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writing-blog-iguess · 11 months

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Online Matchup 4

Summery: Y/N makes a trip back home last minute, ruining Jason's plan for a breakfast date, but that won't stop him from coming up with a different plan.

Warning: swearing, talk of surgery, Jason's being a sweetheart, fluff

A/n: this is becoming one of my comfort fics to write, and I can't be mad about it. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it. Feedbacks always welcome

Words: 3097

Ao3

Series master list

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October 8

Jason (6:40am) Good morning How are you this beautiful morning?

Y/N Why in the everloving fuck are you awake at six in the morning?

Jason Aren’t you a potty mouth in the early mornings Someone should teach you a lesson

Y/N It’s to early for anything right now

Jason’s May I remind you, that you’re awake this early too

Y/N My sister decided it was the perfect time to call me Apparently it couldn’t wait until I was awake enough to call her back And now I can’t sleep

Jason Everything okay?

Y/N Define okay?

Jason It’s your dad isn’t it?

Y/N Yeah I don’t know, I don’t want to talk about it

Jason Fair enough

Y/N Now answer my question

Jason Demanding Wanted to know how you were doing after last night

Y/N Better now that I’ve slept I wish I could sleep longer tho Though my eyes hurt and it feels like I have a hangover

Jason Consequences of crying before bed

Y/N Make it go away

Jason Wanna meet for breakfast? Y/N?

Y/N (8:35am) Oh, sorry I fell asleep

Jason Uh huh It has nothing to do with the fact that I asked if you wanted to go for breakfast

Y/n Mm don’t know what you’re talking about And isn’t there a rule where a guy has to wait a least three days Before you ask the girl out again

Jason Apparently My brother advised me the same thing But since I could care less what he thinks about my relationship I have decided to ignore him and take the plunge and ask you anyways Besides he barely listens to his own advice So to each their own I guess

Y/N Why do I get the feeling that you ignore your brother a lot

Jason Couldn’t tell you So, breakfast?

Y/N Uh, wish I could But I have a train to catch

Jason Where’s it going?

Y/N Metropolis

Jason You're going home? Why so sudden?

Y/n The call with my sister? Apparently my dad is having surgery and my mom wants everyone there until he’s done Don’t know why I have to go, by the time I’m there it’ll probably be over

Jason Yikes What’s the surgery for?

Y/N Dunno, something to do with something? I’m not sure, I was half asleep when she called And she used that to her advantage and got me to agree to go home today

Jason Don’t you have class tomorrow?

Y/N Not until the afternoon

Jason Work?

Y/n Not until Tuesday

Jason Huh

Y/n Yup tbh I rather spend my Sunday with you then go home But it’s family and I can’t say no to my sister

Jason I get that family’s first But I would choose you over my family

Y/n … You can’t just say that!

Jason But flustering you is becoming my favourite past time

Y/n Get a new one!

Jason Nah, don’t think I will Okay, so no breakfast How about I drop you off at the station?

Y/N Tempting But if you do, then I’ll miss the train Because I wanna kiss your stupid face And besides, I’m almost there

Jason My face isn’t stupid … You wanna kiss me? Colour me flattered

Y/n I rescind my statement

Jason Can’t do that, it’s in writing Hold on, when you said you were sleeping You were actually packing, weren’t you?

Y/N Guilty I’m sorry I’ve spent thirty minutes debating on whether or not to ditch my family for you

Jason But in the end you’re ditching me Feels like your running from something I see how it is

Y/N I’m sorry D: I’m not running away or anything

Jason It’s okay, really I’m not mad or anything Okay, maybe a little disappointed But he’s your dad and you don’t know when’s the next time you see him So it’s okay, don’t feel bad I’ll wait around until your back And I know your not, I just took the joke too far and I’m sorry

Y/n I’m still sorry

Jason Can I call you?

Y/N Uhhhhhhh Give me a minute

Jason Take as much time as you need I can wait

Y/n Sweet of you But I needed to find a seat first And then my headphones

Jason So You’re good now?

Y/n Yup

It didn’t take more than a second before your phone rang after you sent the message.

“I thought you wanted to call?” you answered, moving your phone so Jason could see your face. He shrugged, shooting you a smile.

“Wanted to see your pretty face is all,” he said, and you could feel your face heat up at the compliment. Averting your eyes, you sink in your seat, trying to hide your face in your sweater. “Awe, is this what you look like when you get flustered? There’s no way I can't stop flustering you now. If this is what your reaction is going to be every time I do.”

“I’m hanging up now,” you mumbled into your sweater, and wondered if he heard that. Judging by the smile he gave you, he did.

“Nah, I don’t think so. You called my face pretty and you wanted to kiss it,” he said. That made you come out of your sweater and glared at him.

“I think I said stupid face,” you corrected, “you have a stupid face.”

“That you want to kiss,” Jason pointed out with a smile. You stuck out your tongue at him, making him laugh. “How’s the train ride?”

You shrugged, shifting in your seat trying to get comfortable. “A train ride I guess. We just left the station and it’ll be two hours until we get to Metropolis? My butts gonna hurt once I get there.”

“Gotta walk around once in a while,” Jason reminded, “did you bring anything for the ride?”

“Yeah, homework I still need to finish, my sketchbook and some books I’ve been meaning to read.”

“Sounds like a party,” Jason joked. You huffed out a laugh.

“Oh yeah, real life of the party over here.”

Before either of you could continue, you faintly heard a door slamming open and closing before hearing a faint call of Jason! You promised me breakfast! From what you could make out, it was a female voice and you pushed down the bout of jealousy that came from nowhere. You didn’t have the right to be jealous. Jason wasn’t yours, he was his own person and you two weren’t seeing each other officially. He was free to do what he pleased. Still, you couldn’t lie and say that it didn’t hurt.

You watched as Jason scowled, and turned towards the voice. “Yeah, give me a minute I’m on the phone.”

You schooled your features and raised an eyebrow as he turned back to his phone. “You already had breakfast plans, yet you still tried to make them with me? Wow Jason, didn’t know you had that in you.”

“Okay, first of all, I’m not a two timing bitch,” he clarified and you blanched at the statement. Damn, and you thought you hid it well. “And like I said before, I’d ditch my family for you any day of the week without question.”

“Aw Jason, you’d ditch your own sister! I see how it is,” the female voice said. Jason made a face as a blond haired girl came into frame, hanging off of Jason’s shoulders. Her nose pressed into his cheek and she smiled. “Tell me how you really feel, Jason.”

“Okay, I will,” he said, shoving her off, “you’re an annoying little shit.” She laughed and turned towards the phone. She was pretty, you had to admit.

“Oh, Tim’s right. You are cute,” she said, and you pulled your sweater over your mouth, trying to keep a laugh in as Jason looked offended.

“Steph!” he yelled, shoving her face out of frame. “Go away.”

“No, you promised me breakfast last night, and I demand pancakes,” she said, coming back in, shoving Jason out of frame as she did so. She turned to you and smiled. “Hello, I’m Jason’s sister Stephanie. You must be Y/N, it’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard virtually nothing about you.”

“And I’m trying to keep it that way,” he grunted, pushing her away. The two fought until finally they settled with Stephanie leaning on his shoulder. “How’d you even know their name?”

“Tim,” she answered. You raised your eyebrow in question. “He gets bored when he has nothing to do. And he decided to snoop around Jason’s life.”

“Well I’ll try not to be offended,” you said, though you furrowed your brows in concern. “Should I be worried?”

“I don’t think so,” Stephanie hummed, “not unless you have something to hide.”

“Do you have something to hide?” Jason pressed, a teasing smile dancing on his lips. You puffed out your cheeks and looked away.

“Oooh you do,” Stephanie sang, “tell us before we find out from Tim.”

“Tim needs to mind his own fucking business,” you muttered to yourself, causing Jason to laugh. “And no, I have nothing to hide. Lived a pretty boring life.”

“Don’t know, you tried killing your sister once,” Jason mused.

“I didn’t try on purpose! I pushed her off the deck into the lake,” you corrected, “and my dad got to her before anything could happen. Man, he was pissed. I feared for my life that day. I’ve never known fear until I saw the look he gave me.” You shuddered at the memory.

“How old were you?” Stephanie asked, worry laced in her words. You shrugged, staring at the corner of your phone, avoiding their gaze.

“Ten I think? Could be younger, I don’t know. Thought it would be funny, and it was until it wasn’t.”

“Did he hurt you?” Jason asked, you shook your head and moved your gaze to him.

“No. But the way he looked, he wanted to. If we were alone he probably would have. I booked it into the car and hid there until we went home. Then I hid in my room for the rest of the day.”

“Yikes. Why was he so mad? Bruce wouldn’t have been if we did something like that.”

“That’s because we knew how to take care of ourselves and we knew how to swim,” Jason pointed out.

“And he probably doesn’t have favourites,” you chimed in. You hummed in thought, ignoring the worried looks the two siblings were giving you. “But he doesn’t strike me as picking a favourite among his kids, unless he’s really good at hiding it. But no parent is that good at hiding that.”

“Have experience, do you?” Jason asked, you only hummed not wanting to elaborate. You aren’t sure how, but what was supposed to be a lighthearted conversation turned sour. You scrunched up your nose as a thought occurred to you. If it was this easy to talk to both Jason and Stephanie, you were afraid how the rest of his family would be. “Whatcha thinking about?”

“What you guys are having for breakfast,” you said instead of you voicing your thoughts.

“Ooh yes. I did come here for breakfast,” Stephanie said, as if she had forgotten the reason for being here. She turned to him and poked his cheek. “Make me pancakes with bacon and ham and eggs and everything.”

“How can you eat so much and not gain anything,” Jason grumbled as he moved off the couch and towards the kitchen. Stephanie shifted slightly so she was more centered to the camera.

“I work out,” she simply said with a shrug. Jason grumbled something, and since he was too far away you couldn’t hear what he said. “So, how’d you meet Jason anyways? Tim won’t say and Jason doesn’t want to talk about you when asked.”

“That’s because you pester me so much that I don’t want to talk about them,” Jason called, “and you don’t have to answer anything you want too, Y/N. Don’t let Stephanie bully you into answering questions.”

“It’s okay, Jason, I don’t mind. I know what it’s like to have siblings,” you said with a smile. “We met online. Started talking a few weeks back and haven’t stopped since.”

“Ah, you guys are still new,” Stephanie mused, “that means you can still back out before you guys get too serious.” You laughed at the same time Jason yelled hey! “Kidding, I’m kidding. I haven’t seen Jason happy in awhile. Please stick around, he’s more bearable when he’s happy.”

You watched as Jason stalked towards her, and plucked the phone from her. “If all you came here for was to make fun of me, you can go home without your food.”

“Noooo, Jason I’m sorry,” you heard Stephanie whine. And you couldn't be sure, but you saw Stephanie grovel a little bit on the floor. Although Stephanie couldn’t see Jason’s expression, you could and smiled at the little smile he shot you.

“Then go take a shower, you stink,” he said, and she was quick to race to the bathroom. “Your clothes are still here from last time!” he called and set the phone down so watch him as he prepared breakfast. “Sorry about her. I completely forgot she was coming over today.”

“No worries,” you dismissed, watching in awe as Jason cut up some vegetables with ease. “She was fun to talk to.”

“Prefer her over me, huh?”

“Nope. I like you more,” you said. “Where’d you learn how to cook?”

“Alfred taught me when I was young, and I kept going afterwards. Found it helped me when things got too stressed,” he explained. “Stress cooking is a lot healthier than other ways to deal.”

“I get that,” you mused, “I stress clean.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” he grunted. He stopped for a moment and looked towards you; eyes narrowed. “Did you have breakfast this morning?” You bit the top of your lip and avoided looking at him. “Y/N,” Jason said in warning.

“It was too early to eat!” you cracked, “I had a coffee and that was it.” Jason shook his head, going back to his food.

“I hope you eat something soon.”

“I packed some snacks. But they’re nothing compared to what you’re making for breakfast.”

“Well next time actually eat something or else I’ll just have to come over and cook for you.”

“That a threat?”

“No, more like a promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” you said with a smile.

“Stop flirting and cook me my food!” Stephanie yelled after the quickest shower you have ever seen someone take.

“So fucking demanding,” Jason grunted as you laughed.

“I should let you go so you can focus on the food instead of getting distracted,” you mused.

“But you’re the only kind of distraction I’d like,” he said, and you heard Stephanie gag. Laughing, you shook your head, trying to keep from blushing. “Okay maybe you’re right. Or otherwise, I’m going to throw Steph out the window.”

“Ha! I would like to see you try!”

Jason rolled his eyes and flicked them towards you. “Let me know when you’re there?”

“I can do that.”

---

Y/N (11:30 am) Ugh, I hate train rides

Jason Could have flown

Y/N Yeah but train tickets are cheaper

Jason True Made it in one piece?

Y/N Yup Now I’m making my way to the hospital

Jason Someone picking you up?

Y/n Nah, I’m taking the bus Need the extra time before I get there

Jason I get that

Y/n How was breakfast?

Jason Good Though it would be better if it was you

Y/n Stoooooooopppppppp

Jason Never I’m sorry about Steph, we can be a handful sometimes

Y/n No worries, I like her Is the rest of your family that energetic?

Jason Some yeah, the rest are just tamed

Y/n Sounds fun

Jason Oh yeah, the best

Y/n I can hear the sincerity from here

Jason Almost to the hospital?

Y/n Yeah I gotta go

Jason Tell me how it goes

Y/N (2:40 pm) I shouldn’t have come Why did I say yes?

Jason Because you were sleep deprived and you can’t say no to your sister Also because your dads in the hospital

Y/n Right He’s fine by they way, now he’s just recovering Doctors say they did what they could and he’ll be out of here in a couple of days

Jason Figured out what the surgery was about?

Y/N Nope and at this point I’m too afraid to ask

Jason Wow Why do you have regrets?

Y/n I don’t know how or why But somehow my sister figured out I was seeing someone Or at least talking to someone and kept pestering me until I told them I’ve been bamboozled

Jason Guess I’m not your dirty little secret anymore huh

Y/n Guess it wasn’t meant to be Oh well can’t be helped

Jason So now that your dads fine, you coming home?

Y/n No Somehow I have been convinced to stay the night and take the morning train in the morning Which sucks, I already bought my ticket for tonight

Jason That’s rough buddy

Y/n Can’t be helped I guess Now I get to play 20 questions

Jason But at least you get to spend time with your family

Y/n True

Jason you know, if you want I can drive up there and take the train with you

Y/N That is very sweet of you and very tempting But you have work and I don’t want to inconvenience you

Jason You’re not an inconvenience If anything, you’d be doing me a favour I have the day off tomorrow and I’ve been meaning to do something I’m not very good at doing nothing

Y/N What about your bike?

Jason When I said drive, I meant the loosely I’d take the train or fly Or I can drive us back I have a car too, you know

Y/N Where would you stay?

Jason I have a friend living there that I’ve been meaning to visit Plus we can go for breakfast tomorrow before making the trip back

Y/N Very tempting But ultimately I’m not going to tell you what to do It’d be your choice

Jason See you in the morning then

#jason todd x reader #jason todd #jason todd gn!reader #batman imagine #online match up #my writing

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idontplaytrack · 6 days

Note

Accidentally kiss with any auli’i character please I want fluff all cute a little silly

Stage Fighting

Lilette Suarez x fem! reader

Warnings: fluff, some coarse language, mentions of violence(stage fighting)

In which, reader and Lilette’s stage fighting assignment don’t go as planned, but in the best way possible

Somewhat inspired by the Victorious episode lol.

Today was Monday. And you’ve just been paired up with Lilette for an assignment on stage fighting. You’ve worked with nearly everyone in your classes for different assignments and projects and by far, Lilette was one of the few people that you could really get along with. You’ve always felt that your teammates were freeloading before, but once you got to work with Lilette, you realised that things just weren’t as stressful as you knew it to be.

The first order of business was to settle on scenarios and characters. You and Lilette decided pretty quickly, then went ahead with fully planning out scenarios and movements. The class concluded before you knew it and you went the rest of your day without seeing her since she wasn’t in any other of your classes today.

But, the girl seemed to have figured out your schedule. Because she was waiting for you outside your classroom and startled you when you exited the room.

“Sorry!” She gasps, “Gosh, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

You chuckle, “It’s fine. What’s up?”

“Nothing much, I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out then maybe we can work more on the assignment? Settle on as much as we can then we don’t have to worry about it and just rehearse until it’s time to ‘present’ it.”

“Oh, sure! I’m free.” You agreed, “Where at?”

“Well, my place is a no-go because my Mom’s gonna be there and be upset with me over nothing. I can’t wait for her to go back home.”

“No one’s home today so we could go to mine? If that’s okay with you.”

Okay, look. You and Lilette didn’t only just met in acting school. You last saw her when you two were nine, which was the year you had to move away because your Mom got a job position in another state. The last memory you had with her was your ninth birthday party, then you never saw her again until you got into this school. And shit, you literally had to do a double take when you first saw her again because this girl made your heart skip a beat. You’d suddenly fallen for her and you didn’t know what to do other than keep it to yourself— you two weren’t that close anymore. And you even thought that she wouldn’t remember who you were, but she remembered. Once she saw you, her eyes lit up and she called you by your name. You were shocked.

Anyway, back to right now. You drove the two of you to your place. She’s never been here before and you could only hope you didn’t leave this place a mess— luckily, you didn’t. But damn was your memory bad sometimes, you could barely remember if you did even make your bed that morning. “Make yourself at home.” You smiled, shutting the door. “You…wanna get some takeout?”

“I don’t mind.” She shrugs, “Not that hungry yet, but if you want to order anything just go for it.” Lilette was sat on your desk chair, you walked up to your vanity and let your hair down then ran a brush through it.

“Okay.” You nod, “What do you feel like having?”

“I dunno, anything really.”

“Indian food? There’s this really great place not far from here.”

“That sounds delicious.” She agrees, “Anyway, we have until Friday. And we’re— I would say about 40, 50 percent done.”

“Yep.” You sat down on your bed, “For costumes, I think we could definitely just use our own clothes that we already have instead of having to go out and buy new stuff.”

“Oh, yeah. For sure. So, a mugging scenario. Would you want to be the person who gets mugged, or the person who is mugging the other?”

“I can’t decide, honestly. Been thinking about it since we decided on this situation and nope, no answer. So maybe you pick what you want?”

She laughs, “Okay. I’ll uh, I’ll pick. I’m gonna go for the mugger. They wouldn’t really expect that of me, so I guess it’ll be a nice surprise for the class.”

“True, true.” You giggled, “It definitely will make them pay attention, that’s for sure.”

————

The next day, first thing in the morning, you had gym class with Lilette. The teacher decided the best thing for this early morning class was a game of dodgeball. And your clumsy ass was nearly obliterated several times. But worst of all, your teammates were rough— pushing and shoving around like you were invisible. Pissed, you were ready to run off the court when the bloody ball hit you right on the head while you were faced the other way and taking off the sash. You were already out of the court, but still. That didn’t stop them. You fell forward, feeling that thud and throbbing in your head soon enough. Someone yanks you back and unsteadily, you spun around. “Fuck!” You muttered. You could barely stand up still, falling onto whoever caught you.

Oh, hell. How on Earth did this even happen? You felt their lips on yours and that’s what snapped you out of it— you pushed yourself off so quickly and stumbled away. “I’m so sorry.”

“Wait!”

Wait a minute, you knew that voice.

“Are you okay?”

You laughed giddily, “No…Lilette.”

Lilette?!

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“I know, don’t worry about it.” Lilette assured, “Are you—”

“Go to the nurse, y/n.” The teacher came running up to you, “You’d better go make sure you don’t have a concussion.”

“I’ll take you, come on.” Lilette says, putting her arm around you.

Well, that was no fun. Turns out, you did indeed have a concussion and it had you throwing up like a broken faucet for awhile. You felt disgusting. That afternoon, you were back home and your Mom was making lunch while you rested in your room. You heard the doorbell ringing and the front door open.

Less than a minute later, your bedroom door creaks. “Hey, you.”

It was Lilette.

“Lilette.” Your eyes widened slightly, “What’re you doing here?”

“Just wanted to check on you and hang out.” Lilette shrugs, walking inside and quietly shutting the door.

“I’m…okay, just still pissed, really. Why’d they have to slam that damn ball right at my head? Like, I know I’m not great at sports but is that a good enough reason to nearly take me out?”

“I’m glad you’re alright.” She smiles. “I brought you something.”

“Oh?”

“These.” She holds up a plastic bag of things, you took it from her.

“Aw, you remember?”

“Hey, we were friends for a long time, y/n.” Lilette chuckles, “I’ll never forget your favourite snacks.”

“You didn’t have to…”

“Come on, we all need a little cheering up sometimes. I’m just glad you’ll be okay.”

“Again, I’m really sorry about the— kiss.”

“Honey, don’t worry about it.” Lilette promised, “Seriously.”

You gulped, feeling the bile rising up your throat. You rushed out of bed and ran to your bathroom to spill your guts. As if you had anything left in you to do that.

“I’ll go get you some more water, okay?”

“Um—” You sniffled, “How about a popsicle instead?”

“A popsicle? Sure.” She nods, exiting your room after getting you settled in your bed again.

She soon returned with what you’d requested and continued to sit with you. “Can I tell you something? Before I chicken out.”

“Okay.” You hummed, nodding your head as you unwrapped the treat.

“I uh, I’m bi.”

“Oh.”

“And I’ve found myself developing a little crush on you when I saw you again for the first time at school.”

“You—”

“I don’t want to make things weird for you, so if you don’t want to be associated with me another, I—”

“Lilette.” You stopped her, “I’m gay.”

“You are?” Her eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of her head as she blushed, “Oh, good. I thought you’d hate me—”

“Oh, I could never.” You chuckled, “Trust me.”

She squints, “So—”

You nodded and her eyes lit up, “Really?”

“Yeah.” You confirmed, a bit tearfully, “I— I like you too, I just didn’t know how to say it because I wasn’t sure if you—”

Lilette leans in, wanting to kiss you but you backed away, “Mm, no— no, I just threw up.” She settles for your cheek instead, caressing it afterwards.

“So…” Lilette licked her lips, “What are we?”

“Well I guess, we’re girlfriends now, what do you think?”

“I like the sound of that.” She grins, holding onto your hand. You tossed the popsicle stick into the trash can by your bed and she gently pulled you closer to herself. You let it happen, now laying your head on her chest. “How are things going at your place?”

“She refuses to take the hint and go. I rushed over here as soon as school let out because i just couldn’t stand being home with her. I said for the weekend and today’s Tuesday already.”

“You can stay here in the meantime if you’d like.” You offered.

“I might have to take you up on that offer because otherwise I’d have gone crazy by the end of the week.” Lilette scoffs, stroking your head gently.

“Stay as long as you need.”

🏷️ Tag list:

@ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @reneeswif3 @ludoesartnstuffs @pda128

#auli'i cravalho #lilette suarez #nbc #nbc rise #drama high #queer #lgbtqia #queer fic #wlw #gxg #reader imagine #reader insert #x reader #female reader #fluff #wlw sfw

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klausysworld · 1 year

Note

hi, can you do a one-shot about the 21st century human yandere klaus mikaelson, where klaus is maybe a college art professor and the reader comes to his class to volunteer to be painted (maybe nude) just to earn extra money , and Klaus immediately becomes obsessed with her and makes her his muse (and gets jealous when someone else wants to paint her). You can court a lot on behalf of Klaus and maybe he will seduce her. (the reader belongs to another faculty)

I don’t want to fuck someone. I want to fuck you.

(Third person)

Klaus had taught quite a few art classes how to capture the naked body. He had both male and female models before and was never too bothered by it.

But he wasn’t expecting someone as radiant as her to be there. Completely naked while sat on her knees, her head tilted back and her arms back always her generous breasts pushed out as her back arched. From his canvas he had a side on view of her as someone stood over her adjusting her hair and checking she was happy with everything. She was knelt on a soft padded material to keep her knees comfortable and whatever the person said to her made her laugh- a melodic laugh- that made her chest rise and fall more heavily, her breasts bouncing slightly much to his enjoyment.

When the person she was talking to beckoned Klaus over he didn’t hesitate in joining them

———————————————————————

(First person)

“This is Professor Mikaelson, most students just call him Klaus, Klaus with is Y/n, as you may have guessed she’s here for the painting class” i smiled at the professor and offered my hand which he quickly took, a kiss to the back of my hand which surprised me but was welcome nonetheless. I noticed his eyes dropping to between my legs, his lips parting and his hand squeezed mine

“So the students should be here any second now, the class will be spread over a few days, if you could just stay as still as possible, we try not to take breaks as we don’t wish to disturb the young artists” the other guy said drawing Klaus’s attention before he looked back down but this time to my tits

“Sure i get it, i mainly do this for the other college across town so i know what to do” the guy gave a tight lip smile and nodded, the two colleges weren’t too fond of eachother.

I looked back to a very lustful professor, i glanced to his pants seeing the prominent tent forming

“You never seen a girl naked?” I asked and his eyes snapped to mine making me laugh

“You know you don’t get to paint what’s between my legs unless you pay for a private session, no need to look, you only get to paint a side view today” i smiled sweetly as his eyes tailed back to my thighs

“And how much is a private session?” He asked lowly

“I dunno I’ve never done on yet” i shrugged and he seemed both pleased and disappointed

“Nobodies painted your pretty pink cunt before?” Okay i wasn’t expecting the forwardness, i felt a small wave of heat rush to my core as i wetted my lips

“No…people also don’t usually stare this long, I’m becoming uncomfortable” I muttered and he looked to my eyes

“Forgive me, you’re just so ethereal it’s difficult not to” he smiled as he touched my face before walking back to his easel.

The rest of the class quickly filled the room at either side of me, some of them whispering about my body while other silently observed. I was pretty confident in my skin, you have to be in this job. I didn’t care for the stretch marks littering my thighs and hips. People could stare all they like, if anything you have to pay attention to them to be able to paint them right.

I stayed in my position for hours on end. Sometimes people leaned a little closer to see the finer details of my skin before returning to their canvases.

Eventually the day was up and people came in with a robe to cover me as the students left the room. As i tied the fabric around me i felt someone stand behind me. I turned my head to see him towering over me, a blush crawling onto my face as he smirked.

“You know i would be very willing to pay however much you desire for a private session, perhaps you’re in need of better accommodation? I would be happy to provide for you” he murmured leaned down so his lips grazed my ear making me shudder and my eyes struggle to stay open as soft lips pressed to my neck

“You are an utterly delicious muse” he hummed, a wet kiss on my jaw as his hands began wondering my body. It was when he lightly squeezed my breast was i brought back to my senses. My eyes opening wide as i panicked slightly. My breathing increased as i pushed away from him hoping he would leave me be, thankfully he didn’t attempt to grab me back. I spun around and backed away quickly, his face grew somewhat alarmed as he raised his hands in as though to prove he wouldn’t do anything

“Love, I won’t touch if that’s what you want. I shouldn’t have done that…i apologise.” He spoke slow, it felt as though he thought i was stupid and i neared the door a little quicker, dashing down the hall to grab my clothes before leaving

———————————————————————

(Third person)

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Klaus could have punched himself in the face. He was too much. He’s frightened her.

