#LIKE HE BARELY TOOK BEING A NINJA SERIOUSLY

[bulbabutt]

okay. lets bite the bullet and talk about 2012. lets talk about child abuse, familial abuse, generational abuse, toxic family units, whatever you wanna call it. lets talk about it and whether it exists in this show. i actually encourage you to read this no matter what your take is, just to hear it out. let me be FUCKING clear: i love this show, but i get scared to talk about it seriously. everyone on every side is defensive all the time but i love every turtles show to no end.

this post is going to go over so well and not controversially at all.

precursor: every splinter is some level of shitty dad. he always has been. the fucking bare bones of the character is that he raised his children to kill the man who killed his own father. thats inherently fucked up. every splinter has some level of fucked up about him. maybe hes inattentive, or neglectful, or strict, or secretive, maybe hes just not very good at dealing with his kids. splinter is supposed to be far from perfect. thats what makes him splinter. maybe he grows over the course of a series, maybe he doesnt. maybe hes supposed to be shitty his whole life, maybe hes not. thats just splinter. each is adapted differently depending on the story being told.

and 2012 has a very interesting tone to its story.

lets start at the beginning, back in japan. this is season 3, was this story what they intended when they started writing the show back in season 1? probably not, theres probably things they would have written differently had they known this was where splinter's story started. thats kind of the way tv works, you add the details later. but for our sake of analyzing the character of splinter as a whole, it seems best to start here as if its all intentional.

hamato yoshi is a member of the hamato clan. theyre a very traditional old ninja clan in the modern world, they have old feuds and theyre trying to keep their culture alive. they're literally the last of a clan of ninjas like this, having (supposedly) defeated the foot clan (their generational enemies) back when yoshi was a baby. hes set out to lead next, and its very important to him. and yet hes married to a woman who works in the city, a modern woman who doesnt live the life he does. she even moved to be with him. i feel the need to compare this to how men in the real world who want traditional wives never go for women who are willing to be their housewives, always try to break down the independent ones. splinter seems unconcerned with how his wife wants to live. with how she wants their daughter to be raised.

im not necessarily saying this is how this comes off in the show, but i find it interesting to think about. this is absolutely the most rounded version of tang shen as a character (thus far) it stops her being just a name on a page "hamato yoshi's love and the object of his enemies affections who died" and turns her into a woman who has a stake in the story. gives her more agency.

its very interesting that this show implies an actual relationship between tang shen and oroku saki, albeit a one-sided one that didnt work out, but they do seem to have parted on equal ground. the pair of them discuss yoshi's inattentive duties as a husband and father, that he's too obsessed with the tradition and lineage of his clan. honestly, if this woman just took her baby and left no one would blame her! he has his priorities set, and it leaves no room for her and their newborn baby. if she ran away with saki at this point, the story would make just as much sense.

but then disaster strikes, saki learns the truth about his family, that he was actually a child of the foot clan (honestly i wish we saw this play out instead of jumping ahead in the story but thats not what this post is about) and he kills he and yoshi's father. revenge for him having killed his. cycles of abuse and revenge that never end. the pair of them were raised in this society that values lineage like this, that would kill for it. its no wonder they both grew up this way.

anyway, tang shen is killed by a blow meant for yoshi, and saki takes their child and raises her. based on splinter's lack of desire to be a father so far in the story, its honestly not one you can blame him for. its fucked up, but it makes sense. saki does to miwa exactly what his father did to him. cycles of abuse and revenge.

yoshi loses everything, and moves to america. he's turned into splinter the mutant rat, and gains four turtle sons.

so as established, he's not exactly grown up with a stable family life. he obviously, while human, wasnt acting as a stable father for the child he intended to have. so how good is he at this?

ive talked before about how the 2003 show treats the turtles as kind of one whole unit. they don't have individual relationship arcs, they dont have overarching storylines where they grow apart or closer, they're always in each other's corner.

2012 makes this more dynamic. here we see that 15 years seeing no one but each other, growing under this splinter has come with its own quirks. these brothers dont understand each other that well. they get jealous of each others treatment, some are left out, some are misunderstood. raph resents leo, none of them appreciate what donnie does, mikey bothers everyone else for attention, etc. it creates a really good starting place for this show.

(the issue i have with this show is more that they never really open or close any of these beats, at least not in ways that last. but boy does it make for some good dramatic scenes)

we see over the course of this first season that splinter treats his children just as he was, as little ninjas more so than sons. he raises them to follow his traditions, the ones tang shen never cared for. but this is all he knows how to be! you cant really blame him.

most people bring up mikey as the quintessential example when they talk about this, i dont want to do that cuz i know you've all heard it. while i think his father does disrespect him and i think it is paid forward and his brothers do too, i'd rather talk about raph for a change.

in one episode, raph loses his temper. to teach him a lesson, splinter makes his brothers pelt him in training while insulting him any way they can, and tells him to just... not lose his temper. this is a terrible lesson in general. instead of trying to coax out why he might be angry, it just plays up that if he loses his temper bad things happen.

splinter in this episode basically encourages bullying. this comes up a lot when it comes to raph. to compare, in 2003 when raph loses his temper, hes told to blow off steam which he does. his brothers don't blame him for having emotional outbursts, they know thats just how he is so they know how he needs to cope with it. he's given the physical space to let it out.

im not saying this show needs to be like that show, im just saying thats a version of this story where the outcome is better for raph as a whole. since this outcome is not as good for him emotionally, you can tell why he's still got these emotional issues. splinter never helps him more than that. thats more why this raph differs from that one, if that makes sense. one has his family in his corner more than the other.

speaking of. raph has a pet turtle. this turtle is the only one he can talk to about how he feels. why might that be? it's the only thing hes kind and gentle to, and he refuses to let his brothers make him feel weak for being kind to it. where did he learn to be ashamed of being kind and gentle? thats a learned behaviour. in a house full of other men... yeah, that would happen. but whos values start that?

when this turtle gets some mutagen spilled on it, it tries to get revenge on his family. there is such a resentment going on here, its extremely juicy. the show chalks this up to "post mutation insanity", but its just as easy to think that everything raph has experienced has made him seem angry and resentful and perhaps scared to his pet, and that former pet wants raph to himself so they can be free. the frustrated venting of a child complaining about how no one understands him in such a big way turns slash into a vengeful monster, cuz thats all he's ever heard. it makes sense, he went from a little turtle to a fully cognizant adult aged being in an instant. emotionally no one would handle that well, and definitely not someone whos only ever heard the worst about people.

he comes around later. notably by being on his own, away from the hamatos.

again, im not saying the show is writing this intentionally, but i think tonally its in the zone where you could see this analysis as being canon. that these little pieces of narrative fit the worldview of a toxic family unit that isnt dealing with its problems in a healthy way.

there's other small aspects. leo slaps mikey early on, having seen it on his favourite show be used as a way of getting someone to calm down. mikey questions this behaviour, leo seems to feel bad about it when questioned. if we know that that behaviour was bad, what other things might he emulate in a similar way?

there's things like donnie's predatory behaviour towards april. in a world where all they ever knew was splinter's stories of the outside world (and perhaps television from decades earlier), hearing splinter's story of his love for tang shen, his rivalry with his own brother over her, you could actually see why he would behave the way he does, why he claims her the way he does. not as an excuse, but as a reason he learned the behaviour. and there's multiple opportunities for his father to tell him off. he never does. why would he? he knows no better.

this splinter, unlike every other, is not old or disabled. he doesnt require a cane (at the start, but also was never a good cane) and its interesting that despite being like... a 40 year old man in the peak of his life he does not accompany his sons on missions. he sits around doing nothing and disproves of his sons heroic actions. april literally calls him out for this at one point. the show is actually telling us some of this man's behaviour is wrong.

one of the more upsetting things that happens in this household is a lot of physical hitting. "theyre training" you might say. understandable. but when you see a lot of hitting come from the father in this show, played for a laugh, when you see splinter play the "drunk master" bit it makes you think. is that okay? isnt that a bit much?

the end of the muckman episode is a freeze frame of splinter (after having knocked out all of his sons to punish them for leaving while grounded) turning his anger on april and her running away. idk thats just not funny to me. this is a bit of the dating of the show, 2012 was a time where character's in shows were meaner, less affectionate, more bullying in nature. that was the sense of humour at the time. that isnt me making a judgment, it's just kind of the era. a pre steven universe world, if that makes sense. so many of the jokes that end in a hit aren't funny in 2024. especially not when they come from a parent.

when this splinter speaks about his kids to their brothers he often ends up insulting them. "you should be like mikey, he never overthinks because he doesn't think", this would be a big reason the boys speak about each other the way they do to their faces. puts forward a bit more of that bullying thing i mentioned earlier. if their own father talks about them like this, of course their brothers do too. so of course they join in and give payback.

again. splinter wasnt raised in a normal family. he was raised in a ninja commune with a bunch of murderers. he wasn't great with his wife and baby daughter. its not surprising that he's bad at this.

so, ive just said a bunch of things about what's wrong with this household as a whole. i think ive explained why the family unit behaves the way it does: generational teachings of feuds and traditional values. i dont think this makes the show bad! i, in fact, wish there was more of it. i think theres so much low hanging fruit that the show kind of wants to play with, but cant fully bring itself to.

specific example: during the space arc on a planet thats driving all the characters emotions against each other we get this amazing scene where raph screams at leo for being splinter's favourite. leo responds by hugging him. its really well done!

however its never brought up again, never actually getting into the nitty gritty of why raph feels like that is exactly what i think makes this show resonate with so many people

its dark! it pulls at your heart strings! it makes people feel seen! we go in mikey's head at one point and see such splintered (lol) personalities in his head. he has a huge anger problem (much like raph) in there. he retreats into imagination land when stressed. the show kind of toys with "these kids are fucked up!" but never lets those character moments go anywhere. i love how fucked up this family is. its so complex, it feels real. at least real to me. i wish it went that little step further and let the characters talk about these things a little more.

maybe you have a different experience, and thats fine! but i wouldnt brush off people like me who look at 2012 and say "these dynamics make me uncomfortable". to excuse it by saying "my family is like that and we're fine" sometimes i just wanna say... <:/ are you? have you talked about that? and if that's your read on it is that its fine, thats great. but some people notice patterns and those patterns can make them uncomfortable. i hope ive explained the patterns here.

i think thats why the fandom is as big as it is. this show would lead to the most amazing deep introspective fan-works youve ever seen, it lays the pieces out so perfectly for you to draw your own conclusions about why they are this way. you cant really blame people for talking about it as if its got a way higher rating than it does. it feels like it does.

i should say, i dont even know if i blame the show on its own for leaving those pieces laying there, it was on nickelodeon. i sense studio meddling in the tone. i mean, given that the show wanted to end with the big mutant apocalypse storyline, and yet the network wanted to end it with the big 87 crossover..... yeah i think its safe to say nick would rather they keep it light.

which is funny, because i think the most controversial thing i can say is i personally love the finale arc as the mutant apocalypse. it so encapsulates my favorite part of this show. to end this show in the darkest timeline and say "even though these characters are so far removed from who they used to be and even though the entire world is over they still have each other in the end" and i find that so perfect.

so. i understand that this is always a touchy topic. i know people want to brush it off as "people say the 12 brothers are abusive to mikey but mikey is fine", and i think thats a really skewed version of it from both sides. first of all. mikey is not fine, look in that boys head. look how he copes. he's not. but also, mikey is not the only victim. they all are. these turtles are victims of their upbringing, victims of generational war. of men who didnt know how to be good fathers in the first place. and thats good writing! it feels deep! it connects!

for more context: any fucked up way you can think of karai being raised by shredder? its probably the same way here. splinter and shredder were raised the same way.

i guess i think about this a lot, cuz i always see things like "oh, rise fans write crossovers where the rise boys love each other and have to teach the 12 boys how to be nice cuz they dont like 2012!" and i just think to myself:

guys. do you understand why a person might do that? why would someone (likely a teenager) want 2012 mikey to be treated nicely by a kinder more openly affectionate version of his own family? do i need to spell that out for you? why do we connect with media at all, why do we write our own stories about it?

if you genuinely dont. i mean, im glad for you. but sometimes you wanna imagine a world in which your own family is more openly affectionate with you. where they hug and tell you theyre proud and love you and you never have to question it, never have to look elsewhere for that kind of approval. its less that they're idolizing rise, and more that they're looking at the two families and saying "this one is emotionally mature and in touch with their feelings more than that one. how would that play out?"

doctor feelings ass response.

look, im not saying everyone understands 2012, that everyone likes or needs to like it. im just trying to say that i think these fucked up parts of 2012 are all around my favourite parts of the show. its an inspiring story about this fucked up little family that has no one but each other, and they're not great about it. they try, but they don't always get it right. i just wish the show would have talked about that part more. but i think that since it doesnt people get to fill in those blanks themselves, and they do it so beautifully. and i really wish people on the internet would be more kind to one another when they wanted to discuss these darker themes they find in it.

these are the reasons i love this show. i think its so very interesting that splinter dies this fucked up father figure who never really apologized for his behaviour. i like that raph needs to be held to stop punching his brothers. that leo doesnt have a good grip on what it is to be a leader, that he tries bad ways of doing it. i like that no one copes well! i like that their relationships are so complex! this show is messy! its good! i wish it was more messy!

and id love if we could be more honest about these things and how they make us feel instead of just brushing each other off as "likes the show" or "doesnt like the show". the things that make me uncomfortable are why i love this show and i'm pretty sure i'm not alone there.

[eclipsedrgn]

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑩𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑳𝒆𝒇𝒕 𝑩𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅

(y/n) befriended the turtles along with her best friend ren. she didn't have anything to offer the family of ninjas, except her friendship and love. and when she realizes she's just pulling them back, she decided to take it to her own hands.

rottmnt!leo x fem!reader

⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇

⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇

It wasn't until you notice they started acting differently around you when you had a feeling they're starting to pull apart. All four turtles, each in their own unique way, rejected you. Either hanging out, or eating out to even going on patrol together. You didn't exactly offer a lot on the table if you were being honest. You were just the lucky girl who they rescued, and somehow became part of this mischivious family.

Mikey became your closest friend, you two were too much a like whether it was being completely naive to the world to being the most childish person of the group. The two of you never felt judged by one another.

Donnie, embarrissingly, became your buddy when it came to doing your homework. You did all the work of course, you hated cheating but Donnie was the one looking over your shoulder half of the time telling you from right and wrong.

Raph was coincidentally your therapist, although you mostly smile around the turtles, Raph knew the signs of depression and anxiety, most importantly anger. He saw how much anger you hold within yourself that he took upon himself to help you.

