#he still struggles with the quirks and has to learn on the fly so it's not like he's an expert who skipped training or anything

[epickiya722]

You know, you really gotta appreciate how everyone efforts to bring AFO down, even if they didn't succeed themselves, contributed to actually making him defeatable. Endeavor actually managing to kill for the first time started it by forcing AFO to use rewind. Then Tokoyami and everyone else's onslaught on him make regress to a young enough state where his mental faculties could be more easily exploited by All Might. Heck go back a bit more and even thought she died for it Start and Stripe outsmarting him with her quirk brought them all enough time and weakened him enough to make all of this even possible in the first place. Even if they were defeated, everyone contributions will bring their victory.

BNHA's new theme song needs to be 🎶WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER🎶

Let's be real here, AFO is a tough opponent and then on top of that, there's the other villains that they're fighting. It definitely going to take team effort and power-ups to win this war.

Deku having multiple quirks? THAT IS JUST HAVING EXTRA TOOLS TO FIGHT THE GUYS WHO HAVE MORE POWERS!!

Well, duh, he's gonna need multiple quirks (that he still struggles with, BTW, he's not an expert so that's just extra on his plate)! Look at the villains!! LOOK!!

[serxinns]

Hi so I have another yandere platonic class 1-a request again if that’s okay

So if Izuku has a cousin(female reader) who has pica (it’s a eating disorder which a person eats things not usually considered food) and she would eat easer shavings because her mother would just ignored her when she was a child and when she was in middle school she ran away to Izuku’s house but never really told anyone about what was happening. So here’s a scenario of Izuku and some of class 1-a walks into a her room and sees her eating some eraser shavings

How would they react? ((I hope this is okay)

(THE FACT THAT I HAVE PICA AS WELL AHHHHH THIS IS GONNA BE SO GOOD )

• You had this habit for as long as you remember, you always ate things that weren't food or even edible, the main reason is that your mother was always neglectful to bringing in men and just told you to go in your room and play with your toys without any food, at times you even had to sneak out the house and go to your aunty Inko house with your cousin izuku, Inko knew about your situation and took care of you like you were her child

• "Izuku dear your cousin is here!" Inko's mom called not even 3 seconds you heard little footsteps stomping and excited giggling getting louder "Y/N Y/N! YOU'RE HERE" Izuku ran up and tackled you with a hug, 2 of you were on the ground and started giggling "I bought my super cool Remote control robot with me we can pretend this is the villain and we're the heroes!" The green boy was amazed at the idea and the two of you ran off while Inko giggled to herself

•The 1st person to notice that you had pica was your auntie Inko she noticed how you were always chewing on things like scissors, dirt, or even paper at 1st she thought it was because you were just a child with a big appetite but even when you were full you still went back to this behavior so when she took you to the quirk doctor about this behavior after a few test you were diagnosed with pica so then on after your mother abandoned you with one of the playboys she started taking care of you and izuku

• one-day Bakugo was picking on you for this calling you a dirt eater and picking up worms "Come on Sissy eat it you like eating dirt so much eat it" mocking you to eat them but you used his quirk to make him fly back and the two of you gone at it punching, pulling, biting while the other kids were cheering on but izuku was worried so he tried to run over but was too scared to get hurt as well so he got into and Mitsuki, Both women ran over and broke you two apart while into was checking on ur bruises and scratches mitsuki grabbed katsuki and put him on his him while he struggled and kicked and yelled insults "Inko I am so so so sorry for my son's horrible behavior ill make sure he learns a lesson" Mitsuki bowed her head in front of inko "I'm sorry too ill make sure ill talk with this young lady here the 2 of you had a stern talk about it but you got some ice cream and izuku kiss your boo-boos and helped with putting on all might banaids

Years passed and now you were in Ua your cousin was more protective than you ever, since that incident he swore to always protect you and never leave you behind he worked extra hard when all might training him not only to become a number one hero but to protect you and to be heroes together! Whenever someone looked at you funny he gives them a deadly glare and they'll back off immediately you were there when he was down and he was gonna repay you back he always made you hold hands or be by you to remind you that he should be your only friend

While you were talking to your cousin while chewing on an eraser and your cousin ranting about all might and his notebook going to your next period. A short punk -haired girl stopped in front of the two of you she smiled at you while the both of you looked confused and Izuku looked tab annoyed "Uhh who are you-" "Hello! I'm Mina! Mina Ashido Are you two twins!?" She said observing you two looking at each other "Actually we're cousins!"

"Oh, I'm sorry! Mina sheepishly said while rubbing the back of her head "It's fine we get that a lot! It's normal for us plus we act like brother and sister!" You playfully hit Izuku in the shoulders while he playfully glared at you "Anyways! Me and my friends were talking alot about you and we wanted to invite you to hang out with us!" You were flattered and blushed at her comment "uh yeah I can join! Is that's ok izuku" Izuku wanted to protest but with the look of excitement on your face he didn't want you to hate him and see him as a bad brother cousin so he mentally rolled his eyes and said "yea plus it can be like a girls day for you!"

Time skip to lunch

• the two of you were walking into class when a short brown head girl waved her hand signaling you both to join her you both walked over and sat down "Hey izuku and you must be?" "Y/n, y/n Midoriya!" You introduce yourself making the girl brighten up "Ah how nice! You look so adorable!" You blushed embarrassingly at that comment "Ah stop it you're making me blush! You were soon introduced to iida and Tsuyu then Todoroki and all started chatting happily

•you were soon Introduce with kirishima, tokoyami, a silly goofball denki, Sero, hakagure, Aoyama and more and started to make a bond with them even amends with bakugo (kinda)

•you mostly hang out with the dekusquad but the bakusquad would always try to invite you in any way they can which starts a war

•the girls would always have slumber parties or tea parties and if you weren't interested in those chaotic board games where you mostly won

•the boys would try and team up with each other like Bakugo and Kirishima Denki and Sero would invite you to laser tag fighting over who would win the most points for you to get a prize or Izuku, shoto and iida would take you out on to the mall and spoil you

• one-day Tokoyami was looking for you because you promised you would read his poems so when he went into your room he saw you chewing on some paper you explained why you have this habit and you had it when you were 4 which he completely understood heck dark shadow started to eat paper (like cookie monster eating s cookie) you couldn't stop laughing when tokoyami tried to take the paper out his mouth

•Koda would watch you making sure you won't try to eat the grass and try to make you eat delicious berries and edible plants

•Sato pack some pastries for you whenever you felt like wanting to chew on something not edible

•bakugo would just smack whenever your chewing on telling you that's disgusting while giving you your favorite snackyou liked as kids saying "chew this shit instead of erasers dumbass!"

•Izuku would pack gum for you in case you fly in the urge to want to chew on your eraser if he runs out he lets you chew on his pencils or ask Aoyama to give you some cheese

•you and kiri literally are twins chewing your erasers is your favorite habit

•Momo would gently let you know how ite unhealthy to chew on thing and blah blah blah while your just over here chewing off your finger nail which she also has to stop you

• Ochaco will let you try and stop yourself from chewing on your hair desperately giving you one-dollar snacks to eat

It didn't matter how werid you thought you were since you will always be their "werid" little sis and if any judge you otherwise they'll be meeting with 18 angry siblings and one cousin ready to break some bones instead of his

[cjir]

CLASS1A HEADCANONS

(spoiler warning for S7/the manga! Hc's are in seating order. Post is long lol)

Aoyama

Didn't even want to be a hero once he got his quirk. it was just something he mentioned like 3 times when he was 5.

Does not like his parents at all

Comfort eater. He is stressed out of his mind

Considers midoriya his best friend

Grew up extremely pampered

Will just make up stories from when he lived in france

"really?? Did that happen??" "No."

Mina

Adopted, parents passed a few years ago after a building collapsed

The day she learns about aroace identities is the day she heals

She didn't know anything about kirishima besides his name by the time they started ua so she hunted down his old friends to learn about him. Unsurprisingly they didn't know all that much

She's the one who kills/removes the bugs from the dorms

Shes relatively popular on social media

Asui

Has firmly decided against kids. She loves her siblings but god no she is NEVER raising a child again

Enjoys baking, she does it with Sato often

Swears the most in 1a

Horrible posture, Iida is constantly trying to fix it

Iida

Fear of failure

Had like. No childhood. Tensei tried but he just wouldn't watch many movies unless he could be tricked into believing it would help his future

Very anxious kid

He genuinely really wants to connect and relate to his classmates but he struggles with it. Part of him wishes he could've just had normal teenage experiences

Terrible at making jokes. He tries so hard but they never land. He got todoroki and no one else to laugh once and he is still reeling from it

Ochako

Post-war she thinks about Toga like. Every day. She never stops grieving that girl

She becomes determined to reach out and save as many people as humanly possible

Later in life she ends up fostering kids with “difficult” and “villainous” quirks and encourages them to pursue their dreams

She adores animals. Her favourite place growing up was the pet store

She feels a bit guilty about having to move to the dorms. She felt obligated to help out her parents around the house

Gym rat. All about proteins and gains. She is determined to get a six pack at some point. Though she does struggle to gain muscle.

Ojiro

Throws the hardest punches. He has broken several of his classmates' noses accidentally

Has to constantly hear about hagakure's ex’s and he hates all of them

Enjoys embroidery and knitting. Eventually learns to make clothes. He gives them as gifts and sells some for extra money

Lots of awards from tournaments

He was raised in a cult but hasn't exactly realised yet, he will talk about the most insane things and act like theyre regular parts of growing up. He lives with his grandparents now

Eventually finds out he is really good with throwing knives

insanely oblivious. Sex jokes fly right over his head (they have to be explained to him) and he can never tell when he's being hit on

Denki

His mum is a pro hero and his dad is in jail. They both love him dearly, despite the fact that he was a complete accident

Was home alone very often. His mum travels a lot for work. He can have friends stay over for weeks at a time without her ever finding out

His dad was the one who taught him how to hotwire cars

Out of everyone in 1a, he has the most dating experience. He dated like half his middle school class and they all ended on good terms. Was a lot of people's gay awakening

The lightning bolt is natural, shockingly enough. No one believes him until he pulls out pictures from when he was a baby

He was born with a full head of hair actually

Sometimes helium balloons will just float at him

Kirishima

Absolutely tank, can take anything

This also applies to food. He can eat inedible things and be completely fine.

Was huge into DND in middle school. Wants to set up a game for 1a but has only convinced tokoyami and midoriya so far

Was really disappointed when his quirk manifested

Koda

Insomnia

He was bullied throughout middle school and sometimes still expects his classmates to be cruel to him

Lived with his mother and grandma. His father died when he was young

He was ecstatic when his quirk manifested. He had several pets as a kid and would try and communicate with them

Once unintentionally managed to get wolves to help him fight in a 1v1 (he was fighting sero who damn near passed out from fear)

Allergic to cat hair but he refuses to let that stop him

Present mic will not look at him the same after the bug incident

Sato

Stress bakes like crazy. Sometimes all of 1a will wake up to a cupcake outside their door that he made at like 4am

He is the only one who likes his hero costume, everyone else thinks it's lame

Has 4 siblings. He's dead in the middle age wise

His family is dramatic as hell. They get into the pettiest arguments ever and then don't talk for a month. He ended up having to play peacekeeper pretty frequently

Moving to the dorms was a well needed break for him

His hair is dyed. He's naturally ginger. He has not told a soul

Shoji

Covered head to toe in scars. Denki made the mistake of asking about it once, and the boys were greeted with the most horrifying story they had ever heard while changing into their hero costumes

Has been in mandatory therapy for years

He really enjoys being the tallest. He will sometimes hold things over his head just to tease tokoyami

When his quirk manifested he was scared shitless

Lived in an orphanage and is currently in custody of UA

His parents go on to have more kids after him and he never learns about them. He did always want siblings

Jirou

Has special little ear muffs for her jack's.

Her hair was done in the bathroom at 3am the day of the entrance exam

The heartbeat in her hair is only visible in the light

While she's great at picking up instruments, she cannot draw to save her life. It's like the only thing kaminari is better than her at

Sero

His hair grows like that naturally. He figures his ends are supposed to look like tape dispenser teeth as some joke from the universe. Got tired of trying to fix it and now just lets it grow out

He has been using his quirk to do parkour since he was 9. He used to terrify his parents with the stunts he would pull

He has an older sister in collage

Tokoyami

Extremely religious parents. They got him an exorcism once, just to be sure.

Him + dark shadow fight like siblings

He'd get really quiet when he was upset while ds would start shrieking

Becoming a hero was dark shadows idea

He speaks like that cuz he read gothic poetry he found around the house as a kid

He is a complete mutation. No one in his family has a quirk even remotely similar to dark shadow or has a bird head

Dark shadow used to be way more abstract but took the bird form more permanently after tokoyami got more of a handle on it.

Tokoyami is on record of having an extremely unstable quirk.

He always felt the need to suppress his emotions to control his quirk but it backfired spectacularly. He's healthier about it now

Also, dark shadow is fully sentient. A bit behind developmentally, and struggles to comprehend things, but shockingly sentient

He has a really hard time putting on weight. Like all his bones are visible

Todoroki

allergic to onions. He eats them anyways

He dispises his father with his whole chest sometimes but he also wants to give him a chance because he's his father, yk?

He bases a lot of his opinions on what he thinks he is supposed to feel. Like he doesn't mind pineapple on pizza but since everyone else online thinks it's the worst thing ever I guess he does too¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

He's not completely blind in his left eye, but his vision is cloudy and really poor

Hagakure

Desperately wants to find “the one”. She used to date whoever she could just to try and find the love of her life. It lead to a lot of dumb drama and bad middle school relationships

She's great at makeup, but doesn't wear it outside of her room because it used to freak people out

While she gets upset about her quirk sometimes, she does love being able to sneak around unseen

Whenever someone's door opens they instinctively tell Hagakure to get out, even if it was just the wind

Comes from a relatively wealthy family

She needs glasses but won't wear them

Bakugo

he thinks his friends are the funniest people on earth but he will DIE before he ever tells them that or actually laughs at their jokes

Legitimately bit Monoma once and he was so confused

Used to model for his parents' businesses. Midoriya has pictures on hand in UA now that he realises people will actually make fun of bakugo instead of worshipping the ground he walks on

Comically long skincare and hair routine

UA has humbled him HARD

Actually has a very good relationship with his parents. They were very encouraging. To a fault, but still.

Midoriya

Had a diary in middle school where he would write about the ways he would violently torture his bullys

He finds it again in like 2nd year and he cringes so hard. Unfortunately Bakugo also reads the diary and gets freaked out

Midoriya will listen to whatevers being said with 100% of his attention so whoever he's talking to doesn't feel ignored. The exception his whenever he's daydreaming about the plot and exposition dumping to the audience

Some time in 2nd year, he starts intentionally pissing bakugou off because he can get away with it now

His school record makes it seem like he's a complete delinquent and Azaiwa was a little surprised when he actually met him

When the war ends he gets clowned on ferociously for that bald spot. Omg the poor guy is so embarrassed

Momo

Everyone loves her but LORD is she out of touch sometimes. Has no understanding of how much things actually cost and how affordable they actually are

She styles her hair to be spikey. She wanted to seem cool and rough around the edges when she joined ua. It didn't work

Crazy anxiety. She spends a lot of time with Koda and his rabbit.

Her parents launder money and haven't been caught yet. She has no idea

Bonus:

Shoji and Todoroki bond over childhood trauma

Everyone is convinced Jirou, Denki and Momo are gonna become a throuple at some point. Bets have been placed about when

Bakugou does genuinely consider denki his friend

Quirkless training usually comes down to ojiro and Bakugou, tho Midoriya has won once or twice

Dark shadow is deemed a complete menace and genuinely has beef with some of 1a (Bakugo, Iida, ect.) but for some reason, dark shadow and Sato in particular have become sworn enemies

Ochako and Kirishima asked Ojiro to teach them martial arts and they have never seen him more excited

Tokoyami, Todoroki and Bakugo are COVERED in burn scars post war

Everyone assumes Hagakure and Ojiro are dating but they surprisingly aren't (yet))

Class1a occasionally binges shows together. They usually get super attached to a character who reminds them of someone in 1a and then get really sad whenever something bad happens to that character

[pleathewrites]

bellow the fire into my deadened lungs

chapter 5: when they come for you, i will shield your name

(summary) | dabihawks, todoroki family, seroroki, kiribaku, aizawa & class of 1a, all might, league of villains

_______ DAY 8 _______

It is the day of his court hearing that Todoroki Touya dies, for the second time.

Keigo hears it live on the television at a nothing diner Eraserhead and All Might had said they would pick him up from. They were going to allow Keigo to sit in the same car as Touya on the way to the courthouse, planning to follow in a separate car. 

“BREAKING NEWS: TODOROKI TOUYA, KNOWN AS ‘DABI’, DIES IN VEHICULAR EXPLOSION WHILE BEING TRANSPORTED TO HIS COURT HEARING!”

The only thing Keigo can hear through the ringing in his ears is the forgotten five-year-old tucked away at the back of his mind screaming, ‘No! No! NO!’

The only thing Keigo could feel through blizzard winds whipping across his soaring wings was the home within his heart Touya had built with scarred preening hands collapsing and compressing until he could no longer breathe. 

And when he gasps to a landing halt, the only thing Keigo can see through thick smoke and scrap metal with his quirk-enhanced vision is the crude and grotesquely torn-off ring finger Keigo had spent countless hours tracing with his lips, imagining how it’d look enclosed by a gold band with, ‘forever,’ engraved inside.

“Touya!”  

He’s pulled back before he can run into the flames. All Might holds Keigo with every ounce of strength he no longer has and Eraserhead is using his quirk to soften sharpened feathers that cut into All Might’s straining arms. They’re both talking, speaking to Keigo, warning him — they won’t stop talking —  

‘Don’t they understand that Touya needs me, that I need to save him?’

It feels like minutes, hours, seconds, days, before red and orange fire is hosed down completely, and there is no trace of Touya’s body.

“But — I don’t…”

A member of the forensic team is bending down to bag Touya’s left ring finger when Keigo faintly realizes he’s stopped struggling against All Might.

The five-year-old child Keigo has hidden for so long comes out, “He’s fireproof?” 

(Keigo is in too much shock to see the look Shouta gives Yagi — the one that says, ‘don’t say a word.’)

“The damage the fire had done to his body activated the chip inside his wrist to explode. He died almost instantly if that eases your pain any,” Eraserhead tells Keigo. 

The world drops below his feet, not in the manner of when Keigo jumps off buildings to welcome blue skies, but in the manner of gravity plummeting those not gifted with flight to splatter them across concrete. 

Keigo pushes All Might off him with a rough shove and flies to his safehouse, to his home — their home.

And he screams.  

Every feather of his wings sharpen and fly out his back. Dozens of paper-thin cuts sting his cheeks, his neck, and cut through the arms and thighs of his flight suit. The shatter of broken pots and pierced glass means nothing to him. The clatter and bang of splintered wood and stabbed walls do not swallow the horrible shriek of his grieving wails. 

He’s dropped to his knees and he’s screaming, his still screaming, and he does not stop until his vocal cords are torn and swollen shut, until the floorboards are pounded through and clutched between a paralyzed stress-grip, until the fibers of his living room rug are stuck wetly to his nose, until the only noise he can hoarse out are the croons Touya had heard only a handful of times in his short, unlived life.