The look on her face was awful, his heart hurt.

He hated the affect she had on him so soon but he craved it at the same time

Now he had fucked it.

The next day he set our early grabbing a bouquet of red roses for his new muse. He also picked out a lovely vase so that she definitely had somewhere to put them.

He checked on his painting so far, the majority of it done, he just needed to finish some of her legs and add the finer details.

He couldn’t help the instant hardening of his dick as he traced his fingers over the image of her naked body, such gorgeous curves. Such beautiful hair. Her nipples had been almost diamond like as they stiffened under the gazes of so many people. He could still remember the way her cunt glistened. The light pink flesh begging to be touched. And the way that red hue spread through her face? Oh how he needed to make her his.

Didn’t she understand? He could give her as much money as she pleased. That was why she was here wasn’t it? Some extra cash for modelling?

Klaus didn’t work there for the money, his family was a very rich family, he worked there because he loved art and he liked seeing other people embracing it aswell, finding the right style for them and perfecting it.

He wasn’t one to want for anything and yet she was special.

She came back into the room shortly after he.

Klaus watched her undress and make her way back to her spot. He decided he would leave her to her silence for the time being, not wanting to scare her off again.

He payed close attention to every mark on her soft skin, applying everything he saw to his final piece. Making sure the pattern of her hair was just right, her lashes curling perfectly and her lips plump.

Klaus had finished before the students and he found himself leaving the room for a moment. He stood in the staff bathroom, trousers at his ankles as he aggressively jerked his thick cock, he had been hard since yesterday and seeing her so bare once again had his hips jumping. His forehead rest against the wall as he grunted and groaned. Oh how he just wanted to bend her over the sink, have sat on the sink, beneath the sink. However she preferred as long as he was inside her.

He imagined her perfect little pussy squeezing him tight, his own hand closing around himself as he moaned a little louder, his hips bucking wildly as he chased his release. Just as he was about to a cum a knock came at the door

“Is someone in here?”

Damn that other professor. Klaus quickly tidied his appearance before leaving without a word to his fellow worker.

He made his way back to class to find only the goddess herself to still be there. She was scanning over the paintings the people had made of her. She was dressed fully, pretty much all of her silky skin was covered as her head tilted to the canvas infront of her.

“Did they do a good job?” He asked, his voice carrying through the almost empty room.

“They are very good compared to others” she nodded.

“The other college you style at isn’t as great as they make out?” He asked slightly smug as he came to stand next to her. His cock was screaming to be let out and it took everything in him not to palm himself.

“Now that’s not fair. Some of them are unbelievably talented, a few of them i believe only chose art for the laughs. Your class is consistent but nothing particularly wows me” she explained and he hummed

“None of them?” He asked just a tiny bit offended

“Nope” she gave him a sweet smile and began to leave

“Love- y/n. I got you something to say sorry, for my behaviour.” He quickly grabbed the flowers and brought them to her hand, glad when she accepted them with a small nod

“Thank you Klaus” she mumbled and he smiled a little

“I hope that you’ll return, even if you aren’t nude” she chuckled at him and his grin widened

“Maybe” she offered and that pleased him enough.

———————————————————————

(First person)

I was sat in a manspreading position, my hands on my thighs. All i wore was a lace underwear set as the man who went by Mark, sat before me, pencil and sketchbook in hand as he drew me. He was telling me of the different art exhibits he had been to recently and to be fair he was quite good.

“Do you mind if a friend of mine comes over? Another artist of course, i think he would be able to capture you well, his painting is better but still a fine sketcher, charcoal too.” He muttered. I lulled over it for a minute before agreeing

“No funny business though yeah?” I question and he nodded quickly

“No yeah, you’re good, i have people about, you want a female to stay in the room? I can get someone in here if you get uneasy” he asked and i shook my head

“It’s fine” i mumbled and he smiled at me slightly before sending his friend a message.

I was not expecting him to walk through the door.

Stupid Klaus turning up.

His face was even more shocked than mine when he saw me

“You two know eachother?” Mark asked confused

“Sort of-“

“I painted her nude” he responded quickly and i blinked at him

“And I wasn’t allowed to see you without a bra? Wow favouritism at its finest” he grumbled

“Shut up this is free, i was doing it for a college class where i was paid” he waved his hand dismissively and Klaus frowned

“You pose in your underwear for free?” He asked looking somewhat concerned

“Nah only for a few people, i just happened to find her stunning, had to get her down on paper and she said she wouldn’t mind” he explained still unbothered. I watched something dark twist in klaus’ eyes

“You bring your own sketch pad or you using one from here?” Mark asked, Klaus pulled out his own and took a seat infront of me.

I stayed there for just over an hour before i slipped my dress back on. I was sat between the two men, flipping through some of Marks other pieces. Klaus’ hand had been gripping my thigh for the past 20 minutes, making sure i was slightly closer to him than i was to Mark.

I then looked through Klaus’ surprised when i found a fair proportion of them were me, some naked, some clothed. It was as though he had pictured me a thousand times over. There was ones of me in a field of flowers and then the next page i was naked among a pile of blankets. I should be afraid or weirded out right? But something about him, i almost wanted him to have a one on one session, see what he would do.

Klaus was quick to shut the book when Mark leaned over to see the naked sketch of me

“My eyes only I’m afraid” he smiled almost sarcastically as his hand squeezed my thigh harsher, my hand moved to rest upon his as a silent request for him to stop and he did, his grip lessoning before his hand turned up to grab onto mine.

“Right. Well i should really get going, thanks for letting me see both of your sketches, I’ll see you around” i smiled as i tried to take my hand away from Klaus’ and leave but he instead stood up with me and decided he was going to walk me out?

“Yeah thanks for letting me draw you, I’ll see you about” mark responded as Klaus nearly picked me up while walking us out

Once outside i was faced with a very pissy man.

“You should not be sat in somebody who you don’t knows house in your underwear.” He whispered harshly, his hands on the tops of my arms as he looked me in the eye

“I’m sorry do i know you? I’m pretty sure you’re just another stupid failed artist who painted me because he has nothing better to do in his life” i yelled back, his eyes grew cold as he scowled at me

“You and i both know i am an excellent artist. I have many thing i could be doing with my days but i chose this because it makes me happy. You’re the one that has to be naked for people to pay you” my eyes narrowed at his, my hands falling together

“You were literally begging to have me, you were walking around your classroom with a bunch of college students while your dick was hard and your perverted mind was picturing me bent over your desk”

“I thought you didn’t do private sessions”

“What?”

“Mark. You were there with just mark. One on one, why?”

I just stared at him like he was delirious

“You’re pathetic, if you want to fuck someone go to a club”

I turned away and began walking but his arm was wrapping around my waist pulling me back to him

“I don’t want to fuck someone. I want to fuck you” his lips hovered my ear and i closed my eyes momentarily taking in his rich scent. I bit my tongue to bring me back from my lustful state

“That’s nice and all but I don’t really do one time fucks with guys like you” I muttered and his hold tightened

“What guys do you fuck then?” He asked lowly

“Nicer ones” i mumbled and he hummed

“Do the nice ones satisfy you?”

“Yes…” i whispered but it was a lie and he knew that.

“They make you all wet hm? Do they even know what they’re doing to your pretty clit? Do they know how to curl their fingers inside your tight cunt? I bet they don’t show you how hot their mouths are on your little pussy. Have you had someones tongue lick your clit love?” I was breathing hard at his words and i could feel my underwear sticking to me.

“I’m- I don’t know- i need to leave” I wasn’t sure what i was saying but i had to go

“Tell me you don’t want me to touch you, I’ll let go just tell me you dont want to see my face between your thighs hm?” As if to drive his point a hand rubbed the skin of my upper thighs, keeping them apart as his fingers brushed my damp panties.

“We’re in public- there’s people” i stated alarmed by his lack of care

“So tell me you don’t want this” he uttered, his fingers moving the cotton material to the side and sliding his fingers through my folds making my mouth fall open

“Klaus-“

“Tell me” he whispered, his fingertips rubbed my clit in agonisingly slow circles

“I can’t” i breathed

“Why not?”

“Cuz- i want this” i moaned, his fingers sped up and i gasped quietly

“Yeah? You want my hand to fuck you? Have you spill all over the floor?” He questioned, his mouth was so close to my neck i could feel his hot breath

“There’s people” I muttered despite the ache between my legs begging me to ignore the by-passers.

“We’re tucked away, they can’t see you” he whispered, his fingers applied more pressure to my clit and arm moved out to hold onto the wall beside me. His front pressed right up against me, his hard on grinding against my ass while he pushed two fingers inside of me. I moaned louder pushing my hips back to meet his making him groan and pump his fingers faster, the pad of his thumb pressed down on my clit rubbing quickly

“Klaus” i huffed looking and seeing people walk by the ally we were in

“Im serious there are people” i whispered but moaned at the last word making him chuckle

“It’s dark here, they won’t be looking” he convinced while forcing another long finger inside, all three curling sensually

“B-but what if-“ his hand moved unbelievably fast having me cutting myself off with a moan

“No more talking love” he muttered, his head lowered to my shoulder, open mouthed kissed were spread up my neck and jaw. I could feel myself tightening around his hand repeatedly. Heat was rushing through me like wildfire as i felt that familiar burning desire to release approaching.

I threw my head back as he found the sweet spot of my neck adding to the already overwhelming pleasure

“Oh klaus” i breathed and he chuckled in response against my throat, his blunt teeth grazing the skin, another long moan leaving my lips. My hips rocked along his fingers as they rubbed at my g-spot.

“You close love?” He asked but his tone shone with amusement as i whined and panted as my high neared

“Please faster” i whispered and hummed

“You want me to move it faster or you want to fuck yourself on my fingers faster?” He questioned, i glanced down to see that his wrist was now unmoving, my hips riding his hand fast with his other hand furiously rubbing at my clit in all directions. I blushed crimson but couldn’t bring myself to slow even if i was flooded in embarrassment.

“Please help” I whimpered

“Of course sweetheart” he murmured, his fingers moving aswell as my hips,the combination had him hitting harder and deeper. My eyes squeezed shut, my back arched like a cat as my legs tensed and i slipped off the edge. Loud moans danced through the air as my orgasm flew through me.

I didn’t register the fact that his hand was over my mouth until i found myself wrapped in his arms, my soaked underwear clinging to me as he hushed me quietly and kissed the side of my head. My legs felt weak as i leant back into him tiredly

“Nobody heard did they?” I mumbled but he only continued to make a ‘shh’ sound swaying me softly

“Klaus? Tell me nobody heard” my eyes opened as i found myself further down the ally so nobody was near

“Oh thank god” I muttered sighing heavily. He laughed lightly and kissed my shoulder

Since that day he’s been showing up regularly. He almost always sent flowers to the college i worked at. He was adamant to have my pose for him at his house, to have me go out on a date with him.

Sometimes he showed up at my college which greatly pissed them off because of the educational rivalry. He brought lunch and would stay for as long as he could before I practically threw him out.

Whenever i had a small side job for modelling he turned up and payed me not to go

“They won’t appreciate your body the way i do” he explained while pulling me away from the art class

“They’re expecting me” i tried but he wasn’t having it

“I’m expecting a date and yet here we are” he muttered with a roll of his eyes.

Eventually i agreed to date. Just one so that i could shut him up but one date turned to two which turned to a dozen and…so on.

He’s still very eager to paint me on full display, apparently it would make the perfect centrepiece for his bedroom. I am yet to let him.

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astra-ella · 4 months

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𝐙𝐎𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐄 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

fandom: haikyuu ship: nishinoya yuu x oc/reader status: complete ao3 link

"I think you're really pretty. Will you go out with me?" That was the first thing he's ever said to her. And needless to say, Amari Chiyo was not impressed. So as promised, Nishinoya Yuu will get to know her better and confess again. And again. And again. And again. It'll take 6 years and 9 confessions, but he'll get there. Eventually.

⌦ content: fluff, light angst, love at first sight, friends to lover, slice of life

⌦ note: you are free to insert yourself into Chiyo, just keep in mind she has her own character/backstory. i know some people don't like that, so just a heads-up.

story masterlist | previous chapter | next chapter

The third time he confessed was not long after – on an unassuming day at the beginning of their third year.

After the divorce, Chiyo’s mother got an offer for a relatively well-paying job in the heart of Tokyo while her father barely managed to land a typical white-collar job a little over an hour away. He made just enough to support himself and his children. But Japanese work culture was brutal, with long grueling hours and the pretty much obligatory after-work drinking party, it didn’t leave him much time to be with his kids.

That’s why Chiyo came back. She couldn’t move to Tokyo with her mother, knowing that she’d leave her younger sister, who was only seven at the time, to pick up the slack.

It was a lot at first, trying to juggle her school and home responsibilities. She did all of the cooking and cleaning, alongside taking care of her younger siblings. After school, she would run around like a madman, trying to make it in time to pick up her brother from kindergarten before meeting her sister at the local elementary school. But things became a lot easier during her third year, once her brother moved into first grade at the same elementary school.

So that day, just like she did for the past month or so, Chiyo headed to the elementary school to pick them up. But when she got to their usual meeting spot, her little sister was nowhere to be seen.

“Sis!” Standing under the big traffic mirror, a little boy waved at her.

“Kaito,” Chiyo smiled. “How was school today?”

“Good. We played volleyball in gym class today, and I was the best in the class!” He said proudly.

“That’s great,” she gave him a little pat on the head before glancing around. “And Hotaru? Where is she?”

“I dunno,” Kaito shrugged, and Chiyo’s brows furrowed.

“What do you mean? Wasn’t she here when you got here?”

He shook his head. “Nope. She probably just went back in to grab something,” he pouted, twiddling with his fingers. “She’s stupid.”

Chiyo pinched his nose. “Don’t call your sister stupid, Kaito,” she chided before breathing a sigh. “Alright, let’s wait a bit, I guess.”

So they waited. Five minutes passed — ten, then fifteen. Chiyo exchanged a few nods with some parents she recognized, and Kaito waved goodbye to a few of his friends — but there was no sign of Hotaru.

Chiyo glanced up, noticing the dark clouds that began to gather above. She suddenly remembered that the weather forecast predicted a storm would be rolling in late that afternoon. Not wanting to get caught up in the rain, Chiyo figured it’d be best to head in and look for her sister.

Taking Kaito along, Chiyo found Hotaru’s homeroom teacher still in the classroom, packing up her things.

“Amari-san?” The teacher hummed thoughtfully. “She ran out right when the bell rang. Could she have gone home?”

“No, we usually meet right outside the school gates.” Chiyo frowned. She pressed her lips together, trying her best to remember if Hotaru mentioned going anywhere when someone knocked on the classroom door.

A little girl dressed in a gray jacket walked in. “Hayashi-sensei, I forgot my pencil case in my desk.”

“Oh, Ito-san! Perfect timing,” the old woman readjusted her glasses. “Did you know where Amari-san ran off to? Her siblings are looking for her.”

“Hotaru?” Upon a closer look, Chiyo recognized her as one of her sister’s friends. “She said she was going to see her mom today. She was so excited, it’s all she’s been talking about.”

“What?!” Chiyo’s eyes grew wide “I’ve never heard anything about this!”

“But Hotaru said you guys were saving on money for the trip,” the little girl looked a little confused. “She said it’s why she couldn’t buy lunch.”

Chiyo felt like she had been doused in a bucket of cold water. Now that she thought about it, Hotaru had been exceptionally hungry every time she came home from school for the past few weeks. She had chalked it up to her sister nearing a growth spurt, but based on her friend’s words, it’s very possible Hotaru has been saving her lunch money towards travel funds in order to visit their mother.

Chiyo’s stomach dropped.

“Oh my god,” she muttered under her breath. Her hands ran through her hair, unwittingly pulling at it. “She’s trying to get to Tokyo.” She then snapped her attention to the little girl, holding her by the shoulders. “Did she mention how she was gonna get there?”

“Not really,” the girl in the gray jacket shook her head frantically, looking slightly terrified. “She just said she had to go catch the bus.”

“She probably took the number 12 bus,” the old woman chimed in. “That takes you to Sendai Station, which should get you on the JR train to Tokyo. Oh but,” she looked up at Chiyo. “I think all the bus services will be shut down soon.”

“Really?” Chiyo’s voice was barely a whisper.

“Yeah, because of that storm coming in later today. It’s too dangerous to drive in that kind of weather.”

Her eyes lit up. There was still hope.

“Come on, Kaito. Let’s go!” She immediately grabbed her younger brother, who was far too busy exploring the magic of a fourth-grade classroom to notice the chaos unfolding around him.

“Wait, where are we going?” The boy protested to no avail. “We haven’t even found Hotaru yet!”

But Chiyo didn’t bother to respond. Instead, she murmured a quick ‘thank you’ to the teacher and little girl before hurrying out of the classroom.

Nishinoya was on his way home with his friends, munching on a popsicle when he saw her. He thought it was his lucky day. Coach ended practice early to ensure everyone could get home before that nasty storm could hit. So he said a quick goodbye to his teammates and hurried over to her.

She was standing by a bus stop, her index finger hovering down the list of the stations the bus was scheduled to stop at. Beside her was a little boy, whom he assumed to be her little brother.

“Chiyo, I’m tired.” He heard the boy whine.

He figured she must've gotten lost trying to navigate the area. He thought that this could be his chance to swoop in and help her like a knight in shining armor would. But as he got closer, he noticed something was off.

“Hey, Amari!” Nishinoya greeted her as casually as possible. “What’s up?”

Chiyo met his gaze, and Nishinoya realized he was right. She had an expression like the world was ending.

“Nishinoya,” her voice cracked.

Beside her, the little boy tugged at her sleeve. “Sis, who is that?”

“He’s… my classmate.”

“Yo!” With a big grin, Nishinoya then crouched down in front of him. “The name’s Nishinoya Yuu. Nice to meetcha, buddy!” He extended his fist, to which the boy gladly returned with a fist bump.

“I’m Kaito,” he replied before cocking his head to the side. “Nishinoya, are you the same age as my sister?”

“Yeah, why?”

Kaito glanced back and forth between Nishinoya and Chiyo. “Then why are you shorter than her?”

Nishinoya swore he heard something snap. “Excuse me?! What did you just say?!”

“Kaito, you shouldn’t say that to people,” Chiyo hurried to scold her little brother. “It’s rude.”

As much as Nishinoya didn’t want to admit it, the kid had a point. Chiyo was now about an inch and a half taller than him, courtesy of girls hitting their growth spurt earlier. But Nishinoya knew one day, he would be taller than her.

One day.

Setting aside his disgruntlement for later, he cleared his throat. “So, what are you guys doing out here? I thought you lived in the other direction?”

Chiyo pressed her lips together.

“We’re looking for my sister,” Kaito told him.

“Your sister?”

“Our other sister,” Chiyo elaborated. “It’s a long story, but I think she ran away from home.”

“What?!” Nishinoya nearly dropped his popsicle. “Wait, how old is this kid? Where the hell is she going?”

“She’s nine,” Chiyo said. “And I think she’s trying to run off to Tokyo, but the buses are out of service right now.”

“Ah, ‘cause of the storm,” Nishinoya hummed, studying the dark clouds that were rolling in at a steady pace.

“I checked every bus stop in the nearby area. If something happens to her, I… I-!”

From the corner of his eye, Nishinoya saw Chiyo’s hands clench onto the hem of her skirt. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.

“Alright then!” He shouted, quickly finishing his popsicle in two large chomps before looking her directly in the eye. “I’ll help you look for her. In the meantime, you and Kaito should head home.”

“What?” Chiyo looked surprised. “Wait, you don’t need to-”

“You guys haven’t been home since school let out, right?” He pointed to their bags and school uniforms. He then thumped his chest, gesturing to the much more comfortable t-shirt he changed into after practice. “Just leave it to me.”

“But there’s a storm coming soon!” Chiyo reasoned. “You’ll get caught in it!”

“Oh, that’s true,” he thought about it for a moment, then fished his cell phone out of his bag. “Here, gimme your number.”

“What?”

“Text me your address and take my stuff with you. I don’t want my volleyball shoes and stuff to get wet.” He opened his phone, creating a new contact entry for Chiyo to put her number in before handing his phone to her. “Trust me. I’ll bring your sister home safe and sound.”

Her weary eyes darted between his phone and him. “I don’t want you to go through so much trouble for me.”

“What’s wrong with doing something for the girl I like?” He retorted with a cheeky grin.

At his confession, Chiyo’s cheeks suddenly tinted a bright red. “Nishinoya-!”

“I like you, Amari. So let me try and act cool in front of you, yeah?”

Chiyo looked like she didn’t know how to respond. Her lips parted, probably about to make another attempt to resist his help, when Kaito pulled on her sleeve again.

“I wanna go home,” he said quietly.

In the face of her brother’s request, Chiyo seemed to have lost all will to fight. She quickly entered her number into Nishinoya’s phone and gave it back to him in exchange for his school bag.

“Please be careful,” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear, and Nishinoya felt like his heart was about to burst.

“Don’t worry. She’ll be back before you know it.” Leaving her with one last reassuring look, he then ran off.

“Chiyo, is that guy your boyfriend?” He faintly heard Kaito ask.

“N-No! He’s not!”

Nishinoya smiled.

One day.

Nishinoya scoured the area, double-checking all nearby bus stations and even dropping by the elementary school for a more thorough search. No sign of any girl matching the picture Chiyo sent over by text.

The sky was already tar-black by that point, and the rain came in a downpour. Water soaked through the soles of his sneakers, making those squelching wet smacks as he continued running through the empty streets. He mentally cursed himself for not bringing a jacket, but in hindsight, any jacket would’ve given up on keeping him dry long ago. He made sure to keep moving, as that was the only thing still keeping him warm.

He wondered where the girl could be. Sure, when he was little and his sisters’ teasing became too much, he used to have those ‘runaway’ phases too. But these moments were nothing more than locking himself in the bathroom and pouting until one of them apologized or coaxed him out with food.

He was just about to run past a local park when he suddenly noticed a red backpack on the ground. It stuck out like a sore thumb underneath the blue playground set. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to check, he approached the playground and took a peek under the slides.

There, sitting on a little plastic table with her knees to her chest, was a girl that matched the photo exactly.

“Hey, you’re Hotaru, right?”

The little girl met his gaze with the same deep blue eyes as her sister.

“Who are you?” Her voice was hoarse, like she had been crying.

“My name’s Nishinoya Yuu, a friend of your sister,” Nishinoya said, taking a seat beside her on the plastic stool. He knew Chiyo introduced him as just a classmate earlier, but that could be changed with time. “She’s really worried about you, you know?”

Hotaru looked away.

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Mommy and daddy said I shouldn’t talk to strangers.”

“Wha-? I just said I know your sister!” He took out his phone and pulled up his very brief text history with Chiyo. “See? We’re friends!”

“Oh,” Hotaru hummed in disinterest. “Don’t tell her you found me. I don’t wanna go home.”

Nishinoya raised an eyebrow. “Amari said you were trying to run away to Tokyo. What’s up with that?” He asked as he leaned back in his seat. “I mean if you wanted to go see the Skytree or something, I don’t blame you. I just don’t think running away from home is the best way to do it.”

At the mention of Tokyo, Hotaru’s lips began quivering. She pulled her legs closer, if that were even possible. “I wanted to see mommy,” she murmured.

“You mom?” Nishinoya repeated and Hotaru nodded.

Now that he thought about it, there was a rumor going around class that Chiyo’s parents got a divorce. He remembered there was about a month or so during their first year when she was exceptionally quiet, but he didn’t know her well enough at the time to make a judgment.

Guess that rumor was true.

“When mommy and daddy split up, mommy only took Chiyo,” she continued. “But then Chiyo came back and mommy went to Tokyo, and I haven’t seen her since.” She buried her face in her knees as her body began shaking violently. “Why didn’t mommy take me too?”

Watching as the little girl beside him broke down into a series of sobs and hiccups, Nishinoya patted her on the back.

He didn’t really know what to say. He himself sort of experienced a similar situation, with his parents leaving both him and his sisters with his grandpa in the countryside while they went to work in the city. But Nishinoya didn’t really think much of it; perhaps it was because he never actually grew up with them. Sure, he’d miss them, especially on the days following their departure post-holidays. But his grandpa always made things fun, to the point where it wouldn’t really bother him.

His gaze wandered to the side, taking in the sights of the late spring flowers drooping under the weight of the raindrops. Then, he took a deep breath and turned his attention back to her.

“I’m sure your mom will come back for you,” he said in the most reasonable tone he could muster. “Right now, she probably just needs time to get used to Tokyo. But once she settles down, she’ll come back for all three of you.”

Hotaru peered up at his question, staring at him with glossy eyes.

Nishinoya smiled a little. “But no matter what, I don’t think running away is the right thing to do. Just like how you miss your mom, your sister misses you too. She’s super worried about you,” he said, gently ruffling her drenched hair. “So let’s get you home, and we can all wait for your mom together, okay?” His right hand reached out towards Hotaru while his left remained on his lap, clenched tight.

The silence that followed felt like it lasted a decade. Nishinoya was never really good at comforting people. He was always more of a “take the bull by the horns” type of person, after all. But in this situation, there wasn’t really anything to take, so he could only say whatever was on his mind and pray that his words struck a chord.

His prayers were soon answered, however, when Hotaru unwinded from her defensive ball curl and grasped his hand. She sniffled, but quickly wiped away the snot with her sleeves.

“Together?” She looked at him expectantly. “You’ll wait with us?”

“Yeah!” Pulling her off the table and onto her feet, Nishinoya nodded with a wide grin. “I’ll wait with you guys til your mom comes back.”

Hotaru’s eyes flickered down to her feet, and she pressed her lips together.

“Okay,” she nodded. “Let’s go home.”

Mentally patting himself on the back, Nishinoya reached down to grab her red backpack. He then took out his phone to pull up their home address when Hotaru’s stomach let out a loud rumble.

“I’m hungry,” she murmured, and Nishinoya laughed heartily.

“Let’s hope your sister has snacks ready when you get home then!”

Sure enough, by the time they got to the Amari residence, Chiyo had piping hot food ready for both Hotaru and Nishinoya. That was the first time Nishinoya’s ever tried her home cooking, so it was definitely worth all the trouble.

But before anyone could eat, they spent a good ten minutes or so in the foyer where the Amari sisters spent crying their eyes out. Chiyo hugged Hotaru, scolded her, then hugged her some more. She then wrapped Nishinoya in the tightest embrace he’s gotten in a good while and proceeded to mutter incoherent words of, what he assumed to be, gratitude.

Maybe it was because she was literally crushing his bones, but his heart hurt.

That was the first time Nishinoya had ever seen her cry.

And as long as he could help it, he never wanted to see it again.

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italiantnea · 1 year

Text

#1/ The pain* of falling down horizontally horizontal falling down

* pain? pane? idk man

Ahh, every night, I kill so many bugs and beetles. And now, I‘ll be killed by the hawk. How painful it is. Ahh, how painful, how painful. I‘ll stop eating bugs and starve to death. No, before that, I‘ll be killed by the hawk.

