#i put the antics back in semantics

[allthingslinguistic]

please i need you to watch this deadpan german linguistics professor making an incredibly catchy nerd pop song and dancing it's been stuck in my head all day

[ithildinwrites]

(updated) fic rec list

i did one of these a while ago but it was kind of rough and this one is a little more polished bc i went thru all my bookmarks and picked out my absolute faves from various fandoms :)

i have a big masterdoc of fic recs here but these are just my top faves! i'll have them separated into fandoms :)

HAIKYUU

This Love Isn't Crazy (series)

rating: T

pairing: sakuatsu

summary: -

word count: 43,968

LANDSCAPE AFTER ICARUS

rating: unrated

pairing: kagehina + platonic karasuno first years

summary: In which Shouyou and Tobio share a meal after the world ends. Or after the match with Kamomedai. It's all a matter of semantics, really.

word count: 9,197

Learning to Walk (So That We Can Run)

rating: M

pairing: iwaoi

summary: In his second year of university, physical therapy just isn't cutting it. Oikawa's knee is getting worse, and he can't hide it anymore.

word count: 27,639

put the bridges back together

rating: T

pairing: iwaoi

summary: how Hajime and Tooru learn to bridge the distance between them over the years.

word count: 70,084

the pretty (pining) setter squad

rating: M

pairing: multi

summary: -

word count: 62,063 (ongoing)

over the edge of my bones

rating: M

pairing: sakuatsu

summary: the one in which Atsumu isn't Spiderman, but he's a single dad, and that's pretty much the same thing.

word count: 47,948

MSBY's Miya Atsumu and Sakusa Kiyoomi Take a Friendship Test

rating: T

pairing: sakuatsu

summary: Based on the Glamour Magazine Friendship Test series.

word count: 9,570

finders keepers

rating: M

pairing: sakuatsu

summary: It's Kiyoomi's last resort to ask a stranger for help finding his sister's missing kids, but it's not like this night can get any weirder, and Miya Atsumu's kind of hot.

word count: 44,495

chasing gold

rating: M

pairing: iwaoi

summary: It’s Tokyo 2021, backdrop for the XXXII Summer Olympiad Games. Oikawa Tooru returns to Japan after a triumphant, eight-year long run as pro setter in Argentina’s professional volleyball League. And it's been just as long since Hajime watched him disappear across the oceans, maybe never to return. On reuniting with your best friend, standing atop the world stage, and trying to catch wisps of a golden boy. An Olympic tale, one lifetime in the making.

word count: 45,049

afterglow

rating: T

pairing: semishira

summary: musician semi eita accidentally mentions that most of his songs are written about his personal experiences, and being that most of his songs are love songs, sends twitter into a frenzy.

word count: 7,262

Says You

rating: T

pairing: sakuatsu

summary: In other words, Atsumu invites Sakusa to his family's home for their summer break and what follows is a combination of Miya Four antics, quiet moments, and changing feelings.

word count: 43,160

meant to be

rating: G

pairing: iwaoi

summary: oikawa gets injured while 300 kilometers away, and hajime is on a train and by his side before his brain can quite catch up. cue introspection, pining, feelings realisation and domestic fluff.

word count: 6,331

sailing to the top

rating: T

pairing: kagehina

summary: Tobio Kageyama, V. Leagues at the young age of 18, Olympian at 19, and currently Japan’s #1 setter, was undoubtedly one of the hottest 'alleged' bachelors in Japan. As per many celebrities, Kageyama is subject to many dating allegations and victim to various fan shippings. Fans go crazy as a certain 'Ninja Shouyou' makes his debut on the Japan stage and more ships are created. Unbeknownst to the public, this particular ship has been sailing for a while - journeying together to reach the top of the world.

word count: 33,623

It's A Twin Thing

rating: T

pairing: mix (miya 4)

summary: The title of the video reads ‘APRIL FOOLS PRANK ON MY TWIN (GONE WRONG)’ and by gone wrong, they mean Atsumu nearly fucking dies and their supposed camping vlog ends up looking like a clip from The Blair Witch Project.

word count: 9,154

love letter to summer

rating: T

pairing: sakuatsu

summary: Kiyoomi's feelings for Miya hit a breaking point when he follows him home for the summer.

word count: 18,380

you're the brake lines failing (as my car swerves off the freeway)

rating: T

pairing: kuroken

summary: Kenma thinks that Kuroo looks ugly with his head bent against the arm of the couch like that. Then Kenma thinks that he wants to marry him, and is promptly thrown into the 5 stages of grief.

word count: 14,956

new phone who dis

rating: T

pairing: iwaoi

summary: Oikawa texts the wrong number when complaining about Ushijima, and then keeps texting Iwaizumi.

word count: 57,747

Channel JACKAL

rating: T

pairing: mix

summary: Alternatively: The Various Happenings In, Around, and/or Because of the Official MSBY Black Jackals YouTube Channel.

word count: 343,990

On Quarantining together… (series)

rating: G & T

pairing: kagehina

summary: To appease fans' requests, MSBY Black Jackals' opposite hitter Hinata Shouyou decides to do routine live-streamings during his quarantine time. Soon, fans catch up upon the fact that he is spending quarantine with a mysterious roommate. Everyone is curious. Classic dumbassary ensues.

word count: 40,357

your eyes tell

rating: T

pairing: sakuatsu

summary: how to fall in love with one of the v-leagues youngest rising stars in several not-easy steps. eyes on the prize, kiyoomi. eyes on the prize.

word count: 10,248

dumb enough to drown it out

rating: M

pairing: kagehina

summary: lots of kisses, a wedding, a fake boyfriend, and one bed, not necessarily in that order.

word count: 19,658

see this through

rating: T

pairing: sakuatsu

summary: -

word count: 17,712

Famous V-League Players Make Fools of Themselves on Twitter dot com

rating: T

pairing: mix

summary: V-League Twitter was pretty ordinary before the MSBY Black Jackals announced their newest hitter. Then the whole fandom exploded as it tried to figure out who this Ninja Shouyou was…

word count: 27,350

according to youtube statistics

rating: T

pairing: kenhina

summary: five times kodzuken is spotted in weird places by his fans and one time kenma is right where he’s supposed to be

word count: 10,134

MO DAO ZU SHI / THE UNTAMED

Nice work if you can get it

rating: M

pairing: wangxian

summary: In order to make Wei Wuxian feel welcome at the Cloud Recesses, and to make sure people give him the respect he deserves (and definitely not to get into his pants), Lan Wangji hires him to be his advisor.

word count: 11,878

愈; to heal (series)

rating: G

pairing: wangxian + platonic yunmeng bros

summary: -

word count: 47,290

云梦双杰，永不分离 | yunmeng twin heroes, never apart (series)

rating: G

pairing: platonic yunmeng bros

summary: The steps Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng take towards reconciliation.

word count: 26,479

watch what we'll become

rating: T

pairing: platonic wwx & jzx + wangxian

summary: To get his hands on the Yin Tiger Seal, Jin Guangshan decides to make Wei Wuxian part of the Lanling Jin sect through marriage to his son and heir. Exactly nobody is happy about this.

word count: 59,950

Twelve Moons and a Fortnight

rating: M

pairing: wangxian + tons of platonic wwx relationships

summary: the one where Wei Wuxian spends the year before his wedding as Yunmeng Jiang's acting sect leader, and the cultivation world's greatest love story finds its happy ending with the help of four juniors, a teenage romance, and one very involved (and exasperated) younger brother.

word count: 290,544

if you're leaving baby let me down slowly

rating: M

pairing: wangxian + platonic yunmeng sibs

summary: Wei Wuxian, after a series of misunderstandings that deteriorate his relationship with Lan Wangji seemingly for good, decides to reveal the truth about the restoration of Jiang Cheng's core on his own volition. He's entirely prepared to be kicked out of the sect, but not as prepared as he should be for the depth of his family's love and loyalty. The revelation itself changes nothing, but his siblings' stubbornness and their faith in him might just change everything for the better.

word count: 36,548

Rotten Work

rating: unrated

pairing: platonic jl & wwx + wangxian

summary: Jin Ling hadn’t thought to keep track of Wei Wuxian. Clearly that had been a mistake.

word count: 63,908

Lynchpin

rating: unrated

pairing: platonic yunmeng bros + wangxian

summary: He can’t get Jin Guangyao’s words out of his head. If he’d only believed in Wei Wuxian, if he’d only been willing to stand up for him, could it all have been avoided?

word count: 103,004

TIAN GUAN CI FU / HEAVEN OFFICIALS BLESSING

For we have eternity (series)

rating: M & E

pairing: fengqing

summary: -

word count: 29,986

without you, i’m godless

rating: E

pairing: fengqing

summary: feng xin realizes he's in love, and ends up in mu qing's temple of all places

word count: 18,394

I'll Beg You Nice From My Knees

rating: E

pairing: fengqing

summary: Feng Xin wants to apologize for things that have long been said and done. Mu Qing doesn't want, or need, any of that. They compromise. It’s all very tender.

word count: 4,692

and this fire in my veins

rating: E

pairing: fengqing

summary: “I’m going to kill you,” Feng Xin says furiously, glaring at the dismembered corpse of the incubus. “It fucking bit me – you were supposed to have my back, you piece of shit – it fucking bit me!”

word count: 16,537

stars on your skin

rating: T

pairing: fengqing

summary: “A’Xin,” Mu Qing slurs, the camera wobbling as it struggles to focus on Mu Qing’s face, clearly drunk to all hell, “You are the prettiest person I’ve seen in my life.”

word count: 6,953

and all the things unsaid, come sweetly to your lips

rating: T

pairing: platonic xianle trio + fengqing

summary: the Xian Le Trio reconciliation, through the (metaphorical) seasons.

word count: 19,791

GENSHIN IMPACT

Poisoned Dreams Continuity (series)

rating: G & T

pairing: platonic ragbros

summary: -

word count: 274,751

the latchkey kids (series)

rating: G & T

pairing: mix

summary: -

word count: 157,298

teetering on the edges of you

rating: E

pairing: xingyun

summary: It's been two and a half years since they've last seen each other, and Xingqiu swears his eyes are somehow bluer than before.

word count: 16,619

The Aether Interview

rating: T

pairing: lynether

summary: pov: after a year of no contact, u wake up to ur ex-situationship love of ur life declaring his feelings for u on LIVE TELEVISION. (hes also like.. the hottest idol of all time, no biggie!)

word count: 13,926

How to Bag an Idol

rating: T

pairing: kazuscara

summary: tfw your highschool ex (who youre TOTALLY over) becomes the most famous idol of all time and you're the #1 top-charted streamer

word count: 23,377

Boyfriend Behaviour

rating: T

pairing: xiaother

summary: -

word count: 12,621

A Tu Lado (By Your side)

rating: T

pairing: xiaother

summary: -

word count: 16,324

TOKYO REVENGERS

that's how it is now, towards you

rating: T

pairing: platonic takemichi & chifuyu

summary: Takemichi and Chifuyu discover the seven wonders of Shibuya, tend to each other's wounds, technically do not commit any crimes, and learn how to trust each other. Not necessarily in that order.

word count: 52,324

a different path, a different day

rating: T

pairing: platonic takemichi relationships

summary: people seem to have the odd habit of entrusting Mikey to him when they're about to die. Takemichi recognizes patterns.

word count: 26,130

VOLTRON

season 5 au (series)

rating: T

pairing: klance

summary: -

word count: 65,350

just come to me once

rating: T

pairing: klance

summary: In which Keith lives on a space whale, goes on a road trip, and (eventually) gets a boyfriend.

word count: 94,586

Purple Sky

rating: unrated

pairing: klance

summary: Keith, rash as he could often be, understood that his responsibility as a paladin of Voltron was to the universe. So, he understood that despite what they felt, he and Lance couldn't be anything other than paladins, at least until the war was over. After nine years of rivalry, turned pining, turned something just shy of lovers, the war is over. The paladins are headed to Earth, Lance isn't wasting any time, and Keith, as much as he loves a challenge, just tries to keep up.

word count: 72,454

build a paper plane (to float to you)

rating: T

pairing: klance

summary: In which Lance travels across 1,681 kilometers, sees the sky and the water meet for the first time, and falls in more ways than one.

word count: 25,291

call me, beep me

rating: G

pairing: klance

summary: where lance messages the wrong number and things kind of snowball from there

word count: 85,591

KAIJU NO. 8

jakdf twitter AU (series)

rating: T

pairing: mix but mainly ihareno

summary: stories that follow some kind of continuity with the #coolshark twitter verse

word count: 32,374

MY HERO ACADEMIA

fucking raptor brain (series)

rating: T & M

pairing: dabihawks

summary: An AU in which Takami Keigo and Todoroki Touya attend Shiketsu high school together, become friends, and fall in love.

word count: 90,816

darling, thank god it’s this universe we’re in (and you can annoy me as much as you please)

rating: T

pairing: dabihawks

summary: Todoroki Rei divorces Endeavor and moves all four of her children into a small apartment next to a boy with wings as red as the hair of her eldest son.

word count: 82,779

journey to the past

rating: T

pairing: platonic izuku relationships

summary: Izuku is five years old the first time he's saved by heroes. He's an instant fan of the woman in pink with her cheerful smile and the man with his ice powers and fine-boned features, even if they both refuse to tell him their names. For most of his life, Izuku has been the centre of villain attacks, but he has never been injured. Every time, he's saved by bright, unknown heroes—heroes who smile at Izuku, and ruffle his hair or ply him with hugs, and seem mesmerised by how small he is. Heroes that the rest of the world doesn't believe exists.

word count: 44,816

what's luck got to do with it

rating: T

pairing: shinkami

summary: In the second row, two seats back, there’s a blonde boy with a black lightning bolt design in his hair. He’s tapping the fingers of one hand on his other arm, the thumb of his other hand tucked into his mouth so he can bite his nail, and one leg is bouncing incessantly under his desk. His golden eyes flick from Hitoshi to his classmates, to the window, then back to Hitoshi, like he was either nervous or bad at keeping his focus in one area for long. Every bit of advice ever given to Hitoshi by his dad about not falling for loud blondes instantly flies out of his head.

word count: 38,998

stupid for you

rating: T

pairing: shinkami

summary: A compilation of moments in which Shinsou, Mr. I-Have-No-Intention-Of-Making-Friends, has a one-track mind and the charming and dorky Kaminari lives in there rent-free.

word count: 31,337

dabi is short for dabert

rating: T

pairing: mix

summary: the todosiblings have a groupchat. chaos ensues

word count: 34,141

once forgotten, twice removed

rating: T

pairing: platonic izuku relationships

summary: number one hero Deku has been through a lot of things, but being thrust into an alternate reality where he’s All for One’s Successor is a first. He has to navigate this world when his alternate self is a villain who's dead-set on killing him and this version of class 1-A. All the while, his friends search desperately for a way to get him back.

word count: 42,301

Aizawa’s Guidebook to (hopefully) Subdue and Conquer the Takami Demon Child.

rating: T

pairing: mix of platonic izuku relationships + shindeku

summary: 6 times the ruleset created by aizawa was wrongfully ignored and 1 time it saved the day.

word count: 19,705

Late Nights

rating: T

pairing: mix

summary: It all started with a terribly shot video of Midoriya’s detailed plan on how he was going to ‘de-hero’ Endeavour. Then it all went downhill with the creation of ‘2-A LATE NIGHTS’.

word count: 3,798

awake and (un)afraid, asleep or-

rating: T

pairing: tododeku

summary: Kirishima and Shoto accidentally start trending on Twitter and in retaliation Shoto decides to make an Instagram to showcase all his Hero Deku merchandise, so that everyone knows how much he loves his boyfriend Izuku, and no one expects how quickly it will all spiral out from there

word count: 54,524

bet my heart

rating: T

pairing: bakudeku

summary: a collection of times Katsuki and Deku were absolute goners for each other but too oblivious to notice the other was feeling the same way.

word count: 24,035

history has its eyes on you

rating: T

pairing: mix

summary: Social media fic, counting down the five months to Class 1-A's ten year reunion.

word count: 16,698

Prodigal

rating: T

pairing: mix

summary: After being convinced to give One for All to Mirio, Midoriya Izuku must rebuild his shattered dreams with bloody hands.

word count: 56,802

A Boy and his Ghost (series)

rating: T

pairing: platonic izuku relationships

summary: -

word count: 565,543

Immovable

rating: T

pairing: bakudeku

summary: Bakugou and Midoriya get trapped under a building together. As Midoriya struggles to keep them both alive, refusing to give even an inch, Bakugou realizes some crucial things and refuses to leave without Midoriya by his side.

word count: 76,094

surprise reunions and childhood rekindling

rating: G

pairing: bakudeku

summary: Bakugou Katsuki and Midoriya Izuku haven't seen each other in five years. But when their friends suddenly bring them together and they finally meet again, it's like no time has passed at all.

word count: 89,959

BLUE LOCK

Perhaps "Fuck off" might be too kind

rating: E

pairing: kaisagi

summary: -

word count: 105,169

the bluelock is not locking

rating: G

pairing: mix

summary: alternatively: what the hell's going on in hakuho academy's football club?

word count: 41,275 (ongoing)

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD

It's Not a Big Deal

rating: T

pairing: edwin

summary: An AU in a modern setting where Edward and Winry don't know one another until he texts the wrong number.

word count: 81,114 (abandoned?)

The Reorganization Efforts of Central Command's Records Room

rating: T

pairing: platonic ed relationships

summary: Edward Elric has to be the unluckiest human alive. After saving the lives of hundreds of people (not that Mustang is going to focus on that), his arm and leg are completely destroyed. With his parts on back order for four weeks and no work for him in East City, Mustang has no choice but to send him to the most boring assignment on the planet: joining the effort to reorganize Central Command's Records Room. It's supposed to be an easy, simple, boring four weeks. But this is Edward Elric we're talking about. Of course he's going to stumble into some trouble. He'll just have to figure out a way to deal with the problem while down two limbs and away from Mustang and the rest of the team.

word count: 74,277

The Golden Sun

rating: M

pairing: edling

summary: There was only one thing Ed needed to do: find a way to get Al's body back. He wasn't going to worry about cheerful soulmates, narcissistic colonels, or violent Xingese assassins, but life had a funny way of fucking with his plans. Ed was sure it was Ling's fault in every possible way. Plot-heavy Edling AU.

word count: 175,400 (ongoing)

Spoon Theory

rating: T

pairing: platonic ed relationships

summary: -

word count: 16,058

SK8 THE INFINITY

what's left of our wings

rating: T

pairing: renga

summary: reki and langa navigate college, homesickness, important life decisions and found families, and the aching feeling of discovering friendship for the first time

word count:

Meet Me on the Fire Escape

rating: T

pairing: platonic joe & reki + renga

summary: It was summer in Okinawa and Reki was only 16 when he became an orphan. A story of losing family, grief, falling in love, healing, found family, and dark secrets. Not exactly in that order.

word count: 102,281

my feelings are fatal

rating: T

pairing: renga

summary: Kyan Reki contracts hanahaki disease for a second time.

word count: 17,869

But Not Shattered

rating: T

pairing: platonic reki relationships + renga

summary: In which Oka takes Reki to the hospital after finding him beaten up in an alleyway.

word count: 65,787

Let Boys Be Soft (and Men Too)

rating: T

pairing: platonic reki relationships + renga

summary: It's hard knowing how to be a good person with a busy mom, a dad who left you, and an awkward stepdad. Or Reki tries his best and the lessons he learns from father-figures, brother-figures, and dear friends along the way.

word count: 57,786

JUJUTSU KAISEN

Mehr-o-Maah

rating: M

pairing: satosugu

summary: They’re cheek to cheek then, for a brief, endless moment, sunlight trapped between them, before Suguru laughs and shoves at Satoru’s shoulder, words carried away by the wind. They bicker, together, walking hand in hand along the shore. The sun in the background plays out like a movie reel, left on and forgotten, turns bright gold. Red. Fades to a soft pink. They sit together, shoulder to shoulder, on the sand, still hand in hand. When the sky turns a vivid purple with a weary sigh, they do not rise, still whispering among themselves, heads close together, one light, the other dark. A miniature sun and moon, coming together in an eclipse.

word count: 14,446

The Odyssey (series)

rating: M & E

pairing: mix

summary: -

word count: 558,159 (ongoing?)

remedy for melancholy

rating: unrated

pairing: platonic gojo & geto & shoko + satosugu

summary: an AU where everyone has a love language, and Gojo's been neglecting his.

word count: 4,187

Carry Me Home

rating: T

pairing: satosugu but other platonic ones too

summary: Shortly before Getō would have massacred a village, he and Gojō are thrust eleven years forward into a would-have-been future that Getō is conspicuously absent from.

word count: 58,467

FREE!

