#borrower reader

[mixedupmojo]

scarecrow with a borrower

I said i would so here they are. i hope you all enjoy ^_^

Your first initial reaction might be that scarecrow with a borrower would be a nightmare combo and you would be right. As much as I love Jonathan he would absolutely take pleasure in terrifying a borrower half to death. And in the beginning the relationship would not be a good one.

You first met Jonathan when he moved back into an old property that he owned and would use as a hideout whenever he needed to lay low or take a break from his various escapades as scarecrow (even a villain needs a rest sometimes). you had been an outie borrower for years and had only recently decided to move into what you thought at the time was an abandoned house. Only to get the fright of your life when on one stormy night the front door suddenly swings open and there in all his terrifying glory stood Jonathan crane as lightning flashed behind him. honestly you were hoping that you could just avoid him but all it took was one incident with his fear toxin for your presence to be discovered.

At the start of your relationship, Jonathan would take every opportunity to scared you after all your no different than any of his other test subjects, and if anything your height and borrower status makes you even more intriguing, he is absolutely fascinated by your fear and is eager to test out the effects of his toxin on you. at this point your nothing more than a guinea pig to him

Major slow burn on both sides, him because his obsession with fear takes priority not to mention he doesn’t trust/open up to people too easily it takes a lot of work just to become acquaintances with Johnathan crane let alone friends. and you because he has broken any and all trust you have had towards him. but after a while he slowly starts to warm up to you and eventually will become attached not that he'll realises it

It might actually take some big life threatening event or you finally deciding that you've had enough playing guinea pig and leaving, before he gets a big wakeup call and realises just how much he's grown fond of you and thus begins the long slow process of him trying to make amends and rebuild the broken trust between you two

one of the first things Jonathan does when you're on better terms is to keep his toxin far away from you. He is very much aware that the smallest of doses could kill you and even goes out of his way to get you, your own gas mask. a gesture that actually goes a long way to help the mending of your relationship 

Jonathan will never grab you or pick you up without consent. He will always place his hand down first beside you and wait for you to climb on before lifting you up.

on a side note this is partially due to the fact that you have bitten him multiple times in the past. Back when your relationship first started and he was actively scaring you for research your terrified mind would often choose fight when flight was no longer available. He's actually has some very small scars on his hands from when you've bitten him hard enough to draw blood. There was also one time when you bit Edward. This was during one of the first few times of meeting Edward and Jervis. Edward had snuck up on you and grabbed you without permission or warning and you bite him out of reflex causing Edward to immediately drop you and john had to dive to catch you in time so you wouldn't hit the floor. Neither were happy about the situation and it quickly developed into a full blown shouting match with Jonathan holding you protectively to his chest the entire time, all the while you tried not to have a full blown PTSD induced panic attack. It took Jervis intervening to finally calm the situation down.

Him lightly teasing you whenever you get a bit scared of the height change, when he picks you up. Jonathan is extremely tall even by average people standers so you can imagine how incredibly jarring it is to get picked up by him. The feelings of Acrophobia get even worse whenever you ride on his shoulder and end up having to look down to talk to someone (this mainly happens when Jervis comes for a visit) but at the same time it is also a bit exhilarating and is probably the closes you'll ever feel to being a giant yourself.

He enjoys hearing your perspective of the world specifically the dangers you face and the fear that comes with it. As what's mundane for him can be life threatening to you.

Calls you field mouse

Games of hide and seek are popular between you two and are a lot more playful and a lot less scary than they originally were when you first met. (john likes playing the role of the scary giant) You often make bets during these games as a way to up the ante. There is also a safe word in place whenever things get too much for you.

You being the one to get him to go grocery shopping and tagging along to make sure he actually buys proper food. Making sure to lecture him all the way about his bad lifestyle habits, I mean you’re a borrower and somehow your diet is way better than his and you've literally had to eat bugs before. However while jonathans eating habits are worse than a university student, when he does get the motivation to cook his food is incredible. Jonathan can make some of the best southern cuisine imaginable, and whenever you catch so much of a whiff of it you end up bolting to the kitchen at top speed so you don't miss out on getting a taste. John has literally watched you launch yourself from the top of the fridge in order to get some of what he was currently making.

John will often read to you or have it so that you can read with him. He has shown you all of his favourites as well as some need to read classics and likes to discuss them with you when you are done

On that note If you are lacking in any form of education (namely reading or writing) then john will take the time to teach you. He was a professor after all and it is no secret that teaching is a great passion of his.

Him giving you soft items for bedding/nest building and also making sure there are plenty of comfy spaces dotted around for whenever you need to take a break or retreat to somewhere safe. Some of these spaces include:

while you have pretty much integrated into the main parts of the house, you still have your own hidden home located in the wall behind an old grandfather clock in the living room

using Morse code to communicate through the walls

Him keeping you close whenever he brings you to feed the crows. With you usually hiding away in his pocket or under his mask as it's not safe for you to be around them as the majority of the flock view you as food. nightmare and caw are the only ones who have gotten the concept that you are off menu

due to the fact that Jonathan is constantly surrounded by crows you always end up finding a lot of their feathers which you end up weaving into a cloak

his front pocket is your go to space whenever he carries you anywhere.

there was one time he had to hide you underneath his mask. You ended up pressed against his neck all the while gripping onto his shirt collar for dear life. needless to say john was flustered at the close proximity and it took him a couple of hours to calm down

Horror movie marathons are a regular occurrence. During these marathons you usually end up sitting on jonathans shoulder as it offers the best view of the screen and an opportunity to cuddle up to your favourite rouge should you so desire. every so often he will pass you a piece of popcorn for you to munch on. When watching horror movies, for the most part you're alright, maybe experiencing a jump scare every now and then, which Jonathan will tease you for but nothing you can't just laugh off after a moment. but every now and then, sometimes, there will be something on the screen that will prove to be too much for you and in these moments you often end up hiding against jonathans neck shaking as you try to block out what's happening on screen. when this happens john will run his finger down your back petting you until you've calmed down. At one point you got so startled that you end up falling off of jonathans shoulder and he had to quickly move to catch you in time (knocking the bowl of popcorn onto the floor in the process).

Jonathan very rarely worries about you as the way he see it, is that you've survived this long on your own so your more than capable to handle and look after yourself however there is one exception and that’s involving animals. He's very aware of your place on the food chain, so he will go out of his way to make sure your never in danger of being one on one with something that could potentially eat you. there was one time where he spent the day in a frantic search for you after finding out that the neighbours new cat was on the loose on the same day that you had decided to go looking for wild flowers and herds. You came home that evening to a very shaken up Johnathan who insisted on keeping you close for the rest of the night.

Jonathan patching you up whenever you get hurt. He's always extremely careful when doing so and his nimble fingers make it easy for him to perform such a delicate task so your guaranteed to receive the best treatment possible. he also takes these opportunities to observe you more closely, studying every little mark, every scar, every freckle as he gently goes over your arms and legs, observing the muscles and feeling the bones. touching your stomach and back as he looks for any other injures and in-general just being in aw over how small you really are.

celebrating Halloween with Jonathan:

gifting john any tiny animal bones you find while borrowing or anyone's you acquire from hunting. his favourite one that you have given him is a mouse skull which has ended up becoming part of his scarecrow costume.

within the same vain john being impressed if he finds out you have some skill as a hunter due to you formerly being an outie borrower.

comforting Jonathan whenever he has a nightmare. Now this is an extremely rare occurrence but it does happen, Jonathan has suffered a lot through his life time and as a result he sometimes gets really bad night terrors that cause him to scream and thrash until he wakes up in a terrified state. often when they happen there is nothing you can do until Jonathan wakes up as there is a serious chance of you getting injured in the process if you try. but the moment that he's awake your rushing over to help. letting john cradle you to his chest as you do your best to comfort him while he silently cries. Once he's calmed down a bit you'll often persuade him to head to the kitchen where you'll get him to make himself a cup of tea, talking through the entire process as john remains silent and if he needs it you'll also get him to grab the med kit so you can patch him up. The entire time you remain in Jonathan hand as while Jonathan will never admit it he's quite fragile in these moments and he's scared to let you go. It takes a while but once john starts talking again you'll ask if he wants to try sleeping again or if he would rather go and work on his latest batch of toxins. If he chooses option a you'll end up curled up on his chest or tucked up against his neck as you both slowly try and fall back to sleep. Or if he chooses to go work in his lab you insist on accompanying him, sitting on his shoulder as he works away the rest of the night with the promise of a nap sometime the next day.

surprisingly Jonathan has a hard time sneaking up on you. this is due to borrowers always being partially  aware of their surroundings. (like on a subconscious level, part of their brain is always on alert ready in case they need to run for cover and hide. Making it really hard to sneak up on a borrower) it doesn’t help that you've also been an outie borrower for years at this point so your naturally always on guard. also as a side point I like to think that borrowers would have better night vision due to the fact that they spend the majority of their lives living in dark places such as in the walls or under the floors, as such john can't even use the dark to his advantage. There was actually an incident when john got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water. having not gone to bed yet you got front row seat to watch as Johnathan crane; the scarecrow, stumbled around in the darkness like a new-born fawn. trying to muffle your giggles as you watched him flail about as it wasn't often that you got to see Jonathan act so uncouth. that was until you spotted him heading towards a book he left on the floor and before you could warn him he tripped and fell face first into the chest of draws, busting his lip in the process, as you quickly scrambled to come to his aide. Now whenever there's a power cut you have to act as navigator until he can find a torch. Also borrowers having reflective animal eyes that is all.

accidently scaring yourself with Jonathan taxidermy. Jonathan has quite the collection of "wet specimens" that he keep in jars on various shelves within his home ranging from animals to organs. And there has been more than one occasion when you have rounded a corner only to get jumped scared by a jar full of eyeballs. especially if Johnathan has been rearranging things without telling you.

there was an incident where one time you got kidnapped by Jervis. This happen when Jervis came over in a less than lucid state of mind to invite "hare" to tea, only instead of the march hare he found the dormouse. Having only met Jervis a handful of time's at this point you were not prepared to deal with him when he's deep within the realms of wonderland and there's absolutely nothing you can do when your suddenly snatched up and whisked away for an impromptu tea party. hours later Jonathan emerges from his lab that he notices your lack of presence at first he shrugs it off as it wasn't uncommon for you to disappear for hours at a time. But as the hours roll by and there is still no sign of you that he begins to worry. It's not until he finds a 10/6 card that he's finally able to piece together what's happened. He immediately rushes over to Jervis hideout, who is delighted at the arrival of the march hare and all but demands your return. It takes a little bit of convincing but eventually Jervis hands you over, stuffed full of cream cakes and drenched in tea you’re a little worse for wear but ultimately alright.

going on late night drives together. These usually happen when Jonathan loses track of time while working and then suddenly remembers he needs to eat, so you both end up going to a 24 hour store or a late night drive through. he also takes you with him whenever he's going to scout out a potential new hideout for a new scheme that he's planning. Most of the time you don't care where you're going you just love to sit and watch the world go by while listening to whatever late night station is playing on his old radio.

[kodared]

✰ Stanford & Borrower/Anomaly Reader ✰

fears not enough they have to tear him apart.

Chapter 3/?

Wordcount: 2,557 / 7,296

➤ Summary Based on the borrowers of many universes! I hope you enjoy it, and if you don't know about borrowers, let me be your guide into a world I've loved since I was young. ✰Written because I saw the severe lack of borrower content in Gravity Falls fanfic, i hope you enjoy <3 ✰ - ★Updates irregularly! I write when I want ★ ★ - Also on AO3! - ★

!!! CONTENT WARNING FOR VIVID DESCRIPTION OF PANIC ATTACKS. !!!

...

More than anything you wanted to get away from this human. Your hands finally weaseled their way out of his vice grip as you pushed at his fingers that held down your body. His thumb still pressed across your shoulders painfully as you tried to pry him off. 

“Let GO!-“ 

Ignoring his question you let out a strangled cry, if you weren’t so frantic and lightheaded you might have believed the expression on his face to be pure shock and awe. 

“I'm afraid I can't do that, you'll just take off running and I would like to ask you a few questions,” 

That was the point of being put down you quipped back in your head. Your voice lost among your emotions as you screamed internally, not wanting to give this scientist the satisfaction of a response. Your hands still pushing at his digits that curled uncomfortably around you. It was pathetic really. Being able to be pinned by the simple act of being held. His grip wasnt even all that tight anymore, adding insult to injury. 

The sheer power the human held over you just by existing made you dizzy and nauseous. 

He seemed to be lost in thought as he watched you push and practically claw at his pointer finger. He made no move to pin your hands down again so you assumed you weren't doing much damage to your dismay. 

That damned jar once again was lifted and set on the desk, before you could stop it you felt his hand tilting so your legs faced the opening. 

You tried to stop it by pushing a foot on the rim, but it was no use. All it took was Ford letting go and gravity pulled you down into the glass with a small thud. 

Your injured ankle took the brunt of the force, making you stifle a scream as you landed painfully into the glass. All the while the human just pulled his journal closer and wrote. 

Stumbling on your feet you leaned against the front of the glass, your hands balling into fists as you hit the thick and cold glass. 

“There, now that I'm not holding you does that help?” 

It almost made it worse. Atleast he wasnt picking up the jar and taking you down into his lab. 

He wasnt speaking, keeping his eyes trained on you and your heaving form. You could feel the beads of sweat practically rolling down your face. 

You were stressed. You could feel the buzz of a panic attack under your skin, your fists no longer hitting the glass as you tried to calm your frantic breathing. 

Standing was too much to ask of your body too it seemed as your knees buckled and you fell into the cold floor again. 

You only realized Ford was still speaking to you when you finally looked back up and saw almost a panicked expression on his face. Your ears rang painfully loud as you tried so hard to focus on what he was saying. 

Ultimately it didn't matter because right as you started looking up at him he seemed to panic more. Helpless to stop him you watched as he stood from his desk and you physically recoiled. Half expecting him to pick up the glass and take you down to his lab the moment you stopped being useful. 

