supportive about it. I feel this relationship would be a super supportive and fresh- he’s always thinking about new things to try and do with you, which will only benefit both of you greatly!

Kisumi likes: holding hands, some PDA, eating desserts together, you hanging out with his friends (happily), you being happy, you playing your instrument, you doing taekwondo and kicking some ass like the queen you are, you smiling, hugs!!!, drinking coffee with you

I also ship you with: (more under the cut)

SOUSUKE YAMAZAKI 

Sousuke is calm, quiet, reliable, a great listener, a little bit overprotective, patient, caring and a great mentor. Thanks to him attending a boy’s school, we literally can see how popular he is- my guess is if he was at Iwatobi instead, he would be the king of the school lmao !!! Sousuke is more of an introvert than anything, which I think, you would appreciate since you like staying indoors, he loves relaxing near the pool or with you indoors! 

It is canon that Sousuke is working in a restaurant so he’d probably make you some dishes when you’re doing a stay at home date, or he’ll make you bentos when you have a concert or exam coming up- it’s his way of showing love, kindness and support! Sousuke is also blunt- like you and he doesn’t mind your bluntness at all, if you were to be blunt about his cooking, he’d greatly appreciate it. Sousuke won’t talk a lot, but he’s always there to listen to you rant, he loves it when you’re a little clingy with him, and it gets him into the mood to spoil you. He also loves waking up to you spamming his messenger, and he reads through every message, careful not to miss anything.

 As mentioned, Sousuke is a great mentor and he gives great advice. He listens to you and he’ll try to remain neutral, maybe you won’t be too happy about that but you’ll eventually understand that he’s just trying to remain neutral so he can provide unbiased advice. Not only that, Sousuke also writes you letters sometimes!!! He’d write you a letter during your monthsary and your anniversary, and when you’re feeling under the weather. If you need personal space, he’d be happy to leave you with a letter, some of your favourite snacks, a handmade bento packed to the brim with your favourite dishes. 

BNHA SHIPS

I ship you with !!

MIRIO TOGATA!!!

Mirio is friendly, funny, outgoing, optimistic, energetic, laid back and hardworking. He’s one of the big threes, and he definitely worked hard to be one there and he deserves everything amazing in this world!!! Personally, I think Mirio is an ambivert, he can switch between being an introvert and extrovert, and that is really cool,, which in this case would benefit you greatly since he’d push you to socialise within your quota, but will also reward you with all sorts of cute stay at home dates, where he just solely focuses on you and you only. Mirio may seem confident and all but sometimes, he suffers from self-doubt and low self-confidence, and I feel like you could really encourage him and help him back up again. 

Alternatively, when you’re feeling the same, Mirio would know how to get you back up and make sure you’re okay. Overall, Mirio would be a very laid back boyfriend, and he’d trust you with all his heart. He’d also pull cute pranks on you, or scare you, but he’s doing it with pure intentions only, as he wants you to be happy!!! Because you happy = him happy !! 

Being with Mirio means seeing him working himself too hard, and i feel like your bluntness might just put him in place, and he’d listen. You might spoil him a little after (which he loves), and tell him off (cute). After all of that Mirio would just want to hold you so tightly in his arms, as he takes a short nap with you. 

ALSO !! He’d also introduce you to little Eri, and make sure both of you get along (no problem at all since Eri is a sweet girl), and the three of you would go on amusement park outings? And sometimes you’d get mistaken for being such “sweet parents” or having such a “cute family”, Mirio would tease you afterwards, and wouldn’t deny it if someone asks him if you are his wife- he’d proudly say “yes, isn’t she cute!” Eri would giggle and point out the fact that you are blushing- it’s just such a wholesome relationship tbh!!!

I also ship you with !! 

TSUYU ASUI!!!

Tsuyu is adorable, straightforward, caring, laid back, strong, calm, and is a great source of emotional support (recovery girl)!! Tsuyu is also an ambivert and loves being alone or surrounded by her friends,, She loves being comfortable, which means she appreciates your sense of style. 

