#-sends off an explosion near him- ‘Woah careful there!! Is he okay??!!’ ‘What are you a baby it’s just a lil explosion he’ll be fine’

[fumifooms]

thanks for infecting me with marchil its so so fun to just see them pair themselves up in the background now

especially love how much she picks him up like a cat (and when he has the opportunity to do it to her too he just lugs her around like a sack of oats) gosh i love them they're so funny

YAAAAAA 🎉🎉 I’m so glad to hear it welcome to the sillies corner 🤝

THEY’RE SOOO SO FUNNY

They’re worsties that cannot get enough of each other

[nights-legacy]

I Don't Cuddle Pt. 2 - Bakugo

(Note: I am taking requests for MHA/BNHA imagines, headcanons, etc. I have a request post pinned on my blog you can turn to for the rules and guidelines. Thank you!)

+3453 words

+Training at the USJ was awkward to say the least. You avoiding Bkaugo and his friends at all cost. During training, things seemed to be going fine but it was a little quiet. Once your team finishes, a panicked Kaminari runs up saying there was an accident and Bakugo was hurt. After everything was said and done, Bakugo wakes up in Recovery Girl’s office with you by his side.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3rd POV

You are a relatively decent student when it came to behavior so you didn’t always piss off Aizawa. You as well are normally very confident in yourself, so your melancholy behavior has not slipped past him. You had gotten calmed down before making it the USJ but there was still tear tracks on her face. That confirmed Aizawa’s suspicion that something had happened.

His eyes travelled next to the angry blonde that was abnormally not angry and calm. Aizawa noticed the look of pain and regret in Bakugo’s eyes. It normally would be impossible to see but to his trained eye it was clear. He knew about the two being together but kept to himself. By the way they were acting, something had happened between the two.

Y/N’s POV

I rubbed my face and tried to remove any trace that I was crying. I steadied my breathing as we walked in. I needed to focus on training right now, not the pain. Aizawa instructed us on what we were going. Recon and ambush training. When he split the class into groups, I saw him look between me and Kat as he said our groups.

“At least, you’re not paired with him like normal.” Jiro said. I nodded. I felt an arm go around my shoulders. I looked over and saw Sero. He just gave me a sad smile, not saying anything. He hugged me before letting go.

Training went as normal as training with Class 1-A can be. Midoriya going all out, a few others following after him, and the rest of us along for the ride. One thing I did notice that wasn’t normal was I didn’t hear explosions or yelling. I shook it off.

“That was awesome.” Midoriya cheered. I couldn’t tell if it was from the thrill or the fact that he didn’t break any of his bones. I chuckled at him and I felt a litter better but I was still hurt. We got up to the Central Plaza when Kaminari came bolting towards us.

“Woah, where’s the fire?” Midoriya asked before blanching. He looked at Todorki and apologized. Todoroki just shrugged. We laughed at the exchange.

“It’s Bakugo.” My head whipped in his direction. “He’s hurt and trapped. We need help, Kiri can’t hold out much longer.”

“Where?” Aizawa showed up quick.

“Ruins zone.” Kami said. We all ran, following Kami. We came up to large pile of rubble that had an opening off to one side. “In there. Bakugo is unconscious and Kiri, Tokoyami, and Ojiro are trying to get him out.”

“Okay. Kaminari, you’ve done enough. Go off to the side. Uraraka, L/N, and Shoji we me inside. Everyone else be on stand-by. The rest of this could go at any moment.” Aizawa instructed. He ran towards the opening with the other two followed. I stalled a little before going in behind them. It was a mess in there.

“Come on, over here!” I heard Kiri yell. I stumbled over and froze when I saw Bakugo face down, unconscious and caught under a large piece of rubble. I could see blood from where I stood. I urged myself to move forward.

“Uraraka. Get the pressure of Kirishima. Once he’s out of the way, I want you to make a pillar to hold up the rubble, L/N.” I nodded. We ran over to Kiri and I gave Uraraka step to get up and hit the rock. Kiri groaned as soon as the weight was lifted.

“Hurry, I can’t hold it long at all.” Uraraka clenched her teeth. I nodded and pulled Kiri out of the way. I immediately moved and moved the earth underneath to make a pillar. “Release!”

“Kiri, go out with Kami. He’s out with the rest.”

“But I have to help with…”

“No. You’ve done enough Kiri.” I said and set a hand on his shoulder. “You kept him alive until we got here. Go on.” He sighed looking between me and Bakugo.

“Are you going to be alright?” I took a breath and held it. I just pushed him along before joining Aizawa.

“Can you tell how much rubble is behind this?” Aizawa looked at me. I reached out and hit the rubble, sending a vibration through the rock and concrete. There were a couple rather large pieces behind and above.

“There’s a few big pieces behind and a mixture above and around. One wrong move and other portions could collapse in. I could stop a lot but not everything. I’m not strong enough in my Earth bending part yet.” He nodded in understanding. A rumble caught all of our attentions. “And it is nowhere near stable. The best bet if digging underneath him. Just enough to get him out but not cause a collapse.”

“Shoji. Start getting away as much loose debris around here as you can. Uraraka go out and get Momo in here.” They followed immediately. “L/N, I want you to focus on the rubble keep as much of it up and from falling on us.”

“Right.” I went to stand as Aizawa moved off but I caught sight of Bakugo. I reached down and brushed his spikey, soft hair back and removed his torn mask. Even with all the dust and the little blood on his face, I saw tear tracks. I ran a thumb across his face, wiping away some of the grime. He was hurting as much as I was.

“L/N.” I heard Aizawa said softly. I looked up at him startled. He had his our version of a comforting look on his face. “We’ll get him out and he’ll be alright but we need to move now.”

“Right.” I stumbled up and stood off to the side. I closed my eyes and took a big breath to clear my mind. I got into ready position. I saw Momo had created some shovels and while Uraraka had Bakugo levitating, they dug under him.

“Be careful now.” Aizawa said as they got close. Shoji stood off to the side, ready to pick up Bakugo. Suddenly, another rumble sounded and the entrance was blocked off. “Shit. Hurry. L/N, now.”

“Okay.” I shifted the rock that was pining him and they got him out. The whole structure moved when I place the rock on the ground. The little space shifted the entire thing.

“Come on, this place is about to go.” Shoji picked up Bakugo, Momo, and Uraraka. I ran ahead and checked for a thin spot in the rubble.

“Jiro, if you can hear me, get everyone back.” I said out loud as I found. “Be ready to move.” I turned and gave a swift and hard side kick to the rubble. It burst out and at the same time I shift and make the opening stable enough for all of us to get through. I was the last one out and let the rubble go. Loud crashing sounded behind me.

“Thank god!”

“Are you guys alright?”

“How’s Kacchan?”

“That was insane.” Mutiple people came running over concerned and ready to help. I was bent over, hands on my knees and trying to catch my breath. I felt my legs give out but an arm around my waist caught me. I looked up and saw Sero. I gave him a nod in thanks and he smiled in return. He helped me walk over to Aizawa and Bakugo.

“Bakugo is alright but he will be better when we get him back to recovery girl. Come on. Everyone back to the bus.” Aizawa picked up Bakugo before looking back at me. “Are you alright?”

“Fine. Just worn out.” I said. He nodded before looking at someone behind me. I closed my eyes before I felt myself being picked up bridal style. I yelped before opening my eyes to see Todoroki carring me. I looked over his shoulder to see Sero had moved to help Kaminari with Kirishima. “Thanks, Todoroki.”

“It’s fine.” He gave me a small smile.

~Time Skip-3rd POV~

The lights in Recovery Girl’s office were dimmed. Hours had passed since the class had returned and it was now early evening. Bakugo had been checked over and was given a good report. Just banged up and bruised. Nothing the boy couldn’t bounce back from. The rest of the day the class had been given off with the only requirement of the students who hadn’t been involved in the rescue to write a report on their view and how they felt the situation was handle; correctly or something they would have done differently.

It was nearing 7pm when Bakugo began to rouse from his unconscious state. He groaned quietly as he opened his eyes. Since the lights were dimmed and the sun had set, his didn’t have much to adjust too. He looked around trying to place where he was.

“Shit.” He groaned, throwing his head back against the bed as pain shot up from his right leg. He moved the blanket slowly and saw the bandages. He let the blanket drop before staring at the ceiling. A soft coo caught his attention. He looked to his left and saw L/N curled up in a ball on a chair that was pushed up against the bed.

“Mmm.” She squirmed in her sleep. She had her hand up and it was originally on top of Bakugo’s but had fallen off in her sleep. Bakugo was surprised to see her there. He reached up with his left hand and ran it through her hair.

“L/N.” He gently called, trying to wake her. She stirred only a little. He smiled at the girl’s cuteness before trying again. “L/N. Hey baby come on, wake up for me please.”

“Huh?” She moaned softly before looking up and looking at him. It took a few seconds to realize he was awake. “Baku!” She shot up and stood over the edge of the bed. She cupped his face, looking him over. “How are you feeling? Is there any pain? I am going to go get Recovery Girl.”

“Wait, wait.” He said, barely catching her arm as she went to run. He groaned at the pull of his sore muscles. She froze before moving to sit next to him and wrapping his hand in hers. “What happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No. I remember getting to the USJ but not much else.”

~Y/N’s POV~

“Oh.” I stared at him in shock for a moment. “Um, you, Kiri, Kami, and a few other were in the Ruin Zone. Something caused one of the buildings to collapse right on top of you guys. You got knocked out and Kiri was holding up the rubble the best he could. Kaminari came and got the rest of the class and Aizawa. You were pinned beneath rubble so we had to rescue you. Aizawa, Momo, Uraraka, Shoji, and myself.”

“Shit.” He ran his hand through his hair before placing it on the back of his head. “That explains the pain. Now that you say that, the before is coming back to me. I was distracted and I guess it bit me in the ass.” He sighed and I gripped his hand tighter. “Why are you here?”

“Oh, um. I-I…” I gulped looked away. I pulled my hand from his, feeling tears coming on again. I got up. “I’ll go get Recovery Girl.” I went to walk away.

“Wait, no!” He yelled in desperation. I looked at him surprised. I saw panic, pain, and sorrow on his face. He looked close to having a panic attack. “Please, that’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?” I whispered. I cross my hands over my stomach.

“I meant that why are you here when I treated you so badly. I treated you like shit and you were avoiding me. Why are you here now?” He looked away embarrassed. I let my arms fall and sat on the edge of the bed. It was silent for a minute.

“I am here because I was so freaking scared. When Kami came running saying you were hurt, I felt like my heart stopped. I was already worried because I hadn’t heard any explosions and when we got to where you were and I saw your unconscious…bloody body, I froze. I was so scared that you were dead or dying. Just because we had a stupid dispute doesn’t mean I don’t care for my own boyfriend anymore. I rather be here making sure you’re okay then knowing you’re here hurt and alone and avoiding you.”

“Baby.” His voice shook. I could feel the tears running down my face. I looked at him and saw he was crying too. He reached his hand out. “Please come here.”

“Mmph.” A noise ripped from my chest as he pulled me into his chest. I was draped across him while he buried his head in my neck. He sobbed. I was surprised but held onto him, running my hand through his hair until he calmed down.

“I am so sorry.” He said. He pulled back and sat up straight. I reached for couple tissues. He took them and cleaned himself up. After throwing them away he place his hand on my bicep. “I shouldn’t have reacted that way and I never should have pushed you that way and yelled that way. You’re so fucking amazing and I did that.”

“Bakugo.”

“I should have just something more subtle but no I had to launch you across the room. Damn.” I felt his grip on my arm tighten.

“Bakugo.”

“I would even blame you if you wanted to break up with me. I wouldn’t even try and stop you no matter how much it would break my heart. I…”

“Bakugo! Enough.” I yelled and cupped his face. His eyes opened wide. I sighed when I had his attention. “Would I have stayed here for this long if I wanted to break up with you? I may be hurt by your actions but I have no plans to break up with you. Seeing you like that made me realize that I would rather have disputes and fights like that instead of never being able to hold your hand, kiss you, or…cuddle with you ever again.”