-The Nighthawk Star, Miyazawa Kenji

#1-1_otogiri_tobi/ how do flowers bloom

prev: 0 // next: 1-2

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“Otogiri…”

The teacher with black-rimmed glasses in front of the school gate called out. Otogiri Tobi gave him a glance and passed by without stopping. “Otogiri…” the teacher with black-rimmed glasses groaned again.

“Persistent one, that teacher.” The backpack laughed with a ke ke sound.

“It’s his job isn't it?” Tobi replied quietly.

Since he’d enrolled into school, that teacher had given Tobi life guidance countless times. He wasn’t in charge of his homeroom or any of his subjects, and Tobi didn’t even know his name.

“What with ‘that bag isn’t up to school standards’ or ‘those socks are too flashy’ or ‘your bangs are covering your eyebrows’ or whatever—What’s school for anyway, fitting people into molds?”

Baku grumbled. Tobi ignored him and entered the school building. He changed his shoes at the shoebox.

“Remember, Tobi? More than a year ago, that teacher would bug you every morning about your hair and you…”

“Dunno. I forgot.”

Tobi climbed up the stairs and entered the classroom for class 3 of year 2. Tobi’s seat was by the window, the third one from the front. He placed Baku on his desk and sat down. He lay face down on Baku.

“Getting your morning sleep right after entering school? You got no one to talk to so you’re pretty free huh? Wouldn't it be nice to make a coupla friends?”

“Baku, you shut up…”

“Oi oi, careful there Tobi. You’re gonna become the weird guy who talks to himself.”

“I—”

Tobi lowered his voice as much as he could.

“...I’m not talking in a voice that people around me can hear anyway.”

“Why not let them hear? You might get a chance to talk to them that way.”

“...That would be even more of a pain.”

“Ahh, you’re a, what’s it called? The kinda guy who thinks being a lone wolf with no friends is cool, huh?”

“...I don’t think that.”

“Nuh uh, you do. You know what that’s called? ‘Narcissism’. In Japanese that’s ‘jiko tousui’.” ¹

¹ 'narcissism' is said in English. Jikou tousui (自己陶酔) = lit. 'self absorption'

“...Yeah yeah, say what you want.”

“And that I will. I get bored all zipped up anyway.”

“.........”

“Just sayin’, if you think I’ll shut up just because you did, you’re hugely mistaken,” Baku laughed mockingly.

“As long as you live, I'll never shut up. Don't forget that, Tobi. You and I share the same fate. We are one, body and soul.”

I won't forget.

Tobi muttered internally.

I’ve never once forgotten.

“Well sometimes I’ve wondered, if I burned Baku till you were nothing but ash, what would happen then…”

“Oi, I can hear you!”

“....Your ears are playing tricks on you.”

“And where exactly do I have ears?”

“...dunno.”

“By the way, what is the deal with my hearing?”

“.... I said I don't know.”

“How cold… you’re such a cold guy. Your heart is subzero. It’s freezing.”

If only it would actually freeze. Tobi merely thought this in his heart. Saying it would just be adding fuel to the fire. He should just ignore Baku’s teasing. He knew this, but couldn’t help reacting. He needed more discipline.

“...Discipline for what…?”

Tobi was a fast eater. He always demolished his lunch in seconds. Well, maybe seconds was saying too much. But he devoured everything except the bread like he was trying to teleport it to his stomach. Then he cleaned up, and left the classroom with the bread. When the main course was rice or noodles instead of bread, he left empty handed.

At first, his homeroom teacher went all “Wait a second, Otogiri-kun….” and tried to stop him, but after that was ignored he stopped saying anything.

Today was a bread day. And butter rolls, at that.

Tobi carried Baku on his back and walked briskly down the hallway.

“You like em dontcha? Butter rolls.”

“Huh? Not particularly?”

“Liar. your steps are too light.”

“....Well I don't hate them. I don't really have likes or dislikes anyway.”

The hallway was deserted. The middle schoolers were still obediently eating their lunch in their classrooms. Still, Tobi lowered his voice just in case.

“Tobii. You’ve always been more of a bread guy than a rice guy huh?”

“I'm a ‘whichever one is good’ guy.”

“You’re more of a fish fan than a meat fan aren’t you?”

“I seriously do not care.”

“Then kinako or red bean paste?”

“Red bean paste.”

“Red bean paste huh? That was fast.”

“...I’m not good with powdery things.”

“I know, right? No, wait, what would I know? What am I thinking, I'm a backpack! I’ve never had red bean paste or kinako.”

“How would I know…”

“What kinda tone is that? You and I are buddies aren’t we?....What kinda buddies are we?”

“That I really don't know.”

“A rotten fate we share². Yeah.”

“Yeah…that might be it.”

“Is it rotten? This fate that binds us. Isn't there a nicer way of putting it?”

“You’re the one who said it.”

“Then correct me! Tell me I'm wrong. I'm lonely!”

“You’re lonely huh…”

“Just a bit, ok?”

²腐れ縁- lit 'rotten bond', an undesirable yet inescapable bond

Tobi exited to the courtyard. Today was a sunny day. The courtyard had a lawn, benches, and flowerbeds, and was quite a bustling place during lunch break. But no one was there yet. It was deserted.

“You’re gonna do it again?” Baku said, appalled.

Tobi held the pipe installed on the outer wall with his middle and ring finger. To be exact, the metal fixtures securing the pipe. Hooking his fingers and tiptoes into other pipe fixtures, the gaps between pipes and walls, and grooves on the wall, Tobi climbed up nimbly.

“Good grief. Idiots and smoke or whatever they say, really.”

Tobi didn't pay Baku’s teasing any mind. He got up the roof of the three floor building in a flash. Not bad today. he thought. He didn’t get lost or stuck even once. It was completely smooth. That might have been a good route.

In truth, you could get to the roof from inside the building. The door to the roof was locked though, probably to prevent crimes and danger. Without getting your hands on a key, you had no way of getting to the roof except climbing. As far as he knew, no one would go to such great lengths to get up the roof. Tobi was the only one.

The roof was flat, unfaced concrete. There were low walls on the perimeter. They were called parapets or something. Tobi put Baku down at his feet and sat on the parapets. He ripped open the plastic wrapping and took out the butter roll. Taking a bite, he closed his eyes.

“Taste good, Tobi?”

“...Not really. It’s just normal?”

“Can’t you just be honest and say it’s tasty? You’re such a contrary guy.”

“Yeah yeah, it’s so tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty.”

“Don’t say it so many times, you sound fake as hell.”

“Like I said, it’s just normal.”

“Koppe-pan³ and butter rolls, which would you pick?”

³ a kind of Japanese bread, sorta like a hot dog bun

“Butter rolls.”

“See?”

“...See what?”

“Do I really need to explain?”

Tobi inhaled the butter roll in three bites, and gazed at the pale sky and fragmented clouds. He soon got bored, and turned back to look at the school building.

The school Tobi attended had a U-shaped building, with a courtyard in the concave part. The roof he was on belonged to the special classroom building, and he faced the classroom building. Third year students were on the first floor, second years on the second, and first years and the third.

The chime signaling the end of meal time rang. Lunch break had begun, and students went one by one into the hallway of the building facing the courtyard. Occasionally—about one in ten, or perhaps less than that—there were students with strange things perched on their head or shoulders. Even though he saw them, Tobi didn't turn his head wondering what they were.

For example, three girls walked together in the second floor hallway. Tobi didn't remember their names, but they were all second year students like him. One of them, the girl in the middle, had a bat-like, or perhaps flying squirrel-like creature clinging to her. The possibility that maybe the girl had a strange pet that she loved so much she brought it to school couldn’t be ruled out. However, this wasn’t the first time Tobi had seen that creature. Or rather, that creature was always clinging to the girl. Despite that, no one, not teacher or student, brought up the topic.

It seemed that the girl herself was unaware of the creature’s existence.

“Weird…” Tobi muttered.

“Huh?” Baku instantly responded.

“What’s weird?”

“No, nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. You said it was weird. You said it so clearly, I heard you perfectly. So? What’s weird?”

“...Well, to be exact, it’s you, Baku.”

“Hah? What’s so weird about me?”

“Do you have no self awareness?”

“You!”

“Ehh—”

Tobi’s gaze dropped down to the courtyard.

The one who yelled “You!” wasn’t Baku.

A man in work clothes was looking up at Tobi. It was the janitor of the school.

“...Me?”

As Tobi pointed to himself, the janitor yelled, “Yes, you!”

“No matter how you think of it, it’s you! There’s no one there except for you, is there?!”

“Ah, I guess so huh.”

“Not ‘I guess so’!”

He was younger than most of the other staff members. Maybe it was something about the structure of his face, or the way he’s always smiling amiably. He always greeted Tobi when he saw him, but Tobi found it irritating and always ignored him. Despite that, he never learned and kept calling out to him.

“You know, Otogiri-kun, that roof is off limits, got it?! About that, you’ve done it before, haven't you? Sometimes you appear, on the roof! I always thought that was strange, how did you even get up there? The door is locked, isn’t it? I’ll be checking it! Do you happen to have a copy of the key?!”

“I don't have a copy or anything.”

“Right? If you went off and copied the key by yourself that’d be a huge problem! Anyway, get down immediately!”

“You mean jump down?”

“Of course not?! No, absolutely not, ok? Ahh, whatever, Otogiri-kun, just stay there! I have a bunch to ask you anyway, I'm coming up!”

The janitor ran off towards the school building. He was probably going to get a key from the staff room and climb to the roof using the stairs.

“What now, Tobi?” Baku inquired, half laughing.

“What else is there to do—” Tobi lifted Baku up.

“I'm not waiting. It’s a pain in the ass anyway.”

“Sure is.”

“I was kinda digging this place though…”

With a sigh, Tobi straddled the parapet. Climbing down along the outer wall took ten seconds at most. Of course, when the janitor arrived, Tobi was nowhere to be found.

After school, Tobi was called to the staff room by his homeroom teacher Harimoto-sensei, and given guidance. Specifically, the guidance in question was mostly about the incident on the roof, but Tobi let Harimoto’s words go in one ear and out the other. Well, not all of them, but most of them.

“Are you listening, Otogiri? Give a response,” Harimoto would check every few minutes.

And Tobi would answer, “Yes.” or “I’m listening.”

Harimoto was around forty years old, and barring stiff formal events, he always wore a red track suit. With his name being ‘Harimoto’, and his hair being spiked back, he was called ‘Harinezumi’⁴, or more affectionately, ‘Harry’ behind his back.

⁴harinezumi=hedgehog

“Sensei doesn't want to be here nagging you about warnings either. But you know, Otogiri, at the very least, the very minimum. There are rules in society that you have to obey….”

When Harimoto’s lecture was done and they walked out of the staff room, it was already past 4:30 PM.

“Pah!” Baku grumbled resentfully.

“He just went on and on, that bastard Harry. I'm tired of staying quiet.”

“Don't call him ‘Harry’...”

Tobi briskly exited the school. He wasn’t particularly in a hurry, but he didn’t have a habit of walking leisurely. He either walked slowly with large steps, or restlessly fastwalked. That was basically all he did.

“That way of walking. Are you race walking?”

At Baku’s jab, Tobi unconsciously slowed down before the school gate.

“...Shut up.”

“You’re so restless. Why don't you take your time and try living a more easygoing life?”

“I said shut up…”

Tobi looked at his watch. It took him 15 minutes to reach the facility on foot. There was less than an hour left before curfew—because of Harimoto’s lecture, only 40 minutes of free time remained. Taking the bus to the area Tobi used to live took 20 minutes.

“...Can’t make it today, huh.”

He arrived at the school gate just as he was seething.

The gate was less than 2 meters tall. It would be easy to climb up, but that wasn’t enough to cheer him up. Tobi kicked off the tile-covered gate, and used the momentum to jump up.

“Yes—”

Without thinking, Tobi pumped his fist slightly. Just as planned, he’d gotten up the gate without using his hands. He’d done well.

“Tobi… ummm…? There are rules in society you have to uphold, you know?” Baku laughed as he quotes Harimoto’s lecture.

Tobi was about to say something back, but forgot what he was going to say.

On the other side of the school gate was a female student. She gazed up at Tobi.

“Ah…”

With sharp, bold features and her long hair in double buns, she was a familiar looking girl.

Or rather, she was a classmate.

Rare enough for Tobi, he remembered her name. It was a bit unique, and he’d committed it to memory after seeing it written out once.

Her surname was Shiratama.⁵

⁵ white jewel

Her given name was a little special too: written as ‘dragon’s child’, and pronounced as ‘Ryuuko’.

Shiratama Ryuuko seemed surprised, and blinked several times.

Tobi was surprised as well. Why was Shiratama here? The school gate was deserted. No one else was here. And a girl from the same class at that.

Tobi sucked in a breath and pursed his lips.

What should I do?

Baku said nothing. This is the time you should say something. Tobi thought from the bottom of his heart. Some stupid nonsense, a mocking tease, an unfunny joke, anything. Say something. Though even if Baku did speak, Tobi would’ve been the only one to hear him.

Why was Shiratama remaining silent as well?

This is awkward.

Tobi looked closely at Shiratama for the first time. He had the impression she had a sharp face, but her eyes, nose and mouth weren’t particularly big; nor were they strangely small. They weren't distorted or off kilter at all. How’d you put it? They were well ordered. Everything was in its rightful place; not a single place was misshapen. You could keep looking at that face and never feel unpleasant. It was a form you never got tired of.

Maybe because of that, Tobi and Shiratama locked eyes. As if they were having a staring contest or something, he couldn’t turn his gaze away.

To be honest, Tobi was embarrassed. He should’ve just looked away, but somehow he couldn't.

What is this?

What time is it?

“Hey you…!”

At that moment, someone shouted from afar. It was that janitor.

“Get down from the gate! Oh, Otogiri-kun! It’s you again?!”

The janitor’s yell seemed to release him from his spell. Tobi turned around. In front of the entrance to the school stood the janitor, brandishing a broom.

“‘Scuse me.”

As Tobi lightly bowed his head, the janitor jumped up.

“Didn't you just get scolded by Harimoto-sensei? You didn’t reflect on yourself at all!”

“I already apologized…”

Tobi jumped down from the gate. The janitor seemed ready to chase after him, so he sprinted away from the gate.

After making two turns, he turned around. No one was there, so Tobi stopped running.

“What a pain in the ass, that janitor…”

“Looks like you've completely caught his attention.”

Baku laughs with a kuhehe. Tobi scrunched up his face.

“Give me a break.”

“Don’t tell that to me, how about you tell him directly?”

“What should I say?”

“What indeed. Something like, ‘I’m just a pathetic eighth grader all alone in this world, trying my best to live admirably without turning to delinquency, so please leave me be’ or something?”

“I don't think of myself as pathetic, though.”

“Isn’t it a convenient excuse? You look plenty pathetic just by being all alone in this world, you know?”

“Anyway, I'm not all alone in this world.”

“Yeah?”

“I have an older brother.”

Whenever Tobi brought up his brother, Baku clammed right up. Baku had never met his brother; When he'd met Tobi, he had already gotten separated from him.

When he looked at his watch, it was 4:40. He just had to barely make it before the facility’s 5:30 curfew, so Tobi took a little detour. A detour, in Tobi’s case, was just walking a more roundabout route. He wanted to spend as little money as possible. He didn't have much money he could waste anyway.

The facility he was enrolled in gave middle schoolers 3000 yen a month as pocket money. Tobi didn't know if 3000 yen a month was a lot or not, but the occasional one-way bus ride cost 220 yen, and he blew 440 yen on a round trip. The money disappeared in a flash. If he didn't have any when in need, it’d be a problem. He didn't want a problem, so he tried not to spend any money.

As such, Tobi had never been to a burger place or donut shop. He was scared he’d accidentally buy something useless, so he tried not to enter convenience stores either.

He didn't hate walking.

As long as there weren't people around, he had Baku to talk to too.

At the very least, it wasn't a boring time.

“I’m totally free though.”

Baku sometimes spoke as if he’d read Tobi’s mind.

“I’m basically just being carried around by you anyway.”

“You want me to throw you?”

“That’s not something you do even if it’s an accident you know?”

“Wouldn’t it be fun to fly though the sky?”

“Just a moment. Throwing can’t be considered flying. Even though you’re Tobi⁶, don’t you know the meaning of the word fly? Next time try looking it up in the dictionary. No, not next time, go look it up today! There’s nothing written about being thrown in the word fly.”

⁶Tobi(飛) is written with the character meaning 'fly'

Tobi turned into an alley from the road, then entered another road. He tried to turn into places he thought he hadn’t entered before. But he was mistaken; it was a road he knew. He’d walked around near the school for more than a year now. There were probably few paths he hadn't set foot in before.

The middle school Tobi attended was in a district called Ourai-chou⁷, and the facility was in the neighboring district called Asakawa-chou⁸.

⁷Ourai(往来)=to come and go

⁸Asakawa(浅川)=shallow river

Asakawa-chou, as the name suggested, had a river named Asakawa. The river was wide, but as long as the water level hadn’t risen due to rain, it was shallow enough to cross on foot.

“But really, Tobi, don't you think it’s lazy naming? Just because there’s a shallow river they name it ‘Shallow River’...”

“Isn’t it good it’s so easy to understand?”

“There’s something called atmosphere.”

Tobi walked on the bank of Asakawa river, holding a backpack that was cheekily speaking of atmosphere. On the floodplain of Asakawa river, there’s a tent village. It’s called a tent village, but there aren’t many camping tents to be seen. In truth, it was filled with little shacks made from plastic and scraps. It was also called “Asakawa Den⁹”. Den seemed to be a word that insinuated it was a burrow, or stronghold, or cave.

⁹ this uses the English word 'den'

Don't go near Asakawa river’s tent village.

That was what local children were taught. No matter in elementary school, or middle school, or the facility, all the adults said so. It’s dangerous there. They cautioned. Tobi had never entered Asakawa Den, the tent village either. He’d only looked down at them from the embankment from time to time, as he was doing right now.

It wasn't a particularly scary place.

The residents of Asakawa village probably weren’t very well off. There were people who weren't well dressed, too. But there were decent people as well.

Once, when he’d broken the curfew and walked around here at night, he’d seen the residents of Asakawa den gathered around a bonfire made in a steel drum. He didn't know their way of life, but he could hear laughter. They were cooking something, and chatting cheerfully as they ate and drank.

Tobi wasn't great with people who were having fun.

He was fine looking at them from a distance. He just didn’t want to get too close.

“Tobi, you should really fix that communication difficulty of yours.”

“That’s not what it is.”

“Are you seriously saying that?”

“I just get a bit tired, hanging around people.”

“No matter if you get tired or whatever, humans are social animals. You can’t expect to be able to live alone. You gotta learn to have a bit more patience, yeah?”

“Baku’s saying something proper…”

“When I feel like it, I say proper things too. I'm an amazing backpack!”

“Hmph. You’re just Baku.”

Asakawa river flowed from north to south. Tobi turned away from the setting sun, and began crossing the bridge spanning the river. The road was getting crowded, but the sidewalk was clear. Tobi climbed nimbly up the railing of the bridge.

“You’re doing it again….” Baku said in dismay.

Tobi paid him no heed and continued walking on the railing.

He could feel the wind better here, compared to the sidewalk. Whenever Tobi’s body swayed in the wind, Baku let out an exaggerated “Uoooh!”

“I won't fall.”

“Who knows. Don't you know the saying ‘Carelessness is your greatest enemy’?”

“Of course I know that much. But I’m not being careless though.”

“Taking it as high as you can just because you’re used to it. You know, it’s scary, acclimation. People who think they’re just fine get into accidents.”

“Why’re you being so cautious? You’re Baku.”

“Cautious, huh? I was born prudent.”

“Born like that huh…”

“Is that bad?”

“It’s not bad or anything. I was just wondering how you were born.”

“Aah? That was you—”

Nnnngh. Baku growled as he pondered.

Tobi remembered that man. The tall, top hat wearing, one eyed man. That man had left Baku in front of Tobi. However, Baku didn’t seem to know much about what happened before he started talking.

Tobi stopped and turned to face the river. As he sat down on the railing, he was struck with the urge to take the shoes off his feet, as they had lost their place to tread.

“Oi, Tobi. If you do something like that here, people’ll think you’re about to jump.”

“I'm not going to jump. Even if I fall, there’s a river down there. I can swim anyway.”

“But it’s a shallow river. Just an Asakawa after all.”

“It’ll be fine.”

“Be careful, yeah?”

“Mm.”

Tobi nodded as he lurched his body back and forth. Baku bursted into a racket.

“OIIII! Hey Tobi, I JUST told you to be careful…!”

“We won't fall just from this.”

“You don't know that, do you?! That’s what you call being careless!”

“I wasn't being careless. I did it on purpose anyway.”

“Is that so. On purpose. You did it on purpose, huh. Don't do that on purpose. Don't do it. Do not. Do it.”

“Even if you tell me not to…”

“I am NOT joking. I’m done. Stop messing around and get back already.”

“Eeehh…”

“It’s almost curfew anyway.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“You don't wanna go back?”

Tobi pretended not to hear, and didn't answer Baku’s inquiry.

Ke ke. Baku laughed.

“Can’t really come to love that place huh, that facility.”

“Not really… I don't like or hate it.”

“Other guys¹⁰ tentatively come to call the facility ‘home’, but you’re different, aren't you? You don't think of the facility as your home at all. You just can’t think of it like that.”

¹⁰ written as 'residents', pronounced as 'guys'

Tobi let his legs dangle. Before he knew it, his back was hunched and he faced downwards. He didn’t feel like stretching his back muscles. He didn’t want to face forward, or upwards.

“It’s nothing to do with the facility. It’s just—”

“Just?”

“It doesn't suit me.”

“Heeh? What doesn't?”

“People.”

“Simply put, you hate people then.”

“I don't hate them. They just don't suit me. That’s what I said, wasn't it?”

“What a troublesome bastard you are.”

“Shut up…”

“By the way, Tobi.”

“Mm?”

“Have you noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“She’s here.”

“Hah? What is?”

“Over there.”

“Where?”

Tobi lifted his head.

He looked right, and looked left.

Only a meter away from him—of course, not on the railing, but below it, on the Asakawa bridge sidewalk—stood a female student. The student wore the uniform from the middle school Tobi attended. An awfully bold face. Long hair tied in double buns.

“......Eh—”

Strange things could happen.

Before, there had been a similar occurrence. “Before”, well more like, just a little while ago; just now really.

Shiratama Ryuuko gazed at Tobi. her eyes weren't particularly wide, but it was a gaze that seemed to capture its subject, and bind it in place. And that subject in question was Tobi.

In the past, when Tobi was young, he’d been instructed by a teacher at the facility to look people in the eye when talking to them. Tobi had done as he was told and looked the teacher in the eye. When he did that, for some reason, the teacher no longer looked Tobi in the eye. Instead, the teacher had looked near his nose or mouth.

For some reason, it could feel awkward to look someone straight in the eye.

In some book from the facility, Tobi had read that cats hated eye contact with humans. In most cases, an unabashed gaze was a sign of hostility.

However, Shiratama Ryuuko merely seemed to be observing Tobi. Was the creature known as Tobi such a rare thing? What kind of shape did he have, and what ecosystem did he live in? That was what her gaze seemed to inquire.

Ah. this person.

She was there just now.

She’s here, again.

Was it a simple coincidence? That couldn't be ruled out, but it was strange. A curious thing.

Or rather, it was scary.

Tobi wanted to run. Had he not been sitting on the railing, he might have taken off without a second glance.

That’s right. Let’s run.

He could run on the railing, or jump down and run. If he wanted to escape, he could run away right now. Why didn’t Tobi do so? Tobi himself didn't know. It was just like back at the gate. Gazing at Shiratama like this, for some reason he couldn't tear his eyes away.

“Um.”

At the same moment Tobi said this, Shiratama called out his name, “Otogiri-kun.”

“Yeah,” Tobi nodded without thinking.

“...Eh? What?”

“Do you know me?”

Shiratama continued staring at Tobi as she asked. She hadn't blinked the whole time. Didn't her eyes hurt from being dried out? Tobi was suddenly struck with such a curiosity.

“I—do… know. You’re Shiratama-san, right? We’re in the same class. Shiratama. Ryuuko.”

“So you did know. About me.”

Shiratama finally blinked, twice, thrice.

Then, she lifted her chin slightly and narrowed her eyes, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.

“That’s great. I thought you might not have any interest in other people.”

“...I basically don't, though.”

“You don't?”

Now she widened her eyes and shut her lips. As her expression changed, Shiratama transformed into another Shiratama. And yet, she was still herself.

“Then, why did you know about me?”

“Well… your name is a bit weird.”

“It is the combination of Shiratama and Ryuuko, so I’ve heard that before. But, Otogiri¹¹-kun should be just as, if not more rare than me.”

¹¹Otogiri(弟切)='little brother'+'cut'. the name of a type of grass.

“Is……that so. Well—”

“Tobii”

Baku laughs with a hehe

“Speaking of rare, you talking with a friend from school is a pretty rare thing too, huh?”

She’s not my friend. Tobi was about to retort back. But Baku had used that wording deliberately to provoke him. What’s more, he couldn't yell at a backpack to shut up in front of Shiratama.

“It’s true that my name isn’t that common either—”

Tobi suddenly noticed something strange.

Shiratama wasn’t looking at Tobi. Though she was looking towards him, her gaze wasn’t focused on him. What was Shiratama looking at?

It was the backpack slung over Tobi’s left shoulder. Shiratama was looking at Baku.

“...What’s wrong, Tobi?” Baku sounded suspicious.

Without answering, Tobi straightened Baku and brought him close to his body.

“It’s not. A common…. name…… Eh? What…? Is something—the matter……?”

Shiratama doesn't answer, and continues staring at Baku.

“Wha—”

Baku was starting to get flustered too.

“Wha— what’s with this—this woman? It, it can't be, she can see m……”

“You know,”

Shiratama spoke. She didn’t seem to be taking her eyes off Baku.

“I wanted to talk to you, Otogiri-kun. That’s why I lay in wait for you.”

“......in wait.”

For a second, Tobi didn't know what she was talking about. As he thought back, he understood.

“Ahhh… that just now, at the school gate?”

“Yes.”

Shiratama nodded without looking at Tobi.

“However, you made Haizaki-san angry and ran away, so I followed you.”

“......Haizaki-san?”

“The janitor from our school.”

“So that person has such a name. Haizaki, huh……”

“Haizaki-san never fails to greet everyone, and indulges people in lighthearted small talk. He’s a very friendly person.”

“Huh……”

To Tobi, it really didn't matter. The janitor’s name, or his character. It had nothing to do with him.

Rather than that, why had Shiratama been lying in wait for him? Why would she go through the hassle of following after him? What did she want to talk to him about? And Shiratama was still staring at Baku; that was the thing Tobi was terribly curious about.

“—So……Shiratama-san. Do you. Need something…… from me, or?”

“If I didn't need something from you, I wouldn’t have lay in wait for you, or followed you all the way here.”

Shiratama finally looked at Tobi instead of Baku, and smiled.

Tobi turned his face downwards. He couldn't help looking down. There was nothing to look down on. He stole a glance upwards at Shiratama.

“Um. About that…”

Shiratama lifted her right hand and pointed.

“...backpack.”

“......Eh—Baku……?”

“Ba-ku.”

Shiratama said as she cocked her head.