Keigo stays like that for hours, in the fetal position that five-year-old child had learned to be his only comfort in a life like his. He croons to himself the way Touya had loved so much until his body was too tired to do anything else but drift Keigo away to moonlit-metal and blue dreams. 

CLICK TO READ REST OF CHAPTER 5 ON AO3

[bluegekk0]

Would any of the fpks kids have any vision issues or vision sensitivity? I imagine Holly for sure has them cause of WL, Hornet too as I feel like spiders from Deepnest would be sensitive to light as well. But I am unsure how Grimm or fpks children's vision would be like.

Holly has some vision problems, but they have nothing to do with WL - she lost her vision temporarily as her power weakened under the bindings, and after freeing herself she slowly regained it. Instead, it's connected to their void nature as well as the damage they received from the infection. Void interacts with the world mainly based on sound, primarily on low frequency rumbling and ground vibration. The vessels do have vision, but it's noticeably less developed than that of a regular bug. Most notably, their color vision is poor, they can distinguish the main shades of colors but they are very washed out, so most individual shades in between are lost on them. Since void is sensitive to bright light, that is another downside of their eyesight, and in Holly's case it was made even worse after the infection - they lost vision in their right eye, and in the left one, the membrane separating the void from the outside world has healed, but became very sensitive to light. This also means that they lack depth perception, meaning that their coordination is quite poor, they have trouble judging how far things are from them, so they tend go bump into door frames and other objects, and struggle with catching and throwing things. Their hearing helps them a little bit with that last one, since they can hear objects flying towards them and sometimes they manage to catch them, but if there is a lot going on around them, they completely lose focus as they can't rely on it.

FPK, as I mentioned, is also sensitive to bright light due to his unusually big pupils. Before changing forms, his eyes were small and so his vision was generally quite poor. He thought that by enlarging them, he would see better, and he was right, but he didn't realize how sensitive to light they would become, as he didn't account for the pupil size - they are naturally big to help wyrms see in the dark. It was too late to change them, though, so he learned to live with it. Walking around the brightly lit palace gave him many headaches, but he quickly retreated to the darker rooms, particularly his workshop. Fortunately, Dirtmouth is much darker, the days are short and clouds cover the sun most of the time, so he can leave his house without worrying about his eyes. Also, this isn't exactly related to eyesight, but I thought it was worth mentioning. He tends to squint with his left eye, the one right under his scar. It's a habit that stayed with him after weeks of wearing a sloppily made "bandage" that he covered the wound with, which went over the eye and forced him to keep it closed most of the time. He does it subconsciously whenever he feels someone or something touch his face, but stops when he realizes he's doing it again. The eye is perfectly healthy, so this is simply just a strange behavioral quirk.

Hornet has eyes just like his, and her spider genes don't help with it either. She can see really well in the dark, but just like both of her parents, she's sensitive to bright lights. She can sense vibrations well, so she can pair that with her good eyesight to navigate easily through difficult areas like Deepnest.

Now, Grimm's eyes are strange. They're more like lanterns than actual eyes, though he can close them and blink. Notably, they can't produce tears, so he's unable to cry (I like to think it's because the eyes have a very high temperature, so because the tears would evaporate anyway, he decided to just omit that "feature" when making his body), they also emit light. There is a glass-like layer that protects them, though, so they're not just fire pits inside his skull, but they're still quite unnatural. Most noticeably, his pupil is normally invisible, and only appears when he's staring at a specific point intensely, or under strong emotions, usually anger.

Lewk's eyes are somewhere between FPK's and Grimm's. They have a distinct pupil, but said pupil resembles Grimm's eyes more than actual pupils. He has no vision problems, however, just like with Grimm, it's a bit of a mystery how exactly they work, but thet work fine. But unlike him, Lewk can actually cry, so they're not fully unnatural. He's the only one out of his siblings to have no issues with light sensitivity, all thanks to Grimm's weird eyes. However, he can't see in the dark as well as his other dad or his siblings, since Grimm's eyes don't have that specific adaptation.

Milo and Asta have FPK's eyes, just like Hornet, and with that they also share the same unfortunate side effects. Milo's eyes are a similar color to Grimm's, but lack the unnatural qualities, while Asta's are almost exactly like FPK's, though the shade of blue is slightly different. They can see very well in the dark, but are also sensitive to bright lights. Perhaps Milo's eyes would be slightly weaker than his sister's, due to his more sickly nature, but I haven't decided on that yet. I could see him having some issues with coordination, maybe he'd see quite poorly on long distances (in the modern AU he'd most likely end up wearing glasses). But then again, they're still very young and barely opened their eyes, so if either of them has any vision problems, they would manifest later in life, which isn't something I'm too concerned with (since I'm not planning to age them up and move the timeline forward).

So they all have some eye issues, mostly connected to sensitivity to light. Even Grimm, who has no vision problems, can't cry, so the eyes don't function "correctly" either. Though FPK is definitely to blame for most of those issues, all dating back to a slip up when changing forms hahaha.

[scribblestatic]

Tweet Tweet Bird Beep

----

Kacchan's not as antagonistic towards him, not like he is in other universes. This isn't just because he's not quirkless, but also because Kacchan grew up defending Izuku. He has such a cool quirk, and he could definitely become a hero, so why is everyone else picking on him?

They did have a fight when Izuku went to help Kacchan after he fell, but Izuku explained that Kacchan always helps him, so he wanted to do the same, not because he's weak, but because he's really cool. Just like how, if All Might tripped, Izuku would gladly help him up. Kacchan was so enamored by being compared to All Might, he forgave him right away.

Though, he had said "Dummy, All Might wouldn't trip!! But okay. I forgive you. Wanna play Hero Cards?"

This Kacchan learns to defend the least of them early on, but he also never stops to say people shouldn't defend themselves. He wants people to recognize their limits and exceed them as much as they can, just like how Izuku tries every day after the initial case loss to live in a world not built for him.

One time, Kacchan sees him struggling really hard to wash his feet, like so hard that he started to cry, and Kacchan couldn't find a way to help. He actually realized then that people have limitations.

But he also thinks people give up too quickly. Seeing Izuku keep trying despite crying really made him see Izuku as strong. Kacchan's silently looking up to Izuku, being a rowdy and rough boy. He honestly sees Izuku as a hero.

He feels pressure to reach the same level as Izuku.

You know how there's the parallels drawn between Kacchan walking ahead of Izuku and Izuku reaching him?

Instead, Kacchan walks ahead, and when he looks back, he doesn't see Izuku on the ground. He's flying in the sky, wings flapping as he reaches heights Kacchan feels he can't ever reach.

That's why he puts emphasis on using his explosions for aerial movements.

Honestly, a silent dream of his is to fly together with Izuku.

Though Izuku can carry a person on his back, he refuses to do it after a while as kids. He doesn't want to be a weight on Izuku, he wants to be equals.

So Kacchan's angy, but he's not angy at Izuku. He still curses at him, but when Izuku says he wants to be a hero, Kacchan backs him up completely.

Izuku and Kacchan see each other's true selves more than anyone else. And because of that, they're very close friends.

It also helps that Izuku's better at verbalizing what he feels, though his kneejerk reaction is to act on stuff.

Kacchan also draws the line at some comments. He doesn't call Izuku "birdbrain" or "chicken" or stuff like that because he's see the way it makes Izuku freeze up, and Izuku's told him that he's scared he's not actually human.

----

He's very worried, because there's literally no one else with a quirk like his. One that has given him a bone structure completely different from other humans. Usually, other people have a humanoid base and have things added onto it, or they're larger in some places, smaller in others, etc.

But Izuku's quirk has changed him down to having a completely different bone structure. One more in common with owls and hawks than a human.

And the way he interacts with the world is different from other people. Again, what's left of his hands is only good at grabbing and holding things, and sometimes they're not good at that. Instead, his feet, with sharp talons, have almost the same mobility as a elementary school kid and their hands.

But as far as grabbing, holding, walking, all of it, he's constrained by his body and what it can do. It makes even the act of putting on clothes uncomfortable, because putting them on himself is such a chore with his body, but he wants self-sufficiency as well.

Quirk discriminators call him a freak of nature and talk about the curse of quirks and how it's creating monsters. They post up pictures of him and call him terrible names. There's some forums Izuku refuses to look at because of it.

[bluebusstop]

Platonic! Bucky Barnes x Any gender! Reader

❗❗❗❗TW self-harm❗❗❗❗

Also parental issues, self-esteem problems

You have to admit this unpleasant fact: anxiety chases you wherever you go and whatever you do. It had crawled under your skin so long ago that you don't quite remember the day when it started. Maybe when that little boy with bright smile and modern toys grunted " it seems like you took your clothes out from dumpster"; or maybe when teacher's lips quirked in a mirror reflection of a smile and they said that "you speak too much". Or maybe this twisted feeling in your lungs that appears every time you spend a few hours with Natasha or Tony at the highest floors of Avengers Tower is just conscience? You don't belong here and your miserable little heart understands it more than ever when Clint unblocks the phone to answer his wife's call. They have their families, their friends who they know for a years and at the end, who are you for them? Just a shy friend of Peter: always in baggy clothes, with long striped gloves like it's 2007 again and old black converses, that have seen the crisis of 2008. A friend of Peter, Peter who can fly higher than some birds, Peter who can lift a car with bare hands, Peter with perfect grades in all subjects, Peter with genuine smile and good temper.

Maybe you're a little bit jealous, but to admit it is the same thing as finally confess you're a bad person.

Peter's got superpower. Peter's got cool supportive aunt and life full of risk. He actually does a lot for people around him and strangers - he's a person society needs. Someday he will be standing in a line under the spotlights with the greatest of the greatest (he's already almost avenger, and he's 16!) and you always be a person around the corner in the shades, not even the "guy in the chair". Peter is great, he's sweet and attentive friend but everything was so much easier when he was just Peter Parker, your best friend from school and the nerd next seat (not Spider-Man who saves people and works with real superheroes).

And now you have to deal with strange butterflies when it comes to every member of Avengers, from Bruce to Bucky. Especially Bucky. You felt those butterflies flying high, up to your throat that you couldn't talk when Steve ruffled your hair. You felt birds chirping inside your stomach when Bruce agreed to help you with your chemistry experiment. You felt like falling down when Bucky laughed: "You beat me here, kid". And you think you knew what was all these winces and red cheeks about but again - to admit it you had to confess that you're weak.

Bucky was a man from the past, quite guy who was sitting in the background and listening to others speaking. Until he got used that this life is actually his. No mission, no target. It seems like another month passed on when James Barns started adding comments and even making good old puns. It's not like they invited you on every meeting - something you overheard (yes, it's bad...but cmon, it's avengers themselves!), something you found out from Peter's rambling.

He was treating you extremely carefully from the first day. You knew that he tried to learn how to socialize and be actually nice, but...maybe it's dumb, but still it felt in a special way. He showed you a few useful stances when he saw your struggle in repeating after character from the movie and never ever raised his voice on you. His hugs were the heedfulest - no-one ever hugged you like this.

You would love to be his relative, somehow. Maybe then you would spend hours and days together and you wouldn't feel guilty; maybe he could teach you how to waltz or pick you up from school on his bike (and all of your classmates would gasp and gossip: "who's this attractive man? Do you know him? Is it your brother? Does he has a girlfriend? Or boyfriend?")

But all of these nice scenarios were only a dreams in your little silly head, as you thought, carefully wiping the blade with antiseptic. Today Peter was upset and desperately trying to hide his feelings as deep as possible. But after long assuring talk with Ned, MJ and you he was ready to sing.

"I heard Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers debate about me," he murmured, "well, about us all, actually"

In that particular moment your heart split into two halves .

"Speak, dumbass" - MJ insisted, her eyebrows creased together. She also spend at least one day in a few weeks in Tower and obviously wasn't happy to hear news that may guarantee her never ever appearing there again.

"Their missions are getting more dangerous. Mr. Rogers said that it would be better for me to...keep doing what I used to do. Just be a nice neighbor Spider-Man. And that it would be better for all of us...to come less often" - there were no life in boy's voice.

Little space of their own in the middle of canteen had become deadly silent. You could hear your poor heart trying to escape it's ribs prison. Ned was looking at Peter with big Bambi eyes, filled with hope.

"You said they were confronting, and that means..."

"Yes, Mr. Stark was harsh at the beginning. But...they think I'm a child. They think..." miserably squished out of himself Peter.

"Legally we all are children," sighed MJ, "but I'm not sure if children are able to save 50 people a day and still manage to keep good grades"

And you all fastly nodded. God, you were so disappointed. Maybe they haven't told you officially yet, but you heard what they really think. Well, Peter heard. But he's trustful, right?

And yes, you wanted some of the things to go back, but...but Bucky and Natasha could have stayed for a longer in your life. And Steve. And Clint. Bruce also.

Thin blade left the red track on your forearm. Nobody needs to know. This is just your relief. Your punishment. Because if you already dropped on yourself and you learned your lesson it's no need for-

You hissed. This one was too deep. Shit. But okay, Chlorhexidine solves all the problems... Disinfector stings.

And when Peter excitingly screams about invitation to Tower the day after all you get is anxiety. Clothes rubbed unhealed wounds and scratches. Earlier you wanted to return home to lock yourself in a room for the rest of the evening, reading and preparing for the test but you couldn't refuse. Maybe it will be the last time when you see Bucky at all.

Peter, Ned, MJ and you arrived at the Tower on peens and needles, expecting dead silence and heavy atmosphere but instead of pokerfaces and "we need to talk", you saw Tony with a pan in a fire.

"Okkay kiddos no homemade anything today. FRIDAY, order pizza for all of us" Tony had washed his hands for a thousand times.

"Seven or eight boxes?" busily inquired AI.

Tony took a look for all the Avengers and kids. His eyes stopped at blushing Ned.

"Twelve"

The room filled with babbling again. You don't know about others, but i felt like a mountain sized stone fell from your shoulders.

Just a usual evening with the mightiest heroes of planet earth (Thor had to solve some questions in Asgard). Telling stories, playing Monopoly (god, how you hated this game, Tony always won!) and Xbox and teaching Steve how to use joystick (finally, he had avoided this for a few months).

You tried not to get included into pillow fights. To be honest, you didn't really want to move at all.

What concerned you that Bucky stared at you for the whole evening with a strange, wistful gaze. You were feeling uncomfortable also from knowledge that if he wanted to observe you, you wouldn't even had noticed you. But Barns wanted to let you know that he has something to say. Well, okay, let it be.

"Second batch of pizza arrived! Who knew that Parker eats more that all of us together," announced Tony with a clap, "I need someone to pick it up and...I need this someone not to be me".

"I will"

Yeah, of course, Bucky volunteered, you thought. Here starts the game.

"I'll help him" You added, rising from the chair.

You felt with your back - Natasha's watching you. It meant that she leaves it up to you were put down in "checkout list".

When you and Bucky got inside the elevator and doors slowly closed silence fell on little space and pressed hard. You threw the man a quick glance. Like carved out of stone...

"Is something wrong? I'm sure you're able of delivering pizza upstairs on your own" you tried to begin a conversation.

Barns was drilling the closed doors in front of him with eyes.

"I'm not sure what is going on with you" ex-soldier slowly turned his head. Behind deep ice eyes was hidden something you couldn't understand, "Once or twice a week you move slower. Also in that days you actually careful with hugs and you don't like when Thor squeezes you tight. I mean, who likes," a bit confused and you snorted, "but the rest of the days you seem okay with it".

You can feel cold sweat running down your spine along with a goosebumps. You take a quick glance at the changing numbers on the screen. Almost 15th floor.

"Something is going on," he continues, staring with his deep blue eyes, "You can't deny it. And today especially. I thought of a physical injury but it's happens to often to be a fight and you never had any noticeable wounds on your face and usually bullies-"

"Stop"

He slowly closed his mouth.

"You don't have to tell me all your logical chain, you know?" Weak laugh. Your hands started to shake.

Bucky pursed his lips.

"FRIDAY helped me with it," reluctantly answered unasked question, "I just never-"

Elevator slowly stopped and the doors opened.

You swiftly made your way to the backdoor exit. Barnes followed you as a inconspicuous shadow.

The pizza boy awkwardly muttered something about price with wide opened eyes and shoved at least 6 boxes right in your hands. You smiled as nicely as you could in that condition and thanked. The rest of the dialogue was covered with fog for you, even more, you felt like put in the depth of ocean. You woke up only after Barns's hand slightly touched your shoulder.

"You good?" He asked with care.

You stared at him with a wet tired eyes.

"I know how hard it can be - when you feel guilt pressing down," he slowly said, eyes looking forward, " And I'm not going to tell Tony or even Steve. But you have to do one thing for me."

You felt relieved for a second, but then anxiety had risen even harder.

"I will train you. If it's about anger, I can help you. If it's something else - we will figure it out," he said bluntly, "But if your self-harm gets worse I would have to tell Tony".

Your heart gladly went up and down like a child on a rollercoaster. You gulped. Tony doesn't have to know...he will look at you even worse...he has already a brilliant student - Peter, and how do you look, standing next to him? Right, pathetic.

You heavily raised you head, leaning to the side and releasing your hand.

"Deal" your voice was trembling.

Barns nodded and firmly shook your hand.

"Deal" he confirmed.

Pile of pizza neatly landed on the floor. Elevator quietly squeaked and the doors slowly opened.

"Shit" you sighed.

[wisteriashouse]

rule of three.

pairing: kamado tanjirou x sumiyuri hayami (oc)

genre: kimetsu academy!au; romance, fluff, love triangle

word count: 12533

a/n: thank you @hinokami-s​ for trusting me with your commission! this one took pretty long (and i fell in love with the wrong character) but i hope you like it!!

She’s doing it again.

That nervous little quirk of hers: when she pulls a few strands of her hair between her fingers, twirling the platinum locks around them before letting go and repeating the sequence of actions all over again. Sometimes, Tanjirou is unsure whether Hayami is even conscious of this habit at all, or whether she knows how obvious it makes her. It’s something she does every time she’s nervous or worried, and considering the fact that she’s been playing with her hair for most part of the school day, there must be something weighing on her mind.

Unsurprisingly, Tanjirou is concerned. Today has been a busy day for all of them in school, so he hasn’t found the right moment to ask yet, but he’ll definitely do that before her chauffeur arrives to pick her up—

“You pig headed boar, stop slobbering over my face and get off me!” Zenitsu’s piercing shrieks of alarm drag Tanjirou out of his thoughts and he looks up to see Inosuke rugby tackling Zenitsu to the ground, the two of them a mess of flailing limbs and flying buttons. Tanjirou simply shakes his head with a sigh: he’s learned from repeated experiences that he’s absolutely useless at pulling the two of them apart. Only Hayami has any hope of getting them to stop with their clownery. “Hayami, get this crazy guy off me!”

Tanjirou half-expects Hayami to laugh and distract Inosuke with a request for a smooth pebble or something else, but to his surprise, Hayami doesn’t even seem to have noticed the commotion taking place right next to her. Instead, she’s frowning at the school gates with a slight furrow to her brow, deep in thought.

“Hayami—”

“Don’t just stand there!” Zenistu protests in horror, but before he can say anything more Inosuke smothers him with a hand over his entire face. With a scream of disgust, Zenitsu promptly wriggles free from Inosuke and takes off down the road at the speed of light, with Inosuke snapping like a mad dog at his heels.

When the two of them are finally out of earshot, Tanjirou turns around to rest one hand on Hayami’s shoulder. “Hayami, are you alright?”

