#go back to the PKs either way and in that moment she's not sure she wants to

[nonuggetshere]

HI GIRL NEW IDEA BECAUSE I CANT LET FLOWER HAVE A MOMENT OF PEACE

But first, PK finds WL there chatting with Flower outside and ends up joining them, and they ask how Flower's been enjoying the ball

But later PK notices how they don't seem too excited to be around other people, only light up when around people they enjoy spending time with, including them

He goes off somewhere to process it and when WL finds him there he's almost crying

"My wyrm-?"

"My root, I–..."

"What's wrong?"

"...I'm sorry, I... I messed it all up again, I was...so wrong, they- ...they don't hate us, do they? They've been seeking us out all night, they light up when we're near, I...how could have I missed this? It's always just one blunder after another when it comes to them, why did I ever think it was ever alright for us to just- just-"

"...My love, even you can't be perfect. This is the first time we've spent time with them since the accolade, we couldn't have known-"

"Exactly, this is the first time we've paid them attention for months, and just look how happy they were about that! If I had- if we had just taken time to at least get to know them, it would never-"

He's cut off by the sound of the door opening and they look over to see Flower peeking outside, looking for them. He quickly wiped the tears in his eyes away but it seemed they already saw.

"Knight- I'm sorry, have you been looking for us?"

They nod but before either could reply they sign, their hands shaking and with teat hesitation but they still sign to their parents, "Are you alright, sire?"

PK wasn't sure if it was the visible concern or that word that felt like a hot blade being twisted in his chest, "...Mhm, just- taking a short break, the crowds are overwhelming at times and the nobles can be a lot. I'll be fine, we'll return shortly."

"...Do you wish to sit with us?" Their mother asked, "We can go back together, but it's good to catch a breather if you need it."

They pause then come sit by them, just a short distance away. Just enough for the gap to be noticeable yet still close to them.

She smiled, "The night is lovely isn't it?"

They nod and occassionaly glance in concern at their father.

"I like the balls, but I like sitting here in the quiet just as much."

PK looks at Flower, he can't meet their eyes...he looks away and through their bond reaches out to his lade beside him, his voice quiet, "...I don't deserve this concern or their worry... I don't understand why they care enough to stay by our side when..."

"And yet they do. Just appreciate it, my love, we can tackle this after the ball."

Later as they're returning to the ball and Flower is going ahead of them he just lags behind for a bit

"...Do you think they wish to be our child? Do you think they'll..."

And she just smiles sadly at him, "...I hope they do, despite everything..."

They decide they'll talk to them after the ball

But they don't get to, as not long after while they're away from Flower they hear a loud crash and look over just in time to see some nobles had tripped them and they landed on top of the table, taking it crashing down with them. The nobles laugh and taunt them, speaking to them something that neither monarch can quite hear. And PK feels his blood boil.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" PK flies over there in a rage, it takes everything in him not to bare his mandibles and hiss as he puts himself between his child and the nobles

His lady is right behind him, kneeling by Flower's side and carefully helping them up. The way they wobble and nearly fall again makes her concerned

"Oh- your majesties, we were just- they're just some clumsy, we didn't-"

"Do you think I am blind or do you take me for a fucking idiot?! Do not play coy with me, I've seen exactly what happened!"

"Come on," Their mother voice is soft as she holds them up, "He'll handle this, let's get you outside and cleaned up, alright?"

Later, after laying into these nobles and making them clean up the mess they've made, he joins his wife and child outside in the quiet, dark courtyard by the fountain.

They're sitting turned away from him, clutching the shawl in their hands, their cracked mask laying on the ground beside them.

White Lady looks at him, the two of them sharing that same concerned look.

"...How are they?"

"It seems they hit their head but they've healed now, they should be okay."

He let out a light sigh of relief, pulling out his handkerchief he approached them to gently wipe the pieces of food from their now messy and ruined hair, "Fates, look at you..."

A whine escaped them and immediately got both of their parents' attentions

"...Oh..." White Lady gently held their hand, "Your shawl..."

They held the formerly white, delicate fabric, now stained with red wine and ripped in multiple spots, tightly in their grip, their hands shaking as they fought back tears

"...I'm sure we can fix this..." Pale King gently took it from their hands to inspect it and immediately winced, it was really helpless "...Maybe we can sew it up and scrub the stains out. It won't be the same, but-"

"But red wine stains, darling? Wouldn't it be better to just get them a new one?"

"Oh, but all that work they've put into this one..." He looked at them, his heart cracking at the sight, and he gently handed them the shawl back, "...I'm sorry..."

"...It's okay, we'll get you a new one, you could even pick one for yourself. I'm sure you can make it just as beutiful as this one here."

Flower didn't reply, just hugged the shawl close

PK sighed softly and reached out to his lady through their bond as he gently brushed the crumbs of food from Flower's hair with hid fingers, "Love, what outfit did you say they liked second best again?"

"It's hung up by the door, that pretty silver dress with an overcoat."

"I'll go grab it then so they can change, you could try to clean them up a bit and fix their hair while I'm doing that."

The entire time their mother was fixing them up they didn't make a move, but it was clear they were upset. She tried to chat with them but it seemed like no matter what she did they just didn't light up like before. She even takes care to make their hair look even more intricate and beutiful, but they don't even react.

PK eventually makes it back with the dress and they go off to change, but when they return they just sit back down and grab the old shawl, running the fabric between their fingers as they look down. Their parents shared a look then just silently sat down with them, not wanting to leave them alone like this.

...But the nobles were right,

They had no right to be by the queen's and king's side, they didn't deserve this honour. They weren't even a knight, just a guard, a servant. They meant nothing to them, they weren't their child. They were nothing compared to them. Nothing. Just a nuisance, a bother, a mistake. They shouldn't be here, they dind't deserve it. They were just their fathe- the king's mistake, just a blemish on his name, a disgrace they were ashamed of, a traitor, they shouldn't be alive. They were nothing. Nothing compared to the king and queen. How dare they be in their presence? How dare they even think of them as their parents?

They let out a sob.

Then completely broke down. Just a full on loud, ugly crying into the shawl, burying their face in their knees.

The two tried to comfort them, but any attempts at reaching out were met with Flower pushing them away, swatting their hands away, shuffling away from them. They couldn't even look at them.

PK and WL stopped trying yet didn't leave, just sat close by them and kept them company until Flower cried it all out and calmed down.

Once their cries died down to weak, choked up sobs, PK slowly scooted closer to them

He removed the ribbon tbay kept his hair together and carefully reached for their braid, tying it into a little bow

The surprise of it was enough to make Flower completely stop crying and just look at him in surprise and confusion

"I know it's not the same as your shawl, but...this is my favourite ribbon, I always wore it, and I want you to have it now."

[penncilkid]

Okaaaay let's do star charts and signals after dark!

Hi hi Lexi, thank you for the ask <33 (As if I haven't subjected you to all of these and then some /lh)

First up, let's talk Star Chart. One of the many listener squared rarepairs created by me and @mr-laveau (It's fun, y'all gotta try it sometime okay /srs /lh). In short: Star Chart refers to the pairing of Avior and two Starlight OCs, Sherlock (Veau's) and Marcel (Mine).

I can hear some of you asking, "PK, how does that work? You can't have two Starlights, the story wouldn't make sense." To that I say, think bigger. How that pairing works (and many listener squared rarepairs) is one of the two versions of a listener takes the "canon" position. The other is adapted to either enhance or play around with canon. Suspend your disbelief for a moment and imagine that somehow, all three of them got pulled into the meridian. In this case, Marcel is the Starlight that the meridian wanted. However, Sherlock is the one that tries to escape the first time. As it goes in canon, it backfires, but now Avior and Marcel have to watch this person they fell in love with barely moving and just out of reach. When Sherlock gets brought back and they realize he's got no memory of before, you get the funkiest flavor of added hidden truths and subtle paranoia and pining.

Marcel ultimately merges with the meridian, talks with the Sovereigns, they all get out, y'all know how Sovereign State is going as of late. I'm biased towards this ship because Starlight is one of my favorite listeners, Avior is one of my favorite d(a)emons, and Sovereign State is one of my favorite storylines. This ship scratches a specific part of my brain by expanding on so many elements of each of those things.

Now, Signals After Dark? Pairing involving Vincent, Ayl ("Lovely"), and Maia ("Darlin").

The condensed version of this is Maia and Ayl had a chance meeting when they were both a lot younger, Vincent and Maia had a brief fling years before he meets Ayl (ended mutually because it wasn't the vibe at the time), and eventually the three cross paths once Maia is back in Dahlia after Quinn's initial attack on her unempowered friend.

This ship is one of my personal favs because you've got:

Maia finding comfort in a space completely separated from the pack (which is a breath of relief in some ways)

Pushing back on Vincent's "golden child"/"model prince" reputation by having him question what lengths he'd go to look after the ones he loves

Sprinkles of Maia being tripped up by being that close with another vampire after Quinn/given all that Quinn did to her (Bonus: It gets even more difficult post-Inversion /lh)

And some background Sam/David action /lh /pos

This trio scratches my brain is such a lovely way (pun not intended). I'm very biased towards making rarepairs with Maia (my other favorite listener alongside Marcel), but I think it's also an interesting exploration of Vincent as a character. As mentioned before, if anyone wants to hear more about either ship, feel free to hit me up!

[Note: Sherlock uses he/it // Marcel is "not cis, that's for sure (/lh)" and uses they/them // Ayl is bigender (and intersex) and uses he/she // Maia is "wouldn't you like to know?" and uses she/her out of convenience.]

[twothpaste]

Paula for the ask game, if you'd like!

First impression:

wow they sure made the girl character a pink little damsel (despite her badass powers) and called it a day huh. ok

Impression now:

wow i can take the girl character and develop whatever i want about her and -- oh shit - oops - haha whoops - now she's my favorite

Favorite moment: Every time she uses PK Freeze. But really, I'm very sentimental about the brief period between Twoson and Threed where it's just Ness and Paula traveling together. Paula makes a friend she can be herself with. Ness makes a friend after braving the big scary world all by himself. They're probably a little awkward and uncertain of each other at first, but they quickly come to admire each others' strengths!! Combat feels so fresh and exciting once you finally have a party member! They both have to learn to work together with a fellow PSI user, and it's really sweet.

Idea for a story: I don't really have more Paula stories on the brain rn. Whatever I do next with Intermission AU though, I wanna develop her friendship with Claus some more… They're both book-smart and snarky, he's one of very few people who can keep up with her wit. She only knows the half of what he's been through, but she looks out for him on the downlow. Especially in light of his bad experiences with Porky (Paula helped Ness through his fallout with Porky too, she's kind of in a unique position to provide some levelheaded advice & support). And they've both got unresolved anger with their family members. Their playfully pretentious nerd banter might easily give way to some heartfelt & heavy discussions. I feel like one of these days I could cook up somethin interesting. Intermission Senior Year arc where Paula finally stands up to her megalomaniac mom, while Claus cheers from the sidewalk like "yeah paula, you tell her!! yolo, dude! i got your back!"

Unpopular opinion: A lot of fan content I see & read will either sideline her or just, not flesh her out very much beyond Yeah She Sure Is The Girl. :( Itoi left the EarthBound party members relatively underdeveloped on purpose, hoping players would fill in the blanks to their hearts' content. Paula can be anything or anyone, and can have really interesting dynamics with her other party members! I just think her potential is often underutilized.

Favorite relationship: She's Ness' best friend!! A smart pretty popular girl befriends a little fat boy with average grades n' no connections beyond his hometown! And against all expectations, it turns out they get along brilliantly! He helps her loosen up & let go of her perfectionism, she helps him overcome his insecurities & become a more confident person! Ness really really needed someone to trust as his friendship with Porky crumbled, and Paula was right there the whole time. I think they have lots of silly goofy fun together - they'll dance and do karaoke and take joke photos at national monuments. I have a funny little headcanon that they tried dating in high school, quickly realized they like just being friends much better, and went on as if nothing happened. And another, that they teach each other their PSI techniques. Healing doesn't come naturally to Paula, and offense doesn't come naturally to Ness, but they're patient and perseverant and they figure it out over time.

Favorite headcanon: My girl Paula is academia pilled to comedic degrees. She's obsessed with Virginia Woolf. She feels a spiritual kinship with The Queen's Gambit. She daydreams about being a college professor. When she watches movies she calls them "films," and you'd better believe she's taking notes.

[sillysnack]

another song association... mikochiyo time... for the yurinators their song is apple cider by beabadoobee

ids in alt text for all photos!

this song feels like something they're saying to each other! yknow :3 beabadoobee said in the Genius description for the song that it "represented the innocence of love, how a tiny crush can leave someone in denial and a little confused". it's how i view their relationship :-) they start off as friends and are very much there for each other for their other romantic adventures (chiyo with kaidou, mikoto with saiki, etc etc) but in between those, i like to think that they have their little moments? just the one thats enough to create sparks between the two, moments that queue sudden eye contact and the immediate avoidance as they both horrible hide each other's flustered faces ...... 😵

mikoto is the one to catch feelings first, hence the underline on the "it's really nice to talk to you, it's really nice to hold your hand" because on top of chiyo being her first friend at PK, chiyo might just be her closest (girl) friend ! and we know mikoto's the more physically affectionate and talkative one between the two :-) i think when her feelings for chiyo start to change from platonic, the little gestures she and chiyo always deemed normal constantly gave her butterflies and stuff but out of fear from commitment and the inevitable event of chiyo finding out about her feelings, she tries to push it aside and just try to stay friends with chiyo which makes her act differently !!!!!!

chiyo, on the other hand, kind of always knew she was bound to fall for mikoto :-) it was mikoto's voice and compliments that would constantly play in chiyo's head when she's down. she's more direct with her feelings so she doesn't hesitate to tell mikoto how she feels, even just about the little things. which is why i highlighted the lyrics "you said you liked my hair, so go ahead and touch it" and "you said you liked this jumper i wore, so i always wore it" as something chiyo says to mikoto!

entire last chorus is something chiyo says to mikoto ~w~ including the "we can talk about how we don't like each other that much" because. she doesnt want to push mikoto into confessing, or perhaps she's not even sure mikoto likes her back! 😮 either way, chiyo would understand whatever feelings mikoto has for her :-)

[princessphilly]

CW: fluff, a bit dirty of dirty smut, bad language

Tagging: @chara-hugs @ysmmsy @thebookofmags @starshine-hockey-girl @stars-canucks @newlibrary @whatishockey @himbos-on-ice @huggybearmylove43 @whoeverineedtobe @connorandrewmcdavid @defiant-mouse @fallinallincurls @littlebabyboybarzal @hockeywocs @hockeylvr59 @hiimana @itsjuliak5 @jostystyles @kleafs221 @leafs-lover @myhockeyworld87 @jostystyles @luvsherleafs @m00nlightdelights @matbaerzal @notaccurateornice @puckngrind @poojasbehavior @bqstqnbruin​

“Good night, AJ, sweet dreams,” Karesha murmured as she kissed her son on the forehead. AJ made a face but Karesha knew he was happy. AJ was a happy but very tired boy by the way he started snoring within seconds. Tip-toeing out of the room to make sure she didn’t wake anyone up, Karesha sighed happily as she closed the door.

“Desie, thank you so much for letting AJ sleep here with Astrid. You really didn’t have to,” Karesha said with a smile.

Holding and rubbing her stomach, Desiree replied, “I’ve had enough tonight, I’m done. And I saw the guy you were talking to earlier, go ahead and talk to him.”

Karesha did a double take as her cousin cupped her front. “Desie… are you?”

“Yes I am, January. I hope it’s another girl.”

Karesha resisted the urge to scream, jump up and down, and grab her favorite cousin. Instead, she rushed over as quietly as possible and gave Desiree a hug. “I’m so happy! Anyone else know?”

“Just you and Jamie. We’ll make a post later this month but we are past four months so yeah. It was hard keeping it to ourselves,” Desiree admitted.

Karesha mimed zipping her lips closed as she slipped back into her heels. Waving bye, Karesha left Desiree’s suite, getting on the elevator, intending on making her way back to the ballroom. However as she got off,, she heard voices and she snooped closer, unable to resist the urge to listen in.

“My cousin told me not to mess with any of her husband’s friends.”

“Why not, is she afraid that someone like me can do something to you?”

Karesha peeked around the corner to see Chelby, Nina’s other little girl cousin, and some redhead ginger looking guy talking. She smirked as she heard Chelby reply, “No, because she doesn’t want me to break any of you little boys’ hearts.”

“Pssh, shouldn’t she be more concerned about you? I saw the way you were staring at me tonight. Still remembered how you tasted that night,” the ginger guy remarked.

Weighing her options to either show herself and be a hater or to just walk away, Karesha was surprised when a smooth voice said, “I didn’t see you as the eavesdropping type.”

Whirling around, Karesha gasped when she saw it was PK. And he looked absolutely delicious, his tie gone and his shirt open, showing a bit of his chest. The crisp white shirt set off his skin immaculately and Karesha was gone. This guy was just her type.

PK smirked as Karesha looked up and down. Then she replied, “I was a bit bored but I see something else I could do instead.”

“What’s that?”

PK raised an eyebrow as Karesha seductively walked towards him, her brown eyes glinting with mischief. Then she stood on her tiptoes, still significantly shorter than PK even in heels. Whispering in his ear, Karesha slowly smiled as PK looked at her, shocked. Then he grabbed her hand.

**

This was probably not her wisest decision but fuck it, she was on vacation and he was sexy. Licking her lips, Karesha was rewarded with a groan from PK. Sweat dripped off his forehead, his arms bracing him just over her body. Thickly muscled with an ass to die for, Karesha was happy she invited him into his bed and doubly happy her child was a floor away.

Spreading her legs wider, Karesha arched up towards PK. “Please,” she breathed, feeling his dick hard against her core. Moments ago, she had put a condom on him, so she was ready for him.

Cautious flirting had turned into innuendo. Innuendo had turned into soft kisses. Soft Kisses turned into her ball gown being tossed over PK’s head, his mouth doing things to her pussy that Karesha hadn’t experienced before.

Well, she had received oral from men before but it was usually just a prelude. It was some licks to try to get her wet, some rough fingering before the guy expected she was ready to take his dick. Or it was after demanding some reciprocation after giving head over and over again. Then it was done in a way to make Karesha never ask again.

PK though, he had treated her like she was the finest meal he ever had, the ministrations of his tongue and fingers making her gush all over his mouth, with some getting on her dress. After they both stripped, Karesha had prepared to return the favor but PK instead picked her up and placed her on her bed. Now, he was slowly entering her, feeling so good.

“Fuck, babygirl, you’re so tight,” PK uttered as he slid into the hilt. Fucking on the first night, well, this didn’t quite feel like fucking. It definitely meant more than fucking. But still, it was the first night and his girl felt like she hadn’t had any in a long time. PK felt a surge of masculine pride as he thought about that.

PK loved being generous to his partners. But as he watched Karesha start to come apart on his dick, his fingers playing with her clit, he knew that this would have to happen again and again, very very soon.

**

“You should have came, Joy.”

Karesha leaned back on her covers, making sure that no marks from last night were visible. Joy giggled on the screen, her brown eyes sad as she replied, “I wanted to but I just wasn’t ready. I mean, I had a panic attack when I was looking for plane tickets.”

Sighing, Karesha wished she could give her friend a hug through the phone. She didn’t understand Joy; life was for living and living well. But Joy was agoraphobic and dealing with mental health issues that Karesha didn’t understand. Instead of voicing her opinion, she listened as Joy continued, “I did make it outside to go shopping for groceries without any issues twice this week. So it’s little steps. Anyway, what happened? I know that Nina had to go to the ER for her egg allergy.”

“Well, Jamila’s sperm donor is here and I heard she finally dropped the bomb on him. Lauren had to put on her lawyer hat for a bit for that to diffuse a potential situation. Desiree said that she didn’t think it would get that far but Lauren said that Jamila has a reckless mouth when she’s angry and she wanted to make sure Jamila didn’t write a check she wouldn’t want to cash.”

“That’s so nice of Lauren. Let Jamila know if she wants me to do a root on her baby daddy.”

Karesha laughed, the covers slipping. Joy’s eyes widened before saying, “Someone else had fun too last night.”

Feeling her skin turn hot, Karesh muttered, “It was the first time since I broke up with my last ex.”

“Awwwwww! I’ll keep the secret.”

Karesha stuck out her tongue as Joy laughed. Last night had started out slow and reverent but the second time had been wild as hell. Kisses, biting, marking, as if they both wanted to make sure the other remembered them long afterwards. Then when they woke up in the morning, it was slow again before Karesha kicked PK out. Well, after she had given him her phone number, then it was time for him to go. Good thing because thirty minutes later, Jamie had brought a wide-awake AJ to her.

**

“Well, this morning was wild,” Siobhan proclaimed.