He didn't do that though to your surprise. He just left the room. You thought that would calm you down but it didn't, the panic in your chest still raged on. 

The once uncomfortable buzz under your skin had now circled its way to your lungs. Your breathing was labored and frantic, the only comfort coming from the freezing glass walls of your prison as you pressed against it. 

Small droplets of tears glided down your face, leaving an uncomfortable dryness in their wake. You curled up as small as possible, your knees pressing to your chest. 

You had been caught. 

Your fate was sealed. 

He would drop you off at some lab for more testing if he didn't do it himself. He was probably calling someone to get you now. 

Unbeknownst to you at the moment he was making a call, but not a call to any scientist. He was making a call to the most brilliant mechanic he knew for help. 

…

It felt like it took forever for the human to come back. You didn't exactly trust your time perception at this moment though, he could've only been gone for a few minutes for all you knew. 

You stayed curled in your tight ball as you heard him sit back down at his desk. Your body is tense and awaiting him to do something. He was most definitely looking at you, no doubt writing whatever he could into his journal. 

You didn't look at him. Straining your still ringing ears to try to pick up anything that could clue you into what he was doing. 

You could most definitely hear his pen scratching away at a page in his journal. He wasnt speaking to you directly which wasnt as big of a relief as you thought it would be. 

Why did he leave the room? That was your biggest question in all honesty. 

A few more moments of silence passed between the two of you. The only sound was your strained breathing that you doubted the human could hear anyway. 

Your shoulders tensed as his voice was once again reverberating around you. Still in a whisper despite how loud it was regardless. 

“...It didn't seem to have any claws, how would It have survived in the wilderness.. Does it have some sort of venom? No, if it did-” 

…Ah. Muttering to himself. Honestly, the mark of someone who was completely sane was when they mumbled to themselves. 

You screwed your eyes shut as you blocked out what he was saying. Especially when he insisted on referring to you as an ‘it’. 

You were about to yell at him, to tell him to shut up when your ears heard a loud knocking coming from the front door. 

So he had called more scientists after all. 

The creaky wooden chair he sat on squealed against the hardwood floor as he stood. Your hands clamping over your sensitive ears before the panic that had just begun to dissipate picked back up tenfold. 

His hand reached for the jar. 

Denial. 

There was no way he was just going to turn you into the others so quickly. He had only just discovered you. Surely he hadn't taken enough notes yet to be satisfied. 

You reeled backward, your ankle screaming its protests as well as your lungs. The oxygen your brain craves so much is being exhaled much too quickly to be fully processed. 

His hand closed around the Jar. Making your body sway unsteadily as you saw the desk below you rising. The glass flooring heavily disorients you. 

Anger. 

What reasoning did he have to uproot you from your life? You weren't harming anyone. You were being turned into some scientist to experiment on you just for being born. You hadn't asked for this. 

You had just as much control over being born a borrower as he had being born a man. You didn't choose this life. 

Your hands hit against the glass as more tears began to go down your face. Hitting the floor of the jar with a faint clink. 

The human seemed none the wiser to your protests. His other hand going to cover the top of the jar as he swiftly left his room. 

Bargaining. 

Your whole body was shaking. The desperation finally made you find your voice as it cracked. 

“Let me out!- I'll talk!- I can-... I can tell you more! Don't you want answers? I can give answers!-” 

You rambled to yourself through choked sobs. The reality of your situation hits you like a ton of bricks. 

The human didn't stop walking to the main room. You both were now at the stairs when he finally acknowledged you. 

“We can all talk in a moment,” 

His voice was smooth as if he was zoned in on one task and one task alone. 

Depression. 

The realization that you couldn't stop him put a new weight on your chest as you fell into the glass wall. Not from your shaky legs surprisingly. The human just wasnt holding the jar with the most care it seemed. 

You tried to put on a brave face as he set your glass prison on the kitchen table. You were back where it all started. 

You should've been more careful that night. He should have never seen you. You should have never moved into this cottage. More than anything you regretted not being able to see your family again. 

You could hear the front door open as a second pair of footsteps joined Ford in the kitchen. 

You prepared yourself for the worst. So when you looked up and met the eyes of his colleague you stilled. 

“...You put them in a JAR?-” 

You hadn't expected that.

Ford seemed shocked at his assistants' outburst. Floundering for an excuse. 

“It was the best option! It didn't want to be held and if I put it down it wouldve-”

You could only imagine how rough you looked based on how the other human's expression softened when you flinched at the humans raising their voices. 

The other scientist Ford invited over had a very thick Southern accent. You never really heard an accent like his unless you counted the shows Ford occasionally played much too loud. 

Thinking back on it this human might have made him watch said shows. 

He took his thin-framed glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. Agitated with his companion. 

“You called sayin’ they looked ill, it's not hard to see exactly why.” 

It clicked in your head now. Ford must've seen your panic as some sort of illness rather than the emotional trauma he was inflincting. 

“I wasnt causing it any harm! It even understands English, do you know how big of a find this is!” 

Ford was trying his hardest to explain his reasoning to Fiddleford. He only wanted answers from the smaller being. Fiddleford put his glasses back on and directly addressed the creature in the jar. 

You watched as he crouched down by the table, causing you to push yourself backward. Pressing against the glass as hard as you possibly could to put distance between the two of you. 

“M’terribly sorry for all this. Do you have a name? Mines Fiddleford. Fiddleford Mcgucket,” 

He didn't reach for the jar, he didn't even get closer to examine you. He just sat still, patiently waiting for you to respond. 

Ford interjected. 

“I already tried talking to it directly, but it gave me no response apart from when we were on the stairs and it was just babbling-” 

“y/n.” 

Both the humans in the room froze at your weak voice. Of course, it was rough and scratchy from your prior sobbing, but they heard it regardless. 

“Thats.. That's my name.” 

You could see the way Fiddlefords mouth pinched into a small smile. Almost one of pride at being able to get a response from you. 

Ford didn't look upset, but he most definitely wasnt pleased at the thought of the creature preferring Fiddleford over him. After all, he had been the one to discover it, it should want to talk to him. 

“Pleased to meet ya, I would offer you a handshake but… Well, I doubt you'd be able to shake more than my pinky” 

His chuckle soothed you slightly. Your chest still felt tight, reminding you of just how terrible you looked probably as you wiped your tears away finally. 

You even caught yourself trying to smile out of politeness before resting your shaking hands in your lap. 

You could see the way Fiddlefords eyebrows pinched together in concern. 

“Do ya need any water? How long have you been in there?” 

“I uh-” 

Neither of the humans heard you as Ford stepped forward again and let out a sigh. 

“I’ve only had it in there for an hour or so, if we let it out it could run.” 

It most definitely felt longer than an hour. Time must’ve been moving faster since you were in such a panic. 

Your body instinctually tensed up as Ford stepped closer. Making Fiddleford finally snap as he stood from his crouch. 

“I need a word with you alone,” 

He didn't even wait for Ford to respond before yanking him by the sleeve out of the room. Leaving you alone once more as you heard the front door slam. 

…

“Ford. Ya can't just trap someone in a jar and expect them to be okay. Mentally and physically speakin’.” 

Ford was being actively chewed out and by his assistant no less. 

He crossed his arms across his chest defensively. His hands tightened on his forearms. 

“I never hurt it! I only asked it a few questions, even the Gnome was calmer than it!” 

“The Gnome was an entirely different situation! You asked him if he wanted to come with you! You just found this… What did you call them?” 

“Parva persona.” 

Fiddleford ran a hand through his hair before reaching into his jacket and pulling out his tobacco. Ignoring the way Ford groaned to himself as the mechanic put a bit in his lip. 

“Whatever. Not their name anyway. And while yer’ at it quit callin’ them an it. It's dehumanizing.” 

Ford unfolded his hands and threw them in the air before gripping the railing of his porch. 

“Exactly my point Fiddleford! They’re not human! It's abnormal! By all rules of science, it shouldn't even be possible for something as small as it to exist!” 

Fiddleford spit a bit of his chewing tobacco off the porch before slowly getting more agitated with his partner. He could be so smart but so dumb most of the time. 

“What makes something deserving of basic decency Ford? Because ill tell ya’, its normally when they look human but smaller and can speak English. I think you even treated the Gnome with more dignity! You didn't trap him in a jar!” 

Ford didn't quip back saying he did put the gnome in a cage after questioning it for a few days to research it. He just sighed and looked off into the woods. 

“...I just don't want my discovery to run off if we let it out. If it runs I don't think ill get another opportunity for answers.” 

“Why not just talk to them? M’sure you could get them to hang around, you’d just have to accept getting answers slowly. An while yer at it stop puttin’ em in jars.” 

…That might work. If Ford could make some sort of connection with it he could get more answers than just interrogating it in the jar. Ford could see the look in his eyes and before he could stop it the other man was already going back into the cottage. 

With a heavy groan, Fiddleford spat out the last of his tobacco off the porch into the grass before following him. 

He had a feeling this would be a long night with no sleep. For both him and the creature in the jar.

. . .

TAGLIST: @i-am-tiredd

Thank you so much for reading!! More updates soon :)

[heartfullofleeches]

Consider Remmy with a borrower darling. They found one of his doll houses and take the real food from inside for their own dinners and eventually leave him a 'thank you' note despite it being against the rules.

Maybe Remmy thinks his dolls have come to life. Maybe they find out about their new little borrower friend. All he knows is that he finally has someone who enjoys his cooking, enjoys his art, and enjoys his care (as far as he's concerned)

They knew they shouldn't have taken a thing.

The more they borrowed from him, the more questions would run rampant in the mind of the human living in that room. He seemed a little strange a first glance, but relatively harmless over all. It was quick for the tiny person to see he carried more about his dolls and the houses they lived in than himself - sacrificing hours of his day to tend for them, barely leaving any for himself. New clothing, fully functioning appliances, freash food. He worked so hard on everything - it was such a shame to see the real dishes he made for his dolls go to waste. Portions of that size weren't much to a human, but to the borrower it was a feast.

Borrower Darling allows curiosity and their hunger to take control as they happily gorge on the food left behind by Remmy. It was unlike any of the crumbs or scraps of food they scrounged for before stumbling upon his home - leading them to wolf down the entire meal leaving nothing to take back with them. Exhausted from their travels and all the food they stuffed themselves with, Borrower Darling decides to take a nap in one of the bed Remmy sit up for his dolls. It was like sleeping on a cloud. What was supposed to be a quick nap had them in an almost comatose state until the next morning. Remmy wakes up bright and early every day to clean the dollhouse table of the meals he provided the previous evening. His surprise upon finding the table to be empty was stark, but it was nothing compared to the love he felt at first sight of the small human next to his most precious doll.

Another doll? No, the blankets moving in time with each of Darling's breathes proved it if their features weren't proof enough. Like a little angel.... Remmy pinched himself several times to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He feared taking his eyes off them as if they'd vanished into thin air the second he looked away, but - what if they're hungry when they wake up? He isn't sure when they snuck into his home, but it had to be sometime last night - meaning it's been some time since last ate. How did the poor thing feed themselves before they came across his home?

Remmy quietly leaves the room, making quick work of cooking something else for darling to enjoy. He places the food in the dollhouse before going back to bed as if he hadn't seen a thing - setting up his phone atop his bookshelf at the perfect angle to peer into the kitchen windows. He wouldn't want to frightened Darling, considering how hard they tried to make themselves invisible hiding beneath the doll and the bed's sheets to go unnoticed. He faces the wall as his excited gets the best of him, gripping his pillows for dear life to keep himself from leaping out of bed at the wrong time.

Darling is awoken by the aroma of a fresh meal. Sunlight blinds them as it reflects from the mirror within the bedroom they're in. How long had they been asleep?.... Had that human noticed them? All that food they ate last night - yet their stomach howls for them to find out what was waiting in the kitchen. Peering out the windows, Remmy still seemed to be asleep. They hurried downstairs, making quick work of the dish while being mindful enough to take some back with them. Guilt sets in as it finally crosses their mind that they've eaten all the food Remmy has left out for his dolls - not them. They remembered spotting a crayon and notepad in one of the upper room floors. Right next to the bedroom they'd slept. The room where he favorite doll was put to rest every evening.

"Thank you, Remmy <3 All your love and hard work has brought me to live! I'm too shy to move while you're awake, but I'm watching over you every night.

<3, Maribelle."

The note was enough to bring Remmy to tears. Maribelle was the first doll his grandmother ever gave him. Darling must've heard her name as he told her and the rest of his dolls how much he loved them. How long had they been scurrying around his home? He hasn't proofed the rest of the house for them yet! More tears doll as he watches the recording of Darling dragging Maribelle to the kitchen table, tucking the note beneath her folded arms before making their escape out the nearest window.

He super glued it shut that same afternoon.

It wasn't to keep them out or to trap them inside. What if it falls on them while they're leaving? He seals off a few more windows and adds some frences to the fireplace so they can't crawl out that way either. It's only for their safety. The front door will be wide open for whenever they return. From his memory and the video tape maybe he could even tailor some of the clothing he made for his dolls to fit them. He'll spruce up the furniture as well, and maybe add a few more house plants so Darling can really feel at home. He'll make everything absolutely perfect for them. They already appreciate this much from him. If he does everything just right they'll never want to step foot out of his home again.....

A guy could dream...and maybe with enough dreaming all his wishes will come true.

[petitelepus]

Thank you, @eyeofthetiger501, for requesting this piece! I'm sorry it took over a month to get to it, but I never forgot!

Summary: You are so tiny it's not funny. Nor is being captured and closed inside a glass jar.

Warnings: Yandere, Possessive, Claustrophobia

A/N:  Gender Neutral Reader, Borrower Reader, Sanemi Shinazugawa

You were a Borrower, a small humanoid being about the size of a grown man's finger, living in houses inhabited by humans, all while staying hidden from them. As your name suggested, you would borrow or take things, little things that humans wouldn't miss or even notice disappearing.