“Bakku? Baku? It’s a bag, so B-A-G. Correctly speaking, ‘bag’?”

“Ahh… uh, my, English, isn’t that……”

Tobi had started calling Baku Baku because he’d called himself a backpack.

It’d been quite a long time ago, and he didn't remember the exact exchange. But for sure, Tobi had asked, “What’re you?”, and Baku had replied, “I’m a backpack.” Or maybe it had been “I’m backpack sama.” Anyhow, ‘backpack’ was long and a bit hard to say, so he’d abbreviated it to ‘Baku’.

“My Baku, no—backpack….bag, huh. Um, so, my back…… I mean, Baku….uh. M-my bag¹², what about it?”

¹² Tobi abandons the English words and uses the Japanese word kaban (鞄)

“Otogiri-kun, you often talk with that bag, don't you?”

“With my bag—”

Tobi almost fell off the railing.

“W-with my bag? Me? T-talk. Huh? W-why? I don't. Talk to—it, though……?”

“Is Otogiri-kun good at ventriloquy?”

Shiratama asked the strange question matter-of-factly.

“Ventrilo……”

Tobi tried to do ventriloquy. Wait. It's no use. I mean, this is weird. To attempt ventriloquy, even though I've never done it before. I can't do it anyway. There’s no need to try it out here.

“I don't. Have any experience, with ventriloquy or anything.”

“In that case, the voice that doesn’t belong to Otogiri-kun, that often talks with you; whose voice is that?”

“Oi, Tobii……”

Baku lowered his voice and whispered.

“It seems my voice has been heard. We’ve been found out, by her.”

“That voice.”

Shiratama nodded.

“That’s correct. I’ve found you out.”

Seriously?

Tobi didn't just think this.

“......Seriously?”

The mutter escaped his mouth.

Shiratama puffed out her chest, and a huge smile spread across her excellently proportioned face, as if decorating it with colorful flowers.

“Seriously.”

-----

prev: 0 // next: 1-2

not much to add to this chapter. added the translation notes in the relevant paragraph to provide context. i guess ill put them at the end if they're too long and disruptive.

Haizaki uses the more polite second person pronoun 'kimi' when talking to people

some lore about the Otogiri name:

#inochi no tabekata #inochi no tabekata light novel

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twilight-resonance · 2 years

Text

Incremental Autumn

Back again, with less interim this time. Writing sounds good right now, and I have the time to do it; so I think I’ll go ahead and journal like this for a bit and then go back to working. Which is what I was doing prior to this. Plenty to get done today, but it’ll happen as it happens.

I decided to have a fall day today. The light’s changed enough that I think it must feel like fall to me unconsciously on some level, because the temperature certainly doesn’t merit it. Dunno. I went ahead and dressed in snuggly clothes today, and played some games curled up on the couch while listening to C-SPAN for a bit, and have otherwise just been kind of enjoying the feeling of autumn coming back a bit. I have a pomegranate to eat later, which I’m excited for; and we’ll see what else we find to do as well. Probably part of why it occurred to me to journal as well - autumn feels like journaling. I’m going to see if I can actually remember to make it to Shut Up & Write on time today, because I miss that too and would like to go.

Dunno. Been worried about Hearthsnail. I’m not sure what’s wrong, exactly - if it’s lack of sleep, or burning out a bit, or if something else is up; but he hasn’t been himself recently. I know that part of it is that we need to get him to a doctor to deal with some health problems; and maybe that’s all it is. Something needs to shift, though. I may need to ask for help from some of his co-workers, because part of the problem is he feels like he can’t take a day off work because he would need to have a sub, and he doesn’t know when a sub-able lesson is coming up. Never mind that there’s no such thing as a sub-able lesson, and you just kind of have to deal with where things fall - but seems like he’s having a hard time grappling with that. So some support from other people who have a sense of what’s missing might help.

We slept in this morning by accident - must have forgotten to set alarms, or slept through them. He basically had time to make his commune and get ready in maybe five minutes, so we threw things together and made it happen. He probably got to work on time, and I’m hoping that - if nothing else - he’s a bit more well-rested now. It felt like it, waking up. I certainly feel well-rested in a way I don’t usually, and I hope it was at least better or more than usual for him. Anything helps.

Sigh, so let’s see. Let’s talk about work for a bit, because I specifically talked about other things last post. Like I mentioned at some point, I’m about a month into the new job I’m doing this year. Running some school programs for a couple schools, both classes and afterschool care. So it’s been running Fal a few times a week now, plus the usual that I’ve been doing on the weekends, and so far it’s been good. The first month or so was a little rough, since Ladyknight had theater and then caught COVID; so it was all the upacking & unpacking the equipment in the trailer by myself, as well as managing the full group of ~30 higher-needs kids. I did it, and by the end I got a decent flow down; but I’m glad she’s back. We had a good planning session the other night, and otherwise it’s been good getting peoples’ characters sorted in ways I was unable to do with single-person logistics. Had my first encounter with an unhappy parent last week, and that resolved okay I think; we’ll see if there’s anything to worry about this week.

In a lot of ways, it’s been nice running this much LARP again. I used to run this much and more, years ago - average of four days a week, for a variety of afterschool programs and weekend events. This is the first time that it’s all been in Fal, though, and it’s been a fun project deciding how I want to split things up. For example, both of the school leagues I’m running are in the same general area of the game world, just distant cities within it; and that’s been a fun way to run things so far (and just useful for having some shared resources location-wise). The same goes for having to figure out what I want my mission board to look like, since we have to be done in 2hrs but get to do missions weekly overall and thus more often. I think weekly missions suits my baseline writing style better than monthly missions overall; I tend to write more incremental change that doesn’t work as well in a monthly structure. It’s also adapting the changes in my style that I was already going to make this season across the board, and it’s been fun so far. A good creative exercise, and is some good growth for my own brain. I need to do more work on my weekend leagues - that’s part of what today is slated for - but the overall, the weekly work’s been good.

I do need to spend some time working with them on transitions and the like, because the group is big enough and varied enough that they’ve been doing a lot of getting in their own way. Multi-age groups are both one of my specialties and also my preference, but they are challenging. So that’s part of what this upcoming week will be about, especially now that I’ve had some time to get to know each group and get a sense for which things are easier vs. harder for them as a whole.

It’s also been an interesting challenge developing new battle games. I’ve long since forgotten most of the battle games we used to use, and besides that there are specific skills I’ve been wanting to train that there aren’t preexisting games for. What I really need to do is sit down and develop out a handful of new games; but the couple that I’ve come up with on the way so far have been half-decent. It’s also been neat looking back at old battle games and seeing their design mechanics from the “inside” in a way I haven’t before - what purpose certain rules or sequences played in training players on parts of the game. So that’s been good brainfood as well.

That mostly sums all that up, I think. So far as other things going on, I still need to work on the kitchen; I almost got caught up on the dishes the other day, but they’ve since backed up again. There’s other cleaning that needs to happen to - I might go do that after I finish this. Some of it’s backed up because of Hearthsnail too, and that’s its own thing. There’s a handful of phone calls I need to make too, one of which I just remembered is actually very urgent, so I suppose I ought to get to it. Not sure what else to write about at this point anyway. Hopefully we’ll get back to more writing soon - it’s good for me, and all that.

#blog #journal #journaling #autumn #fall #work #hearthsnail #health #LARPing #fal #mission design #writing practice #storytelling practice #chores #cleaning

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marvel-sluts · 3 years

Note

Hey I had this fic idea, could you write a peter x fem!reader where shes touch starved but won't open up about it so peter lies and says that he has an experiment in his health class where he needs to hug someone eight times a day for a month, and then at the end of the month it just becomes their daily routine? 🥺 thx😘😘

touch starved

pairing: Peter Parker x reader

warnings: swearing, fluff

summary: Peter notices how touch starved you are, so he comes up with a plan to help.

a/n: sorry this took a while, I had a few requests. thanks for requesting this though, love yall. enjoy lovlies!

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

you and Peter had been dating for a few months now, and he was beginning to realise how odd you act whenever he touches you. he would try to hug you or hold your hand and you would either flinch away or hug him back awkwardly. after a few more situations like this he decided to ask his best friend, Ned.

"I dunno man, I think she might be scared of me." Peter said worriedly.

"no, that's not it. she knows you'd never hurt her." Ned replied. "why don't you try and hug her more often? maybe she's just not used to the contact. my adopted cousin used to be like that but when he got used to physical contact he was a lot more comfortable."

"how did you get him more comfortable with it?" Peter asked.

"my aunt came up with the idea of hugging him eight times a day, and soon he got used to being hugged." Ned replied with a shrug.

"maybe I could do that with y/n, I just need an excuse for hugging her." Peter said thoughtfully.

"you can say it's for health class or something, it's the kinda thing our teachers would get us doing. plus y/n isn't in that class, she won't know." Ned said.

"that's a good idea, cheers mate." Peter said, just as the bell rang and they both made their way to class.

»»————-　♡　————-««

you shivered and pulled your jacket closer to your body as you hurried down the busy street, heading to your boyfriends apartment. you hadn't seen him much at school today, only seeing him during lunch and were looking forward to spending some time with him.

you let yourself in, having known both May and Peter for years you didn't have to knock anymore.

"hi May." you call to her, her giving you a smile and a small wave from where she was sat on the sofa.

"Peters in his room." she said.

"I guessed." you responded, with a small giggle.

you opened the door of his room with a small smile, "hi Pete." you say quietly.

"hey baby, how was your day?" Peter asked, spinning round on his chair to face you.

"alright." you responded "how was yours?"

"better now your here." he said, making you smile. "I wanted to talk to you about something." he said, causing your face to pale, you dreaded the day you heard those words fall from his lips. "oh no its nothing bad." Peter said quickly, after seeing your face.

"oh okay, what is it?" you ask with a tilt of your head.

"aww you look so cute." Peter said, bringing his hand up to cup your face and kissing you gently. "I wanted to talk to you about a school project I have to do."

"do you need help with it or something? because as long as its not math I can help." you say, with a smirk.

"no, it's not like that. it's a project for health class, I need to hug someone eight times a day. I thought because your my girlfriend I would ask you, but if you don't want to do it then it's fine." he said, making your stomach drop. you didn't want to disappointed him, but you were also nervous about hugging him so often.

your parents never hugged you much as a child, they never really showed physical affection. so you weren't used to the contact. whenever someone would touch you, you wouldn't know how to react and end up making it awkward.

"yeah okay." you said after a second.

"are you sure?" Peter asked, not wanting to force you into doing it if you didn't want to.

"I'm sure." you said slightly more confidently.

"okay, should we start now?" Peter asked. you nodded slowly and took a step forward, he copied your actions, wrapping his arms around you gently. as if he was scared of hurting you.

"I love you, I hope you know that." he whispered.

"I know, I love you too." you whispered back. you were confused for a second of where to put your arms, eventually wrapping them around him awkwardly.

you ended up deciding to hug at fixed points in the day, one when you walked to school together, one before you went off to your first class, one at the beginning of lunch, one at the end, one when you met to walk home, one when you got to his house, one an hour later and one before you left.

after a few days of this you slowly began to get more comfortable with hugging him, eventually starting to hug him even when it wasn't time to. you began to feel more comfortable with physical contact too, sometimes even reaching for Peter's hand in the corridor. you would never tell Peter but you had started to feel a lot more comfortable hugging him, a small smile appearing on your face whenever he stretched his arms out, allowing you to bury your head in his chest.

before the two of you knew it a month had passed, but neither of you wanted to stop hugging each other. Peter had started hugging you everytime he saw you, he always said that he was making up for how little you got hugged as a child.

"hey Pete?" you said, one time when the two of you were watching a movie together.

"yeah baby" he says, pausing the movie and turning to look at you.

"that whole, having to hug everyday for a month. that wasn't actually for health class was it?" you said, already knowing his answer.

"no it wasn't. in my defence I wanted you to be more comfortable around me and Ned said that it worked on his cousin and.."

"stop Petey, it's fine I'm not mad." you said, putting a stop to his rambling.

"oh, okay. how did you know?" he asked.

"I spoke to one of my friends in your class the other day, and she said that they never had to do it." you said, wrapping your arms around his neck. "I appreciate it though baby, it helped me a lot." you said, before leaning forward and kissing him gently. he wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you in closer and deepening the kiss.

#marvel #the avengers #peter parker x reader #peter parker x reader smut #peter parker x you #peter parker x oc #peter parker #peter parker x original character #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x reader fluff #the avengers x teen! reader #tom holland x original character #tom holland x oc #tom holland x reader smut #tom holland x reader #tom holland

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flightfoot · 3 years

Text

Perspective From Another Timeline

Thanks to my betas @steelblaidd and Izzybusy!

I ADORE @buggachat new Bakery Enemies AU. This idea just kept on swirling through my head, I had to write it! This is set between parts 13 and 14, so after Adrien meets Alya and Nino but before Marinette starts sympathizing with him. AO3

---------

“You okay?”

Alya shook her head, trying to clear it. “I’ll be fine. I’ve weathered worse than that - we both have.”

Nino grinned at her. “True that.”

Alya smiled at him fondly, remembering Heroes Day. It was a bittersweet memory, with her having been turned against Nino and them both being akumatized.

But they had fought to protect each other as best they could. She’d seen Prime Queen’s footage, how Carapace had struggled to get her to fight against Dark Cupid’s magic, how he’d only given into despair after she’d given into akumatization.

“What did that blast do to us?” Nino wondered. “Everyone else the akuma blasted just disappeared. Why’re we still here?”

Alya’s brow furrowed. “I dunno… hold on, let me check to see whether any new info on the akuma’s been uploaded.”

Pulling out her phone, she tapped on the Akuma News Alert app.

An error message popped up, telling her that she had no internet connection.

Puzzled, Alya checked her phone’s other settings.

No wifi - no wifi even recognized, much less connectable - no cell service, no connection to the outside world at all.

She glanced over at Nino. “Hey, you got any signal?”

Taking out his own phone, he quickly checked his connection. He shook his head. “Not a single bar.”

Frowning, Alya looked around. “Maybe all the cell towers were taken out?”

Everything looked intact though, no sign of any destruction at all.

Something else caught Alya’s eye. “Hey Nino, what time should it be?”

Nino blinked. “Well I mean lunch just started so it should be a little past noon-”

He glanced around, noticing the long shadows and the pinkish-orange of the evening sky.

“-which it clearly is not anymore,” he concluded.

Great. “Guess Ladybug and Chat Noir must’ve taken a while to defeat the akuma,” she said, putting her phone away. “Hopefully my parents aren’t too worried. They like me to text them just after an akuma attack, but right now…?” she gestured to her pocket.

“My folks aren’t as worried,” Nino said. “But they still expect me back home before the sun goes down. They’ll be getting nervous soon.”

Alya let out a small sigh. “So much for playing Super Penguino together.”

“Hmmm…” Nino’s eyes gleamed. “You know… it’s not night just yet. And I’m sure my parents would understand if I was a few minutes late because I grabbed a bite to eat.”

Grabbed a bite to eat? What was Nino hinting at…?

Alya looked around at their location more closely.

Wait… that blast seemed to have carried them to that one park, the one near-

Alya grinned. “I think my parents will forgive me for not calling in if I bring them fresh-baked treats from the best bakery in Paris.”

---

*ring ring*

The scent of freshly baked bread wafted through the store.

Instantly Alya felt her shoulders loosen up, releasing tension she didn’t even know she’d had. There was just something so warm and comforting about the bakery.

Of course, a lot of that was due to the people running it. Good luck finding more friendly, caring people than Marinette’s parents. Sabine often checked up on anyone who seemed to be struggling or upset (and ready to protect them if they were - Alya had seen the video of the time a TV crew decided to invade Marinette’s privacy), and Tom was basically a giant teddy bear in human form.

But neither of them were manning the counter today.

Instead a young woman stared back at them.

A very familiar-looking young woman.

“Marinette?” Alya asked cautiously.

The woman stared at her for a minute. “Alya?” she finally asked. “What happened to you?” She paled. “Did a new supervillain attack? Is that why you and Nino are younger?”

Huh. Weirdly scared reaction from Marinette. They’d all gotten used to supervillains by now. She’d expect an older Marinette to take them in stride even more than the current Marinette.

Hm… an older Marinette, a different time of day, and Marinette not seeming to know about the latest akuma attack?

“Marinette… what year is it?”

Marinette blinked for a moment. Her eyes widened.

Seemed Marinette understood what she was getting at.

She told Alya the date.

Her hunch was right. “We’re in the future,” Alya breathed.

A wicked grin slowly spread over her face.

Five years was a long time. A lot of things could have happened. A lot of information could’ve come to light.

Like Hawkmoth’s identity.

Or more information on the Miraculous.

But most importantly right now-

She leaned in close to Marinette, making sure to keep her voice down, just in case someone else was around in the back. “So did you ever get together with a certain blond-haired, green-eyed model?”

“Uh… what?” Marinette asked, looking puzzled.

Alya snapped her fingers. “Adrien. Did you and Adrien finally get together? Ooooh, if you did you’ve GOTTA tell me how the confession went! Or, no, wait, don’t tell me, I want to get the deets at the time. Just let me know how long I’ve got to wait, girl!”

Marinette just stared at her, slack-jawed. “Adrien… like ADRIEN AGRESTE?!” she said, her volume rising with every word.

Alya’s eyebrows flew up. “Um… yes…?”

She’d thought that Marinette would be glowing about finally getting together with her crush, or dejected about still not being able to spit out what she wanted to say to him, downcast over him rejecting her, or maybe even infuriated because he mistreated her and they subsequently broke up.

(The last one was VERY unlikely though. After the Felix debacle, she’d learned to have a bit more faith in Adrien’s good nature.)

Shock at the concept of dating him? Not something she’d anticipated.

Footsteps echoed from behind Marinette.

So one of Marinette’s parents must’ve been in the back-

Adrien popped his head around the corner.

Seemed both he AND Marinette had aged well.

Not that Adrien looked all that different. Taller, definitely, maybe with slightly messier hair and… were those earrings? They looked good on him.

“Hey dude!” Nino waved at his best friend. “What’s up?”

“Uh…” Adrien said, scratching the back of his neck.

“WOW those outfits really take the years off, huh?” Marinette said loudly, shoving them out the door. “Make you look smaller than usual. Well we better go talk about plans later okaybye-”

She promptly slammed the door behind them, physically pushing them away from the bakery.

After Marinette had dragged them a good distance away, Alya finally got over her shock, turning around and glaring at her. “What was that about?!” she asked Marinette indignantly, hands on her hips. “You know me, I wasn’t going to spill anything to him. That’s why I was talking so quietly! Why’d you have to do that?!”

Nino frowned, seeming more concerned than annoyed. “Adrien looked really hurt by that. Not cool.”

“There’s nothing to spill!” Marinette protested, gesticulating wildly. “I only met him for the first time two days ago!”

*record scratch*

Two-

Two DAYS ago?!

Ok, hold up.

“Adrien joined our collège class the day after I did! He sits in front of you in class! What’re you TALKING about?!”

“Uh… no…?” Marinette tilted her head to the side, befuddled. “I think I would remember that, even if it was a few years back.”

Alya let out a bark of laughter. “Yeah, no kidding. He would be uh, difficult for you to forget. Heck, even if your memory was erased, you’ve got so much stuff revolving around him, I couldn’t see that lasting long.”

Marinette blushed. “Why do you think I have a crush on him?! He’s HAWKMOTH’S SON!”

“WHAT?!” Alya and Nino yelled in unison.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated Hawkmoth a couple years ago,” Marinette explained, pulling out her phone.

A moment later she held it up, showing a blog post from the Ladyblog.

Oooh, that’s a nice graphical design. I’ll have to look into updating my site, Alya thought.

Turning her attention to the picture, she squinted. “Hey, can you enlarge the photo?” She asked.

Marinette complied, enlarging it and turning her phone sideways, letting it fill the entire screen.

Gabriel Agreste being led away in handcuffs by the police, with Ladybug and Chat Noir in the background. Ladybug looked satisfied, with maybe a twinge of melancholy, but Chat Noir…

He stared vacantly ahead, seemingly not focused on anyone or anything, a smile on his face - but the most forced one she’d ever seen.

“What’s wrong with Chat Noir?”

Marinette frowned, looking troubled. “I don’t know. He seemed really, really upset when Hawkmoth was defeated. It was a tough battle, bad enough that neither of them have returned since, but that doesn’t explain why-”

She trailed off, lost in thought.

A moment later she looked up, meeting Alya’s eyes.

Immediately she waved her hands around, trying to ward off… something. “I- I mean, that’s what I read on the Ladyblog and what I could piece together from video footage, it’s not like I was there, NOPE. I was huddled in my room the entire time. Not like I have any insight into what Chat Noir was acting like during the battle, not beyond what any other civilian would know! That would be ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” she let out a few forced guffaws.

Alya’s eyebrows flew up.

O...Kay…?

Maybe Marinette had been following Ladybug and Chat Noir during the final battle and hadn’t wanted anyone to know? She’d wondered whether Marinette might have a thing for Chat Noir, but her crush on Adrien dwarfed any feelings she might have had for him. Plus it’s not like Marinette would actually know Chat Noir, unlike Adrien.

Thinking about Adrien…

“He must’ve been devastated,” she murmured. Marinette looked at her questioningly. “Adrien, I mean,” Alya clarified. “Having your father turn out to be a terrorist? I can’t even imagine.”

Marinette buried her face in her hands. “Not you TOO,” she said, her voice muffled.

Nino slowly started edging his way behind Marinette.

“What’s your problem with Adrien?” Alya asked. “Did he do something?”

Marinette glanced away. “Not… exactly… I just… I’m afraid that it might all be an act. That he might’ve been helping Hawkmoth secretly, and… and even if he wasn’t before, that he might just be biding his time, waiting until he figures out who Ladybug and Chat Noir and then BAM!” she slammed her fist down on her other hand. “He takes them out, steals all the Miraculous, frees his father and rules Paris FOREVER!”

Alya reached out towards Marinette tentatively. She collapsed into Alya’s arms.

Hugging her tightly, she sang a soft nonsense song, rubbing small circles in Marinette’s back.

She’d done this a few other times since she’d met Marinette, though she’d never thought she’d do it underneath these circumstances.

Whatever these circumstances actually were.

Did everyone have amnesia or…?

“Do you have any big memory gaps?” Alya asked once Marinette’s breathing had calmed down. “Especially from five years ago?”

Marinette shook her head.

She’d shelve that theory for now then. More likely it was…

“An alternate timeline, huh?” Alya said.

Marinette looked up at her questioningly.

“That’s what I think this is,” Alya explained. “I WAS thinking that maybe there’d been some sort of mass amnesia, but if you don’t have any memory gaps - and trust me girl, with how involved you were with Adrien, there WOULD be memory gaps - that seems unlikely. I’m betting this is some sort of alternate universe, one where Adrien never got to go to school.”

“I still don’t get why you think there’s something between me and Adrien!” Marinette said. “I mean sure, he’s pretty, but did I really fall for him just for that?”

Alya shook her head. “Actually, you hated him at first. Chloe’d been bragging about how he was her friend, and with that on top of you catching him trying to remove the gum Chloe’d planted on your seat and mistaking it for him PLANTING the gum… well… both of us just assumed he was a spoiled rich bully, just like Chloe. Luckily that turned out not to be the case.”

“How’d that misunderstanding get cleared up?” Marinette asked. “And how did your Marinette jump from that to crushing on him?”

Alya grinned. Marinette had ranted about this moment to her SO. MANY. TIMES.

“School let out later that day. It was raining and Marinette had forgotten her umbrella, so she hung back a moment, long enough for Adrien to approach her. At first she looked away from him, not wanting to acknowledge his greeting. But then he told you - told her I mean - that he hadn’t done it, promised that he’d just been trying to take it off with such sincerity that she had no choice but to believe it. He opened up to her, even though she’d been shunning him just moments ago. And finally he gave her his umbrella, just because he could. Because it was the kind thing to do. She’s been a goner ever since.”

The Marinette in her arms looked away. “I can see why she might have developed a crush on him. But I still dunno whether I trust him.”

“I don’t know whether I have anything that could convince you on that,” Alya admitted, “especially since this is probably a different timeline, and for all I know he could be evil here. Just make sure that you’re judging him on his own merits, okay? Not who he’s associated with. Not his fault he has so many crappy people in his life.”

“I’ll… take it under consideration,” Marinette said reluctantly.

Marinette looked from side to side. “Where’d Nino go?”

“Oh, he snuck back into the bakery several minutes ago.”

“WHAT?!”

---

Nino opened the door to the bakery, letting out a small sigh of relief. He really wanted to check in on his best friend, and judging by Marinette’s behavior, she wasn’t exactly keen on him or Alya chatting with Adrien.

Thinking back on what he’d just heard, he frowned.

He wished he could say that he’d never have suspected that Gabriel was Hawkmoth.

That he didn’t think Adrien’s old man could ever be capable of such evil.

But he knew better.

The guy threatened to withdraw Adrien from school and isolate him from everyone else at the drop of a hat, paid little attention to his son when he was at home, and was a very negative influence on his life in general. He might have been grieving, but… so was Adrien. He needed the only parent he had left.

And instead Gabriel had chosen to respond by becoming a supervillain and terrorizing Paris, endangering his own son in the process.

He really wished he’d gotten to hit Hawkmoth with his turtle shield more. At least he got to relish the smack he got in.

“You’re back!”

Nino looked towards the voice.

Adrien walked closer to him, a tentative grin on his face. “I didn’t think you’d return so soon!”

“I had to come back to talk to my best friend,” Nino said.

“Best friend?” Adrien asked, blank-faced.

Oh, right. According to Marinette, Adrien hadn’t joined their class. She hadn’t even met Adrien until recently.

Had some sort of memory-wiping akuma attacked? Wouldn’t have been the first time.

“Do you know who I am?” Nino asked, pointing at himself.

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh… well I know you’re friends with the Ladyblogger and Marinette, and… sorry, that’s it.”

He looked really apologetic, like a dog who’d ripped up a bunch of toilet paper and acted guilty about it once caught.

Hm. If it had been a memory-erasing akuma, maybe he could jog Adrien’s memory…?

And even if it wasn’t, he wanted to let Adrien know that someplace, somewhere, people cared about him. If Marinette’s reaction to him was any indication, he’d need that reassurance. Being looked at with suspicion, having people run from you just because of who your dad was, thinking that you might’ve been involved in his crimes… he couldn’t imagine.

“You joined our class the day after Hawkmoth first attacked,” Nino told him, pulling out his phone.

Adrien shook his head, looking confused. “Uh… no? I wanted to, I REALLY wanted to go to school, but Father-”

He cut himself off, looking away.

“Marinette said the same thing,” Nino told him. “That you hadn’t enrolled in our class, that she’d only met you recently. I don't know what that’s about, whether everyone’s memories were wiped, or an akuma messed with the past, or what.”

Come on, come on, where was it- ah!

He clicked on a photo, one taken a few months ago, holding his phone up so his friend could get a better look.

Adrien squinted for a moment. His eyes widened. “That’s-!”

Nino nodded. “Our class photo. The official one, anyway.” He chuckled. “I liked our unofficial ones better.” Swiping to the side, he showed the new ones the class had taken at the park.