Frozen Noses and Warm Hands

rating: T

pairing: rinharu

summary: -

word count: 27,073

In pursuit of Olympic dreams

rating: M

pairing: rinharu

summary: Rin returns to Japan with one goal in mind: Rio. He's got it all planned out—kill it at the Olympic Trials, make the National Team, and—in Rio—show the world. Falling in love, though? That isn't supposed to happen… Olympic Free.

word count: 588,471

DEMON SLAYER

home is with you

rating: M

pairing: sanegiyuu

summary: Giyuu has never believed in fate, but meeting Sanemi again hundreds of years later seems like the Universe is giving them one more shot to get it right.

word count: 3,422

can we always be this close (forever and ever)

rating: G

pairing: sanekana

summary: A Retelling of Chapter 132, in which Kanae lives.

word count: 4,414

peppermint tea

rating: M

pairing: obamitsu

summary: Mitsuri-centric. Hashira Modern AU - the friendships we wanted to see and didn't get to.

word count: 72,062

Blue

rating: T

pairing: sabigiyuu

summary: A convenient demon blood technique sends Giyū to a timeline where he's dead and Sabito's alive.

word count: 17,222

SCU (The Sabito Cinematic Universe) (series)

rating: G & T

pairing: sabigiyuu

summary: -

word count: 24,036

YONA OF THE DAWN

Aquamarine Stone

rating: M

pairing: shin-ah/yona

summary: What if Shin-ah had left his village after Ao's death because he didn't wish for people to fear him? What would've happened when he meets Yona earlier?

word count: 84,083

Yona and Her Dragons

rating: T

pairing: platonic yona relationships

summary: When your soulmate gets a bruise, you get one in a different color. (Inspired by one of those Tumblr AU prompt posts. On top of being one of the rare few to have soulmates, Yona's lucky enough to have four.

word count: 19,940

We Could Be Royals

rating: T

pairing: hakyona

summary: She’d been told that the king of Fuuga was harsh, uncompromising, and old. They’d been wrong on all three counts

word count: 13,012

ATTACK ON TITAN

A Series of Open Correspondences; or, Rules and Regulations of the Special Operations Squad

rating: T

pairing: mix of platonic relationships

summary: It quickly became clear to Levi that his new Special Operations Squad could not be so loosely regarded as the last; there was a special sort of idiocy to them, a particular flavor of dumb-shit that needed a firm guiding hand to keep them from trampling the world underfoot. Thusly was the rule-board born.

word count: 2,463

YURI!!! ON ICE

Glory Is Two Steps Away

rating: T

pairing: mix but focussed on platonic yuuri & yuri

summary: Yuri Plisetsky and Yuuri Katsuki are about as different as cats and dogs, which is to say they have no reason of ever even being acquaintances. Through a stroke of luck, as well as a couple dozen cat pictures, a tight friendship blossoms instead. On their own each skater stands out just fine, but together they shine, pushing each other past previous limits and onto the golden road of victory. Of course, there is still the living legend to worry about, but he's currently too besotted to lace up his skates, so…

word count: 152,866

[might-be-tiny-gt]

Last year I wrote a story about a streamer who shrinks based on chat donations. I meant it as a one shot, but guys…. GUYSSSSS.

I think about this story ‘s universe a lot. I have lore notes just collecting dust and I need to share it or I might go absolutely mad XD Made these visuals charts to get the basics across but if you’re interested in my lore and semantic ramblings, feel free to read below the cut.

Consider this my unofficial pitch bible for Down Played.

General premise: Monica Diaz is Twitch streamer with steadily growing fan base. Her tag is MiniMushroom and her aesthetic is cottage core. She loves all things magical and tiny, especially toadstool mushrooms, that’s the image most associated with her “brand.” She’s approached by a mysterious benefactor who has developed technology specifically for Monica to test and utilize for her streams. It’s called Byte-Syzed Tech and it connects to a user’s twitch stream and based on the user’s preferences, gives the audience the ability to change the user’s height. The one shot I wrote takes place during Monica’s first live use of Byte-Syzed tech on stream. If I were to develop this into a full story I’d probably go back a bit and start around when Monica is first approached about using Byte-Syzed tech then continue to follow Monica adjusting to using Byte-Syzed more often. How she deals with the size change on camera, off camera, how her social and personal life are affected, all that good stuff. I think it would like a slice of life feel good kinda story.

Characters:

- Monica - Main character and primary user of Byte-Syzed tech. Surprisingly enough, she’s actually a law school grad who probably would have put her degree to use if she didn’t accidentally gain a massive following on twitch. Funny how life works out. She stands at 6’4 and always was fascinated with the idea of being small (Basically, she’s a g/t nerd who doesn’t know what g/t is) so being gifted Byte-Syzed and being able to use it on stream is kinda a dream come true.

- Kim - Monica’s girlfriend, roommate, and stream moderator. Kim and Monica were high school sweethearts but drifted apart in college due to personal matters in Kim’s life including having to drop out of college. Kim and Monica rekindled their relationship a few years later and Kim cites Monica and her encouragement as a big reason why she’s been able to get her life back together. She’s currently back in college working on getting her degree in Mathematics.

- The Twitch Team- Moni hosts solo streams but also very often collabs with three of her online friends. Ariel (@Lifeisthebubbles), a Vtuber who is the only one Moni has met in person. Corey (@McDonuts) an NB asmrist on youtube who started streaming games for fun. And Phin (@UrguyPhin) Corey's bf and the competitive gamer of the four. All three of them were streaming with Monica when she first used Byte-Syzed and have since gotten used to pausing their games so an ever shrinking Monica can adjust her set up.

- The Benefactors- Keeping their (Plural, there are two of them) exact identity to myself for the time being, but basically they’re mad scientists with the best intentions. Their antics have garnered attention across the internet as they have created and gifted inventions to up and coming online creators that seem to defy all laws of physics. Anti Gravity chambers, a literal money tree, a mask the morphs the wearer’s face, and now the Byte-Syzed size changing tech. Despite their inventions going viral, their identities have remained hidden. So what is their deal? They’re just big fans of these creators and for lack of drawing skills have gifted them weird inventions instead. Nerds… Due to the nature of Byte-Syzed and the possible effects it can have on the human body, Monica and Kim remain in close contact with them.

How Byte-Syzed Works in Universe: This I wrote tons of notes about when I first thought of the idea. Byte-Syzed can be divided into three key components; The program, the arm band monitor, and the sync suit.

The Program is installed on the user’s computer and connects directly to the arm band monitor and sync suit. The program has user friendly set up that allows the user to input the direction of height change (Shrink or Grow), The minimum or maximum height change, How height change occurs (By views, chat commands, donations, etc.), and rate of height change (How much height is gained or lost with each instance of viewer interaction.) EX: If height is based on donations, the user can set it up so they lose 1 inch for every 10 dollars donated. They can set the minimum height to 6 inches, so once they’ve received enough donations that they have shrunk down to 6 inches, Byte-Syzed will hold at that height. More donations may come in after, but the height will remain at 6 inches for the duration of the stream.)

The Arm Band Monitor, is the device the physically changes the user’s height after connecting to the Byte-Syzed Program. It also monitors and display’s the user’s current height and vitals. All data collected from the arm band will then be saved and can be referenced later if the band is connected to the computer. The arm band must be kept on at all times during active use and active reset of Byte-Syzed. Active use is the time in which Byte-Syzed is being used in a stream and the user’s height is actively changing. Active reset refers to time after the stream has ended and the user is either set at their new current height or in the process of returning to their normal height. After a stream has ended the user will remain at their changed height until they press the reset button on the monitor. Once the reset button is active, the user will return to their normal height at 1.5 times the amount of time it took to change to their current changed height. EX: A user has finished a stream that was 4 hours. They hit the reset button which will return them to normal over the course of 6 hours. (4x1.5=6) This only applies for time Byte-Syzed was in use, not how long a size change occurred. EX: If the user’s stream was 4 hours, but they reached their minimum height in 3 hours, the reset function will account for the 4 hours the stream lasted. This is a safety procedure to reduce stress on the user’s body. Note: If the reset button is not pressed, the user will remain at their changed height for a period of 12 hours. After 12 hours, the reset function will kick in automatically.

The Synchronized Suit or Sync Suit is directly connected to the Byte-Syzed program and will grow and shrink with the user at the same rate as the user. Normal clothing can be worn above it but they will not change size with the user, only the sync suit. The sync suit Monica received came with the suit, shoes, and a headset with a built in microphone to keep audio input even over the course of her size changing. More sync suits are in the process of being designed and produced, with the goal of making sync suits that resemble everyday clothing like t shirts or skirts.

Fun Story Ideas:

- Origin story. How Monica met the benefactors and was gifted Byte-Syzed, her and Kim’s gripes about using it, actually going through with it and the pros and cons she noticed, the end of her first size changing stream and dealing with being tiny in her own room and her girlfriend’s hands. Etc etc

- Monica finished a late night stream using byte Syzed and forgets to press reset when she goes to sleep so instead of growing back over the course of the night she wakes up at her tiny size. After realizing her mistake she begins the growth process but now has to do it while attempting to do her regular day time activities.

- Monica is approached by a doll company to collaborate on a new doll based on her, only issue, their studio is several hours away and they want her to model at both her full height and at the height of the dolls. After some consideration Monica and Kim decide to take a road trip to the studio and use Byte Syzed at the studio under Kim’s careful supervision. What could go wrong?

- Months have passed and Kim and Monica have grown well adjusted to the major size difference between them after Monica finishes a byte syze stream, however curiosity has gotten the best of her and Kim wonders what it would be like to be the tiny one for a change.

If you have read this far, you have my eternal gratitude. Thanks for reading this far, I really hope you liked it XD Maybe if time and motivation allows I can flesh the story out.

[ahgasegotarmy116]

Semantic Error | A Jeon Jungkook Series | Chapter 6

Based off of Semantic Error (bl) by J Soori Summary: Jungkook invites you over to work on the game but you but it's hard to focus when he's around Pairing: Techie inexperienced fem!reader x Artist fuck boy Jungkook Work Count: 1.9k~ a/n: So so sorry I've taken a longer break between posting but let me know what you think about this chapter ;) hardly edited but I figured I would get it out anyway Read from the beginning

I couldn't pay attention in class thanks to him. His stupid voice with his stupid flirting and his stupid face then to top it off having all of that up close and personal made my stupid brain go into overdrive, losing what little space I had left to combat his antics. I hate that he can make me feel like this. And for what? Because he called me pretty? More specifically used it as a pet name, which somehow amplifies the meaning, sending my sense of reason for a spin. I huff audibly as I gather my things and get ready to head out to meet 'he who shall not be named' at this point. I just need to leave class, work there for a few hours and then go home. Simple as that. 

"You okay?" I hear behind me in a semi familiar voice. I turn around perplexed as to who the voice could belong to and see the guy I had helped the other day. " I'm fine" I say and turn back around to continue packing up my belongings. "It's Jimin, we met the other day when you helped me carry all of the music books" he says, not sure if I would need the reminder. "I know" I say plainly and make my way out of the classroom. "Hey, where you headed?" he asks following me without a care in the world. "I'm done for the day so I'm going to go work on something" I say giving him the bare minimum, hoping he won't prod further but unfortunately that's not the case.

"What are you working on?" he asks, clearly curious but also kind of not, seeming happy to simply be making conversation with me for some reason. "A video game application" I say and leave the building with him trailing behind. "Oh wow that's really cool! I had no idea you were into that stuff" he says, clearly shocked learning what I'm capable of but blowing it somewhat out of proportion. It's not as hard as it seems but many people tend to lack the concentration, let alone have the desire to learn.

"Yeah well, bye" I say and walk a bit faster, heading towards the gates. "Wait, I could walk you to where you need to go. I'm done for the day as well" he says jogging a few steps to catch up to me. "That won't be necessary" I say and continue onto my destination but he walks with me anyways. "Why are you following me?" I ask, finally stopping to look at him and see what his goal with all of this is. 

"I just want to make sure you get to your destination safely" he says giving me a sweet smile. "She's safe with me" that stupid voice that I wasn't expecting to hear so soon says while taking hold of my hand. "Oh hey hyung, I didn't know you and y/n were working together" Jimin says, greeting Jungkook. "Well now you do" he says and then we all stand there in somewhat of an awkward silence until I pull my hand out of Jungkook's grasp. "Let's go" I demand and continue to walk towards the gates. "Bye y/n" I hear Jimin say behind me and I decide not to acknowledge it. "See you" Jungkook says to Jimin before following my lead. 

"Do you guys hang out often?" he says falling into step with me and guides us towards his studio. "No we don't and why didn't you just wait for me like I told you to?" I question still feeling uncomfortable from the situation I had been put into moments ago. "Because I wanted to walk with you, plus this way I could make sure you wouldn't run off or get lost. I promise next time I'll just wait for you to come" he says pressing the button at the crosswalk for us. "Whatever" I say under my breath, fixing the strap on my backpack but before I can settle it back into place I feel it being take off of me.

"Hey! What are you doing?" I say looking over at, surprise surprise you guessed it Jeon Jungkook now carrying my bag. "Give it back!" I say reaching for it but before I'm able to reach it he starts walking down the street, showing me it's time for us to cross. "Hey!" I yell after him but all he does is continues to hold it out of my reach. "Just let me carry it for you" he says, slinging it across his shoulder and widening his strides leaving me trailing behind him without much of an option to do otherwise. 

Once we get to his studio I'm met with another girl around our age blasting her music throughout the place and popping the bubble she just blew in her gum. "Hey Yuna!" Jungkook shouts, trying to be heard over the music. "Yuna!" he yells again and decides to just walk up to her to grab her attention. "So much for keeping to herself" I mumble under my breath. "Oh hey, sorry I was totally spacing out. Is this the girl you were talking to me about? You work in the computer science department right?" she asks, zeroing in on me. "Something like that" I say walking further into the room, taking a look at how messy it is.

 "Oh yeah sorry about the mess, things have been really hectic around here" Jungkook says walking over to his desk and clearing off some more space for me. "Pick up that trash first, and put away those books and..." I list off some ways to reorganize the studio into a more suitable working environment. "Clean up your desktop too. Seeing all the icons on the screen is giving me anxiety" I say and he surprisingly does everything that I've asked him to do without much trouble at all. 

"What did you do to him?" Yuna whispers to me, clearly impressed by how well he's following my instructions."I didn't really do anything. I told him that if this wasn't a suitable working environment for me that he would be working on this project solo" I say stating the facts. "Wow" she says not believing it, "Well I'm gonna get back to work, good luck" she says, amused at the dynamic already. 

"Hey" I say getting her attention before she gets back to work. "Can you please uses those headphones you have beside you? It'll be hard to concentrate with your music blaring in my ears" I say and go back to watching as Jungkook completes the list. Hearing what I've said Jungkook comes over to Yuna's desk and nicely puts her headphones on her so there's no argument to be had and she simply blinks at my sudden change in attitude towards her but goes back to work without another word.

I sit down next to him and place my laptop down on the desk and take a deep breath, opening it and turning it on after taking one more quickly glance around the place. "Begin" I say and he starts to open up one of his drawing programs and sketches out some various characters and background ideas while I continue to piece together the code for the whole thing. 

"How's it going?" he says after a bit looking over at my screen, interested in what actually goes into working on the behind the scenes stuff. "It's going" I say and continue typing the various strings of code working out how the character moves around the different environments. "Oh okay" he says, taking that as a sign of me not wanting to continue the conversation. "How are things going on your end?" I ask and lean over to look at his screen and I can see how he almost lights up at my question in my peripheral vision but decide to ignore it. 

He turns his screen towards me a bit so I can sit back a bit into a more comfortable position and explains all of the different outfits and ideas for power up items and he thoughts about what can be added to the storyline. "Yeah everything looks okay, but I don't want to settle for okay. You need to change this, it looks too crazy, I want something a bit neater" I say pointing out different flaws in almost all of his designs. 

"You do realize these are just the rough drafts?" he says rubbing his temples after going through and changing things as I give him one critique after the other. "Yes but I thought your work would look a bit better than this compared to what you've shown me before"I state pointing out a few more things to change. "Okay I need a break" he says standing up and stretching before laying down on the couch and pulling one of the blankets over him. 

"What are you doing? We've only been working for two hours" I say confused as to why he would need a break this early. "Exactly, it's been two hours and I'm tired, just give me like fifteen minutes and I'll start cleaning up the designs" he says and turns over giving his back to me and settling in to take a power nap. I roll my eyes at him and just decide to just go back and continue what I had been working on before I started checking up on his designs. 

Getting lost in work I notice that it's been almost thirty minutes instead of the promised fifteen and try to call him over to get back to work. "Jungkook wake up" I say but it seems to have no effect on him so I groan and get up and walk towards where he's laying down and find him laying on his back, sound asleep. With the position he's reclined in I'm given a full view of his face, leaving me a chance to study his features for a second. 

He really is attractive, I can't deny that but that cocky attitude he has on him turns me off. His flirting is a different story though, feeling myself starting to blush again. I kneel next to the couch to see if he's really sleeping but it really does seem like he's still passed out. I brush the bit of hair that has fallen into his face back a bit and lean towards him a little bit. "You're really sleeping right?" I say and still he lays still, not making a sound and an unknown force pushes me closer to him and I end up placing a light kiss on his lips. 

I pull back and cover my lips with a hand after realizing what I've done and quickly but quietly pack up my things and leave. I open the door and am met with the sight of Yuna coming down to hallway back towards the studio. "Oh y/n you're still here. Is everything okay?" she says clearly noticing the almost panicked look on my face and blush slowly creeping up on my cheeks. "Yes never better. Please tell Jungkook I'm going home when he wakes up" I say and without another word run down the hall and out the onto the street making my way towards my apartment as quickly as humanly possible.  

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Can you do a platonic Autistic!Vaggie and Angel fic?

Vaggie has an overstimulated meltdown due to having to deal with everyone's antics and surprisingly Angel comforts her

Do not repost this on other sites. It will be cross-posted to AO3 under the same username.

Content warning for self-injurious stimming and depictions of an Autistic meltdown

Normally, Vaggie was good at ignoring the chaos of the hotel and all of the constant talking and whining and bitching from what few residents lived there.

Vaggie generally didn't get too overstimulated at the Hotel. She'd fought on the front lines before, back when she was an Exorcist, so she knew how to endure the noise well enough. The lights were generally kept pretty dim for her sake, by Charlie's insistence. Alastor had suggested a few times that they made the place brighter but one look at Vaggie was all Charlie needed to shut that idea down.

However, at this particular moment, her brain wasn't handling everything as well as it should've.

Sir Pentious and Alastor had gotten into a petty, loud argument about the semantics of... Something, and the noise was only made worse by the occasional two cents from the Egg Bois, who couldn't seem to decide which side they were on.

Over by the bar, Charlie was enthusiastically going through a list of ideas of how to make that part of the Hotel more friendly, much to Husk's annoyance. Angel sat by, occasionally throwing in a vulgar comment.

And Niffty was... Well, being Niffty and loudly tormenting a few roaches who had found their way into the main area of the hotel.

Vaggie stood by the staircase, trying her best to keep herself calm and collected even as all the noise grew louder. It was a losing battle, though, especially as her brain began to focus in on the sound of the lights and the AC as well. It was Angel who saw her race upstairs, so he casually walked away from the bar- Charlie and Husk were too deep into discussion to even notice him leaving.

