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#My first mistake was noticing that he kept inviting me to join the team
libertys-lovers · 2 years
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*Sigh~*
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Looks like the Rock-Type grunt from GO Rocket has officially made it onto the Romantic F/O list!! I’ve decided to dub him as “Hornfels” Henry, so if I mention a Henry, that’s him 😎👍
I’ll probably go off about the personality I’ve summoned for him sometime, but for now… just look at him ☺️
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angel-calypso · 8 days
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oh i need one with erik🫦 where y/n thinks he and raven have something and she gets really sad and heartbroken… (I leave the ending to you) (srry english not my first language)
i hope this is sorta what you were asking!!! i did my best 😽
Mistaken part one
i really loved writing this. but be mindful it's my first work in probably over two years since school ended for me. i tried my best so sorry if it's not up to standards i'll get back in soon. I also don't have a laptop, so this is all being typed out in my phone and edited. I'm so sorry if there's mistakes i'm trying my best i swear
part two
erik lehnsherr x reader. not sure if there's any warnings or triggers. just a heartbroken reader for a tad. hope you all enjoy. it is part one, i'm working two jobs right now and im going to try and put out part two soon
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It had been a few weeks since you moved into the mansion. Charles had invited you to stay with the team after you had helped them on a mission. You hadn't known there were other people like yourself. Mutants. You always thought it was a derogatory word, but when you had stumbled upon the team fighting some lunatic, you had seen how beautiful and powerful the word mutant could be. You were seven when your mutation appeared. It allows you to control plants, dirt, small pebbles, you could feel the Earth in your veins. Since moving in, Hank has studied you, absolutely fascinated with your mutation, as he is with all of theirs.
The first couple days, you kept to yourself. Keeping quiet during dinners, just observing and listening. occasionally someone would ask you a question. Normally Erik, who seemed to always be wanting to know more about you. He would smile at you, always ready to start a conversation. Eventually, with time, you found yourself invited to Charles' office at night, having a drink and watching him and Erik play chess. You grew incredibly fond of these nights. The three of them were laughing and talking into the late hours of the night. Sometimes you would fall asleep there, but seemed to somehow always wake up in your bed. As you grew to love those nights, you found yourself falling in love with Erik. His beautiful eyes that followed you everywhere you went, the way he would catch your eye and walk over to you every time. The morning tea and lunch picnics. You had just barely started convincing yourself that maybe, he felt the same. that maybe you had a real chance at something with him.
“you know, we outta teach you how to play darling.” Charles pulled you out of your thoughts one night. They had been in silence for a few minutes, awaiting his next move. You had been watching intently trying to balance your thoughts, the game, and if you were honest the occasional stare at Erik. The way he sat calmly in the back of his chair, holding his drink in one hand and tapping his armrest with the other. Plotting his moves. He always looked so handsome in the warm light of the office. The drinks are always getting to you, always having to stop yourself from reaching out and taking his hand.
“I'd much rather watch you two play.” You had finally pulled your eyes off of Erik to look at Charles with his knowing smile. you blushed slightly, hoping charles wasn't in your head, always forgetting of the telepath. Erik laughed unaware of the interaction between the two.
“I think y/n would have you beat Charles” Erik chimed in. You smiled, sometimes you thought he thinks too highly of you.
“Yeah right, she'd be too distracted,” Charles playfully scoffed. At this you asked if they needed another drink. She got up, noticed the bottle was left in the kitchen tonight, and walked out with hers and Erik's cup. When you came back, you noticed a new arrival had joined them for the first time. You hadn't met her yet but assumed it to be Raven, Charles’ sister. She had been on a mission for the last couple months. you would've loved meeting her, if it wasn't for the sight you walked in on leaving your heart in your stomach. Raven was hugging Erik, her legs wrapped around him. You didn't hear anything being said, the blood rushing through your ears a loud roar. But you had seen enough. You walked over to your seat. Charles knew something was off, you begged him not to be in your mind for this. you hoped he wouldn't. You didn't notice upon seeing you, Erik grew the biggest smile, almost immediately letting go of Raven and whispering to her. She also smiled, putting her hand out to you.
“you must be y/n!!! I'm Raven, I've heard so much about you. I'm so glad to meet you! “ Under other circumstances you would've loved meeting her, finally meeting charles’ sister he would always talk about. But the tinge of seeing her all over Erik tainted the meeting. You told her it was nice to meet her, sending her a small smile while shaking her hand. It wasn't her fault. You let go and hand Erik his drink.
“Thank you Meine Liebe” You would normally love and melt at this, Erik had fooled you. You just nodded your head. you were willing yourself not to cry just yet. The stinging in your eyes daring to disobey you. A few minutes go by and you excuse yourself off to bed. Before anyone could say anything you were out the door.
translations Meine liebe- My love in german
I know i know, it's pretty short. I'll work on part two as quickly as i can. Let me know if you would like to be tagged in part 2!!!
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goodlucktai · 2 years
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give me something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around
chapter nine: don’t know where we’re going but i’d like to be by your side
rise of the tmnt pairing: leoichi (leonardo / usagi yuichi) word count: 4k title borrowed from are you bored yet? by wallows post-movie
(previous) (next)
read on ao3
x
The next time Yuichi is invited to the lair, five very significant things happen.
1. Leonardo meets Yuichi’s friends
The first thing Leonardo announces to his family when he tumbles through the portal between Usagi Farm and his own living room is “Kitsune and I are gonna STEAL!”
His siblings take a moment to absorb that and then look behind him at Yuichi, who had all but shoved Leonardo in and then hustled through himself.
Yuichi, feeling harassed, says, “They are not going to steal.”
The last forty-five minutes have felt like a four-day marathon.
Yuichi is spending the day at the lair, on Leonardo’s invitation, with the added assurance that his family would love to have him. When the striped turtle initially offered to portal him there and back, Yuichi leapt on the offer embarrassingly quickly.
He would never admit it on pain of death, but here’s Yuichi’s reasoning: if he doesn’t have to spend nearly an hour driving each way, that’s an additional two hours he gets to spend with his favorite person, so yes. As much as he loves his bike, he’s team portal.
They made these plans a week ago, and Yuichi’s first mistake was mentioning it to Gen. So he wasn’t expecting his friends’ ambush the second Leonardo stepped through the portal into the yard, but he probably should have been.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Chizu said, in a way that made it clear she was not asking. “We’ll get parfaits.”
Leonardo, who had been on the farm for all of three minutes at that point, which was more than enough time for him to have collected two small children and one small dinosaur, said, “Uh, yeah. Okay. Can lizards have dairy?”
Yuichi didn’t even have time to worry about his friends and Leonardo not getting along, because at the very first sign of being left behind by the teenagers, Sonoko and Momiji pitched a fit loud enough that it attracted Jomei and Botan, who were quick to join in.
This is usually when he strong-armed them back into the house, but Leonardo said, ostensibly to Gen but with his voice pitched loud and performative so the children take notice, “What do you think? Should we bring all the well-behaved bunnies back a treat?”
It worked like a charm, because of course it did, because that was the cousins’ angle in the first place. Once they were mollified, Yuichi’s group could escape, and Chizu said, “You shouldn’t let them play you like that, Leo. Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.”
“I was gonna get them ice cream anyway,” he replied. “Let them think they won, it’s good for their devious little brains.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” Gen rumbled, his tone warm with good humor. “Is this a lesson from the school of ninja?”
“Oh, sure.” Leonardo guided Champion up onto his shoulder, where she curled around his neck like a scaly scarf, so his hands were free to fold in the pose of a wise old master. “Lesson one—strike hard, fade away into the night, and always let the babies in the room think they’re smarter than you. That way they’re never actually smarter than you.”
“And have the funds to buy their loyalty,” Kitsune pointed out.
“That’s the easy part. Donnie’s been seeding funds from untraceable backdoors into Fortune 500 companies for years,” Leonardo said. He turned to walk backwards, leveling them all with a narrow stare. “And I don’t wanna hear any judgment from the Samurai Squad about it, either. My twinnie’s single-handedly kept the lights on by stealing from people so rich they don’t even notice.”
Chizu and Yuichi sighed at the same time. Gen laughed. Because Kitsune bounced up to her full height, shoulders squared, and announced, “I steal, too! I’m basically Robin Hood, without all the murder! Last month I did a casino sweep, baby!”
Leonardo’s eyes brightened. “Tell me everything about that right now.”
So, within minutes, Yuichi went from being really excited that his favorite people were getting along, to being absolutely certain in the knowledge that Kitsune and Leonardo could never be left unsupervised, ever, because they were the exact same level of chaos gremlin.
Gen was easy. He’s a straightforward person, and there are certain qualities he admires that Leonardo has in spades. His battle-scars and the weapons strapped to his shell cut him a dangerous figure. His obnoxious laughter when Yuichi tried to hop over a puddle and landed in mud instead softened him again. So Gen challenged him to an arm-wrestling match, and then best two of three, and then best seven of ten, and then Champion bit Gen’s thumb with her tiny baby teeth for hogging her person. But by then Leonardo had cemented himself as a Cool Guy in Gen’s eyes.
Chizu was more exacting than that, and sometimes her protective nature could turn sharp against people, and Yuichi was worried she might be unkind. But she studied Leonardo’s interactions with Gen, how unfazed he was by Gen’s size and how he didn’t treat the rhino’s simplicity as stupidity.
And she observed the way he and Kitsune matched each other’s energy, both of them a clever trickster learning the ins and outs of the other’s wits. When Kitsune withdrew her cute qiankun bag to show him some of her favorite purloined gems and trinkets, Leonardo responded in kind, pulling his phone out and swiping through a photo album of some of the best things his brother had invented with his stolen means.
And she watched him dither over the ice cream menu, dragging Yuichi over by the sleeve to help him pick out treats for the kids back home, charming the yokai employee behind the stand into making the world’s tiniest strawberry soft serve for Champion. And it seemed to be enough.
On the walk back to the farm, Gen lifted the bags out of Leonardo’s hands so he didn’t have to juggle everything and a lizard, and Leonardo didn’t even notice because Kitsune was distracting him by outlining, in great detail, her dream of successfully pulling off the world’s biggest art heist one day—not even because she likes art, just because—and Chizu looked past the three of them to meet Yuichi’s eyes.
She tipped her head towards Leonardo, raised a brow, and smiled. It very clearly said Okay, he’ll do.
But she wouldn’t be Chizu if she didn’t like to make people sweat, so when they were back at Yuichi’s house and handing off ice cream to greedy little kids, and Leonardo was beginning tense negotiations with Champion, who had decided the inside of his jacket was the perfect place to hide from the injustice of being left behind again, Chizu barked, “Leo!”
He jumped a foot. Dangling from his elbow, Momiji giggled. 
“Jesus—what??”
“Next Thursday, we meet in battle,” she said. “Go match. Bring your wits.”
“Good thing I bring those with me everywhere. You’re on,” Leonardo said, all bold, unflinching confidence. Then he opened Google on his phone, frantically typing “how to play Go beginner cheat sheet” into the search bar. Yuichi loved this idiot with his whole chest.
“And don’t forget!” Kitsune shouted. “Art heist! This summer! The Louvre!!”
“Art heist!” Leonardo shouted back, and that was when Yuichi decided it was time to go for real.
And now Leonardo is telling Michelangelo, “We’re so gonna steal.”
“I still have custody of your dinosaur,” Yuichi mentions in a loud voice, which is enough to make Leonardo heave an exaggerated sigh and roll his eyes and move onto something else.
“You’re not gonna be able to hold Champy against him forever,” April points out, sounding amused.
“I know,” Yuichi says woefully. “I’ll figure something else out.”
2. Yuichi meets the Hamato patriarch
Yuichi doesn’t even realize there’s an additional presence in the room until the very last second.
Something goes flying at the back of his head, and he whirls around and deflects it with the flat of his hand, spiking it into the ground like a volleyball.
Only it’s not a volleyball, it’s something delicate and made of what sounds like porcelain? Given the tinkling little noise it makes as it breaks into about a billion pieces?
Yuichi only has about three seconds to be completely mortified before the turtles and April erupt into hysterical laughter. Even Casey is smothering giggles behind his hand.
“Dad, was that your favorite teacup?” Donatello asks, lowering his goggles over his eyes and twisting one of the lenses, as if he’s zooming in with a camera to capture his father’s gobsmacked expression in full detail. “Was it? Dad, was it?”
“Oh my god it’s so broken,” Michelangelo wheezes, hugging his stomach. “I’m gonna throw up.”
“I thought he would catch it!” the rat says, waving his hands above his head. “Why would you just—why would—”
“That’s what you get, pops,” Raphael butts in. “It was rude of you to throw stuff at our friend.”
He pats Yuichi on the back warmly, and it’s an unmistakably friendly gesture, but there’s enough force behind it to send any normal person toppling forward. Yuichi grew up with an affectionate rhinoceros for a best friend and knows when to lock his knees. He doesn’t even sway under the touch and offers Raphael a smile.
“Yeah, you missed the boat, Splints,” April says, wiping the tears from her eyes with the heel of her hand, glasses all askew. “Besides, my boy Usagi here is a keeper.”
“Hmph,” Splinter says, shrugging his hands into the sleeves of his robe. “Just because he’s swayed the rest of you to the dark side, I won’t be deceived. Besides, Baby Blue is much too young for—”
“PAPA,” Leonardo all but shrieks. He looks mortified. All of his siblings are glaring daggers at the rat now. Yuichi thinks he missed something, because he has no idea where Splinter was going with that statement. Too young for—? The dark side? Is this a Star Wars thing? Botan loves those movies.
Disgruntled, but unwilling to fight all six of his kids all at once, Splinter says, “He can keep up with Blue, at least. Who was your teacher, little rabbit?”
Yuichi straightens, lifting his chin. He can feel himself brighten, his smile growing into a grin. He’s so proud to be her student, he always loves when he can boast, “Karasu-Tengu-sensei! She’s the best!”
Splinter’s expression changes immediately. The grumpy, displeased look falls away and he somehow manages to look pale through his fur.
“Karasu-Tengu? That terrifying creature is your sensei?”
Yuichi nods cheerfully. She is terrifying. She can quell even the biggest meanest yokai with a single look. He’s seen her do it. It’s amazing. He wants to be just like her when he grows up.  
“Oh—well, then,” Splinter says, and reaches up to pat Yuichi on the head clumsily. “Ah, that’s. Wonderful. How lucky we are to have you in our home. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to speak up. And if your—sensei—asks, tell her I said you’re a delightful boy and my son is better off for knowing you.”
Leonardo and his siblings all have a look of slow-dawning delight on their faces. Yuichi wasn’t expecting such a glowing endorsement just minutes after getting a teacup lobbed at his head, but he certainly isn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Usagi, listen,” Donatello says suddenly. “This is so important. We have to have your teacher over for dinner.”
“No, like, we have to,” Michelangelo adds, super intense.
“She’s traveling now, but when she gets back, I’ll let her know!” Yuichi says, pleased.
For whatever reason, Splinter looks like he’s going through the five stages of grief.
3. Donatello finishes the electro-yoyo
He comes out of the lab singed and covered in soot, yo-yo in hand. He doesn’t seem to mind that the toy quite literally blew up in his face, and none of his siblings treat this as anything entirely out of the ordinary either.
The armored turtle holds it out to him. Slowly, gingerly, Yuichi stretches his hands out to take it. It doesn’t explode.
“So it looks like your yo-yo has a ghost,” Donatello says unremarkably.
“I’m sorry?” Yuichi says, still holding the toy at arms’ length.
“It’s okay, our ghost is scarier,” he adds, and holds up a hand without looking to fist-bump April, for some reason.
It still needs some testing before Donatello is satisfied enough to call it finished, so they go to the dojo for that, where a very sad-looking training dummy is pushed into the middle of the room.
Although the yo-yo is heavier now, reinforced with metal plating and whatever tiny gizmos Donatello has packed inside, it’s still a familiar shape in Yuichi’s hand. But he’s never used it as a weapon before, and he finds himself at a bit of a loss until Michelangelo helpfully compares it to a kusari-fundo.
“I used to have one,” the smallest turtle says brightly. “It got broken, but I saved the fire spirit that lived inside it. It lives in a camping lantern in my room now.”
“Wait, what?” all three of his brothers say at the same time.
“Anyway,” Michelangelo goes on, “has your sensei ever let you train with rope or chain before? Maybe if you think of it like that you’ll have a better idea how to use it!”
It helps a lot, actually. Within twenty minutes, Yuichi has a pretty good handle on how to use the toy as a flail, and also how to loop it around the dummy’s neck or arm, the weighted disc hooking over the reinforced string and creating a collar that only tightens the more you pull.
And the electroshock function definitely works. After the second small fire they have to put out, the dummy’s materials decidedly not conducive to this area of testing, Donatello marks the yo-yo down as a unilateral success.
4. The hooks come out of Leonardo’s shell
Sometime after lunch, Splinter comes back into the room. He’s holding a cup of tea in hand, steaming and faintly fragrant.
Leonardo makes a face at it, but when April bumps their shoulders together, he takes it without argument.
“Mandrake tea,” he says when he notices Yuichi’s curious look. Ah, that explains both the smell and Leonardo’s distaste. It’s very medicinal, and tastes like how Yuichi imagines drinking perfume out of the bottle might. But its restorative properties are second-to-none. “Barry was basically funneling it down our throats after the invasion. These losers got to stop drinking it weeks ago.”
“I think that would make us winners,” Donatello says mildly.
“Barry?” Yuichi asks.
“Our weird stepdad kind of?” Leonardo explains, his tone raising at the end like he’s not sure. “He threw me off a roof once. Now he works at April’s old high school.”
There’s really not a lot Yuichi can think of to say to that, so he settles for, “Okay then.”
Splinter taps Leonardo’s chin gently. “I’ll still make you drink it, even if you let it get cold,” the rat says, not unkindly. “It certainly won’t taste better out of the microwave.”
Leonardo wrinkles his beak—cute, the unhelpful part of Yuichi’s brain supplies—but keeps sipping. Apparently, it’s his last dose, because as soon as he hands the empty cup off, he’s shrugging out of the jacket of the day—pink, this time, and so big on him that Yuichi knows who it must belong to even before Leonardo bundles it up and shoves it toward his eldest brother.
And then his shell is on full display, for the first time since the invasion. Yuichi has seen his plastron, and he can see that the dramatic cracks there have faded into faint pencil-mark lines, but he’s never so much as glimpsed the damage done to Leonardo’s carapace.
It’s a lot. It’s a roadmap of cruelty. The pretty patterns on the shell are interrupted by jagged dashes, like scarring where the pieces have fused back together after it was crushed. At a glance, Yuichi has no idea how his friend could have survived it in the first place. The mandrake tea and that healing coma—mystic in nature, he’s beginning to suspect—might have saved his life.
Turtle shells are so fundamentally important to their overall health, and infection is a very real fear. So it’s very likely that, in part, Leonardo was keeping it covered up to protect the hooks and bandages that were keeping the broken edges of the keratin together.
But from the way his shoulders hunch up to his jawline the second his back is exposed, Yuichi also gets the sense that he’s ashamed.
Splinter sounds a little choked up when he says, “Oh, Blue. Your shell has healed perfectly. We can take these hooks out now, and sand you down, and you’ll be as good as new.”
“Ooh, sanding, that’ll feel nice,” Michelangelo says enthusiastically. “It’ll be like a spa day!”
He hopped up onto the infirmary bed next to Leonardo the second the jacket came off, and he’s been scooting closer by the second, and now he’s tucking himself under Leonardo’s arm. Yuichi is standing behind Leonardo, so he can’t see what his face is doing, but it’s clearly causing Michelangelo some real distress. The rest of his siblings look grim and miserable, too.
Yuichi remembers the first time he sat in Leonardo’s bedroom, looking at those cracks in his plastron and thinking they were perfect, because those cracks meant his shell did its job and held up to a horrifying enemy and protected the precious life in its care.
He stands by that.
So he puts a hand on Leonardo’s carapace, and smiles a little when Leonardo jolts in surprise and then goes perfectly still. Rabbit behavior.
The pad of his thumb brushes over one of those healed lines, where it cuts through the pale blue pattern, and Yuichi says, “Have you ever heard of kintsukuroi?”
Almost immediately, Donatello’s phone is in his hand. April and Casey lean over his shoulders from each side to watch as he looks it up. Raphael leans over his head.
Leonardo’s breath shudders when he goes to answer, so he clears his throat and tries again.
“Can’t say I have. Fill me in, Cottontail.”
Rolling his eyes, feeling nothing but fondness, Yuichi says, “It means ‘golden repair.’ It’s the art of repairing broken pottery with gold.” Making something more beautiful for having broken in the first place, he thinks, but doesn’t have the courage to say out loud.
Donatello wordlessly turns his phone around so his little brothers can see the Google Image results. Michelangelo says, “Oh, oh wow, Leo! Leo I’m getting so many amazing ideas right now! You have to be my canvas later, okay? Promise?”
Leonardo laughs. It’s a breathless, punched-out sound, and it’s not the bright thing it’s supposed to be, the bright thing it was learning how to be again, but it’s still there. That’s the whole point. That’s the whole miracle.
“More good news,” Donatello says, his eyes trained without blinking on his twin’s down-turned face. “Your cast can come off, too.”
It does the job. Leonardo’s head jerks up, and he says, “Really?”
“Really really,” Donatello replies, smiling slightly. If Yuichi didn’t know him as well as he did now, he might have missed it. “That’s two reallys. To the lab, dum-dum.”
The four youngest Hamatos ramble off together like a very noisy, many-legged creature, hooting and pinballing off the walls and attached at the shoulders. The eldest two stay behind. Their father makes noises about calling someone named Draxum with an update on Leonardo’s progress “so he gets off my tail!” and hobbles from the room.
“You’re a sweetheart,” April says, resting an arm on Yuichi’s shoulder. “Golden repair, huh?”
“I meant it,” he says, lifting his chin.
“Me, too,” she counters evenly.
They watch as Leonardo jumps onto Donatello’s back, nearly causing his purple-banded brother to fall on his face to said brother’s very vocal displeasure, and they disappear from view inside the lab. Casey and Michelangelo are laughing as they pile in after them.
“Yeah, so it’s going to be heckin’ impossible to keep him still after this,” Raphael says off-handedly. He glances down at Yuichi and says, “Wanna stay for a spar?”
Which leads to the fifth, and most significant event of the day:
5. Yuichi and Leonardo spar
Leonardo springs to the center of the mats and turns to face the rest of them with a dramatic twirl. Leonardo is looking right at Yuichi, a devilish grin on his face, bright eyes pinning him in place like a butterfly to corkboard.
“The rematch of the century,” he crows, arms spread out to his sides, as he’s rallying an audience of hundreds, “the tortoise and the hare, a one-night special engagement, here to set the record straight once and for all!”
“We’re not racing, idiot,” Yuichi says, unable to help smiling at him as he slides his jacket off and unbelts Edgewing from his hip. He hands them off to Raphael and steps onto the mats readily. “But I guess I have time to teach you a thing or two.”
“Alexa, play ‘Smooth’ by Santana!” Michelangelo calls out, as eagerly as if he’s just been waiting for this opportunity, and across the room, the speaker system blinks to life.
“Thank you, Michael,” Leonardo says pointedly, like he would use much stronger words if their father wasn’t in the room. And then he dives forward and Yuichi meets him halfway.
Leonardo is clearly holding back, because the dojo is small and because Yuichi isn’t one of the super-powered brothers he’s used to tumbling around with, and maybe also because he’s been out of commission for a little over two months now.
But even with all of that, he’s fast. Fast enough that Yuichi can feel his blood begin to race a shis body prepares itself for the upcoming workout.
It isn’t really kata. It’s definitely not the type of sparring Yuichi would practice under sensei’s disciplined eye.
It’s more of a game, an effortless back-and-forth. And it’s fun. And Yuichi is fast, too.
They trade blows and blocks and dance around each other like they’ve been doing exactly this for years and years. Leonardo moves like a construct of wind and mischief, never pulling the same move twice, zigging when it would make more sense for him to zag, and it costs all of Yuichi’s attention and intuition to keep up with him.
Yuichi is aware of the others filing out of the dojo. Michelangelo and April are all but shoving Splinter out the door ahead of them. But it’s second-hand awareness at best.
All of his focus belongs to the boy in front of him. They’re alone in the room with  alternative rock crooning out of the huge speaker system in the corner and the walls are so tall and so close that it creates a reverb, an echo chamber. It’s music and motion and Leonardo’s gold eyes, his flashbang grin, and the blood in Yuichi’s veins is singing. His heart is straining at the seams.
This is a conversation. This is hey, I know you, you’re just like me.
When Leonardo aims a kick at Yuichi’s left shoulder, Yuichi catches his leg and holds it there, and kicks his other leg out from under him in the next second. The turtle goes down with an oof and before he can twist up to his feet again, Yuichi pins him.
He’s straddling Leonardo’s middle, knees planted against the mat on either side of him, forearm pressed to his neck. If it were a real battle, against an actual enemy, he would have a blade pressed there instead. The match is decidedly his.
His chest is heaving with exertion and that giddy runner’s-high feeling and he knows he’s probably grinning wildly.
Leonardo is staring up at him like Yuichi is the first point of light after days in the dark. He looks so cute, all wide-eyed and winded. Yuichi leans in, so that they’re nose-to-nose and all that gold belongs to him, just for this one moment. What a prize.
“I win,” Yuichi says smugly.
“Uh-huh,” Leonardo replies, sort of faint. “You got me.”
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deathwishy · 4 years
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x MARVEL CROSSOVER x
Marinette knew that Tom Dupain wasn't her biological father. Nonetheless, she loved him and he loved her. He married her mother when she was two and have been inseparable ever since.
On the other side, her biological father was a prick.
He first came to visit her after she developed a ... rather interesting set of abilities. She was five when that happened. Her mother had somehow contacted him and, even though he doubted it, he came.
It is safe to say that he was beyond shocked when he saw that Marinette was his spitting image, not counting the blue eyes. She had a mischievous smile and sharp eyes, carrying herself like royalty, worthy of the title of the daughter of the god of mischief.
That day, Loki found out he had a demigoddess daughter.
While he was reluctant at first, the little girl grew on him. He visited at least twice a month, mainly to help her control her powers but also to let her know that he actually cared about her, to ensure that he wasn't with her like his father was with him. No other Asgardian knew about Marinette and he would like to keep it that way. There was no need for his brother of father to swoop in and ruin everything.
As the years passed their bond became unbreakable. Marinette still thought that Loki was a prick and an idiot at times but she wouldn't have it any other way. Life was boring anyway, why not sprinkle it with a little bit of mischief?
When she became Ladybug, he knew. He called out Tikki as soon as he stepped in her room and her parents were out of hearing range.
"Tikki, you can come out. You should know better by now."
Marinette was dumbfounded when the goddess came out from behind some books, with a pout and with her arms crossed.
"I knew it. Trixx did say that you came to Midgard and Marinette looks like a miniature female version of yourself."
"I'm actually surprised the guardian gave her the Ladybug miraculous. I would've guessed she would have been a better fox."
"She is a very good match for me too. Her soul is a creative one, but yes, she would be a perfect fox."
"Um... Can I get in the loop too?"
The two gods turned to her. Marinette had her arms crossed, tapping her foot on the floor. Loki gave her a sheepish smile.
"I am a God, Marigold, I do know the other gods too."
The day passed talking with the two deities about all sorts of things, Tikki especially scolding him for the New York disaster, Marinette joining her. It happened before she was born so even if he changed it was still a horrible thing
"Look, daddy issues are a pain to deal with. I was very angry."
"Dad, it's no excuse to be an asshole."
"I know." Loki rolled his eyes then grinned. "But what's this I'm hearing about from Tikki about a boy?"
Marinette flushed, glaring at the offender, now munching on a cookie, her eyes sparkling with laughter. She was shaking her head and vigorously gesturing with her hands.
"Nope. I'm not talking with you about this and, Odin forbid, if I see you around him I'll cut your macaron supply."
Loki only raised his hands in surrender, laughing heartedly. He wouldn't dare cross his daughter, so he swore, between tears of laughter, that he would keep his distance.
"But if he breaks your heart I'll throw him in Jotunheim."
                                                         ...
A few years later, when Lila came around he knew. There was no mistaking the dimming of the fire in her soul. He could see that she didn't want to talk about it by the way she was dodging the subject so he had to take the matter in his own hands.
