#and i wanna go to my old gp and be like I FUCKING TOLD YOU. THIS DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT

[queer-crusader]

Anne to womb 📣 we finished our period nearly a week ago, please stop cramping out of fucking nowhere like you wanna go for round two

[dumbseee]

reunited.

when you’re the one interviewing lando norris for the podcast you co-created with your best friend, the only issue is that you’re his ex.

lando norris x ex!reader.

fc: riley hubatka.

_

liked by y/b, yourbestie, ameliadimz and 271 728 others.

cutthecam: guess who’s joining us tomorrow 👀

_

fan1: NO FUCKING WAY???

fan2: THEY’RE HAVING LANDO NORRIS???

fan3: how tf did they manage to get him on that podcast?

fan4: it looks like everyone forgot that y/n and lando used to date…

fan5: WHAT

fan6: FOR REAL???

fan7: is y/n doing the interview?? because yourbestie is literally in cabo partying with tana mongeau

fan8: Y/N AND LANDO REUNITED YEARS AFTER THEIR BREAK UP??

fan9: i used to pray for times like this

fan10: MY DIVORCED PARENTS ARE BACK

see more.

_

imessage:

you:

i fckg hate you bitch

how could you do this to me??

out of EVERYONE you picked lando??

ONLY TO NOT BE THERE FOR THE PODCAST??

yourbestie:

oops 🤪

no fr i totally forgot i was leaving for cabo

thank me later you’re reuniting with the love of your life

you:

BITCH

you’re the first name going on my suicide note

i’m not doing it

AND HES NOT THE LOVE OF MY LIFE

yourbestie:

stop being dramatic omg

you have to be professional

besides mike already confirmed him on the podcast and you doing it

you:

i’d rather bleach my eyes than do it

yourbestie:

it’s been YEARS y/n

btw you still call him in your sleep so maybe he didn’t forget you

why would he even say yes??

he’s totally into you

i can smell it

you:

says WHO

we broke up years ago and he got a lot of gfs after me

but it is weird that he said yes to the podcast when he knew i co-created it

yourbestie:

i told you

totally in love with you

_

liked by landonorris, yourbestie, tarayummy and 372 819 others.

y/n: 💋

_

yourbestie: you’re so fucking hot

liked by y/n.

fan1: MY QUEEN

fan2: pls invite charles leclerc for your podcast!

fan3: the prettiest podcast owner fr

fan4: your hand in marriage pls maam

fan5: i understand lando tbh i wouldn’t move on if i were him

fan6: pls get back with lando

fan7: she’s so pretty wtf

fan8: forget about lando i need her

fan9: can lando fight?

fan10: I LOVE YOU Y/N

see more.

landonorris just posted a story!

caption: cheers my friend 🥂

_

_

imessages.

yourbestie:

you sneaky bitch

"he’s not the love of my life 🤪🤪"

and literally goes to the restaurant with him

LIAR

you:

okay okay let me explain

HE invited me for the sake of old times and i said yes bc i was hungry

yourbestie:

hungry for his dick

you:

WTF NO

EW

as if you’d say no to a free meal in a fancy restaurant

yourbestie:

with your hottie ex bf? ofc i’d say no

(just bc he’s your ex, i would’ve said yes otherwise)

you:

SEE?

anyways i won’t see him ever again

yourbestie:

whatever helps you sleep at night pookie

_

ig message:

landonorris:

hi

i have some paddock pass for the japan gp, wanna come?

liked by landonorris, larray, monetmcmichael and 562 929 others.

y/n: blocked @.yourbestie for this

_

fan1: OMGGG ITS HAPPENING GUYS

fan2: I KNEW IT

fan3: pls not her blocking her friend bsjslslsl

fan4: how to be her

fan5: YESSSS MY PARENTS ARE BACK

fan6: let’s not jump into conclusions omg they could be friends!

landonorris: nah we’re not

y/n: LANDO

fan7: HOLY SHIRBZJSKLSLS

fan8: OMGGBZKSKSLLSLSLSLS

see more.

imessages:

lando:

can you follow me back now :( ?

[elskamo]

More Shitty Life Updates

TLDR for those who wanna know but don't wanna read the whole thing: Mum forced me to reveal trauma that I wasn't ready to share, followed by getting Sciatica then being made redundant the next day. In pain, need money, you know where this is going.

The whole thing: I've been struggling a bit (okay, a lot) more than usual over the past week or so, yet again I've had quite a few negative life events one after the other. I am in the process of getting help for everything happening right now, I'm doing all I can to take care of both my mental and physical health.

Last Monday Mum realised my mental health has been getting worse again and refused to leave me alone until I told her what was going on. She kept badgering me for information and making up random accusations about what could have happened. She also kept sneaking into my old bedroom and looking through my belongings to try and find... fuck knows what honestly.

I've recently started delving into a past trauma with my counsellor that I'm not ready to share yet with anyone, let alone my mum, I will not be elaborating on it any further than this. Eventually it got to the point where I was forced to tell her, she cycled between being disgusted, accusing me of making things up, getting mad at me, and attempting to be supportive for a couple days. Frankly I feel violated as hell and it made my mental health nosedive even further.

By Wednesday morning I suddenly started getting shooting pains from my lower back going all the way down my right leg. It got to the point where I collapsed from the pain and had to be sent home from the office early. It took hours getting bounced back and forth between 111, the GP surgery, and out of hours care. Eventually they diagnosed me with Sciatica and managed to arrange for me to pick up some prescription painkillers the next day. The pain is nowhere near as bad as it was last week but I'm struggling to walk because of it and I haven't been outside in days.

The nail in the coffin came on Thursday morning when one of my bosses called to check up on me. He let me know that at the start of the week three of the staff had a meeting where they agreed that when my probation period finished at the end of October they were gonna let me go because they've decided my position at the company isn't what they need right now. Since I had to go off sick from the Sciatica they said they'd instead just make me redundant now.

It really came out of the blue, especially as I've been uncovering a lot of marketing, commerce, and general technical issues since I've been employed there and there's definitely no shortage of work for me to do. My mum is convinced they're lying and don't want me because of my health issues but there's no way of proving that. It does mean that I'm unemployed again and need to go through a few meetings with Universal Credit who will want me to get a new job ASAP regardless of my health.

So yeah, right now I feel like garbage. I've got help from one of my friends to sort out the UC stuff, particularly with proving my health issues. I'm still waiting to find out what I'm getting paid for work this month, since the phone call last Thursday no one has reached out to me to discuss pay or handing over tasks or logins. When the Sciatica isn't affecting my mobility anymore I'll be able to start reaching out to my contacts again and get help with job hunting and networking.

As usual all this means I'll probably be cycling between being ghostly silent or desperately looking for comfort content. Hopefully it's not gonna take another half a year to find a new job but if anyone is able to please donate on Ko-Fi or buy something off Redbubble or Ebay (the latter is UK only right now). Etsy is still pretty barren as things got kinda manic while I was setting it up but it should be properly up and running soon now I have a lot of time to spare again. I feel crappy to have to keep doing this but please do help if you're able to!

[tarakau]

Ok so I need to share something I'm quite excited (and also really bitter) about.

My whole life I've struggled with tachycardia, really fast heart rate. My resting heart rate was around 100-120, while it should be around 70. My entire life. I've visited dozens, if not hundreds of doctors from the ripe age of 5, all of whom gaslit me, considered my issue just a stress reaction or just simply told me that "surely you must've ran up the stairs to get here". I never received any treatment.

Obviously, if you go about your life with an untreated tachycardia, your heart gets weakened and tired after a while and you're much much more likely to die young.

I've been having awful symptoms of total exhaustion, dizziness, collapsing, full body pain, headaches, chest aches, issues with breathing and mainly utter inability to move properly because my heart rate got to around 180 after just walking up a flight of stairs or getting up from bed. Countless of others too. For my whole life. Which have been getting so bad that I was unable to watch dramatic movies because the tension in it caused my heartbeat to spike.

And now, after about 25 years of this I have finally received pills for this, only after getting a medical check for my driver's licence and the doctor thinking that "I could put other people in risk if I got a heart attack behind a steering wheel because of this". So the only reason I finally got taken seriously was me being a threat to others. Incredible.

I received pills, beta-blockers, for my heart. They're quite old school, they can give you diabetes, they're to be taken until you die and you CAN'T miss one or you can get a heart attack, but...

The relief has been INSTANT. It's been only 3 days and yet I already have so much more energy! Most of the chronic pain is gone! My back or chest don't hurt, even my period is lighter and less painful, I can run up and down the stairs and I don't feel like dying! The nausea and dizziness is gone, together with the pressure in my head and chest, and I feel so much happier and healthier! I'm not so bloated anymore either and I don't feel so exhausted!

I'm honestly so so happy that I feel like crying and it's such a relief after my WHOLE life suffering through the most unimaginable pain and hardships.

Obviously it could still change, as anything can, and it's not foolproof or easy, but the quality of my life has risen up by a dramatic amount and I'm just SO HAPPY!

I just fucking wish ANY of the GPs and cardiologists and neurologists and endocrinologists THOUGHT of this. I wish I received this treatment as a kid and I didn't have to suffer my whole life. Maybe I wouldn't have struggled so much all the time. Maybe I wouldn't have dropped out of college. Maybe I wouldn't have been so depressed. It's so unfair and I'm so mad I wanna scream... But right now I'm mainly just happy. Wish me luck that it actually lasts and that, you know, the pills don't kill me anyways or something.

[expectingtofly]

I was just stuck in traffic for an hour and a half (without reception to boot) so what better way to use my involuntary free time than to write a fic with dean, cas, and toddler jack in the same situation?

In hindsight, it made sense that in a life where nothing ever went to plan, an attempt at a relaxing Winchester beach vacation turned into an adventure called how long can you sit in traffic without losing your goddamn mind?

Slumping in his seat, Dean stared mournfully at the line of cars which seemed to stretch for miles into the distance. For an hour now they had sat on the freeway at a standstill, inching forward at odd intervals. Dean had turned Baby off fifteen minutes ago when even those slow forward crawls ceased.

Jack hummed in the backseat where he colored with a box of crayons. Cas tapped his fingers on his thighs, craning his neck to look behind and in front of them. No escape. Dean was pretty sure he was considering the merits of zapping all of them—car, luggage, and all—to their destination. Sure, the people around them would have plenty of questions about a car vanishing into thin air and Cas would be exhausted for three days, but it might be worth it.

Might save their sanity, at least. So far, they had cycled through staticky radio stations, played twenty questions three times over, eaten two cans of Pringles, argued about potential detours, and listened to several renditions of “Born This Way” sung at increasingly piercing high volume courtesy of the six year old in the backseat.

In all that time, they had moved forward about ten feet and Dean was starting to entertain thoughts about abandoning Baby on the asphalt and walking back home.

“I won’t abandon you,” he reassured her, stroking the steering wheel.

“What?” Cas asked.

“Uh. Nothing.” So now he was talking to inanimate objects. Great.

“Let’s play eye spy,” Cas suggested.

Dean gestured around them. Trees, weeds, parked cars, and the highway divider. “Not much to look at.”

“How about that game where you name an item for every letter of the alphabet? We can do celestial objects.”

“That’s not fair, you know all of them.”

“Well, we already did rock bands and you won that too easily.”

“Dad,” Jack complained. “I’m out of yellow.”

“It’s probably back there,” Cas said. “Maybe you dropped it.”

“There better not be a crayon melting back there.” Dean twisted around in his seat to check.

Jack sighed and threw down his crayons dramatically. “I’m hungry.”

Cas fished around in the snack bag. “I think we have some carrots left.”

“Hey, kid, this is pretty good.” Dean went to pick up the crayon drawing, but Jack threw his upper body over the paper.

“No! It’s not finished!”

“Alright, sorry. I’ll wait for the final product. Lookin’ good so far.”

“I’m drawing us,” Jack told him, reaching for another crayon while keeping a hand shielding the drawing.

“Remember I’m taller than him,” Dean said, nodding at Cas. Cas gave him a dirty look. “Just for accuracy.”

“My true form greatly towers over your human body,” Cas said haughtily.

“Aww, Cas, you tryin’ to flirt?”

Rolling his eyes, Cas handed back the bag of carrots to Jack. The mess in the backseat of papers and crayons—though stressful—gave Dean an idea.

“Hey, Jack, hand me some paper.” He took two papers and told Cas, “I’ll draw you and you draw me.”

Cas took a paper with a gleam in his eyes. “What does the winner get?”

“Whaddya mean winner? This is supposed to be just a fun thing.” That was a lie. They could, and did, turn everything into a competition. “Worst drawing has to pay for snacks at the next stop.”

“Easy,” Cas said, taking a green crayon from the box. “I could draw your every freckle from memory.”

“Stare enough to know what I look like,” Dean muttered, feeling his ears heat. He caught Cas reaching for the red crayon. “Hey!” Of course the fucker would draw him blushing.

Giving him a sly smile, Cas tucked himself against the opposite door to shield his drawing from him. “Just going for accuracy,”

“I wanna play too!” Jack said.

“Alright, best drawing from all three of us. Hope you brought your credit card, Jack.”

“Nope, ‘cause I’m gonna win!”

“No, you’re both going down.” Dean snatched up a stubby green crayon. “Go!”

Despite the lack of a time limit, furious scribbling followed. Dean liked to think he was a decent drawer, but using crayons—most of which were broken—sure made it difficult.

He set Cas in a sunny field with a fluffy cloud sky. Without yellow, the sun had to be green, but he thought the purple trenchcoat and blue tie he drew for Cas turned out pretty good. Add a few flowers, maybe a tree—fuck, that didn’t turn out so good. The important part was Cas, though. For good measure, he added some wings colored with every crayon in the box and an angel blade that he couldn’t get to look sharp enough with the blunt silver crayon, but gave the general idea.

Holding the drawing up, he couldn’t help smiling at it. It was Cas, alright. Down to the blue eyes, half smile, and sensible shoes.

“Done!” Jack announced.

“One second,” Cas said, eyebrows drawn up in concentration. After a few careful lines, he said, “Okay.” He clutched his drawing to his chest. “On the count of three.”

“One, two, three—” Dean flipped his drawing around at the same time as Cas and Jack.

And instantly burst out laughing.

“What?” Cas asked, offended.

“Dude.” Wiping tears from his eyes, Dean took the drawing from him. A stick figure man with a scribble of brown hair, lopsided green eyes, and dots which he guessed were his freckles. “I haven’t been this skinny in years. Wait a moment.” He frowned at the stick legs. “You gave me freaking bow legs?”

“Dean, this is…” Dean looked up to see Cas holding the drawing of himself. “This is really lovely.” He traced the wings. “It’s like you can see them.”

“Shit, it’s not that good.” Fucking hell, he was blushing again.

“Look at mine!” Jack said, waving his paper.

“Woah, kid, you outdid yourself,” Dean said, taking it from him. Three stick figures, each a bit taller than the next. Two with wings, one in a blocky shirt which looked suspiciously like flannel.

“Buddy, this is great.” He pointed at Cas’ figure, turning the paper so Cas could see. “Looks like he got your true form.” Animals and swirls, colors and shapes.

“That’s beautiful, Jack.” Cas pointed to the smallest stick figure with the biggest wings and smile. “I love how you drew yourself.”

“Do I win?” Jack asked.

Dean handed the drawings back. “Take a look at all of them, be our judge.”

Jack studied the three drawings seriously for several long seconds before announcing with a cheeky smile, “I win!”

“Seems rigged but okay,” Dean said.

Cas elbowed him. “You can pick out any snack you want when we find a place to stop,” he told Jack. A dangerous idea, but they might not even make it there. Their drawings would soon be outdated when they turned old and grey in their seats.

Bracing himself for the worst, Dean checked the line of cars again and was surprised to see movement up ahead.

“Hey!” He turned the car on. “Here we go, Baby, back on the road again!”

“Finally,” Cas sighed. Bouncing in his car seat, Jack cheered.

The line of cars thinned out as they picked up speed, finally making progress after… Dean checked the time. Two hours. At least the last hour had passed quickly with their drawing competition.

“I’m going to frame these,” Cas said, tucking the drawings into his bag. “I think they’d look nice in the living room.”

“Daddy?” Jack spoke up.

“What’s up, buttercup?” Cas asked, looking back at him.

Jack giggled and Dean smiled at him in the rearview mirror. Then Jack announced, “I have to pee.”

Dean stared at the road. Of course.

“Can you wait?” Cas asked, checking the GPS. "The next stop is… twenty minutes away.”

“I have to go now!”

Cas looked at Dean, and Dean sighed. “I’ll stop.” Turning on his turn signal to move into the shoulder, he told Jack, “Time to pee in the bushes, kiddo.”

Jack cheered and Dean shook his head, a laugh escaping him despite himself. Always an adventure.

[shinsorokiri]

S/O Loses Memory and Quirk

Todoroki, Bakugou, and Kirishima HCs

Genre: Angst

Warnings: Language, violence, mentions of stab wounds and blood, a panic attack, spoiler for Bakugou’s hero name, sad bois

A/N: So I had two requests that mentioned these three with this concept and I just finished all of them and I’m so proud that I wanted to post these ones before the other two for Denki and All Might were finished but I’ll get those out as soon as possible. I cried writing Bakugou’s, so... there’s that HAHA please enjoy!

Here’s the first one with Shinsou, Aizawa, Hawks, and Dabi!

Todoroki Shouto | Shouto

Shouto knows you’re a strong woman and that he doesn’t need to constantly be there to protect you

But he does prefer to be there if something bad is happening 

The only problem is that you two went to two different agencies after graduating 

And in doing so were on opposite sides of the city

Now he always knew when something was happening on your hero route because I mean

He actually needs to in case something bad happens since it’s his JOB

But he also just really wants to be there for you if you really need it

There hasn’t been a time like that, though

So imagine his utter shock and genuine fear when that time came

He was told to go to where you were patrolling because you’d been attacked and wound up in the hospital 

You know the scene with the flame tear? Yeah that but times ten

He goes on patrol like a good little hero

But boy oh BOY did he just want to go to the hospital

You’d never lost a fight before

Not even against him

Your quirk was literally the most powerful quirk he’s ever seen and I mean like, yeah, sure, he might be biased but STILL you were really powerful

So what kind of villain could hurt you so bad you had to go to the hospital???

Luckily, he only had an hour left of patrolling 

And as soon as that hour was up

Mans bolted

He was OFF

He ran into that hospital 

And he politely asked where your room was

Because although he’s PANICKING he still is a little socially awkward sweetie and he doesn’t wanna be a dick to anyone and be labeled similar to his father no no NO

But as soon as he got the number he was sprinting man

He was so worried

All patrol he was quieter than usual

And he was ridiculously anxious the whole time

His palms were sweaty

He felt like he could throw up at any second

And right now

He thought his heart was about to beat out of his chest

He carefully opens the door

You might be sleeping, he has to be considerate

And sure enough he sees your unconscious form laying in a hospital bed

It looked like you had some broken bones, and multiple bruises and cuts which means someone must have beat the shit out of you

Lovely

That’s what he needed to see

Definitely 

Mans doesn’t show emotion that much

But when it comes to you and since it was just you and him in the room

He broke down crying

He couldn’t help it

He grabbed your hand

And just sat there crying

Poor guy can’t lose you

You were the best thing that ever happened to him 🥺

You showed him that it was okay to feel things and express those things and let people in

He let you in and he couldn’t let you go now

He was a genuine mess for the next couple of weeks

Because you weren’t waking up

He went against what Midoriya said and asked around about what happened to you

And what he heard was horrific

Apparently the villain snuck up on you

And hit you in a few different places

And then you fell down

And then you couldn’t access your quirk

And that’s why you were in the hospital 

He didn’t want to think about the part that happened after you were virtually defenseless

Around his friends he was spacier than usual

He wasn’t really retaining information

And his agency let him take more days off than usual because they knew he was Going Through It

And luckily on one of those days you woke up

He was next to you as per usual 

Holding your hand

Playing with your fingers like he always does when he gets anxious

He missed being able to do that in social situations 

Or when you two were cuddling at night and he was thinking about something that was stressing him out and he would start to fiddle with your hand and you would ask him what’s wrong

He missed you

So when he felt your hand start to move by itself

He basically gave himself whiplash with how fast he looked from your hand to your face

Sure enough

Your eyes were open

And you were looking at him

“(Y/n)…”

He whispered your name as not to scare you

You could have a concussion or mild amnesia

He has already considered everything that could be wrong with you

Because he overthinks a lot

And he was nervous about this

And there was one thing he had in the back of his mind

That would probably be the worst case scenario

And much to his fears

That was confirmed to be what was going on almost immediately

“Todoroki?”

