#I could run into carbon copies of the same people I follow on here on any other site. I don't have incentive

[lunod]

Ngl I kinda hate the homogenous nature of tech now. Site culture used to be a pretty big thing, and sites used to all look different from each other. You picked sites to be on not just for the community but for the drastically different functionalities the site offered from other sites. Now everything has pretty much the same functionalities and site culture has less to do with actual culture and more to do with the platform's method of communication (video vs txt primarily). Phones used to have very different UI depending on the brand AND model and now it all runs together and you mainly choose based on ??????? brand name preference I guess. It just feels disingenuous and obviously caters toward making as much money from as many people as possible.

[lemonlover1110]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬

Satoru Gojo

[Chapter 3] Reunion

← Previous Chapter - Story Masterlist - Next Chapter →

Pairing: Satoru Gojo x f!Reader

Discord +18 - Twitter - Ko-Fi

You’re shaken up when you get off the elevator and you’re not sure what to do. You have to contact his mother, but you’re sure that he’s speaking to her right this second. A million thoughts run through your head, but first you have to speak with your new boss about the fact that your son is joining you for the day; or at least until you get in contact with the nanny that can pick him up from here.

You aren’t quite sure where to go from here though. So many people are walking around and they all seem so busy, and you don’t want to bother them. You’re not sure what’s come over you right this second because bothering people has never been one of your worries. Your breath is caught up in your chest, and you wish you could be invisible. Even from the young boy that holds your hand and looks around.

You feel out of place. You’re out of place. You hear your name, and your eyes wander to find the feminine voice that said it. And when you finally see her, this wave of relief washes over you, although it doesn’t last too long.

“Shoko?” You look at the woman that puts her hand on your arm, seeing that you’re shaken up. She stares at you for a moment before her eyes go down and she sees a carbon copy of Satoru– Only that this one can’t be older than five. She can’t wrap her head around this.

“Come to my office.” She says, and you slowly nod in response before you follow behind her. When you’re in the office, your eyes fall on the giant windows that display a great view of the city. Ren's eyes do the same, and he walks over to the windows, putting his tiny hands on them. When she shuts the door she says, “So are you the woman that Mrs. Gojo hired?”

Your brain seems to have slowed down, and it takes a moment before you respond, “I am.”

But that’s not what Shoko wants to talk about. She had seen your name when Mrs. Gojo shared your information. She wants to know about the little boy that dirties her window with his handprints. She walks to her chair to take a seat, “Satoru never told me he had a kid. Or are you the nanny as well?”

“That’s not Satoru’s kid.” You lie, and she can read right through you– Even if she couldn’t, the child is a copy of Satoru’s. It’s very clearly a lie. “I’m not here to talk about that though… I’m here to– Um…”

“To get started. I’ve been waiting for you. You are late, but considering the obvious circumstances, I’ll let it slide. Plus, you’re an old friend.” Shoko responds. She points at Ren before asking, “Will he be joining us daily? Because I can’t make too many exceptions.”

“No, just today. Mrs. Gojo hired a nanny but she didn’t show up.” You answer, and Shoko’s eyebrows raise.

“So he’s not Satoru’s kid but Mrs. Gojo is his grandmother?” Shoko asks and you hesitantly nod. “Okay…”

“I don’t want– Well, we don’t want Satoru to find out about…” You tilt your head in Ren’s direction. You know he’s listening to everything, even if he doesn’t seem to be. Many questions run through Shoko’s head, but she thinks it’s better if she doesn’t ask. She’s curious, yet it’s none of her business. 

“Okay… You know he’s here, right? He sent me a message not too long ago and whatnot, and he’ll be coming here to at least greet me. If you want to keep it a secret you’ll have to–” Shoko begins and with every word you feel your stomach churn. Your heart feels as if it’s about to beat out of your chest and you have to cut her off.

“I got it, thank you.” You attempt to smile, and your nerves are reflected. You’ll send the nanny the address, and tell her to hurry up before you get Mrs. Gojo more involved than she already is. “Will you please show me to my desk? And of course, inform me of my tasks. Mrs. Gojo blindly threw me in here.”

“Right. Yup. Of course.” She stands up. She’s about to guide you out of the office and to your desk, but she has something to say. “Don’t you think he deserves to know?”

“I deserved to know about his marriage. We had been together for a long time. But he cut me off as if it was nothing.” You respond. “There was no way for me to contact him anyway.”

“Yeah… Sorry. Let’s get you to your desk.”

Ren hides under your desk, playing with your phone as you wait for the nanny to show up to the place. She apologized over a hundred times, a family emergency had come up, but now she’s on her way. And now you pray that she’ll get Ren off your hands before Satoru comes to this floor. You have too much on your plate. 

“Mommy, someone is calling.” Ren announces, passing you the phone. You take it from him, and when you see that it’s the nanny calling, you’re relieved. It almost causes a smile to come to your lips. You put the phone to your ear, and when she tells you that she’s in the lobby, you nearly jump up from your seat. 

“C’mon, Ren. You’re going back home.” You tell him, and he gets out of the desk and grabs your hand. He’s a little too excited to go back home, after all, he doesn’t do much here. Back at home though, he has so many toys and a big TV where he can watch his cartoons. 

“Are you coming with me, mommy?” He asks. He knows that you have to work and you spend so much time working, but he’s still hopeful that you’ll nod in response. Instead you smile at him before shaking your head,

“I’ll see you later, baby.” You ruffle his hair. “This weekend we’ll do something fun.”

He slowly nods his head, a bit disappointed by the answer, but it’s to be expected. You knock on the Shoko’s office door, and you wait for her to allow you to come in. When you hear her voice, you open the door and quickly announce, “I’m dropping Ren off in the lobby with the nanny. I’ll be right back.”

She nods in response and you close the door again. You walk to the elevator with Ren, and you get in, fully expecting to hide him again just because you feel as if the universe hates you, and you might bump into Satoru again. But you’re lucky.

You make it to the lobby without the universe playing any tricks on you, and you quickly spot the nanny. You drop Ren off with her, reminding her of the apartment code as you give her Ren’s bag. You kiss the top of your son’s forehead and tell him, “Be good, okay, baby?”

“Yes, mommy.” He nods. You smile at him, happy that you don’t have to worry about Satoru seeing him. The nanny walks away with your son, and once they exit the building, you begin to walk back to the elevators. While you wait for the elevator doors to open, your heart stops for a moment again. 

You begin to walk to the other elevator, hoping to avoid another awkward interaction, but you hear Mrs. Gojo call your name. She’s a wretched woman, that’s all you can think about. Your hands ball up into fists and you take a deep breath before turning around to face her.

“Mrs. Gojo.” You acknowledge her, trying your best to smile at her. You look directly at her, ignoring Satoru and his wife who are right alongside her. You feel Satoru’s wife stare at you while Satoru’s eyes wander around, not wanting to look directly at you.

“I was waiting for you this morning, what happened?” She asks. Before you can answer, she speaks again, “Oh, where are my manners? This is Sayo, my daughter-in-law. And you remember Satoru, right? You two grew up together.”

“Yeah… How could I forget.” You respond. Sayo extends her hand for you to shake, and you do so. Satoru’s hands go into his pockets and he looks anywhere but at you. “Really lovely meeting you.”

“You too.” She smiles. When she lets go, you unintentionally wipe your hand on your pants. 

“What happened this morning?” Mrs. Gojo goes back to her original question. You chew on the inside of your cheek, trying to think of how to answer.

“You know the cat?” You ask and she furrows her eyebrows. She’s confused until you say, “Your cat threw up and I couldn’t leave it alone for the–”

“Oh! Oh… Why didn’t you call me?” She replies.

“I did. I left a message as well.” You respond. You awkwardly stand around for what feels like an eternity before you clear your throat. You’re about to speak but Satoru speaks before you.

“You never told me you got a cat, mom. Do you have any pictures?” Satoru asks.

“No.” She answers. “And don’t expect to see it. The cat isn’t staying with me for now.”

“Why?” Satoru asks, and his mom rolls her eyes. That’s enough of an answer for him. “How about you? Do you have pictures?”

“I do.” You respond.

“Can I see?”

“No.” You reply. You then smile at Mrs. Gojo and tell her, “Ms. Ieiri is waiting for me, if you’d excuse me.”

“Oh, we still have to greet her. Mind if we accompany you?” Sayo asks and you shake your head, trying your best to remain polite with everyone. You knew this would happen eventually the moment you began to work for Mrs. Gojo, you just didn’t expect it so soon.

“I’m heading out, I’ll see you three later.” Mrs. Gojo says, waving. You head to the elevator and they walk behind you. Your palms get sweaty and you feel as if you can’t breathe while you’re entrapped in such a small space with them.

“So… You’re my mother-in-law’s assistant but you also work with Ieiri?” Sayo speaks, and you bite down on your lip. 

“Yup, money problems.” You answer.

“Weren’t you planning on becoming a doctor?” Satoru speaks up just as the elevator doors open. You don’t answer his question, walking out of the elevator. You walk straight to Shoko’s office, and they follow behind. Just as you’re about to knock, Shoko opens the door. Her eyes immediately land on Satoru and his wife.

“Special delivery for you.” You tell Shoko. She puts on a smile, greeting Satoru and Sayo as you walk to your desk. When you take a seat, you can’t focus on learning what you have to do. Today was simply the worst day to start the new job.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your new assistant?” Satoru asks Shoko as she takes her seat. The woman shrugs.

“Does it matter?” Shoko replies.

“Well… I guess it doesn’t.” He ends up shaking his head.

“Who is she exactly?” Sayo questions. 

“She’s an old friend. She’s an old servant’s daughter and we grew up together.” Satoru responds. Sayo slowly nods in response as she takes a seat across from Shoko. That makes sense, but she doesn’t understand why you feel so hostile toward him. Maybe she’s reading things wrong though, it was just a brief exchange.

“You know? I want to get to know all of Satoru’s friends better. How about we invite you two out… and Suguru! You know Suguru, right?” Sayo suggests, Satoru’s eyebrows furrowing.

“Know him? I nearly killed him once.” Shoko scoffs.

“You two as in…?” Satoru asks, praying that the second person is someone completely random.

“The assistant.” She answers, and Satoru bites his tongue. He can’t argue about it unless he reveals that he has a past with you, and he doesn’t want that. Shoko purses her lips together before saying,

“I’m in. It’ll be nice to go out with old friends.”

A smile appears on Sayo’s lips and she stands up, “I’ll go invite the assistant.”

“Love, slow down a bit. She’s busy.” Satoru’s hand goes to Sayo’s shoulder. Sayo ends up rolling her eyes before she brushes off Satoru’s hand.,

“I’ll only take up a second of her time.”

🏷 @yeagerfushiguro @luckimoon @uhremmi @conniesbbymama @mykyoon @prettyiolanthe @mc-reborn @the-loneliest-girl @cloudsinthecosmos @coffee-on-a-rainyautumn @blinkingsuns @oi-loverboy @neireav @lilith412426 @misshale21 @rivaiken @q-the-rockaholic @merlinssassybeard @ikilledsparky2 @mimizsworld @lily3847 @Teslumieres @floralsightings @Mocha-plxnet @idreamitski @creolequeen11210 @jooaannnnaaa @enthusiastiics @lovinkiri @abdce12345 @bkgnotsuma @kariito-art @beelzmunchkin @satosuguswife @kurome-ga-kill @hoonberrie @mittypops @suhaaaefre @AZE107 @ackerstein @sweetshawty @saiewithakatana @psychopotatomeme @innocxntdexth @4-morant @shan-nein @marymosaa @Ditzyberry @purpleguk @basically-an-anime-stan-acct @bomjug @idkbutokaylol @rosieee491 @ieathairs

[mochidom]

FAIRIES HEIRS (The Dragneel)

Masterpost here!

nb: presenting my nalu babies... kinda nervous idk

Lucy asked Natsu out first (Happy never fails to remind her of that fact) a few months after the gang came back from the 100 years quest;

Do I need to say that Natsu was giggling for the whole day after?

Because Lucy initiated the first date, Natsu made sure he was the one who proposed (he asked Gadjeel and regretted and Gray who had that point were already fiancés. I’ll let you guys imagine the ideas that came out of the brainstorm between the three);

Finally after a discussion (he got mostly yelled at) with Jellal and Luxus, he decided to bring her to Hargeon where they first met and asked for her hand there;

Very important detail: Natsu asked for Aquarius' blessing (because in my dictature, Lucy got the key back) before proposing to Lucy;

Career wise: Natsu became one of the most sought mage in the kingdom and even overseas while Lucy became a very successful author;

Lucy stopped going on missions when she got pregnant with their first child Ignia a few months after the wedding, and from that point only concentrated on her writing career;

She published three other novels from that point and all of them did pretty well. The guild, of course, organised a book signing event for each of the releases.

Atlas Salamander Dragneel was born in the middle of the guild on a beautiful Thursday afternoon.

After months of following Polyussica's diet for a painless delivery, Lucy realized way too late that the diet worked way too well and she did not realize her water broke nor felt that the baby was coming;

Some would say such an eventful birth is an omen as to how the baby will be and they would be right because Atlas is nothing if not eventful;

For the first ten years of his life, if there was a catastrophic attack on Magnolia's flora, you could bet your house that he had something to do with it. The boy destroyed a mountain when he was barely 6!;

That is when Luxus start to get worried for his hairline;

Natsu is over the moon to have found a partner to accompany him on his bizarre adventures;

Natsu and Atlas are always sparring each other and they're keeping count. It is currently 124-2 for Natsu;

Lucy can't believe that someone who looks so much like her can be so different from her. Atlas cannot sit AT ALL and for the longest time, the parents had to team up with the city's authorities to give him a simplet haircut;

He's a very volatile person and he hates staying in the same place for a long time;

Him and Gideon are actually dangers to society;

Atlas is also very impulsive and also kinda have a saviour complex; He is always the one to come to help to another being, which is not bad but sometime he does it without thinking much about himself or the people who care about him;

He is very charismatic which is such a bad combo with his eclectic personality. He gets away with a lot such as the fact that he is a player;

Because they obviously are not strong enough to pin him down (no one is, they would know), Lucy and Natsu agree to let him leave on a two years long mission with Gildarts and Gideon when he turns 15;

The princess of the family! You can get a real-life target on your back if you even mispronounce her name;

After the nightmare that Atlas was, Lucy was so happy to have such a calm baby. Natsu is just really happy because Iggy is a carbon copy of him;

Happy's running joke is to look at Iggy and say something along the lines of "Oh my god Natsu, your hair grew so much";

Iggy grew with an overbearing dad, a very protective mom and a brother who was way too much into her business, that being said the rebellion period was to be expected;

It didn't last too long (Natsu thank the skies every day), she hates being in trouble too much. She mostly sulks when she's upset now;

She is best friends and teammates with Cairo Scarlet-Fernandes and Silo Fullbuster;

Because both boys are very prone to partake in activities that result in broken bones and skulls, she has been tasked by Juvia and Erza to chaperone them at all times;

She is very responsible and a person you can count on always;

Whenever her parents leave for a mission or book tour, they very specifically put her in charge of her older brother;

[tenaciousduckpoetry]

i. Carbon Copy

Miles finds himself in a new dimension with a friend who he didn't think he'd see again.

Just to be clear, in Mile's original universe reader was his best friend, but there was an accident and reader moved.

Warnings: angst, cannon violence, reader is not so nice, changed some stuff from the movie to fit the series a little better, not edited yet, reader genuinely seems crazy and is mentioned to be manic

Miles wasn't sure what he was expecting when he arrived at his 'original' dimension. Flowers? Peace? He didn't know. But he was not expecting an onslaught of violence and crime within every inch of the city he would have called home. His panic sent him frantic, running to escape the multiple spider-people after him. With Miguel just minutes away from finding him, Miles wasn't sure where to go.

The only place he could think of was his house. He hoped it was his house.

There was a sort of comfort when he first climbed through his window. The smell of freshly done laundry and his mamas cooking had his stuttering heartbeat slowing to a consistent pace. His room looked the same as it did back home. His desk was cluttered in recent drawings, shoes thrown next to the door and bin overflowing with paper balls. Expect, there were no expensive Vision Academy books.. and his uniform was nowhere to be found. Maybe he stayed on campus in this universe as well? He'd have to play it safe and just assume so.

His head perked up when the door began to open. He almost wanted to hide, but something stopped him. "Mama.." he mumbled, watching her freeze in the doorway with a basket full of freshly washed clothes under one arm. Rio looked at him for a moment, squinting for a moment before offering her gentle smile. The heartfelt conversation that Miles had planned didn't go as he expected.

When he mentioned Spider-Man and then being Spider-Man he wasn't expecting the laugh that came from his mother. His own mum was laughing at him. He wasn't joking. This was not funny, and if it was the universe playing some sick joke on him it was working. The moment ended just as fast as it started with Miles quickly rushing up the stairs. He wanted to run. To feel the air rushing past his face instead of how his blood seemed to rush so loudly beneath his skin.

He glitched, doubling over on the stairs before mustering the strength to pull himself up. He needed air. The corridor seemed to grow tighter around him and for a moment he wondered if there was any oxygen in the room. The last few steps were the hardest, but soon enough he was on the roof of his apartment. He didn't have time to look behind him before he heard the thump of heavy boots on the ground.

His head turned to face whoever was behind him, only to come into contact with a fist. He tripped over his feet and soon enough the world grew dark once again.

Instead of waking up in his dorm as if this was all a bad dream, he woke up tied to a punching bag. Miles was sure he had a hefty bruise on his cheek from the dull ache it provided. His eyes, droopy and adjusting to the light, squinted as he glanced across the room. There was a shadow against the wall. Or was that two? He took another look and.. yeah, that was two.

A part of him wondered if this was the end, but his thoughts were interrupted by the voices of his capturers.

"You aren't listening to me. You can't keep him here forever. Someone's gonna realize what's happening-"

They were cut off.

"No one is going to realize if you don't let them follow." A voice so similar to his own spoke. He heard a scoff and soon enough you came into his view.

Clad in neon green and black spandex, a hoodie over the top. You pulled your mask from your face. It was black and looked quite similar to that of the Prowlers with some simple stylistic changes. Miles felt his breath get caught in his throat. It couldn't be. He hadn't seen you in a year. Unresolved feelings bubbled in his chest and he almost called out your name.

"What are we going to do with you, copy cat?" You hummed, arms crossed as you lightly kicked the punching bag just next to his right leg.

Copy cat? That was a new one.

Another face came into his view and the colour drained from his face. The Prowler stepped forward and suddenly he was transported to the moment where he found out just who his uncle was. For a moment he thought it was his tio Aaron.

"Miles." The voice spoke, mask finally disappearing and exposing just who it was. His eyes widened as he stared straight at the carbon copy of himself standing just a few meters away.

"You're me." Holy shit. How could he have been so foolish? Maybe Miguel was right.. this was his fault. He wasn't supposed to be Spiderman. He didn't sign up to face the villain version of himself. That wasn't a part of the contract!

"No shit, Sherlock. Do you want a reward or something?" You huffed, turning back to 42 Miles. "We should just get rid of him. Who's going to know other than us?"

"Glad to know you're willing to kill me." The other Miles (E-42 Miles) spoke up, venom dripping from his voice. He was stoic and moody, unlike you who looked as if you were starting to enjoy this. "You'd do the same with me." You shrugged. You knew Miles, your Miles like the back of your hand. He wouldn't kill you. At least you hoped he wouldn't.

"Uh. I don't know if you guys have noticed, but I'm right here." Miles spoke, a migraine forming from the slight bickering and constant swaying of the punching bag. "It would be nice to know if you're going to kill me or not." He huffed slightly, hands fiddling with the the chords that were wrapped around him.

You and 42 Miles glanced towards the carbon copy swaying on the red punching bag. You watched as 42 Miles stared him down as if he was trying to analyze him.

"You better start explaining yourself. I want to know who you are and what you're doing here." He spoke, a more montone feel to his voice. How was Miles supposed to explain this.

'Oh, by the way, I'm actually from a different dimension where my dad is going to die in three days and I really need to get back there, but the spider that was supposed to bite you, bit me, and then I got hunted down by a grown man.' Yeah, no. That wouldn't work.

