#Later today I am going to have to face a room full of [redacted] and promise to do everything I can to protect them and not give up

[witheredgardenparty]

I will never forgive a single one of you

[cotncandyboifics]

A Lovely Night: Chapter 6

AO3 Link

Masterpost

Chapter 1 ~ Chapter 2 ~ Chapter 3 ~ Chapter 4 ~ Chapter 5

Pairing(s): pre-established roceit & prinxiety, anaroceit, eventual anaroloceit, eventual intruality

Word count: ~4k

Story summary: Roman's boyfriends had had a rivalry since before either of them had actually met Roman. Running a bit late to a date night, Roman accidentally gets them to start dating too.

General CW: non-detailed description of an anxiety attack, non-detailed description of physical pain, food, kissing, potentially triggering descriptions of physical bodies, swearing, caps lock, school settings, s-xual innuendos, slight description of gore(imagery), vague descriptions of anxiety, Implications of an eating disorder, fatigue, dissociation, suppression of stimming, implied heavy restriction (ED), inner monologue-style anxiety description, eating, (will be added to as I write more)

Chapter CW: Implications of an eating disorder, fatigue, dissociation, suppression of stimming, vague description of an anxiety attack, implied heavy restriction (ED), school setting, inner monologue-style anxiety description, food mention, eating, (let me know if i missed anything please!)

Author notes: <<>>

...

Logan did not know what to do with himself. The past week had thrown him off his figurative rhythm far more than he could have possibly anticipated.

First, a lead actor who he'd already been trying his best not to look at - with his accursed pretty hair and handsome face and big muscles - decided to attempt to court him? Logan felt mocked. There is no conceivable possibility that such a beautiful - and might he add, quite pompous and bothersome - man would have any sort of real interest in him, romantically or sexually. He shuddered slightly. He really should have taken the apple his roommate had offered him for breakfast that morning, but it was too late now.

And wouldn't you know, just a week later, a - dare he say - equally pretty man with mesmerizing blonde curls and a cheeky smile takes an interest in him at his own school . After years and years of having never been asked out, no one having taken an even remote interest in him, not one second glance, Logan had two men asking after him in the span of a single week. Men who he found atrociously gorgeous, in fact. Logan pinched the bridge of his nose, glasses riding up his forehead a bit.

This alone would have been enough. But he just had to go into that little sewing shop for his dear friend Patton's birthday present, and that boy with the purple bangs who stumbled over his words and his feet was completely and undeniably flustered by Logan's presence. Perhaps he was simply experiencing an ego boost from his two previous encounters that week with pretty men, but he felt that the attraction the boy seemed to have for him was unmistakable.

And now here he was, pacing down the sidewalk toward the library, headed off to meet - Janus, if he recalled correctly - for their first study session. He didn't know what the hell he'd been thinking when he asked to meet Janus again, the very next day no less... perhaps he felt the need to seize the moment while it was present, or however the saying goes. Regardless, while his actions had been quite uncharacteristically spontaneous, he saw no logical purpose in redacting his decision; Janus seemed to be an individual with plentiful intellect, and studying with fellow students had generally proved to be a beneficial tactic in Logan's (albeit minimal) experience and (far less minimal) research. Meeting with Janus, even if it wound up simply being this once, should be no different.

Logan avidly ignored any simmering feelings that he wanted something more than to spend time with Janus just this once.

He was shaken from his thoughts when his phone started ringing in his pocket. He examined the screen, noting the time - 2:49 PM, he wasn't late for his engagement with Janus just yet - as he checked who was calling. It was an unknown number, but the area code was local. Logan frowned, pressing the answer button.

"Greetings, Logan Lattimer speaking."

-

Virgil was kind of panicking.

His boyfriends each happened to meet this super-cute space-nerd guy in the span of a week, and the second they'd talked to him they were all heart-eyes. Not that Virgil was complaining; the guy sounded really cute.

He knew first hand now, that he was in fact super cute . That was the problem.

Virgil's lunch break came and went, most of which he spent gnawing vaguely at a sandwich and staring anxiously at the contact card that had been in Logan's wallet. It simply had his full name and phone number on it, nothing else. He tapped it on the desk in front of him, glancing between the numbers and his own phone, set face-up beside his elbow.

And then his lunch break had ended, and he had several more hours of worrying before he had to convince himself to call Logan.

Something occurred to him, during those hours. Should he tell his boyfriends?

What would he even say? There wasn't much to tell, at least not that warranted calling them before he got home. If he was going to make any calls, there was one he was under obligation to make first. And if he were to seek comfort in them for his obligation, what would they say?

Roman was probably the lesser option; he'd been whining about Logan all week, and now that he knew Janus was meeting with him again today, tensions were especially high. He'd be no help whatsoever, Virgil was sure of it.

And speaking of Janus meeting Logan again today... that also meant no. Calling your boyfriend who was about to see the guy you were nervous to call made the situation all kinds of awkward. No, everything would be easier if he'd simply call him.

So, shaking his shoulders out a bit, he did. He stepped into the break room, grabbed his phone and the contact card, and dialed the number.

His thumb hovered over the call button for a few seconds too long. He cursed under his breath and looked away as he pressed it, bringing the phone to his ear. it rang twice, and then a slight static preceded a familiar voice.

"Greetings, Logan Lattimer speaking."

Virgil was glad he'd drew in a breath to hold when he'd pressed the call button, because he wasn't sure he could recall how to breathe properly.

"Hey, this is Virgil, um, from the knitting supply shop? Uh, you kinda left your wallet here..." Virgil managed to cough, voice not breaking as much as it could have. His chest felt cold and constricted, and he wrapped one arm around himself to fight off the burn of the icy spears stabbing through his lungs.

"Ah, hello Virgil. I am currently on my way to a separate engagement, however it should not take long. At what time would it be acceptable for me to return to your place of business to retrieve my belongings?"

"Oh, uh- I'll be here till four," Virgil stuttered a bit, surprised at how fast Logan jumped to planning mode, as well as realizing he knew the precise nature of the so-called separate engagement Logan was about to attend.

"That is adequate. I will make sufficient efforts to arrive before that time. See you then."

With that, the line disconnected, and Virgil was overwhelmed by the eerie silence of the break room. He glanced at a half-empty box of donuts their manager had brought in yesterday.

He could have said that the shop actually closed at six, and that Logan could get his wallet from Emile, but his train of thought hadn’t been screwed on properly when he’d been speaking, so he could grant himself a little slack- wait, he was mixing his metaphors now...

Suddenly, the door swung open, Emile peeking out from behind it.

"Virgil, could you get back out here? We've got a little rush," and he ducked out, gone as quickly as he’d arrived.

Virgil sighed, shuddering away his anxieties, grabbing a donut hole and popping it into his mouth before heading out to join his colleague.

-

Janus was sitting at a table set between the rows of shelves, reading pensively beneath a subtle desk lamp where Logan found him. He glanced up and smiled gently when Logan arrived, who set his things down beside a chair opposite from Janus'.

"Apologies, Janus, but I must cut our studying session short in about 45 minutes - i left my wallet at a nearby shop this morning, and must retrieve it before 4pm." Janus' eyes sparked with something Logan couldn't place, and he hid a smirk behind steepled gloved fingers. Logan gulped imperceptibly. "Perhaps we can set up another time to study as well- um, to make up for it, I mean?" He rushed his words out in a short breath, running his fingers through his hair to collect himself. Janus' smirk broadened very slightly, and Logan found himself watching the lines of Janus’ face as they shifted.

"It would be my pleasure." Janus averted his eyes for a moment, eyebrows furrowing slightly as he thought. “Perhaps we should exchange information, so that I might- so that we can settle on a proper time for another engagement.” Janus reached into his inner coat pocket, producing his phone and tapping away for a moment, before passing it to Logan. He took it carefully, recognizing a blank contact screen, and quickly entering his information into it. He handed the phone back to Janus with a tight smile, and Janus returned it, sliding his phone back into the same pocket before resettling himself in his seat more properly.

Janus set aside his book to pull out a few textbooks for their critical thinking class. "If we are cutting our study session that precisely short, that would provide me with a chance to surprise-" He faltered for a moment, tone changing, though it was so subtle Logan almost thought he'd imagined it - "a friend of mine after his shift. Now, where did your class get to in the lecture today?" He started thumbing through the pages of a particularly thick but small book, holding it by the spine with one hand.

"Ah... Professor Cauley was stopped short on page 461 when he became distracted with his electric pencil sharpener malfunctioning, and class ended a few moments later. He did inform us that the other class had made it to page 465, so if you need me to catch up to you, it should only take me a few minutes." Logan was rifling through the pages of his textbook intently, not noticing Janus' surprised expression.

Janus reached a hand out, cautiously setting his hand on Logan's wrist, just beneath his wristwatch. "Don't fret," he breathed, "it appears we share the same class period. If I recall correctly, Professor Cauley’s face went positively red with rage, and he nearly broke the poor sharpener worse as he tried to unjam it." Janus chuckled shyly through his words as Logan met his eyes, smiling after a moment.

“Fascinating. I wonder how I have not noticed you in class before?” Logan tilted his head very slightly, and noticed something swimming warmly in Janus’ eyes. They were quite a very lovely golden brown, he thought.

Janus shifted, looking down to adjust his own texts, but the smirk that was growing less snarky by the second never left his lips. “It is a rather large class. It can be easy to lose faces in the crowd. I’m not sure I can pick out more than three people with whom I share that  class if they were to pass me in the halls. But no matter.” Janus glanced at Logan’s textbook and notes, readying his pencil. “Shall we begin?”

-

Logan was talking animatedly as he hunched himself over his notes, Janus glancing up to watch his face behind its shield of deep brown bangs intermittently as he scribbled in his own notebook to (at least attempt to) keep up. Janus’ gaze was averted, however, when a repetitive chime sounded from Logan’s phone, sitting face down on the desk just beside his right forearm. He stopped mid-sentence, adjusting his posture and picking his phone up, flipping it over to view the screen. He sighed, deflating slightly, as he tapped the screen once, setting the phone back down.

“My apologies, Janus, but it appears that it is time for me to depart.” Logan stood, a colder, sharper version of himself taking the place of the one that holds a deep passion for learning. The beautiful ice crystal, despite its beauty, is still the twin of the icy shards that cut sharper than knives or spears, Janus thought.

Janus stood swiftly, joining Logan in his gathering of his personal belongings, shoveling his own texts into his own bag. “It is quite alright, I assure you, Logan.” They met eyes as Janus spoke Logan’s name, and Janus could swear he saw a subtle, blotchy pink settle in Logan’s cheeks. “I’ll be headed down Main Street, then. Perhaps-” Logan cleared his throat, glaring down and to the side at nothing in particular as he retried his statement. “I will be expecting to hear from you, Janus.” They walked side by side out the front of the library, stopping just past the doors to say their goodbyes. But Janus had a small realization, and felt the creeping suspicion crawling its way up his sides returning. He resisted the urge to shake or twitch it away, grinding his teeth a bit.

Instead of continuing to suppress his stimming, he cleared his throat, speaking to Logan. "I am headed down Main Street as well. I hope it is not out of- I hope that it isn’t inappropriate for me to ask, but...will you allow me to accompany you?" Janus asked, nearly moving to offer his arm to Logan, but deciding quickly that that was far too forward. He settled on spreading an arm out, gesturing to the concrete path before them that led to the sidewalk.

Logan offered a small smile. "That would be adequate, and not inappropriate in the slightest. I, I would enjoy your company.” A beat of silence, and Logan cleared his throat. “Just this way," and Logan set off, at an impressively brisk pace that Janus nearly had a hard time keeping up with, having been caught off guard.

They walked in stride with one another as they made their way down the street. Janus became increasingly suspicious of the scenario the closer they got to the sewing shop. From what he knew of Logan's situation, there was no conflicting evidence that would disqualify the possibility that Logan was headed, in fact, toward Virgil's workplace. Janus held his breath when they turned onto the very same block, watching Logan's body language soften as they did.

Janus took a deep breath, glancing at the sign of the sewing shop a pace or two ahead.

"Logan, there's something I wish to discuss with-"

Janus glanced at the sewing shop's sign once more as they passed, but didn't move to stop before the door until he realized Logan had done so, standing a bit stiff a few paces back.

"This would be the establishment I spoke of," Logan's eyes looked a bit hazed, vaguely pointed towards the door handle. He seemed not to have heard Janus’ beginnings of a confession. Janus’ eyebrow quirked ever so slightly.

"Interesting," he breathed quietly, and Logan met his eyes then. "Allow me." Janus reached a gloved hand out to open the door for Logan, bowing slightly as he held it open.

"Much appreciated," Logan commented, stepping through the doorway smoothly.

-

Virgil was sitting slouched behind the counter, typing random numbers into the cash register out of boredom. He was half considering going to bother Emile, but he was busy doing inventory. And besides, Virgil needed to stay behind the register in case any customers came in. One person behind the counter at all times, that was the rule. He sighed, bringing his hand to his face and tapping on the tip of his nose absentmindedly.

The bell chimed, and Virgil looked up from behind his mop of purple hair. His heart gave a few beats a bit harder than usual, and he felt his throat constrict slightly.

There was Logan again. And the whole rest of the world became background noise.

The line of Logan's mouth widened, creating a crease or two on each side. Virgil realized that not only was he staring at Logan's lips, but as well that Logan was smiling. At him.

"Hello, Virgil," He spoke softly.

"Hi," Virgil practically coughed, the scratch in his throat making it borderline painful to speak. "H-how was your, your day?" Virgil asked, pursing his lips as soon as his words had left them.

Logan inhaled, raising his eyebrows and averting his eyes from Virgil's intense brown ones. "It has been satisfactory." The door chimed again behind Logan as it shut, and Virgil suddenly recognized that there was another person in the room. A person whose presence felt immediately familiar...

"Ah, my apologies," Logan stepped to the side slightly, allowing the person to come into full view. There, with a small sheepish smile, stood Janus. "Allow me to introduce-"

"Logan, dear, that won't be necessary," Janus rested a gentle gloved hand on Logan's shoulder, and Virgil couldn't tell if he was about to pass out from gay panic or just regular panic. "We are... quite well acquainted." Janus smiled tenderly to Virgil, and Virgil's whirring brain slowed if only slightly. He was safe.