Leonardo...

To you, in your eyes, he was everything. He was the perfect turtle for you and could not stop yourself for falling in love with him. He was your everything, you were willing to even make yourself unhappy just to get his attention...

But you knew with the way he looks at Karai, it wouldn't happen.

You guess it was probably the way you let yourself loose. You ate too much pizza with Mikey, you barely exercise, or maybe how you just chilled on the couch for the longest time. The turtles noticed.

But they did not care.

And that's how you ended up in this situation, hiding behind the walls of the kitchen eavesdropping the turtle's conversation about you. Worst of all, your best friend Ren just sat there listening to them, though you didn't see her face, she was devastated that the turtles thought of you this way.

"Come on Leo, are we seriously letting this girl stay with us?" Raphael states with an annoyed tone. "She has done nothing but sit here with her thumbs up her nose"

Was all the times you come to Raph about your problems fake? Did you complain too much?

"We can't just kick her out Raph-" Donatello started but was interrupted.

"We can and we will. She eats all the food, she plays all the games while we're up there risking our lives" Raph complains.

"Dude... she's my best friend" Mikey muttered, nobody heard.

"She doesn't bring anything to the table! April does the news, Casey's a police officer- hell even Ren brings us notices about the Foot. (Y/N) does nothing" Raph says.

You are nothing.

A burden.

Leo shook his head, the warm feeling at the thought of you turned guilt, anger, confused. He knew his brothers were right. You didn't bring much to the table. But how can he kick out the only person who brought joy and compassion, no matter what the atmosphere of the lair is.

You clench both of your fists as tears stream down your face, you covered your mouth with both hands as another sob was coming. Leo barely stood up for you, Donnie barely stood up for you and Mikey... all he did was sat in silence. You wiped your face with your hands, getting rid of signs you were crying and came out of the kitchen with a smile on your face.

"Hey guys, I'm headed out for some pizza. Want anything?" you asked.

"J-Just some Hawaiian dudette" Mikey says with an unsure look on his face.

You smiled, "Sure Mikestar, I'll be back in a few"

"At least she brings us food" you hear Raphael scoff as you walk further from the lair.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

You barely looked where you were headed, you were just walking aimlessly for the past 20 minutes since you left. The depression was getting worst, your anxiety is off the roof and the fact the only people who truly liked you has been faking all this time...

You sighed as you yelp when you bumped into something... soft? You opened your (e/c) eyes seeing the father of the four turtles. You forgot Splinter likes to take walks around the sewer twice a day, curing boredom he said when you asked him once.

"My child, were you crying?" Splinter asks.

You sniffled and shook your head, "Allergies, Sensei"

"I can tell in your eyes you are lying. Tell me, what's going on?"

And so you did.

You snitched.

You told him how the turtles hurt you. How they didn't know you've listened to their cruel words.

The look on Splinter's eyes slowly dimmed, his sons, were not nice towards you?

"I'm gonna leave" you decided, Splinter looks up surprised you even claimed such decision. "I can't spend the rest of my life being a burden to everyone. I need a change of pace, I need to leave New York City"

Splinter sighs, "I cannot change your mind. But I do have an offer for you. My Master Yoshi has a friend in Japan called the Ancient One, fly there and tell him Splinter sent you. Tell him your desire to change, he will help you"

Your eyes became misty as tears started to gather, you hugged Splinter tightly and then came up with a plan. The turtles need to know how much you've been hurting, you became a little bit of a bad person.

That night you came back home, calling your tech friend to fake a news, hacking into the lair's tech and played the news.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

"We interrupt this program for some breaking news."

Leo paused sharpening his katana as the news blared on, Raph paused his benching, Donnie came out of his lab and Mikey stared blankly at the TV.

"(Y/N) (L/n) was found dead in her apartment at 21:34, her cause of death is currently unknown."

"No" Leo gasps his eyes widening, the brothers followed, Mikey gagged sprinting towards the bathroom. Leo watches at the apartment building you once live in, burst into flames, the firefighters rushing to put it out.

"Firefighters rush to stop the fire but it is all too late. The body was found with burned beyond recognition and the police have ordered an autopsy... Stay tune for further news"

"She never came back" Mikey croaked, leaning against the door frame. "She went out for pizza and never came back"

"S-She must've went to get more money, went home and then boom" Donnie says rushing towards his computers for answers.

Leo slammed his katana against the ground he was sitting on so hard, it broke into two pieces. He stood facing his hotheaded brother with a menacing look in his eyes.

"Are you happy now?" Leo sharply asked. "You asked for her gone right! You told us, to kick her out right! Well here you go Raphael. She's gone. For good"

"I-I never meant-"

"You knew she was depressed, you knew she fighting on... Raph, you have no idea!" Leo yells.

"BOYS!" the four flinch at their father's tone.

Splinter...

What're they going to tell him?

"What is going on here?" Splinter demands.

"(Y/N)'s dead" Mikey says voice cracking as the tears finally streamed down his face. "She's dead and its all our fault"

"Mikey..." Donnie says comforting his baby brother. "We should've helped sensei... but we... we didn't"

"5 times" Leo says confusing the others. "I saved her 5 times and this time, I couldn't"

"Leonardo..." Splinter sadly said.

Leo shook his head and walked away, the others slowly went their own way to grieve.

Splinter stood there with one though, he hopes you know what you need to do.

[notmanagingmymischief]

𝒩.𝐵. || 𝒶 𝒽𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝑜.

WOW, USER NOTMANAGINGMYMISCHIEF ACTUALLY STILL POSTS ORIGINAL WRITING??? :000000

shocker, i know

~~

word count: 1,964

warnings: death/dying, mentions of incestual tendencies on Norman’s part, survivor’s guilt, ambiguous ending?

~~

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~~

enjoy xx

~~

I had been in love with Norma Bates for as long as I could remember. From the moment I laid eyes on her, probably. It took almost two long years for me to finally confess to her, and three for us to completely and totally settle down with each other. It was on what was supposed to be a calm, easy day—one where neither of us had work to do, and we could just exist with each other—where something finally went wrong.

Well, that isnt entirely true; the past couple of days we’d been having this weird tension between each other. Norma had been busy with the Motel, Norman was being a pain in my ass, and my estranged family had decided to reach out again after years. All of the stress culminated today, though. When we had nothing to distract ourselves with, and somehow it ended up in an argument. One of our worst we’d ever had, in fact. I mentioned something about my parents getting on my ass, which led to the conversation of Norman. This was already a rather sensitive topic for everyone, and I’d been too stressed to filter myself. A stray comment I made had Norma all up in arms, and so here we are; in a screaming match in our shared bedroom.

“You can’t say that! I know you don’t get along, but Norman is my son, whether you like it or not!” Norma exclaims, throwing her hands up exasperatedly. I scoff and cross my arms. “Yeah, thats the problem, Norma. He’s your son.” I give her a Look, “He acts like he’s your boyfriend. Have you seriously never even been slightly freaked out by that?” I make perfectly valid points; Norman has always been weirdly attached to his mother, in a very creepy way. But Norma was unwilling to acknowledge that. We bicker back and forth some more, poisonous words thrown back and forth between us. “At least he didn’t abandon me!”

That. That was the final straw right there. Norma knew exactly how to get to me. I confided with her about my family issues and there she was, using them against me. I reel back with a hiss. “You—what?” I spit, glaring at her. But Norma doesn’t even take it back; I sense we’re both too upset to really consider each other's feelings. I shake my head. “No, thats too much. I can’t—you know that isnt what I did!” Norma mirrors my action, shaking her head and giving me an exhausted look. “Isn’t it?” she asks, and I have to clench my fists to stop from hitting something. We stare each other down for a moment, neither of us willing to speak. And then she does.

“That’s it. I’m done. We, this,” she gestures vaguely between the two of us, “is done.”

It hits me like a bag of bricks. I’m not stupid, or dense. “Are you breaking up with me right now, Norma..?” I ask, tears stinging in my eyes. “I didn’t want to say it but yes, I think that’s what has to happen. I just—I’m done.” I keep staring at her in shock, trembling violently. I can’t speak, can barely even breathe, and Norma wont even look at me. Finally, I choke back a little sob, and with a cracked little voice, I go “Fine. Fine, then. G-Goodbye, Norma Bates,” before turning on my heel and doing my best not to run from our room, from our house, from our life. It doesnt take me more than twenty minutes to grab some essentials, only what I’ll need for a couple days before I can come pick my stuff up, and throw it and myself into my car. Not once does Norma show her face, and I’m almost grateful for it. I only spare one glance up at that old house on the hill before pulling out of the lot and onto the freeway. I don’t know where I’ll go, I don’t know what I’ll do—I just need to get away.

I drive down the highway, vision dangerously blurry from tears, for what could be minutes or hours. I have the radio up as loud as it’ll go, I’m clenching my fists around the steering wheel to the point of my knuckles aching. But nothing matters, because everything just hurts. Everything hurts so much.

It hurts so much that I don’t notice myself shaking so badly my driving has become erratic. It hurts so much that I don’t see myself accidentally veer to the left with a particularly body-wracking sob. But it doesnt hurt enough to stop me from seeing the headlights blinding me. And all I have time to do is let out a choked gasp and shrill shriek before—darkness.

~~

Norma had been a wreck. Since she watched you from what used to be your bedroom’s window, watched you drive away and not look back, since she realized what she had done. She fell onto your—no, her bed—and put her head in her hands. She didnt cry, she couldn’t. But she did just sit there in silence, running through everything that had happened in the past hour in her head. When she did finally get up, her stare vacant and eyes dull, she went about the rest of her day without any of her usual fervor. Dinner with Norman was filled only by him, telling her about whatever taxidermy he’d done that day. And when she went to bed, Norma finally let herself cry. When she went to bed without you, and realized how cold her bed was. When she realized that the sheets hung too loosely over her shoulders because your body wasn't behind her to elevate them with your own. She didn’t sleep that night.

The next morning, Norma Bates is roused from her exhausted silence by her phone ringing. Not by her alarm, it was much too early for that. No, this was a call. With a sleepy groan, the blonde turns to grapple for it, answering the thing without reading the caller ID with an unimpressed “What?”

“Is this….Norma Bates?”

Norma didnt recognize the voice on the other end. “Uh…yes, this is she. Why..?” she mumbled, rolling onto her back. “This is Pine Bay Medical Center. We have Y/N L/N here with us…you were her emergency contact.” This immediately snaps Norma’s exhaustion out of her and she sits up in bed quickly. “What? You—what happened? Y/n? Is she alright?” “Ma’am, please breathe. Are you sitting down?” Norma’s breathing is already rapidly increasing, and she nods before realizing they cant see her and quietly choking out a “Ye-Yes, I am.”

“Mrs Bates, I regret to inform you that Miss L/N passed away this morning at…15:23 PM.”

The world goes silent. It falls out from under Norma and leaves her reeling; she nearly drops her phone from her hands as she just…stares. Stares at her wall in silence. The woman on the end of the line must be speaking to her, but all Norma can hear is a persistent buzzing behind the ringing in her ears as those words bounce around her head. After too long, the woman finally croaks out “Can I see her?” The moment she’s given the okay, she hangs up and snaps into action. She throws on the closet dress she can find, and doesnt even bother checking on Norman as she practically throws herself out the door and down the stairs.

Norma makes it to the hospital in record time, thankfully not stumbling across Alex to give her a speeding ticket, and the car is barely in park before she’s out the door and sprinting into the ER. Her voice shakes something fierce as she begs the receptionist to let her see you; as though begging them to bring you back. It takes too long for them to understand her but when they do, they give her a knowing look. “She’s..already at the mortuary, second floor.” Norma doesn’t bother thanking them before she’s gone, up the stairs and frantically searching for the room.

It doesn’t really sink in, she thinks, until she gets through to the workers and is finally led to the wall. When the small door is opened and a metal slab is slowly pulled out. And when she stares down at you. Down at her girl; peaceful but cold to the touch. It doesn't sink in that you’re gone until she rests a trembling hand on your cheek and can’t feel the warmth of your skin, when you don’t automatically lean into her touch. It isn’t until that moment that the world, reality, finally comes crashing back in and down onto her shoulders. The reality where you’re….not here.

Without being able to stop it, a shrill sob falls from Norma’s lips, and just like that she collapses against the wall. The mortuarists don’t intervene—they’ve seen this happen too many times—and let her grieve. They let her sob and plead and press her fingers to every cut and scratch on your pallid complexion, until she’s finally guided slowly and carefully from the room, still crying and repeating your name desperately. She’s sent into an empty room to be by herself, but she can’t even make it to the chair before she’s on her knees on the ground, sobbing all over again. Face in her hands, nearly screaming with the agony filling her entire body and soul. Gone, gone, gone, gone. You’re gone. Nothing Norma can say or do can take back what happened, and now you’re gone.

You’ll never wake her up with breakfast in bed again. You’ll never laugh at her stupid jokes. You’ll never hug her from behind and press your face into her hair as you grumble about the workweek’s stress. She’ll never kiss you again. She’ll never stay awake talking until past midnight about anything and everything again. She’ll never even…see you again.

Norma doesnt know how long she stays like that; eventually someone must have shown up because now she’s sitting in an uncomfortable chair and being asked too many questions, being talked at too much, and everything’s too loud. And Norman is there. He appeared a few hours back, but didn’t dare try to speak to his mother. She was too deep in her grief to even recognize his presence yet, and when she answers questions they’re brief and mumbled. The clearest thing that passes by her hearing is a doctor saying “Your wife was very strong in the OR. She fought hard, and it’s a real shame she didn’t make it.”

Her wife? When had she been put into the role of your wife? It was only once she was given your phone that she realized her contact was titled “wifey <333”, her name only written in the subtext inside the contact info. This brought on a new wave of tears. More unidentified time passes, until Norma is finally left alone with Norman in silence.

“I’m done.”

Norman looks up at his mother with a confused look. “What did you say, mother?” She slowly raises her head from her hands; “‘I’m done.’ That’s the last thing I said to her,” she breathes, eyes glistening with more tears that prepare to join the ones already streaming down her cheeks. “The last thing she thought she knew was that I hated her,” Norma chokes, sobbing again and letting her head fall back into the wall. She doesn’t even register the dull sting, too consumed by guilt and shame and grief.

What flowers will they have at your funeral? Did you ever write a will? Who would they tell? Would she let your family know?

But worst of all—how would she live with herself knowing that this was all her fault?

[katsumatsu4]

Speedrunning

It's a secret santa gift for @fandomsareforlife. Happy holidays!