"You won't believe what I tell you." Miles spoke hesitantly. "My name is Miles Morales. I'm spider-man. I just need to get back home so I can save-" he cut himself off, "I just need to get home, okay? And the only way I can do that is if you let me go."

The way you were staring at him sent a shiver down his spine. He'd never seen you look so.. different. Instead of the cheerful personality that you had in his dimension you were different. You were moody, had the eyes of a manic person, and you were a villain. You definitely weren't a villain where he came from.

"If you think your pathetic sob story is going to get you free, then you're quite wrong." You spat at him.

[thislovintime]

Peter Tork, onstage circa May 1969.

A fan named Dee Dee (from Decatur, Illinois) wrote to Peter via Fave Magazine, circa 1969. In her letter, she explained, “[Y]ou seem to be such a ‘free’ person. I mean that you do your own thing, from growing a beard to leaving the Monkees to leading the type of life that makes you happy without worrying what everybody thinks. It’s always been different with me. I was fairly popular with my friends because I was a follower, not a leader. I was content, more or less, to tag along and do what the ‘in’ crowd did just so I would belong. But since I turned 16, a few months ago, I have been more and more unhappy with myself. I really didn’t want to look like everybody else, so I cut off my long hair. I think it’s cute, but my friends don’t like it. I also changed the way I dressed. […] Nobody wants to talk to anymore at school, and I haven’t been invited to the last three big parties the crowd gave. I really feels just awful about it! Do you think I should change back and stop trying to be myself? I’m so lonely and hurt I could die, but somehow I think trying to be like everybody else isn’t right either! Please help me, Peter, I know you can!” Here’s Peter’s reply:

“Dear Dee Dee, I feel a very big responsibility in giving you an answer and I’ve turned it over and over in my mind. Many things you say in your letter bring back memories of my high school days! I felt much the same way you do. You aren’t alone in your idea that there has to be something else besides trying to be a carbon copy of everybody else around you. But as you now realize, during your teens you are bucking the system when you try for individuality. I don’t mean this to sound hard on your friends — or rather the people you thought were your friends. Let me try to explain how I feel about it to you, and maybe it’ll help. The whole idea of peace and love as I see it is to let everybody do their thing, as long as it’s not harmful to anyone else. There’s nothing that says you have to agree with someone’s opinion on dress, hair, politics, or the way the country is being run. If you prefer to listen to classical music instead of rock, then by all means do! Everyone feels differently about certain things. That’s what makes us all individuals, and life would certainly be dull if people agreed on everything. But to go back to what I said about ‘bucking the system,’ it is a lot harder to be entirely your own self when you are just developing your own ideas. When you are in high school, your social life becomes very important to you. How many parties you get invited to, how many phone calls and dates you have, the number of people you can call your friends are the things which make you feel like a worthwhile person, or a dropout from the human race. You’ll have to accept the fact that any deviation from the current fads of dress or conversation will place you in the category of being just a little different. It’s not a bad thing to be — but it’s not easy either! Your friends will not accept this from you readily, because they remember you as you were. Also, in doing our own thing you are giving them some doubts about themselves. You see, everyone knows deep down that there are some things they don’t like about running with the crowd! But how easy it is to just sit back and accept, instead of branching out on their own! As the years go by and people mature, most of them do find that they are entirely different than they were in high school. They look back, as I do, and say, ‘How could I have gone along with that!’ It takes years and experience for people to find just exactly what they want and who they are. Unfortunately, too many never do! That’s why you should consider yourself lucky. You aren’t really an outcast, you know. The most important person you have to please is you! And obviously you are trying to find the right road that brings out the self you are most comfortable with. You have to realize, Dee Dee, that you are maturing more rapidly than some of the others in your age group. It is a very important thing that is happening inside of you. You’re questioning the ‘taken for granted’ things and beginning to think for yourself. All this takes a great deal of courage and faith. You’ll find yourself asking a hundred times a day, ‘Do I really want this? Do I believe in this?…’ and little by little you will be happier within yourself. If you keep an open mind about things, and this means not putting down the people you think have square ideas, you will find attitudes changing toward you. Remember that everybody, even those you know are wrong, do have just as much right to the ideas and way of life as you have! You can be absolutely certain that the way you feel is right — FOR YOU! What is right for someone else is their own decision. You can argue a point of disagreement with someone by offering your views in a calm, friendly way. Don’t fight about it! Don’t try to force your beliefs on others, because this only antagonizes them. Everybody has to come along at his or her own pace and trying to prod or push them only makes them angry with you! Think about what I’ve told you and try your very best to be open, cheerful and friendly with everyone. That includes people who have or will try to point you in one way or another. If someone puts you down, letting it roll off your back is not accepting it so much as recognizing the fact that it’s their hangup, not yours! There are going to be people who will become your friends. Some of them you’ll get to know, and others will find you. Your social life will pick up again, but this time you’ll be doing it on your own terms! This much I know is true, because it happened to me! The transition from being one of the crowd to being your own individual self is painful, but the way you feel about yourself is the most important thing that will ever happen to you! Peace and Love, Peter Tork”

[allzelemonz]

Those Blue Eyes: Leonard McCoy X Male Reader

Prompt: Tropesgiving Day 3: Evil Twins Pronouns: He/Him, use of boyfriend, reader called ‘boy’ and ‘man’ Physical Sex: None Mentioned Rating: T/Moderate Themes Warnings: Canon typical violence, flirty mirror counterparts, mentions of surgery and death Summary: A mirrored version of Doctor McCoy is on the Enterprise and you have him at phaser point, but things are much more complicated than they seem.

A carbon copy. Completely and utterly Leonard in every aspect - except for the eyes. The beautiful baby blue that always holds a strong bearing of empathy and compassion under his sarcastic demeanor is not the same for this cheap knock off. His eyes are the same pools you could get lost in if you’re not careful, but his sneer isn’t a joke. It runs deep into a dark mind with no sense of care for any living thing but the being it lives inside.

Yet as you level the phaser to point at the copy, he looks at you with those eyes and you can’t quite keep your hand steady. Leonard, your Leonard, looks between his mirrored twin and the man he loves. There isn’t a doubt in his mind that you know which of them is which. But he also knows it can’t be easy pointing a deadly weapon at the face of a boyfriend.

And when the twisted thing speaks in the familiar little drawl it makes things even harder, “You can’t hurt me, can you?”

You steady your hand when he takes a step inward and his hands go up in defence. You eyes glance to meet the real Leonard and you give him a directing nod, he gets behind you as he’s told.

“I have a guy just like you.” The mirror doctor smiles. “Oh, he’s a real treat, always comes when he’s called.”

A gasp from behind you tells you all you need to know. Mirror Leonard isn’t alone, he’s brought along an evil version of you. A twisted you with a phaser aimed at the good southern doctor.

“Give the phaser to Leo or I’ll kill your doctor.” The mirrored you orders.

You comply. Only because they are the strangers here. They came aboard the USS Enterprise, they don’t have any friends here. You spin the weapoon around and hold it out to the mirror Leonard, Leo. He takes it with a twisted grin as his fingers brush against yours and make shivers shoot through you.

“Good boy.” He whispers before turning the phaser on you. “You too, sweetheart.”

“Move!” The mirrored you finally comes into view as he pushes Leonard towards an operating table.

Leo grabs the collar of your uniform shirt and drags you along, the phaser aimed at your head. He gestures for you to sit on the table, then turns to Leonard.

“Time for surgery, doctor.” He brushes his hand against the mirrored you’s cheek. “My darling needs a new heart.”

A heart? That’s why they crossed over, they need a perfect match. In the world they live in it’s not likely that many people give away organs for anything less than a fortune.

“You think I’m gonna cut him open and-” Leonard protests before a phaser is shoved in his face.

“Either you cut him open nice and clean, or I’ll do it. I don’t think you want me to open him up, right?” Leo’s face twists into that sickening smile as his eyes trace over you.

“All right!” Leonard sighs. “I’ll do it, I just need my instruments.”

“You heard him.” Leo presses a kiss to the head of the mirrored you. “Get the good doctor his tools.”

“Yes, sir.” The mirrored you says with a flirty smirk that makes you feel awkward for being near the two.

Leo watches him as he goes, eyes tracing every inch of your mirror counterpart as if he’s a hunter watching a prize deer. Before he can turn around Leonard pulls him back and you follow his lead, wrestling the phaser from his hand. Just as the mirrored you runs back, you hold the phaser level with his head.

“Drop it.” You warn.

“I’m going to die either way.”

Before he can fire, you shoot a stunning blast and watch as he topples to the ground. Leo lets out a yell and struggles harder against Leonard’s hold, but he is held in place. You run over to the wall com system and call for security.

They get there quickly, along with Captain Kirk. The officers take both Leo and the unconscious mirrored you away on the Captain’s orders. You make Leonard sit down as he stretches his arm, the exhaustion of restraining a man of equal strength will leave him sore. You know how to prepare a painkiller hypospray, so you start right away.

“What’re you gonna do with them, Jim?” Leonard asks as Kirk paces the room.

“I’m not sure, Bones.” He sighs. “We send them back, they might find a way through again.”

“Dammit, Jim! I mean about his heart.”

You look back at Leonard, pausing the calibration of the hypospray. Your sweet country doctor with a mind far too compassionate for anyone’s own good. They were going to rip your heart out if he didn’t remove it himself, and yet he’s worried about them.

“You want to save that psychotic version of your boyfriend? Bones, he’s not the same man.” Kirk argues.

“I’m a doctor, Jim. I’m not gonna let a man die when I have the tools to save him.”

“If we save him, they won’t have a reason to come back.” You chime in. “They wanted a new heart, if they leave with one they won’t need me anymore.”

“I can clone his heart if we dock at Starbase 12, I’ve got an old friend there that specializes in it.” Leonard hisses as you inject the hypo and the pain subsides.

Jim sighs, “All right, Bones. But I want both of you marked so we can tell you apart just in case.”

“I’ll handle it, Captain.” You say.

“Good.” Kirk fixes his shirt. “Stay in sickbay until we get to the starbase.”

The Captain exits with the leftover security officers and Leonard lets out a tired sigh.

“Suppose I should get some sleep, I want to do my best if I’m operating on you.” He smiles and lifts your chin up to kiss him. “That was a good shot, by the way.” He mumbles against your lips.

You chuckle and press your foreheads together, your fingers coming up to run through his hair. “Would you be doing this if it was someone else? If it wasn’t you and me?”

He takes your hand from his hair and holds it between his own. “I’m a doctor, not a butcher. Not like him.”

His eyes meet yours, the blue that’s so easy to get lost in roping you in. A man of such empathy that he can’t help but save anyone he can. A man that looked a twisted version of himself in the face and trusted you to find the difference. A man with impossibly blue eyes that not even a mirror can replicate.

[kirric-the-fan]

Full lineup of my oc's, the Cure Royale's:

APOLOGIES FOR THE LAYOUT, TUMBLR KEEPS MUNCHING THE FORMATTING! Cure colours added until I can stop it messing things around. (Now fixed!)

The Princess, & Cure Signet (red)

Cure Steady (green), & Cure Swift (blue)

Cure Sunfire (Orange/yellow), & Cure Surface (purple)

Spoilers for their backstory below the cut

Sailor Moon, but instead of running from the dark kingdom, the princess (in this case, Chiyoko), has been sent forward to avoid a particularly deceitful and underhanded prince who wants her power related to the Heart Kingdom and will stop at nothing to get control of it. The Queen saw how much the situation will make her daughter miserable if she had stayed, and sent her to the future instead, to a time where she could be free and thrive on her own terms. To a time where she would have a choice to whether to take up her birthright or not.

She also sends her four closest friends, allies, and guardians, Cure Steady, Cure Surface, Cure Swift, and Cure Sunfire along with her. The four cures, noted knights and guardians of the princess, volunteered to remain with her and protect her. The Queen also fulfilled their longstanding wishes to have a chance to become friends with the princess on a level footing. The Queen also tried to send other loyal members of the court who volunteered for the same task, but the magic was disrupted by the prince, and she was only able to get two of them through: Toupe, a lowly hairdresser-fairy, and Percivalance, a knowledgeable, but cowardly retainer who is very much out of their depth in the modern world.

So as it was, no-one who knew what was going on was there when Chiyoko turned 14 and got the first of her magical powers after an extremely normal and uneventful childhood. She misinterprets the powers as a magical girl thing instead of a 'hey so you're actually a princess', and ends up becoming a precure herself, protecting the town from the forces of Wilding, a malevolent plant-like creature who has taken root in the ruins of the old Heart Kingdom and is now intruding into Earth.

Cure Steady, Cure Swift, and Toupe quickly join her side, but with their knowledge of the past incomplete, they have to look for the princess, and try and uncover exactly what happened to the Heart Kingdom, to try and figure out what's really going on.

Unfortunately it turns out the Prince followed her to the modern day, and while he seemed to be an ally at first, or had maybe turned over a new leaf, he was actually behind all the troubles that had been caused, and was still intent on taking the Heart Kingdom's power for himself.

Thankfully Cure Sunfire, and later Cure Surface, who had been keeping an eye on the prince from the shadows, joined the team, eventually banding together to see the prince off for good.

Themes: obligations, predetermined destinies vs self-determination. The importance of choice. Evolution, growing up, family (both lost and found family)(and looking at the absolute mindfuck that essentially having two lives and families is.)

Change

Chiyoko, the princess, and the lead cure is the embodiment of change in this tale. While the prince constantly wants her to become a carbon copy of her past self, both Chiyoko and the Queen want her to make her own choices.

But Chiyoko constantly struggles with what those choices should be. Even from her hair, which changes colour to her moods once she gets her powers and needs to be almost constantly covered up by Toupe, to her Cure forms, where she can take on various different cure forms, taking a while to settle on her 'Super' form, as a symbol of how she wishes to help and protect people like the superheroes in modern stories, she always seems to face difficult choices.

But her friends are there to support her, and here, and now, she has the ability to make that choice. And ultimately shapes her own happiness and freedom because of it. (and this extends to the whole team that got flung forward in time. They all gain their own sort of freedom, and their happy ending is here.)

(Then another villain comes along and throws it all into disarray, but that's where my second team, The Memory Cures come into play. And that's a whole other story.)

[kateeorg]

National Treasure Edge of History - Positives (And Some Minor Gripes) Up to 1x06

Okay, so here's the thing.

I've really been liking this show so far. I think a lot of the jokes are funny and the main mystery is fascinating, and I love that we are tackling more of the Americas (although... that does in a way subvert the title "National Treasure"... but I'll let it slide).

Also, I mean, we got Riley back. Do you see me complaining about more Riley?

But...

At this point, I think the series should have been shorter.

Now maybe this is just me being an adult who saw the first National Treasure as a kid, but I think this style of family-friendly mystery action adventure works better in the short-form than the long-form, at least when adult characters are in the lead.

In the short form of a 2+ hour movie, it's easy to get swept up in the adventure and the mystery, with just enough character development to want to root for the good guys and against the bad guys. You're maybe one step ahead of the characters, but only just. It's easier to overlook how overly simple some of the clues are for the adult characters to figure out, because this is made for viewers of all ages.

But in the long form of the series, I'm finding it harder to overlook some of these flaws.

Like, how could Agent Ross not look into the male nurse first thing after she realized Sadusky may have been murdered?! I called that early on. And the love triangle really feels unnecessary at this point, though I'm happy to be proven wrong later on. Oren and Tasha encouraging Ethan and Jess to do the dance in a place where they weren't supposed to be drawing attention to themselves?! Why??? And how could Jess go from having learned her lesson about jumping to conclusions... to almost immediately jumping to conclusions again. About the same guy. When she was the one who was running late because she was dancing?

It's all manufactured to increase the tension across a longer run. But it means the audience (or at least I myself, as an audience member) is quite a few more steps ahead of the characters in terms of tropey plots, which can get frustrating to watch.

The saving grace here is them fleshing out the villains and using a mystery that doesn't draw on commonly-known history for most American audiences (Because "Valley Forge" as a passcode in the super secure National Archive in the first film is, in retrospect, a bit on the nose). And that wouldn't have happened if this was just a movie.

I also do like the vibe that our main group, save Liam, all have a shared history. Ben and Riley were great, but they only got to know each other through the job, they didn't grow up together. That vibe gives us some nice moments and chemistry between characters, which with the performances fleshes out these broadly-drawn characters. And I like that we're exploring what it means to be an American from other perspectives than in the original series - Ben is an idealist and we love that for him, but people like Jess and Tasha have different experiences, and that colors how they approach the treasure hunt.

I'm also exicted to see Jess and Agent Ross to meet again, once everything is on the table. There are some fascinating parallels between the two: young, intelligent women with something to prove. Agent Ross is what Jess likely would have been if her background wasn't in the way: An FBI agent. But Ross is still a fresh recruit with her own struggles to overcome. Ross didn't take Jess seriously when they first met, only to follow Jess's tracks and uncover what happened to Sadusky. And considering how much Sadusky looked out for Ben in the films, it'd be nice to see Ross take that role for Jess, maybe pull some strings to get Jess a citizenship.

It doesn't feel like a carbon-copy of the films, and I like that. There's enough of a similar vibe that they are clearly related, but still feel like their own things. I just wish they'd tone down on some of the "hip modern" dialogue and the character drama a bit, drop certain plot bombs a bit sooner so the audience isn't too far ahead of the characters.

Thoughts?

[sshbpodcast]

Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint Trek: Doppelgängers in Star Trek (Part 2)

By Ames

Our blogtivity for character doubles in Star Trek obviously needs double the posts, doesn’t it! Continuing on from our batch from last week, A Star Steer Her By is reviewing the doppelgänger of that batch here! The topic had about fifty instances that we listed in last week’s podcast episode, so it was just too much for one post. You can follow along below and see if you can tell the real deal from the cheap carbon copy.

Some SPOILERS for new Trek (including season 3 of Picard!) under the fold.

[Images © Paramount/CBS]

“If Wishes Were Horses”

Update 3/13/24: How could I forget this awful Deep Space Nine episode? For simultaneously two reasons at once, there are two Jadzias at once! Bashir’s horniness for Dax is so strong that it conjures one straight out of his imagination, and she is thirsty AF! Also, it’s an alien being simply taking on the form of a familiar being, like Rumpelstiltskin and Buck Bokai, for some freaking reason. Sigh.

“Aquiel”

Update 1/28/24: There are even more character doubles than I even remembered! Now that I’ve been doing another rewatch, here are a few more additions, starting with Maura, Aquiel’s dog who turns out to be a coalescent organism that has taken on the shape of this very good puppy. We also learn that this organism apparently perfectly mimicked Aquiel’s superior officer, Lt. Rocha, for who knows how long?

“Interface”

Update 1/28/24: One more from TNG that totally fits this increasingly long list is the subspace creature that takes on the shape of Silva La Forge in order to communicate with Geordi (or at least the probe that Geordi is controlling at the time) and try to get him to help them while they’re in some kind of distress. Why they didn’t just ask normally, who knows? There’s also one more update that I was able to cram in show order! Go find it below!

“A Man Alone”

Should've mentioned this one last week, but I literally just remembered it right now. That rat Ibudan makes a clone of himself just so he can murder it and frame Odo in a scheme so convoluted a Romulan must've helped. And THEN Bashir makes another clone, like a freakin' mad scientist.

“Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night”

One more Deep Space Nine episode I should have mentioned last week when we did that batch, but listen. I'm only one person, not two like all of these people! In this case, we have two Kiras who briefly meet and shake hands when our Kira goes back in time to watch Dukat romance her mom, and then things get weird.

“Faces”

Okay, finally on to Voyager, where we’ve already got Torres talking to herself, quite literally. Like in “The Enemy Within” or “Second Chances” from last week, the drama in this episode is all in the interpersonal conflict between, well, one character. It’s also a lot of excellent work from Roxann Dawson in both a lot more and a lot less makeup than usual!

“Deadlock”

“Deadlock” duplicates the whole Voyager and crew, and not for the last time either! In this one, the two crews are occupying the same space while in different versions of the same ship and need to work together to escape some damn Vidiians. Luckily, they’ve got the expertise of not one, but two Janeways, so half of our two crews make it out okay.

“The Thaw”

One of Janeway's most badass moments is technically not Janeway herself, but her holodouble that was swapped in for her to torment Fear the Clown for all of eternity, and I am 100% here for it. It's such a sneaky little character swap that I have to give both of these Janeways a ton of credit.