Upon going upstairs, Angel quickly made his way to Vaggie's quarters. He opened the door (which she hadn't locked in her overwhelm) and immediately spotted her sitting up in the bed, curled in a ball, and hitting herself in the head repeatedly.

He quickly but calmly got up onto the bed. He didn't want to touch her when she was clearly overwhelmed so he instead picked up one of the pillows on the bed and gently put it in between her hand and the hand she was hitting herself with, just to minimize injury.

He got up again and walked over to where the light slider was on the wall and dimmed the lights in the room. Her hitting died down a bit with that and he could now more clearly hear the low whine repeatedly emanating from her vocal chords.

"Vaggie?" he said in an uncharacteristically soft voice as he once again sat down on the bed in front of her. She didn't give any sort of response- Verbal or otherwise- So he figured that this probably wasn't a talk-through-it type of meltdown. Realistically, all he could really do now was keep her company until she calmed down.

Eventually, she tired herself out enough for the meltdown to end and she just sat there, avoiding Angel's gaze. She was embarrassed- This was embarrassing. She felt embarrassed when it was Charlie seeing her like that- But Angel Dust?

She was about ready to curl up and die.

"Ya okay?" Angel asked. She shrugged. "Can't talk?" She nodded timidly. "'Kay, hold on a sec" he told her, pulling out his phone and opening the notes app. He handed her the device with a weak smile. "There ya go"

'Sorry about that' she typed out. He frowned.

"Ya don't gotta apologize fo' that" he told her earnestly. "I know we ain't all tha' close, but I ain't gonna judge ya fo' somethin' like this. Ya can't help it"

'Thank you for the pillow and the lights and for not leaving me alone'

"I figured no one else was gonna cause they were all distracted" he told her honestly. She supposed that was fair- I think they both would've preferred if it was Charlie there with her instead of him, but it also could've been worse. "D'ya wanna be left alone?"

'No, it's okay. You can stay if you want'

"Alrigh' then" Angel leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling while Vaggie recovered from her meltdown. He wondered if he could call her a friend rather than an acquaintance.

Vaggie figured that they were probably friends.

[heyjude19-writing]

An observation I've recently had I'd love to share and get your take on. As we both love drarry and dramione fics to death.

I feel like Hermione requires for her pairing to work, a mature version of whomever is going to fit as her love interest. Someone who is academically brilliant, who is intelligent, someone who is enchanting and brilliant. She greater than life bc she is as well to the public and in her group of friends. Which requires more from Draco as a pairing, in order for him to fit the bill. So when we read Draco he often puts away his childish antics as a relic from the past and doesn't let the semantical petty stuff.

Vs. with Drarry it seems that Harry only rubs salt on those traits further. that Harry sometimes being a childhood rival and maybe someone who regresses Draco back to his silly ways and so the arc for redemption is harder and longer bc for Drarry to work, Draco needs to be exposed to Harry in order for it to work. Harry and Draco might have had a crush and soft spot for each other in those states growing up so Harry doesn't require Draco to step up and become impressive in Hermione's eyes. Harry is a lot more simple and requires of Draco less. But through exposure, we see a great payoff with Draco's redemption we took for granted in dramione bc Draco must normally be already putting his ways to the past in order to progress romantically with Hermione.

What do you make of this? I'd love to know your take.

hi anon!

this was a fun thought exercise :)

I do think hermione requires someone with intelligence, or who at least values intelligence, for sure. I don't know that "brilliance" is a req for her, but someone who will at least appreciate her intellect and not dismiss it and can hold their own when conversing with her. and yes it's fair to say for a dramione dynamic, draco should have done a lot (A LOT) of work pre-relationship on himself or she's unlikely to even consider him as an option. he's unlearning all the bigotry first.

but i think not holding harry to that same standard does a disservice to both his and draco's character. while yes, i do think his and draco's antagonistic relationship is rooted more in the personal and petty rather than ideological, i don't see harry interested in someone who would refer to his best friend and his own mother as a slur. in a drarry dynamic, i do see their disagreements being petty and immature and i think they're both quick to regress to that state with each other, but i wouldn't say that harry requires less of draco in a romantic relationship.

[lapseinrecs]

Hero, Martyr, Idiot

By cywscross @cywscross

On Archive Of Our Own (account required)

Status: Complete; 15643 words

Summary: The day Ichigo gets back on his feet with a deadline hanging over his head, he goes right back to scowling at Renji’s antics and arguing semantics with Ishida and making fun of Rukia, and everyone around him breathes a collective sigh of relief when they see it. Isshin does one better and laughs, “That’s my son; nothing puts him down for long! I told you he’d be alright!” Shinji just squints dubiously at him, at all of them, and wonders, “Are ya really that stupid?” 

My thoughts: I don’t know anything about their canon relationship, but I admire the whole stepping-up-after-things-have-gone-down-even-though-you-probably-should-have-stepped-in-earlier-because-seriously-dude-that’s-kinda-abusive sort of thing. Seriously man, you don’t kick your kids. (I know that it’s generally not seen as abusive in story and more of a comedic reel, but…) The writing is very introspective, with a focus on helping Ichigo recover from post-war trauma. I appreciate the finer things.

[voxofthevoid]

Time to once again chew on you 🦷

I KNEW YOU HAD AN INKLING ABOUT THE TWIST! Told you this already, but it bears repeating, especially given your healthy dose of suspicion about Satoru’s antics as well as your understanding of his character in general. Think I’ve told you already, but this really was meant to be a oneshot that then got away from me in truly spectacular (read: insanity-inducing) fashion. Anyway! Am preening that you like how it was foreshadowed and finally executed. I’m eating your tags, and they’re a seven-course feast.

Hopping back for a semblance of order, I’m glad you like the beginning scenes and Satoru’s little show—and Yuuji’s reaction. AND YOU KNEW YOU’D FUCKING MURDER ME with “rereading them feels like listening to a song.” You Knew. I’m dead, I’m deceased, I’m typing this from my grave. Putting this on my resume isn’t enough, I need to carve it into my bones. Thank you 😭🥺

“Put a knot in it” hasn’t gotten any less hilarious on the…fourth read of these tags, btw, and as always, I find the things you find soft/emo to be fascinating. Love your tastes, never change.

Speaking of knots, I did promise you knot fucking!! This might more like knot torture, from both ends, but well, semantics. I’m also delighted to see you quote “you stupid cocky child” specifically; that was an extremely self-indulgent line, even more than my usual brand of everything is self-indulgent.  

And you’re right, both about Yuuji’s attempt to provoke Satoru being a lost cause and the larger consequences of these two mating. Satoru’s literally and politically untouchable, and Yuuji’s greatest vulnerability to an execution was the fact that he’d go willingly. Now, well—he won’t be so willing, not with a metaphysical bond between himself and Satoru that guarantees his death would be literally felt on the other end, and that’s on top of Satoru’s rather violent protective streak. Nobara and Megumi would likely end up relieved ultimately, but the higher-ups, larger jujutsu society, the three main clans, etc. are gonna shit kittens. It’ll be fun! I want to touch none of it.

You continue to be a gift to me personally, and I continue to want to chew on you 💗

Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Gojo Satoru/Itadori Yuuji Characters: Itadori Yuuji, Gojo Satoru Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Teacher Itadori Yuuji, Student Gojo Satoru, Teacher-Student Relationship, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Itadori Yuuji, Omega Gojo Satoru, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Altered Mental States, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Painful Sex, Crying During Sex, First Time, Loss of Virginity, Mentions of Breeding, Praise Kink, Dirty Talk, Somnophilia, Uninformed Consent, Extremely Dubious Consent, Violence, Plot Twists, Underage Sex, Referenced Nanami Kento/Itadori Yuuji, Referenced Fushiguro Megumi/Itadori Yuuji

Summary:

Satoru’s in heat; it’s Yuuji’s problem somehow.

Chapter:

“I’ve kept you full all these days, and you’re still so hungry, Satoru.”

“Of course I am,” Satoru gasps, and he seems to have given up on riding Yuuji, just squirming in place, working Yuuji’s cock with devastating little twists of his hips. “You are too, sensei, don’t lie. I can smell it on you.”

“Can you? I’m not so sure,” Yuuji says, though he knows Satoru’s right. Yuuji’s almost done, but only almost. He doesn’t feel like admitting that though. There’s something about this, Satoru insatiable and such a brat about it, that makes Yuuji want to tease him a little. “But you can have my fist if you’re so desperate. You’re open enough that I could just fuck you with it, aren’t you?”

[stillalittlelostngl]

No Good Dead Goes Unpunished Dabi/Reader

Reader is a healer and stumbles upon someone needing their help. Little did they know the consequences they would have to face for their bleeding heart. (Reposting since I nerfed my old account - this is an old work so please be kind lol. Will probably re-write soon)

“Thanks for fixing me up doc, if you ever need anything just ask,” the man huffed as he stretched his newly healed arm, testing the limits of the muscle and skin you had just spent so much time skillfully piecing back together.

You had to refrain from scoffing at the display, you do the equivalent of a modern day miracle and here he was doubting your work.

“Funny, don’t think you’re the type of guy I’d run to in need of a favor” you practically mumbled as you eyed him.

The man,Yamaguchi, was a local kingpin after all, definitely not the type of guy you’d want to be indebted to for whatever reason. You definitely didn’t want to be entangled in his world anymore than you already were either. You’d been tasked with fixing him up a few times over the years and each time he seemed to be brought back to you more beat up and mangled than before.

“Come on now, you know me,” and don’t you wish you didn’t, maybe then you wouldn’t have to spend so much time putting him back together every other week like some absurd jigsaw puzzle. After getting so mangled time and time again you’d have thought he’d hang up his title and get out of the seedy underbelly of the city while he still had all his limbs attached. Somewhere along the lines you’d probably fucked up, he probably was under the impression you’d always be there to piece him back together again.“I ain’t that bad of a guy.”

You couldn’t stop the scoff at that statement, “Nah, just a morally and ethically questionable one. No?”

You’d seen what Yamaguchi and his syndicate did to people who crossed them, you’d also seen all the havoc he’d brought into the community with all the drug trafficking and racketeering that had exploded in the area the moment he had decided to set foot into the ward. Of course the community had never been perfect, there had always been crime and with it gangs and syndicates looking to flip a dollar were never too far off, but since he came around with the new drugs he had brought with him it seemed as if all of the factions in the area had upped their antics in order to try and compete. It made you wonder the type of people he’d deem worse than him.

You were positive they existed, the man in front of you was no saint but Yamaguchi had never gone out of his way to hurt people uninvolved with his business and doings - something he eagerly reminded you of each time you saw him. You’d counter with the fact that he indirectly had involved countless people due to how interpersonal drugs and violence can be but he always shrugged it off with a wave of his hand and an insistence you were caught up in semantics. Either way. the fact your local boogeyman was saying he wasn’t nearly as awful as he could be had you wondering of the types of characters he must have dealt with on the regular to give him the impression that he ‘wasn’t that bad of a guy’.

“Look at that,” Yamaguchi exclaimed to one of his lackeys that had been sitting in the room while you worked on him, “she’s starting to learn.” The other man had been one you saw frequently during your visits. He was built more like a mountain than an actual human and his face was always frozen in what you assumed to be a permanent scowl at this point. A word had never been said between the two of you and you had been more than happy to keep things that way. He was there to make sure you didn’t kill his boss after all, you’d seen the muscles in his face and arms twitch a time or two, usually when you’d said something that could’ve easily provoked your patient, and you’d felt your life flash before your eyes each time. Making his acquaintance wasn’t exactly high on your to-do list….

You’d had similar conversations with the kingpin before when you were patching him up, honestly you were surprised he hadn’t just killed you for your statements or questions. You’d heard of people dying for less when interacting with people like him and your mama always did say your mouth was going to be the death of you. Surprisingly, however, he seemed more amused by your comments than anything else. Each one always brought some odd look of glee and satisfaction to his face, and he’d always eagerly entertain your statements and do his best to incite a whole conversation with you.

Yamaguchi was talkative for a drug lord in your humble opinion, he seemed more than willing to tell you any and everything with little to no insistence on your part. He his nothing from you, often giving you names of specific people he worked with or police stations and hero agencies he’d paid off, or times and dates he’d be somewhere to pick up his product or who his distributors were. It was the type of information heroes and detectives across the country would give an arm and a leg for and here he was just tossing it out without a care in the world.

You’d wondered how he lasted as long as he had with such a loose tongue. You’d seen plenty of people come and go doing this type of business, what usually did them in is that they told the wrong person the wrong thing. However, from what you could see Yamaguchi ran a tight ship, and if something were to slip they’d know you were the snitch - with him having planted some of his own men in local police forces if you had even thought of giving them information he’d know the second you walked through the police station door. It seemed money and having the right people on his bankroll was able to solve any problem Yamaguchi had even if they were caused by his own negligence.

“Well if that’s all...,” you said as you began to collect your things and move towards the door. Your patience that day had been tried and tested and you had no interest in entertaining this conversation with the drug lord any longer. You had been on your way home before some of his lackeys had tracked you down and demanded you give their boss a house call. All you had really been wanting to do since stepping foot into the room had been to high tail it out of there and get home to your loving bed that was waiting for you.

“Yeah, yeah,” Yamaguchi said waiving an arm in your direction, “I can have some of my men take you home,” he suggested, “it’s getting late, the regulators are gunna be out soon.”

“No, no, no,” you quickly interjected, “Thanks for the offer but it’s fine. They won’t bother me none.”

The thought of having to share a small space with some men, all on high protein diets and prone to violence, didn’t really sound like a good time to you even if it was just for a few moments. Besides, regulators in the area had learned to avoid hassling you if they wanted their friends or themselves to be patched up so you’d much rather take your chances walking home. It was just a few blocks away from where you currently were, practically a hop and a skip - you’d be home in no time, probably before the street lamps finally came on.

“Suit yourself,” he relented easily enough, “but I don’t know how I’ll be able to focus on my work when I’m worried my sweet little doctor had to walk home all by herself.”

Having the kingpin joke with you and talk so familiarly with you had been alarming when it first started happening. You remember how you had practically choked on your own spit the first time it happened from the shock of it all. However, now it was nothing new.

“My heart bleeds for you,” you said with a roll of you eyes and a slight wave in goodbye as his laughter followed you as you eagerly made your exit.

Finally making it back to the outside world you let out a breath you hadn’t known you’d been holding and all the tension in your shoulders seemed to melt away. You’d been dealing with folks like him for years now, hell living in this ward you’d grown up with plenty of the folk. That was probably what caused you so much anxiety, at least with others in the area you had grown up with them and there seemed to be a mutual understanding of what you would and wouldn’t tolerate. With Yamaguchi, however, there were just too many variables at play, you didn’t know him like you knew the others and that’s what made working with him so dangerous.

Kicking a small pebble along on your walk home you couldn’t help but get annoyed that the only reason you had to interact with the man was entirely your fault. You had been the one to want to start using your quirk for people in the community. That had been entirely your idea after all, Yamaguchi was just using a service you freely offered to people in the area.

Growing up in the ward, there had always been a lack of decent medical care for its residents. There were no doctor’s offices or clinics present, hell the closest hospital was twenty or thirty minutes away depending on if you took public transportation to get there or not. Most medical institutions were unwilling to set up facilities in the area due to the high levels of crime and villain activity and the inability of the local government or hero agency’s to control it. You supposed you could understand an outside perspective somewhat, going to work in this ward and having to deal with trauma patients day in and day out would get taxing, not to mention expensive for the institution. With the median income for the ward being well below the national average that only further incentivised the medical field to avoid the place. They weren’t interested in helping unless they were going to be making money off of it. Clinics and the likes had been started by members of the community to try and combat the issue but with how underfunded and high in demand they were it wasn’t long until the clinics had become unable to keep up with the pressure and eventually it’s doors would close. You had seen numerous preventable illnesses spread like wildfire throughout the community as well as individuals in pain and suffering from injuries or conditions that could be easily treated if they were able to get to a hospital, or doctor, or somebody.

It rattled you to your core on occasion when you thought of just how neglected and disposable to people of the ward were being treated.

With your quirk you knew you could help alleviate that struggle, at least a little bit so a little over three years ago that’s what you started doing. It had first started with just your neighbors in your apartment complex, you had offered to give them check ups and fix whatever you could fix during certain times and days should they choose to seek you out - no questions asked or judgements made on how or why there were certain injuries that looked to be results of activity in violent crimes. Soon enough, word had spread about your work and how you were willing to keep quiet on certain things and next thing you know you’re basically the resident doctor and taking care of bullet wounds or quirk related injuries occured as often for you as treating a child’s cold.

You just wanted to get these people on their feet and feeling better again. There wasn’t much you could do to try and help aside from that, you weren’t a cop or a hero, you were just...well not a doctor either but your quirk sure as hell made you qualified enough in your own right to stick to just healing the body and mind- you didn’t know how to do anything else.

Sometimes you would be able to bargain with some of the syndicates, it was never a good situation and you felt like an idiot sticking your neck out and just hoping it wouldn’t get removed from your shoulders. However, for the most part, while they weren’t very eager and you had been on your fair share of threats of violence for it, they had agreed to your terms however begrudgingly. So far you’d manage to make them agree to only having their regulators out after the street lamps came on - giving enough time for children or the elderly or anyone else to get inside so they didn’t become collateral in some turf war or dispute between factions. You’d also managed to get some to agree to keep away from certain areas, naimly school’s, religious institutions and playgrounds. Both cases had you nearly at your wits end dealing with the various leaders and higher ups of each syndicate but eventually a majority of them had agreed to the terms you required in order for you to keep fixing up their people.

It wasn’t as if these were wild terms to agree to to begin with, many members of these organizations lived in the area and had a family or loved one’s in the area who they wanted to protect. In the end, even if it did disrupt their business or how they handled things - it seemed most of them could acknowledge that changing the way things were done could prevent them from losing someone they cared about so it had been enough of an incentive, on top of a pretty much guaranteed one stop shop for healing any would, for them to agree. A few cases here and there had them going against the terms but honestly you were just happy something had changed, even if just a little.

At the end of the day these people were your patients, if you agreed with everything they did was besides the point. You had just grown so tired of seeing people hurt and sick when you knew you could do something to stop it. Even still, at this point if you denied your services you’re fairly certain you and the people you care for would quickly become a target, you didn’t want to be endorsing their behavior - not even passively- but you were in far too deep at this point to back out now. All because you had to go and stick your nose into other people’s business.

‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions all that,’ you couldn’t help but think bitterly as you practically had to drag yourself home. Yamaguchi had been your fifth patient that day, not to mention you had been at work for eight hours prior, needless to say you were exhausted. Your quirk didn’t have too bad of side effects for you, you had healed people with much worse, but it sure as hell left you drowsy beyond all belief. There were only two more blocks until you could finally fall into the comfort of your bed. That was the only thought motivating you enough to actually keep moving and not crash where you stood. Just two more blocks and you could finally wrap yourself in your favorite most plush blanket and have yourself a well deserved siesta.

Your daydreams about the rondevu with your bed were interrupted when you heard the sounds of shuffling followed by what sounded like metal banging together and a low groan. Your face fell and you cursed whatever god had decided to give you a far too curious and altruistic nature.

A few feet ahead of you was the entrance to an alley you passed everyday on your walk to and from work. There was no doubt in your mind the noise had come from there and that those groans were definitely groans of pain. Dealing with as many injured people as you did the sound became pretty easy to distinguish for you. However, you stayed firmly planted where you stood.

To help, or not to help. Now there was a question that could potentially be the death of you. This could just be a front, some people could just be waiting on some air head with far too kind of a heart to help someone in need only to end up jumping them and robbing them. Realistically, even if it wasn’t a front, this person wasn’t your responsibility. It was far more likely you didn’t know them and had no ties or obligation to them. You were just some civilian heading home, things didn’t need to be more complicated than that.

Or at least that’s what you tried to tell yourself. No matter how hard you tried to convince yourself it wasn’t any of your business the thought of just walking away left you downright nauseous and had your gut twisted in the worst of ways.

