#I gotta catch up I'm still a few behind haha

[jetblack4realz]

lake days vi - jake "hangman" seresin x reader

summary - jake and rooster have always had it out for each other, except now they have even more reason to

pt i , pt ii , pt iii , pt iv , pt v

warnings - as per usual nah but anticipate some tension haha

word count - 5.2k

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you were sad to leave your family, of course, but as you sat in the back of an uber you really missed your truck. jake had driven his own back to california and while you could've driven yours, you'd wanted the last few days before the mission with jake - able to kiss him and hug him and tease him all you wanted.

you started to regret that decision.

the driver was an older woman with a love for chewing her gum extremely loud and a strict rule against the radio. you scrolled your phone awkwardly, all too ready to jump out when she finally pulled up to the hard deck.

"thank you!" you cheered as you jumped from the vehicle, bolting for the front door.

you pulled it open with a wide grin, eyes searching for your favorite sailor gal.

"penny!"

she turned with a smile as you approached the bar. you sat in front of her, the woman pulling out some whiskey for your usual old fashioned.

"how are you, sweetheart?" she asked, mixing your drink up expertly.

"wonderful," you answered, catching the glass when she slid it over to you. "glad to be back in fightertown."

"well, i'm sure glad you're back too," she said with a gentle smile. "amelia's gonna want to see you."

"i wanna see her too! how old is she now?" you asked.

"15," penny said.

"crazy," you drawled. "how in the hell is she 15 years old?"

"i have no clue," she breathed a laugh.

a whoop caught your attention and you looked over at the pool tables to see jake with coyote.

"looks like i ain't the first one here," you remarked.

"nope," penny said.

"i suppose i'll go say hello," you said, hopping off the stool. you shot penny a grin. "i'll be back later."

"sure you will," she nodded, laughing as you shook your head at her and approached the boys.

"yoti!" you called, walking up to the two with a grin and open arms. "how's my favorite backseater?"

"aw, i'm still your favorite?" he asked, accepting your embrace with a chuckle.

"of course you're still my favorite," you told him. you pulled away, leaning back against the table behind you. you looked at jake, a thin, polite smile on your lips. "hangman."

"bronco," he reciprocated, but the grin on his lips was all too different from yours. you bit back your smile as he continued. "you look as good as ever."

"must be refreshing for you," you told him. "all those times you look in the mirror have gotta be awfully disappointing."

coyote laughed loudly. "you two still at it, huh? even after being stationed together for a year?"

"we weren't on missions together, thank the heavens," you grumbled. jake looked amused at your words, stepping towards you slowly.

"nah, but i did get to see her pretty face around base all the time. highlight of my day, sweetheart," he said.

you really wanted to smile, to flirt back, to kiss him right on the mouth because you knew he was being truthful, but you couldn't give up your game so quickly.

"i'm sure it was, bagman," you answered.

suddenly, phoenix entered the room and you were all too happy for the attention to turn to her and the two men she'd brought along.

"phoenix!" you cheered as coyote and jake stared down the men by her sides.

"bronco!" she echoed with a grin, approaching you quickly. you threw your arms around her shoulders, letting one hang off after you pulled away and turned to stand by her side, facing jake and coyote.

"boys, this here's bronco. that's coyote, and there's bagman," she introduced.

"hangman," jake corrected.

"whatever," she said with a slight grin and shake of her head. "this is fanboy and payback."

you tuned out as they all continued to talk, instead turning your attention to a khaki-clad man sitting next to you, munching on something. when had he gotten here?

"who's this?" phoenix seemed to be on the same page as you, glancing at the man.

"don't know," coyote hummed, looking to the man. "when did you get in?"

"oh, i've been here the whole time," he said with a sheepish smile, looking a bit surprised he'd been addressed at all.

"my man's a stealth pilot," jake said.

"literally," you agreed.

"a weapons systems officer, actually," the guy corrected.

"who can't take a joke," jake breathed out, rolling his eyes slightly as he stood from his place at the pool table. phoenix stepped towards the unknown man, you sliding your arm off of her to let jake slip in between you, a wink shot in your direction.

"what do they call you?" she asked.

"bob," he answered.

"no, your callsign," you said.

he hesitated, his adam's apple bobbing as he gulped slightly. "bob."

the bell rang, a gentleman in front of penny having been caught with his phone on the counter. she smiled mischievously at him as jake whooped and quickly made his way to collect beers for the lot of you - on the old timer's tab of course.

the doorbell jingled behind you, catching your attention as phoenix made the sudden connection that he was her backseater. you turned to see bradley bradshaw enter with the same swagger he'd had since flight school. with aviators on his nose and a hawaiian shirt on his shoulders, he didn't look a blink different from how you remembered.

apparently you didn't either.

he beelined for you as coyote joined your side, eying the man carefully.

"bradley bradshaw," you hummed, a smile rising to your lips. out of the corner of your eye, you could see jake making his way back towards you after setting a new song on the jukebox - his favorite, his pace quickening at the sight of rooster. "you finally make your way back to fightertown."

"and so do you," he said, a soft smile on his lips as he looked you up and down. he held a hand out, the two of you slapping your hands together and then pushing off with a simple snap of your fingers - a little shake you'd come up with at the academy. "good to see you y/n."

"you too," you answered. jake was on the scene in a flash, walking to your side.

"rooster bradshaw," he said. "as i live and breathe."

he strolled passed you, coming to bob's side and stealing the pool cue from him. he lined up his shot as bradley took his place next to you, arms crossing over his chest.

"hangman," bradley said. "you look good."

"i am good," jake agreed, shooting his shot and landing the yellow ball into the corner pocket. he stood up, a grin on his lips as he looked at his fellow aviator. "i'm very good, rooster."

"i'm not sticking around for y'all to flirt some more," you told them with a wave of your hands. "i need a drink."

just as jake went to offer you one he'd grabbed, rooster squeezed your shoulders.

"i got something better for ya."

he made his way to the jukebox jake had just set and unplugged it. patrons groaned in annoyance, but rooster ignored then, instead sliding onto the seat of the piano and beginning the first chord of the song everyone knew him for.

phoenix called the guys to follow her to join his side, leaving you with jake and coyote.

"here he goes," you hummed.

"always the show off," jake said.

"he's called rooster for a reason," coyote told him.

the sound of the bell ringing caught your attention next, penny smiling at the leather-jacket-clad man in front of her who's card had evidently declined when he attempted to pay.

hangman and coyote approached him quickly, payback following behind them to scoop him up under his arms and carry him to the door.

"thanks for the drinks, pop!" he yelled as they tossed him into the sand. you laughed from where you were at, phoenix glancing back you. she furrowed her brows, nodding her head to beckon you towards her.

you arrived at her side just as rooster began singing, a laugh erupting from your lips as he went all out as per usual. he glanced up at you with a wide grin as he continued, his fingers dancing over the keys in effortless memory. you rested a hand on his shoulder, beginning to sing the song you'd grown to love along with him. it all reminded you of old times in school and you sorta loved it.

rooster was smiling up at you as he sang, glancing down at the keys occasionally but always returning to you, shooting you a wink at certain parts of the song and earning a laugh from you.

jake was watching you with a grimace, not loving the way rooster was looking at you one bit.

"you good, hangman?" coyote asked.

"fine."

when you all agreed it was time to head out, you weren't surprised to find jake by your side.

"i could take you back, bronco," he offered with a sly grin.

"that's alright, hangman, i'm taking her," rooster said, eying the man down.

"no, really. it's no problem," jake said, looking at you intently. "i'll buy you french fries and ice cream."

"sorry roo, i'm going with bagman," you announced, clapping the man on the shoulder with a laugh. "i'll see you guys later!"

"goodnight!" rooster called, looking a bit perplexed for a moment.

"be good!" coyote yelled with a laugh.

phoenix didn't look all too surprised as she bid you a farewell and waved you off. standing next to her, bradley's perplexity had morphed into a bit of frustration.

"who would say no to french fries and ice cream?" natasha asked him, grinning.

"or hangman?" coyote teased, laughing when phoenix whacked him in the shoulder.

"it's not like that. they're barely even friends," she told him.

"yeah, sure. you see the way he looks at her?" rooster asked, eyes still on the two aviators as you strolled away.

"the same way he looks at every pretty girl," phoenix said. "he's a manwhore who's desperate for attention, same as always."

"and she isn't falling for it," coyote added, looking at rooster with his brows pulled inward. "no need to worry, man."

"i just don't want her getting hurt," he said. "she's been my best friend since flight school."

"yeah, well she's my best friend too. and i know she won't. she's smart," phoenix hummed. she patted bradley's bronco, pulling the handle to open the passenger door. "now come on, i wanna go home before training tomorrow."

jake and you were nearly back to his apartment when he finally said something. you were sat next to him, hand in his as you dipped your french fries in your mcdonald's soft serve, extremely content with how the night had gone.

"i don't like how bradshaw was looking at you."

you eyes flashed to his, brows furrowed. "what do you mean? it's just bradley."

"and i don't like that you call him that. it's too personal," he huffed.

"what are you talking about? i've known him since i was 18, of course i'm gonna call him by his name. he didn't even have a callsign when we met," you explained.

"look, i get it. i do. i just - i don't like how he was looking at you and how he got more attention than me. and i get it, we're doing this thing, playing this game, but i don't want bradshaw thinkin' he's got a chance with you when he doesn't."

if there was one thing you appreciated about jake, it was his honesty. and frankly, he was damn good at articulating exactly what and why he felt things. it always made you wish you were better at doing that yourself.

"you're right, he doesn't. i'll make sure he knows," you told him, squeezing his hand with a soft smile before returning to your ice cream cone. "and frankly, this mission will be over and done before he even has a shot to shoot."

"you sure?" he asked, glancing at you as he pulled into the parking lot.

"completely sure," you affirmed, smiling at him again.

"alright then. come on, i'm dead tired," he said, hopping out of the truck and coming to your side, helping you out before you both entered the house.

the next several weeks were filled with tricky situations where you both struggled to maintain your false identities. between getting paired up to dogfight maverick (the man he and coyote had thrown out of the hard deck a few nights before), you getting paired with rooster, and a particularly inspiring game of dogfight football, you feared that some of your teammates were onto you.

"why are you looking at him like that?"

your eyes snapped to phoenix, brows up in surprise. "who?"

"hangman," she told you, nodding towards where he was wrestling around with coyote on the shore. "why are you watching him?"

"i'm not," you told her.

but, you knew you were wrong and you knew you'd been caught. but, how could you help it? he was out there in the sun, water glistening on his abs as he ran around, his perfectly tanned skin just screaming for you to touch it and you couldn't. and you couldn't kiss him or talk to him even semi-normally either. so instead, you watched him. a lot.

"sure you're not," she said, nodding with a grin on her lips.

"i'm not watching him!" you objected.

"yes you are!" she laughed. "don't deny it."

"why are you watching rooster?" you asked in response.

"i'm not, and i'm not lying about it," she replied with a smug smile. she glanced at the mustached man in question before returning her gaze to you. "though, i'm pretty sure his eyes haven't left you this whole time."

"that's bull."

"it's not."

"sure is."

"he likes you, i think," she told you, leaning back onto the beach towel you were sharing with a smirk. "how do you feel about that?"

you turned your eyes to where he was hanging around with bob and payback, football in hand before he chucked it to fanboy. you then looked at jake who'd just managed to knock javi into the water. he laughed loudly, running a hand through his wet, messy hair.

you sighed. "not great at all."

"hey bronco!" your attention snapped to your fiance, a slow smile making its way onto your lips. he grinned at you. "come play!"

"i'm good right here, thank you!" you called back. phoenix gave you an unimpressed look.

"you know he's not taking no for an answer right?" she asked. you watched as jake approached you quickly, praying that he wouldn't do what you knew him to.

"well, what's he gonna do, come and- shit!"

you were thrown over his shoulder in a quick pull, the man quickly making his way to the shore and chucking you into the ocean. you stood as quick as you could, the chill of the water seeping into your skin as you gasped for breath.

you looked at him with wide eyes. "i'm gonna kill you, seresin!"

he only grinned at you, tilting his head to the side. "game on, l/n."

just as you went to splash him, he was tackled into the sea. you laughed loudly when none other than bradley bradshaw rose from the water, a grin on his lips and water dripping from him hair. when jake sat up, rooster only pushed his head back under, grinning at you.

"problem solved," he told you as jake stood, a glare in his eyes.

"thanks brad," you laughed.

"of course sweetheart," he said, grinning at you widely. "do you wanna-?"

your eyes widened as another laugh left your lips. "watch out-!"

he was tackled back into the water and suddenly there was an all-out brawl. coyote exchanged a grin with fanboy and payback and they quickly jumped into it, water and limbs flying all over the place. with a chuckle, bob offered you a hand and carefully guided you away from the mess of it all.

"thanks bob," you said with a giggle as you watched him get dragged in by jake, the man shooting you a wink as you walked backwards towards phoenix. you rolled your eyes, still smiling when you collapsed next to her again.

she didn't seem impressed, eyebrows raised and lips pursed as she attempted to not smile. "really?"

"what can i say?" you breathed out, grabbing your beer bottle next to you to take a swig. "i can't control it."

you were put in the air with rooster three separate times, two of which were solo where coyote wasn't instructing you from behind.

all of them ended in disaster.

"we gotta get him, bronco!" he said over comms and you could almost feel his eyes on you as you soared through the air, frantically looking for your teacher on the navigation system in front of you. you spotted him.

"watch my back, alright?"

"what?"

"follow him!"

you dropped low, completely out of rooster's vision. you managed to get behind maverick, following him closely as he began pulling his usual moves to evade your attempts. he dipped right and you followed. left and you were on his tail.

"cut him off!" you yelled to rooster.

"i can't, he's going too fast!"

"go faster!"

you were jetting through the air faster than you were used to dogfighting and without rooster moving to intercept, you didn't know if you could get an adequate lock.

"rooster, i need you!"

mav pulled up and you lost sight, dipping down and flipping around to search for him again. but he was behind you.

"breaking left!"

you grunted as you broke left, then straight up, hoping the sun would throw him off.

"rooster, do something!"

"i'm gonna try to come up behind him!"

you pulled a move you'd never tried - mostly because it was risky. insanely risky. especially during a hands-on dogfight training.

the cobra.

you floated backwards, mav zipping under you in surprise. you dropped lower, your weapons system beeping as you tried to lock on him.

"rooster, where the hell are you?!"

"i'm comin'."

maverick broke right and you followed, hoping desperately that rooster was flying around somewhere trying to get a lock on him so you could go get a drink of water.

you shrieked when maverick turned sharply and dropped, nearly skimming your wing before he ended up behind you.

"breaking right!" you cried, but everyone heard the steep beeping that caused you to slow down your efforts.

"that's tone," maverick said.

he left you to find rooster and the two messed around for a while, rooster getting increasingly frustrated until maverick finally killed him.

when you returned to base, you were livid.

you climbed out of your jet, ripping off your helmet with a grunt as you made your way down the tarmac and back to the break room where everyone was listening to the battles. harvard, yale, and halo were up next, but you didn't give two shits to know how they did. you wanted redemption.

"i want up!" you yelled, marching towards where maverick had begun sipping on a bottle of water.

"bronco!"

your steps hastened in pace, your eyes on your instructor as he watched you curiously.

"give me phoenix or hangman, i want back up!"

"bronco!"

a hand on your shoulder had you spinning around, something bradley was surprised to see you were all too prepared for. he shrunk at the glare in your eyes and flinched when your fist connected with his arm.

"what the fuck was that?" you cried. "where the hell were you?"

"look, bronco, i'm sorry-"

"no, rooster! you're not. if you were sorry you would've covered my back and we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place. what got into you?!" your volume hadn't dropped and his eyes were still wide.

"i don't know. i just... he got into my head and-"

"don't blame this on maverick because you know damn well it wasn't his fault what happened out there," you said with a scowl. "we're trained to stay out of our heads. the enemy tries to throw us off, live missions, live bogies, they all try to throw us off! this isn't on mav, this is on you, bradshaw."

he flinched at the use of his surname.

"you've never done this to me before! what changed in the last few years i've been gone? i don't understand why-"

"look, y/n i'm sorry. it won't happen again-"

"you're damn right it won't," you said. your brows came unknitted and your breathing slowed, the tension in your shoulders releasing as you peered up at your wingman, a breathy, sarcastic laugh slipping passed your lips. "one hell of a wingman you are, rooster. you gave me no support up there. none!"

you brushed passed him, but he caught your wrist.

"i'm sorry," he tried again, sounding sincere in his words but you didn't have the mind to care.

"this is the third time, rooster. the third!" you pulled away from him with a frown. "imagine if we were in the air for real. you can't do this. you can't leave me hanging."

as you stepped away more, you raised your brows at him.

"and they call jake 'hangman'?"

you stalked off without another word, heading straight for the locker rooms.

jake caught your arm on your way in, glancing around quickly to see if anyone was around. "darlin'? what's wrong?"

"bad run," you breathed out, a glare still etched in your brows and eyes.

"with bradshaw?" he seemed genuinely shocked, which was exactly how you felt the first two times. now you were just pissed.

"yep," you said, popping the 'p'. "now if you'll excuse me, i need a shower."

"if you wait 'til we're home, i'd be happy to join ya," he teased, leaning closer to you.

"no thanks, seresin," you said. "i'll see you later."

"hey," he said, pulling you back so you faced him again. he looked at you intently, a small smile on his lips. "i love you."

you sighed, letting a tiny smile of your own through. "i love you too. i'll see you later."

out of the corner of your eye, you noticed that coyote had entered the hangar, and it seemed jake noticed too. after shooting him a quick, apologetic look, you pulled your arm from his grasp.

"just go away, hangman!"

and with that, you left to finally cool off and take a break.

when you were put up with jake the next day, you were extremely relieved. on your way out of the hangar, you high-fived him with a laugh, not looking to where bradley was watching you closely.

"watch and learn, bradshaw," jake taunted, smirking at the man before jogging up next to you and throwing an arm around your shoulders, to which you shrugged him off.

rooster wasn't pleased and phoenix could tell.

"what's your deal?" she asked, coming up next to him with her arms crossed over her chest. she followed his train of vision and smirked when she spotted you and jake. "ah, upset that she got paired up with bagman instead of you? just watch, it'll end up the same way every training ends with him - in disaster."

"i hope so," rooster breathed.

except it didn't.

when you landed back on the ground, the whole dagger squad saw exactly why you and him had been placed on so many missions together.

you'd flown perfectly, complimenting each other's flying style and managing to pin maverick to the hard deck. with jake trying to catch him from behind, your teacher had completely no time to process your strike coming in from the side and had lost for the first time since you'd arrived back at top gun.