Karesha leaned back in her chair, enjoying the soft beach breeze. Desiree was cuddled into Jamie, Marisa was sitting across from Kev, her feet in his lap. Lauren and her Chris were sitting next to each other, quietly chatting together.

“Much love to Nina, I love her life for her. Yikes to the fuck shit Jamila is in, I wish she got herself a sperm donor than tangled with him. Laur, just from meeting that guy you were hate-flirting with at Risa’s wedding, he’s already much better than your ex, please marry him. I love that you all have hockey players, but that’s not for me.”

Karesha leaned back in her chair after making her pronouncement. Lauren was rolling her eyes as Chris smirked, Desiree was yawning, Siobhan was tapping on her phone. However, Risa and Kevin had secret smiles on their faces.

Kevin began, “You know that guy, the one that found your son and you ended up dancing with?”

“Yeah, and?”

Karesha wouldn’t tell them but he seemed really nice. AJ wouldn’t shut up about him. The guy had managed to keep a scared boy centered and keep him company while they were frantically looking for him after the cocktail hour. Given how most men feigned cluelessness when dealing with children, he was a breath of fresh air. Chris began to laugh, his eyes crinkling after he looked at his phone.

Smirking, Kevin let out an evil laugh. “PK is a hockey player too.”

“Bullshit.”

Chuckling, Kevin pulled up PK’s profile on his phone. Karesha looked at it before her jaw dropped. “Son of a bitch.”

“Mom, you owe me $5 for cursing!”

Karesha winced as AJ walked to the table, holding Aryanna’s hand. “Nice to see that you’re doing your job today,” Lauren commented.

Aryanna grimaced as AJ ran over to his mom. “I beat Yanni in minigolf before Ms. Tracey and Mr. Vernon took us to lunch. Mommy, what’s that red mark on your shoulder.”

Karesha wanted to die after her son asked her that. Everyone turned towards her and then there were coughs and smirks from all of the adults. Aryanna looked confused for a moment before her eyes got wide. “We have children here before anyone makes any remarks.”

“I’m not a child, I’m a teen,” Aryanna started before Desiree, Marisa, Karesha, and Lauren all stared her down. Closing her mouth, she sulked as Kevin sighed.

“Here’s some cash,” Kevin began as he pulled some bills out of his wallet, “Find something to do.”

Jamie added, “Kris and Alex are at the pool, go find them.”

“Kris,” Aryanna breathed as she grabbed AJ’s hand.

“Oh God,” both Lauren and Karesha groaned as Desiree snickered.

**

PK reluctantly gathered his belongings, knowing that he was almost late for his flight. Luckily, he had TSA Global Pre-check so he didn’t have to worry about those lines. But he didn’t want to leave.

Next week, he had to restart his offseason training regimen. Then a week later, there was Wooder’s wedding, then he was going to hang with Carey for a week and train with him. If he had known he was going to meet the perfect woman at Sid’s wedding, he would have changed his plans.

“Kareeessha,” PK murmured to himself as he unplugged his charger and put it in his carry-on. Leaving the room, PK got into the car waiting for him. Making it to his plane on time, PK took out his phone. Scrolling through the group chat, PK cursed. He forgot to get her phone number.

[heyheyloki]

U&I

Summary: The reader begins to realize his feelings for Saiki.

Saiki x M!Reader

Word Count: 8711

1. The Best Friends

Being friends with a psychic definitely had its ups and downs. At first, you didn’t notice a thing out of the ordinary with Saiki, well, granted you were kids when the both of you met so naturally you just wanted to be friends and thought nothing more. However, he noticed something odd with you the moment you two met.

He couldn’t read your mind.

Actually forget being about to read your mind, none of his psychic abilities worked on you. He couldn’t see through you and when he touched you without his super thin transparent gloves on nothing happened. You were basically immune to him.

At first, he thought something was wrong with you, or that maybe you had some psychic powers as well. That wasn’t the case at all. In reality, you were a normal human without any powers or tricks. That stumped Saiki even more, but it also became the soul reason he wanted to be your friend as well.

For one, he didn’t have to deal with your thoughts. Two, his image of you wasn’t ruined because he can’t see under your skin. Three, your calmer personality made him relax. And of course all those other things like your kindness and stuff, but those were irrelevant the moment he knew he couldn’t read your mind.

It’s been years since he met you in the park during recess, and now here you guys were, 16 years later and still friends. Oh, there was one thing that bothered him about you.

“What to hang out today?” You asked as you slung your bag over your shoulder.

“Sure.” Saiki said. Yep. That’s right, since he can’t get in your mind, he actually has to move his mouth when he talks to you.

It was a bit weird to others that he never did it with anyone else other than you, but he didn’t care.

On the way home he couldn’t help but notice you eyeing his antennas, the things that keep his powers stable. He turned his head towards you and gave you a curiosity look.

“Do those things poke at your head at all?” You asked, moving you hand up to poke at the top of the pink ball. “Like, does it make your head ichy?”

Saiki shook his head. He knew he had to talk to you at some points, but times like these he didn’t. He enjoyed that about you too, that you don’t force him to talk all the time. You knew it was a bit weird for him to talk, he explained it to you when he told you all about his powers.

“Hm,” you hummed out. Your hands going back at your side and into your pant pockets. “It would for me, if I was you. They just look painful, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do if you don’t wanna blow up the world.”

Saiki nodded his head, his eyes continuing to linger on you. It was one days like these when he saw you thinking so hard about something that he wished he could just take a peak. At some points, he loved the silence, especially when the both of you were watching movies, but right now, especially in this moment, he’d give anything to know. It was mostly prominent when he’d stare at you during class and you’d have this far out look in your orbs, you drew him in, and perhaps that’s why he fell for you.

Though, there were other factors that won his favor. Mostly the fact that, unlike everyone else, he can’t stare right through you and just see your raw muscles and pumping organs. Instead, he was able to focus on your handsome face and not get side tracked about your racing thoughts. You were the only person in the world that make him feel somewhat normal. That was a love-hate relationship at times.

“Think I could sleep over tonight?” You suddenly asked, “we don’t have school tomorrow.”

Saiki stared at you for a moment just to relish in that fact that nothing worked on you. No telekinesis, mind control, no nothing. He was going to have to win your favor just like everyone else. To him, it wasn’t normal, but looking at you, he didn’t seem to mind the extra work.

“Sure,” Saiki said. He still had trouble talking aloud, hell, sometimes he will actually use telekinesis and wait for your response only to have pure silence. “My parents are leaving for a wedding, so the house should be free for a while.”

When the two of you got to Saiki’s house, it was a bit peaceful until his parents had to head out. You liked his mom and dad a lot, they were like your second family, so you wanted to wish them a good time. It was for one Saiki’s dad’s coworkers.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna come with us?” Saiki’s dad asked his son. “You’ve met Kirishima before, and you can bring [Name] as your plus one date.”

You knew Saiki wasn’t going to be interested in a wedding. He always told you normal happy events for others is misery for him since he can hear the jealousy and pity that the crowd is thinking. You felt sorry that he couldn’t turn it off, but you were glad that you were the only person he could catch a break with. However, when you looking over at Saiki, he seemed to entertain the thought.

It was a new side to Saiki, one that made you confused. It was always either you or no one. You could tell the way he wanted to get away from many of the people in his class that seemed to have declared themselves his friends from a small interaction. Sure, you felt their interest, but it was just a bit sad to you that Saiki could never actually enjoy friends unless they were pure. Otherwise, he could hear all the backstabbing thoughts or otherwise stupid comments that go around in their brain that was thought to be private to them.

“I’m going to have to pass,” you commented. “I don’t have a suit, besides, you two should enjoy the night. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you both go out alone.”

Saiki’s mom smiled widely at you. Her eyes clouding over with a wet film before wrapping her arms around you for a tight hug. “Ah, thank you, [Name]! What would we do without you?”

You chuckled softy at the comment before saying, “Who knows, I rather not think about that.”

When she finally let you go, you and Saiki waved the both of them off as they left. Honestly, you weren’t sure if they’d even make it back at a reasonable time. It was a wedding, after all. Oh well, as long as they make it back drunk and safe rather than drunk and not safe, you didn’t mind. You were sleeping over anyway, so right now, you just wanted to hang out with your childhood best friend.

“What do you wanna do?” You asked with a calming tone.

Saiki turned his head to you. “TV?”

“Sure,” you smiled. However, as soon as you turned to the living room, you noticed the absolute mess his parents left behind. So, out of the goodness of your heart, you said, “How about you find something and all clean up this in the meantime. Sound good?”

Saiki nodded once more. He truly thought your actions were kind, but he rather have you watching TV with him than picking up his dad’s dirty clothes. He knew his father tended to be sloppy, but this was just a mess.

As you were about to pick up a pair of jeans, all the clothes that were strewn about the floor suddenly started to float in the air and shoot into the open washing machine. The trash floated itself into the garage while everything else was moved around to make it look clean until otherwise.

You pressed your lips together as your brows furrowed in annoyance. Once you turned to Saiki and saw his innocence face, you knew you couldn’t be angry but you had to ask, “Do you really want me to watch TV with you that bad?”

“Yes,” Saiki stated.

You sighed, your lips parting as you left the oxygen leave your lungs. “Fine, but let’s both clean up a bit before than. It’ll be a nice surprise and a way to thank your parents for letting me stay the night.”

Saiki nodded. “Okay.”

It took a bit of convincing on your end to let him let you help out. You may not have powers, but you didn’t want to take advantage of his. You knew it was effortless and he made it seem like it didn’t affect him whatsoever, but you knew every time he does something it takes a toll. His powers aren’t perfect.

You both ended up cleaning the living room, Saiki’s room, and now you were in the kitchen sorting the trash. Saiki was using his powers to sort while you whipped down the countertops.

“Good grief,” Saiki said aloud, his voice drawing your eyes to him. He was crouched down with two bags in front of him and the garage floating upside down, it’s contents was either going in the first or second bag.

“What?” You asked curiosity. It wasn’t all the time that he speaks from his mouth without you talking first.

“How could anyone have let it get this dirty in here?” He asked aloud. “I mean, really it’s a wonder we don’t have bugs.”

You were going to respond. That was until he suddenly shut his mouth, a chest deep grunt leaving him as you notice him stare at something on the furniture next to him.

It was a cockroach.

Mind you, the moment you realized what it was you weren’t the least bit surprised when he suddenly teleported. Saiki hates bugs. He could read the minds of humans, as well as animals, but he couldn’t with bugs. He thought they were small minded icky things. Hell, he couldn’t even let his powers touch the thing.

You counted down the seconds before he came back. It was around ten, maybe fifteen. He also teleported right behind you.

“Welcome back,” you greeted and watched as his eyes dart towards the floor.

“Sorry, I may have overreacted.” He muttered. “I just hate them.”

“I know,” you hummed out before looking around and grabbing a cup and piece of paper. Saiki watched you as you let the roach crawl on the piece of paper before placing the cup over it so it didn’t run away. You were quick to put it outside and close the window after so Saiki didn’t worry about it coming back in.

“All gone,” you cheered with a smile. “Now, let’s watch TV, ya?”

2. Saiki’s Pushy Friends

PK Academy was a school were many different personalities and people collided. It was always fun to meet new people in this school, yet on the other side of the coin, sometimes they were more than a little odd. Not like you can speak, your best friend was a psychic. Though, he wasn’t delusional like this one guy in your class that declared himself Saiki’s friend. His name was Kaido. He thinks he has powers and has an evil organization following him around.

Then, you have Nendou. Basically, he’s stupid. Not that you minded, but sometimes being stupid isn’t the best thing in the world, especially now.

It was the sports festival at PK and Saiki and you had to participate in it. You both were on the same team since all the teams were decided by class. This also gave you a good idea of the friends Saiki has made. It was safe to say that Kaido was growing on you. You felt a little bad for the guy, what can you say.

Let’s not forget about Hairo as well. You knew him a bit more from hearsay than the others, plus he was class rep. Though, you had to say, he was a little too overly enthusiastic.

It was kind of a surprise to see Teruhashi, the most popular girl in school, try and interact with Saiki. Though, it was a bit amusing since to him, she’s nothing more than walking muscle. However, you did think he would swoon over her like all the other guys in your school if she was like you. However, you knew Saiki had no interest in romance so you don’t care either way.

Finally, Nendou. You were originally going to say that you didn’t mind the guy that much and thought maybe he would be a good thing for Saiki. However, after just watching him take out one of the antennas from Saiki’s head, you started to wonder how much of a danger his stupidity is to Saiki.

You watched that pink haired friend of yours collapse to the ground with a hard thud as soon as Nendou pull the thing out of his head. You were quick to rush over to him and sit by his side. When you flipped him over, since he fell face forward, worry grew about your body and infected your bloodstream.

You heard protests about turning him over, but at this point all the worried voices drowned before they were even audible to you. His lips were parted as drool leaked from his mouth and went down his chin, his eyes dead and without life as darkness surrounded them. It didn’t take you long to recover and swipe the antenna Nendou was holding and pop it back in its rightful place in his pink locks.

You didn’t know how long it would take for him to wake up, or if he’d wake up at all. All you knew was to sit and wait for him to wake up. To your surprise, he woke up rather quickly. Maybe a mere minute or so after you fixed him up. When his eyes opened, you felt yourself suddenly get surrounded as Saiki’s friends crowed over him to ask how he was.

You noticed him using telepathy to talk to everyone when Hairo said, “You passed out after Nendou took that think out of your head, lucky for you, [Name] put it back right away!”

“Yeah, he saved your life!” Kaido spit out next, their hands placing on my shoulder out of respect and gratitude. 

Saiki’s eye then direct to you, his voice never leaving his lips for a moment before you noticed him flinch.

‘Ah,’ you thought. ‘He tried to use telepathy with me again.’

When he noticed, Saiki just nodded in your direction. You knew he was thanking you, he didn’t need to word it out to you. The look in his eyes was enough.

Lunch came immediately after Saiki ended up waking up, and it was understatement to say he didn’t want to be bother with anyone else besides you. He was quick to drag you to the roof of the school to eat.

The both of you sat against the railing, lunch in your laps. You wanted I just forget about the scare that Saiki gave you, but the after effects he was having wasn’t making that easy. He was having trouble, and it was easy to see when his hands were shaking so much that he couldn’t even pick up his food without it falling back in the box.

You side eyed him, his expression one of concentration as he tried to pick up his food again. Though, he dropped it again.

He sighed quickly after that, only looking down at his food as you saw his mind wonder off.

Once you finished chewing whatever food you had in your mouth, you placed your food to the side and moved so that you weren’t side to side, but rather across from Saiki’s body now. He didn’t register your movements until he saw a hand come into his view and pick up an item of food with his chopsticks.

When he turned to you, you had the chopsticks in your dominant hand and your other under the food so it didn’t drop to the filthy ground.

“C’mon, lemme help,” you said. It was easy for Saiki to pick up the worry in your tone, however he knew not to address it or else you’ll just either deny it or baby him. “Open up.”

He obeyed your command after a moment, opening his mouth wide enough for you to place his food in his mouth. The hand that was meant to catch the food if it fell made sure Saiki closed his mouth, his fingers placed a bit of pressure under his chin to shut his jaws before slowly trailing away. The food wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the chill that ran down his spine at your lingering touch that crawled on his skin.

“I could hurt you.” He suddenly spit out. It was pained. “Having my antenna taken out messed up my powers.”

You leaned your head to the side, your eyes never falling from his. “Yeah, I kinda figured.”

“You should go.” He stated.

“Why?”

“I just told you.”

You smiled. “Saiki, you could never hurt me.”

He looked at you like you had something stuck in your teeth. “You don’t know that, I may not be able to read your mind, but I don’t know how my other powers react to you.”

You remained quiet for a moment before shuffling your body side by side again, your head falling to rest of Saiki’s shoulder. You felt him flinch at the contact, his muscles even began to tighten just out of fear.

“Yanno,” you started out saying, your hand coming up to play the antenna that you could reach. “It’s odd to me how these things are the only thing keeping you stable.”

“Is it?”

You chuckled and nodded. “Small things like these verses your powers. The thing that gets me is that these things actually win in that fight. Though, I suppose it does complete the look you have.”

“And what look is that?” Saiki asked as he gazed down at you to see your eyes already on him. He could feel his fingers twitch as he watched you say shamelessly, “The cute, mysterious loner type.”

Saiki’s lips parted as he gazed at you. He quickly recomposed himself when he noticed you waiting patiently for him to respond. He sighed before asking, “Mysterious loner? Where’d you get that?”

You laughed before sarcastically questioning, “yep, I wonder where.”

3. Your friends are my friends

You don’t know how you got wrapped into this, but perhaps it’ll allow you to know Saiki’s friends better.

Currently, you were walking with Kaido, Nendou, and Saiki to a good ramen shop Nendou suggested. You were dragged along when Nendou remembered you from the Sports Festival and as Saiki’s friend. They never really got the chance to speak to you since you’re usually out the door as soon as the bell rings, but today they finally caught you.

At some point Teruhashi joined the group, though you feel like she kinda took over since now the boys, except for Saiki and you, were fawning over her. Saiki and you took it upon yourselves to give them all room to talk to her, so you both sorts trailed behind.

It was silent for a while, the only noise was Nendou or Kaido talking to Teruhashi. However, you caught the, “what does that even mean,” that Saiki mumbled under his breath.

“Hm?” You hummed. “What does what mean?”

It was obvious to you he didn’t realize he said that aloud. But he just seemed to be glad that only you heard that.

“Teruhashi wants me to go ‘oh wow’ or something to her.” Saiki revealed. “I don’t even know what that means.”

You kept your gaze on Saiki for a moment. “So, she likes you?”

“I guess,” he muttered. “I think it’s more that I’m the only guy that isn’t kissing her feet.”

You watched Teruhashi interact with Nendou and Kaido. You know that, normally, she wouldn’t take time to hang out with these guys. However, because of her crush on Saiki, she bares with them. In all honesty, she seems a bit perfect. Being able to deal with them just for the person she adores. It’s easy for anyone to do, and not a lot of people would even bother.

“She seems like a good fit for you.” You suddenly uttered out.

When Saiki heard that, he felt his hands twitch. He didn’t like that, not one bit. What irked him the most was that it seemed natural, like you actually meant it. And, of course, he had no way of knowing if those words were genuine or actually forced.

“No way,” Saiki stated coldly. “Never in a million years.”

“Damn, that’s cold, Saiki.” He heard you say, a teasing tone wedged in your voice.

“Why do you keep calling me Saiki, anyway? We aren’t acquaintances.”

“Hm?” You questioned. “I thought you don’t like me calling you by your first name in public?”

Saiki sighed. “Well now I’m telling you I don’t care.”

Saiki knew this way of showing that you were closer to him than anyone would ever be may have been childish on his part, but when he heard his first name come from your lips in front of his other ‘friends’, he felt more than satisfied. 

4. Friendship Can Bring Romance

Being able to rest during class was one of your guilty pleasures. Even if you got called out by your teacher, you didn’t mind. It was better when it was raining outside, the patter of rain when it hit the window made you want to nap.

“Hey,” a voice called out to you. You didn’t listen though, it wasn’t important.

“Hey, [Name],” it called out again. Okay, maybe you should wake up. Then again, sleep. You could always sleep later though.

You fluttered your eyes open as you felt your body being pushed around. When your sight became focused, the blurry figure in front of you showed a blue hair kid. You knew him, but from where?

“Saiki asked me to wake you up, sorry,” he confessed.

Oh, right. That’s Kaido, Saiki’s friend.

“Hm? Where is Kusuo?” You asked in a groggy voice, your hand coming up to wipe your eyes.

“Oh, he went home.” Kaido informed you. “Something just came up, I guess.”

“Alright,” you hummed before the end of your lips pulled upward. “Thank you, Kaido.”

It wasn’t easy for Kaido to wake up the quiet kid. Kaido only met the guy once or twice, and when he was hanging with him, you only stayed close to Saiki. It was kinda odd, but Kaido understood your attachment to the pink haired man. Saiki was Kaido’s first friend, after all, so he knew how awesome the guy was.

Though, he’s never got the chance to speak to you. He knows Saiki never really goes anywhere with you, and somehow you always end up by his side. He just always seemed to miss you when it came to getting the chance to introduce himself so Kaido was pretty glad when you came along the trip to that ramen place, even if it was a dumb and he got distracted by Teruhashi.

Kaido knew you were the closest person to Saiki. He’s pretty sure that not even Nendou is as close to Saiki as you are. And those two are best friends. Kaido didn’t know the extend of how long you two have been friends, but he does know from watching that Saiki has respect for you. So, it was critical that he makes a great impression with you so that he can become closer to Saiki and maybe you as well.

“S-Sure, no problem!” He stuttered, his bandaged hand retracting from your shoulder and holding them up in the air in a surrendered notion.