“If this is how I die, I swear to god…,” you grumbled to yourself as you inched your way towards the mouth of the dark alleyway. Here you were knownlingly walking straight in to some cliche out of a movie script. How many times had you yelled at the T.V. telling the actor to just mind their own business and keep it movin? Yet here you were, you were stupid for doing this. Whoever was hurting had crawled into an alley for a reason, they obviously didn’t want to be found. Who were you to deny them their privacy?

As you peered around the corner, the fading light of sun and the overhanging shadows of the buildings caused you to have to squint just the slightest in order to make out the figure hunched over by a dumpster and some garbage bags tossed haphazardly near it. They were hunched over and facing away from you, they seemed to be using one arm on the dumpster to keep themselves somewhat standing with their other arm pressed into their side to, what you could only assume would be an attempt to, apply pressure to a wound. You couldn’t make much out from their appearance, just that they stood a good few inches taller than you and that they appeared to be a man.

“Hello,” you called out taking a step into the space. You’ve approached strangers in dark alleys before due to your work, some in these types of situations tended to be volatile or hostile so you were a bit weary of getting too close. You were fairly confident you could handle yourself, your quirk could damage people just as well as it could fix them and with them being injured it would be more difficult for them to try and pull something fast by you. However, people in these situations were unpredictable, adrenaline without a doubt flooding their system and their mind racing a mile a minute, there was no real way of knowing if they would attack you or not until they did it.

The moment the word had passed your lips their head had whipped up at the sound so quickly you were slightly concerned they may get whiplash from the action. Bright turquoise eyes had turned to face you and suddenly all of the anxiety you should’ve been feeling before came bubbling to the surface. The eyes were focused solely on you with such an intense look it had been damn near overwhelming, you were rooted in your spot for a moment before you were able to recollect yourself and remember just what it was you were doing in this damp and dark alleyway to begin with.

“You’re hurt,” you had meant for it to be a question but looking at the man the pain he was undeniable. His breathing seemed labored and heavy and blood soaked through his clothing, if it was his or not you could exactly tell. However, the way his face was screwed up and how he seemed to be gritting his teeth told you all you needed to know.

You held your hands up in what you hoped he’d take as a non-threateningly gesture, it was so hard in this day and age of quirks to know what gestures would signal an attack, as you took a few small steps towards him.

He gave a sudden jerky movement, if he meant to move towards you or away from you - you weren’t exactly sure, but his legs gave out from under him soon enough and he let out a mumbled expletive as he fell back against the dumpster. His breathing devolved into a series of labored wheezing and coughs and it was clear that this man wasn’t moving by himself any time soon.

“I can help you,” you said in what you hoped was a calm and confident tone. You weren’t so sure anymore. Your heart rate had spiked from his quick movement, you don’t know this man or if he had a quirk that was dangerous, and your tongue felt heavy and your mouth dry as you took another few steps towards him. You still had your hands raised as you approached him like you would a wounded animal. He certainly looked the part, disheveled as he was and his eyes sharp and wild looking as they were.

When you were less than a few feet from him, he had raised the arm that had been against his side and a bright blue flame erupted from his hand. It hadn’t been enough to touch you or harm you, but you could feel the sweltering heat from where you stood. The warning in the action was clear.

He went to say something but his body was soon overcome with a coughing fit that had the fire extinguished and him doubled over again. You took the opportunity to go to his side and help support him as you assessed his condition.

“Look I don’t care why you wound up beat to shit and left in a pile of trash, that’s not important,” this speil had practically become second nature to you, as if you were on autopilot as the hand you had placed on his back and the one on his injured side began to glow with the activation of your quirk. Plenty of patients you had to deal with had been far more hostile than he was being, you took what little comfort you could from that fact, “Just let me help you and after we can both pretend like this never happened.”

Your quirk allowed you to manipulate the biological structure of organic matter, while the practical uses were far more reaching than fixing body tissues or helping fight off illness you had never cared to use it to harm another unless given no other option. Taking his quietness and lack of resistance as a good sign for future cooperativeness, you used your quirk to feel about the various tissues and cells in his body and quickly the issue became apparent. Aside from some cuts and bruises he had traumatic pneumothorax. A blow to his chest undoubtedly had resulted in a few ribs breaking and one of them had punctured his lung causing it to collapse.

“Look, I’m sure you could’ve guessed but you’re not really in a good way right now,” you began as you started to gather the energy you needed to heal his injuries, “Pretty uncomfortable right? Well, I can help you out and you can walk out of this alley yourself or i can happily leave your ass here. You’ll probably die of fluid build up in the lung but shock is also a bitch to deal with, but with how heavy you’re breathing you also seem to be having trouble getting enough oxygen so passing out before all of that is pretty likely,” you said. You didn’t normally like talking with patients in such a tone but with the more hostile and bullheaded one’s it tended to get them to listen to reason, “We can do that or I can help you out of the goodwill of my heart, but you just can’t go about setting me on fire, alright?” You searched his eyes for any sign of aggression or resistance. You really hoped the idiot just sucked up his pride and agreed. It really wouldn’t sit right with your conscious to just leave him here.

He seemed to debate it for a moment before giving a less than enthusiastic nod. It was more than enough for you and you let out a breath you hadn’t realized you had been holding. Relief flooded your system that he agreed to cooperate and that you could do your job and didn’t have to worry about if he was gunna reduce you to a pile of ashes or not.

However, just when you had gathered the energy needed to begin healing his more serious injuries his free hand suddenly grabbed one of your own. You couldn’t fight back the flinch as his quick movement startled you. So much for cooperative..

Playing hot and cold with someone on their death bed wasn’t exactly how you had imagined your night going and if he was just going to keep this up he could get himself out of this situation. “Look, If you don’t want me to-” you began irritable.

“They’re going to come looking for me…” he said between his heavy breathing. His voice deep and gravely as it grated on your senses that where already overstimulated from the adrenaline pumping through your system due to how fond he seemed to keep giving you jump scares.

You considered your options and couldn’t stop your hand from running down your face as you realized there really was only one in this situation. “Normally I have men buy me a drink before I take them home…,” you sighed. Well you supposed the other option could just be to cut your losses and leave him here. To bad your mother raised you to be a decent human.

Hauling him to his feet was a difficult task, but not impossible. Luckily he wasn’t heavily built but unluckily he was much taller. One of his arms was slung around your frame as he leaned over you with your arm wrapped around his waist to keep him propped up. His face was practically buried in your hair and he was hunched over due to the height difference, but it would have to do. As you made your way to the last block towards your apartment it probably just looked like you were helping him home after a...Wednesday afternoon spent drinking. A bit odd but not entirely out of place in this ward.

You tried to move him as gently as possible but you really didn’t want to be out on the street with him like this any longer than necessary. Drawing any type of attention to yourself would surely get a regulator’s attention and depending on who had fucked him up so badly things could get ugly from there quickly. You could tell he tried to restrain his groans as shudders raked through his body from the jostling the walking did to his ribs.

By some miracle you had made it to your apartment complex without anyone stopping you on the walk over and you wanted to cry in relief at the fact none of your neighbors were out and about. Getting him inside the apartment had been a cakewalk outside of the shuffling for your keys. You’re pretty sure he had let out a chuckle at your groans of annoyance at having to fiddle with the lock and twist the door knob this way and that to get the damn thing to actually open, but you couldn’t be sure.

You mourned for your couch as you laid him down on it and began to work your magic. He was covered in grime and dirt and a few blood stains, getting all of that out was going to be a pain in the ass. You had bought it new and everything, what a shame.

You were quick to get to work, your hands glowing and illuminating the dark room as you set about putting him back together, and thankfully he didn’t seem too intent on stopping you anymore.

You made quick work repairing the damaged cells and clearing his body of debre and fluids so that the tissues of the lung could repair and the bone could be shifted back into place and fixed. At some point between you starting and ending the healing process he had fell unconscious. You weren’t sure if it was the shock and fatigue finally setting in or if he had been worn out from whatever fight he had been in but you were thankful to be saved from what would’ve probably been an awkward conversation after you had finished.

Taking a moment to breath you leaned back and you were finally able to actually observe just who it was that was posted up on your couch. His eyes had been the only thing you had focused on before, they had been so striking in his intensity, but now that you were finally able to actually see him, even in the darkness that had enveloped the room due to you not turning on the light when you rushed him inside, you noted just how striking the rest of his features were.

He had what looked to be burn marks long since scarred over that left a purpilish color covering a majority of the visible skin you could see. Surgical staples seemed to be holding the scarred tissue to the undamaged skin and you wondered vaguely if you should go about healing those wounds as well. His hair was dark and disheveled with sweat sticking it to his forehead. You had seen his face screwed up in pain since you first laid eyes on him but here, sleeping as deeply as he was, you were able to truly see the various contours of his face so much more clearly.

You let out a soft hum in thought as you got up from your spot beside him and moved to get a blanket for him. You didn’t have the heart to wake him up and kick him out after all of that, besides your bedroom door locked and any attempt to bust that in or burn it down would surely wake you up. It wasn’t that big of a deal anyhow, plenty of patients as dangerous as him had spent the night before with little incident.

You quickly wrote down a note for him giving him your name and explaining the situation in case he woke up disoriented and left it on the coffee table in a way you would hope would get the stranger to notice it before he decided whether or not to burn your apartment down.

Throwing the blanket on him you were quick to exit the room as if you were the one intruding and make your way to your bedroom. Hopefully you’ll be able to get some sleep before your shift early in the next morning.

[stitch1830]

Big Sister

I felt like writing some Kantoph fluff, so here you go :)

......

“Lin, c’mere.”

The two-year-old wasn’t keen on listening to her father at the moment because she was too busy playing with her stuffed animals. But Kanto scooped up his baby girl in his arms and blew raspberries in her belly until she conceded. They were in fits of giggles when they sat on the couch next to Toph. The Greatest Earthbender in the World only playfully shook her head at their antics, but placed her hand on Kanto’s knee, signaling for them to begin.

Once Lin was settled on Kanto’s lap and he had a decent grip on her wiggling form, Kanto spoke again. “Linny, Mama and I want to talk to you about something, and then we can go back to playing, okay?”

Lin nodded and gave Kanto a great big smile.

“You know how Kya is a big sister to Izumi?” Kanto asked.

“Yeah!”

“And how Gyatso and Sari are siblings?”

“Yeah!”

“And you know how much fun they have as siblings? How they always have each other’s backs no matter what?”

“That might be over her head, Hotshot,” Toph muttered.

“Shush, I’m painting a pretty picture for her.”

“Sure you are.”

Kanto grinned and held Toph’s hand. And when he turned to Lin again, he continued, “How would you feel if you could be a big sister, Lin? To have a sibling of your own?”

Lin tilted her head to the side. “How?”

“Well, Mama is going to have a baby, and they’re going to be your baby sibling! Isn’t that exciting?”

“A baby sissy?” Lin asked.

“It could be a baby brother or a baby sister,” Kanto replied. “What do you think of that?”

“Why a baby?”

“An oops moment,” Toph mumbled, smirking.

“You can’t call our baby ‘oops’ like that,” Kanto muttered back to Toph, then redirected his attention back to Lin. “Well, Mama and Baba love each other, and we wanted our family to grow, and we thought that you would just be the bestest big sister in the world, so that’s why we’re having another baby.”

Lin said nothing for a moment as she apparently comprehended the news. “When do I get a baby.”

Kanto laughed at his daughter’s semantics, then replied, “It will be a few months before your baby sibling arrives, so we have some time to prepare.”

“Am I not your baby anymore?”

Toph clicked her tongue and pulled Lin into her lap. “Of course not, baby girl. You’ll always be our baby girl. We’re only having another baby because like Baba said, we love each other and decided to grow our family, that’s all.”

“Yeah, Linny. And we know you’re gonna be the best big sister ever,” Kanto added. “We’ll love you and your baby sibling just the same.”

Lin sat in Toph’s lap, silent. The two parents put on a casual front, but they were quietly nervous about her reaction. Babies change things, and while Toph and Kanto were excited, they worried that Lin may not care for the newest addition as much as they did. So they sat there, watching and listening for tells that told them whether or not she was happy or mad about the news.

After what felt like years, Kanto asked Lin, “What do you think about being a big sister, Lin? How do you feel?”

The toddler blinked, likely out of confusion on the question or because she was in her own world. Whatever the case, she flashed a big, toothy grin after a minute, then patted Toph’s belly. “I love you, baby oops!”

Toph and Kanto burst into fits of laughter, because of course she picked up the one thing they hoped went over her head. But after that, what choice did they have but to call their future baby Beifong “Oops”? It was a little too perfect (and too adorable when they heard it from Lin).

Kanto grinned at Toph. “That’s gonna stick, isn’t it?”

When she calmed down, Toph smiled back at Kanto. “You know it,” she replied, fighting back another round of giggles.

“This is gonna be fun,” he commented, pulling Toph and Lin into his long arms. And after he gave Toph a loving kiss on the lips, Toph couldn’t help but quietly agree with her husband.

[popculturebuffet]

Shadow Into Light (Lena Retrospective): Magica’s Shadow War

Hello all you happy people! And welcome back to Shadow Into Light, my look at the life and times of Lena Sabrewing. We’re in the end stretch, just two more installments after this: one covering what may be my favorite episode, and the other covering Lena’s season 3 appearances, as unlike Seasons 1 and 2 she shows up outside her own episodes fairly often and most of those apperances touch on how far she’s come or her life in some way shape or form, so I really can’t skip over them. 

But before we can get to the end of Lena’s arc, we have to once again go back where she came from. Previously I covered the one and only apperance of Minima DeSpell, a character Lena took some inspiration from. But Lena is a combination of Minima and another Ducktales 87 character but this time one from the show itself, in the same episode we meet Magica no less. Given how much frank loved the original, it’s not a huge shock one of the most vital and intresting new characters from the reboot was partially taken from an episode he probably watched 80 dozen times. So how does the original shadow stack up with her rebooted counterpart? Is the episode any good? And should I watch invincible. The answers to this question are under the cut!

To answer your question on invincible.. Yeah you should. It’s gorgeously animated, has a MASSIVELY talented and diverse cast, and perfectly adapts the original source: Adding in great new stuff and shuffling things around to work better for the pacing of a tv show. And after loosing The Tick to Amazon’s greasy clutches, not to mention Danger and Eggs and Alpha House before that with no formal cancelation so they coudln’t move elsewhere, i’m not taking any chances despite the odds being far more in invincibles favor. Check it out, just mind that it has a shocking amount of gore, if you like superheroes.  Or even if you don’t, it’s pretty much guaranteed to have someone you like doing a voice. 

Enough shilling for an unrelated show though, let’s get to this one. We open with our introduction to the De Spells. Magica is hovering over a caludron with a diabolical new plan to steal Scrooge’s #1 dime. Why? 

Or at least I didn’t. I knew why she wanted the dime itself mind you: The Dime has picked up some powerful emotoinal energy from being around Scrooge all his life as he built his fortune, made his way square and fought Teddy Roosevelt. All that good stuff. So naturally if used in a spell, that spell is going to be massively powerful. I just didn’t know what the spell was.. and now I do.. i’mmm underwhelmed. She wants it to gain the midas touch, i.e. the ablility to turn things she touches into gain, using the dime as a power source for an amulet. 

 Magica, via her potions and spells has the powers to do just about ANYTHING. And her goal is.. make some things into gold. She has a giant volcano laier, whatever resources she needs to go after Scrooge, and in this series at least can buy a haunted house on a whim. She HAS money.. why would she need this. And second... the midas touch is a bad thing. You cant’ USE or enjoy anything because it turns to gold> That was the whole fucking point of the myth. If it removes the weakness than fine.. but again it seems like a lot of effort for something with a short range and heavy possible drawbacks. I tfits her personalty to a point but even then she has better spells. I’m going more with it simply allowing her to supercharge.. is it more simplisti? yes. Does it make more sense than “Give myself a power that can easily be turned back on me by just making me touch myself “ yes, yes it is. 

Meanwhile the boys dick around playing Candid Camera with a new camera Gyro gave them that is no more advanced than your average instant camera. You’d expect this new invention to come in handy against Shadow Magica. And you’d be right. You’d expect the boys to at least suggest hte idea before the climax. You’d be wrong. This big is just.. irrtating. It’s just the boys being dicks to everyone by taking embarssing photos and really adds nothing to the episode of any remote subtsnace.

Conversley Magica continues to be the highlight, as her check in with airport security gets her through as she has no fruit. Ah the days before they throughly scanned us and most tsa jokes were about shoving hands up someone’s ass. Seriously.. why. .why is that a common joke. I’ve never had it done but unless you fully consent to it it’s not fun to get your hand up there but it was an oddly common gag for a long time.I.. really don’t get it. 

She arrives in america and buys a haunted house, to the realtor’s shock but eh it’s a sale. The black mold just makes it more sinister. Magica sicks Shadow Magica on the bin, with an elaborate plan but giving the Shadow one hour to do it because otherwise it will disapate.. given it dosen’t it’s likely more Magica trying to keep her double in line, having ran into trouble earlier with shadow her trying to steal the wallet of what I can only assume to be gus goose. So he was on vacation tha’ts where he was.. from what I don’t know he dosen’t actually do work and the house of mouse hadn’t been established yet. Maybe Gramma Duck just gives him vacation days. 

So the shadow ALMOST gets away with the dime.. but accidnetly knocks over a pedestal and warns Scrooge and the Boys, who manage to chase her off. Scrooge having only one magical nemisis in his Rogues gallery, that we know of, knows who did this and prepares for an attack.  Magica.. berates her doppleganger and while she considers a spell to power her up, decides against it since what would stop the Shadow from betraying her. The shadow agrees.. and locks Magica and Poe in a closet and makes the potion herself, taking on a creepy new form and planning to raise an ARMY of shadows. 

And here... is where the split between Lena and The Shadow is very deefinite. While Frank and Matt kept the shadow and Magica really not getting along and only working together out of necisity on both ends.. the shadow here REALLY is just magica. Just as evil and ambitious, and just as sneaky. The only diffrence between the two is the shadow’s logical weaknesses of being a shadow, i.e. light weakens her and she can only hide in darkness or other shadows, and how they were born. Shadow magica is every bit as evil and devious as the main one. I do get why she stuck in Frank’s brain though: the idea is simple but ingenious, someone’s shadow gaining sentience, and the cool tricks you get with that as she ducks and darts between shadows. It’s really good stuff and frank expertly expanded it with lena, making her basically humanoid duck other than where she came from, but still using the neat tricks with the shadow itself for Magica’s imprisoned form and later the shadow army. It’s a good example of taking a really good idea.. and making it even better, by having said shadow being deal with not being considered a person by the person who spawned her and really ramping up the idea of a shadow army, which Shadow Magica eventually summons, from about ten guys to an entire cities worth. The shadows also you know come from people instead of just thin air but semantics. Point is it’s a very good concept and done really well esepcially for the 87 cartoon, and while Frank’s take was unique and very well done, it dosen’t make the original any less good. 

And it’s shown off with a cool sequence of the shadow infiltrating the manor and nearly getting to the dime with Scrooge having rigged the place to all hell with lights as a percaution. It nearly wins but louie uses a shadow puppet to scare it off. While Scrooge ponders this latest attack Poe shows up, and offers Magica’s help.. but Scrooge rightly dosen’t want it, as he can’t trust her and only agrees when the boys bring up the power bill from keeping the lights on. 

Now getting Magica on board is not an idea: The shadow’s a threat to both of them and they need each other. The next part though.. is a bit stupid and drags the episode down a bit. Magica asks for the dime to beat the thing. Now Scrooge wisely is hesitant to do so.. but everyone else treats it like his usual greedy antics. Thing is.. it’s not. We don’t, at least in this adaptation, know what Magica wants with the thing or the full extent of what she can do with it or if she even actually needs it. While getting her help is one thing, giving her the DIME well...] ]’ii98[[

Why would you give someone you KNOW wants to use the dime to conquer the world or whatever the thing she wants? It’d be like handing Thanos the Infnity Gauntlet to take out Galactus. Yes, your handling a big problem.. but your burning the world to do it. It’s just so frustratlingly dumb. There’s a good idea in there, Scrooge being forced to lend Magica the dime, but it’s buried under Mt. Contrivance! 