"ladies and gentleman, that's how it's done," jake said over the comms, very much knowing that the rest of your squad was listening in on your conversation.

"fuck yeah!" coyote cheered as you let out a whoop.

"headin' home, prep the casket," jake said and you laughed.

"alright, alright," maverick said, but you could hear the slight smile in his voice. "good job. head back to base."

rooster felt like shit. how had he not been able to fly like that with you?

you laughed as you fistbumped jake and javi, walking back to where the rest of the crew was waiting for you.

"that was some flying, guys," payback told the lot of you, fanboy high-fiving coyote next to you.

"thanks," you said with a smile.

"how'd you do it?" bob asked.

your eyes flashed to rooster momentarily. "we had each others' backs."

you walked off then, calling something over your shoulder about needing some food as you did so.

"it was all me," jake said, purposefully loud so you'd hear. he watched you as you flipped him off above your head. "it was!"

"was not, douche-tard!"

"and we're back," phoenix breathed with a slight laugh. "good flying though. seriously."

"well thank you, phoenix," jake said with a slight bow. "i do my best."

phoenix was an inquisitive lady, you discovered when she approached you after training that day.

"why does he only work with you?"

"what?" you asked, pulling your shirt over your head and furrowing your brows.

"hangman leaves everyone hanging - everyone but you," she pointed out. "why is that?"

"we work well together," you shrugged. "the only time i can stand him is when we're in the air. surprisingly enough, he's been the best wingman i've had over the past three deployments."

"he's never left you?"

"just once. i chewed him out for it after, made him swear he'd never do it again. i guess he gained some respect for me or something because he didn't." you shut your locker, throwing your bag over your shoulder with a thin smile and a shrug. "i dunno, nat."

"well, you can keep him. i much prefer rooster," she told you, following you as you headed out of the woman's locker room.

"you can keep him," you answered with a short laugh. "he's too slow for me."

"aw, you don't mean that, do you y/n?" phoenix laughed. "aren't you guys supposed to be best friends?"

"sure," you shrugged. "he still says we are?"

"yep," she answered. she looked at you quizzically. "do you not think so?"

"haven't seen him in years," you told her truthfully. "if i'm being completely honest, i think i'm closer to hangman than i am to rooster." her wide eyes and furrowed brows made you stumble, backtracking quickly. "not that i like him any better. he's still a douchebag." she didn't look convinced. "and rooster is... well, he's rooster."

"is that a good thing?" she laughed.

"i think so," you nodded. "he's a good guy."

"so, him liking you-" you shot her a look. "potentially liking you... you wouldn't mind?"

"he's a great guy, nix. he's just... not for me," you relented.

"oh, what and hangman is?" she asked with raised brows.

"no! he's a jerk to me. i'm not lookin' for a guy right now, okay? okay." you were done with this conversation, and luckily too, for both of the men you were just discussing rounded the corner, a heated conversation on their tongues.

their faces fell when they spotted you, phoenix smirking.

"hello boys," she mused.

"hey phoenix," rooster said. "bronco."

"rooster," you nodded. "hangman. what are you fellas up to?"

"nothing," rooster replied quickly. he looked like he was about to continue, but jake decided this was where he needed to butt in.

"currently we're just admiring your beauty, bronco," he said with a smirk. "i like the casual look a lot better than your uniform. your jeans fit you well."

he didn't shy away from looking you up and down, his smirk turning hungry as he eyed you. you wanted to smile and kiss him and go home and make some dinner, but you had this stupid appearance to keep up. so instead, you rolled your eyes.

"you're a prude, seresin," you told him. you grabbed phoenix's wrist, beginning to slip passed the men. "see you tomorrow gentlemen."

whenever you arrived at home, sometimes nearly an hour after jake did and only on days where you could explain away to phoenix why you weren't in your own apartment, jake was there waiting for you.

with a grin on his lips and his arms opened wide, he would hug you so tight you could barely breathe and then kiss you until all your remaining breath was gone.

"jake," you laughed, trying to pull away, but he continued, holding your face in his hands to keep you close to him. "jake!"

you pulled away enough for you to stumble backwards into the kitchen, turning around to search the fridge for something to throw together for tonight's dinner.

he was behind you in a second, arms wrapped around your middle and chin on your shoulder.

"i think i've got some rotinni, we could do mostaccioli," you said.

"that sounds good," he mumbled into your hair.

"then i'll get started on it-"

a knock at the door had you both standing straight. jake looked at the door with furrowed brows, hands still ghosting on your hips. the knock repeated itself and you quickly broke apart.

"shit," he muttered and you quickly fled into the bedroom. once the door was closed and you were sat on the bed, you heard jake open the door.

you couldn't hear exactly what he was saying or who he was talking to, but the more you tuned your ear, the more you wondered if it was coyote. you assumed it was by the relaxed way that jake was speaking.

you waited patiently for him to resolve the conversation and return to you.

soon enough he did, opening the door and collapsing on top of you with a sigh. you ran a hand through his hair, kissing the side of his head.

"who was it?" you asked.

"rooster."

"rooster?"

"yeah, the shit's been turning up everywhere."

"why?"

"he was askin' about you," he told you. you furrowed your brows.

"what about me?"

"if anything had happened on our deployments. that you seemed different."

"and he thought 7 o'clock on a thursday night was the proper time for this conversation?"

"i think he's still pissed about how y'all flew together. seems more mad at himself than anything. can't say i wasn't thrilled to be able to shut him up today though."

"well, what'd you tell him?"

"that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. time changes people as much as he wants to think everything is supposed to revolve around him and everyone's supposed to be how he wants them to."

"you can't say that jake, that's mean."

"i didn't," he sighed, burrowing his head into your shoulder and pressing a kiss to the soft skin there. "i just said that time goes on, people change. and that it's none of his business."

you let out a tired, but slightly amused breath. "there's the jake i know."

[confiscatedpeaches]

Hey!! Would you write William surprising reader with a stuffed animal they wanted really badly but couldn’t afford?

Like.. they went to the store and they saw it, got so excited but saw the price so they walked away from it sadly. William watched this happen and went back the next day to get it for them..🥹

tysm & I love your work!!🩷✨

Tysm!! 💕💕 This is such a cute idea omg. I definitely feel like that's something he would do for the reader. At least, my Afton would haha.

Minors can interact, but don't follow me please! Reader's gender is not specified.

TW: you will die of sweetness in this fluff fic /j (joking)

Reader's POV:

You we're doing some much needed grocery shopping with your boyfriend and partner William Afton. You could have gone alone, but he was always so much better at helping you get good deals. Unfortunately, you don't have a ton of cash laying around, so you needed all the savings you could get. It was a Friday afternoon, so it was busy and loud.

You pass by a toy isle when something catches your eye. Sitting there alone on the shelf, you see a large stuffed rabbit plushie. It's big enough to require both hands to carry it. Pressing your hands into it, it feels so soft and squishy. Very cuddle-able and absolutely you. It even smelled slightly sweet, like vanilla. Surely, you could spare this expense, right?

Wrong.

You check the price tag; $50. Damn. A little piece of your heart breaks off and shatters on the tile floor below. It is so cute and adorable, but you really can't afford it right now.

"Aw, that's so cute darling."

You turn, finding your boyfriend William standing behind you in the aisle. He's holding a small handcart full of groceries. You sigh.

"Yeah, it is. I really can't afford it right now though. Sucks but I just gotta let this one go."

He gave you a slight frown. You look deep into his captivating grey eyes. You weren't trying to beg him, but secretly you hoped he'd offer to buy it for you. He looks at the stuffed rabbit.

"I'm sorry love. Did you find everything else okay?"

Disappointment blooms within you. Of course, he shouldn't have to buy it for you, but it would have been a kind gesture. You nod.

"Mhmm yep."

"Good, let's go home and watch that movie you've been wanting to see."

---

William's POV:

After the movie, y/n fell asleep on the couch next to him. It was a good film, even though you seemed a little sad the whole time. Looking down at you, he smiles to himself. You look so sweet and adorable like this. He slowly stands up, making sure not to disturb the sleeping cutie pie next to him.

Carefully, he places his arms under you and lifts you up. He carries you to your bed. He sets you down before tucking you in. After tiptoeing out of the room and quietly clicking the door shut, he grabs his car keys from the kitchen table. Discretely, he slips out of the house and into his car. He slowly pulls out of the driveway and turns to the direction of the store.

Once he got onto the highway, he drove as fast as he could; a little over the speed limit, but still safe. He needed to get there before they closed. He felt so sad seeing you earlier. Truthfully, he considered buying it for you right then and there, but he decided to make it a surprise instead. He knows how much little things like this mean to you. With any luck, the stuffed rabbit will still be there.

He pulls into the store parking lot. It's nearly empty, save for the cars of the employees most likely. It's 15 minutes 'til closing. Fortunately, he knew right where to go.

He walks past a few isles before turning down one. Sitting on the shelf was the stuffed rabbit. It was as if it were waiting just for you.

Perfect! He thought, and grabbed it.

---

Reader's POV

Groggily, you stretch and open your eyes. Sunlight peaks through the curtains. A warm hand meets your head and pets you gently. You turn, and find William sitting on the bed next to you.

"Good morning." You mumble.

"Good morning love."

He has a big smile on his face, and you aren't sure why. He looks like he's been up for a while.

"How... How long have you been there?" You ask.

"Oh not long, but I decided to wake you up seeing that it's already 10:30."

His eyes look into yours. You watch him for a moment. His chest expands and retracts, the sunlight illuminating his form. He looks beautiful like this. God, you love this man. Looking down his sides, you realize his hands are behind his back. You move to look behind him, but he moves to block your vision.

"I have something for you." He says, answering your unasked question.

"Oh? What is it? Can I see?"

He shakes his head.

"Close your eyes love, and outstretch your arms."

You do as he says. Arms outstretched in front of you, you eagerly await his surprise. Something soft and squishy meets your finger tips, then hands. It's fairly large and smells faintly like vanilla. He couldn't have, could he?

"Open your eyes darling."

Opening your eyes, you're greeted by the large plush rabbit you wanted from the store yesterday.

"Will you didn't! Thank you so much!"

Wrapping your arms around it, you pull the stuffie into a tight hug and do a little happy dance. Pleased with your reaction, Will blushes and smiles even more.

"You're welcome love. I'm so glad you like it. Do you want to give it a name?"

"Of course I do! All stuffies need names silly!"

You already had the perfect name in mind.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Two Sons: Part 2

Chihiro: Byakuya!? Byakuya, can you hear me!?

Chihiro?

*Mid-flight with the ring pieces still on his ankles, Byakuya suddenly hears a voice coming through his phone. He quickly picks it up and listens to Chihiro call him on the other end.

Chihiro: Thank goodness I reached you.

What's going on? I thought Tsuchiya destroyed your laptop. How are you contacting me right now?

Chihiro: Well, it turns out that once Kyoko and the others got back to the camp with Makoto and Kuripa, they sent some soldiers up to lend us some assistance. They got held off on the way up by some Monokuma's, but for some reason, their activity has been reduced massively, so they finally made it through. They brought a spare laptop, but it needs a moment to boot up, so I'm tracking you through a similar app on my phone.

I suppose it would be good to have some potential backup, but I trust you to leave this to me. If things go south, I'll give you a warning well in advance.

Chihiro: Good to hear...Oh! Byakuya! I've located Tsuchiya!

Where is he!?

Chihiro: AH! BEHIND YOU!

Wha-!?

*BZZZRRR!*

GAGH!

*Byakuya is surprised to find himself suddenly in the midst of a hail of jagged metallic ring fragments flying in his direction from behind, which he just manages to dodge.

Damn!

*Byakuya backflips to hold his two ring pieces in front of him like shields as the pieces fly back. Before turning to glare at his assailant, he swipes some more gunpowder to increase his ammunition.

Stop! You've violated the law!

Call you back! HYUGH!

Hap! Hyap!

*Byakuya slides his comm back into his pocket, showing only exasperation at Akira's smarminess. In retaliation, he gathers the ring fragments he has captured and launches them all in Akira's direction, but he avoids them all and catches the final projectile with his hand.

Gotta say...I've lived quite a while on this earth and NOBODY on it has frustrated me quite like you have!

I tend to have that effect on a lot of people I find! Still, you get cut once and this is your reaction!? Pitiful!

Ahahaha...Don't knock it 'til you TRY it!

*SLAASH!*

GAGH!?

*THUMP!* *THUMP!* *THUMP!* *WHAM!*

CHAGHCK!?

*While Byakuya is distracted, two stray ring projectiles fly behind him and slash him across the back. He topples forward, letting Akira punch him a few times before knocking him down to a platform below them.

*VWOOOM!* *WHOOSHSHWOOSHSHOOSH!*

Hrrr-CHAAGH!

Gah!?

*PONK!* *PONK!* *PONK!* *PONK!*

*When Byakuya lands, Akira gathers all the ring's fragments around him and launches the lethal chunks at his opponent. However, Byakuya uses his own control to commandeer the ring pieces and return fire back to the sender. Before his own attack can hit him, Akira leaps away, sending the ring fragments crashing through the wall in his wake.

Hehehehe...

What's funny? You...

*Crumble!*

...missed?

*CRAASH!* *CRUMMBLE!* *CRUMMBLE!*

GAAGH!?

*CRAASH!*

*Akira lets his guard down for a split second, not realizing Byakuya is controlling the ring pieces to cut a large slab in the thick stone wall behind Akira, which he then sends crashing down on top of him, smacking his half-brother in the face and crushing his body between the slab and the platform. As Akira is crushed, Byakuya calls back the ring pieces.

Haha! You can do EVERYTHING with these things!

Heh...I know...right...?

*CRUMBLE* *WHOOOM!*

!!!??

*CRRAAAASSH!*

HAAH!

*POOOW!*

DRGH!?

HAAAH!

*WHOOM!* *SHUNK!* *SHUNK!* *SMAAASH!*

GEGCK! TCH!?

*Even though Byakuya calls back most of the ring pieces, Akira is still able to hold onto two, which alone allow him to lift the cut slab of stone off of him and throw it at Byakuya with ease. While he's open, Akira punches him upward, reclaims the ring, and fires the fragments at him, with three of them piercing his chest and sending him crashing through the hangar's ceiling.

Hm?

*SSSHHHHHHHZZZZZZZZZZZZZHHHHHHSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZZZZZZZZZZZZHHHHHHHHHHHSSSSZZZHHH!!!*

...Oh fuck-!

*CRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!*

[mtreebeardiles]

Afterparty

@cronusamporaofficial i believe you mentioned a little afterparty so I wrote a little extra scene haha, hope you enjoy!

Takes place immediately after Ceremony and can be found on AO3 as well.

~~

"Damn, Sunshine, that's gotta be some kind of record." 

James grinned as he slid into the booth next to Everett, earning a mock-glare from his former commander. The N7 ceremony had ended a scant ten minutes ago and already Shepard was dressed down into casual, comfortable clothing. "How long did it take you to ditch the uniform for sweats?"

"Excuse you, I am wearing jeans!"

"And a hoodie--"

"--which he stole from me," Kaidan interjected from where he sat across from them, smirking at his husband.

"And a hat --"

"--which he stole from me," came Joker's voice from the next booth over. "As if it'd make him more inconspicuous. Un-fucking-believable." 

"So honestly the jeans are a bit of a surprise, if I'm honest."

"I had sweatpants, but Kaidan hid them."

"That makes more sense." 

Everett bit his lip, trying and failing not to smile. He gently bumped his shoulder against James's. "So," he began after a moment, sliding the milkshake he was sharing with Kaidan closer to his husband. "How's it feel?" He nodded to the emblem he'd pinned to James's uniform earlier in the evening. 

"Surreal, if I'm honest," James admitted, fiddling with the label on his beer bottle. "The whole evening hasn't really sunk in yet, you know?" 

"I do," Evvy agreed quietly, smile sofening. "I uh… I hope it was okay, by the way. My showing up like that. We wanted it to be a surprise, but…"

James found himself grinning again, and he bumped Evvy's shoulder right back. "It was a surprise -- a good one. It means a lot, you being there with me, Sunshine." He paused a moment, considering. "Especially since I know it probably wasn't easy on you." 

Everett's smile went wry and he offered a slight shrug. "Honestly? Not as difficult as you might think. I wasn't showing up for the Alliance -- I was showing up for you. And that's always an easy thing to do."

James felt himself go warm all over and he grinned into his beer. "Well, I appreciate it all the same." He glanced out beyond the booth, taking in the sight of so many friends gathered around. Foster's Bar had become something of a familiar haunt for those still active in the Alliance, and was a particular favorite of the current Normandy crew. A more intimate space than the ceremony hall, and he wondered if they'd requested the place to themselves for the evening when he realized the only patrons were all Normandy affiliated -- past and present. It was pretty likely -- Piper and the owner were good friends -- and lord knew his people were good customers. 

He watched as Jack, Tali, and Traynor gathered around the bar, intent on the colorful concoction being crafted by the bartender. Spied Miranda and Gianna catching up with Jacob Taylor and Dr. Cole a few booths down, Taylor and Cole's young son nodding off against his father's chest. Heard the murmur of conversation behind him between Joker and Steve and, when the music pouring out of the speakers shifted to something distinctly jazzy was not surprised to spot Shawn and Leigh over by the jukebox. 

"I love this song," Ashley declared as she appeared at his side. "C'mon, Vega; dance with us." Beyond her Piper was already moving over to where Shawn and Leigh were now dancing. 

"Go on," Evvy encouraged, giving him a little nudge. 

"Only if you come with, Sunshine."

Everett wrinkled his nose, but before he could protest Kaidan reached for his hand across the table. "C'mon, Nerd," he said. "You've been improving!" 

"It's hard to look bad with Kaidan leading," Ash added with a grin. 

"Yeah, yeah," Everett retorted, shaking his head, but he was still smiling. "Make Shawn put on something slower and I'll think about it." 

"Deal." 

He took Ash's offered hand and leveraged himself out of the booth, abandoning his beer and following her over to Piper. It didn't take long before others had joined them, some dancing alone, some dancing in a group, and it reminded him of another time, another party, better, now, without that persistent sense of dread hanging over them. 

Better, now, to be together again under the best of circumstances. 

[banned-for-horny]

GIVE US KYLAR N SYD DOING IT IN THE CHANGING ROOM I BEG U

Anon you must be new here because I still can't write folks actually fucking so enjoy this instead:

Sydney is in the middle of removing his sea salt-encrusted contact lenses when someone pins him to the wall, pressing a blade to his neck.

