#enemies to allies to lovers

[ravenjeanauthor]

This Hallowed Accord by Raven Jean, available here.

[sabraeal]

To My Esteemed Enemy

[Read on AO3]

My third holiday gift this year, and this time it’s for a different fandom, and a new-to-me pairing! Kazasen originally tied with Alan/Katerina (Hamefura) for second place, and then tied for first with Jiro/Nanami (Kamisama Kiss) in the run off. It was a close race for concept with this one, but eventually the epistolary fic won out...and then I had to resign myself to this being a VERY long fic with shorter chapters 🤣

To the Esteemed Elders of Kazama, with All the Blessings That Humble Yase Can Convey--

It is with both heart both heavy and steeled that brush is committed to paper, so that those of the clan Kazama who act with great wisdom may be warned of the misconduct of the demon who calls himself their head and speaks with the authority of their ancestors. In the pursuit of taking an uninterested and unwilling female demon in Yase’s domain, Kazama Chikage has violated demonkind’s greatest taboo: he has meddled in man’s affairs.

While in service to Satsuma, Kazama Chikage committed acts both violent and base, engaging with human men in combat for reasons personal and pertaining to his unwanted attention toward the female demon. Were this only a single instance, Yase would be willing to turn its gaze aside, but his attempts have grown so numerous and vicious that they risk drawing attention to the places our shadows fill in this world.

Kazama is a noble and storied clan, one of the original blood, and Yase is prepared to be lenient in this matter. So long as the demon known as Chikage is kept within the confines of the village and commits no more infractions upon the code, Yase will not bring the council’s attention onto his actions. However, should these terms be violated, know that his offenses are terrible and numerous, enough that disbandment might not only be considered, but surely recommended.

As a show of good faith, Yase asks that Kazama report on the behavior and location of the demon known as Chikage, and--

“Is this why I’m here?” The page shrinks as he speaks, the collar of his too-big tunic nearly swallowing him whole. “To listen to the whimpers of lesser clans?”

“Yase is not simply putting their hands on their swords, Chikage-sama.” Masanori spits out the honorific like the shell from a seed, an unpleasant dressing necessary to reach the meat of the matter. “If you do not cease your meddling, they will see us disbanded, scattered to the four winds just as they did to-- to--”

Hatsushimo. Five hundred years and these cowards still can’t speak the name.

Humor peels his lips from his teeth, but there’s smile behind them. “They can try. Kazama will not be so easy a carcass to pick clean.”

The elders shift on their fattened cushions, old bones speaking just as much as their glances. “Although the strength of Kazama is undeniable, truth makes for more pleasant music than threats.”

When Kazusane speaks, it is measured, more like poetry than conversation. His most beloved tutor in boyhood, and his most dreaded one in adolescence. Now, he’s only a bore. “The alliance will favor the words of Yase, for they are known for their honesty and their shrewdness.”

“And you are only known for your crudeness and impulsivity,” Masanori adds, his wrinkled face knitted as if one of his esteemed colleagues passed foul wind in the hall. All Chikage smells is old man and death.

“And Kazama is known for tolerating no insult. For paying back what is owed.” He snorts, leaning a cheek on his fist. “I don’t remember any of you complaining when the elders of other clans would bow before you. When even warriors would tremble as long as you trailed in my wake.”

“And now they will laugh.” Sadahira’s age weighs heavily on him, making his words slow, ponderous. He’d been old when Chikage’s father had been a boy, and now every wind threatens to scatter him to dust. “How else could they act when they hear that Kazama’s proud prince has been brought low, traipsing after some...female demon?”

His teeth creak as he grins, wishing he could wear them all to points. “Isn’t that what you have all been asking me to do? Find some acceptable wife and beget my heir upon her?”

“There are any number of suitable candidates you have already turned away, rude enough that we are lucky their fathers and brothers do not knock down our doors.” Masanori wears his jealousy the same way a his anger: poorly. Red splotches bloom unevenly up his neck, leaving the man as piebald as the mongrels that roamed the outskirts of the village. “And now you find some whore with water for blood, and we are supposed to--”

“The girl is the last of the Yukimura.” Rage might make some men sloppy, but for Chikage it is the furnace that hones him to a thin edge, that burns away the impurities that make other men brittle. “You may sit pretty, dressed up in your silks and picked clean of fleas, but her blood runs so pure it makes the rest of you look like the filthy curs you are. If you think I’ll let a mate of the original bloodlines slip through my fingers just because Yasehime--”

“That is not what we wish to speak of.” Amagiri’s edge might be blunted with his politeness, but they cut through his words with ease. He bows over his knees, a ridiculous pose for a man as big as him. “Forgive us, elders, but we did not come to talk to you about Yukimura Chizuru.”