He shapeshifted into a horsefly and flew after her when she went to school. It took a lot of his power to hide from Marinette's sight but if was worth it. Now he knew why she started closing in on herself.
Loki could admire a good lie. After all he was the god of trickery, lies and deceit. But this girl spouting off the worst lies he ever heard. Not only were they ridiculous, they were also completely devoid of any drop of truth. That was the base of any good lie, and she was lacking it entirely. What confused him more what that some of her classmates believed her. Only a handful others didn't seem to believe her, one of which was a blond boy that looked at the leech, glued to his hand, with disgust. By his aura Loki assumed he was the holder of the Black Cat.
He confronted Marinette when she came back from school. Some of the lies were concerning, they were hurting his daughter and he couldn't let it fly. He assumed the harpy was set on Marinette because she wouldn't buy her lies. That was not surprising, she could see even though his best lies.
"I know, Marigold."
Marinette knew what he meant. She inhaled deeply and looked around.
"Can we go somewhere else, outside of Paris?"
The furrowed his brows, getting more concerned by the second. He couldn't read her in that moment. He could read most people like an open book, but that was his daughter. She knew how to hide things from him.
"Yes. Tell your parents, we don't want to concern them."
After she told her parents that she would go with Loki on a short trip, he opened a portal to a high rooftop over a city. She could feel the darkness of it, potent and corrupting. She figured that was why her father would bring her there, no one would notice them. As soon as the portal closed, she broke down. She hugged him, crying into his chest.
"I'm so tired, dad. The responsibility of Ladybug, Lila and her lies, half of my class turned against me, Hawkmoth just sending out akuma after akuma, it's just so much."
He let her cry, hugging her closely and patting her head. Even after all these years he didn't know how to properly comfort his daughter but it was something he actively was working for.
"But I assume you still don't want me to help?"
"The Avengers or The Justice League would notice if you do something. I managed to keep them away, for the time being, but I doubt they would hesitate coming if they heard that you came into a highschool, knives flying after a teenage girl or if you burnt down half of Paris searching for Hawkmoth."
She sighed, sitting on the edge of roof.
"I can handle it, I think. It's hard but I can manage it. I have Chat Noir and the others, we will succeed."
"You know that I will always be by your side if you need me, right?"
"Of course, dad." She hugged him once more, not letting go for some time.
When she calmed down, she asked him to get them to Paris.
"Dad, where was that? I've never felt a more malicious feeling to a place in my entire life."
"Gotham City. That place holds a centuries long curse."
Marinette nodded then hugged her father one more time before he left. She then went on her balcony, sketchbook and laptop in her hands. The afternoon sun was providing perfect lighting for sketching. She set aside the sketchbook for the moment, opening the laptop. She heard about Gotham from Alya when she was gushing about the vigilantes. She wasn't especially interested about them so she listened politely but forgot everything the next day.
Gotham was dubbed the Crime Capital, which was not surprising. The maliciousness surrounding the city was overwhelming, even if she was there for only a few minutes short of an hour. She could only imagine what that could do to the locals. A meeting with Fu after her patrol that night was mandatory.
Apparently he knew about the situation in Gotham. An old friend kept him updated. He confessed that he wanted to talk with her about it but decided to tell her when she was prepared. Fighting that kind of corruption would be hard and it would take years. They decided to put a pin in it and deal with it after they defeated Hawkmoth. Marinette did NOT need this on her plate now.
                                                          ...
Things got a little complicated when Wonder Woman decided to drop by. It was night, just a few hours after an akuma attack. Ladybug had to patrol on her own, Chat Noir was held back in his civilian life. She caught Ladybug on the Eiffel Tower, just when she was finishing her round.
"Ladybug."
"Wonder Woman. I wasn't aware that you would be coming by."
"I apologize, but this is important. Your presence is required at a summit between The Avengers and The Justice League. Some discussions will be about the situation in Paris and as the city is in your jurisdiction, you are invited to attend."
Marinette felt like she didn't tell the whole truth but agreed, under the condition to bring Chat Noir too. They were a team.
Loki wanted to come along but Marinette shot the idea down quickly. The was a chance that Thor would notice and everything would go south very quickly. She didn't need an international incident on her hands. The others didn't trust Loki but they were civil with each other after the brothers made amends and he helped them a couple of times. Still, she didn't think they would appreciate Marinette bringing an unauthorized guest.
                                                           ...
A few weeks later they were in a secret base in the Alps. After she got the coordinates of the location she used the horse miraculous to get there. They were fairly early, only a few members of both teams being present. Batman with his team, Thor, Wonder Woman, Black Widow, Winter Soldier and Green Arrow.
Batman was the first one to greet her, soon after she closed the portal.
"Tikki, Kaalki, divide."
The horse kwami landed in her hand, where a sugar cube was waiting for her. She then nestled on top of her head. She slid the glasses there too, for easy access, just in case.
"Ladybug, glad you could come." Batman greeted her cordially. She shook his outstretched hand.
"Of course. After all, I was said this was concerning us."
Before Batman could say anything, a man dressed in black, with a blue bird symbol on his chest jumped in front of her, grinning like a child.
"I can't believe it, you are a real magical girl!"
Ladybug took a step back, blinking, a little shocked by the grown man's reaction.
"Tt. Nightwing, be professional."
"Yeah Wingman, you're going to scare the little Pixie."
"Ignore them, they are idiots." Said one of them, coming beside her. She identified him as Red Robin, one of Batman's... Associates? It felt wrong to call him a sidekick. That would be Robin.
"Red Robin. The idiots there are Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin."
"Pleasure meeting you." She smiled to them warmly. Robin narrowed his eyes, looking at her head.
"What is that?" He asked, taking a step closer to take a better look. Kaalki flew in his face, indignated.
"I'm a goddess, you oaf." Robin took a step back, hands on his katana, shocked by the little goddesses reaction. She narrowed her eyes, suddenly tamer. "Are you famous?" Robin was sputtering, clearly not prepared for the change in her demeanor.
Red Hood burst out laughing.
"Fucking hell, his face. I've never been more grateful for the camera in my helmet."
"Kwami don't show up on camera, but his face definitely will." Chat Noir pointed out. He went beside Ladybug, up until then scanning the compound. "I'm Chat Noir, the fabulous purr-tner of Ladybug, at your service." He made a mock bow, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Ladybug, Red Robin, Red Hood and Robin groaned.
"Not ANOTHER ONE!"
"Tt. I can't handle two of them. I'll inevitably going to break the no killing rule."
"Um, what's going on?" Ladybug turned to Red Robin, who was grimacing.
"Nightwing." He said, giving her a pitying look.
"Oh, come on, it can't be that claw-ful." Retorted Nightwing. Chat Noir lit up like a Christmas tree.
"My lady, see. I was sure I was feline a fellow paw-nner nearby."
"Kill me." Ladybug and Red Robin said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.
As more heroes were arriving, Ladybug introduced herself to each of them. She tensed a bit when Thor came beaming at her.
"Ah! I haven't seen the miraculous for centuries! I am not really that familiar with the Chinese Miracle Box but I did encounter a wielder of Trixx."
She smiled tightly listening to his encounter with Fylja. She knows from her father about her, a trickster just like him, who managed to seduce Thor and steal Mjolnir and hide it. Thor decided to omit that detail. He liked the young hero but something seemed oddly familiar about her.
When Aquaman came, he looked very uncomfortable with his proximity to Chat Noir. He was cordial but kept his distance after finishing introductions. Chat Noir did tell her once that Plagg said that he was the one who sank Atlantis. It was a real story, apparently.
Ladybug preferred the company of Red Robin. They had a lot of things in common, from mutual interests to similar experiences as heroes. He asked a lot of questions without being invasive or trying to find out things about her civilian life and actually seemed interested about her answers. She actually blushed when Nightwing called them cute. She could see with the corner of her eyes how Chat Noir was wiggling his eyebrows but swooped up the other boys when they started teasing them.
"Everyone is here. Only the official members of the Justice League and the Avengers are allowed, as well as Ladybug and Chat Noir. The rest will stay here." Wonder Woman announced, leaving the rest of the young heroes pouting and protesting.
Ladybug turned to Red Robin and gave him a wave.
"See you after."
"Definitely." He grinned, making her blush.
Chat Noir came beside her, smiling knowingly.
"At least you're not a stuttering mess this time."
"Shut up you alley cat, that was four years ago."
"So you do like him." He smiled even wider. Ladybug blushed furiously, punching him in the ribs. He only giggled.
"Nightwing and Red Hood owe me 50 dollars."
"You're unbelievable."
All the heroes were seated at a circular table, everyone having an assigned seat. Even Ladybug and Chat Noir, their symbols gleaming brand new on the backs of the black chairs.
"The summit begins. We are now gathered here to discuss the Paris situation." Superman began, opening a slide on the projector.
Ladybug narrowed her eyes. It became obvious that they called the summit just for this. They were trying to take control. She clenched her fists, but didn't say anything. She hoped this wasn't what it looked like. She put her hand on Chat Noir's shoulder when he looked like he wanted to say something. She squeezed twice. ' I got this.'
"Ladybug, Chat Noir, it's been four and a half years since Hawkmoth has been active and so far we haven't seen much progress. The akumas seem to become more powerful and aggressive and the damage to Paris greater each time. We think you might be over your heads."
"What we are trying to say," Batman stood up, glaring at Superman for his lack of tact, "is that the situation is becoming increasingly difficult and we feel the need to intervene. We know that you are young, let us help you."
"You are kids, we can tell. We thought that because of the nature of the miraculous you will be able to neutralize the threat in due time, seeing as it's the same type of magic." Added Captain America.
"We trusted that you could handle it, as you said, but some of us already have doubts." Iron Man said, crossing his arms.
"Your miraculous might not be enough this time. But that's ok. We want this to end as much as you do." Professor Banner added, looking at them like he was explaining to children why they couldn't cross the street when the traffic light was red.
Most of the heroes didn't notice the way the two young heroes narrowed their eyes, faces darkening, but some, mostly those who knew the power of the miraculous, did. Aquaman was uneasy, a sense of foreboding dawning over him, Wonder Woman looked like she didn't know what her peers were going to say. She stood still, but tense, like preparing for an attack. She knew they were somewhat right, but that wasn't the way to help them. Green Lantern was leaning in his seat like he wanted it to eat him. Thor looked around the table, damning every one of them present. They were going to get them killed. Black Widow was glaring at Banner, knowing what his words did to the Parisians by their increasing straining to say nothing and stay in place. Batman was following them carefully. Something about the two of them screamed danger.
Then Superman dropped the bomb.
"So, effective immediately, we take jurisdiction of the city of..."
He was cut off by a sudden boom reverberating through the room. All heroes jumped in a battle stance. When there was no threat in sight, they looked at Ladybug, who had made a dent in the table with her fist. Her eyes were entirely blue. But it was not her usual color, it was an icy blue, that could freeze the fires of hell. Thor held his breath. They looked exactly like frost giant eyes. And familiar ones.
"How. Dare. You."
She didn't yell but the heroes could feel the ice in their veins.
"For four years we've been tirelessly fighting an emotional prying bastard, while controlling our own to the point where it seems that we have none, handling our civilian lives at the same time, trying to minimize the destruction of Paris even though we new the cure with bring everything back to normal, tending to our citizens after they've been akumatized, ensuring they would get therapy and support, even stopping minor crimes around the city and you have the balls to say that we are in over our heads?! We may be but we are handling it way better than any of you do! You are not one to speak, Superman. Metropolis gets trashed every other week with you're messy fights, and there is no cure. You obviously have no regard of the destruction or the victims most of the time. The rest of you are mostly the same. But there is no one getting in your way saying that you're doing a horrible job and trying to replace you. And if there is, gods forbid, you just send them to prison or in a mental asylum. You have NO right to criticize our ways when yours are statistically worse!"
Both the Justice League and the Avengers were silent and wide eyed. Thor was the first to recover. Her eyes went back to normal after she finished but there was no mistake. The girl wasn't human.
"Who are you?" He pointed his hammer at Ladybug. She rolled her eyes.
"Put that down, you're not intimidating anyone."
"Those were frost giant eyes. Answer me or perish."
"Dad would not appreciate the perish part, you know."
The Avengers and the Leaguers were now exchanging confused looks. What were they supposed to do? What was that about? After exchanging glances, they remained silent, watching the exchange curiously.
"What are you talking about?" Thor retorted, now gripping Mjolnir tighter.
"I guess this is as a bad time as any but... Hello uncle."
It wasn't ideal but she couldn't have both the Justice League and the Avengers trying to arrest her. She took the yo-yo from her hip and slid it open. She scrolled through her contacts and tapped the one named 'The God of Bullshit'. After a few beeps, during which the heroes were recovering from their stupor, Loki's face appeared on the screen.
"Daughter dearest. What's the matter, are the others bothering you?" He said in a sarcastic sweet voice. She rolled her eyes then pointed the screen towards Thor.
"L'Oréal blond knows."
After a few seconds Loki starts laughing like a maniac.
"This is the best way they could've found out. This is PERFECT."
Thor walks in wide strides to an unimpressed Ladybug and takes the yo-yo from her hand.
"I have a niece and you didn't TELL ME!"
"Of course not. You pieces of shit are not worthy of the presence of my daughter. I don't know why she even agreed to come to the meeting. She is doing a wonderful job in Paris and does not need any interference. Beware, brother, if you upset her I'll come for your heads. I have to go now, see you soon, daughter."
Ladybug closed her yo-yo and looked around the room.
"I don't care what you decided. Paris is my city. You don't come barging just because you think you can do a better job. And yes, I'm the daughter of Loki but that doesn't mean that I have bad intentions. I'm a hero as much as you are. Now, have I made myself clear?"
"Yes, Ladybug." Wonder Woman was the first to respond. Even if she was a daughter of Loki, the young hero earned her respect. She stood her ground against them and made her point crystal clear.
The rest of the heroes agree, though some reluctantly.
"Now, I agreed to come here mainly because I wanted to say that I have a strong lead. Hawkmoth may soon fall."
After some other arguments with some of the reluctant heroes and a few protests that were quickly shot down by Ladybug and her supporters, the heroes dispersed. She and Chat Noir were between the last ones to leave, having a shushed conversation while the others left.
"We will discuss it back in Paris. But yes, it's true."
"So you're a half goddess?"
"Demigoddess, but yes."
"That is awesome."
When they entered the hall, they saw it was almost empty. She was disappointed that maybe Red Robin left until he was in front of her. He gripped her shoulders and looked in her eyes.
"I think I'm in love with you. That was the greatest hero smack down in history."
She was a blushing mess by the time the other boys and Batman came around. They were all snickering, even Batman and Robin.
"How did you..."
"Father turned his com on when he saw that you looked like you were ready to kill someone."
"B, you are not allowed to adopt her under any circumstances, do you understand me? We do not need another sister."
"Yeah Bats, don't ruin your only chance at grandkids."
Now Red Robin was blushing too.
"So... You don't care about the Loki thing?"
"We noticed that he toned down a few years ago. We didn't know why. Now it makes sense."
"Yeah, trust me, you're not the only one with a villainous parent 'round here." Red Rood pointed, putting his elbow on Robin's shoulder. The latter looked like he wanted to rip it off.
"And you are clearly taking your job seriously. Even father respects your efforts."
"I didn't intend to make you feel like you are not good enough. We wanted to help you, but it got out of hand. I apologize."
"Apology accepted. I understand where you're coming from, but trust me. This is coming to an end. Soon."
When the Bats were going to the zeta tubes and Ladybug was merging the horse miraculous with her own, Red Robin stayed behind. He handed her a phone.
"It's a non traceable phone. Of you ever want to talk, my number is programmed in there. I really enjoyed our conversation"
She took the phone, smiling brightly.
"I did too. Thank you."
She pulled him into a hug. He hugged her back, kissing her on the cheek then running to the zeta tubes. Her cheeks were as red as her suit. She touched the place where he kissed her, smiling like an idiot.
"Aww, I'm going to die of fluff. I ship it."
"Shut up." She grumbled but still smiling.
                                                           ...
A few months later Hawkmoth’s reign of terror came to an end. It was messy and heartbreaking but they were finally free. Adrien was exonerated by both the Justice League and the Avengers when accusations started to appear in the media. Not wanting to live with the Graham de Vanily’s, Adrien was taken in by Selina Kyle a.k.a Catwoman. It was quite fitting.
They have revealed their identities during the battle when they had to recharge and barely found one place to detransform. When they had the Butterfly and Peacock miraculous secured and Gabriel and Nathalie in police custody, they swung to the Eiffel Tower and collapsed there on each other, crying their hearts out for the first time in five years. Loki got there at some point but he kept his distance, understanding that it was their time. That was how they were found by the Justice League and the Avengers. Huddled together on the railing, not talking, with Loki next to them, smiling serenely. Thor almost had a heart attack. When she noticed that Red Robin came too, she ran to him and kissed him like the world almost ended, which almost actually did.
Fu passed guardianship to Marinette not long after, deeming her ready.
After everything was solved in Paris and the trials of Gabriel, Nathalie and Lila, for her aiding Hawkmoth, were done, Marinette began her first mission as Guardian. Cleanse Gotham.
Soon, a new vigilante, with a black fox theme, swung through Gotham with the Bats and Tim Drake appeared in public with his new girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
When I first saw what the prompt for today was I had no idea what to write. I didn’t want to do the class trip to New York so I took my favorite character, Loki obviously, and brainstormed. This came out. I don’t know if this has been done before but I love biodad!Loki.
So this is approximately 4326 words (I added and edited things on here so I don't know for sure) which is a new record. I did enjoy writing this. Maybe I will do something biodad!Loki again in the future, it's fun to write.
And as a sidenote, Marinette can lift Mjolnir.
@timari-month-event​
482 notes · View notes
ninyard · 3 years
Note
part two of the stefan/andrew au PLEASE
WELP this might not be the part two people wanted but here’s what I wanted so~ enjoy!
(Part 1 ? is here)
((this got rly long so I had to stop but if u want a third part lmk 🥺👉👈))
Neil made his first mistake by not bolting the opposite way when Coach Hernandez told him he had visitors. An Exy racquet to the chest and a single glance at those bright hazel eyes turned Neils entire world sideways in seconds. This couldn’t be happening. Neil almost couldn’t hold back the ‘Andrew?’ that wished to escape his lips. Of course, this wasn’t Stefan’s Andrew, but Neil knew that already. Life had turned Andrew Minyard into a man of manufactured emotions, a life of violence and misled decisions landing him on Coach Wymack’s pity party guest list that was the Foxes’ lineup. Andrew didn’t flinch looking at Neil, and Neil begged the universe to have erased the memory of Stefan from Andrew mind. He hung around a motel, for Christ’s sake, how many other people would he have met before and after Stefan? Neil Josten looked totally different, with puberty, hair dye and new contact lenses on his side.
The second mistake he made was not realising Kevin Day was going to be around. If Andrew wasn’t dangerous enough, Kevin was even more so. Neil couldn’t believe his eyes the moment he looked closely at the teams lineup from the previous year. Kevin Day would have forgotten Nathaniel Wesninski, he was sure of it, but to look across to a picture of the teams goalkeeper and seeing the short blond boy he met in California? It was a sure sign for Neil to stay the hell away from South Carolina.
Neil’s biggest mistake was deciding to push his luck and take a plane there to sign with the Foxes. He was signing a death wish; but he didn’t care anymore. He was a dead man walking, living off stolen hours. It was only a matter of time before someone caught up with him. His mother was dead, god, his mom, Mary Hatford, the woman who taught him how to be. It wasn’t just like Debby, who died leaving Toronto, or Alice, who died leaving London, or Judy who died on the train between Germany and Prague. This was permanent, and Neil didn’t think he could run for much longer.
Andrew didn’t say anything during their meeting, in which he had plenty of opportunities to at least look like he recognised Neil, or the features of Stefan still left on his face. Kevin didn’t say anything either, and his words made it clear he didn’t remember Nathaniel, either. Neil was walking a thing line between life and death, with Stefan on one shoulder and Nathaniel on the other, waiting to tip him over, to expose the truth, to leave him buried like his mother.
The first night Neil slept - or more so lay on the couch in silence for hours, brain filled with noise and regret - in David’s apartment, he couldn’t stop thinking about Andrew. He couldn’t stop thinking about the kid with white-blond hair and a toothy smile, who ran his fingers so gently over Stefan’s skin, like he would break if Andrew dared get any closer. He couldn’t stop thinking about the playground, and the motel, and the kisses… and the punches, the kicks, the pulling of hair, the slaps across the face with yells to accompany them. Before Neil knew it he was stuck with his face hovering over the toilet bowl, his stomach threatening to burst at any moment. After a minute of gagging and spitting into the water, Neil washed his face and headed towards the balcony that David told him to smoke on if he needed to. This was one of those needing to moments.
Weeks went by without any indication he was going to be caught. Kevin looked at him like a stupid amateur, which was good for Nathaniel’s sake, but for Neil? Neil, who fought like his life depended on the racquet in his hands? Neil, who ran like his father was hot on his heels every single time he set off down the court? It hurt him to be insulted so often, but Kevin was leagues above him when he played. Neil was never going to be good enough. Andrew avoided him as much as possible. Nicky told him that was just how Andrew was; if you brought him no benefit, or if you made him bored, he would put you on a high shelf and never look at you again. By the way Andrew only spoke to Neil when Neil stood up to Kevin, Neil thought it was obvious that Andrew didn’t recognise him.
And then came the invite to Columbia.
“Get rid of the contacts, by the way.” Nicky had brushed off the realisation like it was nothing. It sounded like ‘you have something in your teeth’ but felt like a screaming siren above Neil’s head. It felt like a punch to the gut, like a gun to his head. “Andrew’s decision. And brown, Neil? You’re so predictable and boring it’s adorable.” He’d left a bag of clothes with Neil.
When Neil looked at his blue eyes, he felt too many feelings he couldn’t describe, or name. He felt like he was looking at his father. He felt like he was looking into the mirror like he had the last time he was Nathaniel. The last time he was in Baltimore. He’d cycled through the catalogue of contacts during his time on the run, but never once went back to blue. They were the icy eyes of a murderer, not the eyes of quiet, boring Neil. But at least they weren’t green. Neil was worried about Kevin recognising him by his eyes, but it was going to be dark out by the time they left. Neil would just have to stay in the dark around Kevin, and hope he got too drunk to notice, too drunk to remember.
When Andrew’s group came to pick Neil up, there was a change in dynamic Neil hadn’t seen before. Instead of Nicky being the middle man in their conversations, or Kevin being the reason to talk, Andrew was taking charge of their night. Neil’s heart raced every time he looked into his eyes. Every time he heard that voice it told him to run, the same voice as before, only deeper, emotionless. Neil couldn’t imagine this Andrew crying. Neil couldn’t imagine this Andrew being open, about his sexuality, or his feelings. If he didn’t look almost the same only older, he would probably doubt this was even the same Andrew.
“Oh! Oh, now, that’s interesting!” Andrew had commented as Neil left his dorm room. Nicky, Aaron and Kevin had walked ahead of the two of them. When they’d disappeared around the corner into the elevator down, Andrew turned and grabbed Neil’s face to inspect it. “What a change, hmm? Blue to brown is a bit drastic for fashion, don’t you think?”
“I’ve never liked my eyes,” Neil spoke through the fingers that rested over his lips. “I’ve worn them brown most my life.” Andrew tutted as Neil spoke, but left that thought there. His features were angry, like Neil had insulted him, but he S miled like he’d been talking to his best friend. He placed a cigarette between his lips as they joined the others in the elevator.
Before long, they were walking through the doors of Eden’s Twilight, music pumping and swirling through the air, vibrating their bodies as they walked. Andrew motioned for Neil to follow him to the bar once they’d found a table.
“Shots on me.” He’d come down from his manic high, waiting for his dust adrenaline to kick in. His smile was gone, but his tone and way of speaking was still the same. “What do you drink?”
“I don’t,” Neil answered, having to yell over the music.
“Sure you do.” Andrew waved him off. “I’m being polite. What do you drink?” He asked again, as the bartender came over.
“A coke for me.” Neil told the man behind the bar before he could ask Andrew. “Just a little ice.”
“See, now, Pinocchio, when someone offers you a gift you say thank you and accept it.” Andrew turned towards the man. “Roland. This is Neil. He’s a newbie.”
“I hear you,” Roland nodded, already placing shot glasses on the tray he’d put on the bar. “My choice, with dash for the new kid.” He poured a clear spirit into eight shot glasses, and used the fountain tap to fill a larger glass with cola. Andrew passed cash over and waved off his change as a tip. Before Neil knew it he was heading through the crowd, Andrew balancing the tray on one hand held high above his head. They reached the table and nothing has spilled, and before Neil knew it, the shot glasses were stacked in a tower on the tray as Neil nursed his coke.
“You don’t drink.” Andrew turned to Neil after watching the others take to the dance floor, coming up on their high, dusting when they couldn’t be seen. “Why?”
“Hate the taste, mostly.” That would be the truth if ‘taste’ actually meant ‘feeling of being out of control of my body’. He shrugged at Andrew’s dissatisfaction with that answer.
“You come to university and you don’t drink?” Andrew scoffed. “Do you smoke?” Neil shook his head. He’d tried an edible by accident once in some cafe in Europe, and got so paranoid they had to move on that night. He swore he saw his dad staring in the windows in the red-light district, a blunt between his lips, a smile made of murder wrapped around it.
“Not for me.” Neil took a sip from the cold coke. “Hard to find when it’s not legal and I hate the cops. Takes too much effort to roll.” Neil lied, like he knew what he was talking about, but he just remembered watching people in the cities he went to, everywhere having their local stoners, the folks who sat in the parks without a care in the world.
“You don’t drink, you don’t smoke, you won’t dust.” Andrew rattled off the options. “Is it molly you’d prefer?” And when Neil shook his head again: “Psychedelics? Benzos?”
“I’m just not interested.” Neil looked into his glass, focusing on the ice. If he kept looking at Andrew he felt like he would crack. “Don’t we get tested before games anyway? What’s the point?” Andrew didn’t answer before he heading back up the bar. Neil didn’t follow this time. When he came back, there was ten shot glasses on the table. Again, eight filled with an unnamed spirit that burned Neil’s nose and twisted his stomach. The other two were cola.
“I’d hate for the new boy to feel left out.” Aaron, Nicky and Kevin had arrived back to the table for their shots. Andrew handed Neil one of his glasses. Neil knocked it back when the others did. It was ordinary coke, no surprises, no weird tastes, no reason for Neil to believe Andrew would have given him a shot of alcohol instead. That was, until he clinked glasses with the others and swallowed the second shot in a quick movement. He felt the alcohol burn his throat. It warmed his chest, but the familiar feeling wasn’t what worried him. It was the taste of salt on his tongue when he hadn’t licked any before hand. He quickly excused himself from the table and left for the bathroom.
Andrew had drugged him. He didn’t know why, but all he knew was the crackers were already coursing through his veins with deadly adrenaline. He was sure his racing heart wasn’t helping. It didn’t help, either, when Nicky reached the stairs before he did, and pulled him in for a salty, dusty kiss. Neil pushed him off as discreetly as he could.
“Nothing?” Nicky complained as he Neil bounced up the sticky stairs two steps at a time. Neil was sure he heard him say something about Neil being too hot to be straight, but the roaring anxiety in his ears was enough to drown it out. He locked himself in a stall and tried to best to throw up. He hadn’t eaten before he’d left, and he hadn’t drank anything other than he soda, so his attempts were fairly futile. A knock at the door interrupted him, and when he answered with a quick ‘occupied!’ He heard the door unlocking from the outside. Andrew pushed his way into the cramped stall and shut the door behind him. Before Neil could even begin to object Andrew had grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against the wall, Neil struggling to keep his balance with the toilet in the way.
“You don’t like the taste of alcohol or you’re afraid of losing control? Telling your truths?” Andrew’s drug induced smile had returned with mischief and malice. “Let’s see how this does!” His voice was low as he spoke, with an enthusiasm to his words that made Neil sweat. When he went to protest, Andrew covered his mouth with his free hand.
“Shut up,” He clicked his tongue. “You have spent your entire extended stay here lying to me and lying to poor, gullible Coach. I see the way you look at Kevin, too. Either you’re lying about not swinging or there’s something deeper to that intimidation.” Neil tried to get out a ‘I don’t swing.’ Before Andrew shushed him again. “Don’t keep lying, newbie! One last chance at honesty.” He lifted his hand no more than an inch from Neil’s mouth. Neil was sweating, his hands shaky, his mind turning into fog, desperate to cling to any sort of euphoria it could find. When it’s search came up empty, it filled his stomach, his head, his hands, his feet, with anxious buzzing instead. He couldn’t ignore the nauseating feelings the drugs brought with them.