The hand on the shoulder was meant to be a calming gesture, but Hayami jumps so high in surprise that Tanjirou almost wonders for a moment if she’s levitating. “Yeah, yeah, of course I’m alright! Totally great! Just dandy, you know.” Hayami laughs nervously, winding her hair around her finger again — Tanjirou frowns openly at that — and tugging at the ends. Her cheeks are flushed. “Whatever made you ask that, haha!”

It takes one to recognise one, and Tanjirou recognises Hayami as a terrible, awful liar.

Still, it wouldn’t be very nice to just say that, so Tanjirou makes an attempt with a different approach. “You’ve been out of it all day.” He says, making sure to keep his voice light. Hayami isn’t one to just share her problems or struggles due to her upbringing (and nasty parents), so getting her to open up usually requires some coaxing and prodding here and there. “Is there something that you’re stressed about? I’d like to know.”

“I’m really fine, Tanjirou,” Hayami answers, trying for a placating smile. Unfortunately for her, it’s not enough to fool Tanjirou’s observant eyes, but she quickly changes the topic. “Our plans for the day after tomorrow, they’re confirmed, aren’t they?”

Tanjirou blinks, confused by the sudden turn this conversation is taking. “The trip to the aquarium, right? Of course it’s confirmed, we booked the tickets and everything last week. Did something crop up?”

“No, no,” Hayami looks relieved, actually. “I just needed to confirm my schedule and a few things on the side, and it’s been a really hectic week for me and I was just, uhm, looking forward to spending some time with— oh, Ginjiro! Sorry, Tanjirou, I’ll be right back, I promise!”

Tanjirou lets out a slow sigh as he watches Hayami jog over to where a familiar boy is exiting from the school gates, clearly set on discussing something with him. As much as he doesn’t get along with Ginjiro personally, he’s aware that Hayami has been close friends with him since the two were young. Still, inner Tanjirou appeals, he doesn’t have to like it when Ginjiro laughs and slips an arm around Hayami’s waist a little too easily.

He swears that Ginjiro gives him a little smirk.

Hayami is saying something to Ginjiro, gesturing with her hands (yet another habit when she’s losing her patience). Although Tanjirou is too far to hear anything, he does manage to catch a glance of a mischievous grin appearing on Ginjiro’s face. The dark harried boy leans down to whisper something into Hayami’s ear, and perhaps Tanjirou is only just a little too pleased when Hayami starts smacking his hands away, positively chewing his ear off.

Still, Hayami does look a little more invigorated after that talk with Ginjiro, which is undeniably a good thing. Even if it did come out of unfortunate circumstances. Perhaps what Hayami was worried about earlier in the day really wasn’t such a major issue, and all she needed to do was to speak to Ginjiro. It might have been about an assignment or something modelling related, and well, as long as Hayami is feeling better, Tanjirou can’t really complain.

Ginjiro chuckles at something Hayami says, wrapping another arm around her shoulder this time, and Tanjirou is about to march over to insert himself between the two when there’s the honk of a car. When he turns around, there’s a familiar black sedan pulled up at the school gates, with an even more familiar face behind the wheel.

Tanjirou gives Katsuo-san a bow and a wave.

“Oh shucks, I gotta go.” Hayami hurries over to the car, the strap of her bag slipping off her shoulder as she waves to the both of them. “See you then, Ginjiro, Tanjirou!”

The car has barely turned into the traffic when Ginjiro turns to give Tanjirou a smirk that can only be described as cocky. “Hope you enjoy the surprise,” Ginjiro hums lightly as he brushes past Tanjirou. Tanjirou frowns, utterly at a loss as to what he could be talking about.

“Surprise? What do you mean?”

“You’ll see soon enough,” Ginjiro throws a cocky smirk over his shoulder, which does nothing to soothe the unease stirring in his stomach. “See you around, Tanjirou-kun.”

>>>

Hope you enjoy the surprise.

Ginjiro’s words still pop into Tanjirou’s head at random even after he’s reached home, so Tanjirou thinks that it’s completely understandable that he panics a little when his phone starts ringing all of a sudden after dinner. Surprise, surprise.

“I swear, if it’s Ginjiro…” Tanjirou mutters under his breath as he climbs the stairs to his rooms, his ringtone still filling the small house with its merry tune.

As far as he knows, Ginjiro doesn’t have his number. Hayami wouldn’t give him his number without telling him, right? Right. Also, why on earth would Ginjiro even need his number? Ginjiro hates his entire existence. Besides, they have nothing to do with each other. The words that he said earlier in the day had to be some sort of new way Ginjiro had come up with to mess with him.

“Hope you enjoy the surprise,” Tanjirou continues to mutter, reaching for his phone. “You’ll see soon enough. Why did he have to go and say that, huh? He really— oh, thank god.”

It’s Hayami’s contact flashing across his phone screen, and Tanjirou almost deflates with relief at the sight of it. Picking it up, he presses his phone to his ear and is immediately taken by surprise by the commotion in the background. “Hayami? Is something up?”

“No, no.” Hayami’s voice is just a tad bit breathless on the other side of the line, and Tanjirou can hear the multiple people rushing back and forth, their footsteps scattering their words into incomprehensible white noise. She sounds oddly nervous about something, and Tanjirou can already imagine her twirling her hair around her finger just like she always does. “Uhh, I know it’s strange to drop this on you so suddenly, but I kind of have a favour to ask of you.”

It is rather abrupt, but Tanjirou has never turned a request of Hayami’s down before, and he isn’t about to start now. “No need to panic,” he reassures her gently. “Whatever it is, you can just tell me.”

“Right. Right.” She hesitates for a moment. “I know this sounds kind of weird, but I promise, I’ll explain everything properly to you when we meet up—”

“Hayami, breathe.”

“Right, I’m getting carried away again. Uhm,” she sucks in a breath through her teeth before she exhales. “Is it possible if you, uhh, don’t tune into social media and television at all this evening?”

It’s hard not to be taken aback by such a strange request, especially with Ginjiro’s words from earlier still making the odd appearance in his mind. “The whole evening, you say?”

“The whole evening, yes.” Hayami sounds even more nervous now. “I can explain, but it would take too much time right now and I’m really in a rush to— oh, Toshiko-san, can’t you give me just a few more minutes?”

Tanjirou has to wrack his mind a little before he recalls where he’s heard that name before — Hayami’s personal maid, with the kindest blue eyes that remind him of his own grandmother. “I know that you’ve been rushing around a lot tonight, dearest, but I’m afraid that there’s still some adjustments that have to be made to your dress, and your mother is getting more antsy with each minute that passes. I can try to make an excuse of some sort, but…”

“No, no! There’s no need for that, tell her I’ll be out right away.” There’s some shuffling in the background and the muffled sound of a door being shut, before Hayami returns to the call. “I’m so sorry for this request, Tanjirou, I promise that it’s nothing bad and I’ll explain everything when we meet up tomorrow—”

At this point, Tanjirou is almost dying to know just why he can’t tune in to the television, but decides to let it go for now. “It’s alright, Hayami,” he says steadily, trying to calm her down. “I understand, and you’ll explain everything to me tomorrow. Is that right?”

Hayami cuts herself off mid-ramble, seemingly a little shocked by how easily Tanjirou is agreeing. “Y-yes, yes, that’s right. I’ll explain everything tomorrow.”

“Mm.” As much as Tanjirou wants to know, he reminds himself that Hayami would never make a request like this without a good reason. He can wait until tomorrow to find out what it is. “Then, have a good night, Hayami. I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

Hayami is oddly quiet for a while, and Tanjirou grows concerned. “Hayami? Is there something wrong?”

“Hayami, dear, we really do need to be going now!” Toshiko-san’s voice is a little loud with urgency, and judging from the clatter, Hayami had dropped her phone out of surprise.

“Coming, Toshiko-san!” Hayami responds frantically, before she picks up her phone once again. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow too, Tanjirou. See you!”

With that, the line hangs up.

For a moment, Tanjirou looks at the blank screen on his phone, before tossing it onto the mattress and burying his face under a pillow. Hope you enjoy the surprise, Tanjirou-kun.

“Looks like it’s going to be a long night,” he mutters to himself.

>>>

“Who were you on the phone with just now, dear?” Toshiko teases as she hurriedly adjusts the sash at her waist, adding a few pins to keep it cinched in place. Even her personal maid is dressed up for today’s banquet, her dark hair pinned up in a tight, elegant bun and little Swarovski crystals decorating her neck. If anyone else saw her, they’d probably think that she was a businesswoman just like any other. “Is it that cute Sato boy again? I always thought the two of you looked good together in the magazines.”

“Toshiko-san!” Hayami yelps sharply. “Ginjiro is not— ok, fine, he is cute, objectively speaking, but I don’t like him that way!” It’s bad enough that the tabloids think that there’s something going on between the two of them, but she didn’t expect Toshiko-san of all people to be reading the gossip magazines!

“Why not?” Her maid seems genuinely surprised by this. “He seems like a nice boy, and he always brings nice gifts whenever he comes over to visit. Besides, you enjoy visiting his house a lot, don’t you? The number of times Katsuo-san has had to pick you up in the morning from there…”

Hayami is sure her blush would be visible past the thick layer of foundation on her face. “Toshiko-san, really! I have no romantic feelings towards Ginjiro whatsoever, and besides…” Tanjirou’s warm smile comes to mind immediately, banishing all thoughts of Ginjiro with ease. “Well, he’s just not my type. Not in a thousand years.”

“That’s what all the girls your age say, dear,” Toshiko-san titters, before she holds out a hand to help Hayami down the stairs. With a groan of embarrassment, Hayami gives up on trying to convince Toshiko-san otherwise. “Come now, let’s get you to the car. Katsuo-san must be waiting.”

True to Toshiko’s words, Katsuo-san is indeed waiting for the two of them at the limousine, shaking his head when he sees Toshiko still fretting over the final details of her dress. “Toshiko, enough worrying,” he grunts, holding the door open as Hayami slips inside, “Or even more of your hair will turn grey, and then you’ll look like even more of an old hag than you do now.”

“I do not look like an old hag!” Toshiko-san’s hands fly to her face, horrified. “Hayami, dear, my wrinkles haven’t started to set in, have they?”

Hayami rushes to reassure her. “You don’t look a day over thirty, Toshiko-san. You look like you could be the model of an anti-aging cream, really! Do you want me to link you up with some cosmetics brands?”

Katsuo covers a snort with one gloved hand and gracefully escorts Toshiko into the limousine with the other. “Right. She could be the ‘before’ in those before and after commercials that I keep seeing on television nowadays.”

Toshiko reaches for her heel, and Hayami, fearing for her butler’s skull, reaches over to hold Toshiko’s hands tightly in hers. “Don’t listen to Katsuo-san, he’s just being rude. Besides, I think you look really, really pretty in your dress today! And your hair looks amazing in that updo, I’d love to try that elegant style sometime! Which salon did you go to get it done?”

“Oh, I did it myself, dear.” Toshiko chirps at Hayami’s sweet words, her earlier vengeance forgotten. “Do you really like it that much? I’ll help you do your hair the next time, if you want.” She sniffs at an unrepentant Katsuo, who’s just shaking his head. “And this impertinent cretin really has no manners at all! Even that young Sato boy is so much more of a gentleman.”

“That Ginjiro kid?” Katsuo looks distinctly unimpressed as he gets into the driver’s seat. “That rascal keeps putting his hands all over the Miss. I don’t like him one bit. The other boy… the one from the bakery near your school neighbourhood? Now that’s a gentleman if I’ve ever seen one. I like that one a lot better.”

Toshiko’s eyes go wide at Katsuo’s words, and her grip on Hayami’s hands turn immovable as stone. “There’s another boy? Hayami, you didn’t tell me about him! Quick, I want to know everything!”

Hayami cries internally. The whole reason she had never mentioned Tanjirou to Toshiko is because she knew full well what she would be like. The first time she’d stayed over at Ginjiro’s house, Toshiko had grilled her for hours about the boy. Katsuo, too, definitely knew she would do this!

She glares at the rearview mirror of the corner of her eye, and mouths start driving already. There’s a quiet chuckle from the front seat, followed by the rev of the engine. Defeated, Hayami settles back into the seat, resigned to answering the ever growing list of questions from Toshiko.

By the time the car pulls up at the banquet venue, Hayami is sure that Toshiko knows everything there is to know about Tanjirou, from his height to the number of siblings he has down to his blood type. She’s almost glad to escape the limousine when she sees her mother already waiting at the start of the red carpet with her father on her arm, professional cameras clicking away.

Hayami’s mood immediately sours at the sight.

“Don’t forget to smile, dearest,” Toshiko-san reminds her as the limousine pulls to a stop. Both Toshiko and Katsuo are more than aware of her distaste for the rest of the Sumiyuri family. “I know that you don’t like these kinds of events, but since you’re here and all dolled up already, you shouldn’t let that pretty face go to waste, hmm?”

“Just think of that bread boy and you’ll be fine.” Hayami’s cheeks burn and she reaches out to lightheartedly swat at her chauffeur’s shoulder.

“I’m telling you, he’s just a friend,” she hisses, trying her best not to flush now. Deep breath in, deep breath out. She can already hear the paparazzi gathering outside her door, pushing and jostling the security in a competition to get the best and most invasive photo of the sole Sumiyuri heir. In times like these, her mother’s words echo in her mind like an old memory carved into her bones. Back straight, chin lifted, eyes forward. You are a Sumiyuri, and you are better than every single one of those commoners, so act like it. That is something that will not change, no matter what you do.

Hayami hates it. Commoners, her mother calls them, as if they’re lower than her simply by status of birth. Still, this is a tried and tested method of keeping up the persona that is expected of her in the media’s eyes — as much as she loathes it, it works.

“She’s doing the thing again, isn’t she?” Katsuo-san whispers a tad too loudly, and it is only by virtue of the fact that there are cameras almost pressed to the window that Toshiko does not smack him on the spot. Internally, Hayami buries the quiet laugh that is on the verge of spilling out, before she manages to compose herself.

“Katsuo-san, get the door for me.”

“Of course, Miss.” Smooth as velvet, Katsuo slips out of the car before opening the rear door for Hayami. She takes a moment to leisurely gather the many sheer layers of her skirt, before stepping out of the car and onto the red carpet.

“Hayami, you’re here,” Sumiyuri Kuraihi comments as Hayami joins them in front of the cameras, her soft, demure voice almost concealing the ice beneath it. She’s as dazzling as a cut diamond, silver platinum hair falling in a pin straight curtain down her back and liquid lipstick flicked over the moue of her small mouth. Hayami wonders if she’ll ever look like that when she grows older, and immediately hates the idea of it. “Smile for the camera on the left there, that’s one of the chief journalists of This Patch. And your arms look awfully thick in this sleeveless dress, really. Are you sure you’re following your diet properly?”

“Dear, the paparazzi are watching,” Sumiyuri Daikoku reminds his wife, a neutral, pleasant expression on his face. Kuraihi’s face doesn’t change one bit, but she does pull Hayami just a tad closer for her hand to rest on her shoulder, and all three smile at the cameras, a picture perfect family on cue.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Kuraihi concedes, releasing her daughter. Hayami exhales discreetly in relief. “Daikoku, Hayami, we’re going… no, no. Let’s wait for him.”

Hayami blinks, confused. “Wait for who?” She echoes, but her question is answered as soon as it is asked. The next car that pulls up at the red carpet is a very familiar white Mercedes, and Hayami stares wordlessly when Sato Ginjiro exits the car, looking very dapper in a three piece tailored suit and his hair tousled in that faux casual style.

“What are you doing here?” She’d just confirmed his schedule with him this afternoon after school, there was no way that the event planners had changed it in the short time between then and now! Ginjiro smiles as he makes his way to her, bowing and waving as if it’s second nature to him. “It’s a pleasure to run into you, Mrs Sumiyuri, Mr Sumiyuri,” he greets politely with a bow, before turning to Hayami. “And you, my dearest Hayami,” he pauses for a moment, eyes widening slightly as he takes her in, and when he speaks again, his voice is slightly breathless, “you look absolutely delightful tonight, truly. You’re taking my breath away.”

“Thank you for the compliment,” she mutters, none too happy with this situation. His acting classes have paid off, truly, because Hayami almost believes that he wholeheartedly means what he’s saying for a moment. Hayami, on the other hand, takes no acting classes and has to fight to keep the grimace off her face.

“Hayami, don’t wear such an unpleasant expression on your face,” her mother chides without really looking at her, and Hayami bites her lip, forcing her displeasure down. “It’s a pleasure to see you here tonight as well, Sato-kun. We were just about to head in, and now that I see that you’ve arrived alone, perhaps you could do us the favour of escorting our dear Hayami inside?”

Dear gods and lords above, this is exactly what Hayami had been trying to avoid. “I don’t need an escort, really—”

“Hayami, don’t turn down the poor boy,” her mother titters softly, but there’s a warning creeping into eyes. They’re telling her that there’ll be hell to pay at home if she doesn’t listen right now. Swallowing, Hayami straightens her back.

“I mean, it is only polite for the man to offer first, isn’t it?” She explains weakly. Sumiyuri Kuraihi pauses this for a moment, considering, before she turns to Ginjiro. “Sato-kun, what do you think?”

Hayami barely glares at Ginjiro, but he’s already nodding brightly, flashing a charming grin. “I’d be delighted to,” he turns to Hayami, and she swears that she’s about to go blind from the flash reflecting off those perfect white teeth as he holds out his arm. “Shall we, milady?”

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Hayami very begrudgingly takes a hold of his proffered arm and is immediately assaulted by a flurry of camera shutters and flashes. She can already see the headlines on tomorrow’s tabloids: Sumiyuri’s Princess linking arms with the heir to Sato Conglomerate, secret clandestine relationship or budding romance? If they don’t somehow dig up some poorly edited photographs of the two of them in some sort of scandalous position, Hayami will be grateful enough. God, she’d already been trying not to make Tanjirou feel the huge wealth gap between the two of them, now this? This is just adding kerosene on top of the fire.

“You’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you?” Hayami mutters out of the corner of her mouth as soon as they enter the private area of the event. Even if the paparazzi and the like aren’t allowed in here, there are still too many eyes and ears on them. At her words, Ginjiro’s pristine smile slips into something more laidback, a bit of the catlike Sato Ginjiro she sees in school visible under the carefully tailored clothes and makeup.

“Of course I am,” his voice is teasing, and Hayami can’t help rolling her eyes. “I’ve got the prettiest girl in the world on my arm and her company all to myself tonight. Why wouldn’t I be enjoying myself?”

Hayami has to bite back the urge to aim a kick at him. “I meant with the reporters outside, seriously. You knew that they would be taking pictures of us, and there’s definitely going to be a massive scandal of some sort tomorrow!”

At her words, Ginjiro looks at her wordlessly, the usual teasing expression absent from his face as his eyes sweep across her. He’s always been more on the effusive side, never restraining himself in showing how he feels, so worry begins to creep up inside her with each second he doesn’t speak. Hayami reaches out to tug at his sleeve. “Uhh, Ginjiro?”

“Is it,” he says, and Hayami is a little surprised by how solemn he sounds, “really that bad that you’re seen together with me?”

The tone of his voice makes Hayami feel like the absolute worst trash on earth, and she rushes to reassure him. “No, no! That’s not what I meant at all! It’s just,” she flounders for a moment, trying to figure out just how to explain things properly to him. “It’s just that I don’t like people assuming the wrong things about us. They always blow up into all kinds of ridiculous scandals that aren’t true, and they stress me out to no end with the paparazzi asking me who I’m dating, and—”

A big, warm hand over her mouth cuts her off. “I know, I know, I was just teasing you.” When she looks up, all traces of his earlier solemnity have completely disappeared, replaced by a cheeky grin. “It’s cute seeing you all flustered like that.”