Adrien’s jaw dropped more with every new photo. He let out an involuntary bark of laughter at the one of himself, Nino, Kim, and Juleka posing. “I- I always wanted to mess around like that at photoshoots,” Adrien said. His voice trembled slightly. “But I wouldn’t be able to get away with it. And that’s mostly fun when you can share it with friends, at least share the picture, and I- I couldn’t. Chloe wouldn’t have appreciated it, and L-”

He cut himself off, shaking his head.

“Luka?” Nino asked.

He didn’t know why Adrien would know Luka and not anybody else, but he seemed the most likely option.

“Uh…” Adrien scratched the back of his neck, looking away.

Hm, he’d have to see if he had- ah!

“You played in Kitty Section too, with Luka, Rose, Ivan, and Juleka.” Nino explained, clicking on the video.

Adrien’s hands shook as Nino handed him the phone, watching the mini-concert.

“I- I was allowed to- I got to-” Adrien’s voice quavered.

“Not at first.” Nino grimaced, remembering how bummed Adrien had sounded when he called him. “Your old man said that Agrestes were soloists, and that we were all bad influences.”

“HE was the bad influence,” Adrien said. A current of anger, of venom ran through his voice that Nino had never heard before.

“Well I already knew that, even before finding out he was Hawkmoth,” Nino said, making a face. “Dude needed to chill out.”

Adrien snorted. “If he had any ‘chill’ he wouldn’t have decided that becoming a supervillain was the best way to heal my mother.”

Oh.

So THAT was why Gabriel had done it.

He’d just thought it was standard ‘I’m an asshole and want to rule the world while being a jackass to everyone in my life’ behavior.

(He still wasn’t going to rule out that being a factor.)

Nino put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder sympathetically. “At least he’s gone now and you’re free, right?”

“Right,” Adrien said. He didn’t meet Nino’s eyes.

“Not you TOO,” Marinette had said, burying her face in her hands.

As if she found it exasperating that Alya sympathized with Adrien. As if she had expected differently.

Those worries she’d voiced as Nino had been tiptoeing away, about Adrien helping Hawkmoth, about him lying in wait, biding his time… Marinette probably wasn’t the only one to have that concern. And with Adrien’s face being as well-known as it was...

“You AREN’T free, are you?” Nino asked, eyes wide.

Adrien sighed. “I was as surprised as everyone else when I found out who Hawkmoth was. That someone who’s caused that much harm, that much trauma to this city, lived in my own house.” He clenched his fists, digging into his jean’s fabric. “I could barely believe it… no… I didn’t WANT to believe it.”

He took a deep breath, steadying himself. “I- I only remember snippets from right after his arrest. The police chief talking to me. Riding back to the station. It’s all a blur. Everything felt like I was processing it underwater. It was all so blurry and muffled. Even- even then, though, I could feel everyone’s accusing stares.” “I understand why, don’t get me wrong,” he cut in hurriedly. “Who wouldn’t be suspicious of the son of the terrorist who’s been making everyone’s life miserable for the past four years?” Adrien almost panted with exertion, his eyes wild. “And- and it was happening in my own house! Underneath my nose! I should have KNOWN! I could’ve stopped this!”

Reaching out, Nino pulled his friend into a hug.

Adrien stiffened for a moment, before melting into his embrace.

“It’s his fault, not yours,” Nino murmured. “Remember that, dude. He was the adult. He was your parent. Your ONLY remaining parent. I’ve met the guy. And I’ve heard you talk about what he’s like. If you had investigated more?” Nino shuddered, thinking about the disproportionate punishments the bastard had enacted. “And knowing he was HAWKMOTH on top of that? I’m kinda glad you didn’t. Yeah, maybe you could’ve ended things sooner. Or maybe he would’ve hurt you more before you had the chance. I’m just glad you survived.”

“I-” Adrien’s throat sounded tight. “I’m- I’m glad I survived too.”

They stood there for a moment, Nino feeling Adrien’s breath go in-and-out, his heartbeat racing, until it gradually started to slow.

*ring ring*

Adrien and Nino broke up their hug just as Marinette burst through the door, Alya on her heels. She skidded to a halt in front of Adrien - but not quite in time, sending her careening towards the floor.

She never made contact.

“Woah!” Adrien shouted, catching her in his arms.

Nino detected a hint of pink to Marinette’s cheeks before she abruptly sprang to her feet.

“So, uh,” Marinette said awkwardly. “I’m guessing Nino talked to you about some stuff. I mean, of course he talked to you about stuff, because that’s what talking is about. What- what I mean is, what were you two talking about?”

“I wanted to show him how much we care about him,” Nino told her. “Especially since with this… amnesia?”

“I think it’s an alternate timeline,” Alya said.

“Especially since in this timeline,” Nino continued, “it really doesn’t seem like he had anyone.”

“I had a couple other friends,” Adrien told him quietly, giving a melancholic smile. “But I lost contact with them right after Hawkmoth’s defeat.”

Noticing Nino’s frown, he hastily added, “they didn’t abandon me or anything! They were online friends. One moved somewhere without internet reception, and the other... we never knew each other’s names. But we talked all the time. We chatted, laughed, defeated villains together…”

“In the video games we played, of course!” he added after a moment. He chuckled fondly. “We played as a team. Together, we were unstoppable, no matter what our opponent threw at us.”

Adrien swallowed. “But in the aftermath of Hawkmoth’s defeat, with all the turmoil, with everything that happened… I lost my means of contacting her. I- I don’t know whether I’ll ever get to see her again.”

“We’d promised to meet up after Hawkmoth’s defeat,” Adrien said. His voice cracked. “That- that once it was safer in Paris, we’d finally tell our names.”

His eyes dropped to the ground. “Instead, we lost each other. Maybe for good.”

“I know what that’s like,” Marinette said. She sounded strangely distant. “I had a friend like that too. I cared about him. A lot. Maybe… maybe even as more than a friend.” She said the last part haltingly, as if she’d only just admitted it to herself. “He- he wanted to know who I was. For me to know who he was. But- but I couldn’t do that. Not in Hawkmoth’s Paris. I already cared for him so much it ached. If I was closer to him than that- if I’d accepted his rose- I’m- I’m afraid Hawkmoth might’ve used the strength of those feelings against me. That I could’ve gotten akumatized, or he might’ve, and if we knew who each other was, knew WHERE the other one was… I just… I couldn’t accept that we might be sent to hurt each other.”

“We talked while the final battle was raging,” she continued. “He seemed really upset, more angry than I’ve ever seen him before, but… also kind of sad. I wanted to know what was wrong, but there wasn’t really time to press him. And after that battle he just… disappeared. I knew there was going to be some sort of disruption, but- but I’d thought we’d have more time to talk beforehand, that we’d be able to exchange new contact information. We were cut off before we had the chance.”

“I- I think of him every day,” she said quietly. “Wondering how he’s doing. He was always so positive, no matter what life threw at us. I hope that wherever he is, whatever he’s doing, he hasn’t lost that positivity, that optimism, the ability to see the best in the world and in others.”

“I’m sure he’d be happy to know you cared for him so much,” Adrien said, giving her a warm smile.

Marinette blinked, giving herself a small shake. She turned to Alya. “I dunno whether you’ll remember any of this after the Ladybug in your time restores anything, but on the off-chance you do, is there anything you need to know?”

“Oh!” Alya pulled up some footage. “You told me who Hawkmoth was, but what about Mayura?”

“Mayura?”

“Who?”

Alya snapped her fingers. “You know, the Peacock Miraculous wielder, the one summoning the sentimonsters! Did she not exist in this universe?”

She pulled up part of the fight against Mayura, the sentimonster Ladybug, and Hawkmoth.

The video ended, she took another glance at Marinette and Adrien.

Marinette seemed to be in shock, staring straight ahead.

Adrien frowned, thinking. “I’d wondered for a long time how Father managed to hide his supervillain activities from Nathalie, considering she was around him most of the time. I thought maybe she was just really good at never asking questions.”

He grimaced. “Looking at that? I’m betting she didn’t ask questions because she already knew the answers.”

“You think Mayura’s Nathalie?” Alya questioned.

He nodded. “Unless something’s different in your universe. My father doesn’t have a lot of associates, and the way he acted around Mayura there, how he was willing to pass up a chance to fight Ladybug for her Miraculous in exchange for catching her… the only people I can think of who he’d do that for are my mother and Nathalie, and mom…” he trailed off.

“I- I didn’t even think about that,” Marinette said guiltily. “I remember reading something about Gabriel having a secretary, but I didn’t think about her much beyond that.”

“Maybe you could ask this universe’s Alya to post something on the Ladyblog, telling Ladybug and Chat Noir she has a lead on who Mayura is?” Alya said. “I mean, I know they haven’t shown up in ages, but maybe that’s just because they haven’t had reason to.”

Marinette winced. “I… really don’t think that’s it… plus Ladybug and Chat Noir never said that someone was helping Hawkmoth. Mayura never appeared, at least in public. I don’t know what we can do about this right now, especially without proof. Maybe if Ladybug and Chat Noir appeared, but…”

She sounded doubtful. Alya was beginning to think that the final battle was even worse than Marinette had alluded to.

She hesitated a moment, before turning to Adrien. “I- I think I owe you an apology. I thought you might’ve been helping Hawkmoth, but… well… I was just judging you by who your dad was. You’ve been nothing but sweet and kind.”

Adrien smiled at her, though it was slightly strained. “It’s fine. I’m used to it. A lot of people in this city have suffered at Hawkmoth’s hands. I don’t blame them for being scared, or angry at any reminders of him.”

“That doesn’t make it RIGHT,” Marinette said heatedly.

Nino nodded. “Dude just because something’s done to you it doesn’t mean it’s justified, or that it shouldn’t be made better. Like with your old man forbidding parties. I didn’t let that stop me from bribing your bodyguard into letting me and the other guys throw a party at your place for you!”

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “It kinda escalated though. I think half the guys at Paris were partying in your room by the end!”

Alya gave Nino a sideways look. “And ONLY the guys because they ditched us girls while we were planting trees with a lame excuse. Seriously if you’d said you wanted to throw a party for Adrien while his dad was away, you could’ve just told us!”

Nino winced. “Yeah, my bad. At least we got to have fun there for a while before the akuma attack.”

“Akuma attack?” Adrien asked, eyes wide. “But I thought you said Father was gone!”

“He was- OOOOOOOH.”

“Yeeaaaah I don’t think he was actually gone,” Alya said. “You threw a ‘secret’ party in Hawkmoth’s house, WHILE he was still at home.”

Adrien gaped at Nino. “How’re you not DEAD?!”

Nino chuckled. “Lucky I guess?”

*twinkle twinkle*

A familiar red mass flew towards Alya and Nino.

Adrien’s eyes widened.

“Behind the portrait!” he blurted out, just as the two of them were enveloped by the ladybugs, spiriting them off to whence they came.

It was silent for a moment.

“Do you think they heard?” Adrien asked Marinette.

“I hope so,” she said, looking off in the direction the ladybugs flew.

She turned to him. “I was planning on setting up some hang out time with Alya and Nino later this week. If you’re not busy… would you like to join?”

His smile told her everything she needed to know.

#bakery enemies au #ml fanfic #miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #marinette dupain cheng #buggachat

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ven7s · 3 years

Text

haikyuu boys as things i've done with my guy best friend part 1

ー characters: atsumu, akaashi, kuroo ; genre: fluff ; wc: 0.6k

part two

walking miles to go somewhere — atsumu x gn!reader

its starts off with the inarizaki team making plans to meet up and after a talk with atsumu you guys agree to walk there together. it’s winter and the snow is piled up to the point it reaches your knees; as you walk, the both of you struggle to get through the snow — one foot is sinking into the snow after another and atsumu has to lift you out with a helping hand — yet you're laughing at the same time. he’s complaining about how you guys should have carpooled with the others, but he still wears a cheeky grin and you know he doesn’t actually mean it. midway through, you guys get distracted and somehow find yourselves in a market, buying food, then home depot, laughing at the names of the paint swatches. when the two of you finally get to the destination it’s already mid-afternoon and everyone’s asking you two where you’ve been: you shrug at each other with giggles in between excuses. (at the end of the day, your legs are numb and your socks and shoes are soggy, but atsumu still texts you with a, “i had fun today, we should do it again sometime. it could be just us two next time. for the whole day. if you want :P”)

listening and giving advice to each other — akaashi x gn!reader

in one moment, akaashi and you are just complaining about the amount of work your teachers assigned you that day, but in the next moment it’s 2 am and you’re somehow talking about everything and anything. he’s laughing softly at the jokes you make while you’re smiling at the comments he make in between the conversation. then it gets to the point where you’re both venting and giving advice to one another. it’s 3 in the morning when you realize akaashi is just a little clumsy. he talks about how there’s this person he’s been into for a while now and he slips up in between that you realize he’s talking about you. he doesn’t seem to realize his mistake and you giggle to yourself under the blanket. the next day, you’re both deprived of sleep, but you slip your hand into his on the bus and watch as his ears turn pink and you say “you slipped up yesterday night, but i like you too.”

helping you with your work — kuroo x gn!reader

as much as you don’t like to admit it, kuroo’s the guy you always end up talking to when you don’t understand something from class. he always has that stupid smile on his face when you approach him with a paper in hand, ready to ask him questions about the material you’re working on in science and math class. and, at first, it started off with you begrudgingly asking him for help, but after a couple of times it became a regular thing — you always end up in meaningless banters, but it’s fun. and the one day that you don’t go to him, kuroo approaches you instead. he’s rubbing the back of his neck and you can tell that he’s being just a bit shy, so instead you’re wearing that stupid smile. with a teasing look you ask him why he’s here and you hear an unexpected answer that makes your stomach feel funny: “i dunno, i like spending time with you.”

a/n: I LOVE MY FRIEND SM

#haikyuu x reader #hq x reader #haikyuu fluff #hq fluff #haikyuu imagines #hq imagines #haikyuu headcanons #hq headcanons #atsumu x reader #atsumu headcanons #atsumu fluff #akaashi x reader #akaashi headcanons #akaashi fluff #kuroo x reader #kuroo headcanons #kuroo fluff #+🪼

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pies-writes-and-more · 3 years

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HIHIHI I HAVE A REQUEST IF YOURE UP FOR IT KASJHDASKD i was wondering if you could do tsukishima, akaashi, and kageyama (you dont have to do all of them if you dont want to) with a s/o who loves giving affection but doesn't really take it *seriously* when they recieve it? like they think that the character is joking bc they could never actually be that amazing? (sry if this made absolutely no sense just ignore it if you want kaskjasd)

Warnings: potentially some swearing, Akaashi saying “good girl” which I do think deserves a warning, Y/N having some insecure moments, but all fluffy endings promise!

Characters: Tsukishima Kei, Akaashi Keiji, & Kageyama Tobio, all with a fem!Reader

A/N: okay @lucyheartfilias-wife i know this took foREVER for me to finish and I’m so sorry xD but i kept going back and forth between ideas so this is what we ended up with! I hope they’re decent enough!! <3 Not of the following gifs are mine! Creds to the original creators :)

Haikyuu Masterlist

Tsukishima Kei

If Tsukishima knew one thing, it was that he was a lucky boy. Somehow he had managed to make a girl who was probably made of sunshine and rainbows, like him back and somehow figured out how to keep you around.

Although he always had an annoyed look on his face when they did, anytime the team asked about you or mentioned you to him, he was always happy to subtly brag about you.

“Our little Tsukishima has grown up hasn’t he?” Sugawara laughed, slapping pats to the back of the tall first year. “You’re not blackmailing her are you?” Tsukishima just rolled his eyes in response.

“It must be nice to have such a pretty girl around!” Noya whined loudly, punching the wall angrily.

“It is,” Tsukishima smirked, enjoying the immediate anger that Noya tried to turn on him. Daichi held the wild libero back with an exasperated smiled, shaking his head.

“She’s really smart too isn’t she?” Hinata gaped, having only really heard of this girl that Tsukishima was dating but Yamaguchi said it was a girl in their class so she had to be smart.

“Anyone’s smart compared to you,” Tsukishima scoffed but shrugged. “She’s the top of our class.”

Everyone made sounds of excitement and surprise, the upperclassmen nodding in approval, “Who knew this salty bean pole could find someone smart and pretty to like him back?” Tanaka snickered and Tsukishima just rolled his eyes.

You hadn’t meant to overhear the conversations happening in the club room but you were just waiting for your boyfriend against the railing. To say you were a bit embarrassed was an understatement. And that embarrassment was probably written all over your face because when Tsukishima finally came out, his cheeks turned pink seeing your expression.

“What?” He asked after a beat, avoiding your eyes as he started to walk towards the stairs.

“You know you don’t have to lie to your teammates right?” You asked him eventually, giving him a small smile. “I’m sure they know you’re just being nice.”

For once, you had actually surprised Tsukishima. Normally he could tell exactly what you were thinking but this time, he actually stopped in his steps and looked at you like you had grown a second head in the last few moments.

“Lie?” He asked, tilting his head up in thought before scoffing a bit, “What part of what I said was a lie? For that matter, how much of that nonsense did you hear?”

The word nonsense rang in your ear repeatedly, echoing all your insecurities further into your subconscious, “I dunno, how much were you saying?” You retorted, glancing at him with a shrug. “Come on, I wanna get home before it gets too dark,” you decided when he didn’t answer right away. The two of you started walking, Tsukishima clearly deep in thought because for once on your way home, he wasn’t complaining about the boys or listening to music. He was just… walking.

“When did I lie?” He finally asked at your doorstep, as if realizing if he didn’t ask now, he never would. He grabbed your wrist before you could turn away and leave without answering him, tugging you closer so he could look right into your eyes (he could always tell when you were lying to him).

“What?” You squirmed a bit. You knew exactly what he was asking but did you really want to admit it?

“You said I lied to my teammates. What did I lie about?” His frown was tight, eyes as serious as ever. “I’ve been thinking about everything I said to them and I can’t think of a lie that I told. Was it about everyone being smarter than Hinata? Because I really was telling the truth.” The little smirk at the end made you feel like he was trying to keep this lighthearted. But the topic weighed so heavily on both your shoulders.

You could feel Tsukishima keeping your gaze right on him, and knew if you looked away, he might just get more upset. So you were forced to just look at him awkwardly, as if he was looking through your very thoughts.

“I asked you out didn’t I?” He continued when you didn’t respond right away. “Doesn’t that make you my girlfriend?”

You let out a little laugh, surprised that that’s what he had come up with after that very silent walk home. “Yeah, I suppose so,” you smiled, finally pulling your eyes away from him and staring at your hands as you fiddled with your fingers.

“So what-”

“They’re just being nice,” you tried to tell him awkwardly, cutting him off from asking one more time. “I’m not… I’m not everything they’re pretending I am. And you don’t have to keep up the charade with them.”

Tsukishima’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, what charade could you possibly be talking about.

“I know I’m not as pretty as your managers,” you explained quietly. “And I’m sure being surrounded by them all the time has got you having some high expectations and standards for girls. That’s why I was surprised when you asked me out… but I know it’s probably just cause we’re always together and we study together. I know I’m pretty helpful when it comes to schoolwork so-”

Tsukishima started laughing. Like genuinely, throwing his head back, from the bottom of his belly kind of laugh. Your eyes widened as you watched this normally cool and collected idiot snicker himself practically to death.

“T-Tsukishima?” You blinked, poking him a little to make sure he wasn’t just having some sort of weird seizure.

He finally ran out of breath, standing back up straighter than ever and hitting the top of your head (not as gently as he should’ve, how rude), “Listen here, shortie,” he huffed, leaning down slightly so you were forced to look at him. “I have high standards for anyone I even keep around me. The only one who’s exceeded my standards for dating though, is you.”

You watched him, blinking nervously as if he was going to laugh in your face again and tell you it was a joke.

“I didn’t lie to them, idiot,” he shook his head, flicking your forehead. “You’re way too pretty to be as self-conscious as you are.”

Words would never solve your self-consciousness, you knew this. But if there was ever a moment that would ever come close - it would be this one.

“Go inside alright,” he grinned at you, pressing a quick kiss to your forehead and shoving you closer to your door. “And the next time I compliment you, you better accept it.”

You couldn’t even retort anything back before he ushered you inside, gave you a cheeky wink, and started to head home.

You were still very bad at accepting Tsukishima’s compliments and almost felt tortured with how much he could try to get you to understand how much he loved you. So naturally, Tsukishima just did it more and more.

Everything you did became a compliment, just to make you all hot headed and make him chuckle. He would praise you for being one of the smartest people he knew after a test or assignment, he’d say you were the cutest person up on the stands after his volleyball games, would just shower you in aggressive amounts of affection (well aggressive for him).

And then one day…

One day you day you didn’t fight back as much. And Tsukishima just smiled because he would never say anything to you he didn’t mean.

Akaashi Keiji

Akaashi was literally an embodiment of everything that someone could want. He was calm and wonderfully humble, his voice was like a mellow song that you could fall asleep to and he had the most amazing biceps that just made your heart flutter every time you saw them.

He was everything you could ever dream of which was both incredible… and not at the same time. It almost hurt to know that he was this unobtainable boy standing near you. Sure, you were dating - but how long until he realized you were beneath him? How much longer would it take him to realize that there was better.

You couldn’t hide these thoughts from Akaashi and more often than not, he’d give you a look like I know what you’re thinking, stop that, and then tell you he loves you before you just nod and smile and try to focus on something else. He’d let it go there, but he’d probably spend the rest of the day with you trying to convince you he really meant it.

But today he wasn’t next to you to read your face. Today, he was going to be down on that court, showing off his incredible reflexes and sports ability, and you would be up here. Blending in with the crowd. You were a filler character - something to fill the stands with and not be noticed. Unoriginal. Boring.

“Y/N!” Bokuto ran to you, grinning as wide as ever. “Look what I brought you!” He held up Akaashi’s jacket happily, waving it over his head as he jumped up and down in front of you.

You tried to put on a smile, as if you hadn’t just been spinning in your insecurities a few seconds ago. Your eyes focused on the jacket that Bokuto was trying to put on you, blinking as you came to the realization that he had 100% stolen this from your boyfriend without his knowledge, “Bokuto, won’t he need this?” You offered with a small laugh.

He shook his head with a grin, “He practically discarded it somewhere. I thought I’d come bring it to you! It would probably make him super happy to see you in his jacket! And you look so cute in our colours!” Bokuto declared, patting your head. You tried to start telling him that he should bring it back and that you weren’t really sure Akaashi would want you wearing it, but suddenly you could hear his coach on the court screaming from him to get his ass back down there. “Whoops! Gotta run! Cheer hard for us!” Bokuto gave you a thumbs up before running down.

You stood there for a moment, face feeling hot as you start to smell Akaashi’s scent on the jacket. How did he manage to smell this good all the time?

You could hear whispers from people in the stands, some people wondering who you were or if you were Bokuto or Akaashi’s girlfriend, since it was Bokuto who gave you the jacket.

All the ruckus from his coach made Akaashi actually look over, smirking a bit while Bokuto was getting scolded. He sheepishly made his way over, trying to seem all innocent to his best friend.

“Where the hell even were you?” Akaashi asked, throwing him a toss as the boys warmed up.

“Oh! Just dropping something off to Y/N for you!” Bokuto grinned, nodding in your direction as he received the ball nice and high.

Akaashi shouldn’t have looked over. But he did. His eyes locked onto you and saw you in his jacket and for a moment, he definitely spaced out. His whole brain was just thinking about you and nothing else and he didn’t knock himself out of it until Bokuto’s pass knocked him right in the head.

“Akaashi! Are you okay?” Bokuto laughed, knowing the pass had been pretty soft. Akaashi’s cheeks turn a bit pink as he shook it off, running after the ball.

You were wearing his jacket. And you looked so good in it.

After a complete win for the game, Akaashi was so hyped up to see you. You had worn his jacket the whole game and he had to avoid looking at you because you were just so distracting.

But now that it was over, he wanted nothing more than to swoop you into a hug and admire you. You gave him a huge grin when you caught up with the team, excitedly cheering them for their win and giving Bokuto high fives.

Akaashi watched you with a small smile on his face. You glanced over at him and gave a nervous sort of smile, noting there was a difference in how he was looking at you. “Oh! Here, you’ll get cold soon when your adrenaline stops pumping,” you said, pulling the jacket off.

“It’s alright,” he insisted, smirking a bit down at you. “You look gorgeous, I don’t want you to take it off,” he admitted with a smile, patting your head adoringly.

Your face gets all hot again, avoiding his eyes quickly, “Alright alright, Mr. High Off Of A Win,” you laughed nervously, poking at his chest gently. He raised an eyebrow at your dismissive behaviour.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t go spreading stuff that isn’t true,” you shrugged, shoving your hands in the jacket pocket. Sure, you liked the jacket but there was no way you were as pretty as he was making you out to be. Gorgeous? No way.

Akaashi’s eyes darkened slightly hearing this, taking your chin into his fingers and tilting your chin up so you were forced to look at him, “You think I’d lie to you?”

The question made you shrink inside, noting his hardened expression. He didn’t like it when you were hard on yourself, always made you notice all the little great things about you. But this wasn’t a private conversation, and people were starting to stare, which just made your face go even warmer. “N-No,” you mumble out shyly, trying to look away but he kept your gaze.

“Good girl,” he smirked at you, tapping your nose gently, “Now take the compliment. And wear my jacket more often, alright?”

You couldn’t help but nod at that point, Akashi smiling in his satisfaction before dragging you off for the team’s celebratory meal. The pit in your stomach that liked to tell you you were a filler character was slightly less intense now, after talking to your boyfriend. Akaashi had such an effect on you and there was no denying it. How could a guy like that be with a girl like you, you would never understand. But there was such an honesty in his eyes, and he was right after all, he wasn’t the type to lie about these things… so maybe. Just maybe. There was some truth to it.

Kageyama Tobio

Kageyama wasn’t the best at noticing hints and subtle things, and honestly, he’d rather if people were just blunt and to the point with him. But with you, he knew that he would have to learn between the lines. It wasn’t because you weren’t great at communication (and let’s be honest, even if you were bad at it, Kageyama was in NO place to call you out on that), but rather, Kageyama understood that at some point in relationships, it was important to see what the other person wanted.

So when he started really trying to read you, he found himself almost discouraged by a reoccurring instance.

It was real subtle at first, and in that moment, Kageyama probably wouldn’t have noticed. But he probably just smile at you and press a kiss to your forehead, thanking you for always thinking of him.

“You’re always so thoughtful, Y/N. I appreciate what you do for me,” he told you, almost like he was thanking a teacher for their help on homework which just made you laugh.

“Don’t be silly, Kageyama, it’s just a milk box,” you insisted, giving a little wave to his teammates before he left.

But it wasn’t just a milk box and even Kageyama could see that. He had forgotten his lunch today and you had shared yours with him. But he always had a milk with his lunch and you didn’t have one, but he didn’t have the chance to actually buy one before he had to head back to classes. He didn’t think he had mentioned anything about the milk, or even hesitated to eat without it. But you had still gone out of your way to buy one for him and bring it to him after classes.

You had even apologized that it was later than he usually had his milk, as if you should’ve known to get it earlier. Kageyama was amazed that you even went and bought him one. He held the box in his hands for a moment before getting called over to start practice, promising himself to have the drink right after practice.