For just a moment, he feels his heart drop to his feet. His elbows swing behind him, stomping at the assaulter's feet. He misses the first two, but on the third strike, he hits their ribs. The assaulter hisses in Sydney's ear and stumbles back, and with a harsh shove, he slams them into the opposite wall and breaks free.

Sydney whirls around, raising his fists at the blurry figure behind him. It takes a fair amount of squinting before he finally recognizes the dark skin and questionably messy hair.

"Kylar?" he whispers. From the way the blur seizes, he must have assumed right and slouches back in relief. "Christ, you scared me-"

"You..." Kylar seethes. He shakes out his head and lifts his knife. "I'm going to kill you!"

Sydney swallows, scooting back until his back hits the wall behind him. "What did I do?"

"Y-You-" Kylar grits his teeth. After a moment, he growls and yanks at his hair. "You...gah!"

"Sydney?" Your voice startles them both, and Sydney motions for Kylar to shut up.

"Yeah, sorry!" he calls. "You can head out if you want, I gotta go meet with my mom and I'm trying to take the tie out of my hair."

"Oh, ouch," you say sympathetically. "Good luck, Syd. I'll see you at school!"

After a few minutes, Sydney sighs and clears his head. The smaller boy looks dazed, like just hearing your voice turned his brain off.

"...okay, I'm lost," Sydney admits. "Is this because I said you weren't allowed to rent out another book?"

Kylar's eyes flutter before he shakes his head, snapping out of his trance. "No! Y-You-"

"You kept on doodling in the margins, Kylar, and you know if Headmaster Leighton catches you he'll-" Sydney yelps as Kylar pounces, straddling his waist. He throws his arms up to shield his face, but that only results in the smaller boy pinning his wrists over his head.

"You," Kylar gasps, "stole my first kiss. That-It wasn't for you!"

Sydney is half-torn between mocking Kylar for believing in something so sacred as a 'first kiss' and teasing him for pinning him in such a scandalous position. Then he tries to reflect on when he'd ever kissed Kylar and comes up blank.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Kylar," he admits.

Kylar growls, lifting his blade. "Don't be dumb, Sydney! Y-You-I was in the library!"

"Y...yes? You were," Sydney agrees slowly. "You asked if I could help you reach a book, I grabbed it for you, then I left the library to go meet someone at the beach. That's it."

That's as much as he remembers, anyhow. There was a twenty minute discrepancy between Kylar asking and him leaving the library, but Sydney chalks it up to his exhaustion knocking him out for a little bit like always.

Above him, Kylar's mouth falls open, grip on his knife faltering. "A-Are you serious?"

"Why would I lie about that?" Sydney asks.

"Because you-you're..." Kylar sits back on his wet swim trunks and tugs on his hair once more, a strangled scream escaping him. "This isn't fair! I know you're a little off now but you just-you said you were waiting for me, l-like you-" He growls again and hunches over, bumping his forehead against Sydney's. "You...you need to stay away from them. They're mine!"

Them? They? Sydney blinks. Who in the-Oh. Ohhhh.

Sydney can't help it: he giggles.

Kylar's scowl wavers as Sydney's shoulders shake. "Wha-Why are you laughing? I'm being serious!"

"I-I know, I just-" Sydney's giggles grow louder, stronger. He tries to stiffle it, hand over his mouth, but it doesn't help.

And Kylar's scowl turns into an adorable little pout. "Syd, stop it!"

"Haha, I'm-" Sydney clears his throat, but it just makes his giggling even worse. "I'm trying, Ky, I-hehehe-" He hunches over and laughs. There is barely enough room to curl up properly, so he settles for curling against Kylar. He's pleasantly warm against his wet skin. "I didn't-ahem...sorry. Sorry."

Kylar feels...very stiff against Sydney. He shouldn't be, he thinks-they used to hug all the time when they were younger. But Sydney guesses with all the hormones and Kylar being Kylar would make this a bit awkward.

"Did I actually kiss you?" he asks.

"You..." Kylar clears his throat and shuffles back. With the way he's sitting, he grinds right up against Sydney's chastity cage, and he bites back the frustrated growl at the sensation. "Uh, n-no. No, you didn't! I was-I didn't-"

"Did you want me to?"

Kylar freezes. Sydney takes his chances and sits up, slipping his arms around the smaller teen's waist as he grins.

"If I actually took your first kiss, then I'm sorry, really," Sydney says, "but I can help pay you back. Y'know..." He lifts his hips up and grinds, just enough to send shivers up his back and for Kylar to muffle a moan. "Help you practice."

Kylar's eyes flutter before he snaps out of it. "N-No! I'm not..." The fire in his glare sputters, and for a moment Sydney remembers the tiny, awkward little kid he used to play with after mass. "I-I'm saving myself. I-I have to-"

"Because the temple said so, or because you want to?" Sydney asks. When Kylar refuses to meet his eye, he smiles and tightens his hold on him. "They won't mind if you're not a virgin, Ky. And wouldn't it be better to know what you're actually doing instead of just blindly fumbling around like an idiot?"

"I-I know what I'm doing..." Kylar mumbles.

"Yeah, because those hentais you're watching are totally accurate," Sydney says.

"Wha-mphf!" Kylar squeaks into Sydney's mouth, but it doesn't take much probing for him to melt into the kiss. He's overeager and sloppy, but something deep within Sydney sings at how cute it is. He pulls back first, smirking at Kylar's soft whine.

"Deal?" he asks.

"I..." Kylar's eyes dart between his lips and his eyes before he lunges. He misses, but that doesn't stop him from pressing kisses down Sydney's jaw while pawing at his still-wet swimming trunks. "O-Only to learn. Right? Nothing else."

Sydney snorts and grabs at Kylar's shirt. "Sure. Nothing else."

[blackmageeljin]

Hey! Just wanted to reach out and let any followers mostly here for my work on Repeat:|| know that I AM STILL WORKING ON IT! I REALLY AM!

I have about 20-25k words currently unpublished and am like... 1/2 to 2/3 to the end. I'm sure with Missing Link dropping soon KH will be driving the serotonin bus again and the hyperfocus will Get It Done.

Previously, it was easy to denote a section as 'done' when they moved on from a world, and so I could easily publish those sections. But as I entered the finale, keeping all the timey whimey stuff sorted and dealing with significantly more moving parts and suddenly a much larger cast of characters, I resolved to not begin posting again until the whole thing was done so I would have the luxury of shifting things around as needed.

It has taken a lot of time and recovery to just be able to feel comfortable using Tumblr again, or posting any kind of writing. I have a few Hazbin fics up because that fandom is generally less changed and it is easy to hide behind the Asexual Vore Demon. Also, I am not playing 5 dimensional time travel chess writing for it haha, so it is something that is just a lot easier to produce if I am not having a good health day. But honestly, even that took a lot of courage and I waited a long time before posting, as my agoraphobia became significantly more severe for a while. I spent a lot of time catching up in JJBA in the past few years too, but haven't posted any of the writing I've done for it for fear of the witch hunting doxxing campaigns that go on over ships and things over there.

Admittedly that has taken longer than anticipated for a lot of reasons ranging from ye olde social anxiety and fandom drama to just real world stuff. A tree fell on my house! On a happier note, I now have two goats and they are named Xehanort and Eraqus.

Admittedly, besides logistics, I am waiting until it is done to post because I don't want to deal with any drama/fallout for how I handle things like Xehanort's Actual Motivations™, how characters who have previously not had screen time get characterized, my understand of certain metaphysics, people being upset things Are Wrong when in fact I am referencing something that is explicitly canon from KHUX and such that they haven't played, a lack of understand of the inherent themes of moral philosophy and the duality of history, and, you know, people generally being bitchy. The finale is a turning point in a few ways, in that both the tone shifts and that it's when all the 'hot takes' come fully to light, so I am nervous. For people who have been nothing but supportive I will finish this. For you and for myself and for Sora and Xeha. But fuck if fandom spaces aren't as safe as they used to be, and I'm tired.

As a teaser some general things to look forward to are: Riku finding out about The Boyfriend, light squad screen time, yelling at Yensid, Ansem SoD but he has awkward estranged dad energy, ominous Vanitas implications, things that come out of Lea's mouth, Kairi being relevant.

And if you read this far, here's a lil preview snippet for you:

"After I do that, you gotta hand over your guardian.” Sora clarified. When Ansem nodded he reached his own hand forward and shook.

“Deal.”

Sora half expected some kind of sinister dark magic to flare up when they shook hands… but nothing happened. It was almost anticlimactic, just a normal handshake. That was… good? But it still left Sora waiting for the other shoe to drop again.

Sora turned around to face the other two who had come with him. “Alright then. I… guess I have some work to do.”

Xehanort began to answer, only to be cut off.

“Oh, and Sora? One more thing.”

Sora half turned back to the heartless, getting ready to give him an ear full for trying to pull something, but-

“Be sure to take careful care of my youngest self. By Vanitas’ logic, he is as my precious baby brother. It would be remiss of me not to do my familial duty and ensure the well being of his heart.”

To which Sora, unsurprisingly, turned bright red and began floundering helplessly.

“You!” Xehanort was not faring much better.

And Vanitas had gone from poorly hidden laughter to full blown cackling. Then he stepped forward and high fived the Heartless.

And that was… huh.

Something about that, about seeing Ansem of all people acting like a regular guy… high fiving his friend and laughing over something stupid and- and normal like teasing someone over their boyfriend and not something super evil or sadistic. He was a Heartless- and in a way, Vanitas sort of was too, right? But right now they were just acting like regular everyday people…

Sora adopted an overly dramatic serious expression and gave Ansem a salute. “I’ll have him back by 10, sir!”

“Sora!” Xehanort hissed full of betrayal. Sora flashed him an apologetic grin. Ansem’s grin was significantly less apologetic, if not amused.

“Good man.”

[pynkhues]

25 and 28 (brio pls!)

Thank you!

25. What projects are you currently working on?

I'm working on a pretty massive original project, which is actually making me have a lot of fun with prompt fills again. They're such a great warm up exercise for me, and I have so many old ones in my inbox that it's a bit of a smorgasbord, haha. In particular, I'm messing around with a couple of Succession ones - a gen one I'm even hoping I might post today which is kind of a four + 1 fic about the kids with Logan's clothes, and a meatier Kendall x Stewy one.

I do actually have a Brio one though too I've been playing around with, which has been so fun, and even an Ava x Deb Hacks one, which I hope I might one day actually finish and post.

28. Share a piece from one of your current WIPs! (Brio)

The camping lighter click-click-clicks, but there’s no spark, no flare, no hint of anything that might make this night any easier. Beth cusses beneath her breath, squinting back down at the box of Dean’s old outdoorsy-things, barely able to make out anything that isn’t barbeque tongs or a dusty, unopened box of fishing tackle in the darkness of the garage. Back to Plan A then, she thinks, grabbing her 23% battery cell off the top of the shelves where she’d tried and failed to angle the flashlight in a way that still let her use both of her hands.

Portable charger, that’s gotta be first priority, but then, didn’t Kenny ask to borrow it for the iPad?

So batteries for the flashlight then. The drawer had been empty earlier, but she figures she can empty a few remote control cars / dogs / light-up Barbie disco floors from the kids’ rooms.

She pads back into the house, the thin stream of light from her cell the only thing to illuminate the path ahead, and she manages to step over the vacuum cleaner she’d been halfway through using on the clippings of a bad batch of the counterfeit cash when the outage hit, only to see a figure hunched over her couch.

It’s instant, the way she can feel the thrum of her pulse in her neck, throat, mouth, a scream trapped like a hummingbird behind her teeth, and she’s thinking lamp, she’s thinking vase, she’s thinking Kenny’s algebra text book, cracked on the back of a head, when Rio’s slow drawl slips like a knife through butter in her head.

“Hey, darlin’,” he hums, and Beth exhales a rough breath.

“Thought we agreed you’d knock.”

“Door was open.”

“And the lights were off.”

“Power’s out.”

“All over town,” she agrees, angling her cell light to catch the angles of his face, and she frowns when she sees the graze at his cheek and the pinched expression to his face. She knows it better than she wishes she did at this point. “Thought we agreed next time you’d go to hospital. Do you know how hard it is to get bloodstains out of a linen blend?”

Writer asks

[ngmn2002]

Ch 106: Random thoughts part 1

Ok, here we go!

It sounds like a little spooky rumor, doesn't it?

And here I was excited to see who the colored first page would feature… it seems it's just Akane and Teru getting these lately… how lucky.

So, Akane can still move because he is a clock keeper, Teru can because he is a strong exorcist? That's what I still get from what's happening. Hanako moved again... how? Was he helped off screen by Akane or Teru or just moved again... somehow? out of literal shock? or maybe Tsu/his yorishiro being in No.1's boudayr that isn't affected with time

Ok.. I'm done with thinking about these stuff of catching the bad guys or whatever, until some action happens with the one who did it... it will be years. I'm leaving this thing behind.

The way they talked about honorable No.7 with though… poor boy…

Really poor boy, Tsukasa really went a bit too far… huh? Hang in there. Lend him your hanky for a sec Hakujoudai or wipe his tears for him...

…… he looks like he is done with everything… but really… the way Teru is treating him with is just rude. Can't you see the state the boy is in? he is even not a part of the chaos this time, he did nothing wrong. Spare him this time.

I see, so this another reason Tsukasa and his lackeys as Kou puts it had the clock destroyed. Nice way of thinking.

So yeah, I was a bit right, we got Nene monologuing about what happened last chapter. Nine.

What a cool chance to wake up to Tsukasa of all people asking you if you're awake. Look at…?

At this point and after seeing stuff like this for the past few chapters… I didn't go "wow" or anything of that sort... the boundary looks a bit normal, later in the chapter it starts getting interesting, though.

Also, adding this... Tsu...! Tsu...!! Tsu...!!! His level of self-confidence, boldness and capacity... uhhh!!! He [No.7's yorishiro, mind you] is in No.1's boundary as if it's no big deal, having a full day and posing as if he was home. in Hanako's boundary. This boy goes by his own rules, his own vision, he is so free willed and I LOVE THAT!!! HOW COOL!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!!!! HE IS A TRUE FORCE!!!! TELL ME SOMEOEN CAN BE A MATCH TO ALL THAT GRACE?! AHHHH!!!!!!!!!! 💜✨💜✨💜 Not to add he already did this before wit No.3's case, to the point we got a nice shot of 2 yorishrios together, hmm... will we see that happening again with No.1's as well. Gotta look forward to that!

How radiant. Wow… a cool view to wake up to… just saying…

Teach us, Tsukasa-kun! I love it when he gives little lectures!

What a cool face! ♡ wow… right into business… what to do Nene-chan… oh! pretend to be dead! I had a little thought someday of... why not get Tsukasa taking Nene to destroy a yorishiro himself? here it is. all real.

So funny. Love Tsukasa's reaction. That reminds me of this time she pretended to be fast asleep with Hanako back in the p.p arc. Maybe having flashbacks to that thing… I think she wouldn't like to do it again in fear of what might come next?

Tsu!! Uh… I can't stop laughing! You know that isn't the case! You're such a little cutie!!!

Twins… haha. If she was truly asleep, don't think that will wake her up, at least when the reason behind her falling asleep is you, Tsu. ~

absolutely don't waste your time on other unimportant things.

Hmm? Yeah, sure. You're not thinking about other things at all. ~

Ohhh... didn't think Nene perspective- ikemen Tsukasa (+ Hanako) would show up in the chapter... is it just me or whenever I give him a closer look he starts looking more like Teru? Ok, love her little imagination, though I see Tsukasa won't say these things… Nene-chan is so much into manga of such types it seems.

Cute.

Though, I will say I like Tsukasa's cool looks and moves in her little fantasy, really capture the vibe of "bad boy" have to say. Who does he think he is you said Nene-chan… well, it's really easy.

He is Tsukasa-kun! I guess we all know what it means to be Tsukasa, huh? So, good luck, Nene-chan. ~

Uhh... she is too much into manga... she is imagining a whole scenario in there… This "be my assistant".... seriously… so now this word is equal to "lover/girl" it seems? ……. Imaginary Hanako... wow... love how they look and holding into each other... manga way. as if JSHK is not a manga oh... my... love her words at the end, too.

This Tsukasa however, how he is posing... what he is saying… my honest reaction to him is…

I don't like the pose or facial expressions at all. He already said that… didn't look this way at all.

Though, I might believe Nene-chan is putting a sense of reality and a bit of personal life experience into her little fantasy. I mean…

Yeah...

… … … so, he is a cat. Does he see her as a cat, too? I mean… I believe cats bring their close ones gifts like these… well, a nice gesture…

Love the face she is making! Going dead again to think more. Let's see…

A nice way of thinking I must say. Though… Tsukasa did actually speak to her about the yorishiro when she woke up, guess she couldn't help but think about the other thing first. lol

Also, really love how they are walking while holding hands all childish & cheerful. how cute and funny.

how adorable! I really wished to see them this way as Nene & Tsukasa now, and I got it. can't be happier. Next time I would love to see it for real. ♡

And wow, a nice prank she was planning to pull on Tsukasa! though, knowing Tsukasa… I assume she should give much more thought into it? I mean she saw how 'powerful' he can be. Still, a funny little plan! I love how he looked once No.1 supposedly electrified? Him? she actually got that plan coming true herself at the end of the chapter, didn't she? He looked even better than in her imagination. Haha.

Uhh… so funny!! She took lots of steps back!! Hmm… you got that to yourself, dear. if you didn't pretend to be 'asleep/out of it' that wouldn't have happened. I woke up this morning to find my cat staring at my face this way... it was pleasant. not scary at all. At least I love how she didn't give him a headshot like she once did to someone. lol

Seeeee? He is just Tsukasa-kun!

Nene-chan acting smart on Tsukasa-kun! Let's see how the show goes down!

"I don't want to. you destroyed all these other ones,now it's a problem?" pfffft. let's go! I will mention quickly… paying attention to the translation of dbs/manga up... it seems Tsu is saying she destroyed "Some"/"all" yorishiors we got so far... depending on each one I can guess a different case of his current knowledge about No.6's yorishiro destruction.

"you want me to destroy the yorishiro, right? well, I don't want to! – fine, don't. it's your choice, right?~" This thing is actually too funny. So casual and easy-going! Yes, that's the way of talking I love to see him going with! and that gave the girl some serious errors I'm telling you! who is more incomprehensible while speaking with Nene? him or his assistant?

Haha, after getting her that way, he just went...

and here where you know it's gonna go down quickly. ~

lol. This boy this boy this boy!!! How much more amazing can he get? Seriously? That way of talking… oooh… playful manner… moves… facial expressions… oh, yes!!! who wants to run away from you??? if I was in Nene's place I would run right into his arms and say you got me! not kidding. also, good it didn't come to her mind he is a "yorishiro" as well. at some point he will want me to destroy him?!