Obviously, she’s not the best at showing weakness, which means she’d be the one providing emotional support in this relationship. She’d listen to you rant, and provide you with unbiased advice. (Tsuyu is known for her amazing judgement skills). Of course, you’d start to notice the gap and you’d want her to share her weaknesses with you- it takes time, but it’s not impossible! However, she’d prefer if she was the one doing the listening and advicing instead. 

Not only that, Tsuyu is very attentive so she’d know what to do when you’re feeling meh, she’ll also cook for you sometimes, and bring you to cute and nice restaurants so both of you can just date and chill out. Like you, Tsuyu is blunt and straightforward but she means well. She won’t mince words but she’d make sure she won’t mention any trigger words or events. She’d also make sure you’re okay after that, probably make you some juice and cuddle with you (if you want). I also feel like she’s open to try anything- she’d do anything that would make you happy. Like Mirio’s relationship- this relationship is equally wholesome, supportive and happy!!

[terriblesportsimagines]

Hellooo once again 😊 I was the anon who asked for the manager (more like a coach) female reader!! I was wondering if I could request for the same kind of reader? And for Haruichi, Kuroko and Akashi's teammates try to get them together but fail miserably? Can be scenarios or headcannons 💙

These got pretty long…  Especially Haruichi.  I hope this was what you were looking for!  I wrote them as kind of continuations of the previous scenarios

Cut for length.

Kominato Haruichi

The continued lack ofsubtlety shown by his teammates was enough to make him want to hide under hisbed and not come out for the next century.

He wasn’t even thatsurprised.  First of all, he was prettysure the only one of the involved lot capable of subtle was Miyuki, and hewasn’t even bothering to employ his skill in the matter.  He spent most of the time giggling behind ahand watching the others thoroughly embarrass him over and over again.  

His captain was not anally.

He’d thought that of themall, he’d at least be able to count on his fielding partner to back him up, butnope.  Apparently, Kuramochi thought thewhole thing as hilarious as their captain and so usually just waded in and madeeverything a bigger mess than it already was.

Sawamura had somehowreached enlightenment with regards to the situation with you, and Haruichi’sfeelings for you, and had made it his mission to get you two together.  None of them seemed to understand that hewas fine with the way things were and fine with you not knowing how hefelt about you.  His opinion, of coursedidn’t matter.

Frankly, Haruichi wasmore surprised that Sawamura hadn’t just blurted his feelings out to youalready.  That was certainly his speed, andtruthfully, that seemed where things were headed.  The schemes the other boy came up with to push you two togetherwere so outlandish that Haruichi was pretty sure you’d already figured out whatwas going on, you were just too polite to say anything.

When you left withnothing but a smile and a wave after his teammates’ latest attempt to set youup, Sawamura complained bitterly. “Harucchi, it’s like you don’t even want ___!  You’ll never get her to go out with you withthat attitude!”

“Would you just stop,”Haruichi replied, voice like the blade of a knife.  “Leave it alone!”

Unfortunately for him, hedidn’t see the familiar pink head lurking just around the corner, which was toobad, because then he might have expected what was coming for him later thatweek.  

He’d been happy when hisbrother showed up for practice one day. The third years were pretty busy studying most of the time, so it was atreat to have them around.  Haruichi wastoo busy trying to learn from the older boys to notice the particular shape ofhis brother’s smile – a classic, foolish mistake, and one that he paid forwithin a few hours.

He’d been minding his ownbusiness, heading towards his dorm in order to change and head to dinner whenhe was ambushed.  Kuramochi grabbed himby the arm and dragged him away, aided by Zono and Shirasu, who both bore widesmirks.  “What the-”

“Sorry Haru, orders areorders, kyahaha!” Kuramochi cackled, grip firm.

Haruichi might have askedwhat the hell he was talking about, except they came into sight of anothergroup of boys just down the way, standing in front of the closed door of acloset.  His brother was at the helm ofthem, looking like some kind of yakuza boss, despite being shorter than all therest of them.  