He just stares for a moment

You hadn’t called him Todoroki since… well, a long time now

Probably back in your UA days

The two of you began dating in your second year though so

It’s been a while

“You look… older..?”

He clears his throat

Nodding

“Yes. Well… I am 20 years old now. I would hope I look older.”

“Wait, what?”

Oh shit.

He just confused you. 

Damnit, Shouto. 

“Uhh… well, um. You see…”

“Todoroki what is going on? And why are you holding my hand like that?”

He freezes

He was still playing with your fingers

And it wasn’t that you didn’t want him to

You were just genuinely confused

He knew that

“Before I say anything else that could be detrimental to your mental health, maybe you should ring your nurse.”

You do as he says

And the nurses and a doctor come rushing into your room

They do some evaluations

And sure enough

Your memory has been completely wiped

As has the access to the portion of your brain that allows you to control your quirk

The doctor explains to Todoroki that he’s unsure of how this happened

Bu Todoroki knows it has to be that villain

Whatever that villain did did this to you

And Todoroki isn’t one to show emotions

But boy oh BOY was he riled up right now

He lowkey accidentally caught something on fire

And then to fix it lowkey on purpose just turned it into a block of ice

Even though Endeavor is the worst man on the planet

Mans is persistent on shit that’s for sure

And that’s like

The only trait Shouto got from that literal dumpster fire of a father

And he wasn’t about to let the piece of shit that hurt you get away with it

Of course, when it comes to you as a person he’s very patient

Very understanding

Respects boundaries 

But he will not REST

Until the motherfucker who did this to you gets caught by him

And he will find them.

Bakugou Katsuki | DynaMight

OH BOY HERE WE GO

So Bakugou was already very protective over you

I mean that’s expected though

It’s

It’s literally Bakugou

So mans has tabs on you at all times

You don’t know how he does it tbh

He jokes

Yes, Bakugou can joke

He jokes about having a sixth sense when it comes to you

He just gets this feeling about you

If you’re sad? He knows

Happy? He knows

In danger? MANS KNOWS

And I guess he also has a GPS built into his brain???

He just

He knows

Probably because he cares extremely deeply about you

Like really fucking deeply

You’re the best thing that has ever happened to him

Ever since high school

First day

When you weren’t intimidated by him

There was just something special about you

And even though it took until after graduation and you almost DYING on a mission for him to finally accept that he can FEEL THINGS

He officially asked you to be his girlfriend

I say officially because, well

Y’all have basically been dating since like 

Second year of high school

Even though it wasn’t official

It was obvious

He was whipped

He still is

He’s known you for five years

You’ve been officially dating for two of those years

You were unofficially dating for four

You were the most important thing in his life

You even surpassed becoming the number one hero somehow

Though he will NEVER admit that

EVER

It took him a while to realize it 

But the thought of living without you?

Scared him more than any villain ever could

And that is why

Mans is all dressed up

Lookin nice

Took a day off of patrol at his agency because tonight is a special night

Of course, you don’t know anything

As it should be

He didn’t tell a soul that he was planning on proposing tonight

Okay… maybe that is a lie

He told Kirishima when he got blackout drunk with the boys one night

Long story, don’t ask how it happened, even the boys don’t know

And Kirishima then proceeded to tell everyone of his other friends 

So they all knew

But they also all knew to keep it a FUCKING SECRET unless they wanted blown up

But boy oh boy they were excited to see the pictures and the ring and the everything

But I digress

Bakugou is in the house the two of you purchased a while back

It was very much off the damn grid

For ~safety~ 

And he’s very much just messing with how he looks

He has to look perfect because he knows you’re about to 

And he can’t be proposing to you unless he’s on your level

When suddenly

He gets a

Feeling

But it isn’t the warm feeling he gets when you’re happy

Or the doopy one he gets when you’re sad

Or the wave of exhaustion he feels when you’re tired

Or the tingly feeling he gets when you’re mad

No

It’s the feeling where his spine tenses

And his blood goes cold

And his heart drops to the floor

The one he only felt one other time

The time you almost died

He was out of that house so fast

He didn’t even care if he looked all nice

You were in danger

He blasted his way through the city

Saying he was frantic is an understatement

He was FERAL

He got to where you were just in time to see you get slammed into the concrete by some piece of shit villain

You were unconscious

And you weren’t moving

He saw red

He didn’t even remember blasting over to the villain and punching them in the face

But he did that

And he did it HARD

Of course the villain was like OH FUCK

THIS IS THE NUMBER TWO HERO

I DIDN’T THINK HE’D ACTUALLY GET HERE THIS FAST

Because obviously the villain knew who you were

That’s why you were targeted 

Breaking Bakugou’s spirit is needed if villains want to become more fearful and powerful

The villain starts sprinting away

And before Bakugou can catch them

He hears an ambulance siren

He suddenly forgets all about the villain because he whips around to see you getting loaded onto a gurney

Paramedics are doing everything they can to keep you alive at this point

He’s horrified to say the least

You’re the love of his life

The last time he saw you like this is when he accepted it

Seeing you like this again just makes him realize it even deeper somehow

He runs to the ambulance

But the paramedics tell him he needs to go to the hospital separately because you’re badly injured and they need to perform some procedures on the way to the hospital to keep you alive

He doesn’t even realize he’s crying until his eyes start to sting

He wants to tell the paramedics to fuck off

Don’t they realize this is supposed to be one of the best days of yours and his lives?

But he can’t 

Because before he can

They’re gone

He chases after you though

He needs to be by your side right now

He needs to know that you will be okay

He needs you to be okay

So imagine how nerve-wracking it is for him to learn that you were in surgery

He waited in the waiting room all day long

This incident happened around one in the afternoon

and it was now one in the morning

He was just sitting in the hospital waiting room

Looking down at the little box in his hand

Crying

Which is a sight for anyone who sees him

The ring he bought for you is the only thing he can focus on

He doesn’t even notice the non-stop buzzing in his pocket coming from his and your friends wondering if the two of you are okay because the footage of the fight cut out right before Bakugou punched the villain

They all thought you were both hurt pretty badly

I mean after your quirk was seemingly taken from you…

The only thing that snaps him out of his trance

Is when the doctor comes out and says his name

His head snaps up so fast

He approaches the doctor just as fast

He knows he should expect the worst

But he can’t help but keep repeating that you’re okay

That everything will be fine because you are okay

They fixed you up

You’ll come home all happy

He’ll propose to you in the living room at this point

Today will be fixed

Instead

He hears that although you’re stable

You have what appears to be brain damage

“What kind of fucking brain damage?”

“She has severe amnesia which means that-”

“How severe?”

“Well… according to her brain scan and the fact that she said the year was two and a half years ago, I’m afraid it’s significantly severe.”

Two and a half years

Two and a half years?!

He just stares at the doctor

If you think it’s two and a half years ago

That means he hasn’t asked you out yet

That means in your mind

You’re still in high school

About to graduate

This cannot be happening

There is not way this is happening

“Can I see her?”

His voice sounds foreign to him

The doctor nods

Leading him to your room

He puts the ring back in his pocket out of instinct

And when he enters your room

He wants nothing more than for you to yell something like PSYCH

GOT YOU BLASTY BITCH

HAHAHA

But he’s just met with a your mouth opening wide and eye getting big

“Bakugou?! You’re so dressed up!”

Bakugou

Why didn’t he let you call him Katsuki sooner

Why didn’t he ask you out before two years ago

Why wasn’t he there to save you

“W-Woah… Bakugou, you don’t have to cry this isn’t my first hospital stay… wait, when did you get an undercut?”

He just walks towards you

“You also look… older… is this seriously what you look like when you clean up?”

He watches as your expression falters for a moment

“Wait… are you like… going on a date or something?”

Good to know you still have feelings for him at least

He just nods

And you try to hide the disappointment on your face

“Oh… well, you better tell me all about it when we get back to the dorms.”

Your fake enthusiasm is killing him

What killing him even more though is that the doctors didn’t tell you what was going on

So he’ll tell you instead

“Actually,”

Damnit

His voice is wavering

This is new for him

He clears his throat

“I’m not… I’m not going on a date anymore. I had one but… things didn’t turn out as planned.”

“Oh?”

He almost smiles at the sudden mood shift you had

How can you still be perky like that sitting in a hospital bed

“Yeah… because, um. It was a date with you…”

“…Oh…?”

“You got hurt pretty bad, angel…”

He explains everything to you

Well 

As much as he can

And he also finds out about your quirk

And how it’s just

Gone

You have to stay in the hospital tonight for further testing tomorrow

And you insist that he goes home

But he says it isn’t home if you’re not there

He stays in the chair right next to your bed

Watching you as you sleep

He knows you believe him

He knows that you have feeling for him

But he’s broken, truly

Not only was he not your hero today

He didn’t save you

He doesn’t know if you’ll ever remember any of those years with him

Any of your firsts

And that makes him ache

He pulls out your ring again

And just looks at it

The only light in the room is the moonlight peaking in through the window

And in that moment

He swears to himself

And to you

That the villain who did this

Is going to pay

Kirishima Eijirou | Red Riot

Eijirou has always been your rock

Figuratively and literally

He’s there for you through everything

And I mean everything

The two of you have been next door neighbors since you were kids

And he literally always had a crush on you

Of course the feelings were mutual

But neither you nor shark boy knew that

Until y’all got to high school

And Bakugou was very

Annoyed

About the two of you pining for each other

Mina was beyond annoyed 

She went to middle school with you two

So when Bakugou finally just

Screamed at the two of you to just shut the fuck up with the flirting and date already

Mina deadass jumped out of her seat at lunch and screamed thank you at the top of her lungs

Of course the two of you were as red as his hair

Which, yes

You did help him pick out the exact shade and helped dye as well

His hands were stained red because he accidentally only bought one pair of gloves and it wouldn’t have been manly to make you help without gloves on

But I digress

The two of you started dating shortly after that

And when I tell you that you were the couple everyone would look at and be all “awwwww”

I MEAN IT

And y’all are just in high school

Granted, it’s your final year and the two of you are both interning and are already confirmed to become sidekicks and Fatgum’s Agency

So y’all do be a little mature

But still

You started dating freshman year

And you’re going strong still

Of course

And words cannot describe how relieved he is that the two of you are at the same agency

Because if anything ever went bad he would be there to save you

And you would be there to save him

But literally nothing could prepare him for what was about to happen to you

It was a normal patrol

The two of you were together

Talking about graduation next week

And how the two of you were excited to move out of the dorms and into the apartment you had picked

And how you would finally be able to adopt the little mutt that the two of you love from the shelter

When out of no where

A villain popped down off of a building

Right behind you

And did something weird to you

They hit you meticulously and in specific places

Before Kirishima could even process what was going on

You were on the ground

Of course

You raised an arm

Ready to fight and use your quirk

But nothing happened

You tried again

Nothing

You and Kirishima make eye contact and he can feel the fear radiating off of you

Now he was worried

Very worried

But you knew how to fight

And he was there, too

So this wouldn’t end too bad

UNTIL THERE WAS A FUCKING EXPLOSION IN THE BUILDING THE VILLAIN JUST POPPED OUT OF

You were already back on your feet

Ready to fight this motherfucker

“Go help the people inside, Red Riot. I can handle this one.”

“But-”

“GO!”

He goes

Reluctantly

But he does know you can hold your own

Even if that villain temporarily blocked your quirk

He hardens

Turning his headpiece into a filtering mask (a great addition he thought of so he could run into burning buildings while hardened to save people and not take damage to his lungs in the process)

And luckily

There were only three people inside

So he grabs them and runs out

Easy

And he’s expecting to be met with you handcuffing the bad guy

But instead

He’s met with you getting the life beat out of you

Literally

You’re on the ground

The villain pulled out swords while he was gone

And it was obvious you were down and weren’t gettingup

But the villain just wasn’t letting up

Kirishima’s legs work before his brain

He runs over to the villain and lands a punch to their face

Which causes them to stumble backwards

Before they throw the swords at a random citizen who is observing

He immediately runs to the citizen, deflecting the swords

But the villain ran off in the mean time

Like they disappeared without a trace

But honestly

Even if they were still there

Kirishima would have run to you regardless

He immediately kneels down

“(Y/n)?! (Y/n), can you hear me?!”

He ditched the hero names this time

You weren’t responding

You were out cold

He starts panicking

Like

Full on hyperventilating

You looked bad

You were pierced by the villains swords in your side

Blood was everywhere

Your breathing was shallow

Regardless of the genuine panic attack he was going through right now

He somehow managed to control his breathing so you wouldn’t bleed out on the ground

He needed to help you

He picks you up

Instantly starting to sprint to the ambulances beginning to pull up

As soon as the paramedics see the state you’re in they get you off of him

And speed off to the hospital

Kirishima is left alone 

Staring at his hands 

Which were dyed red with your blood

All he could see was your face laughing at him because he forgot to get two pairs of gloves the first time you helped him dye his hair

…He didn’t like red all that much right now

After what feels like hours

But was really like two minutes

Tamaki shows up

Because he heard there was something going on

And as soon as he sees Kirishima on the ground and sobbing

He knows something bad has happened to you

He quickly gets him out of there

And back to the agency

Where Kirishima accidentally sees a replay of the fight on television

And he sees that you were fighting the villain just fine

But they were so nimble and fast 

And all they did was hit the nape of your neck and then the side of your temple

And you collapsed

Tamaki turned the television off before the full fight was shown

But the damage was done

Kirishima was back on the ground

Tamaki tries to comfort him

But Kirishima is out of commission

“I couldn’t save her, Tamaki! I wasn’t there!”

“…C-Come on, Kirishima… w-we should… go to the hospital…”

Tamaki is trying so hard to get him to calm down 

But to no avail

So eventually he just drags him out and to his car

He speeds to the hospital

And Kirishima doesn’t even wait for the car to slow down to run inside

He has to wait to see you

Since you were punctured 

But he was willing to wait

And wait he did 

For four days

Of course after you were done with your surgery he was allowed in your room

But it was a matter of waiting for you to wake up

He was always with you

He only went home to shower

He slept at the hospital

He needed to be with you

So when you finally woke up

He cried tears of happiness for the first time in days

“(Y/n), thank god you’re awake.”

“Eiji? What happened…?”

“There was a villain attack and they knocked you out and-”

“Why don’t you look 15?”

“What?”

“You look… older… and your hair is longer.”

“…What? You were the one who encouraged me to grow it out…”

“I… I was?”

He stares at you for a moment

His happy tears turning into ones of fear

Before hitting the call nurse button and asking you a question

“(Y/n) what grade are we in?”

“We’re freshmen at UA High School.”

No. 

No, no, no, no, no

Before he could answer the doctor and nurses came in the room

They started asking you a bunch of questions

To which you answered the best you could

But it was obvious that you were convinced it was two years ago

The doctors took you off to do scans of your brain

This can’t be happening

You think it’s two years ago

Two years

So much has happened within those two years

The two of you have done so much

Just

Imagine how devastated he is when he hears your memory is just gone

And your quirk with it

You were a hero

Your quirk can’t be gone

“Eiji… please don’t cry, it’ll be okay.”

“I can’t help it, pebble. I wasn’t there to save you and now… now you don’t remember everything we’ve done. And… and your quirk… you’re the best hero I know, and now…”

“Eijirou, I promise you it will be okay. As long as you’ll be with me, like you always are, I will be fine.”

He doesn’t say anything

He just looks at his hand holding yours

At least you still remember he asked you to be his girlfriend

But he is deadset on finding the villain who did this to you

“I will get you out of this.”

“Ei…”

“I will fix this. I promise you. I will save you. I need to.”

[ally-writes-many-things]

Kook vs Pogue (R. Cameron) Part 3

Summary: You were Rafe’s booty call and vice versa but after realizing that its always gonna be Kooks vs Pogue, you called it off.

Words: 1.2k 

Requested: Yes

Prompts:

Warnings or A/n:

You opened your door, not caring about whatever that was about but you had a gut feeling something was going to go down, so you shut your door and walked back inside the house. "RAFE! Stop!" You heard Lonnie's voice yelling from outside around the pool. You ran outside and saw Rafe on top of Kade punching him while Kade is barely defending himself. You looked around and saw no one doing anything to stop it but Lonnie shouting to stop. "Really?" You walked over to where Rafe and Kade were fighting and pulled Rafe off Kade and got in-between them. "Knock it off you two before you ended up killing each other," Kade gets on his feet and so does Rafe and they tried to walk towards each other. You turned and looked at Kade, saw he was a total bloody -mess. "Back up," Kade took a step closer to you. "And what are you going to do about it?" "Me? Nothing but considering there are Pogues here that want nothing more to beat your scrawny ass up, I would take a step back from me and trust me. They will kick your fucking ass," You looked all around and saw that the Pogues were standing ready for my say so. Kade looked around too and realized that he was out numbered. "Whatever. PARTY'S OVER!" You took a couple of steps back before turning around and seeing Rafe a bloody mess, not as much of a blood mess as Kade was but still. Rafe looked like he wanted to talk to you. You walked up to him. "Don't you think you are too old get in petty fights with Kade still?" He was about to respond something but Lonnie walked up to him and wrapped her arm around his. "Come on, let's get you clean up," She then turned and looked at you. "Pogues always ruin the parties," You scoffed. "Pretty sure, that was two Kooks that were on the verge killing each other but okay," As soon as you got to your car, your phone goes off. You pulled your phone out of your pocket and saw it was a text from Rafe.

From: Kook Come to my house at midnight.

You eyed the text because Rafe usually never aks me over to his house.

To: Kook Who has Rafe's phone?

From: Kook It's Rafe.

To: Kook Mhm

From: Kook Y/n come on. It's me. We first hooked up a few months ago at Kade's party. You stopped our hook up sessions cause of what happened at the club.

You didn't answer but hoped into your car, and you looked at the time and it was eleven thirty. You just decided to drive over to his house now cause by the time you get to his house, it'll be midnight. - You pulled up next to his house by the gate and were about to text Rafe that you were here, but you heard someone knocking on your window which made you jump. You turned your head and it was an man, not old but about forty. You rolled down your window just a tad bit. "Yes?" "Who are you and what are you doing here?" You were taken back by this. "Why does that matter to you?" "I am apart of the neighborhood watch. So I'm gonna ask you again. who are you?" "My gps fucked up so I was just about to fix it until you came up. So if you excuse me," You rolled up your window and texted Rafe.

To: Rafe I'm here but your neighbor is out and up my ass about why I am here.

After sending the text to Rafe, you backed up from where you were, turned around and left. You pulled into a gas station not far from where Rafe lives and waited for his text.

To: JJ Hey bro, just wanted to let you know I'm good and Ill be probably be home early in the morning.

From: JJ Okay. Wear protection.

To: JJ Fuck off.

You sat in your car for a few minutes before Rafe finally calls you. "Hey pull up on the other side of the house. No one usually patrols over there," You hang out the call and drive that way. When you got there, you saw Rafe waiting for you by a gate, you pulled up next to him. "Go down just a bit more, and you'll see a secluded area, park there," - You were standing in Rafe's room while he was in the bathroom and its pretty much what you expected it to look like. You walked over to his desk and looked at the photos he had on his desk. There were some of him and Sarah. Him and Ward. Him and Wheezie but there were none of him and Rose. You knew that Sarah and his real mother took off when they were little and she heard from again but you always thought that him and Rose were close but guessing from the lack of photos of her and him, you were wrong. "Everything you pictured it would be?" You turned around and laughed. "Actually, yes," Rafe chuckled as he walked up to you, you could see the bruises that were already forming on his face. You grabbed his hands and held them up, so you could see them, you saw that they were obviously cracked and bloody. "You're older enough to realize that fighting a guy that you had beef with in high school is kind of lame," Rafe didn't answer you, but he removed his hands from yours and walked away and just stared out the window. "What's wrong?" "The reason why Kade and I can't stand each other is cause he tried to mess with Sarah when Sarah told him to leave her alone. He didn't leave her alone until I got involved but after we graduated, we didn't talk to each other and kind of let it go. So me going after him tonight had nothing to do with Sarah and had everything to do with you," "With me? Why me?" "I was already pissed off when I saw that red mark on your face, so I was going to go confront him. That's when I heard him talking mad shit on you and other shit that I just don't wanna repeat. Once, I heard that, and all I saw was red and the next thing I know you were pulling me off him. You might think it was Kooks vs Pogues or kooks only look out for other Kooks but its not. Well, it was until that night a few months ago. Then it was always thinking about you. Always wondering what you were doing. Always wanting to be by you. I know that we both didn't want people to find out about us cause I know once people found out.. They would try to stop us from doing what we want to do. I'm fine with keeping us a secret cause I want that too but I also want to be with you and only you,"

[twelvedaysinaugust]

Honestly I don't really have a question but looking at some of the previous asks about how "closeting contracts don't exist" I mean we can argue both ways. But I'd like to point out that individually, Harry and Louis could probably come out and it wouldn't seem as big a deal and a conspiracy to hide it. But if you really wanna talk about it, 2 gay boyband members coming out is a huge fucking deal. Especially because of "Larry" too. If they come out now or ever, there is a shit ton of stuff that will get questioned regardless of Larry being real or not. I'm not sure if anyone knows what interview I'm talking about but in the early 1D interviews, the interview asks why fans think H&L are together. And Harry remains quiet but Louis goes on this whole tangent about how "if I was a Harry girl, I wouldn't like the idea of Louis and Harry, I'd like the idea of me and Harry". This to me has always been one of the more compelling moments because anyone can see that that's what management has repeatedly told Louis. And given that Harry was just starting to be put out as a "womanizer and a lady's man" ofc Louis could never be in the picture.