Hayami gapes at him, before she succumbs to her violent urges and actually kicks him in the shin. “You—!” Ginjiro groans and staggers a step back, but there’s amusement dancing in his eyes.

“And there’s the Sumiyuri Hayami we all know and love,” he laughs, flicking her on the forehead. Hayami makes a face, but Ginjiro doesn’t seem the least bit bothered. "Don’t look so gloomy hanging off my arm next time, yeah? Other girls would be dying to be in your position, but you look like you’re actually dying.”

“Is this the moment where I say I’m not like other girls?” Hayami mutters, but still drags Ginjiro over with her to the refreshments table. “Really, I don’t know how you can just shrug off the rumours about us dating like that. It’s like water sliding off a duck’s back. Amazing, really…”

Ginjiro simply watches Hayami silently as she stares down at the table of hors d-oeuvres, tongue poking at the inside of her cheek adorably. “The canapes look good… hmm, so do the cranberry crostinis…” So adorably innocent, so painfully oblivious.

“Take both,” Ginjiro advises. “I’ll tell your mother I tried to feed you a little too much cake, and she’ll be delighted to hear that we’re getting along so well. Though you should probably make your choice quickly, because I think the dances are going to start anytime soon.”

As soon as he says that, the sound of bowstrings fill the air, the string quartet starting the night off with a familiar and upbeat step. Ginjiro takes Hayami’s hand in his own, and before she can comment, pops a cream puff into her mouth. “Come on, let’s go. I know this song.”

Hayami swallows the puff before smiling. “A little rude to just drag me along without asking, hm? What happened to being a perfect gentleman?”

“Oh, so now you want to play this game.” Ginjiro laughs, but obliges her anyway, stepping in front of her to hold out a hand. “Milady, I would be most honoured to be your first dance at tonight’s banquet. Would you make me the happiest man here tonight?”

With a laugh she takes his hand, and the two of them sweep onto the dance floor together. It’s a tune Hayami has heard many times already, and she puts one hand on Ginjiro’s shoulder while his own rests on her waist. Hayami has danced to this song so many times already that she could probably do it in her sleep, and from the ease with which Ginjiro moves, it seems the same goes for him. For a moment, Hayami wonders how Tanjirou would fare at a high society dance like this.

He’s athletic, of course, with remarkably good coordination over his limbs and he did perform that traditional kagura dance at their school festival once, but Hayami doesn’t think that he has much appreciation for Western classical music or their dances. Still, he would look amazing in a suit, as much as he’s uncomfortable with dressing up.

“I’m sorry for earlier, you know.” Ginjiro’s sudden words take her by surprise. When she glances up to look at him, Ginjiro’s dark eyes are on her as they sway to the rhythm together, unreadable. Frowning, Hayami squeezes his shoulder lightly in an attempt to get him to lighten up.

“What for?”

“The whole deal with your parents earlier,” he says, and his voice is serious as he twirls her effortlessly. “I couldn’t find one of the cufflinks I was supposed to wear tonight, so I told my own family to go on ahead. I didn’t plan this with your parents, if that’s what you were thinking.”

Hayami purses her lips as Ginjiro continues to lead her in the dance. “No, no. As much as your flirting leaves much to be desired,” Ginjiro manages a tiny smile at that, “I know you wouldn’t do something like that. But did you really have to escort me in?”

“Like I said earlier, it would seem strange if I just entered alone while you were there,” Ginjiro explains, and Hayami knows that she’s just whining at this point. If Ginjiro hadn’t offered to escort her in, the media would have spun the story in a completely different direction instead. Something like: Sparks crackle between two heirs! Bad blood between Sumiyuri and Sato families? “If you’re really that upset about it, how about I owe you one for this?”

“Damned if you do, damned it you don’t,” Hayami mutters under her breath, annoyed. “No matter what we do, there’ll always be some sort of ridiculous rumour floating around us. Ugh.”

“Well, I do know a way to stop those rumours,” Ginjiro shrugs, and Hayami looks up at him with wide eyes. Since when did he have such powerful connections in the media?

“What way?”

A gasp escapes her when Ginjiro pulls her into a dip, and her breath catches in her breath when Ginjiro leans in just a bit too close, his warm breath ghosting over the tip of her nose. His dark eyes sparkle with mischief, and for a moment, Hayami can’t look away.

“We turn them into the truth, of course.”

Hayami gapes at him for a full minute (probably not, but that’s what it feels like to her), before she regains her senses and pulls herself upright. “Like your flirting, your humour also leaves much to be desired, really.” Her cheeks are hot.

“I’m not joking. Think about it,” Ginjiro rests both hands on her waist and gently sways with her, his gaze serious once more. Hayami can’t bear to meet his gaze. “Your parents would approve if you got into a relationship with me, and then I would be able to take you away from that family you hate so much. I wouldn’t let them lay a hand on you ever again.”

“Ginjiro,” Hayami tries to say, but Ginjiro continues.

“My parents love you. My sisters love you. They’d treat you well.” He pauses. “And I… well, I’d take care of you. I would do everything to make you happy. You know I would.”

Hayami swallows, looking down at their feet moving in tandem together. It’s harder because Hayami knows it’s true: although he lays the flirting on a bit thick sometimes, Ginjiro would dote on her and take care of her with the same devotion he shows his family. And he’s one of her best friends, she doesn’t know what she would have done without him after… that incident back in her previous school. Hayami does love and care for him in return as well…

But probably, and perhaps unfortunately, not the way that Ginjiro wishes that she would.

“You don’t have to love me,” Ginjiro adds quietly, and for a second, Hayami feels like she’s about to burst into tears. In the next second, however, it’s instantly followed by a cocky, “I’m sure that I could get you to fall in love with me eventually, though.” The impending tears are instantly replaced with a roll of the eyes.

Still, Hayami’s grateful that he’s looking out for her. “Thanks, Ginjiro,” she says warmly, and really means it. “I don’t know whether I’m being silly or a fool, but… I’d still like to try finding my own happiness with my own hands first. If that doesn’t work out, well,” she shrugs, “at least I get Masako as a sister-in-law, am I right?”

Ginjiro gasps, playfully scandalised. “Masko is the one that you’re looking forward to? Not the sexy model husband who would make you breakfast in bed and buy your flowers everyday?”

“Toshiko-san knows my palette and cooks perfectly well, and I can buy my own flowers.” The song comes to a stop at that moment, and both Ginjiro and Hayami pull apart to dip into the final bow. “Thank you, though, Ginjiro.”

Ginjiro smiles, straightening up and adjusting his suit.

“It’s no problem at all, my dearest Hayami.”

>>>

“Oh my gods!”

Tanjirou flinches as Nezuko’s shriek (although banshee- scream would probably be more appropriate) echoes through their apartment. It feels a lot louder than usual, with the entire house being empty — his parents had taken the younger kids to visit their uncles Tsugikuni and Yoriichi in the countryside. With a sigh, he sets down the maths problem he’s been attempting to solve for the past half an hour and trudges outside. “Nezuko, keep it down. You’ll wake the neighbours and we might get a noise complaint again.”

“Keep it down?” Nezuko demands, not at all listening to him. She’s sitting in front of the television, sheet mask half falling off her face in indignant rage. “Keep it down? How on earth can I keep it down when this,” she gestures at the television screen almost violently with the remote, “is happening?”

Bemused, Tanjirou raises his head to look at the television — and remembers too late the promise that he’d made with Hayami earlier that night.

“Breaking news!” The live broadcast blares, unbearably loud in Tanjirou’s ears. “Sole heiress of Sumiyuri Corporation escorted by Sato Conglomerate Heir at the Ubuyashiki Charity Banquet, seen dancing and having intimate rendezvous together! Could there be a secret romance at play between the two rising stars of the business world?” The screen immediately cuts to some footage of Hayami on Ginjiro’s arm, being escorted down the red carpet —cut— Ginjiro feeding Hayami something next to a table of refreshments —cut— Ginjiro dipping Hayami during a dance, one arm keeping her upright and his mouth dangerously close to hers.

“Industry insiders say that the two have always been close since their childhood days, and Sumiyuri Hayami even transferred to Kimetsu Academy two years ago, where Sato Ginjiro was studying at the time. Could this be the blooming of a long budding childhood romance?”

The broadcast cuts to several magazine covers and pages that Hayami and Ginjiro had done together in the past, and a few blurry photos of the two of them in school uniform clearly taken by the paparazzi.

“That’s fucking ridiculous!” Nezuko hollers, and Tanjirou has to hold both her arms because she looks like she’s about to start swinging at the television any second. “As if she would ever like that flirty prick! Hayami-nee chan has higher standards than that! This is absolutely appalling and I—”

The television suddenly goes black, and Nezuko looks up to see her older brother with the remote in hand, mouth pressed into a neutral line.

“This—” Nezuko stutters for a moment, knowing that however annoyed she is, her brother must be feeling it ten times more. “What are you still doing here? Go!”

Tanjirou frowns. “Go where?”

“To where the banquet is, of course!” Nezuko cries. “Go confess to her on air and clear up this ridiculous scandal! I’m sure that Sato guy planned this… go and show that little slimy snake who’s boss!”

“Calm down, Nezuko.” Her older brother just lets out a sigh before setting down the remote, too calm for her liking. She needs to calm down? He’s the one who needs to be more upset about this! “Waltzing up to a high society charity banquet and professing my feelings to her in front of all the cameras… that would just lead to a bigger scandal of the same sort, not to mention irrational and… pretty much impossible. Besides, the tabloids are known for exaggerating. Her relationship with Ginjiro shouldn’t concern me.”

Although she’s still fuming, Nezuko notes how he says shouldn’t instead of doesn’t, but wisely chooses not to comment on it. It’s clear that her ever patient brother is annoyed enough as it is, brows slightly furrowed and mouth pressed flat. It can’t be a great feeling to see your crush dancing the night away with your love rival. “Uhm, whatever you say, niichan. Let’s just turn off the television for the rest of the night, they don’t know anything anyway! Fuck the tabloids!”

Tanjirou puts a hand over his younger sister’s mouth, one eyebrow raised. “And what’s with all the cursing and swearing tonight, hmm? Do you want me to tell okaa-san?”

Nezuko’s pink eyes go wide with terror. “Eye urm shorry,” she apologises immediately. “Eye wheel go to me rhoom now.”

Tanjirou smiles and releases her, watching as Nezuko scuttles off to her room. “Good girl.” The second the door closes behind her, he lets out a sigh and allows himself to flop onto the couch with a groan. Was this what Hayami didn’t want him to see? Why would she not want him to see this? No matter how hard he wracks his brain, he can’t make heads or tails of it.

Unwilling to sour his mood even further, he tosses a couch pillow onto his head in an attempt to bury those thoughts. And this must have been the surprise that Ginjiro was talking about… he can just see the smug look on Ginjiro’s face the next time they meet, hear the boasting in his ear...

He rolls over and buries his face in the pillow. Tanjirou doesn’t think like he’ll be able to act like he hasn’t seen the broadcast tomorrow, so it might be better to just confess earlier and be done with it. Pulling out his phone, he texts Hayami a quick message.

Saw the news. Hope you’re doing okay.

Tanjirou’s just about to toss his phone to the side when it starts vibrating in his hand. Nearly jumping in surprise, he looks down to see who’s calling and nearly jumps again when he sees that it’s Hayami. He didn’t expect the banquet to end so quickly. He’s not really ready to talk about this, but it would be strange if he didn’t pick up when he was texting her just a moment ago…

Reluctantly, he accepts the call and holds it up to his ear. Before he can so much as get a word out, however, Hayami’s already rambling at a mile per minute.

“What do you mean you saw the news?” Over the phone, her voice sounds frantic, almost guilty. “I just got back and I saw your text, I swear, Tanjirou, I really didn’t mean for you to find out like this—” Tanjirou’s heart sinks like a stone.

Well, that just makes Tanjirou feel a whole lot worse. So Hayami was trying to hide her relationship with Ginjiro from him, which probably means that she doesn’t see him as much as a close friend as he thought she did. “It’s alright, Hayami,” he reassures her, although he’s anything but. “Sorry for breaking our promise, but Nezuko was watching the television and called me over… I’m happy for you and Ginjiro, though. He’ll take good care of you—”

“No, no!” Hayami rushes to put a stop to Tanjirou’s words. “No, I’m not dating Ginjiro!”

“Oh.”

“I wanted to explain why I was going to be at the banquet with Ginjiro, since I know the two of you don’t like each other every much and he hasn’t been treating you all nice,” Hayami hurries to explain, as though afraid that Tanjirou might just hang up on her at any moment. “I really wasn’t intending on hiding anything from you, really!”

“I understand.” Tanjirou is probably feeling happier than he should be at the news, but he can’t bring himself to care at the moment. “You don’t have to feel worried about that in the future, alright? I understand that you and Ginjiro are good friends, I won’t be petty over something like that.”

“Thanks, Tanjirou.” He can hear the smile in Hayami’s voice. “So… will I still be seeing you tomorrow?”

“Of course!” As if he would turn down seeing her. Not the slightest chance! “Ah, but won’t there be a lot of paparazzi tailing you? Would it be better for you if we reschedule?”

“No!” Hayami insists, more vehemently than Tanjirou had expected. “I mean, no, there’s no need. Sure, there’ll be paparazzi about but I’m more than used to them, and I know all their tricks. I’m not going to let some nosy reporters ruin our day out tomorrow! I was looking forward to this all week!”

The second she says that, Tanjirou feels his entire face erupt with heat. For one moment, he’s almost grateful for the distance between them — so that she can’t see just how red his face has become. Little does he know that on the other end, Hayami is on the verge of losing it with embarrassment.

“O-okay, then, if you say so.” Tanjirou says to break the silence after neither of them speak for a whole minute. “Should I, uhh, wear a disguise of some sort? Like they do in the movies?”

“Well, you don’t need to, but you can wear a mask and cap just in case. Public scrutiny and the tabloids, and all that. I’ll be wearing a disguise tomorrow too, so don’t be too surprised when you see me!” She pauses for a moment. “Not really the outing that we planned, is it? Sorry for making you have to go through something like this. You’re sure you still want to hang out, right? You’re not saying that just to make me feel better?”

“I promise that I’m not,” Tanjirou tells her. “And I don’t mind. We’ll be like those spies in the CIA movies with disguises… sounds fun.”

He knows that that was the right thing to say when he can practically hear her smile over the phone. “Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow, Hayami.”

>>>

When Tanjirou meets Hayami at their designated spot — a mall at the outskirts of the town, where far less people are likely to recognise Hayami — he’s not sure that Hayami knows what a disguise is. She’s dressed in a pair of ordinary black sweats and tee with a matching mask and cap, and she makes it look like she belongs on the front page of a women’s sportswear magazine. Not exactly being subtle like Tanjirou had thought, but Hayami is a model, after all.

He’s surprised that no one has recognised her before, though.

Hayami spots him as he approaches, giving him a bright wave. Her lilac eyes are sparkling behind her sunglasses. “It’s good to see you,” she says breathlessly, shifting from one foot to the other as she speaks. Perhaps she’s nervous about someone recognising her? “Sorry again about yesterday.”

Tanjirou smiles behind his mask. “Don’t worry about it,” he says, before pulling something out of his bag. “Here this is for you.”

Hayami takes it from him, looking down at it with bemusement before her eyes light up. “This is—!”

“One of my father’s taro mochi buns.” Tanjirou answers, scratching at his cheek a little awkwardly. “I was helping my father with the dough this morning and saved one for you since you never get any.”

“It’s not my fault I can never wake up early enough to get one! They’re always sold out by the time I reach the bakery.” Hayami tucks it into her bag like it’s some sort of precious gift. “Thank you, Tanjirou. I’ll have it later when we’re in a, uhh, more secluded place.”

“Let’s go then,” Tanjirou suggests, and for some reason, Hayami’s gaze suddenly turns furtive. “Uhh, yeah, well, about that… you see…”

“Baby, is this strange guy bothering you?” An arm reaches out, and Tanjirou looks up to see a masked vaguely familiar face pulling Hayami into his side. “Hey, we’re here together, so—”

Tanjirou exhales through his teeth. “Ginjiro-san,” he says begrudgingly. Unfortunately, he feels as though he’s already starting to catch on to what’s going on here, and he’s not at all too pleased by it.

“Kamado?” Ginjiro looks similarly bemused as to what the other is doing here, looking down at Hayami as if to confirm he’s got the right person before looking up at Tanjirou again. “Kamado? Kamado Tanjirou?”

“That’s my name, yes.” Tanjirou sighs, turning to look at Hayami, who’s suddenly not meeting his eyes. “Hayami? Is there something you would like to explain?”

“Yeah, Hayami-chan, did you mix up the dates that you were meeting the two of us or something?” Ginjiro reaches out to sling an arm over Hayami’s shoulder, which she halfheartedly bats away. “There’s no way you expected me to hang out with this guy for a whole day willingly, did you?”

Tanjirou folds his arms over his chest, unamused. “You’re taking the words right out of my mouth.”

Ginjiro’s eyelid twitches. “Now, you look here, you—”

“Stop!” Hayami steps between the two of them, pushing them apart. “It’s my fault, I’m the one who asked both of you here to hang out together.”

“Why on earth would you do that?” Ginjiro mutters under his breath, disgusted at the thought. Hayami smacks him in the arm.

“Stop that.”

“Ow…”

“As much as I hate to say it, I have to agree with Ginjiro-san on this one,” Tanjirou says, obviously quite unhappy with the whole idea. “I thought that it’s obvious that we, ah, don’t enjoy each other’s company. I don’t see how today’s going to turn out enjoyable for either of us.”

“I know, I know…” Hayami sighs, pushing out her lower lip and twirling at the end of her ponytail. “That’s exactly why I thought to ask the two of you out today, since I knew you would never agree to come if you knew I invited the other—”

“With good reason… ouch!”

“Anyways, I thought that we could all hang out together like respectful, civilised people, and that the two of you could probably get to know each other a little better and be less… antagonistic towards each other!” Ginjiro and Tanjirou give each other a doubtful look, realise that they’re making the exact same expression, and turn away immediately. “I know it’s a little thick skinned of me to ask this when I’ve basically scammed the two of you into coming here, but would the two of you please just try being friendly for one day? For what it’s worth, I am sorry for doing this.”

Ginjiro and Tanjirou make matching disgusted expressions again, and Hayami sighs internally. Look at the two of them, getting along quicker than a house on fire. Any more and the two would probably burn each other down. Literally.

“For just one day?” She pleads, trying for the best puppy dog eyes she can. Maybe this could be counted as manipulation, but if it would get these two to attempt at getting along for once, it can’t be an entirely bad thing, right? “It would make me very, very happy?”

Ginjiro grumbles half heartedly, kicking at the ground. “Well…” he mutters after a moment, “I do owe you one after yesterday, so I guess I could try my best to put up with this guy for one day. But only one day, you hear me?”

“Thank you!” Hayami says brightly, before turning to look at Tanjirou. His normally cheerful expression has gone as flat as a punctured tyre, and Hayami does feel guilty for putting him up to this. He was all excited to spend the day with her, and while she did have good intentions, she did metaphorically pull the rug out from under his feet. “Tanjirou? If you really don’t want to, I’ll understand…”

“Why does he get a Just Say No option and I don’t?” Ginjiro grouses, and Hayami ignores him.