“Y/N…” He bit his lip and gave me a watery chuckled. He looked to the ceiling trying not to cry again while grabbing onto my wrists. I smiled. “I can’t believe…Please tell me I’m not dreaming or in a coma making up a new reality because I screwed up the real one.”

“You’re not doing any of that. I’m right here.” I said leaning back. He looked at me, rubbing the tears from his face. I saw a familiar smirk grow onto his face.

“Come here.” He pulled me in and twisted us around where we were cuddling, facing each other. I yelped and laughed out loud before nuzzling into his neck. He pulled me in close and wrapped his arm around my waist.

“What happens if someone walks in?”

“Let ‘em see. I don’t have to explain one single thing to those extras.” He growled, burying his face in my hair. I felt and heard him breathe in deep. I sighed cuddling him in closer.

“Well what was it you said? Actions speak louder than words?” I said. I felt his chest rumble with laughter.

“Yeah. Exactly.” He whispered. I gathered he was growing tired again. I moved my hand up and started rubbing circles in the middle of his back. I felt him relax in my arms before I heard snores in my ear. I smiled and reached into my back pocket for my phone. I unlocked it and pulled up my conversation Jiro.

I put the phone back in my pockets before looking up at Bakugo. He had such a soft look on his face that if I didn’t know him the way I do, I wouldn’t think it was him. I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair, absentmindedly twisting a few locks. He made a small noise before burrowing his head further into my hair.

“Softie.” I whispered before setting my arm down comfortably and closing my eyes.

Just as I was about to drift off, the door opened. I looked over my shoulder to see Aizawa and Recovery Girl. She smiled warmly as she went over to her desk. Aizawa came over with his arms crossed.

“Get some sleep yourself. You’ve had a long day too.” He said softly. My eyes widen, thinking he was going to make me get up. “I know better than to try and break up you too up right now. You guys have had a rough time lately from what I heard from the girls, Sero and Kirishima. Even before the accident.”

“You knew we were together, didn’t you?” He smirked softly and nodded.

“I had a feeling but a comment from Mic a while back just solidified it.”

“Shut up.” A groan came from Bakugo. He shifted onto his back and pulled me into his side.

“Goodnight you two.” Aizawa chuckled before closing the curtain around us. I heard him go and talk to Recovery Girl. I shifted to be more comfortable and set my head on his chest. It wasn’t long before I was out.

“Hey dumbass.” I heard a faint voice. “Wake up.”

“Why?” I groaned, burying my head and curling up. A gravely chuckle made me look up. I saw Bakugo smiling down at me. “What time is it?”

“About…” He looked up at the clock, squinting. “8:05.”

“Hmm.” I set my head back down. I felt his hand weave into my hair before massaging my scalp. I crooned before blushing and covering my mouth. He laughed before setting up. I laid back against the bed. He moved to lean over me.

“We’re alright, right?” He asked meekly, hope in his eyes. I smiled softly, reaching up to cup his face. I nodded before gently pulling him down. We kissed each other sweetly before it turned warmer and possessive on Bakugo’s part.

“Damn, if that doesn’t wake me up, I don’t know what will.” I said. He smirked above me before shifting down and laying down with his head on my chest. My hands immediately found their way onto his bicep and hair. He hummed in delight. A thought came to mind in the silence. “You called me by my name.”

“Huh?” He looked up at me, confused.

“Last night. You called me by my first name.” He blushed before returning his head to my chest.

“Yeah? What of it? I can keep calling you dumbass if you like but I figured you’d want me to call you by your name. But whatever.” I kept my chuckle to myself, knowing he was embarrassed.

“It’s fine, Katsuki.” I felt him tense before relaxing again. I kissed his head. We were just enjoying the moment until a certain yellow-haired energy ball came yelling.

“Bakubro!!” He ripped open the curtain causing me to jump in fright. Bakugo didn’t move but sighed in annoyance.

“Kaminari!!” Jiro came after chiding him but they both froze when they saw us. Kiri came up behind them and looked up from his phone, undeterred by the situation.

“We hoped you were awake. We brought breakfast.”

“Oh yeah?” Katsuki pushed up and sat next to me, throwing his arm over my shoulder. “Hope it’s not terrible because you’re a shit cook.”

“Hey!” They went on arguing and I shared a look with Jiro. She shook her head in exasperation and sat in a chair next to the bed. Things were back to normal. I saw Midoriya sneak in behind Kami and freeze just like him.

“Wait a minute!” Kamari yelled. We all looked at the two as they shared a look.

“Kacchan and L/N are dating?” They said at the same time. All of us burst out laughing at the same time. Well, how about a new normal.

“Yeah guys they are but don’t feel too bad. We only found out yesterday and this morning.” Kiri said giving a side eye to Kat. He returned with a normal sneer.

“What Shitty hair? Got a problem with that?” He then smirked. “Jealous or something?”

“No problem! Not at all.”

“Are you feeling alright Kacchan? That was a pretty nasty accident.” Midoriya asked.

“I’m fine, Deku! Nothing I can’t come back from.” Midoriya nodded and we all fell into conversation. After a bit and we ate our food, I felt Kat lean against me more. He leant his head against mine and nosed my hair. I smiled, nuzzling back.

“So you do cuddle.” I whispered. He growled halfheartedly before pulling me closer.

“Shut up.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tags: @dillybuggg @cloudsgathering @spicy-therapist-mom @xoxo-teddybear

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (4/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Shades of Gray}

“Thanks, but I'll pass,” Valerie scoffed.

The trio’s ghost senses went off and Sam turned away from the popular girl. I got it. “Same.”

Danny opened his Space Fold while Tucker distracted Valerie, dropping the thermos into Sam’s waiting hand before she climbed onto her scooter to ride off.

“Are you sure you don’t want an-”

“I’m sure,” she scoffed, shoving Tucker away. “Get lost.”

Suddenly the ground began to shake and the ghost dog burst from the ground.

Danny gasped and ducked to the side as Valerie’s dresser was knocked over. His eyes flickered red as he used a bit of ghost strength to catch it before it could fall into the street.

“Wow, nice catch, loser.”

Danny quickly pushed the dresser upright and let go of his ghost power before Valerie came into view. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Thanks, I think.”

“No, thank you.” She looked over the dresser, sighing with relief. She turned to him with a critical eye. “You’re stronger than you look.”

Danny didn’t get a chance to answer before he was plowed over by a ghost puppy.

“Danny!”

As Danny groaned and rubbed his head, the puppy yapped and licked his cheek. He looked up to see it prancing on his chest with its little flame tail wagging. He turned to Tucker and Valerie, who were staring. “Uh, help?”

“Got it,” Sam said, appearing at his side to scoop up the dog by its collar.

The dog immediately started growling and Sam dropped it as it grew into its giant form. Danny scrambled away, but it kept its eyes on the ghost girl.

She flew back as it snapped at her, holding her hands up. “Easy there!”

It crouched down, hackles raised and Sam prepared her ecto blasts.

Without thinking, Danny opened his Space Fold and the dog disappeared inside.

Sam hesitated, glanced at Danny, then shook her fist. “And stay gone!”

“You!” Valerie growled. “Whatever you are, get out of here! You and you're stupid dog have done enough!”

Sam scowled back. “The dog’s not ours. We’re a cat person.”

Danny frowned. I object.

Overruled, Tucker and Sam both said.

“We?” Valerie asked.

Sam gestured to herself. “We.”

“You’re referring to yourself as we? What a weirdo.”

“And here we were about to apologize for what happened to the lab,” Sam snorted and turned invisible. “Nevermind. Have a nice life.”

“You little freak!”

Danny and Tucker shared a look as Danny got up. “Well, I gotta go. Uh, my parents. They’ll want to know about the, uh, ghost sighting.”

“Ghosts?” Valerie asked as he went to his scooter. “Oh my gosh! Those were ghosts?”

“Yeah, hence the whole flying and invisibility and stuff,” Danny said before riding off.

“Why does he need to tell his parents?”

“Oh, Danny’s parents are professional ghost hunters. Kind of,” Tucker said awkwardly. “Didn’t you know?”

“No.” She watched the paler boy turn the corner then turned to Tucker with a flirtatious smile. “Is that offer of help still good?”

“Y-yeah, absolutely!”

“Where’s Tucker?” Sam asked as she met Danny in human form.

He shrugged. Tuck?

I’ll catch up!

The two rolled their eyes.

“How long do you think he’s going to be hanging around her until he realizes she’s not interested?”

“Too long,” Sam said and the two sent off. “Now, why’d you send the dog to the fold? I could have taken it.”

Danny shrugged. “You were going to blast it. You can’t blast a dog.”

“It’s not a dog, it’s a ghost.” She looked over at him with narrowed eyes. “We can’t keep him, Danny.”

“I don’t want to keep him. He’s a menace. I just don’t want to see him blasted.”

“Is that why you didn’t send him to the ghost zone?”

“I did,” Danny huffed. “He just got back out.”

“And now he’s trashing the fold.”

Danny tilted his head. “I don’t think he is. It’s quiet inside.”

“Whatever. You better not have anything of mine in there.”

Danny bit his lip. Did he return that spider plushy he’d borrowed from Sam to use as a pillow last week? “Maybe I should check on him.”

He ignored her glare as he slipped into an alley. After being sure no one could see him, he poked his head into the fold. Thankfully it hadn’t found the plushie, though it was chewing on the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick in its puppy form.

The dog looked up at him and started wagging its tail, so he quickly pulled his head out. “He’s good.”

Sam shook her head. “You’re lucky Audrey II’s not in there anymore.”

“Oh yeah, how’re the Fenton Shears working?”

“Perfect. Strangely enough, she actually likes to be pruned.”

“Yap!”

The two turned to see the ghost dog’s head sticking out of empty air. It gave a dog-smile before its head was replaced by paws making digging motions. Slowly a hole in the air formed, revealing the Space Fold. The dog jumped through the hole and into Danny’s arms.

“Woah!”

“I guess we know how it’s getting out of the Ghost Zone now,” Sam said, looking between the hole and the dog.

“Bad Cujo, no digging,” Danny said, shifting the dog into one arm and waving a finger in its face.

“Don’t name it!” Sam snapped. Then flinched back when the dog started to growl at her.

“No, no, it’s okay. Sam’s a friend.” Danny scratched the dog under its chin and it relaxed.

“You’re getting attached.”

“Am not.” Danny grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled it closed. “I’m just trying to keep it from hulking out.”

Sam made a disbelieving sound and knelt so she could see the dog better without getting closer. “It’s got the Axion Labs logo on its collar.”

“What? Oh yeah, I saw that earlier. It must have slipped my mind after the rampage.”

She transformed and lifted off the ground. “That’s the first place he hit. Maybe there’s something there that could help us get rid of him. He could be an old guard dog. We’ll check it out. Keep him calm.”

“Why me?”

Sam stuck her hand towards him and the dog started growling.

“Alright, fair. But what do I do with him?”

“Train him? Play with him? Take him for a walk? Ghost dog or not, he's still a dog… We think. Good luck!”

Danny glared as she flew off, then looked down at the dog. “Guess it’s just you and me… Wanna take a walk through the ghost zone?”

Cujo gave a yap and wiggled in his arms excitedly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I think I’m actually going to miss him. The look on Skulker’s face when he stole his leg was priceless.”

“What did I say about getting attached?”

Tucker rolled his eyes as he walked invisibly across the outside of a warehouse. “We still can’t believe this was all over a squeaky toy.”

“Just be glad I took care of it before something really bad happened,” Sam said.

An explosion just missed Tucker, who darted away with a yelp.

“TUCKER?”

He turned to see a woman in full-body red hazmat standing on a hoverboard holding a grenade launcher. He took off, but she followed. “We might need some help. There’s a girl here with a really big gun and she’s not setting off our ghost sense.”

“I’m not far. I’ll be there in a second,” Danny said and hung up.

“A human hunter? And it’s not Danny’s mom?” Sam asked.

“Nope. And she can see us while we’re invisible.”

A blast flew past him.