The elder Kominato’ssmile was as terrifying as it always was. He inclined his head in greeting, and in acknowledgment of Kuramochi’sservice, then motioned to the closet. “Be sure not to shame me now, Haruichi,” he said, amused and more than alittle smug.

Toujou, who was closestto the door, opened it and before he could even react, Haruichi found himselftossed unceremoniously into the closet and the door slammed closed behindhim.  He’d made it no more than twosteps into the tiny room when his body collided with something soft and warmand he flailed, yelping as the pair of you fell into one of the shelves at theback of the coffin-sized space.  “I’msorry!” He said, praying he hadn’t hurt you.

You took a sharp breathin, but shook your head.  “It’s okay,Haru… It’s not like you had any choice either.”

Haruichi decided in thatmoment that he had the worst brother on the face of the planet and he didn’teven know why he had ever looked up to him.

“What do you suppose theymean for us to do in here?” You asked, and though he couldn’t see your face, hewas pretty sure you were blushing as brightly as he was.  “Maybe we should find the light switch…”

Haruichi knew exactlywhat they meant for them to do, and he was pretty sure you knew too, you werejust pretending not to.  He wasn’t surewhat this meant – were you trying to spare his feelings?  Were you just being shy?  You weren’t that shy naturally, youshouldn’t be and practically be another coach for the team.  But this kind of thing was different…

“I… think I would preferif it stayed off,” he said, not wanting to give light to the shade in hisface.  It was humiliating enough.  “I’m sorry my brother has a terriblepersonality.”

“It is pretty bad,” yougiggled.  “He just does whatever hewants to…”

“Yeah.”

You stood like that forwhat felt like ever, neither one wanting to address the obvious in the tinyroom.  Haruichi wished he could bebraver, but this was not how he wanted to tell you how he felt and damnit, he would not be rushed or pushed into it by the idiocy of histeammates.

“Hey Haru?”

“Yes?”

“I’ll help you bury thebodies if you want.  I can make them rununtil they die, that way they suffer too.”

Haruichi couldn’t helpthe soft laugh that bubbled up at the comment, and he was pretty sure he justlost his heart completely.  “Thanks,____-chan.  I’d appreciate that.”

When the door openedeventually, some ten minutes later, it was Kanemaru that opened it.  His face was bright red, and he lookedpained.  “Dinner’s started, so you’dbetter hurry back, ____-chan.”

You smiled at the blondboy and hurried away, sparing only a single glance back for Haruichi.  Haruichi, irritated, scowled.  “Gone, of course.”

Kanemaru sighed.  “Kominato-senpai wanted me to tell you thathe’s very disappointed in you.”

Of course he was.

Kuroko Tetsuya

Kuroko was pretty sure hewasn’t late.  He was never late – infact, he made it a policy to be early. This was why when he arrived at the designated meeting point and foundonly you, he assumed that no one else had shown up yet.  Except, you looked at him in relief, smiledshyly and said, “Oh good… I was starting to think it got cancelled and no onedecided to inform me.”

He glanced at his phone –it was just barely one, so why were you worried?  “We were supposed to meet at one, is everyone running late?”

You blinked at him,confused.  “One?  Riko-senpai said twelve thirty at practiceyesterday… I think you were getting water with Kagami-kun though.”

That was the momentKuroko realized that he’d been set up. Not by you, of course, but by the rest of the team who was conspicuousin their absences.  He had to admit, itwas at least a little clever, practically ensuring the two of you would end upon a date, alone.

Or was it a date if onlyone of you realized that’s what it was supposed to be?

Kuroko sighed.  It’s not that he minded, exactly, but hewould have rather have asked you himself instead of having the team employdeception.  “I don’t think anyone’scoming, ___-san,” he said, eyes moving over their surroundings.  He really wanted to go to the bookstore, andwhat did it matter if it was only the two of you?  “Why don’t we-”

But he never got tofinish his question, because out of nowhere a man on a skateboard appeared andknocked straight into your back, pushing you out of the way so that he couldgrind along the lip of the fountain you were standing beside.  The force of the crash was enough to sendyou slamming into the ground with enough force to cause you to scream in pain.