You know, normal stuff like one strawberry, one cube of sugar or such… But you had gotten greedy and got yourself caught by a human male.

He was a scary one, called Sanemi Shniazugawa and he was one of the strongest humans there were because he was a Hashira who specialized in killing these horrible beings that plagued the lands of Japan, called Demons.

"So you're the one who I've heard skittering around here?" He had asked, fully ready to take you and throw you away like you were a bug… But when he saw you looking at him with those big shiny tear-filled eyes, he felt his heart tighten and fluffy feelings rise inside him.

That's when instead of tossing you away, he decided to keep you.

And so you found yourself living in a glass terrarium like a pet of some sort. Normally you would be able to climb most surfaces, but slippery glass proved to be too much for you.

That didn't mean that you didn't manage to leave your terrarium once in a while. You were a creative little person who always found a new way to try and escape.

However, that didn't mean you actually succeeded. Nope, somehow, you weren't sure how he always returned home when you would attempt an escape… And each time, he caught you.

"Why do you always try to escape!?" Sanemi snapped as his fingers clenched around you, and it was clear he was holding himself back from squeezing as hard as he wanted to because if he had done so, you would have certainly died.

"Are you not happy!? Is that it!?" The huge man scowled, "Am I not making sure you have everything your little heart could ever desire!?"

He was more than generous, always making sure you had something delicious to eat or quench your thirst with, clothes made from such pretty fabrics and toys of different kinds…

"Ungrateful little shits like you end up in the jar!" He snapped as he turned to walk towards the closet where he kept his futon when he wasn't sleeping. But it wasn't the soft mattress that you feared, but the dark closet and the small jar with holes poked into it inside there.

"N- No!" You cried out loud in fear, "Not the jar!"

When Sanemi had first caught you he had put you temporarily inside the glass jar while he tried to figure out where to keep you, but you had started crying and hyperventilating in there. You felt so claustrophobic in there, like you were running out of air and when the darkness was added to your punishment, your worst fear came to life.

"Then beg." He ordered as he looked down at you, "Earn my forgiveness."

"I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid, I don't know any better!" You started to cry furiously, so fearful of the punishment looming just a couple of steps away, "You're always so generous, but I'm just so ungrateful!"

"That you really are," He nodded, yet he still took those couple steps and slid the closet door aside, "But I have some business to take care of and I can't risk you trying to escape again while I'm not here…!"

"N- No, please!" You cried as he turned the lid off and dropped you into the jar. You fell on your ass, but you quickly jumped up as the lid was put back in its place and you started to bang the glass with your small fists.

"Please! Don't leave me here!"

"Maybe this will finally teach you some gratefulness…!" He grunted as he slammed the door shut, leaving you alone in darkness, hugging your knees and crying.

You don't know how much time passed, it felt like an eternity in there as you regretted your every life decision that led to that very moment of you being locked up… But finally, the door slid open and Sanemi's scarred face came into your view.

"You're there," He nodded, "Good."

"Wh- Where were you!?" You cried out as he picked up the jar, opened it, and tilted it so you could safely crawl out of there and straight into his waiting palm, "I- I was so scared…!"

"I was out for an hour," He simply stated, but you were crying out loud so you probably couldn't hear him properly or you were just too thankful to pay attention to anything other than air and light.

As soon as you popped onto his palm, you wrapped your tiny arms around his thumb and held onto him like your life depended on it.

"How was the jar?" Sanemi dared to ask, making you whimper as you hugged his thumb harder, "Scary…! Never, please, don't ever put me back there…!"

"That's completely up to you," The man glared down at you, "Are you going to try and escape again?"

"No, no, I won't!" You sobbed so hard you were getting hiccups, "I'm sorry, I swear, I won't do it again!"

"Good," He nodded, not quite smiling but you could tell he wasn't as mad as he was before by the way he gently petted the top of your head with the tip of his finger.

"Now let's eat. I got some Ohagi while I was gone, I bet you are going to love it," He muttered as he carried you out of the bedroom, and you tried your hardest to stop crying again

Yes, you had every comfort that one would desire… All except freedom that you so badly wanted, no, desired…

[borrowing-at-midknight]

Handoff

Part two is finally here, short and sweet. This can be read without reading the other one, though.