…but… was he though?

-

"Oh, is this the friend you spoke of earlier, whom you meant to come and meet? How coincidental, that we were on our way to meet the same person without either of us having any prior knowledge of it." Logan was caught up in his fascination so much that he did not notice Virgil beginning to hyperventilate, knuckles white as he gripped the counter, or the way Janus was watching, practically frozen.

But, as Logan's commentary came to a close, it was as though a flip switched inside Janus’ mind, and he quickly strode around Logan. He stepped quickly behind the counter and over to Virgil, all while nearly whispering little nothings like "oh oh oh," "hush now love," and "come here dear."

Logan's brain took a moment to catch up, and soon he was simply standing there, watching as Virgil clung to Janus' coat rather desperately. Virgil’s body shuddered in silent sobs as Janus wrapped his arms around him, tight and secure. Janus was still whispering to him, but it was inaudible to Logan now.

Logan didn't quite know what to do, and so he just stood there, feeling rather stuck for a long time. At some point, he set his backpack and the gift bag he'd gotten from this very store earlier that day down against the counter on the floor, folding his hands before him. At some point, he registered Janus giving him an apologetic look, which confused him.

And then Janus kissed Virgil on the forehead, pulling back slightly to look him in the eyes. Logan thought from the way Janus was nodding softly and the way their chests moved together, that they may be doing a breathing exercise. He couldn't focus on much else, so he tried to follow along and copy them as well. 4, 7, 8. 4, 7, 8.

Sooner than later, Janus was leading Virgil carefully back out around the counter, both looking slightly worse for wear, but at least Virgil was far calmer. Janus smiled meekly at Logan again, and he still couldn't quite understand what was happening. It appeared that Virgil had had an anxiety attack, but the way Janus had rushed to comfort him so quickly, the way he seemed to know exactly what to do-

"Here you go, Logan," Virgil's voice was a bit scratchy as he reached out his hand, Logan's familiar black leather wallet between his pale fingers. Logan cleared his throat.

"Thank you," He spoke a bit more quietly than he meant to. He suddenly felt his headache flare again in full force, and had to fight not to shake as he reached his hand out to retrieve his wallet from Virgil's hands. He barely succeeded, but Virgil seemed to notice something amiss - he was watching Logan's wary eyes with some mix of suspicion and concern.

Janus, however, had been staring at the floor, and did not notice Logan's onset of fatigue. He sighed, clearing his throat softly. "Logan, I suppose you deserve some kind of explanation. One I tried to give before we’d come in, but regardless." Suddenly Virgil's eyes were on Janus, and far wider than Logan thought possible. Janus just glanced at him, nodding gently, and Virgil's shoulders visibly relaxed. "Virgil and I are..."

Janus laced their fingers together, and Logan's vision went blurry, everything around him fading to static fuzz as he tried to remember to breathe. He'd eaten more than enough today for this to be happening, surely? ...Had he eaten today? He couldn’t recall. He could always remember ... He vaguely registered Janus still speaking in the background, but he couldn't care enough to force himself to refocus. He got the jist. He and Virgil were romantically involved, and Janus was interested in nothing more than a friendship with Logan. That was perfectly fine. He didn't mind. He forced away the roiling feeling in his gut and gulped down the sting starting to tingle in his eyes, forcing himself to nod.

"Understood," He blurted, voice a bit raspy. He turned toward the door, reaching for the handle. Before he fully exited, he threw over his shoulder, "I look forward to seeing you later this week, Janus. And thank you again, Virgil." And with that, he was gone.

He made his way down the block briskly, trying to shake the haze that clouded his vision. The only thing he could think to do was go and see Patton. He knew nothing worked magic on his body like a good black coffee.

-

"Virgil and I are..." Virgil looked down as Janus laced their fingers together, and looked back to Logan, whose face seemed to have gone paler than it normally was, which was quite horrifying to see. Considering Logan was already so white that his skin tone bordered on inhuman, now it was devoid of any pricks of red coloring and looked almost like an empty tinted gray, pronouncing his cheekbones and eye bags even more so. Janus looked between them, continuing after a moment, "...we have been romantically involved for several years now, and even longer with our partner Roman, who you may recall from the community theatre? He's expressed to us that he's quite taken with you, in fact... And I know this may be a lot to spring on you right now, but I thought you deserved to know... it felt wrong to pursue anything with you romantically when we- when you didn't have the facts straight, and even regardless, it's important for you to know that all three of us are-"

"Understood," Logan cut Janus off, nodding. He didn't speak harshly, in fact his voice was quite quiet, but it was curt and forward as Logan always was, and so cut through Janus' words like a frozen blade.

Janus looked at him in awe, and opened his mouth to speak, but Virgil gripped his arm before he did. Logan was already at the door. He glanced over his shoulder, but didn’t really look at either of them. "I look forward to seeing you later this week, Janus. And thank you again, Virgil." Janus and Virgil watched as Logan walked out the door and straight down the sidewalk through the shop window.

Emile, who apparently had been standing there for at least a few moments, cleared his throat awkwardly. Janus and Virgil looked at him in unison, matching exasperated looks on their faces.

"U-um, Virgil, I was just gonna check in, see if you've clocked off." Emile wrung his wrists between his fingers awkwardly.

"Um, no not yet," Virgil bit the corner of his lip, muttering a 'sorry' as he stepped past Emile and paced quickly to the back room to clock off. Janus stared blankly at the floor where his boyfriend had just been, eyebrows knit in thought.

"You feeling a-okay there, Janus?" Emile dipped his head a bit to get Janus' attention gently. Janus blinked a few times, engaging with Emile as he re-centered himself in the present moment.

"Yes, Emile, I'm fine, thank you," Janus rubbed his gloved palm with his thumb anxiously. He couldn't think of anything to add, so Emile smiled carefully, nodding and stepping away to resume whatever busywork he needed to attend to.

Virgil was back again shortly, his backpack slung over his shoulder. He gave Janus a strange look, some kind of combination of pity and sadness and confusion. At least, that's how it looked to Janus.

"Ready to...?" Virgil gestured vaguely towards the door, leaning into Janus' personal space a bit. Janus offered him his arm, clearing his throat and holding his chin high.

"Yes, love. Let's get home to Roman."

As they walked to the bus stop together, neither had any clue what they’d say to their Prince. He’d be distraught, they were both sure, and significantly more so than he already was, which would be… intense. Janus squeezed Virgil’s hand in his own slightly, and smiled somberly at him sideways.

They’d figure this out. They always did, eventually.

Janus took his time on the bus typing out a message to Logan, Virgil watching from the seat beside him as his head laid on Janus’ shoulder. Janus settled on something simple.

To: Logan L It's Janus. I'd love to meet up to study, or perhaps discuss other things, some time this week. Let me know if Thursday or Friday works better for you.

[caermis]

❝Love❞ Ch. 1

❦BNHA! Various X Black!Reader ❦Characters:  ⇻Izuku Midoriya ⇻Mirio Togata ❦Warnings: None ❦Plot: “Y/N L/N. Thank you for your help.” -H.E.R.O Ward Association, Block 15. A young 20-year-old, that has been chosen as the right choice to raise 10 Installments. That are Children? ❦Notes: ⇻This does not involve Pedophilia, Hebephilia, or Ephebophilia(Nothing to do with a sexual attraction towards literal children) -G/BsF/N = Best Friend’s name

❝Ch.1❞  ❝Ch.2❞

Chapter One

A New Mother's Dismay

Midoriya & Togata

I am Y/N L/N

Her E/C eyes silently watched the striped ball roll to her feet, before trailing up the group of kids in front of her. They were all faceless, and their voice held no real warmth or joy, but they screamed the 10-year-old's name. Over and Over and Over. Asking her to play or pass the ball to them. Slowly picking up the ball, taking slow steps before speeding up excitedly. They cheered her name, waiting for her. Before she tripped over her own feet. Tumbling to the ground, the ball rolled back to the other kids. Feeling tears prick her eyes, before slowly sitting up. Only this time, the kids frowned at her, and picked the ball up, and walked away.

I am Y/N L/N

I stared at the red F- on my test; I gripped my skirt, trying to stop the tears at my failure. The faceless high school students chuckled and turned from me like I wasn't even worth bullying. Like I didn't exist. I was alone. I am alone. Repeating those words, I looked into the mirror and watched my face morph into the kind face of my mother. I would never be like her.

I am Y/N L/N

My feet dragged against the pavement, I casually walked home. I sighed. I was currently a university student, who was after their Master's degree in literature. Having published a book, when I was 18, lucky it allowed me to get a scholarship and buy a house, still didn't mean I wouldn't have to get a thankless job.

Luckily working at the University Cafe wasn't extremely bad. Tiredly lifting my arm, iLuckily,t was already 9 pm, and the sun had set a few hours ago, but the streets were still lively, with other College students going out on dates. Seeing my apartment building in the distance, I let out a sigh and took out the gate key. Inputting my pin code, I opened the metal gate and slipped inside and let out a yawn. Staggering up the steps, I walked down the hall, just wanted to get inside and change into something comfortable, until I noticed a package in front of my door.

Walking up to the brown cardboard box, my name written decoratively in sharpie. Lifting the box, I quickly unlocked my front door and slipped inside. Kicking my shoes off and locking the door, I walked into the living room and placed the box on the coffee table. Using my keys, I ripped through the tape and began to open the box. A white card rested on top of a black box, my fingers grabbing the card and reading over it.

A gift.

-H.E.R.O Ward Association. Block 15

"What..." Placing the card aside, I pulled out the large black box and took off its plastic wrapping, my fingers running along the metal of it, before opening it. I yanked my hands away, staring wide-eyed at the money inside. I slapped my hands over my mouth and stared at it, before grabbing the note on top and reading it. 

Y/N L/N,

Congratulations! You have been chosen as the direct Caretaker of Block 15: U.A-L.O.V. This is part of your payment, once receiving an installment, which is 200'000 per Installment. This amount has been doubled as of today, due to [REDACTED] circumstances. Expect the arrival between this week or next week.

Thank you,

-H.E.R.O Ward Association. Block 15

I bite my bottom lip, closing the box. So it wasn't a mistake. Grabbing my computer, I started to look at the H.E.R.O Ward Association. Finding absolutely nothing or anything I did find was restricted. I stared back at the box, thinking of ways to get rid of it or return it. I didn't sign up for this, but something told me I couldn't get out of this predicament. 

“John! A Number 15! For Mary!” You called out before turning back to the woman behind the counter. “That’ll take just a minute.” Mary smiled and turned from the counter, going back with her friends. Seeing that was the last person, I let out a sigh. Just happy that the lunch rush was over. 

Rocking on my heels, I glanced over the cafe, before locking eyes with a tall boy with blonde hair. Dread immediately filled my stomach as he smiled brightly and proudly walked towards the register, making exaggerated movements with his arms.  

I watched him with a raised eyebrow as he came closer, just spotting a short boy with green hair stumble after him. Upon reaching the counter, he smiled. “Are you L/N-san?” I nodded and watched his smile get bigger and he pulled out a white card and passed it to me. 

Y/N L/N, The first installment. 1/10

Name: Mirio Togata. Age: 9 Block 15: Permeation

Looking from the note back to Miro then looking away from the blonde boy and yelling into the back. “I’m heading out early! It’s an emergency!” Turning back to Mirio, he stared at me with happy blue eyes. “You're very pretty L/N-san.” Giving a half-assed smile, you slipped off your apron and moved around the counter, just spotting the green-haired boy as he hid behind Mirio. “Oh! This is Izuku. He’s 7 and shy. Say hi and give L/N-san your card.” Miro ushered Izuku forward, making him almost trip but catch himself and fumble with his fingers, and pull out a card, quickly pass it to me and hide behind Mirio. 

Y/N L/N, The first installment. 1/10

Name: Izuku Midoriya. Age: 7 Block 15: One for All

Not having time to go over the details, crouched down and stared at them. Offering your hand. “Let’s go get something to eat.” Mirio excitedly grabbed my hand, while Izuku slowly grabbed mine. Standing up, I walked with the two boys, heading towards the pizza parlor, mentally thankful that I left my backpack at home, and that I kept my wallet, phone, and keys on you. 

Finding a table in the back, I left them here to get a medium-sized pepperoni, half cheese pizza. Paying for the meal, I went back to the table, waiting for my name to be called. “Thank you, L/N-san,” Izuku whispered quietly as he sat beside him, fiddling with his hands.

“Y/N. Call me Y/N.” You smiled and clutched your hands together, having literally no idea what to do. The two seemed respectable enough not to cause trouble. “Y/N. I like your name a lot. Are you from America, cause…” He trailed off, subconsciously rubbing his skin, his eyes on mine. 

“Cause you look different.” Izuku grabbed my hand, showing the difference of skin tone, “but not a bad different. A good different.” The green-haired boy quickly added on. Mirio nodded, smiling at me. Feeling my heart clench, I ran my hand through Izuku’s hair and reached across the table and padded Mirio’s head. “Thank you.”

“A half Pepperoni and half Cheese for Y/N!” Pulling for the two boys, I told them to wait for me as I went up and grabbed the pizza. “Y/N! You had kids! When!” One of my friends, G/BsF/N grabbed my arm and stared at me. I rapidly shook my head and crossed my arms. “Hell no! Listen, I’ll explain later!” Grabbing the table, you headed back to the two boys. 

“I've never eaten pizza!” Mirio excitedly took a bite of his slice, while I quickly slid a plate, handing  Izuku a smaller slice. Watching the two eat, I pulled out my phone, going through different apps. 

“Y/N?” Looking at Mirio, watching him sink lower into his seat. He stared at me with wide eyes, seeming to be panicking. Permeation. I quickly stood up and moved to his side. Grabbing his shoulder. Not exactly sure what to do, I made him look at me. “Y/N, Im...Im sorry-”

“Hey. It’s alright. Just breathe. I'm here ok.” I spoke softly, slowly patting his head. Watching him slowly reappear from his seat, his hands gripped my shirt. Staring at him, whatever I just got myself into, I couldn't back out of.