Kuroko watched the wholething in what felt like slow motion, time only speeding up once you were on theground and the man with the skateboard gone, laughing as he went.  “___-san!” Kuroko said, immediately droppingto a knee beside you to try and help you up.

You whimpered though, andhe could hear your breath coming on harsh pants.  “K-Kuroko-kun…”

As he got you sitting up,he realized you were holding your right arm. His eyes widened dramatically as he caught sight of the arm.  Not only was there sluggishly bleeding scrapesall up the outside of the arm, but it was painfully obvious that your wrist wasbroken.  “It’s okay, ___-san,” he saidgently, hand touching your head hesitantly as if to comfort you.  “I’ll call an ambulance.”

Later, as he sat in thewaiting room of the hospital, his phone rang and he looked down to see Kagami’sgrinning face on the screen.  Sighing,he swiped to answer.  “Hello?”

“Hey.  The others want to know how your date’sgoing.” The taller boy said, like it was an imposition.  Kuroko could hear the others in thebackground.

“Great.” He repliedblankly, with a tiny bit of bite.  “Wespent the afternoon in the hospital. ___-san broke her wrist.”

“WHAT????”

Akashi Seijuro

He knew from minute onewhat his teammates were trying to do. Thus, it was easy to side step their, frankly, laughable efforts.  He didn’t need help winning youraffection, and he certainly didn’t need his bumbling teammates trying to setthe two of you up.

The only one of them thatpossessed any shred of subtlety or finesse was Mibuchi, and he had to spendmost of his time corralling the others. Of course, Mayuzumi could be clever when he wanted to be, but he wasn’tabout to get invested in the state of Akashi’s love life and didn’t see thepoint in interfering.  Akashi respectedhim for his restraint.

But their clumsy attemptsto push him at you and you at him meant that Akashi had to play an exhaustinggame of keep you unaware, because he didn’t want you realizing what hewas about until he was ready to make his move. And sadly, the more they failed miserably to get the two of you together,the harder they tried, which distracted him from his ultimate goals.

Plus, you were smartenough to pick up the on going trend. You watched them all more carefully, lifting an eyebrow when one of theidiots said something super obvious and winked at you, and frankly, Akashi wasstarting to lose his patience with them. Apparently they couldn’t get the message to back off, and maybeit was time to use force.

The Winter Cup tournamentdistracted them somewhat, especially when you became extra ruthless in yourappraisal of their play.  Hayamacomplained bitterly as you worked them harder than you ever had before, but youmerely stood over him, looking down your nose and told him to suck it up ordie.

Honestly, Akashi hadnever been more turned on in his life.

He tucked that memoryaway, to remember when he was alone, and threw himself into conquering thelesser mortals in the tournament.  Hisformer teammates proved to be worthy opponents, mostly, and he had to work hardthan he ever had before.  He wasn’t evensurprised when it was Kuroko that proved his undoing – that quite, almostinvisible boy that had more fight in him than the entirety of the Generation ofMiracles combined.  He never thoughthe’d see the day when sheer tenacity overcame raw talent.  But it was a learning experience, and onehe’d use to get even better in the future.

It was in the aftermathof their loss to Seirin that you came to him and completely upset his planswith regards to you.  Smiling pretty athim, you took his sticky face between your hands and pulled him down into asoft, shallow kiss that sent his normally sharp mind into a tail spin.  “Now they can stop trying quite so hard,ne?” You laughed, winking cheekily.

Akashi sighed, smilingfondly as he returned your kiss with a slightly deeper one of his own.  “Indeed.”

[neni-has-ascended]

Hi Neni. It may be a weird question but do you think, in Ryuji and Morgana's fight after Futaba's join, was Morgana's reaction exaggerated? I really want to like him but almost everyone seems to agree on it's unfair of him to take offense from Ryuji when he constantly treats Ryuji much worse.