Ted discovers Schlatt's borrower friend.

~~~

“FUCK YOU! OH MY GOD!”

Ah yes, that's exactly what you want startling you to consciousness. Schlatt, through the drywall, screaming and laughing maniacally at whatever game he happened to be playing on stream this time. You had meant to get up earlier to ask him for help getting water, but it seems to be too late for that. You shrug it off and start getting your supplies ready to go.

If you were being honest, water was one of the things you asked for help borrowing the most since you agreed ‘not to be so stubborn,’ as Schlatt likes to say. It's one of the most difficult things to get, especially when you're scared of falling down the drain. For the most part, you still wanted to live in your place inside the walls; you'd put too much effort into the place to just abandon it. There were times, however, that you spent a few days in a row out in the open. True to his word, Schlatt did in fact upgrade you from the shoe box. He went out of his way to buy a small box that could be propped open or folded closed, slightly larger than the shoe box. He and you had even been working on getting the cats used to you so that there was less to worry about when you did spend time outside the walls.

By the time you get out of your thoughts you're approaching the kitchen exit, only to see that it's been blocked. A bag of bagels has been pushed up against the hole in the wall. It takes a little less than a minute to shove it away from the wall enough to make room to get out. You weren't sure why Schlatt decided to block your exit, or if it was an accident, but you continue on towards the sink. As you make your way, you start pulling out your rope and making a lasso out of it.

You almost don't notice the rush of air as a clear plastic cup is slammed over you, catching you off guard enough to walk straight into the side of it and send you stumbling backwards. Once you realize what's going on, your heart nearly stops right then and there. Hesitantly, you will yourself to look up.

A hand. Still holding the bottom of the cup, just as big as Schlatt's. A hand. Beyond that, a face that you think you might recognize, but can't be sure. Short black hair, round wire-framed glasses, soft brown eyes. His expression is a mixture of shock, confusion, and awe.

‘You've gotta be fucking kidding me.’

“What in the…”

The feeling of being trapped under a plastic cup is unfortunately all too familiar. The outside world is muffled and warped by the plastic, but at least you can see out of it this time. See your captor. You start to weigh your options.

You could just cut through the side and make a run for it, but who knows what this guy would do, if he would smack you into oblivion like a bug. You could try talking to him, explaining that you know Schlatt and that he should let you go. Would he even believe you? Maybe you could-

“What are you?”

You snap out of it, attention flicking back to him. He's lower now, leaned down to get a better look at you. Schlatt obviously trusts this guy to hang out around his house unsupervised, but that doesn't mean you'll just trust him with your life. You take a step back and shake your head.

“No? Wait, so you can understand me. Can… Can you talk?”

Hesitantly, you nod.

“You can! Okay, maybe that was a dumb question. How about… your name?”

You take a moment to consider. There's no way Schlatt doesn't find out about this, even if he is streaming at the moment. How close he is to finishing up, you have no clue. He wouldn't let this guy around if there was any chance of him hurting you, though. Right? You take a deep breath and gulp.

“(Y/n).”

“(Y/n), huh? I was kinda expecting something less normal than that, honestly. I'm Ted.” He pauses, examining you with a scrunched expression. “What… are you? Like, how are you that small?”

Furrowing your brows, you give him a skeptical look. “Let me out and maybe I'll tell you, officer.”

Ted's face lights up with a lopsided grin, caught off guard by your joke. “How do I know you won't just run away? I mean, I won't stop you, but I have questions that need answers.”

You flash your knife at him. “I could've made a break for it a long time ago, but I'd really rather not get crushed like a bug, thanks.”

“Woah, woah, I wouldn't hurt you!” He sounds almost offended by the accusation. “Sorry for the scare, I didn't mean to intimidate you or anything. Here. Truce.” Slowly, Ted lifts the cup and sets it to the side.

Seeing humans move objects as easily as they do will never not send chills down your spine. You put that in the back of your mind for the time being. Brushing yourself off, you take a deep breath of fresh air.

“Trust me, I've had worse. This is barely half of what I got when I first met Schlatt.”

“Oh! So you know Schlatt! Does he… know about you?” Ted gives you a skeptical look.

You can't help but laugh at the insinuation he makes. “Alright, I'm not some sort of creep, relax. We've known each other for a while now. He helps me out sometimes. A lot of times, actually.” You rub the back of your neck awkwardly.

“Is that so? You'll have to tell me all about that first meeting you mentioned, some day. For now… how?” He motions to your whole body as he leans on the counter, arms crossed.

Unconsciously, you take a few steps back. “It's not really a ‘how,’ I just…” You pause, considering how to word this. “This is just what I am. It's not like I was human and got this way.” You snicker. The idea of a human being shrunk to your size was amusing. Schlatt wouldn't last a day.

Ted’s eyebrows shoot up. “Wait, so there's just tiny people that exist? Because there's no way you're the only one of… whatever you are. Oh my God, are there tiny people in my apartment?”

“Probably, you live in a dump.” Schlatt walks in from the hallway, headphones around his neck, sipping on some GamerSupps.

Ted straightens up to face Schlatt, quicker than you expected, causing your heart to jump to your throat. You gasp lightly and step back, both actions going unnoticed by the massive humans.

“I clean my apartment every week, it is not a dump!”

“Yeah, I wasn't talking about the apartment.” Schlatt reaches past Ted, over you, grabbing a bag of Goldfish from the cabinet. Seeing him move sends an all too familiar chill down your spine. The feeling only intensifies when Schlatt offers you one of the crackers, his huge hand outstretched towards you with a single Goldfish pinched between his fingers. You snap out of your daze, quickly playing it off and accepting the cracker. “So I see you two have met.”

“Wait, so you know more about this?” Ted motions to you.

“Yeah, man. They aren't really too fond of humans. This one's a defect, apparently.”

“Hey!”

“What? Look at you, you're hanging out in my kitchen. No other borrower does this shit, you said so yourself.” Schlatt has a grin plastered on his face.

“I have so many questions.” Ted’s face scrunches up, his eyes flickering around the room as if trying to find the words or where to even start.

Before Schlatt says anything, he looks to you for authorization, to which you give a nod of approval. No point in keeping it from Ted if he's already seen you, right? “(Y/n) is this thing called a Borrower. They came with me from New York. We met when I was in college, and we've just kinda stuck together ever since. They live in the walls most of the time.” Schlatt's accent is heavy as he speaks, almost monotone. “Can't believe I'm not charging this bitch rent, honestly.”

Ted has his fingertips to his temples as he takes in the information. “The walls.” It doesn't come off as a question, more like he's confirming what he heard.

“Yes, the walls.” Schlatt huffs a laugh at Ted’s face, clearly dumbfounded.

Ted turns to you. “The walls. Why would you stay in the walls?”

Schlatt throws his free hand in the air. “That's what I've been saying! Hey, that gives me an idea, actually.”

“Uh oh, don't hurt your head big guy.”

“Shut it, pipsqueak. Ted! Since you guys are buddy buddy now, I have a favor to ask. You know how I'm moving back to New York?”

“Wait, what?” You and Ted exclaim in unison.

“Did I forget to tell both of you? Whoops, anyways, while I take care of everything, maybe (Y/n) can stay with you! It'd be good for them to get outta the walls for a while. Maybe they can even find out if there's any borrowers in your apartment.”

Ted furrows his eyebrows and crosses his arms, looking down in thought. “I am curious to know if there's anybody in my place…”

A shit eating grin spreads across Schlatt's face as he glances at you before turning his attention back to Ted. He slaps his friend on the back, pulling him forward with an arm around his shoulders. “That's what I'm talking about! Now, come, I'll show you what you'll need.” As Schlatt drags Ted off to his bedroom, you huff a defeated sigh and turn around to the walls.

Better get packing.

[lulubelle0318]

This is the nightmare sequence from my most recent character (as of 1/4/2025) of The Borrower of the Keep:

I found myself standing on a table in a dimly lit room. I looked around and noticed that the walls seemed to be made cloth, almost as if I was inside of a large tent. I ran to the edge of the table and desperately tried to find a way down, but there was no way to get down without getting seriously injured.

"Where do ya think yer going lass?" I heard a sinister voice say.

I turned to see a human bean that bore a striking resemblance to Tavish, but the kind look in his eye was replaced with a cruel glint.

"G-get away from me!" I cried out.

"And why should I do that, little rat?" The human sneered.

"I-I'm not a rat!" I shouted.

"But you sure do squeak like one."

The human got closer to me, reaching out his hand to grab me. I let out a scream as he wrapped him gigantic fingers around my body and lifted me up to his face.

"Put me down!" I yelped while squirming.

"I'm afraid I can't." The human said with a wicked chuckle. "I have big plans for you, little one..."

I then woke up in a cold sweat, screaming as I did so.

[cheralith]

when poly!ryusae tries to propose to you they legit cannot agree on a ring for the life of them because shidou wants something magnificent with a huge gem on it that’ll gather attention wherever you go, while sae wants something more traditional and elegant, something suitable for everyday wear.

so when they’re down on both of their knees, each of the rings of their choosing, the first thing they ask after “will you marry me” is “whose ring do you like more?”

the problem is you like neither of them. they’re both ugly.

your boyfriends can’t choose jewelry for shit.

shidou’s is too flashy while sae’s is too boring. that gigantic diamond on shidou’s will for sure interfere with daily tasks and sae’s legitimately looks like something from claire’s. you want to knock them both over the head for not asking you earlier what YOU wanted.

either way, they’re just relieved that you didn’t choose one of the other and take you ring shopping the day after.

a/n: a semi-humorous part two with rin for those interested!

[inkthemandrake]

"Catch them by the tail" - a Borrower AU

--

I'm not much of a story writer so any artwork for this au is going to be not story focused and just one off artworks here and there

[usopps-devotee]

Cockwarming buggy during a meeting

Imagine Buggy's cock sitting inside you while you're in the middle of a meeting. You can hardly even think as he talks to Crocodile and Mihawk, being the strategist of the group it's most imperative that you're able to focus. With the soft rocking inside you, the appendage separated from the rest of him, it's almost a wonder how you're not drooling over the table, a sharp thrust reminds you where you are and that you're being asked a question.

Without hesitation you snap at Crocodile, being one of the few people in the world to do so without facing his wrath. He gives you a moment to think while you can't decide who you're mad at more. Croc for bringing you back in the conversation or buggy for edging you once more in the middle of speaking, the loss of an orgasm more distracting than anything else the clown has done so far.

He looks so smug sitting next to you, Mihawk is sure it's because Buggy was the one who got you to join this group and under your careful guidance the odd group has managed to accomplish goals they wouldn't have thought before possible. Not the fact that you would be dripping his cum when you stand up yet have been left completely unsatisfied.

You'll let him have this for now but when the two of you are alone he will have hell to pay for all his little stunts he's managed to pull off today.

[jessie-pop-post]

I find very funny how aggressive is Y/N to Wally

It seems that Wally doesn't understand the concept of personal space.

Borrower AU belongs to @cloudy-dreams

[mixedupmojo]

Riddler with a borrower

•First things first you will not be spared from the riddles in fact you become his go to whenever he has a new riddle he wants to test out.

•you first meet due to you accidently driving him insane. It is no secret that Edward is meticulous sure his work space may look like a bomb has hit it but everything has its place and he knows where everything is supposed to be. So when thing start going missing or end up in an entirely different spots he knows something is going on and he is determined to get to the bottom of it. he starts off by laying out various traps thinking that the missing food is due to mice. but when time and time again the traps prove to be unsuccessful he decided to take it up a notch building more complicated traps and setting up multiple hidden cameras in an attempt to see what he was dealing with. as he was starting to suspect that it might not be a mouse but rather someone pulling a prank on him and the silly part of him is wondering if it might be ghosts (you've hear that right, you've got the Riddler so worked up that he's starting to consider the supernatural). but still nothing seemed to be working and things were still going missing. at one point he even got into an argument with Jonathan accusing him of conducting some psychological experiment on him before Jonathan had enough and hung up the phone. For weeks he's been trying to solve this and it's slowly eating away at his psyche after all he is the Riddler there is no puzzle that he can't solve cough*batmans identity* cough. when finally, after months of this one of his surveillance camera picks up something and that something is a very small person. Meanwhile you've had your work cut out for you. At first you figured that you've hit the jackpot with this place due to its messy state you figured that there was no way that the resident would ever notice you and you could borrow to your hearts content. Well big surprise he noticed and not only did he notice but he put down so many traps that wile e coyote would be jealous. at this point the only thing preventing you from moving out is stubbornness, stubbornness and pride and ok you had to admit you were enjoying the mental challenge. Then it finally happened, you slipped up and found yourself trapped and the next thing you knew you were suddenly face to face with a very smug riddler.

•after your initial capture you essentially become one of Edwards pawns. Being used for testing puzzles traps, riddles and other experiments. it's not until you've proven to be quite intelligent that Edward slowly starts to develop a soft spot for you. Eventually you manage to escape but instead of leaving like you should you end up sticking around (your blaming the years of isolation finally getting to you) because despite everything you really like talking to Edward and enjoy mentally sparring with him. Edward is crushed after he finds out you've escaped but once he realises that you're still around just in hiding he gets to work. at this point Edward is no longer trying to capture you instead he is doing everything in his power to get you to talk to him.

•playing a lot of silly games together. It originally started with a game of two truths and a lie as a tactic Edward used to get you to talk and to find out more about you. At first you stayed silent he had held you captive after all and you were still feeling distrustful towards him. but after baiting you with more and more ridiculous claims curiosity eventually wins out and before you knew it you're playing the game. After that you find yourself talking to Edward a lot more and playing even more games (little did you know but you've brought out his competitive streak) from word games to paper to board games, to even having a trivia night every once in a while though you always loose as you don't really pay attention to what goes on in the world of human beans. However, Edwards go to game will always be a riddle off. 

•There have been moments when Edward has been particularly stressed he will just pick you up and use you as a fidget toy. Very carefully running his thumb and finger up and down your arm or leg occasionally squeezing it just to feel the muscles and bone underneath, rubbing circles into your stomach with his thumb, carefully using a finger to pet you starting from the top of your head before running it all the way down your back, or letting you run and drop from one hand to the other (like you do with a snake or a hamster) he is always incredibly gentle whenever he does this

•Builds smaller scale versions of his puzzle for you to try out. Edward is obsessed with puzzles so you better believe that he is sharing that obsession with you. When he hasn't got you answering riddles he will instead give you a puzzle to solve. it's also a good way of keeping you occupied so you don't distract him or get into trouble while he's working. these puzzles that he gives you are always specifically designed to be non-lethal unlike the rest of his traps.

•On a sadder note he has accidently injured you. There was a moment where everything was going wrong, batman had managed to stop his latest plan before it had even started, his henchmen had messed up big time and to top it off his order for a critical part that he so desperately needed had been delayed and after finding that out Edward lost his temper. he ended up throwing and smashing some things in a fit of anger and unfortunately you got caught in the cross fire. The moment Edward heard you shriek he went cold, rushing over to where you were to find you curled up and clutching your arm. He freaks out, apologising over and over again, he goes to touch you only to pull back not wanting to hurt you anymore then he already has, as he keeps spewing out sorry after sorry after sorry. He ends up calling Jonathan to come help treat you and that’s when you learn you've broken your arm. over the next few days he withdraws into himself refusing to touch you and keeps his distance. It's not till you forcibly confront him and make him understand that while losing his temper and lashing out like that is not ok, it was an accident and you don't blame him for what happened or think any less of him.