A couple missing scenes, drabbles and possible interactions between Griffin Turner and other Elemental Masters. This is a little all over the place, but I hope you'll enjoy it :)

Also on Ao3

Being around other people for a long amount of time could get really annoying when all the conversations seemed to drag on for far longer than Griffin logically knew they had. Talking with his Ma was an exception, at least growing up; nowdays, even she began to slow down.

But there was something worse than getting a little annoyed, and that was being bored of course. So when one fateful day Griffin received an invitation to competition for elemental masters, for people just like him, he didn't need to think twice. Or even once, for the matter. More like half, the other half too thrilled for upcoming event to think properly.

With a ticket to Ninjago City in hand, the master of speed suddenly felt like his life was going to change forever. He shrived excitingly.

The room was pretty spacious, bigger than any he ever had. And it was amazing! He could zoom around without bumping into furniture, watch anything he wanted on the big flat-screen on the wall, bathe in the ridiculously oversized bathtub or eat all the snacks prepared on the table.

It even got posters of his favourite band on the wall!

Okay. That was a tad concerning.

He was chilling on the bed when suddenly an intercom on the wall sprung to life with Chen's voice.

<Ding ding dong>

<Fellow fighters, hidden around my island are enough Jade Blades for every participant except for one. The one who returns to the Palace Arena empty-handed loses. The tournament begins... now!>

A little confused, Griffin looked at the device. Right now? Just like that? Maybe if he was lucky there is already one in this room... Nah, that would be too convenient.

Not wasting more time, he jumped straight into the corridor leading to staircases. Right in the middle of a brawl between three other masters. Urgh.

He threw his punches blindly until he heard satisfying growl of pain. Stepping back, he finally took in his opponents. Gravity, mind, light, sound; not the most offensive powers but it didn't matter if he couldn't locate a blade in time. He threw his eyes around, cursing his poor eyesight. These four had to be fighting for something!

There! Someone in dark clothes was walking down the stairs, barely shuffling forward, where just a floor below- A jade blade in the vase!

Grinning, he threw his opponent away and rushed downstairs before - What was his name again? Eh, nevermind. - earth guy made a grab for it.

"Ha! Too slow, rocky boy!" Griffin giggled, easily outrunning him. The ninja looked so pissed of! Serves him right for not taking the competition seriously!

He raced toward the main lobby and put his jade blade in assigned place on the central statue. Looking around, Griffin noticed with satisfaction that he seemed to be the first. Hell yeah, baby!

With time other masters filled the room. Orange one, gravity, Jacob, shadow, purple one, lightning, Garmadon brat, Ash, Tox, shadow, mind, nature...

One blade appeared out of thin air, startling him. So Mr. Pale passed as well. No surprise here.

He couldn't help but whistle when earth master staggered inside, clutching his stomach with one hand but with a blade raised in the other. Honestly, he didn't know what that said about the other contestants that that guy wasn't last.

Just one remaining.

And then, when he thought he was going to die from boredom already, the doors opened and metal master proudly strode in. Finally! He joined in the cheers that quickly turned to confusion when one of big guy's gauntlets suddenly fell on the floor, the last jade blade falling with it. Unseen until this point, fire ninja jump out from behind Karloff's back, grabbed the blade and run towards the statue with a self-satisfied smirk. And a screwdriver.

Well, he'll be damned! Griffin didn't expect dirty tricks this early in the game, but he could respect the drive. At least until it wasn't directed at him.

Karloff, who retrieved his weapon already, slumped and whined something about fairness.

Fairness? Come on! They were there to show of, not to philosophize. Really, some people...

Griffin yelped when the floor opened under Karloff, who ended up falling in with a scream. What was that?

"As you can see, lose and you are out. Break any rule, you are out. Never bite the hand that feeds you Master Chen delicious noodle!" Chen announced. "Now rest up. Tomorrow the tournament will recommence."

On the way to his room Griffin had time to recollect himself. Looking with a clear mind, leaving the competition via trapdoor shouldn't have been as shocking. Everything Chen did so far was flashy and almost theatrical; it's only logical that he had something special prepared for the loser.

What happened to him after though?

He shrugged it off. Most likely it was nothing to worry about; probably the worst that awaited Karloff was being a little battered from the fall, getting laughed at by the stuff and being thrown of the island in a shitty boat. Chen was a pretty influential man, but even he couldn't get away with disappearing over a dozen people.

Besides, he thought as he settled under the bedsheets, today was the most fun he had in a while!

-

Well that kind of sucked.

Griffin turned on his bed. If you could even call that stiff board with a shoddy blanket thrown on a bed. He sighed, thinking back to the nice, warm, soft pillows in his room.

Stupid bed, stupid Chen, stupid competition and, most of all, stupid ninja! If they didn't want to fight against each other, why did they enter Crush Everybody Else And Win Tournament! It's not like they were forced to be here!

And now they were all paying for their stupidity and bleeding hearts. Sure, it was Chen who changed the matches at the last moment, but they should have expected something like this would happen sooner or later. Were they this stupid?

(He needed to stay angry. Staying angry was easier than thinking back about how desperate earth and lightning ninja looked during the battle. How much Chen controlled everything like it was his own private playground. How devastated the winner was, as if losing meant something more than dropping out of a competition. It was easier than remembering their screams of anguish.)

He turned over. Stupid ninja.

-

"I can't believe you actually fell for their bullshit. You don't look all that smart, but that's just another low."

Griffin felt his hand itching to punch Shade in the face. He took a calming breath.

"You heard what the ninja were talking, it all kind of makes sense. Chen clearly has it out for them; maybe they are telling the truth and they did discover something he doesn't want anyone to know!"

Shade rolled his eyes.

"Sure, and they conveniently didn't tell us that until one of them was in a major trouble during the competition."

The worst part was, Griffin did agree a little. The timing was suspicious; it was clear ninja would have held their distance even longer if the deck wasn't so stacked against them. But even then...

("We don't have to keep fighting each other," Green ninja said with an unprecedented confidence. "We can all win.")

The brat really has a way of making me want to proof him right.

"Why can't you just believe that there is something stinky going on here? It reeks!"

"'Kind of makes sense', 'maybe', 'just believe it', do you even hear yourself? Their story has more holes than a plate full of cheese!" Shade looked almost angry at this point. "If anything reeks here, it's them; from the beginning they acted like they were better than us and now suddenly they want to team up? For me it just looks like they realized Chen wasn't going to let them play their way so now they are trying to make the rest of us give up."

"Neuro confirmed that they were telling the truth about the spell. Doesn't that mean anything?"

"Ah yeah, the spell. The one that he learned about from Clause's mind but, again very conveniently, doesn't know what it's for." Shade crossed his arms. "If you are fine with being strung along and getting tied up in someone's scheme, be my guest. But keep me out of it." He turned around and gave Griffin a nasty side-eye on his way off. "I came here to win. I'm not going to give that up just because the rest of you lack any common sense."

Griffin stood there even after the other disappeared behind closed doors, fists clenched in anger. He wasn't a fool for believing ninja, Shade just... couldn't see a full picture. That's all.

With a sigh he finally relaxed his grip and let his hands fall to the sides. He probably should get going, the next meeting would be in a few minutes.

When will all this shitshow be over?

-

For the record, Griffin hated asking people for favours. Which was exactly why he was still standing outside the shop for longer than it took him to get there in the first place.

It was stupid idea anyway. Nobody spotted him yet, there was still time to turn back and leave. Yeah, he could just...

He groaned and hid his face in his hands. What was he doing? He was an adult, that's some middle school level thinking. Just ring a damn bell!

Griffin sighed and finally pressed the button. Then waited. Then pressed again and again, until he heard an annoyed voice from inside the building.

"Coming, coming, jeez! Don't you see the sign, we're closed- Oh, it's you." It seemed Cole was the one send to open the door. "Uh, hi?"

"Hey man, it's been a while! I would have called buuut, turns out we didn't actually swapped numbers after the Chen thing? And I heard you had quite an uproar recently."

Cole made a face.

"Don't even remind me. Lloyd's still has trouble sleeping..." He shook his head. "Anyway, come in I guess? Want something? Coffee, tea? Something to eat?"

"Thanks but I won't be long. Is Jay around? I actually came to talk with him."

"With Jay? Yeah, he's upstairs. Sit here, I'll come get him."

Griffin plopped down on the sofa Cole pointed and waited, eyes wandering over inside decorations. Not bad, but why did they had to have so many snakes?

He looked up upon hearing a patter of footsteps on wooden floor and was met with annoyed look on the lighting ninja face. He was probably pulled away from something.

"What do you want?" he started unceremoniously.

Griffin rolled his eyes and patted empty space next to him.

"Don't look at me like that, it's going to be quick, I promise."

Jay took a seat. "So?"

"Okay, here's a thing. Remember those anacondrai warriors? How they totally beat all of us, powers or not?"

"Well, they were hard to forget." Jay shivered. "But what does it have to do with anything?"

Griffin played with his thumbs for a few moments, silence slowly growing awkward.

"It's embarrassing," he finally said. "I know i could do better. They weren't as fast as me, just really really fast. I've never fought someone like that so I just... kind of froze when one managed to grab me. Like, no one ever did before! I didn't know what to do! So... yeah." He stepped from side to side. "I have an idea how to work on that. Will you help me?"

Jay winced, no doubt also remembering how close that fight was.

"I get it man, I do. But what do you want from me? You don't even like me! Why would ask me for help?"

"I think you're pretty annoying and obnoxious, that's not the same!" The ninja puffed up like an angry bird. Kind of cute. "Besides, you guys and your spinning stuff is like, the closest thing to my speed I can find that won't kill me! Probably." He pointed finger guns at Jay, who looked more red by a second. "Aaaand, you can throw lighting at me! So I can learn to dodge at high speed." Damn, he looks mad. Urgh, he didn't plan to vex him, that's no good. "And you can train with somebody who doesn't need to run in circles to keep up with your kicks, it's a win-win!"

"Ex-cuse me? Like I would need training to deal with someone like you! But fine, I guess I can make some space in my extremely busy schedule." Jay pulled out a notebook from one of his many pockets and skimmed through it. For what Griffin could see from here, all pages were completely blank. "Thursdays after 15 sounds good?"

"Sure does! Thanks dude!" He pumped his fist up in the air. "See you then!"

And before Jay could say another thing, he sped out, giggling slightly. Mission accomplished!

-

“And that’s why I don’t use coriander anymore.”

Griffin almost spitted out the drink. He snapped his head around, looking for the source of the scandalous declaration. Finally, his eyes landed on Zane, in the middle of some casual talk with Neuro, Tox and Pale.

He chugged the rest of his soda and run towards them.

"Hey hey, what's going on here? I was summoned by the heresy of the highest order."

They all looked at him confused. Griffin let out a big sigh. Humanity truly was doomed.

"What do you mean you don't use coriander? That's like, the coolest spice!"

Zane eyed him incredulously.

"It does have interesting taste, I'll give you that, but you can't be serious. It goes well with almost nothing, not to mention that the aroma is so intense it can ruin entire meal!"

"You can't be serious!" Griffin started gesticulating. "It goes well with so many things, like soups or cooked vegetables or cheese-"

The argument went on, Zane shooting down most of his arguments, but Griffin found out he hardly minded. It quickly became clear the other was almost as passionate about cooking as he was. It was fun!

"I can't imagine not adding a couple of leaves to dinner."

“If you can’t even phantom enjoying a nice meal with a balanced taste palette then I really don’t see how that’s my problem.”

"Listen, I don't care how much you don't like coriander, there is no good curry without-"

"Guys? Guys! Can you slow down a little?!"

He blinked a few times before the comically slow sentence made sense in his head.

"What are you talking about?"

"That's my line!" Tox gestured between Griffin and Zane. " You were blabbering so fast my ears started bleeding." What?"I think even Jay wouldn't keep up!"

Zane let out a short chuckle.

"Ah, we must have gotten ahead of ourselves. I'm sorry, I didn't want to make your all feel excluded from the conservation."

Ah. So that's what happened, no wonder talking seemed more fluid than normal. Oooops.

"Yeah, sorry guys. But," He turned to Zane. "we have to hang out more. That was the funniest talk I had in ages! Even if your taste in spices is goddamn awful."

White ninja smiled at him

"Sure, I also enjoyed this. But if you are trying to tell me my spices are atrocious when yours-"

Griffin felt the grin forming as all people around them groaned.

-

"Bullshit."

"I'm just saying; your powers are kinda redundant. I could get anywhere at least as fast as you."

Griffin stuffed the desire to just go and punch Shade through the wall, if only to wipe off his shit-eating smirk.

"That's not the same, you can't even interact with stuff on the way!"

Shade let out exaggerated regretful sigh.

"Ah, you're right. I just can appear practically anywhere I want to without anything stopping me on the way." He looked up at Griffin. "I guess running pretty fast is so much cooler."

Aurgh, you little-

"Race me then jackass."

Shade raised his brow.

"Excuse me?"

"You, me, right here and now. Let's see how 'redundant' my powers are after I kick your butt!" He leaned over the other man. "Or are you all bark and no bite?"

Shade's eyes sparked.

"Bring it on."

Of course it couldn't be exactly right here and now, but nevertheless it didn't take long to organize the race track and some cheerleaders- I mean, spectators and objective judges.

With a few minor setbacks.

("Hey, will you be our referee?"

Jacob turned to him with an expression of pure disbelief. Shade facepalmed.)

But otherwise everything was ready.

Griffin was stretching on the start line, eyeing Shade by his right. Noticing the staring, master of shadows send him another shitty grin.

"Good luck, speedy."

"Eat my dust."

"Guys, everything's ready!" Ash shouted from the side. "Remember, the first one on the finish line wins! No tech, only powers allowed!

Ready!

Set!

Go!"

The last sound didn't even end and Griffin was already rushing forward. Of course he would win, but no point in giving Shade extra time at the start!

Speaking of the man... He glanced around before spotting him.

Griffin gritted his teeth. His opponent was off to the great start too, but unlike him, he didn't need to worry about uneven terrain and sidelining obstacles on the way. So while Griffin had to more or less follow the beaten path, the other could pretty much ignore twists and turns of the road and just jump from shadow to shadow.

He gritted his teeth and picked up the speed. He's not going to lose at his own special thing!

Left, right, jump, jump, right, higher, faster, go go go!

Shifting between rocks and trees, they finally arrived at the last part: the finish line was on the other side of a lake surrounded by rocky hills. Griffin tried to spot the other man again.

Shade waved at him from the top of the mountain.

That little-

Wait, the lake! Maybe instead of running around it, he could run through it!

With that in mind, he braced himself and took a sudden turn. With a side-eye he barely managed to catch Shade's surprised face but it boosted him enough that even when cold water uncomfortably surrounded his ankles, he sped forward, cackling on the wind.