This boy never disappoints me with his way of talking or unusual (impressive) way of changing the flow of the conversation to his benefit. Admirable!!! ♡

Even if it was just like "you fight for what you want, I will do, too. Mr. You're free to do whatever you want. The choice is always yours." That thing actually reminds me of a movie series I watched in the past... it had this "live or die, the choice is yours" thingy going around in almost every "game". remembering it kinda makes me shiver.

I feel a bit sorry Nene didn't even get a chance to speak in there. At the end, she had to do what Tsukasa wants… hmm… who was going and saying "you'll do what I want"… lol. Playing with Tsukasa is a bit tough, you have to follow 'his' rules. Love that!~

Though, the hand thing he mentioned, I believe he did it just to get Nene to give her best. He won't do that. I mean, surely he is sure he can catch her. he is so good at games, isn't he? Just wanted to have some fun with Nene-chan. How sweet. Tsukasa seems to like these games that take the form of little fun "bets" doesn't he? thinking about that one fic I wrote wizard Tsu this way with fun bets.. haha

.

.

.

Sooo... have to stop here due to pic limits... part (2)

[god-fucking-dammit-mizutani]

LOVE WINS

[kryptonitejelly]

I'm a big sucker for yearning and pining trope so reading your blurbs that contains those makes me go 🥰 haha so i have a blurb request!

say reader has been pining and yearning over aaron for so long and decided to tell him about reader's true feelings but reader didn't know that aaron is currently seeing someone :") he's all sorry and apologetic towards the reader :( after the 'rejection', reader ask for transfer request to another department bc as much as the reader try to not get affected, it still hurts :( reader and aaron separated (for idk how many years and months it's up to you) and they met again due to the clashing department has to work tgt on a case, aaron tried to tell the reader that back then his reasoning to 'reject' the reader is that he had a fear of being in a relationship w someone whose line of work is just as dangerous he is 😞 as much as he wanted to try it w the reader back then he couldn't do it thus he tried to be in a relationship w someone outside his field of job. the ending is up to you whether it will be angst or fluffy or whatever!! thank you and sorry if the blurb comes out messy im not really good writing out ideas :((((

A/N: nawh baby, its ok, the idea is greattt and came off really well but i’m not too sure if i did it enough justice 🤨

Your heart is hammering in your chest, the rapid thumping audible in your ears, as you walk into the BAU. A small wistful smile flickers across your face as you look around, taking into account the familiar layout.

“Look who is back.” You hear Derek before you see him emerging from around the corner.

“Last time I was here you were still in the bullpen.” You tease as you open your arms while simultaneously stepping into his. “I see someone has an office now.”

He laughs and shrugs as he squeezes you tight. “Acting as Hotch’s stand in for a few months had its perks.”

You laugh as Derek draws away, winking at you, but you feel your heart sink at the name “Hotch”.

It had been 2 years away from the BAU, 2 years since your transfer out to cybercrimes, but the sting of rejection was something not so easily forgotten.

(“I’m seeing someone, her name is Beth.”

“Oh…..”

“(Y/N)-”

“Forget I said anything Aaro- Hotch.”

“Can we - ”

“Just forget it. I gotta go.”)

“They couldn’t drag you out of the room huh?”

“They tried.” He winks, reciprocating your banter as he goes in for a side hug, squeezing your shoulders lightly. “Good to have you back, even if only temporary.”

Your lips part as you begin to respond when a flurry of voices exclaiming your name take over. You turn, releasing yourself from Derek’s half hug to find the rest of the team tumbling in through the glass doors, JJ, Spence, Emily, Dave, Penelope and following up behind them, an unreadable expression on his face, Aaron. It makes your heart seize and belly sink when he catches your eye over Emily’s shoulder as she pulls you in for a hug, offering you a tentative smile.

(“You wanted to see me?”

“You put in a transfer request.”

“I did, cybercrimes.”

“If this is about…”

“It isn’t.”

“You are good at the work we do here, I - the team won’t want to lose you.”

“I’ve thought it through Hotch.”)

“(Y/N).”

“Hotch.” You extend your arm to grasp his in a quick handshake. You read the small shifts in his expression, the pause before he shakes your hand, the moment of thought which is accompanied by a twitch in his cheek, and small flare of his nostrils as he finally extends his hand to meet yours, not liking it but going with the flow.

(“These are the last of my files.”

“Can I get you to change your mind?”

“I think the change will be a good one for me.”

“I … - You know where to find us if you ever change your mind.”)

-

You press your thumbs to your temples, as you duck your head down, eyes staring intently at the papers spread out in front of you, your eyes searching for the pattern you needed to find but could not.

“I hope you haven’t changed the way you take your coffee.”

A paper cup slides into view on the table beside you.

“Two splendas and a dash of milk.” You confirm, eyeballing the cup before looking up to meet Aaron’s eyes. “Thanks Hotch.” You manage to push out after a pause. You had been avoiding him ever since you had stepped back into the BAU, keeping the conversation minimal, and busying yourself with everyone else and the case.

“I liked it better when you used to call me Aaron.” His quiet admission surprises you, but you school your features as you spring the coffee cup to your lips, offering no response.

He slides into the chair beside you, and you look around.

“Where is everyone else?”

“They went back to the hotel, I told them I would wait for you.”

“You didn’t have to Hotch.”

“I’m not letting you go back alone.” He offers you a small smile, fingers smoothing down his tie, and you let yourself look at him, taking in the shadows under his eyes, the five o clock shadow appearing on his jaw, - he was tired.

“I’m done, we can go.” You stand, packing up your papers.

(“Are you leaving because of Aaron?”

“Rossi… what, did he say something to you.”

“He said nothing, but you both manage to say plenty without saying anything. We aren’t all blind you know.”

“I read it wrong.”

“I don’t think you did bella. It just…. It isn’t so simple for him. He’s been though alot.”

“I know.”)

-

“I broke up with Beth.” He confesses suddenly, breaking the silent hum of the SUV along the road.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” You tighten your fingers into a fist in your lap, your eyes trained on the passing street lamps outside the window. You catch a flicker of him glancing at you through the reflection against the window which the night brings.

“You never replied any of my texts.” He refers to the few texts he had sent you now and then, checking up on you.

“I’ve been busy.” Your reply is short, clipped, and it causes silence to fall over the both of you.

“I was afraid.” His voice is raw, quiet, real and it makes you turn to look at his side profile as he keeps his eyes trained on the road in front of him.

“Afraid?” You echo, letting yourself hope.

“Of being with someone who face the same dangers as I do.” You are silent, and he continues. “I was afraid of feeling like I had everything, only to lose it all again.”

The car rolls to a stop in the hotel’s parking garage, and you find yourself looking straight at him, his eyes holding yours, yours searching his. Your heart is hammering against the edge of your ribs.

“What are you saying Hotch.”

“That I was a fool 2 years ago,” you see the fire behind his eyes, “and I shouldn’t have let you walk out of my office, on us, on me.”

He reaches across the center console of the SUV, his hand slipping over your fists and you let him, letting yourself and emotions unfurl.

“I would like to get to know you again if you’ll let me.” His hand tightens around yours.

“Ok.” Is all you manage to whisper.

[cartoonist-ks]

Singing In The Shower (Donatello x Reader)

About: You walked over to the bathroom of the lair when you heard singing. You go to investigate when you see your boyfriend, Donnie singing in the shower. Unaware you're standing there listening to him.

Note: I was in the shower when I came up with this idea. I was thinking about this one video from KidBehindACamera when his girlfriend caught him singing in the shower and reenacted in my head of Donatello singing in the shower and his girlfriend catching him in the act.

Ratings: PG-13

-------------------------------------------------------

You were sitting on the couch of the lair, watching TV. Your boyfriend, Donatello came to you with a towel draped over his arm.

Donnie: "I'm heading to the shower for a little refreshing up. I won't be long."

Y/N: "Okay, hon. I'll be here waiting for you."

Donnie then walked off over to the bathroom while you sat on the couch and continued to watch the TV. A few minutes went by and you started to get a little hungry, so you got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen. On your way there, you came across the bathroom where Donnie was taking a shower. You heard...singing? You had already stopped walking and made your way into the bathroom which thankfully was unlocked. The singing became more clear. You saw it was coming from behind the shower.

Donnie: (singing) "It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday~. Everybody looking forward to the weekend, weekend. Friday, Friday, getting down on Friday~. Everybody looking forward to the weekend. Partying, partying, yeah! Partying, partying, yeah!...

You saw Donnie raised his fist above the shower curtain. And you couldn't help but giggle a little.

Donnie: (singing) "Fun, fun, fun, fun. Looking forward to the- (hacking up water) weekend."

You rarely ever heard your boyfriend sing. He was no angel, but he wasn't too bad at it. You found it cute.

Donnie: "Oh, baby, baby, how was I suppose to know~, that something wasn't right here~. Oh, baby, baby, I shouldn't have let you go~. (Humming) Show me how you want it to be. Tell me, baby, cuz I need to know now, OH because~. My loneliness is killing me, and I~, I must confess, I still be- (hacking more water) -lieve, STILL BELIEVE!...

You started to giggle a bit loudly as you tried desperately to contain your laughter. Unfortunately, for you, Donnie heard and he peeked his head out of the curtain.

Donnie: "Y/N?! What are you-

Y/N: "HAHAHAHA! HAHA! OH MY GOD! DONNIE WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU SINGING?!"

Donnie's head disappeared behind the shower curtain in embarrassment.

Donnie: (sheepishly) "Brittany Spears."

Y/N: "Hehe! Why?"

Donnie: "Please leave."

Y/N: "Nah, keep singing, babe."

Donnie: "No, I want you out of this freakin bathroom."

Y/N: "Man, if you were human, I think you should audition on one of those singing shows on TV. You could use a little practice though. And you'll do great!"

Donnie: "Y/N, please. I'm embarrassed now. I hope you enjoyed the show, now, please go."

Y/N: "Alright, alright. I'll leave you alone. But seriously, you should sing for me more often."

You then started to leave the bathroom, leaving Donnie to continue his shower. You will never forget Donnie's face when he realized you had listened to him singing in the shower. And sure enough, you would not let him live it down either.

@turtle-babe83

[blushinggray]

Free! The Final Stroke screeching/reaction (spoilers)

AHHHHH I JUST WATCHED THE FINAL STROKE MOVIE TODAY IN THEATERS ON PREMIER DAY AND IT WAS LAKSJDFOAIFJWOEI to summarize it all, it was Very Gay, which was to be expected but they DID NOT have to get so freaking extra with it 😩😩😩

much screaming and many spoilers ahead

FIRST OF ALL, KIRISHIMA NATSUYA: HE WAS SO FUCKING HANDSOME DAFKJOIEFJOSIDJF. SO HANDSOME. SO HANDSOME AND STUPID AND OVERLY FRIENDLY AS WE LOVE HIM TO BE ALKDSJFOAIEW.

he was in the film for a total of maybe 5 minutes altogether, which was kind of a lot bc the film kind of was just putting all the characters back in for the sake of putting them in imo? for the fans, lol. so everyone could see their faves. and in these five minutes that he appeared, our mans:

bragged about his little brother he's so proud of

got laughed at by nao for being natsuya (aka dumb and straightforward) as usual

trained with sousuke (he was hanging out in the same pool with him, nao, and makoto to train and aid in sousuke's rehab training)

got a call from ikuya after the international swimming competition in sydney!!!! in that same cafe he's always at!!!! and he was with nao at the time he got the call. casual and cool as always, being the cool big brother or whatever. he ended the call with a curt, "you got it. see you. don't catch a cold."

HE WAS HANGING OUT AT CAFE MARON WHILE THEY WAITED FOR THE SYDNEY COMPETITORS TO COME BACK TO JAPAN. HE WAS BEHIND THE COUNTER WITH ASAHI (WHO WAS HOLDING BABY TSUKIMI IN A CARRIER ON HIS CHEST!!!!!) AND HE THREW HIS ARM AROUND ASAHI AND WAS GETTING SO CLOSE LIKE ALKSDJFAOIEJAOEI. I have absolutely no clue what he was saying at the time bc i was too busy freaking out and trying to hold in the sounds bc the theater was so quiet. but his GODDAMN FACE. HE WAS SMIRKING. SO HANDSOME 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

and of fucking course, they were all out together at a restaurant when the sydney competitors came back, and he was like, "wth no one else is drinking alcohol tonight?" and nao was like "ofc not haha" AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

HE FUCKING FALLS ASLEEP AT THE TABLE AFTER DRINKING AND EVERYONE IS SURROUNDING HIM AND PATTING HIM LIKE "dude..." and ikuya is sitting there like, omg can't believe this mess is my brother....

i thought that just might be his last scene in the film but then we show back up to the kirishima household and natsuya is eating some sort of luxury holiday(?) bento and ikuya is like "aren't you gonna save any for me?" and natsuya's like "of course not. this is for me, you gotta wait until next year xD" and then ikuya just fucking SNATCHES up several different foods and stuffs his face with all of them and natsuya starts arguing with him over them laskjdfoawiefjao where was this brotherly affection all this time?????

and then cut to a few seconds later, natsuya's bumming in his room on the floor like in s3 when ikuya comes in and tells him about his new future goals and alskdjfaoei brothers sharing their ambitions together 😩😩 WHAT IS GOING ON. EVERYONE GETS ALONG SO WELL NOW???

NEXT: we'll go back to the beginning i guess lmfao but they're preparing for some sort of university festival

we start off with an easily misunderstandable shoujo-style situation where asahi is talking to ikuya like, "i know it's your first time... you don't have to be nervous. i know you can do it." and ikuya's like "no! i can't 😣" like the tsun he is backed up against the wall. and then it turns out they're trying to make a mille feuille cake.... but everything he's made so far looked like crepes

and for some damn reason, KISUMI comes outta nowhere into the kitchen and is like "ooooh what's this? a mille feuille cake? although they all look kinda like crepes haha ^^" and then ikuya RUNS THE FUCK OUT OF THE KITCHEN, yelling, "i told you i couldn't do it!!!" like the fucking tsun he is... and asahi is yelling at kisumi like "why did you just say that!!!" and starts rubbing his knuckles into kisumi's head and kisumi's just laughing like, "oh did i do that hehe"

and for some reason... seijuurou is working at the booth in his speedo and swim team jacket. i mean i'm not complaining but sir.... PLS TAKE MY MONEY AND GIVE ME YOUR FAT OCTOPUS BALLS. (he literally started a batter mixing competition with hoshikawa inside the booth, like what are they even doing in the same booth???)

then rin and sousuke show up to ikuya, asahi, and hiyori(?)'s booth, and they're offering them the crepes and then they get into a conversation about smth that leads into them showing the embarrassing photos they have of each other?????? like ikuya has a pic of rin in his maid costume for some reason??? (tho it isn't shown) and rin shows an embarrassing pic of ikuya he has in his phone that he got from natsuya???????????? and then ikuya starts chasing after rin yelling at him to delete it lasdkjfoaei

and then haru is off to the side selling ugly ass bird mascots again lmfao. bc ofc he is. love that weirdo

BUT THE REAL KICKER HERE IS KINJOU!!!!!!!!!!!

APPARENTLY, HIS VILLAIN BACKSTORY COMES FROM HIS CHILDHOOD CRUSH (/exaggerated) ON HIYORI ALSKDJFOAIE WHAAAT. apparently he was that annoying kid in the playground who would go up to hiyori and bother him bc he wanted a friend. bb hiyori was literally like "why are you even talking to me so much?" in his sandbox. and bb kinjou is like, "well there's gotta be smth you like, right? what is it?" and hiyori's like "well i feel kinda happy when i'm swimming... :)" as images of ikuya flash into his mind, that gay ass

BUT KINJOU'S GAY ASS EYES START SPARKLING TOO AND THEN HE'S LIKE "I GOTTA LEARN WHAT THE BIG DEAL ABOUT SWIMMING IS" and he runs home, begs his brother to take him to the pool. but next time he brings his swimming stuff with him to the playground, hiyori isn't there anymore and apparently he left for america at that time (or smth). so poor baby basically got ghosted

but hiyori still knows him when they're older!!!! kinjou shows up when they're throwing out the trash after the uni festival and calls out to hiyori to taught him (which is where that bullying preview scene came from i guess) and alkfjeoiaejoaifj omfg it's like that estranged childhood friends (sorta) trope but it'll never go kinjou's way bc hiyori is and will always be in love with ikuya 😔

kinjou would make such a good yandere tho!!!! he has a feral expression on a few times throughout the movie, and during a race he gets super competitive mid-race and... ngl he was kinda sexy 😳 i'm actually kind of surprised by how taken i was with him in this movie. doesn't help that he's unfairly handsome and his hair looks fucking amazing. i MAY OR MAY NOT be exploring this man in the future..................

i also found the ending with haru pretty interesting!!!! it kind of hints at neurodivergence? smth along the lines of disassociation or multiple personalities? (guess 50% off was kinda right on that end lmfao).

he gets obsessed with beating albert wahlander, which is the most fired up i've ever seen him (to the point of almost hurting himself) and then the shadow or whatever effect albert has on haru kind of just overtakes him and pushes haru out of his own body in a way... it doesn't make sense to describe it this way, i know, but haru is literally watching himself say hurtful things to his friends while being overtaken by this... albert obsessed persona?

it's so interesting to see haru being the one obsessing over someone instead of the other way around for once!!! at the end of the movie (after all the credits) haru says the same thing he once said at the beginning of season 1? about how "at age 5, you're a prodigy. at age 15, you're a genius. at age 20(?), you're average." and this is def gonna be explored/concluded in the second part of the final stroke movie so i'm excited for that!!!! april 2022 come at me!!!!

there were SOOOOO many other things going on, plot wise and fanservice wise, and ofc kyoto animation was fucking TOP TIER SHIT. all the water effects... there was a shot where haru was looking at his reflection in the water and they make a drop fall and spread and shake his reflection in the waves and it was lafkjsefoiaeja fucking glorious. the soundtrack was lovely too. there was a RADWIMPS-esque beginning song and a sexy ass electric guitar buildup for kinjou (which may or may not be contributing to my growing obsession with him...)

AHHHH!!!! it was so good and everyone was so cute and handsome and gay and funny. we literally see every single character we've met before in some way, shape, or form lmfao. i might just go back to the theater and watch it again on one of the upcoming holidays this week.... SO GOOD. SO GOOD.

I LOVE ALL THESE GAY SWIMMING BOYS SO MUCH 😩😩😩

[fakeloveaskblog]

Janus!!!! You and Remus should go to play Lasertag!!! (is that how it's spelled? is that what it's called?) I'm sure Remus would love that!