“Miri... I'm here for you ok. It was an accident. Let’s just go home alright. We can buy clothes and things tomorrow.” I slowly pulled away. Packing up the rest of the pizza before leaving. 

Upon arriving at my apartment, I found a yellow and blue backpack in front of my door. “I'm assuming those belong to you two?” Mirio sheepishly smiled, as I walked with a sleeping Izuku on my back. “Sorry. We thought you'd be home, but you weren't so we went out to find you.”

“How do you know where I work?” 

“The man who brought us here told us.” I unlocked the door, allowing him inside first. Watching Mirio quickly slip off his shoes and dart deeper into the house, excitedly looking around. Walking inside, I kicked the door closed and took off my shoes, lacing Izuku on the couch, and using my coat as a blanket. Placing the box of pizza on the counter.

“Mirio?” Walking down the hall heading to the spare bedroom, Mirio stared out the window into the street. “Y/N, is this me and Izuku’s bedroom?” I slowly nodded, staring at the makeshift bed, until I actually bought a bed. 

“I thought you both could help me buy a bed. Seeing as money isn't an issue.” Mirio nodded excitedly and rushed out of the room, going to explore the apartment. Which had only three bedrooms and two full bathrooms, so they had enough to explore. 

After a few minutes of exploring on Mirio’s part, and me on the computer, looking at certain bed frames, Izuku cuddled up to my side. 

“Y/N! Do you think we can go to school!” Mirio slid into the living room, a red sheet around his neck like a cape. He was playing superheroes with himself, saving invisible citizens and villains, going by Lemillion. “Well, legally you'll have to.” Mirio cheered and disappeared down the hall. 

“Do I have to go to school too?” Izuku tiredly rubbed his eyes and looked up at me. I nodded and watched him smile. “Izuku come play Heroes with me!” Izuku looked fully awake and climbed down, darting towards the sound of Mirio’s voice. 

Listening to their cheering and entrances introducing themselves, sometimes bickering on how to save someone. My eyes focused on the best schools close to the apartment, before settling on Boku No Hero Academia K-12 School. 

“Y/N!”

“Y/N!” Izuku in a white cape, naming himself to be All Might, and Mirio who had changed his red cape to a black one, changing into a villain. Ran into the living room, staring at me. “Play Heroes and Villains with us! You can be the person I save.” 

“But I wanna save Y/N too.”

“But we need a Villain and Villains can't save people.” Izuku and Mirio went back and forth before I stopped them. “You can take turns.” The two nodded, and we went on to play. 

“Give me the secret formula!”

“Ah, save me!” Struggling in your metal restraints (horribly tied yarn) you stared at Villain Lemillion with fearful eyes, as you fell closer to the lava(floor). “That’s fine. This lava can read your mind, so I'll win either way! Mwahaha!” 

“Someone help me! I need a hero please.” Falling closer to the lava until the door opened and there appeared the hero All Might. “I am here to save you Y/N-oops I mean-I am here to save you, citizen!” He chucked a pillow at Villain Lemillion making him fall back. “No, my plans!” Watching him fall into the lava, dying with his tongue out and making a sizzling sound. 

“Are you alright!?” All Might jumped onto the platform, undoing my restraints and making sure I was alright. “Thank you! You saved me! You're my hero.” All Might look embarrassed and smiled.

“Still sizzling over here.” 

We looked over the edge of the platform(my bed) and down at Villain Lemillion, who was somehow still alive. “How are you alive!? I killed you!” 

“You're a hero. Heroes don't kill people!”

“Y/N, do heroes kill people?” Mirio and Izuku looked at me, I thought for a second. “I guess if they really need to but never their main villain.” 

“Main villain?” Mirio climbed onto the bed and stared at me. “Like the person, they go up against. “Like Batman and the Joker. Their main rivals, but you can always have more than one rival.”

“Like! Like! Um...when All Might fought All for One so they're main rivals!”

“Oh! You're so smart!” Izuku's eyes lit up as the two talked. Maybe All Might was a Hero, I haven't heard of. You brushed it off and checked the time, 8:23 PM, and the boys ate around 5 or 6, so dinner was in order. “We’ll eat dinner, then you both can take a bath. We’re going to check out your schools tomorrow.” The two cheered and climbed down, rushing towards the kitchen. Following them, deciding to settle on Pizza, which they basically inhaled and ready for a bath.

While they took a bath together, I chose their PJs, realizing that Mirio had zero sense for what was for bed and what was not. After a few minutes of slashing and hero talk, they both came out squeaky clean, saying that heroes needed to be clean. Tucking them into bed, they both started asking me for a bedtime story.

“Uh, I don't know any.”

“Make one up!”

“N/N, please!” Izuku called me by my nickname, staring at me with Puppy dog eyes. Sighing, I cleared my throat and made myself comfortable. “Once upon a time, there was a boy. A boy not many liked cause he was different, though this boy had a friend. A friend that was really mean to him and put that boy down.”

“If they were friends. Why was his friend mean to him?” Mirio spoke quietly, staring with half-lidded eyes. Izuku slowly nodded, “Shouldn't friends be nice to each other?”

“Until that boy met a hero, and that hero gave that boy his power, after some convincing. So the boy was given the old Heroes power, a dangerous power that would hurt the boy, but the old Hero didn't tell the boy that. So the boy could tell no one. Though this boy didn’t listen and told his friends, who didn't believe him. We soon learn his friend is jealous, he thinks the boy looks down on him. Jealousy is a nasty thing.”

“That doesn't sound like a hero.” Mirio slowly dozed up, while Izuku softly muttered. Slowly patting his head, I nodded.

“I guess it doesn't.”

[hisan-miren]

Redacted File

The First Date Pt 3

The two ate their meal in relative silence- although Mina did see fit to steal one of his sweet potatoes and quickly snatched it up before he could do anything.  He stared at her for a few seconds, completely flabbergasted (which was a hilarious look on him) before he snatched up her umeboshi (since she’d eaten all of her tempura.)  It quickly devolved into the two trying to steal even more of each other’s food and general tomfoolery and laughter after that.  They made sure to pick up anything they dropped or spilled in the chaos, knowing full well that Raios’ mother would thoroughly chew them out if they didn’t.  When the food (and cleanup) was finished, Raios loaded their tableware back on the tray to be taken away later, and the two moved to sit out on the walkway facing the garden.

“So, what comes after this?” Raios asked, half-grumbling.

“Well, I think it generally goes that you propose, I accept, and then we get married and live happily ever after,” Mina replied.

“I didn’t mean our relationship, you idiot!” Raios snapped, his face turning bright red.  “I meant this date!  I’m not exactly a fountain of knowledge when it comes to this!”

“Well-…”  Mina flopped over on her side, laying across Raios’ lap and causing him to panic very briefly, “we could always go to your roo-”

“Rejected,” Raios spat, a cold and angry demeanor taking back over.  “What is with you and my room anyways?  If you try to recommend it one more time, I’m seriously going to smack you.”

“Got it.  Won’t do it again,” she replied, a bit shocked by how genuinely angry he seemed to be at the mere idea of it.  Shocked, but not perturbed.  She’d try again next time.

“Pick something else.”  He still seemed pretty pissed, but his tone had lost a bit of its edge.

“… Isn’t this fine?”

“Huh?”

“Being like this,” she replied, motioning to their position.  “Or did you want to the one using my lap?” she teased.

“Hu- wh- No!  That’s not what I meant at all!” Raios spluttered, cheeks turning dark again. “And this isn’t what I meant! Aren’t people supposed to do things?!”

“This is doing something though,” Mina replied calmly. “And I am plenty satisfied to just stay like this and chat for a few hours.”

“My legs will fall asleep,” Raios complained.

“Then we can switch!  In an hour you can use my lap.”

“Somehow I get the sense that this isn’t exactly what usually happens on a first date.”

“Well yeah,” Mina replied.  “Usually, the boyfriend isn’t grounded.  We made the most of what we could, and it was fine.  I mean, we’re not breaking any records, but I don’t want to set our relationship to the pace of others’.”  Mina made herself comfortable again on his lap and stared up at him, starting yet another staring contest.  She was content to keep going too until Raios eventually sighed and leaned over.  She was so confused about what was going on that she didn’t realize what had happened until the sensation left her lips. She just stared up at him wide-eyed and quietly covered her mouth.  There was a silence and then she raised a finger.  “One more time.”

“Huh?”

“Do it again.  I wasn’t ready.”

“No,” he replied, seeming pretty adamant this time.

“Oh come on!”  She covered her face as she felt her cheeks start to actually physically burn. She kicked her feet against the wood floor and started to roll around in Raios’ lap, trying to remember not to let herself fall.  “Just one more!  Come on, please?!”

“I know you, it definitely won’t be ‘just one more’,” Raios replied flatly.

“You’re so mean!” Mina whined.

“Yup, I’m mean, horrible, awful- feel free to call me all the names you want, you’re not getting another one.”  Mina gave one last futile, dying groan of disappointment and laid flat on Raios’ lap again.

“I didn’t think you’d do it.”

“You underestimated me.”

“Clearly.”  Raios watched, slightly amused, as her face began to turn red again and she quickly tried to re-cover her face.  “Ughhhhh… Let’s just end it here for today. I don’t think I can function after that.”

“You sure?”

“Not at all, but I think I’m going to be completely useless the rest of the day.  Also my self-control just went in the garbage.”

“Huh?!  Your self-control?!” Raios asked.

“I’m gonna die.  I’m legitimately going to die.”

“You’re not gonna die from a kiss,” Raios ground out.

“I am so gonna die.”

“I didn’t realize you were such a drama queen.”

“And I didn’t realize you were such a tease!”

“Well there’s a lot more where that came from,” he replied, grinning smugly.  She looked up at him only to cover her face again.

“Okay, now I’m gonna die.”

“I’m not playing this game.”

“GREAT!  Because I’m already losing!”  Raios just sighed and leaned back while his girlfriend silently freaked out in his lap. “Ugh…  It should be illegal to be that hot…” Mina grumbled to herself.

“I’d be a lot more legal if you took off your rose-tinted glasses.”

“No thanks, I’m happy where they are.”

“You are just-…”  Raios gave a sigh that was somewhere between ‘annoyed’ and ‘exasperated’.

“I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘incorrigible’,” Mina replied cheekily.

“That’s definitely the word I was looking for.”

“Ready to switch yet?”

“We’re not switching,” Raios replied flatly. “You’ll just use it to kiss me.”

“You saw through it…” Mina grumbled, clicking her tongue and crossing her arms in irritation.  “Then at least give me your hand.  That’s the least you can do.”  She huffed and pouted until Raios eventually felt he had no other recourse but to give into her demands.  He sighed and picked one of his hands off the wooden floor and offered it to her. Mina’s demeanor immediately turned from sullen and dour to gleeful and bright.  Her two smaller hands immediately latched on, and her cheek quickly found its way into her palm.

“What in reverse world is so fun about this?” Raios grumbled. Mina’s thought process was completely beyond him most of the time, but he found this sort of behavior especially weird.  It wasn’t like this was the first time.  She’d done stuff like this to flirt with him even before they started going out, but he didn’t really understand this need for closeness she seemed to have.  He understood wanting to hold hands and be close, but hers seemed to border on outright cuddling.  He didn’t mind, but he didn’t quite get it either.  They sat in silence like that for a while; she spent time feeling out the callouses on his fingers and tracing the wrinkled creases of his palm like she was trying to memorize every inch of it.  A while passed like that without speaking, and eventually Mina sat up and chose to latch herself to Raios’ arm instead.  “I’ve been meaning to ask for a bit, but you’re the type that likes cuddling, aren’t you?”

“If I say ‘yes’, can we cuddle?” she asked hopefully.

“Absolutely not,” Raios replied flatly.  “What if one of my family walked by?  We’re in the garden.  At least pretend to have a bit of shame.”

“But if we weren’t somewhere with other people around?” she asked, eyes glinting with mischief.  

“…I’d think about it…” he replied quietly.

“Alright!” Mina cheered, pumping her fist.

“I didn’t say ‘yes’!” Raios snapped, a bit flustered.

“It’s just as good,” Mina replied.

They sat there and chatted for a while longer, continuing their game of pushing and pulling every now and then until the sun was halfway to the horizon. Raios looked up and judged that it was probably around 5:00pm.  Mina probably had to get home soon.

“Come on, get up,” Raios said, shrugging the arm that she was still very much latched onto.

“Don’t wanna,” Mina pouted.

“Get up,” Raios ground out.  “I gotta take you home.”

“I thought you were grounded,” Mina replied skeptically.

“You honestly think the old hag would allow me to not walk you home?”

“… Fair point.”  Mina reluctantly released him and stood up to stretch.  “We can work out the details of our next date on the way. I wonder where we should go~”

“Ever the opportunist,” Raios sighed, slowly getting up and working the pins and needles out.  The couple made their way over to the entryway, making sure to stop by the kitchen where Raios’ mother would be.  He popped his head in and got his mother’s attention.  She put down the dish she was using to taste the soup, a little surprised that her son had come to find her.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“I’m taking Mina home,” Raios said.

“You know you can’t leave the house, correct?”

“You would really have me not accompany her to ensure she gets home safely?” Raios growled.  Mina was a force of nature.  No one messed with her if they were trying to have a good and decent day.  But it was the principle of the matter.  Mrs. Minori’s placid face slowly morphed into a sly smile, and she turned back to the soup in front of her.

“If you’re not back in 30 minutes, I’m sending your sister after you.”

“I’ll come right back,” he replied quickly.  That was the last thing he wanted.  His sister would interrogate him the entire way back and drive him insane.  Dinner was already going to be bad enough, he didn’t need it to happen without the distraction of food (and he was sure their parents would conveniently ignore her jabs in an attempt to satiate their own curiosity.)  

“D’you get permission?” Mina asked.

“Yup, but I gotta be kinda quick otherwise aneki will be sent for me.  Being alone with her would be the most obnoxious thing in the world.”

“I’m not envious.”

“Must be nice being an only child.”  Mina just shrugged and started slipping her geta on.  Raios quickly followed, suit and the two left to go to her place.