“I don’t swing,” Neil stood his ground. “I don’t.” Andrew brought his hand up to Neils hair and yanked him down to his level, hard. He kept an inescapable grip in his curls as their faces almost touched.
“Still don’t know?” Andrew pouted in fake-pity. “Ten years later and you still don’t know?” Neil’s stomach would’ve fallen from his body if it’s got the chance. His heart would’ve went with it when Andrew continued. “There better be a good reason for Neil existing, Stefan, and I can’t wait to hear it.”
“What?” He tried, but it was no use. His voice failed him, cracking as the futile attempts at lying left his lips. “I don’t know what-“
“Shut up.” Andrew repeated. His grip not relaxing. Neil was worried he was pulling his hair from the root, but that was probably the least of his worries. Probably. “Do not lie to me again.” Neil searched his eyes for a sliver of doubt. A tiny, tiny possibility that he might think he was wrong. It wasn’t there. He’d been caught.
“Andrew.” He wrapped his hands around Andrew’s wrist, the one hovering over his head, muscles tense from the grip on his head. “Can we talk without ripping my fucking hair out?”
Before Neil could react, Andrew had let go of his hair, but in doing so, had swung his head with full force into the side walls of the stall. His balance finally failed him, but Andrew caught him by the neck of the black turtleneck he’d been gifted. He heard a few stitches pop, but it didn’t matter. The sudden movements turned Neil’s stomach with a violent wave, and he gagged hard, his stomach threatening to come out his mouth. He leaned over to spit into the toilet and bared his teeth at Andrew, breathing heavily through them.
“So he lives,” Andrew smiled, his pupils blown, a white-knuckled hold on Stefan-Neil’s collar. Neil was afraid he was going to pass out. His body was on fire, his mind screaming like an emergency broadcast alarm. “Tell me you didn’t know, oh humour me! I’d hate to think you’re stupid enough to come here still in possession of the memory from there.”
“I didn’t think you’d remember.” Neil didn’t break eye contact.
“So you ARE that stupid!” Andrew pushed him back, letting go of his top. Neil tried to assess his escape routes, but it was no use. He couldn’t get out of this. “I remembered little Stefan the second Kevin showed me your file. I didn’t think it would be you, surely it couldn’t be, but our little visit to fuckport, Arizona couldn’t lie to me like you did. So is it Neil, or is it Stefan?”
“Neither.” He spat out the honesty, worried if he waited, another lie would take it’s place. “But you can call me Neil.”
“Oh, no, no!” Andrew grabbed him by the neck, holding his jaw in a way that could become a choke very quickly. “Maybe I’ll stick with Stefan. You don’t get a say. You know, I thought mommy killed you.” A knife twisted in Neil’s gut.
“She’s dead.” Neil tried to breath through his unwanted come-up. “That’s the only reason I’m here. Because she wasn’t alive to stop me.”
“Did you do it?” He held Neils face like the world would end if he let go. He held even tighter when Neil tried to pull away.
“No.” That was all he said. He thought about continuing, considering the fact he was a dead man already. But he stopped himself. How could he say it was his dad without saying he was the mafias right-hand-murderer? Was he wasting his time lying?
“Didn’t think you did.” Andrew laughed, barely even blinking as he intimidated Neil. “No balls then, no balls now.”
“I was twelve.” He spat through crushed cheeks. “We were kids.”
“Old enough to be a liar.” Andrew let go of Neil’s face with a forceful push and turned to open the stall door. “You’re going to lead us outside. If you deviate or try to run I’ll kill you. I will kill you.” So Neil did just that. He led the way in silence, down the stairs and towards the exit. When Nicky stopped and excitedly asked where they were going, Neil looked back to Andrew who waved his pack of cigarettes, a smile on his face, no essence of a lie present. Neil just kept walking, kept his head down, and tried to ignore the pain on the side of his head. When they reached the outside of the club, the brisk air biting their exposed skin, Neil turned to the first man he saw, a club-goer at the top of the queue, and swung a punch up. Andrew noticed the second his hands left his sides, balled up with a plan. The man threw a hefty punch back, shouting intimidations, knocking Neil’s short frame to the ground. As quick as humanly possible, Andrew had hoisted him up, wrapped his arms around his back and twisted his wrist in such a way that a single jolt would break it. He held him in that position with one hand, putting all his strength into keeping Neil still.
“He gets crazy on tequila!” Andrew laughed, shaking his head as he took out his wallet and pulled out a fifty note. He threw it at the guy as compensation, his friends holding him back from beating Neil’s vulnerable, ballsy ass. He continued yelling as Andrew hauled him away. He grunted in pain as he refused to loosen his grip on Neil’s wrists. He walked him around the back of the club, to an empty, barely lit parking lot. He threw him to the ground so quickly he didn’t have time to stop his fall.
“Every moment I spend around you, you prove you’re much fucking dumber than I thought.” Andrew spat down, then crouching down to Neil’s level, balancing on the tops of his feet. Neil cradled his head, arms wrapped around the nape of his neck. He was sure he had a concussion. He could barely open his eyes through the pulsing blood rushing through his head, but forced himself to, to look up at Andrew’s smiling face.
“What happened?” Spit dripped down his chin, blood slowly trickling from the busted lip he’d earned himself. “What happened to that Andrew?” Andrew froze for half a second, and Neil noticed. “The Andrew who cried because he was gay? The kid who actually fucking cared about anything?”
“Oh, you are treading thin fucking ice for someone who doesn’t know how to swim.” Andrew tilted his head. “Mention another precious memory and I won’t hesitate to actually break your wrist next time.”
“Why?” He spat blood at Andrew’s feet. “Afraid somebody might remember what you’re actually like when you’re not pretending to be a sociopath?” Andrew opened his mouth at the challenge, a smile creeping up one side of his face. “Are you afraid to actually have someone around you know anything about you? I’m a threat. That’s all you care about.” He continued. “What, do you think I’ll use it against you? You’ve been treating me like shit since we met. If I was going to stab you in the back I’d have done it already, asshole.”
“Since we met, again.” He corrected the most irrelevant part of Neils sentiment.
“Let me go now and I’ll move on. You won’t ever see me again.” Neil bargained. Andrew’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly. “This time I’ll get a chance to say goodbye.”
“No,” Andrew stopped him. “You don’t get to arrive in to my life like a tornado and disappear. You don’t get to dig your own grave and push me into it.” He bent down to get closer to Neils shaking face. “You’re going to tell me exactly what happened first. Tell me what she did to you.”
“No.” Neil strained. “I moved on. You were dangerous. You almost got me killed.”
“Boohoo, do you hear my tiny violin, liar?” Andrew grabbed a hold of his hair again. Neil let out a cry of pain, trying to pry Andrew’s fingers from his scalp. “Talk. Talk or I will get you killed.”
“My father is a very dangerous man. He’s murdered more people than there are days in a year.” Neil wiped the blood from his lips. It stung as he did so, but it didn’t matter. He took out a small stack of IDs from his wallet and threw them across to Andrew. For a second, anyone would’ve thought they were real, but closer inspection killed that thought. Andrew was holding a driver’s license belonging to Chris Angle, 21, from New York. A European passport card signed by George Debois from Paris. A gym membership from Seattle, an employee pass from Toronto, two more drivers licenses from cities across the globe. All the names were different, but they didn’t belong to different people. They all had pictures of Neil on them. Some he had long hair, short hair, an unfortunate buzz-cut. He wore a beard in some, the baby face of a teenager in others. “You aren’t the only one I’ve lied to. Don’t think you’re special.” Andrew snapped the IDs with angry force. Neil took a deep breath, knowing the last memories of his mother were buried in the face of Christopher Hart, snapped in half, just like that. He continued searching through his wallet. Deep into the card pockets of the tattered leather. He didn’t look up when he heard Andrew drop the scraps of his identities on the ground. Neil found what he was looking for and threw it again, across the space separating them, it clattering by his feet. “If my mom found that she’d have killed me herself. We ran so she could protect me. I made that so much harder on her by meeting you.” Andrew inspected the card he’d been thrown. An under-eye twitch and a slow inhale accompanied his realisation. “You want to hate me for what she made me do, fine, but it was inevitable. You were never going to be the reason that made us stay.”
Neil had given Andrew something he couldn’t bare to part with. His old wallet stayed buried deep, deep in his belongings, so well hidden his mother hadn’t even known it existed. He usually kept his current IDs on his person, and never in a wallet. It was a ticking time bomb, but Neil needed something. He needed a reason to feel, and if that was the memory of the good day his mom had had when they finally showered after weeks of baby wipes and deodorant, it was something to hold on to. Neil had to stay grounded in some sort of reality. He was on the run, sure, but the people he met, the things he’d done? They were real. It hurt to see those memories snapped on the ground like trash, but Andrew didn’t snap the memory he held in his hands.
Andrew held the library card of Stefan Montgomery. It had a faded black and white photo on it, scratched out with time. He had begged the librarian to let him have the card without taking a picture, but she had insisted it was necessary so people didn’t have more than one. In the photo was a scared little boy, a gash on his cheek, with crispy curls and a skinny face. Neil remembered walking to the library when he couldn’t find Andrew, taking out books to help him learn any of the languages he needed to know. The library in Oakland taught him about the history of Spain, and the culture in France. There was something about Stefan that Neil didn’t want to forget. He’d kept that library card safe as if it were a lifeline, like he knew it would come in handy some day.
And then Andrew threw it across the empty parking lot like a frisbee.
“She didn’t see anything.” Neil tried, as if it would help. “We left because I made a friend. Not because… you know.”
“I was not your friend.” Andrew stood up and put a cigarette between his teeth. He lit it, one puff, two puff, three puffs until it burned red. “I was never your friend.”
“You were.” Neil struggled to stand up and join him. “Don’t lie to a liar.”
“You remember it wrong!” He took a short drag and flicked ash as he spoke. “You were a toy to play with when there was nothing else to do.”
“You could’ve went home.” Neil took the cigarette from Andrew’s fingers. “But hey, I wasn’t the only one who needed to escape heavy hands, right?” He pulled the smoke into his lungs and breathed out before flicking the barely smoked cigarette away. “You were my friend. You had Stefan killed because I cared about you when Stefan wasn’t supposed to care about anybody.”
“Be quiet.” Andrew pulled another cigarette from the packet and squared up to Neil who was standing so close he could feel Andrew’s breath hot on his face. “You didn’t care.”
“Are you listening?” Neil spat again, the heat of the cigarette having hurt his cracked lips. “We left because of you. Because I let you in, and I’m sorry you were collateral damage in our war against the world but fuck, we didn’t have a choice. Do you think I wanted to leave? I was going to leave you a note, but she wouldn’t leave my side until we were in another city and Stefan was just another name in the pile. Fuck you if you don’t want to believe that. I don’t owe you an explanation but you’ve got one anyway. Tell me to leave and I’ll go. Tell me you understand and I’ll go, Andrew.”
“I waited for you.” Andrew exhaled honestly through cigarette smoke. “Every day! The fourth day I tried knocking on the door of your motel room. Fifth day a random couple opened the door and I knew you weren’t coming back. Why should I give you another chance, hmm? When you so easily could run away before, who’s to say you won’t do it again?”
“I’m not asking for another chance,” Neil head was pounding. He felt like he could pass out, his ears ringing and body jittery. “I don’t know, maybe I’m asking you to remember what I meant to you.” Andrew pursed his lips at that. He was struggling to keep his composure, like the memory of before was chipping away slowly at this version of Andrew. He was holding himself together with twitches and small fidgets.
“I hate you.” He said, coldly. He had lit his cigarette and smoked through half of it before speaking again. Neil just stood, suddenly thinking about if Kevin were to find the IDs scattered on the floor. He didn’t even think he could lie to Nicky about that. He would pick them up in a moment, but he couldn’t afford to lose Andrew’s interest in the conversation. If Neil got distracted now he could ruin every chance he possible had at reconciling some sort of relationship with Andrew.
“I hate what the world has turned you into.” Andrew snorted a laugh at Neil’s dramatics.
“Oh, you are a pipe bomb.” Andrew started to walk away, but when Neil grabbed his arm to stop him, in a quicker movement he had twisted Neil’s arm in some sort of self defence move that hurt. “You don’t have a right to touch me anymore. Keep your lying hands to yourself or I’ll break every one of your fingers.” He didn’t let go immediately.
“Do you miss it?” Neil searched Andrew’s eyes for something, anything. “Being vulnerable? Being comforted instead of being alone, blaming the world for your problems?” Before Neil could even think to keep going, Andrew had used his free hand to manoeuvre a knife from his arm bands and hold it up to Neil’s face.
“I dare you to keep pushing.” His words were casual, but a threat nonetheless. “Stop trying to control a life you left. I won’t be a scratching post for your mommy issues, runaway.”
“What did Jakub do to you?” Neil brought a memory out from the depths. As soon as the name left his lips, Andrew’s entire body hardened and his eyes turned to glass. He slashed a cut into Neil’s cheekbone without hesitation and proceeded to let go of his arm and jam a thumb into the fresh wound. “Why did you spend your childhood alone in a playground?” Neil spoke through gritted teeth.
“If you want to keep your fantasy alive I advise you to really shut up now.” Andrew pushed him backwards, a final squeeze in the gash as he did so. Even more blood dripped down his face. Andrew wiped his hands in his pants and picked up the ignored cigarette he’d dropped in the altercation. “You are going in circles. This is your last warning.”
“My mom nearly broke half the bones in my body trying to get rid of the memory of you.” Neil took his spot back up so close to Andrews face he could practically see every one of the pores in his face. He still had freckles scattered across his face, his skin soft, with faint acne scars here and there across his cheeks. “I never stopped thinking about you.”
“You should have.” Andrew threw his cigarette at Neil. “Make your choice. Run like you’re used to.” He looked him up and down one more time and turned on his feet back towards the club. Neil didn’t follow. He started to pick up the remnants of his past and he felt his nose ache in psychosomatic pain, remembering a nose-breaking punch his mother threw when Neil dared asked if they could stay. He spat again, still trying to get the salty taste out of his mouth. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold onto the shards of plastic evidence of who he used to. After picking them all up he had to stop, and sit down. He was afraid he was having a panic attack, and he couldn’t tell if it was because of the drugs still ravishing his system, or if it was because of Andrew. Maybe it was both. It probably was. He didn’t think he could’ve spoken the truth if he wasn’t high, but God, if he were sober it would’ve been so much easier to run. High Neil was emotional Neil, empathetic Neil, hurt Neil. He’d only had the experience of being really, genuinely high a few times, and every single time just reminded him how much he hated the feeling of being out of control. Of his nerves, his feelings, every fibre in his being misfiring and doing the opposite to what he wanted. His brain was begging him to feel the chemicals it was pumping out, but all it did was amplifying the aching feeling in his chest. He let out a noise that didn’t quite resemble a cry, or a sigh, or a grunt. It was a noise born from pain, a mixture of anxiety and heartbreak, maybe. He wasn’t sure what that felt like. Maybe this was it.
He tried to steady his breath and he stumbled across the empty lot. The booming bass from the music at Eden’s practically shook the ground as he walked, at least, it sure felt like it did. He stumbled as he reached down to pick up the library card so carelessly thrown away. It hurt him even more looking at Stefan, feeling this pang in his stomach that wished things could’ve been different. He didn’t think he liked Andrew like that, and being on the same team was just the destruction of a childhood crush. Neil tried to come up with excuses in his head to how Andrew felt, but it was obvious he had thrown Stefan into the bad memories pile a long, long time ago. Neil showing up again just ripped through Andrew’s closure, and knowing he had feelings beneath what he showed, he was probably hurting too. It didn’t seem like it, but maybe he was. Neil had put the ID away, and looked around. He had no real idea where he was, or how to get home. Before he knew it, he was sprinting away from the club, going nowhere, going anywhere but there. His head wasn’t in a place to decide that he should stay. He’s worth it. His heart raced at the thought of Andrew’s face, looking down at the long unused library card. He’s worth it. Neil couldn’t look back. He was wondering what Andrew was telling the others, and if they would believe him. He wondered if he’d told Nicky about Neil’s Idontknow sexuality, and that’s why Nicky thought it okay to kiss him. But he didn’t feel anything with Nicky. He didn’t look at anyone in the way he looked at Andrew. He ran and ran and ran until he’d sweat out the drugs, until his head was more focused on trying to breathe than it was on Andrew, and his mom. It took a while, and he was lost when he stopped. Unfamiliar streets, him a stranger in someone else’s hometown. Maybe that made things worse. This feeling was too familiar. Lost, lost, lost. Sometimes lost became familiar, became home. He didn’t think he could be un-lost again.
-
Part 3
107 notes · View notes
amythedvdhoarder · 4 years
Text
Three
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Pairing: Stucky x Reader
Word count: 4.3K
Warnings: Swearing, little bit of drinking, quite angsty and fluffy
A/N: (gif not mine) So this is my incredibly late entry to celebrate  @finleyjayne reaching 100 followers. Congrats hun you deserve it. So I picked the prompt ‘Feeling blue’ with Stucky. This is not beta read so I apologise now for any mistakes. 
xxx
Bucky let out a heavy sigh as he rolled over to face Steve in bed. Another night filled with restless sleep, the extra body in the bed missing making it impossible to sleep easily.
“What’s up? Steve grumbled still half asleep.
“You know what,” Bucky replied wistfully.
Steve stretches out lazily before turning to face Bucky and smiling sadly. “We had to let her go, give her a chance at a normal life. She couldn’t have that with is Buck.”
“Why can’t she have a normal life with us Steve? Everyone accepts us? We could have settled down, got married, had a few kids. No one would have questioned it.” Bucky knew the tiredness was stopping him from keeping a lid on his emotions.
“You know that’s not true,” Steve reached for Bucky’s hand and pulled it to his lips briefly, “nobody outside of the team knew about the three of us. It wasn’t fair on her, you agreed at the time too. We let her go before it got too far and we couldn’t. We had 6 happy months together, let’s just remember that.” Steve tugged on Bucky’s arm, encouraging him to come closer. Bucky shuffled over and rested his head against Steve’s chest.
“I know, I just miss her. I love her so fucking much it hurts.” Steve closed his eyes as he felt that familiar stab of pain that Bucky was talking about. Bucky was everything to Steve, they had been through so much together. But you. You were like the missing piece of their jigsaw puzzle they hadn’t even realised was incomplete. You fitted them perfectly, after everything they had been through they were happier than they had ever been but they noticed you becoming more distant, spending nights back at your own place, then suddenly it was all over.
xxx
You missed Steve and Bucky like hell. They had woven their way into your life and now that they weren’t in it, you felt lost. The first time you met them they had come into the coffee shop you were working in. Bucky’s fingers had grazed over yours as you handed him his takeout cup and Steve’s eyes met yours making your breath catch. You witnessed the pair of them having a quiet conversation and them both sitting down at a table despite ordering coffee to go. They spent the rest of the afternoon at the coffee shop, chatting away, their eyes searching you out and finding you already smiling at them warmly. When you were finally closing up they asked you to join them for a few minutes.
They explained to you that they were a couple but were interested in spending time with you. Surprisingly you weren’t put off by the idea but in fact excited, so you accepted their dinner invitation. Two weeks later you found yourself in their bed and after that a permanent feature in their lives. You spent most nights with them at the tower. On your days off you would explore New York together, looking like a couple and their friend just having a day out. Not that it bothered you. You understood why Steve was never affectionate with you outside of the tower, he kept his distance. He had only just started to feel comfortable being out with Bucky in public. Bucky was different though, he had spent too much of his life not being himself to hide any longer. He would tease you with small lingering touches, not so innocent looks whilst nobody was watching and whispering naughty thoughts in your ears as you peered into shop windows.
Everything had been going smoothly until Steve had gone on a mission that lasted longer than expected. Before that point you hadn’t slept with either of them without the other being there or joining in. But during this week Bucky felt himself getting more and more stressed and in need of release so he called Steve and asked if it would be ok for you and him to sleep together. Steve agreed at the time but when he got back from his mission to find you and Bucky curled up with each other on the sofa his face told a different story. Of course, you instantly panicked believing you were driving a wedge between them which was the last thing you wanted to do. After you voiced you concerns to Bucky he told you that you were being daft but Steve’s demeanour changed around you.
From that point you began to distance yourself from the both, you made excuses to avoid spending time with even though it made you miserable. In that short 6 months you had fallen insurmountably in love with them but realised it had to end. Bucky and Steve were meant for each other, you cared about them too much to come between them. And after one short, teary discussion between the three of you it was over. You made your excuses about needing the chance to have a normal life where you could be open about your relationships, have some proper stability. It was all lies of course, something to avoid having to tell them the truth and potentially cause them more pain. Neither of them fought or argued with you, they looked a little ashamed but ultimately let you go.
Truth be told you missed all of the people from the avenger’s tower; Sam and Nat had become good friends of yours. They had tried to contact you after you left but you ghosted them, unable to have any sort of connection to anyone linked to Bucky and Steve. Your life seemed quieter, mundane and as you cleaned the coffee machine up for closing time you didn’t even notice when a new customer came in.
“Y/N?” the soft voice snapped you out of your thoughts.
“Sam? What are you doing here?” you said moving towards the counter. “You want anything making?”
“Only if you’ll join me,” he smiled.
“I can’t. I need to close up and clean.” You could tell by the way his eyebrows raised that he wasn’t going to fall for your attempt to get rid of him.
“How about this. You lock up and I’ll help you tidy up. It’ll give us a chance to talk, I miss talking to someone who isn’t over 100 or a trained assassin.” Sam knew he had won when you burst out laughing.
“Fine, but only because I don’t want to clean up this place on my own,” you stuck your tongue out at him as you walked over to the door, clicked the lock shut and turned over the sign indicating you were now closed.  
You and Sam chatted away for the next 30 minutes talking about this and that, both delaying the inevitable topic of the two super soldiers. You handed Sam his payment of a cappuccino and you sat down in an armchair opposite him, nursing your cup of tea.
“So, you gonna ask me how they are?” Sam asks an amused tone to his voice.
“Sam, I-“ he shakes his head at you.
“I’m gonna tell you anyway. Y/N they’re not good, they really miss you even if they won’t admit it to us. Bucky is miserable, he barely laughs, makes a joke. Hell, he has even stopped teasing me. For some reason he only wears this one red t-shirt all the time, he is refusing to wash it. Like it actually smells now. And Steve. Steve is worst. His mood swings would put an adolescent teenager to shame. One minute he is snapping at everyone, breaking open punch bags and the next he weirdly calm and this look of despair just washes over him.” Sam’s eyes fixed on your face.
His words had clearly had an impact, making him feel instantly guilty. Your bottom lip wobbling, eyes full of tears threatening to spill over. He jumped up out of his seat and wrapped a comforting arm around you. At this the damn broke and you descended into sobs.
“Shit, I’m sorry Y/N,” Sam crooned softly, taking the hot tea out of your hand and placing it on the table. “Take a couple of deep breaths for me,” he instructed. Once you had finally had your breathing back under control and wiped away your tears, he finally released you and sat back down opposite you.
“I’m sorry Sam,” your voice croaky and raw from the crying. “I just miss them, I don’t feel like myself anymore. It’s like I’m hollow, does that sound crazy?”
“No, it doesn’t Y/N, I felt the same way when Riley died. The difference is they didn’t die, you could have them back in your life if that’s what you want?” he said solemnly.
“I would go back to them in a heartbeat Sam, but I just don’t think that’s what they both want,” you twisted the ring around your index finger.
“Did you not hear what I told you earlier? They’re lost without you,” Sam was thoroughly confused. His plan had been to try and talk you around to help you realise what a big mistake the three of you had made.  Nat was having a similar conversation with Steve and Bucky right now, informing them what she had found out by following you around for the last week or so since you’d left. But now Sam had a feeling that there was a bigger issue at hand.
“I heard you but they’ll learn to live without me. They love each other completely, I don’t think there is room for me in all of that.” It was the first time you had admitted the truth aloud, it stung but it felt good to have finally got the big weight off your shoulders.
“That’s the biggest pile of bullshit I have ever heard,” Sam scoffed. Your head shot up immediately, your mouth open in shock. “You can’t seriously believe that?”
You were quiet for a minute, not sure how to respond. “You don’t know them like I do,” you replied quietly.
“You’re right, in some ways I know them better. I knew them before you, they were happy but it was nowhere near what they were like when you were with them,” he folded his arms content that he had won.
“See that’s where your wrong Sam. You remember that mission that Steve went on, every little thing that could go wrong did. Well when he got home something was different, he was more guarded around me. I think it was because me and Bucky got closer whilst he was away, he didn’t want me anymore. I was getting in the way,” you reasoned.
“Y/N, I was on that mission with him. We went through absolute hell and back. I was distant from everyone for a while. Did you know he nearly died?” he looked at the way your eyes widened to find the answer to that question. “So, no then. Well he did and do you know what he said to me?” You shook your head. “I’m quoting here. ‘Tell them both I love them. Tell Bucky to look after our girl’. If you were really getting in the way, why would he say that?”
You sighed. “I don’t know. But he didn’t stop me from leaving.”
“Did you tell them the real reason why you were leaving?” Sam asked already knowing the answer.
You shook your head.
“And people call me an idiot?” he scoffed.  “Of course they let you go if that’s what they thought you wanted. You need to talk to them or at least see them and find out the truth.”
You picked up your tea and took a long gulp to avoid responding to Sam’s suggestion.
“Well whatever you decide you’re going to have to see them this weekend anyway?” he said smugly making you choke and cough as the now lukewarm liquid went down the wrong way.
“Sam what the fuck?” you managed to get out in between spluttering coughs.
“It’s my birthday party on Saturday, you promised you’d come ages ago.” He folded his arms at grinned.
“That was before,’ you stammered. “Besides, I’ve already said I’ll work another shift.”
“Liar,” he said getting to his feet. “Nat will come to yours and pick you up around 7. Think about what I’ve said Y/N. They really do miss you.”
You stood up followed him as he walked to the door. “Ok I’ll think about it. Don’t think I have much choice about Saturday, do I?”
Sam wrapped you up in a bear hug. “Nope, absolutely none.”
After you had locked up after Sam you sat back down and tried to process everything. Sam’s words played over in your head. There was no doubt that Bucky was missing you; he was wearing the shirt of his that you had slept in the last night you spent with them. It was Steve you were more sceptical about. If what Sam had really said was true then maybe Steve did care for you more than he let on. Perhaps some part of him doubted your affection and loyalty to them. There was no way to be sure except to see them. You just didn’t know if you were ready for that.
xxx
Nat showed up a whole two hours early with an array of outfits for you to pick from. She wouldn’t let you get something old and familiar out of your closet, she was determined to get you dressed up and into the party spirit. She only succeeded at one of those and by the time you both pulled up to the tower you were a complete bag of nerves.
“Will you quit fidgeting, you’re making me nervous,” Nat scolded you.
“Sorry,” you mumbled before pulling up the front of your dress. “Why a sleeveless dress Nat? They are so impractical.”
“Well -” she paused to twist the thin satin material at your hip, repositioning the perilously high thigh split, “- that may be true but I can guarantee one thing, those boys will certainly realise what they have been missing.”
You frowned at her and gave one final look over your appearance in the elevator mirror before the door pinged open into the loud and bustling party. She took your hand and led you to the bar where you were greeted by Sam who promptly handed you a drink. You knocked back the amber liquid quickly in an attempt to sooth your nerves, before anxiously scanning around the room for any sign of the two men you both longed and dreaded to see.
“Relax Y/N, they’re not here yet,” Sam leaned over and whispered in your ear. He gave you a small reassuring smile which mixed with warmth the alcohol was providing finally made you relax a little. Nat and Sam caught you up on everything that happened and the latest avenger’s gossip.
“Hey kid, we missed you. How’ve you been?” Tony walked up to you, his purple tinted glasses nearly falling of his nose as he threw his arms out to embrace you.
“Ok thanks,” you said quickly. “Great party as always Tones.”
“Well we have Mrs Stark to thank for that.” He turned to face Sam. “They’re gonna short-circuit when they find out she’s here,” Tony uttered, half amused before walking over to greet some other guests.
You rounded on Sam. “You didn’t tell them,” your voice low as you tried to control your emotions.