(Words: 2206)

Janus: "Hmmm while I am not a big fan of the idea of lasertag it does sound like something he would like.......I shall give it a try"

Remus was banging on the vending machine right outside Picani's office to try and get some candy out. Janus was telling the vending machine it was a stupid piece of shit in support. They had just gotten out of their fake therapy session.

“HAHA!” Remus let out a triumphant laugh as he got the candy. He immediately lunged his goblin mouth down into the bag. Only stopping to ask if his friend wanted any. He said no.

“So...” Janus began. He fiddled with his gloves out of nervousness “I kind of had a falling out with a...friend a few days ago and I could- I mean- Maybe hanging out would I uhm help me to think of something else. IF You want to?! I am totally forcing you to hang out. No saying no allowed totally. Maybe lasertag would be fun?”

His friend had sugar all around his lips as he grinned “Of course J-anus! Anything for my snakey! Hey you can pretend the other people are your friend and fuck them up!!”

Janus didn’t get a chance to respond, his crush had already started to walk towards the entrance. He had a skip in his step and he was flapping his hands around.

“Oh I know a lasertag place not far away! I think I still have one of the highscores there!”

They took the bus to the place. They sat so they were facing each other instead of beside each other. Janus didn’t want to intrude too much on his personal space.

The lasertag place was half filled with teenagers and friend groups. Energy drinks and chips could be bought. On the wall a display of the records of the day, month and all time stood. On the tenth place on the all time records stood BUTTMASTER420.

“Aww I was on the 7th place the last time I was here” Remus pouted.

“It just means you have to get a new record today” Janus replied with a smile.

“That’s the spirit snakey!”

Remus once again paid for everything without giving his friend a chance to pay for himself. Janus felt a little embarrassed putting on the laser tag gear but seeing the stupidly big grin on his crush’s face easily made up for any negative feelings.

The game room was dark with only a few neon lights here and there. The fake walls and obstacles made so the players could duck from lasers were also clad in black. Hell even the fake pirate ship sitting in the corner for some reason was all in black!

The dudes were on the same team, the blue one. Along with some strangers. Even more strangers made up the red team. They had 30 seconds to find a starting position in the room before the 15 minute game started.

The moment they were let in Remus took Janus’ hand. He intertwined their fingers while holding his lasergun steadily in his other hand. He ran into the room, pulling his friend along, towards the pirate ship. To Jan’s surprise he ran past it and instead made them both hunch down behind a box.

“We can wait until some bitches have taken over the ship and then destroy them!! That way it’ll be even more exhilarating!” Remus whispered to him.

“Ah yes. The old stealing ship strategy. Done that many times” He replied sarcastically.

The signal went off showing the match had started. Remus let out a delighted squeal and shot up from the cover to shoot at people. His friend stayed hidden. 

He saw a stranger running and stopped when they saw them. They aimed towards Remus who was currently laughing like a maniac. Janus aimed back at the stranger and somehow shot right on their chest. Before getting up and pulling his crush along to the nearest other cover, which happened to be a fake pillar.

Janus had a small smile on his face as adrenalin rushed through his veins “This is actually kind of...fun”

“Right??? I knew you’d like it!!”

Remus hit his ear a few times and kept blinking rapildy. There was so much sensory stuff going on it was making his skin feel like static. He usually had his headphones with him, but being with his friend was easily making up for the discomfort.

“Seems like a good time for mutiny” Janus suggested while glancing over to the pirate ship.

“Perfect time!”

They ran between covers. Remus was shooting at every single person he saw. Even blue ones. Janus’s gear beeped a few times showing he’d been shot. By the time he’d gotten to the pirate ship his crush was already crawling up the side of it like a rabid spider.

Janus let out a few panting breathes before walking up onto the ship. “Face your doom fuckers!” Remus was yelling while sprinting up to the people on the top of the ship.

A truly epic battle of shouting joking insults and shooting lasers began. No one was paying attention to Janus so he sneaked around them and sat down right at the highest point of the ship. He could see the whole room. Ah yes! This was true power!!! He proceeded to snipe at any little bitch he saw while his crush playfully barked at the other people until they gave up and left the ship.

Remus sat down and leaned his back against Janus’ so he had full sight of the other side of the room. He let out a cackle every time he hit someone. His laugh was like a chainsaw but Jan still adored it.

“This is almost as exciting as getting to plot revenge against people I will never actually hurt” Jan said.

“Indeed. There’s barely any difference between lasers and poison anyway!”

A few minutes went by, just enough so Janus could properly catch his goddamn breathe. before Remus suddenly jumped up on his feet and pulled in Janus’ shirt to get him to move as well.

“C’mon snakey just sitting safely isn’t exciting enough! We gotta jump back into the battlefield! Dive into the ocean of laser and lava!!”

Janus let out a sigh before holding out his hand so his crush could take it and pull him along to wherever he wanted. Which Remus promptly did. They jumped down from the ship and zigzagged across the room while lasers went here and there.

He slid to a stop against a wall. A loud beeping was going off to show it was only 2 minutes left. Remus let go of his friend to cover his ears. He still held up his smile.

“You feeling okay?” Jan asked.

“Mhm” He nodded and moved his hands away from his ears to instead aim at a few people from the red team “We gotta get in a few more points before it ends right”

“Right on it comrade”

They aimed at as many people as possible. Remus seemed a bit out of it but still chuckled when he got in a good hit.

A stranger ran past them. They stumbled against Remus for just a moment. Their hand landed on his lower back but they quickly continued past them to hide behind a cover. 

The sudden push made Remus stumble forward. He froze. The gun hang in the wire connected to his gear. His eyes were wide as he stared down into the floor.

Janus stopped and looked back when he didn’t hear his crush’s laughter anymore. He let go of the gun when he saw the way Remus was holding his hand over his mouth and the way his chest was barely moving.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I...I can’t breathe” Remus let out between gasping breathes for air.

“Is the binder too tight? Ehm is it a sensory overload? What should I-” He rambled out in a panic.

“I can’t....I can’t breathe” Was all he could get out.

“Right. Right...Remus I am going to grab onto your shirt and lead you out of here okay? I won’t do anything more than that”

He waited for his friend to nod before lightly taking ahold of the arm of his shirt and walking through the room to the exit. He didn’t give any of the players running around as much as a chance of accientally touching Remus.

They left the lasertag building and sat down on the sidewalk behind it. Janus let go of his friend and gave him a bit of space. Remus buried his head in his hands while gasping for air.

“Do you need help with-” Janus began.

“I can...I can handle it” Remus interrupted.

His shoulders was shaking and his nails were digging down into his skin. Tears formed in his eyes and he immediately tried to force them away.

“This is so stupid” He mumbled “It was- They barely even touched me- it was an accident- It’s so stupid- so stupid”

“Don’t say that. Sensory overload isn’t anything stupid. It’s not something you can just force away with willpower. All the lights and sound was a bit much for me as well to be honest. So it’s not stupid for you to be overwhelemed either” Janus said in a soothing tone.

The tears kept buldiing up “No. No. It’s so stupid- It happened over a year ago- I should be past it- It’s so stupid”

A cold feeling spread through Janus as he realized it might not only have been a sensory overload but maybe something more close to a flashback. He scooted slightly closer while fiddling with his gloves. He was unsure of how to comfort him.

“I...When....” Janus took a deep breathe “It’s been almost a year since I moved out from my parent’s house...But when I had a window open a few nights ago and the wind suddenly made it slam shut...I...It reminded me so much of doors being slammed shut and....and....So all I could do for the next hours was hide under my blanket with my snake plushie. I knew I was alone in my own apartement...But my body still reacted like I was a teenager”

He stopped to regain his compuser.

“So Remus I promise that whatever you’re reacting to it’s not stupid. Nor is the way you are reacting. I know what’s it like”

Remus looked over at him, his eyes red from crying. “Can I hug you?” He asked with a hoarse voice.

Janus didn’t respond. He simply opened his arms and let Remus cuddle up against his chest. Jan moved his hand up and down his back and and pressed his face into his crush’s fluffy mess of a hair.

They sat in silence for a bit. Every now and then Remus sniffled but he didn’t try to move away. Sometimes Janus mumbled something meaningless but comforting.

Eventually Remus moved back. The tears had dried on his cheeks and his breathing was steady. He stood up and rubbed his palms against his eyes before standing up. Janus did as well.

“You should probably drink some water when you come home. So you don’t get a headache from the crying” He suggested.

“Thanks snakey” Remus let up into a small smile. He suddenly took out his phone and typed something “I ehm...I’m sending my adress to you. I know you’ve already walked me there. but in case you’d forgotten. And in which apartment number I live. I don’t have any job and i don’t sleep much so you can come at like anytime! Just to hang out. If you want!”

“Oh no I would absolutely despise having to spend time with a person I’ve already choosen to spend several very fun hours with”

Remus’ smile moved into a grin “Great! And uh next time we hang out after therapy we can do something you want. I know these past times we’ve done stuff I’m mostly interested so you can choose!”

Butterflies flied around in Janus’ chest “I would love to!”

“Maybe we can invite Remy as well!”

Both of them sighed at the same time “They’re so pretty”

They glanced at each other with blushing cheeks before letting up into laughter and giggling. By the end of it all the bad feelings left by the breakdown we’re gone.

Remus reached out and held Janus’ hand for a moment “Well I shall see you next time! Don’t die!”

He let go and started to walk away, a skip still in his step. “I’ll do my best!” Janus replied.

He stood still with a big goofy grin on his lips and with blush reaching up to his ears. He looked over to you with an excited look on his eyes.

Janus: “Did you see that!? He really does seem to like being with me! Oh I wonder where I’ll take Remy and Remus to hang out. Maybe a museum? Oh and his adress! Exscuse me I am not usually this excited but ahhh I can just go over and hang out?? Whenever I want to??? Should I? I want to! Should I go over to him this weekend? Is that normal? Is that okay?”

[sunflowerim]

I LOVE YOU 3000!

-PART 23

Weekend 1

Louis opened the door to an extremely handsome Harry Styles holding two boxes of pizza in his hand and a nervous smile playing on his lips. His sunglasses were set in his hair and his dimples popped up as soon as he saw Louis.

"Hi."

"Hey Harry, come in."

Louis opened the door wider to let Harry come in. Harry moved inside and put his shoes in the rack by the door and looked at Louis with a questioning gaze. Louis was confused for a second before he saw Harry holding up the pizza boxes.

"Oh, just leave them on the kitchen counter", Louis said pointing across the room.

He brought pizza.

"You have a nice apartment", Harry said looking around him.

"Ha thanks. I hope you didn't have trouble finding the apartment."

"No, not at all-- Hey I hope this isn't too awkward", Harry added after a pause.

"Well it was when you suggested the plan, but you're here now, so I suppose we should get on with it."

"I guess we should."

Harry smiled and hoped that it hid all the traces of nervousness he was feeling. Was this a date? Did Louis think it was a date? Definitely no. He wasn't even on board with the idea initially. But Harry is here. He's going to watch a movie with a man he's low-key attracted too. He was too confused and his feelings were all over the place and he could only hope he didn't end up making a fool of himself.

"Well make yourself comfortable on the couch while I heat the pizzas". Louis' voice brought Harry out of his reverie and he nodded and made his way towards the couch.

Harry could hear Louis scuttle about in the kitchen as he flopped down on the couch and took in the sight around him. The apartment was decorated with fairy lights and it moved something in Harry. He smiled despite himself. A projector had been set up on the coffee table in front of him and the white screen lay a few feet away. He assumed that the television was behind it. He looked to his left to find a neatly stacked bookshelf, with fairy lights hanging off it. Beside was a small bed with blankets and curtains hung in front of the the setup with a circular table next to it. It must be Louis' reading nook. A bookworm too. Louis is full of little surprises. Overall the apartment looked so cozy that it made Harry comfortable at once. This looked like a home, a proper one, where someone could live happily, unlike his unnecessarily large one.

Soon enough Louis was standing in front of him setting the pizza boxes down on the coffee table. Before Harry could say something Louis was off again, returning this time with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Ah drinks.

Truth be told, Louis hadn't been able to resist the idea of movie, pizza and wine combo, drunken awkwardness be damned.

Louis sat across from Harry and was thinking about what to say when Harry said, "do you mind if I get some water?"

"Yeah sure it's in the fridge."

As Harry walked towards the kitchen, Louis took the moment to calm himself down. He should be regretting his decision to agree with Harry in the first place, but he was kinda glad Harry was here. I mean they could at least be friends. With that thought we stood up to put the dvd on the set everything up.

Back in the kitchen, Harry was trying to do the same thing. He'd never been this nervous around someone. He quickly opened the fridge and grabbed a water bottle. He was about to close the door when his eyes fell on a huge stash of chocolates. Harry could feel the nervousness melt in him. This was so cute. After having some water, and putting the bottle back in the fridge, he noticed a box of dog treats on the kitchen counter. Louis has a dog too! This man cannot get any cuter.

Harry walked back to the living room to see that Louis had set everything up and the movie intro started playing. The sight looked so endearing that Harry couldn't help click a picture.

Harry went back to where he was sitting, putting a careful distance between him and Louis. Harry started first.

"You have a dog?"

Louis paused the movie.

"Oh yeah. Cliff. He's asleep right now."

"Well I hope to meet him before I go."

"Sure, he'll be up soon anyway. I took him for a long run today so he's probably more tired than usual."

"How insensitive."

"Pardon me if I want to keep my dog fit and healthy."

"Ah, you're a good dad."

"I am."

Both of them smiled as a silence settled between them. Louis broke it.

"I don't know what kind of movies you usually watch but this is a bit different. You gotta focus initially so you completely get it."

"Okay, I can do that."

"Yeah, you're gonna love it. I'm actually excited."

Harry couldn't stop himself from getting endeared by how Louis was smiling so hard that the skin beside his eye was all crinkled.

The butterflies in his stomach were going crazy.

He kept looking as Louis pulled out his phone and clicked a picture of the pizza and wine on the table. Louis took a quick picture and looked at Harry.

"Do you mind if I mention your name in a tweet?"

"No. I don't mind."

"Cool."

He waited as Louis posted the picture on twitter and then checked his phone. A smile spread on his lips as he saw the tweet.

"Let's get back to the movie, shall we?", Louis asked putting his phone down and nodded with a smile.

The next 2 hours were pretty intense. Harry hadn't touched the pizza after one slice and was only occasionally sipping wine from his class which Louis quietly kept filling while happily gobbling down his pizza. Louis was thoroughly amused by Harry's reactions to various parts of the movie and kept thinking about how this is what he had felt too while watching 'Iron Man' for the first time as a 13 year old. And Louis would never admit that he kept glancing at Harry, every time something exciting happened.

The movie was about to end and Harry was staring wide eyed at the screen. Louis got back to the movie to catch the last scene, his favourite one,

"Truth is... I am Iron Man."

Louis turned his head sideways when he heard a sharp intake of breath. Harry's jaws had dropped, mouth forming an 'o' and he was staring wildly at the screen.

"Wtf just happened. He admitted!! He admitted HE was Iron Man. OH MY GOD."

"Yes Harold, he did. And that's how began one of the greatest movie franchise."

"No shit."

"Haha, are you okay."

"No, I'm shook. And hungry. God why didn't I eat the pizzas."

"Have at them. I'll go check on Cliff."

"Yweah", Harry managed to say with mouthful of pizza.

Louis smiled and walked towards the end of the hall where Cliff was sound asleep. He knelt down beside Clifford's rug and scratched behind his ear. Clifford stirred a little and then slowly opened his and soon enough jumped on Louis.

From the living room, Harry could hear happy "woofs" and a short yelp mixed with laughter which sounded like Louis'. Harry turned around just in time to see Louis walking in and a very excited Clifford at his feet. Clifford soon ran towards Harry and stopped at his feet. Harry extended one of his hands for Clifford to shake raised another one to pet him. Clifford sniffed at Harry's hands, gave a loud bark and walked away. Harry stared in dismay and Louis couldn't help laughing.

"Don't worry. It's probably the pizza."

"Huh?"

"Your hand. It smells like pizza. And I've noticed on multiple occasions that he doesn't like the smell of pizza sauce."

"Oh my bad, I'll quickly wash my hands."

Harry reached out to grab the empty boxes but Louis stopped him.

"Leave them to me."

Harry stood up and went to wash his hands in the kitchen sink, while Louis put the empty boxes in the trash.

As Harry was wiping his hands, Louis handed him a bowl of treats to offer to Clifford as a sign of peace.

Harry cautiously made his way across the room where Clifford had settled happily in front of the reading corner and was chewing a ball.

"Clifford hey, look what got for you."

The familiar smell of treats seemed to interest Clifford and he sniffed Harry's extended hand.

This time he let out a soft bark and started wagging his tail happily as Harry fed him the treats.

Louis watched as Harry played and talked with Clifford and petted him. It was an adorable sight. Well Clifford's always been a friendly dog and he certainly made Harry happy today.

Harry turned back to see Louis already looking at him and smiled softly as he got up from his crouched position.

"Well I suppose I should leave now" Harry said, still smiling softly.

"I guess." Louis hoped his voice didn't reveal the twinge of sadness he was feeling at Harry's departure.

"I had fun today."

"Me too."

"You're a good host."

"I've been told likewise."

"So, I'll see you next week?"

"Yeah definitely."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Harry proceeded towards the door, Louis following close behind. Harry stopped right in front of the door and turned around, "Louis can I text you on iMessage from now? Twitter feels too formal."

"Harry, you've been to my house. We just watched a movie together. Yes, you can text me on iMessage", Louis laughed.

"Cool." Harry turned towards the door again.

Louis held the door for Harry and just when he was about to close it,

"And Lou-"

"Yeah?"

"Blue suits you."

"Oh-", Louis' cheeks heated up, "thanks."

"Bye," Harry smiled.

"Bye," Louis replied and closed the door behind him hoping that Harry hadn't seen the blush on his face.

But Harry had, and his butterflies were happy.

PREVIOUS / NEXT

INTRO

[paper-mirio]

Your Heart on Your Sleeve & A Knife in Your Back

Shindou Yo x Reader

Words: 7,229

Summary: When the two of you were young, you made a promise to each other that the two of you would be the greatest hero duo the world had ever seen. You would be the Pro Heroes Heat Wave and Grand, the best partners in the industry! And you weren’t going to let something as simple as going to different hero schools get in the way of your promise to your best friend. Before one can become a Pro Hero, however, they must receive their Provisional License. And really, since you’re so eager to talk to him about your classmates, can you blame him for using that information to his advantage? The answer, of course, is yes.