•Building together. It's no secret that Edward is very tech-savvy and a brilliant mechanic but imagine his surprise when you turned out to be too. You’re a borrower after all and all borrowers have at least some basic knowledge and skill on how to make things. so now you both have work space's in his work shop were you work on your own individual projects. every now and then you both "offer" helpful advice to one another and what I mean by that is either Edward will condescendingly tell you what you are doing wrong and what to do to make it better or just butting in and doing it himself under the guise of showing you how it's done or you will see him struggling with what he's working on give him some advice or tell him where he went wrong and him immediately throwing a hissy fit saying "I don't need your help I know perfectly well what I'm doing" only to follow your advice when he thinks you're no longer paying attention to him and if called out acting like it was his idea all along.

•at the beginning of your relationship Edward was very hesitant to pick you up. He's never really been good with touch having been on the receiving end of abuse for the majority of his life, he's not use to touch being a positive thing. but after a while he eventually got more comfortable with holding you but unfortunately this lead him to develop a nasty habit of grabbing you without care or warning. At the time he didn't really see what the big deal was, it wasn't until you started flinching away from his touch that he realised he messed up. Now he always asks for permission first, holding out his hand as he waits for you to make the first move and lets you know in advance if he's going to touch you.

•on the note of touch, Edward being very hesitant on you touching his neck. his neck has always been a very sensitive spot for him and it doesn't help that he has a lot of trauma relating to people grabbing and strangling him. he actively flinched the first time he felt you lean against his neck, with you immediately apologising and actively keeping your distance from that point on. and it wasn't until he gave you permission that you slowly start to get him accustomed to you touching him. it will take a long time but gradually he will get used to it and as long as you respect his boundaries he won't mind you snuggling up to him.

•Him forgetting about his cup of coffee and you taking sips out of it throughout the day and him suddenly having to deal with a hyperactive borrower that’s bouncing off of the walls

•Sitting on his shoulder and watching him work and subsequently falling asleep there because unlike him you actually have something of a sleep schedule (I say while writing this at 2:00 in the morning)

•on that note enabling each other's bad sleeping habits. Edward has a tendency to work for days on end only really falling asleep when he crashes from exhaustion. And with you being a borrower you're accustomed to keeping very strange hours as in the past you would often have to plan your borrowing schedule around when people would be out or sleeping. this results in you taking a lot of naps together. Even then getting Edward to sleep is a struggle and you're not always able to convince him to go to sleep. There is a beat up old couch in his work shop for when you do manage to convince him to take a nap (which is why it was put there in the first place). In these moments you make sure to take a nap with him (usually laying in the space between his neck and collar bone or on top of his chest right were his heart is) as you've discovered he is less likely to get up and go back to work if your sleeping on him. But most of the time you will find him passed out at his desk and after making sure that whatever he's currently working on is safely put away and not in danger of causing an injury or a small fire. You will squeeze your way into his arms before cuddling up in his hold and falling asleep yourself. Some hours later Edward will wake up to find you asleep in the crook of his elbow or pressed against his face.

•Edward does have a bad habit of not letting you do things yourself. Like when you're in the process of scaling the kitchen cupboard to get to the counter only for Edward to suddenly appear and lift you up the rest of the way. or when you're trying to open a packet or box of food only for him to pick it up and do it for you. being babied like this will get infuriating very quickly and things unfortunately end up boiling over and you ended up having a huge fight because of this. With you yelling how much hate him treating you like your incapable of doing anything for yourself and how useless it makes you feel and him confirming that you are useless and unable to look after yourself. After hearing that you could feel your insides go cold before you end up retreating back into the walls and crying for a bit. you end up avoiding him after the argument. Meanwhile Edward is beating himself up over what he said, he knows you aren’t really useless in fact your very capable, it's just he cares a lot about you and worries. he keeps thinking about what he said over and over, and desperately wants to make it up to you. so after enough stewing he resolves to make things right. sometime after the fight Edward will cautiously approach you to talk about what happened. It's one of the very few times that Edward will out right apologise and while it will take some time for things to heal it's a step in the right direction. Once all of the sentimental stuff is out of the way Edward will excitedly insist on showing you what he's been working on that’s when you find out what he's done for you. you now have an army of riddle bots at your disposal always ready and willing to help you whenever the need should arise. He has also installed modified hamster tubing, bridges and stairs all around his hideout so that you can get where you want to go without trouble. On that point he has also created a bunch of other thing to help you out should you need them. it's his way of compromising and saying he's sorry

•Edward becomes very protective of you whenever Jonathan or jervis come over to the point where he will refuse to let them anywhere near you. Often picking you up and holding you close or just straight up putting you in his shirt pocket. Jonathan finds his actions highly amusing and will purposely tease you to get under Edwards skin.

•follow up, before Edward officially introduced you to the two your existence lead to some very awkward situations. as at the time Edward is trying to honour your wishes and keep your existence a secret (not to mention there's a small possessive part of him that likes the fact that he has you all to himself). This lead to Jonathan or Jervis walking in on him "talking to himself" quite a bit. now this isn't unusual, as Edward will often mutter to himself while working. what wasn't normal was him expecting a reply and then acting like he just got one. There were also moments when they would visit that Edward would suddenly start acting off diverting their attention or keeping them distracted. there was even one moment where Jervis was heading towards the kitchen and Edward just threw himself at him before corralling him to the other side of the room, only to body block john when he tries to do the same. he's not subtle and they can tell something is up. It's after one too many strange occurrences they ended up thinking he had developed schizophrenia, either that or he's tried to go a week without sleeping again. it wasn't until they staged the rogues equivalent of an intervention (which involved tying Edward to a chair) that you finally revealed yourself. Cue Jervis gushing over how tiny you are while john observes from a distance meanwhile Edward is still tied to the chair and getting pretty annoyed.

•developing your own secret cypher code together. This ended up happening after you told Eddie about borrowers use of symbols and naturally he was curious to learn more, one thing led to another and now you've got your own personal secret language. though you to hardly ever use it.

•Edward slowly starting to gift you riddle themed items. It started out subtle, replacing existing things that you own with things that he'd make you which coincidentally would be cover in his iconic symbol. Making subtle suggestions about how you should decorate your space then coincidently the materials would suddenly appear ready for use, or gifting you clothing that went with his colour theme (side note Edward is not a sewer so he had to bribe Jervis to make you these things) until one day you realise that your home now looks like Edwards lair 2.0

•gifting him screws and bolts and other things of that ilk that you find while borrowing, that you think he might find useful. He will also call you whenever he needs assistance when working with something fiddly in a very small space or help finding things that he has lost or that have fallen into a tight space as you can reach many small spaces that he can't.

•Edward calling you his little question

•unlike with Oswald or Harley he won't get you, your own doll house. Instead he sets up your very own space within his lair. This space is spread across three shelves and completely yours to do with as you see fit. it mainly consists of a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, a work space and a spare bedroom. it's also completely open to the rest of the lair but Edward has installed some privacy curtains should you need them. And while you still mainly reside in your own home within the walls it's still nice to have your own space within his home.

•as a borrower, Edward knows you don't really get to experience things like regular people do. so he has made it a point to take you out and experience the world (ironic seeing how much of a shut in he can be). So far you've gone to different museums, art galleries, festivals and even a few galas. usually these trips double as recon for his next big heist or scheme against the batman

•him correcting your language whenever you use the borrower version of certain words such as human beans. though your way of speaking has started to slip into his vocabulary once he accidently uses a borrower term to describe something and you did not let it go for a week

•taking care of Edward when he forgets to take care of himself. As I've already mentioned Edward has a consist habit of working himself to the bone all will often forget to eat and drink, so it sometimes falls on you to make sure he stays alive. this mostly involves ordering take out on his behalf as your too small to really cook a full course meal for him, or bringing him water bottles so he stays hydrated. This usually involves you filling up and dragging a water bottle across his lair on a little handmade cart. once instead of dragging a water bottle across the lair you instead constructed a pipeline of straws directly feeding into his cup. Ed only noticing what you had done when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye (you will make sure this man takes care of himself DAMN IT!)

•doing the crossword together in the mornings. This is not as wholesome as it seems as Edward can be quite the early bird when he's not working himself into a coma and if he's up then so are you. he will often bang on the wall until you make an appearance, half asleep and very grumpy about being woken up so early only to be bombarded by questions when all you really want is coffee

•you hiding all of the writing utensils and some of Edwards tools whenever you to have an argument, is it childish and a bit petty yes but most of the time your too mad to care. this results in Edward going through the five stages of grief seeing as there is no way he is going to apologise out right. First he'll try bargaining, bribing you with all sorts of tempting offers and treats, but when that doesn’t work he'll quickly devolve into insults. Then he'll out right ignore you, even going so far as to go out and buy replacements of everything that you have hidden but that doesn't work for long as the moment he looks away your taking it and hiding it with the rest of his stuff. Then comes the sulking before finally after going all around the houses he will cave and apologise

•Edward using you as a substitute villains cat. Sitting you on his desk or holding you in his hands as he gently strokes your back while watching his latest plan unfold on the various different monitors in his hideout.

•you accidently starting a cryptid sighting messaging board for borrowers. Honestly it was a complete accident you were just making your way over to go and grab a snack and had no idea Edward was in the middle of livestreaming to all of Gotham. It wasn't until Edward was checking the internet for feedback on his latest scheme that he realised what had happened, luckily you were far enough in the background that the footage of you was very grainy. You then spent the next week and a bit doing everything in your power to stop it from gaining traction as borrowers aren't meant to be seen and you don't want to be the one who exposed borrowers to the world

•getting abducted by batman. It happened right after Edward's latest plan was foiled by the dark knight himself. Edward was in the process of being arrested by the GCPD his computers being confiscated as the police raided his lair and it was during the raid that Bruce noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and upon further investigation found you trying to quietly slip away. Bruce had, had an inkling about your existence for a while now fully thinking you were being held against your will or had developed some sort of Stockholm syndrome. Not wanting to alert your presence to the rest of the GCPD officers in the room he quickly slips you into a pocket of his utility belt before disappearing in classic batman fashion. cue an extremely awkward stay at the batcave while you're trying to figure out a way to escape and get back to Eddie which is proving to be extremely difficult (but hey at least you have steady supply of Alfred's cookies to enjoy before you officially make your daring escape). In the end you didn't have to because once Edward finds out that batman has you. he threatens to blow up the entire city unless you were safely returned within 24 hours. (Bruce dose eventually give you back but not without the loss of Gotham city stadium) once your back with Edward he will not let you leave his side for a good week after.

•victory nuzzles, whenever something goes Edwards way or he's in an extremely good mood he will pick you up and nuzzle you for all he's worth. As a side note he will also go out of his way to nuzzle you whenever his stubble gets out of control due to him not shaving for a few days. He does it because he knows it annoys you and is a guaranteed way to make you laugh and there's nothing more that he loves to hear than your laughter

•him getting you a bunch of Lego sets as a way to keep you entertained and out of trouble. Seeing as you don't have to borrow as much as you used to, you find yourself getting bored quite easily. And in your boredom you end up bugging Edward quite a lot to the point where he bought you multiple Lego kits in hopes of keeping you occupied. and it works not only do you have a fun time building things but you've also discovered that you can customize your home and add new extensions on to it. You having Legos has also led to some very interesting scenarios. has Edward woken up one day only to discover that you have built yourself a castle complete with working drawbridge and armaments yes, yes he has. And the reason he found out that the armaments worked is because when he suggested taking it down (because it was blocking his access to the computer) he got shot in the forehead with a nerf dart.

•scaring the hell out of him with your reflective eyes. (again I am very much a fan of borrowers having slightly animalistic traits) one incident stands out where sometime around 5 o'clock in the morning, Edward, half asleep and in the middle of an important project. had gone to get a coffee refill from the kitchen. only to get the life scared out of him when two glowing eyes prepared up at him from the dark. Quickly flicking on the kitchen light he was met by an equally surprised you who was in the process of getting a midnight snack. Oh well at lest it woke him up.

•having to deal with Edward being a bit of a prick towards you. As much as I love Edward he can be a jerk. he's a narcissist with an ego the size of Texas after all, and while you know he cares about you; his actions say as much. it doesn’t stop his ego from getting in the way and him talking down to you and belittling your intelligence from time to time. Most of the time just you roll your eyes and ignore it you knew what he was like when you first started hanging around him. However, whenever he goes too far you're not afraid to breakout the silent treatment as there is nothing he hates more than to be ignored.

•during Gotham's cold months if you two go out anywhere he will let you ride in his scarf. Its honestly the best place to be as not only does it make a great hiding spot should the need arise. but it also allows you to snuggle up to Edward whenever you desire.

•whenever Edward gets sent off to Arkham he will find a way to get in touch with you. Usually when Edward gets caught your safely tucked away within his secret hideout, patiently waiting for his return when he inevitably breaks out of Arkham. However, every now and then the GCPD will get lucky and raid the hideout he's currently living in with you and when that happens you usually end up having to make a quick escape. During the times that you do get separated you both work tirelessly to let the other one know where you are and how to find you. it will take a bit of coordinating and answering a lot of riddles but eventually you will find each other again.

•in the above case scenario when Edwards hideouts do get raided and there is ample time to get away he will always make sure to take you with him. he will never abandon or leave you behind not if he can help it.

[kodared]

✰ Stanford & Borrower/Anomaly Reader ✰

fears not enough they have to tear him apart.

Chapter 2/?

Wordcount: 2,684 / 4,741

➤ Summary Based on the borrowers of many universes! I hope you enjoy it, and if you don't know about borrowers, let me be your guide into a world I've loved since I was young. ✰Written because I saw the severe lack of borrower content in Gravity Falls fanfic, i hope you enjoy <3 ✰ - ★Updates irregularly! I write when I want ★ ★ - Also on AO3! - ★

You had spent the better half of that night scheming of ways actually to put your plan into motion. Sure the basic idea sounded easy enough, but you were only about 6 inches tall. His journal might even be taller than you. You tried not to let that thought bother you. 

You had even turned the string lights in your makeshift home on. If you were to think of ways to get the page you needed a comfortable space. You never liked sitting in the dark. 

The only sound in your room was your feet hitting the wooden plank you used as a floor while you paced in a circle. It had to be late at this point, and you could check and see if Ford was still awake, but you knew he’d still be up. 

Once he was enamored by something he stayed up studying, it felt weird for you to be that something, but here you were. 

If you were to take the page out of his journal, you needed something sharp to rip it out. Your needle wouldn’t work, it would take too long to rip the paper. You weren’t too keen on the idea of being caught by the scientist. 