“Not exactly,” he shrugged. “Well guess we’re going to find out any second now,” he smirked at the entrance over your shoulder.
xxx
Bucky looked around the room, wishing at that moment that he could be anywhere else. He was walking towards the bar when he realised Steve was no longer walking next to him.
“Stevie?” he turned around searching for Steve and spotted him stood stock still, his eyes fixed on something across the room. Bucky walked back towards him and put his hand on his shoulder.
“Steve?” he said starting to get a little worried, he looked like he had seen a ghost. Bucky followed his line of sight and his eyes met yours across the crowded room. His breath caught in his throat and he could feel his heart pounding against his rib cage. He had thought of this moment every day since you had left and now that it was here he couldn’t quite believe it.
“Is she really here Buck,” Steve’s voice was barely above a whisper.
Bucky blinked and turned to Steve. “I think so. Steve, we have to …”
“I know” Steve said as he took Bucky’s hand and squeezed it.
When the men turned back around you had disappeared from sight. You saw them frantically searching for you but you had managed to tuck yourself behind a group of shield agents. At the sight of them part of you wanted to run to them and throw your arms around them and never let them go but there was still doubts niggling away in your mind. One thing was for certain, Sam was right. Bucky did look sad and Steve. Well Steve was the one you hadn’t ever been able to get a read on before and still couldn’t now.  
“Y/N seriously, hiding from them?” Nat shook her head at you.
“Well you found me so I’m clearly not hiding am I,” you sassed.
“You certainly won’t be in a minute” she smiled deviously before standing on her tip toes and waving at the two super soldiers.
“I fucking hate you Nat,” you hissed.
“No you don’t. If you’re still planning on hiding I would move now, they’re on their way.” You stuck your middle finger up at her and then scarpered. Sure, you were going to have to face them at some point tonight but you planned on having at least another couple of drinks before that.
Mid-way through your first vodka and coke a tall red-headed man approached you and Bruce as you were chatting at the bar.
“Hi, I was wondering if you wanted a dance. Seems a shame to be hiding that dress over here at the bar,” Bruce bit back a laugh as did you at the corny line but none the less you agreed.
You let the man who introduced himself as Tom, take your hand and lead you to the dancefloor. Thankfully the song was slow so you didn’t have to worry about your dress slipping down. Tom placed his hands lightly on your waist as you held onto his shoulders, gently swaying to the music.
Midway through the song he leaned over and whispered quietly in your ear. “Do you have any idea why the winter soldier looks like he wants to kill me?”
Your grip on his shoulders tightened. “Bucky,” you corrected. “No, I have no idea,” the tone of your voice sharp. As you spun around your eyes landed on Bucky who was gripping onto the glass tumbler in his hand so tightly you were surprised it hadn’t smashed. It was often that you saw this side of him but it sent a shiver down your spine. Your eyes sought out Steve who you assumed would be with Bucky but you couldn’t find him.
“Mind if I cut in?” a familiar voice spoke softly whilst still managing to carry an air of absolute authority.  
Tom stood still and turned to look up at the blonde man. “Sure thing Sir,” he stuttered, “thanks Y/N,” and with that Tom backed away and nearly ran from the dancefloor.
“That was mean,” your hands fell to your hips as you scowled at Steve. “Plus, do I not get a say in this?” His blue eyes flashed with panic briefly but then that classic Steve Rogers look of determination reappeared.
“So, what do you want Y/N?” you could sense the double meaning behind his question. “Because I know what I want Y/N,” he continued, his blue eyes boring into yours taking a step closer.
“Steve I…” you closed your eyes and bit down on your bottom lip trying to find the words you wanted to say. A calloused hand cupped your jaw and you opened your eyes as Steve traced the tender flesh of your lower lip. The sound of the party disappeared and all that remained in that moment was you and Steve. Instinctively you pressed your hand on top of Steve’s and inched yourself closer to him.
“I wish this were simpler Steve but it’s not,” you hadn’t even realised you were crying until Steve removed his hand and quickly wiped away the tears rolling down your cheeks.
“This was never going to be simple Y/N. But all I know is that I love you. These last few weeks have bit a shit show. I didn’t say it enough before but if you’ll have me then I will spend every day showing you exactly how much.”
“What about Bucky?” you asked quietly.
“What about me doll?” Bucky had walked up to the pair of you, a lop-sided grin on his face.
“You two are meant to be together. I don’t want to get in the way of that,” you looked from Bucky’s face to Steve’s.  
“You can’t seriously think that Y/N,” Steve said moving forward to try and get closer but you took a step back.
“I know that when you came back from that mission everything felt different,” your voice cracked as you tried to make Steve understand.
Steve’s face fell at your words. “I was scared Y/N. I realised on that mission how important you were. How much we needed you. When I saw you when I got back with Buck, I realised that you deserved so much more than someone who might not come home one day. You’re worth more than that. I was scared you were going to figure it out and leave. So, when you started pulling away I let you because I thought that was what you wanted, what would make you happy. Even if it meant we weren’t,” Steve rubbed the back of his neck.
“And you,” you rounded on Bucky, “did you think the same thing?”
“Y/N you didn’t seem happy and I thought we were to blame; doesn’t that sound familiar?” he was right of course. “All I know is it sounds as if you have been as miserable as we have. Doll, we’re not us without you. We’re a team. You, me and Stevie. We’re all yours if you’ll have us?” he shrugged.
“Maybe you need us to convince you?” Steve closed the distance between you and pressed his lips to yours with a softness you hadn’t expected. You felt yourself melt against him as his hands found the nape of your neck and held you to him, your lips moving against his as you became reacquainted.
When he finally managed to tear himself away from the sweet taste of your lips, his cheeks were flushed and his ragged breath matched your own.
“My turn,” Bucky stepped over, his hand moving to the back of your head as he crashed his lips to yours. The intensity of the kiss had both of you moaning against each other’s mouths. You wrapped your arms around him, not wanting to let go but you had to eventually.
You stood breathless looking between the two super soldiers who owned your heart, your mind made up.
“Yes,” you smiled.
Bucky was grinning like a kid of Christmas morning but Steve didn’t allow himself to celebrate to soon. “You sure about this Y/N because we won’t ever let you go again,” he said.
“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life,” and you meant it. You couldn’t imagine a version of your life without Bucky and Steve in it. “Now get over here,” you giggled at the look of pure joy on Steve’s face.
Steve was on you in a second, picking you up off your feet and pressing kisses all over your face. Bucky came up to the pair of you and took you out of Steve’s arms to repeat the whole process all over again before leaning over to give Steve a quick kiss.
Bucky finally slid you down his body back onto the floor and Steve cupped your cheek and was about to lean down to kiss you again until Sam interrupted.
“Um guys, as much as I am enjoying the reunion maybe you wanna, you know, take this somewhere a little less...” Sam waved his arm around at the crowd of people around you.
You hid yourself in embarrassment behind Bucky’s shoulder. “Sorry” your voice muffled by Bucky’s suit jacket, but you knew it was loud enough for them to both hear it.
Steve laced his fingers with yours and pulled you to face him. “What are you sorry for doll,” he stroked the side of your cheek with the back of his finger.
“I know you didn’t want people to know about us,” you looked down at the floor.
“I got nothing to hide doll. I love both of you and that’s all that matters,” he squeezed your hand and turned to Bucky. “Let’s get outta here.”
“Been waiting all night for you to say that Punk,” Bucky grinned.
He took your other hand and lead you and Steve out of the party. None of you caring what people may have been saying about the three of you, only caring about the fact that you were all together again, just how it was meant to be.
Taglist is open. Let me know if you want in or out 😊 (it is quite possible I missed someone 😬 just dm me)
@stargazingfangirl18 ,  @silentcoyotesong, @queenofstarliqht, @buckys-henley, @lonelyheartsm @alexa-lightwood-blog, @angrythingstarlight, @drabblewithfrannybarnes, @rogueheretic555 @rebekahdawkins @chrissquares @pumpkin-and-pine, @hereforbuckyandsteve, @drakelover78, @baddie-barnes   @its-izzys @thehumanistsdiary​
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aprilsrant · 4 years
Text
When I kissed the teacher | Oliver Wood x Slytherin!Fem!Reader.
SUMMARY: (Y/N) and Oliver finally accept their feelings for each other.
WORD COUNT: 2,065.
WARNINGS: a kiss, (?), a few curse words.
A/N: English is not my first language, if there are any mistakes, let me know! This part wasn’t supposed to be here so soon because I was working on the other fics, but this actually took some of my writer’s block away so here it is. 
This is the final part of the mini series, but I think I’ll do some blurbs about Oliver and this particular reader in the future, like dates, life after Hogwarts, and more.
Please like, reblog or comment if you want!
PREVIOUS PARTS:
Lay all your love on me. (Part 1)
Honey Honey! (Part 2).
MASTERLIST. / WORK IN PROGRESS.
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The poor Slytherin girl had been trying to hide her feelings towards Quidditch’s rising star and Gryffindor’s Team Captain, for a little more than a year and a half. It wasn’t necessarily difficult at first since they barely saw or talked to each other, only sharing a few classes and having one friend in common —that was more of an acquaintance to him, which made things easier for a few months—. But then, her friend’s conspiracy to get them together interfered with a plan of her own named “avoiding Oliver Wood for the rest of my school days”. 
Many tutoring sessions followed the first one, Oliver was improving a lot faster than they had expected. “All your work, of course”, he would say with a thick, scottish accent that made (Y/N) nearly faint every time he’d utter a single word. This was actually one of the reasons why she tried to convince him of calling off their meetings, —that and the fact that it was getting harder to conceal her sweaty hands, the fidgeting, the occasional stuttering, the evident stares and, of course, that the girl was unable to look him in the eyes for more than three seconds—. 
Oliver thought differently, he energetically insisted about needing her as tutor more than ever now that he was catching up with Potions and Transfiguration. And once more, incapable of saying no, she agreed, accepting to tutor him for the rest of the year ‘just in case’.
Dorian almost had her head when she talked about the conversation and her desire to stop helping Oliver. He couldn’t comprehend her reasoning, not when his friend was finally getting what she wanted for so long. Ethan and Isla didn’t take his side this time, instead, they supported (Y/N), sympathizing with her logic. 
“If it’s becoming a burden for you, maybe you should tell him,” the Ravenclaw boy advised, concentrating on beating Isla on the game of Exploding Snap in front of him.
“It’s not a burden, it’s just…,” (Y/N) started, the lack of words interrupting her sentence, “I don’t know how to explain it.”
The only Gryffindor in the Multicolour Quartet —horrible name indeed and his idea— kept quiet. He wanted (Y/N) to be happy, so why was she giving up her chance to actually be happy with the boy she liked for more than a year?
No one spoke about Oliver again that Wednesday afternoon on the Courtyard, a pact to keep quiet about the subject forming silently between them. 
By the group’s seventh, and last, year at Hogwarts, Oliver Wood and (Y/N) (Y/L/N) were official friends —something Dorian took full credit of and something no one in the school had foreseen, except for her friends and the Gryffindor Quidditch Team (why was their Captain, Oliver obsessive Wood, postponing practices all of a sudden?)—. Not long after she tried to end their tutoring sessions, Oliver asked her if she minded to spend some time with him outside of their “study dates”. 
Since then, she and Oliver could be seeing together round Hogwarts. Sometimes (Y/N)’s friends joining them because of the boy invitating the Quartet, or rest of it at least, to Hogsmeade, making up silly excuses to leave them alone or telling Oliver all the embarrassing things (Y/N)’d succeeded to do, most of them narrated by Dorian, —how could he know so many stupid stories when he joined the group not that long ago?—, who loved laughing at the angry faces she did until her elbow hit his ribs. 
While (Y/N)’s feelings kept growing without restraint, Oliver’s were blooming slowly, at first unnoticed, but strong. His heart jumping whenever he saw her smiling, or talking about a subject she was passionate about. His body going still momentarily if she was too close to him, showing him how to cut ingredients, or the order they went in, or how to move his hands to perform a spell correctly. 
He realised during the fifth month of the school term. It wasn’t romantic nor beautiful. It felt like taking a Bludger to the head —believe or not, he had experience with that—, you weren’t prepared for the hit and the consequences it would bring. Ruining their friendship was the last thing Oliver wanted, so he kept quiet about his discovery and acted normal, begging no one, especially not (Y/N), would notice.
Reckless, and sometimes irresponsible, they were, but not fools. So of course the experts on the matter of ‘friends being complete idiots and denying their feelings’, Dorian, Isla and Ethan knew exactly what was going on when they noticed Oliver’s change of attitude towards their Slytherin friend. How he seemed more nervous around her; the way would look for her before a Quidditch match; how he would ask easy questions about the assignments, claiming he was going to die without her help, and how he put more effort on his appearance whenever they were going to hang out. 
The three friends couldn’t believe their luck. First, (Y/N), the smartest person they knew and yet, at the same time, the most oblivious and ignorant. Then, Oliver, the boy their friend had a crush on, now seemed to reciprocate her feelings but was trying to push them aside. 
“How can someone be so daft?,” Isla whispered to the boys beside her while watching (Y/N) and Oliver leave Zonko’s and starting to walk slowly towards the Three Broomsticks, “you know, we could make them smell Amortentia and admit their feelings once and for all.”
“You are actually onto something there, Islandic,” Dorian said, beginning to follow the pair in front of them. The Gryffindor snickered after Isla hit him on the head because of the recent nickname he’d given her. 
“Oh no, we’re not doing that,” they heard Ethan from behind them. 
“Why not?”
“Why not?,” Ethan repeated before letting out a scoff, ”because you two are going to make me brew the potion and I’m not brewing Amortentia.” Isla and Dorian gazed at each other, trying to conceal their smiles, knowing their other friend was right. 
They’d started to follow (Y/N) and Oliver in silence when Dorian talked again.
“Why don’t you want to brew Amortentia?” The noise of the village almost drowning the suspicious tone in his voice. “Are you trying to evade something, maybe?”
“Shut up,” he responded, tightening the dark blue coat closer to his body, and unknowingly giving Dorian the answer he hoped for, “and come on, don’t just stand there. We’re going to lose them.”
Their continuing attempts were a failure, nothing they did made the Slytherin or the Gryffindor confess. Fortunately, these thoughts were starting to appear more frequently in the latest’s mind. 
|||
It was the first Saturday after the Easter Holidays and the whole school, including the professors, was waiting impatiently for the last Quidditch match of the season, Slytherin versus Gryffindor for the Inter-House Quidditch Cup. 
With Slytherin leading the championship with more than two hundred points, Oliver’s team needed a massive win if they wanted to get their hands on the Cup.
(Y/N) made her way up to the stands alongside her friends, all of them hoping for Gryffindor to win the match. Even as a Slytherin, she wished for him, and the whole team of course, to crush her House’s Quidditch Team. Marcus Flint was everything but kind and a fair player, his tactics consisted purely of hurting his rivals, not caring about the damage the injuries could cost. (Y/N)’d have supported her own House if they weren’t cheating bastards. 
A few of the students looked at her weirdly before starting to whisper when she sat down on her seat beside Dorian, who went full on Gryffindor pride. Yes, she was wearing a green blouse —she should have accepted Dorian’s offer on using one of his red t-shirts—, but that didn’t mean anything. She was on the Gryffindor stands, so she was supporting Gryffindor, and for a good reason… 
The first ten points went to the lion’s house thanks to Angelina Johnson, but the cries of joy transformed quickly into shoutings and insults directed to the Slytherin Captain for nearly knocking her off her broom after smashing into the Chaser. Fred Weasley reacted by throwing his beater’s bat at the back of Flint’s head. 
The rest of the match followed pretty much the same way. Slytherin played using dirty tactics and attacking the Gryffindors, which resulted in them answering their violence with, well, more violence. 
“Harry spotted the Snitch,” shouted Dorian while raising his arm, pointing towards the third year boy. Before the Gryffindor Seeker could grab the shiny, golden ball, Malfoy grabbed the end of his broom and pulled it back.
“Not the fucking Firebolt, you twat,” (Y/N) thought of hearing her best friend Isla, seating on her right side, said. Everyone started screeching insults at the Slytherin Seeker, even (Y/N) and some of the professors. 
Finally, after more penalties, Harry Potter caught the Snitch, handing his House the Quidditch Cup. 
Students from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff roared in excitement, quickly leaving the stands and flooding the Pitch, running to congratulate the winning team. 
Three of the four members of the Multicolour Quartet stayed a few feet away from the crowd, Dorian celebrating in the middle with Oliver, who was carrying the Cup, on his shoulders. Isla grabbed her arm and carried her to where the Gryffindor Captain was, a memory of Dorian doing the same thing a year ago entered her mind. 
Looking up at Oliver, (Y/N) noticed his rosy cheeks and some drops of sweat forming on his forehead, but his brown eyes and smile were what captivated her the most, his enthusiasm turning contagious. 
“Congratulations, I guess,” the girl said, a serious expression on her face while rolling her eyes exaggeratedly to show him she was teasing. (Y/N) extended her arm, still acting, but was taken by surprise when Oliver grabbed it and pulled her towards him, engulfing each other in a hug. She giggled near his ear and whispered, “I’m so proud of you.”
The Gryffindor glanced down at her, bodies still close to each other, neither of them wanting to let go, eyes thrilled because of his team’s victory and something more she couldn’t figure out. Slowly, his face approached her’s, staring back to the other’s eyes, asking themselves internally if this was the moment. 
“Fuck it,” Oliver mumbled before closing the distance between them and planting a chaste kiss on her mouth. 
They stood motionless for a couple of seconds, arms still wrapped around each other and the whole school watching them silently, waiting for her reaction. From the corner of her eye, she saw Fred Weasley giving his twin, George, some sickles, a grim look on his face for losing what she assumed was a bet on them.
(Y/N)’s attention went back to the boy in front of her, one with a desperate expression. Standing on her toes, she pulled her hands away from Oliver’s torso, directing one towards the back of his neck and the other to his cheek, caressing the skin tenderly. She smiled, unable to stop another giggle, and pressed their lips together for the second time, hoping it wouldn’t be the last one. 
The crowd around the pair roared again, making them laugh between the kiss, lips separating and then reuniting. Her heart almost jumping out of her chest from how fast it was beating, her necessity to breath becoming more prominent with each second her mouth was against he’s. Ignoring it, (Y/N) continued on kissing Oliver, whose hands were now on either side of her head, trying to bring her impossibly closer. Biting her bottom lip, his tongue rushing through her mouth. The hand on his neck pressuring now with more force, bringing him down so her feet could touch the ground.
A hand on each of Oliver’s shoulders forced them apart. 
“Okay, I’m really happy you two finally stopped the painful yearning for each other, but this is my best friend you’re snogging, Oliver, so try to do that privately,” a voice that could only belong to Dorian came from behind the Gryffindor boy. 
(Y/N) crossed her arms, one of them pressing into Oliver’s side, and looked at her friend before speaking.
“Are you going to tell…”
“Yeah, I am,” he interrupted her mid sentence, “I bloody told you so.”
TAGLIST: @peeves-a-legend​ @weasleybees​ @acontinuationofstuff​ @parkeroffline​ @lilac-wrists​
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shotorokiworld · 4 years
Text
emotive .1
pairing: daisuke kanbe x fem!reader
warnings: not really any yet....
summary: the story of how and why daisuke kanbe fell in love with you. proving once again, that opposites attract 
a/n: this is my first time posting my writing anywhere so I may or may not have panicked a little. there are probably some mistakes i didn’t fix, as i was rereading i kept overthinking things so i just said screw it (like how daisuke kinda comes off a little creepy but idk i swear i already have part 2 written and it gets better). oh and one other thing! i have never read the manga and i based his personality solely off of the first episode of the show, which might’ve been a bad move but we’ll see. please enjoy!
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Daisuke Kanbe is known as a cold, collected(despite his reckless tendencies), intimidating man, which he is. What very little emotion he shows comes in the form of a cocky smirk or a challenging raise of his eyebrows, if even that. He likes it that way and he enjoys the fact that people perceive him this way.
People can’t stand not being able to read other’s faces or get a rise out of them. This just gives him yet another advantage while he’s working on cases in the field. Suspects and witnesses alike tend to crumble under his gaze, they can’t figure out what he’s thinking, they can’t call his bluff, and before you know it, words are spilling out of them.
It’s not like he doesn’t have any emotions, it’s just been so long since he’s experienced most of them. The adrenaline rush he gets from acting so reckless on the job is the closest thing to excitement or fear he’s felt in years. If it weren’t for those moments, life would be such a boring existence for a man like Daisuke.
All of this makes it a bit easier to understand why he fell in love with you. You were so different from him, you were warm, inviting, and all kinds of people were drawn to you. Normally, Daisuke couldn’t stand people like that, they gave him migraines. However, there was one thing that set you apart from the majority. The way you felt everything so intensely. You never tried to hide the way you were feeling, even if you could. Your face was easy to read, you didn’t hide behind a facade, anyone would describe you as an open book.
This is what made him gravitate towards you in the first place. He had never met anyone so open and unashamed of bearing their soul to the world. It almost made his head spin trying to understand how your mind worked.
At first he would just watch you more intently in the office, where you worked as a secretary. Then he would find himself thinking about you while he’s out in the field; his eyebrows would pull together ever-so-slightly in annoyance. He doesn’t want to think about the obnoxiously kind, headache-inducing enigma that is you. Though just two weeks later that’s all he seems to be able to think about, and he’s given up trying not to. His mind was filled with questions that needed answers.  
There is only so much observing someone from afar can tell you about them. Having only spoken 15 words to you, at most, in the few weeks you had been working in the office, didn’t help much either. If he was gonna figure you out, he was gonna have to put in some effort. You’re so open with the people around you, so one conversation should be enough to satiate his curiosity, right? Wrong. It only made things worse for him.
It had been a quiet day, a few members of the staff had been let go early but you were still there and Daisuke sat lounging at his desk. He knew this would be the perfect time to strike. Not only was the office dead, but if you questioned his sudden curiosity in you, he could play if off as boredom. Just as he had made the decision, you were walking by his desk, lunch box in hand. Without hesitation, his arm juts out in front of you, blocking your path, and stopping you in your tracks. Your eyes widen a bit in surprise before you turn to him with your typical kind expression, tilting your head to the side in question.
“Daisuke? Everything alright?,” you asked in a sweet, curious tone.
When his gaze finally rose to meet yours, he had the same bored look on his face that he normally does, which took you some time to get used to. The first few days of working in the office you had assumed he didn’t like you, or that you had done something to upset him already. Those assumptions died when you realized that everyone in the office got the same treatment, but that didn’t stop Daisuke from noticing your face drop or the way you wouldn’t look him in the eye while talking to him during that time.
Things were different now though, you held eye contact and didn’t uncomfortably fidget while waiting for his response. He waited a few moments to answer, taking in your demeanor.
“Sit with me?” It was a question, technically, but it didn’t sound like one coming from him. He knew you wouldn’t say no, you were too amicable to do that.
He was right. You moved to sit in the seat only a few feet away, although not before pausing to give him a confused look then ultimately shrugging it off and joining him. You placed your lunch down on the desk in front of you and saw from the corner of your eye that he was just watching you as you unpacked your meal, not moving to do the same. You looked relaxed as you moved, but he could tell by the way you chewed at the inside of your cheek, and the way that your eyes darted around the desktop, that you were nervous.
So he’ll start by simply breaking the ice, casually asking “how are you liking your job so far?” You’d be a bit surprised that he asked, considering he doesn’t seem like the type of man to enjoy small talk, but you perk up anyway.
“I’m really enjoying it actually,” you tell him with a bright smile, “everyone is so nice, and it keeps me on my toes, so I’m never really bored.”
“You fit in well. Where did you work before you came here?” His eyes never leave your face, he doesn’t want to miss a single movement.
“I was a university hired tutor, my school offered me a position as a composition tutor so I could have a steady income while looking for a job I really wanted,” you explained, no hesitation in your response.
“And you wanted to be a secretary for a bunch of second rate detectives?” He tilted his head every so slightly, to watch and see if he had pressed any of your buttons.
Which he had, your eyebrows drew closer together and you shook your head, “well first, I don’t consider any of you to be second rate, and second no being a secretary isn’t my end goal, I’m not exactly sure what the right job for me is just yet,” you turned to him and shrugged, “I just know I want to be part of the team that keeps the people in this city safe.” Then you gave him a big smile and stuffed a bite of food into your mouth.
Daisuke wanted to know the reason behind that decision but he decided to dive into that rabbit hole at a later date. So he kept asking you things, nothing too personal at first, he was letting you get comfortable answering his questions without overthinking or hesitating. He had figured out pretty early on that you were a bit oblivious to certain things. Here you sat, happily talking Daisuke’s ear off while you enjoyed your lunch. Not once did you find it even a bit odd that he was asking you so many questions, but not once giving you the chance to ask your own or say anything about himself. Why was that so interesting and frustrating at the same time?
As time went on Daisuke started trying to dig a little deeper, asking you things a little more personal than your average lunch break would involve. This went unnoticed by you, but he had barely begun to scrape the surface when the phone on your desk rang across the room.
That was the end of his interrogation, work began to pick up, and Daisuke found himself feeling disappointed. He didn’t want to stop talking to you, even though it was more like listening to you speak while he hung onto every word.
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strawberri-blonde · 4 years
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Familiar - Fred Weasley
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PAIRINGS: Fred Weasley x Reader
SUMMARY: Fred and your familiar don’t get along.
WARNINGS: Mentions of sex and a few curse words.
Your familiar Lenanx has had your back through thick and thin, he was there when your parents disowned you for having your grandmothers gift. He kept you going even when you wanted to give up. So when you started school at hogwarts, it was a big adjustment for the both of you. People kinda thought it was strange how Lenanx literally followed you everywhere, then it was the fact that you were a half blood. So to say the least you didn’t have much friends however that all change when you met the trio; Harry, Hermanie and Ron.
Ron was the first you met out of the three; you had poisons together and let’s just say he’s not that good with measurements. The first time you two were paired together a poison exploded in your face causing it to turn green and you couldn’t help but laugh because that had to be the funnest thing to happen to you in a long time. After Ron apologized so much that that’s all he would say to you, he then invited you to sit with him and his friends, and that’s how you met the twins. Once they heard the story they loved the fact that you took everything with a grain of salt and surprisingly quite fun to be around. Fred however, especially has taken a liking to you. He feels as if he’s enchanted by every little thing you do, and everyone can see it, even the orange tabby cat. His green eyes would watch as his hands would squeeze your shoulders, or the slightly caress your hands with his. You however didn’t noticed a thing, so when Fred approached you after a quidditch match you didn’t expect the out come.
-
“Y/n.” You clenched Lenanx closer to your chest as you heard your name being called out. Turning away from Hermanine, you were surprised to be met with Fred.
“Hey, Fred.” Seeing your bright smile made Fred’s shine brighter but once his eyes locked with your cat it dropped a little. The little creatures eyes were squinting like he was actually glaring at the boy. “You played so good.” Hearing your voice snapped his eyes away from the orange creature back towards you.
“Well, you know. They team couldn’t survive without me.” Fred leaned forward some trying to lower his words. You rolled your eyes then shoved his shoulder causing some hair to fall in front of your face. Seeing this Fred quickly brushed it behind your ear and before you could even respond, Lenanx hissed then pawed at the boy.
“Ah, you-” Fred let out a groan while you gasped.
“Lenanx, no.” Putting him down you went over towards the twin and cradled his hand in yours. “I’m so sorry. He’s never like this.” Without realizing how close the two were, when you leaned forward to check on how deep the claws went your forehead  collided with his chin.
“Damn.”
“I’m sorry.” With his one good hand, he rubbed his newest wound while you basically threw yourself on him. “Fred I’m so sorry.”
“S’okay.” The Weasley tried to compose himself before looking down at you. “But I might need something to make me feel better.”
“Anything.” You spoke without question.
“Well,” Fred tilted his head before leaning down towards your ear. “You can let me take you out this Friday.” Right there you could’ve sworn that your heart stopped in your chest. You’ve had the biggest crush on the Weasley and never figured that he would’ve asked you out. Letting your cheeks turn a slight pink you responded.
“Of course.” The smile that you both wore could be seen a mile away. Both of the Gryffindors were so wrapped into each other that they didn’t notice the cat at your feet. When he rubbed his body against your leg you bent down to pick him up, making Fred step back not wanting to be scratched again. “I’ll see you Friday.”
Seeing the evil look in the cats eyes had Fred smile back with spunk. “I can’t wait.” And just like that the war between the two began.