It wasn’t just that you brushed off his appreciation for what you did for him. Kageyama always felt something was wrong when he complimented you. So much so, he had to awkwardly ask his upperclassmen for help.

“Oh our little Kageyama needs help with his girlfriend hmmm?” Tanaka laughed, hands on his hips like he was some sort of relationship expert.

“I dunno why you’d come to us,” Daichi admitted with a smirk, leaning against a nearby wall as he considered the question. “It’s not like any of us are really all that experienced with girls.”

“But you know how to… communicate,” Kageyama explained, playing with his fingers as he shyly stared at the floor. “I’m just worried I’m… doing that thing that Hinata says I do. Where I think I’m complimenting her but I’m actually hurting her.”

Sugawara chuckled and threw his arm around his first year’s neck, fluffing up his hair playfully, “Aw! Little Tobio is growing up!”

“What kinds of things are you saying to her?” Asahi asked, offering Kageyama a smile as the blueberry boy tried to fix his now messed up hair.

Kageyama thought about it for a moment, not having to think that far back to remember an example. “This morning, she was wearing her hair differently,” Kageyama told them, gesturing towards his hair as if to act out how her hair was. “And I told her she looked very pretty.”

The boys just looked at him, as if expecting for there to be more. “Okay and?” Noya piped up, shrugging.

“That’s it,” Kageyama blinked. “Should I have said something else?”

“Why would you say something else, Kageyama?” Daichi raised an eyebrow, noting the distress in the setter’s eyes.

Kageyama huffed, remembering how you awkwardly turned away, as if he had said something brash, “She just said ‘you don’t have to do that, Kageyama’ and changed the subject. But I don’t know what she meant. Was… Was I not supposed to tell her? She did look very pretty but should I have kept that to myself?”

Sugawara gave him a sympathetic smile, “I think you did fine, Kageyama, don’t worry! Maybe she was just embarrassed.”

The others agreed, Tanaka explaining to him that some people were bashful when it came to their appearances.

“But she’s the most perfect being in the whole country!” Kageyama burst out, his forehead creased with concern. “Why shouldn’t I tell her?”

“Just in the country?” Asahi chuckled and Sugawara smacked his arm.

“Don’t tease him, I don’t think Kageyama has ever left the country!”

“Maybe she’s just not used to you complimenting her. Like how you weren’t too used to holding hands with her at the beginning of your relationship,” Daichi offered, remembering how red the boy’s face was you first took his hand at a tournament. He didn’t even know he had to hold your hand back and just had his hand staying there stiff.

Kageyama nodded slowly - he could understand that. It just took some time and then he was okay with it eventually. Now he would grab your hand out of instinct and it wasn’t something foreign to him.

After talking to his upperclassmen, Kageyama felt a little better. Perhaps it wasn’t his words then, maybe he just had to do it more.

But after a week of trial and error, Kageyama still couldn’t understand why you still seemed so uncomfortable. The day after consulting the second and third years, Kageyama had told you he really liked the way you hummed and that you had a really nice voice (he really did like it, it was his favourite thing to listen to).

But you just flickered your eyes away from him, offering a nervous laugh, “It’s nothing,” you mumbled before quickly asking him about his practice schedule.

So Kageyama thought maybe you just didn’t like talking about your singing. So when the two of you were studying, you noticed his laser focus wasn’t on his work but instead on you. His eyes were so trained on you, it was like how he was on the volleyball court.

“Kageyama?” You blinked in surprise, catching him staring at you. “Are you alright?”

“You’re really smart, Y/N!” He blurted out, a firm nod afterwards like confirming what he was saying. “I appreciate you always coming to help me work!”

But you just squirmed in your seat, turning your eyes back to your work, “I really don’t know all that much.”

It had been a week of this back and forth, Kageyama desperately trying to find what was going on. Was it him? Was he just not using the right words? Could he actually be being really rude and didn’t realize it? Was it his face? Was he supposed to smile more?

Finally, Kageyama felt like he was at the end of his rope. He didn’t know what to do now.

“The sunset is really pretty today!” You beamed as the two of you walked home from his practice. He glanced over and noticed the brilliant colours in the sky. It looked nice sure, but how could you understand that that looked pretty and you didn’t?

“I think you’re prettier.” He stated simply. Kageyama didn’t really know what lines were cheesy and what weren’t. But you did and your face just overheated immediately in response.

“K-Kageyama, don’t say things like that!” You insisted, staring to walk ahead.

“Wait!” Kageyama yelped, grabbing onto your wrist and pulling you back to him. “What am I doing wrong?” he asked you desperately, his eyes wide and searching yours for some sort of answers.

You stared at him for a moment, confused by his words, “Wrong?” You repeated softly, noticing how upset he looked.

“I…” Kageyama’s voice faltered as he watched your eyes. “I keep trying to tell you how amazing you are. You do all these things for me, you help me when I’m upset and you always help me train. You throw balls for me and Hinata, even when you’d rather be at home. You call me during my jogs just to keep me company. You bring me milk when I forget mine. And you always compliment me when I’m feeling like I’m not 100%… so what am I doing wrong? Because everything I say to you… it doesn’t seem to work.”

Something in you clicked. Is this why Kageyama had been acting so weird this week?

“Kageyama… I do all that because I like you and I want you to be your best,” you explained softly. “And I compliment you because I mean it! Not because I’m trying to make you feel better. Or try to boost your self-esteem.”

There was something in your tone that Kageyama couldn’t place. What was that in your voice?

“Why are you sad when I try to tell you things?” Kageyama was practically begging you for an answer. He didn’t understand how to read things from your tone, he wanted to desperately to understand but he just couldn’t grasp it. “Sugawara told me that complimenting people on things makes them feel good… am I doing it wrong? Please just tell me, I’ll be better! I’ll be the best boyfriend!”

Your smile was almost sad and Kageyama’s heart tugged a little in his chest, “I don’t want you to say things because you feel like you have to say them,” you sighed softly, now avoiding his eyes. “I know my hair is a mess most of the time, I know that my singing isn’t some professional level shit, and I know I’m not the model kind of girl or those gorgeous girls who come to your games. I don’t need you to try and convince me otherwise…”

Kageyama’s mind felt like it was blowing up. What were you talking about?

“Don’t be so stupid,” Kageyama whined, huffing at you and poking your forehead, “You think I’m lying about these things? You think I say them because I feel like I have to?” Kageyama shook his head, taking your face into his hands. “I’m not the best with words, I know this. But you are…” Kageyama’s face twisted into a funny expression as he tried to find the words he wanted, “the most perfect thing. You’re like when I make a perfect set and the spike goes right past the blockers!”

You couldn’t help but smile as he went on talking about volleyball. You weren’t surprised - he often related things to volleyball to understand better.

“You… are the perfect jump serve. Seeing you is like I’m winning full sets at Nationals!” He expressed, looking at you with wide eyes in hopes you were understanding. “I’m not trying to make you feel better about yourself, Y/N. You are everything I could possibly want. You make me feel like volleyball isn’t the only thing that matters anymore. I want to hear you sing all the time and I love your hair no matter how you think it looks.”

Your eyes were welling up with tears as he spoke dramatically, looking up at the sky as if that would help him figure out his sentences better. When he finally looked back at you, he jumped back almost immediately in fear.

“N-No! Don’t cry! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have brought up volleyball again! I-”

You laughed and quickly shook your head, grasping his hands in yours, “Happy tears, Kageyama,” you explained softly, almost immediately burying your face in his chest as you drew him closer for a hug. “Thank you,” you whisper.

Kageyama wasn’t really sure what you were thanking him for but he hugged you tightly anyways. He hated seeing you cry and he would squeeze them all out of you until there was none left if he had to. “You are very pretty.” He stated, pressing a kiss to your head.

And this time, you didn’t argue. You just stayed there in his arms, and listened to the genuineness in his voice.

Haikyuu taglist (let me know if you’d like to join!)

@scphiredrafts @aurumk @devilkittymusic @thisnoodlewritesao3 @satan-ruler-of-hells @trashy-simp @jeppiet @lucyheartfilias-wife @darkvadeeer @haikyuutothetop @wolfishwriting @livy384

#tsukishima x reader #akaashi x reader #kageyama x reader #haikyuu!!#tsukishima x you #akaashi headcanons #kageyama tobio #tsukishima kei #akaashi keiji #tsukishima kei x you #akaashi fluff #akaashi keji x reader #akaashi fanfiction #kageyama x y/n #kageyama x you #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu fluff #haikyu fluff

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slasherhaven · 3 years

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Late Nights in Ambrose

Teenage Bo Sinclair X Teenage Reader

Summary: Bo had a bad day, and that means he needs to see you.

Ambrose was a little town, one of those towns where everyone knows everyone. Of a day, it felt like everyone was watching you, wanting you to act a certain way, and waiting for you to mess up. You weren’t the only one who felt that way, everyone did, even the adults.

Maybe that was why you found yourself sneaking out of a night to meet with your best friend. There weren’t many kids your age, classes where always small, but it was still Bo Sinclair that you found yourself growing close too.

Everyone knew the Sinclair family and about the twins, they knew Bo as the bad twin and Vincent as the good twin. Not that they treated Vincent accordingly, people weren’t kind to those who look different. Bo still got it bad, it’s difficult to break away from a reputation like his.

“Bo, what is all this about?” you asked quietly, wrapping your jacket around yourself as you closed the door behind you.

“What? You not glad to see me?” your friend asked with a cocky smirk.

“I saw you this afternoon and this morning, when you convinced me to skip church” you reminded him with a roll of the eyes.

“You really gonna pretend you care?” Bo asked with a small scoff, already walking away from your house and you following him without argument.

“No, I’m glad I can use you as an excuse to get out of it. My parents were less happy about it” you informed him. Your parents hated Bo, always saying that he was trouble, that he was a bad influence on you. Maybe they were right, you didn’t care all that much either way.

“They give you a lecture?” he asked.

“’course, they mostly blamed you, though. Said you are a bad influence” that earned a small, amused huff from him. “What about your parents?” you asked.

“Same old shit. Don’t think they really expect me to show anymore” he shrugged, “look’s like they’re starting to give up on their problem child.”

“You’re not a problem, Bo” you assured him. “Not to me, anyway” you gave him a small but sincere smile, one that he didn’t return but he nodded in acknowledgement.

The two of you headed to your usual spot. There weren’t many places to go in the little town, the best was probably behind the wax museum of a night once it was empty. It was a little bit away from the rest of town so you wouldn’t be disturbed and neither of you would disturb anyone else.

Bo guided you around the large building, to a more unkept area. He placed a hand on your elbow, helping guide you over a busted down wall, the wall that the two of you sat behind. It was good for when his mother was actually staying late at the museum or when somebody came nosing around, it gave you both some extra time to get out of there and not get caught.

Leaning back against the wall behind you, you smiled to yourself. In front of you both was a line of trees, reminding you of how out in the middle of nowhere Ambrose was, but above you both was a night sky filled with stars.

Your attention turned back to Bo when he lent back against the wall, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.

“Where did you get those?” you asked.

“I have my secrets” he hummed as he pulled out a lighter.

“You stole them” you concluded, rolling your eyes.

“That ain’t something you can prove” he smirked a little, lighting up a cigarette. “Want one?” he offered, holding the pack out to you.

“No thanks” you shook your head.

“Suit yourself” Bo shrugged, tucking the pack and lighter back into his pocket.

“So why did you drag me out of bed at this time of night?” you asked. Whenever Bo woke you up so late, it was normally for a reason, something more than just hanging out.

“Feel free to head back” he scoffed.

“...I’ll stay” you never planned on leaving in the first place. Bo could be complicated, always insisting that he preferred being alone but getting hostile when he thought you wanted to leave. “You can’t get rid of me that easy” you teased, knocking your shoulder against his.

“God knows I’ve tried” it’s true, you had befriended him a few years ago, even when he seemed dead set against it. You had grown on him, and you knew it.

“You love me really. You just won’t admit it” you insisted, a smile still on your face.

“Whatever you want to believe” he rolled his eyes, taking a drag from his cigarette. Being an edgy, angsty teen was something Bo was good at.

“Bo?” you spoke up, smile fading from your face. He hummed in acknowledgement. “Do you ever think about leaving Ambrose?” you asked.

“All the time” he nodded.

“Do you think you ever will?” you looked to him. You couldn’t see him sticking around here and being happy for long, all he did was complain about the place and the people.

“Maybe” he shrugged.

“It sucks here” you huffed, looking back up at the stars.

“The place isn’t the bad thing. The people are” Bo told you.

“All but me, right?” you asked playfully, smiling at him.

Bo looked at you for a moment, as if thinking about something. “All but you” he nodded, making you smile some more. “Vincent and Lester too” he added after a short pause.

“You like us more than you’ll ever admit” you hummed. He cared for his brothers, and for you, more than he may let on but you knew it anyway. “Come on, why did you really come knocking on my window in the middle of the night?” you asked again.

“...today’s been rough” he confessed.

“You had a bad day?” you asked sympathetically. You knew that Bo had his reputation for a reason, he had outbursts. Some days you wouldn’t even know about it, he was perfectly normal, other days he was angry about everything, he snapped and got aggressive. It was rare that his anger was directed at you, and whenever it was, you always managed to calm him down.

“Yeah...and the parents decided they couldn’t handle it” he nodded. His cigarette had burnt down too small, so he put it out on the ground beside him and tossed it to the ground carelessly.

“They aren’t helping...they only make things worse” you commented, clearly not happy with the methods they use to punish and control their son.

“You’re telling me” Bo scoffed, unconsciously rubbing one of his wrists.

“I’m sorry” you frowned. You had seen his wrists before, it broke your heart. They would never heal properly, you both knew it. The redness would fade but the damage was done.

“What for?” he asked, looking at you like he was confused by your sympathy.

“...I dunno...everything” you answered quietly, cautiously reaching out and taking his hand in yours.

“Yeah well, no harm done” he shrugged, looking away from you but didn’t pull his hand away.

“But there is harm done...guess that’s what I’m sorry about” you whispered.

Bo didn’t like talking about this kind of stuff and you knew that, so you didn’t push it or question it when he didn’t look at you. Instead, you just rested your head against his shoulder, a quiet reminder that you were here with him.

Maybe it was a mistake because it didn’t take long for you to fall asleep against him. In your defence, he had woken you up in the early hours of the morning.

Feeling you lean against him more, Bo looked down to find you sleeping against his shoulder, your hand still in his. He didn’t even notice the tiny smile forming on his face.

You had become a part of his life through sheer determination, refusing to ever let him push you away. He cared for you now, had for a while. You were one of the few good things in Ambrose, Bo knew that. Hell, maybe that was what had these feelings fluttering around in his chest when he looked at you and the soft smile on your face.

#bo sinclair x reader #bo sinclair #house of wax #slashers x reader #slasher x reader #slasher #slashers #my writing

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soobmint · 3 years

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paper hearts | choi soobin [f] ; [c] 80s! au, 9.6k words

s u m m a r y ; if there was one thing you wanted to avoid on valentine’s day, it was running into your ex best friend, choi soobin. but when a series of unfortunate events involving too much purple eyeshadow, drunken punches, and one stolen bicycle leads you right back to his side, you begin to realize that maybe you truly belonged with him all along.

c o n t e n t s ; soobin x fem!reader, 80s! au, valentine’s day, ex best friend! soobin, rich boy! soobin, but he’s a major dweeb and the biggest softie, yeonjun is a major prick (i’m so sorry junnie), reader is a part time worker, soobin is best friends with lee felix of stray kids, some themes of social classes, roughly inspired by the 80s movie “pretty in pink,” mentions drugs, alcohol, and single parent households, mostly just fluff, fluff, and more fluff, with a hint of crack/humor

n o t e ; hello friends! this was a very quickly planned, last minute valentine’s day idea, and it’s actually a collab with one of my dearest friends, @chanluster ! she posted her piece of the collab as well, you can check it out by going to the collab masterlist here! this was so much fun to write and i think that 80s! soobin was just too good of a concept to pass up! anyways, happy valentine’s day, i hope you enjoy this oneshot! do leave a like, reblog, or comment if you could, it really helps so much <3

[back to my masterlist] [oneshot playlist]

IF ONE MORE CUT-OUT, CRAFT-PAPER HEART HIT YOU IN THE FACE, YOU WERE GOING TO QUIT YOUR JOB.

Of course you would never actually quit. With your mother out of the picture and your father working nonstop overtime just to barely have enough cash to put food on the table for the both of you, you had come to rely on your minimum wage part-time hours more than you liked to admit. However, the handmade strings of paper hearts that hung from wall to wall throughout the entirety of the record shop you were employed at was enough to make you consider it; not to mention the Phil Collins record that had been spinning all day, filling your ears with melodies embodying the very air of romance, and the embarrassing pink sweater your boss had forced you to wear. You mumbled curses beneath your breath as you pulled at the collar, itching away at your neck.

When you made a step towards a crate full of records, ready to tidy it up after a customer had rummaged through it leaving it a mess, you were met with another face full of cheap red construction paper. With a large growl of exasperation, you swatted at the hearts and accidentally caused the entire string of them to fall to the ground. You cleared your throat, glad that no customers were present to see your little outburst.

Your boss, Jen, still saw it all.

“That’s not very festive of you, kid,” She said, taking a drag on her cigarette. “It’s Valentine’s Day! Lighten up.”

“Ah, my bad. I forgot that I was supposed to be overjoyed on the day honoring the execution of St. Valentine,” You said as you gave her a sarcastic smile. “I’ll make sure to smile at the next couple that walks in and ask them how they plan to contribute to the commercialization of a martyr’s death.”

“You must be real fun at parties,” Jen mumbled. She shook her cigarette at you from behind the counter. “You’re just bitter because you don’t have a valentine. I can’t blame anyone for giving you the cold shoulder with that attitude of yours.”

You scowled, picking up the string of hearts that you had sent crashing to the floor. “I’m not bitter, and I don’t want a date. Also, I told you to stop smoking inside! It smells awful.”

“Last I checked, this was my shop, not yours.” You rolled your eyes as you approached the counter, handing the discarded string to Jen so she could throw it in the trash. “Now you’re making me do chores for you too? You’ve got some nerve, I’ll give you that.”

“Jen, please, I’m really not in the mood for this today.”

Jen shrugged, bending towards the trash can to throw away the string of hearts when she paused and pulled something from the bin. You glanced over your shoulder and gasped when you saw what she held in her hand—a small red envelope with your name scrawled across the front and a pink heart-shaped sticker stuck on the back.

“What’s this?” Jen asked, opening the envelope and shaking out the contents. A single slip of paper fell out, landing atop the counter. You rushed to grab it, but Jen snatched it up just before your fingers reached the countertop.

“Give me that,” You insisted, face growing warm. “I threw it away for a reason!”

“It’s an invitation to a party?” She seemed beyond surprised, glancing back and forth between you and the paper several times. “You got invited to a Valentine’s Day party, and instead of going, you asked me to give you extra hours? Why?”

You looked down at your feet, digging the toe of your sneaker into the blue carpet. There were, in fact, many reasons why you did not want to go to that party. They were as follows:

One: Choi Yeonjun was the one who had invited you. After you had rejected his offer when he asked to take you to a basketball game a month before, you could barely make eye contact with him in the school hallway without feeling guilty. That and the fact that he was one of the richest preps in the school, you knew he had just been asking you out for some sort of prank or dare that you preferred to not potentially fall victim to.

Two: you needed to work as much as you could. Money, as always, was tight for you and your father. There was no way you would sacrifice precious hours to go to a party full of rich kids where nothing but humiliation was sure to await you.

Three: your old childhood friend and the one person you couldn’t bear to see was probably going to be there—Choi Soobin.

You had barely spoken to Soobin in the four years you had been in high school. Crossing paths with him in the cafeteria, turning down the same aisle of books as him in the library, all those tiny stolen glances and accidental encounters were the only bits of interaction you had kept throughout all that time. The worst part was, he hadn’t done anything wrong.

It was nothing but your own cowardice that had driven the two of you apart, and you were still too afraid to own up to it.

Instead of explaining all of this to Jen, you simply shrugged and said, “I dunno. It just sounds lame.”

Your boss sighed, holding the invitation out towards you. “Okay, I’m letting you off early. Go to the party.”

With wide eyes, you shook your head immediately. “Absolutely not. Why in the world would I go?”

“Well, first of all, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for you. Who knows when your next chance to go to a party will be.”

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at that.

“Second, it’s a holiday! The only reason I even opened today was because you were begging me for hours. I thought it was because you were bummed about having no plans, but clearly it’s because you wanted an excuse to be a recluse.”

“Hey, I’m not a recluse.”

“Clearly.” She shook the invitation at you once more, brows raised. “If you go, I’ll raise your pay by fifty cents for the next month.”

Your ears perked up at that.

“Well?” She asked, well aware that she had hit the jackpot. “What'd ya say?”

Weighing the risks against the benefits, you bit the inside of your cheek.

“Make it a dollar and you’ve got a deal.”

“HAPPY VALENTINE’S, CHOI.”

When Soobin heard the sarcastic remark coming from his best friend, Felix, he had to fight back the urge to burst into tears then and there. He still wasn’t quite sure how Felix had convinced him to come, but he was already regretting it. The last thing he wanted to do to celebrate the day dedicated to love was spend it at a house party—or, as Soobin preferred to call them, any outcast high school kid’s version of hell on earth.

With a quick peek between his fingers, which he had used to cover his eyes immediately upon arriving at the site of the Valentine’s party, Soobin caught another eye-full of couples getting all too familiar with one another out in the open. He gulped, letting his hands grip the handles of the bike as he averted his gaze, choosing to cast his best glare at Felix, who was busy adjusting his ever-present beanie.

“Shut up,” he murmured, slowly sliding off the seat of his bike. He dusted off the worn, tearing cushion, glancing around the area. “Now quick, we gotta put our stuff somewhere safe.”

Felix looked aghast, making no moves to help Soobin in his search for a hiding spot. “What are you doing?”

“Tryna find a safe place for my bike?” He thought the answer to be somewhat obvious, but clearly Felix wasn’t on the same track of thinking. “You don’t know today’s world! Anyone is willing to steal nowadays.”

“Soobin, your bike is coughing up oil from its chains. It should be in its own care home at this rate.”

“I don’t wanna hear your slander, skater boy,” Soobin retorted, eyeing Felix’s ebony skateboard that he refused to be seen without. As if on cue, when he pushed his bike forward, the chains squealed, drawing the attention of a pair of particularly passionate individuals who had been wrapped up with one another moments before. Soobin ignored their annoyed stares, feeling his ears burn from embarrassment. He glanced back to Felix. “Help me find a hiding spot.”

Felix was anything but enthusiastic, but he began to help Soobin search nonetheless.

“Slide it in here, Soobs,” Felix called a few moments later. He was pointed to an empty space between the home’s perfectly trimmed bushes. Soobin pursed his lips together, pushing his large glasses further up the bridge of his nose—a nervous tick of his. Felix groaned, rolling his eyes. “Or you can leave it out in the open so it’ll spit more oil on the passersby? Is that what you want?”

“Fine, fine!” Soobin huffed, wheeling his bike over to the shrubbery, chains squeaking all the way. He carefully laid it beneath the brush and moved a few branches to cover it up nicely. He stood up straight, dusting his hands on the front of his loose blue jeans. “What about your skateboard?”

Felix gave the board a pat, awarding his most prized possession a dazzling smile one would expect to see a proud father giving his beloved son. But in reality, it was the school’s stoner grinning ear to ear at his old, dusty skateboard. “Nightrider stays with me.”

Soobin scrunched his nose, cringing on instinct. He still calls that thing by that stupid name?

Felix clapped him on the shoulder before he could make a remark, catching him off guard when he said, “Right. Let’s go and get your girl.”

There was nothing Soobin could do to stop the flush that rushed to his cheeks right away. Images of you, his ex-best friend and the only reason he had even come to this party in the first place, flashed through his mind. Had he not overheard Yeonjun invite you earlier that morning and then casually mention the encounter to Felix, there was no way he would have even stepped foot out of his house that night. Part of him was peeved, wishing he had never uttered a single word about you to his overbearing friend. Yet, deep down, there was hope within him—the tiniest sliver.

If there was even the slightest chance that he could talk to you that night, he would do anything. Even if it meant dealing with a stupid party, and the never-ceasing teasing he was bound to continue receiving from Felix.

“Don’t even say that,” He said, emphasizing each word as they walked up the front steps. Soobin had to glance down at his much shorter friend to see the devious grin on his freckled face.

“Say what? That she’s your girl, your woman, your one and only?”

The blush must have been creeping to his neck by that point. He could feel it. “I. . .” There were many things Soobin wished to say; angry words that would hopefully shut the blonde skater boy up real quick. But he couldn’t bring himself to say a single harsh word, so he sighed in defeat. “I can’t even say it.”

“That you hate me?” Felix only grinned even bigger, and Soobin couldn’t help the tiny defeated smile that slipped over his features. “Oh, I know. It’s because I’m too good of a best friend.”

They stepped into the house then, instantly being overwhelmed by loud music, boisterous laughter, and drunken yells echoing throughout the halls. Soobin latched onto Felix right away, gripping his friend’s sleeve as someone stumbled into him, a bit of beer spilling from their cup. He pushed his glasses up, only for them to slide right back down as he began to sweat.

“Maybe we should go home, Lix!” Soobin shouted to be heard over the noise as they travelled further into the house. “We can always try next year!”

“Stop being a scaredy-cat!” Felix shouted back, and Soobin thought he might actually begin to cry as they squeezed their way into the living room. Soobin nearly gagged at the strong smell of alcohol as it burned in his nose. The scene was nothing short of a nightmare to Soobin—loud voices, smoke rising in the air, vodka assaulting his nose and sweat beading on the back of his neck. He had never been one to drink, and he didn’t plan on starting that night; but he was beginning to understand what Felix meant when he had once told him it was nearly impossible to get through one of these parties sober.

He was about to make another complaint and beg to leave when someone from the crowd hollered his name, causing him to wince when he recognized that voice as the one that belonged to none other than Choi Yeonjun.

“Soobin! Where you been?”

Soobin smiled nervously at the school’s heartthrob—and textbook snobby rich kid—before he turned back to Felix. He didn’t want to leave his friend, but he knew that he would never hear the end of it if he ignored Yeonjun’s persistent calls. “I’ll be right back,” He promised Felix, still holding onto his sleeve.

“No, no,” Felix assured. “You go. You’ll probably find her around that place anyway.”

Soobin wasn’t so sure of that. You were definitely not of the right social standing to be caught amongst the circle of the school’s rich boys—which was why it had surprised Soobin that Yeonjun had invited you to the party in the first place. Your high school had its own caste system, and you were near the bottom of it.

And, as much as it pained him to admit it, Soobin was stuck at the very top with all the other rich snobs who cared about nothing more than their daily allowances that came straight from their daddy’s bank account.

“What about you, buddy?” He asked Felix, desperate for any excuse to remain by his friend’s side. He would have tried to bring Felix with him, but his friend was in an even worse social standing than you were—he was poor, and he was most known for being the school’s pothead. There was no way Soobin would willingly drag him into a situation where nothing but slander and torment awaited him.