“So, where should we go next time?” Mina asked.  

“A date on the mainland is a bit hard since it’d take most of the day to get there,” Raios mused, “but we might be able to get on a ferry to one of the nearby islands that has more to do.”  He looked over to find Mina pouting which completely bewildered him.  “What? Why are you making that face?”

“Those’re fine ‘n all, but I want something quieter,” she grumbled.

“So what, you just wanna hang out on the beach on the quiet side of the island or something?”  Her eyes lit up, and Raios once again came to the conclusion that there was no understanding his girlfriend.  He sighed in resignation.  “I guess that’s what we’ll be doing then.”  Mina clapped her hands and giggled in glee before once again latching onto his arm.  Raios didn’t even bother trying to get her off this time.  If someone saw them, then they saw them.  

It didn’t take long to arrive at Mina’s house, even with the awkward way she was hanging off him, and Raios stopped at the door.

“Alright, let go.  It’s time for you to go home.”  Mina grumbled under her breath and stubbornly clung to his sleeve.  “Come on, I’ll see you on Monday.”

“It’s too long…”

“It’s the day after tomorrow!” Raios snapped.

“I wish we could just skip to being married already,” Mina pouted, moving to grip the collar of his yukata.

“That’s gonna be a bit,” Raios replied, feeling a bit sheepish. “We’re not even old enough.”  Mina pouted, feeling disheartened when faced with the truth.  “Quit that. You’re being ridiculous.  At least consider for a moment the idea that you may be happier with someone else.”

“Not happening,” Mina growled at him.  “It’s definitely gotta be you.”  Then, Mina violently tugged on him pulling him downwards and caught him completely off guard.  The one Raios had given her had been soft and fleeting.  One of his many ways of gently telling her he loved her and appreciated her. The kiss Mina gave Raios was longer and firmer, and she didn’t even give him a chance to try and lead it.  When she finally let go of him, he covered his mouth with his arm and stumbled back, a violent blush covering his entire face and creeping down his neck.  Mina was almost sure she saw steam coming out of his ears too.

“YOU-!!”  Mina just flashed him a smug smile and stuck her tongue out at him.

“See you Monday~” Mina said, waving to him as she went inside, feeling like she’d set off a whole warehouse’s worth of fireworks.

[patchwork-panda]

If A Moment Is All We Are (38/40)

Note: for Music 1, feel free to stop playing when you feel the mood shift. for Music 2, stop playing at the *** for Music 3, stop playing when you feel a mood shift or when you hit the ED. (your choice) for ED theme, stop playing when you feel like it. :)

S1, OP2 Music 1

“Let’s see...”

I set down the photos the police had taken around the abandoned dormitory and placed them next to the first of many reports lying on top of my desk. Grabbing a paperclip, I picked up that first report and put them all together.

“This set is going to the police...”

I slipped them all into a manila folder and placed the whole thing into my outbox.

“And this...”

I reached for a second, much lengthier set of documents and found the corresponding photos.

“...is going to Haruno- san for redactions first.”

Placing these in a different envelope, I put the second set of documents on top of the first and looked back at my overflowing inbox. I sighed.

So much completed, and yet still so much left to go...!

I’d spent so much time on Professor Matsuyama’s case these past few days that I hadn’t been able to get any of my other work done. All of my outstanding reports, errands and sketch jobs lay in a thick stack, crammed into an increasingly full inbox as the days slowly wore on. I was hoping to make a dent in my backlog yesterday but when Nomura had called, I’d been forced to push everything else aside so that I could find the professor in time.

The good news was that my sacrifices had not been in vain. The paramedics had taken the professor to the hospital the moment we got outside, where he’d be kept in the hospital for monitoring until they were sure he could be safely released.

The bad news, however...

I grimaced as the pile of documents on my top shelf sagged and fell over in the tray, noting how it looked like there were even more of them when the papers were fanned out like that.

How the hell was I going to get these done by the end of the week?

“Kusunokiiii-kuuun~!”

I sighed and brought my fingers to my temple just as a familiar grinning face appeared over the set of trays.

“What is it, Dazai-san?”

“‘What is it?’” Dazai sighed , visibly sagging as he repeated my words back to me. “Good grief, you sound exactly like Kunikiiida-kun. Just how much time have you been spending with that man, anyway?”

“A normal amount!” I retorted heatedly, glaring at Dazai as he stifled a snicker behind one half-bandaged hand. “I don’t like what you’re suggesting, Dazai-san.”

“Oh, you don’t, do you?” Dazai quipped, his eyebrows shooting straight up into his hair. “Really, now? Because I could swear I saw you doodling his picture in the corner of your notes at the meeting this morning—”

“No, I wasn’t!” I lied, instantly flushing red. “And what were you looking at my notes for anyway, you should’ve been paying attention and taking your own—!”

“But your handwriting is so much neater than mine,” Dazai whined. “If I took any notes at all, they’d just end up looking like chicken scratch and then I’d be unable to decipher any of it later—”

“So then just type them on your —!”

“ Oh, hey, that’s right!” Dazai suddenly exclaimed, snapping his fingers together and com pletely ignoring my outburst . “ I heard about this hot new pop-up cafe that’ s being hosted at the Isezaki Mall. If you buy a coffee and pastry combo order, they’ll give you a free keychain, featuring one of those cute new mascot characters just released by Sunrio!”

I forgot my rage in an instant.

“ For real?!” I cried, jumping out of my chair as Dazai moved back to his station and began typing into the computer. “ Do they have that cute red panda?”

“ Of course!” Dazai chirped, shooting me a wide grin as I ran over to his desk and gawped at the cafe’s homepage screen. “See look, there she is.”

“ She’s so cuuuute!”

I stopped cooing over the screen abruptly when I realized Dazai had successfully conned me into coming over to his desk to goof off.

And it wasn’t just that. I was sticking so close to him that our arms were actually touching and I’d nearly grabbed his hand over the mouse.

“I mean.”

I coughed and turned away from him .

“ Why are you showing me this, Dazai - san ?” I asked suspiciously. “Don’t tell me there’s something you want me to get you from this cafe? Is it the keychain? Do you want me to bring you the one you want because you’re too embarrassed to go into a cafe that sells cutesy things? Or...”

My eyes narrowed.

“ Do you want me to bring one back, regardless of which character I get specifically because it’s a choking hazard? Are your plans for suicide really that inane?”

“ Kusunoki- kun !” Dazai gasped, looking genuinely shocked. “I’m surprised at you! That’s really insensitive you know, calling my plans for suicide inane when you’ve just saved a man from killing himself yesterday . Have some respect!”

“ Respect?!”

I threw up my hands in disbelief.

“ You’re telling me to have some respect when you’re the one going on about this like it’s all some big joke—”

“ You’re the one treating my greatest aspiration as a joke!” Dazai whined.

“Ugh!!”

Spinning on my heel, I stormed back to my desk.

“I can’t believe you,” I grumbled under my breath, “getting me to get all cozy with you over my love of cute mascot characters.”

“ Ah, and there it is again,” Dazai sang, his voice pitching up into a lilt. “You’re talking like Kunikiiiida- kun again!”

“So what if I am?” I griped, sitting down heavily at my desk as several more papers slid out of the file tray and onto my open laptop. “ He’s a great guy and I look up to him and I happen to li—”

I closed my mouth immediately as Dazai’s expression went from amused to outright excited. His big brown eyes were sparkling.

“Go on,” he prodded me, leaning so far forward onto my inbox that I could see his bandaged elbows poking out over the top tray. “You were gonna say something, weren’t you? (“No!” I shrieked.) Oh, oh wait.”

He tapped his chin and frowned, thinking to himself for a moment.

“No, that won’t do,” he mumbled, looking away from me and at the floor. “Even if there’s nobody else here right now, we’re in the middle of the office. Anyone could walk in at any time and hear you say it. Yeah...”

Dazai nodded sagely to himself and returned his attention to me.

“I got it. Why don’t we go to the client booth, where we definitely won’t be overheard, and then you can practice saying it to me, first?”

I felt my mouth drop open.

“What?!”

“ Well, I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Dazai drawled, absentmindedly running his finger over the bandages on his neck, as if to make sure they were staying fully in place. “I mean, you couldn’t even say it to me that day in the conference room and we were completely alone then too.”

He tilted his head to the side, his darkened bangs falling just so about his inquisitive brown eyes.

“How are you gonna say it to Kunikida- kun in person if you can’t even say it to me? ”

I bit my lip and looked away.

“I... I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“B-because!”

I felt my face growing hot again as I grabbed a random document and tried to figure out where it belonged.

“I just can’t, okay?! I’m not ready!”

“You sure about that?” Dazai asked, his tone changing to something softer. “ You certainly seem like you’re more comfortable with it than you used to be.”

He leaned forward on top of my tray tower.

“Kusunoki- kun ... Sometimes things happen that you’re not ready for. Things like developing feelings for someone... That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to act on those feelings.”

He let his chin sink into his hands.

“ Even if you’re not sure it’s right .”

The document slipped in my hands.

Dazai...?

I looked back up at him.

“Dazai- san...?”

“Hm?”

Was he still talking about me and Kunikida right now?

Falling silent, I found myself staring back into Dazai’s inscrutable brown eyes.

Or was he talking about something else...?

I cleared my throat.

“Why are you so interested in all this, anyway?” I asked quietly , shooting a discreet look around the office to make sure no one was paying attention.

Kyouka and Atsushi and Kunikida weren’t here right now, so Dazai and I were the only ones at our usual work stations...

Was it really safe to talk about it? Right here, right now?

“ Me?” Dazai asked, blinking at me. “Hmm, well...”

He leaned his cheek into his hand, smiling wistfully at me .

“Maybe I just feel like looking after my cute kohai today.”

Something tightened around my chest.

“Dazai-san...”

Why is it so hard to breathe when he smiles at me like that...?

“ Anyway,” he said, taking his elbows off my paper tray at last , “I wanted to show you the cafe because I thought it would be a nice date spot for you to visit with Kunikida - kun after the two of you become an item.”

“Wha—?!” I opened and closed my mouth several times before I could make another sound. “D-date spot?! Dazai-san, don’t you think you’re getting a little—?!”

“ Do I even want to know,” Kunikida’s tired voice suddenly rang out nearby, “why you’re talking about date spots right now? Dazai- san ? Kusunoki- kun ?”

I went completely rigid.

“K-Kunikida- san?! ”

“ Oh, Kunikiiida- kun !!”

Dazai instantly brightened up.

“Hey, great timing! Listen, there’s this cafe that my client’s been wanting us to check out and—”

“ Cut the crap , Dazai,” Kunikida growled. “ Can’t you see Kusunoki’s got enough on her plate right now, as it is? Stop distracting her and get back to work.”

“ Aw, you’re no fun, Kunikiiida- kun ,” Dazai drawled, typing away at his computer. “And here we were just trying to figure out what kind of food you’d want to order from the cafe. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say someone was jealous... ”

“Dazai-san!!”

I got to my feet as Kunikida immediately turned beet-red.

“What are you—?!”

“ Oh, would you look at that,” Dazai suddenly cried, “I’m getting a phone call—from a very important client! Excuse me, Kusunoki- kun , Kunikiiida- kun —but I have to take this.”

Grinning, he whipped his phone out of his pocket and put it to his ear.

“ Ah, by the way, Kusunoki- kun ?”

He winked .

“Remember what I said, okay? You can do it! I believe in you.”

And with that, he left his desk, his sing-song tone of voice making me think there wasn’t anyone on the other end of the line at all.

“ Yes? Hello?” he chirped, tucking his free hand into his pocket and walking out into the hall.

I slapped a hand over my face and groaned.

One of these days, I’m gonna make Dazai pay for all of his teasing. Maybe give him a taste of his own medicine—

“ Kusunoki- kun? ”

I snapped to attention.

“ Kunikida- san? ”

“I got a call this morning from the hospital,” he said, taking out his notebook and leafing through its pages. “It seems Professor Matsuyama is doing well and can now have visitors.”

He jutted his thumb back towards the door.

“I thought you might want to pay him a visit? I can drive you in about thirty minutes if you don’t mind waiting for me to finish some paperwork.”

“ Are you sure?” I asked, taken aback. “I can take the train if you’re busy.”

But Kunikida shook his head slightly.

“ Actually, I’d like to go with you. If that’s okay with you, that is.”

I felt my mouth dropping open.

In what world would that not be okay?

“That’s fine,” I said, nodding appreciatively, “but why? I took the case on my own and I was the one who, uh...”

I made a face.

“...knocked out the professor while trying to save him.”

“Er, that’s part of why,” Kunikida said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away . “While you did make that decision on your own, I, uh, can’t help but feel somewhat responsible for it, s ince I was the one who taught you how to do that throw in the first place. I am still technically your superior, after all and I feel like it would be bad form for me not to go. Oh! But—”

He quickly turned back to me, putting his hand out in a placating gesture.

“I’m not blaming you at all for what happened, don’t get me wrong! You still managed to get him away from that hole in the wall and in doing so, saved his life. The doctors tell me that other than the concussion, he was completely uninjured. Moreover...”

His gaze softened.

“He seems to be doing better. Mentally and emotionally. They’ll keep him on suicide watch for the next few days but the psychiatrist on staff seems to think he’ll be alright. So.”

He pulled out his chair and opened up his laptop.

“Give me thirty minutes and I’ll drive you to the hospital. Alright?”

My heart soared.

“Yes!”

Music 2

“ K-Kunikida- san ...”

I tightened my grip on my seat belt, wincing as another loud grinding noise echoed throughout the car.

“A-are you sure the car is—”

“Ah.”

I couldn’t see the blonde detective’s eyes behind the glare of his rectangular glasses in the bright midday light but his tone sounded far too calm for my liking.

“As I said earlier, Kusunoki- kun, ” he said as another loud groan rose up from under the seats. “The damage to the car was minimal. Rest assured, we won’t have a problem getting to the hospital.”

As if on cue, the car let out an ear-splitting squeal.

Kunikida’s jaw tightened.

“But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to stop by a mechanic’s on the way back.”

“ Y-yeah...”

I tried not to wince when the car steadily slowed towards the intersection, the brakes letting out an unnecessarily loud squeal as we rolled to a stop.