“The Swarm”

The Doctor is a hologram so it’s pretty common to have multiples of him running around. You’d think he’d just make a crew of nurses that look like him, but alas. Instead, we’ll have to make do with the hologram diagnostic program, which of course has Zimmerman’s face. We’re used to it already from the whole Soong family, so it only makes sense.

“Relativity”

In one of my personal favorite time-travel episodes (if not one of my favorite episodes overall), we demolish the temporal prime directive by not only involving several Janeways, but also letting Seven interact with her alternate self to save the ship from the bullshit of one of the Braxtons (it doesn’t matter which one). And she looks great doing it!

“Demon” and “Course: Oblivion”

I’m clumping these two together for my own sanity, as the silver blood duplicates we meet in “Demon” provide quite the twist for “Course: Oblivion” in a revisited plot no one saw coming. And good on them because it provides quite the little identity crisis for all of the crew members to learn they aren’t the real thing and are fated to possibly the bleakest demises of the franchise.

“Equinox”

More double EMHs and we’re not even done yet. Being a hologram makes it easy for the Doctor to meet copies of himself since that’s exactly what he was built for. Sure, he wasn’t built to be the Voyager’s chief medical officer, and neither was he built to be the Equinox’s chief medical officer, and yet here we are with both of them in “Equinox.”

“Virtuoso”

The Qomar are super into the Doctor’s singing, so they find an excuse to duplicate him and provide us with yet another instance of multiple EMHs running around. Their copies range from the tiny tapedeck version of their opera-singing superstar, to a full-sized singing program that can hit an absurd range of notes but have none of the bedside manner clogging up the works.

“Fury”

Finally, a non-Doctor double to feast your eyes on, this one a future Kes that travels back in time to save herself from… herself. It’s kind of confounding since they rather rewrite the whole Kes character to make this reappearance work, but we were indeed missing Kes so much that even one version of her would have been a sight for sore eyes, and here we have two!

“Author, Author”

Like in “Living Witness,” we start off “Author, Author” with the some excellent alternate members of the crew, all slightly more exaggerated than their normal characters for the sake of the EMH’s story. We also get to see the Doctor get a taste of his own medicine when Paris confronts him with his own fictional doppel, and wrap things up with so many Robert Picardos in one room that it’s a thing of beauty.

“Renaissance Man”

Update 1/28/24: Sadly, we missed this one when we first made this post, so enjoy this great moment from “Renaissance Man” when the Emergency Medical Hologram created a full holodeck of himself to distract Tuvok just long enough to continue his ploy of taking over the ship for the Hierarchy. Like a simp. And with this update, we've maxed out the blogpost again!

“Endgame”

As we’ve seen, we love a good time-travel paradox in which someone gets to meet themself. Sure, you should normally try to avoid confronting yourself out of time, but that’s not the Janeway... way. At the end of a series, you get a pass to just break the timeline as a treat, almost certainly pissing off the Bureau of Temporal Investigations entirely.

“Dead Stop”

Enterprise is usually a more meat-and-potatoes kind of show since a lot of the great duplicaters like the transporter and the holodeck are still in development. But even they get into the act when we find a dead Mayweather lying around and determine that he’s actually a near perfect forgery. He does about as much as Mayweather does in the series, so it’s a miracle they could tell!

“Similitude”

When Enterprise sinks its teeth into a big moral conundrum that rivals the induced rage of something like “Tuvix,” it really goes for it. It’s heartbreaking to watch the spare Tucker come to accept his fate as mere organ donor for his original self, and Connor Trinneer really nails that level of simultaneous hope and vulnerability that he’s great at. But boy do some of these characters piss you off.

Star Trek (2009)

We've got another time travel instance to bring up from the reboot movies, because in the first Abrams movie, Leonard Nimoy is back as prime timeline Spock while we already have Zachary Quinto Spock running around and making out with Uhura all over the place. It is only logical.

“Kayshon, His Eyes Open”

We’ve mentioned back in our transporter accident post how this Lower Decks episode is an ode to “Second Chances,” with direct references to the classic TNG episode to boot. I also complained last week how The Animated Series didn’t capitalize on its cartoon nature to create really impossible-to-film scenes. Well, this animated Trek makes up for that and then some, as you’ll see below!

“An Embarrassment of Dooplers”

This second season episode is so full of duplicating (or should I say, dooplercating) characters that they literally can’t fit any more in the episode without causing a singularity. It’s a decent gag and Richard Kind is absolutely in his element as the voice of all the overly sensitive beings we see so many of. You get a Doopler. You get a Doopler. Everyone gets a Doopler!

“Reflections”

It’s tough being a cybernetically enhanced humanoid whose forgotten past self is literally fighting to get out and take over your body. Rutherford’s backstory continues to be one of the most intriguing elements of Lower Decks, and the episode in which we literally get to see him fighting with himself in his own mind is one of the most visually mesmerizing and intellectually fascinating yet!

“Broken Pieces” et alia

Hey fam, we hear you like Santiago Cabrera. Well season one of Picard has all the Santiago Cabrera you can stomach and still you’ll be wanting more. All the Rios holograms are a fun addition to the show and also provide some great comedic moments and some Moon-worthy compositing that might be the best we’ve ever seen on Trek. And what can I say, they’re easy on the eyes too.

“Et in Arcadia Ego”

Our definition of doppelgänger somehow includes golems that take on the form of the… I’m gonna say engrams because why not… that get inserted into it. In an uncharacteristically unselfish move, a Soong doesn’t create something that looks just like Brent Spiner and jams Picard’s consciousness into a Picard-shaped robot suit. The future is weird.

PIC: Season 3

Sorry for the spoiler (you were warned!), but by season three of Picard, the changelings are back and goopier than ever. Their ability to blend in has gotten way better, again they’re everywhere, and now they’re here for your children. We’ve seen changelings tons before, so I’ll not go further into detail here save to say that it's great to see more Tim Russes!

“Surrender”

What we’ve never seen before is a Data-Lore battle inside the head of… well, Brent Spiner mostly playing himself but it’s such a great scene that no one’s complaining. Like in the Lower Decks episode “Reflections” with Rutherford above, it’s a great use of the mental battle of someone with all kinds of circuits in their head and memory problems out the wazoo.

“Mindwalk”

We already had a ton of double Janeways acting across from herself in Voyager, but the holoJaneway of Prodigy gives us the opportunity to do it again in CGI form! I’ll not be a broken record going on about how much we love Prodigy (well, unless you count saying that as such), but it’s some great work from Mulgrew playing two very unique Janeways, plus Dal a little!

“A Quality of Mercy”

Last one, I promise. For now. I’m sure upcoming seasons will give us even more doppels, but the final one I have to show you was not one we were expecting from season one of Strange New Worlds! Of course the time crystals from Discovery are back since Pike has interacted with them before, and now it’s up to alternate reality Chris to convince himself to embrace his beepy, beepy fate. Beep!

—

After such a long, long list, I’m seeing double. 120 Star Trek doppelgängers! Oh wait. Next week, we’re back on course, so keep up with us on the Voyager on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, communicate with our alternate selves on Facebook and Twitter, and join me now in just doubling over.

[tonyspep]

if home is where the heart is, then i’m homesick for you

a/n: this is for breanna aka @fallallincurls who is absolutely amazing. noah graham mackinnon, nate's son belongs to her and she let me borrow him for this. i was inspired by the song "homesick" by kane brown and also the ridiculous question nate was asked after the avs lost game six to the knights.

~*~if home is where the heart is, then i'm homesick for you~*~

pairing: nathan mackinnon x reader

summary: after a brutal playoff loss, nate has to turn around and go on the road for a do or die game, all while missing you and your son like he always does whenever hockey takes him away from the two of you

rating: k+

i'm homesick

this feeling that i'm feeling no it don't quit

it's like half of me is missing heaven knows it

"homesick" - by kane brown

Nate really doesn't want to face the media, he knows he has to, that as a Hart Trophy finalist, as the face of the franchise but he doesn't want to. He'd rather do anything but this. The series isn't over, far from it, but this loss feels like all the ones before it. The dread and the doubt creeping in, hanging over him and weighing heavily on his shoulders as if he's the only one to blame as if he doesn't have 22 other teammates feeling the same way.

He can't help but look at the pictures tacked to the sleek oak of his stall; a picture of you from the pregnancy announcement shoot, your bump visible underneath a flowing off the shoulder floral patterned dress, Noah's first picture when he was about three weeks old in a crimson Avalanche onesie and matching hat keeping his head warm and then the picture of the three of you at the wedding almost two years ago. 

The Cup used to be the be all and end all. Nothing else mattered except lifting the fabled trophy over his head and then he met you and while lifting The Cup was still his ultimate goal, his priorities began to change. He thought about Sid who had gotten married and how he had two little girls, Daisy and Violet and a third on the way and had hung up his skates a year ago and there was Gabe who had Linnea and Lucas, so he believed he could have that, too; a family and still want to win as badly as he ever had.

On nights like this, though, that was hard to remember.

He scrubbed a hand over his face, regulating his breathing like his sports psychologist had taught him when he heard a happy squeal followed by a throaty laugh. He turned toward the sounds and saw Autumn, EJ's wife, walking toward his stall and managing to keep hold of their squirming 18 month old.

Bruce was technically the little troublemaker's first name - after EJ's Dad - but he went by his middle name, Huck. He knew people called Noah his mini me and in so many ways he was, but Huck was nearly a carbon copy of EJ. From the same wheat colored hair to the mischievous twinkle in the matching cornflower blue eyes and dimples, not to mention his baby teeth had just barely begun to come in so he was still flashing the same wide, unashamed and toothless grin.

But Autumn was there, too. He had the same trail of freckles across his cheeks and nose that she did in the summer. He got her nose and chin as well.

Nate watched as EJ took the wriggling little rascal from Autumn and hugged him close. The perennial all star's stomach dropped while his throat tightened. While he would be turning 28 come September - when Huck would turn two - EJ had turned 35 this year and would probably be retiring soon. Time wasn't running out for him, but for some of his teammates - his friends - it was.

It wasn't a known thing outside of the core group of guys, but Autumn's pregnancy hadn't been easy and on the way there she had two miscarriages - one while the team had been in Calgary - and she and EJ were going to try for one more. If the IVF went smoothly and the baby was here within the next two seasons, he was going to retire.

And if they didn't get their acts together he was most likely going to do so without a Cup, and that just didn't sit right with Nate.

Another happy squeal and babbling from Huck makes Nate's stomach twist and tumble, his throat tight as Willow from media is suddenly standing at his stall, clearing her throat. Her heart shaped face is somber, almost sad like she hated that part of her job is wrangling them up to face the scrum after a brutal loss like this. Her big hazel eyes peer at him hesitantly from behind the square frames of her glasses and it's hard to believe the five foot nothing brunette is technically older than he is, even if it's only by a year.

But at least she and Comphy finally got their shit together.

"Let's get this over with," He says and he follows her out of the dressing room's door and down the hall to where media gets done.

"All right, thank you everyone. Thank you, Gabe. Next up is number 29 starting forward Nathan MacKinnon. First question goes to Woody Paige of the Denver Post." Her voice is strong and authoritative, directing the cameras to the aforementioned reporter while Nate takes his seat.

………………..

The questions are pretty standard and run of the mill, basically variations of the same questions Nate has been asked since he came into the league. He answers them the way he's been trained to and is ready for it all to be over.

He wants to hold you and Noah; breathe in your perfume and his perfect baby smell and not think about how he has to get on a plane to Vegas for a do or die game. 

His brain starts to spiral, thinking about how they were up 2-0 after the first two games here and how the series had flipped completely, the Knights swarming him in the neutral zone forget if he actually made it across the blue line with the puck. He feels his jaw start to tick and it's almost like a sixth sense, he knows you're close, you and Noah.

Out of the corner of his eye he can see you standing by the entryway, waiting for him to finish, holding Noah who's wearing his home crimson MacKinnon jersey with a grey hoodie underneath to keep him warm. His blonde hair peeks out of his blue Avs hat, the same blue eyes both Nate and his older sister got from their Mom peering curiously at everything around him.

He's clutching his stuffed German shepherd, JJ, in his arms; teeth nibbling on one of the ears and then his little hand waves at him, and Nate settles.

"All right, final question goes to Adrian Dater of the Athletic and then we'll bring in Erik Johnson for his round of questions and we'll be wrapped up for the night. Your schedules for Vegas and seating arrangements for the plane will be available on your way out." Willow says giving the scrum a warm smile and then Dater steps up to the front so Nate can see him.

………………………

Nate's going to claw his own eyes out, like, with a spoon. The guy is rambling about him being a gamer - a gamer - and then he concludes his convoluted ramble by suggesting maybe the team is thinking too much and should stop thinking and if they stopped thinking, they would win the next game to force a game seven back here.

He can't help but roll his eyes, because seriously, he actually has to answer the dumbest question he's possibly ever been asked and he has to do so with all the poise he's been trained to.

When what he really wants to do… "Noah," He hears as he's about to say some stupid hockey cliche like gotta get pucks in deep or it's a do or die game, we all have to step up and he looks to see you frantically trying to get the little boy's attention, face panic stricken.

The next thing Nate knows is his son is crawling into his lap and the entire press corp is awwing over the sight. Willow covers her mouth with her hand, stifling her giggles as she motions with her other at the scrum of reporters, silently telling them to lower the flashes on their phones and cameras.

"Buddy," Nate says, unable to stop the smile from taking over his entire face, his flat but incredulous expression instantly transformed. "What are you doing up here? You're supposed to stay with Mommy, you know that."

Nate laughs as Noah wriggles and manages to stand up, he cups his little hand over his mouth as he whispers in Nate's ear, "You looked sad, Daddy. JJ and I make you not sad, so we're here."

Then the toddler turns and faces the scrum himself. 

"S'cuse me, Mister Reporter Sir," More cooing and awwing bursts through the crowd as pictures of Noah are snapped. "My Daddy is the best hockey player I've ever seen and he always does his best and tries real hard to win. Like my Uncle Gabe and Uncle EJ do, too and so do the other guys like Misters Cale and JT and Tyson. You should be nice and ask him a good question so he can leave to tuck me in and kiss Mommy goodnight before he has to go on a plane to Las Veges."

The entire press corp starts to laugh, thoroughly charmed by the tiny blonde toddler. Nate can't help but laugh himself and when he catches your eyes, you're laughing, too.

"All right, that's a wrap for Nate and special guest Noah," Willow remarks and before she ushers them off of the podium, Nate says, "There's just one more thing Noah has to say before we go. What do we say at the games, buddy? When you're cheering real hard with Mommy and the crowd?"

Noah's little brow furrows before his blue eyes light up and he says into the microphone, "GO AVS GO!"

"Yeah!" Nate cheers and holds out his fist, which Noah bumps and the hardened reporters have basically been turned to mush by the three year old son of the Avalanche's star player.

……………

When Nate, with Noah in his arms, is walking off the podium, EJ's standing there with an almost asleep Huck in his arms. The older player shakes his head, laughing low in his throat while he reaches out to jostle the mini snapback on Noah's head.

"Lil Dogg's gone and stolen the spotlight," The Minnesota native teases. "I thought Lucas was our resident charmer."

"As soon as they see your sleeping baby, they'll forget all about Noah," Nate huffs, dropping a kiss to his son's forehead after pushing his hat back slightly. "Who knows better than to leave Mommy when he's supposed to be standing with her."

Noah's face is sheepish but it doesn't stop him from protesting, "But you were sad, Daddy. Mommy could tell just like JJ and I could, too! This isn't like the other times when you talk. I wasn't gonna let you be sad."

Nate gives his son a warm smile as Erik takes a seat to a chorus of heartfelt awwws at the sight of Huck - in his tiny jersey and baby joggers while only socks are on his feet - and his blonde hair covered by a crimson beanie, pom pom and all, clutching at his Dad's well worn team branded t-shirt. His back rises and falls, little face buried in Erik's chest and in the strong arms of his father who's 6'4 and 200+ pounds he looks positively tiny and completely oblivious to the flashes going off and the questions being directed at his Dad.

………………

"I wish I didn't have to get on a plane," Nate sighs heavily, wanting nothing more than to curl under the covers with you, touching your smooth skin as you move perfectly underneath him while he works through his frustrations over the loss by making love to you.

"Me, too," You admit softly, carding your fingers through the dark blonde hair on his head. 

You knew the playoff schedule by heart and after the first two games in Colorado, the games were going to be played every other night. You thought it was stupid, that the boys should have at least two days between games, making them play 36 hours after such a tough loss didn't make sense to you. Just like watching your husband endure the media when they were all lobbing the same questions at him about why he wasn't playing better, what more could he do to score against Vegas like he had scored against St Louis, what was he doing wrong etc.

If you could have, you would've done what Noah did, but you doubted the press would have reacted the same way to you that they did to your son.

You bit down on your lip and Nate groaned, his forehead resting against yours while his large, rough hands settled on your hips.

"You can't do that," He whined. "When I can't give you a real reason to bite your lip. Especially dressed in those tiny shorts and that camisole."

"Well, you can't stand there in your stupid navy suit looking all…" Your voice trails away as you wave your hand up and down his broad frame. "Like that when you're getting on a dumb plane instead of staying here with me, so…"

"I'm going to miss you and Noah so much," He admits and your heart aches because you're going to miss him just as much. This part - the leaving, no matter how short the time you spent apart - was never easy and it only seemed to be worse since you had given birth to Noah.

It was like you were in physical pain watching him pack for a roadie, terrified he would miss something new as Noah was seemingly growing and changing with every breath you took.

But this was different, this was the playoffs and Nate needed a clear head as the Avs were on the brink, so you would shoulder it all; his aching heart and your own. 

You stood on your toes, giggling as he bent, meeting you halfway as your lips softly touched. You let him anchor himself against you, knowing his mind couldn't be clouded with the frustrations of the loss and the mounting questions about his performance and if Bedsy was on the hot seat and was Joe going to blow it all up if they lost again.

When he broke the kiss, air a cruel necessity, you touched his bearded cheek and said, "Kick some ass in Vegas, Bubs."

"You know I will." 

……………….

It doesn't get easier but harder every time Nate finds himself getting on the team plane for a roadie, regular season or playoffs. He hates leaving you and Noah, knowing he'll be thousands of miles away in mere hours and he needs to have a clear head, to use his favorite meditation app and sleep so he'll be rested but it's hard to focus on the game when he's so far away from both of you.

He glances around the plane after stowing his backpack in the overhead compartment, taking in the familiarity of the plane. Bedsy's in his usual seat near the front of the plane, silver head bent low over an iPad, most likely he's reviewing film or making up the schedule for the walk through in the morning.

Comphy and Josty are shoving at each other, JT's face as red as his hair which means Josty's teasing him about Willow until the Alberta native goes just as red as his best friend and his mouth snaps shut. 

"You can dish it out but you can't take it, huh?" Comphy rolls his eyes. "Shut up, dude," Josty gripes. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but can you just make a move already? You and Jess are driving me crazy, man. She's, uh, into you, too."

"WHAT?" Josty all but squawks brown eyes wide and nearly everyone is staring at him as they get settled.

"You're hopeless, man. Text her after morning skate or when we get back to Denver. Do not text her when we get to the hotel, Boston's three hours ahead and she never shuts off her phone, and she has her…"

"Finals tomorrow. Yeah, dude I know. I don't know why she's nervous. She's, like, the smartest person I know."

Comphy fake gags and they're back to shoving at each other again until Gabe's "Captain" voice calls from two rows over, "Children," and they yell back sheepishly, "Sorry, Dad" and snicker as they put their own headphones in and fire up Josty's laptop, settling in for a movie.

Nate sits in his usual seat, which is the aisle seat next to Cale who is pocketing his phone after texting Gary and Laura, letting them know they're about to take off and he'll call them in the morning. Stuff like that, checking in with his parents, reminds Nate of how young Cale still is. He can't remember the last time he did that. Now they're constantly asking/gushing about Noah and if they aren't talking about him they're talking about Sarah's son, Zach who just turned four.

Every once in a while Graham might make a comment about his game, but it's such a rarity Nate sometimes forgets how to respond when he does.