He began to regret it about ten seconds later; his sneakers were not waterproof. His heart skipped a bit when he almost tripped on a floating branch. But even after he managed to compose himself, before water remembered people were not supposed to be running on it, he could already feel his strength sapping away. There was a reason why he usually didn't try that trick.

The finish line was so close! Just a few more seconds!

He slipped.

Griffin took a sharp breath when his foot broke the surface, landing on a muddy bottom and staggered a few more steps before picking up the speed again. Water was slowing him down but he still rushed forward.

With the last burst of power he hurried on the shore and arrived at the finish line a few feet away. Distantly, Griffin registered muted cheers coming from the sides.

Panting and wheezing, he looked back. Shade just crossed the line, significantly more red than gray this time. Despite the air barely making its way to his lungs, Griffin couldn't help but laugh at the face he was making.

"Who's redundant now?"

Shade puffed further and shuffled closer.

Then pushed him in the water.

Griffin, very pointedly, did not screech and did not scramble around and shudder like a wet cat. Did not.

Hunched over, he heard a strange sound, something between choking and gargling. But when he looked up, his eyes widened. Shade was laughing. He... hadn't heard him laugh before. Griffin was so dumbfounded that for a moment he didn't notice the outstretched hand before him. He grabbed it and let Shade help him up. Still choking a little, master of shadows finally answered.

"Yeah, you were right, whatever. I'm not going to apologize for pushing you in, you looked like you needed a cooldown." He shook his head. "But I take back what I said earlier. You beat my butt alright."

"Well, that was one hell of a show! And both of you look like shit now."

Griffin turned around as Skylor and a few others made their way closer. She smiled at them.

"I bet you burned a lot of energy. If you're hungry we can get something to eat."

He suddenly realized that yeah, he was starving.

"I vote pizza!" Jacob shouted.

"Karloff says barbecue."

"Sushi!" screamed Ash.

"Well, does anyone have cash on them? I think you forgot where we can eat for free-"

"Sky-gal, I love you, but we can't just eat noodles every-freaking-time we meet," Tox argued. "We need some diversity!"

Shade raised his hand.

"Two for pizza!"

Griffin laughed and joined him.

"Make it three!"

[cricket-reader]

Sticks to a Katana Fight

Masterlist | A03 | Wattpad | Recommendations | Inbox | Taglist

Summary: when ninjas show up at your job, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is there to help. What happens when it’s not enough?

Warnings: language, canon level violence, injuries, blood, ninjas

Word Count: 1059

Prompt: “What were you thinking?” I Slurred Speech | Impalement | Fight

A/N: Day 14 of June of Doom by @juneofdoom

In every sense of the word, you were a pacifist. You didn’t like fighting unless it was in movies or video games where you knew it was fake. Violence wasn’t something you were okay with.

That being said, you were completely out of your element when a bunch of fucking ninjas showed up at your work. You knew to expect weird things, living in Hell’s Kitchen where there was a masked vigilante and crime rings everywhere. Nothing, however, could have prepared you for ninjas. I mean seriously? You didn’t even think they were real at first. Maybe a cosplay or something.

But then they started taking out their very real swords, and they started slicing and dicing. It was something straight out of a movie the way they cut into those people. You were fine. Well, as fine as you could be with a group of ninjas attacking anyone that dared to move. If you just stayed under your desk and didn’t move, you’d be fine.

You were trembling, holding a hand to your mouth to try to prevent any noise from escaping. You heard your friend talking to them, begging them to let everyone go. You heard her heels click along the floor. And then the unmistakable sound of her body dropping into a heap on the floor. Tears sprung into your eyes as you heard her gurgling.

You couldn’t see what was going on, and you were grateful for that. Seeing your friend bleeding out probably wouldn’t be the best for your mental state. But then again, listening to the sounds of people close to you dying and being held hostage by ninjas wasn’t either.

You were hyperventilating under your tear and snot stained hand. It was ugly. Everything about this was ugly, though, so you couldn’t bring yourself to care.

You wanted to look when you heard grunts and hits being exchanged. Someone was fighting them? Who the hell would be insane enough to go up against these psychos?

The fight continued on for quite some time and you didn’t know who was winning. You could only hope that it wasn’t the ninjas.

Two people went right past your desk as they fought. They probably didn’t even notice you were there. More people joined in and you wondered where the hell was the rest of your saviours. Surely no one would be stupid enough to do this alone.

You could hear that the man was getting his ass handed to him. You dared to peek out from under the desk and barely held in a gasp.

It was the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen in the flesh. He was getting the shit kicked out of him by multiple ninjas.

Being a pacifist, you weren’t apt to fight. But when someone is getting ganged up on… well, that’s just unfair. Silently, you grabbed your purse that you always set under your desk, searching for anything that could help you in this situation. It would be stupid to help out, but you couldn’t just watch this poor man get beaten to death.

You found your keychain and took the pepper spray off of it. You didn’t want to make a lot of noise with it. You also grabbed your pocket knife that you always kept on you for emergencies. Being a woman in the city definitely taught you to be prepared. You never thought you’d be fighting off ninjas, but what the hell can you do?

You tripped a ninja that was passing you and kicked him in the face. You sprayed him with the pepper spray and left him wailing on the ground. The ninjas turned around, giving Daredevil the chance to hit each out them with his… sticks?

Was he seriously entering this katana fight with fucking sticks? You’d have to have some strong words with this man when you were done.

You slashed a few of them with your little knife and pepper sprayed them as best you could. The masked vigilante kept yelling at you to leave, to get away while you still could. You wanted to listen, but the ninjas wouldn’t let you go. They kept coming for you and you could barely dodge every katana swinging your way.

It was at that moment that you were seriously questioning your life’s choices. Was this how you died? In a ninja fight? Well, it certainly would be a cool way to go. You couldn’t complain there.

On the other hand, there were so many things you wanted to do. You hadn’t truly lived yet. Only recently had you started to make friends again. There was Karen and Foggy and Matt. They were so wonderful when they saw you sitting alone at Josie’s. They cheered you up after getting harassed by some loser. You could even dare to say that you had grown quite fond of one member of the group in particular. It was only now, in the face of great danger, that you wished you’d have told him.

You screamed when one of the katanas ripped through your torso. Daredevil froze before letting all hell loose. He would kill anyone and everyone who dared lay a hand on you. He didn’t care if he got hurt, not when you had already gotten hurt.

He could smell and taste the copper of your blood—or was it his own? It didn’t really matter. It still made him nauseous. When he got to your side, he felt the katana that had impaled you. It was still in which was good but also bad. He could hear the sirens of the ambulance from blocks away. He wished they’d come faster.

“What were you thinking,” he muttered, mostly to himself as tears welled up in his eyes.

“Was thinkin’ your ass w’s gettin’ handed t’ya,” you replied, your voice slurred and quiet.

“I could’a done it myself, sweetheart.”

“Din’t look like it,” you smiled, head drooping to the side. Terror set in his bones when he felt blood pouring from your mouth.

“No! Don’t… don’t leave me! Please, please be okay! Please, c’mon sweetheart!” He cried out. You couldn’t leave him. You were the best thing in his life. He couldn’t bear to let you go just yet. This was all his fault. Why did you have to step in? Why couldn’t you have just stayed under your desk?

Taglist: @harleycao

[nrrrdgrrrl2002]

Middy having a day where everyone on the team vents to her at some point

Leo:”he wanted me to be the sensei but what if I can’t? What if one of my brothers get hurt on a mission? It’ll be my fault! Should I keep ‘em here at the lair where they’re safe? Is that too dictatory? What if one of Donnie’s experiments blow us up? Should I have him stop doing science stuff? Oh god oh god oh god…”

Raph:”I feel like if I vent to anyone or anything else, they’ll turn into a monster that’ll kill my brothers but I feel like I’ll hurt one of them myself if I don’t get it out somehow. Why does anything I try to do to help myself make things worse? Why can’t I just be good? Why can’t I just be normal?”

Donnie:”I’m so SO sick of my work being under appreciated! Do they think I just magic these things into existence? No! I have to work and stay up and not eat and burn and bruise myself to make these miracle machines that they just use like it can easily be replaced! Maybe I should stop so they understand.. b-but what if they need it? What if someone dies because I took a break from being the miracle worker? I don’t want them to die. I love my family but I just…”

Mikey:”I know my brothers want me to be more mature and GOD I want to be to but it feels like anytime I try I just… I hate my brain. It feels broken and wrong. I wanna be competent! I wanna be able to protect my family just as much as they protect me but people like shredder just… are SO scary to me and I desperately need someone to tell me it’s ok but I feel like such a child for it and… Guh! Why can’t I be better for them?! Why can’t I be someone worth being on this team?!”

April:”I’m… I’m so scared of myself.. I’m half KRAANG. Half of me is the same as the monsters who have destroyed SO many peoples lives, including my families.. they… they killed my mom and… I’m HALF of that.. could i become like them? If it wasn’t for sheer luck Donnie wouldn’t be here and it’d be because of zanaron and… I want to use my powers to protect my new family but I’m… I’m so scared of hurting them again I don’t.. i barely had any will to live after what I did to Donnie I don’t…I don’t think I could live with myself if I hurt one of you guys again..”

Casey:”why am I even here? I ain’t a ninja. I don’t have cool mutant powers. I’m a clutz and everyone here knows it. No one here takes me seriously. Why do they keep me around? Cause it’s funny to see me, the dumb human vigilante, fail? Cause they feel bad for me? I just… my dad hates me.. I’m considered a freak at school.. I just wanna belong somewhere and I thought… I thought I’d at least be liked here but.. even among freaks I’m a freak. Maybe I should just leave. Even my own parents didn’t want me…Maybe I don’t deserve to belong with anyone. Maybe I’m better off just being a solo vigilante until I’m killed in an alley with no one who would care to look for me. Maybe I shouldn’t be cared about. I mean my own dad says I’m cursed and I only make things worse here… maybe I should just leave for everyone’s sake…”

Middy:”Christ. This team needs an actual therapist”

[sophfandoms53]

Thinking about how much Leo has grown as a leader and a ninja to the point of being Master Leonardo

[digital-dragons-horde]

Domesticity

Sasuke x reader

A/N: Hello! This is my first time posting anything online in years-and I do mean years, Quizilla was WILD sometimes gang IYKYK-and I’m taking the plunge with a little blurb about my boy that started it all for me, a character I grew up with, the one I tentatively started writing for as a preteen for fun and one that deserves so much more. Seriously, DO NOT get me started on some of these sequel series’ character choices, I have so many gripes haha! The setting can be read as shortly after the war but could be read as a more modern AU! if wanted, no ninja abilities mentioned. 

Without further ado, I give you a fluffy one shot:

You weren’t a particularly heavy sleeper, if anything you were a borderline insomniac, many missions over the years left you with a perpetually screwed up sleep hygiene and made you a light enough sleeper that you’d thought you weren’t going to get a full 8 hours.

And yet, you did. For the first time in a while, and you’d done it thanks to an exciting previous day, a warm fluffy bed, and the full weekend off.

With some joints popping and a big stretch of some static muscles you vaguely noticed the empty spot next to you in your brain fog. Not quite cold enough yet to indicate he’d been out of it for very long but the running sink across the hallway in the otherwise quiet house gave away where he had gone.

Your eyes fluttered in and out of the haze of sleep, almost opting back into it until the rushing faucet stopped. Your eyes half reopened, just in time to watch the last Uchiha walk by the door without a second glance.

Oh. Oh, you had seen this before.

You’d had to have Sasuke over night at your apartment whenever he was occasionally back in the village, after he’d come back from the final battle of the war and for the first instances where he traveled.

How you’d met at all was another story but the villagers were more at ease when he was easing back into it’s walls under your wing. They trusted you implicitly when he was in your capable hands.

Needless to say you two weren’t strangers to sharing a bed.

And as a result of this you weren’t a stranger to these “episodes”. Periods where sometimes he just defaulted, always during the handful of times you’d stayed over in the Uchiha household.

You heard more of him bustling around in the kitchen on autopilot for a few minutes before deciding to make your way out of bed. Not bothering to disguise any sound you were making.

And when you spotted him mindlessly staring at the stove, cracking an egg on the pan with one hand and blindly reaching out…without the other. Being in his old home had him reverting to his habits from when you were preteens regularly, habits he couldn’t carry out like he used to and when he was half asleep he instantly forgot.

Bandages from his latest outing wrapped around his forehead and peaking out from his shirt and shorts he had worn to bed. Comfort clothes had been a thing you reintroduced immediately. 

His dazed eyes mindlessly kept up their stare but his brows furrowed, confused when he didn’t grasp the spatula right there to the-

You slipped up next to him, bleary eyed yourself, and nudged the eggs and bacon sharing the pan with the spatula in one hand and the other barely attempting to cover a large yawn. You gave him a smiling side eye as the yawn died out.

“I live here too now, you know?”

He blinked at you once, twice, before the fog in them cleared, and he slowly uttered your name in a low greeting, you were used to that too. Sometimes it took a while for him to come back from outer space, with all of the overwhelming peace everyone around him expected him to stomach but you were working on it together. 

You hadn’t lived anywhere, permanently, in years either.

You were right, you’d moved in yesterday, you lived with him now. Already you had molded into a morning routine with him, you’d never made him feel like his newfound disability was debilitating and you knew he was independent to a sharp fault.

And you didn’t step on his toes while he was doing what he’d done since he was a kid. You would never baby him, you didn’t even need much in the way of words to know what he needed next with a nudge, like an extension of him with your arm closest to him holding the spatula to the pan’s contents as you started the tea kettle with the other. 

Like giving him your arm was second nature, a natural habit for you. In many ways you two were in sync from day one so it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. 

Domesticity, the truly peaceful and content kind, was something he for sure had thought he’d lose out on after he’d abandoned the village as a teenager. He’d abandoned YOU as a teenager.

He let your humming, the smell of your shampoo and body wash mixing with the simmering breakfast when you lean over and reach around the front of him for the jar of tea on the countertop, your presence beside him wrap around him blissfully.

He must’ve zoned out from the comfort surrounding him and the very idea it would be around for a while-honestly he wondered how he survived without it before and doubted he could cope if you left him-because he could’ve sworn he blinked and you’d set the table and plated breakfast.

You stopped humming whatever song it was to look at him with a halo of sunshine glowing around you from the window as you beamed at him.

He sharply inhaled and mismatched eyes widened at you under messy growing hair as a thought struck him.

“Itachi would have loved you.”

He wasn’t sure why he blurted it out and he hoped you took it the right way.