“Her aim isn’t good though. Can’t be our mom then, her aim is scary,” Danny and Tucker said as Danny came near.

Tucker turned a corner and Danny was there, raising a shield as the hunter threw a handful of throwing stars. Only a few made it to them, and even then they bounced off the shield.

“What? There’s two of you?” the hunter said, pulling to a stop.

“Duplication,” they said, shrugging.

“Wait? Is that Valerie?” Sam asked.

“Valerie?” they said, surprised.

The hunter flinched back. “How did y- It doesn’t matter. I’m ending you.”

The two shared a look, then Tucker held out his hand toward the hoverboard.

Nothing happened.

“Ugh, technokinesis proof,” they groaned.

She fired the grenade launcher at them and the shield shattered.

The two groaned as they pulled themselves out of their shared crater. “We can’t fight her, we’ll hurt her. She doesn’t seem to care about hurting us. Don’t we have a crush on her? Not anymore. We hate technokinesis proof tech. Well, at least some good came out of this. Now go.”

Tucker glared, but dove into the ground while Danny flew past the girl.

She took the bait and chased after the faster of the halfas, letting Tucker slip away.

As soon as his partner was safe, Danny waved at Valerie then began flying through buildings until the hunter, unable to go intangible, lost him.

{Fanning the Flames}

“I think we’re the only ones in the whole school who aren’t obsessed with Ember,” Tucker said as they passed yet another of their classmates wearing the rocker’s swag.

“I don’t get it!” Danny said with a frown. “She comes outta nowhere and suddenly she’s the biggest thing since iPhones! It’s so -”

“Infuriating how mindless pre-packaged corporate bubble gum is preventing true musical artists from being heard?” Sam interrupted.

“I was gonna say weird, but, uh, okay.”

“I’m with Sam. She’s okay, but there are way better groups out there who don’t get anywhere near enough spotlight.”

“We’re not listening to your Swedish pop-techno music,” Sam said. “I’d rather listen to -”

The trio stopped as they came to a school hallway that had been vandalized with posters, stickers, and banners for Ember McLain.

“Ember.”

Paulina came up to them wearing an Ember shirt with matching pants. She looked at Sam and scoffed. “Nice earrings. Sale at the 89 cent store?”

Sam’s hand came up to the Fenton Phones she was wearing. Danny’s parents had invented them to filter out spectral noise, but they also worked as wireless headphones and long-range communicators. The trio had taken to using them during lone patrols and ghost fights that separated them enough that their link couldn’t reach. While the boys only really wore them then, Sam wore them often since she thought they made great techno-goth earrings.

She dropped her hand and gave the popular girl an annoyed look as she stepped closer to Danny. “For your information, Paulina. They’re a gift. Danny gave them to me.”

“Really? He gave you earrings?” Paulina pointed between the two with a smirk. “I always knew you two losers would end up together.”

“We’re not losers!” Sam shouted and Danny added, “We’re not together.”

“Well now I feel left out,” Tucker joked as Paulina swaggered off.

“Shut up, Tucker,” the two snapped.

“Hey, check it out! The lovebirds are ganging up on Foley!” Dash snickered to Kwan.

“They can deny it all they want, but I saw Fenton kissing her when they snuck out at lunch yesterday,” Kwan snickered back.

Danny blushed and Sam jumped for the jocks while Tucker tried to hold her back. “It’s called QPR, you neanderthals! Welcome to the twenty-first century! A guy can kiss a girl on the cheek without it being romantic or se-”

“And we’re done here!” Danny squeaked and grabbed Sam to unsuccessfully help Tucker drag her away.

“Calm down, Sam. It’s not like any of us go around talking about our relationship,” Tucker said. “Of course everyone’s going to think you’re dating if they see you two kissing.”

“People shouldn’t assume things like that just because Danny likes to kiss us or the three of us hug!”

“It’s high school. Assumptions and gossip are the lifeblood of this place,” Danny said. “No need to kill Dash over it. Now stow the soapbox and let’s get to class before we’re late.”

Sam gave the two jocks one last death glare, but let her partners lead her off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is insane,” Danny said as he, Sam, and Tucker stood in the school’s front doors, staring out at the crowd that had gathered around the truck Ember McClain had arrived on for an impromptu performance. “It looks like the entire school’s out here.”

He walked out and his breath misted in front of him. He glanced over to see his partners’ ghost senses going off as well. “Uh-oh.”

The trio looked around, but their eyes quickly locked onto Mr. Lancer, who was standing atop a fire hydrant with a megaphone to yell at the rocker.

“Attention, freakishly dressed teen idol! I order you to cease and desist!”

“Desist this, grandpa!” Ember yelled, fiddling with her guitar. She strummed it and a purple energy wave washed over the crowd.

The crowd turned to Lancer, eyes glowing red.

“Pride and Prejudice!”

“Ember’s the ghost? Oh my gosh!” Danny gasped.

“Another blow against mainstream media,” Sam said and the three transformed.

They took off, Danny saving Lancer from the horde and Sam and Tucker shooting towards the rocker.

It was rather easy to get her and her band into a thermos, especially when one of them could shut down her guitar and speakers with a wave of his hand and the other could wrap her in plants when she tried to teleport away.

{Teacher of the Year}

“Why were we up so late last night? We were playing Doomed. We were trying to beat… WE’RE CHAOS! HOW COULD WE HIDE THAT FROM US?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tucker’s eyes widened as he realized the noob he’d been helping play Doomed was Technus. “Oh, man, I could have been using my powers to cheat! Why didn’t I think of that?” He grabbed his phone and called Sam. “Sam! Did you realize I could be the ultimate cheat code?”

“Obviously. I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out. What happened? Did you get pwned again? Wasn’t me this time.”

“No, Technus showed up in Doomed.”

“What? Where are you? I’ll meet you there!”

“Level three. Should we call Danny?”

“No, just let him study. Between my grab bag of secret power-ups and your ultimate cheat code, we’ll be fine. He needs to make up that test if we don’t want his parents to come sniffing around.”

“I still don’t get it,” Tucker said as he waited for Sam to reach his character. “Danny’s had straight A’s for years. Why would his parents be mad about one F? It’ll only take him down to a C at worst. My parents are just glad that I’m not failing.”

“The curse of being a family of geniuses I guess. All I know is that if I have to hear him complain about his grades almost falling to a B one more time, I'm decking him.”

[fangirlfiction]

Born to Hide

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Word Count: 2.5k

Summary: Part 2 of the Born To series. A foreboding warning from someone from your past sends you on the run. But no one was made to run forever.

Warnings: Mentions of explosions, death, injuries, blood. There’s also some fighting, and a break in. 

A/N: hi this is one of my favorite parts of this mini series, and I hope you like it too! I am still accepting taglist requests for this series and any of my other writings! just send me an ask :) i love you all

last part here // series masterlist

You open the door to the trailer, and look out at the twilight sky. The stars are beginning their slow ascent into the sky, and the cicadas are humming loudly. You breathe in the sweet Summer air, and you are just about to close the door when you see him. He’s sitting on the bench in your yard, and his hair looks longer than you remember it. As you draw closer, you can see the stack of photographs in his hand and sitting at his side. He turns as you reach the bench, before moving the photos and making space for you to sit beside him. Wordlessly, he passes the photos to you, and you look down at them.

They’re old and weathered, and the edges are fraying a bit. Some of the photos are torn or creased, likely from being stored improperly. You look over at him as you pass the photos back, and there is a soft smile on his face. You smile in return as he sifts through the photos and holds one up. You’re both sitting side by side, almost like you are now, and smiling at each other. It’s easy to miss the mess of bodies that lay around you in the picture, but your eyes start to focus on them the more you study the picture. “This one is my favorite.”

You frown, “None of them are my favorite.”

He cocks his head to the side. “Why not?”

“Because they remind me of a different me.” You meet his eyes. “And a different you. When we left, we swore we’d never become those people again.”

He shrugs, and returns the picture to the stack. You eye him suspiciously, “Bucky, what are you doing? Why are you here?”

He brushes the hair back from your face. “I’m here to deliver a message.”

You hear screaming in the distance, and you turn and look around in confusion. Bucky tugs your chin back to him, and you now see the fear deep in his eyes. “They’re coming, you need to run.”

“What?”

“They’re coming! Wake up, you need to wake-”

-

“UP!”

You open your eyes, and blink against the brightness of the sun. A shadow hovers in and out of your vision, and as your eyes focus, you watch as her mouth moves, but no sound comes out. Seconds later the ringing begins, loud and high pitched, and you grimace against it. As you blink and lift a hand to your head, the ringing starts to dissipate slowly, and the woman’s words start to get through to you. “Wake up! Ma’am, are you okay? You need to wake up!”

You pull your hand away from your head, shocked to find it coated in blood. You start to rise slowly, but she pushes you back down. “Woah, woah, hold on there! Help is on the way, but you need to stay still.”

Someone cries out somewhere behind you, and she glances their way and nods before looking back down at you. “Hold tight right here for me, okay? I’m just going to check on that gentleman over there.”

She runs off, leaving you to check your head again. As you start to rise slowly, something about her words stirs something up in your brain. Gentlemen. Danny.

You turn to your left and you are shocked to find that you are no longer in the car next to Danny. Instead, you are halfway between the remains of his truck and the sidewalk. All around you, various other cars and their debris are scattered, and there are bodies in every corner of your vision. Screaming, crying, bloody...dead. And that word is enough to make you rise to your feet, eyes scanning the area for any sign of him. 

You find him a minute later, also thrown from the truck, surrounded by debris. But you don’t need to get close to him to know one undeniable fact. Danny is already gone.

You drop to your knees beside him and close his eyes, before looking up and looking around. Something about the bodies pulls a memory from your head, and you suddenly remember Bucky and his warning. They’re coming, you need to run.

You scan the street again, and catch a glimpse of movement near the intersection. As your eyes strain to focus, a chill crawls up your spine. You don’t know what it is, because you are still too dazed to focus and process. But you trust your instinct, you grab your bag, and you run. 

-

As you run from the sirens and chaos of the explosion, you know that you need to get cleaned up, first and foremost, because running down the street bloodied and bruised was not the way to keep a low profile. You stick to side streets and areas with minimal traffic, as you search for a quiet neighborhood. It takes a while, but eventually, you find yourself at the front of a neighborhood with a pretty sign and rows of trees and flowers. The houses are modestly sized, but many seem empty for the day, with no cars in the driveway or lights inside. After racking your brain for a moment, you remember that the Patriots are playing today, and it’s a home game, meaning most people will be at the game or at watch parties. You send a silent thank you to the universe for this small gift.

After surveying the houses on the street, you settle on an empty one near the back of the neighborhood, which appears to be surrounded by equally empty looking houses. You sneak around the back and slip in through the back gate, careful to keep your face low in case they have security cameras. You creep towards the back door, and almost cheer when you see two french doors, made of mostly glass. You find a rock and smash the glass, before reaching in and unlocking the door.

You step into what appears to be their dining room, and you move through the dining room, past the living room, and down a short hallway into what looks like the master bedroom. You make a beeline for the closet and pull open the doors, pleased to find a closet full of clothes that will fit well enough. You grab a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt, before searching for a dresser and finding a pair of socks. You stumble into the bathroom, and for the first time, get a good look at what the explosion did to you. 

You are covered in cuts and bruises, most of them unconcerning, except for the gash on your forehead, and a cut on your left calf. You are covered in dirt and grime, and your race suit is burnt and torn. There’s also a burn on your lower back, likely from some flying debris. But all in all, you feel lucky to be alive. You clean up the best you can, using the first aid supplies you find in the bathroom cabinet. After bandaging the worst of your injuries and cleaning the dirt from your face, you pull on the clean clothes, lace up your boots, and pull your hair out of your face. You reach into the backpack beside you and find the cinched bag that you normally keep in the money box. Airport security is still no match for partial alien tech, and you were able to smuggle it on and off the plane with no issues. You leave the buckle in the bag and shove the bag back inside your backpack before tucking the gun into the waistband of your pants at the small of your back. 