“Do you live around here at all? I’ll walk you home as a thank you.” You said as you stood from your seat and began to search for your bag.

“What? You don’t have to do that, really, it isn’t necessary!” Kaido spit out quickly, his words jumping all over the place.

“It’s really no trouble at all,” you stated as you put your bag over your shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get going before the rain gets worse.”

The rain eventually stopped when both teens got closer to your house. Kaido’s was further ahead, so he thought it would be better if he just walked you home instead so you didn’t have to walk more than you have to already.

“So, you’ve been friends with Saiki since he was little, huh?” Kaido asked as you explained why Saiki trusts you so much. “That’s pretty awesome! What was he like back then?”

“Pretty much the same.” You answered. “Though he did get more handsome throughout the years, and he used to be kinda sweet. Now, not so much.”

“I see, so you guys have been through it all together.” Kaido replied.

“Basically, though, he did start to worry me a bit since I was his only friend for a really long time,” you confessed. You paused as you looked up at Kaido and gave him a smile, “But I’m glad he finally made a friend like you.”

Kaido could feel his heart beat a million miles an hour just at the words you strung together. He never heard kinder words than those, and he was even more thrilled that he succeeded in making a good impression on Saiki’s childhood friend!

“It’s, uh, n-no problem, really!” Kaido muttered out as his whole face began to fluster, his hands going everywhere.

“Oh,” you hummed out.

“Hm?” Kaido questioned. His nerves going down. “What is it?”

“Did you know you were dragging your scarf the whole time?” You asked curiosity as your hands started to real in the extra fabric.

“What?” He asked out of pure shock. Though, realizing that he doesn’t make a fool out of himself he said, “O-Of course I did! It’s a fashion choice.”

“Not the best one,” you stated as you stepped closer to the blue haired male.

Kaido’s eyes widened as he stated directly into your colored orbs, watching them dance solely for him. It was like getting attention from a loved one, but this attention make him nervous to the point where he thought his face was going to explode with red. Kaido’s lips slowly started to disappear as the scarf started to build up around his shoulders and neck.

“There you go,” you said, “much better. Now your scarf doesn’t get more dirty and you look even better.”

‘Even better? What’s that supposed to mean? Does it.. does it mean he thought I looked good before?!’ Kaido thought.

Kaido let out an awkward laugh as he played with the end of the scarf. “O-Oh, haha, thank you.”

“Sure,” you hummed. “Now let’s get going.”

5. Blessing Turned On Jealousy

What’s that saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Yeah, that’s it. See, that could apply to this yet at the same time it would go a little different.

More like, the enemy of my best friend is my friend. At least for your situation. You see, walking home with Saiki has now turned into walking home with Saiki, Nendou, and Kaido. Not that you mind, but sometimes you really do wish it was back to when Saiki and you got to spend time alone together. However, being friends with Saiki and then having his friends automatically become your friends may have some perks.

Like now. Bumping into Kaido’s mom was totally accidental. But, in the end it payed off. Why?

Because coffee jelly.

“I know it’s not easy being friends with my son because he’s so shy, but please be patient.” Kaido’s mom announced as she placed the coffee jelly down in front of Saiki and you.

“Please don’t say that mama—I mean—mother.” Kaido pleased, his voice cracking as it got higher with embarrassment.

Overall, the beginning was a very nice. Hell, it was damn near perfect. Although, you just had to snoop around. Well, it was more like exploring Kaido’s room.

Your fingertips brushed along the spines of the many books Kaido had stacked up in his bookcase. It was seriously amazing how many books he had, he even had some original copies of some famous old books.

“This is pretty awesome,” you muttered to yourself before your eyes spotted something that didn’t quite match with the others. In all honesty, you were simply curious. However, curiosity did kill the cat. In your case, more like awakened the Saiki K.

“Hey, Kaido, what is the Jet Black Wings?” You asked aloud as the group sat down eating whatever snacks were about. You would always hear either chewing or at least some conversation, but after that question left your mouth it was dead silent. You felt like you killed something, but when you looked over you noticed Kaido’s face beat red. Seriously, his entire face was as red as a blood moon.

“P-Put that back!” He stuttered out, the blue haired boy suddenly running up to you to snatch the book from your hand.

As he reached for it, you held it higher. Even if he was about the same height or maybe a inch or so taller, you just needed to make him miss his hand from grabbing it.

“Don’t be embarrassed, I’m just curious.” You calmly said. “Is it bad or something?”

“N-No! It’s nothing, uh, bad! Just give me it back!” Kaido begged this time around, his hands trying desperately to grab it from you. Okay, maybe you were being a little mean at this point, but it was kinda fun to tease him.

You began to back up as Kaido trying to nab the book in your hand. “Just explain it!”

“No! Never!” He shouted.

You couldn’t help but laugh a little, though, that was your fatal mistake. Having yourself distracted by your own humor, your mind didn’t take into account the pile of prep books scattered about until it was too late. You quickly lost your voice, as well as your balance before slamming your head hard against the wood floors.

“Woah! You guys okay?” Nendou asked out of genuine concern.

As much as you would have liked to answer him, you were too concerned with the pain pounding into your skull like a jackhammer. Seriously, this is gonna give you one massive headache.

You scrunched your nose as your finally gave effort to open your eyes, though, they permanently remained open when you noticed a face staring down at you, a body on top of yours. You guessed that during the fall Kaido tried to save you, but only got dragged along instead.

“H-Hey, um, are you okay?” He asked under his shaky breath.

You only nodded before trying to avoid his gaze in any possible way. The position you were in didn’t help whatsoever in that department. Instead, you hoped that Kaido would take the hint and get off. That plan wasn’t looking too good cause all that was running through his mind was how you looked under him. Let’s say, the thoughts he had left a distaste in Saiki’s mouth.

Originally, he was just gonna let you handle it, but after hearing Kaido’s perverted thoughts about you, that plan blew up.

Saiki stood up, leaving his coffee jelly half eaten before grabbing Kaido by the back of his shirt and yanking him off of you. Saiki gave some strength into that but not enough to launch him into the bookshelf like he wanted too. He knelt down to come to your level and help you up, your massive headache being noticeable when you held onto the back of your head.

“Damnit, that really hurt,” you muttered to yourself but Saiki heard it clear as day.

It wasn’t long after that he took you home as well as the left over coffee jelly. Saiki advised you to stay home a day just to let the pain die down a bit before going back to school, so, the pink haired boy was all alone today. And all alone to everyone else meant to bother him more than usual.

Teruhashi, Nendou, Hairo. All of them. Though, it was a bit weird that Kaido wasn’t bothering with him today. Not that he was complaining, but he couldn’t pinpoint the answer until he heard Kaido’s thoughts, ‘I need to ask Saiki for permission. They’re best friends, it would be rude if I didn’t ask permission to ask out [Name].’

Never mind. He didn’t need to know that.

It was around lunch time that Kaido walked up to Saiki for the first one, the blush that littered his cheeks made Saiki want to gag for a moment.

“So, uh, Saiki, I have to ask you something.” Kaido uttered out lowly. Clearly, this was nerve wracking for him.

“What is it?” Saiki asked telepathically.

“Well, it’s about [Name], yanno, our [Name]?”

‘What other person has that name?’ Saiki thought. ‘And don’t say our, it’s creepy.’

“You see, I, well, I think I like him and I’d like your blessing to ask him out!” Kaido shouted, his body bowing at an almost 90 degree angle.

Normally, Saiki would just say to do whatever since he could read [Name]’s thoughts and see that he doesn’t like Kaido in that way. However, the one person in the world that Saiki actually wants is immune to his powers. He knew he needed to shut this down fast.

‘No way.’ Saiki responded.

“Thank you so much, Saiki, you won’t—wait—why not?” Kaido asked aloud, his voice getting higher the more he freaked out. He thought this would be easy, he means, it was Saiki. The most chill guy ever actually gave him a hard ‘no’ to asking out his best friend. Kaido shouldn’t be surprised, even though he is.

‘Because I said so,’ Saiki strictly put. He knew it was wrong to say this, who was he to say no to something that isn’t his business. Though, the feeling of relief that he still had a chance was more satisfying in the end.

By the time Saiki got to your house it was basically as soon as school ended. He used teleportation to get here as fast as he could, as well as just appear in your room. He wasn’t expecting you to still be asleep, though, he supposed this wasn’t too bad.

The pink haired male carefully walking up to the bedside of his best friend. It was odd to see your hair going in one direction instead of all over the place like normal, and don’t even get him started on the soft snores that came from your nose. Snoring isn’t usually the most attractive thing in the world, but this light snores from you made him think of the habit as cute.

Now, he would normally wake you up. But, just allowing himself to look at you for a moment longer without any consequences never hurt anybody. Saiki sat himself down on your floor, his eyes keeping to your closed ones as they slowly began to travel down to your lips. He doesn’t know what came over him, but it seriously began to freak him out when he started think about Kaido touching his lips with yours. After the freak out, jealousy was spiraling around in the psychic. He never knew that Kaido, of all people, would actually develop romantic feelings for you. If he did, he would have never allowed the both of you to interact the way you did at his house the other day.

Saiki let out a sigh before standing up once more, his hand came up to your shoulder slowly and began to shake it. It wasn’t long after that your eyes fluttered open and gave him that soft smile that caused his heart to skip a beat.

6. School Trip

The school trip was always the most looked forward to activity in high school. This year it was a three day trip to Okinawa. While you were excited to spend some time at a gorgeous place like Okinawa, Saiki was definitely less excited.

As kids talked with their friends in a group or just at their desks, you were currently sitting on top of Saiki’s desk with the pink haired boy sitting in the chair. This wasn’t something you always do, especially since at times Saiki has pushed you off out of retaliation, but after a moment or two of still being there, you knew he didn’t mind today.

“You excited?” You asked him.

“No. I don’t get the appeal.” He spit out, his eyes closing as he moved his head down. “I could get to Okinawa in three minutes.”

“Kusuo, not everyone is like you.” You explained. “So don’t go getting moody on this trip, I’m not letting you ruin it for me.”

“I won’t, I’m just saying a fact.” He replied.

You were about to continue with things you’re excited to do during the trip before Hairo came around to the both of you with a clip board in hand. He was responsible for dividing rooms.

“Saiki, [Name], did you guys decide on your group for the class trip?” He asked politely. “You should have three boys and three girls in your group.”

Saiki didn’t say anything, instead he just rested his head against your forearm. Perhaps he wanted Hairo to think he fell asleep and leave it to you, or maybe he was actually saying that he didn’t care as long as he was with you. Either way, you smiled at the contact and said to Hairo, “Kusuo and I will be rooming, it doesn’t matter who else is in our group.”

“Okay, great!” Hairo exclaimed as he wrote it down. “Kaido and Nendou are still available so I’ll just place Kaido with your group, and then randomly place you guys with a girls group.”

“Thanks, Hairo,” you hummed out as he walked away to probably inform Kaido about the rooming.

You never minded contact with Saiki, in fact, you sort of enjoyed it. However, seeing him still like this, even with Hario now gone, you worried.

“Hey, Kusuo,” you called out.

No answer.

“Kusuo?” You asked this time. And when he didn’t answer again you unconsciously moved your hand up to his head and moved it back to where you could look him in the eyes. Saiki’s face was still without expression, though, those eyes worried you. He seemed, almost, upset.

“Kusuo?” You asked. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head, signaling that nothing was wrong. You knew he was lying.

You tilted your head, some of your hair moving with gravity to expose part of your forehead. “Why are you lying to me?”

“I’m not.” He said, his voice was steady and yet, that look in his eyes still bothered you.

You knew he wasn’t going to budge but still, just because you’re going to let it go now doesn’t mean that you weren’t about to keep an eye on him.

Throughout the beginning and the first day of the trip, you kept an eye on Saiki. He seemed way more tired than usual, but that didn’t startle you. Instead, it was how he was by your side more often now when Kaido was around. You weren’t an idiot, it was pretty obvious. You didn’t mind Saiki’s attention, but you didn’t want him to think just because you were friends with Kaido that he’d be put second.

“Kusuo, can we talk?” You asked him as the two of you had the room to yourselves. The others were out and about, but the two of you decided on an early night.

“About what?” He asked as he set up his sleeping area.

“Today.” You started out. “You’ve been acting weird around Kaido. Did something happen?”

You watched Saiki carefully, so carefully that you noticed his fingers lightly curl around the blanket. You didn’t want to push him, so instead of pushing him to speak, you allowed yourself to be silent and let him take his time. You don’t remember how many minutes pasted, but you swear it felt like decades.

“Nothing happened.” He informed you. “His thoughts just aren’t for my taste at the moment.”

“His thoughts?” You questioned as you slowly approached Saiki on his blanket until you were right in front of him. “Okay, then, what’s got you all bothered? Let me guess, he’s thinking dirty things, right?”

“Sort of.” He replied.

“I bet it’s about Teruhashi,” you theorized. “Is that why you don’t like it?”

“No, it’s not about Teruhashi.”

“Really? Then who?”

Saiki went quiet once more.

You sighed. Your head moving down to get a glimpse at his face. It wasn’t until you moved your hand over by his, your finger tips brushing with his accidentally to get more stability as you leaned in did you hear him finally confess.

“It was about you.”

To say that you needed a minute to take that in was an understatement. Kaido was a good guy and all, but it was kinda startling to realize he liked guys, as well as girls, since you didn’t suspect that even for a minute with him.

“Seriously?” You asked once more.

Saiki nodded. “He asked me if he could ask you out.”

“And what did you say?”

“No.”

You couldn’t help a smile crawl upon your face with that one. You knew it was a bit hard to read Saiki, especially when it came to you, but you were just beyond happy to hear that.

“Good,” you suddenly shot out. Saiki’s head moving back up in an instant to see your happy features. “I don’t like Kaido like that anyway, saves me from breaking his heart.”

“You don’t?”

“Nope.” You hummed out. You knew this may backfire on you in more ways than one, but right now, you didn’t care. The happiness you felt told you to take a chance and throw out the bait. “I know you can’t read my mind, but I actually do have someone I like.”

Saiki aimlessly stared at you for a moment and took in the words you confessed to him. It was an odd feeling, the rapid beating of his heart, but perhaps this was finally the start of things going his way for once.

On the second day of the trip, everyone went to Emerald Beach. It was one of the many places were people could stare at others and no one would think anything of it. A perverts dream. Though, for Saiki, he just wanted to hang out with you.

“Where’s [Name]?” Kaido asked Nendou as Saiki stood behind the two.

“He said he had to go buy a swimsuit. The one he brought apparently went missing.” Nendou told the blue haired boy.

Now, that want a mistake. Sure, it may have been a dirty trick but Saiki rather die than see you in the swimsuit you brought. After all, you bought a shirt with it. He knew you didn’t take off your shirt often, even at the beach, but he was determined to see you with just a pair of shorts.

Much like how all the guys that crowded around the girls changing house waited patiently to see Teruhashi in a two piece swim suit.

It was a while after Teruhashi came out, and when everyone was in the water that you made your appearance. You had your hands wedged into your swim shirt pockets as you allowed your feet to take in the hot sand that felt magical between your toes. You gazed around for a moment before noticing pink hair sitting under an umbrella.

A devilish smirk crawled on your features as you began to slowly approach the male. This may give Saiki a heart attack, but it was worth it. As you stood over him from behind, you attacked. Your body shot down as your arms wrapped aruund his neck and pushed your chest into his bare back.

“Hey, what’s a cute guy like you doing all alone at a place like this?” You teased, allowing your voice to go on for some time so that he realized it was just you.

Saiki immediately flinched at the contact before noticing it was just you. However, when he noticed the touch of your skin against his, he could feel his entire body heat up. The sensation was new, he’s felt his face go hot before, but his entire body was a new one.

“What took you so long?” Saiki tried to play off.

You just sighed and got a tighter grip on the male, your chest pushing more into his back. “Someone stole my swimsuit. Sadly, I didn’t have enough money to replace the whole thing, so I had to go by some swim shorts.”

“Hm, as least you’re here.” Saiki stated, making sure not to comment on the ‘stolen swimsuit’.

“Yeah,” you uttered as you released Saiki from your grasp and sat down next to him. You gazed out at the beautiful ocean that was filled with laughing people with this loving look in your eyes, all the while not realizing Saiki’s held that same gaze as he stared at you.

When you did turn to him, he completely lost himself in his mind as his eyes wondered about your figure. You weren’t the most fit guy in the world, but you did have these subtle yet enchanting muscle lines along your upper body that made Saiki lose himself.

“I saw that.” You suddenly said. Saiki’s eyes now darting back to yours. “You just checked me out.”

Saiki saw no way out of this one. So, he just confessed it. “So what if I was?”

In all honesty, he just expected you to laugh and tell him that it’s only fair if he does the same. However, the twist was unexpected and, well, definitely appreciated. He watched as you gazed down, this bashful look in your eyes as you did everything to avoid his gaze. Your body language wasn’t helping either. Your fingers were tapping against the towel and the heel of your foot was moving back and forth.

Maybe this trip wasn’t totally for nothing.

7. All That Was A Secret

Spring break. It was one of those weeks that Saiki went to go visit his grandparents all the way in the middle fo nowhere. So, for the most of this break, you were home alone. 

It was kind of boring. This break was definitely not one that you looked forward to, more now then before, especially after the beach during the class trip. Those words always ended up repeating in your mind, way too much then you thought they would. Then again, you shouldn’t be surprised. All those days that you’d try to subtly touch him, tease him, it was just a way to relieve yourself of the pent up emotions you’ve had for him for a few years now. 

Currently, you were in your room upon your bed, hugging one of your pillows close to your chest. You never tried to dwell on if Saiki felt the same or not, but recently, it’s been clawing at you more and more. It wasn’t like you didn’t think you had a chance, but more if Saiki was more comfortable just staying friends. You would understand, even if it would hurt, you’d do it for him. You’d do anything for that guy. 

You sighed before slowly lifting your body off the bed. Today wasn’t a good day for being sad, it was summer break, after all. You knew you had to get your mind off Saiki, and him being away made it a bit easier. So, you grabbed some clothes from your closet and laid them on the bed. You weren’t sure what you were going to do, but you were determined to fine something to take your mind off him. 

You let your pants drop to the ground before taking the ones on your bed and letting your legs slip through each of the pant legs. Next, you stripped your shirt off and took in a deep breath. You paused for a moment before dropping the dirty shirt on the ground and grabbing the new one. In all honestly, you never really pay attention to your surroundings when changing. But, does anyone? It wasn’t until your head went through the hole on the top of the shirt did you realize that the bed in front of you was now missing and the wall you were staring at was not the wall of your bed room. When you turned your head, you locked eyes with Saiki in an unfamiliar room. 

“Huh?” You uttered under your breath before your eyes widened, your face felling hotter than usual before frantically pulling your shirt all the way down. Once down, you opened your mouth and said, “You can’t do that without me knowing! What if I was in the middle of a shower or something and not just changing?”

“I would have given you some of my clothes.” He replied nonchalantly.

You bit the inside of your cheek before crossing your arms over your chest. “Why did you teleport me anyway?”

“I can’t stand it here.” Saiki confessed. Of course, you knew he didn’t exactly enjoying visiting his grandparents but he has never done this before. “Just hang out with me. I’ll send you back after.”

You sighed. You can’t exactly say no after that, so, with that Saiki and you began to watch a movie. It wasn’t one you two watched before so it was easy to get lost in it. Though, it was also easy to focus on Saiki when he suddenly placed his hand on top of yours as you guys watched. You weren’t too sure if he thought you wouldn’t notice, but there was no way you were going to pull away. After all, it’s not like he placed his fingers between yours, if he did that, you don’t know if you could handle it. 

After a half an hour into the movie you finally got the plot of it, and you weren’t amused at all. It was a best friends to lovers troupe. More specifically, childhood friends that drifted apart only to be brought back together by work and now slowly are developing feelings for one another. Let’s just say now, you were a little more than nervous. 

Thank god Saiki couldn’t read your mind, because now, you feel like you’d give him a headache. You couldn’t help but ask yourself if he knows and is only doing this to taunt you, or maybe this was all just a big coincident. Yeah, one massive coincident. In reality though, Saiki was just teasing you. He had no idea of your feelings but he wanted to watch the movie with you to implant the idea in his mind of the possibility.

Well, his plan was working. Maybe a little too much. Though, as you were about to spit something out, your eyes suddenly shot down to the floor in embarrassment. Yep, a make out scene. Of course, Saiki had no idea about that, but it was better than just the sappy stuff cause now it was really ingrained in your head. 

Once it was over and you had somewhat of your cool back you couldn’t help it. You needed to ask. If it blew up in flames, then so be it. 

“Hey, Saiki,” you uttered out lowly. Saiki caught it immediately and turned his gaze on you. “I have a.. question.”