As y’alls relationship grew so did their anger towards one another. Whenever Fred would sleep on Lenanx’s side of the bed, the cat would shit in his shoes. When the familiar would act like the boy ‘stepped’ on his tail later that day Fred put a spell on the cat so his hair would fall out. It would only last twenty four hours but for Lenanx the winter time wasn’t his friend.
And just like today, it was no different. Fred and Georage thought it would be a great idea to prank Snape by bombing his office with a stink bomb. The pair made it towards the Gryffindor’s common room where they ran into you. At first you were too engrossed with your book to noticed but Lenanx did. With ease, the familiar jumped down the table to hide underneath. “Y/n!” Snapping your attention away from your book Fred slipped in the chair beside you and slide his arm around your shoulder, while George sat across from you. “Act like we were here all day.”
Hearing those words from Fred, you quickly caught on to what they did. They oblivious pranked someone. “What did y’all do.” Both of the twins let smirks take over their features.
“Now if we told you that.” George began as Fred leaned closer to you making it so his lips were so touching to your ear.
“We’d have to kill you.” Shivers ripped through your body missing his touch. You turned your head in his direction and pressed your soft lips against his smaller ones. Without skipping a beat Fred placed a hand on your thigh and cupped your cheek with the other, to deepen the kiss.
“Oh get a room.” Feeling something hit the both of your heads, with great despair you parted and turned to the other Weasley. You rolled your eyes at his words from all the times you actually tried to be alone in their shared room but George seemed to always interrupt, even when he was warned.
“Oh my dear brother.” Fred’s threw this arm around your shoulder and gave you a comforting squeeze making it more than habit to lean into his touch. “We surely will.” Laughing at himself, George joined in causing you to playfully shove his arm off of you. With all of this commotion neither of you realize the disappearance of the orange tabby and Fred  definitely didn’t realize that his scarf with his initials embroidered on, do to his mothers doing, was no longer on the table.
An hour had past and George left not so long ago and Lenanx rested on a chair that faced your direction keeping the two of you in his view. Fred pulled you into his side with his hand on your cheek and the other on your lower back with lips on yours. You however couldn’t keep your hands in a single place. It’s been sooo long since the two of you had any alone time. The last time you felt his body crashing into yours was a week or two ago and it had to be a quickie in a dark corner because both of your roommates were in your rooms.
Heat began to pooled in your nether region making you move more into his lap brushing your groan against his. From that single action alone Fred broke away from you to let out an aired grunt. Hearing his noise, you moved your lips away from his and traveled towards his pale neck that begged to be marked by you. Between the kissing, sucking and biting, you managed to pull away for a moment to tell some excited news.
Both of you were breathing heavy and couldn’t stop smiling when you looked into his eyes. “Hermanie is staying with the boys tonight to get us have some privacy.” Fred’s fingers moved the collar down from your shirt to press an open kiss on your jugular.
“Well what are we waiting for-”
“Fred Weasley!” Hearing Snape’s voice immediately caused the Weasley boy to pull away from you then gently push you off of him to shield you from his view.
“We were just snogging Professor I bet you did it-”
“What is this?” Fred couldn’t get his words out as the insufferable scent from the twins smell bomb filled both of their nostrils. You covered your nose with your hand while Fred lifted his shirt to try and mask it. Then that’s when he noticed what Snape had in his hands. It was his yellow and red striped scarf with his intials clear as a summers day. “You want to tell me why this was on my desk and why there was a stink bomb in my office.”
Trying his best to misdirect the situation Fred leaned forward. “Well you see.”
“Dention for the next two weeks Weasley you can kiss quidditch practice goodbye as well. Let’s see how Gryffindor does without their star player.” Before either could reply the older man grabbed Fred by the ear and yanked him off the chair.
“Wait for me my love.” You offered him a loving smile and wave, as you watched him be dragged off to spend detention with Professor Snape. But one thing didn’t add up. Fred and George were really good when it came to pulling pranks, too good even. It’s not like either of them to make a mistake and when you think about it you remembered Fred taking the scarf off before he sat down next to you.
Meow. The soft animalistic noise brought you out of your mind as Lenanx jumped off the chair and strolled over towards you raising his head wanting to be pet. Without hesitation you picked the little beast up and brought him into your arms with a little kiss on his forehead. And as you did you noticed a foul scent. Your eyebrows fused together and your mind began to over think because something wasn’t adding up. 
Later that night you had cleaned your room and finished your homework making sure there would be no distractions when Fred showed. His white button up draped over your shoulders with your red lace matching set hidden underneath. The anticipation grew because you haven’t been intimate in sooo long. The moment the knock from your door echoed in your earrums you strumbled over your own feet to race towards the door. Once you opened it Freds eyes grew in size when he saw his shirt on your body. “Merlin, I’m one lucky bloke.” Giggles let your lips as he shut and locked the door behind him.
Hearing the click of the lock, you instantly crashed your body into his. Fred didn’t even budge from the act as he was expecting you to do so. Hs hands roamed your body as yours reached the tops of his shoulders to push his robe down onto the awaiting floor. Feeling the weight being lifted off his shoulders, his hands immediately went towards your butt and lifted you off the floor making it so your legs would wrap around his waist. A groan escaped your mouth as your mound grounded against his tone stomach. Feeling your eagerness the red head took big steps towards your bed. As you both were still engrossed in the kiss Fred pushed off all the pillows including Lenanx who was not happy and pulled back the bedcover the best he could because he knew no matter how adventurous the two of you got after a few minutes of recovering, you got cold.
Biting down on your lips, you let out more moans giving the Weasley more than enough confidence as he made his way down towards your neck. You on the other hand tried to suppress the moans but it’s just been a while, so instead you let all of the whimpers, and groans out. Wanting more you began to unbutton Fred’s shirt and that’s when Lenanx jumped on the bed and started to meow. Fred put his hand down you lace underwear to try and distract you. It seemed to work because all you could seem to focus on was the mind blowing sensation of his middle and ring finger pounding into you while his thumb preformed figure eights on your clit. Without any warning an animatic moan left your lips that for sure probably woke up some people.
And that’s when Lenanx hissed and scratched Fred right at the temple so close towards his eye. “Shit.” The Weasley pulled away from you making you sit up and cup his face in your hands to inspect the damage. Right as you saw the three bloody scratches, Fred jumped off the bed and pulled his wand out from the back of his pants. “You stupid beast. I’m so sick of you.” His movements advanced at the familiar with his wand pointed directly his way.
“Fred.” Not caring how indecent you were, you jumped out off the bed and grabbed his wand from his hand. Hearing his insults and the orange cats hissing; and that’s when it became too much. “That’s it!!!” Time seemed to still as Fred and Lenanx looked your way. Your eyes had the look of defeat while your hands were in your hair. “I’m so sick and tired of this.” You took a deep breath before sitting on your bed. “I should have known this was going to happen. I finally think I’ve found happiness and life comes around and fucks with me. I mean I have the perfect familiar who would die for me.” Lenanx sat down and lowered his head like he understood was she was saying. “Then I find you.” Tears entered your eyes making Freds heart break. “I’d never thought that I would find someone who would love me but I guess I was right.”
“Y/n don’t say that.” He tried to advance but you turned your head away from him making him stop moving. “I do love you.”
Without hesitation you spoke again with true pain shining through. “If you did love me then you would try to get along.“ lifting your head you looked in Lenanx’s direction. “I’m talking to you too. I know about your little stunt today. Actually, now that my mind is clear there are so many things that you’ve both done to each other.” You shook your head and lifted the covers to crawl underneath. “Please can you both leave. I need time to myself.”
“Babe-”
“Please.” Freds heart felt as if it broke in half watching you turn to face the wall so you couldn’t look at him. Feeling defeated he opened the door with Lenanx falling behind hanging his head low. Fred didn’t make it far as he slid down the wall that was right beside your door and Lenanx sat across from him. Anger filled his chest as he looked at the beast, but as he continued to stare another feeling entered his soul. It was remorse. The cat completely laid down on the cold stone with his paws stretched out in front and had his head rested on them. His green eyes swirled with sorrow, something that Fred has never seen before. Normally, it was disgust or love (of course when he looked at you). “I hope you know this is your fault.” Lenanx didn’t even bother to look at the boy. “If you would have just trusted me none of this would have happened. You like her other friends. Why am I different?” Knowing the cat couldn’t respond the Weasley bent his head back so it was against the wall. “I just love her so much. I knew the moment Ron made her laugh in the dinner hall I was a sucker. Especially, when her nose scrunched up and her cheeks grew a shape of pink that reminded me of a penoy. Maybe that’s why they’re her favorite.” Hearing him ramble, Leanax sat up and tilted his head. “I guess I get why you didn’t want to share. I mean, it was just the two of you for so long that it was scary when she started to get friends. Then I came along wanting to be more and I just you thought she wouldn’t need you anymore because she had friends and a boyfriend.” The little creature shuffled closer moving towards Fred’s side. “But she will always need you, you little bastard. I mean who else will keep me in shape if I mess up.” Fred laughed at himself before he continued. “I mean her heart is so big. I think she has more than enough room for us both. So what I’m saying is how about we get along for her sake?” Moving his head to look down at the creature, the two had an intense stare off before the cat did something Fred never in a million years thought would happen. Lenanx brushed his head against the redhead’s hand. Petting his head, the Weasley noticed how soft the familiar was. “Ok, so this is happening.” Silence washed over the two as they had their bonding moment filled with pet rubs and silent purrs. “Now it’s time to apologize.” Fred was careful as he picked up the orange beast, still scared that Lenanx might snap at any moment.
The Weasley knocked of the wooden door, half expecting not to get a reply and he was right; so he knocked again and slowly opened the door. “Y/n.” Your back was facing the door and anger filled your body from just hearing the redheads voice. You needed space right now. “Babe please.”
Frustration filled your body as you aggressively turned around. “Just leave-” your words were caught in your throat when you saw that recognizable that orange ball of fur residing in your boyfriends arms. You had to rub your eyes to make sure you weren’t seeing things. “What...”
“You’re right.” Fred slowly walked your way with Lenanx still in his arms. You moved over so he could sit beside you and as soon as he did you rubbed the cat’s forehead. “If we did love you we would get along and learn to deal with each other.” A smile formed on your face as Fred bumped into your shoulders. “So here is just two fellow red heads asking their girl if you would forgive them for just wanting you all for ourselves.” Lenanx jumped out of Fred’s arms making it so you could lean into the boys touch.
“You mean that, no more fight.” The pair looked at each other then back at you.
“We’ll try our best.” Knowing those words were true, you pressed a kiss onto Fred’s lips.
You both still felt some affects from the earlier entanglement and the heat began to rise. Unbuttoning his shirt, Fred looked towards Lenanx. “I get her tonight and you can have her cuddles all morning.” The creature squinted his eyes before walking towards the door signaling that he wanted out, not wanting to be in the room as they are spending intimate time together.
Fred jumped up with glee as he opened the door for the kitty and made a face towards your half naked body. “God, I’m going to destroy you.”
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wakaoujisenhime · 4 years
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Hello!~ Can I ask for 200 event funny scenario about Rakuzan cute manager, who gets a lot of confession, so Rakuzan boys get jealous and want to protect her?
A/N: This turned out quite differently than I had originally planned it, but I hope you’ll like and enjoy it nonetheless! (∿°○°)∿ ♡  
Also, can someone explain to me why all the fluffy images of them are mostly without Mayuzumi?? This man deserves way more love (/ _ ; ) watch me edit him in there one day
Tags: Rakuzan x reader ✅ SFW ✅  fluff ✅
━━━━☆ ━━━━☆ ━━━━☆
Love letters - Rakuzan x reader
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A small light blue whistle dangled from your neck as you shouted out to the jogging members of the basketball club: “Come on, guys, just one more round!“
Since your first year in Rakuzan, you had joined the basketball club and had become their manager. In the beginning, you weren’t really noticed by the team, but that was not surprising because the captain was being trusted and listened to more than the actual coach.
Akashi’s judgment was truly impressing, and you couldn’t help but respect him as well...but there was no way in hell you’d just sit back as the rest and leave every responsibility resting on this young man’s shoulders.
Much to everybody’s surprise, you’d just butt into their conversations and share your view on the topic. That action alone left a lot of your classmates and upperclassmen flabbergasted, and just some days later, the school had labeled you fearless for daring to directly speak with these overly respected men.
Back then, you didn’t know about their reputation and titles at all, so you acted purely instinctual. If someone had told you beforehand who they were, though, you probably would’ve kept your mouth shut. But that lucky ‘mistake’ was the exact reason for your wholesome relationship with them now...
You see, all these boys ever wanted - outside of the basketball club - was to be accepted by someone the way they were. They were also ‘normal’ students like you and your classmates...the only exception was their immense talent and sincerity for the sport they loved, so why did they get treated like some kind of abnormalities?
Their peers’ rumors and reserved attitudes seemingly didn’t bother them that much, but you knew better and managed to see past their façades. You genuinely cared for them and everything that involved their person.
At first, it seemed really unnatural to them. The fact that someone as adorable as you was out there, willing to invest the majority of their time for them and their talent truly made them happy.
Slowly but surely, they began opening up to you. After just a few months, you became their most trusted person, whom they could always go to in order to discuss any- and everything, so the moment something or someone stood between you guys, they wouldn’t even bat a lash to show their true colors.
——
“Good morning, manager!!” a chirpy and a deep voice simultaneously called out to you.
“Kotaro and Nebuya! Good morning you two.”
You were about to open your shoe locker and continue your daily conversation with the club members. Still, when you unlocked that small door, something pushed it open and ended up startling anybody who was remotely close to you.
“Are these...”
“Love letters?”
With a small and slightly uncomfortable smile, you kneeled down and picked the few envelopes up from the floor, turning to the two young men behind you whose wide eyes were about to pop out from their sockets.
“Yeah...someone has been putting these in my locker every morning for the past few weeks,“ you explained and giggled silently at the cute little stickers your mysterious admirer had chosen this time. Upon seeing that angelic smile of yours, the two basketball players began panicking internally and started bombarding you with one question after the other.
When did you receive the very first letter? Is there some kind of signature for the sender? Have they been following you around? Are they bothering you?
Just as you were about to answer them, the school bell interrupted you, and as much as you wanted to continue your talk with them, your classes were more important at the moment. So the three of you rescheduled that talk for later, during club activities, and went off to your respective classrooms.
——
“Huuh?! A secret admirer?”
“Yes!! Can you believe it?”
As soon as the last bell for today rang, Nebuya and Kotaro had sprinted to the gym to inform the others about today’s discovery.
Finding out that someone as valuable as you were being admired by someone else was no surprise, of course, but it still hurt them, and it even awoke a feeling they had never experienced before...jealousy.
Mayuzumi watched them discuss this topic with such seriousness that he couldn’t help but laugh at them internally, and as their upperclassman, he felt the urge to tear them off a strip.
“I hope you guys are aware that (Y/N) has a life of her own and is allowed to do whatever she wants with whoever she wants; it’s none of our business now, is it?”
The others had turned towards him and were wide-eyed by the fact that he had even openly spoken up on a topic that concerned you. He’d usually either choose to remain silent or pretend like he wasn’t listening.
Akashi nodded with a small smile and took it upon himself to answer the grey-haired young man. “I am pretty sure they’re aware of that, but you have to be honest with yourself and admit that it’ll be a huge loss for all of us if she were to find a boyfriend right when our team’s at its prime time.”
The third-year squinted his eyes at his captain. “You do know that you’re overreacting, right? I mean...all you have are her words and some envelopes that fell from her locker.”
“But they were sealed with cute heart stickers, right Ko-chan?!”
Reo chirped in as his light-colored eyes darted over to the blond in question, whose answer consisted of some energetic nods. Mayuzumi was slowly losing his patience with them, and just as he was about to counter that statement, your cheerful voice echoed in the entire gym, greeting your fellow club members.
It should’ve surprised you to see them stand this close to each other, but you figured that they were probably discussing something basketball-related, so you kept your questions to yourself and began preparing for today’s training.
They used that short moment to arrange a short meeting after practice to plan their next steps.
——
“Ok, what’s our way of procedure, guys?” asked Kotaro in an unusual humorless tone. Nebuya, who was standing behind him, couldn’t help but laugh out loud at how serious his goofy friend was. The bigger man wrapped his muscular arm around the boy’s shoulder and told him to relax. Reo watched the two of them fool around with a bothered expression. At the same time, Akashi smiled to himself, bringing the cup of tea to his lips. Mayuzumi, on the other hand, watched that somewhat controversial scene unfold in front of him. It was beyond him how you believed the obvious lie they told you at the end of today’s training.
The five of you had made it a tradition to always go to either the station or the nearest bakery after practice, and even though the third year himself never really wanted to accompany you all, you always made sure to drag him along...even if it was against his will. So when you had asked them if they wanted to go to get something sweet today, they all refused for the most ridiculous reasons, and he was sure that you’ll see through these obvious lies. But when you just innocently smiled at them, he figured that you either turned a blind eye to it or you truly believed that Nebuya was on a “no-meat-diet” and that Kotaro was going to study and do his homework.
“I do not entirely agree with this since it seems to be a rather...drastic approach,” answered Akashi after the muscular man next to him asked what he thought of the plan. He just suggested, “what about you, Mayuzumi? What’s your take on this?”
Said boy sighed and replied tiredly that whatever conclusion they’d reach would be too overdramatic and drastic.
“You do know that if she decides to get to know her secret admirer better, she won’t be having that much time to read novels and recommend them to you, right?” asked Reo with a mischievous grin.
Silence...
The grey-haired young man leaned forward and looked at his teammates.
“Ok, what’s the plan?”
——
1st step: obtain a letter from her locker...
“Good morning (Y/N).“
“Akashi, good morning!“
You were just about to open the small door of your locker, change your shoes and see if you had received another love letter, but that’s when the captain of the basketball club had stopped you. Wondering if something was wrong, you asked him if you could help him in some way.
“Oh, nothing is wrong; I merely wanted to inform you that one of your teachers asked the basketball club to visit some of the classes and advertise the club since a lot of the first- and second-years appear to not have joined any after-school-activity. So I wanted to ask if you perhaps know someone that might be interested in joining a club.”
While the two of you continued that talk, you failed to see how Kotaro sneaked up behind you, looked in your locker, gave the red-haired young man an unobtrusive signal that there was no letter to be found, and vanished as quickly and quietly as he’d come.
...if the first step fails, we just need to keep a good eye on her surroundings and look for people interested in her...
“(Y/N), someone’s here to see you!” said one of your classmates as they pointed to your classroom’s door, where Reo was standing and nonchalantly leaning against its frame. You thanked them and hurried over to where one of your best friends was standing.
“Hey, sweetie, sorry for bothering you, but I wanted to ask you if you wanted to join me during the break.”
It has been quite a while since the two of you had spent a break together, so you had no reason to refuse and happily accepted his invitation.
With Reo, you could always talk about every kind of topic, whether it was about the last wrestling match you watched on TV or the cute keychain you saw hanging from your neighbor’s bag. The two of you would always get so invested in your dialogue that you completely missed how some of the students were glancing at you and how some even turned their heads when you passed them. On the other hand, your companion noticed every single one of them, and with his keen eye for outer appearance, he managed to memorize their most prominent features.
...next up, we’ll look for our suspects and interrogate them, but some of them won’t be very talkative, so I suggest we pull out the big guns right from the get-go...  
Thanks to the descriptions Reo forwarded to the others, they quickly formed an ‘intimidation squad,’ distributed the students equally amongst each other, and went ahead to do their job.
Nebuya, as the tallest and most muscular out of the rest, was assigned to the first-year students. It was an easy and quick job to intimidate them. All he had to do was stand at the door and ask whether the person that fitted Reo’s description is present and that he wanted to talk about their interest in the club’s manager. Of course, no one gave the student in question away out of fear and worry about what the basketball team's center might do to them, but the message was successfully forwarded.
Mayuzumi, as the main team’s third-year, had to take care of the second-years. Thanks to his low presence and high self-pride, he expected that he’d get treated with the necessary respect as these students' senior. That was the case for two or three with whom he talked to. He was quite eloquent, and thanks to his broad novel expertise, he knew how to skillfully ask them whether or not they harbored any strong feelings for you that might have resulted in daily love letters. Others, though, didn’t seem to care what he had to say to them and when you became their talk’s topic, they started mocking him and calling him your stalker...and that’s when he lost his patience. His presence might be low, but the moment he gets annoyed, he’ll make sure that everyone knows about it. Mayuzumi took hold of the boy’s collar and brought him close to his own face.
“I don’t mind you insulting me, but stay away from her...if you don’t...I'll make to follow every step of yours, and you’ll have to constantly be on the lookout for me. You know what’s going to be so fun about it?... You’ll never know whether or not I’m there, so you better speak up and leave her alone or else...”  
The person who took care of the third-years was no other than Akashi himself. For him, it didn’t matter which year he had to talk to; he was respected, feared, and known by the entire school anyway. Like Nebuya, all he had to do was go to the people in question and ask them what their business with you was, and luckily the majority of them broke the moment they saw his icy glare. Unfortunately, one thought that he shouldn’t care about who this rumored emperor was and act according to his status. A bad decision, really...he was lucky enough that all Akashi got his hands on was a broomstick and not something sharper like scissors or even a compass. Long story short, the third-year was successfully interrogated and intimidated, another job well done.
While they were running around and collecting information, Kotaro and Reo were given the task of distracting you and constantly standing by your side, hindering any other people from coming too close to you. But when someone played with the thought of wanting to talk to or even look at you, the blond would only glare at that student until they gave up. Those who had more courage and didn’t get that easily intimidated were chased away by Reo’s overly interested attitude. The moment someone came up to you and just interrupted your talk with them, the black-haired young boy would butt in and start showering them with compliments until they either were too creeped out or completely mesmerized.
...our mission will only then be considered a success when she stopped receiving those letters, understood?
A week and a half had passed since the execution of their plan, and one afternoon, Kotaro and Nebuya decided to ask you about those letters.
“Oh, those? I stopped receiving them some days ago..”
You weren’t as affected as they had expected you to be, but they were glad and happy nonetheless, knowing that their plan had worked. Now, you were theirs, and no one else’s, and anyone who wanted to take you away from them is hopefully prepared for the consequences...
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weasleydream · 4 years
Text
So cold
HOLY FREAKING SH*T THERE’S 300 OF YOU FOLLOWING ME THAT’S JUST INSANE!!!!! 
Thank you so much, all of you, thank you for supporting me in my work! I just- I don’t have the words to express how freaking much I love you all, and special mention for @pregnant-piggy and @theravenclawmarauder, two amazing persons
So now that I’ve said that, this is my first request and it’s from @smiles-returning-to-the-faces. As I’ve told you, I’ve taken some liberty and I hope it’s still okay for you (and I’m sorry it’s been so long...)
This is my first Sirius x reader and I hope you’ll enjoy!
Masterlist
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It was strange, the silence invading the house while just one week ago, it was filled with laughters, discussions and complaints. Now, the 12 Grimmauld Place seemed as dead as the rats once hiding in the couch, even though we were still four souls in there. Kreacher was bound to the house, of course, and he didn’t have much of a choice. Nor did Buckbeak the dear hippogriff and Sirius. And me? Nothing could have forced me to stay here, nothing except my love for the husband I had lost so many years ago. 
Sirius was my first and only love, the only man I had ever known. At first, his bad boy attitude had intrigued me. He seemed to be a living cliche, the heartbreaker of the school, never listening to anyone yet adored by even the strictest teachers of Hogwarts. Even his group of friends seemed cliche: the other star of the school, excelling in the Quidditch team and the most popular girl’s boyfriend; the serious guy, the prefect who had in fact the most mischievous ideas; and the shy boy who was part of the band without anyone really understanding why. 
Then I had begun to know him, to know his deep self, and I had fallen for the fragile boy with low self-confidence, the boy who had ran away from home and who wanted so desperately a family, which he had found with the Marauders. We were so different at the time, I was as introvert as he was loud and sometimes eccentric, but don’t they say that opposites attract? The only thing we seemed to have in common was our fear to love deeply, with all our heart, the fear of being abandoned and left broken on the sidewalk. 
We had found each other, we had begun dating at the end of sixth year and married half a year after graduation. We were both terrified of what life held for us, always dreading the moment one of us had to leave on a mission for the Order. It was exhausting, and one day, Sirius had proposed. A week later, I was officially Y/N Black. 
And a year and a half later, I was indeed left broken on the sidewalk, holding in my shaking hands the Prophet which first page showed Sirius, my beloved Sirius, laughing maniacally after, in their words, having killed Peter. James and Lily were dead, betrayed by I didn’t know who, Remus was gone I didn’t know where, and now Peter was dead too and Sirius… 
I spent the first year fighting tooth and claws to liberate him. I knew him, he would never have betrayed the man he loved like his brother and killed one of his best friends. Never. But proofs had kept coming to me, no one had allowed me to talk to him or to send him a letter, I didn’t know how he was doing, I had kept being attacked for defending him… And I had lost faith. This had been my biggest mistake. From this day, I had disappeared in the wild, not even replying to Remus’ letters as I thought he could be the traitor. 
Twelve years later, my life had changed completely once more when Sirius had escaped Azkaban. The reunion had been weird and difficult, but I trusted him with everything I had and I wanted to make up for all these years when I didn’t know what to think. 
That brings us back to Square Grimmauld, this place I knew Sirius hated with every fiber of his body. This place which had become his prison because Dumbledore had said so. 
“Sirius, love, are you okay?” I asked quietly when I saw Sirius gripping the back of a chair so tight that his knuckles were white. 
“Of course, don’t worry Y/N.”
He smiled and opened his arms. It was an invitation, officially because he wanted to reassure me, unofficially because he needed to remind himself that he wasn’t alone anymore. I threw my arms around his neck, tightening his body against mine as much as I could. The feeling still was a bit strange: his skin was closer to his bones than it used to be, his arms were thinner, and every time our bodies were in contact, horrible images of him tortured by dementors invaded my mind. These moments, it was hard to tell who was the most broken between us. 
“Do you want to see Buckbeak?” Sirius asked abruptly. 
He had stepped back and was looking at me with what painfully looked like a forced smile. 
“Yes, why not? I bet this poor Buck is bored to death up there.”
It was hard to always be pushed away by the love of your life after twelve years apart, but I didn’t want to rush him. I didn’t know what was happening in his head, and even though my only priority was to help him, forcing him to talk to me wasn’t the solution. 
After a little stop in the kitchen, where Sirius grabbed enough meat to feed a regiment, we headed to the room where Buckbeak was hidden. The hippogriff seemed more than happy to see us, and he didn’t even wait for us to salute him. With a noise that sounded like a shout of joy, he started to eat under our amused gazes. 
“The poor boy seemed to be starving.” Sirius commented casually. 
I nodded in agreement and stepped forward to brush a spider off Buck’s back. Far from noticing me, he extended his wings and moved them vividly, hitting me in the progress, before lying on the floor and squealed in a way that indicated clearly he wanted to be alone for his nap. 
I followed Sirius outside and as he closed the door, he asked me quietly:
“Are you okay?”
“Of course, don’t worry.” I replied with a smile. 
Sirius chuckled before gesturing his head toward the stairs. We joined the kitchen, and I sat on the work surface, grabbing his hand when he passed in front of me. Little gestures like that were normal before Azkaban, everyone used to tease us because we seemed to be glued one to each other. That’s probably why seeing him tensing for something as innocent as me holding his hand was so painful, a bitter reminder of what had been and could never be again. I let go of his hand and his fingers brushed against mine for a second before leaving them colder than ever. 
“It’s not easy, is it?” Sirius spoke up. He was giving me his back, but I could have sworn he had this sad smile I hated to see on his face. The one he always put up when he wanted to be brave but just didn't have the strength. “I thought it would be easier. I thought I would just kiss you, tell you how much I love you and things would get back to normal.” 
“What keeps them from being normal again?” 
“A lot of things.” he whispered before heading out of the kitchen.
This time, I wouldn’t let him go without an explanation. I was tired of all of this. I jumped off the work surface and caught up with him, wrapping my arms around him and resting my forehead on his back. 
“Talk to me Sirius. Tell me what’s wrong. Please.”
Sirius, who had frozen, suddenly turned around and pushed me against the closest wall. His arms were surrounding me, his hands flat on the floor and his breathing warming my face up. His chest was regularly lifting, matching mine as my heart was beating faster than ever. 