You leave the bedroom in search of the kitchen, where you manage to find some food to bring with you, and you happily stuff it into your backpack, along with a few bottles of water. The last thing you do is look for a pad of paper, where you scrawl an apology to the homeowner, and drop a wad of tips from the diner. You know it’s not enough to cover the damage, but at least it’s something. 

You grab the tattered remains of your suit and your backpack, and you leave the house, being careful to avoid any prying eyes or nosy neighbors. When you reach the end of the street, you look around before jogging into the wooded area around the neighborhood. You follow the sun through the trees until it brings you out into a neighborhood that is mid construction. As you pass a dumpster for the building debris, you toss your torn suit inside and cover it with some of the discarded materials, before scoping out one of the houses for a place to crash for the night. You end up finding one that is built enough to keep you sheltered from the elements, without requiring you to cause any more damage. You map out all the exits before you settle down for the rest that your body desperately craves.

-

When you open the door to the trailer, you find him sitting on your bench again. You wander out to meet him, slow and skeptical, more weary since the last time you saw him. This time, he doesn’t turn as you approach. He keeps his head turned to the sky, eyes mapping the stars. It takes a while for him to break the silence, but when he does, his voice is quiet and he almost sounds hurt. “Why did you leave?”

You rear back a little, surprised by the question, before turning to face him. “Honestly?”

He nods, eyes still trained on the sky, and you sigh. “When we left, we swore we’d change. We swore we’d never be the monsters they trained us to be. Instead, we joined the Avengers, and it felt like we were the same monsters, just fighting under a different flag. A different logo.”

He turns to you, “I love you.” Your eyes widen, surprised, before he corrects himself. “Loved. I loved you. And you left me.”

“Bucky…” You trail off, unsure what to say.

“Why didn’t you just talk to me? Tell me how you were feeling? We could have figured it out.”

You scoff, “Because we were never trained to talk it out, or discuss our feelings. We were trained to kill and we were trained to run. That’s it. And you had a family again, Steve and Nat, Sam. I didn’t want to mess that up.”

“But you were my family.”

You feel a lump form in your throat, but before you can answer, sirens cut through the air around you. You turn to Bucky in a panic, and he mutters one phrase, voice monotone. “Time’s up.”

-

Your eyes fly open, and you pull yourself to a sitting position quickly. Your blood turns cold when you realize the sirens aren’t a manifestation of your dreams. Instead, they’re echoing in the early dawn air around you. You grab your bag and run to the back of the half finished house, before flying out of the open doorway and into the cool dawn air. You are relieved to find no cops or cars outside of the house, but you know they are close. You take off running, sticking close to the treeline that surrounds the neighborhood. As you round a corner of houses to follow the trees, you nearly choke when you collide with a man a few years older than you. Your brain instantly reverts back to its training, and despite your head injury, you run through all of the information quickly. 

One man, alone. No back up. Uniform is neat, but the pattern of wrinkles look like he sticks to a desk job mostly. Low ranking, easy target. 

He seems just as shocked to see you, and fails to finish the command he’s directing at you before you attack. “Hands-”

The last word dies in his throat as you leap at him, using your momentum to spin around him and put him in a choke hold. He struggles against you, but his size gives him no advantage with you. You’re trained to eliminate the enemies advantage, no matter what. Eventually, he struggles less and less, until he is out cold. You lower him to the ground carefully, before eyeing the landscape around you, worried that he truly isn’t alone. Finding no one, you continue on your path, as quickly as you can possibly be while still being careful. You manage to follow the trees to the edge of the neighborhood, before it opens out into a road. There are no cars in the area, and the road is surrounded by a deep drainage ditch on either side. 

You make a quick dash to the ditch and jump inside, before crouching and following it up the road and away from the neighborhood. Up ahead, you can see that the ditch eventually ends, which will force you to jump out and travel along the road, in the open. You run through other escape routes in your mind, but struggle to find any that are less risky than this one. With a quiet sigh, you start to climb out of the ditch. As you pull yourself over the side, you are shocked to come face to face with a pair of boots, and before you can react, you feel no less than 6 guns press into your back. “Don’t move.”

You stay frozen in place, trying to map the location of the people around you, the early form of a plan already falling into place in your mind. They yank your backpack off and pull your gun from your waistband, before tossing it to the side, away from you. In order to pat you down and search for more weapons, some of the men step away from you, weapons lowering. You use the moment to your advantage, and as they roll you over to check your front, you leap into action. 

One man is leaning over you, checking you, so you pull your head back and then slam it forward, colliding with his and forcing him to rear back in pain. You jump to your feet and swipe your leg out, knocking over the two men that were situated to your left. Hearing someone approaching from behind, you swing your elbow back and connect with the man’s nose, breaking it instantly. He cries out and backs away from you, opening up space for you to swing a kick forward and catch another man between his legs. He drops to the ground with a groan, and you look around for your gun, preparing to take out the last man. You spot it on the right so you roll towards it, grabbing the gun in one smooth motion, before jumping to your feet and pointing the gun at the man in front of you. The man stands there, arms held up in mock surrender as he flashes you a smirk. And when your eyes meet his, you feel all the air leave your lungs in a rush, and your body go numb. You drop the gun, and as it clatters to the ground, you mutter in disbelief, “Bucky?”

-

part three here!

[mzargentum]

Sunshine & Lightning

Warnings: None. | OC’s: Muerlinian Zephyr | Word Count: 3,071

A/N: Part one of holiday fic.

A/N: Because of work, it was kind of rushed, but I did my best.

2 years.

This world has been in darkness.

The Oracle has been dead.

And the Prince has been missing.

But to him, he wasn’t just the Prince...

To Prompto, he was his best friend...his brother...

The blonde hunter had never gotten the chance to meet the woman that gave him the opportunity to meet his closest friend...

And that was painful enough without his disappearance.

The world was in complete peril.But in the chaos of it all, someone rose to take her place to the world to heal the wounds the Usurper had inflicted upon them ...a “New Oracle”, if you will.

An Queen, ostracized by most of the world, now a beckon of what the Oracle stood for...her own sister...the Stormsender’s daughter...his beloved Muerlin...

The world had desperately beseeched the aid of the powerful wizard in the depths of the darkness.

The daemons were raging through cities, hundreds were experiencing a fate worse than death. They needed her...but so did he.

Prompto knew there was more at stake than his own sanity despite the fact that watching her venture from this dusty garage nearly tore his heart in two.

“I’ll be back soon, love”, she said to him during their last embrace.

That was 2 years ago.

He replays this in his head every night he is forced to sleep alone.

The ever so faint smell of her hair that lingers on her untouched pillow churning his stomach.

As captain of this HQ, he was always meant to be in tip top performance and always on his toes...but he often found himself looking toward the road. Hoping one day, he’d catch a glimpse of silver.

                                    _____________________________

It was the depth of winter.

The darkness made this time of year more difficult than the rest.

More and more survivors were growing ill throughout the world.

Refugee camps scrambling to look after their wounded beckoning the aid of the New Oracle.

Hammerhead was no exception.

“Sir!”, a hunter shouted toward their frustrated captain.

“What is it?”

“We’ve lost contact with the team Omega on the far west side!”, he explained in a light panic.

“What?!”, Prompto exclaimed. “Dammit! How long ago did they leave the camp?”

“About an hour ago, sir! I’m afraid they won’t make it much longer. They’ll freeze!”, the hunter explained somberly.

Prompto’s technological skills as well as Cindy’s expert mechanics made generating heat less of a hassle, but they could still only do so much with what little electricity they could scrounge up.

“Okay, let’s gather a search party. Take one of the trucks. I’ll grab one of the generators and join you”, Prompto instructed. “We can’t leave them out there!”

“Yes, sir!”, the hunter acknowledged Prompto’s orders before darting off to gather more hunters.

Prompto sighed lightly. This was going to be a long night.

“Captain Argentum!”, a woman shrieked as she ran up to the blonde captain, stumbling into him in a panic.

“Woah, woah!!”, Prompto attempted to soothe her. “What is it?? What’s going on??”

“The generators...”, the woman panted, “...in the barracks. They’re malfunctioning!”

As if they didn’t have enough problems.

Prompto’s eyes widened in terror as he rose his gaze to the barracks.

Some of his top men were in there, sick because of the cold. Not only that, they had grown to become his friends.

The generator was the only thing keeping them warm and despite he and Cindy’s efforts combined, it was only a matter of time before the worst was to come.

“No, no, no”, Prompto muttered in a light panic. “We can’t let them die in there. Do everything you can to keep them in good health”.

“Y-yes, sir!”, the woman stuttered before rushing back to the barracks.

“Talcott!”, Prompto shouted, eyes still glued on the barracks.

The young man jolted at the sound of Prompto’s voice, it was heavier than usual.

“Mind giving us a hand, buddy? We have men out there who need our help”, the blonde grinned at him.

“You got it!”, the boy beamed as he darted toward his truck.

The captain on his heel.

                                       _________________________

With Talcott at the wheel, Prompto and his men made their way to the last known location of their scavenger team.

Prompto in the passenger seat, trying his best not to appear worried, but his kindness and care toward his men made it very evident to the young man.

“Prompto?”

The indigo-eyed man looked toward his young friend.

“Hm?”

“Do...do you think that everyone will be okay?”

Prompto’s brow forwarded.

“I mean...they’re strong a-and you and Miss Cindy can fix the generators again. We’ve got plenty of medical staff to help out too, right? So...they should all be okay...right?”

Prompto smiled at Talcott’s hopeful optimism.

“Of course they will!”, the man chuckled. “After all, they’ve got me as their captain”.

Talcott laughed at Prompto’s lack of modesty. That clearly hadn’t changed.

And that answer seemed to satisfy the lad, but the captain’s worry was still eminent. 

The world was wide and vast...and cruel.

Especially during these times.

With all that’s happened, he knew it wasn’t possible for him to save everybody...

...he couldn’t even save Noct.

But regardless, he had to try. He couldn’t let his men down.He couldn’t let them die out here.

Not like this.

After what felt like an eternity driving in the snowy blackness of Eos, the team noticed a group of ice bombs congregating toward the mountains off the side of the road.

Which was odd with them normally being native to Cleigne.

What’re they doing here in Duscae?

“Wait!”, Prompto shouted pointing toward small group, “over there!”

The truck came to a screeching halt once Talcott noticed.

The bombs were swarming a group of hunters laying unconscious in the snow.

“GET AWAY FROM THEM, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!!”

Prompto rushed toward his fallen men, the rest of his team following pursuit, as his trusty pistols materialized into his iron grasp.

Taking aim and releasing a heavy barrage of bullets toward the aggressive daemons.

Unfortunately, causing them to begin detonation.

“Let’s make this quick, everybody!”, Prompto instructed his men as they rushed up to join their now bazooka wielding captain in battle. “We can’t let them explode!”

“RIGHT!”, they all said in unison as the whole lot of them began to pilfer through the army of explosive daemons.

They hacked and slashed through a great number of them, but somehow this battle seemed never ending.

“What’s going on?”, a hunter shouted toward his colleagues.

“It’s like more of the more of them we take out, the more that replace them!”, someone else interjected.

“It’s because of the snow”, Prompto affirmed as he began emptying his rifle toward the icy enemies. “This is where they’re strongest”.

“What do we do?!”

“We win! We can’t let our buddies down”, the blonde captain instructed.

“Don’t worry, guys”, his optimistic smile lighting a fire within their spirits, “we’ll make it”.

This burst of optimism was short lived as the galaxy eyed plebe noticed a bomb wandering away from the group.

In the darkness, it was unclear where he could’ve been going until...

“TALCOTT!!!”

Prompto began to dash over to the boy in the stalled truck, desperately trying to bring it back to life which unknowingly caught the attention of a bomb that was already near detonation.

“TALCOTT”, Prompto shrieked in terror, “LOOK OUT!!!”

Finally catching the young man’s attention, Talcott’s eyes became saucers at the gargantuan monster before him.

Nearly the size of the truck and trembling violently.

Prompto desperately sprinted toward his friend, but knew he was much too far away to reach him in time.

The captain was left helpless as the bomb reached maximum size to detonate and was deafened by what sounded like the most thunderous eruption that he had ever witness in all his days.