Gabe murmurs something in Swedish and blows his phone a kiss, so his facetime with Mel is over and he puts his eye mask on. He squirms briefly before turning in his seat and his head falls against EJ's shoulder. The older defenseman rolls his eyes fondly before scratching at the Swede's thick hair like you would a dog's ears and Gabe mutters, "fuck off, Erik" despite leaning further into the touch and it's all so familiar until Nate hears Erik's rough and bone-weary voice say into the receiver of his phone, "We don't have to keep doing this you know?" 

He turns up the volume on his airpods, not caring that it defeats the purpose of the app, after he hears EJ say, "Send me a video. Last time you tried to give yourself the shot, you ended up with a bruise the size of my hand. I'm not coming home to that again."

Even with the soothing voice from the mediative app in his ears, he still hears EJ say, "I hate this. But I love you so much, Aut, so until you tell me you want to stop, we'll keep doing it. Kiss the little rascal for me and, uh, send me pictures of the injection sight in the morning. I love you, babe."

And then the plane takes off and Nate's regulating his breathing and he falls asleep until he hears everyone start rustling and moving around as the pilot announces they're making their descent into Vegas.

………………..

They're taking the ice for warm ups and Nate can't stop himself from looking for you and Noah. Where you two usually sit behind the glass at Ball Arena, Pacioretty's kids and wife are along with Fleury's. The kids have their noses pressed to the glass, watching their Dad in his flashy gold jersey as he shoots one timers and then wristers and back handers before he skates over to them, messing around with a puck as he flips it on the end of his stick back and forth, making them laugh and squeal.

Fleury skates over, sans mask and taps his stick against the glass and his kids rush toward him. 

Nate turns away and nearly ends up falling after EJ suddenly appeared at his left side, seemingly out of nowhere. His cornflower eyes are somber, more grey than blue even under the bright arena lights and his lips are pursed into a flat thin line and before he can say it, Nate tells him, "I didn't hear anything."

"You're a shitty liar, Nathaniel" A brief twitch of his lips. "Thanks for not asking me about it." And then he skates back to the red line doing drills with Gravy.

"It's never going to be easy," There's Gabe's warm tenor, always charming smile on his lips as he skates up to Nate, movement as smooth as ever while he leans on his stick. "But for sixty minutes just sixty minutes, we need you here and not back at home. Y/N and Noah are watching with Mel and Autumn and he's having fun with Linnea, Lucas and Huck. They're fine and they miss you, too but they understand where you have to be. Focus, Nate," There's his Captain's voice, something he's always been extremely good at is knowing when to use it and Nate just nods, knowing he's right.

And what better motivation is there to win this game than getting to go home to Y/N and Noah riding high after a win to force a game seven and finally come one step closer to The Cup.

……………………

It's the best pass of his career. Objectively he'll never be able to prove it and the experts will point to others, but with two minutes to go in a tie game and Stephenson, Reaves and Whitecloud all over him as he tries to advance the puck, he sees an open lane - like it's happening in slow motion - and Cale's at the top of the key, Mikko on his right and Gabe at the net while EJ patrols the space behind the net. The puck hits Cale's stick right on the tape, that perfect spot and he shoots high and to the right and Fleury moves, lightning fast as ever, but his catching glove isn't high enough and the puck whizzes past his outstretched hand and lands softly behind him.

The only thing Nate hears is the celly as Gabe wraps Cale in a bear hug, nearly lifting him off his skates as Mikko yells in Finnish. Next thing he knows, all five of them are hugging and slapping each other's helmets and tapping sticks.

They head to the bench for a line change and the last minute and a half is the longest of his life. Stone lets a wicked one timer go just as the clock winds down, but Grubi blocks it and Gabe sends the puck sailing down the other end and into Vegas' empty net.

They won. They did it. Unlike two years ago, there would be a game seven back in Denver.

……………….

 "Are you guys ready?" Willow asks Y/N, Mel and Autumn. Each of the women nod, their children in various Avs gear ranging from Noah's pajamas to Lucas and Huck's mini jerseys to Linnea's stylish outfit she picked out herself complete with crimson tutu.

"Daddy?" Huck asks, little fist rubbing at his eyes and Willow can't stop herself from letting out an aww. "Yeah, Hucksy we're about to see Daddy," Autumn murmurs, gently rubbing his back. "He's going to be on the TV right there and then he'll be home soon. We'll see Uncle Nate and Uncle Gabe, too."

"Papa!!! Papa!!!" Lucas yelps at the sight of Gabe, Erik and Nate filing into the media room and taking their seats. "Shhhh," Linnea hisses at her younger brother, flushing as Mel casts her a brief but pointed glare. "We're surprising Papa and Uncle Nate and Uncle EJ are getting surprised, too so we have to be quiet." Her voice is gentle and Lucas nods, mouth snapping shut.

"All right, it looks like our first question of the night," They hear Vegas' media rep say. "Is from Tony with the Swedish Newspaper Expressen and it is for Avalanche Captain, Gabriel Landeskog."

Mel stifles her laughter at Gabe's puzzled expression, strong brows furrowing and smooth lips pursing. She gently whispers in Lucas' ear, encouraging him to talk before the camera in the house turns to them so Gabe can see them. 

"Papa!!" He squeals instead and she laughs along with Linnea and then Gabe is able to see them as they wave and he laughs, the familiar warm and bright burst making the ache at him being away from home lessen ever so slightly. The Swedish his sister Bea always teases about him losing having been in America for so long now is strong on his tongue, tripping up slightly as he addresses their children, crystal blue eyes shimmering with tears like her own brown are doing.

"God nat," good night Gabe tells Linnea and Lucas who repeat the phrase back and blow kisses and then Gabe addresses her and even after all this time, her cheeks burn and with one final wave, they disappear from the screen and it's Autumn and Huck's turn to give EJ a little bit of home on the road.

 ………………………...

"Next up we have Bruce from the Bloomington Register in Minnesota with a question for Alternate Captain, Erik Johnson."

Erik's sure he knows where this is going after Mel and his niece and nephew surprised Gabe. Especially given the "reporter's" name. But he doesn't let himself get his hopes up just in case he really is talking to Bruce from Bloomington. 

Then there's Autumn's beautiful face filling the screen, her chestnut hair spilling around her slim shoulders, olive green eyes sparkling as she holds their son who's babbling and squealing and trying to reach for him. He wants to hold them both; Huck because he's never missed anyone so deeply that he feels it in his bones and his blood and Autumn because he's sick of her brave face about trying to have another baby.

For now, he'll let Huck's happy babbles and squeals wash over him like a balm and know Autumn is doing the same thing. But when they get back to Denver, he's going to do whatever it takes to make her believe she doesn't have to put herself through hell to give him another baby.

"Wow, Bruce," He says, bringing himself back to the here and now. "That is an excellent question; insightful, thoughtful," And when he hears Autumn's throaty laugh, his heart lifts and Huck squeaks, "Night night" and he waves before tucking himself into his Mom's chest and Erik can't help himself, "I feel you, Hucksy that's my favorite place to fall asleep, too."

"ERIK!" Autumn shrieks and the warm tint to her tan skin has him flashing his toothless grin, as wide and unashamed as ever.

……………….

Nate laughs, happy that EJ - even with all that's happening with him and Autumn and trying to have another baby - can still be EJ. He doesn't think about Vegas' media rep telling him he'll be answering a question from Kathy from The Star-Metro Halifax and how Gabe and EJ were surprised by their families and how that's probably what's going to happen to him.

Then he hears it, your gentle voice, coaxing Noah to ask his question and then both of you are filling the screen; the soft smile on your face as you wave along with Noah going straight to his heart which rises because he can see your faces but falls because you're still miles apart.

"You played real good tonight, Daddy," Noah says tugging on JJ's ears as he squirms slightly. "Did you do somethin' special?" He asks, lisp tripping over the letter s the same way he remembers doing as a kid.

"Yeah, Nate," You echo, teasing lilt to your voice as your eyes sparkle. "Did you do anything special before such a big game?"

"I did what I always do," Nate answers. "I thought about you guys. I take down the only pictures I've ever had in my stall back home and I bring them on the road with me and hang them up in my visitor's stall and when I look at them, I know you're out there with me, that I'm doing this for you."

………………

Y/N feels her heart seize in a way it never has, like, it's growing too big for her chest. She didn't know Nate did that at all. She feels tears gather at the edges of her eyes because oh my god. She kisses the familiar downy hair on Noah's head, the same shade as Nate's was when he was growing up and holds him tight and when Nate explains one of the pictures he keeps in his stall and takes on the road is the first picture of Noah, she can't help but remember taking it.

You're amazed how even just after three weeks Noah has already changed so much. You still can't believe he's yours. The love you shared with Nate so deeply manifested itself into this perfect baby boy that you both loved more than anything in the world.

Nate's paternity leave had ended far too fast and you almost wished Noah could have decided to come during the off season so you both could have him here every second of every day. So instead of being here with you, he was on his way to St. Louis and then Nashville and Carolina.

You always hated him leaving for roadies, but this was different; he wasn't just leaving you he was leaving your son, too and you could see it on his face and in the weariness of his body. He didn't want to go, for the first time in his life he did not want to play hockey.

"Hey, little guy," You cooed as the glacial blue eyes Noah shared with his father peered back at you from inside your arms. "I think Daddy could use some cheering up and I know just the thing that will do it."

"And then my phone buzzed," Nate's voice brings you back from the memory. "And Y/N sent me the picture of Noah in the onesie and hat, and that night I scored two goals and grabbed a couple assists, if I remember right. So he's my good luck charm. I always make sure to put on a show for him. But uh, the other picture I keep is from when Y/N and I got married a couple years ago. We didn't think Noah would be there, but he was the best surprise/wedding present we could have asked for."

You laugh, shaking your head as your cheeks flush and you know the picture Nate's talking about. 

It's so easy to remember your wedding day. Sidney had graciously offered his home for the wedding. EJ had built the archway that you and Nate would stand under to exchange your vows and Autumn, who he had married at the home he had in Orange County the year before, would take the pictures, her wedding present to the two of you.

The sound of her throaty laugh just before she took the picture you knew Nate was talking about echoes in your mind and you're right back there on the lake in Cole Harbour, the sun high in the sky and you and Nate were at the reception.

"Go head Noah," Autumn laughs. "Smash the cake right in Daddy's face like he did to Mommy."

The chestnut haired photographer coaxes your son who you can't believe is two years old now. You hadn't expected to get pregnant before the wedding but you also hadn't expected the Avs - after having their best season - to suffer such a brutal loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the semi finals that year. And Nate had taken the loss especially hard.

So that night when he came home, you let him seek refuge with your body. You let him pour every emotion he was feeling into making love with you until he literally couldn't hold himself up anymore. 

Then during your cake testing you had run off into the bathroom emptying your stomach and you realized you were late. And now here you were on this beautiful summer's day covered in lemon mousse and fresh berries and just as Autumn said, "Bull's eye," you turned and cake was smeared all over Nate's handsome face while Noah laughed, little body shaking in his father's strong arms.

And you were laughing, too and so was Nate as he gently smeared the mousse onto Noah's nose. Valiantly the toddler tried to lick the sweet dessert off his nose and huffed when he couldn't.

Autumn's camera went off again and again and then, she came up to you and Nate, camera around her neck and the blush colored gown you had chosen for your bride's maids swishing at her feet. "This one's my favorite," Her low but sweet voice says as she lands on the picture of all three of you, covered in cake and laughing.

Apparently it's also Nate's favorite and it makes you smile.

…………………..

Nate finishes explaining the picture from the wedding he has in his stall and then he talks about the third picture. He'll never forget that day Autumn following you and him around his hometown and all the places that made it home for him and all the places he took you to and how you would take your son there some day.

You were about six months pregnant and you had found out you would be having a boy and you wanted to do a pregnancy photoshoot.

Nate still remembers your shy suggestion of doing it in Cole Harbour. Using the house he grew up in if his parents said it was okay and taking pictures at all the places he loved as a boy and how you would show your son and tell him he would get to go there someday.

"The last picture is my favorite picture of Y/N. EJ's wife, Autumn did the pictures for the photoshoot and I still don't know how she did it," He laughs, shaking his head. "But she made Y/N look even more beautiful than she already was. Noah was kicking a lot back then and Y/N would have to walk and rub her belly so he would calm down and uh, that's what she was doing; walking around near the lake in this dress… It was blue and had tiny flowers all over. Her hair was in waves…"

Nate thought there would be more posing and staging or whatever, like, the way team media was done at the beginning of the season but Autumn wasn't interested in the two of you looking staged. Sometimes she would tell you to move closer or turn a certain way, but that was it.

The pictures were coming out great, though. 

You were out by the lake walking through the grass barefoot, hands constantly moving over your bump as Noah - that was going to be your son's name - kicked up a storm.

The sun was setting, dipping below the horizon as the sky turned from blue to a mixture of oranges, yellows and reds. 

The dress you wore was a royal blue that brought out your eyes and left your shoulders bare. Your hair that Nate loved to run his fingers through was styled in waves, falling down your back while one of the daisies that grew on the property was behind your right ear.

And the next thing Nate knew, Autumn was showing him the picture she had taken. The one he knew you didn't realize was being snapped and he didn't think it was possible but seeing you like that - so beautiful with your hands caressing your bump where Noah was growing - made him fall in love with you all over again.

"So I look at that picture, Y/N with her hands on her stomach looking more beautiful than should be possible and it reminds me of why I do this," You hear Nate say and you don't know how your heart is fitting inside your chest. "I do it for her, for Noah. For the family that's waiting for me every night whether we win or we lose. They'll be there and I know as long as I have them I can do anything."

And with you staring back at him, Noah in your lap - even if you are thousands of miles away, Nate doesn't feel so homesick any more.

After all, you'll be there waiting as soon as he walks through the door like you always are.

[manunelle]

{Ikerev} How many kids would they have? {Headcanon}

I’m kind of creating this post to organize my thoughts, because I want to write more about this in another post where I’ll write about how they are with their children and how I imagine their personalities. Please be aware that I imagine a different MC for each suitor, so the kids exist in the same universe lol

🖤 Black Army 🖤 

Ray Blackwell

One boy.

He was adopted by Ray and MC at age of 3. His father was one of Ray’s soldier who unfortunately passed away in duty. Since he had no mother or relatives that could take care of them, MC and Ray took him in. 

He prefers MC over Ray, but admires his dad very much!

Sirius Oswald

oh boy

This man and MC had 5 children! :) 

I kind of enjoy the thought of Sirius retiring because he wants to spend as much time as he can with his family. 

They have three girls and two boys. The order goes like this: Girl ---> Twins (boy and girl) ---> Boy ---> Girl. 

Would name his kids after flowers. 

The kids get along very well! They are really protective of each other and of their parents.

Luka Clemence

One boy as well. 

His kid is really sweet! He’s really friendly and everybody loves him at school. 

Is kind of a younger brother to Jonah’s girls. 

Talking about Jonah, he’s the best uncle ever. Always brings gifts and gives advices about anything that is troubling the boy. 

He’s doesn’t have a favorite parent. He’s close to both!

Fenrir Gospeed

Had two kids, a son and a daughterl. 

The firstborn is the boy, and the girl is six years younger. 

To his and MC’s surprise, the boy is a magic user! They discovered it when MC was bathing her baby when suddenly he started floating and giggling around. Imagine Fenrir and MC screaming and jumping around, trying to reach their son, who is having the time of his life. 

The girl is not a magic user, so she causes less trouble than her brother. She’s friends with Ray’s son.

Seth Hyde

One girl.

She has Seth’s hair and MC’s eyes, and likes to dress cute clothes and to play with her teddy bear. 

She’s reeeeaaaally shy. :< 

She probably prefers Seth over MC, but she doesn’t make it obvious. Of course, she likes her mother very much as well. But Seth’s hugs are something else. :> 

❤️ Red Army ❤️ 

Lancelot Kingsley

The next King of Hearts is a girl! 

She looks mostly like Lancelot, but her hair shape resembles MC’s. 

She’s really carismatic and smart, which means that she can hold a conversation with an adult without difficulties. 

She’s a friendly and curious little girl, always asking about how and why things work the way they do. 

As a magic user, she’s really interested in Harr’s work and gets along well with his daughter. 

Loves her dad! She looks up to him a lot and is not embarassed of asking him for advices and hugs.

Jonah Clemence

Our queen has two daughters. 

They are only 2 years apart, so they get along very well with each other. 

Honestly, they have Jonah completely wrapped around their little fingers. This man would go to the fucking moon if they wanted something from there. 

Despite being spoiled rotten, the girls are really gentle and caring with those around them. thank u so much mc

Because the younger sister is shyer, Jonah teaches his firstborn from a young age that she should always be nice and take care of her younger sister. 

They love baking! Imagine the MC and her two daughter baking cookies on the kitchen to present the man of their lives later. ;A; so cute

Edgar Bright

Edgar has one girl and one boy. 

Due to her fragile health, his daughter, the firstborn, won’t be able to become the next Jack of Hearts. She always smiles and says that it doesn’t bother her, but she gets self concious when hearing adults commenting about it. She also feels bad for passing the burden of being the heir to her younger brother. 

The boy is calm and serious, which is kind of weird bc his face looks way too much with MC’s. He’s really protective of his parents and his sister. Loves animals, just like his dad! He’s smart and strong, but is really aloof. MC and Edgar are always worried about him bc he doesn’t seem to want friends. 

The girl is bffs with Lancelot’s daughter and Kyle’s son.

Zero

One daughter! 

She has MC’s hair and his eyes. She’s really pretty! 

She’s friendly and is always smiling. Since she’s younger than the other kids of the Red Army (Kyle’s second son is actually the youngest, but he is still a baby lol), they kind of treat her as a young sister, always hugging and patting her head. 

She’s really curious around everything. Actually, her personality resembles Lancelot’s daughter’s a lot. 

Loves watching her father training with the soldiers! At the end of every session, she goes running towards him demanding hugs.

Kyle Ash

Two boys. They have an age gap of 12 years.

His firstborn had a really fragile health as a child, to the point of having to take constant shots and Kyle having to perform different treatments on his child. Seeing their child suffer was really difficult for Kyle and MC, and at some point they even thought that he wouldn’t survive childhood. However, aroung age 8, the signs of this disease started decreasing and he got better. 

Kyle is still worried about his son, so he always keeps a close watch on him to see if those symptons will come back someday. 

Because they were always busy taking care of their older son, MC and Kyle decided to not have other children. So it was a big surprise when they discovered MC’s second pregnancy. 

Surprisingly, their second son has no health problems. As a baby, he’s really serious and likes to nap a lot. 

Both boys look a lot like Kyle. The older one looks the most, while the younger has MC’s eyes. 

Mousse Atlas

Has one son. 

The boy is a MC’s appearence copy with Mousse’s personalit copy. 

Just like his dad, loves napping. 

Naps everywhere. 

Everywhere. 

Once, when dusting some shelves, Luka found him sleeping in the Black Army’s library. 

How in the hell did this kid get here? 

He always goes missing. Like, at one moment he’s standing right next do MC and in the next second he disappears. Dude??? 

Actually, he’s a magic user, which explains him disappearing all the time and reaching things that are in a place way higher than him. However, he doesn’t tell it to his parent until he’s sixteen bc he’s afraid of disappointing them (bc he heard from some idiot that magic users are way too dangerous).

💚 Neutral 💚 

Harr Silver

He has one daughter. 

She has his hair and MC’s eyes. 

Since she’s a magic user, she and Harr are always excitingly talking about magic books and researchs. He also teaches her about spells and skills unrelated to magic, such as cooking and fishing. 

She’s really shy, and because kids used to bully her at school and adults ignored the situation, she has a really hard time socializing with people that are not her family.

Loves cats! As a toddler, Loki gave her a cat plushie and she is really attached to it. 

Gets along with Sirius’s oldest daughter and Lancelot’s, but I’ll talk more about this in another post. 

Likes to sleep with her parents. It’s hard to get up in the morning bc she is pratically glued to the one she is hugging.

Loki Genetta

One son. He’s the youngest among the 17 suitors (bc Loki is fucking 19 years old in canon universe, duh). 

The boy is always stealing MC’s attention, always glaring at Loki. Loki glares back because he’s a man-child. 

Actually, they get along very well when the issue is not MC, and the boy trusts Loki a lot, sharing secrets and asking for help when in need of assistance. 