And even if Larry weren't real, and you guys believe H&L couldn't be friends or as close cause of larries, then you're essentially agreeing to the narrative that management made sure they weren't that close because even if they aren't gay, god forbid even the thought of anyone being actually linked to H in a serious way. It wouldn't fit the narrative. And you also have to ask yourself why it's just Louis and Harry. Looking at the old interviews, all the boys were close. They fed each other, they were cuddly, everything Louis and Harry did. But I beg you to go look: the reason we saw Harry and Louis differently is because they were different.

Sorry I went off on a tangent but my point is this. H can raise all the pride flags he wants. But to the GP, that's still not being out of the closet. That's the whole problem isn't it. He released a song about being in the closet and struggling with himself and whoever you believe that blue girl is: Louis, his inner child, "she", you literally cannot sit there and tell me that's about Olivia. Harry is still marketable to everyone as long as he explicitly doesn't say "I'm not straight".

And I agree with the response that ask got. I wish people showed Louis some more compassion. If you just took a minute to really look, you'd maybe understand. 2 members of a boy band being gay is a big fucking deal. It was back then and if they covered it all up, in 2022 that's a big fucking deal. People will be out for blood if they ever realize the true extent of manipulation and exploitation these boys went through. Not only Harry and Louis but all of the boys. So no, regardless of "closet contracts" there are multiple reasons people from one of the most famous boy bands can come out and say "oh ya I'm gay".

Hi. Thank you for such a thoughtful ask. I agree with all your points. I probably should've said to the previous anon that illegal contracts do exist. Louis, especially, has hinted at abusive contracts. But it doesn't matter because contracts are not the only way to forcibly closet someone! Does anyone remember that receipt where H/L were told that their relationship would "ruin" the band? Yeah... Contacts or not, I have no doubt that there was tremendous pressure to stay in the closet. Saying to two young queer kids, "Your hopes, dreams, and financial futures depend on you being straight and available to women. Your families' hopes, dreams, and financial futures depend on you being straight and available to women." That's more than enough right there. The lack of compassion for Harry and Louis *both* blows my mind.

[sunkissedspider]

Complicated | Peter Parker

Complicated | Peter Parker

Complicated | Peter Parker

MASTERLIST

***taglist is open!!! just send an ask or message me and i’ll add you :)***

***requests are open!!! just send an ask or message me your request if you have one :)***

pairing: Peter Parker x reader

summary: your and Peter's relationship is strictly physical... but what happens when feelings get in the way?

warnings: angst, smut, unprotected sex (please wrap it before you tap it), making out, language, fluff, etc.

listen to: i love you, bitches broken hearts, wish you were gay, and my boy by Billie Eilish (get ready for some Sad Vibes™ and some Angry Vibes™)

word count: 5.9k+ (👀👀)

a/n: parts of this are super angsty and sad. does it have a happy ending?... we'll see 👀. sorry for any spelling and/or grammar errors!!

     You and Peter had a... complicated relationship, to say the least. Not only had you two been best friends since the third grade, but you had also been sleeping with each other for a year and a half. You guys had make the decision to lose your virginities to each other, and since it went really well, you both thought "why not do this for a while?".

    No, you and Peter weren't dating, you were strictly friends with benefits. Honestly, you sometimes didn't understand why you guys weren't official, but then you remembered the conversation that you two had had with each other after the first few times you guys had sex. The conversation about how if sleeping with each other didn't ruin your friendship, dating probably would. Sure, you two still did the same things that you did before you guys had first slept together. Movie nights every Friday after school, hours spent at the carnival with Ned, MJ, and Betty, drives to the diner at 3 am whenever you got bored... only now, they were followed by absolutely mind-blowing sex. It was never awkward after though, like how you originally thought it would be.

    You found it funny how you could always tell whenever Peter was horny; the way he would squirm in his seat, how he would move his textbooks to cover the bulge in his jeans, how needy he was, and no many other countless things. You couldn't even remember how many times you'd be watching t.v. on his couch, and he'd just lean over and kiss your neck in the way that drove you crazy, and then you'd end up having fucking incredible sex on every surface of his apartment.

    But the times weren't always happy. Sometimes you'd fight. And when you cough, you fought. Yelling, screaming, doors slamming, the whole shebang. You two fought like you were a couple, but you knew you'd never be an actual one, and you kind of liked it that way, if you were being honest. You got all of the sex and the talking and (most) of the good things, all without the commitment (even though you both weren't sleeping or dating other people). And you always had thought that Peter liked it that way too.

***

    "Petey!" You exclaimed, sitting down in front of him at the cafeteria, his eyes moving to look up at you from his phone. "I've got an idea."

    "What is it?" He asked, with raised suspicion in his voice, noticing your wicked smile.

    "Can we please, please, please go to that abandoned building that we drove past that one time?" You whisper-scream, your eyes darting all around Peter's face, trying to guess his response.

    "Absolutely not," He breathes out, laughing quietly. "That place looks haunted as fuck. There's no way in hell I'm going in there."

    "But I love scary shit! Please, Peter?" You plead, giving him the best puppy dog eyes you could, but he just looks away from you.

    "No way, Y/N L/N." He elaborates, taking a sip of your water that he had stolen from you.

    "Come on, Pete." You whined, before lowering your voice, reaching to race small circles on one of his forearms and hands. "I'll do that thing that you like so much." You bit your lip softly, looking up at him through your long eyelashes, knowing that it drives him crazy.

    He clenches his jaw, a slight blush covering his cheeks, looking up at the ceiling in thought for a moment before looking back at you, his eyes darkened with lust. "Fine. But only because you're my best friend and you're really good at it."

***

    It was about two hours after Peter dropped you off at your apartment that he knocked on your door, his "adventure bag" in his hands.

    "Ready?" He asked, holding up two flash lights, an excited smile on his face.

    You nodded eagerly, saying goodbye to your parents before grabbing your own bag, meeting Peter out in the hallway. He grabbed onto your hand softly, both of you walking out of your apartment building, matching goofy grins on your faces.

***

    "Here you go," Peter laughed, opening the passenger side door for you, shutting it when you were buckled in. "You excited?" He asked after sliding into the car, buckling his won seatbelt.

    "Very," You said, laughing slightly as you looked through all of the personal mix CDs that you and Peter had made together, perfectly fitting your matching taste in music. "I can't believe I actually convinced you to go with me."

    "I get to spend, like... Wait, three hour drive there, we'll spend, like, two hours there, and then three hour drive back... Yeah, I get to spend eight extra hours with you, so, really, it's awesome either way." He breathed out, looking over at your as you continued flipping through the CDs, looking up at him briefly to smile at him.

"I, uh, I bought some extra stuff from Mr. Delmar's too." He said, reaching into the back seat of his car, grabbing his, what you two called it, adventure bag. "Two sandwiches with pickle, a couple packs of gum, two Cokes, a few waters, and another CD." He says, smiling at you, reaching over to do your handshake, but you just ignored it. Instead, you leaned over the center console, hugging Peter tightly.

    He just smiled, hugging you back even tighter, moving his head to kiss you on the cheek before you two smiled even wider, pulling away before starting the radio, Peter pulling out of the parking lot, the GPS on his phone already coming on, telling him to turn left in six miles.

***

    "Okay, okay. Uhm... Jennifer Aniston?" You asked, taking a sip of your water.

    "Oh, hell yeah. I'd do her in a heartbeat." He says almost immediately, causing you both to laugh loudly.

    "Harry Styles?" He asks, switches lanes on the highway as you smile widely.

    "Abso-fuckin'-lutely! How could anyone not wanna fuck him?" You both laugh, before Peter's face suddenly turns serious.

    "Are you, uh... Are you, ya know, sleeping with anyone else?" He asks, his Adam's apple bobbing as he gulps nervously.

    You scoff, slapping Peter playfully on the chest. "No, Pete. I'm shocked that someone as hot as you wants to sleep with me. Besides, I like having sex with you. You're fucking amazing in bed." You giggle quietly, looking at the way Peter's cheeks are flushed a bright red at your praise.

    Peter tries his best to not let a cocky smile take over his face. Obviously he knows how good he is in bed. The noises that you make and the praises that you give him are more than enough for him to know what he's doing is good.

    "Are- Are you?" You ask, butterflies flying around deep in your stomach. You knew that you and Peter weren't official. But, for some reason, the thought of him sleeping with another girl made you sick to your stomach.

    "Nope. I've never even come close to it. I'm comfortable with you, and sleeping with you is always nice. I don't trust anyone as much as I trust you, and you know how important trust is to me." He breathes out, laughing nervously.

    You let out a breath that you were holding. If Peter had been sleeping with another person, he would've told you, and you would've been able to tell even before that. You two were best friends, after all. You knew Peter better than you knew yourself, and vise versa.

***

    You and Peter had a blast at the old building, and he ended up being glad that you could convince him to go. Well, he would be gone either way just to spend time with you, but it was cute seeing how much you wanted him to join you.

    It's never awkward hanging out with Peter even though you two are sleeping together. Well, it's usually never awkward. If it is, it's only ever when he's dropping you back off at your apartment. You never know whether you two should kiss or if you should just do your secret handshake. That was the one thing you could never figure out about Peter; "Does he wanna kiss me? Does he not wanna kiss me? Do I wanna kiss him?" were the thoughts that ran through your brain constantly, and most of the time you couldn't even look into Peter's eyes when he dropped you off at your place.

    He was always gentleman though. Especially when you two were having sex. He would always make sure that you were okay, constantly reminding you of how beautiful you were, how good you felt, how much he was enjoying it, while still making sure you were, etc.

    Along with the incredible sex, you and Peter had a nearly unbreakable bond... and you weren't sure if you wanted to test how it could break. Peter is the best friend you've ever had. He was always there to listen, to talk, to be your shoulder to cry on, and so many other things. He was your partner in crime, your ride or die, your boyfriend that wasn't a boyfriend... but who knows, maybe you did want to be with Peter. Even you didn't know the answer to that. And you didn't know if you ever would.

***

    "I've got some news!" You squealed, sitting down across from Peter at the lunch table, where you always sat. It had been a few days since you and Peter had gone on your little road trip together, and you had already planned to go back again the following weekend.

    "What is it?" He asked, smiling when he saw how happy you were.

    "Alright... guess who just asked me out to the movies on Friday..." You said, you're eyes blowing wide with excitement.

    It took Peter everything in him to not clench his jaw in anger, trying his best to keep a happy smile on his face. "Who?" He asked, one of his hands holding yours and he rubbed his thumb over the smooth skin.

    "Brennan fucking Daniels!" You exclaimed, your smile even wider.

    "Oh shit! That's awesome!" Peter said, lying to you for the first time in years.

    He hated Brennan. Not just because he liked you and you liked him, or the fact that you and Peter were sleeping with each other, but because he was an asshole. Sure, he seemed nice on the outside, but Peter knew just how cruel he could be. Brennan used to live in the apartment next to Peter's, and even though you lived in the apartment right below Peter's, you never really saw Brennan. But Peter saw, and heard, everything. He saw how in the mornings girls would leave Brennan's apartment with tears in their eyes, their sneakers in their hands as they sped down the hallways, not wanting anyone to know that they were crying. He would date another beautiful girl every two weeks, and then he would throw them away just like they were nothing. Brennan Daniels was a player, he always had been and he always would be, and Peter was shocked that someone as incredible as you was going after an asshole like that.

    "I'm sorry that I'm missing movie nigh for the first time in... what? Six years? Seven years? But I promise you that I'll stop by your apartment as soon as my date is over. How about we watch The Notebook this time?" You asked, your eyes turning sad slightly, feeling bad that you would miss hanging out with Peter for a few hours.

    "It's fine, don't worry about it. Just have fun and enjoy the movie. I'll stop by Mr. Delmar's and grab some snacks, but just take your time." Peter said, putting on his best fake smile. Here he was again, as always, being the supportive best friend that he always was, putting you happiness ahead of his.

    "Are you sure, Pete? Because I can reschedule, it's not a problem." You ask, making sure that Peter was really okay with it.

    "Positive, just have fun." He fake smiled at you again, trying his best to convince you.

    You just smiled, squeezing his hand before turning to talk to Ned, Betty, and MJ, not noticing the small, single tear sliding slowly down the smooth skin of his face, before he wiped it away quickly, leaning forward to join the conversation that you were having with everyone else.

***

    "Fuck, Brennan! Fuck, fuck, fuck!" You moaned, your back slamming against Brennan's toned chest as his grip on your waist tightened quickly as his pounded into you at a harsh, rough speed, hitting a spot so deep inside of you that your eyes rolled back as you let out a loud, choked out moan.

    "Holy fucking shit. Fuck, are you gonna cum?" He groaned into your ear, his thrusts starting to become sloppier and sloppier as you both came closer to your highs each time he hit deep inside of you.

    "Fuck, yes!" You moaned loudly, squealing loudly when he flipped you both, now pounding into even quicker as he looked into your eyes before dipping his head down, biting hard onto your collar bone, the force of his hips slapping against yours was enough for your bed to slam against the wall repeatedly, making you even gladder that your parents were on a date.

    "Fucking cum for me, Y/N. Shit!" He groaned, his words only spurring you on further until, with one specifically deep thrust, you came undone underneath him, your walls squeezing him tightly as you moaned loudly, causing him to reach his own orgasm as he quickly pulled out of you, pumping hi cock harshly before he released onto your stomach, moaning out you name loudly as his head went back, before he collapsed onto your bed beside you.

    "Fuck," You breathed out, your chest heaving up and down quickly as you tried quickly to regulate your breathing. "That was fucking incredible."

    "Yeah. Shit, I thought that you'd be good in bed, but I didn't think you'd be that good." He laughed, looking over at you as he lifted one of his muscular arms above his head, looking over at you before asking you a questions that made butterflies appear in your stomach again. "How many people have you slept with. I know you couldn't have been a virgin before that, you were too good."

    "Only one, but I've slept with him a lot before." You breathe out, laughing quietly, before you looked over at Brennan, seeing him start to stand up, gathering his clothes that were scattered all over the floor. "What are you doing?" You ask, trying not to sound nervous.

    "I have football practice tomorrow and I need to go home and sleep, but could I see you again sometime soon? I, uh, I had a lot of fun tonight, and I really wanna see you again." He said, slipping his shirt on over his head, pulling his boxers on before he went to your desk, grabbing a towel before walking over to you, wiping his seed off of your stomach for you.

    "I'd like that." You said, reaching a hand softly around one side of his neck, pulling his head down to yours, your lips meeting in a soft kiss.

    After he got dressed and you threw on a pair of sweats and one of your (Peter's) hoodies, you walked Brennan to your front door, stepping into the hallway before kissing him deeply, your arms wrapped around his neck as you stood on your tippy toes, him leaning down to reach your lips, your figure seeming small compared to his 6'5 height.

    "Bye." He said, smiling against your lips before pulling away, clearing his throat loudly when he saw Peter standing at the end of the hallway, his eyes blown wide at the sight of you two kissing in such an intimate way. It made his blood boil and his jaw clench when he saw how you smiled and how happy you seemed when you kissed him.

    "Peter? What are you doing here?" You said, raised alarm in your voice. "I'll see you soon, Brennan." You said, waving him goodbye as Peter walked over to you, your body leaning against your front door frame.

    "What was all of that about?" Peter asks, watching Brennan as he walked away, only turning to look at you when he saw him turn down the hallway.

    "It's nothing, Pete. I thought I was meeting you at your place?" You ask, smiling at Peter, trying to ignore how awkward it was that the guy you were sleeping with caught you with a guy you had just slept with.

    "It's late, I didn't want something bad to happen to you." He smiles back, trying his best to cover the pain he felt.

***

    "Did you guys have sex?" Peter asked, causing you to turn your head away from his t.v., his tone a serious one, a large contrast to the funny, happy scene that was going on during the movie.

    "What?" You ask, laughing, assuming he was joking as you took some popcorn into your hand, your eyes back on the screen as you snacked.

    "Did you sleep with Brennan?" He asked, butterflies flying all around his stomach, nervous about the answer.

    "Yeah," You shrugged, eyes still following the characters around on the screen. "It doesn't really mean anything though."

    "Are you kidding? God, Jesus Christ, please tell me that you're joking." He said, causing you to look at him deeply in the eyes.

    "What's wrong, Pete-" You start, before getting interrupted.

    "'What's wrong?'?... 'What's wrong?'?! Gee, I don't know, Y/N. Maybe the fact that you fucked goddamn Brennan Daniels. You know he's just gonna leave you, right? He does that with every girl he fucks! And maybe its the fact that you didn't even ask me if you could sleep with him?!" Peter yelled, the first time he's ever yelled at you, his jaw clenched tightly, as he talked with his hands, his leg bouncing up and down, a sign that he was angry.

    "Why does it matter so much? It's not like you're my boyfriend!" you snapped back, your body turned to face Peter's.

    "What if I want to be? Have you ever though about that?" He shot back, his eyes darkened with anger.

    "What are you talking about, Peter?" You said, your voice now back to normal, your eyes blown wide as you tried to make sense of what Peter was telling you.

    "Nothing... It's nothing. Get out." He said, his hands going to cover his eyes.

    "What?" You asked, your voice breaking at the harsh words coming from your best friend. From the one person that you trusted the most in this world.

    "Just get out! Get the fuck out!" Peter screamed at you even louder than before, his hands moving from his face to his sides as he stood up, looking at you right in your eyes.

    "Fine." You said, standing up, moving to his front door, slowly opening it, before turning around to look at him again. "Goodbye, Peter." And with that, you left his apartment, quietly closing door, constant streams of tears falling down your face as you desperately tried to wipe them away with the sleeve of Peter's hoodie, his scent that was imprinted on it only making you cry harder.

***

    Peter tried to come by your apartment, climbing down the fire escape from his apartment down to yours. He was about to tap on your window until he saw you on your bed; you sat there, crumpled up in a little ball, wrapped in Peter's sweatshirt and your blankets, only your bedside table light on as you cried, your cheeks stained red from your tears.

    "Fuck," Peter breathed out. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He muttered before walking back up the fire escape again. His eyes stung as tears pricked up in his waterlines, realizing how bad he had fucked up... realizing that he had lost you.

***

    You sat with Brennan the next day at lunch, trying to avoid Peter as much as you could, which was hard since you had almost all of the same classes. Of course, the awkward eye contact happened a few time in the following weeks of not speaking to him.

    By the third week, both you and Peter had cut everyone off. Even though you were happy with Brennan, and you believed that he truly liked you, you were sluggish and quieter than you usually were. Unless you and Brennan were having sex, you were always bored. You missed the excitement that Peter brought into your life. He was Spider-Man, for Christ's sake, and you missed the way that he would explain his adventures of the day to you, even if most of them were very eventful. You missed the way that his eyes would light up whenever he saw you, or the way his grin would turn cheesy whenever you said a bad, corny dad joke. You missed the way that he made you feel special. Not just durning sex, but whenever you questioned yourself. Whenever you thought  that you looked bad, or whenever you thought that you were stupid because you got a bad grade on a test.

    Peter had always been there for you. Ever since you were nine years old. But now you didn't know if you would ever talk to him again. You tried not to think about it much, but whenever a teacher would say something that you could turn into a "That's what she said" joke, you would always curse yourself for looking next to you at Peter, forgetting for just a brief moment that he wasn't your best friend anymore. That he wasn't even your acquaintance anymore. That he was now just some guy that sat next to you in almost all of your classes. In a few months, you knew that Peter wouldn't even exist to you anymore, and that right now, you probably didn't even exist to Peter at all.