Just how much damage had been done by our little trip yesterday?!

I swallowed uneasily.

“Uh. Kunikida- san ?”

“Yes?”

I tried not to make a face.

“Please, take the costs for the repair out of my paycheck.”

I sank down a little into my seat as the light turned green and the car let out another subtle whine.

“I was the one who asked you to drive us to the abandoned dormitory,” I mumbled, “and the car belongs to the Agency, so...”

“I already told you, Kusunoki- kun ,” Kunikida rumbled. “It’s not a problem. This was a necessary business expenditure and we should have more than enough—”

The car let out another loud groan.

“— just enough,” he amended, taking one hand off the wheel to adjust his glasses, “to cover the costs. But, I appreciate the offer.”

“Right...”

Trying as hard as I could to ignore the subsiding noises coming out of the car, I studied my tall, blonde companion.

I’d completely forgotten about the damage to the car until we’d started driving. From the sound of it, the vehicle was in pretty bad shape, despite how it looked, and I couldn’t help but feel a tiny stab of guilt every time it made a noise or shuddered.

And now that I was thinking about it, I had no idea what kind of shape the professor was going to be in. Sure, Kunikida had said the doctors were looking after him and maybe the paramedics had declared him to be okay while they were loading him into the ambulance but then, again...

I snuck a glance at Kunikida, whose eyes were still fixed straight ahead on the road (at least, that’s what I thought... I still couldn’t see his eyes thanks to the reflection from the sun and his expression was inappropriately neutral).

How okay could the professor actually be, if Kunikida felt compelled to come visit my client in the hospital as my superior?!

And wasn’t he a little too calm about the state of the car?!

I brought my hand to my face, absentmindedly chewing on the edges of my nails.

What if Kunikida had just been lying to make me feel better earlier? What if the professor was actually in a coma and Kunikida was coming to make a formal apology?

What if this was my last job and they were going to fire me?!

I clapped my hands over my face and let out a tiny whine.

“Kusunoki.”

I sank further into my seat at the sudden sound of Kunikida’s voice.

“... Yes?” I managed, my voice so small and muffled that I hardly recognized it as my own.

Here it comes... the real truth! He’s gonna let me have it for sure— ***

“ About yesterday,” Kunikida started, his voice suddenly faltering.

The corner of his lip turned downwards in a frown and without meaning to, I shrank away from him.

“ I’m sorry.”

I stopped cringing immediately.

“Wuh...?”

“ I shouldn’t have yelled at you after th at last training session,” Kunikida said, his voice weary. “ I realized my mistake the moment you walked out. The truth is, I was actually hoping to find you and apologize to you a lot sooner than this, but then all those things happened and I didn’t get the chance. Kusunoki- kun , I...”

His grip tightened on the steering wheel.

“ I’m really sorry. What I did was completely unprofessional and I’m afraid that I may have damaged our working relationship because of it. ”

He slumped a little in his seat.

“I hope you can find it in yourself to forgive me. If you want to resume the training sessions, although I can understand your reasons if you don’t...”

He trailed off.

I felt a familiar squeeze in my chest as I looked upon his face.

If only I could reach over and take his hand right now...

My fingers twitched in my lap.

“Anyway,” Kunikida continued, looking down at the wheel, as the car slowly rolled to a soft, quiet stop at the next stop light. “What I wanted to say was this: if you want to come back and continue training with me, I’d be more than happy to keep up the lessons. Only if you feel comfortable enough to, that is.”

He sighed.

“Kunikida-san...”

So that was it...

I kept my hands where they were.

He was just worried about me again...

I felt a small smile coming to my face.

He’s always so kind, isn’t he...?

“ It’s okay...”

Kunikida twitched at the sound of my voice but didn’t look at me.

“Really, I mean that,” I said gently, staring back down at my hands. “ You were just doing your job and looking out for me. So...”

I glanced back up just as Kunikida turned towards me.

I smiled.

“It’s okay.”

Kunikida let out an audible sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness,” he mumbled, his shoulders visibly relaxing as he leaned back in the seat . “ Thank you, Kusunoki. For accepting my clumsy apology.”

“O-of course!” I babbled, a faint blush creeping up the back of my neck. “Thank you for talking to me! I—”

Ahead of us, the light turned green and I stopped talking immediately as the car began to move again and let out another loud, metallic shriek of protest.

“ I’m glad we could clear the air,” I mumbled at last as the car continued down the street.

“I’m glad too,” Kunikida breathed.

For a moment, there was silence, briefly punctuated by odd rattles coming from the machinery below the seats. Then, Kunikida spoke again.

“By the way, Kusunoki- kun ?”

“ Hm?”

“I meant what I said earlier,” he said, staring straight ahead at the road as we slowly turned onto the next street. “Knowing you, I’m sure you’re a little concerned about how the professor’s doing, given that he’s in the hospital and all. But let me reassure you, he’s fine.”

He shot me a quick little look over his shoulder as we pulled into a wide parking lot.

“The doctors told me there’s no need to worry about his physical condition. He merely suffered a minor concussion and a few bruises when you threw him back into the room. If anything, they wanted me to thank you.”

“Th-thank me?!” I sputtered, clutching at my seat belt.

“Yeah,” Kunikida said, allowing the car to roll to a stop.

He looked at me.

“They said if he’d managed to throw himself outside like he’d planned, he wouldn’t have made it.”

Kunikida smiled.

“You did good, Kusunoki. You really did. You solved your first solo case completely on your own and not only did you tie up all loose ends you came across, but you saved a man’s life in the process. Really, I’m...”

His smile grew and I swear I felt my heart stop dead in my chest.

“I’m so proud of you.”

Kunikida-san...!!

Mouth dry, my pulse pounding in my ears, I stared at the handsome blonde detective sitting next to me in the driver’s seat, smiling like I’d never seen him smile before.

In my mind’s eye, I saw Dazai winking at me as he scurried away to take his fake phone call.

“Remember what I said, Kusunoki-kun! You can do it!”

I swallowed dryly, my pulse racing even faster.

“K-Kunikida- san ...”

I clutched at the seat belt across my chest, feeling like my heart would burst.

“I...”

“I believe in you...!” Dazai’s voice called.

Gripping my seat belt tightly in my hands, I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Kunikida- san , I—!”

The car suddenly let out another loud, obnoxious whine.

“ Ah... ”

Kunikida coughed a little and reached over to turn off the engine. While I was trying to work myself up into confessing, we’d pulled into a parking space and had stopped entirely.

I couldn’t help the weird strangled noise coming out of my throat as Kunikida suddenly slammed his foot down against the floor to stop the residual noise from the car.

“Sorry about that, Kusunoki- kun ,” he mumbled awkwardly.

He tilted his head toward the window, to indicate the large, white building outside.

“But, I think we’re here.”

He took the car keys out of the ignition and pocketed them, swapping them out for his notebook.

Kunikida glanced at me.

“Were you saying something?”

I let go of the seat belt and sighed.

“N-no.”

Maybe next time...

I shot him an awkward smile, my cheeks burning softly in the silence.

“ Don’t worry about it ...”

Music 3

I gingerly knocked on the door to the room, a bouquet of flowers clutched in my free hand.

“P-Professor Matsuyama?”

The sound of chatter in the room died immediately.

Nomura waved to me from his place by the window.

“Kusunoki- san !” he called, his tone cheerful. “ Please come in, we were just talking about you!”

“O-oh, is that so...” I mumbled, stepping softly into the room as Kunikida followed along.

“ Kusunoki- san .”

Professor Matsuyama sat up a little in his bed as I approached, his pale gray hospital gown shifting slightly with his movements. He looked tired and there was a large bandage stuck to the middle of his forehead but other than that, he seemed perfectly fine.

The professor smiled.

“ O h! D affodils,” he chuckled, taking the arrangement from me. “Did you get these from that flower shop in town? Or—”

“They’re from the one down the road,” I said quickly, as Kunikida shot me a questioning glance (I never told him I’d followed the professor under Nomura’s direction or that Dazai had encouraged it). “I hope they’re okay...”

Professor Matsuyama nodded at me, the crow’s feet prominent at the corners of his eyes as his smile widened.

“They’re very thoughtful, thank you.”

“I also brought this,” I mumbled, reaching into my bag for the dusty globe, the one that the professor had sent me just a few days ago . “I thought you might want it back.”

But the professor shook his head.

“Keep it,” he said, placing one hand on its yellowed surface and gently pushing it back towards me. “I said it was a thank you present, didn’t I? And I meant it. Besides.”

His dark eyes twinkled.

“I get the feeling Kei would want you to have it too.”

“Professor...”

But before I could ask him what he meant, Professor Matsuyama turned to Kunikida, who was standing just behind me.

“You must be Detective Kunikida,” he said, inclining his head in a formal bow as Kunikida stepped forward beside me and did the same. “ Thank you very much for coming to visit me today as well. I appreciate the gesture.”

“How are your injuries?” Kunikida asked, as the two men straightened back up. “The doctors informed us that you’re not pressing any formal charges?”

I jerked back.

Formal charges?! Wait, why didn’t Kunikida mention anything about that back there in the car? Is this why he was really here?!

I felt the blood draining from my face.

As I thought, he really was still treating me with kid gloves and there really were going to be consequences later...! I’m gonna get written up later for sure...!!

But to my surprise, Professor Matsuyama only laughed.

“No, no, of course not,” he chuckled. “Why would I, when your subordinate’s quick thinking and technical skill are the only reason I’m still alive?”

He looked from Kunikida to me fondly and I tried not to make a face.

“That was quite a throw she managed to pull off. Incapacitating me to prevent me from leaping out the third story with only minimal injury?”

Sweat was pouring down the back of my head .

The lack of injury was purely an accident. If things had gone a little worse, I might’ve actually broken the professor’s neck, and then there really would be hell to pay...

Professor Matsuyama nodded slowly as a nervous-looking Nomura rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.

“Impressive.”

“Th-thank you...” Kunikida mumbled, sounding every bit as awkward as I felt as I rushed to bow next to him. “ As a gesture of apology, the Agency would be more than willing to pay for your hospital fees.”

“That’s a very nice gesture,” the professor said kindly, “and while I appreciate it, I don’t believe there is very much you need to compensate us for.”

He tapped the bandage on his forehead with a small smile.

“I don’t believe they charge a fortune for things like this. On the other hand, Nomura- kun tells me you’ve sustained quite the amount damage to your vehicle during your attempt to rescue me.”

I shot Nomura a look, which he deftly avoided.

“I believe my severance can help cover whatever Nomura- kun wouldn’t be able to. If that’s alright.”

Kunikida bowed again.

“ Thank you, sir. Again, we appreciate it.”

The professor gestured to the empty chair next to Nomura.

“Would either of you like to take a seat? Now that I’ve been up and about for some time, I feel I could use a chat.”

I felt a subtle pressure on my back as Kunikida pushed me forward with one large hand.

“I get the feeling there’s a little more you want to talk about before we wrap up today’s visit,” he murmured, his voice low in my ear. “Take your time, okay? I’ll be outside if you need me.”

He straightened back up, taking his olive-green notebook out of his vest.

“Then, please excuse me.”

Another set of bows were exchanged and Kunikida left, leaving me alone with Nomura and the professor. Not knowing what else to do, I took a seat.

“Kusunoki-san.”

“ Sir?”

“ Nomura- kun and I were talking earlier,” the professor said, “about some things. I believe I asked you before when we were still in the dormitory but...”

He frowned, studying me.

“How did you find out where I was? Nomura- kun mentioned that you have an Ability of some sort, as do many of the detectives who work at the Agency but he seemed unsure of exactly how it happened?”

Ah...

President Fukuawa had mentioned at this morning’s meeting that because I was still technically in hiding from the Port Mafia, even though it seemed they weren’t looking for me, no one was to breathe a word of my Ability to the outside world.

I cleared my throat.

“ I’m afraid that’s classified, sir,” I said, inclining my head slightly. “ We asked Nomura- kun to sign an NDA at the beginning when I took his case but...”

“Oh, well in that case,” the professor agreed, as Nomura suddenly blanched next to him.

It looks like he forgot...

“ Forget I asked,” he said, handing the bouquet of daffodils to Nomura to be placed in a vase. “We have much better things to talk about than the incident itself.”

Right...

I chewed the inside of my cheek.

I guess that’s what he wants to call it from now on...

“ Professor,” I started, making the man perk up. “I’m glad to see you seem to be doing okay. How much longer do you think you’re going to be here?”

“Only a day or two,” the professor responded, glancing out the window. “The psychiatrist said he wants to keep me on observation for a little while longer, but it shouldn’t be too much.”

“I see...” I said, my thoughts going to Natsuki, who I hadn’t seen since I spoke to her in the graveyard that day. “Then, about your wife...”

“Natsuki was told that I’d had a bad fall while taking a hike on campus,” the professor said, as Nomura looked away. “I asked Nomura- kun to call her and tell her that he’d found me wandering around the woods behind the library and that I’d hit my head on a low-hanging branch. From the sound of it, she seemed to find it plausible.”

“ Oh...”

I lowered my gaze.

So he really was planning to keep it a secret. Even now...

“ You’re not going to tell her, are you?”

“No, I don’t think I should,” the professor said, his voice low. “I’ve caused her enough grief as it is. You were right about what you said back at the dormitory, Kusunoki- san . Natsuki would indeed be terribly upset if she were to find out what I’d almost done.”

He looked back at Nomura and then at me.

“I think I’d be doing her a kindness by not telling her the truth.”

I bit my lip.

But isn’t that what got you here in the first place? Not talking to your wife? When you both suffer because of the same things?

“ Ku sunoki - san ...” Nomura spoke up. “ I know how you feel.”

He glanced at the man sitting in the bed.

“I tried talking to him about this earlier too, but...”

I shook my head.

“No, I understand,” I sighed. “It’s not our place to interfere in something that might impact their marriage.”

I looked at the older man.

“ I won’t say anything to Natsuki- san ,” I promised. “But... I do think it might be helpful...”

I pictured the faded, white chrysanthemums the professor had brought lying side by side with the Adonis blossoms Natsuki had brought on Kei’s grave.