“What?” He asked.

“Well,” your voice trailed off as you moved your eyes down to where both of your hands connected. “We’ve been best friends for a long time now but, have you ever, um, thought about doing...that?

Saiki remained quiet for a moment, his thoughts going everywhere before thinking to himself, ‘All the time, actually.’

As much as he wish he could have said that telepathically, he could never try to say that vocally. So, he just opted for a nod and watched your body flinch. The hand he touched growing warm.

“You’re hot.” Saiki suddenly spit out. This time, you brought your hand back to your body so he couldn’t tell anymore. 

“S-So what?” You stuttered out.

To say that Saiki didn’t like this side of you was an understatement. He’s never never seen you so flustered before, and it was really adorable to look at.

“It’s cute.” Saiki commented, his body leaning in just to see your face closer.

You turned your head to the side, eyes darting to the tv just to look away for a moment to compose yourself. You knew that there wasn’t gonna be another perfect moment like this so, you slowly reached over to place your hand on the back of Saiki’s neck. It was warm. When he noticed what you wanted as you started to lean back and gently pull him with you, he complied quickly until he gazed at you from above. Suddenly, he was jealous at the fact that Kaido got to see this view before him. 

He stared at you for a moment before watching you bite down on your bottom lip, his mind doing backflips at the want to read your mind, but also at how good you looked under him. 

“Kiss me.” You whispered under your breath, just loud enough for him to hear. 

“If I do,” Saiki uttered lowly. “I might not be able to stop.”

“That’s okay.”

[13uswntimagines]

Love You or Lose You (Alpha Soran x Omega Reader)

Request: This is the first part to the Prequel for Playing with Fire. Its right after the 2016 Olympics, and R missed the PK instead of Christen. Things have been rough with her Alphas and she just needs a fresh Start. Barca might be the start she was after, but her mates might not like that too much... Especially when she leaves in the middle of the night. 

Basically 4000 words of Lindsey and Emily being idiots, R being sad and Preath and Kellex being worried. 

The air was heavy in the locker room, pressing into you like an anvil settled on your soul. You could remember a time when you had felt at home here. Like you belonged here.  

A time when Lindsey and Emily had actually loved you, and you didn’t feel like an unneeded (or wanted) burden on the national team (more like your family). 

You shook your head, tucking your frame tighter into the small locker that belonged to your most dominant alpha, pulling a leftover sweater tighter against your face. 

No. The locker that belonged to Lindsey. She wasn’t your alpha anymore, she had said so herself, but your inner omega still cried out for her and Emily nonetheless. A fight didn’t change the marks on your neck, or what your inner animal knew to be true. 

Yet it changed everything if the unbearable pain ripping through your chest was anything to go by. 

Another sob left your lips, muffled only slightly by the heavy material of Lindsey’s sweatshirt that smelled distinctly like both her and Emily. It did little to ease your instincts, but you would take whatever you could get right now. 

There was no reason to hold back your tears, there was no one else there to see them anyway. No one who would come looking for the source of the distressed pheromones you were emitting. No one to care that you were falling apart. It didn’t matter that you were all in the same city. 

They were all too busy trying to process their own issues from the loss. The loss you knew fell squarely on your shoulder. If only you had made that PK, none of this would have happened. 

You shuttered at the mix of emotions trickling down your mating bond. Lindsey’s anger and Emily’s clear frustration. You gulped pushing against their emotions with an overwhelming wave of your own. You willed as much calm as you could muster down the bond-forming a little barrier between your omega and their alphas, and shoved your own despair as far away from it as you could. 

The block wouldn’t hold forever, but it would do the job for now. Bonds were a bitch to shut down completely, and a permanent block was going to have to be something you figured out later. 

Your inner omega growled, digging her claws into your brain. While the human side of your head got why you were doing this, your animal side was loath to deny your alphas the privilege of your deepest emotions. Especially when she thought they could fix it if they knew. 

You let out a little whimper at the sound of the door, tucking yourself tighter into a ball as footsteps approached.

“Hey, Kid just thought I’d let you know your Uber is here,” 

You peeked out at the kind voice, semi soothing scent, and worried eyes of the athletic. You tried to smile at the woman, but you knew she wasn’t fooled. She knew you too well for that. 

“Thanks Bailey,” You sniffled, easing into a sitting position and turning to fully face the woman, and running a hand through your wild hair (only making it messier than it was before). 

“I’m gonna miss you kid,” She said, and you could tell that she wanted to say more. But both of you knew it wouldn’t change anything. The deal was done and you couldn’t find it within yourself to regret it. 

“I’m gonna miss you too, but you know I can’t stay,” 

She nodded, she would have left too if she was in your shoes. Barça was making lemonade out of rotten lemons. 

You took another gulping breath into Lindsey’s sweatshirt before shoving it into your backpack, and standing. Your eyes strayed towards the other lockers around you, landing on several items of clothing left by your friends. 

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” She grumbled under her breath as she headed towards the door. 

“No, it doesn’t,” You breathed out, heading towards the various lockers instead of the door. 

Leaving here would be like leaving a part of your soul behind. Your fingers traced over the wooden panels that outlined each locker. You only paused twice. Once outside Emily’s locker to steal a coveted Virginia soccer t-shirt and again at Tobin’s taking a re-inc sweater that you knew Christen wore more than Tobin and a LFG t-shirt that smelled distinctly like Kellex. 

The quad (as the national team called them) were your team moms, and their scents all comforted you. They would make whatever apartment you ended up in in Barça feel like home. 

Bailey raised her eyebrow at you as you stuffed the items into your backpack. You just shrugged. “they won’t miss them anyway,” 

It was true, and even if it wasn’t you were sure Chris would still back you up when she found out exactly why you left. 

You paused at the door, taking one last glance around the room, looking for some sign to stay. You rubbed your chest when another wave of negative emotions from your mates passed through your bond. 

You cleared your throat and shook your head at Bailey’s raised eyebrows. The weight in your chest told you that you were making exactly the right move. 

She sighed, leading you towards the loading bay where your Uber was waiting. 

“Thank you… for everything,” You said softly, pulling the older omega into a tight hug. She knew you meant more than walking you to the car park. She was there for you when no one else was, and you would be eternally grateful for all she had done for you. 

She held you for a long moment, rocking you side to side before pulling back to hold you at arm's length. “You got it, kid. Be safe and text me when you land alright?” 

You gave her a nod and a tight smile. “Look after them?” 

She rolled her eyes. If those two idiots had done anything even close to what they had done to you to her, she wouldn’t have been nearly as forgiving as you seemed to be. 

Then again you were also moving to Spain. 

“Of course,” She said, shoeing you towards the car. 

She would make sure they were very informed on how you were doing. 

****

Christen knew that there was something wrong. Very wrong. Before her phone even dinged. She could feel it in her bond with you. The torrent of emotions that had suddenly shifted into a calm she had never felt from you before. 

The bond the two of you shared was a special one, forged the moment she had laid eyes on you (even more special than the one you shared with her mates). The second your small, skittish form had entered the dining hall (tucked carefully under Emily's arm) her omega had claimed you as its pup, and you latched onto her quiet calm nature without a second thought. 

She knew you almost as well as your mates knew you, and the bond you shared (while different) was nearly as strong. And therefore your bond with the rest of the quad was also relatively strong. 

For an unknown reason, it was keeping her awake. It was like her omega was waiting for a sign, something to tell her that you were safe and sound. 

She practically jumped out of her skin at the ding of her phone, fumbling to unlock the screen and find the message you had sent her. 

She froze when her alpha shifted against her, inadvertently jostling the two omega’s attached to her other side. 

“Wha- appened?” Tobin mumbled, nuzzling into her stomach. Christen sighed at the wave of soothing scents that Tobin let off, trying to calm her nerves even in sleep. 

“Shh, baby bear is texting me. Go back to sleep,” Christen said, scratching the alphas scalp gently with one hand and pulling up the text with the other. 

She blinked at the bright screen once, twice, three times. 

It was five words, cold and emotionless. It reminded her of the call marines made to their parents when they went to boot camp. 

Landed in Spain. I’m fine. 

She couldn’t help her sharp intake of breath at the singular line, or the anxiety that suddenly engulfed her heart (immediately jolting all 3 of her mates awake). 

Before she could even blink she was moved onto Tobin’s lap, and Alex and Kelley cuddled tightly into either side of her. She could feel their concern flowing down their bond, and their efforts to comfort even though they had no idea what had caused such a strong response. 

“What’s up with baby bear?” Tobin said, gently rocking from side to side. 

Christen’s mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to parse out what emotions were hers, what emotions were coming from her mating bond, and the irritating calm that was coming from her bond with you. 

“I…-I don’t,” She stuttered, unable to skate the feeling that there was something very bad behind the steadfast wall you had thrown up in your bond. 

“Give me that,” Kelley half growled, pulling the phone out from Christen’s loose grip. 

She didn’t like to be woken up in the middle of the night, and she would kill your mates if you were texting Christen because of something stupid they did. You had sent them way too many texts like that already if she was honest.

“What the fuck?” She breathed out when her eyes landed on the words. This was so much worse than Soran being dumbasses. 

“What?” Alex asked, yanking the phone away from Kelley. 

Be nice,” Tobin chastised lightly, leaning over to read the words that had sent her most dominant omega mate into a tailspin. 

She frowned at the bright screen, trying to remember the last time the two of you had really talked. Had you mentioned moving to Spain in passing? Had she just blown it off? 

A charged silence hung between them. They all knew you were taking the loss hard, and that you and your mates were struggling to work your way through the slew of emotions that came with it. But they never imagined it would come to this. That you would literally flee the country. 

“This is a joke right?” Kelley asked, her voice cracking. 

“It’s gotta be,” Alex mumbled in disbelief. You were her cuddle buddy, her baby bear. You couldn’t have left the country without saying goodbye first. 

“I’m going to find out,” Christen said finally, taking back her phone. 

She bit her lip, pressing your contact picture and holding the phone to her ear. It rang once and then went voicemail. She frowned, shaking her head at her mates, ending the call. Maybe you accidentally pressed the wrong button. 

She pressed your contact photo a second time. 

Again it rang once and went to voicemail. It definitely wasn’t a coincidence this time, and she would bet anything that the boring automated greeting that came on instead of your goofy one wasn’t a coincidence either. 

She sighed, waiting for the beep. “Hey kiddo, um I got your text and I thought we could have a check-in maybe? Call me back when you can,” She paused, unsure of how to finish. She didn’t think anything she said would ease the ache in her chest. “we love you,” 

“Call Lindsey,” Tobin said firmly, an order lurking just below the words. If you weren’t going to give them answers, then your alphas better be ready to explain what the fuck was going on. 

*****

Lindsey didn’t quite know what she expected when she picked up the phone, but it wasn’t a very annoyed Christen Press on the other side. 

Well, maybe she expected it a little bit (she knew you would go to the quad after the argument. You always went to the quad), but she never imagined the words that would come out of your team mom’s mouth. 

“Whoa, slow down. She said she’s where?” Lindsey said, sitting up off of Emily’s shoulder where she had been leaning. 

“Spain, she said she landed in Spain,” Emily could barely make out Christen’s worried voice through the phone over Lindsey’s low growl. 

“There’s no way!” The more dominant alpha barked, baring her teeth just slightly. 

Maybe she had said some things she shouldn’t have, but you wouldn’t just run off to another country without telling them. She pushed down her hurt and settled for frustration instead. 

Emily scooched away from Lindsey slightly, rubbing her ear. “Babe, if you’re going to be this loud at 3 am, at least turn on speakerphone.” She felt odd, her bond unusually unbalanced. She could feel the torrent of emotions running through Lindsey, but your side of the bond was silent. It had never been silent before. 

The two of you had known each other since you were in diapers, and your bond reflected that. She should have felt something. While you weren’t always outwardly expressive, you felt everything deeply, and vividly. You were the fire to Lindsey’s flood, and for your usual smoldering flame of emotions to just be snuffed out felt wrong.  

The two alphas shared a look before Lindsey gave in and gave a short nod, pressing the little button. Emily had just as much a right to know what was happening as she did, but she still didn’t like being ordered around. 

“You’re on speaker Chris,” Lindsey grumbled. She wrapped an arm around Emily and pulled her closer.

 “What did you two idiots do to our baby bear?” Christen’s voice came out in a growl, the sound low and dangerous. 

Lindsey stiffened, her alpha bristling more than it normally would at the tone. “We didn’t do anything.” 

Emily nuzzled into her neck, trying to help her settle the mix of anger, pain and shock flowing through their bond. Just because she couldn’t feel you, didn’t mean that you couldn’t feel them. 

You were not some innocent party here. Lindsey hadn’t meant all the things she said, but then you had said some pretty hurtful things too. 

Tobin’s voice through the phone was low and clear, holding an air of dominance she rarely let out. “Watch who you’re growling at.” 

Lindsey gulped. She was never very good at controlling her emotions, especially when things went wrong. It was easier to respond with anger than to admit she was vulnerable sometimes. But she really didn’t want to have a fight with Tobin, not when they both knew she would lose.  

“And don’t give us that bullshit!” Both alphas winced at Kelley’s tone. The Omega had the parental tone of disapproval down to an art. She could have been one of their parents, scolding their irresponsibility for mating you before any of you were older than 21 (Emily’s mom had been angry enough to make up for your parents’ lack of care). Emily was sure her mother had used the exact same tone. 

“We had a fight,” Emily sighed, leaning deeper into Lindsey. It was more than a fight. It was an explosion of stubborn communication that had ended in you walking out. 

“A stupid fight. We’ll call her and have it all patched up by tomorrow,” Lindsey added, pinching the bridge of her nose. Why were omegas so frustrating? 

“She left the fucking country. I don’t think getting her back is going to be so easy,” Alex said, and both women could practically hear her eye roll. 

All six of them knew how stubborn you were, and getting you to listen was going to be far from a cakewalk. 

Lindsey huffed. “Camp is in like 2 days. If worst comes to worst, we’ll just talk to her there.” If you wouldn’t answer their phone calls, then they would just corner you at camp. You weren’t good at maintaining the silent treatment when they were both in front of you. And Lindsey still wasn’t convinced this wasn't more than an overblown tantrum. 

“She put a block in our bond Linds,” Christen said sternly, trying to break through the more dominant alphas shell. 

Sure the three of you had had arguments before, but whatever this was, it was fundamentally different. 

Lindsey frowned. You would never do that to Christen. The two of you were too close for that. At least that’s what she thought. 

“We’ll get to the bottom of it. We promise,” Emily said softly, already pulling out her phone. Now hopefully she would be able to get you to answer on the other side. 

“Good luck, you’re going to need it,” Tobin grumbled, hanging up. 

If those two idiots didn’t fix it, she was going to let Kelley unleash her wrath on them. 

Emily bit her lip as she pressed your contact picture (a photo of the two of you with bright 4-year-old smiles covered in brownie batter). It rang 4 times before going to voicemail. 

Emily could imagine you staring at the screen, debating on whether or not you should answer. It hurt a little that you had declined instead. 

She swallowed down her tears, glancing sideways at her still frozen mate. 

“Hey babe, um I know we’re not really talking right now, but um. Christen called and we’re worried. Please call me or Linds back,” she worried her bottom lip, wondering if she should add more, but the time ran out before she could. 

“Damn it,” she huffed, tossing her phone onto the nightstand. She hadn’t told you she loved you. 

Lindsey smiled sadly at her, rubbing her back soothingly, and pulling out her own phone. 

Her thumb hovered over a photo of the two of you cuddled up in one of your famous nests. She smiled wistfully down at it. How had this gotten out of hand so quickly? 

She pressed the button, holding the phone up to her ear. It didn’t even ring before it went to the robotic voicemail. What happened to the one that had you giggling because they wouldn’t stop kissing your neck? 

She didn’t have time to think it through before the beep sounded. She cleared her throat. 

“Hey, um I heard you were in Spain. What’s that about? Call me back,” she too tossed her phone down. 

“I can’t feel her,” Emily mumbled after a few minutes. Lindsey sighed. 

She closed her eyes tightly with a sigh and began to feel for your presence in the bond. If you weren’t going to answer them, then she was going to make sure you knew how unhappy with this situation she was. 

Her eyebrows furrowed when she was met with a wall of unsteady calm. It was like it was pulsing like your inner omega was pacing behind it trying to get through. She focused on the wall you had created and gave it a little push. 

She smirked when it bent a little bit to her will. “I think I got it,” 

She pushed back harder, the wall you creating molding around her alpha as she tried to reach your omega. She was almost there, she could almost touch your omega. One last push was all she needed. 

But just as she went to give it, a blast of calm shoved her backward. 

Her eyes blinked open at the ping of her phone and she scrambled to pick up the device. 

It was two words. No caps, no punctuation. A simple “fuck off” that they could practically hear reverberating in their heads. 

“What do we do now?” Emily asked softly. 

Lindsy’s smirk widened. 

“We call her until she answers us again.” 

[celamoon]

bestie im about to be big brain, imagine kusuke and kusuo fighting over you <3

Bestie that is so hot I love you so much-

I went haywire and turned it into a fic JKDFHSDf enjoy <33

Warnings: none (the header is just for dramatic effect pfft), Kuusuke. For obvious reasons that was a joke.

Pronouns: they/them

Summary: You transferred to PK to learn, not learn how to pull the Saiki brothers.

“What did I say not to do??” Irritation creeps up your back at the sight before you.

“Send you flowers?”

“And what did you do?”

“Send you flowers-“

“THESE AREN’T FLOWERS KUUSUKE, THIS IS A GARDEN! WHAT ON EARTH-“ You point at the garden wheelbarrow. Kuusuke had created some micro-organism garden in there and you had no idea how this was going to work. You didn’t have the time to be tending to plants in your backyard every day! You had school for goodness sake!

“Look, I can tend to the flowers if you want. I’m at home all day too-“ the window shattering cuts Kuusuke off.

“Kusuo!” You greet. “Heal the window the poor thing didn’t do anything to you,”

‘When are you going to realize that Y/n-san isn’t interested?’ The window is restored and you’re pushed behind Kusuo.

“Oh? And they’re interested in you?” Kuusuke raises a brow.

‘More than they are in you,’ Kusuo glares.

When you had first transferred to PK Academy, you were not expecting to meet a psychic, pull a psychic, and pull a genius. You went over to Saiki’s place to meet your new host family, NOT pull both of their children. Yes, you’re hot as hell, but like who do you even pick?? Would it be incest if you went poly-

‘Don’t finish that sentence,’ Kusuo glares at you.

“Would it though?”

“Doesn’t matter since I’m not willing to compromise,”

“How about this?” Kuusuke smirks. “One week, and whoever Y/n falls for wins,”

“N-“

‘Deal.”

You blink in confusion. What if you fall for someone else-

So the week begins. Kuusuke flies you to school each morning, always sure to mess up Kusuo’s hair before he left the house. He takes you for a walk each day after dinner, forcing Kusuo to stay home. He rubs your head affectionally before you go to bed, and built you a fridge for the guest room. He also tried putting some weird gadget on you at some point but you managed to dodge it.

Kusuo is a bit more subtle. He wakes you each morning with a cup of coffee, and he brings you breakfast in bed when you’re running behind schedule. He keeps you close by when you’re getting harassed, and he takes you to Cafe Mami every day after school. He keeps you on the inside of the sidewalk when you walk home together, and he always waits for you to finish packing up after class ends before leaving. Even Teruhashi starts suspecting you two.

“Uh Y/n-san do you have a moment?”

“Huh? Oh sure Teruhashi-san, is there something wrong?” You turn to her with a smile.

“A-ah well I was wondering if you and Saiki-sun were… dating?”

“Mm,” you couldn’t tell her yes because you weren’t, but you couldn’t tell her no because that wasn’t exactly the case either. “He’s courting me.”

“hUH?!” Teruhashi loses her composure before she flushes red.

‘Y/n are you there?’

“Sorry Kusuo-kun! I was answering Teruhashi-san’s question,” You zip up your bag and wave goodbye at Teruhashi. Kusuo was laughing the whole way to the cafe.

One week passes quickly, and when you’re forced to make a decision you’re in literal shambles. Huh?? Sir I didn’t consent to this??? Why am I being forced into this? Should I just flip a coin and go with it????? Is dating an 18 year old even legal???

“What do you mean I’m supposed to choose??? I never agreed to this whole thing!” You groan.

“Who’s the better friend then,” Kuusuke shrugs.

“Both of you hate human beings how did I become the only tolerable human to you two??”

“Not sure,” Both respond at the same time.

“Yeah, so I’m leaving-“

‘Pick.’ Kusuo grabs your wrist and you turn back.

“Well Kuusuke friendzoned me so I’m sticking with Kusuo,”

“I-“ Kuusuke’s face falls and mans has a crisis. You almost feel bad, keyword almost. He friendzoned you first.