“I just…”
Sirius’ voice was low, like a growl coming from the depths of his body. His hair falling in front of his face, his eyes were hidden from me yet I knew they were darker than usual. He had always failed to hide his emotions because of his eyes, so expressive against his own will. 
“I want to be close to you.” he whispered. “I want it so bad it’s scary. I feel like… Like I can’t breathe if I’m not near you.” 
I shivered before slowly removing a strand of hair. 
“I’m afraid of the effect you have on me. How can someone be so… so addictive?”
“Sirius, don’t think too much, love, it’s not your thing.” He laughed, and the sound reminded me of a yelp like every time he laughed heartily. “You’re here now, I’m here, so you don’t have to worry anymore. You can be as close to me as you want,” I added in a murmur, looking up at him with a smirk. 
Sirius’ POV
“Please babe, five more minutes…” I moaned as Y/N was getting up. 
“Love, you’ve begged for five more minutes for an hour now!” She exclaimed before chuckling softly when I grabbed her waist. 
“I don’t care, I don’t want to let you go.” 
Laughing at my childish pout, she laid back straight between my open arms and snuggled against me. Her hair tickled my bare skin, and so did her eyelashes when she looked up at me. Her Y/E/C eyes were shining in the morning light, and I found myself falling in love all over again. 
Everything from the bliss I was feeling to the dream-like light was just perfect. My wife was here with me, a thousand times more beautiful than the last day I had seen her before being sent to Azkaban, and her heart was still mine. She had waited for me, and now she was here. I should have been the happiest man on earth, shouldn’t I? Yet, it was still hard to believe that all of sudden, everything was back to normal. I couldn’t help but fear the moment all of this would be taken away from me, I dreaded the moment Y/N would simply vanish in front of me, the ghost of her hand making me wonder if she had even been here. 
I knew it was hard to understand. I needed nothing more than to be with her yet I was terrified and unable to stay by her side. But I just couldn’t let her leave my sight either; what if I couldn’t find her anymore? I had talked about this to Moony the last time I had seen him, and that was what had decided me to talk to her. 
“Just tell her,” he had shrugged. “You know you can trust her, and she will understand. You’ve been alone for twelve years Pads, of course it’s normal to need a reminder that she is here.” 
“Are you crazy?” I had replied. “I can’t tell her I’m so terrified that I spend half of my nights just watching her! What would she think?”
“Still the drama queen, aren’t you? Well, if you don’t want to talk to her - which I’m positive is the best solution but nevermind - then I don’t know how I can help you.”
Y/N moved against me, and her hand began to stroke the side of my arm. 
“You seem tense babe, are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay, don’t worry and come here.”
I tightened her body against mine and closed my eyes. Skin against skin, our hearts beating in sync, this was what I wanted for the rest of my life. 
“I missed you so much…” I breathed in her hair. “I was used to your warmth and all of sudden, I was left alone in the cold…”
“It’s over, love.” She pushed me just enough for our eyes to meet, her gaze as teary as mine, both crying because I had suffered all these years for nothing. “I’m here, I’m with you, ready to warm you up whenever you want. You’re not alone anymore, Sirius.”
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popculturebuffet · 4 years
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Justice League: In Blackest Night Review: A Case Study in Why John Stewart is  Awesome
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Hello my Green Lantern Corps and happy black history month! And happy 40th Anniversary Year to John Stewart. And let’s get this out of the way now not the one replaced by trevor noah who handed Tucker Carlson his ass on television and got his show canceled, please do it again John i’d be greatful, and has a weird obession with how Pizza should be. No i’m of course talking about the Green Lantern, the third from earth and the second to headline the book itself, John Stewart.  But to me.. he was my first Green Lantern and one that gave me a deep and abiding love of the Corps since all thanks to this very episode. It’s thanks to John I’m the green lantern loving nerd I am today and without him I probably wouldn’t of found Guy, Jessica, Simon, Alan, and Kyle not to mention got into the varoius other corps. It’s thanks to this episode I wanted to seek out these wonderful characters eventaully and in part why I got into JLI, one of my faviorite teams, among many ohter great things and books. 
So quite obviously both this episode, which I haven’t seen in probably a decade, and John have a great place in my heart. And thus it warms said heart to FINALLY see John getting the recogntion he deserves: he’s going to be one of the starring roles in the upcoming HBO Max series, he was on Scott Snyder’s justice league, and he’s now going to be headlniing the main Green Lantern book going forward under writer Geoffry Throne, who like me was VERY sick of the Hal Jordan show the Green Lantern franchise could become at times, and also like me gave out about it a LOT. The fact DC hired him despite a very public and easily accesable record of him slagging of their use of Hal instead of him ESPECAILLY in the new 52 reboot aka why Cyborg is in the Justice League movie as Geoff kinda shoved hal in there despite John being a more sensible pick and doing so not only shoving the Martain Manhunter, who this show also gave me a deep lasting love for, out of the team but forcing Cyborg onto the team despite fitting with the titans better and, AGAIN there being a black green lantern and given the New 52 kept the history of there being multiple lanterns, no reason Hal could’ve been SECOND instead other than DanDiDio’s bitchy habit of EVERYTHING WAS BETTER ON MY EARTH that poisoined the company for a good decade before recently. 
And yes I felt the need to rant about that, yes Green Lantern the animated series is still good mind you, I just got tired of bland white guy over “Really awesome, really layred especailly thanks to this series black guy”, “stubborn asshole white guy whose hilarious and has a heart underneath the layers of douchebag”, “creative and imaginative white guy who has as personality and really uses the ring in fun ways”, and more recently “A muslim superhero struggling with his past who’se also really energetic and fun and has an intresting family life” and “Latnix superheroine who struggles with anxiety and actually struggles with constructs and once she gets past that has very unique ones”. In other words, yeah I’m bitter because everyone else was more intresting than Hal, and it’s only in recent years with Jessica gaining promience and John regaining it that DC’s finally broke out of that and is actually using the intresting ones, and again without John I wouldn’t be a fan, so they had no real excuse to barely use him outside of the comics if at at all after a while. 
So yeah as you can tell by that rant and by how specific it got for each lantern, this is one of my faviorite franchises, as said this episode is responsible and so for Black History Month I felt i’d be a huge mistake on my part if I DIDN’T cover my boy John and this episode and see how it held up. The fact it’s his 40th anniversary wasn’t something I was aware of, but now I am, expect more Johncentric episodes from Justice League sprinkled throughout the year to celebrate one of my first and possibly best GL. 
Naturally before we get to the episode we have to get to the series itself. The series was launched as Batman Beyond was winding down. Bruce Timm wanted to keep the crew together, something I could empathize with since Owen Dennis and JG Quintel have ran into that same problem lately, with most of their crews drifting off during the gaps in production and Owen desperate to get the show renewed  before he lost everybody. A good crew isn’t had to find in animation but KEEPING them for multiple shows or seasons can be. And there was one project the fans wanted more than anything: The Justice League. After all BOTH Batman and Superman had had tons of guest stars, especailly the latter, with Batman having Zantana show up and Superman having the Flash (Wally West), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) and Aquaman all show up. There were seeds there.. but Timm was relcutant as he had trouble ballancing 2 or 3 heroes in a fight scene, wanting to keep them al lin focus so fans didn’t wonder where they were and they didnt’ have to cut back and forth, the idea of juggling 7 was daunting.  So as Beyond was finishing production a few things happened: The first is that they did the episode The Call, focusing on a future version of the League, and while only a two parter, it showed Timm his crew might be able to juggle a team of heroes after all, and second was the pitches Timm made BEFORE justice league. Since Kids WB had been hteir partner for a while now they tried pitching both a batman anime, he did not provide many details, and in his own words a “Kidified” justice league, basically the justice leagued mashed with the titans including a female version of cyborg. It was the latter pitch, which was rejected by Kids WB, that finally convinced Timm they could do this, but if they did it couldn’t be half assed or having compromises. it had to be what it SHOULD be. So they went to somewhere new, if in the same family and asked cartoon network, who said...
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And here we are. They took their time to work out the characters, apparently taking a lot of delbiration, mostly on which GL to go with, and if they were going to do a hawk wether to go for hawkman or hawkgirl. In the end the roster was the iconic big 7 one, in large part thanks to Grant Morrison taking that concept and reviving it in his run on the team, but shaking it up slightly: Barry was naturally replaced with Wally West flash as he was THE flash in the comics, gave a slightly younger member for the others to play off of, and was more popular.. something Dan DiDio plugged his ears and went LALALALALALAL about for a decade before FINALLY leaving the company so he could stop screwing with a character he hated for reasons that can be summed up as ‘MY FLASH IS BETTER. YOU’LL LIKE MY FLASH.. YOU’LL SEE I JUST HAVE TO MAKE THE OTHER ONE A MASS MURDERER.. THAT’LL SHOW YOU FOR NOT LIKING WHAT I LIKE”... I still have maybe a smidge of lingering issues over how wally was treated the last few years after his return. I do not apologize for htem or for doing a little dance when I found out Didio was gone. 
Point is it wasn’t the only subsitution as Hal Jordan was replaced by John, obviously and rather than use Aquaman, they went with Hawkgirl, though Arthur still got an episode focusing on him fairly early into the series which has the iconic moment of him cutting his hand off to save his son. I dare you to find something more badass. Bruce both liked her deisgn better and felt it helped with the gender ballance. 
So with all that set and with some growing pains to get through they had their show so join me under the cut to see how it turned out. Spoilers: It good. 
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We open INNNNNN SPACCCEEEEEEE, as a coaltion of neat looking aliens wants justice and has gone to a space court lead by three weird alien faces, likely inspiried by the kryptoian tribunal in the donnerverse superman movies, with their prosecutor sending a group of mysterious robots known as the Manhunters to go fetch the accused for a trial: John Stewart. Given he’s voiced by Kurtwood “Red Forman” Smith, i’m very surpised he didn’t order them to also put their foots up his ass. Maybe he’s saving it for the trial.
After the titles we cut to John himself whose in shades and trenchant for reasons.. I mean it looks neat, but he’s in his old neighborhood not hunting down his exes killer or trying to hide the fact he’s a ninja turtle. Why is he all disguised. I mean sure WE know people are coming from him and given what he thinks he did he knows.. but he has no intention of running from what he did. It’s just a weird stylistic choice. That said we do get a cool sequence when while casually walking he notices a robbery, and stops it simply by first stopping the wheel then levitating the car.. and while he does get a little showy shaking the guy upside down to return the money.. it’s all very controlled. It shows off how John works. While we’ve seen him at work as Green Lantern before this this small sequence says volumes about john in the span of a few minutes, showing that shilw he HAS immense power, he only uses the amount he needs, knows when to hold back, and only shows off a tiny bit, and even then he’s likely still keeping the theif absolutely safe. It also provides excellent foreshadowing for later as to why the League takes his side even when he refuses to defend himself, as it shows that John really is a professional true and true.
He runs by a basketball court and fails to make a basket when throwing a ball back to a kid before meeting his old gym teacher, who turns out to be the kids uncle or something like that, and invites John to join them as they go to the barber shop. The kid wants John’s haircut, his granpa says the usual and i’m wondering why as John’s haircut isn’t that radical: it’s a miltiary style cut, belying the fact that for this series, while it dosen’t come up in the plot here, John was a former marine instead of an architect. Honestly.. this wasn’t a bad change, giving us the deciated and measured john we know, to the point the comics gladly retconned it in. Not that it’s really a huge deal given it meelrly adds shades to the guy and dosen’t prevent him from being an architect. It just adds lairs by giving a reaosn he’s so focused and driven. He had it drilled into him and carried it with him. 
Meanwhile on the watchtower The Flash clumisly tries to get to know Hawkgirl better and maunver into asking her out, though it’s clear sh’es not intrested. Still even if he can’t help flirting, and it sometimes gets creepily obnoxious, it’s still better than I expected remembering this running subplot, as he DOES try to get to know her and what she does in her off time, even if it’s to set up asking her out, and is trying to ask her out instead of just hitting on her or doing anything far more creeptacular. It’s still not great mind you and hasn’t aged well at all.. but for the time it’s not TERRIBLE and again it goes away pretty quickly in favor of the much more intresting John and Shierya relationship. 
Flash accidently shoots himself in the foot.. conversationally though given how Wally is at this point in the series I wouldn’t be suprised, by asking the Martian Manhunter, who gives Hakwgirl an easy exit if he’s ever felt alone.. you know the guy whose entire race including his wife and child died horribly. He quickly apologizes though and John understands he just stuck his foot in his mouth at lighting speed. And it’s not the MOST insensitive he’s been about Jonn’s dead wife. 
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But things are soon interupted as Jonn notes “We have an incursion!” 
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But the Avengers are dealing with all of that so they can instead focus on the Manhunters shooting toward earth. I really like this as the primary reason Batman set up this station was to monitor for alien threats, it just because the Leagues base because superman had the idea to stay as a team and it was a good un, and given earth JUST had an invasion, as this likely isn’t too long after that given it’s only the second set of episodes, it’s understandable they’d  be on high alert. 
So our heroes move to intercept. As the first episode after the pilot this one also sets up a recurring part of the show and a necessary one: only a handful of Leaguers would feature in each two-parter, as the episodes for the first two seasons were essentially one hourlong story split into two episodes. The only exceptions were the three part premire, the three part finales for each season, and the sole solo episode comfort and joy which is fucking awesome and my faviorite christmas episode period. But even with the extended run time the crew simply felt i’td be unwiedly to juggle 7 characters eveyr episode, feeling it’d eventually get to original series star trek leevels of having one just manning a console or something. So rather than try and cram them all into every episode, they choose who they needed and gave valid excuses for the rest when necessary. In this case Batman and Wonder Woman have solo missions their busy with , as does Superman whose adressing an earthquake.  Our heroes try talking to the Manhunters.. who refuse to talk to them and then also say their coming for John, and aren’t explaning why. So naturally a brawl breaks out as the League SHOCKINGLY dosen’t want their friend who as far as they know has done nothing wrong taken by a brutish paramilitary force who won’t actual talk to the citzens their policing or try and be coporative. More on this in a second. The fight itself is pretty awesome as our heroes fight as evenly as they can.. but it’s clear their outgunned outplanned outnumbered and outmanned, as while their you know the justice league and do their best and Jonn is in Superman’s weight class the battle makes it VERY clear their barely holding in there and that the blast from the manhunters rods are just too potent for them to stand up against. 
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But help and hope arrives and things get a bit less lopsided when Superman shows up! Unfortunately it’s season 1 superman, and something a lot of fans noticed but I as a kid didn’t and the crew themslves did not until it was too late to course correct for the season, was that Superman came off as a bit of a wimp in this series. See they had the good intention of having him struck down to show a threat’s serious, something TV Tropes calls the “The Worf effect” after the fact that Worf on Star Trek TNG would get knocked on his ass a lot for the same reason, but it has the side effect of making a character look like their made of paper mache if done too often. To the crew’s credit they realized this and not only made sure this didn’t happen as much in season 2, but dedicated the first episode of Season 2, twilight, to showing Superman as a badass by having him try and cave Darkseid’s skull in. Granted they overcompensated in places in that episode, but that’s a story for another day. Point is he had a habit of getting knocked around and it varied between really effective and overselling it. Here it works as the manhunters had already knocked Jonn around a bit, knocking him into some poor kid’s apartment whose really wondering what the fuck just happened too much to enjoy meeting the martian manhunter, so him  not being too on top of them simply sells this threat is equal, and possibly past the League. 
Meanwhile John is talking to his former teacher who says the kid reminds him of John... it’s not only a nice bit of depth to show the restrained John used to be a bit of a hellraiser before the Marines.. but also shows John’s guilt as he hopes not.. but before he can unload, he notices the fight and suits up to his old mentors shock and the kids joy, I mean I would too if a guy suddenly because a green lantern in front of me, and dashes off.. to surrender and break up the fight, handing over his ring and going with them and telling the League not to interfere. Their response can be summed up thusly. 
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To John, he’s peacefully surrendering for a crime he comitted to a bruitsh and unfair police force but one who is duly deputized and as an officer himself, for the unaware the Green Lanterns are space cops and given the reason rightfuly reconing on the police I will certainly be discussing this as we go, is trying to coparate and prevent any collateral. While LIKELY Bruce pays for any that happens, as beneath his batdick demanour at times he’s a very good man and if he has the pockets for a space station, space craft, commuincators and all the good stuff a superhero team has on hand, he probably has a dedicated fund set up to paying for collateral since insurance might not cover it, and not only that would likely give any impacted extra to do any upgrades they coudln’t before because he’s a philanorphist .. one who dresses up like a bat to punch people in the face, but that itself is still philathophy in a way. 
But to the League? Their friend was taken by a bunch of shady paramilitary robots who didn’t bother talking to them, is trying to keep them out of it and for all they know only surrendered to prevent a fight, and even if he had valid reasons, as his friends-ish and teammates, they have a right to answers. So while John sits in his cell completlating his apparent crimes.. the JL have taken off in the Javelin, the spaceship I mentioned batman funding. And of course Batman has both spaceship money and had a design for one so ready it likely took a month at most for him to get it up and running, if not less, and only didn’t have one in the batcave because he hadn’t neededed it yet and likely didn’t want to embezle more money than he has to from his company. Jonn uses the stars John saw, say that three times fast I dare you, to find a location and our heroes head there.  Our heroes arrive.. and are attacked by the local security despite Superman geninely trying to hail them, the Javelin not firing back and our heros only going out to intercpet personally so they don’t die, and even then making careful certainty not to attack. So we get another thrilling battle, with our three flying heroes all pitching in, and the flash realizing he dosen’t know how to fly the thing and me cursing out bruce in my head for you know, not either forcing flash to learn the stuff, or having the forsight to put a manual on board for any members who forgot something, aka so when Wally inteivibly goofs off and eats candy instead of reading it the first time, he can speed read it and at least retain it long enough to land the thing in a crisis. If it were anyone else i’d be understanding but this is the guy who again, either had spaceship plans lying around or could get one together in the span of a month or so and while not thinking of the ship in terms of a team, still also paid for and likely created the commuincators they used, so he’d know his team well enough to know he needs this. 
My nitpicking aside, our heroes land, make quick work of the locals, and then crash in on John’s trial after he’s escorted in, passing his fellow lanterns who rightfully treat him with disdain.. but for the wrong reasons as we’ll see. John gives  groaning “oh no” , like he’s embarassed. When REALLY..
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Seriously John, again you were as far as they knew kidnapped, and the way the manhunters acted, they had no reason to think they were legitamate, and you didn’t take five minutes to tell them, “They have every reason to be takning me” or “I blew up a planet I deserve this” . They still would’ve came mind you, they just might of realized this wasn’t a traditional rescue mission and actually tried to use some subtly. You also COULD have told the manhunters they might show up so the security wouldn’t attack them. They probably woudln’t o LISTEND or attacked themselves, so i’ts a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation, but you still did absolutely nothing. It’s the one mistep with John here and even then it has the justification of his self loathing at the moment being so high, he assumed they’d rightfully write him off without question.. not to mention given the team is mostly white guys, two aliens and a princess who woudln’t know better, he probably assumed like most white dumbasses they’d assume the police were correct and not give him the benifit of a doubt. To their credit, especially since you know one of them’s superman and the other one’s a professional dumbass, they didn’t think that for a second. Some would not be such a good person. 
But Prosecutor Forman and the big giant heads aren’t much better than the manhunters, so Prosecutor Forman sends some orange guys to put foots up their asses.. and since unlike the manhunters their just... some ambigiously gendered aliens with no powers, they go down quick and before the manhunters enter, superman RIGHTFULLY calls them out, as he points out they just wanted to know what the hell was going on, didn’t throw the first punch, and have been under attack since, and the heads admit this IS a public trial, and they kinda overreacted so as long as the superfriends don’t do any other antics and watch like anyone else, their good. Superman has his team play it safe for now as they really don’t know what’s going on and given they could only stalemate the manhunters on even footing, they know they can’t take them on their home turf.  
The trial is soon underway, and Prosecutor Forman calls the witnsees.. Kanjar Ro, also voiced by Smith. This is neat little bit as Ro was one of the first foes the League fought in the comics, a space pirate, and while he originally was just going to be some random asshole, someone brought up the idea of him being Ro and the crew really loved it. It’s a nice nod to the comics and honestly if you have a vast superhero universe with decades of continuity to draw from for your show, why NOT make the secondary villian of the episode be someone from the comics. 
Ro is, like the comics, a pirate and seemingly came forward because what John did was so bad even he can’t stomach it and has to say something. So we FINALLY find out what John did.. well okay the audience as a whole does I remember this from being a kid. He and Ro had a routine cop and robber interaction, Ro was smuggling shit, and John was doing his job as GL of Sector 2814 and stopping him and cut out his engine.. but seemingly said engine drifted off, and destroyed a planet as  result via chain reaction, and thus the debris right outside the planet John’s being tried on are apparently thsoe of the planet he accidently killed. The court takes a break and while the League, understandably, assume that the obviously shady man was lying John ends part one by confirming that no he did it. And this is why I put a pin in things... because the episode being about a space cop being arrested by worse space cops and dealing with his friends in the badge turning on him while some of his other friends try to prove he’s innocent, and the man in question being an african american... tackles some very loaded issues that, givent he writer and most of the staff, Dwayne McDuffie accepted, were very much white, i’m thinking they just kind of fell backward into and it only came out as good as it did either do to McDuffie or just blind luck that it didn’t turn out entirely awful in hindsight.
And if anyone is complaning: “Wait you dont’ need to get political leave politics out of this”.. please leave my fucking blog. For one, the recknoing with the police was long overdue, I feel ashamed for not having it sink in how fundementally broken the police were and not realizing it for my whole fucking life, I knew some cops were bad but I hadn’t realized the institution was inherently racist and bad  and feel so much deep and lasting shame for that, and for another again it’s a story that at it’s core is a black police officer being arrested for doing something wrong, taking full responsiblity for his actions like a police officer SHOULD, and having friends of his try and prove he didn’t really do it, while his fellow officers, rather than find the act itself abohhrent, come out as either being loyal to john no matter what (kilowog) because fellow officer, or assholes who ONLY are upset because it makes them look bad, and are ONLY distancing themselves because of that, and not because you know JOHN MAY OF CAUSED A GENOCIDE BY INCOMPETNECE. So yeah, i’m not ignoring the real world implications, I couldn’t and wouldn’t if I wanted to, and i feel if done right ANY medium, animation, comics, what have you, for kids or not, can tackle such issues and should be able to. 
So i’m not ignoring the elephant in the room, and as we get into part 2 we get the good and bad of this in full: Superman feels something’s off about this whole thing, a hunch admitely but given an engine falling in a crater seems a bit too convinent, he has a right to investigate and takes MM to do so, while he leaves Flash and Hakwgirl to stall. Both take diffrent approaches: Flash signs on as GL’s lawyer.. and it’s an awesome scene as we find out, in your standard evil lawyer joke, that the tribunal of faces solved this by simply having the lawyer share the punishment.. but it also shows Flash’s loyalty and faith that his friend did not do this and something worse is at work, as he still agrees after learning he’ll probably die if his other friends don’t fix this. 
And now we have full context i can get into where this episode really does the issue justice for the most part: John is presented as the model of both what the GL Corps and what police should be: He’s professional, uses minimal force despite having a weapon that can do anything, and when he THINKS he did something horrible, he dosen’t run from his crime: the most he does is go back home to see it once last time, simply waiting for someone to come and get him for what it did wether it be his own brothers in arms or as we saw the manhunters and he doesn’t defend himself because he dosen’t feel he should as he screwed up, got an entire planet killed, and rightly thinks he should pay for it. He’s likely, as a black man in the early 2000′s, been falsely accused, pulueld over and fucked over by police and seen people in his community he knewe and care about die because of shit like this so when given the chance to take responsibility, even from a clearly broken system, he does. Because in the same situation a lot of officers back at home would not and would walk away clean and that’s not who John Stewart is, how he was raised, or what he or the corps stands for. 
But the episode gets to have it’s cake and eat it too, as the League does belivie John didn’t do this on purpose.. and the blind faith they especially superman did come off as wince inducing.. until I realized it’s not because of some “brotherhood of the badge” bullshit.. but because it’s Superman. He belivies in the good of most people. In this very series despite Lex Luthor having tried to kill him dozens of times at this point, he STILL shows the guy empathy when he finds out Lex is dying of cancer. Lex spits at the notion of course and dosen’t take it seroiusly.. but Superman is just that good a person, so if he has a hunch somethings’ wrong.. it probably is. And even if he and Jonn found nothing... it’s the right thing to do. A crime should ALWAYS be properly investigated to make sure someone dosen’t hang for something they did not do. This is what I meant by have it’s cake and eat it too: the episode tackles police brutality.. but the accused is also the victim, and it thus tackles the unfairness in the us courts, how black people are often assumed guilty when that’s horribly racist and biased as fuck and how Police are assumed correct. Our heroes are assuming john is right based on optisim but are not wrong for wanting him to at LEAST get a fair trial and full investigation that clearly was not done. It also covers, again probably intetioanlly, how some are often not able to get proper representatin, with this court outright getting rid of it, which is wrong and bad, and the flash being the best John can do and not very good at it, mostly stalling for time. It shows the system’s brokena nd soemtimes you have to directly fight iht and can’t just take it , and even if your convinced your guilty and want to rightfuly take the blame for something your sure you did... you still deserve a fair trial and a compitent one. 
It’s not all good: as said the gl’s are portrayed as bad for not wanting anything to do with john, and in order to make them unsympathetic they care more about their rep than the fact a friend may of comited genocide and kilowog showing up and providing character witness is seen as a good thing, even if he provides no actual character evidence other than “Johnny’s a good guy” and that’s not ideal. It’s not perfect and again it was writtne by an old white guy so of course it isn’t but the fact it gets so much right the more you dig in despitei t’s awwkardness and being written and aired 20 years ago... that is nothing to sneeze at. 
We have more to dig into here too with the manhunters but first moreof the plot: While the other stuff mentioned happens, Superman and Jonn investigate as said.. and we find out WHY superman was supscious: while it was part hunch.. he did in fact have valid reason to suspect something was off, and as we saw actually heard the case against his friend first, and only went against it because the evidence was off.. in that the MOON of the planet is still there and should’ve flown off. He and Jonn soon find a MASSIVE device that John identifies as a bigger version of a toy he had as a kid, something that created images... and again shows whya  PROPER investigation was needed. Had the court actually looked into it instead of presuming John guilty, they would’ve found this thing too. Naturally though Kanjar Ro has followed them and wants to kill them.. but with her subplot wrapped up Hawkgirl went to seei f they needed backup, stealing one of the guard ships which given they attacked people on ap lanet iwth a PUBLIC TRIAL going on without haling them yeah don’t blame her, and kicks his ass. Our heroes find out the truth as I mentioned earlier: Ro was paid to lie and be in on things for an assload of money.. byt he Manhutners.. who at the moment are plotting to strike while Oa, the home of the green lanterns is weak, as the Guardians who created them and monitor them mostly left to go to the trial.
As we catch up with them, THe guardians speak on each lantern being trusted with the ring and given little oversight.. because they pick wisely. The prosecutor just wants John to hang, calls for a sentence, which is death and John and Flash nearly die, in case you thought I was pulling those parallels out of my ass. But Superman rushes in, and in a small, subtle gag he and Jonn do so thorugh a small pain of glass put over where they enterted last time, fight off security and save them, and before prosecutor foot in the ass can harumph about it more.. Superman claims jonn’s innocent..a nd has Shiera smash the generator, showing he indeed is, getting John aquitted. John also attacks Ro, who they brought along as a witness, rightfully so, but the League get him to stop as they don’t have time for that: the Guardians are strangely leaving after that, the manhunters are clearly doing something given their asbent, so John retakes his ring, restored to who he was now knowing he truly WAS innocent and was simply set up.. and he wants to find out why. 