So Scrooge reluctantly goes along with operation:seemed like a good idea at the time, and cleverly puts the dime in an empty stadium. Unfortuantley the lights malfunction and Shadow Magica summons MORE Shadows, and now has an army. Launchpad ends up being helpful, also he’s in this episode for some reason, by pointing out shadows need light.. and thus another logical weakness as killing the rest of the lights renders them weak and allows our heroes to lure them to the vault where Magica waits> Magica is able to weaken it with the spell.. but even with that the Shadow SITLL is too powerful.. 

Enter the cameras, which take out Shadow Magica, saving the day. We get a lesson about trusting Gyro’s gadgets for.. some reason and Scrooge stops Magica from fleeing with the dime with a shadow puppet. Smiles and cheese sandwitches all around

Final Thoughts on Magica’s Shadow War: This episode is not half bad. While the Dime Thing is mindblowingly moronic, and the camera thing is REALLY poorly set up, I have not had a more apt use for that Scott Pilgrim Panel yet, the sheer concept and June Foray’s sheer force of personality as both magica’s makes it work. It’s a fun, engaging adventure and a solid chonk of classic ducktales. As for how it relates to Lena it does so decently. But with this our side trips are at an end. Only two episodes left! And then onward to the lilo and stitch crossover arc! Yes really. Kev wanted a buffer before getting to the Season 2 arcs and I loved tha tshow as a kid so why the fuck not. 

Next Time on Shadow Into Light: Lena gets welcomed to prime time bitch as Magica pulls a freddy and stalks her through her dreams. Sadly she did indeed forgot about the power glove. Can the rest of the kids break away from dreams of high school musicals, becoming a garfild, giant legs and libraries long enough to save Lena? Will we have a very queer in the best way possible musical number about Lena and Webby’s anniversary? Will I talk about Huelet? In order, yes, yes, and probably. But join me anyways won’t you. 

If you liked this reviews, subscribe for more. If you have a ducktales episode from seasons 1 and 2 of the reboot or the whole of the 87 series, drop me a line through my ask box, my dm’s or my discord, technicolormuk#6550. Reviews or only 5 bucks an episode for tv. Other prices on the blog. Or if you can’t spare that much, join my patreon. Even a buck or two a month helps reach my stretch goals and the more of those I hit the more disney content you get a month. The current one is only 5 bucks away. I’m 15 and if I hit 20 that guarantees a darkwing duck review every month AND reviews of the super ducktales mini series. But if you can’t that’s cool and I get it times are hard, it’s why I have to shill so hard. But until the next rainbow, it’s been a pleasure. 

[coeurdastronaute]

Essays in Existentialism: Nerd 12

Previously on Nerd

The sun hung, shy of noon but still late in the morning, bright against the blinds, burning bright white and glaring despite the insistence that waking wasn’t an option by the inhabitants of the bed. From the late night, the tired hung heavier than normal for the morning person in bed as she slowly woke and shifted, yawning and burying her face in the pillow again to try to grasp at the last semblances of sleep. 

It took a while for Lexa to realize that she was in Clarke’s bed and not her own. The memory of the previous night slowly swirled around her consciousness as she remembered the dance, and the moments where Clarke tugged her along to the dance floor and kissed her sweetly. The memory of arriving at an empty house and feeling Clarke in bed, pushing her limits as far as she could before she imploded. 

Lexa was afraid to move too much when she realized what was happening. She opened her eyes and surveyed the room in the morning light, and felt the body beside her shift and sigh in her sleep. Only after she was certain Clarke was asleep did she chance rolling over and facing the blonde. 

On her back and quite a large sleeper, Clarke’s arm hung off the bed with the other around Lexa’s shoulder. The blankets hung low and her stomach showed beneath the old shirt while her hair was a mess on the pillow, covering everything. Lexa inhaled the smell of Clarke’s sheets and felt her dip in the mattress and felt where their legs touched and she tentatively slid her hand around Clarke’s hip, running her thumb across skin there. 

Not ever had she allowed herself to imagine this moment, that she would share her bed with someone and want to touch them so badly, or that it felt good to feel the bed move. She hadn’t even thought about what a life worth sharing would look like, but it wasn’t the worst. It was something that made her feel very normal and warm. 

The head cheerleader was pretty. She was kind and funny and sometimes stubborn to the point of obstinate. But she slept freely, arms and body open and eager for life, not at all defensive or cuddled up tiny. There was hope for her, Lexa realized, beneath the stress and the front she put up for the rest of the world. 

Slowly, Clarke stirred, Lexa’s thumb on her hip making her wake. She tugged at the body that was warm and beside her, smiling as she oke and humming along with the sound of the morning. 

“Hey,” Clarke whispered, still not opening her eyes. 

“Morning.” 

“Sleep okay?” 

“Really well.” 

“You’re kind of a blanket thief.” 

“You kick in your sleep.” 

“That doesn’t sound like me,” Clarke shook her head, rolling into her girlfriend embrace. 

She had a girlfriend now. She had one of those things that she wasn’t quite sure what it meant except that if it was anything like dating Bellamy it would be somewhat nice. In such a short amount of time, she realized she hadn’t even thought about her ex at all. Gone was the apathetic notion of occasionally hanging out. Now, she found someone who blushed just to look at her, and there was something insanely wonderful about being liked. 

“Good morning,” Lexa whispered again. She ran toes along bare calf and hooked herself closer to Clarke. 

Still without opening her eyes, lethargic and quiet, Clarke kissed Lexa. She felt her lips and her body warmed with the feeling of it all. Lexa was a deceptively good kisser, even if she’d never think about something like that. She moved with a kind of ownership. There wasn’t a sensitivity or apprehension despite the inevitable overthinking, but rather a solid level of taking the reins and taking what she wanted. 

Clarke dug her hand into Lexa’s messy hair and felt hands on her hips slip up her back and hips shift. She hadn’t meant to kiss that hard or that long, but she couldn’t stop and she wasn’t about to if Lexa was doing that thing with her teeth and tongue. 

“So, girlfriend huh?” 

“If you think you’re up to the job,” Clarke grinned and adjusted, tugging at the hem of Lexa’s old shift. “It comes with perks.” 

“I’m kind of serious about a rule book.” 

“There aren’t rules, you goober.” 

“There have to be.” 

“Nah, just good things. Like maybe spending a little time waking up together.” 

“I like it so far,” Lexa conceded as her shirt rose and she watched Clarke’s fingers move up her torso. 

“It means we get to keep picking up wherever we left off.” 

There was a hand that slid up her chest and Lexa felt her knees go weak even though she was laying down. She felt a hand squeeze her, and fingertips run over her chest beneath her shirt, and she shifted despite herself. Clarke’s lips moved to her neck and her chin. 

Eyes rolled back and dangerously flushed, Lexa swallowed and let Clarke move even more, rolling on top of her so her weight pinned her to the bed. It was just a good thing that Clarke was pressing against her chest, because Lexa was certain her limbs would pop. 

For some reason, there was no hesitation in pushing back. Lexa moved without thinking, spreading her legs and slipping her hand low on Clarke’s hip. She didn’t hesitate to chase lips and clumsily chase any feeling of skin she could find. She sought the moan and the sigh and the noises that plagued her every thought. 

But Clarke stopped, bolting up suddenly, her hands still rooted under Lexa’s shirt, palms warm and heavenly. She cocked her head, waiting for another sound before jolting out of the bed quickly and pulling clothes off of the floor to put on. 

“You have to hide.”

“Hide? Why? What happened?” 

“I thought my parents wouldn’t be home until this afternoon--”

“It’s…” Lexa squinted and looked at her phone as she leaned over the bed and grabbed it from the night stand. “It’s almost noon.”

“Clarke, honey, we’re home!” her mother’s voice rang through the halls. 

Clarke froze and stared at her girlfriend, wide-eyed and hair an absolute messy mane, tossed about haphazardly, her lips somewhat puffy from their excursion. 

“I’ll be grounded for life if she finds you in here.” 

“I thought I was allowed over.” 

“I don’t think I ever said that,” Clarke shook her head, looking for clothes as she pushed her hair out of her face. “I said that my parents wouldn’t be here and you should come over.” 

“Clarke, this isn’t the time for semantics.”

“You’re impinging on my honor. Now will you please get under my bed?”

“Are you kidding me?” 

The look Lexa got in return was clearly showing that it wasn’t a joke, and with a sigh, she got to the ground and slid under the bed easy, careful to make sure she wasn’t visible at all. It wasn’t a second too soon. Just as Clarke kicked the remnants of Lexa’s outfit under the bed, the bedroom door opened. 

“You’re still not up? Clarke, it’s nearly lunch time.” 

“I’m getting up,” Clarke defended herself, taking a seat on the edge of the bed as she slipped on socks. “I’m going to go grab lunch with Lexa.” 

“You just went to the dance, do you have to go out every day, Clarke? Don’t you have to study for the SAT and your History exam?” 

“I’m fine for both.” 

“Between work and this, this, this new girl, I don’t know how you get any studying done. It’s not good to be so wrapped up--”

“I’m fine.” 

“You’re young, and you have to understand--”

“Do we have to do this lecture again? Can’t I just read the footnotes of the last dozen or so that you’ve given me?” 

“If you’re going to talk like that, you can forget leaving this house.” 

Lexa held her breath and closed her eyes, pressing herself against the floor as hard as she could, desperate to be away from the situation as best she could. 

“I’ll be back around six,” Clarke muttered, picking up her coat and making her way toward the door. 

The impending fow leaked out into the hall, and Lexa felt herself breathe when the bedroom door slammed and Abby followed her daughter through the house. Only when everything was centered down in the living room did she slip out from under the bed, goofy grin on her face at the narrow escape she’d made and how absolutely fascinating it’d already been to date Clarke Griffin. 

With a few quick movements and still barefoot but with her clothes in hand, Lexa lifted Clarke’s window, tossed them down, and jumped down to the ground. 

When she turned around, she met the eyes of the man she assumed to be Clarke’s father, or at least the same eyes of the man in all of the pictures that hung on the wall and that Clarke had scattered about her room. 

Frozen, she didn’t move for a solid minute, but it felt much longer. She was certain there was a mark on her neck. She knew that there was lipstick on the white shirt she wore. She knew what it looked like and she gulped before leaning down to pick up her pile of clothes and bolting through the yard as fast as her feet would carry her. 

“Your daughter is absolutely impossible. You have to deal with her because I’m at the end of my rope,” Abby muttered as she stomped her way into the kitchen, beat again by a teenagers innate way of pushing the soft, mushy bruises of one’s person with inherent ease. “She’s out of control, no thought for the future, sleeps all day, works at that shitty diner, obsessing over school girl crushes, and for what? To cheer? To just settle for drawing pictures?” 

Without moving, Jacob Griffin braced himself against the counter in the kitchen as he struggled to finish getting a glass of water from the sink. But he chuckled to himself and shook his head. 

“What’s so funny?” his wife furrowed, crossing her arms. 

“I just saw the weirdest looking deer in the yard.” 

“You aren’t even listening to--”

Off on another tangent, his wife tossed up her hands and ranted through the house while he stood there and shook his head, once again in awe of his daughter’s antics. 

XXXXXXXXXX

“So you jumped out of her bedroom window?” 

“Yup.” 

“And her dad saw?” 

“Yeah.” 

“And you didn’t hook up with her?” 

“No.” 

“But you’re her girlfriend.” 

“Yeah. That’s what she said.” 

Lexa balanced the phone against her ear as she half listened to her sister and half fret over a piece of footage that didn’t feel quite right. She went back and watched the clip a few times, debating the edit Luna had made. Half hunched over her computer desk, her headphones half hung on an ear while the other was tugged to the side so she could hear her sister. She used a pencil to itch her shoulder before jotting a few notes in the often sloppy notebook that spread out across her desk. 

A mug of tea was half-sipped and cooling past the point of enjoyable. Rain tapped against the window, and Lexa could ear the nagging in her sister’s voice. 

“So how do you feel now?” 

“About what?” Lexa furrowed, going back and pressing play again. 

“About dating someone.” 

“Well, it feels pretty much like not dating someone, except now I get to make out sometimes.”

“You’re not like, you know,” Anya ventured, surprisingly walking around the point as gently as she, a human cannonball, was capable. “You’re not like getting too into it, right?” 

“I mean, I’m kind of into it. Clarke’s great.” 

“You can’t get in over your head, Lex.  Be careful.” 

“What do you mean?” she furrowed, confused enough to step back from focusing on the computer. She had a pretty firm deadline and a script to write. Her script. Her submission for college. She had a lot to do as well as study for a physics test, write a history paper, and put together the video for AV club and the championship game. 

“You’ve never done this before,” the eldest cautioned. “Don’t get so wrapped up in someone that you lose yourself.” 

“No, I couldn’t.” 

“You could. It happens.” 

“Not to you.” 

“Because I’m a heartbreaker, not a heartbroken sap.” 

“I’m not a sap.” 

“You are.” 

“How?” 

“Just. Shut up. Listen,” Anya sighed. Across the country she stopped walking in the middle of the sidewalk in the busy city on the college side of town. Hidden beneath a thick beanie her hair was fighting against her ears. Streetlights were already on, and she imagined her sister in a similar position to what she could be found, tucked up at her desk and half listening. 

But she was a big sister who failed to protect Aden, and failed to help her sister most of the time, who failed to keep her parents from hiding, who let everyone shrink, and somehow, the self-appointed patriarch of the family was prepared to off some caution. 

“You let someone be part of our life, and you don’t give any of yourself away for them. You feel things different, and it’s not a bad thing. But you are good Lexa. You have to be careful not to give yourself up.” 

“I don’t know what any of that means. I really just felt Clarke’s boobs for the first time last night.” 

“I’m trying to teach you something important, moron.” 

“Well, I don’t know what that means and I’m busy.” 

“I need you to please understand at least part of the way.” 

“Can I call you back?” 

“No, just listen. Just. Okay, focus,” Anya sighed again, heavier than before. “Do you remember when you made me watch that movie where the husband and wife are getting a divorce, but they weren’t good at it? Like they kept fighting and by the end, you were confused how they ever loved each other and she yells at him, something about giving herself up.” 

“Yeah, yeah, that movie was overacted and not edited well.” 

“That’s not the point.” 

“I’m not getting married or giving up my acting career for my husband’s success.”

It wasn’t quite the point, but Anya closed her eyes and shook her head, her cheeks tinted with the chill left in the not-quite-spring air. Maybe something seeped in, and as happy as she was for her sister doing something normal, like making out with a girl, Anya was still apprehensive because who else would be for her sister?

“Good.” 

“That was a very good reference point.” 

“You touched her boobs, huh?” 

“Oh yeah,” Lexa smiled and nodded. 

“How was it?” 

“I’m definitely gay.” 

It was a bark of a laugh, but Anya couldn’t help it. Lexa smiled and blushed slightly at the confession. It felt painfully real and honest. 

“Fine, tell me about whatever you’re working on now.” 

In an instant, Lexa was rambling about the problems with her new project and brainstorming aloud about her script and fretting over if her ideas were stupid or whatever. From the hallway, her father paused by her cracked door, and listened as his daughters talked as they did almost every other day, chatting about everything, even things he wished he hadn’t heard. But he loved them immensely in that moment. 

Before he walked away, he made a mental note to have another sex talk with his daughter. 

XXXXXXXXX

“I’m announcing myself so you don’t hurt yourself again!” 

The voice came down the hall toward the garage as Lexa smiled and carefully extricated herself from beneath the Bronco’s body, grease covering her shoulder and neck. Hair up in a pony tail and old jeans covered in streaks. 

It was not late in the evening, and part of Lexa knew she still had a bunch of stuff to do for the upcoming week, but she couldn’t bring herself to waste a Sunday without putting a little more work into her future car and escaping to the quiet of the garage to commune with the dead for a little while, mulling over her script while she took apart a transmission. 

“You’re right on time to help me.” 

“I don’t really do cars or anything, but I brought you a burger.” 

Holding up a bag, Clarke appeared, grinning and waiting. Lexa accepted the bag and then leaned in for a kiss which was eagerly accepted and added to. 

“How long have you been down here?” Clarke asked, taking a seat on the hood of the old SUV. 

“Um,” Lexa looked at her watch and furrowed again. “Maybe a few hours.”

She took out her food and smiled before taking a bite, knowing enough to earn a disapproving glance because she disappeared into the garage. There was a bit of worry beneath it, something that Clarke didn’t quite understand, but that she was certainly almost getting, about communing and finding peace. 

For a long while the two chatted about nothing and everything in particular, something Lexa was never really known to do. She didn’t usually have much to say, but sh always seemed to with Clarke. And there were moments of quiet, where she worked on something, consulting the giant manual like her father showed her, jotting notes in the pages as she went to work on heavy metal parts. 

Clarke slipped inside the cab, onto the unfinished and torn seats, reclining on the uncomfortable chair. She put her feet up on the dashboard and mused about the upcoming week, and after digging through the engine well, Lexa looked at her and then her mind went blank as her hands moved. 

“You should be the actor in my movie.” 

“That is the worst suggestion I’ve ever heard from you,” Clarke rolled her eyes and adjusted the seat, fiddling with the visor, flipping it a few times. 

“Wait,” Lexa stopped and furrowed, twirling the wrench in her hand for a second. “Maybe not. Anya made a very strong parable with this exact situation.” 

Hip half cocked, Lexa stood and stared at the engine under the hood, unsure of what she said, though she spent a good portion of time truly believing that it was important and that Clarke would be perfect. The disonnence didn’t make sense. 

“I’m not an actor.” 

“It’ll work. Very Linklater-esque, I think.” 

“His movies are too long.” 

“It’ll be easy.”

“I don’t want to interrupt your art or whatever.” 

“I think I really mean it,” Lexa decided, wiping her hands on an old cloth as she surveyed the workbench, afraid to turn around. 

“Why don’t you actually really mean it, and then we can talk numbers.”

“Oh, I can’t pay you anything.” 

“You’ll have to talk to my agent to negotiate.” 

Lexa just rolled her eyes and hopped into the passenger side of her own shell of a car. Clarke greeted her with a big smile as some music played from her phone in the middle of the cup holder. She leaned forward and earned another kiss, this one deeper than the first, content and slightly tired and in need of a shower. But it didn’t stop Clarke from tugging her across the middle. 

“I didn’t get to see you much this week.” 

“Cross country kicked my ass, and finishing this script. This is the first time I’ve made it to the garage. My dad’s going to come down and help me on a few things after dinner.” 

“He just got back, yeah?” 

“Mhm. Stockholm.” 

Clarke pulled back. 

“I shouldn’t mount you, I guess.”

“I mean, I’m okay with it.” 

The cheerleader just laughed and shook her head. 

“Thank you for distracting me.” 

“I didn’t know I was.” 

“You are. I needed it today.” 

“I think that’s part of my job, honestly.”

“I call you my girlfriend once, and you already have a list of job responsibilities.” 

“You’re a full-time job,” Lexa smiled, earning a pretty face and eyes and all of it, even though she was absolutely caked in dirt and had been unresponsive for hours. 

“I know.”

NEXT

[kinsbin]

Meditator Mediator

Title: Meditator Mediator Word Count: 1550 Pairing: Kelsey/Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi Wan/Anakin/Kai [Platonic Family]

Summary: Meditating with family is hard sometimes. Luckily Qui-Gon knows how to keep everyone in check. He’s proud of his daughter for following him, though. 

A/N: A piece for @soulnottainted​! I loved writing this, family is so good and I appreciate it so much sobs-

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“Relax… focus…”

“Your breathing is the force. You inhale it with every breath that you take. When you exhale, you exhale knowledge back into the world. This is the balance that the force requires. A perfect center to all things, no matter your emotions. You cast them aside in favor of a pure understanding of the universe. Starlight fills your veins and your eyes are suns as you-”

“Suns and stars are the same thing.”

Kelsey couldn’t stop the small bout of laughter that bubbled up in her lips at Kai’s deadpan comment. Obi Wan opened his own eye from his meditative stance and sent a sharp look of disapproval to the unimpressed human. Their only response was a raise of their eyebrow as Kelsey covered her own mouth to stop her snickering. Obi shifted his gaze from the left where Kai was to the right, where he shot Kelsey the same look of momentary disapproval in the process, as if wondering just how she could betray him by laughing at their middle sibling’s statement.