The force enough to send him flying back toward the snowy ground below.

And then...

Whiteness.

                                           ______________________

The ringing in his ears.

His vision blurred.

Desperately trying to regain his composure, so many voices in his head and what sounded like shooting and flames.

SOMEONE CHECK ON HIM!!! MAKE SURE HE ISN’T INJURED!!!

His brain rattled with the muffled voices. Was he going insane?

THERE ARE MEN OVER HERE AS WELL, ROUND THEM UP AND GET THEM ON THE TRUCK!!!

It was louder.

The ringing was subsiding.

Did this voice in his head have an accent?

He was totally out of it...

“WE MUST BE QUICK HERE!!! MANY OF THEM ARE ON THE BRINK OF DEATH!!! WE CAN’T STAY HERE!!!”

It was so familiar...so...silky...soothing...

“LET’S GIVE THESE ICE-SHITS SOMETHING TO RUN FROM!!!

”Prompto’s eyes widened...it couldn’t be...dammit, he could still barely see, but...

He could at least make out a figure kneeling down beside him.

“Don’t worry, love”, the figure spoke. Clear as day. “I’m here”.

As the blur faded away, Prompto could only believe he was in a dream.

The long streaks of silver...the shimmery bronze cheeks...the warmth of this hand against his cheek...the teal lagoon eyes...

...it couldn’t truly be real...

“...Muerlin?”

That all too familiar smile confirmed it.

“It’s good to see you too, Prom”.

                                       __________________________

Tagging: @completelyinappropriate​ @digitalkanvas​ @glacian-apocalypse​ @aquathemermaidstripper​ @a-new-recipehhh​

[sevi007]

A hat makes (no) cowboy

So some of you might remember how a comment a la “Dante sure wanted to be a cowboy as a kid, look at his newest weapon” by myself turned into @rex101111 and me writin half a story about Dante, his hat, one god-awful cowboy accent and mostly Lady suffering from it. 

Well, that half-story is now a full story, and it took some... interesting turns ;)

Fandom: Devil May Cry

Rating: Teen and up Audiences / Gen

Summary: One hat, a joking comment and Dante being, well, Dante, that’s all it takes to turn one quiet afternoon at the Devil May Cry shop into a war. In the end, nobody can say they are really surprised by the situation itself... just by what they might discover because of it.

Read it on AO3

"GOTCHA!" 

With one final swing, Dante sent the last of the demons flying into a wall. Their forms quickly fell apart at the seams and turned to dust, leaving behind only the impression on the concrete. Dante reached out a hand, making a beckoning motion, before a red streak flew from the broken wall and into his palm with a quite buzz.

"That thing is pretty impressive." Lady commented dryly as she yanked her bayonet from a pron Frost, looking at Dante from the corner of her eye. "You know...for a hat."

Dante placed the hat on his head with a quick flick of his finger and a light smirk. "I like it! It's got a load of style to it."

Lady scoffed, "style wouldn't be the word I'd use but-"

"Yeah!" Nico interrupted suddenly, peaking her head out from a pile of grey, twitching limbs with a giddy smirk. "It kinda makes ya look like a cowboy!"

Dante freezes, and whips his head to face the direction of Nico's voice. "Really?"

"Yeah really! Straight out of an Eastwood film, dude!"

Dante blinked his eyes numbly for a few seconds, the idea slowly rolling around in his head, before his face lit up like a blinking land mine and a manic smirk dominated his features. "Well, ain't that a hoot n' a half..."

Lady groaned, already knowing what was to come. "Now look what you did!"

"Did what?"

"It seems that our work here is finished." Dante said of a sudden, his voice starting out normal before slowly shifting, inching towards what can only be called a drawl. "But, we can't rest our head yet, pardners. There are always more outlaws for us to corral before they get up to no good." 

Lady rubbed her temples and took in a very quick, sharp breath. "Okay, I can see where this is going." She claps twice in mock praise as a scowl grows on her face. "Hardy-har Dante, you got a hat and you're a cowboy good for you." She pointed behind her to the pile of dead demons. "Now let's pack up and get to the client so we get payed."

"Now hold on there Missy!" Dante pointed dramatically at her, the other hand placed on the top of his hat as if to hold in place against some nonexistent wind. "You wouldn't happen to be questioning my authority on this matter now?" He made a gun motion with his outstretched hand in mock threat that made Lady want to roll her eyes right out of her head. "Because if you are...there might be some consequences to it."

"Dante for the love of God you can't be serious-"

It was too late, Dante had fully committed to his newly adopted western inspired persona, fanning out the end of his coat in a manner meant to be impressive (which failed miserably) before once more pointing at her, this time with even more dramatic gravitas. "Them's fighting words! You leave me no choice pardner..." He lifts the brim of his hat with his second hand and grins with all of his teeth at her, “Pistols at noon! You and me cowpoke!”

 Lady stared at him without a word for a whole two minutes.

And then she shot him in the head. 

And then she walked over to him, where he was still grumbling about how much that stung, and yanked the damn hat off of his head and started stomping on it despite his protests.

She shot it a couple of times too for good measure.

Dante picked up the remains of his poor, abused, hat, cut down in the prime of its life, “Why?”

Lady stared him dead in the face, expression stone still, “I made a vow to destroy evil.” 

Silence.

“Also, you’re annoying enough without having an excuse to talk with that godawful western accent.”

He waited, (clearly not pouting, he was a grown man, he did not pout, thank you very much) until Lady seemed to be out of earshot, before he leaned over to Nico. The girl had witnessed the whole spectacle from where she had been digging through the rubble left by Lady’s latest hunt, looking for scraps of demons the older woman had torn apart with her attacks that she could use in her newest weapon creation.

Now the young woman was barely holding in the loud laughter threatening to spill, but managed an inquiring noise as she caught his gaze.

“Do you think you can fix this up?”

A smothered sound, a giggle, and then a cleared throat before she became stern again. “Count on me, cowboy!”

Dante’s grin went from ear to ear as he put on his best (worst) drawl. “Don’t know what I would do without ya, lassie!”

Nico snorted, a loud, delighted noise. “Oh my god, you’re worse than grandma told me.”

“That a good thing?”

“The best. Now give me that mistreated thingy, I’m gonna make it better than it ever was.”

“Off you go,” Dante paused, considered, “Make it more durable, perhaps?”

“Demon-durable or Lady-durable?”

“Both. Mostly the later.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lady had never felt such utter and complete betrayal in her entire life from another human being (except the obvious, of course) as she stared at the offending headwear, patched up and reinforced with carbon fiber of all things.

Dante sauntered over, thumbs in the waist of his pants and a tooth pick in his mouth - oh for the love of god were those spurs on his shoes - and grinned so smugly she was tempted to shoot him in the teeth on principal alone.

“Well howdy there pardner.” His grin grew when one of Lady’s eyes twitched. “Fancy seeing you around these parts.” He pointed up to his hat. “I see you eyeballin’ my hat, purdy ain’t it?”

“Dante for the love of God that’s a fucking trucker accent-”

“Now I know you must be hankerin’ to bust it up like before,” He continued, ignoring her, “but you should know-”

Lady whipped out one of her machine guns, and unloaded the entire magazine directly into that vile piece of leather and demonic metal.

Damn thing didn’t even flinch.

“-My associate here gave it an upgrade.” He pointed to Nico, who was standing by his side this whole time, nearly bent over in held back laughter.

“Bullet proof hat!” She exclaimed at Lady, eyes shining with excitement, “I love working with you guys I never would have thought of this one.”

“You,” Lady started, eyes digging through Nico as well as any bullet, “are a traitor to the whole of humanity.”

“Oh relax.” Nico waved her off with little care. “Just let the man have his dumb fun, besides I made this thing 100% Lady-proof, there ain’t a damn thing you can do to it to damage or destroy it.”

Lady raised an eyebrow, holstered her machine gun, and reached back to put a hand on Kalina Ann.

“…Except that maybe.”

Dante whipped his head to Nico, “You forgot about the damn rocket launcher!?”

“She has like twenty different guns!” Nico protested, panic seeping into her voice. “How do you expect me to keep track!?”

“Nico.” Lady intoned mildly, aiming the large barrel of her prized weapon directly at Dante’s face. “Take ten steps back.”

Nico took one look at the bazooka, than another look at Dante, switching between the two a few more times before turning on her heel and legging it.

“Later partner!”

“Lady was right! You ARE a traitor!”

A soft click of a trigger reached Dante’s sensitive ears.

“Oh dagnabbit.”

A massive explosion rocked the immediate area, sending plumes of smoke and fire into the air along with a few chunks of concrete, charred black from the blast.

Lady put Kalina Ann back on the strap on her back, crossed her arms, and nodded her head in satisfaction, “The evil is defeated.” She yelled into the smoke cloud where Dante was standing, probably grumbling about his lost hat. “Let that be a lesson to you! You should always know when to let a joke die.”

She turned away to get to the nearest bar in order to drink the memory of this nonsense out of her head as soon as possible…when she heard a few surprised peals of laughter.

“Well, waddya know!” Dante stepped out of the smoke cloud, outfit scorched and ruined, with more than a few wounds rapidly healing on his skin…

 And the hat in his hand, utterly unscathed.

 “She really did make it Lady-proof!" 

Lady’s eye twitched again as she gaped at the utter ridiculousness of what she was looking at, before she growled and walked away with an angry stomp.

“Aww, what’s the matter? Giving up?”

“I’m getting Trish!”

“Woah nelly….”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“… so I might have pissed her off a little bit with that and what do you reckon are the chances that she’s going to shoot me if the hat doesn’t get destroyed in that one?”

“Girl,” Trish offered, raising one hand to quell the flood of words that had tumbled out of Nico’s mouth in too little time and what seemed to be a single breath. “Lady might shoot a lot of things in a day, and shoot Dante a whole lot more on top of that, but she’s not going to shoot you. No matter what she said.”

Nico lifted an eyebrow at her, looking somewhere between insecure, relieved and amused at Trish’s nonchalance. “You, ah, sure? She seemed a bit in a bad mood right there….”

“Quite,” Trish’s smile widened as she took a sip of the wine Morrison had brought with him from a quick shopping trip. Her fine senses picked up the heady flavor (bless the man for knowing something about drinks) and the nearing sound of footsteps and arguing all in one second. “Now you might want to step back and enjoy the show.”

Nico’s eyes widened, a grin twitched around her lips, and she dived behind Trish and the desk just as the door to the shop basically flew open.

“TRISH!”

“Trish don’t let her destroy it again!”

In a flurry of motions and colors, Lady, fuming and flushed, burst into the room, Dante hot on her heels – the latter’s clothes smoking and torn, together with the last hints of paling scars telling stories about the explosion he had taken point-blank.

And there, on top of his head, Trish spotted the offending hat that had apparently started a little war between friends.

Not what she would have gone for when it came to fashion, she noted, but looking far too innocently for it to be the source of all this.

Then again, she knew her friends well enough that that was an actual possibility.

With a blink, she observed with some amusement that the two fractions hadn’t even waited until they had her attention until they started squabbling.

“… and no offence, if this hat doesn’t go immediately, I swear I will find the nearest Hellgate and throw this idiot in there myself…”

“Now you’re really hurting my feelings here, Lady!”

“Your feelings? You’re hurting my everything with this, from my sensibilities to my ears up to my brain cells, every time you open your mouth ever since you put that thing on!”

“It’s hilarious, you just don’t understand good humor.”

“You wouldn’t even know good humor if it bit you in the…”

“Children,” Trish drawled, interrupting them even though this was getting really fun right there. She could hear Nico’s choked off laughter behind her, but didn’t turn to look at it. “What did we say about dragging me into your arguments?”

There was a beat of silence, before Lady pointed at the cowboy hat. “Destroy it please.”

“Hey!” Dante protested, putting one hand protectively over the beloved accessory.

“Destroy it now. Banish the evil.”

“You destroying my dreams is evil!”

“Which dreams, being an annoying ass?!”

“Being a cowboy- every man’s dream!”