Actually, I thought BOTH, Ryuji and Morgana were being absolute morons in that arc, except I found Ryuji even worse, because what he said about Morgana hit all of Morgana’s insecurities (which Ryuji already KNEW about), and not just in a nonchalant way (like Morgana’s teasing), but in a very blunt, striking, harsh way, that must have been like driving a wooden stake into the kitty’s heart.

I couldn’t help but keep comparing the whole thing to the interactions between Yosuke, Kanji and Teddie during P4, but even those never escalated as badly as this, and let me explain why: 

(What follows is a long rant about why Ryuji’s and Morgana’s relationship in that arc is beyond messed up, especially when compared to buddy-relationships in previous Persona games. Note that all of this is my opinion and if you disagree with me, okay. I don’t have a problem with people disagreeing with me. Nice? Nice.)

Back in P4, both, Teddie and Yosuke are very prone to teasing people, a habit Kanji eventually even gets in on when he realizes they’re not actually trying to anger each other (or him) but that it’s just friendly banter. So there exists something of a triangle of teasing between these three; they keep bantering about each other’s weak points, making quips and jokes at each other’s expense and occasionally get into fights. 

The fandom often eyed those three (and some of the girls) with suspicion because of this habit, questioning how exactly this is fair behavior of them, however, I know this behavior just all too well from my family and friends; They’re not trying to offend each other, they’re trying to keep each other’s guard low, so nobody feels like they have to put up a front towards each other. 

That’s why, no matter how bad the teasing get, they try to never take it to the point where they actually hurt each other, and when they do, they feel really sorry for it afterwards; for example Yosuke starts out teasing Teddie about his status as an empty suit in the beginning, however, after the encounter with Teddie’s Shadow, this immediately stops, and Yosuke actually becomes one of the most supportive people towards Teddie trying to live a fill life. Why? Because that moment, Yosuke realized how much Teddie was actually suffering because of his feelings of “being empty” and that making jokes about it was genuinely hurting him, rather than lightening the mood. 

Conversely, Yosuke never makes jokes about Kanji sexuality before they defeat his Shadow, only after. Why? Because at that point, Kanji had outright said that the thing that caused him to suffer wasn’t his sexuality, but his fear of being rejected for his personality. Note how Yosuke NEVER makes jokes about Kanji’s domestic skills or crafting skills; only the embarrassing incidents during the Shadow battles. (Now, the tent scene is a different issue entirely, since that was not teasing, but that belongs in a different post.)

Likewise, Kanji teases Yosuke about his own clumsiness and permanent foot-in-mouth syndrome as well as his inability to get a girlfriend, all things Kanji knows are embarrassing to Yosuke but not so much it’d actively hurt him (again, no teasing about him having illusions of grandeur or about Saki) and Teddie keeps teasing Yosuke and Kanji the same ways they teach each other, and in his case, Teddie even explicitly states a couple of times that he teases them in order to get scolded, because he loves provoking Kansai-style comedy routines with his friends. So basically, a balance exists between these three; They insult each other, but only as much as necessary to keep a casual, light mood among each other, even in dire times. Only rarely do they “brush” the red line, and when they do, they always learn from it and are supportive towards each other.

Now, back to Persona 5:

Yes; Morgana teases Ryuji a lot, but in his case, it actually seems pretty similar to the way in which Yosuke teases Teddie: Morgana always jabs at things Ryuji is NOT actively insecure about, just things that will make him slightly annoyed, embarrassed or defensive. He’s just jovially trying to get a reaction out of him, something that can be seen when paying attention to all the times Morgana actually praises Ryuji (yes, there are quite a few), all of which seem far more sincere than his teasing. At no point is Morgana actively being cruel to Ryuji; he’s just being a smug little shit for his (and the rest of the team’s) amusement. Remember, Morgana teases Ryuji about stuff like not being a genius, occasionally being a clutz and acting before thinking; we all know that Ryuji’s actual securities lie elsewhere; his inability to run like he used to, his feelings like he doesn’t belong anywhere anymore, feeling helpless in the face of injustice.... None of these are things Morgana ever attacks, because Morgana knows better than to be that cruel. 