She could only give a light shrug in return, making Obi Wan roll his eyes.

“Look don’t you roll those stupid things at her,” Kai defended with a light prod to their brother’s arm, “I’m stating a fact. Suns are literally just stars that are close enough to the atmosphere of a planet to provide enough heat to support life. If you’re going to compare eyes to something, do better.”

“What would you prefer to compare it to?”

It was Anakin that spoke up next, his voice amused from the corner of the room where the door hung slightly ajar, ruining the calm space Obi Wan had put together for their meditative session:

“You could do something cool. Compare them to a racer.”

“Only you would find that cool, Anakin.” Obi Wan deadpanned back.

“Compare it to a supernova!” Kai suggested eagerly, “Oh - no wait better idea - compare it to a racer jet launching itself INTO a supernova!”

Obi groaned, making the three of the others laugh around him as they all grinned brightly at one another. It was rare to have everyone home at the same time, Kelsey couldn’t help but think with something of amusement lacing the tone of her thoughts, but the laughter that bubbled up was always like this when they were together. Between the group’s horrible habit of snarking at one another, they had somehow learned to excel at comedic improvisation bits as well. The most obvious trait of which showed up only when Kelsey, Kai, and Anakin found it a necessary task to bother Obi Wan at any given opportunity.

As the oldest sibling, of course, he had it coming.

Anakin threw a few more teasing words at Obi Wan that Kelsey did not fully catch, instead watching as Obi Wan took a pillow from the corner of the room and chucked it vehemently in the other’s direction. Anakin cackled as he dodged the pillow, only to have it force-thrown at quicker velocity towards the spot he ran to. Kai cackled somewhere in the corner now, having stood up to move and stretch their body after a mostly useless session of them poking at their siblings already.

Kelsey was the only one who had remained sitting at some point, watching in a meditative pose as her siblings roughhoused with shrieks of frustration at one another. The home was warm with their energy, auras fading in and out of the force with the violent trepidation of fireworks across a night sky. She smiled despite herself, the faces of each of her family members warm in her heart as she pushed them into her memory. So that she could memorize each edge of them with the utmost detail that they could manage. What a wonderful and unique sort of sight, she decided, one that only her family could truly manage.

“Alright the three of you, that’s enough.”

“They started it!” Obi Wan couldn’t help but state as he pointed to Kai, who grinned easily as Qui Gon entered the room with nothing short of a fatherly stare of disappointment at them all. Anakin muttered something under his breath as he rubbed at the back of his neck, a light blush of embarrassment coating his sharp cheekbones as he did so. There was a continued stare to Qui Gon’s gaze as he waited for the group to quietly apologize to one another and to him.

Kelsey smiled when Qui Gon ushered the three out of the room to work on duties around the house (though he likely knew that Anakin would break away to work on some sky racer project and Obi Wan would go to the library with Kai to somehow make an effort to disprove the use of stars and the sun in semantic language across planets) and left the two of them in quiet comfort together.

“I see you were at least meditating properly,” Qui Gon chuffed as he stepped forward a few feet before sitting down at Kelsey’s side. The statement made a giggle curl out from the woman’s lips as she shrugged lightheartedly.

“I was slightly distracted by their antics,” Kelsey admitted, “After all, you saw that show.”

“If there’s anything Kai is good at, it’s riling Obi Wan up.” He agreed with a hearty chuff.

“I mean, Ani doesn’t help. They’re always ganging up on him.”

“So are you when the mood suits you.”

“Why, Master! To think I’m nothing if not supportive of my brother is truly a cruel fate!”

The two stared at one another for a long moment before a laughter echoed between them. It was a pleasant and familiar sound, one that filled them with comfort as the two revelled in their moment together as they always seemed to do. It wasn’t that Kelsey disliked spending time with her siblings, certainly, but there was… a comfort with Qui-Gon Jinn that the others did not have. A strong and brave sort of feeling that left Kelsey wanting to be something better than she was. To always improve.

To make him proud. Not that he wasn’t of her already of course.

“Do you wish to continue with your meditation?” Qui-Gon requested with polite curiosity, “I’d love to join you, if so.”

Kelsey felt her heart light up and she couldn’t help the smile that spread on her lips as she nodded:

“Please do.”

It brought them into the lull of comfortable silence within the few moments of the agreement, both their eyes shut as their breathing even out. Breaths quickened and slowed to match one another as they meditated, feeling the flow of the force push through their bodies carefully in its exploration of the world around them.

The force was like that in strange ways, much like a finicky child still accepting those who asked it questions. Qui-Gon had taught her to treat the force with patience: nothing came out of rushing itself into full power and hurting your own form in the process. The force was a thing to be carefully understood and read with patience. Jedi training was as long as it was because of the understanding the force required against the natural instincts of human nature.

It was always easier to understand it with Qui-Gon, though.

It was as if the force behaved differently with her master around than it did with anyone else. When Anakin or Obi Wan used the force it was intense. A heat of suddenness that would wash over Kelsey’s form and startle her into adapting to it, it left no room for error nor did it leave any space for breathing on occasion. Kai was not as strong to the force as others, certainly, and their force was a little more than a sliver of an insect in a meadow of grass. Barely there but there nonetheless, just difficult to connect with even when they seemed to try their hardest.

Qui-Gon Jinn’s force was perfect to her. It slithered out of his form with an aura of patience as it prodded at her own mind. She allowed it willingly, of course, and offered a strand of her own thoughtful force to it in return. It was like she could feel each end meld and join together in the perfect concoction of closeness. She could feel her breathing ease in with his own and the world around them faded into nothing but the two of them as they searched for the inner peace that would make them stronger Jedi at last.

“Your force is growing stronger,” Qui-Gon couldn’t seem to help but comment through their peaceful time together, “More brave in its exploration outside of you… It’s impressive in such a short amount of time, you should be proud.”

Kelsey smiled despite herself, her eyes still shut in concentration.

“I have a brilliant master to thank for that.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, dearest, you’re stronger than you think. You’ll make a fine Jedi soon.”

The compliment coming from his lips, rumbling out of the base of his chest, made Kelsey blush as she cracked an eye open. Qui-Gon was staring at her with both of his eyes open now, his smile warm as he watched her with a sense of pride. Pride, yes, he was proud of her. The thought of him caring enough about her to be proud almost made an unwanted emotion swell in her chest. Kelsey smiled back at the man with an appreciative nod.

“QUI-GOOOOON, OBI WAN WON’T LET ME READ THE HOLOPAD HE PULLED OUT FROM THE LIBRARY MAKE HIM GIVE IT TO ME.”

“I LET YOU READ IT AND YOU SAID IT WAS BORING.”

“YEAH BUT NOW I WANT TO READ IT! SO GIVE ME IT-”

The obnoxious interruption startled the two into a small chuckle of laughter, their grins bright as Qui-Gon stood up and offered his hand out to help Kelsey up as well. She took it, the two rising and keeping their hands in one another’s for a moment longer as Qui-Gon sighed.

“Now then, let’s see what is so important with your siblings they had to interrupt us.”

Siblings… Yes. That’s what they were. Family. Qui-Gon was family too. Kelsey couldn’t help but smile brighter as she followed after him.

Through better or worse, they were family. Through it all, they were there for one another.

Just as it should be.

[brieannakeogh]

Dog Days of Summer- Ch 8

Dog Days of Summer- Chris Evans X plus sized reader. Dog days of summer are usually defined as the hottest of the year, some define it as lazy days. This year ‘hottest’ has nothing to do with the outside temp. You meet Chris and Dodger Evans while taking your own dog to the park.

Previous Chapter / Master List

Warnings: Little angst and drama. It’s amazing, there is an actual plot again! Also almost 4k words...

Chapter 8

“Of course this is the living room, and this is the kitchen.” You whistle at the impressiveness of the beautiful island work space, running your hand over the granite counter top as Chris walks on to finish the tour of his apartment. “Bathroom through here, my study, guest bedroom, and finally master bedroom.”

You poked your head into the rooms one by one, getting more impressed as you go. Chris was still holding onto your duffel of clothes, not having set it down in the guest room, which you found odd. “This is your house you know, you can put that down anywhere at anytime.” Pointing to the bag.

“Well I was hoping you could help me out with that.” You quirk your eyebrow to him. “I can either throw it in here.” He mimes tossing it into the spare bedroom. “Or….” He does the same but into his own room.

The smirk on his face as he watches you bite your lip in thought, makes your heart race. Can you do this? His face falls a little bit as you hesitate, which makes up your mind faster than you want to admit. “Which has the better bathroom?”

His face lights up at that. “Two words...jacuzzi tub.”

“Well it’s a no brainer than isn’t it?” He tosses your duffel on his bed as you turn back down the hallway. “I do reserve the right to change my mind, I’m a woman after all.” You shout playfully back to him as you walk back down the hall to the living room.

You barely register his fast footfalls as he rushes up behind you, wrapping his arms around your middle, pulling your back to his chest. “Of course.” He kisses the side of your head, before stepping around you to go to the kitchen, leaving you stunned in the middle of the hall. “I think we’ll have to order out. Unless you can find a magic portal to food in my kitchen.”

“Uhh, yeah I’ll take a look.”

Surprisingly he had some things you could use to make dinner but he decided he wanted sushi instead, and you agreed. He sat about placing the order for delivery while you got the dog’s food ready. Chris pointing out the mix of wet and dry that Dodger liked while he was on the phone.

The two of you settling into the couch as the dogs ate and waiting on your food. The atmosphere wasn’t as relaxed as it had been before the ‘Matt’ situation. You figured you were to blame as Chris seemed to be paying attention to the show on tv and his hand was drawing lazy patterns into your shoulder.

His phone rang a few moments later. “Hello? Sure, be right there.” He turns to you. “Foods here, I’ll go down and get it. Want to grab some plates and drinks?”

You nod and smile, your appetite was gone a while ago. The words that Matt said about yours and Chris’ relationship weighing heavily on you. Moreso being in his place, the reality of just who he is getting to you more than ever before.

He kisses the top of your head as he gets up and you watch him walk out the door, getting up yourself to do as he asked. Plates and glasses in front of you on the coffee table, you figure he’s going to want to do the same as last night and watch tv while eating.

“I’m starving.” He shouts as soon as the door opens. He sees your set up and pauses at the doorway. “Hey why don’t you move everything to the kitchen table. I think I’m done with tv for tonight.” You cock your head to the side and switch everything around while he starts pulling out trays. You’re quiet as you sit down, adding just few pieces to your plate, he’s already got his loaded up and started eating. His chewing slows down as he watches you just move the few pieces around your plate, not eating. “Is it not good? You said you liked sushi.”

“Yeah I do.” You tell him, not looking up from your plate. “I’m just not very hungry right now.”

He sets his throw-away wooden chopsticks to the side and looks at you, calling your name softly. Your eyes close as a response, and take a deep breath. The second call of your name has you looking to him, knowing you can’t avoid it. “What’s wrong, and don’t say you’re fine.”

You set your own chopsticks down, and place your hands in your lap to focus on him. “Why are you doing all this Chris? Why go to such lengths? We’ve known each other for a week and even at first you didn’t want to give me your number, for this very reason I might add. It just seems like a simple solution. I still don’t understand why I’m here.”

“It is simple, because I want you to be. I told you I want to see where this goes and if every time someone tries to stop me or bully me into not pursuing what I want, and I back down, I wouldn’t have all this.” He makes a circle with his finger, indicating the apartment. “I think you want this too, but if I’m wrong just tell me.” His eyes intense and staring straight into your own, it makes you want to look away, but you hold strong, at least until Matt’s voice drowns out everything again.

“Matt’s right though. There is no way we can work, with you being you and me just as I am. Fuck! I still have no idea what you see in me. He’s right, I’m an ugly, fat thing that would have to pay someone to fuck me.” The ending was muffled as your hands were over your face with your elbows on the table, unable to look at the man across from you.

What you didn’t see was him shooting up from the table and you let out a small screech as he pulled your chair out and pulled it around so he could get in front of you, crouching down to your eye level. His large hands on your thighs as he holds your gaze. “Listen to me, I know you hold his words a little tighter because of your past with him, but you can’t let him in your head. Where did the confidant, fiery woman that I met go? I need her to burn out his jealous words because if you’re with me, it’s going to be so much worse. The public will rip every flaw you think you have apart, and I can’t always be there with you when that happens, but you have to trust me when I say you are gorgeous inside and out. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that. You just have to quiet what’s in here, ok?” He taps his fingertips to your forehead. “Fuck everyone else. Who’s in this relationship?”

He looks at you expectantly waiting on an answer. “Me and you.”

He nods. “And who’s opinion matters in this relationship?”

“Me and you?”

“And?”

“And fuck everyone else.”

“You’re learning.” He grins at you. The small smile you return has him leaning up to sweep you up in his arms. He presses a kiss to your temple and just holds you for a bit, your arms circling tight around his waist to keep him there. “You know you’re not the only one who can be insecure.” He mumbles into your shoulder.

“What?”

“You told your landlady I was a friend.” He pulls away and goes back to a squat in front of you, hands on your thighs again.

You move a piece of hair that had fallen into his face. “I didn’t know if you wanted to tell anyone. That’s the only reason. Plus other than establishing we’re dating we hadn’t officially had the ‘what are we’ discussion.”

“I know, which is why I ignored it, but it still hit me. Here.” He pulls your hand to his chest, and you can feel his heartbeat speed up a little. “New relationships make everyone nervous. You’re not the only one.”

Leaning down you place your lips on his in a sweet and warm kiss, lingering just a moment. “Thank you Chris. I’ll remember that, as long as you promise to tell me if something changes for you. You know I’ve been burnt before, being too open and trusting too soon, but I’m willing to do it again...for you. Just promise that you’ll be honest with me.”

“I think I can do that.” He gives you the lopsided grin you love so much. “Feeling better?” You nod. “Want to eat now?” You nod again and he stands up, whipping your chair around and pushing it back to the table.

Holding on tight to the sides and giggling at the manhandling you look up at him with a playful scowl. “You’re going to scuff up your floors doing that you know.” He just shrugs and goes back to his seat. “So confidant and firey?” You ask after a few bites.

“Sweetheart, the first day I met you, you openly flirted, made a waiter want to quit his job because of your antics, and asked me to go out the following day with you. Yeah, I think all of that was accurate.” He chuckled.

“I didn’t explicitly ask you out, just told you a time and place I would be the next day.” You popped a bite of tuna in your mouth, chewing the large piece with a smirk.

“Semantics.” He shakes his head at you, going back to his own meal.

The tension’s been lifted and the two of you finish up dinner with smiles and banter. Chris puts away the little bit of leftovers while you rinse off the dishes you used. You don’t see the need to put them in the dishwasher, since it was only a couple of plates and glasses, so you start to wash them by hand. Chris walking up to dry them off and put them away.

You get done and just lean on the counter as Chris adds the last plate to the cabinet, his shirt riding up just a bit, hipchecking him to get his attention. “You know, it might be prudent to have that conversation, especially if I’m going to be here a couple of nights.”

“You just got onto me about using the ‘talk’ word earlier and now you want to do just that?” He smirks at you.

“Hey now I didn’t use that word!” You smack him with the towel you were using to dry your hands off with. He laughs as he leans on the counter beside you, arms crossed.

“Exclusive?”

“I’m not dating anyone obviously. You wanna limit yourself from all the Hollywood models and actresses after only 2 dates?”

He shrugs. “Eh, too much drama.”

“Says the man who does that for a living.”

“Two different styles of drama.”

You snort. “Ok, what about label thing? What do you want me to call you, if not friend.”

“Boyfriend works, unless you prefer lover?” He wiggles his eyebrows.

“Oh eww no. That’s so cringey and as of right now not true.” The two of you chuckle. “Ya know, we’ve been very blunt about all of this. Is that normal? I hadn’t been single in the tinder age yet.”

“No.” He shakes his head and laughs a little. “This hasn’t been my experience either, but I really like it. No questioning and no wondering what the other person wants. It’s refreshing.”

You hum approvingly. “So just be honest, huh?”

“Sounds like you’ve got something else brewing. Come on, bring it.”

“I’ve got a small confession to make…” You wince and bite your lip, which makes him worry. “I don’t enjoy watching sports.” It comes out in a rush. “I know, I know. I’m so ashamed at myself.” The sarcasm heavy in your voice, and he doesn’t think the dramatic press of the back of your hand to your forehead is needed.

He rolls his eyes. “Drama, everywhere is drama…” He mutters to himself and starts walking away from you.

“Aww Chris, I’m just messing with you.” You tell him but the smirking smile doesn’t leave. “I know you’ve got a bro crush on Tom Brady, I just don’t understand it.”

Chris whips around, going back to stand in front of you. “He’s the best quarterback in the league! He’s done…” And Chris is off running with a list of Tom’s accomplishments and you can’t help but love the passion, even if half the time you don’t understand the jargon. His hero speech slows down and stops. “What?”

“What, what?”

“Did you zone out on me?”

“Hmmm maybe about what you were talking about. I was just admiring your passion is all. I really like that you love things so much and aren’t afraid to show it. Life is boring without passions.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s your passion?” He hooks his arms around your hips and pulls you to him.

“You?” You chuckle as he rolls his eyes. “Movies, marvel, reading. See I wasn’t lying, you’re in that little grouping somewhere.”

“Ah, so just my acting ability is your passion?”

“Why Mr. Evans? You weren’t thinking of something uncouth were you?”

He leans down and nuzzles his nose to yours. “Uncouth huh? Hadn’t heard that in a while.”

“Yes uncouth. I’m a lady and would never say things like ‘dirty’ or ‘naughty’.” You bite your lip to keep the smirk at bay.

“Of course not! What am I thinking? You’ve just told me you sleep naked and offered to come over wearing nothing but lingerie and a doorman’s hat, of all things. Very ladylike.”

Embarrassment colors your cheeks for once and you have to look away from his too close face, courage finally giving out in the sexually explicit banter. He senses the shift in your demeanor and plants a quick kiss to your lips before pulling away, taking your hand in his as he leads you back into the living room. “So what do you want to do now? Watch a movie? Read? If you want to go out there is a nice little bar down the block?”

“I thought you were done with TV, and I think I just want to stay in tonight. Bar sounds good for maybe tomorrow, if my locks aren’t done yet.”

“Sounds good.” He squeezes your fingers together as he goes to the large bookshelf in his living room. “Pick something out. I’m gonna go get what I was reading last night.” He hussles off to the bedroom as you prouse his collection. It’s definitely eclectic. There are some fiction, but there is also a lot of biographies, self help and other nonfiction works. A few peak your interest but you doubt they could hold your attention. Deciding to just scroll on your phone, or to read one of the digital books you’ve downloaded on the small device would be best, you sit on the couch.

Chris comes out, having changed into some lighter weight clothes, that you assume are what he normally wears to bed. He notices you on your phone as he sits beside you. “Couldn’t find anything that would do it for you?”

“Sorry. I can’t read nonfiction when I’m this easily prone to being distracted, like I am tonight.”

“I’ve got some other fiction in the study if you want to take a look?”

“It’s cool. I’ve got a few things I’m reading on my phone right now anyway. While I still love the feel and smell of books, I no longer have the shelf space.”

He chuckles. “I donate a lot of what I’ve read but still have so many. It’s a real problem.”

There is more space on the couch than had been between you in the last few days, but neither of you comment about it. It’s like him changing into night clothes cemented the fact that you really weren’t going anywhere the rest of the night.

After a bit, Chris looks up at you. You still have your shoes on, where he’s left in socks, and he knows wearing jeans all day can get annoying. “You can go change too if you want.”

“Hmm?”

“You did bring pj’s right? I mean we both know your sleeping habits…” He side eyeing you and you know he’s trying to joke to get you to relax.

“Yes I brought something to wear. I’m not an exhibitionist.” You roll your eyes at him. “I may go do that if you don’t mind. Actually, you said something about a tub?”

“You were serious about that?”

“Hell yes! I only have a shower at home.”