‘Run me through, how did he friendzone you again?’ Kusuo folds his arms and you shrug.

“He’s the one who asked who was the better friend. I supposed he wasn’t taking this as a competition of who loves me more, but as a competition of I gotta beat my brother you know?” You hum. “Also I needed a reason to reject him so twisting words is suddenly the way to go,”

Kusuo ruffles your hair affectionately and smiles.

‘Tomorrow’s hangout at Cafe Mami’s gonna be a date then,’

“Wait doesn’t that mean we’ve been going on dates for the whole week-“

‘Who knows,’

“KUSUO-“

[stormspe]

The Battle Café

Summary: Café Partenaire is a modest little battle café run by the Kalos Pokédex holders. Their specialty? Giving customers a fun and exciting Multi Battle experience. Today, it's just business as usual at the café - but the first two Trainers who order battles are certainly going to make the routine a little more interesting.

Length: 5,159 words

Notes: This was written as part of a collab with Koi (@altevolantt​) and Aero (@pk-freezer-burnt​)! The two of them worked together to create the gorgeous art that accompanies this fic. And as it's still his birthday in my timezone, I'd like to wish X a very happy birthday!

If you’d prefer: [Read on Ao3] [Read on FFN]

Convincing X to start a battle café with her may have been one of the best decisions of Y’s life.

She’d come up with the idea after visiting one of Lumiose City’s famous battle cafés and being disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm the staff had for their craft. They were so focused on delivering the highest-quality food and a refined dining experience fitting of the number of “stars” their restaurant held that the battles themselves were stuffy and bland. Y wanted to give people a fun and exciting battle experience on top of delicious food, and who better to help her with that than her battle-savvy best friend?

Y loves running the café with X. They’ve got a good system going – X busses tables and prepares the food and drinks while Y does the waitressing. Emma helps X out in the kitchen and takes over as waitress while X and Y are battling customers. The café gets busy sometimes, but Y finds that busyness to be part of the fun. She challenges herself to get to know every one of their customers personally – everyone’s got their own story to tell, and Y loves to hear them.

X, on the other hand, isn’t a huge fan of the work or the people, but for him the battles more than make up for it. He enjoys getting to battle casual Trainers in low-stakes battles, where no one is watching him and judging his every move. He likes getting to learn from other Trainers, too. Everyone has their own unique battle style, and X looks for the interesting and effective elements of each opponent’s style and incorporates them into his own battling.

The café is located on the outskirts of Lumiose City, so they get a lot of tourist traffic – which means a wide variety of people for Y to meet and X to learn from. It’s always exciting to see people from all over the world grace their humble little battle café. There’s never a dull moment in a place where Kalosians are serving Kantonians, Hoennians, Unovans, and Galarians all under one roof.

“Hey, X, when you’ve got a minute, table 4 needs to be cleared,” Y calls as she picks up a round of smoothies from the order window. “And we’ve got one new order!”

“But still no battles?”

“Still no battles.” Y sighs. “Even I’m itching for a fight at this point. What a slow day.”

“If it were a slow day, I wouldn’t need you to tell me which tables are in need of bussing,” X grunts, appearing at the kitchen entrance with a washcloth and bin for dirty dishes. He heads for table 4 while Y brings her tray of smoothies to the customers at table 1.

Just then, the front doorbell jingles and a teenager around her age walks in. Y doesn’t recognize him and he just stops in the doorway, so he must be a new customer. “Hi, welcome!” she calls, waving at him with one hand while balancing the tray of drinks on the other. “Grab a menu off the podium there, have a seat, and I’ll be with you in a minute!”

The teen grins and gives her a little wave back. Y smiles and gets back to work, delivering the smoothies to table 1 and asking the group if they need anything else. When they decline, she heads back to the kitchen to drop off the empty tray. Then she’s off to the freshly cleared table 4, where the teen has taken a seat.

As she approaches the table, she pulls out a pen, her notepad, and an exuberant smile. “Welcome to Café Partenaire! First time here?”

The teen looks up from the menu and grins sheepishly. “Yeah. Was I that obvious?”

“I’ve got a good memory for my customers, and you didn’t look like you knew what you needed to do when you came in,” Y says. “Sounds like you’re not from around here, either. Galarian?”

“Spot on!” the teen exclaims, eyes widening. “You’re really good at this, mate!”

“Call me Y,” she says. “And I’ve had a lot of practice. Usually I can even distinguish between North and South Galarian accents, but…yours is a bit harder to pin down.”

The teen nods thoughtfully. “I’m from Postwick, in south Galar. But my big bro’s lived in Wyndon most my life, and I’ve got friends all over. So I don’t have a really strong South Galarian accent.”

“Oh, interesting,” Y says. “What’s your name, by the way?”

“I’m Hop!”

“Nice to meet you, Hop. What can I get for you?” she asks, readying her notepad.

“I’ll take the café special!” Hop declares, slapping his menu down on the table with a little more force than necessary.

Y’s smile grows, and she tucks her notepad back into her pocket. It’s about time. She collects payment up front, as usual, and informs Hop that the café special comes with a complimentary beverage. He orders a Soda Pop, and she tells him it’ll be right out.

“Soda Pop for table 4!” Y announces, striding into the kitchen.

X perks up at that; there’s a gleam in his eye when he turns away from the fryer. “Watch these,” he orders, pointing to the currently cooking basket of fries. Y nods. X grabs a bottle of Soda Pop from the refrigerator and heads out into the dining room.

Offering a complimentary beverage with the café special was one of X’s best ideas. Its purpose is threefold. One, it ensures that the customer is properly hydrated before their battle. (For the same reason, Y intends to make sure X drinks something when he gets back.) Two, it gives X the opportunity to meet the customer and get an idea of their skill level. Three, it gives the customer something to do while they wait for someone else to order the café special. They don’t want to make their customers wait too long for a battle, but it’s far more fun when two customers order the special around the same time.

The fries have cooked to a nice golden brown by the time X returns to the kitchen. “So? Your thoughts?” Y asks.

“He’s friendly,” X says. “Maybe a little too friendly. I asked him how long he’d been a Trainer, not for his whole life story.”

“Aw, I wanted to hear his whole life story. I bet it’s fascinating .”

“Really? I didn’t realize you had a thing for foreign boys. Or is it just Galarian ones?”

“Jealous, are we?” Y smirks. She throws her arms around X’s neck. “Don’t worry, you don’t have anything to fear from foreign boys like Hop.” She leans closer so she can whisper in his ear. “It’s only the cute ones that you need to worry about.”

“Please get a room.”

Y yelps and stumbles backwards, letting go of X. He grabs onto her arm to steady her. “Emma! How long have you been standing there?”

“Since I realized you had stopped paying attention to the fries and were letting them burn,” she says in her usual quiet, matter-of-fact way. “Don’t you have customers to be serving?”

“Oh, uh – right,” Y stammers. She turns back to X, gives him a quick peck on the cheek, and hurries back out to the dining room.

Hop and the triplets at table 1 are still right where she left them, but Selphy from table 2 and Kiri from table 3 have both finished their food and headed out. In addition, there’s a new customer standing at the entrance, flipping disinterestedly through a menu. Like Hop, he’s a teenage boy who appears to be around her age. Unlike Hop, he has rather guarded body language and a serious expression on his face.

“Hi there! Sorry for the wait,” Y says, rushing over to table 2. “Let me clear off this table for you–”

“I’m here for a battle,” the teen interrupts, looking up from the menu.

Y blinks. No one’s ordered the café special all day, and now they have two requests for it in a row? She’s not complaining, but it’s an odd coincidence. “Excellent! I’ll finish clearing off this table so you can have a seat, and–”

“I don’t need a seat,” he says, leveling a glare at her. “I’m not here to eat. I just want a battle.”

Y takes a deep breath in and lets it out. They get these kinds of customers from time to time – the ones who are either too impatient or too arrogant to listen to her and follow the standard procedure for battling. They get on her nerves every time, but in the interest of professionalism, she tries not to let it show.

“Here at Café Partenaire, we provide full sit-down service to our customers,” she says. “If you’d like to order the café special, you’ll need to have a seat first.”

“That’s stupid! You can’t fight a battle sitting down.”

Y grits her teeth. “You won’t be sitting down for the battle. But there’s things that have to be done before you can battle–”

“Skip those, then. I want to get to the battle.”

“–including payment ,” Y says forcefully. “We don’t offer battles for free, you know.”

The teen at least has the decency to look a little abashed at that.

“Just sit down, mate!” Hop yells. “The longer you argue with her, the longer it’s gonna take for you to get your battle.”

The teen side-eyes Hop, but with an exaggerated huff, relents. Y finishes clearing off the table, he has a seat, and she gets his payment and drink order.

She doesn’t immediately take the order back to the kitchen, though. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I know we didn’t start off on the right foot, but I do like to get to know all my customers. My name is Y. What’s yours?”

He glances at her, glare still on his face. On closer inspection, though, she realizes that there doesn’t seem to be any real heat behind the look; maybe that intense gaze is just a neutral expression for him.

“Hugh,” he says.

“Where are you from, Hugh?” she asks. She can tell by his accent that he’s from Unova, but Unovan accents vary even more than Galarian ones, and her Unovan geography is a little rusty.

“Aspertia City. Unova,” he says. Her lack of recognition must be evident on her face, because he adds without prompting, “Southwest Unova.”

“Ooh, I see. I’m from Vaniville Town, right here in Central Kalos,” Y says. “It’s nice to meet you! My partner will be back with your drink in a moment.”

Y heads back to the kitchen and finds X and Emma engrossed in a game of pick-up sticks using burnt fries. “Lemonade for table 2!” she declares. “Also, X, table 3 needs bussing. C’mon, pick up the slack!”

“Another special already?” X says, straightening up. “That was fast.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s great!” Y grins. “Now hurry up and bring the new customer his drink so we can get to the battle!”

After X leaves, Emma starts tallying up her and X’s scores. Y leaves her to it, pouring a new basket of fries and putting them in the fryer. But Emma quickly takes over that, shooing Y back out to the dining room. That’s fair; Emma doesn’t need a new set of pick-up sticks to play with.

Speaking of which – “Who won the game?”

“I did.”

“Good for you!”

When Y returns to the dining room, she’s disappointed to find that the triplets have left, killing her chances of catching up on the latest news from Striaton City. However, that’s made up for by the fact that Trevor has dropped by the café on his lunch break. She greets him with a big hug and listens as he emphatically describes the new experiment that he and Professor Sycamore are conducting. Once she notices X has returned to the kitchen, though, she has to end the conversation and get back to work.

“So, battle meister, what’s your final assessment?” Y asks as soon as she enters the kitchen.

“They’re both experienced Trainers,” X reports. “Hugh’s been battling longer, but Hop has more competitive battling experience. They’ll both make interesting opponents.”

“Awesome!” Y exclaims. “Feels like it’s been ages since we last had a tough opponent. This is gonna be so much fun!”

~

Once Hugh and Hop have both finished their drinks, it’s finally time for the battle. Y volunteers to escort Hop up to the battlefield, which leaves X to escort Hugh.

“Hey, sorry about the wait!” Y says as she approaches table 4.

Hop’s eyes sparkle with excitement. “Is it time for the battle?”

“You bet! Follow me!”

She leads Hop to the staircase on the side of the café. “Oh, so the battlefield is on the second floor?” he asks.

“Even better!” Y replies.

She opens the door at the top of the staircase and walks out onto the roof. Hop gasps behind her. “Welcome to the official battlefield of Café Partenaire!” she exclaims, spreading her arms.

The battlefield itself isn’t terribly impressive, just a bunch of white lines painted on the concrete roof. However, the view from up here of Parterre Way’s gardens and perfectly trimmed hedge mazes with Lumiose City in the distance is gorgeous.

“Um, isn’t it a little dangerous to be battling on top of a roof with no guardrails or anything?” Hop asks.

Y laughs. “And Pokémon battles aren’t dangerous? Don’t worry,” she says, patting him on the shoulder. “The battlefield’s nowhere near the edge of the roof, so we’re not in any danger of falling off!”

“Right,” Hop says, but he still doesn’t look convinced. “So…where’s my opponent?”

“He’ll be up in a minute,” Y says.

A few moments later, X emerges onto the roof with Hugh following close behind. Hugh doesn’t spend much time observing the battlefield, instead staring immediately at Y and Hop. He narrows his eyes as they approach. “I have to fight him ?” he asks.

“Nope!” Y responds cheerfully, clapping Hop on the shoulder and pushing him closer to Hugh. “He’s your partner!”

“Partner!?” both boys exclaim simultaneously.

“Y’see, the thing about Café Partenaire that makes it a little different from the battle cafés you’ll find in Lumiose is that we specialize in Multi Battles,” Y explains with a wink. “When two Trainers both order the café special, they’ll have to work together to defeat our staff if they want to earn the special prize!”

“So who do we have to fight?” Hugh demands.

Y grins, taking a few steps back from the customers. She glances to her right, where X has moved to stand next to her. He gives her a curt nod, and she nods back. Then, moving in sync, they both untie their aprons from their waists and fling them aside.

“You’ll be battling us!”

Y always loves seeing the look of shock on customers’ faces when they realize they’re going to be battling the people who were just serving them moments before. Hugh’s eyes only widen for a moment before returning to their usual intense stare, but Hop gapes at them like a Magikarp out of water.

“You – you’re serious? You guys are the super-tough opponents that we’re supposed to battle?” Hop exclaims.

“Never judge a Trainer’s skill by their appearance,” Hugh says. He folds his arms and looks Hop up and down. “You don’t look like you’re all that yourself, but you must be a strong Trainer or you wouldn’t be here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You think I look weak!?” Hop shouts, intruding in Hugh’s personal space. He’s only a few inches taller, but standing that close to Hugh makes it look like Hop towers over the other boy.

“I’m not saying you look strong,” Hugh says coldly, glaring up at him.

Y glances at X with a hint of concern. Throwing strangers into a battle together is a little risky because they don’t always get along, but they don’t usually get this openly hostile towards each other before the battle’s even started. She definitely didn’t expect this much hostility from Hop – he’d been so friendly and nice with her. If they clash this much outside of battle, she can already tell that the battle itself will be a disaster. “Should we do something?” she whispers.

X shrugs. “If they really want to battle us, they’ll figure it out.”

Hop finally leans back and folds his hands behind his head. “Well, it doesn’t matter whose accomplishments as a Trainer are better or whatever,” he says. “We’re not fighting each other. So you’ll see just how skilled I am when we’re fighting them” – he points at X and Y – “on the battlefield.”

“The best place to evaluate a Trainer’s skill,” Hugh agrees with a curt nod of the head.

“Then let’s do this together and win that special prize!” Hop declares, holding out his hand. “The name’s Hop, by the way.”

“Hugh,” Hugh says, shaking it.

“Sounds like you’re ready to battle!” Y says with a relieved smile. “Let’s get in position, shall we?”

The four Trainers take their places on the battlefield – Hop and Hugh on the side closest to the stairs, X and Y on the far side. Once everyone’s in position, Y explains the rules: a two-on-two Multi Battle, with each Trainer only being allowed a single Pokémon. Whichever team manages to knock out both of the opposing team’s Pokémon is declared the winner.

“I’m counting on you, Veevee!”

“Let’s do this, Kanga.”

“Go, Flygon!”

“Corviknight, let’s go!”

Y quickly assesses the type matchups in her head. Veevee has the advantage against Flygon but the disadvantage against Corviknight. Kanga’s at a type disadvantage against Corviknight as well, but she has moves that’ll allow her to hit both Pokémon super effectively. That still makes Corviknight the bigger threat.

“Double team Corviknight?” she mutters under her breath.

X shakes his head almost imperceptibly. “Support me. See what they can do.”

Y dips her head, pretending to adjust her necktie. “You guys ready?” she calls across the battlefield. Hop gives her a thumbs-up. “Then let’s get this battle started! Veevee, Misty Terrain!”

Veevee closes her eyes and lifts her head. A cloud of pink mist begins to emanate from her body, swirling around her and Kanga’s legs. It quickly spreads across the whole battlefield, but Corviknight and Flygon hover just above the mist.

Hugh scowls. “That was a waste of a move. Misty Terrain won’t affect our Pokémon!”

“Their Pokémon can still benefit from it,” Hop points out. “But let’s not give ’em a reason to! Corviknight, Steel Wing on Sylveon!”

“Flygon, use Rock Slide!” Hugh commands.

“Whoa, whoa, wait!” Hop cries, but Flygon is already executing the order.

“Dodge it!” X and Y command simultaneously.

“Corviknight, fall back!” Hop exclaims. Corviknight pulls its head back to stop its charge just before it reaches the torrent of boulders that Flygon is raining down on Kanga and Veevee.

Veevee is nimble enough to dodge most of them, but Kanga isn’t so lucky, taking a decent amount of damage. “Shake it off, Kanga,” X says. “We’re just getting started.”

“What the heck was that, mate?” Hop shouts, glaring at Hugh. “Are you trying to sabotage me!?”

“Sabotage!? I was doing us a favor by attacking both our opponents at once!” Hugh snaps.

“You nearly took Corviknight out with that Rock Slide!”

“I figured you were capable of making sure your Pokemon didn’t get hit by the attack. Which you were. So I don’t see what the big deal is!”

“The big deal is that Corviknight couldn’t attack at all because you decided you wanted to attack both of them at once!”

While they continue arguing, Y glances at X. “Should we, uh, let them finish, or…?”

“Let’s get their attention back here,” X says. “Kanga, use Thunderbolt on Corviknight.”

“Works for me,” Y grins. “Veevee, Moonblast on Flygon!”

Kanga’s body begins to crackle with electricity while Veevee glows with bluish-pink energy. They launch their attacks simultaneously, knocking both Flygon and Corviknight to the ground. That’s finally enough to catch Hugh and Hop’s attention.

“Flygon, are you alright?” Hugh asks. His Pokemon picks itself up and flaps its wings a couple of times to prove that it’s still full of energy. He nods with satisfaction and then levels a glare at Hop. “Look what you’ve done. If you hadn’t started that argument–”

“I wouldn’t have started it if you hadn’t given me a reason to!” Hop shoots back. Then he shakes his head. “Look, we can’t keep arguing like this if we want to win this battle. We’re s’posed to be fighting them , not each other. So let’s each focus on one opponent so we don’t keep getting in each other’s way. Fair?”

“Alright,” Hugh says, turning his intense stare back to X and Y. “I’ll take Kangaskhan, you take Sylveon.”

Hop grins. “I can work with that.”

“Flygon, use Superpower!”

“Corviknight, Steel Wing on Sylveon, let’s go!”

Corviknight and Flygon flap their wings and shoot across the battlefield. They’re both on the opposite side from their intended targets, though, and their trajectories put them directly on a collision course with each other. Fortunately for them, a quick command from Hugh to slightly adjust Flygon’s direction saves them from colliding.

But Y’s not just going to roll over and let them get in a free attack just because they finally figured out that they need to cooperate. “Veevee, Baby-Doll Eyes!” she commands.

Veevee bats her eyes cutely at Corviknight. It slows down a bit but doesn’t stop completely, so it’s still able to land a solid hit. Veevee stumbles back a few paces but remains standing. “Way to hang in there, Veevee! Retaliate with Draining Kiss!”

As Veevee kisses away some of Corviknight’s vitality, Y chances a look over at X and Kanga. Flygon landed a direct hit on Kanga, but now that it’s at close range, she’s grabbed onto its arms to hold it in place.

“Use Outrage!” X orders. Kanga glows with a faint red aura and punches Flygon in the stomach, then flings it away. Y winces.

“Hey! Your opponent’s over here!” Hop calls, waving and grinning cheekily. “Corviknight, keep up the Steel Wings!”

“Dodge it, Veevee!” Y shouts. Veevee does her best to avoid the strikes from Corviknight’s wings, but she’s slowly being pushed into the corner of the battlefield and once she’s there, she’ll have nowhere to go. If only there was some way they could get past Corviknight without giving it time to land a hit…

Flygon and Kanga are still locked in close-quarters combat in the center of the field, and suddenly Y has an idea. “Veevee, use Quick Attack! Aim for Flygon!”

Veevee twists in midair to avoid Corviknight’s wings and lands on the ground in a crouch. It only takes her a moment to pinpoint Flygon’s location. She darts forward. Corviknight can’t move fast enough. Veevee slips under its wings easily, racing towards Flygon. But she realizes at the same time as Y that she won’t be able to attack Flygon without risking hitting Kanga as well, so she stops once she’s gotten a safe distance away from Corviknight.

“Good work, Veevee! Now, give Corviknight a Moonblast!”

Corviknight only has time to turn around before Veevee’s Moonblast is hitting it head-on. But when the dust settles, it shakes its head, barely fazed by the attack. “Nice move,” Hop says to Y. “But it’ll take a lot more than that to defeat a Pokemon with a type advantage!”