Finally, after a few beats of silence, Tanjirou lets out an exhale and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Fine, just for today, then.” Ginjiro’s expression turns a little dismayed — he was probably banking on Tanjirou turning this down for the both of them. “I understand that you had good intentions, but Hayami, let’s not make scamming people a habit, alright?”

Hayami grins sheepishly, releasing her hair from the death grip her fingers have on them. “Yes, understood.” She beams at the two of them. “Now, let’s get along well today!”

Ginjiro and Tanjirou exchange glances. This is going to be a very long day.

>>>

The first place their little trio for the day stops by is an obscure clothing shop, a brand which Tanjirou has never seen before. Hayami explains to him as they enter that although the pieces here aren’t those of the stereotypical big brands, they sell limited edition one of a kind fashion pieces that never go out of style. All Tanjirou knows is that he’s never had anyone escort him to a plush velvet seat the moment he’s entered a store, or offered him drinks of his choice.

From the way Hayami greets the staff by name and the way they fawn over her, however, they must already know who she is. For a moment, he worries whether the paparazzi will find them here. He’s not really interested in having his face plastered all over the tabloids, as happy as that would make Nezuko.

“They won’t find us here, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Ginjiro remarks offhandedly when Hayami is being led around the store, looking through some of their newer pieces. Tanjirou stiffens for a moment, before he turns to look at Ginjiro. Had he really been that obvious? “You look like you’re a criminal who’s just escaped the pound. Relax or you’ll be giving your peasantry away.”

Tanjirou had almost been grateful until he’d said that last sentence. Barely refraining from rolling his eyes, he instead opts to stand and look through some of the items that they have on display.

There are socks here. Limited edition socks. Truly the statement of fashion and luxury. And they cost—

“You’ve probably never even seen price tags this high before,” Ginjiro comments snidely from behind, and Tanjirou refuses to grace the boy with even a single look, continuing to look through the items. He’s just trying to get a rise out of him, and Tanjirou refuses to play his petty games. His parents raised him better than this.

“So what if I haven’t?” Tanjirou retorts coolly. “I have no need for grossly overinflated socks. Not to mention, these look ridiculous.”

Okay, maybe he needs to practise some breathing exercises to calm himself down.

Ginjiro snorts. “Not that I would expect someone like you to be able to appreciate the finer arts. No wonder why Hayami wants us to wear disguises, I wouldn’t be caught dead in the same photograph as you.”

“Don’t insult Hayami’s character like that,” Tanjirou answers, turning away. Ginjiro is just trying to rile him up, he has to remind himself. He knows Hayami, and Hayami is nothing like that. They’re wearing disguises today because of the scandal from yesterday, not because Hayami is ashamed of Tanjirou.

But, a nefarious voice whispers in his mind, she didn’t have any problem being all close to Ginjiro yesterday.

“Why wouldn’t she? The two of you are leagues apart,” Ginjiro mutters under his breath. “You’re probably just some kind of charity case to her, or something along those lines…”

Tanjirou snaps. To hell with self restraint. If Ginjiro wants to aim below the belt, there’s no point holding back blows.

“Well,” Tanjirou retorts, uncharacteristically petty all of a sudden. “At least I’m not a desperate dog, slobbering all over Hayami when she doesn’t want it. Tell me, Ginjiro-san, how many times has Hayami smacked me away when I come into contact with her, hmm? How about taking that unwanted attention somewhere else where it’s actually wanted?”

Ginjiro’s face twists, and Tanjirou knows he’s hit a sore spot. “You—!” His fingers fist at Tanjirou’s collar, dragging the shorter boy closer until they’re eye to eye.

Tanjirou has no idea how that situation would have escalated, so it’s fortunate that Hayami shows up when she does, a small mountain of blouses in her arms that she can’t quite see around. “These look pretty interesting, I think I’m going to the changing rooms to try them out!” She says brightly, before trailing off when she sees the position that the two of them are in. “Uhh, guys? What’s going on here?”

The two spring apart almost instantaneously. “Nothing,” Ginjiro manages to spit out, the tips of his ears still suspiciously red. Tanjirou takes a deep breath and a moment to readjust his collar.

“He was just, uhh, cleaning something off my shirt.” Tanjirou makes an attempt at a reassuring smile, which isn’t working very well by the look of suspicion on Hayami’s face. Still, she doesn’t ask too much, instead giving them both a smile.

“Well, I was just thinking of going to try these out!” Hayami says, showing them both the clothes she’s picked out. “Want to help me rate them? I’m going to head over to the changing rooms now, but if the two of you don’t want to come along, I’m fine with that too…”

“Of course I’m coming along,” Ginjiro says loudly over Tanjirou, who barely manages to hold back a sigh and continues. “I’d like that a lot,” he says earnestly, and Hayami beams.

“Let’s go then!”

The second Hayami turns and moves off towards the changing rooms, Ginjiro and Tanjirou exchange glares one more time behind her back before they race to catch up with her.

>>>

The next stop of their little outing today is a sweets shop. Hayami has always had a preference for quaint, cosy European style cafes, and this one looks like it’d walked right off one of the sidewalks of France. After a few seconds of poring over the menu behind the counter, however, Hayami frowns and turns to look at them.

“I need to go to the bathroom for a moment,” she informs the two of them apologetically. Tanjirou barely holds back a grimace. He’s going to be left alone with Ginjiro again, and gods know how well that had gone the last time. “Would the two of you mind ordering first?”

“Of course I can order for you,” Ginjiro cuts in before Tanjirou can reply. “What would you like?”

Hayami scrunches up her face at the menu for a few seconds before giving up with a shrug of the shoulders. “Anything, really. The two of you can decide for me, I really got to go!” With that, she makes her way out of the cafe with an urgent bounce in her step, the bell hanging at the door chiming as if to announce her exit.

Great, Tanjirou thinks, keeping his eyes firmly on the menu. He’s determined not to respond to any of Ginjiro’s petty taunts today. Just great.

Neither of them say anything for a while.

“Good afternoon,” the cashier sounds polite, if not tired. Or perhaps annoyed. A university student working here part time, maybe? “What can I get you?”

“I’m thinking… a caramel and vanilla latte, and maybe some of the sweet jam or marmalade pastries,” Tanjirou says out loud, in an attempt to be polite to Ginjiro before ordering. After all, he’s already more than familiar with Hayami’s palate, having accompanied her many times to her shifts at Sweetie Cup. Hayami’s sweet tooth is almost scary to be reckoned with.

Ginjiro makes a face, as though he’s trying not to roll his eyes at Tanjirou. “That’s not even real coffee, seriously… That shit is like, ninety percent sugar and ten percent real espresso. You’re going to make Hayami drink something like that?” Tanjirou stares at him.

“That’s what she usually orders when we go out together,” he replies flatly. Ginjiro scoffs.

“Probably because she has to accommodate your peasant taste…” he mutters under his breath, before turning to the waiting cashier. “You probably don’t know what she actually likes. A rose tea and a slice of strawberry shortcake, thanks.”

Tanjirou frowns. “I don’t think you should be ordering the most expensive thing on the menu for someone who isn’t even here to make the decision.” The cashier stares between the two of them, fingers frozen above the ordering system. They’re not sure which order to take now. “It’s not very considerate to Hayami now, is it?”

“I never said I was going to make Hayami pay for it in the first place—”

“Oh, what are the two of you still doing here? You’re still not done ordering?” The two of them whirl around simultaneously at the sound of Hayami’s voice, to see her walking up to them with a look of confusion on her face. Silently, the cashier breathes a sigh of relief from behind the counter. When Hayami sees the tense looks on their faces, she frowns. “You’re not arguing now, are you?”

Tanjirou makes a face, unable to lie but not wanting to admit that they had, but before he can decide on a course of action, Ginjiro cuts in smoothly.

“No, not at all,” he says hastily. “I was just… thinking about what to order and couldn’t decide. All the stuff here looks, uhh, too appetising, y’know?” He gestures at the menu. Tanjirou stares at Ginjiro like he’s grown a second and then a third head.

They were just squabbling a moment ago, and both of them know that they’re not on good terms. So why is Ginjiro covering for him now?

The cashier gives him a flat look but wisely chooses not to comment. Their hourly rate probably doesn’t pay them enough for it. From the look on Hayami’s face, it doesn’t seem like she fully believes him either, but decides to let it drop anyway.

“Right… I’ll just… order for myself,” she says, looking between the two of them strangely before stepping up to the counter. “I’ll have a vanilla latte and a strawberry shortcake, then.”

Tanjirou and Ginjiro exchange a glance. Neither of them were totally correct after all, and so neither can gloat.

The tea is an awkward one between the two of them.

>>>

Finally, after the sun has gone down, the three of them exit the mall with Tanjirou and Ginjiro still no closer than they were before.

Still, Hayami looks pleased with how today has turned out — they haven’t gone for each other’s throats, not even once! — and so Tanjirou supposes that that is a win for all of them, Ginjiro included.

He walks both Hayami to the pick up area (—and by extension, Ginjiro), and is surprised when Katsuo-san is nowhere to be seen, only a sleek white BMW with an unfamiliar man dressed in a neatly pressed suit waiting for them. “Young Master,” he greets Ginjiro with an impeccable bow. “Miss Sumiyuri.”

Tanjirou glances over at Hayami. “Is Katsuo-san not coming?”

Ginjiro baulks. “You mean, that grumpy old man lets you call him by name?” He asks incredulously, which neither Tanjirou or Hayami seem to hear.

“Right, I was going to have a sleepover tonight at Ginjiro’s house,” Hayami explains. Tanjirou barely manages to stop himself from making a face, and then actually doesn’t when he catches sight of the smug expression that Ginjiro’s wearing. Luckily for him, Hayami doesn’t seem to notice that either. “However, I did make plans with you first today, and I do owe you one after the little stunt I pulled,” she seems sheepish at that, tugging a loose strand of hair behind her ear, “so, would you like to join us?”

Tanjirou can’t decide whether to burst out laughing or feel offended by the look of horror that appears on Ginjiro’s face.

“I’m not too sure that would be a good idea,” Ginjiro says, a tad too quickly to be sincere. “You know my younger sister, Hayami, she doesn’t like having people that she doesn’t know over—” Hayami frowns up at him.

“Isn’t Masako-chan, no, isn’t your entire family out of town tonight at a socialite gala?” Hayami raises an eyebrow. “Or do you just not want Tanjirou to come along?”

“No, no,” Ginjiro deflects instantly. “He’s more than welcome to come over if he wants to!” He looks like he would rather eat poison than say those words again.

“You don’t have to open up your house if you don’t want to,” Hayami insists. “I understand that it’s your house, and you don’t have to open it up to a stranger if you don’t want to. I can just arrange a sleepover at Tanjirou’s house another day, and—”

“No, I’m very sure! Kamado-kun can come along all he wants!”

>>>

And that’s how they — all three of them — end up at the Sato family mansion, Tanjirou dressed in some spare guest pyjamas lying around. Unlike the traditional Sumiyuri Estate, the Sato mansion seems to focus more on the newer trends, with tasteful pieces of abstract art hanging on the walls and eclectic furniture in all shapes decorating the rooms.

Hayami charges the two of them with preparing the snacks for the movie while she gathers the pillows and blankets, so the boys are left to their own devices again in the kitchen. In any ordinary setting, Ginjiro would probably just microwave popcorn or order some food online, but his ultimate rival is here, and he’s not going to pass up this chance to show Tanjirou up.

“Cream puffs,” he says, insistent. Tanjirou shakes his head from the other side of the kitchen island and holds up a bag.

“Caramel corn.”

Ginjiro scoffs. “That’s peasant food, Kamado-kun. I’m the host tonight, and I have no intention of feeding my guest second rate food.” The singular noun of guest makes it very clear that Tanjirou is unwelcome here.

“The cream puffs deflate with time and aren’t suited for the length of any movie,” Tanjirou insists, barely managing to keep himself from rolling his eyes. “Besides, Hayami likes caramel corn. She asks for them all the time when she’s over at my house for movie night.”

The little argument may have developed into a full blown kitchen showdown if it hadn’t been for Hayami wandering into the kitchen, freezing the two of them in place. “Oooh, cream puffs!” She says excitedly, reaching out to take some from Ginjiro and popping them into her mouth. Ginjiro barely has a moment to feel smug before she sees the caramel corn in Tanjirou’s arms. “And you found the caramel corn! Together with the cream puffs, I think that’ll be more than enough snacks for tonight, won’t it?”

When neither of the boys reply, she frowns at the two of them. “Uhh, guys?” Tanjirou and Ginjiro snap out of their little staring match instantly.

“Yes, of course it’ll be more than enough—”

“Right, I was just distracted for a moment—”

Hayami pauses to stare at the two of them. Were they… having a moment? Had she interrupted them when they were finally starting to get along there?

“I could go first, if the two of you weren’t done with deciding on the snacks…” Hayami says slowly, and the two boys practically scramble over each other to get out of the kitchen.

“Nope, we’re good!”

Hayami frowns, following the two boys out bemusedly. “Okay…” She moves to sit at the side of the couch, patting the seat next to her. “Come on, hurry up and sit! I want to see what movies there are available.”

Both Ginjiro and Tanjirou take a step towards the offered seat and crash hard into each other. Before Hayami can so much as ask if they’re alright, the two glare at each other, sparks practically flying.

“I like the middle seat,” Tanjirou says suddenly, the pettiest Hayami has ever heard from him, ever. Ginjiro glares back at him.

“My house. I get the middle seat.”

“And as the host, shouldn’t you be more hospitable to—”

Hayami sees no other way to break up the fight, except by shifting to claim said seat herself. “Well, now neither of you are going to get it,” she shrugs, picking up the remote to flick through the Netflix catalogue. The squabbling is cut off immediately as the two boys turn to stare at her. “Early bird gets the worm, and all that. Really though, why so much quarrel over the middle seat? Seriously, guys.”

Tanjirou’s mouth opens and closes, like a particularly entertaining goldfish, while Ginjiro just grumbles and runs a hand through his hair.

“It’s got the softest cushion,” he mutters in way of an explanation, ears red, settling in the seat to her right. Tanjirou quietly takes a seat at the other.

Hayami bounces up and down on it lightly, surprised. She never knew that, even with all the times she’s been over.

“Really? It feels the same to me— oh!” Hayami looks at the two of them, startled. “We completely forgot about the drinks. The two of you choose the movie, I’ll be right back!” And with that, she disappears into the kitchen once more.

Both of them reach for the remote at the same time, and immediately jerk their arms back when their fingers meet. Ginjiro glares.

“Hayami likes horror.”

Tanjirou glares right back. “She likes animated family movies more.” Ginjiro was probably too pushy for Hayami to turn down the horror movie — he remembers her clinging to his arm when they visited the haunted house that Rengoku-sensei had organised for their class.

“She loves horror movies! Hayami’s said that—”

Hayami appears from the kitchen, carrying three cans of soft drinks. She stops when she sees the two of them glaring at each other, her own eyes narrowing. “Boys?”

“We’re not fighting,” Ginjiro rushes to clarify (or lie, Tanjirou supposes. Semantics.) before Hayami can form a conclusion. “We were just discussing which genre we should pick from. Hayami, you like horror, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I love ho—” she begins to say, but then rapidly cuts herself off when she remembers that Tanjirou is right there, staring at her with surprise written all over his face. Right, the last haunted house… it had only been a teeny weeny fib! “Uh, I mean I love horror when I have friends to watch them with! Makes me feel less scared and all that, you know?”

Her morality rolls its eyes while her pride is crying on its knees.

Ginjiro’s chest looks a little puffed out at her words. “So that’s why you watch them with me and not this guy,” he says, and Hayami has… no clue what on earth he’s talking about now. “It’s alright, Hayami, I completely understand.”

No, there isn’t! Hayami squints at him. What exactly is there for you to understand here?

“I suppose we can watch an animated family movie tonight,” Ginijro relents, taking his seat on the couch once again. Tanjirou just stares at Ginjiro for a moment, before shrugging and sinking back into the couch, clearly as lost as Hayami feels. But well, the boys aren’t arguing anymore, so that’s a win, isn’t it?

She slips between the two of them as the beginning of Inside Out begins to play, sagging into the cushions. Ahh, she and Ginjiro have watched this movie so many times before that she can practically recite the lines in her sleep. It’s become one of her comfort movies by now, but she just knows that Ginjiro is going to be sobbing again by the end of it.

And precisely because of that, she’s already nodding off before they even get to the ten minute mark, her head lolling to the side. Ginjiro is the first to notice, and he gives her a little nudge. “Falling asleep already?” Tanjirou glances over.

“Well, it’s been a long day.” She yawns, pillowing her head on Ginjiro’s shoulder. “And the two of you always look as though you’re on the verge of throwing hands, and I can’t have that, okay? Both of you are really important to me, and I just want my friends to be friends so that we can all get along…”

With that, Hayami finally drifts off the sleep, tuckered out for the night.

Awkward but unwilling to break the silence, the movie continues until the moment Bing Bong is left in the Memory Dump, and Tanjirou hears soft sniffling from the other end of the couch. When he subtly glances to the side, he’s horrified to see Ginjiro with the blanket pulled up to his chin, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Silently, he picks up the tissue box and offers it to the boy.

For a moment, Ginjiro glares at him (although the threatening image is much ruined by his watery eyes), but at the last moment he reaches over to take some tissues and silently blows his nose.

Tanjirou returns the tissue box to the side delicately, and not another word is said until the end credits are rolling.

They’re clearing up after them with Hayami fast asleep on the couch when Ginjiro suddenly says, “You’re not actually all that bad, Kamado.”

Tanjirou pauses from where he’s picking up his empty can, wondering whether it’s another gambit from the boy. Eventually, he settles for a bemused ‘thanks, I suppose?’

Ginjiro rolls his eyes. “That’s the most that you’re getting out of me,” he snarks, before picking up a candy wrapper.

“We could be friends too, you know,” Tanjirou offers with a shrug of his shoulders. “Hayami definitely seems to think so.”

There’s a quiet snort, and Tanjirou barely manages to catch the chocolate bon bon tossed at his face. When he shakes his head, Ginjiro is grinning at him, but somehow with far less of his usual vitriol. It’s a strangely pleasant sight to see.

“Don’t push your luck too far, Kamado,” he warns with a roguish grin. “ Hayami’s still mine, and I’m keeping you at arm’s length.”

Tanjirou lets out a sigh, pushing down a smile. “We’ll see about that. I’m not planning on giving up either.”

Ginjiro scoffs at that, but there’s a grin curling at the corner of his mouth.

“And may the best man win, hmm?”

The two settle onto the pull out mattresses at the foot of the couch, and Tanjirou watches as Ginjiro pulls the covers over his head and goes to sleep. For a moment, he simply stares at Hayami’s peaceful sleeping face before he pulls the covers over his head.

“May the best man win,” he murmurs as sleep pulls him under.

>>>

Ginjiro stands his ground firmly in front of the stove. There’s a small mountain of little pancakes next to him, neatly stacked on a plate. There’s another cooking in the pan, courtesy of chef Sato Ginjiro. Tanjirou didn’t know the man could actually cook, which is another point that Tanjirou will use to contend with him.

“Pancakes. With chocolate drizzle and fresh strawberries.”

“Waffles,” Tanjirou insists, shaking his head. “Hayami likes them. She says they look like little hashtags.”