A/N: This was written as a Secret Santa present for a friend! It’s sort of a Christmas fic but since I don’t think I mentioned Christmas anywhere take it as a late generic holiday fic! Enjoy!

“I got in!” you shouted into the phone, prompting your dad to shout for you to lower your voice from downstairs. You called out an apology, gently setting down the hologram disc that came with your acceptance letter. The video had been paused near the end, and the smile on All Might’s frozen face paled in comparison to the beaming grin etched onto yours.

Instead of the excited encouragement you expected in response, you were met with silence. You waited, before hesitantly asking, “Shindou? You there?”

“...Yeah. Um, you got in where, exactly?” Shindou asked.

“Oh, yeah. I got into UA! They said I'm in class 1-A!” you exclaimed. You giggled excitedly, doing a small little dance. If Shindou were in the room with you he'd no doubt comment about how silly you looked, but you wouldn't care a bit. This was everything you dreamed of, and you felt like you were on top of the world right now.

“That's great, Y/N,” Shindou said, very clearly not as excited as you were. “So I guess that means you're not coming to Ketsubutsu, huh?”

You let out a sigh. “Yeah, guess not. I mean, I really would love to go to school with you, but Ketsubutsu is so far, and—“

“UA is your dream school, I get it! You don't have to make any excuses; if I were in your situation I'd choose UA too,” Shindou laughed. “Just don't get it in your head that this makes you better than me, alright? I may not be your senpai anymore, but I still have a year of experience on you.”

“If you say so,” you giggled. “Just get ready, I'll catch up with you before you know it. We gotta be on the same level when we team up, you know?”

Shindou chuckled. “True, true. I'll put in a good word for you with Yoroi Musha then. We’ll be able to get used to working together if he extends an internship offer to you.”

“Pfft, you won't need to! He'll be so blown away when he sees me at the Sports Festival this year, he’ll be begging to have me join,” you claim. Sure, you may have been exaggerating a bit there. After all, having the Number 8 Pro Hero as a mentor would be a very big deal. But you were confident in your skills, and Shindou made it sound so wonderful whenever he told you of his experiences working with the hero. You remember celebrating the night Shindou told you he'd been offered an internship at his agency, and you were still proud of him. He wasn't at the agency anymore, but was extended an offer to return once he'd gotten his provisional license.

“There you go again,” Shindou jokingly chided. “And they wonder why I worry about their ego...”

“Oh, because you're one to talk, right?” you joked back. You heard your dad call for you, and stopped laughing to let out a sigh. “Listen, I gotta go. I’ll call back soon, alright?”

“Yeah, talk to you later then. Bye.”

“Bye!” you said, quickly hanging up. You pocketed your phone and moved to exit your room when you caught sight of your acceptance letter. You squealed in excitement. You were gonna be a hero!

You entered Shindou’s apartment, giving a brief bow to Shindou’s mother on your way in. “Thank you for having me over on such short notice!” you thanked her.

She waved it off with a smile. “It's no problem, Y/N,” she said. “You're always welcome here! Besides, after what your class just went through we would've invited you over anyway!” Her eyes narrowed mischievously, and she leaned in and lowered her voice before continuing, “I know he's bad at showing how he really feels, but Yo’s been worried sick ever since the news broke. So I'm sure he'll be more than happy to see you here.”

You flushed at this, nodding in response and laughing nervously. “Haha, well, I guess I'll go see him now then!” You waved goodbye before rushing off in the direction of Shindou’s room. Once outside, you knocked a few times before placing your hand on the doorknob. “Shindou? It's me, Y/N. Can I come in?” you asked. You were met with complete silence. Your furrowed your eyebrows. “Shindou?” You placed your ear to the door, trying to listen for any movement on the other side. Nothing. Concern bubbled within you, and worst-case scenarios ran through your mind. Was your school the only one targeted today? Maybe someone had attacked Shindou without his family noticing. Trying not to panic, you called him once more. When no response came, you announced, “I’m coming in,” before twisting the doorknob and opening the door.

Quickly surveying the room for anything wrong, you sighed in relief at the sight of Shindou asleep in his bed, headphones covering his ears. Once the concern left you, you rolled your eyes in amusement. “Worried sick, huh?” you muttered, shaking your head and making your way over to stand at the side of his bed. Without warning, you flopped onto the bed next to him, throwing your weight into your fall. The mattress springs squeaked in resistance and Shindou was sent a few inches into the air, startling him awake. He ripped his headphones off and raised his hands into fists, seemingly ready for a fight before his eyes landed on you, casually lying in his bed with a devious smirk on your face.

His wide eyes blinked in confusion, and he reached up to rub at them before asking, “Y/N?”

You finally laughed at the confused look on his face. “Hey, Shindou. How was school today?”

At the mention of school, he was wide awake. The look on his face turned serious, and he gave you a slight glare. “I should be the one asking you that! A villain attack?!” He looked you up and down, concern etched into his features. “Are you hurt?”

Your smile turned soft, and you placed your hands on his shoulders. “Look, I’m fine! See? Not a scratch on me!” Except for the one on my back, you thought, but he didn't need to know about that. “As if I’d let some lowlife villain get the best of me!” you scoffed. “Besides, they really didn't know what they were doing with the whole attack. They basically made it easier for us all to fight back.”

Shindou raised an eyebrow, intrigued, yet still concerned. “They did? How?”

You giggled, finding humor in the convenience of the situation. “Okay, I probably shouldn't be laughing because I got really lucky they messed up the way they did, but it's just so perfect! We were at a training facility specifically for rescue training, so there were different zones for different types of disasters. And when the villains first showed up, they had their warper villain separate us into the different zones so they could pick us off individually, and—“

“So they were trying to kill you guys?!” Shindou asked, alarmed.

You sighed, frustrated at the interruption. “Yeah, they were. Anyway,” you continued, ignoring the growing concern in Shindou’s face, “we were all sent to the different disaster zones randomly. And, get this,” you giggled, pausing for dramatic effect, “they sent me to the fire zone.”

Shindou blinked, processing your statement before a bemused grin formed. “They didn't!”

“They did!” you cackled. The two of you laughed together for a few moments, with you hugging your sides. You wiped a tear from your eye, proceeding with your explanation of the day’s events. “Yeah, Ojiro and I took care of those assholes in no time.”

“Ojiro?” Shindou asked.

“Oh yeah, I haven't told you about any of my classmates yet. Ojiro’s got this really cool tail Quirk, and he's insane at martial arts!” You mimed some of the moves you’d seen your classmate perform earlier in the day, a large grin on your face. “With me practically giving them heatstroke and him kicking them into the concrete, they hardly stood a chance against us!” You smiled and leaned back in the bed, hands behind your head as you smiled at the ceiling. “I wasn't the only one who got a convenient placement, either. One of my classmates, Tsuyu, has a frog mutation Quirk. One of the many, many things she can do with her Quirk is swim fast.”

“Oh, let me guess,” Shindou cut in. “Flood zone?”

“Close,” you responded. “Shipwreck.”

Shindou snapped his fingers, muttering, “Damn.” He turned to face you, a small smile on his face. “You really did get lucky today, huh? You're sure you're alright?”

You nodded, returning his smile. “I promise, I'm perfectly fine. Other than this one kid with a really self-destructive Quirk and two of our teachers, nobody got seriously hurt. And those three are gonna be just fine, last I heard.” You let out a dreamy sigh. “Aside from, you know, the threat of death and all, it was cool seeing everyone’s Quirks in action. My classmates are all really cool.”

If you hadn't been staring at the ceiling, you might've noticed a certain glint in Shindou’s eyes. Having known him all your life, you would've immediately recognized the look as one he gets when scheming to himself. However, as you were looking away, he was met with no confrontation as a sly grin formed on his face. “Yeah,” he said. “They do sound pretty cool. Why don't you tell me more about them?”

You laid face down in your bed, unable to face the shame of meeting your friend’s gaze. Such a defeat had been humiliating, broadcast for the whole nation to see your failure. I can never go outside again, you thought. My entire career, down the drain. It was fun while it lasted. You'd survived an attack by villains, but this? This was your downfall.

“Y/N,” groaned Shindou, tired of your dramatics. “You got third place. That's good. What are you so embarrassed about?”

You lifted your head off your pillow to sent him a scathing glare. He rolled his eyes, not at all intimidated. “It wasn't good enough! I only got to the tournament round because Ojiro dropped out, and then I couldn't even last a minute against Todoroki! Me! Losing to the kid with the ice quirk!” You flopped your head back down, heaving another loud sigh into the pillow. “Who’d want to take me on as an intern after that mess I made out there...?” Your voice, muffled by the pillow, barely reached Shindou.

“Well, Yoroi Musha, for one,” Shindou muttered, rolling his eyes before letting out a laugh at the way your head jerked up in surprise.

“Wait, for real?!”

Shindou nodded. “You haven't gotten the offers yet, but he said he was impressed by your performance and thinks you'd be a good fit at the agency. Because, you know, you got third place and did a really good job, Y/N.” He watched as you processed those, waiting for the excited laughter that normally came when you received good news. This was a big deal, after all, and a great opportunity for your career. The laughter never came, however, as he saw you blink in confusion, your eyebrows furrowing. He sighed, realizing the issue. You still weren't satisfied with your performance, and you didn't understand why a high-ranking hero was impressed. Shaking his head, he moved to sit next to you on your bed, forcing you to roll into your back to make room for him. Lightly nudging your shoulder, he got your attention, asking, “Look, let's talk about what happened today. Maybe it'll get you to understand how well you actually did. Forget the second round and start with the first tournament match. Who were you up against?”

You sighed, grabbing your pillow and covering your face with it. “You watched the whole thing, you already know—“

“We’re talking each other through it,” he cut you off, ripping your pillow away. “Now, who did you fight?”

You let out a frustrated groan. “Fine. Kaminari Denki. My classmate.”

Shindou nodded. “Quirk?”

“Electricity.”

“And how did you beat him?”

“Kept my distance, since he’s better at short-range combat. Used my Quirk to make the air around us hotter, exhausting him faster and increasing the air’s resistance to electric current, making his attacks slower. I just waited for him to short out at that point,” you recited. You sighed once you finished. “Okay yeah, I did okay in that fight, but what about—?”

“Patience,” Shindou gently said, ruffling your hair as he cut you off yet again. Ignoring your pointed glare and avoiding your hand swatting his away, he nodded. “Next round. Who’d you fight?”

“Iida Tenya. Engine Quirk. I caused his engines to overheat,” you said, covering the questions you knew he'd ask before he got to them. “Harder to target him because he moved too fast, and he nearly got me out of the ring at one point.”

Shindou nodded. “Good, good.” He smiled down at me. “Now, the last round.”

You sighed, turning on your side away from him as your face flushed in embarrassment. “Do we really need to go over this one? It was embarrassing enough living through it.”

Shindou gripped your shoulder, rolling you back and laughing when he saw the pout on your face. “Yes, we do. It's important to understand your failures and learn from them. Can't be a good hero if you don't do that.”

You folded your arms over your chest. “...Fine. Todoroki Shouto. Half-hot, half-cold. I've only ever seen him use his fire against Midoriya, though.” You paused, frown deepening on your face.

Shindou poked your cheek at the corner of your frown, a smirk on his face. “Go on,” he teased.

“When the round started he sent ice to capture me like he did for everyone else. I used my Quirk to melt the ice, but I didn't evaporate it because the steam would have blocked my vision.”

“So the water was still on the floor of the ring?” Shindou asked.

“Yeah. I tried to get closer to him, since he seems like he prefers long-range attacks. Plus if he used his fire, I could've turned that against him. He didn't. And he kept avoiding me while I tried to close the distance until we basically circled the stage.”

“And,” Shindou added, “while this was happening you weren't focused on where you were standing.”

You shook your head. “Nope, just focused on getting closer to him.”

“So when you circled the stage—“

“I ended up back where I started,” you ground out between clenched teeth, “right where the puddle was from the ice I melted.”

“And the puddle?”

“Frozen over.”

“So,” Shindou continued, covering his mouth to try and stifle a laugh. “When you stepped on the ice?”

You sighed, sending him a pointed glare at his poor attempt to hide his laughter. “I fell on my ass, and Todoroki knocked me off the stage with more ice.”

Shindou snorted at the memory. He took in a breath, trying not to laugh too much when you were still embarrassed over the whole situation. “Now, if you had to do something different during that fight, what would you have done?”

You thought for a moment, your eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “Well,” you started, “I’d definitely get rid of that puddle, for one.” You continued to think, nodding to yourself. “I could try to do what Midoriya did and wait for him to overuse his ice, instead of chasing him around like I did. He'd either wear himself out from the cold or he'd use his fire, which I could turn against him.” You smiled, proud of yourself for your plan, before the smile dropped and you slammed your face into the pillow again. “Ugh, why didn't I just do that?!”

Shindou rubbed your back soothingly, a slight smirk on his face. “It's alright Y/N,” he said. “Now you know better, and you can probably beat him next time you go against him.”

You lifted your head, and his smirk vanished and was replaced with a smile. You sent him a soft smile, saying, “Thank you, Shindou. This was actually helpful. Think we can do this more often?”

He reached up to ruffle your hair, briefly blocking your view of his face as the smirk returned. “Of course! If you ever wanna go over a training exercise or something else you guys did in class, feel free to reach out.”

You sat up fully and leaned over to pull Shindou into a hug. You buried your face into his shoulder. Shindou blinked in surprise, his smirk dropping, but immediately returned the hug. For a brief moment, he felt a twinge of guilt, and considered telling you his real intentions. He shook his head, dismissing the thought and pulling you closer. They’ll understand eventually, he reasoned to himself.

Over the next couple of months, you'd taken Shindou up on his offer multiple times. After eventful Heroics classes, sparring sessions, or days where you just trained your Quirk, you'd call Shindou or visit his place to talk yourself through the experience. You'd go over the matches you'd win, detailing what strategies you'd used so you could understand which worked and which didn't. You extensively covered the matches you'd lost, analyzing together what your opponents did that got the best of you. Shindou would occasionally interject with his own ideas of how you could have utilized your Quirk, but for the most part he guided you to talk on your own.

When the time came to do your internship, you'd decided to join Yoroi Musha, who—just as Shindou had told you—extended you an offer to join him at his agency. Unfortunately, Shindou’s internship would occur in a different week, so the two of you did not get the chance to work together. Regardless, he continued to encourage you via text when you were free. Your regular analysis was put on a temporary halt, as you were getting plenty of feedback on your performance from your new mentor. Shindou, interestingly enough, did not reach out and offer to begin the conversation as much during this week, even though he was normally very enthusiastic in doing so. You shrugged this off, not seeing this as very unusual. After all, end of term exams had been approaching, and he was probably busy studying. This was a relatively new arrangement, after all.

When your end of term exams passed, however, his enthusiasm returned full force. He insisted you analyze the practical portion of the exam with very close attention to detail.

“After all,” he suggested, “it's not every day you get to fight against a Pro Hero.”

Finding no fault in his logic, you agreed. Interestingly enough, the direction he took when guiding your analysis wasn't what you expected. Rather than focus on the strategies you used against Midnight, Shindou had you focus on how well you worked with your teammate, and how you utilized both of your Quirks to your advantage. It all made sense why, however, after hearing him explain that in the field you'd likely find yourself having to improvise with a partner you haven't worked with before.

“But aren't we going to be partners?” you interjected, eyebrow raised as you teased him.

“Yeah, of course,” he nonchalantly responded. “But there might be times when we get separated for whatever reasons. You gotta learn to work with other people, you know?”

And after detailing how you were able to work together with Sero to win the match, that was the last analysis discussion the two of you would have. You told him about how your class would be going on a forest lodge trip during the summer, so you wouldn't be able to visit until you got back. He pouted when you told him, making you promise you'd visit as soon as you got back.

You giggled, pulling him in for a hug. “Of course!” You leaned forward and gave him a peck on the cheek, laughing as he blushed. “I know you'll get lonely without me, so I promise not to leave you alone for too long!” Shindou shook his head, muttering under his breath about you being embarrassing, but returned the hug. So you left, with the promise of a swift return and the sharing of any cool stories that happened over the summer.

And then the training camp was attacked. And your classmate was kidnapped. And you, without hesitation, joined your classmates in the rescue attempt. And though your rescue was successful, and you escaped without serious injury, and the villain that leveled the ward, leaving little behind was defeated—

It was all too much. You needed to get away, even if only briefly.

While the teachers made their rounds informing parents of the new dorms on campus, you made your way to Shindou’s apartment. Giving his mother the usual polite greeting, you were startled at her suddenly pulling you into a hug.

“We were so happy,” she said, voice wavering as she held back tears, “to hear that you were safe, Y/N.” She pulled away and wiped at her eyes, a soft smile on her face. “Yo is in his room. I know you came here to see him and not deal with me crying, so go on ahead.” She shooed you off in the direction of Shindou’s room, so you left her alone. You made your way to his room to see the door cracked open. You were about to announce your presence and walk in, when you heard another voice in the room.

“Wow, you got all that from one person?” The voice was male and was clearly coming from a phone speaker. You stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt his phone call, so you stood outside the door and waited for his to finish.

“Yeah, I have a friend in class 1-A over there, and they’ve told me a bunch about their classmates and their Quirks,” you heard Shindou say. “Strengths, weaknesses, fighting styles. All of it.”

“Wow! For real?” exclaimed the voice on the other end. “Are they trying to set up their class to fail or something?”

Shindou laughed in response. “Nah, I don't think they know that the license exam is a competition yet. We've been having these conversations so they can ‘improve their strategy’ when fighting. Which, to be fair,” he said, oh so casually like he wasn't breaking your trust and heart with every word, “we technically are. That's just...not the whole reason, is all.”

A moment of silence from the person on the other end, and you swear you could heart your heart pounding in your ears as the weight of how you'd been betrayed settled on you. The license exam? That’s why he'd been helping you? While you thought you were bonding with someone you'd known your whole life, he was gathering info to use against your class in an exam. To become a hero.

“...Huh. Your friend sounds kinda gullible,” the person on the other end, who you could only guess was one of Shindou’s classmates, finally responded. You scoffed quietly, shaking your head. Gullible. Because it was so wrong to trust that kind of info with someone you shared everything with? With someone who promised you to always be at your side and support you?

At Shindou’s laugh and the response of, “Maybe,” you'd decided you'd heard enough. You stood in front of the door, taking in a deep breath. You wiped at the tears in your eyes, swallowed down the burning pain in your throat, and hesitantly knocked at the door. Silence on the other side. “...Hey, I'll call you back later, okay?” you heard Shindou say into the phone. He must have turned off the speaker, as you heard no response before footsteps made their way to the door, which slowly opened to reveal Shindou on the other side.