You huffed a single laugh of amusement that just happened to slip out in your surprise. Your cheeks hurt from the blush burning them and the grin that was unconfined because look at how cute he was being. His equivalent of shyness.

It wasn’t often you got this side of him.

Sasuke blushed too but it was a combination of your attractiveness when you were giddy because of him and some embarrassment so he looked away, miffed and cheeks still dusted pink. As you approached he looked away and back, and his eyes shut when your hands reached for his cheeks to pull him to you for a sweet forehead kiss.

You moved to his lips for an equally chaste kiss and his thumb brushed your jawline when his hand moved to hold your neck and tilt your head just so.

You were actually hungry though and cut it short.

“Itachi would want us to eat our breakfast before it gets cold.” You replied gently and took his hand in yours to lead him to the table.

His heart fluttered, as it usually did with you, and this first morning together, paving the way for hopefully many more? He wanted to set the habits into a life together with the ring he had hidden in the house.

[bay-did-nothing-wrong]

You have no proof! (Female!Reader x Leonardo)

Synopsis: Leo’s been caught and it’s confrontation time. Inspired by this post by @fictober-event

Word Count: 635

Genre: Crack, some fluff, for shits and giggles mostly

Notes: Last one for today, I swear, I’ve just had these in my drafts for ages, and just thought I’d get em out now ty

"Hey, petal!" he greeted you like he would everyday but this one time it felt odd. Maybe it was just you. Maybe it was your own discomfort that was making you hear things. Maybe he was onto you.

"Leo?" you entered his room quietly, stepping softly as if literally walking on thin ice.

Your silence, your lack of response or your usual greeting, probably clued him into the grim mood you were in.

How do you bring this up? Is it even appropriate? No, no, it's not... But you have to say something!

"What's wrong?" he knew.

"We gotta talk." every step you took towards the bed felt heavier and heavier. The weight in your chest grew, while your lungs felt like they were shrinking.

In the brief moment you managed to look up at him, you could see him visibly shrink. Though he was usually amazing at maintaining his composure, being with him for years and knowing him intimately helped you pick up on the subtle ques that revealed his true state of mind.

Like the minute lowering of his chin and shoulders, the miniature downward pull of the covers of his mouth, and the barely-visible convergence of his brows. He was tense. And, frankly, so were you.

"What's up?" another one of his tells - he'd sometimes try to sound overly-casual when he was tense. In what other scenario would this man say 'What's up'? None, that's what.

How do you word this? It's a serious accusation, especially for him and you would have to handle this conversation with a level of maturity and levelheadedness that you simply did not possess.

"It has..." Be vague, try to sound like a politician, "...come to my attention that you've been doing something..." something what? Weird? You can't say that! "...unusual."

His silence was deadly.

It felt like walking through a war-zone - the risk of stepping on a landmine was perhaps worse than actually triggering one.

"So..." deep breath in, "...my lingerie has been steadily disappearing and -"

"You have no proof." his voice was so steady that if you didn't know any better you'd have believed him.

It truly infuriated you.

So you pull your trump card out.

"Baby, I found this in your pocket." the moment his eyes land on the pair of blue panties, his face blanks. The facade has dropped, he's been caught, the jig was UP!

But, to be fair, you had to hear him out. It was only fair.

"So, what I wanna know... is why."

Coz it's a fetish, that's why. That may become a problem at some point.

It seemed to dawn on him that he had no way out. His eyes, that had been hyperfocused on you, now landed into the concrete plates of the floor.

"Because..." omg, omg, omg, please don't be weird... "I just wanted to prove to myself you were real." what the genuine fuck?

"What?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

"Pffff... Ha ha ha!" the immediate relief of his response fell onto you like cool refreshing air, and that developed into fits of laughter.

What a sweet way to realize your man cherishes you, when you thought he was a fetishist.

"Oh, my! THANK GOD!" when the giggles finally settled, and you wiped your eyes free of tears, you noticed that his face didn't hold the relief and joy that yours did - he just looked confused.

"You seem shocked." he was so adorably confused. He didn't know that underwear fetish was a thing?

"Baby, I thought you were a fetishist! I thought we're gonna have to have a conversation about trophies!"

"Ha!" and there it was! The laughter returning back to his face, in that wide charming smile you fell in love with!

"But seriously though, gimmie back my lingerie, this shit is expensive."

.

.

tagsgsgsgs

@shadow-ninjas @exovapor @memes-in-a-half-shell @turtle-babe83 @tmntspidergirl @mikeyshulagirl​ @mysticboombox​ @remmushound​ @forerunnertracer

[moxfirefly]

Omg can I pleaseeee request number 27 “Stop holding back I’m not going to break” with Raph? It just feels like it Belongs to Raphael and his s/o you know what I’m saying? lmfao

*nodding* oh you know it friend.

*cracks knuckles*

Tagging @rainbowflames who also asked for the same prompt with Raph as well!

Rated Explicit (18+ only)

Getting with Raphael had been one of those incredible moments of your life. The chemistry was there, impecable and ever growing. He just did it for you, his personally meshed with yours to near perfection.

Even for a mutant terrapin living in the sewers and ninja training. Loves funny that way you figured, of course the love of your life wouldn’t be story book like.

Frankly you loved it.

There were still hiccups just like any normal relationship, even for abnormal partners. His temper could be an issue, his hot headed demeanor attracting problems. Mind you Raph never was angry around you, external equations were. Nothing you couldn’t work around and provide some sage counseling, you weren’t a saint yourself.

There was a small hitch though. A teeny little blurb that you hadn’t quite gotten around to talking about with him. Not for wanting of course, but Raph could take things a little too personally. That coupled with his already laundry list of personal issues, it could be taken in a wrong fashion.

Still you wanted to address it, in the end it could change the game for the two of you. Open up new doors for more experiences.

You see, you weren’t too keen on being soft in certain activities. You preferred a rougher touch, a little more friction and pressure to get you going.

In less savory ways of saying, you wanted to be fucked.

And it wasn’t to say that Raph was bad in the sack, all the contrary. He got the job done and fabulously but you could literally feel him holding back a lot more than he necessarily would like to. You were priceless porcelain for him, the second you flinched or made any type of sound alluding to pain, he’d stop and check on you. Very much appreciated and welcomed but it didn’t exactly mean you couldn’t take it, or that you didn’t want it to continue as so.

You huffed, your knees burned as you moved on top of him, hips swaying as you placed both hands on his plastron. Those massive hands of his which you’d often fantasized about, gently ran up your thighs before kneading at the flesh of your rear.

“Mhm, Raph?” You swallowed, eyes fluttering open as you rolled and felt a spot be hit. His hands rested on your rear but his gaze found yours, he waited for you to continue. “Want it harder” Your voice was lulled bu the pleasure but the itch wasn’t being scratched just yet. Raph lifted his hips a little more, held you with a somewhat lax but firm grip and thrusted up. It was the level he’d opted for whenever you asked for ‘harder’ and while good, you needed just a little more.

You leaned down and kissed him in that way that always made him growl. He felt hazy when you stopped, drunk on you.

“Raph, I want you to be as rough as you possibly can with me” You spoke seriously, halting his movements. He was dumbfounded, past the point of even knowing what the English language was but he raised a brow ridge. “I kinda am” He caressed your arms. You shook your head grabbing his hands and placing them at your breasts. “No, I mean like rougher then you would normally do so” You kissed his palm, grazing your teeth on the inside of his wrist.

Raphael swallowed.

‘Rougher’

For the red brute his strength was an advantage in fighting, but it didn’t go unnoticed that he could cause a bit of damage. He’d learned to be gentler when need be, much more now that he was with you.

You, with your dainty limbs and soft easily breakable skin. Sure you had meat on your bones and he loves to palm and squeeze you but he never went further than that. Yet here you were looking absolutely ready to be ravished by everything he had to offer. Raphael took a deep breath and sat up with you still joined to him, you wrapped your around his neck and hit your lip.

Raph’s strong hand spanked your rear, the initial hit startled you. The burn making you hiss and close your eyes. “Better?” Raphael’s deep voice vibrates against your throat. You shook your head, he growled.

His hand came down again, this time the burn spread, the ghosting touch it left behind making you cling to him as you shivered. “Well?” He panted, the two hits had made you clenched around his stiff member, he found himself enjoying that a little more than he expected.

“Stop holding back, I’m not going to break” You huffed out against his cheek with demand, nails digging into his biceps. Raph growled, hand smacking down with more force that he would ever allow, your choked gasp almost set him into panic. Just as he was about ask if you were alright you moaned. “God just like that, that hard, right now please!” You pulled him and he followed, setting you down on the bed beneath him.

The initial thrust pushed you up three inches up on the bed, your hands flew to the head board with a long moan. The vibrating noises he made picked up, deeper and more continuous. What Raphael felt was imposible to place into words, he just knew he needed to do it again. To pound into you and have you make those noises again. “Fuck-baby!” He thrusted, long and deep strokes making you nearly scream.

The sounds of skin slapping filled the room coupled with your continuous moaning. Raphael held himself up by his fists, hips moving rapidly, he was enraptured by your state. Your skin covered in perspiration, breast moving with each hard hit he delivered, your face contorted in pure escatsy. You lifted your legas, wrapping them as best you could around his waist, the corner of his shell dug into your calves. Raphael clutched your waist instead, holding you by your rear and pressing one hand down on your navel. That very sensation made your eyes shot open with a high pitched moan. Whatever he had done to produce that he definitely put it into memory for next time.

Bed creaking and head board smacking, Raph could feel his own release approaching. “Come on baby that’s it, ya wanted it hard now cum hard for me” He spoke through gritted teeth. You began to tense, legs trembling as your orgasm hit you. You wailed his name along with a string of ‘fuck fuck yes yes.’

Raphael buried himself in you with one final thrust and growl, emptying himself. It felt eternal, each spurt making him shake as he held onto you tightly. He shuddered once more, eyes fluttering open to see your heaving chest and grinning face.

“G-Good?” You asked, voice hoarse. Raph could barely make a word and opted for a slow nod. You chuckled breathlessly and patted his plastron. “Told you I could handle it” You smiled tiredly, even if you knew full well walking tomorrow would not be an option.

Raphael pulled out slowly, not so delicately falling next to you. He pulled you close and nuzzled you.

[weekend-whip]

What would everyone’s grades look like? I’d assume Cole is struggling a bit since he took a lot of advanced classes with Zane, but what about the others?

From Best to Worst-

Jay: The guy that gets good grades without studying, picks up on topics without ever really knowing why + being unable to explain his process to other people to help them. Normally a straight A student but ninja activities tend to mess with his average (hence why he's always doing make up work when he can) and he struggles a bit with chemistry just due to the sheer amount of information within it (but Nya is good at making it easier for him to understand/remember).

Nya/Zane: Always studying whenever possible and putting in an over-amount of effort to maintain their grades. Zane has one or two classes where he tends to fall short due to different interpretations of the subject/his lacking people skills, while Nya's grades drop when she struggles to understand the content on the first try and thus gives up, but both of them remain top of their classes. Mostly A's and high marks but with a B or two.

Lloyd: Not as effortlessly smart as Jay nor a sucker for studying like Nya or Zane, but still pretty brilliant when he actually applies himself. He likes learning, he just doesn't always like the way he's taught, which leads to some struggles...especially when his teachers don't particularly like him. Would have roughly the same grades as Nya and Zane if his teachers weren't especially hard on him for being...him.

Jesse: Slightly above average, but still pretty average, does well enough to not fail at least. Excels more in the expressive, artsy classes than the more information-based analytical ones (inverse to his sister), but has the grades you would expect from the average teenager.

Kai: Slightly under average, but still pretty average. His grades are all over the place: he has really high marks in half his classes (Accounting, Metal Shop, Economics) while the other half are abysmal (Language, Social Studies, whatever he has for Science) and require him to be tutored every now and then (if he doesn't manage to sweet talk Jay into doing his homework).

Olivia: Doesn't take school too seriously, as she has far more ""important"" things to do; the kid that rarely ever finishes an assignment or homework properly but still somehow manages to do well on the tests/exams. Is not failing, but those are NOT grades you'd want to take home on a report card.

Cole: Only managed to squeak into (Zane's) advanced classes because passing them would guarantee he'd graduate; otherwise literally could not care less about school or anything that comes with it. The kid who could do pretty well if they wanted to, but is just so done with the system and dealing with too much outside pressure that they just don't want to anymore. Would be on the same level as Lloyd if he tackled school the way he approaches being a ninja. Is just barely getting by with his grades, mainly due to the help of Zane.

[kimbureh]

geeking out about 3D anime

okay I *need* to talk to you about the anime movie BLAME! (2017). I didn’t expect it, but I immensly enjoyed the movie.

But let’s start at the beginning. I’ve read the manga back in the aughts, and even next to other popular cyberpunk/dystopian/dark manga, BLAME was so *different*.

Barely any words written on the pages, filled with immensly detailed drawings of megastructures that trap the sparse people inside; no horizon is visible, just structures over structures all around, piling up so high, neither ground nor sky are visible. Killy is a lone wanderer, ascending the structure-- A human being as detached from nature as can be.

later I learned how this unique look came to be; manga artist Tsutomu Nihei, and creator of BLAME, had been a student of architecture before he became a manga artist.

Accordingly, many of the panels were architectural in nature; they were “ma”, as panels without words are called, or “aida” which means “inbetween”. It’s a style of panel that isn’t common in western comic traditions, but is widely used in the Japanese way of storytelling: scenes that set the ‘vibe’, so to speak, let an emotion linger.

Not all panels shine like the ones above; you could tell the young mangaka was struggling with action scenes, which are plentiful, and especially faces. Both showed the effort with which they were brought into existence.

The action scenes sometimes are stiff, the faces skewed. They didn’t come easy to Tsutomu Nihei, although he immensly improved on that within the span of the 10 volumes BLAME ran. With time, however, I became fond of this peculiarity.

The world of BLAME is cruel and lonely; rarely does the lone wanderer Killy meet other humans, and even then, the connection is usually only very brief, be it because they die, Killy leaves, or the human turns out to be a machine in disguise who is out to kill every human it encounters. Maybe I’m sugarcoating things that needn’t be, but it made total sense for me that depicting those sparse humans would demand visible effort from the artist.

You can maybe now imagine my.... surprise when I saw the character design of the movie in 2017

anime eyes! so round and smooth! To me, it betrayed the rough and rugged style of the manga, I felt like I could re-watch K-On instead if that’s the style they were trying to sell me. Also, the Berserk movies had already ruined 3D animes for me, and I didn’t want to watch anything that didn’t have hand drawn anime characters anymore. Oh how foolish of me. We get back to that.