***

    By this point, it had been two months since you had talked to the only person you had ever trusted with everything in you. You and Brennan had broken up a few weeks after the first time you slept together, and everyone was shocked when they found out that you had broken up with him, not the other way around like everyone had expected, Peter was especially surprised. He thought that you had really liked Brennan. Even if you had liked Brennan as much as Peter and everyone had thought, you knew that you couldn't be with him. Other than the fact that he was obviously cheating on you, you did want to stay with the person that had prompted the fight that had ended your friendship with Peter. Part of Peter wanted you to come back and be his friend again immediately, but the other part of Peter knew that that kind of situation wasn't going to happen. He had shut you out and yelled at you for doing something that he couldn't even really control. After all, he had told you that it was fine for you to go on a date with Brennan. And he had known that you probably were going to sleep with him. You were teenagers, that's what teenagers do.

    Peter at this point wasn't even talking to May. It first started when he had quit smiling when they would go get Thai, remembering that it was something you used to join in on. Whenever May would bring you up, Peter's jaw would clench and he'd try and change the subject as quickly as possible. May knew that something was up with your and Peter's friendship after she hadn't seen you for a week. You were either always at Peter's place, he was always at your place, or you guys were always driving around somewhere upstate.

    "Peter," May started, walking in front of him as he was seated on the couch, typing away on his laptop as he worked on an assignment for physics. "What happened to Y/N? I haven't seen her in months."

    "It's nothing. She's just busy." He dismissed as he continued typing quickly.

    "Even when you're both busy, you always find a way to see each other. This is the longest I've seen you be without her since the third grade, Pe-" She said before getting interrupted by Peter.

    "I said it's nothing." He said sternly, his voice turning cold.

    "Peter-"

    "I said it's nothing, May! Jesus Christ, it's fucking nothing!" He yelled, slamming his laptop closed as he got off of the couch, making his way into his bedroom.

    "Peter, you have to tel, me what's going on here. I've never seen you like this. What the hell is wrong?" May asked, concern filling her voice.

    "Shit! I love her. God, I love her, May. I can’t stop thinking about her. I can’t do anything. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t concentrate. Please… just tell me what to do.” Peter begged, hot tears beginning to stream down his face, his eyes and cheeks turning red from the overload of emotions he was feeling.

    "I'm sorry to say it, but you can’t do anything when you love someone like that, Peter. But you have to tell her or you’ll go crazy." She said, her eyes turning soft. She felt sympathy for Peter, she knew exactly what he was going through.

    "I don’t want mess up what her and I have. I can’t lose her, May. I can't." Peter chokes out through tears.

    "Just tell her how you feel, Peter. And pray that it’ll work out well."

    "It’s not that simple, May! It’s more complicated than that! I’m sorry that I’m yelling, but I’m suffocating in my own feelings over here! Either I’m numb or I’m feeling everything, May… I can’t do this, it’s too much." Peter said, sinking onto the floor as he let his emotions take over him. May immediately ran over to him, sitting down next to him on the floor, hugging him tightly as he sobbed into May's neck, his hot tears soaking her striped shirt.

    "You need to go talk to her, Peter. As soon as you possibly can, or you're gonna lose it before you can even say her name." ay said, kissing the top of his head as she pulled away, looking at Peter with sadness in her eyes as he tried to wipe some of is tears away with his hoodie, the one that you had given back to him by leaving it in a brown paper bag my his window on the fire escape.

***

    You sat on your bed, trying your best to read one of your favorite books in a desperate attempted to make yourself feel better as one of your and Peter's favorite playlists played quietly in the background.

    You jumped sightly when you heard the tapping on your window... it had been a while since you had heard it. Butterflies swarmed your stomach when you saw Peter, and you tried your best to wipe away the tears that filled your eyes and that trailed down your face slowly.

    You and Peter looked at each other for the longest time you had in two months, both of you not breathing when you unlocked and opened your window, stepping back to let Peter climb through.

    "Can I hug you?" He asked, more tears forming in your eyes as you heard him speak to you for the first time in two months.

    "Y-yeah." You managed to choke out.

    That was all Peter needed to hear before he wrapped his arms tightly around you, both of you immediately sobbing loudly into each other's embrace.

    "Fuck, Y/N. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." Peter said over and over again, your head buried in his chest.

    "I'm sorry, Peter. I should've talked to you, I should've asked you. God, I'm so sorry, Pete." You cried, both of your grips tightening around each other.

    "No, it's my fault. I overreacted. It's just that... I- I..." Peter stuttered out, his grip around you loosening as you stepped only a few feet away to get a good look at his face.

    "What is it, Peter?" You asked, one of your hands going up to cup one of his cheeks, rubbing your thumb around the skin, remembering how much you had missed the smoothness of it.

    "I-, I'm just gonna say it because I can't think of any other way to put it... Y/N L/N, I'm in love with you. I'm so in love with you that it hurts. I've been in love with you since we were nine years old, and that's the reason I freaked out about Brennan. I love you so fucking much, Y/N. Jesus Christ, I can't breathe without you, I can't sleep, I can barely even do my fucking homework without you being around me. And I know that yo probably don't feel the same way about me, and that's okay, but-" He breathed out, a weight visibly lifting from is shoulders and he continued rambling, before you interrupted him.

    "Peter, shut the fuck up." You laughed, causing him to top dead in his tracks.

    "W-what?" He asked, his eyes widening with fear.

    "I'm in love with you too, Peter. God, how could I not be? You're the sweetest, smartest, funniest guy I know. And I am so in love with you that I can't even read my favorite fucking book!" You said before stepping closer to him, your arms slowly starting to wrap themselves softly around his neck.

    "Can I kiss you?" He asked, his arms starting wrap around your waist, pulling you closer to each other.

    "Please." You breathe out quietly.

    And with that, you and Peter kissed for the first time in what felt like forever. Just two dumb and in love kids. You stood up on your tippy toes to deepen the kiss. It was one of those movie kisses... the total sparks flying, butterflies in the stomach kisses. It was one of the main things that you had missed. You missed how perfectly his lips molded to your, like they were two puzzle pieces that could only fit together with the other.

    "Peter," You moaned when he started to kiss down your neck, his hands quickly lifting your sweatshirt off of you, you crawling onto the bed when you felt the backs of your legs hit your bed. "Please." You said, Peter's body situated between yours as he kissed your neck, his sweatshirt already discarded somewhere on your floor, your bare chests pressed against each other's.

    "Please what?" He smirked against your chest, nipping on your bare breasts lightly.

    "Fuck, make love to me, Peter." You begged, your back arching and a moan escaping your lips from the love bites Peter was giving you.

    He looked up at you for a few seconds, your eyes meeting his, a soft smile covering your face as you ran your hands through Peter's curly brown locks, missing how they felt against your fingers.

    You met your lips with Peter's, telling hi that you wanted him, and he kissed you back, a way of him showing you that it wanted you back.

    Peter pulled away after a few minutes, his fingers going to the waistband of your sweatpants, pulling them down, along with your underwear, before sitting back to take his own off. You licked your lips when his member sprung up against his lower stomach. If you both weren't so needy right now, you would've taken your time. But you two needed each other now more than ever.

    Peter hovered over you again, his body between yours, is hard length in his hand.

    "Ready?" He asked. The things that boy did to you... he always made you feel special, you didn't understand how he did it... it just came natural to him.

    "Yes..." You whispered, connecting your lips with his as he slid into you, both of you moaning loudly into each other's mouths.

    "Fuck!" You said in sync, your legs wrapping around Peter's waist before he started with a slow pace, wanting to make it last. He knew it probably wouldn't last as long as he would want it to, but goddamn, you felt fucking incredible around him.

    "Shit, you're so tight!" He groaned, his head dipping down to kiss your lips tenderly, your lips parting to deepen the kiss as his thrusts sped up, causing you to whimper loudly into his mouth as he groaned.

    "Fuck, Peter!" You screamed when he hit a spot so deep inside of you that it made your head spin as your back arched, your chests pressing against each other's even more, the feeling of Peter's skin on yours feeling like heaven.

    Even with all of the experience Brennan had, Peter knew how your body worked better than you did yourself. He knew just what to do to get you to come undone underneath him, to have your eyes squeeze tightly shut, to have you screaming him name in only minutes.

    "God, fuck," He groaned, his head going to suck deep purple marks into the crook of your neck, loud moans leaving the both of you. "Jesus, I'm already close, baby. I don't know how long I'm gonna last. You feel t fucking good around me."

    "Fuck, cum for me, Peter. Please." You begged, your eyes squeezing shut at the feeling of Peter hitting deep inside of you, along with the words and groans coming out of his mouth.

    He reached his hand down in between the two of you, rubbing harsh, tight circles on your clit, causing you to move your hands into his hair, tugging harshly as you came closer and closer to reaching your high.

    "Fuck, P-Peter! I'm gonna cum!" You screamed, Peter groaning into your ear only spurring you on, along with the sensations on your clit. Within seconds, you were coming undone around him, your walls clenching tightly around his length as your legs tightened around his waist, your arms hugging his body closer to your.

    And with only a few final thrusts, Peter was a complete groaning mess, his hips stilling as he came inside of you, his body collapsing on top of yours when his strength completely gave out, his head falling onto your chest.

    The next few moments were spent in a comfortable silence, your hands smoothing up and down Peter's arms and back and you both tried to get your breathing to calm down.

    "Y/N?" Peter said, looking up at you with his beautiful brown eyes. The sight would melt anybody's heart immediately, you were sure of it.

    "Yeah, Pete?" You said, kissing his forehead before meeting his eyes again.

    "God, I'm gonna sound like a little kid, but, uh... will you, ya know, be my girlfriend? Just us? No one else?" He asked, his heart rate speeding up a bit out of nervousness.

    "Of course, dummy." You laughed, Peter moving up to connect your lips in a soft kiss, both of you feeling completely safe.

    "I love you." He said, smiling between kisses.

    "I love you too, Peter."

__________

@ertherealrose​ @peter-tiingle​ @petertiingz​ @fallinfortom​

[pastelninjaimagines]

Fast Lane | Tomura Shigaraki x reader

Summary: You convince Tomura to go on a little outing outside of town, however Kurogiri is unavailable to warp you there, leaving the only option to drive. And ofc Tomura wants to be the one to drive...even though he’s never been behind a wheel before irl. You may have to give him some pointers.... (I had the idea while driving the other day that Tomura likely does not know how to actually drive a car, and then this lil ficlet popped out haha)

“Tomuraaaa,” you hugged Tomura Shigaraki from behind as he sat at the bar, “can we go here?” You thrusted your phone in front of his face. 

“Huh?” He took it carefully in his hand, liking the warmth that your arm brought draped around his shoulders. Displayed on the screen in front of him was an article about a festival outside of the city. “What’d you wanna go there for?”

“It looks like fun! C’mon, it’s summer, the weather’s great…let’s get outta here and go do something!” 

He blinked at you, turning his head to the side so he could get a good look as he put the phone down on the bar’s counter. Those puppy dog eyes in combination with the pouty lips gave him pause. It was a one-two hit combo that always k.o’d his resilience. “Look, I don’t mind going I guess. But Kurogiri’s out on an important mission.”

“We don’t need to bother Kurogiri! It’s not like we need a babysitter.”

“Uhhhh, then how’re we getting there, genius?”

You shrugged, slinking your arms from around his shoulders and going behind the bar, bending down and pulling out a chilled glass, filling it with some ice and soda. “We can just drive. I know that’s a more boring way than traveling via warp gate, but ya know it could be fun! A lil’ road trip and a summer festival. Can’t get much better.” 

“No. We can just stay here. Play some games, I dunno…fuck around.” 

“Oh, but we can do that any old time! C’mon, the festival’ll be fun, I swear!”

He deadpanned. “Gimmie an actual reason. Otherwise I got no reason to go. Fun isn’t tempting enough.”

You leaned across the counter to be nose-to-nose with Tomura. “If I promise to do whatever you want later, will that change your mind?”

Smirking, he said, “Now you’ve got my attention. Don’t regret it later.” 

Together you were walking down the street towards the car which was parked a few blocks down from the bar. Shigaraki was slinking next to you, hands deep in the pockets of his sweatshirt. You got out the keys from your pocket and were about to head for the driver’s seat when he said, “I wanna drive.”

“Okay, sure,” you tossed him the keys and he caught it, letting them dangle between his thumb and forefinger. 

You both got in and he started the ignition. And sat there. 

“Tomu…are you gonna go?”

“Yeah…gimmie a sec.” He was looking around, a hand tentatively on the steering wheel and the other on the shift. He looked out the passenger’s window and then fiddled with the rearview mirror unnecessarily, mind working, and then jerkily shifted the car into drive. Without looking, he pulled into the lane and immediately a car beeped at you as he cut them off. 

You began fiddling with the radio as you eyed Tomura. He cut off another car as he sped down the street, nearly blowing a light. His movements were jerky and the he hit the break hard. The hard stop made your hand fly out in front of you, gripping the dash. A sneaking suspicion began to bloom in your mind. Both of his hands were on the steering wheel, his knuckles white from the overbearing grip. He tapped the wheel with one finger as he stared down the light, willing it to change. And once it did, he floored the gas. Your hand was hanging onto the door handle as if that would keep you stationary as he took a harsh right turn, making the tires screech. 

“Tomu, you’re driving like this is GTA!” you laughed nervously, knowing how much he played the game in reference. 

He shrugged, his body visibly tense as he changed lanes, cutting off another car narrowly missing colliding with them and earning another beep. “Can’t you change the music? I hate that poppy radio shit, just connect my phone.”

As you unlocked Tomura’s phone and pressed shuffle on his playlist, you asked as nonchalantly as possible, “Did Kurogiri teach you to drive?”

“No.”

This brought pause, making you blink. “Then who the hell taught you?”

“Look, I know how to drive! Do you know how many hours I’ve put into GTA? And you can’t come close to me in Mario Kart.” 

“Please tell me that this is not the first time you’re behind an actual wheel?” You said slowly, your words very measured and even as your eyes went wide, staring at the congested lane ahead as he once again had to hit the breaks hard, bringing the car to a jerky stop. 

“So what if it is?” He said defensively. 

“Oh. My. God….and I’m the fool who gave you the fucking keys!”

“Why would I have ever driven before? That’s what I have Kurogiri for…and look, I wanted to try it!”

“That poor man has no life of his own.”

Tomura glared at you. “You’re the one that wants to go to this damn festival outta town! I could just dust this fucking car and we won’t go at all.” 

“Don’t take your eyes off the road! Look…it’s fine to try it out, but it’d be bad if we got pulled over or if you hit someone. Lemme just give you some pointers, okay?” When he glared at you again, his eyes narrowed to little lethal slits, you hastily added, “You’re doing really great! I just wanna help is all!”

“Fine whatever,” he spat out, eyes turning back to the road. 

“Okay, so put your hand a little lower,” you reached over and guided his hand carefully down the steering wheel, “it’ll be more comfortable that way. And when you change lanes, look out your side mirror, don’t just do it. You’ve almost hit two cars like that.”

“You’ve almost hit two cars,” he said in a higher-pitched, mocking voice. “They weren’t even close!” 

The GPS called out for him to turn. “Okay, you’re gonna wanna slow down and roll into the turn since you have the green light. You were taking the turns a little fast before,” you put gently. 

He rolled his eyes. “They were fine!” But he took his foot off the gas and the turn was smoother. 

“That was a lot better!” 

Smriking, his body seemed to relax as he leaned back in his seat. “I’ve been told I’m a fast learner.” 

“Mmmm, I’m sure by loads of people.” 

“Hey be grateful! I could just turn the wheel to dust and we’d be doing what I want.”

“You’re enjoying driving too much to do that.” 

“Semantics.” And he blew a red.

Your eyes popped. “I think you did that on purpose! You actually gotta stop at reds, Tomura!” 

He snorted, “Yeah, okayyy. You think I’m gonna follow traffic laws?” 

You shook your head, unable to contain a laugh. “It’s your way or the highway, I guess.”

“Now you’re getting it! Remember I can turn this party right back around.

“This is gonna end in a fucking car chase. Not sure why I’m surprised.”

“Where’s the fun if we don’t break a few rule?” As he said that, he cut off another car, but this time you did catch him checking his mirror. He just chose to be an asshole. 

Little victories had to be acknowledged. “I’ll admit you are getting better.” 

He turned onto the freeway, and swerved in and out of lanes until the road was clear and he could speed down, the speedometer pushing past 70, then 80, then began pushing close to 100. “Okay, this is kinda fun.” 

“I’m gonna have to close my eyes and brace myself when you try to park,” you sighed. “And forget reversing. We’re gonna get into a fender-bender by the end of the day.”

Tomura shrugged. “Semantics.” 

[jennsmischievousmind]

Fucks not Found

One, but not done [END]

Ch1 Ghosts | Ch2 Florence | Ch3 A Matter of Seconds | Ch4 I need a Backdoor | Ch5 Die Hard | Ch6 White Flag | Ch7 Haunt the Living | Ch 8 One, but not done [end]

Seven sighed as One disappeared when it was time to pack everything "Is he always like that or is he just being purposefully annoying?”

“How the fuck would I know?!” Three slammed a crate on the ground, holding his back like an old man.

“Who?” you were all packing the mission’s gear in the Haunted House.

“One,”

“Purposefully, no doubt!” you chuckled.

Later you knocked on his trailer door,

"Old man, we have to talk,"

"Let me guess, you want a bigger trailer so you and skater boy could go at it, not gonna happen,"

"Hum .. not exactly, look I know it's the first rule you told us about, and we broke it, actually 4 of us broke it. We're human One,"

He sighed "I just.. need you to be focus on the job."

"We are fo-.."

"Getting shot prove that you were focus," he threw his phone on the desk

"Alright you got a point,"

"These numbers are for your own safety," he stated angrily "but I guess now it's all fucked up."

"Not necessarily, I mean, now we all know each other better, we have better bonds,"

"Tell me about it," you smirked at his saying "... actually don't," he furrowed his eyebrows as you chuckled.

"Think about it," you pointed out as you were stepping out "this team, could do so much more,"

He nodded and something snapped.

"Hold on," he rummaged through a drawer to finally hand you a silver key, his eyes changed for a second “Might be cliché but he would have been proud.”

Smiling slightly at One, you left to open your brother's safe.

There were photographs, a few envelopes with the same cachet and a P/O box address on it.

One of the photographs, in black and white yellowed by the time showed your Mamma and Papa at your age in front of the Coliseum, looking happy as ever, the warmth of their smiled enveloping you instantly. Another one with your Mamma in swims wear gracefully sat on the sand, holding both of you. You were so tiny, wearing terrible hats and frowning at the sun. You found yourself laughing, a tear landing on the envelope’s corner behind the pictures.

Setting aside those pictures, you flicked the envelope open. Eyes scanning the document multiple times you were not sure what you were reading. Palm against your agape mouth, you read the main text.

 “Dear Anonymous donator,

We would like to thank you for all these years of generosity. Your help has given access healthcare to people in dread need of it. With the help of caring people such as yourself, we have been able to afford the construction of a new volunteer centre, which will provide a facility to help maximize the amount of lives we can save.

Your last donation in date had us all profoundly touch and grateful.

We will never not be thankful enough. We wish we had a name to put on the facility’s wall. But we respect your privacy and so we’ll stop asking from now on.

All proceeds of your donations advance our lifesaving mission.

Thank you, dear anonymous donator.“

The tears blurred your vision until you couldn't see through it. He had found his anchor.

You cried, not of sadness but of proudness. For you he was still the kid throwing stones on the neighbor’s roof, the one who couldn’t sleep on stormy nights, the teen who cried when his crush rejected him. He was your anchor for years.

One paid you much more than you needed to live. You assumed now your brother had donated the payment. And all these years when he worked multiple jobs... it all became clear.

"You were the better twin, baby brother!" You mumbled to yourself.

Weeks later the Donations continued yet the anonymous donator had a found an alias.

Six

Passing by the pool you stopped once more before leaving the scorching desert until One would need you.

Weeks ago you brother was laughing at you on the other side of this very pool, these memories were gold now, they didn’t make you sad anymore, you grinned remembering him holding his chest while laughing on the ground, little fucker.

“Hey luv,”

“Hey,” he sat next to you on the edge of the empty pool

"So we're out?" His hand snaked around your waist bringing you closer.