You needed something more similar to a knife a human would use. You knew better than to think of making your own. You weren’t much of a blacksmith or crafter, you tinkered with a lot of things sure, but nothing extravagant. 

Finally getting bored of the scenery of your room, you decided that if you were going to brainstorm anything it would help to look around first. 

You clicked your string lights off and set off into the walls. Your hand fidgets with the needle on your hip anxiously. 

You always had a problem with twiddling with things. Your mother even had to put poison ivy on your nails once so you’d stop picking them and the skin around them. …You still had small scars but you tried not to pick them as bad. 

Absentmindedly walking the dark corridors of the inner walls wasn’t bad now and again. The cottage didn't have any mice, so you didn't have to worry about predators or bugs for that matter.

You wouldn’t have minded befriending a pill bug though, those little critters were always friendly as long as you had a treat for them. 

Your dreams of settling down with a bug friend though would have to wait. Reminding yourself why you came here, you finally felt along the wall for anything that could help. 

You were on the first floor. Meaning you were on the right track to the perfect spot to go looking for scraps the human wouldn’t miss. 

Not that it mattered if he noticed items going missing anymore, he already knew you were here. It was always best to avoid confrontation though.

Gently tapping on the wall as you went, you felt your body stiffening and halting right as you passed the humans room. 

If that was the noise you thought you heard, maybe the plan would be put in action sooner than expected. 

Halting in your tapping you gently pressed your body against the wall, hearing the faint whispers of a snore from beyond the wood. 

Deciding to bite the bullet you pressed harder, feeling the thin wood bend so you could peek. 

True to what you heard, you could see the human, Ford. Passed out at his desk, and even better, the Journal. 

Unguarded and open on his desk next to his hand. He must have been taking notes and fallen asleep. 

If there was any time to waste you weren’t going to be the one to waste it. Quickly pushing off the wall you took off towards the storage room he kept full of random items. 

Usually just rubbish of whatever he was working on at the time, sometimes wires, and more than often boxes full of who knows what. But that didn't matter, because you knew what you were after. 

Cramming yourself against the wall once more you operated quickly. Squeezing through the small crack made by pushing you landed on a box. Quickly you brought your sleeved arm up to stifle your coughing from the sheer amount of dust. 

Would it kill him to dust now and again or was he only interested in studying???

Pushing past your internal cussing you scanned the floor for what you came for to begin with. A small black screw lay on the floor exactly where you recognized it being. Still sharp at the end from disuse, overlooked on the floor for weeks. 

Bingo.

You jumped off of the box, ignoring the protests from your still sprained ankle as you speed walked over to the screw. 

Picking it up it felt cool in your hands. A comforting feeling in the stuffy and still dark room. The only light was from the moonlight that drifted from the window up high. 

Sometimes you wondered if your family was still okay in the woods. If sometimes when you looked at the moon, they where looking at it too. 

You began the long trek back to the humans room, debating whether or not it would be worth it to go back through the walls or just walk on foot. 

Eventually, you decided to just go back through the vent. Climbing back up the box and weaseling your way into the wall would be too much work. Plus the vents usually were easy enough to navigate. 

You used the screw to pry the grate up ever so slightly before using your hands to pull it up the rest of the way. Your wrist also protesting from where you fell on it. You seriously needed to take better care of yourself once this was all over. 

Dropping down into the vents you made sure to pull the grate shut behind you before crawling through the cramped space. Even for you, it was a bit uncomfortable but the cold on your stomach was oddly comforting. 

You oddly preferred a cold room over a warm one, even better if you had a warm piece of cloth. Even as a kid you much liked it better in the early months of fall than in the middle of summer. 

Finally, you could hear the humans' faint snoring from above you, confirming the vents were a pretty straightforward path to his room. 

Taking a deep breath you pushed the grate up. Timing it with his deep snores to make sure he stayed fast asleep.

Clambering up into the open space you could see Ford sleeping at his desk still. His body was uncomfortably curled around and resting on his desk. 

You were no fool. You made sure to plan an escape route just in case he did wake up, quickly scanning the room you could see a small hole in the floorboard. Probably made by the natural cut of the wood, but perfect for you to drop into at a moment's notice. 

You then looked at his desk. Trying to figure out a safe way to travel up it without your fishhook and thread. When something caught your eye. 

The bastard had kept your fishhook. There it lay on his workspace, just barely discernable from your angle on the floor as it glinted in the moonlight. Almost as if it was taunting you. 

Suddenly all the nerves you had were ebbing away into frustration. Who gave him the right to keep your things. You worked hard on getting the proper supplies, and he never noticed. So what gave him the right to pocket it like he made it? 

You made quick work of walking across the floor and getting your footing on the desk leg. The unpolished wood was rough enough to support your hands and feet as you climbed. 

If you could get your fishhook back on top of taking the page you would be ecstatic. Then you could move without worry and find a new place to move into. This would all be behind you and you could talk about it like it was all some bad dream. 

Now was a time for the present though as you neared the top of his desk. You had almost forgotten the human was resting just beside you, frightening yourself as you pulled yourself onto the desk and saw his arm right next to you. 

…You almost forgot how large this guy was. 

He was tall by human standards, you saw him standing next to his assistant before. 

Pushing down your curiosity you peeled your eyes away from the human. 

Quickly scooping up the fishhook and thread that was so rightfully yours. You took one more glance at him to make sure he was asleep. 

By human standards he was attractive. Hell, even by borrower standards he was mildly satisfying. You weren't one of those borrowers who actively sought out humans, but you could admit when someone was pleasing to the eyes. 

He had short brown hair that slightly curled at the ends. His glasses were now crooked with how he pressed his face on top of his arm as a makeshift pillow. You allowed your eyes to scan over him a bit longer. 

Taking in his outfit as well, a simple brown sweater with a collared shirt poking from above it. His usual trenchcoat was hung on the chair he sat on. 

His hands rested on top of his forearms, which- 

… Don't humans usually only have five fingers? 

You could've sworn they had only five. Raising your own you looked back and forth at it. 

You remembered your mother mentioning humans were genetically very similar to borrowers. The only difference is the height, which should mean he would have only five fingers. Not the six he seemed to have on both hands. 

You were getting sidetracked. Soon you wouldn't even be living with this weird scientist, so why did it matter if he had an extra finger? 

Finally focusing on what you came for, you turned your attention to the journal. That cursed, stupid, red journal. The cause of all your anxiety for the past few days. 

He's lucky you're not just burning the entire thing. You weren't above arson, but you didn't want to kill him if the fire got too big. Despite how much you loathed humans. 

You walked over to the journal and skimmed over the page it was open to. To no one's shock, it was open on the page you despised the most. 

Over the top of the pristine white paper was the name he had given you and your species. 

‘Parva persona’. Whatever that meant you didn't care. 

Below it was a crude sketch of what you could only assume was your shadowy figure slinking off into the wall. You thought you dressed better than that in all honesty. He could have atleast drawn you in detail. 

Whatever. Didnt matter as long as the page was gone. He could always rewrite it but you doubt he would remember everything. 

And the more that was lost to time the better in your opinion. 

You placed your foot on the page to hold it down as you positioned the screw at the top of the page. Pressing your whole body weight on it as you dragged it down, it worked beautifully. Leaving a messy tear in its wake. 

You almost forgot about the snoring behind you. 

Until it stopped. 

About halfway through slicing into the cursed paper you heard it. The slight intake of breath. The stutter was all you needed to whip around just in time to catch the human sitting up slightly. 

His eyes were wide as he looked down at you, the holds of sleep still gripping him tightly as he moved sluggishly. 

Screw the page. You dropped the screw and took off to the side of the desk. Already planning on using the hook to drop off the desk and disappear back into the walls before promptly packing your bags and going back to your parents. 

As you were about to drop your hook and use it to swing off the desk, you felt the warmth of his hand on your back once more before those damned fingers curled around your entire being. 

The human wasnt speaking yet but you didn't want to wait to hear him. Thrashing as hard as you could you tried desperately to grab your needle on your hip, but his hand was quick to squish your arms to your sides. 

The dizzying feeling of being lifted off the desk was the next thing you felt. You felt nauseous at the mental image of being manhandled. 

The human was stunned into silence as you screwed your eyes shut, still desperately kicking at his pinkie that held your thighs down. His thumb pressed against your neck and shoulders, almost as if he was examining you. 

Finally, you opened your eyes, and you wished you hadnt. His other hand held his glasses up, pressing them firmly against the bridge of his nose, as if he was afraid he wasnt seeing right. 

His hair messily framed his face as his mouth hung open just a bit. Clearly in awe at what he was seeing. Your heart hammered quickly against your chest as you feared you might die from shock and horror. 

You were stuck. Trapped by a scientist. The most dangerous human to exist to your kind. 

His grip tightened ever so slightly as he tilted you to the left, looking at the items you had on your hip as he lifted his middle finger. Your thighs and shoulder are still pinned to his palm. 

His palm was uncomfortably warm against your back. You hated the feeling of his skin against your clothes. Absentmindedly he used his other hand to poke at the needle on your hip. You contemplated trying to bite him. 

Your blood was rushing past your ears as the effects of vertigo hit your body in full swing once more as he moved. His head tilted to look somewhere beside the desk before you heard him rummaging. 

It was a wonder you weren't passed out at this point as his hand swayed. The motion was natural to him, but entirely foreign to the small sentient being he held in the palm of his hand. 

His eyes focused back on your form as you felt him press something against your side, it was cold and plastic. 

Craning your neck you could see him pressing what appeared to be a ruler to your side. His thumb pressed against your shoulder moving to press against your neck as he held you straight. 

“...6 and a half inches.. That should be impossible..” 

His voice boomed in your ears as you felt the beginnings of a headache nagging at the back of your eyes. In all reality, he was probably whispering. It didn't matter though combined with the closeness he held you at. 

His thumb was beginning to press a bit too hard into your neck and you saw spots forming in your vision. Your body kicked up in squirms as you desperately tried to squeeze in another full breath of air. 

He was quick to notice as he moved his thumb back to your shoulder. 

“Sorry!- I didn't realize, maybe I could..” 

He sat down the ruler before taking a few quick notes. Your vision cleared as you sucked in precious oxygen again. 

Your vision was just starting to clear fully as your brain caught up with his rummaging. He was once again rifling beside his desk. When you saw him pull a jar up into your vision you felt your blood run cold. 

You did not want to be put in a jar. Going into a jar meant transporting you. Which meant you where going down into that lab. 

   “Stop!-” 

The frantic words left your mouth before you could stop them, and you felt the human practically completely freeze. His calculating eyes pierced into your very soul as you felt him grip you ever so slightly tighter.  “You can talk!”

-- --- - - - --

Hope you enjoyed!! Will ford be nicer next chapter? Who knows!! I sure dont!!! ✰ Let me know if you enjoyed in the comments!!! I love reading them :)!!! Feel free to send me any asks in my askbox if you want as well! ✰

╱|、♡ (` - 7 |、⁻〵 じしˍ,)ノ

[borrowing-at-midknight]

You Look Like Hell

You knew better than to leave the walls and go outside in the winter. Despite being hotter than balls the rest of the year, Texas managed to get surprisingly freezing during the couple months it takes a break from acting like one giant oven. When you’d felt how cold it was, you should've turned back. But no, of course not. You just had to get what you wanted. It could've waited, the repairs you wanted to work on weren't urgent, but you're stubborn so of course you didn't wait. Now, you were paying the price.

Over the past five days, it's been getting harder and harder to breathe. It’s not your chest that hurts, thankfully, but your throat and head are killing you. You can't stop coughing. You wish you could, but every time you inhale, your throat dries up and forces you into another coughing fit. The few lozenges that were stashed away for this occasion had been used up the first day and a half of this torture.

You don't know what to do anymore. You can't get to sleep, everything hurts, there's no more supplies for this.

You need Schlatt.

Usually, you avoid asking Schlatt for help. It's not that you don't get along with him, quite the opposite. He leaves things out on the counter for you, you take them, and both of you pretend it doesn't happen. He'll never say it, but he enjoys having you around. If he didn't, you doubt he would’ve offered to bring you with him when he moved south. You'd gotten too accustomed to his extra help back in New York to decline that proposition.

When you eventually force yourself to get out of your bed and make the journey to the kitchen, you try to use the old memories of you and Schlatt to distract you on the way.

You hug your blanket around yourself tightly, too miserable to care about it dragging behind you. Twenty grueling minutes later, you can see the light pouring into the wall’s tunnel. You sigh, sending yourself into another coughing fit, before dredging along the last short distance left. Hobbling out onto the counter, you hear the fridge close and Schlatt scoff, clearly catching sight of you.

“Fuck’s wrong with you?”

You would've laughed if it wouldn't induce more coughing. “Snow.” Apparently speaking hurts as well.

“Snow, huh? That clearly worked out well for you. Nice going.”

As your eyes adjust to the light, you see him looming over you. His hands are planted a foot away on either side, arms leading up, up, up to his face which is nearly straight above you. To save the energy, you carefully slump onto your back and wrap your blanket around you. “Are you gonna help or not?” You croak.

Schlatt’s lips curl into a sly grin. “Not with that attitude. Can't a man get some appreciation around here?” Despite his words, he's already moving away from you and begun digging through the medicine cabinet.

Gratefully, you accept a freshly shattered lozenge, immediately popping a piece into your mouth for a little bit of sweet relief.

“You look like hell, have you had any DayQuil today?”

You flop your head side to side. “Ran out yesterday. Didn't have any NyQuil to begin with.”

Schlatt sighs as he leans down to carefully measure a miniscule amount of medicine into a thimble. “You know, you should use my help more often. I don't like the thought of you going without essentials.” He places the thimble down next to you, then turns to the fridge and pulls out some orange juice.

“Aw, does Schlatt care for the itsy bitsy-” Your sentence is interrupted by a coughing fit due to your attempt at sitting up.

“Get fucked.” Schlatt chuckles as he pours a shot glass of juice and sets it beside the thimble, which he nudges closer to you. He leans on the counter, arms crossed. “I'm just saying. I don't get why you insist on taking care of yourself. It's gotta be dangerous, right?”

You take the thimble and take a big gulp of it, setting it aside quickly so you can chase it with the OJ. “Of course it's dangerous, but I've been doing this my whole life. I just… I know how busy you are. You don't gotta worry about me, big man.”

“I'd worry about you less if you weren't on your own.” He mumbles.

“I'll tell you what. I'll stay out here until I'm better, and then we'll see about me hanging out out here more often.”

Schlatt tries to suppress his smile from taking over his face, but the way his eyes light up betrays his cool demeanor. “Alright, it's a deal. C'mon, I'll get you set up in my room.”

He stands up to his full height, a movement that you doubt you'll ever get used to, as it sends shivers down your spine. His massive hand settles next to you. Not wanting to keep him waiting, you drape your blanket over you like a cape, push yourself to your feet, and waddle your way over to his open palm. You don't have to look up to know there's a smirk plastered on Schlatt’s face as you sit cross legged in the center of his hand.

“Ready?”

“Never am.”

Schlatt chuckles and curls his thumb into his palm to give you a bit more security, then lifts his hand up to his chest and starts walking. “You know I'd never drop you.” This close to his chest, his words rumble around you. It's… surprisingly comforting.

“First time we met you covered me with a red solo cup.” You joke, a smile growing on your face. “I don't know jack shit when it comes to you.”

“Hey, that was years ago. I didn't know what you were.”

“You could've at least used an empty cup.”

“It wasn't even that much! I wasted my Kool-aid on you, and I had to clean it up after. I feel like I’m definitely the one who’s been wronged here.” He snickers as he enters his bedroom and reaches into his closet to pull out a long empty shoe box.

“So sorry for making you dump your drink on me, I'll do better next time.” You roll your eyes.