Now, Ryuji was there when Morgana showed his first signs of weakness. He was there when Morgana started mumbling to himself about things he claimed to be absolutely sure of, he was there when Morgana started adding “probably”s to his sentences when talking about certain subjects. In other words: With just a little bit of thinking and consideration, Ryuji should KNOW that calling Morgana “useless” is just about the cruelest thing you can do to him. It’s the equivalent of calling Teddie an “empty shell” or calling Kanji a “gross boy”. It’s not a joke, it’s a cruel reminder of all the facts his internal Shadow probably keeps whispering into his ears at night; about having a mission he’ll never be able to fulfill, because he’s just a stupid, useless, small, weak cat, who can’t help the world, can’t help humans, can’t be like humans, can’t have ambitions and dreams and desires that will actually come true-

What I’m trying to say is, yes, Morgana has teased Ryuji a lot before. However, this is NOT what this fight was about. This was about Ryuji actively taunting Morgana with his greatest insecurity; an insecurity he should have known about at that point. I’m not saying that Ryuji was actively trying to hurt Morgana; I’m saying he didn’t think, charged into giving his two cents on the situation, bluntly, and without any consideration of who he was talking to, and it backfired spectacularly. Then, when all was said and done, he realized he made a mistake, yet refused to apologize for it, and that’s where I draw the line. 

That’s something NONE of the characters from previous games would never have done. You’d never find Eikichi or Lisa seriously hurting each other without apologizing or at least showing remorse or active support towards the other party afterwards. Same for Junpei and SEES. Same for the entire IT. 

In the entire series, Ryuji is the only character involved in a teasing-constellation so far, who’s actually seriously hurt another character with his teasing and has refused to be remorseful about it. 

Was Morgana a moron with the way he reacted to it, leaving the team and trying to do everything on his own, downright opposing and obstructing the others to a point? HELL YES. He could have seriously sabotaged the whole mission, let alone possibly getting himself and Haru killed. 

But the way Ryuji just refused to give a honest, heartfelt and non-backhanded apology to Morgana for his tease-gone-wrong, as well as his utter lack of caring for Morgana’s well-being in the time he’s MIA just baffled me. I’m sorry for my continued comparisons to P4, but it has to be here: Yosuke, the character who got teased the most by Teddie and also dished out the most teasing to Teddie out of everyone, was the one who was the most obviously terrified when Teddie suddenly went missing and didn’t answer their calls. He seemed to be minutes away from bawling right alongside Rise. 

Compare that to how Ryuji acts when Morgana goes missing and tell me again the IT has a messed up definition of friendship, while the PT are “perfect Nakama”. 

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket, Se3, ep10 (part 2)

-Yuki’s stages of growth:

I love yuki! I used to say that yuki’s growth is the most clear & steady going, it was done with much care & involving the audience in every step. However, I now think there is sth missing from his last stage of growth. Yuki’s growth is divided into 3 stages:

Realizing his weakness ( Mom’s tohru stage), in se01 & most of se02, took way longer than it should, imo. But the ideas were well-written, the concept of needing a maternal figure is original & we connected with him a lot.

Searching for himself ( Kakeru stage & friendship) in se02, took appropriate time. well-written, gradual, clear & fulfilling.

Becoming his own person ( Machi) & (kyo: altho this new dynamics just started) in se03. very little time, hasty development.

I’ve talked abt stage 1 & 2 enough. I loved the ideas, the struggle & the writing. I had few complains about how excessive the tohru-stage was & how it could’ve been reduced to benefit both tohru & yuki without stealing anything from their growth. Now, we see the consequences of not planning yuki’s growth moderately throughout the 3 seasons. The biggest element that suffered is his stage as a normal teenage guy with normal romantic feelings to contradict his child-like stage when he needed a motherly care & support from another female his age. By the time se03 started lots of characters with their arcs not starting yet needed the spotlight! Yuki was a character in the final stage of his arc, so his entire romantic journey condensed to (a) fixing machi’s issues to create a bond: se03, e03, (b) deciding to confess the curse & feelings: se03 ep.5. Their relationship can happen off-screen as well, that’s fine, but the audience who spent 2 seasons hearing yuki’s thoughts abt realizing his struggle to acknowledge a motherly love, should have been involved in yuki’s thoughts in realizing a romantic love. All you need, is a very short access to yuki’s thoughts. Him looking at her while doing student council activities & telling us he loves her, not him grabbing her hand  thinking “ oh gotta tell her my biggest secret & test her love to me”. So, it is a shame normal teenage boy yuki in love part is missing before the confession & becoming an official couple.