Once he saw you, his eyes widened and he immediately pulled you into a tight hug. “Y/N,” he muttered, bringing his hand up to rest on the back of your head. “You’re okay...” Feeling the burning pain in your throat return, you resisted the urge to shove him away and yell at him over everything you'd overheard. Instead, you hesitantly raised your arms and returned the hug, embracing the warm feeling and trying to gain some sense of comfort in it. You didn't find much.

He eventually pulled away, frowning down at you as he placed his hands on your shoulders. “We were already worried enough when we heard your camp got attacked, but you had to go off and pull some stupid stunt that nearly got yourself killed again?” At your confused look, Shindou’s gaze narrowed on you. “Your dad called my mom. We know about how you and some classmates of yours rescued that Bakugou kid.” He let out a shaky sigh, his grip on your shoulders tightening. He closed his eyes tightly. “Just...don't do something that reckless again.” His eyes opened, and he gave you a small smile. “I can't be part of the best hero duo if my partner goes and gets themself killed, right?”

Still hurt over both his betrayal and how he had the nerve to act concerned about you after just bragging about how he tricked you, it took a bit of effort to put on a convincing smile. You knew, with how long the two of you had known each other, that it wouldn't be enough to convince him, so you pulled him into another hug so he wouldn't have to see it. “I’m fine. I promise I won't do anything like that again. You don't need to worry...”

He pulled away, giving a quick ruffle to your hair before he reached down to grab a bag on the floor, slinging it over his shoulder. “Good. Listen, as much as I’d love to stay, you kinda caught me at a bad time. I have to get back to the agency—my internship actually starts today!” He leaned forward to press a kiss to your forehead, and you did your best not to let the fluttering feeling in your chest make you forget what he did to you. “I’ll see ya soon, Y/N!” He waved and jogged over to leave his apartment after saying goodbye to his mother.

You let out a shaky breath once he was gone, the tension of holding in your emotion almost overwhelming. You wanted nothing more at that moment than to go home and have a nice cry session in your room, curtains drawn, with your favorite music playing at full volume. Before you could make your way to the exit, however, you were stopped by a call from Shindou’s mother.

“Oh wait, Y/N, before you go!” She stood in front of you, a DVD case in her hand. “I just found out the other day that Yo never let you see what happened in his school’s Sports Festival!”

Your eyes zeroed in on the blank DVD case, wide in surprise. “Huh. He never even told me that they had one....” Which, now that you thought about it, seemed silly. Every school had a Sports Festival. Especially every hero school. And while most weren't broadcasted, like UA’s and Shiketsu’s were, they would certainly record events for parents to view, right?

Shindou’s mother rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Honestly, I can't imagine why not. He did excellently this year! Sure, there were a few moments he was embarrassed about, but we all watched your performance!” She handed you the DVD case. “Here, we had a spare copy, so I think you should have this one. Enjoy!” She hugged you before sending you on your way, making sure to call out a “Stay safe!” before you closed the door.

Standing outside the apartment, you stared down at the DVD case in your hands. On the disc, you'd be able to watch Shindou and his classmates’ Quirks in action. See how they fight, how they strategize, how they act. Every bit of information Shindou coerced from you, you would be able to watch. And his mother had handed it over with a smile on her face.

A grin developed, and you snickered to yourself. This? This would even the odds. You pulled out your phone, pressing on Midoriya’s contact before typing out a text. ‘Hey, you like analyzing Quirks, right? I have something you might be interested in watching...’

A manic grin was on your face as you dodged a ball thrown by a Ketsubutsu student. Your plan was working perfectly. Your classmates had been thoroughly informed of the Quirks and fighting styles of Ketsubutsu’s class 2-2. While you'd all been caught slightly off guard at how most of the examinees immediately targeted your class, you very quickly recovered and fought back.

You had to suppress a cackle when you saw Tokoyami strike at Nakagame, who quickly collapsed her torso into herself using her Quirk to dodge, only to be struck by Ojiro while her vision was obscured. Midoriya was spot on with his analysis, and your classmates had clearly paid close attention. For every strike they made, your class countered with peak efficiency. Even as Shindou’s Quirk scattered the class, they had prepared beforehand for this scenario and were not too shaken by the attack.

You hit the third target on a Ketsubutsu student, laughing all the while. “One down, one to go!” you cheered, quickly scanning the area to see if any other examinees were nearby. Upon spotting a familiar mess of brown hair out of the corner of your eye, you quickly spun to face Shindou, who was looking at you from a distance away. You got in a stance, ready to fight against him if he attacked. Shindou’s eyes narrowed, glancing between you and his classmate who you'd just defeated. His mouth settled into a frown, and he turned and ran to another area of the stadium.

You'd wanted to smirk at him, taunt him for being outsmarted by your class, but you instead found yourself mirroring his expression and his silence. You'd gotten him back after he tricked you; you should have been happy, right? Proud of yourself? Despite reasoning this to yourself, however, a growing weight filled the void your pride left.

You shook your head, breaking yourself from your thoughts. You didn't have time to think about how seeing Shindou had made you feel. You had one more student to eliminate. You could focus on him later.

Your name was there. On the list, plain as day for all to read. You'd gotten your license, and all your hard work, all the late-night analysis with Midoriya, all the heartache you'd felt over Shindou’s betrayal was worth it.

Your eyes drifted slightly, and you spotted “Shindou Yo” somewhere else on the list. You supposed all of Shindou’s preparation paid off for him, too.

After obtaining your license, you followed the rest of your class to the bus to return to the dorms. Before boarding, you caught sight of Shindou again. He was speaking to Nakagame, you noticed you and gave an awkward smile and wave. Shindou turned to see who she was waving at, and his eyes widened when he saw you. You two stared each other down for a brief moment, before you broke the tension by turning to board the bus.

The weight in your chest felt heavier now.

The weight of the many presents you carried in your arms was only slightly heavier than the dread settling in your gut. Unwilling to admit to the tensions between you and Shindou, you couldn't come up with a plausible excuse to break the tradition your families had held for many years. Based on the warm greeting Shindou’s parents gave you when they finally answered the door, you assumed that Shindou hadn't told his parents either. You stepped inside and let the warm air rush over you, bringing feeling back into your numb fingertips and increasing the unnerving feeling in you.

“Shindou, don't be rude! Help Y/N out with those presents! Poor thing looks like they’re about to drop them,” Shindou’s mom scolded him, drawing your attention to where he'd been standing in the far corner of the room, partially obscured by the Christmas tree. You saw his mouth settle into a firm line; not quite a frown, but definitely showing discomfort. He pushed off the wall he'd been leaning against and made his way over to you. As he held out his hands to you, you stared at him dumbfoundedly. Here he was, standing in front of you after months of not speaking to each other, and he doesn't even say hello.

You were broken out of your thoughts by him clearing his throat. “You gonna hand them over, or...?” he trailed off, raising an eyebrow. You startled a bit, nearly dropping a present or two with how quickly you shoved the pile into his arms. As you saw him struggle to keep the pile balanced, you flushed in embarrassment and walked away, moving over to where your parents were engaged in a jovial conversation with Shindou’s.

Shindou’s mom saw you and smiled, holding out two steaming mugs of hot chocolate to you. “Just in time! I made these just the way you two like them. Oh, careful!” she warned, handing them over to you. “They're still pretty hot. Well, not that that would be an issue for you, but still...Anyway, why don't the two of you catch up on your own? We haven't seen you in a while, so I'm sure you have a lot to talk about!”

The cheer in her smile was something you couldn't help but smile and nod in return at, taking the mugs from her with a soft “Thanks,” and making your way over to the couch by the tree, where Shindou was sitting.

His eyes followed you the whole way over, not looking away as you approached. You, on the other hand, struggled to meet his eyes as you handed his mug to him. He accepted it, giving you a small nod before taking a sip. You stood where you were, bringing the cup to your lips to take a sip when you noticed his raised eyebrow. You returned it, asking, “What?” He tilted his head to the side, gesturing to the empty seat on the couch next to him. You blinked. An “oh” left your lips, and you slowly moved to sit in the small space next to him on the couch.

As you settled into your spot, you tried leaving a small amount of space between you two, though your knee still brushed against his. You spared a glance over at Shindou, only to see him staring intently at the mug in his hands. A small sigh left your lips, and you raised your mug to take a sip. The scalding feeling on your tongue, while not capable of actually hurting you, was a comfortable distraction from the awkward situation you found yourself in. For a few moments, the two of you sat in silence, with the only sounds heard being the distant chatter of your parents and the low hum of the heater. It was awkward, yes, but neither of you had mentioned the obvious source of tension yet. Maybe, you thought, today wouldn't be too unbearable.

“So, Y/N...” Shindou began, breaking the silence and shattering all your hopes of the evening being salvaged. “I think we both know exactly how my classmates got their info on yours...”

You snorted, lifting the mug to your lips. “Yeah, I know.” You took a long sip, hoping the burning feeling traveling down your throat might push down the angry words that wanted to come out. “Something about a ‘gullible friend in 1-A who doesn't realize this is all a competition’, right?” It didn't help much.

For a moment you thought you saw him cringe, and you heard a mutter along the lines of “...didn’t think you’d hear that...” before seeing him shake his head. “Anyway, I wanted to know how your class seemed so ready for the exam. You all were so coordinated with your attacks, like you knew our Quirks and strategies beforehand.”

You hummed, before raising an eyebrow and shooting him a smirk. “You know, I don't really think I owe you an explanation after what you did.”

Shindou visibly deflated, letting out a sigh and nodding. “Yeah, that's fair.”

You nodded with him. “But!” you began, a grin forming when you saw him perk up. “You probably know better than anyone how much I love bragging whenever I beat you at your own game.” Shindou pulled a face somewhere between a grimace and a smile, seemingly happy he'd get his answer yet embarrassed at the reminder of how thoroughly his plan failed. “Remember that day I dropped by after the Kamino Ward attack, and you headed off to your internship?” At his nod, your grin turned devious. “Well, your mother oh so graciously offered to let me watch the footage from your school’s Sports Festival this year. She gave me a spare DVD.”

His eyes widened comically, glancing over to where his parents were, causing you to cackle. “Seriously?” he asked. “That's all it took? We couldn't even get that much info from your Sports Festival, that's why we came up with that whole scheme in the first place!”

You nodded. “True, but I guess you all don't have a strategist like Midoriya in your class.”

Shindou raised an eyebrow. “The bone-breaking kid?”

You waved a hand. “He doesn't do that anymore. At least, not that often...but that's beside the point. I texted him about the DVD, let him borrow it, and he came up with plans to counter your classmates in the exam.”

Shindou blinked, processing your words. “Wow,” he started. He blinked a few more times before taking a sip from his mug. “That was pretty smart, I guess. He even planned for Makabe and Tokegi’s joint attack, and they've been working on that since the first year!”

You gave a confused hum, not quite sure who he was referring to before it hit you. “Oh! The ones with the boomerang and hardening Quirks, right?” At his nod, you grinned at the opportunity to ramble about strategy. “Well, the boomerang Quirk is kinda similar to Snipe-sensei’s, and we’ve had experience dodging his Quirk before. Also, while the hardening Quirk isn't exactly like my classmate Kirishima’s, it seemed like the hardness was similar enough. And since Ashido accidentally burned Kirishima once in a training accident even though he was using his Quirk, we figured if her acid was corrosive enough it could get past your classmate’s Quirk easily enough.” You paused your take a breath, devious grin widening further. “You all didn't take the corrosiveness into account because she kept it pretty low for the Sports Festival, and when you fished information from me about her I didn't know how corrosive it could be. We were pretty lucky on that part, but I still think we could've done just as well even if you had known.”

Shindou nodded. “You're right, then. You really did beat me at my own game.” He smiled at you and lightly nudged you with his elbow. “Not bad, Y/N.”

You smiled back, before the burning feeling in your chest returned with full force. Your smile dropped, and you turned away from him again. “Yeah, well, me outsmarting you after you tricked me doesn't exactly mean what you did was okay.” You clenched the mug tightly in your grip, bringing it close to your chest. The hot chocolate had gone cold during your conversation, and you stared down into it while trying to ignore the stinging tears in your eyes. “You said we’d be heroes together. Partners. What kind of hero sabotages their partner?”

Shindou’s eyes widened, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled for what to say. “Y/N, I didn't...I mean, I wasn't trying to—“ he stammered, before you cut him off.

“But you did,” you cut him off. The mug trembled in your hands as you accidentally used your quirk, and steam began rising from it again. “You took my trust and used it against me and my classmates. And for what? There were so many other schools there you could've gone after. Hell, we could've teamed up and gone after them together! But it was more convenient to just use me, I guess.”

Shindou’s frown deepened. He reached out and placed his hand on your shoulder, only to quickly retract with a hiss at the heat you were giving off. Startled, you quickly stopped using your Quirk and gave him an apologetic frown. “Sorry,” you muttered. You sighed deeply, leaning your head back against the couch. “I guess I'm no better, huh? Your parents were being nice and I took advantage of that...”

Silence hung in the air. Both of your parents had left the room a while ago, and the droning of the heater settled into the background unnoticed. Shindou’s hand found its way to your shoulder again, more hesitant this time. When you didn't respond or shrug him off, he slowly pulled you closer to him, hand moving to your head and gently resting it on his shoulder. You frowned, feeling the tears well up in your eyes again, but didn't resist.

“I'm sorry,” Shindou said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. You snuggled closer to him in response, staying quiet. He lightly ran his fingers through your hair. When he was sure you weren't going to say anything in response, he continued, “Not that it means much to say this now, but congratulations on getting your license.” You snorted at the statement, many months too late. He lightly chuckled, saying, “Yeah, I know. But even though we haven't exactly been working together, it's been nice having you at the agency. Nakagame won't shut up about her ‘cute new sidekick’, even though we’re all sidekicks.”

You snickered. “Looks like I'm stealing your friend. Maybe she'll be my hero partner when we graduate...”

Shindou rolled his eyes. “If anything, she's trying to steal you from me. Not like that’s gonna happen. You're my partner, got that?”

You lifted your head slightly from his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at him. “Oh, am I now?”

Shindou nodded. “I promised you, didn't I? I know I've been a major idiot lately,” he started, ignoring your muttered comment of “Yeah, no kidding...” and continuing, “but if the two of us work together we’re gonna top the charts in no time.”

You smiled at him, leaning back on his shoulder. “Well, I'm looking forward to that!” You closed your eyes and let out a breath, feeling the tension wash away from you. Shindou’s head tilted, resting atop yours. Things weren't perfect, and you would probably need to have a more in-depth conversation later, but for now, things were better.

“Oh, Shindou?”

“Hm?”

“I gotta say, your performance at the Sports Festival could've been better. We have a lot of work to do if we're gonna top the charts.”

“...Shut up...”

[kippykasey]

Snowdrop Chpt 7

Paring: Bucky x Reader

Word Count: 4820

Series Summary: Bringing Zemo in to help fight against the rise of the new group of super soldiers brings in a new, yet familiar face into the mix.

Chapter Summary: It's all coming to an end. Reader gets back to New York just in time to help Sam and Bucky with the Flag Smasher's attack on the GRC conference.

Chapter Warnings: Episode level violence. Fluff (yeah I'm making that a warning because I can)

A/N: I took a long time on this just because personally I didn't like my writing of it but I had a friend read it and they said its okay so I'm gonna post it anyway haha. The suit I gave the reader is based off of Mercy from Overwatch. I will be starting Grace which will be covering Captain America the First Avenger.

Disclaimer: All languages that are not English were provided by Google translator with the translations following in bolden italics. Gifs used were found under the gif tab provided by tumblr.

Catch up on Snowdrop here: Masterlist

The ringing phone cut through the silence of the New York home. It rang a few times before someone was able to answer it. “Happy,” The woman sighed as she answered the phone, not pleased to be called at home. “I know it’s late and almost time for Morgan’s bath but we got a situation here.” Happy quickly explained before she could manage to end the call. Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose before looking towards the teenager standing by the door. “Peter, can you just keep an eye on her for a moment.” The teen nodded his head as she left the room towards the office. “What kind of situation are we talking about?” She closed the door behind her. “Someone entered Stark Industries using Tony’s entrance code. They’re on the security camera and FRIDAY knew who they were.” Pepper sat down in the chair, her mouth dropped slightly. “Does anyone else know? FRIDAY, pull up the security footage from Stark Industries.”

The AI opened up the security footage on Pepper’s monitor as Happy replied, “No, I thought it best I handle it since Tony’s code was involved.” Pepper nods her head as she begins to watch the footage. “Happy, I’ll handle this, but this stays between us and this footage.” Pepper sighs and pauses the footage as she recognizes the person, even if they did only meet once or twice in passing. “Are you sure?” He sounded hesitant but Pepper hums to herself, “Yes. I can handle this. I know them.”

【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】

“Please still work. Please still work.” (Y/n) mumbled to herself as she entered the keycode she was given a few years ago to enter the same building she now was praying she could still get into without having to cause a scene. Her prayers were answered as the door opened allowing her entrance. She ran through the dimly lit corridor to the lab she had been in only a few times. “Hey FRIDAY, miss me?” She let out a laugh as the lab lights turned on. Her head turned towards the security camera in the corner giving it a salute. “Hello Miss (L/n).” The woman rushed over to an enclosed case that held exactly what she needed. “FRIDAY I need AG-10.” The nurse’s eyes locked onto the suit behind the layer of glass. “AG-10 is not ready. Testing has not been completed.”

“FRIDAY either give me access to AG-10 or I will override your code.” The order in the woman’s voice was tense as she glanced at the clock on the wall. A small release of air was the only sign that the door was now able to be opened. “Thank you FRIDAY.” In a hurry she opened the case, pulling everything out. “FRIDAY, leave a message for Pepper for me.” She instructs as she starts to put on the AG-10 suit. “What would you like the message to be Miss?” (Y/n) twisted awkwardly as she struggled to put the suit on for the first time without help. “Pepper, I’m sorry to barge in without notice but Sam and Bucky need me. Yes they know me. I have been working with them recently. I’m sorry for taking the AG-10 but I promise to bring it back when I can. Uh, let Morgan have an extra cookie, okay? I gotta fly.” There was a pause as the nurse slid on the last part of the suit.