Schlatt drops the box onto his bed, then suddenly pinches you between his thumb and index finger in order to lift you and place you on his pillow. Your heart drops to your feet and you gasp. You don't usually mind, as it makes things quicker, but he enjoys catching you off guard with it as much as he can. As expected, he's trying to suppress a grin.

“Douchebag.”

As if on cue, he’s already pulled a box cutter from his bedside drawer and clicks it open, pointing it at you first. “Watch your mouth, bitch.” He grins and grabs the shoebox, sinking the blade into the side of it. You watch curiously as he works.

It doesn't take more than a few seconds before he turns the box to show you what seems to be a you-sized doorway carved into the side. He looks proud. “So that the cats can't get to you.”

You smile sleepily. “Good thinking… thank you.”

“Alright, let's get you some rest, huh?” Schlatt takes a moment to look around the room for something to use as bedding, and spots a clean washcloth. He grabs it, folds it in half twice, and opens the shoebox to place it in the corner before turning to scoop you up from his pillow. “I swear I'll work on a better setup, but it'll do for now, eh?” He allows you to scoot off of his hand on your own this time.

When you lay down on the cloth, you can't help but notice how this is already far better than your matchbox setup inside the walls, padded with tissue that you did your best to replace once a month. It must be evident on your face, because Schlatt chuckles and places the lid back on the box.

“I'll take that as a yes.” His voice may be muffled by the box, but it's still all enveloping. “If you want the lid off during the night I can keep the cats out of the room, but only because you're sick. Don't start thinkin’ you're above Jambo, pipsqueak.”

“I would never.” You're already drifting off, sprawled out across the soft, plush cloth.

You can hear him smiling as he speaks, walking out of the room. “Sweet dreams, idiot.”

[deadhands69]

Under the Christmas Tree 

MDNI 

Shouto Todoroki x Reader

Content/warnings/etc: gn/afab reader, Chapter 431 spoilers, porn with plot, post-canon/aged up slightly for no other reason than me being amused by the idea of Shouto Todoroki spending the entirety of his twenties after ch431 making stacks of soba bowls instead of ever attempting to get laid. He does get laid in this though: blowjob, fingering, slightly awkward sex (f on top, m on top), also contains swearing and explicit conversations. [wc: 2.6k]

2 1/2 Months Ago: Kaminari’s Halloween Party 

It wasn't really Halloween, but three days after. Being heroes, you are all used to it. Drinking holidays always bring out a villain streak in a lot of people so most of your gatherings end up on off days. After the long week, it was nice to have a lowkey night with a few old friends.

“Okay, you're up next!” Kirishima yells across the table, knuckles deep in candy corn. 

“Alright,” you pause to consider your next words. Looking down at your four upright fingers before continuing, “never have I ever…”

You can't remember what your actual words were. Whatever you said, it was boring. A few people groan around the circle, fingers dropping, then it's Sero’s turn. And he was determined to spice it back up again. 

“Never have I ever,” he starts with a twisted smile, “eaten ass…before breakfast.”

“Booooo,” Kaminari groans, tossing a few pieces of candy corn at him before dropping his last finger. “Okay, fine. Who's next?”

Shouto is up next. You prepared yourself for another odd one, his last turn was that he's never worn mismatched socks.

“Hey Todoroki,” chirped Mina, “quite a few fingers you're holding up there.”

He glanced down to the nine fingers still remaining before he looked at everyone else's in confusion. He was the only one in the room not down to one hand. Kaminari, Hagakure, and Shinso were all out. 

“Oh. Isn't that.. How you win?” 

“By losing at life?” Bakugo laughs. 

“There's no way you aren't lying,” Jiro adds, “wasn't Hagakure’s ‘never have I ever fucked a girl?’”

“I haven't done that with anyone,” Shouto responded. 

“There's no way,” Sero responded, “you're thirty! You've been voted the hottest hero in every girly magazine for ten years straight. I'm not buying it.”

“It's true, I really haven't,” Shouto said quite plainly, before glancing around the table again. He briefly locked eyes with you, searching for your reaction before quickly looking away. A blush crept up on his cheeks. 

Up to that moment, it had never occurred to him to be self conscious about his lack of sexual experience (or about anything, really.) But that night, with all of your eyes staring, he started to think maybe something was wrong with him. 

3 Weeks Ago: Mina & Kirishima’s Kitchen

“Here’s to comfort,” you read. 

“Ooh that's always a fun one!” Mina exclaimed, grabbing the blue stick out of your hand. “I'll pass that along to your Secret Santa!”

Every year since graduating from UA, your friends group has organized a gift giving game. It had now become some convoluted version of Secret Santa that started relatively normal but gained extra steps and rules along the way. At some point, popsicle sticks in a jar with phrases on the bottom of each were added to give your gifter a theme to stick to. Partially for fun, mostly because a few of your former classmates struggled without a prompt. 

“Ooooh, and guess what Todoroki got!” Mina fished through the jar for a green popsicle stick before holding it up, “‘a new experience!’ You can help him with that, riiiight?”

“Oh come on,” you dismiss, “he's cute but he’s clearly not interested in that sort of thing.”

“That's not what he said last week,” Mina winked at you. You look to Jiro for some confirmation.

“In more or less words, yeah.” 

“And that means…” you ask.

“I said ‘ooh sounds like someone’s getting a blowjob from Santa this year!’” Mina began laughing too hard to keep talking. Jiro continued, “we had to explain that no, we do not actually mean Santa. It was a whole thing, but in the end he said it’s something he’d been ‘thinking about a lot lately.’”

Kaminari chimed in, “and he’s had a crush on you for ages! I think you should do it, even if you don’t get him for Secret Santa.”

“Of course [y/n] will get him, we'll rig it. Like we do every year,” Mina flicked her eyebrows up at you. 

“Wait, what??” Kaminari exclaimed, dropping his beer. 

“You didn't know that?” Jiro asked, while throwing a towel at him. “You've been at the planning meetings, how could you not know that?”

“Okay, okay, you can explain it to him later. But now, let's get back to what's important.”

She moved into your space with intensity until her pink nose was nearly touching yours. Without breaking eye contact she asked:

“will you do it, [y/n]?” 

Current Date: Kaminari’s Holiday Party

“Okay, everyone remember. There are five hours left of today!” Mina announces, “I repeat, 5 hours! If you do not give your Secret Santa gift in this time, you will owe them lunch for a week!”

Secretly, nearly everyone hoped to get Bakugo for this reason - he’s an amazing cook and hates the game. Guaranteed lunch for a week. 

Maybe you got him this year, your gifter still hasn’t done anything. You haven’t either though.

It’s not that you didn’t want to, it’s just… awkward. 

Plus, the opportunity hadn’t come up. You were only alone with Shouto twice in the past few weeks. Once, you were both called to an emergency and went home covered in ash and blood. The other time, you were trying to work up the courage to bring it up when Denki showed up at your door to use the bathroom after bursting a pipe in his (the joys of living two doors away from him.) After that, he was out of town for a week. Then he was jetlagged. This is your first time seeing him since then. He looks well rested, at least. 

Four hours pass by quickly. 

You need to find a way to draw him out but every time you’ve tried, he’s been busy. First with distributing the handmade soba bowls and chopsticks he’s gifting everyone. Now he’s playing a card game with Sero and Kirishima. You’d been following him around all night, looking for your opening to no avail. Maybe it’s the constant glancing or the way you’re tapping your foot, but his two opponents have taken notice of your predicament.  

“Heyy,” a drunk Kirishima throws an arm over Shouto’s shoulders, “it would be super manly if you helped [y/n] with their Christmas tree. It’s been propped up in the corner for days. Driving me crazy.” He winks at you.

“Yeah,” Shouto replies calmly, “I can do that. Right now?”

Thank you Kiri!

“Yeah,” Kirishima gives his shoulder a squeeze before letting him go, “better get to it before we forget again.”

“But I won’t for-” you grab his arm, immediately dragging him out the door and down the hallway towards your apartment. 

Fortunately, your place looks nice right now. You'd decorated, initially planning to host the party. However, your friends stepped in and made the decision to give you space for Shouto's gift. Plus, moving supplies to Denki's apartment took them all of five minutes. 

“This must be important to you, I’m happy to help,” Todoroki says while you push the door open to a perfectly upright and decorated Christmas tree. Considering that the glowing bulbs reflecting off the shiny ornaments are the only light source in the room, it certainly draws the attention. 

“Huh? Oh, right…” you really hoped he saw through the excuse, but this couldn’t have been that easy. He glances between you and the tree for a moment. 

“You don’t actually need help with this, do you?” he tentatively asks. 

“No, Shouto. I don’t need help with the tree. I…” you pause, considering your next words. You try to sound collected but they all come spilling out at once. “I’ve been trying to get you alone because I got you for secret santa.”

“Oh,” the previous conversation with Mina and Jiro comes flooding back to him, “oh.” 

“Is that okay?”

“Yeah, very okay. Before I presume too much, do you mind telling me what the gift is?”

“It's…a new experience for you.”

He seems to like your confidence, that you're more experienced than him. When you grab the collar of his shirt to pull him further into the room, he follows eagerly. Dropping to sit across from you on the rug in the middle of your floor, the lights catch his face perfectly. You'd never realized how beautiful his eyes are up close. 

Leaning in, you press your lips into his.

You know it's not his first kiss. In varying years, a few of your friends have bragged about kissing him at midnight on New Years. But you know he's never kissed anyone like this before. Your hands are buried in his two toned hair, pressing him to the floor as you climb on top. He groans into your mouth, his head tipping up to you as his lips chase more closeness with yours. Your tongue slides over his, deepening the kiss. 

You take off his sweater, then the shirt underneath. Dragging your fingers over his bare chest.

Hips pressing into his while you straddle him. Dragging yourself over the hard bulge forming in his pants. The heat builds in your gut. It's time to take things further. 

Reluctantly, you pull your lips away from his. Crawling backwards down his body. At some point, while your face hovers above his belt, you have a realization. 

“You want this, right?” you ask, staring up into his heterochromatic eyes. Knowing that Shouto Todoroki would easily get himself into a situation like this without meaning to, it felt important to ask. 

“Absolutely.”

“Good,” you pull his underwear down with the pants as he tips his hips up to help you slide them off. 

And… wow.

Sure, it's not the most massive dick in the world but definitely the biggest you've ever seen in person. His pale leaky tip begging to be put in your mouth. He twitches at the feeling of your warm breath as you move closer, finally making contact when you lick the vein up his length. 

As soon as you touch him, he crumples under you like tissue paper. He exhales like he’s never relaxed so much in his life. Maybe he hasn’t.

You wrap your lips around his tip and press your tongue onto his shaft. Using your hands to make up for the areas your mouth can’t reach. As your head dips up and down, working up a good amount of spit and precum, his moaning increases. Soon, he’s jutting his hips up towards you. His hand gripping your hair harder.

You know he could cum right now if you let him, but you have more ideas tonight.

Pulling your lips away with a pop, you sit back up. He watches as you move over him, still working to steady his breath. This is a lot more than he really expected to happen tonight but he’s loving every minute of it.

Taking off the amount of clothes you need to, you laugh slightly at how clothed you still are in comparison to him. He’s down to just his socks. 

“You can take your socks off, you know.” 

He does, quickly. Now you have him completely naked under you.

Straddling his lap, you line him up with your entrance pulling your underwear to the side.

When you sink down onto his tip, you feel his girth immediately. Making it what you’d assume is about halfway down, you slide back up. Continuing to envelop him in small increments. You want so badly to maintain the image he has of you being cool and experienced but the stretch of taking all of him is becoming more of a task than you anticipated.

“Is something wrong?” he asks, brows furrowed in confusion.

“No, you’re doing great. It’s just…you’re kind of big.”

“Oh. I'm sorry if my penis isn't ideal.”

You could laugh. Seriously. The amount of guys who would be massively jealous and he has no fucking idea. 

“No, it's definitely not that. You have nothing to worry about; it'll just take a bit to get used to.”

“Is there anything I can do to make it better for you? I know you’re doing this for me, but I'd like to make you feel good too.”

“Yeah, you could use your fingers?”

One issue - you forgot his fingers are massive as well.

“Is this okay?” he asks, slowly inching his middle finger in after you showed him how. 

“Yeah, just.. A little faster now.”

Eventually, he gets the hang of it. Earning a huge gush of cum from you, leaving his fingers sticky. His hand lingers for a moment while you come down. You’re still gripping his shoulders and breathing hard into his chest. Finally, you look up at him.

You haven’t seen him look this proud of himself in a long time.

“Does this mean we can try again?” he asks, “if you’re finished after that I can respect that as well.” 

“Yeah, we can definitely keep going,” you smile, shoving him onto his back again. You begin removing more clothes, starting with your now damp undergarments. 

This time, when you line yourself up you slide a little easier onto him. Still not quite fitting the whole thing but the stretch is much less now. 

Your elbows drop by his head, caging him to the ground under you. He brings his warm (and cold) hands to your hips, enjoying the way your skin moves against his fingers as you bounce up and down on him. The sound of your combined breathing fills your living room, nearly echoing from the corners. Holiday lights still illuminating his face while he stares up at you in amazement.

Why didn’t you do this sooner?

You continue riding his dick until the tension in your gut builds. Soon you’re clenching around him while holding onto his shoulders for support again. Your bounce slows to a grind while you press yourself as close to him as possible.

“Shouto,” you moan into his ear.

He groans and turns his head to kiss you.

“Can I..” he asks, sitting the two of you up while he holds you against his chest.

“Uh huh,” you nod and he has you on your back. Hips rutting between your legs that are now wrapped around his back.

Within the minute, it’s his turn. 

“I’m about to cum,” he moans, “is it okay if I-”

“Yeah, please cum,” you whisper.

Immediately, he whimpers - pulling you closer while he gushes inside of you.

"I've wanted to do that for years," he murmurs.

You move the hair out of each other’s eyes while you catch your breath. Eventually making your way off the living room floor.

While you’re getting cleaned up, he excuses himself briefly. Saying he needed to grab something from his car. You figure it’s toiletries or something and carry on.

A few minutes later, as you’re coming out of the bathroom freshly changed into comfortable clothes as he re-enters your front door. In his arms is a massive fluffy blanket, which he promptly wraps around you then leads you to your couch. 

“I’m your secret santa this year. I was waiting until after midnight to give you your gift, I wanted the excuse to take you out to lunch for a week,” he says while wrapping his arms around you, warming you further. “There's a new soba place I'd like to try, but I'm open to your suggestions as well.”

Down the hall, your friends were all guessing when they’d see you next. Some saying that one or both of you would come running back within the hour. Much to the delight of Mina, Jiro, Kaminari, and Kirishima - they guessed right. No one saw the two of you until you emerged from your apartment the next morning.

m.list

Okay, this whole thing was admittedly written after reading chapter 431 with izuchako becoming a thing and Jiro/Denki’s friendship deepening while Shouto just doubles down hard on soba. Something about that plus his absolute obliviousness is hilarious to me but I mostly write smut so it led to this weird awkward thing. Thanks for reading!

[cheralith]

— urge.

feat. isagi yoichi (with michael kaiser) || wc: 3.0k cw: gn!reader, no pronouns used, non-canon au, dark content/dead dove do not eat: cannibal!isagi, cannibal!kaiser, gore, blood, body horror, descriptions of cannibalism a/n: au is lowk a mix of tokyo ghoul and beastars im ngl

THE URGE: Shortened from "the urge to feast", a strong compulsion felt by cannibals who have previously feasted on human flesh to consume it once more either to satisfy a craving or feel the effects of human flesh again.

It pains him. How easily he’s able to gaze upon regular food like it’s nothing. 

And it should be nothing to him. It isn’t a delicacy. It’s just a regular ham sandwich with potato chips—a lunch served at even an elementary level. A child can make this. But for some reason, when Isagi stares at the piece of meat and vegetables wedged between the sourdough, he feels like he doesn’t deserve it. 

After all, the blood from earlier is still ghosting his tongue. Such a taste would be hard to overcome with just a regular sandwich. He swallows, feeling the ghost of a chunk of flesh run down his throat. 

His stomach growls, twisting from the emptiness consumed in the past day and a half, but still. He refuses to move, not when he understands that his mouth doesn’t naturally salivate at the sight of food in front of him. Literal food. Something is wrong.

“It won’t kill you,” you mutter, watching how warbly Isagi’s eyes and lips get as he continues to stare at the sandwich placed before him. “But what will is your hunger. You need to eat.”

“I don’t think I should…” he whispers. Shame wallows down upon his body, restricting him from moving. His stomach angrily rumbles again, a high-pitched whine.

“You can still eat regular food normally,” you sigh and cross your arms. “You should anyway, it’ll suppress the urge. If you keep your stomach empty, the more powerful it’ll become.”