His looks and personality are a carbon copy of Loki’s. 

Always follows Ray’s son and Fenrir’s daughter around. 

Oliver Knight

One daughter, and Oliver loves her so much!

She looks a lot like MC, both in looks and personality. 

Being a bit naive, she’s always getting in trouble. Thank god her friends are always ready to rescue her! Is bffs with Sirius’s second daughter. 

Boys love her. Girls too. As a teenager, she’s always having to turn down confessions. She tries to be gentle, but some people are just too bold for her to deal with. That’s when Sirius’s daughter and son (the twins!) enter and deal with whoever is bothering her. 

She kind of has a crush on Sirius’s oldest son, but is too embarassed to admit. 

Oliver knows, but doesn’t want her to know that he knows. It’s kind of tough to hide, bc when the boy shows up at his house he’s always fumming with jealousy. 

Blanc Lapin

Mister Blanc has one son.

He’s calm and smart. 

Loves tea parties! Dad’s carrot cake is the best.

Loves his mom. Loves his dad. Loves his friends. 

He’s a sunshine. Everybody loves him. 

Dean Tweedle

Has only one daughter. 

Her looks and personality are a perfect mix of her parents’. 

Sleeps only if her dad reads to her. Otherwise, she stays the whole night staring at ceiling with a bored expression. 

Is really smart and responsable. She’s the perfect “senpai” at school. 

Is bffs with Sirius’ oldest daughter. 

She and Dalim’s son look really alike, so people are always mistaking them as siblings. Dalim and Dean always get annoyed at this.

Dalim Tweedle/Dum

Has one son.

Just like Dean’s daughter, his looks are a mix of his parent’s, but his personality is a bit different. Despite being really curious, he’s really quiet and hesitant of asking questions aloud. 

Is a magic user. 

Sees Dean’s daughter as a big sister. Is always attached to her hand when they meet and follows her around like a shadow. 

Probably prefers his mom over Dalim. 

[cherrywoes]

bambi. miya osamu x f! reader.

au: idol au

pairing: miya osamu x female reader.

word count: 1.5k

prompt: established relationship.

rating: 16+

tw: alcohol, strong language, inferiority complex.

summary: osamu struggles with comparisons to his brother, but you’re always there to comfort him in the end.

genre: fluff, comfort fic.

a/n: this is part of the cafe x hangout collab! hopefully it’s fluffy enough for everyone’s tastes, it isn’t sickeningly sweet--it’s just enough. i hope everyone likes it! <3

“THANKS, EVERYONE.” Osamu yawned into his hand sleepily. The bright white of his screen kept him awake, along with the endless stream of comments popping up in the left hand corner of the screen. Several of them lamented that he was leaving so early, but a quick glance at the clock revealed that it had been over four hours that he’d been streaming—so almost immediately after he had gotten home, then. A rustling in his kitchen, so faint he barely heard it, snapped his attention back to the Instagram live he was about to shut down. He ran a hand through his hair, destroying it even further than it already was, and shrugged to the screen. “I’m going to call it a night, guys. I’m pretty tired and I have a packed schedule tomorrow; remember to rest and take care of yourselves.”

He ended the stream without looking at the rest of the comments, his eye barely catching one reading ‘Atsumu would have stayed on longer until he fell asleep :(‘. Closing his eyes tightly against the bright light, Osamu huffed and tossed his phone on his bed. He didn’t want to look at it right now—not when every time he logged on to Instagram it was to Atsumu’s cheery face, snapping selfies with his fans or whatever cafe he’d happen to stumble upon that particular day. They were just cafes he’d introduced his brother to, but every time he mentioned them he would have to move on and find another one to get away from all of the attention Atsumu brought him.

His own fans were okay—but Atsumu’s were on an entirely different level. From stalking his every move, staking out his apartment for discreet photos of his bare face and pajamas when he took out the trash, investigating everyone who came and went from his apartment (thankfully he lived in a complex where a lot of A-list celebrities lived), and even running down his license plate number to follow him on the road.

It was ridiculous. Osamu just wanted a quiet existence separate from his identity as an idol, but whenever he turned a corner, there was Atsumu dragging him into another crowd of people, exposing him to his insane fans and getting them to like him, too. He’d virtually given up trying to have some semblance of a private life, smiling politely whenever he was photographed in public and tiredly soothing fans who would break out into tears whenever they passed him on the street.

“‘Samu?” You poked your head past his door, scanning for his phone to see if he was still live. When the light bounced off the phone screen on his bed, you stepped further inside, this time revealing a tray of food, chamomile tea—Osamu could smell it—and his migraine medicine. “I brought you dinner—well, a late dinner, but I know you didn’t eat before you came home—”

Except you. A particularly bright spot in his life, the only one if he was to be honest; a reminder of what he came home to every day when his ‘idol’ facade was over until the next day. He sat up and mused his hair into something resembling the style he usually wore, although judging by the little giggle you tried to hide he had probably failed in that aspect.

You set down the tray on his desk, reaching over and smoothing down the pieces that stuck up like duck feathers in the back of his head. He leaned forward and pressed his nose into your collarbone, wrapping his arms around your waist and tugging you closer. He sighed, all of the tension and anxiety deflating from him like a balloon, and smiled his first genuine smile of the day when you tipped his head back to look at his face.

“Aw, ‘Samu,” you tutted, swiping your thumbs underneath his eyes. “You look so tired nowadays; is Atsumu bothering you again? You know I can set him right, if you want me to.”

Osamu grimaced at the thought of you ‘setting his brother right’. The last time it had happened he had been sitting between the both of you while you yanked on Atsumu’s ear and hair with all of your might, screeching your fury—and Osamu’s irritation—at his brother. Naturally, it had gotten through his twin’s thick skull, but only for a few weeks before he was back at it again, shoving media attention at him worse than before. Those weeks had been the best days of Osamu’s life; even his management had commented on it, saying he looked more livelier when he was performing.

“No,” he sighed. You drummed your fingers against his brow bone, waiting for him to elaborate, and hummed softly to yourself while you did. “Not really. It’s more… Comparing me to him again, I guess.”

You clucked your tongue thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s your fans that I need to set straight then, hmm?”

You were no idol. It was different for actresses, at least for now; you could be as rude or curt to your fans about their behavior if you wanted, whereas he had to be kind, docile, polite—all of which Osamu was decidedly not in normal company. He was as snarky and droll as Atsumu was normally, but that contradicted their identity as ‘twins’; management couldn’t have two of the same person, even if they were different in their own ways. Their consumers wouldn’t see it that way.

Keeping your relationship—while serious—secret had been the worst part of it all. He hated that he couldn’t go out with you in public or take you to his favorite spots without gathering some rather nasty attention. Once had been enough; the scandal had rocketed through the tabloids until he’d said it was just a business transaction for his new video. Which had been true: you had starred in his music video. But the look of quiet hurt as you read all of the comments on the article had hit him hard.

“No,” he laughed quietly, pulling away and reaching for the bowl of broth and salmon. Another con: his diet. “Did you cook this?”

“Mhm. It’s pretty plain,” you began, side-eyeing him while picking at the clutter on his desk and straightening up a stack of books near the corner,”but I read your diet planner and that was really all I could come up with.”

“It’s good,” he reassured you, taking another healthy sip from his spoon. It wasn’t as strong as what he would cook, but it was the thought that counted, and he appreciated it. “I’m thinking about quitting, honestly.”

“What?” You hummed. You cracked open a book, saw it was a gift from Atsumu (his taste in literature was infamous) and shut it quickly with a frown. “Your diet?”

“Being an idol.”

You didn’t react like he had thought—there wasn’t any anger or disbelief. Instead, relief made your shoulders sag. “Oh, thank god, you’re finally getting out of that shithole. Oh, ‘Samu, you don’t know how agonizing it’s been watching you deteriorate into some carbon copy of—”

“You aren’t mad?” He blurted, wondering how you would act if it had been Atsumu who had said that—how you would act if it was Atsumu who was your boyfriend, not him.

“Are you serious?” The disbelief crept in, then, but not in the way he imagined. You rolled your eyes when he stayed quiet and cupped his face in your hands, pressing a chaste kiss on the tip of his nose. “No, you silly boy, I’m not mad. I’m happy you’re considering it. You seem so miserable doing those lives and fan meets—I’m not dumb. You hate being an idol. You even told me as much. Not in so many words, but I can pick up some clues, too, you know.”

Osamu blinked up at you, almost stupidly. “So… You’re okay with—?”

“Of course I am.” You smiled then, pushing all of his hair away from his forehead with a laugh. “Who do you think I am, Atsumu?”

Almost immediately his mood soured. Atsumu. The reason he had even become an idol in the first place; what would he say? What would he think of this? He would hate him. He’d be pissed, too—

“Hey,” you chided, tapping his cheek to get his attention.  “You went and left again, ‘Samu. What are you thinking about?”

His silence told you all you needed to know.

“Alright. Here.” You snatched his phone up from the bed and unlocked it, typed a quick text, and held it out to him. “There. Done. Atsumu knows now. It isn’t his business what you do now.”

Osamu stared at the screen for a moment, then sighed and buried his face in your chest. “Thank you, [Name].”

“No problem, honey.” You ran a soothing hand down the back of his neck, ignoring the ping of a single text from Atsumu that you knew he was reading behind your back. “Come on, let’s watch Bambi while you eat. I’ve had a stroke of nostalgia lately while you’ve been busy.”

He put his phone face down on the desk, picking up his bowl and tea and toddling after you to the living room. “Alright, lead the way.”

The phone screen remained lit, reflecting a single, honest, ‘Finally’ on the wooden surface.

                                              requests: open.

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Hermitopia AU Masterpost 1 [COMPLETE]

This is a gathering place for the events of the Hermitopia AU, as well as art and writing resulting from it (art and writing listed at the bottom). Please read the AU introduction and rules here before submitting! Feel free to join the discussions on the HCHC discord server!

(Disclaimer/PSA: All points are asks contributed by the community, the mods take no credit for the ideas within them)

If you would like specific credit in the masterpost, please sign within the text of the ask! (A dash and a signature at the end should do.) Asks not signed will be treated as anonymous.

Summary posts:

Not all elements of plot and character will be summarized, but here are a few basic things you may want to be familiar with before submitting an ask! (Unless you are purposely aiming to create an [ALTERNATE] idea for a Hermit)

1 - Starting positions and each Hermit's powers (based on the submissions from Day 1)

Summary post 2 - Interpersonal connections (based on Day 1 and 2 submissions)

Make sure to check out the second masterpost here for more up to date information, including newer art and writing!

Asks:

- (copied ask) [summarized mod comment]

- Hermitopia | Scar was experimented on by Cub. He gained dangerous powers and wings that resemble a dragon’s, but he keeps both hidden. Unless someone makes him angry. He has no idea who gave him his powers. Eventually he and Cub decided that they wanted to control things beyond their corporation, so Scar ran for mayor. (there are things to fill in but im lazy) [Scar assumes he got the powers in an accident during research. He enjoys having them but has no idea that they were intentional.]

- Hermitopia AU team ZIT is a superpowered crime-fighting trio!

- owing to a very particular set of guidelines he put in place, Joe can now copy powers if he sees them in use and can reverse-engineer how those powers are used. needless to say, this is massively overpowered in the right hands.but it got worse. at some point, there was an... incident... on ConCorp grounds, something to do with a mass amount of entities causing time dilation -- and Joe was caught in the thick of it, unable to be rescued for a while.the problem is, he got out by piecing together how the time dilation worked.needless to say, Joe... has a ridiculous powerset. so he chooses largely not to use his powers anymore unless it's absolutely dire or petty enough to shrug off as a random occurrence. nobody needs to know that one of the most powerful Unaffiliated in the city is standing right in front of them... especially not ConCorp.

- doc was a former high ranking employee of concorp before he volunteered for an experiment and it went horribly wrong. since then, the company has tried to erase any evidence of his existence. doc is now seeking revenge for all that the company did to him and is determined to tear it apart

- HI ok follow up asks will be sent later when my thoughts are coherent but concept: cleo has like super messed up healing powers where she can make healing go Too Far. also i pin her as unbound, considering, like, everything - shovel-shuffle

- So, his power was meant to be super-regen, right? except things don't always quite go to plan. Someone volunteered for the powers surgeries and is arguably dead. Etho is a name shared by the many many clones that developed themselves out of the leftovers. They're not quite individuals, not quite a hivemind. Any one of them has no fear of death because the others will continue, but they all act independently around their overarching goal. (which I won't snitch about) - DragonKay

- Bdubs was a hero. Key word? Was. He climbed the ranks through the government, he was a loyal and dutiful member of society, and he used his plant manipulation powers to subdue evil-doers without hurting them. But he’s always been a friendly guy, and he couldn’t help himself—talking to the Unrestrained, especially those in custody, was interesting! ...but it’s a slippery slope to walk, being friendly with the enemy and not sympathizing to their cause. Nobody knows where he is now, but there are rumours of a vigilante with similar abilities, and his three compatriots, two of whom he helped escape from ConCorp... They call themselves the nHo. - slimetek [Bdubs deserted Concorp while helping Doc escape after his experiment went wrong]

- Concorp managed to make a device that allows animals to speak or translate their thoughts into writing. This means that the good old mayor Scar has a certain cat giving some advice on how to run the city.

- Iskall is an assasin/mercenary against their own volition. An accident they'd rather forget almost killed them, and in exchange for their freedom and free will they got to live as a cyborg. Though its hard to forget with the implant that covers their eye and the limb of cool metal hanging at their side - @ghastly-ghostie [Iskall works for Concorp off-books, bound by the debt owed to them for the life saving experimental modifications]

- so I think grians original powers could be like cloning, but something goes wrong and the clones are different people. as a result of the duplication process, some funky magic rocks are made. the clones decide to take most of the funky rocks and run off, leaving grian with one rock that gives him some new abilities and the clones' rocks give him others. also uhh mechanical wings bc yes. so grians plot is him trying to find them while also causing problems on purpose. infinity stones. update to my grian ask from earlier, I had better ideas: the rocks are old like magic things that grian finds before the cloning and ends up collecting, but his clones snatch them - simplyskipper [some of the alternate Grians are aligned with different factions in Hermitopia, while the locations of others are farther or unknown]

- Hermitopia- Impulse has solid-light powers. He has golden crystals implanted in his hands, which he can reflect light through to solidify it into all sorts of shapes. This can be used to make barriers, projectiles, and much more, though more detailed constructs take more time.- @mleemwyvern

- Hermitopia AU Poultry man is a well-known chaotic neutral leaning towards good, as a one of the unrestrained.

- I think Team ZIT should be a little be wild card-y, that's how they act after all! [they are employed by the government for standard crimefighting, but they don't always take Scar's word at its intended meaning and often play a bit on the chaotic side when given instructions]

- [Hermitopia AU] False is an antihero/vigilante type who's specialty is not defined by powers or the such, but just... the absolute skill of being able to dual wield two (more sci-fi era) short swords. Maybe someone upgrades them to be "enchanted" (electrical, fire, etc. something that tech could do well probably). She's willing to be paid-for-hire, but if you go past her moral line she's also willin' to backstab you. -- @cheshire-vex [she's a free agent who sort of drifts between Concorp, the government, and whoever else will pay her on a job-by-job basis]

- Hermitopia impulse has more connections then one may think. He has ties to people pretty much everywhere, for reasons unknown. There is a 100% someone will come and greet him wherever he goes. [the greetings are usually friendly]

- Hermitopia Au! Keralis is a hero who most people wouldn't expect to be too skilled at fighting. His power is similar to hypnosis so he has no need to get very physical. Yeah, that changed when some bastard villain decided to attack his friends shop. [that incident caused his employer Scar to realize his untapped potential for protecting people and assign him to a few more high-stakes jobs]

- Hermittopia!TFC was one of ConCorp’s first experiments and as such his powers are a bit less...refined then the others. He has geokinetic powers, allowing him to psychically control rocks and other earthen materials. He used to be one of the VEX programs top graduates, but has since parted ways with them for unknown reasons and now operates his own plans of keep crime in Hermitopia under control. -lechairpourriedegrianri [he is considered Unaffiliated and both Concorp and the government largely leave him to his own devices, since he is helping to keep the city together]

-Wels doesn't have powers. He does have a super-suit made of fire and heat resistant carbon fibre (like the material used for the space shuttle) and has a built in hologram projector. One time, he used the hologram projector to project an image of himself, which everyone thought was a clone. He didn't have the heart to tell them otherwise. (AKA everyone thinks Wels has powers but he doesn't) -Silverwolf53 [he got the suit in Project VEX]

- To follow up on the Impulse ask- Team ZIT are a space-themed superhero team. Government-aligned, at least for now.Tango has meteor-like powers, he can shoot fire from his hands and feet and often uses this to propel himself at high speeds. Zed has gravity powers! He can increase or decrease the density of any object, to the point of making small black holes. They all have space-themed costumes, and it was probably Zed's idea. - @mleemwyvern

- TFC was the first participant in project VEX

- Grian was an attempted success. It fixed some problems with Etho's unintended cloning, but at the same time created some problems of its own, seeing as the clones appeared to have a life of their own.It's fine, though. It's probably fine

- I would say Grian is unrestrained, a bit like Etho, Chaotic in his own way. Does not activily Try to hurt people, but does mostly what he wants for fun.-Ciara

- Xisuma is a civilian- he has hero friends, but despite all their teasing he’s never wanted to go through VEX training. But in the night, the unrestrained Void walks the streets [Void is a symbiotic creature made of nothingness that uses Xisuma's body as a substitute physical form]

- Bdubs was such a good man... he could be trusted to look after Doc, couldn’t he? Somebody had to oversee him, somebody who was reliable and would never, ever consider betraying the mayor and ConCorp...They let their guard down, and Bdubs got curious. Bdubs made a friend.And then they lost him.- Slimetek

- The hels hermits are considered evil by default. How do you spot these clones, how could you protect yourself? Well in the past it was a lot easier, just look for their red eyesNowadays contacts exist but that doesn't stop people trying to call the police on tango, calling him a hels. Hes netherian, they have unnatural eye colours and their iris fills the entire eye, hes not evil but if people keep doing this hes gonna be!

- Beef woke up from his brain surgery to receive telepathy powers, took one look into the mind of the overseer, and noped put of there as fast as he could go.He's on very public record. After all, the mind control he may be capable of is a very convenient explanation for anyone who turns against concorp... ~DragonKay

- Hypno can’t control minds.They say he does. It’s why he’s named Hypno, after all.In reality, he can’t control people like that... but he can control what they see.Your best friend might look like your greatest enemy. A pit of lava might look like solid ground. A 100-foot drop might look like a step down.It’s a good thing he’s a hero, and a good thing he keeps his true powers hidden beneath a guise of low-level hypnotism. There’s no telling what he could do if they let him go. [he works for Concorp, helping to protect VEX trainees from people trying to harm them before they get a chance to finish the program, as well as keeping other resources safe]

- The 9th Street Incident [referring to an earlier Impulse comment] was a friendly greeting. That particular version of Etho just thought that drawing weapons would be a friendly greeting for Impulse, but Tango and Zed seem to disagree

- They still don’t trust Bdubs. He was with the government for a long time, and things are hard out there on the run. Besides, they don’t know what he got up to there. ConCorp could have any sort of information on him, something that might scare him back.Bdubs understands this. He doesn’t want to go back. He’d hate to go back....but they think he will, and maybe there’s something he’s not telling them. An ace that ConCorp has yet to play.- Slimetek

- Mumbo works for concorp as an engineer specialising in robotics, most recently taking on the task of maintaining Iskall's cybernetics that somehow they just keep damaging. Iskall assures him they're just.. very clumsy. So far Mumbo hasn't caught on.