AG-10 was the tenth model of a suit Tony was tinkering with for her after they met. The design was based off of an angel, drawing inspiration from her former name of Amazing Grace. The suit was made from the same material that Steve’s suit was made with. The suit was black and white with golden accents. Then there was a white leather material over her torso that provided extra protection that split at her hips to form the appearance of a skirt. She had black knee high boots that were accented with the same gold as her outfit, it almost reminded her of Bucky’s arm. Strapped on her back like a high tech backpack were the closed compact version of wings. Tony told her he had used a modified version of Sam’s wing design to make hers. The white metal was lined with gold and when the wings expanded to allow her to fly the repulsor rays had a golden glow. Just under the wings was a med pack that had nearly everything she might need for an emergency. The last important part of the suit was the head gear. The ear piece was built into a halo shaped head piece, that when worn a holographic visor covers over her eyes like high tech glasses.

“One last request FRIDAY. Patch me into Sam and Bucky’s coms.” She hurried out of the lab with the suit fully on. She made it up to the roof where she took a running jump into flight. She let out a small scream when it took a moment for the wings to open and the jets to kick on. “I’m insane.” She muttered to herself, while focusing herself on getting to the location she was sure Bucky and Sam would be. “You are now connected to Barnes and Wilson, Miss (Y/n).” The AI announced.

“(Y/n)?” Sam asked, confused having heard FRIDAY announce the connection. “What? You didn’t think I would miss out on the fun, did you?” The nurse smiled slightly. “I’m on my way as fast as I can.”

“Yeah well you better speed things up, Sam. The chopper’s about to take off.” Sharon’s voice came over the coms. “Bucky!” Sam called over the coms for assistance. “I don’t fly, man. That’s your thing.”

“I’m on it!” The nurse calls swooping into the range of the building. “What do you mean you’re on it?!” Sam asks seconds before she caught sight of him jumping out of the building in his new Captain America suit. “On your left Cap,” She came up on his left side in the air giving him a salute. “Where the hell did you get that?” Sam’s shock was clear as he looked at the woman next to him. “I, uh… borrowed it from Stark Industries.” The angel looking woman laughed. “Tony would have hated you.” Sam muttered. “Actually he found me annoying. Then again I did keep hacking FRIDAY,” She corrects while hearing Bucky chuckling. “To think you were going to marry his old man,” Bucky’s playful tone was heard over the faint rumble of the bike he must have been driving. “Howard? You were engaged to Howard Stark?” Sam exclaims dropping towards the helicopter.

“Guys! Not the time!” Sharon yelled at them to refocus the three of them. “Yeah, yeah Carter we’re working on it. Sam’s diving after the helicopter, I’m not that good at flying yet so I can’t dive like him.” The nurse huffed as she followed after Sam and the helicopter at a slower speed. Ahead of her she noticed Sam using the shield to block bullets. “(Y/n) I got this fall back and help Sharon or Bucky.” She nods her head and starts her descent to the ground, “On it Cap, call if you need me.”

(Y/n)’s eyes widened as she watched a truck light up in flames next to Bucky. “James!” Her worried call went unanswered until she saw the man on the ground. With a rough land the woman’s feet touched down on the ground a few yards from Barnes. Both super soldiers quickly moved to the police transport vehicle that was burning. “Hold on!” Bucky told the people trapped inside. (Y/n) grabbed onto one of the metal bars to help Bucky try and pull it open but quickly pulled back hissing at how hot the metal already was. Worried blue eyes glanced at her before they hardened.

“Morgenthau!” The two heard John Walker shout. “Go. I got this,’ Bucky told her with a slight nod of his head. She looked at him for a moment before nodding her head. She turned to see Walker there in his Captain America suit and what appeared to be a homemade version of the shield. “Let’s finish this.” Walker was still upset over Lemar’s death that much was very clear.

“I didn’t mean to kill your friend. I don’t wanna hurt people that don’t matter.” Karli spoke, shaking her head as if her statement would mean something. “Karli..” The nurse spoke softly trying to warn the girl that talking wouldn’t help but she was cut off by John, “You don’t think Lemar’s life mattered?”

“Not to my fight.” (Y/n) glanced over at Bucky who was still struggling to open the sealed doors while she slowly side stepped towards John, sure the man was a bit deranged but in the end she was more on his side than Karli’s and a fight was bound to break out. “I just want the people on that truck.” Karli’ kept talking.

An angered yell came from Walker as he threw his DIY shield at the young girl. (Y/n) quickly moved towards John’s side as she watched the shield be kicked away. “You’re an idiot Johnathan.” She huffs, raising her arms for the incoming masked super soldiers. John punched the first of them towards the woman who punched the masked person farther away from where Bucky was. John was practically blindly punching at anyone that came too close so that left (Y/n) to make sure they didn’t get to Bucky.

There was a clatter behind her, distracting her for just a moment. Bucky had broken the lock sealing the door shut and was now helping people out of the burning truck. With a few kicks and a punch (Y/n) was able to make a clear path for everyone to escape through. While she cleared the path John lost the upper hand he had and was thrown to the ground where he was practically piled on. The nurse rushed to his aid, grabbing someone's back and pulling them away. Meanwhile, not noticing one of the flag smashers ripping a parking meter from the ground and reading it to hit the woman. Bucky ran over kicking the flag smasher away making the meter drop to the ground. As soon as the person stood back up they received a metal punch to the chest sending them flying back into a chain link fence. “Don’t. Touch. Her.” Barnes sneered in a low growl punctuating each word with a punch.

Behind Barnes Karli picks up the meter and goes for Bucky. “James watch out!” (Y/n) calls while dodging a kick. Bucky dodged and kept dodging each time Karli swung the meter at him. The woman’s eyes left Barnes for a moment as she kicked away the man she was fighting by the time she looked back at him Karli had kicked him, making him slide across the concrete. Sparks flew from where the vibranium grinded against the concrete in Bucky’s attempt to slow down. “James!” (Y/n) cried out as soon as she realized he wasn’t going to stop in time. The nurse jumped up and over the guard rail, white wings expanded and repulsors ignited as she dove for him, grabbing his arm and easing the impact of the several story drop by easing his fall to the ground.

Both locked eyes for a moment that was gone in a flash as they both looked up to see someone jumping down after them holding a beam of some sort. Barnes’ turned grabbing (Y/n) with his right arm as he brought his left arm up to block the metal beam as best as he could. While the long haired person was focused on Bucky, (Y/n) made her way behind them to knock their feet out from under them. The fall gave Barnes the upper hand to take the beam which he then used to knock them out.

“Um, we have an incoming truck.” (Y/n) gasped looking up at the other police vehicle of victims teetering at the top of the metal construction frame. Barnes moved to her side looking up at the vehicle. The two glanced at each other before they both got themselves prepared to catch the falling vehicle if it came down to it. There were eyes everywhere now watching as welds began to break causing beams to break loose. The truck shifted, creaking and bangs could be heard. Then a flicker of something fell to the ground, Walker’s dented backyard shield landed on a pile of gravel.

“Hey, sugar, once this is all over I want to take you to dinner.” Bucky almost sounded hesitant as he spoke eyes locked on the truck above. The woman nods her eyes in the same place. “You still owe me a dance soldier boy.” She tried to smile but her worry for those in the truck and the outcome prevented her from doing so.

The two chanced a quick confused glance when they both noticed the truck moving backwards. It took a small step before they were able to see Walker behind the truck attempting to pull it back to safety. As hopeful as that had briefly mad her feel it was all ripped away when two flag smashers pulled him away causing the three of them to fall and the truck to once again teeter over the edge, this time further.

A gasp left (Y/n) mouth as she looked up at the truck barely hanging up above them. Right when she thought it might fall Sam swooped in holding the truck from falling. The nurse readied her wings to fly up and assist him. Bucky pulled Walker up from the ground as mini redwings attached to the truck assisted Sam in pushing the truck into safety. Next to her she could see Bucky’s proud smile. “Great job Cap,” She told Sam with a smile of her own on her face as she looked up at him.

Neither Bucky, John, or (Y/n) were looking as Karli picked up a metal rod and threw it towards the three. The rod was caught mid air by two different hands at the same time, Bucky and (Y/n). Both turned to look at Karli and the other two flag smashers with her. Just as Karli was about to attack she was hit back by the real vibranium shield, which bounced around like a little pinball taking out the other flag smashers as well before being caught mid air by Sam as he landed in front of Bucky, John, and (Y/n).

Sam’s wings retracted as Karli stood from the ground, removing her mask. “You of all people bought into that bullshit?” The sound in the girl's voice almost sounded like betrayal. “I’m trying something different. Maybe you should do the same.” Sam explained. Exploding gunshots were fired from above cloaking the scene in dust from the gravel. Everyone scattered in the dust. “FRIDAY, I need sight,” (Y/n) instructed in a hushed tone as she instinctively stepped closer to Bucky. Through the golden hue of the visor in front of her eyes she could see the fleeing flag smashers. Right as she went to say something she heard Sam’s voice. “This way.”

Sam led the way through the underground tunnels while Bucky updated Sharon what was happening. “Hey Sharon, we’re underground. We entered the tunnel on William. Heading south.” The pace slowed slightly as they reached a fork in the tunnels. “Looks like they split up here.” Sam pointed and John immediately turns, Bucky goes to follow but pauses, “I got it. Sugar, stay with Sam.” Bucky didn’t give her a chance to argue before he jogged after the other man leaving (Y/n) to follow Sam.

“Sam, I hear whistling.” The nurse whispered, not sure if he could hear it or not. Sam nods his head and points in a direction signalling for the two to split up. With the help of the visor she could see three heat signatures somewhere in front of her as she made her way through the work tunnels. She was above them and as soon as she got close enough to hear them she stopped, staying hidden. At that moment she learned some very surprising information. Two gunshots fired below her springing her into action. As she jumped from the catwalk above Sam came from somewhere else.

(Y/n) placed herself between Karli and the gun she held and Sharon who was laying on the ground with a gunshot wound. “Sam, stay back.” Karli warned. “So, what’s next, huh?” Sam asked, Karli’s attention on him giving (Y/n) time to kneel down next to Sharon. “You kill ten this time, then what, a hundred? Where does it end?” Karli glanced back at Sharon and the nurse who slid around to almost act as a human shield to the injured woman. “Please let me help you.”

“Don’t try to manipulate me.” Karli raised the gun higher aiming for the nurse now. “Don’t do it kid!” The Nurse said in a firm tone. Karli didn’t get to do anything before Sam tackled her to the ground. “(Y/n), get Sharon out of here.” Sam ordered while blocking his head with the shield from a thrown cinder block. Not wanting to leave him alone against the girl (Y/n) hesitated for a moment before scooping Sharon up in her arms.

The nurse carried Sharon through the tunnels being guided by FRIDAY out from under ground. Once they had made it back up to the city street the nurse set Sharon down and instantly got to work tending to the bullet wound. As she worked she her mind drifted back to the war, no longer was it just Sharon she was tending to but a soldier. With everything at the ready the melody of Amazing grace fell from her lips as she worked on removing the bullet and stitching the wound closed. As she finished her eyes scanned up to Sharon’s face. “I don’t trust you. I don’t think I ever truly have. I’ll be keeping my eyes on you.” (Y/n) told her before she packed away the extra supplies that could still be used and put the kit back on her back.

For the sake of Bucky and Sam the nurse still made sure Sharon got to one of the paramedics, even if it may not have been necessary given she had already done the work. That was where she ended up meeting with Sam and Bucky. Sam flew in, Karli limp in his arms. A paramedic team took her away on a gurney and Sam followed. (Y/n) stepped over to Bucky, who was standing between two ambulances with John.

“What happened to the Flag Smashers?”

“When did the government make you Captain America?”

“What do we call you?”

“Is it still Falcon?”

“Or is it Captain Falcon?”

Questions came pouring in from reporters that Sam walked past without answering. He was thanked by a senator and a few others that were involved with the meeting that he just helped save. Bucky leaned against one of the ambulances as John stepped forward, (Y/n) moved over to Bucky, his arm wrapping around her sounders as she leaned against his side. Watching Sam talk in that moment, addressing the real issues, made her proud to know him. “I’ll follow that, Captain America, anywhere.” She whispered to the man next to her who gave her a nod, his thumb rubbing her arm gently.

Sam walked away from the group he was speaking to after his speech that was captured by a TV camera. He paused to nod at John Walker, who nodded back at him. The nurse stepped away from Bucky and the man stood up straighter before Sam could fully reach them. “Sorry, I was, uh, I was texting and so, all I heard was, um, ‘a black guy in stars and stripes.’” The three of them let out a soft laugh at Bucky’s lie. “Nice job, Cap.” Barnes said honestly looking over at Wilson with a proud gleam in his blue eyes. “Thanks.” Bucky gave Sam a pat on the shield. Sam turned his head over to the nurse, “How’s Sharon?”

The nurse gestures a head to where Sharon was leaning up against a car. “I patched her up but she refused to go to one of the ambulances.” (Y/n) told him as they walked over to the blonde. The nurse stood father back, arms crossed as her eyes stayed locked onto the woman. “You should get checked out.” Sam told her. “She’s not going to listen.” Bucky comments checking around for wandering eyes. “I’m fine Amazing Grace sang to me and everything.” The sarcastic way that Sharon said it made the nurse roll her eyes. “Told you.” Bucky adds glancing at the nurse.

“Uh, Cap?” Someone called from over by the ambulances. “Think they’re talking to you.” Sharon states before looking up at Sam. “Sorry for how things ended down there, but for what it's worth, the suit looks good on you.” Bucky looked around again before grabbing both (Y/n) and Sharon and nudging them away, “Okay can we get out of here now please.” As the three began to walk away Sam spoke again.

“I haven’t forgotten my promise. Pardons, for both of you.”

【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】

Bucky didn’t send, nor did (Y/n) return to Wakanda to wait for her impending pardon. No, instead she hid out at Stark cabin. After meeting up with Pepper to return AG-10, which Pepper insisted she keep since it was to be hers anyway, Pepper offered her to stay at the cabin. Well it didn’t go that quickly there was a long chat in between that was interrupted when Morgan asked for a tea party, the two women could not say no to the child.

It was during this time at the cabin that (Y/n) met Peter Parker for the first time. Peter had come to spend time with Morgan, something Pepper told her that he does often since Tony’s death. Peter was a nice boy and (Y/n) quickly bonded with him over inventions and technology when he walked in on her tinkering with an extendable staff that she was tinkering with in Tony’s old office. Bucky visits daily, always promising that their date will happen as soon as she’s pardoned.

It was lunch timed during one of Bucky’s visits when (Y/n) noticed the far off look in his eyes. She moved over to his side running her fingers through the short hair. “Hey, what’s on your mind soldier boy?” Barnes leaned his head back to look up at her. “Do you want to take a risk and come with me somewhere?” He asked, looking into her eyes. “To keep you from doing anything stupid? Always.” She teased bringing a small smile to the man looking up at her. The two rode his bike back to the city.

She held James’ hand as they walked through the hall of an apartment building. He stopped outside of a door, body stiff. She gave his hand a light squeeze taking a step back so she wouldn’t be in eye sight of whoever opened the door. During the ride here she had managed to piece together that this had something to do with the past, the Winter Soldier. “I’m right here. You can do this James.”

There was no reaction from him but he raised his hand to knock on the door, his head lowering in shame about what he was going to confess. The door opened and the first thing she noticed was the faint smell of an incense burning. “Hey, what are you doing here?” An aged man’s voice asked. “It’s late, come in before someone calls the cops.” James glanced over at her and she nodded her head in encouragement before stepping behind a pillar out of sight.

It was only a few minutes before Bucky came back out of the apartment. The woman stepped back out from where she was hiding and she could see the pain in those ocean blue eyes. Few short steps and her arms were wrapped around his larger frame. His head buried in the side of her neck hiding the few tears that fell from his eyes. Her hold tightened, fingers gently combing through his hair, comforting him. “I’m proud of you.” She whispered into his ear.

That was the first of many risky trips she took with him. Every time he went to finish checking a name off from his book he brought her along with him. She would comfort him after each one and then he would take her back to the cabin where most nights he would fall asleep on the couch. He didn’t have nightmares when she was near, with the exception of one. He woke up thrashing but she was there. She held him close, played with his hair, and right as his eyes began to flutter close he would hear her sing to him.

【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】

“James, are you sure I should be going to this? I haven’t even been pardoned yet. My trial is next week.” (Y/n) was worried as she looked around at the amount of vehicles around them as they arrived at the cookout Sam was hosting. “Sugar, you’re fine here no one is going to send you to the Raft here. This is Sam’s home and everyone is nice. I promise. Besides once they get a slice of that cobbler of yours I’m sure they are going to be in heaven.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed as she grabbed the cobbler out of the back of the car Pepper loaned to them for the trip. “I swear you brought me so you didn’t look bad bringing a store bought cake.” Bucky winked as he walked over, taking the cobbler from her as he leaned over to place a small kiss on her cheek. Placing his left hand on her lower back to lead her around to the docks. As soon as they rounded a truck Bucky was skillfully dodging fake attacks from one of Sam’s nephews. “Don’t drop that cobbler James Barnes!” She called when both of Sam’s nephew’s pretended to attack him and he raised the dish so quickly it teetered in his hand. He looked over his shoulder at the woman following him, giving her a boyish grin since she wouldn’t see the wink behind his sunglasses.

Bucky turned his head around, took off his glasses as he moved to a table to set down the peach cobbler. He patted a woman on the back before bringing the nurse to his side. “Sarah I want to introduce you to (Y/n). (Y/n) this is Sam’s sister Sarah.” Sam walked over, sneaking up behind the nurse and giving her a hug. “You made it!” He grinned, making her nod. “I did! Although I think someone,” She glanced over at Bucky. “Only wanted me to come for my peach cobbler.” At the mention of her dessert Sam’s eyes widened and dropped down to where it was on the table. “Classic recipe?” Sam teased earning a light slap on the shoulder from her. “Oh laugh it up.”

The cook out turned out to be a lot of fun. Bucky made conversation with Sarah while letting kids hand on his metal arm. It was just something that warmed her heart to see. There were many flashes as people took pictures. When the instruments came out (Y/n) pulled Bucky away from the kids and his conversations, apologizing while doing so, before making him dance with her. Sam was cheering as the two did one of the classic dances from their time before the war.

The sun was setting and Bucky wrapped his arm around (Y/n)’s shoulder before going to join Sam by the pier looking out over the water. The three of them exchanged a smile before turning to return to the party that was still roaring with stories and laughter.

A week later, Bucky and Sam were there when (Y/n) received her full pardon. The relief and excitement that moved through her bubbled into excitement and happiness that she released all at once as soon as she left the courtroom. Grabbing the metal dog tags hanging from around his neck she pulled Barnes down to press her lips to his, although taking a moment to get over the shock Bucky kissed her back before they pulled away. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long long time.” She smiled up at him.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Sugar.”

“Damn right you are, soldier boy.”

“You two make me sick.” Sam groaned, turning to walk away from the two laughing super soldiers following behind him.