As a boy, he dreaded Kazusane’s disapproval. Even the faintest frown would send him back to study, hoping to earn his praise, but now-- now he wishes he could care less, his stomach still twisting as the man’s bushy brows draw tight over his nose.

“Amagiri-dono, you do this child a service by speaking for him. However, he has been called here to answer for the blade his actions have hung above us. The one he risks dropping even now.” Kazusane’s eyes are not the pure crimson of a true Kazama, but they burn as they press upon him, his anger hardly banked. “For what other reason would Chikage-sama dare leave this village, save to seek out this girl?”

“The fakes.” Even now the word hisses from his lips, leaving a foul taste behind. And yet, there is no reaction from the elders.

Sadahira turns his trembling head toward where Amagiri sits, the picture of obedience. “What does he mean?”

“The rasetsu,” he explains with a calm Chikage could never summon for such abominations. “While allied with the bafuku, Yukimura Kodo engaged in experimentation with demon blood, creating from their ranks creatures that defy the natural order. Not men, and not demon, craving the life that their bodies lack.”

“They are an insult to demonkind,” Chikage snaps. “They cannot be suffered to live.”

A murmur of distaste washes through the room, but still, Sadahira shakes his head. “It is unfortunate that mortal men have devised of such unnatural creatures, but it is hardly our business what they choose to do with these...rasetsu.”

A short-sighted answer, typical of a man who would not live to see its consequence. “It was a demon who made these, even his blood was watered down to barely more than piss.”

“And it would be the duty of his clan to see to it that the danger was handled,” Sadahira informs him, unbothered. “There is no reason for Kazama to overextend itself to see to Yukimura’s problems.”

Chikage stares, uncomprehending. “There is no more Yukimura.”

Masanori smiles wide, like a wolf about to feast. “I thought you said this girl of yours was the last?”

At that, even Amagiri stirs. “But she’s just one girl!”

“Then she should hope that these men she has thrown in with can measure up to half a demon.” Masanori’s mouth curves, the way it always did when he thought a lesson would land the way it ought. “Do not concern yourself with man’s problems. Stay in the village, write this Yase-hime her letters, and pray that she forgets your transgressions.”

“But these fakes will--”

“Our ancestors did not stop men from forging swords just because they could cut themselves on them.” Sadahira speaks with steel in his words, and no little fear. “Let them learn the way children learn best, and worry more about what you can do to keep your people safe.”

“Tch.” Yasehime’s even characters stretch across the paper, as pedantic as the girl herself. Kazama crumples it in his palm, tossing it to the floor along with his kimono. “Cowards. To think they would tell me to grovel at the feet of Yase. As if I were some piss-blood demon, not one of the most storied lines in all of--”

“You would do well to take counsel from the elders.” Amagiri stoops to scoop up the fabric, straightening it out with a sigh. “It is their duty to think of what would be best interest for the clan, not just--”

“They are thinking like flies on a dead pig’s backside.” His juban slips from his shoulders, crumpling in a silken pile behind him. “Their tiny minds cannot comprehend more than this moment’s feast, not whether the whole hog is rotting away beneath us.”

The man’s breath is as stiff as his spine when he bends, grunting from the strain of not bowing and scraping for those old relics. “That may be so. But they are not wrong. We no longer answer to just them, but Sen-hime--”

A hiss catches between his teeth. “I grow weary of Yase-hime and her threats. Is she the one who led Kazama in the years since my father died? No. And we have prospered. Meanwhile Yase still lives on their knees, beholden to an emperor who is barely old enough to shave himself.”

Amagiri may make his faces, but when Chikage holds out his hand, he does not wait long for the clothes to fill them. These Western fabrics are not so fine as his own, scratching his hands as he pulls them over his head, but it is what is necessary now to walk among Kyoto’s streets, to hear what these people will say.

“Yase is not a clan of warriors,” Amagiri grunts, finally. “Their power does not come from numbers, or blades, but from secrets. And if you are not careful, Sen-hime will use those secrets to take your own out from beneath you.”

He scoffs, skinning these strange Western hakama up his legs. “I do not fear weak words, and certainly not from a female.”

The big man silences him with a shake of his head. “You do not know what it is to lose your people and leave the home of your ancestors, living on the kindness-- and sufferance-- of others.” That dark gaze pins him as thoroughly as his grip. “Amagiri lost only its land, and even now we carry that pain with us. I cannot imagine it would be any less than agony to be separated as a people too, forced to scatter with the wind.”