We soon get the why as the Guardians explain the manhunters after the League won’t let them just.. brush by after they aburbtly tried to leave. They AREN’T behind the current attack.. but did create them, feeling robots would be better policeman. They were wrong, with the manhunters lacking empathy, being far too military in their job, and generally not being up for it so they simply gave them smaller jobs as bounty hunters, court balifs that sort of thing ans assumed they were fine because they didn’t say anything. As John puts it perfectly “Not outloud. “ And this itself is the other thing that makes the episode work as an allegory, if a very unteitonal one: The Manhunters are the police as they are now, violent brutes with way too much power, no restraint in using it and no ounce of mercy or sympathy for those they protect. And the Guardians rightfully removed this system, and replaced it with the corps. And while the Corps STILL have a lot of leway and power, being free to investigate on their own provided OA dosen’t call them to do someting specific, and given a ring that can do anything within corps guidelines, which basically means “don’t kill” and “don’t be a dick with it”, the guardians still watch them, do not interfere in trials and choose very wisely. not only that ther’es only one officer per sector, each sector being galaxies wide.. but that’s because that’s only what’s NEEDED. One Lantern with the power to take on entire fleets if needed, which is a fair amount of power given the scope of the job, and come in as requested by the people themselves, honestly isn’t a bad system. Granted the corps is wonky from time to time in the comics as are the guaridans depending on the writer, but at it’s core the corps really sounds like a more responsible versoin of the police: given just the gear necessary, the men necessary, and only called in when truly needed or if they spot a crime in process. THat’s what the people protecting us should be like and that’s why this episode still works. 
Obviously though I was aware of none of this as a kid, and the real reason I loved this episode is this climax. The League arrives on Oa just in time to provide backup. Presumibly the guardians there and incoming with the league simply dont have the power to spare to call for reinforcments. Which is weird but fair enough drama wise and our heroes storm the planet , with the corpsmen from before all showing up to pitch in. But John gets there too late as the head manhunter drains the central power battery, the source of the lantern’s powers, and declares I AM THE POWER, refusing to accept he’s out of date.
 And this, folks is the moment that made me love the lanterns for life. John is outgunned, the wise old wrinkled blue men who gave him his powers drained of there, starring down a massive monster planning to subjigate the universe... and he does not blink. See lanterns are picked for their willpower, their abliity to stare down things like this, and fight anyway, their very rings controlled by this, by their own force of personhood. It’s another reason besides logistics why theires only one per sector: it’s that hard to find one. Earth is so remarkable because , even if it’s simply so we could have more stars in the books over time in real world, we produced not ONE person capable of this.. but 7.. Alan Scott whose not in the corps but whose powers stll work on will and could probably use a regular corps ring very much included. John was chosen because he simply won’t give up. He gave up before.. but it was the right thing to do and ultimately biding his timea nd accepting his trial.. gave his friends time to aquit him and prove he was framed. 
But now is not the time to back down.. now’s the time to stand.. so how does John win? By USING his will, by using the reason he was chosen coupled with ihs own personal dedication and concentration, he grabs his ring as it floats toward the guy, takes it back.. and starts reciting the lantern oath. And since the Manhunter is indeed “The power”.. it means he too can be controlled like any lantern energy. and thus with every bit of willpower he has, struggling all the while but not moving a damn inch, John recites his oath and shoves the monster that framed him, and the power he stole, back into the battery, all while saying an oath so badass it has been etched into my head since thanks to this episode. Say it with me now..
In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night No Evil Shall Escape My Sight Let Those Who Worship Evil’s Might BEWARE MY POWER, GREEN LANTERN’S LIGHT!
And the credit goes to phil lamarr, who delivers the oath with all the gravitas and awesomeness it’s first delivery in this continuty it deserves. It was this that made me a lifelong fan: one man with the power of anytihng using PURE MENTAL STRENGTH AND DETERMiINATION TO SHOVE AN EVIL ENERGY BEING IN A GIANT LANTERN WHILE RECITING A BADASS AND AWE INSPIRING OATH. And if that dosen’t sell you on the Green Lantern’s being awesome I can’t help you and don’t know why your here. 
So wrapup time: The Guardians genuinely thank john, saying they choose well, and John brushes off his fellows corpspersons as they should’ve belivied him and thanks the League for having faith in him even when he didn’t. And while the former part has some.. bad implications we’ve gotten into already, I also can’t entirely blame him given they did it not because he might’ve killed someone but again, because 
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Precisley. So our heroes prepare to head home, cue the credits. 
Final Thoughts:
So how does this episode hold up 20 years later? As should be obvious, damn well. It’s a good introduction for the corps, if showing them to be kinda assholes in places, and a good spotlight episdoe for John showing who he is what he stands for and again how TRULY MONUMENTALLY BADASS the man is. And lest you think the comics versoin is any LESS badass, he once got into a sniper duel in with Bedovian, a member of the Sinestro Corps and a crab person.. who was as I forgot till looking it up, THREE SECTORS, which i’ll remind you can comprise entire galaxies, away, with a ring made sniper rifle. In one shot no less. Point is even with some.. wonkier aspects, and ones that aren’t intetnional, it still works and is a shockingly relevant episode 19 years later and the fight scenes, as are standard for the series, are overwhelmingly awesome. Check this one out, and the series as a whole. With its great animation, character work and general badassery this one’s worth a few watches. And obviously given my love of this seires, and it’s 20th anniversay next year, and my love of John, check back here for more John-centric episodes throughout the year as we celebrate the guy. And I will also celebrate the green lantern NAMED guy eventually too, and jessica.. and all of them ebcause I love them all. Yes.. even Hal.  As for which John episode i’m doing next? Easy, one that intorduces me to a character I love who dosen’t get used near enough, Metamorphisis. The when I can’t say QUITE yet as my March schedule is full and most of my ongoing projects are on the backburner so I can tackle two arcs of ducktales, which coincidentally happened to be in time for the finale. That wasn’t planned AT ALL mind you, it just ended up working out really well that way.  For now though tommorow I begin my coverage of the final 4 episodes of ducktales with “Beaks in the Shell” and later this week finish up black history month with blacksad, continue my Lena retrospective with a money shark and some pr work, cover the second season of close enough, celebrate Tex Avery’s birthday and also celebrate the new Tom and Jerry movie.. with the OLD tom and jerry movie. Until then, see you next rainbow. 
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fu-aki · 4 years
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So this is going to be my attempt to summarize the newest episodes of the fairy gala event (episode 1 to 10) of twisted wonderland.
Again, spoiler alert since I’m about to write out everything that happened, and I apologize for my grammar in advance.
Both Kalim and Jamil are asking Crowley what is going on, the warm Scarabia dorm suddenly started to snow -> and on their way here, the mirror room was hot like oven -> Crowley explains how temperatures in this school are kept by the fairies and they use a magic stone as a source of energy, so maybe something happened to the stone -> so they all went to check -> the stone was gone -> Crowley called for all dorm leaders for an emergency meeting
Crowley explained what happened -> Azul mentioned about the big fairy in the room -> Malleus “are you saying, that I, the next in line for bramble valley, will do some petty crime like this?” -> Azul apologized -> Kalim “nobody here think you did it, we just want you to tell us if you know anything related to the topic, anything about fairy.” -> Malleus mentions how he saw an unfamiliar fairy when he was taking a walk yesterday, it carries a rainbow color stone with them and was around botanical garden -> everyone headed towards there
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The fairies are crowning a bigger fairy -> that tiara has the missing magic stone on it -> Malleus recognized the bigger fairy, that is the queen of fairy town, and if she’s outside in time like this, it’s likely that she has chosen NRC as the location for fairy gala -> Malleus also explains that fairy gala is when fairies dress up in elegant clothes and participates in a fashion show in celebration of spring -> Leona “fashion show? Don’t joke with me, let’s just take the magic stone now” -> Crowley disagree since he don’t want to anger the fairies that’s controlling the temperature of school -> since the celebration of fairy gala last around 3 months, if they don’t get the magic stone back, the school won’t be able to function for 3 months ->
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Crowley “why do none of you look motivated!” -> Riddle “it’s not our job after all.” -> Vil “it should be you, the school principal’s job.” -> Crowley then announced that if this problem keeps going on for 3 months, everyone would have to repeat for a year -> no one want that to happen so they went back to brainstorm on how to get the stone back
Kalim “Malleus you are also a fairy right? How about you go and just ask them nicely?” -> Malleus ”there’s many different types of fairies, from thistle fairy to dragon fairy like me. Their size and languages are all different. And it’s not guaranteed that we get along, just like humans. Besides, if I just step in, the smaller fairies will probably run away in fear.” -> Leona “tsk, so useless... if we can’t do that, only way left is to take it by force right?” -> Azul “maybe there’s someway we can take it without being noticed?” -> Vil suggests to switch that tiara with a fake one -> since it’s a big event, it’ll be easy to sneak in too -> Crowley “sounds like a good idea, it would be nice if we can have something to disguise ourselves as fairies..” -> “IN STOCK NOW!” -> Sam says he heard about this from his friends on the other side so he brought some fairy dust, which is the power source for fairies in fairy town, so if we sprinkle it on, fairies would register us as part of them -> Crowley bought it with school budget -> now they are trying to decide who’s going to sneak in fairy gala -> Malleus mentions that fairy gala is the place where only upper level fairies gather -> Sam also said that he heard the theme of fairy gala this year is “exotic”
Kalim “what’s wrong? Is there anything on my face?”
Leona “hey, stop staring at me.”
Malleus “exotic to the fairy town... that will definitely be you two.”
Vil “yes, it would be rare for them to see werehumans or the culture of the desert.”
Azul “and no matter how much Leona has fallen, he’s still royal, and Kalim is the son of a rich family.”
Riddle “won’t that means they are used to parties like this?”
Idia “k the infiltration team would be Leona and Kalim, gg!”
-> Azul then left -> Malleus left too since he wasn’t invited in the first place -> Kalim happily took the position -> Leona refuses ->
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Crowley “Kingscholar, if Asim failed and the spring won’t came, wouldn’t it bother you the most? As a feline, you won’t be able to use your full power if the winter just keeps going. Most of Savanaclaw students are werehuman too, and there’s a lot of them that can’t do anything if the temperature changes right? Savanaclaw’s power will go down greatly, are you... really okay with it?” -> Leona then agrees to join -> Kalim was excited and ask if he can bring Jamil -> Crowley agrees and suggest Leona to bring someone too, since he don’t want Leona to ditch halfway through -> Leona decided to bring Ruggie along -> Crowley called for you to work on it
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In ramshackle -> both Jamil and Ruggie are complaining about Kalim and Leona drag them into troublesome things again -> but if they didn’t everyone has to repeat a year -> they finally stopped fighting and started to plan it out -> Kalim suggests to just use magic -> but fairies are really sensitive to magic, so it’ll fail right away
Ruggie “we are magicians but can’t use our magic, this feel so hopeless.”
Leona “i-diot, this is the reason why you are here, Ruggie.”
Ruggie “me?”
Leona “you’ll switch the tiara with the fake one... by using your hands, directly.”
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Ruggie “...EEH!!!! ME!!???”
Ruggie mentions how it’s actually harder to steal something that’s on top of someone’s head like that -> Leona ask how many seconds do Ruggie need to do it -> Ruggie “15” -> Leona “make it 10” -> Ruggie “where did that 5 seconds go!!!” -> Leona “you could do it easily anyway” -> Ruggie “darn you see me right through” -> Ruggie “but if you can’t distract her, it’ll still be tough for me.” -> Kalim suggests to make a parade for distraction -> but only 4 people can get in the event -> Jamil suggests to do some performance to distract them on runway -> Grim and you has to support Ruggie -> so rest of them has to go on the show -> but all of them are super amateur at fashion shows -> Jamil says he has an idea
He brought Crewel and Vil -> then Crewel gives them some clothes ->
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Vil ask them to show some walks, since no matter how pretty the clothes are, if the person’s posture are bad, it’s going to be a waste anyway
Vil “really... it’s surprising.”
Vil “you can actually walk this elegantly...”
Vil “...you did a great job, Jamil.”
Vil “Kalim too, your posture is really proper, is it because of the education at home?”
Kalim “is it? Hehe thanks, but I think it’s because we liked to dance.”
Jamil “Kalim has been learning the traditional dance since he was young, and I have an interest in street dance.”
Vil “compare to that... Leona, what’s with your lame walk. Your feet are dragging, your postures are wrong, and”
Vil then completely roasted Leona -> Crewel “for a bad puppy like Kingscholar, shouldn’t we teach him how to walk on twos first? Or else it would be the same as letting a new born kitten on runway.” -> in the end they decided that Leona is just going to do a walk while Kalim and Jamil doing dances to grab attentions -> and then the training starts
Vil commented on Kalim has beautiful moves but always make mistakes on swings, in comparison, Jamil made no mistake at all but it felt lacking because of it -> Leona on the other side, has vases full of water on his head and shoulders, he has to walk around the room without spill anything -> to make sure everyone can do great on runway and remember everything, Vil announced -> if they sit without Vil’s approval they’ll have to do 500 squats -> if Leona spills the water again, he’ll have to do wall sit for an hour -> if either one of Kalim and Jamil made a mistake they have to do three legged race around the school -> Leona “ordering us around like that... who do you think you are!?” -> Vil “I’m the world’s super model... Vil Schoenheit sama!!!!!”
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And that’s all of the episodes so far, I can finally go check out Leona’s personal story now, he look so great and life is so great
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sylvie-writes · 4 years
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Ugly Christmas Sweaters
pairing: steve rogers x reader. avengers x reader (platonic) 
request: Could you imagine the avengers having an ugly Christmas sweater contest? Because holy cow I need that in my life.
warnings: a few curse words and that’s about it.
word count: 1459
author’s note: pardon any mistakes! I’m also trying to complete my Christmas/winter requests first since December has already started. 
PART OF MY CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION (check the tag for the masterlist)
(gif below is not mine, nor do i take credit for it
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The Morning Of December 24th
“Natasha, for the love of all that is good, why are we out at 10 am shopping? On Christmas Eve might I add!”
Tiny snowflakes danced across the sky, some making home in your hair and on the planes of your face. Cold wind gushed towards you, making your skin feel as delicate and fragile as porcelain. Having lived in New York for a few years, one would have assumed that you knew how to handle the harsh weather by now, but apparently not. Even though you were wrapped in a very warming trench coat, your neck encased in a fur collar, you wrapped yourself into Natasha’s side for even more warmth. 
The woman squeezed your arm that was wrapped around her own and kept walking all while ignoring your pleas to stop at the coffee house that looked oh-so inviting.
“Oh hush. You act like you are going to turn into Jack Frost!” 
She chided you for a minute more and then pulled your body into a clothing store that seemed a bit too up-class for your liking. 
“As for your second question, this is the answer. Tony is hosting an ugly Christmas sweater party tonight!”
Natasha unlatched from your arm and went into the center of the store. A sea of red and green blinded you and your friend was now practically swimming through the hundreds of racks all filled with ugly Christmas sweaters. 
“Seriously, Nat! I could have just ordered one on Amazon or something.”
You frowned and decided to jump into the unknown and search for your friend who was seemingly lost at the moment. Standing on tippy toes, you tried to peer over and find her. It was all in vain until you saw a head of red hair excitedly pop up, almost like a groundhog exiting from its home. Natasha smiled widely at you with two ugly Christmas sweaters in hand. As you walked closer to her, you found that the sweaters in question weren’t actually separated yet they were actually one large conjoined sweater, presumably for two people. 
“No,” before she could even speak, you had cut her off. 
“C’mon (y/n)! Even you were thinking about it. I didn't even have to say anything to influence you.” 
You shook your head and attempted to walk away when she grabbed your hand. 
“Call him.”
Natasha stared into your eyes and you did the same, almost squinting back at her now. 
With the slowest movements of your lips, you replied, “N-O, Natasha!” 
Just as you thought this argument had been put to rest, Natasha sneakily snatched your cell phone from your back pocket and immediately FaceTimed your boyfriend, Steve.
“WHAT?!” At this point you were grabbing for the phone and waiting for Steve to ultimately pick up at any given moment.
“HOW DO YOU EVEN KNOW MY PASSWORD?” Natasha kept waving around your phone in the air as it was nothing, some bystanders even shamelessly watching at this point. 
“I’m a spy, sweetheart. It’s simple. Also, your first mistake was to make your password your birthday.”
She pursed her lips and looked at you with a knowing look and you grumbled. Suddenly, the sound of the call being picked sounded and your blood froze. If it wasn’t already frozen from the frigid weather that is.
“Hey dol—Nat?”
“Hiya Cap! Your girlfriend is being a pain in my ass and we need you to settle this argument.”
You piped up and scurried over to get in the view of the camera.
“There is no argument! It’s a stupid sweater that’s all.”
Natasha looked at you once more and you did the same, this time snatching the phone from her. 
“Well I guess you two don’t need me then?”
You could see Steve was visibly confused and clearly in the middle of something as Bucky and Sam were in the background attempting to hang some garland. 
As you were about to tell Steve goodbye, you heard him suddenly chuckle. Confused, your eyes scanned the screen and that is where you spotted Natasha in the background of your own camera feed, jumping up and down while pointing to the sweater. 
“Honey, why is Nat jumping around behind you. Did she have some caffeine or something? I’ve never seen her this hyper before.”
You started laughing as Steve didn’t know Natasha exactly like you did. She was your best friend and the two of you got on each other’s nerves, but never seriously of course. Natasha was a different person with you and quite frankly it was a lot more fun than her usual persona with the team. 
“No Stevie, she stole my phone to try and get you to wear this sweater with me, but I know there’s no way you’d ever wear it.” Towards the end of your statement you were winking, and very noticeably at this point, hoping he would play along. 
But alas, he didn’t catch on.
“Huh? You know me, angel. I’ll do anything for you!”
He was so sweet and innocent that it was hard to stay mad at him. At this point, Nat had stopped jumping and was now at your side, a proud smirk on her face. On the screen, Bucky had joined and Sam partially paid some attention to the conversation as he was now working with Wanda and her powers on the garland. 
“Oh hey, Tasha! You gotta get us one of those, babe! Can’t let Rogers and (y/l/n) beat us this year, ya know?”
Natasha nodded vigorously and walked away to go and find said sweater. You just watched the two boys on the phone playfully nudge each other and drop a few “insults.” 
“I’m going to leave you two to whatever that is. Good luck Sam, you too Wanda!”
The young woman looked towards the camera and you could hear her irritated grumble all the way from across the room. 
“Should’ve gone with you guys!”
The Night of December 24th
You and Steve are standing shoulder to shoulder. Literally. 
Minus the white camisole you are wearing beneath this thing, all you feel is Steve’s warm body and skin touching yours. 
The two of you, after some time, finally managed to get the damn thing on. 
“(y/n)! Step to the side and then let me slip my arm through. 
Growing you did as he asked, when you immediately jumped back at Steve crushing your foot. The simple action throwing you both back. 
“Steve, you were stepping on me!”
and then your favorite part of the whole fiasco, “Steven Rogers get your arm off of my waist.” 
You turned and gave the man a side eye to which he shrugged with his own wide eyes. “What! I’m not doing anything and even if I was—”
Steve noticed your look, one that you don’t mess around with. “Care to finish that sentence, Cap?”
He made a motion as if he was zipping his lips and the two of you found it difficult to walk out of the door. 
At the party, you eyed the room for the team. They were a mere few feet away, but you and Steve were already struggling to walk as it is. 
Tony and Pepper were wearing some lighted tinsel sweaters while Bucky and Nat wore a conjoined reindeer sweater. Sam was sporting a literal Christmas tree sweater while Wanda wore a fruit cake themed ugly Christmas sweater. 
Soon Bruce and Thor joined you all. Bruce had an avengers themed ugly sweater on, making you giggle a bit while Thor was just wearing a casual sweater. 
“What is this nonsense that you are all wearing?”
Thor motioned to everyone’s different and most of all, ugly, sweaters, then prompting Bruce to explain the whole thing to him.
Eventually the festivities came to an end and you and Steve by now, had become experts at wearing this giant nap sack of a sweater. 
Rhodey, who decided not to participate, instead became the judge of the contest. By now, everyone was tired and blissed out from the drinks and such. There was silence as you all sat around on the couch and chairs, but it was comfortable and enjoyable, not deafening. The team was your family and there was no other way you’d have it. 
Sleepy, you leaned onto Steve who was still sitting beside you of course, because it’s not like he can run off. 
He smiled when you finally gave in and placed a kiss on your head. The whole team saw you and Steve all snuggled up and napping away. From that, it was decided that you both had won the ugly sweater competition. Not because of your sweaters, but because of your PDA. 
taglist: @memissbee @tricereads @buckybarnesthehotshot @bval-1 @tonystankschild @just-one-ordinary-fangirl @turtoix @kelbabyblue @jakiki94 @aubreeskailynn @calirindo @lady-elena-adeline​ @siriuslyslyslytherin 
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cafedanslanuit · 4 years
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♡   f l u f f v e m b e r   2 0 2 0   ♡ 
♡  week three  —  kuroo tetsurou   |   first date
♡  summary  —   it was just a boba date, what could go wrong? apparently, everything or highschool student kuroo tetsurou finds a way to epically mess up his first date with you
♡  masterlist  ♡
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It was Kuroo’s first date.
No, scratch that. He had had dates before. But it was the first time he had ever asked someone out. Kuroo had managed not to stumble over his own words as he invited the libero from the girls’ volleyball team to a boba date. Kuroo waited for you after class and walked you to the gym, as your team was using the space that day. He noticed the blush on your cheeks as you agreed, trying to play it cool. He couldn’t blame you as he was trying to do just the same (he did wish he was doing a better job, though). You gave him your number and waved him off as you joined practice.
“What do you think about them?” he asked Kenma, as he walked him home after school. He hadn’t stopped talking about you in the past few weeks, bothering his friend about this joke you had made or the way he caught you staring in awe at a stray cat on the street. ‘Ask them out’, had been Kenma’s only advice (and a not-so-direct manner to shut him up). He then had watched Kuroo rehearse the question about whatever a boba date was in front of his mirror for a long time while he played with his Switch.
Kenma let out a long sigh, his eyes darting to the sky.
“They’re okay.”
“Just okay?”
“They offered me their notes one day I missed class,” Kenma remembered. Kuroo smiled and kept walking, hands in his pockets.
Tomorrow was going to be easy. He would meet you near the park and you would walk to this boba store he had found out was very popular on Instagram. You would walk around town, it would get cold and he would offer his jacket. Yes, Kuroo Tetsurou had it all planned and he was confident it was going to be a date to remember.
He really wished he had chosen his words more carefully.
Kuroo was already at the park when he realized he had forgotten his leather jacket. He cursed under his breath as he sat on one of the park’s benches. It’s going to be fine, he told himself. So what if you can’t lend her your jacket? That doesn’t mean anything. You both can still have a good time. He sighed and passed a hand across his face.
Keep it together.
He looked up at the sky and saw the grey clouds from that morning still lurking around. It had been raining for a couple of hours, but it had thankfully stopped before ruining his date. The air was cold, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. He just had to focus on being himself, relaxing and having a good time.
“Hey!”
Kuroo turned around and saw you walking to him. It felt unreal to see you without your uniform, but he had to admit he liked it. It was like getting to know another part of yourself, a bit of what you liked and the knowledge you had dressed up knowing you were going to meet him. Still, you looked comfortable and he greeted you with a smile. He didn’t fail to notice the sweater you were carrying on one arm. Of course.
“Hey,” he replied, standing up and going to meet you. “Should we go?”
The walk to the boba store was filled with small talk and your laugh as he cracked a joke or two. He remembered why he asked you out in the first place, how your sole presence could brighten up even the grey clouds above both of you and make him forget all about the forgotten jacket. He watched you stare at the menu board and hum to yourself as you picked your order and told the girl behind the bar something he didn’t pay attention to.
“And you?”
Your voice brought him back from his daydreaming, and he finally looked at the board above both of you. His eyebrows furrowed as he noticed the different combination and options shown there. Four steps? Thirty five flavours? Wait-- did he read correctly? Thirty-five? Kuroo was convinced it would be like going to Starbucks and just now he was realizing his mistake. Who invites someone over for boba tea when they don’t know anything about those stores themselves?
“Do you like mango?” you asked, once again bringing him back to reality. “The matcha mango one is really good and kind of sweet. I think you’ll like it,” you said, offering him a smile.
“Sure, that sounds good,” he said, his eyes darting to the other options on the board. “And also a couple of chocolate chip cookies,” he told the cashier, who added it to the list.
“Oh, I love those,” you muttered to yourself, and he grinned at your excited expression. Kuroo took his wallet out to pay for your drinks.
A chill ran down his spine as he found his card slot empty. Scared, he looked in every compartment of his wallet, and then inside his jeans pockets. Nothing. A vague memory of him needing some cash and taking out the card from his wallet to go to the ATM the day before crossed his mind. Of course. He hadn’t put the card back to his pocket when he returned home.
He couldn’t face you now. Who the hell takes someone to a boba store, not only not knowing anything about boba, but also forgets his money? He counted the cash he had and realized it wasn’t enough to cover for everything. Fuck. Fuck.
“I’m so sorry, I left my card at my house,” he said, his eyes fixed on his almost empty wallet.
“Oh, it’s okay,” you say, taking out your wallet and handing your card to the girl in front of you.
“I’ll pay you back, I’m actually so sorry”, he apologized, masking his deep embarrassment with a smile. You smiled sweetly at him while shaking your head and he managed to feel even worse than before.
As you waited for your orders, you looked at how nervous Kuroo looked. He didn’t look like the confident guy who you had been talking to the past few weeks, who always had a funny remark or proud smirk when he won a debate. You nudged your shoulder at him, forcing him to look at you again.
“Hey, did you manage to talk to the science teacher about that problem he got wrong?” you asked, trying to take his mind out of it. His eyes lit up, and he started rambling about the chemistry problem he noticed the teacher had been wrong about.
You kept listening to Kuroo as he picked up your order and looked for an empty table to sit with you. He found one at the back of the store and led you there. Kuroo sat in front of you and you watched him take special care in popping the lid of his drink with the straw, as if he was scared of somehow messing it up. You hid your smile and poked the lid of your own drink, taking a sip and humming at the known flavour.
“Had you come here before?” he asked.
“No, I usually go to one that is next to my house, but this is really good. The thirty-five flavours plus the toppins really gives you a lot to choose from,” you smiled, taking another sip and munching on one of the pearls. “How is practice going?”
“It’s good. We’ve actually invited some schools over next week for practice matches, so it should be fun. How is your knee going?”
You blinked at him in surprise.
“Hey, you remembered,” you said, a smile drawing on your lips.
“Of course I did,” Kuroo said, rolling his eyes playfully. “I’m a nice person.”
“No doubt there,” you chuckled. “I’m actually feeling a lot better. I still have another appointment with the physical therapist tomorrow and--”
You proceeded to explain about how your therapy was doing and Kuroo listened to you, all his senses focused on no one but the person in front of him. He wondered if you knew about the little mannerisms you had when you talked and daydreamed about telling you all about them, only this time you would be resting in his arms. He thought about taking the hand that was resting on the table but forced the thought out of his head. No, maybe in a while. It was too soon.
Kuroo has been on dates before, sure. But it was the first time he was the one who asked someone out. His previous dates had been fun, but they had also felt like he was talking to any other friend, hence why there never was a second date. So, this newfound nervousness was tearing him apart, forcing his confident self into unknown territory. He took a sip of his drink and noticed a combination of citrus and sweetness. Somehow, knowing you had picked it made it even better. You laughed at your own joke and he smiled back, entranced by your spontaneity, being thankful you had agreed to go out with him. Maybe--
Kuroo coughed.
You kept talking, unbothered.
He coughed again.
It took a couple of seconds for you to realize he was choking.
“Oh no, water? Do I bring you water?” you asked in fear. He saw you standing up, attempting to go ask for some water, but he tapped the table, making you look back at him. Kuroo shook his head and patted his chest with force twice. He coughed inside his hand a couple more times and finally he felt the damn pearl travelling down his esophagus and the air entering his lungs once again.
You took his drink and moved the straw up, making sure he only drank liquid and handed it to him, trying to soothe him. He didn’t look at you as he drank a few more sips, mentally kicking himself for being so entranced in watching you he forgot about the damn pearls in his drink. You waited for him to take a deep breath and continued your conversation.
(You didn’t mis the way Kuroo was way more wary whenever he brought the straw to his lips).
Almost an hour later, you decided to walk around town, finding a small volleyball court behind an Elementary School. You convinced him into joining some kids playing volleyball there, who were in need of someone to set for them. He watched in awe how you laughed, even if both you and him were not used to setting for someone. By the end, the sun was setting and you said goodbye to them, getting lost in the streets of Tokyo as the night started.
The signs from the stores shined brightly against your skin, making you look even prettier than before, Kuroo noticed. He knew it was almost time to let you go, but he had to admit he didn’t want to. Still, he was thankful he had gotten over the initial awkwardness. Spending the afternoon had only taught him more things about you to like, and he wished there was a way both of you didn’t have to go back home that night.