“To the both of you... if you were one day to change your mind.”

The professor nodded.

“I’ll talk it over with the psychiatrist.”

I glanced at Nomura.

“Sorry, Nomura- san . I think we’re going to have to let him and Natsuki- san sort it out—”

“ Then it’s a good thing I already knew.”

All three of us turned to the door.

“Matsuyama- san! ”

I rose from my seat as Matsuyama Natsuki stepped into the room.

“ You think I’d believe,” she said softly, her long lashes lowered over her doe-like brown eyes, “that my husband, the kind of man who writes up an entire schedule and pins it to the refrigerator before he goes out for the day , would go hiking in the woods without leaving me so much as a note?”

She shook her head gently and smiled.

“I don’t think so.”

“ Natsuki...” the professor breathed, his eyes wide behind his thick glasses as his wife brushed past the empty bed by the door and floated over to us, looking graceful in her pale shawl and dress.

She stopped at the foot of the bed, next to me and bowed slightly.

“We meet again,” she said kindly, as I nodded my head back. “Good to see you again, Nomura- kun , Kusunoki- san .”

Her eyes shone as she turned her gaze to me.

“Thank you so much for taking care of my husband.”

She bowed even lower.

“I don’t know how I could possibly thank you.”

“ Matsuyama- san ...”

I watched as she straightened up. The professor swallowed and adjusted his glasses.

“ Natsuki... How much did you hear?”

“Everything,” Natsuki said quietly , closing her eyes. “ I arrived just as that tall man in the hallway stepped out of this room. He told me I could go in but I insisted on staying out there so that I could listen.”

She opened her eyes, her expression downcast and sighed.

“I apologize for having to behave in this way, but I suspected something was wrong from the moment Nomura- kun called. I realized that if I wanted to get the full story, I was going to have to do some sneaking around.”

She brought her hand up to her mouth and let out a tiny giggle.

“I suppose I could apply to work at your Agency too, if this keeps up,” she joked, to which I could only make a strange face.

She seems like a capable person, but I cannot picture Natsuki catching bombers and fighting against the Port Mafia. Moreover, would Dazai have the audacity to hit on a married woman...?

Seemingly oblivious to my train of thought, Natsuki turned back to her husband.

“Shin.”

Professor Matsuyama sat up in his bed.

“Yes, dear?”

“I have something I want to reveal to you as well. I’ve been visiting Kei’s grave at least once a year since the time that he died.”

Professor Matsuyama’s eyes widened.

“You what?”

“Usually on his birthday so I can bring him a gift.”

“Ah...”

The professor looked away.

“So, it’s as I thought,” he mumbled. “You really do still have feelings for—”

“ I do not,” Natsuki declared, cutting him off.

Her voice was loud and clear.

“Please rest assured, Shin. The only person I have feelings for at this time is you . While Kei and I may have had feelings for each other at different points in time, please remember...”

ED Theme

** I heard a loud sniff.

Shocked, Nomura and I turned to Natsuki to see that there were tears in her big brown eyes. Before I knew what was happening, she tossed her bag on the ground and threw herself onto her husband’s bed.

“M-Matsuyama- san?! ” I squawked, panicking alongside Nomura.

“The one I chose to marry was you! ” she cried , burying her face in the covers. “I love you, Shin! Don’t you dare try to leave me again!”

And without another word, she dissolved into a fit of noisy sobs.

“Shiiiiinnnnn—!!”

As the professor put an uneasy hand on the back of Natsuki’s head, smoothing back her long, sandy hair with one large hand, I patted Nomura on the shoulder and inclined my head out towards the door to indicate we should leave.

Thankfully, Nomura seemed to get the message.

“ Er , please excuse us.”

But as Nomura dashed out ahead of me, his face beet-red, I heard Professor Matsuyama calling out to me over the sound of his wife’s wails.

“Kusunoki- san? ”

I turned.

“Y-yes?”

“ About that globe...”

Professor Matsuyama smiled.

“I don’t believe I got the chance to tell you this earlier,” he said as Natsuki continued hiccuping into the covers. “But the real reason I’m giving it to you?”

He paused.

“I don’t know what kind of power your Ability grants you, but back then, maybe a split second before you grabbed me, I thought I heard a voice in my head...”

His voice broke and I realized with a start that there were tears in his eyes too. They caught the light reflected from his glasses and seemed to shine in the bright sunlight streaming in from the windows.

“It was Kei. Before I felt your hand on my wrist, I felt his. I felt his hand tugging on mine, as if he was trying to pull me back from the brink. He... he tried to stop me.”

He took his glasses off for a moment and wiped at his eyes with his free hand, his other hand never leaving his wife’s shoulder.

“I just wanted to tell you that before you left. That globe is a thank you, from both Kei and me. You have our thanks. And...”

The professor paused to run his hand through his wife’s hair one more time.

“Natsuki’s too. Thank you again, and take care.”

I bowed low.

And as I turned back towards the door, leaving the Matsuyama’s to their time alone, I heard the professor utter a small, soft reassurance.

“I love you too, Natsuki...”

He bent down and kissed the top of her head.

“ I promise... I’ll never hide anything from you again...” ***

Stepping out into the hall, I found Kunikida waiting there for me, his familiar olive-green notebook held out in front of him in one large hand and his back against the wall. His long legs were crossed in front of him, his expression utterly placid and composed and as I followed the line of his gaze as he read through his notes, he seemed to realize I was there and closed his notebook.

Those beautiful gray-green eyes looked down towards me and I felt a sudden but subtle twinge in my chest as I looked up at my handsome mentor.

“The one I chose was you!” Natsuki’s voice echoed back to me. “I love you!”

My face warmed.

“ Ready to go?” Kunikida asked, to which I nodded.

“Yeah. Looks like we’re all done here.”

He checked his watch.

“Right on time,” he said, walking towards me as we headed down the hall together. “Well done, Kusunoki. I’m glad I didn’t have to remind you not to tell them about your Ability back there. For a second, I was worried.”

“I pay attention at the meetings,” I mumbled, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

The globe clunked noisily next to me in my bag and I hoisted the whole thing a little higher up so it wouldn’t be so loud.

“Speaking of which, I actually wanted to ask you about something,” he said, as we came to the elevators and stepped inside.

The doors closed and he shot a curious glance down at me.

“How did you remove yourself from your vision when you were using your Ability on Nomura?” he asked. “I realized when I was in the client booth with you that I didn’t hear the sound of a timer and that your phone in your bag never went off. Does this mean that you’ve figured out how to stop or cancel your Ability somehow? Or that it’s actually evolved again.”

He took his notebook back out to write but I shook my head .

“ I don’t think so,” I mumbled, rubbing the back of my head. “While I was in there, I didn’t actually make an effort to pull myself out. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to need to see. And in the heat of the moment, I completely forgot to set a timer or an alarm.”

Kunikida frowned.

He seemed like he wanted to chide me for being reckless again but he held his tongue.

“Then, how did you do it?”

“That’s the thing,” I said slowly. “I... didn’t. I think the reason I got pushed out had something to do with Nomura-san’s mental state.”

Kunikida raised an eyebrow.

“ His mental state ?”

I nodded.

“Y-yeah. When I have my visions, I step into the consciousness of the person I’m touching. Not only do I see what they’re seeing, but I feel what they feel. I think in this case, Nomura- san’s feelings were so strong that they actually pushed me out.”

I looked down at my hands as the elevator began to descend.

“I felt it... I felt his devastation. Nomura- san was so upset by the death of his mentor that he had a full-on breakdown. He was so upset that when I came out, I was still disoriented.”

“But your eyes—”

“I think,” I mumbled sheepishly, “that had more to do with the amount of time I was in there, rather than the actual contents of the vision. Maybe.”

I turned towards him with a nervous smile as the elevator pinged.

“I guess we’ll see, huh?”

Kunikida sighed.

“I guess so.”

He tucked his hands into his pockets and walked through the open doors.

“Just remember to be careful from now on, okay?”

“Yes!”

And as I watched him walk out of the hospital doors and towards the parking lot outside, I thought of the professor’s words.

“I’ll never hide anything from you again.”

Gripping my bag tightly in my hands, I whispered something quietly under my breath.

“Kunikida- san ... I love you.”

Realizing I hadn’t followed him outside, Kunikida turned back towards me.

“Kusunoki?”

I shook my head and smiled .

“It’s nothing.”

Next week...

I felt my smile growing bigger. Something was dancing inside my chest.

“Shall we get going? To the mechanic’s first, maybe?”

By the end of next week.

Kunikida nodded.

“Sounds good,” he said, checking his watch again . “I’ve set aside exactly forty-five minutes for it.”

I will confess my love to Kunikida Doppo by the end of next week.

I couldn’t suppress the tiny giggle as I stepped out through the hospital doors into the bright sunlight to join him .

“You got it.”

[dragonindigo245]

Project [Redacted]

Heyo!!! This is a WIP story I'm doing with the amazing @pawton-meowity! Hope you enjoy! The odd numbered chapters will be posted on their Tumblr while the even ones will be on mine. Feel free to request to be added to the tag list for updates! Thanks! 💚🖤💚

Tw: Tramatic flashbacks

————

Chapter 4: P.O.V of Virgil

“I have just the thing for you.” I felt the inside of my hoodie pocket with a smile creeping across my face. Logan raised an eyebrow as I pulled out what they would probably assume to be a bracelet.

“I have a few extra of these. They hide your powers from detectors at the cost of nullifying them. As long as they don’t know your face then they won’t know it’s you they’re after. Course you’ll probably have to wear long sleeves to hide them because the uh.. ‘burn brothers’ know what they are. You’re alright Princey but Logan and Patton need to wear a hoodie or something.” When I explained this, Patton sucked in a large breath of air and fiddled with his hands.

“Ah well… that’s a problem… you see I’m in nursing school so we kinda… ya know… need our sleeves up sometimes.”

Well shit. This is going to be harder than I thought. I pondered for a few moments debating over to risk it and have him wear the nullifier unless he was doing hands on stuff or to have him go without until I can build him one to go somewhere else than his wrist. Course life isn’t just simple enough to let us get away with this. Of fucking course it isn’t.

“Language Virge!! My my, your mind is like the plague!” Remus said amused.

Gee thanks Remus. Totally needed that.

“You’re welcome! Seriously though! Nasty boy... I love it!” I rolled my eyes at this and decided to go with the first option.

“Alright Pat, just take off the nullifier when you need to do something like that. Otherwise it needs to stay on. That goes for you too, Logan. Do NOT take it off unless you need to hide it. If you take it off then you can and will be spotted. You’ll be surprised how they can find you.”

Patton and Logan both nodded in agreement. Thankfully they were easier to work with than Princey. I stood up and walked across the room to the dresser I had full of gadgets. Agh I can never remember which drawer they’re in. Nope that one's teleporters… weaponry… there we go. I pulled an extra nullifier out and closed the drawer. Patton received the one I had in my hoodie pocket while Logan got the one from the dresser.

“Keep alert. The nullifier can only do so much. There are other ways of finding you they can exploit. Do not use technology to talk about your powers unless you’re in need of help. Do not talk to anyone you do not trust about your powers. And above all do not use your powers outside of the forest or your rooms. They have eyes everywhere.” Patton nodded slowly and slightly spooked.

“What… what do we do if we get found out? I don’t want another… Logan incident. I’m sure none of us want to get… s-shot at.” This poor kid really shouldn’t be in this mess of all people. He looked ready to crumble.

“If you’re found out we’ll drop whatever we are doing and come to your location but… if you are found out then you’re either going to get captured or you’re going to have to hide for the rest of your life.” Patton winced and pulled his legs to his chest. Logan, on the other hand, seemed deep in thought but otherwise unphased. He was evidently hard to scare.

The room sat in an uncomfortable silence (minus Remus humming) for a little while. I was frankly shocked more over Roman keeping his mouth shut for so long. Well that can be used to lighten the mood at least.

“No witty comment from Disney Wince? Finally coming to grips with the reality of our situation?” I moved over to my original spot on the couch and watched Roman try to form a sentence.

“I… Can I ask… no scratch that. I-” Remus cut in, highly energetic but clearly a bit frazzled.

“Oooo! You wanna know what would happen if any of you three got captured? Well first they-” Thankfully Dee shut Remus down real quick by holding a finger up to Remus’s mouth. Thank god, I don’t want to think about that.

“Virgil Nimbus… age 21… how the hell did this kid get in here?”

“He snuck in to free some of our subjects. He almost got subjects D3D31T and R3M7 out. Luckily we got one of our men to shoot him before he did any real damage. He should be waking up soon.”

“Good. We needed more participants.”

“Ah there he is! Hello Virgil. We have a lot to discuss. For starters… how did you get in here? Don’t bother trying to fight, our truth serum is very good at its job.”

“I… I disguised myself as one of the soldiers.”

“Mhm… well we can’t have that happening anymore. Prepare the machines!!! Don’t worry Virgil. After some time you’ll learn to accept this. Some results even showed patients growing numb to it if they’re lucky.”

Can’t think. Stupid drug thing. What’s happening?

“Attach ‘em to him and be sure it’s not so high he blacks out immediately. There’s a point to this and we mustn’t let it go to waste.”

Strapped. Can’t move.

“Don’t bother to fight it Virgil. You’ll be mostly immobile for the whole session.”

Weird things. Attaching to me.

“We’re ready to begin.”

“Good, on my mark. Three… two… one… begin.”

“Agh sorry. I know I shouldn’t ask that out of nowhere… I mean… was it bad? I don’t want my friends to get hurt or have an unfortunate demise.” Roman attempted to correct himself, the words bringing me back to the present as I stifled a gasp. Remus shoved Deceit’s hand away and waved him off.

“Ehhhh they won’t kill ya unless you threaten their lives! Don’t exclude yourself though! They would gladly take you in if they knew you were working with supes! Look at Virgey here!” Remus placed a hand on my arm which made me flinch probably more than he was expecting. He immediately removed his arm and shot me an apologetic look before perking back up like normal. His apologies weren’t exactly the best but at least he cared… as best as he could anyways.