“Me?” Felix shrugged, gripping his board tighter. “I’ll just smoke away the night.”

Soobin pouted, glancing back at the group of preps as they called for him once again. He sighed, clapping Felix on the shoulder. “Just make sure you won’t smell too much of it when I come back.”

Submitting himself to his doom then, he turned on his heel and slowly made his way to where the group of boys sat near the sofa, giving them a half-hearted wave.

“Why were you hanging around that Felix guy?” Yeonjun asked once Soobin had reached their circle. “Did he blackmail you or something?”

Soobin frowned, pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “He’s my friend.”

Yeonjun rolled his eyes, brushing a hand through his perfectly-straightened ebony locks. “Sure he is. Tell me, do you see every kid you find on the streets as some sort of personal charity project? Or is it just Felix and—what was her name—” He snapped his fingers then before he said, “Y/N, right?”

Soobin didn’t respond—well, it was more like he couldn’t respond. By nature he was a very passive being, but nothing drew him closer to bouts of anger than when the people he cared about were being insulted right before him.

Especially when it came to you.

Yet, as much as he wanted to tell Yeonjun off or give him a nice shove into the smoke-stained walls, words failed him. They always did. Perhaps this was why you had abandoned him all those years ago. Nobody knew him better than you did, so of course you were able to see what he truly was beneath all the expensive clothes and nervous laughter—a coward.

He figured that he’d probably have left himself too.

“Drink up, buttercup.” The chipper voice that belonged to the other Choi in the small gathering of socialites, Choi Beomgyu, thrust a plastic red cup towards Soobin’s chest.

He shook his head, throwing another wavering smile in his direction. “No thanks. I don’t drink.”

Yeonjun rolled his eyes. “Of course you don’t. Why are you even here then?”

Once again, Soobin chose silence as his only response. He swallowed, patting the front pocket of his denim jacket. As the group of boys began conversing once more, he couldn’t help but let his eyes wander around the room, searching every drunken face for the features that belonged to you, trying to hear your name in every conversation, desperate for your voice to break through the blasting music and shouting voices.

“Who ya looking for there, Big Choi?” Soobin grimaced at the nickname. He was skinny, but incredibly tall, and nobody would let him forget that. “Big Choi” was one of his most common nicknames among the elitists. He despised it, but of course, he would never voice that aloud.

He glanced at Beomgyu and smiled nervously again, shaking his head. “Nobody.”

His eyes met Yeonjun’s and he gulped yet again as the latter eyed him with suspicion. It wasn’t as though he had anything to hide, but something about Yeonjun’s calculating gaze made his skin crawl.

He needed to escape. Just for a moment, at least.

“I’ll be right back. Going to find some water.”

He slipped out of the living room then, apologizing profusely to each couple he accidentally bumped into, bowing in remorse to each person’s toes his big feet happened to stumble over. He ached to be by Felix’s side—the stoned skateboarder had become somewhat of a security blanket to the taller of the duo—but his blonde friend was nowhere to be seen.

After snagging a bottle of water from the kitchen, Soobin managed to slip into an empty bathroom. He slammed the door shut and wasted no time in locking it. Letting out the biggest sigh of relief, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the door, taking a big gulp of the ice cold water.

He set the bottle on the counter and carefully reached into the front pocket of his jacket, his fingers finding the piece of paper he had been storing there all evening. He pulled it out and let his eyes wander over his middle school creation. It was a big heart, cut out from a scrap piece of red construction paper. Scrawled across it in his eight-grade handwriting were the words, Be mine this Valentine’s! His name was etched at the bottom, and at the very top, delicately printed in hot pink glitter glue, your name was written as well.

He had planned to give this to you four years ago on Valentine’s day. Everything had been planned out perfectly; he was to pick you up on his old, trusty bike. It wasn’t really made for two people, but the two of you had fashioned a makeshift extra seat for you to sit upon whenever you went places together.

He wanted to take you to the Dairy Shack, which was the local ice cream shop where the two of you spent the most time together. You always got a large chocolate shake to share, playing a quick game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who got to eat the cherry on top. He was going to order a shake and specially ask for two cherries that time, and planned to give both of them to you before he would bravely present you with the handmade card he had spent all day working on.

However, when he waited for you outside your house that day, the red dusk turned to pitch black night, and you never stepped foot out your door.

He had even gone up to your door a few times and knocked, but there was no answer. Eventually he pedalled off into the night, back to his house. He was disappointed, of course, but more worried than anything else. He had hoped you weren’t sick.

But when he saw you at school the next day, he knew that hadn’t been the case.

And when you ignored him calling your name as you passed by him in the hallways, he knew that something had drastically changed.

For weeks, Soobin was in great turmoil as he replayed your last few encounters together before you had stood him up. Perhaps you were angry that he had won the last few games of rock, paper, scissors? If he had known, he would have given you all the cherries for the rest of time if it meant you would still talk to him. He didn’t care about them—he cared about you.

He missed you.

And as weeks turned to months, and months turned to years, you still barely spoke to him, and he missed you more and more. The best friend he had wanted to take a step closer to had taken a thousand steps back from him, and he still had no idea why.

But that night, he was determined to find out.

Well, if he could muster up the courage to get a single word out, of course.

He folded the heart back up and stuck it back in his pocket, taking a deep breath as he observed himself in the fogged-up mirror. He fixed his bright blue hair that Felix had helped him bleach and dye, making sure the pieces fell over the corners of his eyes just right. He straightened his white turtleneck and cuffed the sleeves of his denim jacket until he was at least somewhat content with his appearance.

“You can do this, Soobs,” He told himself, adjusting his big round glasses further up the bridge of his nose. “That’s what Felix would say.”

“Hey, rich boy!” A loud scream came from outside the bathroom door, accompanied by harsh knocking that sent Soobin stumbling backwards until he fell in the shower, pulling the curtains down with him.

“Hurry up in there! I’m about to piss myself!”

Soobin let out a shaky sigh, scrambling to his feet as he rushed to fix the curtain he had torn down with his clumsiness. “Sorry,” he mumbled, though he doubted the person on the other side of the door could hear him.

He realized then with an ever growing dread that it would be a miracle if he survived the night long enough to even find you, but it would take the work of God himself for him to actually speak to you.

He figured it was time for him to start praying.

YOU KNEW IT WAS A MISTAKE TO LET JEN DO YOUR MAKEUP.

When she had stopped you on your way out the door with a compact of bright purple eyeshadow, you had turned her down right away. No way in all of creation were you walking in a party with such an atrocious color caked up to your brow bone.

“How can you say it’s gonna look bad if you haven’t even let me try?” Jen had asked.

You had given her a once-over, your lips pressed into a thin line. “If it’s gonna look anything like the way you do your own makeup, I’m gonna have to pass.”

After that snide remark, she had threatened to fire you if you didn’t let her apply the makeup. And so you obliged, though you didn’t have much of a choice.

The booming sounds of the party hit your ears before you had even reached the lawn. Screaming teens—well, there were probably some adults thrown in there as well—and the sound of music spilled through the open windows of the home. Couples and singles alike were scattered throughout the perfectly kept lawn that was now littered with empty cups and other assortments of garbage.

You looked down at your patchwork jeans and pink sweater, certain that you would be underdressed compared to the rest of the partygoers. But from the looks of things, as you carefully squeezed your way through the front door and into the home, everyone was probably too wasted to even notice your arrival, let alone care about your looks.

You caught a glimpse of your face in the hallway mirror, cringing at the sight of your eyeshadow. You had tried to wipe some of it away before arriving, but it simply smudged, giving you quite the shocking smoky, purple eye look. For someone who didn’t even know the difference between a paintbrush and a makeup brush, it was a bold look, to say the least.

If Soobin saw you looking like this, he’d probably have a heart attack.

Soobin.

In the midst of all your frantic preparation, you had nearly forgotten about the main reason why you had planned to avoid this party at all costs. With a quick glance around the room, you realized that he was nowhere to be seen. You wouldn’t have been surprised if he hadn’t shown up at all. He was never a fan of parties, anyway.

You crossed your arms over your chest and slowly slipped past the couples crowding the hallway with their limbs intertwined, mouths practically swallowing one another whole, until you reached the living room. Surprisingly, it was less crowded in here than you thought it might be. A few minglers were scattered about the room’s perimeter, but they all kept away from the center of the room, which was occupied by none other than Choi Yeonjun and all his brainless, rich-boy worshippers. You quickly scanned the group, not able to make out Soobin among them. When you realized he wasn’t there, you were partly relieved and partly disappointed. If was to be anywhere at this party, it would probably be with these guys.

With a quick turn on your heel, you planned to make your way out of the living room before Yeonjun could see you. The last thing you wanted was for the boy with a bruised ego to see you, regardless of whether or not he had been the one to invite you.

“Y/N? You came?”

Too late.

Plastering a forced grin to your face, you slowly turned to face Yeonjun, who had just called your name. He was eyeing you with slight surprise, but soon, a smirk slipped across his lips as he motioned for you to come over. You had to hold back your sigh, wishing there was some way for you to get out of this situation. It was all Jen’s fault that you had to show up in the first place. You decided you were going to demand an extra ten cents be added to your raise the next time you saw your pushy boss.

“Hey Yeonjun,” you said once you had walked over to him. “I figured I’d stop by for a minute or two, since you were kind enough to invite me.”

He smirked, glancing at a few of his friends. They shared a knowing laugh with one another, but the meaning of it was lost to you. You wanted nothing more than to get away from them, but that wasn’t an option.

“You’re too busy to go out with me to a basketball game but free enough to come to a party, huh?” He asked.

You blinked, digging your nails into your arms. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s fine, really,” He drawled, swirling his plastic cup of beer in his hand. “You didn’t think I’d be upset or anything did you? I only asked you out because I was dared to shack up with you. But I’m guessing you already knew that, since you’re so smart and all.”

Your eyes went wide, but you managed to control the rest of your expression. It was just like you had guessed—Yeonjun had invited you to the party with the sole purpose of making a scene.

If you survived the night, Jen was never going to hear the end of it.

“You’re not gonna say anything?” He asked, pushing himself to his feet. You could tell by the slight stumble in his step and his hooded eyes that he had quite a bit to drink. He took a step towards you, causing you to back up immediately. Your back hit the wall, and you placed your palms against it as Yeonjun towered over you.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I know why you’re here anyways.” He leaned forward, his lips hovering near your ear. “You’re here to see Soobin, aren’t you? Since he’s the only one here willing to waste his time on filth like you.”

Your blood boiled, and you had to clench your fists at your sides to control your anger.

“Don’t,” You seethed, “Call me that.”

“Call you what? Filth? Or sweetheart? Why, is that something good old Binnie used to call you—”

He never got to finish that sentence, because with one big burst of anger, you stomped on his toe as hard as you could with your worn-out platform sneaker.

“What the hell!” He screeched, drawing the attention of several others in the room. His outburst even caused a few of the couples to pull away from each other’s faces long enough to eavesdrop.

Before you could even say anything back, lukewarm liquid was splashed up in your face, burning your eyes and nose. You gasped, running your hands over your eyes to see Yeonjun with his now empty cup of beer pointed towards you.

“Think twice before you act out against me next time, sweetheart. Never forget your place.”

Tears of anger burned in your eyes, and you scanned the room to see several people exchanging whispers and giggles as they glanced in your direction. You pushed past Yeonjun and quickly made your way out the back door of the house, unable to stand the humiliation for a moment longer.

Soobin arrived in the living room just in time to see you leave.

He wasted no time in rushing towards Yeonjun, grabbing hold of his arm. “Yeonjun, was that Y/N?” He asked, eyes quickly taking in the puddle of alcohol on the floor and the empty cup in Yeonjun’s hand. “What happened?”

“Nothing you need to worry your pretty blue head about, Big Choi. I just put her in her place is all.”

Soobin’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean you ‘put her in her place?’”

Yeonjun laughed, giving Soobin a nonchalant pat on the back. “Just drop it, would you? It has nothing to do with you.”

“What did you say, Yeonjun?”

Yeonjun was growing irritated now. He huffed out a breath, crossing his arms over his chest. “I said it has nothing to do with you, Soobin. I know you like to hang around people like that pothead Felix, but the rest of us live in the real world, where we’d rather not waste our time with those who have no future anyways. I bet he’s the one that got you to dye your hair that god awful blue, isn’t he?”

Soobin bit the inside of his cheek. He so badly wished to rip Yeonjun to shreds then and there. If he had Felix’s courage, the cocky bastard would have been knocked to the ground ages ago. But if there was one thing Soobin was sure he could never be, it was brave. And so, despite his rage, he remained silent, his eyes practically burning a hole through Yeonjun’s chest from how intently he was glaring.

It seemed as though Yeonjun was about to say something, but his eyes landed on the bit of red that peeked through the front pocket of Soobin’s denim jacket. Before Soobin had time to defend himself, Yeonjun had reached forward and snatched it from his pocket, revealing the large paper heart—his valentine for you.

“So this is why you care so much,” Yeonjun said, laughing as his eyes scanned the glittery words that decorated the page. “You want her to be your valentine.”

“Give that back,” Soobin said quietly, his hands beginning to shake.

Yeonjun instead lifted his eyes to Soobin, gave him a sickly sweet grin, and ripped the heart straight down the middle. He let the two pieces fall from his hands to the ground, and with them Soobin’s heart went also.

“You’re really willing to try and go against me, and for what? For the sake of a girl who can’t even afford a new pair of jeans and a boy that smokes his life away in the bathroom stalls?” Yeonjun took a slow step towards Soobin, his eyes glinting with a sinister determination. “You may be rich, Soobin, but if you choose to lower yourself to their standards, you may as well be dirt poor just like they are.”

With his hands clenched into tight fists, his glasses sliding down his nose, and his heart quite literally in two pieces on the floor below him, Soobin decided that he had had enough.

“I’d much rather be associated with people who are kind and have actual depth to their character than be lumped together with a bunch of pricks like you with no real personality—because that’s something you can’t buy with daddy’s paycheck.”

He had to physically restrain himself from slapping his hand across his own mouth in shock. It was as if the spirit of Felix himself had possessed him to say such harsh things. He wondered where Felix was then, wishing more than ever before to have his best friend by his side as he began to tremble from either the rush of adrenaline that coursed through his veins, or from fear. Or perhaps it was both.

He didn’t have time to ponder it any longer before Yeonjun’s fist collided with his nose, resulting in a sickening crack as pain echoed throughout his face in tidal waves.

He stumbled backward as people began to shout, raising his hand to his nose and gasping when he saw that his palm was covered in blood.

Beomgyu had his arms wrapped around Yeonjun, who was desperately trying to lunge towards Soobin once again.

“Knock it off, Yeonjun!” Beomgyu shouted, pushing the elder back. “His dad is on the school board! Are you trying to get expelled?”

Beomgyu looked over his shoulder at the still stunned Soobin, who was gaping at the blood that now stained his once white turtleneck.

“Get lost, Soobin,” Beomgyu said, to which Soobin only blinked in reply, his ears ringing.

“Now!”

Head spinning, Soobin picked up the two halves of his paper heart, stuffed them into his jeans, and stumbled out the same door he had seen you go through just minutes before. After checking to make sure his glasses were still intact—they were, thankfully—he shook his head in an effort to clear his mind of the static, eyes scanning the front lawn looking for any trace of you.

It didn’t take long for his eyes to spot you among the now dwindling crowd of partygoers. Your bright pink sweater stood out against the darkness, so he was able to recognize you even with your back towards him. He sniffed, wiping the back of his hand against his dripping nose as he slowly made his way to where you sat on the curb, your feet planted on the asphalt street. He wished that he looked a bit more presentable—when he played this scene out in his head over the years in which he would finally reunite with you, he never imagined himself dazed and covered in blood.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, he supposed.

When he reached you, he simply stood beside you in silence for a moment, unsure of what to say. He could tell that you sensed his presence, but you refused to look up at him as you kept your face buried in your hands. He could have sworn he heard a few muffled sobs slip through your fingers, but of course, he wasn’t going to bring that up.

Eventually he decided to slip his jacket off of his shoulders, leaning down to drape it over you. You still kept your head down as he sat beside you on the curb, but he watched you grip the jacket and pull it tighter around your body. He smiled a bit, holding the collar of his turtleneck against his throbbing nose.

“Thank you,” you muttered, wiping your hand across your eyes. You finally looked over at him, and when you did, you couldn’t hold back your gasp. “My God Soobin, what happened to your face?”

“Oh, well, I might have gotten punched,” He said quickly, trying to wave off your concern. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Punched? By who?”

He looked down at the ground, sniffing as a drop of blood hit the pavement. “Yeonjun,” he muttered under his breath.

“I’m sorry, did you just say Yeonjun? Are you insane? Why on earth would you butt heads with the Choi Yeonjun?”

Soobin didn’t say anything in response, he simply stared at you, eyes wide with beer dripping off the ends of your hair, makeup smeared across your face, your sweater stained down the front. It didn’t seem to take long for you to put the pieces together, as the shock left your face and was replaced with something akin to guilt.

“Oh,” You said, looking back down at your shoes.

“So she knows that I did it all for her,” Soobin thought.

For some reason, the idea of that both terrified and excited him.

A second later, he glanced over to see you ripping one of the hand-sewed patches of fabric off your jeans, leaving a square of your skin exposed to the chilly night air. You leaned towards him, pushing his hand away from his nose so you could use the patch to clean up some of the blood on and around his puffy red nose.

“Y/N, your pants!” He exclaimed, trying to push your hand away. “They’re ruined!”

“I’m not worried about my pants, you idiot,” You said, swatting his hand away as you continued to press the cloth against his skin. “You got punched in the face because of me, this is the least I could do.”

“That was my choice though,” He muttered, although he stopped trying to resist your touch. He ignored the way his heart thrummed harder in his chest, hoping that you couldn’t hear.

“Well, this is my choice too.” Your eyes flicked to his for a brief moment, your bottom lip pulled between your teeth. “Why did you do it, by the way?”

“Do what?”

“Stand up to Yeonjun for me and get a nasty nosebleed as a result.”

“Oh.” He blinked slowly, keeping his eyes fixed on yours. “Just ‘cause.”

“Because . . . ?”

“Because of you.” He blurted, causing your hand to go still against him. He swallowed his fear, braving the best smile that he could. “Just you. That was my only reason.”

You didn’t say anything as your hand fell from his face, the cloth clutched between your fingers. The anxiety he had tried his best to suppress came rushing up all at once, and he was surprised that his ears didn’t begin to squeal like a tea kettle from all the pressure.

“Y/N,” He said, gently placing his hand over yours despite how his fingers trembled. “Why did you pull away from me?”

“What?”

“Four years ago. Why did you stop talking to me?”

You were quiet for a moment, digging into the ground with the toe of your sneaker. Soobin held his breath until you finally replied with, “I was afraid.”

“Afraid? Of what?”

“We were getting older, Binnie,” You said, and his heart skipped at the use of your old nickname for him. “You and I, we’re from very different walks of life. You get to hang out with people like Yeonjun, whereas I get a cup of beer poured all over my face just for existing, and you get a fist to the nose for trying to stand up for me. We’re from different sides of the track, one might say.”

“So?” Soobin asked, his hand tightening around yours. “Did you really think that would affect us that much, Y/N?”

You frowned, glancing down at his hand over yours.

“I thought you’d be embarrassed of me,” You said, your voice barely above a whisper.

“Embarrassed?” Soobin’s eyes went wide as he gripped your hand tighter still, pulling it into his lap. “Y/N, I would never, ever be embarrassed of you. Besides, have you seen my best friend? He’s on a first name basis with the principal because of how often he gets written up for smoking behind the school. If I’m not embarrassed of him, why would I ever be embarrassed of you?”

You laughed, wiping the back of your hand across your eyes once more. “I guess I was worried about nothing, huh?” You sniffed, giving his hand a squeeze. “I’m sorry, Soobin.”

He shook his head, squeezing your hand right back. “Don’t apologize. You’re here now, that’s what matters. Do think we could—you know—”

“Pick up where we left off?” You smiled, nodding vigorously. “I’d like that very much, Binnie.”

He beamed then, almost pinching himself to be sure that he was not dreaming, but the pain in his nose was real enough to remind him of that on its own. He jumped to his feet, pulling you right up with him.

“In that case, how about we finally go on that Valentine’s date I had planned all the way back then?”

“Date?” You asked, a brow raised. “Is it really considered a date if two friends are just hanging out?”

He didn’t respond as he pulled you along behind him towards the bushes where he and Felix had hidden his bike. He crouched down and moved the branches aside, feeling his heart drop to his stomach when he realized that his bike was, in fact, no longer there.

He shot up, turning to face you with eyes wide. “Felix—that bastard took my bike!”

You were quiet for a moment, but then, you burst into boisterous laughter, leaving Soobin utterly confused.

“It’s not funny, Y/N!” He whined, shoving your shoulder lightly. “I was supposed to take you to the Dairy Shack on my bike!”

“It is funny,” You said between bursts of laughter. “Only you would get such a rusty old piece of metal stolen from you.”

He pushed his lips out in a pout, sliding his glasses up his sore nose. “It’s a good bike, don’t make fun of it.”

You grinned, interlocking his fingers with yours, which was enough to instantly wipe the pout right off his face.

“Let’s just walk, Binnie. The Dairy Shack isn’t that far anyways.”

You were right; the walk to your favorite milkshake place was very close to the house where the party had occurred. Although Felix stealing his bike had thrown an obvious wrench in his plans, it was a minor hiccup, and one he could most definitely handle. Besides, he wouldn’t have to see Felix until the next day anyways. He could deal with his frustration then.

At least, that’s what he thought anyways, until the two of you spotted Felix at the skatepark on your way to the dairy shack.

Soobin’s eyes took in the deplorable sight before him—from where he stood on the dimly lit sidewalk, he could see Felix and a girl he had never seen before, their faces nearly pressed together, and most importantly, with his bike discarded a few yards away from them.

“Soobin,” You said, tugging on his arm. “They look like they’re busy, let’s just go—”

But Soobin, who had little patience when it came to Felix messing up his plans, didn’t let you finish before he screamed, “Give me back my freaking bike!”

You had to hold back your snort of laughter at his choice of words. Even when he was trying to sound angry, he was undeniably adorable.

Soobin watched as Felix startled, clutching his spliff between his fingers as he glared daggers back at his friend. Soobin gulped, trying not to let his fear show on his face. What did he have to be afraid of, anyways? He was the victim of thievery, and his best friend was the offender.

Felix took a big step towards him, but he paused, his eyes landing on your interlocked hands. Soobin glanced down as well, his face growing furiously warm as he realized the situation he had gotten himself into.

He decided to divert the subject before it could even be brought up by saying, “I can’t believe you stole my bike! All this time I was trying to hide it from strangers, but you, my best friend! I should’ve been hiding it from you!”

Soobin noticed Felix’s female companion step off the skateboard and walk over in his direction, and for a second he felt bad for possibly ruining her night with his best friend. However, his frustration was more prominent in the moment as he fixed his gaze back on his best friend, who had fixed a mischievous smirk upon his face that made warning sirens blare in Soobin’s head right away.

“Now, now, buddy,” Felix said, his voice calm and carefree as ever. It probably had something to do with what he had just smoked, but Soobin didn’t care all that much. “You’re just gonna have to let me borrow it for a little longer.”

Soobin nearly laughed at the audacity of such a statement. “You are gonna give me the bike, or—”

“How about this, Soobs?” Soobin’s lips clamped shut at his friend’s interruption, as the thief in question gestured with his joint to where Soobin’s fingers were locked with yours. “You let me keep your bike for the night, and I don’t tell your dad about you hanging out with the opposite gender.”

Unable to control yourself, you let out a big laugh. Soobin would have felt betrayed, but he was more terrified than anything else at the idea of his father finding out that he was taking a girl out without his permission. He would be grounded for weeks—no, months.

“You wouldn’t.”

Felix’s lips curled up even more into a twisted grin that Soobin wished he had the guts to slap off his face. “God, just imagine the look on Mr. Choi’s face. Imagine him finding out about your premarital hand holding.”

No. Not the hand holding.

Soobin almost felt faint, but he steeled himself to the best of his abilities as he cleared his throat. “One night, Lix,” he warned. “If I don’t see it on my porch in the morning, you’ll be sorry!”

“Oh, I’m so scared,” Felix teased. His expression changed a moment later though, when he finally noticed Soobin’s swollen nose and blood-stained turtleneck. “Wait, Soobs, the hell happened to you?”

Soobin, however, had already taken his first steps away from the skatepark, pulling you along behind him. “I’ll tell you later, bud. Enjoy your spliff with that kind girl who you probably don’t deserve!”

“Hey!”

Soobin couldn’t help but laugh as he swung your interlocked hands together, grinning as you let out a laugh as well. The anger that had seeped through him seemed to melt away in an instant as the two of you continued your journey to the Dairy Shack.

“Would your dad really be that upset if he found out about this?” You asked.

Soobin grimaced. “We should probably wait til next year to tell him about this outing. Or maybe the year after that.”

When the two of you had finally reached the Dairy Shack, you waited outside for him while he went in to order your drink. A large chocolate milkshake, with two straws, just like you used to get every time before.

When he had the drink in hand, he walked back outside and sat down beside you on the curb, smiling as you wrapped his jacket tighter around your shoulders. You smiled back up at him, your eyes creasing from the expression. Your smile had always struck him right to his core; he had missed seeing it every day.

He hoped he could see it every morning and every night from that day onward. There was no way he would let you go this time.

He just had to muster up the courage to grab hold of you first.

“You know what, Binnie, you turned out to be a lot taller than I thought you ever would be,” you said as you took one of the straws from his hands. “You’re actually enormous. It’s shocking.”

“Should I find that offensive? It sounds kinda like an insult.”

“Take it however you will,” You teased, leaning over as he popped the plastic lid off the milkshake. He grabbed the cherry by the stem and held it towards you.

“What are you doing?” You asked, holding out your fist. “We have to rock, paper, scissors for it. Remember?”

Soobin laughed as he shook his head. “I’m giving it to you this time. It’s what I planned to do all those years ago, when I asked you to hang out on Valentine’s.”

You seemed to be taken aback, but you simply shrugged as you plucked the cherry from his hand and pulled it from the stem with your teeth, glancing back over at him. It was silent for a moment, but then your eyes landed on the pocket of his jeans, where you could see a bit of red paper poking out. You leaned over even further, reaching your hand out to snatch the paper.

“What are you—hey! Give that back!”

Soobin desperately tried to take his Valentine back from you, but it was too late. You held both halves of what used to be a whole in your hands, your eyes scanning the words as you pieced them together.

“Soobin . . .”

He held his breath. Had his act of young love left you completely speechless? Were you so touched that you would burst into tears?

“This looks like a middle schooler made it.”

He let out the breath in the form of a long, long sigh.

“That’s because it was made by a middle schooler,” He said as he set the milkshake down beside him. “I made it back in the eighth grade. I planned to give it to you that Valentine’s.”

“Oh.” You ran your finger along the card’s surface, the smallest smile creeping across your lips. “Well in that case, it’s not half bad. Why’s it ripped though?”

“Ah—well, Yeonjun . . .”