So, what changed my mind about watching BLAME? Glad that you asked cuz I cannot and will not stop talking about BATMAN NINJA. Seriously tho, do yourself the favor and watch Batman Ninja if you want to see a movie that is exactly as unhinged as it claims to be, and poses the perfect marriage between traditional Japanese art styles and modern 3D animation. Batman, several Robins, and a whole lot villains get teleported to feudal Japan, what more can I say. Prepare for some stunning views and increasing madnESS THAT WILL NEVER STOP AAAHH. Honestly, it’s a blast. I rewatch it yearly.

pease notice the traditional wave pattern (seigaiha) in the sky, which you usually find on Japanese fabrics, as well as the dry ink stroke look in the shadows of the characters. Here is another look:

first, a seigaiha pattern in the sky; then, Batman in closeup to showcase the rough ink brush strokes for shadows; lastly, Batman in his full armor cuz it’s dope.

ANYWAY. Watch Batman Ninja, let’s get back to BLAME. So, my faith in 3D anime was restored. It still took me a while to watch the BLAME movie, but I can only recommend it. I will probably make a couple more posts to properly geek out about it, but it’s on Netflix, it has some gorgeous shots that made me want to pause the film and gawk at them, and despite the low frame rate at times, when it goes all in, it goes all in and has hands down some stunning animation.

I absolutely LOVE that they decided to make the backgrounds entirely hand painted. Most of the time the background has no 3D whatsoever, or if there’s some, it is so subtly hidden that I didn’t notice it.

The 3D characters mostly blend well into the painted backgrounds, and I love the scratches on helmet and gear that are reminiscent of the rough ink drawings of the manga. Looking back, I cannot understand why I looked at the character designs and was disappointed. Scroll up and look at the face of the girl, she is a 3D model, no 2D. There are some gorgeous shots where you can’t tell that they’re 3D models at all, but I will keep those for a post where I’ll post spoilers. Can’t wait to get to that!

[bitch-for-bo]

Aone Takanobu is the best thing to ever happen to you (chubby reader)

All of my works are also available on AO3, under the name idkyo. I write Haikyuu x chubby reader nsfw for chubby simps like myself. If you have any other fics or head-cannons that you’d like to see between a character and chubby reader, lmk!

ENJOY!!!

Also, ABSOLUTELY NO MINORS ALLOWED!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY

“Taka” you breathed out, feeling his hands snake around your waist as he crawled in the bed to join you. You must’ve been sleeping when he came in the door. In fact, you hadn’t even heard him take a shower or change out of his work clothes. The only reason you knew he had was the clean smell of soap wafting into your nose as he spooned his body around yours. It didn’t surprise you that you hadn’t heard him come in or change his clothes though, ever since you’d met him he’d been more on the quiet side. Not only personality wise though, you swore that he was some sort of ninja sometimes, being able to sneak up on you as you made dinner or as the two of you grocery shopped. It was crazy how such a big guy like Takanobu was quiet as a mouse.

“My love.” He sighed, his low voice barely audible as he let out a content hum, his head burying itself in your neck.

You blushed at the pet name, the only name that Taka ever addressed you as. In fact, you could barely remember the last time that he’d used your real name when speaking to you. The name never failed to fill you with warmth and love. Even when he made love to you, there were no ‘baby’s or ‘princess’s, there was only ‘my love’ and something about the consistency of the use of the endearment made you lose it each time without fail.

There was just something so comforting about Takanobu Aone. Of course, you had already known that seeing as you had been dating him for almost 4 years now. He had been comforting when you first met him, and over the last four years, nothing had changed. If anything, Taka’s presence had become even more comforting as he had grown comfortable around you.

You vividly remembered the first day that you had met him, you were the assigned architect to the site that he was working on. You had shown up, dressed in casual office clothes, a flattering pair of high waisted jeans, with an emerald green button-down blouse. Apparently, you had caught Taka’s eye that first day, and according to him, he had fallen in love with you right in that spot.

You suppose that was the first day that Takanobu utilized his ninja skills against you because you could only remember meeting him and seeing him once, but he swore that he had lingered by you all day, unable to focus fully on his work as you commanded attention around the site.

It took Taka weeks to work up the nerve to ask you out, the only reason he finally did was that his friends had seen how hopelessly infatuated with you he was and tricked him into believing that you would be leaving the project. In a panic, he stayed late at the site just to catch you at the door to ask you to go on a walk with him in the park that Sunday.

You accepted, surprising him. You had no clue why he was surprised, he was incredibly handsome and not to mention strong and polite. When you asked him about his surprised expression, he explained that people were usually afraid of him and he was a bit surprised when you accepted his offer without so much as a look of hesitation.

That Sunday, he met you at a local park and surprised you with a large picnic. He even brought you a small plush teddy bear that he’d seen in the window of a shop on his way to the park. As soon as the blush had danced over his face as his large hands held out the small toy for you to accept, you knew that your heart was his.

The rest was history, every day since then Taka had continuously proved to you that he was the best thing to ever happen to you. You remembered the first time that he hugged you, wrapping his strong arms around you as if you were the most delicate thing on the earth. You only laughed and insisted that he could hold you tighter, that you weren’t a small woman, that you wouldn’t break. Since then, Aone had never held back when holding you. Always holding you close, always whispering to you how much he loved you and your soft form.

Before Taka, you had always been slightly self-conscious about your body. Unsatisfied with the way that your thighs shook and how you didn’t possess a flat stomach or smooth back. But Takanobu insisted that he loved you even more because of your size and never failed to make you believe that you were beautiful. He would massage your thighs as you cuddled, telling you how soft they were and how lucky he was that they belonged to only him. He would buy you the raciest lingerie and stubbornly insist that you wore it for him as the two of you cooked dinner together before he took you back to your bedroom and made love to you.

Despite you having told Taka more than 100 times that he didn’t have to be so cautious with you seeing as you were taller and fuller than most women, he never ceased to be anything but soft with you in bed. Always asking you what felt good, asking you what you wanted him to do to you. He was always gentle as he took you, that being said, even with him being gentle all the time. The man was so big that ‘gentle’ still possessed enough power to completely wreck you inside and out.

“How was your day?” You asked, turning around in his arms to look into his eyes. He stared at you like you were his world, brushing the hair out of your face as he hummed out an ‘it was good’

“I missed you,” He said, tightening his arms around your waist and pulling your body flush with his as he placed gentle kisses in the crook of your neck.

“Taka.” You moaned quietly, feeling the unmistakable outline of his dick on your thigh. You weren’t gonna lie. You wanted him too. It had been a long stressful day at work for you and as soon as you had gotten home you’d wanted nothing more than to be filled and fucked by your boyfriend. Unfortunately, Takanobu had been working late, stuck at the construction site which was at least 1 hour away from your apartment. So you were forced to make dinner and eat it alone, making sure to leave plenty for your boyfriend, who would without a doubt, be starving after a long day of physical labor.

“Yes, my love?” He asked, his lips never leaving your skin as he slowly kissed from your neck down to your collarbone, sucking softly on the area as your body arched up into his. His hands were still wrapped around your waist, trapping you against his large body. The only thing you could do was loop one of your arms around Taka’s broad shoulders and the other around the back of his head, pulling him impossibly closer to you.

“Fuck me please…” you moaned. Your heart clenched as you felt his smile against your neck, his hands shifting from their position on your waist, down to caress your hips. Taka said nothing as he obediently began to undress, undoing the clothes that he had just put on after his shower. After undressing he leaned back down, finally connecting his lips with yours.

You sighed happily into the kiss, your heart filled at the light touch of his slightly chapped lips against yours. He took his time with it, teasing you as his touch dipped in and out of your mouth, never long enough for you to take control as it danced across yours. Not that you could maintain control when you got it, physically, Taka was always the one in control. He wanted you to always feel protected and dominating you in the bedroom was one of his ways of expressing that. Not that you minded, you knew that you were truly the one in control, he was at your service, doing any and everything to please you.

“Taka…” you whined, pressing your hips up against his, eliciting a deep groan from his chest. His hands rubbed against your sides as they made their way down to the hem of your shirt. You had put on one of Taka’s t-shirts, knowing that it made him happy to see you in his clothes.

You felt Taka’s hand slip under the hem of the shirt, stilling as he realized that you weren’t wearing panties. Another low groan vibrated through his chest as he looked up at you with curiosity in his eyes.

“I wanted to be ready for you,” you whispered, barely able to hold in a giggle at the expression of surprise on Taka’s face. He nodded. His eyes left yours, dragging down your figure leaving you feeling hot as they carved a trail from your breasts to your naval.

“I see.” He murmured, his long fingers slaying across the expanse of your upper thighs. His face was level with your pussy and you could feel his hot breath brushing across the exposed flesh, making your head spin. After four years, you still have no clue how the simplest things he did still drove you crazier than a teen on prom night.

Without another word, his mouth attached itself to your clit. You cried out at the feeling of his tongue flicking out across the sensitive bud as his tongue began to slowly dip in and out of you.

“Fuck!” You moaned, your hands gripping the bedsheets beside you as your boyfriend ate you out, passionate and soft at the same time. You could feel yourself getting wetter and wetter at his touch.

What Taka didn’t know, was that you had already tried to touch yourself earlier that night. You had managed to get yourself off, but it had still left you very unsatisfied. No orgasm that you gave yourself could ever compare with one given to you by Takanobu. That being said, your body was still warm and since you had already climaxed once that night, you could feel your next one approaching faster than usual.

“Taka… give me your cock please.” You begged, your hands coming down to wrap around his biceps, attempting (and failing) to drag his body up yours so that you could kiss him.

Taka obeyed, crawling up your lips and capturing them with his own. You could taste yourself on him, turning you on even more. You reached down to slip your hand into his boxers, pulling away from his kiss to moan at the sheer size of his cock in your hand. He groaned as your wrist quickly twisted around the hot flesh. He could feel the impatience in your movements and even though he usually enjoyed taking his time with you, bringing you to climax slowly as you cried his name and begged for him to let you come, tonight he was so eager himself, he couldn’t find it within himself to take it slow.

“Are you ready my love?” He asked, not even bothering to take his boxers off, he wanted to fuck you so badly that he merely slipped his thick cock through the slot in the front. He knew that he’d have to change his boxers after seeing as they were already drenched with your juices, despite only being pressed up against your pussy for seconds, but he didn’t care. You and your pleasure were the only things on his mind.

You nodded desperately, your bottom lip clenched between your teeth as your stomach knotted in anticipation.

Taka guided his cock to your core, grunting as the swollen head slipped through the ridiculous amount of slick covering the folds of your heat. He began to press himself into you, having to close his eyes and still himself every other second to keep in control as you adjusted to the sheer size of his cock.

“Fuuuck Taka…” you whined, your voice high and dripping pathetically with arousal, “I love your cock so much….. so fucking big.”

After another few seconds, Taka was fully in you. The tip of his cock was dangerously close to your cervix and your walls were deliciously stretched around his length. He slowly began to rock in and out, his hands never easing their grip on your thighs as small grunts escaped his lips.

You could feel yourself already shaking with pleasure. Your mind was completely blank, the only thing you could focus on was how badly you wanted him to pound into you, make you his.

As if Takanobu could hear your thoughts, his thrusts began to pick up in speed. His weight shifting on the bed to gain more leveraging in holding your thighs open for himself.

“Faster Taka!” You cried, feeling his hot cock stretch and drag inside of your dripping cunt. You could feel your end approaching much faster than expected, and you wanted to make sure that Taka was just as taken care of as you were.

Taka’s hips quickened further, snapping with quick shallow thrusts that left you gasping for breath.

The room was filled with your moans mixed with Taka’s grunts. Your mouth couldn’t even form words. Were as usual you’d be telling him how good he felt inside you, how big he was, now you couldn’t even form a sentence. All that was coming out of your mouth was unintelligible babbling, begging him to fuck you harder.

“Fuuuck!” you squeaked, your hips jumping and your back arching off of the bed as the head of Taka’s cock hit directly into your g-spot. Takanobu just grunted and drove his thrusts harder into that spot, making you see stars as his cock pounded in you at an unrelenting pace.

“I’m close Taka.” You gasped, tears of pleasure welling in your eyes as his fingers danced across your clit, rubbing small circles around it as his dick continued its merciless onslaught on your insides.

Taka’s lips wrapped around your left nipple, massaging the bud with his tongue. You were almost falling off of the cliff, there was only one thing missing….

“Come for me, my Love” Taka whispered, pushing you off into an intense orgasm.

“Taka!” You cried, your body beginning to shake as your climax took over your whole body, causing your pussy to clench around Taka’s cock that was still pounding into you.

“Y/N…..” Taka groaned, his dick beginning to spasm and twitch inside of you, spilling his hot seed into you. Your pussy milked him as you both rode out your highs, your lips locked as your bodies slowly came back down. As you both calmed down, Taka pulled out of you, a blush gracing his face at the wet ‘pop’. You giggled at him, moaning and keening at the feeling of his hot cum dripping down your thighs.

Without a word, he climbed out of the bed. He picked you up bridal style and carried you to the bathroom to care for you.

You took turns cleaning each other off. Giving Takanobu kisses on his blushing cheeks as you cleaned him and giggling as he kissed yours when he cleaned you. After you were both in fresh clothes with you wrapped up in his arms, you looked up at him.

“I love you Takanobu.” You hummed, your chin resting contently on his strong chest. He smiled back down at you, his large fingers tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear. He didn’t say it back, but you knew from the way that he held you, that he loved you. You could feel every ounce of love he poured into you as he carried you back to your shared bed. He wrapped his body around yours again, his head resting on your chest as he hugged your body tightly. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, your fingers unconsciously running through his short blonde hair. Before long you could feel his breathing steady, and you knew that he had fallen asleep. You closed your eyes as well, welcoming the thought of rest as you laid with Taka. As you drifted off to sleep, you couldn’t help but thank the universe that you had met Taka.

He really was the best thing that had ever happened to you.

[an-ambivalent]

Sukuna x Uchiha! Reader

A/N: This is purely for my own self-indulgent purposes -- expanding on this scenario I was daydreaming about. You are invited along to read about my cringefest scenario but only I’m allowed to call it cringe. 

Headcanon synopsis: You are amidst fighting Kabuto with Sasuke and Itachi in the Fourth Great Ninja War when the strangest thing happens. Between struggling to stay conscious from the poison that’s slowly eating you alive to trying to focus on the lengthy explanations of never-heard-before jutsus’ between the two emo brothers, the clash of such jutsus teleports you to another world during another fight. There, the line between enemies and comrades is nonexistent. However, one thing is certain: apparently you wear the same face as of a thousand-years-old demon’s deceased lover. 