My mind tuned the conversation out to jumbled noises. I just couldn’t deal with anything so… extra right now. I inserted random song lyrics into my head to get my mind off of this. Thankfully I had a few songs memorized and shuffled through those to drown out my other intrusive thoughts.

Hey edgelord, sorry to intrude on your thoughts (not really) but they’re talking about how they’ve missed a class and are working their way towards the whole “we gotta go” sentence.

Crap.

“I’m probably in a decent amount of trouble myself. We should consider leaving… wherever we are to head back. Thank you for your hospitality, you three. I would like to inquire how we make our way back.” Logan pushed. I stretched and turned to the nerd. “We’re on campus. We actually go to your college ourselves. It isn’t hard to figure out where exactly we are.”

Princey stood up dramatically and bowed. “Well then we bid you good tidings weirdos. We shall grant you our phone numbers and depart!” I rolled my eyes and smirked.

“Wow. I thought you couldn’t get more extra but boy was I wrong. You surprise me by being an annoying, spoiled kid.”

Roman made a noise that could only be described as an offended drama queen half gasp, half screech. Honestly I don’t even know how his vocal cords allow him to do that. “EXCUSE me? Annoying?!? Kid?!? How dare you! I am neither of those! Just because you have your fancy gadgets and knowledge on the comic book villains doesn’t mean you can undermine my glory, Cruella De Vile!”

“Notice how he didn’t say he wasn’t spoiled…” Logan mumbled under his breath.

“Did you insult me, Specs or are you siding with the honorable Roman?”

“Guys! Stop fighting! Come on!” Patton intervened. “Let’s just be friends and get prepared to leave! We already missed choir practice and I need to get ready for my final class! You all do too!”

Roman sighed and said something inaudible, most likely an apology. “Let’s just hand over our numbers and get outta here. I don’t think I can be in the same room as Captain Shook and still have enough edgy nicknames left.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed my phone out of my pocket.

“Yeah yeah, you just wanna leave because I can knock you and your ego down a few notches.” I pulled up my phone number, ignoring Princey and his new offended noises. I handed him my phone and he whipped his out while glaring at me. Yeah that’s about what I expected. He finally handed my phone back and shoved his in a pocket.

“I added Patton and Logan in already. You can text me their numbers later.” Roman hiked a thumb in Dee and Remus’s direction on his usage of the word ‘their,’ before turning back to his friends, “Come on you two. Thanks for backing me up LOGAN.” Logan didn’t indulge Roman by saying anything and instead helped Patton off the couch.

“Thank you so much everyone! It was nice to meet you all! I just wish we could have met under better conditions!” Patton said cheerfully. Everyone said their goodbyes and left the three of us like I preferred. Nobody but the ones I could trust.

“Greetings Virgil! How are we today?”

“...”

“Ah. That is a beautiful silence. Maybe today will be the day you can get your special abilities! Wouldn’t that be exciting?”

“...”

“Well not exciting for you I suppose but you’ve learned that by now. Do you have anything to say before we begin?”

“...”

“I didn’t think so. Proceed as normal.”

Hey. Virgil. Snap out of it buddo.

“Wait… please… I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Excellent. Cancel that last order. A willing subject is a loyal subject. Isn’t that right Virgil?”

Virge! Hey! Damn it, get out of your head.

“...”

“Now then. The real fun begins. Get him strapped down and prepare for trial number one.”

VIRGIL!

I jolted out of my thoughts to find myself on the floor with Dee crouching down to me. Didn’t know how I ended up here but I didn’t particularly want to know.

“Thank you Remus.” Dee said to where I assume Remus was. Dee moved to sit next to me and wrap an arm around my shoulder. I wasn’t not grateful for that but something made me flinch away. Dee recoiled his arm immediately with an apology.

We sat quietly before Dee turned to me with a serious expression. “Virgil. You should talk to us about this. You haven’t told us anything that we can use to help you. We know they’re-”

“It’s fine.”

“You’re on the floor.”

I shrugged and pulled my knees up to my chest. “It’s still fine. I can handle it.”

Dee glared but didn’t push farther. Instead he pushed the subject to a different one. “You know… with an extra three that does mean…”

“No. No way. We are not doing that.”

“I’m just saying it’s an option.”

“We’re not going to put them in danger like that. You saw what they would do to them. They’re scared enough as is.”

“And if we don’t take the chance you know they’ll get caught. They all do.”

“They won’t stand a chance fighting them either. They aren’t experienced in fighting obviously.”

“Virgil… Is this really even about them or are you just afraid?”

“I’m NOT afraid. I’m over that.”

“Just think about it.”

Dee stood up and took a worried glance at me again before leaving the room. I was alone again with nobody but my thoughts.

“Hey… You’re the one who tried to free us that one night.”

“...”

“I have a plan to release everyone in here. It won’t be simple but we can do it. Are you in?”

“...”

“Look… I know they are… intimidating but we can get out of here. My names-”

[rueur]

Morning Pages No. 64

Thursday 28th August - 10:09am

Yeah, I know I missed the #64 on the 27th that I was so excited for on Wednesday, but I was lenient with myself because of work and Dinel’s extra essay lesson last night. Yesterday was just a busy day and Sarah even said that Day 10 should be a rest day. Even so, Day 10 wasn’t even yesterday, but I feel like I was right to give myself a break anyway. That, and I had the hiccups three freaking times yesterday: once on a walk, once during my class with Dinel of all times, and then once after dinner. We had pizza for dinner last night, courtesy of my card. I just felt like ordering a pizza so we got Greenbrook and some of their chips too. Mate. The chips were nice. The bulk of it is still in the fridge so I’m looking forward to eating that later. I have to work on the website. That’s definitely my ‘I have to’ sentence for the week. I don’t know why I keep putting it off? The work I’ve done on it so far was let’s say about 2 hours worth, so that’s $100. And I’m seeing Julie next Wednesday, which will be the 2nd of September, so I’ll be able to get my invoice to her when I go see her too. I should get that invoice done before the meeting, I reckon. I might put some time aside to finalise the invoice on Tuesday. I don’t know why I’m expecting a lot from myself when it comes to the invoice too. I mean, why is it important whether or not I know how to make the invoice look pretty? It’s just an invoice, it’s totally back-end and functional, and it doesn’t need to reflect on my professionalism whatsoever. Julie’s probably never even seen a freelance communications consultant’s invoice before, so I can just do whatever I want. I’m going to use the agency’s template invoice of course, but how do you measure hours? Maybe I should look at my work invoice too, or even at Evan’s work invoice. Maybe one from when he was still working. 

I feel a bit badly for Lonzo right now, because we both just woke up and now we’re both doing our own thing. I’m a bit annoyed at Evan too because he’s just obsessed with all the fitness/training/Kelley Starrett stuff that he’s been doing, but it’s like HYPER mode over the past few days. And I’ve barely been able to hang out with him, and I hate it. Even now, I want to just chill and play Breath of the Wild for a bit and he’s in the other room glued to his laptop. And he’s stoned all the time. It’s irritating. 

So I just had a good cry in front of him and now he’s staring into space out the living room window. It’s interesting, a few days ago I remember saying we hadn’t had one of these fights where there are huge bouts of silence for a while, and here we are. I guess I jinxed it. I’m waiting for him to say something, but also I need to go about my day so I’m still typing as I wait. It’s probably a good idea to record this exact moment as it’s happening, right? Honestly probably not. I want to follow the ethos that life comes before art. If ever there is an opportunity to live over writing, that opportunity to live takes precedence. Fighting is living. This is a visceral portion of all relationships, and I should be present for it. But in my defence, so should he. And he’s not. He’s just staring out the window. I can stare at his face for a second or two at a time and I see the process of thoughts coming in and out of his mind, but that’s it. He’s made no effort to comfort me, which means that his stance is different to mine. He most likely thinks I’m being unreasonable. I hate that way he says ‘sorry’ like it’s an arbitrary sorry because he thinks that I want to hear that, but his tone is absolutely anything but. I don’t want to hear that ‘sorry’ right now. I hope I’m not waiting exclusively for that ‘sorry’, and zero closure.

Okay, so we did have closure. Evan spoke and the first thing he said was that I wasn’t in the wrong last night when I asked him to spend time with me and drop what he was doing. He acknowledged that I had a right to ask for some quality time knowing my schedule, and that he didn’t realise that last night was just one of those nights where I ‘needed it’. It’s normal, I have to keep reminding myself that it’s a normal thing for people to just need some quality time with their partner every now and then, because sometimes Evan can get SOOOO into whatever it is that he’s doing, and totally forget that I’m a secondary person to him, that I’m not just a part of him? I think it’s a [REDACTED] boys thing. Like his dad is just like this too, and from what Sarah’s told me, Mundell was just the same: always carving out their own space to ‘work’, to ‘develop’, and constantly prioritising that space over so many other facets of their life. I lucked out with Evan though. I’d say that of his father and brother and himself, Evan would have to be the most emotionally mature and open to change. I think it has something to do with the fact that he has witnessed the negative impacts of both his father and brother’s self-interested behaviour. 

I was just about to talk about Barney and Mundell’s habits, but then I checked my phone and noticed a missed call from my dad, so I called him back. We chatted about the house for a while and now he’s got me on hold because he’s received another call. So I’m taking this opportunity to type, and I’ve decided that I’m going to keep this entry to two pages. I feel like two pages is just so much more sustainable as a practice? And I have too much work to do today and my conversation with Evan has already shown that I’m a bit stressed. I mean two pages will take twenty minutes, and I think twenty minutes of mindfulness is still better than falling short of thirty minutes and then feeling bad about myself for not achieving my goal. And thirty minutes set aside each day for this practice is a bit of a tall ask for an adult with multiple other jobs and commitments. I’m too busy for this, and I don’t mind it. If I’m in need of more mindful time, I can meditate or do some yoga or something.

I found a video on Facebook that was essentially a handstand training guide through yoga poses. Basically, you work on one pose for a week each and the third pose is a soft handstand. I’m going to give it a go. I feel like I could handle a handstand pose if I just apply myself. I’m also keen to go for a bike ride, but I have a feeling it may be way too cold. And my main gripe with scheduling bike rides is knowing that I can’t take Lonzo too. Especially now. He’s just too boisterous, and I’d feel like I was always looking out for him. 

Thathi just answered the phone again, and he said we should schedule a trip to the mortgage broker’s. He sounded tired. I’m worried I spoke too much about myself, but I’m not sure what to speak to him about. I don’t know. I feel like a bad daughter. We didn’t even talk at all about my license. Ah. I don’t know what to do about feeling guilty about parents. The older you get, the more independent you become, and the less time you have to chat to your parents. I feel like we should do a family dinner thing, like Evan’s family. I’ve just sent a message to the brother and sister about maybe organising weekly family dinners after lockdown. I just feel so deprived of my family, I don’t like it. I haven’t seen my mum in so so so long. I know I have issues with ammi, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love her and want to talk to her. But I’m worried that so much time has eclipsed now that it’ll be impossible for us to chat without her getting emotional? I don’t know. I can’t really deal with other people’s emotions, I get uncomfortable. I think that’s my Asian upbringing having a bit of an influence on my adult self. I got that Asian level of oppression, yo. That cultural ish. 

Man, I’m already well into the third page, I think I’m just going to finish it off. Well, not well into it. I’d say about a quarter of the way there. I’m currently at 1520 words. Ah, I want to stop listing my word count midway through the doc all the time, but I am writing this out on Google Docs! It’s interesting, I just realised that whilst I do have Microsoft Word and I paid a pretty fucking penny for it, I still use Google Docs so much more? I suppose it’s just so much more convenient. Word is only really useful if the internet gives out, but now I’ve invested so much money in our internet, it’s not likely that our internet will ever give out for a long period of time anymore anyway. That being said, I’ve been finding the loading speeds to be abysmal on my phone. I feel like I should turn the modem and the nbn box off at the wall for a minute and let the whole system restart, that usually works.

Okay, I know I said that I was going to finish these pages off...I am, no I am. I can do this. I’m so close anyway, what’s another paragraph or two. I just know that I’m going to be doing a lot of work today and I feel like I’m not going to start on the website right after finishing this entry off because I’m going to follow a natural urge to give myself a break. But I’m not hungry, and I want to tell Evan about the contaminated water thing so that he doesn’t accidentally drink a full glass of water straight from the sink. He’s been drinking a lot of water lately. Good on him, right? Ugh, he’s going to get so much healthier than me if I don’t catch up soon. 

Both Nicky and Lonzo are asleep on the green couch next to me. Evan said he’d be keen to move the green couch into the TV room and I think I am too. It’d be nice to have the futon in a space where it actually fucking fits, and I think the green couch would look so nice with the Persian rug in that room now. It’d also be nice to have the futon set up in bed mode right under the big window we have in the living room, so that I can just lay there and read by the wide source of daylight. Ooh, this feels like such a great idea now. My only concern is that that futon is going to be really chilly for people who stay over now. At least in the other room it was in a confined space, but out here it’s going to be so drafty. It’s fine, I don’t see us having people over anytime soon anyway. I keep thinking about that time Steve and Mundell came over and Malith was here. They had a lot of fun with him, but I mean he’s a very accessible character. Fuck, I need to finish ‘Fleabag’. I’ll do that at work tomorrow? After Dominicana. It should be an easy read. But Ben is managing tomorrow and he’ll want to talk to me. He’s been wanting to talk to me more since his divorce, and I’ve been amenable to that. I just know he’s enjoying the social aspects of our working relationship. We’re both conversationalists, and he’s a joker like Sam. Just not as immersed in puns as Shepherd is.

[diarynz]

Mueller says he did not exonerate Trump as Republicans assail inquiry

New Post has been published on https://diary.nz/mueller-says-he-did-not-exonerate-trump-as-republicans-assail-inquiry/

Mueller says he did not exonerate Trump as Republicans assail inquiry

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday said in his long-awaited U.S. congressional testimony he had not exonerated President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice and defended the integrity of his inquiry under repeated attacks by conservative Republican allies of the president.

During a day of sometimes dramatic high-stakes political theatre, the former FBI director answered questions publicly for the first time on his inquiry in back-to-back hearings, with Democrats and Republicans taking familiar positions at a time of deep partisan divisions in the United States.