“Ha fucking ha, don’t make me laugh-“

There was affection bubbling up in Trish, alongside the amusement. If the two of them hadn’t been so wrapped up in their argument – Lady had taken to poking Dante’s chest with every word while Dante downright pouted down at her, no matter how he would protest the mere idea – they would have caught her smiling at them with the softest smile she was capable off, utterly open and true.

Sibling squabbles, someone had told her once, while observing a scene very much like this. She couldn’t remember who had told her that piece of wisdom, but she couldn’t help but agree with it –

She had never had any home or family to begin with, had been created instead of born, used instead of raised, but she couldn’t help but associate moments like this with right, warm, home.

Family.

 (How utterly, terribly, wonderfully ironic, she thought, a sadistic part of her wishing that whatever left of Mundus would turn over in his non-existent grave at the notion of it, how wonderful and miraculous that she would come to love a group of demonhunters, enemies, so fiercely and utterly as if they were the same flesh and blood as her, even more so.)

 She had missed this while Dante was gone, she had. But as delighting as this was… 

“Nico,” she called, her voice sadly interrupting the argument, leading to two pairs of eyes focusing on her in surprise.

“Uh, yeah?” The human girl popped up behind the desk where she had been hiding, face flushed from suppressed laughter, and waved awkwardly in Lady’s direction. Lady glowered at her, but did not draw any guns, so Nico seemed to loosen up a bit.

“You said you improved the hat. Did you also make it withstand higher level of voltage?”

Lady’s mouth dropped open, and a cheeky, absolutely silly grin spread on Dante’s face.

Nico hesitated, her eyes going wide. “Actually, I did! Thought the baby could use some protection against those electric demons, the, uh, Blitz? So, yeah, I… oh.”

“Ha,” Dante said, slowly, standing a little straighter.

Lady’s glower got even more murderous. “Don’t tell me…”

“I did say I would make it demon proof!” Obviously deciding that it wasn’t save out there any longer and more explosions were a real possibility, Nico dived behind the desk again.

“Ha!” Dante said, again, louder and happier than before. Lady’s sour expression could have curdled milk, at this point.

“There you have it,” Trish spread her hands as if in surrender, wine glass dancing daintily on her fingertips. “It’s basically me-proof.”

“Do not,” Lady spoke slowly, darkly, rounding on her now instead of the young engineer, “dare to tell me to my face that you are not much, much stronger than a simple Blitz demon. Heck, you probably wouldn’t even need electricity to get rid of it!”

“But that certain spark is what I’m known for,” Trish reminded with only slight amusement in her voice, winking at the other woman. “Where would we be if I distanced myself from that?”

“Howdy, mah dear, she so one upped you on this one,” Dante’s voice held no little respect, and he was cheeky enough to tip his (awful, terrible, war-inducing) hat at the blonde to show it.

The motion drew Lady’s gaze to the offending thing, and after glowering at it for a heartbeat (her look promising a painful death like no hat had ever seen before) she snatched it off Dante’s silvery hair and turned on her heels, storming to the door again.

“Lady - wait where are you going?”

“To destroy the evil in this world! NERO! KID GET YOUR ASS HERE AND MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL!”

“You’re pulling the kid into this?! Now you’re just going too far…!”

 And gone they were, much like they had appeared, a storm passing through too fast to comprehend it.

 “Well,” Nico said after a moment, glancing over the top of the desk carefully. “That was… something.”

“It’s not over yet, if you want to watch the rest,” taking a sip of her wine, Trish counted in her head how long it would take for Lady to find Nero hidden behind something to engineer and improve again, plus the time they needed to explain the situation to him, plus the time to get him to even listen to their “bullshit” – well, in any case, enough time to finish her drink and wait for Morrison to fill him in. “If you hurry, you might catch the boy rolling his eyes at them and wishing he never met them.”

Nico laughed, not even questioning if that was true – they both knew – and scrambled to get out of her hiding spot. “I need to see that. You coming?”

“Right behind you, in a second.” 

Nico grinned, saluted, and bounced after the (still clearly audible) bickering duo.

Upbeat, lively, and knowing when to be crazy, Trish noted with some pride, a good, good addition to what she considered “her group”, that girl – just like the young demon and his woman had been. 

The backdoor clicked quietly, too quietly for a human to catch it, but Trish smiled over her shoulder at Morrison. “You almost missed the best part of today.”

Morrison sighed fondly, clapping off his clothes even though he know he wouldn’t get out the offending bite of cigar smoke from his quick smoking break, not with her inhuman senses, at least. “Now, what did the kid do this time?”

“Thinks he makes a good cowboy, annoying Lady… you know, almost the usual.”

“A cowboy?” Morrison’s grey eyebrow rose up high. “Of all the things that he ever came up with… you know what, that might come close to being the craziest thing of all.”

Trish’s laughter run out, startlingly loud now that their crazy friends had left them in silence. “Oh, you know, he got the looks down and everything. Despite being blown up already.”

“I shouldn’t even be surprised.”

“No, you shouldn’t. Join me for the next part?” She shot him a smile that would have made men and women alike swoon, but with Morrison, it only got an amused huff out of him as he offered her his arm like the gentleman he was. She took it while raising gracefully, interlinking their arms with an ease that spoke of practice.

“I’m going to regret this, and somebody is going to get hurt for real over nothing,” he prophesized, aiming for gloom but unable to hold back his smile.

“Now,” Trish patted his arm with no little amusement as she led him after their very own circus. “It actually might go well.”

“When does it ever with them?”

“Hmhm, good point.”

“At least we might get a laugh out of it.”

“That’s the spirit.”

 (Oh, how utterly, terribly, wonderfully crazy her family was)

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Nero had long since come to the perfectly reasonable conclusion that the crew of Devil May Cry were completely out of their minds.

From Dante’s constant disregard of his safety, Lady’s overly sensitive trigger finger (which was especially dangerous when she brought out the damn canon strapped to her back), and Trish…well, being Trish, there was no shortage of reasons to think the gang were long overdue for a few appointments with a shrink.

This…was something else though. He stared down at the hat in his hands. A hat that was given-alright less given and more slammed into his hand with little warning  while he was working, by an especially angry looking Lady.

It seemed…well, it was a cowboy hat, with a long brim that curved upwards near the end, a leather band surrounding the center along with a few red gemstones that glowed with demonic power.

So, not the strangest thing Nero had ever held in his hand, but the way Lady was glaring down at it you’d think it was the spawn of the deepest pit of hell.

“…hello-?”

“Destroy it.”

“Huh?”

Just then Dante burst into the workshop (scattering the tools Nero had spent an entire hour cleaning up goddamnit old man!) with a look of unrestrained panic, “Kid! Don’t let her lies drag you to cruelty!”

“…what.”

“Quiet Dante!” Lady whirled on the older half demon, jabbing a finger in his chest, “This has gone on long enough!” She pointed at the hat still sitting serenely in Nero’s metal hand, “This thing has got to go!”

….were they seriously having an argument over a damn hat.

“Just because you can’t appreciate the style-”

“I saw cockroaches with more style than that tourist trap reject!”

This is why his work was interrupted so rudely? He was being subjected to all this drama because of a damn hat?

“You kidding!? That’s rich coming from a chick who rode a motorcycle in a tartan skirt and thigh high boots!”

“That thing is bad enough sitting on a coat hanger! But you put it on and, impossible as it may sound, you turn into an even bigger pain in the ass!”

“GUYS!” Nero yelled out, rubbing his temple with his free hand to try and stop the headache that rose into his head, “Are you serious?” He waved the hat around in exasperation, “What’s all this for?”

The two looked at each other for a moment, Lady with an impatient scowl and Dante with a challenging raise of an eyebrow, before turning to the younger man and absolutely unloading on him with silly complaint after ridiculous justification.

By the time they were done Nero was ready to grab the heavy piece of weaponry he was working on and using it to get them to calm the hell down but tried to control himself.

“Okay…” He said, through his teeth, hand still rubbing his forehead, “So, let me get this straight, Dante got a cowboy hat and got it into his head he has to use a really lame accent with it-”

“I think you mean authentic accent-”

“-Lady shot it to hell so Dante somehow convinced Nico to patch it up and make it stronger-”

“-a traitor, a traitor and a fool-”

“-making it strong enough to withstand bullets and a blast from a freaking rocket launcher-”

“-that there spooked me right good it did let me tell ya-”

“You’re not even wearing the damn thing what is wrong with you-!?”

“And Trish, for some reason, doesn’t think she can destroy it either.” Nero finished, his eye twitching with ever interruption from the other two, looking at the hat that started all this with disdain and general annoyance, “And now you want me to destroy this ugly thing, right?”

“It ain’t ugly-”

“Yes it is! C’mon Nero you gotta be on my side on this one!” She pointed at Dante, “Doesn’t this guy annoy us enough without this extra ammo!?”

 “Don’t appeal to his emotions!” Dante made a motion towards Nero with a hand, “The kid’s smart, I’m sure he can see proper solution to all this,” He sent a charming smile to Nero, complete with gleaming teeth (all it accomplished was make Nero’s headache worse), “Right kid? What do you think about all this?”

Nero looked at Dante, gleaming smile still stretching his face, and then at Lady, her face sending off an endless amount of threats of horrible and slow death (both towards the demon hunter and his hat), and sighed.

 “I think that the both of you are crazy and that this is, bar none, the most idiotic situation I have ever found myself in.”

 Behind the door, Morrison, Trish and Nico had to try their hardest not to burst out laughing.

“…is everything okay in there?” 

The trio near the door looked behind them to see Kyrie, dressed comfortably and carrying a few bags of groceries in her hands, and a rather worried expression on her face.

“Let me get those for you.” Morrison offered quickly, stepping up to her to take the heavy overfilled bags out of her hands and onto a nearby table, when he turned back and saw her still a bit anxious and looking at the workshop door. “Oh that? Don’t worry little lady, just another silly little argument between Dante and our resident Gunslinger.”

Kyrie sighed and put a hand to her cheek, “Oh, what did he do this time?”

Morrison tried not to grin at the sound of exasperated affection in her voice, it still surprised him how such a seemingly delicate looking girl got so used to the madness of the half devil so easily

(Though he supposed she had practice with that boyfriend of hers.)

“Nothing too drastic, Dante just got a new hat.” 

The sound of crashing metal and gunfire, followed by loud yelling and cursing, erupted from behind the doors, Nico flinching back a couple steps away while Trish just shook her head with a chuckle.  

Kyrie blinked twice at the door, then looked back at Morrison. “A hat is causing that?”

The old man laughed. “Well, the hat and Dante having a little too much fun with it, Lady in particular seems to disapprove.”

“I WILL DESTROY THAT LOATHSOME PIECE OF LEATHER IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO!”

“OVER MY DEAD BODY!”

“THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!”

A few explosions rocked the building, followed by the unmistakable sounds of Dante whooping and hollering as he dodged gunfire from an increasingly angry Lady.

“…I’ve guessed…” She looked over at Trish, who was still sitting near the door with a sly grin and enjoying the fireworks. “You’re not going to stop them?”

“Better to let them get it out of their system.” Trish waved off her concern easily. “As soon as Dante gets bored of this joke he’ll drop the damn hat and we can all move on.”

Nico side-eyed the door as more noise filtered through the wood. “Assuming there’s anything left by the time they’re done.”

Kyrie narrowed her eyes at the door…before she recognized it as the door to Nero’s workshop.

 “Guys come on I just finished cleaning up! Would you two relax!?”

 Kyrie’s heels made a very distinct sound on the wooden floor as she stepped her way to the door and grabbed the handle to open it.

Trish grabbed her wrist gently to stop her. “Hold on now,” She said calmly, “no need for you to get in the middle of this, they’ll burn themselves out soon enou-”

Kyrie looked Trish dead in the eye, raised a single eyebrow, and waited.

Trish blinked in surprise before letting go of Kyrie and putting her hands up in mock surrender. “Alright then, go save your boyfriend.”

Kyrie nodded and opened the door, stepping briskly passed the threshold.