For clarification, you are not related to Sasuke and Itachi because that would mean this “reader” insert has fixed looks of black hair and black eyes. You are from the same clan with abilities like the Sharingan and affiliation to fire chakra nature. But fill in your blanks of whatever you want to look like. 

Warnings: This has very minor spoilers about the JJK manga, specifically Sukuna’s abilities. So read at your own risk. It’s just a bunch of OP assholes trying to one up each other ig :P 

                                                          ~***~ 

The rustic smell of blood is present profoundly in the atmosphere. The heavy rain that is suddenly drenching you, and increasing the heaviness and wetness of your clothes and making them stick disgustingly to your grime skin, does nothing to waft away the awful smell. It washes off some of the dried blood from minor cuts and other injuries you had acquired during your fight with Kabuto, triggering your pain receptors in response and causing stinging and burning of pain. But for someone like you who has already been traumatised from the blood shed you have experienced as a ninja, the revolting smell of blood and the burning pain is nothing new. However, the thing that is new is the rain. It had abruptly replaced the mid-day sun that shone horribly bright. During the war, the clear and sunny weather felt like it was nature’s way to laugh at everyone’s face when they were fighting and barely hanging onto their life. The sudden darkness of the night and the open space you find yourself in, instead of the dark cave you were in just mere moments ago, has your shoulders becoming tensed and your blood flow and heart-beat going faster. 

Instantly, your eyes are their notorious deep red colour presented with three black tomes. Your refined shinobi instincts kick in, and you catch the lean and spikey black-haired male that was thrown your way. There is blood trickling down his mouth, and as you held him momentarily, it was easy to deduce that some of his ribcages and other bones were broken, in addition to more serious injuries. Like how milliseconds decisions were required as a shinobi because they determined life or death,  the abrupt situation you were thrown into also required it. You carelessly threw him aside as a half-naked pink-haired teen with black markings on his skin, a hole in his chest and blood dripping down his abdomen charged at you. 

He aimed a vicious and strong punch to your face, which you avoided by side-stepping. When he repeated the gesture with his other arm, you blocked it with your forearm, before twisting your body at an angle, and delivering a strong kick to his stomach and sending him flying away. Using the new created distance to your advantage, you quickly made the necessary hand-signs with practiced ease, before taking a deep breath in. 

“Fire Style: Great Fire Dragon Jutsu,”  You exclaimed, as you exhaled a vicious and high temperature dragon head-shaped flame towards your attacker. 

Sukuna, currently in possession of Itadori’s body, was internally questioning whether the very few hits that Megumi had landed previously had damaged his brain because there was absolutely no way he had seen her face. There was absolutely no way in hell that a mere human would be strong enough to land a painful kick on him. Evidently, the thought that he had seen her face had made him falter in his concentration so it was probably a lucky hit. But the giant dragon fireball that was currently heading towards his way was not going to be a lucky or a pleasant hit, if he did not counter or dodge it. Attacks with fire meant play-time for Sukuna. So, he simply waited until your attack was mere inches away from him, before he easily manipulated the flames and extinguished them. Then, without any current motivation for more fighting, he started to walk towards you. 

Your eyes widened when you saw your jutsu disappear in thin air. Then, when you saw the pink-haired male began walking towards you nonchalantly, your hand automatically went to your back and you unsheathed your sword slightly. Cracks of lightning sparked through it. You stayed grounded on your fighting stance and narrowed your eyes at him, ready to strike should he attack. 

The intense cold expression you wore on your face with her familiar features was so strange to see; and usually, Sukuna enjoyed fighting and taunting seemingly stuck-up people like you. Overpowering such humans before burning them to their demise -- it was such a great way to pass his time. But right now, right now, he was infuriated. He was surprised, and somewhere deep down in his dead demonic heart, was a small sense of longing and hope to regain what used to be. 

His red magenta eyes dug through you in a fierce glare as he stopped just a small distance in front of you. 

“Oi, who are you?” 

The corner of your lips twitched up into a smirk. 

“It’s customary to introduce yourself before asking for someone else’s name. Surely, you have that much manners?” 

Your reply evoked an eyebrow twitch from Sukuna. 

“You’re unnecessarily cocky, aren’t you? If you knew who I was, you would know what was good for you. It’s no wonder it’s so tempting to kill you humans.” He remarked easily, and took a step closer towards you. 

You raised an eyebrow in question. “Me, a human? You’re talking as if you aren’t one.” 

His lips stretched into a wide grin. “Huh, so you can see me and you’re attacking me, seemingly a fellow human without mercy and not actually knowing who I am or what’s going on?” 

It was something about the way he was questioning and taunting you like you were a three-years-old kid that made you glare at him. But, there were no hints of deception or lies in his words. And the nagging feeling you felt churning in the pit of your stomach made you know that something was seriously wrong. 

“So what are you then, a monster? That’s quite subjective though isn’t it; I kill another to protect myself or my loved one, I’m a human in their eyes. The loved ones of the one I killed in order to protect myself, I’m a monster in their eyes. There’s no difference. Although, why I’m suddenly here and not where I am meant to be... maybe only you can answer that. And if you know who I am, you would know what’s good for you. Answer me or you will regret even having the nerve to look in my eyes.” You warned, and just then, the black tomes in your crimson irises started spinning. 

Your cold threats, your body bent in the certain angle it was, ready and just waiting to kill something, and the power radiating off of you -- especially your brilliant blood eyes, it sent unanticipated shivers down Sukuna’s spine. His grin widened until his canine were visible, and just before he could respond, Megumi’s shouts were heard from the distance, interrupting his intense stare off with you. 

“What the hell are you doing?! Get out here civilian before he kills you!” 

Your gaze switched to him and the moment your cold red eyes met Megumi’s eyes, they widened in surprise. Then, finally, the poison that was still in your bloodstream sent sharp waves of pain to your head, causing you to wince and hiss out in pain. This was not missed by the two men around you, especially Sukuna, who was watching you like a hawk. 

He smirked. “Reaching your human limits already?” 

You scoffed. “Hardly. But looks like our chat will need to end here.” You responded easily. Then, with a single hand-sign and your Sharingan tomes spinning more fiercely, you triggered a low-level genjutsu. Both males, who did not know better than to not look into your eyes, were easily swept into it. It was solely for a moment; however, that moment was enough time that when the world around them stopped spinning, there was not even a single clue of you ever being there was even left. 

[breathlessmorro]

*emerging from the depths of hiatus to get a sip of that destiNY* oo how about college AU shenanigans? i'm not good at prompts sorry >.<

You ask - you shall receive!

Synopsis - For years, Morro has been forced to put up with Kai's annoying antics in class, leaving him with a bad permanent record and even worse temper. However, things aren't exactly how they appear.

College Isn't Easy, They Said.

Morro grinded his teeth together as he fought to keep quiet, diligently taking his notes and trying to remember what his professor was saying. His handwriting may have been more harsh than it usually was, but at least he was managing to stay calm and collected. Already, he had half of Professor Chen's lecture condensed into clear and concise notes that could make a PowerPoint Presentation beam with pride. Not as easy a task as it might seem with the idiot next to him. 

Kai Smith - as always - had his earbuds in and was completely ignoring the lesson. Not that the earbuds did much to silence the irritatingly loud and obnoxious music blaring from the mini-speakers. In fact, Morro often wondered if Kai had such a big listening problem because of the volume in the first place. The aggressive tempo of drums and guitar were grating on Morro's nerves every single day, and he had to fight to keep his cool. He wasn't even sure why Kai was taking a psychology class in the first place when his major wasn't even related to it. It seemed Kai's presence served no purpose other than to annoy; and annoy it did. 

Things had been like this for years now. Morro would find out he had a class with Kai, and of course was forced to sit next to him. Showing even an ounce of distaste meant that Kai would take it as an invitation to try and distract Morro in any way possible. Whether it be tapping a pencil, playing footsie, or like now, listening to deafening metal music that he didn't even like, Kai was determined to get Morro in trouble. He took every single opportunity to try and make him look bad. The amount of times where he succeeded didn't matter, only that Morro's hatred for the smug grin that followed worsened with every passing day. 

This year, Morro had sworn it wasn't going to happen. Freshmen in college did not shout at their classmates in the middle of a lecture, and Morro couldn't afford to look bad in front of the faculty here. Not while his father was the dean of the university. 

So once again, he gathered his steely resolve, and brought his attention back to Chen's lecture about Elemental Envy, a condition where a person became obsessed with elemental powers to the point of violence. An ironic subject for him to teach about, Morro had once thought. Though any logical thinking had left him once he'd seen Kai make a beeline for him that morning. It had of course returned with the lecture regarding jealousy over a certain elemental ability leading some to aggression. 

Sensing that Morro was gaining some moral high ground, Kai decided that right then was an appropriate moment to lean over and whisper to him. 

"Sound like someone we know?" he snickered, causing Morro to shoot a nasty glare at him before turning back to his notes.

Clearly unsatisfied with the reaction, he tried again. 

"C'mon, that was funny." Morro didn't think it was. "Lighten up."

Morro felt his eyebrow twitch. He was fairly certain that meant he was stressed. 

He counted the seconds of sweet and glorious silence before he could hear Kai scoot closer again. Without the earbud in his ear, the music was slightly louder than before. Not that it was catching Chen's attention yet of course. 

He made it five seconds even. "Think there's some kind of green ninja envy?"

Oh. Low blow. 

"You're one to talk," Morro hissed at him, keeping his eyes firmly on his notes. It wasn't lashing out if it was just one statement, he reasoned with himself. "You were obsessed at one point too."

He quickly cursed himself for humoring Kai's jab once he saw the beaming grin across his face. On a good day, that kind of comment would have ticked Kai off to where he would be the one to cause a disturbance, but it seemed Kai came to class armed with patience today. A rare feat. Morro vaguely considered congratulating him. 

Shrugging nonchalantly, Kai leaned back in his seat. "At least I didn't bully my own cousin." Of course, this argument again. 

"Can't you leave it alone?" Morro bit back, glancing in Kai's direction before looking back to his notes. "That was in high school. I don't even-"

"What was that, Morro?" Ah shit. "Do you have something you want to share?"

Chen's high-pitched voice was tolerable when it wasn't directed at anyone specific, but the way Chen's said someone's name made it a thousand times more irritating. Seriously, did he just hate his students or something? Why even become a professor? 

Meeting his eyes, Morro shook his head, leaning back into his seat. "No, sorry," he answered. "Just thinking out loud."

Chen raised a brow at the excuse. Clearly he hadn't bought it. Especially not when Kai had already scooted back into his own seat, pretending to be writing his own notes. 

What a guy. 

"Well keep the thinking to a minimum. Others would like peace and quiet."

No fucking shit, Morro thought to himself as he nodded. One Chen's back was turned, he glared at Kai again, before looking to see how many notes he'd missed. 

Seriously, this couldn't be allowed to go on much longer. Morro had to change classes. 

***

"Seriously?! There's no other -"

"If you want to stay in psychology, that is the only available class."

"But he's -"

"In the same study program as you are."

"Ugh!" Morro slumped in his seat, covering his face with his hands. He'd thought complaining to Wu would be enough to convince him to get out of the class, but apparently none of Chen's other periods had room for another elemental master. The Elemental Study Program was created for elemental masters across Ninjago who wished to learn more about their abilities. It offered an advanced learning course for those enlisted, and also kept them in classes together. Which meant there was also a limit on how many were placed in a class to, "keep other students safe." As if they were a threat. The program had become a lot less separate from other students once When had taken over, but there was still a lot to be improved on. 

Wu gave Morro a sympathetic look before clearing his throat. "I understand why you have your reservations about Kai, but surely he's not distracting you too much." Morro pulled his hands away from his eyes to see Wu typing something on his computer. Leaning over the desk to see what it was, he narrowed his brows when he noticed his grade book being pulled up on the monitor. "Your grades are as excellent as ever."

Morro huffed as he sat back in his seat, crossing his arms and blowing a strand of hair from his face. "My permanent record isn't," he grumbled. "Any shot I have at a future job could be completely erased once people hear about how, 'disruptive,' and, 'disrespectful,' I am in a formal setting. You don't understand how frustrating it is to have a professor automatically hate you when you haven't even done anything wrong yet."

"You're right, I don't." Wu set his elbows down on the desk, resting his chin on his hands and gazing over Morro thoughtfully. "But have you ever considered asking Kai why he likes to antagonize you?"

"I think it's obvious," Morro scoffed. He averted his eyes from Wu and uncrossed his arms, swallowing hard when he spoke again. "It's because of how I treated Lloyd in high school. I know it wasn't right, but I stopped, didn't I? And I apologized. But Kai just wants to get me in trouble."

Wu hummed, a consideration sound before setting his hands down. "Well if Lloyd has already forgiven, why would Kai continue to seek you out?"

"I don't know, probably because he hates me?"

"Now don't jump to conclusions," Wu chuckled, shaking his fondly at Morro's pout. "How about you ask him yourself? I know your next class isn't for a few hours. Surely you could track him down and confront him."

Morro thought it over. Sure, confronting Kai would give Morro the chance he needed to speak his mind without reprimand, but it could also mean making things worse between them. Morro's relationship with Lloyd was rocky enough as it was, and that was mostly because of how he and Kai were always at each other's throats. He didn't need to make it worse. Then again, he could also find a way to get Kai to stop for good, and his permanent record could have a chance to recover. 

He groaned, dropping his head against the back of the chair before meeting Wu's gaze again. "Fine," he sighed. "I'll try to talk to him. But," he narrowed his eyes at Wu and pointed at him, "don't think it's gonna magically fix things. He's stubborn and an ass."

"That's two things you have in common already." Wu smiled at him. "Now go on, shoo. I have some papers to file and unless you want to help me-"

Morro was already out the door. 

***

He found Kai sitting with two other students in the courtyard, their elements on display for all to see. At first, he wasn't sure who the other two were, before recognizing them as Jay and Nya. Morro didn't talk to Nya that much, but he was all too familiar with his cousin, Jay. Their delightful family reunion hadn't been that delightful, and so they barely spoke to each other. 

Taking a deep breath in through his nose, Morro gathered the remnants of his courage and patience before stepping towards them. He stopped right behind Kai, and cleared his throat to get his attention. 

Kai turned around with a gleeful expression, which quickly morphed into something more smug. "What's up, breezy?"

Morro rolled his eyes, and caught Nya doing the same before he opened his mouth. "Hi. Jay, Nya, can I borrow him for a moment?"

"I dunno," Jay squinted at him. "You gonna bring him back?"

"Only if I want to."