Ginjiro almost looks pained. “This is what I make every time Hayami comes over to my house for a sleepover.”

“Yeah, well, maybe it’s time you tried something new, isn’t it?”

Ginjiro glares at him for a moment, before he rolls his eyes and steps forward. “Oh, for god’s sake,” Tossing his spatula to the side, he shoves Tanjirou out of the kitchen. “It’s the ass crack at the beginning of the weekend, and I’ve only got pancake mix in my house. You can buy a damn waffle iron if you want to make her waffles so bad.”

“I will!” Tanjirou calls back, as he makes his way back to the living room. “You’ll see the best waffles the next time I come by your house. By the way, I think that pancake of yours is burning!”

“It isn’t! And there’ll never be a next time, asshole!”

Tanjirou swallows his laugh and sits next to where Hayami is still fast asleep on the couch. She’d slept through the whole of last night like a baby, even through Ginjiro’s awful snoring and their bickering when they’d gotten up in the morning. Tanjirou had never been more ready to suffocate a man in his sleep.

Still, there’s pancakes and regrettably no waffles to be eaten, which taste best fresh off the pan, and so Hayami must wake up. He reaches out to shake her gently.

“Hayami,” he whispers gently. “Time for breakfast.”

She doesn’t stir at all, not that Tanjirou didn’t expect it. Sumiyuri Hayami is a notoriously deep sleeper, with the ability to sleep through an earthquake. But Tanjirou knows what to do.

He moves down to where her feet are covered by the blanket, and gently tugs it off. After a few seconds of being exposed to the morning cold, one of her toes twitches and she sits up abruptly, a grumpy look on her face and her platinum hair spilling everywhere.

So pretty.

“Why?” Hayami moans, looking like she’s about to slump back into the couch. Tanjirou holds back a laugh and reaches out to shake some alertness into her.

“Ginjiro-san is making pancakes,” he explains, and at the mention of Ginjiro’s name, Hayami’s eyes become a little more alert, her back straightening.

“Tanjirou.” She rubs at her eyes, before giving him a crooked smile. “You and Ginjiro didn’t end up fighting after I fell asleep last night, did you?”

Tanjirou laughs.

“Nope, we became best friends.” He quips, and Ginjiro yells back from the kitchen.

“No, we fucking didn’t!”

Hayami manages a laugh at the thought, getting off the couch. The sun is shining, there are pancakes to be eaten, and two of her closest friends aren’t at each other’s throats — at least not for now. Maybe all her little scheming and plotting did end up with some fortunate outcomes after all.

“Good morning,” Hayami grins sleepily at Tanjirou. “Let’s go eat some pancakes.”

[tardigradetheking]

How to make Mya zuku still struggle with his quirk without bone breaking

Ok step one he figured out how not to break his bones then he goes to punch something and his hand breaks because hands are delicate. Optional solutions

Brass knuckles

hitting with elbows

using your full arm to create wind gusts

picking up a rock and throwing it really hard

Now he wants to jump on a roof. Only to misjudge and go flying an extra 30 feet and break his leg. Possible solutions.

being vary careful and learning how to minimize damage

learning parkour (AKA option one but more stylish)

Wind gusts yet again

Ok so he interns with Gran Torino and tries to do the spring board thing only walls aren't built to survive that much force and he imbeds his legs into a wall. Solutions are

learn to dodge a different way

learn to generate wind gusts with your limbs

The second one has added midair mobility and the potential to let him fly (if you don't want izuku to be even more OP and have a punch of quirks

This version of izuku becomes a graceful precise fighter, who probably favors hit and run and devastating precision strikes and overall a hero much more interesting to write and see fight.

[library-of-ohara]

Pokemon AU Part 2 -Marco-

Part two of the Pokemon AU for anon! Request filled by @cyborg-franky and art by @donivanessdoodles AN: I tried to smush in OP lore for some characters and mix it in a workable way for Pokemon but I'm not 100% in the know so I did my best.

AN: I wanted to go down Marco being a navigator route more than a doctor, but with some herbology, knowledge to help his and other people’s pokemon.

Meet The Team

Starmie always seemed like a strange choice when people would ask about the man’s team. He would chuckle and shrug his shoulders without giving much away. The truth was, Marco hadn’t planned on being a pokemon trainer, it wasn’t that he didn’t like the idea, not at all.

He just wanted to go to the sea and learn navigation. He spent every day down by the beach as a child and watched the ships come in. Wishing that he could take to see and learn everything there was to learn one day.

It was that day that Marco while trying to work out patterns the ships would come in from, slipped and tumbled into the sea. His Starmie saw him struggling and came to his aid, making sure he was fine.

From that day on the same Starmie would be waiting by the rocks, as if to make sure the boy would be safe. He later came back with a Pokeball, asking the pokemon if he wanted to join him.

Starmie and Marco have been together ever since.

--

Pidgeot [a pigdey when he met them] was his second pokemon when he was older, late teens, he’d been reading a lot on herbs and their effect on pokemon after he’d started to watch all the wild bird pokemon snap and eat at certain ones. He would sit and watch for hours when he needed a break from navigation studies.

He liked watching bird pokemon, they were the masters of navigation. Always knowing where to go, how far, could go by smell miles away just to get to a landmark they recognised. It always had him fascinated.

That was when he picked up all the other little quirks from the birds and started to take notes on what plants they would chomp at.

One Pidgey would always come close to Marco who would sit there quietly. A smile on his face as the bird pecked at his book, hoping for food. He’d share his lunch with the bird, watching him fly off every day before meeting him each morning.

Marco caught him one day and the pokemon has grown with Marco over the years, gives him good insight on what plants seem to have healing/helping properties and helps with learning certain sea patterns around the year.

--

Cramorant was obtained by Marco when he was older. He was starting to sail with Whitebeard, as a navigator. The bird had pretty feathers, but he would always watch them being stupid and his Cramorant had to have been the dumbest one he’d ever seen.

Each time he would come home he’d see the bird swallowing anything and everything it could get. He’d seen the damn thing almost choke to death on a small geodude, that was when Marco stepped in.

Capturing it for its own good. He at least got a new friend, the pokemon was hardly weak either. He didn’t use this one to help him learn anything, but he still cares for him all the same.

---

Tropius was a fun find, he’d been sailing with Whitebeard for some years now, they’d stopped by a tropical island, needing to anchor the ship somewhere safe while a storm he’d predicted rolled over the ocean. They explored the island for a bit where Marco found pineapples.

Sitting and eating them he watched as his Tropius lurched over and sniffed at all the fallen pineapples. Marco chuckled and held one out, which the creature took happily. Marco wondered if he fed the pokemon nothing but pineapples.. would that be a new variant?

He was charmed by the tropical pokemon and caught him. Wouldn’t hurt to have something other than birds and Starmie as part of the team.

--

Pidove was simple, the little thing had got lost at sea and ended up on the ship. Marco would feed it every day and it would simply sit on his window as he worked. Cooing and making happy sounds.

He became a comfort to Marco, every morning the bird would be there, singing and making sounds and he would roost on the empty supply barrel on the wall outside. Marco was fond of the Pidove and simply tapped him with a Pokeball and the rest was history.

The pokemon are happy to be accepted.

---

Exeggutor was from his and Ace’s trip for their first anniversary. They stayed at this cabin and the palm tree-like pokemon would always smell food and stick its neck in through the window. At first, it was funny, and Ace laughed and teased him about looking just like one.

Every mealtime Exeggutor would try and shove its head in and get something to eat, he blamed Ace, he always fed wild pokemon which attracted them.

Marco had to catch it in the end just to stop it. He then grew fond of it during their vacation and felt it fit in with his team.

----

Marco’s Story

He’s the person you find walking around near the start handing out potions and good advice. He’s learned from his studies as well as watching his pokemon interaction with certain vegetation how to make healing potions.

Knows his berries at a glance.

His true passion is navigating and has honed his abilities since he was young. Whitebeard would be lost both metaphorically and physically without him. He’s first in command when Whitebeard is being challenged with the rest of the elite four.

[father-time-and-baby-new-year]

alphabet boy

SYNOPSIS: You should feel extremely lucky that the handsome and intelligent Armin Arlert is your tutor...even when he's a little mean to you. Because that's your fault, isn't it? He wouldn't have to be mean if you weren't so damn stupid.

PAIRING: Armin x FEM!Reader

DEDICATED TO: armin fuckers. non armin fuckers, i hope i can convert you.

TW: dubcon touching, manipulative behavior, gaslighting, academia shaming,

WC: 1.8k

“Maybe you’re not cut out for this class.”

He said it so casually, a comment spoken between the flip of textbook pages. You couldn’t shake off the undeniable hurt.

“I-Uhm, uh, yeah I have to study a lot...but I like this class. It was a pain to get off the waitlist.” You keep your voice optimistic and light, hoping to mask the offense taken.

You don’t know why Armin would say that, but maybe he was just being logical...he’s seen you struggle, of course, he’d think the class was too hard for you.

The blond sighs, closing his novel that he brought with him while he waited for you to finish your practice problems.

“You can barely keep up with the weekly homework assignments. You didn’t even hand in your assignment last week, right? Better drop out now before the add and drop deadline.” His voice is soft and cold at the same time. It’s unnerving.

You tuck your hair behind your ears, eyes set low, too ashamed to meet your tutor’s. Armin had been your tutor for the past few weeks now, and you thought it was going pretty well. He was so so smart that you couldn’t help but be a little starstruck. He was handsome too, short-cropped blond hair, wide blue eyes, with a wardrobe that was composed of slacks and sweaters.

Usually, he was always overly polite and charming. You could make countless mistakes and his patience was endless. He had some off-days where he was a little withdrawn and quiet. You never held it against him though, knowing he had no obligation to make idle chatter. But sometimes, you could feel his chilly gaze watching you even though he had a book propped open.

“I emailed the professor, he was really chill about it. Last week was really rough for me, you know? I wasn’t feeling well and...”

“You know excuses don’t fly in the real world right? You’re in college now. Professor Ackerman was just being courteous. He probably thinks you’re lazy.” Even though you try not to look at him, you can feel Armin’s azure blues burn holes into you. There was this quiet intensity about him that made you worry about when the restraints would come off.

Armin can’t help but let condescension drip over his words. Any self-respecting person would defend themselves, but not you. Not when you’re already broken by your own insecurities that make it that much easier for him to trample on.

He can already see pearly-sheened tears leaking from the corner of your hopeless eyes. How cute. You part your pretty little mouth to say something, but no words come out. You close your mouth soon enough, looking every bit like a dumb little airhead.

So he continues: “You know your classmates learned all the first few chapters from high school right? You’re the only one starting fresh.” He moves closer, elbows inching closer to infiltrate your little personal-space bubble, knees knocking into yours under the desk.

More tears form under your lower lashes, and Armin mentally counts the crystal droplets. You’re recoiling into yourself like a shrinking violet which only encourages Armin to go just a little farther.

“You don’t even have your major picked out yet. This is a core class for your classmates, you know. You’re wasting your-no, everyone’s time.”

Not wanting to cry in front of your tutor, you rub your eyes with the sleeve of your jacket, fully aware of how utterly pathetic you look right now.

In a small voice, you manage to utter, “I have a right...to be in this class. Even though I’m slow now, I think with some decent amount of studying...I’ll catch up. Even if I’m not-” you take a deep breath, “as quick as my classmates, I still really enjoy what I learn. And..and...I think at the end of the day, that’s what really matters!”

Armin scoffs, “Do you really like the class or are you staying for Ackerman? God knows how many fangirls he’s had to put up with.”

Even as he spoke those words, Armin knew it wasn’t entirely true. You admired the man zealously and had read all of his published papers. Honestly, your admiration had always annoyed him.

You wince at the insinuation but you could feel the anger simmering in your gut, “You have no right to imply that! Wh-why-” Your voice breaks, “are you being so mean?”

Armin thinks you’re so cute, the way you jut out your bottom lip. So cute and pathetic. The corners of his lips quirk upwards. It’s almost endearing how you say “mean” like it’s the worst thing a person can be.

“Am I being mean or am I being realistic?” The blond coos, “I’m your tutor, right? I know the best for you.”

He takes your silence as an invitation to goad you harder: “You’re only upset because I’m telling you what you don’t want to hear.”

You don’t notice the proximity until Armin lays his hand over yours, squeezing the soft flesh of your palms. His voice is gentle as he reassures you: “Hey, hey, don’t cry. It’s okay.”

He made you cry, but you don’t have it in you to pull away from the only semblance of comfort given to you. His chair scrapes the floor as he sets it right beside yours, wrapping an arm around you, encouraging you to lean your head against his shoulder.

It’s a little sad but this is probably the most physical contact you’ve gotten in a while. You’re an utter mess, and on top of all that, touch-starved.

You’re still sniffling like a crybaby, trying to sort your own emotions out. You take a few deep breaths and force yourself to face the facts:

You’re behind.

The class is too much work for you.

Armin’s right, you’re upset because he’s telling you what you don’t want to hear.

“D-do you really think I should drop the class?” Your voice is so defeated, a pinch louder than a whisper.

His long fingers play with the ends of your hair, “I know this class is really important to you and we both want you to do well...so why don’t we increase our tutoring sessions? Maybe we should meet three times a week.”

He smiles at you, and it looks so genuine. You’re immensely grateful, you are, but confusion washes over you, “Wow, Uh, that’ll be great actually but um, uni tutoring services is once a week...so-”

Armin dismisses your concerns with a gentle wave of his hands, “Don’t worry, It’ll be off the books. Think of this as private tutoring. Of course, we’ll have to start meeting in my room from now on.”

While he doesn’t elaborate on why you have to meet in his dorm, you assume Armin has a good reason and it probably involves university-sanctioned student-tutor guidelines.

You’re stammering out thank-you’s, still trying to rub the tears out of your eyes until you feel a soft handkerchief wiping them away.

“It’s okay, don’t worry.” He reassures, “Don’t use your sleeve. It’s too rough for your pretty face.”

You blush under his words, wide eyes locked into his oceanic blues, “I d-don’t know if I’ll be able to compensate you f-for the private tutoring.”

His eyebrows crease as he gives you a smile full of pearly teeth, “You don’t have to worry about that for now.” His hands graze over your knuckles, “We’ll figure something out.”

“Thank you Armin.” You say it so sincerely, trying to muster the biggest smile you can after the blond essentially trampled over your self-esteem to only nurse it back with sweet promises.

“Well, we better finish today’s work then.” He responds calmly, not bothering to detangle himself from you. You can feel his body heat radiating onto you, and how his hand moved to casually rest on your thigh. But that’s normal right? If you think about it, Armin was not exactly adverse to touch. During your past tutoring sessions, his hand would always be on the small of your back or shoulders.

“Hey, you’re not getting distracted again, are you?” His voice is playful like he isn’t sliding his hand up and down the span of skin between your skirt and tights. When you don't respond, he pinches your inner thigh, eliciting a startled gasp from you.

"Focus." It's a demand so it must be followed.

Embarrassed, you nod your head and return your focus to the problem sets even though your hands are shaky as you grip the ballpoint pen.

You don’t notice how the blond’s eyes gleam under the fluorescent lighting at your easy compliance. He’s always liked obedient girls.

Your thighs are growing warmer, and it doesn’t help to have Armin peering over you. Still, you try your best to lull yourself to focus until a ringtone breaks your concentration.

Armin breaks away from you to find his phone and you find your body subconsciously missing the warmth. He lightly curses under his breath once he sees the contact name, but answers nonetheless.

“Yeah...sorry babe. I forgot. I’ll be right over.” He sounds apologetic but he looks downright bored.

And like that, the call is over. He looks over at you with an apology falling from his lips, “Sorry about that. I forgot I had something to do today. We’ll end early.”

Your throat is dry as you ask, “Was that your girlfriend?” You regretted your words the moment they escaped. That was none of your business. It doesn’t matter if he was holding you earlier. He was doing so because you were bawling like a baby. But why did he touch your thighs?

That doesn’t have to mean anything, you rationalize. Besides, Armin would never make a move on you. He was a handsome senior with a perfect GPA and a powerful position in the student government. Stupid freshman girls like you are not worth the time he so generously gives out.

The blond smirks, seeming to notice your internal struggle, “Something like that. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure she won’t distract me from our future sessions.”

That was a puzzling comment. His girlfriend supposedly distracting from your study time wasn’t even a concern you held.

“No, no, that’s ok.” You quickly assure, “You’ve already helped me out so much.”

The blond pats the top of your head like you were a puppy, “I’d do anything for my cute little student.”

The way your face heats up with a dark blush should be criminal. All he did was pat your head, and you’re looking at him starry-eyed like he didn’t grope your thighs under the table. Honestly, all your cute little blubbering had gone straight to his cock. Annie would have to handle his big problem.

These private sessions are going to be fun.

part I ---- complete

[izusun]

Goblin anon here absolutely screeching over feral quirkless Midoriya, it's everything I wanted

I would like to also introduce a brand (my brand) of feral to Midoriya: pyromaniac.

Imagine Midoriya getting through the entrance exam by saving people, but also by bringing makeshift Molotov cocktails and wrecking almost as much shop as Bakugou.

Imagine the battle trials where Bakugou tries to blow up the building because "that's the only way to keep this little shit down" and in response Midoriya dodges and then sets the building on fire.

Imagine the USJ incident, which goes about the same, but his first instinct is to set the Noumu on fire. Yes he does so. He also nearly sets the stadium on fire at the sports festival so much that they had to evacuate sections of the stadium.

Midoriya (say it with me now) sets Stain on fire. When Tsukauchi meets with the murder trio after the Hosu incident, he just sighs and is like "Midoriya, really?" And this is when we learn that Midoriya has a history of coming across random villains and setting them on fire. When Inko arrives to pick him up she's just like "You're grounded."

There's theories about what Midoriya's quirk, everything from increased intelligence to extremely shitty luck to the ability to make anything he touches explodes (due to his inane ability to make a bomb/lighter out of the most insane things). When it comes out that he's quirkless, it just makes everyone even more afraid, as Midoriya can make a bomb out of some LSD and a rubber duck quirkless-

Pyromaniac quirkless Midoriya.

- Goblin anon

GOBLIN ANON IT’S BEEN AGES IM SORRY IM JUST RESPONDING NOW (ive been so bad at responding asks my god i struggle but thank u for ur au dumps, i love loVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!)

IM IN LOVE WITH THIS AU

feral quirkless gremlin midoriya going through shit by setting things on fire is just the way to go im duwldjwksk

i read midoriya with molotov cocktails and i have not stopped simping for and thinking about this midoriya

genuinely swooning at this ver of him

midoriya probably has a collection of lighters and basically does those hand tricks to calm him down or to take his mind off of things

bakugou and midoriya being more familiar with each other in their middle school days compared to canon and bakugou gifting midoriya with personalized all might lighter god that’s adorable

ok but they’re talking about their favourite heroes and bakugou goes, “shocking that you don’t like endeavour.”

and midoriya just shrugs, twisting his hand and fingers to orchestrate the fire’s dance from his lighter, his viridian eyes brighter and says, “his fire feels wrong.” and they leave it at that

midoriya being inspired by bakugou’s explosions and attempting to copy those so bad that bakugou thought midoriya’s trying out for support classes

OK BUT FIGHT WITH SLUDGE VILLAIN?

he yanks out makeshift molotov cocktails from his bag, lights them up and throws them at the bastard. the sludge villain screams and retreats slightly because not only was he facing the fires but also the exploded glass shards. it gave enough time for bakugou to explode the villain and escape enough to allow him to breathe. in the end, all might still defeats the sludge but he misses bakugou and midoriya who escaped. no ofa for firey green bean.

bakugou helping midoriya create more explosions.