“Alight, alright, chill. I’ll show you how to use it.” You make a happy squealing noise that has him feeling better about you staying the night. “Ok, just get it to where you want it, then you just hit this here. You might have to wiggle it a bit too.” He watches as you turn the taps and test the temperature, showing you where to close off the drain once you had it like you wanted it.

“Thank you!” You bounce a little as you watch it fill up. “Ok now shoo!” Waving him out of the room.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” You cock your head in question. “PJ’s.”

“Oh right!” Your eyes widen as you go out to scrounge through the duffel, pulling your pjs, which consist of a pair of leggings and an overly large top, and your toiletry bag. “This isn’t helping my case about not being an exhibitionist is it?” You ask as you walk back into the bathroom. He’s setting a clean towel on the side of the tub.

“Not really.” He smiles at you. “Need anything else?”

“I don’t think so. Do you mind if I use your soap? I didn’t think about bringing that.”

“That’s fine and the shampoo is here too.”

“My hair will be fine for another day or two. Takes forever to dry as well.”

He stands there a bit awkwardly as you hold your clothes. “Ok...well enjoy.” He walks out backwards, swinging his arms a bit. You can’t help but giggle at how cute he is when flustered.

Setting your clothes on the counter, you climb in the tub, letting out a groan as the hot water envelops you. Just when you think it couldn’t get better, you hit the jets and you’re transported to a whole other world. Relaxing back, you try to forget the ugly parts of the day and just be content where you were, and who you were with. It seems like a dream you could wake up from at any moment.

As you were relaxing, Chris went back into the living room to give you some privacy. He had the same realization that this was really happening and you were staying the night as you were filling up the tub. He tried to get into a comfortable position and go back to his book, but it just wasn’t working.

Ding

His eyes shoot to the phone you had left on the coffee table. He really didn’t mean to see who the text was from, but ‘Asshole’ is too easy to read. Shifting uncomfortably, his eyes glance from the phone to the hallway towards you. He doesn’t want to disturb your relaxing time, but it’s maybe something you need to see. Chewing on his cheek as he debates, three more texts come in, in rapid succession.

Again he doesn’t mean to see the previewed content, but it goes off again when he’s picked it up to take it to you. He’s at the door to the bathroom when it dings again.

Marshmallow, I’m sorry I said those things. You know I didn’t mean it right? It’s just…

Are you there?

You’re not still with him are you?

So what? Some famous, good looking guy shows you even a bit of interest...

Look, even if you have spread your legs for him, I don’t care. I love you and want…

Chris’ hand is clenching into a fist as he stands in front of the door. He can hear you singing a happy little tune as you take your bath. Making a decision, he quietly backs away and sits back on the couch in the living room.

Looking at your phone in his hand, he hesitates over the button on the side to turn it back on. When the texts came up it didn’t look like you had a password attached. Stupidly trusting, you had called yourself, he said optimistic. Maybe it was a bit of both. The phone went off again, and he couldn’t stop himself from swiping it open to read the full content.

Marshmallow, I’m sorry I said those things. You know I didn’t mean it right? It’s just I miss you so much. She wasn’t good for me, not like you are. I want to get back to where we were. We were together for 4 years, do you really just want to throw all that away for some guy you just met?

Are you there?

You’re not still with him are you?

So what? Some famous good looking guy shows you even a bit of interest and you turn into a slut?

Look, even if you have spread your legs for him, I don’t care. I love you and want you back. You need me too. You’ve obviously made some dumb decisions while I was gone, but we can fix it. Together.

Why won’t you answer? We both know that if word gets out that he’s dating someone like you, he will lose fans and they will ridicule you. He’s not going to stand up for you, he’s going to drop you. Where would you be then huh?

Another comes in.

Fine. Be that way. Just know when he’s done with you and you come crawling back to me, I’ll be here. Make you learn the lesson the hard way.

How the fuck did you, of all people, get caught up with a guy like that? Chris was disgusted. He wanted to text back, telling the fucker that he didn’t deserve you and that it didn’t matter what his fans said or did, they would just have to be disappointed. That is no reason to break up with someone.

He runs his hand through his hair. This would upset you, badly. The two of you just had this conversation, and he actually got you back from spiraling. Your ex would just exacerbate everything. The drain to the tub starts and his head lifts up to the hallway. Without even really thinking about it, he presses a few buttons and sets the phone down just in time to see you walk down the hall. The phone now has 7 text messages deleted and 1 number blocked.

Next Chapter

Hey look there is some plot in your fluff! So what does everyone think? Lots going on in the chapter. Chris comforting reader but also warning her away if she can’t handle it. Plus the big no no that Chris pulled. 

Let me know what you think! I need motivation!

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[nix-needs-coffee]

Unwritten

A journal on the floor is an open invitation.

Thanks Krispy and Hannah for the direction on this one. Sorry it took so long.

AO3 Link

“Catherine, is that your book on the floor?” Anna asked as she entered the living room from the kitchen carrying an oversized bowl of cereal. With her spoon, she was pointing at the book lying near the door to the hallway on the opposite side.

“No. It isn’t mine. I’ll get it before someone trips on it, or worse, Jane sees it in the middle of her floor,” Catherine feigned outrage as she rose from the couch, her faux-indignation turning mildly into genuine irritation when Anna dropped down in the spot she had only just been occupying, crunching loudly on her Cheerios.

She bent to scoop up the book, but stopped abruptly upon seen the cover of the book.

“Nope. Nuh-uh,” she yelped, backing away from the book as though it might snap at her, shaking the hand that had reached for it as if it actually had.

“What? What’s happened?”

“I know whose book that is.”

Anna’s concern over Catherine’s initial panic melted away even as Catherine continued to shake her hand. “Okay. I don’t really care who it belongs to,” entirely nonplussed about the situation, she spoke around a mouthful.

“Don’t you recognize it?” Catherine hissed, still very agitated and wiping her hand on her shirt.

“Erh, no actually. Should I?”

“Yes. Of course you should! It’s Anne’s!”

Anna raised her eyebrows and shrugged a shoulder, perplexed at Catherine’s bizarre behaviour, but not interested enough for her to explain or elaborate.

“She uses it. You know? To write things in.”

“Oh. Like a diary?”

“Anne Boleyn would never keep a diary. It’s a journal.”

Anna took a breath to argue the semantics of diaries and journals, but thought better of it and closed her mouth around another spoon of cereal. She chewed slowly hoping the conversation would taper off into a comfortable silence.

It did not.

“We aren’t supposed to know it exists,” Catherine whispered with a conspiratorial glint shining in her eyes.

“You going to read it or something?” Anna inquired, thoroughly enjoying the series of emotions displaying in rapid succession across the other woman’s face. They seemed to range the gamut from utter joy, confusion, anger, and disappointment.

“What do you think she writes about? Do you think we’re in it?” Catherine’s expression settles for a bit on curiosity.

“Probably,” Anna surmised, setting her now empty bowl on the coffee table in front of her. She leaned herself back, kicked up her feet, and closed her eyes.

“But what do you think she’s said?” Catherine was still staring at the book, as though it might catch fire at any given moment.

“It’s right there. If you want to know that badly, just pick it up and read it,” Anna waved a dismissive hand in the direction of the journal, and cracked one eye open just enough to see Catherine’s form through her eyelashes. She watched as Catherine’s hand seemed to reach out on its own accord before it was snatched away and held tightly to her chest again.

“Do you think she keeps track of all of her inane ideas in there? Maybe it would be good for us to expect what she’s going to do next?” Her tone was hopeful, as though she were waiting for permission from Anna, and what better reason to sanction such a breach of trust than to be prepared for whatever antics Anne might be getting up to.

Anna shrugged noncommittally. She was already getting bored.

“Do you think she’s met someone? It might be filled with her fantasies about getting with them! Maybe we should read it so we can help her get what she wants?”

“You, better than anybody, know that Anne does not need any help getting what she wants, Catherine.”

“What if she’s written poetry? Really awful poetry with lines like, ‘You’re the only sunshine in my life.’”

Anna lifted her head and looked at Catherine with a somber expression. “‘But sunshine burns.’”

The terrible line had not been something Catherine had been expecting and it caused her to double over in laughter. “Yeah, something like that or, ‘She felt paper thin, as if their breath was enough to blow her away to the clouds.’”

Catherine’s joy was contagious and Anna found herself unable to contain her laughter alongside her.

“Wait! Here’s another, ‘She slept on a mountain of pillows, bones beneath their silk,’” Catherine shrieked tears racing down her flushed cheeks, barely able to form words around her gasps for air.

“Why are her bones beneath the silk if she’s sleeping on a mountain of pillows?” Anna guffawed.

“It’s poetry, Anna. It’s not supposed to be literal!”

Anna restrained herself for a moment, and with composure and calmness that surprised even her said, “‘He was acrylics and she was crayons.’”

“Oh no, that is exactly something that Anne would write,” Catherine wheezed, flopping down roughly next to Anna on the couch.

So caught up in the euphoria of imagined poetic ramblings, they almost missed the sound of the front door being slammed open. Sobering the mood entirely, they both flung themselves into the most casual positions they could physically shape into.

Stomping boots ran through the hallway, past the living room entry, and took the stairs two at a time. A bedroom door was pulled open so violently, they weren’t sure how it still remained on its hinges. The sounds of items hitting the floor as they were strewn about were nearly masked by the incessant stream of cuss words emanating from the room.

Catherine silently gestured toward the book on the floor and pointed at Anna.

Anna wildly shook her head and pointed at Catherine.

Catherine held her hands up pleading first Anna and then God to make a miracle happen and somehow move that journal somewhere that wouldn’t incriminate either of them.

Before a solid plan could be made and enacted, the boots were once again on the stairs, pounding out their descent so loudly that Catherine was sure plaster was going to start falling from the walls.

The fun was officially over, and Catherine lamented the lost opportunity to read some of Anne’s terrible poetry for herself.

***

“How did this get there?” Anne bellowed as she entered the room spotting the journal immediately in the middle of the floor.

“How did what get where?” Catherine looked at her innocently.

“My journal. How did it get on the floor?”

“You must have dropped it or something. I hadn’t seen it,” Anna said almost too kindly.

Anne regarded them with suspicion, clutching the book to her chest and breathing heavily. She narrowed her eyes and tried to read through the masquerade the others were putting on.

Deciding that the worst could already have happened, Anne backed out of the room without taking her line of questioning any further. She climbed the stairs again, stepping over the entire contents of her wardrobe on the floor, and found the notes she needed inside the journal.

After ensuring the door was closed and locked, she turned her radio on so she could make a call in secret.

“Hi, yes hello, I have a booking for you to cater a party and I was just calling to confirm the final number.”

Anne could still feel her heart hammering in her chest at the thought that she had almost lost all of her plans for the celebration she was planning for Catherine.

[technoplaguearchive]

Coffee Crush

When Kirishima refuses to call Bakugo on a dare from Kaminari, he must face the consequences. What ensues is an awkward night and Kirishima's neighbors probably wishing he'd move.

Pairing: KirishimaxBakugo Rating: Teen & Up Category: M/M Fandom: My Hero Academia | Boku No Hero Academia Originally Published: 2018/11/12

“Hey, listen I know it’s late I was just calling to see if you maybe knew how much coffee is like too much coffee? As in a lethal amount?”

The question had been uttered merely half an hour before with complete seriousness and seemed innocent enough on the surface. But he knew the caller, knew that while their voice remained calm and even they probably looked mildly panicked at the situation.

And that's how Bakugo Katsuki found himself walking the fifteen minutes to his so-called best friend’s apartment, in the middle of the night, when he should have been sleeping (”We’ll see if I even talk to him after tonight’s dumb antics” he found himself mumbling over and over). The argument could be made that he wouldn't have answered the phone if he wasn't already awake, but he wasn't in the mood for semantics at the moment. Instead, he was more in the mood to tear into the three idiots who thought it was reasonable to consume mass amounts of caffeine and then drag him into it.

(”Oh Bakugo, you didn't have to come over. He was just being dramatic” they’d say. He could just hear their stupid excuses now.)

The chill to the air certainly wasn't helping his mood any. He’d taken about two steps into the street before he had realized he would need more than sweats and a tank top to get to his destination. So grudgingly, he’d wandered back into his place to get a jacket and scarf before starting the trek AGAIN. He was so owed one for this, maybe even owed two… and damned if he would ever let that shark-toothed asshole forget it.

Fifteen minutes seemed to pass in a blur in his angry state and before he even realized it his feet had carried him straight to Kirishima’s door where he could hear raucous laughter emanating from behind it.

Well, Kirishima obviously wasn't that worried if he was enjoying himself this soon after his call to Bakugo.

The thought caused him to bristle further, teeth grit together as he slammed his fist repeatedly against the door. Fuck it if he woke up Kirishima’s neighbors, that jerk deserved it for making him come all the way over here to check up on him.

To think he’d actually been worried about the red-haired little jackass- No, he hadn't actually been worried. He just had to make sure his partner wasn't going to be a useless sack during their next patrol. Yeah, that was definitely it. He couldn't have a partner who was dead to the world in a hospital bed because he drank too much coffee...at midnight.

What the fuck was going on over here?

Two Hours Earlier

”Come on, Kirishima! Just do it already!”

”No! Now give me back my phone! Please, Kaminari!”

”Oh you're actually more cute when you beg! Do it again!”

Two sets of eyes swivel to the last speaker, alighting on Ashido’s pink body sprawled across Kirishima’s obnoxiously red couch. A wicked grin spreads across her face when she notices their stares. ”I’m serious, it’s cute.” The boys’ eyes narrow at her, Kirishima’s outstretched hands dropping away from Kaminari’s game of keep-away with his phone.

Once Kaminari notices the red head has given up getting the phone back, the game loses its fun and he hands it over with a resigned sigh. “Fine, here. It’s no fun when you just sit there and take it.”

Kirishima snatches the device back and stuffs it in a pocket, glaring at his yellow-haired friend the whole time. He knew Kaminari wasn't trying to be mean but sometimes you just didn't mess with a man’s cell phone. What if he’d had private things on there?!

”Thank you” he mutters out. His cheeks were still tinged a slight pink from his panic in trying to get the device back and the embarrassment at having not been able to best the slighter man in getting it away. Say what you would about Kaminari, but he was quick when he needed to be.

The blonde offers him a tight nod in response and leaves him to sit with Ashido, plopping straight down on her stomach with no care for her. What ensues is several seconds of enraged shrieking and Kirishima’s neighbor banging on a wall.

He nearly trips over himself trying to get to his friends to pull them apart, all while shouting ”I’m so sorry! We’ll keep it down, I promise!”

When Kirishima finally separates his two friends they’re a bundle of giggles and he can't help but join in. They were loud and sometimes obnoxious but they were good friends, he couldn't imagine life without them.

They’d managed to stay close through school and after. Kirishima had chosen to partner with Bakugo (”Our Quirks compliment each other! I’m like, the only person you can’t hurt” had been his argument. Bakugo’s response had been ”tch” followed by a shrug and that was as good of a confirmation as he was going to get) while Ashido and Kaminari had gone different ways. He was grateful that graduation hadn’t severed their friendship. More grateful that they still somehow put up with Bakugo’s persistent attitude and insults when they all hung out, although they all knew by now he was more bark than bite. That wasn't to say he wouldn't blast someone into next week, but he usually yelled and threatened more than acted these days.

Ashido liked to say Kirishima was a good influence on the blast-happy male, Kirishima liked to argue that Bakugo was always a good guy and had just mellowed out some. That argument was always met with knowing glances that he’d grown tired of years ago. Just because he may or may not have a crush on Bakugo, and had for years if he was being honest, didn't mean he was excusing his poor behaviour. He didn't have rose-colored glasses on when it came to his best friend, he knew the guy had issues. Those issues had, for the most part, calmed down into just a need to yell to cover his true feelings. Kirishima was fairly proud of himself for having deciphered ’Bakuspeak’.

”Did Bakugo not want to come hang out tonight?”

Ashido’s question breaks through Kirishima’s thoughts and he shoots her a questioning look. Where had that come from out of the blue?

Truth be told he hadn't bothered to ask the man. He had assumed that he wouldn't want to hang out with everyone since he'd complained about their rambunctious attitudes the last several times they’d gathered.

At her persistent look, Kirishima lifts a shoulder in a shrug and looks away towards the TV, now nearly forgotten in their antics and conversation. ”Didn't ask him.”

With the silence that followed immediately after, a pin could've dropped and been heard throughout the world. It seemed like everything went still at his admission. Was it really that shocking? Maybe he’d wanted a night without a sullen blonde taking up his comfiest chair. (Yeah, right. No one would believe that. They were essentially joined at the hip; where Bakugo went so usually followed Kirishima.)

Suddenly Kaminari shakes his head and flaps his hands about, a recent habit he’d picked up from who-knew-where, probably some show he watched. He snaps his fingers and catches Kirishima’s eye, a disbelieving look plastered on his face. ”Wait, wait. Let me get this right; Kirishima Eijirou didn't ask Bakugo Katsuki to hang out?” As if for confirmation he looks over to Ashido who offers him a head shake and a shrug. What was with all the shrugging tonight? Kaminari finally pins the red head with another look, tone dead serious as he asks, ”Who are you and what have you done with our friend?”

Kirishima huffs out a laugh and rubs the back of his head, idly playing with the hem of his pants with his other hand. ”I just figured maybe you guys would want to hang out without being threatened? I can always call him now though.” He casts his gaze downwards, smile faltering slightly, ”He might not be too happy about being included later though. Hmmm…”

”You’re muttering to yourself. Have you been hanging out with Midoriya?” Ashido interrupts.

Kirishima nods a little. Of course he had been hanging out with Midoriya, they were friends. Maybe not super close but they were friends all the same… And he may have been subtly trying to gather extra intel on Bakugo. The imperative word there was ’try’, because Midoriya had seen right through the ruse and then tactlessly informed him that their entire class had seen how he felt about Bakugo…. Well, everyone but the man in question had seen it. Apparently, Bakugo was as oblivious as they came when it pertained to feelings.

Kaminari flops over sideways suddenly, his head smacking right onto Kirishima’s knee as he looks up at him with big doe-eyes and a Grinch-like smile. ”I have an idea” he proclaims. Kirishima flinches a little at the volume projected into his face.

Ashido rolls onto her stomach, front half now hanging off the edge of the couch and back half elevated way above her. Her back would probably be sore later from that position if she held it too long, but she seemed thoroughly unconcerned with the prospect, instead focused on her friends on the floor. ”Let’s hear it, zappy boy.” At Kaminari’s confused stare she laughs. “New nickname, I’m trying it out. But come on! Let’s hear your idea!”

The blonde’s fists shoot into the air, pumping erratically as he uses the momentum to sit up once more. He leaps to his feet and points at Kirishima sitting wide-eyed on the floor. ”You, our sharp-toothed little buddy, are going to call Mr Explosion King-”

”Lord Explosion Murder” Ashido corrects.

”-whatever. You are going to call him right now and tell him to come hang out. THEN we will leave you two here and you can finally tell him how you feel and stop awkwardly avoiding it.”

Kirishima looks taken aback for several seconds before he’s able to compose himself with his usual grin. ”No no, I can’t do that. That would be really uncool to invite him over just to dump unwanted feelings on him.”

”How do you know they’re unwanted?”

Both boys look over to Ashido, still awkwardly sprawled half on & half off the couch. Kaminari speaks first. ”What?”

She clears her throat and gestures dramatically while she speaks. ”I said; How dost thou knowest if thine feelings are unwanted….est.”

Kirishima breathes in, finger poised in midair, then deflates almost immediately. That was…a damn good question, albeit posed rather awkwardly in an awful Shakespearean way.

Honestly he didn't know how Bakugo felt about him or about feelings being proclaimed to him. He didn't want to chance it though, didn't want to risk running off his best friend. His biggest fear in all this was the other male would find out and abandon him. A silly fear, he’d survive without him of course, but a fear nonetheless.

His phone fills his vision suddenly, giving him only the briefest of seconds to wonder how Kaminari had obtained it yet again before he snatches it. He really would need to watch it closer in the other man’s presence from now on. ”Why are you giving me my own phone?”