“Don’t get too confident! We’re just getting started!” Y replies with a smirk.

“ What!? ”

Hugh’s indignant cry draws Y’s attention back to Flygon and Kanga. Kanga is a little hunched over and breathing heavily, but she still looks much better off than Flygon; it’s lying on the ground, fainted.

“How could Outrage have done that much damage!? Dragon-type moves have their power halved on Misty Terrain!” Hugh exclaims.

“Yes, but Misty Terrain only affects Pokémon that are on the ground,” X says. “Since Flygon has Levitate, it’s not protected by the mist. Dragon-type moves used on it don’t have their power reduced, while Dragon-type moves used by it do – as long as the Pokémon it’s attacking is grounded, like Kanga.”

“ That’s how Misty Terrain works?” Hugh folds his arms, a contemplative look on his face. “But the other terrains boost the power of the user’s moves…”

“Yeah, so Misty Terrain protects Pokémon on the field instead of powering them up,” Hop says. “You really didn’t know that, mate? What happened to that whole ‘graduating at the top of your class’ thing that you were bragging about earlier?”

“Terrain was just being introduced to battles when I was in school,” Hugh says defensively. “They didn’t teach us about it. I had to learn about it from my own research and battles.”

“Well, there’s the trick. You shouldn’t learn just from the battles that you take part in. You can learn a lot by watching other people battle, too. Keep that up, and you’ll be practically unbeatable!” Hop grins.

Hugh looks at Hop for a moment as if studying him. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he says. He returns Flygon and sticks his hands in his pockets. “You’re on your own now. Don’t screw this up.”

“Right…no pressure,” Hop says with a nervous chuckle. He closes his eyes and slaps his hands on his cheeks twice before opening them, a new determination blazing in his eyes. “Let’s do this, Corviknight!”

Corviknight spreads its wings and raises its head high, letting out a shrill cry. Sunlight glints off its metal feathers. Its large wingspan makes it look twice as big as normal – a massive, menacing black figure that towers over Y even though she’s standing several feet away. It flaps its wings to take off, blowing a gust of air strong enough to dislodge the hair tucked behind Y’s ears. Even injured, Corviknight exudes a dominating aura. They can’t let their guard down if they want to defeat it.

As Corviknight moves back to Hop’s side of the battlefield, Y glances over at X. “Looks like we’re gonna get to double team Corviknight after all,” she says with a grin.

“Looks like it,” he agrees.

“Veevee, Draining Kiss!”

“Kanga, Mega Punch!”

As the two Pokemon charge at Corviknight together, Hop commands, “Corviknight, fly as low to the ground as possible and meet them with Steel Wing!”

Corviknight flaps its wings, gaining some height, and then dives down to the ground. It pulls out of the dive just before it hits the ground, letting its momentum propel it towards Kanga and Veevee.

“Veevee, jump over it!” Y shouts.

Veevee leaps into the air just before Corviknight reaches her so it passes right underneath her. Kanga, on the other hand, is far less agile. Corviknight’s wing slams into Kanga’s legs, stopping their motion while her upper body continues to move forward. She slams into the ground while Corviknight slows to a halt in front of X and Y, completely unscathed.

“Quick, before it gets up – Drill Peck on Kangaskhan!” Hop orders.

Corviknight turns around and flies at Kanga again, this time tucking its wings close to its body and rotating itself like a drill. Kanga is struggling to her feet, but she’s not going to have time to get up and move out of Corviknight’s way.

“Now, Veevee, Quick Attack!”

Veevee darts at Corviknight and rams into it. She’s thrown to the ground by the rotation of Corviknight’s body, but the force is enough to knock Corviknight off course. Instead of hitting Kanga, Corviknight crashes into the ground. Meanwhile, Kanga gets to her feet, ready to attack.

“Let’s finish this off,” X says.

“Sounds good to me!”

“Thunderbolt!”

“Moonblast!”

Corviknight barely has time to pick itself up off the ground before it’s being hit by the combined force of Kanga and Veevee’s attacks. It collapses, wings splayed out, unmoving.

“Looks like Corviknight can’t battle anymore,” Y says. “Which means…me and X win!” She turns to X, and they share a quick kiss. “Lovely battling with you, as always.”

“Same to you,” he says, smiling softly. “You fought well.”

She and X return their Pokémon and jog to the other side of the field, where Hop has returned his Corviknight and stands facing Hugh.

Hop lowers his head. “I’m sorry. You were counting on Corviknight and I to win the battle, and we couldn’t do it. It’s my fault we lost…”

Hugh sighs. “You wouldn’t have been in that situation if Flygon hadn’t gotten knocked out first. I should’ve been stronger.”

“No,” X interrupts. “You’re missing the root of the problem. The reason you lost isn’t because either of you were too weak – it’s obvious you’re both skilled Trainers. But you weren’t working as a team, and teamwork is crucial to winning a Multi Battle.”

Hop and Hugh stare at X and then look at each other. Hop sighs and folds his hands behind his head. “You’re right about that, mate. We weren’t working together at all. I was so focused on proving my own strength that I didn’t think about anything other than my Pokémon.”

“I did the same thing,” Hugh admits. He pulls his hands out of his pockets and glances at Hop. “You did pretty well taking on both of them by yourself, though. Having Corviknight fly close to the ground like that to trip them up was clever.”

“You think?” Hop grins, his cheeks tinged a faint pink. “Uh, I can’t really take credit for it. It’s a trick I picked up from my bro.”

Hugh turns to face Hop fully now, an inquisitive look on his face. “You have a brother? Older or younger?”

“Older,” Hop says with a chuckle. “By quite a bit.”

“Oh. I’ve got a younger sister,” Hugh says by way of explanation. “She’s a Trainer, too, but…she’s never had much interest in battling.”

“Really? I can’t imagine what that’s like. I think I inherited my love of battling from my brother,” Hop says, grinning widely.

“Must be nice, having a sibling who actually wants to battle with you.”

“Oh, I wish. By the time I became a Trainer, Lee was already leagues better than me, and he was hardly ever around anyways…”

The two boys head to the stairs, chatting about their siblings like old friends catching up after a long time. Hop pauses to wave goodbye and thank them for the battle. Then the pair head downstairs together, leaving X and Y alone on the roof.

X picks up the aprons off the ground and hands Y hers. She takes it with a smile and ties it back around her waist. Of all the things she loves about running the battle café, this has to be her favorite – getting to bring other Trainers closer together.

Note: This is a work of fiction. The opinions on the cuteness of certain rival characters expressed in this fic are wholly Y’s and do not reflect the views of the creator.

[angeliccynthious]

h a h look at the thing I did- All the vessels + Grimmchild,, and I’ll be sort of... talking about them further below. Wowie finally using this feature-- Basically its me recapping them as characters and how they are in the AU. This is going to be a long read god I’m so sorry :<

Ghost- Ghost is the energetic one of the vessels. They just do whatever they want, they literally often do not care a lot about what they do. Ghost likes helping others, because they just wanna fix a lot of things. They like making friends, and just-- having fun. Who wouldn’t? There are rare times Ghost gets mad, and when they do- they go big Shade Lord mode. In conclusion Ghost is just a very.. chaotic.. fun-loving-- andd-- helpful baby. We love them. - But onto how they appear once more- Basically, since this AU is a mix of both the dream no more ending and as well as the embrace the void ending,, this basically has Ghost go full on shade lord in their fight with Radi. They disappear afterwards, only leaving their shell behind. They are presumed to be dead by Hornet. As described quite a bit ago (when I first talked about this AU), Ghost is just.. verryyyy angry as the Shade Lord. They finally appear in Dirtmouth, lashing out and just being a ng y. They try to attack Hornet, but no, Hollow stops them-- fighting them off even in their weak form. Eventually they are given time to run back into the home they and Hornet have been staying in to retrieve Ghosts shell. Why do they retrieve Ghosts shell? Well, because they are aware that  Shade Lord = Ghost. They just carefully lay their shell on the ground and sort of.. apologize. They do this by speaking to Ghost through void, void beings can do that right? Surely. Though eventually, Ghost calms down and accepts their shell, fitting their big Shade Lord form into their tiny shell. Then going to their siblings to... hug them.. strangely enough. Hollow would of course hug them back. Anddd-- thats that. Another thing that Ghost does is revive PK, Radi, and even get NKG up in the real world too. One more is that they too ‘revive’ their siblings Clematis (aka the Greenpath Vessel) and Beryl (Lost Kin/Broken Vessel) by getting Mask Maker to fix their shells and then they just yeeted them into the Abyss. After a moment, they go and retrieve them, and bring them to their parents so they can deal with them then. They too sort of helped Godseeker get out of the Junk Pit, because who wants to live in garbage? They do a lot of stuff. They are happy to help. Grimmchild- Ah yes, my favorite. Grimmchild in general is.. less.. childish than she was, of course she’d be less childish- She’s an adult. She has more sense than she used to, she’s much smarter, though still retains those silly aspects of hers. She’s rather protective, over Ghost mostly, and usually is always with and around them. best friends for life. She’s the one who generally calms Ghost down when they get angry. - Alrighty, so-- After Ghost presumably had died, Grimmchild was very sad, quite sad. She usually sought out Hornet or Hollow for comfort, but generally it was Hollow who’d give her pats and let her lay on their head. Hornet on the other hand, was quite busy,, doing Hornet things of course :> When Ghost returned, and was brought back to the house- oh-- what did Grimmchild do? Well, she literally tackled them to the ground in a hug (the way this bat lookin child hugs) because ‘oh my god, best friend is back, hi friend, you okay friend?’ and so on, just really happy to see them. And truly-- truly-- ever since then you can never see these two apart. How Lovely. Grimmchild has a good enough relationship with her ‘aunt’ Radi, generally it started off.. not that well but as time passed Radi decided to tolerate her (and Ghost) enough to actually be nice. Grimmchild usually seeks out Radi for advice and so on, some of the rare times that she’s away from Ghost. But when Ghost does allow her dear ol dad to actually exist in the real world (with their ultimate goddamn shade lord powers.. pff..), she’s very happy, very appreciative. Then theres the dilemma of her taking on the name ‘Grimm’ and her fathers name too basically being Grimm. She just calls him dad but usually they get confused on which Grimm someone is calling for. Silly. Clematis- Okie dokie, third one! and its the precious short baby, Clematis. Aka of course.. the Greenpath vessel. Clematis is a very meek fellow, and they generally like and appreciate being alone. They do sometimes like company, but peace and quiet is better than that. It’s quite obvious here, Clematis is not very social. They are not very skilled at socializing but a certain someone is gonna help em. - As stated before, yeah, Clematis gets basically revived alongside Beryl and given to PK and WL so they can properly take care of their goddamn kids. Even then, Clematis often hid in places that gave them such peace and quiet that they’d fall asleep there. It’d take a long while to find them. They are somewhat close with their mother, since she’d often take them to garden with her when they weren’t hiding. They formed a somewhat bond with Beryl, but Beryl eventually pushed them away because of how damn mean they are. Bad Beryl. Later in life, when Clematis is an.. adult? sure, they’ve reached their own prime form. Very short though for a vessel. By then, they are living alone in Greenpath. Somehow someway, they come to befriend the oh so lovely Lace, who’s just been seeking out someone who does not absolutely dislike her. The two become friends, and she just comes by often to have this one person who understands where she’s coming from. Both were very lonely, now they besties. And now, a fun fact, those flowers decorated them and their moss collar are clematis flowers. They generally are quite pretty. And oh-- Clematis likes to grow flowers as they did back in Queens Gardens with their mama. Beryl- Beryl! I love them, but god are they mean. As said, Beryl is.. quite mean,, quite stubborn. They feel as if they don’t need anyone, just preferring to do things their way. They don’t really like their family at all, and show it by once more- being a big ol bitch. Strangely enough though, the only person in their family they aren’t..really...that mean to-- is Lil Lady. Their littlest sister. They actually are nicer to her, one of the only moments they are gentle and nice are when they interacted with her. Sometimes, they are actually nicer to other people as well. That rarely happens though. - Yada yada- even when they are being taken care of by their parents they dislike them. PK is a bit distant as always, WL tries to give them love but they say no. They don’t want anything from these people. Since they already did grow a bit beforehand, they are the first out of the two revived siblings to reach their prime form. They once were nicer to Clematis, now the two barely interact. It’s kinda sad. (It’s not fully Beryl’s fault, Clematis just barely interacts with people anymore) During this time, a young Lil Lady gave them the ‘necklace’ that they still do wear to this day. They are sometimes teased for it. (Their little sister made it for them, don’t j ud g e) Beryl generally likes fighting, its very fun for them. So when Hornet asked them if they would like to be one of her knights, they ‘happily’ obliged. Then being one of her knights, they are constantly told off by Hollow, who’s one of her other knights because they don’t like to listen to orders. And they often get into little fights with Lace, who too is a knight of Hornets, because oh my lets step on the shortest one who you never agree with. Either way, Beryl isn’t totally terrible- but they never planned on listening to their parents when they tried to teach them to do better. Even though they are a bitch, their fellow knights (and family) will come to their aid if they need it. Hollow- FINALLY- the last one. Oh my god...I’m mostly taking this from the recent post I did about Hollow and their own reference. Hehe. Hollow is a very gentle vessel, and too is protective, mostly over their family. They have a deep care for those who they are related to, of course of course. They too hold deep respect for their parents, and for the most part, is somewhat ‘closer’ to PK, due to the fact he was the one who mostly.. raised them back then. They still are close with their mother of course. They are very friendly, but not as friendly as Ghost. More reserved?? sure. They are the one who usually keeps their fellow knights in check. - It all starts off with Hornet finding them strangely alive after the black egg is no more, and her helping them get to Dirtmouth and-- get patched up. After quite a while of recovery, the whole big shade lord thing happens-- and-- Hollow sees it fit to apologize to Ghost for everything, for leaving them to fall back into the Abyss. They are happy that Ghost accepts their apology and literally carries them back into the house. How cute. Afterwards, Hornet decides to finally take these two to see the White Lady. Oh at last, Hollow gets to face their mother. And so, they do. The moment is... quite emotional for the poor bean. They feel so guilty, that they weren’t truly empty, and WL reassures them with the notion that it was not them who failed their parents, it was their parents who failed them. She’s going to actually try to be a proper mother.. huh.. finally. And so, Hornet leaves Hollow with WL, Ghost coming along with her because they too feel as if those two deserve some time to fix things a bit. Ah, and once more-- a bit of a timeskip. Hollow has been living quite well with their mother, with her having unbound herself and gaining some of her sight back, enough that she is able to walk around without bumping into anything lmao. They get along quite well. When Ghost brings PK around, and Hornet finally drags him to Queens Gardens-- another emotional moment for Hollow. They go and embrace their father and wont let go until he asks them too..they’re just too damn happy to see him, though there is still that guilt of them failing him. PK himself is guilty. Then from that, and PK’s reunion with WL, they live.. quite happily, quite comfortably, and Hollow accepts their two siblings whenever Ghost is to bring them around. They are generally pleasant to their smaller sibs. But oh,, when their newest sibling finally arrives- Lil Lady- OH GOD- are they a loving big big sibling. They sort of,, cared for her a lot, and whenever PK and WL needed a break? They were there. Of course, they are a good influence on her, and Beryl is the bad influence. Though in general they have spent much more time with their little sister than Beryl has. Soon enough, when Hornet finally ascends to the throne, Hollow too is requested to be one of her knights, and of course they’d accept. This is their sister here. Whenever she is to need help, they help, and whenever their fellow knights need help, they are there. They feel useful like this, and Hornet does greatly appreciate their company and how they can easily split up Lace and Beryl from their constant fights. They’re truly an older sibling, scolding those two. And lastly, the whole Radi thing. I did explain this in that post about Hollow- but I’ll say it here too. Hollow wanted closure for everything, so they’ve gone and forgiven most people who have.. hurt them? yeah. This includes Radi. Radi doesn’t really want to be forgiven, she knows she did horrible things, and she isn’t the most guilty about them. But either way, they forgive her, and they somewhat become.. acquaintances?? friends?? They don’t really know. She’s just not as mean as she was to them before.. OH GOD- AND IM DONE AAAAAAAA This is a whole mess I tried my be s t whoever has read this whole thing, I thank you for reading my bullshit.

[harristops]

Did you watch the first Group stages for the Olympics? Thoughts? Do you think the US could have done better if Ash/Ali were there?

Not surprised by any of the stage results so far, tbh. Let's break it down team by team and go from there with my hot takes lmao:

GBR vs. CHI

Chile, while they have a GOAT in Endler, just doesn't have anything else to win, so they're never going to get passed the group stage, or if they do, it will be on a miracle. Like we've seen, good GKs can only keep your team in the game, whether or not they can stay in it is up to them. England has a strong squad and had a great start, and I think they'll hold up just fine in their group even against Canada or Japan for that top seed. They have enough gelling for them to work.

JPN vs. CAN

Two words: Steph Labbé. This is the Ashlyn Harris/Alyssa Naeher combo we all wish we could have. The heart she had to commit the PK, and then save it? A legendary move and I honestly felt for her that she had to be subbed out. Kailen, though, she's still so young and this is a great experience for her and knowing her, she's only going to continue to drive to improve and be better next game (even though that goal was a really tough one to save and came off some poor defending) - the CANWNT run into the same problems as the Pride sometimes; they're not out there to go and score a whole bunch of times, rather they score once and then defend the rest of the match. I need to see more attack from someone other than Sincy (congrats on her 300th cap and 187th goal, btw, absolute lengend) or Prince. Get some more attacking power in there because Japan isn't a team that will go down quietly, just likely they showed today.

BRA vs. CHN

Marta magic baby! The link up between Marta and Debinha, and just everyone on this team is so inspirational to watch. I honestly would LOVE to see them pull through and win this whole thing because no one deserves an Olympic Gold than Marta and Formiga. Their retirement is going to be the most emotional moment in women's football, even more than when Abby and Christie retired, tbh. China has some moments, but again, Brazil brings so much experience. I don't know how deep they can run into this tournament given how old their best players are, but they'll give it everything, no doubt. I want them to make it to the final rounds, or at least for the Bronze medal match, because the OGs deserve to go out with a medal.

ZAM vs. NED

Boy, this was an absolutely thrashing. I mean, there was absolutely no mercy by the Netherlands, but major kudos to the Zambia team for fighting hard to make that GD 7 instead of 10. They managed to score on a very good keeper and cut through a solid defense, even if they got blown out of the water. The drive was unreal and massive props to them for fighting to the last second. The Netherlands proved in this match why they were the 2019 finalists, and honestly, I'd be surprised if they're not back in the finals again this year. They're strong, meticulous, lethal on the attack, and defend very well. Not to mention they have a great blend of youth and experience for depth.

AUS vs. NZL

I mean, I hate to say it, but I don't see either of these teams going too far in this tournament. They both are big bodied, rough and tumble teams, but I honestly think it's a bit of a disadvantage than an advantage. NZL has never been particularly good, but kudos to them for clawing back and not getting shut out. On paper, the Matildas should have a great chance of going far, but I don't know if they can given who else is in their group. Maybe they can be in the top third? I still don't see it as likely, but no way is NZL going anywhere further.

SWE vs. USA

The match of the hour, huh! I mean, are any of use actually surprised at this result? The USWNT have been playing lower tiered teams and NOT blowing them out for the past year. Vlakto has made decisions to bring on older veteran players and barely healthy players like Jill did in 2016, except with a slightly weaker/disjointed defense. Look, I won't hide my inner glee at the karma inflicted by the soccer gods on this "the Olympics should be easy" USWNT team, but I'm gleeful. The revenge story fell flat and they showed themselves to be unable to make changes on a dime or adjust to the context. The ball to the face from Tobin's own kick was an accurate summation of the match. Now look, the USWNT will most likely bounce back and they'll probably at least make it to the semi-finals if not the finals. But, given the performance of Sweden, the Netherlands, and even Brazil, I'm not sure how they can withstand the firepower and strength of these teams when they've not played higher-calibre teams in a long time. Sweden put on a clinic with how organized, level-headed, and clean they were with their efficiency. The absolute dedication to pushing and attacking and defending and knowing their roles was outstanding and an absolute joy to watch. I felt happy for them and I believe that the USWNT are going to need a lot more than a redemption arc to get far in this tournament, but still, I think they should be okay so long as they don't rack up injuries or get gassed. Alyssa Naeher is the only reason they didn't get blown out, tbh. She is a star on the USWNT even if she's subpar in her club performance. She thrives at the international level and is so, so good and clutch.