“but kacchba i want fire, not explosions!”

“same difference you pyro asshole!”

midoriya learns them anyways and enjoys it.

THE EXAM!!

i have two ways:

one: midoriya appealed to the staff that he needed support items and they allowed him and they watched in shock as this little boy explodes the arena worse than the explosion-quirked student. of course he passes and aizawa took him on as his student.

two: midoriya appealed to the staff that he needed his support items but the staff did NOT allow him because they’re considered weapons (as if quirks are not genetic weapons but i DIGRESS) and so when the exam starts, he stays at the very back of the other examinees. this was so that when he arrives at the scene, there are already spare parts for him to scavenge so that he can build makeshift explosions (foregoing whatever shit he learned from katsuki because all that’s on his mind right now are molotov cocktails)

so that’s what happens. he scavenges parts and hides inside one of the buildings so that he can focus more on making explosions and be less worried about being attacked. when he was fully geared, he steps out and begins to retaliate.

he works fast as to not waste his time and the makeshift explosions. because of this, others (ahem-aoyama-ahem) had no opportunity to steal his score.

same thing happens: uraraka gets caught and midoriya explodes the zero pointer. this time, however, the robot is utterly destroyed.

aizawa and majima saw midoriya’s performance, adored it, and began fighting for midoriya.

“majima, he’s here for the hero classes.”

“great. now give him to me.”

nezu pretends that he’s not planning on splitting midoriya’s schedule anyways.

BATTLE TRIAL OH MY GOD rip all might i bet you keeled over so bad, you were one second from turning to small might there and then.

all might: ok so one explodey kid to look out for. that’s not bad.

all might, one minute later: this green kid looks familiar…

all might, ten minutes later: what the fuck.

NO BECAUSE bakugou and midoriya being excited to explode things (well, more like midoriya’s excited and bakugou just wants to fight midoriya) and having a blast when fighting each other.

1a’s probably thinking “oh no” followed by “they’re hot” (literally too because yk the building’s on fire.)

MIDORIYA EXPLODING THE NOUMU??? king shit

midoriya saw this monster running to aizawa and he just points a more eloquent looking flame thrower (thank u mei for working with midoriya with that) at this beast and sets it on fire.

it effectively slowed the noumu and gave the others an opportunity to pull aizawa from the hit zone. it also granted all might more freedom when fighting the noumu because it was slowed enough that all might didn’t have to worry about exceeding his time limit.

the fire damaged some of its nerve processes that the scientist and afo had not accounted for. of course this review is returned to them and many of the noumus become fireproof because of this incident.

OK BUT DURING THE SPORTS FEST

midoriya crushing on todoroki because fire.

he was actually very interested in todoroki prior to sports fest but something about todoroki’s fight against sero sparked something more in midoriya. midoriya saw the anger from his ice, now he wants to see the same intensity from his fire.

his spiel of “that’s your power, todoroki” goes differently. todoroki still pulls him aside and trauma dumps on him but this time he goes, without missing a beat, “that fire is a waste on you.”

todoroki full body pauses because that’s not something he’s ever, well, considered to hear after trauma dumping.

“what?” he croaks, confused at the bubbling feeling. it’s a miasma of anger and hurt, but to a scale so unfamiliar.

midoriya shrugs. “fire is unique, more so as an elemental quirk. you think it doesn’t make half of you—well, i mean you’re right. it doesn’t. you make it. you control it. fire is often uncontrollable and yet here you are, having it as your power. it’s yours to control, so control it. use it.”

todoroki’s ears are ringing.

“you have it as your power.”

“so control it.”

and so he did.

midoriya watched todoki’s fire; watched the way the flames lick up up up and leaves no air bathed in heat. midoriya sees the rawness of anger and determination and thinks, “this is how fire should always look like.”

unconsciously he also thinks how todoroki’s fire is far more beautiful than endeavour’s.

midoriya loses and he’s not as sad about it. losing to something sentient (fire, not todoroki), for him, is a blessing.

todoroki advances along with bakugou.

bakugou who is jealous of todoroki because he saw how midoriya eyed todoroki’s fire and knew todoroki’s a competition in other more ways.

bakugou wins again, this time less angry because todoroki used his fire against him.

STAIN THINKING MIDORIYA’S JUST THIS WEIRD HERO STUDENT WHO HAS NO SPECIFIC QUIRK UNTIL HE FEELS FLAME KISS HIS SKIN AND SCREAMS BECAUSE DAMN IT GREEN EYED KID JUST SET HIM ON FIRE

todoroki full on pausing because he thought he’s the one who set stain on fire unconsciously only to follow the fire’s trail and sees it’s from one of midoriya’s many support items.

“shoot i didn’t mean to burn him that fast!”

“that’s your issue!?”

midoriya gives them a “duh?” look and todoroki feels himself warming up (HAH another fire pun) at midoriya’s ease.

flying noumi still comes and picks him up but midoriya also sets this thing on fire. the difference between a winged noumu and a normal noumu is that the wings are far more flammable and midoriya had quite a bit of fun at setting it on fire and hearing the crackling of flames on rubbery wings.

endeavour casts him a glance that speaks of approval and midoriya doesn’t know if he hates it or not.

tsukauchi arrives and sees not only stain, but the noumu and heaves up a very big sigh. “midoriya, really?”

GOBLIN! PYROMANIAC QUIRKLESS MIDORIYA IZUKU IS A FAVE IM SCREAMING

[pleathewrites]

bellow the fire into my deadened lungs

chapter 5 excerpt — dabihawks grieving read full story here

It is the day of his court hearing that Todoroki Touya dies, for the second time.

Keigo hears it live on the television at a nothing diner Eraserhead and All Might had said they would pick him up from. They were going to allow Keigo to sit in the same car as Touya on the way to the courthouse, planning to follow in a separate car. 

“BREAKING NEWS: TODOROKI TOUYA, KNOWN AS ‘DABI’, DIES IN VEHICULAR EXPLOSION WHILE BEING TRANSPORTED TO HIS COURT HEARING!”

The only thing Keigo can hear through the ringing in his ears is the forgotten five-year-old tucked away at the back of his mind screaming, ‘No! No! NO!’

The only thing Keigo could feel through blizzard winds whipping across his soaring wings was the home within his heart Touya had built with scarred preening hands collapsing and compressing until he could no longer breathe. 

And when he gasps to a landing halt, the only thing Keigo can see through thick smoke and scrap metal with his quirk-enhanced vision is the crude and grotesquely torn-off ring finger Keigo had spent countless hours tracing with his lips, imagining how it’d look enclosed by a gold band with, ‘forever,’ engraved inside.

“Touya!”  

He’s pulled back before he can run into the flames. All Might holds Keigo with every ounce of strength he no longer has and Eraserhead is using his quirk to soften sharpened feathers that cut into All Might’s straining arms. They’re both talking, speaking to Keigo, warning him — they won’t stop talking —  

‘Don’t they understand that Touya needs me, that I need to save him?’

It feels like minutes, hours, seconds, days, before red and orange fire is hosed down completely, and there is no trace of Touya’s body.

“But — I don’t…”

A member of the forensic team is bending down to bag Touya’s left ring finger when Keigo faintly realizes he’s stopped struggling against All Might.

The five-year-old child Keigo has hidden for so long comes out, “He’s fireproof?” 

(Keigo is in too much shock to see the look Shouta gives Yagi — the one that says, ‘don’t say a word.’)

“The damage the fire had done to his body activated the chip inside his wrist to explode. He died almost instantly if that eases your pain any,” Eraserhead tells Keigo. 

The world drops below his feet, not in the manner of when Keigo jumps off buildings to welcome blue skies, but in the manner of gravity plummeting those not gifted with flight to splatter them across concrete. 

Keigo pushes All Might off him with a rough shove and flies to his safehouse, to his home — their home.

And he screams.  

Every feather of his wings sharpen and fly out his back. Dozens of paper-thin cuts sting his cheeks, his neck, and cut through the arms and thighs of his flight suit. The shatter of broken pots and pierced glass means nothing to him. The clatter and bang of splintered wood and stabbed walls do not swallow the horrible shriek of his grieving wails. 

He’s dropped to his knees and he’s screaming, his still screaming, and he does not stop until his vocal cords are torn and swollen shut, until the floorboards are pounded through and clutched between a paralyzed stress-grip, until the fibers of his living room rug are stuck wetly to his nose, until the only noise he can hoarse out are the croons Touya had heard only a handful of times in his short, unlived life.

Keigo stays like that for hours, in the fetal position that five-year-old child had learned to be his only comfort in a life like his. He croons to himself the way Touya had loved so much until his body was too tired to do anything else but drift Keigo away to moonlit-metal and blue dreams. 

read full story here

my other works

[buck-nialled]

3:1 - B. Barnes Imagine

NOTE: this is my first time writing for bucky or sebastian stan in general so feedback is appreciated! please let me know if you like this and if you'd like to see more. THIS DOES CONTAIN SMUTTY UNDERTONES TOWARDS THE END, MINORS DNI

TAGLIST: I just added sebastian stan/characters to my taglist form so if you already filled it out before just message me and I'll add you to this one.

three times bucky was clueless with technology and the one time he used it right

Despite spending most of his less-than-average life inside of a giant freezer and aging up to triple digits—if we’re speaking technically, your boyfriend still gained many physical benefits compared to most men his age. For one thing, he is still alive and breathing—a huge accomplishment, if anything, maybe even a record. The physical appearance and athletic ability he still maintained were not a downside either. As far as anybody is concerned, James Buchanan Barnes appears like any other millennial/super-soldier/metal arm-bearing person.

With exception to the fact that the man himself can’t even call you on your phone without needing assistance. That sentence is way less sad when taking into account that he was not alive for the upbringing of touch screens and AI’s, which happened to be waiting everywhere around the complex to aid him and his various, enigmatic asks, such as:

“My phone died. How do I revive it?”

“What did I win a free iPad for?”

“Friday, what does the word ‘bih’ mean?”

Once speaking the last one, he is left unanswered, and Friday is alerting you in the living area moments later.

“Y/N, Mr. Barnes is needing your assistance with a text you sent. He would like a definition of the word ‘bih’ but I cannot find it in my dictionary.” The AI asking for your help in babysitting Bucky on his phone earns a snort from you.

“Thanks, Friday. I’ll go help him.” You heave yourself up from the couch cushion and march towards his bedroom--technically, it is both of yours now. After reaching the entrance, a smile crawls onto your lips at the sight before you. The hefty Miriam-Webster English dictionary splayed open on your lover’s lap as he flips through pages, reciting miscellaneous words his eyes land on in search of the one from your message.

“Big, bin, bio…” Seconds later, he is slamming the book shut and tossing it aside. A loud thud resounds across the room as you watch it land on the hardwood floor. When you glance back up to announce your presence to Bucky, you see his gaze already transfixed on you. A quiet huff comes from him, and his eyes avert from your figure in the doorway, his cheeks becoming tinged with an opaque red. It was no puzzle that the sergeant despised calling for help, even on the minuscule tasks, like how to turn the flash of his camera off or define a slang term unbeknownst to him until your message was delivered to his phone.

“A little birdy told me you needed help.” You cross your arms over your chest, leaning against the doorframe with a satisfied smirk. You were one of the few and trusted Bucky had learned to open up to in the time that you have come to know him. No matter the issue, or how long it took for you to wear down the stubbornness on his tongue, the plea would sound eventually.

“I just don’t know what this word means.” He grunts. “Is it a typo?”

A line of giggles fall from you at his hopelessly confused expression--eyebrows furrowed, pupils appearing lost in thought at this simple “code word” he couldn’t crack. It made you want to swaddle him in the softest blanket and cuddle him until eternity.

“That’s because it’s not a real word,” you begin through laughs. The scrunch on his face only deepens in its perplexity. “‘Bih’ is short for...it’s short for bitch.” You shrug. His mouth parts in revelation.

“So you...you think I’m a…” he turns his eyes down to the pixelated string of messages…”thick female dog?” You snicker.

“‘Thick bih’ is a compliment, Buck. It just means I like your body a lot.”

“Oh...thank you?” He casts his eyes up at you once more, quirking a brow.

“You’re welcome.”

“Anyways...now that you’re here. I emailed you a photo.” He shoots a wink in your direction. Almost as though you two had traded faces, the confused look transferred over to your wrinkled forehead and tilted head.

“Oh...okay. I’ll check it later.”

You thought nothing of it, and let his statement slip your mind. It was not until later that you decided to scan through your emails with Wanda, who mentioned something mission-related in your inbox that she demanded the two of you look at and study. As you skimmed through to find it, you deleted several junk emails and starred some important ones. When you landed on the electronic mail your boyfriend mentioned earlier and clicked on it, your breath left you at the large photo of his considerably-sized girth.

“Woah! Woah!” Wanda squeals, reaching her hand up to shield her eyes now tainted with the sight of your man’s junk. The early afternoon comes back into your mind, with you against the doorframe, Bucky throwing the dictionary and demanding a translation of your text, and the wink he threw at you.

Of course, the wink. It should have been obvious what the intentions behind his email were at that point, but then again it really shouldn’t have. Because who sends nude photos over email?

“Oh my god,” you breathe out, now wearing red cheeks. You turn to face Wanda who is already out of her seat and facing away from the computer screen, calling back to you in a desperate scurry to her room, “We’ll just talk later!”

“Bucky,” you enter the bedroom with a growl minutes later, a rather great contrast to what you were feeling earlier in the day.

“Hey, doll. Did you ever open my email?” He was seated on the edge of the bed, eyeing something on his phone. He quickly pockets it, allowing you his undivided attention.

“Yeah, and Wanda had something to say about it too.” The comment came out through gritted teeth, but he deciphered every word. His blue eyes enlarged, petrified.

“She was with you? Wh-why’d you let her see it?” He almost squeals in his fit of mortification. Serves him right, you think to yourself. He won’t have to face Wanda and apologize to her later.

“I didn’t know when you said “picture” earlier you meant a nude! Who sends a dick pic over email, Bucky?” Silence follows your outcry until his deep voice pipes up moments later.

“Is that not normal?” He is fiddling with his fingers, clenching his teeth in anticipation of your answer. Which is an expected:

“No.” The man in front of you turns feeble, wearing a humiliated face that turns your insides to mush. The twenty-plus minutes of lashing you were practicing in your head on your walk to the room disappeared as he turns his face down.

“I’m sorry, doll. You know...you know I’m not good with this stuff.” A sigh exits your lips as Bucky is approached by your consoling figure. You take a seat beside him on the bed and a comforting hand takes place on his metal shoulder, with you leaning your head down on the flesh one, closest to you.

“I know, Buck. Just warn a girl next time...with more than a wink.”

“In 1943 that was considered a warning.” The two of you chuckle.

“You know what, better yet...” your hands are flying to his pocket before he can stop them. He barely utters the question before you’re fingertips are tapping across the screen.

“Hey, what’re you--”

“You should really put a lock on this thing.” You chuckle. “A thumbprint, passcode...something.”

“You can do that?” His ludicrous question has you fighting a roll of your eyes. Shaking your head, you wait a few moments for the application to install on the device, and smile triumphantly when the neon yellow square pops up on his home screen. The white ghost in the middle of the icon stares back at him when you place the phone back in his hands.

“There you go.”

“What is this?” He clicks the app to find out for himself, only to be met with the options of logging in or creating an account.

“An app that’s appropriate for sending nudes.” Shivers trail down his spine from your whisper against the shell of his ear. He hums, admiring the screen for a few seconds and taking no further action to make an account.

“You need help, don’t you?”

“It’d be appreciated.”

Since that encounter, your significant other has learned the basics of social platforms and how to properly exploit each one for his needs. Ignoring the one week where he discovered Snapchat filters and send photos of himself in every single one nonstop, the most common one you two have grown to use is the messaging application. It was efficient and easy for him to understand.

Until he, much like when he used Snapchat, discovered something new. And that something new was emojis. After receiving a Snapchat notification from him, which could no doubt be holding either a photo of him with the dancing weiner or his actual one, he shot you a text message from across the compound.

did you see my chatsnap? 🌚

You chose to disregard the blatant, incorrect name and reply:

yes, buck. I get notifications

and WHY THE HELL DID YOU SEND THAT EMOJI??? 😫

what? it’s just a moon 🌚🌚🌚 see?

I can see it’s a moon Bucky. Why did you choose that one?

It’s nighttime. and I’m smiling. It fits.

It’s creepy is what it is

It’s just a moon! 🌚

STOP SENDING IT! 😖😖

fine.

🌝

🤦‍♀️ that’s not what I meant

it’s not my fault you’re scared of the moon, y/n 💅

You chose to change the subject then, no longer holding the desire to stare at the infamous “molester moon” or bucky’s new use of emojis in a sassy manner

please tell me the snap you sent isn’t of the dancing hot dog again

I could tell you that

but I’d be lying if I did.

🙄

🌝 I think this one's my favorite

The third time Bucky struggled with the new-age doodads surrounding him, his rage was at an all-time high. But his reaction is justifiable after discovering it was purely out of fear.

“Do you know what the weather’s gonna be like tomorrow?” He mumbles as the two of you were longing on the bed, his head resting comfortably in the crook of your neck and shoulder.

“Not sure, why?”

“Was thinkin’ we could go to that café. The one with the jukebox.” His head bounces with your body as you let out a few light laughs.

“Because it’s the one piece of technology you can actually use?” He pulls away from you defensively, a frown smeared on his face.

He whines out. “I am not that bad with technology?” You roll your eyes and reach for your phone on the bedside table, clicking the button on the side.

“Hey Siri, what’s the weather look like tomorrow?” You ask aloud, cueing Bucky to furrow his eyebrows.

“Let’s see...the weather tomorrow—“ you were unable to hear the rest of the AI’s sentence due to the sight of Bucky springing out of bed and tugging the set of sharpened knives from his pants.

“Whose there? Who the hell said that?”

“Bucky—“

“I think the complex may have been hacked. Come on, let’s go get Bruce o-or somebody.” He stutters out in a panic, tugging your body behind him in a protective manner. Siri was still activated on your phone, which was now lying on the bed.

“I’m not quite sure I understand—“

“Who the hell are you?!” He demands in a loud voice.

“Bucky, Bucky…” you rest your hands on both his shoulders, urging him to calm down. “It’s just my phone.” After the quick reassurance, he feels his shoulders slump.

“Oh...oh…I knew that.” He puts his knives away, following you as you crawled back into bed. Before fully getting beneath the covers, he sheathes himself of his trousers and top, leaving him only in a pair of boxers.

“Sure you did.” You reply.

“I did.” He insists, before covering both of you with your comforter. Before succumbing to a much-needed rest though, he reaches over and grabs a knife left on the floor, tucking it beneath his pillow.

Just in case.

The following morning, Bucky is no longer paranoid that the complex was hijacked and broken into. Rather, his mind was on a package he ordered online (AND ALL BY HIMSELF, a large victory if you ask him) that, according to the tracker, is one stop away. When you peeked your eyes open to admire him beneath the covers basking in the morning glow, his mischievous smile lit something warm inside you.

“What’s got you so smiley?” You yawn through languid blinks. He only responds with a shrug, aiming to keep the box a secret.