"Not for now," you smiled thinking about this time spend with this weird squad, eager for a new operation.

“So where shall we go until next,”

“You're ready to stick with me? Are you mad?" He laughed as you touched his forehead for any kind of fever.

"Banged my head a few times yeah, but I'm pretty sure I'm mad...about you."

"God you spent to much time around One." He gently reached for your jaw turning your head to him, the blush creeping on your cheeks not helping to hide that you actually liked that he was ready to come with you anywhere, he leaned in for a quick kiss.

.

The warm air and sounds of busy streets of Italy passing through the ajar window woke you up. Looking at your watch on the bedside table you immediatly turn your back to it, snuggling back into Four's chest. Too early. The night was short.

"What do you say about Transylvania?" he mindlessly ran pattern on your back with his warm fingers.

"For what? Vampire retreat?"

"Hiking, but I can bite" feeling his teeth of soft spot on your neck you squirmed.

"Aouch, alright, we'll go to Transylvania tomorrow. I got to see my brother first."

He nodded, his smile sliding off.

"What?"

"I'm...I'm not really comfortable with...mourning," he played with your fingers on his chest avoiding your look "I ..uh.."

"Calm down babe," you straddled him, the sheet sliding down your bare body "I'm not asking you to come with me." You chuckled at his concerned face, and his lost of attention at the sight of your naked body.

He sighed, "You know he was like a brother to me..." you tilted your head watching him

"That would be weird.." you removed your hands from his

"shit no not a brother," he caught your hands putting them right back on his chest" a .. a best friend,"

"Stop talking," you leaned in, enclosing his lips with yours. His hands immediatly reached your tighs, you felt a shiver ran his chest as your finger brushed his skin from his throat to his navel. A firm squeezed on your thighs made you giggled, he was so easy to trigger.

He sat up, one of his arm tightly set around your low back while the other snake to your back, his hand holding the back your neck. A lovely mess of tangled limbs in silk sheet was all you were. You pushed him back on the bed, holding his hands up his head.

You nibbled on his earlobe, and chuckled when he groaned at the ministrations trying to fight your hold on him. He could easily removed himself from your grip, guess he wouldn't this time.

Finding your way down his neck, chest, navel ... taking your sweet time until you reach the point of no return. He gasped, his head lolling back on the pillow "God I love Italy,"

.

“Ciao brother” cross seating at the grave of his fake death, there were flowers already with a cup of mochaccino beside it, you laughed, only One person could have done that. Glancing at your own grave, you shivered at your name engraved in the marble stone.

You recall the all mission as if your twin was there listening to you, “This one is for you, and the next, and the next.” You breathe in feeling tears coming up, “I kept your cross," you scoffed, "you can thank Four for that. As long as I have it, I’ll have you, mammà and papa with me promise.” kissing the cross you left a single tear rolled down your face.

One knew how to be a ghost, perfectly, no one could trace him, anyone but you. .... The gps tracker in his watch helped. If he knew, he’d probably wouldn’t be happy, but hey he is your cash source can’t lose an eye on him.

“So, that’s your secret!” looking at the little boy in the playground whom looked like the man beside you.

“Shit! He jumped

“Hey,” you grinned leaning on the grid, sliding your shades down.

“Aren’t you supposed to be OUT of Italy?” he groaned

“It’s my homeland One, what’d you expect?” you pointed at your wig and shades “Disguise,”

“It’s always better than Three’s in Vegas,” He joked “You’re kicked out, it’s immediate,” He stated, not even believing it himself.

“Yeaaaah, I don’t think so,” you nudged his shoulder. A ghost of a grin appeared knowingly.

"Do you follow everyone, or are you my private stalker?"

"You really wanna know!?" You shifted on your two feet, he got the idea that everyone had a stalker in the name of Eight.

"Cleavers," you used his own line

"Shut up," he answered tired of your shit, resulting in you laughing a bit too loud.

Regaining a sense of calm you felt he was still uneasy about you seeing his son. “Your secret is safe with me old man,” He nodded a tight smile on his lips, and somehow he knew he could trust you.

“Haunted house, in a week.”

“Noted.” Saluting with two-fingers you took a few steps back still eyeing him with fondness, proudness, maybe not just a cash source in the end. He flicked you off, a bright smile spread on your face.

“Where’s Four by the way?” he called out

“Somewhere on the roofs, he can’t help it.”

He lifted his head, you took this time to disappear around the corner.

Calling Four you stumble upon his voicemail “Skater boy, you better bring down your cute ass. We’re heading back to the Haunted House in a week. Mission 2 is coming. Love ya!”

A week later

"Please don't,"

"One, I only hugged her for a second," you rolled your eyes. Five was still holding your shoulders.

"Tell me you're not going to freak out everytime two of us are close,"

Two had a grin on, Five was being clingy on purpose. It had been a month since you've seen everyone, except Four and One. You had missed everyone, Five especially, after the parkour lessons, the incident on the yacht you had become close friends.

"Hey squad," Four let his skate rolled until it hit a wall. He reached you kissing your cheek, then sending you a wink as he took a seat next to Three. You eyed One, holding a laugh, Five carefully removed her hands from around your arm. Four looked dumbfounded as One sighed, staring at you. He then flung his arms in the air.

"Fucking Millennials!"

Thanks to everyone who read, liked, commented on Fucks not Found. It was fun to write, let me know what could be improved, I'm still working on my english that's why everything is not perfect and quite limited. Looking forward a new story. Thanks again.

A/N: don't forget to double tap if you liked it. 🙏

[brynfelan]

ALDJSHSKS OH THANK GOD I WASN'T WORRIED BUT I WAS A LIL WORRIED...alright imma start off with a Kuzuhina(ish) idea, because rarepair hell sucks let's suffer together. Hajine gets kidnapped by a psycho group NOT because of his relationship to Fuyuhiko, but because they "wanna see what makes the Ultimate Ultimate tick." Which is infinitely worse because the human experimentation is back on for our tsundere ahoge boy. He got lobotomized and now he's back in that particular hell. Izuru's also suffering because he's grown to care for Hajime in his own way, because they're two separate minds in one body, and he can't protect Hajime from this. Fuyuhiko is basically going postal because "MY BOYFRIEND WAS KIDNAPPED BY LUNATICS, WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY WANT, AND NO ONE'S DOING ANYTHING WHAT THE FUCK." The rest of the Remnants are also pissed and worried, but Fuyuhiko moreso. Your thoughts???

like one day he’s just gone ?? no note? just poof?

holy hell i have this image of fuyuhiko absolutely TEARING UP the 100km area around them just looking. ofc the other remnants are pissed too but nobody has ever seen fuyuhiko just go off like this. eventually he realises he can’t find him by just searching aimlessly so soda builds some walkie talkies STAT (or they get to ask future foundation for help? i haven’t decided which is better), but point is all of the remnants absolutely descend on the surrounding area, with their own sections to search. the communicators have lil GPS things on em so they always know where the other is.

it’s gotta be fuyuhiko that finds him though, right? because like... angst. anyway, fuyuhiko finds this old underground bunker, and can’t open it by himself so he calls everybody over. akane, gundham and nekomaru manage to get it open, n peko has to literally hold fuyuhiko back to stop him just bolting down there as fast as he can.

they get to have a fucking cool fight scene when they’re down there, because I can’t resist letting Peko absolutely go off with her sword, and we saw what kinda mess akane and nekomaru can make fighting in the despair arc. those three people could definitely take down like 30 people between them, trust me on this one.

the worst part is when they get to the room that has hajime in it. the door got locked when whoever got him realised that they’d had a security breach, and it’s a proper lead door that won’t open for anybody and everybody has to repeatedly throw themselves against it in order to get it to open. everybody’s panicking, but there is nobody worse than fuyuhiko. like, to the point where some of them are worried that he’s gonna get his ass despaired again. but nobody says anything because main priority is hajime. 

at some point, nagito started looking through the pockets of the people that got absolutely knocked tf out, and Lucky Him! he finds a key! it’s maybe the first time ever that fuyuhiko ever thanks him for something (and my god does he thank him like, he’s crying and while he’s a lil bit aggressive he’s so grateful) and they get in and find hajime hooked up to a ton of different machines.

you ever heard of project MKUltra? when the US government tested psychedelic drugs (particularly LSD) as a torture device/truth serum? yeah well, this is it! hajime is tripping absolute balls and not in a fun way, occasionally getting some electric shocks! why? well, it’s in the “doctor’s” file on the desk! because wouldn’t hajime also be the ultimate weapon if he’s the ultimate everything else? imagine having him as something that can be controlled, told what to do. you could end the world, overthrow a government, you name it!

mikan has to carefully remove the electrodes from him because he’s fighting her hard, but there isn’t a way to get him to stop tripping and freaking out until it passes, except to just straight up sedate him. they have no idea how long this has been happening to him or what he’ll be like when it’s over. mikan has to scrounge through everything that this place has to find something, and even though it takes a while she does eventually find a high enough dose sedative that will help without just making him OD and die. unfortunately, it has to go in through a needle.

historically, hajime isn’t good with needles. he’s even worse when he’s off his fucking face and having the very definition of a Bad Trip. he barely knows where he is, and there’s a part of him that does recognise the people around him but his brain isn’t working properly and he just can’t stop freaking out. he’s already restrained though, so it isn’t too hard to just quickly sedate him. fuyuhiko’s basically glued to him now, telling him he’s sorry and that he’ll be okay soon, that it’s gonna be alright.

luckily, without getting it directly and constantly, the effects of LSD only take around 12 hours to wear off. by the time they’re back at wherever they’re living, most of the hallucinations have worn off, but he’s quiet and hurt, and the electric buzzing kinda fried his brain a little bit - he’s still there, but izuru is basically the one in charge of the body right now since he’s letting hajime rest for now.

fuyuhiko still thinks izuru is a little weird, but like... he’s part of hajime, so he’ll put up with whatever bullshit izuru can throw at him. izuru isn’t as affectionate, but will hold his hand every so often and give him small smiles when he needs them, and it just feels good to have him back and safe. when hajime comes back again though, it takes a while before he can be left alone again. not that fuyuhiko is leaving his side basically ever now because he’s sure as hell not letting that happen ever again. and it takes him a while to heal, he never truly forgets or gets over what happened to him, but everybody’s there for him. he knows he has a family now, and everybody understands if he needs to go away for a little while and let izuru take care of the body when he can’t.

okay this got super long and i am very sorry but you threw this concept at me and i ran because i love angst so much, but the comforting after the angst is also so good.

[coldtacosaladwasntfound]

dissimilant • feral boys + oc series • 1

super powers au

I remember when I was at that age; everything changing, hormones rushing through your body. You know what most people don't associate with puberty? Fucking super powers.

It wasn't a surprise by any means. I'd been raised with the knowledge that eventually I'd get my powers. My parents are both dissimilant, so I was bound to get that gene. If I didn't gain any powers, I probably would've been disappointed; especially considering it's considered the best day of your life when you're like me.

I was maybe 11 years old when I realized I was dissimilant (also, off the record, what the hell is that title? Dissimilant? Like... dissimilar? Way to make me feel normal). I always expected something totally badass. Maybe I would get fire powers and be able to burn things to a crisp. Maybe I'd end up able to control electricity or something actually useful. But you know what I got stuck with? Healing. Of course healing abilities have their own benefits, but I don't wanna end up working in a dissimilant hospital for the rest of my life. I want to be on the frontlines, using my powers the way everyone else does.

The Dissimilant Association of Justice (DAJ) is a group of highly trained professionals who do all the work the government can't capitalize on. This generally is exclusively dissimilant crime, seeing as you can't put someone with beyond human abilities in a normal human made prison. How am I, a healer, supposed to be working as an agent with DAJ? It's dream I had to give up on almost as soon as I started training my abilities.

I hear something buzz. It catches my attention, causing me to look over from my laptop to my bedside table. I've been studying for an exam coming up (for college, not some cool super power school). It's not my phone, so it has to be my DT. A DT is a device you're given by "The Force"; a local dissimilant program that helps youth practice their abilities safely. Don't let the cool name fool you, it's just to distract you from how lame it actually is. The device is meant to let you know current news and information within the community, as well as let us access our progress.

I pick up my DT and look at the screen.

INCOMING MESSAGE

38.987124, -74.811566

What? These are definitely coordinates. I quickly type them into a search engine, my eyes scanning the results. The Wildwood Boardwalk? I have tons of questions. First, why am I being sent coordinates? Second, who's sending me coordinates? And last, when is someone sent coordinates that they shouldn't go to? I live a walk away from the beach, so the urge to check it out is strong... so I'm going to.

I've snuck out millions of times, this is hardly different. Just gotta go through the usual process of sneaking out as if I'm a 16 year old trying to go to a party and not a grown adult trying to... do whatever it is I'm doing. I grab my backpack and a jacket before opening my window, phone and DT in hand, and climbing out of my family's apartment through the fire escape. When I reach the ground, I put the numbers in my phone's GPS and make my way to my bike.

As I ride in the direction I'm told, I can't help but second guess what I'm doing. I'm going to coordinates sent to me by god knows who for crying out loud, this is a sketchy decision and I'll admit to that. Deep down, though, I just had this feeling that I needed to see what was there. I saw that message for a reason and I have to find out why. So I rode down to the boardwalk, stopping at the exact point of the coordinates and hopping off my bike.

There's nothing here. I looked around at the closed booths and rides, the beach only a few yards away. I saw a figure in the distance. It was getting closer, soon getting close enough to be recognizable as a person. My DT started buzzing again. I pulled it out of my pocket and read the words on the screen.

INCOMING MESSAGE

Arrived. Please wait for your teammates to arrive.

Teammates?

The person got closer, now fully visible to me. They pulled something out of their pocket. It illuminated their features with blue light as they looked at it. A DT. They made eye contact with me. "Uh, hello?" They stood about 2 feet in front of me, and I could now see them clearly. "I'm, uh, Alex."

"Alex? Why did you bring me here?" I question. He looks fairly normal to me. His beanie sits on top of his head of slightly messy hair, just a plain T-shirt and sweatpants on.

"I didn't bring you here. I thought you brought me here." He looks down at his DT again. "Do you have one of these?" He holds it up, showing the screen. The same text that was on mine was displayed on his.

I nod. "Yeah... that's a DT. It's what told me to come here here." I pull out my own to show him. "I guess we're teammates... whatever that means."

"I was actually hoping you knew what that means." I shake my head. Silence falls, almost like the two of us are waiting for something. Another voice quickly ends that and grabs our attention.

"Hey!" We both look over, seeing another guy walk up to us. "Who are you?" He seems to keep a distance. He also looks pretty average, blonde hair and green eyes plus a normal wardrobe for a guy his age.

Unsure what to respond with, beanie boy let's out a "Um, Alex?" like he's questioning his name.

"Jordan," I say, plain and simple. "We don't know why we're here. Do you?"

A look of what seems like slight confusion takes over his face. "I'm Clay. I wish I knew." I feel a bit disappointed at the lack of closure.

"Let me guess, your DT got your here?" He nods, looking surprised at my knowledge of what a DT is. "Okay, so we're all dissimilant. That's a start."

"This is epic and all, but I can't shake the feeling that we shouldn't be here," Alex admits.

"Considering the circumstances, who knows if we even have a choice," Clay says.

"He makes a good point," I agree. All of our DTs buzz in sync, causing us to look at the newest message.

INCOMING MESSAGE

3/6 teammates arrived. New location pending.

"What does that mean?" Alex rhetorically questions.

"I guess we're gonna be moving soon." Clay stays silent, probably thinking. "The sooner we have everyone on our 'team' the sooner we get answers."

"I can't tell if I want answers or out of this." We look to Alex as he speaks.

"Something tells me you're not gonna get one without the other," Clay says.

INCOMING MESSAGE

38.977922, -74.823873

The three of us all check the notification, seeing exactly what I expected. I type the coordinates into my phone, the address of a hotel coming up. "It's the Adventurer Oceanfront Inn, a 20 minute walk," I read off of the screen.

"Guys, I think I made a mistake coming out here," Alex says. "This all seems so sketchy."

"We need you to help us find answers. Plus, you came all the way out here, you don't wanna know what's going on?" I push. "There's two more people. Let's go find them."

"I agree," Clay says. "We're already here, we might as well."

I get on my bike, and start my GPS. "I'll lead the way, let's go." Without objection, the guys follow me as I try to ride at a slower speed. "We're gonna be traveling for a bit, we might as well get to know each other." They nod in agreement.

"I'll go first then," Alex starts. "I'm Alex, I'm 20, and I have mind powers, because I'm just so incredible." Clay rolls his eyes before talking.

"I'm Clay, I'm 22, and I have superhuman strength... because I'm even more incredible." I wouldn't have pegged him as the type to have super strength, or the type to be phased by a cocky comment like the other guy's.

"I'm Jordan, I'm 21, and I'm a healer," I introduce myself. "Not so incredible."

"Who says? Healing powers are super useful," Clay reassures me.

"Not when you wanna be an agent." Clay gives me a weird look. "What?"

"Be grateful, you have an actually helpful power. So what if you can't be an agent?" I roll my eyes at his obvious lack of understanding. He has super strength for gods sake.

"Easy for you to say, you could be an agent without even trying." He lets the discussion stop there, looking ahead of us at the empty street.

"I think your powers are cool, Jordan," Alex says, breaking the silence.

"Thanks." The conversation falls flat again, and nobody picks it back up. It's just the atmospheric noises of Wildwood, New Jersey at 2 am. I guess this gives me some time to think about what exactly I'm doing right now.

I'm out of the house in the middle of the night, guiding some random people to a hotel because the coordinates on our 'superhero' devices said so. We could be about to get kidnapped, but also, why would a kidnapper lead us to a location that's open 24/7? I guess we're about to find out.

"So, mind powers? Show us," Clay says to Alex, a 'prove it' tone in his voice. How immature.

"See, uh... I can't really do that." The blonde quirks a brow in question. "It's triggered by my feelings, I can't just do it whenever I want to."

"Lame," He remarks, childishly.

"Shut up, it's not lame!" Alex says in defense.

"It totally is."

"Shut your trap, blondie, you're being a menace," I butt in, stopping a possible quarrel in it's tracks. With that, both of the boys quiet down. I glance down at my GPS, seeing the time estimate says there's only 10 minutes left of our journey. "We have 10 minutes left, I don't want either of you scaring off whoever we meet."

"I'm not scary at all, you should be talking to Mr. Bully over here," Alex jokes.

"I'm talking to both of you," I say, letting out a sigh of annoyance.

After traveling for another 10 minutes, we reach the parking lot of the hotel. We see three guys conversing by the entrance.

INCOMING MESSAGE

Arrived. 6/6 teammates arrived. Approach.

They pull a device out of each of their pockets and look at the screen before their eyes find us. I get off of my bike and walk forward with the other boys. "I'm Jordan. This is Alex and Clay. Who are you?" I say, skipping any other formalities.

They all look fairly normal, although one of them looks like he actually got dressed to come here. One of them speaks up, "I'm... Sapnap. You can call me that." I try to think of why he'd pick that as a nickname before just ignoring it.

"Karl," the dressed one says. He seems nervous.

"I'm George... why are we here?"

I can't help but snicker at how many times I've heard that question tonight. "Who fucking knows."

"What she means is, we're not sure either," Clay says, finally talking to them. Alex seems to be distracted, staring off at a phone booth.

"Guys... I know this may sound weird, but I think we need to go in the phone booth," He says, still staring off. We all look him weirdly. He walks off towards it, me following after him to see what he's on about. He steps inside it, waiting a second, his hands on the walls. Before he can do or say anything, the floor beneath him suddenly disappears. He yells out, drawing the attention of the group.

"Alex!" I scream out. I look at the boys before making a decision. "We have to jump down after him!"

"Are you crazy?" Clay says in attempt to stop me.

I let out a nervous breath. "You know what... I think I am." I jump down after him, hearing my name being called after me but only seeing darkness.

[sierraraeck]

Ancient History and Open Wounds (Pt.2)

BAU x OC Aundreya

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Summary: In an effort to save Aundreya, the BAU has to turn to some unlikely allies before it’s too late. Story twenty.

Category: Angst.

Warnings: Cussing. Kidnapping. I don’t explicitly talk about torture, but it happens. Someone gets shot. Quick mention of previous sexual abuse and drug abuse.

Word Count: 4.8k

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

“I do not think this is a good idea,” Derek asserted as the team grabbed their go-bags.

“I’m with Morgan. How can we even trust them?” JJ seconded.