- Ren's power is that hes a werewolf, but he only found out when he was in his late teens with his childhood friend Iskall. He still feels guilty about it, he did kill his best friend afterall. Or so he thinks.He's lived off grid ever since, too overwhelmed with grief and guilt to rejoin society. Most assume he's dead too - @ghastly-ghostie [Ren dropped Iskall off to Concorp as a last ditch effort, running away before he could see whether they took his friend in or not. They did, starting Iskall's plotline. Iskall told Concorp about Ren's abilities, triggering a panic in the Concorp ranks at the fact that Ren is a superhuman being created by some force other than their own project]

- Where does Void come from? The same place all powers come from.Little did they know, something survived the crash and has taken a human host. Maybe it's not the only one...No, that place is not Concorp. Concorp's original goal was to develop technology by reverse-engineering from a crashed alien spaceship. These aliens did gene-editing the way some people do nose jobs, so they adapted that technology, too.~DragonKay

- i've already said a bit about it in the discord but i have hermitopia cleo brainrot. joe being there was able to save her by giving her the regen powers along with her puppeteering telekinesis power. anyways cleo is presumed dead, sent by concorp into a mission as fodder basically until zit could arrive. but now there's is one (1) bitter undead vigilante against concorp that is presumed dead

- Stress’s name has a few meanings in relation to her. Whenever she gets too angry or /stressed/, she transforms into the StressMonster, a monster that feeds off of other people’s stress to become more powerful. Luckily, the monster is rarely seen, but does terrible things when she is. She’s one of the most feared creatures in Hermitopia. Stress hates her and tries her best to hide her from her friends, but it can backfire sometimes. - @guster-animations

- to follow-up on Joe being presumed dead: remember the time dilation incident he was stuck in? ConCorp figured it was best to cut their losses and not try to send anyone in to rescue him -- it would be a pointless mission. so they abandoned him, quietly announced that he had died in the line of duty, and put the affected area under high security clearance in order to prevent any future accidents. they figured he was already dead. and Joe figures, given that they up and abandoned him, maybe it's for the best that they continue to figure just that. he changed his last name to "Hills" -- a joke about the biome containing the time anomaly -- and otherwise proceeded to stay under the radar. he still uses the time dilation area as a base of operations, sometimes; it's very useful to have a hideout that people physically cannot get into/out of without his direct assistance. is he nursing a grudge, coming up with some convoluted scheme to get back at the paramilitary group for abandoning him? or does he just want to live a relatively normal life off the grid? who knows. that's the Joe [REDACTED] Hills difference. -@betweenlands

- False has some big scary power that is almost Eldritch she just happens to prefer a sword and doesn’t really care for who she works for as long as they’re paying... (they don’t need to know of the power that had harmed the ones she loves the most)

- Keralis once encountered Void sulking around where Xisuma worked. So fearful for his friend’s safety, he used his power on Void and told him to go away. Apparently the charm is still active, because if Void spots Keralis anywhere, he’ll turn tail and run. No, it’s not because he’s scared. Absolutely not.

- Grumbot serves as a sentient supercomputer created by Mumbo for Grian. Grian is using Grumbot for... various activities, all of which harmless, but a certain evil clone [Helsknight] has reverse engineered the technology. Concorp would like for Mumbo to give them the tech, but mumbo stuck some eyes to the computer, got emotionally attached, and refuses to give up his baby boy.

- When Impulse hears his friend/colleague Bdubs has been "taken over" by the mind-controller [Beef], he wants to go on an off-the-books mission to rescue him! Just giving up like they were told to isn't in his nature.Of course the rest of ZIT are with him. Heroes save people! It's what they do!~DragonKay

- Hermitopia is a mixture of sleek futuristic and cyberpunk in terms of style. It really depends on where you live and work (ik this doesnt include any hermits but whatever) - @ghastly-ghostie

- I wonder if Cleo's overactive healing powers affect herself and if any injuries she receives immediately heal over like wolverine or deadpool

- Ren used to be friends with Cleo too, but then she died. Strangely enough, she died on the same day that Ren killed Iskall. Ren’s lost all his friends. It’s hard living in isolation when there’s no one left that even cares about you. (Unless— no, that’s impossible.)

- I was thinking about Biffa, like you do. And Biffa would totally be some robot that was created by Project VEX in its early stages, however they realised fast that it was easier to use humans and give them powers, maybe its not their strong suit with robots. But Biff went sentient and glitched and was scrapped so hes just out there doing his thing. Hes a wildcard and plays for which side he wants at the time, sometimes he'll help or sometimes hes the one causing trouble. He looks pretty similar to a android like in Detroit:Become human but hes a bit uncanny and eerie, maybe its the eyes or the blood red armour. Powerwise, he's got more strength than a human does, mainly because he isn't limited like others are. try not to get punched by him, it'll hurt! [He's convinced Concorp will destroy him if they find out he's alive and Unaffiliated] -lucodak

- Going off of my thing about hermotopia impulse having friends everywhere....this may include the nho. Okay, they beat him to a pulp on one of his solo patrols once, but theey felt bad n patched him up! He has to keep it a secret. He brings them dinner alot. And checks in on them.

- Beef is the perfect cover-up for Bdubs’ desertion. ConCorp doesn’t want any other employees getting bright ideas, now, do they? Nor do they want employees getting nosy and trying to figure out where Bdubs went. They don’t have to tell people what Beef’s powers are. They just release that he developed powers after brain surgery, and a rumour that he was spotted lurking around before Bdubs suddenly betrayed ConCorp... and people draw their own conclusions. -Slimetek

- xB is pretty sure he’s supposed to be evil.I mean, that’s what sentient AIs usually end up being, according to a quick internet search. And yet he’s... not. Or maybe he’s just on the wrong side. - Slimetek

- Yes impulse is friends with the nho....what he doesn't know? He's....easily susceptible to hypnosis. Very easily.......Of course, after impulse is basically a very tired n warm cuddle bug, so, cuddle piles tend to happen after all information is spilled. He must've fallen asleep at their apartment again! Whoops! But it's okay.....they take good care of him if he does! [Beef is using his mind reading ability on Impulse without his knowledge, to make sure that he hasn't spilled their location and to predict the government's next moves. He feels slightly bad about it but feels that it is necessary for the nHo's survival.]

- So far, Grian has only ever encountered two of his clones, NPC Grian and Robot Grian. Technically three, if one were to count Ariana Griande. Grian doesn't really, but some do. [Ariana Griande is a popular musician in Hermitopia who is building a career using the magical stone of voice enhancement she recieved through the cloning process]

- To handle the two Grumbot issue: the one working with Helsknight can be Jrumbot, a legion of robot drones meant to work as Grumbot’s physical form that ended up being hijacked by Helsknight and turned against ConCorp

- There...aren’t a lot of “normal” animals left in Hermittopia. ConCorp took one look at the animals populating the city and decided that, hey, they could make some improvements. Species after species, they modified their behavior, appearance, internal structure, whatever they could fix, tweak, or add. They were just improving their lives and the lives of the citizens of Hermittopia, after all, but the new animals quickly outcompeted the old for resources and habitats. And if it makes it easier for ConCorp to stick a camera in one or two of them, or set up robotic animals to keep a better eye on the city, no harm, no foul, right?(Bonus: there is one (1) singular cat left in Hermittopia, resulting in a spy movie-style heist where two teams of Hermits attempt to “rescue” the cat simultaneously. The cat keeps wandering away from both teams. Shenanigans ensue)- Adonis [the cat is Jellie, who orchestrated the competition between Team ZIT and Cleo and Joe for her own entertainment, getting away from both parties in the end]

- The Leak:Not all mutations are the result of controlled experiments! If some alien tech got away from the crash site, concorp never would have picked it up. It might have got into nature, not as refined as they made it in the labs but causing little changes here and there. Ren may have become a werewolf from being bitten by a mutant wolf~DragonKay

- Impulse is able to use his powers to create illusions or male things appear invisible! Sort of. After all, light dictates what we see. It takes a lot of focus, though, so it's not that practical. -@rayveewrites

- The one thing Hels wasn't able to steal was the cloning technology, hence his hostility with Concorp -- he needs the cloning device, because how else is the void going to get a body of their own? - SilverWolf53

- *glances at the hermitopia werewolf ask* okay but what if the same mystery people who made ren into a werewolf also created jevin, and maybe Etho? idk if either of them have been given any hermitopia headcanons yet lol. but im sure the same people who made a werewolf could make a sentient slime (or perhaps rescue one) or make... whatever etho is. [Since the "second organization" is an incorrect assumption believed by Concorp, Jevin was created when he came in contact with a waterway contaminated by The Leak. Concorp assumes he was created by an opposing organization and not by accident, and therefore would like to bring him in along with Ren.]

- hermitopia - mumbo and grian were friends back when cloning experiments were still happening (or . as friendly as you can be with someone who's treating you like a lab rat), but after everything went wrong and grian escaped, mumbo has his memories wiped nd thats why he's trusted w iskall's stuff? bc he inherently remembers working on high-level things without knowing where he learnt it - muscle memory, yk?anyway massive angst with grian maybe recognising mumbo, but not the other way round, and trying to rekindle their friendship? and that's where grumbot comes in? -gin [Mumbo's memory was wiped so that he would forget the deadly purpose of Iskall's cybernetics, which he was working on at the same time as the Grian project in the background. Mumbo does not remember creating Grian's mechanical wings or Iskall's arm and eye, and he has no memory of either individual previous to "meeting" Iskall as the person assigned to his repair and upkeep.]

- Etho doesn't so much have powers as he is powers. All the powers the ‘original’ had went into creating him; now he just exists, as whatever sort of being he is. Not a human one, that much is obvious. ~DragonKay [Etho has no powers beyond the hivemind and his training, due to the error in the experiment that caused the clones]

- Mumbo started the button as a joke. A nonsense social expirement to see how much people want worthless signs of status. Unfortunately things got out of hand, and violent too. But hey! It's not his fault that the five special anomalous stones were misplaced into the prize dispenser! It was just chance that they fell into the hands of the clone of the worst gremlin in the city! Don't fire him! [He was not fired, but Cub was Decidedly Unhappy with him for a good long while]

- Void mostly trashes ConCorp facilities- trying to figure out if any of his siblings survived the spaceship crash, but occasionally he’ll pilfer from a bakery, because X is a health nut and Void just wants a gods damned cookie [Void very much dislikes unseasoned chicken]

- If the Stress Monster gets too big, too dangerous, Cleo is sworn under oath to Stress to zap her with her healing powers. Cleo doesn’t like to do it, overhealing a stressed Stress makes her so calm she gets knocked out for a couple of days, but Stress can take a small comfort in the fact that at least one person out there can stop her

- Ooh with the self healing Cleo she'd be able to develop a small amount of super strength, with how the mind keeps from going full throttle because it would destroy the body once she gets over it it's hysterical strength whenever she wants [it is quite painful, but a good backup plan]

- Being a hive mind of disposable clones that can spawn new copies at will, it can sometimes be hard for the Etho Entity to remember that it is indeed a big deal for other people when they get hurt. This can make him come off as callous to those around him, placing him firmly in the "villain" category in most citizen's books, but he really doesn't intend any harm!

- Grian used to be tall, but then the cloning happened. With each clone they stole a little bit of his height making him the short man he is today. He needs to capture those clones and get his height back. [Grian isn't entirely sure how to accomplish this, but he's dead set on trying! He misses being tall!]

- While Grian was perfectly fine with Ariana Griande living her own life, he did insist on one thing.Her "older brother" getting backstage access whenever she was on tour. He's very proud and supportive of her and her music career.

- Mumbo is perfectly content working in tech, watching the other hermits get up to crazy shenanigans. Except of course, there was that one time he was out testing some new gear and accidentally saved a crowd from some villains... and there were all those times after too...But hey! It’s not his fault that people like him, and he certainly isn’t going to get caught by Concorp during his after hours activities. [Mumbo considers himself an accidental hobbyist, not thinking he has the nerve or the skill for proper hero work. Time will tell if he's right about that or not...but unfortunately, he probably is. This should be fun.]

- There’s still some people overseeing VEX, even over Cub. They’re the ones that push Cub to do certain experiments or to scrap one. They’re the ones to give Cub the decision for Iskall’s life debt. Scar was under them too for the longest time, but eventually he wanted out. Cub still wanted in. They were still in the right, right? That’s what they tell him. He’s starting to doubt it. [Cub is way too invested in everything he's built to even think about going rogue now, but he does resent and occasionally question the judgement of his superiors increasingly as his project begins to fail more and more often. He also fears that Scar's shift in career will be seen as a betrayal, rather than as a tactical attempt to gain the company influence in the government.]

- Been thinking about the impulse + nho asks and just,,, what would happen if concorp/the government found out? It cant be good with interrogation/hypnosis on both sides (incase you cant tell,, the brainrot got me as well) (apologies if this is a mess im excited) [Hypno is assigned to set up an illusionary conversation to make Impulse reveal nHo location to Concorp and government agents while thinking that he's actually talking to the nHo in a random encounter]

- The one mind Beef can't read is Etho's. Their hivemind is just too weird for him to comprehend. If he ever tries to listen in, it sounds like just a bunch of static from an old TV.

- for hermitopia au!: Out of most of the heros, the most reckless may be team zit. sure they tell themselves they'll plan out missions but it's hard when they share a braincell and tango just runs in. impulse and zed share a look everytime and have to run after him to make sure he doesn't get too hurt or overwhelmed by the enemy. in their defence its hard to plan ahead against an enemy when you dont know what they are thinking.-lucodak ["You might not have known what they were thinking, Tango, but we'd generally like you to know what you're thinking!"]

- i bet ConCorp really wants to make it out like theres some secret shady organization creating all these people with mutations, rather than their own operatives deserting and their own failure to contain dangerous chemicals... whether its malicious coverups or just ignorance to the fact they messed up, wonder what would happen if that sort of thing came to light...? [If they found out that the unintentional superhumans were a result of the poorly-contained crash site? Cub would lose his job...maybe worse. If Cub found out (and he hasn't, yet) he would do everything in his power to keep that information from his superiors.]

- (paraphrased) Impulse accidentally walks in on heroes and agents breaking down the doors of the nHo's hideout and confronting them. Scar claims that they did so on information Impulse himself provided and thanks him for his service. Impulse, feeling confused and betrayed, resists Hypno's attempts to illusion him back to Scar's side and flees the scene with the nHo, knowing very little other than the fact that he doesn't want to be manipulated by the government any more (and still not knowing that Beef has been reading his mind)

- Impulse may have been labeled a traitor. But do you really think that Impulse, secret rebel, starting to learn how dangerous and corrupted Concorp really is, wouldn't let his best friends know about the danger they might be in? I think Team ZIT is more loyal to each other than to the government. - @mleemwyvern [ Impulse's first stop after escaping with the nHo is to find a place to secretly meet Tango and Zedaph and tell them about the way he was tricked. It takes a lot of explaining and a lot of trust, but they eventually decide to believe his claims and are left with a choice: will they openly go rogue and become a target along with Impulse and the rest of the nHo, or are they better off using their established image and reputation to keep an eye on the government heros' movements from the inside?]

- (two asks combined, paraphrased) Ren runs out of supplies and decides to head back into the city, confident in his ability to stay off the grid after so many years of experience and such a long time away. Once there, he runs into Doc, and they hit it off quite quickly. However, the more Ren talks the more Doc realizes - with his ex-Concorp knowledge - that Ren matches the description of Iskall's main target exactly. He warns Ren, who is then faced with the knowledge that Iskall is alive and assigned to kill him...so many questions and so many tears to follow...

- Why did Hermitopia start needing heroes? When the Unrestrained started to appear, if course. Why did the Unrestrained start to appear? A question asked a little less. When did the VEX program start? When did they start taking more risks? When did they stop caring about certainty and safety and shift towards trying to push boundaries they weren't ready to? People can be so enamoured with the concept of superhuman abilities, something bright and glorious and good- and perhaps they could have that too- they don't ask all the right questions. It's all an elaborate game of damage control, don't let the flashy heroics fool you, they've made mistakes, terrible, terrible mistakes, and now there are villains running loose with powers they fooled ConCorp into giving them. Are they villains? Are they victims? Does it matter? They're causing problems. [Project VEX has developed into a solution to its own problems, a self perpetuating cycle...one that Cub, as a businessman, is very familiar with. It's what keeps the wheels of industry turning. It's what keeps innovation creeping forward. It wasn't intentional, not this time...but if it keeps his project alive, he'll take it.]

- One time, Jevin had narrowly dodged being captured by Concorp. He was laying low in the forest out of town, when he had a run-in with some sort of wolf creature. Thankfully, claws and teeth couldn't exactly hurt him anymore, so he just played dead until it gave up.When the moon set, the wolf-thing slowly transformed into a human being. Ren was horrified at the thought he'd lost control and hurt someone- again- but Jevin assured him he was fine. Jevin got the feeling that the werewolf needed a friend, and Jevin himself needed a place to stay for a while... -RayveeWrites [Ren and Jevin are not currently in the same location, but they each have a means of contacting each other for help if needed]

- Worm Man wasn't a well- known super, but plenty of people have noticed that he seemed to vanish at the same time Team ZIT first started active duty. Those people have also noticed that one of the members has a very similar power set to WM.Officially, that's just a coincidence. Officially.-RayveeWrites [Zedaph was trying to get some unofficial practice while still in training in the VEX program]

- A common misconception is that Bdubs conjures up his vines from nowhere. He can't.Like any plant, his vines grow from seeds. They grow unnaturally fast, when Bdubs wills it, but they have to come from seeds. Where do these seeds come from, you may ask?Well, a long time ago, Bdubs ingested some strange fruits. Somehow, in wild defiance of human biology, the seeds contained in those fruits worked their way into his muscles and germinated. Some of the roots worked their way into his brain and fused into it; the rest spread through his muscles, grew beneath his skin, coiled around his bones. Thanks to the way the vines connected to his brain, Bdubs is able to command the vines, and their magic, at will.The vines produce seeds; some stay in his body to replace the old ones when they die, and most work their way into a pair of 'seed pods' in his wrists. Bdubs provides the nutrients, the energy; the vines provide the seeds, the magic. As an extra bonus: if the vines were to be totally removed from Bdubs' body, he would be at best extremely weak, and at worst dead. The vines have grown into his muscles, to the point where they've essentially replaced them in some areas. It's fortunate that they connected with his mind so early on, otherwise he'd be dead. -RayveeWrites [Concorp developed the fruit, and the fact that Bdubs is evidence of the unlikely success of that experiment makes them all the more angry at his betrayal]

- A lot of excellent xB information (it's too long to copy but please read it it's very good)

- Iskall has exactly one (1) failed assignment. That assignment? The kill or capture of Stress. Stress and Iskall have been, or should it be were now, friends for a very long time, since before Iskall even met Ren. So one can imagine the stress this causes Iskall, to be told to kill his one remaining friend that he knows is alive. Of course, this stress is quite enough to to Stress's Stress Monster into one it's strongest yet seen forms, allowing for Stress to then get away. (1/2)(2/2) Of course, Con Corp doesn't- and can never- know the true reason that Iskall cannot kill or capture Stress. If they knew, if they subjected Stress to the same hell he's in- no, that cannot happen. So Iskall hires False to protect Stress, to interfere whenever they send him on a mission for her. Luckily, False is good at keeping secrets when she wants to, and this one she'll keep. But as far as Con Corp knows, Iskall has severe stress and trauma from being a cyborg, and that's why he fails. [This all adds up to a monumental waste of Concorp's time and money, which also results in False getting payed, so all parties involved are happy except for Concorp >:)]

- Impulse would take a bullet for his teammates, and he knows they might be about to take one for him, keeping him updated on what's going on government side of this... slander. Still, Tango and Zed are great actors, and if he didn't know better, he might be a little worried they would *actually* be hunting him down in the name of justice [Tango and Zed are now being sent on missions to retrieve Impulse, which they must pretend to lose believably. They occasionally overestimate their friend's abilities and give him a few more close calls than he'd like, but overall the ruse is holding up.]

Writing:

- Wels, Hels, TFC, and Grumbot

- Bdubs Concorp promotion and desertion

- Joe Hills in his time dilation hideout

- Etho clones, ZIT, and the nHo

- Keralis and Void

- [ALTERNATE] Reveal of Impulse's situation with the nHo

Art:

- Impulse suit design

[hnychn]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 [𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐈]

summary : levi wanted to believe the Fates were kind, but he should have known better

warnings : character death, heavy loss, a single mention of suicide, more greek myth allusions, fem! reader

word count : 3000+

a/n : omgomgomg tysm @yeehawslap for giving me permission to write this, i swear when i read their post i was immediately inspired to write this and i'm so sorry to your feelings :') also i swear i changed the title of this like, ten times

attack on titan masterlist || navigation

The Fates had dealt Levi a rough life. 