Now, to answer your question about Ash/AK, no I don't think them being on the roster would change anything. Ash would never see a start even if she's a better club player than Alyssa, and tbh, she wouldn't make a difference here. Alyssa did a really great job and she definitely still is the #1 USWNT keeper even with the three goals conceded this match. Ash is great in clutch moments, but she has no big tournament experience so it's hard to tell if she could thrive under the pressure (I think she'd be fine, but there's no real evidence to back that claim since she has never played in a big tournament). AK might have added some leadership/consistency to the backline, but again, she didn't have a great performance in her last camp and her club performances have been rather inconsistent, even if they're still good. I don't think she should've made the cut or been on the roster.

The only person that should've been on the roster, in my opinion, but wasn't is Midge. She has proven time and time again she can play at any position and is versatile, strong, tough, and fast. She should've been the alternate over either Kruger or Lynn any day of the week. It will be interesting going forward how Vlatko rotates his players or if he will play the same Starting XI against a weaker NZL team. If everyone starts and subs, I worry about depth and conditioning especially for the older vets like Pinoe, Becky, and Llyod.

[vivifrage]

LORE, YOU SAY?? Give us them sweet lore headcanons. Not sure if you were seeking a specific prompting but I'm all eyes for your interpretation of the Pale King

PK does have most of my actually wordable headcanons at the moment so PK you shall get! Some may be familiar but I hope I’ve stashed a few deep enough for them to be fresh.

(And many thanks for the ask!)

(Note that my wyrm society stuff gets into some toxic masculinity Fun Times, so expect all the nonsense with that. Sixth bullet point in particular involves implied rape and racial/species supremacy. Not anything PK’s doing, though. There’s also some talk about death and some general body horror.)

Mkay so:

I’ve brought up a couple times in Broken Open my headcanons on wyrm society. I studied society for years I gotta put that somewhere y’know? So like, there’s a huge gender divide, where the males think they’re the actually civilized ones and they say the females are just fuckin’ feral. Intelligent, but feral.

So the males keep kidnapping their sons. PK’s father up and died before he could pull this off, leaving him to be raised - in part - by his mother.

Mama Wyrm, knowing someone was going to come after her baby boy, told him as many stories and did her damndest to introduce him to as many other females as she could without getting him eaten. The few around her were generally amazed by the fact she still had a son. Jealous AF, but still.

All in all, someone finally realizes PK might exist. And they go, and even though this lil wyrm boy thinks he knows better, he’s still charmed by this promise of being out from under his mom’s wing and gets far enough away from the nest that the older male grabs him and drags him the rest of the way away.

He proceeds to bounce between foster fathers. Most of them are older, so not spry enough to be chasing him out of their territory immediately, but he tends to get on their nerves eventually. Home kind of doesn’t exist, so he spends a lot of time in the communal spaces with the reincarnated males. Their preferred pastime is ego tripping.

Their other preferred pastime is talking down about literally everyone who isn’t a male wyrm. They’re fuckin’ awful about “bloodline purity” crap in regards to mortals and other Higher Beings. (The only thing worse than the reincarnated males who brag about never breeding with another species? The ones who whisper-brag behind their backs about doing that exact thing.)

They think they’re teaching PK how to be a proper, tough young male. PK never quite falls for it; he’s always an outsider looking in and going “What the fuck?”

Somewhat older PK!

Hallownest was part of his mom’s territory, before it came into his possession.

He did tend to terrorize other towns and kingdoms. Usually just experimenting with different approaches to see what changed, and how long a civilization’s memory was. Sometimes he didn’t even intend to spook people, he’s just a big fuckoff wyrm. Sometimes a town was his dinner, though.

He partially decided to stick with Hallownest because he’d not messed with them before.

The Radiance was the ruling god there when he realized he was dying and decided to dig in and reincarnate. She didn’t care. She didn’t realize Wyrms didn’t do perma-death like that.

He didn’t die of anything fun, it was just old age catching up to him.

He gave himself a bunch of arms and legs and wings because he’d not had any and he overcompensated a bit.

He didn’t mind dying, really. It was exceedingly uncomfortable, and a weird sensation, forming his own egg in his throat (which started choking off the rest of him, and for extra icky bonus points his guts and stuff started to dissolve and got used in the reformation process). However, he’d lived a lonely life, generally separate from the other males and refusing to go chase after the females.

He’d known that he wouldn’t be able to help any child of his. Either someone would get to his son or his daughter would be stuck in the same cycle of loss. Big part of why he refused to have kids even after rebirth.

Anywho, Radi was Not expecting him to come back. She was a little (a lot) mad about this.

Aaand PK as we know him:

The White Palace is in the Ancient Basin because a) he found the Abyss nearby and wanted to keep an eye on that, and b) there was nobody else there and he is very much a solitary being.

Except when he’s not solitary. He totally fell head over heels in love with the White Lady; when they married, he very literally gave her access to his soul via the Kingsoul. She, in the meantime, used her roots and such to help build the White Palace.

He struggles with expressing his emotions, especially around others, but when it’s just him and WL he’s very open. And also very, very romantic.

He loves to sleep on top of her. He’ll just curl up on her chest and snooze. Also gives him a chance to crawl up and wake her with early-morning kisses.

She’s like, the one person he’ll tolerate touching his wings, and that’s only sometimes. Sometimes he regrets giving himself so many because he hates when anything touches them.

He’s hard to get into courts and the like. He would much rather be left with reports and one-on-one meetings. He gets crabby around too many people and tends to up his glowing because meetings end quicker when everyone has eyestrain and a headache.

Hornet, however, is the one person he’ll turn it down for. Seeing as she was born and raised early on in Deepnest, her eyes were set up for the dark. She comes to the White Palace with Herrah as a wee baby and screams. Even once she’s older and long adjusted to the lighting, he dims himself way down if he knows she’s there.

Speaking of Hornet (and Hollow and Ghost and all the rest), he would be a somewhat better parent if he wasn’t under such bad conditions when he was siring kids. Particularly if he had to be involved from an earlier age. He still has awful coping mechanisms and would need someone around to check that his worst methods and traits don’t get blindly passed down, but he’d be more attentive and openly affectionate.

Part of this is because with Hornet especially, he just got blindsided by broodiness. He was a dangerous opponent if actually forced to fight already. If someone had dared put Hornet in danger, or Hollow before they were big and strong? He’d go straight-up feral. (I’ve got a “what-if” fic where Xero goes after PK when he’s on an outing with Hornet. She gets hurt and the next thing he remembers is standing over Xero’s corpse, having turned into a claws-and-teeth-and-spell-swords whirlwind and bitten his throat out.)

He keeps trying to curl up around his babies because that’s what mom wyrms do. Some of his early memories are being in the nest (which is basically a pit dug in a relatively small den and filled with moss and such) and snuggling up against his mother while she curled around it. He’s too short to pull this off effectively.

Nobody wanted to go in his workshop. It creeped them all out. He was perfectly happy about this.

Bitch loves baths. He’ll run himself ragged in terms of food, sleep, etc. but nothing stands between him and a nice, warm bath. Unlike most bugs he tends to bathe alone. He’ll take forever. He does hate having to clean his wings, though.

Despite them not really moving, when Hollow was but a wee tot and he was trying to teach them how to take a bath on their own, he still managed to get soaking wet every time. This confounds him.

Hornet has bitten him at least once. Possibly injected venom.

Admittedly I could post plenty more, probs. Especially involving him and his kids. But this has gotten

uh

long.

I hope they are interesting! Always happy to talk more about any of these or the way too many others.

[plague-of-nice]

*back at it again for the other meme, ily* 1, 3, & 4 for any Jonahs you want

fren, thank you so much! ILY!! I’ll be skipping to 3 & 4, due to prompt 1 already asked by another person! Yet again a long post bc I have no self-control and insist on rambling about all versions of Jonah-  (this is take 2 of me replying to this ask tho so I promise this is certainly a bit more concise, compared to its former iteration)

If your s/i was originally in canon and had a fanbase, how do you think they’d see your s/i? And how passionate this fanbase would be about them?

Regardless of universe, I like to think Jonah makes for a decent supportive NPC in general, She is... a friendly face with good intentions, willing and eager to brave danger if it means seeing things through.

[Skull/girls] If not a fighter herself, Jonah is a randomly re-occuring NPC in specific story mode campaigns. In her pursuit to draw close to the Skullheart and study it, she follows certain characters in their quest, posing as a typical paparazzi reporter. Hmm... Putting it that way, I see how she could possibly annoying- but then again, I also see her being one of “the dlc characters we could have had”.

[PK/MN] She could honestly pop-up in either BW or SWSH granted that she’s a Unovanite in-universe. Either way, she’s merely an NPC, being an established journalist who has randomized chances of popping up in areas where notable events had just happened. People wouldn’t really find a battle with her notable (or at least I think so), considering she doesn’t have much of a team with her to begin with. I do like thinking about her being in BW, then randomly showing up again for SWSH. She’s just there, wanting to study and report the Dynamax phenomena.

[G/W2] The window of opportunity is right in front of me, you bet she’d probably be yet another supportive character in the Noble human P.S., alongside the Captain and her friend, the character of whom I shall call Sir “Flirtsalot” so it’s censored from this site. I shan’t go into extreme specifics of the lore but hey- there’s an investigation on a possible traitor politician, and who knows? Maybe the Captain called in someone to help the player with it.

I’m sorry Q#3.1... I am h o r r endous with names-

If your f/o and your s/i were a couple in the original canon, would your fanbase ship you instantly? Or only after some bonding?

[SG] Considering her partner is simply a supporting character as well, I’m sure the relationship flies past everyone’s radar unless hints were dropped. Perhaps... it is a scripted phone call while Jonah is being spoken too, and Jonah endearingly speaking to her girlfriend for a brief moment-

[PKMN] I suppose if the technicalities of the game is considered, the player finding out about Jonah’s budding relationship with the “Rock Star” (e y y)  is only possible if they manage to interact with her multiple times across the story campaign. She’s there covering the opening ceremony, she’d be all over the place mid-game, and she’d probably show up exiting the backroom as the player walks in before the championship. I imagine her dialogue would basically hint at the relationship’s development- and dare I hope players find it cute-

[GW2] Is it Free Real Estate? Yes... Almost- Am I bold enough to say that her and the Captain’s relationship basically becomes the B-plot of the main Pers. Story campaign? There will be as much bonding a few story instances could muster- Meaning the player essentially becomes witness to Jonah & Logan’s story of Pining™.

[theweirdqueerwriter]

Seeing Red - A Kelley O’Hara imagine

It had been months since you received the call that would ultimately change your life. You had made the national team, after trying so hard for years, you dream had finally been made reality.

After weeks of training, today was your first game against none other than Canada. You were on the starting eleven, which many fans and reporters complained about, since they’d never seen you play before.

“Hum... hello? (Y/N) are you still with me?” Kelley asks from the other side of your shared room.

“Sorry, what?” You replied, suddenly being brought back to reality.

“Alright, that is enough, what’s going on?” Kelley asks, crossing her arms and sitting on the bed in front of you.

“What do you mean?” You reply, trying to act tough, knowing it’s not working at all on Kelley who, for the last months, you had grown really close to.

“Don’t even try this with me (Y/N), what’s wrong,” she asks and without really knowing why, a tear falls down your cheek, followed by a few more and the next second you are full on crying.

At the sight of that, Kelley gets up and comes to sit on your bed, taking you into her arms, trying to help you calm down with a reassuring hand on your back.

“Hey, it’s okay, whatever it is you can tell me, please talk to me. I’m right here.” Kelley says, now caressing your back, with your face in the crook of her neck and her chin on your head.

This whole thing had affected you way more than you would have liked and thought it would. Slowly but surely, the tears stop flowing and you pull away from her.

“Have you seen the articles? What the fans are saying?” You ask, eyes red and puffy, sniffling a bit.

“(Y/N), please don’t tell me you did this to yourself. Why would you look at those things? Especially before a big game like this,” Kelley asks, now understanding where all of this was coming from.

You look at her, guiltily, unable to answer. You look down, unable to hold her gaze.

“Look, I get it okay, but some people can be really harsh on social media and some fans don’t love when things change a lot and rapidly, so some comments might have been really rude, but you know what?” Kelley asks, looking at you and putting a hand on you chin to rise you face so she can see your eyes.

“What?” You reply, looking into her eyes.

“Now you prove them wrong,” she says, whipping away the tear on your left cheek and placing a piece of loose hair behind your ear.

A bit of a smile forms on you lips. You are feeling better already and Kelley can see it.

“Come over here, weirdo,” Kelley says, pulling you into a tight bone crushing hug.

*cut to game*

The crowd is already on fire and the game hasn’t even started yet. As you walk onto the field and get ready for the national anthems to start playing, you remember the tweets you read right before leaving the locker room. Only tweets from your teammates, encouraging you for your first game. You feel the love from them all over again. You also remember the not so nice tweets you had read that morning from fans of the team and the pain they had brought you, but also the desire to prove them wrong.

The anthems now over, each player takes place onto the field for the game to begin. The hype is real, this game is important, for you and for the team, so you can’t mess this up. The whistle blows and the ball lifts off.

Being on right midfield had pretty much always been your position on the field and that was exactly where you were at the moment.

The ball reaches your feet and you move forward, creating a way through Canadian players and eventually you pass forward to Tobin, who cuts through the defenders and shoots on goal. Labbe, however, catches it. Your first assist will have to wait. Tobin turns and gives you a thumbs up, she liked that pass and wants more.

You can feel the electricity in the stands. Fans from both sides cheering their favorite players on. You move backwards when Janine Beckie moves forward, towards goal, with purpose. You attempt a slide tackle, which you succeed at and steel the ball right from under her feet, passing it back to Kelley who sends it to Sauerbrunn. The crowd cheers louder after that play, which feels like a compliment.

The ball goes back and forth between the two teams for some time, no one really able to finish it and put it at the back of the net on either side of the pitch. It’s at the 43rd minute that your team gets a corner, the first of the match. The whole team lines up and so do you. Rapinoe gets ready to hit the ball. A hand up from Megan tells you the ball is coming and when she hits it, the confusion in front of the goal gives you an opportunity to slip between players and connect with the ball with your head and score an amazing goal. The team goes crazy and so do the fans. Alex jumps into your arms, amazed that you just scored you first goal with the squad on your first game. Megan gives you a big hug and you thank her for the opportunity. You feel someone jumping on your back and just know who it is.

“Yes! That’s what I’m talking about!” Kelley says, holding you from behind. You turn around to face her and see her smile from ear to ear. She takes your face into her hands and kisses your forehead, where you connected with the ball. Tobin hands you the ball with which you just scored your big goal.

“You’re gonna want to keep this one,” she says with a wink.

You thank her and take the ball from her hands hesitantly. You look at it and feel pride in yourself. You look at the crowd and raise the ball up. The crowd cheers louder and as you kiss the ball, they start cheering even louder. You run to the sidelines quickly to give to ball to someone who’ll put it with your stuff and get congratulations from the team on the bench.

The game continues and shortly after, first half is over.

The team regroups in the locker room and Jill gives a speech of motivation to the team and explains the new strategy, without forgetting to mention your first goal.

After, you head back to the field. Kelley is beaming beside you.

“I’m so proud of you (Y/N). That goal was amazing and put us in advance,” she says, still amazed by what you did.

“Thanks Kel, means a lot from you,” You reply, a huge smile on your face.

Kelley looks at you with amazement and shakes her head, rolling her eyes and putting an arms around your shoulders as you walk back out on the field.

You start warming up again before the second half starts. Eventually, you are back in midfield, with the ball at your feet. The second half is a lot trickier. Canada came in with a totally different attitude. They wanted to win and they would do anything for it. That meant being more ferocious and physical. Alex had been fouled twice in the first ten minutes of the second half and the ref didn’t seem to care at all.

Looking up for a second, you see an opening and start running, but get cut off by Chapman, coming full force towards you and placing a foot in front of the ball. your foot gets caught in it, which results in you falling and losing the ball. Kelley protests right away for a foul, but the ball stays in play.

It hurts, but you get back up just as Kelley regains possession of the ball. She passes it midfield to Ertz, who in an attempt to pass forward, gives it back to the opposing team.

Their attack comes quickly, with short passes in the defense line and a great finish by Sinclair which equalizes the game. Within the next ten minutes, Canada managed to foul seven players, obtain only one yellow card, and score a second goal. With now 20 minutes left to go, the team knows they have to act, fast.

After a great pass by Kelley, the ball falls back at your feet and pressing forward, you feel the pressure from the Canadian side. An opening allows you to slip the ball to Alex who finishes on her left foot. She comes running towards you and lifts you up into her arms. The rest of the team comes crashing into the two of you and you feel all the love from you teammates.

The ball goes back into play and with now only a few minutes left, you don’t want this game to end on an equalizer. The clocks starts ticking by as some opportunities come and go. You run up field and receive a great ball from Mewis. In the box now and about to shoot your shot when the ground is taken from under you. You hit the ground, hard, and your ankle feels like its been torn. You hold it, crying, wanting to scream in pain but no sound comes out. The players are still playing and the ball reaches Kelley, who had already been running upfield to come to you aid. She immediately shoots it outside and runs to you.

“(Y/N) are you okay?” She asks, clearly worried and bending down to talk to you.

“God my ankle” is the only thing you can form and she immediately signals for the medical staff to come and help.

She gets up and the ref, who had been standing right beside you signals that a penalty kick was to be taken. Kelley asks for a card to be given and as she says it the ref pulls out a card, aimed at Chapman, who slide tackled you moments prior. It’s a red card, no less. Chapman protests and Kelley thanks the ref for doing something right for once in this game.

The medical team are assessing your injury when Kelley kneels back down next to you.

“It’s gonna be okay (Y/N), you’ll be fine I promise” she says, trying to reassure herself more than you.

“We need to switch you out, you aren’t finishing this game” one of the medics say, to which you try protesting, but seeing the state of you ankle, you agree to being subbed out. They roll you out on a stretcher, a little stream of tears on your face from frustration and pain. The crowd cheers as you leave the field, and Kelley can’t help being worried and scared at the state of your ankle, herself having had ankle injuries.

Alex scores on the PK, and the final whistle blows, the US have won.

While everyone on the field starts cheering and congratulating each other, Kelley can’t find it in herself to be happy in the moment, she’s too worried about you and can’t wait to leave the field and see if you’re alright.

Alex, seeing the worry on Kelley’s face runs up to her and reassures her that you will be alright, but words just aren’t enough at the moment. She needs to see you.

Eventually she leaves the field and when she reaches the locker rooms, you aren’t there.

“Where’s (Y/N)?” She asks Jill, a little bit harsher than she intended.

“She’s getting treatment, she’ll meet us back at the hotel when she’s done” Jill replies.

“Thanks” Kelley replies, already starting to think the worst.

Right now she wishes she could hit Chapman, but she knows nothing like that would help the situation, it wouldn’t even make her feel better.

The bus ride back to the hotel is filled with chants from the team and overall happiness, except from Kelley, who prefers to stay quiet and look out the window. Her thoughts are going wild and Alex notices. She slips through the people and sits down next to Kelley.

“The bus isn’t going to the hotel right away” Alex says, anticipating Kelley’s reaction.

As expected, Kelley turns her focus to Alex with wide eyes.

“What? Why? Where are we going ?” She says, a slight anger in her voice.

“The team wanted to go out for drinks, it’s on Jill and the bus is just dropping us off there” Alex explains, “but before you say anything, I called you an Uber, it’ll pick you up at the bar when we get there” Alex adds, and sees a slight relief on Kelley’s face.

“Thank you Alex,but why did you-“ Kelley starts, but is cut off by Alex.

“Oh please Kel, like I wouldn’t notice how you feel about this girl” Alex starts “I’ve never seen you act that way about a player getting hurt ever before.” Alex states and Kelley’s eyes widen.

“Is it that obvious?” She asks, her cheeks heating up a bit and a slight redness appearing.

“I mean, you’re my best friend so of course I’d notice, not sure if anyone else noticed” Alex replies, a grin on her face.

“God... I just hope she’s okay... I can’t imagine her not being able to play for the World Cup. She would be devastated” Kelley states, looking back out the window.

To that, Alex simply leans on her shoulder, resting her head on it, reassuringly.

*cut to Kelley getting off the Uber*

Kelley heads for the doors of the hotel after her Uber ride and makes a mental note to thank Alex once again for calling one from the bus.

Walking the halls, Kelley can’t help but feel some type of ache in her stomach, as nervousness settles in. She finally reaches the door to your shared room and opens it quietly.

Once she’s in, she can see the lamp on your bedside table still lit and you on the bed, quietly sobbing with your ankle all taped up. She cautiously approaches you and rounds your bed so she is sitting on hers, looking at you.

You hadn’t realized she had came in and jumped when you opened your eyes.

“God Kelley, didn’t know you were back” you say, turning so you’re laying on your back, quickly whipping your face, attempting to hide the fact that you were just crying.

“Sorry, I didn’t wanna scare you” Kelley replies, a soft but worried expression on her face.