-Yuki’s growth after facing kyo:

This part that is confusing me. Part of making yuki become his own person is making him face kyo & they both set their differences aside & connect. They both becoming free from the “ I hate you” that the sohma system constructed & their trauma reinforced. This is huge as you can connect it to the zodiac legend: The cat never hated the rat for tricking it & the rat was never bad. The whole legend crumbles down as the two zodiacs connect.

--During the fight: yuki was his real self: someone who cares for others with burning passion. Yuki completely dropped down any remaining attachment to his mask & was his most open & emotional stage. The boys connected in a dark dim-let hallway between their rooms. Signaling they met in the middle. Now they see eye to eye.

--After the fight: Kyo left the darkness into the sunny streets, decided to face his dad & reconcile with his past, was rewarded with the knowledge that he didn’t have anything to do with his mom’s death. He left his dad’s house determined to chase his life. Move forward. He had doubts again as he neared tohru but those doubts added humanity & realistic reluctance. You just dont go 100% strong suddenly. But it is so weird that yuki kinda regressed a little after the fight?? he stayed in the dark dim-let hallway? why? His body language confused me so much!

Yuki looked broken, hugging himself, hiding his face, head buried, exactly as he was in akito’s room in his flashbacks!!!

We hear the same voice-over from the ep opener abt mistakes & trails. The voice-over fits kyo so much but it is so weird attached to yuki now in this exact stage after the fight while he’s sad? Why is yuki sad to begin with??? Is it because yuki is the writer & she needed to comment on kyo’s state thro yuki’s voice-over? This has been done before in se02, ep14. But why attach it with sad imagery of yuki? the voice-over can be attached to him being relived, calm & collected.

Shouldn’t he be relived & liberated knowing the guy who hated him & hurt him was in reality admiring him all this time?! Shouldn’t he be proud of himself for standing up to tohru? for opening up abt his feelings?

Shouldn’t he be happy to empty his chest from the long hidden secret of admiring kyo! Shouldn’t he be clear headed now? stronger? like how kyo is stronger now?

Shouldn’t he be glad that he helped kyo get his act together. He did another person whom he presumably hate a favor just like tohru did him a favor. I’m not saying he should be happily jumping in the house, lol, but he shouldn’t be sad, too!

Why staying in the dark? Why sulking? Why having existential thoughts abt life in general until machi saved him from all that with her call.

-Kureno/ Arisa/ Akito: (the end of the non-existence triangle):

Arisa unexpectedly found out the man she loved is hospitalized. Akito tells her I stabbed him. Arisa hugs her. I’m sorry, but what? XD. Shouldn’t Arisa at least say: what? is he okay? Not judging, but why did you stab him? I mean even if Arisa is okay with akito & all, but as a first reaction that was so weirdly-written, lol. I get the need to hastily close this chapter, But I duno it could’ve been written better even with the intention of making Arisa hug akito. oh well~ moving on. Arisa says she’s sorry she wasnt in kureno’s 26 years & I was like yeah, cuz you weren’t born yet, girl! You can plan to spend the rest of your life with him, but I fail to see the romance in the sentiment of feeling left out from the life of a person older than me. I simply wasn’t born. Anyway, moving on~ He then tells her he needs to leave /break up with akito for akito’s sake! oh, kureno, you’re such a kind/fool guy, but OMG, do I wish to hear my crush/lover say he’ll break up with his ex for his ex’s sake!  I get this is Airisa thing, to love foolish/kind ppl. I get it. She appreciate that & wasn't offended. But I cant help feeling those lines weren’t romantic at all! Moving on ~again~ she then tells him, she’ll follow him & won’t say why. Teasing him that she loves him. so cute! but also such a teenage girl thing to say, so....~~ lol.. Now, really Moving on ~ He’s cute, she’s gorgeous, so, their ship sailed~