"Ha!" Kai grinned at him, extinguishing the small flame in his hand. "Like you're gonna get the chance. Be back in a sec, guys."

Brushing off his pants, he rose to his feet, meeting Morro's gaze. As always, Kai met his stare with defiance and smugness. Morro hated it, but he had to get this over with sooner or later. His reputation seriously depended on it. His sanity too. Morro gestured for Kai to follow him, and started walking away from the crowded campus grounds. 

"So what's so urgent you just had to pull me away from my friends, huh?" Kai asked as they made their way through the crowd of students. Morro's brow quirked upwards at the laid back question, as if Kai really had no idea why Morro would want to talk to him. 

Exhaling through his nose, Morro rolled his eyes. "What do you think, Kai?" he scoffed at him. "I need you to stop annoying me during class. It's distracting and I can't afford that."

Morro winced as Kai barked out a laugh. "Seriously dude?" The latter shook his head, his entire body shaking with uncontained amusement. "That's it? I thought it was something important, like Wu needed my help with something."

"If he needed your help, why wouldn't he just tell you himself?"

"I don't know," Kai shrugged. "I don't understand anything he does, honestly."

Morro glanced over his shoulder to give Kai a dirty look. "So you think he'd just ask me, when he knows I literally hate everything about you, to tell you about some important mission?"

Again, Kai's shoulders shrugged. "Wouldn't be the weirdest - wait." Kai stopped walking, prompting Morro to stop as well. He turned around, fully prepared to snap at Kai for stopping when he caught his expression. "You hate me?"

Kai's normally mischievous and vibrant brown eyes were suddenly clouded with - well, Morro didn't know what. His smug little grin was gone, and his shoulders had gone completely tense. Any biting comeback Morro could have come up with died on his tongue, and he hesitated before answering. 

"Well, I guess it's a pretty strong word for it, but I don't exactly like you." Morro shifted slightly, suddenly feeling uneasy. "All you do is annoy me and get in trouble. We're not friends, and we don't talk outside of classes or the program."

The uneasy feeling crawled up Morro's throat as Kai's shoulders fell, his eyes downcast and melancholy. "Right. Sorry about that." He rubbed at his arm awkwardly before walking again. "Is that what you wanted to talk about then?"

Taken aback by the sudden change in atmosphere, it took Morro a second before he too started moving. The crowd of students had decreased rapidly, leaving them alone at the edge of campus grounds. He considered Kai's words before answering them, careful not to set him off. 

"Kind of, I guess." He sighed, before shaking his head. "I just want you to stop, okay? I know you're only doing it because of how I used to treat Lloyd, but I'm not like that anymore. We made up and moved on." He met Kai's gaze firmly, ignoring the warning bells that were ringing in the back of his head once he saw the disappointment reflected back at him. "So why didn't you?"

Kai sputtered for a moment, shaking his head. "What? No, I - Okay, sure. That might have been how it started, but I thought that…" He trailed off, awkwardly scratching at the back of his neck and averting his eyes. "Once you apologized, I thought we were just fighting for fun. I didn't know you were still taking it personally."

"Personally?" Morro raised a brow at him. "How could I not? Every single day, it's always, 'remember when you did this?' and just constant jabs from you. What else could it have been?"

"I don't know, maybe - " Kai cut himself off before shaking his head. "No, forget it. I'm sorry, I should have been paying more attention. That's my fault."

"A little bit," Morro deadpanned. 

Kai winced at that, and Morro could tell that it had stung. Maybe he should have been more careful, but Kai was confusing him now, and he didn't like being confused. He stayed quiet as Kai stared into space for a moment, considering leaving when Kai spoke again. 

"Listen; after you and Lloyd made up, I realized I kind of like messing with you," he said softly, crossing his arms and refusing to meet Morro's eyes again. "I mean, you never just let me, so it kind of felt like a fun game. Everything I threw at you, you just matched super easily. I really liked messing with you, and I thought that…"

As Kai trailed off once again, Morro finally caught a glimpse of his face. A bright red blush spread from Kai's nose and cheeks all the way to the tips of his ears. His stance was awkward and nervous, shoulders tense and head down. At first, Morro thought that this was the beginning to a very good apology, but now it was starting to seem like something else entirely. 

Taking a deep breath in, Kai finally met Morro's eyes, with enough conviction in them to make the latter freeze in place. 

"I thought that you liked me too."

Oh. Oh. 

Thinking back to every conversation they'd ever had, yeah. It was easy for Morro to see how Kai had come to that conclusion. All those attempts at getting each other's attention, the games to test each other's patience until one of them snapped. Of course Kai liked him. That was how every guy acted around their crush. Morro couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it sooner. 

Guys were stupid. 

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Morro could see Kai staring at him almost nervously, like he was waiting for someone to shout at him. Clearing his throat, Morro opened his mouth. 

"I…" Very articulate. "Oh. I didn't think of it like that I guess," he shrugged, not really knowing how to respond. "I was so busy getting mad at you, I thought… Well, you know what I thought."

"Yeah," Kai sighed, shaking his head. "I do. I'm sorry, I should have - "

"Wait!" Morro couldn't let Kai finish, not with the way this conversation appeared to be heading. "I never once said that I was against it."

That took Kai by surprise, and it showed. His shoulders dropped, his eyes went wide, and he stared at Morro for a moment before shaking his head. "But you said you hated me!"

"I also said that was a really strong word."

"So you do like me?"

Morro held up his hands. "I didn't say that either," he said, a small smile sneaking its way into his expression. Knowing that Kai had actually been crushing on him this whole wasn't an entirely unpleasant thing, actually. Morro had eyes. He knew Kai was a real piece of work when he wasn't busy being annoying. "But… I don't think I'd be opposed to trying something new."

Kai's grin practically swallowed his face, and Morro could only imagine how sore it must have made his cheeks. "Alright, something new." He hesitantly stepped closer, the blush returning in full force. "I can work with that."

"Good." Morro stepped closer to him as well, before his smile turned serious. "But don't think you can get away with annoying me every day now. Being cute is only going to get you so fa - "

Kai cut him off, pressing his lips gently to Morro's before pulling away with a smile. 

"You talk too much."

Morro grinned, before pulling Kai back into another kiss. 

Yeah, he could work with this. 

[chaoticproductivity]

Love in 3 A.U. - Beginning

[3/6]

My girl's a Dere A Tsun-TsunDere Just saying "hi" gets me a punch in the face And if I should compliment her, she starts to chase

Kakashi, always a concerned and helpful sensei, had the best ideas that could lead to the worst situations.

With the jounin level exam approaching and, except by Chouji, all the others were still chuunin, which never prevented the administration from giving them missions ranked way above their levels – that happened to all ninjas, they weren't special, for reasons of availability and poor personnel management – ​​however pay and status were not directly proportional to the dangerousness of the mission, these aspects being directly proportional with the rank of the ninja. 

And they couldn't be chuunin forever.

Six months ago, Kakashi's and the other sensei's idea of ​​bringing the chuunin together under their command for team training had seemed quite promising, as they all had diverse styles and some really needed help.

(Looking at Tenten's clumsy training, hurting herself more than attacking her adversary; at Ino, closing her eyes with each blow; Shikamaru, more concerned with watching the ants than fighting, and Kiba, barely able to get close to Akamaru without crying, Sasuke had his doubts if everyone there would survive the exam.)

Three months ago they had developed a good group dynamic: Hinata had the fortitude to keep the perverts in line, Menma used his patience to help those who were struggling, Sakura had the leadership spirit to cheer everyone up, Chouji kept the seriousness so that the training regimen was followed to a T, Sasuke just tried not to get into Tenten's range or in Lee's way when he decided to run upside down, taking every chance he had to flash a smile to his special girl.

Two months ago Menma and Sakura still weren't a couple, Hinata still hadn't been heartbroken, Sasuke still hadn't confessed.

A month ago all that had happened, but things continued without major problems with their weekly training.

A week ago Tsunade had become too sick to attend the Hokage's most important diplomatic mission: the annual visit to the villages and towns at the frontier of the Land of Fire, the region where the battles took place, the most affected by the last war, unpostponable event, therefore Tsunade summoned Sakura to make the visiting tour in her stead, since she was the daughter of the village hero who had also fought bravely in the border war. If the Hokage was unavailable, Sakura was the only possible choice. And they even took Chouji as an escort.

There went the balance of the training collective.

In the doubles draw for that session, Hinata had gotten Lee as her training partner to work on taijutsu and Menma had ended up with Kiba to continue training cooperation between master and beast – maybe if Inuzuka didn't keep rubbing in the face of his dog, who had been with him since he was a puppy, his preference for cats, Akamaru would not feel unwanted and be more docile to his owner. Sasuke was Team Akamaru on that bet. The Uchiha was in charge of Shikamaru, who wasn't a bad partner when he managed to stay focused, so they were working on Nara's attention. Neji and Shino were strong candidates to pass the exam. Neji, despite his tendencies to use the Byakugan to spy on girls getting changed, was a master of his clan's techniques, and Shino was able to make use of the insects, although he refused to let them land on him, which meant sending them all to attack his opponent. Rustic, but it worked, and served to improve the protection of Neji's blind spot.

That left Ino and Tenten. The problem with the first was that Tenten tended to hesitate to attack and would freeze instead of defend. Ino didn't like the fighting aspect altogether, she preferred forensic and intelligence work. She was very good at detection and rescue missions when it didn't involve hitting people, her strongest skill being negotiation. Tenten had the potential, but she was anxious and hasty, summoning more or less weapons than she'd planned, causing her to lose the rhythm of the attack. The training between the two always ended up with someone injured and not necessarily themselves.

"Kunai!"

Everyone who heard Tenten's warning, ducked. The blade whizzed past Shikamaru, nicking a few strands from the top of his ponytail, its trajectory following the path of Akamaru's flank as its target until Menma, reflexively, reached out and intercepted it. Blood began to flow and drip onto the floor even before the others could understand what had happened.

"Menma! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Tenten shrieked, running to him.

"Oh, it's alright, Tenten-chan." The Uzumaki grunted as he opened his left hand to inspect the injury across his palm and the small cuts on the first phalanx of all fingers. He wiped the blade on his pants and handed it back to Tenten by the handle. The kunoichi took it back with no further apology needed. Everyone had seen or experienced that same situation in training or on missions with Mitarashi to worry too much about a cut in a non-vital area. "I'm just going to bandage it."

Tenten nodded before returning to Ino's side. Menma signaled to Kiba that he would go take care of the cuts. The little commotion distracted Shikamaru, who ran to Akamaru to pet the dog, talking to him in that ridiculous voice that humans insisted on using to communicate with babies and animals and baby animals, making sure the dog was okay and not scared of being an unwitting target, to which Akamaru responded with a lick from chin to forehead.

Shrugging after losing his partner to the dog, Sasuke approached Menma, sitting at one of the picnic tables around the training ground where they had left the first aid kit. It was the first time they needed to actually use it, because Sakura was in charge of healing all the wounds immediately as part of her own training, so it didn't have a love of supplies. Peering inside, the Uchiha saw that his friend was using the one and only bandage roll, and that apart from the gauze pack Menma had opened to stanch and clean the blood, there was only one more. It was a rather outdated first aid kit for a group of ninjas who were about to become jounin. Either they were too confident in their abilities and believed they would never get hurt, or they were too dependent on the presence of chakra-healing medical ninjas in the field.

Sasuke turned as he heard the familiar footsteps approaching. In the distance he saw Rock Lee's inert body under a tree and knew he must have seen the blood flowing from Menma's wound and passed out, Sasuke himself had already been through that with the boy. Menma looked up when Hinata got close enough, but the Uchiha realized he didn't want to do that. The Hyuuga's presence now made him uncomfortable, especially when Sakura wasn't present.

Uchiha Sasuke's blood boiled and he could feel the Sharingan wanting to make an appearance. Menma didn't need to reciprocate Hinata's feelings, didn't need to do anything, really, besides the bare minimum of politeness. Even when his girlfriend wasn't around, especially to the person that had feelings for you that you never outright rejected.

"Hinata-chan~"

"Quiet, Bakasuke."

Menma lowered his head again, concentrating on removing the blood-soaked gauze and putting on a clean one. Hyuuga Hinata's look of determination remained unshaken upon the blonde shinobi's obvious disinterest. The corner of Sasuke's mouth lifted with a small smile. There was the woman he loved, staying true to her heart and her feelings, taking from her pocket a small pot of ointment and a thin tube closed with a stopper and containing a white powder, she held both of them on her open palm as an offering. Menma didn't even look up.

"Anti-coagulant powder and antibacterial ointment with lidocaine for pain." She explained. "Hanabi makes them."

"Hinata-chan~, how kind you are~!"

"I'm not talking to you." Hinata didn't take her eyes off the motionless figure of Menma, the gauze reddening again. "May I?"

Menma didn't respond, didn't look up, didn't make a move to accept what Hinata was offering.

A cold hot feeling settled in Sasuke's stomach watching the scene unfold. His best friend had never openly rejected the Hyuuga, nor had he ever encouraged her, and accepting a medicine from a Leaf fellow looking after your well-being and physical integrity was not encouragement, even knowing that this fellow had romantic feelings for you, it was a matter of survival in the field.

"Menma..." The Uchiha's voice came out low, hoarse, menacing. It did the job of making the blonde look up to his best friend. Cerulean found onyx, but not pearlescent.

"Tsk." Hinata clicked her tongue, her patience exhausted in that meaningless interaction. "Take care of the cut or have an infection and die, see if I care."

She approached Sasuke, took his hand and placed the items in his palm. Hinata's fingertips were icy cold and the urge to hold her hand in his returned full force as the milky eyes met darkness, glowing with something Sasuke interpreted as some mix of annoyance and gratitude.

"Hinata, I li-…" Uchiha blurted out before he could control himself, the words driven by his feelings, his super-sincere personality, the proximity, how easy it was for him to say that over and over and over again.

"Not now, Bakasuke!" She growled, knowing by now how he intended to end that sentence, and stepped on his foot to make him stop before marching back to where she had left Lee to try to wake him up and get back to practice.

"Ouch!" The shinobi hobbled over to the table where Menma was still sitting with his head down, the perfect depiction of an asshole that knew had acted like an asshole, but that was trying to justify his assholish actions to himself.

"Sasuke..."

"Shut up." With Hinata far enough away, his anger returned. Sasuke swung a leg to sit on the bench across from his best friend, slapped him on the head, and pulled the injured hand towards him, ripping the gauze at once, unconcerned with the pain the other might be feeling. Let Menma suffer a little, he deserved it. "If you open your mouth to try to justify how you just acted with Hinata, I'll break your fingers."