“Think about it,” Spencer tried to explain, “The only people who care about her more than we do, is her ring. And that Deen guy already had the chance to ambush you and I, JJ, and he didn’t because she told him not to.”

“Doesn’t mean he won’t abush us now,” JJ pointed out.

“I don’t think he will,” Emily stepped in, “I bet they’re already working on how to find her without us, so we might as well work together.”

“But we have to fly out to them?” Derek asked.

“We are the ones with the private jet,” Rossi interjected. “And besides, she was taken from Chicago, so there’s a good chance she’s still in Chicago.”

No one else was given the chance to argue because Hotch said, “Dave has a point, and it doesn’t really matter because I scheduled us to leave in ten. We have to go, now.”

The moment they landed, they headed straight to the bookstore. Morgan made some comment about feeling weird that they weren’t going to a police station or crime scene and is it even legal for them to work behind local PD’s jurisdiction, all of which Hotch or Spencer waved off. When they got to the store, Deen was already outside waiting outside of the large glass doors for them.

“Come in,” he said, opening the door. It was about 2am wo the streets were almost completely deserted. “Look, a lot of the people here are not excited about you all showing up, so I’m going to ask you to put your weapons in this.” He gestured toward a safe on the back wall, right next to an ‘Employees Only’ sign. The team exchanged a few looks. “I get it, okay? You don’t trust us, and we don’t trust you, all for good reasons. But we both have a goal of finding Alionth, preferably alive, so please just put them away. I’ve told everyone to put thier’s away as well, so let's just all agree that we want brains and not fire power involved here today.”

Spencer was the first to give up his gun, followed by Emily and the rest of the team.

“Alionth?” JJ whispered.

“Alionth, Aundreya, Cassy, Clara, I don’t know they’re all the same person,” Emily answered with a shrug.

When it was Penelope’s turn to enter, she just walked right past the safe.

“Woah woah woah,” Deen stopped her, “The pretty lady doesn’t give up her gun?”

Penelope, who had her nose buried in her computer still typing with one hand, looked up at him. “I’m their tech analyst.”

Deen’s eyes grew, “Wait. You’re the Black Queen?” Penelope’s shocked face was all he needed for confirmation. “Oh wow. It’s an honor to meet you,” he extended his hand. Penelope hesitantly shook it, looking over at her teammates who seemed in just as much shock as she was. “Alionth’s talked about you.”

“She has?”

“Oh yeah. We all knew who you were, with your massive skills and all, and were actually about to recruit you when you got hired by the FBI. But when we found out Alionth was going to work with you, we all made sure she told us everything,” Deen was giddy, flashing her his bright smile.

“That’s … wow. I had no idea,” Penelope stumbled out.

“Wait, what do you mean you ‘found out she was going to work with the FBI?’ I wasn’t under the impression she was still in contact with you,” Hotch asked. Leave it to him to overlook the flirtiness.

Deen’s mouth ran dry. They aren’t supposed to know about the deal with Archer. “Uh… just a little bit. Um, why don’t I show you to our work space.” He turned back to Garcia, “And don’t worry, we already have the type of technology that will be compatible with yours.”

They all started following him into a back room, but Derek hung back to talk to Penelope. “Was he just hitting on you?”

“I have no idea, I don’t want to talk about it,” Garcia rushed out.

“Oh my god,” Morgan commented, shaking his head. “And they were going to recruit you?”

“I don’t know, I’ll have to Aundre- Alionth, or whatever, about it after we save her life.”

“Right,” Derek replied with a small eye roll.

They entered the massive warehouse and were blown away. There were multiple levels overlooking the main one, and there were so many people watching them as they entered. It was dead silent as Deen stopped. He turned around and gestured for them to stay where they were while he walked forward to stand in the middle of the room.

“As you know, the behavioral analysis unit of the FBI has joined us today,” Deen started, addressing at least the 200 eyes on him, “This was the unit that Alionth was a part of, and they are here to help us find her, so I expect all of you to return the favor. If they need something, you get it to them. If we need a team of people to go with them for something, you will do that. If we want our leader back safely, we are all going to cooperate as one today. Understand?” A perfect chorus of ‘Yes, Deen’ radiated throughout the room. It sent chills down the team’s spines. They’d never seen first hand how some of these things worked from the inside, and were in a daze that at some point, that chorus was responding to the girl they knew. “Good. Proceed.” The groups of people dispersed, turning back to whatever they were doing beforehand, some even sparring on the mats.

“This is…” Emily started in disbelief.

“Yeah, it is,” Deen said with a nod, seeming to get the point, “She does it better than me, if you’re wondering.”

They filed into the conference room along the wall from the enternece where three people were already waiting. “BAU, meet Roman,” a short, thin girl with dark hair waved at them, “Niko,” a very tall, young, dark man nodded, “and Mateo.” Deen ended with a sigh as Mateo just sat there, arms crossed, just staring at the group.

Niko rolled his eyes at Mateo and extended his hand, “Please excuse my brother’s manners.”

“Manners?” Mateo bit, “You wanna talk about manners? How about them walking in here like they deserve our help, like they’re not the reason she’s in trouble right now.”

“Mateo,” Deen warned.

“What? You heard DeLeon! He said ‘the team’ not ‘the ring.’ Pretty sure he’s referencing them.”

“Mateo, do not-”

“It’s okay,” Hotch interrupted. “Can you show Garcia where she can set up and tell us what you have so far?”

“Absolutely,” Deen said, ushering Garcia over to the corner of the room, while Niko took over.

“As you probably know, she went after an old enemy of hers, Xena.”

“Yeah, we saw,” Emily said.

Niko smiled, “We know.”

“How?” she asked. He just smiled at her. “And how did you know what DeLeon was saying to Aundreya? I thought we were the only ones with a live feed.”

“She’s wired, which DeLeon is clearly okay with but, we’ll get there,” Niko said. “She was going after Xena because she figured out that she and DeLeon were behind everything that had been happening, including your imprisonment.”

“What?” Spencer was shocked. Suddenly he wished he’d paid closer attention to Xena’s face. It would be nice seeing with his own eyes, not just his eidetic memory, who did that to him.

“Yes, and that’s why she took the fall for you. Anyway, she got into it pretty bad with Xena, and walked away with some injuries-”

“What injuries?” Spencer asked.

“Her stitches were opened back up, the ribs refractured, a concussion, along with a sprained ankle and small cut on her throat,” Niko answered. “We took her to our doctor, who runs her operations out of her basement, to answer your next question,” he said, looking at Reid, “We knew that DeLeon was our next target, but after finding out that his partner, and apparently his girlfriend, was killed, Alionth was also his next target. So we gave her a small wire that would transmit everything said back to us, along with her location. However, while the wire is still intact, he must’ve been smart enough to turn off the GPS.”

“So you have nothing?” Spencer hissed. Hotch gave him a warning look, but was cut off.

“Guys,” Penelope interrupted, “The feed is back on.”

Looking at the screen, everything looked the same, except for Aundreya who was visibly drenched.

DeLeon flashed the camera a toothy grin, “I was hoping they would do that.”

“Do what?” Aundreya asked.

“I told you they would, too, you just refused to listen.”

She leaned her head back against the pole, “Fuck.”

“I wonder how they’re all getting along, you know? Especially how your boyfriend is getting along with…” he laughed, “well, your other boyfriend.”

“What?” both Mateo and Spencer asked at the same time. They spun toward each other and locked eyes. Looked like they got their answer.

“What? Nothing to say to that?” DeLeon pouted.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aundreya tried.

“I’m sure you don’t. You never were good at identifying your own emotions,” he commented, “Do they know about your past relationships, though?”

“They know,” she answered, voice hard.

“Do they all know everything?”

“What game are you playing?” Aundreya asked instead.

“Why don’t you answer the question? Do you want more of that?” he gestured to her soaken state. She just stared holes through him. “Or do I have to remind you, yet again, of what’s at stake?”

“Why does he keep saying that?” Mateo angrily asked.

“Fine,” Aundreya’s voice came over the speaker. “Where do you want me to start?”

“Where do you think?”

She rolled her eyes. “They all already know that I had a dead-beat dad, was seen by the Slaughterer, went into witness protection, lost my family-”

“Blah blah blah. Get to the good stuff.”

“What do you consider ‘the good stuff?’ It’s hard for me to determine the highlight reel of my life,” she hissed.

“How about you start when you met Xena and I.”

“Fine,” she took a deep breath, “I met Xena outside the MMA gym. She introduced me to her grandfather, Rafael, the leader of the gang, and got me initiated. I started dancing and was recognized for my skills as a pick-pocketer and investigator. That’s when I met you.” Spencer and Mateo glanced over at the other to see if they knew about everything that went on with DeLeon and his friends. They shared a mutual look of hate that expressed they knew exactly what she was skipping over. Aundreya continued, “I moved up the ranks and eventually overtook Xena. She wasn’t happy about it, so she challenged me and lost. She was kicked out.”

“Okay so we have one motive for her anger,” Prentiss interjected.

“That and Alionth’s leverage with her grandfather,” Niko added.

Prentiss was about to ask him to expand on that, but as if on cue, Aundreya answered. “Rafael did everything he could to make sure I won, so that Xena would be as far away from the gang as possible. Of course, she didn’t know that he was protecting her, because about a week later, he told me the FBI was closing in. Specifically, the BAU. So to save his legacy, he killed himself and told me-”

“You mean you killed him,” DeLeon cut in.

“No,” Aundreya was adamant, “I didn’t. That’s what you thought, I mean you blamed me for it and tried to kill me over it, but I didn’t. He killed himself.”

“No. You see, I know for a fact that it was you. You’re one hell of a liar, and it seems you’ve even convinced yourself, but it's not true,” DeLeon seemed oddly calm for the occasion.

“DeLeon, I’m telling you, I didn’t kill him.”

“You did. Rafael was a surprisingly giving man, but he would have never done that. You knew your options. It was the two of you at the top and it was either you or him. One of you had to go down and take the fall, so you chose him. You knew that he was going to pin it all on you and give the gang to me, but you didn’t like that plan, did you?”

“DeLeon, that’s not-” she tried.

“Shut up!” he shouted, “You don’t get to talk. You killed him which made it easy enough for the FBI. They believed that the gang had crumbled, the leader was dead, and everyone else scattered. But they didn’t know about you. You slit his throat and told everyone to find you in a few months, taking over leadership of the gang, and then you tried to pin his murder on me. When you couldn’t, you wrote a letter that made it seem like a suicide. You held onto it all these years as leverage over Xena, which she stupidly believed, and then you killed her too.” Aundreya was silent. She just stood there, looking down. He walked over and grabbed her face, forcing her to look up at him. “Say something!” She just stared at him.

He walked out of the frame and returned with a lighter. “You’re pathetic.” He switched it open and brought the flame to her stitches. Slowly, one by one, the flame burnt through the thread keeping her together.

Hotch looked at the faces in the room, and every one was completely entranced by the video before them. Penelope had tears welling in her eyes, and some of them, namely Spencer and Mateo, seemed to be burning right along with her. To pull their attention away from what was happening, he asked, “Do any of you recognize anything in the room that might help us?”

It seemed to grab most people’s attention, and he could see them slightly snap out of it, and focus on anything but the horrors in front of them.

It was Roman who spoke up, “Do those windows behind her look familiar?”

“What?” Niko asked.

“Yeah, the windows. A-and the wood floors,” she continued. “You said you checked Madden’s place?”

“Yes, everywhere,” Deen confirmed.

“But doesn’t that look like Madden’s place? I mean the floor pattern is the same and she always talked about her fake windows because of how stuffy it was. Those are boarded up,” Roman pointed out.

“We checked everywhere,” Deen repeated.

“Even the attic?” Roman asked.

“Madden doesn’t have an attic. We looked for an entrance but there wasn’t one,” Niko said.

“Are you sure?” Roman asked.

“I’m telling you, I looked. I didn’t see an entrance.”

Everyone was silent for a moment before Mateo’s face lit up with dread. “There’s a secret entrance.”

Then, without another word, Mateo sprinted from the room. Quick to follow was Spencer, followed by Derek. Niko sighed to himself before taking off after them. The whole group started to follow, but then Deen yelled up to the groups of people, “JT, Dalton! Go!”

Two men jumped from the first floor into a dive roll, and sprinted after them.

“Wait, Dalton?” Rossi asked. “As in Dalton, Aundreya’s police escort when she joined the team for the first few months?”

Deen nervously chuckled, “Yeah, that’s him.”

“What the hell else do we not know about?” Rossi sounded exasperated.

“A lot,” was all Deen offered. They headed back to the room while the five men chased after Mateo to the doctor’s house.

When they got there, Mateo had already kicked the door in, and was taking the massive marble stairs two at a time to get to the top level. Derek and Niko were right behind him, followed by Spencer and the other two men.

When they all got there, Mateo had already started tossing books off of shelves.

“What are you doing, man?” Derek yelled at him. Mateo was in such a frenzie that he didn’t respond. Derek ran up to him and pushed him up against the wall. Like deja vu, he was on the ground in a matter of seconds. “What the hell!”

Niko walked up and grabbed Mateo by the shoulders and pushed him up against the wall just like Derek had. “Why are you throwing books?” It was the first time they’d heard Niko raise his voice.

“I don’t know! All I remember is that the entrance had something to do with the books or the bookshelves or something!” Mateo fired back, eyes crazed.

Niko released him and returned to his calming voice, “Thank you. That was all we needed.”

The four men started tossing books and moving old wooden shelves, while Niko offered his hand to Derek.

“Sorry about that,” Niko apologized.

“I get it,” Derek said, brushing himself off. “You know, Aundreya did the exact same thing to me when I met her?”

“You pushed her up against a wall?” Niko asked.

“It’s a long story,” Derek admitted.

Niko smirked. “I’m sure you realized that was a mistake pretty quickly. But to answer your question, we all trained together. She actually taught Mateo that.”

Derek gave a small smile and nodded, then turned to help Spencer with a bookshelf.

After about 20 minutes of messing with them, Mateo huffed, “This isn’t working.”

“Are you sure you remember correctly?” Spencer questioned, but it came across more like a challenge.

“What are you implying?”

“Nothing. Just sometimes our minds can make things up when we’re desperate, that’s all,” Spencer said in that piercingly calm voice.

“So you think I’m lying?” Mateo snarled.

“I didn’t say that. I’m just questioning how accurate your information is.”

“Spencer,” Derek warned, as if Spencer hadn’t just seen him get taken down by the same man who he was currently pissing off. Spencer just waved him off.

“Because, if you just wasted our time, who knows what could be happening to her right-” He didn’t get a chance to finish, because Mateo punched him right in the jaw. Spencer’s head shot to the side, and his eyes focused on the ground. He was about to retaliate when something caught his eye.

“Wait, that’s it,” Spencer said, crouching lower to the ground. There on one of the floorboards were two small Chinese symbols meaning ‘attic.’

“What, what’s it?” Mateo demanded. Spencer ignored him, running his finger over the symbols. They were slightly raised, and there was a faint outline of a square around them. He pushed two of his fingers down on them, and the small square section of the floor went down as well, revealing a keyhole in the wall.

“Kid, what is it?” Derek asked, much nicer than Mateo. Again, without answering, Spencer rushed down the stairs. “Reid!”

“I’ve seen those before!” he called back. There was a picture frame with Chinese art on the main level that had those symbols painted in the corner. Taped to the back was a single key that to Spencer’s eyes, seemed to be an exact match to the one upstairs. The rest of the men were about halfway down the stairs when Reid came pushing back up through them. He walked over to the keyhole and pushed it in. Immediately, the bookshelf swung open, inviting them in. Spencer looked over at Mateo and arched an eyebrow. Then he marched in, pulling a switchblade from his back pocket.

“I thought Deen confiscated all of your weapons,” Mateo pointed out.

“Yeah, our guns in our holsters,” Spencer shot back. He turned around to look at Mateo, who was also holding some sort of dagger. He snorted, “Like you’re one to talk.” Mateo just shrugged.

They headed up the creeky, barely carpeted stairs slowly, and when they entered the room, realized that it looked like an exact copy of where Aundreya was being held. Then they saw a female laying on the ground, tucked up behind the protruding metal pole. Spencer rushed over to her and let out a small sigh when he realized it wasn’t Aundreya.

“Oh my god it’s Doctor Madden,” Niko recognized.

“But Alionth isn’t here.” They could hear the sound of defeat in Mateo’s voice. A screen across the room roared to life, causing all six men to walk over to it. It flickered to the live feed of Aundreya and DeLeon, her stitches completely burned off along with some of her skin.

“Congratulations, you screwed yourself,” DeLeon said to the camera. On cue, the door to the attic slammed behind them. “Wow! Things just get more interesting by the second!”

“Damn it!” Mateo yelled. Derek ran back down the stairs to try and push the door back open, but the sound of DeLeon’s voice stopped him shy of kicking it down.

“I wouldn’t do that, Agent Morgan. You see, if you try to get out, I’ll just kill her.”

“Don’t listen to him, he wouldn’t,” Aundreya said nonchalantly.

“I would.”

“No he wouldn’t. Look he needs me for some sort of game he’s playing, and it would just kill all the fun if I was dead. So just leave,” she said with a shrug. Morgan was about to listen to her and force his way out when he heard a gunshot, followed by a whimper. Taking the steps two at a time, he faced the screen to see that DeLeon was holding a gun aimed at her foot. Blood was already seeping onto the floor.

“We can’t leave,” Spencer whispered.

Niko was on the phone with Roman, filling her, and the rest of the BAU in on what was happening. While he was doing that, DeLeon continued talking, “So, where were we? Ah, that’s right, you killed Rafael.”

“I didn’t.”

“It’s either honesty from here on out, or I won’t give you an option,” DeLeon threatened, waving his gun at something out of the frame.

“Fine. I killed Rafael and tried to pin it on you. But can you blame me?” Aundreya asked, “You know you would’ve done the same.”

“Maybe, but I can blame you.”

“Sure, then, blame me. But you’re only spiteful because it almost worked,” she smirked.

“Why is she taunting him?” Niko asked.

“She has to,” Mateo responded. Derek arched an eyebrow, realizing there were now three of them that had an idea what went on between DeLeon and Aundreya, some probably more than others, but it wasn’t his place to call it out.

“You’re smart, wouldn’t you say?” DeLeon asked. She just glared at him. “Let’s say you are. You’ve been studying me and your surroundings for the entire time you’ve been here, but you haven’t tried to send your buddies a message yet. You’re also smart for not trying that. And you quickly figured out what my little game was, but what I’m sure you don’t have figured out is why.”

“I killed Xena and Rafael, made you look like a fool and took the gang that was supposed to be yours. Plus, you’ve had it out for me since the beginning,” she quickly refuted.

“Oh, speaking of, have you told them what went on between the two of us?” he taunted. When she broke eye contact, that was his answer. “You haven’t, have you?”

“Only some of them,” Aundreya admitted.

“So do you wanna tell them, or should I?”

“Go ahead.”

“She and I met and became quite close. We actually dated for a while,” he smiled brightly.

Aundreya scoffed, “I’d hardly call it that.”

DeLeon whipped around and hit her with the gun. “Then what would you call it?”

She spit some blood at his shoes before answering, “You’re a coward.”

“Does anyone know what happened between the two of them?” Hotch’s voice came over Niko’s phone. They must’ve never hung up, “Reid, I know you said he gave her that scar but no one here knows anything else.”

Spencer and Mateo looked at each other yet again regarding this same issue, but neither moved to speak. The rest of the group wasn’t blind, though.

“What’s happening here?” Niko asked, gesturing between them. Still, neither responded.

“If any of you know anything, it might help us find her,” Hotch reminded.

Spencer was about to answer when Mateo beat him to it, “He was some super high ranked person in the gang, so when he invited her to some party with his friends, she couldn’t exactly say no. She was new and super good, so he and his friends were … well they were very interested. Th-they, uh-”

“They took advantage of her. M-mainly him though. It went on for all four of the years she was there,” Spencer finished. A deafening silence fell over the room and the line.

Luckily, or unluckily, DeLeon filled the silence, “Do they know that you got your best friend killed? How about that the reason she died was because you were high out of your mind?”

“Actually, it was Xena who killed her,” Aundreya tried, but they could hear her voice waver.

“Sure, but it was your fault she walked in there in the first place. If you could’ve recognized it was a trap, maybe we wouldn’t be here today. She’d be alive, and Deen’s leg wouldn’t be wrecked. Sydney’s poor little daughter might have a mother-”

“Stop!” she shouted, finally struggling against the chains.