-Running towards the future: (wanting you)

The ep closed with both kyo & yuki chasing their future in union. Kyo determined but worried, yuki surprised but blushing. Machi took yuki from the darkness of his hallway to the sunny streets to give him sth, unknowingly setting their 1st date! Tohru runs away from kyo, which he responded by more determination contradicting his defeated self when tohru confessed to him in ep8. Can I say seeing kyo runs after tohru is so fulfilling after seeing him push her away! yes, tohru, give him hard time! yes, make him bend da knee, queen! XD. I guess next ep we’ll see two confessions!

I can’t say much abt yuki/machi confession as I don’t know their romantic dynamics at all, but I have no doubt the director will make yuki’s confession worthy to compensate the lack of their growth as a romantic ship! can’t wait!!

As for kyoru, oh boy~ tohru looks hurt, as expected! her eyes are tearful. Kyo has to show her the old defeated, broken & accepting-death boy is gone now! he’ll have to show her how much he wants her!  That’s the key word: “ it is crazy how much I want her” ~ the boy who thought he deserved nothing but death is now actively wanting the best girl in all anime! Miss. Tohru Honda. My girl!

Side Notes:

I appreciate the personal privacy theme in furuba: no one knows the details of any couples fights or loves except them. Hatori/kana, hatori/mayoko: except shigre the matchmaker!, tohru/kyo: except yuki heard by chance & neither tohru nor kyo talked abt their fight to anybody, but everybody knows those two fools in love, XD. Yuki/machi: kyo didnt even know yuki is thinking of someone. but then again, I dont know if machi herself knows yet. shigure/akito: ok, I’ll skip this one until I’m confident I can express/ understand it. lol

Kyo’s face as he left his dad’s house! the determination! so proud of him!! but kyo’s I’m-so-crazily-in-love face is kyo’s best face, tho. The tenderness!

I’m the girl who rolls her eyes when someone tricks me to watch a “romantic film, like The Notebook” ... Also, i’m the girl who screamed when kyo chased tohru in a typical romcom fashion! XD. Takaya-san, what did you do to me?! AAAAAAAA~~

Kyo’s questions of why? how? what? he loves abt tohru, then ahh~ I just love her... I want her~ then the “ ppl shouldn't run when getting out of hospital” are the best tension release after the scumbag dad scene! I was amused, in tears, laughing, crying, cheering & above all! so happy!

MACHI was not allowed to turn her face to the viewers the entire ep! WHY!!!!!!!! T_T. You could’ve shown me her face as she was worried that tohru is yuki’s gf. or her shock at hearing ? mom? T_T.

haru is love. haru is dumb. haru is the best. lol.

Kakeru responding with ease “ she’s his mom” is the best & most realistic thing a friend should do to his friend! XD.

Why doesn't kyo (who is rich btw) own sneakers with different colors? lol. why the exact same color! is tohru the only one allowed to change designs? XD.

Yuki’s outfit today is his best outfit! Also, if blushing yuki is yuki’s default face in his romantic time with machi! then it is so refreshing! altho, i think machi is the blusher. lol. I duno, they both blush? maybe he’s similar to how haru is? I guess, we’ll know next ep! =D

Question: what was the joke in haru’s scene abt entering the house when yuki hit him & said so crass? I dont get it..... lol

Shigure was allowed to use his old jokes abt wrecking his house. I missed those! XD

Furuba’s voice-overs are always badly implemented. Now we have two voice overs of yuki with the same content exactly: one in the ep opener & one near the end. why couldn’t one be enough? Why repeat the same speech twice? this reduces its value & hinders the animation dynamics.