Chikage tears away with a grimace. That gaze is too much sorrow to bear, even borrowed.

“Tch,” he clucks, hastily buttoning up these strange clothes. “That is too much power for one woman. To think you said she might make a suitable companion.”

Amagiri holds out his coat. “That opinion has not changed.”

Chikage whips his head over his shoulder. “Even after all this? She’s threatened to disband Kazama over a trifle.”

He doesn’t deserve the weary look he receives. “That she wields so much power only proves that she is your equal. Her bloodline is unchanged--”

“And so is her personality.” He smooths his hands over the coat, if only to keep from gathering them to fists. “Women who know their own mind are tiresome. We would not suit.”

Amagiri is silent for a long while, long enough that it seems this topic of conversation might be over. An illusion Chikage is allowed to believe until his hands busy themselves with tying his blade to his hip. “More unfitting matches have been made in my time.”

Chikage’s mouth thins. “We have other work to be doing. Something much more pleasurable than being harangued by that harpy. Let’s go.”

The big man stiffens. “The elders said--”

“The elders advised me to beg Yase’s forgiveness.” He grins, sliding open the shogi. “And I will do it gladly once we have culled these fakes from Kodo’s ranks.”

[sahana-draws]

I cracked up so hard at this scene from Court of Blood and Bindings, she's floundering so hard with her magic and he's just sighing 😂

Book - Court of Blood and Bindings, by Lisette Marshall

[radiance1]

The Ghost King and The Lord of Madness know each other.

After enslaving multiple of worlds they were bound to meet. Their relation is... complicated. They were very fierce enemies when they first met, then it turned into a begrudging respect for one another which then turned them into tentative allies at some point.

Then that somehow transformed into love, and they got to gather after multiple eons. Only to then break up a couple eons later, which then made them enemies for a few more eons before they turned into some form of weird friendship and comradery.

Which then made them on and off exes.

Trigon was a bit sad when his friend/ex/lover/husband/ally/enemy just disappeared from his radar, but hey there's this one woman who looks pretty fine over there trying to kill him.

So, after Pariah Dark got released from the coffin and sees a child trying to fight him for his throne, well, he very instantly adopts him after he got back in the coffin and the kid nearly won if he didn't collapse a second away from victory viz placing him back to sleep.

When Pariah and Trigon meet again, they instantly try to kill each other because that's basically their way of saying hello. Not that they did kill each other, mind you, but it's mostly just a habit at this point.

Then they both found out they had kids and, well, it kinda just escalated from there. Pariah mocked him for being defeated by his own kid(with help) multiple times, which makes him a hypocrite since he also almost defeated by his kid too, which Trigon pointed out. The Ghost King shrugged it off however, and asked if his kid was truly strong and to which Trigon gave a thumbs up too.

Then Trigon asked if his own kid was strong and Pariah nodded.

Which then ended up with both of them deciding to just, descend to earth via their own methods (ghost summoning for Pariah and Trigon's kids) and decided to wreak havoc there.

You know, as family bonding.

Raven and the Teen Titans pop up immediately to stop both Trigon and the Ghost King with the Justice league, at least, they were until a glowing ghost teenager popped up trying to stop Pariah.

(He may have played into Danny's whole 'hero' thing by offhandedly mentioning he's going to take over an earth from an alternate dimension and letting those thoughts sit there until he gets up and does something about it.)

You know. As family bonding.

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

someone said childhood friends to lovers zukka and I agree

[inamagicalhallucination]

merthur but one of them thinks theyre sworn enemies and the other thinks theyre dating

so merlin thinks that arthur and him are sworn enemies right and like he’s being forced to take care of him becuz of the prophecy (lol he actually lowkey cares about him but he’d die before he admitted that fsjakdf) 

anyway

on the other hand arthur is convinced that they are together <3 like he’s there picking flowers thinking omg merlin’s so cute and funny and-

and merlin’s there seething at him like 

yeah

does that make sense i feel like im just saying words

like whats a time period appropriate word for tsundere becuz thats what arthur thinks merlin is

and in arthurs defense; merlin goes above and beyond to help him out; he always there for him; they go on walks and picnics together

on merlins side he’s always babysitting arthur; he’s “reluctantly” being there for him; and arthur repays him by dragging him to the woods at like 2 am becuz god forbid he let merlin get a full night of sleep

anyway

merlin doesn’t actually hate him he’s just dumb

and he thinks arthur hates him and thinks that arthur is all boastufl (trying to impress merlin) and shit

[draw-the-squad-like-this]

Draw your characters like this

[marchtothefuckingsea]

you all like the trope of character being so delirious from their injuries that they don't realize someone on their team trying to help them, so they fight back, but I offer you: Character, delirious, weakly fighting someone trying to help them, but they finally recognize who it is and they fight even harder

[birdiewolf]

‘You can’t ship them!!’