The hearings, with Mueller facing a rapid-fire succession of questions and often sidestepping or merely referring lawmakers to the text of his investigative report, appeared to do little to move the Democrats who control the House of Representatives closer to launching the impeachment process to try to remove Trump from office even as he seeks re-election in 2020.

Mueller spent 22 months investigating what he concluded was Russian interference in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” in the 2016 U.S. election to help Trump and the president’s conduct. He appeared for more than 3-1/2 hours before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, then testified to the House Intelligence Committee.

The Judiciary Committee’s Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler, praised Mueller and said no one, including Trump, is “above the law.” The Intelligence Committee’s Democratic chairman, Adam Schiff, accused Trump’s 2016 campaign of “disloyalty to country” for inviting, encouraging and making full use of Russian election meddling.

But Trump’s Republican allies on the committees tried to paint Mueller’s investigation as unfair to the president, with Louie Gohmert heatedly telling the decorated Vietnam War veteran and long-time federal prosecutor “you perpetuated injustice” and conservative congressman Guy Reschenthaler calling the manner in which the inquiry was conducted “un-American.”

“Welcome, everyone, to the last gasp of the Russian collusion conspiracy theory,” said Devin Nunes, the Intelligence Committee’s top Republican.

Mueller’s 448-page report, released in redacted form on April 18, did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice in a series of actions aimed at impeding the inquiry, but did not exonerate him. The report also said the inquiry found insufficient evidence to establish that Trump and his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia.

Mueller caused confusion when he testified while being questioned by Democratic Representative Ted Lieu during the first hearing that he would have sought to indict Trump were it not for a Justice Department policy against bringing criminal charges against a sitting president. But hours later at the outset of the second hearing Mueller corrected himself.

“As we say in the report and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime,” Mueller said.

Trump has claimed that the Mueller inquiry resulted in the president’s “complete and total exoneration.”

“Did you actually totally exonerate the president?” Nadler asked Mueller during the first hearing.

“No,” Mueller replied.

Mueller, accused by Trump of heading a “witch hunt” and trying to orchestrate a “coup” against the Republican president, said his inquiry was conducted in “a fair and independent manner” and that members of the special counsel’s team “were of the highest integrity.”

“It is not a witch hunt,” Mueller added.

Trump has accused Mueller of having conflicts of interest, including saying Mueller wanted the president to appoint him as FBI director after firing James Comey. Mueller disputed Trump’s account, saying he had not sought the FBI job from Trump. Mueller noted that Justice Department ethics officials confirmed he had no such conflicts.

“Let me say one more thing,” Mueller said. “Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian government’s effort to interfere with our election is among the most serious.”

The interrogation of Mueller, a reluctant witness who appeared only after being subpoenaed, afforded an opportunity for Americans, who may not have pored over the lengthy and sometimes dense report, to hear his conclusions in a highly charged hearing scheduled by Democrats, with Trump running for re-election in 2020.

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told reporters the first hearing was “an epic embarrassment for the Democrats.” During the hearing, Trump posted tweets from others that said Mueller was cowering and that the inquiry was a hoax.

‘A LITTLE FAST’

Mueller, 74, was surrounded by news photographers as he took his place in the packed hearing room, showing little apparent emotion as he scanned the scene. During his interrogation by lawmakers in both parties, Mueller sometimes appeared to struggle with answers, several times asking them to repeat their questions.

“That went a little fast for me,” Mueller told Doug Collins, the committee’s top Republican, at one point.

Mueller avoided being drawn into arguments with Republicans who hammered away at his inquiry, often frustrating lawmakers with responses such as “I am not going to get into that.”

“And if I can finish,” Mueller told Republican Matt Gaetz after the congressman interrupted him.

In a comment sure to disappoint Republicans, Mueller said he would not answer questions about the origins of the Russia probe in the FBI before he was named to take over the inquiry in 2017 or about a controversial dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent. Republicans have tried to portray the investigation as a politically motivated attack on Trump cooked up by Democrats and various enemies.

Democrats entered the hearings hoping his testimony would rally public support behind their own ongoing investigations of the president and his administration. Democrats are deeply divided over whether to launch the impeachment process set out in the U.S. Constitution for removing a president from office for “high crimes and misdemeanours.” Mueller said he would not talk about the “impeachment issue.”

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Office of Special Counsel’s investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 24, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Mueller’s inquiry detailed numerous contacts between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia at a time when the Kremlin was interfering in the 2016 U.S. election with a scheme of hacking and propaganda to sow discord among Americans and boost Trump’s candidacy.

‘NOT EXCULPATED’

Democrats focused on five actions by Trump that Mueller had investigated as potential obstruction of justice, including at one point telling his White House counsel to remove the special counsel.

“Obstruction of justice strikes at the core of the government’s efforts to find the truth and to hold wrongdoers accountable,” Mueller testified.

Under questioning by Nadler, Mueller acknowledged that the report detailed “multiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian interference and obstruction investigations.”

“Well, the finding indicates … that the president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed,” Mueller told Nadler.

Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, subsequently cleared the president of obstruction of justice after receiving Mueller’s report.

In his opening statement to the Judiciary Committee, Mueller reiterated that his team had decided not to make a determination on the question of obstruction. “Based on Justice Department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. That was our decision then and remains our decision today,” Mueller said.

Mueller did say that a president could be charged with a crime after leaving office.

Nadler said in his opening statement that Mueller conducted the inquiry with “remarkable integrity” and was “subjected to repeated and grossly unfair personal attacks.”

“Although department policy barred you from indicting the president for this conduct, you made clear that he is not exonerated. Any other person who acted in this way would have been charged with crimes. And in this nation, not even the president is above the law,” Nadler said.

Republican congressman John Ratcliffe accused Mueller of exceeding his authority in the report’s extensive discussion of potential obstruction of justice by Trump after the special counsel made the decision not to draw a conclusion on whether Trump committed a crime. Ratcliffe agreed that Trump was not above the law, but said the president should not be “below the law” either.

Republican Collins said the facts of the Mueller report are that “Russia meddled in the 2016 election. The president did not conspire with Russians. Nothing we hear today will change those facts.”

“The president watched the public narrative surrounding the investigation assume his guilt while he knew the extent of his innocence,” Collins said. “The president’s attitude towards the investigation was understandably negative, yet the president did not use his authority to close the investigation.”

Slideshow (16 Images)

Republican Representative Steve Chabot said Wednesday’s hearing was the “last, best hope” by Democrats “to build up some sort of groundswell across America to impeach President Trump. That’s what this is really all about today.” Chabot also told Mueller some people thought his report was “a pretty one-sided attack on the president.”

Mueller’s investigation led to criminal charges against 34 people and three Russian entities. People who were convicted at trial or pleaded guilty included Trump’s former campaign chairman, deputy chairman and other aides.

Reporting by David Morgan and Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Sarah N. Lynch, Makini Brice, Susan Cornwell, Richard Cowanl Patricia Zengerle; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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[fireandgloryrpg]

Congratulations Micah and welcome! We’re so happy to accept your application to play Percy Jackson with the faceclaim of Tyler Posey in Fire & Glory RPG! We can’t wait to begin roleplaying with you so please remember to look over our checklist!

Out of Character Information:

Name: Micah

Age: 20

Timezone: GMT

Triggers: redacted

Activity: while I’m at uni I work evenings a few times a week, otherwise I am pretty much all the time!

Skeleton Character Application:

Desired Character: Percy Jackson

Reason you want to play this character: Percy is definitely my favourite fictional character. I find it super easy to slip into the Percy muse and he is someone that I consistently enjoy writing, I played Percy in the original fire and glory and I’ve played him several times since then. I really look forward to developing him further and discovering the new avenues of development that I can take with him!

Are there any changes you wish to make (faceclaim, age, affiliation etc)? Please explain and provide alternatives: nope! Considering I wrote his skeleton there’s no reason to :)

Biography:

Perseus Jackson - or Percy as he preferred to be called - was definitely not hero material straight away, in his younger years he was a scrawny young man with bright eyes and dark hair that never stayed neat no matter how many times he or his mother tried to comb it into order. But never let that fool you, because Percy would later go on to be one of the most powerful, skilled and courageous heroes of all time. But the thing that made Percy a hero was the fact that he was always humble. Except when it came to skateboarding, he knew he was the best at that.

The first twelve years of Percy’s life were far from normal, he lived in New York, growing up with a mother who was kind, loving and together they had a little bit of a strange love for the color blue. You might think that his early childhood and life was ideal, perfect and amazing. You’d be wrong. Sadly. An ugly man named Gabe Ugliano ruined all of that, with his pot belly and the stench of beer on his breath. He was always mean to Percy, and Percy was sure it was more than just that with his mom.

But at twelve years old that all changed when he discovered that he was actually a son of Poseidon, a demigod hero who would eventually save the world. It wouldn’t be easy, neither would it be free of pain, but Percy would do great things. He would fight monsters and slay them, the Minotaur, Medusa, the Chimera and Nemean Lion, Hydras and Cyclopes all within the first few years of his time as a hero. But that never stopped him for one second. He simply kept going. He even fought some gods, now that was interesting to say the least.

His list of achievements include taking Zeus’ nuclear powered lightning bolt back to him, even thought it had been in his back pack the whole time. He grabbed the golden fleece from a cyclopes that barely had one eye. He duelled Atlas the Titan one christmas and he held the sky on his shoulders. He navigated his way through the Labyrinth and fought in the battle of Camp Half Blood, he even duelled Kronos multiple times and eventually saved the world. That was all before he was sixteen.

After he was sixteen however his life didn’t get any easier, he was kidnapped, had his memory wiped and got dumped in a house full of wolves, from there he made his way up to Alaska and fought giants and monsters he’d never dreamed existed. From there he watched his friend bomb New Rome and start a war, then they fled to Greece, stopping off for some interesting detours.

Yet through and through Percy stayed a good guy, with his trusty pen sword thingy Riptide he fought monsters, gods and even other heroes (when they were being particularly stupid). But with his best friends Annabeth, Grover, Nico, Thalia and Tyson having his back he was never alone. Later he’d made friends in Jason, Hazel, Frank, Reyna, Leo and Piper. Whatever the case Percy was never alone to face the world.

It has been a few years since he saved the world with the rest of the crew of the Argo II, since then he has received a bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from New Rome and is currently studying for a masters degree in Marine Biology. Life is a mad flurry of books and trying to live a normal life, but it is never that easy when you’re a demigod. Right?

Para sample:

If there was one thing that you had to give a therapist, it was that they definitely had the money to buy nice sofas. You could literally feel how much it had cost, just from running your fingers over the leather. He could feel the expensive leather as he nervously ran his fingers up and down the arms of the chair he was sat in.

It was funny, normally he wouldn’t be nervous. He had fought people who were literally twice his size. He could leap off of a hundred-foot-high cliff into a pool of water without his heart skipping a beat. Yet usually the only thing that made him nervous was Annabeth. When he had done something to piss her off, she would give him one of her trademarked glares that made you think she could see right into your soul, with those stormy grey eyes of hers. Well it was enough to make anyone’s stomach turn. But for Percy it was enough to send him running for the hills.

The key to avoiding the glare was to avoid fucking up too royally. Usually he could manage it. But sometimes he had to hide at the bottom of the lake.

Yet today, he wasn’t nervous about the stare of Annabeth, it was the stare of his therapist. She was an incredibly thin lady. Percy couldn’t help but notice every single bone in her face. Prominent cheekbones, a jawline that supermodels would envy and slightly sunken eyes. She seemed to be a stern individual, however the way she looked at him, staring at him over the rim of her golden wire glasses, he couldn’t help but wonder if she was reading him like a book.

Dr. Arkwright had been suggested to him by Rachel Dare, a good friend of his, apparently she had helped her through a number of issues and was uniquely talented at her job in her own special way. If Rachel swore by her then that was enough for Percy.

“Percy,” she said in a quiet voice, “I know this is our first session, so there is on no pressure for you to open up right away…” she trailed off, her eyes never wavering from him.

He had been to other therapists before, but they had been mortal, unable to see through the mist or understand what it was that he had been through. They had tried to help him, but with everything he had been through, he hadn’t been able to be helped. Not until now, at least, that was what he hoped. The trick to this was that his therapist was a demigod. A daughter of Apollo, cabin counsellor in her day, though that was a long while ago. She had started out working in New York, but after the recall she’d moved her office to New Athens. Percy guessed that Demigods seemed to need therapy too

“… but this will only work if we can develop a relationship of trust, I can’t help you if you don’t let me help you.”

He took a deep shuddering breath and looked away from his hand, meeting people was an easy task, he could deal with that, but it was different when it came to this woman.

Meeting her eyes wasn’t easy, but he forced himself to do so.

“I don’t even really know where to start,” he admitted, biting his lip gently as his sentence ended.

“Just from the beginning perhaps,” she replied. “The beginning of what?” he replied, perhaps a little too sharply, “My life? Or just specifically falling into Tartarus, or the fact that I’ve been all but a child soldier since I was twelve, gods that is ten years…” he said, more to himself than to her. “Wherever you feel comfortable,” she said quietly, she didn’t seem startled by his revelation or his little outburst.

Falling silent again he sat there and shifted in his seat, that was a problem with his ADHD, sitting still drove him insane. He had never been good at it, maybe that was one of the reason he’d always done so badly in class. He couldn’t sit still. So he stood up, and walked to the window. Staring out into the city of New York he thought about what it would be like to be stood out there, rather than in here. He stared at the cabs and the pedestrians on the streets.

Sighing he ran his fingers over the curtains that were at the edge of the window, even this material felt expensive.

“I guess,” he sighed and tapped his fingers against the glass, leaving little finger marks on it, “I guess the best place to start would be with my childhood…”

There was a sudden binging that interrupted his line of thought, reaching into his pocket he pulled out his phone and stared at it.

“Monster attack, need your help, Annabeth.”

“I’m really sorry,” he said, turning to the therapist, “but I’ve got to go, duty calls.” He said wiggling his phone and grabbing Riptide from his pocket. He turned and strode from the room, his heart thumping in his chest. This therapy thing was hard.