You both sit there, in the comfortable silence for a few seconds.

“Are you okay?” Kelley tries, carefully.

“They said I won’t be able to play for a few weeks, but I should recover” You reply, earning a confused look from the brunette.

Another silence.

“Did we win?” You ask, your voice cracking a bit and it dawns on Kelley why you had been crying.

“Hey, you don’t have to be disappointed by your performance today (Y/N), you did amazing and what happened was in no way your fault” Kelley says, coming over and sitting on your bed and you sit up. She take you hand in hers, providing comfort.

“We did win today, Alex scored on the PK” Kelley says, and you breathe in relief, a tear falling down your cheek.

Kelley’s face changes. In the moment, she looks really worried.

“God I was so worried” she says, hugging you. You rested you face in the crook of her neck and she lets out a breath of relief.

The hug is comfortable and holds so much meaning. You feel your heart rate picking up. You would stay like this forever if you could. Kelley pulls always, slowly, but staying close, looking into your eyes. She leans in, carefully, and places a kiss on your forehead. Her lips linger and your heart goes crazy at the contact. It no longer feels like comfort. It feels like so much more than that. She pulls away, but you don’t let much time pass before pulling her in for a kiss. It surprises you, the newfound confidence that you seem to have around her. It surprises her too, because she didn’t think her feelings were reciprocated. The kiss is sweet and meaningful, and you let yourself melt into it, into her. Her soft hands on you face, yours on her hips. After a few minutes, you both pull away. One of her hands is still caressing your cheek.

She’s about to say something, but you cut her off before she has a chance too.

“We’ll talk about this tomorrow. It’s late and I’m tired and I think the meds are kicking in, I’m starting to feel fuzzy” You say and she lets go of your face.

“Okay” she says before standing up.

“Wait” you say, taking her arm in you hand “can you just lay with me?” You ask and her face softens even more. You didn’t even know that was possible.

“Sure” she says and rounds the bed before climbing behind you. She’s careful, not wanting to hurt your foot while getting in. She hugs you from behind, putting her head in your necks and you turn off the light by your side.

Kelley exhales in you ear, sending shivers down your spine. You feel safe in her arms. Before drifting off to sleep, you her her muffled voice in your ear say “don’t ever scare me like that again, weirdo”.

[descendantofthesparrow]

Deaf! Harry Hook x Reader - first voice

Key:

h/c- hair color

e/c- eye color

s/c- skin color

y/n- your name

“talking”

“signing”

“talking while signing”

‘thought’

“lip reading”

---narrator pov---

ever since he was little, Harry had been unable to Hear the world around him, he could see, taste, smell, and touch just fine. but he couldn't hear...you see Harry was deaf, now he wasn't born deaf, no no no, an accident happened.

now when Harry was 7, he was on the jolly roger when a rival pirate crew ambushed his father's crew and took Harry hostage, and when the one holding him got tackled, Harry got sent to the floor and his head hit the floor and caused something connected to his ears in his brain to be disconnected, he blacked out and when he awoke, his sisters and uncle Smee standing over him, seemingly talking but...they weren't? he couldn't hear anything.

as he stared at them like they were crazy, Smee figured something out and tested it by secretly snapping his fingers directly next to Harry's ear, and...nothing. no reaction, saddened by the poor boy's fate, he grabbed a writing device and wrote

“Harrison my boy, I’m so sorry, but you’re deaf now.”

Harry, tried to tell him off, but when he spoke, he couldn't hear himself, he could feel the rumble of his voice, but...no voice. Harry couldn't believe it, he jumped out of bed and ran off, needing to get away from everything for a moment. so he ran, ran past the usually noisy gaston fight bar. nothing. ran past the screeching witches. nothing.

nothing

nothing

nothing!

collapsing on the beach he felt something burning at the back of his eyes, flooding over and streaking down his face. pressing his hand to his face he felt wetness

'tears, of course'

Harry let them run, he was allowed to, he couldn't hear any more for fuck's sake he could burn down a village if he wanted to.

so he cried, and cried, and cried.

Smee found him three hours later, curled up asleep on the beach, eyes red and puffy, tears long dried up on his cheeks. he picked him up and took him back to the ship.

---

Uma found out sooner than later and when she did she refused to leave his side for a week before her mother pulled her away, screaming her head off.

fortunately, Mal didn't find out, along with almost all the Isle, the only people who knew Harry was deaf were his dad, sisters, uncle Smee, Gil, Uma, and Yen Sid.

Now Yen Sid found out Harry was Deaf when Harry came to class, and whenever he called on Harry, he wouldn't respond till Uma shoved him and showed him a piece of paper written down with what he was asking on it. Harry also seemed to be more sluggish in his talking, as if he couldn't hear what he was trying to say, so he confronted Harry, and after Harry confirmed it, Yen decided he would teach Harry ASL, Auradon Sign Language. along with teaching Uma as well, who taught it to Gil.

over the years Harry had mastered ASL and lip reading. Yen Sid had also forced Harry to undergo speech therapy, knowing Harry would need to keep a reputation and for that, he would need to talk so Harry could talk just as he would if he could hear, and when he was around his family or friends that knew, he would simultaneously sign. it was just easier. he also learned a lot of ASL swear words.

so now the backstory is set, let us go on to the story.

----

Harry sat in the chip shop watching the entrance carefully, Uma had yet to return and he was getting anxious, tapping his hands on the table. The crew around him also being anxious, Gil soon took noticed and tapped Harry on the shoulder, Harry jumped and turned to Gil, who started to move his hands around, a worried look on his face.

“Hey, are you okay? you’re really jumpy”

Harry sighed and pressed his pinkie and ring fingers into his palm and pointed his index and middle finger out and pressed them together with his thumb, opening and closing them. “no” Gil made a face and signed “why?”

“Uma, I don't know where she is and im getting worried” Gil made an “oh” shape and nodded signing “don't worry Harry its Uma, we have nothing to worry about” Harry furrowed his brows but nodded pressing his fingers to his chin and extended his hand to Gil, a soft smile on his face.

“thank you”

all of a sudden bonny tapped the table five times causing vibrations in the table, alerting Harry. harry and the crew straitened and looked to the entrance, Harry let out a harsh breath, Auradon messengers. the one in the front walked forward and handed Him and Gil a scroll, both glanced at each other

‘His Royal Majesty, King Ben of Auradon, and his counselor Ms.Evie of the Isle hereby request the pleasure of your company, Harry Hook, for the current academic year at Auradon Prep. please notify his Majesty’s couriers of your response of his request.

I should have done this sooner, I'm sorry, please come.

King Ben.

PS. we are still looking for Uma, if she is found she will also be given an invitation, I promise.’

Harry bit his lip and glanced over at Gils which entailed the same words with a few exceptions. Harry looked over to the couriers and carefully spoke as not to reveal his disability.

“we accept”

---

Harry made a face at Gil as he stuffed his face with the limo sweets, Gil turned to him and raised his brow

“what?” Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed a cherry lollipop. ripping it open and popping it in his mouth he looked outside the car window, pausing when the cherry syrup hit his tastebuds, feeling his throat rumble, he realized he probably just moaned at the taste, turning he saw Gil laughing, getting control of himself Gil signed to Harry

“dude, did it taste THAT good?”

all Harry did was give the bird, causing Gil to double over laughing again.

soon they arrived at the school and the boys looked at each other and Gil signed “don't worry, I’ll be right here if anybody talks to fast ill fill you in later” Harry pressed his fingers to his chin and extended his hand outward to Gil, 

“thank you” Gil nodded and said “you’re welcome Harry”

the two clambered out of the limo and saw, Ben, Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay, a band (which Harry couldn't Hear, one of the few times Harry was glad he was deaf), and Fairy Godmother. FG opened her mouth and began her speech but she was talking at a speed Harry couldn't lip read so he just looked around when someone caught his eye, a (h/c) (s/c) girl was walking into the dorm building and she turned and her (e/c) eyes caught his and she gave a shy smile and waved before continuing her way into the building.

‘well,’ Harry thought following Ben and Mal lead the way for a tour, ‘shes interesting’

...

‘i wonder what her name is’

---

over the next two months, Harry made sure no one would be able to deduce the fact that he was deaf, though many Auradonians made that hard sometimes, like facing away from him as they talked preventing him from lip reading, he did notice that there were some other deaf people here, who also used ASL, Gil tried to convince him to introduce himself to them but he refused, not sure that they wouldn't tell FG and Ben. so he was doing...okay, except there was that one girl that he saw on his first day here, Gil had met her in home ec class and had said that her name was (y/n) and was really nice and he should get to know her, Gil also said that he should tell Ben and FG about the deaf situation, they would understand. 

all Harry said was “bullshit”...at least to the Ben and FG thing, as for the (y/n) thing....goddammit fine he’d get to know her.

only thing was..when he met her in the place Gil set up,...she talked yeah...but she also signed. Harry blanched and hurriedly asked her how she knew he was deaf. she signed/said

“well, whenever someone tries to talk to you, and they are behind you, you don't respond till either someone alerts you or they touch you. and FG also brought it up with me, as im one of the only really fluent ASL speakers on campus, soooo yeah”

Harry simply stared at her until he realized that...Fairy godmother knew

“what FG knows!?”

“well, not really, she has a hunch, she wanted me or Gil to tell her but both of us think you should be the one to tell her, it is your disability”

well, it kinda made sense, FG had always been enunciating her words, she might have done that so Harry could read her lips.

he felt (y/n) tug his jacket, looking up at her he saw her smile and she pointed at him, pointed at herself, and clasp her hands together in a motion that Harry had only seen Yen Sid do while teaching him ASL.

“you, me, friends?”

Harry gaped at her, before nodding slowly, his face heating up. she smiled brightly, closing her eyes and laughing. and in just that motion, Harry realized how adorable this girl was.

‘godammit, I’m not trained to deal with this much adorableness’

and from that day forward, (y/n) joined their duo, making it a trio once more, Harry finally noticing that she was in all of their classes and Gil had forced her to move her seat to the one directly next to Harry. so by forced association and newfound friendship, he and (y/n) were getting to know each other. and slowly...Harry was falling for the (h/c), (e/c) cutie/beauty.

first, he was amused.-

he liked to tease her, and when he did, she puffed her cheeks and he liked to squeeze them and make the air pop out. and when he visits her in cooking class she’d have whatever she was cooking/baking with all over her apron and face, and she'd toss some him, many a time creating a food fight. and like a little evil mastermind, used his deafness to her advantage (it was one of the few times he didn't mind someone doing that), recruiting Gil and hounding him with chocolate and flour.

then, he was impressed-

he had attended a viewing of R.O.A.R tryouts, and there was a particular fighter that had swamped all the others with ease, flipping, pk rolling, clearly an expert in both defense and offense, easily beating Jay, the dick head chad, and the actually cool chick Lonnie. and when the fighter revealed themselves, Harry almost tripped. (y/n), it was (y/n). she saw him in the upstairs viewpoint, grinned and gave him a thumbs up, Harry giving one in return.

...

yeah, she got in. goddamnit, she’s awesome.

finally, he was smitten.-

he fell, oh geez he fell hard, he’d fallen for her rhythmic tapping of her fingers on his wrist, he’d fallen for the way she took his hand and pressed it to her throat/chest to feel her voice as she sang her favorite songs, he’d fallen for the way she jumped excitedly as she presented a dessert she’d thought he’d like after working on it for hours. how’d she write notes for classes of a teacher who never spoke to the class facing forward for him, how’d she naturally speak and sign at the same time so Harry could understand her, how’d she stay up late with him and Gil and help them understand remedial goodness and math.

just...she had become a lighthouse, in the storm of his life, she had even understood his devotion to Uma, even volunteering to go help look for her.

one day he realized, if he would possibly hear again, her voice would be the first voice he’d want to hear.

--the end!!...?--

I’m going to be doing two endings to this,

-the slight angst with fluff ending where Harry regains his hearing in a similar way that he lost it, hitting his head-

-the fluffiest ending where FG tells Harry about hearing aids and Harry goes for it and he hears for the first time in 10-11 years-

note: there will be crying in both endings, not telling you who cries.

Links are making this story not show up in tumblr search bar, so if fluff ending and angst ending are wanted to be read go to my page and type in first voice.

[bluerene]

RobStar Week #3 - Lost

Today’s addition to RobStar week has been brought to you by: mad midnight-typing and prayers that my internet connection is strong enough to publish this before midnight. Also, ice cold water, without which I surely would be a puddle of melty goo because of this goddamn PK vacation heat.

Enjoy, lovelies!

| wayne manor | stardust | lost |

Lost

The game was set. The rules had been established. The consequences agreed upon.

All that was left were the moves to be made.

Robin had this challenge in the bag.

“You want to go on a vacation that badly, Beast Boy?” He said with exasperation, eyeing the impressive stack of brochures the changeling had collected and left for him to consider, “wasn’t Tokyo a vacation?”

“Tokyo was ninety percent work, dude, and you know it! Come on, let’s go somewhere fun, it’s been ages since anything big happened here.” Beast Boy pleaded, flopping down on the couch.

Robin crossed his arms.

“What do the rest of you think?”

Raven shrugged, her attention focused on the heavy mystery novel in her hands.

“Whatever the rest of you want.”

Cyborg scratched the back of his neck, leaning back in his seat, “I think it would be good. BB’s right, it’s been a while since we took a break, and even longer since anythin’ struck in Jump.”

“Okay,” Robin said slowly, turning to his girlfriend, “Star?”

Starfire hesitated, unwilling to meet his gaze.

“Truthfully,” she said, “I do not think it is a bad idea for us to do the taking of a break, even if it only brief. I do not wish to leave our home indefensible again, but I believe a vacation could be great fun.”

Robin considered this, narrowing his eyes.

“Are the three of you in on this together?” He asked, glaring at Beast Boy.

“No way! We’re just the smartest ones in the room, man,” the younger boy shot back.

Robin sighed, “I don’t think it’s a good idea. We can’t predict what may happen in the time that we’re gone. Not worth the risk.”

“Then how about this -” Beast Boy said quickly, leaping to his feet, “we’ll play you for the vacation! One big challenge, winner take all.”

Starfire didn’t miss the way her boyfriend froze, a sinister smile curving on his lips. His weakness for competitions was hardly a secret in the Tower.

“I’m listening.”

“It’s easy. We pick an activity, we play the activity, and if you win we’ll never bother you about going on a vacation again.”

“I love the sound of that.”

“But,” Beast Boy added, “if we win, the Titans get to go on some kind of fun trip every year from now on.”

Robin couldn’t resist a harmless challenge like that, especially when, win or lose, the outcome wouldn’t be terrible.

“One last question, Beast Boy. Who’s my competition?”

Beast Boy smirked and for a moment, Robin wondered if he had made a terrible mistake.

“Whoever has the best chance of beating you.”

Robin agreed to three one-on-one sparring matches in the gym about a week later. It would be easy, he supposed, and maybe embarrassingly so. Beast Boy had never won in a fight against him. Cyborg’s strength was always undercut by Robin’s agility. And Starfire was full of weak spots he could easily poke and prod until he had her giggling on the floor.

To his surprise, however, she was the one who was waiting for him when he arrived at the designated time. Her long, cherry-colored hair had been thrown in a high ponytail, and her gorget was gone, revealing an achingly smooth, tanned neck that disappeared into a white karate gi.

“So you’re my competition today?”

She smiled, her eyes twinkling with the promise of a secret. What wasn’t she telling him?

“It would seem so, Robin.”

“And the others?” He asked, noting their absence in the room.

Starfire’s smile widened.

“I believe all three of them have journeyed to the mall for the afternoon. I trust you will have no trouble admitting your defeat when they return.”

Robin raised an eyebrow, an odd wave of heat flaring in his belly.

“That’s cute, Star. Whenever you’re ready to do this, we can do this. Do you have any ground rules for this match?”

“As a matter of fact, we do,” she said airily, swallowing a giggle when she saw the bewildered look on his face, “the first condition is that we cannot use powers or weaponry. The victor is the opponent who secures at least two of three matches. Victory is signaled by either a verbal confirmation to yield or ten seconds on the mat. Any questions?”

Yes, he wanted to say, what did you do with my girlfriend?

“Those are fair terms,” Robin agreed, “I don’t think I have any of my own. But you better not go easy on me, Star. No holding back.”

“Oh, Robin,” Starfire replied, a dazzling smile gracing her lips once again, “when have I ever done that?”

The game was set. The rules had been established. The consequences agreed upon.

They stood six feet across from each other and bowed, sinking into their stances. And at the count of three, they began.

He had never expected Starfire to strike like lightning.

Maybe he had been distracted by the glimmer in her eyes or the way her hair whipped behind her in a crimson streak. Maybe he’s been a little too captivated by the strangely sexy growl she’d emitted when she had pounced forward.

But there, with his back pressed against the mat, and her legs bracketing his hips, he could only muster up enough brain power to utter a quiet ‘whoa’ in amazement.

“Yield for me,” she demanded, her eyes flaring.

“I yield,” he replied automatically.

The look of determination on her face gave way to utter joy as she giggled and climbed off of him, extending a hand to help him up.

“That was not nearly as difficult as I expected it to be,” she mused, dancing away from him.

Robin, having realized he had been tricked, only glared at the Tamaranian princess.

He would not lose their second fight.

Once again, they stood six feet across from each other and bowed, sinking into their stances. Robin focused on the position of her hands. He had a hunch she would knock her body into his and cage him on the ground again. She was quick. He needed to be quicker.

At the count of three, they began.

As he suspected, she leaped forward, bracing her shoulder in an effort to connect it with his sternum. He side-stepped her motions expertly, grinning when she righted herself and landed, albeit clumsily, on both feet. She snarled and kicked her foot outwards in an attempt to trip him up. He retaliated by pinning her body against the wall and throwing a swift jab to her side.

“Yield, Starfire,” he commanded, pinning her wrists to her side. She glowered at him, clearly unhappy with the defeat.

“Starfire,” he pressed. 

“I yield,” she grumbled, “but I will not lose a second time.”

“I don’t plan to either, beautiful.”

She didn’t respond to that, but he couldn’t help enjoying the soft flush that crept up her neck when she turned away.

Six feet across from each other, with fresh, blazing determination - Robin was ready. Starfire was ready. She had a trick up her sleeve. A dirty, terribly evil trip. Beast Boy had suggested it and she hadn’t planned on utilizing it, but now the temptation was far too great.

At the count of three, she stayed still, waiting for him to make the first move. They mirrored other’s motions, moving intently, slowly in a circle. Their actions were precise and sharp. She wondered if he would let her get close enough to make a move. 

He threw the first punch, a gentle tap on her shoulder. A slight brush up against her back. 

He was toying with her, playing a game. He was making this round last a little longer.

It infuriated her to no end. 

Robin came close again, throwing another jab to her side. This time, she kicked her leg out and hooked it behind his knee, forcing him to stumble back and fall to the floor. Her hands came behind his neck, and suddenly, her mouth was on his. 

And he melted into her kiss immediately, instinctively, as if he had no other choice but to kiss her back with as much passion as possible. His fingers grabbed at her hair, removing the elastic that secured her ponytail. Her ruby colored locks tickled his nose. 

What were they doing again?

With a loud smack, Starfire broke away, an apologetic look in her eyes.

“You have been pinned for over ten seconds, Robin,” she said quietly, “which means -”

Robin’s eyes widened. 

“No fucking way.”

“You have lost this challenge.” Starfire finished, unable to stifle the laughter that bubbled up in her throat.

“You cheater! You planned this whole thing, didn’t you!” He cried out, rolling them over, and running his fingers along her ribcage, “whatever happened to Tamaranian honor, Star?”

She squealed with laughter, kicking her legs in the air as he continued to torment her mercilessly.

“All - is - fair - in - the - love - and - war - Robin, please!” she gasped out, tears pooling in her eyes. 

“Well, a deal is a deal,” he relented, pausing his tickling, “so you’ve won the vacation challenge. But you can tell Beast Boy that’s the last time I let him challenge me to anything. Especially when he couldn’t bother to show up.”

“That was my suggestion, actually,” Starfire said meekly, a heavy blush filling her cheeks, “I did not wish for any witnesses to be in the room if I needed to...take things a step further.”

Robin stared at her in amazement before bursting into laughter and clambering off of her.

“God, you are something else entirely, Star,” he said fondly,.

She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and smiled.

“Then, you are not upset that you lost?”

“I’d hardly call it a loss,” he joked, raising a hand to cup her cheek, “but no. I don’t mind losing to you in the slightest.”

Starfire beamed and leaned in to kiss him, her fingers gripping the white V of his gi. 

“You know,” she said thoughtfully, “we could continue to spar for a while longer if you would like. We have at least another hour before we could possibly be interrupted.”

“Are you proposing a rematch of sorts, Star?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

Robin grinned.

“I’ve never been one to turn down a challenge.”