As you were both waiting to cross the street, he thought about holding your hand again. It was a small gesture, but he thought it was enough to let you know how he felt about you, in case you had wondered about the nature of the date. There wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t intoxicated in your existance, the sound of your laugh, the way you talked with the kids as you played volleyball with them or the way you handed him his drink after he choked. Kuroo was falling, and he was falling hard. Honestly, if he didn’t end up kissing you by the end of the night, it would only be because he wanted to take his time and do things right by you.
The traffic light changed from green to yellow and Kuroo noticed a car speeding up. He put his arm in front of you and pushed you slightly backwards, shielding you, as the car passed in front of both of you.
Immediately followed by a big splash of water staining his white shirt.
Of course. It had been raining earlier after all.
The light turned red and the rest of the people started crossing the street, a couple of people looking back at the highschool student with the wet shirt.
Okay, it was a sign. Maybe it just wasn’t a good day to go out.
Kuroo let you move him aside and grab the hem on his shirt, squeezing it and trying to get rid of all the excess water. He watched you as you did, knowing there was no point. Even if it magically dried, the water was dirty and had already left an ugly grey stain.
It was time to call off the date.
“I’m so sorry,” you whispered, squeezing his shirt as much as you could. Kuroo shook his head and gently guided your hands down. That wasn’t the way he expected to touch your hands for the first time.
“No need to be sorry, it wasn’t your fault,” he assured you, forcing a smile. “I’ll just throw this to the washing machine and it’ll be as good as new. But, um-- probably should head back now. Can’t get sick when we have those practice matches next week,” he explained, with a small shrug.
You nodded, slightly biting your lip. Before he could talk again, you took the sweater you had been holding under your arm and offered it to him.
“It’s over-sized, so it will fit you just fine,” you say, holding the sweater in front of him. You noticed the doubt in his eyes. “C’mon, I don’t want you to get sick either. And it isn’t really cold anymore, so I’ll be fine.”
Kuroo took your sweater and put it on. You had been right, it was big so it fit him nicely. Not to mention your scent was now even closer to him, a lovely mix of flowers and a bit of sweetness filling his senses. He looked at you, who were smiling softly at him and wished this date had turned out different.
“I’ll give it back to you Monday,” he promised, but you waved your hand.
“Don’t worry about it, take your time. Kind of looks nice on you,” you joked, pinching the hem of your sweater.
Why were you so sweet? You were trying for him not to feel as bad as he felt in that moment. It was probably one of the most laughable dates you had been in, he thought.
Forcing another smile, he offered to walk you to the station, to which you said it was fine. He should hurry and get home, so he didn’t catch a cold due to his wet shirt. Right. It was understandable you would want to finish the date soon.
Kuroo said his goodbyes and turned on his heel, the fake smile dropping from his face as soon as he did. He hadn’t taken more than two steps when he felt someone gripping on the sleeve of the sweater, forcing him to stop.
“Kuroo!” you called. He turned around again and faced you, his right eyebrow raising questioningly. “We should keep going back until we try all the thirty five flavours,” you said, a small smile playing on your lips.
He couldn’t stop himself from laughing, but this time, it was different. Despite everything that had happened, your eyes were still looking kindly at him, your lips slightly parted after basically asking him out on a second date.
And there wasn’t anything in the world Kuroo wanted more than that.
Before he could stop himself, he leaned down and pressed his lips against your forehead. He heard a small gasp eliciting from you, but then felt your hands closing on the sweater he was wearing. When he looked down at you again, he noticed how red your face was, all the remains of the confidence you had just shown him gone.
Kuroo smiled again. He could get used to seeing you like that.
“We should,” he agreed with a small nod.
In the middle of a busy street in Tokyo, no one paid attention to the tall highschool boy threading his fingers on your hair, but you could have sworn the whole world stopped every time Kuroo Tetsurou set his golden eyes on yours.
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colorfullfalls · 4 years
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Me & You
Summary: Calum’s best friend internally pinned after him for years. At a party she finds out that Calum is seeing someone and her heart breaks. Except Harry Styles is there to make her feel better.
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Calum and Y/N. A phrase heard so much to the people that knew them. Growing up as neighbors, they were the definition of a team. Y/N was the one who taught Calum how to whistle, he taught her how to ride a bike. Childhood memories engraved in their minds bonded the two together like magnets.
Calum took Y/N with them when they left as a band. She had a rough life at home and he wanted her out of there. Since then the Hood’s and the band became her family.
“Y/N, what are you doing? That is not how to hang up a balloon.” Calum laughed out, pointing to the balloon that was only half taped on.
She blew hair out of her face, her hands falling to rest on her waist. She gave him an exasperated look, “How else do you suppose to do it, Hood? You can’t put a tack in it, it’ll pop!”
Calum playfully pushed her out of the way and tacked the part that was tied off to keep the air from zooming out. He successfully completed the task and gave her a smug grin.
“It’s almost like it worked...”
She shoved his shoulder as she walked past him to stir the Buffalo dip in the crock pot, “Fuck off mate, I really tried my best.”
Calum paused at her words. He knew she was joking and her tone matched, but he did feel sort of bad. When he called her to ask about throwing a surprise party for Ashton’s birthday, she immediately was on board. She bought decorations, the cake, and helped him invite everyone. She really was trying her best.
“You are the most wonderful friend I’ll ever have.” He softly said, turning her to bop her nose before giving her a hug.
Her insides fluttered at the way his voice sounded so honest. She already loved him with all of heart and him saying shit like that didn’t help it. Because she over thought things- well everything. Especially when it came to them and their friendship.
All the other boys in the band had serious girlfriends that they were building their life with. Sure, Cal had girlfriends along the way- much to her dismay, but he wasn’t seeing anyone and hadn’t in about two years or so. Maybe he was holding out for her? She knew it was a outlandish idea but was it really? They grew up together, did everything together, and she developed feelings so was it too wild if he did too?
She relished the feeling of his arms wrapped around her. He smelled so nice all of the time and the scent was uniquely just him. Her trust in people was hesitant due to her parents but Calum was the one true person who she was completely vulnerable to. The boys were close but not to the level of trust she gave to the man in front of her.
He pulled away when he heard the bell ring, “People are arriving, my lovely Y/N. Shall we go greet them?” Calum mocked in a posh accent.
An hour later everyone was finally at the party, well besides Ashton. Y/N saw that Harry Styles was there and she offered him a smile as he walked up next to her. He gave her a warm hug, his hands resting comfortably against her back. His warm skin burned through her shirt and she mentally sighed when he pulled away.
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen eachotha love.” He said, offering his boyish grin that killed his fans.
Her and Harry hung out during the tour when 5sos joined them. While the boys were playing on stage, he would stand and watch with her. During that tour they became pretty good friends, and he did his best to keep up with her. Only a few noticed, but Harry always kept his eye out for her, but it was hard to get her without Calum.
“Last I saw you, you were just about to release Fine Line.” She spoke.
“I remember, ran into you while walking home. Have you listened to any of it?” He asked almost sheepishly, shoving his hands into his pockets.
Y/N now just noticed how nicely dressed he was. His black flowy pants went well his nice long sleeve butto up baby blue shirt. The first couple buttons were undone to reveal his beautiful chest. She felt her eyes drift, but quickly looked up at his green eyes.
She wasn’t stupid, Harry was absolutely beautiful. His beauty radiated and his personality amplified that by one thousand. He was mature, deep, and kind but also had a playful boyish side. And sass, lots of sass added to it. He made sure to check up on her weekly and she knew that he would help her with anything she asked.
She’d fall for him if it wasn’t for Calum.
“Harry, who hasn’t heard that whole album in it’s entirety? It’s amazing, man! Cherry melted me in the best way. Putting Camille’s voice in it? Genius. You put your heart into your music and it really shows...” you blushed slightly as you realized that you just gushed over him.
He shrugged his shoulders at your praise in the humble way that only Harry Styles could. His green eyes twinkled in the light at the idea of Y/N adoring his album. Songs that were a part of him.
He wanted to admit that Sunflower, Vol 6. and Golden were about her. That she inspired him to form lyrics that made people feel the same love he felt. She was his muse and she didn’t even know it. Harry wanted to tell her, but he wasn’t blind. Something was between her and Calum.
He respected Calum and didn’t want to interfere, but it was hard when his feelings never went away. And not there she stood so pretty in front of him, telling her that she listened to his music. That she loved Cherry. It was ironic that she mentioned the one about his ex but not the the two written solely about his thoughts surrounding her.
“Means so much to me that you enjoy it. I was actually wondering if you wanted to co-write a song with me for my next album?” He said, his left hand playing with the rings on his right.
Her lips quirked into a pure smile, “Me? Harry..”
“Don’t be bashful, I know you help write with the boys, even if you don’t let the public know.. Ash told me about it when we got drunk a year ago.” He admitted.
She scoffed, “I’m gonna hurt him....”
“So, what do you say? It can literally be about anything. It’ll be perfect. I’ll even buy you dinner over it.”
She paused before replying. Helping Harry with a song sounded fun and like a good opportunity to actually work with other artists, but it was a vulnerable thing. Sure, the two have had deep talks while high or drunk, but this would be a whole different thing. The last song she had worked on was Best Years and she thought of Calum the whole time writing it. That’s why it was so easily to spill out because he was across from her the whole time.
“If I write a song with you, do you promise to make sure I don’t get too drunk tonight? Because I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow and doing that hungover would just suck...” she said, making Harry clap in excitement.
“We have a deal, love.”
He extended his hand and they shook on it.
Y/N glanced over to where Calum was when she saw an unfamiliar woman standing beside him. She didn’t recognize her and honestly she was confused. Calum always told her when he met someone and he never told Y/N about her.
Harry followed her gaze and noticed the woman too, “Who’s that?”
Y/N crossed her arms, “No freaking clue...”
Calum caught their eyes and waved before grabbing her hand and brining her to them. Y/N’s eyes widened at their intertwined fingers, emotional pain twisting around her guts.
“Hey guys, this is my girlfriend, Maya.”He said, raising their joint hands as they both smiled from ear to ear. Y/N wanted to puke.
Maya was wicked beautiful. Her short baby blue hair matched Harry’s button up shirt. The color suddenly seemed unappealing to Y/N. Not only was Maya’s hair cool, but she had a dope septum piercing and had piercings and tattoos. Her beautiful hazel eyes smiled with genuine kindness and Y/N wanted to run away.
Calum was dating someone, but it wasn’t her. Y/N scolded herself for not preparing herself for this exact situation. Calum Hood was a beautiful man with a beautiful heart and wicked talent, of course he would find someone. She had just been dumb enough believe it would’ve been her.
Calum sensed Y/N’s unease and he suddenly felt bad for not giving her a heads up. He started seeing Maya two months ago and wanted to make sure it was solid before he had her meet the people so dear to him. He realized that was a mistake.
“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.” Harry stated what Y/N wanted to but couldn’t.
Calum sheepishly shrugged as he looked at the hurt on his best friend’s face, “Sometimes things are better kept a secret.”
Anger swirled around Y/N like quicksand encapsulating her entire body. She wanted to punch him. Couldn’t he see the pain in her eyes and he had to joke about it and say something stupid like that? How could he be so daft about how she felt for him? He was her world.
She loved him with all of her being; however, at this moment she wanted to never see him again. She wasn’t the best at handling her emotions, so this pain transferred to anger.
Y/N rolled her eyes, “Sometimes friendships aren’t what you think they are. It was nice meeting you, Maya. Come on, Harry.”
She grabbed Harry’s hand and stalked off to the balcony of the house. The British lad followed silently behind her, willing to do anything she needed. As selfish as it was, he was glad to be the one she seemed comfort from.
Crocodile tears slipped out of her eyes as she wiped at them in an embarrassed and frustrated manor. She looked out at the hills of California and grumbled under her breath about love being dumb. Harry quietly shut the sliding glass door and walked over to lean on the railing beside her.
“You’re in love with him.” He softly stated.
She let out a pitiful laugh, “That obvious?”
He didn’t reply for a moment. Instead he took the time to observe her, and his heart stung at the sight in front of him. Her eyes were no longer the vast universe before him that made him believe that life was eternal, instead they were a sunken wasteland filled with sorrow.
Her knuckles were white from how hard she was making fists and her leg was bouncing up and down with anxiety. Harry recalled the one other time he saw her like this. It was when they got a late dinner together and her mom somehow called her.
He hated seeing her upset then and he hates it even more now.
“If you don’t show that you care about someone, you’re not human. Calum is your best friend that has been by your side, it’s natural to catch feelings. And you shouldn’t feel ashamed about it either, hun. Your feelings are valid, it’s understandable to be crushed right now.” His hands gently took hers and flattened them out so that hers would no longer be in fists.
“I’m in love with him.” She choked out, turning to maneuver herself into his embrace. His strong arms wrapped around her back and she clutched tightly to his shirt. She felt the skin of his chest against her cheek as she nuzzled into him.
Sobs shook her body as his left hand rose to lovingly play with her hair. Y/N was glad that Harry was there for her in this time. She knew she couldn’t go to one of the boys because it wasn’t fair to put them in the middle of this.
“I know, I know.” He muttered, glancing inside the house to see that Calum was standing with Luke and Michael. The three boys were starting back at him, all of their faces held regret.
“I-I thought that maybe he loved me too. Every song we wrote, I thought of him. His little gifts and sudden spurs of adventure he whisked me away on, I thought that it was special between us..”
Harry’s heart felt like it got punched. The girl he was head over heels was currently heart broken over his friend. He wanted to tell Calum off for missing out on what he absolutely wished he could have. Calum had his dream girl wrapped around his finger and the dude didn’t even know it.
Harry himself was surprised that Calum wasn’t in love with her too. She was just.. the best. She was adaptive to their life style, good with the fame aspect of their life, she was nerdy in the best ways, so humble and grateful that it was intoxicating to be around her, and she was so genuine. Calum was a fool to not see what was right in front of him. Blind not to see that such a wonderful human being loved him with every fucking inch of her soul.
He saw Calum move towards the door and Harry felt an instinct to get Y/N the hell away from him. He didn’t want her to have to see him and he knew that he couldn’t even look Calum in the eyes without feeling anger even if it wasn’t exactly fair.
Calum hesitated when he saw the death glare that Harry was unknowingly giving him.
Calum knew that Harry was smitten with his best friend. It was apparent that Harry always went out of his way to call her or get drinks when he was home. Hell, Harry had sent her a gift when he went to Japan because he knew it was her favorite place when she went with the band. It was zero surprise that he would feel protective over a crying Y/N.
Calum just wanted to talk to her.
Luke and Michael walked over with somber eyes as they noticed that this situation would not be dealt with tonight.
“Calum, don’t go out there. She’s hurt, man. Give her some time.” Luke gently warned, grabbing his arm.
“I feel so bad. I know she’s hurt but I didn’t think she would be this hurt from me not telling her that I met Maya. I thought maybe she would be a bit happy for me..” he trailed off at Luke’s facial expression.
“She’s fucking in love with you, mate. Why are you the only one who doesn’t see that?” Luke raised his hands in an exasperated manner.
“What?! No? Y/N? She’s not in love with me. It’s not like that.” Calum defended, glancing over at his best friend in the world sobbing in Harry’s arms.
“Seriously Cal?” Michael deadpanned, “You can’t be that stupid.”
Calum rolled his eyes, “Wouldn’t I fucking know if my best friend was in love with me?”
Michael laughed sarcastically as Luke awkwardly shoved his hands in his pockets. Calum sighed at their behavior.
“Apparently not mate. You know how it’s obvious to us that Harry fancies Y/N? Well we could tell when it came to her with you.” Michael explained.
“Why didn’t you say anything? Why couldn’t I tell?” Calum asked.
Luke blew air out of his mouth as he tried to think of how to explain it, “Cal, it wasn’t for us to say. God, you and Y/N pick the worst times to be in love with each other.”
Calum’s tongue poked out to wet his lips. He was annoyed that Luke even brought that up. Growing up Calum was enamored by his beautiful Y/N and he knew that he was in love with her when he was about sixteen years old. She was so supportive and always there, and she made the rough times optimistic and fun.
Unluckily for him, at the time he realized they were on tour with one direction and she went off with Harry a lot. Calum felt like he couldn’t compete so he didn’t say anything. Plus he felt sick at the idea of scaring her off. Over time he got over it and moved on because he was sure she didn’t feel the same way.
Now years later she falls in love with him?
“Things would’ve been easier if I would’ve went for it as a teenager... huh?” Cal asked, dumbfounded.
“Probably. Do you... do you still feel the same way? Because you got Y/N out there crying and Maya over there trying to talk to people she doesn’t know.” Luke pointed over to Maya.
Calum couldn’t help but smile over at his girlfriend. He felt so warm and fuzzy around her. She was so fucking cool, and he was proud that she was here with him. But that feeling was dulled down when he looked out on the balcony. Seeing Y/N cry could ruin his happiness at any time.
But it wasn’t because he was in love with her. He used to be, but now he fiercely loved her in a family kind of way. He forced himself to move on from her and the damage was already done. He desperately wished that she would’ve felt the same back in the day because maybe things would’ve worked out. But now he has a girlfriend and she’s out on his balcony crying.
“I’m not in love with her, but I care about her more than probably anyone else.” Calum admitted, “It fucking hurts to see her so upset.”
The door opened up and Ashton walked in, his hand came up to his chest from being startled at how many people were in the apartment. He grinned as Calum walked over and gave him a hug.
“Happy birthday, mate.” He said.
Ashton giggled, “You fucker!” He pulled Calum into a tight hug of appreciation.
Y/N stopped crying when she saw Ashton walk inside. Ashton deserved this party and she wasn’t about to ruin it. He was the type of friend that would do anything for anyone. He was the sun coordinating the planets, making them more efficiently. At the same time he was the moon, luring over loved ones in dark times to offer any sort of help; emotional or physical.
Ashton deserved all the good in this world and she wasn’t about to fuck it up over crying over a man. She thought about all the tik toks joking about gagging after crying over men, and that made her feel a bit better.
Y/N would suck it up for now and go give Ashton a hug because he was worth it.
Harry pulled away slightly when he saw that Ashton arrived too. He glanced down at Y/N and she gave him a small nod and a smile.
Harry once read that your body naturally rejects a potential mate that isn’t a match. Effects are; nervousness, unease, and weariness. Apparently the theory goes that if someone is right for you, being around them gives off a sense of contentment and peace. You don’t have to get overly excited around them to the point that you feel sick. Rather you sense of feeling at home with them.
That’s how Harry felt with Y/N. His past girlfriends he loved-sure. He was heartbroken when things ended with Camille, but he didn’t have that sense of calmness with her. Not like he had around Y/N.
He was utterly fucking stuck on her. She was the one.
He managed to feel this way for years without it ever going away. That had to mean something. His mom once told him that shit happens for a reason. Calum not loving her back like that could shift her to Harry. And as fucked up as that idea was, and how down right cruel it was, he hoped it was true.
“I need to go see Ash..” she paused, glancing up into his green eyes. Right then Harry knew that she was about to ask him to go along with her.
“Let’s go, c’mon love. I’m right here with ya.” He soothingly assured, grabbing her hand.
Together the pair made their way inside to where the party was happening. Y/N noticed that Maya was standing beside Calum, his arm wrapped around her waist. She clutched tightly onto Harry’s hand as a sharp pain zapped her in the chest. His thumb rubbed against her skin in reassurance.
“Y/N’s coming.” Michael whispered to Calum. He immediately dropped his arm from around his waist and shot a look to Maya saying that he would explain at a different time.
He tried to offer a smile to his sad friend but she refused to meet his eyes. Instead she moved to stand by Ashton, causing the groups attention to go to her. No one failed to notice Harry’s hand was gripping Y/N’s.
Harry seemed like a protective guard dog that was on edge when a stranger walked past its owner.
“There you are! I was wondering where the hell you were! Also, I’m gonna kill you, Cal said you did most of the work for this.” Ash teased, making Y/N’s lips quirk into a genuine grin.
“You’re gonna kill me? No buddy, it’s the other way around! You told Harry that I helped write your albums.” She accusingly joked, jabbing the black haired man in front of her on his chest.!
Ashton burst into laughter, “Harry, mate, that was a secret. Cant trust no one..”
Harry smiled in his charming boyish way, his red nails on show as he lifted his hands to shrug as if it was no big deal, “Maybe I wanted a share of her writing talent.”
Michael looked at Luke with wide eyes. Holy shit, Harry just pulled out a wild card. Could the British man not even hide how enamored he was with their friend? Michael admired his confidence to ask Y/N to write with him. Writing was something you had to have complete trust in with a person, and the proccess undoubtedly bonded souls.
Y/N blushed after Harry’s claim that her writing held any sort of talent. She usually went with the flow and the words poured out.
“You gonna do it? Help him write a song?” Luke asked
“She said yes. Unless she was fuckin’ with meh.” Harry said, side eyeing the woman next to him. He saw her laugh and he internally gave himself bonus points for being able to do that while she was so down in the dumps.
“Dinners involved with the deal so I jumped on it.” Her attention turned to Harry, “As long as it’s not Chick-tik-A. Their food sucks and they’re a company against homosexuals.... that’s a no from me dawg.”
Harry smiled, knowing that Y/N was feeling better.
“That’s great, bub. I’m super proud of you. I know the song will be a fucking hit.” Calum said, shifting his head to look at her.
For the first time she raised her eyes and sadly smiled at him, “Thanks Cal...”
****************
Months later and Y/N was truly doing better. Her heart still hurt a bit from Calum but she was gradually getting over it. Seeing him wasn’t to the same point of familiarity as it used to be, but the two friends were working it out as best as they could.
And truth be told, Y/N liked Maya. Maya was honestly a good match for Calum, as annoying as it was.
And Y/N didn’t have time to be upset because Harry had her too busy with constant adventures and late nights. She appreciated it. She appreciated him.
Tonight he took her to the poetry cafe that they liked. It’s small little place at the end of L.A. He said he found it one day when he was walking alone, pretty sad and feeling alone. Stumbled across the joint and found a deep connection to it. He explained how much it meant to him and it soon became important to her too.
The dim glowing lights brought upon a comforting blanket of support and trust to whomever dared to enter such a vulnerable place. Those who stood on the pedestal of expression compiled their feelings into a glorious ballad.
Harry and Y/N sat at the small table in the back, matching style ball caps sat upon their heads. His a pretty purple and hers a yellow. He told her that it would be better if they kept their identies more hidden.
Their chairs were moved to sit closer next to each other so that their hands could intertwine. They held hands a lot because it was comforting and felt so so so right. His thumb rubbed against her hand as another young woman stood up to go.
I was alone
Felt like no one cared
Ate dinner for one and cried tears enough for two
But something changed in my life
Because there was you
Y/N stopped listening as the woman’s words soaked past her skin, muscles, bones, and swirled to embed into her soul. These words were ones that she personally related with. Sure she had friends but she was so lonely when it came to romance. Until recently.
She wasn’t certain what was going on with her and Harry, but she felt herself caring more and more until the point that he became her number one. She talked to him the most, saw him the most, and for fucks sake she thought about him the most.
He seemed to always be on her mind. If she found a cute sweater she would think about how Harry would wear it with his pearl necklace. Saw a dog? Awh, he would love to pet it. Tasted red wine? She’d think about the time that he spilled it on his counter and acted surprised when she licked it off, claiming that it couldn’t go to waste. If she looked at anyone attractive, she couldn’t help compare them to Harry.
It was exciting. Moving on from Calum and to Harry was new and it brought upon a lot of foreign feelings. As great as all that was, there was a worrisome idea lodged in her head. Could Harry just be acting as a good friend like Calum had? She wasn’t sure and she was too much of a wuss to figure it out.
Harry detached his hand to start clapping along with the crowd as the woman said her thank you and walked off the stage. Y/N blinked back to reality as Harry turned to her.
“That was beautiful, really raw and genuine.” He spoke, offering a smile that showed his perfectly arranged white teeth.
“Yeah, it- it really was.” She was doing a horrible job at convincing him that she actually paid attention to it.
“Love, I’m not incompetent , I know you weren’t listening- you’re too caught up in ya head. What’s going in there?” His fingers slotted within hers, his blue nails the same shade as hers. She painted both sets last night when she went over for dinner.
How could a woman look at a man and explain that she was falling in love with him, but she was scared because last time she was in love she got hurt- she thinks she loves him but she doesn’t want him to think he was a rebound.
She felt humiliated, her eyes avoiding his. The open sign on the window was suddenly the most amazing thing to look at.
“Y/N, dear? Talk to me.” His lips were so close to her ear that she could feel his breath when he spoke.
“My heart is in your hands and that’s fucking terrifying to me because, well, we saw how that went last time.” She muttered, still not looking at him but rather the other people there with their significant others.
Harry was suddenly standing up and pulling her out of the small cafe during a poetic interpretation about being bound to your family.
Her heart dropped to her stomach as the wind bit at her soft skin. She fucked up. She really stupendously fucked this good thing that was going on between them. She must’ve misinterpreted his good nature for feelings and was a stupid bitch that fell for it.
He pulled out the outside patio chair and sat her down. She gave him a quizzical look as he moved her legs apart so that he could sit in between them on the concrete.
Reseda green windows to the soul gazed into her, tears pooling around them. His cheeks were puffy and red. He was visibly upset.
“I’m so sorry, Harry. I didn’t mean to make you cry like this, I shouldn’t have said anything to you-“ she rambled in desperate need to fix this situation before she lost him completely.
“Shhh. Not the least bit upset, ‘m crying because you’re my soulmate.”
Her eyes widened in shock, a forceful cough ripping out of her throat at his confession. He soothed her, handing her his water to take a sip. She waved his hand away to signal that she was fine.
“Mum told me that Buddhists say if you meet somebody and your heart pounds, your hands shake, your knees go weak, that's not the one. When you meet your soul mate, you'll feel calm. No anxiety, no agitation. First time we shared a conversation i only felt peace and contentment. When I’m not with you, my mindset is off. I don’t like being away from you for long. I worry if you’re okay or I wonder if you are reading a book that’s making you sad. You get so into your books, love. The empathy doesn’t stop when it comes to characters.”
She slightly laughed as she recalled the time he waltzed in on her crying because your character in your book was alone on their birthday. He immediately was making her a cup of tea and bugging her about if something happened with work.
“I’ve been waiting for you for years. Honestly was hopelessly pinning after you. Like everyone knew but you. So when you admit you feel the same way...I got emotional.” He softly said, playing with the rings on his hand.
Her hands itched to be the ones twisting his fingers around. So she did. His hands melted into the skin of hers as he grabbed them. Her thumb twirled his left middle finger’s black band. He blushed at the feeling. She did tend to do this when they were submerged in a deep conversation.
“You’re an emotional man, Har. Endearingly so. I admire it more than you’d think.” She retorted.
Harry sat up so that he was sitting more on his knees so that he was closer. His face closer to hers. She could smell his cologne infiltrate her senses. She wished she could bathe in his sun-like presence forever.
“I happen to admire that you admire me.” He teased, blinking as more tears fell down his godlike sculpted face.
“You’re still crying, you’re gonna make me emotional.” She laughed as tears were starting to build up in her own ducts. This was really intimate and she was getting mushy.
“Can’t help it. Jus’ soft cuz of you.”
Her hands shifted to grab the collar of his coat, pulling it until his lips were melting into hers He hummed is satisfaction, his hands shifting to cup Y/N’s face to bring her closer. It was a desperate kiss, the kind where emotion tries to convey the feelings not able to form into words.
His lips molded to her, trying to memorize the taste for the rest of his days. His nose was shoved against her cheek as he slipped his tongue in, sliding it against hers greedily, finally doing this after dreaming of it for years. She pulled away for air, his lips chasing hers in a drunken daze.
“Let me breathe for a sec.” she gently pushed him away with her palm pressed against his face. He laughed, leaning back.
“Used to think singing on stage was the best feeling, but that was before I got to kiss those sweet lips. Just one more peck?” He made kissy faces in her direction.
“Thank you.”
His face scrunched up in confusion, “what?”
“Thank you for.. being there. Taking care of me like you do. Making me laugh by being dumb. Especially for buying pizza rolls in bulk. I know you don’t like them as much as you let on. But I do and you do it for me. Means a lot.”
“Anything for you, m’love,” He stood up and led out a hand, “Me and you. Please let that be the rest of my life.”
Y/N decided in that moment that Calum Hood getting a girlfriend was the best thing to ever happen to her.
Part 2?
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