 (She didn’t catch Nico whispering, “I keep forgetting how scary she can be.” as she walked away. She didn’t catch Morrison chuckling or Trish shrugging either.)

 The first thing she saw as she walked in was the burning wreckage of the motorcycle Nero had been tinkering with for the past six weeks embedded in a nearby wall. The second thing she saw was her boyfriend grabbing Lady from behind to hold her back from trying to wring Dante’s neck, who was standing a few feet away and sticking his tongue out at the raging hunter.

“White haired pain in the neck!”

“Why don’t you admit you’re just jealous of my fashion sense?”

“Why don’t you shut it before she shoots you with the rocket launcher again!?"

She cupped her hands over her mouth and took a deep breath. “HEY!”

The trio froze in place and whipped their heads to look at her, expressions suddenly sheepish.

“I heard there was an argument about a hat?”

Dante blinked, before a mad grin bloomed on his features, “Indeed there is.”

Nero’s eyes bugged out and he glared at Dante, still holding Lady back. “Oh no don’t you drag here into this nonsense!”

“She is the perfect person to settle this once and for all!” Dante shot back, walking calmly towards Kyrie, who was crossing her arms and looking a little tired already. “She’s a neutral party, plus the only person here with a sense of style.”

Kyrie shook her head, though a little smile was pulling at the sides of her mouth, since the whole incident at Fortuna, the veteran devil hunter had never ceased to surprise her with his antics, but this was on another level all together.

“Well howdy there little lady.”

A groan of supreme displeasure rose from Lady, “oh God it just keeps getting worse.”

“Me and my companion over yonder are havin’ a dispute over fashion and style.” He continued, his drawl ever present and even posing like a cowboy, one hand on the brim of his hat and the other on his hip. “I think this here hat makes me look mighty stylin’, while Lady over there-”

“Thinks that hat and the accent you put on with it is a raging garbage fire.”

“-Well yeah, and we’ve been tryin’ to settle this for a while now, and all our other friends are refusing to comment.”

“They like watching us squabble you mean.”

“Well yeah obviously.” Dante said easily, losing the accent for a moment, “I know that, why do think they’ve been outside that door listening in on us this whole time?”

The sounds of people scrambling came from behind said door, along with a muffled curse.

 “Assholes!”

“Like you wouldn’t do the same.” Dante laughed, before turning back to Kyrie, who has been holding back her own laughter, and turning the drawl back on, “So, I reckon that you, being the most honest and straightforward of our bunch, you’d be able to settle this once and for all.”

“Dante…” Lady started again, this time sounding more than a little tired, “please don’t drag her into this, this is just a stupid joke-”

“Look,” Dante intoned diplomatically, “if Kyrie says something she means it. If she says the hat doesn’t suit me, I drop it and the accent, fair?”

Lady grumbled for a moment before throwing her hands up in surrender, “Fine, so long as this idiocy stops already.” She then looked down at Nero, who was still holding her back by the waist, “…and kid?”

“Yeah?”

“If you don’t want to see how bulletproof you are compared to Dante, you will put me down.”

He quickly put her on her feet and took a good 5 five steps back with his hands up.

“So, in your honest opinion Kyrie, how do I look?”

Kyrie looked at Dante, very closely, taking in his smug grin, confident posture, and the laughter in his eyes as he tried to hold back from showing how much he was enjoying himself in this farce.

She peered behind him to look at Nero a bit helplessly, and he could only offer a shrug in reply as he mouthed a ‘sorry’. She looked back at Dante with a curious expression, at a loss.

Suddenly his expression softened, “you don’t have to get involved if you don’t want to.” He grinned easily and took a step back, “no pressure, it’s just a little joke.”

Kyrie caught something as he stepped back, a look in his eye that she recognized.

“Dante…why do you want to be a cowboy anyway?”

Dante looked incredulous for a moment, before scoffing. “Oh come on, I can’t be the only one who wanted to be a cowboy when they were a kid.”

Lady raised an eyebrow at him, “Seriously Dante?”

 “Yeah seriously,” Dante said with a laugh tinged with nostalgia, “when I was a kid I used to watch all these movies about desperadoes riding into the sunset, firing six shooters, and leaning on bar stools, looking cool without even trying.” He laughed again, “hell, especially Clint Eastwood, I must have watched The Good The Bad and The Ugly like a dozen times with my-”

He stopped dead, voice catching in his throat as something dark passed in his eyes. Lady and Nero gaped at him, Lady in particular looking at a loss for words as what he didn’t say started to sink in.

Kyrie felt something clench in her chest, but said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

Instead he sighed and took the hat off with a dismissive chuckle, “nah, nevermind, like I said.” He put the hat on Kyrie’s head, “just a dumb joke that I took a bit too far.”

“Dante…”

“Could you put that in the weapon storage?” Dante called out easily as he stepped away from her, “if I need it I’ll know where to find it.” He looked at the mess he and Lady made of the workshop and sucked in a breath through his teeth, “yikes, we really did a number on this place huh?” He looked at Nero with a small grin, “sorry ‘bout that kid.”

Nero shook his head and scowled lightly, “if you’re so sorry you can help clean up.” He pointed at Lady, “and you too!”

“Gotcha.”

Kyrie felt her heart sink at the look of Dante, grinning and joking but in a subdued way, like he was hiding something. 

She knew what he was hiding of course, they all knew, but discussing such things in Devil May Cry simply Did Not Happen. If she left it be he would back to his old self in a few days and never bring it up again, never put the hat on again either, no matter how happy it made him.

She grabbed the hat off her head and started stepping towards him with purpose, tugging on his coat so he would look at her. 

Before he could even ask her what she wanted, she put the hat back on his head.

“Huh?”

“I think this makes you look very handsome, Dante.”

She smiled warmly at him as he blinked down in surprise, reaching a hand up to rub the brim of the hat, “R-really?”

She nodded easily, smile still lighting up her features.

Dante blinked a few more times before his usual grin lit up, “Well I’ll be darned-”

“Although,” Kyrie said again, grabbing the hat off his head before he could react and put it back on her head, “the accent is a bit much.”

Dante blinked again at her, before he bent over in laughter and looked at Lady, “See? At least someone has some fashion sense around here.”

Lady rolled her eyes and shook her head, “yeah, but she also has some common sense.”

Dante laughed again and shook his head, grinning at her, “Sorry about busting your chops all day, couldn’t help myself.”

Lady punched him on the shoulder, “yeah yeah, and I’m sorry for shooting you with a rocket.”

“Twice.”

“Alright twice ya big baby.”

 Nero walked over to Kyrie and hugged her while the other two bickered lightly as they cleaned up, kissing her softly, “You are a blessing, you know that right?”

Kyrie laughed as she blushed from her boyfriend’s attention, “Just keeping the peace.”

—-

Kyrie walked into the weapon storage with the hat in hand (she was still having trouble wrapping her head around the idea that a hat could be a weapon), and closed the door behind her, looking for a place to put it where it wouldn’t be too out of the way to be hidden.

 She walked a few steps in, admiring a few of the pieces already on shelves and hanging off hooks on the walls, eventually finding a free space on a shelf where she could put the hat.

Along with a mirror. 

 Kyrie looked at it for a moment, seeing it was just an ordinary mirror (Dante probably kept it in there to check out his looks), and looked at the hat in her hands.

She looked left.

Right.

Back at the hat.

Slowly, she faced the mirror, and put the hat on, admiring the visage in her reflection.

 Making a finger gun gesture, she pointed at the glass with a self indulgent grin. “Bang.” After a moment, she used both hands and affected a slight southern drawl, “Reach for the sky.”

With a giggle she took the hat off and put it on the shelf and made for the exit with a happy spring in her step. 

As soon as she closed the door behind her, she noticed the whole of Devil May Cry looking at her with very amused smiles.

Kyrie blushed and chuckled nervously.

“Oh sure,” Dante grumbled from somewhere in the back, “it’s cute when she does it.”

“Of course it’s cute when she does it,” Lady shot back, rolling her eyes to the heavens. “She’s not doing it purposely to annoy people, if you catch my drift.”

Dante tipped his head at her, smirk curling his lips. “Already apologized, your honor.”

An amused snort followed. “Doesn’t mean I can’t needle you about it.”

Pocketing her phone – making sure she had the video of Kyrie with the hat saved – Nico chanced a glance in Lady’s direction. “Sooo, that mean you’re not going to blow up, say, an engineer who helped him being annoying?”

Lady shot her an incredulous look before laughing, “Alright, to make this clear: I’m not blowing up innocent people who can’t immediately regenerate from it. With a rocket launcher! Honestly, do you think I’m some kind of madwoman?! No, you don’t answer that,” she added to Dante, narrowing her eyes as she noticed that he had already opened his mouth to do just that.

He clamped it shut obediently, raising his hands in silent surrender while trying to look inncent and surprised. It didn’t work very well.

“See, Nico” Trish’s melodic voice dissipated the momentary tension again, “I told you she wouldn’t do it.”

“Well, I just think you can’t be too careful about that!” Nico defended herself, grinning embarrassedly.

“Nah, you’re safe,” Lady assured her, before holding up one finger. “That is…”

Nico froze in the middle of moving to take a seat, eyes wide in surprise and just the tiniest bit of worry. “Uh, yes?”

“… if you tell me how the heck you managed to make that damn hat so unbreakable.”

Kyrie had to hold back fond laughter as she watched Nico blink, gape, and then starting to beam, the engineer looking as if her birthday and a holiday had just fallen on the same day. “Really? You want to hear me talk about my work?!”

“Uh-oh,” Nero mumbled, flashing Kyrie a quick smile from across the room, only strengthening her urge to laugh. They both knew how excited Nico could get when someone showed interest in her ideas and working processes.

If Lady had any worries about what monster she had just unleashed, she didn’t show it, waving Nico closer with a chuckle. “Hear about it? I want to know all about it. If you can do that with a hat, I want to know if you can do that with some of my clothes – would be great if they were a bit more resistant and I didn’t need to buy new clothes after a single job.”

Nico’s grin widened to a worrisome degree as she dove for her notebooks and then hurried over to the older woman, plopping down next to her.

“If that’s the case,” Trish stretched on her spot on the couch before getting up in one fluid movement, “I would be quite interested in that, too.”

Morrison chuckled, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen you get a single hole in your clothes, Trish.”

She shot him a wink over her shoulder, smirking. “Perhaps you’re too gentlemanly to look too closely.”

“That must be it, sure.”

The excitement of the day – and any talk about cowboys or talking like cowboys – seemed to be forgotten for the moment as they went on with their day, a sort of peace coming over them.

And yet, as she stood and watched her friends go on about their day, when she had should have just joined them… Kyrie couldn’t shake off the thought that there was something still left unattended, unsaid.

The oh-so recent memory back from Nero’s workshop came clawing back up her chest, making it ache and burn – the way Dante’s eyes had gleamed with almost childish excitement as he told them about his love for cowboys, before the shadows had snuffed out that light.

It wasn’t the first time she had witnessed it, and she had been part of this group for much less time than some of the others. But it was there, if you knew where to look for, if you listened close enough: Those moments when Dante’s whole persona just seemed to crack, seams loosening and falling apart, and laughter and booming voice made way for silence and something glaringly deep and dark, swallowing him up whole.

It made Kyrie want to cry for him, for what had been lost. Manchild, they might call Dante sometimes, in annoyance, in tease, in warm laughter – but sometimes, perhaps, all of them, even herself, forgot that said child had been forced to grow into a man much too quickly, and in horror whose lasting damage they could only fathom.

The thought alone made her feel sick. She wanted to hug him, to tell him it was all going to be okay. But again… in Devil May Cry, things weren’t discussed. They were ignored, swept under the carpet, downplayed with noise and jokes and explosions until they could no longer be heard. It was Rule Number One. Everybody knew it. Etched into stone it had been, even long before she had come along.

By now, Kyrie was gnawing at her bottom lip in thought, wringing her hands. An idea was starting to form, and perhaps it might even be a good idea, but she wasn’t sure if it was her place to orchestrate something like this. Too personal. She was still mostly a stranger. Her idea could be appreciated, yes, but it could also very much backfire and do more bad than good…

“Hey,”

Warm hands reached for her, the metal one wrapping gently around her fingers to stop the fiddling, the human one carefully stroking its thump over her bottom lip so she had to stop biting it.