His stomach gurgles again unpleasantly, begging for the food in front of him despite all odds he places against himself. A shaky breath draws from chapped lips, eyes closing as he picks up the sandwich and takes a hesitant bite out of it. Slow chews draw the familiar bland taste of the bread mixed with the sauces and meat, lettuce crunching all too softly.

It feels too easy to bite through. The bread is too airy; spongy. The crunch of the lettuce is too quiet; it’s not as splitting and shattering as bone. Isagi’s jaw ticks. He shivers. 

It doesn’t feel like the chewy flesh from the salaryman he had feasted upon, his fatty tissue feeling like the most tender of meats when Isagi had torn himself a piece from his skin, spitting out the suit’s fabric and chewing heartily on the skin amidst the heat of the moment, his mind separated from his body that acted on pure instinct. How the intestines had started to spill from how much he ate from the fleshy part of the belly, unravelling themselves from the caverns of the body.

He remembers the slickness of blood coating his mouth, the metallic tang spreading across his palette, along with the odd sweetness of skin—a malt flavor he had never tasted until now, bits of skin stuck between his teeth.

At least his stomach has stopped twisting itself, satiated from the nourishment. But it doesn’t cease the craving. Something is still missing.

“Feeling better?” you inquire as Isagi gulps down his cup of water. 

He sighs as he puts his cup down, wiping his mouth. The water is too thin; it just barely manages to quench his thirst. “Yeah. I think.”

“Interesting,” you murmur whilst pulling out your notebook from your lab coat. You untuck your pen from your ear, scribbling something down. 

He blinks, confused. “Wh-what’s interesting?” he asks worriedly when he sees your pen moving violently. 

You snap your notebook shut, tucking it back into its designated pocket and looking straight at him, a curious glaze over your eyes. 

“You sure you don’t feel anything? Like not even a compulsion?” you ask again.

Isagi pauses, then shakes his head. His mouth still feels dry and he feels full, but not content. Like a mild itch that has yet to be scratched. 

“That’s funny,” you state while tilting your head and point at the now crumb-littered plate. “Because that sandwich you ate wasn’t ham. It was sliced human flesh. Specifically from a teenager’s chest.”

Isagi’s face draws a blank look. Time pauses for a moment for him to digest your words. 

Human… flesh? But, he doesn’t feel as replete as he did when he devoured the man in the alleyway. He doesn’t feel the rush of euphoria, nor the constant salivation to prepare his mouth for more. 

Then, Isagi shouts a swear, scrambling up from his seat and clutches his mouth in horror. It still feels dry, but he can’t risk it. Heavy breaths come and go, a poor attempt to calm him down from the feat he had just done.

“You—!” he points an accusatory finger at you, anger and betrayal on his half-hidden face, tears pricking his eyes. “You tricked me! You said—you said you would help me stop the craving. Why the fuck would you—”

“Do you feel the urge?” you ask suddenly, cutting him off, with your face as calm as ever despite his antics. 

Isagi’s gaze captures your own, your eyes boring into him, clearly analyzing every movement he does. “What?” 

“I said,” you roll up your sleeves, showing off your fresh, unmarked skin off to him. Isagi yelps and closes his eyes, fearing that he’d feel the horrible rush of dopamine that he felt two days ago when he sunk his teeth into the arm of the salaryman. “Do you feel the urge?”

“Please don’t—!” he gasps, desperate and ashamed of what may come.

“Isagi,” you call for him again, more sternly. “Open your eyes and look at me. Do you feel the urge?”

A furious shake of his head makes the blood rush to his head, eyes still glued shut. He wails aloud again, nails embedding themselves into his cheek, his hand being a make-shift muzzle. “I don’t want to hurt y-you!” 

“Isagi!” you bellow. “You need to calm down! Just tell me if you—”

“Cover your arms!” he howls again, his other hand going to clutch his hair. “Before I do something bad!” 

He can hear the clicking of your shoes and smell your perfume as you come closer to him and snatch his arms away from himself, unsheathing his layer of protection. He doesn’t even realize tears are beginning to spill from him until you force him to look up at you, your brows furrowed in frustration.

“Get ahold of yourself,” you state once more, your voice bellowing itself in the clinic’s office. “Ground yourself properly. Then tell me if you actually feel the urge to eat flesh again. You’re being hysterical.”

Shallow breaths run through him, slowing his heartbeat and his mind from all the thoughts of the future that ruptured his consciousness temporarily. He stares incredulously at you, your frustrated countenance making him quiver before you suddenly, feeling small despite his physicalities surpassing yours by miles. He hears the hum of the air conditioner once again, the ringing in his ears suddenly gone, as well as the wind of the ceiling fan and the scent of cleaning products of the clinic.

His pupils dilate, mind returning back to its original awareness once more of where he is. Isagi swallows again, feeling his mouth still dry and devoid of moisture. He glances up at you and at your bare arms, not feeling any sort of desire to latch his teeth onto them despite how tender they looked. 

“You good?” you ask, gripping his arms still. 

A staccato of short, but steady breaths run through his lips. Isagi purses them, then nods slowly, a slight hiccup managing to slip its way through. You sigh, carefully letting go his arms and letting himself gather back up again on the counter, the panic dissolving away as you roll back down the fabric of your lab coat’s sleeve. 

“What you ate,” you start, putting his dishes into the sink and facing him, “was the flesh of a dead human. We give those to people in rehab because the blood has thinned and isn’t as fresh, so you couldn’t feel the fullness of its effects, meaning you’re still at a stage where you can control and not be dependent on it.”

You turn back to him, Isagi fidgeting a little in his seat. “Will I eventually go back to normal then if I learn to control it? Like, not craving flesh, I mean… and just craving regular food like a hamburger,” he states. 

An apt pause runs through the clinic. Isagi looks at you, waiting patiently for your response in anticipation that this hellhole he got himself into has a way out.

Your gaze softens at him, apologetic. Isagi stiffens at your reaction. 

“I’m sorry,” you murmur, “but once you’ve gotten a taste of human flesh, it’s impossible to go back to living like a regular human.”

His heart drops, his chest icy as if it just plunged itself into deep water. His vision hazes a bit as he digests your words, or at least attempts to. 

You shuffle your cold hands into your pockets, leaning against the countertop. 

“Humans are on the highest level of the food pyramid—ultimately meaning human meat is of utmost quality and is desired the most. Society just happens to have this contract that we aren’t allowed to each other to uphold a peace,” you sigh and roll the tension out of your neck, noticing Isagi’s petrified stare, a stare you’ve grown rather accustomed to from patients like him over the years. They’ll ask if there’s a possibility of normalcy, you’ll say no, and comes the realization that they’ve turned into nothing but monsters. 

“Those who break it, the ones that give into the urge and eat another person,” your eyes flicker to him. “They’re viewed as taboo not only by society, but to themselves. They’ll torture themselves over it, succumbing to madness, which compels the urge to rise back up again. And the cycle repeats.”

Isagi is motionless, still struck by shock at the fact that one impulsive move had led to his entire downfall as a human being—a title that he no longer has the permission of bearing because he’s no longer human, not when he did such a beastly act to another. Not when he feasted upon that poor salaryman like a rabid, starved animal depleted of substance. 

He had looked like one at the time of discovery of his crime. Blood dripping down his chin, crimson staining his teeth, his canines bared. The dead salaryman before him, chunks of his skin ripped off in places where Isagi’s teeth had ripped from his body to eat, to consume, euphoria filling his brain with each chew and swallow. His hands were gripping onto the body so harshly, just in case it got away, despite the beating of the salaryman’s heart stopping minutes earlier. 

You let him take a chance to speak, but when Isagi fixates his gaze to the wooden countertop again, eyes wide and watery, you sigh once more. 

“But that’s where you come in,” you tap on the counter, grabbing his attention at last. “That’s why I wanted you to be my guinea pig for drugs I’m prototyping to help cannibals like you, even thought I’m not one. To stop whatever urges may come before they get worse.” 

Isagi pauses, replaying the memory of you asking the officers to release him on behalf of your pharmaceutical company, that you “helped rehabilitate” people like him. He could barely digest anything outside his jail cell from the time, still barely conscious from the act he had done earlier, but he picked up that much and trusted you instantly when you extended the first kind hand he had gotten since being thrown into the cell.

“My name’s (Y/N). I’m a pharmaceutical scientist from the nearby university,” you had said to him. “I’m here to help you, if you’ll let me.”

“I agreed to be helped,” Isagi starts, a low mutter in his voice. “Not be a test subject.”

You open your mouth to interject, but the door opens suddenly, making you and Isagi pause in your tracks as a blonde stranger walks in in a somewhat straggled manner. 

He’s tall, at least six feet, and wearing red pants with a black button-down that seems to be stained with something, a dark patch in the clothes. His hair chopped into a mullet, dipped in striking blue at its ends. But perhaps the most prominent thing about him was that on his left side of his neck reveals a blue rose tattoo with a black vine running down its arm and leading to a crown tattoo on the back of his hand. Isagi’s eyes narrow at his rather flashy appearance. 

He breathes heavily, a stain of red that matches his eyeliner that frames around sharpened azure eyes that aim towards you painting at the side of his lips.

“Micha?” you question in surprise as the man hobbles toward you. “What’s going on?”

“I ran out—” he heaves dryly, eye twitching, a quick flash of scarlet wavering in and out of his blue hues. “I ran out of vials… shit, do you have any on you?” 

Isagi watches as he pulls out a long, but empty tube flickered with red spots inside of it from his pants pocket. Blood, he suspects. 

“I…” you stagger back, whipping your head around to look for something. “No, I haven’t had time to prepare you a fresh batch yet, you went through them that quick?” 

The man mutters a swear, fisting the vial in his tattooed hand so tightly that Isagi thinks it’ll shatter within it. “Fuck… fuck! Hurry up and prepare me one then! Everything fucking hurts!”

“I don’t have my kit on me,” you say in a gentle attempt to calm him down. “We have some spare frozen fingers the mortuary gave us, will that help?” 

Isagi can see visibly now as the man draws clearer that he’s salivating—a harsh pool of saliva building up in his mouth that he seems to be swallowing every second. 

“No, no I don’t want flesh, I just want blood,” he groans out, Isagi’s presence still unnoticed by him. The man stumbles into the back of the countertop, slamming himself onto it in imbalance. 

Your brows pinch, trying to find a solution to his pain before understanding that there was nothing before you to use. Instead, you pull down the collar of your shirt, where Isagi can see the faint bite marks and scars ridden leftover on your skin. He has to stop himself from reacting. 

“We agreed only for emergencies…” you warn slowly to the man, whose pupils dilate at the sight of your open neck. “Just take what you need for now. You almost drained me la—”

The man snarls and suddenly lurches forward, his teeth baring and latching themselves onto your neck, sinking them so deeply it breaks skin and draws a river of blood down your body, staining your clothes and lab coat a ribbon of red. An extreme howl of pain rips itself from your lips from the impact, your body going limp from the pressure and rapid blood loss as the man licks at the drawn red rapidly, desperately. 

He manages to catch and grasp you before you can fall to the floor, situating you in his arms and moaning at the taste of your raw blood with bits of your flesh that he laps up, eyes flickering madly with red the more he consumes of you.

Isagi stills, just watching the sight unfold before him and not knowing what to do. Clearly you knew him, so he didn’t have to call for help, and had even offered your skin to him, but you look to be in so much pain from the twisted look on your face and the way that you grapple onto him, it worries Isagi. He just merely watches in shock as the man continues feasting, blood dripping onto the floor from your arm, until you let out a cry for him to slow down. 

The man’s eyes suddenly draw towards him, hooded and narrowed, like he was questioning why Isagi was here, but he says nothing and continues to lick at your blood—all the while still maintaining eye contact with Isagi.

The latter can only stare back in a hard gaze, wanting to tell him off and let you go, but as soon as his courage worked itself up, the man detaches himself from your neck, mouth rimmed with ruby. He licks his lips, clearly satisfied, with the blue settling back into his irises. 

A soft groan whispers itself from you, and you weakly fall forward with your eyes closed in the remnants of pain. The man grips you again in his hold, his tattooed hand running up and down your back as if to soothe you—as though he just didn’t commit one of humanity’s most notorious crimes right in front of a witness. 

“Thanks,” he mutters softly into your hair. 

“Anytime,” you heave, defeated. Your eyes crack open and they focus back on Isagi in a tired manner, making him stiff up again at your attention. “Sorry Isagi… let me just clean myself up really quick and I’ll… get back to you.”

He can only nod in silence and widened eyes, questioning what on earth had just unfolded in front of him right now and what to do about it considering he just did witness what could be defined as a feasting right in front of him… even though the man didn’t actually take any flesh from you, just blood. 

You cover up the bite mark with your blood-vined hand and tell Isagi you’ll be right back, with the man helping you hobble your way to the back of the clinic. Just before you and him go behind the door, however, the man throws him another suspicious look from over his shoulder, as if to send some sort of warning message. 

Isagi can only return it back in what he hopes to be equal fervor, brows furrowing and eyes hardened. 

The man’s lips tilt up into a steady smirk. Then, he disappears behind the door with you, leaving Isagi alone with his thoughts.

He reels his gaze back to where you and him stood before Isagi, against the back countertop. Isagi’s eyes narrow, however, when he sees the dropped vial from earlier sitting limply on the floor. 

Next to it, a small puddle of blood. 

Isagi draws a breath, staring at it and its rich color and how strangely enigmatic it was. Isagi gulps, a wetness pouring over his tongue suddenly.

He licks his lips, eye twitching.

a/n: prequel with kaiser: compulsions

[ohimsummer]

✎ . . . WHAT A STEAL!

⭑ ࣪ ˖ sum’z notes.ᐟ not rlly any warnings i think!! basic sashisu x reader (suguru’s is prob a lil more obvious) u r just a victim of sashisu thievery 🫶🏾

SASHISU who steal your things.

your favorite pink beanie has gone missing. you wear it every time you go out, even around the house sometimes, but the hat has suddenly went MIA. last you saw, it was on your desk. and shoko was the last person in your room, but she doesn't seem to have your beloved hat. the four of you are heading out for brunch at some cafe satoru was going rabid about, so you don't want to keep them waiting over a beanie. it’s not until you settle for another and meet the trio at the door that you spot it on satoru’s head.

he doesn't show the slightest hint of guilt as you approach, in fact gojo acts like everything is normal. you'd find the sight of this 6 foot giant topped off with a baby pink beanie amusing if you weren't so annoyed in the moment.

“i have been looking all over for that!” you glare up at gojo, poking a finger in his chest.

and he just gives you a shit-eating grin. “oh, i know! looks like you finally found it, yeah?”

he thinks the little frown you give him is so cute, but gojo still pacifies your angry stare by engulfing you in his blue scarf. he taps a finger on your nose, and his eyes light up when you grin at him. you suppose this is a fair trade.

a brand new pair of pink slides that you just bought to wear around the house have suddenly disappeared clean from your bedroom. you wonder if you left them in shoko’s room, and search for her to ask.

“sho?” you call as you stick your head out onto the balcony. “have you seen my sandals?”

she’s leaning against the rail having a smoke, suguru sitting in one of the balcony chairs. your eyes gravitate to her feet as she asks, “which ones?”

‘which ones?’ you repeat mockingly in your head, staring at said shoes on her feet because she’s seemingly helped herself. along with a pair of your new socks, too, apparently?

"now, shoko-"

"okay, okay." she and suguru share delighted giggles. "can i wear them a little longer, until i finish this?" shoko lifts the glowing cigarette in her hand.

you huff, though unable to fight the way your lips curl up into a smile. "fine. i want them back right after, though. get your own slides."

she brushes you off with a turn of her head, giggling. "love you, y/n."

"yeah, yeah, whatever."

one. two.

one...two...

yep, one of your pillows is definitely missing.

it's not on the couch (like the last time gojo took it when he fell asleep there) and not in shoko's room (which you assume would make the most sense). you're headed to the guest room next to see if it's been misplaced there, but something feels off when you pass by suguru's open door. his eyes are on you as you step back for a doubletake, and find him relaxed atop a very out-of-place pink pillow on his black bedsheets.

"what, are your pillows not good enough?" hands falling to your hips, your head tilts, a brow raised at geto's unbothered reaction.

he replies with a languid smile. "i find yours a little more comfortable."

you hold your tongue on reminding him that you both went pillow-shopping together, so they're the same pillows. he holds his tongue on admitting that he also likes the way your scent calms his nerves and lulls him to sleep. you both decide it's not important, right now, anyway.

tagz: @anthoosies @staryukis @mysugu @hellkaiserinphoenix :3c