“There she is!” DeLeon proudly stated, “The angry girl who couldn’t save her friends. She couldn’t even save herself.”

“What do you want me to say? That I’m a monster? That you violated me? That there’s no hope for me?” her voice broke.

“I want them to know how weak you are!” he screeched back.

Then, flipping a complete 180, she burst out into hysterical laughter. It was bone chilling, because despite the gut-wrenching chuckles, this had absolutely no humor to it. She managed between a bitter smile, “They already know that. Oh god, trust me, they know. They know that I’m weak, that I’m a liar, that I’m a manipulator, that I’m a criminal, that I run from my problems, that I ignore them at all costs, that I’m closed off and that the moment I open up, I get screwed over, so I shut down and fuck things up. And if they didn't know that well, then they're pretty shitty profilers,” she let out a couple more laughs and finished, “And pretty shitty friends.”

This totally threw DeLeon off guard. Clearly, that was not the reaction he was expecting. “What’s so funny to you?”

Aundreya finally calmed down enough to casually respond, “Just that you thought you could chain me up and make me look all weak and pathetic in front of them when the only version of me they’ve ever known was the pathetic one. Like, you thought this would come as a surprise to them, but it won’t, and you know what? I don’t care what they think. They don’t know who I actually am and it’s better that way. The ring knows who I truly am and where I belong, and they know the strong version of me. That’s what matters.” Despite how terrible the situation was, Mateo had the thought to smirk over at Reid. Sure, she was under duress, but she’d said it. She’d basically said that she would come back to the ring, where she belonged, and forget about the BAU when this was all over.

That was enough to push Spencer over the edge. He launched at Mateo with zero regard for how much better he was at fighting, and pinned him to the rotting wood wall by his throat. Mateo easily removed his hand, and kicked him to the floor. He pounced on Spencer’s vulnerabilities, going straight for his bad knee and gunshot wound. Before things could get too serious, both Niko and Derek were on Mateo, yanking him off of Reid. Even after being shoved to the ground, Reid was going in for another round, but Derek stepped in front of him before he could get himself more hurt.

“This is not helping anybody!” Surprisingly, it was Dalton who spoke. “Look, I don’t know her nearly as well as all of you do, but I’ll tell you that getting to work as her ‘police escort’ or whatever, was such an honor. She kept things interesting and fun, and neither the ring nor the FBI will be the same without her. So if either of you care about her, even a shred, which it’s blatantly obvious you both do, you will pull yourselves together, get your heads out of your asses, and focus on finding her! Because if she doesn’t get out of there alive, she won’t be picking either of you!” He sighed and mumbled to himself, “Jesus Christ.”

On the other end of the phone, Emily was saying, “They are going to kill each other.”

“Not if Alionth gets to them first,” Deen joked.

Series Taglist (open)

@justanothetfangirl @kris-stuff @blameitonthenight21 @wooya1224 @unded-bride @swiftingday @dezzxmx

[trustsalvatorewriting]

remember me || cesar diaz - chapter one

Summary: In which Cesar decides to have a summer fling

Word Count: 2,256

-

❝ why would you ever kiss me? i'm not even half as pretty ❞

The first time Cesar truly felt fear was the night he saw a lost teenage girl on La Luna, just outside a bodega, at nine o'clock at night. He'd gone out for a walk after an argument with his tío. Thought he would take some time to cool off before he found himself on the wrong end of a pair of brass knuckles. He made a mental note never to buy a pair.

    It was a warm summer night, and he found himself wearing a simple black t-shirt and blue jeans - he would have to trade them in eventually, especially if Oscar was getting out soon. If Andrés was right, he would have to join the Santos by the end of summer, and all hope of feeling like a regular teenager would go out the window in an instant.

    He had just made it into Sanctuary when he saw her. She was standing on the corner of La Luna, a block away from the abandoned train station and across the street from a crappy bodega that paid taxes to the Santos every month. She turned her head, looking both ways, clearly trying to figure out where she was.

    Normally, he would have let her figure it out. A person that was willing to stay out past curfew on gang territory was a person confident enough to defend themselves. Cesar shoved his hands into his pockets as he waited for her to pull out a phone and call for help, the eerie silence on the street starting to eat away at him. It was when three Santos drunkenly stumbled out of the bodega that he sped up his pace.

    "What'd I tell you?" One of the members grinned, waving the pile of cash in his hand. "I ain't even have to say 'tax time.' Them Prophets are bitches."

    "You better get that shit to Andrés in the morning," another one warned. "Puta doesn't like having his money missing."

    "Que se joda!" The one with the money threw the money at him, cackling as it rained down.

    Cesar swerved off the sidewalk, attempting to pass by the drunkards without getting their attention. He kept his eyes trained on the concrete, occasionally glancing up at the girl to ensure she was still there.

    "Yo!" A hand clamped down on Cesar's shoulder, spinning his around. It was the guy who had thrown the money. Beneath his jaw, the name 'Malakai' was tattooed in cursive. "Oh, shit! It's Lil Spooky."

    'Shit,' He thought to himself. 'Think fast, asshole.'

    "Aye, Lil Spooky!" The second one exclaimed. He took a sip from the bottle in his brown bottle in his hand. "I ain't seen you since you was a little chico. Cuantos años tienes, eh?"

    "Tengo quince. Listen, I can't stay. I got my hyna waiting for me, and I can't keep her waiting," He lied smoothly.

   "Quince? Damn. I remember when Andrés had to carry your ass inside 'cause the music was too fuckin' loud. What you think now, Lil Spooky?" He swung the end of his bottle against an open door. It shattered, leaving bits of broken glass on the end as he held it up to Cesar's neck. "Things getting too loud for you?"

    Maybe there was one good thing that came with finally joining the Santos: he wouldn't have to deal with assholes like this.

    Ever since Oscar was put away, some of the Santos were getting hard to control. Andrés did his best, but he didn't have a reputation -- at least, not the way Oscar did. He was soft on his punishments but strong on his legislation. It had made in-fighting inevitable. Cesar was his nephew. He supposed he should have expected people to turn against him, too.

    "Watch your tone." Cesar lowered his voice, not breaking eye contact with the bastard in front of him. "Spooky's getting out in a couple days. What's he gonna say when he finds out some bitches were fucking with his little brother?"

    He was bluffing. Anyone that knew Cesar, knew that he could've gone another three years without speaking to his brother and he wouldn't have even blinked; but he didn't even recognize the guys in front of him. If it weren't for the white tank tops and crosses around their necks, he would've just as easily believed they were Prophets. If they didn't believe him, both he and the girl on La Luna would be fucked.

    The guy shoved him off, tossing the bottle onto the street. "Maricón. Let me know when Spooky's out. He's got a debt he needs to pay off."

    Without another word, he popped a cigarette into his mouth, lighting it. Cesar nodded and turned on his heel, only to see the girl walking in the direction of the train station. He winced, only turning when 'Malakai' called out for him once more. "Oh, and tell your tío we'll bring him his taxes in the morning."

    'Do not engage,' Cesar thought to himself. He jogged across the empty street, stopping a few paces before the girl before cupping his hands around his mouth. "Hey! You really shouldn't be out here, alone at night. Freeridge isn't that type of hood."

    The girl turned around, a look of fear crossing her face before it fell into relief. "Shit. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to get to my friend's house. His name is Judas Medina. Do you know him?"

    She spoke softly, speaking with her hands and with rapid movements. Cesar couldn't help but grin. "No, I don't know him, sorry. If you have his address, I could help you, though."

    "Uh..." She looked around, scratching the back of her head awkwardly.

    Cesar nodded, pulling out his phone and tossing it to her. She caught it with ease. "The password's two-six-seven-three. You can dial the police if you really think you're in danger, but let me walk you to this Judas guy. I don't wanna risk you getting hurt."

   The girl unlocked his phone, going into his contacts and hitting the keypad. She bit her lip, locking eyes with the stranger in front of her. He looked a bit younger than her, with his hair covered in an absurd amount of gel and a pleading look on his face. After a moment, she nodded, and typed in Judas' address in his Maps app.

    "You are thirty minutes from your destination. You should arrive at your destination by 9:35PM."

    "I'm Maya." She nodded, keeping the phone in her left hand as she reached out to shake the boy's hand.

    He smiled then, shaking her hand. "Cesar."

    The two followed the phone's signals, walking side-by-side as Cesar scanned the perimeter for any threats. They walked in silence for all of three minutes before Maya started talking. "So, it's pretty obvious I'm not from around here, huh?"

    "Just a little," Cesar chuckled, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Where are you from, anyway?"

    "San Diego. I live there with my dad and his girlfriend during the school year. Every summer, I come here and spend time with my mom," Maya explained. "We were supposed to have dinner tonight; but she fell asleep, and I didn't feel like waking her."

    "Right. So you're going to this Judas guy to steal all his food and then run?"

    "Would that be so bad?" She winked, running a hand through her honey-blonde hair. "What about you?"

    Cesar grimaced. "I've always lived in Freeridge. Can't really imagine a life outside of it."

    "Come on, that's bullshit." She rolled her eyes. "There's a whole world out there, with different countries, cultures, people -- and you're telling me you can't imagine a world outside of Southside L.A.?"

    He shrugged. "What's the point if I can't see it?"

    Maya huffed, muttering the word "tarado" beneath her breath. Cesar only grinned, somewhat pleased that he'd managed to get on her nerves considering they'd met only a little while ago. He moved to walk in front of her. She scrunched her nose in annoyance, glaring at him through her eyelashes.

    "So, how old are you? Like, seventeen?"

    "I just turned sixteen," she replied, hand still gripping the GPS in her left hand.

    "And your parents are letting you travel alone? That's weird. I would'a thought San Diego kids were spoiled."

    "I would'a thought you weren't a Santo," she shrugged half-heartedly. "And it's not a big deal. My dad works late, so he couldn't bring me to the train station, and my mom passed out as soon as we got to the house."

    "How'd you know I was a Santo?"

    "Seriously?" Maya snorted. She took a step closer to him, wrapping her finger around the chain on Cesar's neck. He looked down, only to see a silver cross hanging above his chest. "Check the ice, ese. Either you're a Santo, or you're religious."

    "I'm affiliated," Cesar muttered, tucking the pendant into his t-shirt. "Why? Does that bother you?"

    "I'm letting you walk me to my best friend's house in the dark, in a neighborhood I'm unfamiliar with." She turned the corner, only to be met with a street lined with houses. "You being gang-affiliated is the least of my problems."

    They reached the third house in silence. It was nice -- luxurious, even -- compared to the other places Cesar had seen. This Judas guy must be really classy. As Maya went to ring the doorbell, he turned and asked, "So what's this guy like?"

    Before she could respond, the door swung open, revealing a short, pale boy with messy dark hair and sweatpants. "Maya! Fuck, I wasn't expecting you until the morning. My folks are in the living room, but we can hang in my room." His eyes drifted to Cesar, and they immediately filled with shock. "No shit. You're Lil Spooky! Maya, you're fucking with gang members now? I don't blame you. He looks better than A-A-Ron."

    "You put the 'ass' in 'class,' Judas. Let us in. I'm starving." She pushed the door open, walking past him with ease.

    "I'll leave, if you want," Cesar told Judas. He would understand if he did. There would be a target on his back if people knew he was associated with Cesar, even if he was just 'affiliated.' "She didn't have a phone. I just wanted to make sure she got here safe."

    Judas furrowed his eyebrows. "You walked her all the way here?" When Cesar nodded, he continued, "From where?"

    "La Luna Drive," He answered, the cross around his neck suddenly feeling hot against his skin. "There were guys coming outta the bodega. they were drunk, and aggressive. Looked like they were gonna cause trouble."

    "Do you think I'm gonna let you in just because you pretended to be el salvador for half an hour?" He sneered.

    "No, I didn't mean it like that--"

    'Boyfriend,' Cesar thought to himself. 'Got it.'

    The cold look in his eyes shifted, turning to amusement. Judas grinned happily, opening the door wide in an effort to invite him in. "I'm just fucking with you, Lil Spooky. Come on in."

    "Actually, it's fine. I should get back. My tío is probably worried sick," Cesar started, suddenly uncomfortable.

   "No seas marica, asshole. Maya's still gonna need help getting home." Judas turned on his heel, heading deeper into the house. After a few seconds, he yelled, "Are you coming or not?"

    'What the fuck?' Cesar thought to himself, before taking a few steps, walking into the house and shutting the door behind him. He was met with a dark room, lit up only by the TV on one end of the living room and a kitchen light to his left. In tbe kitchen, Maya was raiding the fridge, a box of Cheeze-Itz in one hand and a pack of Mountain Dew in the other.

    She glanced up at him and grinned. "You want something?"

    "Uh, water's good." He followed behind Maya and Judas as they grabbed several snacks, laughing and catching up like old friends.

    Judas pulled a few bottles of water out of the fridge before heading out and turning into a hallway. "So, how is A-A-Ron these days?"

    "Still in love with Alivia," Maya sighed, her hand tightening around a bag of potato chips. "They've been going strong for, like, two years. I don't know why you bother asking anymore."

    "Fuck him. What kind of name is Aaron anyway? Un nombre de puta, I'll tell you that." Judas' room was at the end of the hall. He set his snacks down on a wooden desk before motioning for Maya to do the same. Cesar went to sit on a surprisingly neat bed, though the headboard looked worn in for a reason he didn't want to ask about.

    Maya threw a water bottle at Cesar, eyes still trained on the bags of junk food in front of her. It landed at the end of the bed, nearly tumbling off the edge. He chortled as he went to pick it up. As he began to take a sip, Judas threw himself on the worn-out computer chair in front of him.

    "All right. I have one fucking question for you and you better answer it honestly," Judas stated.

    Cesar nodded stiffly. Confrontations like this felt all too personal. He fought the instinct to stand up and leave.

    The Colombian boy leaned in, his face painted in curiosity. "Are you scared of ghosts?"

[alfredosauce50]

What makes me human [Cyberpunk! America x reader 10]

Wordcount: 5,809 Rating: T for strong language and mild violence “Can’t you see that none of this is real? You’re living in the past, dumbass! It’s all a dream! If you don’t wake up soon, you’ll regret it!” Chapter synopsis: Half-dead, Allen falls into a strange realm of existence. It's nothing he's seen before, but it feels awfully familiar. He soon learns he's stuck in the past, and it's all in his head. He'll do whatever it takes to wake up and save Alfred from his demise he once played a part in. The reader is referred to as she/her.

Songs to listen to while you read (in order as found in playlist): 2049, Ghost in the shell - Original mix, Something about us, Cloudy day, L, The voice in my head. I have indented song titles throughout the chapter so you can change accordingly. Starting now:

2049, Ghost in the Shell - Original mix

“His condition is stable. He’s in a coma, but he’s gonna be fine.”

“A coma? For how long?”

Where were the voices coming from? Was there one person or two people speaking? He couldn’t tell. But his interest quickly changed to another subject.

Am I dead?  

With whatever brain activity he had left, that question was the only thing he heard repeating in his head like a broken record. 

He couldn’t see anything, let alone feel anything as he drifted into an abyss of nothingness. In fact, it was so empty, he couldn’t even say it was darkness he was engulfed in. Just nothingness. Was this what people experienced before walking over to the other side? Or was he going to be stuck here forever? Allen couldn’t tell. Not when there was no concept of time in this strange realm of existence, anyway. 

His eyes shot open. It took a few moments for his vision to adjust, but he came to realize he was sitting in his car. Huh. Was that all a dream? Whatever it was, it had escaped his mind so seamlessly, he couldn’t remember anything. Leaning forward to peer out the window, he was greeted with an onslaught of neon lights. Neon signs, holograms, and posters surrounded him from all angles and heights. At least that told him he wasn’t far from home. Turning to the front, he attached his hands to the wheel. Now, to get back. 

If he drove around for a few minutes, he’d surely pinpoint his location relative to Arthur’s auto shop. Revving up the engine, he heard it purr to life. As a small grin stretched over his lips, he pulled out of the cul-de-sac to move to the main street. “I missed you too.” He murmured, never letting his gaze stray from the road. Eventually, he made it to a familiar intersection. Before he could pass through it, he stopped and found himself staring at what looked like a police chase coming to an end. 

A helicopter hovered over a car stopped in the center. Over the fierce thumping of its blades, he heard a grungy voice barking out orders through a loudspeaker. He couldn’t make out what it was, but it didn’t look like they were followed. Not when the occupants in the vehicle were immediately shot upon stepping out–collapsing to the ground after a rain of machine gunfire blew them apart. 

“Jesus Christ…” He mumbled under a frown. “Poor bastards.” 

After they all dropped like flies, the helicopter took off in another direction. And just like that, they were gone. 

The police in Twilight city were ruthless as always. Quick to action, and yet, just as dismissive. But it wasn’t his business. So long as he played his cards right, he wouldn’t have to deal with them. Making a right turn, he breathed out a sigh as he made a detour. He never liked using alleyways. There was no saying if he’d run into a couple of weirdos in places like these. Speaking of weirdos, there was a couple of men huddling around a corner.  It piqued his curiosity to see them so interested in whatever it was they surrounded. Or more accurately put, who they surrounded. A girl. Slowing to a stop behind a tall bundle of crates, he leaned over to the right to get a better look. She was shaking in her boots, and her lips were trembling as she struggled to respond to the questions thrown at her. And how old was she anyway? 10? 11?

“That doesn’t look good.” Allen narrowed his eyes.

He climbed out of his car.  

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his bomber jacket, he approached the group slowly. But when one of the men took a hold of her shoulder, adrenaline surged through his veins and he burst into a sprint. When he got close enough, he grabbed said man’s shoulder before throwing his fist back. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Punching him square in the face, he sent him hurtling towards the ground. 

Immediately, his cronies responded by pouncing on the newcomer for giving one of their buddies a black eye. After a few minutes of violent tousling, he managed to beat them all into submission. 

Leaving them groaning and wincing in the dirt, he gave his hand a rough shake. Phew. He hadn’t had a good fight in ages. Giving his bottom lip a light tap to find a small blotch of red on his fingertip. And he won against three people too,  escaping with only a busted lip. Before he could gloat about it, he glanced around to find the girl. Where did she go? 

Assuming she ran away, he shrugged and moved back to his car. If she wasn’t here, then he wouldn’t be obliged to help her any more than that. But upon nearing his vehicle, he spotted a small pair of feet poking out from the back. Then, they proceeded to shuffle back to become completely concealed. Breathing out a chuckle at that, he rested his hands on his hips. 

“I can see you.” 

No response. 

“You can come out now.” Making his way around the trunk, the child buried her face into her knees upon realizing she had been discovered. A light frown downturned his features at the sight of her shaking like a leaf. “Man, am I that scary?” He murmured, lowering himself to his knees. “Hey, kid. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I was just passing by. I promise I won’t do anything.” 

She kept her face hidden, but her trembling seemed to calm. 

“Well, if you’re not gonna say anything, I’ll be on my way. Just make sure to move out of the way so I don’t run you over.” Standing up on his feet, he turned his back to her. Before his fingers could do so little as graze over the car handles, a faint voice piped up. 

“Wait!” 

Allen grinned and spun on his heel. “Yes?”

She stood up slowly, but kept her head low to avoid his gaze. Without removing her hands from her pants, which she was clenching at, she opened her mouth again. “Could you maybe… Tell me where the train station is? I got kinda lost.” The way she spoke was soft, breathless even, and more so than Allen’s who just beat up a bunch of no-good-doers. 

“The train station?” The redhead questioned. Not that he didn’t know where it was. In fact, it was only a few blocks down, but he had to think twice about sending a ten-year-old off to wander the streets around here. The same streets a police shootout just took place, and the same streets where she was approached by a couple of hooligans. “How about I drop you off? I’m not in a hurry. I dunno if you wanna walk around by yourself after what happened.” 

He said it before, and he’d say it again. This city was an absolute shithole. 

“R-really? But I’m not sure…” The enthusiasm faded as quickly as she lit up. “I don’t know you.” 

“And I don’t know you either.” Allen hummed. “So you’re just as dangerous to me as I am to you. Sound fair?” 

The girl furrowed her brows. 

“That doesn’t make sense. You’re way older than me.”

“Oh yeah? I’m only eighteen though. Lemme guess, ten? Twelve?”

“Thirteen.” She answered, relaxing just a touch at the sound of his age. At first glance, one would have assumed he was in his early twenties, but she was relieved to know she was wrong. “Are you still in high school?”

The man blinked. Was she warming up already? “Nope. I finished nearly a year ago. But that doesn’t mean I sit around all day with nothing to do.” He opened the car door to the driver’s seat. “You’re lucky I was out and about to get your ass out of trouble. So what do you say we keep it that way?” 