Kaminari’s grin could only be described as wolfish; all teeth and wide as can be. ”You’re going to call Bakugo, ” his eyes squint, adding a scarier aspect to the speech, ”and tell him how you feel.”

Kirishima can feel his eye start to twitch and his mouth drop open. His brain momentarily fuzzes out, a buzzing starting in his ears that seems like it's emanating from Kaminari and Ashido if their moving mouths are any indication. He was fairly certain he had just heard Kaminari tell him to tell Bakugo how he felt, but that couldn't be right; his friends knew he couldn't do that. He had a working relationship with Bakugo, he couldn't just risk that.

Kaminari snaps his fingers in Kirishima’s face to jog him from his malfunction. ”Yo, Eijirou. You still in there” he asks, peering down into the redhead’s eyes.

Kirishima suddenly shakes his head and climbs to his feet, phone protectively cradled to his chest. His smile this time is shaky at best and matches his voice. ”I- I can’t do that. Come on, guys. You know I can’t do that.”

Ashido is quick to her own feet and grabs Kirishima’s shoulders. He winces slightly when her blunt nails dig into his shoulders so she releases her grip. ”You can though! Don't you think it's time? Don't you think you owe it to yourself to say something?” Her smile becomes reassuring, her eyes softening from their wild state to friendliness. ”Don’t you think you owe it to him to say something? It’s not fair to either of you to keep this quiet, especially not when it hurts you.”

Kirishima’s face scrunches up as he tries to smile the whole situation off but Kaminari comes behind him and lays his hands over Ashido’s, effectively pinning their friend between them. His voice is cheerey when he speaks, ”Make ya a deal, Kirishima.” He spins the red head to face him and flashes him a quick grin and a wink, ”Call Bakugo and tell him how you feel or-” Kirishima doesn't like the look on the blonde’s face as he trails off dramatically. ”-or drink an assload of coffee and stay up with us playing video games until we’re all manic.”

It takes Kirishima only seconds to decide, and even then it only took so long so he could process what had been said. “Gimme the coffee.”

Present Time

“Oi! Shitty hair! Open the damn door or I’ll blow it off the hinges!”

From behind the obnoxiously red door- Had the building manager really let him install something that garish?- he could still hear the sounds of laughter; three distinct tones he could pick out of a crowd. He had known Kaminari and Ashido were with Kirishima but hearing them all laughing set his anger to a new level.

Why had the redhead even called then if he had company? Couldn’t those two numbskulls have dealt with him?

That thought set off a worse train; why hadn’t he been invited over? And why hadn’t this thought occurred to him until now?

Somewhere between the time he’d yelled and his brain short-circuiting as he dealt with the thought of Kirishima actively leaving him out of things, the door had opened and the laughter had cut off. Crickets could have played their song and the world would have heard it, if it wasn’t for the TV screaming some obnoxious video game line. Ashido stood before him in all her pink glory, hair mussed as usual (How has she not grown out of that yet?) and clad in sleep shorts and a tank that was both too tight and too short but also so very her that he couldn’t fault her for it- but he would definitely give her hell for it.

His teeth flash in the dimness of the hallway as he looks her over. “Borrowing kids clothes now, Pinky?”

He has a brief second of satisfaction as her cheeks darken before she puffs those same cheeks out at him. “How I dress is none of your business.”

“Tch.”

Past the pink-haired excuse for a door bouncer he can see Kirishima and Kaminari tangled in a heap, Kaminari holding a game controller just barely past the reaching fingers of Kirishima but both boys staring at him wide-eyed. Kaminari never breaks eye contact as he mutters barely loud enough for Bakugo to overhear it. “Oh my gosh he actually showed up.” Finally those golden eyes break contact only to swivel at stare at Kirishima, who is now resembling a fish with his mouth agape and flapping uselessly.

He feels vaguely uncomfortable being stared at while staring at his partner tangled with some guy- Kaminari, no less. Almost worse than just some random dude- so he looks away and down the hall. Someone three doors down has their door cracked and through it he spots a glowing iris. He lets the sparks grow in his hand as the spectator watches on, probably trying to either get gossip for the building or just being nosy. The peeping-Tom slams their door quickly once Bakugo raises his hand as if to attack, earning a chorus of “quiet down”’s from neighbors who had heard yet more commotion.

Seeing that the door was now open and he’d been standing there for who knew how long now, he shoulders past Ashido and into the room. Someone answering his knock was as good as an invitation inside and besides, he’d never been denied access to Kirishima’s place before. He cuts a glare to the two idiots still in a heap on the floor. “You two gonna separate or do I need to go home so I’m not intruding? Gonna be real pissed if I walked my ass over here in the cold for nothing, Hair for Brains.”

The desired effect is almost immediate when it happens; both men frantically separate, although Kaminari does make a desperate attempt to attach to Kirishima’s legs for several seconds before the redhead flails about and lands ass-first on the couch. Okay, so maybe not entirely the desired effect but at least they weren’t touching anymore and that little tidbit made Bakugo feel better than he was willing to admit.

Kirishima practically bounces his way over to the blonde puffball known as his friend, ridiculously big eyes seeming even bigger and that sharp-toothed grin on full display. “Bakubro! You came! It’s like I summoned you! I swore you wouldn’t show up and that you’d blow up your phone! It’s like midnight and you still came!” He’s just a notch shy of yelling in Bakugo’s face and his hands are all over his arms, grabbing and shaking and pulling. If Bakugo wasn’t used to this kind of behavior he would blow him to pieces but sadly this had ceased to be strange behavior while they were still in school. Kirishima seemed to have a need to touch people when he was excited and it had not calmed down with age.

“It’s after midnight, closer to one now.” Bakugo’s eyes narrowed to slits and he can see both Ashido and Kaminari making an exit towards Kirishima’s small kitchen. “Stop right there, you two. I fully blame you for his current state.”

Ashido has the good sense to look embarrassed as she slides behind Kaminari’s slightly larger form. Kirishima, however, slides himself back into Bakugo’s field of vision and grabs him again. “Hey! No, not their fault. I said I would do it to stay up and play games. They weren’t like forcing me to drink the coffee-“

“Did you forget we have a shift tomorrow?”

Kirishima’s head quirks and he blinks at his friend, obviously not comprehending. Bakugo groans and rubs a hand over his face. Of course Kirishima forgot, otherwise they wouldn’t be in this stupid situation.

Fed up, he slings a hand towards the door with an outstretched finger. “Go home. Kirishima needs to sleep this off otherwise he’s useless to me.”

Even with his eyes now closed he can tell the other two aren’t leaving, though their giggling has him internally confused. Whatever, he didn’t care what they thought was funny. Let them laugh at him all they wanted but fuck them for doing this to Kirishima. The guy was too trusting and too easily convinced to do dumb things if it would make people happy. He didn’t even know what had prompted this recent display of idiocy, but he could only imagine it was not as easy as ‘stay awake and play video games’. Kaminari and Ashido were trickier than that, usually daring Kirishima to do stuff.

The soft sound of a door closing down the short hall signals him that he and Kirishima are now alone in the living area. Fuck, finally. Now he could really let him have it- The distressed look on his partner’s face halts his tirade before it can begin, leaving him with his mouth wide open and an angry glare. He relaxes his expression as he watches Kirishima wander to the couch, only to plop down into a ball and start fiddling with his pants hem. Kirishima only did the fiddling shit when he was anxious, what the fuck was going on? Was he seriously scared of Bakugo yelling at him?

“What the fuck, Red?”

The old nickname causes Kirishima to shrug a shoulder, eyes fixed on the spot of couch cushion between his feet. Oh hell no. He was not going to let the spikey toothed little asshole just ignore him like this.

“I asked, what the fuck is going on, Kirishima” he snarls out, voice just below yelling. He’s met still with silence and his friend turning his face away. This guy was going to give him an aneurysm one day- “Stop ignoring me, shitty hair.”

When those familiar red eyes finally do snap up to meet his own he can see pain and resolution in them. The second he was used to seeing, he saw it nearly every day. The first, however, was new and admittedly not something he was comfortable with. It caused something to twist hard in his gut and he disliked it immensely.

“I’m not ignoring you”, Kirishima mutters while twisting the hem so tight around his fingers that the tips are turning white. Bakugo is starting to get worried about the redhead with how he’s acting.

“Yeah? Could’ve fooled me.” The blonde plops down unceremoniously onto the couch beside his friend, face resting in his hands as he rubs at his eyes with the heels of his palms. Removing one hand he glances over towards Kirishima, “You wanna tell me what happened?”

The quietness with which Bakugo asks visibly startled Kirishima, who is more used to him screaming when he was met with a problem. It causes a faint smile to tug at the corner of his lips and Bakugo can’t help but take notice of the way they curve and feel that tightness in his chest uncoil a little. He’d be a liar if he said he said he hadn’t been noticing little things like that about his friend for years now, but damned if he would say it out loud.

Kirishima finally releases his pants, to Bakugo’s great pleasure, and instead grips on to his ankles and stuffs his head between his knees, to Bakugo’s great displeasure. His words tumble out all at once and muffled. “Theydaredmetocallsomeoneandsaythingsandisaidnosoidrankthecoffeeinsteadandnowyourehereandimjitteryanditsweird.”

Bakugo can feel his eye twitching as he tries to parse through the clusterfuck that just escaped Kirishima’s mouth. Was any of that even actually words? Something about calling someone and coffee and weird…

“You wanna take your head out of your ass and try that again.” Kirishima’s head snaps up to glare at him. “With appropriate sentence structure this time, jackass. We don’t all speak caffeine.”

The small joke has Kirishima smiling just enough for the points of his teeth to show, causing Bakugo to give a small smirk in response. Fucking finally something other than pouting. The redhead unclenches himself and settles a little more comfortably on the couch, but also a little further away from where Bakugo is sitting. Curious.

“They uh- well, Kaminari actually-“ his eyes dart to the side and he swallows thickly, Bakugo tracking the bob of his throat as it happens. Kirishima doesn’t notice this, a fact Bakugo is immensely thankful for. “They dared me to call someone and if I didn’t then I had to drink a bunch of coffee to stay awake so I could play games with them. Cause, ya know, I always tend to pass out early.” His cheeks darken a little and Bakugo’s eyes latch on to those spots of color, making a mental note of how it looked. It wasn’t a half bad picture, in all honesty. But he’d definitely never noticed it before, maybe Kirishima didn’t get flustered like this all that often. The caffeine was probably playing a big role in all this.

Bakugo rolls his eyes at the explanation and kicks his feet up onto the small coffee table before him, leaning back into the couch. “That’s dumb. Seems like it would’ve been less torture to just call the person than deal with all this.” His voice lacks any real bite as he gestures with a hand to Kirishima’s body. Honestly what was worse than being a hyped up anxious mess?

“It really would not have been less torture” Kirishima assures him. His cheeks turn a brighter shade of red, almost on par with his hair. His eyes are sparkling but flitting everywhere. Fuck that boy did not hold caffeine well, something Bakugo would need to remember so there wasn’t a repeat performance of this ever again. His next words are so soft the blonde is almost certain he couldn’t have heard correctly, “Although apparently I’m still having to sit through the torture.”

Bakugo blinks at him for several seconds before reaching across the couch and yanking Kirishima to him by his hoodie strings. “You think this is torture?” Kirishima’s eyes widen to an impossibly huge, almost comical size as Bakugo brings their faces close. “I walked my ass over here in the fucking cold because you called me in a panic about drinking caffeine. Come to find out you did it willingly because you were being a little bitch about something else.” He pushes Kirishima back across the couch, hands showering sparks as he pushes himself up and away. Kirishima’s hoodie strings are singed off, dropping uselessly to the cushions beneath him. “I’m fucking going home. Sleep this shit off somehow and don’t hold me back tomorrow.”

He’s halfway to the door when Kirishima launches himself off the couch and tackles his friend to the floor, limbs tangling as Bakugo does his best not to elbow the other man in the face and also get away. “You can’t leave! You just got here” Kirishima yells out in a panic. His voice is a little high and Bakugo can hear desperation lacing it. What the actual fuck was going on here tonight? Was it a goddamn full moon or something?

“Let go of me, asshole! You’ve pissed me off enough, you and your shithead squad!”

The boys roll back and forth for several minutes in front of the door, struggling to get the upper hand. They knew each other’s moves too well, were able to counter each other without conscious effort. Neither was going to win this without someone using their Quirk and maybe getting hurt.

Both, however, refrain for reasons that neither want to give voice to.

Bakugo finally comes out on top and yanks Kirishima’s hands down, pinning them between his knees and the other man’s body. “What is your fucking problem? What the fuck is going on over here?”

Kirishima gives up the struggle and looks away, whole face turning red and eyes starting to water. The latter part has Bakugo sneering and backing off of him, sitting on the floor and offering a hand to pull Kirishima up as well. The redhead takes the offered hand and pulls his knees to his chest again, rubbing his face against the pants. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Tch.”

“That’s why you wouldn’t understand!” Kirishima’s eyes burn with the force of the sun as he pins Bakugo with his stare. The fierceness in that gaze was usually reserved for battle and Bakugo finds he’s intrigued at what’s got his friend so riled up. Patrol was going to suck tomorrow, he’d be dead on his feet, but he needed to know what was going on so it could be solved. Ah hell, maybe Kirishima had changed him over the years like everyone said.

A single tear slides free of Kirishima’s eye and he wipes at it angrily, still glaring at his partner. “You don’t understand because you don’t have feelings! You don’t understand feelings at all! You’re like a damn robot and I say that knowing Iida’s the most robotic person we’ve ever met! Even he has a heart, unlike you.”

Bakugo is stunned at the outburst. Kirishima’s never yelled at him like this. He’s panicking and yelling and there’s so much sadness and desperation on his face and in his voice. Bakugo can see it written all over the lines of the redhead’s body; where he was usually standing tall he’s slumped in on himself and even his hair seems limp in comparison.

Did Kirishima really think he had no feelings? He had plenty of feelings! He was hurt right now because his supposed friend had insulted him after he’d come over to help… although he might have deserved it after yelling at him first.

Kirishima continuing his tirade breaks Bakugo from his thoughts so he cuts him off with a snarl and a kick to his legs. Not his best move since he was sitting but he’d do anything to shut the other man up. “I do too have feelings, you shark-toothed asshole! Do you think I would’ve walked the fuck over here if I didn’t fucking care about you? You stupid asshole! You think I would’ve let just anyone be my partner? You’re the only person I trust to have my back! And you think I would’ve dealt with your shit for this long if I didn’t-“

He cuts himself off with a snarl and a small explosion aimed at Kirishima’s face, who luckily blocks it by hardening at the last second and throwing his arms up. His hoodie sleeves shred and singe in the onslaught before Bakugo finally calms down.

Kirishima slowly lowers his hands after deactivating his Quirk and leans back on them, watching his friend with cautious eyes. “If you didn’t what?”

Bakugo glares at him through slotted eyes and flicks him off. “Shut up, shitty hair. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Kirishima surprises him by reaching out and snatching his hand in both of his own, folding the finger down gently and cradling the hand as if it were precious. “If you didn’t what, Katsuki?”

The use of his name, in that voice, is his undoing. That soft, pleading, understanding, fucking bedroom-whispers voice. “Ifididntlikeyouyouidiot.”

The ensuing grin is so bright that Bakugo actually turns away from it. Of course Kirishima had fucking understood his mumbling, because- just of course. That was his luck. Had he wanted to tell Kirishima he may have feelings for him? Fuck no, because he didn’t know what to do with them if he actually did. He didn’t know what the stupid tightness in his chest was when he heard Kirishima went on dates, or hung out with Kaminari. He didn’t know what the stupid giddiness was when fucking Deku had ‘accidently’ let slip that Kirishima had been asking about him. And he certainly didn’t know what the dumb nausea was when he thought Kirishima was pushing him away or ignoring him. He had no one to talk to about it, because fuck people, so it had left him to looking it up online and that was just bullshit; it had all been a bunch of kids whining about crushes and it made him consider torching his laptop.

The redhead leans into his space and he growls warningly at him, teeth bared and sparks starting in his palm. “You’re gonna back off if you want to keep your face, shitty-hair.” Kirishima only leans in further. “I’m fucking serious, Red.” Kirishima leans just a centimeter further and promptly loses balance, tumbling face first into Bakugo’s lap with an admittedly adorable squeak. Well, maybe not admittedly since he’d never say it out loud. “Oi! What do you think you’re doing? Get off me!”

Kirishima complies as quickly as possible and rolls off of him, staring up at him from his back with wide eyes. His smile is huge once more, all sharp teeth and cheeks stretched. “So you do have feelings. That’s good to know.”

Bakugo growls again. “Shut up. Of course I do, I’m fucking human.”

“And they’re feelings about me?”

Kirishima has that hopeful tone back in his voice and Bakugo rolls his eyes. “Don’t make me repeat myself. You’re lucky you got it once.”

Warm, soft pressure against his cheek has his brain short-circuiting and his body tensing. Had- What the actual fuck? He whips his head to look over at Kirishima, now sitting up and grinning proudly beside him. Had he just kissed him? Lips pursed he shoves his hand in Kirishima’s face and pushes. “Gross.”

Kirishima only starts cackling and dodges out from under his hand before tackling him, arms wrapped around Bakugo’s middle and face pressed into his side. “I said gross! Get off of me you fucking lunatic!” Kirishima laughs more and squeezes, face nuzzling against his stomach. Bakugo wedges his hands under his arms and pushes, cursing loudly when Kirishima only keeps reattaching himself to various appendages; arm, leg, neck. The last one is when Bakugo finally gives up and groans. “Fine, whatever. Stay there for all I care.”

Kirishima places another kiss to his cheek and nuzzles his nose against the same spot. “I have feelings for you too, Katsuki. It’s okay.” He puffs out a warm breath against Bakugo’s cheek, and Bakugo finds it isn’t really that horrible.

“Is that why you were being such a spaz or do we need to have another talk?”

He’s released suddenly as the redhead leaps to his feet. “Nope! All good now!” He extends a hand towards his partner on the floor. “Wanna hang out with us tonight?”

“No, I want to walk back home in the fucking cold.” He rolls his eyes and ignores the outstretched hand in favor of standing on his own. He’d done enough by kind of admitting he liked him, physical contact was just asking too much after that. “Of course I’m staying here, asshole.” He looks around, spotting one of Ashido’s horns and a tuft of pink hair around the corner. “Yo, assholes, I can see you. Get out here.”

They both shuffle out from their awful hiding spot and give grins; Ashido’s encouraging and Kaminari’s outright stupid. Judging by those looks they’d been listening in the whole time.

“I’ll go make some hot chocolate since you’re staying over! We can celebrate” Ashido cheers as she skips towards the kitchen.

“Do you have any apple cider in this place” Bakugo asks loudly, trying to stop her before she gets too into it.

She stops mid stride and spins to look at him, mugs jangling from her fingers. “What?”

Kaminari, ever the idiot, chimes in from the hallway he’d disappeared down once more. “He asked; dost thou haveth the cider of apples?”

Bakugo looks confused for only a second before Kirishima’s lips are pressed to his ear, whispering the relevance of the weirdness.

He pushes him off again with a hand to the face. “Fucking nerds.” It’s said without any heat, although there’s plenty of heat in his cheeks from feeling Kirishima’s breath and lips against his ear, an area that was apparently more sensitive than he knew.

Ashido grins widely and spins back on a sock clad foot. “Yep! Sure do!”

Hours later they’re all sat in the living room on various surfaces, Kirishima laying with his hand on Bakugo’s outstretched legs and Bakugo alternating facial expressions between disgusted and mildly okay. More than once he’d had to stop his fingers as they worked their way through Kirishima’s hair. He hadn’t consciously reached out but he found he kept doing it. This time, though, it had put Kirishima to sleep and he found he didn’t have the heart to stop himself. Finally, finally, that little asshole was asleep.

His lips quirk to the side at seeing the smile on the sleeping man’s face. Kirishima was pretty cute when he slept… but he definitely wasn’t going to tell him that.

Despite the crazy night, he was actually pretty happy… and maybe a little thankful to Kaminari for giving Kirishima the push they both needed.