When the goddess Clotho had spun the thread of his life, she must have incorporated thorns into every string; even now Levi could feel the pricks of guilt that chipped away at his soul each time he opened the bottom drawer of his desk and faced the bloodied scout patches of the lives lost.. 

Lachesis had enforced his life; she had been the one to use his thread to create. Although, Levi must admit, the fates must have favored him a tiny bit if they had sent you to him. You, his lovely wife whom he met one late evening under the stars, a gash on his head and gauze in your hand ready for you to patch up. 

You had been there to take out every thorn in his thread Clotho had stuck in his life; every ounce of guilt, every second of regret had been a burden on his shoulders you relieved by simply being there. 

Perhaps the Fates weren't all that bad. 

They must have been even just an ounce of virtuous if they had allowed him to call you his forever. The fates had strung together a love story into his thread of life and allowed him to invite someone into the most intimate parts of him, allow him to find peace within someone; to create a life together. 

Levi could remember the day when you burst into his office, a smile so bright he was sure even the sun was envious of the warmth you radiated. No words were spoken as you pulled him into your arms and cried. 

It was only through hiccups and sobs did he hear your soft voice tell him he had created a life. And while your stomach was still as flat as it had been the night before and many nights before that, he pressed his hand against it nonetheless and promised to protect the life within you until his very last breath. 

Perhaps the Fates weren't all that bad. 

Isabel, as the two of you named your daughter, had become a nearly carbon copy of her father. not only did she share many features in common with him, she also inherited his strength. 

She was able to hold her head up on her own only a mere months after birth, and she often gave you a terrible fright when she climbed out of her crib at night with a strength a toddler shouldn't have. Though, it was of no real surprise to either of you; you were sure your womb must have taken a terrible beating with the strength of her kicks while she was still growing inside of you. 

And, with her strength and many similarities with her father, came her desire to join the scouts. 

It was the first time in her life Levi had denied her something. 

Admittedly, little Isabel had her cold, ruthless captain of a father wrapped around her stubby little finger since the moment you pushed her out of your womb. You could hear the way he promised to give her anything her little heart desired and often you found yourself being more strict with her. 

Though, this had been Levi's one fear. 

Levi has seen countless people fall beyond the walls. He's witnessed Farlan and Isabel (his daughter's namesake) tragically torn to pieces by those wandering monsters. He’s seen countless bodies piled up in wagons to return to the walls for burning. 

You’ve seen your fair share of horrors, too. You’ve seen the injuries people walk into your clinic with, the blood gushing through gaping wounds, their bones snapped in angles they shouldn't, the limbs you've had to amputate; and the sheer image of your daughter being one of them was enough for you to turn green with sickness. 

There were countless arguments between Levi and Isabel (you often found yourself the mediator of these fights and cursing the fates for making both father and daughter stubborn as mules). But ultimately, Levi had caved as he always did, and promised to train her harder than anyone else in the training corps.

True to his word, Isabel often returned home with bruises and collapsed next to you on the couch, her head falling into your lap with fatigue. You smiled as you ran your fingers through her hair as she tiredly recounted her training with her father and other members of the Training Corps. 

She had recounted many stories of the friends she’s made there; an arrogant boy named Jean who she loved to tease and roughhouse with, a boy with a buzzcut named Connie she liked to mess around with and prank occasionally, and a girl named Sasha. 

The dusty pink on her cheeks when she told you stories about her sprouted an inkling inside of you that made you think she was more than just a friend to your daughter. You only smiled as she went on. 

Though, late at night, when your husband had long ago fallen asleep and your daughter was tucked safely away in her room, did you find yourself praying to the Fates. You prayed no arm would come to your daughter and she would lead the happy life she deserved. You prayed the Fates were kind.  

Perhaps . . . the Fates weren't kind . . .  

Levi should have known the fates hadn't meant to give him a life as peaceful as his (or as peaceful as it could be with you and Isabel by his side). He should have known better than to think the Fates were righteous.  

Afterall, the goddess Atropos always came to collect what was due. Atropos was the third and final Fate, the goddess who cut the threads her sisters weaved and toyed with. She was the one who claimed souls. Atropos watched time and time again as Levi avoided her attempts to collect his thread and grew frustrated the more he slipped through her fingers like sand. So, Atropos did the next best thing. 

She stole a life close to him. 

Levi could feel his blood run cold when Jean walked in, his hands fisting the shirts of two children and his eyes wild with shock. His words were shaky and his eyes were covered in a daze of denial, as if his mind was trying to protect him from the inevitable heartbreak he would experience. 

Levi waited with a bated breath for Jean to crack a smile and admit this was all some sick joke he could punish him later for. That his whole thing was nothing but a nightmare and he was bak at home, cuddled in bed with you and your daughter was sleeping soundly in her room just down the hall. 

But he knew it wasn't a dream, not when you gasped as you did, when he could practically see your heart shattering in your eyes and the way you nearly pushed him to the floor as you ran to the back of the airship. Levi followed close. 

"ISABEL!" 

You had practically thrown Connie to the side to get to your daughter. Her eyes were hazy with the same veil of death you had seen time and time again with your patients and friends. Sasha stood still to the side, her eyes wide and her hands shaking, “should have been me, it should have been me.” She chanted the words like a spell that would somehow transfer the wound to her, a spell that would miraculously heal your daughter who lay on the cold hard floor of the airship, blood slowly seeping out of her. 

The logical medic in your brain delivered you the harsh truth as you assessed your daughter and her wounds. The unforgiving voice hissed in your ear about her inevitable death, the wound is too fatal, there’s no way she’ll make it back to the island. You hushed the voice as quick as it spoke, your heart denying the severity of the situation. 

"oh," Levi could only watch as you clutched onto Isabel, your hands working like clockwork as they put pressure on her wound despite the violent shake in them, "oh, my baby..." 

Levi took a hesitant step closer. It was haunting, watching his daughter who held so many of his qualities lay on the floor, bleeding to death. He had remembered the many times she pulled his hair as a child, giggling loudly as she pointed out the obvious, ‘I’m just like you, daddy!’ 

Oh, how he wished he could go back to those moments. When his daughter was nothing but a small child he cradled in his arms, tucking her safely under his chin as he gently rocked her side to side to lully her back into a deep sleep. He wished to go back to the nights he held your hair back as your stomach churned with nausea and your daughter was but a growing fetus, protected within the walls of your womb. 

"M . . . mommy . . .” Isabel breathed. 

You sobbed harder, "it's okay baby, i'm here, mommy's here." 

You ran your fingers through her hair, hushed her and soothing her as you once did many years ago when she was nothing but a small baby clutching onto the material of your dress. 

She had been so tiny then, so fragile and sweet and innocent. But she had long since grown out of her baby face and matured into a strong woman you were proud to have nurtured. But in this moment, it was as if she returned to the same fragile baby as she was years ago as she clutched onto the straps of your gear like a lifeline, her eyes dull but full of fear and hesitance.

"Mommy please, i'm- s' scared . . ." her voice was breathy and you could see the energy drain from her eyes the harder she tried to keep them open.

You wanted to be selfish, to tell her to keep her eyes open, to keep breathing and push through the pain. But you could see the pain flash in her eyes each time she took a breath, you could hear her breathy wince with every movement she made, and you knew you couldn’t be selfish. 

Levi could see your resolve slowly crumble, the way the shake in your hands grew more and more violent and he could practically see the screams bubble in your throat as you tried to swallow them down to comfort your daughter. Levi knew if he didn't step in now, there would be no salvaging the broken pieces of you after this. 

"It’s okay, princess." Levi crouched down on the other side of his daughter, his jaw clenching and unclenching as he tried to keep his composure. 

Her head slowly turned to him, "d-daddy . . . ?" 

Levi hummed, "Yeah, it's me princess. It’s okay, you did so well, you were so brave." 

"I was?" her words were breathy and rushed as she tried to cling on to the last threads of her life. You could feel her grip in your gear lose its strength and you nearly let the screams clawing at your throat escape. 

pleasepleasepleaseplease, you begged, not her please not my baby. 

"So brave." 

Levi had never felt so helpless watching his daughter's eyes lose their life, he could only sit there and reassure her that everything would be fine and she had done good as she took her last breaths. Images of the other Isabel laying dead on the floor flashed through his mind and Levi nearly vomited. 

"I love you" 

Levi nodded, "I know. I love you too, princess. Now rest." 

The winds howled loudly outside, but there was nothing loud enough to drown out the screams that had finally escaped from you as you gripped your daughter’s hand so tight your knuckles turned white. Levi held you close as tears of his own dripped down his face and an indescribable weight placed itself in his heart.  

The Fates were not kind. 

Life after that seemed to lose its shine. 

Your home was hauntinly quiet. Every inch of the home had memories of your daughter carved into the wooden frame. Her first words, her first steps, her first breath. You had given birth to your daughter in the living room, and where the walls once gave you comfort and warmed your heart with reminders of the first life you had brought into the world, it now made you sick with grief and added to the weight in your heart. She had taken her first steps in the hallways, clutching your fingers tight as you guided her down the hall to Levi who waited for her with a proud smile. Her first words had been in the kitchen, where you and Levi cooked dinner for your quaint little family and she called out to the two of you, begging for attention. And who was Levi to deny his princess? 

You and Levi struggled to find your places in the world after that. Late at night, the two of you often clung to each other for comfort. Though, you knew Isabel’s death was hitting Levi harder than you. You could see it in the way he tucked her Scout badge into the left breast pocket of his shirts, hoping to keep the memory of her close to his heart; the way he avoided every mirror like it was the plague. You could see it in the way he flinched whenever he caught sight of his reflection, his own steel grey eyes and matted black hair staring hauntingly back at him. 

Isabel had taken after her father the most, afterall. 

You also found Levi’s features a bit hard to look at after that. It was hard to look into his eyes and see your daughter staring right back at you with a pleading look to not leave. There had been late night conversations where Levi assured you he knew of his similarities to Isabel and promised to not be mad if you wanted to leave him, 'I find it hard to look at myself sometimes.'

But you only held him tighter and stuck closer to his side, washing away any thoughts he had of you leaving him. You married him because you loved him, and nothing could change that. Even if he looked so similar to your lost daughter. 

The Fates also decided to make your lives a bit harder, as if taking away your first born hadn’t been enough suffering to put you both through. Levi had been sent away with Zeke into hiding. Initially, you wanted to go with him, to stick by his side and cling to your life support, but the others hadn’t allowed it. 

Hango could only grip your wrist tight as you watched Levi climb into the carriage and ride away. 

You begged Hange not to leave you alone after that; because you knew if you were left alone for long enough, there would be nothing stopping you from joining your daughter in the afterlife. 

Hange stayed by your side. 

You wanted to vomit. 

You could feel the sickening churn in your stomach as you stared down at the very girl who had stolen the life from your daughter. The images of your daughter clutching on to you tightly and her scared voice begging you to comfort her rang loud in your ears. Your mouth had dried instantly, any one of the thousand of words rattling in your head stopped by the numbness in your mouth. There were so many things you wanted to say, so many words you wanted to exchange with the girl who had taken your child from you. 

You could see Nicolo’s mouth move and his adam's apple bob with every sound he made, but it was all muffled whitenoise as your eyes trained onto the little girl who stared up at you with a look of horror and fear. 

“ . . . kill her,” Nicolo’s voice buzzed in your ears. 

You hadn’t even realised you took the knife from his hands until you heard Hange speak up from behind you. She begged you to put the knife down, to think rationally. 

But how could you? How could your mind think of anything other than harming the girl who was the cause of all your pain? When the girl who murdered your daughter was right in front of you, sitting on her knees, vulnerable. Your heart screamed and thrashed against the veins that held it in place for you to stab her, to make her feel the same pain your baby had to go through. 

But then she looked up at you. Her eyes were wide with the same fear and pleading look your daughter had in her final moments. You dropped the knife, your shoulders shaking as your eyes lined with unshed tears. 

“Kill a child. . . you- you want me to kill a child. . .” Armin stared at you from the side as your shoulders sagged and a few tears escaped your eyes, and he couldn’t help but realize how tired you looked. As if the weight the world had placed on your shoulders was finally catching up to you and your body struggled to carry it any longer. 

“I can’t do that. She’s a child. Someone’s daughter.” You collapsed to the floor, your hands digging to the carpet underneath you, “I can’t kill a child, not while I know what it feels like to lose your own. I can’t put another mother through the same pain I’m in. I just- can’t.” 

Hange kneeled next to you and placed a comforting hand on your shoulder, her lips pressed into a thin line and sympathy swimming in her eyes for her friend who had lost her world. You looked back up to Gabi and she nearly flinched with how broken and tired your eyes looked, “I can only hope she’s found peace in the afterlife. . . 

“I can only hope the Goddesses of Fate are kind to her soul.”  

[stealforreal]

Midoriya Izuku - Future kids I

Midoriya Izuku's day just got turned upside down. MIdoriya is slightly ooc, and I'm dissapointed with the quality of this work. I lost inspiration sorry, but here you go anyways.

Midoriya Izuku x f!reader

Warnings: none, maybe slight cussing

It had been a normal day, so far. Class 1-b and 1-a had a joint training session, and everyone was giving it their all. Iida was using his recipico burst against their team's opponents, giving Midoriya time to think up a new plan now that they had been discovered. They had previously planned to use Aoyama's navel laser to lure their opponents to a specific spot, before using Iida to get him away so Midoriya and Todoroki could apprehend them. The plan had unfortunately backfired, since they had captured Aoyama before Iida could get to him. The solid air user from 1-b had gotten him in his hold, and only after Todoroki had gotten him back did they realise how much the rest of the plan would fail. So now Midoriya was tasked with coming up with a new plan.

Todoroki was occupied with holding the others at bay, and Iida was running out of fuel so they wouldn’t be much help. Aoyama was on the brink of his usual stomach ache that followed with overuse, so he was also pretty useless. Even if he wanted too Midoriya knew he was out matched, a 4 v 1 would not end well for him, besides he had to look out for Monoma and his copy quirk. He was so in his head planning that he didn’t see the Copycat sneaking up on him, not before it was too late. He should have felt an impact, Monoma had pointed one of Bakugou’s explosions towards him. But the impact never came, instead he felt himself float in the air hovering over the remaining smoke from the explosion. “Don’t you dare hurt my daddy” A loud girly voice proclaimed, effectively gaining everybody nearby attention.

Turning his attention towards the girly voice, he felt himself freeze up. In the middle of their training field stood a girl around the age of 10, if he had to take a guess. But that wasn’t what caused him to freeze up, no not the fact that this young girl had somehow managed to bypass UA’s security. Which should have been impossible, considering all the improvements that had been made to it after all the villain attacks that had happened. No, what caused him to freeze up was the fact that before him stood this girl, who looked like a carbon copy of him. It seemed that way from this distance. “Who is responsible for holding Midoriya in the air?” Aizawa’s gruff voice rang out. “Oh right, I forgot about that,” The curly green haired girl exclaimed, catching the attention of the slowly increasing crowd. Slowly Midoriya could feel himself being lowered to the ground again, once his feet hit the cement the quirk that had previously held him in the air deactivated making him feel 10 times heavier.

“Who the fuck disturbed the exercise, I’m gonna kill who ever did it” a familiar angry voice yelled out, making Bakugou’s presence noticeable. Everybody was a little on edge, they had enough experience with villains to not foolishly blindly trust anybody. It didn’t matter that it was a 10 year-old girl, or that she looked like a carbon copy of the resident green haired cinnamon roll. “Man, Uncle Katsu you really were loud back in the day” This statement from the green haired girl left everyone speechless. ‘Does she have a death wish’ was the thought on most of 1-A’s minds, nobody was so casual with Bakugou because it was a serious health hazard.

Well everyone except maybe his two best friends, Kirishima and y/n. It was common knowledge in class A that Bakugou had a soft spot for his two best friends, they had honestly been shocked the first time they met her. She had walked into the classroom, blank faced, walked over to Bakugou’s table, smacked him upside the head with a book before leaving it on his desk, and walked out the door with only a quick “don’t forget it next time, Idiot”. Miraculously she had lived, and Bakugou hadn’t even begun yelling. An impressive feat in itself. Not long after Midoriya had begun noticing you around school, and found out you were a part of the support course. He came to know you a bit, his observation skills made that almost too easy. Slowly but surely he began falling in love with you, the way your hair frames your face, your sharp tongue that never held back. How you would stand up for anybody, it didn’t matter if you knew them well or not if they were in trouble you would help them.

“Hah, what was that you brat?” Bakugou’s loud yelling and heavy footsteps approaching snapped him out of his thoughts, and back to the situation at hand. “ W-wait a minute Kacchan, I’m s-sure that there is a logical explanation” He found himself saying before he could even register what happened. Midoriya was hit with an immense feeling of protectiveness, similar to when they had rescued Eri, but stronger. Without knowing he had subconsciously stepped in front of the girl, pushing her behind his back. “Don’t worry dad I can handle myself, besides it’s only uncle Katsu” she spoke up behind the protective cinnamon roll. “Explain now” Aizawa cut in before they could get side tracked again. It was like the fact she hadn’t introduced herself, only hit her now.

“ Right, allow me to introduce myself” Bowing slightly she continued. “ My name is Midoriya Izumi, I am 10 years old and from the future” Aizawa sent her a raised eyebrow, wanting an elaborated answer. “ My friend was being teased by the others in class about how he was quirkless” Izuku tensed slightly but continued listening to Izumi “ Since my friend’s parents each has a quirk related to time, his mom could speed up herself for only a couple of minutes and his dad could slow down others a bit. This made it really hard for my friend to know if he had a quirk or not, so I helped him research and test different theories. Our last one must have worked, which is time travel by the way, but I have no idea how long his quirk will last” Izumi rambled slightly, reminding them of another curly green haired individual. Difference is Izumi talked loud enough for them to hear, and a bit slower making it understandable.

“Wait, you said your name was Midoriya Izumi. Does this mean that you are Midoriya’s daughter” The ever stoic, conspiracy theory thinking, dual haired boy pointed out. “ Yep, sure am uncle Sho, Don’t tell me you don’t see the resemblance.” She stood next to Izuku hugging his waist with one arm, before continuing” I’m dad's younger copy but female, mom always says there is more wholesomeness in him than there is in her. I remember her asking dad one time why his genes were so damn strong. Luckily for her Haru looks a lot more like her, he’s her younger copy but male” The people present looked between the two Midoriyas, it was true nobody could deny that she was her fathers daughter. The only thing that was different was her eyes, they had specks of y/e/c instead of being fully emerald like Izuku’s were. Also she talks a lot, just like their classmate. They shared the same green hair, both were curly in texture and the classic Midoriya freckles. Though it seemed that she had gotten more of her mothers personality, at least they assumed so. I mean she stood up to Bakugou, without even flinching at his tone.

“Oi, squirt what’s your quirk. And quit rambling like shitty Deku” Bakugou asked, interest evident in his tone. “ Right, my quirk is called Telekinesis, so I can move stuff with my mind. It was also how I was able to keep daddy in the air” Izumi responded, puffing her chest out comically in pride. “Huh so it skipped a generation, and your quirk is stronger than my mom’s. But you also have a different approach so maybe that helps. I wonder why yours is stronger, is it because of your mothers quirk. But then again my quirk is also powerful maybe an aspect of it ties to the genes maybe that’s why your quirk is stronger than moms” The older green haired individual began mumbling on, and he probably would have continued if he hadn’t been cut off by his lowly daughter hitting him in the head. “ Daddy stop mumbling,” Izumi stated sternly.

Bakugou grinned, he liked this kid's spunk and she seemed to have a strong quirk, even if she was shitty Deku’s kid. “Oi squirt fight me” He loudly proclaimed, earning all his classmates attention. Almost everyone began yelling over each other, what the hell dude and she just a kid another one was so not manly bro. Instead of being happy her dad’s old classmates were defending her, stopping her uncle from fighting her she got annoyed. So what if she was a child, this wouldn’t be her first time fighting her dad or her uncles. Before everyone could attack Bakugou even more a voice piqued up “ Sure, if that is alright with you sensei” she directed her attention towards Mr. Aizawa.