You nodded, taking another glance at his swollen nose. “No need to elaborate. It seems you had a lot planned for our Valentine’s Day back then. Is there anything else you wanted to do?”

His mouth went dry at that, and he wished that you couldn’t see his face because he was sure that his expression was quite comical. All the way back then, four years prior, he had in fact planned the perfect, ideal day in his head. Picking you up on his bike, giving you the cherry from his milkshake, and presenting you with his hand made card.

There was only one thing left on his list.

He didn’t move at first, willing himself to have enough courage to even look back in your direction. But when he finally did allow his eyes to meet yours, he felt his shoulders relax and his heart rate became more manageable.

He took a deep breath, leaned forward, and pressed his lips against your cheek.

He lingered there for only a moment before he pulled back, daring to pry one of his eyes open to take in the look on your face.

The disappointment was palpable—from the way your brows furrowed together and the way you pursed your lips. His stomach dropped, and he scooted the tiniest bit away from you.

“I’m sorry,” He blurt out, his face growing warmer by the second. “I shouldn’t have done that, I just—”

“Is that all?”

Your question stopped him mid-ramble, his eyes growing wide. “Huh?”

“Is that all?” You repeated, closing the distance between you that he had created. “It’s Valentine’s Day, Soobin. I think we can do better than a peck on the cheek.”

The implications of what you were saying didn’t register with him right away, but when it finally did, he could have sworn his heart began to beat loud enough for the entire town to hear. His hand curled into a fist as he gripped the denim of his jeans. He leaned forward, keeping his eyes open just enough to watch you as he brought his lips closer to yours. He could feel your eyes on him all the while, causing his heart to pound fiercer still within him.

When he was just a breath away, he whispered, “Can you close your eyes?”

“Hm?”

He lifted his hand, gently placing it over your eyes. He leaned closer then, filling the space between you both as his lips met yours. You tasted vaguely of cherry and strawberry slice soda, and he found it quite nice the way his lips seemed to fit perfectly against your own. As the seconds drew on, your hands slipped around his neck, pulling him closer. He slowly let his hand fall from your eyes, tracing lines with the tips of his fingers down your cheek before he cradled your jaw, letting his lips part just enough to taste the sweet sugar on your lips once more.

He thought in a haze that it was a good thing he didn’t drink anything at the party, as kissing you was proving to be intoxicating enough on its own.

When you finally pulled away, leaving your forehead resting against his, he let his eyes flutter open enough to see the euphoric smile that adorned your features. He grinned as well, gently running his thumb against your cheek.

“I think that back then, I had planned to ask you this before kissing you,” He whispered, “But Y/N, will you be my Valentine?”

Instead of a spoken answer, you laughed, leaning forward to capture his lips with yours once again, and that was the only answer Choi Soobin would ever need.

WHEN SOOBIN ARRIVED HOME THAT NIGHT, HE WENT STRAIGHT FOR THE TELEPHONE.

It was kept upstairs at night right outside his parent’s door, to keep himself and his brother from using it in the late hours. Of course, this never stopped Soobin from sneaking it downstairs to his room in the basement to make late night calls to Felix.

And that particular evening, he really needed to give Felix an update.

He grabbed the phone from the small table in the hallway, carefully tiptoeing towards the basement stairs. Before he had even taken the first step down, the bathroom door creaked open. Soobin whipped his head around to see his brother Kai standing there, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he raised a brow at his older brother.

Soobin froze, blinking slowly as he realized the incriminating situation he found himself in.

“Please don’t tell mom,” He whispered, his eyes pleading with his younger brother.

Kai nodded, although Soobin wasn’t quite convinced that the boy was even coherent enough to understand what was going on. Soobin offered a rushed thank you, and ventured his first step down the stairs.

Well, he tried, anyways, and ended up missing the first step. He tumbled down the rest of the stairs, landing on his butt at the very end.

He winced in pain, glad to see that the phone was still intact in his hands. He glanced over his shoulders to see Kai staring down the stairway with wide eyes, his lips parted in shock. Soobin quickly put a finger to his lips, begging his brother for silence.

Kai simply shook his head and walked away, allowing Soobin the freedom to breathe out a sigh of relief.

He quickly ran to his bedroom and shut the door, collapsing onto his bed with the phone as his breaths came in ragged gasps as an aftereffect from his tumble down the stairs. He figured he should have dialed Felix’s number right away, but he couldn’t help but brush his fingers against his lips, remembering the feeling and taste of having yours pressed against them.

He was so caught up in his daze that he didn’t notice Felix calling until the third ring.

He picked it up, breathing heavily into the speaker as he rubbed a sore spot on his lower back.

“Please tell me that panting is from running a marathon, and not what I think you’ve successfully tried.”

Soobin nearly gagged, holding the phone away from his face as he coughed, flustered by his friend's crude words. He brought the phone back to his face and said, “No, you sicko, I just fell down the stairs.”

“How the hell did you manage that with those long legs?”

“That’s not important, Lix!” He laid back onto his pillows then, twirling the phone cord in his hands as he stared up at his ceiling, the memories of his adventure with you that night flooding his mind once more. He couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear as he said, “Look, I need to tell you something important.”

If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that he could hear the smile in Felix’s voice too as his friend replied.

“Well buddy, I got something to tell you too.”

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ariadne-does-her-best · 3 years

Text

Sparks Dancing Across Your Skin

Jason Todd x Reader One-Shot; Soulmate!Au

Word Count: 5,000+

Warnings: Mentions of death, gets very angsty but ends with a happy ending :)

Author's Note: Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that I’m trying to post once every two weeks on Sunday but its very difficult for me right now. I just started college this week so I haven't been very active on any of my socials because of my orientation schedule. Originally, this was going to be around the same length as the Dick one-shot but when I finished writing it, it didn’t feel complete so I may go back and turn this into a series. I’m not very satisfied with this but I did want to try and post regularly. Please let me know how you like this and if you would be willing to read a series with a similar plot. Thank you, Ariadne.

Summary: As someone with a busy schedule, you never really thought of who could be your soulmate. Rather you didn’t have the time. But lucky for you, it’s your friend. Unluckily for you, he’s a vigilante and you don’t even know his secret identity.

You sighed as you packed up your belongings. You never meant to stay late but here you were, sitting in Mrs. Jones’s classroom, and if the clock was correct, Mrs. Jones herself had left more than two hours ago.

The class committee meetings weren’t supposed to take so long but that was only if the president, vice president, and secretary were all sharing the workload. As president, you had to pick up all of the slack that your friends left you. But you didn’t mind since you understood that they also have a life outside of school.

As you left the classroom, you made sure the door was locked on the inside before checking your phone. You only had one text and it was from your mother, telling you that she had to jet over to Paris to meet with an investor and that your father had gone to South Korea to look at some sort of textile for her. She ended the text by saying that she loves you and that she’ll try to be back in a week.

You stuffed your phone back into your pocket, turning the corner of the hallway towards the main entrance. You had parked your car in the back of the parking lot, something that you had started to regret once you saw how deserted the school really was. Remembering the fact that most people were kidnapped in parking lots, albeit grocery store parking lots, they were still parking lots at the end of the day. You sped up when you saw your car and yanked the door open before locking it after sitting inside. When you turned around to put your seatbelt on, you let out a scream when you saw that someone was in your backseat.

“Calm down, it's just me,” the boy said in the back, his red domino mask doing nothing to mask the laughter threatening to spill out of his mouth.

You sighed, running a hand through your hair as you stared at the boy who was laying on your backseat. Robin was organizing the items in your car, putting them into two piles. You watched him as he pulled out a piece of gum and popped a bubble. You smiled as you shook your head before coughing as you turned your car on, effectively grabbing his attention.

“You wanna go to the diner and tell me why you’re not with the Bat tonight?”

At that he pursed his lips, a small smile threatening to spill over.

“I dunno if I should…”

“I’ll pay.”

“Deal.”

*****

When you had first met Robin, it was after he had tried to help you escape from a mugger. Instead of cowering like he had expected you to, you had just grabbed the man's arm, twisting it as far back as you could without breaking it, and kicked him down. Robin had swooped down, laughing as he handcuffed the man and complimented you on your punch. You both were waiting for the GCPD when your stomach grumbled and you offered to treat him to some waffles at the diner across the street since it had started snowing. After that, you both kept meeting up frequently at night, him on patrol and you going home after finishing whatever official school-related event you had.

And soon enough, those nights all added up to you and Robin meeting up frequently to eat at the same diner from the first time you had met. You liked your friendship with Robin. Even though you had no idea who he was under the mask, you felt comfortable with him, like he was your rock to help keep you grounded.

As you sat there and watched him fiddle with the menu, you resisted the urge to grab his hands and instead looked down at your own hands. You started picking at the skin on one of your still healing scabs from where a cat from the animal shelter you volunteered at had scratched you.

“You should stop that,” Robin was looking at you, his bottom lip stuck out slightly in what you recognized as worry.

“You’re my distraction,” you waved your hand at him, “so go on, distract me.”

“What do you want me to talk about,” he asked as he leaned back, letting Linda, the waitress, put your regular orders down on the table. After a chorus of ‘thank you’s, you sipped your hot chocolate and contemplated on what to ask him. There was so much you didn’t know about Robin, such as his identity, but you didn’t want to scare him away.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”.

“Maybe a librarian,” he said after a long pause. You smiled at that and started stuffing your face with your hashbrowns, watching as Robin finished chewing his food.

“What about you, what do you want to be?”

You sat there, thinking. You never really knew what you wanted to be. Every year, you would have a new dream job but it never felt right to you. You just shrugged before turning the topic to books and different book recommendations, watching his eyes light up at the mention of literature.

“You should read Le Petit Prince,” you said as you both stood outside on the chilly November night. You had talked about different works by Shakespeare and had only started heading outside once Linda told you that it was ten. It was snowing slightly and Robin looked breathtaking with the white snow in his dark hair, his red mask creating a sharp contrast against the fairness of his skin.

“Only if you read it to me,” he said before grappling to the top of the veterinarian's office near the diner. You slowly walked to your car and turned it on. Robin was still sitting on the top of the building and as you pulled out of the parking lot, you waved goodbye to him before heading home, rolling your eyes with a smile when you realized that he was following you by running across the roofs of the buildings.

*****

“Hello, I’m (Y/N) (L/N), your tutor here at the Student Center. And you are?”

“Jason Todd,” the boy said, nodding at you as he pulled out his chair and sat down. You smiled at him and wrote his name down on the form you were given. You asked him basic questions about his grade, what class the assignment he wanted to go over was from, and what his reason was for visiting the center.

“All right, so it looks like Mr. Mijia wanted you to come in here and just have someone review your essay for you. Is he doing the extra credit padding before final exams again?”

Jason nodded his head and you marked the according box.

“Alright, the first thing I’m going to have you do is pull up an electronic copy and pass the hard copy to me. Then we’ll have you read it aloud so we can catch any grammatical errors.”

Jason nodded again before clearing his throat and reading his paper off of his screen, stumbling over the wording of his essay only twice. You were impressed, his style of writing was advanced, with him connecting his ideas throughout the whole essay.

“As time progresses, it is imperative to look--”

“Hey bestie,” you sighed when you heard the grating voice of Elsie Lager. You gave Jason an apologetic look before forcing a smile on your face as you faced Elsie.

“Hi Els, what are you doing here,” you asked, taking note of the way her eyes flitted over Jason, before landing on you.

“I’m just here to give you these,” she said, holding out a thick manilla folder. “Mrs. Jones said that we have to read through all of these proposals for the Spring Fling and Jackson and I thought that you could do it since you are the president. And because your mom is the famous torchbearer in today’s fashion world. It’ll just be soooo easy for you.”

You resisted the urge to smack Elsie with the manilla folder, aware of the fact that if you did that there was a witness, and instead took it from her hands before flipping through it. Great, there were over fifty concepts and designs to choose from. Taking out your planner, you wrote down ‘choose Spring Fling concept’ between your Taekwondo lesson and your animal fashion show at the shelter.

“I have that down, anything else I can do for you Elsie,” you asked with a strained smile. The brunette stood there, twisting a piece of hair around her pointer finger before smacking her forehead.

“OMG, I totally forgot! Callisto Barsotti told me that you should keep your ears open for an invite to one of his parties. I’ve gotta go now but you just have to tell me how you got Callisto to notice you, you lucky bitch.”

You watched as Elsie left the library, blowing a kiss towards you, in a blur of white. Sighing, you turned back around to Jason.

“I’m so sorry about the interruption. Why don’t you continue reading from where you were interrupted.”

“She’s a bitch,” Jason said. Your eyes widened in surprise and you watched as he leaned towards you, resting his face on his hand. “Why are you friends with people that take advantage of you like that?”

You sucked in your breath, keeping your face impassive as you stared down at him.

“You have no idea what my life is like Jason Todd,” you said evenly, setting the manilla folder to the side. “And because you don’t know me, why don’t we talk about something we do have some knowledge about: your essay.”

Jason just sighed before he started packing his items up, tugging the hard copy of his essay out from under your hands.

“You and I both know that I don’t need help with my essay. But if you ever need help, let me know,” and with a familiar wave, he left you sitting in the library, confused about how you had gotten his attention when you both weren’t even in the same grade.

*****

You scanned the room as you tugged your jacket around you. You normally didn’t attend parties, especially those that you knew involved alcohol, but your mother had pushed you to go after being nagged by Elsie’s mother by her daughter’s lack of invitation. And speaking of Elsie, she had left you alone as soon as she had entered the house. Which sucked since she had insisted on driving in her new Mercedes.

As you walked around the living room, making small talk with the people who greeted you, you couldn’t help but think about what Jason Todd had told you. It frustrated you that he took up so much space in your head, that he was all that you could think of since that day in the library.

He didn’t know anything about your life. While he had grown up on the streets, you had grown up with a silver spoon in your mouth, never having to worry about anything.

‘But you do worry,’ the small voice in your head said, sounding very similar to Robin. You needed a drink.

You were searching the coolers for a bottle of water when a heavy arm wrapped around your shoulders causing you to flinch and elbow them in the stomach.

“Ow, what was that for,” the person asked, slurring their words slightly. You looked up and sighed when you saw it was the host of the party, Callisto Barsotti. He smiled at you and rubbed at his stomach before holding his arms out, “I’ll let you go if you give me a hug,” he said, enunciating his words with grabby motions.

Normally, you would be on your best behavior, helping whoever was drunk by getting them water and calling their friends, but you were pissed. You didn’t want to be at this party, instead, your mother had forced you to go after Mrs. Lager had bitched to your mom about her precious Elsie not being invited. And to make matters worse, you were tired. So tired.

You were tired of your mother, for filling up your schedule with things you had no interest in, such as modeling gigs and piano lessons. Your father for never being there. Elsie for complaining to her mom and Callisto for inviting you to his stupid party. Jason Todd for being in your head for over a month. Robin for not reaching out in weeks. But mostly at yourself. You were upset at yourself for quietly taking all of this and then loading yourself up with more so you could be the perfect doll for your mother to brag about raising.

So when Callisto tried to grab you and hug you, you kneed him in the groin before deciding to walk home. Ignoring his cries and the looks you got from others at the party, you ran out of the house, only pausing to take a breath once you exited the gated property. You didn’t know where you wanted to go so you let your legs decide on what direction to walk.

Walking around anywhere in the middle of the night was not a great idea. But walking around Gotham in the middle of the night was one of the worst ideas anyone could have. Looking back at it, your night could have gotten worse, like you being kidnapped by a c-grade villain or something.

Instead, you ended up running into Robin. He didn’t look surprised to see you and instead gave you a small smile.

“So, do you wanna go to the diner,” he asked, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

“No,” you snapped, “Leave me the fuck alone birdbrain.” You pushed past him, a look of surprise etched on his face.

“(Y/N)! Wait!”

You ignored his calls and instead sped up, aware of the fact that he was catching up to you. At this point, you were walking near the actual city parts of Gotham so maybe you could get a cab to drop you off at your mother’s apartment near the business sector.

At that thought, you broke into a run, sprinting down the street before calling a cab, hyper-aware of the fact that Robin was staring at you with a look of hurt and confusion on his face.

*****

You felt bad for how you treated Robin. He didn’t deserve your cold shoulder and you certainly didn’t deserve him. With his witty jokes and the way he always followed you to make sure you got home alright, you had realized yesterday in the cab, watching the red and yellow of his costume jump by on the roof, that you didn’t deserve him.

You threw yourself back into your different activities and soon, you didn’t even have enough time to even think about what you were going to eat for dinner.

As you exited the school building, you walked slowly towards your car, being careful not to slip on the ice on the ground as you rounded the corner.

But you felt someone grab your wrist, making you scream and fall. The person cursed as they tried to pull you up but you slid as far away as you could from them so you could see their face. It was Callisto Barsotti.

“What the fuck,” you yelled, trying to yank your wrist out of his iron-like grip. When that didn’t work you got ready to elbow him but he twisted your other arm behind you, causing you to scream.

“Not today you bastard,” he growled as he started to drag you. You screamed and tugged against him, and when he turned towards you, you stopped pulling against him and stomped on his foot, making sure to drag your snow boots against the skin on his shin.

Callisto let out a cry of pain and you pushed him away from you, letting yourself fall to the ground out of shock.

“You little gremlin,” Callisto stuttered out as he started limping towards you. You panicked as you tried to find something heavy to hit him with. A rock or anything would do. But you couldn’t find anything so you got up on trembling legs to run towards your car.

But you didn’t have to worry as a figure in red and yellow dropped by and wacked Callisto in the back of the head. Your eyes widened as Robin took this moment to start kicking the fallen boy. You don’t know how long you stared at him, but you snapped out of your daze once you started hearing cracking noises.

“Stop! Robin, please stop,” you cried desperately. But he didn’t stop, he continued to beat Callisto.

“Please stop,” you cried, whimpering as you knelt down near Robin. When he didn’t listen to you again, you leaned forward and grabbed his face, turning it towards you. You were going to tell him to stop again but you then felt a warm sensation, different from the coldness from the March air, followed by the feeling of a shock. Your soulmate, Robin was your soulmate.

He stared at you in shock, allowing you to pull him off of Callisto. You pushed him towards your car, and he stumbled since he was still staring at you as a look of understanding passed on his face.

“Look,” you said, inspecting the blood on Robin’s costume, “you need to listen to what I’m going to say carefully. Go to my car and grab the cleaning wipes from the trunk. Clean yourself off as I call the cops. The story is going to be that you were patrolling the area and heard my screams.”

Robin stared at you, mouth slightly open as he reached to touch you with a bare hand. You let his fingers ghost against your skin, the shock from before still present as you pulled back to stare at him.

“Go.”

*****

It's been over five hours since Robin beat Callisto. Not half to death like you had expected but still pretty bad since he had a broken nose, arm, and bruised ribs. As you waited in the police station for your parents to pick you up (“The gang that you described could always come back for you,” the officer had said), you could only think about how scary it was, watching Robin hit someone so many times with so much anger in him. In the end, your parents didn’t come and instead, your older brother had driven all the way from Metropolis to pick you up.

You both didn’t talk to each other during the ride back to your house but you could tell he was worried by the way his eyes would flicker to you. When you reached the gates to your house, your brother had parked the car and turned to look at you.

‘(Y/N), I have no idea what's going on with you right now but if you ever feel overwhelmed or alone, just tell me and I’ll take you with me back to Gran’s in Metropolis.”

You smiled at him, eyes tired but filled with a small spark as you exited his car, making sure to express your thanks with a kiss on his cheek. As you entered your house, you took off your shoes and slipped on your home slippers before going to your room and taking a shower. Drying your hair, you walked towards your windows to close your curtains, letting out a slight scream when you saw a hand pressed against the glass.

You sighed when you saw it was Robin and opened your window, letting him come inside to your room. He looked around your room, studying the many medals and certificates you had accumulated from the years along with the magazines you had in your room, before turning towards you.

“Hey,” you said, walking to him slowly. Robin licked his lips slightly as he stared at you before coughing.

“Can I please touch you,” he asked, his voice breaking slightly. You nodded and watched as he took off his right glove before caressing your cheek with his hand. You watched as he smiled when he felt the same spark from before, a breathless laugh escaping his lips as he took off his left glove so he could hold you with both hands. You shivered as his thumb ghosted over your bottom lip, eyes closing before snapping open when you couldn’t feel the warmth from Robin’s hands.

“Don’t freak out,” he whispered in your ear, “I’m just going to close the window and then dry your hair for you. Just go and sit down and I’ll be right there.”

You nodded and sat down at the chair in front of your vanity, watching as he closed your window and pulled the curtains before grabbing your towel. You smiled as you watched him in the mirror, massaging your head with your hands before wrapping your towel around your scalp.

“How come you never asked me what my name was,” Robin asked as he brushed through your hair.

“You’ll tell me when the time is right.”

*****

“I should’ve asked him what his name was,” you thought as you walked near an alley, waiting for a sign of Batman so you could ask him what happened to your soulmate.

A couple of months had passed since you had last seen Robin in April. He had looked angry when you both had met up at the diner and he had further worried you when he ignored the ringing of his phone. As soon as he had seen that you were tucked into bed, he had given you a peck on the forehead before leaving through your window.

You were worried for him. Dressing up as a traffic light every night was dangerous, no matter how much you loved going out there and beating up criminals. So you had been following Batman for months, trying to find a moment to ask him what happened to your soulmate. But you never had the opportunity since he always managed to lose you by either disappearing or by just leading you into a dead end.

Months of following Batman has helped you as you were now familiar with the rooftops of Gotham, like the roof of the veterinarian’s office near the diner you and Robin used to meet up at. Sitting with binoculars, you let out a small gasp when you saw a familiar flash of red and yellow, watching as it ran across a rooftop. Scrambling, you started following the figure, zigzagging around multiple large gaps that you couldn’t jump before cursing when you realized that he was gone.

“Why are you following me,” an unfamiliar voice asked behind you. You turned around and assessed the boy, taking note of the fact that he was taller than your Robin and didn’t seem to have the same half-smile-half-smirk that he did. But the only way to confirm, for your brain to tell your heart to stop searching would be direct contact.

“I can’t find someone,” you started, voice shaky as your eyes filled with tears. The boy’s mouth twisted in a slight frown but he still let you continue.

“I just need to check that you’re not my Robin. Please, let me just hold your hand briefly or something. I just need to know.”

At this point, you were crying. When he hadn’t returned the next day, you had started to panic, wondering if he had really left you and gone somewhere else. But that night, you had started out of your bed, wondering what had woken you up when you felt a hollowness inside of you.

The boy patted your shoulder sympathetically before offering his hand to you. Sniffling, you pulled his glove down slightly so his wrist was showing and touched it.

There were no sparks, no warmth, as you collapsed on the rooftop and cried.

Your Robin was no more.

*****

You smiled as you entered the diner, waving at Linda before taking the booth that you and Robin used to eat at. Six years had passed since you had learned that he was no more and even though it was hard most of the time, you always moved forward. You had graduated high school and gone forward to become a librarian, your choice mostly influenced by your late soulmate.

As you waited for Linda to bring out your regular order, you looked around the diner, recognizing everyone except for a man wearing a red sweatshirt. He was staring down at his phone but was now looking up at you when he felt your stare. You flushed slightly and gave him a wave before looking out of the window.

When Linda came out with your packed regular, you left after giving her a large tip. You had to go back to work.

*****

When Jason came back to life, he knew something was wrong.

After finding out that you were his soulmate, he felt this familiar warmth inside of him, similar to the feeling from when Bruce had first made him Robin. But after the pit, that feeling was multiplied tenfold, to the point that it felt like he was being burned from the inside out. And then the random sparks started.

The first time was when he was with Talia. It had been months since she had started training him, helping him remember a bit of who he was beforehand. When she grabbed his wrist, he felt a spark. It wasn’t the same familiar, welcomed spark with you but it was still a spark. He had brushed it off as static electricity, especially since Talia didn’t seem to have noticed.

But the sparks continued. He felt it frequently when people would hold him, touch him, brush against him. It was an annoyance at that point. A reminder that something was wrong with him, especially since he knew that you were his soulmate and that the others seemed to have not noticed the sparks.

So when Jason saw you walking home one night, he couldn’t help but follow you to make sure you got back safe, just like in the old days. Except for the fact that it’s not like the old days and he was malfunctioning. He was too scared to meet you; he was terrified of the idea that he might touch you and that there would be no spark anymore.

Jason had decided to only follow you home and keep you safe from the shadows, to never interact with you directly. So why exactly was he bleeding on your couch?

He watched as you helped him out of his leather jacket, eyes following your movements to the best of his abilities. He then watched as you pulled out a pair of scissors and started cutting the area he was shot.

Your eyebrows were furrowed and Jason couldn’t help but want to reach out and smooth them. Instead, he settled for helping you by peeling the square of his cut shirt away as you prepared the gauze to apply pressure.

His head was spinning and his breathing sounded labored even to his own ears but Jason didn’t want to take off his helmet in fear that you would recognize him from the red domino. But you seemed to have other plans as you reached your hands towards his head, still applying pressure to his wound with your knee.

He tried to avoid your hands but it was difficult to do when his head started to spin. He just watched as your hands reached out towards his helmet and opened it.

A small, selfish part of him wanted you to pull off the helmet and accept him, regardless of whether or not the spark was still there. But from the two years that he had known you, he knew that you’d accept him as Robin, but he wasn’t sure that you’d accept him as Red Hood.

Jason watched as your eyes widened at the sight of his red domino but you didn’t go as far as to peel it off. Instead, you turned your attention back to his wound, gathering more gauze to apply pressure.

As he lost consciousness, he watched as your concerned face entered his vision. And then he felt the fated spark, and all he could think about was how right it felt.

*****

When Jason woke up, he was surprised. By multiple things. For one, you hadn’t called the cops on him. The second thing being the fact that he was, in fact, fine and not dead: he had checked by pinching himself. The third was that his domino was still on his face. And the last being that he could hear your voice clearly, it was distinct, like music against his ears.

He listened as you spoke, not understanding what you were saying but knowing that you were reading Le Petit Prince. After all, one of the first things he did after coming back from the pit was listening to the audiobook, imagining what you would sound like.

He heard the page flip and decided that now would be a good time to open his eyes and sit up.

His sudden movement startled you. You both stared at each other before Jason croaked out a ‘hi’. He watched as your eyes filled with tears as you hugged Jason gently like he was the most delicate, expensive thing in the world.

“I missed you (Y/N),” Jason whispered against your shoulder, feeling the tears form in his eyes as he pulled back.

Your eyes flitted down to his wound with a concerned look but he tilted your head up, towards his face as he pulled the domino off.

He saw a look of recognition in your eyes, knowing for sure that they recognized him when you whispered ‘Jason Todd.’

He nodded, watching as you slowly extended your hands towards his face, caressing it as you skimmed your thumbs over his cheekbones.

“I’m a terrible person,” Jason whispered, looking down into his lap. You simply lifted his face, shaking your head.

“You’re not a terrible person Jason. You were a hero back when you were Robin and you’re a hero as the Red Hood. You’ve always been one. Now lie back down before you pull your stitches and tell me what you’ve been up to.”

Jason smiled as he laid his head across your lap, smiling as the sparks now seemed to dance across his skin in joy, happy that he was finally home.

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