“Big day ahead, why don’t you go start us a shower. I’ll meet you there.” He smirks, blue eyes flashing with something cunning. At this point, you were even more curious.

“Big day? I thought we were just going for coffee?”

“When I’m with you, it’s always a big day.” His raspy voice is sly, metal hand even slyer as it glides up and down your hip.

“Alright Barnes, you win. See you in a minute.” You press your lips to his for a short few seconds and heave your body up from the bed to venture to the connected bathroom. As soon as you crack the door behind you, Bucky leaps from his spot in the sheets and nearly stumbles to the ground, his foot getting tangled in part of the bedding. He wastes no time scurrying to the front door, nearly nude and praying to God nobody would cross paths with him. Seeing the package laying on the doormat in all its glory--Bucky swore he heard angels singing hymns from above. Taking it into his grip and hustling back to his room took little-to-no time. When he slipped inside of the bathroom, he found you removing your hair from the messy knot you threw it up in the night prior, the rest of you bare.

He dropped his boxers and followed you inside the transparent cube, soon to become fogged with the warm steam and your panting breaths if he is lucky enough to pull another round from you.

Spoiler alert, he got lucky. Twice.

Whilst getting dressed, he halts your attempt at wiggling on a pair of leggings.

"I have a surprise for you." He says, waltzing over to the package he haphazardly threw on the bed in his eagerness to join you in the shower. The package lies in your hands seconds later, Bucky delivering you a nod as permission to tear it open. Once you do, your jaw unhinges at the packaging.

The small, pink sex toy stared back at you in all its glory. You could only muster a few blinks at it, wondering how your boyfriend managed to deliver this to himself all on his own yet still strains himself in trying to change his profile picture.

"Wha--how..." you are at a loss of words, to say the least. His piercing blue eyes grow dark at the sight of you holding his surprise.

"It's a big day today, because..." he snatches the packaged toy from you, beginning to open it, "you're gonna wear this out for me today. And I'm gonna control it." Your eyes grow big at his explanation before they dart to the now unpackaged vibrator.

"There's no remote." You point out, and gasp as Bucky holds up his phone for your eyes to see. The application which connects the controls of the vibrator to his phone stares back at you dauntingly.

"Figured I'd give this wifi-powered one a try. But, you know how I am with technology so...it may take awhile for me to get the hang of it," his tone is sultry as he mumbles, and it sends chills through you that directly target your privates. His eyes bore into yours, still holding that look of playfulness from earlier.

"Finish getting ready, doll. I'm ready to take this thing for a test drive."

[abbyilr1967]

Misdemeanor - Dabi x Reader

Summary: Dabi has been pestering you all day, so you get a little creative with your punishment for all his misbehaving. 

A/n: So think is a cool idea I got from a TikTok, their user @overhaulscoatfluff if you wanna find the post. Also just want to say, I am a big fan of calling very strong masculine men big babies, so that why that happened.  As per usual, here is a link to my Masterlist if you’re new here.

Warnings: Swearing…. Like once

Word Count: 1k

You had been sat in front of Shigaraki’s computer for the last six hours flipping back and forth between several different security cameras posted throughout the city. As a member of the League of Villains, your job was mostly surveillance and helping to plan the missions. You didn’t have any real strength or any quirk that would be useful on missions, so planning was where you excelled. 

Shigaraki had wanted you to track who comes in and out of the Yakuza compound, and how regularly they did. Tracking their movements so we could learn more about how they run their operations, considering they wanted to partner with the League. 

So there you were, sat in Shigaraki’s dark, dank room with a pen and your notebook in hand, filling it with the date and time of all the Yakuza’s movements. 

Usually, this part of your job wasn’t so boring. Because of the lack of sound, the surveillance cameras gave you could listen to whatever you wanted while you worked, and you were typically unbothered by the other members. 

Except for today. 

Dabi, who you had recently started dating, having evolved your previous relationship from just physical to romantic as well, was coming in to bug you every half-hour. It was like clockwork. He’d come in, nestle his face into the crook of your neck while wrapping his arms around you and beg you to leave the computer and go lay down with him. You rejected him every time, telling him that you were busy and would come find him when you were done. But that didn’t fly with him. So he came back, again and again, before you were forced to shut and lock the door to Shigaraki’s room. 

And, right on schedule, you hear the doorknob jiggle as Dabi tries to get back in. You take your earbuds out, lift your head from your paper, and turn in your chair. The knob jiggles a few more times before you hear Dabi’s footsteps lead away from the door. 

You sigh a breath of relief as you’ve finally gotten Dabi to drop his pursuit of you. You turn back in your chair and re-focus yourself on the screen ahead of you, as you readjust the pen between your fingers. You place your earbuds back in, and press play. The sound of your classical music passed through the bud, and you continue to scribble down the date and time of the interaction taking place on video. 

As you work, you hear a frantic clicking sound. You take out your earbuds, checking to see if the sound somehow was a part of the music, only to find that it’s coming from the door. Rage fumes inside of your chest as you stand from the desk and make your way to the door. 

You unlock the door and rip it open, only to find Dabi on his knees. He held his lock pick in their air, where you can only assume the door handle was before you had caught him red-handed. 

“Hi,” he says awkwardly. 

“Hi.” 

With all of the frustration and anger flowing through you, you managed to stay relatively calm...

Dangerously calm. 

“Are you done?” the corner of his lips pull into a cocky smirk, and you give him one straight back. 

“I’m gonna give you to the count of three,” your hand releases the doorknob that you were unaware you were gripping so tightly, and you turn while making your way back to the desk. “To get off your knees,” you rifle through the top desk drawer, back still to Dabi. “And run.” 

You turn to face him, and now, sitting between your thumb and forefinger was a staple remover. 

“Is that a一” 

“One,”

Dabi raises to his feet but doesn’t move. He’s holding his ground, trying to call your bluff. 

“You’re not gonna一” 

“Two,” 

Your eyes are burning holes through him, but he still makes no move to run. 

“Y/n一” 

“Three,” you say darkly, stalking over to Dabi. “You should run.” 

He bolts and you follow after him, gripping the staple remover tightly in your hands. 

“Y/n, c’mon, I was just joking around!” he shouts over his shoulder as your chasing him through the lower levels of the League’s hideout. 

“Oh ho,” you chuckle deeply. “I’m not joking around though. I’m gonna have so much fun pulling out each individual staple!” 

You hear him laugh as he’s zigzagging through the halls in an attempt to lose you. His laugh is contagious, and soon you find yourself laughing along with him. You follow him up the stairs to the second floor, where everyone’s rooms were. Dabi ducking into one of the rooms quickly, and you follow the sound of his stifled laughter. 

Now you stand at the threshold of your room, the door slightly ajar. You push in, and scan the dimly lit room for any signs of him. Each step you take is slow and calculated, analyzing your best escape route in case he decided to pounce on you. Your steps bring you into the center of your room, and before you can make a move the door behind you is slammed shut. 

“Mine,” Dabi growls. 

His arms ensare your waist, and he pulls you off the ground. You struggle to get out of his hold, but his strong arms keep you pressed tightly against him. 

“Dabi put me down!” you shriek. In all the frantic movement, you’d dropped the staple remover, which was quickly forgotten about on the floor. 

“Mine,” he growls again, nuzzling his face back in the crook of your neck. 

He walks the two of you over to your bed and flops both of you onto it. 

“Five minutes,” you try to say sternly. 

“Fifteen.” 

“Ten, take it or leave it,” your hand has found its way to his hair, and you give him a soft little head pat. 

“Fine,” he mumbles against your neck. You feel his teeth scrape lightly against your shoulder before he sinks his teeth into the soft skin. 

“Ow! Dabi what the hell,” you try to hold back the laugh that’s bubbling in your throat, but fail. 

“‘M sorry, I just missed you,” he places a kiss over the bite mark, like when a child asks for a kiss over their boo boo.

“Missed you too, ya big baby.”

[princess-of-inarizaki]

Haikyuu manager headcanons!!

Okay so these adorable teams all have the softest spot for their tiny little manager-chan, and here's how they all treat her.

[Ari's note: okay manager fics and headcanons are my absolute favourite and I love writing them]

*.` | Karasuno

They are extremely laid back with you, compared to some of the other teams. They give you your space, at the same time listen to you when you have something to say.

Respectful simps. Similar to how they act with Kiyoko (ugh yes queen-chan) they're in tears whenever you do things to motivate them, like cheer at their practice matches or give them good luck charms.

They still have the good luck charms you fastened on their bag before one of the matches.

Tanaka and Noya would literally worship the ground which you walked on. Like wow how did they get so lucky as to have three?? Cute managers?? On their team??

Yachi and you would probably subtly simp over Kiyoko with them too ngl.

Hinata and Kags would probably see you as an older sister, eventho you're their age because you're so caring and responsible.

Suga is literally your mom and Daichi is your dad. They make sure you're all healthy and you're doing well in school.

Asahi gives you hugs whenever you're sad or upset! Fite me but I think this gentle baby gives the best hugs ever >:( he's like your comfort senpai and you'd do the same for him, especially when he's feeling insecure or down.

Yams would probably be very shy around you, but he'll warm up in time.

Ahhh the best part. Tsukki! He'd find you annoying and simply not get why you're so Mcfreaking happy at first (shut up u salty beanpole, manager-chan is just a ray of sunshine, okay?) But he soon finds it endearing and slowly gets closer to you.

You walk home with Yams and Tsukki every day since your houses are close, and Tsukki walks you to your door to make sure you're safe!

Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita all see you as a little sister and often help you with your managerial duties.

The team cares and respects you so much, and are so thankful you've joined them!!

Meat buns at Ukai's are your hangout spot, and everytime you see them chilling you're so thankful to have such great friends.

*.` | Aoba Johsai

Aaah we're at the team of one of my favourite characters!! I'll start with Oikawa (can't you tell I'm so biased omg)

Oikawa absolutely adores manager-chan because although she's tiny, she's very strict, and doesn't let his fangirls near the gym when he's practicing, which he appreciates.

"yn-chan, you're so good to me, can I take you out as a thank-you?" Cue Iwa-chan's ball which comes flying at Oikawa's head. "Stop flirting with the manager, shitty-kawa"

Iwa's very fond of you too, but he doesn't let it show too often. Sometimes he picks up your favourite coffee from the vending machine and claims that he bought it by "accident". (How believable<3)

Kunimi probably sends you weird tiktok videos and tags you in funny memes. Very wholesome 10/10.

Kyotani just?? Doesn't understand you?? Like wow, she's small but the team listens to her?? Why?? He later finds out you're the manager. Mad dork here didn't know you were managing the team for the past month, and thought you just came to the gym to watch them practice. Smh.

Matsukawa and Hanamaki give you headpats and like taking selfies with you, much to Oikawa's dismay. He wants to be the only one taking pictures with you.

Like no manager-chan. Stop. Get away from them. My phone's right here I wanna take selfies with you :(

Kindaichi is cool with you. Y'all are bros and you game together sometimes.

Watari and Yahaba join too, and they're surprised to know that you're so aggressive when you game.

Cue a jealous Oikawa who struggles learning how to game just so he's invited to play with you. Simp smh.

They're all very gentle with you, and since you're their first female manager, they make sure to never make you feel uncomfortable.

You guys like grabbing ramen together and having eating contests. They really bring out your aggressive side but you love them for it.

*.` | Shiratorizawa

Can I just say Semi bsf material? Yes? Yes. Semi Eita is best friend material.

Makes you cute little Spotify playlists and you help him write lyrics to songs occasionally. You play an instrument too and you guys can just jam out for hours on end together.

You get the idea of applying to be the manager because of him, and it all took off from there.

Goshiki loves you. You're fond of your kohāi, and you genuinely just give this touch-starved future ace a lot of hugs and cuddles, which he's SO grateful for.

Like wow, y/n-chan isn't just pretty?? She's also so sweet? And smart? And capable? Semi why have you been hiding her for so long??¿ >:(

Goshiki is just so protective of you, he'd commit murder if he had to.

You have to earn Ushiwaka's respect, yk? And slowly but surely he comes to realise how dependable and responsible you are, and treats you like an indispensable member of the team.

He's got your back. And if he ever senses you're upset, he's trying to cheer you up as best as he can.

"do not feel upset, those grades will mean nothing to you in the future. I doubt you will be able to remember what you got in your second year, third monthly test." You think he's being sweet, and yes he is (in a way), but he's also trying to be reasonable and logical.

Tendo loosens you up and you tend to play pranks on the others with him.

The funniest was when you tried to prank Ushijima by adding wasabi to his onigiri and he?? Didn't get it??

Like "y/n-chan, Tendo, why did you add wasabi to this onigiri? It would've been so much better with tuna mayo??" And he has no reaction whatsoever?¿?

Cue Goshiki who tries the onigiri because he wants to prove he has spice tolerance like Ushijima, eventhough you can low-key see him tearing up.

Shirabu is your voice of reason and you and him often study together. You also have deep and philosophical conversations at 12 a.m. over text, and it is just so wholesome.

He respects you so much, not just because you care for him, but because he finds your brain so fricking smexy.

These eagle babies bring out the best in you and you're always eager to push them forward and bring out the best in them.

*.` | Fukurodani

First thing's first, besides Akaashi, you are the only other person who can cheer up an emo-mood Bokuto.

Just say "Hey Bo, you're gonna look so much cooler when you spike the ball like the true ace that you are" and his hair's all perking up and his eyes are shining.

Akaashi thinks you are an angel sent from heaven.

You're very soft on your baby owls, and they genuinely just love getting positive affirmations from you.

Akaashi always blushes when you compliment him on his sets. And you can hear him murmur genuine words of gratitude.

The other members do too. They're glad because sometimes people focus on Bo too much and forget to give them recognition, yk? It's easy to get overlooked :(

But thanks to manager-chan who's so attentive with all of them, and who's aware of all their quirks and moods, they're all so touched and so so happy.

You have a habit of getting cold pretty often, especially since practice finishes late and it's pretty chilly by then.

Konoha always lends you his jacket and walks you home, since your home's are the closest. There's just something about you that makes you soft.

You get along really well with Kaori and Yukie, and you'd definitely consider them your best friends, considering y'all are in this thang togetherrrr!!

The Fukurodani team are just all a bunch of crackheads, but they're your crackheads and you wouldn't trade them for the world.

You're a very tight-knit family, (like ugh I just get lots of comfortable, safe vibes from Fukurodani :(( <3)

You guys hang out at the store near your school pretty often to recharge after grueling days of practice together.

*.` | Nekoma

My second favourite team, Nekoma!! They are precious, gentle, soft babies and I love them to bits and pieces >:(

I'll start with Kuroo. You've always had a tiny soft spot for Kuroo ever since you've become his lab partner in chemistry class.

His notes are immaculate. I mean, cmon we're all hoes for pretty notes

You think he's so incredibly smart and talented, so when he suggests you become the Nekoma manager, you just agree right away.

You guys grow closer since you've started spending more time with him, and you banter around more often than not with chemistry pickup lines.

"hey kitten, let's form a covalent bond"

He's so whipped after you retort back. Like wow she called me sodium fine and said I'm like an exothermic reaction? Permission to simp??

(Ari stfu this isn't a Kuroo fanfic)

Kenma and you definitely play animal crossing together, and he even lets you try his switch, after you guys grow closer.

Kuroo is so insulted, he's never even touched Kenma's switch before >:(

You also push Kenma to do better during practice and he starts to care more about volleyball, since you seem so enthusiastic about it.

Yamamoto isn't even subtle about his simping smh T-T unlike Kuroo, he shamelessly flirts with you, and can't wait to show you off to Tanaka and Noya at the next camp.

"we have such a gorgeous manager now, Nekoma is ThRiViNg" he says in his head with this ridiculous dopey ass smile on his face +_+

Since deep down inside, you're a huge baby, you, Lev, Shibayama, and Inuoka get along so well. They're just happy energetic kittens, and they make you feel so happy.

y'alls energy just match, yk?

Although Fukunaga is shy to tell jokes, he tells them to you, because he knows you'd never judge him, and you actually kinda enjoy laughing along :) he's so touched.

Momma Yaku!! Yaku always lends you his jacket and makes sure to carry snacks for you in his bag. He knows you care so much about the team that you often neglect your own health, which is why he's always there to make you're feeling healthy and good.

Kai and Teshiro help you with your homework and like talking about their favourite singers with you.

They're all just such amazing human beings who treat you so well, and you feel so blessed to be a part of their team. You adore them so much, and they adore you back tenfold.

*.` | Inarizaki

[Ari's note: Ello there luvs, you've made it to the bottom of this sweet hc post and just get ready for Inarizaki :( they're my favourite team of all time, and I'm just so biased, I'm sorry ;-;]

Inarizaki's entire team just adores you so much, they think you're the light of their lives.

They're all super touch starved babies, and once you realized that, you've made sure to ensure they never feel that way.

Aran is kinda like your protective senpai, and his heart flutters ever so slightly when you call him that senpai kink oops and give him headpats, and he loves patting your head in return.

The twins are so incredibly soft for you.

Their fangirls are sometimes pretty mean, but one glare from the duo is enough to shut them up.

Osamu cooks bentos for you and gives you the warmest hugs when you ask for them, burying his head in the crook of your neck.

Your hand is almost always in Atsumu's because he's so slick?? Like y'all, this mf would be like "y/n-chan, my hand has been aching for a while now" and when you go to observe it, he just pulls your hand into his and pulls you to follow him.

His entire body heats up when you kiss his cheek after a particularly good game, and his brain literally goes "grrrr empty", when he's usually so sly.

The twins are your bodyguards, they follow you everywhere and protect you all the time.

Enter Suna Rintaro, your meme king. He definitely records funny moments that happen during practice and send them to you, just to make you laugh, or memes of the members.

He also definitely takes pictures of you when you aren't noticing, simply because he likes the way your hair looked, or because you looked so beautiful.

Like the twins, his eyes widen whenever you kiss his cheek or ruffle his hair, and it's literally like suna.exc has stopped functioning.

Congrats manager-chan, you broke the kid -.-

Omimi might come across as stoic and cold but he's actually a huge softie, and you often give him positive affirmations.

He's also definitely a huge lover of your hugs, and looks forward to them as motivation to play well.

He'd never tell you though, he's shy™.

My baby Kita compliments you all the fricking time.

"y/n-chan, I mean this is the most sincere way, I think this hairstyle looks stunning on you"

Or "you're so capable and you work so hard, I'm so thankful to have you by my side"

And he has the most genuine expression on his face, his eyes are so earnest and shining so bright.

And when you smile at him, he's like oh shit I made her smile, depression whom? I only know serotonin.

Ginjima is usually rash but with you, he takes his time and weighs everything he says.

He doesn't wanna accidentally hurt you and regret it since he was being careless and not thinking at all.

You calm him down when he's getting too hotheaded with gentle words and he's suddenly a blushing mess.

Unlike some of the other teams that tease you a bunch, Inarizaki treats you so gently. Their little princess, as they think of you.

So mf-ing protective, like if someone looks at you wrong, you can totally bet Atsumu's going for their ankles, sangwoo style, or Osamu is trash talking them to their knees.

Would drop anything and everything to help you if ever needed.

They think you're they're entire world because you go above and beyond for them, and they genuinely love you. Like actually LOVE you to bits and pieces.

—*.`

[Ari's note: AHHH so the manager fic is done this was literally such a joy to write!! I hope you enjoyed it

Big big hugs <3 have a beautiful day, luvs!!]