It wasn’t rational to challenge a child to a fight, but he couldn’t deny she had a great fighting spirit in her eyes. So he allowed it, he was curious himself to see how it would end. The control she displayed earlier was phenomenal, and she was only 10 but she had a lot of potential in his book. He shooed everuýone a bit away from the hothead and the young Midoriya, and so then created a ring of sorts acting a the line of confinement.

3…..2…...1…...GO!

Bakugou charged straight in with his usual right hook, only to have it swiftly caught by Izumi. She grabbed his right hand, squatted down a bit, then swiftly pushed her shoulder into his rib. The momentum of that allowed her to, even with some difficulty, flip his much larger body over her shoulder and into the ground. There was a small second of silence where Bakugou just laid on the ground in shock, a girl over 5 years younger than him just flipped him over her shoulder like it wasn’t even that hard. However Izumi didn’t give him time to think as she sent metal bars towards him. They had been fried earlier, before her arrival. Bakugou used his explosions to evade the metal projectiles, sending another one straight towards her face. Die squirt die, his colorful vocabulary re-entered the scene. She used her Telekinesis to command the explosion to change course and hit Bakugou square in the face instead. Slightly dazed Bakugou didn’t have time to move before a heel connected to his temple, effectively knocking him out.

Everyone who bore witness to this fight was shell shocked, Bakugou lost. The fight lasted only around 8 minutes before the winner of the 1 years sports festival got knocked out by a 10 year old girl. “Huh, that was easier than expected,” the panting girl exclaimed. Izuku could feel his chest swell with pride, that was his daughter. Strong and smart just like her parents. She walked over to Izuku and slumped against him “ I’m tired daddy, carry me” She looked up at him with those doe green eyes, and how could he say no to his little warrior princess. Blushing, he picked her up, and she let out a sigh of contentment. Using her quirk to command things on a molecular level, like Bakugou’s explosions always took a toll on her.

“Midoriya take Izumi to the dorms to let her rest, the rest of you come with me for our next exercise” Mr. Aizawa commanded the frozen teens and teacher. Izuku then began making his way to the dorms, asking his sleepy daughter a tornado of questions. Do you know about my quirk, how does your quirk work, how old is Haru, am I a good dad, who is your mom? Even in her sleepy state Izumi answered his questions to the best of her abilities, though she refused to reveal who her mother was.

When they arrived at the dorms he put her on the living room couch, and went to leave to grab her some old All Might merch that could fit her. Before he could leave she grabbed his cheeks rather harshly, looking him straight in the eye she said “Don’t worry about who mom is, she loves you for you so it's gonna be fine. Also don’t screw this up so I’ll still be born.” Izuku sweat dropped nervously, before getting out of her hold to go find that old merch of his.

When he returned to the living room after finding what he was looking for, he looked around only to find that it was empty. He walked over to the couch and coffee table where he found a note, picking it up and sitting down on the couch to read it. Dearest daddy, I felt tingly so I think the quirk is gonna wear off now. I just wanted to say that you are awesome and the best daddy out there, I love you so much. I’ll see you again in the future - hugs Izumi Midoriya. Izuku’s heart fell, she had only just arrived an hour or so ago and now she was gone. He didn’t get to know his daughter better like he had hoped, and he didn’t get to see her adorably dressed up in his old All Might merch. He read the note over and over again, trying to satisfy his heart. He would see her again in the future, and then it clicked. his heart swelled, yeah he would see Izumu again some day.

Yeah he would see her again when he was married and happy. Yeah he could wait for that, as long as he has too.

@rainypeachbakerygoth

[swiftiesimonriley]

hurts like heaven (divorced! frankie x lawyer! reader)

divorced! frankie x lawyer! reader, silver linings playbook! au

rating: teen (I guess), no explicit content except for drug use

warnings: depictions and descriptions of drug use (if this makes you uncomfortable you may want to skip this one), mentions of divorce and custody battles, mention of time spent in an inpatient behavioral health setting

word count: 3.9k (WHOOPS i got excited)

a/n: I am so excited for my first frankie oneshot!! thank you so much to @hailmary-yramliah​ for this request, I hope you like it!! here is my masterlist, and if you have any requests you can send me an ask! also credit to @hunterschafer​ for the beautiful frankie gif!!

"Mr. Morales, after a thorough review of the details of this case, including but not limited to testimonies of your close friends and NA sponsor, revision of your record, and speaking with the judge who oversaw the suspension of your pilot's license, I have come to the conclusion that you are currently unfit to have full custody of your daughter. I am hereby granting full custody of Eleanor Luciana Morales to her biological mother."

The minute Francisco Morales hears the words of the family court judge before him ruling in favor of his now ex-wife, he nearly passes out.

The former Delta Force soldier vaguely heard the protests of Pope, who is the only person sitting within the rows of seats on the side of the courtroom where he currently resides. He doesn't register his lawyer uttering a half-assed apology or even the cheers from his ex-wife and her family on the other side of the room.

All he hears is white noise as the judge bangs the gavel to settle the room, explaining that Ava now will have primary and sole custody and that Frankie will only be allowed supervised visits with a social worker, and that Ava can take her daughter home today.

Their daughter.

Frankie knows he isn't perfect - fuck, he is far from it but this just seems like a sick joke.

As soon as his license was officially stripped from him, he knew his marriage was over. The tension had started almost a year earlier when Ava suspected Frankie of using, to which he vehemently denied.

Of course, it was true, but how was he supposed to explain and admit to the love of his life that he needed the cocaine flowing through his body in order to feel anything anymore.

Things began to crumble soon after the initial suspicion by Ava. 

The best way Frankie thought to deal with this problem was to put some space between himself and his wife. He didn't want her to see him when he was strung out and begging for one last hit - God forbid his daughter see him like that.

In a way, Frankie was grateful that Ellie was still an infant, and that she would have no memory of the fights he had with her mother over his addiction.

He began staying out late at bars and other places downtown where he knew he could meet his dealer and get more of his fix, trying to keep it as far away from his home as possible. 

After a few drinks and a successful meeting with his dealer, he would make his way home where he eventually came down, the immediate rush of guilt and sorrow filling his heart as he would return home and see the bedroom door was locked, indicating he had to crash on the couch.

It was when he stepped through the threshold of his small cottage that he felt the shame bubble up from deep inside him, knowing that he couldn't just snuggle up next to his wife and pretend things were fine, or even cradle his daughter in his arms and rock her to sleep, as on these nights Ava made sure to keep Ellie in the bedroom with her. 

Those were the nights that haunted him the most.

Breaking Ava's heart was something long in the past - and he knew she wouldn't be able to just forgive him for what he put her through. She was always the one to give people the benefit of the doubt - something he used to tease her about but now feels scorned by. She was the one who stood by him when he admitted he had a problem - giving him support and resources for healing all while lending a helping hand. 

She knew he wouldn't try to harm their relationship on purpose.

But when his use began to impede more on their relationship, Ava put her foot down. She was getting tired of the cycle of hurt that came with each band of withdrawal and promises of this being the "last" time, only to see her husband relapse again and again. She tried her hardest to continue supporting him, her high school sweetheart, but she had reached her limit. She started spending more time with her parents, leaving Ellie in their care for most days so she didn't have to see her father stumble through the door after a night out. 

Two weeks later she served him with the divorce papers.

Frankie knows that he fucked up, be he never meant to harm Ava or Ellie along the way, especially his baby daughter, whose brown eyes were almost carbon copies of his own. He can't even stomach the idea of Eleanor growing up without her father in her life - she is his whole world, and since the day she was born he promised her that he would always be there for her.

But now, his heart aches knowing he is going home to a semi-furnished one-bedroom apartment, no wife or daughter waiting up for him like when he returned from missions or deployment.

Francisco Morales was not one to take the easy way out.

He clutches his patient belongings bag tighly in his right hand as he walks out of the lobby of the inpatient rehabilitation center, scanning the outside pickup area for a familiar truck. After looking around for a moment a truck horn beep startles him, turning to see a familiar mop of black hair peeking out of his truck.

Chuckling to himself, Frankie jogs over to the passenger side and hops in, feeling Pope immediately wrap him tightly in a hug. "I missed you Cat," he murmurs into the pilot's shoulder, giving him a comforting pat on the back before releasing the brown-haired man from his arms.

"I missed you too Santi," Frankie sighs, placing his bag down on the floor at his feet, "I don't know how much longer I could stay there without seeing a familiar face."

Santi lets out a low laugh as he starts up the truck and pulls out of the patient drop-off area before turning onto the main road. The two sit in silence for a few moments as Frankie stretches out his limbs, turning his head to look out the window as they drive down through the city.

The black haired man knows better than to pry and quiz the pilot about his 2 month stay at the local inpatient rehabilitation center. After the fallout of the trial, things got rough really fast. Santi knew deep down there was a chance of relapse, even with Frankie left the courtroom promising that this would never happen again - but it was all too much.

At 3:11 am Santi got a call from Frankie.

By 6:30 the pair were at the very same doors that Frankie had just emerged, with Santi comfortingly rubbing his hand up and down the brunette's back and they waited to check him in and head over to intake.

But Santi doesn't pry.

He just drums a tune on the steering wheel as he continues driving down the main stretch of road in the city. He watches out of the corner of his eye as they get to a red light as Frankie fixes his hair, running his fingers through the brown fringe across his forehead and he lets out a chuckle.

"What's so funny Pope? I don't wanna look like I'm fresh out of the hospital." He huffs, looking over his hair again before closing the mirror.

To say Frankie was nervous was an understatement. He had been out of the hospital for less than ten minutes and he was already on his way to meet a new lawyer. His new lawyer.

The previous week Frankie received a call from Santi during his afternoon rec time. At first he couldn't make out what the other man was saying, he remembers huffing out something the lines of "are you fucking drunk?" but made sure to keep quiet as he knew some people in the rec area didn't take too kindly to brash language.

He then remembers the hearty chuckle on the other end. "No I'm not fucking drunk 'fish, I'm excited! I just ran into one of my old college buddies-"

"Do you mean fuck buddies?" Frankie teases, letting out a quiet laugh as he hears a scoff on the other end of the line.

"No you idiot! I didn't sleep with every girl I knew back then, I know it's hard to believe," Frankie lets out a loud laugh, "I ran into an old friend of mine who went to law school, and let's just say she owes me a favor and she agreed to take on your case! Fish? Frankie?"

The pilot drops the phone as soon as the words are processed.

He has another chance. Another chance to see Ava and his baby girl. A chance to get them both back into his life for good this time, now that he has detoxed and spent his time working on his coping strategies.

They could be back in his arms once again.

"Mr. Morales? Mr. Garcia? She's ready for you."

"It's go time." Santi nods, standing up out of his seat and motioning for the pilot to follow him.

The pair make their way down the white and bright hallways of the law offices, walking past several cubicles full of lawyers and other workers chatting away before coming to an office with a glass door at the end of the hallway.

Frankie nervously plays with his fingers as Santi knocks on the door, hearing a soft "come in" from the otherside.

He follows the black haired man into the office and freezes in his tracks when he sees you get up from your desk and rush to pull Santi into a hug. He tries to keep his eyes from widening like a cartoon character but he can't help it - Santi didn't mention how gorgeous you are.

He listens to you both talk for a few moments before you reach your hand out and introduce yourself, a light smile playing at your lips. Frankie nods and takes your smaller hand in his before watching you go back to your desk. You open your laptop and pull out the file your assistant gathered on the details of the previous case.

"Mr. Mora-"

"You can call me Frankie," the pilot interjects, his cheeks turning red as you nod and take a mental note of that. "Frankie, do you want to start off at the start of your story for me? I always find it more beneficial to ask from the client's perspective about the details of the case, it makes a stronger case," you say, picking up a pen and looking at the brunette sitting across from you.

Frankie lets out a small cough and takes a soft breath in before laying his cards out on the table.

Santi stays quiet in the seat next to him, nodding along at the details of the story and offering a comforting hand on the back as one of his closest friends speaks about some of the darkest points in his life with you as if you have known him as long as you have known him.

It takes about 45 minutes of Frankie's explanations and your questioning to get all of the information you need for the initial meeting, making notes of the progress the pilot has made within the inpatient treatment center as well as Santi's testimony. You put your files away in the folder on your desk and stand up, making your way over to the two soldiers and giving them each a handshake, telling them both that you feel extremely confident in this case, and that you can't wait to help Frankie get his family back.

You can't miss the way he breaks out into a grin, probably one of the first genuine ones in a while, and you see Santi nod his head approvingly at you before giving you a quick "thanks" as the two begin to stand up and walk towards your door. 

Before they leave you quickly call out to Frankie, who turns around quickly and his chocolate brown eyes lock with yours.

"What's your daughter's name?" You ask softly, watching as his posture relaxes at the mention of his pride and joy. He reaches into one of his back pockets of his jeans and pulls out a small photo from his wallet and hands it to you.

You look over the tiny photo - it must have been from the day she was born. Her big brown eyes are the same as her father's, a small smile on her face.

"Her name is Eleanor, Eleanor Luciana," he smiles, a small tear welling up in the corner of his right eye.

A smile plays at your lips as you see the absolute adoration in his eyes as he talks about her.

You know you have to win this case.

You spend the next 3 months prepping for the case.

You know this process is not an easy one, especially for Frankie. At first, he came to your office twice a week in the afternoon right after his NA meetings, most times with Santi in tow. It was awkward at first for sure - I mean it isn't fun working with a lawyer about the bad choices he had made or the fact of the matter that he feels like a piece of him has died since he has been away from his family.

Santi helped ease the tension.

When it got hard for Frankie to talk about some of the details of his drug use, or the fights he had with Ava, Santi was there to help ease the conversation and help Frankie get through it. It helped that the two knew each other like the back of their hands, with Santi being able to crack a joke at a moment's notice and bring the pilot back down to the ground.

It was when Santi brought up old memories of your time back in college that you heard real laughter from the brunette.

They weren't your proudest memories, but the way that Frankie laughed at you and Santi's old college stories brought a smile to your face and gave you a feeling of butterflies in your stomach that you didn't want to go away. You knew deep down you shouldn't feel those butterflies, especially when dealing with a client, but something about the pilot made your heart flutter.

But the minute you would feel the butterflies, like after Frankie gave you a compliment about your outfit, you would feel the guilt wash over you in waves. Frankie was a father, a former husband who was working with you in order to win back his ex. How could you feel this way about a man who was fighting through hell to get his family back.

You were just his lawyer.

Seeing him open up each time he came into your office was something that struck you deep down, knowing that being this vulnerable is something that he doesn't take lightly. 

The two of you continue meeting twice a week after NA, with Frankie telling you about his feelings from his meeting and talking about his goals for this upcoming trial.

You continue preparing him with questions you know will be brought up by the family court judge, focusing on his plans for the future after his discharge from the inpatient center, focusing on the changes in behavior he has made of the past few months. His answers become more confident the harder you work, and you feel your heart start to swell as he talks about how excited he is to see his baby girl again.

But you also feel pain in your heart at the thought of the man before you leaving your life after this week.

It's the Friday night before the trial, a night you typically take off early on, but tonight is different.

Frankie was sitting here in your office earlier this week when he casually mentioned that he was getting his 6 month sober chip on Friday. Upon hearing this news you gasp and stand up from your desk, your feet carrying you over towards him before you could even register what you are doing - suddenly you realize that you have pulled him into your arms.

Frankie is shocked at first, a small "oof" escaping his lips as you held onto him, but he is grateful you cannot see the blush rising on his cheeks.

You quickly pull yourself back and subconsciously smoothing out your light green work pants before taking a step back. "I'm so proud of you 'Cat, that's so amazing!" You smile, brushing a piece of hair back behind your ear.

The pilot nods, a small smile playing at his lips.

"How about you come here on friday. You, me and Santi can have some pizza and a beer to celebrate," you suggest, watching as Frankie furrows his brow before letting out a chuckle.

"You don't ask all of your clients to have a pizza party in your office after hours do you?" He laughs, taking his hat off and fixing his brown locks before sliding it back on his head.

"I can't say that I do, but this is what Santi and I would do back in the day to celebrate, so why not celebrate this achievement before we get in the courtroom." 

You chuckle, remembering the days spent in the shitty apartment Santi had off campus. "Alright I'm in." Frankie smiles, "I'll bring the beers."

That night the three of you sit on the floor of your office like kids and chuckle at old stories, both from college and from the boy's times spent overseas. You watch as Frankie laughs at something Santi says and you feel the pain in your heart return, knowing that in a few short days your client would be back to his old life, and you would be stuck here back in the real world at your job. You know it's wrong, but these past months have been different than any other case you have taken on.

You know Frankie is going to be able to go back to his family after all of this - he is stronger than when this whole ordeal started and he has the support to prevent another relapse. 

Hell, you are proud of him outside of work, knowing this process wasn't easy - but the idea of this man walking out of your life brings you sadness. Knowing he won't be in your office twice a week for hours, cracking jokes and talking about nothing in particular towards the end. 

Sometimes you wonder what things would be like if you met under other circumstances. Maybe you two would have a shot - walking hand in hand at the local farmer's market, singing karaoke at the bar with Santi, Benny and Will, or even going on a flight with him.

You even opened up to him, telling him things even Santi doesn't know. But you need to remember why you are here - to win this for your client.

"Mr. Morales, after going over the details of this case, I see the dedication you have made towards your rehabilitation and future. I have talked with the treatment team at Maple Grove rehabilitation as well as your NA sponsor, and based on all of the information I have gathered is that you are fit to have custody of your daughter. You will now have shared custody of Eleanor Luciana Morales."

Before you can properly process the words of the judge, you feel two strong arms wrap around your torso and lift you in the air. You feel a blush come over your cheeks as you hear Frankie saying "thank you" over and over again as he sets you back down on the ground.

You both simultaneously pull back and hide your blushes as you thank the judge for his discretion and you faintly hear the bang of the gavel in the background as the court is dismissed.

You don't miss the way Ava storms out of the courtroom with her family and you have to stop yourself from rolling your eyes. Santi walks over to the two of you and pulls you both into a hug, rubbing a hand comfortingly up and down your back and thanking you for everything you did.

You nod as Santi pulls back and turns to his brother in arms, chatting about something you can't quite hear as you begin to pack up your white briefcase, pausing when you see a photo of Ellie on the table.

Since the beginning of the trial Frankie felt the nerves wash over him as this suddenly felt so real. You had suggested that he bring in a picture of Eleanor to place on the table so that whenever he became nervous, he could look down and see who he was doing this all for. Seeing the photo now brings tears to the corners of your eyes and you close up your briefcase - turning around to see that Santi has left the courtroom, just leaving you and Frankie.

"I just wanted to say thank you, for everything," he says softly, nervously scratching at the hair at the nape of his neck.

You nod curtly, trying to ignore the sore feeling in your throat - a telltale sign that you were about to cry.

Frankie tilts his head in confusion and walks closer, reaching out and grabbing your smaller hands in his. "I mean it - you have helped me through this whole process, and you are the reason I get to see Eleanor again, and for that I cannot thank you enough."

His words cut through you like knives - you knew this was coming. Your job is over, and it's time for him to move on.

"All in a day's work," you chuckle quietly, having to look down at your shoes to avoid letting the tears fall.

You suddenly feel softy fingers tilt your head up. Blinking through your lashes you see the pilot looking at you with only adoration in his eyes. You lock onto his chocolate orbs and nod slightly as he moves closer, softly crashing your lips against his.

You feel his strong arms wrap around your waist, pulling him flush against his chest in a soft yet comforting way. You find yourself getting lost in the moment, one of your hands tangling in his hair as he pushes a strand of hair behind your ear.

A moment later you both pull away, leaning your forehead against his as he lets out a small chuckle.

"I've been wanting to do that forever," he smiles, locking eyes with you once again, "I had to wait until I wasn't your client anymore, I didn't want to make it awkward or unethical."

You smile at his confession, brushing a piece of his brunette locks out of his eyes.

"Well now that you are no longer my client, would you like to go grab a beer?" You ask, looking at the way his eyes light up at your question.

"I would love that."

He watches as you grab your briefcase and wraps an arm around your waist as the two of you head for the courtroom doors.

He feels his heart swell in his chest knowing he not only has Eleanor back in his life, but now he has you too.

taglist: @hailmary-yramliah​ @babyprim​ @shadowolf993​ @jasterslegacy​ @collectorofexperiences​