As Kyrie looked up, Nero smiled down at her, eyes soft even though there was gentle tease in his smirk. “You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that.”

That got a laugh out of her. His smirk widened into a smile, as if the sound had just brightened his entire day. “My hero, saving me again.”

“Always. But seriously,” a quick peck was pressed to the tip of her nose, making her giggle again because it tickled, before he became more serious. Hand coming to cup her cheek, he directed her to look at him. “What got you all frowning?”

Kyrie hummed, lost in thought while she straightened his collar and smoothed non-existent wrinkles out, all the while wondering how she should start this, if she should ask for help or not. Nero’s fingers moved, playing with her hair like he so often did, the touch familiar and grounding and calming all in once.

You’re not alone. I’m right here.

It was this silent reassurance that made her wish she could give others – could give Dante the same, even if it was just a tiny bit.

“Did you ever see something,” she began, looking up to meet Nero’s soft, inquiring gaze, “something that just didn’t seem right, and you felt like you wanted to…help fix it? Even if it’s perhaps none of your business?”

He raised one eyebrow at her, lips quirking up. “You do realize who you’re talking to, right?”

“Quite,” she assured, answering laughter rising in her. “But I mean…even if you would kind of break an unspoken rule with it?”

The second eyebrow joined the first, mirth gleaming in his eyes. “Again, you do realize who you’re….?”

“Oh, okay, okay, shush,” she had to laugh, honest and loud, but she still managed to aim a playful smack at his shoulder throughout it, just for railing her up. It was not like he would even feel it.

Nero’s glee only seemed to increase, as if she had done something particularly endearing. Still, he caught her raised hand in his, pressing a quick kiss to the palm to sooth whatever sting there was, before drawing her back into an embrace. “Alright, but seriously, if I were in your stead, I would probably just go through with it, whatever it is.”

“Don’t I know it, you would jump right in,” Kyrie mumbled into his chest, smiling when he chuckled without an ounce of shame. “I might have to take a page from your book then, this time.”

“What an honor,” she could hear the tease in his voice, but the kiss he dropped to the top of her head was full of honest reassurance. “You’re gonna do great.”

“You don’t even know what I‘m going to do.”

“No clue. But I just saw you manage both Dante and Lady at the same time. I doubt there’s anything that can stop you after that.”

Again, laughter burst out of her, and she stood to her tiptoes as he released her and stepped back, rocking forward to press a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” his grin was wide and boyish, so different from his usual smirk and just for her, it made another surge of affection go through her.

Kyrie was just about to add another kiss to the first, when they got joined by a third party.

“I really hate to interrupt you two lovebirds,” Nico peeked over Nero’s shoulder, flush high in her cheeks from excitement. “But Kyrie, can I kidnap your boyfriend for a sec? I want to show off the Devil Breaker to the interested ladies over there.”

“Go ahead,” Kyrie agreed, waving them off.

Nero’s eyebrows rose yet again. “I don’t even get asked?”

“You don’t get asked,” Nico confirmed, already attempting to drag him off. “Move it, lover boy.”

Nero rolled his eyes at the attempt, not even giving an inch, before he bent down and pressed one last parting kiss to Kyrie’s forehead. “You go rock whatever it is.”

“Will do.”

“What, what is she gonna do?”

“None of your business, Nico.”

“Aww, you guys never let me join the fun.”

“Really? You complain while dragging me around like a puppet?”

“Excuse me, at least twenty percent of you is made by me, I can drag all I want, honey.”

Kyrie smiled after the two of them as they went, bickering all the way. Really now…

Taking one deep breath, stealing herself for whatever outcome this was going to achieve, she turned, located whom she needed, and purposefully strode over.

Morrison seemed surprised when he looked up and saw her standing next to him, but it quickly made way for a welcoming smile as he made a gesture towards the empty space on the couch next to him. “Yes, Kyrie? What is it?”

She huffed out a chuckle at that, gratefully taking a seat. “I didn’t say anything and you already know I need something?”

“Easy to see, with that determined gleam in your eyes,” he observed, reaching for his jacket before stopping, shaking his head at his own habit before looking up again. “So, how may I help?”

His smile was friendly still, and no accusations in his words, so Kyrie relaxed instantly. Clearly, her feeling that he would be the right person to ask had been right. “You see, I wondered if there’s a place where I could buy old movies. As in, old western movies?”

Morrison’s expression faltered for half a second, eyebrows shooting up, and he only just so seemed to stop himself from gaping at her. “You…”

His reaction had been much stronger than Kyrie had anticipated, and once again she wondered – worried – if she was overstepping her boundaries here. In an attempt to explain, she added, “It’s just that we don’t have any shops in Fortuna that sell older things like that, or movies in general, and I don’t know a lot of places here in…”

“They wouldn’t be for you, I take it?”

She interrupted herself, blushing ever so slightly. Was she so easy to read?

Then she remembered how Morrison had put emphasis on just how long he had known Dante, and she thought that, perhaps, if anyone knew best what went on in the demon hunter’s head…if anyone understood, it would probably be…

Morrison hadn’t reacted badly to it, not really. Simply surprised.

Kyrie raised her chin, mind made up. She was sure this was the right thing to do, now. “No, they would be a present.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say. The inquiring look melted from Morrison’s face, replaced by the most brilliant smile she had ever seen from him. “I actually might know where to get you that present.”

It took her a second, but then Kyrie understood, and she beamed. “Really? Where?”

She had half a mind to go there immediately, on the height of her enthusiasm, and gather up every last Wild Western movie she could get a hand on.

It must have shown, because the man chuckled, resting a hand on her wrist to get her to stay seated. “Slow down, now. I’m going to head over there, see what I can scrounge up for you.”

“Oh, but you don’t have to-…“

“Kyrie,” his voice was kind, but firm. “It’s a great idea you had there, and I would be happy to offer some help.”

She relaxed, releasing a relieved breath. “You think it will be…well received, then.”

“More than you probably can imagine right now. But you might find out for yourself.”

Before she could wonder what that meant, much less ask, a hand landed on her shoulder, warm and gentle.

“As if someone doesn’t like presents,” Dante rumbled, arm coming to rest around Kyrie’s shoulder as he leaned over the back of the couch to steal Morrison’s beer bottle from next to him. The older man let him, smile curling around his lips even as he muttered a half-hearted protest over it.

Kyrie had jumped at the first touch, sudden as it was, but relaxed now. She had become quite used to the ease with which Dante approached her, even when she had been perplexed by it at first. She peered up at the older half-demon, catching his gaze which was… far too amused, for the situation, she noted. Far too fond and directed at her and…

Oh.

Oh right, she thought with a rush of embarrassment and amusement at the same time, heightened senses, and better hearing.

Sometimes she forgot just who she was dealing with.

Huffing, hoping that she didn’t blush too badly at her own oversight and being caught, Kyrie smiled up at Dante, pointing an accusing finger at him. “Is it still a present if you’re not even going to be surprised by it?”

The smirk on Dante’s face widened into a grin and he shrugged one shoulder. “I like presents. Never said a thing about surprises.”

The hand still wrapped around her shoulder squeezed, gently, taking the blow out of his teasing, and she smiled widely at it.

“I can pretend to be surprised by it, if you like,” he offered still, raising an inquiring eyebrow at her.

She sighed fondly, shaking her head. “Please, no. After that cowboy show all day? I don’t want to think how far you would go to pretend to be surprised.”

“Well said,” Morrison laughed out loud at that, throwing his head back, and the grin on Dante’s face couldn’t be any bigger.

“What are you guys getting up to over here?” Nero sidled over to them, obviously having been released from his duty to show off. He pushed, none too roughly, past Dante, who easily gave up his spot at Kyrie’s side to let Nero take over.

“Failing to surprise Dante,” Kyrie explained, chuckling as she saw confusion flash over her boyfriend’s face at that before it settled again.

“Still ready to pretend,” Dante disagreed, waggling his eyebrows at her before he took a swig of his drink. “But, to answer your question kid – Kyrie here did surprise us all with planning a movie night.”

“I-.. what?”

That, she hadn’t anticipated. Hadn’t even thought of.

But clearly, Dante had. He twirled the bottle in his fingers, humming, not really meeting their perplexed gazes. “Sure. Movies are there to be watched, aren’t they? And I was thinking pizza. Movies with pizza, and you guys can stay if you like, since it was your idea in the first place.”

It sounded casual enough, the way he said it. It didn’t seem casual at all, the way melancholy was etched into his lopsided smile, and he was still not looking over to gauge their reactions.

Kyrie’s mind was made up immediately, and she reached for Nero’s hand on her shoulder even as she searched for his gaze.

He was already looking back, tipping his head at her in a short, almost invisible nod that made her heart swell with love once again.

(He could pretend not to care all he wanted, she knew better. They knew better.)

“If you talk with that shitty accent throughout the whole movie,” Nero warned, no real threat in his voice. “I will join Lady in shooting you.”

Dante’s smile sharpened into a smirk and he rolled his eyes. “Kid, that threat stopped working after you greeted me with bullets the first time around.”

“That just means he saw right through you,” Lady called from the other side of the room. Kyrie looked over just in time to see Trish hide a smile behind her hand and Nico snort, Lady lounging in her chair with mirth in her eyes that belied her harsh words. “Noticed right away that it’s the best way to go when it comes to you.”

“Cheers, I'll drink to that!” Dante threw back, raising his empty bottle at her even as she made a crude gesture in his direction.

“Prick.”

“Mh-hm,” the half-demon seemed more amused than faced by it. “Will the ladies be joining movie night?”

“Sure, why not,” Trish answered easily. “Could be fun.”

“Movies and pizza?” Nico brightened up, grinning. “Count me in.”

“Wait, wait,” Lady straightened up again, throwing her hands up in a Stop gesture. “Wild Western movies with Dante? After this day? You’re just going to use that to torment us with that terrifying, horrible accent again.”

“I already apologized…”

“Aha, I don’t hear you saying No to that statement.”

There was a beat of apprehensive silence as the duo looked at each other, everyone else in the room shifting more or less uneasily at the sudden tension.

Then, Dante smiled, slowly and bright, and Lady let out the deepest sigh in the history of humanity.

“Once,” she said in the tone of someone who just had to make a great sacrifice. “You can use it once.”

“I can live with that.”

“I’m going to regret this,” Lady mumbled, scrunching her nose while Trish next to her chuckled. “I see it coming already.”

“Well,” Morrison declared, pushing himself to his feet. “Sounds like my cue to go get those movies.”

“Get the good ones.” Dante called advice after him. “The real good ones.”

“Dante, I have no idea what you consider good ones, you get your ass in the car and accompany me if you want to have a say in this.”

“Sheesh, you all have no idea about good movies…”

“Well,” Nero mumbled into Kyrie’s ear, aiming to be heard as everyone around them started talking at the same time, arguing over movies to watch and what pizza to order. “Whatever you did, it worked pretty well it seems.”

“Don’t you say I told you so, now,” Kyrie warned, laughing even as she felt him grin against her temple.

“Don’t even have to,” he basically sing-songed. Then pressed a quick kiss to her temple, humming. “You are a blessing, Kyrie. Really.”

Behind them, Dante and Morrison laughed over something as the older man chucked a coat at the half-demon, making him splutter. Lady tried to pout around her smile and failed miserably, grin taking over her features as she rolled her eyes. Nico pulled out the well-used flyer from the nearest pizza parlor from a drawer. Trish threw her head back in laughter, baring the length of her throat, as she watched the engineer notice that the only phone in the shop had been unplugged once again.

It was messy, and loud, and far from perfect.

It was their perfect, Kyrie thought, affection rose in her throat, slow and bright and warm. And if she could do anything, something, however little, to preserve it, she would do it.

“This,” she said, clearing her throat against the sudden feelings, trying again. “This is a blessing.”

 And if the way Nero smiled at her then was any indication, she thought, he just might think so, too.