‘They’re enemies!!!’

‘They tried to kill each other😡😡’

‘they HATE each other!!!’

I don’t care‼️‼️‼️ In my fanon material, they’re pulling each other’s hair when they’re fighting AND when they’re fucking‼️‼️‼️

[an-actual-floof]

lowkey thought u guys were havin a laugh about Odo and Quark but like. damn. they really are just Like That huh

[inact-ice]

*me foaming at the mouth in a corner thinking about the toxic sapphic power couple that could be mizu and akemi*

“theworldisn’treadyyettheworldisntreadyyettheworldisntreadyyettheoelrdisntreadyyet”

[ravenjeanauthor]

So, you like enemies to lovers romance? How about a modern fantasy world with a unique magic system, parallel worlds, and sinister plots to destroy said worlds? Oh, how about a new twist on angels and demons? And a grumpy FMC who is just so angry about how obsessed with her the MMC is?

Does any of that appeal to you? Well, do I have the book for you.

This Hallowed Accord by Raven Jean, available here.

This Hallowed Accord has intricate world building, high spice (on the page, no closed doors 👀), with plenty of banter, a badass FMC, found family, and plot twists galore. THA is book one in a four book series, with book two coming out on February 16fh 2024. Get started reading now so you can be prepared for the sequel 😈🔥

[seashoreshell]

They have me by the throat I need more content of them

[me-writes-prompts]

Enemies to grudging coworkers/allies?

Took me long enough, but enjoy :)

By @me-writes-prompts

There was no way they would work together as a team, no way.

“Look, I know we both don’t like each other and all but we need to help each other to get the promotion we want. So, bear with me.”

They hate each other, but what happens when the other one comes to their door with a need for their help? Things get interesting.

“I really don’t need to be told how much you loathe working with me right now. I’m trying my best and so should you.”

“If you don’t want to get killed by the cops, then join my gang.” (Gang au, anyone? Count me in.)

Working together to save the world :)

Having to(grudgingly) compete together against a group of other people. (Could be sports au, etc.)

^^”I think we make a pretty good team even though half the time you’re glaring at me.” “Yeah, that’s because you keep smiling at me like an idiot.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve come to like working with you. I want you to know that.” “Honestly? Same.”

[urfriendlywriter]

Enemies to Lovers Tropes [2]:

(feel free to use<3) (tag me when you write any of it, importantly 4th, 5th and 6th prompt! cause I'll loveee to read!!)

knives against each other's throats, A's blood softly trickles down their neck. B sighs, loosening their grip, "Do it fucking again and I'll push this knife into ur throat." . A smirks, "That's kind of kinky, darling."

"You're weak." A clutches B's jaw, a mocking sigh escaping A's lips. B scoffs, grinning, "Atleast not stupid." B loads a gun at A's chest.

A watches B as they lose blood. B smiles, feeling A's body kneel near theirs, "Love me much to leave me to death?" a small smile tugs at A's lips, "No, I'm helping you now to personally deliver you to hell later, my dear."

"God, you're so stupid! Y-You could've been dead!" Worried B takes A into their arms, hugging them tightly. A's legs give up, but A smiles, heart calming at the touch of B and says one thing before passing out--"You saved me."

A walks in on B, sitting in their underwears and dressing a wound in their abdomen. A audibly gulps, eyes wavering and ears reddening. B puckers their lips to avoid smiling, "Are you just going to stand there and watch me?" A's eyes widens, "You--You W-Want me to help--you, with.. that?"

A and B has never done anything normal, but they're walking down the alley at night after buying grocery. A harshly pulls B into an empty corner, bags falling and scattering on the road. A's lips hovers over B's. "Make it stop." A says. B blankly blinks, "Stop what ?" A's eyes flickers to meet B's, nose touching and A says, voice barely a whisper, "This crazy thing you make me feel."

After a life threating mission, A runs into B's arms. Collapsing on the field as the night sky traced A's smiling, teary-eyed features. B traces A's cheeks, "Glad you didn't die there." A hits B in their chest, hiding their face in B's chest and says, "I hate you. Shut up."

"You don't... hate me?" after a heavy moment of silence the other says, "Of course, my love."

[seccoshit]

Fortnite fandom, I share with you this ship I've been hyperfixated on for a week now