The ride there didn’t take long, much to Allen’s surprise. By the time his GPS revealed that they had arrived, he had slowed down near the curb in front of one of the tallest skyscrapers in Twilight city. Sliding the window down, he poked his head out to give his surroundings a gander. The blinding lights of the liveliest commercial center forced him to squint, but he could still tell this was the city center. And that only meant the residential lots were a little further down. 

“You sure this is the right address? There’s nothing but malls and stuff around here.” He shouted over the bustle of people crossing the streets and pounding of music. 

“No, this it the right place. I live right there in that building!” Climbing over to the side, she pointed at Matsumoto Optics. 

Exchanging glances with the said building, then the girl, he gave his head a light shake. “What do you mean, you live right there? Nobody–” He paused, feeling dread settle in his stomach. “Wait a sec. What was your name again, kid?”

“(F/N) Matsumoto. My dad actually owns the whole plaza.” 

He paled. 

“Holy shit.”

Why did it feel like a gun was pointing at him?

Because there was one. 

Whipping his head to the window next to him, he found himself staring straight down the barrel of a gun. While his heart broke out into a pounding frenzy, he came to notice that his whole car was surrounded by men in suits. Bringing out every kind of shootable weapon that existed, his blood ran cold at the sound of more than twenty firearms cocking at once. From every angle there was, he was aimed at by something. “Fuck.” 

“Put your hands where I can see them!” One of the men demanded.

Allen threw his arms up. “Alright, alright!”

Glass shattered. A hand shot through the broken window and hit him in the back of the neck, hard. “Gh-!” It knocked him out immediately. Then, his unconscious body was dragged out of the car with next to no grace.

So much for following orders. 

When he finally came to, all he knew was the throbbing pain in his neck, and the rope burns around his arms and wrists. Since they were tightly bound together, he could only blink away the fuzz in his vision. This day had to be the longest yet. All he remembered was waking up in his car completely disoriented, then saving a middle-schooler from a bunch of creeps. Where was this place? An office of some sort? How did he wind up here again? All he could do was speculate as he continued to kneel on the carpeted ground. 

“My daughter told me you saved her from a group of ruffians.” A low voice began, forcing him to look up. My daughter? Did that mean he was Matsumoto? The Takahiro Matsumoto? The most powerful person on the planet? The person whose name he heard every minute of the day from slogans? His suspicions were confirmed when he found himself gawking at a beast of a man, who stood a little over six feet with a long gray beard. 

Wait a minute, this guy was old? And this… Built? “If she hadn’t, you wouldn’t have woken up.” 

Allen tensed. 

“… Right. Well, I’m sorry for whatever I did. I didn’t know she was… A Matsumoto.” He breathed. “If I did, I would’ve let her ride the train herself. Didn’t think putting her in my car warranted a death sentence.” 

“But you are alive, boy. And she is too, thanks to you.” The older man graciously responded, giving his head a firm pat. Then, he lowered his gaze to meet the other’s eyes. “I see an unwavering sense of justice from you. There were three men you had to fend off to keep her safe, and you only managed to let them hit you once.”

“…”

“You have talent.” 

“… Thanks.”

“If you haven’t noticed already, I want to recruit you.” 

The redhead had to do a double-take. Were his ears playing tricks on him, or did he actually say– 

“You wanna… Hire me?” 

Matsumoto nodded. “Like I just said. You have the skills to be a bodyguard, and we are in urgent need of one.” An ominous light glinted in his dark eyes as he opened his mouth again. “Did you ever wonder why there was a job opening?”

Allen gave a nervous laugh. On second thoughts, maybe laying low in Arthur’s auto shop was the better option. “Thanks, but no thanks. I was just lucky today, and I’m not a pro. I think you’re better off hiring somebody else–” 

The other hardened his stare at him. “We have an elaborate training program to prepare you for your duties. I see no reason for you to reject.” With a swift flick of his wrist, he beckoned over a few men who had been standing on the sidelines. “These gentlemen weren’t half as good as you when they began. Now, they are the best any secret service has to offer. Their combat skills are impeccable, and their instincts refined to perfection.” 

When he sensed he had fallen right into a trap, he wasn’t wrong. 

“I wouldn’t imagine it to be hard for them to locate anybody residing in this city. Even your friend, Arthur, the British mechanic.” 

Seeing that Allen was now at loss for words, he smiled. 

“I believe it would be in your best interest to work for me, Jekyll.”

That same day he was recruited, his induction took place. And boy, was it a lot. By the time they had finished, night had fallen. Fortunately, he could treat himself to a hot dinner in the dining court before retiring to his room. He couldn’t say being given his own condo was unexpected, but when he stepped inside to become completely immersed in luxury, he was faced with a rude awakening. Up here where the air stretched thin over the blinking lights of Twilight city, he was reminded how out of place he was.

All his life, he was at the bottom. He grew up a street rat before he was taken in by a kind mechanic. And he taught him everything he knew. Never did he imagine he would ever be this high up in the clouds, working in a high-ranking position under a man comparable to God. And the longer he lingered on this reality, thrusted to him without his say, the hotter his eyes felt. There was no saying if he could go home again.

And that meant he wouldn’t be seeing Arthur anytime soon.

The next morning, he woke up the groggiest he’d ever felt in his life. Squinting at the window that happened to take up his whole wall, he was graced with a hot orange sunrise. It cast a pinkish haze over everything in his sight like a filter, but he was far too exhausted to appreciate the scenery. He checked his phone. 6:23 AM. Twenty missed calls and twelve text messages. Crap. He’d call him later. He needed to figure himself out first.

Giving his face a cold splash of water, he rubbed his eyes clean. Lifting his head to the mirror, he found himself staring at his reflection, which of course, stared right back. Did he always look this young? He snorted. What was he thinking? Of course he did. He was only eighteen, after all. Sliding himself in a dress shirt and pants, he finished off the look by throwing on a black blazer. Then, he gave his appearance a hard stare. “… Nope. This looks stupid.” Leaving the bathroom in a white tank and bomber jacket, he ventured out into empty morning halls to find the elevator.

Once he made it to the third floor, he began his journey to the training dojo. The walls were a beige white, the floors a polished wood, and there were shoji screens everywhere. He was washed over with a strange sense of déjà vu. But considering this was his first time here, that couldn’t be the right phrase. Jamais vu was more like it. He was here with the impression he’d never been before, but he somehow knew that was a lie.

And it was a gut feeling so strong, it was kind of eerie.

He couldn’t understand why he was feeling this way. And not being the thinking type, he chose to brush it off. He had enough to worry about already, so the last thing he wanted was to overthink a foreign environment. Maybe some exercise could clear his head— and that was exactly what he’d be doing today. His rigorous training program.

Entering a spacious room, he stepped inside to feel his shoes sink into soft tatami mats.

“Don’t even think about taking another step in here with those shoes on, Jekyll.”

A very rigorous training program.

***

Something about us, L

It had only been a few days since arriving here at Arthur’s, but you were slowly regaining your strength. With every new morning, you awakened with more energy than the last. Perhaps the small light of hope of seeing Allen do the same was what urged you to become an early riser. But like yesterday, and the day before, that hope was shattered at the sight of him unconscious in bed. He didn’t even move an inch.

Nearing his side, you lowered yourself to your knees and reached out to his cheek. Talking to him while he slept had become routine to you. You’d tell him about your day, everything you did, and all your conversations you ever had. If not, you’d reminisce the past so he wouldn’t feel left out. He never interrupted, and let you run off on tangents until you were sick of talking. “I really hope you wake up soon, Allen. I feel like… I’m talking to myself here.” Your voice was soft with a heart-wrenching kind of sadness, but you refused to linger on it.

After all, how could you expect him to wake so soon? You knew how strong he was, but it would be selfish to want something impossible. So you forced yourself to leave the room, figuring you would feel better if you focused on something else. Little did you know, someone had been lurking in the halls during your visit.

Alfred had his back pressed up to the wall outside while you dropped by, and he heard everything. And not even from just this morning. Everything you ever told Allen, he listened in on too. 

He knew better than to infringe on your privacy, and hear things that were better off left unheard. But he kept finding himself hiding outside in the hall, doing it again and again—even Arthur had caught wind of it. 

He heard footsteps clunking against the metal floor, but he never bothered to turn to it. Usually, Arthur would’ve kept on walking. But not today he didn’t. “If you like her so much, you should just tell her.” He’d murmur. 

Alfred whipped his head to him with his eyes widened ever so slightly. But he visibly eased seeing it was just him. And rather than denying his claims, he tore his gaze away. “I can’t.” His brows were furrowed for creases to form between them. Arthur was almost taken aback, having never seen him so frustrated. 

“Why not?” The Brit responded, resting his back against the wall beside the man. “It’s painful seeing you loiter out here all day. I’d say I felt sorry for you, but you’ve been eavesdropping on her for a while.” At the sound of that, the other’s cheeks flushed red. So his guess was right on the mark, after all. “She’s coming out right now. Might wanna make a run for it while you still can.” 

“Guys?” Another voice joined, forcing the two men to spin around. 

The mechanic bit back a snort. “Too late. I’ll be in the garage.” He whispered. Shooting you a brief smile, he turned on his heels to leave. “You two have fun now. I have lots of work to do today.” With that said, he disappeared to do exactly that, but not without a few chuckles under his breath. For the many years he knew the guy, he never found anything he wasn’t good at. There was nothing he couldn’t do. Looking over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of Alfred with a hand on his neck, laughing nervously. 

That perfect track record was finally ending, it seemed. 

At least he wouldn’t have to watch him fumble around with his feelings for long. You and Alfred were planning to leave in a few days to God knows where, to do God knows what. Frankly speaking, he didn’t know what you were doing, hanging around such a shady guy like him. That was right. You two arrived with your bodyguard Allen, who was half-dead then, and barely clinging to life now. What the hell happened? Wouldn’t your father be concerned?

Maybe he’d ask Allen himself, if he’d awaken anytime soon, that was. For now, he’d stay on the sidelines and help Alfred repair his missing Mantis blades as he’d requested. He was restless without them, frequently interrupting his work with, “Are you done yet?” until he finished for the day. Arthur narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue, shutting the garage door behind him. Whatever you two had planned, he couldn’t imagine it to be legal. 

***

Cloudy day

A few months had gone by, and he was finally getting settled in his new workplace. But there was no saying when he’d ever be forgiven for it. Not that he could even explain himself. What was he even supposed to say? I saved a girl from a bunch of creeps and put her in my car to take her home but she wasn’t just any girl and turned out to be the daughter of Matsumoto himself and now I’m being threatened to work for them because they know where you live. That surely wouldn’t fly. Especially when he went through all that just to be a glorified babysitter. 

He just knew Arthur was buried up to the neck with work, now that he was alone. Breathing out a sigh at the thought, he rolled his head to the said girl sitting by a cherry wood coffee table, whose nose was buried in a book. 

“You ever get bored reading stuff all day?” He began, stretching his arms across the backrest of the couch. 

She shrugged. “Sometimes. But I have to study, otherwise I’ll fall behind.” 

Allen nodded, stretching his lips into a flat line. “Fair enough. Well, I did just graduate high school, so if you need any help with… Math or whatever, just let me know.” Surely, seventh-grade level wouldn’t be too difficult for him.

“Mm… Thanks, but I don’t think you can help me with what I’m doing. This is like… College level stuff.” You gave him a sheepish smile, to where he gawked at you in response. 

“Wow, you a genius or something?” 

“I don’t think I am.” 

“You’re just being humble, kid. It’s fine to be proud of yourself, ya know. ‘Specially now, cuz it gets kinda annoying when adults do it.” Allen grinned, hopping up from his spot to give her hair a ruffle. She could only hang her head to hide the embarrassed pout on her lips. Fortunately, their height difference let her do so. 

“Thanks, I guess…” It was only when he pulled his hand away did she look up again. In her line of vision was a chest of drawers, and she reached out to point towards it. “Also, could you mind checking if my USB’s in there? I think I left it in one of the drawers yesterday.” 

The redhead spun around. “Sure, no prob.” 

Pulling out one of the compartments, he rummaged around random bits and bobs until he caught sight of said USB. Besides the connecter, the storage disk was fairly long and flat. This thing could’ve stored hundreds of terabytes of data if it could. That translated to hundreds of computers’ worth of information. Picking it up, he held it in his fingers to give it a brief study. Before he called over to you with his lips separated ajar, he found himself entranced by it. 

But what was so interesting about something as common as a storage disk? For some reason, the small object in his hand resonated with him. It was… So familiar. As if he’d seen something like this before. Or perhaps, it reminded him of something he forgot about. Problem was, he didn’t know what. And it was a gut feeling so strong, he couldn’t seem to shake it off. 

The voice in my head

That night, he was called to his superior’s office for a security briefing. Appearing through the tall double door, he walked in with his hands in his pockets. Situated deep in the room, and just by the window overlooking the blinking lights of the city, was his desk, and the man Matsumoto himself. His chair spun around to reveal a bearded man well into his seventies with a light scowl on his face. “I expect you to wear the uniform suitable for these occasions, Jekyll.” 

Allen blinked before rubbing his neck. “Right, sorry. Forgot.” In all honesty, he considered showing up in a black tie and all, but it wasn’t the most comfortable fit in the world. “So, what’dya call me in for?”

The other clasped his hands together and gave him a firm stare. “Even in my company, you have moments of… Stepping out of line. Breaches of discipline.” He gestured to his attire, letting it do the speaking. “I may overlook some inconsistencies in exchange for your services, but there is one rule you must not break under any circumstances.” 

Silence fell in the room so you could hear a pin drop. It gave Allen some room to think–to guess what his superior was going to warn him about. A secret basement that locked up human guinea pigs he wasn’t supposed to stumble into, perhaps? But that was ridiculous. So he stayed quiet, prepared to listen intently to the man. Surely, his guess was far from reality. 

“There is a… Basement a few floors beneath the lobby.” 

Allen froze. He’d heard this before. 

Otherwise, how else could he guess that he’d say this? 

“I keep my most prized possessions in there. Personal vehicles and upgrades. Nothing goes in and out undetected. So don’t even think about stepping inside.” He couldn’t believe a word he said, as calm and convincing his tone was. 

Allen had an idea why. 

He sensed something was off the minute he came here. It was all so obvious–the familiarity of the dojo halls, the USB, and even his face in the mirror. He’d seen it all before. Previously, he’d brushed it all off. But he couldn’t deny it any longer now that he had this conversation, a conversation he already had. So if his intuition was right, that meant he could guess what was actually in the basement. And there were no fancy sports cars to speak of. 

He gritted his teeth as his tanned complexion began to pale. Then, his stomach began to churn. 

“… Are you unwell?” 

He lifted his head and shook it. “Nah. Just lost in thought.” 

“You may lose yourself in the emptiness in your head as much as you desire, but not in my presence. If you don’t have any questions, you are dismissed.” 

“Yessir.” 

Turning on the spot to leave, a deep frown downturned his features now that he wasn’t facing him anymore. Something was terribly wrong. And he was about to confirm it. A couple of hours later when the whole building fell quiet, he snuck down to the basement floor through the elevator. And while he ran through the pitch-black halls to the door in the end, he couldn’t get this thought out of his mind. He’d definitely done this before, too. 

Swinging the door open, he was greeted with a familiar stench of death. But he didn’t have time to gag. Running to the two pods, he never bothered turning on his night vision. He trusted his body and his muscle memories to guide the way. And it was the right call, because he found himself standing by the pods in no time. Lifting up one of the hatches to find a mummified corpse, he stared with an unreadable expression. 

He wasn’t even surprised. And that was really telling, considering he would’ve vomited at the sight. But this only solidified his suspicions. This wasn’t new.

Nothing was. 

Turning to the other pod, he fiddled around the latches for a minute or so before giving in. This one couldn’t be opened, not without proper authorization. Okay, this was new. He didn’t remember this pod being locked. So he jabbed his fingers into a couple of buttons, unable to resist his curiosity. He couldn’t leave any stones unturned. Thankfully, his rapid button smashing eventually did do something to reveal what was inside. 

The glass that was previously fogged up cleared. 

Inside lay a man. A blonde. His skin was flawless in save for the outlines of removable plates. He was a cybernetically enhanced individual, but not one he wasn’t already acquainted with. 

“We put him to sleep for fifty years…” 

“By the time he gained his consciousness, we turned him into a killing machine.”

 “Even to this day, he remains my greatest creation.“

Fragments of his memory began to play in his head. All until he could remember the name of the sleeping figure. It was Alfred. And he had yet to wake up to go on a killing rampage, or in other words, the first time they’d ever meet.

Allen eventually retreated back to his condo. The first thing he did was go to the bathroom and splash cold water to his face. If he wanted to figure out what the hell was going on, he needed to clear his convoluted mind first. Either he was a psychic or stuck in another reality. But he wasn’t bright enough to be a psychic. And interdimensional travel wasn’t invented. Yet. So what could it be?

While he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his wet fingers, his train of thought was interrupted by a voice. And it sounded just like his, but deeper. 

Glancing up to the source, he found himself staring at his own reflection in his mirror. But he came to realize it wasn’t him–rather, it was an older version of him. They had the same face, eye color, and hair, but the person who glared back at him had sharper features, and a more defined jawline. Unbeknownst to him, it was the subconscious of his present self.

“What the hell are you doing?” He hissed.

Slamming his hands against the mirror, the loud bang caused Allen to jump. “Can’t you see that none of this is real? You’re living in the past, dumbass! It’s all a dream! If you don’t wake up soon, you’ll regret it!” 

Allen dug his hands through his hair, and before he could even question him, panic overwhelmed his system. Not that he needed to, because everything he was just told made perfect sense. “W-Wake up? But… But how?”

“What do you think genius? You have to die!” The other screamed. “If you don’t wake up soon, Alfred and (F/N) are gonna get away with the chip! You can’t let him put it in his head! The Soulkiller will destroy him!” 

Fuck. 

He felt himself tense up in all reality as more memories flowed back to him. That was right. He was in a coma after being stabbed by a katana. He remembered how desperate he was as he fought to stay awake, all so he could warn Alfred he was falling into a trap. But he failed, and wound up in another realm of reality. His dreams. And if he didn’t wake up soon, there was going to be hell to pay. 

Shoving his hand into his jacket, he pulled out a gun. 

Then, he exchanged wary glances with his subconscious, who nodded at him. 

He cocked it. “If you’re wrong… And I die in real life…” It wasn’t like he had anything to threaten him with, though. “Let’s hope I don’t.” Sliding the gun into his mouth, he screwed his eyes shut. Then, he pulled the trigger.

Shooting up with a loud gasp, he finally awakened from the longest trauma-induced sleep he’d ever had. Almost immediately, he heard somebody else let out a scream of genuine fear. “Ah–!” By the foot of the bed he was laying in was Arthur, and he’d fallen right out of his chair. “Jesus fucking Christ! If I’d known you’d wake up like that, I would’ve sat further away!”

Standing back onto his feet, he was never fast enough to stop Allen from sliding himself off the bed. “Hey– watch it! You can’t move right away!” 

“How did I get here?” 

Arthur stepped back as his friend loomed over him. “Well–I’m not sure how you fell into a coma, but it was Alfred and (F/N) who brought you in.” 

Thank god.  “And where are they now?”

The other shrugged with a look of defeat. “I don’t know, honestly. All I know is they’re doing something dangerous. Alfred wouldn’t leave before I helped him install a new set of mantis blades.” 

“Fuck!” He hissed, feeling his heart sink to the pit of his stomach. Bile was even rising in his throat as he reflected on the possibility that Alfred was already dead. “I was too late. I was too fucking late.” Shaking his head as heat accumulated behind his eyes, he paused for a moment, letting hot tears of frustration run down his face. Then, he gripped Arthur’s shoulders when he was hit with an epiphany. With the slim chance they only left recently, he still had time. 

“How long have they been gone for?”

The blonde pondered for a moment, but the concern in his eyes never faded. “Only a week, give or take. Why? What’s wrong?” 

Before Allen could breathe out a sigh of relief, he was gripped with a panic-inducing sense of urgency. “That means I can still save him!” If he remembered correctly, the Soulkiller virus needed at least two weeks before the damage became permanent. So if he could somehow find you both in seven days, he could save Alfred. “No questions. I’ll explain in the car! We have to find them as soon as possible!” 

He would’ve been dead if it weren’t for him. 

So in return for saving his life, he’d do anything to save his too.